#Siew Mai

[buffetlicious]

Went to Canton Paradise (乐天小香港) at Junction 8 after praying at the temple. We were seated at two different tables, so each ordered their dishes separately. This Braised Peanut & Chestnut was the appetizer they placed on the table. Whole savoury peanuts with sweet chestnuts perked up the tastebuds as we poured ourselves the Glutinous Rice Pu-Erh Tea (糯米沱普洱茶).

We started off with the classic dim sum Siew Mai or Steamed Pork Dumpling (鱼子蒸烧卖皇). The pork and prawn filling with sprinkling of flying fish roe adding specks of colour is both meaty and wholesome tasting. Then came the Har Gow or Steamed Prawn Dumpling (笋尖鲜虾饺) with chunky succulent and crunchy prawn enclosed inside the translucent skin.

The Steamed Xiao Long Bao (上海小笼包) or soup dumpling is also another must order item. Pick it up gently with chopsticks into a soup spoon. Take a small bite in the dumpling skin and proceed to suck out the soup (beware, it's hot) then popped the whole thing into the mouth.

[strawberries-in-december]

continuing on my journey of absolutely bastardizing my grandma's pangsit recipe by dumping in any herb leftovers i'm finding in the fridge

[antimonyandthyme]

anyway everything’s better with dim sum! salted egg yolk fish skin! carrot cake! lau sar bau! char siew bau! xiao long bau! siew maiiiiiiiiiiiiii

[absolutebl]

Hi ABL! I just finished Kiseki: Dear to Me and obviously fell in love with Ai Di and Chen Yi. Do you have any other BL recs with that smol/tall dynamic where the smol one is objectively much scarier? Thanks!!

Oooo,

feral baby bois in BL!

Hum, that's gonna be a challenge, let me contemplate...

Alright let's do this...

FROM CHINA

My Esports Genius Brother

Untamed - nash

Word of Honor - double nash

(both v feral in this one)

FROM JAPAN

Same Difference

I'm dipping into the well here, and I'm warning you it may be poisoned.

Utsukushii Kare

You could argue this...? HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

There are more of these in Dark JBL but I refuse to try remembering those.

FROM TAIWAN

Because of You - Maybe?

HIStory 2: Crossing the Line

It playful but qualifies? HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

My Tooth Your Love - sides

We Best Love - THE BEST

FROM THAILAND

Chains of Heart - sigh

Don't Say No

Eclipse (not much height difference tho)

KinnPorsche to a certain extent, also no height difference

Laws of Attraction

Very much this dynamic and very recommended, but no height difference.

Love By Chance 2 - kinda

Siew Sum Noi

I contemplated MGYG and a few others like TharnType but tried to pick feral over tsundere.

Mr Cinderella maybe?

I feel like I'm missing a few sides.

[luverofralts]

Arkhelios Adventures

"We really need to bring this cottage into the new era. We don't need pictures of war criminals on our walls for 'history's' sake. Respect the past, but focus on the future. Yes. Yes, I like that. When I get a free moment, I'll mention it to the palace art team."

Maura murmured to herself as her eyes took in everything in the cottage that she wanted to change. It was her reign, and the cottage should reflect that. While she did love the historical photos and would probably face an intense battle to move them with her relatives, times had changed. Photos of King Ben, the national hero who had saved the islands from Pleasantview, but had murdered several of his children as well as some of their spouses, the Red Queen, who had no business being on any wall because of her crimes, and Queen Celeste, who tried to overthrow the grim reaper while enslaving her zombified mother, disgraced the warm feeling Maura wanted the Siew family cottage to have. Maybe if she put all their pictures upstairs in what had once been King Ben's office, she could balance honouring the past while still creating a better future.

"I can shove that picture in my attic if you'd like. You're glaring at it like it kicked a puppy."

Maura turned to see her cousin Claudia walking up to her, her usual confident smirk on full display.

"You're welcome to it," Maura offered, smiling despite her frustration. Claudia often had that effect on her. "I'm making a list of photos that may need to be retired."

Claudia scoffed.

"Just imagine living with the portraits of terrible people whose blood runs in my veins every single day. Pleasantview would fall before it gave up worshipping the ghosts of its past."

"Well, I guess you don't have to worry about being lost to history someday," Maura teased. "Give it a century or two and you'll probably be promoted to a demi god."

"I would make an excellent demi god," Claudia agreed. "But you can't be inventorying every picture here. Some of our relatives were good people. Not many, but some. Besides, don't you have a royal archivist? I just email mine and the pictures are rotated within a day. They deal with all the safety procedures needed to store the pictures for the next hundred years and I get something new to look at. I know this cottage is for all Siews, but the monarch of Twikkii Island owns it, so it should fall within your archivist's obligations."

"I'd prefer to deal with them myself. They can store them for me, but I'll be making the choices of which picture to display. It's probably the thing I like most about this job. If my mother had lived, I'd imagine that I might have been a royal curator for her. There'd be more pictures of Trent and Callista than I'd like, but no job is perfect."

"Very noble of you," Claudia remarked dryly. "They are your half-siblings, I'd imagine your mother would want pictures of them around. Honestly, with your complexion, jealousy's not flattering. You're the queen, and Trent is an orphan. Have some compassion for your little brother or are you getting rid of those pictures because the people in them are starting to look just like you?"

"Not all of us come from the two happiest dead people in existence. I'm an orphan too. My father was murdered by my grandmother. Mom shouldn't have remarried. She just forgot about him, like he didn't even exist."

Claudia raised a skeptical eyebrow, baffled at her cousin's behavior.

"Are you okay? Usually your daddy issues aren't this obvious. Added to a pregnancy that is obviously not your wife's, you're starting to look a little unhinged. Is something happening? I can help, unless you've got some insane grudge against me too."

"It's nothing," Maura snapped, turning away from her cousin. "It's just pregnancy hormones. Everything is great. I love my life. Everyone is jealous of my good fortune, so I should love my life. And I do."

"You could always step down if you hate your life," Claudia teased. "I'd be happy to claim my inheritance from my mother and add Twikkii Island to my realm."

Maura shot Claudia a nasty look, but after a moment to think, the nastiness faded into a weak smile.

"Do you have days like this? Days when you just want to fake your death and flee somewhere you've never been? That makes me a bad person, right? I feel like a bad person."

Claudia wrapped her cousin in bone crushing hug.

"All the time. I think about what my life would have been if Dad had never found out his true parentage. Would I be happier? What job would I have? It's only natural when you're in a position like ours. It doesn't make you a bad person to have doubts about your life. It makes you human. Look, why don't you come visit me more? Or I can stop by your place and we can go to that wonderful spa we went to before your wedding. You need someone to talk to, and I'm probably the only one who understands what you're feeling. Unless you want to ask the old, boring kings of Strangetown or Crystal Cove."

