#and they get cheaper if you book them early

[aretrothing]

i do not get this culture of flying comparably short distances. yes it might be more convenient or whatever but you're ruining the environment and a much more fun and sustainable option is staring you right in the face

[redgoldsparks]

My Experience Buying eSIMs for Gaza by Maia Kobabe

instagram / patreon / portfolio / etsy / my books

Full transcript below the cut:

Cover:

My Experience Buying eSIMs for Gaza 

Project organized by @ connectinghumanity_

by Maia Kobabe @redgoldsparks 

Page 1 

In Fall 2023, I saw instructions on instagram for how to purchase an eSIM card and submit it to be distributed to someone in Gaza. 

Download an eSIM app-> Select Middle East as the region-> Purchase-> Screenshot the QR code-> Do not activate-> send to gazaesims@gmail.com 

Image of Maia looking at eir phone. “That sounds easy, I’ll buy one.” 

I emailed an Airalo eSIM QR code to gazaesims on Nov 17 2023. 

Page 2

By January 2024, it hadn’t been activated yet. I bought a second one from Nomad and sent my new QR code and resubmitted my old one. 

Image of Maia looking at eir phone. “How long does this usually take, I wonder?” 

By February neither had been activated, but Connecting Humanity kept posting about needing more. I bought a second Nomad and resubmitted all of them on February 15, 2024. 

Page 3

The Nomad eSIMs are much cheaper than Airalo, but what I didn’t realize is that they expire even if they haven’t been activated. At the end of February I decided to try a third company, Simly. Here’s a price comparison: 

AIRALO: $39 USD for 3GB, never expires 

SIMLY: $22 USD for 3GB, never expires 

NOMAD: $16 USD for 3GB, expires after 8 weeks even if unused, only offers in-app refunds 

Page 4

Connecting Humanity asks folks to wait at least 3 weeks before resending a QR code that hasn’t been activated yet. On March 7 Mirna Elhelbawi posted: 

We send EVERY esim we receive. Bear in  mind that we are dealing with people at a war zone. They might take it and get killed before activating it, they might take it and their phone gets lost or destroyed. They might take it and search for days for stable internet connection to activate it, and some of them activate it unsuccessfully due to lack of knowledge and the horrific situations they are in. ~Connecting Gaza 

By early April, my first Nomad eSIM expired unused. I resubmitted my three remaining eSIMs. 

Page 5

Suddenly, two of my eSIMs were activated on the same day! The Airalo I’d purchased 4.5 months earlier and my second Nomad. 

Image of Maia looking happy and surprised. 

Image of Maia looking very intensely at eir phone. “I have to make sure these don’t run out!” 

I began buying top-up packages immediately. 

Page 6

I felt like I had planted a seed in the fall and waited all winter for it to sprout. Seeing it activated was like watching the first new leaves break the soil. 

Image of Maia with a watering can labeled “data”, sprinkling water on two little sprouts. “Watering my eSIMs!” 

Sadly, only .07 GB of data was ever used on my Nomad. It was never used again after that first day. 

Page 7

But my Airalo has been in constant use for over a month now. I check on it every day. 

I will never know the person I am buying data for and they will never know me. But we are connected by the same strings of hope and grief that connect us all. 

Image of two hands holding a phone, which is connected to a flying kite. 

Page 8

On April 5, 2024 Connecting Humanity reported they had sent more than 250,000 eSIMs to Gaza, equivalent to approximately $6.3 million donated! You can visit gazaesims.com for more info, instructions, and discounts. Here are my referral codes: 

MAIA5367 for $3 off Airalo 

MB772 for $3 off Simly 

MAIA66GF for $3 off Nomad 

If you need more incentive, the Cartoonist Coop is doing art rewards. Visit cartoonist.coop/esims4gaza 

Page 9

Image of Maia, weighing two options. “Buying an eSIM is easy and can make a very direct impact. It can also take a lot of patience and could get expensive over time if you commit to keeping the eSIM topped up indefinitely.” 

If an immediate one time donation is more your speed, I recommend Operation Olive Branch and Gazafunds, two places to find Gofundmes aiding Palestinian families. 

gazafunds.com

@ operationolivebranch on insta

linktr.ee/opolivebranch 

-Maia Kobabe 2024 

[moiraimyths]

The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) | Official Trailer

The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) is a lore-rich and choice-driven historical fantasy visual novel inspired by Irish mythology and Celtic folklore. Play as a tenant farmer from mid-19th century Ireland, whose path becomes inexplicably entwined in fairy affairs after getting robbed by the roadside and lured into the mythic and war-torn world of Tír na nÓg: A once unified land, now divided into the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Will you escape and return home with your stolen belongings? Or does fate have something else in mind?

🍃 STEAM 🍂 ITCH.IO 🍃PATREON 🍂DISCORD 🍃

Eager to play? Certain route content is available NOW in early access on Steam and Itch.io! For more information, click below👇

Meet the Cast

Facts & Questions: The Game

🍃 The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) is a Kickstarter-funded project currently in development. Due to the scope of the story, we will be releasing it serially over several years to Steam and Itch.io, and discounting it while in early access. The earlier it's bought, the cheaper it will be overall, and you'll only need to buy the game once!

🍂 Not all routes are currently available! As of Nov. 1, 2024, you can play half of Shae and Maeve's routes; both approximately 50k words. If you're not sure about paying for an unfinished game, feel free to check out our free demo first. It consists of Vol. 1, Book of the Traveller (the pre-route content). Differences between the demo's Vol. 1 and the paid game's Vol. 1 are marginal following our August 1, 2024 re-release of the demo.

🍃 The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) has a recommended reading order (Vol. 1, then 2, then 3, etc.), which will correspond to the release order of the routes. For more information on our reasoning behind this, click here.

🍂 Due to its setting, The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) will occasionally feature instances of characters speaking in Gaeilge, i.e. the Irish language. All instances of Gaeilge are linked to an internal translation tool, which is voiced by Nigel McKeon, a Gaeilgeoir.

🍃 The main character is yours to shape. At minimum, you must choose a nickname, pronouns, and one of four default appearances, the last of which can be your own artwork (instructions are included in the game's files). You may also choose to discard the True Name…

🍂 All routes, both current and upcoming, will have both romantic and platonic choice options. If you're uninterested in romance, feel free to make friends instead! No matter the nature of your relationship, you will still be able to reach the good end. Or the bad one.

🍃 Our cast consists of two men, two women, and two non-binary characters. All are romancable no matter the MC, but some characters are asexual or on the aromantic spectrum, which may impact aspects of their romances.

🍂 If you are a Mac user and are having issues launching the game via the Itch direct download, refer to this guide for troubleshooting before sending us an ask. We strongly recommend purchasing the game through Steam instead of Itch if you are a Mac user; it is the best way to avoid issues with launching the game.

🍃 NDM is very intentionally set just prior to the onset of the Great Famine, which is both thematically and textually relevant to the leftist, anti-imperialist story we're aiming to tell. If you would like more insight into this, refer to this post.

🐎 There are secrets to be found in this game, with more yet to come. Prepare yourself for a lot of horse related shenanigans. 🐎

Facts & Questions: The Company

🧵 Moirai Myths is a five-person company based out of Canada. The core devs/founders go by Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. All writing and programming are done by this collective, i.e. the Fates.

🪡 Moirai Myths has a two person in-house artist team consisting of Kazane, our Character/UI Designer, and Melinoe, our Environmental Designer. In addition to them, though, we have had a number of guest artists assist us with the creation of sprites, CGs, and an assortment of other materials. If you'd like to meet them, check out our about page on our website!

