#i know this might seem an exorbitant and luxurious purchase | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

popatochisssp · 4 years ago

Note

Hello Poppy! I hope you slept well! Here is the reminder you requested to create a mob au hc post like the cowboy post. Have a wonderful day!

Thank you, it’s finally time! I’m gonna put it under a cut immediately because having twenty skeletons makes every post with all of them automatically a long one!

Full disclaimer-- none of the boys are bosses, that falls on the monarch(s) of their universes... but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own roles to play~

(Warnings: mentions of crime, drugs, violence, sex, brief sexism [probably not the way you’d think] and ableism, plus all the usual mob-tropes I may have forgotten to mention)

Sans (Undertale): He’s a...humble purveyor of items, quality goods produced economically in order to pass those savings on to the crafty consumer who might not want to pay full, exorbitant price for ‘name-brand’ luxuries... Yeah, he’s the ‘you wanna buy a watch?’ guy and he spends most of his days (strategically) wandering around the city looking for customers to hock knockoff, lookalike watches, wallets and bags to. The fuzz know him by name but can never seem to find anything to hold him on, so he’s mostly just a harmless nuisance to be shooed along elsewhere if there’s been any complaints. (He’s real good at making friendly conversation with the law enforcement and keeping all eyes on him, and frankly, if there were any real shady business going on somewhere nearby... well, the cops certainly wouldn’t know about it, too busy hustling him along down the street, now would they?)

Papyrus (Undertale): An upstanding citizen, unlike his brother who’s always in some little trouble with the law or other. He is gainfully employed at a fitness center, and he commutes there by car, because paid for his license to operate one and practiced his driving skills and saved up until he could afford a very beautiful, shiny car of his own! It’s a very nice vehicle...so nice, even, that he doesn’t like to drive it for...recreational outings with friends, in case the paint might get scuffed. That’s why his friends let him borrow their cars when they go out, and let him drive very fast (but safely!) all over the city, even at strange hours or by ‘suspicious’ locations. He’s certainly never seen anything suspicious going on, he just waits outside, and if he happens to keep a First Aid kit in his glove-box, that’s just taking precautions, isn’t it? Accidents happen, you know! (He’s the best getaway driver in town and he knows it, but plausible deniability--the less he ‘knows,’ the better.)

Sky (Underswap Sans): Just your average, ordinary businessman, running a nice little bar for average, ordinary folks of all kinds. Well... he co-owns the place with a buddy of his, Grillby, but Grillbz is a free spirit and a real man about town, so really most of the ‘running’ is down to him. And he loves it! So many people (monsters and humans) to meet and chat with and serve... human food and alcohol, of course. Monster food and alcohol isn’t legalized yet to serve to humans, and a black mark like that against his little establishment would be just awful. He adheres fully to the rules and regulations set forth by human governmental agencies, no magic in anything he passes across the counter, skeleton’s honor! ...Total bullshit, obviously-- he’s running a speakeasy for humans who want to partake in a little monster food or booze, because it’s not harmful to humans and that makes it an even stupider regulation than prohibition was. Grillby taught him most of the menu and cooks on the rare occasions he’s in, while Sky handles the liquid menu and keeps an eye-socket out for snitches and inspectors trying to catch him in the act. He’s never missed a rat yet.

Paps (Underswap Papyrus): He works at his brother’s place. In the back. Only part-time, though, Sky’s got it mostly buttoned up there, so Paps has a lot of leisure time to wander around the city, hit up his favorite joints, chat with friends--and strangers that can become friends, he’s a friendly sorta guy. And if he’s ever seen sharing a cigarette or two with one of those friends, of course it’ll be a totally normal tobacco cigarette, and no exchange of money or anything else incriminating about the interaction. ...Doggo is the one that does the deals, he’s got the Dog Treat supply and a client base that’s steadily starting to include humans--but since Dog Treats are classed as Monster Consumables and illegal to distribute to humans, in spite of being non-addictive, only mildly affective, and non-irritant to lungs, things get a little more convoluted. Paps hits up Doggo at Muffet’s (a wholly monster establishment) for the Dog Treats and a client list, ‘refurbishes’ the Treats to resemble cigarettes, and then meets up with anybody who prepaid for their order real casual-like to fence ‘em. He gets a little cut of the profits, and a discount when he’s picking up for pleasure instead of business--like a (slightly) more illegal girl scout cookie racket.

Jasper (Underfell Sans): Him? He’s just an average joe in all respects. He’s got a little auto shop, spends his days tuning up cars and bikes and such as the like, and most evenings out having fun with anybody else who’s out looking to have a good time--food and drink and maybe a little gambling, but small games, low stakes, for charity, yanno? Nothing illegal, he’d freely assure anyone concerned about the law. Yep, he’s a perfectly normal, law-abiding citizen...as far as anyone can tell. If he does a little work on the side, when specifically requested to, by perhaps one of his monarchs or one of the parties they’d approved to ask for his...services... Well, he’s certainly too quick and clean about it to leave any hard evidence behind, and he’s always far away from...whatever may have happened...with too many witnesses all in agreement that he was there and couldn’t have been anywhere else, unless he could somehow make it across town in the blink of an eye. (His side-gig is as a hitman. He keeps his shortcut ability very tightly under wraps to make for perfect alibis, and takes his targets out with magic bullets which he can disappear afterwards. If he’s ever somehow implicated in anything, he’s happy to point out to the nice officers that he doesn’t even own a weapon. They’re free to look, but all they’ll find is a set of knuckledusters he keeps on his person, purely for protection--and look how shiny the brass is, never even been used, officers! Guess they’ve got nothing on him, after all...)

Pyre (Underfell Papyrus): A law-abiding citizen. He must be--surely one can’t get more law-abiding than a lawyer...right? He actually does keep his (lack of) nose clean, but studying the convoluted mess that is human law doesn’t leave time for much else--even when your studies are funded by royalty and you’re given everything you need to open up your own practice as soon as you’ve passed the bar. Still, his skill and knowledge in arguing the law is very valuable and his services are in high demand, so he’s well-compensated for his chosen career and lives his life outside of it both comfortably and legally. His clients...are innocent until proven guilty and it would be an extreme failing of his duty to give any of them anything less than his best in the courtroom, regardless of their character, their associations, and what they happen to have been accused of. (Yeah, he’s a mob lawyer, used almost exclusively by Asgore and Toriel to protect them and anyone they send to him and all of their collective...interests. He respects the law, but values justice above it, so in spite of having a lot of clients who are definitely criminals in one way or another, he has no trouble sleeping at night.)

Mal (Swapfell Sans): He’s an accountant, nothing more, nothing less. ...For Toriel, of course, so he’s paid well for his services. And he has quite a head for numbers and figures, so he plays the stock market and does quite well there, too, smart investments and reading the writing on the wall, and all that. It’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for his very healthy finances and his lavish lifestyle--fur coats, fine suits, fancy cars, shiny gold pocket-watches-- it’s all expensive and almost over the top, but hey, he is the money-man and all the numbers check out. It seems that he’s just very good at handling and investing his capital, it’s no wonder the monster-queen herself hired him on... (He is, of course, running several money laundering schemes at any given time, taking all the less-than-legally-obtained money earned by constituents of the [former] Empire and layering it through official channels to make it look legal in such a convoluted, complex web that it doesn’t raise any significant red flags. He’s got his claws in a lot of pies, and he takes what he needs off the top to live a little luxuriously, with Toriel’s knowledge and permission-- a perk for the necessary service he provides.) Whatever else may be true, it’s a simple fact that he’s very, very good at his job.

Rus (Swapfell Papyrus): With the lucrative career his brother has, the lucky SOB doesn’t have to work a day in his life if he doesn’t want to, but he’s using the safety net to pursue his passion in art. Subjective as it is, it’s hard to say if he’s really any good, but people seem to like what he produces well-enough--not a household name, but people passionate about the subject might recognize his work and his pieces sell with at least moderate success. For all that it’s probably not going to make him famous or rich(er than his brother), he’s dedicated to his craft and regularly makes bulk purchases of his supplies, canvas and reams of paper and paint and ink and the like, to keep up his steady work and art sales. He seems like an altogether normal and down-to-earth sort of guy, nothing suspicious about him at all. (He’s a counterfeiter and works in tandem with his brother--they even hit a Bureau together to lift a set of plates for the one and only active crime he was involved in--and his art is just a really good cover for why he needs so much ink and paper and other supplies on a regular basis. He does love and care about his art career, that part’s not fake, but he’s also got a good eye-socket for detail and steady hands to replicate it, and if fake human money that looks really real can help monsters, he doesn’t really see why he shouldn’t.)

Slate (Horrortale Sans): He’s...been through a lot. All monsters have, really, but he was hit kind of especially hard and... Whatever Gerson, or Undyne, or whoever’s running things now up on the Surface are getting involved in...he doesn’t really want any part of it. He gets regular stipends for some unspecified ‘service’ he performed for the Queen, Underground, and while no human (alive) knows what that was, it’s apparently enough to live off of relatively comfortably without being employed himself. He has a nice little place with his brother on the outskirts of the city and he lives there quietly, peacefully. He rarely goes into town, just the occasional walkabout, stopping at restaurants or scoping out the architecture. (Part of his one concession to being left out of whatever illegal, mob-type business may or may not be going on: he needs a good mental map of the city and at least a few landmarks that he’ll definitely remember, because he’s the emergency evac should...anything...go especially south. The house phone doesn’t ring too often in the middle of the night, but when it does, he needs to know where he needs to be, and quick.)

Papy (Horrortale Papyrus): He’s, ah... not involved in any ‘business’ either, but he does spend a little more time out of the house, at the local hospital. He was allowed to make a study of human medicine and become a nurse by Very Special Exception--mostly due to some friends (or at least one) in high places, and some very backwards human attitudes about parts that constitute a ‘man’ and how a skeleton without any parts could perhaps be allowed into nursing--and he’s proven himself a valuable member of staff and even made friends with all of his coworkers. He’s happy at his job, and with his life, and returns home to his quiet, peaceful house every night with a smile. (He has a go-bag ready by the phone for those late night calls, though, full of healing items and medical equipment he may have subtly nicked from the hospital, just so he has everything he needs to treat a monster or a friendly human that may have gotten hurt...somehow...and for reasons they have no need to specify, can’t risk going to a doctor.)

Ash (Undergloom Sans): Just a poor street musician...or at least, that’s what most people figure, ‘cause he doesn’t dress too well and the trombone he plays while sitting out on the sidewalk looks like it’s probably the nicest thing he owns. He gets a couple bucks from time to time, but rarely any second glances, and that... That works in his favor. You’d be surprised how much people talk about when they think nobody’s listening (or at least...nobody important) and he can pick up a lot of interesting information of what’s going on in the city just by setting up in the right spot and waiting for folks to talk business. He’s pretty quiet when he’s not tooting the ol’ horn and great at blending into the background, and that’s made him the guy to go to when you want to know something--like how much somebody else knows, or if there are any plans in place for say, a raid or a sting or some kind. (Law enforcement is the worst about keeping proprietary information ‘proprietary’ when they think their only audience is some nobody monster bum sleeping on a bench...) He’s also got something of a whole information network going on with the actual homeless people in the city, since he gives great tips about places who are hiring or somewhere to get a meal or a bed for the night and he always gives his earnings from busking to those who need it more than him. He’s paid for the service he provides and he’s got a home to go back to, it just seems right that the music-money goes to help somebody else.

Yrus (Undergloom Papyrus): He works as a nanny for the Queen! Not too long ago, she might’ve opted to just stay home and look after her newly adopted child herself, while Asgore handled business with the humans, but... They’re freshly split now, and Toriel wants to be just as involved in things as Asgore as much as she wants to s l o w l y ease into being a full-time mother again. Yrus is the solution, already fond of little Frisk and a very warm and trustworthy soul who stayed bright even in the gloom of the Underground. He happily takes the job when asked and splits his time between supervising and caring for Frisk, and tutoring them in all the important subjects (math, history, magic, et cetera). He finds he has a passion for teaching and thinks he might go into that someday, when Frisk is older and Toriel has a little more time and confidence to no longer need him as a buffer. (Whatever it is, specifically, that takes up so much of Toriel’s time and keeps her out so late that he sometimes has to wait around well past Frisk’s bedtime for her to come back and ask after them... Yrus couldn’t fathom a guess and isn’t going to ask any questions. That would definitely be out of his scope as a simple child-minder and even if he knew anything, it would be an extreme violation of the family’s privacy for him to tell tales, which he’s happy to point out to anyone with a lot of questions for somebody so close to two of the Dreemurrs.)

