With all the (deserved) hype surrounding marketing automation, is no wonder that many companies, startups especially, are adding the technology as a key component to their marketing activities. Problem is, sometimes the rush to get the software installed and running ends up trampling the creation of processes, content planning, and other key ingredients that are necessary for a successful marketing automation implementation.
But let's say you got approval and have purchased the marketing automation software of your dreams. Now what? Before you jump into it head first and spend countless hours setting up all the landing pages, workflows, and start messing with scoring models it's best to take a step back and make sure you and all your team are in sync. So here's a quick "getting started" guide that looks at the marketing automation implementation process from a 10,000 foot view and gets you ready to used what will become your most important lead generation engine.
What is a lead (and expand it to include MQL, SQL, SAL and any other relevant lead stages)?
What does the sales and marketing funnels look like?
How and in which stage will marketing hand leads off to sales?
Will leads be saved to the CRM or will they stay in the MA solution until they are qualified?
How will marketing get feedback from sales?
If you don't have your buyer personas documented yet, now is a good time to get started. Make sure to validate with sales and other relevant departments. The personas will help drive your content marketing efforts and your lead nurturing programs.
Conduct a content marketing audit and have an inventory of your marketing assets. Content drives marketing automation, so the best starting point is to understand what you already have. You can then start leveraging those assets with your marketing automation solution while you and your team craft new content.
Plug the resulting content inventory into a matrix containing the buyer personas and the sales cycle (different lead stages). The resulting spreadsheet or matrix will show you gaps you have in your content plan and also which content will be used in which stage for which type of buyer. This is the framework you will need for your nurturing campaigns.
Lead scoring is a tool that requires constant refinement and that will become a key element in helping you track your leads through the funnel. Scoring will require involvement of sales, and of understanding what piece of content or which demographical information from your prospect is more relevant when qualifying a lead. You can automate the sending of emails all day long but unless you have a thought-out scoring model you won't be using the MA system to its full potential. You can go back to that content marketing matrix you created earlier and start plugging scores for the different types of content, or use it to guide conversation with sales on how to score leads.
Sure, during the vendor presentation the integration between CRM and the marketing automation solution was shown as seamless and easy. If you have the standard flavor of Salesforce.com with no customizations or if you are a startup just beginning to make use of the CRM system, then integration won't be a problem. For other companies where the CRM system has been extensively customized, or if you already had different ways (screens, triggers, etc.) of managing your leads then you need to make sure that the marketing automation software won't mess things up especially with how your sales team operates (another great reason to involve sales early in the process). Basically, make sure you understand how the integration works and how leads will be synced to the CRM and what the feedback loop looks like.
You can't wait to get started, and that's fine, but think ahead and create a short-term versus long-term plan. There are many things you can start doing right now, such as working on the registration pages and ensuring all web-based content is being captured by the MA system, leveraging existing marketing assets and start creating simple nurturing campaigns, and take advantage of events and other marketing programs that are around the corner and get your marketing automation system to support them.
As you get started using marketing automation, don't forget to go back to the content marketing grid or matrix you created and plan for the future. What types of content do you need to create? What messages make sense based on different buyer stages and personas? Map out more complex nurturing flows based on different types of customers, products, and behaviors. Rinse and repeat.


A federal judge in Montana has once again blocked construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline in an effort to allow more time to study the project's potential environmental impact. The project is being built by the Calgary based energy company Trans-Canada and is expected to cost an estimated $8 billion. The pipeline would run through northern Montana, mostly west river South Dakota and down to Texas, transporting tarsands oil.


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In-form Islamabad United continued their comeback with a thumping six-wicket win over Quetta Gladiators to lift the inaugural Pakistan Super League title before a packed Dubai stadium on Tuesday.
Opener Dwayne Smith hit a rampaging 51-ball 73 and Brad Haddin notched a brilliant 39-ball 61 not out to help Islamabad overhaul a challenging 175-run target in 18.4 overs.
Quetta had threatened to post a big total with Kumar Sangakkara's 32-ball 55 and Ahmed Shehzad's 39-ball 64 to post 174-7 after they were put into bat on a flat pitch.
But Islamabad were on a roll as they won their fifth match in succession including the last two league games, eliminator, play-off and the final much to the delight of their motivator legendary Pakistan paceman Wasim Akram.
Smith and Haddin punished the Quetta bowlers who had no answer to the West Indian-Australian company who added 85 for the second wicket. That followed Islamabad's quick start of 54 in 5.4 overs with Sharjeel Khan scoring only 13.
Smith, who hit seven fours and four sixes, departed with just 36 needed and it was left to Khalid Latif who smashed three boundaries to bring down the target to two runs. It was befittingly the skipper Misbah-ul-Haq who hit the winning single.
Haddin smashed five sixes and two boundaries in another ruthless batting display.
The winners get a glittering Cup and a cash prize of 0.5 million dollars while the runners-up fetched 0.2 million dollars.
Misbah was deligted at his team's effort.
"We staged a comeback after a few losses and the kind of resilience showed by the team is remarkable and that has made us worthy champions of the PSL," said Misbah.
Quetta were put back on track by Shehzad and Sangakkara who stitched together a 87-run stand to lift their team from 33-2, having lost Kevin Pietersen for a 17-ball 18.
Sangakkara took some time to come out of the groove, hitting a four and a six off Dwayne Smith to complete his fifty off 30 balls. He was finally dismissed in the deep off Russell who with 3-36 became the highest wicket-taker with 16.
Quetta had looked to Shehzad but he too fell in the slog overs, caught off Mohammad Sami. It was Sami who bowled a good penultimate over, conceding only a boundary.
Grant Elliott hit a last ball six to take Quetta to a respectable total.


DESCRIPTION Beautiful apartment on the first floor in one of the most exclusive areas of Venice, between Arsenale and Biennale. From this location it's possible to get to all the most interesting areas of the city. A short walk from the apartment there is Viale Garibaldi, where you can find shops and Venetian restaurants. The nearest water bus stop is Arsenale, from which you can reach Saint Mark's Square by water bus (vaporetto). The apartment consists of two bedrooms (one with a double bed and one with two twin beds) one bathroom with shower and a comfortable living room with LCD TV. The kitchen is small but very well equipped.


