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#it is not the end of the world. even the utilities sending you to debt collections etc etc
goldkirk · 4 months
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I'm so proud of myself about finances in the past couple months. I still struggle with money but I did enough meditation and journaling and practicing about it to make myself able to actually face my loans and credit cards and savings and bills and start really truly organizing and addressing them for the first time in years instead of just flying by the seat of my pants.
Like. This is a huge deal for me. I've felt like I'm in deadly danger every time I've tried to think about money for years and years. I'm finally able to look it in the face and stare it down and start to organize and plan on purpose instead of just keeping up with the minimum to stay afloat. I'm so proud of myself.
It's still a refrain of "GUILT (funny link)" every time I think about money but I'm able to actually make spreadsheets and face the numbers and monthly tracking again, and even make a new full budget which I haven't been able to do in ages.
still feel guilt, overwhelm, and helplessness, but no longer feel as much deep elemental shame and terror. that's progress baby
#we don't need to talk about how many months and months of therapy visits and doctor appointments I put on credit cards#among other things#but I had to put my foot down about it a couple months ago and shout at myself a little saying HEY#I AM SHAKING YOU BY THE SHOULDERS I AM SHOUTING FOR YOU TO HEAR#OF COURSE IT WAS A TERRIBLE FINANCIAL DECISION BUT YOU WEREN'T EVEN EXPECTING TO BE ALIVE#THE CREDIT CARD DEBT WAS NECESSARY TO KEEP YOU ALIVE AND IT DID AND EVERYTHING ELSE IS WAY LESS IMPORTANT THAN THAT#why the FUCK are you feeling SO ASHAMED for making the best decision you knew how to make at the time???#just because you know NOW that you could have tried some other options doesn't mean you did THEN#you may have known enough to feel shame and guilt yes but you would never in a million years have gotten the help you needed fast enough#by attempting to go another route#you didn't trust anyone besides a very few handfuls of people and even them it wasn't fully#and the stress of running it through parental insurance was so terrifying to you bc you didn't know what that would do#and you never had cosigners for anything your whole adult life. it's OKAY#you fucking DID YOUR BEST#YOU HAVE LEARNED. YOU HAVE MADE CHANGES. YOU HAVE ALREADY DONE BETTER#YOU WILL CONTINUE TO LEARN AND IMPROVE OVER TIME#it is not the end of the world. even the utilities sending you to debt collections etc etc#YOU ARE FIGURING IT OUT ONE PIECE AT A TIME#MORE PEOPLE ARE ASHAMED AND AFRAID OF THEIR OWN FINANCES THAN YOU THINK#if the people who fought and argued with and shamed you for considering student loans much less taking them out#had wanted you to actually be financially safer and healthier#they could have just fucking helped out or cosigned your loans or actively helped you find other solutions#instead of spending months and months telling you it was the worst decision ever and would ruin you financially for decades and such#you made the best decisions you could with the level of terror and knowledge that you had. it was enough to keep you alive.#isn't that enough?#isn't it a victory to survive?? isn't that enough??????#god i'm cringing at sharing this but if it's been this hard for me surely at LEAST one of you has also made financial mistakes or regrets#and seeing me be honest that I fucked it all up too and it's a mess and I'm just climbing back through it as best as I can as I go#will hopefully make at least one of you feel a tiny bit less alone
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beldaroot · 1 month
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"i know both presidential candidates support genocide, but we still need to vote-" ENOUGH. y'all always emphasize the right to vote, but your civic duty literally starts and ends with voting. if you say you're going to vote for someone regardless of what they do, even if you oppose a majority of their policies, how effective is your vote? how are you utilizing the power of your vote to pressure change?
i've seen so many posts saying we have to think about lgbtq+ people, women, bipoc, immigrants, and disabled people this election since it's not just the palestinian genocide that's on the ballot and i just wished y'all would just admit that you're racist. that you would just end this facade of caring for palestinians when you actually believe the livelihoods of americans are more important. genocide should be the red line for everyone, it is quite possibly the worst thing that could happen to a group of people, and yet you're finding ways to minimize it bc it could affect an election that is already steeped in fascism.
you say we have to talk to these minority groups to understand the dangers of a trump win, but none of you are talking or listening to palestinians. palestinians who are dying from our tax dollars and bc our president has vetoed a ceasefire three times now, cut unrwa funding, and sends israel weapons every 36 hours. a president who is:
supporting the "toughest" border security bill (bipartisan btw)
calling undocumented immigrants "illegals" at the sotu
saying he'll sign the tiktok ban bill into law (bipartisan again)
hugging and kissing fascists like netanyahu and meloni
saying he doesn't know how classified documents got into his house but can retell the 40 beheaded babies lie twice
not scheduling campaign events in universities to avoid being interrupted by young voters, therefore alienating his base further
saying no jewish person is safe without israel, implying jewish people aren't safe in the country he runs
not willing to expand the supreme court
not forgiving all student loan debt as he promised to do
saying "i've never been supportive of, you know, 'it's my body, i can do what i want with it'" in regards to women's reproductive health
removing telehealth from medicare beneficiaries
limiting covid precautions, allowing almost 1k dying per week since 2024 started
how has this man shown he's capable of stopping this feared project 2025 when he is actively appeasing to the right instead of his own base? when he has done nothing to stop trump from even being on the ballot once again? when he's not addressing the hundreds of thousands who voted uncommitted or the 80% of his base who want a ceasefire? when elected officials are ignoring people will, that is not a democracy.
we're living in a world where journalists of colors are being laid-off in mass in major media companies that only show half the news bc they're owned by billionaires. we're using nitrogen gas as a death penalty and criminalizing bail funds. homelessness is at its highest in a decade. boeing planes are falling apart in the sky and whistleblowers are dying. it's 70 degrees in march.
i'm telling you that voting blue isn't going to cut it. especially when you have democrats like nyc governor hochul sending the national guard to search bags to send a "psychological" message of safety. or like fetterman who are bought by aipac. or when the democratic minneapolis city council voted to increase rideshare drivers' wages, but now lyft/uber are leaving the city bc they don't want to pay their drivers more. it isn't just individuals, it's a whole system that is corrupt. if you want to show that your vote matters, you need to do that actual work to make your voices heard so your representatives are pressured to change course towards popular will. this should not be a cult where you blindly give your vote away to candidates unwilling to change.
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vivacapital19 · 9 months
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Top Factoring Companies In Houston, Tx 2021 Critiques
At ei Funding, we specialize in helping business house owners of any measurement get the funding they need shortly and reliably. We go the additional mile for you that different factoring companies just cannot or won't. Factoring has been our main focus since 1979, and we're committed Top factoring company Houston to offering the best and versatile packages in the industry. Once you might be setup for factoring you get funded in three simple steps. Next, you send us your invoice, invoice of lading and fee affirmation.
If you use a non-recourse company, you'll not have to fret about hiring a collection agency. The factoring company will own the debt, and the entire collection efforts will factoring company houston be its duty. At Power Funding, we work onerous to make our utility process as easy as potential.
These two would develop over time to become the world’s largest medical center advanced, with greater than 40 establishments throughout more than 600 acres. The Allen brothers had been from New York and moved south in hopes of continuing and expanding upon their bookkeeping and shopkeeping businesses. After their transfer Houston invoice factoring services to Texas in 1832, they played an instrumental half in keeping the troopers and forces provided during the Texas Revolution. After the revolution ended, Augustus Allen’s wife Charlotte obtained a sizeable inheritance, which they used to purchase the land that's now Houston.
The primary requirement is that you have an order from a credit score worthy industrial or government client. Gulf Coast Business Credit (GCBC)’s Meg Roberson recently attended the Commercial Finance Association (CFA)’s Independent Finance & Factoring Roundtable Conference May 14-16, 2014 in Dallas, Texas. The convention introduced together owners and senior executives from factoring companies nationwide to debate Factoring company houston tx present points and ways to address those points. Panels and discussions occurred during the conference covering a selection of topics together with gross sales, funding sources, social media, and co...
Beginning as an information entry clerk over two years ago at GCBC, Katie rapidly grew to become an Account Executive inside one year for the Baton Rouge based mostly manufacturing workplace. As an Account Executive, Katie serviced very lengthy time transportation business clients with facility limits as little as $5k and as excessive as $4 million. Gulf Coast Business Credit (GCBC)’s Liz Jenkins regularly supplies Factoring company in Houston Texas exceptional management and expertise together with her function as Vice President, Operations Manager. With over 17 years of experience in factoring and 7 years at GCBC, Jenkins specializes in the transportation trade. Jenkins graduated with a paralegal degree from Louisiana State University and is a licensed legal assistant as well as a civil legislation notary for Louisiana.
AR factoring helps accelerate the money flow by offering fast access to funds, as an alternative of ready for 30, 60, and even ninety days to get the invoice cleared. By trucking factoring with us we won't solely credit score clear clients for you, we may also pay you right away. Your options for model new customers, hundreds houston invoice factoring and routes, will open exponentially. By having so many extra load options you could have a better probability of preserving your drivers pleased too. We are a various group of 600+ financial professionals who deliver the core values of eCapital to life every single day. We are specialists throughout a broad range of monetary disciplines.
After you submit all of the invoices to the factoring company, they verify the major points and make sure the invoice qualifies for factoring. In most instances, the company advances eighty to 95 p.c of the factored quantity on the day of invoice submission itself. Well, to start Best factoring company Houston, we have in-depth credit experience and resources including business credit reports to check your customers' creditworthiness.
It is a relatively easy definition – a enterprise, on this case, a building contractor or subcontractor sells their yet-to-be-paid invoices to a factoring company. The factor will then pay (advance) them a share of that invoice quantity. After the invoice is paid by the client, the factoring company will ship the remaining % to the construction company, much less their factoring payment. Seacoast Business Funding offers dependable Factoring company in Houston working capital options for businesses by way of flexible lines of credit score and advances on accounts receivables. Offering services similar to invoice factoring, invoice discounting, asset primarily based loans, and trade finance, Express Business Funding is a frontrunner in different non-public business financing solutions in Canada.
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gludmarks · 2 years
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How Is Russian Financial System Doing? Worse Recession State Of Affairs Seen In Inside Report
The economy contracted three.7% within the full 12 months 2015, which contrasted the meagre progress registered within the earlier 12 months. However, the contraction in the Russian economy in the second quarter of was the slowest for the explanation that recession started in late 2014. Comprehensive knowledge showed that GDP contracted 0.6% yearly in Q2, which came in above the 1.2% decrease recorded in Q1. Although industrial production shrank in September, falling on the fastest pace seen in eight months, it's expected to increase barely in 2016 after struggling the worst contraction in six years in 2015. In addition, OFAC issued new guidance that warns of the heightened sanctions risk that international actors exterior of Russia would face for offering political or financial support to Russia because of its illegal makes an attempt to vary the status of Ukrainian territory.
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Congress is predicted to act swiftly to pass laws to formalize the downgrade of Moscow's commerce standing. The US revocation of Russia's long-standing most favoured trade status is just the newest in a collection of financial and monetary sanctions that have been levelled against Russia in response to its brutal war in opposition to Ukraine. By itself, the downgrade of its commerce status won't have an immediate far-reaching effect on the Russian economic system. The Kaluga area, a hundred ninety kilometres southwest of Moscow, says it has attracted more than 1.three trillion roubles ($15 billion) in funding, largely international, since 2006.
Market Information
Fast ThinkingFast Thinking When major world news breaks, the Atlantic Council’s consultants have you ever covered—delivering their sharpest fast perception and forward-looking analysis direct to your inbox. Start working with the stories utilized by the world’s major financial establishments, multinational enterprises & government businesses now. In August of 2015, Russian exports amounted to USD 25.zero billion, which marked a 39.7% contraction in annual phrases. Imports totaled USD 16.5 billion, which marked a 34.7% year-on-year contraction. Meanwhile, though hovering power costs have helped the exterior sector hold up relatively properly thus far, the EU’s determination in late May to largely ban Russian oil imports by end-2022 will hit the sector exhausting within the coming months. Meanwhile, to prop up the ailing economy, the federal government announced double digit hikes to pensions and the minimal wage, and slashed rate of interest again in May. While benefiting from a world commodity boom, he promoted state and crony capitalism. The tipping point was the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the principle proprietor of the Yukos Oil Company, in October 2003 and the following confiscation of Yukos. Russia had steady price range and current account surpluses allowing it to minimize its public debt and accumulate large international forex reserves. Even though political relations between Moscow and the West had been typically tense, economic ties between the two remained strong. Middle-class Russians might easily guide flights to Europe or purchase the latest Western shopper products, ranging from smartphones to denims. Basic monetary operations similar to sending or receiving money overseas could be accomplished in a matter of minutes. Since Putin may not satisfy the Russian individuals with excessive economic growth and rising standard of living, he opted for small victorious wars as a substitute, first in Georgia in August 2008 and then the annexation of Crimea in March 2014. "We will do what extra we can in the days ahead," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated on what additional support Britain would give to Ukraine. Apple Inc late on Tuesday said it had stopped gross sales of iPhones and other products in Russia, adding that it was making modifications to its Maps app to protect civilians in Ukraine. "Our economy is experiencing a shock influence now and there are adverse consequences, they are going to be minimised," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed reporters on a conference call. The broad commerce shift, which revokes the "most favored nation" status for Russia, is being taken in coordination with the European Union and Group of Seven countries. Power Moves If a green pivot is to occur, energy grids must turn into “supergrids,” continent-spanning networks that can move green energy 1000's of miles. While Keynesian economics and its Western allies have condemned the referenda in the Russian-controlled eastern and southern regions as illegitimate, the Chairwoman of the Federation Council, Valentina Matviyenko, claimed in late September that they adjust to worldwide norms and the U.N.
