UPGRATED VERSION – Dual steamer and Iron. Produces a powerful and consistent steam. 2 in 1 for Flat hot and Hanging hot. Safer structure design to minimize leaking water. More sufficiently, and bursts strong hot steam swiftly, without water sputtering.
https://zafyn.com/collections/new-products/products/useful-portable-handheld-steam-iron
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https://reddit.com/link/121b5ws/video/nu3x7wivnl261/player
QUICK & POWERFUL – Ceramic soleplate, heating up just 50s, prevents clothes from damaged. Powerful and stable steam to remove heavy wrinkle, odors and degerming.The steam is continuous and powerful, which can penetrate the clothes deeply and quickly.
SUITABLE FOR MOST FABRICS – One handheld fabric steamer to make shirts, suits, down clothes, night dress, wedding dress, pants crease free.
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MULTIFUNCTION – Strong steam can be used in many ways-Cleaning dust. Pillow high temperature clean, sofa clean etc.
BEST EXPERIENCE – We also provide 100 ML Measuring Cup. Perfect for travel and home use.

HOW TO USE IT?

Directly hanging your clothes on the hanger, putting them flat on ironing board or even on the table. (you need to add the water in the tank(100ML) not more than the max line or it will leak or spoil when you ironing).
Secondly, adjust the temperature dial to the max, then the working light turned red. After the working light turned off, you can adjust the temperature to what you want, there has three settings, so them you can press the steamer button, and begin working.
Finally, just add water and turn on, waiting for 50 sec, you can start ironing your clothes.
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SPECIFICATIONS:

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• Weight: 1100g.
• Power: 1000W.
• Color: Purple / Blue.
• Size: 35 x 8 x 10 cm /(13.78*3.15*3.93 inches).

PACKAGE INCLUDE:

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• 1 x Base.
• 1 x Metrology Cup.
• 1 x Plush Brush Combination.
• 1 x Portable Handheld Steam Iron.

https://zafyn.com/collections/new-products/products/useful-portable-handheld-steam-iron

one-shot
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An Imorac, grey skinned, four feet tall, wearing a white scientist's coat and a fake moustache was floating in front of a wall sized screen.
On it is a smiling Human couple having a picnic in the middle of a bright, sunny day.
Imorac: “Humans, they are our neighbours, coworkers and friends but how well do you know them?”
The image shift to a rainy day and the Humans eyes glow red ans their smiles turns sinister as explosions can be seen all around them.
Imorac: “While they may seem nice and kind on the outside they are completely different to you and I on the inside.”
A close up of a Human brain becomes visible from inside of the male's cranium.
Imorac: “All sentient beings have an inside voice, it's speak in an authoritative voice and when it says “you shouldn't” it is law.”
The Human brain's schematic has a series of question marks inside it.
Imorac: “In Humans on the other hand, the voice is a whisper and the tone is that of a suggestion “shouldn't you?” Is how they approach the universe. Common sense is a rare commodity in them, as such Sentient Resources are proposing the 3 colors initiative.”
An image of 3 vials of red, yellow and green colors appear on the screen.
Imorac: “If ever a Human outers the following sentences, or any variation with a similar meaning, you may administer one of the colored sedatives.”
A list appears on-screen.
​
When sober:
- I can do better than that.
- That is a dumb rule!
- Permits? I do not need any smelling permit!
- It is only illegal if we get caught.
- What is the worse that could happen?
- It can only kill me if I die.
- I will be fine.
- Maybe to an “insert race other than Human here” but it is okay if I do it.
​
When intoxicated:
- Hold my alcoholic beverage.
- I will boop the snoot!
- You know what is a really good idea?
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If the Human is an engineer:
- I can get more power out of “insert device running at max capacity here.”
- They are not “laws” of physics, just guidelines.
- Well our superior did not say "no" per se.
- I will explain to our superior after.
​
If the Human is an intoxicated engineer:
- I have an idea.
​
Imorac: “In any of these cases you may use the sedatives, the yellow one will have them wake up a couple of hours later with the feeling of a bad “hangover”, the green one with the feeling of “having slept on your neck wrong” and the red one of “having been hit by a truck.” Do not worry, they leave no permanent damages.”
The image of the Human couple happily sleeping on the ground appears on the screen.
Imorac: “Remember, it is for their own good and everyone's safety.”
***
Conrad was the Human chief of Sentient Resources at the station and if one could die of shame they would be picking his remains off the floor, walls and ceiling.
He had watched the presentation with all senior members of the station.
Conrad: “... All in favor of going forward with the initiative?”
The vast majority of sentients present raised their hands, claws and pseudopodes.
Conrad: “Those against?”
A single hand rose, a Human hand.
Chief engineer Allison Alvarez stood up.
Alvarez: “While I understand the need to have such a policy...”
While she spoke the Aaen medical officer, Dances In Shadows furtively got up from her chair, took a red vial, put it in her injector and walked behind the engineer.
Alvarez, unaware of the Aaen's movement continued uninterrupted.
Alvarez: “I don't think that should apply to senior staff members.”
The Aaen chief of security, Bows To No King, read from his datapad.
Bows: “Are you saying that this is a “dumb rule” and “you will be fine” then?”
Alvarez: “Yes!”
The silence that followed was interrupted only when she realized what she had just said.
Alvarez: “Wait no, I meant...”
Conrad: “Doc!”
Alvarez: “Not the red one, not the red one!”
Dances In Shadows lunged towards Allison with a loud “Hiya!” and injected her with a dose of “hit by a truck red" on the neck.
Conrad sighed at the sleeping form of his fellow Human.
Conrad: “Alright, I say we call it an unanimous decision, the initiative goes live on Monday.”
End.

