#the question mark in the title is vital

[after-witch]

Behind the Curtain [Ren Hana x Reader]

Title: Behind the Curtain [Ren Hana x Reader]

Synopsis: No more shows, yes, that’s what he says. He does not tell you “no more pain,” because there will be pain. Some musings from Ren Hana after the The Show Must Go On DLC (survival ending).

Word Count: 1600ish

notes: kidnapped reader, medical including eye prosthetics discussion, descriptions of past violent abuse and injuries including eye injuries

You poor, pretty thing, lying there in a hospital bed, tubes in your arms and an incessantly beeping machine monitoring your vitals at your side.

You look a mess.

You look lovely.

The wounds from your lively (and, he must admit, very well received--well, until the end) triple show debut are vibrant and gorgeously ugly.

Vivid stitches covered in ghastly looking iodine on your stomach, where you’d sliced your belly right open; antibiotic creams slathered over your puncture wounds; an etching of various cuts and bite marks… yours and his. Not to mention your eye.

You’ll live, you dear thing. Scarred and bruised, inside and out--but you’ll live.

He’s not an amateur. You’ll have good medical care here. He can afford it, although it’s not often used for more than employee check-ups and keeping merchandise alive long enough to be sold or entertain his streams before the big finale. Or for the occasional creative request via a high-paying donor on a stream.

But for you? He’ll make sure to use every resource to get you back into shape. Back to where you were--or more accurately, he supposes, back to where you’re going to be from now on. 

You wake up every now and then. Not to the fullest degree. You are pumped full of drugs, though, and he’s not terribly surprised at your lack of coherency. It’s cute, in a way, though he’s looking forward to enjoying you when you’re more alert. More alive. 

How alive did you feel, in those last moments before he stopped the stream? How aware were you that he meant to kill you? That you were going to die in that dark room while people paid to watch and stroked their cocks and salivated over watching the last bit of light leave your eyes? 

He couldn’t do it. No, no, that’s not right. He could have done it. He’s done it before, to others more and less worthy than yourself.

But he didn’t want to do it and therefore, he didn’t have to do it. You reminded him of that. Chat had power, sure, everyone with enough money had power. But he was in control. It was his stream. His life’s work. And you were his property, not theirs. 

Did you know that one question would change everything?

Fuck the people watching the stream. They could have someone else, and they would eventually--logistically, he needed to make it up to them soon, a token apology made in some other poor pretty thing’s blood.

But not you.

Never you. 

He smiles, just a little. It’s easier now to think about the future, in the sterile clinic room, away from the rush of the showroom with its screens, the stampede of feet when he pushed the call button, the tangy smell of your blood and the sight of you mangled and delirious beneath him. 

The rush of the moment has passed, leaving behind a slow, thoughtful ebb in its wake. 

You’re not the first merchandise he’s kept for himself. You’re not even the first person he’s taken a liking to and taken home with the intent to keep forever. And oh, that first one… he hasn’t thought about them in a while, the one that he kept for as long as he could, until they were gone.

You remind him of them, in some ways. Maybe in the way your voice softened when you asked him who gave him his scars; maybe in the pitiful way you begged him, sweet and sniffling, to cut out your eye because you knew it was best.

Maybe in the way you clenched around him, desperate, eager, hating the pain but embracing it because there was nothing else you could do. 

But, ah… he’s being nostalgic again. He lets one claw idly trace your forearm, following the line of the IV. That person is gone. Dead. Tragic and all that, and some part of him will always miss them. But there’s no point in dwelling on it, just as he’s long since moved on from Strade and his amateur basement of horrors. 

Years ago, he might have thought: what would Strade think of me now? But now he knows the truth: it doesn’t matter one single bit what Strade would think of him now, or what Strade might have thought of him then. Strade was nothing. 

He had created his own world, far surpassing anything Strade could have dreamed of; Strade had some talent (he has scars to prove it) but what was talent without ambition? Without creativity, allure?

Anyone could get people to pay money to watch you kill some helpless fuck you snatched off the street.

But it took talent to do what he did, something far beyond basement videos with basic tools and a fabric mask. 

It was a talent he had in spades, carefully crafted through trial and error. Lots of errors. But what business, what world, existed without them? 

But you do make him reminisce, don’t you?

And then your hand is on his arm. Weak, fingers trembling as you try to grip him, and gain his notice.

This time, your eye isn’t quite as muddled, and you direct your gaze at him rather than flitting about the room in hazy confusion.

He watches as your throat works, swallowing, and he can practically hear the inside of your dry mouth sticking as you force open your lips.

“Is it… is it time for another show?”

He blinks down at you, his lips set in a frown. 

Your dry lips tremble when he doesn’t answer. The heart rate monitor speeds up, and he glances at it--faster and faster, like a little rabbit--before resting his hand on your forehead. The beeping slows down just a little, and your eye looks up at him, darting across his face, desperate and terrified.

“No,” he says, with a somber finality, and the words are for himself as much as they are for you. “No more shows.” 

Your smile is twitchy and slow, and your eye blinks low and lidded. The drugs want to put you to sleep. You want to stay awake. You’ll lose this battle, but he likes to see that you still have the will to live in you. It will come in handy. 

A clawed finger traces your cheek, edging around the white medical patch covering your missing eye. He can see your head try to flinch, but you’re either too drugged to fully do it or you’re stopping yourself out of worry that he won’t like it.

Either option pleases him. 

Your eye isn’t as bad as it was, but it will need more healing before you can wear a prosthetic, or so the physician said. 

He’d never looked much into them before--prosthetic eyes, that is--but as he discovered during a late night bout of phone shopping, there’s a wide array of options nowadays. Exotic styles--cats and snakes and everything in between--and fun colors and pretty add-ons, like glitter or shimmer or rainbow holographics. 

The thought of your false eye staring up at him in some impossibly beautiful hue, accenting a lovely outfit he’s dressed you in, makes him a little giddy, and he hopes you’ll be excited about them, too. Maybe in time you’ll be gazing at a selection of eyes laid out on a vanity, choosing between them like you might have done before all this with lipsticks and eyeshadows. 

Will you hold up the eye you chose for his approval, a trembling smile on your face? It would be nice to see. 

Though he’s not stupid--not as naive as he might have been, if he’d met you twenty or so years ago. You’re not going to immediately jump for joy that the man who orchestrated your kidnapping, tortured you, jacked off into your eye, pulled out said eye, and almost had you yank out your own guts got you a pretty prosthetic.

No, no… not immediately, anyway. That will take time and work and training. Thankfully, he has plenty of experience with that. 

He smiles, just a little, watching as your remaining eye fights so hard to stay open; battling against the drugs keeping you sleepy and compliant for the first step in your healing.

You’re mumbling something, and he’s not really listening to the words, until he sees tears in your eye and you repeat yourself. The words come slowly. He’ll remind the nurse to wet your mouth soon.

“You pr…promise?”

He leans forward, cupping your chin, encouraging you to keep going.

Your voice is a whimper and it’s just so damned cute. Your remaining eye is wide and those pretty tears stick to the lashes like dew. He could kiss them off, he truly could, if he wasn’t sure getting anywhere near your remaining eye right now might send you into a panic.

“You promise no… no more shows?” 

“No more shows,” he says again, gentler this time, stroking your hair. The tension in your muscles gradually relaxes from his touch, or perhaps the IV drip has given you a fresh dose of painkillers on schedule. It doesn’t matter. The effect is the same. 

No more shows, yes, that’s what he tells you. 

He does not tell you “no more pain,” because there will be pain. Life does not exist without it. His business does not exist without it. He does not exist without it. 

There is always give and take, push and pull, pain and pleasure. None can exist without the other. 

It’s a truth you’ll come to learn, as he did. And he can’t wait to bring you to that truth himself. 

[szagaloree]

Can you do a fem reader x t’challa were the reader has the same powers as starfire (I saw that one fic of starfire x t’challa and my brain literally hasn’t stopped thinking about it) and she crashes into wakanda by accident maybe I don’t know what the plot could be like you could do whatever you think is best!

It’s been a while since I’ve watched the show literally 😭 cuz that was my childhood but I can do one💜

T’challa x Reader

Contains: fluff/and Yk fluff🥹

“Check her vitals” t’challa says, you could barely move, I was in bad pain, You groan trying to look around but your vision was very blurry, “her vitals is clear but receiving a weird energy,” shuri said, “w-where am-I?” You try to ask, “my sister will help you,” he said, soon your vision went black….

“How did she get here and how was she able to get passed the shield like that?” A women asks, “I don’t know,” t’challa said, you slowly woke up but found yourself in weird place, leaning up you gasp looking around “hey hey, calm down,” t’challa walks over “where am I?” You questioned “you’re in my sister lab, you ship crazy landed here,” he explains, his eyebrows squinted at your glowing ember green eyes. You got up nervously “who are you? What do you want with me?” You question as your powers begin to form, their eyes widen “you’re safe, we’re not here to hurt you, you crash landed here and badly injured we healed you,” he says, You looked down at my body tonight no marks or nothing it was never there.

“Where did you come from?” Okoye asks.

“Tamaran, it’s a planet, but my home is mostly likely destroyed now,” you said, “another one person from space?!” Okoye blurts out, “don’t have that many people from space huh?” You said as you let your powers go away seeming they weren’t a threat, “ I have to get back,” you said, “we need to know where she has come from and who may follow trying to find her that can pose a threat,” okoye spoke in their language t’challa “I will speak to her, tell shuri to come to the lab,” he said to her she nods leaving, “are you hurt?” He asks Youshake your head “I feel fine, I don’t have any scratches or anything, how did you heal me?” You ask, “with vibranium, my sister healed, it can heal your body and make you wound go away like it was never there,” he explains, you nodded looking around till the purples glows caught your eye outside of the window, you walk over to the window see this big cave that was widely open, kinda like a futuristic mine.

