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girlfriendsofthegalaxy · 2 years ago

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tuesday again 5/2/2023

some stuff i fucking HATED in this one

listening

new K. Flay AND new LUNA AURA singles out last friday but the thing that kept me company through several walks was this (billboard called it "industrial rager" which seems fine close enough) used for the yellowjackets tv show (something i have not watched and never will).

my brain has really craved repetitive lyrics recently. not sure what that's about. not a repeated lyric, but love one that goes "lipstick on the rifle". spotify

youtube

ty discover weekly.

reading

pour one out for the real ones, Vice's leftist gaming vertical Waypoint. if you've ever liked anything about the way i go about these posts you have them to thank. i would say they are the primary influence in the way i try to approach things like "is this a clever subversion that still holds a lot of love for the genre or does this not even know the rules it's trying to break". also a big factor in me going "okay this is what it says it is, this is the marketing copy and press releases" and a work says it's trying to do before assessing whether or not they do it well. may all the staff land softly, elsewhere, paid far more.

“There are a ton of destinations within gaming media that do a great job covering whether a game is worth your money. Instead, we want to focus on telling stories about why people play, and investigating how the games we love and spend so much time with come to be. Whether a game was a commercial success or has a small, dedicated community, we want to raise the conversation and take an in-depth look at the passion, people, and politics that underpin these worlds.” -Austin Walker, editor in chief until last year

the very last thing i read was this review of the new starred wars game, whose early review code sent to journalists was EXTREMELY different than what ended up shipping. this is uncommon but not unheard of, but almost nobody publishes a "null result" review like this one and it's a fascinating breakdown

This piece has, admittedly, gone off the rails, but if this had been a straightforward review, and at the end, I put an italicized section that said “based on 10 hours,” what would you say? If I’d finished the game but confessed at the end that the patched version was importantly different from the one I’d spent my time with, what then? Which review is worth more?

i also read Behind the Sun, Above the Moon, a non-binary scifi/fantasy anthology. i was not impressed with this collection in whole or in parts. it could have benefited from a stronger theme and editorial vision (i'm not actually sure this thing had an editor, now i'm looking closer?)

this has billed itself "a Queer anthology inspired by magic and the cosmos". what i was hoping/expecting this would be: a collection exploring what it means to be nonbinary through the lens of scifi and fantasy. it actually is: an almost completely human-centric collection about people who happen to be non-binary and happen to live in scifi or fantasy settings.

the critical problem is that most of them are very slice-of-life in a fantastic setting as opposed to a short story with uhhhhhh a theme and a point it makes. the worldbuilding, while often interesting, is not integral. 3/9 of these are set in a contemporary setting, and all of them could be set in a contemporary setting without losing much. 3/9 (one overlap) feature a protagonist or deuteragonist who is a cop, and all three of those read very gay assimilation-y/feel very concerned with perfect gay rep.

i don't really expect anyone to be the next o henry here, but none of them are self-contained. not the sort of ambiguous ending in the Ha Ha Im Going To Think About This For The Rest Of My Life way, they all feel like “first chapter of a planned new adult trilogy”.

i love anthologies. i am always rooting for anthologies. i am no stranger to imperfectly written speculative fiction. this one is just kind of nothing? none of these are good or particularly enjoyable examples of the form, either as short stories or as speculative fiction.

i don't actually know what tipped me off to this book, it's been on my overdrive for...two years.

watching

two out of three Magnificent Seven sequels are not worth my time, your time, or anyone else's. i have not bothered to watch Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969, dir. Wendkos) bc i have a finite amount of time on this bitch of an earth.

i reluctantly have to hand the original some heterosexual rights. that move had a genuinely cute romance that fit in well with a particular character's growth, even if it was lifted whole cloth from Seven Samurai. this will be relevant when we discuss this franchise's hatred for women later.

Return of the Seven/Return of the Magnificent Seven (1966, dir. Kennedy), starring exactly one member of the original seven, is so poorly paced that i paused the film during an "exciting" bullfight, got up to get more snacks, got distracted, and ended up cleaning my kitchen.

there is a great deal of untranslated, un-captioned spanish throughout this movie, including the entire opening sequence. i don't know how i feel about this. on one hand, yeah, fuck them americans, and i would not call the english-language dialogue particularly crucial to your understanding of the plot. on the other hand, what.

as opposed to the original seven all being men who are fairly polite and follow some sort of code, the replacement five are all kind of sleazy? one of them only signs on bc there's an entire village full of women on their own. in other relationships, there is the KERNEL of a really fascinating fucked up family dynamic between the villain and his sons, but we don't even get hints of that until well after the halfway point. this is the original movie but less interesting and sloppier. the camerawork and effects simply are not there.

The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972, dir. McCowan) is a really, really awful film to watch, and not just if you're a woman. this whole fucking film uses three separate instances of rape or gang rape as plot momentum. if you are not trying to fill out lee van cleef's filmography (only a thing me and @birdcfparadise are insane enough to do) this is actively skippable.

like okay. let’s just walk through the first fifteen minutes. lvc's young, new, nubile wife convinces him to let a kid who robbed a store get off with a warning instead of what lvc really wants to do, send him to jail. in return, the kid shoots lvc, kidnaps lvc's wife, and rapes and kills her on the trail. the movie, which wasn't good to start out with, does not improve from there. like the other sequel i watched, this is the original movie but less interesting and sloppier.

the one interesting choice this film makes: one of the seven is a failed journalist tailing lvc, hoping to get enough life details out of him to write a book. this is a fun period-appropriate twist and this could have been a fun proto-revisionist western/gracefully put the franchise to bed, but here we FUCKING are.

why'd i do this to myself: liked the original, like lvc.

playing

the steam collections i'm sorting things into areworking, bc i forgot i owned Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (2013, developed/published Techland). i do not remember buying this, i assume it was $1.99 in a sale at some point. this is a silly arcade-y first person shooter.

youtube

i suspect it will be the kind of thing i play through once and then completely forget about, but i will have a fun ten hours-ish.

this is a personal problem, but the moment you give me a long-distance rifle, i want to play as stealthily and perfectly as possible. (except in fallout, where it is way more fun to charge up to enemies like a very small freight train with a shotgun). this game is simply not built for stealth. this game wants you to move constantly. i do like how enemies are encountered in little groups or knots, and don't come after you if you've cleared out one group and haven't hustled along to the next. enemy AI was simply not very sophisticated in 2013. this gives me time to meander around looking at everything and going "oh i coulda got up on that water tower" or "totally missed that barrel of dynamite".

i like how over the top but un-self-serious it is so far. competent shooter, fewer of the bells and whistles we expect from a FPS these days, but we don't really need to be fucking around with health packs and more than one kind of ammo for a gun. nothing's really annoying me yet and i haven't fallen deeply in love with it, so i don't have a ton of thoughts other than "huh this is a decade old video game with decade-old design sensibilities, which isn't bad just different". stay tuned!

separate thought: i do think that the game's artstyle is about as detailed as i ever want a game to get. nothing ever really needs to be more realistic than this. i do think we peaked in 2013 and what 2013 CPUs could handle. we have better raytracing and particles and whatnot now, but that's at the cost of eerily hyperrealistic games where there is little to no non-signage visual signposting. nothing is guiding your eye through a level, things (consumables, collectibles, etc) are very easy to miss. if video games are an art form you need to pick a thing your game looks like. make a stylistic choice for christ's sake. not this game though. it's doing okay.

making

made some fake meatballs (shut up) bc the giant bag of bargain store brand meatballs i used to practically live on have risen to $20 a bag. angel hair and meatballs are easy to acquire and easy to eat, even if they do generate many dishes to wash.

making my own is not much cheaper, and raw ground meat texture is one of the worst things in the world. plus i had some carrots and oats and lentils to use up anyway. this required more chopping than my hands cared for, even though i bought pre-juilenned carrots and just sort of roughly diced them. the texture is UNSETTLINGLY like real meatballs. that sort of spongy? bouncy? mouthfeel. the taste is, of course, nothing like real meat. they are a little crumbly in actual pasta, but oversaucing whatever noodles are at the back of the pantry will help.

no pics bc they look awful. eating a lot of various lentil sludges lately partly bc i am trying to clean out my pantry before i move, and when i could still afford grocery delivery they frequently gave me green instead of the far superior red lentils.

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem

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omgfloofy · 2 years ago

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State of the WIPs

A lot of my writing has stalled due to work, chronic pain in my foot, and Tears of the Kingdom. It’s really hard to be creative on stuff.

But I figure it’s time to give some progress reports on the WIPs I’ve got going at the moment. Especially since I’ve not talked about them in awhile. Everything will be behind the cut.

dal segno al coda

This is the monster fic. Of course. I’m currently at 99,462 words currently in the draft files for the three sections. This does not include the out of place snippets that haven’t been written into the main story or content from the original draft file that I want to keep. All in all, I’ve written over 200k words for this story, but not all of it will be kept in the long run.

Currently about 95% of the story is outlined, though. Which makes life much easier for me in some parts.

There are sections for Lunafreya that I’ve been writing in part 1 that lean heavily in the spy / political thriller type genre. This is a type of story I absolutely love but feel a little overwhelmed dabbling in. So part of my ‘research’ for this has included reading stories in this genre.

Additionally, I’ve been working on sections of part 3 that I can’t really post any WIP content for, since I need to keep as much of it as secret as possible. However, I’ve also written the last chapter and the epilogue. Those were things I couldn’t shake. And there’s a Meanwhile, Elsewhere... chapter that is post-story. On top of that, I’ve also written a post-segno side story that may, or may not be published some day.

