#reward offered for information on elephant killed

[intothetlkverse]

Decided to challenge myself by drawing every single TLK character out there, up until this point in time, and post it here. You can see the finished project on my main account, though I figured to post it on my tumblr just show I could proudly show off my work and a few of my head canons.

Here is the second part of all the elephants across TLK:

Starting off from "The Elephants' Graveyard" we have four elephants. Ashtaa/Ashta(faith) is the leader of her herd and the successor of her aunt Daran/Dara(embrace), may her bones and spirit be laid to rest. Between taking over the responsibilities as leader for the herd, dealing with her aunt's decline and eventual death, pregnancy, and raising two claves already, she has been rather stress and unable to see how her two children have ben affected recently. Still, she is a steady, wise, compassionate, and merciful leader and mother. Her eldest son Harak(fast) has been growing envious of his little sister Belee/Beevi(angel-Arabic), and his jealousy and desire for more of his mother's attention has caused him to do some questionable things, such as nearly killing his younger sister and a then cub Simba in a bone avalanche. Fortunately this event and his mother scolding him is enough to break him out of his envy and after apologizing he vows to do better, though eventually the guilt of what he's done will prompt him to leave the herd and find a new place where he can truly start over. Beevi is very sweet, naïve, and forgiving, however since her brother's actions she has become more alert and cautious, much like how her mother describes her great-aunt to have been like.

Next up from the 6NA story "How True, Zazu?" is Pembe(horns) and her two calves, Cheka(laugh) and Lulu(pearls), looking disappointedly at them for spreading false rumors in order to discredit and humiliate Zazu, though she shares part of the blame for this. Despite knowing the importance of Zazu's near constant scouring and message-delivery, her comments and gossiping about his constant hovering and news delivery was picked up by her children and their friends, who decide to prank Zazu by giving false information and faltering Mufasa's trust in him. However, after Zazu saves the day and everyone from an army ant infestation, the two come clean with their friends about what they did, apologize, and offer to help Zazu out to make amends, while Pembe reflects on how her own actions and words affect her children. Cheka is the more bold, brash, and trouble-making of the two while Lulu is more obedient, but naïve and persuadable of the two.

Next up from the issue "Prickly Problems" is another four elephants. Starting off is Grandmother Elephant/Endesha(guide) who I have decided to merge with Lead Elephant from "Timon in Trouble", so she is both the head healer for her herd and the matriarch of it. From healing plants to poultices, she is a wealth-spring of information and has infinite wisdom, kindness, and mercy to spare. Her son Elimu(knowledge) has taken after her in this regard, choosing to stay with his herd, unlike most males, to help protect and aid his herd. Beside her is his sister and Esme's mother Sama(weather), who has inherited her mother's level-headedness in stressful situations and willingness to help others. Esme(Kind Defender-Arabic) is basically Beevi without the jealous brother, very naïve, kind, and innocent, surrounded by loving family members.

Going back to the Pridelands for a moment we have two helpful pachyderms. First off from the comic "Good Behavior" is Bantam/Basam(smiling-Arabic). A helpful lad who can use his trunk like a leafblower, he helps Simba and Nala clean out the cave so they can get put from under Zazu's strict babysitting rules. I like to think they rewarded him by helping get some hard to reach fruit for him. Next up is former Pridelands' resident Jelani(mighty) from "Simba and the Lost Waterfall". A strong and kind soul, Jelani left the Pridelands during Scar's reign and made himself a home in the Oasis. Simba frequently returned there to help form alliances with fellow prides and to help Timon's colony settle in, and ended up conscripting Jelani's help when a giant tree blocked off a river leading towards a pool.

Below him are his son and wife, part of Endesha's herd from "Timon in Trouble"; Toot/Thato(love-Afrikaans) and Toot's mother/Nariki(I love you). Jelani is more the solitary sort, however he knows about his son and does frequently visit the both of them, spending time with his son and teaching his son things he'll need to know. Thato is very curious and playful at this age, if a bit reckless, and Nariki hopes he'll take after his father's more subdued, yet kind nature as he grows.

To the right and below them we have three elephants from the Timon and Pumbaa Show. Starting off is Chafya(sneeze) from the episode, "Can't Take a Yolk". A scatterbrained and slow-witted fellow, he at least is polite and even-tempered. On the opposite end, we have Gavu(gum) from from "Doubt of Africa", Nedum's brother. Sharing his brother's aggressive attitude, even the slightest thing can set him off, so many choose to avoid him. Lastly, head of the bullies in "Good Mousekeeping" is Mpira(rubber/ball). Since there are so many grey elephants in the show, plus all the bullies look identical, I decided to use my own colors to save my sanity. I also scaled his age way down to a teenager/young adult. He's a jerk that likes to pick on a poor albino mouse, though apparently can't take what he dishes out.

Lastly, from the comic "The Elephant Walk",  we have Koroma(snort)and Ziradi(herb). A pair of calves who are separated by their herd and are terrified of running into carnivores, they unknowingly accept the help of one by the name of Simba, and only at the end when Mufasa arrives if his identity/species revealed at which both faint from surprise. The two are cousins and their fear comes from an incident Ziradi had which resulted in her nicked ear. In the night she accidently strayed to far from the herd, panicked and started frantically running around. her ear snagged against a rock's sharp edge and tore. When she was found, she spun a tale of how she was attacked by a viscous predator in the night, spreading the fear towards her cousin. Of course Simba has since earned the respect and trust of the two since, though even as king and grown up, the two are a bit more skittish then other elephants about predators.

[igettalk]

Former Olympian Ryan James Wedding Charged as Leader of Major International Drug Trafficking Ring

Ryan James Wedding, once a promising athlete on Canada's Olympic snowboarding team, has been indicted as the alleged mastermind behind an extensive international drug smuggling network. The U.S. Department of Justice, in collaboration with international law enforcement agencies, has launched a sweeping operation to dismantle the criminal enterprise, resulting in multiple arrests and raids across North and South America.Authorities claim that the 43-year-old, who represented his country at the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002, has since become the architect of a massive narcotics operation. The organization allegedly moves large amounts of cocaine each year, approximately 60 tons, which is equivalent to the weight of ten adult elephants, using a complex route from South America through Mexico and into North American markets.The operation's scope became apparent when the FBI conducted a high-profile raid on a multi-million dollar mansion in Aventura, Florida. According to 7News, residents of the exclusive Island Estates community were awakened by FBI agents commanding, "All occupants of 3914 Island Estates Drive, this is the FBI. We have a search warrant for this residence. All occupants inside the residence exit the front door at this time with your hands up." FBI special agent, Kristi Hawkins, stated that the search led to the arrest of an individual that they believe is affiliated with the criminal group. The indictment alleges that Ryan James Wedding's organization employed sophisticated methods to move and distribute their illicit cargo. According to investigators, after crossing the border from Mexico, the narcotics would be concealed in long-haul trucks bound for the West Coast. Los Angeles allegedly served as a distribution hub, with drugs temporarily housed in nondescript locations before being shipped to other parts of the country.Beyond drug trafficking, the organization is implicated in multiple murders. Law enforcement has tied the group to an incident that happened in Canada, where a couple was shot and killed in front of their daughter. Officials believe that it was a misguided act of vengeance related to missing narcotics. The efforts of the authorities have resulted in the arrest of 12 individuals associated with the organization, including high-ranking members. However, Wedding and three others have still not been apprehended and are currently listed on the FBI's "Most Wanted" page. Many agencies are currently involved in this investigation including the FBI, DEA, LAPD, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.For information that could lead to Ryan James Wedding’s arrest, the FBI is offering a substantial $50,000 reward. https://twitter.com/FBIMostWanted/status/1846982143777362159 US prosecutors are charging him with murder, attempted murder, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, and conspiracy to distribute, possess, and export cocaine. This isn't Wedding's first brush with the law. Court records show he previously spent time behind bars for drug-related offenses. Read the full article

[few-favorite-things]

reward offered for information on elephant killed: কেরালার গর্ভবতী হাতিকে মারল কারা? খোঁজ দিতে পারলেই ৫০ হাজার! – rs 50,000 reward offered for information on people involved in elephant death in kerala হাইলাইটস অভিযুক্তদের বিরুদ্ধে বন্যপ্রাণী সংরক্ষণ আইনের ধারা অনুসারে মামলা দায়ের করা হয়েছে। গোটা দেশ প্রবল ক্ষোভে ফেটে পড়েছে কেরালার ওই ঘটনা নিয়ে। …

[warsofasoiaf]

I'd love to hear your thoughts about Cyberpunk 2077 when you are ready/have finished the game. Maybe besides the game itself you have an opinion about the crunch, bugs and general feeling of disappointment in a good portion of the fans

Sure thing. It’s going to be a long write-up and there are going to be spoilers, so you better believe that this is going to have a cut. Reader beware. For context, I have beat the game, and I played it on PC and only on PC.

I’ve been a fan of the cyberpunk genre for a long time. Transhuman and techno-utopian sci-fi always struck me the wrong way; that it was too optimistic and ignored a less savory element of human nature that simply would not go away with the advent of new technologies. While I only briefly dipped my toes in the water of the Cyberpunk tabletop game (I was always a bigger fan of Shadowrun), I did enjoy the genre and was eager to see a AAA cyberpunk game. I also really liked CD Projekt Red with what they did with RPG’s like the Witcher 3. Particularly when it came to the smaller sidequests, they really found a way to bring a lot of noir elements and hard-hitting character moments to the game, and I believed that it could translate very well into a cyberpunk game. After all, noir was a similar response to detective fiction to what the cyberpunk genre was to earlier elements of sci-fi. So I was quite optimistic when it came out. What we got was...well, it didn’t quite meet up with expectations.

There are some good things about the game. Assuming you have a beefy rig, PC cyberpunk looks pretty good. Not only does it look good, but it looks like the dismal 1980′s inspired future that had defined the genre, with its neon lights, omnipresent advertising to the point of satire (amphetamines are available from vending machines in a variety of flavors and commercials are completely ridiculous). The fixers are great examples of different cyberpunk archetypes like Regina Jones being a media or the Padre being an underclass civic leader looking to protect his community with a bit of a violent streak. Plenty of the characters had great personality, the nomads and Panam were enjoyable, Judy had a great questline that detailed optimism and bitter disappointment (and the character looks cool and is a bit of a cinnamon roll), River’s quest was a perfectly serviceable cop questline with enough horror elements, they were all fine. Keanu wasn’t a great voice actor, but he did serviceably and was apparently just wonderful with the staff, so I’m willing to cut him a pass. The level design can encourage a variety of different play styles, with attribute points opening up certain pathways. Given that it’s an open-world sandbox game, the goal should be to immerse yourself in the world, and touch on elements of cyberpunk as you go through the various quests, and you do see some of that. You see the gross exploitations of dolls in the sex trade when you go to Clouds, the bizarre elements of self-expression that new technologies can offer such as the twins in Kabuki, Pacifica is an abandoned recreation ground for the rich with the nice image of rotting Ferris wheels and abandoned malls, and you can see the divide between the have’s and have-not’s on full display both in the opening (compare and contrast the Street Kid with the Corpo beginnings) or take a look at the Peralez’s penthouse apartment versus Judy’s cramped digs. Honestly, one of my favorite things in the game were just the consumables to highlight the different food and drink available to the people of Night City. The heavy population means that foods like fried ants or locust pepperoni are common, amphetamines are available in a variety of flavors, and there are no less than 20 burrito vending machines on every street (the future is not all bad it seems). I like little worldbuilding moments like this in video games because it does give a sense of completion and immersion within the world. I honestly felt bad for Johnny Silverhand, because by the end of the game I had to be a bloated man-ball of Holobites Peach Pie and Cirrus Cola. 

The game even took a few things that had aged poorly in the cyberpunk genre and improved them. The Mox is a gang specifically meant to stop the Disposable Sex Worker trope, it’s small and part of the reason it survives is that it’s small, but it offers a chance of improvement over the exploitation that the Tyger Claws offer. The cyberpyscho quest is probably the best one of this. Earlier Cyberpunk had cyberpsychosis as a serious concern directly correlated with how many implants you got. The Solo archetype even spoke about how you risk losing your humanity with your implants as you became stronger, better, faster. Even later iterations had depersonalization/derealization disorders as people who could see in the dark lost connection to those who couldn’t. A quick thought in our present though, changes this. My eyesight and hearing is just fine, but I don’t lose connection or common empathy with individuals who are blind or deaf. I have two arms and two legs and I have not lost empathy for amputees. Why then, would I lose empathy and connection with someone with average human eyesight after I get my eyes replaced and now I have the ability to see in the dark or have telescopic sight? The cyberpsycho quest actually took this concept to task; cyberpsychos around the city are seen as horrifying threats that need the high-threat response of MaxTac to deal with, but Regina is looking to see if she can cure cyberpsychosis. Mechanically, the cyberpsychos are boss-fights with elements of puzzle gameplay (how to handle the different skillsets that they have) and a bonus reward for non-lethal damage which rewards certain playstyle archetypes or prepwork for those who ensure that they have a non-lethal option. The information you find around each cyberpyscho showcase different problems in the target’s life, no real common thread or inciting incident that you can trace the onset of cyberpsychosis toward and identify a culprit. After you complete the quest, you learn the twist: there is no such thing as cyberpsychosis. Each of the targets were actually just experiencing different stressors within their lives, such as PTSD, losing their job, drug abuse, etc. and the breakdown is made much worse because these individuals have the ability to toss dumpsters like they were baseballs or pick the wings off a fly with a cybernetically enhanced brain with a .50 cal. Some of these individuals had terrible implant surgery done by bargain-basement ripperdocs and temporarily lost the ability to discern reality from fantasy, something that could easily be seen as a science fiction adaptation of temporary insanity brought on by a poor reaction to medicine. It’s backed up by the game too. V can fill every slot in their cyberware deck but never once experiences cyberpsychosis. Oda has ultra-legs and flaming-hot mantis blades and is in perfect control at every point in the game, even when he’s trying to jab those mantis blade through your sternum. Cyberpyschosis isn’t real, the irresponsible media just ran with it because fear sells. For all the flaws of the game, I respect the game for taking cyberpsychosis in that direction.

But for all those good things, the game couldn’t help but feel shallower than the Witcher 3. The side-gigs were formulaic to the point where they even led with a category. There were few twists and very little that was surprising. Exposition for these quests was limited to a short text dump and a minute voice-over. Night City was big but it was relatively sparse. NCPD never seemed to intervene in any crimes (giving the character the chance to do so) but every so often they were around a taped-off crime scene, giving a sense of inconsistency that hampered the world. While it was a bustling city, it felt empty, most of the people I saw on the street were meaningless, just NPC’s walking around to give a sense of activity. There was little in the way of things to see and experience that was unique or different about these NPC’s. They weren’t crowds I could hide in like Hitman, they didn’t have ambient dialogue that showcased something like the Witcher 3. Much like other open-world games, this sense of shallowness pervaded much of the empty space of the world; it was incredibly *big* but there was little in it. Much of the time I was driving or running through empty space that was completely worthless to me. Normal for city living, but all of that is wasted time going from point A to point B, and unlike the Witcher 3, there were no small in-game beats to help flesh it out or build it. I never had Millie from “Where the Wolf and Cat Play” give me a little picture, I never had people from a liberated village say “hey, look, it’s that guy Geralt, thanks for killing those harpies.” These were things that made the Witcher 3′s world really come alive. I didn’t have that, and I was left

Of course, we also have to handle the elephant in the room, and that was CDPR’s conduct both during production and after release. Crunch has become an increasingly common part of video game development and it’s not healthy to developers. CDPR had been called out on it once before, but it seemed there was little change in how that happens. I’m not quite sure if there’s anything we can do, and I’m sympathetic to the need to hit target deadlines to actually deliver a finished product, but there’s got to be a better way, whether that’s a change to the incentive structure, or something, because it’s hurting folks. I like games like Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2, but I understand that there was a real human cost to these masterpieces, and I wonder if there’s something we can do about that. 

Similarly, what happened after launch was beyond terrible. The last-gen console version were simply not ready for release and shouldn’t have been released to the public. CDPR openly covered up this, by only previewing the PC version, they hid the fact that the game wasn’t ready, and they avoided delaying the last-gen console version because they were looking to capitalize on holiday sales. I’m sympathetic for the need to generate sales, but the flip of this is that you have to deliver the product you advertise, and for last-gen consoles, they didn’t do so. Bugs are one thing, these games are massive undertakings of interacting systems and bugs are inevitable; some of my favorite games were buggy at release, notably Fallout: New Vegas, Witcher 3, and so on. But this went past bugs and into malpractice and deception, and that’s something that’s less forgivable. I personally had few bugs that were out-and-out game breaking but things not loading, quests bugging out, floating bags and other physics wonkiness, all of that hurt the immersion. I’d be more willing to forgive the game without the deception; I can laugh at bugs but not at ignoring quality control to get holiday sales instead of delivering a quality product. Consumers are angry at CDPR and have every reason to be, and I’m one of them. I can express my disappointment and I will do so, we need developers to stop these practices and the only way we can do that is through our wallets and words. I’m not going to tell anyone not to buy CDPR games, that’s entirely your decision because I’m a radical individualist. But I am going to say that they’ve burned a lot of their good karma with me; credibility is a hard beast to gain back. Much like other big name developers, CDPR has hurt their standing in my eyes. Whether that means I need to resort to going to indie games for a little bit or something else, I don’t know, but it’s rough. I liked CDPR and wanted to believe it’d be different, but it seems to not be the case.

Overall, I think it’s another AAA open-world game only made better by my love of the genre, and that stings. I enjoyed some aspects of it, and I hope that through Free DLC, patching, and other good deeds, the game can redeem itself and stimulate new love of the genre. But CDPR needs to do a lot more than that to win back my affection. If anyone has anything specifically that they want to know about the game, such as talk about the main story, individual characters, or so on, just ask.

Thanks for the question, Khef.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[shima-draws]

Different anon but I would LOVE an SAO recap if you don't mind!