Name: Ad-Ad Fruit
Ability: The Ad-Ad Fruit (Kōkoku Kōkoku no Mi) is a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that allows the user to create and manipulate advertisements around them. Making the user a Salesman Human.
Appearance: The Ad-Ad Fruit is a white head-sized fruit that has a long pointed nose-like protrusion that sticks out from the large amount of foliage from under the fruit that covers the whole fruit. Sticking out from the top of the foliage is a black stem that comes out of the top of the fruit, the stem form into a ‘G’ shape and then curls flatly similar to dots on both ends of the stem, strangely enough the stem’s coloration switches from black to bright red once.
In-Depth Description: Upon consumption the user is granted the ability to create and manipulate advertisements of any type and through any medium. Through coming into physical contact with an advert, the user is able to completely change the appearance of that advertisement and make it one of their [Ads]. Once that happens, the user is capable of remotely seeing through any of their [Ads] and allowing the user to see the current [wants and needs] of whoever is looking at the advertisement as well as communicate through them; and in-real time the user is able remotely change it’s contents to further appeal to the customer who might take the offer. If the customer were to take the offer on the advertisement through either verbal confirmation, signed documentation, or willingly shaking the user’s hand to officialize the [[DEAL]]. Depending on the few situations after a [[DEAL]] is made will the [true power] of the Ad-Ad Fruit take effect.
After striking a [[DEAL]] with a customer, the user must be able to deliver their end of the [[DEAL]] before being capable of receiving the customer’s payment. If the user is unable to fulfil their end of the bargain, then the [[DEAL]] will be immediately voided and any payment made by the customer will be returned in full back to them. But if the user possesses the [“intended product”], then the deal will proceed as normal with the customer receiving the product while the user receives the agreed form of [payment] while in person or through the [Ad] acting as a gateway for both [product] and [payment]. As to more favour the user, they are able to [[SCAM]] the customer so long as they don’t ask for the user to inspect the [product], sign the [“required”] documentation without reading it, or unconditionally accept the [[DEAL]]. While the user has to meet their end of the [[DEAL]], the quality and condition of the [“intended product”] does not need to meet such requirements as long as it looks like the [“intended product”] or it fulfils the purpose of [“intended product”]. The rules of both of these conditions are incredibly loose in interpretation, allowing the user to exchange a bad copy/bootleg of the [“intended product”] so long as it meets either requirements.
However, in the event that the customer does not possess the required payment either during the immediate [[DEALmaking]] or they fail to meet the steps of alternative paying methods, the user is then able to invoke special string-like green wires that rain down upon the [InDEBT Consumer] and attach themselves into their body from behind them. These [[Silly Strings]] are completely invisible to those who either aren’t indebted to the user or to a customer who hasn’t noticed anything, but if the user were to tell someone how this particular facet of the fruit works, then they will have the capacity to see these green wires. Once someone becomes a [InDEBT Consumer] the user is capable of slowly but surely manipulating them into doing what they want, with the more [[Silly Strings]] embedded into their body, the more overall control and sway the user has over them. So long as one green wire remains, the user will always know where the [InDEBT Consumer] is located. Just having a few green wires attached to you will make one susceptible to the user’s [“sweet words”] and [[Sales Pitches]], as well as being more blind to such actions of the user, to then end up with more [[Silly Strings]] attached onto their body. With a certain amount of green wires, the user is then capable of influencing a [InDEBT Consumer]’s actions through sleight hand movements and or verbal commands, after a few green wires after that stage, they will begin to become more reliant and gullible to such [“endearing encouragement”] from the user.
With enough [[Silly Strings]] attached onto a [InDEBT Consumer], their minds will become fully oblivious to any [“bad publicity”] of the user and do just about any of the user’s whims and bidding. However if a [InDEBT Consumer] were to become too indebted to the user and possess far to many [[Silly Strings]], then their mind will automatically start to deteriorate to the point of insanity, and become potentially become too unstable for the user to verbally manipulate them. When at such a stage, a [InDEBT Consumer] will fully acknowledge the existence of the [[Silly Strings]]. But just like all other [InDEBT Consumers], they themselves are unable to cut their own [[Silly Strings]], requiring the help of [“non-consumers”] to cut these green wires.
Back onto the [Ads] part of the devil fruit, the overall range the user has depends on the amount of [Ads] of any kind relative to each other. With the user’s pseudo-omniscience ranging far and wide as long as an [Ad] is in the relative range of another [Ad]. If a chain of [Ads] are all in relative range of each other and the user is at least in the radius range of one of the [Ads] making up the chain. Then the user will have complete and perfect vision through all of them. If the user is not in range of a mass of [Ads] then the viewing quality from them will begin to lessen. But if there are enough [Ads] in relative range from each other, then that will generally improve the user’s pseudo-omniscience. However the user themselves also possesses an effective range themselves, with the more in range the user and [Ad] are to each other the stronger the connection. The user’s range is able to be widened and increased with the more [[DEALS]] they make, which in turn slowly increases the range of the [Ads]. An individual [Ad] can have their own connectivity increased with the more customers they draw in and the amount of [[DEALS]] the user makes through that specific [Ad].
Now onto the last facet of the devil fruit, the user is capable of manifesting [Ads] from technological mediums such as [Pop-ups], [3D Models], [PNG/JPGs], and [Videos] into the real-world. Taking the same form as viewed on a Computer or Phone and appearing out of them into the real-world, where the user can telepathically move them around, enlarge them, shrink them, and stretch them. Whilst manifested they are very incredibly durable and can withstand any elemental attack as if it were all the same, however by tapping the close button the top right of these digital [Ads] will make them disappear. They function just like regular [Ads] of the physical world, possessing a relative range and can allow the user to see through them.
Weaknesses: The Ad-Ad Fruit is a devil fruit that is not inherently combat-based, requiring a lot of preparation before the devil fruit can be used in such a sense. As on its own it does leave the user with many options besides the primary facets of the devil fruit’s powers. While people who are obvious to the green wires or people who have green wires attached to them but don’t notice the effect they cause are completely unable to see these green wires attached to them and seemingly originate from the sky above. Non-affected people who have been informed by the user themselves of the green wires or have figured out themselves are capable of snipping the green wires. While the user can turn normal advertisable media into their own, allowing for further use of their devil fruit abilities, despite becoming more sturdy in terms of not flying in the wind if a gust came, they will all still possess the same durability and weaknesses as their normal counterparts.
The main demographic for the user are usually run of the mill people, people who aren’t observant enough to pick up the pieces of very slight things that happen to them. Such as the feeling of something latching onto them, their body doing something on their own, or feeling a certain way toward something all of a sudden. All manifested technology ads are the ads usable form combat, however they are at the same time the easiest to deal with. Just by hitting the top right “X” button to close the floating window. Most importantly, the user of the fruit must be somewhat capable of being a sales(wo)man or be willing to learn as a minimum to use this fruit at all or just be able to lie very well to people without feeling guilty.
Combative Info: The Ad-Ad Fruit in its entirety is not inherently for combative use, however it is capable of such use. Through coming into contact with any technological medium that adverts can be placed in, the user can make such ads manifest in the real-world. The windows from computer-like mediums are very durable, easily withstanding multiple cannon fire without such much as a crack. And are also capable of cutting someone by spinning it to further increase the windows cutting power. 3D polygon models act similar to props then anything that the user can telekinetically throw, if it so happened to be an animated model, then once manifested it will repeat its actions in a loop. The user is capable of raising the volume and brightness of video pop-ups to both blind and deafen opponents.
While the user ensnares more people in debt as well as deepening their staggering debt to the user for not doing their end of the deal. The user can forcibly take control of the user’s green wires and puppeteer them into fighting, operating in a similar fashion to Doflamingo’s Parasite technique. And the user is able to detach green wires from nearby indebted customers and manipulate to wrap around or attack the unaffected opponent while at the same time not attaching any debt onto them. However this not only allows the unaffected person to see the green wires, but also be able to cut them while they are in physical contact, even if they manage to snap a green wire, then that wire will not be reattached to their original indebted recipient. But can still be used by the user to attack opponents, but they can still be re-used for their intended purpose on another or an upcoming [InDEBT Consumer].
Non-Combative Info: Despite the absurdly greedy uses of the Ad-Ad Fruit, it is still an incredibly useful devil fruit for normal commercial uses or really any other form of normal trading uses. The user can easily create high-quality advertisements of any kind for any purpose on any advertisable medium. Being able to create a fully fledged security system by viewing through any and all [ads].
Techniques:
[Advertise]: The user physically touches a medium used for advertisement and transforms it into whatever form of marketable advertisement the user can imagine. When used on things such as paper or signs, the user erases whatever was written/printed on them before printing whatever they could think of. When used on a technological device, the user is simply able to instantly create pop-up ads and video advertisements. So long as it was possible on the chosen medium.

• [Limited Time Promotion]: The user creates a special ad under the guise of a promotional campaign, and whatever they are selling will be only available for a limited time. Increasing incentive for unassuming targets to quickly make a deal as the user reduces the time limit to add pressure on them.
• [Auction Sweepstake]: The user creates advertisements through any televised or radio broadcasting linked to a special advertisement that visually presents an auction sweepstake of multiple [“intended product”] that hypes them up and pretends to increase the bidding from a low price to make it look very valuable.
• [Wonder Trading]: The user creates numerous special ads that work off the basis of giving away a random item in response to a target donating a random item through this special advert. The value of the item given and received are completely, but the user can alter such values to weigh to their favour or someone else's. In addition to being able to see one’s wants and needs, the user can give out specific items to targets so that they are incentivized to donate more for similar items they desire.

[[Silly Strings]]: The user summons special string-like green wires from the sky onto the backs of a [InDEBT Consumer]. The more wires attached onto the back of a victim, the more susceptible they are to any of the user’s manipulations. The wires themselves become more durable and stronger the further the number of th deals the user makes, but will decrease the more deals get broken. While general training with them will make the base strength of the wires more stronger.

• [Sleight of Hand]: The user calls for a specific line of [[Silly Strings]] that are attached to a [InDEBT Consumer]. It will descend from the sky and wrap around the user’s finger, from there the user is able to completely control whatever part of the victim the wire is attached to. From making ever so slight hand gestures to weave the [InDEBT Consumer] to do whatever the user wants so long as they don’t make it apparent or obvious that they're being orchestrated.
• [Debt Termination]: The user manipulates all of the [[Silly Strings]] attached to a [InDEBT Consumer] and wrapped them in a dangerous sharp hold; particularly around the neck and in turn strangling them to death. Although when the user does this, the [[Silly Strings]] become visible to anyone around the victim who isn’t in debt, allowing them to snip the wires during this time.
• [Account Freeze]: The user summons all the [[Silly Strings]] attached to a [InDEBT Consumer] and simply halt the movement of the victim, for further entrapment the user wills the strings to wrap around the joints of the [InDEBT Consumer]. However once more doing such an action will cause non-[InDEBT Consumers] to witness the existence of the [[Silly Strings]].
• [Raining Green]: The user releases all the [[Silly Strings]] from a [InDEBT Consumer’s] body, causing them to each detach from that victim. The user then manipulates all of them to rain down upon a target and pierce them straight through. Alternatively the user can wrap themselves in a few of the [[Silly Strings]] to lift themselves off the ground and into the air. Similar to that of the [String-String Fruit].

[Manifested Windows]: The user focuses their [Ad-Ad Fruit] power on an advertisement off a technological screen. This causes the advertisement shown on the screen to begin to distort before literally coming out of the screen and assuming itself a 3d form. These manifested windows can be used in various ways from offence to defence. These 3d advertisements can be interacted with like advertisements the user creates. But the user is able to revert any of these manifests into 2d shapes and place them around like normal handout adverts, minimising them so that they maximise when someone is near, or make them float toward the nearest person and harass them.

• [3D Knockout]: The user creates manifested windows advertisements, and transforms them into 2d windows before having them slide underneath certain parts of a target’s body. And after they’ve slid under, the 2d windows instantly become 3d once more and collide into the target with excessive force.
• [[POP-UP Tabs]]: The user creates manifested windows advertisements, and transforms them into 2d windows before minimising them. The 2d manifested windows then sneak up on a target, and right when they least expect it, the windows maximise themselves and pop-up right in-front of the target.
• [Spam Mail]: The user or their [InDEBT Consumer] sets up many hidden pop-ups, minimised and scattered across every corner, door, window, device, etc and have them activated to the closest sentient being approaches its proximity. The Spam Mail pop-up will surprise and continuously annoy them by playing their own sound clips over and over again. And whenever they are closed, they will slightly shift out of the way.
• [Advertisement Block]: The user either during or out of combat grabs a manifested window and expands the window out to defend against attacks. But when expanded, the user can also turn the entire window 3-D, gaining a sudden immense amount of weight added to it. And crushing whoever the user drops it on, or they can use it as a shield or blockade.
• [Loud Notification]: The user creates a special variation of pop-up tab, that plays a loud and obnoxious-type of ringing noise whenever they are open. They can be programmed to follow targets and continuously play the same sound over again similar to spam mail.
• [Advertised Product]: The user reaches over and sticks their hand into an advertisement that’s showcasing an item and grabs it. Then the user pulls the product out of advertisement and into the real world. The user can use the product similar to the actual version, however it will be only half as effective. All that is left of the product from the advertisement is a white space shaped exactly like the item.