My friend Lisa posted a link to an amazing blog by John Pavlovitz last week. It was about the hypocrisy of white evangelicals who keep giving the serial liar and cheater in office a "mulligan" (golf term for a do-over) where they lambasted and targetted with hatred their previous Commander in Chief seemingly for simply existing. They called into question Barack Obama's religious beliefs, his motives and even - and most loudly - his citizenship.
I've been getting some odd emails and tweets in the past few weeks and they have to do with my name, but, you see, it's not my name. Let me take you back a few decades. In the 1960s, I'd never heard the name Erin on anyone but me. My grandfather had heard it on the radio (there's a coincidence) and suggested it to my parents. Being too tired to fight or come up with anything better, my mom agreed and here I am: Erin Dawn Davis.
I hope you had a good weekend and enjoyed your Victoria-like temperatures! I was so glad to see you might be thawing out a little bit. Just what you need to get you through the rest of January and then that shortest of months to follow.
I had a couple of online shopping adventures I wanted to share with you and both, I hope, are cautionary tales.
The Oscars are now just over a month away and I know we've already seen (or even ignored) all kinds of ceremonies, but the Academy Awards are the biggies, the ones they mention when you die.
As you know, Rob and I love to travel. We've been uncharacteristically anchored this year by the job I unexpectedly took on doing middays at Ocean 98.5, a position I expect to vacate within a few months as a new kind of technology slides into place. It's a great move and very exciting and, as much as having a show every day gave my life a much needed sense of normalcy in the past year, I'll be happy to be a little more untethered when it comes to hopping on a plane.
I'll start with a brief mention of yesterday's big news: the tsunami alert that was sent out across coastal BC after that massive earthquake up north of us in Alaska. There were warnings and evacuations, all of which Rob and I slept through, as we have our phones set on airplane mode. I even missed a call from Breakfast Television in Toronto (sorry Kevin and Dina)! But all is well, there was no tsunami and many people here are now questioning their emergency preparedness.
I'm still feeling a glow from that weekend in Seattle and the most surprising element of it all: the empowerment that came from joining in a sea of pink hats and clever signs and taking to the streets of a city that wasn't my own, but that welcomed Rob and me to take part in the Women's March on Saturday.
As Saturday evening came to a close and we lay in bed resting our weary feet after 15,000 steps, I said to Rob how perfect that day had been. Even had it only included making last minute plans to see a Pulitzer-nominated play (more on that later in the week) and a wonderful dinner of oysters and clams in our own hotel's restaurant, it would have been more than enough. But, by far, the best part of our Saturday in Seattle: the Women's March.
Last year, I felt as if I had truly missed out on something when I chose not to take part alongside 2,000 people in Victoria and millions around the world in a groundbreaking Women's March. Tomorrow, there's a good chance I'll at least see one, as we take a trip south of the border in search of laughter.
Once again I'm astounded at the depth and heart of the comments you posted on my Facebook page about the drug domperidone. Thank you for the shares and for helping to spread the word. If one breast feeding mother is saved, it'll be worth it.
I'm going to start today with sincere thanks for the kind words on Facebook, Twitter and in my inbox in response to yesterday's journal. I was touched by every note and I'm grateful that my message seemed to resonate with so many readers and listeners to this journal.
Now here's a message I need you to spread for me.
Did you miss it, or did you see that yesterday was Blue Monday? Sunwing even had radio ads based on it! I'm actually glad I wasn't aware of it until the day was half over; I don't need any pseudo-scientific date circling to tell me that it's the day that winter, bills, Monday itself and everything else just kind of pile on and make for a bad mood. We've got plenty to keep us blue, thanks, and all you have to do is read the news (or yesterday's journal) for some pretty significant reasons.
Imagine this: you wake up on Saturday morning in an island paradise. Perhaps the waves are crashing outside the sliding glass doors on your rented vacation condo. Maybe you live there and are grateful to see the mountains and palm trees within view of your bedroom window every day. Then an alarm goes off on your phone.
Here we are at the end of another week - the first full work week of January and 2018 - and I am reflecting on these days with you.
Part of the whole moving and settling in process that we've gone through for the past year now here in beautiful British Columbia has been finding a doctor (which seemed nearly impossible without a family referral, which we got) and a dentist. The dentist part was much easier, as I told you last fall when I was about to get on a plane to host two events in Toronto and managed to crack a front veneer.
If you are among those who pop by my public Facebook page, first off, thank you. I post daily reminders about the journal there, as well as the odd picture and comment. Last week, I managed to get quite a bit of feedback when I posted a recipe I found on HuffPo for slow cooker macaroni and cheese.
I've long been intrigued with the idea that we all have dreams - nightmares, really - involving our jobs. When I was in news, for example, I had a dream that the sounder had gone off (that tune they played when it was time to listen to a newscast), and I got into the booth with just a handful of entertainment stories. No news, just fluff. Of course, that's one of about a dozen that I'd have as my job evolved. But in every case, I was completely helpless.
First of all, welcome back if you were here last week. And, well, if you haven't checked in since December because you were taking time away from the daily routine, a great big welcome back to you, too, and Happy New Year! I did four fresh journals last week and it feels good to be at this well-worn keyboard again. Check 'em out!
As we enjoyed a lovely beef barley soup/stew this week, I was reminded how, a year ago, I'd promised Rob and myself that I'd get a little more comfortable in the kitchen in my "reWirement." That hasn't happened yet and, along with drinking more water, I'm going to be a little more dilligent in doing just that. Looking up recipes. Stepping outside my comfort zone.
One of the pieces of news to come out over the holidays, and perhaps you missed it, was the list of names of those who will be honoured this year with the Order of Canada. Among many that you know is a person I just love: Jann Arden.
This singer/songwriter from Alberta has been as much a part of the musical landscape of this country as almost anyone alive today, and yet, it's more than her multiple Junos and tremendous book sales that have made her an outstanding choice for this honour. Let me share with you a couple of personal thoughts about this woman.
It's not the way I wanted to start out a new show and a new year and yet, there I was, being accused of "fat shaming" yesterday on Facebook because of an article I posted on Ocean 98.5's page. Great.
Welcome in to a brand new year! Resolutions, anyone? Mine will be the same as last year: put down more roots, get my backside to the gym more often. Find some new challenges. Work on getting better.
I always appreciate this first week - like the days after Labour Day - as a chance to reset my sails and look to the future. Of course, it's often a time for reflection, too, which is sometimes the best way to decide how to move forward. Can't drive safely without the odd glance in the rearview mirror, can we?


If you are certain that you need a completely new door, there is a large variety for you to pick from. Be it the wooden gates or metallic people that'll function best given your garage circumstances, you can be sure that whatever the range of the repair work being performed, you find yourself with a door that meets all of the objectives you have for it.
Often, you don't also need to spend a lot of money getting a replacement for your door. As small as a new door opener may possibly be sufficient really to solve the performance problem that it gifts you with. There are numerous garage door operator alternatives for you and only the competent and skilled experts from Garage Door Repair Miami Florida are the best located to advise you on the way to go.
Also, it is essential to keep the connections of a reliable garage door repair company for a number of reasons. You might hardly ever really inform when you will have to be rescued out of some unsavoury situations. Imagine locking the garage door tips inside the garage and then not having the means to recover them! Also, a garage door opener may possibly fail to perform just out of unanticipated faults. At every one of these circumstances, it could be important that you contact on immediate crisis solutions to repair the situation.
In such activities, Anaheim Garage Door Repair can be the best answer to truly save you some reasonable time. With procedures 24 hours a day, you really do not have to stay stuck for a long time while experiencing the door all by yourself. Garage Door Repair Anaheim CA is the one end answer for a person with the desire to solve garage door problems in a cost successful and time efficient manner.


text:
Унбитрий (, Ubt) — временное систематическое название гипотетического химического элемента в группе трансурановых g-элементов-суперактиноидов в расширенном виде Периодической системы Д. И. Менделеева с временным обозначением Ubt, атомным номером123 и расчётными массами изотопов в диапазоне 297—307.

Пока существование данного химического элемента не подтверждено, его синтез исследовательскими группами не предпринимался, и IUPAC не определил таковому окончательное название. Элемент 123 представляет интерес, потому что он является частью гипотетического острова стабильности, хотя вряд ли будет обнаружен в природе.

Расчёты в 2016 и 2017 годах периодов полураспада изотопов для унбитрия показывают, что цепочки альфа-распада от его нуклидов идут через унбиуний и ведут к борию или нихонию; в частности, 304Ubt может быть синтезирован по реакции 249Bk (58Fe,3n)304Ubt с альфа-распадом через 300Ubu, 296Uue и 292Ts до известных 288Mc и 284Nh, хотя результат на выходе, вероятно, будет чрезвычайно низким.

См. также
 Остров стабильности
 Теория оболочечного строения ядра
 Магические числа (физика)

Примечания

Неоткрытые химические элементы
Суперактиноиды
Трансурановые элементы
Гипотетические химические вещества

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


It is a tough 22km with 1200m of climb and 650m of descent. Make sure you carry 1 litre of water.
It is a beautiful run that leads from Cedar Flats via the top of Northbrook Mountain and England Creek to the rainforest at the top of Mount Glorious, finishing at the clearing opposite the Maiala picnic area.


Eaters are playing a special Armonica set tonight at Magick City. This will be an improvised microtonal drone set, based around a unique Glass Armonica (a musical instrument of nested glass bowls played by friction) designed/built/performed by Christopher Duffy with Bob Jones and Jonathan Schenke on synthesizers. Dead Night and Hey Exit are also performing, doors at 8!


Maple syrup, garlic and green beans make a wonderful marinade for this slow-cooked shoulder of lamb.
Loved by some and an acquired taste by others. This liver and onion recipe is full of flavour and best served with mashed parsnip – an absolute native of the English terrain.


Wings is the things! Do you start with frozen wings? I have always baked them from frozen.
Sometimes we get them from the local Wally Mart and they may have been frozen at one time. Bake, deep fry, or grill they are all good.


Georgetown, SC - In celebration of National Nutrition Month , during March, Georgetown Hospital System Dietitians are offering free grocery store tours at local supermarkets.
The tours are offered at various times and locations throughout Georgetown and Horry counties. Tours will be held March 15 at 6 p.m. at Food Lion in Pawleys Island, March 23 at 10 a.m. at Walmart in Georgetown, March 23 at 10 a.m. at Kroger in Garden City and March 24 at 9 a.m. at Bi-Lo at the Beach, Garden City.
Tours begin in the produce section of the store and proceed through selected aisles and locations, spotlighting healthy food products and wise shopping tips.
Participants will learn how to choose foods using the Nutrition Facts Panel and basic guidelines for healthy eating.
During the tours, the dietitians will also address special diet considerations such as carbohydrate control, fat reduction, trans-fatty acids, and sodium. Stores will spotlight "GHS Dietitian approved foods" via an aisle/product label throughout the month of March as reinforcement for shoppers.
Georgetown Hospital System tours are free to the public and require only a phone call to reserve a space. Call (843) 527-7356 to participate.


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text:
Akiéni flygplats är en stängd flygplats vid staden Akiéni i Gabon. Den ligger i provinsen Haut-Ogooué, i den östra delen av landet,  km öster om huvudstaden Libreville. Akiéni flygplats ligger  meter över havet. IATA-koden är AKE. Den öppnades 1974 men har sedan dess förfallit och stängts för kommersiell trafik.

