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swordsandshields99 · 3 years

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Chapters: 1/7 Fandom: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Additional Tags: Friendship, Friendship/Love, Romance, Fluff and Smut @cactuarkitty - thanks! :) Day 1 - Beach Day (Tried to give it a Citadel DLC vibe) Smut in Italics and sectioned, feel free to skip :)

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“Yo, Shepard, can we talk to you for a second?” Jack’s voice came across the comms. “Sure thing. Did someone break something?” Shepard tried to tease the biotic. “Not yet, but I can’t promise not to break the cheerleader's arm if she doesn’t stop tapping her fingers on the console in a condescending way.”

Shepard sighed and put down the armor she was cleaning. She made her way to the elevator. “Hey Edi, if anyone is actually about to kill each other, let me know.”

“Of course, Shepard. If I were to inform you each time Jack complained about Operative Lawson, I believe you wouldn’t have any free time.”

“True enough,” Shepard chuckled. The AI was really growing on her.

Shepard exited the lift and turned into the mess hall, and was surprised to see her entire ground crew sitting around the long table. She glanced at Garrus, but he gave nothing away, other than popping a mandible out to the side in a sarcastic half-grin. “What’s all this about?”

“Shepard, it seems the crew have been discussing our current course of action,” Miranda started.

“You mean, our current course of non-action?” Shepard cut in.

“Yes,” Miranda said slowly. “Garrus has been adamant that he has tried to persuade you not to return to the Alliance.”

“He has, and as I told him, I’ve made up my mind. It’s something I have to do.”

“You don’t have to do shit,” Jack countered.

“You could go to the Council, Shepard. You’re a spectre, with spectre authority. They’ll be just as displeased as the Alliance, but they can use that authority to ride out the storm. The Alliance is just going to lock you up. Or worse. You don’t deserve that.” By the time Tali finished, she was wringing her hands and bouncing slightly on her feet.

Shepard looked down, “Listen, I appreciate your concern. But if I don’t go and take the fall, the political fall out will be detrimental to the Alliance. I might be a Spectre, but everyone in the galaxy knows where I came from.”

There was a horribly awkward silence in the room.

“I promise, I won’t let it affect any of you. Your names will all stay out of the report, and I will be adamant about the fact that I went there alone.”

“I could give two shits about what other people think. I still think you should take me up on the piracy thing,” Jack said, crossing her arms and nearly pouting. Shepard nearly laughed at the stance. Jack looked back at her. “It’s a nice ship. Stealth drives and all. Perfect opportunity wasted.”

“She’s not wrong,” Kasumi said, appearing out of thin air next to Jack.

“FUCKING SHIT!” Jack said, “God damn it I hate it when you do that.”

Kasumi blew her a kiss as she disappeared.

“Siha, it appears you are not willing to change your mind,” Thane said as calmly as ever.

“I find it admirable,” Samara nodded her head.

“I think falling on your sword to protect the very people who put you in the situation, the same people who expect you to follow orders blindly and not take responsibility for their own actions, isn’t exactly admirable,” Garrus said darkly, still leaning back in his chair.

Shepard knew he was angry. She didn’t blame him. But she kept a cool mask of command on her face. “I’m not changing my mind.”

“Then we would ask for a few days dry-docked. For repairs,” Miranda said slowly.

“Repairs? I thought we were nearly done with repairs. You all have been working around the clock on the Normandy.”

“Yes, well, there’s a few things we could take a look at on the outer hull. It’d be safer on the ground. We thought perhaps, since we’re close, we could stop here.” Miranda pulled out a map and pointed to a spot on the planet below. “We’ve actually been planning this since we left the Bahak System.”

Shepard blew out a small stream of air.

“The crew needs a break, Shep,” Garrus said.

“And time to say goodbye,” Tali added.

“Fine,” Shepard said. “You have anything to add Joker?”

“Not since you ever so reasonably agreed, no. Setting a landing trajectory now. Ready EDI?”

“Ready, Jeff.”

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Shepard was sitting at her desk, finishing the last of the reports she had. She’d always hated filling out reports. Now though, she thought she might end up missing even this. She wasn’t sure what the Alliance had planned for her. A trial? Jail time? A harsher sentence? She didn’t think they’d hand her over to the Batarians, but the thought was still there in the back of her mind. When she had mentioned it to Garrus, he said he’d be there breaking her out before she even reached a Batarian system. And she hadn’t argued.

Just as she thought of him, he walked through her cabin doors. “Done with those reports yet?” he drawled.

“This is the last one,” she said as she signed off and sent it. “Done.” She blew out a breath and stretched her arms above her head. She looked over at Garrus, and saw he was carrying a duffle bag, and was dressed in shorts and a Turian style t-shirt. She couldn’t help but chuckle, “I know you’re not on duty, but that’s a little informal. Aren’t you freezing?”

“I am freezing my ass off Shep, but I won’t be for long. Let’s go.”

“Onto the surface?”

“Yeah, where else? I’m not letting you spend your last shore leave in this cabin.”

“Hmmm,” she said suspiciously.

“Here,” he said as he threw the duffle at her. “Put these on.”

Shepard opened the bag and rose her eyebrows at him, “I can’t tell if this is practical, or if you just want me in a bikini.”

Garrus laughed, throwing his head forward and shaking it slightly. “Maybe it’s both?” He took out the sunscreen from her bag. “And don’t forget this.”

“Do you need some too?” she asked as she started spraying it on.

He shook his head. “The sun and radiation would have to be a hell of a lot stronger for me to need something like that. Palaven’s sun throws a lot more than this one.”

She nodded, “All right, all right Mr. Tough Guy, I got it.” She stripped off her civvies and threw on the bikini and sun dress. She put her hair in a braid that came over her shoulder. “All right, let’s do this.” She wouldn’t have planned a vacation. It wouldn’t have felt right. But her crew planning it, or needing it? That was a different story. And she was grateful.

They walked throughout the empty ship towards the cargo bay doors. “Where is everybody?” she asked.

“Already down there,” he said. “I think they were excited.”

Shepard stepped off the ship and was shocked. It was stunningly beautiful. It reminded her of when her parents had taken her to Jamaica once when she was young. “Wow,” she said softly. There was nothing within many kilometers of them. Not a soul in sight other than their ship and crew. “A private beach?”

Kasumi walked up to her with a small cooler, “Take your pick, Shep,” she said with a smile. There were beer and wine coolers. Shepard took one and thanked Kasumi. “The Dextro beers are all over by Tali,” Kasumi said before she skipped away.

"She’s even in a cloak on beach day,” Garrus rumbled, wiggling his brow plates at her.

Shepard laughed and walked towards Tali, “Go get a beer, big guy.”

“SHEEPPHHEEERRDD,” a loud voice boomed from a ways down the beach. Shepard looked down and saw Grunt splashing through the water with a small pistol, shooting at fish. “This is fun, heheh,” he said to himself as he picked up a fish he had somehow managed to shoot.

“Aww,” Zaeed said sarcastically before rolling his eyes. The man was sitting on a lounging chair with 5 beer cans on the sand around him. He laid back, closing his eyes before saying, “Good day Shepard. Good day.”

Joker was sitting next to the man with his eyes shut as well. “If I get a sunburn, I’m blaming you.”

Shepard threw her sunscreen at him. “If you get sunburned, you’ll worry EDI.”

“Har-har,” he said grumpily as he started spraying the sunscreen.

Thane was down the beach further, on the opposite end of Grunt Shepard noticed, showing Samara something that resembled Tai Chi. Actually, Shepard was pretty sure it was Tai Chi. She could still remember all the moves from when she took classes aboard her mother’s starship as a kid. She joined them silently, and allowed herself to meditate peacefully.

Once she’d had enough, she stopped, unsure of how much time had passed. Samara and Thane gave her small smiles as she walked away. She found Garrus was shooting blanks with a sniper rifle into the trees. Suddenly, Shepard saw the shimmer of failed shields and Kasumi’s cloak came down. “Damn!” the thief swore. “How in the hell did you know where I was that time?”

Garrus shrugged, “A gentlemen never tells.”

Tali swooped in from behind and jumped up to grab at his visor. “I’ll give you two guesses,” she said as she inspected it.

“Hey!” Garrus said, in a more shocked tone than Shepard would have expected. “Give that back,” he said as he pushed down on the Quarians helmet, reaching up so the visor was far out of her reach.

“Alright Garrus, no visor,” Kasumi said as she disappeared.

Garrus held the visor in one hand and aimed with the other. It took 10 seconds before he placed his next shot, and Kasumi’s shields went down again. Kasumi grumbled and switched on her cloak again.

Garrus’ eyes went wide and he hunched over his weapon slightly. Shepard heard him make a small noise of satisfaction before pulling the trigger.

“Oh, you’re good, Archangel,” Kasumi purred as she sauntered up to him. “I can see why you’re into him, Shep,” Kasumi called over to her.

Shepard just waved back with a grin and kept walking down the beach. There was a slight bend and suddenly she could see Mordin by the water, bent over looking at something. As she approached, she realized he was poking around some kind of sea creature with a stick. She stood next to him quietly as he observed it. “At first, wasn’t looking forward to ‘beach day’,” he said with air quotes. “Looked forward to comradery of course, but can get that on ship, or in lab. Surprising results. Thoroughly enjoying discovering new marine wildlife.” She saw his eyes flick back towards the sand. “Perhaps will try hand at fossils and shells next.”

Shepard smiled. As Mordin continued searching the shallow waters, Shepard started searching for shells on the beach. When she found what she thought must be the most beautiful one on the beach, she walked back over to him and handed it out to him.

“Ah!” he exclaimed, turning towards her and taking the shell. “How interesting! Gastropoda, free of inhabitants. Periostracum still slightly spongy, not old. Whorl, apex, aperture all typical. Extremely symmetrical. Red and orange in color, unsure of internal structuring.”

Shepard waited patiently as he continued his analysis until he stopped suddenly. He looked down at her and took a deep breath. “Beautiful. Thank you, Shepard.” He put the shell in one of his lab coat pockets.

She rose a brow, “That’s rather sentimental for you, isn’t it doctor?”

He shook his head, “Sometimes, sentimentality - appropriate. No point to life without the enjoyment of it.”

Shepard smiled at him. “Some friends make that exceedingly easy to do so.”

Mordin seemed genuinely taken aback, but nodded enthusiastically. “Indeed, they do.”

Legion walked up behind them, “Shepard Commander, are you searching for marine wildlife? This unit believes it can be of assistance.”

“Doctor?” Shepard asked.

“Hmmm, could prove useful in cataloging findings. Legion, please assist in cataloging findings of new marine biology.”

“Nice, thanks Legion,” Shepard said with a smile.

The Geth’s brow plates rose and fell quickly, “This unit enjoys being useful.”

Shepard rose her brows at Mordin. Before their adventures, she doubted Legion would have used the word “enjoys” at all. “I’m glad,” she said back before turning around.

She let them continue their search in the waters as she made her way back to the group. She came around the bend, and saw Jack, Jacob, and Miranda teaching Garrus and Tali how to play Volleyball. “Shepard, we need another player!” Jacob yelled out.

“I’m in,” she said as she ditched the sun dress and dug her toes into the sand to run towards them. “I grew up on a ship, but I managed to learn how to play. They know the rules?” she asked, pointing towards Garrus and Tali.

“I think we’ve got it,” Tali said.

They played for nearly an hour before they tired themselves out. “Forgot you had about a ½ a meter in height on us Vakarian,” Jacob grumbled as he and Miranda walked off towards the drinks.

Garrus shrugged with a grin, “What can I say.”

“Want to cool off in the water?” Shepard asked.

Garrus looked out at the ocean apprehensively, “Uhh… yeaaah, I’m not so sure about that.”

“Look, we don’t have to go in too deep. Mordin found a nice quiet spot around the bend a ways, there are hardly any waves at all. Just go in to your waist and get cooled off with me.”

Garrus sighed heavily. “Fine.”

They walked till they were just past Mordin and Legion. “Alright if we swim here?” She asked him.

Mordin came up from his studies. “Of course, Shepard.” Then he rose his brow at Garrus. “Aware of Turian aversion to submersion in waters. Interesting. Found a cove 20 meters that way. Completely shallow and secluded from waves and wildlife. Should be more comfortable.”

Garrus looked at Shepard and she could tell he was about to say no to the whole thing. “Alright, thanks Mordin, c’mon scaredy cat. Let’s go to the cove.”

“Shepard, I have no idea what a scaredy cat is. Is it some kind of pet?”

She laughed and marched forwards.

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The cove was beautiful. There were trees above keeping it mostly in the shade, and the water was calm and shallow. Shepard waded in and it only went up to her chest. “C’mon Garrus, look, it’s not deep. It won’t go up to your cowl, for sure.” He looked at her with a look that said he’d rather jump in a varren pit. “I’ll make it worth your while?”

He rose a brow plate, and dipped his feet in. The water was warm at least, so he continued until he stood next to Shepard. She took a step into him so that they were touching and wrapped her arms around him. “Alright, it’s not so bad,” he said reluctantly.

She gazed at him with a look that could melt metal, and took a deep breath in, before slowly sinking below the water. “Shepard,” he said nervously, although he knew she couldn’t hear him.

