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the-iron-orchid · 4 years ago

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BOOK VI: THE LOVERS

Chapter 3: The Quaestor (~5100 words)

Warnings: Descriptions of lethal disasters and highly unethical medical procedures. Smoking CW.

Note: Marcus Aquila Summanus belongs to @vesuvian-disaster and appears with permission. :)

(back to table of contents)

I lift my head from yet another record, yawning mightily. I’ve been in the library all morning, and it’s just been more of the same. When Lucio wasn’t killing and extorting his way across Venterre and beyond, he was draining the coffers with lavish parties, statues to his vanity, and various follies built across Vesuvia.

I have read over many, many requests for civic funding, most of which went ignored. Several of these can be connected to later accidents or even disasters, as critical infrastructure gave way to the relentless actions of water and time. In fact, here and there I find slips of paper tucked between the pages, upon which neat lettering cross-references some of these ledgers and notes. It looks like someone else has been connecting these dots, as well - no doubt Marcus Aquila emself.

It’s easy to see exactly how the entire Flooded District situation came to pass. Once the port’s Market District, it now stands as a crumbling, mold-infested testament to Lucio’s neglect. Several other areas of Vesuvia face similar peril, or worse… and worse has already happened in at least one place.

Some ten years ago, a sinkhole opened up beneath a multistory building in Goldgrave - entirely due to failure to maintain the drainage system beneath the city. 19 were killed, 23 injured. But even this was not enough to budge Lucio’s intransigence.

Reading the account, it seems to come vividly to life despite the impersonal tone - I can smell the rank, moist air belching up from below, the stink of fear from those trapped, and those trying to help… A sudden, sharp pain jabs into my skull, another arcing over my ribs, and I find myself struggling to breathe. My hands are numb yet burning, my arms aching, my eyes gritty -

“Inquisitor... forgive me, Jinana. I thought you might be here.”

I open my eyes - when did I close them? Marcus Aquila stands before me, eir manner rather different from that of yesterday. There’s a tension in eir frame beneath the elegant drapings of embroidered voile that make up eir dress.

“Are you all right?” ey asks. “Some of that makes for very unpleasant reading, I’m afraid.”

I take a deep, somewhat shaky breath; the constriction starts to ease, the beating wings of impending panic to lift. “I… yes. I’ll be fine.” I close the book firmly and set it aside.

“Some air and a change of scenery may help. Will you walk in the gardens with me?”

I am coming to understand that this phrase has a certain meaning about the Palace, namely that one wishes to speak privately on matters of importance. “Of course,” I answer.

“Wonderful. If you’ll follow me?”

I rise, shouldering my bag, and follow the Praefectus as ey leads the way deeper into the library. We pass among the tall shelves, until Marcus Aquila pauses, reaching up to slip a particular book from its place… but it does not slide out. It merely tilts, standing out at an angle. Ey does this to a second, then, grumbling, hitches the skirt of eir dress slightly and ascends a stepladder to pull forth a third.

“Dramatic bastard.” I am uncertain to whom this is addressed, exactly, but before I can ask, an entire section of the bookcase slides aside, revealing darkness. It’s a short passageway, rough-hewn despite the clever mechanism that obscures it.

Marcus Aquila steps down into the darkness without hesitation - I can just make out the first stone steps. “Be careful,” ey warns. “The steps are uneven.”

I summon my globes of magical light, illuminating my way. Marcus Aquila clearly has no need of this; ey must use this passageway constantly. I pick my way down, finding a T-junction at the foot of it. The Praefectus turns left, and I follow.

The glow of heatless torches greets us here, though the passageway remains rather rustic.

“What is all of this?” I ask.

“Oh, just a little relic of the Plague Times. It was all very hush-hush back then… but it hardly matters now. You could probably ask Valdemar for a guided tour and they’d give you one.” A mirthless little laugh.

We pass another tunnel that seems to lead to a more finished section of the complex, with a series of doors visible, but Marcus Aquila leads on. The floor begins to slope upward again, and a final section of tunnel leads to a dungeon-like door of iron-bound timbers.

We emerge, blinking, into sunlight. We seem to be behind the Palace, in a less-used (and less-maintained) portion of the vast gardens that nestle between the Palace proper and the high defensive wall that rings it. Here, stands of trees almost obscure the white limestone cladding of the wall beyond.

Marcus Aquila fishes in a pocket in eir dress, removing a single embroidered glove. Ey puts it on, rather baffling me, then slips a small chased-silver case from the same pocket. It opens to reveal a number of pre-rolled cigarettes, and a tiny device of some sort. Marcus Aquila places one of the former between eir lips, and uses the latter to ignite it, holding the cigarette in eir gloved hand and blowing the plume of tobacco smoke considerately away from us.

Ey gives a little sigh of seeming relief, then starts slightly. “Oh, how rude of me. Would you like one?” Ey proffers the silver case in my direction.

I decline with a smile, and ey tucks the case away once more before leaning against the cool shadowed facade of the Palace and taking another drag. “Earlier today, I went to check on… some old things. I thought it might jog my memory, so that I could give you more information.” The sunlight seems only to enhance their pallor, almost as if one could see the bones underneath shining through. “I found something that perhaps you should see.”

“It has to do with the investigation?”

“Maybe not in so many words. But it could very much cause trouble with the Countess’s plans.”

The Praefectus pushes off of the wall and begins leading me along the rear perimeter of the Palace. I can see the stacked-stone foundations emerge as the ground slopes gently away. The breeze brings an odor wafting toward us, not quite putrid, but unwholesome, like spoiling meat.

“Lovely, isn’t it?” Marcus Aquila says with a grimace. Ey gestures to the rear corner that stands perhaps thirty feet away. “Don’t get too close… it can’t be good for you.”

Ey pulls a folded white square out of another pocket, shaking it out and handing it to me. It is a scented handkerchief, lavender and citrus mercifully overpowering the whiff of rot. Ey then stands back fastidiously, alternately puffing from eir cigarette and holding an identical hanky to eir own nose.

Here, the foundation stands almost my own height above the ground. I can see now that a reddish substance appears to be oozing from between the stacked stones at ground level, looking for all the world like the Palace is bleeding. The odor is stronger the closer I get - and I do not want to get very close at all. I can see that the liquid gathers in a sort of narrow, irregular trench, leaving visibly blackened grass to either side.

“There’s a stream, further down,” the Praefectus explains. “I’m concerned that this… run-off is getting into it, maybe even into the city’s water supply. Since you seem to have the ear of the Countess these days, at the least you can bring it to her attention.” Ey gives me a sidelong look. “It really would not do to have revelers stumble upon such a thing.”

“No indeed.”

Ey nods, taking another deep drag from eir cigarette. There’s still a tight-wound feeling to em, an anxiousness that seems great even given what we have just seen.

“May I ask a personal question?” I venture, and Marcus Aquila gives a brittle little laugh.

“Why not? You are the Inquisitor, after all.”

“Forgive me if it’s intrusive, you don’t have to answer. It’s just that you seem very, um, invested in exonerating Devorak. Were you close?”

Marcus Aquila raises eir eyebrows. “Close? No, I wouldn’t say that… but we worked together under tremendous pressures, and I suppose that does form a kind of bond. Moreover, I saw what they did to him. I still have nightmares about it - all of it. We all do. I’m sure that Devorak does, too.”

I remember the way the color drained from Julian’s face when I showed him the drawing, the one that he said was a human brain... one of many. There is a part of me that is sorely glad that I have no memory of the Plague-time and its horrors. “I’m so sorry,” I offer. “It sounds like it was a terrible time.”

“It was a desperate time,” ey says, shaking eir head. “None of our hands are truly clean… but Devorak doesn’t deserve the gallows. Not after everything he went through - everything we all went through - just because of fucking Lucio finally catching the damned plague.” Ey says the dead Count’s name as if it is the most vile curse ey can muster.

“You must understand… I was there when they did it. I watched them force a fucking plague-beetle down the man’s throat. And I could do nothing to stop it.” Ey drops the remains of the spent cigarette, crushing it out under eir heel, and immediately pulls out the silver case again, fumbling to open it. “Lucio wanted to make an example of him in the cruelest, most horrific way possible… probably because Devorak wouldn’t fuck him.” The shaking of eir hands makes it more difficult to light the fresh cigarette, but ey manages. The action seems to calm em slightly.

“I’m not about to stand by and let him be executed on top of that... and for something I don’t think he even did.” This is punctuated with another cloud of smoke. “I can try and do that much, at least.”

“I understand,” I say, though I am still trying to digest what ey has said. It sounds too awful to be true… but it seems that no cruelty was beyond Lucio. “Was the Count in the habit of, um, forcing his attention on people?”

Marcus Aquila snorts. “Actually, that was the one thing he wouldn’t do… but he would also never stop trying his luck. Even right in front of his own wife… though there was no love lost there, either. That was certainly no secret.”

Ey takes another, more thoughtful puff. “That’s what’s so strange about all of this, though… why does the Countess want Devorak dead so badly? Those three spent the better part of a year being almost inseparable.”

“Nadia, Devorak, and Lucio?” I ask, puzzled.

“Oh, no. The Countess, the doctor… and your master, Asra.”

I blink. Asra did mention once being close to Nadia… but she has forgotten it all. He also spoke of his former relationship to Julian… but not of Nadia and Julian being close. Clearly this knowledge has also been lost to Nadia - and perhaps to Julian himself. I am unsure of the extent of his own memory loss.

I can only hope that it extends to the terrible thing that was once done to him.

The Praefectus lifts eir head, as if ey has heard something that I cannot. “We should return, before I am missed,” ey says, and begins leading me in the direction of the door we came from. “With the Masquerade so close, there is much to do.”

We walk back in silence, each in our own thoughts. As we approach the door, Marcus Aquila extinguishes eir cigarette and slips the glove back into eir pocket. Ey pulls open the door -

And Quaestor Valdemar is standing there, unblinking as their pupils close tightly against the sunlight. (Are they… slitted? They can’t be. Can they? Why, exactly, is their presence so upsetting to me?)

“Ah, there you are, Marcus.” The Quaestor seems to be smiling, though it’s hard to tell behind that cloth mask. “It seems our shipment has arrived ahead of schedule. I want you to oversee it personally.”

This does not seem to be welcome news to the Praefectus, but ey nods. “Of course, Quaestor. I can escort Jinana back with -”

“Oh, no, that won’t be necessary at all.” Valdemar leans forward, uncomfortably close, but I stand my ground. “I’ve been looking forward to a chance to speak with the new Inquisitor.”

This seems to please Marcus Aquila even less, but ey bows eir head. “As you wish, Quaestor.” Ey glances at me. “I simply hope that the Countess is not inconvenienced.”

“Our dear Inquisitor will be back in time for supper… I promise.”

This seems to carry a strange weight with the Praefectus, who closes the door and then nods briskly to me. “Thank you for your time, Inquisitor.”

“And you, Praefectus, for yours.”

With one last glance at Valdemar, ey sweeps past in a rustling of voile and the scent of lavender.

I must go on the offense, here; I must take control of the situation. It is my job to be the one asking questions, after all.

“Where would you like to talk, Quaestor? It’s quite lovely out at the moment, and I do have some questions of my own for you.”

Valdemar turns their back on the door that leads outside, and begins walking. (So much for taking control of the situation.) “You are here investigating Doctor 069, yes?” they ask, as I hurry to catch up.

“I’m sorry?”

“We went through so many doctors,” they say with a wave of one gloved hand. “We began giving them numbers; it was simpler to keep track of them that way. Doctor 069 was the one who appeared at Lucio’s rooms that night.”

“I see.”

They lead the way back toward the passage that Marcus Aquila and I took down here… and pass it, heading into the gloom, barely a white smudge in my vision. I summon my magical lights once more.

“Oh… you do need light, don’t you?” Their cold, dry little voice sounds almost amused.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“Why, to the dungeon, of course. I’ve not taken anyone down there in so long. You simply must allow me to show you around.”

Without waiting for an answer, they continue down the tunnel. At its end there looms some strange cagelike contraption, with an inscribed plaque that reads:

Bloody hands may turn the key. Know the weight of your sins, and enter.

This does not strike me as a motto of doctors.

Valdemar touches the plate with their gloved fingers, giving a little sigh. “Ah, truly an inspired bit of decor, don’t you think? It frightened them so much, the gullible little creatures.” They reach into a pocket of their apron and remove a strange key. Its surface is an oily-looking black; it is set with a stone of a sullen red color. I am reminded of the fluid seeping from the Palace foundations.

The lock gives an ugly screech as Valdemar turns the key; the door of the cage slides open with a grudging groan of disused metal.

“Go on, now.”

“Into a cage?” I ask, incredulous.

“An elevator,” they say, unperturbed. “Oh, are you claustrophobic?”

“No, but -”

“I don’t actually care,” they continue, in the same exact tone. They advance, and I don’t have much choice but to back into the elevator as they crowd in with me. The space is small - hardly big enough for one adult - and the only reason we both fit in here is my own lack of size and Valdemar’s thinness. I press my back to the bars behind me, everything in my being warning me away from the Quaestor, who simply watches me from over their mask. In this light, their eyes seem as blood-red as the key, or the ruby brooch at their throat... and I finally realize what it is that disturbs me about them.

Everything that lives has an aura, an energy that emanates from and surrounds them. It isn’t that Valdemar doesn't have an aura... it’s that it is so utterly void as to be like a hole in existence, a negative cutout, an inverse aureole. To my sight it is intensely wrong... unnatural.

They pull a lever, and the whole thing begins to descend in a shrieking, rattling cacophony of rusted gears. As it does so, the darkness grows and grows around us, until my lights are barely a feeble flicker reflected in Valdemar’s unblinking, reptilian gaze.

And then even that goes out, the darkness pressing in almost dense enough to touch.

I force down my threatening panic as the lift comes to a bone-jarring halt, and once again I hear the horrid scraping of the door as it opens. There is a rustling, and then the suffocating blackness gives way to flickering shadows as an ordinary torch is lit. It’s almost worse for the ghastly way it illuminates the Quaestor’s sharp features.

“Hurry along now, there is much to see.” Valdemar strides forth with the torch, lighting more torches set in holders as they go, revealing a rather narrow stone hallway. I hurry to catch up - light or no light, I don’t want to be alone in this place... or lost.

“You have questions about Doctor 069, yes?” they offer as we walk.

I do, and I should not let this chance escape me, as bizarre and unsettling as it is. “What, precisely, did he do here?”

“Oh, a little of this, a little of that. I didn’t pay much mind to any of them, you see.”

I wish this answer surprised me, but Marcus Aquila did say that the Quaestor cared primarily for their research, and little else.

“He was always on about leeches, I seem to recall… saying that blood was the key to the Plague. But if you want the specifics of his research, I’m afraid you’ll have to ask him yourself.”

My heart stumbles for a moment - do they know that I have been in contact with him? But Valdemar continues on to a huge door set into the end of the hallway, pushing it open with another creak of protesting metal. Inside is some sort of mudroom or dressing-room where oiled-leather aprons hang by the dozens, with various tools of obscure purpose set into racks. At the far end there sits a legion of familiar bone-white beaked masks upon a rack. The torchlight gleams off the red lenses, making it look as if there are eyes behind them.

Valdemar sets the torch they are carrying into a holder by the door, and claps their thin hands together sharply. “Now, then! Please hold any further questions until the tour is concluded. First of all…” They turn abruptly, causing me to stop short as they once again inspect me from an uncomfortably close distance. It takes all of my courage not to flinch away when their gloved hands reach out - but they seem to be taking my measure, like some bizarre tailor.

“You are very small, aren’t you? I’m not sure we’ll have anything that fits.” Valdemar turns away just as suddenly, striding toward the gear hanging on the other side of the room. Their fingers walk over the aprons like purposeful spiders, finally snatching one that seems to meet with their approval, along with one of the masks.

“Safety first… or so they tell me.” The Quaestor returns to hold the apron up to me, checking its fit. The leather bears very old stains - black from ink, brown from… well. Best not to think on it.

“Arms up.” I comply, once again forcing myself to keep still while they fit the apron over my clothing and the mask over my face. Their touch is as cold as death, even through their gloves, seeming to suck the living warmth from my body. “Ah, perfect.” Mercifully, they then retreat, opening the next door.

The elderly herbs packed in the beak of the mask cannot hope to entirely cover the indescribable fetor that rushes in. Valdemar pauses just beyond the threshold, almost causing me to collide with them, and turns to face me once more. They reach up and pull down the mask covering the lower half of their face, closing their eyes and taking in a deep breath, like one might in a summer meadow. “Ah, memories.” Their thin lips curl into a cruel smile, and they walk backward into the chamber, their eyes never leaving mine.

Even empty, this is a place of horrors. At its center there is a sort of elevated stage, bearing a metal table with well-used restraints. There is a dark stain on the stone platform beneath that no amount of scrubbing could ever remove, I am sure.

With some relish, Valdemar explains how it was used, shows me the additional ranks of vivisection tables… which eventually became dissection tables as their unfortunate occupants perished. With a flourish, they point out the cages where they kept their ‘patients’ - and the many doctors who became patients.

I don’t know if Valdemar is trying to unnerve me with their blithe commentary, but it’s working.