Us Bans Transactions With Russian Central Financial Institution
The short-term results of Russia’s financial progress have differing estimates. That is because extra sanctions could come, and the fallout from President Vladimir Putin’s warfare are unclear. What methods are in place to get inflation down, and when will the worldwide economic system really feel the results of the White House’s plans? The U.S. Treasury’s No. 2 official, Wally Adeyemo, joined Ravi Agrawal on FP Live to discuss the current challenges to the world economic system, the impact of the warfare in Ukraine, and far else. For many European countries, natural gasoline is even harder to chop off than oil, as it tends to be traded on longer-term contracts by way of fixed pipelines, and it isn’t as fungible as oil.
Over the past six months, sanctions have dramatically changed Russia’s financial relationship with the skin world.
Barely two weeks after global financial markets had started working wild because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia launched an oil price struggle with Saudi Arabia on March 6, which turned an additional distraction.
For now, different provides of liquefied pure gasoline, which may be transported by sea, remain restricted, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.
He issued one single programmatic decree, which was exceedingly vague, clarifying that reforms were out of question.
Beijing seems to have an "unspoken rule" of limiting its vitality dependence on anybody country to 15 %, and Russia is already slightly above that degree, she says.
With inflation at 8.5 %, Biden’s approval score dropped to 33 p.c in a Quinnipiac University ballot taken earlier in April. Barely two weeks after international financial markets had began running wild because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia launched an oil worth struggle with Saudi Arabia on March 6, which grew to become an additional distraction. Oil costs collapsed, which significantly aggravated Russia’s financial crisis. The decrease oil worth will trigger a major GDP decline on prime of the coronavirus fall. The Brent oil worth has fallen from $60 per barrel initially of 2020 to round $25 per barrel at current. Low oil costs and sanctions shocks to the Russian economy resulted within the ruble shedding 46% of its value towards the us dollar in 2014, prompting insurance policies from the Bank Rossii aimed at stabilizing the financial system. Two scholars of corporate do-goodery suggest a hidden driver of corporate choices to depart Russia is the global pattern by which record numbers of staff are quitting their jobs. "Oil gross sales make up 40% of Russia's total exports, and so they are serving to greatly to fund the struggle," he says. The EU has not imposed sanctions on Russian fuel, as a outcome of it depends on it for about 40% of its gasoline wants. A new spherical of sanctions, drawn up by the European Commission, proposes a further ban on Russian imports. The US says it'll also goal organisations outside Russia which offer help for its army, or its annexation of Ukrainian territory. The US is imposing sanctions on 278 members of Russia's parliament, for enabling the referendums to annex 4 regions of Ukraine.
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polhcommunications · 2 years
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Evergrande defaults
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#Evergrande defaults tv
It looks like things are set to go from bad to worse. Police officers and security guards stand in front of the barricaded entrance to the China Evergrande Group headquarters in Shenzhen, China, on September 14, as the firm faces mounting protests by homebuyers, retail investors and even its own employees, raising the stakes for authorities in Beijing as they try to prevent the property giant’s debt crisis from sparking social unrest Yikes. In addition to investors, some of the protesters said they were vendors the company had failed to pay. On Thursday, security personnel in Shenzhen hauled off protesters who had gathered outside the company’s headquarters, some of whom chanted, “Evergrande return our money,” the Reuters news agency reported. It’s also sparked protests among homebuyers, investors and even members of the firm’s staff who have shown up outside of Evergrande’s offices to demand company officials meet with them. Some $300bn of it, according to liabilities listed by the company, and Evergrande’s inability to make timely payments on the interest and principal amounts of its loans has investors inside and outside of China worried. But it isn’t a money-maker: the firm loses an estimated $155m to $310m on its football-related ventures annually, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Dan Wang and Daniel Fan wrote in a recent report.
#Evergrande defaults tv
The firm’s media company, Hengten Networks, includes a streaming platform known as Pumpkin Film that said it had 20.1 million paid subscribers by the end of May, and a film and TV production company called Ruyi Film.Įvergrande also boasts a sports team, Guangzhou Evergrande FC, which is one of the best-known football clubs in China. The company’s property management arm, Evergrande Property Services, has approximately 2,800 projects in 310 cities in China encompassing a total contract area of more than 680 million square metres, according to the firm’s website.Īnd its Evergrande New Energy Vehicle has set the ambitious goal of developing 14 electric vehicle models ranging from sedans to sport utility vehicles and producing and selling five million of them per year by 2025 and five million by 2035. It has also expanded to other industries, including electric vehicle production, property management, film and TV, theme park construction, life insurance, a hospital, a football club, and the production of food, mineral water and baby formula. Hui Ka Yan is the founder and chairman of China Evergrande Group How many projects does the firm currently have?Įvergrande currently has 1,300 real estate projects in 280 cities in China, according to its website. The 62-year-old is currently Evergrande’s chairman. Hui graduated from college in 1982 and worked in a steel factory before founding Evergrande, according to Forbes, which lists his current net worth at $11.4bn, making him the 53rd richest person on its Billionaires 2021 list and the 10th wealthiest on its China Rich List 2020. How long has Evergrande been in business?Įvergrande was founded in 1996 in the Chinese province of Guangzhou by Hui Ka Yan. Here’s what you need to know about Evergrande and the impact its current financial situation could have on China and the global economy. The central question is whether Chinese authorities plan to allow Evergrande’s creditors to suffer major losses or whether the country’s communist government, which prizes stability and control, will intervene in some way to avoid a messy default and the damaging ripple effects it could trigger. It’s the latest development in the real estate behemoth’s saga, which is being closely watched in China and around the globe.Įvergrande is currently the world’s most indebted real estate developer. And concerns are mounting that if it defaults on its debt, it could spell disaster for China’s property market and send shock waves through the world’s second-biggest economy.Ī reckoning appeared even closer on Wednesday after Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the real estate developer may not be able to make the interest payments on some of its $300bn in liabilities next week and could also miss a principal payment on at least one of its loans. China Evergrande Group is deeply in the red – to the tune of $300bn.
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plotwatch2 · 2 years
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Debt Reduction Companies Evaluation
Sending loans to collections represents an enormous loss for lenders; the last thing lenders need to do is ship a collections agency after you. Explain your financial state of affairs and ask your lender if they can be versatile with late charges, restructuring funds, and even renegotiating your rate of interest. A hardship letter may help to support your negotiation efforts with creditors. Kelly's Accounting's objective is that will assist you attain your monetary targets and keep monetary independence by way of a comfortable retirement. We can information you thru robust decision-making processes corresponding to asset allocation, investment performance monitoring, faculty training funding, retirement plans, insurance, and tax, property, and business succession planning. Whether you might be growing an funding technique or evaluating current investments, Kelly's Accounting can make sure that your portfolio will take into account tax implications for an advantageous after-tax return. And when the lowest bid comes in, ask how they can minimize it additional, probably through the use of a slightly unusual type of paper left over from another job or waiting a number of days till their equipment shall be idle. In the big business world, a CEO can order 10,000 job cuts with out ever assembly anybody who will get laid off. But decreasing a small office entails the excruciating task of shedding individuals you know properly and are on pleasant phrases with. It's so hard that some businesspeople watch their enterprise fail rather than wield the axe. But to survive, you must settle for the proposition that your responsibility to your employees is limited by economic reality. From May 2020 to December 2021, the initiative suspended $12.9 billion in debt-service funds owed by collaborating international locations to their creditors, in accordance with the latest estimates. It additionally can be onerous to qualify for a brand new card or loan when you're deeply in debt, as a end result of that usually leads to missed payments or excessive balances, and those harm your credit score standing. Not paying your bills can lead to collections calls, penalty charges and, doubtlessly, legal motion in opposition to you. Financial Institution Reconciliation This is because if you deposit a cheque in your checking account, you think about that the cheque has been cleared by the bank. It is essential to notice that such charges are not recorded by you as a business till the time your bank supplies you with the bank assertion on the end of each month. If your beginning balance in your accounting software program isn’t correct, the bank account won’t reconcile. However, in reality, there are often still discrepancies as a end result of timing points related to transactions (i.e. cash in transit) or errors from exterior suppliers (i.e. omitted transactions). Failure to pay suppliers is dangerous for business as being behind on funds can end result in a lack of service or goods from key exterior stakeholders. These deteriorating provider relationships can end result in business output being affected as a outcome of demand from customers not being in a position to be met. A lot of economic groups spend the vast majority of their time getting into data, trying to know inconsistencies, and losing time on manual and repetitive tasks. Bank reconciliation utility automates the method, enabling your staff to focus on higher-level duties while improving accuracy and insights, tightening controls, and decreasing audit risks. Helping to alert you to fraud, decrease your tax, and maintain your bookkeeping so as, financial institution reconciliation is an important course of for small companies to grasp. What is financial institution reconciliation, what's the objective of a financial institution reconciliation, how does it work, and how often do you should do it? Find out more about this significant accounting course of with our definitive guide. Access the inner supply of data being reviewed (i.e. the financial institution ledger account on your accounting software) and compare it against the exterior doc it's being in contrast towards (i.e. bank statement). Confirm that the opening steadiness on the former agrees to the closing stability on the latter. An accounting or monetary clean-up/catch-up goes hand in hand with a financial institution reconciliation, and it consists of getting of a business’s books and data up to date. Subsequent Degree Tax Inc We spend time growing personal relationships so that we are able to provide a service that is tailored to you and your business. For a nominal payment, we'll include union reports, licensed payroll, workers’ compensation reviews and rather more. Our professional staff let you focus on the core competencies of your corporation. We are accounting professionals–you get the consultants working for you and with you. Our complete understanding of the taxation legal guidelines and procedures allows us to gather information and substantiate gadgets reported in your tax returns. We gauge our worth by the private and enterprise successes of our purchasers. We might help your corporation establish areas negatively affecting profitability and development and develop options which would possibly be practical and technically sound. Through 會計師事務所 , our firm has entry to international resources that enable us to supply high quality financial providers with a personalised method. These membership alliances include RSM US Alliance, the Southwest Practice Management Group, Upstream Academy, and other specialized service suppliers. If you don’t want entry and are joyful receiving the monthly financial statements we offer, use can use our firm’s Quickbooks Desktop. How Do I Steadiness & Reconcile The Overall Ledger? Out-of-balance conditions happen when out-of-balance journal entries are posted by mistake or because of a system drawback. Some methods allow you to establish out-of-balance transactions easily, whereas others will force you to export journal entries to Excel and analyze them there. GL reconciliation software program imports essential information from all systems, including ERP and General Ledger systems, bank card statements, banks and all other sources of value. This means, your monetary staff can spend their time on high-value duties and only be concerned in the process when needed for investigative purposes. During the bookkeeping course of, other records outdoors the overall ledger, referred to as journals or daybooks, are used for the daily recording of transactions. The common journal consists of the accounting entries for each enterprise transaction that occurred in order by date. Look on the steadiness of each account in the trial stability report to make certain that the balance is affordable. If an account that should have a debit steadiness has a credit score stability or vice versa, pull the activity in that account and consider each transaction to search out the error. Many businesses reconcile their revenue statement accounts, such as comparing the payroll bills per quarter or per year with outside payroll reports. Maybe you had a big mailing that brought on the postage account to jump. Case Studies & Interviews Learn how actual businesses are staying related and worthwhile in a world that faces new challenges daily. Best Of We've examined, evaluated and curated the most effective software options on your particular enterprise needs. Appointment Scheduling 10to8 10to8 is a cloud-based appointment scheduling software program that simplifies and automates the method of scheduling, managing, and following up with appointments. With automation options likeSolveXia,you can perform correct and well timed reconciliation processes in no time. From information integrations to safe knowledge storage and easy-to-read reviews, there’s nothing you’ll be lacking when it comes to GL reconciliation. As you understand, the GL reconciliation course of can take up a lot of useful time. Since data is saved throughout multiple sources and must be compared side-by-side, handbook reconciliation is less than optimal. Without software, it implies that your team is spending time to both find source documentation and then undergo it line by line. Luckily, GL reconciliation uses the ability of technology and automation to make the method efficient. Accounting Vs Auditing Although this new reporting model does not