“What..are these?” You pointed “vibranium, it’s what makes all of wakanda, it is what healed you,” he says, “wakanda, that is the name of the planet?” You ask curiously, he chuckles with a smile “no, only my nation, earth is the planet,” he said “oh, I would’ve never thought I would land here, I was expecting a whole alien planet not human planet,” You said, “there are other planets besides yours?” He asks you, you nodded “so many, I only been to few because of my father but we stopped once my planet was under attack and that’s what landed me here, my father sensed me off to a planet to make sure I was safe and I landed here, on..earth I guess,” you try to explain, “are you able to go back?” He asks, you shook your head no and it hurts because your home planet was exploded, destroyed completely, there’s big doubt if anyone survived possibly little. “It was destroyed completely, the..umm, the planet was exploded,” he frowns sadden by the news, “I am sorry about your planet, that’s hard,” he said you nodded sighing, “I’ll just make a way I guess,” Youshrug.

“May I ask your name?” You ask, “king t’challa, but you can call me t’challa,” he introduced, “t’challa” you said under your tongue “unique name t’challa,” you smirk, he chuckles, his smile was so cute and heartwarming, he was very attractive, “a king? You’re planets has royals too?” I ask “yes we do, but not very many, some go by different titles,” he says, “well I should say my name then.. I’m princess y/n, princess of jatoru (ja-tore-ru),” you say, he smile grew “a princess from out of space hm” you giggled with a blush.

“But I want to ask-brother what is it?” Shuri asks coming down.

She looks over at you then smiled “oh I see you’re alive,” she says “ignore my sister she likes to joke a lot,” he shakes his head I chuckle “it’s fine, I’m known for humor,” You said with a grin, “I’m shuri, of course this fools sister,” she introduces “nice to meet you, I’m y/n” you lean on the wall, “I will need you to stay with y/n for a minute I have to go to this meeting with the council,” he sighed, “no problem, she’s going to love it,” she smirked. “Excuse me” he says leaving, “what planet did you come from?” She asks, “tamaran, it’s a bit far from here,” you answered, “nice spaceship, it’s tech is almost like mine but a bit different,” she said, “you didn’t take anything did you?” You ask with a grin “noo” she looks the opposite way, “mhmL you chuckled.

After some while you got to know shuri and t’challa, t’challa showed you some parts of wakanda as he tells the history of his people and the heart shaped herb that helped create the black Panther. But during this time you couldn’t help but stare at him and admire him, he had a voice of a king, a good king who does everything he needs to for his kingdom and you like that, he would stare himself and don’t even realize till you look his way his eyes snap to something else. You and t’challa sat on the chair staring at the mountain view of the sun. “I wanted to ask you something, it’s about your, power what is it?” He asks “I absorb radiation that will turn into energy, and can use it for something powerful, I can fly fast with it too,” you explain showing off your powerful “interesting” he says blown away, I giggle, he smiled “what?” I ask innocently “nothing just your giggling,” he smiled “what about it?” I gasp “nothing it’s cute,” he chuckles, I huff “is it possible, for me to stay here?” I ask he looks at me “I have no where else to go and-and it’s okay if you don’t-" you paused when t’challa pressed his lips on yours shutting you completely up, the kiss took your breath away and your heart raced with excitement, you kiss back placing your hand at the back of his neck, he pulls with a cocky smirk “you can stay,” he said, “you could’ve just said I can,” you giggle, “I could’ve,” he smirked.

You peck his lips teasingly, “don’t start something you won’t finish,” he warns, “oh” you cock a brow with a laugh, “stay, I would love to have you here in wakanda y/n,” he said holding my hand “I got nowhere else to go t’challa,” I said he smiled.

A/n: hope you liked it🥺I tried😭🤍

[dissertationwritinghelpforstds]

Getting your article published? Check out these.

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Importance of Good Manuscripts

Good manuscripts are essential for the advancement of knowledge and the enhancement of quality published article. They communicate clear and useful messages to readers, contributing to the reputation and credibility of the journals in which they are published. For authors, publication marks the successful 

Organizing Your Material

Effective manuscript preparation begins with organizing the material into a structured format. Emphasize the importance of presenting novel, innovative, and interesting material. Manuscripts can typically be categorized into various types, each serving distinct purposes and judged by different criteria:

Original Articles: Present new research findings.

Review Papers: Summarize existing research on a particular topic.

Case Reports: Describe unique or rare clinical cases.

Technical Notes: Detail specific techniques or technologies.

Pictorial Essays: Use images to illustrate concepts.

Commentaries and Editorials: Provide opinions or insights on topics.

Letters to the Editor: Offer brief observations or comments on previously published articles.

IMRAD Structure

The basic structure of an original scientific paper follows the IMRAD format:

Introduction: Defines the research question.

Methods: Describes how the study was conducted.

Results: Presents the findings.

Discussion: Interprets the findings and their implications.

This structure facilitates communication by providing a clear, logical flow of information.

Achieving Clarity in Writing

Clarity is crucial in article writing. A well-written manuscript reflects the author’s clear understanding of the problem and the ability to present conclusions logically. Key elements contributing to clarity include:

Title: Should be attractive and informative.

Abstract: Needs to be concise yet comprehensive.

Introduction: Should be brief and to the point.

Methods: Must be detailed and reproducible.

Results: Should be accurate, possibly supplemented with tables and figures.

Discussion: Needs to be thorough, interpreting results and their significance.

Writing Style

Authors should strive to write in a clear, concise, and straightforward manner. General principles for good writing style include:

Keeping the manuscript short.

Writing short, simple sentences.

Using short words instead of long ones.

Avoiding redundancy, idioms, and jargon.

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Being careful with abbreviations and modifying words.

Authors not proficient in English are advised to seek professional help and have their manuscripts reviewed by experienced colleagues.

Selecting the Right Journal

Choosing the right journal is crucial for successful publication. Authors should aim to publish in reputable journals that reach the intended audience. Factors to consider include:

Target Audience: Determine who will benefit most from the research findings.

Journal’s Scope and Style: Familiarize with the journal’s mission, types of articles published, and overall style.

Impact Factor: Consider the journal’s reputation and impact factor, if relevant to the author’s institution.

Acceptance Rates: Be aware of the journal’s acceptance rates and manuscript processing times.

Submission Process

Authors must follow the specific “Instructions to Authors” provided by the journal. This includes adhering to guidelines for manuscript layout, references, and illustrations. Attention to detail is vital to avoid unnecessary delays or rejections.

Preparing for Submission

Final Review: Have the manuscript reviewed by a colleague with fresh eyes.

Complete Documentation: Retain copies of all data and records, including images.

Submission Method: Use reliable methods for submission, such as registered post or online systems, and track the manuscript’s progress.

Summary

Successful writing requires a systematic approach, vigorous preparation, and clarity in communication. Matching the manuscript type to the appropriate journal and audience is essential. Having an experienced mentor can significantly enhance the likelihood of publication, providing guidance on where and how to submit the manuscript.

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[blueberryshelves]

__________________________________________

Book Review

Title:  The Poison Season Author: Mara Rutherford

Series: Standalone

No. of Pages: 390

ISBN: 978-1-335-01243-2

Synopsis:

Outsiders are always given a choice: the Forest or the lake. Either way, they're never heard from again.

Leelo has spent her entire life on Endla, coexisting with the bloodthirsty Forest and respecting the poisonous lake that protects her island from outsiders who seek to destroy it. But as much as Leelo cares for her community, she struggles to accept that her younger brother will be exiled by his next birthday, unless he gains the magic of enchanted song so vital to Endla.

When Leelo sees a young outsider on the verge of drowning in the lake, she knows exactly what she's supposed to do. But in a moment that will change everything, Leelo betrays her family, her best friend, and Endla by making an unthinkable choice.

Discovery could lead to devastating consequences for both Leelo and the outsider, Jaren, but as they grow closer, Leelo realizes that not all danger comes from beyond the lake—and they can only survive if Leelo is willing to question the very fabric of her society, her people, and herself.

__________________________________________

What did I think of the book?

The Poison Season by Mara Rutherford My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 of 5 stars I picked this up wanting something different, and with the gorgeous cover, I dived into the world of Endla. At first, the story was really slow going, but as soon as you hit that 50% mark, everything starts to pick up, and I wanted to flip through page after page all day to see what would happen. If anything, in the last 3rd of the book, I felt like I couldn't catch my breath with the amount of revelations and secrets that were brought to light in the story. On one hand, that kind of tension was exciting, but it was also teetering slightly too far over the line into being muddy with the details. Eliminating maybe one or two of the twists could have cleaned it up a little, but that's the only real negative I can say about this book. The romance between Leelo and Jaren was very wholesome and clean, and had my heart aching as I read their scenes. It made for quite a nice contrast with what was going on with the relationships on Endla before the secrets started unraveling, and flowed well into the themes of 'torn between loyalties', your heart or your responsibilities, and carving a path for yourself in life when your world is demanding other things from you. I also enjoyed how this book touched on things like the way generational lies and fear impact the young.

Endla reminds me a bit of the carnivorous island in Life of Pi, but with a fair few differences that in a lot of ways makes it scarier, in my opinion. I quite enjoyed the world building around this, and the author did an awesome job in bringing out a vivid picture of what this island is like in the book. Some of my favorite scenes that show this would be chapter 23, pages 141-142, and chapter 30, page 188.

… The bird cocked its head at Jaren, studying him, and this time when he hummed the tune, he remembered a few more notes than he'd sung before. But his elation was short-lived. One moment the bird was there, innocently watching him, and the next, it was gone. Jaren hadn't seen the long, snaking root rise up from the ground and wrap silently around the bird's leg until it was too late. He stood, horrified, but the only sign that the bird had ever been there at all was a few shiny feathers, drifting slowly to the Forest floor. Jaren backed up to the shack and crawled inside, closing the door firmly behind him. - page 141-142

These scenes are layered into more "innocent" ones, where the characters are unsuspecting or minding their own business, so it kind of catches you off-guard when something like the above quote happens. It was like a constant reminder to not forget the nature of this island the characters are on, which when I was really immersed into the story, gave me absolute chills.