I’m clearly having too much fun dabbling around in the mental images I’ve got of the post-story time period for Eos. I don’t know if I want to publish these things because I don’t want to color what other people end up imagining post-segno Eos to be like.

Additionally, the story ended up needing the creation of an original character. I’ve named him Valens.

I was able to get an incredible commission from @teapots-and-hats for his design. And while I don’t want to post the whole art yet for reasons, I do at least want to post this portrait at the very least and a small snippet that features him that may, or may not, be kept in the final version of the story.

That chill ran down his spine again as the swordsman looked towards his advisor. Somehow, despite not being able to actually see his eyes, Noctis just knew that he could tell where the man was looking. This meant that somehow - impossibly - this man had magic. To make matters worse, it was somehow resonating with his own.

"You're impossible," Noctis mumbled softly, as he started to make some connection over this black haired, black leather clad stranger. This drew the attention of the swordsman and this time, Noctis felt like his breath had simply been taken from him. All of that magic he could feel was turned on him in an instant.

"Am I?" As the swordsman approached, Noctis began to feel his legs buckle again. It was not from a physical force this time, but instead the sheer overwhelming presence that buried itself into the very core of his being.

Noctis just wanted to shout for Luna and Ignis to stay away! Stay far away! However, he found himself frozen within the stranger’s overwhelming power and he was unable to even speak a single word.

Once he was near Noctis, the masked swordsman settled onto a knee and reached out with a gloved hand to gently wrap leather-clad fingers around Noctis' chin and force the prince to look up at him. Noctis fought hard to keep his eyes forward and not recoil under the magic being pressed against him.

"I'm not the one who is out of time," the swordsman's words were heavy and cleanly punctuated.

Of course, Noctis thought angrily to himself. Of course he knows.

Oh yeah. I’ve also got a set of special dividers integrated into the workskin I’ve been working on for segno. It’s not the ones I’ve used here, but they do use this same style. I might as well use this as a preview as well, right? They have a very special purpose, and I’m eager for those to be seen as well. However, I want to keep the actual dividers a bit of a secret still.

Last, but not least, I’ve been in the process of designing and planning a ruins to kind of serve as a ‘final dungeon’ of the story. Sort of. It’ll make more sense down the line, I promise.

Speaking of the ending. That’s actually written. I know exactly where I’m going in segno now. I just need to get there.

You can find other stuff I’ve posted about this story under the tag ‘#dal segno al coda stuff’

Twilight

This little AU that has the chapter by chapter ‘end of life’ story for Noctis in an AU where he survived the end of the game. An important aspect of the story is that he gave up his royal title and has begun living a hermit-like lifestyle in Duscae while hiding his true identity.

I promised a bunch of other side stories and I finally got Granting Another Light out not too long ago.

There are multiple shorts that I’ve got outlined and need to finish. They have the following titles:

A Quiet Morning - This details Noct’s morning routine late in the story. Just a simple bit of fluff with no real direction. It just adds color to the whole story.

A New Restart - This is the short about the “incident” that was mentioned in the main story where Noct blew his cover, and how it forced him to change his lifestyle.

The Puzzle Box - The making of a certain puzzle box that has an important role in the main story.

Some Things Never Change - Noct runs into Sania after a job. The worst part is she recognizes him.

There are still three more stories worked up that don’t have titles yet. And a fourth that’s just going to be a bunch of random texting shorts between Noct and his friends.

Inconvenient Blessings

This will be a small pre-canon one-shot that is Regis-centered, following Regis and Clarus at a special event for a Children’s Day celebration, where little 6-year old Noctis is with them due to the holiday.

It features a very clear moment of “kids say the darnedest things.” And when that kid is the Crown Prince, those little things can be more troublesome than normal.

This may be the final outcome from an incomplete and untitled story that I finally posted to AO3 sometime ago. This little short explores the idea that the general public likely has superstitions around the Lucian royalty and their divine connections with the Crystal. And children mucking that up.

Nothing is fully written on it, but this has been outlined and it’s ready to start. I just need to get it more clearly in my head so that I can begin writing on it.

Untitled Psych Horror Story

This 5-chapter jaunt that I’ve started working on delves into psychological horror, which I’ve never played around with in writing before. I’m a little excited with the idea of the story, but a bit nervous on it at the same time. This is because it’s a genre I’ve never written before. However, once the idea for this story got into my head, and the more I played around with ideas for it, the more I found myself wanting to actually write the damn thing.

The most important thing that has me very daunted on this story is that I feel like I’m invoking stuff I’ve come across from other fic writers like @breakfastteatime and @every-lemon and I’m a little terrified and hope I can do their works justice. (by the way, read their fics, they’re amazing.)

---

"Iris," Gladio mumbled as he walked into the living room and saw her lounging on the sofa with a magazine. It looked very... off from the kind of thing she'd read. Cover lines on it included topics such as Increased Spam Calls to Insomnian Citizens Require Legislative Intervention and The Ideals of the Lucian Royalty: A Bygone Dream.

"Hey, Gladdy," she said cheerfully from behind the magazine, but yelped as he abruptly pulled it from her hands.

"What's got you reading this kind of shlock?"

"What are you talking about, give that back!" It wasn't too hard for the older of the siblings to hold the magazine out of reach.

Gladio looked at the magazine to show her the cover lines, when he stopped short after glancing at it again. The cover was now different from what he had seen before. It had originally looked like some sort of business magazine, but now? It was just a local fashion magazine. He quickly flipped through the pages to make sure he was seeing things. When he convinced himself that he was, in fact, imagining it, he just tossed it back onto Iris' lap.

"What's gotten into you, Gladio?" Iris sat up on the sofa as she snatched the magazine into a hand.

Gladio rubbed at the side of his head. "I'm not sure. Today's been a very odd day."

---

So there you go. A bunch of stuff on works that I’ve got on the sidelines and the monster fic itself. I’m always happy to answer questions in my ask box for these stories, as well. Especially since some of them are now playing with canon and stuff that was never really fully fleshed out in the original game.

#fic writing #dal segno al coda stuff #final fantasy xv #ffxv #ffxv fanfic #wip #fic work in progress

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countessofravenclaw · 11 months ago

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A homeland this north, country dear fathers! Part uno

Winter is the time for holidays, celebrations, and fun. Nina, Gastón, Luna and Matteo receive a wedding invitation to France for the New Years and decide, since they're already going to Europe, why not take everything out of it and take a well-deserved skiing vacation? Simon and Ambar join them and all is set for a relaxing holiday at Finland's northern region called Lapland. A place for speed, reindeer, fun, and dangerous situations... Just kidding, what could possibly go wrong at the winter wonderland? (There is a Finnis Christmas song linked on the title)

Taakse jo jäänyt on syksyn lohduttomuus

“You still think it was a good idea to take Newton out on this weather?” Nina said to Gastón as he came through the door with Newton.

It had been raining hard the whole early October evening, but her husband still thought that it couldn’t possibly be stopping him from going on his run with their dog.

“I turned around when the thunder started.” Gastón said, as that would make it any less crazy.

“You’re soaked to the skin,” Nina walked into the downstairs bathroom and grabbed Newton’s towel and handed it to Gastón. Newton was just sitting on the floor next to him wagging his tail and tongue out��also soaking wet, “He’s gonna zoom around for an hour now.”

“Then let's let him,” Gastón just laughed, “Hey look, I turn 27 next week and be in my late twenties, so I gotta have the fun now.”

“Getting poured on is fun?” Nina just shook her head again before her eyes focused on a pile of papers on the chest of drawers, “What’s that?”

“I got the post,” Gastón answered as he hung his, completely soaked through, jacked on a hanger.

“I don’t know why we still have paper post delivered,” Nina picked up the envelopes, “How has it not died yet? I’ll look through them, you need to go shower and change before you catch a cold.”

Nina put the envelopes on the coffee table as she sat down on the couch after Gastón had gone up. Newton curled next to her as she opened her phone. Her publishing agency had sent her couple of emails that she had left unread earlier in the day, so she opened them now. They were about the publishing announcement of her third book, which would finish her debut trilogy that she had started while in university.

Something that had started as a “stupid idea”, although Gastón liked to differ on the topic, was now finished and had given her defining career, and she honestly was getting a weird feeling of sadness about it. One era in her life was kind of over and she needed to figure out what to do next.

“Was there anything interesting?” Gastón walked back down the stairs.

“Where?” Nina looked up as he sat on the other side of Newton, who was dead asleep in a bagel position.

“In the envelopes?” Gastón asked again amused, “We don’t get much paper post. Who on earth is sending some?”

“I didn’t look at them yet.” Nina admitted, “I had a couple of emails from Mereilla that I needed to read. You know, about the press release and about quotes for it.”

“They are sending you those now?” Gastón furrowed his brow, “They couldn’t wait till tomorrow?”

“They came earlier today actually,” Nina opened her phone again, “I just didn’t look at them. You know how busy the end of the year is if the book comes out in January. But there is nothing I can do about these now. I’ll be going over there for that meeting on Monday anyway.” Nina put her phone away and reached for the post.

Most of the envelopes were either advertisements or some other insignificant stuff. Under all those on the other hand was a thicker envelope.

It was dusty rose-colored, and envelope was really textured. Her and Gastón’s names were written with perfect cursive on the front with their address. The stamps indicated that the envelope had come all the way from France. It was even sealed with a wax seal that had the initials “O & F” on it.

“I think we know what this is,” Nina handed it to Gastón, because she would never be able to break the seal. She didn’t have the fine motor skills for that.

“I thought for sure they wouldn’t send paper ones,” Gastón remarked, “But here we are. Explains why it took so long. I was already starting to get worried.”

He pulled the invitation out of the envelope and handed it to Nina.