Oh HELL YEAH

Alright kiddies buckle up it’s ~RECAP TIME~

Season 1: Sword Art Online/Aincrad Arc

Kirito and 10,000 other players are trapped inside SAO, a game made by Kayaba Akihiko, and are ordered to clear all 100 floors of Aincrad. There’s one catch: if they die in the game, they die in real life. Kirito meets Asuna, Klein, Agil, Silica, and Liz (#Mainsquad). Over the two years of being trapped in the game, Kirito solves some murders, rescues a lot of people, loses a lot of people (RIP Sachi you will be missed) beats up some floor bosses, goes head to head with a murder guild called Laughing Coffin, falls in love with and gets married to Asuna, buys a house, and adopts an AI daughter named Yui. Wow this kid is busy. On the 75th floor Kirito realizes that Heathcliff, the Commander of Asuna's guild, is actually Kayaba Akihiko. Kayaba offers him the option to duel, and if he wins, he will end the game early and allow everybody to log out. Kirito fights Kayaba and, after Asuna intercepts a fatal blow and dies in his arms, is able to defeat him. The game is cleared, and everyone is able to log out!! Kirito and Asuna meet up one last time as Aincrad collapses below them.

Season 1: ALfheim Online/Fairy Dance Arc

Fast forward to several months later. Kirito is on the road to recovery! Except Asuna is still asleep, and nobody can figure out why. Kirito visits the hospital only to discover that Asuna is getting married off to a nasty pedo named Sugou, who controls Rect, a company that runs VRMMORPGs. The wedding is in a week. Kirito panics and is cheered up by his younger sister Suguha. Agil sends Kirito some sketchy screenshots of what appears to be Asuna, inside of a game called ALfheim Online, which is, surprise surprise, run by Rect. Kirito dives into ALO and begins a new adventure! He teams up with Leafa (who is actually Suguha) and the two of them race towards the World Tree, where Asuna is supposedly being kept. We find out that it's Sugou who has trapped Asuna within ALO (because he pretty much runs the game. Asswipe) and is trying to manipulate her into marrying him (ew). Some minor stuff happens with the leaders of some of the fairy races but that's not too important. Eventually the truth comes out and Kirito and Leafa realize who the other is in real life and it's kind of a mess but then they make up and it's...fine? After that, Kirito makes it to the top of the World Tree with the help of all of his new fairy friends. He valiantly rescues Asuna (after some difficulty but then Kayaba's ghost shows up and gives him God Powers) and beats up Sugou who is a disgusting rapist! Kirito logs Asuna out and reunites with her in the real world. After that he distributes a special gift Kayaba had given to him called "The Seed", basically a tutorial kit to create your own VRMMORPGs. The gang logs into ALO to find out that Aincrad has been brought back as part of The Seed's release and get hyped to clear all 100 floors this time.

Season 2: Gun Gale Online/Phantom Bullet Arc

We're introduced to a new game called GGO, which is a lot darker and grungy than SAO/ALO. The star of this season is a girl named Sinon, who is a pro sniper in GGO but has an intense fear of guns in real life because of an incident years ago where she shot a robber and killed him out of self defense (poor, sweet child). She has a close friend named Shinkawa who cares about her a lot who she leans on for support. Scary shit is happening in GGO because famous players are getting shot in game by a guy named Death Gun, which apparently kills them in real life, a repeat of SAO. Kirito is brought in to investigate! He meets Sinon in-game and they sign up for a big tournament to decide who is the most top class gunner. Kirito makes a name for himself by using a laser sword in a game meant for guns (typical protag behavior), and is spooked by Death Gun because it turns out he's a formal Laughing Coffin member from SAO. During the tournament, Sinon is revealed to be one of Death Gun's next targets, so she and Kirito team up and form a bond! Eventually Kirito manages to defeat Death Gun, and he and Sinon win the tournament together (by setting off a present grenade so they die at the same time LMAO). Sinon logs out and meets up with Shinkawa, who reveals that he is one of the people running the Death Gun persona, and tries to kill her by drugging her. Kirito bursts into her apartment at the last second and rescues her. Several days later Kirito helps Sinon come to terms with her trauma, allowing her to finally heal and move on from it.

Season 2: Calibur Arc

Kirito catches word of a new quest in ALO that will allow players to chase after the legendary weapon, Excalibur. Kirito throws together a party (Asuna, Liz, Silica, Sinon, Klein, and Leafa) and aboard a giant elephant jellyfish that Leafa befriended before. The party is greeted by Urd, an NPC and the Lady of the Lake, and she asks them to retrieve Excalibur from the bottom of a frozen lake dungeon. Kirito's like hell yeah we will and so they set off for the dungeon! There they face a pair of really difficult bosses, but are able to defeat them due to the power of friendship and also stabbing them until they die. Deeper into the dungeon they run into a trapped NPC named Freyja, who Klein immediately gets heart eyes for, and although he's repeatedly informed that letting her join their party is a trap (by literally everyone in the group, go figure), decides against his better judgement that he's going to follow his samurai avatar's honor and rescue the fair maiden. Freyja actually gives them some crazy stat boosts so it was #worthit. At the bottom of the dungeon they run into the boss, Thrym, and when Kirito finds the legendary hammer Mjolnir, Freyja takes it and transforms into the god Thor (which crushes Klein beyond repair). Thrym is defeated! At the bottom of the dungeon, Kirito pulls out Excalibur, causing the dungeon to collapse, and is then rescued by Leafa's monster friend. Urd returns and gifts Kirito with Excalibur as his reward for defeating Thrym.

Season 2: Mother's Rosario Arc

Asuna is told rumors about a player in ALO named Zekken, who is so extremely powerful that they have a perfect winning streak, and has even defeated Kirito in a duel. Zekken apparently duels players every day with the promise of gifting them a phenomenal 11-hit sword skill if they can win. Asuna decides to try her chances, and although she loses, Zekken, revealed to be a young girl named Yuuki, decides Asuna is perfect to help her out on her mission. This is to defeat a floor boss with just her guild, the Sleeping Knights, in order to get all of their party's names on the Monument of Swordsmen. After several tries the guild manages to beat the floor boss all on their own. Yuuki accidentally calls Asuna "sis" and panics, logging out and not coming back. Asuna finds out that Yuuki is actually a patient at a hospital and is terminally ill--which is why she was so desperate to defeat the guild boss as a sort of last hurrah and to have her name engraved somewhere in history. Yuuki's been in a full dive machine called the Medicuboid which lets her play games virtually and helps block out her pain. Asuna gets inspired and with Kirito's help, is able to set up a probe that Yuuki can look through in order to see what school life is like in the real world. Several months pass, and the Sleeping Knights spend as much time together as they can. Finally Yuuki's health begins to decline and she logs into ALO one last time to say goodbye and to give Asuna her 11-hit sword skill, Mother's Rosario. Hundreds of other ALO players all join Yuuki to give her a proper send off and pay their respects. As Yuuki dies in Asuna's arms (it's so FUCKING SAD I cry every time I watch this scene), she tells Asuna how grateful she is to have been able to meet her and spend the past few months with her and the guild. After Yuuki's funeral, Asuna and Kirito find out that the Medicuboid she was using was created by Kayaba Akihiko, surprise!! And this leads right into season 3.

So there you go, your recap of both seasons!! Hopefully it was short enough lol I cut out a lot of less important stuff so ;)

[ilguna]

Lacuna - Maltalent (f.o)

summary: they say the odds tend to favor those who need them. well, they were wrong.

Word Count; 4.5k

Warnings; swearing, DEATH MENTION

NOTES: i give reader a last name to fit the world.

! Takes place between Chapter Twenty and the Epilogue of Lacuna !

–

You pace the backrooms of the justice building, popping your knuckles and pulling on the fingers that didn’t pop. You fiddle with your mother’s ring, stop in front of a mirror to fix your hair and any smudged makeup. You go back to pace only to be fixing the way that the dress lies on your body too.

Taking a deep breath, you pause in front of the grand doors, the ones you’ll be walking out of in a couple of minutes. The peacekeepers are indifferent to your staring. They have to be.

It’s only a few minutes on stage. All you have to do is stand in front of a microphone, try your best not to cry, address the elephant in the room, and then receive all the rewards they have to provide because of your win. Then, you’re allowed to leave the stage and head right back here.

Only, you’re going to be standing in front of the entire district. The faces of District One will be staring back at you with judgement and hatred. But that’s not the worst part--the worst part is that you get to stare right at the family of the tributes you killed, and see their animated picture too.

And if Finnick doesn’t show up soon, you’re going to have to do it alone. Not with him standing a few feet away, in front of his own microphone with his own speech prepared. No, you’ll have to do this all alone and just hope that he shows up in the next district.

You take a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

The doors behind you open, and a bunch of footsteps accompany it. You turn around, hoping that this is Elysia, your prep team and Mags escorting Finnick into the room. But as soon as your eyes go over the group, you realize that he’s not there.

“Is the train coming?” you ask.

Elysia shakes her head, “No, he hasn’t even left the Capitol.”

“What? Why? We’re right here--”

“It wasn’t his choice.” Laurel explains to you calmly, “He’s hoping he’ll be in District Two, but he’s not sure.”

But he promised.

“Oh.” you turn away now, looking back at the doors.

“The mayor is almost done introducing you, when the doors open, go to the microphone on the left.” Elysia tells you, the prep team makes some last minute adjustments to fix the mess you’d made out of yourself, “Take it easy, don’t rush it.”

“Read from the notecards.” Laurel says, “Look at the families when you address them.”

You nod a little, despite wanting to outright reject that idea. If you have to look at the families, you’re assuming you should be looking up and into the crowd too. Over a hundred people, packed into one little space watching you give a speech on your victory that you hadn’t even written.

“You’ll be amazing.” Cleo assures you, “A lot of the people back in the Capitol are sympathizing with you.”

“I’m going to give a speech in front of a whole district that wishes I had been the one to die.” you look over the people staring at you, “The Capitol’s sympathy is worthless.”

“It’s not like that--”

“I ruined the career’s plans from the beginning.” you insist, “Killed Eytelle, backstabbed Allio, nearly died, Finnick set the cornucopia on fire and I recovered enough to give Lennox an execution that has been the talk since the summer!” you try to calm yourself down, “And now I have the nickname ‘The Executioner’ and I’m being praised for it.”

You turn back towards the doors, “And District One would have had two winners if it weren’t for me. Lennox and Trink would be here, if it weren’t for my plan.”

They have no time to say anything, your name is being called, the doors opening. You do your best to take another deep breath, no longer nervous but a little angry and annoyed instead. As you walk through the doors, you force a smile and grip the notecards tight in your hand.

There’s a lot of clapping, no cheering. You steal glances, trying not to avoid eye contact entirely, but there’s a lot of angry faces in the crowd. You’re sure to keep away from Trink and Lennox’s family, not wanting to see them until you have to apologize to their family. 

On the left, you were able to see the mayor take a seat right next to someone else, you don’t know who. Maybe some district official? But off to the right are the mentors, you can just tell. By how they’re dressed and the way they get their own place to sit.

It’s a girl and a boy, they can’t be much older than you. Maybe sixteen, seventeen or eighteen. You can’t really tell, all you know is that they’re no younger than sixteen. The girl is blonde, her hair is curled at the bottom naturally, and she has green eyes. The boy resembles her closely, with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.

You try to remember a name to their faces. You recognize them, so they had to have been within the last two year. But nothing comes to mind, not even the title they were assigned after either of them one.

Your eyes then wander to the right microphone, knowing that Finnick would have been there, giving you a reassuring smile. He would be right here for you the entire time, not letting you be the only one to go through this. Half of the time up here would be dedicated to him. He would be sharing the unwanted spotlight, and it wouldn’t have fallen just to you.

“Thank you.” your voice is strained at first as you go to look back to the crowd. District One is so bright, with their white buildings and colorful insides, “I am thankful to be here today, to stand in front of a crowd and to be alive. And the only reason I can be, is for the noble sacrifice that District One had made with their tributes, Lennox and Trink.”

You still don’t look up, “I’m sure that if Finnick were here, he’d say the exact same.” you take a peek at the notecards, not knowing where to go. You know that the speech doesn’t have to be long, but it can’t be too short either. Plus, you can’t avoid the families for long.

Biting the inside of your cheek, you look up now, starting with Trink on the left, “I would like to offer my apology to the family of Trink Nenni. I know that losing a daughter and sister can be hard, and life will never be the same without her.” Trink was an only child, it’s only her parents, “Outside of the games, Trink proved to be a great person, and she gave me the benefit of the doubt--”

“That’s because you’re a liar!” someone in the crowd shouts, “You lied to all of them for your own selfish gain!”

The peacekeepers jerk, but they don’t go after the person. You’re glad that they don’t. It would only give the people in the crowd a bigger reason to hate you.

“Inside of the arena, she was a shoulder to lean on, and a great ally.” your attention is then turned to Lennox, and you can feel the world slow and your heart speed, “I would also like to offer my apology to the family of Lennox Laude.” he’s got his younger brother and parents on the platform, “Lennox was smart in and out of the arena, he knew what he was doing, he was prepared.

“I’m sorry that the games ended the way they did, and if I could go back, I wish I had made his death quicker. No one deserves to have a death drawn out that long, no matter what they’ve done in their life.” you’re lying. All of that is a lie. Lennox got what he deserved, and you wish you could have done more.

“I’ll also apologize on the behalf of Finnick, for lighting the supplies on fire. I can’t imagine how expensive all of that would have been to replace, it must have cost their sponsors and District One great fortune.

“Once again, thank you for your sacrifice, and I wish District One well, in the future.”

The clapping is reluctant. The mayor takes the right microphone after, which is when she hands over the plaques--both yours and Finnick’s--that District One is required to make and give. Then, a couple of girls hand you flowers. You bid the district goodbye, and head right back into the Justice Building, where Elysia and everyone else is waiting to help you.

You think that it’s over, and you’re going to get on the train to head to District Two, when Elysia informs you that you have to eat with the mentors of Trink and Lennox, as well as the mayor and the families.

All at once, you can feel your body deflate.

“I have to do that for every district?”

Mags nods, and you can see that she was afraid to tell you this part.

“How long does it last?”

“Two hours at most. It’s a dinner celebration. After, you get back on the train and we head towards District Two.” Elysia says.

“But you’ll all be there?” you ask hopefully.

Laurel nods, “Elysia and Mags will be. It’s not our place.”

“Oh.” your eyes wander, and your fingers glide along your ring finger until they connect with the silver, “Right.”

Despite all of this, you’re taken back to the train anyway. You go ahead and set your plaque and the first round of flowers into a box that Elysia provided. Then, you go to Finnick’s room, standing in the doorway for a moment. 

The bed is neatly made, there’s no wrinkles. It doesn’t look like anyone has touched it. So, you go ahead and neatly lay the plaque and flowers on top of the blanket. 

The next couple of hours is spent in front of a mirror in the bathroom. Laurel has decided to go with one of the nicer, shinier dresses, saying that she wants you to blend in with the other mentors. 

She thinks that if you look like one of them, you’re less likely to be looked down upon. It’ll be harder to hate you or something.

Soon, you’re walking out with Elysia and Mags. At the actual dinner, it’s a lot easier than you expected. Instead of being sat near the family, you’re across from the mentors instead. There, you’re able to enjoy yourself a little bit.

Until they speak, “(Y/n) Gallows.” The girl draws out your name, her voice is sweet, smooth, “Gallows as in hanging?”

You stare at her, because her name seems to be right on the tip of your tongue. There’s something about her voice, like it’s dripping sugar. Entrancing, inviting, friendly. But no matter how friendly it is, there’s some hidden intentions.

“Yes.” you answer, eyebrows drawing together, “In my family, we take the last name of our mothers, because my great-grandmother used to hang Capitol commanders during the Dark Days.” 

It’s true, and it’s a wonder how your family’s bloodline hasn’t been wiped out because of it. Especially since your great-grandmother was so good at it, and she wasn’t caught until she turned sixty. That's when your grandmother and your mom went into hiding until your great-grandmother’s investigation died out.

Of course, they killed her and tried to make an example out of her too. But your last name still turns heads. You’re still surprised that it hadn’t clicked in the minds of the Capitol officials when they constantly had to read your last name.

The boys’ eyes widen, and the girl raises her eyebrows. For a moment, you think you’ve got them off your back, finally. But then, she smiles. 

“Cashmere and Gloss, but I’m sure you know that.” 

It clicks, now. It’s the back-to-back wins. The brother and sister duo. Gloss won the sixty third games, and Cashmere won the sixty fourth. Gloss is eighteen now, and Cashmere is seventeen.

“Nice to meet you.” you smile back.

The dinner is so much easier after that. Soon, you’re having to bid Cashmere and Gloss goodbye, and offer your condolences one last time to Trink and Lennox’s family. On the way back to the train, you can’t help but to think about how Cashmere and Gloss didn’t seem to care that you killed their tributes.

Maybe it was the impression you left, because that’s the only reason you can think of.

--

District Two. Allio and Eytelle. Both tributes you killed.

And there’s still no sign of Finnick.

“He’ll be at the next one.” Elysia promises, fixing the headband in your hair, trying to offer you a polite smile, “Here’s your cards, the microphone to the left, okay? Big smiles.”

“Right.” you say, staring at the dark oak doors. These ones are much more engraved than the ones in District One. However, by no means does it make them look nicer. In fact, it looks so cluttered.

If you reach out, are they smooth? Or will you get a splinter the second your finger touches it?

You aren’t able to know. The doors open at the mention of your name, and you’re walking through them the second after. Today, the notecards are a light orange, and so is the dress you’re wearing. The headband is white, and so are your shoes.

District Two is also bright, but not as colorful. Just like District One, they’ve got rich-looking citizens with what looks like relatively new clothes. Off to the left is their mayor, on the right is the mentors. And since you studied up, you can now name the girl standing there: Enobaria.

She won the sixty second games. Her famous kill was when she ripped the neck out of a tribute, and because of it, she had her teeth sharpened. She’s got dark hair, brown eyes. You can’t name the guy next to her at all, though. You don’t know who he is entirely.

As you stop in front of the left microphone, you hold your chin up a little higher. Caesar and Claudius couldn’t shut up about the fact that your head was down, like you were trying to avoid all of this. So, you’ll give them what they want, and you stare straight into the district.