Awakening:
Once the user of the Ad-Ad Fruit awakens, catching up their body and mind to the levels of their own ability. The standard abilities given when first consumed are significantly increased beyond what they were before, the proverbial range of advertisements are increased, the strength and durability of [[Silly Strings]] improved, the intricacies of the [InDEBT Consumer]’s body that can be manipulated are heightened, and much more. The former weakness of the devil fruit where the user needed a pre-established advertisement or materials to use their devil fruit has been lifted to an extent*****. Now all the user needs to do to create an advertisement is to simply make a sales pitch of any kind, with the more grandeur the pitch, the stronger the advertisement. The user can even now conjure pop-up tabs and digital lettering in thin air to help begin a sales pitch, or enhance their own speechcraft. They can even be used in combat if the user desires, though they are not as potent as physical advertisements or manifested tabs.
However that is only half of the entire awakening, the other half focuses on the conceptual power of the devil fruit and what the user can exactly turn into an “Advertisement”. While in the pre-awakening state, the user is only able to bargain for and sell physical objects and beings. Now the user is able to wrap their [[Silly Strings]] on more intangible [products] such as a person’s soul, in turn granting complete control over an individual, or perhaps something that has yet to exist like a person’s first born. Or even something tied to their very being like their devil fruit ability, though [WARNING: ANY ATTEMPT FOR THE USER OF AD-AD FRUIT TO ABSORB INTO THE POWER OF ANOTHER DEVIL FRUIT USER THAT HAD [“willingly”] SOLD THEIR DEVIL FRUIT POWER TO THEM WILL SUFFER FROM SPONTANEOUS EXPLOSION OF THEIR ENTIRE BODY. THERE ARE NO REFUNDS\.]*
Lastly while the user is able to wrap their [[Silly Strings]] on more intangible [products], the user is now capable of extending what they can exactly turn into advertisement. Following more in line with a standard paramecia awakening, but in a thematic way, any land the user comes into [“ownership”] of and becomes their [“property”]. The wielder of the Ad-Ad Fruit is able to freely change and manipulate everything within and connected to the user’s square feet of land into advertisements. While the user is unable to manipulate the environment in the same way as other paramecia users due to the less malleable nature of advertisements. The esoteric nature of advertisements and how exactly the user can portray their power because of how broad an advertisement can be makes up for the lack of traditional control over their transformed land. But there is a singular weakness to this facet of the Ad-Ad Fruit, which is that if the deed or proof of documentation (and if there isn't any, one is automatically created every time the user assumes control of a lone land.) is destroyed or damaged, then the affected environment will either be completely reverted back or parts of it will instead.
Awakened Techniques:
[Deal with the Devil]: The user creates a [specil] one time only [DEAL], however compared to the normal advertisements the user creates, this one is created with the intention of the user trading for something not entirely physical but something that has value to a specific customer. This [DEAL] is more one on one than any other advertisement deal. Requiring the soon to be customer to either sign on the dotted line of a document to finalise the dealmaking, or by [“willingly”] shaking the user’s hand.

• [Deal for Another Life]: The user creates a [specil] one time only [DEAL] for someone who needs assistance in saving someone, be it that they're in a dying state or simply injured. By accepting the [DEAL] for the user to save the life of another, the recipient will have their condition ”heal” in a sense depending on the situation. If medical supplies are in the vicinity capable of mending them, then the Ad-Ad Fruit will use those supplies to instantaneously patch them up. If there are none, then the [“customer”] will have either their own life or a certain amount of years off their life to help save or extend out the recipient’s.
• [Devil for a Devil]: The user creates a [specil] one time only [DEAL] for the intent of trading the devil fruit abilities of two people between them. Once that either sign or shake each other’s hands with the user present to finalise the dealmaking. Both people will begin to convulse and scream from the pain of the swapping of devil fruits, what appears out from them appears to be the will or soul of their particular devil fruits which pass by each other before phasing into their new user's body.

[Ad Infinitum]: The user proceeds to make a literal one time only [DEAL] like no other to whom but the Ad-Ad Fruit itself, arranging a [DEAL] that will allow the user to gain a significant amount of power by absorbing all existing goods received through every [DEAL] the user has ever made. In turn however, once the user has finished with what they had intended to do with the power, parts of their own individuality is exchanged by the Ad-Ad Fruit itself with one perfectly lined with the devil fruit’s function. That of being a Salesman and their job of making deals. However once done, they themselves will be ensnared by [[Silly Strings]] with them even knowing, and secretly manipulating them into performing and doing things that allows them to make more deals and benefit them.

• [NEO]: One of two transformations the user can undergo once the deal has been made, and is mostly done through the intake of many material items the user has ["respectfully"] received from a ["customer"]. Granting them a physiology similar to that of a mechanical machine. Allowing to shrug off a majority of dangers that normally threaten a [MEAT PERSON]. They are able to fly at great speeds and ascend as high as they want due to the [[Silly Strings]] attached to their back once in this form. For combat they have many options, from blasting opponents with their arm cannon, opening their chest cavity for their own mechanical heart to spring out and shoot out white diamonds, and even increasing their own size to ram into and squish their opposition.
• [OMEGA]: The second and most powerful and the two transformations the user can undergo once the deal has been made, and is made when on top of absorbing material items, they also take into both the souls of people who gave them up and actual living people who sold their lives to the user. The main difference between the two forms is not only in power but also in sheer size and mobility being more slow. During both transformations, the user experiences a even higher boost in their ability of manipulating and transforming their [“property”] into anything advertisable.

P/N: I had created this fruit around the beginning of 2022, but never got around to actually starting anything. But then around the time Spamton Sweepstakes started I then, randomly out of nowhere, thought of the entire concept for the devil fruit.
I will say that I gave up at the end with the awakening moves, due to not feeling the best. But I just wanted to get this devil fruit over and done with. Any of the moves are up for interpretation.