“All lovely, of course, but this is my favorite part. The poor little dears just don’t get to eat like they used to... but they are very hardy.” Valdemar pulls a rusty old lever, grinning widely, revealing rows of inhumanly sharp teeth. (Vulgora, too, had such a smile… I am beginning to wonder if any of the courtiers are truly human.)

A scraping sound draws my attention to a strange pit, almost like a half-well set into the wall. Its cover lifts itself up, triggered by some mechanism, and a sound like trickling water comes forth.... no, it is a strange, dry scuttling sound. Not water, but beetles, so many that they flow like a liquid over picked-clean bones, the distinctive carrion beetles synonymous with the Red Plague. Their long, thin antennae are more like those of roaches than anything else, their chitinous red bodies once the source of a prized crimson dye that is now shunned as a reminder of the Plague.

Crimson fluid drains from this pit, into a channel that disappears into the wall behind. I know where this goes - or at least, where it is ending up now. The same smell of bad meat is here, but a hundred times stronger in the enclosed, airless space.

Insects do not disturb me… but this does. There’s something so deeply unnatural about it that it sets all the hairs on the back of my neck bristling. And amid it all, Valdemar stands, still grinning that terrible, sharply tessellated grin.

“Such marvelous little creatures,” they muse. “So fascinating… and quite lethal. And so very effective at disposal.” They sniff. “Not that everyone appreciated this. Corpses burn poorly at best, it was so much more efficient to toss them in here. But people are so squeamish about these things.” They give a clucking sound, and restore the cover to its place. “I’ll see you again, my little darlings.”

They turn back to me, cocking their head to one side like a curious bird. “Well, that concludes our little tour. What do you think?”

“Why would anyone do this?” I ask, my voice thick with revulsion.

“Why? Why for science, of course!” Valdemar shakes their head. “069 was the same way, really… always on about consequences and morals, when all the patients were just going to die anyway. Always scribbling, always doodling, never really getting hands-on with the science. Elbow-deep, as it were.”

I can’t help but note that their own gloves rise well above their elbows.

“Ah, but you weren’t here for the Plague, were you? Most patients went from feeling a bit poorly to being quite dead within three days. A very few lasted a week. There were so many bodies that we could never have buried them all… or even burned them. By the end of it, corpses piled up in the streets faster than they could be carted away. Those left alive were nothing but corpses yet to be.” Once again the inhuman grin, their eyes alight with a sinister sort of glee.

“Compared to that, what were a few dying a day or so earlier, in the pursuit of a cure? Necessary sacrifices, and all that. The ends always justify the means.” They sigh wistfully. “Those were the days.”

This avails me nothing.

“Doctor 069 - wasn’t he in his office during the last Masquerade?”

“Oh, yes, locked inside in fact. He’d come down with a touch of the Plague himself, you see. Such a shame he survived; I’d been looking forward to prying open that thick skull of his. But perhaps I’ll still get the chance, if our dear Countess has her way.”

“Show me his office.” I try to keep my voice firm, to reclaim some modicum of control. Valdemar merely indicates a barred wooden door with a tilt of their head.

“There are still personal effects of his in there, for what it is worth. Perhaps they will hold some clue to tracking him down.”

I peer into the tiny barred window set into the door. It is a mean little place, but also oddly homey, cluttered with items. I can somehow feel that it was his, a residual energy embedded in this small hideaway in a place of unending horror.

Cold, spidery fingers grip my shoulder, and Valdemar’s chilly spareness leans over me to look, as well, their icy cheek brushing mine. I flinch away in startled revulsion, unable to help it, but this in no way upsets them. Indeed, they are grinning again, the most horrid expression I have ever seen.

Clinging to my purpose, I demand to be let inside. They are clearly enjoying my discomfort, but they open the door and leave me to investigate. They will be right out here, they tell me, indulging in nostalgia for the Plague days.

Inside the little chamber, the air is stale but not nearly so vile. I remove the mask, the better to see outside of those disorienting red lenses. It must have been very cramped in here for Julian, and there is a distinct damp. A small rumpled cot is in one corner, and it’s hard to believe he could have fit all of his limbs onto it. Over it, rickety shelves hold long-dried bottles of leeches, a few trinkets, mildewed books. A desk takes up the remaining space in here, covered in papers. The inkwell is overturned, the quill discarded, the wooden stool pushed away.

I close my eyes and try to summon the feeling of such a desperate time, when Death itself ruled the city, the greatest of tyrants. My mind paints an image of Julian so detailed, it’s as if he is truly present. I can see him just so, in my mind’s eye. Feverish, dying himself even as he worked to find the cure. A feeling of vertigo, of falling, though I remain standing...

When I open my eyes, I can see him, just as he must have been then, down to the last detail. There is a quill between his long fingers, his hands bare of the gloves... and the sclera of his right eye is scarlet. The other is hidden under the messy, lank fall of his hair. The quill scratches over parchment as he mutters to himself incoherently, occasionally sending a hunted glance to the door of this little cell. He must think, he tells himself, before the faculty is taken from him by the Plague. But none of it makes sense, none of it works.

Sudden frustration overtakes him, inkwell and quill falling victim to it.

It is oddly painful to watch as he runs the gamut from anger to unstable laughter to fear, wrapping his arms around himself and hunching forward on the stool, shivering with fever.

“...is this… is this how you felt?” His voice is low, pained, exhausted, and he slumps to the desk, unmoving. Before I can help myself, I reach out to him… but it is only a memory, and my hand passes straight through.

I startle back when he suddenly leaps to his feet, babbling wildly that he has found the cure… and the vision fades. In frustration, I reach out again with my magic. But the memory is gone.

With a curse, I look around the room for anything else that might afford some small clue.

That’s when I see it… a faded chalk outline of an oddly familiar symbol - though I cannot say exactly where I might know it from. I know only that it is magical. But why would a symbol of magic be in this place of science?

I search more thoroughly, scattering papers and dusting off books, until I find a tome inscribed with the very same symbol. The language inside is unfamiliar to me, but I have seen something like this before. It resembles one of Asra’s books, once seen back at the shop. But why is this here, sitting for three long years in a godsforgotten dungeon cell?

I page through the book, finding Julian’s distinctive scrawl decorating the margins in places. I can make out perhaps one word in five. It’s clear that he was delirious by then, with disjointed writings about a man with the head of a raven, about belief and portents. A torn page has been shoved in between the back cover and the endpaper. The words I want to believe are scribbled over it. I unfold it carefully - and almost drop it in shock.

The drawing is crude, but it is unmistakable: The Hanged Man, 11th of the Major Arcana, the very image that is in the deck I carry with me. I open my bag and fumble the card from the deck, listening desperately for the voice of the card - but it offers me nothing, beyond a sense of waiting.

Once again, I am on my own.

Valdemar’s inquisitive voice almost makes me leap out of my own skin. (They wonder if I am quite done here.) Quickly, I stuff the book into my bag, and replace my safety gear. I say that I’ve seen enough, and Valdemar asks if I am very, very sure. (I am.) Humming some nameless little tune that is at odds with this place, they lead me out and away, replacing their own mask over their face as we go.

#the arcana rewrite #arcana rewrite: tides of chaos #jinana aditya #marcus aquila summanus #Quaestor Valdemar #Me: sequence breaks like a Metroid speedrunner

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lifblogs · 4 years ago

Text

celnene

9414 words

destiel, fae!castiel, high fantasy!au

written as a prompt request awhile ago

The baby was crying. The beautiful, blond-haired baby with green eyes was crying, and both parents had left him there in the cabin alone. Their intentions hadn’t been evil, seeing as the mother had gone to hunt for food, and the father had gone to the market to sell furs in exchange for something to eat other than meat. Castiel understood why they hadn’t brought the baby along. Even the trek to the market could be dangerous. Castiel had been there before, wearing a glamour so as to hide from the humans. He found that he enjoyed watching them, even though these people would kill him if they knew who, and what, he was. They’d see his sharp canines, and his pointed ears, his perfect skin, and ethereal glow, and they’d shoot and stab him full of iron.

Usually, most of them weren’t violent to other humans, not as severely as some had been during the wars centuries ago. There were a number, however, who belied that simple fact. Bandits were on the roads, ready to take advantage of helpless townsfolk. A few ex-soldiers wandered, taking their anger out at being dismissed from the army on the people there, and bullying them for money.

So no, a baby wouldn’t have been able to be brought along, despite the sure amount of kindness he would find.

As for friends? Castiel was sure the two parents of this baby didn’t have any that could watch their six-month old. He knew because, well, for some reason he had had his eye fixed upon them for years. He just felt… drawn to them, particularly when the mother had become pregnant.

Once they’d had the baby, they’d taken extra precautions, making weapons of iron. Some were still in the house, but if they didn’t touch Castiel, he would be fine. Would the parents return in time to make an attempt at ending his life? No, the chances of that were slim. Even now he could smell the scents of the parents fading, and they hadn’t renewed. They were getting farther away.

That baby boy was still crying. At six months old he was able to eat mashed food, and he was becoming a little less helpless. Still, he was a baby, and for now, he was all alone in the world.

Castiel came down from his perch on the tree, jumping easily to the ground fifteen feet below and landing on his feet, strong bones and legs easily taking the impact.

As he walked towards the cabin, idly flicking out his power behind him to brush the snow and obscure his tracks, he raised his hand, and he pushed, letting his power pulse outwards. The latch unhooked, the door swinging open slightly. Cold air rushed in ahead of him, and a flurry of snow swept across the mat inside the door. Not wanting the baby to get too cold, Castiel hurried in, taking care to close the door behind him.

The baby didn’t seem hungry when he swept a discerning hand that glowed gold over his body. He was fine. However, he was… lonely.

Castiel, feeling warmth in his chest, picked up the baby, and started bouncing him. For some reason he started telling him about the wars, telling him of the dark fae the humans had helped battle off, and then, in a stroke of mistrust, had turned on the fae that had helped them. The battles had killed more humans than fae, and Castiel, acting as a highlord beneath the reign of his father, the highprince, had been able to convince them to turn away. He left out the gory details, of course, but he told the story of how their peoples had separated, and how some fae still cared about the humans. Too many years had passed for the humans to remember what had happened, and those who weren’t royal or wealthy could barely read. Even then, most humans saw the word Fae and turned away from it, even if that word was on a history book.

Despite their ignorance, Castiel found them interesting. But not as interesting as the baby boy he was bouncing on his knee. The baby, whose name he’d caught a few months ago—Dean—was now gurgling instead of crying. He looked up at Castiel with the greenest of eyes. One of his little hands fisted in Castiel’s silvery-white cloak.

“Yes, it’s all right, Dean,” he told him. “It’s all right. You’re safe.”

Castiel stayed with Dean till he heard the parents arriving home.

They didn’t even know he had been there.

✥

Castiel had work to do as a highprince. In his opinion, it was boring work. Most of it was politics between the different courts in the realm in an attempt to postpone another war. Along with that, there were ledgers to keep a decent account of, new guards to choose for his retinue, overseeing commerce—which, to his dismay, included strong drinks that were so punctuated with alcohol they could easily double as cleaning fluid. The alcohol hadn’t made its way to the nobles of his court, but he was aware of its circulation through the slums in the lower depths of his city.

Castiel’s city was Taivakel, built atop a towering mountain. His palace resided at the top; a thing of marble, and gold, and diamond. The city then grew out in a circle all around the mountain, many of the buildings made of smoothened white stone. Different sections of the mountain had been carefully segregated. Though, in the past century, Castiel had had the walls separating them knocked down. He did not want his people to be divided. In part because he cared about them, but he also knew that a divided people could plant animosity among his citizens, and dangerous things could happen. Rebellion—though that hadn’t happened since his father was highprince—civil wars, higher criminal activity.

With this new system, the different quarters had begun to merge with each other, and Castiel quite enjoyed it. The reports he received from his lords and advisors relayed that the people did as well.

Castiel’s people were all fae. The lesser ones, without powers, had been pushed to the bottom of the mountain. They lived in small, wooden shacks and crowded apartments. They had created a black market centuries ago as an attempt to get by. Another highprince, one of whom he was acquainted with—Corvalend, the highprince of Aardess—tried to curtail his worries about the lesser folk. He claimed that they were lesser for a reason, reminding him of the fact that they lacked magic.

Still, Castiel was trying to help; setting up donations, attempting to send builders to fix up the homes, lowering the taxes, and sharing goods. Some for free, some at a lower price. Despite his attempts, he had received quite a bit of backlash from the non-magic folk in his city. They claimed they did not want the help of a highprince who surely looked down upon them, and they insisted that they did not need his help. They had been self-sufficient for four centuries now, and claimed that their ways of life could not be changed. Still, he tried. He desperately tried, caring about all his people.

Then, of course, there were the religious zealots of Dawn’s Children. Dawn was supposedly a representative of the dawn of a new age, in which humans and fae would live together. To most, it was blasphemy. Castiel was not very religious, but he welcomed the idea of merging with the humans. However, sharing that would make him very unpopular with his people.

Dawn’s Children took in all kinds. They preached in thick robes, collected followers, kept their heads unshaven. To appease them, Castiel had appointed their high priestess as one of his advisors.

Many of Dawn’s Children were tame, gentle, but problems quickly arose whenever they wandered into human territory. Which they did quite frequently.

They wished to mate with them, seeing as they had found ways for two beings of the same sex to mate and create life. In the city, that secret was guarded carefully. However, the work of Dawn’s Children never seemed to come to fruition. Many of the members who delved into the human kingdoms did not return. During their first foray, Castiel’s father had sent a battalion of troops after them, even requesting that Castiel lead them. He had declined, and without his leadership, only half the troops had returned. His father blamed him, as Castiel did himself.

Quite frequently he found himself venturing into the human realm in secret, as he had a few years ago when drawn to that baby. His only creed was to explore, observe, and not interact. Yet, he felt pulled to the child, and often walked through doorways of light to the human realm. He would do this at night, while tasking one of his lords or trusted advisors to watch over the city in his stead. Perhaps the time for another visit was drawing near.

✥

The day had been grueling. Highprince Castiel had undertaken a building project in the lower quarter. Though his identity had remained hidden till an hour or two into his work, he was eventually found out, and vitriol was flung his way. Still, Castiel worked, whether these fae wanted him to or not. This was his duty. To serve, protect, lead. If he could not do what he would ask of someone else, then in his eyes he would have failed as a highprince.

Castiel let out a deep sigh as he now settled down into the hot water filled nearly to the brim in his deep-set, marble tub. There was a ledge to sit on when one did not want to be fully submerged.

The ledge was where he rested for now, sore from his day’s work. Eventually, he soaped up his body, washing away the sweat, and grime that had collected on him. After dunking into the water to rinse away the soap, servants toweled him dry. They attempted to dress him in his night clothes, and Castiel dismissed them, a fluffy towel wrapped about his hips.

He perused his wardrobe, opting for dark clothing. He donned a black silk tunic with a deep v cut down the center, and silvery embroidery on the cuffs, black leather pants, paired with fur-lined boots, a vest for partial warmth, and a cloak.

Fall had come, and he did not want to get cold on his travels.

Castiel waved his hand, widening a doorway of golden light. He stepped into it.

✥

Dean was playing in the forest. It was evening, the sky that dull gray before the sun lowered beyond the horizon and surrendered the world to starry night.

Dean was seven years of age now, and he was receiving some schooling. His little brother was three years of age. Dean couldn’t wait to take him out in the woods to play with him. All his brother Sam seemed to be able to do for now was play with the wooden toys their father had carved for Dean some years ago.

Sometimes, against his mother’s will, Dean traveled into town. Whilst there he came to know that his patched together clothing, originally taken from his father’s trunk after his death, was a sign of poverty. With one parent, they were not very well off.

Now, he played in the woods; he had found a giant stick, and was whacking a tree with it. He moved into different stances, ones he had come up with in his head, and had convinced himself that the soldiers used.

Light broke through the twilit sky, and Dean gripped his stick hard, heart pounding. What was that?

Then he saw a tall shadow through that golden glow, and Dean ran to hide behind a thick ash tree he had taken to climbing a year ago.

Poking his head around, he saw the shadow step out of the light and materialize into a man. He was dressed in black, his tan skin inhumanly smooth, dark hair immaculate, and—

Dean hid behind the tree again, gasping, breathing hard.

The man was fae!

Dean had seen the pointed ears. Did he have fangs too?

The fae male stepped so lightly that Dean hadn’t even heard him approach, and—

He rounded the tree Dean was hidden behind. At his discovery, Dean’s instincts told him to drop his stick, to run. Yet, there was something deeper inside of him. An excitement, a thrill of some sort. Dean ran at the fae male and cried out, swearing, “Get back! Get back! You don’t belong here, you damned Inenuan rubbish!” as he beat at his legs and lower abdomen with his stick.

Eventually, he tired, and when he stepped away, panting, shaking fingers scraped from bark, still holding onto his stick, he looked up into the face that observed him. He saw blue eyes, a strong jaw, nearly too-pink lips, and eyes as blue as the Clear Lake a few miles away. Mary and Dean had made the trek before; Mary with Sam bundled up against her chest. Dean was reminded of those waters when he looked into those eyes. Blue, cold, perhaps even empty.

No, emptiness was not what lay there. Just something different, something he could not recognize. After all, he was fae.

The fae male reached out, and took Dean’s stick. Dean trembled.