Brick (Horrorfell Sans): He’s on his brother’s payroll. It seemed like the best way to kill two birds with one stone: he’s a big, scary-looking wall of bone who isn’t well suited to a regular-joe sorta job, and his bro’s a very high-profile guy who needs somebody big and scary-looking to stand next to him and be a deterrent. Nepotism, maybe, but they’ve been looking after each other their whole lives already and it’s something Brick knows he can do--he’d do it for free, but if King thinks it’s better (and safer) to have it as his job description, he’s probably right, so Brick’ll take the paycheck for it. King’s also very likely the only one who could stop him if he...lost control...somewhere out and about, so sticking close to him makes Brick feel better and hey, maybe they’re actually killing three birds with this stone of an arrangement. Still, he mostly just goes about town with King, standing around and watching his back and staring people down when he needs to while his brother carries on with his conversations and business. He hardly ever has to do anymore than that...almost never. (One of his favorite places to go is a little hole-in-the-wall craft shop, where King always pretends to take longer than he needs so Brick can peruse the yarn and try to pick up a little sign language from the nice old deaf lady who owns the place.)

King (Horrorfell Papyrus): Yes, yes, he’s very high profile--he did lead monsterkind for a time, getting everyone up to the Surface and settled there--but he’s since stepped down. He’s retired, and anything his successor may be involved in... surely, he couldn’t say. He and Toriel are barely in contact and the money he receives from her on the regular is a gift of goodwill, mostly for medical expenses (his leg, and his brother’s...well). All he does these days is collect for a charity, a pet project of his, Monster Reparations. Lots of people give such generous donations when he goes around to ask for them, maybe impressed a little by his fame, but he can’t feel too terribly about using it for such a worthy cause... (It’s a thinly veiled protection racket and the people and businesses who buy into it tend not to fall victim to ‘mysterious’ criminal activity. Toriel may be officially calling the shots now, but King, as the monster who put her back there, is in a very unique position of power in having her ear, an unofficial underboss totally off the books. Some ‘donate’ more than necessary when he comes collecting, hoping to earn preferential treatment, and sometimes they get it and sometimes they don’t--it’s entirely down to King’s opinion of them personally. ...The old woman who runs the craft store pays about half the going rate, and the immigrant who imports the miniature trees he likes gets a heavy discount, too. The deli-owner he overheard hurling discriminatory epithets at a customer, however, pays triple. You get the idea.)

Merc (Horrorswap Sans): He’s a researcher. Highly confidential, he’s sworn to secrecy and even mentioning that he’s being funded by Elder King Shroomba is pushing the boundaries of what he’s allowed to talk about. Still, he has his own facility, and several assistants, monster volunteers and sometimes human ones--but they have to sign papers swearing not to talk about what goes on in the lab, too. From what they are allowed to say, the gist is just that it didn’t seem like anything sinister was going on; not even a blood-draw... Merc seems pretty happy to leave at the end of every day, though, and whenever it comes up, he talks very fondly about being able to finish the project. (He’s researching DT, specifically how it can be used to enhance monster physiology and make them more resistant to damage from intent. Merc’s misadventure with DT destabilized him, but from 1HP he’s now more durable than ever, and his second attempt with his brother had less dramatic but still noticeable and successful results. The king wants that safety net for more monsters, especially ones who are on the front lines of...potentially less than legal dealings...who could really be at risk. Merc is reluctant, but with the stipulation of informed, willing volunteers for DT extraction and infusion, he can’t bring himself to turn down the resources and funding to research his own condition and bring the possibility of being normal again ever closer. He still has a hard time with the idea of ‘enhancing’ monsters, but the fact that it’s at least being done safely, willingly, and with a whole team behind it this time helps a lot.)

Ell (Horrorswap Papyrus): He’s in a wheelchair but not letting it keep him down, and he’s running a modest little newspaper stand on the corner--papers and magazines and cheap books--nothing all that special but boy, what an inspiration, good for him that he’s got a job and can run the place by himself! All kinds come and go from his stand, and sometimes he closes it up for a little bit in the middle of the day to take a...er...roll, with some people who must be friends of his, but he’s never gone too long, so nobody says anything to the poor guy about the inconvenience. He’s a dedicated businessman, or trying to be; won’t even let people help him with those heavy-looking boxes of deliveries he gets, and for a fella with no legs, he seems to be doing his best! (...The whole thing is a low-key smuggling operation and he is making bank off it. There’s a system of code-words in place related to the publications he sells for a ‘customer’ to indicate whether they’re buying or selling, and what--magic consumables, stolen/hot items, imported goods, the works--and where and when they want things to go down. There’s even hidden compartments in his custom-built wheelchair for some of the riskier stuff, because he knows no cop in their right mind would force a guy with no legs out of his chair just to search it with witnesses around. And that’s presuming any law enforcement were to even catch wise to his set-up, which he kind of doubts: he’s sly and subtle and even if he weren’t, he knows people see the chair before they see him. Why not take advantage of that?)

Pitch (Horrorswapfell Sans): He makes his living as a boxer, and a subsequent minor celebrity. Pretty much any match he’s in is an exhibition match--not just a monster, not just a little guy (...relatively), but a short skeleton monster who’s blind, wow! You don’t see that every day, that’s a spectacle! Plenty of ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s in the packed stands every night the sightless skeleton scrapper is in the ring and nobody can figure out how he bobs and weaves so well that he hardly ever gets hit. He loses some matches, that’s to be expected, even for a ‘normal’ fighter, but hey, people love an underdog story, so when he wins, it’s an uproar every time. (For his part, Pitch hates most of his ‘fans’ who think of him the same way they probably think of a silly little dog who learned a funny trick, but the fame in general, and the thrill of the fight... Those are enough to keep him in the ring. Just... maybe not quite enough to keep him fighting clean. He’s as dirty as sportsmen come and he and a few other monsters regularly play his own odds with the bookies: he’ll subtly use magic to cheat and stay in longer, or go down when he could easily keep fighting, whatever’s more profitable with the over/under from match to match. If he’s going to be a circus act doing what he loves, he may as well get hazard pay for his dignity... and y’know, a couple of idiots who think being able to fight is a ‘trick’ because you’re blind aren’t nearly so annoying when you’re being driven away from them in a luxury car, to your expensive house in the hills decked out with all the amenities.)

Nemo (Horrorswapfell Papyrus): He’s got a place he looks after, keeps things running. Just a small joint, nothing fancy, a little cabaret variety show type place--singing, dancing, drinks on tap, that kinda thing. After dark, some of the...performances... might get a little more risqué, stuff that titillates like burlesque and striptease, but rest assured, his permits are all in order and everything’s on the up and up. Nothing illegal whatsoever going on here, just a bit of singing and dancing and everybody having a good time. (Most of the performers are sex workers--monsters, but some humans too--and patrons can negotiate private shows or off-the-clock ‘meetings’ at their discretion. Nemo opts to not know too much of the details of what his dancers do when he’s not looking, for legal reasons, but he makes sure they have a safe place to do it, are paid for their services, and don’t have repeat problem-patrons if any slip through. Being one of the gentlemen running such an establishment in the city that doesn’t happen to touch or steal from or mistreat the performers, his place is the place to get hired if that’s your line of work. He’s mostly just happy to be able to provide the job security and the job safety for a group that really seems to catch a lot of hell up here on the Surface just for how they make their money.)

Sunny (Gastertale Sans): He’s a busy guy, bouncing around from place to place, job to job... Being so scattered, you might think he’d be having money troubles by now, but while he may not be the type to stick with one thing and stay there for a good few years, nobody who knows him would say he’s unreliable--he’s the type of guy that you can give him a call anytime and if you need help, he’ll be right over, and he’ll get the job done well, too! Of course he lives with his fancypants brother, and the King and Queen probably spot him a loan or two now and then, since they’re friendly, so all in all, no one really wonders how he makes enough money to live so comfortably. The answer’s right there in their face...isn’t it? (Yes and no. He is the kind of guy you can call anytime to get a job done, and he will do it well, but the money he gets from Asgore and Toriel is less of a ‘loan’ and more of a ‘payment for services rendered.’ He’s a cleaner, the guy you call to make things go away, things that aren’t supposed to be there: stains, papers, weapons, evidence... He’ll get rid of it for you, and if you need a convincing coverup or an alibi for...whatever it is that you weren’t there doing, he’ll take care of that, too. If somebody’s calling him up for his special brand of help, they probably just want to put it all behind them and forget all about that nasty business. He’s happy to facilitate--after all, what are friends for?)

Aster (Gastertale Papyrus): Like his brother, he gets on well with the King and Queen. (They both feel like they’ve known the monarchs much longer than they actually have...somehow...) But in any case, unlike his brother, Aster is very well-organized and thoughtful, so he’s a natural choice as an...advisor, of sorts, when monsters surfaced and it was...decided that perhaps there would be some...activities and...ways of doing things that...should remain unknown to the humans. Not unknown to Aster: he keeps track of everything, reminding the monarchs of little details they may have forgotten, pointing out things they may not have noticed, making educated suggestions for courses of action with likely positive outcomes based on past experiences... He’s the linchpin between Asgore and Toriel that makes them terrifyingly more efficient than they would be without him, a consigliere-equivalent who certainly isn’t a boss himself, but he has the bosses’ trust and their ears and that makes him a person of great interest. But...no one can get anything useful out of him: he’s loyal, above all, and much as he values truth, he also realizes that perhaps not everyone deserves to know the full truth of everything, especially not those who might use that truth to bring some sort of harm or misfortune to his friends...or to monsterkind at large. ...And trying to directly seize his extensive notes on the private and personal business-doings of the Dreemurrs is an even more doomed endeavor--he writes them all in a strange jumble of symbols that no one’s ever seen, and the code-breakers never have it long enough to decipher anything useful before its back in his hands, reclaimed quite speedily after unlawful seizure of private property containing confidential information. Lots of well-meaning law enforcement have their sights set on him as some sort of criminal white whale, but the simile is all too accurate-- they’ll never catch him, and even if they do, there’ll be nothing to hold him on. He simply has too many friends (and family members) in very high, very useful places.

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yerawizardjulia · 3 years ago

Text

Too Rich for a McNugget (Wolfstar)

A university student enters an antique shop in a panic. How do you buy a wedding gift for a cousin you hate?

Sirius wouldn’t have looked twice at the dusty shop if he wasn’t stupidly, desperately late. The high street itself was laughing at him and he was uncomfortably aware of the scrubby guy on the bench that had definitely seen him walk past the same shop window three times in a desperate attempt to see anything other than tea towels and obnoxiously cheerful decorated mugs with ‘World’s best dad’ printed on the sides in Comic Sans. His fingers were slippery in anxious sweat as he pressed the home button on his phone, his iPhone six, another reason his presence would be scorned at this godforsaken gathering. The smudgy screen blinked into life and displayed, seemingly smugly after Sirius’ growing resentment towards the device, 12:42.

Twenty fucking minutes. If he didn’t show up with a gift he might as well not show up at all, an option he would have embraced wholeheartedly if his mother hadn’t pincered him into a corner at their last, regularly depressing routine coffee catch up and told him the deeds to his inheritance were under considerable threat if he did not attend. He wouldn’t have minded, but being twenty grand in debt to an English degree in a rented apartment with black mould creeping onto the ceiling made him reconsider his options.

Fucking Narcissa.

He wouldn’t have been looking forward to the wedding even if she wasn’t marrying a right wing, Eton-educated, ‘can’t control these blasted immigrants’ CEO of whateverthefuck that looked as though he’d never even touched an item of clothing that didn’t come from Armani. It was so typical of his cousin to find a man who deferred so minimally from their shared families’ frankly alarmingly consistent Tory heritage that Sirius had had to do some extensive Googling to confirm that Lucius Malfoy was not in fact, a not-so-distant relative.

A text buzzed in his hand, the little green notification welcome on the screen. At least it was an excuse to loiter outside this shop window for another minute or so without looking like a genuine psychopath.

‘Just get her a toaster or something idk.’

Sirius hadn’t really expected James’ solution to his predicament to be helpful, but his flatmate’s response nevertheless sent the hopeless feeling in his stomach a few inches lower. He had never expected for his future to be balanced on the purchase of a wedding gift, but he would almost prefer to sit his first-year exams, which he had taken with a hangover so severe it felt like he was going to vomit out of his eyeballs, all over again than have to look at this shop window for a second longer. He pictured sitting in a gutter in London, like the tramps that his mother refused to make eye contact with during their trips out during his childhood, drinking from a bottle wrapped in brown paper and thinking; if only I had gone with the luxury jam set. He had discarded the idea after noticing the Tesco’s Finest logo above the barcode, but it was beginning to look like his best option.

Another text. No, a call. Sirius shoved the phone back into his hoodie he was using to mask the aristocratic wedding attire beneath. Keepers of pretentious little shops such as the ones lining this dusty high street tended to bump their prices through the roof if they saw someone of his blood walk in. Old blood. Old money. It was unfair, really, because Sirius didn’t actually have any. If he did, he probably wouldn’t mind paying the exorbitant prices; James spent half his life agonising over how independent businesses were being suffocated by Amazon. But Sirius had nothing to his name until his dear grandparents decided to snuff it. The phone ceased buzzing waspishly in his pocket, and he decided he had better check who he was ignoring.

Typical fucking Regulus.

