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naminethewriter · 2 years ago

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You're Not Alone

Epilogue: Friends and Family

Masterpost | First | Previous | Ao3

We have reached the end! I hope you all enjoyed, especially @edupunkn00b who this story was written for 🥰 Please check out their writing, it's some of the best stories I've ever read 💙💛💚

Summary: Logan, Janus and Remus are celebrating their first Christmas as a married couple but a snow storm strands both Janus and Remus elsewhere, leaving Logan home alone. Knowing that the situation will trigger their husband, Janus and Remus need to find a way home.

Content Warnings: Reference to abusive parent/childhood

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Logan slept better that night than he had in a while. Despite his protest, he ended up sandwiched between his husbands. In his opinion, Remus should have slept in the middle since he had been the one absent for a week, but he and Janus insisted that Logan needed to be “caged in comfort”, whatever that was supposed to mean.

He woke up the next morning alone in bed with Janus. Remus side was already cold, and he could hear movement downstairs. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence; Remus was the one of them who had the easiest time getting up in the mornings. Still, Logan couldn’t go back to sleep now and detached himself from his remaining husband who mumbled in his sleep but let him go.

Logan quietly left the room and chanced a look out of the nearest window. It had stopped snowing at some point, but it was still piled up high out there. The sun was starting to shine through the neighborhood though, so hopefully some of it would melt away soon. With no street in sight, he couldn’t tell if they had been cleared yet, so instead of continuing to stare out of the window, Logan went downstairs to find his wandering husband.

He found Remus in the entryway, pulling on his coat.

“Where are you going?” he asked, shocked to hear how whiny he sounded. Remus liked to tease him about being needy in the mornings and he could again see the spark of amusement form in his husband’s eyes.

“Aww, don’t worry, my dear star, I’ll be back before you know it!” Remus giggled, pulling Logan into a hug that he halfheartedly resisted. “But I promised to collect Roman from the airport so that he doesn’t have to rent a car, it would be crazy expensive apparently.”

“Did they clear the streets?”

“Yeah, came through about 40 minutes ago! I think the snow must’ve stopped around the time we went to bed.”

Logan hummed and abandoned his pride in favor of burying himself deeper in Remus’ arms.

“You must’ve really missed me, huh?” Remus chuckled fondly.

“’Course I did.”

“I love morning-you,” Remus sighed. “Well, I love every part of you of course but morning-you is the most adorable one.”

Logan whined at the teasing; Remus’ warmth made him drowsy again which led to him being not as embarrassed by his needier side as usual. His husband recognized the signs immediately however, and reluctantly pulled away, since he really needed to leave or Roman would kill him.

“Sorry, starlight, but I really need to head out.”

“I know,” Logan murmured, shaking himself awake again. “I’ll make sure to have something to eat for both you and Roman when you get back.”

“Thanks, I’m sure he’ll appreciate it just as much as I do.” And with a quick kiss to Logan’s forehead, Remus was out of the door. Logan watched through a window as his car pulled out of their driveway and down the street that was indeed (mostly) cleared of snow. With a hum, he made his way to the kitchen to get the coffee machine started.

~~~

Janus joined Logan on the couch half an hour later and they both settled down to read a book and drink some coffee while waiting for the twins to get back. It was just the kind of calm morning Logan loved, even if he had preferred Remus being there as well.

When the twins did get back, Roman’s first words to Logan were, “You have married two madmen.”

Logan just responded, “I am aware.”

Afterwards all four of them had a small breakfast together since they needed to head off to brunch with their friends soon.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t have opened the door,” Roman commented while they waited for Remus to put his luggage away before they left. “If someone came pounding on my door in the middle of a snowstorm, I wouldn’t let them in, no matter who they sounded like! That’s some boogeyman behavior. I don’t want to get cursed, thank you.”

“I’m shocked, Roman,” Janus smirked, “I thought a Disney fanatic like you would know better considering kicking out the needy during a storm is how the Beast got cursed.”

Roman was quiet after that and for a moment Logan worried that his husband had send their brother-in-law into an existential crisis but as soon as Remus joined them and announced that he was ready to leave, Roman returned to his usual self and started bickering with his twin.

~~~

The drive to the café was filled with chatter of the twins about their trip. Their retellings were confusing at best since they both contradicted each other on almost everything form the flight being pleasant to the highlight of their excursions in Germany. It was entertaining for Logan and Janus to listen to at the least and soon they arrived at their destination.

“Shouldn’t your car be parked here?” Logan asked Janus with furrowed brows as Remus drove past the café to reach the nearest parking lot. “You said you left in on the street by the entrance.”

“I did, but I also left the keys with Remy so he could drive it away if it was in the way. I had no idea if I was anywhere near the curb.” And indeed, they found Janus’ car in the lot, safe and sound. Unlike the street, the sidewalk hadn’t been completely cleared yet, so the walk back to the café’s entrance was a bit precarious but thankfully none of them slipped.

As soon as they stepped into the shop, ignoring the sign that proclaimed the business as closed, all eyes fell on them. It seemed they were the last to arrive, which wasn’t surprising, considering that Remy and Emile lived in the building and Patton and Virgil were both quite punctual – Patton because it’s just polite and Virgil because of his anxiety.

“Great, the insane people have arrived,” Remy teased, earning himself an elbow in the side from Emile.

“Be nice, Rem,” he chided and turned towards them with a warm smile. “So glad you could make it!”

Just as he finished speaking, Patton barreled into Janus, babbling about how he worried he had been and that he should have never let him leave in the first place. While Janus was busy calming down his cousin, Virgil walked over to greet them, bumping shoulders with Roman, hugging Logan and lightly punching Remus in the arm for making him worry.

“Well then!” Remy called over to them, clapping once to get their attention. “Since all of us are here now and I’m starving, let’s get to munching and spilling the tea!”

Everyone agreed and moved to grab a plate and ravish the buffet. Logan hesitated for a moment, watching his friends – no – his family gather together and chat with laughter ringing through the room quickly and couldn’t help but wonder what his ten-year-old self would have said if he knew this was the life he was heading towards. Would it have been easier to deal with the torment of his mother? Would he have even been able to believe it? Even to him now, married to the two most wonderful people he ever met, it seemed so surreal. Like a dream.

But it wasn’t a dream. He knew it wasn’t.

This was reality.

His reality.

These were his friends, his brother-in-law, his husbands. His.

And he couldn’t think of anything that would be more perfect than this.

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aftgficrec · 1 year ago

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ah I'm so excited you're open!!! thank you for the ridiculous amount of work you all do 🙏ok, this might be too specific but any fics with an alternate take on Andrew and Neil's post-trk reunion? Andrew gets out of easthaven early, Neil leaves the Nest later, AU's, etc.? i think it's a really interesting point in their dynamic, and I'm a sucker for sober Andrew realizing someone was watching his back for once

Feeling a bit like a Bernie Sanders’ meme – ‘I am once again asking myself why I spent so much time on an ask,’ 😅 but it's because this is such an iconic and beloved scene for our fandom. For a super fun ‘live’ first-time reader reaction to this high drama, check out ‘The King’s Men, Chapter 1 – Hello Foxhole, My Old Friend’ by @nickireadstfc here. -A

also see

Andrew's POV of throwing keys off roof here

‘Come and Save Me From It’ here (completed)

‘Learning To Feel (When You've Forgotten How)’ and the fandom meta posts here

‘pipedream’ here

‘reaching for the heights’ here

‘Lost boy’ and ‘[Un]broken’ here

‘I Know You From A Nightmare,’ ‘The Marks We Make,’ and ‘Draw Me Out, Mark Me In’ here

‘Marked’ and ‘Soulmates who can feel each other’s pain’ here

‘Of Stars and Stories’ here

‘What’s normal now?’ here

long previous recs with reunion mention

‘No More Fucks To Give’ here (updated)

‘The Sphynx and the Hare’ here (completed)

‘corvus, vulpes, lupus’ here

‘never fallen (from quite this high)’ here

‘Not a Pipe Dream’ here

‘everything and nothing begins with you’ here

Andrew gets sober, Neil stays at Evermore

‘Oh Raven,’ ‘Jailbird,’ and ‘Take to the Wing’ here

‘Scared to Live (But I'm Scared to Die)’ here

‘Comeback’ here

you may also like

in the dream I don't tell anyone (you put your head in my lap) by Fortheloveofexy [Rated T, 1850 Words, Complete, 2022, Locked]

The real Neil would never allow this, would not let himself be this vulnerable. The real Neil can barely stand to be around him. Andrew knows this. But Dream Neil? Dream Neil is a different story.

Will you be there when I come back? by Shamman [Not Rated, 299 Words, Complete, 2017]

Andrew is trapped in Easthaven with an eidetic memory and tries to focus his thoughts on the confusing image of Neil Josten's face. -Because however terrible it may look, Andrew's current circumstances are much less pleasant. Furthermore Bee has been making him sing and play the guitar in a very therapeutic attempt to make him express some sort of actual emotion over the past year.

tw: violent imagery

You Gave Me A Key And Called It Home by glintchi [Rated T, Collection, Complete, 2019]

Chapter 19: Yes, I Admit It, You Were Right [460 Words] Renee was waiting for him in the basement, fingers already taped, hair pulled back into a tuft of a rainbow ponytail.

Foxhole Tidbits by SpangleBangle [Collection Rated T/M, Updated 2018]

Chapter 14: My Friend, O My Friend [M, 953 Words] Prompt for Renee's reaction after Drake/Easthaven and Andrew's return.

tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: implied/referenced csa, tw: canonical character death

Did You Miss Me? by Deathandcommas [Rated G, 555 Words, Complete, 2023, Locked]

Aaron and Andrew have a late night chat after Andrew gets back from Easthaven.

tfw spoons by StrawBerryRains [Rated G, 216 Words, Complete, 2021]

Nicky offers Andrew ice cream when they arrive home from Easthaven.

A Taste of Your Own Medicine by caffeine_withdrawl [Rated M, 66454 Words, Incomplete, Updated March 2023]

Set after the infamous Thanksgiving, but then diverges from canon. Andrew and Bee decide it’s time for Andrew to come off the drugs, but works some magic so that he is allowed to do it in Columbia. Neil is tasked with helping him through it. They decide to do it the same way Andrew helped Aaron sober up, by locking him in a bathroom. Andrew doesn't react well, and switches between rage and panic. Andrew wonders if Neil is real or if he made him up because of the drugs.

tw: graphic depictions of violence, tw: body horror, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: implied/referenced csa, tw: flashbacks, tw: implied/referenced abuse, tw: drug addiction, tw: withdrawal, tw: vomit, tw: implied/referenced self harm, tw: ptsd, tw: emotional abuse, tw: hallucinations

making it harder to breathe by Azure_Allumiia [Rated T, 1643 Words, Complete, 2021]

Christmas Break with the Foxes, featuring Andrew at Easthaven and Neil in Evermore. Foxes celebrate New Years in NYC with the ball drop.

tw: graphic depictions of violence, tw: rape/noncon, tw: medical abuse, tw: torture, tw: blood

Dead Birds by Noah98 [Rated G, 1601 Words, Complete, 2021, Locked]

Neil just got back from Evermore and Andrew has returned from Easthaven. Riko calls. He wants a rematch and oh boy does he get it.

tw: violence, tw: blood/gore

Art

NB: just a sampling of art for this scene

“Feel Again” original song by @whatbutandreil [Tumblr, 2020]

Picking up Andrew from Easthaven part 1, part 2 comic by @coldcigarettes

andreil keys off the roof scene: animation by @hahanken | comic by @rainbowd00dles | comic by @lunapiq | art by @esklinray

I hate you comic by @thematicallycoherent

I’m not a hallucination art by @clumsyartish

Stick around long enough to figure it out for yourself. edit by @m1nyards

You are a pipe dream art by @viennemort

“you spend all this time watching our backs” edit by @matthcwboyd

not a hallucination a pipe dream art by @kryptidfox

“you were supposed to be a side effect of the drugs.” art by @planetmontressor

"Go inside and leave me alone." art by @dimsunstuff

“No, you’re a pipe dream.” art by @starkingdraws

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transfemlogan · 2 years ago

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Sanders Sides events in 2023! Last updated: September 17th, 2023

2022 event list

This list complies every event in 2023 (on Tumblr), such as: character days, ship weeks, gift exchanges, "big bangs", and ETC. If you have an event this year, let me know so I can add it to the list!

