#the only thing marketing trade press is good for at this time of year is christmas advert updates

[lesellieknope]

personally, I am thrilled

[dramioneasks]

Top 10 Most “Kudos-ed” (Completed) Fics on AO3 of 2024:

BLOODY, SLUTTY, AND PATHETIC by WhatMurdah - E, 21 chapters, Words: 195,969 - “In my humble opinion there’s only three things that men should be and that is bloody, slutty, and pathetic.” And, on a good day, Draco Malfoy can be all three. When war heroine Hermione Granger and Azkaban-tattooed war criminal Draco Malfoy are forced to wed as part of Shacklebolt’s controversial Reconciliation Act, they openly fight the match and each other—their public brawls breathlessly reported by the press. Secretly, a deeply traumatized Draco delights in Hermione’s attention and pines for a real marriage with her—even as her forced proximity to the Black family magic irritates the cursed scar Bellatrix left on her arm, reminding her why she can never truly trust or forgive him. Then Hermione discovers that Draco’s blood will soothe the scar . . . and Draco is willing to trade his blood for her body. (With post-war blood purity politics, black market potioneers, Pansy Parkinson’s career advice, the Malfoys blackmailing Hermione’s Wizengamot opposition, BDE Neville Longbottom hunting Death Eaters, a slutty Theo Nott serving as Draco’s right-hand man, and Crookshanks loose in Malfoy Manor.)

The Gallows by gillianeliza - E, 23 chapters, Words: 47,332 - Five years after the Battle of Hogwarts the Ministry of Magic has one more wizard to bring to trial: Draco Malfoy. However, it's not a trial they're after, it's a spectacle to celebrate the end of the Death Eater regime with the execution of their final prisoner. When Hermione realizes their plan, she halts the trial and invokes The Gallows Law — an ancient law that pardons any pureblood male without an heir if a witch will marry him. What Hermione isn't ready for is the reality of bonding a broken, shell of a wizard and her new life as she moves into Malfoy Manor as the new Lady Malfoy.

Meet Me In Dreamland by sinflower81 - E, 39 chapters, Words: 229,631 - If there’s one thing Hermione Granger is good at, it’s using magic to fix her problems. And this time, her problem is sex. Luckily, she has the perfect solution: a locket enchanted with the Patented Daydream Charm. Whenever she opens it, she’ll find herself in Dreamland, where she can live out all her filthiest fantasies risk-free. The magic is a bit tricky, though. For some reason, Malfoy keeps showing up there with her. Thank goodness it’s only an illusion—if that was really him, she would never live it down. Meanwhile, Draco is determined to figure out who the fuck is cursing him to suffer through highly realistic, erotic hallucinations of his secret childhood crush. When he finds the culprit, there will be hell to pay.

The Missing Sister by singularritae - M, 75 chapters, Words: 652,727 - The owl appeared late at night and left just as suddenly, he recognised the handwriting immediately and ripped open the envelope. She is yours. If something happens to us, I want you to hide her. Name her Hermione, for she will have my last libation before I sleep and be the messenger of dreamers. Moony and Mary know. Three words. Three words that forever changed the course of the war.

A Gallows Marriage by MilaBelle - E, 31 chapters, Words: 162,244 - “Glee was the last thing she felt staring into the empty eyes that should have been a bright grey. His face had always looked pointed and sharp, but now that gave way to gauntness. His hair, which he had been so particular about in school, hung long and limp. It reminded her of how his father had looked in his mugshot. How he had wanted to be just like his father growing up. And now he was, maybe more than ever. A ghost.” After doing more than her fair share in saving the Wizarding World and bearing the scars of what it cost, Hermione Granger thinks she has earned herself a little respite. But when a charismatic albeit chaotic Theodore Nott convinces her to use an old law to save a dear friend who is about to meet the Dementor’s Kiss, she simply cannot stand by and watch. Follow Hermione as she navigates a world that still believes in blood status, a marriage to save the life of an old enemy and the hurt that comes with surviving.

an ever-fixed mark by ninepiecesofcrait - E, 28 chapters, Words: 208,118 - It was a comedy of errors how Hermione Granger ended up engaged to Draco Malfoy, really. A series of unfortunate events. // Malfoy looked at his bloodied hand and the ring on the cobblestone floor, and sighed. “Well, Granger.” Grey eyes finally raised to look at her. “Now look what you’ve done.” // [while working to break a curse in malfoy’s cellar, hermione accidentally touches an enchanted betrothal heirloom from the noble house of black. things rapidly fall apart from there.]

The Best Mistake by Chels_Writes_a_Fic - E, 26 chapters, Words: 127,444 - Hermione Granger does not make mistakes, at least not often. After making the biggest, dumbest, most horrible mistake of her life, Hermione must deal with the repercussions while keeping her relationship with her Auror partner, Draco Malfoy, strictly professional. He, of course, has other plans. Amidst a resurgence in Death Eater activity, the likes of which Britain hasn’t seen since the First Wizarding War, Hermione will come to realize that the mistake she’s made with Draco might not be so bad at all. It just might be the best mistake.

disparate by Stars_in_motion - E, 4 chapters, Words: 40,708 - au where omegas who go neglected by their alpha for a long time often go into breakthrough heats when being around a different, compatible alpha who displays one (1) caretaking trait around them "You– you brought me supper?" Malfoy eyed her warily. "Don't look so stricken. Do you think I haven't noticed you've been starving yourself for days? You were at your desk when I arrived this morning and haven't moved since." He opened the box of fruit and plucked out a single grape with his sinfully long fingers. Still seated in her desk chair, Malfoy loomed over her entirely so she couldn't look anywhere else. Sometimes it was easier to forget how large he really was. "Now eat."

Mind the Bump by Soap1 - E, 28 chapters, Words: 84,050 - Hermione Granger and her colleague (and, though she sometimes hates to admit it, her friend) Theo Nott, are busy at the Research Institute for the Alchemical Sciences, working together on an innovative, though secretive, project that more than one person might like to get their hands on. She doesn't have much time for dating, and certainly isn't ready to think about starting a family. But after an exciting, though unexpected, one-night stand, she finds herself pregnant. With Draco Malfoy's baby. As her research continues, as her pregnancy progresses, will she be able to make room for Draco in her life?

Détraquée by Hystaracal - M, 108 chapters, Words: 728,097 - "All her growth was the conveying of a corpse of hope." (From 'The Rainbow', D.H. Lawrence) This is a story about coming into one's own, a meditation on the twilight of girlhood and the violence of crash-landing into womanhood. Follow Hermione as she navigates through the quagmire: Saving the world, getting top grades, falling in love, lust, and a whole lot of trouble, and comes out of it hopefully (at least) partially sane.

[dduane]

Hi! Possibly a bit of a weird question for you, but I'm trying to collect all of YW in hardbacks before my old omnibus finally gives out, and I was wondering - do you know if books 1-4 ever got published in hardback with the Harcourt black base/white text cover art? So many websites use blank placeholders that I can't tell if what I'm searching for even exists!

It’s not weird at all. I get occasional inquiries (especially from librarians) about how to get their hands on complete hardcover sets of the Young Wizards books.

Let's make this simpler from the start by establishing that in the forty-plus year history of the series, there has never been a unified hardcover edition of all the YW books, from any of their publishers... mostly because there've been too many publishers over that stretch of time.

Let's take the books in order, as far as possible, and you'll see what happened.

The books' first home was at Delacorte Press, an imprint of Dell Publishing. So You Want To Be A Wizard was published in hardcover in 1983, the Deep Wizardry hc in 1985, and the High Wizardry hc in 1990, with these covers. (The art, respectively, by David Wiesner, Darrell Sweet, and Neal McPheeters.)

All of these editions are now difficult to find in good condition, especially SYWTBAW—which as a first book in a series by a new/untried author, perhaps understandably had a very small print run and was mostly sold to libraries. (The run might have been as small as 1500 copies. It's hard to tell now, as this wasn't data that was shared with authors in those days.) As a result, most copies of the Delacorte SYWTBAW hc are either very beat up, or (if signed and/or in good condition) relatively expensive. The Delacorte DW and HW hardcovers are a little easier to find, but not that much.

In the early 1990s there was a change in publishing direction at Dell shortly after HW came out. The publisher's interest had pivoted toward wanting more bestselling authors; so they jettisoned many then-new or midlist authors so as to be able to pay the best-selling authors more. (In this particular micro-bonfire of the vanities, Dell's stupidity in throwing Jane Yolen overboard, FFS, astounds me to this day.) So though the books continued to be published as paperbacks at other Dell imprints (Laurel-Leaf, Yearling) through the mid-1990s, that was the end of the Dell hardcovers.

The next hardcover publication was therefore in 1990, from GuildAmerica / SF Book Club. Support Your Local Wizard contains SYWTBAW, DW and HW, and was a Book Club bestseller: it sold a quarter million copies and set a record as their most popular new-member-requested book that lasted until they went out of business. As a result, there are a lot of these books around.

Also in plentiful supply is The Young Wizards, which SFBC Fantasy published in 2001. (NB that a lot of sources list this as being a 1984 book, which is incorrect. As it also contains, besides the first three, A Wizard Abroad and The Wizard's Dilemma, this makes it impossible to have been published any sooner than 2001.)

Anyway, after that, things get a bit simpler. In the mid 1990s the series was picked up by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / Harcourt Trade Publishers' new YA imprint Magic Carpet Books, which began republishing earlier works. Possibly the oddest of these was a small-format (mmpb-sized) hc of SYWTBAW, which turns up here and there used. (I really need to ask Jane some time what the heck the thinking was on this book...)

...Anyway. A Wizard Abroad had until then been published only in the UK (in a mass-market mmpb from Transworld/Corgi); its first hardcover came out from the SF Book Club/GuildAmerica in 1993, Dell having passed on acquiring it. (The cover on this one was done by the fabulous David Cherry, artist and brother of my old colleague C. J. Cherryh.) Harcourt did another of the unusual small-format hardcovers, this time of AWAb, in 1997—testing the waters, I think. Then, when that sold strongly, they went straight to full-size hardcovers with The Wizard's Dilemma (with art from then until now being done by Cliff Nielsen) and have stayed with that format since.

Harcourt also did a lovely 25th anniversary hardcover edition of So You Want To Be A Wizard in 2003, which is easy to find inexpensively. I strongly suspect this republication trend would have continued with Deep Wizardry and High Wizardry when their respective anniversaries came around. But unfortunately the Magic Carpet program wound down soon afterwards, and the most recent hc volumes have been published simply as HMH, with no apparent interest at the publisher in going back to fill the holes in the hardcover backlist.

...So you can see, you've got kind of a mixed bag to deal with in terms of what you want. Availability has also been something of an issue, as the books are considered pretty deep backlist by Harcourt's current owner (HarperCollins), and warehouse supplies of some books in the series have been iffy.

So. The simplest I can make things for you is to help you avoid dealing with large corporate warehouses (because when some of these hc editions were preparing to go out of print, whenever possible I bought up the remaining stock to spare it from being pulped). Signed Books Direct—by which I mean the Ikea shelves out back in our boot room—has ample mint-condition supplies of many of the Harcourt hardcovers (though not Games Wizards Play, unfortunately: we've run out of those). Ignore the site’s front page inventory, which needs to be updated. Instead, just drop an email to the SBD email address and query me about what you're looking for.

HTH!

[genericpuff]

I've watched both (this is a hazbin hotel ask btw) but tend to keep my eyes closed to merch sales (and such forth) unless it can pierce my five degrees of separation

also gotta admit that I've been not keeping up with HB since... honestly the since the season end. yeah I'm behind.

What do you mean they're waiting for what's functionally pamphlets? It's taking MONTHS for a pamphlet?