To further it, you smile, and lower the notecards, because you’ve memorized it now. You want to see their criticism after this.

The clapping quiets, a hush falling over the people. Your eyes wander along the people in the crowd, “Thank you, for your warm welcome. I’d like to apologize for Finnick’s absence, it seems he’s held up in the Capitol. Instead, I will speak for the both of us today.

“I would like to thank District Two for the sacrifice of their tributes. Not only were Eytelle and Allio great candidates, but they were also great people. Eytelle was nice, and even if she didn’t speak very much, she was kind.” you look to her family, “I’d like to offer my apology to the family of Eytelle Josic. I hope that you can forgive me for what I have done. I just didn’t want her to suffer.”

Eytelle’s got a younger brother and sister, it looks like. No father, only a mother. From where you stand, you can see the sad expression on her face. She nods, she understands. She might even be thankful that you didn’t just leave her. And to close out this story, you give the animated picture a look.

Your eyes then travel to Allio’s family. This won’t be as easy, you backstabbed Allio. And his family is angry. His only sister glares angrily, as for his three younger brothers--you don’t know if they have a single clue what’s going on.

“I’d also like to offer my apology to the family of Allio Bevard.” the mother’s lips curl, like she wants to lunge, “I know what I did was cruel, but it was for survival. Allio wasn’t a very trustful person, and that was for a good reason. I’m sorry that it had to end that way.” one look to the animated picture, and then back to the crowd.

“I’m thankful to be standing here today, and it wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for Eytelle and Allio. Thank you.”

There’s some angry yelling, but the clapping drowns it out. You accept the plaques for both you and Finnick, and then the nice flowers too. Inside of District Two’s justice building, you pass them off to Elysia momentarily as you try to calm yourself down.

“Please tell me that Finnick will be at the next stop.” you look at Mags, then Elysia. The next stop has Blaire, and you can’t do it alone, “We should run through the Capitol real quick to get him.”

Mags has got her lips pressed together, sealed tight. And Elysia has an expression on her face that you read easily. The answer is right in her eyes.

You slap the notecards into her free hand, picking up the plaques and flowers as you march right out of the building. Back on the train, you set your things neatly into the box, and as for Finnick’s room, they’re on the bed. It’s beginning to look more like a memorium than a celebration.

Maybe it’s a good thing.

At the dinner, you keep to yourself, mostly. Enobaria and the other mentor aren’t as friendly as they looked on the stage. Now, they look big and angry. They might be teenagers too, or they’re just getting out of it, but they don’t like you. And you don’t think you really like them either.

--

District Three, this is going to be much easier.

Blaire and Verda. You didn’t kill either of them, and it helps that Blaire was a friend.

Today’s dress is navy blue, it goes to your knees. With only black flats. Today, there is no hair accessory.

“I’m sorry about Finnick.” Mags holds up her paper, you offer her a smile.

“I’m not.”

The doors open, and you head right out. There’s a distinct difference in the districts now, District Three isn’t nearly as nice as the first two. The only thing that’s nice is the justice building. Behind the crowd, with their business buildings, you can’t think of any compliments.

At the left microphone, you smile to the crowd, “Hello District Three. I’m honored to be here today, to speak for you. Finnick’s not here, so I’ll be speaking for him too. Even if he didn’t know your tributes well, I did. And I appreciate the both of them.

You look up to Blaire’s family, “Blaire Heinle was a good friend to me inside of the arena. And I can’t stop thinking about how I saved him not only once, but twice because something inside me told me it was the right thing to do.” Blaire’s got his brother and his parents. They all look sadder than Eytelle’s family did, “I am speaking from my heart when I say that I wish Blaire hadn’t sacrificed himself to save me from Lennox. I believe he thought he was in my debt, but it was quite the opposite.

“I would like to offer my deepest condolences for the Heinle family. And I want you to know that I haven’t gone a single day without thinking about Blaire. We might not have known each other for very long, but he meant something to me. He was a dear friend.”

Blaire’s animated picture really does sting. You can’t look at it for as long as you want to, it hurts too much. Verda is much easier, though. She’s got two sisters, and both her parents, “As for Verda, she was a pretty soul. We had one conversation inside of the training center, and she seemed to be kind. Even though I had allied myself with the careers, she didn’t care. She was indifferent. I’d like to apologize to you.”

A deep breath as you look back to the crowd, “District Three has been so incredibly kind to me. And if it weren't for Blaire, I really wouldn’t be standing here. Believe me when I say I wish I could do something to show my appreciation.”

District Three is loud, with clapping and cheering. It brings tears to your eyes, and you accept the plaques while fighting off those tears. The flowers are a pretty blue color. You say goodbye one final time, before you’re leaving the stage and going back to the train.

Again, you set your plaque and flowers into the box neatly. But for Finnick’s, you’re barely in there long enough to toss them on the bed.

District Five will be different.

--

Under any other circumstances, you would be excited to wear this deep maroon dress. Now, it just feels wrong.

District Five isn’t as loud with their clapping. You take the left microphone, give a big smile and lift your chin. It feels wrong, especially since you had helped Finnick trap Elodia--the girl--in a net to kill her. 

“District Five, I would like to thank you for your tributes and sacrifices. Under any other circumstances I’d be excited to be here, and would even ask for a tour on how you do things. It’s unfortunate that things are the way they are.”

You look to Elodia, “Elodia and I didn’t know each other. But before the private training session with the gamemakers, we and the other girls were able to share a laugh, even if it was for a second.” next is Moises, “I’d like to offer my condolences, I can’t say that I knew him very well either. The two of them died nobly.”

You accept the plaques and flowers, give one final thank you, and leave. Inside the train, you organize your plaques and flowers. Finnick’s things lay in one big heap on the bed.

You can’t help but to want to set it all on fire. But that’ll only get you in trouble. So, you leave the room and head back to your own. Knowing that District Six is the next one up.

--

“Thank you for letting me be here today.” you force a smile, “Ossie and Amos were two brave souls. I appreciate everything that they did inside of the arena to allow me to be here today. I hope you can believe me when I say that I take no pleasure in knowing that they’re no longer here with us today.”

Eyes to Ossie, “Ossie was a beautiful girl, kind. I wish I would have had the time to get to know her in a more calm setting. Had I not been allied with the careers, I would have gone to her.” next is Amos, “Amos seemed to be great friends with Mac. I didn’t see much of him inside of the training center, so I can’t say a lot.

“Thank you, District Six.”

The mayor hands over a silver plaque and the boys give you yellow flowers. You thank them greatly, and leave the stage carelessly.

--

“In my opinion, I think District Seven provided two very brave people.” you smile at Mac and Cass’ families, “As I mentioned in another speech, I was able to have a laugh with the girls before our private training session. In this time, Cass seemed to happy, and after we exchanged a few words, I realized I should’ve allied myself with her.

“However, it wasn’t only the girls that had talked to each other, Mac also joined in. At the time, it seemed so dumb them, talking about boy trouble. But now I can appreciate the fact that we were all able to be normal teenagers, even if it was for a couple of minutes. 

“Before the games had started, Cass and I shared a competitive look that was all in good fun. It looked like she wanted a race to the cornucopia, and I felt sorry, knowing that the moment we got there, our friendship would be temporary. I’m glad that I wasn’t the one to kill her, because I’m not even sure if I would have been able to.

“Thank you, seven. For producing two very beautiful people that I could consider friends. I hope your district prospers with your future tributes, and I hope that if there is a victor in the near future, I can be friends with him or her.” 

The mayor hands over the same polished, silver plaque that the others do. These flowers are lilies, so incredibly delicate.

Later at the dinner, the families and mentors were tearful. You spent the entire dinner explaining the conversation between all the girls and Mac in as much detail as you can remember. At the end of the night, the mentors requested that you’d come visit whenever you want, if it was possible.

--

The next couple of districts were a blur.

District Eight was easy, Sydney and Nestor were nothing to you. Their plaque was silver, their flowers purple. You thanked their district deeply, and the only mentor that considered your feelings was a nice woman named Cecelia. She was a mother of kids, herself. And she couldn’t help but feel sorry that you had to go through the games at such a young age. You liked her.

District Nine had Kent and Claris. Once again, pretty useless. Silver plaque, red roses. No mentors talked to you, and even though you didn’t kill their children--both of the families glared at you the entire time. 

District Ten was a little harder again, since you killed the girl from ten. You had to assure her family that Hallie’s face haunts you, especially when she seemed so kind. The first death on your hands, and it had to be Hallie out of all people. As for Clay, it was much easier to make a speech. No mentors stood out to you.

And now here you are, in District Eleven. You killed Horace, and you made your hatred for Thyme no secret. 

And surprise, surprise, there is no sight of Finnick.

You’ve had to face all the faces of the people he’s killed for him. Had to apologize on his behalf for not only being here, but also his kills. It’s not your place. He should be owning up to it.

He promised you he would be here. He promised that he’d be going through all of this with you. And where is he? In the Capitol? Watching all of this live from his nice apartment?

Fuck Finnick.

And now you get to face Thyme’s family by yourself.

You thought that you had gotten over all of this, that you weren’t jealous or angry anymore. But with how much time you’ve had to think between districts, it’s starting to bubble again. 

Mags doesn’t want you to be mad, but it’s hard not to be.

Especially when you think he deserves it.

You can hear your name announced through the door, and with gritted teeth, you force a smile. Knowing that this is the second to last appearance before you can finally go home.

[wickedandthedamned]

Ch.1 Even saints lie

"You bitch"

 The man in the bowling hat stared into the monk's frightened eyes as his grasp became even tighter around her throat. His voice remained even and his expression only showed mild annoyance.

 "Yoshikage…. Please.. You are hurting me" She managed to croak out. It would not be long until she lost consciousness and she knew it.

 "So, I see you ARE trying to achieve sainthood. Thought you would do God's work and 'help' a poor soul pass on to the next plane huh?"

 "I was… just trying to…. Help…." There was no use in struggling. The man had lifted her by her throat. Her eyes pleaded as they became glassy.

 "Help? Look at me! As you can see, the cleansers did quite a little number on my arm.” He leaned in, and whispered into her ear.

 “ There was one thing that kept me sane during my time trying to determine whether you knew about the eggs and that was the thought that maybe, just maybe your arm would fit " He punctuated his sentence by holding up what was left of his severed limb.”

 "Please.. You.. Need.. To.. Move.. On……" The world started fading.

 Kira stared at her. He could see the color draining from her face as her usually pink lips turned a pale shade of blue. He took a deep breath and let go of the monk's throat allowing her to hit the ground with a loud thud. She loudly gasped for air and proceeded to cough, her throat marked with a large handprint. He crouched down to her eye level and looked at her seemingly unbothered by the sight of her struggling to get life back into her lungs.

 "Not your call, Momoko. I think it is for the best if we stop seeing each other. I have enough money to find an apartment now anyway." 

 He slowly walked away not bothering to look back.

 It was a nice day, he thought. It was neither too hot or too cold and the sky was bluer than ever. He stopped by his favorite shop and admired the flowers for three minutes like he did every day.. They had tulips, his favorites. Maybe now that he was going to have his own place he would finally be able to paint them in peace. Yes, that sounded nice. He would wake up at 9 am, do a couple of stretches, and make breakfast while listening to the radio. Later, he would listen to an entire Wagner symphony while painting in his balcony. At night, he would watch the people go by while drinking a cup of tea, hell he may even read that silly book about noseless elephants. Finally, peace and tranquility. That was if things did not go like last time and a 'concerned' tenant started claiming there was suspicious activity going on which sooner or later would lead to him being evicted by a group of 'mediums' with nothing better to do than harass the dead.

 On his path, he saw a curled up soul whimpering and attempting to avoid the feet of the living who moved around rapidly, anxious to get home from work. The pitiful sight gave Yoshikage a wonderful idea. He bent slightly forward and stuck his hand out politely.

 "Hello, I am Yoshikage Kira. I too am dead.” He giggled.

  “Please pardon my foolishness, but I cannot believe I had not thought about this sooner is all" He coyly held a hand to his face as he gave the most innocent smile to the poor spirit who looked as though ready to start sobbing.

 "As you can see, my arm appears to be missing. “ He punctuated his sentence by holding up his stump which was poorly draped with ripped cloth from his green suit.

 “I think you can help my predicament.” With his remaining arm he kicked down the soul who began wailing and frantically looking at the living for any kind of help.

  “Now, now, please do not scream or struggle. You are going to make my head hurt. It isn't as though you are getting much use out of yours sitting here in this corner all day anyway so I don’t understand why you’re being such a pain."

  Kira’s foot pressed down on the other ghost’s head as he hacked away at the poor things arm with his knife.

  "There is a house with a couple of dogs down the street and I'm afraid I'm going to have to throw you over the fence if you don't stop causing such a scene." 

 The way the man cutting his arm spoke scared him far more than the living ever had. Despite his horrible actions, it seemed like this was nothing to this man -no- this monster

 "There,  see? That wasn't so bad, was it? All done" 

 Kira dropped the whimpering soul and walked off fitting the new arm into his stub. Surprisingly, the arm attached itself in a matter of seconds and he was able to use it relatively well.

 He had spent the last couple of weeks sleeping in the house of a family who had been out on vacation. Unfortunately for him, they were coming back in a day or two so he would have to find a way to acquire his own space sooner than he had hoped. He sighed and glared at the setting sun.

 "It's always a hassle figuring out where I will rest"

 …... 

 "Yoshikage!"

 The familiar voice called from down the street followed by the clanking of wood on concrete. Oh great, what did she want? Just as predicted, the caller was none other than the monk he had been running errands for. He turned around both amused and exasperated, still hurt about her betrayal.

 "Momoko? I thought I made myself clear yesterday." 

  "Wait! I thought about it and you were right. It wasn't my place to send you to that house. By now you should know I am not a sentimental woman but.. Here.”  She dug through her robes and produced a small object.

  “Think of this as an apology"

 She handed him a small piece of yellow paper with a number scribbled on top and the word "Poveglia" at the bottom. Kira looked down at it then back at her face. It was as expressionless as always but there was a small hint of something Kira could not quite read in her eyes.

 “I don't work for you anymore" He announced while continuing to walk forward. The monk sped up and walked in front of him still holding the paper.

 "Then think of it as a present from a friend" She pushed the paper closer towards Kira's closed fist.

 'Friend'? He thought to himself. He had been working with her for the past three years but he had never thought of her as more than a boss really especially considering her stoic attitude towards him. Yet again she was, in fact, a monk, so that could be dismissed as part of her creed. Oh well.

 "Why should I trust you?" He tilted his head and raised his brow. Momoko had to admit he did have a point. She had sent him in a suicide mission fairly recently, after all.

 "You will not get what you seek in Morioh. There is simply too much going on but I know someone-"

 "Let me guess another one of your 'friends'" Kira rolled his eyes sarcastically.

 "I know someone that can help you get the quiet life you want." Momoko glared, she hated being interrupted.

 "Fine, but for the record if you are lying to me I will kill you this time. Do I make myself clear?" The tone of his voice let on that this was less of a threat and more of a matter-of-fact statement.

 "Fair enough"

 "Let me guess I'm going to have to offer my services to your 'friend'"

 "A small price to pay for a lifetime of tranquility, is it not?. My acquaintance has a very wealthy client who is looking for something-"

 "Do I look like a bloodhound to you?"

 "Stop interrupting"

 Kira raised his hands defensively and listened on. He knew Momoko Okamoto well enough to know when to take her seriously and despite yesterday's actions, he acknowledged she was someone who's bad side he did not want to be on.

 "As I was saying, he has a very wealthy client who is looking for something he has lost. Said item is very heavily guarded by a bunch of inconveniences that need to be dispatched, that's where you come in. They will explain more once you meet with them. In this paper you will find the coordinates to the meetup spot as well as the code word you must say in order to prove you are who you say you are"

 "You still haven't told me my reward."

 "My friend knows of a place solely populated with people in your state.No living beings to beings to be seen"

 "Go on"

 "Your reward is enough money to buy a house or apartment in the location of the aforementioned place"

 "What's the catch?"

 "The meeting place is in Europe"

 "Hm" 

 "I will pay for your travel expenses. You don't even have to take the job just go to the meeting"

 "I'll think about it" He opened his palm and allowed the paper to fall on it. The monk gave him a nod and went back to where she came from.

 ...

 In the afternoon of the very same day, Yoshikage Kira found himself in the Morioh Library. It was a Saturday night, there were hardly any patrons which made the place rather pleasant. There he was able to sit down and perhaps figure out additional information on the mission. He could not find anything on the word "Poveglia" but he did, locate the coordinates in the paper. It was a small café on the outsides of Sicily. Kira placed both hands under his chin.

 "Italy, huh?"

[shmosnet2]

Raziya Was India’s First Female Muslim Ruler and A Brave Warrior

Raziya Was India’s First Female Muslim Ruler and A Brave Warrior

Given the fact that Shams-Al-Din Iltutmish entered the court of the Delhi sultanate as a Turk slave and died as Sultan of Delhi, might have been the first indication that his daughter, Jalalat-Al-Din Raziya was destined for greatness. In 1236, Jalalat-Al-Din Raziya, historically referred to as Razia Sultan, ascended the throne as the first female ruler of the Delhi Sultanate. Though, her story might be perceived as romantic in popular culture, reality was anything but romantic. The First Female Successor for the Throne Iltutmish arrived at the Delhi sultanate as a Turk slave. He grew to be a great favorite of his master, Qutb Al-Din Aibak, the first Sultan of Delhi and so was married to the sultan’s daughter Qutub Begum becoming an actual part of the ruling family. With Qutb-Al-Din Aibak, he had a son Nasiruddin Mahmud and a daughter Jalalat-Al-Din Raziya. When Raziya was still a child, her grandfather Aibak died and her father became second Sultan of Delhi. During the final years of his life, Sultan Iltutmish had to make an important decision. Whom would he hand-over the administration of the sultanate? Based on qabliyat (i.e. capability), Iltutmish would have chosen his son Nasiruddin Mahmud, who at that time also ruled as governor of Bengal. Yet, under mysterious circumstance, Nasiruddin Mahmud died and Iltutmish was at a loss. None of his other sons, born from his other wives, were too young to be crowned his successor. His daughter Raziya had already shown her capability of managing the sultanate. When her father left for business or campaigning affairs, she took charges as a competent regent with the assistance of the Sultan’s trusted minister. She had become a well-educated woman, both in formal education as in the Qu’ran. Moreover, she was skilled in martial arts and, thus, an excellent trained warrior, rode both horses and elephants with an exquisite accomplishment and exercised authority with great dignity. Without consulting the ulama (i.e. scholars within the Muslim law), Iltutmish appointed his daughter Jalalat-Al-Din Raziya as his successor, for he saw “the signs of power and bravery” in her. Whenever someone questioned his decision he would reply: “My sons are devoted to the pleasures of the youth, and not one of them is qualified to be king […]. After my death, you will find that there is none more competent to guide the state than my daughter.” As such, Iltutmish became the first Sultan to appoint a woman as his heir apparent.

