#Real-Time Parcel Tracking

[anchor-software]

Streamline Parcel Management with Anchor Software: Efficient, Cost-Effective Solutions for Your Business

Managing parcels and packages efficiently is a critical task for businesses of all sizes. With increasing customer expectations for fast and accurate deliveries, having the right tools in place can make all the difference. Anchor Software provides an innovative and comprehensive platform to help businesses optimize their parcel and package management operations, ensuring faster deliveries, improved accuracy, and reduced costs. By leveraging key features like Address Validation, real-time tracking, and Customer Data Hub, Anchor Software enables companies to deliver superior service while staying competitive in today’s fast-paced logistics landscape.

As parcel volumes continue to grow, particularly in the e-commerce sector, businesses face increasing challenges in keeping up with customer demands. Deliveries must be made on time, addresses must be accurate, and operational efficiency must be maintained, all while keeping costs under control. Anchor Software’s Manage Parcels and Packages solution is designed to address these challenges by automating and optimizing the entire delivery process, from dispatch to the final mile, so businesses can focus on what they do best.

The Challenges of Parcel and Package Management

Effective parcel and package management is more than just getting a package from point A to point B. Businesses must also consider factors such as route optimization, address accuracy, and timely communication with customers. Traditional manual processes are often inefficient, prone to errors, and time-consuming, leading to delays, higher costs, and unsatisfied customers. As customer expectations evolve, with a growing preference for fast, trackable deliveries, the pressure to improve delivery performance is greater than ever.

One common issue is incorrect delivery addresses. Even a small mistake in a delivery address can result in returned packages, delayed shipments, or increased costs. Additionally, businesses that rely on manual entry of addresses are more likely to experience errors, which further exacerbates the problem. This is where Address Validation becomes crucial. Anchor Software’s solution helps businesses verify addresses in real-time, ensuring that every delivery is routed to the correct location.

Another challenge is managing customer data. Businesses often have large volumes of customer data spread across multiple systems, making it difficult to maintain a unified view of customer information. Without accurate, up-to-date data, deliveries can be delayed, and communication with customers can suffer. Anchor Software’s Customer Data Hub addresses this issue by providing a centralized platform for storing and managing customer information, making it easier for businesses to access accurate data and deliver a seamless customer experience.

Key Features of Anchor Software’s Manage Parcels and Packages Solution

Address Validation: Ensuring Accurate Deliveries One of the most critical aspects of successful parcel management is ensuring that deliveries are sent to the correct address. Address Validation is a key feature of Anchor Software’s solution, designed to reduce the risk of incorrect or incomplete addresses. This powerful tool verifies and corrects addresses in real-time, ensuring that packages are delivered accurately the first time, reducing the risk of returns or delays. Anchor Software uses advanced algorithms to cross-check addresses against postal databases, correcting any errors before the package is dispatched. This not only improves delivery accuracy but also enhances customer satisfaction by reducing delays caused by undeliverable packages. For businesses dealing with high volumes of deliveries, such as e-commerce companies or logistics providers, Address Validation is a game-changer that can save time, reduce costs, and improve operational efficiency.

Customer Data Hub: Centralizing Information for Better Service Managing customer data across multiple platforms can be challenging, leading to delays, miscommunication, and inefficiencies in the delivery process. The Customer Data Hub feature offered by Anchor Software provides businesses with a centralized platform to store and manage customer information. This allows companies to maintain a complete and up-to-date view of their customer data, ensuring that all deliveries are sent to the right addresses and that communication with customers is seamless. By integrating the Customer Data Hub into the parcel management process, businesses can reduce the likelihood of errors, improve delivery accuracy, and provide a more personalized customer experience. For example, the system can automatically update addresses when customers make changes, ensuring that the most current information is always being used. This not only streamlines the delivery process but also enhances the overall customer experience by reducing miscommunication and delays.

Real-Time Tracking and Notifications Customers today expect to know where their packages are at all times. Real-time tracking is a vital feature that provides businesses and customers with full visibility into the delivery process. Anchor Software’s platform allows businesses to monitor every step of a package’s journey, from warehouse dispatch to final delivery. Customers receive real-time notifications, keeping them informed about their package’s status and expected delivery time. Real-time tracking not only improves customer satisfaction but also reduces the number of inquiries related to delivery status, freeing up customer support resources. Additionally, businesses can use this feature to identify any potential delays or issues in the delivery process and address them proactively, minimizing the risk of late deliveries.

Route Optimization for Efficient Deliveries Efficient route planning is essential for reducing delivery times and lowering operational costs. Anchor Software’s route optimization feature uses advanced algorithms to generate the most efficient delivery routes, taking into account factors such as traffic conditions, delivery windows, and distance. This not only ensures that deliveries are made on time but also helps businesses reduce fuel consumption, lower vehicle wear and tear, and minimize labor costs. With optimized delivery routes, businesses can handle more deliveries in less time, increasing overall productivity and profitability. Whether managing a fleet of delivery vehicles or coordinating a few drivers, route optimization helps businesses get the most out of their resources while providing customers with timely and reliable deliveries.

Scalability for Growing Businesses As businesses grow, their delivery needs often become more complex. Anchor Software’s Manage Parcels and Packages solution is fully scalable, allowing businesses to handle increasing volumes of deliveries without sacrificing efficiency or performance. Whether you’re a small business managing local deliveries or a large logistics company coordinating international shipments, Anchor Software’s platform can scale to meet your needs. The flexibility of the platform ensures that as your business grows, you can continue to rely on the same robust features and capabilities to manage your parcel and package operations. This scalability makes Anchor Software an ideal long-term solution for businesses looking to streamline their delivery operations and reduce costs.

The Benefits of Using Anchor Software’s Manage Parcels and Packages Solution

By implementing Anchor Software’s Manage Parcels and Packages solution, businesses can enjoy numerous benefits, including:

Cost Reduction: With features like Address Validation and route optimization, businesses can reduce operational costs by minimizing returns, optimizing delivery routes, and improving delivery accuracy.

Improved Efficiency: Automating key tasks such as sorting, address verification, and tracking allows businesses to handle larger volumes of deliveries with fewer resources.

Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Providing real-time tracking and accurate deliveries helps businesses build trust with their customers, leading to better relationships and higher customer retention rates.

Better Data Management: The Customer Data Hub provides businesses with a centralized platform for managing customer information, reducing the likelihood of errors and improving communication with customers.

Scalability: As businesses grow, Anchor Software’s platform can scale to meet their changing needs, ensuring that their delivery operations remain efficient and cost-effective.

Anchor Software’s Manage Parcels and Packages solution is an essential tool for businesses looking to streamline their delivery operations, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. With powerful features like Address Validation, Customer Data Hub, real-time tracking, and route optimization, Anchor Software provides businesses with the tools they need to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced market. To learn more about how Anchor Software can help your business, visit anchorcomputersoftware.com.

[floralmusings]

Hi hello, and welcome to my little writing corner!

You can call me Flora (she/her), and I’m hoping to carve out a place for myself in the writing community here on tumblr and follow along with new writing projects, as well as hopefully garner some interest in my own!

I hate the idea of creating this thing and asking for interaction without doing so myself; I am a huge believer of the idea of community, of bettering and bolstering other content creators, and participating in something bigger than myself. So, tag games, asks, challenges, and so on and so forth, are all welcomed and encouraged - additionally, I LOVE hearing about other people’s works, with a particular weak spot for high/dark fantasy, as well as urban fantasy.

Thank you for your time in reading this, if you are a writeblr, interact with this post and I’ll check out your blog! In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning about my wips, they’re below the cut - I am a predominantly adventure fantasy writer, taking inspiration from D&D and real world mythos.

UNDECIDED : Unbound By The Light

Dark Fantasy - Found Family - Hurt/Comfort

Ashaveth, a once devout woman, finds themselves dragged back into the throes of their old beliefs when they stumble upon a creature spoken of only in aeon old hymns and textbooks lost to dust; a creature that bears the symbol of a Goddess they had abandoned so long ago.

Donning a mask that burns with a holy light, all consuming, all radiating - this, was a Faceless One.

If legend was to be believed, they were servants of Vigil, molded and shaped by Her to be the perfect protectors of peace and divine will - they had no name for they had no identity, they had no tongue for they had no voice, they had no blood for they did not bleed.

Had the Goddess she fled finally tracked her down?

UNDECIDED : Parcels & Papercuts

High Fantasy - Cosy - Found Family

The Couriers are a ragtag group who are the proud owners of the delivery service Parcels & Papercuts - a wandering delivery service who will deliver anything to anyone.

This is going to be an anthology series following the characters of this group and their various escapades - from delivering baked goods to a homesick grandaughter, to handing over a love letter to a scorned god. No job is too big and certainly never too small.

This is the type of series that you can jump in whenever, and you won't miss any major plot beats or anything like that.

[artbyblastweave]

Another loose thesis about Fallout’s overall implementation of the retrofuturistic aesthetic-

 From an environmental design perspective 4 and 76 knock the 50s retrofuturism out of the park. As a MA resident, Fallout 4′s version of Boston is extremely immediately recognizable as a retrofuturistic version of the real city, which also happens to have unrelatedly undergone an apocalypse; both components are visible and prominent, and in that order. In Fallout 3, by contrast, the salient aesthetic element is “rubble” and this much more immediate sense of oppressive environmental devastation, rather than the sense you’re specifically in a 1950s version of D.C. The fifties stuff, the art deco stuff is still there, certainly omnipresent when you remember to start actively looking for it, but in my experience it was an element concealed an inch below the grit. 

(New Vegas has the same thing going on to a lesser degree- the 50s elements are definitely present, but in a way that comes part-and-parcel with setting something in Vegas. A lot of the rest is rubble, and the western elements are mixed in as a confounding thing. Harder to describe what’s going on with New Vegas aesthetically, particularly when you throw in asset reuse due to the short turnaround time.)

But. One area where I think Fallout 3 and New Vegas actually surpass fallout 4 and 76, one area where I think the newer games back-tracked a bit in terms of 50sishness, is the mutant design. FO3/NV Mirelurks are a big example of this. The regular ones went from bipedal near-humanoid crab people of the sort you’d see in a b-movie from the fifties, to.... semi-plausible Big Crabs. The super mutants went from kinda looking like guys in yellow rubber costumes to lovingly-detailed-and-animated abhuman colossi. Ditto for the feral ghouls, who went from looking almost sculpted (and textured with pictures of raw meat!) to the twitching, crawling, lurching serkis-folk of Fallout 4. The 3/New Vegas deathclaw feels to me a bit like a Ray Harryhausen sculpted clay thing, while the Fallout 4 deathclaw is, well, the Fallout 4 deathclaw.  And fundamentally both games and films were subject to the same process here- better fidelity became possible. The monster designs of Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas were informed by the limits of what was technically possible within the engine of the time, and did a great job within those limitations, just as the cheesy rubber-suit b-movie beasts were informed by the limitations of their effects budget, and often did a great job within those limitations. The budget improves, the tech improves.... insert Brian Eno’s quote about medium emulation, you know? Fallout 4, Fallout 76, those are monsters you fight in a green-screen environment. Fallout 3, those are monsters meant to be fought in a rented quarry that’s doubling for a new planet every single week.