Probably the only human being under twenty that actually went out of his way to call people, rather than text. He would be there already, exchanging pleasantries in the foyer of the Malfoy’s third manor home. Checking to see whether the Black family disappointment was showing his face, or if he’d have to rely on his six predicted A* grades and brand new Porsche that probably cost more to insure than it did to buy to present himself as the golden child. He’d probably have a stupid little flower in his stupid little button hole. Being a cousin of the bride and a groomsman of the groom, Regulus had firmly nestled himself already into this hideous conjunction of families. He had a job lined up for him in Malfoy’s London branch. In six months, he’d probably have his own office.

Sirius had diluted his shampoo with water for the second time this morning.

He scowled and kicked a bottle cap along the pavement as he stumped, once again, down the row of shops. The circular metal projectile skittered across the tarmac and bounced off a door frame. He stopped, staring suddenly at the sign swinging on a pair of metal hooks like it was a medieval fucking tavern.

Fletcher’s Quality Gifts and Trinkets.

Somehow, inexplicably, Sirius’ eyes had slid over this shop four times as he’d panicked his way up and down this stretch of pavement. There was no window display, that was why. The door fit seamlessly between Bobbin’s Haberdashery and a derelict Cafe Nero. Sirius felt his phone buzz again and suppressed the urge to throw it into the path of the lazy, midday traffic crawling its way up the high street. He stared at the chipped paint and begged silently, to whatever entities may have been listening, that he would find something, anything to take to this fucking wedding.

The door jammed awkwardly on the floor as Sirius pushed it open. It made a juddering, dry squeak, scuffing on the splintery wood. Sirius winced, and half thought about just turning tail and walking out again, going back to pick up that cheap-as-shit jam set. Narcissa probably didn’t even eat jam. Was jam vegan?

He had to push his way in sideways, and as he did so, the door unstuck, swinging open and leaving him standing, pointlessly squashed back against the door frame. Sirius closed his eyes and wondered whether anything was going to go right today.

When he opened them, a guy was blinking at him from behind a checkout desk. A book was open on the surface before him and his long legs with too short trousers that showed a few inches of garishly coloured socks were rested upon the desk next to the till. He removed them hastily to the floor as Sirius stared.

“Sorry, the door- It gets stuck- you have to like-“ He mimed something that Sirius couldn’t even begin to relate to unsticking a door. “Sorry,” he finished, lamely. He bent over his book. Sirius peeled himself from the frame, not taking in the low beams that he would probably hit his head on or the items grouped together in nonsensical piles on the shelves and stacked on the floor.

This guy was gorgeous. He had an odd collection of features that were nothing special, when you looked at them individually- a nose that listed to the left, a thin top lip, a smattering of pigmentation on his cheeks that suggested acne that had been grown out of- but together... Sirius couldn’t stop staring at him. That tawny hair- fucking tawny, who am I, William pissing Wordsworth?- That sharp chin, those long fingers that teased the edge of the paper as he finished reading his page.

He was absolutely, fundamentally, not Sirius’ type. Any romantic entanglements he had had- and granted, it was not a long list (he and James had one sellotaped to the fridge)- involved men so deep in the closet they were practically choking on mothballs. They were footballers, mostly, insecure, ‘just experimenting’. Sirius didn’t know why his gaydar was sounding off so strongly. Was it the deeply uncool granddad jumper that somehow looked like it belonged in Men’s Vogue when draped over his long torso? Sirius was hardly modest about his own looks, but if he tried that jumper on he would look like the kid that forgot his P.E. kit. The same went for the not-skinny, not-baggy jeans that looked as though they were made for literally anyone other than him but somehow, looked really cool and why did Sirius love those hideous socks so much? Did they have pineapples on them?

The guy, seemingly unaware of Sirius lurking behind the shelf closest to the door, propped the book up in his hands, and Sirius read the title- The Picture of Dorian Grey.

Well, there it is.

“IneedapresentforacousinIhatewho’smarryingaguythathasprobablynevereatenaMcDonald’schickennugget.” Sirius was hardly more aware of the words projectile vomiting from his mouth than he was of the way he was sidling towards the checkout desk with his hands wringing in front of him like he was expecting this guy to stand up and shout at him.

Brown eyes emerged from behind the finest work of Oscar Wilde, carrying a look of mild alarm.

“Because, he’s rich, not a vegetarian.” Sirius finished. His mouth seemed a long way behind his brain, but perhaps that was a good thing, because his brain was currently screaming FUCK ME and Sirius was not willing to be barred from any more establishments for hedonistic behaviour.

“A wedding present?” His voice was mild, like Sirius had just asked a perfectly normal question for a stranger to ask a shop employee.

“Uh, yeah.” Why was he blushing? He never blushed. He stepped back needlessly as the guy rose from behind the desk. He was tall. Proportionately tall, with long limbs and a long neck and long god knows what else. Sirius nearly fell to his knees in reverence when the guy cracked a smile that caused a dimple to poke in his cheek and exposed sharp canines that Sirius never considered worth noticing in anyone before but holy fuck he would be now.

“You know what, I think I’ve got something.” He was walking away down one of the dark-ish isles, stooping considerably to avoid the beams and Sirius was trailing after him, awkward and out of place and acting so drastically not like himself he wondered if he had sustained a concussion at some point. Maybe when he was forcing his way through that rude fucking door. The hair at the nape of this guy’s neck curled slightly like he was due a haircut. His trainers were really beat up and old, and Sirius was sure he could see one of the laces fraying and considered whether he should warn him he was about to trip.

“When is this wedding?” His voice was still mild and almost disconcertingly polite; he had stopped and was rummaging among a pile of objects on a shelf-seriously, how was anyone supposed to find anything in here?- and Sirius was still staring at his trailing shoelace.

“Well, sort of now.”

He stood up a bit straighter as the brown eyes widened, and he was looking at him, properly, for the first time and Jesus Christ, how were you supposed to stand normally? Where were your arms supposed to go? Eyebrows, light brown and shapeless and a bit sparse at the ends, furrowed and he let out a small huff of amusement. It was the politest expression of ‘this dude’s a complete disaster’ that Sirius had ever seen. “I’ve been putting it off,” he added needlessly. Something about the way this guy was now looking him up and down as if he could read his life story just from Sirius’ tailored trousers that he’d forgotten to get dry cleaned and his hoodie that was actually James’ and his shoes that looked expensive but were actually from TKMaxx was making him need to offer increasingly poor explanations for his shambles of a life. “I don’t want to go, but I have to, and I hate weddings anyway, but especially this one, and I-‘

The look of curious amusement on the guy’s face- god, Sirius really wanted to know his name- halted his rambling. “Sorry,” he mumbled, “I’m not normally this stressed.”

“That’s okay,” he replied, as if it was his job to tolerate a load of garbled nonsense from strangers, like he did it regularly, in fact, which made him wonder what kind of people actually came into this shop that you could barely tell existed. He was still rummaging through the shelves, Sirius was pretty sure a couple of things had fallen off the back and were now in the dark recesses of the between-shelf-and-wall space where things went to die. God, did anyone ever actually buy anything in here? He found it easier to control himself when the guy stopped x-raying him with his eyes, so he said “er, how long’s this shop been here?”

“Oh, I’ve only worked here six weeks. No idea, ages, probably.” He picked up a remarkably creepy porcelain figure of a shepherdess that was covered with so much dust that at first glance, Sirius thought it was some kind of radioactively-deformed elephant.

“I see what you mean,” said Sirius, staring at the figurine reproachfully. “How does anyone find anything in here?” The questions were not what he actually wanted to ask, which involved something along the lines of are you gay-are you single-are you safe from asbestos in this shop and do you think I’m a complete weirdo. He perked up when the guy let out another polite huff of laughter.

“Most customers have been coming in here for years,” he said, “I don’t see a lot of new people.” His eyes flickered to Sirius and back again and Sirius felt as if he was preparing to dive from a very large boat into a sea that was very cold.

“What’s your name?” Sirius asked, louder than he had meant to. He cringed inwardly and for the second time, considered legging it out of the door when he was once again regarded by a pair of searching brown eyes.

��Remus,” he said. Sirius could tell he was waiting for him to laugh. When he didn’t, because how the fuck could this man get any more attractive, and somehow the name Remus suited him down to his shredded laces, he turned to face him, as if in defiance.

“Hilarious, I know. Remus Lupin, which makes it even better.” Sirius’ resolve cracked at this.

“What?” He squawked, dragging his eyes over Remus again, because he looked like any novelist's wet dream and his name was Remus fucking Lupin... “Mine’s worse.” Sirius said, straightening again. Remus Lupin was rolling his eyes as if in grim acceptance of the barrage of snide jibes that had yet to tumble from Sirius’ mouth, but his eyebrows had disappeared into his hair at Sirius’ response and his arms were folded across his chest, which pulled the loose neck of his jumper down and exposed a few inches of pale sternum.

“I don’t believe you.”

Sirius grinned at this. He cleared his throat and pulled his hand out of the pouch/pocket/thing on the front of his hoodie which was definitely not a secure place for his phone, wallet and keys, and held it out.

“Sirius Black. Pleasure to meet you.” Remus’ mouth had fallen slightly open and a smile was touching at the corners of his lips as he took Sirius’ hand. Sirius was almost surprised that there was no jolt of electricity from all the built up static in his woollen jumper, but his skin was cool and his fingers were thin and twiggy and the knuckles were surprisingly big, and he didn’t drop it straight away, which made Sirius wonder if it was intentional, like a sort of gay signal, and then he remembered the Oscar Wilde book on the checkout desk and stopped trying to look for gay signals.

“Holy shit,” Remus spluttered. The profanity rolled masterfully from his lips; Sirius had never quite got the hang of swearing after his stuffy, conservative upbringing. Remus made it sound graceful.

“What a pair, eh?” said Sirius, and then cringed inwardly again because they weren’t a pair, they were complete strangers but somehow it felt like they’d known each other forever and fuck when did it get so hot in here? He looked at the shelves where Remus’ other hand still rested, and tried to ignore the eyes that were sliding up and down his body as Remus Lupin gave him what Sirius recognised as ‘the gay once-over.’ Dressed in the odd assortment of James’ secondary school football hoodie that had been surpassed by the frankly unnatural growth of James’ shoulders, pretentious shoes and crinkled dress trousers, Sirius was acutely aware that he was not looking his whole and considerable best. Christ, he might even look straight.

“There’s um-you said you might have something?” Sirius said, after another twenty five seconds in which Remus’ gaze had lingered on the rings Sirius had forgotten to take off (his mum would kill him if he turned up to a wedding looking like anything other than a Conservative Straight Man) and then drifted to his hair which was probably fried from all the sweating and running about and cheap shampoo. Remus blinked at these words, and whipped his head back to the shelves as if startled he had been caught in the act.

“Yes! Sorry, it’s-erm-can you hold this?” He plonked a cast iron sewing machine into Sirius’ arms who sagged beneath the weight, wheezing as he tried to lock his knees without Remus noticing. What the hell kind of Hulk body was hiding under that jumper? Eyes streaming, he balanced it on top of a pile of ancient National Geographic magazines and prayed it would not succumb to the inevitable force of gravity. Remus was deep into the recesses of the shelf, standing on tiptoe to reach the very back. His socks were visible again and Sirius could see now that they were not pineapples, but durians. Cute. His jumper was riding up as he stretched to whatever unknown artefacts lurked at the very rear and now it was Sirius’ turn to stare, because there was some pale midriff exposed above the waist of his jeans and he was skinny, but not skinny, kind of-lean? Was that the word? He had that vee of muscle above his hip and Sirius was suddenly struggling not to choke on his own tongue.

"Here it is!", came Remus' muffled voice, and Sirius took a step back hurriedly. He was pretty certain he had been gazing glassy eyed at the shop-keeper's navel where a delicate line of dark brown hair descended below his belt, and pinched his own wrist hard behind his back as Remus' head emerged, and he shook some cobwebs out of his curly hair. He was holding a small box, and Sirius’ first thought was that if something covered in that much dust came within eight feet of Narcissa, her immune system would likely spontaneously combust due to overexposure. People like her didn’t have immune systems, they just loaded themselves up with fucking multivitamins and avoided any establishments without at least two Michelin stars.

“Sorry it’s a bit-“ Remus blew a cloud of dust off the top of the box, coughed, and wiped it off on the back of his jeans, muttering ‘need to stop smoking.’

Sirius almost went feral at the image of his lips pursed around a Marlboro, but managed to pull his face into a socially acceptable frame in time for Remus to pass the box to him. “What do you think?”

Squatting in a bed of midnight blue velvet, sat a pair of silver napkin rings. They were ornate, and completely hideous. Sirius started to grin. He picked one up to examine it. It was decorated with a stag, and the other with a doe. It was likely the engraver had never seen these animals in the flesh, which would account for their mildly horrifying humanoid faces.

“Perfect,” muttered Sirius, turning the ugly silver object over in his hand. It was heavy and looked antique, and Sirius knew it would fit right in with the future Mrs. Malfoy’s entirely tasteless kitchen decor. He looked up at Remus, disbelieving in the way he had absolutely nailed Sirius’ mission. “Absolutely bloody perfect.”