Favorite character/s: I don't have a particular favorite, but I admire the character development in Leelo as she goes from being constantly controlled by her family, people, and her home, to finding her own self and strength by the end of the story. Same for her mother as well, when she finally stood up to her sister in the end, and put her daughter before everyone else's lies.

What drew me to this book? The title of the book, it sparked my curiosity immediately.

Stars: Easy 4 out of 5 stars, a wonderful read.

View all my reviews

[1001albumsrated]

#14: Little Richard - Here's Little Richard (1957)

Genre(s): Rock n Roll

This is another one of those albums, like Elvis Presley's self-titled LP, that is an absolute high water mark for effective-but-simple graphic design. The variance in the background color subtly pulls your eye to the main elements. The font choice and layout is excellent. And the focal point is probably the best picture ever taken of Little Richard, sweat-drenched and belting out one of his iconic yelping screams. You couldn't pick a better cover to represent what is effectively Little Richard's greatest hits collection, and monolithic slab of red-hot rock n roll.

The tracklist here is interesting. Despite this being his first full length album, most of these songs were previously released as singles, and were big hits across the board (with the biggest being, of course, Tutti Frutti, which put him on the scene in a big way in 1955 and would go on to even bigger chart heights with Elvis's later cover of the tune. More hot takes on the Elvis version can be found in my earlier review of his self-titled LP). This really does make it play more like a greatest hits album than a traditional LP. And, just to be clear, I mean that in the best way. They've done a good job of making the tracklist feel coherent, but every damn song here is an obvious hit, again, meant in the best way possible.

There has been an enormous amount of ink spilled over this album over the years, so I don't feel the need to say too much here. It's Little Richard. If you haven't heard him: first of all, yes you have, I promise; second of all, go listen to this album. That being said, one thing that struck me while listening was the timelessness of these performances. There's a raw intensity to these cuts that is impossible to ignore and makes them feel just as vibrant today as they must have felt in the mid 50s. Here's Little Richard completely smokes most rock albums of the time, and frankly most rock albums that have come since.

I've already shown my hand here, so let's not beat around the bush: you MUST hear Here's Little Richard before you die, no questions asked. It's one of the most vital and influential albums in the entirety of the 1001 Albums book, and is always a pleasure to listen to.

Next time: we return to the world of Cuban music with Tito Puente's mambo classic, Dance Mania!

[big-nerd-boi]

How old are all the monkeys like how long have they been around and how old do they present/mentally?

A very good question!

Heng is by far the oldest physically and mentally. Thanks to his ability to reverse his physical age, he is basically immortal without any peaches, wine, or religion. With how long he’s been around as well, he’s seen plenty of the good and bad of humans and demons.

He likes to see himself as mature, above petty conflicts and ire— and for the most part he is. He’s cool headed, and a gentle man to his family and most strangers.

But he’s still flawed, especially when anyone he cares about gets hurt.

Wukong is the second oldest! He even met Heng once on his quest for immortality, though the baboon was disguised as a normal human— and didn’t really talk to Wukong beyond pointing him towards the fabled mountain where Subodhi lived.

Mentally? Well, we’ve seen how impulsive, impolite, and murderous Wukong can be. But at the end of the journey, he has matured to the point he earned the title of a Buddha!

Unfortunately… he never did leave the jade palace after trying to get his crown removed by the emperor; breaking his promise to help Tang Sanzang back to the east.

Min-Yáng: the mother of four children and an empress, she has always been rather mature and levelheaded since she was born. She’s the third oldest monkey, born just around the 200 year mark of Wukong being trapped under the Mountain of Five Phases.

She’s a few centuries younger than her sworn brother Heng, but compared to those two; she’s never caused much trouble beyond accidentally raising the sun from dawn to high noon.

Luhan: the youngest of all the stone monkeys; he was born during the last 100 years of Wukong’s imprisonment. He’s still old, but compared to the other three he’s barely made an impact.

Mentally: he’s… impulsive. Just like Wukong in many ways but worse. He believes he’s a far better candidate for monkey king, willing to fight and take what’s his no matter the cost; even at the expense of hurting others.

He’s been through a lot, but that doesn’t excuse his actions— especially the cannibalism ( which I am keeping canon ).

Though once he’s brought back from death, he does begin the right path to actually becoming someone better… eventually.

Yue: second eldest daughter to Min-Yáng, she is 12 years old. She has been learning the ways of royalty since birth, and how to keep her supernatural strength under control. But she’s still a child.

A child who has grown up with war on the horizon from the celestial realm. Yet no one can answer her question of why does the Veiled Emperor want their land? Or even who that is?

Finding the legendary iron rod of the monkey king after sneaking out her own home, those questions are replaced with something far more vital: surviving. Surviving until she can come back home without leading that war right to her parents.

[visit-new-york]

When Was the Brooklyn Bridge Completed? A Historical Triumph in Engineering

The Brooklyn Bridge stands as an iconic symbol of engineering prowess and architectural brilliance. Spanning the East River to connect the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn in New York City, this majestic structure has played a crucial role in the city's history and development. One of the most frequently asked questions about this remarkable bridge is, "When was the Brooklyn Bridge completed?" Let's delve into the fascinating history of the construction and completion of this monumental feat of engineering.

Construction Commencement:

The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began in 1870 under the leadership of chief engineer John A. Roebling. Unfortunately, Roebling's dream was cut short when he suffered a fatal injury on the construction site. His son, Washington Roebling, took over as the chief engineer, but he too faced challenges, including debilitating decompression sickness, commonly known as the bends, which left him bedridden.

Despite these setbacks, the Roeblings' vision for the Brooklyn Bridge endured, and construction continued under the watchful eye of Washington's wife, Emily Warren Roebling. Emily played a pivotal role in overseeing the day-to-day operations, communicating with engineers, and ensuring the project's completion.

Completion and Opening:

After 14 years of construction, the Brooklyn Bridge was officially completed and opened to the public on May 24, 1883. The bridge was an engineering marvel of its time, spanning 1,595 feet and standing 276 feet above the East River. It was the longest suspension bridge in the world at that time, a title it held for over 20 years.

The opening ceremony was attended by thousands of people, and it marked a significant moment in the history of New York City. The Brooklyn Bridge not only facilitated easier transportation between Manhattan and Brooklyn but also played a crucial role in the economic development of both boroughs.

Architectural and Engineering Significance:

The Brooklyn Bridge is a testament to the ingenuity and perseverance of the engineers and workers involved in its construction. Its neo-Gothic towers and intricate cable arrangement showcase a blend of aesthetic beauty and structural integrity. The bridge's innovative use of steel-wire cables, a technology pioneered by John A. Roebling, set a new standard for suspension bridge design.

The bridge's enduring legacy is not only its physical structure but also its impact on the cityscape and the field of civil engineering. Today, the Brooklyn Bridge remains a popular tourist attraction and a vital transportation link, carrying pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Conclusion:

The completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 marked a significant achievement in the history of engineering and architecture. Overcoming numerous challenges, including the death of its chief engineer and the physical limitations of his successor, the bridge stands as a testament to human resilience and innovation. As we marvel at the grandeur of the Brooklyn Bridge today, we are reminded of the vision and determination that went into its creation over a century ago.

[parallel-awhite]

#Slump #Lump

Slump at Lump Gallery / Curated by Jerstin Crosby based on conversations with New York-based artist and LabSpace gallery co-director Julie Torres

SLUMP. Some words do more heavy lifting than others, and I am rather in awe of the sheer tonnage this single-word title manages to bench-press, with meanings that cover "slack," "flaccid," "weak", "defeated," "pathetic," "depressed," "low ebb," and "doldrums" not to mention "bad posture" and "a period of time marked by failure."* This is a show that registers high on the coherence-of-curatorial-intention meter. A show with this title could have ended up as a zone of airless claustrophobic overwhelm, gallery as hoarder space, due to the sheer surfeit of potential work that could have been slotted within the “Slump” rubric. Instead the show is edited with drum-tight precision, each work positioned in the space for maximum flow and impact. This is a show that breathes. Good feng shui. It’s thus paradoxical: a show called "Slump" that is in itself highly articulated - crisp, concise, highly engaged and engaging. Go figure.

An overall note on influence: Mike Kelley's splayed societal/ cultural/ subliminal abjections have inoculated the bloodstream of the body politic of contemporary art, a tribute to the necessary-ness of that artist’s efforts, the validity of which is evidenced by the spectral array of vital and meaningful work that has been made and likely will continue to be made in its wake: artist as shiner-of-light on psychic detritus that has been relegated to the societal dust heap due to collective denial, blindness, greed or best practices. It is thus no surprise that much of the physical [and nonphysical for that matter] material employed in Slump is multiplex and often recycled, repurposed or reconsidered.

Raymond Padrón’s revelatory “Tube Sock” (2023), while made of painted wood (and not literal recycled material), embodies “that which has been lost or discarded.” The single sock that evades capture holds near-mythical status in the unwritten history of laundry. The highly visible tube sock reclining on someone’s floor is another well-known trope. I will add that while “Tube Sock” in its supremely casual and might I add believable pose [why not anthropomorphize a sock?] (as for said pose, I buy its slump-ness, its nonchalance, its actual real-life tossed-ness – it’s a sculptural tour-de-force) as Padrón has rendered it appears clean enough, I cannot stop the onslaught of sock associations, which include dirt and smell. This sensory response to a monumental relief work aggrandizing a single item of bit-player clothing is a win.