[selunesdreams]

Chapter 6: Dead Crow Do Not Eat

“Take me with you. I need to work, Rook.” He caught her by the arm. “We have a contract. Use me.” “Trust me, you wouldn’t want to know what happens to people when I use them.” She moved closer, trailing a finger up his arm. He stepped backwards, releasing his hold on her with a groan. “Teia is a bad influence on you. You were never this much of a flirt before. I can’t even have a conversation with you.” “I’ve barely seen Teia in the last year.” Rook placed her hands on her hips. “Did Viago send you to nag at me in his place?” “No. You’re just…not the Fiammetta I remember.” He said and glanced to the side. Rook arched an eyebrow. “You used my name.” “You asked me to.” Her gaze lingered before shifting to the schools of fish in the meditation chamber’s window. “Neve and I are going to Dock Town to meet with the Threads. You can join us.” Her arms fell to her sides. “We leave in ten.”  She leaned in to murmur in his ear as she walked by. “And don’t pretend the change isn’t working in your favor.”

Pairing: Lucanis x Fem Rook/OFC x Spite???

Summary: Rook has a busy week, a run-in with an old hookup, and a really, really bad dream.

Word Count: 4.1k

Things of note/warnings: 18+ fic, MDNI! warnings: blood, graphic depictions of bodily mutilation/murder, dead animals. Please read on AO3 if you need to track warnings, they will be inevitably detailed better there (or just want to be real sweet and give me hits/kudos/comments).

─── ⊹⊱♤⊰⊹ ───

Neve’s demeanor softened as the days went on. Unsure if it was duty or guilt driving her, Rook dedicated much of her time to helping out in Dock Town, which incidentally provided a good excuse to avoid Lucanis. Even better, when a letter from Viago arrived requesting assistance in Treviso on several matters, she sent the Demon of Vyrantium in her stead. He could live up to her cousin’s standards. 

Soon, Rook found herself in high demand. Davrin’s invitation for her to train in the Arlathan Forest with him and Assan turned into a much needed reprieve. Later, she accompanied Harding and Taash into the Deep Roads to seek out a better understanding of Lace’s newfound power. Unfortunately, they ended up fighting an animated assembly of rocks and getting vague riddles from an ancient stone.

Wardens Evka and Antoine summoned Rook to inform her of new blight-related developments in the Hossberg Wetlands, but the First Warden cut her visit short. Upon returning to the Lighthouse, Emmrich requested she and Bellara’s company investigating the curiously named “Hand of Glory”, only to find an old colleague abusing the living and the dead. Dejected, he spent the next several days in his chambers, but Rook was able to cheer him up by accompanying him and Manfred on a graveyard stroll. It seemed to, for lack of a better term, lift his spirits. 

Exhausted from her endeavors, Rook returned to the meditation chamber, propping her staff against the wall and depositing her bag next to the wardrobe.

“Don’t tell me you’ve spent so much time away from the Crows that you’ve forgotten to check a room when you enter it, Rook.”

Startled, she looked down to find Lucanis sprawled across the chaise, his arm propped behind his head. He shifted into a sitting position, leaning forward.

“Viago would have a fit if he knew you were taking necromancy lessons.” 

“We lit candles and laid flowers on graves, Lucanis.” She rummaged through her pack, setting aside a few parcels. Gifts for Davrin and Neve. 

“Did you tire of the pantry? Certainly the Lighthouse could conjure you a new dwelling place outside of my chambers.”

He rose to his feet, following her as she wandered around the room. 

“I was checking for those choke points you mentioned.” 

Rook’s hand hovered over Varric’s shaving mirror just as she spotted Lucanis’ reflection. He stood behind her, leaning against a bookcase, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips.

Fuck. He was getting good at this. Whatever this was.  

“Are we done? I have to be somewhere soon.”

“Take me with you. I need to work, Rook.” He caught her by the arm. “We have a contract. Use me.”

“Trust me, you wouldn’t want to know what happens to people when I use them.” She moved closer, trailing a finger up his arm.

He stepped backwards, releasing his hold on her with a groan. “Teia is a bad influence on you. You were never this much of a flirt before. I can’t even have a conversation with you.”

“I’ve barely seen Teia in the last year.” Rook placed her hands on her hips. “Did Viago send you to nag at me in his place?”

“No. You’re just…not the Fiammetta I remember.” He said and glanced to the side.

Rook arched an eyebrow. “You used my name.”

“You asked me to.”

Her gaze lingered before shifting to the schools of fish in the meditation chamber’s window.

“Neve and I are going to Dock Town to meet with the Threads. You can join us.” Her arms fell to her sides. “We leave in ten.” 

She leaned in to murmur in his ear as she walked by.

“And don’t pretend the change isn’t working in your favor.”

─── ⊹⊱♤⊰⊹ ───

Lucanis had always said death was his calling. He just didn’t know Rook would be the cause. 

She was playing with him. He knew she was. What he couldn’t figure out was whether it was a game, a defense mechanism, or a way to get him to lower his guard.

He’d never been intimidated by strong women. After all, the Crows wouldn’t function without them.

“Well-positioned seeds, planted subtly and nurtured over time, grow stronger roots,” Caterina had always said. Few men among their ranks, except Viago, had the patience for that level of foresight or strategy.

But romancing strong women…that was a different story. Rather than serious relationships, Lucanis had fumbled through a few short-term romances and casual encounters in his early twenties. He wasn’t like Illario, who could have a different woman in his bed each night. Better to give up on intimacy altogether. Feelings were risky and falling in love got people killed. Being alone was easier when he could find pleasure in little things - coffee, cooking…killing. If he didn’t keep anyone close, it was one less person to worry about, one less distraction from his work. 

He settled down beside Rook in their booth at the Cobbled Swan, wincing as he drank coffee that might as well have been brewed in piss. 

“So…the Threads and the Shadow Dragons working together.” She said, “how do we feel about that?”

“It’s what’s best for Dock Town.” Neve replied, “I saved their leader, Damas, last week. They have just as much motivation to take out the Venatori as we do - and they owe me one.” 

Rook tensed beside him and Lucanis looked up, following her gaze towards a tall, fair-haired man, likely in his mid-30s, walking in. Well dressed, he walked with an air that made it clear he considered himself important. Accompanying him was a younger, shorter man with enough resemblance to Illario that Lucanis stiffened in surprise.

“Shit.” Rook whispered, her eyes glued to them as they approached.

“Trouble?” Neve asked. 

“Well…”

“Dock Town’s protectors, at your service,” the tall one confidently eased himself into his seat across from them. “What can the Threads do for…” He paused, brow furrowing as he gave Rook a once over. 

“What are you doing here?” 

“SMELLS LIKE SMOKEPOWDER AND AROUSAL-”

Arms crossed over his chest, Lucanis grimaced and turned his head to the side, trying to keep Spite in check. 

“Makal Damas? You said you were a Shadow Dragon.” Rook said, “Not the leader of the Threads.”

“And you said you were an Antivan Crow. I thought we were having a little fun lying.”

“She is a Crow.” Neve said dryly.

“ You’re the Rook everyone’s making such a fuss about?” Damas asked, leaning back in his chair with a smirk. 

“Anyone care to explain what’s going on?” Neve asked. 

“Rook and I have a little history, that’s all.” He took a swig from his stein. “Well, at least we can skip half the introductions. This is Elek Tavor, my second in command.”

Elek looked up from tracing the rim of his drink and nodded. 

“And you’re the infamous mage-killer?” Damas asked Lucanis. 

“Something like that.” he leaned over Rook to trade his coffee for a bottle of wine at the end of the table. 

“I’ve got names of missing people, including those hardly anyone noticed yet,” Elek interjected, eager to change the topic. “All yours. No catch.”

“No catch? Now that’s friendship.” Neve said. 

“Consider it a personal favor, if you want,” Damas purred. 

“The Venatori are getting too confident.” Elek continued, “We’ll increase our odds of getting them out of our streets if we work together.”

“You seem tough enough on your own,” Lucanis said. “Why do you need us?”

“I get my knuckles bloody from time to time. But if you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot going on. Those blood mages walked into this bar and abducted me .” Damas stuck his finger into his chest. “I’d like to correct that. The Threads are better neighbors than the Venatori, don’t you think?” 

“They are,” Neve chimed in. “Let’s speak candidly, then. Aelia’s a pain for both of us. I want her dead.” 

“Okay. Then we both hunt for Aelia.” Damas said. “You find her, you kill her. We find her? We’ll do the same. Dock Town is ours .” He leaned forward in his seat, lowering his voice. “But I’m open to sharing, Rook. Bear that in mind.” 

“So generous. I’ll remember that when I put all this on your tab.” 

“I knew I liked you.” Damas rose from his chair. “We’ll keep you posted.” He said to Neve and left for the door with Elek. 

Neve’s head snapped towards Rook once they were out of sight. “When did you sleep with the head of the Threads? ” 

“Give me a break. It was like a year ago and if I had any idea who he was - or how bad it would be -“

“ YOU COULD SHOW HER SOMETHING BETTER, LUCANIS.” 

Lucanis choked on his wine, quickly clearing his throat to cover it up, and stood abruptly from the table. 

“I’m going back to the Lighthouse. Next time you bring me along, make sure there’s something for me to kill.”

─── ⊹⊱♤⊰⊹ ───

As she ascended the steps to her chamber, all Rook wanted was a nap. When Davrin came running after her, she knew it wasn’t happening.

“Rook,” Davrin panted, bending over to catch his breath, “the First Warden is summoning everyone back to Weisshaupt. Word of darkspawn hordes on the move, and an archdemon with them.”

“Fuck,” her hand instinctively reaching up to rub her tired eyes. “How much time do we have?”

“A day, a week? We’re going in blind, though. We need to know what we’re up against.”

The possibility of sleep now seemed distant and trivial, as guilt gnawed at her conscience. Was she so selfish that she could think about sleeping at a time like this?

“I’ll talk to Solas. Make sure the others are ready to move.”

No longer eager to return to her quarters, she begrudgingly shoved the doors open. Conversations with the Dread Wolf were rarely enjoyable. 

With a lazy flick of her wrist, ignited a row of candles on the ancient altar in front of the window and knelt before them. Eyes closed, she drew focus, her consciousness wandering from her body, searching the Fade for Solas’ prison. 

“How fares your battle?”

She opened her eyes with a start. The sight before her was bleak and colorless, a barren expanse stretching into infinity.

“The gods are moving against Weisshaupt and the Grey Wardens. I have little time. There are rumors of an archdemon involved. I need to know how to deal with them.”

Solas clasped his hands behind his back and paced, as if searching the ground beneath his feet for answers. “How are the Grey Wardens? Do they understand the danger they’re in yet?”

“Some. The First Warden is completely in denial, though. That…complicates things.” 

Solas halted, his gaze piercing through her, his demeanor growing more serious. “To defeat Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain, you must unite the Wardens under your banner. How will you bring them to your side?”

“Seems I need to get around the First. Easy. Make him lose credibility. Classic political destabilization.”