Shepard held onto his hips to stay below the water with one hand, and started moving his shorts aside with the other. Garrus’ breath hitched. He couldn’t help the rush that went straight to his groin, and he also couldn’t help but still feel nervous in the water. Shepard pushed him back and he took a few steps backwards until his legs hit something when they were nearing the edge. A rock. She pushed him again and he stumbled awkwardly, sitting on the rock. She came up for air and kissed his mandible, sucking on the tips. Garrus groaned, digging his talons into her waist. She submerged again, and he held his breath, partially out of anticipation of what she might do next and partially out of nerves for her being under the water. He knew humans were better with that, but it was ingrained.

He suddenly felt a small tongue lick up the seams of his pelvic plates and he groaned again, digging his talons through her hair. He felt small fingers dig between the plates in his waist. She came up for air again, straddling his lap to kiss him. She ground her hips against his. She was weightless, floating above him, ghosting over his plates, until she pushed herself down into him and began grinding harder into him. “Shepard,” he growled as he nipped at her neck. She suddenly went back under water and nipped at his pubic plate quickly, and licked all the way up and down his seam slowly. He felt his seam part as he groaned loudly, bucking his hips into her as his erection began to grow, emerging from his seam. He felt her lick at it until it came all the way through, and she sucked his cock into her mouth as it grew.

“Fuck,” he said as he threw his head back and bucked his hips. She sucked hard, head bobbing up and down twice before she had to come up for air. She was panting hard and she straddled his lap again, slowly lowering herself onto him, until his tip was hilted within her.

Shepard moaned loudly and rocked back and forth slightly with her hips. He felt her muscles contract around him a few times and he groaned. Shepard grinned at him before lifting up and moving back down. He could tell it was harder for her in the water, and he placed his hands on her hips and began lifting her up, and slamming her down onto him. It didn’t take long before they were both panting, and it just wasn’t enough. He put her legs around his waist and stood, walking to the back of the cove, he pressed her back against the stony wall and pushed himself into her with a grunt. Shepard squeezed her legs around his waist, one arm holding on around his back, the other wrapped around his neck with her hand massaging under his fringe.

She was so tight, and he hadn’t yet been fully inside her. He took his finger and massaged the nub he knew drove her wild. Shepard began moaning loudly. “God, yes Garrus, fuck,” she groaned. Slowly, with each thrust he pushed further and further inside of her until even the bulge of his base slipped inside of her with a pop. Shepard screamed at that and held on tighter. “Don’t stop,” she screamed, and he didn’t, couldn’t really. He felt her come hard, her walls squeezing him. “Garrus,” she panted. Garrus couldn’t speak, he was too far gone. He merely groaned against her neck as he continued pounding into her, faster and harder.

“Come inside me, Garrus,” she moaned, and he lost control. He came hard with a roar, continuing to pump inside her in erratic thrusts. His body completely enveloped hers against the stone. She was so small, wrapped up in his arms, and he curled around her, willing himself to stay standing. He felt her kiss his mandible lightly. “God, you’re sexy.”

He chuckled, kissing her forehead, “So are you.”

Shepard slipped down and swam in the water to cool off before they headed back. Garrus sat back on the rock and watched, enjoying the view and surprisingly, the cool water around his waist.

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Shepard and Garrus walked back along the beach, hands brushing often. The sun was setting, and it was creating a beautiful glow around them. The whole team was sitting, watching the sunset when the pair joined them.

The group was quiet, reflective. Even Grunt, to Shepard’s surprise. He was growing up, after all. Shepard leaned against Garrus’ shoulder, and they sat there until the sun dipped below the horizon.

“Alright you bunch of pussys,” Zaeed said, elegantly as ever. “Round two.” He started throwing beer bottles at everyone.

“That’s more like it,” Jack huffed.

“Bonfire’s made!” Jacob said as he got the largest bonfire Shepard had ever seen lit using driftwood from the beach.

The team drank under the numerous stars. There were drinking games and songs, friendly wagers and shoot-the-bottle competitions. It was 3 in the morning before they packed up and headed inside. Shepard held Garrus’ hand to pull him back behind the crew and gave him one last kiss under the stars.

#merweek2021 #merweek #mass effect relationship week #ao3 #shakarian #garrus vakarian #commander shepard #mass effect #mass effect 2

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tingfeiart · 4 years

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Unloved Tragedy - Chapter 5 - “Someone Like You”

Chapter 5 of Unloved Tragedy, a Peter Pan x Treasure Planet Fanfiction

Word Count: 2,707

Table of Contents

Sitting himself on the ground, Peter tensed up. His body was preparing itself to be bombarded by invisible knives that would penetrate through his fragile spirit. Blades of betrayal, unworthiness, and mediocrity threatened his state of mind, but the only way he could become stronger was to face the ugly truth.

"Jim is a naval officer," Wendy began. "He is from the planet Montressor. He decided to come to Earth to join the Royal Navy."

Peter could already feel himself growing bored as he fidgeted with Wendy's engagement ring on his own finger. He didn't care about Jim's fancy titles, because it would only make him seem more wonderful than he already was.

"He actually goes by Captain James Hawkins, but I like to call him Jim - "

"Jim is enough!" Peter cut her off. "How did you meet him?" He only wanted to know why Jim reminded her of Peter.

"Well, I fell from the window. That window." An image of what was once her nursery materialized, and she pointed to the same window that they flew out of when they went to Neverland.

"The window was open, and I was looking outside. I had your kiss in my hand." She held out the acorn that Peter had given to her when they exchanged gifts. It was the kiss that saved her, when Tink had ordered the Lost Boys to shoot down Wendy. Peter couldn't believe she still had it!

"Suddenly, there was a large gust of wind. I was startled, and it caused me to drop the kiss. Silly me, thought for a moment I could fly and get it, and that's how I fell... but then he caught me. Oh, how I could have died if he didn't see me!"

Peter lit up with confusion at this. How did he do such a heroic thing like that, when he couldn't fly? It didn't seem believable at all.

"He flew, Peter! On his marvelous solar surfer!" Outside Wendy's window, they could hear the sound of flames bursting, like a cannon. Peter leapt up and gazed outside. There was Jim, treading through the night sky on his surer. Wendy joined him at his side, leaning against the window pane. "Oh, Peter? Isn't it beautiful? I had never seen anything like it here. Jim is so clever; he had invented it when he was on Montressor!"

But Peter was not impressed by this. He couldn't help but snort to express his dismissal. Sure, Jim could say he flies, but a solar surfer or whatever wasn't as cool as flying solo.

"As he lifted me back up to my window, I suddenly remembered the joy of flying. I had long forgotten how to fly, and I so desperately wished to learn again. But Jim, he helped me find my wings again." The Jim they saw flying in the sky was then joined by Wendy, hugging his body tightly, and he drove the surfer.

But this still didn't make sense to Peter. Unimpressed, he crossed his arms. "So that's it? Just some guy who saves your life, and you're in love with him?"

Wendy giggled. "Oh Peter, that's only the beginning." She reached out and ruffled his hair. He wasn't very fond of the patting - it made him feel like a pet.

"Our first meeting was what created the spark of our friendship." The image of Jim and Wendy flying on his surfer disappeared, and instead, they could see a replay of the couple walking down the streets of London, hand in hand, projected against the night sky. "As I got to know him more, I realized he reminded me so much about you." Wendy turned to face Peter, her eyes twinkling. "I'll always remember you as the first object of my affection."

To this, Peter grew more interested, which prompted him to sit up straight.

"As you saw, Jim loves to fly," Wendy began. "It used to be a form of escape for him."

"Escape from what?"

"Everything that upset him. Everything that wore him down. His father left his mother one day when he was very young, and for many years he couldn't confront those feelings. So he flew, because that distanced himself from his trauma. He flew beautifully, didn't he?"

Peter's curiosity spiked, as he started to gradually see how the two boys were similar in Wendy's eyes. "Is that what I do? Am I trying to run away from something?" Is this really how Wendy saw him?

"You do, Peter. You're constantly running away from adulthood." Wendy placed a hand gently on his shoulder. "As long as you can fly, you can't be weighed down by the burdens of being an adult," Wendy answered.

Peter could not deny that Wendy was right. When he first learned how to fly, he always needed Tink's pixie dust to get him off the ground, and he always had to think happy thoughts. Over time, he didn't need her dust anymore. He just did it, and that's because he could distance himself far enough from all his troubles. It's been so long since he thought about what troubled him, that he couldn't even remember what it was.

"Well, if there is one thing that's different, he can't fly for real," Peter felt a need to point out. "If he was always running away from his problems, shouldn't he be able to fly without his solar... whatever it is?"

"Well, he had to ground himself, Peter," Wendy said. "He had to grow up, like all children must do. And he was so excited to."

Peter wanted to gag with disgust at this. Grow up? Excited about it? Who would ever say that! "Well that's definitely not like me at all! I never want to grow up! No wonder he can't fly on his own - he let himself grow up!"

Wendy noticed the wretchedness of his face and giggled. "You're right Peter, that's what makes you two so different. But that's also what I've grown to love about him."

Peter knitted his brows. Who could love someone for being so eager to grow up? It didn't make sense to him! He snorted so much air he caused his bangs to flutter. "Well he sounds pretty boring to me, Wendy. Anyone who wants to grow up is boring to me!"

"That's not what I meant, Peter," Wendy began. "It's more so, I fell in love with how he charted his own course. You see, Jim was so heartbroken from his father abandoning him, he needed to do whatever he could to fill his weakened heart with thrills and adventure. It got him into all sorts of trouble, he didn't want to picture his future." She began to twirl a necklace she hung around her neck, which Peter assumed was something Jim had gifted to her.

"I could see myself in Jim, too. I too didn't want to picture my future, being bred only to be someone's wife. And so I sought escape in you, and your stories." Wendy glanced up at Peter with shimmer in her bright blue eyes. Even though her voice, and the shape of her body had changed, her eyes stayed exactly the same. To Peter, he could still see the window into her spirit.

"I must admit, I grew very attracted to his air of rebellion. I always idolized myself as someone very rebellious, and his courage to do that... I suppose you could say it inspired me to realize my worth." Another memory from Wendy and Jim's past emerged. Wendy was wearing a white gown with a veil hanging from her head, and Jim was well dressed as the naval officer Wendy boasted him to be. "Mother and Father did not approve of the match," Wendy said. "But I insisted on marrying him when he proposed. I didn't want to lose something so wonderful I had found."

In the memory, Wendy and Jim joined together in their first kiss as husband and wife. Peter felt a twinge of jealousy pierce his heart as he watched this. He didn't want to have to see that.

"You know, Jim read an awful lot about pirates. Fantasized about them, even. One time he said, if a pirate had ever offered him a position in his ranks, he would have run away to commit piracy. A very boyish answer, wouldn't you say?"

Peter shrugged at this. "Uh sure, I suppose. I mean, if pirates would just let me do what I want, I wouldn't mind them so much! But why would he say no right now?"

"Well, Jim had to earn the realization that he wanted to do more than piracy. He went looking for some treasure, to help rebuild his mother's inn that was destroyed, but along the way he realized he did not care for the value or becoming rich. Once he knew how the preciousness of life was worth more than money, he was able to abandon the treasure, before it was too late."

Peter felt a click in his brain. He didn't know how he arrived at this, but he could wager a good guess. "So then... that's what you did? You came with me to Neverland because you didn't want to grow up. And then you started to forget your parents. And Hook, the mermaids. That's why you left Neverland? That's why you left me?"

Wendy had to pause before she nodded. "That's exactly right, Peter," she said. "I came to Neverland, fantasizing for this eternal life, with you in it." Her lips drooped to a frown as she stared down, turning away from Peter. "But Neverland is so dangerous. And I thought, why put myself in such danger and mayhem? Had I stayed, I may have turned into someone as coldhearted as the mermaids."

Hearing Wendy speak of Neverland as this horrible hell made his stomach churn. He never thought of it as such, but he understood that not everyone could see the fun in his games. Wendy was an adult now, and she probably saw all his antics as childish games.

"At the same time, Peter," Wendy continued. "I ended up finding I had exactly what I needed already. And that was my family. I couldn't bear the thought of forgetting them forever. I missed them terribly. That's how I knew, I had to leave before it was too late."

Peter nodded after Wendy finished. It was all starting to make sense to him now. Their worlds forever divided by separate devotion and morals, they would have never made a natural couple. Perhaps, Peter had known this before taking Wendy back to London, but he wouldn't have wanted to admit it at that time. "I think I understand now, Wendy. It is both your understanding for how precious it is for us to live. Going forward."

"That's right, Peter." Wendy turned back to Peter, reaching out and stroking his cheek. "I grew to love Jim for his spirit, but I grew to love him more because I saw him as someone I wanted to take on the rest of my life with, to be my life partner." She took her hand away and looked down. "I knew that's something you didn't want, and that's also why I had to leave you. But, I never ever forgot you, Peter. I hoped I'd find someone like you again, and my dream came true. I found that person in Jim."

Peter broke into a crooked smile. His eyes slowly began to fill with tears again. This time, they helped to expel all the sorrow he kept deep within his heart. His heart began to feel lighter, knowing that Wendy still loved him for his spirit. "I understand now, Wendy," he said tearfully. He held out his palm to Wendy, the diamond ring placed on top. "I'm sorry I couldn't give you what you want, but I hope you and Jim live happily ever after."

Wendy took the ring, and slid the band back onto her wedding finger. "You don't need to apologize, Peter. I understand perfectly why you couldn't. And if you could, you wouldn't truly be Peter Pan. You couldn't be the boy who taught me how important it is to always keep that child-like spirit." She took out another white handkerchief, and gently wiped away Peter's tears. "You're not a tragedy, Peter." She winked at him. "You're an epic."