change the essential inner management expectations for governments, GASB Statement 34 presents new financial reporting challenges for college districts. All forms of monitoring include amassing and decoding information, and this oversight operate is commonly carried out by way of data supplied in governmental reviews. Among an important types of communication is the annual financial report, which presents the financial place, operating results, and cash flows for a particular accounting interval. All governments, including school districts, develop their annual financial stories in accordance with principles established by standard-setting authorities to offer consistency and comparability for users. Because exterior monetary statements are utilized by a selection of folks in a wide selection of ways, financial accounting has frequent rules often known as accounting requirements and as typically accepted accounting rules . In the U.S., the Financial Accounting Standards Board is the group that develops the accounting standards and rules. Doctrine of negligence rests on duty of every individual to train due care in his conduct towards others from which injury could outcome. Serves as a discussion board for the 54 State Boards of Accountancy, which administer the uniformCPAexamination, license Certified Public Accountants and regulate the follow of public accountancy in the United States. Serves as a forum for the fifty four State Boards of Accountancy, which administer the uniform CPA examination, license Certified Public Accountants and regulate the follow of public accountancy within the United States. Investmentcompanywhich typically presents its shares to the common public and invests the proceeds in a diversifiedportfolioof SECURITIES. Average ofSECURITYor COMMODITY costs constructed on aperiodas quick as a few days or so lengthy as a number of years and showing trends for the newest interval. A necessary system ofDEPRECIATIONforincometaxpurposes, enacted by Congress in 1986. Financial results for equivalent enterprises will differ annually till a capitalized merchandise is completely amortized. Further, the ensuing variations in classification of reported cash flows will never reverse. Unless adequate information is offered to equate two in any other case identical enterprises or to track expensed items over time, it could be difficult to adjust for those variations. In endeavor the project, the FASB workers sought to obtain larger understanding of the specific nature of IASC standards. At the time that the project began , detailed details about the level of comparability of reported monetary outcomes between monetary statements ready based mostly on IASC requirements and people prepared based on U.S. In massive part as a outcome of increased consciousness ensuing from publicity surrounding the IASC's core requirements project, analysis on the issues associated to worldwide comparability has increased. Understanding Steadiness Sheets With steadiness sheet knowledge, you can consider components similar to your ability to satisfy financial obligations and how effectively you use credit score to finance your operations . Some of the current property are valued on an estimated foundation, so the stability sheet is not in a position to replicate the true monetary position of the enterprise. The goal of working capital management is to ensure that the agency is ready to continue its operations and that it has adequate cash circulate. This will make it simple to pull monetary information from a specific quarter to add to financial stories. It can even help traders determine your financial health at a selected point in time. Long-term liabilities, which are generally debt and financial obligations due a couple of 12 months away. Typical long-term liabilities would come with long-term bank loans, notes payable, and long-term principal funds. This is essential, as the steadiness sheet report displays the organization’s monetary status quo. Assets, liabilities and possession fairness are listed as of a particular date, corresponding to the top of its financial 12 months. A steadiness sheet is often described as a “snapshot of a company’s financial condition. ” Of the 4 primary monetary statements, the steadiness sheet is the one statement which applies to a single cut-off date of a business’ calendar year. There are three main limitations to balance sheets, together with the truth that they're recorded at historical cost, the use of estimates, and the omission of priceless issues, similar to intelligence. How Outsourced Finance And Accounting Services Will Increase Enterprise Efficiency More advanced plans permit you to track inventory, observe time, and even run full-service payroll. So that can assist you discover the resource that will work best for you, we've compiled a listing of the best small enterprise accounting software in the marketplace. Being a new enterprise proprietor, you might not notice but how essential a great accountant might be to the success of your company. If you may get recommendations for vetted providers, you will be that much nearer to finding your excellent accounting services match. Ask about positives that your colleagues have experienced with their very own companies. Even when you can’t discover anyone to advocate an organization, ask your potential companies to provide consumer suggestions so you'll have the ability to evaluate their present clients’ experiences. Intuit Quickbooks may be the first useful resource that comes to thoughts if you hear the term, "small business accounting software program" — and for good purpose. Beyond its first-rate suite of capabilities, this system sets itself aside with components like receipt capture and 24/7 chat help. I truly am thinking about your success, whether or not you are a small enterprise operator like myself or an individual simply trying to make your way via the model new tax codes. A new full-service accounting business has opened its doors in Market, Kentucky, in Market County. Owned and operated by Mary Beth Marcus, Marcus Accounting will cater to the needs of each small and home-based businesses and individuals all through Greater Market County. A similar direct mail package deal shall be despatched to a choose list of small companies, home-based businesses, and self-employed. Among the software's options are automated reconciliation, categorization using machine learning technology, and revenue and expense tracking. So in many cases, the burden falls on them to figure that aspect of issues out on their very own — leading many to look into accounting software. But the landscape for these options is packed, and it can be tough to know the place to begin. All operating costs are based on Marcus management research of similar working companies. The following schedule highlights the anticipated developmental costs and the primary 12 months Marcus Accounting project expenditures. Cmmc Advisory Companies The true check of an accounting normal is whether or not or not it satisfies the demand for info in the environment during which it's intended to be used. What is required, therefore, is a fuller understanding of the character of similarities and variations in the info offered within the monetary statements because of making use of the two sets of accounting principles. The FASB employees believes that the comparative analyses on this report will present useful data to assist interested parties consider the present state of IASC-U.S. GAAP have asserted that the 2 sets of standards are broadly related or that use of IASC standards can result in outcomes similar to folks who would have been obtained had U.S. As some of the comparative analyses in this report show, a variety of the IASC requirements and their U.S. GAAP counterparts do have a similar underlying strategy to accounting in sure areas and it could be attainable to arrive at related outcomes beneath both standards. However, if financial statements based mostly on IASC requirements are to be thought of appropriate for cross-border entry to the world's capital markets , it is essential that IASC requirements meet the calls for of those capital markets for high-quality monetary info. In maintaining with the objectives of the project, the comparative analyses presented in Chapters 3-30 of this report provide an data base to facilitate determination making about IASC standards by buyers, analysts, normal setters, regulators, and others. However, based mostly on the forms of differences identified by the individual authors, there are some general observations that can be made about the potential comparability of information reported in financial statements between an enterprise utilizing IASC requirements and one utilizing U.S. A critical concern in assessing the standard of the IASC requirements might be whether they would produce the same degree of transparency and comparability that usually is offered to U.S. buyers beneath U.S. Not solely is that this seen as a discount by the shopper, nevertheless it also lets you create a fixed-fee construction on your companies and show the shoppers the financial savings and worth they obtain. Every 12 months it will get tougher and tougher to operate a seasonal accounting enterprise, particularly if you’re trying to supply a selection of companies. Unless you’re doing simply cookie-cutter tax prep – and also you avoid complex returns – you won’t be capable of operate on a seasonal basis. That said, prioritizing the season and maximizing your efficiency through the heavy times is critical to discovering success. This will influence many other choices, together with the perform of the services you present, whether or not you want a physical or virtual location, your target demographic, and the situation of your corporation. For some, a sole proprietorship won’t require incorporation – particularly if the work is centered around less complicated tasks such as basic tax preparation. For instance, some multinational accounting firms have stated that the reconciliation process has served as a excessive quality control mechanism with respect to audit work performed by their native offices with respect to foreign firms. On the opposite hand, the SEC workers, primarily based on its evaluation of filings involving overseas non-public issuers using non-U.S. GAAP, has famous a variety of situations involving the inclusion of reconciling gadgets that seem like the outcome of non-compliance with residence nation GAAP rather than a distinction between the house nation basis of accounting and U.S. This could additionally be indicative of not sufficient focus on the accuracy of the first monetary statements. Private accounting refers to the enterprise practices of an accountant employed by a single company.
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souptea3 · 2 years
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Tips On How To Scale Back Money Flow Deficit By Business Finances Planning
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nyan-koii · 3 years
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Hashira ft. Sabito as genshin impact players
aunotes : Bad grammar ahead! I didnt proofread it so be aware of brain damage. plus i initially wrote it at the 1.6 update
PART 1 : T.Muichiro, R.Kyojuro, K.Shinobu, S.Sanemi, U.Tengen 
Muichiro : he probably would be uninterested at first. He's more to first person shooting game or anything other than this concept of farming or investing. So that's why when he saw yuichirou banging his fist on his desk, trying to get his fav character, he would simply just watch
"Fck this game, i've had enough,"
"But you havent finish your wishing things yet,"
Stares. "How about you give it a try mui. You might get the character i want,"
"You sure about that? You might get angry at me," "better than nothing. Now go go, get em you donkey,"
His first ten pulls on the game brings out a light we all want to see
"Eh is tha-" "AAAA A FUCKING 5 STAR FCK FCKFCK,"
Apparently, it was one of the luckiest wish yuichiro had ever seen so far
"OHMYFUCK, you GOT A GODDAMN KLEE, QIQI AND SUCROSE WTFF???"
"I think i get your fav character?"
"Yeahh!! More than that to be honest. I want klee but you brought me two more person," sniffles and cries "you're really lucky mui. You should try and play the game,"
"It's probably the system. I doubt im that lucky tho,"
Nah, he really is lucky. Apparently he wished for his friends and got what they all really wanted for so long
"Thank you for getting me the aquila favonia, muichiro,"
"It's nothing really. I just simply press the button. It might be the system that's giving you the thing you want when i wish,"
"But still, even if i were to wish, i can get really scared and paranoid over it,"
"That's bad. You shouldnt invest yourself that much in the game tanjiro. It's just a game,"
"Ehehehe, i guess so. But you're really good at it muichiro! If you download it, we can play together :D!"
!!!!
It took the word "play together" to get muichiro down on his knee for that game. Usually the idea of playing with your friends is not that interesting. So when tanjiro said that, you bet he's going to play it
Type of player
Extremely lucky it's not even real. He got a five star on the beginner's banner
Fast farming. He probably will complete all the quest and become an endgame player within one month
"I just wanted to play with tanjiro..." bashfully
He's really good with whatever he's doing. Attack combo, dodging, elemental reaction and all sorts of stuff. If he invest more of his time on artifacts, he would probably even one shot it!!
He's very lucky. Very
Kyojuro : he wouldnt even know the existence of this game. Well, he took a glimpse of it one day and boom, heart stolen. Maybe it was the fiery burning passion in bennett that made him play the game.
'oh wow!! What a determined young boy! Even though he has a very bad luck he still keep pushing forward! Amazing!!'
'I want to be like him'
Kyojuro's the type of player to read and pay attention to every single lore of his fav character. Bennett, oh my how he wish he could've had bennett in his team. Every wishes he made would make him a c6 bennett main if only barbara wont stop coming home
"I really like you barbara but i dont want you!! Thank you for the c6 though!! I promise to use you in the future but just-" he prepares to wish
"not NOW!!" Clicks
The highest con of bennett he had ever gotten is probably c1. One day the paimon's bargain shop offered bennett as their monthly character. Kyojuro had never been so excited over a game before. He usually perks up over academics and not this kind of thing. But it's bennett, the character he admires the most.
Unfortunately he couldnt get it due to low currency. He had never feel so sad in his life.
"I shall not give up. Dont worry, i will be a c6 bennett main!!!"
He will be a c6 bennett haver!!
Type of player :
Carefully reads every stories and listens to their lines attentively. He finds it amazing how the company spent their everything on this game. It amazes him. From the stories, lores and lines, he truly appreciates it.
Balance his team pretty well. He mains bennett so he doesnt need that much of a healer in his team.
Enjoys bennett's hangout very much!! He tried to not get him killed by the dungeon's trap but ended up having to sacrifice him which ultimately ends the route. He had never felt so down and guilty before.
Not much of a damage dealer. He prefers to play it in normal mode and doesnt care that much about one shotting monster.
He feeds his character three meals a day!! If only there's a sleep option, he would be sending bennett to sleep first before the rest.
Everyone loves his teapot
Shinobu : found the game while she's scrolling through the app store out of boredom. Initially she played it on her phone but due to the fps and a really bad ping, so bad that douma wouldnt find her interesting anymore, she finally downloaded the game on her pc where things has starting to get real
"Ara, shinobu chan, it's lunch time already. Come downstairs please,"
"Sis give me five more minutes, JUST FIVE PLEASE I NEED TO KICK CHILDE's ASS,"
"he's not going anywhere sweetie,"
"yEAHH BUT MY BP IS,"
'Bp?'
"DIE DIE DIE!!" Aggresive clicking intensifies
"Shinobu chan dont hurt the keyboard that much!!"
