Blue andgold abc theme
Sing-Sing: Model Giorgio Vanni
2024.05.19 15:23 ShinMinase Sing-Sing: Model Giorgio Vanni
Sing Sing: Model Giorgio Vanni (named after the Italian singer of the One Piece opening) is a variant of the Sing-Sing Devil Fruit, associated with anime theme songs and more precisely to the anime openings sung by Italian singer Vanni (if you're Japanese, you probably never heard of him).
This Devil Fruit, in Rorschach: Gelecegin Korsani, was eaten by Gackt Bennington (first name Gackt, in Western order), a musician who is also the captain of the J-pop themed Linkin' Pirates (using the ship "Hybrid Theory"). Gackt is a long-time admirer of Rorschach, and is part of the RAK Pirates Grand Fleet.
The Sing-Sing: Model Giorgio Vanni allows the user to sing "Superhero Songs" which allow the user to sing and summon and control constructs shaped like parodies of anime heroes and superheroes: each song has a Yokonstruct (not all of them are Yokai, they're themed after songs by Giorgio Vanni) associated, and as long as the user sings, the Yokonstruct is alive, invincible and intangible even with Haki, and attacks the enemy. The user must keep singing in order for a construct to be kept alive. Constructs can be imbued with Haki.
-Wukonstruct: Shaped like a monkey, more precisely Sun Wukong from Chinese myths. It flies on a cloud of smoke and brandishes a bo staff to attack enemies. Its abilities include an energy wave called Yamme Yamme Ya (parody of Kamehameha), and various powers associated with Sun Wukong such as shapeshifting and immobilizing enemies with a touch. It's meant to be a parody of Son Goku, as Vanni sung Dragon Ball's theme song.
-Kitstruct: Shaped like a Kyuubi Kitsune, AKA a nine-tailed fox. Its powers include Rose Gun, a Rasengan parody, and various powers associated with the Nine-Tailed Fox in Japanese myths such as shapeshifting and hearing sounds from afar. It can also create copies of itself and run on walls, referencing Naruto. it represents Naruto, because Vanni sung the opening of Naruto.
-Zodiac Constructs: shaped like a yellow rat with electric powers, a green snake controlling grass, a red rooster controlling fire, and a blue dragon controlling water. They're a parody of Pokémon (more precisely Pikachu, Serperior, Blaziken and Feraligatr) as Giorgio Vanni sung many Pokémon openings.
-Rubberstructs: an army of faceless puppets made of rubber, all of which have the power to stretch and block bullets similar to Luffy's devil fruit (but weaker and no Gears). They represent the fact that Vanni sung the One Piece opening.
-Onstruct: A giant construct shaped like a green Japanese oni, wielding a club and having enormous strength and being bulletproof. It references the fact that Vanni sung the Hulk theme song.
-Beigostructs: A swarm of constructs shaped like extremely sharp tops which cut through steel and concrete. It's themed after Beyblade, as Vanni sung the Beyblade song.
-Carbombstructs: an almost endless number of Mini 4WD that chase targets and kamikaze themselves. It's a reference to Giorgio Vanni singing the song to "Let's & Go Sulle Ali di Un Turbo", an anime about Mini 4WD that never came out anywhere in Europe except in Italy.
-Supermanstruct: unlike the other constructs, this one is not separate from the user, but instead gives the user a costume similar to Superman: as long as the user keeps singing the song that generates this construct, they're immune to bullets, they can fly, have super strength, X ray vision and shoot lasers from the eyes. Even if the fruit is awakened, the user has to sing to turn into superman, because storing the song into an object turns the object into Superman, not the user. Giorgio Vanni sung the opening to Superman: the Animated Series.
Awakening this Devil Fruit allows the user to store a song in an object so the object becomes a player for the song. This way, the user can spawn multiple constructs at the same time without having to directly sing.
submitted by ShinMinase to DevilFruitIdeas [link] [comments]
This Devil Fruit, in Rorschach: Gelecegin Korsani, was eaten by Gackt Bennington (first name Gackt, in Western order), a musician who is also the captain of the J-pop themed Linkin' Pirates (using the ship "Hybrid Theory"). Gackt is a long-time admirer of Rorschach, and is part of the RAK Pirates Grand Fleet.
The Sing-Sing: Model Giorgio Vanni allows the user to sing "Superhero Songs" which allow the user to sing and summon and control constructs shaped like parodies of anime heroes and superheroes: each song has a Yokonstruct (not all of them are Yokai, they're themed after songs by Giorgio Vanni) associated, and as long as the user sings, the Yokonstruct is alive, invincible and intangible even with Haki, and attacks the enemy. The user must keep singing in order for a construct to be kept alive. Constructs can be imbued with Haki.
-Wukonstruct: Shaped like a monkey, more precisely Sun Wukong from Chinese myths. It flies on a cloud of smoke and brandishes a bo staff to attack enemies. Its abilities include an energy wave called Yamme Yamme Ya (parody of Kamehameha), and various powers associated with Sun Wukong such as shapeshifting and immobilizing enemies with a touch. It's meant to be a parody of Son Goku, as Vanni sung Dragon Ball's theme song.
-Kitstruct: Shaped like a Kyuubi Kitsune, AKA a nine-tailed fox. Its powers include Rose Gun, a Rasengan parody, and various powers associated with the Nine-Tailed Fox in Japanese myths such as shapeshifting and hearing sounds from afar. It can also create copies of itself and run on walls, referencing Naruto. it represents Naruto, because Vanni sung the opening of Naruto.
-Zodiac Constructs: shaped like a yellow rat with electric powers, a green snake controlling grass, a red rooster controlling fire, and a blue dragon controlling water. They're a parody of Pokémon (more precisely Pikachu, Serperior, Blaziken and Feraligatr) as Giorgio Vanni sung many Pokémon openings.
-Rubberstructs: an army of faceless puppets made of rubber, all of which have the power to stretch and block bullets similar to Luffy's devil fruit (but weaker and no Gears). They represent the fact that Vanni sung the One Piece opening.
-Onstruct: A giant construct shaped like a green Japanese oni, wielding a club and having enormous strength and being bulletproof. It references the fact that Vanni sung the Hulk theme song.
-Beigostructs: A swarm of constructs shaped like extremely sharp tops which cut through steel and concrete. It's themed after Beyblade, as Vanni sung the Beyblade song.
-Carbombstructs: an almost endless number of Mini 4WD that chase targets and kamikaze themselves. It's a reference to Giorgio Vanni singing the song to "Let's & Go Sulle Ali di Un Turbo", an anime about Mini 4WD that never came out anywhere in Europe except in Italy.
-Supermanstruct: unlike the other constructs, this one is not separate from the user, but instead gives the user a costume similar to Superman: as long as the user keeps singing the song that generates this construct, they're immune to bullets, they can fly, have super strength, X ray vision and shoot lasers from the eyes. Even if the fruit is awakened, the user has to sing to turn into superman, because storing the song into an object turns the object into Superman, not the user. Giorgio Vanni sung the opening to Superman: the Animated Series.
Awakening this Devil Fruit allows the user to store a song in an object so the object becomes a player for the song. This way, the user can spawn multiple constructs at the same time without having to directly sing.
2024.05.19 15:01 Kaiters710 Brides who had fun colors in their hair...
How long before the wedding did you dye it?
We are having a Star Wars themed wedding and I was thinking of my something blue being my hair.
submitted by Kaiters710 to weddingplanning [link] [comments]
We are having a Star Wars themed wedding and I was thinking of my something blue being my hair.
2024.05.19 14:58 AnusChakra Joost Klein's ESF staging was mediocre, imho
In my opinion, Joost and his team delivered a mediocre performance in the semi-finals. The staging failed to convey the story of the song effectively.
When I first watched the clip of Europapa, I, like everyone else, was surprised by the ending. However, despite being Dutch, during the song, I didn't immediately grasp the narrative. On my second viewing, I understood the song better: Joost is on the run, searching for meaning or a home, and fulfilling a promise to his parents. The video clip powerfully supports the story with images: three generations of Joost, him sitting on the bed in defeat ("I've lost everything, except time"), and Joost looking at his fatheson (or older and younger self) with a burning house in the background. It’s so impactful that it brought viewers to tears in reaction videos.
In the live performance, there was only a fleeting reference to his family or different stages of his life—a photo of his family appears for *less than a second*. The rest of the visuals included LOTS of food, a CD, Joost in a 90s Doom style, and a blue error screen that has too much text to read. The bird and the guy on the synthesizer are supposed to represent two sides of Joost, but this isn't clearly indicated. There’s also a close-up of the guy with a 90s mobile phone, which seems unnecessary.
The ending lacked the emotional weight of the original because it lacked proper buildup. I found myself confused about the song's meaning, despite having seen the original numerous times. It seems the team focused on creating a 90s theme but neglected to effectively convey the story, which is what made the song special and emotional. As a result, I believe many people did not understand the song.
They said live performance is what Joost does best, so in conclusion, I was quite disappointed about the performance as a whole.
submitted by AnusChakra to Joostklein [link] [comments]
When I first watched the clip of Europapa, I, like everyone else, was surprised by the ending. However, despite being Dutch, during the song, I didn't immediately grasp the narrative. On my second viewing, I understood the song better: Joost is on the run, searching for meaning or a home, and fulfilling a promise to his parents. The video clip powerfully supports the story with images: three generations of Joost, him sitting on the bed in defeat ("I've lost everything, except time"), and Joost looking at his fatheson (or older and younger self) with a burning house in the background. It’s so impactful that it brought viewers to tears in reaction videos.
In the live performance, there was only a fleeting reference to his family or different stages of his life—a photo of his family appears for *less than a second*. The rest of the visuals included LOTS of food, a CD, Joost in a 90s Doom style, and a blue error screen that has too much text to read. The bird and the guy on the synthesizer are supposed to represent two sides of Joost, but this isn't clearly indicated. There’s also a close-up of the guy with a 90s mobile phone, which seems unnecessary.
The ending lacked the emotional weight of the original because it lacked proper buildup. I found myself confused about the song's meaning, despite having seen the original numerous times. It seems the team focused on creating a 90s theme but neglected to effectively convey the story, which is what made the song special and emotional. As a result, I believe many people did not understand the song.
They said live performance is what Joost does best, so in conclusion, I was quite disappointed about the performance as a whole.
2024.05.19 14:05 TuWise Old Nintendo 3ds bottom screen issue
 | Hi! Got this old version ng Nintendo 3ds galing sa cousin ko, and I noticed na iba yung color ng bottom screen compared sa taas (image provided). Ask ko po sana baka alam niyo yung issue at mga posibleng solusyon para dito? Kaya po kaya if ako lang ang gagawa or need pa maghanap ng marunong magrepair? Thank u po submitted by TuWise to NintendoPH [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 13:55 AnotherSoftEng Is there a way to quickly change between multiple color themes?
I’m sure there’s an answer to this, I just don’t know what to Google. Every time I search “figma themes” it comes up with everything except for what I’m looking for.
I’m looking for a way to design a UI and then quickly have the ability to switch all color variables to differing themes: light, dark, rich blue, soft gray, etc.
Our partners like to have these sort of options to choose from, and right now I’m pretty much just duplicating the components and changing everything manually. Is there a way to ‘change all colors with this variable to another color’ globally?
submitted by AnotherSoftEng to FigmaDesign [link] [comments]
I’m looking for a way to design a UI and then quickly have the ability to switch all color variables to differing themes: light, dark, rich blue, soft gray, etc.
Our partners like to have these sort of options to choose from, and right now I’m pretty much just duplicating the components and changing everything manually. Is there a way to ‘change all colors with this variable to another color’ globally?
2024.05.19 13:51 SeoulFeminist Blue and gold 50th birthday themed vanilla cupcakes filled with berry compote.