It read:

Flor Astrella and Oliver Carson invite you to celebrate with them as they become Mr. and Mrs. Carson on 31st of December 2026 at The subterranean monolithic church of Saint-Jean 18 Rue St Jean, 16390 Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, France Starting 15:00 The reception will be held afterward at Le Château Charmant Le Bourg 16320 Boisné-la-Tude, France

“So, they did settle for the new year’s after all,” Gastón remarked, “Now I need to call James and Jacob to see if they knew and I was the one left waiting for the invite. Well, now we don’t need to make plans for the new year’s.”

“Well, we do need a plan,” Nina noted, “since we’re traveling to France.”

“I know that,” Gastón laughed and grabbed the tablet that had been on the coffee table, “So, the closest airport to that place is the Bergerac and there is a train station near as well, the Chalais. I think it might be smarter to get a hotel closer to the airport… Good thing about this is that I don’t need to get any time off, so we can do what we want.”

The whole executive team at Castillo Corporation had a consecutive summer vacation from the 19th of December to the end of January.

“So, if we got this today…” Nina was turning the invitation on her hands, “...although, I doubt Luna and Matteo check their mailbox every day. Should we call them to tell them that these have come?”

“You are so certain they are invited?” Gastón was grinning at her, and Nina rolled her eyes at him. Gastón had been the one to matchmake Flor and Oliver at Oxford, once upon time, and Nina had helped. They had been close personal friends with them, ever since Oliver had been Gastón’s roommate, but Matteo was Flor’s cousin. “Just joking, Matteo would never speak to Flor again if she didn’t invite him. These surely were sent in the same batch.”

“We should talk to them before we book any accommodation,” Nina continued, “So we can do it together.”

“I agree,” Gastón nodded, “but do we really wanna spoil the joy that they got a wedding invitation, given that nobody really knew when this was gonna be happening. Last time I asked, Oliver gave me like three dates. Maybe we should just wait until at least tomorrow for them to get it and then talk.”

“You’re right,” Nina nodded and scooted closer to lean on Gastón’s shoulder. Newton was still between them, but they were used to the clingy third-wheeling dog. They wouldn’t have it any other way. “You know, there has been so many weddings since we came back.”

“That’s true,” Gastón seemed to count with his fingers, “Simon and Ambar, Us, Pedro and Delfi, Elizabeth, then my uncle, Luna and Matteo, Jonathan and Windy… That’s all, right? That’s seven, Flor and Oliver are the eight.”

“It’ll be nice to be just a guest again,” Nina continued, “Being a bridesmaid has been exhausting. Your uncle’s wedding was really nice.”

“Because your boss, who had very recently promoted you very unexpectedly, wasn’t there. The aforementioned boss being also a person who your parents don’t particularly like. I still wonder why Mom and Dad let me even work at Castillo Corporations.” Gastón laughed slightly, “Flor and Oliver’s wedding will be so much more peaceful. And I definitely see why they chose the date… New years can be so romantic…”

Nina smiled as she felt his hand creep up around her waist, pulling her closer.

“Your suits are still fine, right?”

“Yeah,” Gastón nodded, “I don’t think I will wear the black one, though. I wear it too much for work. I don’t want to feel like I’m in the business meeting with people from Tokyo while celebrating my friends’ marriage.”

“Wear the blue one,” Nina simply stated. She couldn’t fully agree with his sentiment about the black suit, not that she understood anything about engineering collaborations with the Japanese, because she did not mind at all looking at Gastón in a suit. He looked way too good in business casual, or any kind of other formal wear. “I’ll have to call Mora, because I don’t have anything for an actual winter wedding. It’s probably going to be quite cold.”

“Just make sure it has a zipper on it.”

“You have a preference now?” Nina asked Gastón playfully. She knew exactly what he meant by that.

“What if I do?” he answered her glance. Her hand started running up his bare arm—He had thrown on just a T-shirt after the shower. “You know that Mora doesn’t look at me normally anymore.”

“Then maybe you should learn how to open buttons,” Nina continued, “She knows that they don’t fall off my clothes just naturally when she has to fix them.”

“I’m working on it…but only way I can do that, is by—” Their faces had gotten steadily closer as the back and forth had gone on. Now there were only millimeters, and she could feel his breath on her face, “—practice.”

Newton whined as he jumped off the couch before he was completely squeezed between them. He was probably giving them a very judgmental look from the floor, but neither Gastón nor Nina didn’t see it, because they were so wrapped up in each other.

They were only interrupted by a phone ringing on the coffee table.

“We really should get a soundproof safe where we can put those into,” Gastón huffed annoyed, “We get way too many mystery phone calls at very inconvenient times. That’s yours. Who is it?”

“Luna,” Nina grabbed her phone, “Who would have thought? No more mystery relatives. Well, I actually don’t have ones”

“I swear Luna and Matteo have some kind of sixth sense for extremely poor timing,” Gastón shook his head, “Mark my words, if we end up not being able to have children, it’s because they are not giving us the chance.”

“I’ll get rid of her as quickly as I can,” Nina laughed. Gastón was right in some sense. Luna was 25 and a grown woman, but she still had retained her never-ending positivity and innocence… She did sometimes have a habit of not realizing that she had just walked in on something.

Luna was calling a video, but Nina didn’t really deem it necessary to get up. Hopefully, this wasn’t going to be that long of a conversation.

“Hey!” She pressed the button and Luna's face became visible on the screen.

“Hii!” Luna was clearly beaming, “So, guess what?”

“What?” Had Luna called to play charades?

“Guess where me and Matteo are spending the New Years?” Nina shared a glance with Gastón. Either Luna and Matteo had checked their mail, or this was a huge coincidence.

“Well, where?”

“No, you have to guess.” Luna continued.

“Okay,” Nina rolled her eyes at her. She wasn’t that in the mood for a long-winded guessing game, especially since she knew the answer. “France?”

“How did you know?” Luna exclaimed.

“This came in the mail,” Nina showed the envelope on the camera.

“Told you they had gotten it as well! “Matteo’s voice came from the background.

“Yeah, but I didn’t want to assume!” Luna yelled back.

“You do realize right that we actually kind of know Oliver and Flor better than you do.” Gastón joined in the conversation, “Or at least more recently.”

“Hey! I know my cousin better than anybody!” Matteo appeared next to Luna on screen.

“I mean, she’s getting married so somebody might know her pretty well…”

“Yeah, I prefer not to think about that.”

Nina propped her phone up on the coffee table, as this conversation seemed to become a four-way one. She cuddled on Gastón’s side, and he wrapped his arm back around her waist. This was probably gonna take a while after all, so no reason why she shouldn’t be comfortable.

“Well, we were actually also wondering if you had gotten the invite, since they aren’t giving us that much time,” Gastón continued, “We should look at the accommodations. It's probably easiest to arrive a day before.”

“Yeah,” Matteo was rubbing his neck, “I get why they’re having it in France, since that's where they live, but I gotta admit, this does feel like a bit of a hassle to go all the way there for just two nights...”

“Well, we’re not in any kind of hurry to leave,” Nina started saying. “It’s winter there, so there could be lot of things to see that you don’t in Summer.”

“Wait,” Matteo looked pensive for a moment, “What if we went skiing, on the Alps.”

“That’s a really good idea!” Luna exclaimed, “Although, I have never skied… But it looks so much fun. Lets do it!”

“We actually never have been skiing together,” Gastón noted to Matteo, “I often went to Canada with my parents, when I was younger. But I agree, that’s a good plan. We’re all on vacation anyway, so we could just find a ski resort in the alps and stay a week or two. What do you think?”

“Well, I also have never skied—” Nina answered the question directed at her, “—nor will I. It seems dangerous. Anyway, I like the plan, there are other things to do for me.”

“Oh my god! We’re going skiing! I’m gonna see snow!” Luna had gotten up and was doing some sort of dance.

“In this case, we need to plan even more,” Gastón piped up again, “You should come over tomorrow so we can get all of this sorted.”

***

“If we want to go to the Zillertal Arena, Gerlost is the closest town, so we could stay there.” Matteo was crouching down toward the laptop.

He was glad that they had come up with this plan. He hadn’t been skiing in a while, and since they were in Europe anyway, why not take everything out of it. Obviously, he was super happy for Flor too and excited for the wedding as well.

“I don’t know,” Gastón seemed to shake his head, “Do we wanna stay in a hotel? I mean could we Airbnb a villa or something?”

“Uuuuu. Good idea!” Luna jumped up from the floor where she had been trying to get Newton to give her a paw… He hadn’t fully mastered obeying someone outside of Gastón and Nina yet.

“That was in Austria, right?” Nina looked up as well, “What’s the closest airport?”

“Innsbruck,” Gastón answered, “It’s about an hour away. We do have to connect from Charles de Gaullen. Anyways, then we can rent a car from the airport and just drive—”

His phone started ringing.

“Really?” Gastón grabbed his phone from his pocket. “I’m sorry, but I have to answer this. I’m still on call for a couple of hours.” He got up from the couch, “Gastón Perida.”

“You sure you don’t want to try skiing?” Luna had joined Nina back on the floor with Newton while Matteo kept scrolling on all the different booking sites.

“I have never done it before.” Nina shook her head and held her hand out for Newton, “Newton, give me the paw.” The dog obliged immediately, giving his left paw to Nina's hand, “Good boy. You see, it’s about the tone of voice and eye contact. Treats also help.”

“I have never done it either,” Luna grabbed a couple of treats from the coffee table and threw them in the air while Newton caught them. “But it seems like so much fun. I need to take lessons, we could do it together. Who’s the bestest boy in the world?” She sunk her fingers in Newton’s fur to ruffle it aggressively, “Give me a paw?”

Newton just sat down next to Luna wagging his tail and looking at her confused.