The tears began to flow faster as Peter's smile grew a little wider. "Thanks, Wendy," he said tearfully. "Do people cry when they feel happy? Because, I feel a lot lighter now, freer." He took the handkerchief from her and blew into it. "Knowing that appreciate me, and never stopped believing in me after all these years. I was always afraid of being forgotten, unloved, but you didn't."

Wendy extended her arms out, inviting Peter into a hug. He immediately went in and embraced her tightly, burying his teary face into her now broader shoulder.

"I want to tell you something else, Peter." She let go of him once more. "It took a certain pirate to see in Jim a potential. A potential to do wonderful things. He's always been clever, brave, and kind-hearted, but all he needed was someone else to believe in him before he had the courage to see it. And once he did muster the courage to believe in himself, Jim was able to move forward. He didn't need to run away anymore. It was then he could truly start living, and find what he could do. And that's how he became the naval officer he is today."

Peter raised his brow at this, despite maintaining his smile of freedom. "Why're you telling me this, Wendy?" Peter asked.

She brought her face closer to his, her nose tickling against his. "Because I want to remind you, Peter, even if all the children in the world stopped believing you, there's always going to be one person who will. I'll always be here if you need me." She took both his hands into hers and gave them a tight squeeze. "And yes, I do believe in fairies."

The second she said those magic words, Peter involuntarily lifted up into the air. He gazed down at his feet that no longer stood on the surface. Tearfully, he laughed, and began to fly across the room with no direction in sight. "I can fly again! I can fly!"

And Wendy joined him in the laughter. She too began to show her own tears.

The rest of Wendy's window materialized, and the door opened itself on its own. From where he stood, Peter could see the second star to the right, beaming. It was inviting him to return. Facing Wendy once more, he took off his hat. "Madam," he said with a smile, bowing to her.

And Wendy returned the gesture with a curtsy.

Gripping tight onto his hat, Peter murmured those words again. "Goodbye, Wendy." He placed his hat back on his head, before floating to Wendy to plant a thimble on her cheek.

The image began to de-materialize as Peter made his exit from Wendy's dreams. Before him once more, Wendy was still sleeping heavily. He gave her hand one last squeeze, before turning on his heel for the window. He jet-setted from the Darling home for what would not be the final time, again. Until next time, Wendy.

Soaring as the free, untroubled bird he was, Peter also realized something that made his heart feel even lighter, allowing him to soar higher. He was never incomplete. Everything he needed, he already had. He just had to see it was right there all this time.

The same for Wendy.

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doubleddenden · 5 years

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I never noticed how advanced the Unova link is. Like in BW 2 you can battle Cheren and Bianca with teams more like their originals, but I always thought it was starter locked like Hugh's team (because last time I played I used Samurott in both, this time I used Samurott and Serperior)

No, they legit had the same starters as before, even the same monkeys. This turned Bianca into the rival rival because she had Emboar like Hugh!

Not just that, but Bianca wanting to walk together with you into Route 1 to recreate her first day with the prior protagonist and Cheren taling a brief team up with you through Pinwheel forest, also Bianca riding the Ferris Wheel and Cheren challenging you to a fight where you guys met Alder.

It was so advanced, man.

Then to finish off the game, challenge your rival one more time. He gives it everything he has, and says that he's glad to be our friend.

Also the whole end game sequence with N, bequeathing you with his dragon to pick up his mantle where he couldn't. Catching Zekrom and him telling you to make the world a better place before he searches for his friend that set off to search for him.

I'll admit, I was afraid I lost my love for Unova, but sitting here now? Maybe I'm just very stressed, depressed and tired from real life stuff but I really have trouble holding back nostalgic tears. BW1 IS HOW YOU DO MULTIPLE RIVALS! BW2 IS HOW YOU DO BEST FRIEND RIVALS! BOTH ARE HOW YOU MAKE COOL AND INTERESTING GYM LEADERS AND CHARACTERS!

Christ, these games had so much love put into them that I feel mad at people that dismiss it as a whole because of Vanilluxe or Garbodor or how terribly the anime handled it or other stupid reasons. The story feels closed but I can't help but wish the first protagonist had the same closure Red got down the road of eventually leaving Mt Silver.

Know what? We still don't know what the original dragon looks like! We don't know where Ghetsis ran off to after his mental breakdown at being beaten by- not just a chosen hero, but also A RANDOM ASS TRAINER capable of beating a FUZED pokemon without a legendary dragon. We'll never know if N and Hilbert/Hilda found each other again. Not unless there's a Black and White 3 in like... 5 or 8 years from now.

I know people are tired of stories, especially after Sun and Moon, but if we get a skip option can we PLEASE try something like this again? I'd love another stab at something as ambitious as this again without piracy to kill sales. Gen 2 is not the standard and neither are the remakes. Gen 5 is the standard to beat for best games of all time.

Now if you'll excuse me I'll be crying because the journey is over. I might try Y again or try seeing if I can get Alpha Sapphire for cheap but man. Man it's hard to walk away from my favorite region and characters.

Galar? Please be this good. Don't half ass it like X and Y or LGPE, don't pander to gen 1 like all of the 3ds era, don't give us a cakewalk we're going to forget. Please.

#pokemon #i come from the future to tell past me that wrote this: galar sucked ass #it sucked absolute ass #and so did the dp remakes #but legends arceus was fun

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dragonasheswrites-blog · 6 years

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The Heaven We Didn’t Choose, Chapter 19: In Which Piracy is Encouraged

...But no one seems to mind.

First: Chapter 1: In Which a Child Makes a Friend

Previous: Chapter 18: In Which Sans Has a Heart

Next: Chapter 20: The Trouble With Paperwork

Click here for the story overview.

Sans came back to reality feeling disoriented and he automatically tensed. Pain was what woke him, and for a long moment that was all he could focus on. Taking a few deep breaths to calm down, he took stock of what was making his bones scream at him.

His injured arm felt like it had been shattered, which sent a pulse of fear through his soul. A quick glance down confirmed that it was still only fractured, but the sight of the injuries seemed to only increase the pain. He hissed, trying to find some way to release the tension that wouldn’t bring Boss to his door.

It helped - a little - and he fought to focus on something else instead. Why was he injured? Why was he so sore? Slowly, memories of the fight trickled back. The kids, the cops, Undyne. The damn dogs that ran off without a second thought. The alleyway…

The cat was mewling softly when he rolled over to examine it, looking a bit more wobbly than it had earlier. Abruptly, he realized that neither he nor the cat had eaten dinner. From its size, the cat was probably pretty young; babies needed to eat regularly, if he remembered correctly.

He pulled himself upright with a grunt and slipped his jacket on. It was still damp, and smelled awful, but it was a layer of protection.

The clock in the kitchen confirmed that he’d only been asleep for about two hours. He was feeling it in every bone of his body. He felt heavy and light at the same time, and he wondered idly what would happen if he just collapsed. Would he float, caught between the two odd sensations? Probably not, his logical mind concluded. He’d just tip over like an idiot and jostle his already-aching bones.

There was still some canned food in the cupboard, and Sans scanned the labels. Cats were carnivores, right? He thought back to the few times he’d encountered Mettaton’s torture assistant, a cynical and depressed cat monster. A hazy memory of the guy removing the bun and pickles from a burger tickled the back of his skull. It was unusual that any monster would turn his nose up at food, so the incident had stuck with him.

Hopefully surface cats acted on the same principle. There was a can of shredded chicken in the back of the cupboard; he grabbed it and, after a bit of quiet shuffling through the shelves, an old clamshell takeout container that Boss had insisted on washing. He filled one half with water, then carefully made his way back to his room.

The cat was extremely grateful for the water, which Sans found surprising considering it had nearly drowned just a few hours before. He let it do...whatever it was doing with its tongue (flicking water into its mouth? It looked inefficient) while he wrangled the canned chicken open one-handed.

Thankfully, the chicken didn’t have any weird flavorings. He was fairly certain that it wasn’t the healthiest thing to feed a cat anyways, but it was that or starve. He carefully dished out some smaller pieces onto the empty half of the container and set it beside the water.

Almost immediately, the food was gone. Sans reluctantly took a few more lumps and plopped them onto the lid.

“That’s all ya get,” he grumbled. “I’ve gotta eat too.”

The cat responded with a plaintive meow, indicating its displeasure at being cut off.

“What? I don’t even know how you’re eating all that. You actually have a real stomach, doncha? Isn’t it full by now?”

Another meow.

“Shhh. If ya wake up Boss, we’re both out on our asses. You feel me?”

He finished up his portion of the chicken quickly, not really tasting it. His arm was starting to heal as his body converted the food into magic, but it was a slow process. He considered asking if Tori had some time to look at it; he hadn’t properly talked to her in months, since before he’d started watching Att...her. The last time he came close to visiting was when he dropped off Frisk’s Christmas gift, and he’d just left that on her front porch. Who knew what she thought of that.

On second thought, he could probably power through it.

“‘Kay, then. I’m gonna head back to bed for a few hours. You good in the box?”

The cat blinked at him.

“...I’m gonna take that as a yes.”

He rolled over carefully, taking the pressure off his injured side, and tried to sleep.

“SANS”

“Whazzit?” Had he slept at all?

“WAKE UP THIS INSTANT AND TURN YOUR ALARM OFF! ALSO, DO NOT THINK I HAVE FORGOTTEN ABOUT LAST NIGHT! BE PREPARED FOR PUNISHMENT WHEN YOU RETURN THIS EVENING!”

Loud footsteps echoed down the hallway, and Sans’s soul sank. There went his plan of avoiding Boss.

He sat up carefully and turned his alarm off. He’d gotten so used to waking up at a certain time that he’d been getting up before his alarm even went off lately, which was useful but flat out annoying. Apparently the night before was enough to throw his sleep schedule off.

A soft cry from the corner of the room brought his attention back to the cat. Sure enough, it had made some kind of icky sticky mess on his shirts; just as well that they’d be tossed in the wash.

“Ya good in there, bud?”

The cries paused for a moment, then resumed.

“I, uh, don’t speak cat. ‘M not sure what ya want. Are ya hungry? Thristy? Throw me a bone here. Heh.”

The cat didn’t speak any language Sans knew, but it apparently recognized when his attention was on it. Its noises changed in pitch and frequency to the point where Sans half-expected Boss to come storming up the stairs to investigate the racket.

“Okay, okay. Shhh. Shhhhhhh.” He picked it up and ran his phalanges over the impossibly soft fur. This calmed the creature a little, enough that its noises weren’t quite so high-pitched and distressed.

“I tell ya what. If you can keep quiet 'til I get out the front door, we can raid the hot dog stand supplies for breakfast. How’s that sound?”

The cat made a few little mruph sounds that he took as agreement.

Boss had already headed out for the day by the time Sans made his way downstairs, which was helpful. He had to set the cat down to pull his shoes on, which prompted more crying, but it stopped when he settled it back into his jacket. He decided to leave the zipper alone; the little critter didn't like being restrained. The way it was sitting didn’t exactly look comfy to him, but the cat was purring again. It felt strangely nice against his bones.

The walk to the hot dog stand was worse than usual. The cold rain had turned to snow sometime in the night, and his usual path along the side of the road was obscured by a light dusting of white. He could feel the ache in his bones from the fight the night before with every step, and halfway there the cat decided it liked the cold even less than it liked being confined and had retreated further into the jacket.

It was a relief when his stand was set up and he could finally settle his bones onto his stool. The cat, interested by the fun smells, popped its head out to explore.

CLANK CLANG KA-CLANK CLANG CLANG

...And immediately retreated as far back inside his jacket as it could manage. Sans peered in the direction of the noise, a genuine smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Heya, GD! Want some breakfast?”

Greater Dog bounded up, slobber flying everywhere as he panted excitedly. *YESYESYES,* he barked. *WANT WARM PUP TREAT FOR BREAKFAST PLEASE.*

“One hot dog for a cool dog, comin’ right up.” He dressed the ‘dog up the way he knew GD liked it: a few generous slices of cheese, some bacon crumbles, and a bit of steamed mustard greens. (He’d been testing new ‘healthy’ toppings a year or so back, and while most of them were total flops the dogs really liked the mustard greens. Since they couldn’t eat most of what he served, he kept it on the menu.) “There ya go, big guy. Bone appetite!”

Greater Dog barked a laugh and took the ‘dog with one large prosthetic hand. *THANKS, FAVORITE BONE BUDDY. LOOKS GOOD. GOOD FOOD. GOOD GOOD GOOD.*

“Glad it suits you. Hey, don’t forget to pay again, yeah? I’d give you all the ‘dogs you want for free, but I get in trouble when I don’t come home with cash.”

The dog whined an apology, then disappeared into his suit. A moment later, he re-emerged and spat a few gold coins onto the counter.

“Thanks, buddy.”

*BONE BUDDY HAPPY? GREATER DOG HAS BEEN GOOD BOY??*

Sans sighed. “Yeah, you’ve been a good boy. C’mere, big guy.”

Greater dog leaned forward, his metallic suit half-splayed across the counter of the hot dog stand. The wood creaked under his weight, and he adjusted so he wasn’t in danger of collapsing the poor booth.

“Yer a good boy, GD. A real good boy.” Skeletal fingers scratched behind the dog’s ears, past the scruff of his neck, and around the sides to that spot up under his chin where he could never seem to reach properly.

Finally, after a small eternity of petting, Greater Dog sat up. *PATROL, NOW,* he barked, ears drooping. *NO TIME FOR MORE PETS. SAD.*

“Hey, you’re filling in for Dogamy on patrol tonight, right?”