Remus grinned back, a wondrous sight, his hands half in the pockets of his faded jeans. Sirius returned the napkin ring to its box, and then thought of something that made his smile falter.

“Are these solid silver?”

“Yep,” Remus said happily. “Nineteenth century antiques, I believe.” But Sirius was pushing the box back into his hands, shaking his head.

“I can’t afford that, sorry I-“

“Five quid.” The box flew back into Sirius’ hands before he could blink.

“Come again?”

The shopkeeper shrugged. “I’m the only person who knew they were there, and I doubt anyone else would want to bestow something that vile on a newly wedded couple.”

Was this guy even real? Sirius couldn’t quite fathom what he had done to deserve this act of kindness, but he wasn’t about to turn it down.

“Thank you,” he said, earnestly. Remus shrugged again, but the smile remained. He took Sirius back to the counter, where he took the box back from him and, while Sirius dug in his pocket for some change, produced some silvery wrapping paper and parcelled it. Sirius stole a surreptitious glance at him as he tied it off with a navy ribbon. His eyelashes were sandy like his eyebrows, but they were thick and almost touched his cheeks when his eyes were cast down on his work.

Sirius was having a crisis. He had never asked for anyone’s number before, but the thought of walking out of this shop and never seeing this god-sent individual again was criminal. His mouth felt dry. What if he had misread this interaction completely, and Remus was just a friendly, helpful guy? He glanced at the book, now balanced on top of the till while Remus rang up, and took a breath.

“Good book, that” he said, indicating The Picture of Dorian Grey awkwardly. Remus looked from him, to the book, and back again. While Sirius experienced a burning sensation in the base of his chest, Remus nodded non commitantly, and swept the stack of pound coins Sirius had placed on the desk into the till. He looked away, agonising, kicking himself internally at his own ineptness, as he pulled a receipt from the till and passed it and the neatly-wrapped box across the table.

“All done.”

“Thanks.” Sirius could feel his cheeks burning, and decided a clean getaway was well overdue. He had picked up the items and had half turned away when he heard- “I wrote my number on that receipt, you know.”

The burning in his chest now felt like a slowly inflating balloon. He looked down at the smooth piece of paper and saw a number scribbled in biro on its surface. Eleven numbers. Definitely a phone number. He turned hastily back to Remus, who was- Sirius was pleased to see- also looking slightly bashful.

“Thought my gaydar had malfunctioned for a minute there,” Sirius said. Remus laughed.

“It was really great to meet you.” He said, placing his feet up on the desk again.

“And you,” Sirius replied. Elated, he headed for the door before Remus could change his mind. He dreaded to think how late he was now, but he couldn’t think of a situation more worth a bollocking from his mother than this one. He had yanked the reluctant door open when-

“Hey, Sirius?”

“Yeah?” He looked over his shoulder. Remus was peering over the top of his book at him again.

“Let me know how the wedding goes.”

#wolfstar #Wolfstar fanfiction #muggle au #Marauders #Sirius Black #Remus Lupin #Harry Potter #harry potter fanfiction #wolfstar au #remus x sirius #remus is a little shit and i love him

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thecrookedtower · 4 years ago

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10. A Reason-M

I had that dream again last night. It is far more haunting than any spirit that ever dwelled within the tower walls, no ghost can ever be scarier than the horrors perpetuated by living men. I can still see their sunken eyes, and their skin stretched over their bones like some warped canvas. Those broken gazes burn into me now as I close my eyes. I doubt sleep will come to me for the rest of this night.

Beneath Sebastian’s luxurious compound there was a dark secret. It was one thing Morcego had hoped to avoid on this particular journey, but luck did not seem to be on her side as Sebastian produced an aging iron key from his pocket.

“Master Monteiro, I believe I have something that will be of great interest to you today.” The sea prince boasted while gesturing with one grandiose and sweeping motion to the imposing metal door.

Vitor looked at Sebastian with a look of extreme disinterest, and slight annoyance, before letting out an exasperated sigh.

“Sebastian. We have been over this countless times. Slaves do not interest me in the least. I can conjure any work I need, and it will be far more obedient and without the exorbitant price tag you so often offer.” Vitor moved to collect the goods he had brought for trade, he seemed convinced that Sebastian would only be wasting his time today. Morcego was relieved that they would not have to descend into that despicable corridor, she began to move toward the exit, thankful that their visit was over. She had never liked Sebastian, or any of the other sea princes. Their ways were wicked and coarse, and she felt they were some of the worst that this world had to offer.

“Humor me, Master Monteiro. I do not offer you a slave for purchase, I offer you the chance to gain information, which… if my past dealings with me are any indication, is something you covet…no?” There was gleeful yet sadistic edge to Sebastian’s voice that made Morcego’s stomach turn. This would be no book; they were not kept in dungeons. Vitor, however, raised an eyebrow, and placed one of his bags back upon the table.

“I am humoring you, Sebastian. Do not keep me in suspense.” Vitor’s tone was short and revealed his impatience with Sebastian’s usual theatrics.

“I wouldn’t dream of it. Come. Let us walk and talk.” Sebastian inserted the key, and with an echoing click, the door opened. Darkness loomed before them, and it was one more inky and foreboding than any night. Even though the bullseye lantern that Sebastian carried would show them the way, Morcego found herself wishing that there would be no light at all.

Sebastian’s heavy steps boomed through the stone corridor, which stank of mildew, excrement, blood, and decay, among other things Morcego tried to ignore. They passed the first set of metal bars that stretched from floor to ceiling, and the tiefling tried to focus her eyes on the back of Vitor’s neck. The wizard did not as much as glance at the cells that surrounded them, he kept his eyes on Sebastian, who had begun to speak again.

“On one of our more recent… travels, we were able to bring back quite the guest. He is a scholar, and one practiced in magic, like yourself, Master Monteiro. Though, I don’t think he has nearly the power you possess.”

Try as she might, Morcego could not help herself from looking into some of the cells. It was never a welcome sight. They held all ages of prisoners, but their common ground was their condition. Bloodied, beaten, starved, and broken. They seemed hollow, with their gaunt faces and grim expressions that made even the children seem older than any crone. The slaves all pressed themselves to the corners of the cells, shielding their eyes from the light, and likely shrinking from the presence of their jailer. Morcego tore her gaze away from them, able to stomach no more.

“We had hoped to bring back some of his belongings for you to purchase, but the old bastard burned everything when we boarded. This led me to believe that they must have held information of some value.”

“I am listening.”

“You can burn books, but not the memory of them in the mind. I assumed you might enjoy a private chat with this guest of ours.” Sebastian stopped at the end of the hall and took a skeleton key from the ring that jingled at it belt.

“You know me to be a man of my word, Sebastian. If this ‘guest’ of yours truly does have some interesting things to say, I will pay you our arranged amount.”

“I think you will be pleasantly surprised.” Sebastian gave Vitor the key. “You will find him just beyond, bound, and with his fingers broken, of course.” The sea prince gave a toothy grin, Morcego thought he resembled more wolf than man.

Vitor took the key from Sebastian and turned to Morcego. He gave her a soft smile and whispered in her ear:

“I will be quick, please stay out here. Even in this state, magicians can be extremely dangerous. I would not have you in harm’s way.” He gently brushed a stray strand if hair behind her ear. Morcego shuddered to think of a man so dangerous that even when he was bound, he was still a threat. It was enough to not make her ask to accompany Vitor, though she dreaded being left in this hallway with Sebastian and the prisoners. She hoped the wizard would be true to his word, and that he would return swiftly, as he stepped into the room at the end of the hall.

Morcego did not know where to look, other than at her feet, for she wished to avoid Sebastian’s unsettling smirk, and the ghastly visages of the dungeon’s inhabitants. She hoped Sebastian would not strike up a conversation, how she hated his company.

A scream pierced the relative silence of the corridor, and it made Morcego want to jump out of her skin. Sebastian chuckled heartily at her reaction, but she barely registered it. Her heart was pounding, as she fixed her eyes upon the door where Vitor had gone. It had not been his scream, thankfully, but it had been anguished. Whomever the voice belonged to, was in an unbearable amount of pain.

The minutes that passed felt like hours, and there were several more screams of agony that broke through the door, and they each set Morcego’s teeth on edge. After what seemed an eternity, Vitor finally exited the room. He massaged his temples, and for a moment seemed tired and drained, but this expression was soon replaced.

“Sebastian! You have certainly earned your payment.” A wide grin stretched across Vitor’s face as he clapped the sea prince on the back. “You must inform me if you ever have another such guest in your house, he was a wealth of information… after some persuasion.”

“I knew you would be able to talk something out of him, after all, I have never known you to be one to take ‘no’ for an answer. Come, let us celebrate our business deal with a drink, I just got in the loveliest shipment of champagne.” Sebastian was in similarly good humor, Morcego trailed behind the two of them as they laughed raucously down the corridor. She found herself wondering how anyone could smile in such a place, surrounded by these sights, and having heard such sounds. The tiefling certainly could not stomach any champagne as they returned the receiving room.

When we returned that night, I could only watch Vitor. I regarded him as he wrote feverishly in his records of what he had learned from our trip to Sebastian’s. I searched his expression, prying for any hint of the feelings that tore at my heart. Guilt, disgust, remorse, anything to show that I was not alone in my anguish, and my confusion. Yet, I found none of those on his face or manner, he seemed enthralled by his work, unbothered, pleased, even.

I doubted myself then, as I do now. I have always been able to tell how Vitor is feeling, but I have only ever known him to be kind and compassionate in his actions towards me. How could someone feel such a way towards me, and yet feel nothing after what we witnessed? I knew in my heart that he had been the one to make the man behind the door scream, but I could not reconcile it within my own reality.

“How do you stand it, Vitor? How do you walk through those halls, and laugh and drink with Sebastian? I despise him, and that place… every time it haunts me.” My question was quiet, for a moment I thought perhaps he had not heard me and thought it better that way. Vitor ceased his writing, placing down his raven-feather quill. He crossed the room and sat beside me on the bed, taking one of my hands in his own. For a while, he said nothing, and his expression was distant, before he finally looked at me, his blue eyes full of tenderness and pity.

“Morcego, my love. Your heart has always been a gentle one, and it is a beautiful thing. I think, that if the world was made of individuals like you, then we would never have to witness such ugliness as we did today.” He brushed a thumb over my cheek, pausing a moment to think, before his expression saddened, his brows furrowing.

“Yet, your way is a rare one, a blossom in a sea of thorns. The world, as we both know, is as unkind as it is hideous. We have both witnessed its cruelty.” Vitor’s eyes traced my wings, the cuts and bumps from years of abuse and improper healing, and he stared down at the burn marks that marred his left hand.

“I too, despise Sebastian.” He murmured, softly, and I felt relief bloom in my chest.

“But then…how do you- “

“He is a necessary evil, Morcego, one that gets us closer to our goal of a more perfect world. That world must be born from a power that can only be gained with knowledge, and not the kind I can simply gather in the libraries of Seaton.” Vitor looked tired as he pushed his midnight hair from his brow and sighed. I often wondered how much he shouldered, with ambitions so great.

“The things that happen beneath his manor…I know they are horrendous. Yet, I look past them because I need Sebastian and what he offers. I know that one day, when we stand above them all, we can end such things. But…there is one more thing I know that allows me to walk through that corridor unclouded by pity.” His gaze was intense, he held me in it, and his grip tightened on my hand.

“Those people in those cells, Morcego… I know that if they were free in this world, that they would cast stones at you as easily as the people in the village do. I know that they would watch idly if I were to ever be burned at the stake. They would not lift a finger to help either of the likes of us, at least not before we have changed the way this wicked world functions.”

“And so… I pass them by, for worrying for them will bring me no closer to the world we seek. I know, that should you or I sit behind those bars, they would not liberate us. Most people in this world would rather see the two of this imprisoned, for they cannot see past their own idiotic assumptions.” Vitor’s voice was raw, it was filled with both an ire and a deep sadness.

At the time, I accepted his explanation. I let it comfort me. However, as I lay in bed, trying to sleep I wondered: Was there truly not a good soul among them? And even if there wasn’t did… those people deserve to suffer for what they thought of us? I could not forget the pain on their faces, and I could not erase the knot that I still felt in my stomach.

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genderrise3-blog · 6 years ago

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Buy a house in NYC: A guide to New York real estate - Curbed NY

Buying a home in New York City is a daunting task, particularly after you take a hard look at some numbers: The median sales price in Manhattan currently sits at $1.1 million, and median sales prices in both Brooklyn and Queens have increased to $808,000 and $573,500, respectively. And sellers typically expect a 20 percent down payment for listings, meaning you’ll need at least $100,000—if not much more—on hand.

Meanwhile, the median income in NYC is just over $57,000, according to the latest census survey; suddenly, buying a home can seem not just difficult, but downright impossible.