“You know,” he said in a low, gravelly voice, sharp teeth flashing as he examined the stick, “if you stripped this of bark, whittled it down, and sharpened the edge, it would be a more effective weapon.”

He handed it back to Dean, and Dean just stared, mouth dry. He licked his lips.

“Your form was off as well,” he commented. Then Dean was sure his heart had stopped because that thing, that being, was touching him. The touch was not harsh, nor anywhere inappropriate; simply meant for moving his limbs around. Yet he had dropped his stick in shock. “Here,” the male said, “you want to keep your feet shoulder width apart, and lower yourself slightly as if you were sitting up on a high stool. There, good. Feet must be straight, pointing forward, bringing power and balance into your legs.”

Dean still couldn’t breathe. A fae was touching him! Talking to him! When would the killing blow come? Would he steal him away, cook him up before eating him for dinner? Would he enslave him, perhaps keep him as a pet? Or would he put him on the front lines of his army to be used as a distraction to lessen the deaths of the real soldiers? No matter the course of action, he was sure he would die.

“All right. Yes. Now put your arms up.” He now grabbed hold of his arms, and Dean took in a sharp breath. Though, the touch was gentle, perhaps even kind. No, impossible. This creature did not know kindness. “You want to keep one held up, angled slightly away from your body. This one you use to block blows. It protects you, and from this position you can easily lift it to protect your face, or lower it to protect your abdomen. The other arm should be lower, pulled back slightly. You can alternate which hands you use if we’re talking hand-to-hand combat—here make a fist—keeping you from tiring on one side too quickly, and giving you the advantage of coming at your enemy from both sides. And you see here?” He lightly patted Dean’s elbow, and Dean realized he had not left the position he’d been placed in, too terrified to move. “With this arm farther back, when you reach out to punch someone, it gathers momentum, but only if you keep your elbow and wrist straight.” The male backed up slightly, taking his hands off him. “Here, try it. Punch me.”

“Wh-what?” Dean questioned, voice small in the otherwise empty forest.

“Hit me,” the fae male commanded.

That voice was commanding. It was the voice of a leader, the voice of one with power. Dean found he could not resist. He stepped out with one foot, and drove a punch into the fae male’s gut. The satisfying sound of a fist hitting the center of a body met Dean’s ears. To his dismay, the male had not moved even an inch.

Dean faltered.

The fae crouched down, getting on his level. “It’s all right, Dean,” he told him. “I am stronger than you, able to withstand much more, but with practice, you will be able to protect yourself.”

“H-h-how do you kn-know my name?” Dean asked, struggling to get the words out.

“That story is long,” he said. “But perhaps in a decade or two, I will tell it to you.”

A gate of golden light opened, and Dean shielded his suddenly-watering eyes against it, blinking something fierce.

“Farewell, Dean,” the fae male said, and then he made to walk into the light. Before disappearing into it he turned, saying as if in afterthought, “By the way, my name is Castiel.”

Castiel stepped into the light, which receded behind him. Dean was alone in the darkened woods.

✥

Sam coughed, blood coming up on his lips. Dean just held his hand, bowing his head. Sam was unconscious, but still he said to him, voice rough, throat aching with emotion, “Come on, Sammy. Hold on for me. You’ll be okay.”

Mary was out trying to get herbs for him, and she was desperate, saying she would not lose another one of her boys. After their father had died, she had attempted to be a good mother, but had no longer possessed the will. The spark had gone out, and Dean had tried to light it once more. He’d given everything for her, for Sam. It hadn’t been enough.

Somehow, with Sam being sick, she seemed to have that spark again, that fight. She was going to be there for him.

Dean searched their little cabin for a cloth. He found one resting over the edge of the washbasin—which was empty. He groaned, knowing they needed more water.

Dean put the cloth over his shoulder, took the washbasin, and went outside into the cold with it. He forwent putting on a cloak. He wouldn’t be out there for long. He went to the spigot located in the back of their cabin. The metal was cold as he worked it up and down to get the water from the cistern. It seemed to burn his hand.

Doesn’t matter.

Water splashed over his hands. Dean couldn’t do this gently. He was breathing hard, sweat on his forehead despite the cold.

Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam

Praise Ilvasar, that even this little bit of water would help.

Doubtful.

Dean went back in out of the cold, put the washbasin down near Sam, and then soaked the cloth. Water dripped in little pitter-patters as he wrung it out. He used it to clean the blood off of Sam, and then put the clean part of it on his blazing hot forehead.

Sam’s breaths rattled in his chest.

Dean stayed kneeling by the bed, and put his head down against Sam, one hand resting across his brother’s stomach. He knew that with his arm like this, he was supposed to be able to feel Sam breathing. The abdomen seemed to hold deep breaths. Sam couldn’t breathe deeply enough for them to reach lower.

His brother whimpered, and when Dean moved his head higher, he could feel Sam’s too-slow heartbeat. His breaths rattled, and squeaked. A tear fell from one of Dean’s eyes, rolling down his cheek to land on Sam’s cotton tunic.

Dean held on to his shoulder, fingers kneading, trying to soothe.

“Sammy…” he murmured.

The door banged open, and in an instant, Dean—though exhausted—rose and settled into a stance he’d somehow learned but possessed no memory of being taught. He relaxed, heaving out a breath at the revelation that it was just his mother.

Their eyes met, and unspoken, horrid words passed between them.

Dean collapsed to his knees, reaching out for Sam’s hand.

His mother came to hold his hand, and despite the trials of their past, he allowed the touch.

“What must we do?” Dean murmured.

“There’s nothing.”

Dean pulled his hand away. A part of him wished to argue, wished to fall into the habits he’d developed years ago. Instead, he went into his room, and donned the jacket and cloak he’d left resting on his bed. He grabbed his leather gloves by the door, and pulled his hood up, ready to set out.

His mother grabbed him.

“You can’t go,” she said to him, pleading.

Dean found his words were lost to him, that he could not speak. Instead of soothing his mother, or confiding in her with his plan, he shrugged free of her grip, and walked out into the cold evening.

Dean wandered for quite some time, searching for any roots that could have survived in all the snow. There were rumors of magic in the land, so surely there would be some.

His search proved fruitless. Dean had wandered at least two miles from the cabin, the sun now beginning to set. The sky was painted in red, bleeding into the gray darkness.

Cold, shivering, Dean knelt in the snow, holding himself upright against the thick base of a tree. His hands were frigid despite the gloves protecting his skin. The ice bit at his nose, his lips, and the wind made a good many attempts to tear his hood off.

He held onto it with his free hand, breaths suddenly coming hard and fast.

The now-familiar ache in his throat built up, and in pain-filled moments his vision began to blur, the world fading away from him.

There was nothing he could do. Nothing at all.

Sam was surely meant for the grave.

With that thought pounding inside his head, he rose, and walked, even as he lost all track of time, all understanding of his body. Dark had settled upon the world when he came to, when his tears dried. Stars blinked out above the bare trees.

Ilvasar, please.

No. Hope for his brother was not something Ilvasar could grant him, if Ilvasar even truly existed. Religion had always seemed rather weak and feeble to Dean. Were gods and powerful spirits truly watching over them? Or were the human superstitions all for naught?

However, Dean had begun to burn prayers for the gods some months ago, searching for anything that could help Sam.

Ilvasar was a common god to be used as a curse. However, he would not help here. He didn’t have the powers, did not know how. So he looked up, and he prayed to Neia, the goddess of all things natural in the world. The legends told of her proclivity for healing. Perhaps…

Dean attempted to reach her, to believe.

Please, my brother is dying. Neia. I beg of you.

Sam will die.

Please…

Sam will die. He will perish and be taken to the afterlife, perhaps even into a realm of darkness.

Neia…

A tortured scream left Dean, and he climbed to his feet. He kicked at the snow, and then drew his arm back in a fist. When he punched the tree, the bark tore at the leather glove of his right hand. His knuckles throbbed. Yet, he wished to take his anger out on the tree once more.

Fist raised, about to deliver another blow, the realization that he should put his anger and fear into use came upon him. What would screaming and crying in the dark and cold accomplish? Such a manifestation of emotions would never help.

Hand throbbing, ice cold reaching through the tear in his glove, and radiating against him to numb his face, he birthed an idea.

Was the idea a terrible, and possibly perilous one?

Yes.

No other options had presented themselves.

Beginning to hunger, his stomach growling from missing dinner, Dean looked up at the stars, determining his position.

Good. He had already unintentionally been traveling in the correct direction. All he must do was continue north in a straight line.

He walked, keeping his cloak wrapped securely about himself, raising his feet up high so as to not get stuck in the snow. His breaths were harsh in his chest, his thighs beginning to ache. Still, onward he went.

Dean was not sure how he was aware of crossing the Border. Perhaps it was the slight tingle that had traveled down his spine. Or perhaps it was the way the very air seemed different, more… pure.

Now what must he do?

Dean knew not.

He walked. Hopeless.

Cold and exhaustion gripped him, and he gave in, lying beneath the low bough of a fir.

✥

The tugging in Castiel’s gut alerted him to Dean’s presence. He had crossed the Border. But why? Why did Castiel then sense a dark dread, and exhaustion?

These feelings had awoken him, and he did not bother to dress—only grabbing his cloak, and shoving his feet into some boots—before fixing himself on Dean’s location. Light opened up in his chambers, a tear in the physical plane of this world. He stepped through it.

Where he was transported to was a forest a few miles from the Border. Dean had been traveling north, yet he would have never reached Castiel’s territory that way—if that had truly been his goal.

He slept beneath a tree, his face pale against the light of Castiel’s portal, his lips blue. His hair, which had darkened to brown with age, had been swept away from his face.

With his chest aching despite his immortality, Castiel rushed to him, and cradled his head in one hand, hoisting him up into his lap. He wrapped an arm around him, and found Dean was limp. Lifeless.

Not even daring to hope, he put two fingers to Dean’s neck, feeling for life, for blood flowing through him.

Yes!

There it was.

Faint.

Castiel could not bring beings back from the dead, but he could heal. It was an ability he’d acquired from his father.

Those two fingers traveled to Dean’s frozen lips, almost pressing into his mouth. Closing his eyes, he reached into the well of power inside of him, reached into that strong, viperous glow and warmth. Light played against Castiel’s eyelids. In mere moments, Dean’s breath warmed his fingers.

Pleased that Dean would not die at this moment, Castiel hoisted him up, carrying him over his shoulder, and he took him through the portal.

✥

Softness caressed Dean, enveloping him. He was sunken into something plush, furs layered above him. Despite this, the outward comfort could not penetrate the aches in his body.

Eyelids heavy, feeling as though he could barely open them, Dean breathed deep, attempting to fall back into sweet, blanketing sleep.

Fear suddenly spiked through him, and he tried to sit up. He hardly succeeded, holding himself up with a shaking arm, his other arm across his aching ribs.

Hands were on him now, and Dean tried to push them off, rip them away from him.

He found he could not do so. There was an iron strength in those hands.

As Dean took in the room, the white, gold, and silver coloring of it, his head became a place rife with fear.

He had passed through the Border.

These were not the chambers of a human. There was something distinctly inhuman about them. Perhaps it was the delicate, arching designs, the natural lines to everything that put the rough angles of humanity’s creations to shame. Silver and gold arced and swirled through the white of the room, creating a beautiful, unfathomable pattern.

Dean dared to look up into the face near his. Dared to confront the truth that he had been captured by a fae, and one who was surely male, the size of his hands giving him away.

“Hello, Dean.”

Dean started, gaze traveling over that strong jaw, those pink lips, the nearly sharp cheekbones, and the big, beautiful eyes. The fae’s skin was tan, hair dark and ruffled. It did not serve to hide his pointed ears.

Did he have sharp fangs?

Why did it matter? This fae knew his name.

This fae had captured him.

Dean was plunged into the stomach-churning sensation of vulnerability, and then a new realization came upon him. He looked down to assess the truth. Of course. He was naked.

“How do you know my name, and what did you do to me!” Dean growled, shocked by the strength in his voice.

The fae male just pushed him down into the bed, Dean struggling all the while. He then set himself on the bed beside Dean, pulling the furs up against his chest, covering him once more.

“You were dying,” his captor told him.

Fear pumped through Dean’s blood.

Yet, those eyes, that face, was so beautiful. Strength lay beneath his night clothes. A deeper part of Dean that tended to crave someone’s touch, was very pleased with this situation. However, it was not the one ruling his mind.

“The cold had gotten to you,” he explained. “You were blue, frost-bitten. Your bodily functions had slowed. Death had been upon you, so close that I feared I hadn’t reached you in time.”

Dean glared, and this strong, stupid, self-absorbed, repgunant being—

No, Dean, he chastised himself. You require his help. For Sam.

He saved you.

He can save your brother.

—the fae male removed his hands, leaving Dean propped up on plush pillows.

“You still haven’t answered how you know my name,” Dean said.

The fae frowned, tilting his head in a way that seemed to signal confusion.

“You truly don’t know?” he questioned.

“Know what?”

The male reached two fingers out towards him, and Dean attempted to shy away.

Useless. Those warm fingers rested against his forehead with a gentle touch.

Dean was carried away. Away from the bed, the elaborate and lavish chambers that were so hauntingly beautiful. Away from the palace he now understood he was in. Away from time, from the present. He went back, and back…

Till he was just a little boy standing in a forest, shaking with fear as he raised a stick, preparing to fight the fae before him. He was all dark hair, and bright eyes, so tall, so large.

The fae spoke, positioned his body, taught him. Dean recognized the stance he was directed through, a stance that had helped him when he had enlisted in the army. The army had not brought much good, seeing as any attempts to fight across the Border had killed troops in droves, yet Dean had learned to fight. With his fists, with knives, a sword, a staff, a spear. Before he’d become a deserter upon hearing of Sam’s illness, he’d been training with the axe, and even with a bow.

Had… Had this being truly helped him with this?

Why couldn’t Dean—

As the fae male turned to leave through a gate of golden light, he turned back, a slight smile turning up his lips. By the way, my name is Castiel.

Dean was rushed back through time, through the world, as if a rope had suddenly been pulled taut, the strength of some ethereal creature reeling him back in. Dean strained against it, head pounding.

A voice rang through the travels of his mind: Don’t fight it. It’s all right.

Implicit trust was born in Dean, and he breathed deeply.

His mind returned to its natural place inside him. His vision was blurred, but in seconds, it righted itself.

“Castiel,” Dean breathed.

Castiel’s smile in response to his words was gentle, warm. It was not what he had expected of a fae.

“So where am I?” Dean asked, attempting to sit up once more. He shied away from Castiel’s hands, though the strength in them had begun to stoke a fire deep in him. “I saw this is a palace. Are you… Are you a royal of some sort?”

“I’m a highprince of the kingdom of Taivakel,” Castiel informed. “We are on top of a mountain, and you are leagues from the Border.”

“All right. Why am I naked?”

“I had to warm you. Your clothes were wet and cold.”

Dean saw the sense in that, but still, he was slightly uncomfortable. Perhaps not in a way he should’ve been. Staring at Castiel, his gut began to throb.

He attempted to banish the treacherous thoughts from his head. He smothered them under prolonged pain, and the coming of grief.

Words spilled from his mouth, tone aching with the very love he held for his brother, “Castiel, you have to help me. My brother Sam is dying of sickness. I crossed the Border to find someone to save him, to…” He swallowed roughly, and forged on, “To make a deal.”

A sultry darkness flickered in Castiel’s eyes, and the grin on his face transformed into something feral.

Dean’s mouth went dry, and he tried to swallow, but found his throat was just as parched.

“Cas—” he began to ask before the dryness of his throat deadened his words.

“Yes, we can make a deal. But you cannot back out of it. Whatever we come to, you must follow through accordingly. Betraying me, attempting to break the deal, it will result in your untimely death.”

Dean found the strength to speak. He asked, his voice rough, gravelly, “You can save him?”

“Yes, I can save him.” Castiel pulled away from him, getting off the bed. He began to pace, a hand to his chin. “But what do I desire?”

Dean wanted to hide in the furs, pretend he was no longer there despite the deadly allure of Castiel.

“Oh, yes. Yes, of course.”

Castiel turned to Dean, eyes bright, and Dean gulped, holding the furs to himself, kicking himself away as Castiel crawled over him on the bed. He held himself up with his hands and knees, and Dean’s breaths were shallow as he stared up at this being, as he felt the pressure where their bodies touched. Dean imagined he could hear his heartbeat. How was that possible? All fae had hearts of stone, surely. It was why they could not die.

Those eyes seemed to penetrate him, and Dean’s body began to betray him, heat building up in between his legs.

Oh, Ilvasar. Neia. Jhana. No. Spirits, help me.

Castiel lowered his face to his, their lips nearly touching, nose brushing against his own. Everything in Dean begged and pleaded for he himself to reach up, to press their lips together. To discover whether the stone was in his entire body, if the dreaded evil could truly live in him.

Castiel breathed deep, and Dean shifted, hand lowering to hide his growing arousal.

“I will heal your brother for you, Dean Winchester. In return, I ask only for your firstborn.”

That was it?

Dean had expected to bleed for him, to become enslaved, to be at the mercy of this fae.

For the moment, sacrificing his firstborn did not seem like an evil act. He did not have a child, and surely wouldn’t for years. Dean was not the kind of man who gave women a reason to stay and settle down with him—his recently broken engagement was testament to that. As for his other tastes… They could not produce children.