 | submitted by SeoulFeminist to cakedecorating [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 13:48 GuiltlessMaple Best Casio Cash Registers
 | submitted by GuiltlessMaple to u/GuiltlessMaple [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/wbyst27qfd1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=df12ac1add35d5230addee864753ec812ff719fe Dive into the world of efficient cash handling and discover the Casio Cash Registers - a modern solution for businesses seeking to streamline their transactions and improve their operations. This roundup article takes you on a journey through various models and types of these office products, providing valuable insights into their features, performance, and suitability for different business needs. Don't miss out on this chance to explore the perfect Cash Register choice for your organization! The Top 6 Best Casio Cash Registers
Reviews🔗Royal 100Cx Portable Battery/AC Powered Cash Registerhttps://preview.redd.it/xu1iqymqfd1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b7af0deef7439648e38f01af1298d2dab2384cf As a small business owner, I've been on the hunt for a reliable, portable cash register to make sales easier at my farmer's market stand. The Royal 100Cx, with its compact design and battery-powered operation, has been a reliable companion for me. The automatic tax computation feature is a game-changer, allowing me to easily manage sales and taxes on-the-go. However, the initial setup can be a bit daunting, and the manual doesn't do a fantastic job of explaining everything. The preset department pricing and sales analysis by category of merchandise are standout features that have helped me keep track of inventory and sales trends. It's crucial for businesses like mine, where inventory and sales fluctuate frequently. The ink roll printer provides a receipt printout, providing a professional touch to every transaction. In terms of drawbacks, one thing to note is that the tax computation is limited to only four rates – VAT, Canadian, and a couple of others – which may not cater to everyone's business needs. However, for my small farm market business, it's more than sufficient. Overall, the Royal 100Cx is a dependable piece of hardware, and it's been a significant asset in streamlining my sales process. It may have a slightly steep learning curve, but once mastered, it's a powerful tool for any small business seeking a portable, autonomous cash register solution. 🔗Casio SE-S800 1-Sheet Thermal Cash Register, 3000 PLUs, 20 Department Keys, 10-Line LCD Operator Displayhttps://preview.redd.it/brge474rfd1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f0a868bdeebde4c9fa4dace5dded07ca7a38ad7 The Casio SE-S800 Cash Register is like your best buddy in the world of retail transactions. It's sleek, easy to use, and man, does it make life simpler! Imagine scanning items effortlessly and having that 10-line LCD display help you verify transactions—no more slip-ups! Plus, it comes with a two-line pop-up rear display for customers to see the price and subtotal, which is perfect for keeping them in the loop about their purchases. But don't let its good looks fool you! It might not be the easiest thing to program, especially if you're not a tech person. You might find yourself on the phone with customer service more than you'd like. And, oh boy, they just love decimals! But once you get the hang of it, it's smooth sailing. One more thing, make sure you get the right paper, because it doesn't play well with just any thermal paper. But overall, if you need a reliable way to manage your sales and keep your customers happy, the SE-S800 is a solid choice. 🔗Casio SR-S820-BK Thermal Print Cash Registerhttps://preview.redd.it/n5ozmt8rfd1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db3103fb2c53dbe851f1f963fc7b1f5683b8af96 I recently got the chance to use the Casio SR-S820-BK Thermal Print Cash Register in my small café, and I must say it's been quite a ride. The thermal printer is a game-changer for us, as it allows us to generate receipts and track our sales activity with ease. The 25 standard department keys have been incredibly helpful in categorizing our various products, and the 10-line LCD display makes it super easy to check on customer transactions. One of the things that stand out about this cash register is its ability to be mobile. As a café owner, I love that I can move it around to different areas of my store, depending on my needs. The built-in receipt printer also helps us provide a more professional service to our customers. However, there are a few drawbacks that I've noticed during my time using this cash register. For starters, the software that comes with it could use a bit more functionality. Additionally, some users have reported having issues with the blue tooth connectivity, which can be quite frustrating. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the Casio SR-S820-BK Thermal Print Cash Register. It has definitely made my life a lot easier when it comes to managing transactions and keeping track of sales. If you're in the market for a new cash register, this one is definitely worth considering. 🔗Casio SEG1SC Thermal Print Cash Register, Pinkhttps://preview.redd.it/712sb1krfd1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=815375953b151b8f3790b757c2a63de19d6ee756 I recently purchased the Casio SEG1SC Thermal Print Cash Register in a striking pink color. It's perfect for my small boutique and fits our vibrant theme perfectly. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to set up and get running. The large LCD display is incredibly clear, making it straightforward to input prices and manage product sales. One of my favorite features is the quiet thermal printer. It doesn't disrupt the ambiance of my store like our old, noisy register did. Plus, the anti-bacterial keyboard is a great added touch for hygiene. However, I did find that the plastic casing feels a bit flimsy compared to more substantial cash registers. And while the instructions were mostly comprehensive, I did have to resort to YouTube tutorials for some aspects of programming. Overall, I'm very satisfied with my purchase. The Casio SEG1SC Cash Register not only looks great in my store but also helps streamline our billing process. I would highly recommend it to anyone in need of a reliable, affordable cash register. 🔗Casio PCR-T2300 Electronic Cash Registerhttps://preview.redd.it/btnrin2sfd1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b13df31948ea6fefe3b253416e7c129de665ba92 I recently got my hands on the Casio PCR-T2300 Electronic Cash Register and let me tell you, it's been a game-changer for my business. With its 10-line LCD display, it's incredibly easy for me to check the current transaction and eliminate errors. The raised keyboard with 30 department key locations makes inputting data a breeze. Plus, with the built-in pop-up customer display, I can ensure my customers always know exactly what they're paying for. One of my favorite features of this cash register is the ability to customize receipts with a graphic logo or programmable top and bottom messages, adding a personal touch to each transaction. The heavy-duty metal cash drawer provides more than enough space for five bill compartments and five coin compartments, making it perfect for a busy retail environment. However, there are a few drawbacks that I've noticed during my time using this product. The instructions provided for programming the cash register could be more clear, leaving some users (like myself) scratching their heads at certain points. Additionally, while the register performs well overall, I have found that there can be some issues with the tape feeding, which can be frustrating at times. All in all, the Casio PCR-T2300 Electronic Cash Register has proven to be a reliable and efficient addition to my business operations. With its user-friendly design and robust feature set, it's definitely worth considering for any small retailer or grocer looking to streamline their cash-handling processes. 🔗Casio PCR-T2300 Thermal Cash Register with 10-Line LCD & Dual-Tape Receipthttps://preview.redd.it/154iy99sfd1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=624e9df45ee9940f5d17ef69a3d158a4c110e6a6 I've been using the Casio PCR-T2300 Thermal Printer Cash Register in my small retail store for the past month, and I must say, it's made a significant difference in my day-to-day operations. The dual-tape thermal system ensures quick and error-free transactions while the 10-line LCD display keeps both me and the customer informed about the ongoing purchase. One of the standout features of this cash register is its flexibility. The 30 department keys can be preset with specific prices or left open for manual entry, allowing me to adapt to the ever-changing needs of my store. Additionally, with up to 7,000 PLUs available, tracking individual item sales has never been easier. Customization is another strong suit of this cash register. I can add a graphic logo to our receipts, program top and bottom messages, and even adjust each item's description for detailed reporting. Plus, the heavy-duty metal cash drawer provides ample space for organizing bills and coins, making it easier to manage my funds. However, the instruction manual left something to be desired. Some steps were not as clear as I would have liked, requiring me to seek help on YouTube for more advanced programming functions. Nonetheless, overall, the Casio PCR-T2300 has been a reliable and efficient addition to my store, helping streamline my operations and improve customer experience. Buyer's Guidehttps://preview.redd.it/qw2142psfd1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5bb19613a9ef263dec7b8373554858eb488f1a86 Important Features in Cash RegistersWhen choosing a cash register for your business, several essential features must be considered to ensure you are getting a reliable and efficient system. These include:
Considerations for Choosing a Cash RegisterBefore making your decision on a cash register, consider these factors:
https://preview.redd.it/6ei7g38tfd1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c178c86d56261cc6ca21f1d2f928ed05741beb47 General Advice for Using Cash RegistersTo maximize the usefulness and longevity of your cash register, follow these tips:
FAQhttps://preview.redd.it/7wcza6jtfd1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=de058dc12d639603d9a9f49b54afb99e813d42eb What are the key features of Casio cash registers?Casio cash registers are designed with a variety of features, such as digital displays, built-in printers, and easy-to-use keypads to streamline transactions and enhance productivity. Some models also offer special functions like programmable keys and multiple tax calculations.How do Casio cash registers help in managing inventory?Casio cash registers offer extensive inventory management capabilities, including tracking and reporting of incoming and outgoing merchandise. This allows you to monitor your inventory levels effectively and make informed decisions about restocking or adjusting order quantities. https://preview.redd.it/kt7khsvtfd1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19b43487fc458e52c3c07fb44cda41f7b357bdbb Are Casio cash registers compatible with payment processors?Yes, most Casio cash registers are compatible with popular payment processors like Verifone, Ingenico, and Elavon, enabling seamless integration with existing POS systems and payment solutions.Does Casio offer warranties on its cash registers?Yes, Casio offers a standard one-year warranty on all its cash register products, covering defects in material and workmanship under normal use. Some models may also come with extended warranties for added peace of mind.How difficult is it to install a Casio cash register?The installation process for Casio cash registers is generally user-friendly and can be done without assistance from a professional technician. Most models come with easy-to-follow instructions and all necessary cables, making it easy to set up quickly.Do Casio cash registers support multiple tax rates?Yes, many Casio cash registers offer multi-tax functionality, allowing you to define and apply multiple tax rates for different items or transactions. This can be especially useful for businesses in regions with varying tax requirements.What type of support does Casio provide for its cash register products?Casio offers comprehensive support for its cash register products, including a dedicated customer service line, online resources, and product manuals. Additionally, some models may come with extended support plans, offering priority access to technical assistance.How do I choose the right Casio cash register for my business?When selecting a Casio cash register, consider factors such as the number of registers you need, the type of your business, and any unique features you require, such as inventory management or multi-language support. It's also essential to ensure that the cash register you choose is compatible with your existing POS system and payment processors.As an Amazon™ Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. |
2024.05.19 13:40 Cosmolyth Can someone help me style my set? I'm going for a black/magenta/(maybe blue) theme and can't figure out what to change/ get, I want to keep the cape and wolf
 | submitted by Cosmolyth to growtopia [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 13:26 Sweet-Count2557 12 Outdoor Ice Skating Rinks Across Connecticut for Winter Family Fun
 | 12 Outdoor Ice Skating Rinks Across Connecticut for Winter Family Fun Are you ready to slide into winter with some chilly family fun? Connecticut has got you covered with not one, not two, but twelve outdoor ice skating rinks just waiting to be explored.From the picturesque town of Stamford to the vibrant city of Hartford, there's a perfect spot for everyone to lace up their skates and glide across the ice.So, grab your mittens and join us as we take a journey through the frozen wonderland of Connecticut's outdoor ice skating rinks.Key TakeawaysThere are outdoor ice skating rinks available in various cities across Connecticut, including Stamford, Westport, Darien, Redding, Fairfield, New Haven, and Hartford.Each rink has its own unique features and offerings, such as the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Ice Skating Center in Stamford, which spans over 9,000 feet of ice and is open most days through February.Some rinks have specific opening dates, such as the Westport PAL Rink in Westport, which is scheduled to open on November 25, 2022, weather permitting.Certain rinks, like Gorhams Pond in Darien, offer picturesque winter scenes and invite families for ice skating. Skating seasons may start earlier in locations with colder weather.Stamford Ice Skating CenterLocated in Stamford, the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Ice Skating Center offers an expansive 9,000 feet of ice for an exhilarating outdoor skating experience. Our center is the perfect place for ice skating enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels. Whether you're a beginner looking to learn the basics or an experienced skater looking to improve your skills, we've a variety of ice skating lessons and programs to suit your needs. Our highly trained instructors are dedicated to providing a safe and supportive environment for learning and growth.At the Stamford Ice Skating Center, we also offer a range of special events and activities to enhance your skating experience. From themed skate nights to holiday celebrations, there's always something exciting happening on the ice. Bring your friends and family for a fun-filled day of skating and enjoy our festive atmosphere.In addition to our regular ice skating sessions, we host a variety of special events throughout the season. Whether it's a figure skating competition, a hockey tournament, or a charity fundraiser, there's always something happening at the Stamford Ice Skating Center. Join us for thrilling performances and support the local skating community.Westport PAL RinkAfter enjoying the exciting skating experience at the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Ice Skating Center in Stamford, it's time to venture to the Westport PAL Rink for more open-air skating near the picturesque Long Island Sound. Westport PAL Rink offers a variety of activities and events for skaters of all ages and skill levels.One of the highlights of the Westport PAL Rink is its skating schedule and events. The rink is open for public skating sessions throughout the week, providing ample opportunity for families and friends to enjoy the ice together. Additionally, the rink hosts special events such as theme nights, live music, and even ice shows. These events add an extra element of excitement and entertainment to the skating experience, making each visit to the rink a memorable one.For beginners or those looking to improve their skating skills, Westport PAL Rink also offers skating lessons. These lessons are taught by experienced instructors who are dedicated to helping skaters develop their abilities and confidence on the ice. Whether you're a complete novice or just looking to refine your technique, the skating lessons at Westport PAL Rink are designed to cater to your individual needs and goals.With its beautiful location near the Long Island Sound, the Westport PAL Rink provides a unique and invigorating outdoor skating experience. Skaters can enjoy the crisp winter air and scenic views as they glide across the ice. The rink's open-air setting adds a sense of freedom and liberation to the skating experience, allowing skaters to fully embrace the joy of gliding on the ice.Gorhams Pond in DarienGorhams Pond in Darien offers a picturesque winter scene for families and individuals to enjoy the exhilarating activity of ice skating. Here are three reasons why Gorhams Pond in Darien is the perfect destination for family-friendly ice skating activities and winter scenery:Timing of the Ice Skating Season: Gorhams Pond in Darien starts its ice skating season earlier than other rinks due to the colder weather in the area. This means that you can hit the ice sooner and make the most of the winter season. Imagine gliding across the frozen pond, surrounded by the beauty of nature, with the crisp winter air filling your lungs. It's a truly liberating experience.Family-Friendly Activities: Gorhams Pond in Darien isn't just about ice skating. It offers a range of family-friendly activities to keep everyone entertained. From ice hockey games to figure skating lessons, there's something for everyone. You can spend quality time with your loved ones, creating memories that will last a lifetime. And with the stunning winter scenery as your backdrop, every moment spent at Gorhams Pond will feel like a winter wonderland.Winter Scenery: One of the highlights of Gorhams Pond in Darien is its picturesque winter scenes. The pond is surrounded by tall trees, their branches covered in a blanket of snow. The glistening ice reflects the sunlight, creating a magical atmosphere. Whether you're a seasoned skater or a beginner, you'll be captivated by the serene beauty of the surroundings. It's a place where you can escape the hustle and bustle of daily life and immerse yourself in the freedom of the winter season.Redding Community CenterTucked away in a quiet corner of Redding, the Redding Community Center offers a convenient and inviting location for ice skating enthusiasts of all ages. This hidden gem provides a safe and enjoyable experience for families looking to have some winter fun on the ice.The Redding Community Center boasts a flexible skating schedule that caters to various preferences and schedules. From dawn to dusk, the ice rink is open every day, allowing visitors to choose a time that works best for them.One of the standout features of the Redding Community Center is its designated evening skate times. These evening sessions create a magical atmosphere, with twinkling lights illuminating the ice and creating a cozy ambiance. Skating under the night sky adds an extra touch of enchantment to the experience.In addition to its convenient schedule, the Redding Community Center offers a range of amenities to enhance the skating experience. Visitors can take advantage of the on-site skate rentals, ensuring that everyone has access to the necessary equipment. The center also provides a warming hut where skaters can take a break and warm up before heading back onto the ice.The Redding Community Center isn't just a place for skating; it's a hub of family-friendly activities. Alongside the ice rink, there are often other winter activities available, such as sledding or snowball fights. Families can make a whole day out of their visit, enjoying the various winter activities and creating cherished memories.Whether you're a seasoned skater or just starting out, the Redding Community Center is the perfect place to lace up your skates and enjoy some quality time on the ice. Its convenient schedule, amenities, and family-friendly atmosphere make it a must-visit destination for winter fun. So gather your loved ones, embrace the freedom of the ice, and make unforgettable memories at the Redding Community Center.Gould Manor Park in FairfieldNestled within the picturesque town of Fairfield, Gould Manor Park offers a delightful outdoor ice skating experience for families and skating enthusiasts alike. As you step onto the glistening ice, you can't help but feel a sense of freedom and excitement.Here are three things to know about Gould Manor Park in Fairfield:Best times to visit for a less crowded experience: If you prefer a quieter skating session, it's best to visit Gould Manor Park in the early morning or on weekdays. The park tends to be less crowded during these times, allowing you to glide across the ice with ease and enjoy the peaceful surroundings. Embrace the freedom of having the rink to yourself or with just a few fellow skaters.Tips for beginners to enjoy ice skating at the park: If you're new to ice skating, Gould Manor Park is the perfect place to learn and improve your skills. Remember to dress warmly and wear comfortable, supportive shoes. It's also a good idea to bring a helmet for added safety. Take your time and start by practicing your balance and basic strides along the edges of the rink. Don't be afraid to ask for help or take a lesson if you're feeling unsure. With a little practice and determination, you'll soon be gliding confidently across the ice.Embrace the freedom of the open space: Gould Manor Park offers a spacious outdoor rink that allows you to fully embrace the freedom and joy of ice skating. Take in the crisp winter air as you skate under the clear blue sky. Feel the wind on your face as you glide effortlessly across the ice. Whether you're twirling, spinning, or simply taking leisurely laps around the rink, Gould Manor Park provides the perfect backdrop for an unforgettable ice skating experience.Owen Fish Park in FairfieldHave you ever wondered where to find a charming outdoor ice skating rink in Fairfield, Connecticut? Look no further than Owen Fish Park, a hidden gem nestled within the town. This picturesque park offers a tree-lined pond that is perfect for ice skating activities and immersing yourself in the beautiful winter scenery.At Owen Fish Park, you can lace up your skates and glide across the smooth ice, surrounded by towering trees and a peaceful atmosphere. The park provides a serene setting for families and friends to enjoy the timeless activity of ice skating. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced skater, Owen Fish Park offers a welcoming space for everyone to embrace the joy of gliding on ice.To give you a better idea of what to expect at Owen Fish Park, here's a table that highlights some key features:Owen Fish Park in FairfieldLocationFairfield, ConnecticutSkating ActivitiesIce Skating, Ice Hockey, Skating PracticeWinter SceneryTree-lined Pond, Serene AtmosphereAmenitiesBenches, Restrooms, ParkingOpening HoursDawn to DuskAs you can see, Owen Fish Park provides more than just a place to skate. It offers a tranquil escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, allowing you to reconnect with nature and enjoy the simple pleasures of winter. So grab your skates, bundle up in warm attire, and head over to Owen Fish Park for a memorable ice skating experience.Remember to always check the park's opening hours and any safety guidelines before your visit. Enjoy the freedom of gliding on ice and creating lasting memories in the enchanting winter wonderland of Owen Fish Park.Osbornedale State Park in DerbyLooking for a stunning outdoor ice skating destination in Derby, Connecticut? Look no further than Osbornedale State Park, where you can experience the thrill of gliding across the ice in a picturesque setting.Here are three reasons why Osbornedale State Park is the perfect place for your next ice skating adventure:Safety First: When enjoying outdoor ice skating, it's important to prioritize safety. Remember to wear proper attire, including warm clothing, gloves, and a helmet. Check the ice thickness before stepping onto it, and always skate in designated areas to avoid any potential hazards. By following these outdoor ice skating safety tips, you can ensure a fun and worry-free experience at Osbornedale State Park.Best Times to Visit: To make the most of your visit to Osbornedale State Park, it's helpful to know the best times to go. The park is open from sunrise to sunset, but for optimal ice skating conditions, it's recommended to go during colder months when the ice is more likely to be frozen solid. Additionally, weekdays tend to be less crowded, providing more freedom and space to enjoy the ice.An Enchanting Winter Wonderland: Osbornedale State Park offers a magical winter backdrop for your ice skating escapades. The park's designated ice skating area is surrounded by beautiful natural scenery, including towering trees and snow-covered landscapes. As you glide across the ice, you'll feel a sense of freedom and exhilaration, surrounded by the beauty of nature.Wrights Pond in OrangeWrights Pond in Orange offers a delightful winter experience, with its serene setting and abundant wildlife. As you glide across the ice, you'll be surrounded by the beauty of nature, with snow-covered trees and the sounds of birds chirping in the distance. This hidden gem is the perfect place to escape the hustle and bustle of daily life and immerse yourself in the tranquility of winter.One of the highlights of Wrights Pond is the opportunity to observe winter wildlife in their natural habitat. As you skate, keep an eye out for graceful swans gliding across the frozen surface and playful squirrels darting through the snow. The pond is teeming with life, providing a unique and enchanting experience for visitors of all ages.To ensure your safety, the city Parks and Recreation Department closely monitors the ice conditions at Wrights Pond. They regularly check the thickness of the ice and provide updates to the public. It's important to always follow their guidance and heed any warnings or restrictions they may have in place. By doing so, you can enjoy a worry-free skating experience and focus on the joy of being outdoors.To further emphasize the importance of ice safety, here's a table highlighting some key tips:Ice Safety TipsCheck ice thicknessAvoid skating aloneWear appropriate gearStay away from cracksObserve posted warningsTrust your instinctsThe Bushnell in HartfordNestled in the heart of Hartford, The Bushnell provides a winter wonderland for ice skating enthusiasts of all ages. The Bushnell, known for its stunning architecture and rich history, transforms into a magical ice skating rink during the winter months.Here are three reasons why The Bushnell is a must-visit destination for winter fun:Winterfest activities: The Bushnell hosts a variety of Winterfest activities that are sure to delight visitors. From ice sculpting demonstrations to live music performances, there's always something exciting happening at The Bushnell. Families can enjoy the festive atmosphere while gliding across the ice and creating lasting memories.Free skating lessons: For those who are new to ice skating or want to improve their skills, The Bushnell offers free skating lessons. Experienced instructors are available to teach beginners the basics of skating or help more advanced skaters refine their techniques. Whether you're a novice or an expert, The Bushnell has something to offer everyone.The perfect setting: The Bushnell's picturesque location, surrounded by the beauty of downtown Hartford, provides a stunning backdrop for a day of ice skating. Skaters can enjoy panoramic views of the city skyline as they glide across the ice. The Bushnell's outdoor rink is the perfect place to embrace the freedom of winter and experience the joy of skating.Simsbury Farms in SimsburyAfter experiencing the enchanting winter wonderland at The Bushnell, it's time to explore another captivating outdoor ice skating destination in Connecticut - Simsbury Farms in Simsbury.Simsbury Farms is a hidden gem nestled in the charming town of Simsbury, offering a range of exciting winter activities for the whole family to enjoy.One of the highlights of Simsbury Farms is its covered ice skating rink, which provides a sheltered and cozy environment for skaters of all ages and skill levels. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, the rink at Simsbury Farms has something for everyone. And if you're new to ice skating, don't worry - they offer skating lessons taught by experienced instructors who'll guide you every step of the way.Aside from ice skating, Simsbury Farms also offers other winter activities to keep the whole family entertained. You can take a leisurely stroll on the nearby walking trails, surrounded by picturesque winter scenery. Or, if you're feeling adventurous, you can try your hand at cross-country skiing on the groomed trails. And for those who prefer a more relaxed pace, there are designated areas for sledding and snowshoeing.Winter at Simsbury Farms is truly a magical experience. The crisp air, the sound of blades gliding on ice, and the laughter of families enjoying the outdoors create an atmosphere of freedom and joy. So, gather your loved ones and head over to Simsbury Farms for a day of winter fun. Whether you're a seasoned skater or just starting out, Simsbury Farms has something for everyone.Winding Trails in FarmingtonWinding Trails in Farmington offers a charming and picturesque outdoor ice skating experience for visitors of all ages. As you glide across the smooth ice, surrounded by snow-covered landscapes, you'll feel a sense of freedom and joy.Here are three reasons why Winding Trails is a must-visit destination for winter activities:Tranquil Setting: Winding Trails is nestled in the heart of Farmington, surrounded by snow-encrusted pines and breathtaking natural beauty. The peaceful atmosphere creates the perfect backdrop for a serene ice skating experience. As you skate hand-in-hand with loved ones or gracefully twirl on your own, you'll feel a sense of tranquility and escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.Family-Friendly Environment: Winding Trails welcomes visitors of all ages, making it an ideal destination for a fun-filled family outing. Whether you're a seasoned skater or a beginner, there's something for everyone to enjoy. Parents can watch their little ones take their first wobbly steps on the ice, while older siblings can challenge each other to friendly races. The laughter and smiles of families enjoying the winter wonderland will warm your heart.Old-Fashioned Charm: Winding Trails offers an authentic and nostalgic ice skating experience. The rink is reminiscent of a bygone era, where outdoor skating was a cherished winter pastime. As you glide across the ice, the crisp winter air filling your lungs, you'll feel connected to a simpler time. The sound of skates gliding and laughter echoing off the surrounding trees creates a magical ambiance that will transport you to a world of pure joy and freedom.Make sure to carve out some time this winter to visit Winding Trails in Farmington. With its tranquil setting, family-friendly environment, and old-fashioned charm, it's the perfect place to create lasting memories and embrace the beauty of the winter season.Eastbury Pond in GlastonburyWith its expansive frozen surface and thrilling skating adventure, Eastbury Pond in Glastonbury is a winter wonderland for ice skating enthusiasts of all ages. As you glide across the glistening ice, you can feel a sense of freedom and exhilaration, surrounded by the beauty of nature.To give you a glimpse of what awaits you at Eastbury Pond, let me paint a picture with words. Imagine stepping onto the ice, your blades cutting through the smooth surface with ease. The crisp winter air fills your lungs as you pick up speed, the wind rushing past your face. The pond stretches out before you, inviting you to explore its frozen expanse. And as you twirl and spin, you can't help but feel a sense of joy and liberation.But while Eastbury Pond offers thrilling winter adventures, it's important to prioritize ice safety precautions. Before heading out onto the ice, make sure to check its thickness. A minimum of four inches is generally considered safe for skating. It's also essential to wear appropriate gear, including a helmet, knee pads, and warm clothing. And remember, never skate alone. Bring a friend or family member along for added safety and enjoyment.Now, let's take a look at a table that showcases the key features of Eastbury Pond:FeatureDescriptionExpansive SurfaceThe pond offers a large area for skating, allowing for freedom of movement.Natural BeautySurrounded by picturesque landscapes, Eastbury Pond provides a visually stunning backdrop.Family-FriendlyThe pond is suitable for ice skaters of all ages and welcomes families for a fun-filled experience.With its thrilling skating adventure and emphasis on safety, Eastbury Pond in Glastonbury is the perfect destination for a winter escapade. So grab your skates, bundle up, and get ready to embark on a memorable ice skating journey.Frequently Asked QuestionsAre There Any Age Restrictions for Ice Skating at the Stamford Ice Skating Center?There are no age restrictions for ice skating at the Stamford Ice Skating Center. It's a great place for the whole family to enjoy some winter fun on the ice.The center follows strict ice skating rules and safety measures to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone.As for the best time to visit the outdoor ice skating rinks in Connecticut, it's typically during the colder months when the ice is at its best.Is There a Fee for Ice Skating at the Westport PAL Rink?Yes, there's a fee for ice skating at the Westport PAL rink. The rink offers open skate time near Long Island Sound and is mostly dedicated to recreational skating.As for the age restrictions at the Stamford Ice Skating Center, there are no specific restrictions mentioned.Visitors are allowed to bring their own ice skates to Gorhams Pond in Darien, and skate rental services are available at the Redding Community Center.It's worth noting that there's no information about a limit on the number of people allowed on the ice at Gould Manor Park in Fairfield.Can Visitors Bring Their Own Ice Skates to Gorhams Pond in Darien?Yes, visitors are allowed to bring their own ice skates to Gorhams Pond in Darien. It's a picturesque winter destination that invites families for a delightful ice skating experience.However, it's important to remember to take safety precautions while enjoying the ice. At the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Ice Skating Center in Stamford, safety measures are in place to ensure a secure skating environment.Are There Any Skate Rental Services Available at the Redding Community Center?Yes, there are skate rental services available at the Redding Community Center. They understand the importance of providing convenience to visitors and offer skate rentals for those who don't have their own skates.Additionally, many other outdoor ice skating rinks across Connecticut also offer skate rentals. It's a great option for families who want to enjoy the winter fun without the hassle of bringing their own equipment.Is There a Limit on the Number of People Allowed on the Ice at Gould Manor Park in Fairfield?There is no limit on the number of people allowed on the ice at Gould Manor Park in Fairfield. It's a charming spot with a Currier & Ives scene of children skating.As for the Stamford Ice Skating Center, there are no age restrictions for ice skating. It spans over 9,000 feet of ice and is open most days through February.Both locations offer a wonderful opportunity for families to enjoy outdoor ice skating in Connecticut.ConclusionSo lace up your skates and let the ice be your canvas as you glide across the frozen landscapes of Connecticut.Whether you choose the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Ice Skating Center in Stamford or the Westport PAL Rink near Long Island Sound, there's no shortage of outdoor ice skating rinks for winter family fun.So grab your loved ones and embark on a winter adventure that will leave you with memories as sparkling as the ice itself. submitted by Sweet-Count2557 to worldkidstravel [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 12:43 BioDranik The May 2024 Organic Maps update with bookmarks sorting, OAuth2 OSM login, better paved/unpaved paths, fixed GPX import and many other improvements
 | The May 2024 Organic Maps update (get it here) supports bookmarks and tracks sorting by name, paved paths are white, and unpaved ones are brown. And there are so many other changes and fixes, thanks to our contributors! Update and enjoy, and don't forget to update maps too. And donate to support the open-source, community-driven, privacy-focused maps project! submitted by BioDranik to organicmaps [link] [comments] General:
https://preview.redd.it/w0q95ly84d1d1.png?width=1284&format=png&auto=webp&s=68a68154c58f60c250da5f96a7602b12af47252d https://preview.redd.it/7mpdelz84d1d1.png?width=1284&format=png&auto=webp&s=b0888dbbf5ec5453981ab3e4ec4d4ea3e2e34417 https://preview.redd.it/g1hdcgy84d1d1.png?width=1284&format=png&auto=webp&s=b596df30f626d96f9c50ead188132889ed2fb9a7 https://preview.redd.it/rqn8uny84d1d1.jpg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a4d408bb1be5111bcb88f3510d1e09e9cfd1a0e0 |
2024.05.19 11:42 CaptainCallum52 Houston Zoo's unique Galapagos Islands area starts off with a large volcanic rock themed tortoise habitat and even a static grand cayman blue iguana habitat
 | submitted by CaptainCallum52 to PlanetZoo [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 11:23 Jestie1 My first necron for 10th finished, after switching from knights in 9th
 | This guy took me about 6 separate nights after work of downtime paint to try and make him look dirty and jungley, going for that theme of forest overgrowth while they awaken. At first I was planning on red to clash my image of green forest but I thought it would look too dark and muted, so I picked went with blue for the energy, but I think it might be too bright now. Also these models have really weird butts at the top. submitted by Jestie1 to Necrontyr [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/gci46441qc1d1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d9b98e48b870f43a821b2a2d1751e77b318348b6 https://preview.redd.it/4ypom341qc1d1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7c9c3ad6e2e09eaf8431d68e792e93d357ee6a1b https://preview.redd.it/yotvr341qc1d1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f9e55817af1b83116737dfea7cc55f39524c46d3 |
2024.05.19 10:28 DeepSinky Fix the new armor
 | I think this armor should be white and blue instead of orange its winter themed after all. Upvote if any of you agree or down vote. Let the devs see submitted by DeepSinky to Helldivers [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 10:22 cica_zare Old game i used to play around 2014
Anywhere i searched i couldnt find it. So it was a 2d game where you played as a puff (i think) the view was like birds view from top to down and you could move on the arrows or the keys WASD. you would collect 4 colors of puffs, Green, yellow, blue and red which gave you points. The lrvels also had enemirs you should evade and after a certain amount of levels the theme changes and you also have harder enemies. I remember there being some kind of map which you would progress torugh by beating levels, and before every level you would start you would see a puff thay looks like a doctor which has some dialogue, the level themrs from what i can remember were some green grass and bushes, then some ice and like a ship with wooden floor, and ofcourse more that i cant remember. I also remember that you could choose different characters by unlocking them, i remember one being red and having a colorful propeller hat on him
submitted by cica_zare to HelpMeFind [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 10:13 Appropriate_Ad_5410 Nxt
M champ mjf Na Melo Tag ftr W champ Becky Mid jazz M roster mjf drew santos Rey Finn miz gacy omega okada king jd starks black dijak swagger Tag ftr diy guns lgf chase u Hsrdys abc Scu W roster Becky jazz jade Mia asuka Lola blue belvet baker Rosa nylw jacy
submitted by Appropriate_Ad_5410 to nxtvhj [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 09:25 BryggerHeise Numerological day analysis of 19-5–2024 23/5 Unconditional Love or ‘Cry for Love’?/ Expansion, Fullness, Order, Inner Motivation, Adventure, Freedom
 | Inspired by the ability to Heal - to make things “whole” again- you want to express Unconditional Love today which then leads to feelings of Expansion, Order, Fullness, Adventure and Freedom. submitted by BryggerHeise to numerology [link] [comments] 19-5–2024 23/5 Unconditional Love or ‘Cry for Love’?/ Expansion, Fullness, Order, Inner Motivation, Adventure, Freedom Spirit: 19 Healer factor Soul: 5 Expansion; Fullness; Inner Motivation; Adventure; Freedom; Order Body: 24 Day and Night; Light and Darkness The sum total of today is 23: Unconditional Love leading to 5: Expansion. You want to love unconditionally through your Spirit’s Healer Factor, your soul’s Expansion, Order, Adventure and Freedom and your physical Ability to go through the Night to see the Light of a new day. Day of the \"Prophet-Preacher\" Archetype Pentagram Themes There are three major themes driving your process. The axis of ‘Expansion of Self-Awareness”, the axis of ‘Focus-Fate’ and the axis of ‘Change-Transformation’. Blue 2- Red 1: Axis of Expansion of Self-Awareness: 2(6)-7(1) The axis of inner awakening and leadership drives the axis of the expansion of self-awareness. The challenge is to answer the quintessential question: “WHO AM I?’ As It is the second dominant axis in the Pentagram after the central axis, it is imperative in the 15 Pentagram that you work on the expansion of your self-awareness. The two opposing principles are the ‘Healing and Salvation number’ coming from the spiritual level to join with the ‘Visionary’ coming from the physical level. So working on the expansion of your self-awareness brings healing and salvation on the spiritual level which could translate into visionary powers on the physical level. Remember that the 2-7 axis is also called the psycho-somatic axis. If you fail or refuse to work on your self-awareness, it will have its effects on the physical body. Either making you feel depressed, without energy or even allow illnesses to grow. 26: ’Healing and Salvation number’. Positively your Power -Force drives your Intuition and creates healing and salvation. Negatively it may shatter your intuition completely. The earthly-physical power may at times not accord at all with intuition on the spiritual level. It is a difficult number to live. The solution lies in its sum: When you use the feminine receptive side of you, you may be able to bring those two principles together. 76: ’Visionary’ Visionary is the higher dimension of ‘Insight, the Inner Rising Sun, the new dawn of awareness. Being the visionary, you start to understand -on a physical level here- the spiritual relationships and their origins. The balance of these two principles lies in their sum: ‘Factor of Justice; Master’. It is the turnaround of the RuleJudge energy and it demands that Self-Awareness guides the Mind. Being a “Master” means having the awareness of being the Co-Creator of one’s own life. It has at its core the healing and salvation part of this axis. Remember that there is no scientific all-encompassing answer as to Who or What or Why you are. In itself it is a Zen Koan and only you know if you have found the right answer. You do when you the answer resonates with your deep inner feeling of Justice and Mastery. Blue 4- Blue 9: The axis of Fate, Focus and Concentration: 4(8)-9(3) The way you relate to others and how you define your relationships drives your focus and concentration. In short: your relationships trigger what you need to let go of and what you need to hold on to. Should you fail to do so, then Fate falls upon you. The two opposing principles are ‘Karma of the people', coming from the emotional level to join with ‘Spirit of Time, Reformer’ coming from the mental level. You basically want to combine your desire to solve Karma of yourself and others, with your mind awareness of what is actually going on in the world and which reforms are needed. 48: Karma of the People It deals with the current state of our human development. 4-8 is the Astral-Emotional level in the Pentagram. You want to support yourself and others in resolving their fate. It brings the desire for perfectionism and the will to change. Your warm side (8) wants to invigorate your cold (4) side. It calls for a conscious decision for perseverance, intuiting to accept the light and the dark and merging the masculine and the feminine. The danger is to doubt and to refuse to move on. If you do that, it creates even more Karma. 