Källor

Flygplatser i Gabon
Haut-Ogooué
Flygplatser invigda 1974


text:
Bruch, Brahms & Schubert: Chamber Works
Natalia Lomeiko, Yuri Zhislin, Ivan Martin
Djesse Vol. 2
Jacob Collier
Genre: Songwriter
Grace from Persistence
Christopher James
Handel: Concerti grossi, Op. 6 Nos. 1-6
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin & Bernhard Forck
Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Complete Sonatas for Solo Viola
Viacheslav Dinerchtein
Picture This (Remastered)
Red Norvo Combo, The Second Time Around (Remastered)
The Red Norvo Combo feat. Dave McKenna, Milt Hinton, Mousey Alexander, Kenny Davern
The Warner Bros. Albums: 1970-1976 (Remastered)
Listening Tips
Free Sampler
Ambient dub
Bluesy Rock
Classic Blues
Contemporary Blues
Classical Crossover
Modern Composition
Contemporary Bluegrass
Meditation Musik
Alternative Rap
Avantgarde Jazz
Trad Jazz
Alternativo & Rock Latino
Contemporary Latin
American Trad Rock
Moderner Rock
Contemporary Folk
New Acoustic
Traditional Pop
Vocal Pop
Celtic Folk
Reflections Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev
Booklet for Reflections
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Subgenre: Instrumental
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Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943): 6 Moments Musicaux, Op.16:
1No. 1 in B Flat Minor, Andantino07:45
2No. 2 in E Flat Minor, Allegretto03:05
3No. 3 in B Minor, Andante cantabile05:09
4No. 4 in E Minor, Presto03:05
5No. 5 in D Flat Major, Adagio sostenuto04:05
6No. 6 in C Major, Maestoso04:54
Nicolai Karlovich Medtner (1880 - 1951): Forgotten Melodies Book I, Op.38:
76. Canzona serenata04:26
83. Danza festiva04:46
91. in F Sharp Major, Andante cantabile02:40
Alexander Scriabin (1871 - 1915): 2 Poèmes, Op.32:
102. in D Major, Allegro, con eleganza, con fiducia01:36
Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953): Visions fugitives, Op.22:
111. Lentamente01:15
122. Andante01:13
133. Allegretto01:06
144. Animato01:07
155. Molto giocoso00:23
166. Con eleganza00:39
177. Pittoresco02:16
188. Commodo01:17
199. Allegretto tranquillo01:10
2010. Ridiculosamente01:26
2111. Con vivacità01:06
2212. Assai moderato01:22
2313. Allegretto00:43
2414. Feroce00:57
2515. Inquieto00:58
2616. Dolente01:52
2717. Poetico01:00
2818. Con una dolce lentezza01:27
2919. Presto agitatissimo e molto accentuato00:44
3020. Lento irrealmente02:03
Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowski (1840 - 1893):
31Lullaby, Op.16, No.1 (Transcr. Rachmaninov)04:50
Tatiana Nikolayeva (1924 - 1993): 24 Concert Etudes, Op. 13:
3218. Andante sostenuto06:00
3315. Agitato01:53
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943):
34Polka de V.R.04:14
Total Runtime01:22:32
Info for Reflections
Reflections marks the first recording on Decca Classics of Russian pianist Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, second prize winner at both the 2013 Cleveland International Piano Competition and the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition.
The album features Russian classics including Rachmaninov's Moments Musicaux, Prokofiev's Visions fugitives, and pieces by Scriabin, Medtner and Tchaikovsky. Of the album, Arseny says that it is very special and precious to him, observing that "it's a bit like an old magic mirror — maybe a false one — which has seen a few generations passing by, and contains memories of all of them."
The album also pays homage to the music of Arseny's grandmother, internationally acclaimed pianist and composer Tatiana Nikolayeva.
"when I see Arseny play, the whole history of piano playing begins to unfold before me" (Gerard Willems)
"profound musicality and deeply lyrical talent... a rare treat in a musician of his young age, and we can't wait to see him grow and develop in his career" (Dr. Alexander Buhr, Decca Classics)
"the piano's ultimate aristocrat" (Cyrus Meher-Homji, Universal Music Australia)
Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, piano
Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev
studied piano from the age of four and at nine performed for the first time with the Bryansk Philharmonic Orchestra. During his school years, Arseny won five international youth piano competitions, including the New Names Competition in Moscow. In 2011, he graduated with Honours from the Central Musical School of the Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, where he studied with Professor Alexander Mndoyants. He is currently studying with Professor Sergey Dorensky at the Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory. Arseny won the 5th International Scriabin Piano Competition, was awarded 2nd prize and special prize for the performance of Russian music at the Cleveland International Piano Competition, 2nd prize at the Grieg International Piano Competition in Bergen and also at the Sydney International Piano Competition.
He has toured in Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Lithuania, Poland, Israel, Macedonia, China, Japan, USA, Mexico and other countries. Arseny has performed with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra 'Evgeny Svetlanov', the Cleveland Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra among others and has collaborated with conductors including Stanislav Kochanovsky, Stefan Sanderling, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Dimitris Botinis, Valentin Uryupin and Georg Mais. He has also played the Christmas and New Year Eve Galas with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev.
With the London Philharmonic Orchestra he will play Rachmaninov's piano concerto number 2 in London and on a UK tour as well as Beethoven's piano concerto number 5 with Sir Roger Norrington on a European tour. He will also play in recital in Australia, Japan and throughout Europe.
In 2015 Arseny recorded his first CD, which includes Debussy's first book of Préludes and L'Isle joyeuse, and Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit. His first recording for Decca Classics, for whom he records exclusively, will be released in 2018 and features works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Scriabin, Nikolaeva and Medtner.
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Studio Master: DSD (Direct-Stream Digital)
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Single or Double and the thickness of Paint Film. Double Coat paint is much superior to single coat paint.Our Pre-painted steel roofing comes with a double coat painted surface and with a paint film of 25 microns in thickness.Double coat is better than a single coat, so please insist on double coat IBR/Q-tile etc.
Copyright © 2016 Classecon Roofing. All rights reserved.


text:
Changes to UK farming under unmitigated climate change
This paper models the changes in vegetation and agricultural land use that might be expected if action is not taken to mitigate climate change. Temperatures in the UK would increase by around 5.4°C in the growing season and 4.7°C out of the growing season by the end of the century. The growing season would become drier by around 37% and the non-growing season would become 7% wetter, with drying being less pronounced in the north of the UK than the rest of the country.
Climate trends/projections
GHG impacts and mitigation
The paper assumes that future climate change proceeds according to the RCP8.5 scenario, where there is an increasing global population, slow economic growth, high greenhouse gas emissions from coal use, and an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 936 ppm by 2100 (levels are 410 ppm as of November 2019, the time of writing).
The types of farming that would be viable would change differently across the UK. Currently, the south-east of the UK is predominantly farmed as arable land, while the west and north, being cooler and wetter, are used as grassland to rear livestock.
Under unmitigated climate change, arable land would advance to the west because of the hotter and drier growing season, but some existing arable land would become too dry to grow crops and could change to grassland. However, if additional irrigation were to be supplied to farms in the south east, arable areas in the south east could be preserved. The authors note that predicted water demand for irrigation (~200 mm per growing season) is large compared to annual runoff (which indicates water availability) in the south east (200-400 mm).
The impact of climate change on vegetation including agricultural production has been the focus of many studies. Climate change is expected to have heterogeneous effects across locations globally, and the diversity of land uses characterising Great Britain (GB) presents a unique opportunity to test methods for assessing climate change effects and impacts. GB is a relatively cool and damp country, hence, the warmer and generally drier growing season conditions projected for the future are expected to increase arable production. Here we use state-of-the-art, kilometre-scale climate change scenarios to drive a land surface model (JULES; Joint UK Land Environment Simulator) and an ECOnometric AGricultural land use model (ECO-AG). Under unmitigated climate change, by the end of the century, the growing season in GB is projected to get >5 °C warmer and 140 mm drier on average. Rising levels of atmospheric CO2 are predicted to counteract the generally negative impacts of climate change on vegetation productivity in JULES. Given sufficient precipitation, warming favours higher value arable production over grassland agriculture, causing a predicted westward expansion of arable farming in ECO-AG. However, drying in the East and Southeast, without any CO2 fertilisation effect, is severe enough to cause a predicted reversion from arable to grassland farming. Irrigation, if implemented, could maintain this land in arable production. However, the predicted irrigation demand of ~200 mm (per growing season) in many locations is comparable to annual predicted runoff, potentially demanding large-scale redistribution of water between seasons and/or across the country. The strength of the CO2 fertilisation effect emerges as a crucial uncertainty in projecting the impact of climate change on GB vegetation, especially farming land-use decisions.
Ritchie, P., Harper, A., Smith, G., Kahana, R., Kendon, E.J., Lewis, H., Fezzi, C., Vega, S.H., Boulton, C., Bateman, I. and Lenton, T., 2019. Large changes in Great Britain's vegetation and agricultural land-use predicted under unmitigated climate change. Environmental Research Letters, 14(11).
Read the full paper here. See also the Foodsource building block What is land use and land use change?
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Many of you ask me for advice about starting your own blog and I try to give quick tips here and there as best as I can, but today I thought it would be great to share an entire post dedicated to starting your own blog. You probably already have a few ideas in mind for names and content, but if you're feeling completely lost don't worry because we're here to help! The main thing I want to show you today is how simple it is to set up a platform to publish your content. There are many different platforms to choose from, but today we're going to discuss Squarespace because it's the platform we use and in my opinion is the easiest and most seamless. So let's get started!
Hopefully you're reading this post because you already have the key components of starting a blog - like a name and a niche. Although you can change these at anytime, it's important to try to find something permanent that you'll love forever - especially because you don't want to confuse your audience by constantly changing things up and it can get costly to buy new domains - so pick name a stick to it.
Squarespace makes it super simple to search for and buy domains. Check to see if yours is available here. You can then purchase your domain following the steps below once you've signed up for your account.
Pro tip: do a quick social media search to ensure you can have the same name on any platforms you want to use. Our best advice? Keep it simple and easy to spell (a lifesaver).
Squarespace has a variety of templates available. Our favorites are Five (currently using), Farro (great for high quality imagery), Avenue (for simple galleries) and Anya (great for seamless scrolling on one page) - all gorgeous and easy to customize to your liking.
Your header is essentially the first impression. It's the first thing visitors see when they enter your site so consider it very important. You'll want to make sure it's branded with either your logo or site title and easy to navigate. If you have a custom logo, you can upload it here or choose to stay with the matching font of your template. We chose to use our logo that also include the name our website.
You think about your navigation in terms of the topics you want to cover so that your readers can easily find your content. You can see how we've broken out our navigation into Food & Drink, Travel, Living, and more. If you decide to add footer navigation, make sure you replicate the main header so the two match in order.
People like to know who are they reading about and engaging with. Your About Me page will introduce you to readers and should give a bit of background information on you. You can combine your About Me page with a Contact page or keep them separate. We've done it both ways, but have them broken out into separate pages right now. Choose whichever way you prefer to do it - combining helps declutter your site navigation.
If you haven't noticed, blogging is all about connecting and engaging with other people so you'll want to make it easy for readers to find your social channels. Instagram will likely be your biggest channel so make you start with that account. Place your social handles at the top near your header and in your sidebar or footer if you're template has either. Squarespace makes it easy to set up connections, just watch this video if you need additional help.
This is the moment you've been waiting for. Head to the blog section under your "Pages" and click the "+" symbol add your first post. We'll use our post "The REAL Cost of Buying a Home" as an example.
I always leave a text box at the top of every post because it changes the format, but play around with it and decide what you like best. At the top of each post I recommend always using a main image that has a text overlay featuring the post title - this will come in handy in the future when you want to pin your posts and when readers begin to pin your posts! You can use Canva to easily add text overlays to your images if you don't have photoshop.
You can add tags and categories to help readers find your posts and to make it easier when you want to add "Summary Blocks" to share specific content across your home page or even other blog posts.
Additionally, you can enter into the "options" tab to customize your content further. I regularly use the Post URL box to make sure my URL dates match the post publish dates whenever I have draft content going live or am pushing previously scheduled content live. You can also choose to feature content, which will also come in handy when using "Summary Blocks" on your homepage.
Pro tip: Before pushing your blog live, make sure have 5 - 10 posts up to keep readers engaged. You can write these all at once and use the options tab to change the dates in the URL so they seem more authentically published. We recommend building out your content log even further and using the "draft" or "schedule" options so you always have a backlog of content ready.
You should think of your template as a guide to designing your blog rather than letting it stand as is. While no two blogs are ever the same, you can make yours stand our even more by tweaking the template and adding your own elements. Don't stress out about this too much, trust me you will end up changing things around throughout the years, but keep it in mind.
We added a sidebar to all of our pages that includes the social media handles, newsletter sign up, archives, our pinterest board and more. Check to see if your template included a sidebar, otherwise you will have to play around with your home page and manually create one yourself.
We used a "Summary Block" on the home page to showcase our most recent posts using the "featured post" filter I mentioned earlier. You can do a lot with the "Summary Block" feature so it's important to use tags and categories accurately so that you can easily group your content together. The block below the featured post on our homepage also a "Summary Block" that automatically pulls in our most recent posts.
If you've read our "How To Make Money Blogging" post then you may have noticed the "Additional Resources" summary block at the bottom - this is where tagging and categories come into play and become a life saver! I have tagged every resource post with "resource" and created a summary block that automatically pulls in each article using the tags option. This has made it super easy for my readers to navigate to other posts that they may find helpful.
We hope you enjoyed this guide on how to start a blog using Squarespace. If you have additional questions, feel free to contact us here. You can find additional resources below.
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Being the most beautiful of them all is not hard with this stunning fabric, the classic pink rose and green leaf print on the pleated skirt and the contrast of the ruched bust is simply perfect for any and all occasions that may call for a dress.
From Lady Vintage's fabulous new spring collection is the Madison dress.
This gorgeous dress is make from an original pattern from the 1950's with a modern twist.
97% cotton & 3% elastine. From the shoulder to the bottom of the skirt is approximately 41.5 inches in length.