✂️ Moirai Myths stands with the people of Palestine 🇵🇸

Disclaimer: This description will be updated periodically. If you're reading this in a reblog, you may want to check our current pinned post for potential changes.

[introspectivememories]

shanks and buggy denden au where:

the crew kinda splits up in the 2 year gap before roger's death and in an effort to make sure their sons cabin boys are alright, rayleigh puts them on the ship denden plan

so their little apt in loguetown has two dendens, one in the living room and one in their bedroom

they use it all the time. to call oden and toki, to call spencer. even to call roger, hoping that he'll pick up. (he never does)

phone calls are nice but nothing beats talking face to face and visual dendens are on the market they're just super fuckin expensive and both shanks and buggy are saving up for one. it'll be nice to see momo amd hiyori again.

anyway the execution happens and then the loguetown breakup and they pack up their apt in complete silence, each of them taking one denden.

(it'll be a decade and a half before they see each other again.)

they both expect the phone plan to just get cancelled but one day the mail seagull comes to them with a denden bill. turns out, the pirates denden company just grandfathered them into the old plan.

and you know what? it's not like they have any money and this plan is cheaper than all the other plans the company offers so they keep it. they get two separate numbers for the both of them and they dont think about it.

they decided to alternate the months they paid after one very terse call. or that was the plan but shanks is sooo forgetful all the fucking time and he never pays his denden bill on time. it ends up being buggy paying 8 months out of the year and shanks paying the other 4

(benn ends up setting up auto pay 5 years into traveling with shanks. what? it's not like they're broke.)

anyway buggy ends up becoming the terror of the east blue and shanks goes onto become an emperor and still neither of them change their numbers. they don't have the heart to.

and it's not something they consciously think about but sometimes when buggy gets drunk enough, he'll pull out his old ass denden book and trace his fingers over shanks' number. and if shanks is drunk enough he'll get halfway through dialing buggy's number before his brain catches up to what he's doing and stopping

anyway skip to marineford, and shanks is giving buggy a ride back to his ship. when they finally arrive at the island buggy's ship was docked on, both crews decide to throw a "im so fucking glad we lived through that/ captain buggy's the greatest!" party

buggy desperately tries to avoid shanks and shanks is literally holding himself back from looking for buggy but the party goes on and they get drunker and eventually they gravitate towards each other.

bc of course they do. they were shanksandbuggy, buggyandshanks, long before they were part of their respective crews. so they both sneak away from the party and they end up in shanks' room, with shanks sitting on the bed and buggy on his lap, curled around each other.

it feels just like their apt all those years ago. all those quiet nights on their fourth-hand couch, that they spent curled together -- buggy reading a book and shanks quietly talking his ear off.

(it was easier then. those two years where they had an apt together and the air was still heavy with the scent of hope. it was smth to look forward to -- 2 years and then captain will come back and there will be new adventures!

shanks got a job at the docks and buggy tried at least 17 different jobs before settling at a bookstore. and he'd go to work early in the morning and come back late at night to buggy in his hoodie, making dinner, ranting about rude customers.

and on weekends they'd both sleep in and cook breakfast together. or well buggy would cook breakfast, shanks would sit on the countertops and make buggy laugh. and then they'd spend the day inside or go out to eat. and it was good. better than good even. shanks could almost see why people stayed on land.

and then the execution happens and their father's blood stains the cobblestones crimson red and they seperate and then just as quickly as it started, it ends.)

that's when buggy notices the denden.

🤡: you still have that thing? 🍶: yes of course 🤡: and your number is still the same? 🍶: ....yeah. you? 🤡: yeah, never changed it. 🍶: why'd you keep it all these years?

and buggy may be drunk and his inhibitions may be lowered but he's still buggy at heart so he gives some bullshit answer

🤡 looking away: it was cheaper

and shanks knows he's fucking lying bc it may have been years since he last saw buggy but who knows buggy better than he does? who knows shanks better than buggy does?

🍶: c'mon bugs, tell me the truth. why'd ya keep it all these years? 🤡 unwilling to give in first: why'd you keep it all these years? 🍶: because i kept hoping that you'd be on the other end.

and buggy is floored.

🤡: .... what? 🍶: i kept hoping that if i kept my number the same, you'd call one day. 🍶: i can't tell you how many times i've picked up the denden, hoping it was you on the other end. 🍶, laughing sadly: i kept it all these years because of you. and you never called, not once. 🍶, cupping 🤡 face with his hand: why'd you never call bugs?

shanks is tearing up and buggy has already started the waterworks

🤡, sniffling: you knew where i was. why didn't you ever come and see me? 🍶: can you honestly say that you would've seen me? you probably would've told me to leave. so i stayed away. 🤡 hitting 🍶on the chest: idiot! i probably would've called at some point if you had came to me. but you never did and i just took it as a sign that anything we had was done and over. 🍶, grabbing 🤡 hands and staring into his eyes: how could you ever think we'd be done and over? it's only ever been you for me. only you. 🤡, full on crying by this point: idiot, idiot, idiot!

they're both curled over each other sobbing into each other's shoulder bc they could've had this the entire time but they were too fucking stupid

🍶: why'd you keep the denden, bugs? 🤡: haven't you figured it out by now? it was the only thing i had left of you. 🍶: you're such a fuckin sap, bugs. 🤡, blushing: shut up

[alphagodith]

what do we do now?

go get all your vaccines updated asap. they are likely about to be banned.

download all your favorite fanfics from ao3, and any 'adult' content anywhere, as these are likely also about to be banned.

delete period-tracking apps if you have them, get an iud and/or stock up on any other preg-prevent drugs you can, even if you don't CURRENTLY need them. men, get vasectomies. they are reversible and whether you want kids or not, pregnancies can now result in your partner's death far more easily than they should.

if you rely on commissions from online communities, make sure you have many different ways of being reached. diversify.

see if you can get prescription-strength toothpaste prescribed and filled by your dentist. flouride is likely getting removed from water and dental health can directly impact your cardiovascular health as well.

it is now more important than ever to save your money and invest if you can, as social security and other such benefits you may come to rely on in old age are likely going to get canceled. pay off debts early to avoid interest, buy refurbished outdated tech instead of new (it is way cheaper and works just as good if not better than new), don't buy a car that gets less than 45 mpg (priuses do not need to be charged and are lovely), buy used (they work just as well as new, they just don't have useless prestige), buy frozen meals from the grocery store instead of fast food (just as fast to prepare and much cheaper), etc

with public education being abolished, if you have or want kids, i recommend finding and stocking up on educational books and games. you can likely find a lot of them at discount stores like goodwill. even old or slightly outdated texts are better than nothing at all.

get a vpn (i use proton cuz it's free) and switch from google to duckduckgo so you can find life-saving information and help without being tracked by people who want you dead.

[ninyard]

The Scriptures aka towning according to nin. (subject to change)

can’t do this without acknowledging the descriptions of them by @rekikiri which are just perfect plus some more stuff on them here and this wonderful background by @tara-the-star

(I owe everyone like a million socmed posts just for putting up with my shit re: this. enjoy!)

austin michael browning

- southern boy. has a soft southern accent. i was thinking something like southern georgia, but his parents have a stronger accent than he does. he didn't want to be known as the sweet darlin' southern boy when he moved to virginia for his FBI training, so he tried his best to speak a bit more neutral

- it didn't last long

- 6’2, soft brown hair, beautiful brown eyes. he’s covered in freckles and has the most gorgeous warm skin with some terrible tan lines. when he tans, he tans.