93: Spirit of Time; Reformer 3-9 is the level of day consciousness n the Pentagram: being wide-awake in the here and now. Here you start to pick up the changes in the Zeitgeist, as you hold here all the accumulated experiences and wisdom of your life (and perhaps previous lives). It seeks the same perfection as in the Karma of the people. It calls for the conscious decision for the awareness that God (or the Divine) manifests itself through us and in us by means of Divine Guidance. To balance these two principles you must take the conscious decision to learn and receive insights from karma and that those insights lead to focussing your life. It also brings out the “Luck-Monogram”. Once you hit the right focus, Luck will be bestowed upon you. Blue 5 - Red 4: Axis of Change and Transformation: 59-(10)4 Focus concentration drives your change and transformation. You constantly need to ask yourself: what do I need to let go of and what do I need to hold on to, so that I may advance and create change and transformation in my life? The two opposing principles are the “Ascending Prophet” coming from the physical level to join with “Harshness of Life, Deepest Commitment” coming from the spiritual level. Being on the physical level you become aware that there is more to life than what you can hear, see, smell, taste or touch. On the spiritual level you are aware that the only constant is change-which scares the hell out of you. 59: The Ascending Prophet is still very much in the ‘learning phase’ and thus confronted with the Temptation to either refuse this spiritual calling or to consider as something too special for him and to only concern himself with the external or physical matters of life. The dedication to your own spirituality is the determining factor (in your life as well). If you do commit yourself to that, then from deep within come the conscious insights, which you then want to share, making you a prophet (perhaps against your will) 104: The only constant is ‘change’. Harshness of Life confronts you with that when you desperately try to hold on to what you have and what you know. It feels as if you can only serve progress and transformation through the deepest commitment- without being aware that it is you yourself that blocks the progress and commitment. If you are able to use your receptive femininity to re-construct and re-new, if you trust your intuition to guide you to (un)deserved Luck and manifest your healing- and saving capacities, then Harshness of Life will give you the insight when to stop and when to transform . Life fulfillment will be the end result. To balance the two principles you must become wide awake in the here and now and even take that to a higher level. It calls for developing an “awakened divine awareness” in which the only constant is change. Levels of awareness’ Your spiritual, emotional and physical awareness is high today. On the spiritual level obtained through ‘Healing and Salvation’ combined with ‘Harshness of Life’. On the emotional level through ‘People’s Karma’ and ‘Detachment, Redemption’. On the physical level through the ‘Ascending Prophet’ and the ‘Visionary’. All levels give you the desire to intuitively ‘Know God’ and by manifesting the Divine Connection. In practical terms is means that you listen and act upon your intuition, your insights, your inspiration, your ‘hunches’ as opposed to listening to your instincts. Triangle Your spiritual, emotional and physical awareness is further enhanced today by the connection to the 1st principle. It wants you to expand your serving, healing and aiding of others and yourself, with mastery and power at its core. Quadrants The spiritual-physical quadrant is again active today. You are actively trying to connect the spiritual world to the physical world. It carries the energy of ‘Transformative Healing and Salvation’ and the energy of ‘Immortal Re-Birth, Renewal’. Note: If your birthday is today, the topics described above are your topics for 2024. Should a baby be born on this day, then today’s themes are the baby’s life-themes. See you (virtually) : (D) Arbeitskreis: 7. Juni Hybrid Zoom - Köln For a full explanation of the numbers and how to read the Pentagram have a look at my website: www.pentalogie.com |
2024.05.19 09:23 BryggerHeise Numerological day analysis of 19-5–2024 23/5 Unconditional Love or ‘Cry for Love’?/ Expansion, Fullness, Order, Inner Motivation, Adventure, Freedom
 | Inspired by the ability to Heal - to make things “whole” again- you want to express Unconditional Love today which then leads to feelings of Expansion, Order, Fullness, Adventure and Freedom. submitted by BryggerHeise to NumerologyPentagram [link] [comments] 19-5–2024 23/5 Unconditional Love or ‘Cry for Love’?/ Expansion, Fullness, Order, Inner Motivation, Adventure, Freedom Spirit: 19 Healer factor Soul: 5 Expansion; Fullness; Inner Motivation; Adventure; Freedom; Order Body: 24 Day and Night; Light and Darkness The sum total of today is 23: Unconditional Love leading to 5: Expansion. You want to love unconditionally through your Spirit’s Healer Factor, your soul’s Expansion, Order, Adventure and Freedom and your physical Ability to go through the Night to see the Light of a new day. Day of the \"Prophet-Preacher\" Archetype Pentagram Themes There are three major themes driving your process. The axis of ‘Expansion of Self-Awareness”, the axis of ‘Focus-Fate’ and the axis of ‘Change-Transformation’. Blue 2- Red 1: Axis of Expansion of Self-Awareness: 2(6)-7(1) The axis of inner awakening and leadership drives the axis of the expansion of self-awareness. The challenge is to answer the quintessential question: “WHO AM I?’ As It is the second dominant axis in the Pentagram after the central axis, it is imperative in the 15 Pentagram that you work on the expansion of your self-awareness. The two opposing principles are the ‘Healing and Salvation number’ coming from the spiritual level to join with the ‘Visionary’ coming from the physical level. So working on the expansion of your self-awareness brings healing and salvation on the spiritual level which could translate into visionary powers on the physical level. Remember that the 2-7 axis is also called the psycho-somatic axis. If you fail or refuse to work on your self-awareness, it will have its effects on the physical body. Either making you feel depressed, without energy or even allow illnesses to grow. 26: ’Healing and Salvation number’. Positively your Power -Force drives your Intuition and creates healing and salvation. Negatively it may shatter your intuition completely. The earthly-physical power may at times not accord at all with intuition on the spiritual level. It is a difficult number to live. The solution lies in its sum: When you use the feminine receptive side of you, you may be able to bring those two principles together. 76: ’Visionary’ Visionary is the higher dimension of ‘Insight, the Inner Rising Sun, the new dawn of awareness. Being the visionary, you start to understand -on a physical level here- the spiritual relationships and their origins. The balance of these two principles lies in their sum: ‘Factor of Justice; Master’. It is the turnaround of the RuleJudge energy and it demands that Self-Awareness guides the Mind. Being a “Master” means having the awareness of being the Co-Creator of one’s own life. It has at its core the healing and salvation part of this axis. Remember that there is no scientific all-encompassing answer as to Who or What or Why you are. In itself it is a Zen Koan and only you know if you have found the right answer. You do when you the answer resonates with your deep inner feeling of Justice and Mastery. Blue 4- Blue 9: The axis of Fate, Focus and Concentration: 4(8)-9(3) The way you relate to others and how you define your relationships drives your focus and concentration. In short: your relationships trigger what you need to let go of and what you need to hold on to. Should you fail to do so, then Fate falls upon you. The two opposing principles are ‘Karma of the people', coming from the emotional level to join with ‘Spirit of Time, Reformer’ coming from the mental level. You basically want to combine your desire to solve Karma of yourself and others, with your mind awareness of what is actually going on in the world and which reforms are needed. 48: Karma of the People It deals with the current state of our human development. 4-8 is the Astral-Emotional level in the Pentagram. You want to support yourself and others in resolving their fate. It brings the desire for perfectionism and the will to change. Your warm side (8) wants to invigorate your cold (4) side. It calls for a conscious decision for perseverance, intuiting to accept the light and the dark and merging the masculine and the feminine. The danger is to doubt and to refuse to move on. If you do that, it creates even more Karma. 93: Spirit of Time; Reformer 3-9 is the level of day consciousness n the Pentagram: being wide-awake in the here and now. Here you start to pick up the changes in the Zeitgeist, as you hold here all the accumulated experiences and wisdom of your life (and perhaps previous lives). It seeks the same perfection as in the Karma of the people. It calls for the conscious decision for the awareness that God (or the Divine) manifests itself through us and in us by means of Divine Guidance. To balance these two principles you must take the conscious decision to learn and receive insights from karma and that those insights lead to focussing your life. It also brings out the “Luck-Monogram”. Once you hit the right focus, Luck will be bestowed upon you. Blue 5 - Red 4: Axis of Change and Transformation: 59-(10)4 Focus concentration drives your change and transformation. You constantly need to ask yourself: what do I need to let go of and what do I need to hold on to, so that I may advance and create change and transformation in my life? The two opposing principles are the “Ascending Prophet” coming from the physical level to join with “Harshness of Life, Deepest Commitment” coming from the spiritual level. Being on the physical level you become aware that there is more to life than what you can hear, see, smell, taste or touch. On the spiritual level you are aware that the only constant is change-which scares the hell out of you. 59: The Ascending Prophet is still very much in the ‘learning phase’ and thus confronted with the Temptation to either refuse this spiritual calling or to consider as something too special for him and to only concern himself with the external or physical matters of life. The dedication to your own spirituality is the determining factor (in your life as well). If you do commit yourself to that, then from deep within come the conscious insights, which you then want to share, making you a prophet (perhaps against your will) 104: The only constant is ‘change’. Harshness of Life confronts you with that when you desperately try to hold on to what you have and what you know. It feels as if you can only serve progress and transformation through the deepest commitment- without being aware that it is you yourself that blocks the progress and commitment. If you are able to use your receptive femininity to re-construct and re-new, if you trust your intuition to guide you to (un)deserved Luck and manifest your healing- and saving capacities, then Harshness of Life will give you the insight when to stop and when to transform . Life fulfillment will be the end result. To balance the two principles you must become wide awake in the here and now and even take that to a higher level. It calls for developing an “awakened divine awareness” in which the only constant is change. Levels of awareness’ Your spiritual, emotional and physical awareness is high today. On the spiritual level obtained through ‘Healing and Salvation’ combined with ‘Harshness of Life’. On the emotional level through ‘People’s Karma’ and ‘Detachment, Redemption’. On the physical level through the ‘Ascending Prophet’ and the ‘Visionary’. All levels give you the desire to intuitively ‘Know God’ and by manifesting the Divine Connection. In practical terms is means that you listen and act upon your intuition, your insights, your inspiration, your ‘hunches’ as opposed to listening to your instincts. Triangle Your spiritual, emotional and physical awareness is further enhanced today by the connection to the 1st principle. It wants you to expand your serving, healing and aiding of others and yourself, with mastery and power at its core. Quadrants The spiritual-physical quadrant is again active today. You are actively trying to connect the spiritual world to the physical world. It carries the energy of ‘Transformative Healing and Salvation’ and the energy of ‘Immortal Re-Birth, Renewal’. Note: If your birthday is today, the topics described above are your topics for 2024. Should a baby be born on this day, then today’s themes are the baby’s life-themes. See you (virtually) : (D) Arbeitskreis: 7. Juni Hybrid Zoom - Köln For a full explanation of the numbers and how to read the Pentagram have a look at my website: www.pentalogie.com |
2024.05.19 09:11 Significant-Tower146 Best Card Holder Keychain
 | submitted by Significant-Tower146 to u/Significant-Tower146 [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/0mol3c982c1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b0742a0f7ccfccf26ec31dd3b2513d760c35635b Get ready to organize your essentials with ease using our curated collection of Card Holder Keychains. In this article, we bring you the top picks that not only keep your credit cards safe but also add a touch of style to your everyday carry. The Top 5 Best Card Holder Keychain
Reviews🔗Stylish Card Holder Keychain with Confetti Fillinghttps://preview.redd.it/7w2qk4n82c1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0d341c32113de84b0e7c17f059551187041eed70 The Confetti Mini Wallet Keychain is the perfect addition to any gameday outfit. Its adorable design, filled with eye-catching confetti, adds a touch of excitement to your look. Measuring 4.5 inches by 3.5 inches, this compact keychain fits perfectly in your pocket and ensures you never misplace your ID or credit cards again. Made from durable nylon and clear vinyl, it's easy to clean and withstands frequent use. The gold-plated hardware adds a touch of elegance, making it a versatile accessory for any occasion. During my experience with this stunning product, I found the confetti inside to be a unique feature that sets it apart from other wallet keychains. Despite being made of clear vinyl, the confetti never falls out, making it a practical and stylish choice. The gold-plated hardware adds a sense of luxury to the keychain, and the nylon material ensures durability. While it was a bit challenging to retrieve my cards from the wallet, the confetti pattern on the inside adds a playful touch and makes up for the inconvenience. Overall, the Confetti Mini Wallet Keychain is a must-have accessory for any sports fan looking to add flair to their gameday outfit. 🔗Stylish Daisy Darling Card Holder Keychain for Secure Storage and Elegant Appealhttps://preview.redd.it/a85ia35c2c1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ac502155a8e6f7aad7a3e63c2eb6be72ce375648 The Taylor Elliot Designs Daisy Darling Card Holder Keychain has been a game-changer for me in my daily life. This little gem is not only a functional card holder, but it doubles as a keychain, making it perfect for on-the-go situations. The embroidered daisy pattern on the front adds a charming touch, while the blue gingham pattern on the backside keeps things practical and stylish. The durable cotton canvas material makes it sturdy and long-lasting, ensuring that my cards stay safe inside. What really stands out for me is the gold zipper accents and gold keychain clasp on the zipper. They add a touch of elegance and sophistication to my look, making this card holder more than just a practical accessory. I also love the colorful yarn and tinsel pom pom, along with the acrylic pink heart and daisy keychain included. It really makes a statement and adds a pop of color to my outfit. Overall, the Taylor Elliot Designs Daisy Darling Card Holder Keychain is a great addition to my daily life, offering both functionality and a touch of style. However, one downside is that the size might be a bit too small for those who need to carry multiple cards at once. But for me, it's been a perfect match, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a versatile and fashionable card holder keychain! 🔗Chic Starry Card Holder & Key Ring Duohttps://preview.redd.it/7ec3r9gc2c1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1acaf4d754b315263c5623ca4f531e3711daa07 Embark on a mystical journey with the Starred Keyring and Card Holder set from Ted Baker. These chic accessories are sure to become your go-to companions when stepping out into the world. Crafted from velvety faux leather, this set offers more than just style. As you hold the bifold wallet in your hand, you'll notice its carefully designed card slots and ID window, making it easy and secure to carry your essentials. The vibrant star pattern on the card holder adds a touch of whimsy to your daily routine. And to top it off, the star-shaped keyring will dazzle you each time it catches the light. However, be aware that this luxurious set may not be as practical as some would hope. The dimensions of the keyring and card wallet might be slightly larger than necessary, making them less than ideal if you're looking for a more compact solution. And while the lining is made of tough 100% polyester, it could have been made with a softer material for added comfort. In conclusion, the Star Keyring and Card Holder set from Ted Baker offers a delightful fusion of elegance and mystique. Though it may not be the most practical option, its combination of style and functionality makes it a captivating choice for those who crave something out of the ordinary. 🔗Stylish RFID-Blocking Slim Keychain Wallethttps://preview.redd.it/mkxgb5vc2c1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d5bf5c7de974d164c43d2abfe5f3735c610d6f3 I recently gave the Zario Slim Keychain Wallet Lanyard a try and was pleasantly surprised by its minimalist yet functional design. The first thing I noticed was the premium quality material it's made of, which gave me confidence in its durability. I loved that it could hold up to 2 credit cards securely, with the added peace of mind that the back pocket is RFID-blocking to protect my personal information. One of the standout highlights of this product is its unique style. It's not just a functional wallet on a keychain, but it also adds a touch of elegance to my daily look. However, I noticed that it could be a bit tricky to use one-handed, which might be an issue for some. Overall, I found the Zario Slim Keychain Wallet Lanyard to be a great investment for anyone looking for both style and practicality in their everyday carry. 🔗RFID Blocking FurArt Card Wallet with Key Ringhttps://preview.redd.it/j9beqgcd2c1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=50390e6c03df5ffa8d90102f4302db74a842855c For someone on the go, the FurArt Credit Card Wallet is a perfect companion. I use it daily and was drawn to its sleek and attractive design. It's compact enough to fit in any pocket or purse while still offering plenty of space for cards and cash. A feature I love is the RFID blocking technology. This wallet has effectively protected my valuable information from unwanted interference while keeping my items organized and secure. The extra key ring is a thoughtful addition, making it a versatile wallet for multiple purposes such as shopping or traveling. While small in size, this wallet has proven big on convenience and security. As a gift, it boasts a multi-color option and a classic, wear-resistant look that would suit any loved one, whether it's a man or a woman. Buyer's GuideA card holder keychain is a convenient and stylish accessory that combines the functionality of a keychain and a card holder in one. These handy devices allow you to keep your ID, credit card, and other small essentials close at hand without having to fumble through your pockets or purse. In this buyer's guide, we will discuss the important features and considerations when choosing a card holder keychain to suit your needs.Material and Durabilityhttps://preview.redd.it/wofs54sd2c1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aad2dedb27bfa2a85253cf1b9b7e910670b7a473 When selecting a card holder keychain, consider the material and durability of the product. High-quality materials such as metal or sturdy plastic will ensure that your card holder lasts for a long time. Make sure to choose a design with a secure clasp or closure mechanism to prevent your cards from falling out. Capacity and SizeConsider the number of cards you want to carry and the size of your keychain. Smaller keychains can fit only one or two cards, while larger ones can accommodate more. Ensure that the size of the keychain is comfortable for you to carry and does not obstruct your keyring.Design and AestheticsCard holder keychains come in various designs, shapes, and colors. Choose one that matches your personal style or the theme of your outfit. Look for one with a clean and minimalist design that will not clash with the rest of your accessories. https://preview.redd.it/ha3vwu8e2c1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d7a52da472b78c330293d5390f61180fcf3d455 Additional FeaturesSome card holder keychains come with additional features such as a LED light, a bottle opener, or a small tool. If you want these extra functionalities, make sure to choose a keychain that has the features you need.Price and Value for MoneyConsider your budget when purchasing a card holder keychain. While more expensive models may have higher-quality materials or additional features, there are also affordable options that can serve their purpose well. Look for a keychain that offers good value for money and meets your needs without breaking the bank.Brand and Reviewshttps://preview.redd.it/8iv38rie2c1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=34036f3856c7d699876c194f7ddef8d8a825ba50 Research the brand and read reviews from other customers before making your purchase. A well-established brand may offer better customer support and warranty options. Reviews can give you an idea of the product's performance, durability, and overall satisfaction from other users. Buyer's ChoiceWhen choosing a card holder keychain, consider the material, capacity, design, additional features, price, and brand reputation. With these factors in mind, you can make an informed decision and select a keychain that suits your needs and preferences.FAQhttps://preview.redd.it/oxljcste2c1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c04e30563fe007b1438e1adacec3ea1b8c839bc What is a Card Holder Keychain?A Card Holder Keychain is a multi-purpose accessory that combines the functionality of a card holder and a keychain. It is designed to hold credit cards, IDs, and other small cards securely, while serving as a useful and stylish keychain.What are the benefits of using a Card Holder Keychain?
