#auguste de gas

[portrait-paintings]

Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste De Gas

Artist: Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)

Date: 1871–1872

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

Description

The painting Lorenzo Pagans and Auguste de Gas is a double portrait in an interior. The central figure in the middle of the painting is the Spanish singer Lorenzo Pagans, sitting frontally opposite the viewer, with Auguste de Gas, Edgar Degas' father, seated behind him on the right. Both men are wearing a dark suit, dark shoes, and a white shirt. Pagans is also wearing a dark tie and a boutonnière on his left lapel. He is sitting in the posture of a guitar player with his legs crossed on a simple wooden chair. Pagans rests the instrument on his thighs, placing his right hand on the body to play the strings and his left hand on the neck. The guitar's light-colored wood and mother-of-pearl-like inlays around the soundhole and body edge stand in stark contrast to Pagans' dark suit. A dark green ribbon tied to the head of the guitar, on the other hand, is barely noticeable. The musician's head is tilted slightly to the right edge of the frame, and his dark eyes seem to be fixed on something outside the frame to the right. His mouth is half open, giving the impression that Pagans is performing a song.[4] Pagans' face has a healthy, light complexion. A broad, dark mustache, the ends of which are twisted into points, is noticeable. His dark, slightly curly hair is cut short, leaving his ears uncovered.

[bookscoffee75]

Un Jeudi saveur chocolat de Michiko Aoyama

Le Maître des livres (Toshokan no Aruji), Tome 1 de Umiharu Shinohara

The Girl with a louding voice de Abi Daré

La Fabuleuse laverie de Marigold (Marigold Mind Laundry) de Yun Jung Eun

I Hear the sunspot (Hidamari ga Kikoeru), Tome 7 de Yuki Fumino ❤

Le Cri du Kujima (Kujima Utaeba Ie Hororo), Tome 2 de Akira Konno ❤

Le Vendeur du magasin de vélo (Jitenshaya-san no Takahashi-kun), Tome 1 de Arare Matsumuchi

Le Trône de Jasmin (The Jasmine Throne), Les Royaumes ardents, Tome 1 de Tasha Suri

[yurimother]

Seven Seas Celebrates Valentine's Day with Five New Lesbian Manga Series

On February 12, publisher Seven Seas Entertainment celebrated Valentine's Day with a "Yuri V-Day" event, announcing that they had licensed five new Yuri series:

A Yuri Manga That Starts With Getting Rejected in a Dream (Yume de Furarete Hajimaru Yuri)

This friends-to-lovers romance series by Hijiki follows two best friends in high school. When one dreams of the other rejecting a romantic confession, their feelings and relationship start to change. The first volume will be released in English in January 2026.

Seven Seas further describes the series:

Tsukushi has always admired her best friend Hinoka and cherishes their friendship over everything. But one night, she wakes from a startling dream—one where Hinoka rejects her romantically! Except, Tsukushi hadn’t ever thought of confessing feelings to Hinoka before, but this strange dream gets her thinking. Does she have feelings for Hinoka? Was the dream some kind of foreshadowing? What would Hinoka think if she knew? As Tsukushi becomes determined to figure things out, her hyperfocus actually causes her to miss signs of Hinoka’s own feelings! Will the stars align for these girls to become girlfriends? Or will they miss their chance at the perfect romance?

A Yuri Manga That Starts With Getting Rejected in a Dream began as a webcomic on Twitter before being serialized on Web Comic Gamma Plus in 2022. Takeshobo published the third collected Volume in May last year.

I Won't Let Mistress Suck My Blood (Goshujin-sama ni wa Suwasemasen!)

A vampire maid manga by Paderapollonorio, I Won't Let Mistress Suck My Blood follows a young woman who begins working as a maid in a mysterious mansion, only to learn that her new master has a frightful secret. The first English volume will be published in December.

Seven Seas further describes the series:

While on the hunt for a new job and a place to stay, Matilda is pretty sure she hit the jackpot when she winds up in a large mansion known as the “Haunted House.” Not only does she have work, room, and board, but her new boss is absolutely gorgeous! August, owner of the haunting mansion, is a beautiful, soft-spoken woman who captured Matilda’s heart from the moment they met. But on her first night there, Matilda learns there’s much more to August than she could have ever imagined!

The manga began serialization in 2022 on Manga Life STORIA Dash. Takeshobo published the third collected volume in September 2024.

My Goddess is Precious Today, Too (Watashi no Megami ga Kyou mo Oseru)

This high school anthology collection by Kawauchi tells short 20-page stories about the comedic and romantic relationships of disaster girls paired with goddess-like matches. The first English volume will be released in November.

Seven Seas further describes the series:

They start off as friends, total opposites who watch each other from afar, or maybe they’re locked in a fierce competition. Either way, they can’t stop thinking about one another. These fluttery feelings can only mean one thing: first love! Swoon over these budding teenage romances that celebrate girls loving girls.

My Goddess is Precious Today, Too began serialization in Comic GAGA in 2022. Kadokawa published the complete series in two Japanese volumes.

The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess (Genkai OL-san wa Akuyaku Reijou-sama ni Tsukaetai)

The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess is a fantasy isekai by Nekotarou, known for her series Catulus Syndrome and her contributions to multiple Yuri anthologies, including the Whispering You a Love Song offical anthology last year.

The manga follows a discontented office worker who is transported into the world of a visual novel after getting fired. There, she decides to assist the game's villainess. The first English volume will be released in August.

Seven Seas further describes the series:

Natori Midori has been giving it all at her hum-drum office job for three years now, only to have the rug pulled out from under her when she’s suddenly laid off. But just as she’s feeling lost and adrift, she is summoned to the world of the visual novel she’s currently playing, Fairy Tale of Jewels. And the person who summoned her there? None other than the game’s cruel villainess, Lapis Tenebrau, who’s trying to take down the main cast of the game. Driven into a corner, Natori pretends she’s psychic and uses her knowledge of the game to save Lapis from danger. Now Lapis has taken a shine to her, and is going to make Natori her private secretary?! Can Natori handle this new job, and her growing feelings for her villainess boss?

The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess began serialization on Dokodemo Young Champion in 2022. Akita Shoten is set to release the fourth Japanese volume on March 27.

The Lying Bride and the Same-Sex Marriage Debate (Usotsuki Hanayome to Dousei Kekkon-ron)

This shakaijin series is by popular Yuri artist Kodama Naoko, known for Days of Love at Seagull Villa, I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up, and NTR: Netsuzou Trap, all of which are also licensed in English by Seven Seas. The Lying Bride follows a gay woman who has resigned herself to the life of a single office worker. That is, until she runs into a former colleague who's having difficulties with her husband comes back into her life, stirring up old feelings. The first English volume releases in October.

Seven Seas further describes the series:

Shigisawa Rei knows she’s out of step with society. While everyone around her is getting married and having babies, as a gay woman, Rei feels like those things will never happen for her. Instead of looking for romance, she’s thrown herself into her work and is content with that. That is, until she happens to run into Goto Saya, a former colleague. Saya is petite, cute, and has always been popular with men. So it’s no surprise that Rei used to have a crush on her, but she squashed those feelings when Saya got married. Now, however, Saya comes to Rei begging for help, saying she’s had a fight with her husband and has nowhere else to go. Rei quickly agrees to help her out, and soon her crush is back with a vengeance! Rei knows it’s a bad idea to fall for a married woman, but can she possibly resist Saya’s charms?!

The Lying Bride and the Same-Sex Marriage Debate was serialized in Comic Yuri Hime from 2023 until its conclusion in August of 2024. Ichijinsha published the second and final collected volume last October.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

By David de Bruijn

Many are shocked, wondering how this could happen in the Netherlands.

To me, their bafflement is what’s shocking.

I grew up in The Hague, where real and abundant antisemitism, from epithets in the street to physical threats to the community’s safety, was part of our daily life. As a young boy, I vividly recall how The Hague's football hooligans—viciously opposed to Ajax, Amsterdam’s “Jewish” team—walked the streets under a banner reading “We’re hunting for Jews.” (Indeed, for my entire life, football stadiums in my home country have been filled with lurid chants like “Hamas, Hamas, all the Jews on gas!” and “My dad was in the commandos, my mom was in the SS, we like to burn Jews, because Jews burn the best.”)  

In high school, second- or third-generation Moroccan kids would point and hiss “Psst, psst, that’s a Jew, that’s a Jew!” as they passed by on their bikes. 

But most impactful were the myriad security measures our community had to undertake. Seen from the front, The Hague synagogue is not recognizable, two thick green doors presenting a closed facade to the street. Behind these doors are glass doors that open only once additional permission is given. All the windows are made of bulletproof glass. A permanent police post guards the synagogue. In Amsterdam, the Jewish primary school has even more dystopian levels of protection, hidden behind several layers of metal spikes and fencing. From the outside, the view of the school is entirely closed off. (Even as I write this, I feel uncomfortably conscious of not revealing any sensitive security details.)

Self-protection was a constant—and to me, natural—part of Jewish life. Leading youngsters to a summer camp in northern Friesland meant bringing a dedicated security team and, when possible, keeping quiet the fact that it was Jewish children gathering here. 

Violent, antisemitic assaults have become increasingly regular occurrences. In May, a student at the University of Amsterdam, a young man, was assaulted by a protester in a keffiyeh, struck in the head with a wooden plank. In August, a statue of Anne Frank was defaced—for the second time—with anti-Israel graffiti. Today, walking around with a kippah in the Netherlands is an act that requires bravery.

As the situation worsened over the years—motivating some, including me, to move, others to adjust, and so many to worry—one of the most painful aspects was the way the Jewish community was gaslit. Dutch society repeatedly told its post-Holocaust Jewish remnant—and itself—that “never again” was not merely a concrete promise, but a core concept of modern Dutch morality. However, the dominant culture of the country’s immigrant communities has proven manifestly hostile to that worldview—and to Jews. 