It’s been a while since I’ve felt anything. My life has become a constant drudgery, even special events have become dull. My son’s fourteenth birthday was a few weeks ago, but it could’ve happened yesterday, or the month before, it’s all been melding into one. I still remember though; I remember being in that moment, and I can tell you the exact details of what occurred, who was there, but I can’t for the life of me remember how it meant to me. I was simply a presence, a bystander. I think my son was happy, I hope he was.
The tasks in my life that were once a burden have become noise to me. In a way I suppose that’s a good thing. I can work my ass off all day, get treated like a dog, and I would be none the wiser. I’m not exactly sure when this happened, I used to hate my job. I guess somewhere along the way I got lobotomized in my sleep. That would explain it. At least I can provide for my son this way.
He reminds me of myself in more ways that I’d like to admit. He’s a pleasure seeker, and the friends that he’s made push these hedonistic tendencies. On his birthday he came back home absolutely plastered, and I should’ve been furious, but it didn’t affect me at. Hell I even offered him another drink. At his age I sought the same type of stimulus, the same type that I yearn for today, so in a way I am living vicariously through him. He’s a good kid though, he’s on this path but he’s not anchored to it. He refused the drink and went to bed. As a father what I did was not good, but as bystander I wish he took it. I wish he prolonged his euphoria. I wish I could see him live.
They’ve been advertising this new medication all over TV. It’s a pill that gives you constant nightmares when you sleep. It’s been all over the news actually. Some people are up in arms about, and for some folks it’s a godsend, folks like me. In my mind this seems like the stimulus I have been craving for so long, but I can’t stop thinking about my son. What happened on his birthday was a moment of weakness. I couldn’t let him know I stooped so low to get a high. Seeking the pleasures in life is one thing, but seeking fear is another. The road my son is on mirrors my own, and I don’t want him to become nullified in the same way. But at this point, he’s becoming a young man before my eyes, and I am indifferent. I need to feel something, I need to be present, not a presence.
After meeting with my doctor, I received the prescription, 30 pills for 30 days. She sternly informed me of the side effects, about how easy it is to overdose, but like all other stimuli in life, it became white noise. But at last, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I could finally feel again, and I couldn’t wait to fall asleep. I waited until the lights in my son’s room went off, and after I saw that he had fallen asleep, I could begin. I sat upright on my bed and pulled out the prescription bottle from my drawer. I took another look, scanned it up and down, maybe even considering a reason not to take it. On the label was a warning sign
“Do not take two doses within a 12-hour period”.
“Good to know” I thought to myself, and I popped open the bottle, took a gulp from my glass of water, and closed my eyes.
Thirty minutes passes, and then an hour, and no effect. Worthless scam. My eyes blasted open, but when I tried to get up, my limbs were numb. I tried closing my eyes again…nothing. I tried breathing and I realized I was suffocating; I couldn’t move any part of my body whatsoever. The sweat from my forehead rolled into my open eye. I couldn’t move, but I could experience pain. As the asphyxiation engulfed me, my bedroom became blurry.
“This is it" I thought, I am about to die.
With each passing second my vision faded until finally, as I imagined would be the last moment of my life, the pain stopped. I could breathe again, and sure enough I rose from my prone position and stood up. I look around, everything is in its normal place. I take a deep breath in relief. Now that the worst was over, I got up to examine the pill bottle. The warning was no longer in English, but instead covered in strange markings.
Suddenly I was dragged down by an unbelievable force through my bedroom floor into a black abyss. There was an extremely loud sound that sounded like deep breathing and I felt as if something was watching my descent. At an instant I fell on a sandy bottom. I looked around, but it was so dark that I could only see at an arms reach. I trudged through the sand, stepping on what felt like organic material occasionally. At last, I reached a metal industrial door, like one you’d see in large freezer. On it was some type of text or message, I squinted my eyes attempting to read it. It was in that same language on the pill bottle. My eyes wander down and I notice a door handle. My heart is beating faster than when I was dying. I smile and reach for it.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
My eyes tear open as if they were glued. I’m back in my room, I can breathe. I realized that I forgot to turn off my Saturday alarm. I exhale in a sense of relief when I noticed something wet underneath me. Damn I pissed my bed… Understandably, I jumped up and exclaimed upon realization. I hear footsteps coming sprinting towards my room. My son opens the door and sees me in my current state.
“Dad are you ok?”, my son said.
“Oh, yeah…I’m fine, just had a bad dream”
My son notices my soaked trousers and bed sheets.
“Are you…feeling alright?” he says.
My cheeks become bright red.
“Oh um…I just…”
My darting eyes reach the half empty water glass.
“Yeah I just spilled a bit when I was taking my medicine”
My heart froze. I didn’t hide the bottle last night. My son’s eyes meandered to the pill bottle on my dresser, and then back to mine. After what seemed like an eternity, my son perked a smile.
“I think you’re just getting old Dad”.
With that he laughed and rolled his eyes while closing the door. Silence at last. I began to laugh quietly to myself. I couldn’t believe it, but I finally felt something again. I could feel the warm embrace of the sunshine seeping through the blinds of my window.
I walk into the kitchen to find my son cooking breakfast. The sweet scent of the bacon permeates my olfactory senses. I take a moment to listen. I hear the low hum of the air conditioner, the upbeat banter of daytime television, and even ever so faintly, the songs of birds outside. I find myself grinning ear to ear. My son places a plate consisting of tater tots, eggs, and bacon in front of me.
“Someone’s chipper today”, he says.
I smile at him.
“Yeah…yeah I’m feeling good”.
My son leans against a wall and tosses a tater tot into his mouth.
“Maybe it wasn’t such a bad dream after all”, he says.
I snag a tater tot off my plate and do the same.
“Honestly I don’t remember what it was about”.
I felt at peace…or at least it appeared so. I took a bite of my breakfast, but with each chew the flavor began dissipating. I squint, the sunshine has become dull and bright. My hand begins to tremble as I feel an object in pajama pocket. I feel a compulsion to reach down. I slowly retrieve the object from my pocket. My eyes widen and my heart begins to race…it’s the prescription bottle, and the English text is replaced once again with a foreign language. I gawk at it sitting in the palm of my hand, and my lips start to form a smile.
“Dad!”
I snap out of it and stuff the bottle back into my pocket. My son is standing behind the kitchen counter.
“Do you want any more bacon before I put it away?”.
“Uh…no thank you, I’m alright for now”
My son stares at me with a charged look.
“All right…” he says.
I quickly regain my composure.
“Son, do you have any plans tonight?”
“Yeah I think Devin’s having some people over tonight…unless you wanted to do something?”
I feign a smile.
“No, no, have fun with your friends!”
“All…right, cool…” my son says.
I jump.
“But maybe we can do something tomorrow?”
My son ponders for a moment.
“I was actually gonna go to Luka’s basketball game tomorrow. A bunch of my friends wanna support him, ya know?…”
He sees a hint of sadness in my eyes.
“But after we could figure something out!” he exclaims.
I smile.
“Yes…that sounds great!”
My son nods and walks out the kitchen door. My hand is still trembling. I look down to see that I had been gripping the bottle the whole time. I check the door; I think he’s gone. I pull the bottle out and examine it, the text has returned to normal. I exhale, I felt safe again.
I hear the door slam closed followed my son’s car screeching out the driveway. He asked if he could spend the night at Devin’s and I complied. It’s seven o’clock in the evening…perfect. I purchased a plastic mattress cover to avoid last night’s mishap, so I put it on the bed, strip naked and sit the mattress. There is a part of me that feels a slight embarrassment at my current situation, but honestly, I’ve been caught doing worse. I also purchased a water-resistant blanket, so I’m not a complete degenerate.
I pull the bottle out from the drawer. The label’s in English…great. I purposefully put the bottle into the drawer and hide it under some of the junk in there, and for good measure, I set my alarm for five in the morning, just in case my son came home early. I pop a pill into my mouth and swallow.
Immediately I am pulled down into the abyss. Darkness has now overcome my entire vision. I am moving extremely fast, much faster than last time. I swear I even feel my ears popping from the change in pressure. BAM!
I slam into the sandy bottom once more. I take a few moments to catch my breath when I notice a light in the distance. It shines an iridescent purple color, unlike I had ever seen. Immediately my feet began trudging towards it, almost automatically. I carefully amble over what seems like a sea of organic matter. I have no inclination of what exactly I’m walking on, but it is consumed most of the sand from before. As I approach the light, I see what I had been drawn to…the door from last night.
Although the door appeared the same as the night prior, it felt…different. I would even say it felt familiar…safe…welcoming. Before I could even think, my hand rose and grasped its handle. It’s difficult to explain, but it reminded me so much of her. I was grinning ear to ear once more. I began to twist the handle, and as I did so the iridescent light that guided me here shined brighter and brighter, once again bathing me in a warm embrace. I peer forward, filled with the most excitement in years, as I’m about to pull the door open.
“Mom! Dad!”
I stop. I look around for the source of the outcry.
“Mom! Dad! Help me! Please!
It’s my son.
Without a second thought I let go of the handle and begin sprinting towards him.
SLAM!
I face plant into the ground. Something has snagged my ankle. The iridescent light has become bright enough to illuminate the ground and…oh my goodness. Around me are what seems like thousands and decrepit bodies, all trying to claw their way out of the sand. I look down at my ankle and see a man gripping me. He has a look of desperation in his eye. I promptly kick him in the face and run off.
“Mom! Dad!”
I’m getting closer.
“Mom! Dad!”
I’m almost there.
“MOM! DAD!”
I can see him! But he’s being engulfed by the bodies and sand below. I sprint as fast as I can when…
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
I scream and flail on my bed. I take a few moments to catch my breath. I glance at the source of the noise…my alarm clock. It reads 5:00 AM. It’s morning. The sun has not fully risen yet, but the warm embrace still reaches me. I glance over at the water glass and pill bottle on top of my dresser. I exhale in relief, it’s over… I throw some clothes and head to the restroom. Fortunately, I didn’t have an accident last night, so there’s no evidence there. And thankfully I made sure to hide the pill bottle last night as well.
Wait.
I sprint back into my room to find the pill bottle on top of my dresser. I try to calm myself down. I must’ve forgotten again. It’s 5 am, there’s no way he’s home. He wouldn’t do that, he’s better than me. I take a deep breath and un-tense my body. Yeah, everything’s ok…
I jump at the pill bottle and count its contents.
“1…2…3….”
With every number my heart races.
“24…25…26………27”
My heart sinks. I burst out of my bedroom and sprint to my son’s room. I slam open the door, and my fears realized. He is lying unconscious on his bed. I check his pulse, he’s alive, but his heart rate is slow, and he’s ice cold to the touch. I panic, looking for anything to help. His slow breaths act as a ticking clock as I search for a solution. I grab a phone and begin to dial 911 when I notice something. Silence.
I rush over to my son’s side. He’s stopped breathing…but his heart is still beating, then I notice something more. All along my son’s chest and arms appear to markings materializing beneath his skin, the same markings on the pill bottle. With no other options, there’s only one action I could take to save my son. I sprint back into my room, grab a pill and swallow it.
What feels like an eternity passes, but I cannot fall asleep. I try taking other sleeping pills, I try asphyxiation, I even try knocking myself out with blunt force. But to no avail, I’m trapped here in the conscious world while my son is fading away. My emotions overcome me.
“Why isn’t it working!”
“I thought you wanted to experience true fear?” a deep voice bellowed out.
I did, whatever was talking to me was right. I wanted to feel something, fear, sadness…anything. But now I’m overcome with only one emotion…rage.
“Release my son!”
Silence.
“Release my son right now, I command you!”
Silence.
I look around the room and spot the pill bottle.
“What if I made you a deal?”
“…Go on” the voice boomed.
“If I swallow every pill in this bottle, would you let go of my son?”.
“But he’s so fresh and ripe…what do you have to offer?”.
“I don’t…I don’t know…nothing!”
Without thinking I grab the pill bottle and swallow the lot. I collapse onto the floor and begin sobbing. I’ve done it, my son has done nothing wrong and has paid the price for my wrongdoings. But wait, I refuse to live on without him. Even if his fate is sealed, I will live on every day from now living to the fullest, in his memory. If he can’t be here to experience what life has to offer, I’ll experience it twice fold!
“Deal” the voice bellowed out.
At once I began my descent into the void, seemingly at the speed of light, but even then, I saw something ascending out of the darkness. Although my fate had been sealed, my son’s is safe. So here I find myself in a sea of now millions of the damned, smiling ear to ear.

When I first watched Heathers: The Musical, believe it or not, I fucking hated Heather Duke. My favourite character back then was Heather Chandler, because she’s a mythic bitch. Then, I realised I hated Heather Duke because she was too much like me.
But that’s not the point. My point is, Heather Duke is considered by many to be an extremely hatable character. The purpose of this essay is not to convince you to like Heather Duke more; it is just to defend some of her actions, as stated in the title. Though many of Heather Duke’s actions were inexcusable, she is ultimately one of Heather Chandler’s victims; an example of the victim becoming the bully. Most of this essay is written with the Off-Broadway production in mind, as well as the movie.