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A note from Gogglesbear
Woot woot, longest chapter yet! New record.
"No worries," *BAM* "It doesn't seem too dangerous," *BANG* "It's only the one after all." *CRASH*
"It sounds like an elephant in a china shop! And it's doing the macarena!"
Elephant? Macarena?
"Nicole, believe me, its fine. I know how to deal with rats if I have to." *WHAM*
"Says the guy who had to be saved from them."
"There was over forty of them!" *THUD*
The weird multi-armed torso-rat definitely wasn't the most agile thing around, but it was plenty strong. It must have smelled something it wanted further down the hall, because now it was chasing the entire crowd of civilians in front of it to try and get past them. Whenever it caught up to a person it would grab them with it's eight arms, sniff them while they screamed, and then throw them angrily to the side. Definitely still hunting mutants.
I was blending in with the panicked crowd, waiting for a good moment to slip away. I had absolutely no interest in getting pulled into a fight right now, not in such a public setting. There would be guards coming to deal with this soon, and even I could predict that the heroes might show for an emergency at the hospital. Being arrested right now was not appealing in the slightest.
The rat grabbed a woman, sniffed her (she screamed), and threw her to the side. The crowd of people was starting to thin a bit as people ran down side corridors or were knocked to the floor, but then a dull roar down one of the intersecting hallways had some of the humans running back into the main crowd. That was bad.
A second stitched-creature appeared from the intersecting corridor, this one with an intact mutant man's body that had a chitinous carapace, but with a nessie's neck and a rat's head. The two joined up and continued chasing the crowd.
Hmm, if I was gauging their behavior correctly…
*SKREEEEKKKiiikkiikikik*
Yup. A third stitch-creature was flanking the crowd from the next intersection. They might be heavily modified, but the stitch-creatures were still using rat hunting tactics. Both myself and the crowd were being herded.
Idiotic. They were going to herd a bunch of panicked civilians into a constricted space! During Odd Summer! There was well over five thousand people at this hospital, easily enough for at least one to trigger. Some more level-headed people in the crowd were trying to keep things under control, keeping others from being trampled and so forth, but it was only a matter of time before someone got truly hurt, and then the real panic would set in. Considering the circumstances, there was a good chance any resulting trigger would be a violent one. I didn't want to be around for that.
"Hey Nicole? I'm gonna have to call you back."
"What!? A-alright, but call me back when you're safe!"
"I will."
I hung up the phone, resolving to alter my version of events a bit when I retold them to her later. There was absolutely no way I was letting Nicole know I got herded by rats a second time.
Let's see, I had to make this look as normal as possible and get it done quick. The best thing would be to get something large and heavy to bludgeon the rats with. Avoid making them bleed, humans panic at the sight of blood.
I spotted a fire suppression canister in a case embedded into the wall. Shoving my way past a few running people, I grabbed the tab on the case that said "LIFT HERE" and wrenched the lid off. Then I grabbed the canister. It wasn't as heavy as I would have liked, but it was solid, and if Mikey's horror movies were any indication, bashing something's brains in with a fire suppression canister was common enough to not panic the crowd.
I slowed down and let people run past me. The two stitched-creatures approached, and I angled for the one with the long neck. Just a bit further…
The stitched-creature came in range and I swung the canister at its head. The metal canister slammed into the underside of the long-necked creature's chin, throwing its head up in a wide arch and breaking its jaw. The head flopped backwards over its own shoulder, and a moment later the rest of the creature followed, toppling onto the floor. It didn't try to get up.
Huh. That was easier than expected.
The eight-armed creature blinked in confusion at the sudden absence of its partner, before attempting another hiss-bellow and swinging its arms at me. I ducked underneath the first swing, but with eight arms it was able to land hits through sheer numbers. I couldn't dodge all of them while appearing human, and eventually three of its arms grabbed my sides. It attempted to lift me up and throw me…
...and failed. I was simply too heavy for it, and with an entire eight-armed torso crudely grafted to the front of a rat body, its center of balance was terribly placed for heavy lifting. Its hindquarters lifted off the ground before I did, and I used its resulting moment of confusion to slam it in the face with the canister. Once, twice, and then it roughly shoved me away to spare itself more head trauma.
The rat thing covered its head with its arms, trying to get its bearings, before suddenly flailing and roaring. I was about to step in for another attempt when a shoe flew over my shoulder and bounced off the rat-creature's torso. It didn't do any damage, but the rat paused to watch the boot hit the floor.
I turned to find that several humans had started to grab anything they could to arm themselves. Boxes, medical equipment, the one human who took off her boots and had already thrown the first. One especially large man had dumped the medicine off a metal trolley, and was lifting the whole thing over his head to brace it for use as a bludgeoning object. This human ran forward and slammed the trolley onto the rat, unbalancing both of them. While he recovered, other humans began throwing their objects, or directly hit the rat with their makeshift weapons if they were feeling brave.
The third rat-creature that had tried to flank the crowd wasn't doing any better. The humans near it had also gathered weapons (one had somehow found a metal baseball bat), and proceeded to beat it to death in short order. That one hadn't had any real protective enhancements, and didn't last nearly as long as the eight-armed rat.
Very interesting behavior from the humans. I did not expect them to turn on the rat-creatures in such a manner. Most civilians I encountered always ran, and I had assumed it their default behavior in dangerous situations. My successful attack on the rat-creatures must have galvanized the crowd into going on the offensive. Indeed, the rat-creatures didn't really have any weapons beyond physical strength, and it wasn't like three rat-creatures outnumbered such a large crowd. It had only taken a visual example of seeing one human prevail to make the group realize an alternate (and better) method of survival existed. I'd definitely have to remember this tactic for next time.
The crowd slowly started to filter back towards the exits, some of them clutching their weapons while checking around corners, others helping those who had trouble walking due to injury or just frayed nerves. A few of the more proactive humans did that weird ritual where they hit my shoulder, and congratulated me on my martial prowess, or on the size of my 'testicles' (I'd never even bothered forming them, a waste of resources). Confusing.
As the crowd walked out I passed by the corpse of the third rat-creature. It had been more or less pulped, nothing more than a red pile of meat with no real features. Technically the rat-creatures were much stronger than any one human, even most mutants, but the combined might of the human crowd hadn't been a force the rat-creature could overcome. A good reminder of the lesson I learned with the yellow-fur. There was a reason 'weak' humans were at the apex of this world.
Yes, I'd definitely have to remember this tactic. How brutally effective it was, and how quickly they turned on a monster.
Escaping the hospital hadn't been difficult after the crowd killed the rat-creature. The guards had managed to subdue a decent number of the ones they came across, and when Turbo arrived at the scene he searched the hospital and ended the last few pockets of fighting in short order. Brilla was forced to move the van long before he came, due to some of the rat-creatures trying to get at Gregor, so at the very least they weren't at the scene when the hero arrived. I on the other hand, got stuck in the police debriefing afterwards.
I answered some innocuous questions about events inside, and assured a harried EMT that I was fine before they left me alone. In the crowd of civilians and police, I gleaned whatever information I could from the questions police and medical personnel asked, as well as the 'chatter' over their radios.
Twenty-five people missing, two critically injured and mutating, and one man dead after he tried to protect his young mutant daughter from a rat-creature. The rat-creatures had arrived using sewer tunnels around the hospital, and had broken a hole in the floor of the morgue to facilitate their escape with their 'cargo' (a shame I couldn't follow, but Nicole would never have been able to reach the tunnels under the hospital in time to escort me).
All things considered, it wasn't the worst outcome. No triggers had occurred, and the rat-creatures hadn't been able to break into the mutavus treatment ward because of the already higher than normal security. My biggest problem was that I needed to call a taxi in order to get to the mall and buy cinnabons. The other minions couldn't risk staying with the hero around, so they had left after confirming I was fine.
After a brief stop at the mall, I arrived at Manchineel St. and paid the taxi driver. Then I climbed down the sewer entrance with my bag of cinnabons, making sure to dodge Mr. Chonker's half-hearted lunge and bonk him once. Eventually he'd learn to stop. Then I was almost running around the bend to get to Nicole's. I was terribly late for our established meeting time, by a whole hour and thirteen minutes.