Another win: the placement of “Tube Sock” adjacent to Julia Gartrell’s indelible sculptural work “Rib” [undated]. These two works by two artists working within their own bubble of slumpness manage to converge in uncannily similar shaping and sense of weight distribution. “Rib” is a work that manages to immediately attach to the mind like a parasite. I mean this admiringly. Like “Tube Sock,” it is both hilarious and beautiful, surreal and gritty, utterly evident in what it is and yet also deeply mysterious. The premise of “Rib” is simple: a single boot [(the artist’s boot) that carries questions about and signals a uselessness similar to Padrón’s single sock] with a Ruth Asawa-esque reed basketry leg figuration that sort of floats off into nothingness – no body – tethered to no world in particular, to sudden, unexpected abstraction.

Bill Thelen's untitled limp wrist project covers much of the Drawing Room annex wall. These are interactive drawings based on photos people sent to the artist in response to his request for shots of their limp wrists. The project is a canny power move by Thelen – up there with the reclaiming of the term queer in the 80s. The visual reclaiming of body-language cliché epithet celebrates and recalibrates what has historically functioned as a denigrating trope of [specifically gay, male] flamboyance** by creating what feels like a solidarity wall papered over with drawing upon drawing of images of limp wrists en repose, i.e., held aloft, hand and fingers relinquished downward to gravitational pull. The works are not gender-coded, and they’re not color coded; they’re disencoded.*** There is an expanded iteration of the project as part of the exhibition proper, a single outsized limp wrist outlined in relief with woven embroidery floss, tape and pins.

I could write in-depth on each of the works in this substantial and generous show, which was appropriately allowed to inhabit both gallery rooms. But given that it’s the last day of the show and would be nice to post it with at least a few hours left – and in light of inherent limitations of the person writing this – will list the artists here:

Amanda Barr

April Childers

Bill Thelen

Brandon Boan

Celia Gray

Conner Calhoun

Ellen Letcher

Fred Smith

Jasmine Best

Jessica Langley

Julia Gartrell

Julie Torres

Maria Britton

Nico Smith

Rachel Bernstein

Raymond Padron

Skully Gustafson

Terry Hoff

Tonya Solley Thornton

A few final thoughts: As in the conundrumical universe of curatorial practice, every piece in this show held the potential to live within infinite other parallel universes of thought. The “Slump” mindset, however, focuses the mind like hunger – or a strong need one did not know held sway within until it was met. The clarity of intention in this show was so strong it felt like I was walking around the space wearing one of those museum guided-tour headsets.

Can I just add: Slump also works as a riff on the gallery name: Lump. I read this as a kind of evolutionary equation whereby Lump [L] = Lumpen/Unformed ∆ Lump + S/ = S/lump = Slump [SL]

And another thing: A slump is a temporary condition. That will at some point turn around. Hence it posits an undercurrent of hope. With the evolutionary outcome not being verticality or a *straightening* [aka devolving / attaining regressive rigidity] but some mode of as-yet unidentified [fluid] expansion.

April Childers / Brandon Boan

Bill Thelen / Maria Britton

Amanda Barr / Celia Gray

Jasmine Best / Skully Gustafson

Tonya Solley Thornton / Tonya Solley Thornton

Ellen Letcher / Lump Gallery (installation view)

Raymond Padrón / Julia Gartrell

Bill Thelen / Bill Thelen [Drawing Room]

Skully Gustafson / Skully Gustafson

Fred Smith / Fred Smith

___________

* I typically write about work before reading gallery copy and have only just now encountered a list of related salient adjectives supplied by Crosby, which are available elsewhere. However, the fact that there are few overlapping terms in the two lists underscores the fertile elasticity of the premise.

** A word that pings in my head thusly: [flimsy/ flim-flam/ flambé/ flaming/ boy/ buoyancy/ bouyance/ clairvoyance/ (disco ball) dance].

*** My text my rules yes I just made up that word.

[binsofchaos]

Joni Mitchell | On “Amelia,” she becomes the sky...

was running away. From what or where to have never been as vital in Mitchell’s songs as her in-betweens—between relationships and cities, between heartbreak and repair, between chords and tenses. From her early song “Urge for Going” through her travelogue classic Blue and beyond, Mitchell typified the woman wanderer, rarely represented in music. Hejira, her sprawling eighth album, embodies this quintessence. The road rolls out of her like a surrealist painting on the cover, combining bold realism and abstraction. Mitchell interprets the Arabic title meaning “departure” as “escape with honor.” She was returning to herself. “I suppose a lot of people could have written a lot of my other songs,” Mitchell once said, “but I feel the songs on Hejira could only have come from me.” ...

Thirty-two years old with no license, Mitchell drove this band of outsiders east before looping back solo, down the coast of Florida and then along the Gulf of Mexico, “staying at old ’50s motels and eating at health food stores.” She adopted fake names like “Charlene Latimer.” She was often disguised in a red wig. She wrote most of Hejira on the guitar she kept in her white Mercedes. “I was getting away from romance, I was getting away from craziness,” Mitchell said, “and I was searching for something to make sense of everything.”

Hejira exalts the art of being a woman alone. It is restless music of road and sky, of interior and exterior weather suspended, epic and elemental. Her narratives unfurl with driving forward motion, telling stories of black crows and coyotes, of cafes and motel rooms; a bluesman and a pilot; psychics, hitchhikers, mothers, a guru. She contemplates eternity in a cemetery. She sees Michelangelo in the clouds. She hears jazz in the trees. Blue’s optimistic “traveling, traveling, traveling” gives way to an insatiable “travel fever,” each cartographic song extending the road further from Savannah to Staten Island to Canadian prairies, from Beale to Bleecker Streets. Her solitude distills the details into ascetic elegance...

Hejira’s tenor is one of personal reconstitution, but Mitchell populates the lyrics with characters she met along the way, some literal, some symbolic, each representing a fundamental component of her character. “Furry Sings the Blues” describes her actual visit with the bluesman Furry Lewis near Memphis’ crumbling Beale Street, one birthplace of the blues, and could be an allegory for the corruption of a music business that left its pioneers behind, another parking lot paved over paradise. (That’s Neil Young on harmonica.) “A Strange Boy” recounts her disappointing tryst with her travel companion and his confounding immaturity, standing in for the overall inadequacy of men that Mitchell had contended with so often. It’s attuned to mystery, representing this guy she couldn’t crack in amazing dialogue, like, “He asked me to be patient/Well I failed/‘Grow up!’ I cried/And as the smoke was clearing, he said/‘Give me one good reason why.’” On the discordant “Black Crow,” Mitchell likens herself to the bird overhead, brooding, searching, diving. But the most powerful of these itinerant encounters occurs solely in her imagination.

On “Amelia,” she becomes the sky. Her ode to Amelia Earhart is soaring and celestial. “Like me,” Mitchell sings of the disappeared aviator, “she had a dream to fly.” This austere six-minute ballad takes the form of a conversation “from one solo pilot to another,” Mitchell has said, “reflecting on the cost of being a woman and having something you must do.” Ambition must often go it alone, and Mitchell accordingly subtracts bass and drums entirely. What sounds like sweeping pedal steel is really Larry Carlton’s electric lead guitar and vibraphone. The song’s harmonic character is an arresting question mark, both unsettled and at ease, just like solo travel, knowing there might be something, someone missing yet savoring the space created by absence. Mitchell spoke of Hejira’s “sweet loneliness,” to which “Amelia”’s major chords and resilience attest. “Amelia, it was just a false alarm,” goes Mitchell’s refrain ending each verse, ending every romance, too. As she sings of “driving across the burning desert,” likening six vapor trails to “the hexagram of the heavens [...] the strings of my guitar,” and how Earhart was “swallowed by the sky,” the whole forlorn song seems to go that way. Stars glint in its upper edges.

Clouds and flight, metaphors for freedom and what tempers it, had long been two of Mitchell’s central obsessions. She called descendants of the Canadian prairies, like herself, “sky-oriented people,” and writing on a plane in 1967, she had looked down on clouds to contemplate life, arriving at her standard, the timeless “Both Sides, Now.” But nine years on, in “Amelia,” she equates her living in “clouds at icy altitudes” with her long-standing depression that left her admitting she’s “never really loved.” When she pulls into “the Cactus Tree Motel” to sleep on the “strange pillows of my wanderlust,” the inn’s name is an allusion to her 1968 song about a woman “so busy being free.” Her life’s motifs knock the door in Georgia, too, on the winking torch song “Blue Motel Room,” where rain turns the ground to “cellophane,” a word Mitchell famously used to describe her defenseless Blue era; “Will you still love me?” she yearns coolly, echoing a formative influence.

Of all the land Mitchell traveled, though, the space and otherworldly plantlife of the arid Sonoran Desert seem to have made the greatest impact, as evidenced on “Amelia.” The desert is an isolated landscape pitched to infinity, a place to confront yourself and your insignificance in the scheme of things. On her song named for a desert creature, “Coyote,” she voices her desire “to run away” and “wrestle with my ego.”

Her ego-erasing quest comes to a head on “Hejira.” The title track is a sprawling monument to her decade of turning personal catastrophe into philosophy, laying bare her cardinal themes. “Possessive coupling.” “The breadth of extremities.” “Comfort in melancholy.” Unlike Hejira’s other songs, it contains few proper nouns: it specifically confronts the existential expanses of muted despair instead, illumination eclipsed with pain in the music's depths. She’s “traveling in some vehicle.” She’s “sitting in some cafe.” She’s “a defector from the petty wars that shell shock love away.” If heartbreak redeems itself by creating knowledge, then “Hejira” locates the precise coordinates where that shift occurs. Nowhere in her catalog does she create a richer or more rigorous self-portrait.