But there’s some good news: NYC is in the midst of a building boom, and with more supply than demand, buyers often have the upper hand in getting the best deals. Furthermore, the real estate market has been experiencing a downturn of late (particularly in Manhattan), and prices are expected to go down further, according to Stephen Geller, a broker at Corcoran. You might not be able to score a townhouse, but there are thousands of apartments on the market—and if you’re willing to compromise a bit on size, you may be able to snag a deal.

“We are definitely in a buyer’s market right now,” says Carol Staab, a real estate broker at Douglas Elliman.

So what do you need to know if you want to buy a home in NYC? This guide hopes to demystify the process and act as a helpful manual, for both first-time buyers and those looking for some extra guidance.

How much do homes cost in NYC?

Short answer: a lot.

The median price of homes currently listed on the market is a whopping $825,000, according to Zillow. In October 2018, Manhattan home prices saw the largest year-over-year price drop since the 2008 financial crisis, dropping 1.8 percent in the third quarter of 2018, compared to the same time frame in 2017, according to StreetEasy. Manhattan homes cost just over $1.1 million and Brooklyn homes cost $726,874, according to StreetEasy’s Price Index metric, which indicates stagnating prices.

Meanwhile, Queens has seen home prices skyrocket. StreetEasy’s price metric puts homes in the borough at $536,028 in 2018, which is a 7 percent increase from 2017. In the summer of 2018, two Queens neighborhoods saw median sales prices cross the $1 million mark for the first time ever. Real estate experts predict that Amazon’s decision to open its second headquarters in the borough is only to going to push the prices up further.

“Queens has been the outlier in the sales market with prices rising at a consistently faster pace than in Brooklyn or Manhattan while remaining relatively affordable,” Grant Long, a senior economist at StreetEasy, told Curbed.

Overall, NYC home prices have bounced back significantly since the 2008 recession. However the city is being flooded with a record number of homes, and experts contend that this will prompt prices to drop, particularly in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Both Staab and Geller said that the growing inventory will translate into further discounts and price reductions in the coming months.

Why is it so expensive?

The fact that New York City is so damn expensive isn’t a recent phenomenon—the city has remained a bastion of wealth for over a century now, despite the ebbs and flows in the marker over the decades, real estate guru Jonathan Miller told Curbed. (You can read more about his thoughts on this here.)

The most recent push in pricey real estate occurred following the financial crisis in 2008, as the markets began to recover, Miller says. Capital poured in from across the world that prompted developers to go on a building spree. With the limited amount of space available in the city, the high cost of construction, and the expensive land values, developers choose to build luxury developments—like the developments on Billionaires Row—and in turn drove up prices citywide.

“New York City has always been affordability-challenged, but this most recent housing boom has only exaggerated it further,” says Miller.

Being the cultural capital of the world also holds a certain amount of cache, says Corcoran’s Geller. “There is a premium for that,” he explains, “and historically, people have been willing to pay the price.”

What kind of homes can I buy in NYC?

There are several types of homes available for potential NYC buyers:

Condo: When you buy a condo, you have full ownership of the apartment, and some part of the building’s common areas (e.g., the gym). Though the condo building will have a board, it won’t be as involved as a co-op board, and owners can easily rent or sell their home when they chose to. Condos are usually a good option for those who aren’t looking for a long-term investment. On the flip side, they’re typically more expensive—owners can be asked to pay more common charges depending on the amenities in the building—and in NYC, they are quicker to fly off the market, says Geller.

Co-op: These are ideal for people looking to make a long-term investment in a home. In a co-op building, owners get a share in the co-op association, and all the shareholders together own the building and its units. Co-op boards play a big role, and can determine whether you can rent out your unit or make major changes to the apartment. Co-op boards also play a large role in determining who gets to own in their buildings, so it can sometimes be hard to snag an apartment even if you have the means. NYC’s co-ops are generally older compared to condos, and some—like the Upper West Side’s San Remo and Dakota—have celeb owners, which means you can expect a much stricter application process. However, co-ops are more plentiful in the city, and can often cost less than condos.

Townhouse: A townhouse is typically a three- or four-story building that is adjoined with other buildings on a block; it can serve as a single-family home or have multiple apartments spread out over its floors. While townhouses are narrower than detached homes, they often have backyards and rooftops, and offer more privacy than an apartment. They also tend to be pricey, with townhouses in many neighborhoods asking more than $1 million (and as much as $84 million, depending on the house).

Fully detached home: These types of houses are harder to come by in Manhattan—the Frick, which is now a museum, is an example of the detached homes that were a mainstay in Manhattan in the 19th and early 20th century—but they are relatively easy to find in outer-boroughs neighborhoods like Ditmas Park and Forest Hills. They’re often wider and more spacious than an attached townhouse, and will come with plenty of outdoor space to boot.

Loft: it’s tricky to define a loft in NYC today, as many new ones have been built to recreate the atmosphere of the original ones. But typically, lofts are spaces in former industrial or manufacturing buildings that have been converted into residential spaces. They are notable for their high ceilings, large windows, wide open spaces, and minimal interior walls. Most of the original ones can be found in neighborhoods like Tribeca, Soho, and Williamsburg.

Should I rent instead of buying?

Most people who move to New York prefer to rent due to the exorbitant cost of purchasing a home (renters constituted over 65 percent of the city’s population in 2016, which is up from 60 percent in 2006). But if you plan to live here long term, it may prove more beneficial to buy rather than rent, especially considering the high cost of renting in NYC.

There are also several neighborhoods in the city—the East Village, West Harlem, and Kew Gardens are just some examples—where it may make more sense to buy, since you’ll break even on the cost of your investment in fewer years. But there’s no one-size-fits-all answer; ultimately, your financial situation and personal preference will dictate whether you rent or buy.

When is the best time to buy?

While the best time to buy in the rest of the country is toward the end of the summer, in NYC the ideal time is usually is usually the spring or the fall. Springtime is generally more competitive, but that also means buyers have more to choose from, since spring is typically when many new developments (both condos and co-ops) enter the market. In the fall, buyers are likely to score better discounts—there’s often a surplus of apartments on the market, leading sellers to lower prices. StreetEasy estimates that the best times to buy are between April to June, and between September through October.

The worst time to buy is the winter months—December through February to be precise—since during this time, there are fewer listings on the market, and as a result buyers are less likely to score any type of discounts.

How much of a down payment will I need?

The down payment is one of the biggest factor buyers have to consider while making a purchase. The lower your down payment, the more likely that you’ll have to pay higher interest rates and potentially incur other costs in the future, according to StreetEasy. Furthermore, the lower your down payment, the less likely you are to find a lender for your home loan.

A 20 percent down payment is considered the benchmark, and being able to meet that threshold will greatly increase your chances to acquire a loan and lessen your interest rate. It is possible to find homes where you pay a lower percentage of down payment, particularly with some of the new condo buildings in the city, both Geller and Staab told Curbed. With lower down payments you will have to consider other factors, like getting a private mortgage insurance to bail you out in case of a default.

Thanks to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, you can also pay as little as 3.5 percent, but there aren’t that many FHA-compliant buildings in the city—and most are located in the outer boroughs, which is a factor to consider.

You can also try your hand at income-restricted apartments located in Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC) cooperative buildings throughout the city. They work similar to a co-op building in that the board will ultimately determine who gets to live there, but the apartments are reserved for low- and middle-income individuals and families. The sales price on these units can be no more than 165 percent of the area median income, according to city guidelines. The income restrictions change depending on the apartment type and the size of the family living in each unit. The downside to HDFCs is that they can often require higher down payments or all-cash deals. Here is a list of currently available units.

In December 2017, the city introduced new programs to make homeownership more affordable in the city. Open Door will finance the construction of condos and co-ops for first-time homebuyers earning between $69,000 to $112,000. The program is expected to create 1,300 new homes over the next eight years. For those earning up to 80 percent of the area median income, the city also offers an assistance program that provides up to $40,000 for a down payment or for closing costs.

Should I get a broker? What about a lawyer?

You can buy a home without a real estate agent or broker, but it’s probably better that you hire one, especially considering the highly competitive market in New York. Your broker will help you secure the best possible deal, and can assist you in bargaining for concessions. Brokers can be especially helpful when looking to purchase in a co-op building in NYC, as they will be more familiar with the requirements for that property and be able to give you a better sense of the ideal candidate. What’s more, you don’t have to pay a broker’s fee when it comes to sales. That money is usually included in the sale amount and split between the broker representing the seller and yours.

Getting a real estate lawyer is even more critical in NYC. Unlike other parts of the country, buyers here need to draw up a contract in order to finalize a sale, and unless you’re familiar with the law, this is going to be a steep hill to climb. Your lawyer will also be able to better advise you about potential concerns in your new building or home—noise complaints, building violations, and the like—as they go through the paperwork for that property. Typically both the buyer and seller in NYC have legal representation, and as a buyer, having a lawyer can ensure that you’re not getting fleeced by the seller. Fees for this type of work can range from $1,000 to $5,000.

Should I get pre-approved?

That’s a definite yes. If you’re working with brokers to find a home, almost all will insist you have a pre-approval letter from your lender before they start scouting homes for you. Pre-approval tells sellers that you’re serious about a purchase, and will greatly increase your chances of securing a sale.

A pre-approval letter is created by your lender based on your income and your credit score, and is usually prepared in under 30 minutes. It’s probably better to get pre-approved than pre-qualified, because the latter provides only a range for the amount you would qualify for a home loan, whereas the former gives you an estimate, which brokers and sellers will prefer. Overall, this process will also help ensure you’re actually ready to buy a home.

In terms of what sellers are looking for, particularly co-op boards, it’s strong financial records, according to Geller. The most important factor is your bank’s approval, and this can be secured through having your finances in order. You’ll also get a leg up if you show you’ve been at the same job for a few years.

Will I get into a bidding war?

Bidding wars aren’t as common as they used to be even just two or three years ago, says Geller. A few high-end, trophy properties may still see major bidding wars, but for the most part, bidding wars are on the decline, especially in Manhattan.

If you do, however, find yourself in a bidding war, there are different ways to come out on top. One of the key factors for success is knowing the neighborhood you’re buying in, and then potentially offering more than the asking price based on comps (comparable sales). Other factors, like being flexible about your closing date and your move-in date, can give you a leg up. A good old-fashioned personalized letter to the seller can’t hurt, according to Staab, especially if the seller is a long-term owner or is invested in the property.

How long before I can move in?

The length of the period between signing a contract and actually closing on the property is very much a case-by-case situation. Some estimates say it takes about 90 days from when the contract is signed to when you get possession of your home, but it really depends on a variety of factors. Buying a condo versus a co-op, getting pre-approval from your lender, the real estate lawyer you’ve hired—all of these factors can play a big role in the amount of time it takes to secure your home. Condos can usually be secured within to 30 to 45 days, and co-ops (due to the board approval process) can take between 60 to 90 days.

What can I expect at a closing?

Usually a day or two prior to closing, you get to do a walkthrough of the property. According to Staab, this is the time to note anything that might be amiss or that you’d like addressed—you can provide your broker with a checklist of these concerns.

Closings themselves can usually take a couple of hours because as the buyer, you have to sign a number of bank documents. You don’t really have to bring anything to closing per se, aside from government-issued ID (and a checkbook if you plan to pay that way), because by this point all your documents will already have been vetted by the seller, Geller told Curbed.

Your broker and your attorney will typically accompany you to this closing, and make sure that all the documentation is in accordance with what you and the seller agreed upon, before you can get to the signing of documents.

Closings can be costly affairs as well. Costs will vary based on the down payment you’ve put down and your mortgage rate, but at this time, you will have to pay attorney fees, mortgage fees, and a move-in cost. It’s hard to estimate an average price because it depends entirely on the cost of the apartment, and if it’s a co-op or a condo; expect to shell out thousands of dollars.

And once that’s taken care of, you can get down to the real work—getting settled in your new home.

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Source: https://ny.curbed.com/2019/1/23/18177254/new-york-home-buying-first-time-tips

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vcg73 · 8 years ago

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Kadam Week Fic: Prompt 2 - Kurt’s New Baby

Prompt - Adam witnesses Kurt working on a car. Kurt is singing, oblivious to his audience.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Kurt, are you still out here? It’s nearly time for supp … ah.” The worded ended on a slight laugh as Adam entered the garage of their recently purchased home and found his husband bent over into the engine of his new “baby”.

Kurt had not heard him call. He was completely absorbed in his tinkering. The vehicle was a recent acquisition, bought dirt cheap off a sketchy looking used car lot. The battered old Lincoln Navigator was apparently much like Kurt’s very first car and he had felt honor bound to rescue it from whatever deserving junkyard would have eventually claimed it.

The car had been a mess when they found it, an obvious accident victim. It had sported a dented right fender, crumpled wheel-well, a broken front passenger window, two flat tires, badly flaked and faded paint, and an engine that had decidedly seen better days, but Kurt had been drawn to it like a filing to a magnet. The thing had barely coughed to life when the key was put in the ignition, but Kurt had insisted it had potential to be great, if only someone took the care to uncover its potential.

