universal health care is a good idea, but HOLY SHIT the ACA is a badly-written law

Okay, I have found the thing I hate more than EIC due diligence reports, and it is ACA tax exemption and Advanced Premium Tax Credit forms.

For reference, my textbook basically threw up its hands and said, "This is bullshit, here are the questions to ask, let the computer program do all the looking up stuff and calculations because otherwise you will go CRAZY," and consequently didn't provide any instructions for the forms. And then of course we had to do the forms by hand for a case study. Without instructions. *headdesk* Fortunately the IRS has a website where you can find .pdfs of everything and the kitchen sink.

( you don't care about these two paragraphs; trust me )

I think the poor instructor is going to have a lot of questions and clarifications to deal with tomorrow.

(...The dependent child care credit forms are also a headache, but compared to the health insurance stuff? Peanuts.)

((I am starting to talk in tax jargon. This worries me slightly.))

[Meme] Three lines from three WIPs

As seen in various places:

*pokes around hard drive* Hmm. I'm only actively writing two things at the moment -- as in, there are actual story-words on a page and I have made changes to the files within the past week. There are other things I'm 'writing' in the sense of doing brainstorming and outlining work, and a whole sheaf of unfinished stories I pull out and poke at occasionally, but like I said, only two things in active production.

So you get those two, and then one of the 'poke it with a stick every six months' stories chosen almost completely at random. (I am applying my usual approach to the 'three sentence' aspect. *wry*)

-----

1. As Suisen pulled leaf-attenuated sunlight into her mirrors, the Volcano-nin drew a pair of short metal sticks from a thigh holster. Naga tensed, but instead of throwing them the Volcano-nin flicked her left hand through a rapid chain of seals, then settled the sticks solidly into each hand. Thin streams of sandy earth poured upward and latched onto their rounded ends as if magnetized.

Naga didn't wait to see the end result of the jutsu. Strike fast and hard and it wouldn't matter; a fist to the jaw disrupted anybody's focus. But the Volcano-nin dodged her attack -- tucked and rolled and came up still holding those sticks and their trails of sand -- and Naga lost a precious second avoiding Suisen and catching her balance with a ricochet off a handy tree.

The sand began to glow red-hot, then flashed into nearly transparent whips of molten glass. Naga felt the heat on her face and arms from a good three body-lengths away.

Ah. That explained the insulation.

-----

2. Matt opened rifts to the surface sometimes. Wilson disapproved, but Vanessa ensured that he was technically allowed. Justice dispensed only after mortals died was hardly justice at all, she told Wilson every time he suggested changing the rules, and it would be unwise to divert sentries from watching outward for the Devourers to watching inward for more transient problems. But it would be equally unwise not to remind mortals that they were watching, and that kind of message needed a personal touch. Matt was very practiced at personal touches.

She'd meant those words as a teasing compliment, once upon a time. These days they were a calculated barb. But she was still willing to say them, still willing to take Matt's side on this one point even after the way he ended his relationship with her and Wilson. He could bear much heavier burdens than Vanessa's cold anger in return for this one small slice of freedom.

And if some of Matt's rifts weren't precisely calibrated to swallow and crush mortals sorely in need of retribution, well, he was blind. It was really more surprising that he ever aimed them correctly than that he occasionally missed and found himself standing alone in a mountain meadow, spring sunlight warm on his back and the subtle perfume of a thousand flowers drifting through the air on a tender breeze.

-----

3. "There was no need for claws. You could simply have told me," Telemain grumbled as he stood.

"I did," Morwen said, handing him a bowl of stew. "You weren't listening, as usual."

"I always listen when you have something to say about magic," Telemain said. He lifted a spoonful of stew halfway to his mouth, then paused. "That summoning spell is fascinating, by the way. It's the most open-ended piece of magical construction I've ever seen. Nearly all the parameters are left up to the summoner's own mental focus rather than delineated by the ingredients, the ritual, or the schematics. The spell itself hardly deserves the name, though it does just barely tip over the invocational border that allows a caster access to stored magic rather than depending on his or her own inborn power, which in our cases is merely hypothetical insofar as all living creatures interact with the ambient magical fields and therefore--"

"--are still made of flesh and blood and need food to remain living creatures instead of turning into corpses, which, I regret to inform you, cannot think. Lunch first, theory later," Morwen said.

Telemain glanced down at his hovering spoon, stuck it into his mouth, and swallowed. He made an indistinct noise of surprise. "This is good. When did you learn to cook?"

"Before I went to the Academy," Morwen said dryly. "Besides, it's a logical extension of potion brewing skills. I needed some practice to manage multiple dishes at a time, but following a recipe is easy."

-----

Number one is "Guardian" ch. 16, of course. Number two is a Daredevil kinkmeme thing that got a little out of hand in at least three directions at once and now I have no idea if I'll be able to wrangle it back under control. Number three is a pre-canon Enchanted Forest Chronicles fic that I swear I will finish one of these years. (No really, I will. I mean it!)