I know no one’s going to show me everything We all come and go unknown Each so deep and superficial Between the forceps and the stone

On “Hejira,” Mitchell interrogates her 32 years. She had made profound sacrifices for the sake of her art, which perhaps accounts for the music’s intensity: When you feel you’ve sacrificed everything for your work, you bring everything to it. She looked for answers in every corner of the country her car could reach. She poured in every reserve and inexhaustible query. What are the uses of solitude? How close to nerves and bone can you get? Is art worth the sacrifice? Could she ever fully be seen? Her music stretches into a dissolving horizon suggesting the questions are unanswerable. Its unresolved charge suggests that life will be a cycle of finding meaning in the questions. In the spartan space, Mitchell invites us to complete the picture.

Staring at headstones on “Hejira,” “those tributes to finality,” pondering death, she considered her life. “I looked at myself here,” she sings, “Chicken scratching for my immortality.” Even Joni Mitchell must sometimes feel meaningless, at the top of the mountain, wondering what everything is worth. She always said she embraced granular details in her autobiographical art songs because it made a better story, and people should “know who they’re worshiping.” Here she offers a metaphysical magnification of her most atomic truths.

We’re only particles of change Orbiting around the sun But how can I have that point of view When I’m always bound and tied to someone

Two other of Hejira’s songs illustrate as much. “Song for Sharon” is Mitchell’s reckoning with her position as single and childfree in her 30s, subverting the status quo in subject and in form. She’d addressed this reality before, like on For the Roses’ “Woman of Heart and Mind.” But in this nine-minute letter to her long-lost friend back home, Sharon Bell—who took a conventional path, “a husband and a farm”—she went further, surveying the advice she’d received from other women about how to give her life meaning: “have children,” “find yourself a charity.” With unbothered resolve and an even-handed tone—not innate for Mitchell—she situates herself between these two pathways of womanhood, seeking the common ground between herself and Sharon, or maybe between herself and all women, like her mother and grandmother who suppressed their dreams. “Song for Sharon” blows up the myth of the pop renegade with no direction home. Staring the past in the eye, Mitchell admits (in a call back to Blue’s “All I Want”), “All I really want to do right now is find another lover,” the last word drifting like smoke...

Hejira built a new sound to match the feminist paradigm it presented for being a woman in the world, with autonomy, adventure, and pleasure all as virtues. In the mid-’70s, the trope of the solo male traveler seeking enlightenment in meandering solitude was well-defined by tales like Walden and On the Road, even Siddhartha. Women travelers were unknown. Mitchell’s position “made most people nervous,” she sings on the beautiful, gently loping album closer, “Refuge of the Roads,” which describes her meeting with Tibetan Buddhist spiritual teacher Chögyam Trungpa. But her role brought others to life. In 1959, Simone de Beauvoir had posited, in The Second Sex, that “the free woman is just being born,” and when she arrived so would her poetry. Hejira is evidence, a shapeshifting aesthetic to voice a still-emerging mode of being female.

[christ2525]

Hearts Of Iron 4 Man In The High Castle

Hearts of Iron 4 is an incredible game! Obviously the gaming local area has figured out how to make it far better by making mods for the title. In this article we have isolated probably awesome and recorded them, with the separate connections for you to download and introduce them at whatever point you need!

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2. The Man in the High Palace DOWNLOAD The Man in the High Palace is a renowned television series in light of a book by Philip K. Dick. The mod brings all the substance of the book and the series into the game: envision that Hitler and his partners had won the conflict, dropped a nuclear bomb on Washington and overwhelmed the US. Fascinating, right?

3. Control harmony dealings DOWNLOAD In HOI4, man-made reasoning controls the harmony dealings. The terms are characterized by the PC, and you are just liable for marking toward the end. The adjustment being referred to empowers you to meddle in all cycles, which makes this significant part of the game substantially more genuine.

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5. For Honor DOWNLOAD What about playing For Honor in an unexpected way? This mod transforms HOI4 into a combat zone between Vikings, Knights and Samurai. Pick your group and begin growing your realm across the planet!

6. Brazilian fascism DOWNLOAD For Brazilians who play HOI4 this mod is imperative. Perceive how generally every one of the means of the Tyranny in Brazil, beginning back there, with the defeat of Getúlio Vargas. As you can envision, the game will be brimming with unexplained winds and missions loaded with blood.

7. Cold Conflict DOWNLOAD Significant change, as it permits players to enter the Virus War, replacement to The Second Great War. The world is split among East and West, it really depends on you to pick your side and conclude who will govern the planet!

8. Roman Realm DOWNLOAD For the people who like Antiquated History, this mod is quite possibly of the coolest. There you have some control over and grow the Roman Realm all along. Keep Rome from falling under the control of primitive intruders and steer mankind's set of experiences!

9. The Second Great War DOWNLOAD obviously, the Incomparable Conflict couldn't miss! If you have any desire to encounter the contentions between the Triple Understanding and the Triple Collusion, fantastic! Pick your side in this battle and attempt to win in what was quite possibly of the bloodiest military conflict in humankind.

10. Skyrim DOWNLOAD He could do without For Honor, however he cherishes Skyrim! Here is a mod for you! This adjustment is really basic and permits you to play in charge of this Cyrodil area. Sadly it doesn't have however much satisfied that it could have, yet it is still very fun in its own specific manner.

How to introduce mods? The mods are the property of their makers and engineers, and is in this way vital to counsel the proposals of every adjustment. While going to the download page of the records there are clarifications on the best way to continue while introducing. If important, there are questions and replies on the sites that can address any inquiries. We bring up that these mods are not upheld by the HOI4 designer, Mystery Improvement Studio. So any issue you have with the establishment of these documents isn't the obligation of the game's makers . We encourage you to back up your save record before any adjustments are made. Now that you've seen the mods, look at the HOI4 cheats as well! Learn extraordinary tips in our HTML blog about web advancement. Figure out how to execute helpful highlights for your site!

[pagebypagereviews]

The Democrat Party Hates America is a provocative and incendiary title that immediately commands attention. Written by Mark R. Levin, a well-known conservative commentator and author, this book dives headfirst into a full-scale critique of the Democratic Party, alleging that its policies and actions are fundamentally at odds with American values and interests. Levin’s compelling narrative is designed not just to captivate readers but to challenge deeply entrenched beliefs, offering a stark examination of the ideological rifts that define contemporary American politics. In an era rife with political polarization, The Democrat Party Hates America seeks to provide clarity and perspective for conservatives who feel marginalized and vilified. Leveraging a blend of historical analysis, current events, and partisan critique, Levin positions this book as a vital resource for those looking to understand and counter the influence of progressive politics. By dissecting the Democratic Party's strategies and rhetoric, he aims to reveal what he views as the party’s detrimental impact on the nation, thus equipping readers with the intellectual ammunition needed to engage in informed political discourse. This book attempts to solve the problem of ideological disorientation by framing the Democratic Party's policies as antithetical to the principles upon which America was founded. ## Plot The plot of *The Democrat Party Hates America* meticulously analyzes various historical and contemporary events to argue that the Democratic Party has consistently acted against the best interests of the United States. It delves into pivotal moments such as the party's policies during the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement, and the modern socio-political climate. Through a linear progression of events, the book frames the Democratic Party's actions as attempts to degrade American values and destabilize the nation's foundational principles. Specific case studies, such as the controversy over voter ID laws and healthcare reform, exemplify the author's contention that the party's actions have led to societal division and economic instability. ## Characters In *The Democrat Party Hates America*, political figures from various historical periods are given close scrutiny. Figures such as Andrew Jackson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson are analyzed for their policies and their impacts on the nation's trajectory. The book also brings to the forefront modern-day politicians like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden, scrutinizing their legislative records and public statements. Through detailed examination of these characters, the book attempts to draw a continuous line of ideological consistency that allegedly undermines America's core values. Each political figure is portrayed not only as an individual but also as a representative of broader party strategies and philosophies. ## Writing Style The writing style of *The Democrat Party Hates America* is both assertive and polemical, designed to persuade readers through a combination of rhetorical questions, emotive language, and selective presentation of facts. The prose is direct and uncompromising, making extensive use of exclamatory sentences and bold assertions to drive home points. A significant portion of the book employs historical documentation interwoven with the author's interpretations, creating a sense of authority and credibility. The writing effectively combines historical narrative with journalistic critique to present a cohesive argument, while also utilizing footnotes and references to support claims and offer further reading. ## Setting The setting of *The Democrat Party Hates America* spans various eras in American history, offering context for the Democratic Party's actions across different time periods. Each chapter situates readers in a specific historical milieu, whether it be the antebellum South, the New Deal era, or the Obama administration, providing a backdrop against which the party's policies are critiqued.