Heather Duke has a personality

Let’s start from the very beginning. While it is true that we have about 2 hours of musical content and 1 hour and 44 minutes of movie content to go off of, as well as deleted scripts, much can be gathered regarding Heather Duke’s personality.
Veronica describes Duke as having ‘no discernible personality, but her mom did pay for implants’. It is proven further on in the musical that yes, Duke does have a personality; a personality is defined by the Oxford dictionary as the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character. Duke is far from having no discernible personality; hell, you could even argue that Duke is the most in-depth character in Heathers.
The most prominent example of this is Duke’s interaction with JD before ‘Kindergarten Boyfriend’, Duke immediately knowing that “I now know thee, thou clear spirit” is from Moby Dick, and that’s not even the whole quote. Duke is shown to be an avid reader in the movie as well; reading Moby Dick even while playing croquet and in early drafts of the script, referencing The Catcher in the Rye (“Yeah, you know Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye wouldn’t put up with their bogus nonsense.”).
I read The Catcher in the Rye recently, and it’s a coming-of-age novel from an unreliable narrator perspective. The main character, Holden Caulfield, has a very warped worldview, classifying people as ‘phonies’, smoking and drinking while underage, his most notable trait being his red hunting cap; a physical manifestation of his different thinking and uniqueness from others. I interpret Duke liking this novel as her relating heavily with its themes of angst and alienation, often picturing herself as being alienated from the Heathers; with Chandler shown to treat McNamara better than her, and even treats Veronica better than her (to an extent). And as another Reddit user mentioned, curiosity is a sign of intelligence; her willingness to seek new information such as books makes her an extremely intelligent character (even managing to find a quote from a book with 135 chapters immediately).
I almost forgot to add how Duke runs the yearbook; and running a yearbook committee requires qualities such as good leadership abilities, good teamwork skills as well as a high level of creativity. High schools do not just let random people run their yearbook committees; unless Duke bribed the faculty to give her the position or intimidated the student body into electing her as yearbook committee head. In the movie, there’s a scene that Dennis, Peter and a random girl are discussing the yearbook regarding Chandler’s suicide, and the fact that Duke is allowing it to be included in the yearbook (as the head, despite not being in the scene itself) shows that not only is she a somewhat competent head, she also knows what’s best for the yearbook and what isn’t.
Duke comes up with many snarky remarks throughout the musical, some taken directly from the movie version of Chandler (“What? It’ll give her shower nozzle masturbation material for weeks!”) which implies how she models her behaviour after her though she does come up with her fair share of snarky remarks herself (“We all didn’t kiss on the kickball field!”, “Here comes the cootie squad! We should-“, et cetera).
Duke is insecure, described in the Off-Broadway script as being ‘the whipped beta dog of the three Heathers. Deeply insecure.’ A good example to show her insecurity is in the OOBC bootleg of ‘Beautiful’ on YouTube (Alice Lee is an amazing Heather Duke), when she tells Veronica “Of course, you could stand to lose a few pounds.” she grips her stomach area, heaving deeply as if she’s disgusted by herself, reflecting her insecurities on Veronica, but regains her composure quickly. Another Reddit user pointed out how Duke seems to adjust the bottom of her blazer after being placed in a situation out of her control; and control is a very important aspect of her character, which I will also be going into when talking about her eating disorder. After Duke gets SA’d by Ram in ‘Big Fun’ and suspended by Mrs. Fleming after ‘Lifeboat’, she readjusts the bottom of her blazer, and I do think this is symbolic; reminding her that after everything, the one thing she has control over is her body and her weight, which is why she specifically readjusts the area of her blazer covering her stomach.
Lastly, Duke is the only character in canon confirmed to have a disorder; bulimia nervosa. While some of you may argue that “JD has antisocial personality disordePTSD!” or “Veronica is depressed!” they are not confirmed. The diagnostic criterion for bulimia nervosa in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-V) are:

• Recurrent episodes of binge eating
• Recurrent inappropriate compensatory behaviors in order to prevent weight gain (like purging)
• The binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behaviour both occur on average at least once a week for 3 months
• Self-evaluation is unduly influenced by body shape and weight
• Disturbances do not occur during episodes of anorexia nervosa

While Duke’s bulimia is mentioned only once throughout the whole musical in ‘Beautiful’, and twice in the movie where it is shown that she started to make an attempt to normally after Chandler’s death (no, you can’t recover from bulimia instantly), it shows a lot about her character. The act of binge eating itself has a sense of lack of control, as stated in the DSM-V. It goes so far that during binges, individuals tend to eat foods they would otherwise avoid; continuing until they are uncomfortably full. The DSM-V states that experiencing multiple stressful life events can precipitate onset of bulimia, and bulimics tend to be ashamed of their eating problems, which can be triggered through multiple factors like interpersonal stressors, negative feelings related to body weight and body shape, boredom, et cetera.
Why am I telling you all this? Because Duke’s bulimia is a product of her insecurity. Heather Duke hates the way she looks; if she didn’t, her mom wouldn’t have paid for implants. Also, the minimum age to get breast implants in the USA is 18; implying that Duke’s mother and Duke got it through illegal means. Heather Duke mafia arc?! Bulimia is also seen by bulimics to be a way to maintain control over their own body. They believe that even if they can’t control anything else around them, they still have complete control over their own body; which is what leads to the development of an eating disorder. Duke wants control; shown by her jealousy of Chandler as well as her taking initiative to obtain the red scrunchie in the musical after Chandler’s death. When Duke doesn’t have control, she uses unhealthy coping mechanisms like her bulimia and phrases to reassure herself (like when JD blackmails her, she says “Nobody cares about the past. Nobody cares about Martha Dumptruck.” and it has a vengeful, angsty intonation to it; as if she’s saying it to reassure herself, perhaps?).
In conclusion, Heather Duke has a personality. She is highly intelligent, snarky, insecure, aching for control over her own life and the lives of others’. Which leads me to my next point.

Heather Chandler’s abuse

Many people speculate that Chandler is an asshole to Duke because she knows that Duke will go batshit crazy on McNamara if Duke gets the power (like she did after ‘Lifeboat’) and hence keeps Duke on a tight leash. In actuality, she does not just keep Duke on a tight leash. She abuses Duke, both physically and mentally. Chandler’s physical assault is shown in ‘Candy Store’, before her riff where Duke wails vocal ad-lib and Chandler fucking pushes her. It has come to the point where people don’t compare how good each individual Chandler’s riff is, rather, people compare how far each individual Duke gets pushed. Under no circumstances should you ever push someone to the ground, let alone your friend or someone who is part of your clique. That’s called bullying.
And if I could list every single instance that Chandler mentally/verbally abuses Duke, I’d be here all day. Which I already am. Some examples include:

• “Grow up, Heather. Bulimia is so ‘87.” Not only does Chandler not show a conscious effort to help Duke recover from her eating disorder, she mocks it, ridiculing Duke for being immature (as implied by Chandler’s words) in front of McNamara. Also, fun fact, excessive purging can lead to death. Either Chandler is extremely indifferent and couldn’t give 2 shits if Duke died or is ignorant of what bulimia is. In which case she is still an extremely shitty friend for not trying to help Duke.
• Chandler tells Duke to shut up a total of 4 times in the musical (first time in ‘Beautiful’, “How about prescriptions?” “Shut up, Heather!” second time before ‘Candy Store’, “What? It’ll give her shower nozzle masturbation material for weeks!” “Shut up, Heather!” third time during ‘Candy Store’ before the riff, “Woah! Honey, what you waiting for-“ “Shut up, Heather!” and last time during ‘Big Fun’, “Here comes the cootie squad! We should-“ “Shut up, Heather!”). And Chandler is alive for a grand total of 42 minutes. Notice that every time Chandler tells her to shut up, Duke always replies with a meek “Sorry, Heather…” (except for during ‘Candy Store’ because Duke’s on the floor but there’s a recording of Jessica Keenan Wynn, Elle McLemore and Kristolyn Lloyd performing the song at a Barnes and Noble where after Jessica as Chandler tells Kristolyn as Duke to shut up, she replies with a hasty “Sorry, Heather!”) which shows how Chandler has basically beaten this poor girl down into submission, silencing her and giving her no right to speak or even have an opinion. Which brings me on to my next instance.
• “You’ll need something to write on. Heather, bend over.” Chandler literally makes Veronica use Duke as a table. In the movie, there is literally a table right behind them; and in a deleted script, both McNamara and Duke bend over, and Chandler makes Duke go back down. The fact that in both the movie and the musical, Duke does it with zero protesting shows that she was acclimatised to her position as Chandler’s metaphorical (and literal) punching bag.
• “I am talking to my friend.” This is in the West End production, where Chandler directly addresses Duke after she says “You were totally throwing your panties at him!” to Veronica. Even within the Heathers, there’s a hierarchy at play; Chandler’s tone of voice is extremely condescending, addressing her as if she’s a dog or an insolent, disobedient kid. Which Duke immediately ‘steps back in line’ and responds with a “Sorry, Heather…”
• During ‘Big Fun’, after Veronica saves Duke’s ass (both metaphorically and literally) from Ram, Duke approaches Chandler who throws her hands up and gives her a patronising look. Even after being sexually harassed by Ram, and even after calling out (“Quit it jackass, get off of me!”), Chandler refuses to offer Duke help; leading to her responding to Veronica’s offers of help with spite and anger from being thrown aside by Chandler (“I didn’t need your help.”).
• “Heather Duke was such a sad little poser. Veronica, tell her to stop touching my stuff.” While this is arguable because this is Chandler’s ghost and it’s implied that Chandler’s ghost is a manifestation of Veronica’s guilt, it shows that even Veronica would subconsciously know that Chandler would say this about Duke. Chandler’s treatment of Duke is so bad to the point of Veronica knowing exactly what Chandler would say about Duke in that situation.