“Why isn’t it working?”

“You’re too easy target,” Matteo laughed from the couch, “You give way too many treats as it is, so he doesn’t see the need to work for them.”

“Anyway, back to topic,” Luna sighed while Newton was now licking her hand, and begging for more treats, “Nina, you never know if you don’t try.”

“I can live with never knowing if can I ski or not,” Nina stated, “I’m not athletic, nor do I enjoy it. I would just get myself hurt.”

“Luna, don’t push it.” Matteo said before Luna was able to open her mouth again. “What’s taking Gastón so long?” He craned his neck to look towards the guest room of Gastón and Nina’s house, where he had gone to take his call.

“I don’t know,” Nina looked at the same direction, her face showing mild concern. “He doesn’t usually get calls that take this long while on call. Hopefully, there isn’t actually something really wrong, that he needs to start working on.”

Just as Nina had finished saying that, the door opened back up and Gastón walked out of the room. To Matteo, it kind of looked like he was shaking his head slightly and looking annoyed.

“What’s wrong?” Nina got up from the floor at once and walked up to Gastón. If Matteo had slightly sensed that something wasn’t right with Gastón after that phone call, Nina obviously had picked on it immediately.

“There is nothing wrong, exactly,” Gastón sighed, “I don’t necessarily have good news.”

“What is it?” Matteo frowned as Gastón and Nina came to sit back on the couch.

“So, the call I just got was not from a panicked client who is worried about some bridge structure,” Gastón started, “It was our international representation and relations coordinator.”

“Okay, I don’t know who that is, but sounds important,” Luna remarked from the floor.

“What did they want with you?” Nina asked while ruffling Gastón’s hair. It was a comforting and affectionate gesture that, Matteo was pretty sure, she had adopted from Isla.

“Well, thats the thing.” Gastón continued, “I am being sent on the behalf of Castillo Corporations to give a series of lectures about our work to Aalto University.”

“Isn’t that an honor?” Luna asked again from the floor. “I love talking about skating to kids.”

“It would be,” Gastón sighed, “If this wasn’t going to happen on January 2nd, 2027.”

“Two days after the wedding?” Matteo asked shocked.

“Where is Aalto University?” Nina questioned, “You said it was an international affair. That’s not in Buenos Aires.”

“Aalto University is the most prominent engineering, business, and art university in Finland.”

“Finland?”

“Where is that?” Luna was making a lot of pondering faces, while Newton next to her was just staring at everyone.

“In northern Europe,” Gastón answered, “In between Sweden and Russia…but this means that alps are gonna be a bust, since I have to fly straight to Finland after the wedding. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Nina had taken his hand, “But, are they allowed to do this? You are supposed to be on vacation.”

“They are if all the bases are covered,” Gastón nodded, “I’m compensated for the lost day, getting paid, and getting a bonus. Apparently, this is really important…and I’m an assistant engineer, the most junior at that, in the team. I have not even been on the field for five years. I have no basis to refuse.”

“They’re not giving you a lot of warning,” Matteo frowned.

“From what I understood, there was an unexpected change of circumstances. PR usually handles all kinds of school exhibitions when it comes to possible career presentations, but apparently, these lectures are part of some sort of summit with a bunch of different companies. I need to attend an assembly with them, representing us and our work against the climate change and stuff. PR rep can’t do that, it needs to be somebody who is actually working on the stuff, meaning an executive team member, and apparently all the higher-ups unanimously wanted me to do it.”

“Aren’t you a higher-up?” Luna questioned.

“If I start explaining the bureaucratic hierarchy, we will be here till the wedding. I don’t even get it myself sometimes.” Gastón sighed again, “The bottom line is, that this foils our plans.”

“Your work doesn’t need to stop us,” Luna piped up. She had that look in her eyes, which signified that she had had an idea.

“I don’t think any of us want to be flying back and forth between France, Finland and the Alps.”

“I didn’t mean the Alps, or whatever,” Luna jumped up from the floor to a standing position. “Why can’t we all just go to Finland? It’s still a European country, is it not? Can’t we ski there?”

“Actually, I think we can…” Matteo muttered, and he understood what Luna meant, “It’s really in the North, they surely have snow.”

“Okay, I looked it up,” Nina had been on her phone, “Finland is in the Nordic regions and its largest northernmost region is called Lapland. It’s a huge tourism destination, for example for skiing. The Artic Circle runs across it… and it’s where the Santa lives.”

“Really!?!” Luna turned around.

“Let her explain,” Matteo pulled Luna on the couch.

“The really popular ski resort there is called Saariselkä,” Nina read, “It’s a little less commercial, than other ones…apparently… We could probably find and nice Villa there where we could stay and there would be a lot to see. And… was the University close to the capital?”

“I think so,” Gastón frowned, “It was somewhere called Otaniemi, which was in somewhere called Espoo. I need to look those up, but it sounded like in the capital area, like close to the airport.”

“So, we can just look around at the capital, while you’re in your conference.”

“That’s settled,” Matteo clapped his hands, “We fly to Finland after the wedding, Gastón does his thing and then have a fun vacation.”

“Yeah,” Gastón was nodding again, “Although, I’m just a little worried about the Jet lag. I think we should go to France as soon as possible after Christmas, just to get used to the European time, to actually be presentable at places.”

“That makes sense,” Nina nodded, “We can't leave until Boxing Day is over, and then we need time to pack, so the 28th? It will be a long flight.”

“I apparently get all the necessary information on Monday, so we can’t do any booking on the Finland’s front before it, but we should get the flight and the hotel to France now, so the ball is rolling.”

***

“I swear that’s the case,” Ambar said as she sipped her drink while she and Luna were sitting on the terrace of her and Simon’s house. Luna had eaten dinner with them as Matteo had a meeting with his management, “She doesn’t usually act like that. There has to be a reason.”

“How do you know?” Luna grabbed another cookie from the table. Simon and Ambar had gotten really into baking together recently, “These are super good.”

“Thanks!” Simon said as he walked back out and sat next to Ambar on the swing, “We asked the recipe from Monica.”

“I just have this gut feeling.” Ambar continued. “Watch me be right.”

“Moving away from that topic,” Simon grabbed his drink, “What are you and Matteo doing for Christmas?”

“Nothing special. Haven’t decided yet. Sofia and Alexander are apparently going to be in Italy, so I guess we could go stay with Mom and dad in the mansion” Luna shrugged, “Uuuu, are you going to Mexico?”

Both Simon and Ambar shook their heads.

“We need to try to make that happened at some point,” Ambar looked at Simon, “It feels so unfair to your parents that we’re never there for Christmas.”

“Trust me, its chaotic” Simon laughed, “We’re probably better off here.”

“I don’t mind some chaos.” Ambar smirked at him. “We really should try and make the effort. They must miss you.”

“I know,” Simon nodded, “I mean it would be nice, but a bit of a hassle. We can try next year.”

“Thats a deal.” Ambar smiled.

“Oh,” Luna’s eyes widened in some kind of realization, “I didn’t tell you yet. We’re going to France for the New Years!”

“France?” Simon questioned, “How did you come up with that? What you’re gonna do?”

“We’re going to a wedding.” Luna explained while pulling picture of the invite up on her phone.”

“That’s great!” Ambar took a look at the invite, “Flor? She was Matteo’s cousin, right? And… Did you know the groom too? Sounds familiar.”

“Well, not really, but kind of,” Luna looked at her drink, “Gastón and Nina know him…”

“Oh right,” A realization hit Ambar, “He was Gastón’s roommate. I almost forgot, it has been so long. This makes sense though, she caught Nina’s bouquet and everything.”

They had spent considerable time with Gastón and Nina’s group from Oxford during the days leading to and after their wedding, but that had been quite a long ago now. They had gotten along well, and Ambar was actually a little sad that they had not been able to get to know each other a little better.

“So, four of you are going there together?” Simon asked.

“Of course, they are,” Ambar kept looking at the invite, “Wasn’t it Gastón and Nina who made them get together in the first place?”

“I think it was,” Luna nodded, and started laughing “Oh, I remember when Matteo found out… It was so funny. Before I forget, I need to tell you about this awesome plan we came up with.”

“What plan?”

“Wait for it…” Luna paused for suspense, “We’re going skiing! Since we’re already at Europe.”

“You are going skiing?” Ambar looked at Luna questionly “Have you even skied before?”

“Nope,” Luna spun on her chair, “But it looks so much fun… I thought I might try a snow board, or why not both?”

“It is fun,” Ambar nodded.

“When have you been skiing?” Simon turned to Ambar.

“When I was younger, Sharon had often business with some Ski resort people. I got to do what I wanted, so I signed myself up for some private lessons and then spent my day on the slopes. She didn’t care, only took care of the bill.” Ambar explained, “Then we stopped, which was a shame. That place was always one of the more fun vacations I took with her. All that said, it was really fun and quite similar to skating.”

“Well, I have never skied, or done any other winter sport,” Simon seemed to shiver from a thought. “I have never seen snow.”

“Me neither,” Luna jumped up for a moment, “I’m so excited. I wanna make a snowman so badly.”

“You didn’t tell us where you we’re going skiing.”

“Oh, I didn’t?” Luna sat back down and started talking with very fast pace, “We thought about the Alps at first, but Gastón got a call from his job, so we couldn’t do that so now we’re going to Lapland.”

“Wait, Luna, slow down,” Simon interrupted, “So you couldn’t go to the Alps. What does Gastón’s job have to do with anything?”

“Because he got called to do something at Aalto University right after the wedding.”

“Aalto University?” Ambar questioned, “Isn’t that in Finland?”

“Yes,” Luna nodded, “That’s why we’re all going there and then we’ll go far off north from there and stay somewhere called Saariselkä, where we can ski.”