She got lucky on the beginner's banner too and pulled a 5 star along with bennett and noelle. Who's the 5 star? Diluc Ragnvindr in all of his glory. Shinobu benched him sadly. She prefers sword over any other weapon
"I mean he's cool i guess but i just really dont get that 'WOAHHH COOL' vibe from him you know?"
"then give your diluc to me! I really want him so bad shinobu chan!"
Deep sighs "yeah sure. You can have my c2 diluc mitsuri..."
Loses 50/50 to diluc everytime everyone would think she either is lucky or cursed by the amount of that man greeting him on the screen. She still bench him though, sadly
"Im begging you, give me jEANN THE GRANDMASTER I NEED HEALER iN MY PARTY TO DO ABYSS
Type of player :
Suffers a lot in the abyss because she just want the primos which is a valid reason to do because that's the only thing that keeps her going
She's a sword character main. She'll properly build every character as either support or dps. The support would be kaeya and bennett, and her main dps ayaka
Ayaka main btw
Honestly at some point she wanted to quit the game because of how tiring it is but then inazuma came out
Fragile resin = 0
Resin = 160/160 happens once in a blue moon
"i should probably control myself with the amount of resin i've used,"
"But i cant,"
Hates domain but always can be seen playing in there
Only coops if mitsuri is there
"So that someone can calm me down,"
"That's not a really good reason shinobu chan,"
Sanemi : dude probably know the game through obanai. He watched the latter play and finds it interesting on how high the numbers he dealt. He loves challenges so a game like genshin impact would probably satisfy his need.
"Obanai, are you hearing this shit?"
"What is it sanemi, im busy doing this event,"
"That loser giyuu is also playing the game,"
"Oh yeah i know,"
"YOU KNOW? WHY YOU DIDNT TELL ME??"
"i just know right after you told me,"
"...."
Sanemi's a meta but a mediocre one. He's meta but he doesnt show it that much. Probably buys welkin once in every three months or when he really needs it same goes with battle pass too. Honestly, he really just use his money when he really needs something
"Donno if my allowance can buy me a welkin so i'll probably skip,"
"But the next banner is zhongli's,"
"....."
"Ah fuck it," buys
My man cant dodge after he got zhongli. Its very painful because he used to studies the enemies movement in the early game so that he can utilizes it on the team but zhongli's shield is so tank he forgot that dodging exists
"Im gonna kill you and you and you hhahaahhaah just you wait im gonna shred all of yo- oh shit zhongli's shield. puT IT BACK PUT IT BACK ON,"
That one event where zhongli's shield plays an important role in the domain? Yeah, he felt like a god at that time. Even got his c2 on his rerun. Sanemi just really like zhongli because it kinda reminds him of himejima. Calm and wise and strong too. He looks up on that kind of person
"Zhongli sama, im in debt for all of your hard work protecting my team," bows and wipes tears
Type of player :
Spends a little money on the game to get what he wants
Zhongli main
Is that one player that has hoards of food but doesnt even use it
"Why need healer when you have zhongli's shield,"
Compare to kyojuro, he doesnt even touch the teapot because he finds it ridiculous and bothersome to create and design everything in it
Loves one shotting bosses and compares it to giyuu. He ask for advices from obanai regarding team build supports and stuffs
Doesnt do character's story quest. The key is full every single time. He unlocks it but leaves the quest like that.
"Ah shit, i accidentally activate the quest,"
His friend list only has obanai in it. Whenever people sent him friend request, he wouldnt hesitate, more like wouldnt care to accept it
They either have to coop in obanai's world or his world and after that, unfriend immediately
Says thank you after coop because he has manners and then completely disappears
"Zhongli main forever,"
Tengen : played since 1.0 this madlad has been staying loyal to the game ever since. Quite huge amount of money he spend on this game to be honest but he never gets broke by it. You can see his regular donation to the game by purchasing welkin and battle pass and some genesis crystal too. He's loaded with money, he didnt know what to do with it.
Uzui also plays honkai impact and guns girl Z so when he saw the unknown god at the intro , he was not surprised.
"Oh we have to pick between the siblings? Cool cool co- oh hi kiana,"
"Thats so herrscher of void hahahahah,"
Although he is a loyal fan to MihoYo games, he lost his composure when he saw the 1st genshin anniversary reward because what was that. Imagine getting billions of money and they give us this? Tengen cant believe this shit
"Oh god wtf was that reward, i have to draw to get a welkin and some primos?? aND I ALSO HAVE TO BE LUCKY? WHAT-"
"WHERE'S MY FREE MONA,"
In need of mona. He needs mona so bad he literally spent his money on standard banner to get mona but always ends up with qiqi. Not that he's complaining but he just wants the astrologist to complete the support team
"GOD QIQI YOU AGAIN? WTF WFF WTF-" converts genesis crystal to primigems
"Tengen, you should control yourself!"
"SHUT UP KYOJURO, IM GONNA WASTE MY MONEY TILL I GET HER,"
"yeah but my f2p ass is hurting with how many bennett cons you got," droops
Tengen sees potential in every character. Everyone has their weakness and strength so when kokomi comes out, he diss her at first but then realize maybe its a new way for a character. Adds the uniqueness if he may say so.
"Meh i dont care honestly. You guys should pull whoever you find nice or beautiful. Like me ;)"
"Who do you main uzui?"
"Beidou,"
Type of player
Spoils the storylines, lores, leaks A LOT THE REST HAVE TO BLOCK HIM ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Speed runs the game and has become an endgame player ever since but he still does his daily commission and helps people with domains and stuffs
R5 every battle pass weapon
Fights azhdaha for fun and to test out his characters rather than ruin guards and stuff
Mona wanter
Puts traveller as the pfp and doesnt display any showcase of his characters and namecards. You can only see his achievements and spiral abyss ( 12-3 ). Says its for fun and mystery
Throws a lot of pickup lines and roleplays a lot. Spams your chatbox messages with stickers and censored stuffs
Probably steals your ores and exotic things like violetgrass, qingxin and silk flowers
Screams in the chatbox whenever he saw Mona until Kyojuro had to calm him down
Changes signature every single time and sometimes put spoilers in it
In every survey he would complain "MihoYo where the fuck is my Mona,"
Doesnt heals his characters
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leather-and-laces · 3 years
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Stevie A. Nicks Biography × History Predating Stardust Crusaders
NOTE - This bio is a HUGE Work in Progress. Certain things may change, and other bits may seem rushed.
)▬▬ BASIC INFO ▬▬(
• Name: Stevie Annah Nicks
• Nicknames and Aliases: Anna, Savannah
• Species: Human
• Powers: Stand- Isis [Egyptian Goddess Stand]
• Alignment: True Neutral
• Date of Birth: December 13th
• Gender: Female
• Hometown: Tokyo, Japan
• Relatives: Unnamed Father [DECEASED; Died from Brain Cancer], Unnamed Mother [DECEASED; Murdered]
• Occupation: Shipping Company Owner [Former], Gambler [Currently]
• Equipment: Sewing Scissors and Thread
• Status: Alive
▪︎ Part 3 - Age : 33
▪︎ Part 4 - Age : 45
▪︎ Part 5 - Age : 47
▪︎ Part 6 - 56
• Stand Name - Isis
• Stand Power - Red String Manipulation: User can create, shape and manipulate the red string of fate, an invisible conceptual string that bonds souls together. They can create an limitless amount of red strings and extend them at any distance and the strings never tear apart, as it is practically indestructible. They can make the red strings become visible and touchable for others, and also choose to apply changes to anyone’s soul, and as well control the relationship of those bonded by the strings, or even completely remove their bond.
▪︎ Stand Stats
Power - D [Not “Attack” wise; This is catered to the effectiveness of Isis]
Speed - B
Range - A
Durability - D
Precision - A
Potential - B
▬▬ PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION ▬▬
• Height: 5’9’’
• Weight: 162 LBs
• Body Shape: Hourglass
• Natural Hair Color: Platinum Blonde
• Dyed Hair Color: N/A
• Eye Color: Blue
• Ethnicity: Japanese American
• Skin Tone: Porcelain
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*TOLD IN FIRST PERSON POV ONLY FIR THIS PART.*
▬▬ Back Story ▬▬
My father was a respectable man. A archeologist. And I, a archeologists’ eldest daughter and heir of his company, his golden girl. He not only owned a shipping company, he was a close relative of a museum curator, and also cared for the museum in Alaska– where we were often stayed at in the summer. As his heir, I was expected to learn much and so, I had my own private tutor once I was able to be home schooled.
When summer came to pass, we went back Tokyo. In Tokyo, I saw paintings in an art exhibit. I fell in love with their design, and took up the hobby of painting. I practiced and practiced, giving father and mother small gifts every once in awhile. He made it clear that I should not interact with the outside world all too often, as he believed it’d distract me from my studies after mother had passed away from a hate related crime; I was mixed between Japanese and American, bad blood from the second world war still remained. I, unknowst to him, was using this as a means of coping with grief, with trauma that had sparked my abilities; I always wished to alter the past, to manipulate Fate itself [though I hadn’t known it was fate at that time] to save my mothers life. I was about 6 at the time I first noticed my abilities. All the same, my father would oftentimes sneak out my supplies, leaving my projects vastly unfinished.
He did however, notice I had begun training my eye for the paint right after passing through the store on multiple occasions, and dreading with his daughter would whip up next. I could see things you wouldn’t believe; Red strings connected to every little thing with little dates etched into them, peoples lives… For as long as I could remember, I could see everything of this nature just dangling freely for me and only me to observe. I treasured these moments the most, this innocence in my abilities. Most of my paintings reflected things I saw in people’s lives.
I can remember everything so vividly down to an exact date and exact time in which my marriage that lasted a month or so, was quick to fall apart. I had just gotten into the gambling scene heavily at 24 years old and, undoubtedly so, I had made friends as well as enemies. It was no secret I was a rich mans daughter and heir that simply had too much time and cash on their hands to blow it all so I became a center of attention. My true gambling addiction began to grow from the time I was 16, as my tutor had accumulated a massive debt, and was the man responsible for sparking my true talent. Gambling. What few had tried approaching me in hopes of romantic interest, did so in groups, only interested in my cash or my body; Everyone except for him, or so I thought.
He was charming, handsome even, and he was like a god in my eyes for he made me feel special and loved… So when he proposed, I thought nothing of it and accepted him into my heart immediately. He was eager and I was nervous.
The chapel was empty on my side, save for my old tutor and an old colleague of my fathers, so his friends had spread out evenly.
My body, it was on the floor and it was oh so limp. I could feel it, suffocation as blood clogged every airway possible. So limp, yet I mustered the strength to say one name in hope someone-anyone-would overhear, no matter how faint or weak I sounded.
“Ricardo…?”
“No one is going to find your body, my sweet.”
With that, that Italian bastard left me to die, gagging on my blood. And the fool had the audacity to step over me as I was in the process of dying in my own pool of blood on the floor in the bedroom, blood slipping between my fingers from the wounds peppering my stomach and face from the bat he used to beat me with. Before leaving through the door, he stoked a flame to a scented candle given to us on our wedding… and smiled down at me “Thanks for the inhe…..”
I can remember blacking out and, somehow, by some miracle, I was alive; My ribs were cracked, left hand fractured and I had various damage to my face from the bat which he had chosen to bludgeon me with but… I was alive. It stirred something in me, like I had cheated the inevitable when in actuality a friend of his hand stopped by to drop off a box of camping supplies…
He planned to break my bones and stuff me in a trunk to better hide me in the nearby woods easier.
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)▬▬ Stardust Crusaders Biography ▬▬(
A single mother turned thrill seeker, the longtime gamblers travels had landed her in Egypt; She felt seemingly drawn in, called to even, in a casino up in Cario. As a matter of fact, her exploits in gambling her brought her to make an acquaintance of the Elder D'Arby brother. The pair were rivals in the beginning; Stevie aiming to collect his thread of life, and he aiming to collect her soul, the pair would often play various card games together. It was always rather intense, but there was no success in their battles for either party, oftentimes ending in a draw.
These games together brought the pair closer, additionally, causing the duo to pair up to play games against people of interest. This also sparked the interest of Lord DIO, particularly her abilities, involving the alteration of fate on a human soul with the exception of the past; Her abilities complimented the Elder D'Arbys abilities rather well. He offered her money for her efforts, but she merely stated that she was interested in the thrills that accompanied her gambling habits, in exchange that she gets her children tended to with no involvement in this lifestyle she leads. She would oftentimes accompany the Elder D'Arby for his gambling exploits, even if she herself do not play games with him at all times, she ended up using her abilities to compliment his abilities with the soul.