I will not be adding the sides' birthdays to this list (unless begged /j), because they are in my last list and... they don't change.

(These are added as the people hosting the event state that they are doing it this year)

MISC

@tss-storytime - Sanders Sides Big Bang - Schedule

@tsspromptmonth - Spring Cleaning Event: February 10 - end of April Sign ups & Schedule

@transsidesweek - Transgender Sides Week: september 11th - 17th

@acesidesweek - Asexual Sides Week: june 5th - 11th (prompts)

@aro-sides-week - Aromantic Sides Week: august 20th - 26th (prompts)

@briandthemoon - Thomas Sanders Birthday Bash: DEADLINE MARCH 24TH (information)

@tss-october-ghostwriters - Halloween Exchange (FAQ) (SIGN UPS - july 36th - september 30th)

@autisticsidesweek - Autistic Sides Week: December 4th - 10th

SHIP EVENTS

@loginceweek2023 - Logince Week: January 23rd - 29th (prompts)

@roceit2023 - Roceit Week: April 6-13 (prompts)*

@dukexietyweek - Dukexiety Week: June 18th - 25th (prompts)

@loceitweek - Loceit Week: June 27th - July 3rd (prompts)

@anaroceitweek - Anaroceit Week: July 10th - July 16th (prompts)

@royalityweek - Royality Week: July 31st - August 6th

@prinxietyweek - Prinxiety Week: October 2nd - October 8th (prompts)

@intrualityweek - Intruality Week: October 22nd - 28th

@intrulogicalweek - Intrulogical Week: October 29th - November 4th (prompts)

@tss-anxceit-week - Anxceit Week: November 12 - 19

@moxiety-week - Moxiety Week: December 18th - 24th

*2023 roceit week is hosted by someone different than last years! Check out last years roceit week at @roceitweek

ROLESLAYING WITH ROMAN

@roleslayingweek2023 - Roleslaying Week: July 24th - 30th

Events NOT Happening

Moceit Week (@moceit-appreciation-week) is Not coming back this year, there hasn't been an Intruality week since 2021 (@intrualityweek2021), and there has never been a Logicality week ever! Analogical Week (@analogicalweek) is most likely not coming back this year (or ever), as the creator left the fandom.

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #janus sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #virgil sanders #prinxiety #logicality #moceit #demus #dukeceit #analogical #whats another popular ship #orange side

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mscoffeesq · 4 months ago

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Vampire the Masquerade: Boston is Healing, Session 1

List of Player Characters, including the initial of their player to denote who played who.

(M) Sophia Blanchard - Toreador, Prince of the Boston Camarilla (Survived)

(Jaq) Cait Harkness - Salubri, Escaped to parts unknown

(R) Gabriel Sanders - Ghoul, Deceased (Killed by Malkavian Anarch)

(S) Aksel Palensen- Tremere, Deceased (Killed in Sabbat Raid)

(Jac) Roy Vestry - Gangrel, Deceased (Ambushed by a Sniper)

(R) Geoffrey Williamson - Gangrel, Deceased (Botched a Diablerie Roll)

(Jaq) Jessie Parks - Caitiff, Deceased (Killed in Sabbat Raid)

(R) Mama Mtshali - Nosferatu, Deceased (Killed in Sabbat Raid)

The Story So Far - 

The year is 2022. After a brutal Second Inquisition (SI) attack on Boston the population of Kindred in the city dropped drastically, down to about half of what it once was. The Camarilla, who control the city, lost a prominent Harpy, two Primogen members, and the previous Scourge in the attack. The Prince, Coth, is currently trying to hold his position and repair the city while other parties try and squirm their way into power- the Anarchs have been growing restless, and there are rumors that Sabbat forces have been making designs on the city. Even Clan Giovanni, who spend most of their time in Lynn, have been branching out after the attack to try and secure new territory. Coth has been meeting with the Baron, leader of the Anarchs, in order to broker somewhat of a peace between the two sides. Recently, the Prince has invited a select group of Camarilla to a party within Elysium for a very special, but secretive, event.

Session 1 - 

Gabriel decides to take a walk around his domain to check on things before going off to Elysium. There are currently mortals and ghouls putting up decor and equipment for an event. Some are wearing tiger masks of varying colors. The Keeper, Krow, seems to be talking to a woman, wearing old fashioned dress and heavy dark makeup, a large hat, and orange hair. The woman appears to be being scolded.

The Elysium is 3 floors, including a hidden basement area. Gabriel sits down at the bar, where a ghoul tells him that the vessels are being reserved for the event coming up. The ghoul offers a boon in exchange for the inconvenience: 2 free vessels the next time Gabriel comes in.

The ghoul mentions that a very special guest will be coming the following night. Gabriel goes to talk with the Keeper who begins to whisper to the woman before going off to her quarters. Gabriel decides to speak with the woman now that she's alone. The woman is supernaturally beautiful- almost like her features were sculpted to be perfect.

She introduces herself as Lucy, and offers her hand to be kissed by Gabriel. He notices that her fingernails are long and sharp, and look more like bones pushed out of her fingers to make claws. She says that she arrived in town last week.

Lucy asks what the crime rate in the city is, and how many crimes Gabriel could pull off without being noticed. He says it depends on the crime. She says that a friend of hers has arrived and leaves to meet up with someone Gabriel didn't notice.

Aksel is at the closed Boston Aquarium with his sire, Dylan, who asked to meet with him. Richard is wearing casual clothing, with something in his back pocket. Aksel has a plush penguin in his arms as he approaches his sire.

He gives the penguin to his sire as a gift, before his sire lets him know that a special guest is arriving in the city tonight. He says that it is someone higher up in the ranks of the Camarilla, and that a public announcement of their arrival will be the next evening.

Dylan also lets Aksel know that he will need to get himself proper attire, as he will be going to the event in his sire's stead. His sire also tells him that his groupies will not be invited to the party, so not to bring them. He also mentions an "accident" (murder) in a theater in town- and to keep an eye out for trouble. The party is scheduled for 9pm the next night.

His sire says that he'll be returning to his school for thaumaturgy and bids Aksel a good night. Aksel steals a crocodile plushie on his way out.

Roy is at his house, and hears a knock at the door. Immediately the door is kicked and someone is trying to get into the house. A bird flies into the room before the person manages to break in,

and it's Roy's sire and wife, Stephanie.

She is upset after an altercation with a raccoon who stole her ball with her hamster inside. On top of that, the bag she's carrying breaks and spills its contents all over the floor. Some birds come in and help clean it up.

She asks Roy how he's doing, and Roy says that he's been working on his book. She lets him know that there was a letter for him. It's in a black envelope, and written on very nice paper.

The letter is from Krow, letting him know of the upcoming event and contact information for him to get in touch with. There is also a threat to not embarrass anyone.

Stephanie is shocked to see the letter once she reads it. She suggests he go, because she believes it will be some sort of promotion. She also suggests bringing a gift, because the Prince likes gifts, and recommends a dove. 

Roy starts preparing his formal clothes for the next day.

Sophia takes Cait to her favorite club in town- the Delirium. Carl the bouncer of Delirium lets them in no problem. The bar is jungle themed, but also sort of like an idea of heaven mixed with a jungle. The staff wear animal masks and angel outfits with small angel wings. The wings don't appear to be connected to their clothes though, and move as if they are natural wings.

The club is very packed. The rules are that you can feast on anyone you want except staff, you just can't kill people. Cait uses Auspex and notices 3 other Kindred in the club, including the owner who seems uninterested in what's going on.

Sophia scans around the club and sees a gentleman who looks out of place and like he was dragged to the bar. Sophia taps his shoulder and introduces herself. He says that the owner has been throwing him off and says that her tongue is weird. 

Sophia grabs the man, Will, by the arm and takes him to meet Ember. Her tongue sticks out a bit but she pulls it back. Ember offers to take him to show him around the club. He notices her eyes. Will still goes with her, and points out another Toreador in the bar.

There's another woman in the bar who appears to be very drunk. Sophia passes up the opportunity to drink because she doesn't want to get too drunk and instead takes Cait out to dance. Sophia accidentally steps on a black envelope. The stamp on the envelope is a Krown with a cross on it. The letter is written in Spanish, not in English.

Ember stops the two of them, whispers something to an angel, and brings out a bottle to give to Sophia that smells extra sweet. Sophia and Cait go off back to Cait's apartment to see if her girlfriend can read the letter for them.

Cait's fiancée, Maria, is watching TV when they arrive. She translates it for them, but seems confused and concerned. She says that there's a party at the Langham Hotel. The invitation seems to be for someone named Isabelle or Isabella Ferrari. It also seems to mention the Friends of Night.

 Maria lets Cait know that her friend Sakura was there earlier and left a notepad for her. Sophia decides to leave the two of them alone for the night to go enjoy herself, but tells Cait they will be clothes shopping before the event.

Maria says that she should go in order to keep Sophia safe, but Cait promises to leave if things go south. She also tells Cait about an attack on the theater, where some audience members were disoriented and some were even still singing when they were found. Police said there were heavy casualties, but are stumped by it.

Gabriel goes to pick up a suit before the event. Something sensible that won't stand out too much. He also makes sure his car is working well.

Aksel makes sure that he has a suit ready to go, one that is used for occult gathering. He also attempts to steal a penguin from the aquarium but fails. He calls his mentor, Richard, to ask what the proper attire would be to make sure he is right.

Roy prepares his suit and then goes to find a dove to give the Prince as a present, but only manages to find pigeons. Even then he's not able to catch any.

Sophia enjoys a nice bath and the blood she got from Ember while making calls to set up a limo and new clothes for her and Cait.

Cait decides to call her sire, Deirdre, to ask about the Friends of the Night and the seal on the letter. The Krown symbol appears to be Lasombra, but she isn't familiar with the Friends of the Night. Deirdre also warns Cait to not be out by herself, as things haven't been safe.

As Sophia goes to pick up Cait, she notices a woman outside struggling. The woman says she's a friend of Cait's from school. Sakura had come over to hang out with Maria while they're out

tonight.

Sophia takes one of the coffees meant for Cait which she had to turn down, but Sophia spits it out in a bush once they're all inside. They continue on to the hotel, with Cait changing into

her nicer outfit Sophia got for her.

Aksel, Gabriel, and Roy arrive at the hotel together. They are catching up together when Sophia and Cait arrive. They talk together for a bit, when Gabriel notices Lucy arrive. Sophia and Gabriel notice that she's not going into the regular entrance to Elysium.

The desk attendant, Juliet, asks us for our invites. She is confused by the fact that Sophia and Cait's invite is different from the others. She takes Aksel and Roy's invitation no problem. When she gets to Cait and Sophia’s invite, she calls her partner Romeo to the desk. Romeo is very well dressed, and could be a Ventrue or Toreador. Romeo runs off, while Juliet questions us: Romeo comes back and sends them in, but does not give the invite back like they had for the others. Juliet gives the group five cards, one for each of them.

Sophia admits to Aksel that they weren't actually invited, and asks if Isabelle or Isabella Ferrari means anything to anyone. Roy thinks the name sounds familiar, they are an important Kindred, but he doesn't know for which clan. Aksel knows that they're an important member of the Camarilla. A high ranking society member.

Sophia wonders how the invite for such a high up member would have wound up on the floor of Delirium. Isabella Ferrari is the daughter of the Ferrari CEO. She always seems to be near a body of water in every picture. She has a tattoo of a name in German, possibly a company or something.

When they enter Elysium, Cait activates Auspex. She catches 13 pale auras (Kindred) among a lot of vessels. The Ventrue and Tremere Primogens also appear to be there.