“Now I’m jealous,” Ambar hummed. She had met couple of finnish exchange students while in law school, “I had to take couple of business classes at UCA, and there were couple of exchange students from that school specifically. All of the countries up north of Europe are intriguing, not the mention beautiful. Is Gastón doing some lectures there or…?”

“I don’t know, something like it,” Luna shrugged, “Ask him.”

“I will,” Ambar continued, “That school has very high rankings on digitalization and sustainable innovations.”

“Well, it sounds like you have a lot of fun planned,” Simon took a bite of his fifth cookie.

“Simon, we don’t have anything planned for New year’s and after, right?” Ambar suddenly asked. “You’re taking a break with the band?”

“Yeah,” Simon nodded, “Pedro was the one to insist on the full vacation for the summer. Why?”

“Just that…” Ambar continued with a pensative voice, before she turned to look at Luna, “...any chance we could come with you?”

“With us?”

“Yes,” Ambar continued, “Not to France obviously, since we’re not invited, but we could meet up with you once you’re heading up to the north.”

“You mean we would go to ski too?” Simon looked at her quizzingly, “You realize that I have never done it right?”

“Of course, I know that darling,” Ambar patted Simon on his arm, “But Luna’s taking lessons, and so would I need too, so we could all do it together. It’s so much fun, almost like skating, but just down a slope. You’d like it. Right, Luna?”

“Yeah, of course!” Luna exclaimed, “Simon, it would be so much fun. I’m sure you’ll like it!”

“Well, okay then. This is a battle I can’t win.” Simon laughed and shook his head.

“So, I think I should call Nina now,” Ambar got up and grabbed her phone from the table, “just to make sure they’re okay with this.”

“I’m sure they will be.”

“But, it’s good still to ask.”

Ambar walked back inside and opened the door to the side room that Simon used for playing music.

“Hey! Ambar.” Nina answered her phone at once. The audio quality sounded like she was somewhere out, with footsteps and background noise, and talking through air pods.

“Hey! Is it a bad time?”

“No. I just got out of a meeting with my publishers, which ran a bit late. Just heading home now.” Nina answered as the footsteps kept going, “What’s up?”

“So, Luna told us about your plans,” Ambar continued, “That you’re going to Finland.”

“Yeah, Gastón got a mission from work to go there.”

“Must have been an honor for him. Getting to go represent the company in that scale, it’s pretty big.”

“It is, and I know he appreciates it in a way. The timing could have been better, though.”

“Well, about that.” Ambar started again, “Like I said, Luna told us about the plan for skiing at Saariselkä… and I wanted to ask if you have nothing against that me and Simon would be coming too? I haven’t skied in a long time, but I have wanted to get back into it for a while now. Plus, I think Simon could use some exposure to cold air.”

“Of course, we don’t have anything against it,” Nina’s voice said on the other end, “It would be amazing if you came too.”

“That’s great. What day was it when you’re gonna be heading up to Lapland?”

“We’re gonna finish the timeline today, as Gastón gets the details. Your timing is actually perfect, because we haven’t booked anything yet.”

“I can help with that.”

“You want to talk to Gastón about that, he has been coordinating this the most.”

***

“Yeah, two nights at Otaniemi, and then we’ll fly to Rovaniemi,” Gastón recapped for Matteo, as they, plus their wives were sitting in Gastón and Nina’s living room one late October evening.

“Ambar and Simon are meeting us at the airport when we fly to Lapland,” Nina explained, “We can go look around at the capital Helsinki while Gastón is giving those lectures at the Aalto University.”

“Well, you seem to have it all under control.” Matteo leaned back on the couch, “Remind me to travel with you more often.”

“I don’t know how I can wait two months!” Luna exclaimed from the floor where she had been playing with Newton. “By the way, is Newton going to that doggy-daycare again for that? We will be gone for almost three weeks.”

“No,” Gastón answered, “Delfi and Pedro will be taking care of him.”

“Delfi and Pedro?” Matteo questioned.

“Delfi has had dogs her whole life,” Nina explained, “She has sometimes gone with me to walk him when we have been talking about her producing that book trailer for me.”

“I do wonder if they are planning on getting a dog themselves,” Gastón pondered. “Pedro said something about it being good practice. Who knows what that’s about.”

“Well, that would be a bit odd,” Luna continued, “I mean, Ambar said that she swears that Delfi is pregnant so…”

“Really?” Nina questioned, “Huh, well that would actually make sense. She has seemed a bit tired, but we shouldn’t really speculate on that. It’s not our business.”

“They will probably tell us when it is its time,” Matteo started speaking, “Not like we are on the godparent short list.”

“I think Jazmin has the dips on that,” Luna noted, “Ambar did say that she is willing to go to war about it.”

“Poor Delfi and Pedro.”

“I hope we get to know before I start Christmas shopping,” Luna said while scratching Newton behind his ear. “I can already come up with so many cute things to give them.”

“Luna, it is October.”

“Yeah, so I only have two months to do the shopping and wrapping,” Luna countered.

“Don’t even speak to me about Christmas shopping yet,” Nina sighed, “Year by year it gets harder. It feels like everyone already has everything, especially after all the wedding gifts. I don’t even know what to ask myself.”

“Probably something everyone has trouble with as we are supposed to be so called adults now or something,” Matteo sighed too.

“Uuuuh! Let’s play a game!” Luna said so excitedly that she scared Newton and made him jump from her lap onto the sofa and curl next to Nina while eyeing Luna judgmentally. “Uups, sorry.”

“Should we be scared?” Gastón joked.

“No,” Luna roller her eyes. “What is the best gift you remember getting as a kid? Maybe that can give us some inspiration for gifts this year. Hold up a second, I’ll text Simon and Ambar that as well… you know what, I’ll just put that in the group chat and tell everyone to record a video about it so we can all know each other’s… okay that is done… So, who goes first?” Luna clicked her phone’s record button and started a video.

“Uhmmm, I can.” Matteo spoke hesitantly and Luna turned her phone towards him.

“Go ahead, it is already recording.”

“Uhm… okay,” Matteo started, “When I was nine, the last Christmas… before Mom died, I had just started piano lessons because dad wanted me to do that instead of playing the guitar. But they still gave me my first guitar as a Christmas present and mom asked me to sign it, and of course she didn’t know, none of us did, but she still got to witness my first autograph ever. I think the guitar is somewhere at storage at Dad and Sofia’s place right now.”

“We need to go find it!” Luna exclaimed, “I wanna see it!”

“We can go do that, but I do not know where it actually is.”

“No problem! Nothing is impossible to Luna Valente!” Luna stopped the recording and pointed the camera towards Nina. “Nina you are next!”

“Okay.” Nina stared at the camera blackly for a second, “Uhm, so. Well, this will sound really cliche, but it was a book. It was the Christmas right after Mon and Dad had finally gotten divorced… I remember it because that really was the first Christmas, I remember having some peace and them not fighting, since they were not together, obviously. Mom and Dad, both gave me the same book as a presents, I didn’t tell them that, obviously because I didn’t want them to fight. But to me it just kind of symbolized that they were on some small level on the same page, by both knowing what I wanted, even if they did not know how to communicate and would not for many years.”

“What book was that?” Gastón asked and reached for her hand. Newton had crawled on Nina’s lap and had dosed off quietly snoring.

“I don’t remember,” Nina answered. “It was children’s book, and I definitely didn’t take it to Oxford. One of the copies is probably still at dad’s. I think the mom’s copy got lost in some box when we moved to Mora’s. I can ask but it’s probably lost forever.”

“So, your parents still don’t know about that?” Luna asked from behind the camera.

“No, they don’t, and I don’t think I will ever tell them.” Nina said and fiddled with Newton’s ear, “Well that was that.”

“I’ll go last.” Luna started another video on her phone. “So Gastón, your turn.”

“Okay, mine also involves my parents. It was when they gave me my first camera.” Gastón started. “It was our first Christmas in the house they still live in. I didn’t know it at the time, I was nine or something, since I was on third grade, but that was the time they really had started having money. They gave me this small digital camera, and I did not know how to use it and I thought it was stupid. Like I said: I was nine. Anyways, we actually went to Canada that year for the New Years and that's where I actually learned to ski. There dad took me out and actually taught me how to use the camera and told me that: even if I didn’t appreciate it then, it could bring a lot of things in my life. You all know how Mom and Dad met at the photography course at university, so that’s what he obviously meant, and now I know that he was right.” He scooted closer to Nina on the couch and wrapped his arm around her waist.

“Aww, that was cute,” Luna squealed, “Okay, Matteo take this.” she threw her phone to Matteo. “My turn.”

“Okay, it is recording.” Matteo said and directed the phone towards Luna who was still sitting on the floor.

“I don’t fully remember this, since I was five, I think, but Mom and Dad told me that I was always drawn towards all kind of sun and star things.” Luna started, “Well, now we know why, but at the time they just thought it was cute. So, for the Christmas that years they got me this huge sun shaped pillow. And apparently what I said when I got it was: but why is it the sun? I am the moon!! But the pillow was so cute and me and Simon had so much fun jumping on it.”

“What happened to it?” Matteo asked.

“Yeah…” Luna laughed, “We kind of broke it with Simon…”

***

“...and that’s how I got my first guitar.” Simon stopped talking and Ambar pressed the button on the phone to stop the recording.

“There and sent.” She handed Simon his phone back. “Luna and her ideas.”

“I mean this is a good idea,” Simon scrolled through the chat, “Maybe little early, but better be prepared. Your turn.” He pointed the phone at Ambar.