Locations such as Washington D.C., state legislatures, and pivotal states during election cycles are recurrently explored, emphasizing the geopolitical influence the party has wielded over time. This temporal and locational grounding serves to illustrate the long-term implications of the policies in question. ## Unique Aspects One of the unique aspects of *The Democrat Party Hates America* is its unabashedly conservative viewpoint, which diverges from more neutral or liberal-leaning political analyses. The book's approach to historical and contemporary events often contrasts sharply with mainstream interpretations, challenging widely held assumptions about the role and impact of the Democratic Party. It also uniquely combines a broad historical sweep with detailed individual case studies, providing both macro and micro perspectives on the issues discussed. Another distinctive feature is the book's appeal to a specific audience, aimed at galvanizing conservative readers by tapping into existing sentiments and reinforcing particular ideological viewpoints. Similar to The Democrat Party Hates America Book Review Pros of The Democrat Party Hates America Book Review Cons of The Democrat Party Hates America Book Review Thorough Research: The book is backed by extensive research, providing readers with well-documented information on the topic. Engaging Writing Style: The author's engaging writing style keeps the readers interested and invested throughout the book. Controversial Insights: The book presents controversial insights, sparking discussions and debates among readers. Accessible Language: The language used is accessible to a wide audience, making complex political ideas understandable. Comprehensive Coverage: The book covers a wide range of topics related to the Democrat Party, offering a comprehensive analysis. Bias: The book may exhibit a noticeable bias, influencing the reader's perception of objectivity and neutrality. Polarizing Tone: The polarizing tone can alienate certain readers, particularly those who hold opposing views. Repetition: Some points are repeated multiple times, which could be seen as redundant and lessen the impact. Overgeneralizations: The book may contain overgeneralizations that oversimplify complex political situations and figures. Lack of Counterpoints: There might be a lack of counterpoints or balanced viewpoints, leading to a one-sided perspective. Author Reputation When considering "The Democrat Party Hates America" book, it is crucial to evaluate the author's reputation. Assess their background, professional credentials, and previous works. Look for other books or articles written by the author, and read reviews to understand their expertise and viewpoint. The credibility of the author will significantly affect the reliability and quality of the information provided in the book. Publisher Reputation Next, consider the reputation of the publisher. Established and respected publishers are more likely to produce well-researched and factual content. Check to see if the publisher specializes in the genre or subject matter. Reputable publishers also typically have a rigorous editorial process, which helps ensure high-quality content. Book Reviews and Ratings Reading reviews and checking ratings can provide a wealth of information. Look for reviews on multiple platforms such as Amazon, Goodreads, and academic review sites. Pay attention to both positive and negative reviews to get a balanced perspective. Reviews can give you insights into the book's merits, readability, and reliability. Look for patterns in the feedback, as consistent comments can indicate recurring strengths or weaknesses. Credibility of Sources Analyze the credibility of the sources cited in the book. A well-researched book will reference credible, reliable, and relevant sources. Check if the book includes a bibliography or references section. Evaluate the quality of these sources to determine if they are impartial and well-regarded in the field.

Source credibility plays a crucial role in assessing the overall reliability of the book. Content Depth and Accuracy Consider the depth and accuracy of the content. Scan the table of contents and sample chapters, if available, to get an idea of the topics covered and the level of detail provided. A good book will present comprehensive coverage of the subject and provide accurate, factual information. Look for books that balance depth with accessibility, avoiding superficial treatment of complex topics. Publication Date The publication date is another important factor. Ensure that the book is current and includes up-to-date information. Older books may not reflect recent developments or prevailing viewpoints. However, also remember that some timeless works may still hold relevance despite their age. Compare the publication date with other similar works to choose the most current and comprehensive option. Price and Format Consider the price and available formats of the book. Compare prices across different sellers and formats such as hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook to find the best deal. Factor in the cost with the value you anticipate gaining from the book. Sometimes paying a bit more for a comprehensive version can be worthwhile. Commentaries and Critical Analyses Look for academic commentaries and critical analyses of the book. Such resources can provide additional perspectives and deeper understanding. Commentaries often point out the strengths and weaknesses of the book, offering more informed judgments than casual reviews. They can also highlight the book's significance within its field of study. Personal Bias and Perspective Finally, be mindful of personal biases and perspective. Understand that a book's content may be influenced by the author's viewpoint. Reflect on your own biases and be open to diverse viewpoints. A well-rounded reading list includes books from varying perspectives to provide a holistic understanding of the subject. ```html FAQ What is the main thesis of "The Democrat Party Hates America"? The main thesis of the book is that the Democrat Party's policies and actions are fundamentally detrimental to American values and interests. The author argues that the party prioritizes its political agenda over the well-being of the country. Who is the author of "The Democrat Party Hates America"? The book is written by Mark Levin, a conservative commentator, lawyer, and author known for his critical views on the Democrat Party and progressive policies. Is "The Democrat Party Hates America" a biased book? Many readers and critics would consider the book biased, as it presents a highly critical perspective of the Democrat Party. The author’s conservative viewpoints and political background may influence his analysis and conclusions. What type of evidence does the author use to support his arguments? Mark Levin uses a combination of historical references, policy analysis, and contemporary examples to support his arguments. He often cites specific actions, statements, and legislative initiatives of Democrat leaders to make his case. Is this book suitable for readers with opposing political views? This book may be challenging for readers with opposing political views due to its strong conservative stance. However, those interested in understanding conservative critiques of the Democrat Party may find it insightful. How has "The Democrat Party Hates America" been received by critics? The reception of the book varies widely. Conservative critics and readers often praise it for its thorough analysis and bold arguments. On the other hand, progressive and liberal critics typically dismiss it as one-sided and overly critical. Does the book offer any solutions or recommendations? Yes, the book does offer solutions and recommendations to counteract what the author sees as the negative influence of the Democrat Party. These solutions are generally rooted in conservative political philosophy and policies. What is the writing style of "The Democrat Party Hates America"?

The writing style of the book is direct, assertive, and polemical. Mark Levin's background as a radio host and commentator is evident in his emphatic tone and rhetorical approach. Where can I purchase "The Democrat Party Hates America"? The book is available for purchase at major bookstores, both online and in physical stores. It can also be found on various e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. ``` In conclusion, "The Democrat Party Hates America" stands as a compelling and provocative read for anyone interested in understanding the current political climate from a critical perspective. This book offers an in-depth analysis and thought-provoking insights that challenge conventional narratives about one of America's major political parties. The author’s meticulous research and unabashed commentary make it a valuable choice for both political enthusiasts and casual readers who seek to gain a deeper understanding of the ideologies at play. By exploring the historical context, ideological shifts, and policy impacts, the book not only informs but also encourages readers to engage in meaningful discourse. Whether you agree with its premises or not, "The Democrat Party Hates America" provides substantial food for thought and is a noteworthy addition to any political literature collection. Other The Democrat Party Hates America Book Review buying options

[isabelwcna]

Your Complete Guide to CNA License Renewal: Tips, Requirements, and Deadlines

**Title: Your Complete Guide to CNA License Renewal: Tips, Requirements, and Deadlines**

**Introduction:** As a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), renewing your‍ license is a crucial part of maintaining your career and continuing to provide quality care⁣ to patients. In ‍this comprehensive guide, we​ will ‌walk you through everything you need to know about CNA license renewal, including tips, requirements, and deadlines.

**Why Renewing Your CNA License is Important:** Renewing ⁢your CNA license is essential for several reasons, including:

– Ensuring that you meet the state’s requirements for continuing education ‍and competency. -‍ Demonstrating your​ commitment to upholding standards of care and professionalism in the healthcare field. – Avoiding any potential penalties or consequences for practicing without a valid license.

**Requirements for CNA License ⁤Renewal:** The specific requirements for⁢ CNA license renewal can vary from state to state, but there are ‌some⁢ common requirements that you will likely⁣ need to fulfill. These⁢ may include:

– Completing a certain number of continuing education ‌hours. – Submitting renewal paperwork and fees. – Passing a background check. -⁤ Providing proof of employment ⁣as a CNA.

**Deadlines ‌for CNA License Renewal:** It is important to be aware of the deadlines for CNA license renewal in your state to avoid any lapses ⁢in ‍your ⁢licensure. Deadlines can vary, but they are typically set every 1-2 years. Be sure to mark your calendar and start the renewal ⁣process well in advance⁤ to ensure that you‍ meet all requirements on ⁤time.

**Tips for a Smooth CNA License Renewal Process:** – Start early: Begin gathering all⁣ necessary documents ​and completing​ any required continuing education courses well‌ before ⁤the deadline. – Stay organized: Keep track ‌of important dates, paperwork, and ⁢requirements to avoid any last-minute stress. – Seek support: If ​you have‍ any questions or concerns about the renewal process, don’t hesitate ⁢to reach‌ out​ to your state’s licensing⁤ board or a CNA professional organization for guidance.

**Benefits of Maintaining a Valid ⁣CNA ⁢License:** – Continued employment opportunities in various healthcare settings. – Ability to provide care to patients with confidence and professionalism. – Potential for career advancement and higher earning potential.

**Practical Tips for CNA License Renewal:** – Utilize‌ online resources: Many states offer​ online portals for license renewal, making the process more convenient. – Take advantage of continuing education opportunities: Stay current on⁣ the​ latest developments in the healthcare field by attending workshops, seminars, and online courses. – Keep your contact information up to date: Ensure that your​ licensing board ‌has your current address and contact information to avoid any communication issues.

**Conclusion:** Renewing your CNA license ⁣is a​ vital step in maintaining your career as a healthcare professional. By following the tips and ⁢requirements outlined in this guide, you can ensure a‌ smooth renewal‍ process⁣ and continue providing excellent care to ⁢patients. Remember to stay ⁤proactive, organized, and informed⁣ throughout the renewal process to avoid any potential issues. ⁤If you have any questions or need further assistance, don’t hesitate to reach⁢ out to your state’s licensing board or a CNA professional organization.

https://coursescna.com/your-complete-guide-to-cna-license-renewal-tips-requirements-and-deadlines/

[usuallygreatstarlight-blog]

VIN Decoder: Cracking the Code Behind Your Vehicle

Every vehicle making the rounds conveys a remarkable 17-character code, like a mystery mark. This code, called the Vehicle Unmistakable verification Number (VIN), is a jackpot of information about the vehicle's beginning stages, conclusions, and history. In any case, how might you sort out this series of numbers and letters? That is where a VIN decoder comes in.

What is a VIN Decoder?

A VIN decoder is an instrument that isolates the 17-character VIN into sensible information. Every individual in the VIN holds express importance, from the country of creation to the kind of engine in the motor. Using a VIN decoder grants you to make a translation of this code into nuances that are relevant to you as a vehicle owner or buyer.

Why Might it be really smart for you to Use a VIN Decoder?