Aksel goes to speak to the Tremere Primogen briefly before going to a powder room and then rejoining the coterie.

A bit later, someone approaches us who looks very rough compared to everyone else and is dirty and bloodstained. He plops down next to Aksel and introduces himself as Jakeup Cooper. Jakeup is confused as to why he's at the event. Sophia recognizes him and he recognizes her. She knows that he's a Gangrel.

He's usually seen conversing with an odd gentleman who visits Elysium now and then. He wonders where the Prince and Sheriff are, and points out that the dress code is odd. They all get into a tiff about tailcoats, before Jakeup points out to the Keeper who looks angry and ready to snap.

Jakeup wonders who the special guest is. Apparently, we're the only coterie at the event which is why he wanted to hang out with us. He claims that he doesn't want to talk to anyone because they're mostly Tremere or Toreador. He says that he spends most of his time by the harbor.

He asks us our names, and we introduce ourselves. Aksel performs a sleight of hand trick for everyone. The lights begin to dim. We get on the subject of kids (as in vampire children, who could be any age) because Jakeup mentions a kid he adopted. Aksel says he adopted 3 other people's kids, sort of.

The Keeper gets everyone's attention and lets the crowd know that the Prince is running late. She says that the special guest is here to speak with the group because of our special skills. A shadow takes the form of a person, who is supernaturally beautiful with a symbol tattoo that none of us recognize.

She introduces herself as Silhouette. She says she is looking for an object, a sort of black and silver key with three bits. All of us survived the attack, and are loyal to the camarilla. She wants us to search the city for the key, and promises a reward to whoever finds it. Gabriel and Sophia realize that she's heading to the large pool within Elysium after she finishes.

We ask Jakeup to leave so we can speak alone. Gabriel looks under the cushions to see if the key is under there. They talk for a while before Aksel goes off to get a drink. Suddenly, the doors are pushed open by the Prince, Coth, and his Sheriff, Emma. He starts talking with the Keeper, and asks where the special guest is.

The Sheriff whispers something to him, and he turns to look at us. Krow hands him a tablet which he checks before handing it back and walks over to our coterie and asks us our names. He's fairly familiar with Sophia, Gabriel, and Roy's sire Stephanie.

The dress code was apparently a request from Silhouette. He wishes us well, and recommends the blood for the evening. We are all talking again when the Prince suddenly comes back, and demands that the five of us go speak to Silhouette. Aksel asks quickly if the Prince's nickname, The Three Legged King, refers to his endowment or not, and if it's okay to call him that. The Prince seems to be okay with it and finds it humorous.

We go to meet with Silhouette, and there are tendrils reaching around her in the pool. She confronts us over the fact that most of us were not actually invited to the event, and wonders if someone was trying to get us killed. She invites us to swim with her. Gabriel jumps in and discovers that the tendrils are actually coming off of her dress.

She asks if we still intend to find the key. We discover that her name is Isabella. She asks if we're associated with the Camarilla, and we explain our ties to the faction. She asks for Romeo to be summoned. Isabella recommends we go to the Empyrium Theater, where the attack happened. She assumes that the attack was caused by something searching for the relic.

Romeo comes back with the letter Sophia and Cait had found and Isabella tears it up and destroys it. She asks that we not cause any issues in the city while she is observing things. One of the attendants says that Juliet needs Isabella's attention because of trouble in London.

Aksel remembers the conversation earlier and says that he adopted his brother's kids until they became adults. Gabriel dries himself off. By the time we return to the party, most of the Kindred are gone and only a few people are left.

Sophia and Cait run back by Sophia's apartment to change into more sensible clothing, and Sophia grabs her pistol. Gabriel runs back to his place to change and grab his rifle. Roys heads back to his place to change and sees his sire sleeping on the sofa, covered in bunnies. Aksel goes home to change, calls his mentor, and sets up a few things for his business.

Aksel's mentor says that he's familiar with the name Isabella Ferrari, and that she's a Lasombra Antitribu Archon. Richard says he's concerned about things with her in town.

Sophia finds a letter on her table. White with a rose design on it. The letter is written in messy cursive.

“Pleasure to meet you! This is weird, but I'm making my way to Boston. We are technically sisters and I'd like to meet you. I should be there in around 3 days, and I'm looking forward to seeing you. I don't really know how to end a letter,

Okay bye!��

Sophia is a little upset because this implies that Russel sired another vampire, who is on her way to Boston now.

End of Session 1 - 3 xp gained per player.

#vtm #vampire the masquerade #game notes #vtm game notes #toreador #tremere #gangrel #caitiff #nosferatu

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sanders-sides-events · 2 years ago

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Sanders Sides events 2023 masterpost

Hello and welcome to the Sanders Sides events blog!! Posts relating to all events in the fandom will be reblogged here, including events about Thomas Sanders' content that isn't related to Sanders Sides (e.g. Roleslaying, Cartoon Therapy).

If you're running an event and want your posts to be reblogged here, simply send an ask or tag this blog!

Blog navigation

All posts will be tagged with the tag of the event they relate to.

Schedules are tagged as #schedules!

Asks are tagged as #asks!

Events in 2023:

Note: Schedules for fandom events are linked under the cut. This is just the masterpost for this blog.

Event weeks

Logince Week @loginceweek2023

22nd January - 28th January | Prompts

Roceit week @roceit2023

6th April - 13th April | Prompts

Sanders Sides A-spec Week @sanders-sides-a-spec-week

24th May - 30th May | Prompts

Analoroceit Week (hosted by @loganisanobody)

28th May - 3rd June | Prompts

Ace Sides Week @acesidesweek

5th June - 11th June | Prompts

Dukexiety Week @dukexietyweek

18th June - 25th June | Prompts

Loceit Week @loceitweek

26th June- 2nd July | Prompts

Anaroceit week @anaroceitweek

10th July - 16th July | Prompts

Roleslaying Week @roleslayingweek2023

24th July - 30th July | Prompts

Royality Week @royalityweek

31st July - 6th August | Prompts

Aro Sides Week @aro-sides-week

20th August - 26th August | Prompts

Trans Sides Week @transsidesweek

11th September - 17th September | Prompts

Prinxiety Week @prinxietyweek

2nd October - 8th October | Prompts

Intruality Week @intrualityweek

22nd October - 28th October | Prompts

Intrulogical Week @intrulogicalweek

29th October - 4th November | Prompts

Anxceit Week @tss-anxceit-week

12th November - 19th November | Prompts

Roleslaying trans week @rswr-trans-week2023

20th November - 26th November | Prompts

Autistic Sides Week @autisticsidesweek

4th December - 10th December | Prompts

Big bangs & exchanges

Storytime - Sanders Sides Big Bang @tss-storytime

February - August | Schedule

Sanders Sides Big Bang @sandersidesbigbang

May - September

Sanders Sides Spring Cleaning Event @tsspromptmonth

February - April | Schedule

Halloween Horror Fest @halloweenhorrorfest

18+ event | April - November

Tss October Ghostwriters @tss-october-ghostwriters

August - October | Schedule

Sanders Sides Holiday Gift Exchange @sanderssidesgiftxchange

September - December | Schedule

Thomas Sanders Reverse Bang @xts-reverse-bangx

June 2023 - July 2024 | Schedule

Other events/projects

Thomas Birthday Bash Book | Submission deadline 24th March

(Events will be added to this list as they're added to the blog. If I've missed an event, or got any dates wrong, please let me know!)

Cancelled events

@intruality-week (the new intruality week blog is @intrualityweek )

@anxceit-week-23 (the new anxceit week blog is @tss-anxceit-week

Events from previous years

Here are events that have been run in the fandom, in case anyone wants to look back at them or check for updates. Some of these might return in 2023, so keep an eye out!

@analogicalweek

@anxceitweek21

@anxceit-week-2022

@dukeceitweek

@intrualityweek2021

@lamp-appreciation-week

@moceit-appreciation-week

@moxiety-week

@pintrovertsweek2022

@prinxiety-week-2022

@roceitweek

@sandersidesbigbang

@sanderssidesgiftxchange

@sanders-spring

@ts-storytime Event moved to @/tss-storytime

Schedules

Here are some useful schedules made by other fanders!!

The 2023 events list and 2022 events list created by @transfemlogan

Logan's master schedule created by @edupunkn00b

Events blogs

If you want more updates on events in the fandom, check out @tsseventhub They also have an Instagram!

#sanders sides #masterpost #past events + schedules and useful blogs r under the cut!#listing the events seems a bit redundant bc ive linked the schedules too. its mostly just for me organising the blog #i'll add the tag navigation if i ever figure out how that works #sanders sides events

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mightyflamethrower · 9 months ago

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In 2021, Joe Biden was elected after a bitterly fought campaign that deposed the incumbent Donald Trump. Democrats eventually captured, for a time, both the House and Senate, ensuring the most left-wing government in modern American history.

Americans were then set to witness a great experiment. For the first time in their lives, a truly radical socialist program would supposedly fundamentally transform the way America dealt with the border, immigration, the economy, race relations, foreign policy, energy, law enforcement, crime, education, and social questions such as religion, gender, abortion, and schooling.

In a sense, we were all to be lab rats of sorts, to be experimented on by the radical left and their various critical theories. Now in the last year of the Biden term, we can see the results of that experiment—and the unfortunate disasters that followed.

But first, how was such a radical move to the left even possible in a center-right America?

The Democratic nominee, Biden, had earlier united the left, but only through a Faustian deal. The handlers of a nearly non compos mentis Biden had ushered all his 2020 primary rivals out of the primary races in unison.

But in exchange for their exits that ensured Biden the nomination, the left took over his general campaign—in which Biden was virtually relegated to his basement—and then set his agenda.

Who was running things?

The mysterious architects of White House ideology included, inter alia, the omnipresent, now-Washington-DC-dwelling Obamas, the old socialist gadfly Bernie Sanders, the fossilized tribunes of the black and Latino congressional caucuses, the DEI firebrand Squad, and the neo-socialist scold Elizabeth Warren.

As a result, for one of the few times in American history, the hard left now had undreamt of power. And it was enhanced by a chorus in our compliant media, academia, corporations, the administrative state, foundations, entertainment, and popular culture.

So we were all to embark on a great adventure led by the foot soldiers of DEI, the Chicken-Little green extremists, the critical race and critical legal theory crowd, the modern monetary theorists, the woke commissars, the transgendered zealots, Antifa, BLM, the hate-Israel lobby, and the Trump Derangement Syndrome media sorts.

Ostensibly, America was to be reset financially, economically, socially, culturally, militarily, and politically. The nation would be arbitrarily divided into oppressors and oppressed—with one caveat: hyper-rich, left-wing white architects had to be exempt from the damage inflicted on those they targeted. Thus, like Orwellian pigs who walked on their two hind legs, they were free to fly their private jets, get their kids into racially quota-bound Ivy League schools, burn lots of fossil fuels to heat and cool their massive homes, and be protected by their walls, security details, and zip codes from the crime wave they would soon unleash on others.

Now, as we enter the fourth year of the great experiment, America is $35 trillion in debt, borrowing $1 trillion every 100 days. Home mortgages are at 7 percent. Key prices for food, insurance, rent, and fuels are 30-40 percent higher than when Biden entered office.

The nation has been humiliated and emasculated abroad. Racial relations are the worst in a half-century. The military is in virtual receivership. Biden is polling about 40 percent approval and is behind in key swing states in most of the 2024 polls.

As a result, the Biden administration is furiously trying to find a way to release more of its hated oil and natural gas on the world market. It stopped refilling the strategic petroleum reserve that it had earlier drained to lower gas prices before the 2022 midterms.

So it will quietly pump more oil and gas, appease Iran in fear of a war in the oil-producing Middle East, plead with the once “pariah” Saudis, and order the Ukrainians not to hit Russian oil installations—all to get more oil produced to lower November 2024 gas prices.