“Spoken like an Antivan Crow.” Solas’ voice carried a hint of ambiguity that made it difficult for Rook to decipher whether he was praising or criticizing her.

“There never were Tevinter gods. The archdemons, as you call them, are weapons of the Evanuris. To harm them, you must first defeat their life force - the dragon thralls. And even with their dragons dead, they’ll be difficult to defeat.”

As Rook absorbed Solas’ revelations, her heart raced, its pounding echoing in her ears. “So what do I do?”

“Use my dagger. The one you recovered. It can pierce their enchantments and strike them down.”

“Got it,” Rook said, turning on her heel, eager to leave.

“You’re going in too fast! Take a moment. Remember what is at risk!”

She whirled around.

“I know exactly what is at risk!” she pointed at her chest. “That dragon could have leveled my city! Killed my family!”

“Yes. Good. Hold on to that. Remember the loss you have already survived. You will endure more, but your motivation to prevent it at any cost will keep you on the right path.” 

Rook scoffed. “You’re sick.”

“And you’re tired. Perhaps you need some rest. A moment to remember…”

As Solas faded away, the meditation room came back into view. Rook let out a long sigh and laid her head on the seat of the chaise. What the fuck was the Dread Wolf even talking about? Always lessons in everything. He was just as bad as Varric, as her father…

Exhaustion overwhelmed her, making her eyelids heavy and her limbs weak, a weariness that seeped into her very bones. A planned moment of focused breathing, meant to center herself, stretched into minutes, then…

Nothing.

─── ⊹⊱♤⊰⊹ ───

Fiamma woke to a noise coming from the den and jolted upright in bed. She and her father’s small apartment carried sound through every wall, and she was certain if she’d noticed it, he was already investigating. 

When little flames are scared, they should be neither seen nor heard. 

With caution, she slipped her hand between her mattress and the bed frame, retrieving the encircled blade she’d gotten for her 17th birthday from Viago just days ago. She crept towards the door, carefully opening it a crack, and peered through the darkness, her eyes straining to see.

“I’ll give you a chance to leave my home, without consequence, but you must go now .” Her father growled from the kitchen. Fiamma peered around the corner, discovering him with his blade drawn, defensively poised and ready for a fight. She knew if she weren’t here, he’d have already engaged. 

He was buying her time. 

The intruder was facing away from her, and in the dim light filtering from the windows, she could see the glint of her father’s eyes as they met hers.

“You’re a Crow, no? Did someone put a contract on me? Surely my nephew, Viago, doesn’t think I’m a threat to him becoming Talon…”

Still buying time, but also providing thinly veiled directions. Fiamma read between the lines. 

Get out. Get help. Get Viago. 

She nodded in the dark and retreated to her room. The instant she shut her door behind her, she heard pots and pans flying, kitchen cabinets being thrown open, blows exchanged. Her movements were controlled and calm as she slipped a cloak over her nightgown and pulled on her boots. Unlatching her window, she crawled on top of her dresser and outside to the roof.  

This wasn’t their first break-in, or assassination attempt. Her father would be fine. She was simply leaving to give him peace of mind and fetch a cleanup crew. 

She navigated the rooftops to Viago’s, a short, five-minute walk, and jumped several feet over a gap in houses, aiming for his balcony. Missing just by inches, she caught herself on the railing, clinging to the rungs. She hoisted herself up, feeling the strain in her muscles as she flopped down onto the balcony stomach-first.

As she got up and brushed herself off, she caught sight of her cousin approaching, knife in hand, lowering it when he spotted her. With him was Illario Dellamorte, who he’d adopted as some sort of mentee. The boys always seemed to stick together. It was fine. She had Teia and her father. She’d kick their asses someday. 

Viago had taken contracts as soon as Caterina had allowed him to, and it wasn’t long before he’d amassed a small fortune for himself. He was a talented assassin. Incredible with poisons, not too bad with a blade either. Aunt Viama had married a few years back and settled down just outside of Treviso, so he’d purchased this apartment for himself as a reward for his efforts, deciding it was time for him to branch out on his own. 

“I’ve told you Fiamma.” Viago said through the glass, unlocking several deadbolts. “Use the front door.”

“The streets might not be safe. Someone broke into our house.” She said, as if reciting something she’d memorized. Everything felt slow, disjointed.

“What?” Illario blurted. 

“It was a Crow. My father’s holding him off in the kitchen. He’ll probably have handled it by the time we get back, but there could be others…”

“Right. Let’s go,” Viago said, leaping over his balcony railing to the neighboring roof with ease. Fiamma followed, successfully making the jump this time, with Illario trailing close behind. 

“Taking a contract on the Flame of Treviso. Fools.” He mumbled. “I’d like to know what idiot would even put one out.” 

“If it’s really a contract, it’s not sanctioned by Caterina or any of the Talons, to my knowledge.” Viago said, “Your father isn’t interested in Talon, so it can’t be anyone fearing competition..”

As they reached the apartment, Fiamma nudged her window pane and slid her curtains aside. Before she could step through, Viago held his hand out, entering first. Illario ducked in after him, holding out his hand to Fiamma. His arms were warm, a reassuring sense of security as he guided her down from atop the dresser.

The house was silent, still dark. A knot wound itself tightly in Fiamma’s stomach. 

Something was wrong. 

Viago motioned for them to stay back, slowly opening her bedroom door and creeping into the hall. The floorboards creaked slightly beneath his weight, likely intentionally on his part, as he tried to draw out the intruder. Illario’s arm snaked tightly around Fiamma’s waist, his shortsword drawn as they followed, shattered glass and splintered wood crunching beneath their boots.

The kitchen was a disaster, but noticeably empty. It wasn’t until Fiamma turned around to face the den that she stepped in something wet. Her breathing became shallow as she waved her hand to ignite a candle, but her nerves made her magic unstable, lighting every source of light in the apartment. 

The three of them squinted, eyes adjusting to the overwhelming brightness, before Fiamma’s legs gave way beneath her. Illario clung tightly to her as she fell to the floor with a single, devastated sob, burying her face in his shoulder. 

Dante De Riva’s lifeless body was slumped against the fireplace, a dead crow stuffed where his head should have been. His body was drenched in blood, the wedding band still on his left hand gleaming in the light through streaks of crimson. 

This wasn’t a clean job, wasn’t just a contract. It was a butchering. 

Viago crouched beside the body, elbows on his knees, and lowered his head. 

“Get her out of here, Illario.” He said, his tone void of emotion as he looked around for clues. This was future Talon, Viago. Not a grieving nephew. “Send Caterina and Lucanis back. Take major streets, stay out of the shadows.”  

Illario nodded, his grip on Fiamma tightening as he lifted her off the floor. Her chest heaved, throat constricting as her gaze fell upon her father’s desecrated corpse again, and he hoisted her into his arms, carrying her out the front door. 

“Walk Fiammetta. You have to.” 

She shook her head sadly as he set her down outside, tears streaming down her face.

“I promise you, there will be time to grieve later, but now we have to go .” He cupped her face in his hands. “If you think you’re safe out here, weeping in the street, you’re wrong. ” 

She sniffed and nodded, and he ran his thumbs over her cheeks, wiping away her tears. 

“No one will hurt you. Not while I’m here.”

He took her by the hand and led her through the streets to Caterina’s villa, stopping to glance around corners, fingertips never leaving the hilt of his sword. 

The doors of Villa Dellamorte crashed open, making the windows tremble in their frames. Illario let them rattle shut behind him as he guided Fiamma to the couch in the sitting room.

“Mierda, Illario, did you really have to do that?”

His cousin Lucanis appeared in the doorway and paused, his forehead wrinkling as he drew nearer.

“ De Riva? What’s going on?”

Illario looked over his shoulder, exchanging silent words with his cousin. Lucanis looked down at Fiamma, her hands woven through her hair, as she hung her head low, staring at the flames rising in the hearth across from her.

“No…”

“Parents always die, right?” Fiamma asked, raising her head to stare intently at Lucanis. His face twisted in a grimace of guilt and agony, his lips parting slightly. 

“And someone always pays.” Illario reassured her through clenched teeth. 

“Who is slamming doors in my house!” Caterina shouted as she rounded the corner, her cane knocking against the wood. Her gaze fell upon Fiamma for several seconds, and she glanced between her grandsons in horror. 

“Dante?” she breathed. They both nodded solemnly in confirmation.  

“How can this be?” Caterina demanded. “Where is Viago?” 

“With the body.” Illario said quietly. 

Caterina frowned. “Lucanis, go. Stop by the Cantori’s on the way and send Arandrateia here.” She said, “I will meet you at the De Riva’s.” 

He departed swiftly, without question.

The First Talon’s obedient little dog.

“Illario, get Fiammetta a change of clothes from the spare room. Mierda…” 

Fiamma looked down at herself, finding the lower half of her nightgown drenched in her father’s blood. Following a trail of crimson footsteps, she realized she’d tracked blood across Caterina’s white marble floors.

“These moments define Crows, Fiammetta.” Caterina said. “I have buried my own parents, my children, all but two of my grandchildren. None of them died natural deaths. It does not get easier, but you endure. Or you let it get you killed, too.” 

She leaned forward on her cane. The handle featured an intricately carved crow’s head, and Fiamma’s stomach roiled. 

“Honor your father in death by not forfeiting your life. Grieve, and then let that fury guide you to survive.” 

Caterina rose, placing a hand on Fiamma’s shoulder. “This deed will not go unpunished. The Dellamortes and the De Rivas are strong houses. Us Crows honor our own.” She said, her cane scraping across the floor as she departed. 

Bullshit, Fiamma thought to herself, the Crows will slit one another’s throats for a shred of power.

When Illario returned, Fiamma couldn’t find the energy to change into the clean clothes he brought her. She sank to the floor, kneeling on the bearskin rug in front of the fire, wrapping her cloak tightly around her.

Illario set the neatly folded stack of clothes on the couch and joined her. Fiamma turned to her side and rested her head on his lap, staring into the hearth. His fingers hovered for a moment, surprised, before he stroked her hair.

“I will avenge your father’s death, Fiammetta. I swear on my life.”

She didn’t respond. Numbed, she transitioned into a state somewhere between dreaming and disassociation. She didn’t hear the door in the foyer creak open, or the shuffling of feet behind them. Only felt Teia reaching for her hands, squeezing them tightly in her own, caused her to stir from her oblivion.

“Fi…”

Face crumpled in dismay, Teia laid down beside her, and the three clung to one another until sunrise, when Viago and Lucanis returned home, looking nearly as haunted as Fiamma felt.

─── ⊹⊱♤⊰⊹ ───

“Rook? Hey! Rook.”

Davrin banged on her chamber door with his fist again, and her eyes snapped open. Disoriented, she braced herself on the chaise and pushed herself up.

“Coming!”

She blinked rapidly, trying to dismiss the memories and emotions threatening to resurface, and grabbed her things.

“About damn time.” He grumbled as she joined him in the hall.

“How long was I out?” Rook asked, hurrying down the stairs after him.