- he’s quite built but you can only tell when he takes off his suit jacket or he’s wearing just a shirt/t-shirt. if he could’ve gotten an a+ on the fbi fitness test he would’ve. he’s incredibly strong and goes to the gym most mornings (at like 6am. he’s a real early bird)

- has a bachelors degree in law/criminal justice

- was a detective for two years in georgia until he went to quantico. worked on criminal intelligence cases, but occasionally worked on juvenile crime cases. he had one particularly difficult case involving both departments (organised crime involving a minor) which inspired him to work for the FBI.

- has four siblings. he's the middle child with two older sisters and two younger sisters.

- he’s a somalier without being a somalier. literally knows anything and everything about wine. always has the right bottle of wine for any occasion or meal. recommending wines and opening his favourite wines is his love language.

- his family live by strict traditional values - two of his sisters were married by the time they were 22, and the other two followed suit at 21 and 23. he has a couple of nieces and nephews that he doesn’t get to see too often but he’s their fun uncle. he had a lot of pressure to find a nice girl and settle down, and always brushed off the girlfriend question (he even made up a fake girlfriend when he was in college, just to get his parents off his back) ((they didn’t “date” for very long))

- his dad worked on a farm his whole life and his momma has always been a housewife. his sisters were the only ones his mom taught to cook and clean. he had to teach himself a lot of life skills in college. he still occasionally ruins his clothes by washing them wrong but he’s learned to get his work suits dry cleaned. it’s much cheaper to do that than have to get new ones when he inevitably shrinks them.

- his mom never teaches him how to cook/bake, but she gives him a handwritten book of recipes when he moves to maryland for work. it sits on a shelf in the kitchen of his apartment but he’s never used it

- (until towns visits his apartment for the first time and tells him that he has to make him some of his ‘momma’s recipes’ someday. browning falls in love, naturally, and tries a couple dishes and treats)

- he didn’t really know or acknowledge that he was gay until he was in college. he’d had a few “girlfriends” here and there in highschool but he always felt like he was forcing himself into liking them. he kissed a boy for the first time when he was 19, and everything made sense for him, but even still he buried it down quite deep and focused on his studies instead of relationships.

- his family are not accepting at all. He grew up around a lot of homophobia and slurs and disrespect of lgbt+ people, and so that made it really hard for him to come to terms with his sexuality. he started to distance himself from them when he went to college, and the weekly phone calls with his mom turned to once a fortnight, into once or twice a month, into whenever she eventually didn’t take no for an answer and kept calling until he picked up.

- the only person who knew that he was gay was his oldest sister, who he came out to when he was in the third year of his degree. she was honest and told him that their mom and dad wouldn’t be supportive of him, but she wasn’t going to tell them either.

- she always changed the topic when the “girlfriend” conversation came up when he would go home for thanksgiving or Christmas or some other occasion. he appreciated that a lot

- started smoking cigarettes in college and struggled to give it up. he barely smokes anymore but every now and again on a tough case he finds himself reaching for a packet of cigarettes (towns hates it)

samuel arthur towns

- new york new yooorkkk. he was born somewhere in new york that i haven't figured out yet.

- 5’11, mixed with a white dad and a black mom. he wears glasses. he’s not as big or strong as austin is, but he’s in really good shape. he has gorgeous dark brown eyes and spends way too much time on his hair.

- has a tattoo on his thigh.

- he’s an only child to his absolutely amazing mother and father. they’re SO supportive of him and have always trusted him to make good choices in life - he tells his mom everything. he calls her almost every other day and visits home as often as possible.

- has a double bachelors degree in psychology and law from Columbia

- was a backliner on his high school exy team but never had any intentions of becoming an athlete/going pro. he was a TOTAL jock back then

- when he graduated college he pretty quickly knew he wanted to do something good that wasn’t necessarily becoming a cop. he waited until he turned 23 and on the day he finished his two years of working in an attorney’s office, he applied for a job with the fbi

- came out as gay pretty young. his parents have always been fairly liberal (his mom was a hippie back in the day) so he came out as a teenager and they’ve always been cool with it

- right when he was in the middle of his FBI training in quantico, he was dumped by the man he’d been dating for like two years. he had to put it to the back of his mind to focus on the academy, but it was one of the things that made him and austin first start speaking

- he’s kept journals since he was a kid. he has a full shelf of journals and sketchbooks from the age he was 10 or 11 until the present. he always carries a little black notebook with him and writes down his thoughts and little sketches. (its full of doodles of browning)

- his parents also have books and boxes full of photos of him from birth. it’s like an INSANE number of photos. their attic is just full of boxes and boxes of pictures. (austin’s favourite is one they have on the wall in the living room of sammy as a teenager in his exy gear)

- in turn he’s really into photography too and always takes photos. he shoots on film, so he has loads of boxes full of photos too. his dream is to have a dark room in his home.

- his mom really is his best friend. she’s his biggest fan, and the reason he studied psychology. she’s a holistic therapist, and gives the BEST advice. his dad is a food critic.

- when he was younger a friend of his was killed after because he became involved with the wrong people and ended up in a gang. it totally changed a lot for him, and seeing the way the case was handled really inspired him to get into law/want to go into the fbi. he saw all these young black boys from underfunded and underprivileged backgrounds finding themselves caught up in gangs and when things would happen to them - it was clear the effort to stop the feuds and the violence was not as important as if a young white man had been killed, or indoctrinated because he had no choice.

- his mom was worried when he told her that he’d applied to be in the fbi. they had a very long conversation about the realities of what he would see working with the fbi, why he wanted to do it, what it would mean for his future, and the things he couldn’t do. he knew all of it already, having researched it all as soon as he realised it was the career path he wanted to go down, but she really wanted to be sure he knew what he was getting himself into. it scared him, for a little bit, but he knew it was the right choice for him.

- he has a license, but doesn’t drive that much. he didn’t really need to drive much living in new york, and 90% of the time, in maryland, austin drives him around.

- he’s partially deaf in one ear from a crash that happened during a car chase a few years into working with the fbi.

- the hardest part about working where he does was learning how to shoot a gun. he hates it. like he’s good at it and smart with it but he hates having a gun. the first time he shot a real person he held it together until he got home later and was practically in shock. (he wasn’t sure if telling his mom broke confidentiality or not, so because he was on the case with austin, he invited him over and he ended up staying the night just to keep him company)

- austin and sam only lived in seperate apartments for about six months when they moved to maryland until they decided to move in together. austin was already renting a two bedroom apartment, whereas sam was in a studio, and it just made more financial sense for them to move in together. ("financial")

- he started crushing on austin so early on in their friendship, but he had no idea that austin was pretty much the same.

- austin and sam met when they both started their training in quantico together. they were roommates at the academy but didn’t really interact too much. they only really started talking after one of the first weekends they were allowed to leave the campus - towns went home to visit his boyfriend on the Friday and came back trying to hide the fact he was a wreck on Sunday. he tried not to talk about it, because they’re judging their emotional maturity in the academy, but when browning asked if he was okay, he spilled a little too much.

- even after that, they weren’t really friends. they talked, of course, about their classes and the academy itself, but that was mostly it. towns didn’t know browning was gay, because he never mentioned it, even when towns told him he was gay. most evenings austin would sit at his desk with headphones on while studying, and sammy wouldn’t usually interrupt.

- then one time when they’re both at the gym at the same time, austin notices sam working out, and his form isn’t quite right for the work out he’s doing. austin corrects him after telling him he’ll hurt himself working out the way that he is, and he helps him through a couple of other sets that he does himself. they go to the gym together most days after that, spotting each other when they’re doing weights. they start running in the mornings, too.