A Devoted Leader of her Empire and Subjects She established schools, academics, research centers and public libraries where both Islamic tradition manuscripts and Hindu works shared places. As a woman, Raziya was not given full support from the noblemen. She only managed to secure her control over the throne by dividing the opposition. After her official accession, many nobles opposed her. Ultimately, she won the majority over and the kingdom slumbered into peace again. She could extend the power of the state widely through the obedience and submission of maliks (i.e. kings) and amirs (i.e. state leaders). By building a system of roads, she could easily inform herself of the affairs in the distant parts of the empire. She linked towns up with villages and built small forts as guard posts around these routes. In addition, she established schools, academics, research centers and public libraries where both Islamic tradition manuscripts and Hindu works shared places. Only one of the many examples that showed that Raziya considered the Muslim community and the Hindu community on an equal footing. Raziya was clearly a devoted leader for her empire and subjects. She listened to her people’s complaints and demands, trying to reserve herself as a guiding hand among them instead of an indifferent ruler. By stating her title to be officially Raziya Sultan, rather than Raziya Sultana, she underlined her rightful credibility as a powerful sovereign leader of the Sultanate of Delhi. As her desire was to keep close relations with her people, Raziya Sultan substituted her female attire with that of a man’s head-dress and tunic, abandoned the veil and rode out on elephant without purdah (i.e. covering of the face). A Conspiracy That Secured the Existing Opposition of Raziya’s Noblemen Letting Raziya assume power, her noblemen had expected their female ruler to be a puppet in their hands. Instead, Raziya openly confessed herself to be an independent leader which caused much dissatisfaction among her nobles. With the arrival of Jamaluddin Yakut, a Habshi (i.e. Ethiopian) slave, the last straw was drawn. Yakut had a calm and dependable nature, something that lead to Raziya favouring him so much to elevate him to position of Amir-i-Akhur (i.e. intendent of the royal stables). This position was a strategic position, very close to the sovereign. Raziya Sultan had basically made a non-Turk commander of her army. She did not intend to counter the power of her Turkish nobles whom, at that moment had monopolized that position, but her choice eventually led to their decision to dispose her. Together, Malik-i-Kabir Ikthiyaruddin Aitigin and Ghiyasussin Balban, set a conspiracy into motion against Raziya Sultan and a key chess piece in their plan was Malik Ikhtiyauddin Mirza Altunia. Malik Ikhtiyauddin Mirza Altunia, a prominent noble man under Raziya’s father reign, had supported Raziya’s accession. Raziya favored him and had him rewarded with governorship of Tabarhinda (Bhatinda). Before his departure to Tabarhinda, he offered marriage to Raziya which she refused stating that her priority was taking care of the empire. Aitigin and Balban took advantage of Altunia’s absence and told him rumors about Raziya’s and Yakut’s intimacy. The fact that Raziya and Yakut were always together, discussing affairs concerning the empire and she asking him advice about strategies, Aitign and Balban could arouse Altunia’s jealousy by telling them that Raziya was in love with Yakut. In anger, Altunia joined the opposition of the rebels, offered his help to depose the Sultan and by doing so, he would receive a portion of the empire. A Prisoner Who Wins Over Her Captor to Win Back her Throne The noblemen could not oppose Raziya in Delhi, as she had joined most her subjects in support for her rule, therefore rebellions were started in the distant provinces. One of the many rebellions came from Tabarhinda, Altunia’s government, a place she never expected rebellion to be stirred. Still, she asked Yakut to prepare the march against Altunia. At that moment, the army was exhausted, having put down a different rebellion in Lahore and Yakut was afraid that victory would come so easily this time. Due to his loyalty, he did not discourage the Sultan. During the battle, Altunia realized that to defeat Raziya and to gain power for the nobles at Dehli, he had to kill Yakut. With the death of the commander of the army, soldiers lost their confidence and eventually surrendered to Altunia. Still trying to inspire her forces, Raziya sultan failed and was taking prisoner. Meanwhile, the noblemen at Delhi assigned a new sultan, Raziya’s stepbrother Muizuddin Bahram Shah. He was a drunkard and finally could serve as the puppet the noblemen wanted. During his reign, the people were oppressed and opponents of the empire were unmercifully killed. Th promise that the noblemen had made to Altunia was forgotten. Raziya, still captured, realized that in order to restore her throne, she had to convince Altunia of fighting against a common enemy. Alluring him with the promise of power and rule in the sultanate, Altunia decided to help her. After their marriage, Altunia and Raziya recruited an army to win back Delhi. A Story Made Romantic It is not known who made the offer of marriage first. In any case, it did not last very long. Nearing Delhi, Bahram Shah knew that the only way he could win was killing Raziya. The people of Delhi were still allied to Raziya Sultan and merely her presence was enough to harden their love and respect for her. Unfortunately, Raziya Sultan was defeated. Not much is known about the cause of her death. Some believe she fought as a valiant warrior on the battlefield until an arrow struck her. Others say she was defeated and fled where her survival was depending on a man who gave her bread and a place to sleep. During her sleep, the man saw a tunic of gold and pearls under her male army garment and realized that the man he had helped was a woman. He killed her, buried her body and took her valuables to sell on the market. Popular culture turns Raziya’s life into a romantic story. The supposed love triangle has been source for various on-screen adaptations: Raziya having an affair with her noblemen but growing overly dependent on the Abyssinian slave, leading to a jealous lover and her subsequent defeat. How many inaccurate versions may exist, we should never forget Raziya Sultan’s true story: that of an independent female ruler who fought until the bitter end for her Empire! Sources Brijbhushan Jamila: Sultan Raziya: Her Life and Times: A Reappraisal (Manohar Publications, New Delhi : 1990) – Chandra Satish: Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals : Delhi Sultanat [1206-1526] (Har- Anand Publications Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi :1997, rpt. 2015) – Dasgupta Shahana: Razia: The People’s Queen (Rupa & Co., New Delhi : 2001) – Eraly Abraham: The Age of Wrath: A History of the Delhi Sultanate (Penguin Books, India : 2014) – Fatima Mernissi, The Forgotten Queens of Islam (Polity Press 1993, 1993)

https://ift.tt/2KXiIGT . Foreign Articles November 26, 2019 at 08:17PM

[basicsofislam]

THE COMPANIONS OF THE PROPHET (PBUH) : Salman al-Farisi (r.a.).Part2

The Prophet explained it as follows:

"The light that came out of the rock and that you saw when I first hit it enlightened the manors of the city Hira and the city of Madayin of the Chosroes. Jibril told me that my ummah would dominate those cities. The light that came out of the rock when I hit it the second time enlightened the red manors of Byzantine. Jibril gave me the glad tiding that my ummah would dominate them. The light that came out of the rock when I hit it the third time enlightened the manors of Sana (Yemen). Jibril told me that my ummah would dominate them too. Feel joyful. My ummah will be helped and be victorious.  

The Prophet repeated the last sentence three times. When the Companions heard this glad tiding, they said, “Praise be to Allah. He keeps His promise. He promises us help after the siege of the polytheists.” They became happy.

After giving this glad tiding, the Prophet described the white manor of the Chosroes (Persian King) in Mada­yin. Hz. Salman knew the properties of the manors since he was from Iran. Upon this description, Salman said, “O Messenger of Allah! You are right. I swear by Allah, who sent you with the true religion and book that the properties of the manor is exactly like your description. I witness that you are the prophet of Allah.”

Finally, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) stated the following:

“O Salman! Allah will enable you to conquer those countries after my death. Damascus will definitely be conquered. Heraclius, the Byzantine king, will retreat to the furthest place in his land. You will dominate the whole Damascus. Nobody will be able to resist you. Ye­men will definitely be conquered. Then, the Chosroes will be killed.”

While the Prophet was giving the good news about the future to his Companions, the hypocrites (munafiqs) started to gossip. They tried to demoralize the Muslims by saying, “While you cannot fight in the battlefield out of fear and dig ditches, Muhammad promises you the manors of Hira and says he saw the city of Madayin of the Chosroes and that you will conquer those cities. Are you not surprised by his empty promises?”

However, their gossiping did not affect the belief of the Companions in the honesty of the Prophet at all. For, they definitely believed that the Prophet saw the centuries ahead in the future with the light of the prophethood. As a matter of fact, this glad tiding given by the Prophet at such a hard time took place during the caliphates of Hz. Umar and Hz. Uthman. The Muslims conquered the cities and countries mentioned by the Prophet. Several years after this glad tiding, Hz. Salman said, “I saw all of them to be conquered.” He thanked Allah Almighty for this boon.

The activity of digging trenches was completed after six days. Thus, the Muslims secured themselves. They started to wait for the polytheists to come. They arrived soon. They hurried in order to eliminate the Muslims as soon as possible. They were very confident. However, when they saw that Madinah was surrounded by ditches that were impossible to pass, they were astounded. The polytheists had never seen such a strategy. After a long siege, they had to return to Makkah in a terrible state.

Thus, thanks to the offer of Hz. Salman and help of Allah, the Muslims were saved from a big danger. Besides, the danger of the enemy was eliminated thanks to a decision made as a result of consultation; in addition, the glad tiding of the future conquests were given to them.

Hz. Salman was distinguished among the Companions due to his closeness to the Prophet. He served the Prophet all the time and frequently entered his house. He listened to the talk of the Prophet at night and learned from the Prophet.

Once, Hz. Salman went to visit the Prophet. The Messenger of Allah was reclining on a cushion. When Salman arrived, he gave the cushion on which he was reclining to Salman and said,

“O Salman! When a Muslim goes to visit his Muslim brother and he gives him a cushion as a gesture of hospitality, Allah Almighty forgives his sins.”

Salman received the reward of being close to the Prophet in advance. He reached a high rank in knowledge. The Messenger of Allah praised him by saying, “Salman is definitely full of knowledge.” Hz. Ali said, “The knowledge of the previous and future people is in Salman. He is an unending sea. On the other hand, when a great scholar like Hz. Muadh bin Jabal died, he advised his students to receive knowledge from Salman.

As Hz. Salman visited the Prophet frequently, talked to him and served him, the Prophet also visited Salman from time to time to please him.

Once, Hz. Salman became ill. The Prophet visited him and prayed for him as follows: “O Salman! May Allah Almighty grant you cure, forgive your sins and give you health of religion and body as long as you live!”

That a poor and lone person like Hz. Salman was so close to the Prophet and received compliments from him disturbed some people who were interested in Islam but who had not become Muslims yet. They felt them beneath them to be together with poor people with simple clothes. Once they made the Prophet the following offer by implying people like Hz. Salman and Abu Dharr:

“O Muhammad! Whenever we come to you, we see those poor people with you. We are the notables of the tribe of Mudar. Keep them away from you so that we will believe in you. We feel ashamed of being together with them; we cannot make our souls accept it. If we believe, the other tribes will believe too.”

After their offer, which was impossible to apply, the following verse was sent down:

“And keep thy soul content with those who call on their Lord morning and evening, seeking His Face; and let not thine eyes pass beyond them seeking the pomp and glitter of this Life.”

When the revelation was completed, the Messenger of Allah looked for Hz. Salman and Abu Dharr.  He found them at a corner making remembrance of Allah Almighty. He gave them the following glad tiding:  

“'Praise be to Allah Who did not take away my soul until He commanded me to restrain myself with men of my community. You should know that it is with you that I live and with you that I die.”

One of the properties of Hz. Salman was his hospitality. He always served his guests. He would offer the guests to eat anything he had in his house, whether it was a little or much. For, the Prophet stated the following in a hadith:

“If a guest despises the food the host brings him, he is destroyed; if a host avoids serving food to a guest despising the food he has, he is destroyed.”

Once, Shaqiq bin Salama and one of his friends were guests at Hz. Salman’s house. Salman prepared the table from the foods that he had in his house. They sat at the table. While eating, Shaqiq's friend said, "It would be nice if there was some pepper." Hz. Salman had no money to buy pepper but he wanted to please his guest. He pawned his water bottle to buy some pepper and brought it. After eating, the person who asked for pepper said, “Praise be to Allah Who has granted us contentment.” Hz. Salman said, “If you had been content with what you found on the table, my water bottle would not have been pawned.”

Hz. Salman was a heroic mujahid of Islam. He joined the army that was prepared for the conquest of Iran. He did very important activities in the army because he was from Iran. He guided the Islamic army in the land that they did not know. He gave them information about the weapons they used and their war tactics. He taught them how to kill the elephants the Iranian army used in the war. He also worked hard to make the people of Iran accept Islam. He invited them to Islam using their own language. He told them about the beauties of Islam. He told them that they could pay jizyah (tax) if they did not accept Islam. However, they did not accept any of the offers. Eventually big wars took place between them. The Islamic army had great victories.

After the conquest of Iran, Hz. Umar appointed Salman as the governor of Madayin. He fulfilled this duty properly. The people of Madayin loved him.

Hz. Salman had a simple and plain life. He wore and ate the same things both when he was a slave and when he was the governor of Madayin. He avoided all kinds of pomp and show off.

Hz. Salman treated the people under his command well; he did not give them hard work to do. He would help them in their work. He would even help his slave. Once, he was kneading dough. A person who came to visit him was surprised when he saw this. He asked, “What is the matter?” Hz. Salman said, “I sent the servant somewhere to do something; I did not want him to do also this.”

One of the greatest traits of Hz. Salman was his generosity. When he received the salary of governorship, which was five thousand dirhams, he would give it away to the poor. He met his needs by weaving baskets. He sold one basket for three dirhams; he would buy date leaves for one dirham of it, spend one dirham for his needs and give the remaining dirham to the poor. He would not dine without guests. He would call the poor and lone people to his house and entertain them.

Hz. Salman gave great importance to visiting his friends only for the sake of Allah. Once, he went to visit his close friend Abu ad-Darda from Madayin to Damascus on foot.

Hz. Salman visited ill people, consoled them and advised them to show patience. Once, he went to visit a friend of his who was ill. He was suffering a lot. When Hz. Salman saw him, he gave him the following glad tiding:

“If Allah Almighty gives an illness to a believing person and cures him later, it becomes atonement for his previous sins if he shows patience. It will also be a means of atonement for the sins that he will commit in the future. If Allah gives an illness to a sinner and cures him later and if that person has not shown patience and has complained all the time, that person is like a camel that is tied from its foot by its owner and that is released after a while; this camel does not know why it is tied and why it is released.”

Hz. Salman would laugh at three things and cry for three things. He laughed at the following things:

(1) A person who stretches his hopes in this world though death seeks him, (2) a person who is heedless and unaware of his Lord though his Lord is aware of him (3) a person who laughs aloud though he does not know whether he has attained his Lord's consent or wrath.

The three things that he cried for were as follows:

(1) Being separated from the Prophet, (2) experiencing the throes of death at his deathbed, (3) not knowing whether he will go to Hell or Paradise when he leaves the presence of Allah on the Day of Judgment. 

Hz. Salman gave the following advice about worshipping:

“Perform five daily prayers regularly! They are atonement for minor sins as long as you do not commit major sins. If a person commits a sin making use of the darkness of the night and unawareness of people, he is at a loss, not profit. A person who sleeps after performing prayers is neither at a profit nor at loss. Avoid worshipping so much as to prevent you from worshipping; worship normally but regularly.”

Salman al-Farisi served a lot by helping the words of the Prophet reach us. One of the hadiths reported by him is as follows:

I was once sitting under a tree with the Messenger of Allah. He caught hold of a dry branch of the tree and shook it until its leaves fell off. He then said to me, "O Salman! Will you not ask me why I am doing this?" I said, "Why you are doing this?' Thereupon, he said, "When a Muslim performs wudu properly and then observes his prayers five times a day, his sins fall off just as these leaves have fallen off."

Hz. Salman, who was a pious and ascetic person, became ill one day. Sa’d bin Abi Waqqas came to visit him. Hz. Salman was crying. Hz. Sa’d said, “Why are you crying? If you die, you will rejoin your friends. You will meet the Messenger of Allah at the Pond of Kawthar. The Prophet was pleased with you.”

Hz. Salman replied as follows:

“I am not crying because I am afraid of death or because I do not want to leave this world. What makes me cry is the following advice of the Messenger of Allah: ‘The wealth you own in this world should be as much as the food that a traveler carries with him.’ However, I look around me and see a lot of wealth.”

However, all of Hz. Salman’s things were worth 15 dirhams only. Then, Hz. Sa’d asked Salman to give him advice. Salman gave him the following exemplary advice:

“Remember Allah when you decide something or when you state your decree about an issue or when you divide goods among people.”

Hz. Salman called his wife when he was at his deathbed and said to her,  

“Open those doors. I expect guests today. I do not know which of the doors they will enter. Bring me the musk I had given you to keep. Mix it in water. Sprinkle the scent around my bed. For, my visitors will not eat but they like nice scent. Go downstairs after you have done what I said.”

His wife did exactly what he said. Then, she heard some whispers. When she went upstairs, she saw that Hz. Salman had died.

Yes, Hz. Salman, who received the following glad tiding of the Prophet rejoined the Prophet and the other Companions in Paradise:  “Paradise longs for three people. Ali, Ammar bin Yasir and Salman.”