She ended up, eventually, having her fair run in with the Crusaders shortly after the defeat of the Elder D'Arby. With her employ to DIO and the defeat of her friend, she challenged them to her own game of fate, before she was defeated. In a last ditch effort, she attempted to utilize her threads to grab herself a hostage for she knew her failure would ultimately lead to her potential demise. However, Star Platinum was fast, making short work of the woman and shattering all ten of her fingers, rendering her stand completely useless as she has no mobility in her hands. Her fate is ambiguous after this last encounter, but she is to be credited for helping place Anubis on that familiar path in which Chaka acquired the famous sword. Her role is minor in the Glory Gods, and ultimately, apart from complimenting the Elder D'Arbys abilities or her alteration of fate bound to a soul, she has little impact on the grand scheme of things.
She lives her life in shame as much as isolation, having been unable to raise her months old daughter properly, she had to send her child away to a relative in America until her hands recovered from their previous injuries caused by Jotaros encounter.
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loquaciousquark · 4 years
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I hope you're doing well! I know you posted about a stressful situation last month, and I hope it's resolved itself. Sending good wishes you you and Hamlet!
Thank you so very much for checking in on me! I really do appreciate it. An update to that post under the cut.
Carol, who moved in with me on May 28, is still here. Right now, we have set a tentative move-out goal of the first or second week of August, but this is pending an apartment application that she hopes to finalize on Monday and a job situation that is a complete mess.
Basically, according to my limited understanding, Carol is licensed to teach in Florida. Alabama has a reciprocity clause with Florida, but it must be applied for. Carol has recently begun this process, but her teaching license(s?) is (are?) set to expire in December unless she passes certain exams. She’s already passed one for...general middle and high school teaching, I think, but failed a math exam. She has an art history exam Monday afternoon and expects to pass. I hope so, because she’s been doing nothing but watching Netflix and shopping for houses for the last few days in her new 2017 Jeep Cherokee.
I remain unspeakably grateful to my parents for teaching me financial literacy, because until I witnessed Carol’s decision-making, I had no idea how hard it was for some people to not spend money unwisely. 
As a reminder, Carol is dead broke. She has $153,000 in debt across student loans, medical bills, Czech and US taxes, and some personal loans she would like to repay to friends for helping her. She is unemployed and has no support from her family and has relied on couch surfing at friends’ and acquaintances’ homes since last summer for housing. Since moving in with me, she has been trying to find somewhere to live that would accept her with all her debt and her nonexistent US employment history for the last ten years. Based on what she’s said, I think she has about $9k in the bank--or did, until last week.
In short, she needs a car, a job, and a home, and as far as I can tell she doesn’t care which order they come in.
Two weeks ago, she was offered a position in a rural town about 30 minutes from where I live. It’s a small, very country town which desperately needs a special education teacher, something I think Carol really does have a passion for. However, because she hasn’t finished the reciprocity licensure application yet, they’re having a lot of roadblocks with her paperwork, compounded by the fact that when she left Prague last year, she left all her important documentation behind: things like her birth certificate, her social security card, and her letters of recommendation, which for some reason she did not have electronic backups of. The principal has been trying to get what she needs from Carol for two weeks. Carol is constantly saying that things are “in process” but has nothing to show for it.
As far as we can tell, the job is still hers, but the school year starts August 13th and she still hasn’t been approved by the Board of Education because the paperwork is still not finished on her end. She did not attempt to replace her birth certificate or social security card until they needed it for the application. (Her friend in Prague--and I am beginning to realize she uses the word “friend” for anyone she’s met longer than sixty seconds), who frantically packed up all her belongings when she realized she would not be able to go back to the city, cannot ship her belongings or go through them for the important paperwork until next summer, as she and her husband are currently vacationing in Rome for a year.
Carol decided last night she is also going to apply for some online Department of Defense position--I didn’t understand the details and don’t really want to know, except that it’s also teaching and some administration. We’ll see how it works out. She is growing increasingly annoyed at the principal’s requests for paperwork completion, which baffles me.
So, job: shrug? Maybe?
Car next, then, but this whole mess also goes back to the financial literacy thing. My parents have always been extremely frugal (pennywise, as my dad would say), and from childhood they made it very clear to us to not buy things you couldn’t afford. They’ve never had a car payment in my memory, and they paid off their house about ten years ago. This means they drove a lot of junkers for a very long time, and for a very long time we had very few vacations, but now they’re fully financially stable and debt-free and my mom has a car that she drove off the lot brand new that they paid cash in hand for. 
If I had been in Carol’s situation, I would have found a cheap, mostly reliable used car that probably wasn’t going to explode on me and drive that as long as I could while saving up for housing. I did in fact drive her to look at several used cars, most of which would have been even outside my expected budget (hers, as it happens, is larger even than that, because one of her overseas friends was willing to contribute $5000 to the cost of a vehicle). (I paid $6500 for my current car, a 2004, in college in 2012 with 70,000 miles on it at the time, and have driven it ever since.)
She rejected all of them because they did not have good “energy” and “feelings.” One she was willing to buy at $3700, but told the seller to go pay for his own inspection (once I explained to her what mechanical inspections were as a concept), so they ghosted her. She also is extremely afraid of head gasket failure--I don’t know why, since she knows nothing about cars--and has assumed all vehicles she has driven are on the verge of it, so after the first week she refused to even look at a vehicle without a warranty.
This means she exclusively limited herself to used dealership options, which I’m just going to come right out and say was monumentally stupid. I don’t know if any car dealers follow me, so I’m sorry if I am misperceiving this, but in my experience almost every dealer I’ve gone to has been aggressive, manipulative, and extremely predatory in their interest rates. I cannot think of a riskier course of action in abject debt than to try to cut a deal with a car dealer for the sake of a warranty I doubt will cover that much truly expensive failure in the long run anyway.
On Thursday, Carol bought a $20,000 2017 Jeep Cherokee from a dealership down the road. I don’t know what she put down. I do know she did not use her friend’s money (why not??) and I know her interest rate on the car loan is 4%, which she is extremely proud of and which horrifies me. She also “persuaded” them into a limited warranty that will cover the vehicle up to 100,000 miles (currently at 42k, and they ~only offer it for cars under 40,000 miles~). I can’t tell you how bad an idea I think all this is.
Thursday night, as she was regaling me with stories of her negotiating prowess, she also tells me she has decided to buy a house. She’s sick of renting, and somehow, someone somewhere managed to get her approved for up to $120,000 in a home loan. She already has $150k in debt, another $20k from the car, and now wants to buy a house. She was delighted that she could make the minimum 7% down payment, even though it would wipe out every cent she has left and leave her less than $500 to her name for moving expenses, utilities, food, title registration, etc. afterwards.
She doesn’t even have a secure job yet.
However, this plan seems to have fallen through. She went out with a realtor several times this weekend and came home the last time in great, heaving sobs, because she can’t find the 3bed 2bath she wanted in her price range. (For reference, most homes in this area go between 200k - 250k right now for 2-3bed 2ba, and the closer you get to the city--I have about a 20 minute commute--the higher it gets. My next door neighbor sold her 3bed 2.5ba for >300k three months ago, and Carol knew this.) She was absolutely devastated that the only things in her range were “tiny little ugly flipped houses” and “the ghetto.” The realtor basically said she wasn’t going to waste any more of her time. Carol repeatedly told me how grateful I should be that I got in at the price point I did a few years back, because no “normal people” could ever afford to break into the market again.
I tried to tell her that it was because I lived in with a roommate in very cheap housing and then a cell of a 1bed 1ba apartment for eight years while I saved money, but if nothing else, I’ve learned I’m not allowed to compare our situations or histories or offer advice of any kind except “go ahead and buy what you want,” because that only makes her cry harder. In the end, she has decided to give up on the house for now and settle for the absolute last thing in the world she wanted, an apartment with a lease.
To be honest, until she has a signed contract in hand, I half-expect this lease to fall through as well. I have tried to offer what I think is sensible advice and been ignored or rebuffed. I have tried to offer a sympathetic ear and ended up with her sobbing uncontrollably on me--heaving, body-wracking sobs--over and over again with me trapped in my own home, providing endless emotional support for a girl I don’t even like. I have tried to encourage her to do the things she wants to do, since she’s going to do them anyway, and when she gets “negative energy” after the purchases (buyer’s remorse, I think, that one little inkling of sense saying maybe it wasn’t a great idea to buy a $20,000 car or an $1100 brand new iPhone without a job), she blames it on the exact thing I said I thought might be good and makes me feel like I have now directly contributed to a negative outcome after poor decision-making.
For the record, when she says these things to me she is not saying, and has never said, them directly at me. She has never blamed me in any way for a negative outcome. She is not consciously trying to manipulate me or abuse me or take advantage of my help. She has never once asked me for money or job connections or for me to use any of my stability to unfairly or unethically get her something she needs. She is just completely absorbed in her own (rightfully absorbing) mess of a situation, and I think just completely unaware of how much of an emotional black hole she has become. There are no problems except her problems. There are no needs except her needs, and everyone around her has to understand how hard she has it at all times. 
So, we’ll see. I am praying that the apartment works out next week. The owner seems to want to work with her, which is a hopeful sign. Good thoughts would be appreciated.
--
Aside from all of this, work has gotten extremely complicated. I’m not going to go into all of it now, but one of my jobs is to create an extremely detailed schedule for students in clinic. This is used to schedule patients in each service--if we have this many students, we can have this many patient slots per half-day, etc. Last week, two students were out unexpectedly, one who broke her arm the day before she was supposed to begin, and one who had a terrible anxiety attack and thought the symptoms were actually COVID. That student was tested and cleared negative, but Student Health requires a two-week quarantine anyway, so she was not allowed to return.
This meant that we now had multiple patients per day with no one to see them. We tried to reschedule as many as we could, but we still ended up with multiple overbooks. This is extremely stressful for me as both a provider, an instructor, and a human being who hates having other people wait on her in a professional capacity. We got through the week, but not without several painful bumps, and it’s looking like there will be more soon.
I also woke up to an email this morning that one of my favorite students (yes, I have favorites, I’m sorry), had a completely unexpected death in the immediate family and had to rush home. This is a very, very sweet, very smart girl who has worked unbelievably hard over the past year to do well in this program and in my courses, and I am just devastated for her. One of her friends is willing to cover her clinic, so the impact will be minimal on that side, but to have this happen during this country’s hellhole handling of this pandemic...I can’t even imagine it.
All of this isn’t even touching COVID. The President’s side has won in that sense--I don’t even register the numbers anymore--but as of last week our dean sent out messaging that implied that with our state’s failure to contain the spread, new discussions were going to be happening soon regarding our August start. We already had committed to full hybrid scheduling: all lectures online, in-person labs only where absolutely necessary to continue advancement in the program, and those labs limited to two per room with full PPE, but if they decide even that can’t happen, I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do. I cannot make competent doctors over Zoom. I can’t. At some point they have to touch other people and look at other people’s eyes. They have to be able to check real, in-person blood pressure. They have to look at genuine eye movements and ocular surfaces in person and I cannot and will not let them enter clinic until they have the practice and the time and the practicals behind them. I fucking refuse to endanger the public for sixty years because someone in an office somewhere decided a timetable is more important than a patient keeping their ability to see, and I’m ready to fight administration on this if they try to push it.
But if I win the fight, what next? They just...don’t enter clinic next year. They don’t enter my program. I don’t know what they do in the meantime, as this lab meets four mornings a week and the lecture twice. The course is delayed until next year or whenever we have the virus under control again, and suddenly my fall semester sure looks like I’ll be being paid to stay at home and count carpet fibers. I don’t think they’ll fire me--no one else wants to teach my course anyway--but if I win this fight I might put myself right into furlough in the process.
I could be borrowing trouble, I know. They could come back and say that after review, our system and safety protocols (all extremely conservative) are indeed safe enough and we can proceed as we want. They could say that our limited in-person option for lectures (we have several gigantic lecture halls that could easily socially distance) is the only thing that needs to go. They could say that we just need to have smaller lab groups--hellish on me, but doable.
But it’s one more element of stress in my life that I just can’t handle worrying about right now, which is why I’ve been bouncing back and forth between random fics and oneshots (that mermaid one was feverishly written on a single evening Carol spent at her mom’s house) and pouring an ungodly amount of hours into Animal Crossing. At least there I have some control over what happens next.
Sorry, guys. I know this is not the happy update I was hoping for. I’ll try to check in again next month and we’ll see where things end up.
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justasparkwritings · 3 years
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Codename Cupid: Chapter 2
Previous: The Broken-Hearted Heiress
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Pairing: Kim Seokjin X OFC
Genre: Angst, Secret AgentAU, AgentAU
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 1.5k
Warnings: None
Summary: Over an economics project, sparks fly between Kim Seokjin and Lee Euna, heiress of Lee Enterprises. 