*YES. DOGAMY HOME WITH PUPS. PUPS GOOD. PUPS NEED PROTECTION.*

“Cool. I’ll see you then, ‘kay? I’ll be at my usual station.”

Greater Dog whined. *WILL MISS BONE BUDDY.*

“I’ll miss you too, GD.”

The dog licked the hand that had been petting him, then tensed. *WHAT? CAT? BONE FRIEND HAVE CAT?*

“Uh...yeah?”

*CAT GOOD! CAT FRIENDS FUN! CAN CHASE!* He leaned in closer.

The cat tucked inside Sans’s jacked hissed and made another rather poor escape attempt, thwarted by the fact that it didn’t quite know its way around. Sans huffed at the unusual feeling of something furry clinging to his spine with tiny claws. “Not this one. I found it last night. It’s just a baby, and I’m trying to figure out what to do with it. It’s, uh…” he looked up at Greater Dog. The dog’s eyes were bright with excitement, every muscle in his fluffy body tensed with the thrill of the hunt. None of this was getting through. “It’s...shy?”

*SHY NOT FUN,* he huffed. *IS SECRET?*

“...Yeah. Please don’t tell B...uh, Papyrus.”

*WILL KEEP BONE FRIEND’S SECRET.* He whined. *WILL MISS BONE FRIEND. WILL SEE BONE FRIEND SOON.* He barked a quick *HELLO, GOOD BYE, PATROL NOW* at something behind him and bounded off, enthusiasm barely waned. Which was odd; GD didn’t like many people, but Sans couldn’t be bothered to care.

He was about to put his head back down for a much-needed nap when his eye sockets caught the person who’d been standing behind Greater Dog. Someone he didn’t think he’d see again in...well, ever. “...Uh…”

“Hi, Mr. Sans!” Attie called, waving enthusiastically. “I was going to come get a breakfast hot dog and tell you hello, but I didn’t want to interrupt Mr. Greater Dog’s petting. He really likes petting, right?”

“Y-yeah, he sure does.”

“I know. He sometimes lets me pet him outside his armor, but only when he’s security for me and Mommy. If he has other jobs, he doesn’t let me.” She pouted a little.

“Hey, uh, where’s yer mom? Isn’t someone supposed to be watching you now?” That was the rumor, anyways. If Frisk had gotten sick again...

“Mmm-hmm. She’s coming in a minute. She’s prob’ly talking to somebody.”

Some part of Sans was screaming that he was being creepy, but he couldn’t stop looking at her. He hadn’t seen her in...gosh, over a month. 44 days, to be exact. It had been two weeks and five days since Frisk followed him home, and it had been three weeks and five days between that incident and Boss slipping Attie out in the middle of the night.

There was a strange sensation in his throat, a tightness he wasn’t used to. It didn’t feel like strangulation - like when Boss lifted him by his collar - but more like there was something stuck there, in his vertebrae. It was uncomfortable. The sensation distracted him from the prickling in the corners of his eye sockets that he was far too familiar with; he blinked rapidly to avoid embarrassing himself.

“Are you okay, Mr. Sans?”

“Y-yeah. ‘M fine.”

She bounced on her toes, making her shoes light up. Those were the ones she’d told him about on one of the first days he’d watched her, he realized. They did indeed have pink flowers on them, with little lights that flashed from their centers. He wondered if that was a human invention or if she’d somehow charmed the mad Royal Scientist into making her customized shoes. He thought about anything he could to distract himself from the fact that he’d remembered something, something small from almost two months ago, and that meant his mind wasn’t falling to pieces just yet.

Attie was dressed in a puffy white jacket with faux fur lining the hood. On her hands were mittens, knitted in a pattern he recognized; Tori must have been busy since he last saw her. The edges of her sleeves were stained in browns, greens, and reds.

She looked just like any other little girl. Nothing about her appearance indicated that she was the daughter of the Ambassador of Monsters, that she had any security presence at all.

He felt it, though. The glow of Frisk’s protective wards - much stronger now that she was recovered - was apparent in every bounce of her daughter’s feet. There were few weapons wielded by humans or monsters that could touch someone with that much protection, and anyone stupid enough to try would be in for more than one nasty surprise.

“I don’t think you’re okay,” Attie said. “You just keep looking at me funny and you haven’t even said ‘hello’ or ‘how are you.’ Are you gonna be a asshole again?”

“Not tryin’ to be. So, uh, hello, Attie. How are you?”

“I’m doing real good! Um, really well, I mean. How are you, Mr. Sans?”

“I’m, uh, okay.”

“Undie said you were in a big fight last night. Is that true?”

“Yeah…? I didn’t know she’d talk to you about that…?”

“She didn’t. She told my mommy when she stopped in for a quick meeting while she thought I was getting dressed. Mommy said we could come have breakfast hot dogs and make sure you’re okay, just in case.”

“Uh...cool? Yeah, I’m in one piece.”

She looked expectantly up at him.

“...Oh, right, hot dogs. So, uh, what do ya want on yours?”

Attie wanted bacon, cheese, onion, ketchup, mustard, and relish. Sans handed the ‘dog to her with its toppings balanced precariously, then gave her a small stack of napkins. “Don’t wanna get your nice jacket all messy.”

“It’s okay. I can wash it.”

“I’m sure ya can, but you wanna look nice, right?”

“The lessons are finally kicking in, then?” Asked Frisk from RIGHT behind him.

“Holy shit.”

“Language.”

“Uh...” He glanced at Attie, who was giggling, then twisted on his stool to get a good look at Frisk.

...A good look was an apt way to put it. She had a long tan coat on, red buttons in two neat rows down the front. Her waist was accented by a simple brown belt that twisted into a casual knot on one hip. The hat and gloves tucked under her arm were dark brown, matching her knee-high boots, but he could see the lines of a familiar pattern on them. Tori hadn’t waited until Christmas to deliver gifts, apparently.

Slowly, hesitantly, he met her eyes. She looked a lot better than he remembered, even from the last time he saw her in person. Maybe it was the light - even the dull, filtered light of the winter sun through the clouds did her more justice than the harsh yellow bulb that lit the dining room in his apartment - but she looked more than ready to take on the world.

It was a far cry from the helpless mess she’d been when he found her, so many weeks before. And she was completely focused on him in a way that she - or, frankly, anyone else - had never been. He felt his face starting to turn pink.

Say something, his mind begged. Come up with something - anything - to keep her from thinking you’re a complete fool.

“What-” No! Not that! “-do you want on your hot dog?”

He could feel his voice squeaking a little and resisted the urge to clear a throat he didn’t have.

Frisk smiled at him anyways, and he felt his soul stutter in a way that couldn’t possibly be healthy. “I haven’t had a hot dog in ages. Surprise me.”

The challenge in her voice was both clear and terrifying.

ABORT MISSION, ABORT MISSION!

He gulped and examined his options. With phalanges that were definitely not shaking, he dipped into the small stash of fresh bakery buns he kept for his best customers, then put a few slices of cheese on it. That went into the small, warm space behind the hot dog roller. While it was warming he grabbed a paper plate and a sharp knife and started chopping a pickle spear and some of the baby tomatoes he’d picked up on a whim. He pulled the bun out once the cheese was melted and put a ‘dog inside, then added bacon crumbles, onion, and his sliced pickles and tomatoes. A drizzle of yellow mustard completed the masterpiece, and he held it out to Frisk with a flourish that (probably) disguised the slight tremor of his hands.

Attie applauded uselessly through her mittens, her own hot dog mostly gone. “That looks really yummy! Mommy, can I have a bite?”

“May I have a bite,” Frisk corrected.

“Sure, but only if I can have a bite of yours!”

She rolled her eyes and took a tentative bite of her hot dog. Sans watched her chew and swallow, feeling as if quite a bit more than customer satisfaction rode on that simple action. Finally, she nodded. “It’s really good, Sans. Thanks!”

“Yer welcome.” Relief made him slouch against his counter.

“I never would’ve thought to put fresh tomatoes on a hot dog, but it’s not bad. What was the inspiration?”

He thought, for a moment, that she was mocking him, but her face showed only sincerity. It threw him for a loop, and he stuttered for a moment before he found his bearings. “I, uh, well, I was doin’ a bit of research. Gotta keep a femur upon the competition and all. See, ketchup is pretty salty, and a lot of what I have - cheese, bacon, even the hot dogs themselves - is pretty salty too. The tomatoes give you some flavor without the extra salt and give some texture, too. Can’t really take credit for the idea, but...well. Thought I’d give it a shot.”

“It’s brilliant. You should keep it up.”

His face was definitely turning colors. Thankfully, Frisk was distracted by Attie wanting a bit of the ‘super-special hot dog’ and he had a moment to compose himself.

Naturally, that was about when his little friend decided to make its presence known once again.

Attie squealed, nearly losing her grip on her hot dog. “KITTY!”

“No way!” Frisk said looked at Sans, then down at the cat that was clawing its way up his shirt, then back at him. “You have a kitten? Since when?”

He tried to pry it off, but the claws were deceptively strong and he didn't want to break anything. “Since, uh, last night? It was caught in the rainstorm. Found it when I was walkin’ home.”

“Can I hold it?” Attie asked, tugging Sans’s sleeve harshly. Her protective wards flared-

“Gah!” Sans pulled his arm away, clutching at his fractured bone, and accidentally banged his bad arm on the edge of the counter. He froze, cursing himself. He hadn’t meant to dodge away from her like that; it was just so unnerving that someone would try to touch him (and someone with that much magic on her besides) that he hadn’t tried to simply maneuver away from her. She hadn't registered as a threat, so she'd gotten closer to him than most people normally did. He shrunk in on himself, taking his bearings, then remembered that she’d asked a question. “S-sure. Just, uh, give me a sec.”

Frisk crouched down so she was eye level with him. “Sans, are you okay? Undyne said you’d been injured last night in the confrontation with those humans on the mountain, but she didn’t know the details. She thought it wasn’t serious since you shrugged it off. Are you okay?”

Sans checked his HP before responding. He was down to a single point. When had he gotten so low? He felt his breathing pick up, fear of his own mortality overpowering his pride. “I...I...uh, I…” He couldn’t seem to force the words out.

He felt the familiar chill of someone else’s magic invading his own, just enough to get a good read on his stats, but despite his embarrassment he allowed it. More than that, he took a chance and showed his real stats; she'd been sympathetic before, hadn't she? Across from him, Frisk took a sudden breath. “Sans. You need help immediately. What are you even doing out of the house like that?”

“W-wasn’t that bad e-earlier. Had somethin’ to eat...g-gosh, early this mornin’ and brought my HP up a f-few points. I-I’ll be fine. G-gimme a sec to grab a ‘d-dog.”

“Sans, I’m going to call my mother to take a look at you.”

“No...uh, n-need...”

“Yes, there is a need. You and her get along fine, right? She has some healing magic. Just...please, let me do this. I’m worried, and Attie’s worried too.”

They had a point. A ‘dog probably wouldn’t bring his HP up far enough for him to get through his shift, and sentry duty later that night, and whatever Boss had planned. He let out his breath in a solid woosh and nodded.

Frisk stepped away and started dialing. Sans deliberately didn’t listen in on her conversation, instead focusing on carefully extracting the cat from his person. Its nose was twitching but it allowed him to maneuver it into his lap without a whole lot of fuss.

It kept turning its head towards the counter, though. It definitely knew where the food was.

“Here,” he said, gesturing to Attie. “D-didn’t ya wanna hold it?”

“Can I?” she asked in a very small voice. “I’m really sorry, Mr. Sans. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t know your arm was hurt.”

He took a deep breath, willing his stutter away. He wasn’t a babybones anymore, he reminded himself. “Eh, ‘tsokay kid. No real harm done. If you’d meant to hurt me, well. I’d be dust right now. You didn’t, though, and ‘m fine, see? Now help me with this little cat.”

He used his good hand to cup the cat as she lifted it, making sure it wasn’t actively trying to claw her. It seemed a little upset at the movement, but its protests were more vocal than physical. After a moment of Attie’s tiny fingernails scratching behind its ears it settled down and started purring again.

“Huh. It likes you.”

The girl’s smile was smug. “Of course! Everybody likes me.”

For most kids, Sans thought, that would be a laughably arrogant statement, but...everyone did seem to like Attie. She’d survived Boss. She’d charmed the dogs. She’d even melted Undyne’s heart a little, and that was a feat worthy of some kind of medal.

Frisk stepped back into his field of vision. “Mom will be by within a few minutes. She’s finishing up some paperwork that needs to be done before lunchtime. Will you be okay until then?”

“Yeah. Of course.” It wasn’t like he hadn’t existed on one HP before. Much as he’d come to regret how he got his LV, he would’ve been dust years ago without it. He shuddered at the thought.

Frisk apparently mistook that gesture and hunched back down in front of him. She looked at him for a long moment before narrowing her eyes in DETERMINATION. “Attie, you can go play. I’m going to keep an eye on Mr. Sans for a bit.”

The girl looked at her mother, then down at the cat in her arms. “But...I’m holding his baby kitty! I can’t go play!”

“Alright. But no more grabbing, alright? We’ve talked about this. It’s one thing when you do it to me or your grandma and grandpa or Undyne, but you have to be careful.”

“Okay. I said I was sorry.”

“I heard. Good girl. Now, Sans, where did you find this kitten?”

Sans explained how he’d found the cat in the alley the night before. He deliberately ignored the small smile on Frisk’s face, as if she knew something he didn’t.