May Allah be pleased with him!

[claramcguireartistry-blog]

Top 5 Wedding Blogs to Follow in case You're Planning Your Wedding

The late spring wedding season has formally arrived—and you'll be seeing exposed cakes, Edison knob outside lighting, and blooms in abundance through October. Prospective love birds have likely officially wrapped up their late spring occasions, yet for those of you simply beginning to consider your wedding next summer, presently is the ideal time to get a little motivation.

1. This marvelous Southern CA blog is an absolute necessity check whether you're getting hitched locally

Getting hitched in California? There are various web journals committed to the brilliant express that offer insider tips for the best merchants, bloom ranchers, settings, and the sky is the limit from there. Southern California Bride remains our go-to suggestion for those in SoCal who are hoping to wow their visitors.

Noteworthy notice: Though they give tips, traps, and information for everywhere throughout the US, Ruffled Blog is situated in California—and they realize how to enable you to design an incredible gathering. Locate the best tips for your territory by perusing by area.

2. Non-conventional couples will love our next decision

Not every person likes to shading inside the lines—and in the event that you need to swear off a first move, avoid the bundle tossing, or discard the detailed cake, there's still a lot of #weddinginspo out there. Draw up Rock n' Roll Bride for some extraordinary, out of control thoughts to kick you off.

Good notice: How does a geek tastic wedding or a vault committed to pizza conveyance forever stable? Find magnificent thoughts like these and more at the Offbeat Bride.

3. Remain on-pattern with this flourishing asset

With a huge number of social adherents, Style Me Pretty needed to make our rundown. It's a standout amongst the most well known wedding web journals to ever exist, in light of current circumstances. Perusers love their recommendation, design tips, and shocking photograph sets—and we do as well!

Respectable notice: Get the charm and glitz of a customary wedding, regardless of your objectives, spending plan, or course of events, with a little assistance from Green Wedding Shoes. You'll cherish the plenty of thoughts and DIY venture plans they have accessible.

4. Keep it natural with some master direction

Easygoing, straightforward, and downplayed tastefulness have been excessively stylish as of late—and the natural look is detonating in prevalence. In case you're seeking after something outdoorsy and extraordinary, make certain to bookmark Rustic Wedding Chic.

Noteworthy notice: The rural stylish is one of the most straightforward to accomplish with a little diligent work. Helpful couples should peruse DIY Bride for ravishing, simple to-do ventures.

5. Financial plan cordial assets and tips

Hoping to spare a couple of dollars so you can spend too much on your special night? Can't legitimize burning through the majority of your reserve funds on one day? You can at present have an awesome wedding with a lower spending plan! The Budget Savvy Bride has huge amounts of tips and suggestions to enable you to set aside extra cash without settling on quality.

Respectable notice: Kiss My Tulle started as a spending wedding blog and has extended to incorporate everything the straightforward millennial lady of the hour could seek after. We're talking DIY thoughts, spending agendas, and everything in the middle of to enable you to handle your wedding arranging (without going insane all the while!).

Reward: we have the deets on gathering arranging and how to ensure your wedding music is on point

Exquisite Event Entertainment has been helping couples have astonishing weddings and gatherings for quite a long time—and our accomplished Los Angeles wedding DJs and MCs can work with you and your organizer to ensure your unique day goes off easily. Get in touch with us to study our extraordinary lighting bundles, DJ administrations, and photobooths!

Best Wedding Cake Scenes in Movies

Each wedding has something that makes it a mark occasion. For one lady of the hour it could be about the dress. For the following, the most imperative angle could be the music. And after that there are the weddings that spin around the sustenance. From tidbits to appetizers, some pre-marriage ceremony put a lot of significance on what is around to eat. While you may have an incomparable steak or brilliant finger sustenances on your enormous day, there is no wedding nourishment more essential than the wedding cake.

Snap here to see 10 Best Wedding Cake Movie Scenes

Wedding cakes nowadays can cost upward of $1,000. They can be robed in fondant or decorated with genuine blossoms. Maybe they are a transcending heap of cupcakes or smaller than expected cakes. Regardless of how you cut it, the wedding cake is one thing individuals remember — and it isn't a direct result of the taste. The wedding cake is something beyond a dessert shop masterpiece, it is an ordeal the whole wedding gathering recollects, regardless of whether the lady of the hour and man of the hour softly feed each other chomps or crush it in their cherished's face. That individual association with the sweet is the reason we recall any film scene that includes a wedding cake.

In films, wedding cakes will in general take the spotlight. They can sing, much like the lovable cake from Muppets Take Manhattan, or be flung over the room in a rambunctious sustenance battle. The cake might be too wonderful to even think about ignoring, much like the fabulous elephant cake in Rachel Getting Married. The thing is, a wedding cake is something to recollect, be it, in actuality, or in the motion pictures. Look at these exemplary true to life cake scenes that you unquestionably always remembered.

Tips for Handling 5 Wedding-Day Disasters

Nobody needs to hear the words wedding and calamity in a similar sentence—particularly when it's your own wedding that is being discussed. While genuine catastrophes are fortunately uncommon, littler disasters are not bad, but at the same time not enough to blow anyone's mind even with the best arranged weddings.

As a portion of LA's busiest wedding DJ's, we've seen a lot of bloopers, and we would say, the strongest couples not just have an extraordinary disposition toward the unforeseen, yet in addition are furnished with strategies to guarantee any disasters don't escape hand. To enable you to ride out harsh spots in your big day, we've assembled a rundown of tips for how to deal with wedding accidents.

Imagine a scenario where: It's falling down in buckets on my open air wedding.

While a stormy wedding day isn't excessively likely in LA, each savvy couple has a Plan B, even in radiant California. It's a smart thought to lease a tent for an outside wedding—at any rate, it'll give your visitors an obscure spot to chill. You may even need mutiple; for example, in the event that you have live performers, they may require a secured territory to play.

Another thought? In the event that the conjecture isn't looking extraordinary, incorporate a reasonable umbrella on every visitor's seat as a cute gift. On the off chance that it downpours, everybody has an individual haven, and your picture taker will get some truly cool Mary Poppins-esque shots.

Most importantly, it is key for you as the lady of the hour and man of the hour to stay cheery about a blustery function, and your visitor will stick to this same pattern. Since there's literally nothing you can do to change the climate, simply unwind, have a decent giggle about it, and appreciate the magnificence of the compelling force of nature—that is the thing that the couples highlighted in this NY Times article did, and the wet climate wound up being an affectionate memory for them. (Clue: read the entire article for progressively extraordinary thoughts for what to do in the event that it downpours at your wedding).

Consider the possibility that: I have a closet breakdown on the move floor.

Stains, tears, runs, broken heels, popped ties, and even feathered creature crap on a lapel are reasonable worries for any lady of the hour or lucky man. With regards to fixing closet breakdowns, there's not a viable alternative for being readied. Prior to your big day, collect a "medical aid unit" with things, for example,

Additionally, toss in some bandages, moleskin, and moment ice packs, just on the off chance that you or an individual from your wedding party experiences a cut, rankle, or a face-plant into the move floor.

Any move floor disasters can likewise be moderated by an ace wedding DJ, who will realize exactly what to state—and play by occupy the group—in most any circumstance.

So in the event that you or a visitor does to be sure have a humiliating minute, basically grin, snicker, and proceed onward. Almost certainly, everybody will understand, and the less dramatization you make out of it, the more rapidly individuals will proceed onward to the following thing, similar to a line dance or eating cake!

Imagine a scenario in which: I stumble on my dress when I stroll down the passageway.

For the most part, the most ideal approach to approach any incident is with cleverness—and that is never more valid than with regards to a slip or outing. Dismiss it and continue. For somewhat viewpoint, look at this story: one couple's picture taker truly fell through the ice, and he continued shooting the entire time. It's a quite sure thing that any lurches you take will be inconsequential in correlation.

Consider the possibility that: I wake up with seasonal influenza on my big day.

Becoming ill on your big day is the most exceedingly terrible! While you can't absolutely kill the opportunity that you'll contract the muck, you can take measures to forestall ailment and guarantee your insusceptible framework is working in best structure for your wedding and special first night.

Paving the way to the day, take insusceptible boosting nutrients and enhancements, drink a lot of water, and get your 8 hours of rest each night. On the off chance that conceivable, abstain from spending too much time in swarmed open spots, and if your sister asks you to keep an eye on wheezing baby, this is one time when it's legitimate to state no. In the event that you do wake up on your big day feeling off, ensure you have some OTC cures in your purse—ibuprofen, Pepto, decongestant, and so forth.— to give some help after all other options have been exhausted should you need it.

Imagine a scenario where: my playlist goes haywire and the chicken move stalls out on rehash.

On the off chance that one thing can cut down the vibe of a wedding gathering, it's terrible music, or an absence of music totally. Luckily, this accident is practically 100% avoidable. Skirt the DIY playlist and contract an accomplished, proficient DJ to deal with your music. Additionally, ensure the DJ you pick has their own demonstrated reinforcement framework if there should arise an occurrence of crisis for one less thing to stress over.

Last useful tidbits

In the event that you do wind up getting fatigued in spite of doing your best to be a trooper, don't be excessively hard on yourself. It's

[arrianna21]

~Joyride~

Watching races are fun, but it’s even better when you and your boyfriend can informally participate, leading to a fantastic night out under the stars.

Game: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Animal Crossing: City Folk

Word Count: 3,681

It was the final lap, the racers were making the last turn and the crowd was going wild. Mario and Rosalina were neck and neck, the man just barely ahead as he tried to pull away on the last leg of the race. Royal Raceway was packed with fans as they all sat in anticipation on who would place in the Prix.

“Come on, Rosalina, come on.” You mutter to the blue princess as you watch with bated breath.

“Give it up, honey. Mario’s gonna be the winner for this Grand Prix.” Jin, your boyfriend and number one fan of Mario, cheers as the kart racer speeds ahead. You had surprised Jin with tickets to the event a few weeks ago and he was beyond thrilled. Kart racing was one of his favorite sports and you were glad that he could also see his favorite celebrity, the famous Mario, participate in this week’s race. Just as Mario approaches the end, an orange motorcycle flies by as the princess of the galaxy uses her last power-up, a red mushroom, to speed through the finish line.

The crowd roars in exhilaration, colorful Toads and Shy Guys bouncing up and down, you included. While each racer crosses the checkered line and does a victory lap, you clap and cheer with excitement. “Go, Rosalina!”

Jin also claps beside you, though his expression is far from satisfied. Bumping his shoulder with your own, you snicker, “See, I told you she would win.”

“Told you she would win,” he mocks in return, rolling his eyes with a scoff. “Mario still has a chance; they have to add up all their scores at the end.”

“Oh yeah?” You tap his arm and point to the giant scoreboard where the final numbers were displayed. The blonde woman’s name was at the very top, 1 point ahead of Mario. Jin groans as you happily yell because Rosalina just won the Banana Cup Prix. Since she won gold that meant you were also a winner. “Time to pay up, Jinnie,” you laugh, holding your hand out expectantly.

The man grumbles to himself and begrudgingly digs in his pocket before giving you 300 Bells.

“Thank you.” You croon and your boyfriend’s response is to sulk, crossing his arms pitifully while his lower lip pokes out in a sad pout.

“You know, my character got second place, shouldn’t I get a small reward?” the man whines.

“Aww, of course, Jinnie.” You coo, leaning over to press a kiss to his cheek.

He turns to look at you in bewilderment. “That’s it?”

“Kisses on the lips are only for first place winners.”

“Yah! Is this any way to treat your loving boyfriend?” he complains and you cackle at his childish antics.

After the racers park their cars, the crowd begins to fan out. Lots of Toads begin bouncing down the steps as they get ready to head home, Shy Guys and Koopa Troopas doing the same. Once the crowd disperses, you and Jin also leave, walking down the stairwell so you can catch the bus before it leaves.

“Thanks for coming, folks! Hope you enjoyed the races.” Lakitu says, carrying his stoplight over his shoulder as he floats by.

“We had a great time.” You tell the red-shelled turtle who gives you a thumbs up in return.

One of the toads was riding a yellow Yoshi, the little mushroom guy waving excitedly when he sees you two. “Bye guys! See you next time!” he hollers, high-fiving Jin when he passes.

“Good seeing you, Toad, Yoshi.” Jin smiles to the duo. The yellow dinosaur makes a noise of happiness and you giggle, patting him on the head to which he chitters excitedly.

Since the race had just finished there were still a lot of people waiting at the bus stop when you exit the arena. You and Jin stand in the long line talking to one of the villagers from another city.

“That was a great Prix! I thought Donkey Kong was gonna win it all, but third isn’t bad either.” Axel the elephant trumpets giddily. This had been the blue elephant’s first time coming to a Grand Prix and he couldn’t pass on the opportunity when some of his friends invited him to join them.

“You’re right! He got second on the Donut Plains 3 course,” you say.

“Yeah, he drifted well on those muddy turns. It was impressive.” Jin adds and the villager nods in agreement.

“I know! It’s not easy to do on that course, especially with a standard kart.”

The three of you were right at the front of the line and Axel walks up the steps after the cat in front of him. Both you and Jin follow, but are soon stopped by the bus driver.

“Sorry kids, we’re up to the brim with passengers. I’m afraid I’ll have to come back and get you after I drop them off.” The turtle informs you apologetically.

“That’s okay, Kapp’n, we don’t mind waiting.” Jin responds to the sad driver.

“Aww, thanks you two, I should be back in an hour.” The driver says, shutting the doors and pulling away from the curb.

“Wait, an hour?” you shout, but your unanswered question drifts away with the departing yellow bus. No other cars or people were left in the quiet parking lot except for you and your boyfriend.

“Come on, honey, why don’t we wait inside?” Jin suggests, wrapping an arm around you as he leads you back to the stadium.

Now that everyone was gone it left the place vacant, your soft footsteps echoing in the large stadium. As you two approach the stairs to the back of the arena seats, a door opens nearby. Peach and Daisy walk out, the two princesses strolling by arm in arm, oblivious to your presence while they chatter about some sign for a patisserie advertisement. Their pink and orange dresses swish as they walk to the exit, the clacking of their heels slowly fading away.

Once the two girls vanish, Jin pulls you in the direction they came from. When you send him a questioning look, your boyfriend merely shushes you by putting a finger over his lips. Looking down the hall where Peach and Daisy came from, you see a door with a sign that reads Kart Parking-Racers Only!

“Jin, we can’t go in there.” you whisper when he tugs you closer to the metal entry. Not responding, he merely pulls you forward and pushes the red door open.

There’s no one inside thankfully and that’s all the incentive Jin needs to continue into the parking garage. Bright fluorescent lights shine down on the large space, showcasing the various karts and bikes. The room was filled with different vehicles, each coming in a variety of colors that matched the racers’ own theme color.

“Jin,” you hiss when the man starts inspecting the automobiles, “we’re not supposed to be here.”

“Stop worrying, we’ll be fine.” He says, waving you off as he continues staring at the karts in wonder. His fingers slide along the slick frames, looking more like a kid who met their favorite idol, or at least the idol’s car. The male inspects the red and blue kart, checking the tires, gadgets, and everything in between. “There’s no one here. Besides we’re stuck here for an hour anyway. Might as well enjoy it.”

The garage door is already open and you could see some toads out on a swan boat, the moonlight reflecting on the dark water. Maybe you could convince your ambitious boyfriend to just rent a boat and ride it around the lake, instead of trespassing inside the parking lot. Hearing a grunt from beside you, you find Jin struggling to push a kart through the open doorway.

“What are you doing?” you ask, watching him maneuver the pink kart around the other vehicles.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” he huffs. “There’s plenty of time to kill so why not?”

“Why not?! Jinnie, you can’t just take the karts out for a midnight stroll.” Your eyes are drawn to the side where a famous emblem is painted in black and red. “Especially not Bowser’s Badwagon!” you screech as you recognize the spiked turtle’s growling face on either side of the kart doors.

Jin eventually makes it to the finish line while you desperately keep an eye out for any swarms of Koopa Troopas or a pissed off villain.

“Well, it’s the only one big enough for two people.” Jin explains, groaning as he steers the kart to face the starting line.

“That still doesn’t mean, wait, what do you mean two people? I’m not getting in that.” Crossing your arms, you glare at Jin and he merely stares back before rolling his eyes, sighing to himself.

“Get in, Y/N. I’m taking you on a ride.” He smirks, mischievous grin adorning his face.

“Jin, we can’t just take one of the karts out for a spin.”

“Says who?” your boyfriend asks, already climbing into the extra-large seat and fiddling with the multiple knobs on the dash.

“Says the sign. Even if we did get permission, it’s still risky. I know you have your license and all but…you’re not even listening to a word I’m saying.” You point out, noting his dead and bored expression as your responsible words go in one ear and out the other.

Jin holds his hand up, palm facing you in offering, but you don’t accept it. Your refusal has him quirking an eyebrow before you eventually sigh in resignation. “Fine, but just one lap.” You say sternly, grabbing his open hand and he helps you climb inside.

When you’re properly settled in front of him, he leans closer so his broad chest is pressing into your back, hands reaching for the controls. “Hold on tight,” he warns you, pulling the little seatbelt over your lap. He turns on the engine and the machine grumbles to life, vibrations shaking your frame. You prepare yourself, willing your body to relax except your hands as they tighten their grip on your boyfriend’s arms as he hits the gas.

The kart speeds forward and Jin taps the break out of reflex, mostly for your sake, the vehicle jerking slightly. It doesn’t take long for Jin to get used to the accelerator before he’s stepping on the gas and sharply turning around the first corner of the track.

“Whoa!” you yell when he tries to drift but ends up turning too far and drives through the grass, the kart immediately slowing down.

“I got it, I got it.” He reassures you, pressing a small kiss to your temple for comfort.

Driving back onto the road, Jin drifts again and even manages to get some blue sparks to pop up behind the back wheels, but he comes too close to the grass and loses the speed boost.

“Watch out for the Piranha Plant!” you scream when you hit the green pipe, the kart bouncing back from the impact while Jin nonchalantly drives around it.