He’d heard rumors however that when a human and a fae... became close in that way, that despite being the same sex, they could create a child… somehow. Perhaps it was just rumor, but still, Dean found himself asking, wanting to hold up his end of the bargain as studiously as possible, “When will we begin?”

Castiel pulled back slightly. “I beg pardon?”

“Creating a child,” Dean added, cheeks reddening, gaze traveling away from those penetrating eyes. They then found the thickness of his body, and his own body continued to betray him. “I… I heard that… a human man, and a fae male can…”

Castiel sat back, and sidled off of Dean. He rested back on his heels. “Ah, so you’ve been preached to by Dawn’s Children.”

Dean nodded.

“They pander lies, they meddle where they should not, but that is one truth they properly acknowledge. However, my people and I try to keep it close to us.”

“Why?” Dean found himself asking.

“It is thought of as blasphemous for our races to mix.”

Dean wished to nod in agreement, but he was still frozen, naked under the pile of furs.

“However,” Castiel went on, a sensual haze darkening his eyes, “I find your presence quite persuasive. I am not averse to the idea of making you mine.”

Highprince Castiel grinned.

✥

Castiel had the strong urge to dress Dean up as he saw fit, to parade this human around as his own. He was. He would be. The idea of creating life with Dean Winchester coaxed a thrill in him that he could barely contain. Was it because of the taboo acts that would take place? The betrayal of a stifling culture? The touch of someone forbidden? No matter, he wished to let out the thrill, the rush. To let it out in luxurious ways that this human wouldn’t even be capable of comprehending.

Yet, Dean ordered him around. He ordered Castiel to get him clothes, to leave him alone as he dressed. Made him heal his aches, get him food and refreshment. Now, he came out of Castiel’s room, and crossed his arms as he stood across from him.

Dean was dressed in fine leathers and furs of mostly black. Castiel resisted licking his bottom lip when he looked at him.

“First things first, you are going to hold up your end of the bargain. I’m not quite sure how much time my brother has left, but when I went in search of something, anything, to help him he was… He must not have long.

Dean lowered his head slightly at those words, blinking fiercely.

Perhaps Castiel should have feigned ignorance and pretended he hadn’t seen that look, but he went to Dean, and held him by his shoulders in what he hoped was a reassuring grip. Dean was an inch taller than him, it would seem, but that didn’t mean that Castiel couldn’t do as he wished.

He lowered himself slightly, head tilted upward, so he could meet Dean’s tearful gaze.

“I will save him,” Castiel promised.

✥

Memories rekindled themselves in Dean’s mind when Castiel seemed to create a glowing tear in reality. He had been hesitant to step through it, so the highprince had grabbed him by his upper arm, and hauled him through with him.

Dean found that he did not possess the will to object. With Castiel’s strong hand on him, Dean felt as if he had just started living, as if his previous life was in dull colors and darker shades.

He worried. Yes, he worried. He had given himself to this fae highprince, and he had done so with hardly a thought.

Yet, Dean would do it all over again. He would have given up more if he had to, he would have become a very slave to the highprince who had saved him if that was what was required.

For now, it seemed as if Castiel was content to fulfill his end of the bargain.

The light had taken them to Dean’s family’s cabin, which now seemed too small and drab, even after only seeing a few rooms in the palace of Taivakel. His life, a human life, could not compare to the very being holding onto him so tightly. The heat his touch brought to life in Dean’s stomach was something he had never felt before. Even with all the girls he had been with in the village, and the few boys, Castiel was already unlike any other. Dean’s betrothal to Lisa now seemed far and in the past, despite it only being broken off a fortnight ago. She didn’t matter. Only Sammy mattered. Only… Dare he say it?

No, he could not.

He would not.

Dean was better than that.

If you are, then why did you offer yourself up to him so willingly? Are you that desperate for someone to fill the void?

Dean tried to push that thought down, but it festered inside of him. His black, fur-lined cloak billowed in the winter wind whispering through the trees, as did Castiel’s.

What he was wearing was still astonishing. He knew his clothes had not been anything special, and at times were very close to falling apart, but now, he felt regal. How was it that he felt such a thing from clothes he did not belong in? These were the clothes of a fae, not of a man. Clothes of royalty.

Dean was no such thing.

Castiel took his hand—which was protected with a black leather glove, just like Dean’s—and hurried over to the cabin with him. No light could be found inside despite the growing dark.

Dark?

Had it not been day when he’d awoken?

Yes, but he had assumed it was morning, not taking time to look at the positioning of the sun.

He swallowed roughly. Oh, Ilvasar, he’d been away a whole day.

Where was his mother?

Was Sam…?

Was he…?

Dean shrugged himself free of Castiel’s grip, and rushed towards his home. He flung the door open, barely daring to see what awaited him.

Darkness shrouded the common area where Sam’s bed had been set up so it would be easier to keep an eye on him. His mother would have had a fire going, or at least have some candles lit. She wasn’t here.

“Sam?” he called out, voice shaking.

He knew his brother couldn’t answer, yet it felt better to speak than to stand there silently.

A hand clasped down on his shoulder, and he jumped. He turned to look at Castiel.

“Do not tarry, Dean. Your brother still lives, but is approaching the veil.”

Paying closer attention to sound, he heard his brother’s harsh breathing. He rushed in, tripped on a stool, cursed, and then stumbled to Sam’s side. As Castiel entered, a golden glow was lit upon his hand, brighter than any lantern. For a moment, Dean had to shield his eyes.

Dean held his brother’s hand, and brushed his sweat-dampened hair back from his face. He was in different night clothes, and he looked as if he’d been bathed. So his mother had been here. Where was she now? Why was she gone?

Perhaps it didn’t matter.

“I’m here now, Sammy. It’ll be all right. I’m going to look after you.”

Still on his knees, Dean turned, and he swallowed roughly as he looked up at Highprince Castiel, as he took in the ethereal features that would never be touched with age, the pointed ears, the dark hair, those sensuous lips hiding sharp canines, the beautiful blue eyes that had seen countless lifetimes of men wax and wane.

“Please, help him.”

Castiel bowed his head in deference, startling Dean. “As you wish,” he told him.

Before long, Castiel was kneeling beside Dean, and he had one of his glowing palms pressed against Sam’s chest. The glow intensified, and Sam’s breathing seemed to falter, his body arching up into that large hand.

Dean gripped Castiel’s arm.

“Stop it. What are you doing to him? What’s happening?”

Castiel just gripped Dean by his hair, and pulled him off of him.

“Quiet. I’m healing him.”

Castiel closed his eyes, and his lips were parted as he focused. His breaths came heavy, and Dean could just see those fangs poking out.

A darkness seemed to flow up into Castiel’s hand, nearly blotting out the light. It twisted up his arm, where it penetrated him. He groaned, and then his body slumped; he let out a protracted sigh. Sam’s body relaxed, and his breaths sounded even for the first time in two months.

Oh, praise Jhana! He was alright!

Smiling, tears dripping from his eyes, Dean held Sam.

Suddenly, Castiel and his light were gone, and Sam’s eyes opened. Before Dean could wonder about the whereabouts of the highprince, Sam met his gaze.

“Dean?”

“I’m here, Sammy. I took care of you. You’re all better.”

“How?”

Dean leaned down, placing a kiss upon his brother’s brow. “The answer matters not. You’re all right now. You’re healed.”

“Where’s Mother?” Sam asked, now sitting up on his own, searching the cabin.

Castiel chose that time to make his reappearance. Light shot out from his hands, making both Dean and Sam flinch, and in moments, the cold fireplace was a beacon of roaring warmth.

Sam kicked himself backwards on the bed.

“D-Dean? Who is that?”

Dean was given no chance to answer. Instead, Castiel informed them, “Your mother will be along shortly.”

“And you…” Sam began to ask, then swallowed roughly. His wide eyes traveled between Dean and Castiel. Then, his face softened, but not into an expression of admiration or content. There was sadness there. “And you made a deal with him,” Sam finished.

“Yes, I did, Sammy.”

Sam ripped his hand from Dean’s.

“How could you?”

“You were dying!”

“What did he ask of you in return? To be his pet? His whore?”

“Sammy, I’m alright.”

Castiel came over, Sam flinching back. “Your brother has offered up his firstborn. He intends to have me collect shortly.”

Sam’s brows furrowed together. “How? Dean’s not—”

“No, he’s not. It appears he would like to do this with me. I shall be helping him.”

Disgust painted his brother’s features, tension coiling in his limbs.

“How?”

“The details are not of import,” Castiel answered. “What you need to know is that your brother came into this willingly, and that he will be all right. I swear to you, Sam, I will not harm him, and I vow to keep him safe.”

“How do I know I can trust you?” Sam accused.

Castiel started pulling the glove on his right hand off. With the leather off, Dean saw a large ring on his fourth finger he hadn’t taken note of before. The gem set in the silver metal was darkened and smooth. Castiel worked the ring off his finger, and held it out for Sam to take. Hesitantly, Sam held his hand out, and Castiel dropped the ring into his anxiously waiting palm.

“Here,” he told him. “This ring is connected to another that I have in my palace. Rub your thumb over it whenever you wish to see how your brother fares.”

“What if you hide the other ring?” Sam asked. “What if this one is not real? What if you will pretend that Dean is safe?”

“I like you, boy,” Castiel commented. “You certainly think of all the loopholes.” Sam just gave him a grim look in return. Dean went back to holding his hand, and his brother let him. “How about, one week out of every month, I let you, and perhaps your mother, come stay with me to see how Dean fares?”

Despite having been unconscious and bogged down with sickness for so long, Sam’s mind seemed just as sharp as ever.

“And what do you want in return?”

Castiel brushed a hand across Dean’s cheek, his stomach fluttering at his touch.

“I will get to keep Dean.”

“What? No!”

“It’s all in the price of saving you,” Dean told him. “I think it an honorable deed. Please, let me do this. I will be safe. Besides, it was about time I moved out of the cabin anyway. I’m a little too old to be living with my family. Perhaps it’s time to make my own way.”

“You won’t be able to!”

“Sam.”

“Tied to him, you won’t—”

Dean took hold of Sam’s face, looking deep into his hazel eyes.

“I will. I wanted this. I did this for you. You’re”—Dean choked on the next words he wished to speak, and his vision blurred, a tear rolling down his cheek—“...damned Inenua! You’re alive.”

“Dean, you know you should not speak of that place.”

“What?” he asked with a shrug. “You know it’s not real.”

The silence of Castiel beside him was deafening.

Dean looked up at him, and Castiel just winced.

He swallowed roughly. “Ah, well. Wonderful. I suppose I always liked fire anyway.”

“Hush now,” Castiel commanded.

Dean had opened his mouth to say something else, but now he found he had no choice but to obey. The sheer power in Castiel’s tone was something that he was sure no being could ignore.

“All right, Sammy, I have to go,” Dean said when words came to him once more.

“You’ll leave me? Just like—just like Dad?”

“You know it’s not like that. Besides, you’re old enough to be out on your own. We’ll see each other often. Please, live your life. Don’t waste away in my shadow.”

Sam nodded, having difficulty looking at Dean. Then, he drew him into a bone-crushing hug. Dean held him with just as much strength.

“Bitch,” Dean quietly called him, as was their proper way of saying goodbye to each other.

Sam laughed against him. “Twit.”

Long seconds passed before Dean was able to pull himself from Sam’s grip.

“Bye, Sammy.”

“See you soon, Dean. What of Mother?”

He waved his hand absently. “Ah, she’ll be fine. As will you.”

He turned to the highprince who still held onto him, the highprince who might actually possess a real heart. “I suppose it’s time you took me back to the palace.”

A golden tear opened in the room already flooded with light and warmth. Dean blinked his eyes against it.

“Wait,” Sam began, standing and taking his first steps from the bed in months. “Your ring,” he offered to Castiel.

Castiel smiled at him, and it was a smile that Dean hadn’t ever expected from a fae. What he saw there was…

Kindness.

He barely noticed anything else besides the light Castiel had the ability to create.

“Keep it.”

Once through the tear in reality, they were back in Castiel’s chambers.

Immediately, the highprince shoved Dean against a wall. Perhaps being fearful would have been the reasonable reaction, but Dean had never been known for being reasonable. His breaths left him as wanting groans, and he fought against Castiel for only a moment, testing his strength.

Yes, Castiel was far superior.

Dean swallowed roughly, and asked, voice already a low gravel, “Not going to show me off to the lords and ladies first?”

As an answer, Castiel growled, and pulled Dean’s head back. Throat exposed, Dean barely dared to breathe. The highprince began to lavish his neck with gentle kisses, a press of lips against skin that was soon becoming more insistent. When he began to suck over his pulse point, it was as if a string of pleasure had been drawn taut throughout his body, and someone had just yanked on it, making it shudder with wanton desire. He moaned, finding himself weak, needy, at this fae’s mercy.

Castiel held Dean’s arms above his head, so he had nowhere to go when he felt Castiel’s fangs at his neck.

Again, his reaction was far from reasonable. In fact, his body was beginning to ache with arousal.

“Do it,” Dean begged.

Castiel tilted his head up, stroking a thumb along the column of Dean’s throat. Pleasure trailed through him.

“Hmm, if you wish for it that badly, then no, I will not give you what you desire.”

“Then what—“

Castiel pressed his lips to Dean’s, and Dean kissed back. The world faded away into a realm of white light. Castiel remained pressed up against him, yet his lips were traveling lower as he began to undress him.

Dean felt weightless, and yet, the white all around him did not falter.

Breathless, Dean asked, “Are we in Celnene?” Celnene was one of the afterlives, the one Dean wished to pass into after death took him.

Castiel grinned, a dark, seductive laugh leaving him as he straightened.

“We’re in your mind.”

Dean pulled back, furrowing his brow as he frowned at him in confusion.

“I… I don’t understand.”

Castiel let Dean step away, yet he took the space apart as an opportunity to begin undressing. First he unpinned his cloak. It fell away, as if it had never existed. In fact, when Dean looked down he found no true source of stability. What were they standing on?

Overwhelmed, dizzy, he began to feel like he was falling, and would never stop.

Dean suddenly found himself in Castiel’s strong arms, and he panted as he looked at him.

“It sure would be nice if my mind at least knew how to create a floor.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got you, Dean.”

A bright flash of pain seared from his throat down to his collarbone. It greatly stirred his fading arousal. Then, of all things, he felt a body pressing against him, hardness fervently grinding in between his legs, finding Dean’s own—

Yet, Castiel was only holding him in here.

“Castiel?” Dean asked.

The highprince swiped a thumb across Dean’s cheekbone. “I am about to show you the proper way to make love. Making love is not just an act of the body, it is one of the mind, and we fae can embody that. In fact, that is how I am going to put a child in you.”

Dean groaned at those words.

Castiel ground against him in the physical realm, and in the realm of Dean’s mind they were suddenly… ONE. Gold flared through Dean, caressing his very insides. The sensations seemed to shatter him, burning him all over. When he opened his mouth to scream, pleasure took hold of him there. It went into his mouth, into his throat. Dean breathed in the very essence of Castiel, and he learned in every part of his being that Castiel’s heart pumped blood like any living being. A whole world burst behind his eyelids, and Dean never wanted this fae male to leave him. Dean himself would surely never leave him.

He was in Celnene.

This was more than just something he had agreed to to save his brother. This was what he wanted.

Great Ilvasar, and Neia, and Jhana above, this was what he was sure he had always wanted, whether he’d known it or not.

Castiel claimed him, and in turn, Dean claimed Castiel.

Somehow, when the act was over, Dean could feel a part of Castiel’s consciousness in him, mixing with his own. He was lying down, groaning, tired and aching all over. Castiel was up against him, bare skin nearly burning everywhere they touched.

“So that’s how—” Dean began to ask.

Castiel kissed the back of his head. “Yes, which is one of the reasons we tend to not interact with humans. The child you will birth for me will be more powerful than even myself.”

Dean twisted his head back to look at him, the soft furs of the bed caressing his skin as he did so. When had they gotten to the bed?

“Then why? Why agree to this?”

“You agreed first.”

Dean grinned at him. “Trying to win against you is folly, I assume?”

“I think you would find trying to do so a most unfortunate plight. Now, sleep.”

At his words, the tiredness and exhaustion Dean had been feeling since the completion of their coupling simmered to the surface.

“Sleep,” Castiel murmured, holding Dean close. He kissed the back of his head once more, and began to caress him, touch gentle against his chest. “Sleep.”

Dean began to let that comforting darkness take him, knowing in his heart that his brother was saved, and that he was where he was supposed to be. Not only in Taivakel, or in this realm. With Castiel. His own little slice of Celnene.

With memories of meeting Castiel in his childhood dragging him down to sleep, warmth enveloped him. So this was where Dean’s life had been leading him.

Now, all he could do was wait, and birth his firstborn—the babe that would become Castiel’s.

In sealing this bargain, even Dean had become Castiel’s.

What Castiel didn’t know yet, was that Dean was going to make him his. A fae highprince all to himself.

Once more, Castiel murmured, voice soft in his ear, “Sleep.”