Banner: Me
 Codename: Love at First Algorithm  Fall, Junior Year
          Kim Seokjin sat silently in his lecture hall, eyes trained on his professor, fingers moving deftly against his keyboard. The upper-level econ class was his favorite session of the fall semester, and he would give anything to get Dr. Cho to hire him as his TA for spring semester, next fall, as well as the summer session. Hopefully, by working under the famed professor, Jin would acquire a Letter of Recommendation from the man. He wanted nothing more than to be an economist, studying the benefits of micro financing on the global economy, or perhaps unpacking the micro decisions that go into buying and selling stocks on the market, analyzing and creating statistical models to calculate the risks. In order to do those things, Jin had a few asses to kiss.
          Lee Euna sat behind Seokjin, her eyes trained on the back of his head, picturing the way her hands could run through his silky black locks. He kept his hair longer, hanging over his ears, bangs filtering his vision in a pre-Instagram filter. She had taken notice of him in her mid-level business course last spring, and again in the summer when they were on campus, attending seminars between their summer internships. She’d almost spoken to him at a mixer, but his smile… His face. Chocolate orbs and pouty lips, and his laugh of dulcet tones echoing around the room, captivating… Her crush was quick, and she fell deep. Which is how she ended up sitting behind him this semester and offering to be his partner on the very nebulous project that would determine their final grade.
          “We can meet in the library, tomorrow and start to brainstorm ideas?” Seokjin offered, eyes scanning the hard copy of the project.
          “That’s great, I have about two hours between courses in the morning,” Euna replied.
          “I work in the mornings, what about 2PM?” Seokjin’s eyes darted across the page, rereading the information he’d already memorized.
          “I can make that work,” Euna said.
          “Don’t cancel anything on my account,” Seokjin stated, his eyes glancing over her quickly.
          “I won’t, I have time before my next uh, appointment,” Euna’s practiced in seeming unavailable, a tactic utilized in the attraction of men for centuries. She knew how to make him want to see her, if only he would take the bait.
          Jin cocked his eyebrow at appointment but didn’t ask, it wasn’t his business.
          “Great, meet you in the atrium at 2?” Jin clarified.
          “I’ll see you then,” Euna smiled, coy with a hint of eagerness.
          “Oh, and Euna?” Jin slipped his backpack over his shoulder.
          “Yes Seokjin?” Euna asked, eyes batting.
          “Bring your textbook, we’ll need to reference chapters 5 and 6. I only have the eBook.”
          “Sure thing,” Euna smiled and for the first time, Jin stopped and took her in. Her black hair was shoulder length, a natural curl cascading from her roots down. She was rather small compared to his over 6-foot build, and the extra bling on her manicure did not go unnoticed as he took a cursory glance over her. Her wardrobe was classic, blending the silhouette of Audrey Hepburn with the hottest streetwear styles. Clearly, she read Vogue, most likely from multiple countries. He hoped her demeanor would lend itself to productive sessions and not result in him receiving anything less than an A on this project. Any blemish to his report and he’d surely lose Dr. Cho’s recommendation. Euna hoped that his staring was a sign, a crush building, maybe he’d hoped they’d be partners, maybe he already liked her as much as she liked him.
          Their first meeting was, in a word, uneventful. Euna planned every second of their time together, from the questions she asked him to the way she gripped her pen, every moment was calculated.
          “Have you read all of chapters 5 and 6?” Seokjin asked, his eyes glued to his laptop screen as he copied down a few notes from a past lecture.
          “Yes,” Euna said. “I took some notes, do you want to see them?”
          “No, that’s okay,” Jin glanced at her, “Photographic memory.”
          “Oh,” Euna had heard rumors of his brilliance, but nothing was confirmed.
          “We have to decide on the type of business we’re creating, and analyze other companies with a similar structure before we can begin to calculate the earnings,”
          “Dr. Cho said the public offering isn’t until mid-semester, when do we need to have our business model completed?” Euna asked.
          “End of the month,” Jin replied. “Did you read the project outline?”
          “Yes, what were you thinking for our business?”
          “We can either follow the trend, tech companies, or pick something less –
          “Ubiquitous,” Euna finished.
          “Right,” Seokjin eyed her again, first she’d asked a stupid question about the project guidelines, then she threw out a mid-level SAT vocabulary word. “I think sticking with tech, more specifically a type of app, is our best bet to recreate the structure of the actual financial structure in our economy.”
          “I agree, but I don’t think we should do anything on the same lines as Amazon, or food delivery or computers,” Euna countered.
          “Knock out the entire industry?” Seokjin was surprised.
          “We should look into phones, a cell service company, focusing on 5G broadband and a shift towards eco-friendly fiber optics and greener business practices,” Euna rattles off the idea, noting how Jin responded to her words.
          “How’d you come up with that?” He tilted his head to the side, staring at her for the first time, curiosity peaked.
          “I thought about it. Everyone has a cell phone, there are serious ethical challenges with the materials that go into making cellular phones, and with the constant improvement to broadband, everyone has to adapt at a pace that seems unsustainable, I guarantee there are huge environmental violations happening,” Euna continued to speak, her words verbatim from a presentation she’d watched at her father’s company no more than a few weeks ago.
          “We can look at the leading brands, both in terms of phone development and cellular networks to create the stock options and model, we should begin monitoring the DOW and NASDAQ immediately,” Seokjin said, eyes pealing slowly from Euna to his computer screen. She smirked as she watched him hastily pull open a new webpage and quickly begin setting up alerts and trackers for a variety of companies.
          “We should both be monitoring them, I’ll take the Dow if you take NASDAQ,” Jin said, scribbling numbers down in his digital notebook, “We should both write things down, keep a digital or paper copy as well.”
          “Are you always this intense?” Euna asked, her first personal question of the session.
          “Yes,” Jin didn’t bother looking at her. Girls like Euna always responded to his drive the same way, critical, judgmental, wondering if he ever loosened up. Unlike other girls, Euna had seen the fun side of Jin, and in their years at university, wherein he ignored her existence, she had been observing him.
          “What else do we need to go over for today?”
          “We should set up another time to meet. I’ll send you the documents and you can start working on our business plan. I’m thinking we need to meet twice a week at least until the market opens, or rather until Dr. Cho allows us to give public offerings,” Jin told her.
          “Same time on Thursday?” Euna stood, her computer already tucked safely into her couture bag.
          “Great, see you then,” Jin nodded. Without Euna present, he’d be able to analyze the companies at a fast pace than if she stayed. Though she was exposing her knowledge, Seokjin couldn’t tell if she’d over prepared in hopes that he’d take over the entire project, was trying to impress him. It was challenging to impress Jin, and unlike Euna, he had something to prove.
          Seokjin, the youngest of two sons, had lived a comfortable lifestyle. His father, an upper level in a large company, had provided and even spoiled his sons. Nothing was out of reach, though the question of whether or not they deserved it always hung in the air. Jin was a fine student. He enjoyed his friends, but what he loved spending his time doing, solving, understanding, was the way in which the world worked. Jin was fascinated by the evolution of currency, the national bank, the debt crisis and the minting of money. Everything related to coinage was a source of fascination for Seokjin. He busied himself reading the histories of modern finance, the evolution of economics, a comprehensive guide to what banking and federal reserves are. Jin wanted nothing more than to become a world class economist, maybe winning a Nobel Peace Prize for it, and bettering the world because he felt somewhere deep inside him that he could. When he wasn’t with his friends, or reading, he was exploring calculus and statistics in order to give him an edge.
          Entering college, he was one freshman in a sea of seniors and grad students taking classes he could’ve passed in high school. All to get the attention of Dr. Cho, all to make something of his life. As he began his project, disappointment waning as the final notes of Lee Euna’s perfume wafted away, he wondered if she too had something to prove.
Next: Daddy’s Favorite & the First Date
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kokiri-at-the-pack · 3 years
Text
1004
October 4
Ranting like this isn’t going to be helpful at all…
...I must take a walk first. Better to relax my head.
...
Yes! Yes! YES! I know what I’ll do exactly!
I can’t believe a simple walk around my village gave me a huge inspiration!
Occasionally, homeless people and their children would wander around corners of some streets. They include Mr. Francis, an old man whom I have befriended as I have regularly listened to his magnificent and skillful play of guitar. Well...a guitar-like instrument exactly as it was made up of rubbish like cans, plastic containers etc. Still, it would play melodies that would sound just like an ordinary guitar. That was his ability. Creating a musical instrument and its function out of any material. That and his open-mindedness have allowed me to get closer to him. As usual, I headed towards the street he often dwells in to calm myself through his music.
Just like I expected, he welcomed me with a smile and played soothing balad music like he was a professional musician. I closed my eyes and let every single note fill my head. For a moment, I got oblivious towards my major concern with which I was stressing myself.
“That was awesome, Mr. Francis!” I exclaimed when his music ended, “what song did you play exactly?”
Mr. Francis chuckled, “this is my song actually.”
I could not believe what I just heard.
“You composed it?! I didn’t know you could make music! Seriously! Shouldn’t you apply to a company or something?”
However, Mr. Francis remained quiet and shook his head. Even behind his dusty hat and greasy gray beard which covered half of his face, I could observe sadness in his eyes.
“Been there and done that, young lady. Lost count of it.” he finally answered.
I immediately understood what his words meant.
“I gave thousands of my songs--now all burnt to ashes years ago--in every business I could find. I explained for many times what my ability can do. But maybe the Heavenly Father made a mistake of not putting me luck when sending me to this world. Every result was no different. Rejection. Your music is too bland and old-fashioned. The world has plenty of instruments today.”
I was speechless. Never knew Mr. Francis had such a tragic background.
“We do not need your ability,” he emphasized the last sentence as if that was the most agonizing statement stuck in his head.
Then he returned to his original bright face.
“You may expect what happened next. I spent too much chasing after my hopeless dream. My family lost trust in me. The debt was not paid on time. My home was lost, and... here I am,” he chuckled weakly.
I was lost in thought. Mr. Francis started to remind me of Father. Struggling with what others thought are disadvantageous abilities. Yet, after facing reality, they have both given up paths that could have made them happy. That could have made their loved ones happy. Despite all of that, Father did have his own skills. Mr. Francis just showed me his unique talent. Others would never have been able to imitate them. Is there really no way to make their abilities worthy?
Unless…
...My drawing!
I stood up quickly, “don’t worry, Mr. Francis. Everything will be better soon.”
I comforted him before I returned home, leaving his confused face behind.
I ran as rapidly as my feet could and reached my room filled with notebooks and sketches.
Why did I never think of it before? My ability and its critical effect can be put to good use. If I draw with care unfortunate people like Mr. Francis succeed by following their passion, not only will they have a joyful future ahead in their lives. They will no longer have to suffer from difficulties in the past. They will forget it and become totally new people!
And who knows! They might be seen as diamonds in the rough!
It would be okay. I’m not going to ruin their lives. Just… just helping them. As long as my sketches are safe, I can prove my ability to be supportive!
Ah, I should not waste time writing this. I should gather some newspapers, if there is an article about those who need help.
October 7
After days of searching, I have chosen and written down the list of people to whom I’m going to use my drawings to give them second chances in their lives. I have not written down their full names and addresses as I must respect their privacy. Instead, I have elaborated how they have lived before and the way I’m going to change them in more positive ways. I wish I could pick up more, but I do not have the skill yet to quickly draw all wanted events in detail. Anyways, here is the mentioned list:
Mr. Francis finally gets recognized thanks to his music and his ability.
A girl with a nickname of Jenna opens a pet shop for her ability to communicate with animals.
A lonely man discovers his love of life with his skills of persuasion.
An unpopular Pattern Creator winner of the Design Competition is invited to design products of one of the most famous clothing brands Whiskey.
A college student, who worries about her final assignments for graduation about using her abilities to help people, accomplishes it smoothly and receives honors.
October 12
Alright. I have finally finished drawing all the illustrations of the chosen people. Now, where can be the safest place for sheets of paper in my house? Oh, yeah. The storage room. My hands hurt right now from restless use of them to accomplish my work. But I must remain mindful of how I am going to store the drawings without my family finding them.
Hmm, that’s right. An old wooden box in the corner. There is no way they will even take a peek at it.
October 13
Is my ability finally getting the light it deserves? When I passed by the street where Mr. Francis frequently played his instrument, I was surprised to find that he was not there. In his place, I noticed other homeless people, who seemed to be his friends, having an excited conversation. I stepped a bit closer to the group and eavesdropped on what they were saying.
“You believe what we just saw?” asked one of them.
“Don’t mention it! Never thought about witnessing it at all!” replied another.
“Who was that fancy-looking man from a...very long car?” an old female beggar spoke.
“Dunno. He just said that he liked ol’ Francis’ music and took him away.”
Mr. Francis? Someone liked his music? So he brought him away to somewhere else? Can this happen on an instance? I thought it was just a super rare coincidence...at first.