Maura laughed, despite her mood. Claudia always had been good at getting under her skin.

"Okay. I promise to spend more time with you to stop from being a complete bitch all the time. Ulyssa would probably love to have me out of the palace for an afternoon anyway. For now, help me log which paintings I should store. You know our history probably better than even I do."

Claudia craned her neck, looking for a certain portrait that had always creeped her out.

"I'd vote for that one," she said, pointing across the room. "Every time I'm here, one of the dogs is always barking at it. It has to be cursed or something. Something is off about it."

"Ah. You have a good eye. It creeps me out too. It's King Ben, after all. The man was a monster. No wonder the dogs can sense his evil."

"Oh, there's a million pictures of him all around this place," Claudia scoffed. "He was a fine king. He saved your country from becoming a part of mine under my psychotic grandfather. The heroism and the murders kinda cancel each other out, I think. No, he's not the problem. She is."

"Who? Is that his cousin or something? The names aren't engraved on the frame."

"His sister, Winter," Claudia replied. "She was a hell of a witch. I have some of her books in my library. Talented, but like you, a little unhinged."

"Ha, ha. I'll add it to the list."

"Are we supposed to be doing something? I feel like we should be doing something."

Adam looked nervously around the cottage, looking for guidance. It wasn't often that they were invited to the Siew cottage and just standing in it made Adam paranoid that he might accidentally break something expensive. He'd been there before, of course, but he never truly felt welcome.

The Siew family was gathered for a family barbecue, and even those at the far ends of the family tree were invited to celebrate. Adam and Remy got their invitation because their half-siblings were Siews. Elowen and Bronwen weren't just going to leave Adam and Remy out of a royal feast just because only their mother had married into the Siew family.

"Don't start cleaning something just because we don't have titles," Remy groaned. "We're invited guests, not the help. We're not doing anything to set up. Period. Our earned coven titles are more than good enough."

"Apprentice is a better title than princess or Duke?"

Remy punched her twin on the arm.

"Yes. Yes, it is. Now let's go find our sisters. They probably know where the booze is."

"Dad! You made it! I thought you, Dad, and Vrai were going away this weekend."

Ewan Traver embraced his father, Travis Traver, surprised at his presence. Ewan had inherited the title Travis had never wanted, and took care of the Goldman estate and all the responsibilities that went with it. His father, despite being born in Twikkii Island to two of its citizens, disliked spending any time on the island. He had been raised in Pleasantview and Crystal Cove. However tropical the island was, it held no allure for Travis, so his presence there was somewhat surprising.

"Your father and Vrai went ahead. I might join them later, but I wanted to be here. The anniversary is coming up and it's good to be with family. This was where she grew up. I wanted to see it the way she once did."

Ewan paused, unsure of what to say. His Aunt Celeste, better known as Queen Celeste of Crystal Cove, had practically raised his father after their father died giving birth to their half-brother, Ewan, and their mothers were murdered. The two siblings had been unsettlingly close until Celeste's death, due to the stranglehold she had on Travis' life. She blocked his mother's family from contacting him and insisted that he name his oldest son after their father. Aside from eloping with Ewan's father, Leonid, Travis' entire life had been carefully planned by his controlling sister. But Celeste had been gone for over a decade now and Travis was free to chart his own path forward. He hadn't recognized Celeste in the year or so proceeding her death, and he couldn't forgive her for telling his biological family that he didn't want anything to do with them. Or co-running a cult obsessed with killing the Grim Reaper. Or naming the child she created to sacrifice after him. Or murdering their half-brother, Ewan, as a child.

There were many things Travis hated about his sister, but every year near the anniversary of her death, he spent time in Twikkii Island, trying to understand the little girl who had been born there and where she had gone so wrong. He hadn't had any insight on how to forgive her yet, but every year, he was hopeful.

"So, are you going to help plan the memorial ball this year? Edana has been pretty busy and I've got some of the vendors lined up, but I could use some help."

Travis smiled tightly. The queen had provided a grant to the Goldman estate to celebrate Travis' parents after it had been revealed that their deaths were caused both directly and indirectly by the crown. Unhappily, the deaths of his parents and the death of his sister fell within the same month, so every time he left to grieve for his sister, he was expected to also celebrate the lives of the parents he'd never known. The anniversary of the day that his daughter, Tristianne, had been taken from him was only a few months later. It seemed fitting that he was in a polycule with the Grim Reaper; death seemed to follow him wherever he went.

"We'll see," he said at last. "The hospital still might call me in for a few consults. A retired doctor still has his obligations to old colleagues."

Ewan mirrored his father's tight smile. That was a no. It would hurt less if his father would just tell him upfront that he wanted nothing to do with whatever Ewan or the queen planned. It would be far more honest.

"Sure, just let me know your schedule when you can. No worries if you're busy."

"Isn't there supposed to be food at a barbecue? I'm starving."

Elowen set up the pool table while Victoriana waited.

"The food won't be ready for another hour at least. Mom said we have to wait for Grandma and Grandpa to come and they're at work. Grandpa refuses to let someone else touch the barbecue when it's his 'passion'. They'll be here soon enough though."

"Very soon," Adrienne agreed. She was too young to play pool, but she enjoyed watching the game. It was the closest she got to socializing with her extended family.

"Fine, I guess I can wait. There were chips in the kitchen though, right? We could steal some of those."

"Do you like my dress? I got it last weekend in the Pleasantview mall. It was on sale and I couldn't possibly say no to it."

Bronwen spun around dramatically to show off her dress to Fiolett. The younger girl clapped enthusiastically, wishing that she had a dress that pretty. She had a lot of dresses, sure, but they were all picked out by her dads. Fiolett couldn't wait until she was a teen and could pick out dresses for herself. That was a long way off though, so she admired other people's dresses for now.

"Be sure to congratulate Roman and Abe for me. That's wonderful that they renewed their vows. If I could find it in myself to forgive Trent if he cheated on me, I'd want to renew our vows too. It's a fresh start. Good for them."

"It's not entirely like that, it's...." Adrian trailed off, trying to find the words to explain a demon wedding. Truthfully, he wasn't entirely sure himself what Abe and Roman had volunteered for, but he didn't want Cindra to know that. "Well, maybe it is a bit of a vow renewal. Theo officiated it, so I guess it's like a magical, demonic vow renewal. You couldn't talk me into one."

"That would mean walking down the aisle again," Cindra teased. "We all know you're terrified of weddings. Otherwise, Evren would have a ring on his finger by now. Are you ever going to make an honest man out of him?"

Adrian frowned, not liking the direction their conversation had turned.

"Maybe. Not that it's any of your or Trent's business. It would make the legal process of passing my title to my legitimate daughter from another marriage harder. It's just easier this way."