This is way too much for a 17 year old to handle. When Chandler says “Grow up, Heather. Bulimia is so ‘87.”, it’s also implying that they knew each other since/before 1987. Which is even more fucked up considering Duke has been constantly taking abuse from Chandler for 2 years or more. The worst part is, if Duke wants to remain a Heather, she can’t do anything. And she’s not allowed to do anything. Or she’d become an ex-somebody, and we all knew the consequences of that in the actual musical. After 2 years (or more) of suffering, what do you think Duke would do? It’s human instinct to feel like shit if you were abused like this. And instead of getting swallowed up by her pain like McNamara did, what did Duke do? Lash out at others. But before I go into that, I’ll go into a small sub-section.

Heather McNamara’s ignorance

Heather McNamara is not an innocent cinnamon roll. She is equally as bad as every other Heather; just that she is redeemable. As Janis Ian/Sarkisian once said, “There are two kinds of evil people in this world. Those who do evil stuff and those who see evil stuff being done and don't try to stop it.” And it is safe to say that McNamara falls under both categories.
She doesn’t try to stop Duke or protect Veronica when Duke spreads the rumor that Veronica had a threesome with Kurt and Ram; instead, she actively encourages it! In Blue (Reprise), she sings “I hope she rinsed it!” and actively joins in the singing in the West End production’s ‘Never Shut Up Again’.
Heather McNamara is a follower. She’s a lot like someone I know; she follows what the most influential person wants, and goes with it. After Chandler died, it was Duke. And before Chandler died… you guessed it!
You may argue that McNamara told Duke “Maybe you should see a doctor, Heather.” but that is kind of a given…? Someone with bulimia, as stated earlier, would not be open about their eating disorder at all. That is extremely shitty advice to give someone. She could’ve agreed with Duke, could’ve stood up for her or at least tried to interact with her or help her up when she was pushed down; but she didn’t (I think in the West End production she did? I’m not sure either; it looked more as if she was pushing Duke into place which is an even more asshole move to do). Naturally, Duke would associate McNamara as one of the people who wronged her, as well as Chandler. And when McNamara poured her heart out to TV cameras during ‘Lifeboat’… well…

Justifying Heather Duke’s actions

…Heather Duke was not having it. Many people take notice of the “And every morning on the bus I feel my heart beating louder and faster and I’m like ‘Jesus, I’m on the freaking bus again because all my rides to school are dead…’” and then they look at Duke’s line in ‘Candy Store’ (“And get in my Jeep!”) which could be interpreted many different ways. And I like to think that Duke walks to school because bulimics tend to overexercise in order to lose weight (especially considering Heathers occured in a relatively short time frame), but as I said, it could be interpreted many different ways. Bulimics typically have to go through cognitive behavioural therapy (or they can just… recover from their own, but it takes time) but that’s not the point. My point is, Duke didn’t necessarily refuse to pick McNamara up. It’s just a theory. A musical theory.
After ‘Lifeboat’, where McNamara is stuck in a trance-like state, Duke rushes towards her, confronting her. And here’s where everyone forgets that the TV cameras are still recording; why would Duke yell at someone who is suicidal on TV cameras? She wants control. She craves positive attention. The last thing that Duke would do would be to make herself seem like an asshole on national television. The whole sequence seemed as if it was out of rage and pent-up anger more than anything; it was almost immediate after ‘Lifeboat’ ended. Her tone was not dissimilar to Chandler’s before ‘Dead Girl Walking’; both extremely indignant. And here’s where some people also forget that ‘Shine a Light (Reprise)’ happened in McNamara’s head and Duke didn’t actually tell her to go kill herself. I interpret ‘Shine a Light (Reprise)’ not just as McNamara imagining Duke telling her to kill herself, but subconsciously encouraging herself to kill herself. Why would Duke use Mrs. Fleming’s song? In essence; Duke lashed out at McNamara in rage. It seemed more of an outburst rather than a premeditated action.
Sure, I can’t justify Duke spreading the rumor about Veronica having a threesome. I admit that Duke is an asshole for doing that. Which is why I like her. What I can somewhat justify is Duke usurping Chandler’s position as head bitch.
Duke had always been in Chandler’s shadow; and in this case, always been beaten up by Chandler. Naturally, what she’d want to do is issue a final “fuck you” to Chandler by firstly, usurping her position, her red scrunchie, raiding her locker, and blowing her boyfriend (I believe that’s in a deleted part of the movie script where she blows David. But people with EDs typically don’t participate in sexual activities because of their body image issues). Duke wanted to take what Chandler didn’t give her, and she wanted to make others feel how Chandler made her feel. Her actions were out of vengeance and rage.
After ‘Kindergarten Boyfriend’, Duke attempts to get Veronica and McNamara to sign the petition, and when Veronica tells her that “We were avoiding you.”, Duke lets out a gasp of bewildered betrayal. This implies that Duke didn’t understand the consequences of her actions (which again, I can imply that Chandler did it to her so many times that she thinks it’s okay) which is so fucking sad. Which also further leads me to believe that Duke lashed out at McNamara out of rage.

Conclusion

The saddest thing about Heather Duke is that in the Off-Broadway production, she does not achieve a happy ending. She is the only living character in the musical to not have a happy ending (JD reunited with his mom in heaven, Veronica, Martha and McNamara reconcile, the school as a whole reconciled) and instead goes back to being a nobody. She joins a random group and sings with them, showing how it’s so tragic that she didn’t even get to keep what she wanted for so long. Though, in the West End production, she reunites with McNamara and Veronica. But I don’t really like that ending because after what Duke did, I wouldn’t see McNamara and Veronica forgiving her, especially since Duke said that Martha was “Just another geek trying to imitate the popular kids and failing miserably.”
Heather Duke’s actions can’t be fully excused, but she isn’t inherently bad; I believe that her actions were mostly out of vengeance. And that is so relatable. What the fuck.
I like to think that after the events of Heathers, Heather Duke and Heather McNamara went to therapy together, explaining their actions and pushing past their past grievances and turning their trauma bond into a true friendship. But again, it never happened. Unless I write a fanfic about it.
If you’re reading this, thank you for coming to my TedTalk. And I’m so happy you managed to read through my Heather Duke essay. She just like me fr