“I don’t know, but things at Weisshaupt are getting worse. It’s time to go. Hopefully, your Dread Wolf friend had some insight.” 

“He’s not my friend. We don’t get tea in his little prison and exchange pleasantries.”

“What do you exchange, then?”

“Information. Verbal jabs, mostly.”

When they arrived in the hall, everyone else was waiting for her command. 

“There’s an Eluvian in storage in the vault. It was a gift from the Dalish.” Davrin said.

“Ours should go right to it…probably.” Bellara added. 

Rook caught sight of the Crow head buttons sewn into Lucanis’ vest and hesitated, overcome with a desire to pluck each one loose and cast them into the nothingness of the Fade. He took notice of her lingering gaze and furrowed his brow, tilting his head. With a deep breath, she steeled herself and shifted her attention.

“So we sneak into Weisshaupt, nice and quiet, then find Antoine and Evka.”

“Was…there a plan after that?” Neve asked.

“I’m not giving a speech.” Rook muttered, “Let’s go kill a fucking god.”

A/N: Okay well now that you've met Fi's dad...sorry! Lots of building this chapter, next one moves a bit more quickly. Next stop: Weisshaupt, Spite, and brooding. Thanks for the support! It really keeps my head on and me motivated. I appreciate you all soooo much. x

[faneliansficaloh]

A Lifetime of Happiness

(Ch 1) (Ch 2) (Ch 3) (Ch 4) (Ch 5) (Ch 6) (Ch 7) (Ch 8) (Ch 9)

This is Chapter 10

Notes

----------

18th December, 1817

Dear Colin,

My family is visiting with us, so my home is filled with movement, chatter and laughter. They all came in early this month to have a little celebration for Abby’s first birthday. Phoebe and Philomena could be mistaken for twins, and I do not need to tell you that they are a handful. Poor Mr. Finch, I think he hasn’t slept at all since Philomena was born, what with little Paul and his impressive lungs having come so soon after, and now Phillipa is with child again. I do have a renewed respect for my sister. Prudence has come into the room and asked me to give you her regards, by the way. I still cannot get used to how her personality was so transformed by maternity. Dare I say she has become sweet? I still find myself waiting for a biting remark that never comes. At any length, I am happy for both of my sisters, who are loved and cherished by good men that make them happy.

Mama seems much more at ease since she succeeded in her mission to get us all settled and taken off her hands to be cared for. She has been a great help to me, and I know this might come as a surprise, but she has also served as a great comfort, in her own way. I have learned to understand that her love, though expressed differently, is as strong and real as any other more evident by open displays of affection. Life just showed her differently, and I think that might be true for every person, that everyone loves a little differently.

I am delighted with your children’s artistic renditions, I shall keep them both at my desk, as it is where I find myself most frequently in need of inspiration or strength, when I am about to falter in my determination to keep hope alive. It’s been fifteen months without a word, I don’t know how much longer I can pretend I do not fear the worst. Do not fret and think me despondent, I have just allowed myself a moment of realistic thinking that I will drown soon enough in the cheer of the Christmas time season.

Have I told you I have a dog? It is almost as big as me and his name is Jack, of all names. He’s got a beautiful dark brown coat and it is one of the most important charges that was left under my care. He keeps me company in the mornings when the weather allows me to take breakfast in the garden, and sometimes we will brave a little walk, when I’m feeling like I can’t be contained indoors any more. He is sitting by my side right now. Mrs. Donaghy, our house keeper will have a conniption if she sees him inside, but he’s very well behaved and didn’t track much dirt. She will have me clean it all up myself. I’ve grown very fond of her, she is a dear woman but she does run a very neat house.

Did you receive the parcel I sent on November? Did Ollie and Amy enjoy their presents? I wasn’t sure how long it would take for it to get to them, hopefully between their birthday and twelfth night. Thank them for me and give each a hug.

Yours truly, Penelope.

1815 – A Gentlemanly occupation.

He was once more looking idly through the window, trying to locate the spot where the kiss had taken place, searching for her in the garden, even though it had already been several days since she had departed, the exact place was out of view from that window and it was raining. He could not help himself from going back to that moment again and again.

He had tried to apologize to her and it had been even more painful than he had thought, for he saw the disappointment in her eyes at discovering the inconstancy of his heart. Penelope had, understandably, been avoiding him, so she had to turn to his sister for help. Eloise had reluctantly agreed to help him talk to her on the condition that he would only apologize and that would be the end of the matter. She had detained Penelope after dinner and then quickly left her with Colin, without going too far from them, hovering near the door. He would have to accept that she would hear the whole thing.

“Penelope, please. I need to apologize for--” She shook her head nervously, at a loss for words and obviously scared to be caught alone with him. “I’m really sorry for… what happened, I shouldn’t have”

“No, you should not” She couldn’t even look at him directly and was rubbing her hands nervously. He had robbed her of the memory of her first kiss being a joyful one. It had been wonderful, but the memory would be forever tinged with the sadness of having been this awful mistake.

“I assure you, nothing of the sort will-- I don’t want you to think that--” Why couldn’t he find his words? It maddened him to feel this lost now when it came to her.

“I know, you love your wife Colin and you wouldn’t--”

“No!” He took a breath “I don’t” The tone in which he said this had made her finally look up at his face, he looked worried. And he was worried, for he wanted to make that very clear to her.

“What do you mean?” She seemed to be beyond disconcerted hearing this.

He looked around making sure there was no one else that could hear them. Eloise would but Penelope was bound to tell her anyway “I do not love Marina, Pen, I don’t think I ever truly did”

“But Colin, you… you eloped. How can… Why would you if you were not in love?” He felt the full weight of having clearly stolen a bit of her innocence.

“I genuinely thought I was, but I’ve found... it wasn’t true.” He found it was rather humiliating to admit it out loud. Heavens forbid Anthony could hear it.

Penelope seemed to be having a hard time reconciling this with what she thought she knew about love. She knew of course that people married without love all the time, but she was too inexperienced still to think that people eloped for any other reason than a love that had to overcome unjust opposition or one so strong that it could not wait for the bans of marriage to be read, because once love is found and it is returned, why would anyone want to wait a single day to spend the rest of their lives together?

She looked as if she had tasted something terribly bitter “Well, can we please forget about this?”

“But Pen, I --” He had to accept that the words he had carefully practised in his mind the whole day were absolutely lost.

She almost recoiled, he had never seen her as uncomfortable with him “I accept your apology, Colin. There is no point in discussing it any further.” And she hastily moved away towards the door, where Eloise had been waiting. His sister had clearly heard everything, because she gave him a look of pity so intense that it made him need to sit down.

Penelope had only stayed with them another three days after that conversation and avoided him until she departed. That had been two weeks ago and it was all he had been able to think about since. He moved away from the window as he heard the door opening behind him.

“I don’t suppose you fancy a drink, brother?” He asked when Benedict entered the study

“By all means, pour away!” Colin envied the ease of Benedict’s smile. He was temporarily burdened with Anthony’s duties but other than that, there seemed to be no clouds in his blue sky.

They sank in the leather chairs drinking slowly, Benedict examining his brother’s thoughtful countenance.

“What seems to be the matter now?” He tilted his head, anticipating some brooding from him, as sadly it had become a constant occurrence in the last couple of years.

“I’m thinking of taking up a job” Colin said, with an odd smile.

“A Job?” Benedict was relieved and rather amused. He did not have any objections to such a course of action, but it was highly unusual of a gentleman and rather unexpected of Colin.

“I met Lord Thornton by chance back in town last season. He was talking about his time in Sweden and I found the embassy work to be rather interesting. I don’t think it would be all that far fetched to inquire about an apprenticeship or some other position. I am not entirely bereft of ability, so I arranged a meeting with him before we came here”

“What do you reckon you’d be doing at an embassy?” Benedict could not imagine.

“It would be at the foreign ministry, and I might be able to put my knowledge of foreign languages to use, for one. Lord Thornton mentioned they were in need of translators”

“And are you really proficient enough for that kind of work?” This flustered Colin.

“Of course I am! Whatever did you think I was doing all these years when I talked about the lessons I – Anthony himself complained that – Never mind. Truly nobody pays attention to me at all, I see.”

“Now, now. I’m sorry I doubted you, it’s just I never thought of putting my French to actual use if not travelling to France or meeting French people you know? Well, at any rate, I am all for it, Colin! Do you think you require any assistance or have you already secured this with Thornton himself?”

“I am to meet with Lord Castlereagh's secretary to determine my actual position, but it is pretty much done.”

“Cheers to that, then!” He was proud of his little brother. It had been evident for some time that he had been struggling with nothing to take his mind off his marital issues.

“Do you think Anthony and mother will be as pleased?”

“Will it matter?”

“I’m determined to go ahead with this, but I am tired of being at odds with Anthony and knowing I’m displeasing mother once again”

“I’m sure they will understand. I dare say they will be glad to support you. It sounds like a rather gentlemanly occupation, after all.”

“Do you really think so?”

Benedict just nodded assuringly. “Is that all that has you worried?”

Colin looked at him as if to assess the ramifications of saying what he really needed to say out loud. Could he truly unburden himself if he admitted to Benedict that he had just discovered he was absolutely in love with Penelope Featherington? That he had kissed her and could not stop thinking about it? That Eloise had revealed to him the true depths of his ever unfolding stupidity? She loved him. He had broken her heartone too many times, apparently. How long had he had the chance, how many chances had he missed in his blindness? No, it was too much.

“That is all” He raised his glass and they both kept drinking in silence for a while, enjoying the sound of the gentle rain against the windows.

Thus, a couple of weeks later, back in Mayfair, Benedict was the least surprised of them all when Colin, having arrived unexpectedly at tea time with her wife in tow, announced his latest achievement to the family.

“I am to be an employed man!” He was smiling proudly, which had become such a rare occurrence that it made Penelope very happy.

“A job, Colin?” Violet cried with surprise, eyes wide.

“Indeed, I will begin as an apprentice at the foreign ministry offices here in town. Much to my dear wife’s chagrin I am not to leave the country in the near future” He said a little too acidly for Marina’s taste.

“I am very pleased that you will be doing something that interests you and keeps you away from trouble” She responded.

Violet considered this and decided it was not the worst thing, as far as scandals and gossip went, this could not be the worst they had fronted. Viscount Castlereagh was in Foreign affairs, after all, and there were Lords working on the embassies, so it was not like he was taking an apprenticeship with a blacksmith, however unheard of for a man with such a large inheritance and excellent connections as Colin. They would find a way, if it meant she could see him smiling like this more often.

“It sounds very interesting indeed, Colin. I was just a little surprised, but I am glad for you. When are you to begin?”

“Immediately, I will be there tomorrow morning.” He felt he was better off not disclosing that the war had made it necessary to increase the foreign efforts. It was better not to bring war into the conversation, regardless of how little danger he would be in the offices of the ministry, he knew his mother would jump at the mention of it.

“Bravo, Brother!” Eloise said with pride. “I for one admire your determination to finally do something of worth” Benedict made an exaggerated hurt expression, for even if unintended it still felt like a stab at himself, who was currently drifting by without a true occupation other than filling in for Anthony while he enjoyed his newly wed bliss for a little too long.