“I don’t know what I am supposed to say to that,” Ambar looked down, “I spent my childhood with Sharon. I need some time to think about the best gift.” She blew out of breath, “She never really cared to make sure I got something I liked… I know, I know, I’ll bring it up to my therapist when I go next.”

“Oh well, there is no hurry with these,” Simon put his phone on the sofa.

“You know what we do need to hurry with?” Ambar opened her laptop. “It’s goig to be up to -30 degrees at Saariselkä.”

“Uuuf,” Simon leaned back on the couch, “I’m gonna become a living snowman.”

“Not if we get the proper gear,” Ambar rolled her eyes at him, “We’ll rent the skiing gear and snowsuits from there, but we both need proper winter jackets, preferably two, lighter and heavier ones. Then gloves, shoes and hats, the list goes on. This will be fun.”

“If we don’t freeze to death.”

“You have lived way too long next to the beach—” Ambar laughed when both of their phones dinged. “—Is that from the group chat?”

“Yeah, it’s Delfi,” Simon frowned looking at the group chat, “It’s a video with a title: Our best Christmas gift will be arriving a little later. What does that mean?”

“GIMME IT!” Ambar grabbed the phone from Simon and looked at the chat, “Oh my god! I knew it.”

“It might not—”

“What else could it possibly mean?” Ambar looked at Simon with disbelief, “Lets look at the video.”

The video was a picture collage of Delfi and Pedro that lasted maybe 15 seconds, until a picture from their wedding faded into a sonogram and a text: “Coming in April.”

“I was right,” Ambar smiled smugly at Simon.

“Have to say that you were,” Simon nodded smiling, “This is amazing. We should call them.”

“Absolutely agree,” Ambar nodded as well, “So we can get the godparent situation sorted as well… Although, Jazmin probably edited this video, which would mean that she knew.”

“Darling, I told you before,” Simon placed his hand on Ambar’s knee, “It’s not our decision. Delfi and Pedro have the right to pick, we’ll get our chance later. Plus, we already have a goddaughter.”

“Valeria is your goddaughter, not mine.”

“What’s mine is yours. That’s kind of how marriage works.”

***

“Nina! Look how cute this is!!” Luna jumped up while holding up a red and green Christmas onesie, “We should get these for Delfi and Pedro.”

“It is cute,” Nina reached out to touch it, “but feel how rough it is. It should be softer, and maybe the Christmas theme is a little too on the nose.”

“Argh, this is hard when we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl,” Luna groaned and put the onesie back.

It was late November and Luna and Nina were at a local mall doing Christmas shopping. They had gotten gifts for everyone else, but had left Delfi and Pedro as the last ones.

“Lot of colors can be considered as gender neutral,” Nina pointed out, “As long as we don’t get pink. Let's look at some light blue ones for example.”

“Isn’t it exciting!” Luna kept gushing, “They are really having a baby. First ones of us to have one.”

“It definitely is,” Nina nodded.

“Just think, maybe someday our kids will be besties, just like us,” Luna grabbed Nina’s arm.

“It’s definitely possible,” Nina laughed, “But we’ll never probably going to control the timing that much. We can’t know if our kids are going to be the same age.”

“Awww, look at that!” Luna dashed towards a display, specifically toward a white romper with grey sleeves and blue giraffes on it. “I’m getting them this one. Uuu, maybe we could buy some more from Finland, so we have baby shower gifts ready.”

“There is no babyshower planned.”

“There definitely will be,” Luna had dashed toward another display, “if Ambar and Jazmin can help it. Oh, did I tell you yet how many hats I have bought for our trip? They’re so cute.”

{}

So, it depends on the platform that you are reading this on, how common knowledge it is that I am in fact Finnish. So obviously I have wanted for the longest time to write a story where our characters go to Finland, and because I am pretty predictable, obviously they would go to Lapland and explore the beauty that our winter wonderland really is. This part was obviously mostly set up, so the story itself will get going little more in the next part. BUt hopefully, you enjoyed Newton's most prominent appearance to this day in my story. One more note, I am a former student of Aalto University, (I changed majors so I switched colleges) so that's why I chose it for this story. However I did have to bend some fact with this, just like with Oxford, there is no classes at the start of January, but that was the date I had to work with to have the wedding for the New Years

#Soy Luna #soy luna fanfiction #gastina #lutteo #simbar #pelfi #kind of in the background #Christmas #DCLA Holidays #Finland #I have my silly faves visit my country

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eastercon · 2 years ago

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The winners of this year's BSFA Awards will be announced at Conversation 2023. The BSFA Awards ceremony is free to attend by all members of Eastercon. See you there!

Here are the shortlists, including works by two of our wonderful Guests of Honour - Adrian Tchaikovsky and @tkingfisher Best Artwork

Alyssa Winans, Cover of The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard, Gollancz

Manzi Jackson, Cover of Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, Macmillan

Chris Baker, Cover of Shoreline of Infinity 32, Shoreline of Infinity

Vincent Sammy, Cover of Parsec 4, PS Publishing

Miguel Co, Cover of Song of the Mango and Other New Myths, Ateneo De Manila UP

Jay Johnstone, Cover of The Way the Light Bends, Luna Press Publishing

Best Fiction for Younger Readers

T. Kingfisher, Illuminations, Argyll Productions

Frances Hardinge, Unraveller, MacMillan Children's Books

Kate Dylan, Mindwalker, Hodder and Stoughton

Gina Chen, Violet Made of Thorns, Hodder and Stoughton

Juno Dawson, Her Majesty's Royal Coven, Harper Voyager

Vanessa Len, Only A Monster, Hodder and Stoughton

Xiran Jay Zhao, Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, Margaret K. McElderry Books

Best Short Fiction

Or Luca, ‘Luca’, Luna Press Publishing

Aliette de Bodard, ‘Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances’, JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc

Rick Danforth, ‘Seller's Remorse’, Hexagon Magazine, Issue 11

Adrian Tchaikovsky, ‘Ogres’, Rebellion

Neil Williiamson, ‘A Moment of Zugzwang’, ParSec #4

Best Novel

Adrian Tchaikovsky, City of Last Chances, Head of Zeus

Aliette de Bodard, The Red Scholar's Wake, Gollancz

Adam Roberts, The This, Gollancz

Gareth Powell, Stars and Bones, Titan Books

EJ Swift, The Coral Bones, Unsung Stories

Best Non-Fiction,

Rob Wilkins, Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes, Doubleday

Maureen Kincaid Speller, The Critic and the Clue: Tracking Alan Garner's Treacle Walker http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/the-critic-and-the-clue-tracking-alan-garners-treacle-walker/

Fiona Moore, Management Lessons from Game of Thrones: Organization Theory and Strategy in Westeros, Edward Elgar Publishing

Wole Talabi and the ‘ASFS, Preliminary Observations from an Incomplete History of African SFF’ , https://www.sfwa.org/2022/06/01/preliminary-observations-incomplete-history-african-science-fiction-fantasy/

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki , ‘Too Dystopian For Whom? A Continental Nigerian Writer's Perspective’, https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/too-dystopian-for-whom-a-continental-nigerian-writers-perspective/

#BSFAAwards2022 #eastercon 2023 #conversation 2023 #uk convention #eastercon #ursula vernon

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disneytva · 1 year ago

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Pupstruction Gets First Disney Publishing Worldwide Books With Pupstruction: Meet The Pups Book Slated For 2024

🐶A-woo, a-woo, we're the Pupstruction crew! get to meet them with Pupstruction : Meet The Pups by Disney Publishing Worldwide slated for June 6, 2024.⛑️🚧🏗️🧱

📚Pupstruction : Meet The Pups

Disney Publishing Worldwide

Disney Press

June 6, 2024

Written by Sheila Sweeny Higginson

Meet Phinny, Tank, Luna, and Roxy--the Pupstruction crew--in this 32-page level Pre-1 reader. Phinny, Tank, Luna, and Roxy love barking, burying bones, and most of all...building. This first-ever all-canine construction crew team together to use their construction skills to solve problems and help others. This Level Pre-1 reader is Lexile leveled to align the reader and text at an appropriate level of reading difficulty. The use of simple text and word repetitions helps lead emergent readers to reading success.

#Pupstruction #Travis Braun #Disney Junior #Disney Jr #Disney Publishing Worldwide #Disney Press #Disney Books #Sheila Sweeny Higginson

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black-bentley-niatruc · 3 months ago

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Ficlet

Title: Reciprocal Justice (a Betrayal for a Betrayal)

Fandom: Original Work / Good Omens

Category: F/F

Relationship: Amy Light/Lucy Estrella = God/Satan in their human counterparts from my main AU fic

Rating: Mature

Warnings: disturbing themes; toxic relationship; date rape drug/roofies; rape/non-con elements (no actual rape)

Additional tags: anti-fluff; asexual Amy; i assume there is a name for Lucy's sexuality but i don't know what is

Words: 1649

Originally published: 2024-05-14

Summary

“What did you do, Lucy?” she asks, leaning her whole body against the wall. “Remember our bet?” Lucy prompts. “Our bet?” Amy repeats, pressing her cheek to the wall and closing her eyes.

Lucy keeps testing Amy's boundaries in rather psychopathic ways

“What can I get you, ladies?” their waiter asks, smiling shyly at Amy over his notepad.

There is something adorable about him, she thinks. Like a puppy.

“Don’t you have a meatless menu?” Lucy’s gaze travels to his eyes, and he swallows nervously before apologising and starting to explain which dishes could be considered ‘vegetarian’. “Unless you serve human flesh?” Lucy interrupts with a conspiratory smile.

“No, not really,” he replies, frowning, clearly wondering if he’s being mocked.

“I won’t tell anyone,” Lucy assures him with a wink.