"It does not," Cindra laughed. "Everyone knows that Luciana is going to become a duchess one day, the queen more than anyone. She'd have the legalities all sorted out in an afternoon. You're just chicken."

"I am not! Evren doesn't want to get married either."

"That's not what Trent said after he went bowling with Evren last week. Evren told him that he's just waiting for you to make a move. You'd say no if he proposed, so he's waiting for you to do it."

"He would never say something like that to my cousin," Adrian insisted. "You're just hoping to plan another wedding, no matter who it's for."

"Who can blame me for wanting to celebrate love? Planning my own wedding went amazingly and I want to plan another one!"

"Wasn't your little sister, Lauren, around here somewhere? Plan her wedding!"

Travis Maricourt was as far as he could get from the noisy group of people as he could be. His parents weren't coming until later, so most of the afternoon was his to sneak off and enjoy. Claudia wouldn't force him to socialize and Oliver hadn't bothered to leave college for a family event since their mother's birthday. Their father's birthday was coming up, and that was probably the last Travis would see of Oliver until the next family birthday. Travis couldn't wait to start college and finally get some time to himself without his parents "encouraging" him to talk to people he had no interest in talking to.

He didn't trust his annoying relatives not to read his journal if he brought it with him, so instead, Travis brought his magical theory workbook. Theory didn't feel like homework to him, like it did to his classmates. It was fascinating to map out the bones that held up the living world, to see how the pieces of an existential puzzle clicked together. His parents talked a lot about how the worlds of life and death overlapped, and Travis simply had to know how it all worked. Not that he would change existence or anything if he learned how. He just had so many questions.

"You were right."

"I usually am. Today, I wish I wasn't, though. I don't know what this means. There's definitely a current running through here, but why?"

Izanami bowed his head, contemplating the situation.

"I don't like this," he finally decided. "This feeling...it feels old. Demonic, probably."

"It feels like it did over a decade ago," Lukas insisted. "Like when Leo was attacked...but also different. There's this sense of...nothingness. Can you feel it too?"

Izanami nodded his agreement.

"I'll contact Gee and let him know how he should do my job. You can't intervene here."

"I know that. I'll go to the school and make sure that the children are safe. I'm not taking any chances with their safety. But this will probably blow over and be fine, right? Oh! Arterius! Call him and tell him to meet me at the school. Just because he's an adult doesn't mean he's exempt from family meetings."

"Of course, dearest. I'll join you in a moment."

Lukas vanished into a shower of sparkling light. As soon as they were out of sight, Izanami closed his eyes and tried to listen to the hum of existence. Screams echoed over loud waves crashing against jagged rocks. A hurricane roared as it churned into existence. A royal ship cracked in two as it sank beneath the wild waves.

Lukas lifelessly lying encased in a glass tomb. A howl of wind that swept away the souls of the dead. The cold truth that sometimes even the dead could die.

It had all happened before, and now it was happening again despite Izanami's best efforts. A shiver ran down his spine as he felt several names engrave themselves on the list in his son's office. The deaths had been finalized. There was no hope of changing them now. It was beginning.

[jamesdidakus]

É raro ter esse visual (e que visual!!) da musa Siew Pui Yi... mostrando que ela não é só frente, é verso (e óbvio, há muita poesia nesse verso...). Menina deusa, que da distante Malásia uma vez mais nos brinda de beleza e amor... obs: não, não é impressão, ela está loura nessa foto (além de muito gostosa 😋 ...).

[guessimate]

Today's post marks the end of round VII of my Test of Time challenge, in the European part of my Sim World... One chapter is finally coming to an end. The last of the founding fathers is passing away. There are still 'elders' in the Asian part of my town, but out of the original, 'prehistorical' sims, none are left alive. The Asian part of my town is younger, as I only added it between prehistory and ancient times, but I may have to play at least the Siews and Laos, because they are connected to my main sims now. Maybe I should play them between the rounds now.

The Imagos got ~10.000$ inheritance at the beginning of the round. With the inheritance came servant help - a wet nurse with her young daughter, a gift from the princess's family. The teen daughter stayed with the emperor family for now. The Imagos will probably only keep Titia around when they have newborns, because they have a pet and puppies. I did the same thing as for the Tias and set their money to 20.000$ after I had given them a little home renovation by adding a couple of small rooms.

~*~

As for the ROS, it was yet another potentially deadly scenario. But firstly, fate decided this scenario would apply to the elder patriarch of the Imago family who would soon perish anyway; and secondly, Otso was lucky enough not to die, even though it was a Logic skill check and he had only 2 points. He will die this round anyway, but not of unnatural causes.

Apparently Otso managed to scare off bandits. It could mean the NPC burglar, or the pickpocketer [Unsavory Charlatan]. Maybe someone wanted to steal the 20.000$ I allowed the patrician families to keep? Well, they are keeping it! If any of my sims gets the Kleptomaniac trait, I will say that was the person who was defeated (if it makes sense), but so far nobody has this trait.

Otso had recently maxed out Body skill because he wanted to, so it makes sense he would win a fight. He must have been preparing to fight for a reason. He had been planning to take down this mystery thief! He's going out in style, having defeated this enemy.

He maxed out Sports enthusiasm this round, even though he's extremely lazy, so he had little fun 'fencing'. His son Sampsa maxed out Games, which is his One True Hobby, so he managed to reach the max enthusiasm at Logic level 8. Otso maxed out his One True Hobby a looong time ago, because it's Nature. They are the first sims in this hood to max out Sports and Games, so I'm mentioning it.

~*~

Otso is a Good, but Hot-Headed Couch Potato, and Perfectionist, with Good Sense of Humour.

Sampsa is an Evil, Inappropriate, Clumsy, and Hot-Headed Dog Person. The Clumsy trait was given to him for a reason. He and his sister never learnt how to walk as toddlers because their father had to take care of both of them.

Baset is an Irresistible, Brooding, and Shy Hopeless Romantic who Loves the Outdoors. I think Hopeless Romantic makes a lot of sense for her, because she never wanted to get multiple lovers after she got married to her soulmate. She did have multiple lovers as a teen, but she has since settled down. She is more attracted to her husband than he is to her as well, which also speaks volumes.

Lalli is a Brooding Workaholic, and Hopeless Romantic, so he's quite similar to his mom. He has the following personality: 0 Sloppy (like grandpa Otso), 8 Outgoing (like dad), 9 Active, 9 Playful, and 9 Nice (all these inherited from mom).

Ofilius is Lucky and Hot-Headed. He didn't win the lottery with his personality, unfortunately. He's 1 Grouchy (like his dad), 1 Serious (like nobody in this household), 6 Active (like his dad), 8 Outgoing (like his dad), and 9 Neat (his mom is 8 Neat). His One True Hobby is Science.

BTW I try to update their traits and everything here on my notion sheet. I have not added the servant family yet, but I might have to, with how big it's getting...