(He was sure she knew a lot of things he didn’t.)

Thankfully, her only remark was, “Are you even allowed to have pets in your apartment?”

“Eh, yer mom lets some of the dogs stay downstairs. Why wouldn’t a cat be okay?”

“Uh-huh. And how did Greater Dog react to your little friend there when we were walking up?”

“Heh, point taken.”

They both watched Attie play with the cat for a few minutes. When it's meows became too insistent, she handed it to her mother. “I don’t know what’s wrong,” she pouted. “I thought it liked me.”

Frisk turned the critter over with deft hands, poking it gently along its stomach. “He’s probably hungry. Sans, has he eaten anything since that chicken you gave him last night?”

“Nah. I was gonna give it - uh, him - something from the stand, but I didn’t get the chance. Think he’ll eat a ‘dog?”

“It’s worth a shot. Here - I’ll pay for it.”

“What? No-”

“Please. It’s the least I can do.” She handed him enough to cover three hot dogs with the fixings. He handed her back the change, but Attie scooped it up instead.

“Can I put the change in the tip jar?” she asked.

Frisk patted her on the cheek. “Go ahead. Don’t break anything.”

“Yay!”

Sans chopped up a ‘dog into tiny pieces and scooped it into a paper plate for Frisk, who tried to coax the starving cat to eat something. He made another for himself and choked it down against the rolling feeling of nausea.

“Did you set that up?” Frisk asked, gesturing to his tip jar.

“Uh, yeah. The old coin funnel on top is something I found years ago in the dump. Can’t remember why I bothered carting it home in the first place, but it’s come in handy now that we’re on the surface. I, uh, had to fix it up a little to get it to accept g as well as human coins, 'n it doesn't work quite right all the time, but the kids like it.”

They watched Attie drop a pair pennies into a slot at the top of the funnel, the coins passing each other several times before dropping into the clear jar below.

“It’s hard to believe that monsters are able to enjoy things like this now,” Frisk said. “I remember back in the Underground how, um, tense everyone was. They’re a lot more...whimsical, I guess, now.”

“Yeah, well, fighting for space and food kinda takes the fun outta ya. We didn’t really have time for things like this - not in public, anyways. Heck, I didn’t dare leave a tip jar out back then; someone would’ve come by and stolen it. Now look at me. Some days I make more in tips than I do selling ‘dogs.”

She hummed in agreement. Attie sent a few more coins down the chute, watching them intently. After a moment, she turned to Sans. “Why to they go around and around and around like that instead of dropping straight into the jar?”

“It has to do with gravity, angles, and the shape of the funnel.”

She held out a coin. “Can you show me?”

Frisk frowned and raised a hand to stop her daughter. “Attie, don’t bother-”

“Eh, it’s fine,” he said. “Kid’s not hurting anything, and I’ll still be right here if someone wants to buy ‘dogs.” He pushed himself up. “Uh, feel free to take a seat if you want. There’s just the one stool and it might be...a bit short for ya, but…” he gestured awkwardly and turned away.

Attie was a brilliant audience, holding onto every word as he explained the ins and outs of accelerated gravitational motion and centrifugal force. He was pretty sure most of it flew straight over the seven-year-old’s head, but she didn’t interrupt.

“...Sans?”

He looked up to see someone approaching from the direction of the park. “Oh. Hi, Tori. Thanks for, uh...y’know.” He shrugged.

“It’s no trouble. I heard that you were in a fight last night, but not that there were complications. What seems to be the trouble?”

Frisk sent Attie off to play on the slides (one of the few areas of the playground without a coat of snow) while Sans reluctantly explained his situation. Tori stood quietly through it all, her eyes occasionally flicking to her adopted daughter.

“I do not approve of healing every small hurt, but I also do not want to send a sentry out injured after what happened last night. Hold out your arm, please.”

Sans did so, bracing himself. Healing was an agonizing process at the best of times, and Tori was at least a little bit irritated with him. He could feel the bone shards grating against each other as the fractures knit. He hadn’t registered it through the general haze of pain, but there were even cracks in the small bones that comprised his wrist. Tori’s firm grip on the damaged bones made his vision waver, and he grabbed the counter of the hot dog stand to keep from embarrassing himself.

After what seemed like hours, the pain ebbed and he came to his senses. He didn’t realize until he extracted his hand from Tori’s that he was shaking from pain and exhaustion; the accelerated healing process was draining his reserves faster than the ‘dog he’d eaten earlier could replenish them.

“Frisk, let him sit,” Tori said, shooing her daughter off the stool.

With great effort, Sans managed to maneuver himself around the back of the hot dog stand and collapsed onto his stool. He could feel the strain on his spine and hips from the position, but at least he was less likely to tip over in front of his…

...friends?

He decided not to think too much about it.

“If that is all, I shall be off,” Tori said to Frisk. “Do you need me to watch Atlas this weekend?”

“That would be great, Mom. We can talk it over this afternoon at the Embassy.”

“Very well. I shall see you then.”

Tori walked off without saying goodbye to Sans, and he winced. It was only half because of the little twinges of pain that kept shooting down his spine. Shifting didn’t help much, either.

“I thought you and Mom got along?” Frisk asked, looking concerned again.

“We do. It’s just - ugh! - I haven’t seen her in a few months.” In hindsight, he probably should have at least called.

“Well, I hope you get back on speaking terms.”

“No kidding. Don’t want her to bleat me up.”

Frisk snorted. “That was terrible.”

“I notice your lack of surprise.”

She just smiled. “Oh, hey, your kitten’s back asleep. Want him back?”

“Nah, I think he’s comfy.” Both Frisk and the cat looked comfy, actually. Realization dawned slowly on him. (He blamed it on the lack of sleep.)

“Hey, uh, do you know anyone who wants a cat?”

“You’re not going to try to keep him?”

“Nah. You were right ‘bout the dogs. And, well, I don’t think Boss is gonna really go for ‘cute and fuzzy.’ He might, but it's 50/50.”

Frisk looked at him, then back to the cat, then back to him. “Attie...has been bugging me about getting a pet for a while, actually. She wanted a dog but, well, I’m sure you can see how that might get a tad awkward.”

“No kiddin’.”

“We also spend a lot of time at the Embassy, and when I travel Attie spends time with her grandparents. A cat on the other hand...well, you don’t have to walk them, for one. If you’d be willing to stop in every once in a while to feed him while I’m on trips, I don’t see why we couldn’t keep him. If you’re sure…”

“Yeah, that’d be great!” Attie had turned out... mostly alright, after all, short bouts of chaos and terror aside. A cat raised by Frisk would probably wind up ruling the world (or at least the neighborhood), but Sans could think of worse things.

“Okay. Um, do you want to keep him with you for a bit, or…”

“I, uh, don’t even have food for ‘im. I made a little bed out of old shirts, but that’s it. If you don’t mind takin’ ‘im now, go for it.”

She looked at the little cat, stroking gently behind his ears and smiling. His eyes were closed, and Sans could hear the faint rumbling of that purring thing cats did when they were happy. He grinned.

“I’d say he’s in good hands.”

“...Yes. Hopefully. We’ll see.” That smile got just a bit wider, though.

Attie stomped up a little while later, shivering. “It’s too cold to play much,” she said. “And one of the big kids kept trying to get me to stick my tongue to the monkey bars.”

It took Sans a moment to register why this was even a thing humans would want to do. That’s right; humans had drippy ‘saliva’ stuff inside their mouths. Putting her tongue on the unprotected metal of the monkey bars would have probably caused it to freeze and stick. “You tell that kid off?”

“Yeah. I told him that if he wanted to do science so bad then he should try it first, because a good scientist doesn’t use other people as test subjects.”

“Ooookay. I mean, you’re not wrong, but did he do it?”

“No. I guess he didn’t believe in his hyp...hypoth’s.”

“Hypothesis?”

“Yup!”

Frisk chuckled. “Fair enough. Now Attie, I have an important question for you.”

“Okay?”

“Mr. Sans lives in a building with some of the dogs.”

“I know. I heard them when I was having the long sleepover while you were sick.”

“...Right. Well, dogs and cats don’t always get along, so Mr. Sans said he’d let us take the kitty home with us. Would that be alright?”

Attie gasped and turned to Sans. “Do you really, really mean it? We can keep your kitty?”

“Sure, kid.”

“Thank you, Mr. Sans! Thank you a whole, whole, whole bunch!” She shuffled over and gave him a very soft, very careful hug.

He patted her on the back, feeling awkward under Frisk’s observation. “Uh, no problem. I’m sure he’s gonna be happy with you.”

“Does he have a name?”

“Nah. I guess you ‘n your mom get to name ‘im.”

At Frisk’s nod, Attie began petting the kitten, her brows furrowed. “You said you found him in water, right, Mr. Sans?”

“Yup.”

“And he’s got a bad eye, like Undie.”

“Sure does.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to name him...Terror Of the Seven Seas!!! Because he’s a pirate cat.”

Frisk snorted. “That’s a long name, honey. Want to come up with something shorter?”

“Nope! But he can have a nickname if you really want him to.”

“Terror Of the Seven Seas it is, then.”

“Guess you could call ‘im ‘TOSS,’” Sans piped up. “Short for Terror Of the Seven Seas. Pirate extraordinaire.”

The little girl hummed. “That sounds okay. He can be called TOSS for a nickname.”

Frisk was snickering behind her hand, he knew it.

Suddenly, a loud ringing noise interrupted the peaceful morning. Frisk dug through her pockets for a moment, then produced a familiar-looking phone. “Oh...Sans, I’m so sorry, but we’ve got to run.”

“Okay.” It was expected, he told himself. Frisk was an ambassador and a busy woman.

“Can we bring Terror of the Seven Seas with us to the embassy?” Attie asked.

Her mother glanced down nervously. “Well...just this once, I guess.”

She cheered. “See ya later, Mr. Sans!”

“See ya, kid,” he replied.

And then they were gone, and his morning seemed all too quiet.

#Dragonashes writes #Undertale #Underfell #The Heaven We Didn't Choose #Sans #Papyrus #Frisk #Attie #Greater Dog #Greater Dog is a good dog #TOSS #Surely this won't come back to bite anyone #Don't mess with pirate cat

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thegregorybruce · 4 years

Text

April 23, 2020 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

What the heck? Did I leave the door unlocked again?! You’re no doubt a new subscriber and I’m glad you feel comfortable enough to let yourself in! Do you like music? I do and listen to a wide variety of it while creating each newsletter for you. Today you need to know that “I’ve read dozens of books about heroes and crooks and learned much from each one”! Who’s hanging out with me here in my cave?

You! You’ve been here so long that you know how I feel about winter in New Hampshire. Winter here is like that relative or friend you have who has no concept what time it is and blabbers on in your house long after he/she should have said goodbye and gone home.

FUN Quiz

I decided to try something different this week. See if you like it! How about a one-question fun quiz each week where you might discover something new? Look at this photo and ponder it for a moment:

CLICK or TAP HERE to see if you know why a certain Midwest State Park is important.

Be sure to answer the second Yes/No question so I know what you think about the quiz.

Copper Strips, Mold, Algae, and How to Clean

Ron went to the Ask Tim page on my website and here is his question:

“Tim, you mentioned using copper strips to take care of the mold up on roofs. Where do you get these and how do you apply them? Also, are you familiar with the product "Wet and Forget" to clean mold? Is it a good way to get rid of dirt and mold on my roof or house?”

Let’s go in reverse order with Ron’s questions.

Imagine you work in your yard all day. You’re hot, sweaty, and filthy. It’s date night and you need to get gussied up for your sweetheart. It's time to get up out of the wheelbarrow you were napping in. What? You've never done that?

Here’s what you DON’T do. You don’t stand in your garage and have someone spray your naked body with some solution and then wait until you air dry before getting dressed in your clean clothes.

I’m quite certain you probably get in the shower, soap up, RUB your skin with your hands or a soft brush, and then RINSE off all the body oils, the dirt, etc. that were DISLODGED from your skin by the RUBBING action.

When you wash clothes, here’s what you DON’T do. You don’t throw your clothes in a giant clean tub, pour in soapy water, and let the water and clothes sit for hours or a couple of days. After the soaking period, you don’t drain the tub and throw the clothes in the dryer.

What you do is put them in a washing machine that has some sort of AGITATION ACTION and allow the machine to go through the wash cycle.

Get the point? If you want something truly clean, you must agitate the surface and rinse off the dirt. You can do just that using my Stain Solver, the MOST AMAZING cleaning product you can purchase in the USA. Plus, it’s certified organic.

Copper is a natural biocide. This is why it was put on the hulls of famous clipper ships like the Cutty Sark and the Thermopylae. Copper plating is also on Old Ironsides. The copper prevented the growth of barnacles. Barnacles create lots of drag and slow the movement of a sailing ship.

Copper will keep mold and algae off your roof. It will ALSO slow the aging process and allow asphalt shingles to last 30 or 40 years. You can read about how I was the first person in the world to discover this in my Roofing Ripoff book. It’s a very easy and fast read.

I told Ron that he could purchase the copper strips from ME.

CLICK or TAP HERE to see how I’d install copper on your roof and to purchase it for your roof.

Soil Strength - Fred’s Shed

Fred sent me a very detailed email about a 10x20 prefab shed he wants to have at his home.

He was concerned about the strength of the soil and if the piers he had in mind would work. He doesn't want the shed to shift and sink.