For the North Africans living in Holland, the dominant Jewish story of the twentieth century is not Auschwitz, it is Israel, which in their distorted conception is an illegitimate, one-directional criminal enterprise directed at an innocent population. Nor—and this is crucial—is this merely an attitude about a conflict. They believe it is the crime of the twentieth century, conferring ultimate guilt on the Jewish people. “Palestine” is a phrase felt to carry the gravity of “Holocaust,” grotesquely inverting the perception of the Jewish experience.

For Holland’s Jewry, this reality has been palpable for decades. Yet nothing—no politician, no policy—has altered this reality. In the aftermath of every single violent attack—as will most likely be the case now—the political answer has been a room-temperature broth of subsidies, youth centers, dialogue forums, visits to Islamic pensioners clubs, and interfaith dialogue.

So it did not surprise me when international media outlets, like The Associated Press and The New York Times, covered this widespread attack as if it was the unfortunate, but perhaps expected, result of the Israeli fans’ conduct before and during the match, such as reportedly taunting Ajax fans with inappropriate slogans. Further, the AP wrote, the attack followed a Palestinian flag being “torn down from a building in Amsterdam on Wednesday,” and the rioters were angry because “authorities banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the stadium.” The Times originally pinned the attack on differences over sport and on taunts, as “violence tied to a match between Dutch and Israeli teams,” and reported that “the tensions in the hours leading up to the violence” was in part caused by “one man [being heard] saying in Hebrew, ‘The people of Israel live,’ while others shout[ed] anti-Palestinian chants using expletives.” (The Times has apparently stealth-edited its reporting numerous times since publication.)

In other words, if all you read were the initial reports, you might think that the Israelis started it, or at least had it coming.

What the reporters and media fail to understand is that this was an attack on Israeli football fans, but not one carried out by football hooligans. The Ajax team is itself Jewish friendly—fans of Amsterdam’s Ajax are affectionately (and sometimes not-so affectionately) referred to as “super Jews,” and Ajax is understood as the “Jewish team,” so it would make little sense that Ajax supporters would attack Jews or Israelis for their ethnicity—even if they are fans of an opposing team. 

No, this was straightforward: According to the accounts of witnesses and victims, it was an attack by immigrant, Muslim communities against Israelis and Jews.

[slashingdisneypasta]

Disney Villains x Clueless!Reader || Excerpts

Plot: You had absolutely no idea about their villainous deeds… until you walked in. Part 1??

Characters Included: Cruella De Vil, Hades, Jafar, Lots-O’-Huggin Bear

Warnings: Angst. Also kidnapping, hypnosis, and attempted gas lighting/manipulation.

Tagging: @asperol-with-izzy , @disney-android-foundation , @lady-love88 , @marinerainbow , @miss_understood , @moxiiscool , @ryantryan6969 , and @yesthetrashbin . Hey y'all! Have some drama with your August. xo

Cruella De Vil:

When you walked into Cruella’s house, using your own key (You were meant to surprise her. It was supposed to be nice!), and heard her talking to Le Pelt on the phone in her office, you were so shocked. And so was she, when she left her office and saw you there in the hallway with a horrified look on your face.

Cruella is non-too-happy about your surprise, that is for sure. As soon as she lays eyes on you and realises what you just heard, she is so frustrated. Now you’re going to make this a thing, damnit. You’re probably going to try to leave her- all because you acted stupid and tried to surprise her. Ugh! … now darling, don’t lose your little head over this, they’re just some puppies, after all- When you immediately turn and storm back towards the front door again, chucking your key at a hallway table, Cruella wouldn’t move. She wouldn’t run after you; She’s not the type. But the frustration in her voice would build and she’d give up trying to be calm and careful with you, yelling after your retreating form. Wait right there! Y/N! Turn around. You walk out that door and you’ll never work in this- or any industry, ever again! I promise you that!-

When you slam the door behind you, she will not follow you.

… But never fret, she does care… and she’ll have her admirers Le Pelt and Alonzo abduct you in the middle of the night.

Good, put the nitwit in the truck, now. Gently, you fools. Y/N- you didnt think it would be that easy, did you?? Ha! We're taking the train to Paris, soon. You've always wanted to go- so keep quiet and enjoy the ride...

Hades:

When you walked into the throne room and saw Hades holding Meg up off the ground precariously by her throat, and you heard him say something about taking over Olympus and Hercules- and Hades noticed you standing there horrified and disgusted- everything stopped.

Hades would know immediately that he fucked up. That you would have a hard time forgiving him- if you ever did at all. He would know.

Hades would be desperate. He’d be pathetic, true slimy used-cars-salesman style; Following you as you storm out of the room and down the hall to your room and begging you all the way. Offering you things which fast develop from foot rubs and chocolate coated strawberries to being Master of the Gods- Master of the World- Master of whatever you want! He tries to convince you that this is a good thing, that he’s doing it for you, so you two can be happy together.

This is all while you’re grabbing your most important things and throwing them into a sack, throwing him poisonous glares because how dare he even look at you right now that make him flinch and be quiet. If only for a second. Overall, the man cannot stop talking.

I love you, babe, you can’t- No, no, you’re not leaving. I’m not gonna just allow-

Okay okay okay, I get it! I get it, I shouldn’t threaten you right now, I get it. I’m sorry. You- you probably need some time to cool off, yeah?? Hey, that makes sense!! I would be the same, yeah?? You know what? Take a week- two! Take two weeks… take all the time y’like. And then when you’re ready, you’ll call me, and we’ll talk! I’ll set out a nice cheese platter, some wine,.. we’ll make it a picnic! It’ll be great! Ba- Babe, you’ll understand, you’ll agree, I promise! This is- this is the best thing for the both of us! I promise! I- I’m only thinking of you, sweetheart, of us. I promise! Baby- after I do this, we’ll have everything! I swear! Everything we ever wanted; You can get that house on the mountainside you had your eye on, doesn’t that sound fabulous??

And Zeus?!

 Zeus?! Zeus, is a needle brained moron who doesn’t deserve- Okay okay! I’m sorry! You’re right, you’re absolutely right, baby how are you always so right about everything?? We'll set him up with a nice cottage on the coast. What??? That’s a good deal! Coconuts, babes in bikinis, the sky- he'll love it! Come on-

The man would end up on his knees, reaching for you, but you just slip out of his way, flashing another terrible glare. He has talked a lot while you packed but you've said barely two words. And its terrifying to him.

Baby… sweetheart, where’re you gonna be? You- you’re comin back, right?

… Just tell me if you’re coming back, please. Gimmie something-

No.

Jafar:

When you walked in and heard Jafar and Iago cackling about marrying the princess and hurting the poor Sultan, and they saw you standing there, Iago immediately flew off leaving more matted feathers on Jafar’s shoulder than usual from the force he used to get away so fast.

Jafar groans, brushing the feathers off him and muttering. Meanwhile you’re horrified, disgusted, creeped out- and about a million other awful emotions all at once, but you stand your ground. You lift your chin and you focus on him. You ask, really? Is that true?? Are you- Are you going to do that??? Is that the plan!?

… an eye roll, is the response you get and that make you feel even sicker. How could you??? As Jafar starts to cross the throne room, at his leisure, towards you- you start to completely lose your composure; Panic building. The- The sultan is a good man! He’s been kind. He’s your friend! I- I- I don’t understand! Jafar, I- Please, explain!

He sighs at that idea and rolls his eyes deeply, getting closer, leading with his snake staff as he always does. I already tried that.

Wh- What?

You heard me, Y/N. Now stay still.

You don’t know what he means by that, but you don’t like it, it- he, scares you. So quickly you try to turn and leave the room, leave him, but he’s too close now and his fingers are surprisingly strong; Holding you forcefully right where you are. That staff’s pushed right in front of your face, the snake’s eyes beginning to glow and burn into yours. This won’t hurt at all, my dear…

… This isn’t the first time you’ve walked in, before.

Lotso:

When you walked into the library, seeing one of the new toys tied to the ‘time out’ chair that Lotso told you (No, no. Swore to you) was a joke, you were shocked. And it was dark, so Lotso didn’t see you at first.

Twitch did. But by that point you’d heard too much, eyes wide and furious. Uh… boss?

Uhuh what Twitch? I’m kinda in the middle of something here-

Your uh… your Keeper’s, here.          

Wha- my- Oh, honey! At first, Lotso tries to act like you don’t even see what’s right in front of you. Like you’re blind. Like you’re stupid. Like he can wash it all away with some papa bear charm and a kind smile- but there is something darker behind it that you see, now. What are you doin’ outta bed, sweetheart?? Its so late! You’ve had a long day. I’ll be with you in just a second, I just… When he realises that your canyon-deep glare isn’t getting any lighter, he lets it go. He lets it all go; All the sweetness and the charm that you knew him for and all that is left is… something cruel. He looks at you in a full deadpan, a cruel and disappointed deadpan that makes you actually feel cold. Physically. Alright, honey, what’d you see?

Everything!

And what do you plan t’do about it, huh?

I, I…

Hmmm?

…

That’s right sweetpea, there aint nothin’ you can do! This is my shop, now. C’mon, come with me, I’ll explain it all to ya, and you’ll see that this is the best thing for everybo-

I’ll leave.

When you say that, all the warmth in the room is sucked out- some of the other toys like Twitch and Ken look to eachother slightly wide eyed behind Lotso’s back. The look on his face turns from patronising to hard, mean, mad.

He can’t accept that. … Grab ‘em, boys.