~*~

As soon as Ofilius aged up, his mom Baset wanted to teach him to walk. His dad Sampsa got a want to teach him to talk, and to potty train him. I will allow parents to teach toddlers their skills, it's just the feeding of babies which is the wet nurse's job. She will also prepare toddler meals if she's still working for the family.

~*~

Asena gave birth to 2 puppies - a female puppy Lupa and a male puppy Upuaut. They both have yellow eyes. The male is gray like the stray wolf, his dad Otis. The female is black like her grandma. Otso wanted to become the master of both of the newborn puppies, and he successfully managed to do it before he passed away.

Speaking of Asena, this dog knows almost all commands there are, because Otso taught her some tricks a looong time ago, and now his grandson Lalli is following in his footsteps by wanting to teach her more commands.

~*~

I'm not making Sampsa work on promotion requirements, but he will have to skill up some day. He's on his Logic skilling spree right now, but what he really needs is Charisma and Creativity. He earns 252$ per day, which is not a lot. The 20.000$ they started off with should last them for a while, especially that they don't have any daughters to marry off for now.

Speaking of daughters, I think Baset would like to have at least one. If her next pregnancy is a son, I might just reroll the gender, because I feel like the princess would like to have a princess of her own. I think it will be their last child though. I don't make them try for baby all the time, especially that this family already has 2 boys. I actually made a mistake in what I wrote here earlier, it's OK by the rules to only have 2 boys for the emperor family, but patricians are supposed to have 4 children total, so they have to try again, if they can!

On the last day of the round the married couple wanted to go on a date when I sent them to the bathhouse. It was Sampsa's day off. So they tried for a pregnancy, and they are getting another healthy baby next round. Baset is halfway through her adulthood already.

~*~

Sampsa Imago earned 504$ this round. They are paying:

3000$ - rent

~50$ - tax

~50$ - tithe

= 3100$ total

There is 25,480$ in the town's funds. And the Imagos are left with ~17,300$. They may have to sell the little puppies for some extra cash at some point next round.

~*~

Otso managed to get the golden grave because of how happy he was due to just maxing out Sports enthusiasm (and fending off those bandits!). Overall he didn't have that many aspiration points, only ~190,000 total, and he maxed out just one skill and two hobbies.

I only realized when it was time for the funeral that Otso didn't even get to know his grandchild Rana Tia, and his great-grandchildren, Tane and Sen Siew (Lovi's children). I really should have thrown a family reunion party before he passed away, but only Lalli knew them from school. I thought the least I could do was to summon the Tias over, so they would all get the memory of his death.

[sobreiromecanico]

Malásia (2)

Como é evidente, seria impensável passarmos duas semanas na Malásia sem procurarmos livrarias. Não estivesse eu lá em trabalho e teria havido tempo para mais; assim, deu para descobrir três muito especiais.

A primeira, até por ser bastante central, foi a Kinokuniya, localizada mesmo no centro de Kuala Lumpur (KLCC), no complexo comercial que fica na base das Petronas Twin Towers.

Não era a livraria mais barata de Kuala Lumpur (longe disso, até por ser uma cadeia internacional), mas a selecção era inacreditável - e as fotografias nem apanham as vastas prateleiras de banda desenhada. Quem gostar de fantasia e ficção científica pode passar lá horas a escolher livros.

A Bookxcess fica noutro centro comercial não muito distante de KLCC. Não tenho fotografias do interior, mas lembro-me bem de ser uma livraria muito catita - de dimensão razoável, com uma excelente selecção de ficção científica e fantasia, e acima de tudo com preços mesmo muito bons. A maior parte dos livros que comprámos vieram desta loja (ver abaixo), o que ajudou a que o rombo na carteira não tenha sido maior do que foi.

Regressando um pouco atrás: quando vagueava pela Kinokuniya ocorreu-me perguntar a uma funcionária da loja se me saberia indicar algum livro de ficção científica ou fantasia de autores malaios. Ela pensou um pouco e anotou uma sugestão num papel - Creatures of Near Kingdoms, de Zedeck Siew -, lamentando porém não ter o livro em stock, ou saber onde poderia encontrá-lo. Uma breve pesquisa permitiu-me descobrir a conta de Twitter do autor, e contactei-o através de mensagem: apresentei-me, disse-lhe que o livro me fora recomendado na Kinokuniya, e perguntei-lhe onde o poderia encontrar. Recebi uma reposta simpática pouco depois, agradecendo o interesse e indicando uma pequena livraria já fora da cidade, intitulada Lit Books. E lá fui à procura.

Se um dia tivesse uma livraria, seria algo do género da Lit Books: pequena, organizada e decorada com gosto, com uma selecção criteriosa de livros e um espacinho para convívios e apresentações. Vejo no site oficial que continua em funcionamento, o que é uma excelente notícia.

E, já agora, encontrei o livro - uma enciclopédia de fauna e flora fantásticas, descritas de forma poética por Zedeck Siew e maravilhosamente ilustradas por Sharon Chin. Trouxe um exemplar comigo, e arrependo-me de não ter trazido os outros dois que lá ficaram para oferecer. É um dos tesouros da nossa biblioteca pessoal.

No final da viagem, esta foi a carga que regressou connosco a Portugal (abençoados cinco quilos a mais na bagagem de regresso). Não, ainda não lemos todos estes livros.

[crowcaws]

Real. Metal band recs?

STEP INTO MY OFFICE I HAVE MANY

My current favourite is Polaris, they're from NSW. Ryan Siew was one of the best guitarists of our generation I'm so serious, I'm gutted I never got to see him live. He may not be the vocalist but he truly sings nonetheless. Favourites include The Remedy, Martyr, Relapse, Masochist, Aftertouch, Inhumane. I'm seeing them again in July and I'm so excited.

Alien Weaponry I must recommend because how often do you hear thrash in te reo Māori. They're a lesser known band so could really use some listens

If you want to hear women making sounds that make people go "wait that's her doing that?" Spiritbox and Jinjer are your go-tos. Courtney LaPlante is a siren for real. She's not just one of the best female vocalists in metal, she's one of the best vocalists out there, across any genre and any gender, period. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone else with her range. Circle with Me, Blessed Be and Shivering are good places to start.

I actually recommended this band earlier today but Landmvrks is a metalcore band, their vocalist has a really unique sound I quite like, though it may not be for everyone. They're French and something I always appreciate is when a vocalist's real accent comes through. His tone can be more high pitched and screechy than metal vocalists usually aim for, but it definitely stands out and kinda gives a punkish twist to their sound. Creature is my favourite song by them, however if you were ever a pop punk enjoyer I highly recommend their recent cover of Fat Lip, it fucks.