“Don’t worry, they don’t bite racers on this course.” He says as he passes the rest of the venus flytraps with ease.

Turning sharply, Jin speeds up again so he can hit the orange boosts in a straight line. The kart flies forward and you clench your hands around his as the ride zips up into the air. The moment you leave the bridge, the glider opens automatically, Bowser shaped wings spreading out above you. Your boyfriend easily maneuvers through the night sky, landing safely on the ground as he continues racing. He doesn’t try drifting on the last leg, not that he would have been able to because the kart was difficult to control on the sharp turns.

You lean back into him, head bobbing as he manages to drive smoothly through the finish line. “Okay, we had our fun. We should go now.” You say to your boyfriend, but he doesn’t even slow down, only speeding up as he continues to drive forward.

“It’d be wrong not to do the traditional three laps.” He laughs behind you. Tilting your head, you give him a knowing smile and leave a kiss on the underside of his jaw, letting him have his fun.

The second lap went much better than the previous one, with Jin only bumping into a tree once as he attempted to drift again. He had managed to spark some orange in the tires before the kart hit the grass. At least the leaves were pretty so you didn’t mind the tiny pink streaks added to your hair.

It was the final lap and both of you were getting more comfortable with the pink kart. Jin jerks the vehicle to the left and holds it steady. Blue sparks fly up, followed quickly by orange. “You can do it, Jinnie!” you cheer, looking over his shoulder to watch the neon colors spin around the back tires and he grits his teeth in concentration. Eventually, pink sparks shoot behind you as he hits maximum drift speed.

Letting go, the kart accelerates forward as if you had used a mushroom booster, the wind rushing by as you speed along the track. You both yell in exhilaration and Jin turns the corner so he can drift again. The curve wasn’t that long so he only manages to hit the orange sparks, but it’s enough to shoot up the tilted bridge.

“I think I’m actually getting the hang of this,” Jin says and you detect a hint of surprise and a little bit of relief as well.

“Yeah, you’re doing great, sweetie.” You encourage him.

Hitting the speed boosts, the kart is once more up in the air with the Bowser glider. The kart rides smoothly through the air, but you can only relax for a moment.

“Balloon, balloon, balloon!” you yell as you head straight for the blue hot air balloon floating directly in your path.

“Wah!” Jin screams, swerving around the giant vessel. Luckily, the kart only bumps into the side of the basket, knocking the poor Toad off his feet, but thankfully he manages to stay inside. “Whoops, sorry!” Jin apologizes and you turn to see the citizen shakily right himself before you return to the ground.

As you turn the corner, you see blue and red lights flashing in the distance.

“Oh no, are those police chompers?” you frantically ask, the kart inevitably driving you closer and closer. The Koopa Troopas drive away, following the path of the track, but it wouldn’t be long before they spotted you.

“Quick, teleport us out of here.” Jin says.

Each vehicle was equipped with a screen that listed the different locations so racers could easily and quickly transport to the tracks. You panic, clicking on the first map you see. The kart glows before you are transported somewhere else. When you land, you find that you are on one of the Rainbow Roads, the gold star rings rotating above your heads.

Jin looks around, “Huh. Good choice, honey.”

A timer pops up with 2 minutes displayed on the kart’s screen and you worriedly turn to face him. “What’s that for?”

“Uhh, I think you hit the time trial.” He says, continuing to glance around the empty space.

Beeping sounds fill the starting line as the countdown begins, the turtle on the cloud absent since this race wasn’t put into his schedule. When the third beep dings, your boyfriend wastes no time hitting the gas. As he drives down the hill, the kart speeds up and he swerves towards the first mini star booster.

“Jin,” you call his name unsurely, not liking how you were up in the sky with no guardrails.

“Relax, honey. I got this.”

The kart shoots through the other boosters, gaining momentum as it launches up the first ramp, sending the glider flying open. He guides the kart through the star rings, hitting each one as he does, and lands gracefully on the multi-colored course. You had to admit it was pretty incredible that you were up so high, the glittering city down below was exceptionally tiny as you cautiously look over the edge.

Feeling the track bounce, you notice the first Chain Chomp up ahead, the ball bouncing up and down in the middle of the rainbow. It moves slowly, floating rather than bouncing it seems, and it’s not hard to drive underneath it without getting squished in the process.

Avoiding the first obstacle, you go back to admiring the city and star lights around you, eyes wide in wonder. “Wow, this is beautiful,” you whisper in awe.

While Lakitu might be absent, the music and fireworks were still blasting as a train chugs along. The jumping Toads smile and wave as they toss gold coins, the shiny currency landing not too far ahead. Driving through the money, the kart manages to catch two on the curve. Colorful fireworks display the different racers and you spot Mario’s gold face along with a pink outline of Princess Peach.

At the second lap, the wheels of the kart flip sideways for anti-gravity mode and the track turns sharply. Jin takes the turn with ease, blue and then orange sparks shooting up. A few seconds later, pink follows and the vehicle flies forward. You and Jin scream giddily, like a bunch of little kids, the rush of the wind feeling incredible against your skin.

Another two Chain Chomps bounce beside each other, the track waving from the momentum as you get some air from the movement. There are a few more curves and then you are crossing into the final lap, fireworks cascading above you. Jin takes another hard turn though no guardrails are in sight, pink sparks appear effortlessly. Speed boosters are set up ahead and you tap Jin’s arm.

“Maybe you should slow down a bit. We don’t have Lakitu to fish us out if we fall.”

“Nah, check this out!” he hollers, drifting into both stars, the kart gaining even more speed and getting extremely close to the edge.

The last ramp approaches quickly and with the speed boost from both the stars and drifting, you practically become a shooting star yourself. What makes it even better is when Jin uses all three mushroom boosters to top it off, accelerating rapidly into the finish line. You had forgotten all about the power-ups that came with the time trial, considering it was an unofficial one.

“Hey, look.” Jin points to the screen excitedly. You see the bright numbers and smile happily at him. He had finished the race in 1 minute and 40 seconds.

                                   ~*~

“Thanks again for the ride, Kapp’n.” you tell the turtle.

“No problem, lass! Have a good night, you two lovebirds.” The driver replies, waving briefly before shutting the bus doors as you and Jin wave in return, watching as the bus leaves the town.

When you had teleported back to Royal Raceway, most of the police chompers had left to go check other tracks and so you and Jin were able to put Bowser’s kart back in its place without being seen. By the time you had returned to the bus stop, the driver arrived less than 10 minutes later.

“So what did you think of my driving skills? Pretty impressive, right?” Jin asks as you two walk around your quaint city.

“It was very impressive,” you agree. “Definitely a moment I won’t ever forget.”

He wraps an arm around you, strolling past the apple and cherry trees in the direction of the house you both shared. Passing some villagers who were still out and about, you wave to your next door neighbor, Eunice, and the cute black sheep waves back. A faint whistle sounds from above and you both glance up at the starry sky, but see nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until a white beam shoots across the blackness.

“Cool, there must be a meteor shower tonight.” Jin comments, watching another bright streak flit by.

“Oh yeah, I think they made an announcement about it on the town bulletin board.” You reply, vaguely remember seeing a note posted next to the town hall.

“It’s pretty.” He says and you hum in agreement, leaning closer into him. “Just think, we were almost as high as those meteors, racing in a kart, not even half an hour ago.” You laugh, nudging his shoulder playfully and he chuckles. “Aw, come on, you know you had fun.”

“Yeah, you’re right. It was awesome.” You two were next to the apple tree right beside your house. Suddenly, you remember the little prizes and you pull out the gold coins, giving one to him while you hold the other. “I forgot I managed to snatch these from the Badwagon before we left.” You tell him, admiring the star embedded on the coin.

Jin smiles fondly, putting the token carefully in his pocket. “Thank you, honey, for letting me take you on a ride in Bowser’s kart around the racetracks.” He says with earnest, happiness glittering in his eyes and your heart warms.

Your response is to stand on your toes and kiss him on the lips, stunning your boyfriend for a few seconds. Pulling back, you murmur, “you’re welcome,” and giggle when you see his wide eyed expression.

“Wait, what was that for? I thought kisses on the lips were only for first place winners.” He repeats your earlier words with confusion and you smirk.

“A promise is a promise.”

“But I didn’t win first today. Well, Mario didn’t win first, but you know what I mean.”

“Yes, you did. You won first place in my heart.”

His eyes widen even more, almost comically, when he hears your declaration and then he’s hugging you tightly. “I’m so proud of you, my cheesiness has successfully rubbed off on you.”

You laugh before pecking his lips again at his cuteness. He leans against the apple tree, pulling you into his chest as you two continue watching the gorgeous meteor shower in the starry night.

A/N: Also the meteor shower was unplanned, there actually was one when I logged onto my Animal Crossing. It was really cool! And the drifting with the Badwagon is also true, after practicing it’s actually a pretty good kart for drifting. I was surprised.

[anonymouslyabsent-blog]

Is Longer Car Warranty Cost Its Price?

Five everyone was tragically killed in a two-vehicle crash on an interstate exit ramp in South Florida on Saturday, April 13, 2013. 5 killed the actual crash counseled me young adults according any report at the Associated Limelight. Take proper care of yourself! Get the exercise impact . you need. If you do not possess time for those regular step or yoga class, anyway take a stroll every day or each and every day for a half lesson. Make the top offer within your budget. And confident to the offers are relevant to your best fans. You don't have to bribe them. Think in terms of rewarding persons. Lead with the current. Close with the proposal. Include the offer inside letter's P . s .. Mention it on the response device. Direct mail isn't a branding check vehicle owner. It in order to be sell. Bull elephants go into what we call 'musth', which is a hormonal phase that contains the bulls prepared to mate. Younger bulls for example become very aggressive and agitated in this state and every one bulls in musth must be given a diverse birth. The bull is due to musth, you will observe wet patches on the medial side of its head, that is penis in order to dribbling actually. The rising cost of gas, in addition to growing concerns about environmental surroundings has forced the Usa government in order to new suggestions people to save energy. Back to 2005, the inner Revenue Service decided to provide individual motorists a financial incentive start using cars that used fewer classic fuels and were better for the environment. And this incentive is not lower prices at the pump. The inner Revenue Service started offer you tax credits ranging about two thousand dollars completely up to 50 grand, depending exactly what kind of car you choosed to drive. If you would like to have a wood storage it required to get a permit. Without requiring permission control it . build any extra buildings. Every person important to know ahead of time exactly exactly what the requirements comes to authorization are, an individual can this particular into account as well as design your goal. You can always request the details in advance to find out exactly what's permitted and what's definitely not in order to prevent problems. If offer other payments they couldn't make, what's to say they usually stays up-to-date the actual use of car settlements? Unfortunately, in the vehicle business, you really want to be certain your customers are going to help you to enhance payments and reliable. Making use of the information above, you could be sure your next sale is a victor all the way through.

[lifeofresulullah]

The Life of The Prophet Muhammad: The Treaty of Hudaybiyah and Calling the Great States of the World to Islam

Calling The Negus of Abyssinia to Islam

It was the month of Muharram in the 7th year of the Migration.

First, the Prophet gave the following letter to Umayya and sent him to Ashama, the Negus of Abyssinia:

“In the name of God, the most Merciful, the most Compassionate!

From Muhammad, the Messenger of God to the Negus of Abyssinia!

O king! I want you to be a Muslim.

I praise Allah, except whom there is no god, who is the Absolute Ruler, the Pure One, the Source of Peace, the Inspirer of Faith and the Guardian, on behalf of you.

I witness that Jesus, son of Mary, is the slave and word of God.  God breathed that word —which is the word “Kun!” (be)— and that spirit into Maryam, who was very clean and chaste and who had left the worldly life completely. She became pregnant to Jesus. Thus, God created Jesus. Similarly, God had created Adam with His hand of power (as a miracle).

O King! I invite you to believe in God, to worship him, to obey me and to believe in what was sent to me by God; I am the Messenger of God appointed to convey them to people. I invite you and your people to believe in God, who is mighty and glorious.

I conveyed you the principles of Islam and advised you; accept my advice.

May peace be upon the guided ones!”

Amr, who set off from Madinah in order to go to Abyssinia, was also assigned the following tasks:

a) To ask the Negus to send the Muslims that had migrated there to Madinah,

b) To ask the Negus to marry Umm Habiba, who was a widow among the mujahids, off to the Prophet.

Amr, the envoy of the Prophet, who arrived in Abyssinia, handed the letter of the Prophet to the Negus.

The Negus held the letter of the Prophet with respect, rubbed it on his eyes, kissed it and put it on his head; then, he made his men read it.  After the letter was read, he came down from his throne and sat on the ground with modesty. Then, he declared his Islam by uttering kalima ash-shahada and said, “If it was possible, I would go and visit him.”Then, he added, “He is the illiterate prophet that Jews and Christians have been waiting for. Moses gave the good news about the emergence of Jesus by saying, ‘he rides a donkey’; similarly, Jesus gave the good news about the emergence of Muhammad by saying, ‘he rides a camel’.I wish I were in Muhammad's service rather than being a sovereign king.”

The Letter is Put in a box

Ashama, the Negus, asked for a box made of elephant bone and put the letter of the Prophet in it. He said, “Abyssinians will not lack goodness and abundance as long as they have this letter.”

It is mentioned that a man in Damascus has a letter resembling this letter of the Messenger of God. That person said he bought the letter from a market Abyssinia.

According to the information given, the letter is about 23x33 cm and it is written on a piece of leather in brown ink.  

At the end of the 17th line of letter, there is a mark of a round seal. This seal is 2,5 cm in diameter. It is in the form of three lines; from top to bottom: “Muhammad” in one line, “Messenger” in one line and “God” in one line.

The Demand of Amr b. As from the Negus

Amr b. As, who was a genius of politics from the Quraysh, was in Abyssinia at that time. He saw that Amr b. Umayya frequently went to the presence of the Negus. He was very angry when he saw it; he even thought of killing Amr b. Umayya. Once he went to the presence of the Negus and said,  “O Negus! I see someone often comes to your presence; he is the envoy of a man who is our enemy. Surrender him to me so that I will kill him!”

The Negus got very furious when he heard this suggestion. He hit Amr on the nose with the back side of his hand. Amr thought his nose was broken.

Then, the Negus said furiously, “You demand a person whom Gabriel (Jibril), who had brought revelation to the Prophet Moses, brought revelation to in order to kill him; is that right?”

Amr said, “O Negus! Is he really a prophet?”

The Negus answered as follows:

“Woe on you, O Amr! Listen to me and obey him at once! I swear by God that he is on the right path and will defeat those who oppose him just like Moses, who defeated the Pharaoh and his army.”

It was time for Amr to embrace the true path. He said to the Negus, “Will you accept my allegiance to him and witness my being a Muslim?”

The Negus accepted his offer. Amr became a Muslim and offered his allegiance to the Prophet through the Negus. However, he did not tell his friends that he had become a Muslim. Amr b. As, who embraced Islam in Abyssinia in the 7th year of the Migration, revealed that he had become a Muslim in Madinah in the 8th year of the Migration in the presence of the Messenger of God one year later.  

The Negus of Abyssinia, Ashama, who declared recklessly that he had become a Muslim, gave a letter to Amr b. Umayya, the envoy of the Prophet. He stated in the letter that he fulfilled what the Prophet had demanded. He also stated that he was sending him some valuable presents and that he himself would go and visit the Prophet in Madinah if the Prophet asked him to do so.

Umm Habiba is Married off to the Prophet

Umm Habiba was the daughter of Abu Sufyan, the leader of the Quraysh. She had migrated to Abyssinia from Makkah with her husband Ubaydul­lah b. Jahsh in order to be able to practice her religion freely. Ubaydullah became a Christian later but she maintained her religion. When Ubaydullah died, she became a widow. Meanwhile, she saw in her dream Ubaydullah calling her as , ”O Mother of Believers!”. She interpreted it as, “the Messenger of God will marry her.”

As it is known, the Arab women would not marry unless they found someone equal. Umm Habiba could not find anyone equal to her in a land that she was not familiar with; she was in a difficult situation. It was necessary to reward such an honorable woman who was alone and away from her relatives in a land far away from her country. Therefore, the Messenger of God wanted to marry her.  

The Prophet had asked the Negus to marry her off to him. The Negus fulfilled the wish of the Prophet and married her off to him.

Muslim Muhajirs are Sent to Madinah

Another demand of the Messenger of God from Ashama was “to send the Muslim muhajirs to Madinah”. As­hama fulfilled this demand, too. He embarked the muhajirs on a ship and sent them to Madinah under the command of Hazrat Jafar.