[taylorswiftstyle]

2024 Golden Globe Awards | Los Angeles, CA | January 7, 2024

De Beers 'Arpeggia Three Line Earrings' - $68,500.00 De Beers 'Arpeggia One Line Earring' - $34,900.00 De Beers 'Classic Round Brilliant Stud' - $3,650.00 (starting) De Beers 'Dewdrop Ear Cuff' - $2,000.00

Putting her new lobe piercings to full effect in sparkling, tumbling diamonds. The most notable of which are the ones in her primary and secondary lobe spots from the De Beers 'Arpeggia' collection — a tribute to Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". The falling of the diamonds meant to mimic the notes on a musical score. How fitting for Taylor!

By my eye, the original 'Three Line' of the De Beers earring is missing the floating huggie portion and a separate, single 'One Line' strand is used here in her second piercing.

Taylor's love of a helix cuff also continues here. A note that though she got three lobe piercings in August (two right, one left for a total of five lobe piercings) that it doesn't appear as though she has officially pierced her helix yet and has instead loved experimenting with cuffs on either sides of her ears.

Photos by Monica Schipper/GA and Amy Sussman via Getty Images

[whencyclopedia]

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was a French impressionist painter who used many different media to capture dancers, bathers, horse races, and scenes from Parisian café society. A keen photographer, Degas' paintings frequently show real-life captured in a moment in time, often with an unusual viewpoint, composition or framing – all of which techniques would prove influential on later artists.

Early Career

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas (better known simply as Edgar Degas) was born on 19 July 1834 in Paris. His parents were wealthy bourgeois who specialized in banking. Edgar's father, Auguste, was half Italian and half French while his mother, Célestine Musson, was an American Creole of French descent from Louisiana. Young Edgar studied at Paris' Lycée Louis-le-Grand, earning his baccalaureate in literature. In a family already rich enough but with aspirations to climb even higher socially, Edgar was encouraged to become the accomplished and fashionable young male of the period and to formally study art and music under various tutors. He also began to study law, but it soon became clear that art was his true path.

In 1855, Degas enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He studied and copied the Old Masters in the Louvre, and in July 1856, he went to see firsthand the Renaissance art of Italy on a tour which took in Florence, Rome, Naples, and Venice. He sketched the art of antiquity, Renaissance works, local colour, and he produced his first great painting, The Bellelli Family, while staying with his aunt Laura Bellelli in Florence in 1858.

Back in Paris, Edgar was tutored by Louis Lamothe (1822-1869) and then Nicolas Soutzo (1834-1907). This traditional artistic education led the young Degas to try and become a historical painter, that is an artist who depicts grand religious or historical scenes like the great Renaissance artists had produced. Examples of his work in this genre, which share a frieze-like presentation of the subject, include Young Spartans Exercising and Semiramis Building Babylon, both painted around 1861. Not untypically, Degas continued to work on the Young Spartans in subsequent years.

Portraits were another avenue he explored, and here the artist had more success in achieving his aims. Interested in giving his work a psychological element and depth, Degas often painted double portraits where the attitudes and emotions are shown markedly different between the two people in the painting. A recurring feature of Degas' portraits is the use of a painting within the painting. Like Renaissance artists who used objects as symbols that might convey more depth of meaning to a knowing viewer, Degas often included a notable painting that comments on the personality of the person being portrayed. However, it was another historical epic, Medieval War Scene that first got him noticed by the jury of the Paris Salon in 1865.

Eventually dissatisfied with the limitations of being too tied to the past or perhaps sensitive to the changes in contemporary art, Degas would turn instead to capturing everyday life as it happened in the circles he was most familiar with: bourgeoise Paris. His first work which shows this transition, and yet in which he still maintains a link to the historical painting style, is Mademoiselle Fiocre in the Ballet 'La Source'. The work was exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1868. The artist was about to fully move into modernity for his subjects, but Degas' long immersion in classical art and the more recent Neoclassicist artists like Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) would have a lasting effect on the importance he gave to drawing, form, and composition, as well as the prominence he gave to the female nude. As Ingres had told Degas: "Draw lines, young man, many lines" (Howard, 42). This focus meant that Degas was probably the superior draughtsman of all the impressionist painters of his generation, a point noted by many critics.

Continue reading...

[thespacewirednews]

M17

M17, also known as the Omega Nebula or Swan Nebula, is one of the largest star-forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy. Hubble’s stunning image of a central portion of the nebula has been colorized to highlight certain wavelengths of light. Green represents oxygen while red reveals hydrogen and infrared light.

The Omega Nebula was discovered in 1745 by the Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe Loys de Chéseaux. It is located 5,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. The nebula has an apparent magnitude of 6 and can be seen with a pair of binoculars. M17, which appears near M16 and M18 in the sky, is best viewed on clear nights in August.

M17 contains one of our galaxy’s youngest star clusters, at only 1 million years old. However, many of the young stars in this cluster are impossible to see because of the gas and dust that surrounds them. The powerful radiation from the young stars evaporates and erodes the dense clouds of cold gas in which new stars form. One such pocket of gas is seen at the center of the brightest region of the nebula (near the bottom of this image) and is about 10 times larger than our solar system. Other dense pockets of gas have formed the remarkable dark features jutting inward from the bottom left corner of the image.

Credit: Image credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Kraus (The University of Texas at Austin); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 26, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 27, 2024

Today presented a good example of the difference between governance by social media and governance by policy.

Although incoming presidents traditionally stay out of the way of the administration currently in office, last night, Trump announced on his social media site that he intends to impose a 25% tariff on all products coming into the U.S. from Mexico and Canada “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” Trump claimed that they could solve the problem “easily” and that until they do, “it is time for them to pay a very big price!”

In a separate post, he held China to account for fentanyl and said he would impose a 10% tariff on all Chinese products on top of the tariffs already levied on those goods. “Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he added.

In fact, since 2023 there has been a drop of 14.5% in deaths from drug overdose, the first such decrease since the epidemic began, and border patrol apprehensions of people crossing the southern border illegally have fallen to the lowest number since August 2020, in the midst of the pandemic. In any case, a study by the libertarian Cato Institute shows that from 2019 to 2024, more than 80% of the people caught with fentanyl at ports of entry—where the vast majority of fentanyl is seized—were U.S. citizens.

Very few undocumented immigrants and very little illegal fentanyl come into the U.S. from Canada.

Washington Post economics reporter Catherine Rampell noted that Mexico and Canada are the biggest trading partners of the United States. Mexico sends cars, machinery, electrical equipment, and beer to the U.S., along with about $19 billion worth of fruits and vegetables. About half of U.S. fresh fruit imports come from Mexico, including about two thirds of our fresh tomatoes and about 90% of our avocados.

Transferring that production to the U.S. would be difficult, especially since about half of the 2 million agricultural workers in the U.S. are undocumented and Trump has vowed to deport them all. Rampell points out as well that Project 2025 calls for getting rid of the visa system that gives legal status to agricultural workers. U.S. farm industry groups have asked Trump to spare the agricultural sector, which contributed about $1.5 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product in 2023, from his mass deportations.

Canada exports a wide range of products to the U.S., including significant amounts of oil. Rampell quotes GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, Patrick De Haan, as saying that a 25% tax on Canadian crude oil would increase gas prices in the Midwest and the Rockies by 25 cents to 75 cents a gallon, costing U.S. consumers about $6 billion to $10 billion more per year.

Canada is also the source of about a quarter of the lumber builders use in the U.S., as well as other home building materials. Tariffs would raise prices there, too, while construction is another industry that will be crushed by Trump’s threatened deportations. According to NPR’s Julian Aguilar, in 2022, nearly 60% of the more than half a million construction workers in Texas were undocumented.

Construction company officials are begging Trump to leave their workers alone. Deporting them “would devastate our industry, we wouldn’t finish our highways, we wouldn’t finish our schools,” the chief executive officer of a major Houston-based construction company told Aguilar. “Housing would disappear. I think they’d lose half their labor.”

Former trade negotiator under George W. Bush John Veroneau said Trump’s plans would violate U.S. trade agreements, including the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) that replaced the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement that Trump killed. The USMCA was negotiated during Trump’s own first term, and although it was based on NAFTA, he praised it as “the fairest, most balanced, and beneficial trade agreement we have ever signed into law. It’s the best agreement we’ve ever made.”

Trump apologists immediately began to assure investors that he really didn’t mean it. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman posted that Trump wouldn’t impose the tariffs if “Mexico and Canada stop the flow of illegal immigrants and fentanyl into the U.S.” Trump’s threat simply meant that Trump “is going to use tariffs as a weapon to achieve economic and political outcomes which are in the best interest of America,” Ackman wrote.

Iowa Republican lawmaker Senator Chuck Grassley, who represents a farm state that was badly burned by Trump’s tariffs in his first term, told reporters that he sees the tariff threats as a “negotiating tool.”

Foreign leaders had no choice but to respond. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum issued an open letter to Trump pointing out that Mexico has developed a comprehensive immigration system that has reduced border encounters by 75% since December 2023, and that the U.S. CBP One program has ended the “caravans” he talks about. She noted that it is imperative for the U.S. and Mexico jointly to “arrive at another model of labor mobility that is necessary for your country and to address the causes that lead families to leave their places of origin out of necessity.”

She noted that the fentanyl problem in the U.S. is a public health problem and that Mexican authorities have this year “seized tons of different types of drugs, 10,340 weapons, and arrested 15,640 people for violence related to drug trafficking,” and added that “70% of the illegal weapons seized from criminals in Mexico come from your country.” She also suggested that Mexico would retaliate with tariffs of its own if the U.S. imposed tariffs on Mexico.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau did not go that far but talked to Trump shortly after the social media post. The U.S. is Canada’s biggest trading partner, and a 25% tariff would devastate its economy. The premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, seemed to try to keep her province’s oil out of the line of fire by agreeing with Trump that the Canadian government should work with him and adding, “The vast majority of Alberta’s energy exports to the US are delivered through secure and safe pipelines which do not in any way contribute to these illegal activities at the border.”