If you want something heavier than metalcore, Sepultura rule. They're from Brazil, I actually saw them live kinda by accident while waiting for While She Sleeps to come on at Good Things last year, their frontman seemed like the chillest dude and was so grateful to the crowd idk I just think they're neat. They're an older band, like 80s/90s so they have a more classic style. Very cool.

Slaughter to Prevail obviously gets a rec because, I cannot stress this enough, you know how you can roll Rs? Alex uses that technique to scream in the song Viking. Again I saw them by accident at Good Things while waiting for WSS but I was further back/trying to fight my way in and didn't know them at the time. Sad.

While She Sleeps are an English band, funnily enough I only have one liked song (doesn't mean much I just listen to the albums when I want to) which is Division Street, a very down tempo song but there is just something about it yk.

I'm going to stop typing paragraphs for each one because I realised I have so many so here are some more to check out: Currents (check out Monsters and Let Me Leave), The Hu (AKA the Jedi Cal Kestis' favourite band, features throat singing and Mongolian folk elements), Caskets (Lost in Echoes), I Prevail (check out Gasoline, Body Bag, I saw the lead frontman do a shoey out of a prosthetic leg at Good Things which isn't relevant but is the best thing I've ever seen), Architects my beloved (listen to Animals, Tear Gas, Deepfake) and finally Dream Widow, which is a band/thrash metal album created by Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters for the movie Studio 666 and it kinda fucks actually

[greedyapron]

27/10/2023 - Lunch

Canton paradise

Fried rice

Stir fried beef

Stir fried pork

1 siew mai - always very satisfied with this for some reason. It just hits the spot. Maybe it's the mushrooms?

2 custard bao

[gomzdrawfr]

Hi Gomz! What about 13, 23 and 27? :D 27 is a big ask so pls ignore if you're uncomfortable with it. Wishing you a good weekend ahead!

Hello Cumi, good to see you again 🌸 have a good weekend too 💕

13 - latest thing that made you cry

When I wrote my own oc x price fic HAHA but if we really wanna talk about a big cry then its when I read the fic “all that’s said in low light”

((I’ll put a screenie under the cut if you wanna see the fic))

23 - 3 things you like to eat

You already KNOWWWWW siew mai’s gotto be there HEH well the other two is tom yam and mango -w-

27 - smile and take a selfie :)

((hope you dont mind me posting a drawing instead since i wanna remain private about how I look ^^))

A snippet of fic i wrote, bout Raven being sick and breaking down when she was pampered by Price :3

[cythoughtsnmemories]

23.08.23

Just the day before I'm going wild wild wet w hubby. My mind struck me that it not adventure cove. My mind kept thinking the view of adventure cove haha~ anw date w hubby at WWW was awesome! Hehehe~

Over the wkend while in d mall, there was free spine check. I did it before but want my hubby to get check so we both went. Lol my spine is still jialat. Reached home, I let hubby take his nap while I make chocolate tofu tart.

Pester hubby to go children museum w me cos its SNF and they open up to grownups! Quite boring but d company is good!

So excited for buffet! Finally after many years~ most item I just take 1 and share half w hubby except seafood. Stayed there abt 2.5 hrs and I was bloated till I felt like puking. Got to rmb not to over eat! I'm still in denial that I didn't ate much.

I know this is lame but I'm trying to recall if I ate very little for buffet

3 prawns

1 baby lobster

4 oysters

2 snow crab

7 sashimi

Unagi Rice

Satay

Popiah

Kueh pie tee

Butter chicken

Sea bass

Man tou w chili crab sauce

Duck

Char siew

Chawamushi

Steak w red wine sauce

Salmon

Salmon w sauce

Laksa

XO fish bee hoon

Chicken pho

Xlb

Siew mai

Dumpling

Salted egg bun

Chef special

Yuzu scallop

Fig

5 Juice

Tiramisu

Anniversary cake

Mao shan wang pastry

Pumpkin soup

Pizza

[aimcreativestudios]

Healios is a mental health, autism and ADHD care service in partnership with NHS in the UK.

They help children and young people to thrive by reimagining access to life-changing care, providing it remotely throughout the country.

We are thankful to an amazing client and to all the team who worked on this truly meaningful project! https://vimeo.com/850083945

CREDITS

client: Healios production: AIM Creative Studios producer: Tiago Ribeiro directors: Jay Septimo, Siew May Khoo art director & illustrator: Magdalena Koźlicka motion design: Ana Iutes, André Cunha, Pedro Oliveira  frame-by-frame animation: Ana Farinha, Ana Iutes, Cristina Neto, Siddharth Sinha music composing & sound design: André Aires Augusto voice over: Anna E.

[talos-to-listens]

I saw @cerastes posting about his mom and about how she like causing Chaos and Puzzlement, which reminded me of an incident.

My old workplace was in a mall next to a hotel, and we’d get a lot of tourists as a result, and they’d tend to get up early, and the mall has a coffeeshop of sorts which is open and tourists tend to go to it because it’s a local coffeeshop chain (Fun Toast for the locals reading this). For breakfast that’s really all the mall has, it’s that or Subway and Macs, and the tourists tend to go for the coffeeshop because it’s something they don’t have in their countries.

Now, one morning, I went there to pick up a cup of tea, as I always do. And I notice this American family standing to one side, peering at the menu. And I hear them talking amongst themselves, trying to puzzle out the different things on the menu. Because it doesn’t say “tea” or “coffee” it says “teh/kopi/teh-c/kopi-c” that sort of thing. And they have no idea what it means. And everyone is ordering in Chinese - they have no idea what the customers are saying either.

See, down here in Singapore ( and a lot of SEA countries) there’s a certain lingo for ordering tea aka teh or coffee aka kopi. You order a kopi-siew dai if you want a coffee with less sugar, a kopi-c if you want a coffee with evaporated milk, a kopi-ping if you want it iced, a kopi-kosong if you want it without sugar, a kopi-o if you want it black. And you can combine all these options so you could, for example, order a kopi-c-siew dai-ping for an ice coffee that’s less sweet and made with evaporated milk.

And all of these options are listed on the menu. And this tourist family is lost beyond all reason. However, like a ray of light from the heavens, who should turn up but Mike.

Mike is also an American. Mike comes by, gives me a wave of greeting, and then he notices the American family. He realizes, they’re relying on him to somehow decode the menu for them in a fashion they can understand - in fact they queue up behind him so they can (i think) learn what this guy was ordering and order the same and be (relatively) safe.

Unfortunately for them, Mike had been living in Singapore by that point for about a decade, and was fully immersed in the local culture and the coffee lingo. More to the point, he came to this coffeeshop very often and the staff there knew him. And, as I was to learn, he apparently was capable of being a massive troll. 

Fully aware of the hopes this family of tourists was pinning on him, Mike steps up to the counter. He opens his mouth to order. The family leans in with bated breath, hoping to listen in, that they can start to comprehend, perhaps, by proxy, what the menu means.