That was the argument that won Adam over. Kurt had a weakness, and a gift, for finding the beauty in things (and people) that others dismissed as worthless. Adam knew it stemmed from too many years of personal empathy; of feeling like nobody would ever take the trouble to uncover the things that made Kurt himself beautiful and worthwhile. He had whipped out his credit card on the spot, paying an additional exorbitant fee to have the car towed out to their home in New Rochelle, where Kurt was determined to restore the vehicle to mint condition.

Ten years as a professional actor had been good to Adam, landing him well received work on both stage and screen, and even a couple of industry awards. He could afford to indulge his husband’s latest fit of creative enthusiasm. Not that Kurt could not do so himself. His stage career had never taken off in the way Adam felt it should. He had been certain that Kurt would be a huge star, a household name before he hit twenty-five. Instead, Kurt had regular work in a wide array of productions. He was rarely out of a job for any longer than it took to get a good rest, he had earned the respect and friendship of peers city-wide, and he seemed utterly content with the variety and fun of being a professional character actor. And Kurt was a frugal man, content to live within his means and put some of every paycheck away for a rainy day, or an occasional splurge. The car absolutely would have been one of the latter, but Adam enjoyed buying it for him, and the glow of appreciation in Kurt’s beautiful eyes had been worth every penny.

Besides, it wasn’t as though Kurt would not eventually spend a small fortune on replacement auto parts before he was finished!

Kurt had not yet taken on a new acting job since the last production finished, and he was working on the car every chance he got. Adam had witnessed him on more than one occasion even giving it a pat or a few fond words in passing, just as if it could hear and understand him.

Usually, Adam stayed out of the way when Kurt was working. He knew little about mechanics. Had not even learned to drive until two summers after he and Kurt started dating, and his then-boyfriend had insisted on teaching him. Even now, he considered the skill more of a luxury than a necessity, but Kurt loved to drive and Adam had realized the first time he watched him behind the wheel during trips home to see his family, that Kurt missed having a car of his own. Not a great surprise given that his father owned and operated his own mechanics shop.

When they moved out of the Burroughs and out to New Rochelle after they began making decent money, the first thing Kurt had done was buy an inexpensive used car. He had picked up more skills from his dad than Adam had ever realized. Kurt was not only comfortable with the complicated-looking assembly of engine parts, seeming to know exactly what each and every one of them did and what each one ought to look and sound like, he was also entirely competent at removing, repairing, and when necessary , replacing those parts. He almost made it look easy, though to Adam it seemed to be a very complicated surgery.

And Adam did not mind leaving this particular pastime to Kurt. Kurt had worried at first that he might feel left out or neglected, but that was not the case. He was happy to give his beloved time and space to work on a hobby of his own, just as Kurt had been happy to give Adam the spare room of their new house for his collection of model ships and planes. Kurt had no interest in models, but he found it cute that Adam could lose hours to a collection of plastic parts and a few pots of paint and glue.

Kurt began singing along with the music currently pumping through the small radio he had installed in the garage. “They like to get you in a compromising position. They like to get you there and smile in your face. They think they're so cute when they got you in that condition. Well I think it's a total disgrace.”

It was adorable, Kurt’s pert little bum was bopping along to the rhythm, shimmying and bumping as he continued to sing along

The work must be going well if Kurt had broken out the Mellencamp. Adam had noticed he tended towards ‘80s classic rock whenever he worked on a car. Likely because it made him feel closer to his dad. And the reverse was true as well. Carole had told him once that Burt liked to blast Kurt’s old Broadway soundtrack CD’s whenever he was doing a home improvement project.

With a smirk, Adam raised his voice on the chorus. “I fight authority, authority always wins. I been doing it since I was a young kid, and I've come out grinnin'. When I fight authority, authority always wins.”

Kurt poked his head out from the engine and grinned at him. “Somehow I don’t quite see you as a rebel against authority. I didn’t even hear you come in.” He stood and draped his forearms over Adam’s shoulders, careful not to touch him with greasy hands. Kurt gave his husband a kiss and a careful half-hug, keeping his grease covered hands raised in the air as he more or less embraced Adam with his elbows. “How long have you been watching me?”

Adam gave him a playful swat on his blue-jean clad bum. “Long enough to see this beauty in action. Are the repairs going well?”

Kurt shrugged a bit but he was smiling as he reached for a damp rag to wipe his hands clean of the worst of the grease and oil. “Well enough.” He glanced proudly at the car. The damaged fender and window had been replaced and it was already looking much improved to Adam’s eye. “We’ll be taking her for drives through the country in no time.”

“Is that this vehicle’s ultimate goal?” Adam asked, helpfully handing over a few of the ever present moist towlettes from the stash Kurt kept out here. He knew Kurt would be preparing a deep cleansing and moisturizing treatment for his hands tonight, as he always did after working on an engine. Kurt loved this hobby, but he refused to allow his hands to pay the price for his indulgence. “Long drives about the countryside?”

“One of them,” he admitted. “It would be very romantic, just packing up a nice lunch and driving without a set destination in mind until we find the perfect spot to eat it. I don’t really do the bucket list thing anymore, but that was always sort of high up on it.”

Adam considered this. “We never have, have we?” he said. “Strange, in all our years together it never occurred to me to head off somewhere for a good ramble. A picnic in some isolated location, maybe a walk through the woods, or along some pretty but little used hiking trail. Maybe even find a meadow or a lovely pond somewhere and then we can make love beneath sunshine and shading trees.”

Kurt’s eyes had gone darker as he listened. “I take it the idea is growing on you.”

Kissing him fondly, Adam said, “Indeed. It’s a date. Time to be determined by the progress of your restoration.”

Kurt grinned a bit wickedly. “You do realize you just gave me permission to spend every waking moment out here, right?”

Throwing his head back, Adam’s laughter rang through the garage. “Well, I suppose no good thing comes without a price. Still, I would appreciate it if you would pack up your toolkit for tonight, love. Our evening repast awaits.”

Smiling at the courtly bow that accompanied this announcement, Kurt put his tools away and turned off the radio. “Give me just a few minutes to wash off the top layer of dirt, and I’ll be right in.”

Adam smiled back at the half-repaired car, suddenly feeling almost as fond of it as Kurt was. “I’ll be waiting.”

THE END

#kadam week 2017 #kadam #prompt: car repairs

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largentkzpreslerfh87insuran-blog · 5 years ago

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mikemortgage · 6 years ago

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A Stronach Family Feud: How things fell apart between the patriarch and his heir apparent

By Joe O’Connor, Barbara Shecter and Geoff Zochodne

Dan Donovan was talking about his old friend and former employer, Frank Stronach, a man he hails as a genius, and Frank’s daughter, Belinda. Donovan knew both Stronachs well during his four years as Magna International’s vice-president of corporate affairs. When he would see them together — Frank, handsome, hard-charging, smart, Austrian-born and a poor kid made good by his wits and a willingness to take business risks; and Belinda, the rich kid born into everything — what always struck him most, despite the different lives they had led, was how similar they were.

“They are both very determined people,” Donovan says from Ottawa, in his current chair as publisher of Ottawa Life magazine. “They are both uncompromising on certain things, in their own ways.

“So there is an irony there — like father, like daughter — and so this just really saddens me. I hope they can work it out.”

What Donovan is referring to is the Shakespearian plot twist in a Canadian business fairy tale.

A story, happy at first, about a bootstraps-up-to-the-top maverick, now 86, and the daughter he always perceived as his star pupil/next in line — and her (alleged) great betrayal.

It is a perceived stab in the back Frank Stronach and his wife, Elfriede, spell out in an Ontario Superior Court lawsuit seeking US$520 million in compensation and damages from Belinda, her two children, and others, in what has been a two-year old fight for control of the family firm, The Stronach Group.

The allegations are untested in court. But as literature, they read as a masterwork of paternal outrages, both great and small. Stronach alleges Belinda appointed friends to jobs at “exorbitant” salaries; showed up for scheduled meetings late, or not at all; used the business kitty for parties, vacations with her children, limousine rides and expensive meals, “none of which related to legitimate business expense;” instructed employees to sell off the company jet; and, most painful perhaps, starved of funds her father’s late-in-life business vision of transforming 90,000 acres in northern Florida into a vast, organic, quasi-free-range beef-cattle farm — while closing the exclusive 420-acre golf course nearby, and listing it for sale at a discounted price.

“Belinda has treated her father in a hurtful, disrespectful and irresponsible fashion,” the suit alleges.

Belinda Stronach has denied the allegations in the suit, and issued a statement Wednesday night, saying “family relationships within a business can be challenging,” that her father’s allegations are “untrue,” and affirming that she and her children “love” him and will respond formally, “in the normal course of the court process.”

While the airing of the family feud has caught many by surprise, those who have followed Stronach senior’s career know he didn’t build an empire by trying to please everyone.

Stronach frequently raised the ire of Magna shareholders, in part because the company’s dual class share structure gave outsiders little power, and partly because at times his attention seemed to be elsewhere.

In 2007, for example, the autoparts giant cut its dividend payout in half after spending $84 million to purchase two golf courses from Magna Entertainment. Both companies were chaired by Stronach.

In a newspaper article at the time, Claude Lamoureux, who was then chief executive of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, a Magna shareholder, praised Stronach as a successful entrepreneur but said many people considered the decision of the autoparts company to purchase the golf courses “questionable.”

Louis Lataif, a longtime automotive executive and former Magna director who is now Dean of the School of Management at Boston University, remembers both Frank and Belinda as good listeners in the boardroom but unafraid to make their own desires known.

The father and daughter were “not bashful about eventually expressing their preference” after each director had been given an opportunity to express a view, Lataif said in an email.

“There is typically a certain deference, in all cases, to the position of management and of the CEO in particular, and so it was with Magna.”

Where did the partnership between father and daughter go wrong?

To get to the end, or at least to the current legal cliffhanger, it helps to revisit the start. Stronach the elder took Magna, a company he founded in his Toronto garage in 1957, and built it into a billion-dollar global behemoth. The Stronach family walked away from Magna in 2010 with more than $850-million, a lucrative consulting contract for Frank, a stake in an electric car venture (more on that later) and a new business model, centred not upon car parts but around making several marquee thoroughbred racetracks around the United States cool again — decades after their cachet as sporting destinations had declined; in fact, they were cool in the years before Belinda Stronach (she is 52) was even born.

From the outside, going (virtually) all-in on racing may have looked like financial suicide, or just plain dumb. But Stronach, buoyed by the fortune he made selling car parts, has never been afraid of looking dumb. During the Magna years, he spoke of starting an airline (the idea never took off); built a luxury sports car/SUV, a concept that produced a prototype, the Torrero, in 1989, but elicited zero interest from the major automakers to produce it; and ran for Parliament as a Liberal in 1988 — losing to an optometrist named John Cole.

He opened Rooney’s, a Toronto bar/restaurant that existed for a spell, but was never the place to be. (He also opened Belinda’s, a grown-up expression of a father’s love for his child — as was the sportscar he gave her for her 16th birthday). The disco he invested in in the 1970s went bust. The glossy business magazine he launched closed. His dream of transforming Cape Breton into a tax-free autoparts manufacturing haven, well, it never came true.

Jim Nicol, a former president of Magna, once compared Stronach to Thomas Edison. Edison was restless, an ideas man, and every tenth idea or so he nailed it.

“This is what Frank is like,” Nicol told Maclean’s in 1999. “He has an inquisitive mind and tremendous youthful energy. It annoys people at times. But we never know when he’s going to invent another light bulb.”

Stronach has never stopped searching for that next light bulb, while Belinda — as entrepreneurial as her father, according to those close to the family — has been standing ever nearer to the proverbial power switch.

Ed Lumley is a former federal Liberal cabinet minister who sat on Magna’s board for more than 15 years, a spell that included him recommending Belinda for the top job at the autoparts giant in 2001, a move her father embraced.

Lumley, like Donovan, describes Stronach as “her father’s daughter.”

So the difference, then, might simply boil down to a matter of taste. Indeed. Instead of building his electric car, Stronach senior got the company involved in the manufacture of a design-award-winning electric bike, the Elby, powered by a motor developed by BionX. BionX was run by Fred Gingl, a former Magna executive, longtime Stronach confederate — and fellow Austro-Canadian. Cycling magazines hailed the Elby, which launched in 2016, as the (electric) conveyance of the future. For pure urban dwellers, it was surely the way to go.

Matthew Posnos is the former general manager of BionX and Elby Bike Co., vertically integrated sister companies owned under the TSG umbrella. Posnos describes the bike as Stronach’s “brainchild,” a passion play, engineered for perfection and “built for everyone.” Alas, at $4,000, the Elby wasn’t priced for everyone. In 2018, BionX went into receivership, with Stronach listed among the creditors — looking to recoup $22-million on a lost investment.

“The business was a startup,” Posnos says. “I still think Frank believes in the product.”