#spn #destiel #supernatural #fanfiction #destiel fanfiction #fantasy!au #fae!castiel #slightly nsft #spn fanfiction #supernatural fanfiction #writing #my writing

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hands of Hydra uses it to build a giant robot called ultimo but the manager show up at least those are leftand defeated now were getting into the Netflix world for a while first off Jessica Jones gets new job from Joy Meacham the sister of one Meacham was running red Enterprises will be manipulate it by’s dad was being controlled by the hand I give it a second to sink in again anyway she is Jessica to investigate the people around so she can blackmail them later if need be also Wilson Fisk is stilland by his he I mean jail because he such a big crime boss he start making connections there that Frank Castle has finally gotten all the resources he needs to kill the gangs he thinks were solely responsible for his family’s murder so starts going around doing that in the most brutal way possible starting with the Irish Mafiaand a gang called the dogs of hell is all happening in or near Hells kitchenand that Murdoch starts noticing the stuff so he starts investigating eventually as daredevil in a newand improved suit by the way he comes face to face of the punisher which ends with a bullet to the face that is seriously injured but survives fighting keep fighting that the vigilante stuff while Cassidy is going around the city killing pedophiles in such an entry castle manages to kidnap daredevil Jenny into a chimney where they learn about each other’s pastsand ideologies Castle takes a gun to daredevil’s hand pulse of the criminaland hasn’t had to shoot the criminal or he’s can do it because castle things killing your enemies is the way to go hello I thought a lot of the people daredevil Scott daredevil to try to kill anyway daredevil breaks outand has to fight through some angry bikers Castle unleashes on them later on Frank it’s kidnap by the Irish who brutally tortured him but eventually he gets out with their troubles help explain the situationand himand daredevil cool now but that is arrested that the craziness is now over but nope just now Electra shows up his old girlfriend then ninjaand potentially secret weapon for the handand she’s like a let’s find together because I see her doing that nowand so they do if I think he was a mainly with franking space to Karen what happened to his familyand the bondand become best is so daredeviland Electra are going around fighting the accuserand ultimately come across this giant pit the hand is digging in order to get Dragon bonesand to become immortal that still going on their tax by handand just until state shows up to save the day meanwhile on the lower side of things the punisher trial happensand during that Frank saw like an Angus into jail where he meets Wilson Fisk Fisk is like Frank nothings working everything but my biggest rival this person helped kill your family soand Frank Sykes say no more so he takes a that guy that this double crossesand try seven killed by Frank is just too good for that so Fisk lets them goand Frank tells Fisk to kill him when if he sees them again Frank it’s a geland mean wild animals like snow but again then ninja he thought he go before was brought back by the hand also their little kids being drained of their blood also for resurrection purposes through similar shenanigans the punisher keeps going around killing guys involved with his family’s murderand I will still have conflicting ideologiesand punish ends up killing an old Marine buddy of his Electra stick have a falling outand cystic trust tablets are killedand she didn’t like that so she tries to kill him will saves the dayand sticks kidnapped by the hand so Matt goesand save steak but while he’s doing that nobody reveals that Electra is a black skyand should be leading the hand she almost does but ends up joining their double insteadand the five images together real lasted I’m on right there after a hostage situationand Electra go up against like an infinite supply of hingesand Electra ends up sacrificing yourself for daredevil the punisher also shows up at the last minute to get daredeviland assist which is a pretty awesome moment not to lie no booze killed for real this time by stickand the good guys win except the hand takes Electra’s bodyand uses their Dragon magic to bring her back to life so she can work for them one of the five leaders of the hand the main one Alexandra comes to oversee her resurrection fog equatesand hours for Hogarth from Jessica Jones reveals he’s daredevil to Karenand the punisher goes off to kill everyone was involved with his family’s murder micro also wants answers about the whole Cerberus thing as a goes into Frank’s houseand puts the disk there with the video on it Castle’s unit in Afghanistan tortureand killing that innocent guy which Frank findsand takes with them tiny little break from the granite stuff here a witch just straight up which shows up in Londonand steals a magical artifact called the dark scepter however long case aliasand more masters of the Mystic arts show upand stop her a reminder that there’s magic in this world back to the streets now the gauge is now working at Pops barbershopand I know people disagree on what years these Netflix shows in particular take placeand they are confusing but based on the research I did this seems to check out anyway Luke also works of the barand one evening because he such a player he starts floating with detective Misty Knight the club Lucas working is also my cottonmouth now is a big shot crime boss’s cousin Mariah is a City Councilmanand is also pretty shady just more low key than enough strike is a hammer check from Justin Hammer for some good money but the operation goes wrong look secret half brother Willa striker is also involved here at the highest level is a big criminal now is now called diamondbackand is cottonmouth’s boss basicallyand so he sends in his body shades to make sure everything is running smoothly godmother still cool because these be friends back in the day but because the guy because the deal to go wrong is involved with pop one of cotton’s goons goes against disordersand shoots at the barbershop killing pop through this link in contrast to fightingand looks all like I really care for but not my radar so stop doing illegal stuffand calmness like know so we can start messing up his operation Luke also teams up with Claire Temple daredevil hotel buffet crimeand start a romance energy gets his hands on some bullets I can actually penetrate Luke’s impenetrable scan forand use them thoughand up having an argumentand so she murders him with a mic standand because the new big crime boss with shades help diamondback decides to team up with their setting out a plan to run the crime will do Harlem well Mariah does all the boring political stuff diamondback also shoots a cage twice with those magic bulletsand reveals that he’s actually his brother Claire takes her to the doctor who originated the experiment on themand they send an asset or boiling water something painfuland basically he’s restored to full strength while diamondbackand Mariah are running like a spear campaign against the cage to turn the people filed against them they do this through politicsand super shock loves Lucas backand FaceTime back in the police eventually diamondback shows up in a terrible super suitand even the punch each other for a bit is the end against diamondback partly with helping New York Spiderman style despite all his heroicsand proving himself a good guide to the policeand the people Harlem Lucasand back to prison because been discovered as Carl Lucas back in the day with your call despite being innocent broke out of prisonand so still needs to service time however one of Luke’s barbershop friends is a file that proves his innocence so he’s getting out soon also diamondback is taking them but I doctor who did this experienceand Luke so he’ll probably have some modifications the next time we see them there is a little bummed out that Luke is in jailand that they can’t get a cup of coffee for a while but she keeps itself occupied by starting martial arts training with help from Colleen way that martial artist to statically buy land but doesn’t really know that the hand is evil a bunch of little stuff happens here now firstly that kid who Iron Man said a while back Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider which gives in special abilities like superstrength the ability to climb the wallsand having a dead uncle because he’s a genius kid he also designs web shooters that shoot superstrong webs also because he’s a good kid he realizes if you help people using his new powers he’s responsible for one bad stuff happens so he designs a pajama looking costume takes a living Spidermanand starts fighting little crimes in Queens now over with the Masters of the Mystic arts page 1and Margot find a group called the Dragon Raiders just FYI also falcon is still pretty impressed by thatand I guys a while back I think she could be a valuable asset to the team so he finds a way to contact with them through Luis about potentially joining the avengers Scots like well I cannot stay with my daughter right now but if you really need me yes give me a call we had about the shield team in a while but they’re still doing stuff around these husband Andrew turned into an inhuman call mile he did that is now a giant monster whose sole purpose really is to hunt other humans with humans popping up around the world now shields main mission objective is protecting in humansand training them is made harder because the government treats a group called the ATC you which is designed to track down superpowered people like humansand take them then basically they’re designed to replace yield now that shield has had to go underground in the ATC you is this guy called Malik once again is a big secret Hydra guy said he thought we were done with Hydra you were sorely mistaken the reason this ATC you exists is so Hydra can get a hold of all these in humansand use them you guessed it to make a super soldier army is not getting that seriously 99 of Hydra’s plans so shield in the ATC are fighting for to try to get Simmons off at alien planet which eventually doesand what is still working on rebuilding Hydra I guess Marilyn Stucker’s weightless cool son Werner to join him in a nutshell the main thing is shield us to start up a team of humans the inhuman hunting monster is out there going after them thing of lash is like a less strong or cool version of the book he changes in this monster at different times Olson is asking pretty close to one of the higher ups at the ATC you who isn’t actually evil but then worksheets are in the throat cycles is like I just have to crush discussed just Hydra also wants to get to the matter because they want to bring Benjamin back because they think will be a big secret weapon for them so word fits in Colson end up on an alien planetand cousins like mandatory wordand he crushes Ward’s chest with his robot handand then goes back to think that’s the end of Ward but then the superpowerful clinical human eye possesses corpseand then makes its way back to earth I was now leading Hydra through Ward’s bodyand he’s observing people for strengthand you know typical evil villain stuff so that any rent is still in and now going to basket CCI festand that’s what the iron fist does ever he starts missing homeand gets bored because he’s kind of a spoiled brat so just ramp runs away when the pass is open his eyes to go back to New York to take packs company because that’s I think it works because he’s also kind of a thundering dumbass doesn’t work focuses old friends join Ward Meacham if it were just go with it think is a crazy homeless person understandably wards think that that Harold is still kind of running the company while being controlled by the hand which he started to get kinda sick of becomes friends with Colleen at the dojo he also meets Claire Temple bananas put in a mental hospital he breaks out there with the power of the iron fist stocking 30 with Colleenand Bruce’s friends that it actually is an is coming back with the help of Jerry Hogarth he kinda sucks a business though because he’s been living among city in another dimension for the past decade ends of meeting Harold whose IK we should work together can sometimes take a controlling me so you can go kill themand I like gathers the main purpose in life I had to hand them gal the hand is still selling heroinand Denny’s unhappy about that science of beating herand agreeing to a series of challenges the loser has to pack upand get out of the city anyways but Manga breaks the promise but she’s got ancient society superpowers so there’s not much you can do about it Danny keeps consistently sucking a ring’s company so he’s married now by the board along with the Meacham’s words also super pissed at is that Harold is he took all of his money so he tells Harold bio comes back thanks to the hand Danny Colleenand Claire go to Chinaand take them gal realizes that Ward killed him so he frames them for drug possessionand so Ward gets locked up in the asylum Harold of its joy to be his new number two Danny also made potato Colleen so teacher was also secretly when the 5 m of the handand find out about thisand is in the fan now this guy called divers who isn’t that Dallas is days old friend from and he shows up to help Dannyand Colleen Joyce into saying that the hand probably his neck in the end after helping Dallas is like take the path to come on is open right nowand you’re supposed regarding it what the hell manand I was like well you know is boringand decides to team up with Haroldand joy to take on handand the Kudo but the kudos now working with wordand long story short is defeated but runs away Dallas is not a Danny but they work it out kind of data gets frame for drug stuffand goes in the runand Harold is the bag on the endand tries to take over the company Danny Lord in the big final battle team up kill Haroldand burn his corpse so he will come back to life now Ward is running the companyand Dallas teams of joyand maybe not out to kill Danny down the lineand then sends a team led by lecture to come on which again has no iron fist protecting it they kill a bunch of the monks there it’s pretty brutal the entrance is then close for safety so no one knows when it’ll open up again because back to check out the passand find the city is goneand some abilityand he realizes he probably should state to protect it also Luke Cage sends Claire letter from prison because there still thing overand cover Taj at this point Casillas is starting to get kinda pissed with Angel on it if you like his training isn’t getting him what he wants to start having some friction with most the Masters there also finds out that the angel on his drawing power from the dark dimension which he thinks is pretty have a critical because he must use the dark dimension to see his dead family againand to gain immortality but the angeland told him no because a bunch of people that the ancient one is withholding informationand they should bring tomato from the dark dimension to earth to golf it in eternity forms to rise up against the ancient one they break into the libraryand cover tiesand steal some pages from the ageless book about the dark dimension one tries to stop them but they get away in the end one point Rogers well the shielding goes to Mexicoand meets the human called yo yo who has superspeed who eventually joins the ranksand eventually becomes next girlfriend also Bobby Hunter leave the team because they were so staff spent off but that didn’t happen somewhere venturesand Sue Shield has an inhuman team but highest the inhuman Hydra God takes control of Daisy’s mind because he can do thatand turns against the team just as a vision of the future where one of them diesand other important detail there’s this group called the watchdogs which is basically inhuman racist who are going around killing humans as they plan by the way is to make every human in the worldand in human goes against Dr Ratcliff a scientist who he thinks can help them re create the original Cree experiment that native humans in the first place he realizes he needs actual Cree blood to do it so he sends a signal to the Creed to get some to come downand they do in a fight ensues they’re both taken out but also rendered useless however some Cree blood from daisies used from when she was saved without original Cree corpse long story doesn’t really matter experience go half rate asand it turns peopleand these gross disfigured mindless things meanwhile Scott laying after successfully cross job is still training is at man with Hankand hope that at some point here he upgrade to suitand test out new tech that allows him to become giant he tries it onceand passes out but hey it works Peter is continuing to Spiderman around the city at one point stopping a car crashand getting caught on camera the footage is uploaded to YouTubeand catches the eye of Tony Stark who keeps it in his watch later until he really needs it he’s got bigger stuff to think about right now is right around this point people are starting to take more notice of how much damage the superheroes have actually caused in their superheroand the guy who’s all over this is unsurprisingly general Ross from the days he needs of the presidentand his appointed Secretary of Stateand start talking about how they can keep the stuff moreand check the start of on the ideas for the Segovia cords basically a way of regulating superheroes with more oversight by forcing them to register with the government while this is happening Frank Castle continues his killing spree of people who were involved in this family’s murder going from truck murder to sniper murder to the bathroom murder is getting what he thinks is all them in a decides to move all of his life is the whole point the punisher was to avenge his family so that’s done now or so he thinks also after lectures not has stopping daredevil for a few months now because he’s just too sad things are not bad though foggy Nelson get some helpand I got in the barbershopand clears the cages nameand Lucas at a prison loop is up with Claireand they get that coffee they’d wanted Jessica Jones comes across lecture during one of her cases is still doing whatever the hand once rememberand objective Dragon bones under New York immortality the only problem is those Dragon bones are essential foundations for the city so the removal of them is causing serious earthquakesand could eventually to the whole city collapsing is also hiring a bunch of Harlem kids to help them kill and or clean up the mess is left behind by their enemies cages about this news like I got to protect the people of Harlemand Danny Randy is about this is like I gotta take a hand saw this lease to them crossing pathsand having a bit of a fight every day become friends because of their mutual friend Claire through fortuitous circumstances Jessica’s tracking guy connected to the handand that Murdoch ends up being her lawyerand also gets interested in the case so all four of them end up at the hands buildingand start fighting their ninjas electro sent into daredevil surprise but doesn’t remember him remind you of anyone but they all managed to get out of thereand go hide out in a Chinese restaurant where the become more acquainted state gets kidnapped by the hand but gets out of there by cutting off his own hand get itand goes to talk to the team Alexandraand had followed to see Alexandraand the hand is a whole knee iron fist alive because his iron fist is the key to open the gate to the sweet sweet Dragon bones if I happens electro starts remember who she isand that offenders get their hands on one of the hands main leaders also have their superhero team name is the defenders this guy is not of much help thoughand so stick to set off is not happy about this because they’re running out of there immortality juice the defender starting though because they’re like if the hand need you Danny we should probably had your wayand then he does what he does bestand is a whiny baby so they’ll punch him for a whileand then time however stickand typical stick fashion thinks that he might in the world so I’m getting kill him but lecture shows upand kill stickand tasty on fist to the hand she also kills Alexandra as she wants to be in charge I guess Jessica Jones find out more about that whole get it will found a while back with hands digging for Dragon bones after Lilith over the police that offenders minus Danny fight the hand plus the got Colleen to help Danny accidentally opens the gates of the Dragon bones because of course he doesand other defenders are fighting to hand in a lecture while also trying to block building so the hand can destroy New York the kudos guild Misty Knight loses an armand the offenders whenand get out of there butback to talk to Bucky I mean Electra yesterday heard the building collapses on the master kissingand that he saved by some nuns think look that they savedand that doesn’t actually die thank God it’s time to introduce another very important character very late in the game a Stephen strange is an amazing surgeon but he’s also super arrogantand kind of addict’s ex girlfriend also works with him called Rachel McAdams one day he’s drivingand textingand he crashes his car crushing his amazing surgeon hands in his life because he can’t be an awesome surgeon anymoreand he somehow even more awful to sex than usual really his life is just falling apart he starts to find ways to heal himself however ridiculous eventually he comes across Jonathan born the guy who trained with the ancient oneand was cured so strange has two Taj is there more to one of the masters takes into the ancient one because of all the crazy ultra dimensions there are at least the trip used ones he’s like help me learnand she’s like no your grossand sad in a terrible person but he pleadsand stays her door so she reluctantly changes her mind so strange that’s learning how to control the Mystic artsand other dimensionsand make hologram shieldsand whatnot with the help of Moto the ancient oneand the bookkeeper Wong who he befriends is about the different symptomsand how they protect worldand trains for several months along the way he also stumbles upon the times done sitting in a handy necklace the INI tomato figures out how to been time with it more unwanted like you don’t do that you could get stuck in a time loop anyway at one point you stuck to Mount Everest restraining just while all this other stuff is happening remember Stephen strange is getting great a magic this whole time so U ventures all trained upand going on missions also still looking for Bucky the next hydrogen in Lagosand think it might finally be Bucky but as they get there they realize it’s actually Brock Romo crossbones who understoodand is planning on suicide lineup himselfand Capt. From the capital nation to be only the abandoned government found wanting to you is down for lack of probably racial stories are for slavery would like we enjoyed helping our countries pushed the right from overcorrection Levi Roberts reports be noticeable degree for nearly a century was to story one of America’s years and will grow as he never heard her needs needs degree beating my hair as See Other related products: God Made Scots A Wee Bit Better T-Shirt

#God #Made #Scots #A #Wee #Bit #Better #T-Shirt

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kushalverma84 · 5 years ago

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FEATURES YOU MUST HAVE IN YOUR POS SYSTEM

To run a retail store operation demands a range of administrative, management, and marketing skills. From making sure that there is enough stock to put together monthly sales reports, these skills are necessary for ensuring the smooth operation. This can only be achieved with help of an efficient POS system or point of sale system.