- during the course of training there’s a couple of occasions where students at the academy are expected to wear business attire. they’re both getting dressed up in their suits, and austin is kind of embarrassed because he doesn’t really know how to properly tie a tie. his dad usually tied them for him, and for some reason even though he swore he knew how to do it, he’s just really struggling. sam offers to help and austin ends up talking a little bit about his family, but not giving away anything about how shitty they really are.

- one of the weekends they’re allowed off campus, later on at their time in training, towns asks browning if he wants to go out for dinner and a drink. it’s not a date, and neither of them think it is, but neither of them were going home for the weekend and they both wanted to do something. austin ends up picking a restaurant based off their wine list, and they talk about their lives outside of quantico for a little bit. they can’t exactly go out and get drunk - or they’re both afraid to do so in case they get kicked out of the academy - but they sit and talk and share a bottle of wine.

- they get closer, and when they graduate, towns’ mom and dad show up, and browning’s family doesn’t. they take pictures together (one of towns’ favourite photos ever) and sam introduces austin to his mom and dad. they’re going out for a celebratory meal, and sam’s dad invites austin along so he’s not celebrating by himself. he refuses, but when they insist, he comes along.

- oh and it’s SUCH a nice evening. he fills any rare awkward silence by explaining his wine choice to sammy’s dad, while sam’s mom nudges her son and raises her eyebrows like oh, he’s cute.

- they exchange phone numbers before they both head home to wait for their offers.

- (austin spent most of those 18 weeks smiling because of how close him and sam got. sam spent about half of that time thinking damn. am I falling for another straight guy?)

- austin calls sam first the day they find out where they’re being stationed. they tell each other on 3 that they’ve both been stationed in maryland and oh my god. Austin didn’t even know he was going to feel so relieved but he’s like holy shit. I didn’t even realise i was secretly really hoping that we were going to work together.

(there’s more but. I have to stop myself. The brain rot is setting in deeper and deeper)

[lesssial]

Trying to figure out the year in Bram's/Fyodor's Backstory

So what I'm looking at is Vlad the impaler's timeline along with a few hints in the manga. But not much Dracula because I haven’t read the book, and also because the book takes place about 400 years later.

So the castle that Bram lived in, for people who don't know, is an actual castle in Transylvania Romania named Bran.

Basic info

-Bran castle was built between 1377 and 1388. (Vlad the impaler never set foot in it but Dracula lived there.)

-Vlad III ruled Wallachia

-Vlad the impaler / Vlad III lived from 1431-1476 (He was defeated by the ottomans not Romans and his head was shipped to Constantinople/Istanbul)

-Vlad III’s reigns; 1448 (For a few months), 1456-62, and 1476-77.

It is a bit hard to truly connect to two while they ruled two different regions (Transylvania & Wallachia)

The knights

In this panel, we can get a look of the types of armor these knights wore.

The majority of the helmets resemble a barbute helmet which was used in the 15th century

The rectangular shields (scutum) mostly disappeared by the end of the 3rd century

Mainly spears and Halberds (The spear ax things) with an occasional sword in the crowd of knights. (Spears were cheaper at the time)

The full body armor became popular between 1400-1500s.

Byzantine empire fell in 1453 while the holy roman empire fell in the 1800s.

What nation are the knights from?

This is the main question. Are these knights from the Holy Roman empire? The Byzantine empire before it fell? Most likely not the ottoman empire due to the amount of christian symbolism. It can’t be the Byzantine empire because they rarely if at all used Halberts. Also the Byzantine empire fell pretty early so it's unlikely they were associated with Bram’s defeat. It seems like the Holy Roman empire however they did not use rectangular shields, favoring a kite or heater shield instead. Then who else?

I couldn't find any good maps

Fyodor mentioned the North (Idk why Bram started blabbering about the west). Do you know what was north of Transylvania? The Kingdom of Hungary who also had a skilled army known as the black army that used rectangular shields and was big on spears and Halberd.

The Hungarian Black army (1458-1494)

From the evidence gathered so far, it must be 1458-76.

King Matthias & the Sultan

Here, Bram asks Fyodor who he serves, either King Matthias (The king of Hungary) or the Sultan (Leader of the Ottomans). Bram was suspicious of the Sultan for the reason that they started eyeing Europe once the Byzantine Empire fell, along with his history with them (Held hostage as a boy). The tension between King Matthias and Vlad III started when Matthias received a letter from the saxons allegedly written by Vlad III in which he offered support to the Ottomans. This was enough to convince Matthias of Vlad III’s treachery so he imprisoned him from 1463 to 1475. Vlad III was intercepted and captured by Matthias after he had escaped Ottoman capture and sought Matthias for assistance. This could be when Bram was defeated in the manga(?) So I guess the year may have been 1462-1463?

Some bonus info that I noticed is that Matthias signed a peace treaty with the Holy Roman empire in 1463. Maybe Bram was defeated after they signed the treaty so they could form some sort of coalition against him (This could explain why the knights all had religious imagery on their helmets).

Another thing is that Bram was impaled(?) alongside two other women. In the Dracula book, I believe it was mentioned there were three female vampires that the protagonist had to defeat before killing Dracula in the castle. This could hint towards the fact that Bram was in the castle when he was attacked and defeated.

(I'm having trouble mixing history and fiction. Fyodor definitely had a hand in this. No way he just came to warn Bram for no reason)

None of these images are mine (I'm sure you know, but just in case)

Yeah that’s all I got, please comment to correct me and/or let me know if you know anything. (Might edit later idk)

[pvffinsdaisies]

Norway Headcanons

Bc I’m inspired ✨

Norway is a very active and outdoorsy person, he loves skiings (which, he’s mastered), hiking, sailing/rowing and figure skating.

Norway is a firm believer that there is no bad weather, only bad clothes. It could be a literal blizzard outside and he’ll still shrug his shoulders and go out to try and ski anyway. He hates being inside on a weekend, and if he doesn’t get out he’ll feel guilty about it or even claustrophobic.

Norway has always felt an incredibly deep connection with the sea, and just water in general, to be honest. There’s something so peaceful and therapeutic about it. He often finds himself longing to be in, on or surrounding by water.

Nor is an adventurer and an explorer at heart!! He loves travelling and seeing the natural beauty of so many different parts of the of the world ✨ he doesn’t really tell people when he’s going on these holidays. If you haven’t heard from nor in a while, it’s entirely likely that he could be at the top of Ben Nevis, or hiking through the Amazon rainforest, or swimming in a random beach in Australia.

that being said, he is a completely different during the winter months. Seasonal depression hits him like a brick, and he’ll spend most days cuddled under blankets, knitting and watching some nature documentary. He tries to get outside for the 2-3 hours of sunlight he gets in the middle of the day, just for the sake of getting outside and not feeling trapped.

Norway never gets enough sleep. Managing to be both a night owl and an early bird. He always goes to sleep far too late and he always wakes up far too early. Coffee is his clutch during the day, and he often finds himself napping on the sofa more than he’d like.

speaking of getting up early, he always likes to get a little read in of his book before he starts his day. The reason he gets up so early is so that he has time to read.

Norway is a huge booknerd, he loves reading. And he’s found reading to be really helpful when he experiences homesickness on his travels. He always likes to bring a book that’s set in Norway, so he can map out the different locations in his mind and truly feel momentarily transported home.

every single time he’s in the UK, he always buys far too many books than he should, but he gets so caught up in how much cheaper they are over here than in Norway. Scotland officially has his own little book shelf for all the books Norway’s bought that he couldn’t fit in his suitcase on the way back home.

he has massive bookshelves back home, and every few months he likes to dedicate a day solely to reorganising them completely. It takes him hours, but he loves it, he finds it weirdly very relaxing.

in terms of things that Norway finds relaxing, he actually does yoga. It’s a great way to clear his head and feel calm. It also helps out with his flexibility. Norway is far more flexible than any man should be.

on paper, Norway lives a very healthy lifestyle. He doesn’t drink that much fizzy pop, he eats a lot of fruit and vegetables, he gets a lot of protein from the sheer amount of fish he eats, and sweet treats and snacks are reserved for weekends.