Trudeau has called an emergency meeting with Canada’s provincial premiers tomorrow to discuss the threat.

Spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington Liu Pengyu simply said: “No one will win a trade war or a tariff war” and “the idea of China knowingly allowing fentanyl precursors to flow into the United States runs completely counter to facts and reality.”

In contrast to Trump’s sudden social media posts that threaten global trade and caused a frenzy today, President Joe Biden this evening announced that, after months of negotiations, Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the U.S. and France, to take effect at 4:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday. “This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” Biden said.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel shortly after Hamas’s attack of October 7, 2023. Fighting on the border between Israel and Lebanon has turned 300,000 Lebanese people and 70,000 Israelis into refugees, with Israel bombing southern Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah’s tunnel system and killing its leaders. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,000 people and injured more than 13,000, while CBS News reports that about 90 Israeli soldiers and nearly 50 Israeli civilians have been killed in the fighting. Under the agreement, Israel’s forces currently occupying southern Lebanon will withdraw over the next 60 days as Lebanon’s army moves in. Hezbollah will be kept from rebuilding.

According to Laura Rozen in her newsletter Diplomatic, before the agreement went into effect, Israel increased its airstrikes in Beirut and Tyre.

When he announced the deal, Biden pushed again for a ceasefire in Gaza, whose people, he said, “have been through hell. Their…world is absolutely shattered.” Biden called again for Hamas to release the more than 100 hostages it still holds and to negotiate a ceasefire. Biden said the U.S. will “make another push with Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and others to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza with the hostages released and the end to the war without Hamas in power.”

Today’s announcement, Biden said, brings closer the realization of his vision for a peaceful Middle East where both Israel and a Palestinian state are established and recognized, a plan he tried to push before October 7 by linking Saudi Arabia’s normalization of relations with Israel to a Palestinian state. Biden has argued that such a deal is key to Israel’s long-term security, and today he pressed Israel to “be bold in turning tactical gains against Iran and its proxies into a coherent strategy that secures Israel’s long-term…safety and advances a broader peace and prosperity in the region.”

“I believe this agenda remains possible,” Biden said. “And in my remaining time in office, I will work tirelessly to advance this vision of—for an integrated, secure, and prosperous region, all of which…strengthens America’s national security.”

“Today’s announcement is a critical step in advancing that vision,” Biden said. “It reminds us that peace is possible.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[feymure]

Shoujosei (Shoujo and Josei) Anime to look forward to in 2024

With the return of Kimi no Todoke after 12 years, I welcome all to the Shoujo renaissance! Let’s roll on the hype train! (MyAnimeList links are in titles)

Winter Anime Season (January - March)

Momochi-san Chi no Ayakashi Ouji Airs January 6th

Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa, Moto Tekikoku de Jiyuu Kimama na Hanayome Seikatsu wo Mankitsu suru Airs January 7th

Isekai de Mofumofu Nadenade suru Tame ni Ganbattemasu Airs January 1st

Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san Airs January 8th

Yubisaki to Renren Airs January 6th

Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon: Watashi no Shiawase na Katachi Airs March 15th

Gekai Elise Airs January 10th

Akuyaku Reijou Level 99: Watashi wa Ura-Boss desu ga Maou dewa Arimasen Airs January 9th

30-sai made Doutei da to Mahou Tsukai ni Nareru Rashii Airs January 11th

Given movie 2:Hiiragi Mix Airs January 27th

Murai no Koi Airs February 4th

Wonderful Precure Airs February 4th

Ensemble Stars!! Tsuioku Selection Checkmate Airs March 10th

Spring Anime Season (April - June)

Hananoi-kun to Koi no Yamai Airs April 4th

Vampire Dormitory Airs April 7th

Touken Ranbu Kyoden Moyuru Honnouji Airs April 2nd

Rabbits Kingdom the Movie Airs June 14th

Tonari no Youkai-san Airs April 7th

Himitsu no AiPri Airs April 7th

Tadaima, Okaeri Airs April 9th

Summer Anime Season (July-September)

Senpai wa Otokonoko Airs July 5th

Madougushi Dahlia wa Utsumukanai: Kyou kara Jiyuu na Shokunin Life Airs July 6th

Tasogare Out Focus Airs July 7th

SutoPuri Movie: Hajimari no Monogatari Airs July 19th

Kimi ni Todoke 3rd Season Airs August 1st

Yeosin Gangnim Airs August 7th

King of Prism: Dramatic Prism 1 Airs August 16th

Given movie 3: Umi e Airs September 20th

Fall Anime Season (October - December)

Hoshifuru Oukoku no Nina Airs in October

Rekishi ni Nokoru Akujo ni Naru zo: Akuyaku Reijou ni Naru hodo Ouji no Dekiai wa Kasoku suru you desu! Airs in October

Natsume Yuujinchou Shichi Airs in October

Goukon ni Ittara Onna ga Inakatta Hanashi Airs in October

Acro Trip Airs in October

Haigakura Airs in October

Yarinaoshi Reijou wa Ryuutei Heika wo Kouryakuchuu Airs in October

Taishou Itsuwari Bridal: Migawari Hanayome to Gunpuku no Mouai Airs October 7th

Tono to Ino Airs October 10th

Hyakushou Kizoku 2nd Season Airs October 4th

30-sai made Doutei da to Mahou Tsukai ni Nareru Rashii Movie Airs December 13th

[leseigneurdufeu]

First chapter of my story for the 2024 @inklings-challenge

I'll post it all on AO3 when I'm done. Posting it now because I need to put it in the open to force myself to write the rest. estimated 5 or 6 chapters. Content Warnings: there's french people😱

Heart of Gold, Blade of Steel

Chapter 1: The Child

August 1904 – The country house of the Baron de Brûlemont's family

“Damn that gas company!” Georges de Brûlemont exclaimed as the flames burning around the dining-room all dimmed at the same time, before taking back their usual brightness. “I hope it doesn't go dark in the middle of the announcement.”

“We still have time. I'll ask the butler to monitor the lights.” Berthe, Georges' wife, said while putting a reassuring gloved hand on his forearm. “The Marcys are here, go and greet them, why don't you?”

Georges nodded and joined Mr Marcy, highest ranking police officer in Paris, and his wife, the sister of a deputy.

“Thank you for joining us tonight.” Georges said. “I hope you are better?”

Marcy scoffed.

“All just memories. But it might be time for me to consider retirement, which is why I brought Fombe... wait, where has Fombelle gone?”

He looked around until he saw a blond man looking at one of the lamps intently.

“If you'll excuse me” he said, leaving his wife in Georges' care before going and dragging the man back with him. “Monsieur de Brûlemont, may I introduce to you Augustin Fombelle. He is my second at the Préfecture and, if he keeps up with his efforts, he will probably be Préfet after I leave.”

“How do you do.”

Fombelle nodded at Brûlemont.

“Then let me introduce my children as well” Georges said.

He took Fombelle off the Marcys' arms and brought him to the buffet, where a lanky boy in dark blue was eyeing the fish terrine, unsure if he could start picking at it before the announcement that officially kicked off the evening.

“My son, Alfred. Alfred, this is Augustin Fombelle, who works under Marcy.”

The two men, the nearly-fourty and the barely twenty, shook hands in silence. Seeing her shy brother forced to make small talk to a stranger, Georges' daughter, Eglantine, swooped in.

“Monsieur.”

Georges heard her, turned to her, and made the introductions there too.

“So you're the belle of the ball, if I understand?” Fombelle asked.

“Well, it is my engagement that will be announced tonight.” Eglantine nodded. “Did Monsieur Marcy not tell you anything before inviting you along?”

“He told me the evening was in your honour, but he neglected to precise the occasion.” Fombelle said.

They exchanged a few pleasantries, then were joined by Eugène Bredin-Chantaille, only son of the famed banker, and Eglantine's fiancé. The young lady made the introductions, and the conversation went on.

Meanwhile, Alfred had sneaked out. He had been feeling rather feverish all day, and couldn't stand the heat of the ballroom now that every guest was there. Well, almost. As long as General Delbecaut and his wife hadn't arrived, the Bredin-Chantailles wouldn't announce the engagement. He still had time. Alfred loved his sister dearly, and didn't want to miss the announcement. Still, his love and devotion for her didn't extend to staying in the hot room any longer.

It was a hassle to make everyone come from Paris, but everyone so far had admitted that the country house of the Brûlemont family was worth the journey. The house was old, if not ancient; woods spread around its gardens, and the fountain in the back was the only ornament that made the house look more like a stately home and less like a fortress. Still, it was nice to go out in the night like that, flee from the heat for a moment.

Alfred was resting on the stone stairs facing the fountain and the back when he heard a soft sob. He first tried to ignore it. If one of the guests was crying, it would do more harm to witness their sorrow than it would to help them.

But the sobs were soft and high, and sounded like the sobs of a child. Alfred thought back to the list of guest, brow furrowing. There were no children invited, and so the only one at the house would be Patrice, his younger brother. What was Patrice doing out in the gardens, if it was he who Alfred heard? He was supposed to have dined early and gone to bed.

Alfred unfolded his long legs and started walking in the direction of the sobs. Padding around the house with no care for the state of his shoes, he walked through the forged iron door on the side of the garden, which for some reason sent a chill down his spine, and to the fountain outside of it, on which a silhouette dressed all in white was resting. Small as a child, and chestnut-haired as Patrice but not Patrice. Patrice was bigger, at almost fourteen.

As soon as Alfred thought that, the silhouette seemed to get bigger. Perhaps it was Patrice after all, and he had been tricked by a reflection of the light.

“Brother” a voice that was not quite Patrice's said, as the sobs interrupted. “I'm lost. Can you give me your hand?”