The POS system is the central component of your retail store. It is the place where a customer makes the payment for the goods and services they bought from your store. Retail POS software is very popular among retailers as they help to save their time and run the functions smoothly. After shopping when you bring the products to the counter and the shopkeeper or the worker scan your goods for Barcode and know the exact pricing and quantity of the product. They are using the POS billing software and because of the help of this software, they can calculate all the pricing including recent discounts.

Store owners have already arranged the POS system software according to the store requirements and they upgrade it on a timely basis. Some retailers don't understand the value of POS software, they use free POS software download for their store. It is not a "one fits all" situation. A retail store owner needs retail POS software whereas a restaurant owner needs the specific restaurant POS software because of the different functions of both trades.

This is why one must choose the POS system that is good enough to deal with certain specifications of different retail businesses. There are several POS system software available, you can choose one wisely according to their features. Marg Compusoft is the most preferable POS software in India because of its many features that meet the needs of almost all the sectors.

15 Must-Have Features of Marg POS System

Marg Compusoft is offering 15 features in their Point of sale (POS) systems all around the world. It is the best retail POS software in India because of its wide range of applications and compatibility among the retail industry. Let us discuss the main feature they provide in their POS billing software such as:-

1. Touch billing with POS system

Just like our touch smartphones, Marg has the touch screen POS billing system. Direct access to all the operation modes from the main dashboard. It provides the flexibility to choose the order with pictorial representation of items. Such smart POS software is easy to handle. It keeps your arm free to handle the goods and other stuff and keeps the system updated so that anyone can use them without doing all the calculations in their mind. They are a real time saver. These systems are much faster and help to run the store smoothly during peak hours.

2. Item/customer Photo Printing

It is a very helpful feature in POS software. It provides easy access to the pop-up groups and their items with their photos in the desired sequence. You cannot just add items in your POS system but you can also add photos for a better understanding of products. If there is any confusion in the name of the products or they are similar the display of item will give clarity.

3. Inventory Management

As important the services are, you also need to confirm that you have all the items in your inventory you advertised in accordance to meet the demand of the product. Managing stocks, order fulfillment from vendors and transfer of items between one store to another with help of just one system has made the work easier. In short, it helps manage inventory levels, set reorder points to replenish stock, and save your losses due to expiry.

4. Barcode and Fast Billing

This POS software generates barcodes for the easy distribution of items and provides the necessary detail of one product on all the stores which makes the whole operation smart and easy. Unmatched billing speed by Barcode scanning and defining shortcuts using intelligent search options like category, brand name, etc.

5. Multimode Payment Mode

Retail POS software accepts payments through multiple modes. This helps the customer to settle their bill via cheque, cash, Debit/credit card, Wallets, etc. Customers can split their bills in multiple ways if one mode doesn't have enough money. A store that only accepts cash as the payment mode loses a large number of customers because of this. Most of the people are using plastic money or digital money, which makes it an essential part of our daily lives. This is why it is a very important feature for POS software in India as consumers use several modes of payment under one roof to make the transaction easy.

6. Cashier & Home Delivery

Marg POS billing software can manage the cash automatically. It has the cash drawer attached to it that only opens on saving every bill, which is a very safe way to control theft and robbery issues. Workers can move freely without worrying about the cash box leaving alone. POS software has the data of every consumer save in the systems like name, contact number, and address details. This way retail stores can offer safe home delivery services to their regular customers and expect more business from them.

7. Import Purchase (Online/Offline)

With the help of the Marg POS system, you can import any purchase receipt or file from any excel or CSV format. Now you don't have to go down to all the account books to look for one particular purchase document. This system has made the work of retailers more smart and efficient. Every receipt and invoice is available on the fingertips of retailers. Modern POS systems are more energy and time-saving.

8. Scrap Management

Now you don't have to maintain a different register to keep the records of expiry goods and services. POS system software helps to keep the track of expired and near expiry products sitting at your shelves. Which can help you to minimize your losses and you can return the products to the supplier before it expires. Most of the retail stores face this problem and a good POS system can alert you and you can save your precious time and money.

9. Points Management

Points management enables the business owners to easily manage the points for their respective customers which will result in an expansion in the business. Sometimes store owners have monthly discount schemes running for their regular customers. It enhances the sale and profit of the store. They allot points to their regular customers based on their shopping list and at the end of the month, they reward the selected customer and give them some kind of gift and discount.

10. Cloud Backup

POS software saves and upload their data online and directly store it in Google Drive/ One Drive. Retailers can access the data from anywhere and restore the backup as per the requirement. Anyone who has access to POS software can easily find the data they were looking for. You can easily get access to old files and can compare the profit and loss of different years. It also contains the data of your customers which will help you to run seasonally contest and attract new customers.

11. SMS/email (Schedule)

Marg POS software can easily schedule and send auto SMS and email regarding outstanding, reminders, schemes, etc. To customers. They can also give them information about the on-season sale and new trends you have available on your store.

12. Auto Bank Reconciliation

POS billing software has the auto-bank reconciliation with 140 plus banks. It can help you to do the payment in real-time, advanced payment options can be scheduled. POS system enables you to make the automatic ledger entry and more.

13. Business Analysis Reports

With the help of POS software, you can stay on top of managing your finances with powerful 1000 of sales, purchase, inventory, and accounting reports. It will not even take much of your time and keep the accounts update all the time.

14. Own Website

In today's world, it is time to go digital and change the way of doing business. Marg POS system will allow users to create personalized websites with top item promotion. You can create more orders and collect payments all over the world.

15. GST Billing & E-way Bill

It can help to push transactions into the GSTN portal in excel, JSON, or CSV format and file GST returns directly. You can generate E-way bills after being registered on the GST portal

#POS Software #POS Billing Software

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cryptosharks1 · 5 years ago

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Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Finance & Global News – March 22nd 2020

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Hi guys. Thanks for tuning in to tell episode of nuggets news. Well another truly amazing week we’ve got so much macro news and crypto news to get through. A lot of that is intertwined these days so I do encourage you to watch the full video. We welcome a couple of thousand new subscribers. Thanks so much for following us we’re trying to give you the most up to date information we’ve got literally thousands of people contacting us through all our channels wanting to know how to learn about gold and silver Bitcoin crypto currency what is going on in the economy. So we’ve got all these free resources on our Web site guys. So said friends and family they’re all your favorite videos. This video we encourage you to share all that content. That’s why we’ve been busy making it all for you for the past few years for these types of situations particularly a big thank you to our members like all businesses we are relying on you for our revenue and I employ 13 people now and I know I need that money coming in to keep them employed to keep giving you guys the best content. So huge thank you. 58 new members in our premium area read that welcome post guys stick by the rules it’s all functioning really well for the most up to date information you know to the minute type updates from everything around the world and I can’t thank you guys enough for the way that’s all running at the moment. Let’s get into the local news first where Prime Minister Scott Morrison has just gone live. He’s unveiled a far bigger stimulus package. I’m all for anything that gets money in the hands of people that are losing their jobs. We just need to make sure that people can get by. And I know a lot of people are still saying he says well you know how do I keep my business going and this time the other big guys. The reality is businesses are going to close. It’s going to be bad. This is what I’ve been talking about. A lot of people have never had a rainy day and we need to acknowledge that you know let’s support people. Let’s make sure there’s food on the table. They don’t have to pay their rent their mortgage their power bills. We need to just you know do everything we can to get by until this all passes and it will pass so I’m not getting into all the details of that package. We’re going to go through all the different countries and what they’ve done so I’ll let you guys read the details of those specifics but I certainly think there’s been no mistruths pushed by the media. So look at these stats again from today from Core Logic and all the real estate industry telling us that house prices are still going up by the day. I mean who on earth believes this stuff and we know that it’s all connected particularly in Australia where we need to protect house prices from going down. That’s very hard to do when people start losing their jobs and have a lot of investment properties because it’s all connected now. Our banks the most exposed in the world in terms of their mortgage books. So yes the government are going to do everything they can to rescue the banks. We’ve seen all these excuses around the world now encouraging people not to take out cash or you know telling you the reasons why you can’t even spend your own cash. So look these things are to be expected. If you’ve been following the channel we’ve been saying this is going to happen and it’s just happened probably faster than we thought because of these recent catalysts. So earlier this week a lot of super funds including Australia’s largest Super Fund sent out emails to clients basically saying you know markets go up and down you have to really ask yourself if it’s if it’s a work taking these unnecessary risks and trading your super assets. So a bit of a typo there that tells you that that was rushed and panicked and telling people not to sell. Markets are since down another 15 per cent and I know a lot of people with their super fund are hurting at the moment. I certainly feel for you guys the RBA coming out and they’re going to have to print this money and buy our bonds. The next step is obviously corporate bonds and then stocks you know mortgage backed securities in other countries. It is just insane the level of stimulus that we’re seeing at the moment. And obviously bitcoin and go to the two things they can’t print. We’ll get to that in just a second but all this leads to the collapse of the Aussie dollar down to 55 cents you can’t quite see that behind me there sorry. That’s. This is one of the side effects of our economy that I’ve been warning about since we made our documentary over a year ago. And this pushes up yields. So when the government is now issuing debt because governments are going to run up huge huge debts and they’re issuing these bonds trying to get people to give them money but people aren’t going to give them money when they know the economy’s in trouble and this is when interest rates rise and that’s when central banks might be forced to raise interest rates. And that is just the nightmare scenario having to raise interest rates. Well everyone’s got all this debt. This situation is really messy and that’s why everyone is looking to escape into these perceived safe haven. So look good timing over in Italy where some of those banks are opening up bitcoin trading. One point two million you’re in lockdown. So these are the options the on ramps that we’ve been talking about that are now really global for people to escape the crumbling financial system. I did a detailed video on that all the different options you have to get into US dollars gold silver Bitcoin stable coins the counterparty risks of each of those so watch that video share it with friends and family if you haven’t already. FCX have got two gold stable coins a T and Pax G is the other one over there and they’ve also recently added Aussie dollars as an on ramp so you can connect your bank account and it’s a very quick way to get into US dollars or stable coins and then you can withdraw those and keep them on your hobby wallet or your ledger as well as other tutorials I’ve done recently on how to hedge if you’ve got your gold and silver holdings or bitcoin holdings as well there’s ways to hedge with the other products. All right. So what are you that managing your own money. Very happy right about now and we’re hearing all these stories about super funds and the delays. We’ve had a record amount of people start to manage their own so finding super funds so I’m gonna get Mike on this week because there’s a lot of questions now about can we withdraw from our super fund another thing that the government announced today. So hopefully we can address all those questions really clearly. One thing I will mention with that announcement from the government is that if people are withdrawing that ten thousand dollars or more from their super you remember the stock market is down it’s probably gonna keep going down. So all that money that you’re drawing now could be more down the road. Now some people don’t believe we’re going to have retirement funds in decades from now but that can start more of a ceiling because traders and investors are going to say Well everyone’s going to be selling to take many of their super. I’m going to front run that selling. And so that can I just think it’s coming together. There’s nothing that is going to make markets go higher anytime soon until this all passes. So that’s the financial side of things in terms of the health care side of things. I thought our government were going to announce more measures on Friday. They’ve come out again today and extended things encouraging people not to do non-essential travel. But it’s still not really enforcing any of this. It’s up to you as the individual just like no one’s going to save you from the world of finance. No one’s going to make you healthy and no one is going to protect you and look after you guys you have to take that responsibility yourself and a lot of you guys know that you’ve been following the channel you prepared for everything that’s happening now. So yes schools still aren’t closed. There’s talk as I’m recording of New South Wales and Victoria looking to implement that in the next 48 hours as soon as one state does it they’re probably all going to follow. But yeah I’m certainly surprised I’m giving everything that’s happening firstly on Friday. It was one cruise ship. Now it’s five separate cruises that have all had confirmed cases those people are scattered throughout Australia. We haven’t really seen that spike yet but if this doesn’t scale nothing will. This is a beach on easily 12 days ago. This is absolutely reminiscent of what we’re seeing in Australia down here in Tassie. I spoke to friends. They went for a walk this morning. All the restaurants are packed all the bars are packed. No one is taking this seriously yet and no one is taking it seriously. In Italy twelve days ago just have a look at where they are now. These excuses that we’re hearing it’s only all people 54 percent of New York City’s cases are between 18 and 49 year olds. So it is not just affecting all people at all. We’ve now got cases of babies as young as seven months old and and children that are getting this so please guys you have to realize the severity of what’s going on at the moment. I’ll just press refresh here. There’s a couple of Web sites giving us up to date information on the Australian statistics. But this is just growing continually. You know 20 percent a day exponentially we haven’t even slowed it yet mathematically we are still on track to you know to hit the number that is going to overwhelm our hospitals unless we slow this down. So we’re not quite as bad as Italy and Iran. We’re somewhere in the middle here. We are certainly not down here near Singapore and we’re not flattening the curve like the government is is telling us that they you know they’re really happy with the job they’ve done so look a couple of positives here. Kofi to help dot com today you. This is a website built by one of our friends. It lists all the freebies and the help how you can help other people charities check that out in the time of need we’ve got to come together and help each other globally. Let’s just refresh that. Three hundred eight thousand now at time of recording the deaths ratio has actually gone up a little bit recently. Again we don’t know how accurate this is in terms of total that are going undiagnosed and not tested recovery takes a little bit longer. Two or three weeks you’re in hospital in a lot of cases. So we get the deaths before we get the recoveries. That’s all to go through the system but the wiring thing here is that even on the exponential scale we’re now accelerating higher again in across Europe across Australia across the US. All right let’s go to China another 50 percent plunge after 44 percent last month. So these auto sales a lot of industries are down 90 percent. There’s talk that China’s factories and people going back to work. Now we don’t know if they just try to push out those stats or if that is the truth. I certainly don’t believe the numbers we’ve seen some photos from hospitals with new cases in China. So they’re saying I’ve got zero new cases I’m not sure if I believe that Secretary I’m a nutrition. Now the same guy who said that cash is not used for money laundering now says that won’t cause a recession in the US so I’m not sure what he’s looking at. But if you have a look at some of these State of the restaurant industry statistics Australia hasn’t been hard hit yet because we’re a week or two behind the rest of the world. But globally restaurants are down 98 percent Canada is down 100 percent. The friends that I talk to that own restaurants and businesses having to fire staff this week there’s just no nice way to put it guys this is the reality we face where we have to lock down and if we do that for a month that gives us the greatest chance to pull through the other side. Five hundred thousand jobless claims in Canada. I certainly think some of these estimates about unemployment and GDP are going to be around 10 per cent loss. And this is kind of the slack that governments are gradually picking up in terms of the stimulus that they’re putting out. Trump looking to give every American a thousand dollars. We’ve now got similar things in all the different countries. Yeah. I think you have to do it. Some people get to complain about government debt. That’s another issue altogether. They were already running huge deficits but we’ve got to make sure that people have food on the table in the US. Some of my friends are telling me that the swearing over there about how the system is you know treating different patients with different health care and insurance and some of the backlogs for just getting those admissions and claims and whatnot it’s another headache altogether. So if you know more about that let me know down in the comments below about how that’s going to work once those U.S. hospitals start to get busy and people losing their jobs. New Jersey the latest one to shut down. I think the total is now around 100 million in terms of Americans that are in lockdown. National Guards deployed because people aren’t taking it seriously. Similar over to the UK in Europe now where British police are giving people powers to detain suspected cases of people that quarantine themselves. And this is where the totalitarian invasion of privacy is beginning now. There’s all sorts of conspiracy theories going around but the big tech giants being asked to hand over all that data once they do that there’s no going back. I guess that’s what what worries me. So yeah they’re asking the big tech giants to hand over all these tracking data so they know where you are every time even if you turn your location data off and your phone off. Edward Snowden has told us that you know these new smartphones. That’s why you can’t take the battery out because they’re always triangulating your signal to the different cell towers. Now tying that together with how you can maintain your privacy with a VPN a P2P VPN office offering free services so it’s lovely to see all these communities looking out for each other. In this time of need so orchard this is actually a cool little project that I’m going to talk about more in future. Great stuff there at the brave browser. If you don’t use these already to block all the ads and to block all the data it’s free to use download brave browser but are they really taking on the big tech giants with all these privacy issues at the moment. Bank of England have canceled all their stress tests. Look all these stress tests don’t plan for these sort of situations so you know it’s all a bit of a walk in the park and they take these boxes and tell the public how strong the banks are. Well look look at them now they’re all getting bailed out. You know a week into a bear market Britain 2000 sorry. Twenty five thousand dollars to the local businesses there AC base got out their bazooka in terms of QE and other stimulus. The stock market has hit record highs in the VIX closing at 82. So that’s perceived volatility from the stock market. They’re saying that markets could currently what they’re pricing in is that it could go 82 percent lower. Now that rarely actually eventuates but that’s just the level of fee at the moment in the S&P 500 in the volatility index. The Lehman playbook continues So the Fed have unveiled another bailout this time for the money market funds. The Fed is going to have to bail out everyone the engineers of the 2009 bailout say that this has to be bigger than the GFC bailout. These numbers are off the charts. Outflows absolutely everybody is getting out of ETF bond funds. The stock market investment grade bonds people are just running for the exits and trying to go into US dollars. And there’s simply not enough dollars in the world at the moment that’s why the Fed is having to expand their credit and bail out all the different countries including Australia at the moment distressed debt has doubled in the U.S. in two weeks half a trillion dollars now. So this is that spike that they’re talking about the interview with Marika to star will be out this week. He’s the commodities expert and a lot of these junk bonds that have been issued by the U.S. oil frack is shale producers. They can’t pay that. They don’t have any revenue and positive cash flow they’re going to default on all this debt and that can stop the next wave down in the stock market. So Boeing is just one example of a company that repurchased over 100 billion dollars in stock and now they’ve had their debt downgraded to sorry 4.5 trillion dollars worth of buybacks have occurred. And this is what’s pushed up stock prices and now all these U.S. execs are demanding that taxpayer funded bailouts of shareholders after they’ve spent all that money buying back shares and making themselves rich. The Fed extending its currency exchange program to all those central banks around the world. I just mentioned that confirmed these theories and these rumors that were going around earlier in the week that the Fed are now bailing out hedge funds. Absolutely crazy stuff and a lot of people still completely unaware this is happening. Insiders were dumping their stock. So this is Kelly Loeffler who came out and denied that she said all her investment fund manager. So really stock so the day after they were briefed about how things were how bad things are getting in China and how it was going to affect other countries and come to the U.S. these you know the elites that were in this meeting room dumping millions of dollars of shares in things like hotels and airline companies and whatnot. So wait to see if that goes to criminal charges. But man I mean these people are just so corrupt. So the record number of CEOs left they saw this coming. Two hundred nineteen CEOs left in January after we already had record amounts in the months leading after that. So the reach that are paying themselves a hundred 200 or 300 times the salary of the average worker they’ve got so much money they’ve gone to their private islands or their bunker or whatnot and they’ve got out privatized the profits and then published the public put stumbling my words he guys publicized the losses. So get the government to bail you out. Taxpayers. So so frustrating to watch these happen and I hope this brings about change. You know the bank of Japan have been buying up trillions of dollars worth of yen of stock markets. They own all the ETF. And a lot of shares they own all the government bonds and I’ve lost money doing so. So if this doesn’t bring about radical change in our financial system I just don’t know what does. We need a new system and obviously hopefully a lot of the decentralized world those ledges that cut out people in the middle and bring about transparency and trust was what would get a 10 to couple of positives to finish on the FDA have authorized these new 45 minute rapid point of care tests. We’re getting stories that people of you know in one case people have died waiting for test results to come back. There’s more tests and newer tests being designed in manufactured in Australia. Hopefully these things are still a few weeks away. But look all the smartest minds are out there trying to work on solutions. High hopes for a treatment. We’ve seen some positive results in a few of these other HIV drugs. I spoke about that in yesterday’s video a little bit say look these trials are going to take weeks as well. Anti malaria drugs. There’s a few others that have shown benefits for me. What I recommend you do. I’m going to do a whole whiteboard video about this but it’s just getting your immune system as healthy as you can help. You know he’s eating healthy trying to de stress I know that’s tough at times like these with meditation or going for a walk or just tuning out at nighttime you know you vitamin C.. Personally I love eating you know that the spicy foods getting you chilli garlic Asian food really healthy style diet. Guys get your immune system ready to fight off anything that he catches a lot of jobs are going to come out of this as well as a lot of job losses so people are going to all be wanting to get hired at Amazon Coles and Woolworths are putting on people. I think we tend to see huge demand for extra health care workers. Maybe we can do some fast tracking you know one month basic nursing course. Something like not just all hands on deck society coming together almost like a wartime effort until we until we beat this. For those of you that are wanting to trade this just remind you of how risky and how volatile markets are. But if you do want to short the stock market don’t use any leverage or anything like that. It is possible to still make money but I think for most people now it’s about hedging whether that your currency risk your portfolio your crypto holdings or whatever you want to be hedging and protecting your capital. So we’ve got that hundred dollars free bitcoin sign up for those that are interested in trading these guys off of that virtual account. And if all you want to do is practice trading in these sort of conditions you know that is going to be a lifelong skillful when we have that you know the next market cycle whether it’s 10 or 20 years from now. So look even a practice account is good for learning while you’re at home. Let’s get into the crypto news where bonds and with Xerox have announced a 50 million dollar block chain fund in India. These guys are doing great stuff. They’ve got a token that’s been performing extremely well again of late. So once crypto markets turn around I think exchange tokens are ones that are going to do well. Ripple have cemented their Asian presence with more partnerships in Thailand with fintech Company D money their car down in the headlines again. Charles Hoskinson did go live and say this wasn’t a big deal. This was an old partner. Nothing to worry about and it’s not going to affect the launch of their may net which has been months and years in the making now. So hopefully Shelly does come out soon. The Teslas Foundation has settled a lawsuit for 25 million and saying that they’re sick of paying all these legal fees. We know how much lawyers love to charge and in the crypto world we’ve got steam in the community. They’re actually hard for the network and they’re relaunching hive as they’re calling it they’re after everything that’s been going on with Justin sun trying to buy out the network. So great to see a decentralized community coming together there storage decentralized cloud storage is in computing. I’m very bullish on these type of projects. They’re tardy grade upgrades now live. This is a perfect example all the theorem being able to have these censorship resistant file storage so Chinese journalists are sharing reports on a theorem because if they tried to share them on the Internet they can get censored and blocked and shut down. So this is the decentralized World in Action that Micah has had its issues this week. The system didn’t function as it should because the theorem got clogged during that huge sell off. So they had to issue some more make it tokens and that is the way the system was designed to function. That was the emergency backstop those auctions have all finished now. There were plenty of buyers in the make a token and that one has bounced back really well in terms of price after a lot of people were fearful that was the end for the project. With all these issues happening in the world of day at the moment insurance has never been more important. So Delphi digital did a great research piece on all the best insurance projects in the world of five. And um I’ve spoken out nexus meet you had them on the channel open. I’m going to have those guys on as well. Ether risky is another one you can’t see behind me there are some very cool little projects there. So I read that report from Delphi digital. HTC are getting right behind Kibo and a lot of these smartphone companies are really integrating with crypto wallets and what not so great to safety for public awareness. The theory and baseline protocol is now open source on github. So this is the the protocol for building private systems for corporates and businesses to use the fear in public chain while still keeping the data that they need to private. Using this protocol layer on top of the theory in public chain open browser have enabled Apple Pay debit card crypto purchases in the U.S. So as if they didn’t have enough on ramps already it’s more these developing countries which is really the rapid expansion of getting the millions or billions of people into the crypto world that I’m excited about. But Coinbase Coinbase has said that traffic broke records and so huge volumes during the recent market collapse. So these are very similar to the stories that I’ve been hearing. Like I spoke about at the start of this video the website traffic was it was through the roof. We’ve had thousands of people and hundreds by Go Silver and bitcoin for the first time because with everything happening as ro says here Heyman I’ve been talking every day at the moment because it’s kind of you know you need to branch out with so much happening around the world. But in some ways it’s exciting for the bitcoins and the people that have been expecting this and bunkering down living within their means and saving getting into your goals you Silver’s getting out of shares and if you’ve been prepared hopefully there’s a lot of good that can come from from the bad at the moment when people lose their jobs. Hopefully the new system when the dust settle it’s going to create a better job and a better quality of life for a lot of these people. That’s what I hope can come out of all of this. I certainly think that decentralized system is going to play a huge role in all that. So just quickly looking at the charts here. Bitcoin has had a pretty decent bounce this week. We’ve got to be careful that this is just a bear flag when we see a huge sharp sell off like this. But you know my thoughts that that liquidation on Pete makes actually push prices a lot lower than they maybe otherwise would have gone if we didn’t have that cascade where they had to shut the systems down and other exchanges were getting dragged lower. So there’s plenty of healthy buying like gold and silver have not been immune from this either. It’s ridiculous to see the price of silver under 12 dollars when you can’t get physical silver at basically all bullion dealers around the world. So that is going to break in the coming weeks when people actually buy those futures contracts and they demand delivery at the 12 dollar price. So the paper market is going to break and it’s going to come back to the real world price and demand for silver. The same with gold. You’ve got your digital options. I’ve done videos on that guys hang in there. I just can’t explain how bullish I am with the governments and central banks around the world printing trillions of dollars. What this means for these finite currencies that can’t be printed longer term so hang in there. We’re all in this together. Head over to our website to check out our resources. Join up to our community if you want to join the discussion and stay up to date with everything that’s happening. Thank you for supporting the channel more than ever guys place mass that like button subscribe. You haven’t already shown these videos around and I’ll talk to you again soon. Cheers.