(Alon Ossip, chief executive of the Stronach Group Inc., and one of the individuals named in the half-billion-dollar-plus lawsuit, said in a statement that Frank Stronach had been a great autoparts engineer, but that his “recent excessive spending and numerous failed ventures put his family’s wealth at risk.” Ossip did not specifically name the Elby as among those ventures.)

Stronach’s most passionate gambit over the past eight years has been the organic, grass-fed beef cattle of Adena Farm, which, according to the court filing, Belinda hated — and did everything possible to “impair, undermine and dismantle.” While the father has been dreaming of cows and electric bikes, Belinda has been doing some dabbling of her own, including in the cosmetics sector, with Age Quencher, an anti-aging, beauty enhancing elixir she became a partner in in 2016.

“My hair grows, like, ten times faster when I take it,” Stronach said, at a launch event.

She also co-founded Acasta Enterprises, a special investment vehicle that bought up companies with the aim of selling them at a profit, an end goal that has unravelled to the tune of millions in losses and led to Stronach’s departure from a company directorship in 2017.

Frank Stronach with his winning horse at the Queen’s Plate in 2017.

Oddly, it is in the core family business — horse racing and entertainment — where father and daughter can be viewed as an effective one-two punch. Ross Peddicord is the executive director of the Maryland Horse Industry Board. In a previous work life, he was the horse-racing beat writer with the Baltimore Sun for 20 years. Belinda, he says, wants to make the races into a rock concert. To bring in bands, and scads of rich, young, beautiful and fancy people — and all the other bells and whistles — to venues like Baltimore’s Pimlico, which TSG owns, and make the actual running of the horses just one component of a much larger show.

“They do this in Europe all the time,” Peddicord said. “On Friday nights in Ireland, after the work week is over — and after the horse race is over — they have a concert, and it’s so much fun, and I think that is the component Belinda has been trying to bring in.

“Frank, to a degree, wanted to do that. But he is also much more tradition-bound, because of his generation. He has large racing stables, large breeding farms and has had national champion racehorses, so his emphasis always seemed to be on the horses.”

The Pegasus Cup, the world’s richest race, held at TSG’s Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla. was the perfect marriage of the Stronach visions. Belinda, in a speech in Washington in May 2017, even credited her father with the idea — of bringing in the world’s top horses with a $US12-million purse on the line. (Belinda didn’t mention the $30-million giant bronze Pegasus statue her father also had built at Gulfstream). Then she went and tweaked the idea, just for the kids, by using Conor McGregor, the smart-alecky, Irish mixed-martial arts fighter — and global brand — to promote it in a series of videos ending with McGregor, stripped down to his skivvies, as the race’s 13th jockey.

“Traditional racing folks, they embrace these things, but they just don’t know how to do it,” Peddicord says. “Fortunately Frank has a daughter in Belinda who was hip and cool and a world traveller, and can pull it off — if they don’t completely destroy one another first.”

Stay tuned.

National Post [email protected]

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antionetterparker · 6 years ago

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QNet: Can’t Shake the Shadow of Corruption and Fraud [Review]

An online search reveals a history of negative press and accusations of fraudulent business practices.

But QNet has weathered it all. Somehow, despite it all, they’re still in business and apparently going strong.

QNet (formerly GoldQuest and QuestNet) is a multi-level marketing company founded in 1998 and based in Asia that sells mostly health and wellness goods.

Throughout its history, QNet has expanded its product line and acquired several small companies. It now has a presence in roughly a dozen different countries throughout Asia and Africa, and claims to have over one million independent distributors.

FAQ

1. What does QNet sell? QNet sells a variety of products including energy, weight management, nutrition, personal care, home care, and fashion accessories.

2. What are QNet’s most popular products? QNet’s energy products are their most popular.

3. How much does it cost to join QNet? To become a QNet independent representative, you must pay an Annual IRship Fee. Then, according to QNet, you’ve incorporated in their company and have a valid business that can be inherited.

4. Is QNet a scam? No. QNet has been deemed a pyramid scheme and a fraud by many countries, and in 2016, it was denied membership in the Federation of Direct Selling Association because, according to that organization, they practice disguised money circulation. [1] But in 2017, India MLM Research deemed Qnet a legit MLM company. [2]

5. What is QNet’s BBB rating? A+

6. How long has QNet been in business? Since 1998. Throughout the years, its name has changed, but the basic business has remained the same. Originally called GoldQuest, then QuestNet, it became known as QNet in 2010.

7. What is QNet’s revenue? $829,534, as of 2016

8. How many QNetqnet distributors are there? They claim to have over a million.

9. What lawsuits have been filed? Qnet has been named a pyramid scheme or a fraud and banned in Sri Lanka, Iran, Sudan, Rwanda, Turkey, and Nepal. [3]

10. Comparable companies: Alliance in Motion

So should you hop on board?

Product-wise this company might be legit, but if you’re just interested in the business opportunity, there are better options out there…

Click here for my #1 recommendation

Either way, here’s the full review on QNet.

Products

The type of products sold by QNet has evolved throughout its history. It started off selling gold coins then transitioned to being a travel company. For the past decade, the company has focused on selling health and nutrition products, while at the same time expanding to include a variety of products that fit into the following categories:

Energy – Two lines of new-age accessories designed to enhance the energy and performance of athletes.

Nutrition – A large line of products each with a specific health benefit.

Personal Care – A pair of products geared towards cleansing and rejuvenating skin.

Home Care – At the moment, a water purifier is the only product in this line.

Luxury & Collectibles – Includes a line of watches, pendants, and other types of jewelry.

Fashion Accessories – A gaudy line of jewelry.

Holidays – Travel packages to a variety of locations.

Compensation Plan

Despite its ever-changing products line, QNet has always relied on its independent representatives to sell its products. The company has made recent changes to its compensation plan, which follows a binary model, to increase commissions and enhance rewards for distributors. The company offers eight ways for distributors to make money:

Retail Profit

Early Payout

Repeat Sales Points

Dynamic Commission

First Purchase Profit

Rank Advancement Bonus

Travel Incentives

Year-Round Rewards

Here are some pros about QNet:

The biggest thing that QNet has going for it is the company’s long line of partnerships and distribution deals with high-profile organizations and major events that have helped increase QNet’s notoriety and reputation.

The company has long been associated with major sporting events, giving it a vast amount of global exposure. Back when the company was in the business of selling gold coins, it was the official coin distributor for both the 2000 Olympics in Sidney and the 2002 FIFA World Cup, which was co-hosted by Japan and South Korea. QNet was also a distributor during the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. It goes without saying that sponsoring such high-profile, not to mention global, athletic events does wonders for the brand recognition of a company, and that was certainly the case with QNet.

The company has gone on to sponsor a Malaysian motor racing team, a Formula-1 racing team, the Asian Football Confederation, and Manchester City, one of the largest football clubs in Europe. Again, these partnerships have done wonders for QNet’s brand recognition and helped to make it a global company with a footprint well beyond Asia.

QNet also offers customers an intriguing product line that has expanded and changed throughout the company’s history, showcasing the company’s ability to evolve and change with the times. Part of QNet’s product expansion is related to its ability to acquire smaller companies, adopting part of their product lines, which speaks to QNet’s ability to grow and create new opportunities for itself and its distributors.

Here are some cons about QNet:

QNet has certainly experienced a lot of growth and success throughout its history, but its past is also littered with serious issues. For starters, the company has been banned from operating in several countries. In 2003, QNet was banned from Nepal under allegations of fraud. In 2005, it was banned from Sri Lanka after being accused of causing millions of dollars to leave the country. Iran also banned the company from operating in 2005 after officials found evidence that it cost the country a billion dollars. Sudan also banned the company in 2009 due to poor product quality. In 2010, Saudi Arabia became the latest country to send QNet into exile after accusing the company of theft and fraud.

It’s not uncommon for MLM companies to get into a little bit of trouble, but being banished from a handful of countries is a feat few companies in any industry have been able to reach, which is obviously a huge red flag. These banishments have gone hand-in-hand with accusations from a number of sources that QNet runs a pyramid scheme (see: Wealthy Affiliate). Even countries that have not banned QNet from operating within its borders like India, Indonesia, and Egypt have accused the company of running a pyramid scheme. QNet has done its best to sidestep these accusations, but they have been too widespread to ignore.

It’s not just national governments that seem to have a problem with QNet, as a majority of the online reviews of the company paint an ugly picture. A multitude of message boards and online reviews, which granted should always be taken with a grain of salt, paint QNet in the worst light possible, with some of the stories being downright horrifying.

There are a fair amount of positive reviews, but many of them give off the impression of being fraudulently manufactured by the company itself. Many read like someone following an outline with certain phrases to use and bullet points to mention. Even if they are legitimate and honest reviews of the company, there aren’t enough to drown out the large volume of bad reviews.

Recap

It’s somewhat befuddling how QNet has managed to both stay in business for so many years and score such high-profile sponsorships considering the exorbitant amount of issues the company has had to deal with throughout its history.

The banishment from a handful of countries and countless accusations of orchestrating a pyramid scheme are overwhelmingly negative from a public relations standpoint. The company has done well to create an intriguing line of products and establish global brand recognition, but those appear to be a façade hiding a dark side.

All things considered, QNet is a company to avoid like the plague. There are not nearly enough positives about QNet to outweigh all of the negatives, and forming a partnership with the company carries far too much risk for any reasonable person.

Look, I’ve been involved with network marketing for over ten years so I know what to look for when you consider a new opportunity.

After reviewing 200+ business opportunities and systems out there, here is the one I would recommend:

Click here for my #1 recommendation

via https://mlmcompanies.org/qnet/

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shwetsharvary · 7 years ago

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The ‘Baba’ Way

Recently, Patanjali has become the talk of the town. It has been a part of people’s conversations, even if they have had no direct experience with the product.

Patanjali went past Colgate in India, when it reported revenues of around Rs. 5,000 crores. The Indian ‘baba’ plans to double the revenues to Rs 10,000 crores in India by 2017 — competing with two other-decades old companies — Nestle and Procter & Gamble .

So whats helping them grow this fast? What triggers trial ?

Stories shared during conversations with few consumers and non-consumers of Patanjali threw some insights about business strategy and people behavior..

1. CURRENT CONTEXT

Phenomenon ‘Ayurveda’ - Wave of going back to basics.

There is a growing preference for Ayurveda products known for natural ingredients and health benefits. These age old methods are more trusted and more preferred. Till date there has been no player in Ayurveda / natural sector at such a large scale and across categories. Value contribution to Natural Personal Care is led by core natural brands (77% - The entire range of products for core natural brands are natural - Patanjali, Himalaya and Dabur etc)

Ayurveda is more closely associated with ‘swadeshi’ than religion and so is Patanjali

Religious barriers (use of cow – urine) largely do not deter people from purchasing since the products are purely seen as benefit led (pure, health, Ayurveda)

“I use products which do not have cow-urine. Its not allowed in our religion. So we do not use certain Patanjali products but rest we use.”

“I don't think they will add cow-urine, harmful things to the products. . KFC, Maggi also had so many rumours around it. Nothing happened.”

Its Indian and pure !

People support the cause that the products are made in India (will bring prosperity). They are aware that all the products are not being manufactured in house. However, “if it goes through the filter of Baba Ramdev the quality will be maintained”

“We all must buy products of Patanjali because they are of better quality and good for our health` Moreover the money earned by Baba Ramdev does not go to other countries”

Fed-up of adulteration and harmful effects of current products – but no alternative. Apart from being Natural, Patanjali products are perceived as ‘pure’ and ‘unadulterated’. No harmful chemicals added.

“Phenyl mein kya natural hoga magar haan pure hai, effective hoga.”

A conducive environment for other herbal brands - Patanjali has not only made a name for itself among Indian consumers, but also fuelled expansion of the herbal products market and helped rivals sell more home and personal care products, grabbing share from MNCs.

How might businesses ride on the trending Ayurveda wave?

2. VALUE PERCEPTION

Natural and hence no side-effects so ‘Why not try’ Belief clubbed with benefit seeking attitude

Usually, people hesitate to try new products as they fear about side-effects. However, Natural products are believed to have no side-effects at all. So people, at large, do not hesitate in trying new natural products (especially, when their current products are not significantly effective)

“ Try karne mein koi harz nahi hai. Fayada nahi karega to nuksaan bi nahi karega”

Product led benefit more than Brand image Ayurveda, medicinal and no chemicals.

Irrespective of the brand awareness, most people associate products directly with Ayurveda / medicinal / natural benefits and hence try it.

Few products are seen to offer more than one benefit for which they otherwise currently have to use multiple products. e.g. Dish wash – wood ash + kala sabun

“I knew Dant-Kanti is a good toothpaste as my friend had told me, so I bought it. Once I bought it, is only when I got to know that it is by Patanjali – wo baba Ramdev ka.”

How might companies exhibit significant value from the products offered, to their consumers?

3. PRICING

Right pricing - Affordable but not cheap. Contrary to the common perception, not all products are cheap. The price range varies by the product category. The price of few products are significantly low as compared to other brands. This sets a firm belief that “Patanjali products are not unnecessarily priced high”, but are genuine and quality is not compromised. With this belief of right pricing, people willingly purchase even high priced items (like ghee etc).