The hopeful way he glances at Amy, expecting her to say it’s a joke and the knowledge that it is most definitely not a joke – it amuses her greatly.

Lucy sighs with disappointment. “Never mind, I’ll just have apple juice,” she says and adds, her eyes wandering back to Amy, “It’s my guilty pleasure.”

“Make it two,” says Amy.

“I don’t like the way he looks at you,” Lucy tells her the moment the waiter disappears behind the counter.

“He looked at me the same way you do,” Amy points out, folding her hands over the table.

“Precisely.” Lucy’s usually emotionless eyes flash with something that could be described as anger if one were partial to understatements. A gleaming black beak before it dives into a soft dead eye. “Perhaps I should take his eyes out.”

“Or you could calm down.”

“You know what your problem is? You expect impossible things from people, and then get disappointed,” she says, leaning back on her chair, before changing the topic, “Guess what my other guilty pleasure is, witch.”

Amy takes her in, examining the images from the archive of her eidetic memory, combining facts, calculating probabilities.

“I’m thinking some kind of... anime,” she says, about twelve seconds later and is rewarded with Lucy’s sweetest smile.

“Which one, Luna?”

Oh, that’s a clue. She looks through all the things she has ever seen on television and there might be something... “Sailor Moon? Really?”

Lucy laughs.

Little silver bells, stone temples, moss-covered forest floor.

“Why is human meat acceptable to you?”

“Oh, it’s this ladder, if you will.” Lucy gestures at the top of the imaginary ladder. “Some humans. A little lower, some animals. The rest of the animals. Plants. All the other lifeforms. Viruses. The rest of the humans. Thank you,” she adds, when their waiter places a glass of juice in front of her.

Judging by the look on his face, he knows where he belongs on Lucy’s ladder.

“I’m going to start a new religion,” she announces, taking a sip of her juice and closing her eyes for a moment. A cat’s greeting. Trust. Lack of fear.

Amy considers this statement, while they half-talk and communicate otherwise about different things for a while. She doesn’t like her conclusion.

“Why new religion?” she asks as if they never changed the topic, when she realises she’s not sure of the answer.

“What are religions for?”

“The projection of human narcissism?”

Lucy laughs, surprised. “Yes, okay, and then?”

“Tell me.”

“Wars.”

“Why do you want to start a war?” Amy asks.

“To prove my hypotheses.”

“To prove that you can.” Lucy is pleased to hear no traces of doubt in Amy’s tone. “You shouldn’t have told me. You know I’ll try to stop you.”

The ‘try’ is also nice.

“You’d have figured it out anyway. But don’t worry, those things take time. I don’t think we’ll be there to witness the war itself. Do you want to finish mine?” Lucy gestures at her barely touched juice, when she notices that Amy’s glass is empty.

The slightly acidic pH should have been enough to dissolve the thin encasement around the pill that Lucy had put in the juice with her tongue.

Amy reaches for the glass without hesitation, but Lucy still wonders if she knows...

By the time they reach the dorms, Amy’s steps become unsure and once they pass the doorkeeper, her hand is sliding across the wall to help her avoid stumbling, but there is not much she can do with muscles that won’t cooperate.

“What did you do, Lucy?” she asks, leaning her whole body against the wall.

“Remember our bet?” Lucy prompts.

“Our bet?” Amy repeats, pressing her cheek to the wall and closing her eyes.

“Yes. You said that…”

“Humans are generally good. It wasn’t a bet.”

Lucy smiles. “And I said…”

“They think a crime is a crime, if there is a punishment,” Amy quotes – in her state – and Lucy’s impressed.

“And…”

“Opportunistic species. Your opinion. Not a bet.”

“Well, if you’re right, someone will help you.”

But there is more.

“You also said that I can’t make you hate me, much as you can’t make me love you.”

There are precious tears in Amy’s eyes. It’s not that easy to make her cry, Lucy learned, even though she had managed that upon talking to her for the first time. But Amy doesn’t ask any more questions or beg Lucy not to go through with her ‘experiment’, only stares with a look of betrayal, not even fear, and something like a promise, a calm and sure, You’ll regret this.

* ~ * ~ *

Amy doesn’t recall feeling this unwell in her entire life. Her muscles are so weak she can’t move, her head aches, and nausea squeezes her throat shut. Still, it’s nothing compared to the horrifying disorientation and gaping holes in her memory.

An anxious soft moan escapes her mouth.

“Oh, there you are,” Lucy’s voice reaches her and there are fingertips brushing her cheek.

Amy wants to recoil from the touch, but her body hasn’t quite caught up with her mind. All she manages is to scoot back an inch or so until her shoulder meets a cool wall.

This is her bed, she realises, in her room, in the dorms, but how did she get here?

“Damn, she looks like she’s been drugged.”

“She certainly seems to be,” Lucy agreed, her arm snaking around Amy’s waist. “Would you help me take her to her room?”

The men were not entirely sober either.

“Yeah, sure,” said one of them.

“Isn’t that… Do we know her?”

“Look, I have somewhere to be, are you going to help or not?” Lucy snapped.

“Wow, hide your claws, kitten,” laughed someone undoubtedly drunk.

There were hands on Amy’s body, ‘supporting’, in completely unnecessary places and manners.

Blood running down skinned flesh. Red droplets falling into the stormy ocean. Fire against the night sky.

“You’re not staying with your friend?”

“What is it like?” Lucy asks, gently running her fingers down Amy’s naked arm. “How do you perceive the world?”

“I see the past and the present and predictions about the future all at once,” Amy replies with difficulty, hand curling around the material of her own dress, over her thigh.

“With a gift like that, you could do so many good things for the world, and you chose philosophy?” Lucy touches the place under her last rib, close to where her liver has been dealing with flunitrazepam for, most likely, hours now.

“I’m an observer.” Amy shrugs, her muscles still sluggish.

“Do you think you can predict everything?” A smile that could hang the stars or make them all fall in jealousy.

“Obviously not.” Amy gestures at herself. “If I could, I’d probably have to kill myself.”

“Isn’t threatening that I’ll kill myself kind of my thing?” Lucy grins, her hand never stopping its exploring touches.

“Your suicide declarations are manipulative.”

For the most part. If Lucy were absolutely certain her death would deeply hurt...

“Am I predictable to you?”

“No, you keep surprising me, in the worst ways.”

Lucy feels her smile turn almost fond. “Because you cling to your assumption that I’m at least a little good.”

“You didn’t let anyone touch me,” Amy points out, once her analysis of the situation is complete, despite the missing memories, and Lucy is impressed again. “You stayed to make sure I’m alright.”

Gritting her teeth at the unspoken implication, she refrains from outright admitting she couldn’t stand the thought of some low life touching what belongs to her.

“It wasn’t my conscience,” she explains, defensive and angry. “Only possessiveness. Which actually proves my point,” she insists when Amy smiles.

“Is your only purpose in life making my life difficult?” she asks.

“A little dramatic for you, but you’re probably right,” Lucy agrees.

She absolutely cannot imagine herself being anywhere else. Amy is the only person in the entire world worthy of her attention, the only (unaware) true competition, an apex predator in disguise to eliminate – not exactly her favourite part of this whole dance, but a step that’s nevertheless necessary if she wants to survive.

“Can you promise me you’ll never drug me again?”

It’s not fun when Amy is vulnerable anyway.

“I promise not to drug you ever again,” says Lucy, wondering how often people say that to each other. “Let me touch you?”

Amy stops the hand reaching between her thighs with a sudden, sharp and precise movement that causes Lucy to startle and smile.

“No.”

“You touch me, then.” And, before Amy denies her again, “Don’t you love me?”

Lucy thinks she can see it, then, the way Amy breaks down, to their quantum particles’ equivalents, every possible option, every memory of any kind of request, all possible motives behind Lucy’s behaviour.

Do you at least want to hate me, yet?

Everything she could gain and lose if she agrees.

Something in her calculations causes her to acquiesce, but she doesn’t reveal what it is. Surely not Lucy letting her curl up against her body, after.

Three days later, because of the conversation about starting wars, no doubt, both of Lucy’s PhD supervisors have some bad news for her. They’re concerned, the cowards. She stares at them, drinking in their unease, not showing the inferno of a fury that burns inside her chest.

#Black_Bentley.txt #fic: Introduction to Philosophy – an Inter-Faculty Course

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reasoningdaily · 4 months ago

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Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia

Between 1820 and 1913, approximately 16,000 Black people left the United States to start new lives in Liberia, Africa, in what was at the time the largest out-migration in US history. When Tolbert Major, a former Kentucky slave and single father, was offered his own chance for freedom, he accepted. He, several family members, and 70 other people boarded the Luna on July 5, 1836. After they arrived in Liberia, Tolbert penned a letter to his former owner, Ben Major: "Dear Sir, We have all landed on the shores of Africa and got into our houses.... None of us have been taken with the fever yet."

Drawing on extensive research and 15 years' worth of surviving letters, author Susan E. Lindsey illuminates the trials and triumphs of building a new life in Liberia, where settlers were free, but struggled to acclimate themselves to an unfamiliar land, coexist with indigenous groups, and overcome disease and other dangers.

Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia explores the motives and attitudes of colonization supporters and those who lived in the colony, offering perspectives beyond the standard narrative that colonization was driven solely by racism or forced exile.

The book is published by The University Press of Kentucky. The

"Beautifully written and meticulously researched...a pleasure to read." (Alan Huffman, author of Mississippi in Africa)

"An engaging, nuanced, and imaginative work that merits a prominent place in the scholarship on the American Colonization Society and Liberia." (Eric Burin, editor of Protesting on Bended Knee)

"An urgently necessary book that should be on the shelf in every library." (Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, author of Praise Song for My Children)

#Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia #Liberia

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sarahsuchliteraryagency · 4 months ago

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Happy publication day to Nikhil Singh arriving in Scotland this week for the official Luna Press Publishing launch of his new novel #DakiniAtoll at #Worldcon 2024 in Glasgowon Friday 9 August.