It was a beautiful day in the fall, and though being in the middle of nowhere in Ohio isn’t exactly my ideal setting for an assignment, it could have been worse. Opening my windows, listening to music, and getting a good whiff of country air is a nice contrast to being cooped up in cities like I’m used to. The sight of brown stalks of corn populating the miles of fields along the road was welcome, as was the cool and clean smell of the air. It’s a good thing these jobs don’t involve much interaction with people. Unfortunately, some level of interaction is inevitable.
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On my way to this one, I got a speeding ticket from a cop at some little local department. Though I was, in fact, speeding, I got the feeling that he also didn’t so much like seeing a fed in his neck of the woods. The local police aren’t a fan of us, so I’ve come to learn. They tend to get suspicious of us, thinking we’re up to some top-secret mission behind their backs. I guess they would be right.
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I kept driving down the gravel road until the navigation let me know my destination was coming up on the right. Turning down the radio as I approached, I glanced toward the empty fields and the woods that met them beyond. I then turned into the long dirt driveway leading to our civilians’ house and garage.
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I rolled up and parked with my trunk facing the porch. Stepping out, I got another whiff of the fresh country air and looked at the area of operations that lay before me. I was surprised at the amount of land and space that I had at my disposal. Space is good for these jobs. Additionally, I was informed that there weren’t any neighbors close enough to worry about. I couldn’t have asked for a better setting.
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After stretching and letting out a light sigh, I decided it was time to get to work. I pulled the keychain out of my pocket and unlocked the front door. It seemed like a nice enough place. It was certainly nothing worth complaining about given the conditions of houses I’ve faced in my previous assignments. I went back outside to my massive, government-issued vehicle and opened the trunk.
​
I pulled the first couple of duffel bags worth of equipment out and brought them inside. The kitchen was as good a place as any to set up. After making five or six trips of dragging heavy bags and boxes of my junk into the house, I went back outside to open the garage. Thank God we were able to catch this case early and the civilians were able to make it out in time. It also meant I got room in the garage to park this thing. All that remained in the truck was the large metallic box, but I wasn’t going to need that until later.
​
I shut the trunk and pulled my vehicle into the garage, closing it on my way out. I stepped back into the house where I changed from my suit to my gear. Wearing the suit all day annoys me but I suppose the higher-ups want us to look like good, “friendly” feds to the public. The public has no idea the kind of monsters we are.
​
I unpacked box after box of equipment and weapons. I loaded up my Glock 17 with its extended 30-round magazine just as I did with my standard .556 rifle. I checked the laser sights on both. All good. Next was my favorite, the.338 with the best scope you could ever ask for. It sure is nice having a virtually infinite budget. Perks of working for the US federal government I suppose. The final firearm I brought was my personal .357 magnum revolver that I kept holstered on my chest. I figure it’s never a bad idea to have one more gun, just in case. Maybe I should have brought more on this one. If things got too close, I always had my hunting knife. I sharpened it that morning before heading out.
​
The next few hours consisted of me going out into the woods near the house in various places and setting up dozens of my little cameras equipped with motion sensors. They were there to give me an idea of the location of anything that got brave enough to get close to the fields that surrounded the house, I would be able to know about anything that was coming to me. I didn’t take too much caution in setting them up. Things never get interesting until nightfall.
​
I returned to the house where I turned on my laptop and assured that all the cameras were connected and working. I could see every single one of them from there and would know if anything so much as moved. I then got situated on a chair by the kitchen table, where I opened the window and set up my .338 rifle to watch the fields with.
​
I suppose it would be worth mentioning why I’m out here, setting up fancy equipment in the woods and loading up an arsenal of guns while I’m alone in a farmhouse that isn’t mine. Let’s back it up.
​
March 1st, 2017, 3:33 am, Iowa
​
Dispatch gets a call from a local farmer. He claims to be looking at a figure standing still at the edge of a treeline on his property. The description given by the farmer was that of a man of average stature and build, clothed in a loose black or grey shirt and trousers and a large-brimmed hat.
​
The farmer tells dispatch that he had awoken abruptly roughly an hour earlier, unspecified as to why. He spotted the figure outside his kitchen window soon after. The figure had been standing near the edge of a row of trees. It was facing the house and hadn’t moved a muscle since the farmer noticed him. The farmer quickly retrieved his rifle and walked out onto his lawn, proceeding to brandish his firearm and tell the trespasser that this property was his and to leave immediately. The farmer, seeing that the man remained unthreatened by his warning and display of a firearm, retreaded back into his home to retrieve his phone and call 9-1-1 as he continued to watch the figure from his porch.
​
During this call, the farmer’s voice was noticeably nervous and frightened. The desperate tone and quivering speech continued to worsen as he went on explaining the situation to dispatch. Dispatch instructed the farmer to remain where he stood and not to approach the trespasser. Dispatch reassured the farmer that the police were on their way. A few quiet and uneventful minutes passed. Then, without warning, the farmer let out a horrified scream through the phone. The call was disconnected seconds later.
​
The police began their over 40-minute drive to the residence. Halfway to their arrival, multiple new calls were coming to dispatch from the farmer’s neighbors. They reported seeing a large stack of smoke coming from the farmer’s home, and the closest reported seeing the house on fire.
​
By the time police arrived, the house had burned to the ground. The fire department arrived shortly after but oddly enough, the fire had completely subsided. What remained was the charred crumbs of what was once a house. The firefighters that arrived on site were bewildered by how quickly the fire must have burned the house. There was no explanation they could fathom.
​
The police searched the nearby fields and woods for the farmer and alleged trespasser to no avail, however, their search was quickly called back upon the findings of the firefighters in the house. The man’s charred bones were found beneath the rubble but not as they should have been. It became clear after further investigation that the man’s limbs were ripped from his body before it was incinerated at an impossible speed. 4 .308 bullet casings were found where the porch of the house used to be. The rifle was found just outside of the house, unscathed despite its proximity to such a violent fire. Forensics confirmed that the rifle had fired these casings but the bullets themselves were never found.
​
This was the first, but far from the last.
​
October 28th, 2017, 11:07 pm, Montana
​
Dispatch gets a call from a rancher who spotted a woman in an old-fashioned black and white dress and wearing a linen cap. The rancher claimed the woman was standing amongst his cattle and not moving. The rancher expressed no panic or concern for his safety over the phone, but rather a concern for the woman in the field. The rancher also noted that his cattle kept their distance around the woman.
​
An ambulance arrived at 11:29. Paramedics found no trace of the alleged woman. They walked to the entrance of the rancher’s house and discovered his door to be unlocked and open. After calling for the rancher and getting no response, they stepped inside to be greeted by the corpse of the rancher, hanging from a noose in his stairwell. The man had no history of mental illness and none of his relatives or acquaintances had any reason to believe he was suicidal. Additionally, an autopsy report concluded that both arms were broken in multiple places as well as every finger as if they had been crumpled together by a great force. He could not have tied the noose himself.
​
November 29th, 2018, 2:06 am, Wisconsin
​
Dispatch gets a call from another farmer. He had spotted a woman in an old black and white dress and linen cap. The woman had been standing in the long driveway from the road to his house, lit by the lamp that covered it. She stood motionless in the cold, windy, and heavily snowing weather. The farmer and his wife were later found under a collapsed wall of their crumpled house with stones placed on top. They had been placed in a seemingly orderly fashion until there was enough weight to crush their bones.
​
This happens to be the first incident we have on record with photo evidence. A trail cam owned by the farmer and his wife a few acres away from the house caught a picture the night of the incident. It caught a picture of the woman exactly as the farmer had described. Black and white dress, white linen camp. It looked as though she had stepped through time from hundreds of years before and placed like a mannequin in front of the camera.
​
May 30th, 2019, Minnesota
​
September 3rd, 2019, Nebraska
​
January 4th, 2020, South Dakota
​
I could go on but the point is that these incidents have been happening more and more frequently and they aren’t stopping. We do know what they are, or at least what they’re supposed to represent to us.
​
Every single one of these “people” lived in North America during the witch trials. We don’t believe they were the ones who were executed. We believe they were the ones who made the accusations, the ones who got their neighbors killed, the ones who carried out the executions and now they’re back to kill again.
​
Luckily, my department picked up on these patterns early on and designated a team to deal with them. There are a few hundred of us. I am in the dark about what everyone does exactly. I haven’t met many but I do know that some find potential incidents, some investigate, some deal with the cover-up and handling the publicity, and then, of course, there are the ones you send in to eradicate the problem. That’s where I come in.
​
I am here to hunt them down, to put them back in their graves so it would seem. Sometimes I get here before they’ve claimed a victim, sometimes after. But their reign of terror comes to an end with me. They’ve never gotten away from me, and I have never failed an assignment. I didn’t plan on this night being any different.
​
A beep sounded from my laptop screen as an outline from one of the cameras lit up, indicating that the motion sensor detected movement. It had been quiet since I set it up, there was not even the slightest sign of wildlife. No deer, no squirrels, nothing. I leaned forward and intently examined the camera that had been triggered. There was nothing to see. Another sensor triggered. Again, the camera showed nothing. My eyes darted from camera to camera, looking for motion. Another camera triggered, though all that I caught sight of was a shaking tree branch. There was no wind today. Another. This time I saw it. A dog-looking figure darted across the camera in only a few frames, but I knew it was no dog.
​
I turned my attention from the cameras to the field in front of me, where the movement had come from. I got behind my rifle and looked down the scope to the treeline in the distance. My heart began to pound in my chest at an intense tempo.
​
I could feel the adrenaline kicking in while I scanned the edge of the field for movement. All that greeted me was the orange glint of the setting sun on the treeline and the tiny shadows of the little stumps of corn stalks in the otherwise empty field. It was silent. Not even a wind accompanied me this evening, though I can’t complain. It’s better for shooting.
​
For a few minutes, I continued to run my scope along the treeline, occasionally getting a peek with my own eyes. It was during one of these peeks when I noticed a color out of place, in between a couple of trees on the other side of the field—some sort of black-and-white spec that was there not a second before. I lowered my head down, back behind the scope, and centered it. As I steadied the scope, a man-like figure standing at the edge of the field came into focus.
​
It wore black, tattered rags of clothing that hung loosely on its rigid frame. It stood still, stiff as a board. Its eyes were fixed on something ahead of it. It took me a moment to realize it was focused on me. It didn’t move a muscle, not even blinking as it stared.
​
I came to my senses and prepared to do my job. I flipped the safety off of my rifle and centered my crosshairs on its chest. I began to breathe deeply, my finger on the trigger, ready to pull but I didn’t take the shot, not yet. I saw it start to move.
​
Even with the distance between us, my scope made the picture of this figure clear as day. The movement came from only one part of its body; its mouth. First, its crusty lips detached from one another and the mouth began to open. Steadily, it opened more, and more all the while the rest of its body and head remained fixed. Its jaw sank to what should have been all the more it could, but it didn’t stop. It fell further, dipping down below its chest, its skin like a stretched rubber band waiting to snap, though it didn’t, it kept stretching.