[memnonofarcadia]

The Food Chain Diary

3 December – Location unknown, I’ll be honest But my guides know, and that’s how I’m getting home at the end of this, one way or another. They don’t want to stay here longer than they have to, and I agree. Despite how grand civilization can make a fella feel it only takes one short trip to the Arctic, to real tundra to understand why civilization was built in the first place. Out there on the ice and snow the homo sapiens is, in essence, a slow moving free meal. With the exception of larger hunting parties (who still operate with an unhealthy degree of risk as it is) if you go out there unarmed or even remotely underprepared then there is little chance of anyone ever seeing you again. That is, till you get dug up in the Spring after most of the snow has melted. Say what you will about the grimness of the bodies on Everest, but at least they’ve got company. We’re not on Everest though, this is Northern Canada, beginning in what was once British Columbia, but now is something far, far more savage to the eye. If you’ve never been there before then the culture shock might kill you; best to ease your way into Mooseland slowly. They say there are moose in the Rockies but I don’t know if I really believe that one. I’ve never seen them, but here I saw one on our first day. Caribou too. Pity this wasn’t a hunting party, like I said. A good haul could feed a family for a year, maybe more if it were rationed. But no one wants to live like that, not when there are microwaves in the kitchen. It’s so cold out here. I can hardly think. It only makes sense to start at the beginning, since now, in my current state, hunched over like a bloody gargoyle writing this, it’s difficult to think of the next word, much less the next point. I’m in a tent, shrouded in many layers of warm clothing and blankets, but it’s never enough. Until you’re in the sleeping bag, preferably one that can accommodate two bodies, then the cold you will feel. Bites through anything you might have to protect you from it. Anything. Makes me reevaluate Huskies and other snow-dogs, how they not only survive but relish in the climate. Makes me wonder if Jack London only wrote fiction back then, as well. This hurts. To put it bluntly I needed a break. It had been a good few years on the beat of “nature-reporting” without much past the working class paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. It builds character, and indeed if you want to teach someone the ways of the world then a minimum wage job in some shithole will do it as well as anything, but… I’m not interested in developing something I can’t sell, at least then I wasn’t. Rent had to come first, so it did. The trick, I decided one night at an airport bar (it was dark out so we’ll say night. Truth be told it was closer to four or five AM when I had my last), was to find a lead that not everyone would be able to get. Something so good, so exclusive, that whatever nature-thing it got pitched to would have to take it on the spot. More than that, if I went out and got the article first I could practically name my price, within reason of course. If I got a juicer on my first time ‘round then they might throw me a bone and send me to Brazil to look at some toucans. But I didn’t pick Brazil, because everyone went there, and there was no way to make it in that market. In my infinite wisdom, on that greasy plastic/wooden stool, rewarding myself indiscriminately, I chose to find my way up North, to the real Arctic. People went out there, sure, but past the locals it wasn’t because anyone wanted to. Everyone wanted to be in Brazil, remember? So did I, so once I was clear of any obligations I made plans to fly my butt out there to earn my place. Don’t get me wrong now, I did my research and made sure to pack the required gear, Jack London hadn’t been for nothing after all, but even still as I waited for the taxi to bring me to the airport I wasn’t exactly brimming with hubris. In the same way that resolutions made after midnight never stick, travel plans made under the influence are consistently regrettable. Jesus, what had I been thinking? Maybe if I drank some more I could reconnect with my inner-idiot and find out what exactly, but after half a bottle of wine and God knows how many beers the flight attendant cut me off. She had seen it too many times before to feel sorry for me, tourists who were going somewhere they just remembered they didn’t want to be. Oh well, shouldn’t have bought the ticket then, but I digress. The company chosen to take me on my little trip through the Arctic was handled by two brothers, both fanatic outdoorsmen who were happy to bring a novice like me out and about. Lovely, I thought. A real homegrown thing they had going on there, very nice. They’d even offered to pick me up from the airport, which was very kind, and since I was paying my own bills on this one I took them up on it. Their names were Tom and Pete, which I took to mean they would look like the Canadian stereotype I had in my head: extremely friendly, beer-loving, hockey-worshipping, beaver-hugging folk of the North who walked around in jerseys drinking coffee all day long. However this theory was pretty spectacularly blown out of the water when Pete came to pick me up. He had a little sign with my name on it, and he was dressed in casual-outdoors gear, not ready to head out quite yet but give him 20 and he’d meet you there. What disturbed me greatly wasn’t his garb, or even his frankly rippling physique, but the series of scars that ran from the top of his scalp – where hair used to be – down to below his chin. His toasty smile made me feel welcome, but his weeping eye tore the knots in my stomach apart into open despair. They could take me wherever they liked, obviously, this was their domain, but now I knew that there was only so much they could do to protect me. When something wants you dead out there in the flat, then you’re dead. Bear don’t care, or so Pete told me himself. On the two hour car ride out to where the three of us would spend the night he regaled me with stories of adventures past, far too many to ever hope to write down here, but here’s the gist: “Yeah, see, my brother Tom, he’s the one up at the cabin right now getting everything ready, yeah see we’ve been out doing this thing now for the better part of 15 years, and I tell you ain’t nothing scarier I seen in that time than a 500 pound grizzly hauling ass straight at me. Had my rifle but it was broke from a wolf the night before, which is another story, so it was me with basically a club against this killing machine!” “Is that how…?” I gestured towards his scars, seeing an opportunity to get the scoop. Pete just chuckled. “No no no, that was from the time I almost got gored by a deer,” he said, touching the marks on his head tenderly, like a thing to be preserved. “If a bear gets you you’re dead. That’s kind of the end of it. But back to what I was saying about that last one, it charged me, full on, bat out of hell, and then about three quarters way through it just stops, turns around, and strolls off chilled as you like,” “So…?” I struggled to get the words out, searching for some kind of moral in his God-fueled nightmare. “So, it was a fake-out. Elephants do the same thing I hear, they might charge you but they don’t always go for the kill,” “Like a rattle snake has its rattle?” “Exactly,” Pete said, slapping the steering wheel happily. “Now you’re gettin’ it,” Jesus. Even now as I write this, out in the actual place we were talking about, I’m sure I still don’t “get it” 100%, but I’m also not sure if I ever want to. Not for someone as pasty as I. That was the scene as we pulled into the cabin and met up with Tom, who, barring the lack of scarring, was a virtual clone of his brother. At least it wouldn’t be hard to tell the twins apart, I joked sourly to myself. That first night it was pitch dark by the time we arrived, and the brothers informed me that it’s better to start in the morning, which I wasn’t complaining about. I didn’t want to start at all. We played cards and, yes, indulged in one or two bottles of the frothy good stuff but nothing preventative. If I was going to suffer it would be sober, I resolved. For the good of the article. For the paycheck. Only in hindsight is it obvious that I should have either brought a camera or coughed up the dough to bring a photographer along with me, for no words will ever do the robust architectures of the Cold World justice. The sky, the mountains, the crest, slopes, hills, and all the endless flora and fauna are simply impossible to put into words, not accurately anyway. So I won’t bother here, because it won’t work. Believe me or don’t, but the following is my take on the landscape of the barren North: there is little doubt that the reason for its deadliness is its beauty, for the Gods knew no man alone should possess such a thing. Leave it to the beasts and the wildmen, the things that have nowhere else to go. I mentioned this idea to Pete and Tom, but they didn’t respond, merely smiling at the thought. “Maybe that’s just the world, brother,” Tom finally said. Maybe. Or maybe it’s some mushy-gushy greeting card BS. Not my department either way, thankfully. All told it was only a total of two days (or three, if you count the first night at the cabin) that was spent traversing the landscape, keeping a steely eye out for predators and such. Tom was pointing out different tracks and kinds of scat to follow while Pete could look at a scene and tell you probably what happened: the weather pushed the snow up like this, critters burrowed down here, a predator sniffed them out and got one or two but the rest got away. All from shapes in the snow and the aforementioned scat. Where was I anymore? I couldn’t fathom it, still can’t. There is this world that we choose to ignore, that I do, and the irony is that the knowledge of its existence only drives you further away, unless you were an animal or a wildman, again. For as intense as it all got, what with the awful nights and exhausting days, the beauty and serenity and wonder always remained, even for a layman like me. At one point Pete spotted some tracks and called Tom over to see what he thought. Not more than a few seconds of thought went into it before they both turned around to me and announced that we were going back the way we came, we’re not in any danger but we were going back. I nodded and turned around to trudge back along the same path I’d followed those two on, marked by footprints in the snow. This isn’t really going anywhere, and the wind is picking up outside, again. The brothers discussed it and one of them is going to keep watch overnight, making a little igloo-type configuration in front of the tent. “But we’re not in any danger, not in the middle of camp like this,” Pete reassured me. I nodded and went back to whatever it was I was doing, probably nothing. Clearly since you’re reading this we all made it home okay, but it’s worth mentioning that that was what my last night in the Arctic was like, cold, stunned, often afraid, but never alone, even by myself.

[basicsofislam]

PROPHET MUHAMMAD (PBUH)’s BIOGRAPHY : Calling The Negus of Abyssinia to Islam

It was the month of Muharram in the 7th year of the Migration.

First, the Prophet gave the following letter to Umayya and sent him to Ashama, the Negus of Abyssinia:

“In the name of God, the most Merciful, the most Compassionate!

From Muhammad, the Messenger of God to the Negus of Abyssinia!

O king! I want you to be a Muslim.

I praise Allah, except whom there is no god, who is the Absolute Ruler, the Pure One, the Source of Peace, the Inspirer of Faith and the Guardian, on behalf of you.

I witness that Jesus, son of Mary, is the slave and word of God.  God breathed that word —which is the word “Kun!” (be)— and that spirit into Maryam, who was very clean and chaste and who had left the worldly life completely. She became pregnant to Jesus. Thus, God created Jesus. Similarly, God had created Adam with His hand of power (as a miracle).

O King! I invite you to believe in God, to worship him, to obey me and to believe in what was sent to me by God; I am the Messenger of God appointed to convey them to people. I invite you and your people to believe in God, who is mighty and glorious.

I conveyed you the principles of Islam and advised you; accept my advice.

May peace be upon the guided ones!”[ Tabari, Tarikh, Vol. 3, p. 89; Ibn Qayyim, Zadu’l-Maad, Vol. 3, p. 71; Halabi, Insanu’l-Uyun, Vol. 3, p. 293. ]

Amr, who set off from Madinah in order to go to Abyssinia, was also assigned the following tasks:

a) To ask the Negus to send the Muslims that had migrated there to Madinah,

b) To ask the Negus to marry Umm Habiba, who was a widow among the mujahids, off to the Prophet.

Amr, the envoy of the Prophet, who arrived in Abyssinia, handed the letter of the Prophet to the Negus.

The Negus held the letter of the Prophet with respect, rubbed it on his eyes, kissed it and put it on his head; then, he made his men read it.  After the letter was read, he came down from his throne and sat on the ground with modesty. Then, he declared his Islam by uttering kalima ash-shahada and said, “If it was possible, I would go and visit him.”[ Ibn Sa’d, Tabaqat, Vol. 1, p. 258. ]Then, he added, “He is the illiterate prophet that Jews and Christians have been waiting for. Moses gave the good news about the emergence of Jesus by saying, ‘he rides a donkey’; similarly, Jesus gave the good news about the emergence of Muhammad by saying, ‘he rides a camel’.I wish I were in Muhammad's service rather than being a sovereign king.”[ Ibn Qayyim, Zadu’l-Maad, Vol. 2, p. 71; Halabi, Insanu’l-Uyun, Vol. 3, p. 294. ]

The Letter is Put in a box

Ashama, the Negus, asked for a box made of elephant bone and put the letter of the Prophet in it. He said, “Abyssinians will not lack goodness and abundance as long as they have this letter.”[ Ibn Sa’d, ibid, Vol. 1, p. 258; Halabi, ibid, Vol. 3, p. 293. ]

It is mentioned that a man in Damascus has a letter resembling this letter of the Messenger of God. That person said he bought the letter from a market Abyssinia.

According to the information given, the letter is about 23x33 cm and it is written on a piece of leather in brown ink.  

At the end of the 17th line of letter, there is a mark of a round seal. This seal is 2,5 cm in diameter. It is in the form of three lines; from top to bottom: “Muhammad” in one line, “Messenger” in one line and “God” in one line.

The Demand of Amr b. As from the Negus

Amr b. As, who was a genius of politics from the Quraysh, was in Abyssinia at that time. He saw that Amr b. Umayya frequently went to the presence of the Negus. He was very angry when he saw it; he even thought of killing Amr b. Umayya. Once he went to the presence of the Negus and said,  “O Negus! I see someone often comes to your presence; he is the envoy of a man who is our enemy. Surrender him to me so that I will kill him!”

The Negus got very furious when he heard this suggestion. He hit Amr on the nose with the back side of his hand. Amr thought his nose was broken.

Then, the Negus said furiously, “You demand a person whom Gabriel (Jibril), who had brought revelation to the Prophet Moses, brought revelation to in order to kill him; is that right?”

Amr said, “O Negus! Is he really a prophet?”

The Negus answered as follows:

“Woe on you, O Amr! Listen to me and obey him at once! I swear by God that he is on the right path and will defeat those who oppose him just like Moses, who defeated the Pharaoh and his army.”

It was time for Amr to embrace the true path. He said to the Negus, “Will you accept my allegiance to him and witness my being a Muslim?”

The Negus accepted his offer. Amr became a Muslim and offered his allegiance to the Prophet through the Negus. However, he did not tell his friends that he had become a Muslim. Amr b. As, who embraced Islam in Abyssinia in the 7th year of the Migration, revealed that he had become a Muslim in Madinah in the 8th year of the Migration in the presence of the Messenger of God one year later.  

The Negus of Abyssinia, Ashama, who declared recklessly that he had become a Muslim, gave a letter to Amr b. Umayya, the envoy of the Prophet. He stated in the letter that he fulfilled what the Prophet had demanded. He also stated that he was sending him some valuable presents and that he himself would go and visit the Prophet in Madinah if the Prophet asked him to do so.[ Tabari, Tarikh, Vol. 3, p. 89; Ibn Qayyim, Zadu’l-Maad, Vol. 2, p. 71-72. ]

Umm Habiba is Married off to the Prophet

Umm Habiba was the daughter of Abu Sufyan, the leader of the Quraysh. She had migrated to Abyssinia from Makkah with her husband Ubaydul­lah b. Jahsh in order to be able to practice her religion freely. Ubaydullah became a Christian later but she maintained her religion. When Ubaydullah died, she became a widow. Meanwhile, she saw in her dream Ubaydullah calling her as , ”O Mother of Believers!”. She interpreted it as, “the Messenger of God will marry her.”[ Ibn Sa’d, ibid, Vol. 8, p. 97. ]

As it is known, the Arab women would not marry unless they found someone equal. Umm Habiba could not find anyone equal to her in a land that she was not familiar with; she was in a difficult situation. It was necessary to reward such an honorable woman who was alone and away from her relatives in a land far away from her country. Therefore, the Messenger of God wanted to marry her.  

The Prophet had asked the Negus to marry her off to him. The Negus fulfilled the wish of the Prophet and married her off to him.[ Ibn Sa’d, ibid, Vol. 8, p. 97-98. ]

Muslim Muhajirs are Sent to Madinah

Another demand of the Messenger of God from Ashama was “to send the Muslim muhajirs to Madinah”. As­hama fulfilled this demand, too. He embarked the muhajirs on a ship and sent them to Madinah under the command of Hazrat Jafar.[ Ibn Sa’d, ibid, Vol. 1, p. 259; Tabari, Tarikh, Vol. 3, p. 89-90. ]

[thefortyeightlawsofpower-blog]

LAW # 36 : DISDAIN THINGS YOU CANNOT HAVE: IGNORING THEM IS THE BEST REVENGE

JUDGEMENT

By acknowledging a petty problem you give it existence and credibility. The more attention you pay an enemy, the stronger you make him; and a small mistake is often made worse and more visible when you try to fix it. It is sometimes best to leave things alone. If there is something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it. The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

The Mexican rebel leader Pancho Villa started out as the chief of a gang of bandits, but after revolution broke out in Mexico in 1910, he became a kind of folk hero—robbing trains and giving the money to the poor, leading daring raids, and charming the ladies with romantic escapades. His exploits fascinated Americans—he seemed a man from another era, part Robin Hood, part Don Juan. After a few years of bitter fighting, however, General Carranza emerged as the victor in the Revolution; the defeated Villa and his troops went back home, to the northern state of Chihuahua. His army dwindled and he turned to banditry again, damaging his popularity. Finally, perhaps out of desperation, he began to rail against the United States, the gringos, whom he blamed for his troubles.

In March of 1916, Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico. Rampaging through the town, he and his gang killed seventeen American soldiers and civilians. President Woodrow Wilson, like many Americans, had admired Villa; now, however, the bandit needed to be punished. Wilson’s advisers urged him to send troops into Mexico to capture Villa. For a power as large as the United States, they argued, not to strike back at an army that had invaded its territory would send the worst kind of signal. Furthermore, they continued, many Americans saw Wilson as a pacifist, a principle the public doubted as a response to violence; he needed to prove his mettle and manliness by ordering the use of force.

The pressure on Wilson was strong, and before the month was out, with the approval of the Carranza government, he sent an army of ten thousand soldiers to capture Pancho Villa. The venture was called the Punitive Expedition, and its leader was the dashing General John J. Pershing, who had defeated guerrillas in the Philippines and Native Americans in the American Southwest. Certainly Pershing could find and overpower Pancho Villa.

The Punitive Expedition became a sensational story, and carloads of U.S. reporters followed Pershing into action. The campaign, they wrote, would be a test of American power. The soldiers carried the latest in weaponry, communicated by radio, and were supported by reconnaissance from the air.

In the first few months, the troops split up into small units to comb the wilds of northern Mexico. The Americans offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to Villa’s capture. But the Mexican people, who had been disillusioned with Villa when he had returned to banditry, now idolized him for facing this mighty American army. They began to give Pershing false leads: Villa had been seen in this village, or in that mountain hideaway, airplanes would be dispatched, troops would scurry after them, and no one would ever see him. The wily bandit seemed to be always one step ahead of the American military.

THE ON AND THE CRAPES

A starving fox ... saw a cluster Of luscious-looking grapes of purplish luster Dangling above him on a trellis-frame. He would have dearly liked them for his lunch, But when he tried and failed to reach the bunch: “Ah well, it’s more than likely they’re not sweet—Good only for green fools to eat!”

Wasn’t he wise to say they were unripe Rather than whine and gripe?

FABLES. JEAN DE LA FONTAINE. 1621-1695

Once when G. K. Chesterton’s economic views were abused in print by George Bernard Shaw, his friends waited in vain for him to reply. Historian Hilaire Belloc reproached him. “My dear Belloc,” Chesterton said, “I have answered him. To a man of Shaw’s wit, silence is the one unbearable repartee.

THE LITTLE, BROWN BOOK OF ANECDOTES, CLIFTON FADIMAN, ED., 1985

By the summer of that year, the expedition had swelled to 123,000 men. They suffered through the stultifying heat, the mosquitoes, the wild terrain. Trudging over a countryside in which they were already resented, they infuriated both the local people and the Mexican government. At one point Pancho Villa hid in a mountain cave to recover from a gunshot wound he received in a skirmish with the Mexican army; looking down from his aerie, he could watch Pershing lead the exhausted American troops back and forth across the mountains, never getting any closer to their goal.