Understanding your vehicle's VIN is some different option from knowing a progression of numbers — it's connected to opening fundamental information. Here is the explanation using a VIN decoder is huge:

Affirm the Vehicle's Personality: The VIN tells you exactly what you need to be know all about the vehicle's make, model, and year. This is especially useful while buying an exchange vehicle, to ensure the vehicle's plugged nuances match its certifiable conclusions.

Check for Realness: Sadly, vehicle distortion exists. A couple of sellers could try to make a vehicle seem to be something it's not. A vin decoder checks the certifiable character of the vehicle, holding you back from buying a vehicle that has been mutilated.

Realize the Vehicle's Arrangement of encounters: When you unravel the VIN, you can use the information to get an organized vehicle history report. This is vital for check for things like incident history, title status, and odometer readings.

Demand Right Parts: Knowing the particular specifics of your vehicle helps while mentioning new parts. The VIN contains experiences concerning the engine sort, body style, and that is just a glimpse of something larger — information that can promise you get the right parts for fixes or updates.

How Does a VIN Decoder Work?

Interpreting a VIN could sound tangled, but current gadgets have made it obviously straightforward. Here is a rapid breakdown of how a VIN decoder capabilities:

Find the VIN: First, track down the VIN on your vehicle. You can by and large find it on the driver's side dashboard, near the windshield, or inside the driver's entrance. It's furthermore recorded on huge reports like your vehicle's enrollment or insurance papers.

Enter the VIN: Visit a site that offers a VIN unraveling organization. There are many free VIN decoders available on the web. Basically type in the 17-character VIN into the gave search box.

Decipher the VIN: The decoder will slow down each piece of the VIN to uncover express bits of knowledge concerning the vehicle. Here is an upsetting considered all that the VIN can share with you:

first Individual: Country of creation (e.g., "1" for the U.S., "J" for Japan).

second and third Characters: Maker (e.g., "VW" for Volkswagen, "3N" for Nissan).

fourth to eighth Characters: Vehicle credits (engine sort, body style, etc.).

10th Individual: Truly see digit, used for supporting the VIN.

10th Individual: Model year (e.g., "L" for 2020, "M" for 2021).

11th Individual: Social affair plant region.

twelfth to seventeenth Characters: Creation gathering number.

Overview the Nuances: directly following interpreting, you'll get an unmistakable breakdown of the vehicle's specifics. Contrast this information and the vehicle's documentation or seller's purports to ensure everything arranges.

VIN Decoder versus VIN Question

You could look at how as a VIN decoder changes from a VIN inquiry. While both use the VIN to collect information, a VIN decoder bases on the vehicle's conclusions and character. It tells you the vehicle. A VIN question, of course, jumps into the vehicle's arrangement of encounters — like setbacks, title status, and that is just a glimpse of something larger. The two gadgets are essential, but they finish different necessities in figuring up your vehicle.

End

The VIN could appear to be a sporadic knot of letters and numbers, but it holds the way in to your vehicle's story. Using a VIN decoder, you can open basic nuances that help you with checking the vehicle's character, avoid coercion, and assurance you're getting unequivocally definite thing you expect.

Whether you're purchasing an exchange vehicle, mentioning new parts, or just curious about your own vehicle, a VIN decoder is a useful gadget that can give you veritable tranquility. The accompanying open door you go over a VIN, don't permit it to be confidential — translate it and reveal the special experiences behind your ride!

[ashwetu]

Meticulous Research® Forecasts Global Aviation MRO Market to Reach $92.1 Billion by 2031

 Comprehensive Analysis Unveils Key Growth Drivers, Challenges, and Opportunities in the Aviation MRO Market

Meticulous Research®, a global leader in market intelligence and advisory services, has published its latest report titled “Aviation MRO Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast (2024-2031).” The report projects the global aviation Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) market to reach $92.1 billion by 2031, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% from 2024 to 2031.

Market Dynamics

The growth of the aviation MRO market is primarily driven by increasing investments in aircraft maintenance, the expansion of air travel, and heightened government focus on modernizing airport infrastructure and implementing stringent safety regulations. However, the market's expansion is tempered by rising fuel prices and the high costs associated with MRO services. Notably, the growing demand for remote maintenance and repair systems, coupled with the expansion of line maintenance services at airports, presents new avenues for market participants. A persistent challenge remains the shortage of skilled personnel, which continues to impact market growth.

Download Sample Report Here : https://www.meticulousresearch.com/download-sample-report/cp_id=5454

Market Segmentation

The report offers a detailed segmentation of the aviation MRO market based on service type, aircraft type, and business model:

By Service Type: The market is segmented into engine overhaul, components, line maintenance, airframe maintenance, and modification services. Engine overhaul is poised to dominate with a 46.0% market share in 2024, driven by the critical need for regular inspection and maintenance of aircraft engines. The line maintenance segment, however, is expected to experience rapid growth due to the rising demand for routine checks and minor repairs to ensure compliance with aviation regulations.

By Aircraft Type: The market is bifurcated into fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. Fixed-wing aircraft are projected to hold a commanding 69.0% market share in 2024, attributed to the essential need for maintaining safety and reliability. On the other hand, the rotary-wing aircraft segment is anticipated to grow swiftly due to the increased use of MRO services for rotor blade maintenance and other vital components.

By Business Model: The independent repair stations segment is expected to lead with a 34.0% market share in 2024, driven by new opportunities in business and general aviation, as well as enhanced collaboration with aviation service providers. The commercial airline hubs segment is projected to witness significant growth, fueled by increased international trade and investment in airport infrastructure.

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Regional Insights

Geographically, the Asia-Pacific region is anticipated to dominate the aviation MRO market, securing a 32.0% share in 2024. The region's growth is propelled by the rising demand for engine maintenance services and the necessity to comply with stringent aviation regulations. As the region's aircraft fleet continues to grow, the demand for MRO services is expected to surge, maintaining its leadership position throughout the forecast period.

Key Market Players

The report profiles leading companies in the aviation MRO market, including:

Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited

Honeywell International Inc.

Barnes Group Inc.

KLM UK Engineering Limited

Lufthansa Technik AG

MTU Aero Engines AG

AAR Corp.

Airbus SE

Turkish Technic Inc.

FL Technics

TAP Maintenance & Engineering

Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company PJSC

Raytheon Technologies Corporation

Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd

Collins Aerospace

Critical Questions Answered in the Report:

What are the key growth segments in the aviation MRO market?

What are the market forecasts and estimates for 2024–2031?

Who are the major players, and what are their market shares?

What are the emerging trends and high-growth regions?

Quick Buy: https://www.meticulousresearch.com/Checkout/32088469

Contact Information:

Meticulous Research® Email: sales@meticulousresearch.com Phone: +1-646-781-8004 Connect with us on LinkedIn: Meticulous Research

[kvibe-test]

Elevate Your Legal Career with Continuing Legal Education

TITLE: The Importance of Continuing Legal Education for Legal Professionals

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) is crucial for the development of legal careers. Its purpose is to help lawyers keep up with the latest changes in the legal sphere and enhance their professional abilities. Personally, I've seen the transformative benefits of CLE. Participating in these specialized programs has not only kept me current but also significantly strengthened my proficiency in various legal areas.

Staying Relevant with CLE

There's no substitute for practical experience, but CLE fills a critical gap by offering vital updates on new laws, regulations, and court decisions. CLE courses ensure that legal professionals remain abreast of the latest legal trends and legislative changes. Keeping updated through CLE helps in advising clients with the most current and pertinent legal information.

Benefits That Go Beyond Knowledge

CLE offers numerous advantages. From honing practical skills like negotiation and legal writing to paving the way for career progression, CLE is a game-changer for many. For example, enhanced skillsets acquired through targeted CLE programs can boost confidence in handling complex cases more effectively. Additionally, there's a benefit of networking with fellow legal professionals, laying a foundation for future referrals and collaborations.

Engaging in CLE signifies a dedication to professional growth. This often translates into career progression opportunities, possibly leading to better job offers and higher salaries.

Diverse Learning Platforms

One of the most compelling aspects of CLE is the array of formats available, catering to different learning preferences. Options range from live seminars and webinars to self-study courses and audio/video presentations. For instance, the flexibility of webinars allows legal professionals to learn at their own pace, eliminating the logistical constraints often associated with in-person sessions.

Furthermore, conferences and symposiums offer extensive coverage of diverse legal topics. These multi-day events not only provide comprehensive knowledge but also offer unmatched networking opportunities, making them a favorite among many.

Optimizing Your CLE Experience

To maximize the benefits of CLE, consider the following strategies:

Plan Ahead: Identify upcoming CLE programs that align with your career goals and mark them on your calendar.

Engage Actively: Whether through asking questions or participating in discussions, active engagement is crucial for retaining knowledge.

Apply New Skills: Reinforce your learning by applying new techniques and concepts in your legal practice. Sharing these insights with colleagues can further deepen your understanding.

Track Your Progress: Maintain a detailed record of your CLE activities to comply with state requirements and monitor your career development.

Remember, tracking your progress not only helps in meeting state mandates but also provides a personal checkpoint for assessing your own professional growth.

Many colleagues have shared their experiences with me regarding the profound impact of CLE on their careers. Jacob, a seasoned litigator, recounted, “Attending CLE seminars and workshops has been indispensable. It’s extraordinary how much one can learn and apply, even as a veteran in the field.” Such testimonials underscore the vital role CLE plays in continuous professional development.

Moreover, networking is an invaluable aspect often highlighted. Meeting peers, judges, and industry leaders at these events can foster relationships that lead to fruitful professional collaborations.

In conclusion, engaging in Continuing Legal Education is essential for any legal professional aiming to stay ahead of the curve. It's more than just a formal requirement; it’s an opportunity for lifelong learning, career advancement, and professional excellence.

Investing in CLE not only equips you with up-to-date legal knowledge but also enhances your practical skills and professional relationships. Do not miss out on the substantial benefits that continuous learning can bring to your legal career.