Up ahead I spotted Nicole. I had called her after I left the hospital and let her know that I was safe. She had been worried about still going on our outing after what had just happened, but I assured her that I wasn't at all tired from the ordeal, and, in fact, was more eager than ever to begin exploring the tunnels.
"Hey Nicole, sorry I'm late, but I brought the cinnabons. I made sure to get more than one like you asked," I handed the bag of cinnabons to one of her smaller mandible claws.
Several of her eyes blinked, "You just got attacked by Frankenstein rat monsters and you're worried about cinnabons? Are you sure you didn't get hit on the head?"
"It was only a glancing blow. I'm fine I assure you."
"A-are you joking?"
"...Yes?"
I heard mumbling coming from Nicole's den. It sounded like she was talking to herself. Human's did that sometimes, although I hadn't quite figured out why.
"So are you ready to go Nicole?"
One of her claws clacked, and she fell into silence. She was avoiding looking at me again. The silence stretched onwards.
"Is something wrong Nicole?"
"...um. It's just… well…"
"I'm sorry the cinnabons aren't warm, but they didn't have a container to keep the heat in."
"It's not the cinnabons!" she said. Then she let out a big sigh, "It's just that… I don't like people looking at me..."
Confusion. She hadn't seemed bothered by it up until now.
"Oh. Then have I offended you?"
"What? No!"
"Cause I've been looking at you when we talk."
"That's not what I meant!" she yelled. I waited while she gathered her thoughts.
"Tofu, you're the only person I've met in years that doesn't look at me in terror."
Well, that wasn't quite true (I was rather terrified when I first met her) but I decided to remain silent about that.
"I don't want that to change…" she trailed off.
Well, that wouldn't be a problem. While I didn't have complete control of my emotions, I did have complete and utter control of my facial expressions. If she needed for that to not happen, then I could do that.
"I promise that will never happen Nicole."
Her eyes finally focused back on me, but she didn't say anything.
"...Do you want to call it off?" I asked. I really hoped she didn't decide to call it off.
And then she began to exit her den.
The first 'segment' of Nicole's body was her head. It was reminiscent of a scorpion's head, but heavily armored, and her eight eyes were placed in a semicircle along the top half of her skull. The first two eyes faced forward, and were the most like a human's eyes; they had pupils, but the coloration was still uniformly dull gray to match her carapace, no visible iris. From there, a second pair was placed to either side of the first, this pair with no visible pupils. Next was a third pair that had strange pupils with an almost crosshair-like structure, and finally on either side of her head were the biggest pair, which were fully compound eyes. I recognized the compund structure from my research into insects and scorpions. All the eyes besides the large compound ones could blink, and rotate independently in their sockets.
I would have loved to know how her brain coordinated all the different visual inputs. I still had trouble with more than four eyes, let alone using differing designs. Mutavus had created a truly elegant design here.
The bottom half of her face was taken up by her mouth. The top half was part of her skull like with a human's, but the lower 'mandible' could split in two, and was formed by a modified set of pedipalps. Both pedipalps were tipped by small, claw-like 'hands', composed of three 'fingers'. Although stubby, I had seen her deftly manipulate a smartphone screen with those fingers, as well as rip a rat's head off with them when it came too close to her face.
Oh, and her mouth could spit acid. An important detail.
The second segment of her body was where her main claws were attached. Both claws were large and armored, and while not truly sharp, were easily strong enough to shear a medium sized rat's body in half without effort. Together, the two claws were large enough to block half a sewer tunnel by themselves. It was almost like she was wielding two vault doors instead of claws. Impressive considering the rather thin 'arms' they were attached to.
Past her claws the segments became rather uniform. Each sported a pair of multi-jointed legs that stuck out from the sides, and ended in a two-clawed 'foot'. The joints themselves were odd, being a mishmash of human bone and arachnid exoskeleton, which resulted in a combination of ball-socket joints, and reversible joints that could easily change direction. The resulting legs looked almost too thin to support her weight, but mutavus had obviously found a way, as she practically glided out of her den, completely silent. Likely she'd be comfortable walking or crawling through a tunnel even if she had to do it upside-down or backwards.
All counted, there were twelve leg segments, which gave her twenty-four legs, and plenty of weight, and muscle, and leverage to easily handle her claw-heavy front end. I estimated that her total weight was actually around twenty-five tons, a bit higher than my previous estimate (although I would never tell her that, humans apparently found it rude).
And then came the tail. Here, mutavus had outdone itself. I could see the perfection in its design. For about twenty feet past the last segment, extended a tail made from (if I was interpreting this right) braided cables of muscle. The outermost layer of muscles were like overlapping ribbons, and seemed to be made out of a flexible carapace composite (how?!), but when the tail flexed and coiled, I could see hints of the stronger cable muscles beneath. They likely extended all the way through her body, acting as an anchor for her muscular system in place of a spine. If I was right, this was how Nicole was strong enough to wield two giant claws like knives, and how such thin legs could support her weight. Mutavus had created some kind of hyper-strong, flexible muscle tissue! Envy!
Compared to all that, Nicole's core unit was somewhat… disappointing.
It was attached to the end of her tail, and looked entirely like the upper half of a normal human. One head with the normal accompaniment of sensory organs (straight hair tied back in a ponytail), and two arms with one hand each (five fingers). I assumed the rest of her torso was also in order, but I couldn't see it since she was wearing a black t-shirt, as well as well-used, heavy-duty overalls that ended in a many-pocketed 'skirt' around her waist (filled with tools I noted). The only abnormalities were her tail that connected to her lower body somewhere under her skirt, and the fact that her pigmentation was uniformly dark gray to match the rest of her carapace, even her eyes, nails, and hair. If it weren't for that she might have been any other young human woman. Her human torso didn't have any extra carapace, or scales, or claws, or spines, or anything else I could see. Too bad, but the parts that had mutated more than made up for that weakness. At least now I knew for certain why she always saved food "for later." Her acid-spitting mouth probably didn't have taste buds, and that was one of the best parts about eating.
Nicole had a duffel bag hanging over one shoulder, and she nervously fiddled with the tools in her skirt pockets despite the fact I could see they were all arranged neatly. She kept glancing at me and then back at her tools, before finally saying, "Well?"
"Well what?"
The tension drained out of her posture (if having her core unit exposed made her that nervous I'd need to get her some armor. I knew I always felt better when my core was in my helmet).
She made a nervous chuckle, and then smiled.
"Let's get going."
"I dunno Abe. This looks sketchy as fuck," said Blake. He stared down into the lightless hole in the floor and spat.
"It is. But we've got a detailed description of what we're hunting, and over two dozen son's of bitches who need help and fast. Clock's ticking."
"So why don't they get a fucking cape in here. We're pest control, not caped crusaders."
"The only guy who could've had to leave. Some situation up north."
"Pah, bullshit. Just doesn't want to risk his own hide."
"Maybe, or maybe there really was another emergency. Whole sector's only got three capes, they're stretched thin."
"Three? Fuck. I hate working east sectors."
"Everyone does, but look on the bright side, we're getting paid double plus a bounty on each civi we rescue and rat we bag."
"Can't spend money if we're dead," said Blake. He spat another loogie down the hole and frowned when he couldn't hear a splat.
"We're also authorized to use the big guns."
Blake turned away from his staring contest with the abyss and raised a questioning brow at Abe.
"Yup. Guess the sector mayor or some other big-wig wants this shit dealt with. They even offered to restock all the ammo we use."
"Well shit Abe. Why didn't you just say so? Let's bag us some rats!"
The two men turned away from the hole in the floor of the morgue, and headed for one of the loading docks where the hospital received deliveries. Two vans and a large semi-truck were rolling in, all of them with the company's logo emblazoned across their side; the silhouette of a vampire, with a red circle and slash "No" symbol covering it.
The vans unloaded six people each, and including the drivers and support crew, that brought the group assembled here to twenty people. Abe and Blake had started as a small, two-man squad after leaving the service, and they had slowly grown their company into one of the better respected (read: expensive) extermination crews in the city, despite their small size. Vampires, banshees, illegal pets that had triggered and grown to monstrous size, you name it they had hunted it. Frankenstein rats was a new one for them though, so they had called everyone in.
"Yo boss, what's the big hullabaloo? I thought we were hunting vampires?" said one of the new arrivals.
"New plan," said Abe, "Some asshole has been making Frankenstein monsters out of rats, kidnapped a bunch of people and then fled into the sewer. We're being paid for each civi we get back and each monster we put down."