How do I choose the best Card Holder Keychain for me?Consider factors such as the number of card slots, material, size, and design when selecting a Card Holder Keychain that best suits your needs and preferences.What materials are Card Holder Keychains typically made of?Card Holder Keychains are usually made from materials like metal, plastic, or a combination of both. Metal keychains may be made from stainless steel, zinc alloy, or other durable metals, while plastic keychains can be lightweight and more affordable.Are Card Holder Keychains durable?Yes, most Card Holder Keychains are designed to be durable and long-lasting. High-quality materials and robust construction ensure that the keychain can withstand daily use without breaking or losing its functionality.Can I customize my Card Holder Keychain?It depends on the product and manufacturer. Some Card Holder Keychains can be personalized with engravings, logos, or custom color combinations. Check with the specific brand or retailer for available customization options.Are there any safety concerns with using a Card Holder Keychain?Card Holder Keychains are generally safe to use, but it is essential to follow proper keychain usage guidelines to avoid injury. Make sure to hold the keychain securely and avoid sharp or pointed objects on the keychain from damaging or scratching your cards and IDs.As an Amazon™ Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. |
2024.05.19 08:52 Medrodome Strands app game with "suffle" option
 | Hello i created a clone of strands with a little bit changes as we know strands: submitted by Medrodome to NYTStrands [link] [comments] * 5x5, 5x6, 5x7, 6x6, 6x7 grids allowed * suffle button (to redraw all grid in any moment) * custom strands https://preview.redd.it/ig7wk8dzyb1d1.png?width=714&format=png&auto=webp&s=c8d436b671bc87db256b0d579a050e00928025f8 Please give me more ideas https://preview.redd.it/108okw51zb1d1.png?width=246&format=png&auto=webp&s=e0970c71c77c4c34827468f2484b43d693140467 |
2024.05.19 08:06 Mantis_Shrimp47 The monster in the sand dunes turned my brother into a bird
"You gotta know that there's an art to it, Ezra," Hitch said, cutting another piece of duct tape.
The sleeves of his weather-beaten coat were shoved all the way up his arms, to stop the fabric from falling over his knuckles while he was working, and goosebumps lined his skin. He was strapping a rubber chicken to the back of his truck, over the lens of the shattered backup camera, with the legs pointing down so that they hung a couple inches above the ground. There were dents in the hood from the crash last week, and scratches along the door from scraping into a curb. The chicken, hopefully, would keep him from breaking anything else.
"You can't go cheap," Hitch said. "The cheap rubber chickens only make noise when pressure lets go. That's no good. As soon as I back up into something, I want this chicken to be screaming like it’s in the depths of hell."
“Sure thing,” I said in a monotone, leaning against the side of the truck.
There were scrambled electronic parts piled in the back of the truck, the innards of a radio, a broken computer, tangled wires, a couple loose pairs of earbuds. He found the parts in alleyways or bummed them off his friends for a couple bucks or stole them from the vacation homes that were left empty for most of the year. Then he sold them for a profit at the scrapyard. Hitch had bounced between minimum-wage jobs for a while after high school, spending a couple months as a bagger at the grocery store or as a seasonal worker at the farm two hours down the highway. He'd never stuck with it. At the very least, the scrapyard got him enough money to eat and occasionally spend a night in a motel when he got tired of sleeping in his car.
Hitch pressed the last piece of tape in place and grinned up at me. "I've got something for you, duck."
The nickname came from when I’d broken my leg as a child and waddled around in a cast until it was healed. I hated it with a burning passion, and I glared at Hitch with the ease of twenty-one years of practice. He had a duck tattoo at the base of his thumb that he’d gotten in a back-alley shop as a teenager. He said that he’d gotten it to remind him of me, and the fact that I hated the nickname was just a bonus. It was shaky-lined, with an uneven face, but he loved it anyway.
The handle stuck when Hitch tried to open the door, a consequence of the rust collecting in the crevices of the car and running down the sides like blood from a cut. The car groaned when the door finally popped open, a metal against metal screech that had me flinching away. Hitch dug through the cluttered fast food containers in the passenger-side footwell, eventually coming up with a crinkly paper bag. He waved away the flies buzzing around the opening of the bag and held it out to me.
The last time Hitch had brought me food, I’d gotten food poisoning because he’d left it out in the midday sun for two days. The donut was squished slightly, and the icing was stuck to the bag. I still ate it, grimacing at the harsh citrus flavor. Taking Hitch’s food was an instinct engraved from the days when Dad had given us a can of kidney beans for dinner and Hitch had drank the juice, leaving the beans for me.
I rarely went hungry anymore, three mostly square meals a day and granola in my pockets just in case, but habits didn’t die easy.
These days, Hitch only brought me food when he wanted my help, like when he saw a place he wanted to hit but was worried about doing it alone.
I got in the car, like I always did.
We drove past the cluster of seafood-themed restaurants with chipped paint decks, the beachfront park where there were always shifty-eyed men sitting under the slide, the single room library where all the books had been water damaged in the flood last year. The change was quick as we drove across Main Street, heading closer to the beach. The roads were freshly paved, the concrete a smooth black except where the sun had already started to pick away at it. The three-story homes lining the sides of the street were crouched on elegant stilts, with space underneath for a car or three. Most of the garages were empty, with the lights off and curtains drawn in the house. Come summer, the streets would be swarming with tourists and vacationers, but until then, most of the buildings nearest to the beach were unoccupied.
Hitch stopped as the sun started to go down at a house that was leaning precariously out towards the beach, tilted ever so slightly, the edge of its foundation buried in the shifting sand of the beach. It certainly looked deserted, with an overgrown yard and blue paint peeling off the door in sheets.
Hitch took his hammer out of the backseat, hoisting it over his shoulder. It was two feet of solid metal with rags wrapped around the head to muffle the sound of the hits. Hitch squared up, bending his knees and holding the hammer like a baseball bat. Before he could swing, though, the door creaked open on its own, the hinges squeaking. The house beyond was dark enough that I could only make out general shapes, glimpsing the curve of a sofa to the left, what was maybe the shimmer of a chandelier on the other side.
Hitch lowered his hammer, looking vaguely disappointed that he didn’t get to use it. “That’s…weird as hell.”
“Maybe the deadbolt broke, maybe they forgot to lock it, it doesn’t matter,” I hissed, checking our surroundings for other people again. “Just hurry up and get inside before someone calls the cops.”
Hitch flicked the lightswitch on the wall, and the lights flickered on. They were dim, buzzing audibly and blinking off occasionally. The walls were plastered with contrasting swatches of wallpaper and splattered with random colors. There was neon orange behind the dining table, a galaxy swirl in the kitchen, and on the ceiling there was a repeating floral pattern covered in nametag stickers. Each of the stickers was filled out with The Erlking. Chandeliers hung in every room, three or four for each, and rubber ducks sat on every table. A miniature carousel sat in the corner along with a towering model rocket.
Sand was heaped on every surface, at least a couple inches everywhere. It was piled in the corners and stuck to the walls, and it covered the floor in a thick blanket. Our hesitant steps into the house left footprints clearly outlined in the sand.
Hitch took a cursory look around and headed immediately for the TV mounted on the wall. “Look out the windows and tell me if anyone is coming.”
I shook the sand out of the blinds and pulled them open, then had to brush sand off of the window before I could see anything.
Hitch was quick, practiced at finding and appropriating the things that were worth taking. He came back to me with an armful of electronics and chandeliers, dumping it at my feet before turning to head deeper into the house again.
There was a thump, somewhere upstairs, and then footsteps, slow and deliberate. Hitch froze at the threshold of the room, then ran for the door with me just ahead of him, sand flying out from under our feet.
My hand was almost brushing the doorknob, close enough that I could see the light from the streetlamp outside streaming in through the cracks in the door. My fingers touched the wood and it gave under my touch, becoming malleable and warm. I yelped, stumbling backwards, and the door started to melt. The paint ran down in thick drops, pooling at the bottom of the door, and the wood warped like metal being welded. The soft edges of the door ran into the walls until there was no sign of an exit ever being there.
“Well, well, well,” said a cultured voice with just an edge of snooty elitism. “What do we have here?”
The man was well over eight feet tall, with long black hair covering his eyes. He was wearing a yellow raincoat with holes cut out of the hood to accommodate the deer antlers jutting upwards from his head. There was sand settled on his shoulders and hovering around his head like a halo.
“Who the fuck are you?” Hitch said, inching towards a window.
He smiled, just a little bit, and his teeth shone in the dim light. “I am the Erlking.”
Hitch nodded, and seemed about to respond. I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards the window. I could feel sand in the wind roaring against my back as the Erlking growled in anger, the grains scraping harshly against my cheeks.
We were almost to the window when Hitch was ripped away from me, and I came to a startled halt. The sand had formed long grasping arms that pressed Hitch against the floral wallpaper. His wrists were held tight, and as I watched, a sandy hand wrapped around his mouth and forced its way between his teeth. He gagged, and sand trickled out of the corners of his mouth.
The Erlking strolled towards him, not seeming to be in any sort of rush. “You know, I’m not very fond of your yapping.”
He made an idle gesture and the sand wrapped around my ankles, tethering me in place.
“I yap all the time,” Hitch said. “Three-time olympic yapper, that’s me. Best to just let me go now and save yourself some trouble.”
The Erlking tapped a manicured nail against Hitch’s mouth, hard enough to hurt, judging by the way he flinched away. “But why would I ever let you go when I’ve gone to this much trouble to catch you and your sister? It’s so hard, these days, to find people that no one will miss.”
Hitch struggled against the sand, trying to escape and failing. “What do you want with us, then? You just said it, we’re nobody.”
“I’m fae, dear one,” the Erlking said. “I get my power from my followers. And I think that you two will make lovely additions to my flock.”
He flicked Hitch's nose and Hitch gasped. Feathers started to form on his arms, popping out from under his skin in a spray of blood.
Hitch pushed off the wall, using his bound hands as a fulcrum, and his knees crashed into the Erlking’s stomach. The Erlking fell backwards, wheezing, and the sand around my ankles loosened.
Hitch made desperate eye contact with me as feathers shot up his neck and jerked his head towards the window. The message was obvious. Run.
The last thing I saw before crashing out the window and into freedom was Hitch’s body twisting, his arms wrenching into wings and feathers covering every inch of his skin. By the time I landed on the concrete outside, he was a small black bird, held tightly in the Erlking’s hands. The whole building was sinking into the ground, burnished-gold sand piling up over top and streaming from the windows.
Thirty years later, I saw Sam’s Supernatural Consultation and Neutralization written in neat, looping handwriting on a piece of paper taped to the door. The tape was peeling at the corners and the paper was yellowed with age, but there was obviously care put into the sign, in its perfectly centered text and looping floral designs drawn over the edges in gold marker.
I knocked, hesitantly, drawing my woolen coat closer around my shoulders. I’d bought it as a fiftieth birthday gift for myself, and I took comfort in the heavy weight of it over my shoulders.
“Coming!” someone called from within the depths of the office.
There were a couple crashes, and the sound of paper shuffling. Eventually, the door was opened by a young woman with ketchup stains on her shirt and pencils stuck through her hair.
“Hi, I’m Sam, I specialize in supernatural consultation and hunting, how may I help you today?” Sam said, customer-service pep in her voice. She stood in the doorway, solidly blocking entry into the office.
“My name is Ezra, I’m for a consultation. I emailed you but you didn’t respond?” I shifted in place, suddenly feeling awkward.
“Oh! Yeah, I lost the password for the email ages ago. Sorry for the bad welcome, I get lots of people thinking I’m crazy or pulling a prank and harassing me.”
She ushered me into the office, clearing papers off one of the chairs to make room for me to sit down. There was a collection of swords along one wall, all of them polished to perfection, several with deep knicks in the metal which indicated that they’d been used heavily.
“So what can I help you with?” Sam asked again, more sincere this time.
“Thirty years ago, my brother was turned into a bird,” I started. I’d told this story so many times that it barely felt ridiculous to say anymore. I was used to the disbelieving looks, the careful pity. But Sam just nodded along, face open and welcoming.
“I’ve almost given up on finding him, at this point,” I said. “But I saw your ad in the newspaper, and…here I am, I suppose.”
“Here you are,” Sam echoed, smiling. She pulled one of the pencils out of her hair and took a bit of paperwork off of one of her stacks, turning it over so that the blank side sat neatly in front of her. “Tell me everything.”
I told Sam everything, and she wrote it all down, pencil scratching along the paper.
The last part of the story was always the hardest to tell. “I left him there. I ran and I didn’t look back.”
I had been to dozens of detectives and investigators over the years, once the police had dropped Hitch’s case. I’d been to professional offices with smartly-dressed secretaries and met scraggly men in coffee shops. All of them had given me the same look, pity and annoyance all mixed up into a humor-the-crazy-lady soup. Sam, though, just seemed thoughtful.
Sam leaned forward and put a hand over mine, carefully, like she thought that I would pull away. “Sometimes you have to leave people behind.”
I tightened her hold on Sam’s hand and drew it towards me, like I could make Sam listen if only I squeezed tight enough. “But that’s why I’m here. I don’t want to leave him behind.”
“Okay then. I’ll do my best to help you.” Sam agreed, finally. Then she paused, and said softly, “You know…I think I met your brother once. He might have saved my life. He’s certainly why I started in this business.”
“Really? What happened?” I asked.
This is the story that Sam told me, related to the best of my abilities:
It was a new moon, so the only illumination came from the stars gazing idly down and distant porch lights shining across the scraggly brush of the dunes. Sam’s neighbors were decent people who cared about baby turtles, so the lights were a low, unobtrusive red, and the ocean sloshed like blood. Sam walked on the beach almost every night, drawing back the gauzy pink curtains and clambering out her bedroom window. She didn’t often bother to be quiet; her mama worked the late shift and came home exhausted. As long as Sam got home before the sun, her mama would never find out that she paced the shoreline and dreamed of inhaling sand until her lungs became their own beach.
The sky was lightening. The sun would come up soon, and that meant Sam’s time on the beach was over. She needed to get back to her real life, go to her fifth grade class and stop that nonsense, as her mother would say. Her mother loved to say things like that, pushing Sam into her proper place by implication alone.