Look at this photo and tell me if you understand its significance and how it helps solve Fred’s conundrum:

Are you stumped? I thought so! CLICK or TAP HERE and I GUARANTEE you’ll come away much more informed as was Fred after he WATCHED a very important VIDEO about soil maps at the above page.

Donna’s HOT Kitchen Sink Water

Donna emailed me a few days ago. She had a perplexing problem with the hot water at her kitchen sink. It would run HOT for a bit then go lukewarm.

It was such a good question, I decided to talk about it! CLICK or TAP HERE to see if you came to the same conclusion that I did.

The answer will most likely surprise you!

Cleaning and Sealing My Cedar Boat Dock

In the last issue, I said I'd share the details about my wood dock sealing project. If you own a wood deck or wood boat dock, then you MUST LOOK AT THIS PAGE.

I’ve got a 40-foot boat dock at my house. The flooring is made from solid cedar and the sun punishes it each summer day here in New Hampshire.

That’s the first cedar dock panel cleaned and sealed.

CLICK or TAP HERE to see how I’m cleaning and sealing the cedar this season.

Long Overdue Shoutout

I started Ask the Builder in October of 1993. I’ll never forget standing at the end of my driveway WAITING for my Cincinnati Enquirer carrier to deliver the paper so I could see my first column in print.

In March of 1994, I started my call-in radio show on WMOH. Long about October of 1995, I launched AsktheBuilder.com. The bottom line is it's been quite the journey and I’ve had all sorts of help from quite a few who are behind the curtain of Ask the Builder.

I want to call out three today, Ellen, Marty, and Roger. Ellen is the first employee of Ask the Builder. She started by opening envelopes that people sent in to get one of my old print Builder Bulletins. My buddy Chuck in Michigan sent for one long before we became friends in a secret Internet mastermind group.

She then started to help with the Stain Solver business and in a fit of frustration threw an empty bottle at me late one afternoon as I took an over-the-phone order for our Stain Solver deck cleaner. I told the customer we’d put their box on today’s UPS truck that was to arrive in just minutes. It had been a very busy day and everyone was very tired. The last thing Ellen wanted to do was process yet another shipment of Stain Solver - the MAGIC deck cleaner!

Marty is a superbly talented graphic designer who’s helped me over the years. Just after the AsktheBuilder.com website launched, Marty created the animated GIF that we used on pages “Under Construction”. It was very common back in the late 90s to do this.

You can see this cute animated GIF file on this page at the top just under the BLACK iTunes logo. I’m starting to put this animated GIF on all my new podcast pages in honor of Marty.

Marty also created the stunning 3D image of my linear french drain design over twenty years ago. CLICK or TAP HERE to see it.

It’s such a great illustration, MANY other websites have STOLEN the image and put it on their websites! I don’t have the time to police this piracy. Over the years, Marty has helped me look good, but his skills stop short when it comes to making my bald spot disappear in videos!

Roger is my go-to guy for all the daily heavy lifting that gets done on both the AsktheBuilder.com and StainSolver.com websites.

Roger has the patience of Job. Believe me, you need that when you’re around me for any length of time.

I want to thank Ellen, Marty, and Roger publicly for all they’ve done in the past and continue to do to make sure you have a positive experience with Ask the Builder and Stain Solver.

If you call in an order to Stain Solver, ask Ellen about the day she threw that bottle. I’m pretty certain she’ll laugh about it now. It was plastic and wouldn’t have hurt had it hit me. Remember, it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt, right?

That’s quite enough for a Thursday.

Tim Carter Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com BEST CLEANER on the Planet: www.StainSolver.com Hear Cool Waves - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Max is remodeling his son’s home. He wanted to talk to me about the size of a return air duct in the house.

What do you know about return air? My guess is NOT ENOUGH. CLICK or TAP HERE now to be MUCH COOLER this summer and WARMER next winter.

The post April 23, 2020 AsktheBuilder Newsletter appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Home https://www.askthebuilder.com/april-23-2020-askthebuilder-newsletter/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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manuelclapid · 4 years

Text

April 23, 2020 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

FUN Quiz

I decided to try something different this week. See if you like it! How about a one-question fun quiz each week where you might discover something new? Look at this photo and ponder it for a moment:

CLICK or TAP HERE to see if you know why a certain Midwest State Park is important.

Be sure to answer the second Yes/No question so I know what you think about the quiz.

Copper Strips, Mold, Algae, and How to Clean

Ron went to the Ask Tim page on my website and here is his question:

Let’s go in reverse order with Ron’s questions.

Here’s what you DON’T do. You don’t stand in your garage and have someone spray your naked body with some solution and then wait until you air dry before getting dressed in your clean clothes.

What you do is put them in a washing machine that has some sort of AGITATION ACTION and allow the machine to go through the wash cycle.

I told Ron that he could purchase the copper strips from ME.

CLICK or TAP HERE to see how I’d install copper on your roof and to purchase it for your roof.

Soil Strength - Fred’s Shed

Fred sent me a very detailed email about a 10x20 prefab shed he wants to have at his home.

He was concerned about the strength of the soil and if the piers he had in mind would work. He doesn't want the shed to shift and sink.

Look at this photo and tell me if you understand its significance and how it helps solve Fred’s conundrum:

Are you stumped? I thought so! CLICK or TAP HERE and I GUARANTEE you’ll come away much more informed as was Fred after he WATCHED a very important VIDEO about soil maps at the above page.

Donna’s HOT Kitchen Sink Water

Donna emailed me a few days ago. She had a perplexing problem with the hot water at her kitchen sink. It would run HOT for a bit then go lukewarm.

It was such a good question, I decided to talk about it! CLICK or TAP HERE to see if you came to the same conclusion that I did.

The answer will most likely surprise you!

Cleaning and Sealing My Cedar Boat Dock

In the last issue, I said I'd share the details about my wood dock sealing project. If you own a wood deck or wood boat dock, then you MUST LOOK AT THIS PAGE.

I’ve got a 40-foot boat dock at my house. The flooring is made from solid cedar and the sun punishes it each summer day here in New Hampshire.

That’s the first cedar dock panel cleaned and sealed.

CLICK or TAP HERE to see how I’m cleaning and sealing the cedar this season.

Long Overdue Shoutout

You can see this cute animated GIF file on this page at the top just under the BLACK iTunes logo. I’m starting to put this animated GIF on all my new podcast pages in honor of Marty.

Marty also created the stunning 3D image of my linear french drain design over twenty years ago. CLICK or TAP HERE to see it.

Roger is my go-to guy for all the daily heavy lifting that gets done on both the AsktheBuilder.com and StainSolver.com websites.

Roger has the patience of Job. Believe me, you need that when you’re around me for any length of time.

I want to thank Ellen, Marty, and Roger publicly for all they’ve done in the past and continue to do to make sure you have a positive experience with Ask the Builder and Stain Solver.

That’s quite enough for a Thursday.

Tim Carter Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com BEST CLEANER on the Planet: www.StainSolver.com Hear Cool Waves - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Max is remodeling his son’s home. He wanted to talk to me about the size of a return air duct in the house.

What do you know about return air? My guess is NOT ENOUGH. CLICK or TAP HERE now to be MUCH COOLER this summer and WARMER next winter.

The post April 23, 2020 AsktheBuilder Newsletter appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Home https://www.askthebuilder.com/april-23-2020-askthebuilder-newsletter/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes

williamccreynolds · 4 years

Text

April 23, 2020 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

FUN Quiz

I decided to try something different this week. See if you like it! How about a one-question fun quiz each week where you might discover something new? Look at this photo and ponder it for a moment:

CLICK or TAP HERE to see if you know why a certain Midwest State Park is important.

Be sure to answer the second Yes/No question so I know what you think about the quiz.

Copper Strips, Mold, Algae, and How to Clean

Ron went to the Ask Tim page on my website and here is his question:

Let’s go in reverse order with Ron’s questions.

Here’s what you DON’T do. You don’t stand in your garage and have someone spray your naked body with some solution and then wait until you air dry before getting dressed in your clean clothes.

What you do is put them in a washing machine that has some sort of AGITATION ACTION and allow the machine to go through the wash cycle.

I told Ron that he could purchase the copper strips from ME.

CLICK or TAP HERE to see how I’d install copper on your roof and to purchase it for your roof.

Soil Strength - Fred’s Shed

Fred sent me a very detailed email about a 10x20 prefab shed he wants to have at his home.

He was concerned about the strength of the soil and if the piers he had in mind would work. He doesn't want the shed to shift and sink.

Look at this photo and tell me if you understand its significance and how it helps solve Fred’s conundrum:

Are you stumped? I thought so! CLICK or TAP HERE and I GUARANTEE you’ll come away much more informed as was Fred after he WATCHED a very important VIDEO about soil maps at the above page.

Donna’s HOT Kitchen Sink Water

Donna emailed me a few days ago. She had a perplexing problem with the hot water at her kitchen sink. It would run HOT for a bit then go lukewarm.

It was such a good question, I decided to talk about it! CLICK or TAP HERE to see if you came to the same conclusion that I did.

The answer will most likely surprise you!

Cleaning and Sealing My Cedar Boat Dock

In the last issue, I said I'd share the details about my wood dock sealing project. If you own a wood deck or wood boat dock, then you MUST LOOK AT THIS PAGE.

I’ve got a 40-foot boat dock at my house. The flooring is made from solid cedar and the sun punishes it each summer day here in New Hampshire.

That’s the first cedar dock panel cleaned and sealed.

CLICK or TAP HERE to see how I’m cleaning and sealing the cedar this season.

Long Overdue Shoutout

You can see this cute animated GIF file on this page at the top just under the BLACK iTunes logo. I’m starting to put this animated GIF on all my new podcast pages in honor of Marty.

Marty also created the stunning 3D image of my linear french drain design over twenty years ago. CLICK or TAP HERE to see it.

Roger is my go-to guy for all the daily heavy lifting that gets done on both the AsktheBuilder.com and StainSolver.com websites.

Roger has the patience of Job. Believe me, you need that when you’re around me for any length of time.

I want to thank Ellen, Marty, and Roger publicly for all they’ve done in the past and continue to do to make sure you have a positive experience with Ask the Builder and Stain Solver.

That’s quite enough for a Thursday.

Tim Carter Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com BEST CLEANER on the Planet: www.StainSolver.com Hear Cool Waves - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Max is remodeling his son’s home. He wanted to talk to me about the size of a return air duct in the house.

What do you know about return air? My guess is NOT ENOUGH. CLICK or TAP HERE now to be MUCH COOLER this summer and WARMER next winter.

The post April 23, 2020 AsktheBuilder Newsletter appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Real Estate https://www.askthebuilder.com/april-23-2020-askthebuilder-newsletter/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes

andrewmawby · 4 years

Text

April 23, 2020 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

FUN Quiz

I decided to try something different this week. See if you like it! How about a one-question fun quiz each week where you might discover something new? Look at this photo and ponder it for a moment:

CLICK or TAP HERE to see if you know why a certain Midwest State Park is important.

Be sure to answer the second Yes/No question so I know what you think about the quiz.

Copper Strips, Mold, Algae, and How to Clean

Ron went to the Ask Tim page on my website and here is his question:

Let’s go in reverse order with Ron’s questions.

Here’s what you DON’T do. You don’t stand in your garage and have someone spray your naked body with some solution and then wait until you air dry before getting dressed in your clean clothes.

What you do is put them in a washing machine that has some sort of AGITATION ACTION and allow the machine to go through the wash cycle.

I told Ron that he could purchase the copper strips from ME.

CLICK or TAP HERE to see how I’d install copper on your roof and to purchase it for your roof.

Soil Strength - Fred’s Shed

Fred sent me a very detailed email about a 10x20 prefab shed he wants to have at his home.

He was concerned about the strength of the soil and if the piers he had in mind would work. He doesn't want the shed to shift and sink.

Look at this photo and tell me if you understand its significance and how it helps solve Fred’s conundrum:

Are you stumped? I thought so! CLICK or TAP HERE and I GUARANTEE you’ll come away much more informed as was Fred after he WATCHED a very important VIDEO about soil maps at the above page.

Donna’s HOT Kitchen Sink Water

Donna emailed me a few days ago. She had a perplexing problem with the hot water at her kitchen sink. It would run HOT for a bit then go lukewarm.

It was such a good question, I decided to talk about it! CLICK or TAP HERE to see if you came to the same conclusion that I did.

The answer will most likely surprise you!

Cleaning and Sealing My Cedar Boat Dock

In the last issue, I said I'd share the details about my wood dock sealing project. If you own a wood deck or wood boat dock, then you MUST LOOK AT THIS PAGE.

I’ve got a 40-foot boat dock at my house. The flooring is made from solid cedar and the sun punishes it each summer day here in New Hampshire.

That’s the first cedar dock panel cleaned and sealed.

CLICK or TAP HERE to see how I’m cleaning and sealing the cedar this season.

Long Overdue Shoutout

You can see this cute animated GIF file on this page at the top just under the BLACK iTunes logo. I’m starting to put this animated GIF on all my new podcast pages in honor of Marty.

Marty also created the stunning 3D image of my linear french drain design over twenty years ago. CLICK or TAP HERE to see it.

Roger is my go-to guy for all the daily heavy lifting that gets done on both the AsktheBuilder.com and StainSolver.com websites.

Roger has the patience of Job. Believe me, you need that when you’re around me for any length of time.

I want to thank Ellen, Marty, and Roger publicly for all they’ve done in the past and continue to do to make sure you have a positive experience with Ask the Builder and Stain Solver.