There were surprised stares and worried murmurs at that. Rescuing kidnap victims? From a villain? That was a job for heroes, or maybe the police.
"Calm your tits," growled Blake, with a sly grin on his face, "we get to break out the bolters."
"And the client's picking up the ammo tab."
At that proclamation there were some cheers. They got to use the bolters? Then the job was as good as done, they just needed to save a few civi's from overgrown rat monsters and collect their check at the end. Probably get a damn medal for it too, please and thank you.
The back of the semi-truck was opened up, and reinforced cases full of equipment were pulled out, including the two large crates with the warning labels (not because of the contents, but because if you touched them without permission Blake would rip you a new one). The hunters that opened them did so almost reverently, revealing the contents that were sacred to anyone who had ever been on the wrong end of too many claws and fangs.
"Kruger370 automatic, smooth-lock, portable hand-held heavy-bolters. Delivered straight to our unworthy hands from heaven's very own gun assembly line, also known as New Dawn Inc's factory number seven."
There were four bolters total. Not enough for everyone who'd be going down into the tunnels, but enough to ventilate anything that challenged the group four times over. The portable version of heavy bolters could only use lightning rounds, but that was all you really needed. Designed to penetrate armor and lodge in flesh, the rounds were charged by the gun, and would discharge their payload to burn deep, a necessity when the vast majority of triggered animals wound up with regeneration as a power (the guns also had a stun setting, but who the hell ever used that). The only problem with them was the possibility of stray rounds, which put bolters under even heavier restrictions than normal weaponry. A single round wouldn't always kill unless it hit the right spot (but it would put them down, New Dawn Inc. guarantee*), and the mutations that occured due to a lightning round wound… well, they tended to be nasty.
"Alright gather round you punks," yelled Blake, as people finished gearing up, "Time to see what you're working with."
Abe waited for the group to assemble, and then pulled the tarp off a pile in the dock to reveal the body of one of the stitch-creatures that had assaulted the hospital. Several people recoiled at the sight of it, and expletives were used liberally.
"Yeah, yeah. It's big and ugly, but that's about it. No special abilities or powers to worry about, and they're none too bright either. Most of the ones they put down were beaten to death by hospital guards, so a few bullets or a bolt will put them down right quick. One of the head doctors did a look-over, and it's likely that the super responsible is a puppeteer, not a tinker, so all we gotta do is pop them and the whole circus goes with them. Oh, and remember to check your lines of fire, all the kidnap victims were mutants. Even if they don't have armbands: check first! I don't need to lose a several thousand dollar bonus because ya'll were trigger happy."
The group set about making final preparations for the rescue mission. There were communications to set up, and they needed to make sure the hole was a viable access point. Some of the hunters were already done gearing up, and were gathered around the corpse. Partly to discuss tactics to use against other stitch-creatures, but mostly just to prod at it and talk shit.
"So the poor blokes got stapled to a rat. Ain't that the shit."
"Man, have some respect."
"How many of em do you think there are?"
"Don't really matter. Tight corridors, four bolters? There could be a hundred and we'd be fine."
One of the newer hunters, a guy named Tidus, nervously toed the corpse with his boot, "Are all of these parts mutant? Some of it looks off, besides the rat I mean."
"Might be some alligator mixed in, it is a sewer after all," said an older member of the group. Some of the group members chuckled. "Hey, I'm not kidding. There was that one guy with the green ooze downtown. They caught him dumping gator babies and turtles n' shit into a sewer with the stuff. Took a week to hunt it all down."
"So you've been in the tunnels before?" asked Tidus.
"I have indeed," said the veteran hunter, "Once back in S3 with the aforementioned gator babies, another time in N6 with a rogue vampire."
"What are the tunnels like? I've heard stories."
"Bah. Course you have, I just told you 'bout the gator babies. Mostly they're just smelly. Trust me kid, we might run into some vampires or a gator or whatever, but that's what we got the bolters for. Besides these ugly beasties," he kicked the corpse, "the worst we'll see is some big rats."
"Stay close, the rats are the least of our worries down here… not that close!"
She shoved Tofu to the side, and then immediately remembered that wasn't exactly socially appropriate. He hadn't actually been too close, but her personal bubble had grown over the last three years since she mutated, and her social skills were pretty rusty. Luckily, Tofu remained unfazed as ever, and ignored her social faux pas.
"I've been meaning to ask about that," said Tofu, "Everyone keeps telling me that the tunnels are dangerous, but the only dangerous thing I've encountered are rats."
"That's because you've spent most of your time in the sewers, they're the safest part. The section between us and the surface is dangerous because that's where all the understructure for the city is, and below us is dangerous because that's where all the organic life hides."
"That's where the rats come from?"
"No, they're scavengers. They nest near the surface so they can raid it for garbage. They're basically the bottom of the food chain down here, the only thing lower is the nessies."
"Ah. Can you tell me more about some of the animals we could encounter?"
"Oh sure. Let's see… there's crickets, spiders, cheepers, sligs, crocs, one time I actually found an octopus, um, will-o-wisps, those you really need to be careful for, as well as vampires, grue, click-slithers…."
"Ho~ly shit that is a big rat."
"Understatement of the goddamn year. Thank god for bolters."
The hunters were gathered around the corpse of an absolutely massive rat they had just downed. It was large and white and just about the size of a tank, with incisors like swords. It had damn near cracked the ceiling with its head when they loaded it with lightning rounds.
"I don't see any stitch marks," said one of the hunters, "think this is a Frankenstein special?"
"Gotta be. I've seen bigass packrats before, but that's just ridiculo- look out!"
The hunter who cried the warning suddenly pulled the man next to him aside. Sticking out of the water where the man had been standing was the head of a snake that could have given Chthulu a run for its money, tentacles lining a razormaw of teeth. The hunter's gun came up, and he fired a burst into the thing's face.
The thing squealed and started thrashing, and suddenly it became apparent that the 'snake' was attached to a larger body in the water. Blake came forward with one of the bolters, and sank some lightning rounds into the thing to finish it off. Only when it finally died did they dare to drag it out of the water.
"Fuck, it's like someone stapled a snake to a croc and then put my ex's head on it."
"You let that suck your-"
"Hey fuck you."
"Shut it. Both of you," said Blake, "We've wasted enough time as it is. Let's get moving."
They formed up and continued on, with Blake taking point and keeping a watchful eye on the pace. The dark and the risk of ambush was getting to some of the hunters, mostly the newbies, but Abe didn't like it either. Admittedly he had expected an easier trail to follow, but apparently the super responsible for the monsters saw fit to let them operate autonomously. There weren't any lights or equipment that might have indicated the attack on the hospital was planned from close by. The monsters were just dragging their victims through the sewer however far it took to get to their destination.
He gave one last look at the weird snake/croc monster that had tried to ambush them.
At least they were going in the right direction.
"One sec, just need to wrench this lever and stop the flow for a bit," said Nicole.
The lever in question was attached to the water main that serviced Manchineel St. and the surrounding blocks. Technically it was an emergency shut-off valve, but Nicole had jury rigged it to be an on/off switch. With the water stopped she could make small improvements to the pipes before turning it on again. We were trying to add a small spout to the pipe that would shoot water down a side tunnel, and make a current for the nessies.
Nicole grabbed the lever with her (human) hands and pulled. The lever must have been stuck, because she had to strain to get it to move, which caused the muscles in her forearms to stand out. That was when I saw another little mutavus improvement; when the muscles in her arms strained, they bunched up, coiling around themselves and creating squiggly patterns under her skin. Seems her human half was not as unmodified as I thought. Mutavus had changed the muscles internally to provide strength while leaving her appearance of a younger woman unchanged. A clever deception, I wondered how many enemies had targeted her core only to find it was not as vulnerable as it seemed.
Unfortunately, she noticed I was watching and her hands slipped. The recoil nearly bashed her head against the wall.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Just, keep a lookout or something yeah?"
I'd noticed similar behavior several times, normally associated with any indication I was paying too much attention to her. At first I thought it fear that her vulnerable core was being analyzed for weakness, but this seemed to be a more human, psychological problem. She was afraid that I would be afraid of her, which frankly made no sense to me. Perhaps some malfunction of her emotions? I could empathise.