That's funny in the bad way 😭

yeah so from MY UNDERSTANDING (i.e. correct me if I'm wrong) the playbill was part of some exclusive package deal where buyers would receive some keychains, trading cards, and a playbill which was supposedly going to be filled with exclusive interviews/quotes/background information/etc. about the show's production. That playbill was exclusive to the pre-orders, meaning if you didn't pre-order this merch package, presumably you could still purchase the merch package on its own (or possibly its parts separately on the merch site like the keychains n junk) but the playbill would ONLY be sent to those who pre-ordered.

The pre-orders started around a year or so ago, but then roughly 9 months ago when the bundles started to show up, people reported that the playbill - literally the centerpiece of the marketing - was missing.

Since then, the playbills still haven't arrived, but customers have gotten TWO separate emails written from the "characters" of Hazbin Hotel updating them on the situation. Yes, you read that right, the emails meant to update people on the part of their pre-order package that was still missing - a package that cost them $76 and again, the playbill was exclusive to - were written in-character like a roleplay post in a message board forum.

And for some reason, the A24 staff decided that Husk would be the best character to deliver the bad news, a character who is, like many characters in Hazbin, just an asshole.

It's wild that this even got approved as an official email from the A24 team because let's face it - if you had spent $76 with the good faith expectation that you were gonna get everything you were promised in return for that $76 is this really the response you'd want to get? I'm not exactly sure when this email was sent out but according to some of the people reporting on it via Twitter, it was around the end of January (so the end of the month that folks were expecting it to roll in). Not a great way to tell people that the product they're waiting on - and didn't expect to be missing in the first place - was delayed.

Months later, a second email rolled out, and A24 sort of learned their lesson, not by actually addressing their customers as human beings, but this time as Charlie, who is at least not a complete dickhead.

It still doesn't really answer any questions though because it's putting the responsibility on fictional characters to explain what's going on. So of course everything is masked behind the "teehee, Alastor did a naughty and Niffty got stuck in the printing press machine!" roleplaying talk which literally does not actually tell anyone what's really going on, just gives them a vague impression based on what they chose to make a fictional character say.

Sure, it's nicer than Husk, but it's still disingenuous and frankly just cringe esp when this is concerning the interests of paying customers.

I don't know if this is Vivzie's doing or someone else on the A24 team, but it really feels like they're trying to operate the same way HH would have operated back when it was just a Youtube series... but it's not a small-time Youtube production anymore, it's a full on Amazon show with hired employees and a customer base that expects the thing they paid for to actually show up. So at best this is just really immature mishandling of a situation that should be taken at least relatively seriously.

And really, out of all the things to delay... the playbills? Really? For anyone who's not familiar with what a playbill is, it's literally just a booklet. Professional, "Playbill" branded playbills that you see in legitimate theatre productions are (if I recall correctly) anywhere from 30-60 pages, but a lot of those pages are often dedicated to ad space of other productions and companies, with maybe only 10-15 pages dedicated to the actual production. People love collecting them though because you typically only receive them when you go to see a play itself, so it can be a great souvenir from limited run productions.

It's kinda like comic collecting for theatre-goers, they can serve as memorabilia or as "proof" that you were there to attend a specific show. Though playbills don't tend to accrue as much value as much as comics can, they can still have a lot of sentimental value.

Hazbin Hotel isn't a play though. It's a streaming show available on Amazon Prime that anyone can watch anywhere in the world. It doesn't exactly have the need for something like a playbill, because the exclusivity is simply tied to how much extra money you're willing to give them for the pre-order, not to any sort of unique in-person experience of going to the theatre and watching the show live with your own eyes.

Granted, Hazbin Hotel does obviously take heavy inspiration from theatre culture as it is itself a musical, so I can understand the novelty and appeal of creating a unique playbill for it. I just don't really understand why that's the item that got delayed when a booklet containing exclusive info should be one of the easiest things to make, especially when it comes to production costs (printing a bunch of playbills shouldn't be anywhere near as expensive as producing keychains and trading cards).

But there was an update on reddit about this a couple weeks ago and it seemingly contradicts what A24 - sorry, 'Charlie', sigh - said months ago that they were working hard on specifically printing and packaging the playbill orders-

FINALLY the HH fandom gets a real human being from A24 responding, but they're saying that the designs are still being worked on??? So this means they haven't even started printing the things yet?? So that's an entirely DIFFERENT issue that hasn't been addressed up until this point.

So yeah, again, I don't have any stakes in this and it's definitely not something that I'm like, putting a lot of emotional investment into, but it has still been fascinating to check in on every now and then. Big condolences to the HH fans who paid $76+ for this package and are still waiting for the MAIN CENTERPIECE to show up - if you're one of those fans and are now reading this, you're probably gonna be waiting a little while longer because apparently they haven't even designed them yet 💀😆

[or0ch1maru]

How about Akatsuki members meeting their future lover for the first time?

I love getting requests when I’m the perfect amount of drunk lol

This is honestly so freaking cute. Ugh🥰😩

So I know this is more of a sfw prompt but for hidan I couldn’t help myself. 18+ just for him lmao.

•

🏮Hidan:

•you two would simply start out as friends with benefits. Fucking each other whenever you had the urge or if either of you had a particularly rough week

•both of you say the same thing. “It’s strictly pleasure, no feelings involved”…and the two of you believed that until….

•Hidan was pussy drunk, babbling filthy things in your ear while he has you bent in half in the mating press. Your nails digging into his arms as he tears yet another orgasm out of you

•your thighs soaked with your slick, Hidan’s thrusts becoming sloppy as he nears his orgasm. “Fuck, this pussys so good..gonna’” Hidan mumbles out. “Love you” the two words slip from his lips as he pulls out of you, coming all over your lower stomach

• “love you too” you say softly in return as he presses his forehead to yours, both of you breathing heavily as you come down from your highs

•it’s not until you two are nearly dressed that the words register. Neither of you say anything else, at least not until Hidan has his cock buried deep in you once again, this time at a much slower and more passionate pace. Begging to hear you say the words again

🏮Kakuzu:

•he was on his way to meet with his bounty officer, Zangei, only to find out he was off on an errand. He waited silently and to his dismay, patiently in the lobby of the old stone building for Zangei’s return

•it’s not until you slip from one of the back rooms and into the waiting area that Kakuzu was glad his officer was out. He was curious as to why someone so dainty and delicate looking (everybody looks breakable to this man, with his power and sheer size) found themselves in this occupation

•when you finally speak, it snaps him out of his own thoughts and curiosity. “You’re waiting to see Zangei right?” You ask, your tone is soft and kind which only makes Kakuzu even more enthralled by you

• “yea” is all he says in response. “Thought so. Follow me to the back” you reply kindly. Holding the door open for the tall masked man to enter through. Kakuzu stares down at you as he follows behind in the corridor

• “Zangei told me that you’d be joining us today and in his absence, has me handling the dirty work.” You explain, smiling over your shoulder. All Kakuzu can do is nod along, already forgetting the reason why he came here.

•over the course of the next hour, Kakuzu trades his bounty with you as you hand him his cash and handle the annoying paperwork. On his way out, you pat him on the back, wishing him safe travels and hopes of seeing him again.

•which of course, Kakuzu is already one step ahead by planning out his next job on the black market, just to come see you.

🏮Itachi:

•you and Itachi had known each other all through out childhood. Meeting up with each other after hours of being at the academy to play around or train

•as the two of you got older, entering your teen years, the friendship remained, but spending time with each other turned scarce as missions were tossed left and right at you, and Itachi had his own troubles

•it wasn’t until the Uchiha clan massacre that separated the two of you for good. At least that’s what you thought. You heard about what happened when you came home late from running an errand for your parents. They told you to never speak his name or to seek him out, which you obliged

•a few years later, shortly after the sudden death of your parents, you decided to search for your long lost best friend. Even if they were alive, you were 18 now, not having to obey their rules

•to no one’s knowledge but your own, you’d been keeping tabs on Itachis whereabouts since that horrendous night. You knew he joined the organization known as the Akatsuki and got info on an upcoming mission he was going to be sent on with his partner

•so naturally, what any non sane person would do, you packed some items and left the hidden leaf. Keeping to the shadows until you spotted him. He knew you were there of course, due to his visual prowess.

•later, while his partner was sleeping in the tent they set up, Itachi slipped away. Joining you on the tree branch you made your bed for the night. “What are you doing out here? It’s not safe.” Are the first words that slip from his lips. “Looking for you of course” you reply quietly. “But why? After what I’ve done” Itachi questions, his tone almost nervous. “Love makes people do crazy things. I think you know that just as well as I do” you explain, a small smile forming on your lips in the darkness.

🏮Kisame:

•you were recently recruited to join the akatsuki as their medical Shinobi. Your skills and advanced knowledge in medical Ninjutsu is what caught Pain, the leaders attention.

•a week into your new home and new life, two members were returning from a rather sketchy and dangerous mission. You knew of one, Itachi Uchiha, but we’re unfamiliar with his partner, Kisame. As they’ve been on the mission from the day before you moved into the compound

•you’ve been in your lab, sterilizing equipment, since you knew the pair was to return sometime today. You’re washing your hands when you heard their voicing coming down the hallway. “Can’t believe the fucker got me” spoke the deep and unfamiliar voice. “It could have been worse” spoke a voice with a much softer tone.

•the door to the lab opened, heavy footsteps followed by nothing? The Uchiha moves silently, you think to yourself as you turn around. Only to be met with two sets of piercing and curious gazes

•your eyes scan the much taller of the two, a visible gash across his ribs, blood seeping from between his large fingers as he applies pressure. You quickly move into action, getting him to lay down on the bed, Itachi stands by the door, watching as you tend to his comrade, and dearest friend

•you’re so caught up in making sure the shark like man known as Kisame, doesn’t bleed out, that you don’t notice the fact his eyes have been on you ever since he walked in

🏮deidara

•you work as a weapons dealer, and armorer. Repairing, replacing, making, and selling the blades you create. You’re widely known through the many villages, being visited daily by many. And a huge part of your profit comes from rogue ninja. Needing someone who they know won’t snitch or turn them in to collect a bounty

•today was one of your much slower days, and you’re sitting on the stool behind the counter, enjoying a quick snack of onigiri when you hear the familiar chime of the door. Your head perks up, pushing your lunch to the side to greet the customer. “Are you here to pick up or are you in need of a custom?” You ask cheerfully

•a gorgeous, blue eyed young man approaches the counter, you take note of his robes. Black, with red clouds. Another member of the akatsuki, an organization you’ve been working closely with for quite some time

• “custom” he replies back evenly. His tone calm, but on the defensive. “Sounds good, I’ll just need you to fill this form out” you reply, a soft smile forming on your face as you slide a paper, as well as a pen across the counter towards him

•you watch in amazement when you see the mouth on the inner side of his palm. “The hell you lookin’ at?” He remarks harshly. You pay no mind to the attitude as you’ve been around many tough individuals

•you shake your head “sorry, I didn’t mean to stare but that’s kinda mesmerizing” you say gently, gesturing to his hand. “Hmph” is all the blonde says, but you don’t miss the look of pride in his eyes as he finishes the form

•after he hands the paper back to you, you go over the usual, how long it’ll take, pick up time, etc. you always have extra weapons in stock so a lot of the custom work people ask for can be done within the hour.

•time passed, and deidara comes back at the time you gave him. His eyes land on you, strands of hair sticking to your face from sweat, the sleeves of your shirt rolled up to your elbows, dirt coating your hands, while a small rag sits on your shoulders. Deidara gets so lost in staring that it takes you nudging him carefully on the arm to hand over his work. He takes the box from you, opening it up. “Looks good, thanks” he says evenly, a faint blush forming on his cheeks as he pays you, before hastily leaving.