Norway is very jealousy prone, especially in regard to Denmark & Sweden. Often feeling forgotten about or even under-valued in comparison to them. He hates having too much attention on himself, but if Sweden or Denmark is mentioned he will feel an intense need to prove himself as equal or even better than them.

this also results in him being extremely competitive against Denmark & Sweden.

Norway is actually really good at woodwork, but his skills are always overshadowed by Sweden, who is admittedly far better than him.

however, Norway is the best nordic at knitting! He loves it, and he takes great pride in the things he knits. He actually loves to knit jumpers with Norwegian patterns on for his friends to wear in the winter time. And he basically lives in his many different marius gensers he’s knit for himself.

Norway is a formidable gift giver, he always somehow finds the best present to gift someone for their birthday or for Christmas. He actually prefers to give them hand made gifts too. He will rarely get someone something that’s store bought.

he loves cats and he has two Norwegian forest cats of his own, they’re called Oskar and Mons. His babies 🥰

Norway is extremely non-committal. At least, in terms of relationships. He values his freedoms and his independence far too highly, and he’s absolutely prettified of actually falling in love. He finds it far easier to just have meaningless hook ups that neither part acknowledges in the morning. And if he does date someone, he often runs away before things get serious.

Norway is actually scared of fire, at least really big ones. Small ones are fine. But his cities have burnt down so many times throughout history, and I actually think Norway was a victim of the witch trials too. So a huge bonfire is absolutely a no-go for Norway.

norway has a flat in oslo, entirely for work purposes, a house in Trondheim, which is farrr more homely and he much prefers, as well as a cabin up in Lofoten. The highest honour you could achieve as Norway’s friend is to be invited to his cabin. It’s his private little space to escape to during the summer. No electronics or wifi, just nature.

Norway has dimples, but because he rarely smiles not many people know of them.

of course, we know Norway feels deeply connected to the magic and the folk lore of his home. But he also loves learning about the folklore from other countries in the world too. He always tried to find a book of folktales in every single country he visits.

Norway is a formidable story teller, which is quite good, because he loves passing on his mythology to everyone who cares to listen.

Norway actually has a little nisse friend who lives in his house in Trondheim. He’s an absolute menace sometimes, but nor still loves him. But he’s also developed a habit of blaming this little nisse every single time something goes missing, even if he’s not in Trondheim.

he loves music. He is a formidable singer, and he plays the violin, the electric violin, and the hardanger fiddle.

Norway is great at navigating the sea and mountains, but absolutely dreadful at navigating cities. If he’s going to an unfamiliar city, he will need someone to show him around or he will get horribly lost.

[blingblong55]

grim stalks people

But not like a stalker

Like a dog

They slowly approach, and then lunge at the person

If it's one of their military family members, it turns into a playfight sesh

If it's a random soldier, you have either fucked up so bad God shall'nt help you, or grim thinks your cool

Grim can paint nails and do them very well, so much so it's gotten to the point the women and men in the same area/base as grim will just ask grim to do their nails rather then go to a salon.

Mainly because grim can do it better and it's way cheaper, all the person has to do is buy grim McDonald's

Grim has bitten könig, ghost, and soaps ass before

grim has a stash of weed, weed edibles, bongs, blunts, and so much more. They have the good shit too

(Optional)

Grim once wore tight leggings around the base and realized they have unintentional God-level rizz

Grim also likes to wear tight mens boxers around base

Grim has gotten insecure about their belly pudge and generally thickness (I am a chubby bunny so I believe grim to be as well)

The boys didn't like that

So they took a peice from grims book, and bit their thighs and stomach.

It worked wonders, but grim was horny the whole day

barracks bunny!Grim??????????? think of the potentials here!!!

Grim probably has a tiktok account where they post a 'my clients nails and their career' content. People praise Grim left and right about their nails so much Grim has a side hustle. Now I believe in America weed is legal but here in the UK it's not so let's pretend Grim is American for this part.

Grim is the GOD/GODDESS of giving people weed, the way they are so creative with it is what makes it be under the radar. 420 is the day no one on base works because Grim distributed that good stuff early in the morning as 'presents'.

Anyway back to horny Grim, they are probably rubbing up against pillows like an animal in heat because the only time they are a little shy about themselves is when they are horny. At times they aren't though! What gets Grim to get any sort of pleasure is at times loudly complain to Gaz or Soap about their body and they smile like a villain with a good plan after their body is littered with bite marks. its just so good it wake up the masochist in them

[musicalhell]

Do you have any tips on finding a good travel agent? Im saving money for an international trip in the future and i want to do my research early

Yes!

1.) Avoid MLMs. These agents were recruited with enticing "get paid to travel!" promises but have been given little to no training or support. See this article for specific companies to avoid.

2.) Depending on where you're going and what you want to do, you may want to find a specialist in your destination. Any good travel agent can do, say, a basic Italy trip, but if you want to know where to find the most authentic onsen in Japan you'll need someone who knows the area very well and sells it frequently.

3.) As with any other professional, personal compatibility is important. Talk with them first to see how well you communicate and if you click. (This will be easy, as any good agent will want to know a lot about you and your vacation dreams before you even start looking at packages and pricing.)

4.) That said, please please PLEASE do not price shop us. Agents put a lot of effort into their proposals and we don't want you to take all our hard work and then book everything yourself on Priceline because it was $100 cheaper. More and more agents are charging planning fees to avoid this, requiring a nominal charge ($100-200) to provide a proposal--in most cases this will be applied directly to your deposit when you book so it's not an additional cost on top of everything.

Good luck with your vacation!

[umbramatic]

I Bought An Alarmo So You Don't Have To: A Post

I Bought An Alarmo So You Don't Have To: A Thread/Post

So Nintendo revealed its Alarmo alarm clock a while back, and like. Nintendo could have EASILY contracted a third party to make a normal alarm clock, slap some Nintendo branding on it, and sell it for much cheaper, because that's what any other big media company would have done, but no, they had to be extra. And reactions ranged from "i want one" to "what the fuck, this isn't the switch 2, this is so weird and stupid". 

I was initially in the latter camp. But there was always a twinge of. Morbid curiosity to it. And a desire to fix something about myself. 

See, I am AWFUL at getting up in the morning. I'm not a morning person. Most alarms on my phone and such I just hit snooze or stop endlessly even when I set a billion of them. But Alamo is different. Alarmo bugs you to get out of bed if you try to lie back down. So since I had extra money from my job, I was like, "maybe it's worth a shot I GUESS" and despite my reservations bought one. 

It arrived in a package a few days later. I was surprised by how small it was.

I knew it needed to be right next to my bed, so I moved a dog crate next to it and stacked a bunh of books on top for the Alarmo to sit on. 

I got it all set up...

And went to bed relatively soon after because I needed w to get up early the next morning. 

And you know what? The thing works. 

...Mostly.

I was awakened to loud Salmon Run noises, which were what I chose the night prior. (I later switched to other noises, especially Pikmin noises, I felt were even more intense.) They did in fact stop when I got out of bed. The motion sensors do their job very well. Sometimes too well. 

The box mentioned pets can throw it off and my dog DOES sleep with me but she's small and sleeps away from the sensor and gets out of bed when I do so she doesn't mess with it much. 