It will head nod to eliminating fossil fuels, mandating EVs, banning natural gas stoves, and subsidizing more inefficient wind and solar farms. But it now realizes that its green agenda on its watch will wreck the United States economy and throw the left out of power. So it pivots to an old-fashioned “Drill, World, Drill” mantra—at least until the election is over.

Biden fulfilled his agenda of getting 10 million illegal aliens into the United States by destroying the southern border. The point was to swarm America with poor, unaudited migrants, all in need of massive federal and state assistance, all supposedly now loyal to their entitlement benefactors. Who could stop them from voting as repayment to their enablers in the new age of 70 percent mail-in ballots, same-day registration, inadequate authentication and audit of ballots, third-party vote harvesting, ballot curing, and Zuckbucks pouring into key precincts to absorb the work of the registrars?

Most of the illegals went to Texas and Florida, key swing states that the left still thinks it can flip to blue status. Long term, the 10 million will recalibrate congressional districts to favor neo-socialist agendas. Short-term, millions of new arrivals unlawfully may still try to vote in 2024.

Any who object to or publicize this agenda will be dammed with boilerplate smears of “election deniers,” “voter suppressions,” “racists,” and “xenophobes,” Yet all that said, the administration is now desperately trying to distance itself from its greatest “new Democratic Majority” border success, given that public opinion abhors what Biden had done at the border to the country at large.

So it floated a phony “bipartisan border security” bill in hopes of luring naïve Republicans to support a stealth de facto amnesty agenda that would have still allowed 5,000 illegals in a day rather than the now customary 10-15,000. The hope was that when it failed (and the left knew it would), to blame Republicans for what the left had wrought.

Biden knows destroying the border will ruin America for generations to come, costing billions of dollars in subsidies and legal and policing costs to integrate the massive influx. So until the election, it is thrashing about, claiming that it never did such a thing at all. Its duplicity is again proof that the open borders agenda was hated by the public, a human catastrophe, and not sustainable before an impending election.

Biden’s foreign policy is also in ruins. Biden destroyed deterrence in an effort to beg, appease, and buy off America’s enemies to behave and not cause an election-losing war. But the more it fled from Afghanistan in humiliation, the more it appeased Russia as it massed on Ukraine’s border, the more it snored as a Chinese spy balloon traversed the United States, the more it put early holds on aid to Ukraine, the more it assured Putin a “minor” offensive into Ukraine would not elicit a US response, so all the more it convinced Putin that he could take Ukraine without an American pushback, the Chinese to threaten Taiwan, and Hamas to prepare for massacring Jews.

So here we are in Ukraine with nearly 800,000 dead, wounded, and missing Ukrainians and Russians. The administration has no clue how to stop the Verdun that its appeasement birthed. The entire therapeutic approach to foreign policy lies in ruins.

Ditto the Middle East. National security advisor Jack Sullivan’s “quiet” portfolio that he inherited from the Trump administration simply blew up. Biden is now scrambling to stop the Israeli response to the encircled Hamas remnants, trapped in their last redoubt in Rafah.

Biden is now replaying the 1950s CIA-stereotype of the “Ugly American,” as he does his best to overthrow the Netanyahu government, and to allow the trapped Hamas remnants to escape and claim they defeated the Zionist entity, despite butchering more Jews in a single day than any time since the Holocaust. No matter: the Biden administration is stealthily communicating with the Israeli opposition concerning the best joint strategies to force Netanyahu out. Mass protests in the streets of Tel Aviv attest to the success of destabilizing the current Israeli government.

Team Biden whispers to the media about slow-walking or stopping key arms shipments, abdicating America’s once protective role in the UN, or encouraging the “international community” to go after Netanyahu for “war crimes” for accidentally hitting a civilian team in Gaza. (By such logic, are Biden and Gen. Mark (“righteous strike”) Milley equally culpable for being in charge when a US strike in Kabul blew up 10 innocent civilians by similarly mistaken targeting?). Meanwhile, Biden keeps courting Muslim-American Michigan voters, who repay his appeasement with cries of “Death to Israel! Death to America!”.

The release of violent criminals and an uptick in property crimes, murders and assault follow a similar script. The Biden administration outsourced criminal justice to defund the police/critical legal theorists at the federal, state, and local levels. No bail arrests led to violent offenders released the next day. Thousands were let go from jails and prisons.

The word spread in the criminal community that in the new Biden years, there were no real consequences, no serious punishments for violent assault or major felonies.

So in 2021-2023, crime exploded. When it reached the point of making life unlivable in the major cities and began to max out, the administration declared “crime is declining”—in the same way that hyper-inflation supposedly did so on the economic front.

After spiking the prices of key food staples, insurance, fuel, and interest rates, such hikes could not go too much higher without destroying outright the American way of life. So as the rate of inflation slowed, Biden bragged about “lowering inflation”—but not the 30-40 percent higher food prices since his own inauguration.

The common denominator for these disasters is the embrace of left-wing “theory.”

Critical legal theory mandates that jurisprudence is a construct. Laws have no morality since they favor the powerful. The latter use “white privilege” arbitrarily to invent crimes and punishments to protect their own power hierarchies. All that nonsense has now led to a pre-civilizational free-for-all in our dirty, dangerous, and dysfunctional cities.

Modern monetary theory—printing lots of money to spread around to those who have none while diminishing the value of money of those who have it—only led to hyperinflation and high interest rates.

When DEI theories were unleashed on the military, potential recruits hesitated, and thousands quit. After Pentagon grandees virtue signaled their fear of “white rage” and “white privilege,” after DEI made promotions and assessments often contingent on race, gender, and sexual orientation, and after the new military was humiliated in Afghanistan, it found it could no longer deter the enemy, recruit sufficient soldiers, or win back the confidence of the American people.

In all these cases, the woke genie left the bottle—and won’t go back in. So it will be hard for the administration to assure a long-suffering public that things are just wonderful, much less to reverse these policies, if indeed they are reversible, before November.

Expect instead nonstop distraction as the left beats the January 6 horse to death, calls for abortion on demand, and waits for its underling judges, prosecutors, and juries to jail or bankrupt Trump and therefore do what balloting cannot.

In other words, the long-awaited Great Fundamental Transformation finally got its moment, crashed, and now has torched the nation—middle-class Americans most of all.

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tsseventhub · 2 years ago

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Do you host a Sanders Sides event? Have you always wanted to host an event, but were unsure where to start? Are you a creator who's been looking for something to participate in? Are you a fander looking for cool fanart and fanfictions? Did you stumble across this blog by accident and have literally no idea where you are?

Welcome to the TSS EVENT HUB!

The TSS Event Hub is focused on reblogging and boosting events within the Sanders Sides fandom (though, it doesn't have to be SaSi focused; Roleslaying With Roman, Cartoon Therapy, and ETC are welcomed) to make finding them just a little bit easier. Events such as: ship weeks, "big bangs", gift exchanges, entire event months, character appreciation days, and more!

The TSS Event Hub does not CREATE events.

If you're planning on hosting an event, or have already started, give this blog a tag or send an ask.

Check out the TSS Event Hub on Instagram that focuses on SaSi Instagram events! tss.event.hub (link)

Also, check out @sanders-sides-events! We created our blogs at roughly the same time.

2023 Event List (link) - a list of all the events in 2023, with easy access to blogs, prompts, and dates. Updated consistently. (ran by @transfemlogan)

2022 Event List (link) - a list of all the past events in 2022

How do I host an event? (link) - if you want to run an event, but are unsure where to start or what's required, here is a helpful guide

Tagging System (link)

In regards to RemRom events (link) - if you're curious on whether or not we will be including RemRom, please click here!

This blog is ran by multiple people. Check out the mods' introductions! (link)

#tsseventhub #tss event hub #sanders sides #thomas sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #janus sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #remus sanders #sanders sides event #sanders sides events #fandom events #fandom event

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bllsbailey · 3 months ago

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Will Biden Implement Socialized Medicine Through the Backdoor?

This week, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board provided a megaphone to what I’ve been asking for months: Is the Biden administration making excuses to regulate (or outright eliminate) pro-consumer healthcare groups just to bring us a step closer to socialized medicine?

On Sept. 20, Lina Khan and the Biden Federal Trade Commission did Big Pharma a solid by bringing a complaint against pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), groups that plenty of government agencies and private sector employers hire to challenge the drug companies into lowering their prices.

PBMs are specialists in managing health plans and pulling every trick in the book to strong-arm Big Pharma into lowering drug costs. They are so effective that every business wants to use them. Over 275 million Americans are now part of health plans that PBMs administer.

It’s no coincidence that the money-hungry companies under the Big Pharma umbrella have been spending billions of dollars in a push to have Washington lawmakers weaponize the regulatory state against these companies. Like The Wall Street Journal wrote this week, “You have to smile at Ms. Khan portraying big drug makers as victims in her suit.”

The crux of the Biden FTC’s suit is that PBMs have been “artificially inflating insulin prices” by bullying insulin companies into giving them rebates in exchange for ensuring their drugs get used more frequently.

But facts are stubborn things — and the facts show the exact opposite of what the FTC is contending.

The Wall Street Journal found that. “… average insulin out-of-pocket costs fell to $21.19 from $31.52 between 2018 and 2022,” and “nearly 80% of insulin prescriptions cost less than $35 a month out of pocket in 2022.” So, in no way are PBMs inflating consumer costs.

If PBMs aren’t actually increasing healthcare prices, then why is the Biden administration going after them so aggressively?

I argue because the administration knows that the next step to socialized medicine is having the government set drug prices. That can’t happen if private sector companies are driving market pricing in the industry.

That would explain why the Biden FTC is trying to sue them and radical socialists like Sen. Bernie Sanders are also trying to stop PBMs through legislation.

What’s puzzling, however, is to see Kentucky Republican James Comer of all people using the time and resources of the House Oversight Committee to stab at PBMs, too.

Comer believes that Chair Lina Khan and the Biden-Harris FTC’s findings have helped to prove that these PBMs are bad actors. But the FTC’s sole Republican commissioner, Melissa Holyoak, opposed the release of the FTC’s interim staff report on this matter, arguing that it was not fact-based. In fact, before the Biden-Harris administration took over, the FTC advocated on behalf of PBMs, only to rescind the guidance for reasons that are unclear.

Rep. James Comer is a good man. I don’t question his motives or intentions, but I do question why he’s putting so much stock in the political talking points of a few Democratic politicians. Very rarely does that present good news for American consumers, and now is not one of the few exceptions.

The American people don’t want socialized medicine. They see the destruction that it’s caused in every country where it’s been tried. That is why every bill that would bring it to the United States never gets anywhere in Congress.

It would be a shame if the Biden administration succeeds in using the court system to force this dangerous dose of socialism down all our throats. Hopefully, the leaders within our judicial system and Republicans in Congress do everything they can to stop them.

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anniekoh · 1 year ago

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elsewhere on the internet: capitalism

Is China a capitalist country? 中国是资本主义国家吗？(2022, Chuang)

China today follows in the same footsteps, but in conditions of even more intense global competition. So it is not surprising that the union between Chinese capitalists and state power is similarly intense. In the Chinese party-state, all upper-level positions (roughly county level and above) are staffed by guanliao (官僚), a term often translated simply as “bureaucrats,” but which actually designates only these higher-level government posts—almost universally held by wealthy individuals who, in any other country, would clearly be seen as capitalists. The guanliao form the official core of the group of capitalists who are “inside the system.” But almost all major capitalists in the country can also be categorized as lying “inside the system,” including those who hold no official bureaucratic post but are nonetheless party members, such as Jack Ma. Similarly, all major companies, including “private” ones, have party members placed in upper management.

The Money Theory of the State: Reflections on Modern Monetary Theory by Jamie Merchant (2021, The Brooklyn Rail)

“Countries with monetary sovereignty, then, don't have to manage their budgets as a household would," says Stephanie Kelton, one of MMT's leading economists. “They can use their currency-issuing capacity to pursue policies aimed at maintaining a full employment economy.”4 If the British aristocrat Keynes was writing at the twilight of the British Empire, now the MMT movement emerges in the darkening glow of another senescent, slowly dying superpower, offering similar remedies to stay the terminal decline of American capitalism.