🏮Sasori:

•Sasori made his way into the hidden leaf, under a disguise of course. Each month, he sneaks into the village as they have one of the best and most stocked up craft stores

•with how many puppets he makes, he goes through supplies very very quickly, needing to restock every few weeks

•normally, he’s in and out without a hitch. Grabbing the few items he needs right off the shelves, making his way to the cashier, giving exact change before dipping

•today, would of gone smoothly, if one of the tools he needed was actually on the shelf. But to Sasori’s displeasure, he realized he actually needs a worker to ask when they’ll be in stock next so he can return

•he walked around until he spotted you. Currently kneeling in front of an end-cap, stocking glue. You cocked your head up towards him when you heard his voice. You returned his question with a kind smile. “We actually have those in the back, I just haven’t gotten around to putting them on the floor yet. Wait here a second, I’ll grab one”

•Sasori watches as you disappear into a back room, returning with a big smile on your face as you hold the package in your hand.

•something about your kind eyes and genuine smile made sasori feel something he’s only heard about from others. He follows you up to the register where you bag his merchandise and then take his cash

•you wish him safe travels as you know he’s not from the village, since you’ve never seen him before. You’d remember him if he was. As he leaves, Sasori thinks about the next time he’ll visit, even if he has no reason to

🏮Tobi:

•you’re currently on a mission, and have been for two days, eating some of the snacks you brought with you. On the third day, you grew tired of the food you brought, so you decided on stopping at the small dango bar you passed not too long ago

•you come to a stop, turning around and running back in the direction from which you just came. Your stomach rumbling more and more the closer you get. Before you know it, the smell of the dumplings are filling your nose and right when you think you’ll keel over from lack of food, you arrive

•a kind older woman takes your order, she then hands you your correct change.

•no more than ten minutes later, she comes out with a small bowl, the delicious looking food on a skewer. You thank her kindly before deciding to eat closer to the lake, a mere twenty feet away

•as you’re making way to the cozy spot under a tree that you had your eyes on, your body collides with something firm, a yelp coming from whatever you walked into. You glance up and your eyes land on an orange mask.

• “shit I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.” You babble out quickly. Many Shinobi tend to be rude, only because it’s sometimes hard to know who wants to kill you or not. “I-it’s okay” a child like voice stammers out from behind the spiral mask

•luckily for both of you, your food didn’t spill, nor did any of the sauce spill onto his clothes. “Let me buy you something to eat for the inconvenience” your words coming out quickly. The figure before you tilts his head in a playful manner

• “t-that would be amazing. Tha-thank you” he seems just as nervous as you seem to be. You relax a little after you pay for a second helping, handing the man his food. It’s hard to see how he feels about you as his face is covered, even the hole of his mask makes it difficult to see his eye.

•the two of you sit quietly under the tree, both enjoying your food and talking about why you’re out in the middle of nowhere. You purposely look away to give him the privacy to eat his food, knowing that he wears his mask for a reason. Tobi picks up on that and decides a meet up with you a few weeks from now at the same place

🏮Zetsu:

•you decided to skip on going to the flower shop in town, venturing outside the village walls to the huge flower field two miles out. A few months ago, while returning home from a mission, you passed the beautiful field, a mixture of daffodils, poppy’s, clovers, dahlia’s and many more are mixed together in an untouched space

•you never pick them, you find a spot to sit, admiring and smelling the many floral scents

•for as long as you can remember, flowers, and plants in general have always peaked your interests having many books back at home about all the different kinds. The ones that are safe and harmless while others are poisonous and could be deadly is consumed

•you have yet to meet someone with the same interest as you, that is, until this evening

•sketchbook in hand, the lead from your pencil skittering across an empty page as you focus on a stunning blue dahlia, copying its details on the paper. “May I join you?” A voice rings out from ten feet away, causing you to jump slightly

•you peer up, seeing the figure. What catches your attention is the man’s outer layer that looks like a sort of plant. You nod, watching as he slowly approaches you, not wanting to scare you away. Your kunai sits in a holster on your hip, just in case

•over the next hour, you learn the man’s name. Zetsu. You beam when you discover he also enjoys plants, just the same way you do. He researches, reads, and writes about all the plants he sees.

•Zetsu tells you that he comes here every Wednesday, his only off day between his tasks and invites you to hang out with him when you can. He has the idea that after you two become more acquainted and comfortable around each other that he’ll invite you back to the compound. Wanting to show you his works and the sweet little garden he has

🏮Konan & Pain (a couple looking for a third<3)

•they’d spoken about this hundreds of times over the past year. Both wanting another partner, but never finding someone who isn’t just wanting the thrill of a threesome and then bolting through the door(let alone with the two main faces of the akatsuki)

•pain and Konan decided on having a nice little date night at a restaurant in the hidden rain. Wanting to unwind from all their duties with a drink and yummy food

•they both freeze in wonder when you, their waiter/waitress approaches the table. “Good evening” you start cheerfully, your underlying tone calm. You introduce yourself before asking “what can I get you to drink?” After answering, they watch you scribble on your note pad before leaving with a smile

•after you walk away, pain and Konan confirm they both share the same sentiment towards you and plan on the best course of action

•when you return with their drinks, you write down what food they want and once again, disappear to the back of the restaurant. “If you need anything else, feel free to flag me down” you remark with a sweet smile after you place their meals on the table in front of them

•after dropping the bill off, Konan and pain leave. Leaving you an extra hefty tip and a cute message on a napkin. “Here’s our address, we’ll expect a letter soon cutie xoxo, pain & Konan” said the note. You smile and tuck the now folded napkin into your pocket

•

If you made it this far, here’s a big smooch 😘

[iamthepulta]

How competitive was the copper market? Would Ea-Nasir have been one of many sellers of broadly equivalent status all trying to make a buck, like how one town might have six building firms all competing for work, or would he have had a near-monopoly like Starbucks? Would he have been a sole trader who brokered deals between mines and consumers, or would he have managed a warehouse with employees and held stock, etc?

Oh SHIT, I never answered this and it got lost in my drafts! I'm so sorry.

This is a fantastic question! Just to flesh out the picture of the trade in the day: Bronze is an alloy of copper (Cu) with either arsenic (As) or tin (Sn). Arsenic is a common unwanted element in copper deposits, and copper-arsenic-oxide (Cu-As-O) minerals look very similar to plain copper minerals. However, tin (Sn) occurs in very different, rarer, geologic environments, and thus must be sourced from different areas.

Likewise, As-Bronze is less malleable than copper, but not by much; arsenic ions are about the same size. Tin ions form good bronze because they're larger than the copper ions and prevent the metal from freely deforming, so it was prioritized for weapons and tools. Arsenic was used when tin wasn't available.

Ur was known for being one of the best cities for bronzework during the Bronze Age: metalworking services were in high demand, and they were the center of the copper, arsenic, and tin trades. Copper from Oman (or Cyprus, as their industry was developing more at the time), tin from Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, or Turkey, (depending on which archaeologist you talk to), and arsenic from India or Egypt.

So yeah, as a middleman, Ea-Nasir probably had numerous competitors who procured copper from Oman, particularly from the halfway point in Qatar, and then sent it back to Ur. Also referencing the plural translation "-those of the people who travel to Dilmun-", although likely only a few of those merchants were chosen to sell to the temple/government. (But that's speculation. Maybe the temple picked one person a year? Maybe copper tithes meant there was usually supply, and it was only this year during war the temple picked Ea-Nasir to buy from.)

It's also quite possible there were people doing copper business like Ea-Nasir further up the Tigris and Euphrates closer to Cyprus, and there were definitely specialist merchants for arsenic-copper and tin procurement. Once the copper was in the city, his buyers were refiners and metallurgists who made the bronze or copper wares that were purchased/exported throughout the Middle East.

As for employees and stock, I honestly don't know. But from the letters, it sounds like he was stretched rather thin, and he was dealing with buyers' messengers himself. So I wouldn't be surprised (although this is speculation) if it was just him and perhaps a servant/slave of the period to handle things in Ur while he was in Dilmun.

[Image References under the cut]

meme from r/historymemes

Peterson, 2012. Forging Social Networks: Metallurgy and the Politics of Value in Bronze Age Eurasia. The Archaeology of Power and Politics in Eurasia. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139061186.018

Content References within my other Ea-Nasir writeups under iamthepulta: #mining history, or #ea nasir

[mariacallous]

The consequences of the 2024 US presidential election will be felt from Washington, DC to Warsaw, Illinois. But they will also be felt in Warsaw, Poland. 

The United States is, despite the many pronouncements of its decline, powerful and influential enough for its presidential election result to be felt around the world. Central and Eastern Europe is no exception to this. It is, in fact, a region where this is perhaps particularly true.

The first and most obvious way in which the 2024 presidential election will matter for Central and Eastern Europe is Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, has essentially said she would continue US President Joe Biden’s policy. She is committed to continuing to provide assistance to Ukraine. The Republican candidate, former US President Donald Trump, has, by comparison, repeatedly questioned US aid to Ukraine, and derided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “salesman” who “walks away” with billions every time he comes to the United States. 

Much has been made of Trump’s stated fondness for Russian president Vladimir Putin, but just as salient was the reason for Trump’s first impeachment: he was accused of trying to extort Zelensky by using the carrot of lethal aid to entice his Ukrainian counterpart to open an investigation into his political rival, Biden. 

We should expect Trump’s skepticism for NATO to carry into a second term, too. (Harris, in the debate with Trump, warned that if Putin is able to take Kyiv, “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe. Starting with Poland. And why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch?”)

More broadly, Harris’s record as a senator and as vice president suggests that she would view the countries in the region as allies. She would likely continue to offer some support to those trying to, for example, protect minority rights or advocate for democratic norms in the region. 

Trump would be more disruptive. For one thing, Trump is campaigning on the most aggressive tariffs — taxes on imported goods — in almost 100 years, and is, per the Washington Post, “preparing an attack on the international trade order that would probably raise prices, hurt the stock market and spark economic feuds with much of the world.” The new tariffs would likely hurt global trade and financial flows between Europe and the United States. The European Union and the United States could very well find themselves in a trade war, the losers of which would likely be American and European businesses and consumers. 

And Trump’s potential changes to immigration could impact families from Central and Eastern Europe, too: he’s proposing making it more difficult for family-based migration and has, in the past, tried to slash not only undocumented, but also legal migration. (Trump has also complained that the United States needs more migration from certain countries, which he has deemed “nice,” like “Denmark” and “Switzerland.”)

When I think about what another Trump term would mean for Central and Eastern Europe, though, the thing I think about the most are outlets like this one. Journalism is under pressure from governments across the region. That is, in my view, something that US leadership has a responsibility to push back on. When you claim to be allies based on shared democratic values, all parties involved should try to push each other to actually uphold those values. I do not think that we can expect this under Trump, who called the press the “enemy of the people” and “just bad people” at a rally in Arizona last week. His first term was marked by attacks on journalists, and particularly women journalists. I think it will be worse for journalists here in the United States and in Central and Eastern Europe, too. 

And I think that we can extend this to those who speak up for democratic norms and minorities more generally, like already maligned NGO workers and activists. For example, in 2022 USAID announced that it was “supporting new locally-driven initiatives in Central Europe with the goal of strengthening democratic institutions, civil society, and independent media, which are all pillars of resilient democratic societies.” It is unclear to me that that support would continue in a Trump administration. (This is separate from development assistance to Europe and Eurasia region; Trump made dramatic cuts to foreign assistance the last time he was in office.) 

Trump, in his debate with Harris, said, in response to the charge that world leaders were laughing at Trump, that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban likes him. “Look, Viktor Orbán said it. He said, ‘The most respected, the most feared person is Donald Trump. We had no problems when Trump was president.’” And it is true that Orbán received less criticism from the United States when Trump was president. But whether that is good for Americans and Hungarians is another matter entirely. 

Having a president who believes in freedom of the press isn’t enough, of course, to magically make conditions for journalists better. Having a president who believes in liberal democracy in theory doesn’t mean that all its values are always practiced, or that democratic norms in Central and Eastern Europe will be respected. But not having one is enough to make things worse. And, in a way, the same could be said of Harris and Trump’s respective victories for Central and Eastern Europe more generally: On questions ranging from national security to democracy, she won’t magically make everything better, but he can quite quickly make matters worse.