That’s quite enough for a Thursday.

Tim Carter Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com BEST CLEANER on the Planet: www.StainSolver.com Hear Cool Waves - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Max is remodeling his son’s home. He wanted to talk to me about the size of a return air duct in the house.

What do you know about return air? My guess is NOT ENOUGH. CLICK or TAP HERE now to be MUCH COOLER this summer and WARMER next winter.

The post April 23, 2020 AsktheBuilder Newsletter appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from builders feed https://www.askthebuilder.com/april-23-2020-askthebuilder-newsletter/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes

nomanicsdak · 5 years

Photo

New Post has been published on https://manicdak.com/unfinished-business/

Unfinished Business

We are back! Not months and months later for once! Right now, I am questless, so it’s time to search out some more exclamation points and question marks! I find a temple of Posiden which is right next to some dudes practicing thier long jump, which is more like a hop. Are they training for the Olympics perhaps? I also find the wreck of the Argo in this area. You know, the ship Jason piloted. I do not find any golden fleeces here, just the guard that is chasing me around. After I collect all the treasure from Posiden’s temple, I run directly into the neighboring bandit camp.

Don’t Bite Me!!!

Pause. Why are bandit’s setting up camp mere feet from a guard filled temple??? Well, these bold bandit’s team up with the guard’s chasing me, and it’s all a recipe for desyncronization. It doesn’t help that I keep hitting the button for calling Ikaros instead of the one for my sword. On the second go round, I’m succeeding, but trying not to kill any precious attack doggos. Luckily I don’t have to, because a wolf shows up to dispatch half the bandit camp and thier little dogs too. Thank you, wild doggo.

Just as I reach Korinth and some person in a camp with a timed quest—I open the quest screen to discover that I am not done with the brother’s post-quest meetups. Tim also wants to meet me apparently. Well, he should have said so with words instead of sidelong glances. I guess we can do a quick backtrack and “spar” with him. Hopefully that is not some sort of double entendre, but I also learn that thier questline is called A Brother’s Seduction, so—

Shark Hunter Was Here

Before I have to fight anybody, even if it ends up being romantic fighting, the game beseeches me to please! please! replace my gear with better stuff from my inventory, so let’s do that. Then, I have to steal a fishing boat with a bunch of sharks strapped to it, Old Man and the Sea style, because Tim is on some rocks in the middle of the water.

Okay, well, I can do hearts dialogue with this guy too, but I do not choose that, since I already did with Lykinos and it just doesn’t feel right. We’re just going to fight instead! The backstory here is that he used to spar with his dad on this rock out in the ocean, and he still comes there to be sad. He doesn’t seem to actually want to spar, so we’ll see how this goes.

Update!: So he has PTSD for sure. After Alexios beats him in the sparring match, he is clearly having flashbacks to some sort of trauma. He thinks he is going to lose control and murder me, and — Oh, god — timed choices. Crapness. Does it even matter, or am I going to truly cock thins up if I pick the wrong ones? I end up talking him down from the ledge in any case.

We get to also have a heart to heart. Turns out he did once lose control and murder a fellow during battle. Yikes, dude. That was why he was discharged from the army. He hid this from his dad, so he could make him proud. I comfort him until he feels better and then we stare stoically into the sunset, thinkin’ about all the murder we’ve perpetrated I presume.

It is Assassin’s Creed after all.

After this, the game informs me that I should check up on the bros back at their house, so I guess we’ll do that. I get back on the sharkboat and paddle my way back to shore. When I get there , the place is trashed and Lykinos is crying in a corner. Dammit. The bandits abducted Tim. I have to go rescue him now!

Seriously, eff these bandits. They’re all going down! You want money, so leave all the money on the table and steal Tim??

Off I go to a new area of the map and the bandits are holed up in some giant fortress. I run around getting them all first, because I learned the hard way that they’ll just kill the prisoners that you free if you let them out before all the bandits are gone.

When I let Tim out, he doesn’t want to go because there are still bandits??? Some of the dudes I let out of cages are running around and they kill the last one that I didn’t find right as I arrive, and finally we get a cut scene of Alexios calming Tim down.

Top Bad Guy

Hey, remember when I was wondering if there was a bigger loan shark? I found him. The actual bandit leader, not all the guys I just assassinated shows up. As it turns out, dear old dad was not only hitting up the loan sharks, but he was working for them as a smuggler too. One time he took money from them for gambling and they killed him for it. They never got the money back, so that’s why they’re hassling my boys. I should probably just stab these shady ne’er do wells , but instead I pay for the debts myself!

Lykinos makes his case

Tim makes his case

Once that is done, the boys thank Alexios and then start fighting over him. Tim never thought he would see happiness again like when he is with Alexios, and Lykinos thinks we’re soulmates. Oh, boy. Lol, I get options to choose one or the other, or neither. I choose neither, because—and I repeat, my heart belongs to the cute country doctor and/or the man-ho of Greece, Alkibiades. The bros are both super disappointed and walk away. Sorry, bros! I must keep moving on!

I head back to Korinthia, stopping to defeat a huntress camp and to see what quests I have in the queue already, I find one about helping a captain on a beach, so I head off in that direction. Along the way I learn that Alexios thinks carrying boats over land is a dumb idea. Clearly he and Fitzcarraldo have wildly different opinions on this. I arrive at the handsome pirate’s shore. Let’s see what he has going on.

Hello, Captain!

Here’s the story… Soldiers have been taking out pirates. Obviously, I am on the side of the pirates in thi situation somehow. Cool. Well, anyway, this dude’s brother went out to take on the military and didn’t come back. I choose the cagey option when I reveal I know he got eaten by sharks. I don’t tell him that I visited his bro’s grave. (This is one of the graves I went to when that lady asked me her obtuse riddle last time.) This guy’s new plan is to build an unsinkable ship that surely the army won’t be able to defeat and thus his village will be saved.

Is his villiage the boat? Like—I’m pretty sure if the military wanted to exact revenge or something, they could just burn the village to the ground? But I probably shouldn’t give them any ideas. I’m here to gather supplies though! I have to collect only Olive wood, which I already have because I walk or swim everywhere and pick up everything along the way. (Sorry, Phobos! I love you, good horse-o, but I always forget you exist!)

Next I have to go get a protective eye from a shipwreck—If the eye is protective, then how come it’s in a shipwreck? Oh, well. Who am I to question lucky charms. Off we swim!

Okay, the eye was on pirate guy’s old ship. He’s sad about how the pirate ways led to such death, and Alexios advises him that maybe he could use Titanic II for other things besides piracy. He agrees and pays me the last of the pirate treasure for good measure. Alright!

Titanic II

Now, I learn that this dude was part of that old lady’s riddle quest. Why do these quest lines keep making me think I’m finished when I’m not? I supposed I’ll return to her and help the guy who’s brother got eaten by a lion? Let’s find out! Who is this woman??? IS she a goddess? She’s sending me to a volcano island now, and is curious to know about what my gathering wood and advising the dude to quit piracy says about my character. I mean, I’ll do it, because she’s behaving suspiciously witch/godlike. I mean, the prince got turned into a beast because he didn’t help the old lady in disguise, right? Volcano island it is!

But first, I have to retrieve a key from a graveyard hermit, because this quest has something to do with this lady’s locked vault. I return to the graveyard to meet the hermit, and he is also a weird duck. A weird duck who doesn’t have the key. He left it on a guarded island somewhere. Gee, thanks. I guess it’s time for a swim. Or not. It’s far enough away that I have to find a dock and call Barny.

As it turns out, this thing is guarded by lions. Is this the test? and not volcano island? Well, it is a location that requires me to kill the alpha lion so— I shoot them all accidentally with knockout arrows because I forgot I used up all the pointy ones. As it turns out, taming the alpha animal will also clear the location, so now I have a lion friend for as long as it takes me to get back to my boat I guess.

Lion friend tearin’ up the town

OMG. He came with me! Lol, I return to the old lady and lion friend materializes out of nowhere. Surprise, lady! I brought one with me! He’s off to go fight the guards that were chasing me, so I’m afraid he wont be long for this world after all. Alas.

I return the key and learn that I am going to Haephestus’s foundry to find a helmet and not a volcano…thought I guess it could also be a volcano. I am ready as I’ll ever be, lady! Let’s do it!

Update: The guard’s did not kill Lion!

#assassin's creed #odyssey #Assassin's Creed #Games #Odyssey

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ashen-star-mage · 5 years

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My Favorite Fandoms and Why

I’m a huge nerd. Hopefully that’s clear for anyone who follows my blog or posts. So naturally I like a lot of fandoms, but there are a number that I really really like and some I’ve followed since childhood.

Pokemon

A fandom I’ve followed since childhood. I was part of the original Pokemon generation who were kids when the first games (red, blue and yellow) came out. I love how even in the beginning there was no end of things to do in Pokemon. Bored with your team? There’s 151 of them and more on the way. Then you could battle and min-max your team to your heart’s content, and way back in the day you could even gamble in Pokemon games. I love the art style of Pokemon and the beloved creatures that are way too easy to get attached to. It’s like to the point where when someone (I’m not naming names) KOs your favorite Pokemon and then it’s time for some serious payback. We’re talking Hyper Beam on a 10% health Pokemon payback. Modern games have given us even more to do in games. If battling isn’t your thing, you can breed them for cool moves and other things (and potentially become a twisted Pokemon eugenicist). You can hunt for oddly colored Pokemon (shinies), something I never had the patience for. You can participate in Pokemon contests, and bond with your team by feeding or petting them. Pokemon designs are really diverse too, from ‘normal’ animals to plants to the gods themselves. Gods that can be caught and battled by ten year olds for some reason. Also it needs saying that for some reason teenage boys (and perhaps girls too) detest Pokemon because it’s not cool. What’s cool for teenage boys? Skateboards and saying ‘radical’ all the time? Ninja Turtles reference by the way. I was definitely in the minority liking Pokemon in my teenage years, but when I got to college, suddenly it was cool again and everyone was allowed to like it just like when I was a kid. Pretty awesome right? I’m really hyped for Sword and Shield, just like I’ve been hyped for every new main series game.

Star Wars

Another fandom I’ve followed since childhood. While Pokemon took us to a land of wonderful creatures of all stripes, Star Wars takes us to that galaxy a long time a go and far far away where there are adventures, cool ships, and magic space wizards. In my opinion, Star Wars introduced the world to some of the coolest and most iconic ships. Like the wedge-shaped Star Destroyers that struck terror into all who saw them, or the Millennium Falcon, the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy. And who could forget the characters. Definitely a diverse cast in terms of archetypes, Luke the naive and idealist farmboy, Leia the tough no-nonsense princess, Han Solo the lovable rogue, Darth Vader one of the most feared men in the Empire and an extremely iconic villain. The list goes on. Even if the galaxy is almost always at war, be it the clone wars, galactic civil war, or other conflicts, it was somewhere I always wanted to go some day. Meet the characters, try not to get force-choked, fly a ship through hyperspace. Star Wars may have started as three very well-done movies, but it has turned into an incredible multimedia franchise. The Legends series (formerly expanded universe) really fleshed out the galaxy and lore beyond what the movies did and so did the prequels. Say what you will, but they had some really good aspects to them. Then there are the games like my favorite of all time, Empire At War, game that would transport you into that galaxy far far away for a few hours at a time and let you blow up stormtroopers or rebel scum to your hearts content. Or clones or clankers (battle droids) if you prefer that. The fans have definitely done their part too, like the 501st Legion and Rebel Legion, two incredible professional-quality Star Wars costuming organizations (both of which I want to join some day). They really do their part to bring the galaxy to life.

Disney/Pixar

Ah, Disney, the company that has been entertaining us with beloved child-friendly characters and stories for many decades. A lot of generations can say they grew up with at least one Disney movie. I love how Disney movies appeal to people of all ages. They have characters both kids and adults adore and stories and even humor for both adults and children as well. Then there’s Kingdom Hearts, the massive Disney and Final Fantasy crossover that brings tons of Disney characters into one universe. Also Disneyland and Disney parks which bring the magic of Disney to life with animatronics, costumed actors, and various other things. Unless someone outright hates Disney or animated films, there’s bound to be something in the Disney canon for almost everyone. I have too many favorite Disney films to name, but some I’m particularly fond of are Mulan, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, Alice in Wonderland (my namesake). I’m definitely planning some Disney cosplays in the future, and now that Disney owns Star Wars, those characters could count too.

Fire Emblem

A tactical RPG with one of the world’s saltiest fanbases (at least in my opinion). I’ve described the series as chess-meets-Final-Fantasy to people who have never heard of it. Basically you have an army of very relatable characters who can talk to each other for combat bonuses and you have a bunch of enemies and undoubtably a giant evil dragon to fight. These games have been pegged as being rather difficult, considering weapons can break mid-battle, characters who die in battle never come back (until recent games), and experience points are limited (more in older games). Fire Emblem used to be such a niche series, only known to a few dedicated fans, but luckily Fire Emblem Awakening saved the series and made it really popular, to the point of being a mainstream series now. I only got into the series in high school, but I’ve been hooked ever since. The mix of strategy, RPG elements, and interesting characters and plots really was a winning combination. The character relations are deep, especially when there are 40+ playable characters per game. Each character can talk to around half a dozen others several times, revealing character backstory, personality, and interesting and sometimes funny interactions between them. I think Fire Emblem Awakening is one of my all-time favorites, and not just because it saved the series. It was a great standalone game. Some of my favorite characters are Lilina from Binding Blade, Nino from Blazing Sword (just Fire Emblem in the international release), Lissa, Chrom, Frederick, Robin, and Nowi from Awakening, Flora and Mozu from Fates. I even cosplay Mozu. I should honestly dust that cosplay off and wear it again. I love the character.