The post Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Finance & Global News – March 22nd 2020 appeared first on Cryptosharks.net.

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ariadnelives · 6 years ago

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Chapter 7 -- The Nightmare

[Missed earlier chapters? Go catch up here! Otherwise, welcome back! Oh, and make sure to join our discord server! Chapter can also be found @ ao3]

“I hate this lady so much,” Pilar practically snarled as she adjusted the ship's course. “Was she ever young, do you think?”

“Nah,” Ariadne said from the passenger seat, trying in vain to get a spoon to stick to her nose, “I feel like she's probably been an unpleasant old crone forever.”

“She was probably already on Calisto when they got there and they just built the bio-dome around her stupid rocking chair.”

The Jovian moon Calisto was now within visual range, and the rest of the viewport was filled with yellow and orange swirls. No matter how many operations they ran through the colonial moons, they never quite got used to the scale of a gas giant. Jupiter and Saturn took their breath away every time they looked at them. Something primal and hard-coded into their DNA told them that this was not something they were meant to see, and yet, here they were, a stone's throw from Jupiter.

The ship pulled closer to Calisto and Ariadne abandoned her spoon effort to pull out fake IDs to get into the bio-dome.

They got into the dome without incident, found a small garage to park in, and gave an almost comically large tip to the downtrodden-looking lot attendant.

La Pesadilla's high-rise apartment was at the top of a building whose elevator was constantly broken. While a woman of her means would be able to have it fixed, she liked that it was broken because it meant anyone who wanted to visit her would have to take the stairs.

Ariadne quickly repaired the electromagnets, actually making the elevator much faster than it was before it had broken, and wrote “HA” on the “Out of Order” sign. They were at her door in seconds.

La Pesadilla answered and, like Jupiter, her appearance never ceased to shock Ariadne and Pilar. At a glance, one might guess she was 90 years old. Her skin was eerily reminiscent to a well-worn catcher's mitt both in texture and coloration. Her expression was about as friendly as a large-mouth grouper, and under her tattered bathrobe was an inexplicable t-shirt depicting what appeared to be a zebra wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigar. Whether she wore pants under the bathrobe was up for speculation.

She walked with a cane, even though she did not need one, simply because she liked to jab it at people when speaking.

“You didn't fix my elevator, did you?” she more snarled than said.

“Nope,” Ariadne lied.

“Good, I like it broken,” La Pesadilla grumbled, “makes it harder for people to drop by and ask me favors.”

There was a moment of silence in the hall as Pilar and Ariadne struggled to find the words to respond to this statement.

“Well, come in if you're coming in,” she said, gesturing into the apartment with her cane, “I pay to air condition the inside of the apartment, not the hallway. Every second this door is open is a waste of my money.”

Ariadne and Spacebreather, still at a loss for response, stepped into La Pesadilla's apartment.

The place was decorated like a family-style restaurant, which is to say, the walls were covered with hundreds of curios, oddities, and other units of nonsense which begged the question, “what exactly is the difference between vintage collectibles and old garbage?”

Two other women sat on an overstuffed couch in the corner, their focus divided between small information terminals affixed to the armrests and a holographic table at the center of the room playing an old rerun of Val Deimos, P.I. at an almost obscenely loud volume.

“Balotelli's cheating on his wife again,” said the one on the left, a relaxed-looking black woman of approximately 70 with wraparound sunglasses (worn indoors for reasons that were known only to her) and a blue-and-purple sweater knitted to look like a particularly starry galaxy that Ariadne thought might be subtly swirling and twinkling. “How much do you think he'll pay us to keep it under wraps this time?”

“No dice,” replied the one on the right, a strong-jawed white woman of perhaps 65, wearing a tank top, cargo pants, and combat boots with an iron-gray buzz cut. With one hand, she rapidly tapped on her terminal. With the other, she repeatedly lifted a rather heavy hand weight. She did not seem to break eye contact at any point with the flickering rerun streaming on the surface of the coffee table. “His wife knows. Hired a private dick to tail them last week. Tried to have 'em whacked but lost her nerve at the last second.”

“Do we have the records?” Galaxy-sweater asked.

“I have the contract here,” Tank-top replied.

“We double down. He's up for reelection in May, and I'm sure neither of them wants the scandal breaking in April. Probably pay a pretty penny to keep it under wraps.”

“Sex, betrayal, and intrigue?” Tank-top asked. “This sounds like a pretty valuable story. It'd be a shame if some reporter outbid them for it.”

“Oh my god,” Ariadne cut in, “do you always talk in clichéd banter or is this for our benefit?”

Tank-top stopped her arm curls for half a second and then continued. Galaxy-sweater raised an eyebrow at her.

“Who's this lunchbox?” Galaxy-sweater asked in a derisive way that seemed to be second nature to mean old ladies and made even the most baffling of insults seem to make sense.

“This is that brat I was telling you about,” La Pesadilla growled.

Tank-top did not look away from her television program. “The one who always fixes the elevator?”

“I think so,” La Pesadilla grumbled. She wandered into the kitchen but continued speaking, incrementally increasing the volume of her voice so she could still be heard. “Her name starts with an A, and her wife here is named after … I don't know, some kind of rice dish.”

Pilar pondered this for a moment and resolved to ask Cookie about it later on.

“Shoot, hope that elevator is fixed.” Galaxy-sweater smiled, “I got bad knees and shit to do.”

La Pesadilla returned with two brightly colored plastic cups, filled with a cloudy yellow substance. She practically shoved these into the hands of her guests with a grunt.

“What do… what is…” Ariadne was uncharacteristically at a loss for words. She was barely reaching adulthood herself and she still had very little experience in the department of respecting her elders. She suspected that perhaps sixty percent of the people in the room were not acting as they should, but she was unsure of where she fell in that ratio.

“It's lemonade.” La Pesadilla removed a smallish disc-shaped tin from her bathrobe pocket, pulled out a handful of leaves, jammed them into her cheek, and began chewing them. “You're kids, you drink lemonade. You're in my house, I offer you a drink. The elevator's out of order, you take the fucking stairs instead of trying to fix it. There's rules to this sort of thing.”

“I said I didn't fix your elevator,” Ariadne stammered.

“You always say that.” La Pesadilla rolled her eyes. “What do you want? You're talking through our program.” She gestured at the hologram. The show was popular enough that Pilar had seen this particular episode several times with her parents, and since she had not had parents in approximately a decade, it was a safe bet it was not their first viewing.

“You could always pause it while we conduct our business,” Pilar offered in a tone she hoped would come across as helpful. She took a polite sip of her lemonade, which had no ice and seemed to be little more than powdered mix stirred into room-temperature tap water.

“You could've shown up on the hour, like a normal person, so you don't interrupt the last five minutes of my show.” La Pesadilla slumped into an old, heavily-patched recliner, searched for a small metal jar, and spat the leaves out into it. “So, spit it out.”

Galaxy-sweater let out a small “heh” at her phrasing.

“Why do you come here and bother me again?”

Ariadne finally seemed to find her voice. “We're looking for information.”

“Well, you've come to the right place,” Tank-top grunted, somehow still lifting her weight, “we've got all of it.”

“The Red God cult that's formed on Mars in the last year or so. We need to know everything we can about them.”

“What do we get?” La Pesadilla asked. “I mean, you're asking me to do the opposite of my job here. People pay me to keep their secrets. If I tell you about these guys, I ain't got no leverage on 'em, can't charge 'em for my services, feel? If I'm gonna spill the beans, I gotta know it's worth more than keeping my mouth shut.”

“Cut the crap,” Pilar said simply, “money is no object to us, and I think you'll be pleased with the amount we've deposited in your account as an act of good faith.”

La Pesadilla tapped at her display and raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Well, I'll be damned.”

“You'll get the other half when we have our information,” Pilar said.

La Pesadilla looked at Galaxy-sweater and nodded.

“Think we got something on them.” Galaxy-sweater said, tapping away on her own display. “Yeah, their leader's this fancy scientist turned whacked-out bible nut, calls himself the Zealot.”

“Real original nickname,” Tank-top added.

“Got into some real shady shit.” Galaxy-sweater furrowed her brow at the display. “We got our hands on a few black market ledgers about 20 years back, and the shit he was buying? Banned on just about every rock in the system.”