[hopeymchope]

On this Nintendo Direct day, I'm pondering how Sony's PlayStation division went from "amazing press conference events" to "sucky State of Plays"

I know Tumblr - and indeed, even myself - tend to be pretty radically anti-capitalism these days, and for good fucking reason. But right now I'm going to write about being an unapologetic consumer of marketing hype like a fucking shill, so I just wanna warn you in advance of that.

*AHEM* Today is September 14, 2023. Nintendo Direct time let's GOOOOO!!!!

Nothing will ever again be as HYPE as E3 conference presentations were at their peak, but Nintendo Direct is the closest we get these days, and today brings us another one. I feel confident there will be causes for most of the userbase to get excited during that show. But oddly, today ALSO is bringing a State of Play that is... almost sure to disappoint.

About E3: You see, in the days of E3's peak press conferences, it's hard to argue that Sony wasn't the best at that particular style of presentation. Obviously, they had famous fumbles like 2006's meme-inducing show — but it was usually Nintendo who had the most sleep-inducing E3 shows in those days. Sony managed to pivot most successfully when E3 transitioned from "industry trade show" to "mass-marketing event," whereas Nintendo was by far the least successful at ditching that "trade show" vibe.

My point is: You look at how Sony did their thing in the mid-2010s, and like... DAMN. People STILL talk in reverent tones about those 2015 and 2016 shows, but even 2013 and 2017 were powerful presentations to sit through. PlayStation even ran their own convention where they'd do utterly kickass stage showcases of their upcoming games A SECOND TIME each year - the sadly defunct "PSX," which happened towards the end of each year during its too-brief lifespan. Those presentations were ALSO fucking fire, albeit slightly toned down from their E3 shows. Sony's PlayStation division had this game on lock, not only in how the stage itself gave a grand feeling of scale but most especially in perfectly pacing out the reveals of mass-appeal titles, hardcore-geek titles, and more niche games that still managed to hold intrigue. They knew how to slooooowly reveal a game everyone would lose their minds over. They knew how to give people a buffer space after the cheering died down and let them take in something that would somewhat intrigue, maybe, but probably be more of an obligation before the next heavy-hitter smashed down.

But let's talk about where PlayStation's presentations are *today*.

I really, really want State of Play to offer the Nintendo Direct-level hype, but... Sony just utterly fucking sucks at this game. And maybe it's because they started the "digital presentation" trend, but somehow Nintendo has gone from "probably/possibly the worst at E3 showcases" to "EASILY the BEST at digital video showcases." Nintendo knows how to do the hype-ass editing where you go from a vague introductory statement to a black screen that slowly lights up to reveal some game that most of the hardcore userbase is gonna freak out over. Yet Sony can't seem to imitate that to save their lives.

PlayStation doesn't even seem to know (or more likely, doesn't care) what their hardcore users want — usually Sony shows us just one or, extremely rarely, two games that get the geeks talking. And a number of "Uh?" vagaries that are too early to really explain/understand. And some games very, very few people will care about.

Yes, of course Nintendo ALSO tends to include games that are extremely limited in their audience, but they know how to buffer and surround those titles with things that will appeal to certain significant demographics. PlayStation? Not so much. Which is particularly strange given how EXCELLENT they were are doing precisely that on live stages during the late PS3/early PS4 era.

In fairness, Sony usually at least knows what their biggest gun is. They knew that Resident Evil 4 remake was a big reveal. They still revealed it at the wrong time in their presentation and with a lack of buildup that felt pretty amateurish, but at least they knew it was a big deal and put it in an important slot.

But do I expect great things from Sony today? Not really, no. I suppose I should be grateful that they've progressively lowered my expectations to a reasonable level; I mean, I remember some people being disappointed by their E3 2017 show because 2015 and 2016 were so incredible. At least now, they've set me up to where, if they do a decent State of Play, I really *will* be blown away.

Here's hoping they surprise me. And I hope whatever your dream for the Nintendo Direct and/or State of Play is, it comes true for you.

[neonponders]

When Coal Turns Into Pearls - Harringrove x Hunger Games!au - ch. 1

Ch. 2 | Ch. 3   [ putting these here until ao3 is back up. ]

• • •

Steve watched the first bubbles engorge on the surface of the tomato sauce and pop with a splash. He gave it a stir with one of the few pieces of cookware they still had—a wooden spoon, in this case—and waited for more bubbles before killing the heat.

Their last can of tomato sauce. Expired ten years ago. The only thing about it that has really lasted is the vibrant red color and the salt content. If he keeps himself distracted, it’s the same as tomato soup. Nothing close to what his mother used to make, but it’s also not boiled water and cabbage. He would be eating that tomorrow, and the day after that.

“Okay, mom,” he says, somehow both tired and wide awake. Wired. He had an interesting day ahead, to say the least, but until then, he needed to feed his mother.

She sat by the window, coherent enough to gaze out across the wide boulevard opening its arms on either side of them. Steve wished she would sit in a different room, where the sunrise would give her peach tones instead of cool, mean lighting. But this parlor gave her peace, and he was happy she walked around at all.

He’d kill for an actual peach, but instead he stirs the bowl of soup sauce and tests it on his own palate—

Steve makes a face that Annette Harrington is too oblivious to see. He might as well be eating cabbage, the flavors on his tongue are just tomato and water. Old tomatoes…

Steve took a moment to revisit the can in the sink—to be washed and sold as scrap metal at the earliest opportunity. The paper label has long since been pilfered or worn away, but the factory happened to stamp letters into this particular can, so Steve can read almost clearly: CRUSHED TOMATOES.

He sighed. So that was why. Once upon a time, all tomatoes in cans were seasoned. This can emerged from a factory during the war, which made it surprisingly fresh in comparison, but totally devoid of the extreme luxury of anything green, like herbs. No salt.

“Well, it’s just me who will hate it,” he murmured to himself. As he sits back down before his mother, he knows there’s some kind of irony to all this.

Red and purple are the most expensive dyes and pigments, his mother told him, so long ago. Apart from yellow. That comes from saffron.

They weren’t expensive, really. Red and purple proved as easy to come by as a swinging fist, cheap if there was something sharp or heavy in that hand. The war put red and purple in abundance. Yellow too, even though piss washed away far more easily. The worse off a person was, the more vibrant the pigment.

Ten years later, Steve sat with a bowl of red—more like orange at this point—gently cradling his mother’s head to massage her jaw. She wasn’t stupid. Just…lost. Steve had a long time to learn how to coax or trigger reactions from her. Massaging around her ears, pressing the pad of his thumb along the strong muscle of her jaw until he reached the hinge. Relaxing her jaw made her eyelashes sag a little. Whether she consciously knew food was coming, or her body simply responded in grateful need, Steve didn’t know. More than likely, the massage reminded her of Steve’s father.

The highly decorated veteran of the Harrington clan lived in the hospital. Comatose. The same as dead Steve knew, but his mother only truly roused when it came time for her signature, seal, and blood sample to unplug her husband. It wasn’t pretty. She wasn’t nice either, even to her only child. The prick of a finger was all it took. Steve tried to find solace in that she was as close as skin deep.

So Robert Harrington stayed plugged in, siphoning money out of the bank accounts to the point that Steve and his mother lived like the war had never ended. Black market canned goods of fine produce. An empty penthouse home on the most prestigious street in the Capitol, all furnishings sold and traded apart from the bare minimum. A memory. A good one, Steve could only assume, based on how faraway him mother went. His father was the old money who married a young, beautiful thing with the right pedigree. Steve hadn’t believed there was anything more than respect and occasional fondness between his parents. Only real love could make his mother this way.

Right?

Steve would rather visit a headstone, but as things were, he planned to get to the hospital today before school. He’d rather have the privacy and quiet of a cemetery. Even better, the Harrington mausoleum. He’d rather the money pumping his father’s heart go into the pockets of caretakers for his mom.

He did have the Hendersons. They were something. Special, even. Capitol citizens were not exactly known for compassion and generosity, but the city had its own economic ecosystem, which included upper, lower, and Avox classes.

The Harringtons were the uppest of the up.

The Hendersons were the building’s managers. Service staff. They kept the floors clean and the mailboxes locked. Claudia Henderson had similarly lost her husband during the war, and her son had been just a baby. A big baby, who now stood ready to intercept Steve in the stairwell.

“Steve, hey! What are you doing later?”

Steve’s shoes screeched to a halt. His father’s shoes. They were too big but shined the way old money should. “Is your mom home?” he blurted. He can’t leave if Claudia isn’t around to make sure his mother doesn’t turn a stove on in some daydream of wifely duty.

“Yeah, yeah, she’s cooking. She wanted to bring something over—Steve.”

He pivots back in the direction of his home. He knows it’s a lie. The Hendersons might have been granted the most meager—still grand by District standards—apartment in the basement, but there was no way they didn’t struggle for money. It was written in the dirt smears on the infernal baseball cap Dustin insisted on wearing over his longish, curly hair. Baseball. What a relic. If he was as smart as his grades claimed, the kid would sell it to an absurd collector, instead of constantly diminishing its value with his sweat.

Steve didn’t say any of this. He had his own relics that he kept close to his soul.

Dustin caught Steve’s shoulders and held him still. “Steve. I promise she’s taken care of.”

The muscles in Steve’s jaw clenched just as quickly as he released it. A nervous tic bestowed from his mother, apparently. He doesn’t knock Dustin’s hands off of him, though. Steve has never considered himself a violent person. Proud, yes. He does, however, wiggle out of Dustin’s reach because he can’t look anything less than a Harrington today. He can’t. He’d ironed his Academy suit jacket with the bottom of the pot he’d just used for breakfast.

Far from ideal, that Dustin knew about his mother. Very, very few people did. Three, in fact: Dustin and Claudia Henderson, and Steve’s only—dare he say—friend, Robin Buckley. She had been an accident, but a blessing he was eager to rendezvous with at school.

Brushing the sleeves of his uniform, he huffed, “Since when has your mom been cooking?”

Dustin smiled, all gums in the front. Shouldn’t a fourteen year old have his teeth already? “Since she got some corn syrup from the closet. Corn syrup, dude! She’s over the moon. Don’t be surprised if she uses your stove. Ours cuts out a lot.”

“Yeah, so does the rest of the city,” Steve sighed, resuming his path down the stairs. There was a reason the elevator was out, and it affected the Henderson’s stove most days. It was a reasonable trade, a steal even: the use of the Harrington kitchen for his mother’s care. The only real pitfall was his mother’s pride. Every so often, Steve caught her realizing who sat talking to her and her matching whiskey eyes found him with more personality than he usually got to witness. Claudia Henderson was a good person, she just had the wrong last name and mannerisms. The Capitol elite like to believe they’re born superior. Really, it’s just whatever a person is taught, but old money can see new money imposters from a mile away.

It angered Steve beyond words that his mother’s pride woke her up better than her son asking for soup. He didn’t voice this to anyone, not even Robin. It was one thing for a son to think ill of his mother, but Steve would never allow anyone else to spit a word towards her.

“What the closet giveth, it taketh away, or whatever. Are you good?”

Closet. Black market. Everyone had their favorite terminology. Robin’s was closet, and Dustin had picked it up.

“Oh shit yeah, it didn’t cost us anything. She was cleaning the place on the third floor, and tripped over a floorboard. She’s been petitioning the city for ages about those floors and ceiling cracks but, well we know how the elevator’s going.”

Steve frowned as they went round and round the staircase. He didn’t particularly miss the elevator. They were almost to the ground floor as he said, “What council do you write to for that?”

“No idea.”

Meaning, there wasn’t one. Or it never wrote back to them. There were too many empty floors in their building. Not enough families to pour money into the place, or to entice the city to take care of its oldest names.