A fast paced, tech-driven, metaphysical Cyberpunk novel. Set in the near future, in Johannesburg, New York, London, Saudi Arabia and Holographic Reality.

‘African writing at its finest. I cannot recommend Dakini Atoll enough.’

Mame Bougouma Diene - Caine Prize Winner

#sarahsuchliteraryagency #DakiniAtoll

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goniecrohanski · 6 months ago

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Ewangelia Golluma po angielsku

Wydawnictwo Luna Press Publishing ogłosiło, że wyda angielską wersję książki Ivano Sassanelli pt. "Tolkien e il vangelo di Gollum". "The Gospel of Gollum" ma ukazać się w 2025 roku.

Wydawnictwo Luna Press Publishing ogłosiło, że wyda angielską wersję książki Ivano Sassanelli pt. “Tolkien e il vangelo di Gollum”. “The Gospel of Gollum” ma ukazać się w 2025 roku. Continue reading Ewangelia Golluma po angielsku

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xtruss · 6 months ago

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Tribal Headhunters On Coney Island? Author Revisits Disturbing American Tale! New Book Examines Troubled History of Filipino Tribe Brought To America In 1905.

— Published: October 28, 2014 | By Linda Qiu | Friday May 31, 2024

These Igorrotes were paid $15 a month to demonstrate their culture and customs at an amusement park on Coney Island in 1905. Photograph Courtesy of Claire Prentice

Transplanted from the Philippines to New York's famous Coney Island Amusement Park in 1905, a band of Igorrote (Igorot) Headhunters went on to tour the United States, performing mock tribal ceremonies and consuming dog meat for millions of curious and horrified Americans.

But, once a national sensation, the Igorrotes—and the doctor arrested for exploiting them—have been largely forgotten, writes Journalist Claire Prentice in her new book, The Lost Tribe of Coney Island: Headhunters, Luna Park, and the Man Who Pulled Off the Spectacle of the Century.

National Geographic recently discussed with Prentice how she pieced together the group's turn-of-the-century odyssey and how some of the forces that brought the Igorrotes to America and obscured the truth about them may still be in play today.

How did you discover the story of the Igorrotes?

I had been living in New York and working as a journalist. I had a fascination with 1900s Coney Island and took trips there often. One day, I saw these pictures of the Igorrotes tattooed, in G-strings and, well, not very much else. The energy of the photos drew me in and captivated me.

I researched through big institutions like the National Archives [and] the National Library of the Philippines, and smaller places like the Bontoc Municipal Library in the Philippines's Mountain Province. I found declassified [U.S.] government files, vital records, and newspaper articles that hadn't been read for a hundred years. So I read about the terrible things these people suffered at the hands of a man they had trusted, someone who they thought was a protector in a strange land, and who had treated them abominably.

So let's talk about the man who brought them here. Who was Dr. Truman Hunt?

Truman Hunt went to the Philippines at the outbreak of the 1898 Spanish-American War. He was trained as a medical doctor, and he stayed on in the country after the war ended. He was later made lieutenant governor of Bontoc, where the Igorrotes lived, and got to know them well.

In 1904, the American government spent $1.5 million taking 1,300 Filipinos from a dozen different tribes to the St. Louis Exposition as part of a scheme intended to drum up widespread popular support for America's policies in the Philippines by demonstrating that the people of the islands were far from ready for self-government. Truman Hunt was made the manager of the Igorrote Village, which drew the largest crowds of all in the Philippine [part of the fair].

The enormous popularity of the Igorrotes gave Hunt the idea to return to Bontoc and gather another Igorrote group. He offered $15 a month to each Igorrote who volunteered to go to America with him and put on a show of their culture and customs. He planned to begin their tour at Coney Island and then move on to other amusement parks across the country.

Visitors observe the Igorrotes living at Coney Island in 1905. Photograph Courtesy of Claire Prentice

You write that Truman Hunt was the mouthpiece for Igorrotes and the press just reprinted a lot of his tales. How difficult was it to find out what really happened?

To begin with, as a journalist, I didn't entirely swallow the news stories, though Hunt knew how to spin a story. By the time I got the key bits of the story and read the government files about his wrongdoings, it was clear just how distorted the picture was and how spun it really was.

Some of the "factual" stuff was entirely made up. In the newspapers, Truman talks about one particular incident: a huge fight between the Igorrotes and the white residents of Coney Island that ends up with the two groups fighting and grabbing pitchforks. He presents this whole scene of a savage battle, and it was entirely made up. In another one, he set up the theft of a dog—he had someone bring in a dog, unleash it, and told the Igorrotes to chase it. But the newspapers printed it as the Igorrotes were savage and wanted to steal this dog.

This was a time when human zoos were something of a trend. Ethnic peoples were exhibited in similar spectacles from Paris to Tokyo. What was special about the Igorrotes?

They were hardly in clothes. Their bodies had tattoos all over them. They had hunted heads in their home—and the dogs. Dogs were brought from the New York pound, chopped up, and put in a pot, and then people watched the Igorrotes eat the stew. This behavior scandalized Americans but also captured their imagination.

But the zoo quickly came to be seen as shameful, and something Americans didn't want to remember, that people were exhibited in this manner, so it was forgotten. There were other examples where people were coerced, cultures were distorted, but in this case, the U.S. government had given permission to exploit these people.They were directly involved.

Igorrote men, like these photographed in 1912, often had multiple tattoos and wore little clothing. Photograph Courtesy of Claire Prentice

How did the presence of America in the Philippines in the 1900s factor into the Igorrotes' situation?

The U.S. backed the exhibition as a way to support their political goal of maintaining control over Philippine territory, by demonstrating that the Philippine people were far from ready for self-government.

Coverage of the Igorrotes was in the newspapers, daily. People were talking about it. It was very controversial and very topical, and people were reading about and had an interest in it. The fact that they were from the Philippines was definitely another layer of attraction.

But I don't think Truman Hunt was trying to champion that cause. He was doing this out of his own interests. He was very charming, very opportunistic.

In your epigraph, Hunt is quoted in a newspaper saying, "I was healer of their bodies, father confessor of all their woes and troubles, and the final arbiter in all disputed questions," yet he basically put the Igorrotes in the zoos. Do you think he cared for these people?

That's something I thought long and hard about. Before he brought them to America, he did volunteer to work in a cholera hospital in Luzon. He genuinely did risk his life for his Filipino patients. The Truman Hunt at the end of the book wouldn't have done that. I think he became very, very badly corrupted. They were objectified so much, gawked at daily, that I think he came to regard them distantly and as a commodity.

The question of authenticity comes up a lot in the book—the authenticity of the record as well as the authenticity of the display of the Igorrotes themselves.

I don't think the display can really be considered authentic. The traditional ceremonies performed before head hunts and the other tribal dances—those were generally rare in real Igorrote life. Same with the eating of dogs. These things were ceremonial and so definitely didn't occur every day. But Truman wasn't bothered by authenticity. They were there to add a sense of drama to the show.

It seems abominable to us now that people were looking at these human zoos. But back then people went to ‘attractions’ like the Igorrote Village in the same way that they go to the movies today. They took their families. At the time it was mainstream entertainment.

An Igorrote potter is shown surrounded by her clay wares and other tribe members in 1912. Photograph Courtesy of Claire Prentice

You write that these zoos fulfilled a need for sensation and an ethnological obsession. Those needs don't seem unique to the 1900s. I kept thinking about reality television.

We have certainly a variation on that today, [with] wealthy Western tourists traveling to see authentic shows of ethnic peoples in Africa and Asia. It's a commodity. And absolutely, some of the TV shows today—you know, Beauty and the Beast types—are just awful. It's obviously deep within human beings to want to look at people different from themselves. That's just a fact.

There is a shred of justice administered at the end of the book. Truman Hunt is arrested. How did that happen?

The U.S. government's Bureau of Insular Affairs, which [was] part of the War Department, received a tip that Hunt was not taking adequate care of the Igorrotes. There were other rumors that he had stolen their wages and that two men in the group had died on the road and that he had failed to have their bodies buried.

The government sent an agent to investigate the claims, and Hunt went on the run, taking a group of Igorrotes with him. The Pinkerton Detective Agency was hired to help track him down. Eventually, he was accused of embezzling around $10,000 in wages from the Igorrotes and of using physical force to steal hundreds of dollars more that they had earned selling handmade souvenirs.

Finally, after a manhunt across the U.S. and Canada, the government arrested him in October 1906. He was sentenced to 18 months in the workhouse after an incredible trial in Memphis.

Four Igorrote girls pose for a hand-tinted portrait in Luzon, Philippines, in 1913. Photograph Courtesy of Claire Prentice

After Truman Hunt's arrest, what happened to the Igorrotes?

In late July 1906, a couple of months after their contracts with Hunt expired, the government stepped in and sent home all of the Filipinos—except five who stayed on as witnesses in Hunt's trial. The court cases dragged on. Five Filipino witnesses were kept in America until March 1907. On March 20, they too returned to the Philippines.

It has been difficult to discover a great deal about their lives after they returned to the Philippines because a huge volume of the Philippines's vital records were destroyed during WWII. I have pieced together what I have been able to find and have included this in the Afterword. I hope that this book will lead to further discoveries about their later lives.

— This interview has been edited and condensed.

#Coney Island #Coney Island Amusement Park #Tribal Headhunters #Revisits #Disturbing | American Tale #Troubled History #Filipino Tribe

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