What does Mike do? Mike orders, in quick succession and with perfect pronunciation, a kopi-c-siew dai-gao, kopi-o-kosong-gao, teh-o-kosong-ping, teh-c-siew dai-ping, ying yang-siew dai-ping.

The tourist family’s faces change. From one of hope to one of utter despair. Worse than not comprehending, he’d ordered something that wasn’t even on the menu! But the staff knew Mike well enough that they made it for him anyway!

As Mike turned away from the counter, with his drinks in hand, I saw the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. I could only sit in awe and wonder at this man, who’d intentionally placed as confusing sounding an order as he could come up with, for the sole fact of messing with this random family of tourists that he didn’t even know. 

What about the tourists, you may ask? Well, simple. 

They (sorta) gave up, and just went with normal tea and coffee for their drinks.

[continuumss]

Bound states in the continuum

Bound The Continuum states in the continuum (BICs) are waves that stay restricted despite the fact that they exist together with a consistent range of emanating waves that can divert energy. Their very presence opposes the customary way of thinking. In spite of the fact that BICs were first proposed in quantum mechanics, they are a general wave peculiarity and have since been recognized in electromagnetic waves, acoustic waves in air, water waves and versatile waves in solids. These states have been concentrated on in a great many material frameworks, for example, piezoelectric materials, dielectric photonic gems, optical waveguides and filaments, quantum specks, graphene and topological separators. In this Survey, we portray late improvements in this field with an accentuation on the actual systems that lead to BICs across apparently altogether different materials and sorts of waves. We additionally examine test acknowledge, existing applications and bearings for future work.

Photons with turn rakish energy have natural chirality, which supports numerous peculiarities including nonlinear optics1, quantum optics2, topological photonics3 and chiroptics4. Characteristic chirality is feeble in regular materials, and ongoing hypothetical proposals5,6,7 planned to expand round dichroism by full metasurfaces supporting bound states in the continuum that improve considerably chiral light-matter cooperations. Those adroit works resort to three-layered refined calculations, which are too difficult to be in any way acknowledged for optical frequencies8. In this way, the majority of the trial attempts9,10,11 showing solid round dichroism depend on bogus/extraneous chirality by utilizing either slanted incidence9,10 or primary anisotropy11. Here we report on the trial acknowledgment of valid/characteristic chiral reaction with thunderous metasurfaces in which the designed inclination math breaks both in-plane and out-of-plane balances. Our outcome marks, as far as anyone is concerned, the main perception of natural chiral bound states in the continuum with close solidarity round dichroism of 0.93 and a top notch factor surpassing 2,663 for noticeable frequencies. Our chiral metasurfaces may prompt a plenty of utilizations in chiral light sources and finders, chiral detecting, valleytronics and deviated photocatalysis.

The joint endeavor between Hoi Hup Realty and Sunway Improvements has gained the Thiam Siew site, a package of land between Tanjong Katong Street and Haig Street at Thiam Siew Road, Tanjong Katong D15, in Singapore.

The $815 million arrangement, which got through a serious offering process, will see the joint endeavor get responsibility for two plots, which are reserved for private turn of events. The land has an area of 263,794 square meters and a plot proportion of 2.8, per the 2019 Ground breaking strategy URA.

Taking into account the price tag and assessed advancement expenses of roughly $284 million, the land cost is around $ 1,488 for each square meter. Counting the assessed 7% overhang region, or around $39.3 million, the land cost is $1,440 psf ppr.

As per the undertaking designers, two extravagance skyscraper edifices with in excess of 800 private units will be based on the site. Because of its essential area in prime Locale 15, the undertaking is supposed to be generally welcomed on the lookout.

[luverofralts]

Arkhelios Adventures

"Sorry I had to pull you away from your afternoon off. I've never received a royal summons before. You're the only one I could think of calling."

Roman eyed the imposing castle and tried to imagine any reason Claudia would have for summoning him. She'd texted him and shown up unannounced over the years without serving him a royal summons before. What could possibly be so important?

"No problem at all," Adrian assured his ex-husband. "It's what I spent my whole life studying. Who needs an afternoon to themself anyway?"

"Well, we can reschedule. I feel bad for always taking so much of your time. You were the only person I could think of aside from...never mind."

Ulyssa's name died on his lips before he could finish his thought. He was well practiced at catching himself before he spoke about her. Most days it wasn't hard. On a day like today, when he needed her political insight, Roman found himself missing their friendship.

"This is weird, right? I'm not just worrying for nothing? She's never done this before. Did Theo do something at school? I haven't been to Pleasantview outside of the kids' schools in ages."

"Given your past, it does seem a bit weird," Adrian agreed. "Maybe she wants to talk about franchising our business. That's all I can think of. Aside from...Princess Georgiana."

Adrian lowered his eyes, unwilling to see the stab of pain on Roman's face whenever his daughter was mentioned. Ever since Roman had met his daughter, the pain had lessened, but it would always be there. Along with the shame he felt for having an affair and nearly destroying his marriage.

"I don't think that Maura would let Claudia know about Georgiana," Roman said quietly. "That would mean admitting that it happened."

"There's very little the queen of Pleasantview doesn't know, Roman. My parents always said to treat that monarch like they knew your darkest secrets, because odds were that they already did. There are levels of secrecy and orders of deviant devotees under the Pleasantview throne. Don't underestimate Claudia because of your past. She is the most powerful person in the world, no contest."

"She's a nice person with the world's most sickeningly in love parents," Roman said, waving his hand dismissively. "It's not in her character. Maybe her ancestors were dangerous, but I know Claudia. She's not like that."

"That remains to be seen," Adrian murmured to himself. Roman was already halfway up the stairs when he spoke. There would be no way to convince him to be on his guard.

"Good morning, Your Majesty."

Both Roman and Adrian bowed deeply in front of the queen. Her throne room was impressive, filled with imposing statues and gold trim. This room alone must have cost a small fortune. None of it reflected the woman Roman thought he knew.

"Duke Siew, Mr. Bellamy. We've been expecting you." Claudia's voice was cold and distant, something that Roman hadn't been expecting. Those intense gold eyes of hers drilled into his mind layer by layer until he felt nothing but exposed. Whoever this woman was on the throne, Roman had never met her before.

"Though I only recall summoning Mr. Bellamy," the queen continued. "I suppose he is entitled to counsel. History has proven that he does not make good choices while on his own."

Roman balked at Claudia's words while Adrian kept a straight face. Roman clearly thought that he knew Claudia Goldman, but they weren't speaking to Claudia Goldman. This was the queen of Pleasantview before them, and like every noble raised in Twikkii Island, Adrian was on the defensive, desperate not to imperil his country and family by getting in the monarch of Pleasantview's way.