“Even if it is backhanded, I will take the compliment, Eloise” He couldn’t help looking at Penelope and was exceedingly pleased that she smiled approvingly, even if she was avoiding making eye contact with him. How he wished she would.

Meanwhile Penelope, who had been sitting next to Eloise the whole time, dared not say a word as she felt that if she reminded the family of her presence, everyone would be able to see in her face that they had kissed, however irrational that was. When she had come over for tea, she did not expect to see both Marina and Colin there. She was aware that it was always a possibility when visiting Bridgerton House, but it was such a rare occurrence that she had bet on the actual odds and lost.

She was determined to finally follow Eloise’s advise and remove herself from Colin and Marina’s life as much as she could, but this proved it would be quite a challenge.

The kiss had forced her to learn something about Colin that she wished she didn’t know. It made her aware that he was not the perfect hero of a novel that falls in love at first sight and remains forever constant. He was just a man, like any other, ruled by his passions.

Not only her image of Colin had been changed, but her view on the whole concept of love had been challenged as well. How could one be so sure of loving someone one day, risk it all for them, only to later discover it was never love at all? Could sheer lust really be so overpowering as to pass itself for love? Because she knew her own feelings, and as much as she had tried to extinguish them, they would not relent.

“Penelope, dear, you’ve been awfully quiet, are you alright?” Violet had noticed she had become a bit sullen and worried she might be feeling sick, she had gotten up to go closer to her, so not everyone would hear what she wanted to ask next, but she had already brought Colin’s attention to Penelope – as if he needed a reason.

“I’m quite alright, Lady Bridgerton, thank you”

“Are you nervous about the ball tonight? Eloise tells me you intend to secure a husband this year” Violet sat across from her, with a tentative smile.

“That is correct!” she offered shyly, with a little nod and tight smile. “And, even though it is my third year out, I am truly nervous now” It was different to be simply out and attending these events as more of an observer than actually having to put in the effort to attract a husband. So far she had been more concerned with collecting gossip and observing people’s behaviours, so once she had found herself firmly attached to the wall and overlooked, she had taken full advantage of it.

“Do not worry too much dear, you will have our full support. Francesca and Eloise will be there with you, so you don’t have to be on your own, you just try to have some fun and be yourself” Eloise turned around to the pianoforte to look at Francesca and they both exchanged frowned glances, they did not remember their mother ever advising them to have fun. But then Eloise saw Colin standing behind them. He had heard the whole thing and looked like he’d seen a ghost.

Violet suspected the true reason why Penelope had never made an actual effort before was her own son. She herself had been hopeful that Colin would eventually discover her and form the most sickly-in-love match in recent history. She had been so sure that there was a stronger attachment between them after years of watching them both grow up and develop their friendship. Penelope was sensible and supportive and had always been able to find the words to make him smile – he was always making efforts to please others, but he didn’t need an effort with her, it came most naturally, and more importantly, all of it was mutual. And that it was so easy and natural perhaps had been the problem, it seemed that he didn’t ever notice it was there at all, it would perhaps have required a marked absence to make itself evident.

“At least I will not be wearing yellow this season, mama finally gave up on controlling my wardrobe so at the very least I will not be feeling like an overripe fruit, and I see that as an absolute win already.” Her smile was full, and genuine.

Violet was relieved to hear that. She was sure that with a few adjustments to her wardrobe and styling she would be very attractive, too. It was a shame her own mother had not taken more care to make her look her best. But then again, Portia was not known for her good taste.

“Oh, now I cannot wait to see you” Violet was now determined, already making plans in her head. She would definitely talk with Lady Danbury and make sure Penelope was not overlooked, but they would also need to make sure she was not overwhelmed either, she knew the girl could be extremely shy and lacked self confidence. Since Eloise had mentioned that Penelope was looking to marry she had started making a list of suitable matches along with the one for Francesca. She had one for Eloise, too but she would have to let Eloise decide when she was really ready to consider marriage – It had been a shame that nothing had come from their acquaintance with Sir Phillip, but she had made the mistake of pushing Eloise before and had learned her lesson.

Colin had gone back to the other end of the room and announced his and his wife’s departure – much to her surprise. They would all see each other at Lady Danbury’s ball that night.

Chapter 11

[bookishgalaxies]

A Little Company

summary: you just want Kaeya to feel happy on this day.

pairing: kaeya x gn!reader

type: oneshot, not proofread

warnings: mentions of death, grieving (??)

a/n: anytime I play with Kaeya I keep the volume off because his voice low-key annoys me 😭

————————★————————

Everyone knew that Dawn Winery was closed on this particular day, and no one minded. The citizens of Mondstadt knew that today was a time when Diluc went off to an unknown place and let his staff have the day off. The regular day to day person didn’t know the reason for this but those closer to the family did.

It was the day of death for Diluc and Kaeya’s father. One that Diluc always spent mourning at his father’s grave. Kaeya, however, had a different plan each year. Sometimes he would do as many commissions as his body could handle for a much grateful Katheryne. Other times he would help Jean with taxing paperwork to distract his mind. A gesture that often did not go past her head as simply a way to help out.

This time, he was told by Jean to take the day off. Insisting the Traveler and Paimon would take care of anything they needed.

“Jean, you know there’s always work to be done around here.” Kaeya commented, leaning against the wall in her office.

“And we’ve got it handled. Go take a nice stroll, maybe get a meal at Good Hunter. You could use a day off Kaeya.” Jean responded, standing up from her chair and crossing her arms.

“You’re always commenting on how lazy I am. Complaining about how I’m constantly trying to get out of work. Yet now, you want to give me the day off?” Kaeya questioned, an eyebrow raising.

“I’ve got to go help Lisa with tracking down some misplaced library books, I better not come back to you still standing in this office.” Jean answered, walking past him and trusting him to shut the door after he sees himself out.

As much as he wanted to stay there just to spite Jean, he didn’t. Deciding it would be nice to take a stroll around Starfell Valley. Possibly take care of a few Hillichurl camps if need be. Maybe even catch the sunset stop Starsnatch cliff. It was a nice idea; Kaeya decided to try it.

Evening came quicker than he anticipated. He hadn’t realized how far he had hiked until he payed attention to the more orange glow the sun started to have and the pain in his legs. His mind had been elsewhere and he wouldn’t admit it. He knew he shouldn’t have spent this day alone. Being alone only gave him time to think.

His brother always paid proper tribute to his father but Kaeya couldn’t bring himself to visit the man’s grave. It was too….it made it too real. Kaeya knew his dad was long gone, though there days he liked to pretend otherwise.

He was surprised to see you sitting atop the cliff when he arrived. A basket sat next to you which piqued his curiosity.

“A picnic hmm?” He asked, sitting down beside you and motioning to the basket. You could tell his voice lacked the buoyance that it normally possessed.

You knew what today was and you knew how Kaeya avoided it. You’d seen him for years ignore the significance of the date and hide the pain that came to his eyes.

Pulling out a parcel from the basket, you handed it to him.

“I had Sara make it for you. She told me it was your favorite and I figured you’d be hungry after climbing all this way.” You offered it to him with a small smile.

“It smells delicious…but how’d you know I was going to be here?” He responded with a bit of surprise, taking the parcel in his hands and unwrapping it.

“Because I took care of Jean’s paperwork, made sure the Traveler and Paimon would be here, and bought out all the wine in the other taverns around Mondstadt.” You confessed, watching him eat the meal you had gotten him.

You watched him raise an eyebrow in question.

“I knew you’d try to hide from it Kaeya, the significance of this day. I wasn’t going to let you. Everyone deserves the opportunity to be alone and reflect. I knew you wouldn’t chase after the opportunity to do so yourself. So, I found a way to gently push you in the right direction.”

He was a bit stunned by how you had gone out of your way to do all this for him. You forced him to take the time he knew he needed but would never give himself. For once, he was completely silent after your statement. No quick-witted remark or flirty compliment, just thoughtful silence.

“Thank you, you clearly care about me if you were willing to do all of this.” He stared, looking at you in the orange light of the setting sun.

“I do care for you and I want you to be happy. Not just temporary happiness though. You deserve the kind of happiness that comes after reflection and thought.” You replied

He desperately wanted to lighten the mood. He couldn’t possibly respond in an equally meaningful manner to you. So, he reached an arm around you to slowly open the picnic basket.

“You wouldn’t have happened to bring any of that wine you bought, would you?” A small mischievous smile danced on his lips.

You laughed lightly and gently swatted his hand away from the basket.

“Easy, easy, I was getting to that.”

Pulling out a bottle of wine from The Cat’s Tail, you handed it to him with a glass to pour it in. Getting up, you dusted your clothing off. You gave him a small wave, then turned and took a few steps in the opposite direction.

“Now wait just a moment, where are you going? Leaving me all alone with a nice meal and a bottle of wine is quite rude you know.” Kaeya stated in a gentle tone, a small chuckle coming out afterwards.

“I figured you could use a bit more time to yourself.” You turned to face him as you replied.

Looking up at you with a smirk he motioned to the spot you had been previously sitting in.

“Well since it’s you, I wouldn’t mind a little company.”

————————★————————

Hope you had a happy time reading :)

Wishing you a delightful morning / night <3

[mrhaitch]

what are your views on booktok?

because in my opinion, it has caused a great deal of overconsumption and oversaturation in the literary industry. it's harder for authors who genuinely have a story to tell publish their books out there just because they don't contain the popular tropes or smut. (just to clarify, i grew up reading fanfics and i absolutely have nothing against smut or tropes, i write them myself. but they are not an indication of well-written literature.)

not to mention the rise in the romanticization of violence against women and toxic relationships. that was always there, but booktok kind of increased it in the name of being morally gray. morally gray characters can literally exist without being literal SAers. and it genuinely confuses me because booktok is a female dominated industry.

ive been reading since i was 6 years old and i was so glad when i found there was a community for readers on tiktok. i used to love booktok back in 2021 when people actually gave book recs based on plots and characters and depth and not how much smut it has. it couldve easily been a safe space for POC authors to publish books filled with representation and diversity and instead it turned into whatever it is now.

im also bitter because the girls who used to bully me for reading percy jackson and harry potter in middle school now claim to be readers while refusing to read anything that has no smut in it and reading books with worse plots than what i used to read on wattpad when i was 13.

(im not an elitist i swear i read and love books that arent just classics)

I believe I've talked about this a bit before, but I share your concerns. In fact I think it's part and parcel of people misusing and misunderstanding what social media is good for and what it's bad for.

Novels are complex media, the discussion of which requires time, space, nuance, and reflection. Tiktok affords users none of those, as it is focused entirely on quick, attention gabbing sips of raw dopamine. As such only the most salacious of story beats can be emphasised, as they're the most attention grabbing, which creates an atmosphere where books with MORE salacious content get more exposure.

The publishing industry, while made up of a lot of very smart and very passionate people, is collectively stupid - more so now that publishing houses are falling under the ownership of venture capitalists looking for a quick buck. Any trend or gimmick that's popular can and will be wrung until it's dry and howling. You'll be able to track this in real-time:

An excellent book becomes a cultural flashpoint, and people talk about it and recommend it to damn near everyone.