(Okay, not entirely true, she DOES mess with it sometimes...)

You know what potentially messes with it? The body pillow I sleep with. Maybe. Possibly.I toss it out of the bed to make sure but also it's kinda inconsistent if it triggers it or not.

 So maybe I should probably add a disclaimer about body pillows? Maybe not? Unsure.

I also kinda threw it off sitting on the edge of the bed putting new clothes on - that made it think I was still in bed. 

But the thing is it is actually succeeding at getting me out of bed. The fact it just goes off again if you lie back down is really helpful for me specifically. There was one time where I set it really early to get up for work and I fell back asleep on the couch to thwart the alarm and had to be woken up by my staff but the next day I set the alarm for slightly later and woke up for work fine. 

Even with the regular mode there IS a button to forcibly turn the alarm off which is dangerous for me specifically because that's my entire problem with normal alarms. But I gotta work on the discipline to not use it and find good timing so I'm less tempted to. 

Also! There are bedtime noises!But they're always the same volume as the alarm so mine ended up a bit loud to be sleepy bedtime music. 

Oh! And a summary of the alarms I've tried: 

-The rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrandomizer -The aforementioned Salmon Run noises

-The rousing noises of Pikmin night expeditions -GROOVY LONGLEGS DISCO

-Pikmin just straight up drowning -Zelda telling me to wake the fuck up

-Barking chain chomps to go with my barking doggo

So like. It's definitely still kind of a novelty item and I still rather not have paid 100 bucks for it. But the specific features it has are helpful for someone like me who is ass at getting up in the morning, so it's worth a shot if you fall into that specific category. Now if you'll excuse me I'm setting it to Pikmin drowning again because I'm a sick freak.

[godesssiri]

Thrifting antiques and valuable vintage.

I have an 8 foot high shelf in my living room. It’s huge and it’s packed full of gorgeous goodies. I would estimate that there’s easily $10,000 on those shelves – a grand a shelf + a bit extra because I have a pair of stupidly valuable vases that I could sell for $3000. Have I actually spent that much to acquire those items? Hahahahahahahahahahaha! No. I’m not rich, what I am is a dedicated thrifter who has learned to pick the treasures from the trash. Here are my best tips:

1.Pick things up, turn them over, look for maker’s marks, snap a pic and do a google image search, with a lot of them you can narrow down when something was made to a 10-20 year time-frame. Is the item heavier than you were expecting? Antiques are often heavier than new productions because they’re using better quality materiel or just more of the materiel because it was cheaper back then. Look for signs of wear, has the paint or plating rubbed off over time? Unless you like that look steer clear of really worn items, the fact they’re so worn detracts from the value and indicates they weren’t that high quality to begin with. You can learn and awful lot just by picking something up off the shelf.

2. Hand painted items. The stupidly valuable vases? Are exquisitely hand-painted. I got them for 30 bucks and almost had a heart attack when I did a google image search. I’ve got several hand painted things that I’ve picked up for cheap and could easily sell for 10 x what I paid for them. Look for fine painting, things that are intricate and detailed, not blobby. There is a HUGE collector’s market for hand-painted Chinese export porcelain that's over about 50 years old at least.

3. Antique books. A lot of people don’t place value on old books and tragically A LOT get thrown in the trash or cut up by crafters (if you are an artist who uses old books in your work, I’m BEGGING you to look at the publication date before you cut the pages out unless it’s already so damaged there’s no saving it). Anything pre-1950 there’s a collector’s market. Anything over 100 years old is officially antique and is a treasure. I have 3 books that were published in the 1700s and the most I’ve paid was $50, one of them I got for $10 – because the sellers didn’t bother to google the title and author and figure out exactly how old the book was. Since at least the early 1800s most books have had the publication date printed right there in the front so it’s super easy to figure out if the book in your hand with a 50-cent price tag is a genuine antique.

4. Pairs. Things are always more valuable as a pair. So, if you have the chance to buy a pair grab them. The stupidly valuable vases are more valuable as a pair – a single sells for $1000. Or if something was once part of a pair and there’s a chance of you coming across another one then it’s well worth it to make a new pair. I will always grab a single foo-dog/temple-lion because I have made up pairs from 2 singles and it instantly increases the value. The same goes for sets of things. I’m slowly putting together a set of 6 Libby cactus margarita glasses and when I have a full set I’ll probably sell them because I need the space and I have other glasses I like better – but I won’t sell until I find number 6 (I’ve got 5 and it’s driving me insane waiting to find the last one) because an even numbered set is worth so much more than an odd number.

5. Solid brass. See above re. picking things up and feeling for the weight. Solid brass is a lot heavier than hollow and is worth a whole lot more. Next time you’re in a thrift store and there’s a bunch of brass pick up different things and feel the difference in weight, you’ll find a huge variance between similarly sized items. The heavier ones also tend to have finer details which is another indicator and quality and value – not always but most of the time.

6. Details. Speaking of fine detail, up until fairly recently the more finely detailed something was the harder it was to manufacture, therefore the higher quality it was, so always keep an eye on the details. Look at how anything that came from a mold is shaped – are the details sharp and clear or are they a bit blurred and blobby, does it have a visible seem? If something is carved is the carving detailed and smooth or chunky and rough? If something is jointed together, are the joins tight and straight or is there a gap or a crooked join? Look closely and see how things have been made. Good quality is easy to spot when you look closely.

7. Be prepared to pay up. Sometimes you’ll come across things that are pricey by thrift store standards but they’re still a fraction of what the item is actually worth. I have a malachite trinket box. I paid $45 for it and was hesitant to spend that much. But I looked it up and similarly sized boxes brand new are about $150. I’d always wanted a malachite box but there’s no way I’m ever gonna spend $150 on one. But $45? That fits into my discretionary budget for something I’d always wanted. I love Majolica pottery, but it is very very expensive so when I’m able to thrift it I’m willing to pay up – thrift store prices are still just a fraction of antique store prices even when they know they’ve got something special and have priced it on the higher side. And I have picked up some incredible bargains, like a plate for $10, when most of the plates in the store were in the $1-$5 range, but if they’d slapped a $20 price-tag on it then it still would have been a bargain because the same plate from and antique dealer would have cost me $50.

8. Know what you’re looking for. If you love a certain type of antique or vintage collectable, then research research research. Create a pintrest board and pin 10 zillion examples of that that thing until you can identify one in the wild just by a 2 second glance. Read up about when and where it was manufactured. If you see it in antique stores for way more than you’re willing/able to pay still go looking because seeing it in person helps you to learn what to look for when you’re thrifting. Look at listings online and read the descriptions, follow online auctions to see what it goes for, so you know when you find it and it’s way under-value, or maybe there won't be many bidders and you can score a bargain. You can search for things on Ebay then sort by sold listings and that’ll tell you what collectors are actually willing to pay so you can make a realistic offer to a dealer who has it way overpriced. I research a lot, and I know to swoop on a Victorian Bristol glass vase for $7 because it’s actually worth $50, or a Famille Rose vase for $5 when it’s worth $80 (I have a vase addiction OK? I’m aware of it, I have no interest in seeking treatment for it).