#ContinuingLegalEducation #LegalSkills #ProfessionalDevelopment #CLE #Lawyers

Elevate your legal expertise with ongoing education opportunities at Https://www.kvibe.com

[thecorpseswallower]

I. Lárus

He cleared his throat, intending to explain, “We were waylaid by an oncoming storm—”

Hadrien interrupted him with a laugh, slinging a thick arm across his shoulders. “No need to explain, my friend! Come ‘round all, let us hold this council properly. And Lárus, where is—?”

“Outside,” he answered quickly.

“I see. Well, if he wants glögg, he knows where to find it.”

The Scholars arranged themselves along the benches while Hadrien fetched eight horns, ladling them full with simmering wine. As he served them each to a member of the assembly, he listed their names with titles and accolades appended where appropriate.

When he reached the end, Lárus blinked curiously at the Mau and asked, “Do you not have a family name?”

“It is not common in my culture, no.” Azar had the face of a man with a neatly trimmed black beard, high cheekbones and sharp features, with tawny fur that shifted from white to muted orange along his back. Light markings under his eyes served only to darken the iris of his left, with the right being clouded over by milky white, clearly blind. His paws, mane, and tail were black, and an unfamiliar accent was heavy on his tongue.

“How refreshing.” He smiled. “Well— to begin, would you allow me some questions that may seem foolish? As thorough as our correspondence has been, the very nature of our nation’s long isolation has perhaps hindered my understanding of the wider world.”

“Of course,” Magnolia allowed.

“You say that your people, the Scholars, are from the College of Scholomance. Where is this college located?”

The human before him threaded her fingers patiently, her posture and tone as taught as bootlaces. If she were a professor at this college, Lárus would not be surprised. “Scholomance rests on the Isle of Scholars, a land you may still know as the island of Gorias. Ívarr, an Alfar man of this very nation, was said to have set sail to the west shortly after your war began. He founded the school once his ship was wrecked upon the coast, and it is his own son Cathal who presides as chancellor today.”

“This much is known to me, but only as a story of the distant past. You say Ívarr left as the war was beginning— that was over two centuries ago. How might his son still sit the throne?”

Magnolia looked towards the twins. “Alphonse, would you be so kind as to speak of your family?”

The boy jolted as if he had been burned. His sister, Medb, only rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, looking off into a dark corner of the room.

“O-oh. Yes, of course.” The boy coughed a bit, taking a hesitant sip of wine to loosen his tongue. “It is true, though strange— my grandfather is Ívarr himself. Sometime along his journey, he had uncovered a source of eternal vitality. He never told anyone what he found, nor where, but it became obvious very quickly. My sister and I were born to his son Cathal, making us heirs. In essence.”

“In essence?” Lárus prompted.

Nervous, Alphonse raised a hand to his shirt collar. “Our mother spirited us away when we were children,” he explained. “We have not formally renounced our inheritance, but…”

“I understand. Worry not, I mean no hostility by my asking. Is your grandfather still alive today?”

“No, my Lord, he succumbed to madness two years ago.”

“How unfortunate. It would have been illuminating to speak with him.” Lárus brushed the matter aside with a gesture. “But! This matters not. We must speak of the present, for it is now that you’ve come to us with an offer of aid, and only now that there are those in authority with the good sense to accept it. But I must ask— and forgive my Alfarin bluntness— why now?”

Magnolia closed her nut-brown eyes. “We come to you not only on behalf of Scholomance, but as a debt to the nation of Lyonesse. Our home is far from here, as Alphonse has illustrated. The islands are difficult to reach once one has left, and so we Scholars must survive on the generosity of our allies. We seek to restore balance in the lands, and nations call upon us when such things are out of place.”

“Restoring balance? Surely your debts to Lyonesse, whatever they may be, could be paid more effectively through your services in their lands. And yet you have approached us, seeking some part in our war. Why?”

“A negotiation in Tartessos has turned sour. Princess Flora lays dead, slaughtered during what should have been a diplomatic meeting with one of our own. Lyonesse is not a large country. Ys stands as its capital, directly in the centre between your nation’s border and Tartessos. The people there have given us shelter, believing us when we say that our trust was betrayed by a cobbled together group of mercenaries. It was a mistake made out of arrogance and inexperience, but not an assassination by our hands.”

Magnolia was careful not to name the Scholar responsible, but she did not need to— the way Alphonse curled in upon himself as she spoke was evidence enough.

She continued, “We do not know how much news reaches you in the walled city, but Arcadia has been threatening a siege of Tartessos ever since they landed upon her shores. Elysium has now fallen to their rule in all but name. With the Princess dead, Arcadia has initiated its own general in command of the nation. We fear that more attempts to conquer nearby lands will follow, once the rebellions in Tartessos crumble beneath Arcadia’s heel.”

Lárus’ fingers steepled as she spoke, hands resting on his knee. She was not done— he would not interrupt her with unpleasant news until she was.

“Lyonesse does not need the aid of the Scholars, it needs an army.” Magnolia was a Tartessian woman; it showed in her mannerisms just as much as in her dress. She held herself as straight as a lance, her amber eyes steady, painted lips held in a severe line. An invasion that could bring a nation of her people to their knees ought not to be taken lightly.

“Yours is the only nation in the far north reachable by land. The only way Arcadia can directly fund its invasion now is through Elysium, by boat. Andlángr sits in a prime position for Arcadian invasion, and when they come— when, not if— it will be to take your cities and channel them into hubs for their southern expansion.”

Sensing that her case had been made, Lárus leaned back. He smiled thinly as he said, “My Lady of the South, I’m not certain of how much news has reached you regarding what’s been happening within our walls, but we do not face a mortal enemy. Our armies, once mighty, have dwindled in the centuries we have spent raging this war. We cannot spare forces to come to the aid of Lyonesse. Likewise, any Arcadians who step foot on Andlángr’s soil will face the fate of our people: a swift and untimely end by the dragons that roam our ruins. We have no stake in this war of yours. We have nothing to lose to Arcadia.”

“But,” Magnolia continued, undeterred; “You have an undying dragon waging war upon your people. A beast that is neither God nor mortal.”

“We do.”

“The chancellor of Scholomance has deemed such a disruption unacceptable. We humbly ask for the chance to assess this anomaly, and to perhaps bring an end to your strife. In return, you will offer Lyonesse your military might once the dragon has been slain.”

Lárus’ lips twitched with genuine bemusement. “Such a claim,” he remarked dryly. “What makes you so certain that your Scholars can end over two hundred years of war, when countless Alfar have tried and failed?”

Magnolia’s eyes certainly betrayed the truth: she was not certain in the slightest. But they had to secure Andlángr’s armies, as the north was the only place left for them to flee. The nations of Cockaigne and Raetia were below the thin belt of Tartessos’ western half. If the Scholars had any hope for repaying Ys, help would have to come from on high.

All she said was, “We are Scholars. This is what we do.”

The meek assurance hung in the air, fragile as faith.

Lárus considered the prospect. When it came down to it, that’s all they had to offer— faith in their miraculous abilities, faith that they could restore some sense of balance to a land that had never known of such a concept. Luckily for them, the denizens of Asgard had gotten very well acquainted with matters of faith in the years preceding the war, and certainly more zealous in the decades after.

And their proficiency aside, Lárus still had his own reasons for hearing out their pleas. It did not matter what they said to convince him— he had only asked to sate his own curiosity. All that truly mattered was the cover they provided.

“Very well,” Lárus conceded. Relief washed over each Scholar’s face in waves; each Scholar save one, the Mau whose half-blind eyes sought to hold his with incessant, feline curiosity. “I will grant you this opportunity and agree to your terms. Our army may be small, and smaller still when this is done, but our people are hardened by war and fear no mortal foe. We will aid you—”

“Thank you, gracious Commander,” Magnolia stated as she rose.

“— However, I must insist that you join us in battle as early as tomorrow.”

The Scholars’ eyes blinked back at him, as wide as a parliament of owls. Magnolia let the fabric of her skirts fall from her fingers.

“Tomorrow?” Marciano parroted.

“Yes, tomorrow. There have been a number of concerning reports from our watchtowers that dragons have been amassing towards the south-east. The storm that delayed our arrival gave cover to a number of scouts. We fear an invasion upon the southern end by the morning. Your return would be delayed regardless, so we may as well make the most of the situation.”

“But our other members—” Magnolia began, stopped, and composed herself quietly before continuing in a voice which commanded authority. “There are other Scholars far better suited to combat than ourselves. We would be at a disadvantage, springing into battle so soon.”

Lárus tapped his fingers on his knee. “I see. However, we would not ask you to put yourselves in undue danger. Your mages may fight if they so please— but my intention is for you to see the foe you’re up against, if you are so determined to best them.”

Dragons were supposedly found across the world, but were typically reclusive, shy. If the Scholars had seen dragons in the past, Lárus doubted they would be so keen on joining a war against them.

Best to show them the reality early, then. Nobody becomes an unbeaten bishop.

“We will arrange rooms for you here, in Himinbjörg, if this is acceptable,” he continued. Magnolia did not look at her fellow Scholars as she considered her options. She eventually stated, coldly, “We accept, and thank you for the opportunity.”

“Very well. Hadrien and I will see to your accommodations. Let us see this meeting adjourned; we both ought to sleep while we have the chance.”

Fixing his cloak around his shoulders once more, Hadrien saw him out, opening the door to the blistering cold winds of the night. Sigur was leaning against the wall of the Hall, his helmet visor drawn closed.

“How did it go?” He asked.

“I’m not sure. Don’t let any of them get killed tomorrow.”

Sigur scoffed. “Thank you for leaving me the easy job.”

Lárus knocked their shoulders together as they walked towards the barracks. “You’re so welcome.”

-- Next ->