People who want to be published and successful and view those things as ends within themselves will try and distill that flashpoint into tropes, which they deploy themselves.

The market floods with more of the thing people like, and everyone's happy. The trend intensifies, each new iteration of those tropes becomes more and more basic - less a story which features those tropes, more a series of tropes with some narrative in between.

Then we hit peak saturation, and the appetite comes to a dead stop. Seemingly overnight readers will collectively nope out of the trend, and then start pushing back at it, complaining they're sick of having the same tired stuff shoved down their necks.

After which it's a case of waiting for the next thing. For examples see: Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight, Game of Thrones, 50 Shades of Grey, and all of their respective derivatives.

Best advice - completely ignore it. Sidestep the whole fetid quagmire and do your own thing, it'll die out on its own.

[itwasnotahamster]

- Letters from the Dead -

Kråkstad, 24 August 1990 | © The Old Nick | Source: Letters from the Dead

The brackets will indicate possible context or corrections (sometimes commentary). - 💜

“Beheld Nick! It’s Dead here. 

Hey didn’t I wrote down the titles on the tracks on that tape?! I was sure I did… As for the other bands I have no idea now of what those were so I can’t tell you… But our 2 songs are (in the order. I always tape ‘em) the Freezing Moon and Carnage. I must ask you- what is a rapido-graph pen??? The only kind of pens I have are the ones I’m writing letters with, till they runs out and I must buy some new. Or simply something I just find… Yeah it’s shit to draw with the same kind of pens one is writing with but I guess I don’t have any choise [choice] ‘cos I must write so many letters so all the money goes to buy that kinda pens… but I’d like to know what that professional drawing pen is. And are you using that one? Is it ok if I send you 5 Asphyxia 7” , 5 Disharmonic O. 7” and 10 Merciless LP’s + a free copy for you? That’ll cost you £ 155000. You can pay now or when you receive the records at your post-office or when you have sold the records, it’s up to you. The price of 155000 lires sounds really expensive but the postage is included in that price (it’s very high price here t send anything by mail), or if you want it sent by airmail it’ll cost you £167000. I don’t think you’ve heard Dish. Orchestra, they’re Austrian and not many bands are from there, the only band I can listen to from A. Is Pungent Stench but they’re too much Grind I think. Dis.Orch. sounds strange but Pungent S. is much better. But if Pungent Stench is sold in Italian shops and stores already it’ll be too hard for you to sell them. Is the split-LP Dish.Orch/Pungent Stench for sale in Italy? If not, I suggest you to order that one instead of those 7”s. The very best one of these is the Asphyxia 7” but I can’t send you more than 5… I’m sorry but they’re limited (1000 ex) and when I’ve sent you these 5 copies we have only 15 of ‘em 7’s left and we’re the only who have any copies left to sell so only some few people can get them. 

Hey man, what the hell are you using on your stamps? I need to know ‘cos the kind of glue (<—?) you have on it can’t be seen unless by someone who suspects it’s glued. We mostly put glue on our stamps before but too often they discovered it at our shitty postoffice and teared them off. It’s shit that we can’t use glued stamps on parcels with records in it. To send out records is our biggest expencies, and if we could, we would have so much lower prices on our records. But the fact is that when we send out parcels with more than 6 records it gotta be some stupid sheet on the side of the carton, that they at the post o. put all the stamps on, and tears off that part of it with the fucking stamps on so the receiver can’t find any stamps on the parcel and of course then can’t send back any stamps. We mainly send out 10 rec’s or more each time cos almost everybody can sell around 10 rec’s… Norway is very expensive in everything, take an example- Sweden is also expensive, compared with the rest of Europe (I know, ‘cos I am from Sweden) but there almost everything is the half price of compared to Norway. Especially it’s much cheaper to send out records or any mail from S. Than from N. I think only Finland and Switzerland and Japan is more expensive than Norway… 

I hate to live in Scandinavia and my dream is to come away from this hole. If I’m forced to live the rest of my life in Scandinavia I would choose Iceland or Greenland instead of this shit. I hate almost everybody here and in this local area I hate everybody. If something at all happens in this country it’s there Metalion lives (Slayer mag and some other mags and bands are there) in Sarpsborg, but it’s more than fucking 60 km to that place from here. 

Hey about those records, do you also want Malicious Intent, I must say that they aren’t so brutal and not real Death Metal… but that’s up to you of course. I don’t decide what records you shall buy nor what records we shall sell. If it was only I who ordered in vinyls I would throw a big part of what we sell (like yucky Nomed as one example!) but we’re more than only me in DSP. Except the recs I just counted up we have only one that I put value on and that’s the Schizo LP, that you surely can see in every Italian record shop, yeah? We’ll soon get a limited 7” of Carcass imported from Mexico, St. George’s Hall, Bradford 15/11/89, live of course (1000 copies). Personally I hate Carcass and I can’t stand those trendy clone bands but I thought you might be interested + some demos of Dorsal Atlantica (Brazil), limited to 250 copies. I don’t know yet what the price on ‘em’ll be but I’ll inform ya of it. 

Do you think you can give me the addresses to Paul Chain and the guy who comes from Transylvania’s Carpatii Palatul…. That made me feel like my brain is bleeding, man! If they don’t mind you give out their addresses of course. It seems to me that Transylvania has stopped in time, not in the cities of course but fuck the cities! You know there are about 1-2 million people in Transyl. who’re of German origins. I heard that they shall speak 15th century-German… And that they still have garlic everywhere to protect the houses from the vampire and rituals to avoid the “stregoica” [Strigoi] to come, and exorcism rituals on “suspected” bodies that can have been killed by a vampire… Do you know if that’s true? I’m only interested in the Carpathian areas of the Transylvanian highland ‘cos there are all the castles. Have you heard of that secret tunnel inside the mountain up to Countess Bathory’s castle? I’m not sure if her castle is “the Mandarin” in the very North (I think in Suceava) or if it’s that one a bit South of “Pandarin” called Csejthe, on the edge of the Carpathia. But however now that tunnel’s exactly destination is forgotten and people’ve been trying to find that tunnel inside the huge mountain — up to the castle- for hundreds of years… I’ve also heard or  read somewhere that not only Bathory was the “special” one who lived there but also lots of other maniacs, killers, vampires, sorcerers and vampires lived there. But only E.Bathory got known of ‘cos of her record in mass murderer. Some witch that’s supposed to be immortal- whose name is Cilorgia shall live in that castle by now. I can read that Bathory was Transylvanian and that she came from a “big” and rich Transylvanian family but the Hungarians claims that she was Hungarian (?)… If I’m not totally wrong, then it shall be turk skeletons impaled left around Vlad Țepeș castle, Hunedoara (a valley beside it with 20000 impaled Turks + some other Vallachians [Wallachians]+Moldavians and more) + a forest with craniums nailed to the trees + remains of boiled people and so on. The typical “Dracula’s” castle are both in Brașov (Bran) and in Brad, which confuses me totally. There shall be heaps of other stories/legends/history/tales (or whatever) than only those about vampyrism like in the Western Carpathians there shall be some cemetery called “Chapel of St. Eisel” (in Somesul it is) where a cranium with horns and fangs was found and it’s thought to bleed whenever a soul is lost to Lucifer. Over that place it shall be some place called “Mount Albac” where some weird oracle shall have been. In the mid-Transylvania, between ‘ the mountains there is a huge swampland that is inhabited and haunted by lots of ghouls. A mountain in Transylvania is called “Funnel of Hades” I don’t know anything more about it but what a brutal name or what! [sounds pretty metal to me] How I hated the ex-dictator Ceausescu (in Romania), he extinguished many ancient ruins and castles there!!!! I’m not concerned by policy at all but that guy wiped away 3 fucking towns to build a royal castle for himself. I’ve heard that the new prime minister there not shall be much better — Ilinescu. 

There gotta be some reason of that there are so many different names of vampires in Transylvania, each one is a different sort of vampire. Over here we only know of one name. My goal in life is to visit Transylvania and Moldavia and to learn everything of the legends there that rarely are known of in the West. Also in the Soviet Union it shall be stories told from father-to son since hundred of years ago about their Upir, that isn’t know of outside of Russia. I’ve been obsessed by horror since my fucking birth and it’s been only “worse”, the more I hear about those Eastern legends I wanna move to Transylvania more extremely much more! Do you know if they have colonies of their porphyrians in Transylvania (like with the Leper colonies)? It would be totally great to meet a porphyrian! If they have some particular hidden places for porphyrians there, I wanna live among them, maybe I could get a job as a blood bringer for them… As you probably know, they have (at least they had under Ceausescu) extreme problems in electricity and they could have a lamp lightened for 2 hours each day or so, the weird thing is that it shall be bands there though (but only Heavy Metal). I heard from a friend in Hungary that it shall be a “metal” zine in Transylvania, but I don’t have that address. Do you know some more about Lycanthropy/werewolves? I don’t know much about that anyway. I try to find flowers of that kind that are supposed to be fed by the moon light but I don’t know the name of those flowers. Only of one, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the moon- Wolvesbane, that one is thought to “infect” humans to werewolves, it’s very poisonous anyway. It grows only at very strange places and I doubt it at all exists in Scandinavia… I’d like to collect plants that are superstitions of. I guess the people in-or from Translyvania think that the views, we who’re not from there, have of that place sound strange to them. Especially those vampire movies. So much crap-movies have been produced, only a very few, are of value. Bram Stokers novel “Dracula” made probably the most of how our idea of Dracula looks like still in these years. I think it was wrong done of Stoker to mix all togeather [together] different legends in Transylvania to one “noble man” or aristocrat that he called Dracula. One legend was Vlad Țepeș, the impaler (the only one it’s prooved he really existed) the warlord and the Romanian peoples hero, but he also massacred his own people. Another legend is vampyrism. Or it’s not simply one, actually it’s one kind of a stregoica- sorcerer of the Black Arts that can manage shape-shanging into animals (but not into bats so I don’t know from where came the idea of the vampire-bat) another one is the Nosferatu (Nosferatu means “undead” or “back from the dead”), Drac, Odorofen (orig. name I think), Vrkolak, Vrykolakas (Greek), Draculae, Upir (Russian), Dupir (Turkish) Ordog, Pokol, Vampyr, Whamphyr, Vampir, Dracul (Transyl. Moldavian), Dracula (Vallachian [Wallachian]), murony, muroin and strigoin… and so on and on… I don’t know all of the names, maybe you know some more??? The weirdest thing about vampyrism is that it was so spreaden out, all over the whole world (but in the West Europe not really until about 150 years ago). The idea of that when someone loosing all his blood that also the soul follows with it is really old and someone who then sucks out someone elses blood then must take thet ones soul and keep it. So for thousands of years ago or maybe even longer back in time than that people around the world have had some kind of a vampire tale from that idea of the blood is the soul and life. I can not understand how people of that time could find out the legends of wolf-men... have you ever seen a wolf in a zoo or something like that? The only difference between a wolf and an ordinary dog is that a wolf is wild, got about some 100 times smarter brain and stronger instincs. 