Alfred hadn't recognised the brother i'm lost, but the voice had changed to become Patrice's on the final question. It was... it was offputting. Of course, it was possible that Patrice's voice was just changed a bit by the crying. But still.

Alfred stopped at a distance from the child.

“Look at me.” he ordered softly.

The child turned towards Alfred.

*

“May I be perfectly candid?” Fombelle asked Eglantine.

“Of course.”

“By some aspects, you remind me of my sister. The same wit, the same disposition, dressed in blue, and... may I risk myself on the guess... same taste in champagne. Canard-Duchêne, isn't it?”

Eglantine smirked.

“Monsieur, you seem like a true connoisseur of champagne.”

“I know only two tastes in champagne: my sister's favorite, and the rest.” he joked.

He looked at his pocketwatch, and added:

“But I must not keep you from the rest of your guests. I was not even invited and I am already hogging the mistress of the house.”

“My mother is the mistress of the house, I am not.” Eglantine chuckled.

“You will be mistress of your own house soon enough.”

And I'm terrified, Eglantine thought, but did not say.

Eugène was perfectly nice. The marriage had been arranged by the parents, but only after both of the interested parties had known each other for years and had developed a mutual esteem, respect and affection. Eglantine didn't fear a marriage with him. She feared however that she would have little help to become the highest authority in the matters of the house when she wouldn't know any servant where she was going, had never balanced a budget without her mother's supervision...

Before she could speak any more word, even of farewell, to anyone, her father and Eugene's both walked to the center of the dancefloor, desert at the moment, and called for everyone's attention.

Alfred came running in through one of the great bay windows, ignored by everyone, and Eglantine smiled. At least, he'd realised it was time to come back. She was glad she would have her brother by her side, although he looked a bit too frantic to actually come and stand by her side, when the announcement would be made.

*

Georges invited everyone to go back to what they were doing, the announcement finished, when he noticed Alfred, shaking – which, with his lanky build, was rather a sight to behold – and trying to reach his sister. Georges intercepted his son, and told him, rather abruptly – it was in his manners:

“Now, calm down, the General is there and you know you have to make a good impression if you want him to take you in his staff for your military time.”

The Brûlemonts were not cowards, and every single one of the men in the family – with the exception of the ones who had become clergymen – had fought valiantly in battle. But as far as military time was concerned, Georges estimated that Alfred could get a soft, safe job and network a bit while he was there. If war there was, Alfred would prove equal to the task – Georges had taught him to shoot, fence and ride himself – but when there were no real stakes on french soil, asking a friend, general or colonel, to take his son under his wing was fair game in his eyes.

Alfred tried to say something about a child out there, but Georges didn't listen. Patrice was in his room and a maid was making sure he wouldn't come out. No guest had brought children. If there was a child, it would be a villager's, and in that case the child knew how to go back home.

“General Delbecaut” Georges said.

“Baron” the General nodded. “I'm sorry we arrived so late. At least we were there in time for the announcement!”

“And in time for the champagne.” Georges laughed, pointing at the glass in the General and his wife's hands. “I see you didn't lose any time on that front.”

“You always have a good nose for wine.” the General complimented him.

“I have no merit in this case: it's Eglantine who picked it.” Georges said. “But where are my manners! This is my son Alfred, whom you have probably already met in passing.”

“In passing, then.” the General said.

Alfred was bad enough with faces not to feel the need to remind the General that they had actually met and spoken at length a few times already. He, himself, only recognised the General because he had a peculiar hair colour and haircut combination that stood out among his parents' friends.

“Then, let's see a bit of you.” the General said. “Tell me, what do you think of the Dreyfus situation?”

Alfred bit his cheek, knowing full well that admitting he supported Dreyfus through and through was not the best answer to give to an officer, and decided to answer:

“The same as you, I'm sure.”

The General chuckled, and said:

“That might actually have been the only correct answer. I don't want people in my staff who will divide it. Diplomats, that's what I need. Very well, Alfred, we'll see you at the beginning of your military time, then. I'll fill the paperwork to have you assigned in my staff.”

And, pretending he had seen some acquaintance, he left the two Brûlemont men together.

“You could have told me he'd test me.” Alfred said.

“I didn't know he would – well, not that way.” Georges answered. “You did well.”

Alfred stayed silent. Now was not the time anymore to speak of the sobbing child, and... well, to be fair, there would probably never be a time for that. Not if he wanted people to believe in his sanity.

[mysticstronomy]

DOES WHITE HOLE EXIST??

Blog#318

Saturday, July 29th, 2023

Welcome back,

White holes are theoretical cosmic regions that function in the opposite way to black holes. Just as nothing can escape a black hole, nothing can enter a white hole.

White holes emerge from the solutions of Einstein's theory of general relativity devised by Karl Schwarzschild in 1916, just a year after the theory was first published.

Schwarzschild was the guy who wrote down the mathematics that describes black holes in the universe as completely collapsed objects. He had to make a choice, there is nothing in general relativity that dictates which direction time flows in.

You could point the clock in this particular direction, and that's what gives you this picture where things fall into a black hole. That's where gravity is attractive, but you could also choose the opposite direction in which time flows and get the opposite effect.

So as well as a black hole, the mathematics of Schwarzschild also gives us a white hole by just flipping the way that time works.

White holes were long thought to be a figment of general relativity born from the same equations as their collapsed star brethren, black holes. More recently, however, some theorists have been asking whether these twin vortices of spacetime may be two sides of the same coin.

To a spaceship crew watching from afar, a white hole looks exactly like a black hole. It has mass. It might spin. A ring of dust and gas could gather around the event horizon — the bubble boundary separating the object from the rest of the universe. But if they kept watching, the crew might witness an event impossible for a black hole — a belch. "It's only in the moment when things come out that you can say, 'ah, this is a white hole,'" said Carlo Rovelli, a theoretical physicist at the Centre de Physique Théorique in France.

The white hole is, in a hand-wavy sense, the inverse of a black hole. So in a black hole, you have an intense gravitational field that pulls things in you've got this one-way membrane called the event horizon. You cross that event horizon, and then you are captured, you cannot escape from that black hole. Gravity has got you, and your future is destined to be at the center of the black hole, no matter what you do.

Now a white hole is the flip of that. So a white hole is almost like anti-gravity endlessly ejecting material. With a white hole, you have an event horizon, where stuff from the inside crosses the event horizon and gets ejected into the universe, and you can't actually get into the white hole.

So in the black hole, you can pass inwards, but not outwards in a white hole, you can pass outwards but not inwards.

The answer is no, really. I mean, there are speculations about some weird things in the universe that might have white home signatures. There's nothing that we can point out in the same way we can point out a black hole that says, 'yes, this is a white hole.'

Maybe that's because of the choice that we make with regard to the past and future, maybe there is only one real choice on the direction of the future, which means we can only have black holes solutions.

Some scientists suggest that the fact that the universe is asymmetric, we see a start with the Big Bang, and we have an infinite future ahead of us, which means that the future gets written into the universe, it sets a one-way time direction which means that only the black hole solution can exist. And so even though mathematically possible to have a white hole, the fact that our universe is asymmetric means that they're not physically realized.

Originally published on www.space.com

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, August 2nd, 2023)

"IS THERE AN EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE??"

[tetrix-anime]

Hazurewaku no "Joutai Ijou Skill" de Saikyou ni Natta Ore ga Subete wo Juurin suru made (Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells) - Episode 8 Preview. Premiere: 29 August 2024

[black-arcana]

HALESTORM's LZZY HALE And JOE HOTTINGER Announce 'The Living Room Sessions' 2025 Tour

Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger of Grammy-winning hard rock band HALESTORM have announced an intimate tour featuring the two of them performing acoustic, stripped down versions of HALESTORM favorites and the music that has inspired the band. Dubbed "Halestorm's Lzzy And Joe: The Living Room Sessions", the tour consists of 12 dates in January 2025. A full list of dates is below.

A special BLABBERMOUTH.NET presale will begin on Thursday, October 24 at 10:00 a.m. local time and end on Thursday, October 24 at 10:00 p.m. local time. When prompted, type in the presale code "2025FREAKS" to access tickets before the general public. Check back here on Thursday for ticketing links to individual shows. General on-sale will be Friday, October 25 at 10 a.m. local time.

To give fans a taste of what’s to come at the shows, today Lzzy and Joe posted a sneak preview of a performance of "The Silence".

Lzzy states: "With this tour, we're inviting our fans to experience what it would be like hanging with Joe and me in our living room: picking up instruments, telling stories, chatting about songs that helped shaped us as a band and brought us to where we are today."

Joe adds: "Back when we decided to quit our day jobs and make music our full-time endeavor, Lzzy and I would play music wherever we could, and sometimes that meant playing acoustic covers in any bar or restaurant that would have us. That time really allowed us to develop our playing skills and dig into songwriting, and it really set the groundwork for what HALESTORM is today."

"Halestorm's Lzzy And Joe: The Living Room Sessions" 2025 tour dates:

Jan. 08 - Flint, MI - The Machine Shop Jan. 10 - Bloomington, IL - Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts Jan. 11 - Des Moines, IA - Hoyt Sherman Theatre Jan. 13 - Springfield, MO - Gillioz Theatre Jan. 14 - Little Rock, AR - The Hall Jan. 16 - Chattanooga, TN - The Signal Jan. 17 - Biloxi, MS - Hard Rock Live Jan. 19 - Pensacola, FL - Vinyl Music Hall Jan. 21 - Savannah, GA - District Live at Plant Riverside District Jan. 22 - Charleston, SC - Charleston Music Hall Jan. 24 - Springfield, MA - Aria Ballroom/MGM Springfield Jan. 25 - South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground

In a September 2024 interview with PK of Louisville, Kentucky's ALT 105.1 radio station, Lzzy spoke about the progress of the recording sessions for HALESTORM's follow-up to 2022's "Back From The Dead" album. Lzzy said: "We've had three separate sessions in the studio with — we're making a record with [producer] Dave Cobb. And he's actually a huge closet metal fan, and so he's really excited. And so we're making this great music, but we're constantly touring. So we've had, like, three different sessions in the studio. We're probably — what? — 70, 80, maybe, percent there. We have a studio in our house and so I'm doing a lot of the finishing touches on vocals and sewing everything up, doing solos and all that. And then we get back in in December to just say, 'Okay, this is good.' And then, yeah. And then there we are. So we're excited about it. We really are."