Once Nicole had the water shut off, I carved a hole in the pipe. The remaining water shot out under pressure, but eventually lessened enough to allow me to stick the sawed-off pipe piece into the hole, and aim it in the direction Nicole needed. Then I took a tube of sealant and made sure the pipe piece was cemented in place, using my fingers to make sure the sealant reached all the right places. Technically you weren't supposed to touch the stuff directly, since it would fuse your fingers together, but that wasn't a problem for me.
Once I was done, Nicole turned the water back on, and a stream of water shot out of the newly made spigot. It flew down the tunnel and into the canal flowing down the center. I didn't notice a big change in the water flow, but Nicole assured me she had it mapped out.
"It only needs a little bit in a few different places."
"And the city won't send someone to fix it?"
"Not if I'm planning this right. Maybe if we were closer to Central they'd catch it, but it's a bit more lax out here."
"I'd think they would want to keep a better eye on the areas near the wall."
"You'd think. But tons of stuff slips through the cracks."
"It definitely gets that way sometimes. Just remember to not go any deeper than the sewers, don't touch anything that looks like a gizmo if you don't know what you're doing… oh, and don't follow any lights."
They'd run into another of the snake things, as well as a few normal (but still large) rats when they explored a tunnel that had been dug into the side of the sewer. They had been starting to worry that they'd lost the trail when they found the tunnel, which led to an older maintenance shaft that was a floor lower than the sewer. The lights no longer worked, but there were pipes all over the walls that they could follow.
"Lights up ahead," called out a hunter in front. Something was sparking in the darkness of the tunnel, looking a bit like a downed power line.
They approached the source, which turned out to indeed be a downed power line. It was wrapped around a metal pipe that it was sparking against. Unfortunately it meant that they couldn't continue forward following the pipes. The tunnel was too narrow, and they didn't want to accidentally electrocute themselves somehow. There was more than one wire hanging down from the ceiling.
"Turn it around, we'll have to try and find a side tunnel to bypass this one."
The troop of hunters about-faced, but as luck would have it, another thick cable fell from the ceiling right in the middle of the group. It slammed into the side of one man's shoulder, knocking him to the floor.
"Holy shit! Jeffery! Jeffrey are you alright? Someone get the medkit!"
"I'm fine! I'm fine, it wasn't live," said Jeffrey.
"Jesus don't scare us like that man," said the man who had yelled. He reached down to help Jeffrey up, when the cable that had smacked Jeffrey suddenly twitched and slammed Jeffrey's would-be helper in the face, knocking him back.
"Fock! The ell? I tink my nose is broken," said the man, clutching his bloody nose.
Several hunters aimed their guns up to shine light at the offending cable. And up. And up…
Those weren't cables. The one that had smacked the hunters was attached to some kind of rock looking thing, and there was more than one of them. As they watched, the cable slowly drew back up into it…
"Uh. Maybe we should-"
...and swiftly flew back out, attempting to slam into Jeffrey again. One hunter fired his gun at the offending rock-thing.
He really shouldn't have.
"Ooh! Stand back Tofu, they pack a mean punch."
The creatures in question were attached to a wall, and had lashed out at Nicole when her arachnid half moved past and disturbed them. Her large claw took the hits without problem, and she began to scrape them off the wall with the other while they continued to pummel her.
"What are they?" asked Tofu.
"Barnacles. Well, technically I think they're some kind of clam," answered Nicole, "I love these things, but they're kinda rare. They eat whatever they can catch, mostly rats, but they can't move; they tend to starve after the rats figure out to avoid them."
"That seems like a bad survival tactic."
"Hey, I won't complain. These things are delicious even if you eat them raw."
Nicole's brain caught up to what she'd just said. Tofu already knew she couldn't taste with her arachnid mouth, they'd talked about it when they had snacked on the cinnabons earlier. She'd basically just admitted to eating raw sewer clams. Sure, that had been well before she'd finished mutating, and it had been necessary, but still!
So embarrassing!
"Can I try one?"
Tofu had of course completely ignored Nicole's embarrassment, and had approached the pile of dying clams.
"Can I have one? I've never tried these before."
"Uh, if you want? I have a hot plate with me we could cook them on."
Tofu grabbed one of the ones that were no longer struggling, and quickly wrenched the shell open. Then he grabbed a handful of the meat and tore it out, before taking a big ol' bite and eating it. He chewed. He swallowed.
"You're right Nicole, these are good. Do you mind if I eat a few more?"
"Um. No, go ahead… but pass me one."
No way am I going to be the squemish one.
"Fuck. FUCK! What the hell were those!"
"Calm it down Henrick, they're dead now," said Abe.
The ceiling of the tunnel they were in had come alive with those tongue-things. The bolters had killed them readily enough, but they had needed to make a run for it. The group was banged up, but other than Lebowitz's broken nose the only real injury was their pride.
"Theo is missing!"
"I don't see Donald either."
"Did anyone see them get snatched?"
A head count was performed, and it turned out that a good third of the group hadn't come out. No one had seen anyone get snatched, and the bolters had torn up the ceiling with the snatchers something fierce, so it was unlikely that anyone got killed. Blake was also missing, and Abe didn't believe for a second that those tongue monsters had managed to put a tough bastard like Blake down. More than likely they had gone down the wrong side passage in their flight from the tunnel, which was the reason the group hadn't split up to track the kidnap victims from the get-go. E13's sewer was like swiss cheese; the blueprints they had brought with them were almost completely useless.
"Alright here's the deal. We're gonna do some light recon in the surrounding tunnels. If we run into Blake's group we'll continue on, otherwise we're heading back topside. Standard proceedure."
The group picked itself up, and backtracked a bit before heading down the first side tunnel they could find. Hopefully they'd run into Blake's group, and this little snafu would be just another funny story.
"This side tunnel leads to a storm drain," said Nicole.
"How can you tell?" asked Tofu.
"When it rains this one always leaks," she replied.
Tofu took a picture with his phone while Nicole stifled a giggle. I feel like a tour guide.
They continued down the rocky pathway they had been following. This path wasn't part of the sewers; it was a fracture in the cement structure below the subway system that the city had somehow never found. Nicole had cleared out the spiders, and used it to bypass the subway system whenever she went north.
"What is this pipe for?" asked Tofu, pointing at a large rectangular pipe that spanned the crevice higher up.
"That, believe it or not, is one of the secret entrances to Hellion's lair!"
"Ah. One of the elevators."
Aww, I expected more of a reaction than that… wait.
"How'd you know she uses elevators?"
"...There's rumors. Tim talks about hero stuff a lot."
"Ah… ever think about becoming a hero? Your power is perfect for it."
"Definitely not. Way too dangerous. I work in a warehouse."
"Pfft ahahaha."
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing Tofu, nothing."
Heh. "Too dangerous." As if he wasn't in the tunnels trying to rescue people. Seriously Tofu, learn to lie better.
Blake had had better days. The good news was that he'd found one of the stitch-creatures. Had the stitches and everything.
"Fuck. You!" Blake swung as he yelled, placing a fist squarely in the gut of a humanoid monster with the face of a rat.
*Hissssssssssssss*
The bad news was he'd lost his goddamn bolter.
"Argh!" The rat creature bent, and bit his arm. He used his other hand to stab his thumb into its eye, forcing it to let go.
Blake had been with a few other hunters who had gotten lost after the tongue monster incident. They'd been ambushed by a pack of stitch creatures from the side, and unfortunately Blake had been knocked into the smelly canal running down the middle. The rat creature in front of him had fallen in with him, and the two had been swept away as they struggled to kill each other. That's when he lost his bolter.
"Just go down you son of a bitch! I ain't dying to some stupid freak-rat!"
He kept his fists up. Trying to close in on the thing was proving to be difficult. It had claws on its 'hands' that were sharp enough to cut, let alone the teeth. If (When!) he got out of this, he was buying one of those hoity-toity waterproof pistols Donald was always going on about.
He waited for openings in the rat creature's guard, and swung when he could do so without opening up his own defense. The biggest problem was the footing; they were both standing in ankle-deep water, and soaked boots did not outmatch clawed feet when it came to wet and slippery cement. Even the minor current threatened to drag him off his feet with one careless boot placement.
He could do this though. The creature sucked at fisticuffs, unused to fighting with its own mutilated body. He kept pounding at it, and it looked like it would run out of steam before he did. He wound up to deal a heavy blow at its exposed chin… and then leaped instead, dodging the thing's whiplike tail that had been sneaking under the water. He cleared the tail, and managed to weakly punch the creature's face besides, but he landed too heavily on the slippery floor, breaking his stance.
The creature kicked forward, shockingly fast (it had been playing possum!), and hit home on Blake's exposed knee, shattering it.
"ARGHHH!" screamed Blake, falling sideways into the filthy water. He resisted the urge to clutch at his broken knee, and tried to scoot himself back as fast as possible with his hands and one good leg, an almost impossible task given the slippery surface.