We have in Norway-Sweden-Finland-and Russia (Kola half -island) in the north a place called Lappland, in case you don't know, we got some strange animals up there, also wolves (but not so many). Another animal that lives up there is the Musk Ox, it's a kind of "ancient cow" with twisted horns and long hair but they're very rare (I've seen them only once hone I was up there in the very North). I don’t think it was the idea of the wolves themselves that made people find out about werewolves — but their reaction at the full moon. Also humans reacts at the full moon but I think that is growing away more and more ‘cos it was really many generations ago since the humans lived in forests near the nature so now we’re only used to computers and disgusting technology [couldn’t agree more]. Humans adjustment to newer times and hi-tech shit has made our brains different, our instincts are almost gone etc. But I believe that for some hundreds or thousands years ago we could feel alike the animals in many manners. Have you been living alone in a forest for a longer time? Have you then felt how your mind can “turn back” to be more primitive… at least that’s how I feel it then. I’m working on that for example when I need new (old…) and different ideas for lyric material. I’ve tried that out, to sit alone in a lonely and half-broken down cabin in a dark forest, by night. The worst thing about the modern time is the modern way of thinking and too much can be explained. But I must end here. You have now the prices and you know of what records you can order so don’t forget to tell of how many you want and of what you want, ok. So I hope to hear from ya soon, pal. Oh yeah, of course you can send back the copies you eventually can’t get rid of, but if so I suggest you to wait to some time later to see if you can sell ‘em then instead— or in worst case you can send ‘em to someone else in Italy who can buy/sell (we can find one, if so). Be evil — Not openminded! Only Black is true, only Death is Real!

Gore is trend! No fun - No trends! C-ya!

Dead”

[alliesdelimma]

"When will you take the big step and be one of mine, little bird? I could use a courier with your sort of passion."

Carefully Allie lowered a wooden crate to the floor, fighting the urge to pant as she straightened and set hands on hips.  It had taken the better part of the day already slaving away under the sun and the watchful eye of the Courier Office manager.  It was exhausting work to get things organized and ready for distribution through the many couriers who slipped in and out on their way to and from deliveries.  Every Courier under this group had to take a turn here.  Or at least that’s how it was supposed to work.  Newbies and those under some kind of disciplinary action were usually tasked with the work.  What better way to learn the ropes and to punish those troublemakers?

She wasn’t the former, and…well the latter might be accurate.  Such a thought had a grin cross her face earning her a scowl from the man who’d been keeping an eye on her this whole time.  He had been watching her like a hawk, she’d gotten the service quite a scolding for failing to deliver a package.  The thought only made her smile grow as crystalline blue narrowed for a brief moment.  “I’m going to take a break real quick,”  Maybe she was exactly a troublemaker as a bump of her hip was enough to send a table piled high with letters and parcels to turn into an avalanche of paper and twine to spill across the floor.

Snickering as she stepped out into the evening sun, Allie settled herself cross legged upon a crate outside the couriers office the Little Sparrow rubbed her shoulder, trying to ease a sore muscle just under the surface.  It was one thing to deliver mail, she had a deadline to meet but really it let her see the world and meet so many people, but her work of late had been extra difficult of late.  Today had been perhaps the roughest day she'd had since returning to work.

It had taken a long time to get back to form as it was.  Briefly being a prisoner of war, dealing with an irritable dwarf  help her to walk and find her feet again after the injury to her leg, and the mental barriers of getting back into the swing of things.  None of that even counted the mountain of paperwork that awaited her in the couriers office due to her absence as well as dealing with a fine on top of what she had incurred due to her injury, imprisonment, and recovery…she was tired, sore, and still felt like she had a mountain more to do just to get back on track

But Allie was nothing if not stubbornly determined.  She’d take care of her debts, she just needed to work a little harder for it.  She-.

“Oh.  This came for you…earlier…”  The manager stepped out and shoved a note into her hands. Sniffing the man stared down at her, "You...hmph. You'll be alright..." With that puzzling response the man returned inside.

Slowly the redhead looked down at the paper in her hand eyes widening as she read the words several times just to be sure she'd read it right.

"When will you take the big step and be one of mine, little bird? I could use a courier with your sort of passion."

Tired as she was, sore as she was. Nothing could contain the excitement within her, as she was on her feet in a second and hopped around with a laugh of pure joy. Recharged she dashed back inside to pen out a response. Stepping over the mess that still remained from her hip check of a table.

"Just tell me when and where Lady Courier. I'm there."

Still grinning the message was slid into a spare envelope and offered it to the grumpy man. "I need a delivery."

Frowning the man took it, looking at it and the address written. "I can-" He was cut off as a hand was extended.

"I'm still on the clock right? There isn't another courier here and that seems like an important delivery. I'll deliver it. Since no one else can do it right now." The man's scowl as the letter was passed back lingered even as she flashed him a bright grin and was running out the door.

The Little Sparrow was more than happy to be a courier under The Courier. But what kind of passionate courier wouldn't deliver a response in person?

((Thank you for the ask! You have no idea how happy Allie became in my head with this @safrona-shadowsun ))

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

‘If it’s dangerous for one population, it will be for the other’: the Brazilian farmers poisoned by a banned pesticide exported from Britain

When Brazil banned the notorious weedkiller paraquat, farmers switched to diquat, a close chemical cousin. But now diquat – banned in the UK, but still manufactured and exported from here – is causing problems of its own

When one side of his body seized up after working the fields of his small-holding, Valdemar Postanovicz feared he was having a stroke. “All the right side of my body was paralysed. I couldn’t feel my foot and my hand. My mouth twisted to the right,” he says. 

In fact, he was experiencing symptoms of acute pesticide poisoning. Postanovicz had accidentally absorbed Reglone, a powerful herbicide based on the chemical diquat, while clearing weeds from his land in an isolated village in southern Brazil, in 2021. 

“It was only one time in my life, but I felt so sick that I never used it again,” he tells Unearthed and Public Eye. These days, he weeds his fields of beans and tobacco by hand. 

Postanovicz is one of a growing number of farmers who have been poisoned with diquat in Paraná, Brazil’s agricultural heartland and its largest consumer of the herbicide. Since a ban on the notorious weedkiller paraquat took effect in Brazil in 2020, the country’s usage of diquat – a close chemical cousin – has soared. Between 2019 and 2022, annual diquat sales in Brazil rocketed from around 1,400 to 24,000 tonnes – an increase of more than 1,600%. 

One popular brand of this weedkiller in Brazil is Reglone, a solution containing 20% diquat that is manufactured in Huddersfield, in the north of England, by the Swiss-headquartered agrochemical giant Syngenta. Diquat has been banned from use on both British and Swiss farms since 2020, after EU experts concluded it posed a ‘high risk’ to people living near fields where it was sprayed. However, British law allows Syngenta to keep making the weedkiller in the UK, for export to countries with weaker regulations.

Diquat usage in Paraná has risen even more sharply than in Brazil as a whole; now the state has begun to see a rise in reported diquat poisoning cases. Between 2018 and 2021, the state recorded just one to three cases annually. This jumped to six in 2022 and again to nine in 2023. Experts say these official numbers are likely the tip of the iceberg. Many incidents of pesticide poisoning go unreported, due to lack of access to healthcare in remote areas, or fear of reprisals from employers. 

“Those numbers reflect a small parcel of reality… According to the World Health Organisation, for each poisoning registered, there will be 50 missed,” said Marcelo de Souza Furtado, a specialist at the Paraná state health department, who is responsible for tracking poisonings in the western region of the state. The Paraná authorities don’t know the real scale of the state’s pesticide poisoning problem, he adds, but “the problem is big”. 

Continue reading.

[rideboomindia]

Now you can book small delivery truck with the RideBoom app

RideBoom the unique ride-share app can help you and your business to move your stuff easily and affordably.

 Courier and parcel services have become a fundamental part of our day-to-day life and with the rise of many parcels business or real estate sector e-commerce, local businesses, and food delivery, furniture the demand for quick and efficient removal services has increased. The courier and parcel and removal market in India experienced significant growth after the pandemic.

 Now with the RideBoom app you not only can book taxis and bike rides, but you can also now able to book a small delivery or removal truck.

                                  How This Works

 1.   Select delivery on the app and enter your pickup and drop-off destination.

You will get the fare estimate on the app that is included the waiting and loading unloading time.

2.   Tap on book now and you able to see the nearest available drivers and the estimated time of the arrival.

3.   You can track the progress of your delivery and will get the fare in the end you can pay cash or pay in the app to the driver.

  At this stage, the RideBoom delivery truck service is available only in tri-city and very soon the service will be added to more cities.

                   Why use the RideBoom delivery service

 1.   Its affordable RideBoom gives you a fair and accurate upfront price estimate. You can save up to 50% compared to traditional providers.

2.   Conveniently, Our technology makes it easier than ever to book, track, communicate & pay. Request a Delivery Professional in one minute.

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  Before making your final decision, make sure to consider what options you truly need in terms of delivery services. There is no better time than now to download and use RideBoom delivery service that can help to increase efficiency and lower costs for your business and personal items removal.

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[eponadolls]

Lost in Shipping?

Be warned, a bit of a rant ahead...

About a month ago, I found a seller selling the War Story Captain Elsa head separately, and I pounced on it. I like some pieces from the fullset outfit, but buying just the head would have saved me a good bit of coin, which is appreciated since she would have been customized into one of my 1/6 action figure elf crew. Unfortunately, it's been in a... shipping limbo. It hasn't been lost as much as "effectively, probably, lost."

It went through customs and Chicago just fine, and then took a detour to Pontiac, Michigan and... went radio silent. For a long time. Can't have nothing in Detroit, I guess. I put in a missing parcel request and just... waited. Eventually I got a very unpleasant update:

"The package associated with this tracking number did not have proper postage applied and will not be delivered. You are encouraged to contact the sender/merchant to seek reshipment, refund or other available recourse."

This is... the first time I ever got that notification. I contacted my post office and they said they would let Pontiac know that, if necessary, I would be willing to pay the overdue postage at delivery at the post office, but they couldn't guarantee anything, especially if it ends up being used in a case against the shipper (in case said person was known for not paying correct postage). I quickly followed up with the seller and I was told the following:

"hello, friend, just talked with the aliexpress carrier Cainiao, they reply as following : Due to USPS system issues, the deduction was not successful. USPS is arranging for transfer and delivery. Please inform the consumer that there is no need to pay postage and wait patiently for the package to be delivered [...] and, friend, if till Oct 21th,you still haven't received the package, you can open up an haven't received case for it"

...Unfortunately, there was been NO movement on the package, so I don't think the package will show up. I guess tomorrow I can file for my refund but it really, really sucks that this head will (probably) never be arriving. There was only one other seller I found find selling her head and it's out of stock now too, well before I noticed the delivery issues, so it looks like I'm kind of shit out of luck and I'll have to probably buy the full figure anyways if I really want this sculpt. She's widely avaliable at least but this is a real kick in the teeth, I would have much rather paid $50 for a sculpt rather than $200 for the whole figure with an outfit that only a few select pieces would I utilize well. If she had the BBK Pirate outfit, I wouldn't complain since honestly, I could use a lot of those pieces really well... I should be getting my refund without any problems, and the seller has been nice so far with this issue, but this has been really disappointing.