Cobb has shared in nine Grammy wins, including four for "Best Americana Album" and three for "Best Country Album". He's also been named "Producer Of The Year" by the Country Music Awards, the Americana Music Association (twice) and the Music Row Awards, and has been a Grammy nominee in the category.

HALESTORM and I PREVAIL recently embarked on summer 2024 co-headlining tour. Produced by Live Nation, the trek kicked off on July 9 in Raleigh and ran through August 17 in Las Vegas. HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD and FIT FOR A KING served as support. The tour was also the catalyst and the creative spark for HALESTORM and I PREVAIL's collaborative track "Can U See Me In The Dark?", which was released in June.

"Back From The Dead" has tallied over 100 million streams worldwide. Rolling Stone called the title track "a biting but cathartic howler about overcoming all obstacles," and that song as well as "The Steeple" marked their fifth and sixth number ones at rock radio, respectively. Associated Press said the album "will definitely be in the running for best hard rock/metal album of the year." Their previous album, "Vicious", earned the band their second Grammy nomination, for "Best Hard Rock Performance" for the song "Uncomfortable", the band's fourth #1 at rock radio, and led Loudwire to name HALESTORM "Rock Artist Of The Decade" in 2019.

Fronted by Lzzy with Arejay, Hottinger and bass player Josh Smith, HALESTORM's music has earned multiple platinum and gold certifications from the RIAA, and the band has earned a reputation as a powerful live music force, headlining sold-out shows and topping festival bills around the world, and sharing the stage with icons including HEAVEN & HELL, Alice Cooper, Joan Jett and JUDAS PRIEST. Additionally, Lzzy was named the first female brand ambassador for Gibson and served as host of AXS TV's "A Year In Music".

[nihongoseito]

RADWIMPS 「スパークル - movie ver.」 - 歌詞と英訳

wow, what a throwback! my friend became (rightly) obsessed with this song recently, so i translated the lyrics for her. enjoy this classic :)

まだこの世界は僕を飼いならしてたいみたいだ 望み通りいいだろう 美しくもがくよ

it seems this world is trying to tame me again as you wish, and i’ll struggle beautifully too

互いの砂時計眺めながらキスをしようよ さよならから一番遠い場所で待ち合わせよう

we’ll kiss while watching each other’s hourglasses let’s meet at the place farthest from goodbye

辞書にある言葉で出来上がった世界を憎んだ 万華鏡の中で8月のある朝

i hated this world that was make from words in the dictionary one august morning inside a kaleidoscope

君は僕の前ではにかんでは澄ましてみせた この世界の教科書のような笑顔で

you seemed shy and reserved in front of me with a smile like one out of this world’s textbooks

ついに時はきた 昨日までは序章の序章で 飛ばし読みでいいから こっからが僕だよ 経験と知識とカビの生えかかった勇気を持って 未だかつてないスピードで君の元へダイブを

it’s finally time, until yesterday it was the preface to the preface you can just skim it, because i’ll take it from here with my experiences and my knowledge and my moldering courage with never before seen speed i’ll dive to where you came from

まどろみの中で生ぬるいコーラに ここでないどっかを夢見たよ 教室の窓の外に 電車に揺られ運ばれる朝に

inside a dozing dream in a lukewarm soda i saw someplace that wasn’t here outside the classroom window in the morning being swayed and carried by the train

愛し方さえも君の匂いがした 歩き方さえもその笑い声がした

even the way you love smells like you even the way you walk sounds like your laugh

いつか消えてなくなる君の全てを この目に焼き付けておくことは もう権利なんかじゃない 義務だと思うんだ

some day you’ll disappear and be lost so burning your everything into my eyes is no longer my privilege, i think it might be my duty

運命だとか未来とかって言葉がどれだけ手を 伸ばそうと届かない場所で僕ら恋をする 時計の針も2人を横目に見ながら進む そんな世界を2人で一生いや何しょうでも 生き抜いていこう

we fall in love at the place where no matter how much i grasp at them words like fate and future will never reach the clock hands watch us out of the corner of their eye as they march on in this life—no, in any life, the two of us will survive such a world as that

mada kono sekai wa boku o kainarashitetai mitai da nozomidoori ii darou utsukushiku mogaku yo

tagai no sunadokei nagamenagara kisu o shiyou yo sayonara kara ichiban tooi basho de machiawaseyou

jisho ni aru kotoba de dekiagatta sekai o nikunda mangekyou no naka de hachigatsu no aru asa

kimi wa boku no mae de hanikande wa sumashite miseta kono sekai no kyoukasho no you na egao de

tsui ni toki wa kita kinou made wa joshou no joshou de tobashiyomi de ii kara kokkara ga boku da yo keiken to chishiki to kabi no haekakatta yuuki o motte imada katsutenai supiido de kimi no moto e daibu o

madoromi no naka de namanurui koora ni koko de nai dokka o yume-mita yo kyoushitsu no mado no soto ni densha ni yurare-hakobareru asa ni

aishikata sae mo kimi no nioi ga shita arukikata sae mo sono waraigoe ga shita

itsuka kiete naku naru kimi no subete o kono me ni yakitsukete oku koto wa mou kenri nanka janai gimu da to omounda

unmei da to ka mirai to ka tte kotoba ga dore dake te o nobasou to todokanai basho de bokura koi o suru tokei no hari mo futari o yokome ni minagara susumu sonna sekai o futari de isshou iya nanshou de mo ikinuite yukou

[the-penguin-of-baskervilles]

Chapter 19

The Princess & the Lawyer

Summary: Princess tries to make things right with Lloyd. An arrest is made in the case and fur flies when Detective Roth meets Lloyd for the first time.

Word Count: 4,643

Masterlist

Warnings: References to stalking, murder, serial killings, criminal investigations into violent crimes

Author’s Note: The winds from the outer bands of Hurricane Hillary are just starting to blow up to my area and it knocked out my electricity for a few hours (thanks, Spectrum Internet! 😤) Fortunately, it’s back on now and I can finally post this chapter!

Chapter XIX

Sunlight gleamed off the slow-moving Shenandoah River and reflected across the valley. Lloyd’s cabin was perched overlooking the basin where the river wound around a bend and slowed to a crawl. From your current position on the front porch, the river looked more like a sheet of glass than a body of water. Lloyd had brought you here after you’d been released from the hospital. Landon arrived the next day with a suitcase of your clothes and took up quarters in the basement. His presence had been a welcome relief from the thick fog of tension hanging over the cabin.

“Are you going to talk to him soon?” Landon asked.

You tucked your knees under your chin, wrapped your arms around them, and stared at the ex-SEAL without really seeing him. The idea of apologizing had been circulating on a loop in your head for the past seventy-two hours.

“I don’t know what to say. It’s like there’s a wall of ice between us.”

“Yeah. I didn’t realize a person could get frostbite in the middle of August until I spent a few hours with you two. Is this how you normally fight?”

“No. Lloyd usually blows up. The only person I’ve seen act like this is Zach. And we know how that usually goes.”

Landon winced. There was no softening the burnt of Zach’s temper. Reason and appeasement had no effect on it - once he turned into Jack Frost all you could do was wait until he de-thawed. Landon leaned back in his chair, drumming his fingers on the armrest.

“Finding out the way he did was hard on him.”

You shut your eyes as if doing so would block out the truth of his statement.

“I know. Not telling him was wrong, but the risk of him losing control and doing something reckless was too much. I was trying to protect him.”

Landon’s eyes softened. “Everyone knows how much you try to shield Lloyd, but you can’t always stand between him and the rest of the world.”

“I’ve seen him spiral before. I don’t want to do anything that would send him down that path again… but here we are. He’s barely looked at me for more than three seconds in the last few days and he’s treating me like a barely tolerable houseguest.”

“You have to talk to him. It’s been three days and quite frankly, I’m sick of walking on eggshells around you two. He’s not angry. He’s hurt. That’s why you’re not seeing an explosion of temper.”

“He’s never been like this before and I don’t know what to say. I’ve been trying to figure it out for days.”

Landon shot you a sardonic look. “Princess, get it through your thick skull: Lloyd isn’t angry, he’s hurt. You’ve never seen him like this before because you’re the only one who could make him feel like this.”

“Trust me, underneath that hurt, he’s angry. Lloyd is always angry.”

“Fear lies at the center of anger. He’s afraid your relationship is broken and that’s why he can’t look at you. Come on, take one for the team - and by team I mean myself. Go talk to him.”

“How do I face him after what I did?”

“He won’t bite,” Landon said.

“No, but his razor blade tongue should be registered as a weapon.”

Landon’s phone buzzed on the unfinished porch railing. He checked the message.

“If you’re going to apologize anytime soon, do it now. Zach is on his way up with Bishop. They just stopped in town for gas and they’ll be here in thirty minutes or so.”

You glanced through the window into the living room where Lloyd sat on the couch, laptop in front of him, scowling. Your stomach pitched at the prospect of the conversation you needed to have.

Landon stood up, his chair scraping against the unfinished planks of the porch floor. “I’ll take a walk down to the river and give you guys some privacy.”

“You’re leaving me alone with him?!”

“You made this mess, you clean it up.”

“If you hear screaming, come rescue me,” you muttered.