9. Search specifically and also search broadly. When you’re looking online it’s great to enter very specific search terms because even if you don’t find things you can afford, you’ll learn a lot. And sometimes you do find exactly what you’re looking for at a reasonable price. If you’re willing to put in the time, it’s also well worth it to keep your search terms very broad. One of the antiques I love is Chinese export Famille Rose porcelain. Yesterday I literally just typed ‘Chinese’ into FB Marketplace and scrolled through hundreds of listings because I figured if there was someone out there who didn’t know exactly what it was, they would at least be able to tell it was Chinese and they might have it listed as ‘Chinese porcelain’ or ‘Chinese figure’ or one I found was ‘Weird little Chinese dude’. I currently have 4 figurines on their way to me that are worth about $200 all up and I spent less than $40 including shipping – yes, I bought the weird little dude. I’ll often just type in ‘Antique’ and set a range of how far I’m willing to drive and just see what cool old stuff is available in that range – often people don’t know what they’ve got but they know it’s old so they list it as antique and you can pick up ridiculous bargains cause they don’t see the value in the item and just want it gone but want a few bucks for it.

10. Pick what you love. In the end it doesn’t matter if something is incredibly valuable if you think it’s ugly. I keep the stupidly valuable vases because I love them and enjoy looking at them on my shelf. I could flip them for a profit and if the day ever came that I really needed to then I would. But it didn’t cost me much to have that beauty in my life and I’m gonna keep it until I’m good and ready to let it go. The more you indulge your own tastes the more discerning you become and the more you’re able to spot treasure in the trash. My favorite aisle in my favorite thrift store is the one where the staff shove items that they think are rubbish. I’ve picked easily a thousand dollars worth of antiques from that aisle in the last year alone because they were things that I liked – things that made me go: Ooh that’s something special.

[manicpixxiedreambitch]

Yearly Reminder that it is okay to thrift and hand make gifts instead of buying them new from a store.

Buy your mom a piece of artwork from the thrift store, paint a set of pretty ornaments for your aunt. Crochet a sweater, thrift a mug and put it in a box with the person’s favorite coffee, sew a quilt, make a coat, make a candle out of an old teacup, buy a thrifted book and get crafty and redo the cover! Also it is a good idea to start buying gifts over time, starting as early as August and September! If you have a lot of people you are shopping for, don’t wait until the end of the year in November and December to do your gift shopping! Yes I realize I sound like one of those people that are like “hur hur hur I’m excited for Christmas and it’s still August” kind of people but really I’m just tryna help y’all be responsible. Spread it out over time so you don’t break the bank! If anyone wants, I know many diy and thrifted gifts that would be great for anyone, and cheaper ways to wrap a gift and still make it look nice!

[honoura]

disclaimer: this spawned off a twitter thread i made a while back, which itself came from something i’d noticed time and again within the xiv community: the idea that photography isn’t possible there. i’ve seen this a few times, and ultimately what i felt to be the truer statement is that digital photography as we know it in our phones, no. that is not a very accessible thing. most eorzeans aren’t getting a garland ironworks tomephone.

but that doesn’t mean they aren’t taking pictures.

A Case for Eorzean Photography

In the case of our modern world, the art of capturing an image onto paper directly from life dates back to the 1820s. It was called heliography. A wikipedia article on it can be found here. Heliography came about because its inventor wished for an efficient way to reproduce lithographs, engravings, and relief prints, three different illustration styles that had existed by now for varying lengths of time, but all still in use and being the choice method for adding images to text. I’m going to give a short bit of information on each style, because they are also very likely quite prevalent.

Woodcut (Relief)

Woodcut is as its name implies -- you carve your image into a block of wood, coat the raised portions with ink, and then use it in the press. Accessible to learn, accessible to do, if you want rp flavor there’s likely illustrators in every city-state employing this for the newspapers or illustrated editions of books.

Intaglio (Engraving)

Intaglio is my favorite printmaking method for illustrations, and probably also my favorite for FF14 because it involves playing with chemicals! Let’s get the alchemist roleplayers we know something cool to do. Anyway, with intaglio you’re using acid to burn an image into a metal plate, and the deeper the etchings the darker the shadows. Great for values, great for depth, and have I mentioned you’re just being a little scientist and an artist at the same time?

Lithography

Lithography is the one you’ve seen the most, even if you aren’t 100% sure how it works. It became very popular in the late 19th and early 20th century -- if you’ve ever gawked at vintage illustrations by Mucha or Leyendecker, those are lithographs! Some of the big plates used for them are just big rocks! Miners could 100% mine up limestone slabs for this.

Anyway, back to photographs. After heliographs cracked the capture nut suddenly everyone was getting in on it. People were mixing all kinds of chemicals to capture the world as it was at a moment onto a plate of glass (or others! they liked silver too).

Physautotypes used lavender oil as its photosensitive agent. Tree resin was also popular. Both things botanists would routinely be able to harvest and crafters able to distill. I can only imagine how it smelled to make photographs with this, I hope it was nice!

About 20 years after the earliest heliograph came daguerrotypes. Made on silver plates with a copper substrate, daguerrotypes were pricy but popular -- and they had their own special camera made rather than using a camera obscura.

Daguerrotypes were also when spirit photography came into prominence.

Ambrotypes came on the heels of daguerrotypes as a cheaper alternative made with less costly materials, and was followed by their even cheaper brethren the tintypes. Bit by bit, photographs were becoming more accessible -- not always the equipment (or the supplies), but in terms of a person or group of people having a portrait made you were starting to see that become more common.

Ambrotype above, tintype below

Let it be said also that less costly materials does not mean lower quality image -- each method had its own charm. Tintypes were sturdier than ambrotypes, but both developed quicker than daguerrotypes. Ambrotypes could also have spot colors added to them!  

Albumen prints made it to paper, and until we went digital that’s where photographs stayed, on paper! And one of their key binding materials was made from eggs, beautifully common eggs.

So Where Does This Leave Eorzea?

So why did I go into this much detail, with visual examples and links to references that include their materials? Because all these materials exist already within FFXIV. Glass, plates, the types of metals used, the types of chemicals.

They’re part of crafting logs, and gathering leves, and dungeon drops. Alchemists can make these chemical components, goldsmith quests have you making lenses and other more delicate mechanisms, carpenters could easily build boxes for camera obscura (and cameras!).

Different styles of photography and different materials used for them reflect availability of the materials -- where does this character live, what are their cultural beliefs, do they travel much outside of their home region? How much money do they have?

What if using unaspected crystals creates a different effect on the plate? With the right kind of aetherial charge, don’t you think you could photograph ghosts in actuality rather than trickery? There’s a whole quest in 1.0 where an NPC sees the ghost of the city of Sil’dih -- a ghost city!

At any rate, I just think it’s neat to look at what materials exist in this game, and how things from this world may translate to that with the understanding it will not be 21st century. We have a lot of technology that’s existed longer than we sometimes recall or acknowledge -- and it’s good material! Use that stuff! Have fun with it!

[v-era-18]

Possible Brahms x Black Reader Anyone?

Housekeeping wasn't on the girls lists of jobs, but with free food and housing included it was hard to pass up. The Heelshire family was quick to accept her application within the following three days, saying they needed the extra hand around while they were busy taking care of business. Apparently there was also a nanny position, but that job was swiped for someone else; it was really sad though-(Y/n) was great with kids.

The taxi ride to the new residence was silent to say the least, the afro haired girl had been keeping herself occupied in the back seat playing with her 3DS as the radio played softly in the background. The ride had been a bit long-it was a good thing she booked an early train a day ahead of schedule, keeping in mind traffic and travel. The taxi driver was nice, askinging her about her schooling at Oxford since she had been given a full ride. It was one of the main reasons she had decided to get a job here, somewhere close to the University.

Although her hometown in Texas was more reassuring, she needed to finish out her last year of school before considering moving back. Her aunt and cousin said it was cheaper this way to save up money-after all once she gets back to the states she had a plot of land from inheritance in her name. Plus time away in a new environment would give her enough time to lay out the soundtrack for her project, the way things were going it was most likely going to be a classical or romantic edition; not that she was complaining though it was her favorite type of music.