"Thank you for allowing me here," Adrian said quickly, before Roman could open his mouth. "It is an honour to meet with you."

Roman looked like he was about to object, but caught the glare Adrian was giving him and thought better of it.

"It is. I'm glad to extend that honour to you, Duke Siew. You may need to remind your companion of that fact. He seems to not know his place here."

"My place?"

The words slipped out before Roman could stop himself, earning a withering glare from the queen.

"I'm sorry, was there any confusion about who is in charge here? You are a guest here, Mr. Bellamy because I will it so. There is a matter that I need to discuss with you."

Adrian nodded solemnly and beside him, Roman did the same.

"Yes, Your Majesty. We'd be honoured to discuss whatever you wish," Adrian replied. Roman nodded.

"Now, the matter at hand is somewhat...personal," Claudia continued. Her confident stare wavered for a brief moment as she chose her next words. "It involves Mr. Bellamy and my's prior relationship...or rather our brief experiment."

For the first time, Claudia faltered. Her eyes fell, unable to look at Roman while she tried to downplay their previous connection. Adrian made sure to note this stumble so he had an advantage if he needed to make a quick retreat from the castle. The queen did look like she had an attachment to Roman when her guard was down, which would come in handy if he and Adrian had to make a quick retreat back home.

"I always thought that we would be having this conversation years from now," the queen continued. "When more time had passed at least. When the crown princess was older and possessed a more mature overlook. But no matter, we're here now."

Another pause lingered in the room. Beside the queen, her fiancée cleared her throat to get their attention.

"Your Majesty, perhaps it's better just to rip the bandaid off," Miruna suggested. "It would save us all time. We do have that appointment in an hour that cannot be missed."

Miruna's words were a lie meant to leave their visitors feeling small and unimportant. It was just one strategy that had been proposed to crush any ideas Roman might have about approaching Victoriana in the future. The queen's secretive demonic councilors had several suggestions to break Roman's spirit enough to drive him away from Pleasantview, though most of them were also intrigued by the thought of pushing him too far. A low level demon hybrid launching an attack on the queen out of rage was not only entertaining, it would also gauge Claudia's ability to defend her throne. The ruler of Pleasantview could never lower their guard after all.

Claudia looked at Roman's anxious face and was immediately pulled back into their short lived romance, if they could even call it that. They'd held each other on the Twikkii Island beach and dreamed together about the future what seemed like an eternity ago. He'd sobbed against her shoulder about being cheated on and left with an infant to raise; she poured out her many concerns and fears about ascending to the throne.

It really wasn't the romance Claudia had implied to her daughter. Nothing she'd felt for Roman matched any of the feelings she felt for Miruna. They had simply been there for each other during a stressful period of their lives, giving each other physical comfort. The lie was important to maintain for her daughter. No child wanted to hear that her parents had conceived her while her mother listened endlessly to her father's sobs over Abe Helios while trying to cram thousands of years of Pleasantview history into her brain. Had she dialed Roman's number once the pregnancy test was positive? Of course. She'd never completed the call though. She never would. He didn't love her and she didn't love him. None of the joy and passion and warmth her parents had for each other seemed possible with Roman. His heart would always belong to Abe and hers she had sworn to Pleasantview.

"My father always said that you had the right to know all these years, and maybe it was a good thing that he never ruled Pleasantview," Claudia said quietly, her strong facade fading for the briefest of moments. "My mother adored her grandmother, the former queen of Strangetown, and inherited her keen political instincts. There was too much uncertainty, too much death in Arkhelios. The reapers there told horror stories about...."

The queen trailed off before catching herself. Beside her, Miruna nodded her head slightly in a show of solidarity. This was going off course quickly. Too much of Claudia was seeping out and not enough of Pleasantview's monarch. Just say the words and this uncomfortable situation can end.

"Roman Bellamy, the crown princess is your genetic offspring. Your genetic donation will shape the future of Pleasantview, and our nation thanks you for it. The princess has been informed of this and politely requests that your contact be limited in the future. Your demonic heritage will help her rule our people fairly."

"Thank you for arriving on time and have a pleasant trip back to Arkhelios," Miruna said cheerfully, looking proudly at her fiancée. "Our office is always available for inquiries, just speak with reception. You are dismissed."

A silence fell over the room as the two men processed the revealed information. Roman looked like he was about to throw up, while Adrian's brain struggled to sort this news into anything recognizable.

"The crown princess is Roman's daughter?" he said finally, looking for any sign that this was just a cruel prank.

"He's her genetic donor," Claudia replied. "She is my daughter and the future of this nation. Mr. Bellamy does not have a role in her life. He is merely a citizen of a foreign land with no legal rights in my nation."

Roman remained eerily silent beside his ex-husband. Adrian had never seen him this quiet before in all their time together. For his own part, Adrian had been blindsided by this revelation; he could only imagine what Roman must be feeling.

"Roman? Are you okay?" Adrian whispered, stroking Roman's back worriedly. "Say something. Say anything."

Roman's eyes raised slightly, daring to look at the mother of his child for mere seconds before turning away. He still remained silent.

"Mr. Bellamy, Duke Siew, thank you for coming today," Claudia announced, gesturing for her guards to be at the ready to remove her guests. "I look forward to our next meeting. Have a safe journey home."

The two men rose to their feet and Adrian was fairly certain that he'd bowed and followed the protocol that had been drilled into him from birth. It certainly wasn't anything he could perform consciously at this moment.

He grabbed Roman's hand and escorted him out of the throne room; he remembered that much at least. Roman had shuffled beside him wordlessly. Adrian's head was swimming with questions and reeling from shock, but he couldn't voice any of that while Roman was in this state. Needless to say, his conversation with Evren was going to be interesting tonight.

Roman made it down the last steps into the hallway before collapsing on the floor, still wordlessly staring at empty space. His shoulders shook as he wept, but still no sound emerged.

"Roman? Roman do you need help? Are you feeling okay? Talk to me, let me help."

Adrian's words did nothing to comfort Roman or inspire him to move. He still sat there on the floor, silently weeping outside the entrance to the throne room.

"Hey, hey. It'll be okay, we'll get through this," Adrian said, holding his ex-husband in his arms as he sobbed.

Adrian had suspected that something big was going to be revealed with this summons, but never anything like this. It was unprecedented in Pleasantview history as far as Adrian remembered. Maybe during the civil war where Princess Georgiana's paternity changed the succession of the Pleasantview throne, but even then, both of her parents knew the truth. One of them never tried to hide her paternity from the other. King Mordred hid the paternity of his youngest daughter after his husband's affair, but she had been so far down the line of succession, her paternity had only been revealed a century later by a routine maintenance of the genetic library of Crystal Cove. For a monarch to hide her heir's paternity from both her subjects and the heir's father, well, Adrian couldn't think of a historical example.