Landon crossed the yard to the trail leading down to the river basin and disappeared into the thick wilderness.

You were suddenly alone. Your hands clenched until your fingernails dug into your palms. There wouldn’t be a good time to do this. You’d never feel ready for it, and Landon was right - walking on eggshells was exhausting. You pushed to your feet, pulse thrumming in double time and turned the knob on the cabin door with trembling fingers, steeling yourself for the ugly confrontation.

Lloyd didn’t look up when you shut the door. He was too engrossed in his laptop. You paused and took in his furrowed brow as he tapped the down arrow to scroll through a page. Finally, when it became clear he wasn’t going to acknowledge your presence until you demanded it, you stepped forward.

“Lloyd? I need to talk to you.”

His finger paused on the keyboard and even though he didn’t look up, you pressed forward.

“I didn’t tell you about the stalker because I thought Aiden was behind the messages and I didn’t want you to react impulsively. I figured he was upset about losing his job and had decided to take his frustration out on me. That’s why I got in touch with his father. It seemed like the most efficient way to handle things.”

Before you could continue, Lloyd’s scowl deepened, and he resumed tapping the keyboard.

“Where’s the transcript of my interviews with Dr. Nguyen? I thought I saved them to my files.”

“The interviews? Um… there should be a copy in your email.”

He grunted and began typing. A few clicks later, his chin tilted up.

“Found it.”

You pressed a hand to your hot cheek, took a deep breath, and marshaled your courage.

“Lloyd, I’m trying to talk to you. I want to explain-”

He wasn’t listening. His fingers were dancing over the keyboard and he was blatantly ignoring you. Peaking over his shoulder you saw the website of the local news station pulled up on the laptop.

“I need to catch this broadcast,” Lloyd said tersely.

Your shoulders slumped. Repressing a sigh, you sat down and decided to wait him out.

The anchor’s voice filled the small living room, announcing their lead story - a thunderstorm warning and flood watch. You settled in as they turned to their human interest story about Harmony High School students giving back to the community with a fundraiser for the local food bank. Then the ‘Breaking News’ banner appeared on screen and you sat up straighter as you read it.

“Now, to the latest developments in a breaking news story. The arrest of a suspected serial killer has stunned the community of Harmony, Virginia. Leo McKenzie, an evidence clerk with the State Police, has been taken into custody and charged with twelve counts of murder.”

You gasped.

“Hush, I’m trying to listen,” Lloyd said.

“The case drags up ghosts of the past. In 2003, Dr. Shun Nguyen attracted international attention to the town of Harmony when he was arrested and charged with the murder of his girlfriend. Nguyen was widely considered to be responsible for the rash of disappearances of several local women between 1999 and 2001, culminating in the murder of his girlfriend in 2002. However, his conviction for that crime was overturned in 2013…”

The reporter droned on as you watched, growing confused as the cameras showed the Fairfax County Sheriff arresting a man in his mid-sixties with graying blond hair. He was stocky and dressed in a rumpled green button down and khaki slacks. His expression was slack with shock as he was escorted to a Sheriff’s cruiser.

“McKenzie’s arrest has cast a fresh spotlight on these unsolved cases, igniting painful memories for the families affected. We’ll keep you updated on this developing story throughout the night. Stay tuned for more right here on-”

Lloyd muted the video. You turned to him and for the first time in days he met your gaze.

“Leo McKenzie? The guy who leaked information for the Rolling Stone article?”

“He’s not a bad suspect,” Lloyd said. “Zach found evidence that he’s tampered with evidence before. Plus, he went out of his way to de-stabilize our relationship with the Roth when he contacted Peter Shaw and framed us for leaking confidential information.”

“You think he’s the killer?”

“No. There’s a few holes in the logic, but I’m waiting to see if those can be resolved. The fact that he leaked information to journalists and tried to manipulate the narrative around the case is significant.”

You tried not to be surprised at how quickly Lloyd had gotten up to speed in a few days.

“This was a calculated move,” Lloyd said, his gaze returning to the muted news cast. “There’s enough agencies gunning for the credit on this case that it wouldn’t have taken much more than a well-timed tip-off to persuade the Fairfax Sheriff to make an arrest.”

You nodded. “Right.”

“It’s impressive, really,” Lloyd mused. “Zach is quite the strategist. I hadn’t planned on making a maneuver this bold, but if it gets McKenzie off the street…”

Your mouth fell open. “Zach is behind the arrest?”

“He didn’t run it by me, but I suspect this is what he’s coming up here to discuss. Leo McKenzie crossed him with that journalist and even though it probably wasn’t intended as a personal slight, Zach’s not the forgiving kind.”

“And I thought I was pissed off by Roth’s decision,” you murmured.

“Zach didn’t blame Roth. He went for the root cause of the problem: McKenzie.”

Put like that, the connection between Zach’s interference and Leo’s arrest was undoubtable. You glanced at the clock and saw that he’d be arriving soon. The deadline refocused you on your goal.

“Lloyd, as I was saying, I want to explain why I didn’t tell you what was going on. When I thought Aiden was responsible, I didn’t want to put you in a situation where you’d react before we’d gathered all the facts. I thought what I was doing was appropriate, but in retrospect…”

He stood up and paced to the window and stood there, staring at the driveway. You heard the crunch of wheels over gravel and understood what he was watching for. Zach had arrived. Your eyes closed on a wave of regret.

Great. Lloyd wasn’t listening to a word you had just said.

“Zach brought company.”

*****

Bishop and Detective Roth arrived with Zach.

They shuffled into the living room with the rugged-faced detective trailing behind. He was dressed exactly the same as he’d been the last two times you’d seen him. A white collared shirt, striped red tie, and his holstered weapon prominently displayed on his right hip. His nod of greeting to you was barely perceptible. In response, you crossed your arms over your chest.

Childish, perhaps, but you were still irritated with him and he was interrupting your conversation with Lloyd. Bishop made introductions and Lloyd and Roth immediately began sizing each other up like boxers dancing around a ring.

“I looked into your previous work, Mr. Hansen. You’re quite the character. It seems your investigative techniques involve more theatrics than actual evidence gathering.”

“And your speciality seems to be old cases and old gossip. Slow and methodical hasn’t paid off in the Nguyen case, now, has it?”

“Slow and methodical is standard procedure and I’m a standard procedure kind of guy. It helps me maintain my credibility, which reminds me, your kidnapping conviction got you disbarred, didn’t it?”

Lloyd smirked. “So, you’ve been through my international portfolio as well.”

Roth studied him with an inscrutable expression, then the corner of his lip twitched. “What did you have to do with Leo McKenzie’s arrest? The Sheriff wasn’t supposed to take him into custody until next week.”

“I’d love to take credit but it wasn’t me. However, McKenzie is at the top of my suspect list.”

“What position?” Roth asked.

“Second place.”

Bishop lips pursed. “I can’t believe Sheriff Cerano swept in and arrested him so quickly, considering the history of this case.”

“He’s got enough evidence to hold him, thanks to my team,” Detective Roth said.

“What are the charges?” Zach asked.

“Tampering with evidence, improper release of classified information, and other charges related to his conduct as an evidence clerk. I’d like to apologize for jumping to conclusions and accusing the two of you.”

You uncrossed your arms.

“Are we good?” Roth asked you.

You tilted your head. “Consider yourself on probationary forgiveness. I’ll let you know in a few days if it becomes permanent.”

Roth looked at Lloyd. “Is she always so hardheaded?”

“Sometimes. Usually it’s directed at me, so this is a nice change of pace. Let’s sit down and compare notes.”

Despite the earlier verbal sparring, or perhaps because of it, Lloyd and Roth put aside their differences and shifted into professional mode as everyone assembled in the living room.

“I consider Leo McKenzie our prime suspect,” Detective Roth said.

Bishop scowled. “Why?”

“There’s long term storage of the surveillance camera footage in the evidence lockers. We were able to confirm that McKenzie wasn’t at work on the night of April 18th.”

“Was he scheduled to work?” Zach asked.

“Yes, swing shift, but he swapped with a co-worker. The co-worker reports McKenzie told them he was going to a concert,’” Roth said.

Lloyd crossed his legs. “A concert in the middle of the week? That’s ridiculous. Is there any other evidence against him?”

“He owns a .22 caliber rifle and matches the description of the person Mr. Corbin saw at Shun’s house on that same night, April 18th. He’s been known to smoke occasionally and frequented the same coffee shop where Julia’s book club met.”

“What about access to the chemicals to dissolve her corpse?” Lloyd asked.

“His work as an evidence clerk might explain that,” Bishop said.

“Technically speaking, all the ingredients he needed are available over the counter,” Roth said.

Lloyd grunted. “What about knowledge of the area where the bodies were dumped?”

“He kayaks up there every summer and his uncle used to work in the concrete industry,” Roth said. “At the moment he’s our top suspect. The Sheriff was preparing to arrest him on charges of improperly handling evidence and obstruction of justice. That’s sufficient to hold him for a long while. Virginia law enforcement jointly decided that everyone would be safer if he was off the streets.”

“So, if you have your man, why are you here?” Lloyd said.

“Because knowing he had the opportunity, means, and access to commit a crime isn’t the same thing as being able to prove he did it. That’s why I need your help. We have a window of opportunity to prove a solid case against him, but it won’t be easy. Bishop and I have discussed it with my superiors and we’re inviting you down to Harmony on a full-time basis to assist with the investigation. You’ll even get your own shared office.”

“It’s the conference room, isn’t it?” Zach asked.

“A windowless conference room,” Roth said, his lips twitching into a smirk.

The Detective’s gaze shifted to you and he tilted his head. “If it’s not too much trouble, I’m very interested in seeing the database you were working on for the case.”

*****

The guests stayed for dinner but left quickly afterwards to get back before the storm made landfall. Lloyd took a walk down to the river and you retreated to the living room where Landon was relaxing with his feet up.