Kelton herself was the chief economic advisor for the Bernie Sanders campaigns in both 2016 and 2020. For her, a greatly expanded role for government spending and a federal jobs guarantee would yield a “people’s economy,” in which “private enterprise and public investment all combine to raise living standards for everyone.”5 Some take it even further. In a book called Reclaiming the State, William Mitchell and Thomas Fazi enlist MMT as a central pillar in a campaign to rescue the nation state as part of a “progressive vision of sovereignty.” This entails nothing less than a “drastic expansion of the state’s role—and an equally drastic downsizing of the private sector’s role—in the investment, production, and distribution system,” even “a broad renationalisation of key sectors of the economy and a new and updated notion of planning.”6

These supposedly leftwing applications of MMT sit awkwardly next to the theory's enthusiastic reception by a fun assortment of libertarians, plutocrats, war criminals, and corporate-nationalist reactionaries.

Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason by Evgeny Morozov (2022, New Left Review)

In some Marxian accounts, including that of Immanuel Wallerstein, ‘primitive accumulation’ refers to the use of extra-economic, political means to capture and transfer surplus, under the label of ‘unequal exchange’, from the poorer to the richer lands—or, as Wallerstein put it, from the periphery to the core.footnote18 The origins of capitalism could not be understood without taking into account this ability of the core to appropriate the surplus of the whole global economy. This is what explains why capitalism emerged and flourished where it did. The exploitation of (never fully proletarianized) wage-labour certainly boosted the fortunes of capitalists in the core, but this was only part of the story. Thus, to focus exclusively on exploitation and ignore the fact that the core-periphery dynamics of ‘unequal exchange’ and ‘primitive accumulation’ are still present today is to misunderstand the nature of capitalism.

A cursory look at Capital, Volume One, however, reveals more ambiguity on the subject of primitive accumulation than Brenner initially let on. Chapter 26, where Marx criticized Adam Smith’s rather naïve conception of ‘previous accumulation’, certainly backs up Brenner’s claims (he used it, very eloquently, in attacking Wallerstein). But then, in Chapter 31, Marx says something much more congruent with Wallerstein’s own line of analysis, famously writing that:

The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalized the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production. These idyllic proceedings are the chief momenta of primitive accumulation.footnote21

The chapter leaves no doubt about the intricate connection between violence waged in the name of forced transfer and the origins of capitalism. Marx couldn’t be more explicit here: ‘the veiled slavery of the wage workers in Europe needed, for its pedestal, slavery pure and simple in the new world.’ It is hard to see how to fit this account of ‘primitive accumulation�� into the Brennerian story of the ‘divorce’ between the producers and their means of production in the English countryside. There are similar ambiguities in Marx’s discussion of whether these violent practices of ‘conquest and looting’ stopped at the stage of primitive accumulation, or whether they—and thus, also, primitive accumulation—continued alongside capitalist accumulation proper, based on exploitation; or indeed whether, even if ‘primitive accumulation’ itself is a thing of the past, there is nonetheless an ongoing process of expropriation or dispossession that exists alongside exploitation.

In the past decade, there have been many intriguing attempts to advance the argument that exploitation and expropriation have been—and still are—mutually constitutive. Two stand out in particular: the German sociologist Klaus Dörre’s theorization of the capitalist ‘land grab’, drawing on Rosa Luxemburg’s Landnahme and Nancy Fraser’s related work on the deep-rooted structural connection between exploitation and expropriation, with the latter creating—and constantly recreating—conditions of possibility for the existence of the former.footnote23 Many of the methodological discussions unfolding on the left today—about the best ways to narrate capitalism in relation to climate or race or colonialism—still reflect the unresolved isues of the Brenner–Wallerstein debate.

A lot of this recent work builds on David Harvey’s influential concept of ‘accumulation by dispossession’, introduced in his 2003 book The New Imperialism. Harvey coined this term as he was unsatisfied with the qualifier ‘primitive’; he, as many others before him, saw accumulation as ongoing.

#capitalism #elsewhere on the internet

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latteandbookz · 1 year ago

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[New Post] ARC Review: He's a Keeper by Stacy Travis

Title: He’s a Keeper Author: Stacy Travis Page count: 325 Published: May 24th, 2022 Publisher: Social Butterfly PR Genre: Contemporary Sports Romance Received: From the publisher in exchange for an honest review Rating: 5/5 Drunk-texting a grumpy soccer star?Best worst decision of my life. Especially when the player is the sinfully handsome, foul-mouthed Holden Sanders… my new library…

View On WordPress

#Arc Book #Arc Book Review #Bibliophile #Book #Book Blog #Book Blogger #Book Blogging #Book Review #Book Reviewer #Bookish #Books #Bookworm #Contemporary Romance #Sports Romance

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naminethewriter · 2 years ago

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You're Not Alone

Chapter Four: All Together

Masterpost | First | Previous | Next | Ao3

Remus is finally here! This is the fourth chapter to my gift for @edupunkn00b for the @sanderssidesgiftxchange! Only the epilogue left now 🥰 Enjoy!

Content Warnings: Reference to Flashbacks and Panic Attacks

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Logan and Janus hurried over to the door and threw it open. In front of them stood their husband, Remus, in full skiing gear, his hood off and glasses pushed up into his hair. His fist was raised to continue pounding on the door. As soon as he saw them, Remus grinned.

“Logie, you’re okay! And Jan-Jan made it home, too!”

“Indeed I did, but how did you? The airport’s over an hour away!” Janus exclaimed, staring at his husband in disbelief.

“I skied!” Remus declared proudly, holding up his skis with a grin.

“Have you gone completely insane?! That was far too dangerous!”

“Oh yeah? How did you get here then, huh? I don’t see your car!”

“That- That doesn’t matter right now, you –“ Janus sputtered but was interrupted by Logan pulling him back inside and making room for Remus to enter as well.

“Both of you stop. You each did something incredibly stupid but you’re here now and Remus needs to get inside.”

“Thank you, Logie bear, I knew you would understand.”

“Do not start with that, I am furious with both of your disregard for your own safety,” Logan huffed. “Janus, please get a few towels, I’ll help Remus undress.”

“Well, aren’t you forward, starlight?” Remus giggled and wiggled his eyebrows at him. Logan gave him an unimpressed glare, while Janus disappeared down the hallway.

“I will not engage in any sexual activity with you until I am completely certain that you are not suffering from hypothermia.”

“Boo!” Remus pouted. “And I’m fine, it was a good workout! I’m actually sweating more that I’m freezing.”

“Considering the possible symptoms of hypothermia, that is not as reassuring as you think it is.”

Remus just shrugged, not in the mood to argue further and letting his husband fret over him. They worked together to get Remus out of his wet clothes and Logan had to admit that Remus didn’t seem to be the least bit cold or hypothermic. Still, he had Janus towel him off while he brought the wet clothes to join Janus’ to dry. When he got back, Remus was already wearing fresh clothes and making grabby hands at him from the couch.

“Where’s Janus?” Logan asked him as he let himself be pulled into Remus’ lap.

“Making us more tea.” Remus buried his face in his husband’s shoulder, he had missed him and Janus dearly during his stay in Germany. “You smell good. Love it.” Despite being used to Remus’ antics, Logan couldn’t help but flush.

“Thank you?”

“Y’ welcome.”

They stayed like that, cuddled together until Janus returned with three steaming cups on a tray.

“Remus, have you contacted Roman yet?”

“Oh shit, you’re right!” Remus suddenly lunged towards where he had put his phone on the coffee table, almost sending Logan to the ground, but he managed to just keep his balance. Before he could chide his husband, Remus had already started a video call with Roman.

“So, you are alive, you giant oaf!” was the first thing Roman said as the call connected. Janus sighed and sat down next to Remus and Logan slid off his lap, sitting on the other side.

“Sorry, Ro-bro, but I literally just got here.”

“You seriously went all the way back to your house?! You’ve been gone for over four hours!”

“Well yeah, but I got there, didn’t I?”

“You are the most idiotic, reckless person I have ever met. How have you managed to survive this long?! No, better yet, how have I not died of one of the ten thousand heart attacks you have caused me over the years???”

“Well, it’s good to see that you haven’t lost your sense of dramatics over the holidays, Roman,” Janus commented dryly.

“You! As if you’re any better! Do you know how worried Remy was about you? Huh? Or Patton? And all you send us is ‘Got home. Talk to you later.’ That’s it?! No explanation, just a fucking text message, Janus!”

“I needed to take care of Logan; he was my priority!”

“I was fine –“

“No, you weren’t.”

“Still, I was fine as soon as you came here, so we could have –“

“I’m not here to listen to you fight!” Roman interjected loudly through the phone. “I just want you to remember that there are other people you need to contact.”

“That is a valid point, thank you Roman,” Logan said before either of his husbands could object.

“We could just add them to the call,” Remus shrugged and moved to do so without waiting for the others’ opinions. Janus didn’t stop him, just sighed.

“This is going to take a while, I fear.”

~~~

Janus turned out to be right. Remy and Patton, as well as Emile and Virgil who happened to be home and present for the call as well, lectured Logan’s husbands for a whole half hour before the topic moved towards the twin’s vacation. But because his husbands and him were exhausted from the day’s events and all eight of them would meet up the next day if the weather allowed, Logan cut the call short after that. Everyone agreed that they should get some rest and wished them a good evening.

When Logan glanced at the clock, he could hardly believe it was only 4pm.

“I need to prepare dinner,” he realized out loud.

“Oh, hell yeah, I was looking forwards to this!” Remus cheered, hugging Logan enthusiastically.

“Yes, I would love a good meal right about now as well,” Janus agreed. “Should we help you, dear?”

“I appreciate the offer, but may I propose that the two of you take a shower first? I believe you have warmed up adequately and we can rule out hypothermia as a concern. That will also give me time to set up the kitchen the way I need it and you can join me there afterwards.”

Janus reached over Remus to grab Logan’s hand and established eye contact with him.

“Are you sure you’ll be alright if we leave you alone for that long?”

Logan wanted to wave him off, say that he was fine but one look at not only Janus’ but also Remus’ expression told him that he needed to show them how confident he was that he would not have another breakdown. So, he squeezed Janus’ hand and smiled.

“Yes, I am certain. Knowing you are in the house as well as keeping myself busy with cooking will prevent another flashback from occurring.”

Janus studied his expression for a moment but when he found no trace of a lie, he smiled back and nodded.

“Okay, then we’ll leave it to you. Let’s go, Remus.”

“Uh! Can we bathe together?” Remus laughed, chasing after his husband. Logan chuckled, watching them go before heading into the kitchen to start on the planned dinner.

~~~

Everything was great before and during the meal. Logan could prepare himself and the kitchen properly before his husbands joined him and cooking together turned out to be very fun. Remus even followed all of his instructions without trying to ‘spice things up’. The entire time the kitchen was filled with either soothing chatter or comfortable silence. Remus told them about his time in Germany and Janus and Logan filled him in on what had happened at home.

It was after they finished dinner and the following clean-up that Remus got very restless.

“Bescherung!” he called, excitedly jumping up and down. “Time for presents!”

‘Bescherung’ is the German word for the gift giving part of the Christmas festivities and happens on Christmas Eve rather than the morning after. In Germany it’s not Santa Claus that brings the presents, but the ‘Christkind’, the Christmas child. It’s a tradition that Janus and Logan had adapted to after they started dating Remus, both finding it to be calmer and less stressful than doing it on the morning of the 25th.

Neither of them were morning people after all.

“Not that I am opposed, but do the two of you even have presents prepared?” Logan asked. Janus usually kept his at Patton’s until the day of, so they were most likely left in the car and Remus is known for preparing gifts last minute, so he probably bought them in Germany and left them with Roman.

“I don’t have all of them, but I made sure to bring at least one for each of you!” Remus grinned proudly.

“As did I,” Janus spoke up. “It felt wrong to not have something in case we did manage to all make it home after all.”