Hyperdimension Neptunia

Definitely still a rather niche series. It’s extremely meta and loves trampling on the fourth wall. This series is basically the video game console war (Wii vs Playstation 3 vs Xbox 360) with all the players (pun intended) personified as anime girls. It’s not just those systems either. Sega is a major player, as in main character major, and video game piracy is personified too. The characters are fantastic and their interactions are equal parts endearing and hilarious. There are way too many video game references and tidbits. Like how Vert (Xbox personification) complains about overheating just like a real Xbox 360. Or how the enemies you fight are based on classic video game enemies like the ghosts from Pac-Man or the space invaders. This franchise is rather unique for me in that I like almost every character. With Star Wars or Fire Emblem for example, there are definitely a fair number of characters I’m neutral towards, but both those franchises have way more characters than Neptunia. I think my favorite characters are Vert and Nepgear (personification of the Sega Game Gear).

RWBY

Say what you will about the animation style at first (believe me, I was turned off at first but then I came back years later to give it another try) but this series has some of the most epic fight sequences and choreography in any series I’ve seen. All the main characters have superpowers of varying sorts called semblances and throw in a bunch of cool weapons that are also guns and you’ve got a recipe for epic combat. It’s so tragic and sad that Monty Oum, the series creator passed away, since he was a real driving force behind the epic fight choreography. I normally don’t like series just because the fighting is good (I’m not into most shounen battle anime). There needs to be more than just epic fights. I like character-driven stories and RWBY provides quite the diverse and likable cast. The team dynamics (RWBY stands for the names of the four characters on team RWBY) make for very interesting character interactions.

Disgaea

Probably the most wonderfully absurd fandom on my list. Disgaea is about playing as the demons as they get into mischief and are forced to fight even worse demons and sometimes rogue human super-villains and angels too. Also did I mention the exploding peg-leg penguins called Prinnies who also talk like surfers for some reason? Because they do exist and they’re so great they even got a few games that star them as the main character... even though they’re supposed to be the fall guy and cheap slave labor of the Disgaea universe. The main characters, Laharl being a great example, are a departure from the ‘good guy’ protagonists of your typical RPG. He’s greedy, petty, and likes to brag about himself. Sure he’ll do the right thing after much prodding, but he really likes to play the role of the villain too. Aside from the absurd characters and plots, there’s the absurd game mechanics. Lv 99 look too low for you? Try Lv 9999 and then reset to lv 1 and grind back to Lv 9999 multiple times. Also stats reaching the millions and billions and damage several magnitudes beyond that with the right overpowered sword (which you can level up by going inside it).

Tales Series

A series that’s somewhat similar to Final Fantasy in terms of being a mostly fantasy RPG, but also with hack-and-slash team battle mechanics. It’s a series that I feel is terribly underrated and needs more love. Final Fantasy is great but I feel like Tales deserves more recognition. The series has a lot of great characters and heavily emphasizes character interactions and character development. A perfect example is Luke fon Fabre, a character whose spoiled, whiny, abrasive personality makes him hard to like, but due to certain events he becomes one of the most beloved protagonists in the series (and a personal favorite of mine). This series is known for playing archetypes and tropes straight (like the chosen one trope, or unshakable destiny) and then turning them on their heads and deconstructing them, only to reconstruct them, then deconstruct them again. The combat is fast-paced and exciting, and while I love turn-based combat as well, the Tales fights, especially boss battles are fantastic. I describe the series as Final Fantasy meets Super Smash Bros in terms of battle system. My favorite game in the series is Tales of the Abyss.

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topicprinter · 5 years

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In the interests of furthering this subs move from “clickbait get rich quick” posts to more substantive reviews of failures, I am submitting this doozy as the first in a series of my ‘Crazy Ideas’, companies I have started that never went anywhere but had an interesting ride.This is a bit long but it's fun and really far off from the normal “Sell a t-shirt/clean peoples things” posts we see so I’m hoping it's worth the read. It’s also true, even if it sounds insane.Did I mention that this is really really long? Get a coffee, don't complain, you were warned.This story kicks off in 2010/2011 or so. I was working full-time in a high-pressure consulting environment where I’d just taken the rap for a really high profile project that went south. They’d basically put me on ice for about 6 months in an attempt to get me a lower profile while the corporates looked for a scapegoat.With a ton of time on my hands, a steady paycheck still arriving, absolutely no new projects to work on, nowhere really to be and knowing that the end is nigh at some point, I needed to find the next thing. I had always maintained my side-business doing basic web backends using outsourced developers and because of that had a pretty deep roster of potential projects, so I dug into that and used this time to see if I could make something of it.One of my clients was an anti-piracy firm. Not anti-piracy in the BitTorrent sense but anti-piracy in the “We put strong Ukranian ex-special forces troops with neck tattoos on boats with guns” sense, mostly in the Indian Ocean. Knowing the sorts of problems they had, I reached out with some ideas for new cool projects that would make their lives better. Maybe connecting their GPS ping devices to a single map so they could have a global view of what everyone was doing, alerting tools, integrated CRM, stuff like that.The thing about companies in this anti-piracy space is that they are extremely dodgy. It is a grey-market at best, where one year the UN condemns you and the next year they release a policy paper saying that global commerce depends on mercenaries with guns on boats. One year a bank will take your wire transfer, the next year you are funneling money to Malta via someone’s ex-girlfriends account to try to bypass new quasi-regulations. Everyone is always threatening and backstabbing and stealing. Every contract is a 3rd of 4th level sub-contract from some other dodgy entity, usually based on who had access to legal and documented weapons at any given time (a complex topic). The stakes are high, the profit huge and the players scammy at best. The nature of the business means that people that start these companies are not… stable.This client was no exception, let's call the owner ‘Sal’. Sal spent years in Iraq as a private military contractor, providing security via some 3rd or 4th level sub-contracting company. He claimed to be an ex-army ranger but no one ever really saw evidence of that so there is a high probability that he was a southern boy that knew how to shoot and leveraged that into a high-revenue gig during the go-go days of PMC’s in the Middle East. I know he was there, he has pictures to prove it.Sal was unstable, at best. Super fun guy, really engaging, ride-or-die style, and constantly on the go, classic ADHD/BiPolar. He had a loose partnership with a few other players and together they had formed a security company where they could source Russian or Ukranian ex-army/special forces (White vs Asian is a huge thing in this space as Asian’s are seen as less reliable), provide weapons, provide GPS trackers, provide transport, a villa in Sri-Lanka and another in Dubai for off-operations waiting and staff to handle centralized comms. Through this, they had a nice little business that produced a ton of cash flow and subsidized a really nice lifestyle. Eventually, however, the natural instability of these things began to break the association apart and my call happened to come at that exact time.Sal was incredibly happy to chat with me and it pretty quickly became clear, he was ready to backstab these people. He had already collected the ‘loyalty’ of the team, had access to control of all key assets and was ready to make his move and start a new company but, due to his ADHD/BiPolar nature, was really not equipped to do the blocking and tackling it would require. Turns out, I am really good at that stuff and a partnership was formed. We quickly formed the new company by buying a shelf-company out of Cyprus (complete with a bank account), building a quick new website and presenting a business that was ready to go. Sal was able to contact existing clients and providers who, already being used to the constant shifting of names and companies in the space, seemed happy to use a new bank account for their transfers. Given the loose nature of all of this none of it is exactly illegal, but neither is it friendly..Things were immediately popping for the first month or two. Profits, in this case, were about $10k per run from Sri Lanka to the Red Sea, there was about 1-run a week and Sal was living it up in Dubai. I was getting my 10% and it was clear this had potential so we started investigating scale. Could we get our own insurance instead of sub-leasing someone else's? Could we source our own weapons with USA approval? These are the sort of things that turn a $1m/year business in this space to a $50m/year business because all of these are assets that can be sub-contracted at a huge mark-up. A low-cost weapon can be leased weekly for 2-3x its actual cost. Insurance can be haloed to sub-contractors who can’t get their own, etc etc. It's all about the provenance and regulatory approval which is required by shipping companies and they accept most things at face value.But, somewhere in month 3, it became clear that this house of cards was going to come crashing down. Sal just lacked the expertise, credibility, and stability to maintain. He’d go from working out 5 days a week and eating clean to flying to Ukraine for 3-5 day vodka benders where he was probably face down in a ditch by the end. It was clear, adult supervision was needed. Luckily, Sal’s girlfriend, ‘Sofia’, a stereotypical tall, blond Ukranian bombshell, had just the person in Odessa, Ukraine.Let's call him ‘Sergei’. Sergei was the owner of a successful shipping company and looking to diversify. He understood the market because he was hiring these firms and saw a great opportunity to not only diversify but also cut out the middle-man for his own shipping needs. Sergei and Sofia knew that Sal was the missing link in this plan and so a new company was drawn up, funded by Sergei, and we moved our ‘assets’, such as they were, over to it.Not sure if you have ever done business with mid-level Ukranian/Russian businessman in Odessa so a quick note: They are untrusting, conspiracy focused, and highly intelligent individuals that know how to leverage in equal parts money, relationships and the quiet threat of violence to achieve their goals. Lucky for us, Sergei was actually a good guy and really trying to make a go of scaling his business. One of his ships had been unknowingly caught up in some blockade running during one of the conflicts running around the Med in that time and it had hit his reputation a bit and he wanted to recover that.Pretty quickly it was clear though that Sergei and Sal were oil and water. Buttoned up Russian Businessman and insane bipolar American cowboy. In order to get this kicked off, it was critical for all of us to get together and for Sergei to understand that Sofia and I were behind Sal so it would be OK. So, like any sensible person, and against the wishes of my wife and our two young children, I took a week vacation from my day-job and hopped on a plane to Odessa for a week of meetings.Odessa is a trippy, interesting and dangerous city and my time there was no exception, lots of good stories from my week there. They put me up in a nice little apartment downtown and we had a driver. But let's be clear, this was not some UberBlack service, it was literally an old smoky Lada being driven by a guy who did not speak English, had tattoos all over his neck, and was still wearing his desert camo. This car would smoke on up to my apt and Sofia would grab me from the lobby where we would then careen through Odessa to the office, careful to not be followed. As I said, they were paranoid.The only thing that was accomplished that week was Sergei and Sal fighting endlessly. Lots of smoky meetings in restaurants filled with angry conversation. When I left, the only thing that really changed was that I was given an IT Support person to supplement my team and help manage the field teams with tech. This was important given the timezone shift everyone is operating on.Predictably, when I returned home, things went to hell within a month. Sergei realized that Sal was just unmanageable, Sal felt that Sergei was ripping him off and Sofia was just pissed, in that inimitable Russian-Woman way, that all the men couldn’t get their shit together. As the owner of the original shell company and all of our comms assets, I worked hard to keep it together but eventually, Sergei turned on everyone and had his local IT guy take control of all the assets via his administrative access to our Gmail domain. Game set and match he thought.Of course, it wasn’t. After 2 weeks of me working with Google to prove ownership and Sal pushing to move clients and assets back to the original shell company we regained control. I’ll never forget that final call from Google to move the domain back into our ownership, I was on a mountain bike ride and pulled over to take the call, approve it, and then resume my ride, knowing that the team on the water at that exact moment would now be communicating with Sal directly. At the time it felt very Neal Stephenson/Cryptonomican, and I was quite impressed with myself.Again, predictably, things just fell apart. Bills couldn’t be paid, villa’s were taken away, access to weapons was lost as Sal become increasingly unpredictable and Sofia left him which sent him into a 6+ week binge that left the entire system crippled.A year later I decommissioned that Cyprus company and put it all into my past. My final email to Sal on this :Heads up. Banks are closed and company will be dissolved with a month or two.It was an interesting ride. Good luck out there.Sergei is still doing great and the tech company idea he told me about over drinks and steak in Odessa eventually launched and is doing quite well. His shipping business continues to grow and, even though he devolved into implied threats of violence against me at the time, we are now connected on linked-in and exchange occasional pleasantries every few years via email.Sal ended up in a southern US state doing construction with some buddies until he could save up enough to move to Thailand where he bought a share in a strip club. Being unstable he quickly lost that, returned to the US, did some more construction, and then returned again to Thailand to buy a stake in a rental lodge. Recently that went belly-up as well and last I saw he is living on some beach with his Thai girlfriend. He seems happy but I imagine he will be back and contracting again to prepare for his next Thai adventure.I look back on it with fondness. It was a crazy amazing adventure that had the potential to pay-off and, while dangerous, was also invigorating, interesting and exposed me to so many things I’ve never seen. It is also a great conversation piece and I made some relationships that, while tentative, may someday be useful and/or fun. No regrets other than making my loving and supportive wife angry and worried and also the fact that I put myself into danger that they didn’t sign-up for. That was pretty stupid in hindsight, but we all get blinded by the chase sometimes.My day job? I was released about a month after I returned. Took a few months off and then started my only successful business with my now dedicated time.About me: Since I was in college, I’ve always started various businesses while working full-time and all of them except one failed (coincidentally, the one that I was committed to, go figure..). It has always been my dream to hit a home run in a strange business. My hit ratio is pretty bad but that's part of the journey, I just can’t help myself. It is fun to explore the past so I’ll probably write a few more of these for the downvotes.

#/r/entrepreneur #reddit

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