The Art of Sales Negotiation: Practical Tips to Boost Results

The art of sales negotiation is about achieving outcomes that both the buyer and the seller are satisfied with. While the buyer will seek to maximize value while minimizing costs, the seller will aim to secure the best possible deal that aligns with their sales strategy. Both parties will have specific needs, interests, and constraints that influence their negotiating strategies. To do that,…

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I lied, I don’t want to have sex. Take off your shoes, we’re going to gently hold each other for the next 4 hours.

A new sculpture! Finally... I feel like I never sculpt anymore since I'm always sick or have some 500 other things going on or projects to finish, but I'm trying to schedule time to do it more often this year hopefully..! Just a generic fantasy creature as usual, but did try making the eyes a little more sparkly this time.. hrmm..

You've gotta be shittin me im goin a little insane over the way Charles asks Arthur to help him by saying "Do it for me" and then repeating it just a little more firmly when Arthur doesn't immediately give in ohhhhhh my god

something that pisses me off in RA is that Flanagan will occasionally hype up Pauline as this super important and prominent figure in Will’s life, even treat her as a proxy for the mother he never knew, and yet will just refuse to show it beyond the like. two or three (personal) conversations that they have in canon. I get that he was attempting to make her an important person in Will’s life but why not do that by actually making her an important person in Will’s life

Word on the street is negotiations between the WGA and the studios are still currently taking place going into the evening…

"Ciel is a whiny brat. He would be nothing without Sebastian-"

SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

I think I've found a way out of the political situation in The Locked Tomb. One that doesn't lead to massive loss of life, and still dismantles the empire of the Nine Houses.

John didn't create anything with the intention of it surviving him. He seems to have gone out of his way to do the reverse, and only build things that would catastrophically self-destruct without him. Empires are already powder kegs, and based on the information in As Yet Unsent, John rigged this one to go up like the sun. Here's an excerpt of Judith reporting what she understands of BOE's arguments:

Their other line of attack is the business contracts. They claim that the services asked of them by the Emperor were set down in lifetime contracts by previous generations, who assumed the contracts would be terminated upon the Emperor's death.

If this is true, and we have no reason to assume it isn't, John has either intentionally or accidentally made himself into a latter-day Alexander; building an empire that will immediately crumble at his sudden death. This looks like it provides an easy solution: Kill the Emperor, terminate the contract, freedom for the peoples of the greater universe! Glory to the resistance!

Problem is, even assuming this doesn't amount to the fiery genocide of the Nine Houses—which I'm assuming is not the direction this series is going—there is no external state or government-in-exile prepared to take over where the Nine Houses left off. BOE is a militia group made up of isolated and conflicting factions, and the Houses have been incredibly successful at destroying political and cultural unity in their colonies. The sudden cessation of the empire would leave a huge power vacuum, New Rho writ large across the face of the universe.

And the Cohort would still be there. The neat crumbling of John's empire relies on the Cohort respecting the terms of these ancient contracts. Every admiral and general jockeying for power in the void left by the death of the emperor has to agree that yeah, the empire thing has been great, loved the military conquest, but now that we don't have an emperor anymore let's pack it all in and go home. That isn't what happened to Alexander's empire, and it's not what I see happening here. Alexander's empire dissolved into 40 years of civil war, eventually leading to the creation of four successor states still under Macedonian or Greek rule. Most likely something similar would happen in the empire of the Houses: the universe would dissolve into open war as the dominant military powers duked it out. The Cohort vs the Cohort vs BOE, with thousands of smaller powers allying with one side or another. Who knows what this would do for the politics back home—how factions would develop in relation to House loyalties, what Houses would survive the fallout, and so on—but for the larger empire it would be a bloodbath. We got a little taste of that in Canaan House, when Judith and Marta tried to impose military rule.

This isn't an argument for the status quo, though I do see how the people most likely to die in the ensuing chaos would disagree. Then again, some wouldn't. The deadly blast of an empire imploding is still better than endless death and exploitation under colonial rule, right? But we're still looking at catastrophic loss of life, and we can only hope that when the dust eventually settles, whatever comes next will be better, and not just successor states under Cohort control.

Which brings me back to the ray of hope I see in this clusterfuck of a situation: Kiriona Gaia. Heir to the Emperor Divine.