“Great! Then let’s get to it! We all give each other one gift now, the rest we’ll do tomorrow.”

“Very well, I suppose that is fair.”

“Yes, something small since Remus and I couldn’t transport the big things.”

“I will fetch something appropriate for each of you,” Logan agreed and left for his study, where he had ‘hidden’ the presents for his husbands. Both Janus and Remus would be able to find them easily if they so wished, but they had learned over the years that it brought Logan great joy to see their reactions on the day, so they refrained.

Logan is the last to return to the living room a few minutes later. The wrapped packages before Remus and Janus were quite a lot smaller than his, and there were smaller presents he could have chosen, but he was too excited to see their reactions to his choices to wait for tomorrow.

He placed them on the coffee table and took his seat on the couch next to Janus. Remus had opted to sit on the floor, shaking excitedly.

“Me first! Please!”

Janus chuckled.

“Go ahead, Muse.”

“Funny you say that, because you two were the muses for this!”

Remus handed both of his husbands two slim, very light packages. They carefully opened them, and Logan could only stare at the cloth in his hands while Janus gasped.

“Oh, Remus, they’re beautiful!”

In his hands, Janus held a new set of gloves. Black with a yellow, two-headed snake embroidered on the back. It’s the logo Janus had created for himself in school. Without touching, Logan couldn’t be sure of the material, but he believed that it was either silk or something similarly soft.

While Janus hugged Remus and said his thanks, Logan’s eyes wandered back to his own gift. A tie, as black as Janus’ gloves, but with the Tardis embroidered on it. Dr Who was his favorite TV show of all time, a sentiment he shared with Remus.

“Thank you, Remus, it is wonderful,” Logan commented with a smile, showing the tie to Janus who had returned to his place on the couch.

“And you haven’t even seen the best part!” Remus grinned. “Turn it around! I technically wanted to do that for both of you, but I couldn’t really stitch anything on the inside of Janny’s gloves without it showing on the outside, so I gave up on that. I could add it to your hat, though.”

What Remus was referring to was two small, stitched additions to the inner folds of Logan’s tie. On one side was a date, their wedding date to be precise and the other a sentence that read: Jan and I love you. Always.

Logan’s eyes started to water. He tried to say something, to express how much it meant to him, but the words wouldn’t come out. Instead, he stood and tackled Remus into a hug and kiss.

Remus caught him easily and held him close until he let go of his own.

“Thank you.”

Logan’s voice broke, still crying. Remus smiled and wiped his tears away.

“Of course, starlight. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Well, now I feel left out,” Janus spoke up from the couch, arms crossed and pouting in a very obvious fake way. Remus cackled, gently pushing Logan off of him to reach for something.

“Sorry, Snakey. I have a peace offering for you if you want?” He held out a plastic bag with something brown in it that was immediately snatched away by Janus.

“You’re forgiven.”

“Honey waffles?” Logan guessed, knowing they were Janus’ favorite.

“Sure are. Authentic Dutch ones too. One day trip over the border mainly to get them. I got another two packs with my other luggage.”

“If that’s so I might be able to get one at least.”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Remus giggled, watching Janus happily munch on the confectionary. Logan watched as well for a moment before giving Remus a kiss on the cheek and moving back to the couch.

“If you’re not too busy eating, wanna continue, Janny?”

Janus blushed, swallowing the last remains of the waffle and putting the rest of the pack aside. He cleared his throat before speaking which threw Remus into a giggle fit.

“It will be tough to follow you, but sure.”

The packages Janus handed out weren’t the same shape as Remus’ had been. Logan’s was similar to the one he had received from his other husband, though a bit heavier, but Remus’ was bulkier.

Pulling the wrapping away, Logan found a set of bookmarks, all on the thicker side, and as he looked through them, he found different constellations, from the Zodiac to less well-known ones as the Hydra. Turning them around revealed text that described the location of the constellation, as well as when it is best seen in their state and where it originated.

“Thank you, I will make good use of them,” he said, smiling at Janus who nodded, satisfied.

Remus, meanwhile, had ripped his gift open, read the little card attached to what was inside and then immediately shoved the object in his mouth, chewing on it happily.

“And I suppose that is it’s intended purpose?” Logan asked.

“Indeed. A chewing bracelet that is a bit more inconspicuous that his other chewelry.”

“Well, he seems to be enjoying it immensely.”

“Yes,” Janus hummed fondly. Logan smiled, watching for another moment before he pulled the bigger gift of his two into his lap.

“This is for you, Janus. Please be careful with it, it is fragile.”

“Thank you, darling, I will be.”

Since Remus seemed to still be focused on his new stim toy, Logan watched his other husband open his gift instead of handing out the other one. As he promised, Janus carefully pulled open the taped folds of paper, rotating the heavy thing in his lap with a steady hand. Soon he revealed a beautiful, glass chess board.

“Oh, this is just wonderful!” Janus exclaimed, drawing Remus’ attention. “What beautiful craft! And the pieces!” Janus had opened the drawer that contained the figurines and examined them closely.

“Uhh, fancy!” Remus said, leaning close but, wisely, refraining from touching.

“I love it, Logan. Thank you,” Janus said, earnestly. Logan blushed.

“Well, there is something more on the bottom. It seems, Remus and I had similar thoughts this time around.”

Janus raised a brow and carefully placed the black bishop he had been examining back into the drawer, closed it and then slowly turned the board around. On the bottom was an engraving of each of their names and their wedding date. Janus traced the letters and smiled fondly.

“Truly a perfect gift, thank you so much, darling.”

“I am happy that you like it,” Logan said, blushing. Having his gift be called perfect made him feel very good.

“What about me!” Remus demanded, practically buzzing on the floor. Logan chuckled.

“Of course, Meus. Here you go.” He handed him a gift bag that Remus immediately dumped out over his lap. It was an assortment of different color hair dyes as well as a card that Remus snatched up quickly. His eyes widened as he read it.

“You’re serious?!” he exclaimed, staring at Logan.

“Yes.”

“You’ll let me dye your hair? Any color I want?”

“Any color we can agree on. And only one.”

“Fuck yeah!” Remus cheered, jumping up and throwing himself between his husbands, pulling both of them against him. “I love both of your gifts so much, thank you! I can’t wait to see what else will come tomorrow!”

“I agree,” Janus hummed, adjusting his position to be more comfortable. “You were both very thoughtful and I am so happy to be here with both of you.”

“So sappy!” Remus teased before pressing kisses against Janus’ hair, ignoring his protests.

“While I can’t say I am happy with how you two got here,” Logan interrupted, making both of his husbands freeze up, “I couldn’t imagine spending this day without both of you. Thank you.”

“This calls for a cuddle pile!” Remus laughed, joyfully, and pulled both his husbands even closer. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, but there was nowhere Logan would rather be.

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ailtrahq · 1 year ago

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Bitget proudly hosted its inaugural flagship event, EmpowerX Summit, in Singapore on September 12, 2023. The summit welcomed nearly 1900 esteemed guests, featuring more than 247 distinguished VIP speakers and partners who engaged in profound discussions on the transformative potential of crypto and the burgeoning web3 ecosystem. Tim Draper, renowned venture capitalist and cryptocurrency advocate, delivered a keynote address that reverberated through the crypto space. I love what Bitget is doing - bringing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to the masses," Draper emphasized. It has to be done with good user experience, good user interfaces, and it's gonna be done in a way that brings so many people in. There's no incentive for banks to take them on because people can't afford to even open an account; it's too expensive. Opening a bank account is more expensive than getting Bitcoin." Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner of Dragonfly Capital, shared his insights in another captivating keynote. He highlighted the seismic growth in on-chain settlements with stablecoins, revealing, "In 2022, over $11 trillion stalecoins were settled on-chain. That means there's more money being sent through stablecoin chains than through Visa. He drew attention to the fact that 25 million addresses hold $1 across all wallets and chains, collectively comparable to the fifth-largest U.S. bank in terms of users. This staggering figure signifies the vast number of individuals engaged with stablecoins today, underlining the rapid expansion of the crypto market. EmpowerX Summit marked a pivotal moment in Bitget's journey towards crypto empowerment. The event commenced with an inspiring speech by Bitget's Managing Director, Gracy Chen. She articulated Bitget's mission to empower global users to trade crypto and assist companies in realizing their vision of decentralized real-use case products. A riveting panel discussion ensued, featuring industry luminaries such as Justin Sun, Founder of TRON DAO; Yu Hu, CEO of Kaito ai; Alexander Pack, Managing Partner of Hack VC; David Tse, Professor at Stanford University and recipient of the Shannon Award. The panelists delved deep into topics encompassing AI, Blockchain, and the future of the internet. EmpowerX Summit spanned the entire day, comprising six insightful panel discussions. Visionaries and co-founders in the blockchain realm, including Mihailo Bjelic, Co-Founder of Polygon; Adeniyi Abiodun, Co-Founder of Mysten Labs; Bryan Pellegrino, Co-founder of LayerZero; Alexandre Dreyfus, Founder of Chiliz; Sander Gortjes, Co-founder & CEO, HELLO Labs; Michael Gronager, Co-founder Chainalysis; Sebastien Borget, Co-founder of Sandbox, graced the stage with their expertise. Venture capitalists of eminence, including Dragonfly Capital; Carl Hua, Investment Partner and CTO of Shima Capital; and Tony Cheung, Partner of Foresight Ventures, were among the distinguished attendees. Bitget's transformation from a derivative crypto exchange to a comprehensive ecosystem was evident. The company's strategic investment of $30 million in the decentralized BitKeep multi-chain wallet (rebranded as Bitget Wallet) earlier this year marked a significant milestone. This move solidified Bitget's position as a comprehensive decentralized space ecosystem. The announcement of the $100 million EmpowerX Fund during the event signifies Bitget's unwavering commitment to fostering ecosystem development. The fund will primarily support the growth of regional exchanges, data analytics firms, and media organizations. This initiative aligns with Bitget's core philosophy of "Trade smarter," emphasizing user empowerment through intuitive tools, security, and user-friendliness. One of the standout moments at the EmpowerX Summit was the thrilling Web3 pitching session, presented in partnership with HELLO Labs. During the summit, attendees had a unique opportunity to witness a sneak peek of the "Killer Whales" reality show on-site. Four participating

projects presented their ideas in front of a high-profile panel of judges from the show. In the end, Lava was selected as the winner. Lava is an open standard for blockchain RPC and APIs, aiming to simplify the development of web3 applications using blockchain data, all while ensuring data freshness and high uptime. Bitget's rebranding campaign, revolving around "Trade smarter," solidifies its position as a leader in innovative trading products. This philosophy was presented during the event. Comprising the Smart Money Awards and Hero Trader Awards, the Bitget Smart Awards ceremony honored excellence across two segments. Leveraging the proven capabilities of 0xScope, a respected leader in blockchain analytics, the Smart Awards illuminated standout investment behavior and trading strategies. The company's multifaceted ecosystem expansion demonstrates its unwavering dedication to facilitating smarter trading, empowering individuals, and building a more secure, user-friendly, and efficient financial future for all. Source

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updatedgeek · 1 year ago

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AMD Share Price Target 2024, 2025, 2030

A US-based manufacturer of semiconductors, AMD. For both consumers and companies, the corporation creates computer processors and related technology. I'll talk about AMD's share price target for 2024, 2025, and 2030 in this article.

Describe AMD

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., also known as AMD, is a semiconductor manufacturer with its US headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The corporation creates technology-related products for both individuals and companies, including computer processors.

Target Price for AMD Shares

Jerry Sanders and a large number of other experts in the same sector formed the company in 1969. Memory chips and related computer components were the first thing the company produced.

Later, AMD grew its presence in the microprocessor business and began to compete against Intel, the primary competitor in the sector. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, they faced numerous obstacles, making it tough to compete with Intel, which ultimately proved to be the fastest and most powerful processor.

When AMD's total revenues in 1978 exceeded $100 million, its shares were admitted to trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1979.

AMD share price

The price of an AMD share right now is $113.15. The stock has reached a high of more than $164 in November 2021.