“Why would someone selling illegal goods on the black market keep a ledger of their customers?” Ariadne wondered out loud. Galaxy-sweater looked at her flatly and gestured vaguely at the blackmail operation they were currently sitting in the middle of. Ariadne took a sip of her lemonade. “I see.”

“You said 20 years ago?” Pilar looked confused. “These guys have only been operating for the past year, year and a half.”

“Nah,” La Pesadilla grunted, “they been around longer'n you kids have been alive. The Red God stuff is new. They used to walk around the moons, door to door, saying that the Earth was a New Sodom that was to be destroyed due to its sin and heresy and that the only way to be sure Jesus would spare the rest of the system was to join their church.”

“Or make a donation,” Tank-top said.

“Course, the day they predicted came and went.” Galaxy-sweater chuckled. “The Earth was still there. Then that happened, oh, five or six more times before everyone stopped giving them the time of day.”

“Buncha idjits,” La Pesadilla mumbled, “Jesus don't need our money, and he's got a whole universe to run. He doesn't go around blowing up planets because some people didn't pray right. All he cares about is if you're a good person. He don't even care if you believe in him if you ask me, just live your life best you can and he won't bother you.”

“Like bees?” Galaxy-sweater asked, smirking.

“Exactly, like bees. You don't bother him, he don't bother you.”

Ariadne thought this moralizing was rich coming from a professional blackmailer, and she couldn't help but think she'd been given the same advice about what to do when you encounter a swarm of bees, but she bit her tongue to avoid starting another tangent.

La Pesadilla took a sip from a nearby mug that seemed to be full of red wine. “Anyway, nobody bought his end-is-nigh crock and, last I heard, he was a pretty sick fucker. He bought a bunch of illegal shit and went underground. Nobody heard from them for a while, and they came back with a new god and a shiny new preacher. Little white girl, 'bout your age.”

Ariadne scowled. “Not even close.”

La Pesadilla matched her scowl. “Kid, if we're talking years, I'm easily five of you. You both got all your original teeth? You're the same age, far as I'm concerned.”

“What exactly did he buy?” Pilar attempted to break the tension. She, at times, was confused by Ariadne's talent for locking horns with grumpy older women, but suspected this was a deeper issue than they had time to unpack at the moment.

Galaxy-sweater looked at her screen. “We got three Cortex brand neural implants. Those things were all the rage back in the 90s, companies used to get them for all the employees so memos would go right to their brain.”

Tank-top laughed slightly. “Yeah, but they got banned pretty quick.”

La Pesadilla took another sip of mug-wine. “Security risk… a lot of bosses got caught snooping in their employee's thoughts. There was one big scandal where a manager tried to increase productivity by planting thoughts in his employees heads while they slept. An entire office working 16-hour shifts and sleeping at their desks because their brain was telling them 'if I stop working I'll die, if I ask for overtime I'll die, if I make a mistake I'll die.'”

“Yikes,” Ariadne concluded. “Go on, what else?”

“Blueprints for immersion pod,” Galaxy-sweater explained, “That's a VR capsule that uses the brain's visualization center as a processor to create realistic simulations of pre-programmed scenarios. Originally designed for video gaming, scrapped because every focus tester who attempted to play a children's shoot-em-up game had to be treated for very real PTSD, and made illegal after the prototypes were found being used as training simulators for a radical Earth-based supremacist paramilitary corps.”

“I'm sensing a theme here,” Pilar chimed in.

“Here's where it gets really interesting,” Galaxy-sweater said, pointing at the screen, “he bought up a bunch of medical equipment. Machines for growing and implanting new organs.”

“Shouldn't need that,” Tank-top piped up, still watching her show but seeming to slow down on the weights. “I know he was sick, but if he needed a transplant he could get one at any hospital and be home for supper.”

“Could've been for implanting the Cortex device,” Ariadne suggested.

“Could be,” La Pesadilla said. “We ain't here to speculate, we just give you the information.”

“Aaaaand,” Galaxy-sweater reached the end of her list, “one Quantum Shift Generator. Weird little devices, designed for the Shop-n-Go corporation. They had this idea for expanding to the colonial moons that they could just build a single store interior which all of their storefronts would lead into, that way they could have a dozen stores in a bio-dome but only pay one set of overworked employees.”

“Wonder why that got banned.” Ariadne smirked.

“If you're thinkin' it's some worker's rights whatever, you're wrong,” La Pesadilla grumbled, pouring herself another mug of wine from a bottle that had been conveniently located next to the mug on the table. “It's because all the exterior doors led to the same interior, but they ain't give you the same courtesy on the way out.”

“What she's trying to say,” Tank-top said, placing her weight on the ground and reaching for a nearby bottle of water, “is that people would attempt to leave the store only to find themselves coming out of the wrong one. You could end up 15 miles across town in the 40 seconds it took you to buy an iced tea and a candy bar.”

“Would've made a great public transit system if there was some way to predict which storefront you'd come out of,” Galaxy-sweater offered.

“That's all we've got,” La Pesadilla said. “Where's the rest of my money?”

“Now, hang on,” Galaxy-sweater said, easing herself off the couch, “these girls paid good money and we have got one more thing. Been meaning to get rid of it anyway.”

She ambled over to a bookshelf, grabbed a small, shabby-looking paperback, ripped the back cover clean off, and handed it to Ariadne. “They dropped this in our mailslot back when they were still pretending to be Christian. Got a picture of the Zealot on the back. Might help.”

La Pesadilla jabbed her cane towards the closed door. “Now, get out of my house and put that money in my account.”

Ariadne and Pilar put down their half-finished lemonades, more than glad to not have to finish drinking them, and walked towards the door. As they exited, they heard La Pesadilla mumble, “and so help me if that elevator is working.” The door closed behind them and they immediately heard it lock.

In the elevator ride down to the first floor, Ariadne looked at the laminated cover she'd been handed. The photograph was of a white man, perhaps in his 40s, with squinting, intense eyes, a full but neatly trimmed gray beard, a straight, pointed nose, and a wide-brimmed black hat.

She felt uneasy and turned the book over. Something about him, something she couldn't quite place but knew very few others would see, hit upsettingly close to home. She didn't look at it again for the rest of the trip back.

#core story

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heinpickett25-blog · 6 years ago

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Waves Coin Wallet

TwitterFacebookGoogle+BufferLinkedIn Surf is a platform which fees itself as �Blockchain for your people� and is designed to let consumers store, trade, manage, and even issue their own electronic digital assets in a new safe and simple fashion. The platform offers benefits to investors, dealers, developers, plus organizations on the whole, each of which be given strengths in different techniques. The Dunes Platform was founded within 2016, by simply Sasha Ivanov, with all the mission of remake entrepreneurship across the entire world via a shared structure. This infrastructure offers resources that are highly functional and simple to use together with that allow just about every particular person and organization access to typically the blockchain. For builders who use Waves, system provides high network throughput capability along with low purchase fees and low latency. Wave allows traders to maintain their assets securely on their native lite client. In the same time frame, they may trade their assets securely and quickly using typically the decentralized exchange that will be built into the platform. Businesses are in a position for you to challenge their own blockchain tokens to help jumpstart his or her organization, whether that is usually via voting, loyalty programs, crowdfunding, or perhaps something otherwise. Waves Platform Wallet in point of the is definitely viewed with the new release of the �Whopper Coin�, a Cryptocurrency issued by simply Burgerking in Russian federation which will uses the Waves platform. Another important element of Waves is his or her own Decentralized Exchange ( DEX ) which will allow people to trade their own tokens?�?including WAVES, BTC and every other assets issued upon the Dunes platform?�?completely trustlessly and without the need to maneuver their funds into a centralized exchange. What Are typically Waves Platform Wallet And Finances? Material [Show] Often the Waves Consumer is a extension to your Google Opera visitor or you will merely visit WavesWallet. io, this acts as this decentralized swap that permits you release tokens and also stores your Mounds tokens. 3Commas A user�s pocket book is a blockchain handle that only of which particular person offers access to and control of, ensuring no one else may obtain these cryptocurrency investments. That wallet can include multiple cryptocurrencies and offers the solid security connected with the Waves podium. You can lease Waves to improve your assets and copy funds between people. By way of leasing your waves balance to one of many surf leasing nodes, a person can successfully generate a good income which is made upward of more Waves bridal party and Miner rewards. We certainly have put together a finish guide to procurment Ocean located here. Mounds Decentralized Exchange The programmers powering Waves created it as a good decentralized exchange, oftentimes abbreviated as DEX, due to the gains of this type regarding exchange. A new DEX make a difference not pose a new control on any withdrawals. As soon as you buy cryptocurrency, that appears with your wallet right away. There is also zero high commission fee; the exchange only charges a very small fixed commission to each order. Safety isn�t a concern with a DEX such as Waves, either, like the money are stored in your pocket instead of in the exchange. There is also no risk of burning off dollars as in a central exchange, but you even so get a high channel ability in addition to centralized matcher to maximize the velocity of deals. There is a brand-new design for the Ocean DEX, made by Etherdesign, that ought to be released very shortly, it will bring a new a lot needed customer screen enhancement to the DEX plus should greatly help this subscriber base in consumption regarding the podium and ought to therefore help the associated with Waves increase. Issuing your own personal Token As mentioned previously, often the Waves platform permits enterprise to issue his or her own tokens for what ever need they also have. By releasing tokens, a small business is equipped to create the inside digital currency via often the blockchain. This way, it can use the blockchain to pay for the particular services and goods within projects or even crowdfunding. Waves Lite Client can get creative having tokens, using them all for discount rates, loyalty packages, or even voting. To help date, 4, 635 bridal party have already also been released with Waves, showcasing the popularity and convenience regarding this feature. Issuing your own own token on Surf couldn�t be simpler, inside the Wave customer there is definitely a case for �Token Creation� for you to give your current token a title together with desciption, choose the total token and decimals then create it. That fees just 1 Waves to accomplish this and then your expression can be dealt with the DEX. You in addition have the alternative for a larger payment to �Airdrop� an amount of your current token to every support regarding Waves so this will show up in their own wallets. What Should Designers Know About Dunes? Coders interested in using Mounds will appreciate knowing that their blockchain relies with a proof-of-stake formula. This particular means that individuals will be rewarded based on typically the commission from purchases. The particular new proof-of-stake consensus algorithm increases the network bandwidth so hundreds of dealings may appear each second with no any separation. Transactions on the subject of Waves are carried out natively, consequently you do not want to develop smart legal papers in order to discharge tokens or to help make offers using the decentralized exchange. Developers will as well appreciate the low deal fees, which are repaired. Switching funds only incurs a minimum fee connected with zero. 001 WAVES, which will is also this set fee for any sector orders. It costs a single WAVES to release bridal party, nonetheless users don�t have to pay everything to make use of their own tokens. Often the API is the exact same as the open source buyer, making it simple intended for developers to use. Due to the fact of this, programmers will be able to discover this client together with make buyer applications themselves. What With regards to Using a Waves Client? Developers can likewise generate their own Waves Node, which will lets them construct high-load and secure programs upon it. Running your very own Waves Node is simple, both to install and to run. With a Dunes Client, you are ready to mine WAVES, as well as MRTs (the Miners Praise Tokens). You can also be a rental swimming pool for aggregate exploration strength of other people. Blockchain nodes validate every single solitary operation within the decentralized change for stability. Mainly because the DEX is within just every node in addition to open source, you can go your personal DEX instance. Waves Systems furthermore have a good order matcher that forces the decentralized exchange. This way, token trades that don�t require virtually any moving of tokens involving a blockchain account along with a different exchange can also take place. Waves Partnerships As stated previously, Waves partnered using Burger King in Russian federation to produce the �Whopper Coin� which often acts as the loyalty reward for his or her consumers. 1 Billion Whopper Silver coins were granted together with clients will acquire a person Whoppercoin for every ruble used ($1 is 59 RUB). They can redeem 1 Whopper burger with just one, 700 Whoppercoins, which are usually residing in a digital pocket. Some other distinctive partnerships happen to be with GPB Digital, the electronic digital limb of Gazprombank, Russia�s 3rd largest bank or investment company: targeted at providing clientele with comprehensive initial coin offering (ICO) services plus specialised blockchain solutions?�?specifically customised for the Russian metals and mining sector. Ocean have also partnered having Deloitte: aimed at supplying clientele with comprehensive preliminary tableau offering (ICO) providers in addition to customized blockchain solutions tailored for specific enterprise jobs. As you will see, even though Waves is in it�s infancy, that can be starting to get some tough partnerships with large international corporations. How to Buy Waves OCEAN, the currency of the Surf Platform, are easy to get. You can find them all via the Waves decentralized exchange, a good number associated with central exchanges, or also via the Ocean buyer with some sort of charge card or even paid partnership. Because of this, you can use a range of cryptocurrencies and REDBULL currencies to acquire waves. Often the easiest way to obtain it with the moment is by buying both Bitcoin or maybe Ethereum and even then sharing these to get it on an change. Within this section we will show you the best way to purchase Waves with a new Credit or Debit card employing the Coinbase web page plus then swapping the idea for Waves at Changelly. Ledger at Coinbase For new buyers of crypto forex, we advise that anyone work with Coinbase to make your first pay for : its easy to employ, fully regulated by the particular US federal government so a person know this is among the most dependable and most reputable spots to purchase cryptocurrency via. Coinbase offers the ability to purchase Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum using a credit score or debit card or by delivering a loan company transfer. The fees will be higher with regard to cards yet you will receive your own personal currency instantly. You will have to conduct some identity verification if confirming up as they possess to adhere to strict financial guidelines. Be sure to use each of our link to sign up an individual will be credited having 10 dollars in free bitcoin whenever you make your first purchase of $265.21. Coinbase Internet site To get started out, click on the �Sign up� option where you will be taken for you to a enrollment variety where you will need for you to enter name, email in addition to pick a good password. Coinbase will then mail you the link via email address in order to verify your netmail bank account, once you click typically the link inside email you will be taken to help a new verification page. Anyone must adding your cell phone number and upload a good photo of your IDENTIFICATION ~ this can get a passport, driving licence etc . You also have got to add your transaction details, so you can certainly add your bank account or the debit or credit greeting card as required � after a short period the account will then be verified in addition to you can then choose your first purchase. Coinbase Verification Purchase Ethereum or Bitcoin For this guide, most of us will be purchasing Ethereum to swap for the aim for cryptocurrency. The reason to get this really is that it has much less fees than bitcoin regarding sending and the transaction as well happens a new lot faster. So on Coinbase, visit the �Buy / Sell� tab at the summit, select �Ethereum�, choose your own personal payment method and enter the amount you wish to purchase : an individual can either enter the US Dollar amount or perhaps a variety of Ether. Buy Etherum You will then be asked for you to confirm your own personal transaction, in the event paying using a card you might have to full a verification with the card supplier. After that is complete, your own Ethererum may be added to your. Using Changelly The subsequent point, is to work with the Changelly web site to swap your Ether with regard to Waves. Use this back link and enter how a lot of Eth you will like to convert but it will surely demonstrate you how many Ocean you can receive in return, if you are happy then go ahead together with click the environment friendly �Exchange� Button. On the next screen you will always be prompted to join up an profile which you can accomplish so by means of using some sort of social media account or maybe entering your current email address. Changelly Enrollment Once this is done, you will be considered to a page showing the particular transaction details � check out it over and make sure the particular amounts are best. Once you are happy press the environment friendly �Next� key. On the following tv screen, you will be prompted for your personal Waves wallet handle you choose to receive the cash. Paste that into often the box and click on the golf course �Next� button. Changelly Finances Address You will in that case end up being displayed a finalized confirmation display, again, help make sure all features happen to be correct before court proceeding. Changelly Confirmation Changelly will then offer you will an street address to which you mush deliver your Ether, as a result replicate the address the fact that they offer you and then head back to the coinbase account. Changelly Send out to Send Your Ethereum or Bitcoin In Coinbase, click the �Accounts� and Choose your Ethereum Pocket book on the left and after that simply click �Send�. Enter into the particular tackle that Changelly gave you just before. Mail Ethereum Click �Continue� and after that you may have for you to confirm often the business deal having your email or phone number if you have only two factor authentication allowed. Typically the purchase will now become sent in the Ethereum community and will require a small when to arrive � you can check in your Changelly consideration just where this will notifiy a person of the following steps: Waiting for payment Trading Delivering to your wallet Once it is very complete a confirmation message can look with the screen saying �Transaction Complete�. You can at this point check your Dunes Pocket book where you can verify you now own your Waves. Changelly Transaction Complete Realization While Waves is even now relatively fresh, there will be already numerous programs for you to expand it in the foreseeable future using a range of capabilities. There will be the new UX in addition to REGARDED, coupled with extended figures on the tokens which are released. Waves will include a blockchain messenger for less complicated communication. There will at some point be smart contracts and multi-signatures for protection. This coders will furthermore create new gateways for the two cryptocurrencies and VOLVO values. Dunes is still very much in is considered infancy with a lot connected with news to come, on it�s latest price of around $4 every Wave ( as of 20 September 2017 ) it looks to be a very good investment decision for future years. With the new DEX AJE in addition to Mobile DEX clients released, more partnerships ahead together with Smart Contracts which would set it in rivals having additional platforms like Ethereum and NEO, it will discover a substantial rise inside cost over the following 12 months.

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