“I take it apologizing didn’t go well?”

You sighed. “It didn’t go at all.”

“How come?”

“He wouldn’t hear me out. I managed three half apologies but he wouldn’t let me finish.”

“Are you going to try again, or call it a night?” Landon asked.

Your shoulders straightened. Where was your spine? Sure, all things considered, you weren’t at the top of your game this week, but the ability to make Lloyd listen was a skill you’d mastered a long time ago. If you couldn’t get through to him, then you had lost more of your self-confidence than you’d realized.

“I’m going down to the river.”

“Have fun…”

Lloyd was easy to find. He was on a bench by the water with a legal pad on his knee, reading a handful of loose leaf pages. As he read, he paused every now and then to consult his legal pad and twirl a pen around his fingers. You paused at the bottom of the concrete stairs that led down to the river basin and watched him from a distance.

His alabaster complexion was darker than usual from a summer of golfing and the week spent on the ranch. His thick hair ruffled a little in the wind because he hadn’t worn as much hair gel at the cabin, choosing to smooth his hair back instead of plastering it into place like usual.

You liked the more relaxed look on him. You wished the image matched his mood but the rigidity in his shoulders proved he was just as tense as he’d been since Tuesday.

When you approached he tucked the pages into his legal pad and clipped the pen to the pad. You sat down on the far end of the bench, leaving an arm’s length between you. The wind carried the scent of pine trees and the smell of rain hung in the air as storm clouds amassed in the southeast. The atmosphere between you held a quiet tension, an undercurrent of repressed anger. The gusting winds that rustled the leaves seemed to echo the mood. You shivered as a gust of wind cut through your blouse.

Lloyd leaned back. “You didn’t need to come all the way down here. It’s getting cold.”

“I’m fine,” you said, wrapping your arms around your torso. “I wanted to apologize. I guess my timing this afternoon wasn’t great. I was only halfway through when Zach arrived.”

“I was still too pissed at you to listen.”

“I gathered as much. I’m sorry for not telling you about the stalking. It was wrong of me to cover it up, especially for as long as I did.”

He sighed, eyes drifting to fixate on the water. “What was it? You thought I’d over react?”

Your hands twisted in your lap. “Yes. Your temper is a force of nature and you don’t have a great sense of self-preservation under the best conditions. You dive headfirst into danger without considering the consequences or your odds of survival.”

“Princess, I’ve faced much worse threats than a vertically challenged lunatic with sharp elbows. I can handle myself. Don’t worry about me.”

“But I do worry about you! I know you can take care of yourself, but as your friend it’s my job to protect you, too - including from yourself! When I decided not to tell you what was going on, that’s what I thought I was doing. After what happened on Tuesday, I know how wrong that was. I’m sorry for hurting you by holding back something I should’ve shared with you as soon as I was aware of it.”

“What was the other half of your apology? I think we got to about this point before I cut you off.”

“I’m sorry for not trusting you to respond with restraint and assuming you’d fly off the handle. Overall, you’ve taken this a lot more calmly than I thought you would.”

His left eyebrow arched. “Calmly? If you hadn’t willingly gotten in the car on Tuesday afternoon, I’d have thrown you in the trunk.”

“And compared to what I thought you might do, that was a very restrained reaction.”

Lloyd snorted. “Don’t be so sure. If Aiden had been your stalker I’d gladly have taken him apart with my bare hands. That’s part of what pissed me off. Your reasons for not telling me were valid. As much as I wanted to tear into you for it, I can’t deny that point. I guess I feel more disappointed than anything. I’ve always struggled with honesty, but with you, it was easy. I didn’t realize that trust was a one-way street.”

You groaned. “If this is you ‘not tearing into me’ I’d hate to have seen what you had in mind earlier.”

He shifted closer and a thick arm curled around your shoulders. You snuggled into his chest as another gust of wind kicked up.

“I really am sorry,” you said. “I’ll say it as many times as you want.”

“Since I’ve been giving you the cold shoulder for the past three days, I think we can call it even.”

You squeezed his waist and burrowed into his arms. “I promise to be more honest with you, even when I’m worried about your reaction.”

His lips brushed your temple. “I’ll try not to sulk so long next time you decide to bottle things up.”

“Is that a whiff of skepticism I’m sensing? You don’t think I’ll be honest?”

“You protect others, Princess. It’s in your nature. But your takeaway from this experience needs to be that lies of omission aren’t how you protect me, or yourself. I need you and I…”

Love you.

Your heart leapt as you filled in the next words, holding your breath to hear him say them for the first time.

“Was that a drop of rain?” Lloyd said.

*****

You and Lloyd made it back to the front porch of the cabin just as the clouds opened up and poured rain down in buckets. Both of you had escaped the worst of the onslaught, but droplets went flying when Lloyd shook out his hair. You squealed when the water hit your face.

“Sorry, honey,” he said, and held open the door for you.

There was no sight of Landon in the living room, so you assumed he’d retreated to the basement.

Lloyd led you upstairs to the loft which housed the master bedroom. He tossed his legal pad on the bed and went to retrieve towels from the bathroom. You stripped off your wet clothes in the closet and found a clean t-shirt of Lloyd's to slip on. When he came out of the bathroom with the towels, you were sitting on the bed leafing through his legal pad.

“Who’s Tate Corbin?”

“You remember Nguyen’s across the street neighbor? Mr. Corbin?”

“Yes. These notes are about him?”

Lloyd rubbed the towel across his damp hair.

“Yeah. Corbin doesn’t have a file, officially at least, so I’ve spent the past couple days putting one together.”

“Why?”

“Because after l reviewed everything Zach has collected on McKenzie, there was one glaring problem. Leo McKenzie isn’t good at chemistry. He failed the class in high school and took the easiest science credit he could in college: Biology 101 for general studies. He passed with a C minus.”

“Not everyone can be a scientific genius.”

“I doubt our killer is a scientific genius, but they know the basics of chemicals, either by trade or education. The brittle bones that were observed in Julia’s remains and the lack of bodies from the remains from the other nine victims points to a chemical dissolution process of some kind. Leo McKenzie doesn’t have the knowledge to perform that kind of a reaction.”

You made a face of disgust at the imagery his words brought to mind and scanned through the file.

“It says he wasn’t named as a person of interest in 2002. Why wasn’t he a suspect?”

“Actually, the first responding officer did raise suspicions about Mr. Corbin. When he answered the door the next evening - this wasn’t long after Shun was taken in for his first round of questioning - he appeared sweaty and pale. Mr. Corbin attributed it to being on a new blood pressure medication.”

“Did he work with chemicals?” you asked.

“He was a merchant marine in the 50s and 60s, working for companies like Odfjell and Stolt-Nielsen.”

“What does that have to do with the case?”

Lloyd’s grin widened. “Odfjell and Stolt-Nielsen were chemical tanker companies. left the industry in the late 60s and settled down in Fredericksburg. He got married, had two kids, and in 1975 the family moved to Harmony where Corbin started a contracting business. His specialty was laying foundations. Between the physical nature of his work and a penchant for jogging and hiking, Corbin stayed in excellent shape. He even hiked the Appalachian Trail from start to finish in 2003.”

“This is interesting, but what about the evidence Roth and Zach collected against Leo?”

Lloyd shrugged. “He’s worth investigating. I’m open to the possibility that he’s the killer, if evidence comes to light that he knew enough chemistry to dissolve a body. But the way Shun reacted when you questioned him about who the killer might be has stuck in my head. He was clearly afraid of someone, so I’ve been trying to figure out who.”

“Right, I noticed that too. He was visibly shaken when I told him about the second body.”

“Shun’s social circle wasn’t extensive, which narrows the potential suspects to his coworkers and a handful of other associates. When I couldn’t establish a connection between Shun and Leo, I kept searching, which led me to Tate Corbin. The guy is a towering ex-sailor with a linebacker’s shoulders. If he posed a threat to Shun, it could explain why Shun didn’t fight the charges harder or point the finger at another suspect.”

You flipped to Corbin’s demographics page and checked the data. “But Tate is eighty-three years old now. Why wouldn’t Shun just take his story to the media?”

“Remember his reaction to hearing about the second body? Someone - probably the killer - put the fear of God in him. Besides, to Corbin, age is just a number. He’s still running half marathons and 10ks.”

“Holy smoke. Do you have his times? Like, is he any good?”

“He’s placing ahead of runners who are a third of his age. The cincher for me is that there’s only one person whose presence at the house on the evening of April 18th can be verified. By his own admission, Tate was at the crime scene and reported seeing a ‘very large man’ lurking around. Conveniently, Tate Corbin is a very large man.”

“You think he lied to the police?”

Lloyd chuckled. “I don’t think he anticipated the interrogation. When he was caught off guard, his brain couldn’t compose an entirely fictional story, so instead of lying outright, he just bent the truth.”

“Should we bring Roth into the loop?”

“Let’s continue piecing things together over the weekend. We’ll let the news about Leo circulate and make sure Tate has a chance to see it. And since we’re relocating to Roth’s conference room on Monday, we can present our findings to him then. I want to have a clearer picture of the case against Tate to make sure he merits our attention before we discuss it with Roth.”

You looked down, pretending to read, and hid a smile at Lloyd’s final comment. Evidently, Roth’s barb about theatrics had stuck its target.

“That sounds like a plan. I think working together will be good for you two.”

Lloyd rolled his eyes. “Oh, please. He’s such an asshole.”

“Mmmhhh. A real piece of work.”

Irrespective of the investigation, Monday promised to be an exciting day. The anticipation of the clash between Lloyd and Roth brought a real smile to your face for the first time in days. And as fiery as their reaction to each other might be, you had a suspicion that they might turn out to be an excellent team - if they didn’t kill each other first.

*****

Next - Chapter XX

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