Steve didn’t fault Dustin’s mom for not talking money with him. It might be that very negligence that made Dustin total idiot when it came to tact. That’s where he and Steve…fit. Dustin had the grades, but Steve could read a room. Dustin was far from evil; he just didn’t have the teeth to stop certain things from flying out of his mouth.

Steve listened to him continue as he slipped a hand into his pot-ironed trousers for the mailbox key. “I don’t know why she bothers airing out the empty floors, but she got so pissed at the floorboard, she ripped it right up. I would say that’s pretty awesome, but it was a hiding spot. A couch or something was supposed to hold it down.”

Steve’s father’s dress shoes clipped over the marble and granite floor of the lobby. There used to be a huge, circular red carpet directly below the chandelier. There had been a massive circular, wooden table as well. Steve remembered the bouquets that would stand on it. The vases were big enough for his little kid body to sit inside.

 He took a sharp right from the stairs and slotted his key into the wall of brass mailboxes adjacent to the concierge desk. Nobody stood behind it anymore. “What was the jackpot?”

“Liquor,” Dustin smiled as if he’d been the one to find it. “She got the whole nine, dude: flour, baking soda, vinegar, even the tiniest jar of honey, but she chose the syrup instead of real sugar to get more for the bottles.”

That’s not nine things, Steve wondered to himself. Something tickled his brain, the familiarity of something…

His eyes landed on Dustin’s hat. Nine innings in baseball. And then there was the voice of his father in the back of Steve’s mind, “We played the front nine…the back nine...”

Golf. Steve didn’t remember the rest of the story, but clearly nine was a popular structure in pre-war sporting events.

“What is she making?” he asked as he pulled out a surprise parcel. Usually there was never any mail apart from the rogue envelope. Hospital paperwork, but the important stuff typically arrived with a person. The Harrington name warranted a personal exchange from one pair of hands directly to another’s.

“Uh,” Dustin wavered. This earned Steve’s attention off of the parcel, which he tucked under his arm for a later unwrapping. Dustin shrugged and tried to say casually, even as he peeked around the empty lobby. “She stress cooks. Honestly…she found the bottles weeks ago. She saved them to trade for today.”

Steve pressed his mouth into a consoling line and rubbed the kid’s shoulder. He didn’t have time for compassion, he needed to drop by the hospital and get to school. He was already expected alarmingly early, never mind doting on his parents. There was something cruelly ironic about that too.

Today was July Fourth, the day of the Reaping. On the anniversary of the Capitol winning the war, the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol put their kids, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, on display while two names were plucked from a raffle. One boy and one girl. The collective twenty-four tributes would compete in the Hunger Games, a glorified fight to the death televised across the country. Everyone was taking care of their children for whatever few precious hours they had left, while Steve looked after his parents.

Dustin was wise not to voice his own or his mother’s dislike for the post-war celebrations. It’s also in this moment that Steve realized how Dustin never answered him about what his mother was cooking. Insinuating that it might not be up for sharing. The kid might have some tact, yet.

Steve just knew Nancy was going to give him an ear full at school. Until then, he inhaled deeply, and offered to walk Dustin to school. The kid agreed with the caveat, “I’m going to Will’s place first. His mom saved some stuff from being thrown away. Thrown away! What idiots! One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Will and Jonathan were excited, so it’s probably something to do with music. I hope it’s a stereo, the kind with a radio.”

Nerds, Steve thought benignly.

He walked Dustin halfway, where he split off for the hospital. He really ought to have thought better about the shoes. The hospital had been a last minute decision, but keeping a pair of worn sneakers in his book bag was not. Steve ducked into an alleyway and switched shoes, grateful for the familiar soles and cushion.

He as good as strolled right into the hospital, so familiar were the staff with him. “Good morning, Mr. Harrington,” the lady behind the visitation desk purred almost musically. “Happy Hunger Games.”

“Huh? Yeah,” he returned distractedly. Not like she cared. Hospital staff had seen every flavor and degree of emotion human beings were capable of. Steve’s slip in manners and etiquette would hardly be noticed.

“Go ahead, dear.”

It’s not like there was a line to see his father anymore. People had stopped visiting. His old business colleagues were slowly rotting in luxury or dead. As for his fellow veterans…it was the man’s job to send men to their deaths, not die himself.

Steve entered the hospital suite. It was actually cheaper to house him here than in the Harrington penthouse. The military paid for his medical care. The Harringtons paid for the luxury. To house him in his actual home would make the government and its money recede. Steve preferred him here anyway. He didn’t know if his mom would ever flicker awake if her comatose husband was constantly within line of sight.

It was a joke. All of it. A façade that Steve despised. Hiding the fact that the noble Harringtons were dirt poor, their penthouse a cracked and battered shell from before the war. That Steve was an orphan and next to nobody knew it. That he bought the sneakers on his feet third-hand with the money from a minimum wage job in the shadows of the city where no one knew him. It was Robin’s skill with bleach that made the shoes almost pass the test. They looked new, or just reasonably loved by an athletic student, unless someone saw the worn out spots on the soles. Where the rubber had long since thinned out so only the fabric insoles shielded Steve’s heels now.

Steve pulled up a chair beside his father’s bed. He loathed it here. He visited when things were hard….no, worse. Worse than usual. Steve visited when he needed to be reminded of strength. Or spite. Spite could be a hell of a drug. Nothing lit a fire under Steve’s ass like wanting to get the hell out of a hospital. Away from a corpse.

“Hi, dad, uhm…” he began quietly. The man would hardly hear him alive let alone asleep, but Steve still got up to shut the door anyways. Bad idea. Some heir of a war hero, squeamish and claustrophobic. Steve rerouted from the chair to the windows and threw up the sash. There was a dry breeze today. It helped. The infusion of light made the dim cave feel less like a roomy casket.

Everything was wrong. The room was wrong, smelt wrong. Steve had the man’s true fragrance hidden in the vaults of his memory. He had the actual cologne bottle at home, hidden in a place Claudia Henderson would never find it. Steve rarely sprayed it; the bottle had been half empty already when his father…passed? Still, it was like a weak medicine for pain. Nothing could compare to the real smell of his father’s warmth combining with the cologne and the brushes of his mother’s citrus perfume on his clothes, but it was nice to possess half of the whole. Because the other half lay here, sterilized and waiting to die, officially.

Robert Harrington would never put gray curtains in front of the windows, or cover himself in waffle-knit blankets. He would never allow Steve to walk around with the dirty canvas pencil pouch that he gingerly extracted from his bag. Nor would he allow Steve to fill the empty boot polish tin with water for the branch of lilac he revealed from the pouch. The purple blossoms immediately scented the air, giving Steve a little reprieve.

He set the flowers on the bedside table and began, “The roses are dead. Mom could tend them, but…let’s just say it’s good the lilac comes back every spring. Mom always favored the picky flowers but the lilac makes the whole block know we’re still around. And the wisteria vines are probably all that’s holding the building together.”

A weak smile flashed on his face, but he quickly dashed it against his lap when he looked down. “I’m going to be a mentor,” he said to his knees. He might as well save his energy. Acting took a great deal of energy, and the day would be chock full of fake smiles and conversation.

“For the Games. The Gamemakers are working with the senior class of the academy. I guess…thanks for being an alumni, and for making donations before…My grades aren’t good, but I want to go to school. I want to stand a chance. If my tribute goes far enough in the Game, it should be enough for some sort of scholarship. I…I know neither you nor mom likes borrowing or charity, but I need it.”

Steve looks up, waiting a little while to see if his father’s pride is enough to wake him up. It isn’t.

Steve swallowed thickly. “How did you send someone to die? How did you convince them to do what you ordered? I think I’m the only one who ever told you no. I don’t know how to obey—how can I know what will make a tribute fight? To trust me? I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I wouldn’t trust me, either.”

The gentle, beeping machine answers him alongside the rustling tubes pushing air into his father’s lungs. Even if he did speak, his throat has been so dry he might as well be an Avox.

Steve’s head jerks, shoving that thought away, hard. Avoxes were traitors who had their tongues cut out. His father was nothing close to that, and even so, something inside Steve twitched unpleasantly at the notion of making light of the Avoxes.

He needs to go. He’s said his piece and he’s got a long walk to the Academy. Steve tilted his wrist to see his father’s watch there, held on by a leather band. A smart investment, a mechanical thing that did not rely on a battery. Standing up, Steve went to the sink on the wall opposite his father. The patient didn’t have any need for a toilet but the nurses used a sink, so the latter simply attached directly to the wall for easy access. No mirror, though.

Steve looked to see if anyone could possibly be entering the suite, his ears almost picking up the prickle of silence behind the machine noise. From his interior breast pocket, he withdrew a square powder compact. It was a relic in the same way his father’s cologne was, older than the war, perhaps even older than Panem. Plastic compacts were not hard to find, but a metal one…

Vintage, was the word that crossed his mother’s mouth at one point. But as to whether this was hers…one of Steve’s sharpest first memories was a jape made by his father’s colleagues. Not sharp in its clarity, sharp in how it injured him. Steve remembered not understanding the joke, how a man like his father would choose any accessory over his mother. It took a long time for him to figure out that some men saw no difference between women and jewels, and maybe his father had a preference for sapphires instead of diamonds.

Steve had stolen the compact on sight. He never dared to try and figure out whether it belonged to his mother or someone else. All he knew was that it was lovely, and his now. Spite and longing proved an interesting cocktail. What was he to think? His mother had always carried brass compacts with uniform designs pressed into them. They looked like large pocket watches. The shell compact in Steve’s hands stood out in a beautiful, terrifying way.

The square lid was a glimmering sheen of blue, green, and dark silver mother of pearl. The body and interior were sultry yellow brass, protecting a fine, glass mirror as well as an almost seamless little door. Popping the lid of the compact exposed the peachy powder cake, but Steve hadn’t much use for it, usually. But he couldn’t get himself to throw it out, so the door stayed shut, and he checked his hair in the mirror. He made sure his voluminous brown and chestnut tresses arched over his forehead the way he wanted, and that the pieces around his ears curved correctly to frame his face. He used a little brush slotted underneath the powder cake to make sure his expressive brows were combed right.

Maybe he should dab a little of the powder under his eyes…So much of his features came from his father but his enormous doe eyes were his mothers. Like gaping windows he could never keep shut all the way.

He snapped the compact shut without opening the powder. Today was an exciting day. Nobody would be looking at his skin, or the discoloration there. He changed his shoes regardless of the long walk; people needed to see him from a long ways down the avenue called the Corso, and he needed to look the part to perfection.

Steve Harrington, son of Robert and Annette Harrington. The Capitol’s finest and the first mentor to a tribute in District…

Well, he didn’t know yet. The Reaping wasn’t until two o’clock.

[dancuny]

Merten Merit Box Camera

We're three weeks into February, which I've deemed Box Camera Month for my blog posts. I purchased this camera about five years ago at a camera show I attended in Kent, WA, a suburb of Seattle. This show, which is a gathering of camera enthusiasts and collectors, is coming up again in early April. It's a great opportunity to see a wide variety of vintage cameras and photography equipment. If you're in the Seattle or Portland area, please stop in. I plan on having another few tables to sell off some of my collection.

 Getting back to the camera of the week, I had previously owned the Merten Merit Box camera many years ago. Still, it wasn't nearly as good of condition as this one. It was missing one of the outer viewfinders, and there were many chips in the Bakelite, so I was pleased to see this example at the Kent camera show, and it was at a very reasonable price. One of the things that initially drew me to the camera was the color of the camera. It has a dark brown color with a smooth texture throughout the camera, with the exception of the faceplate, which has a pebble finish to the Bakelite.

 The other nice thing about this camera is that Merten made two different models. The one I had previously was a 6x4.5cm format camera on 127 film. This camera is a rare version as it takes 120 films and produces a 6x9cm format image, so the negative is larger, and the film type is a lot easier to purchase. The other nice thing about this camera was the handle was intact. Due to how the camera is built, I have seen many examples where the strap is broken or missing. This camera has very few chips in the Bakelite, and the strap is intact and in overall great condition. The shutter also works.