"At least she told us. We could have spent our whole lives not knowing," Adrian continued, which only made Roman sob harder. "We can try to work with this. Maybe she wants to meet with you and you could have a relationship with her. It's certainly possible."

"If that were true, Claudia wouldn't have told us like this. She wasn't even there. If she wanted to see me, she would have been there. Adrian, it's happening again. The Crown is taking away my daughter, just like with Georgiana. I'll never have a relationship with either of them."

"This isn't the same as Georgiana," Adrian said soothingly, despite doubting his own words. "This wasn't an affair, you both were single at the time. Hell, it was before you even met me. You were both young and on different paths. It sounds like her parents told her to do this, seconded by whatever sinister shadows whisper to the throne. She didn't do this to hurt you; she's not Maura."

"H-how many more kids do I have that I have no knowledge of? How many more lies have I been told?"

"Well, how many other people have you slept with? Especially rich or royal people?" Adrian asked. His words only made the tears flow harder.

"You're really going to slut shame me now?" Roman sobbed. "I was young, I don't know. Abe cheated on me and dumped me, and I was angry. No other royals- aside from you anyway. I had a kid to take care of, my college experience was rather unconventional."

"Hey, I was in college too, I get it. You weren't my first either, and there were a few others that I 'dated'. I only wanted to be sure that this was the last surprise to pop up in your life. We've made progress with Georgiana, we can make progress with Victoriana. This isn't the end. Plus, you have a beautiful, intelligent daughter that you would otherwise know nothing about. This is a hard thing to hear now, but it won't always be. Who knows how the future will go?"

"Why didn't she just tell me?" Roman groaned, leaning further into Adrian's arms for comfort. "We were friends. She could have told me. Her parents couldn't stop her from telling me, she's the queen of the largest country in the damn world!"

"She slipped up, remember?"

"No, nothing I've heard today makes sense. Everything has been a lie."

"She mentioned the reaper team in Arkhelios scaring her parents about something in Arkhelios," Adrian said softly. "What was happening in your life when you were with Claudia? I'd bet anything that they were talking about Theo almost dying after he was born and-"

"And my mother. Of course, is there any part of my life that she hasn't ruined?" Roman groaned, pulling away from Adrian to massage his now throbbing temples. "If Theo was pregnant with the child of a half demon who was using their shared bloodline to gain power, I'd hide him too."

"I would do the same," Adrian replied gently. "Any parent would. It sounds like the Goldmans were scared of losing their daughter and granddaughter, just like you almost lost me and the girls to your mother. We can work with this, this is good news. They didn't hide Victoriana because they hated you, they wanted to protect her. Now that your mother's gone, we can appeal to them. From what I hear, her parents are incredibly family oriented, just like Claudia is. We can use that. We won't win any custody battles, but maybe we can get some visitation rights. Maybe we could set up a call schedule or email correspondence to start out. This isn't Maura we're fighting. We'll figure this out."

"Do you think my mother could sense her in the end?" Roman asked, an all too familiar horror enveloping his thoughts. "She wanted Theo, but she still damaged Luci and Saturnia somehow. Neither of them have any supernatural abilities because of her. If I had been able to kill her, they might be as powerful as Theo or Rien. She took from them something precious. Did she hurt Victoriana too? Am I to blame for putting her in danger without even knowing it?"

"Hey, hey, don't even think about it," Adrian said. "Your mom's not coming back, and Victoriana looks healthy. We don't have to worry about her. Maybe she just didn't inherit as much from your family as Theo or Rien did. If we just let things settle down for a while, I know we can negotiate with Claudia. Things will work out."

"Adrian?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you call Abe? I...I want him here, but I don't... I don't want to tell him what happened. I...I can't. W-what if he's triggered by this into reliving the affair? I don't think he sees his therapist anymore like I do, but...what if...."

Roman trailed off, unable to even complete his thought. In an instant, Adrian's arms were wrapped around him, holding him tightly.

"Of course I can get him and of course he'll understand. You don't need to feel guilty about this, Roman. It happened when you were single, a long time ago. Abe loves you, he'll understand."

In an instant, Adrian disappeared, leaving Roman alone outside the palace doors. There was no way that Roman wanted to go home to the place he and Abe had fought over his infidelity. Not with news like this. No matter what Adrian said, Roman couldn't shake the deep feeling of self-loathing he felt for himself. He had been too wild as a teen. He'd been too careless about birth control. His family had scared away any chance of a connection to his daughter. He would have gotten Claudia killed just as easily as he had Adrian. There was something wrong, something unlovable about him that his parents had seen. They hadn't loved him because he didn't deserve it. Victoriana was probably better off without him in her life.

"Roman! I'm here! Adrian told me everything. I'm right here for you."

"Abe? You're not mad?"

Abe shook his head incredulously and took Roman into his arms.

"Of course I'm not mad," he said. "Why would I be mad? You were just as blindsided by this as I was. I love you, Roman. We'll get through this together. Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"Who's watching the kids?"

Answering Abe's question was the last thing Roman wanted to do. How did he feel? He didn't. There was a gaping hole in his chest that was burning him from the inside out and he could hardly breathe. Crafting that feeling into words didn't seem possible.

"Adrian's with them. He teleported me here and then went back. When you're ready to teleport us back, he'll be waiting, probably with Evren. We'll all sort this out at whatever pace you want."

"Abe, I was never serious about Claudia, I promise. I was just trying to get back at you and you don't have to worry about me running back to her or anything, I never want to be with anyone else and-"

Abe silenced his husband with a gentle kiss.

"Ro, I know you're not about to run off with the queen of Pleasantview. We've rebuilt a lot of trust these past few years and I know you. You're having a meltdown and hating yourself, not trying to hide a love affair with a woman you see maybe once every few years in passing. I love you."

"I love you too."

"Then let's go home and make you some tea. I'm sure Evren has one of his concoctions that will help calm you down. Having a warlock in the family certainly helps sometimes. Theo may have him beat for pure power, but damn does that man know how to brew a potion."

Roman smiled slightly, until he thought about Abe's words.

"What are we going to tell Theo?" he groaned, his despair catching up to him once more. "He's going to hate me. How do I tell any of the kids? Theo might run into Victoriana at a school event. What if they hate each other? What if-"

"Magic tea now, worrying about the kids after," Abe insisted. "I'm sure Evren or Adrian will have an idea. Hell, even Lucy might have an idea or two. In the very unlikely event that Theo or the girls are angry, Aunt Lucy can set them straight. She knows a thing or two about hiding parentage from her kids and she doesn't worry about it."

"Your sister is a sociopath," Roman replied, the hint of a smile starting. Abe smiled back at him.

"A sociopath who cares about you. Give her an afternoon, she'll have Claudia's monarchy in ruins."

"Thanks, Abe. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"And you'll never have to know. I'm not going anywhere. Let's go home."