The rat creature advanced on him, taking its time. It knew it had him. Seems they weren't all quite as dull as they appeared.
"Fuck. Fuck!"
The rat-thing reached him and raised a clawed foot. It was going to break his other leg. It didn't need to, it had him dead to rights anyway, but it seemed whatever malevolent intelligence remained behind those black eyes wanted to toy with him.
Blake braced for the blow-
*BAM BAM BAM*
-and flinched at the sound of semi-automatic fire echoing through the dark tunnel. The rat-thing he had been fighting fell backwards into the water, sporting some new holes.
"Shit that was close! Are you alright?!"
"Tidus? Tidus thank God," said Blake, nearly flopping deeper into the water in his relief.
"Goddamn that was lucky. Didn't think I'd catch up."
Tidus grabbed Blake's hand, but when they tried to haul him up Blake screamed and he fell, the broken knee was too much. Another one of the hunters caught up, and together he and Tidus finally managed to get Blake to the walkway, where they began the painful process of setting the leg with a splint.
"What happened to," argh, "the others. Did they make it?" asked Blake.
Tidus frowned, "Most of them. We hit a sewer entrance a ways back, they… they just fucking left."
"Heh, that's cause they're smart," chuckled Blake darkly. "Not that I don't appreciate the rescue."
"Listen. People die in this business. It happens. Knowing when to cut your losses is important. I had the only bolter in our group, and I fucking lost that in the shit-water. We're heading for that manhole you mentioned and we are getting the fuck out. Abe will be doing similar with his group. Obviously we weren't as prepared as we thought we were."
Blake heaved himself to one foot with the help of the two other hunters.
"Now," agh, "Let's get the fuck out of this hellhole."
This place was great! There was so much food to eat!
Nicole and I had run into multiple organisms in the darkness of the tunnels just under the sewers.
Cheepers, which turned out to be small little swarmers that looked like fanged mouths with small legs. They couldn't jump at all, and eating them was as simple as picking them up and chowing down as the others uselessly gnawed at your legs (exoskeletal modifications required).
A slig, which turned out to be a giant 'slug' that spat acid (Nicole's acid was better, and melted its face off), and was especially delicious once cooked on Nicole's hotplate. Almost like bacon, but thicker.
A grue, which was a terribly misshapen humanoid with far more teeth than was beneficial. How the thing managed to eat with its mouth jammed with teeth I didn't know, but even with its bent and malformed limbs it was admittedly strong enough that Nicole had to beat it against the floor a few times to kill it. That one didn't taste good at all (bony, bitter, and gamey), and Nicole had to melt most of it down before she could eat the rest.
I was starting to see how so many animals hadn't been causing more problems for the sector. Nicole was the apex predator of the sewers, and probably consumed several tons a week in order to keep up with her metabolism. It was almost tempting to try this lifestyle myself, but Nicole soon demonstrated why that was a bad idea.
We were walking past a tunnel when some lights caught my attention. They were soft and blue in color, lightly floating above the water.
"Hey Nicole, what's that?"
She gasped and froze. I took her cue and froze as well.
After a few seconds went by, she whispered, "Tofu. Very slowly, and very quietly, keep walking. Don't step in the water."
I had been on the walkway when I noticed the lights, but I took a cautious few steps away from the water before continuing on. Several tunnel intersections went by before she felt it was safe to talk.
"That was a will-o-wisp," she said, "They're blind, but they use those lights to attract prey. Last time I ran into one I almost died. I barely got away."
"Basically a subway train with teeth. They dig a burrow in the rock when they're small, and extend it as they grow. Then they basically just sit and wait until they sense things move by, and they're brutal when they attack. I haven't found a way to kill them yet; so far poison and electricity haven't worked, and they don't seem to starve if you keep prey away from the area."
She reached into her duffel and pulled out a map, then used a pen to mark the tunnel where the will-o-wisp was. "And that's another tunnel I can't use. Shit."
I considered the problem presented by the will-o-wisp. Something didn't make sense to me.
"Why does the city allow those to exist? Shouldn't a hero have cleared them out by now?"
"They probably don't know it exists yet. Will-o-wisps didn't exist four months ago."
"...did someone make them?"
"Why haven't you reported them yet?"
"Because the last time I reported a problem they dumped a metric fuck-ton of tinker made neurotoxin into the sewers and didn't tell me before they did it! If I hadn't seen the bulletin on the sector website I'd be dead! Even then it killed everything else! I lost almost everything I had, and I had to travel for miles to find a sector that wasn't affected. Traveling down here is dangerous! Will-o-wisps didn't exist four months ago. Cheepers and nessies weren't around seven months ago! Grues and giant spiders have only been around for a year! The ecosystem changes constantly! The only permanent thing is the goddamn rats!"
She stopped talking suddenly, and turned away from me. Her hands were clenched at her sides, and every now and then a claw clacked.
"...and I'd appreciate if you not tell anyone, Tofu. I'd… I'd rather not have to move again."
"I won't tell anyone Nicole. I promise."
"...Thank you. I'm sorry for yelling."
"It's fine Nicole. I understand."
If anyone had stolen that much food from me, I'd be pissed too.
Abe was lost. Completely and utterly lost.
*Cheep*
He swung his bolter around, desperately trying to see where the sound came from. Was it behind him? To the side? The goddamn tunnels echoed so goddamn much!
He ran. It felt like he'd been running for hours, but in reality was more like forty minutes. His team had been beset by monster after monster, and they'd been scattered. Sometimes it was the stitch-rat things, but the Frankenstein super had tricked them, those weren't the only things in their arsenal. Teeth, claws, acid, webs, those goddamn noisy fuckers!
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
He ran, swinging the sight light on his bolter to have any hope of where he was going. He should have never taken this job! He should have known better than to take on a villain, and this one was goddamn sadistic! He was an experienced monster hunter! Shoot a few monsters, bag one villain, rescue a bunch of grateful victims, it had seemed so simple! But down in the dark tunnels, with horrors around every corner, suddenly the logic for why he came down here seemed fuzzy.
He slowed down, then dropped to his knees in exhaustion, breathing heavily. His heart was playing the drums in his ears, and he desperately tried to calm down so that he could listen for any hints of cheeping.
"...and that's why backwards knees are better than forward bending knees for combat."
"Digitigrade Tofu. It's digitigrade."
"What's that?"
People! Some of his team must have made it! Either that or he was hallucinating, but he'd take anyone right now. He forced himself to his feet, and started searching to find which tunnel the voices were coming from.
"It's not a backwards knee. Lot's of animals walk on their toes. What you're seeing is technically the heel, not a backwards knee."
"No, I'm pretty sure I'm using the knee, see?"
*Snap* *POP*
"EWWWWWWWW, don't DO that!"
"You do it too!"
"Mine don't POP like that!"
He was getting closer. He began jogging for the intersection ahead where he heard the voices the loudest. Then he announced his presence before he went around the corner; no use taking a bullet from a startled team member after making it though all this.
"Hello? It's me Abe! Don't shoot…"
It wasn't a team member. It was big.
He aimed his light up.
Claws. Carapace. Those eyes! Cold and deadly, no hint of humanity. The eyes of a true predator, like a shark's.
He laughed.
He raised the bolter.
"Is he dead!? Oh my God! Is he dead!?"
"Calm down Nicole. His heart is beating. I think you just knocked him out."
The stupid man had come around the corner and almost immediately opened fire on Nicole. Her claw blocked the bolts, but in her surprise she had wacked the man rather hard, sending him flying, and breaking his gun. I was surprised at her concern for a man that had tried to kill her, but she claimed that this kind of thing was somewhat normal, and probably an accident. Humans were so weird about killing each other. It was his fault if he died here, but Nicole was nearly beside herself with worry.
"Okay! Okay. There should be a manhole cover just around the corner, you can carry him up and then the hospital is only a few blocks away. They should have the place running again by now."
I sighed quietly. Annoying. Guess this meant my tunnel exploration was over for now. And we had finally made it to the area around the hospital too! I slung the man over a shoulder, before letting Nicole lead me to the manhole cover.
"Thanks for escorting me today Nicole."
"Sure, sure, anytime. Just get going; getting knocked unconscious isn't good for people. Oh jeez, I hope he doesn't mutate. I'd feel so bad."
"No worries Nicole, his heartbeat really is steady. I'll take care of him."
I climbed up the ladder with the man over my shoulder. So troublesome. I couldn't have him reporting any monsters and causing problems for Nicole. Maybe I could blame any organism he saw on the stitch-rat creator. More importantly though, I had some questions for him. I recognized lightning rounds, as well as the label on the gun. I needed to know what this was about.
Tch. Figures. A sewer system full of predators and the most dangerous thing I find is a stupid human.
I made the arts (badly)
Spoiler: Nicole
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