Here is a pricing chart for AMD shares.

AMD share price technical analysis

The stock has had an upward trend since inception through November 2021. The stock thereafter started to decline, which lasted until October 2022. Once more, it has so far displayed an increasing tendency.

Between the two trend lines, the stock price has zigzagged. The stock has reached the lower trendline three times and the higher trendline five times since October 2022.

AMD share price trendlines

The stock is anticipated to retrace the lower trend line before bouncing again in the direction of the upper trend line.

AMD stock price retrace

At this point, aggressive investors can acquire stock, and once the price exceeds the top trend line, they can buy more.

Wait for the price to go close to the lower trend line before making a cautious purchase. They ought to purchase once the stock falls under $105. Additionally, once it returns to and crosses the top trend line, they can accumulate more stocks.

The stock price is currently trading above the 200 moving average, which indicates a buy signal when taking into account the 200 moving average. Investors can, however, hold off on making a purchase until the price is close to the moving average line.

AMD 200 moving average chart

AMD's target share price

The stock price has changed by 25% since October 2022.

The target price for AMD shares in 2024 is $142.5. The price may increase to $200 if the market is in a positive mood.

The anticipated range for AMD's share price in 2025 is $150 to $210.

Between $380 and $430 is the projected AMD share price objective for 2030.

Factors promoting the increase in the price of AMD stock

Favorable financial results

The corporation recorded $23.60 billion in revenue for 2022, an increase over the previous year's revenue. With $67.58 billion in total assets and $54.75 billion in total equity, the company's total assets likewise showed a positive trend. Strong sales growth and improving profit margins indicate a positive financial outlook for the company.

Competitive advantage

The corporation had kept up its competitive edge inside the market, which is a sign of rising stock value. They stand out from the competition because to their creative solutions and technological developments. There is a prospect for more investments in the company equity because the company can produce distinctive and in-demand products.

Industry trends and demand

It's crucial to stay informed on market trends if you want to see your stock prices rise. Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and virtual reality are examples of emerging technologies that have increased demand for high-performance processors, AMD's area of expertise. The stock price of AMD will likely experience significant rise because to the ongoing growth in technological advancements.

Market share expansion

Growing AMD's market share is a key strategic aim because it will help the company's stock price rise. AMD aims to take a sizable share of the market by focusing on a number of industries within the technology sector, including data centers, gaming, and laptops. Market share growth that is gradual and steady suggests substantial revenue and profit.

Before deciding to buy a stock, investors might take the stock price and the company's fundamentals into account.

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Disclaimer: If you're considering investing in the stock market, talk to a financial professional first. Consider the risk and research the company's specifics.

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pierogipie · 2 years ago

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I did my first ever exchange and received this lovely gift from...someone! Whoever you are, thank you!

#handers #fhanders #dragon age 2 #the whole gang is here!#female hawke #anders #fenris #varric #merrill #isabela #ok not the whole gang but...my favorites #the cheese caves of kirkwall #fic #sanders exchange 2022

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candied-peach · 2 years ago

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ao3: “the ticking of the clock” rating: T warnings: loceit, kissing genre: fluff and angst description: Janus discovers Logan has his stuff. What's the appropriate answer? Breaking and entering, of course. (happy holidays, @icecoldflames! i hope you like it! i used loceit, antique shop + witch au, and enemies to lovers kind of! @sanderssidesgiftxchange )

Janus frowns faintly when his locator spell points into yet another crooked scrawl of neighborhood. He sighs, tucking away his wand discreetly up his sleeve, and continues on his way. He's waited hundreds of years for this. He doesn't need to rush.

Truthfully, Janus thought he'd never see his old property at all. He lost it when an ill-fated attempt on his life occurred, driving him away from his home in a hurry. In the rush, he unfortunately left most of his belongings. He still misses them. And just last week, while taking a stroll, he felt a sort of ping from his old belongings. They were around here somewhere. He just had to find them.

He expects them to be in someone's house, perhaps crammed in an attic or tucked away in a guest room. Something like that. Hopefully tidied away and forgotten just enough that he can slip in and retrieve them. They might even be still in good condition. Janus knows better than to hope for pristine, not after this long.

He frowns harder when his steps slow, his wand pointing directly at...

An antiques shop?

Not just any antiques shop, Janus realizes with dismay and a faint, dawning horror. One run by Logan, the utter bastard that is a fellow witch. Janus is a learned man. A man of culture. He is not the kind of man who flings a punch, or tosses a kick someone's way.

He desperately wants to punch Logan Croft right in his stupid, smug face.

How dare he keep Janus's treasured belongings?! Does he have no sense of decency? There is no way he wouldn't be able to sense the tinge of magic soaked into the wood. Janus's particular style is quite distinctive. He has to know. He has to know and he's choosing not to reunite Janus with his possessions. Janus's upper lip wrinkles back in a snarl. If Logan thinks he can play keep away with Janus's belongings, then he has another thing coming.

He nearly rushes up the steps, nearly throws himself through the door, ready to demand what in the hell Logan thinks he's playing at. He checks himself sharply. He will look insane if he confronts Logan like this, still boiling with fury. Especially if there are any paying customers around. His property is safe for the time being. If somebody dares buy it, he can always find it again.

His steps reluctantly turn away, trailing down the road. He gives one final cursory look over his shoulder and sees the curtains at the window twitch. Janus chooses to behave like he hasn't seen this, taking a slow, deep breath. He needs to plan. He cannot be rash.

But oh, how he longs to be.

-----

Logan doesn't mean to spy.

Truly, he doesn't. He is busy straightening and tidying, always in pursuit of perfection, when he catches a glimpse of a man out the window that he hasn't seen in decades. Janus. The old witch is staring up at his antiques shop, nearly vibrating with what looks like righteous wrath. For a moment, Logan can't fathom why.

Then he glances back, to a particular corner, and winces. Of course. Janus can sense his old belongings, can't he. Logan hasn't meant to keep them this long. He meant to return them years and years ago, when they first came into his possession. He knows the two of them don't particularly get along, but-

He misses Janus.

Perhaps it's foolish of him. After all, it isn't like the other witch likes him. But that is just the thing. The other witch. There aren't many, particularly not as many who have managed to live as long as he and Janus have. There's a certain camaraderie in that. Perhaps Logan just...wished to talk to him again, and thought that keeping his possessions would facilitate that.

But it wasn't right. He can see that now. He'll have to contact Janus in some way, have to arrange to give him his belongings back. Not sell them to him, no, he is not quite that grasping a character. They are Janus's, fair and square. Logan sighs, straightening his glasses on the bridge of his nose. He wishes that he was reckless enough to plunge out the door after Janus.

He remains.

-----

"Break into the antiques shop," Janus mutters to himself, pacing up and down the worn floorboards of his bedroom. "Shrink all of my belongings, tuck them into my pockets, and walk right out. He won't know what hit him."

But what of enchantments? Janus frowns, briefly checking himself. Logan isn't stupid. He is many things, but low on intelligence and wit does not number among his faults. If he hasn't enchanted his shop against thieves, Janus will eat his hat without salt. That does pose a problem. If he breaks the enchantments, then Logan will know a fellow witch is around, and there aren't that many of them wandering around. It's but a hop, skip, and jump to presume it's Janus, and Janus doesn't think the argument "they were my belongings hundreds of years ago and I am simply returning them to their rightful owner, me" will hold up in court.

On the other hand, that also presumes that Logan would actually be willing to go to any kind of authority over the theft. Janus liked to think that Logan would be aware of the potential missteps in doing so. He bites his bottom lip. This is trickier than he thought it would be. He thinks that going in wand blazing would be a mistake, but it's also the only idea that will remain in his head for a period longer than a moment.

"Am I really that attached to my belongings?" Janus murmurs to himself, collapsing onto the soft and worn comforter that covers his bed. "Am I really willing to risk everything for someone as- as irritating as Logan Croft, of all people?"

He hasn't done anything wrong, to be scrupulously fair. Logan has never even summoned a spell against Janus. It's mostly his...the way he talks. The way he gesticulates. The way he can go on a tangent for hours and never come back to the original subject. The way his eyes sparkle in the sun when he's lit up about something he's passionate about. The way he-

Wait, what's that last one?

Janus's eyes widen in dismay. Oh. Oh no.

He cannot possibly find himself harboring an attraction for his fellow witch. No. The very thought is preposterous. Besides, the chances that any of his feelings (strange, new, and confusing as they may be) could possibly be reciprocated are- well, impossibly low. Even if Janus had a chance at some point, he certainly mustn't now, after he's made a thorough nuisance of himself.

Really, he would be better off just waiting until morning, going to the antiques shop, and politely requesting that Logan return his things, perhaps even offering him a "finder's fee" of sorts.

Which is how Janus finds himself slipping out, dressed in muted dark colors, wand up his sleeve, breaking into the antiques shop with an antique set of lock picks.

The irony is not lost on him.

-----

Logan stirs as the muted blare of the front door's alarm invades his consciousness. He groans, lifting his head to stare blearily at the alarm clock on his nightstand. It is just after two thirty in the morning. Why is the front door alarm going off?

Logan concentrates all of his attention on the front of the shop and nearly falls out of bed in shock as he recognizes Janus. Janus, who is currently attempting to break into his shop. With a set of lock picks, no less.

Logan stumbles out of bed in a disheveled hurry, throwing on fresh clothes this way and that. He is thoroughly bewildered at Janus's actions. They are unlike any the other witch has previously taken, and that intrigues him. Is there something among his belongings that he is that desperate to ensure belongs to him again? If that is the case, then Logan will gladly step aside, perhaps even assist him in retrieving all of his possessions that Logan currently has.

He slips downstairs, shedding the enticing weight of slumber, just as Janus finally succeeds at picking the lock and slips inside.

"I hope you don't think that was subtle," he drawls. Janus skids to a stop, his eyes widening when they land on Logan. A scowl immediately crosses Janus's face.

"You," Janus breathes, stalking closer. It is easy to forget that Janus is so much shorter than Logan until now, when he is forced to confront the issue. "You impossible- infuriating-" Janus shakes a gloved finger in Logan's direction. Logan arches an eyebrow.

"You are the one breaking and entering," Logan points out.

"To retrieve my stolen property!" Janus splutters. Ah. So this is about his possessions then. Logan swallows back a strange, burning sense of disappointment.

"I did not steal it," Logan says mildly. "It fell into my possession quite naturally."

"You should have given it back," Janus accuses. Logan has no way to refute that. Janus is right. He should have made an effort to track the other witch down. His loneliness is no excuse. (Is it really just loneliness, murmurs his head. Are you really sure?)

"I apologize," Logan says, inclining his head slightly. Janus stares at him, eyes widened, as if he doesn't quite know how to react to that.

"I should have given your possessions back to you," Logan continues. "I apologize for not doing so in a more timely fashion. I have no excuse for my behavior."

"Why didn't you?" Janus asks. There is something inscrutable in his mismatched eyes. Logan has never been so close as to notice the beauty in them. They sparkle like differently colored gems, dark brown and amber bordering on emerald. He swallows, his throat suddenly dry.

"I missed you," he confesses, closing his eyes briefly. "I- I know that you aren't particularly fond of me, but you are a fellow witch and more than that, I- I find your conversations intriguing."

"I intrigue you?" Janus twists his words, just a little, and Logan finds himself nodding slowly.

"Yes," Logan agrees. "I apologize if that makes you uncomfortable, I have no desire to-"

"Logan," Janus interrupts him, stepping closer. "Logan, if it is all right with you, I want to kiss you," he says. Very forthright. Logan blinks at him, all thoughts leaving his head like a flurry of fallen leaves in the autumn chill.

"Then do," Logan murmurs through stiff lips, and wonders that the syllables came from his own mouth. Janus tugs on him a little, his gloved hands surprisingly warm against Logan's arm and Logan bends down, only to feel Janus's fingers in his hair, tightening in the surprisingly unruly strands, as their mouths seal together. Janus's mouth is hot and wet and surprisingly reminiscent of cinnamon and tea. Logan's head swims as they kiss, his eyes wrenched open so he doesn't miss a single moment of the way Janus's eyelids flutter and his nostrils flare, ever so slightly, as he takes in a breath through his nose, to keep the kiss going longer.