It wasn’t until I saw my parents watching the small black and white television that I understood it wasn’t. Inside the screen, I recognized at once who that lady was. The Pattern Creator. She was having an interview about how she was happy to get invited to showcase her talent after all the years of namelessness.
“Sigh, even that woman with such an ability succeeds in this world,” Mother complained.
However, her words were barely worth attention to me at that moment. I rushed to ask Father to borrow today’s newspaper and scanned all the available headlines. Sure enough, there was that one headline I had been looking for. Jenna, the girl with an ability to communicate with animals, had just opened up her unique pet shop and wrote an article about how her ability differentiates her shop from others. She was also looking for employees to work with, the advertisement of which was posted at the end of her article.
It worked! This can be the new potential of my ability! They are all smiling. They have a wonderful future ahead! Jenna… Mr. Francis… The Pattern Creator… They have begun new lives thanks to me! If I can utilize this more efficiently, then who knows how far this positive influence can go?
I don’t think I would be able to sleep tonight. But it doesn’t matter. This is the day I discovered my worth!
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astronomicalterror · 4 years
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NOTE - This bio is a HUGE Work in Progress. Certain things may change, and other bits may seem rushed.
)▬▬ BASIC INFO ▬▬(
• Name: Stevie Annah Nicks
• Nicknames and Aliases: Anna, Savannah
• Species: Human
• Powers: Stand- Isis [Egyptian Goddess Stand]
• Alignment: True Neutral
• Date of Birth: December 13th
• Gender: Female
• Hometown: Tokyo, Japan
• Relatives: Unnamed Father [DECEASED; Died from Brain Cancer], Unnamed Mother [DECEASED; Murdered]
• Occupation: Shipping Company Owner [Former], Gambler [Currently]
• Equipment: Sewing Scissors and Thread
• Status: Alive
▪︎ Part 3 - Age : 33
▪︎ Part 4 - Age : 45
▪︎ Part 5 - Age : 47
▪︎ Part 6 - 56
• Stand Name - Isis
• Stand Power - Red String Manipulation: User can create, shape and manipulate the red string of fate, an invisible conceptual string that bonds souls together. They can create an limitless amount of red strings and extend them at any distance and the strings never tear apart, as it is practically indestructible. They can make the red strings become visible and touchable for others, and also choose to apply changes to anyone’s soul, and as well control the relationship of those bonded by the strings, or even completely remove their bond.
▪︎ Stand Stats
Power - D [Not “Attack” wise; This is catered to the effectiveness of Isis]
Speed - B
Range - A
Durability - D
Precision - A
Potential - B
▬▬ PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION ▬▬
• Height: 5’9’’
• Weight: 162 LBs
• Body Shape: Hourglass
• Natural Hair Color: Platinum Blonde
• Dyed Hair Color: N/A
• Eye Color: Blue
• Ethnicity: Japanese American
• Skin Tone: Porcelain
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*TOLD IN FIRST PERSON POV ONLY FIR THIS PART.*
▬▬ Back Story ▬▬
My father was a respectable man. A archeologist. And I, a archeologists’ eldest daughter and heir of his company, his golden girl. He not only owned a shipping company, he was a close relative of a museum curator, and also cared for the museum in Alaska– where we were often stayed at in the summer. As his heir, I was expected to learn much and so, I had my own private tutor once I was able to be home schooled.
When summer came to pass, we went back Tokyo. In Tokyo, I saw paintings in an art exhibit. I fell in love with their design, and took up the hobby of painting. I practiced and practiced, giving father and mother small gifts every once in awhile. He made it clear that I should not interact with the outside world all too often, as he believed it'd distract me from my studies after mother had passed away from a hate related crime; I was mixed between Japanese and American, bad blood from the second world war still remained. I, unknowst to him, was using this as a means of coping with grief, with trauma that had sparked my abilities; I always wished to alter the past, to manipulate Fate itself [though I hadn't known it was fate at that time] to save my mothers life. I was about 6 at the time I first noticed my abilities. All the same, my father would oftentimes sneak out my supplies, leaving my projects vastly unfinished.
He did however, notice I had begun training my eye for the paint right after passing through the store on multiple occasions, and dreading with his daughter would whip up next. I could see things you wouldn’t believe; Red strings connected to every little thing with little dates etched into them, peoples lives… For as long as I could remember, I could see everything of this nature just dangling freely for me and only me to observe. I treasured these moments the most, this innocence in my abilities. Most of my paintings reflected things I saw in people's lives.
I can remember everything so vividly down to an exact date and exact time in which my marriage that lasted a month or so, was quick to fall apart. I had just gotten into the gambling scene heavily at 24 years old and, undoubtedly so, I had made friends as well as enemies. It was no secret I was a rich mans daughter and heir that simply had too much time and cash on their hands to blow it all so I became a center of attention. My true gambling addiction began to grow from the time I was 16, as my tutor had accumulated a massive debt, and was the man responsible for sparking my true talent. Gambling. What few had tried approaching me in hopes of romantic interest, did so in groups, only interested in my cash or my body; Everyone except for him, or so I thought.
He was charming, handsome even, and he was like a god in my eyes for he made me feel special and loved… So when he proposed, I thought nothing of it and accepted him into my heart immediately. He was eager and I was nervous.
The chapel was empty on my side, save for my old tutor and an old colleague of my fathers, so his friends had spread out evenly.
My body, it was on the floor and it was oh so limp. I could feel it, suffocation as blood clogged every airway possible. So limp, yet I mustered the strength to say one name in hope someone-anyone-would overhear, no matter how faint or weak I sounded.
"Ricardo...?"
“No one is going to find your body, my sweet.”
With that, that Italian bastard left me to die, gagging on my blood. And the fool had the audacity to step over me as I was in the process of dying in my own pool of blood on the floor in the bedroom, blood slipping between my fingers from the wounds peppering my stomach and face from the bat he used to beat me with. Before leaving through the door, he stoked a flame to a scented candle given to us on our wedding… and smiled down at me “Thanks for the inhe…..”
I can remember blacking out and, somehow, by some miracle, I was alive; My ribs were cracked, left hand fractured and I had various damage to my face from the bat which he had chosen to bludgeon me with but… I was alive. It stirred something in me, like I had cheated the inevitable when in actuality a friend of his hand stopped by to drop off a box of camping supplies…
He planned to break my bones and stuff me in a trunk to better hide me in the nearby woods easier.
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)▬▬ Stardust Crusaders Biography ▬▬(
A single mother turned thrill seeker, the longtime gamblers travels had landed her in Egypt; She felt seemingly drawn in, called to even, in a casino up in Cario. As a matter of fact, her exploits in gambling her brought her to make an acquaintance of the Elder D'Arby brother. The pair were rivals in the beginning; Stevie aiming to collect his thread of life, and he aiming to collect her soul, the pair would often play various card games together. It was always rather intense, but there was no success in their battles for either party, oftentimes ending in a draw.
These games together brought the pair closer, additionally, causing the duo to pair up to play games against people of interest. This also sparked the interest of Lord DIO, particularly her abilities, involving the alteration of fate on a human soul with the exception of the past; Her abilities complimented the Elder D'Arbys abilities rather well. He offered her money for her efforts, but she merely stated that she was interested in the thrills that accompanied her gambling habits, in exchange that she gets her children tended to with no involvement in this lifestyle she leads. She would oftentimes accompany the Elder D'Arby for his gambling exploits, even if she herself do not play games with him at all times, she ended up using her abilities to compliment his abilities with the soul.
She ended up, eventually, having her fair run in with the Crusaders shortly after the defeat of the Elder D'Arby. With her employ to DIO and the defeat of her friend, she challenged them to her own game of fate, before she was defeated. In a last ditch effort, she attempted to utilize her threads to grab herself a hostage for she knew her failure would ultimately lead to her potential demise. However, Star Platinum was fast, making short work of the woman and shattering all ten of her fingers, rendering her stand completely useless as she has no mobility in her hands. Her fate is ambiguous after this last encounter, but she is to be credited for helping place Anubis on that familiar path in which Chaka acquired the famous sword. Her role is minor in the Glory Gods, and ultimately, apart from complimenting the Elder D'Arbys abilities or her alteration of fate bound to a soul, she has little impact on the grand scheme of things.
She lives her life in shame as much as isolation, having been unable to raise her months old daughter properly, she had to send her children away to a relative in America.
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Friday Special #5
December 4th, 2020
Welcome back to another Friday Special!
For this week, we’ll be looking into a console that has touted as SEGA’s last hurrah in the video game console market before becoming a third-party developer.
For this week, we will be going into the SEGA Dreamcast!
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So what exactly was it?
So to start things off, the Dreamcast was SEGA’s last major console before becoming a third-party developer. It was part of the sixth generation of consoles released around that time, having to go up against Sony’s Playstation 2, Microsoft’s XBox, and Nintendo’s Gamecube, despite the fact that it preceded all of them.
(Considering that the Playstation 2 would end up being the best-selling video game console of all time, that’s some heavy competition.)
So let’s start with the production history.
After the failure of the Saturn console (problems arose due to really complicated hardware design and limited third-party support as the released of the iconic Nintendo 64 releasing the following year) back in 1995, SEGA needed to get back in the game since their reputation was on the line with not only Nintendo but with newcomer Sony too. Microsoft would eventually join the party but that wouldn’t be for a few years down the line. 
So in a last pitch effort to save themselves and whatever piece of the console market pie they could salvage, SEGA released the Dreamcast on November 27, 1998 in Japan before eventually releasing in North America, Brazil, all of Europe and even India, and it lasted from 1998 until 2001 when support discontinued with the console along with SEGA’s decision to leave the console market.
The Dreamcast was created with “off-the-shelf” components like Hitachi SH-4 CPU and an NEC PowerVR2 GPU (the latest at the time for graphics) meant to bring down costs and to avoid creating a console too complex that it scared off development teams from creating games for it (another problem that the Saturn had). It was even the very first console to utilize the internet for online gaming thanks to the power of Microsoft CE way before Microsoft joined the console race with the original XBox in 2001. Its library was impressive with innovative titles like Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Shenmue and it even saw Sonic the Hedgehog’s leap into 3D with Sonic Adventure. Because of this, the console was considered by many gamers and critics to ahead of its time. It sold well in the Japanese markets and it was a massive success in North America, where the original price was $199 ($317.90 in 2020). 
Here’s a video for all of the commercials that aired for the console
youtube
So what happened?
First, when the console was released in Japan, the launch there was first marred by the shortage of PowerVR chipsets which had a high failure rate. Then when the console was released only one of the four launch titles for the system, Virtua Fighter 3, sold well. The oddball title Seaman, alongside Namco’s Soul Caliber and the price reduction to ¥19,000 from ¥29,000, actually helped keep the console afloat in Japan. In total, 990,000 Dreamcast units were sold in Japan.
In the United States, the Dreamcast sold out overnight with 225,132 Dreamcast units sold in 24 hours, garnering $98.4 million in that day alone. Sales continued to soar to 500,000 two weeks later. However, the American released also saw its fair share of problems. Another blow to the console was when EA (yep, that EA), withdrew their support for SEGA by refusing to make games for the Dreamcast after the Saturn debacle and SEGA refusing to allow EA to be the only sports brand. This was especially a big deal because EA at the time was the largest third-party video game publisher and losing that support was brutal for SEGA. To combat this, they teamed up with other developers/publishers like Midway for games to be released for the console (there were fourteen launch titles in the North America launch. Fourteen.) In total, over 1 million Dreamcast units were sold. 
Over in Europe, the Dreamcast also did well by also selling 1 million units. It was marketed at GB£200 and part of the marketing campaign for the console was sponsored by four European football clubs, which were Arsenal F.C. (England), AS Saint-Étienne (France), U.C. Sampdoria (Italy), and Deportivo de La Coruña (Spain).
Although it held up to 31 percent of the market share, Sony held onto 60 percent thanks to the success of the PS1 and the upcoming hype and release of the PS2. 
The PS2 had the following:
More raw polygons than any other console in history thanks to its own CPU at 294 MHz and estimated 7.5 million[80] to 16 million polygons per second
DVD-ROM (compared to Dreamcast’s weaker GD-ROM)
Backwards compatibility with hundreds of PS1 games
Ability to play both games and movies
All at $299 ($452.13 in 2020)
With the Gamecube and XBox still unreleased, the Dreamcast was left to its own devices against the behemoth PS2. 
So what edge could the Dreamcast have?
Remember when I said that “it was even the very first console to utilize the internet for online gaming thanks to the power of Microsoft CE”?
Say hello to SegaNet.