 Since all the stars are aligned with a 6x9cm format camera and a working shutter, the camera takes 120 film. I figured it was time for me to take the camera off the shelf, load film into the camera, dust off and clean the lens, and take a walk around the neighborhood to take photos with this wonderful photo-making machine.

The Company:

In 1906, the Merten brothers Ernst, August, and Emil founded the Gebrüder Merten Gummersbach (GMG) company in Windhagen-Gummersbach, Germany. They started manufacturing electronic installation components. In 1926, they focused their attention on manufacturing plugs and sockets, which is where their business grew.

 In the early 1930s, Mertens used their Bakelite presses for various purposes, such as producing equipment for laboratories and, yes, in 1933, even producing a series of cameras for the rapidly growing photographic market. These were the only cameras produced by Mertens, and they turned their focus back to the electronic field.

 By 1985, Mertens had grown to the point where they were producing electronic accessories items for the commercial trade, and by the year 2000, intelligent devices were added to their portfolio of electronic products. Merten's products for smart buildings are available in more than 130 countries, where they produce electronic products for residential buildings, offices, public buildings, hotels, schools, hospitals, and businesses. 100 years after they started their business, Schneider Electronics purchased Mertens in 2006.

My Camera:

My Merten Merit Box Camera is 4.5" tall, including the leather strap, 3.5" wide with the winding knob 5.5" deep from the front of the lens to the back of the camera. The camera weighs 1 lb, 1.6 oz without film loaded into the camera. The camera is a typical box camera with two different viewfinders, one for vertical images on top of the camera and one for horizontal images on the right side. 

The Merit Box camera has a Rodenstock lens, around 80mm, and the aperture is F11. There are two positions for the shutter, which is set by a toggle arm below the lens, either a line for instant photos or a round circle setting for timed exposures. There is an option to screw in either a self-timer or cable release just above the shutter release button, which is located just to the right of the lens as you're preparing to take a photo. There is also a sliding bar on top of the camera, which allows for three different aperture settings. When the sliding bar is in the lowest position, the aperture is F11. Then, slide the bar up to the following setting, F16, and all the way to the top would be F22.

On the back of the camera is the name of the camera embossed into the Bakelite, the red window to tell the photographer which frame they are on, Germany, Film B-2, which is an Agfa reference to 120-size film, and finally, the film format 6:9.

 One of the very unique features of the camera other than the beautiful dark brown color is the interwoven strap on top of the camera. The strap or top handle doesn't come off. Instead, it has two interlooped sections that allow the strap to lengthen as you take the front off the back of the camera to load film. This makes it more difficult to load the film as you need to deal with both the front of the camera and the rear when you load film into it. It's not difficult to deal with, but at the same time, it's more than most people are used to when loading a simple box camera, mainly used for the less professional photographer.

There are two locking mechanisms on each side of the camera to load the camera. Rotate the knobs counterclockwise to unlock the back from the front. Then, you'll need to slide the strap apart to allow the camera's front and back to be removed from each other. On my camera, the strap holds the two pieces together as the strap is somewhat tight and stiff. Once you slide the two strap pieces apart, the front and rear of the camera open easily; from there, you can load the film into the camera.

 Once I put a roll of film into the camera, I attached the front to the back of the camera. I turned the locking knobs clockwise to lock the two together and slid the strap back to the shorter position so it would hold the front and the back together a bit better. It could quickly be done if I needed to make the handle a bit longer to hold the strap as I used the camera.

The one thing I noticed when I went to load the film into the camera was the winding mechanism didn't engage with the film spool very well. I needed to press the winding knob, and I was turning the knob to advance the film. The flat end of the winding mechanism that fits into the spool didn't seem long or thick enough to fit tightly into the film spool. The whole winding mechanism seemed very wobbly. I did try t tighten the screw, but that didn't help. The camera is almost 100 years old (92 years), and I'm guessing that it's just worn a bit, but I doubt it's been used very much because the strap is in great condition and still intact.

 My Results:

Now that I had wrestled with the strap and held both the front and rear of the camera in my lap to load the camera with a roll of 120 films, it was time to take a walk through the neighborhood to see the results from this beautiful brown bakelite camera from the early 1930s. Here are some of the results from my walk.

Conclusion:

The one thing that I struggle with when using these simple box cameras is the close distance required to get a somewhat sharp image. Since it was somewhat sunny outside, I figured that using the sunny 16 rule would be my rule of thumb for exposures. 

 For those unfamiliar with the Sunny 16 rule, you use the shutter speed closest to the ASA, or as it's known now, ISO in your camera. (Yes, I'm old school.) If it's sunny outside, you use f16. I had ASA 125 film in the camera and figured the shutter speed was close to that, so I put the aperture setting in the middle setting for my exposures outside.

 I photographed my daughter and her dog, Bean, initially about 4 to 5 feet away. Then I took a step back, and the photo still was out of focus, as were many of the images I took between 4-6 feet from the subject. The one image that is nice and sharp is the more scenic photo of one of the neighbors' houses, which turned out very well. My guess is the best minimum distance is 8-10 feet away, looking at some of the results I achieved.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes from your day to look over this unique and simple camera from about a century ago. It was fun to take it off the shelf and use it as it was intended. The results are the best, and my guess is that due to several different reasons, the Merten Merit Box camera wasn't a huge seller during its time.

 Until next week, please be safe.

[tempestdiaries]

Meeting Carlisle

(Pre-Campaign Drabbles)

Part 2

The Monarch's Wings is a lavish establishment; a hotel for the wealthy and noble, a high class brothel, and gambling hall. Only those with influence, both good and bad, reside or enters its walls. It’s a neutral ground of sorts where both lords, guild leaders, and black market bosses can spend gold at the same table. High security. A manor of silk acrobatics and performers, gamblers of any skill level are welcome, so long as they have the collateral. 

———

The third floor housed the more specific rooms, primarily a wing dedicated to the more relaxing of pleasures. Sweet florals drifted out of foggy rooms; spas and saunas with every type of oil and perfume on hand, large open windows with sheer white curtains that dance down the long hallway. Feeling Carlisle’s attention bouncing from her to their setting, she thought it best to give him the actual rundown on the place. The fact that Tolly had hand delivered him implied she wanted to keep this a regular thing, so best make him at home. Plus, she always preferred playing on her own turf. 

The end of the hall opened to a medium size library. On breezy nights, the scent of flowers could make it way down to the books where plush couches set opposite a fire. Tempest approached a heavy looking wood door adjacent to a small reading nook. Taking her fingers and stroking between two crevices in the wood, an audible click was heard, and the door easily swept inward. 

She was thankful to Tolly for many things, but after a year and a half within her payroll she had been offered this new private room. It was secluded in a way that most patrons were not going to stumble into a library in a house of sin and debauchery, but Tempest found it also added a particular elaborate foreplay for those she brought to her rooms. Not to mention, when she wanted alone time, this was the best place in the manor to be.

It was only then she noticed the lack of heat on her spine. Turning back, Tempest was semi-shocked to see Carlisle by the fire, studying one of the books piled on the mantle, and pointedly, not her. So not a one track mind with sex. She may have to actually put some work into figuring this one out. 

She saunters up quietly and presses up to her tiptoes so she may lay her chin on his shoulder like Conny had done. His height made this semi-hard and her interest semi-peaked.  She takes the moment to also play with the ends of his almost white hair that poked past his velvet jacket collar. 

“The Wing collects a wide variety of mementos from admirers or lost bets, but frankly this room was always my favorite payout,” she admits, twirling her finger around a lock and dragging it absentmindedly along the back of his neck. She felt the small hairs and skin prickle to attention.

“I’m surprised mystery novels have made their way to your shelves,” he offers back with another twitch of his mouth. He shifts his eyes to hers, the light of the flames reflected in them. “I thought there would be far more conspicuous works at home on your mantel.” 

She pulled her finger away lazily and steps back to perch on the arm of a couch. “Oh, those I keep close to my chest. Can’t go advertising you have blackmail on half the Empire.”

His eyes widen briefly.

“I had meant those of a more carnal nature. It surprises me this place truly is one where people bring that manner of thing to trade in for sex,” he asks a bit disbelieving. “Why would powerful people divulge that sort of thing? Are they so weak willed with their cocks,” he tries to laugh off, snarkily. 

Putting on a winning smile that didn’t reach her challenging look, she attempted to mask the edge of a hiss in her voice. ”I enjoy the latest Nancy Druid as next as the next woman, but I would think someone trying as hard as you are should know that everyone has secrets. But frankly, I think it’s less a question of the wielder’s will than the hand that’s grasping them’s.” She looks at her nails for emphasis. 

Well, now she’s starting a bit of a spat. So the original plan was definitely out the window; maybe this dick-lord was into hate sex? Carlisle had mastered a true poker face, so she merely calmed the storm brewing.  

“It’s fine if you didn’t want to be here tonight, we don’t have to do anything you don’t care to,” she says calmly.  There’s no anger in her voice, just honesty. “I can even leave you to the baths if you’d like, but you will not underestimate the people who work here. The Wing has persevered because of the secrets this house keeps in its walls. Mutual respect is all I ask,” she finishes. Legs crossed, high heels up to naked legs, which a tail flicking like a cat who’s caught the canary. 

And to this, he stood up straighter, looking like his feathers had been slightly ruffled. Good. He turns back to the mantle and plucks The Casket of Avalon from its home at the top of the pile. “I hadn’t meant it as an insult,” he gruffs out in an impish manner. Holding the book up to her, Carlisle raises an eyebrow in question. “Secrets for secrets? Which is your favorite?” He tosses her the book which she catches. 

Flipping it open without missing a beat, Tempest opens the book to an index, scanning it over taking the question seriously. Only the hint of a smile hid the fact she wasn’t actually angry anymore.

“I actually just started reading her work specifically. A friend had gotten hooked on them and he recommended them, mostly because there are over a hundred of them. I tend to get antsy when I don’t have something to read.” Ok, that last bit was a bit of over sharing, but the look in his eye was frankly really distracting her train of thought. Turning the question back on him. “Any recommendations?”

He came to stand in front of her, her eyes level with his sternum, having to look up in his new power-play. 

“I always preferred the more depressing cases. A bit of a morbid soul,” he says quietly. Practically a whisper. “This is a good one,” he says, taking the book back from her hands, ”but I have to say A Night in the Moors is far better in my opinion.” His eyes have landed on her mouth and unabashedly stayed there.

She worries her lip for a moment, playing with him. Let’s see what we can learn. His gaze never shifted. “Don’t think too hard, you’ll give yourself a migraine,” teases Tempest.

He blinks and turns to return the book back to its spot. “Am I trying too hard again?” asked Carlisle.

Pulling her hair to one side, Tempest exposed her neck while thinking of how to walk the tight rope that was this conversation. They were finally getting somewhere with this evening.

“From the minute you walked into the gambling hall to when we were introduced you had ignored the your father’s presence. He was obviously the one pulling the cards tonight which means you didn’t volunteer to be here this evening, but you also didn’t object. Instead, you were eyeballing who else was here and taking notes, which isn’t the wrong way to go about this, just not subtle.” Tempest switches her legs and recrosses them, taking off a heel that was buckled at the ankle.

“Normally, if someone’s father is buying their kid’s entertainment, it typically means several things. Since you seem to be semi-socially adept and are gorgeous, I doubt it’s a personal issue, but I may be giving you too much credit.” One heel is off, and the legs switch back to attend to the other. “The way I rationalize it, he had business here and didn’t want to leave you to your own devices, or needed to put up a stronger front with another face to watch his back.” 

She eyeballs him, gauging his reaction or lack of one as it seemed. Well, aside from his ears having turned a pretty shade of pink after being complimented. She liked that a bit too much. “No, that wasn’t it.” Last heel gone. Her tail brushes his calf as he stands in front of her again, hands in his pockets, an entertained smirk ghosting his lips. 