All the way into winter, Villa played his cat-and-mouse game. Americans came to see the affair as a kind of slapstick farce—in fact they began to admire Villa again, respecting his resourcefulness in eluding a superior force. In January of 1917, Wilson finally ordered Pershing’s withdrawal. As the troops made their way back to American territory, rebel forces pursued them, forcing the U.S. Army to use airplanes to protect its rear flanks. The Punitive Expedition was being punished itself—it had turned into a retreat of the most humiliating sort.

Interpretation

Woodrow Wilson organized the Punitive Expedition as a show of force: He would teach Pancho Villa a lesson and in the process show the world that no one, large or small, could attack the mighty United States and get away with it. The expedition would be over in a few weeks, and Villa would be forgotten.

That was not how it played out. The longer the expedition took, the more it focused attention on the Americans’ incompetence and on Villa’s cleverness. Soon what was forgotten was not Villa but the raid that had started it all. As a minor annoyance became an international embarrassment, and the enraged Americans dispatched more troops, the imbalance between the size of the pursuer and the size of the pursued—who still managed to stay free—made the affair a joke. And in the end this white elephant of an army had to lumber out of Mexico, humiliated. The Punitive Expedition did the opposite of what it set out to do: It left Villa not only free but more popular than ever.

What could Wilson have done differently? He could have pressured the Carranza government to catch Villa for him. Alternatively, since many Mexicans had tired of Villa before the Punitive Expedition began, he could have worked quietly with them and won their support for a much smaller raid to capture the bandit. He could have organized a trap on the American side of the border, anticipating the next raid. Or he could have ignored the matter altogether for the time being, waiting for the Mexicans themselves to do away with Villa of their own accord.

THE ASS AND THE GARDENER

An ass had once by some accident lost his tail, which was a grievous affliction to him; and he was everywhere seeking after it, being fool enough to think he could get it set on again. He passed through a meadow, and afterwards got into a garden. The gardener seeing him, and not able to endure the mischief he was doing in trampling down his plants, fell into a violent rage, ran to the ass, and never standing on the ceremony of a pillory, cut off both his ears, and beat him out of the ground. Thus the ass, who bemoaned the loss of his tail, was in far greater affliction when he saw himself without ears.

FABLES, PILPAY, INDIA, FOURTH CENTURY

THE PRODIGY OX

Once, when the Tokudaiji minister of the right was chief of the imperial police, he was holding a meeting of his staff at the middle gate when an ox belonging to an official named Akikane got loose and wandered into the ministry building. It climbed up on the dais where the chief was seated and lay there, chewing its cud. Everyone was sure that this was some grave portent, and urged that the ox be sent to a yin-yang diviner. However, the prime minister, the father of the minister of the right, said, “An ox has no discrimination. It has legs—there is nowhere it won’t go. It does not make sense to deprive an underpaid official of the wretched ox he needs in order to attend court.” He returned the ox to its owner and changed the matting on which it had lain. No untoward event of any kind occurred afterward. They say that if you see a prodigy and do not treat it as such, its character as a prodigy is destroyed.

ESSAYS IN IDLENESS, KENKO, JAPAN, FOURTEENTH CENTURY

Remember: You choose to let things bother you. You can just as easily choose not to notice the irritating offender, to consider the matter trivial and unworthy of your interest. That is the powerful move. What you do not react to cannot drag you down in a futile engagement. Your pride is not involved. The best lesson you can teach an irritating gnat is to consign it to oblivion by ignoring it. If it is impossible to ignore (Pancho Villa had in fact killed American citizens), then conspire in secret to do away with it, but never inadvertently draw attention to the bothersome insect that will go away or die on its own. If you waste time and energy in such entanglements, it is your own fault. Learn to play the card of disdain and turn your back on what cannot harm you in the long run.

Just think—it cost your government $130 million to try to get me. I took them over rough, hilly country. Sometimes for fifty miles at a stretch they had no water. They had nothing but the sun and mosquitoes.... And nothing was gained.

Pancho Villa, 1878-1923

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

In the year 1527, King Henry VIII of England decided he had to find a way to get rid of his wife, Catherine of Aragon. Catherine had failed to produce a son, a male heir who would ensure the continuance of his dynasty, and Henry thought he knew why: He had read in the Bible the passage, “And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.” Before marrying Henry, Catherine had married his older brother Arthur, but Arthur had died five months later. Henry had waited an appropriate time, then had married his brother’s widow.

Catherine was the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, and by marrying her Henry had kept alive a valuable alliance. Now, however, Catherine had to assure him that her brief marriage with Arthur had never been consummated. Otherwise Henry would view their relationship as incestuous and their marriage as null and void. Catherine insisted that she had remained a virgin through her marriage to Arthur, and Pope Clement VII supported her by giving his blessing to the union, which he could not have done had he considered it incestuous. Yet after years of marriage to Henry, Catherine had failed to produce a son, and in the early 1520s she had entered menopause. To the king this could only mean one thing: She had lied about her virginity, their union was incestuous, and God had punished them.

There was another reason why Henry wanted to get rid of Catherine: He had fallen in love with a younger woman, Anne Boleyn. Not only was he in love with her, but if he married her he could still hope to sire a legitimate son. The marriage to Catherine had to be annulled. For this, however, Henry had to apply to the Vatican. But Pope Clement would never annul the marriage.

By the summer of 1527, rumors spread throughout Europe that Henry was about to attempt the impossible—to annul his marriage against Clement’s wishes. Catherine would never abdicate, let alone voluntarily enter a nunnery, as Henry had urged her. But Henry had his own strategy: He stopped sleeping in the same bed with Catherine, since he considered her his sister-in-law, not his lawful wife. He insisted on calling her Princess Dowager of Wales, her title as Arthur’s widow. Finally, in 1531, he banished her from court and shipped her off to a distant castle. The pope ordered him to return her to court, on pain of excommunication, the most severe penalty a Catholic could suffer. Henry not only ignored this threat, he insisted that his marriage to Catherine had been dissolved, and in 1533 he married Anne Boleyn.

Clement refused to recognize the marriage, but Henry did not care. He no longer recognized the pope’s authority, and proceeded to break with the Roman Catholic Church, establishing the Church of England in its stead, with the king as the head of the new church. And so, not surprisingly, the newly formed Church of England proclaimed Anne Boleyn England’s rightful queen.

The pope tried every threat in the book, but nothing worked. Henry simply ignored him. Clement fumed—no one had ever treated him so contemptuously. Henry had humiliated him and he had no power of recourse. Even excommunication (which he constantly threatened but never carried out) would no longer matter.

Catherine too felt the devastating sting of Henry’s disdain. She tried to fight back, but in appealing to Henry her words fell on deaf ears, and soon they fell on no one’s. Isolated from the court, ignored by the king, mad with anger and frustration, Catherine slowly deteriorated, and finally died in January of 1536, from a cancerous tumor of the heart.

Interpretation

When you pay attention to a person, the two of you become partners of sorts, each moving in step to the actions and reactions of the other. In the process you lose your initiative. It is a dynamic of all interactions: By acknowledging other people, even if only to fight with them, you open yourself to their influence. Had Henry locked horns with Catherine, he would have found himself mired in endless arguments that would have weakened his resolve and eventually worn him down. (Catherine was a strong, stubborn woman.) Had he set out to convince Clement to change his verdict on the marriage’s validity, or tried to compromise and negotiate with him, he would have gotten bogged down in Clement’s favorite tactic: playing for time, promising flexibility, but actually getting what popes always got—their way.

Henry would have none of this. He played a devastating power game—total disdain. By ignoring people you cancel them out. This unsettles and infuriates them—but since they have no dealings with you, there is nothing they can do.

And in this view it is advisable to let everyone of your acquaintance—whether man or woman—feel now and then that you could very well dispense with their company. This will consolidate friendship. Nay, with most people there will be no harm in occasionally mixing a grain of disdain with your treatment of them; that will make them value your friendship all the more. Chi non stima vien stimato, as a subtle Italian proverb has it—to disregard is to win regard. But if we really think very highly of a person, we should conceal it from him like a crime. This is not a very gratifying thing to do, but it is right. Why, a dog will not bear being treated too kindly, let alone a man!

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER, 1788-1860

THE MONKEY AND THE PEAS

A monkey was carrying two handfuls of peas. One little pea dropped out. He tried to pick it up, and spilt twenty. He tried to pick up the twenty, and spilt them all. Then he lost his temper, scattered the peas in all directions, and ran away.

FABLES, LEO TOLSTOY, 1828-1910

This is the offensive aspect of the law. Playing the card of contempt is immensely powerful, for it lets you determine the conditions of the conflict. The war is waged on your terms. This is the ultimate power pose: You are the king, and you ignore what offends you. Watch how this tactic infuriates people—half of what they do is to get your attention, and when you withhold it from them, they flounder in frustration.

MAN: Kick him—he’ll forgive you. Flatter him—he may or may not see through you. But ignore him and he’ll hate you.

Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams, 1968

As some make gossip out of everything, so others make much ado about everything. They are always talking big, [and] take everything seriously, making a quarrel and a mystery of it. You should take very few grievances to heart, for to do so is to give yourself groundless worry. It is a topsyturvy way of behaving to take to heart cares which you ought to throw over your shoulder. Many things which seemed important [at the time] turn out to be of no account when they are ignored; and others, which seem trifling, appear formidable when you pay attention to them. Things can easily be settled at the outset, but not so later on. In many cases, the remedy itself is the cause of the disease: to let things be is not the least satisfactory of life’s rules.

BALTASAR GRACIÁN, 1601-1658

KEYS TO POWER

Desire often creates paradoxical effects: The more you want something, the more you chase after it, the more it eludes you. The more interest you show, the more you repel the object of your desire. This is because your interest is too strong—it makes people awkward, even fearful. Uncontrollable desire makes you seem weak, unworthy, pathetic.

You need to turn your back on what you want, show your contempt and disdain. This is the kind of powerful response that will drive your targets crazy. They will respond with a desire of their own, which is simply to have an effect on you—perhaps to possess you, perhaps to hurt you. If they want to possess you, you have successfully completed the first step of seduction. If they want to hurt you, you have unsettled them and made them play by your rules (see Laws 8 and 39 on baiting people into action).

Contempt is the prerogative of the king. Where his eyes turn, what he decides to see, is what has reality; what he ignores and turns his back on is as good as dead. That was the weapon of King Louis XIV—if he did not like you, he acted as if you were not there, maintaining his superiority by cutting off the dynamic of interaction. This is the power you have when you play the card of contempt, periodically showing people that you can do without them.

If choosing to ignore enhances your power, it follows that the opposite approach—commitment and engagement—often weakens you. By paying undue attention to a puny enemy, you look puny, and the longer it takes you to crush such an enemy, the larger the enemy seems. When Athens set out to conquer the island of Sicily, in 415 B.C., a giant power was attacking a tiny one. Yet by entangling Athens in a long-drawn-out conflict, Syracuse, Sicily’s most important city-state, was able to grow in stature and confidence. Finally defeating Athens, it made itself famous for centuries to come. In recent times, President John F. Kennedy made a similar mistake in his attitude to Fidel Castro of Cuba: His failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs, in 1961, made Castro an international hero.

A second danger: If you succeed in crushing the irritant, or even if you merely wound it, you create sympathy for the weaker side. Critics of Franklin D. Roosevelt complained bitterly about the money his administration spent on government projects, but their attacks had no resonance with the public, who saw the president as working to end the Great Depression. His opponents thought they had an example that would show just how wasteful he had become: his dog, Fala, which he lavished with favors and attention. Critics railed at his insensitivity—spending taxpayers’ money on a dog while so many Americans were still in poverty. But Roosevelt had a response: How dare his critics attack a defenseless little dog? His speech in defense of Fala was one of the most popular he ever gave. In this case, the weak party involved was the president’s dog and the attack backfired—in the long run, it only made the president more sympathetic, since many people will naturally side with the “underdog,” just as the American public came to sympathize with the wily but outnumbered Pancho Villa.

It is tempting to want to fix our mistakes, but the harder we try, the worse we often make them. It is sometimes more politic to leave them alone. In 1971, when the New York Times published the Pentagon Papers, a group of government documents about the history of U.S. involvement in Indochina, Henry Kissinger erupted into a volcanic rage. Furious about the Nixon administration’s vulnerability to this kind of damaging leak, he made recommendations that eventually led to the formation of a group called the Plumbers to plug the leaks. This was the unit that later broke into Democratic Party offices in the Watergate Hotel, setting off the chain of events that led to Nixon’s downfall. In reality the publication of the Pentagon Papers was not a serious threat to the administration, but Kissinger’s reaction made it a big deal. In trying to fix one problem, he created another: a paranoia for security that in the end was much more destructive to the government. Had he ignored the Pentagon Papers, the scandal they had created would eventually have blown over.

Instead of inadvertently focusing attention on a problem, making it seem worse by publicizing how much concern and anxiety it is causing you, it is often far wiser to play the contemptuous aristocrat, not deigning to acknowledge the problem’s existence. There are several ways to execute this strategy.

First there is the sour-grapes approach. If there is something you want but that you realize you cannot have, the worst thing you can do is draw attention to your disappointment by complaining about it. An infinitely more powerful tactic is to act as if it never really interested you in the first place. When the writer George Sand’s supporters nominated her to be the first female member of the Académie Française, in 1861, Sand quickly saw that the academy would never admit her. Instead of whining, though, she claimed she had no interest in belonging to this group of worn-out, overrated, out-of-touch windbags. Her disdain was the perfect response: Had she shown her anger at her exclusion, she would have revealed how much it meant to her. Instead she branded the academy a club of old men—and why should she be angry or disappointed at not having to spend her time with them? Crying “sour grapes” is sometimes seen as a reflection of the weak; it is actually the tactic of the powerful.

THE MAN AND HIS SHADOW

There was a certain original man who desired to catch his own shadow. He makes a step or two toward it, but it moves away from him. He quickens his pace; it does the same. At last he takes to running; but the quicker he goes, the quicker runs the shadow also, utterly refusing to give itself up, just as if it had been a treasure. But see! our eccentric friend suddenly turns round, and walks away from it. And presently he looks behind him; now the shadow runs after him. Ladies fair, I have often observed... that Fortune treats us in a similar way. One man tries with all his might to seize the goddess, and only loses his time and his trouble. Another seems, to all appearance, to be running out of her sight; but, no: she herself takes a pleasure in pursuing him.

FABLES, IVAN KRILOFF, 1768-1844

Second, when you are attacked by an inferior, deflect people’s attention by making it clear that the attack has not even registered. Look away, or answer sweetly, showing how little the attack concerns you. Similarly, when you yourself have committed a blunder, the best response is often to make less of your mistake by treating it lightly.

The Japanese emperor Go-Saiin, a great disciple of the tea ceremony, owned a priceless antique tea bowl that all the courtiers envied. One day a guest, Dainagon Tsunehiro, asked if he could carry the tea bowl into the light, to examine it more closely. The bowl rarely left the table, but the emperor was in good spirits and he consented. As Dainagon carried the bowl to the railing of the verandah, however, and held it up to the light, it slipped from his hands and fell on a rock in the garden below, smashing into tiny fragments.

The emperor of course was furious. “It was indeed most clumsy of me to let it drop in this way,” said Dainagon, with a deep bow, “but really there is not much harm done. This Ido tea-bowl is a very old one and it is impossible to say how much longer it would have lasted, but anyhow it is not a thing of any public use, so I think it rather fortunate that it has broken thus.” This surprising response had an immediate effect: The emperor calmed down. Dainagon neither sniveled nor overapologized, but signaled his own worth and power by treating his mistake with a touch of disdain. The emperor had to respond with a similar aristocratic indifference; his anger had made him seem low and petty—an image Dainagon was able to manipulate.

Among equals this tactic might backfire: Your indifference could make you seem callous. But with a master, if you act quickly and without great fuss, it can work to great effect: You bypass his angry response, save him the time and energy he would waste by brooding over it, and allow him the opportunity to display his own lack of pettiness publicly.

If we make excuses and denials when we are caught in a mistake or a deception, we stir the waters and make the situation worse. It is often wiser to play things the opposite way. The Renaissance writer Pietro Aretino often boasted of his aristocratic lineage, which was, of course, a fiction, since he was actually the son of a shoemaker. When an enemy of his finally revealed the embarrassing truth, word quickly spread, and soon all of Venice (where he lived at the time) was aghast at Aretino’s lies. Had he tried to defend himself, he would have only dragged himself down. His response was masterful: He announced that he was indeed the son of a shoemaker, but this only proved his greatness, since he had risen from the lowest stratum of society to its very pinnacle. From then on he never mentioned his previous lie, trumpeting instead his new position on the matter of his ancestry.

Remember: The powerful responses to niggling, petty annoyances and irritations are contempt and disdain. Never show that something has affected you, or that you are offended—that only shows you have acknowledged a problem. Contempt is a dish that is best served cold and without affectation.

Image: The Tiny Wound. It is small but painful and irritating. You try all sorts of medicaments, you complain, you scratch and pick at the scab. Doctors only make it worse, transforming the tiny wound into a grave matter. If only you had left the wound alone, letting time heal it and freeing yourself of worry.

Authority: Know how to play the card of contempt. It is the most politic kind of revenge. For there are many of whom we should have known nothing if their distinguished opponents had taken no notice of them. There is no revenge like oblivion, for it is the entombment of the unworthy in the dust of their own nothingness. (Baltasar Gracián, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

You must play the card of contempt with care and delicacy. Most small troubles will vanish on their own if you leave them be; but some will grow and fester unless you attend to them. Ignore a person of inferior stature and the next time you look he has become a serious rival, and your contempt has made him vengeful as well. The great princes of Renaissance Italy chose to ignore Cesare Borgia at the outset of his career as a young general in the army of his father, Pope Alexander VI. By the time they paid attention it was too late—the cub was now a lion, gobbling up chunks of Italy. Often, then, while you show contempt publicly you will also need to keep an eye on the problem privately, monitoring its status and making sure it goes away. Do not let it become a cancerous cell.

Develop the skill of sensing problems when they are still small and taking care of them before they become intractable. Learn to distinguish between the potentially disastrous and the mildly irritating, the nuisance that will quietly go away on its own. In either case, though, never completely take your eye off it. As long as it is alive it can smolder and spark into life.