Six months ago, John had something else in common with Alexander the Great: no clear line of succession. Now he has a publicly declared and recognized heir, and that gives the Nine Houses an off-ramp into peaceful dissolution. It wouldn't be too difficult for her to step into the role, especially if Ianthe and Sarpedon back her. No one is anticipating that the Emperor will ever die, so the leaders would want a figurehead to gather around for stability.

Once Kiriona's in power, she can start a controlled demolition eventually ending in her abdication. She can formally honor the contracts set to terminate upon her father's death, and negotiate to release occupied planets from imperial rule. This feels like naively wishful thinking, wanting to have my cake and eat it too, but I think the pieces are in place for it to actually work.

Kiriona is in the unique position of being set to inherit the empire without having been thoroughly indoctrinated into its power structure. She went straight from being on the bottom rung of the meanest most isolated portion of the interior to being the crown prince in the space of a year, and she hates it. We know her. She has no personal stake in preserving the empire, she has no respect for authority derived via power structures, and she places a high value on respect earned between individuals. All she's ever wanted is to have a positive, or at least affirming, connection with other people. She has a protective inclination, and she's been on the front lines to see the cost in human sacrifice maintaining an empire demands. So taking that all together, there's a good chance that, given the opportunity, she would want to dismantle the empire.

She wouldn't have to do it by herself. As emperor, Kiriona would have support from Paul and the Sixth House, and possibly the Third with one or both of its princesses. Ianthe and Corona have been planning for this, or something like it, for a long time. She's also Wake's daughter, with connections in BOE. If We Suffer can spin her succession as the result of a plot set into motion by Commander Wake, other wings of BOE might be convinced to parlay with the Houses.

It would also bring Gideon satisfyingly full circle, back to the first chapter of Gideon the Ninth. The series opens in media res, introducing Gideon in the final stages of executing a scheme utilizing loopholes, blackmail, technicalities, and straight up forging paperwork to corner her evil overlord into granting her independence. It would have worked, too. If Harrow's attention hadn't been more valuable to Gideon than her freedom, her 87th escape attempt would have been successful. She's good at this, and she understands what it's like to be desperately trying to escape exploitation. So it would be a hell of a thing, for her to end up in a position to use those skills she honed trying to escape the Ninth in unraveling the whole power structure that's been exploiting her since she was a baby.

Of course this series being what it is, anything like this would all have to happen by implication off-page while we aren't looking. The real story is in the people, not the politics.

i am but a stranger to many of you yet you have paid more love and care to my art than any of my exes even when i begged them 🫡

Why do customers always try to linger/loiter in the store after we're closed like bar patrons after last call. We're closed! We're not going to make an exception for your purchase! It doesn't matter if your kids are having fun browsing! Get out!!!!!!!!

i can do this i can do this i can do this (file my taxes a day late) i can do this i can do this if i consume enough coffee i can do this i can do this i can

while i was on the phone with my ex, a lot of what she told me re-confirmed the fact that i'm a damn fucking good partner and lover. Like, i'll absolutely let myself have that, especially when i reflect upon the shit i did for people who never would do the same for me. Who I shared love and energy with that never appreciated or reciprocated it, but would go on to give that to others. More and more I learn how to protect my energy, but I've also gotten better at protecting my love and light cause not every fucking person deserves me and what I'm able to give.

Steve is most likely to end up in a lavender marriage and Tony's most likely to end up in a “married for tax/immigration/inheritance fraud” reasons.

They meet as married men and pine for each other hardcore and are also trying not to read too much into how their interest seems reciprocated and oh nooooo both Immigration/the IRS and the the Church/in-laws/DADT era army dudes or whatever are snooping around at the same time at each of their marriages and they have to be so good at being married at the people they are married to oh noooooo and they other guy doesn’t know why they are suddenly being iced out and maybe they were just imagining things? maybe it’s for the best with all these eyes around on them…

see, despite the fact that i am a certified season 4 enjoyer and it’s been my favorite season literally since it came out. my favorite era of the show to fantasize about is STILL the first part of s2. the inescapable allure of cramming the entire cast into a one room apartment and making them experience the mundanity of shitty city life

actually. question: favorite season vs favorite part of the show to write/draw/whatever about?? does it match up for you???? i’m curious

Ever since I made my mind up about finally starting T, but am in a weird too poor and uninsured era, I'm increasingly feral and not in a good way </3