“She’s a good kid, of course, but she’s a bit…” Her mother would trail off there, usually getting a commiserating expression from whoever she was talking to. Sam always wondered how that sentence would have finished. She’s a bit strange, maybe. She’s a bit intense. She’s a bit abrasive. She’s quiet enough but when Jason tried to steal her pencil in math class, she stabbed him in the hand so hard that the lead tattooed him.
Her mother was better, for the most part. The days of her stocking up the fridge, and leaving a post-it note on the counter, and leaving for days at a time were gone. But Sam still stepped around the place on the kitchen tile where her mother had collapsed and caved her head in, even though the bloodstains had been replaced with new tile.
“Your auntie got an abortion, you know,” her mother had said from her place on the couch, slurring her words. “Pill in the mail and then bam, no more baby.”
She had clapped her hands together to illustrate her point. Her mother jerked forward and grabbed Sam by the wrist, then, staring up at her until Sam met her eyes.
“I love you, you know? But sometimes I wonder…” She settled back onto the couch. “Yeah. I wonder.”
She’d gotten up, then, back to the kitchen. She’d been stumbling, a shambling zombie of a woman. The ground in the entryway of the kitchen was raised, ever so slightly, and her mother went down hard. Her head cracked against the tile, chin first, and she didn’t move.
Sam had been the one to call the ambulance. She had stared at the scattering of loose teeth on the ground while she waited, and considered what her life would be like with a dead mom. Not so bad, she thought, and immediately felt guilty for it.
Her mom was better, now, for the most part. But Sam still stepped around the place on the kitchen floor where she had collapsed. There was still a matchbox hidden under her bed with the gleaming shine of her mother’s lost teeth, two canines and a molar. It was nice, having a piece of her mom to keep. Even if she left again, Sam would still have part of her.
Sam sighed, and turned away from the ocean. As she faced towards the low dunes further up the beach, she saw a sandcastle sitting nestled among them. It was such a strange sight that her eyes skipped over it at first, almost automatically, disregarding it because it was so out of place.
Sam found sandcastles out on the beach sometimes, usually half-collapsed and on the verge of being washed away by the waves, but she had never seen anything like the sandcastle in front of her. It was life-sized, something that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Scottish highlands, with spires shooting up above her head and carefully etched out bricks lining each side. The front wall was dominated by an arched set of double doors, twice her height, with a portcullis nestled at the top, ready to be dropped. All of it was lovingly detailed, down to the rust on the tips of the towers and the wood grain of the door. It was made out of wet, densely-packed sand, held together impossibly. It had not been there two hours ago, when she had come to the beach.
There was a bird sitting on the overhang of the door, small and black.
As soon as she took a step towards the sandcastle, the bird shook out its feathers and swooped down towards Sam, landing at her feet with a little stumble.
“Hey, kid, get out of here,” said the bird.
Sam closed her eyes, very deliberately. When she opened them, the bird was still there. Sam considered herself a very reasonable person, so she immediately drew the most logical conclusion. The bird was, she was almost certain, a demon.
“Trust me, you don’t want to run into Mr. Salty, the queen bitch himself,” the bird said.
“Mr. Salty?” Sam inquired, polite as she knew how to be. She edged to the side, trying to get a good angle to kick the bird like a soccer ball.
The bird did something similar to a wince, all its feathers fluffing up then settling back down. “Ah, don’t call him that. He’d turn you into a toad.”
The bird gestured with its head, towards the looming sand structure. “That’s his castle. He’s in there, probably scuttling along the ceiling or some shit because that’s the sort of weirdo he is.”
Sam nodded, encouraging. She pulled back her foot and lined up her shot, the way she’d seen athletes do on TV. She aimed right for its sharp beak and let loose. The bird saw it coming, its beady eyes widening, and it cawed in distress. It flapped away, avoiding her kick only to fall backward into the sand in a scramble of wings.
“What’s your fucking problem?” it squawked. “I was trying to help you!”
“I don’t need the help of a demon,” Sam yelled, trying to remember the exorcism that her mama had taught her once, because her mama believed in being prepared for anything.
“I’m not a demon,” the bird said indignantly.
It was at about that moment that Sam gave up and just decided to roll with it.
“What are you, then?” Sam asked.
The bird shuffled its clawed feet, looking about as awkward as it could, given that it didn’t really have recognizable facial expressions. “Technically I’m a familiar of the Erlking, prince of the fae, but I prefer to be called Hitch.”
“You can’t blame me for assuming, though,” Sam said. “Ravens do tend to be associated with murder.”
“Hey, excuse you,” Hitch said. “I’m a rook, not a raven. Ravens are way bigger.”
“Sure,” Sam said, not really paying attention. Her eyes had caught on the details of the sandcastle, and she was transfixed by the slow spirals of the sand, the strange beauty of it. She found herself stepping towards the great doors, lifting a hand to knock, and as she did, the sand warped in front of her eyes, heaving itself towards her with bulging slowness. The door creaked open before her, revealing a vast, empty room. Just before she stepped inside, she felt a piercing pain in her foot, and she yelped, leaping backwards.
Hitch pecked her again, really digging his beak in. “Don’t be an idiot.”
Sam glared at him, rubbing her foot. About to retort, she finally really took in the room inside the sandcastle, and her words died in her throat.
There was a body just past the threshold of the door, face down and limbs hanging limp at its sides. Long hair splayed out in a halo around its head.
“Don’t,” Hitch warned, suddenly serious. “Just leave, kid, I mean it. I’ve seen too many people go down this road and you don’t want to be one of them.”
Sam ignored him. She made her way across the beach, slipping with every step. The sand felt deeper, piling up around her feet in silent drifts. She picked up the nearest stick and poked the body with it through the door, ready to leap back if anything went wrong, staying firmly outside of the sandcastle.
This close, Sam could tell that it used to be a woman. Her head wasn’t attached to her body. It hadn’t been a clean amputation, either. Her upper body was bruised, with chunks taken out of it, and the bones in her neck hung mangled, not connected to anything.
“Well, I warned you,” Hitch said, defeated. “I did warn you.”
Sam nudged the head with the end of the stick, nudging it over so that she could see the face. Her mother stared back at her, torn to pieces, breath still wheezing from her lungs. She wasn’t blinking, just gazing forward with glazed eyes. Sweat dripped down from her hairline.
Sam screamed and dropped the stick, tripping over herself in her haste to get away.
Her mother’s eyes were wide and pleading, and she was mouthing desperate words at Sam. Her vocal cords were broken to bits, and the only sound that came out was a strained groan.
The head rolled, inching closer to Sam like a grotesque caterpillar.
Her mother gasped for air, torn lips fluttering. Finally, comprehensible words came out. “Help. Help me, daughter.”
“That’s not your mother,” Hitch said, quiet.
Sam knew that. Her mother was sleeping back at home, and anyways her mom had never asked for her help. She had an aversion to accepting charity, as she put it.
“Okay,” Sam said, shaking all over. “Okay.”
She backed away from the sandcastle, not looking away.
“Failure,” her mother hissed as she stepped away. “I never wanted a daughter like you.”
The sun came up over the horizon. The sandcastle, Hitch, and her mom all disintegrated into sand as the light hit them.
The beach, the next night, was almost exactly how I remembered it. The beams of our flashlights sent light bouncing across the dunes, illuminating the waves, and I imagined faces in the foam of the waves.
“I’ve been back here a hundred times. There’s nothing left,” I said.
Sam took the car key out of her purse and pointed it at the sand, adjusting the sword slung over her shoulder in order to do it. The key had belonged to Hitch; Sam had requested an item of his, and it was the only thing I had left. She rested the key on the sand and drew a circle around it, inscribing symbols around the borders.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Sam shrugged. “Not much, really. I’m…I guess you could say that I’m knocking.”
The key laid inert on the sand for long enough that I was just about to give up and go home, admit to myself that Hitch was dead and that I was a fool to believe that Sam could actually help me. Then a building started to take shape, flickering in and out like it was struggling to get away. With a pop of displaced air, the sandcastle settled into existence.
Sam banged on the entryway. Nothing happened. She did it again, harder, and scowled when the door still didn’t open.
“We demand entrance, under your honor,” Sam yelled. There was a hard rush of wind, and I gripped Sam’s arm to keep my balance, but the doors cracked open reluctantly.
The inside of the sandcastle consisted of one enormous hall, the roof arching up out of sight. Rafters crisscrossed from wall to wall, and a cobbled path led further into the building, but other than that, it was completely empty, except for the birds. There were thousands of them, perched on the rafters or hopping along the ground. They parted in front of Sam and I, and reformed behind us, leaving us in a small pocket of open space. They were all black-feathered, with sharp beaks and beady eyes.
The Erlking sat on a throne at the end of the hall, lounging across it with his feet up on the armrest. He watched them as they came forward, the soft caw of the birds the only sound.
“I am here to bargain for the life of my brother,” I said, with as much dignity as I could muster, before the Erlking could say anything.
The Erlking ignored her, tilting his head to look at Sam. “I remember you. I almost got you, once.”
Sam glared at him but didn’t respond.
“You want your brother,” The Erlking said to me, and he almost sounded amused. “Then go get him.”
As if by some sort of silent signal, every bird in the room took flight at once, and their cawing made me think of screams. I covered my head against the flapping of their wings, and my vision was quickly obscured by the chaotic movement of them. I found myself on my knees, just trying to escape them.
A hand met my shoulder. Sam urged me to my feet, and together we ran for the edge of the room, where the swarm was the thinnest. We pressed ourselves into the corner and the swarm spiraled tighter and tighter at the center of the room. It went on until there seemed to be no differentiation between the birds, all of them fused together into one creature.
When the chaos died down, the birds had become one mass, with wings and eyes and talons sticking out of its flesh, thrashing and chirping. Human body parts stuck out of it, bulging out from the feathers. It was hands, mostly, with a couple knees or staring eyes. The bird amalgamation had no recognizable facial features, but there was one long beak extending from the front of its head. Most of the body parts were concentrated around the beak, and they peeked out from where the beak connected with muscle, or grew from the tongue, nestled between the two crushing halves of the beak.
It turned its beak down and crawled forward, using the hands to balance. The fingers scrambled over the ground. I was afraid of centipedes as a child, and I felt that same crawling dread when it started moving.
“Holy shit,” Sam whispered, which was rather disappointing, because I had been hoping that at least one of us knew what to do.
The creature turned, a lurching movement that crushed some of the hands underneath it, and started heaving itself slowly towards our corner.
“Better hurry up!” the Erlking called from his throne.
It was blocking the exit, by then. The shifting body of it had moved to block us off. It ambled towards us and I tried to sink further into the corner.
As it approached, getting close enough that I could smell the stink of it, I saw a flash of a tattoo on one of the hands. I leaned in, trying to find it again, like looking for dolphins surfacing in the ocean. And again, I caught a glimpse of a duck tattoo, the tattoo that Hitch had gotten on his hand as a teenager.
I ripped away from Sam’s death grip and ran for the monster.
I fell to my knees in front of it, wincing as I impacted the ground, and reached into the nest of hands. I could feel them tearing at my forearms and ripping into me with their sharp nails, but I kept going. I pressed further in, up to my shoulder in a writhing mass of limbs, aiming for the spot where I had last seen that tattoo.
The hands were tugging at me, wrapping around my back and hair. They were pulling together, trying to draw me completely into the mass of them. I was aware of Sam at my side, anchoring me in place and bashing any hand that got too close with her sword or the sparks that leapt from her hands with muttered words. But I didn’t think it would be enough. They were too strong, and there were too many of them.
I was up to my waist in the hands when something grabbed my palm. I felt the way it clung to me, and the calluses on its palm, and I knew that I had found my brother.
I flung herself back. The hands didn’t want to let me go, and they fought the whole way, but slowly, I made progress. I kept hold of Hitch’s hand in mine the whole time, gripping it as hard as I could. I finally broke free, Hitch with me, and Sam was immediately charging the creature, able to use her sword with much greater strength without being worried about injuring Hitch. She swung it forward, and it sliced through the wrist of one of the hands. It fell without a sound, red sand flowing out of it. It deflated until it looked like dirty laundry, just a piece of limp flesh. The creature shrieked, scuttling away enough that the door was finally accessible. The three of us ran for it, Sam and I supporting Hitch between us.
I looked back as I left and found the Erlking staring right at me.
“Interesting,” he murmured, his voice carrying impossibly across the vast space between us.
The sandcastle collapsed behind us, the great walls falling in on themselves. We were out in the morning sun, the sandcastle disappearing as we watched. Hitch was on the ground in front of me, as young as he’d been thirty years ago, when he was captured. He started laughing, feathers puffing out of his mouth. He laughed until he cried and I hugged him in the way that he’d held me when I was young, in the times when my life had been defined by hunger and fear.
Hitch left, afterwards. He scratched at the pinhole scars covering his body, where feathers burst through his skin, and pulled his long sleeves down around his wrists. He didn’t know where he was going but he told me that he needed time
I had spent thirty years worth of time without him. I wanted to grab my brother by the shoulders and beg him to stay. But he flinched when I hugged him goodbye and he refused to go near sand and he stared distrustfully at the birds chirping in the trees. Hitch needed to go away and I loved him too much to stop him.
I sat out on the beach every morning. I felt the sun on my face and I waited for Hitch to come home.
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The sleeves of his weather-beaten coat were shoved all the way up his arms, to stop the fabric from falling over his knuckles while he was working, and goosebumps lined his skin. He was strapping a rubber chicken to the back of his truck, over the lens of the shattered backup camera, with the legs pointing down so that they hung a couple inches above the ground. There were dents in the hood from the crash last week, and scratches along the door from scraping into a curb. The chicken, hopefully, would keep him from breaking anything else.
"You can't go cheap," Hitch said. "The cheap rubber chickens only make noise when pressure lets go. That's no good. As soon as I back up into something, I want this chicken to be screaming like it’s in the depths of hell."
“Sure thing,” I said in a monotone, leaning against the side of the truck.
There were scrambled electronic parts piled in the back of the truck, the innards of a radio, a broken computer, tangled wires, a couple loose pairs of earbuds. He found the parts in alleyways or bummed them off his friends for a couple bucks or stole them from the vacation homes that were left empty for most of the year. Then he sold them for a profit at the scrapyard. Hitch had bounced between minimum-wage jobs for a while after high school, spending a couple months as a bagger at the grocery store or as a seasonal worker at the farm two hours down the highway. He'd never stuck with it. At the very least, the scrapyard got him enough money to eat and occasionally spend a night in a motel when he got tired of sleeping in his car.
Hitch pressed the last piece of tape in place and grinned up at me. "I've got something for you, duck."
The nickname came from when I’d broken my leg as a child and waddled around in a cast until it was healed. I hated it with a burning passion, and I glared at Hitch with the ease of twenty-one years of practice. He had a duck tattoo at the base of his thumb that he’d gotten in a back-alley shop as a teenager. He said that he’d gotten it to remind him of me, and the fact that I hated the nickname was just a bonus. It was shaky-lined, with an uneven face, but he loved it anyway.
The handle stuck when Hitch tried to open the door, a consequence of the rust collecting in the crevices of the car and running down the sides like blood from a cut. The car groaned when the door finally popped open, a metal against metal screech that had me flinching away. Hitch dug through the cluttered fast food containers in the passenger-side footwell, eventually coming up with a crinkly paper bag. He waved away the flies buzzing around the opening of the bag and held it out to me.
The last time Hitch had brought me food, I’d gotten food poisoning because he’d left it out in the midday sun for two days. The donut was squished slightly, and the icing was stuck to the bag. I still ate it, grimacing at the harsh citrus flavor. Taking Hitch’s food was an instinct engraved from the days when Dad had given us a can of kidney beans for dinner and Hitch had drank the juice, leaving the beans for me.
I rarely went hungry anymore, three mostly square meals a day and granola in my pockets just in case, but habits didn’t die easy.
These days, Hitch only brought me food when he wanted my help, like when he saw a place he wanted to hit but was worried about doing it alone.
I got in the car, like I always did.
We drove past the cluster of seafood-themed restaurants with chipped paint decks, the beachfront park where there were always shifty-eyed men sitting under the slide, the single room library where all the books had been water damaged in the flood last year. The change was quick as we drove across Main Street, heading closer to the beach. The roads were freshly paved, the concrete a smooth black except where the sun had already started to pick away at it. The three-story homes lining the sides of the street were crouched on elegant stilts, with space underneath for a car or three. Most of the garages were empty, with the lights off and curtains drawn in the house. Come summer, the streets would be swarming with tourists and vacationers, but until then, most of the buildings nearest to the beach were unoccupied.