[stephensmithuk]

The Man with the Watches

Originally written in 1898 as part of a series of short stories called Round the Fire. Doyle needed money to complete a house he was building in Surrey. Insert your own jokes about actors, bad movies and extensions here.

Rugby is a town in Warwickshire, 83 miles north of London. Yes, it is where the sport of rugby is named after - more specifically Rugby School, a famous private school.

Smoking areas in British trains were gradually abolished from the 1980s, the final ones going in 2005 (GNER and Caledonian Sleeper). I have a 2000 GB-wide timetable showing where smoking was still permitted. In some cases, the trigger for the ban was the move to air-conditioned stock that would result in the smoke circulating in the rest of the train.

A Gladstone bag was a rigid-framed small suitcase that could be opened into two equal halves, named as such due to its used by William Gladstone, four-time British Prime Minister, who would start his final ministry later in 1892.

The guard's van on passenger trains was generally a specific section of a carriage that also had a caged area for carrying luggage, parcels and caged small animals.

Willesden Junction is located in Harlesden, NW London. It no longer has any platforms on the West Coast Main Line, with Avanti and London Northwestern Railway trains going straight past it. Its passenger service today is made up of London Overground Lioness line services from Euston to Watford Junction, Overground Mildmay line services from Stratford to Richmond or Clapham Junction and the Underground's Bakerloo Line from Harrow and Wealdstone to Elephant & Castle. The first and third share the same tracks, while the second operates, on lines shared with freight trains, on separate "High Level" platforms. There is a depot for Overground trains nearby.

Non-gangwayed stock i.e. carriages with no connection between them even for emergency use, continued to be built into the British Railways, with quite a few of the "first generation" of diesel and electric multiple units being built this way. Most got gangways in later refurbishments, but the Class 205 DEMU, bar one example (205205) altered in a refurbishment trial, would carry on without them until final withdrawal in 2004. Most of the survivors then promptly ended up in the hands of heritage railways.

The Bible Society of London was founded in 1804 with the aim of providing affordable Bibles in people's own languages, after the 1800 case of a woman called Mary Jones, who saved up for six years then walked 26 miles to buy a Bible in Welsh. It is still active today.

The London to Rugby line had been widened to four tracks in the 1870s. From west to east, the tracks go: Down (Northbound) Fast - Up (Southbound) Fast - Down Slow - Up Slow. Ergo, you cannot move between two Down trains without a big leap. (https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/lec2#LINK_1)

A bunco-steerer is a swindler.

Green goodsmen operated a scam in which people were offered purportedly counterfeit notes printed using stolen plates (so appearing genuine) at a cheap price, being shown actually genuine notes in a bag. During negotiation, the bag was switched for one containing worthless goods, like sawdust or green paper. Having been duped out of real money, the victims were reluctant to report this to police as attempting to purchase fake money was illegal.

Card-sharping is cheating at cards using various means, including cutting bits of cards to mark the ones you would want. Vegas casinos frequently deliberately cut corners off used cards being sold to tourists to prevent them being snuck into their games.

Tammany refers to Tammany Hall, the corrupt political machine that had ran New York City, for much of the 19th century, leveraging support from Irish immigrants by providing them with jobs for example. It had been temporarily ousted from power after the Lexow Commission of 1894-95 into police corruption; to wit, promotions were being sold for large sums of money and officers got that through extracting protection money from brothels etc. However, it would come back in the 1898 elections and retain control with occasional breaks until 1961, when Carmine DeSapio was ousted as its leader. It then lost power and had gone by 1967.

Travelling salespeople would carry samples or models of their products on their trips, sometimes in branded containers. This has largely become a thing of the past, but is still around.

Northumberland Avenue used to have a lot of high-class hotels, but these have mostly gone. Some were taken over for government use for a while, including by the War Office.

"Mary Jane" appears to have been a slang term for a male prostitute; Mary Jane Kelly was the final victim of Jack the Ripper.

[sabrinahawthorne]

The Forever Game, pt 2: What Gets to Be a Forever Game?

referencing this post

Let's talk about what counts as a Forever Game, shall we? Considering it's a term I saw once on a post I can no longer find and proceeded to formalize with Proper Noun Caps, it certainly can't prove to be a reductive taxonomy, can it?

As I mentioned in part 1, I think of Forever Games as being a type of game on its own - something with a certain approach to character design & progression, which is built with some assumption of long-term play. After all, I don't usually suggest Mage: The Awakening as a one-shot game.

This conception clearly isn't universal - a number of respondents brought up the fact that just about any game can be the one a table comes back to as their baseline, so long as they like it enough. And that's absolutely true - For the end user, any game can serve any purpose. Unfortunately, and with respect to the people who brought it up, this observation just isn't very useful for our purposes.

It's absolutely true that any game can be someone's forever game. But that's a feature of tabletop games as a medium - the fact is, at the end of the day all games take place inside our heads. This is why people use D&D 5th edition as a murder mystery game, or a tabletop-visual-novel; they understand that the fundamental mechanism of this art form is the limitless power of imagination, and are comfortable using the same rules framework every time to build whatever narrative they like, regardless of whether or not better-tailored alternatives exist.

If we want to get on the same page about Forever Games, we need to look at something concrete - like on-paper design of games themselves. That in mind, let me put forth some qualities that a Forever Game might have:

Almost certainly a trad game. While games like Wanderhome exist, the vast majority of titles I'd list as forever game candidates have a GM and probably use at least two denominations of dice.

A multi-faceted character framework. In other words, a race/class system is better suited for a Forever Game than simple Playbooks, generally speaking. This is for replayability's sake. Some folks play wizards all the time, every time - but if you've just spent five years as Slagnarr the Axinator, it might be nice to start over as a healer for the next go round.

A customizable progression track. The more a game allows you to make a capital-B-Build, the better. This is part & parcel with the above point, re: replayability, but it serves another purpose - embodying your character concept. Imagination is well and good, but there's something special about having a class feature that supports the way you want to play your character. It makes them feel more real.

At least one game mode that involves intricate mechanical interactions. The classic version of this is a grid combat system - but a crunchy exploration system or involved crafting mechanic are also good examples of this. The more rich and interesting a game's... well, game elements are, the better the game will hold up over time. Note that I don't say complex, but rich. There's a reason GURPS light is more popular than the full ruleset. Games tend to last longer when they give more of the table something to be doing at any given time, minimizing dead zones in play.

Little in the way of social mechanics. Hear me out on this - for a lot of tables, the ability to get together with friends, put on a mask, and goof off without fear of social repercussion is a huge draw. Having to do the same kinds of rules reference for politicking that you use for mosnter slaying doesn't facilitate the fantasy; it hinders freedom of play. You want the chance to fail your Will save because it creates interesting drama. The idea that you might be punished for shamelessly flirting with the King while his consort is Right There ruins the fun. A table's forever game is going to be something that lets them play casually. I don't think this is a controversial opinion; the idea of a "beer and pretzels" game is older than I am, and anyone who's been in a long-term game with friends knows how loosey-goosey things can get. I think that facilitating jokes has a solid correlation to facilitating coming back to the game.

This isn't really working towards anything. Really, I just wanted to take the opportunity of my own vagueness to elaborate a bit on what exactly I mean when I say "forever game," so if I decide to keep poking the hornet's nest, we can at least agree on whether I'm using a stick or a branch.

[zahri-melitor]

Christmas with the Super-Heroes #2

This is an issue of all-new stories, meaning I finally get away from TT Christmas Carol. And fascinatingly, this set are actually all quite reflective and less relentlessly cheerful and madcap than your average Christmas story. I highly recommend, even though there are no Real Santas in this set.

Superman: Ex-Machina – honestly this story was gentle as it sat with the pain inside it, and the silences, and what people don’t want to discuss. It’s more powerful in the way both Superman and the main character don’t want to spell out their situations more than necessary.

Batman: And in the Depths – another story about grief, revolving around the Cave and those who enter it. I really really like this, as the text helps, but it also works as a story of pictures. Also love a robin (bird) in front of Jason’s memorial case moment.

Wonder Woman: Gifts – Christmas at the Kapatelis', with Diana and one of Julia's good friends, Pastor Sharon Jackson. It's a very ecumenical comic, discussing the foundations of belief and service in the face of abandonment and despair, but it also has this amazingly adorable panel with Diana in an apron working out how cookie cutters work.

Enemy Ace: Silent Night – a proper no-text comic! This one is set during Christmas 1916 at an Allied hospital somewhere in Europe. They're out of supplies and a German war ace lands his plane and delivers a parcel of food for Christmas dinner. He's both thanked and threatened by various staff and patients of the hospital. It's very The 1914 Christmas Truce. (Excuse me I need to go play What's a Few Men by Hunters & Collectors a few times)

The Flash and Green Lantern: An Old-Fashioned Christmas – this is a flashback Barry and Hal comic, heads up, despite the date of the special. And yes, it's a comic where Ollie gives Hal Das Kapital (spelt Das Capital apparently in the DCU).

After Monitor Duty Barry and Hal go to visit a town that seems very depressed at the thought of Christmas as it's 'not like it used to be' and nobody believes in Santa. They run into C.B. Fenster "one of the richest men on Earth" who just wants a good Christmas and for someone to prove for him Santa exists. Hal and Barry decide to do this... by getting Fenster to dress up as Santa and setting up a sleigh to go and deliver presents to various households!

Yes. Amazing picture isn't it.

The first few deliveries don't go too well for Fenster, but then he comes across a woman struggling to put the kids bikes together on Christmas Eve. Her husband ordered them and then conveniently died 6 months ago, causing every parent's favourite holiday game "build the big present out of sight of the kids". Fenster helps and feels pretty good about it. From then on he comes across a bunch of other people who really just need someone to lend a hand and some time.

And Fenster, Barry and Hal reach the moral that often, people just want someone who cares and who cares to listen.

Deadman: Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot – Boston apparently likes to jump into the biggest rich bastard's body he can find right before Christmas and use their money to buy Christmas presents for people and do some good deeds. Honestly, that tracks.

Then he steals someone else's Christmas party by riding them the whole time (as he's feeling lonely).

Then Boston runs into pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El, looking VERY cute.

Boston discusses his feelings of loneliness with Kara, and she delivers a few home truths about being a hero:

"We do it because it needs to be done. Because if we don't, no one else will. And we do it even if no one knows what we've done. Even if no one knows we exist. Even if no one remembers we ever existed." "Yeah. I guess we do. Look, don't mind me. I'm just a putz sometimes, you know?" "No, You're only human. You are still human, Boston. Don't be ashamed of it; Rejoice in it. Because it means your spirit -- as flawed or selfish as our spirits can sometimes be -- is still alive."

And then she's like "Surprise! I'm Kara!" to make it clear for the audience. Boston of course does not recognise her, because COIE.

(You shoulda gone and talked to Psycho Pirate instead, Kara, and gotten recognised then)

[everfastfrieght]

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