It was hard to think of how long she's been playing. Even before her parents died in the fire her first memories of them was her father playing the piano on christmas eve and her mother singing to her as they danced to the music. Gospel, classical it didn't matter as long as the sounds of the soul were played around her did the girl feel alive. Currently she can play five instruments; Violin, piano, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, and Saxophone. She was fine with the number, seeing as though she didn't have that much time to learn more.

(Y/n) couldn’t help but wonder if they would let her use their study to practice. In the photos there was a piano in the room and she would love to play a few pieces while she was working on her own.

The car soon turned onto a private street, trees and foliage taking up the view through the windows, “Miss, were almost there at the premises. Although I must warn you this family is known for their-uh-interesting past.” The cab driver-Harvey- if she remembered correctly- voice was apprehensive.

The girl in the back frowned slightly, putting away her device in her backpack along with her headphones. She didn't want to judge the family right away, especially before meeting them. Whatever happened in the past was the past-no matter what the towns folk had to say. One thing she learned about people in the United Kingdom was that it was somewhat like the United States-only less extreme in some matters. The rumors last here-and never washes away once a reputation has been tarnished.

“I'll be the judge of that,” (Y/n) replied politely, “Thank you for your concern though Mr. Harvey. I do appreciate the ride here as well.” She understood the man was only trying to look out for her best interest so there was no need to be rude in any way. Especially since he's taken such good care of her the whole ride here.

The older man simply waved the girl off with a laugh, “Oh you were a delight, dear! Thank you so much for staying patient with this old man with the many questions earlier.” He did ask alot of questions, but that's just how older people are. Always wondering what the youth is up to.

They pulled up through the gate seeing as though it was already opened, the property was huge from what the brown skinned girl could see. The house itself was beautiful and old fashioned, stones instead of bricks with grand balconies she could stand at for a lifetime. The girl could only imagine what the inside looked like, the Heelshires were obviously loaded and set for life-no wonder she was given a free room and meals.

After unloading her bags at the front steps and bidding farewell, Mr Harvey set off in his taxi heading back home to his wife. Leaving the girl at the front door waiting anxiously, there wasn't any instruction on how she should or where to enter the home upon arrival. She did see two cars in front so she knew there were others home. Seeing as though the doorbell might be disrupting the girl decided to knock loud enough for someone to hear.

(Y/n) adjusted her clothes quickly, she was wearing simple low rise jeans with a lavender purple sweater with white worn sneakers. Her hair was in twists, pulled up in a bun to look more professional for her first appearance-although she wished she quickly did her edges in the car. The humid air caused curls to pop at the ends, and even though she didn't mind her hair getting moisture-didn't mean her employers would.

The man who answered the door seemed a bit younger from what she was expecting for Mr. Heelshire. He had a nice black puff vest to go over his gray zip up sweater, his eyes were easy-brown and she couldn't help but notice shadowed facial hair. He scanned her over for a minute before giving her an award winning smile-or at least tried to-it came out more awkward than anything.

“Ah, you must be (Y/n) everyone was wondering where you were,” He opened the door wider welcoming her in, “The names Malcome, the grocery boy.” The girl shook hands with the man walking in, as he proceeded to grab her bags from outside. Normally the girl would fret and fuss over being able to do it by herself but she quickly learned from staying here better to comply than to do rejection.

“T-thank you Malcome, my name is (Y/n). I'm supposed to be the housekeeper.” The girl uttered softly. She gazed around the inside of the home and it was more than she expected, the paintings and flowers complemented the floors greatly along with the brown wooden walls. She felt like she's practically walked through time with how different the house is compared to hers back home.

Malcolm paused, gaze landing on the girl again, “Housekeeper? I'm surprised they didn't have you as the nanny, considering how young you seem.”

“Beggars can't be choosers. Work is work, plus I'm willing to do anything I can do to help. If the nanny gets overwhelmed we can simply take care of the child at the same time,” (Y/n) turned back towards the male, giving him a soft smile before gesturing towards the stairs, “Is the Heelshires here? I would like to introduce myself properly to them to make a good impression and apologize for being late.”

“Ah, there's really nothing to worry about in regards to that,” Malcolm tried to reassure the girl, “Mr. and Mrs. Heelshire just got here, and the nanny is currently talking to them upstairs, she arrived an hour before you did.”

The girl hummed in response, taking the information in before following the male up the stairs where the other adults were waiting. Her nerves were on edge as they took steps up the stairs and towards what seemed to be a childs room. The house was old and influenced, the wood architecture complimented the blue carpeting and gold frames along the walls.

The girl had paused a bit up the stairs staring at the large portrait of the family. The Heelshires screamed grace and class, but they did seem to be happy in the photo. She couldn’t help but stare at the picture of the boy for a long moment in wonder.

“So this is the boy we’re looking after?” She voiced softly.

Malcolm made a face that she couldn’t catch, “Yeah, but don’t worry he won’t be any trouble.”

(Y/n) snorted, “that’s what my neighbor said about her daughter three years ago. The girl had dunked my clothes into open paint in the garage.”

The man chuckled, “Open paint?”

“The father was a builder, he was currently working on the garage and left it open while they had a date night. It was a harmless mistake. They paid for me to get new clothes.”

She left out the part that it was one of her favorite sweaters her ex boyfriend had gotten her when they were dating. After finding out his true nature with women she didn’t mind that the only remnant of him was destroyed. Internally she thanked the little girl. Kids had their way of doing things that are good without realizing it.

They made a right into the room before them. It was quite spacious looking like a study of some kind, a grand black piano sat in the middle with many books lined along the walls. (Y/n) had to shake her excitement at the piano, it had been two months since she’s played.

Her focus finally landed on three figures in the far corner of the room near the green marbled fireplace. Her breathing caught in her throat as she saw all three of them staring at her. It was just deserved after all she did turn up late due to traffic.

“H-hello! My name is (Y/n). Let me first apologize for being late. The cab driver got caught up with traffic-,”

The older man, who she guessed was Mr. Heelshire, held up a hand, “There is no need my dear these things happen. Come, we don’t bite.”

(Y/n) paused before making her way over near them along with Malcolm. The woman who seemed to be in her late twenties pursed her lips together as if she wanted to say something but refrained from doing so. It only added to the wonder of the tense atmosphere before her.

Mrs Heelshire stood up straight, “ (Y/n) (L/n) it is a pleasure to meet you. I’ve made sure to read over your resume and I will say I’m quite surprised that your reputation percents outside of the United States,” She moved over from in front of the chair making her eyes widen slightly at the image before her.

“This is our son Brhames. I know you’ll make a great impression.”

Oh so it’s this type of situation.

[wanderingmind867]

Once I've finished Avengers #119, I may go back to Daredevil for a bit. Then I'd go to Captain Mar-Vell, and then back to The Avengers. I kind of have to do this, to understand a storyline that crisscrosses all three books. I also still feel bad I never read Daredevil annual #1 and a few other early daredevil stories, but maybe one day I'll go back for them..

You see, as much as I still hate Jim Starlin (I'll never get tired of hating Jim Starlin. He killed Captain Mar-Vell just as an excuse to vent about his dad's death and said it was cheaper than going to a shrink"; and he also tried to give Jason Todd AIDS and then killed him), Jim Starlin may have had 1 (mind you, only 1) good story, and that's the initial Thanos Saga. That saga begins in Iron Man by introducing Thanos and Drax the Destroyer, continues by introducing Moondragon in Daredevil and then finished up in Captain Marvel and The Avengers. So I feel like I have to read Daredevil then Captain Marvel then The Avengers, in order for everything to make sense.