They part slowly, reluctantly. Logan is dazed, but not in a negative way. Nothing about this is negative. Janus's eyes are blown wide in what looks like surprise.

"That was incredible," Janus blurts out, his mouth curving in a slow, sweet smile. It looks gorgeous on him.

"Yes," Logan agrees, almost absently. As if it is a foregone conclusion. "Yes, it was." His smile is soft and tentative. "Janus," he says. "If I may be so bold..." Janus watches him, almost amused.

"I'd like to kiss you again," Logan blurts out, and Janus smushes himself against Logan in order to reach. This kiss is languid, syrupy sweet, like they have an eternity.

"You can have your things back, too," Logan says, as an afterthought. "I really didn't mean to keep them from you for so long."

"Logan," Janus says, his voice thick with fondness. "I adore you." Logan blinks at him.

"Likewise," Logan says, without a shred of hesitation. "Thank you for breaking into my shop tonight."

"It was my pleasure," Janus says, and tossing his head back, he begins to laugh. After a moment, Logan can't help but join him.

#🍬.txt #sanders sides #loceit #romantic loceit #sanders sides gift exchange 2022 #janus sanders #logan sanders #janus #logan #sanders sides fic #📚#ok to rb #peach writes

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mander3-swish · 2 years ago

Text

Where's My Love?

Summary: What if Michael and Alex have a collective nightmare where their lives look so very different without each other?

Notes: For @jule1122, Written for the @malexsanta Exchange 2022! Merry Christmas Jule!

Prompts: Future fic dealing with nightmares. Also borrowed some lyrics from a few of the songs left as prompts.

A/N: All mistakes are my own, and there's probably a lot. Deepest apologies. Otherwise, hope you enjoy this discombobulated dreamscape nightmare of Michael and Alex finding their way back to each other.

Read on Ao3 or below.

---

What if Michael and Alex didn't get married? What if Alex didn't attend their 10 year high school reunion? What if Michael had never stolen Alex's guitar from the music room?

What if Michael and Alex have a collective nightmare where their lives look so very different without each other? Usually dreams like these are meant to teach us a lesson. But Alex and Michael have each other and pretty much more than either had ever dreamed their lives could be.

Maybe Alex escaped the clutches of his father and he and Liz and Rosa sought their dreams in California? Maybe Michael became a successful agricultural engineer? Even though on paper, they should be happy with these alternate realities, it wasn't the same, not without each other.

---

Alex woke up slowly, pulling the comforter around him tighter, more chilled than he usually was in the mornings. And then he connected two dots, rolled over, and saw that Michael wasn't in bed with him. By the look of his side of the bed it seemed that he was never there, but Alex distinctly remembered giving Michael one hell of a blow job, with Michael returning the favor enthusiastically before passing out in a tangle of limbs.

Once he finished reveling in those memories, he noticed some other changes in the bedroom, mostly that his surroundings were unfamiliar.

"What the actual fuck," he said, sitting up quickly in the bed. He was not in his own bed, not in his house, and with a quick look out the window it appeared that he was no longer in Roswell, let alone New Mexico.

Luckily, his prosthetic was leaning against the bedside table, so he quickly rolled on the sock and slipped everything else into place. The thing was though, the prosthetic was not his new one. It seemed to be one he'd had a year ago, before Michael had made some custom upgrades with Oasian glass.

As he moved around the house from room to room, he deduced that he did not in fact live alone, but shared it with two others, likely girls from all the products in the bathroom. And he figured one of them must be Rosa, what with all the custom artwork lining the walls.

The more he tried to figure out what was going on, memories of another life swirled around his mind. In his head it was as if two timelines of experience co-existed - one where he and Michael just got back from their honeymoon, and the other was whatever this was where he was roommates with the Ortecho sisters in Los Angeles. But there were no parallel memories with him and Michael here, and that made him ten times more worried about what the hell was going on. He had no idea where Michael was or what he could be doing. He hoped he might still be in Roswell after all these years, but he wasn't sure if he should call anyone out of the blue to ask about him. Calling Sanders at the junkyard or Arturo at the Crashdown, or hell even Mimi at the Wild Pony would likely be his best options. And since he didn't think he really knew Sanders in this timeline and he likely hasn't been back to visit Roswell in all the years since high school, Mimi and Maria probably would be pissed at him for calling them out of the blue asking about Michael - and rightly so.

So Arturo it would be, but he decided to wait until at least Liz or Rosa returned home from work, just in case.

---

How do they find each within this bizzaro new reality? Can Michael tune into his powers to reach out to find Alex? Should he bring this up to Isobel, or will she call him crazy and go back to her perfect life.

He scrunched up his face and tried to make a mindscape connection to Alex. When that didn't work he tried to see if he could tap into those frequencies like Rosa was able to, but nothing worked. He was either too far away or that wasn't a thing he could actually do with his magical alien powers.

And this was when his other super power, his brain, kicked in and he realized he should check with Arturo at the Crashdown as he might know things - since he was vaguely recollecting that Alex had left with Rosa and Liz.

Michael snagged an empty stool at the counter, hoping he could easily get Arturo's attention. It was so busy in the Crashdown, busier than he'd ever seen it in real life outside of CrashCon week. But this was just a sleepy Wednesday in December, nothing special going on except that it was the week before Christmas. And then it dawned on Michael, regret tugging at his guts thinking about how his and Max's decisions on that night years ago had forever hurt the Ortecho family.

"Hola Michael, what can I get for you, your usual?" Arturo asked, his demeanor happy and boisterous like always, no matter what was going on.

"Actually, I came for a bit of help, but I would love a Chocolate Nebula Swirl milkshake, to go, muchas gracias." While he waited for the drink to be ready, Michael ran through in his head the best way to ask Arturo about Alex. He didn't really know what the whole situation was with the Ortecho sisters, but maybe that was the best course of action?

"Here you go," Arturo said, sliding the shake over.

As Michael laid the bills down on the counter to pay, he asked, "Soooo… when are Liz and Rosa headed home for Christmas?"

"Oh they won't be coming, unfortunately. My girls are off being too busy and successful to make it home very often. But at least Carlos can take care of everything for me - I'm headed to the beach for Christmas to visit!" Arturo's eyes gleamed with happiness. "It's not very often I'm able to visit them either, so this year will be very special."

"If you're driving, mind if I tag along? I can pay for gas." Michael hoped that Arturo hadn't planned on flying out.

"Why Michael, that is great of you to offer, actually. I would love the company," Arturo replied. While he didn't ask why Michael needed a last minute trip to California, the story would likely come out on the long, shared car ride. "I'll bring the snacks, of course," he offered.

"When should I be ready?" Michael asked. The sooner he could find Alex, the better.

"I'm leaving in the morning, first thing. Alex has a gig in a couple of days that the girls want me to attend, although, to be honest, I think I'm too old for the LA music scene…" Arturo rambled on about his plans with Liz and Rosa, but Michael's attention stopped and spiraled at his mention of Alex. It was as if he had two thought processes going at once - fucking happy that he would be able to see Alex and talk to him and help him figure out what the fuck was going on, and then at the same time his stomach was in knots, as if a whole herd of butterflies were doing loop de loops in his belly. It was a feeling he didn't think he'd had since high school, since before he kissed Alex in the UFO Emporium.

Over the following days, the trip west went by quicker than Michael expected it to, and in no time they were winding their way through the streets of LA, destination: Alex.

---

Alex never made that call to Arturo, getting wrapped up Christmas preparations and rehearsing for his show over the next few days. The show wasn't anything major or groundbreaking, just a few short sets at an art sale a group of Rosa's friends were hosting. It was just an opportunity for Alex to get back out there and perform. Every now and again, he came back to himself, realizing he'd gotten lost in this other Alex's life, nearly forgetting all about his own, about Michael. It wasn't as though this life made him happier or more fulfilled creatively, but it managed to fit in a comfortable way that was much too easy to get lost in.

He was in the makeshift green room, pacing back and forth, nervous because he would be hitting the stage next. His setlist was all sorted, a mix of his songs and a few versions of some Christmas songs that he was able to tolerate putting his own spin on. And then the scent of rain filled Alex's nostrils and his memories of Michael flooded back in.

There standing in the doorway was Michael, quietly watching him with a tilt to his head and a smirk on his lips.

"Nostalgia's a bitch." Michael couldn't help saying that line, as if the other Michael had hoped to say that to Alex in this other life.

Alex shuddered with a sudden jolt, and rushed over to Michael, crowding him against the doorframe, placing a tender kiss against Michael's lips. "I was stuck in my own head, or in the head of the Alex in this reality, but you pulled me out," Alex said, leaning back slightly, relieved that Michael was here. "Any idea what's going on?"

"Not exactly, but we might be caught up in each other's dream or nightmare, depending on how this all goes," Michael reasoned. "I'm hoping at some point we'll just wake up."

"Or is it like a Hallmark or Lifetime Christmas movie where we have to have some grand realization before that happens?" Alex had been suckered into a few movie nights recently with Kyle and Isobel where these types of movies had been the oeuvre of choice. And while he hated that his mind had twisted one all around and got him stuck in his own alternate reality dream, at least this wasn't the hot pocket dimension again.

---

They made it through the evening, Alex going through the motions of his performance, Michael mingling through the crowd and looking at the art and 'catching' up with Liz and Rosa, which was a weird bit of mindfuckery, since to them he hadn't seen them really at all since high school.

As the night wore on, so did Alex and Michael's unease. Something was still missing. They both wanted so desperately to wake up from this alternate reality dreamscape before something terrible happened to turn it truly nightmarish. And then as Alex was packing up after his last set, Michael picked up Alex's guitar, and after strumming a few chords, it all seemed to click.

Michael remembered telling Flint, of all people, about his dreams of a Dad Band with Alex. Was that what was missing? Them making music together?

"Alex?" Michael asked. Alex looked up from the keyboard case he was packing, but then everything faded away.

---

Michael and Alex woke up, their arms and legs tangled with each other and the bed sheets, reality slowly creeping back in after such a vivid dream.

Maybe it was time to start that band Michael had always dreamed about. But what about the dad part? Were they ready? How would they acquire children that would turn them into legit dads? Alex affectionately called Michael 'Plant Daddy' when he learned about his tender affection for his garden and his crop of sunflowers. But an actual dad to kids?

It seemed like it was time to have those conversations couples usually have long before their wedding. Even though they'd been dating and nearly living together for almost a year, not all the deep and long-term planning discussions happened. There was too much other lost time to make up for, and thinking about further into the future was put on the backburner.

After a long, very hot shower together to wash off the weirdness of that dream, they cuddled up on the sofa with cups of coffee to talk about what had happened in their dream.

"So, whatever that co-nightmare/mindscape we woke up from was, I think we need to hash out some goals for our life together," Michael started, which, starting conversations like this was definitely not in his wheelhouse. "I'm only saying this so that life doesn't pass us by and with only a blink of an eye, we're as old as Sanders, but without all of the things we maybe dreamed our lives could be."

"Is this about that Dad Band you joked about at our wedding reception?" Alex asked.

"Partially."

"Or is it more the kids part because I think I'd definitely be into having conversations and planning for that, as long as that was something you wanted too," Alex said, realizing as he was saying that that it was something he had only ever had an outside chance of ever being able to realize. "What were you thinking, adoption?"

"We could start by practicing baby-making?" Michael said, only half joking.

"I don't think it works that way," Alex replied with a grin, "but I'd be down for trying. You are an alien after all." Michael just countered with a tickle attack, the room filled with shrieks of laughter.

The end!

#malexsanta #malexsanta2022 #jule1122 #malex #roswell new mexico #rnm fanfic by mander3swish #rnm fanfic #rnm fic #michael guerin #alex manes #arturo ortecho is a good dad

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