Hitch stopped as the sun started to go down at a house that was leaning precariously out towards the beach, tilted ever so slightly, the edge of its foundation buried in the shifting sand of the beach. It certainly looked deserted, with an overgrown yard and blue paint peeling off the door in sheets.
Hitch took his hammer out of the backseat, hoisting it over his shoulder. It was two feet of solid metal with rags wrapped around the head to muffle the sound of the hits. Hitch squared up, bending his knees and holding the hammer like a baseball bat. Before he could swing, though, the door creaked open on its own, the hinges squeaking. The house beyond was dark enough that I could only make out general shapes, glimpsing the curve of a sofa to the left, what was maybe the shimmer of a chandelier on the other side.
Hitch lowered his hammer, looking vaguely disappointed that he didn’t get to use it. “That’s…weird as hell.”
“Maybe the deadbolt broke, maybe they forgot to lock it, it doesn’t matter,” I hissed, checking our surroundings for other people again. “Just hurry up and get inside before someone calls the cops.”
Hitch flicked the lightswitch on the wall, and the lights flickered on. They were dim, buzzing audibly and blinking off occasionally. The walls were plastered with contrasting swatches of wallpaper and splattered with random colors. There was neon orange behind the dining table, a galaxy swirl in the kitchen, and on the ceiling there was a repeating floral pattern covered in nametag stickers. Each of the stickers was filled out with The Erlking. Chandeliers hung in every room, three or four for each, and rubber ducks sat on every table. A miniature carousel sat in the corner along with a towering model rocket.
Sand was heaped on every surface, at least a couple inches everywhere. It was piled in the corners and stuck to the walls, and it covered the floor in a thick blanket. Our hesitant steps into the house left footprints clearly outlined in the sand.
Hitch took a cursory look around and headed immediately for the TV mounted on the wall. “Look out the windows and tell me if anyone is coming.”
I shook the sand out of the blinds and pulled them open, then had to brush sand off of the window before I could see anything.
Hitch was quick, practiced at finding and appropriating the things that were worth taking. He came back to me with an armful of electronics and chandeliers, dumping it at my feet before turning to head deeper into the house again.
There was a thump, somewhere upstairs, and then footsteps, slow and deliberate. Hitch froze at the threshold of the room, then ran for the door with me just ahead of him, sand flying out from under our feet.
My hand was almost brushing the doorknob, close enough that I could see the light from the streetlamp outside streaming in through the cracks in the door. My fingers touched the wood and it gave under my touch, becoming malleable and warm. I yelped, stumbling backwards, and the door started to melt. The paint ran down in thick drops, pooling at the bottom of the door, and the wood warped like metal being welded. The soft edges of the door ran into the walls until there was no sign of an exit ever being there.
“Well, well, well,” said a cultured voice with just an edge of snooty elitism. “What do we have here?”
The man was well over eight feet tall, with long black hair covering his eyes. He was wearing a yellow raincoat with holes cut out of the hood to accommodate the deer antlers jutting upwards from his head. There was sand settled on his shoulders and hovering around his head like a halo.
“Who the fuck are you?” Hitch said, inching towards a window.
He smiled, just a little bit, and his teeth shone in the dim light. “I am the Erlking.”
Hitch nodded, and seemed about to respond. I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards the window. I could feel sand in the wind roaring against my back as the Erlking growled in anger, the grains scraping harshly against my cheeks.
We were almost to the window when Hitch was ripped away from me, and I came to a startled halt. The sand had formed long grasping arms that pressed Hitch against the floral wallpaper. His wrists were held tight, and as I watched, a sandy hand wrapped around his mouth and forced its way between his teeth. He gagged, and sand trickled out of the corners of his mouth.
The Erlking strolled towards him, not seeming to be in any sort of rush. “You know, I’m not very fond of your yapping.”
He made an idle gesture and the sand wrapped around my ankles, tethering me in place.
“I yap all the time,” Hitch said. “Three-time olympic yapper, that’s me. Best to just let me go now and save yourself some trouble.”
The Erlking tapped a manicured nail against Hitch’s mouth, hard enough to hurt, judging by the way he flinched away. “But why would I ever let you go when I’ve gone to this much trouble to catch you and your sister? It’s so hard, these days, to find people that no one will miss.”
Hitch struggled against the sand, trying to escape and failing. “What do you want with us, then? You just said it, we’re nobody.”
“I’m fae, dear one,” the Erlking said. “I get my power from my followers. And I think that you two will make lovely additions to my flock.”
He flicked Hitch's nose and Hitch gasped. Feathers started to form on his arms, popping out from under his skin in a spray of blood.
Hitch pushed off the wall, using his bound hands as a fulcrum, and his knees crashed into the Erlking’s stomach. The Erlking fell backwards, wheezing, and the sand around my ankles loosened.
Hitch made desperate eye contact with me as feathers shot up his neck and jerked his head towards the window. The message was obvious. Run.
The last thing I saw before crashing out the window and into freedom was Hitch’s body twisting, his arms wrenching into wings and feathers covering every inch of his skin. By the time I landed on the concrete outside, he was a small black bird, held tightly in the Erlking’s hands. The whole building was sinking into the ground, burnished-gold sand piling up over top and streaming from the windows.
Thirty years later, I saw Sam’s Supernatural Consultation and Neutralization written in neat, looping handwriting on a piece of paper taped to the door. The tape was peeling at the corners and the paper was yellowed with age, but there was obviously care put into the sign, in its perfectly centered text and looping floral designs drawn over the edges in gold marker.
I knocked, hesitantly, drawing my woolen coat closer around my shoulders. I’d bought it as a fiftieth birthday gift for myself, and I took comfort in the heavy weight of it over my shoulders.
“Coming!” someone called from within the depths of the office.
There were a couple crashes, and the sound of paper shuffling. Eventually, the door was opened by a young woman with ketchup stains on her shirt and pencils stuck through her hair.
“Hi, I’m Sam, I specialize in supernatural consultation and hunting, how may I help you today?” Sam said, customer-service pep in her voice. She stood in the doorway, solidly blocking entry into the office.
“My name is Ezra, I’m for a consultation. I emailed you but you didn’t respond?” I shifted in place, suddenly feeling awkward.
“Oh! Yeah, I lost the password for the email ages ago. Sorry for the bad welcome, I get lots of people thinking I’m crazy or pulling a prank and harassing me.”
She ushered me into the office, clearing papers off one of the chairs to make room for me to sit down. There was a collection of swords along one wall, all of them polished to perfection, several with deep knicks in the metal which indicated that they’d been used heavily.
“So what can I help you with?” Sam asked again, more sincere this time.
“Thirty years ago, my brother was turned into a bird,” I started. I’d told this story so many times that it barely felt ridiculous to say anymore. I was used to the disbelieving looks, the careful pity. But Sam just nodded along, face open and welcoming.
“I’ve almost given up on finding him, at this point,” I said. “But I saw your ad in the newspaper, and…here I am, I suppose.”
“Here you are,” Sam echoed, smiling. She pulled one of the pencils out of her hair and took a bit of paperwork off of one of her stacks, turning it over so that the blank side sat neatly in front of her. “Tell me everything.”
I told Sam everything, and she wrote it all down, pencil scratching along the paper.
The last part of the story was always the hardest to tell. “I left him there. I ran and I didn’t look back.”
I had been to dozens of detectives and investigators over the years, once the police had dropped Hitch’s case. I’d been to professional offices with smartly-dressed secretaries and met scraggly men in coffee shops. All of them had given me the same look, pity and annoyance all mixed up into a humor-the-crazy-lady soup. Sam, though, just seemed thoughtful.
Sam leaned forward and put a hand over mine, carefully, like she thought that I would pull away. “Sometimes you have to leave people behind.”
I tightened her hold on Sam’s hand and drew it towards me, like I could make Sam listen if only I squeezed tight enough. “But that’s why I’m here. I don’t want to leave him behind.”
“Okay then. I’ll do my best to help you.” Sam agreed, finally. Then she paused, and said softly, “You know…I think I met your brother once. He might have saved my life. He’s certainly why I started in this business.”
“Really? What happened?” I asked.
This is the story that Sam told me, related to the best of my abilities:
It was a new moon, so the only illumination came from the stars gazing idly down and distant porch lights shining across the scraggly brush of the dunes. Sam’s neighbors were decent people who cared about baby turtles, so the lights were a low, unobtrusive red, and the ocean sloshed like blood. Sam walked on the beach almost every night, drawing back the gauzy pink curtains and clambering out her bedroom window. She didn’t often bother to be quiet; her mama worked the late shift and came home exhausted. As long as Sam got home before the sun, her mama would never find out that she paced the shoreline and dreamed of inhaling sand until her lungs became their own beach.
The sky was lightening. The sun would come up soon, and that meant Sam’s time on the beach was over. She needed to get back to her real life, go to her fifth grade class and stop that nonsense, as her mother would say. Her mother loved to say things like that, pushing Sam into her proper place by implication alone.
“She’s a good kid, of course, but she’s a bit…” Her mother would trail off there, usually getting a commiserating expression from whoever she was talking to. Sam always wondered how that sentence would have finished. She’s a bit strange, maybe. She’s a bit intense. She’s a bit abrasive. She’s quiet enough but when Jason tried to steal her pencil in math class, she stabbed him in the hand so hard that the lead tattooed him.
Her mother was better, for the most part. The days of her stocking up the fridge, and leaving a post-it note on the counter, and leaving for days at a time were gone. But Sam still stepped around the place on the kitchen tile where her mother had collapsed and caved her head in, even though the bloodstains had been replaced with new tile.
“Your auntie got an abortion, you know,” her mother had said from her place on the couch, slurring her words. “Pill in the mail and then bam, no more baby.”
She had clapped her hands together to illustrate her point. Her mother jerked forward and grabbed Sam by the wrist, then, staring up at her until Sam met her eyes.
“I love you, you know? But sometimes I wonder…” She settled back onto the couch. “Yeah. I wonder.”
She’d gotten up, then, back to the kitchen. She’d been stumbling, a shambling zombie of a woman. The ground in the entryway of the kitchen was raised, ever so slightly, and her mother went down hard. Her head cracked against the tile, chin first, and she didn’t move.
Sam had been the one to call the ambulance. She had stared at the scattering of loose teeth on the ground while she waited, and considered what her life would be like with a dead mom. Not so bad, she thought, and immediately felt guilty for it.
Her mom was better, now, for the most part. But Sam still stepped around the place on the kitchen floor where she had collapsed. There was still a matchbox hidden under her bed with the gleaming shine of her mother’s lost teeth, two canines and a molar. It was nice, having a piece of her mom to keep. Even if she left again, Sam would still have part of her.
Sam sighed, and turned away from the ocean. As she faced towards the low dunes further up the beach, she saw a sandcastle sitting nestled among them. It was such a strange sight that her eyes skipped over it at first, almost automatically, disregarding it because it was so out of place.
Sam found sandcastles out on the beach sometimes, usually half-collapsed and on the verge of being washed away by the waves, but she had never seen anything like the sandcastle in front of her. It was life-sized, something that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Scottish highlands, with spires shooting up above her head and carefully etched out bricks lining each side. The front wall was dominated by an arched set of double doors, twice her height, with a portcullis nestled at the top, ready to be dropped. All of it was lovingly detailed, down to the rust on the tips of the towers and the wood grain of the door. It was made out of wet, densely-packed sand, held together impossibly. It had not been there two hours ago, when she had come to the beach.
There was a bird sitting on the overhang of the door, small and black.
As soon as she took a step towards the sandcastle, the bird shook out its feathers and swooped down towards Sam, landing at her feet with a little stumble.
“Hey, kid, get out of here,” said the bird.
Sam closed her eyes, very deliberately. When she opened them, the bird was still there. Sam considered herself a very reasonable person, so she immediately drew the most logical conclusion. The bird was, she was almost certain, a demon.
“Trust me, you don’t want to run into Mr. Salty, the queen bitch himself,” the bird said.
“Mr. Salty?” Sam inquired, polite as she knew how to be. She edged to the side, trying to get a good angle to kick the bird like a soccer ball.
The bird did something similar to a wince, all its feathers fluffing up then settling back down. “Ah, don’t call him that. He’d turn you into a toad.”
The bird gestured with its head, towards the looming sand structure. “That’s his castle. He’s in there, probably scuttling along the ceiling or some shit because that’s the sort of weirdo he is.”
Sam nodded, encouraging. She pulled back her foot and lined up her shot, the way she’d seen athletes do on TV. She aimed right for its sharp beak and let loose. The bird saw it coming, its beady eyes widening, and it cawed in distress. It flapped away, avoiding her kick only to fall backward into the sand in a scramble of wings.
“What’s your fucking problem?” it squawked. “I was trying to help you!”
“I don’t need the help of a demon,” Sam yelled, trying to remember the exorcism that her mama had taught her once, because her mama believed in being prepared for anything.
“I’m not a demon,” the bird said indignantly.
It was at about that moment that Sam gave up and just decided to roll with it.
“What are you, then?” Sam asked.
The bird shuffled its clawed feet, looking about as awkward as it could, given that it didn’t really have recognizable facial expressions. “Technically I’m a familiar of the Erlking, prince of the fae, but I prefer to be called Hitch.”
“You can’t blame me for assuming, though,” Sam said. “Ravens do tend to be associated with murder.”
“Hey, excuse you,” Hitch said. “I’m a rook, not a raven. Ravens are way bigger.”
“Sure,” Sam said, not really paying attention. Her eyes had caught on the details of the sandcastle, and she was transfixed by the slow spirals of the sand, the strange beauty of it. She found herself stepping towards the great doors, lifting a hand to knock, and as she did, the sand warped in front of her eyes, heaving itself towards her with bulging slowness. The door creaked open before her, revealing a vast, empty room. Just before she stepped inside, she felt a piercing pain in her foot, and she yelped, leaping backwards.
Hitch pecked her again, really digging his beak in. “Don’t be an idiot.”
Sam glared at him, rubbing her foot. About to retort, she finally really took in the room inside the sandcastle, and her words died in her throat.
There was a body just past the threshold of the door, face down and limbs hanging limp at its sides. Long hair splayed out in a halo around its head.
“Don’t,” Hitch warned, suddenly serious. “Just leave, kid, I mean it. I’ve seen too many people go down this road and you don’t want to be one of them.”
Sam ignored him. She made her way across the beach, slipping with every step. The sand felt deeper, piling up around her feet in silent drifts. She picked up the nearest stick and poked the body with it through the door, ready to leap back if anything went wrong, staying firmly outside of the sandcastle.
This close, Sam could tell that it used to be a woman. Her head wasn’t attached to her body. It hadn’t been a clean amputation, either. Her upper body was bruised, with chunks taken out of it, and the bones in her neck hung mangled, not connected to anything.
“Well, I warned you,” Hitch said, defeated. “I did warn you.”
Sam nudged the head with the end of the stick, nudging it over so that she could see the face. Her mother stared back at her, torn to pieces, breath still wheezing from her lungs. She wasn’t blinking, just gazing forward with glazed eyes. Sweat dripped down from her hairline.
Sam screamed and dropped the stick, tripping over herself in her haste to get away.
Her mother’s eyes were wide and pleading, and she was mouthing desperate words at Sam. Her vocal cords were broken to bits, and the only sound that came out was a strained groan.
The head rolled, inching closer to Sam like a grotesque caterpillar.
Her mother gasped for air, torn lips fluttering. Finally, comprehensible words came out. “Help. Help me, daughter.”
“That’s not your mother,” Hitch said, quiet.
Sam knew that. Her mother was sleeping back at home, and anyways her mom had never asked for her help. She had an aversion to accepting charity, as she put it.
“Okay,” Sam said, shaking all over. “Okay.”
She backed away from the sandcastle, not looking away.
“Failure,” her mother hissed as she stepped away. “I never wanted a daughter like you.”
The sun came up over the horizon. The sandcastle, Hitch, and her mom all disintegrated into sand as the light hit them.
The beach, the next night, was almost exactly how I remembered it. The beams of our flashlights sent light bouncing across the dunes, illuminating the waves, and I imagined faces in the foam of the waves.
“I’ve been back here a hundred times. There’s nothing left,” I said.