“The prices are just right and not exorbitant. They do not cheat us. Jiska price jyada hona chahiye wo hai, jo kam daam mein aa jaye uska price kam hai.”

“Natural hai…jyada milawat nahi hai....”

Products prices are rightly balanced; not too high but affordable; not too low indicating poor quality, but just right to offer value they get in return.

“..other companies add their ads & promotion prices also in the product price, thats why the prices are high”

Price is an important factor which influences purchase, especially for those who do not have disposition towards Naturals. These people (mostly lower SEC) are mostly followers (go with the trend) who believe the product is better (pure), branded and affordable.

How might brands communicate quality and genuine price to consumers and build trust?

4. CONVINCING INFLUENCERS

Word of Mouth - Social Influence - The early adopters of Patanjali products seem to be believers of naturopathy and yoga. Recommendations by them are reliable and unquestionable. “ Its good! Try it. She uses it. It might suit you also!”

“wo khud hi itni fit hai. Ab unhone bola hai use karne to jaroor koi baat hogi.”

Baba Ramdev – yoga evangelist. Ambassador and promoter. Stands for good health and prosperity. - Baba Ramdev seems to add trust and strengthen their belief on the Brand. With high influence, more in the North, he is believed to be a living example of healthy living and promoter of Indian methods. He is fit, does yoga, promotes non-chemical products. His health messages finds resonance in his products. Ramdev is believed to be supervising all the product quality, so consumers rely completely on the quality of the products. People look up to him as a source of right information and that he will never mis-guide. However, for few people, it was not his (Ramdev’s) influence but pure product benefits and brand image which were triggers to purchase.

“He does the right thing. He talks about his products on TV. He will not lie.”

“wo itne controversy mein rehte hai…Behtar hai ki wo duur ho jaayein brand se.” “Wo nahi bhi rahenge to farak nahi padega. Products to natural hai na... log to khareedenge.”

How might Brand / products become the ‘talk of the town’?

How might a brand ambassador have a shared vision / value and philosophy?

5. STRATEGIC CROSS SELLING

Conversion at Point of sale - one stop shop

After one good product experience, visits at stores for repeat purchases, more often trigger new product / category trials; advantage of a strategic cross category display at one location – greater association with Brand /philosophy than individual products. The thinking is straightforward — if you have heard of my brand and like the personality — then you might be comfortable buying something else I offer. No matter how different the product category. Unlike Colgate (Palmolive, Ajax etc), P&G (Gillette, Tide, Pampers, Ariel, Duracell etc) or Unilever, Patanjali products are all under a single brand name, whether it is rice, toothpaste, noodles or soap - A single Brand strategy.

Exploring new category - Once people buy into the ayurveda philosophy, (clubbed with product benefit and affordable price) it's not restricted to just one product. Consumers end up buying many categories at that time - a phenomenon not seen with other FMCG companies where individual categories gain or lose a consumer to competition.

Never tried before categories / products like face pack, aloe Vera gel etc

From Un-branded to branded - mostly in home care and food like phenyl, dish washer, ghee etc.

Capturing a new segment - deeper penetration An unintended consequence of Patanjali’s offerings has made certain products (like face pack, aloe vera gel, scrub etc) become culturally acceptable, which previously may not have resonated with conservative beliefs pertaining to indulgence or luxury.

People from a conservative school of thought are of the opinion that using products like face wash, conditioner, face pack etc is indulgence, luxury and social / cultural taboo. There has been a shift in these opinions and perceptions, with Patanjali endorsing these products and thus certifying their usage, because the Brand stands for healthy living, goodness, culture etc.

example – “Patanjali noodles is healthy but Maggi is unsafe”

How might brands enable consumers to buy products across category more conveniently?

How might consumers know and resonate with brand’s philosophy at Point of Sale?

What are the deterrents to trying various products in personal care / home care beyond basic necessity?

How might brands shift from a need based to a want based value proposition?

However, its been tough to impress some -

People who have found products that best suit them, after several trials and testing (especially in face and hair care)

People who are indifferent towards primarily natural solutions & health.

People for whom sensorial matter more than the natural proposition – trials did not lead to repeat purchase.

For these people, natural as a proposition does not add value, until the product performs reasonably well (good efficacy and sensorial). However, an unpleasant experience does not indicate distrust on the brand or the product being of poor quality but a belief that the product did not suit them.

“Try kiya lekin jama nahi, bahut strong taste tha”.. “Smell utni achhi nahi lagi. Shampoo ki, baal bhi utne ache nahi hue… suit nahi kiya”

Reaction to an unpleasant experience (sensorial) with the product is of two kinds

Discontinued one product but not moved away from other products of the Brand

Treated it as medicinal solution – would use it for curing but will discontinue once the problem is solved. e.g use dant kanti only when tooth aches else use close – up.

“Ayurvedic hai to strong hoga. So use karna band kar diya.Koi problem hogi to wapis karenge use.”

What might be the strategy to trigger trials amongst people who are brand/product loyalists?

What might be the right balance between the Natural product benefit and sensorial to have a holistic appeal?

The conversations with people happened in metros and tier 1 towns where the Brand has a strong presence. People represented diverse religion, ethnicity, socio-economic class, life stages and professions.

Reference: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com, www.business-standard.com, www.livemint.com, http://www.bemoneyaware.com, ww.thehindubusinessline.com

#brand strategy #patanjali #fmcg #consumer speak #brand perception #analytical review #business opportunity #learning from example #consumer behavior #indian market #natural #ayurveda #herbal #back to roots #natural market

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studio77photouk · 8 years ago

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Common Photography Mistakes Newbies Make and How to Avoid Them

Every shooter will let you know they all created exactly the same mistakes once they started out. Here are a few of the very typical beginner errors and just how to prevent them from skyline outlines not being right to bad concentrating.

Beginner Error Number 1 – Boring Pictures

Frequently, among the first concerns beginner photographers request just why their pictures appear boring when you compare their images is. Because of the illumination within the picture, this is within the most of instances. Lighting is one of any photograph’s primary aspects, and it’ll appear boring and dull frequently if an image is not ignited nicely, whatever the topic. You have to research and comprehend lighting, what type of lighting is suited to which kind of photography, and what influence that lighting is wearing the picture when it’s originating from various instructions.

For instance, scenery photography frequently is most effective with gentle online lighting, thus why nearly all scenery shooters often consider pictures within the hours before and after, dawn and sundown (gold hours). About the other-hand, getting pictures utilizing sun light or shooting food outside, function best on cloudy times if you find diffused illumination. Therefore spend some time learning lighting’s kind that’s suitable for your photography work-out that which you might have performed differently and take a look at your pictures.

Beginner Error Number 2 – Bad Emphasis

The emphasis that is right is completely integrated to some picture. It won’t issue one bit illumination and your topic is, if it’s centered on camera-shake blurs the individual, or the incorrect factor or item you’re attempting to picture. Among the greatest factors beginner photographers understand this wrong is basically because they depend on the camera’s autofocus style (allowing the camera select which indicate concentrate on), as occasionally the camera’s AF program may wish to concentrate on anything behind or before your topic. You will find entire publications discussed concentrating in photography, but like a starting place, for your camera off auto-focus and use manual-focus (or picky point autofocus), make use of a tripod, are individual, and permit oneself the full time to write and take into account the picture, you’ll probably discover this can assist.

Clearly you’ll have to exercise while you won’t also have the blissful luxury of time for you to put up a tripod to be much more effective. But with practice this and time will end up second-nature for you. When creating the picture simply take your own time, and zoom-in about the LCD when the photo is concentrated properly to check on.

Emphasis is about the bucket not about the guy.

Beginner Error # 3 – Skyline Not Directly

This really is perhaps the only greatest remark I create by beginner photographers who request a review on pictures. Until accomplished intentionally and incredibly nicely, function is simply don’ted by pictures with horizon outlines. This really is simply preventable, since many tripods today include nature amounts if you should be utilizing a tripod. Or even, now you can purchase-very inexpensive ones that affix to the digicam (or your camera might have an amount function integral, consult your user guide). You’ll have to focus on obtaining the skyline straight if you should be shooting portable. But when you discover that it isn’t, this really is quickly set in many editing application such as for instance Lightroom or Photoshop. Simply be sure you align your skyline before discussing with prospects or others.

Beginner Error # 4 –An Excessive Amount Of Sound

Among the primary problems beginner photographers encounter has been ready to make sure their pictures are pointed. This really is occasionally tough when you’re shooting with lots of lighting, but in reduced light problems this becomes extremely challenging. One method to fight having the ability to possess a quickly enough shutter-speed to picture in low-light problems would be to increase your ISO. This really is good so long as you understand your abilities and fully have examined.

Various cameras create various degrees of sound, of course if there’s a lot of within the picture it may appear gentle (unsharp). The easiest way to prevent this really is to utilize a tripod, but when that isn’t feasible, just increase your ISO degree as large while you have to consider the picture. You’ll understand how large you are able to proceed prior to the sound becomes a lot of when you have examined your camera’s abilities.

ISO 6400, y/ 5.0 100th of the minute. Canon 550D (Rebel T2i)

Beginner Error # 5 – Exorbitant Article-Running

Although every photo may usually benefit from some type of article-running, a place is when it’ll possess a damaging impact on the picture. The important thing is for that article-running boost the picture and to experience delicate, in the place of getting it to opposites. Transfer the sliders much as well as your picture will quickly appear phony and posterized, and certainly will probably be declined by any publisher.

The primary causes within this situation are often; extreme maintenance of the picture, an excessive amount of distinction, over-saturation, and an excessive amount of noise-reduction (leading to an image that’s also sleek or gentle). Remember that should you need to create modifications that are remarkable towards the picture, then it’s probable that others may discover also.

Over-refined picture

Beginner Error # 6 – Poor Showing

The manner in which your picture is cropped by you might have a strong effect on the picture. An excessive amount of happening round the topic that is primary, also it may experience misplaced. Alternately, not displaying the environment imply the audience and may deter in the tale overlooks the photo’s framework. The strategy that is perfect would be to harvest your image correctly of getting the picture at that time. The truth is however, this occur. When consider one picture for instance, you might have a second before you. But may it be at that time of getting in or the picture post production, thought should be given by you to the manner in which your picture is cropped by you. Digital photography’s wonder is the fact that it’s easy before you find the correct one to attempt various plants.

Poor showing

Greater showing – a watch of Parliament’s House.

Beginner Error # 7 – Neglecting the Most Obvious

It could appear to be declaring the most obvious, but the above all is likely to be made ineffective should you can’t don’t have any storage cards or change on your camera. It’s amazing how frequently I’ve run into those who have possibly overlooked cards . You need to usually try to go out having a clear memory and a fully-charged battery. Remember that various kinds of photography, for example extended exposures, may strain your battery and don’t overlook that should you are currently taking pictures as NATURAL structure, they’re larger documents which means you will need more storage.

Pictures and electric batteries sign outstanding about the card.

Errors are part of photography. Because it means you’re impossible to replicate them again later on producing them, particularly in the beginning, may also be the best thing. Steer clear of them as time goes on around possible, and the main thing would be to study from your errors.

What errors perhaps you have created that you simply have discovered from? Let’s understand under within the remarks.

The article Typical Photography Errors Beginners Create and Just How to Prevent Them by Kav Dadfar seemed first on Photography Institution.

The post Common Photography Mistakes Newbies Make and How to Avoid Them appeared first on Studio 77 Photography Gwent Wedding Photographers.

from Studio 77 Photography Gwent Wedding Photographers http://www.studio77photography.co.uk/common-photography-mistakes-newbies-make-and-how-to-avoid-them-2/

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studio77photouk · 8 years ago

Text

Common Photography Mistakes Newbies Make and How to Avoid Them

Beginner Error Number 1 – Boring Pictures

Beginner Error Number 2 – Bad Emphasis

Emphasis is about the bucket not about the guy.

Beginner Error # 3 – Skyline Not Directly

Beginner Error # 4 –An Excessive Amount Of Sound

ISO 6400, y/ 5.0 100th of the minute. Canon 550D (Rebel T2i)

Beginner Error # 5 – Exorbitant Article-Running

Over-refined picture

Beginner Error # 6 – Poor Showing

Poor showing

Greater showing – a watch of Parliament’s House.

Beginner Error # 7 – Neglecting the Most Obvious

Pictures and electric batteries sign outstanding about the card.

What errors perhaps you have created that you simply have discovered from? Let’s understand under within the remarks.

The article Typical Photography Errors Beginners Create and Just How to Prevent Them by Kav Dadfar seemed first on Photography Institution.

The post Common Photography Mistakes Newbies Make and How to Avoid Them appeared first on Studio 77 Photography Gwent Wedding Photographers.

from Studio 77 Photography Gwent Wedding Photographers http://www.studio77photography.co.uk/common-photography-mistakes-newbies-make-and-how-to-avoid-them/

0 notes