“You were trying to ignore him on principle. You want him to take him seriously, so you took it upon yourself to watch his back this evening and assist in laying ground to whatever angle he’s working.” To this, Carlisle’s smile dropped a degree in warmth. “Thankfully, Tolly is good people. I’m sure she won’t mess up anything your dear Lord Father wanted to converse with her over the course of the evening. She likes playing with her food, but she respects him, based on how I see things. General overview: A man looking to impress his father. Sorry if that makes you feel any less original.” His hand takes a lock of her hair and pushes it behind her ear, minding the jewels on her horns. “But I like a man who is eager to please others.”

He sat down next to her on the couch, bringing her legs over his lap from her perch on the arm. He stroked his hand up beneath the sheer robe that had come quite loose since they had left the main floor. “And do I still give you the impression I don’t want to be here?” 

Tempest had to remember how to breathe for a moment. Sometimes sex and tension were just part of the routine, the game. But sometimes, on lucky nights such as these, she felt like a teenager again, a beautiful stranger capturing her attention for the night and making her feel like a lightning storm; electric. 

She toyed with the ends of his hair again, using her nails to rake through it, and giving him the smallest of tugs to pull his head back slightly, so this time he was gazing up at her. The small groan he covered didn’t go unnoticed. 

“A secret for a secret,” she tells him. 

He begins to pull her robe open. “I’m very glad I chose to come with my father here this evening.” 

He stops suddenly as Tempest holds in a childish giggle. “Really? I’m trying to seduce you and you’re laughing at a cum joke, Temptress,” he asks with an exasperated look. She kills the sounds, but a toothy grin remains. She continues to massage his hair. “I know you probably misheard the first time, but it is Tempest. It may be awkward to yell out the wrong name tonight.” 

He pulls her down at this point, sliding her down onto his lap, her legs curling past them to rest behind him. “I heard her just find, dear.” His mouth goes to her neck. “You lived up to it. Now what secret do I get in return?”

She brings her hand to his own neck and guides his face up to hers. “The bedroom door has been open this whole time.”

------

After this night, Carlisle would return the next three nights. The first two he arrived with his father before splitting off to find Tempest after conversing with different people. By the third night, he didn’t even come under the illusion of being on business. The two mostly conversed, but the three day rendezvous wiped her out so much that Tempest had to tell Tolly she was taking the fifth night off work to rest. 

He had made it clear that he would be coming around semi-often. She smiled to herself on her disaster of a bed, looking at the first edition copy of A Night on the Moors that had just arrived, wrapped in a dark red velvet ribbon, addressed “To Temptress.”

This was very dangerous. 

[radiantmorningstar]

Tomb: the Chronicle of Sirius and Prin 6: Interlude - the Letter of Aelius of Silver Crown Regarding Dubaine Second-Story

Year 297 AC of the Deer, Highday 29th of the Month of Locking

To: Laethe Karnex, Fist of the Duke, Lord Protector of the Sovereign City of Silver Crown, Captain of the Guard

My Dear Laethe,

Warm greetings on this festive Year’s End. I should apologize for not making the journey down to the barracks from the Tower Absolute. I believe it is fair to say that my duties these days are pressing; though, I cannot remember a time when they have not been. So, admittedly, that is no excuse. I do hope Cassandra and the children are well and that you are finding some light in this overcast season. Please feel invited to stop by the villa whenever you can. The new alchemist, Rudolph, has managed to grow bomba fruits in our orchard despite the weather—a remarkable feat, even if something about them is not quite right. You must come and give me your opinion.

I write today primarily about the incident with the mystical portal that opened above the Goat Quarter yesterday, an arcane working, the like of which I have only seen twice before and never within the city limits. My old master, Edwodge of Zeel, was capable of such a thing, but I distinctly remember him admonishing me not to attempt it save in the most desperate circumstances.

Teleportation (and its ceremonial variant known as “gate” or “portal” magic) does a disservice to the energetic status quo, sometimes referred to as the “Eldritch Frame” or the “Tapestry,” and can be, shall we say, extremely disruptive, to the physical surroundings at both ends, to say nothing of its potential destabilizing effect on the humoral composition of the practitioner. Without digressing too far into theory, I will merely point out that it is remarkable none of the goats or other livestock in the Quarter were injured when the portal opened 30 feet above the market. As far as I know, the extent of the damage was half a minaret on the Temple of Courga being sucked into the breach when it closed.

That would have all been remarkable in itself. But what, I should say “who,” came through—a well-known criminal from Redianteris, commonly called “Dubaine the Thief” or “Dubaine Second-Story”—was even more curious. This outlaw, a vested member of the Redianterian Thieves’ Guild, is wanted dead or alive (preferably the former), in multiple cities. And I would be remiss if I did not point out that our own Duke Aslicat would no doubt enjoy trading him to Duke Zalti or Duke Royceroy for considerable advantage.

I am sure you know much of this already, but I mention it here since you may be interested to know that our seer, Borys, and his two insufferable apprentices verified the information yesterday and I am inclined to believe them. I imagine you have already dispatched a knight to retrieve this Dubaine. But in case you haven’t, my suggestion is that you do in all haste before he can get far afield.

Now I have gone on too long and other affairs of the Tower call me hence. I wish you good cheer and a happy holiday season.

Yours Cordially,

Aelius

Magus of the Tower Absolute

The Sovereign City of Silver Crown

[starseedfxofficial]

Durable Goods Orders and Ascending Triangle: A Winning Forex Strategy The Secret Weapon: Ascending Triangle Meets Durable Goods Orders Imagine you’re about to make a significant trading decision. You’ve done your analysis, maybe even consulted a crystal ball (I don't judge), and you’re looking for that perfect moment to pull the trigger. Here’s where one little-known combo might just change your Forex game forever: durable goods orders data and the ascending triangle pattern. Trust me, these two could be your ultimate tag team—like Batman and Robin, but in the financial world. Durable Goods Orders - Not as Boring as You Think Okay, I know what you're thinking: durable goods orders sound about as exciting as watching paint dry. But hang in there—this economic indicator packs a punch when you know what you're looking for. Durable goods orders track new orders placed with manufacturers for hard goods that are meant to last three years or more. We're talking big-ticket items like cars, airplanes, and, apparently, that treadmill everyone buys and then uses as a clothes rack. Why is this important? It’s a pulse check on the economy's appetite for expensive toys. When orders are up, consumers and businesses are in the mood to splurge. When orders are down, everyone’s clutching their wallets a little tighter. Now here’s the kicker—the Forex market LOVES this stuff. A spike in durable goods orders can often cause the currency of a country to strengthen. This is where your advanced knowledge kicks in like a ninja. The Ascending Triangle - A Trader’s Best Friend Imagine an ascending triangle pattern as that friend who's always got your back. It’s a bullish continuation pattern that forms when the price is making higher lows, pressing against a resistance level that just won’t seem to budge. It’s like trying to push open a door that’s stuck—after enough shoves, it’s bound to burst open. And when that happens, you’re in for a strong breakout. For traders in the know, the ascending triangle is a sign that buyers are ready to push a currency pair higher, but are just waiting for the right moment. Imagine you’re at a crowded concert and everyone’s inching towards the stage. It’s only a matter of time before the crowd rushes forward—that’s your breakout! The Hidden Combo - When Durable Goods Meet the Triangle Now here’s where things get interesting. Picture yourself scanning the charts on a Thursday morning, only to realize two major signals are aligning. The durable goods orders are out, and they’re strong. And on your chart, you spot an ascending triangle forming in USD/JPY. My friend, you’re looking at a textbook bullish setup. The key here is to use durable goods orders as a fundamental catalyst to confirm what you're seeing on the charts. When durable goods orders spike, it means increased optimism for the economy. This tends to strengthen the domestic currency—in this case, the USD. Now, if that USD happens to be forming an ascending triangle against the JPY, you’ve got an extra level of confirmation to take that breakout seriously. It’s like when your GPS AND your best friend agree on the fastest route—you’re probably on to something good. Insider Tips: Getting the Most Out of This Strategy - Timing Matters: Durable goods orders data typically comes out monthly, and you need to be ready for it. It’s like Black Friday at your favorite electronics store—plan ahead, or you'll miss the deal. - Set Alerts: Use your trading platform to set alerts when durable goods orders are released. Have a second alert for when you see that ascending triangle forming. It’s a bit like having a wake-up alarm and a snooze button—sometimes you need that extra nudge. - Risk Management: Yes, durable goods data can be a strong signal, and the ascending triangle can look convincing, but nothing in trading is a sure thing. Always use stop losses to protect yourself. Imagine buying a discounted pair of designer shoes only to realize they don’t fit—always have a return policy. Why Most Traders Get It Wrong (And How You Can Avoid It) Most traders just skim through the durable goods orders report, shrug, and move on. But here’s the insider tip: it's not just about whether the number is higher or lower than last month—look at the breakdown! Which sectors are booming? Is it consumer goods or manufacturing equipment? Knowing this can give you insight into which sectors are driving growth, and whether that aligns with your trading strategy. And don’t get me started on traders ignoring ascending triangles. They think it’s just some pattern that might work. Truth is, they fail to consider volume. The breakout needs volume behind it to be convincing. Otherwise, you might as well be trying to push a car up a hill without gas. You’ll end up stranded and out of breath—or worse, out of capital. Expert Opinions on the Durable Goods + Ascending Triangle Approach According to Kathy Lien, Managing Director of FX Strategy at BK Asset Management, "Durable goods orders are a crucial indicator of economic health, particularly because they show both business and consumer spending. When paired with a technical breakout, it can be one of the strongest signals for Forex traders." Now, that's coming from someone who knows her stuff. John Kicklighter, Chief Strategist at DailyFX, also notes, "Using fundamentals to back technicals is an underrated but highly effective approach. Durable goods orders provide insight into market sentiment, which can power technical setups like the ascending triangle." These insights from industry veterans highlight why combining economic data with technical patterns isn’t just a strategy—it’s a superpower. The One Simple Trick That Can Change Your Trading Mindset Ready for the secret sauce? Here it is: think of durable goods orders as the emotional backdrop of the market. The ascending triangle is the specific move you’re looking to execute. When emotions and movement align, that’s when you see real, sustained shifts. Imagine durable goods orders are like someone pumping up a bicycle tire—each pump builds up pressure. The ascending triangle is that inevitable moment when the tire’s ready to go, and you know a swift ride is ahead. Aligning these two factors is how you get ahead of other traders who are only looking at half the picture. Summary of Elite Tactics & Strategic Advantages - Durable Goods Orders Data as a Fundamental Boost: Use this economic indicator to gauge market sentiment and determine currency strength. - Ascending Triangle for Technical Confirmation: Look for the ascending triangle pattern to confirm a bullish breakout. - Volume as Your Backup Singer: Ensure the breakout has strong volume support to validate the move. - Timing Is Everything: Keep an eye on the release schedule for durable goods orders and align this with chart analysis. - Sector Breakdown Insight: Dive deeper into the sectors driving durable goods orders for additional context and clues. Putting It All Together - Be One of the Few Not many traders take the time to combine fundamental data like durable goods orders with technical patterns like the ascending triangle—and that’s what gives you an edge. In a market full of noise, finding alignment between what the data says and what the chart shows can lead to some truly spectacular trades. Now, if you’re looking for even more game-changing insights, head over to our Forex Education resources at StarseedFX. And don’t forget, there’s a whole community of savvy traders just waiting for you to join them—StarseedFX Community Membership. Get exclusive access to expert analysis and live insights that could be the difference-maker in your trades. Happy trading—and remember, sometimes the most powerful trades are the ones hiding in plain sight, just waiting for the right pair of eyes to spot them. —————– Image Credits: Cover image at the top is AI-generated Read the full article

[everharrt]

Some random, fleshed out headcanons.