Sam took the car key out of her purse and pointed it at the sand, adjusting the sword slung over her shoulder in order to do it. The key had belonged to Hitch; Sam had requested an item of his, and it was the only thing I had left. She rested the key on the sand and drew a circle around it, inscribing symbols around the borders.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Sam shrugged. “Not much, really. I’m…I guess you could say that I’m knocking.”
The key laid inert on the sand for long enough that I was just about to give up and go home, admit to myself that Hitch was dead and that I was a fool to believe that Sam could actually help me. Then a building started to take shape, flickering in and out like it was struggling to get away. With a pop of displaced air, the sandcastle settled into existence.
Sam banged on the entryway. Nothing happened. She did it again, harder, and scowled when the door still didn’t open.
“We demand entrance, under your honor,” Sam yelled. There was a hard rush of wind, and I gripped Sam’s arm to keep my balance, but the doors cracked open reluctantly.
The inside of the sandcastle consisted of one enormous hall, the roof arching up out of sight. Rafters crisscrossed from wall to wall, and a cobbled path led further into the building, but other than that, it was completely empty, except for the birds. There were thousands of them, perched on the rafters or hopping along the ground. They parted in front of Sam and I, and reformed behind us, leaving us in a small pocket of open space. They were all black-feathered, with sharp beaks and beady eyes.
The Erlking sat on a throne at the end of the hall, lounging across it with his feet up on the armrest. He watched them as they came forward, the soft caw of the birds the only sound.
“I am here to bargain for the life of my brother,” I said, with as much dignity as I could muster, before the Erlking could say anything.
The Erlking ignored her, tilting his head to look at Sam. “I remember you. I almost got you, once.”
Sam glared at him but didn’t respond.
“You want your brother,” The Erlking said to me, and he almost sounded amused. “Then go get him.”
As if by some sort of silent signal, every bird in the room took flight at once, and their cawing made me think of screams. I covered my head against the flapping of their wings, and my vision was quickly obscured by the chaotic movement of them. I found myself on my knees, just trying to escape them.
A hand met my shoulder. Sam urged me to my feet, and together we ran for the edge of the room, where the swarm was the thinnest. We pressed ourselves into the corner and the swarm spiraled tighter and tighter at the center of the room. It went on until there seemed to be no differentiation between the birds, all of them fused together into one creature.
When the chaos died down, the birds had become one mass, with wings and eyes and talons sticking out of its flesh, thrashing and chirping. Human body parts stuck out of it, bulging out from the feathers. It was hands, mostly, with a couple knees or staring eyes. The bird amalgamation had no recognizable facial features, but there was one long beak extending from the front of its head. Most of the body parts were concentrated around the beak, and they peeked out from where the beak connected with muscle, or grew from the tongue, nestled between the two crushing halves of the beak.
It turned its beak down and crawled forward, using the hands to balance. The fingers scrambled over the ground. I was afraid of centipedes as a child, and I felt that same crawling dread when it started moving.
“Holy shit,” Sam whispered, which was rather disappointing, because I had been hoping that at least one of us knew what to do.
The creature turned, a lurching movement that crushed some of the hands underneath it, and started heaving itself slowly towards our corner.
“Better hurry up!” the Erlking called from his throne.
It was blocking the exit, by then. The shifting body of it had moved to block us off. It ambled towards us and I tried to sink further into the corner.
As it approached, getting close enough that I could smell the stink of it, I saw a flash of a tattoo on one of the hands. I leaned in, trying to find it again, like looking for dolphins surfacing in the ocean. And again, I caught a glimpse of a duck tattoo, the tattoo that Hitch had gotten on his hand as a teenager.
I ripped away from Sam’s death grip and ran for the monster.
I fell to my knees in front of it, wincing as I impacted the ground, and reached into the nest of hands. I could feel them tearing at my forearms and ripping into me with their sharp nails, but I kept going. I pressed further in, up to my shoulder in a writhing mass of limbs, aiming for the spot where I had last seen that tattoo.
The hands were tugging at me, wrapping around my back and hair. They were pulling together, trying to draw me completely into the mass of them. I was aware of Sam at my side, anchoring me in place and bashing any hand that got too close with her sword or the sparks that leapt from her hands with muttered words. But I didn’t think it would be enough. They were too strong, and there were too many of them.
I was up to my waist in the hands when something grabbed my palm. I felt the way it clung to me, and the calluses on its palm, and I knew that I had found my brother.
I flung herself back. The hands didn’t want to let me go, and they fought the whole way, but slowly, I made progress. I kept hold of Hitch’s hand in mine the whole time, gripping it as hard as I could. I finally broke free, Hitch with me, and Sam was immediately charging the creature, able to use her sword with much greater strength without being worried about injuring Hitch. She swung it forward, and it sliced through the wrist of one of the hands. It fell without a sound, red sand flowing out of it. It deflated until it looked like dirty laundry, just a piece of limp flesh. The creature shrieked, scuttling away enough that the door was finally accessible. The three of us ran for it, Sam and I supporting Hitch between us.
I looked back as I left and found the Erlking staring right at me.
“Interesting,” he murmured, his voice carrying impossibly across the vast space between us.
The sandcastle collapsed behind us, the great walls falling in on themselves. We were out in the morning sun, the sandcastle disappearing as we watched. Hitch was on the ground in front of me, as young as he’d been thirty years ago, when he was captured. He started laughing, feathers puffing out of his mouth. He laughed until he cried and I hugged him in the way that he’d held me when I was young, in the times when my life had been defined by hunger and fear.
Hitch left, afterwards. He scratched at the pinhole scars covering his body, where feathers burst through his skin, and pulled his long sleeves down around his wrists. He didn’t know where he was going but he told me that he needed time
I had spent thirty years worth of time without him. I wanted to grab my brother by the shoulders and beg him to stay. But he flinched when I hugged him goodbye and he refused to go near sand and he stared distrustfully at the birds chirping in the trees. Hitch needed to go away and I loved him too much to stop him.
I sat out on the beach every morning. I felt the sun on my face and I waited for Hitch to come home.
2024.05.19 07:24 vulkanoid Use non-italics Cambria math font by default for entire document
I have a main tex file which has the main document definitions, and which includes other documents which define chapters. So far, it's working well.
I'm using Cambria font for main text and math text. The math is displayed as Italics.
How can I remove the default Italics font-style for math, and just have the normal style as default for the entire document?
Code for that main document below.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\documentclass[
% Packages
\usepackage{xcolor} % Support defining colors.
\usepackage{pagecolor} % Allow changing the page color.
\usepackage{comment} % Support multi-line comments.
\usepackage{amssymb} % Extra math symbols
\usepackage{bookmark} % Support creating bookmarks based on section markers.
\usepackage{common-unicode} % Local package: map common unicode math chars to latex commands.
\usepackage{sectsty} % For changing the color of sections.
\usepackage[Glenn]{fncychap} % Fancy chapter style.
\usepackage{fancyhdr} % For changing header styles.
%\usepackage{layout} % For display layout side.
\usepackage[margin=0.6in]{geometry} % For changing the margin size.
\usepackage[most]{tcolorbox} % For drawing box around math.
\usepackage[skip=10pt plus1pt, indent=0pt]{parskip} % For spacing between paragraphs.
\usepackage{graphicx} % For drawing images.
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\usepackage{fontspec}
% Font
\setmainfont{Cambria}
\setmathfont{Cambria Math}
% Header and footer
% INFO: https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Headers_and_footers
\pagestyle{fancy} % Turn on the style
% Change the page header style
% NOTE: Some pages are still displaying with a bad header.
% Also, want to right-align odd/even page headers.
\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{\markboth{\thechapter.\ #1}{}}
% Theme Stuff %%%%%%%%%%%
\definecolor{myPageColor}{rgb}{0.1, 0.1, 0.1}
\definecolor{myTextColor}{rgb}{0.8, 0.8, 0.8}
%\definecolor{myChapterColor}{rgb}{1, 0.0, 1}
%\colorlet{mySectionColor}{cyan}
\definecolor{mySectionColor}{rgb}{0.6, 0.7, 0.9}
\definecolor{mySubSectionColor}{rgb}{0.6, 0.9, 1}
\definecolor{mySubSubSectionColor}{rgb}{0.8, 0.7, 1}
\definecolor{myMathBoxColor}{rgb}{0.15, 0.15, 0.15}
\definecolor{myMathColor}{rgb}{0.3, 1, 0.3}
\definecolor{myInlineMathColor}{rgb}{0.3, 0.8, 0.3}
\definecolor{myBoxedMathColor}{rgb}{0.9, 0.9, 0.9}
\definecolor{myMathBoxEdgesColor}{rgb}{0.15, 0.15, 0.15}
\definecolor{myEmphColor}{rgb}{1, 0.6, 0.6}
\pagecolor{myPageColor}
\color{myTextColor}
\setlength{\headheight}{16pt} % Size of header font.
%\chapterfont{\color{myChapterColor}}
\sectionfont{\color{mySectionColor}}
\subsectionfont{\color{mySubSectionColor}}
\subsubsectionfont{\color{mySubSubSectionColor}}
% Draw a (non-inline) math box, left-aligned.
% Optional argument #1 is the title.
\newcommand*\Mbox[2][]{
% Draw a (non-inline) math box, centered.
% Optional argument #1 is the title.
\newcommand*\Mboxc[2][]{%
% Add emphasis to text.
\newcommand*\Memph[1]{
\newcommand*\Mi[2][myInlineMathColor]{{\color{#1}$#2$}}
% Change the color of the math expressions.
%\everymath{\color{myMathColor}}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Start the actual document structure.
\begin{document}
% The title page stuff.
\begin{titlepage}
\large
\pagenumbering{roman}
\tableofcontents
\include{Introduction.tex}
\include{Fundamentals.tex}
\include{SetTheory.tex}
\include{Algebra.tex}
\include{Trigonometry.tex}
\include{Formulas.tex}
\end{document}
submitted by vulkanoid to LaTeX [link] [comments]
I'm using Cambria font for main text and math text. The math is displayed as Italics.
How can I remove the default Italics font-style for math, and just have the normal style as default for the entire document?
Code for that main document below.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\documentclass[
10pt, letterpaper, oneside, hyperref={colorlinks=true,linkcolor=blue} ]{book}
% Packages
\usepackage{xcolor} % Support defining colors.
\usepackage{pagecolor} % Allow changing the page color.
\usepackage{comment} % Support multi-line comments.
\usepackage{amssymb} % Extra math symbols
\usepackage{bookmark} % Support creating bookmarks based on section markers.
\usepackage{common-unicode} % Local package: map common unicode math chars to latex commands.
\usepackage{sectsty} % For changing the color of sections.
\usepackage[Glenn]{fncychap} % Fancy chapter style.
\usepackage{fancyhdr} % For changing header styles.
%\usepackage{layout} % For display layout side.
\usepackage[margin=0.6in]{geometry} % For changing the margin size.
\usepackage[most]{tcolorbox} % For drawing box around math.
\usepackage[skip=10pt plus1pt, indent=0pt]{parskip} % For spacing between paragraphs.
\usepackage{graphicx} % For drawing images.
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\usepackage{fontspec}
% Font
\setmainfont{Cambria}
\setmathfont{Cambria Math}
% Header and footer
% INFO: https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Headers_and_footers
\pagestyle{fancy} % Turn on the style
% Change the page header style
% NOTE: Some pages are still displaying with a bad header.
% Also, want to right-align odd/even page headers.
\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{\markboth{\thechapter.\ #1}{}}
% Theme Stuff %%%%%%%%%%%
\definecolor{myPageColor}{rgb}{0.1, 0.1, 0.1}
\definecolor{myTextColor}{rgb}{0.8, 0.8, 0.8}
%\definecolor{myChapterColor}{rgb}{1, 0.0, 1}
%\colorlet{mySectionColor}{cyan}
\definecolor{mySectionColor}{rgb}{0.6, 0.7, 0.9}
\definecolor{mySubSectionColor}{rgb}{0.6, 0.9, 1}
\definecolor{mySubSubSectionColor}{rgb}{0.8, 0.7, 1}
\definecolor{myMathBoxColor}{rgb}{0.15, 0.15, 0.15}
\definecolor{myMathColor}{rgb}{0.3, 1, 0.3}
\definecolor{myInlineMathColor}{rgb}{0.3, 0.8, 0.3}
\definecolor{myBoxedMathColor}{rgb}{0.9, 0.9, 0.9}
\definecolor{myMathBoxEdgesColor}{rgb}{0.15, 0.15, 0.15}
\definecolor{myEmphColor}{rgb}{1, 0.6, 0.6}
\pagecolor{myPageColor}
\color{myTextColor}
\setlength{\headheight}{16pt} % Size of header font.
%\chapterfont{\color{myChapterColor}}
\sectionfont{\color{mySectionColor}}
\subsectionfont{\color{mySubSectionColor}}
\subsubsectionfont{\color{mySubSubSectionColor}}
% Draw a (non-inline) math box, left-aligned.
% Optional argument #1 is the title.
\newcommand*\Mbox[2][]{
\\begin{tcolorbox}\[math,colback=myMathBoxColor,colframe=gray!30!myMathBoxEdgesColor,title={#1}\] \\color{myBoxedMathColor}#2 \\end{tcolorbox}% }
% Draw a (non-inline) math box, centered.
% Optional argument #1 is the title.
\newcommand*\Mboxc[2][]{%
\\begin{tcolorbox}\[ams align\*,colback=myMathBoxColor,colframe=gray!30!black,title={#1}\]#2\\end{tcolorbox}% }
% Add emphasis to text.
\newcommand*\Memph[1]{
\\textcolor{myEmphColor}{#1} }
\newcommand*\Mi[2][myInlineMathColor]{{\color{#1}$#2$}}
% Change the color of the math expressions.
%\everymath{\color{myMathColor}}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Start the actual document structure.
\begin{document}
% The title page stuff.
\begin{titlepage}
\\begin{center} \\huge\\textbf{Mathematics}\\\\ \\large\\textit{A Compendium}\\\\ \\vspace{2mm} \\scriptsize{May 7, 2023} - \\today \\end{center} \\vspace\*{\\stretch{2.0}} \end{titlepage}
\large
\pagenumbering{roman}
\tableofcontents
\include{Introduction.tex}
\include{Fundamentals.tex}
\include{SetTheory.tex}
\include{Algebra.tex}
\include{Trigonometry.tex}
\include{Formulas.tex}
\end{document}
2024.05.19 06:08 SpezNc Which team name and logo for new WNBA Toronto Franchise?
Let’s brainstorm.
I have generated with the AI App “AI Chatbot” / “chat GPT” some ideas for logos around colours Black, white , blue and purple . It’s just a brainstorm to generate discussion.
I particularly like the name Toronto Rebels or Bandits with a raccoon. Also that animal scream Toronto.
Don’t hesitate to bring more names or suggest colour palette or logos ideas.
Colors : Blue, Purple, black and white
Names ideas :
-Toronto Rebels -Toronto Talons (could be too close to Raptors ?) -Toronto Towers -Toronto Heroes -Toronto Ice -Toronto Huskies (maybe we should start from scratch and be more creative) -Toronto Snowbirds -Toronto Sirens -Toronto North Stars -Toronto Vixens (could be controversial though) -Toronto Polar Bears -Toronto Icons (found the idea in another Reddit post ) -Toronto Eclipse -Toronto North -Toronto Blizzard -Toronto Aurora -Toronto Vortex -Toronto Dragons -Toronto Sting
Many more names to consider .
Other colours theme could be Blue, Silver and white
Discuss !
submitted by SpezNc to wnba [link] [comments]
I have generated with the AI App “AI Chatbot” / “chat GPT” some ideas for logos around colours Black, white , blue and purple . It’s just a brainstorm to generate discussion.
I particularly like the name Toronto Rebels or Bandits with a raccoon. Also that animal scream Toronto.
Don’t hesitate to bring more names or suggest colour palette or logos ideas.
Colors : Blue, Purple, black and white
Names ideas :
-Toronto Rebels -Toronto Talons (could be too close to Raptors ?) -Toronto Towers -Toronto Heroes -Toronto Ice -Toronto Huskies (maybe we should start from scratch and be more creative) -Toronto Snowbirds -Toronto Sirens -Toronto North Stars -Toronto Vixens (could be controversial though) -Toronto Polar Bears -Toronto Icons (found the idea in another Reddit post ) -Toronto Eclipse -Toronto North -Toronto Blizzard -Toronto Aurora -Toronto Vortex -Toronto Dragons -Toronto Sting
Many more names to consider .
Other colours theme could be Blue, Silver and white
Discuss !