The internet gaming service SegaNet was online on September 7th 2000, and it changed the entire industry by not only promoting online gaming but players could also surf the internet, chat with friends and send emails. At the subscription fee of $21.49 per month ($32.50 in 2020), the world of the internet was at the touch of your keyboard and mouse. Games that thrived on this new platform included Quake III Arena and Chu Chu Rocket to name a few and for the first time, you could play with friends across the internet. The service was so popular that it managed to last until 2003 when the servers for Phantasy Star Online and Online Vers. 2 were shut down. It was rumored that until a few years ago, you could still surf the internet with the console. 
So how did it all end?
Despite everything to keep it afloat, the Dreamcast was officially discontinued on March 31, 2001 world-wide.
A shift in command took place as Isao Okawa took over the role of CEO from  Shoichiro Irimajiri in 2000. Okawa had greatly expressed his desire for the company to exit the console market and there were similar sentiments that were shared among the staff. After discussions with the higher-ups, SEGA, through Peter Moore (then-president of SEGA of America) announced in January of 2001 that the Dreamcast would be discontinued on March 31, 2001 world-wide and that SEGA would officially restructure the company into a third-party developer and publisher. During the restructuring, one-third of the company’s workforce was laid off as SEGA continued to struggle during the transition. SEGA did eventually recover thanks to Okawa, before his death, forgave the debts that the company owned to him and even returned his $695 million worth of SEGA and CSK stock back to SEGA, and the company now focusing strictly on software. Its comeback was viewed positively and as a result, helped build the reputation of being a high-quality gaming developer and publisher. 
So long story short, what killed the Dreamcast?
Hype and release for the PS2
Lack of support from EA and Squaresoft
Disagreements amongst SEGA executives about the company’s future
Okawa’s lack of commitment to the console
Despite its many misgivings, the Dreamcast was, and still is, fondly remembered by many players who for many had their first exposure to 3D Sonic or fighting classics like Soul Caliber. With built-in internet and an impressively massive library, the Dreamcast was ahead of its time and it will truly stand as a testament to SEGA’s legacy in the final years of console developer.
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Thoughts From The Head
As odd as the system was at times (the controller design definitely being questionable), it certainly still has its charm and it’s honestly one of my favorite consoles I currently own. From classics like Space Channel 5 to Sonic Adventure, this console has a game for practically every single genre out there. With its beautiful graphics and high-definition sound, the Dreamcast is definitely worth checking out and they’re not too expensive on eBay if you decide to look for one (they’re usually within the $30 to $60 range which isn’t bad for an older console).
Oh Dreamcast, you tried so hard but you could not land harder if you tried. 
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mithrilwren · 4 years
Text
Inside Edge
So, this is all because of @fiovske‘s amazing, incredible Shadowgast figure skater!AU art. It ended up going in a slightly different, slightly angstier direction than I originally intended, but what can you do - the angst finds me, no matter how much I try to run. [On Ao3] [Find the whole series of one-shots in this AU here!]
(cw. vague implications of some sketchy sexual grooming in Caleb’s past)
---
There are procedures to be followed – fans to greet, hands to shake, cameras to nod at politely before the car arrives and Essek is swept away into the night. The others have changed out of their outfits into unfashionable travel clothes, but gauzy strands of black fabric still flutter beneath his purple mantle. He draws the cloak closer around his shoulders, warding off the blast of frigid air against his damp skin as he steps out of the complex and onto the sidewalk.
The reporters adore it, of course, always praising the commitment to his on-ice persona. He is a carefully crafted statuette, never to be cracked, lest the imperfect man beneath be revealed to the public eye. That mystery is all part of the appeal.
(Never mind that the thought of changing in a public venue makes his hands shake. Never mind what lies beneath the thin layers of chiffon and velvet. The illusion is all that matters.)
But then there’s Caleb, waiting out here amidst the rapidly piling snow, his face turned to the sky and ruddy from the same night air that’s chilling Essek to the bone. He never seems to mind the cold, or perhaps he’s accustomed to it, or maybe it’s the ratty coat he wears, patched one too many times to be anything other than thrift store fare, but undoubtedly warmer than Essek’s: built for utility, not show.
Then there’s Caleb, and no matter where they are, no matter how they meet, it seems that all procedures go out the window whenever he appears.
“We meet again,” Essek murmurs, directly below the other man’s ear, and he finds himself disappointed that the startle never comes. People tend to be nervous by him, when he’s dressed like this. Though sequins and spandex might make most look ridiculous, he wears it well, and he knows it. His juniors – and yes, that sounds good to his ears – tend to give him a wide berth. At first, he’d suspected jealousy, but now he believes (hopes) it’s respect. Four times champion, and for someone his age… unheard of. So yes, he is a little disappointed that Caleb doesn’t startle, even if the man is his senior by three years or more-
And then he catches the look on Caleb’s face, in the brief moment before his expression settles back into unaffected disinterest. A brief tenseness in his jaw, a flicker of… something in his eye, too quick to parse. But it lasts only long enough for Essek note the change, before Caleb smoothes out the expression to something more neutral.
“Herr Essek,” he says. “I thought you had already left.”
“My car will be here shortly,” Essek replies, and casts his gaze about. Where is that driver of his, anyway? They’re sheltered by the overhang and a convenient slab of granite masonry – an abstract art installation that he might find garish, if it wasn’t so unexpectedly convenient – but not all the reporters have left the venue yet, though most of the skaters have. Caleb seems to realize this at roughly the same instant as Essek, and he suddenly finds himself dragged around the corner, further out of sight of the building’s entrance.
The air is cold, and Caleb’s hand on his arm is warm, warm-
(And after all, the war is over, at least officially-)
…He should not be having such thoughts.
“If we don’t wish for the media to believe us up to something nefarious, perhaps we shouldn’t hide so often in dark alleys,” Essek says lightly. Caleb barks a laugh, then covers his mouth with his scarf, coughing for real at the sudden intake of frozen breath.
His coat looks warm, but he has no gloves on, Essek realizes. He frowns.
“And where is your car?”
Caleb doesn’t quite look down, but he certainly doesn’t meet Essek’s eyes as he finally resurfaces for air from his lumpy scarf.
“Oh, I think I will walk back to my hotel tonight. Enjoy the stars for a while.”
Essek stares harder at Caleb’s bare hands, the knuckles already chapping from the melted snowflakes that fall upon them both.
From the curb, a horn finally sounds. One beep, then two.
“My car has plenty of room. Let me take you to where you’re staying.”
“…I will be in your debt again.”
Not a refusal, then. That’s progress, in their tentative back and forth – at least, the one Essek has indulged himself to believe they’ve been dancing over the last few months, despite little evidence to support the theory. Still, he figures… he’s young. He’s allowed to indulge a crush, even a hopeless one, so long as he remembers that that’s all it is at the end of the night.
A hopeless crush, nothing more. Yes, he’s allowed that much, at least.
Essek smiles. “No more than you can pay, I’m sure.”
Caleb gestures down over the wrinkled coat. “You are, as always, an optimist.”
The car honks again, and when he looks back to see if Caleb will follow, Essek finds himself disappointed once more, to see Caleb still standing beneath the eaves, unmoved. But after a solid five seconds, he shakes himself, as though to shake the snow from his shoulders, or a spirit from his bones, and hurries to catch up to Essek.
None of the reporters see them, and the windows of the car are tinted, and that is enough for Essek to breathe easy, though Caleb still seems tense as he slides into the backseat at his side.
It’s not that he’s really that concerned about the scandal of the two being seen together. In fact, it might even be seen as some strange demonstration of unity, to the right eyes. The press has been eating that sort of thing up, lately. The ceasefire between the Empire and the Dynasty has gone on long enough it might as well be called ‘peace’, and if the two nations can deign to send athletes to the same events as they did tonight, well then, the world must be ready for some progress.
Evidently, Caleb doesn’t share the same hopefulness, because his body doesn’t relax, even when the heat is blasting full force and a little of the icy quake in his shoulders begins to subside.
“Where to?” the driver asks, and Essek looks at Caleb, who looks at his hands, then bites his lip and says, “The Chalet, on East Willow.” Essek’s eyes narrow.
The Chalet. Not a hotel, then: a hostel. It’s been a long while since he’s stayed in a place like that, but what he recalls – shared dormitories, insecure lockers, group shower facilities, noise till all hours of the night – he wouldn’t be eager to do so again.
Meanwhile, Essek will return to the Lux, where he plans to spend the evening pampering his body in preparation for another sound victory on the morrow. It’s the sort of place Caleb might have stayed, all those years ago, when he was still a junior’s champion and Essek was nothing more than an undiscovered prodigy on the rise. What happened, between then and now, to change his circumstances so greatly? Essek has often wondered. He knows there was some issue with a coach, a long hiatus, and a less-than-triumphant return, and that is the extent of Essek’s intel on the matter. The skating world is rife with gossip, but this is one tale it seems no one wants to tell.
Tomorrow is the second day of competition. Free skate: Caleb’s specialty, and his only chance to redeem himself after his lackluster short program today. Without proper rest, his performance will suffer. What hope will he have of acquiring more sponsorships then? He can’t believe Caleb has even one at the moment, or he wouldn’t be staying in a place like this.
They’re nearly at the turnoff to East Willow – a dingy street, with sporadic streetlights and not much to see beyond the occasional hostel and long-term residence – when Essek puts his hand on the driver’s shoulder.
“The Lux,” he instructs, and Caleb sits up, mildly alarmed as he leans forward between Essek and the driver.
“Bitte,” he says softly, “My stop is first. We’re nearly there.” He gestures out the window, like Essek can’t already see the sorry road where he’s meant to drop Caleb off.
“Do you have anything stored at the Chalet?” Essek asks.
Caleb swallows, then turns his head. “…I don’t.”
“The Lux,” Essek says again, and because the driver is on his payroll, off they go. Caleb sits back at last, no longer protesting, and Essek smiles privately to himself. His competition will be in proper fighting form tomorrow, if he has to buy out the whole hotel to do it.
Caleb even lets him take his bag as they exit the car and step up beneath the glittering lights of the Lux’s lobby, which he counts as a secondary success, especially for someone who was so reluctant to accept even the simple kindness of a car ride on a snowy night. The proprietors know him by now, so much that he barely needs to speak his request before another room key is being handed over. And perhaps it’s best that the exchange is quick, because Caleb grows more agitated by the minute, as he huddles into himself beneath the crystal chandeliers. Essek thinks he looks enchanting in the ethereal light, but his threadbare clothes don’t match the décor, and he can’t blame Caleb for feeling out of place.
Still, he feels himself like a dashing hero as he whisks Caleb off towards the golden elevators. Like a saviour from the movies, in the most romantic, foolish sense – and this is one more fantasy, but parts of it are real. The part where Caleb agreed to accompany him here, out of the cold? Impossibly, real.
Which is why the ice-water crashes down all the harder when the elevator’s doors slide shut and he finally gets a good look at Caleb’s face, and realizes exactly how unhappy of an expression he wears.
No, not unhappy.
Resigned.
“Is this the favour, then?” he murmurs, and that’s all the warning Essek gets before Caleb’s chapped lips are pressed to his throat.
He catches Caleb’s hands, pushing him away as his heart pounds like an anvil in his chest, realizing what just-
What Caleb-
Caleb watches him warily for a moment longer, then pries Essek’s fingers off his own and takes a step back.
“I apologize,” he says, soft accent turned brittle, “if I misjudged your intention.”
Essek puts his hand to his neck, where only a moment again, Caleb was-
The realization of his own presumption chokes him, and he shakes his head quickly. “I should be the one apologizing.” And he should. In hindsight, it’s easy to see how his actions might have been misinterpreted.
But at the same time, to misinterpret those actions, in such a way…
He is suddenly glad, to not have found out more about Caleb’s past, at least not without the other man’s consent. At least not without being told.
Essek pulls the second key card from his pocket and hands it over. Caleb takes it, turning it over between his fingers. “I should have given this to you in the lobby. Forgive me,” he apologizes again. “I had no expectations of this night, other than seeing us both at our best tomorrow. Neither of us frozen, or unrested.”
As Essek waits for his response, a small shudder runs through Caleb’s shoulders, that might be imperceptible to one unaccustomed to monitoring the body for even the slight minutia of posture and poise. But he straightens up as the elevator chime dings, and when he turns to look back at Essek, his body has lost a little of its stiffness. The tension that the judges so often criticize in Caleb’s form fades in inches, like he’s finally let out a long held breath. Essek’s breath is shorter held, but he does the same still, and makes a silent promise that he’ll be more careful from this moment on.
He’s not the only one who wears a costume, and who knows how to artfully hide the cracks beneath.
Caleb raises his hand in a little wave of farewell as he exits the elevator. “Till tomorrow, then.” The corners of his lips turn up on the last word – not quite a smile, but not so much of a frown. An improvement. A step forward, after two back.
It’s still something.
“Tomorrow,” Essek agrees, and the doors slide shut, leaving him alone again.
Tomorrow, he thinks. Tomorrow.
Show me what you’re capable of, Caleb Widogast, at your very best.
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