What is your character’s name?: Esmé Everhart. He has no middle name, and he was named by his mother. Though he does not know it, Esmé is the name of his great grandfather, who was a powerful businessman that doted on Esmé’s mother (hence her extreme affection of him). He does not have any nicknames, nor does he want any. Esmé has received some grief over his name, more in grade school, though he mostly ignored it. The name is unisex, and while it’s typically associated with effeminate connotations he is quite appreciative of how unique it is ( as opposed to being another Matthew ). His competency was challenged when he first entered his father’s line of work because of his name, though Esmé quickly put any question of his duty and loyalty before it could go any further. Esmé’s father never disagreed with the name and was more than happy to name his only child ( and heir ) after someone his beloved wife adored so much.  Esmé means: esteemed or loved in Old French.

How old is your character? Esmé is 35 years of age. He’s quite wizened to the world and down to earth considering everything he’s been through. His experience in black market trade as well as being involved in a more dangerous lifestyle forced him to grow up early, and he never really had the leisure of being a kid. As a result, and because of the things he’s experienced,  Esmé is a bit jaded ( much like a haggard old man might be ). Deceptively, he appears to be quite handsome for his age, appearing no older or younger than the 35 he claims.

What does your character look like? Classic handsome: tall, defined chin, bright blue eyes, well-kept and dark brown hair. Esmé is aware of how handsome he is and goes through the steps to ensure that he’s always tidy in appearance. He was born in America, however his ancestry dates back to Egyptian Jewish roots. Esmé is a towering 6′3″ ( and he stands very proud thank you ), and keeps himself rather fit. He has a few scars:  The first would be a small bullet hole scarred at his lower right abdomen from work gone awry when he was twenty three. The second is the most obvious scar — the skin of his right wrist is completely destroyed in what looks like a thick an uneven spiderweb from burn marks. The third is more of a set of very faint scars, visible only in lower light, on the side of his neck and on his chest from bullet shrapnel. The final is a long, thin scar pressed diagonally on his left cheek, beneath his eye.

How does your character dress? He always wears dark clothing, and he is always well-dressed. When it came down to business Esmé wears well-tailored suits with darker colored ties ( gray, black, dark red, dark blue ). If he is somewhere public he’s wearing his darker colors, always dressed well and appearing professional. First appearances mean everything, and he always wants to be sure that he appears well-kept.

What are some notable relationships your character has? Esmé has only fond memories of his mother, who died when he was very young. He never knew his grandparents, and his relationship with his father was complicated. Esmé’s father was always business-oriented and had a hard time expressing affection or love for his family members due to his own upbringing. The only person that Esmé’s father was outright kind or affectionate with was his wife. Esmé got the brunt of the stern upbringing instilled in his father and was always groomed to be the heir of his father’s business empire. Esmé loves his father but everything he has for a memory is rough around the edges. There was never much affection between them. While Esmé has had good business partners the only person he grew close to was Julia, whom he fell in love with. Since Julia’s death he has remained distant from everyone he comes across, though he was never quick to grow close to them in the first place.

What is in your character’s memory? A lot of information about guns and his father’s business. Esmé is a man who operates on the small details of people, so he is good remembering those things about them. His childhood was full of discipline so a lot of that carried into his adulthood easily enough. Esmé is more apt to remember painful memories as they leave lasting impressions on the mind, though the happy memories he bears he holds close and private.

Where does your character live? A large, Victorian style manor modernized on the inside with many stained glass windows.

What is your character’s room like? Neat and tidy with a black bedframe, white sheets and pillowcases, and plenty of light to flood in from the windows. He doesn’t like clutter at all, and there’s never so much as a stray sock left on the floor.

What is your character good at?  Esmé is particularly good at reading people, but his talents lie with the charisma of business and the science of guns. He was always a rather intelligent boy in school and kept quiet or to himself, preferring to watch the actions and reactions of others before making his own choices. His business partners admire him for how calculated or cold he can be, while others revile him for his easygoing demeanor. In truth, Esmé prefers others think him weak so they do not know what he is capable of, and thus underestimate him and make mistakes. Esmé is a talented marksman and has qualified with excellent scores many times. He prefers pistols, though he has exceptional skill with rifles as well.

What will ultimately destroy your character? If he continues to keep people at an arm’s length: loneliness. Human’s are social animals, after all. It’s likely that he would continue to become more jaded than he already is, and if that happens nobody will ever be able to stand his company.

[supplychainmanagementsposts]

Navigating the Essential Role of Cargo Services with Big Wings LLC.

In the sprawling landscape of the United States, where commerce and industry thrive across vast distances, the seamless movement of goods is not just a convenience but a cornerstone of economic vitality. At the heart of this logistical dance are cargo services, the unsung heroes facilitating the smooth transportation of goods from coast to coast and beyond.

Understanding Cargo Services

Cargo services encompass a wide array of activities crucial to the transportation and delivery of goods. From warehousing and packaging to transportation planning and execution, these services form the backbone of supply chain management. In the US, where industries range from tech hubs in Silicon Valley to manufacturing centers in the Midwest and financial giants in New York, the need for efficient cargo services is paramount.

The Role of Big Wings LLC

Among the many players in the field, Big Wings LLC stands out as a beacon of reliability and innovation in transportation and logistics services. Based in California, Big Wings LLC has carved a niche for itself by offering tailored solutions that cater to the unique needs of businesses across various sectors. Whether it's expedited shipping for perishable goods or bulk transportation for industrial materials, Big Wings LLC prides itself on delivering excellence.

Industry Trends and Challenges

In recent years, the landscape of cargo services has been shaped by technological advancements and shifting consumer expectations. The rise of e-commerce, for instance, has spurred demand for faster delivery times and real-time tracking capabilities. Likewise, environmental sustainability has emerged as a pressing concern, prompting companies like Big Wings LLC to adopt greener practices and explore alternative fuels for their fleets.

However, with these opportunities come challenges. Infrastructure bottlenecks, regulatory complexities, and fluctuating fuel prices pose constant hurdles for cargo service providers. Yet, through innovation and strategic partnerships, companies like Big Wings LLC continue to navigate these challenges with resilience.

Impact on Local Economies

Beyond the logistical intricacies, cargo services play a pivotal role in fostering economic growth at the local level. By facilitating trade and connecting businesses with markets both domestic and international, these services stimulate job creation and infrastructure development. In California, where Big Wings LLC is based, the company's operations contribute not only to the state's economy but also to its reputation as a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Future Outlook

Looking ahead, the future of cargo services in the US appears promising yet complex. Rapid technological advancements such as automation and artificial intelligence promise to streamline operations further, while global events like geopolitical shifts and pandemics underscore the need for adaptability and resilience.

For companies like Big Wings LLC, staying ahead means embracing innovation, investing in talent, and maintaining a steadfast commitment to customer satisfaction. By doing so, they not only secure their position in the competitive landscape but also uphold their role as vital contributors to the nation's economic tapestry.

In conclusion, cargo services represent more than just the movement of goods—they are the arteries of commerce that sustain the lifeblood of the US economy. Through their expertise and dedication, companies like Big Wings LLC exemplify the spirit of ingenuity and reliability that defines the industry. As the demands of global trade evolve, so too will the landscape of cargo services, guided by innovation, resilience, and a commitment to excellence.

In this dynamic environment, one thing remains certain: the vital role of cargo services in shaping the future of American industry and beyond.

Address: 3809 Wilcox Way, Bakersfield, California, 03809, USA

Phone: 800–201–7010

Business Email: support@bigwings.us

Website: https://bigwings.us/

Connect With US

https://www.linkedin.com/company/bigwingsllc

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[equitylogistic]

Logistics innovators dominate market with top notch solutions in india

In the bustling landscape of India's logistics industry, innovation reigns supreme. With a burgeoning economy and the advent of advanced technologies, Logistics solution company in india are pioneering solutions to meet the evolving demands of businesses and consumers alike. From efficient supply chain management to last-mile delivery, these innovators are reshaping the market with their top-notch solutions, driving growth and revolutionizing the way goods move across the nation.

THE DYNAMICS OF INDIA'S LOGISTICS INDUSTRY

India, with its vast geographical expanse and diverse terrain, presents unique challenges and opportunities for logistics providers. The industry plays a pivotal role in facilitating trade, connecting producers with consumers, and driving economic development. However, traditional logistics models often struggled to cope with the complexities inherent in India's infrastructure, regulatory framework, and geographic diversity.

In recent years, a wave of innovation has swept through the sector, propelled by advancements in technology, data analytics, and operational strategies. These innovations have unleashed a wave of transformation, empowering logistics companies to streamline processes, enhance transparency, and deliver superior services to their clients.

HARNESSING TECHNOLOGY FOR EFFICIENCY

At the heart of this transformation lies technology. Logistics companies are leveraging cutting-edge solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain to optimize operations and improve decision-making. AI-powered algorithms are revolutionizing route planning, warehouse management, and demand forecasting, enabling companies to minimize costs and maximize efficiency.

IoT devices, equipped with sensors and tracking mechanisms, provide real-time visibility into the movement of goods, allowing logistics providers to monitor shipments, optimize routes, and mitigate risks effectively. Meanwhile, blockchain technology is enhancing transparency and security in supply chains, enabling seamless traceability and reducing the incidence of fraud and counterfeiting.

MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF LAST-MILE DELIVERY

One of the most significant challenges in the logistics landscape is the last-mile delivery—the final leg of the supply chain that involves transporting goods from distribution centers to end customers. In India, where congested urban areas and remote rural regions present logistical hurdles, efficient last-mile delivery is crucial for customer satisfaction and business success.

To address this challenge, logistics innovators are deploying a range of solutions, including crowdshipping, drone delivery, and smart lockers. Crowdshipping platforms harness the power of the sharing economy, connecting individuals who are willing to deliver packages with those in need of delivery services. This decentralized approach not only enhances the speed and flexibility of last-mile delivery but also reduces costs and carbon emissions.

Drone delivery represents another frontier in last-mile logistics, particularly in remote areas with limited infrastructure. By leveraging unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), logistics companies can overcome geographical barriers and deliver packages swiftly to even the most inaccessible locations. Additionally, smart lockers provide a secure and convenient alternative for parcel pickup, enabling customers to retrieve their shipments at their preferred time and location.

EMBRACING SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY

In an era marked by growing environmental concerns, sustainability has emerged as a key priority for logistics companies. With the rise of e-commerce and the increasing volume of goods being transported, there is a pressing need to minimize the carbon footprint of logistics operations and adopt eco-friendly practices.

Innovative solutions such as green logistics, electric vehicles (EVs), and alternative fuels are gaining traction among forward-thinking companies committed to environmental responsibility. Green logistics initiatives focus on optimizing transportation routes, reducing empty miles, and maximizing vehicle utilization to minimize fuel consumption and emissions.

Moreover, the electrification of fleets is rapidly gaining momentum, with logistics providers investing in electric trucks, vans, and bikes to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and curb pollution. Additionally, the adoption of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power for warehouse operations further contributes to the sustainability efforts of the industry.

THE ROAD AHEAD: COLLABORATION AND ADAPTATION

As logistics innovators continue to push the boundaries of possibility, collaboration and adaptation will be essential for navigating the complexities of the evolving market landscape. Strategic partnerships between logistics companies, technology providers, and government agencies can foster knowledge exchange, facilitate the adoption of best practices, and drive collective progress.

Furthermore, agility and adaptability will be critical attributes for success in an industry characterized by rapid change and disruption. Logistics solution company in india must remain vigilant, continuously monitoring market trends, embracing emerging technologies, and evolving their strategies to stay ahead of the curve.

In conclusion, the future of India's logistics industry is bright, fueled by innovation, technology, and a relentless commitment to excellence. By harnessing the power of top-notch solutions and embracing the principles of efficiency, sustainability, and collaboration, logistics innovators are poised to dominate the market and shape the trajectory of India's economic growth for years to come.