​
Still stiff as a board, the man-like thing remained with its eyes locked on me while its mouth sat open, impossibly wide. It stood still with its hanging jaw for a moment, a moment I shouldn’t have given it. Now I knew I had my target. I began to apply pressure to the trigger before I was stopped, shaken by a force.
​
A scream, like a choir of souls in despair being dragged off to hell, with the power of a thousand horns sounding the start of a medieval battle rung through the fields. Its volume caused flocks of birds in the nearby trees to fly away in a panic, its bass shuddered through my chest and left me too hypnotized to pull the trigger. I’ll never get used to hearing one of them scream.
​
“Here we go”
​
I muttered to myself, the only thought I could conjure from my brain at the moment.
​
Closing its mouth, it leaped forward and reached for the ground in front of it with its hands fixed like claws. As soon as they met the ground, the feet followed and planted themselves quickly so that it could boost itself forward once again. It had begun its terrible charge. All the while, its face remained fixed on me, rotting teeth exposed and clenched in rage. The speed at which it rushed across the empty field would make a deer running for its life look lazy in comparison, but I was the prey here.
​
Though my heart began to race at the sight of this abomination barreling toward me, this anomaly of hatred and hunger bound to flesh, I remained calm. I began to steady my breathing, taking control of each breath, in and out.
​
Inhale. Exhale.
​
Inhale. Exhale.
​
Inhale. Exhale.
​
Squeeze.
​
The crack of the shot rang out through the dimming sky and the field before me, my response to its enraged scream. I remained fixed on the target, observing the spatter of blood as it shot from its back. It began to scream again, this time rapidly and desperate in tone. I quickly moved the bolt and chambered the next round, accompanied by the soft ring of the brass bouncing on the floorboards under my chair.
​
Although I managed to land a clean shot to the chest, it didn’t do much. It kept running, keeping on at its same speed. Though now it changed its direction and was running adjacent to my position in the house. It was trying to flank me. It wanted to find a way around my line of sight. I couldn’t let it.
​
Again, I took control of my breathing. Slowly, I drifted my rifle on the bipod until the creature came back into view. Its limbs pounded at the ground with speed and power as it propelled itself across the field. I’ll never get used to seeing one run either.
​
Starting behind it, I continued to move the scope, just fast enough to begin gaining on him, just fast enough to let the crosshairs catch up. Inhale. Exhale. The crosshairs slowly began to overtake it. Inhale. Exhale. Squeeze.
​
I chambered the next round quickly. This shot brought him to the ground, but it didn’t keep him there. After a short tumble, it rose and began to run again, this time back towards the woods it came from. Inhale. Exhale. Squeeze.
​
The third shot grazed its back. Frustrated, I chambered another round and took aim, but it was far too late. Before I could even begin to line up my fourth shot, it had taken one final leap from the field back into the treeline it came from.
​
I let out a sigh and hung my head in disappointment. I knew what I had to do next but I sure as hell didn’t want to. The last flickers of sunlight shone through the open window and lit my .338 rifle as I reloaded the magazine. I sat and stared blankly at the screen in front of me, hoping a camera would pick up some sort of movement that could clue me into wherever it ran off to. Knowing my luck, I shouldn’t have expected it to.
​
After coming to terms with reality, I stood up and grabbed my .556, slinging it around my body and letting it hang in front of me. I aimed it down, looking through its sight and testing its laser again before checking the chamber. Good to go. Next, I adjusted the night vision set to my head before picking up my .338 and heading for the door. As I stepped outside, I let out another sigh, this one of stress. Hunting these things at night, on their own turf is never as fun, nor as easy as finishing them quickly from a distance but what choice did I have? I just wanted to get it over with.
​
I flipped down my goggles and switched them on, illuminating the dark field in green and white. I began my long walk across. It took me longer than expected. The speed of that monstrosity caused me to underestimate the size of the field. Each step I took was slow and quiet. I didn’t want the crunch of my feet meeting the dirt and remnants of corn stalks to disturb my hearing. If that thing made a noise, I needed to hear it. If only I could have quieted my incessant heavy, nervous breathing too.
​
I was not even halfway to the treeline when I reached the first pool of blood, where I had shot it for the second time, and it decided to retreat. Bits of flesh were scattered about the ground, but I didn’t care to stop and look. Instead, I focussed on the blood I could see that led back into the woods.
​
Any experienced hunter has had to track a deer or two. It can be very frustrating. The trail isn’t always so clear, and you never know how far it has gotten. In my case, I knew this thing was still alive, and it was angry.
​
I continued my walk, splitting my attention between the blood trail on the ground and the treeline in front of me, scanning for movement and listening. If I was lucky enough, it would have gotten bold and tried to take me down in the field. Unfortunately, I’m not so lucky. Silently, I followed the trail until it met the woods. I stopped walking and calmed myself.
​
I didn’t want to go past those damn trees, but there was no avoiding it. I had a job to do. I extended the bipod of my .338 and lowered it to the ground before raising the stock of my other rifle to my shoulder. I took a deep breath and resumed my walk, now even slower and more cautious. At least now my heavy breathing would be drowned out by the sound of snapping twigs beneath my feet.
​
Immediately upon entering the woods, I spotted the next sight of blood. It came from a tree branch, its leaves covered in the dripping crimson liquid. I walked up to observe, only to notice more blood on the branch above that one. And the next. I noticed the pattern and followed each branch up, one by one, each with its leaves covered in blood. Suddenly a mass moved on top of the tree next to the one I was looking up at.
​
I swung my rifle up, pointing above me at the top of the trees. The mass turned and into view came two glowing eyes, like white lights in my night vision. It opened its mouth again to let out another deafening scream but I raised my rifle and took aim. Its scream was cut short by a bang from my barrel and the thud of the rounds meeting flesh. I was only able to squeeze half a dozen rounds off before it leaped away, to the tops of the neighboring trees.
​
I kept shooting as it jumped from one tree to another, though within seconds it was out of my line of sight. I charged through the woods after it and watched it leap impossible distances, shaking trees so hard I thought some might snap. All the while I kept trying and failing, to line up a clean shot. The ones I did manage to squeeze off were either misses or ineffective.
​
Even at the full-on sprint that I managed to sustain for a good few minutes, I was barely able to keep up. I almost abandoned the chase entirely before I saw an opportunity. There was a clearing ahead. A trail. The distance across was far too wide for it to jump. It took a sharp right once it realized this and began jumping from tree to tree along the trail. I rushed into the opening before kneeling to line up a shot. I followed it with my sights, tracking the timing of each leap, and letting t it land and leap once more before it settled on a new tree. I shot off two more rounds as it braced to leap again.
​
They were perfectly placed and its body tumbled in the air and crashed violently to the ground. Having lined up my sight, I squeezed the trigger again to hear the absence of a gunshot, replaced by the click of the firing pin in the empty chamber. I screamed curses at myself as I quickly exchanged magazines. By the time I looked up, the body was already gone.
​
I got to my feet and continued down the trail at a jog-like pace with my rifle at the ready. I was beginning to get frustrated more than anything. I’ve put dozens of these things in the ground before, I didn’t understand why was I having such a hard time with this one. As I approached a curve in the trail, I slowed my pace and brought the stock of my rifle back to my shoulder. I approached the curve from the outside of the trail, trying to get a clear view of what was beyond when my head violently snapped to the left.
​
My vision went suddenly dark and it took me a few moments to realize that I wasn't dead, nor was I unconscious. Something hit my night vision goggles and knocked them clear off of my head, breaking the mount they sat on. My eyes were only beginning to adapt to the dark when another object came flying towards my head, narrowly missing as it whistled forcefully past my ear. It was a rock, around the size of a football. I couldn’t help but glance behind me in astonishment at the object that had nearly decapitated me before turning my attention back to what threw it.
​
Sure enough, there it was. Standing behind the trees at the corner of the path. I let my anger take control and began to fire rapidly at its torso. My disregard for accuracy hardly mattered at this range. Regrettably, it meant I was now closer than I would have liked and it began to charge. I landed shot after shot. Blood spurted from its back and painted the tree branches and leaves that it passed as it barreled toward me.
​
Again, my magazine went empty. Instead of bothering to reload a new one, I quickly drew my Glock and continued my rapid fire on the beast. It broke into the clearing and fell to all fours before it leaped forward and ran as it had done in the field. It closed the distance between us in seconds.
​
A hand clenched around my throat and I was lifted off of the ground like a feather. It kept running, past the edge of the clearing and carrying me into the woods. I continued to pepper it at point-blank range with my pistol. Between shots, I could hear its hysterical laughter directed at my futile efforts. Its face smiled with a look of sadistic insanity.
​
I continued shooting until my magazine went dry and I was stuck with an empty gun. With nothing else I could do, I began to beat its face with the empty pistol. This seemed to piss it off. It violently threw me through the air. I felt my body snap dozens of branches before I met the ground and rolled uncontrollably.
​
Recovering quickly, I grasped the rifle still slung around me and replaced the empty magazine with a new one. It was mere feet away from me when I started to fire. I got a few shots off before it grabbed my arm. This time I whipped the barrel of my rifle up, clubbing it hard across the face. It let out a short, irritated scream. I thrust my barrel at the top of its head, knocking it back as it emitted another angry grunt. It reached up with its left arm and tried to grab the barrel before half of its fingers were blown off by my next shot. It recoiled its arm in pain before swinging it back at me.
​
Upon contact, my rifle flew out of my hands and the sling came undone from my body as it was thrown far into the woods behind me. I attempted to retreat before he grabbed me with his right hand, and what remained of his left around my neck. Again, I was picked up and it carried me, this time only a short distance to a tree. My back cracked as I was slammed into the bark.
​
It looked up at me and smiled again.
​
“We killed our sinners, we brought justice to our land. We brought justice for God”
​
I ignored its foul speech, lifting an arm and hooking it across the face with a firm punch. It had no effect.
​
“You are all sinners, and you will die for your sins as they did”
​
Again, I struggled and pummeled its face with everything I could muster but it still did nothing.
​
“Now go and burn in the lake of fire”
​
It shouted, before laughing with a dozen sadistic voices all coming from its mouth.
​
It opened its mouth and its jaw was once again stretched to what should be an impossible level. It lowered me until I was level with it. It moved its open mouth toward my head, shaking with rage. Its teeth now inches from my face. Its breath, foul. With my left arm, I drew my knife, slashing it across the chest before plunging it into its neck. I hooked a punch with my right arm that finally caused it to stumble. It wound up its own punch and let it loose. I narrowly escaped, ducking out of the way before its fist met the tree and went right through, splitting it in half before the wood tumbled to the ground.
​
I took this opportunity to draw my .357. He recovered from its punch and faced me, pulling the knife from its neck and letting blood spurt and gush. It stared me down as it slowly approached, ready to deliver its finishing blow.
​
Its head was shaking now, harder than ever in anger, its mouth hung open to half its capacity where it showed its rows of rotting human teeth. I raised my revolver and attempted to steady my sights but I was too shaky. I quickly collected myself. Inhale. Exhale. The front sight became level with the rear. Squeeze.
​
The recoil caused the gun to rise enough for me to get a look at the damage. I clipped its mouth, in the corner of its jaw. It hung open, with one side detached completely. It wailed in pain as it gargled its blood and crumbled to the ground. I aimed again, cocking the hammer. Squeeze. With the second round, I detached its jaw completely.
​
“Let’s see you bite me now, fucker”
​
I painfully muttered with anger. It dropped my knife and was now laying flat on its back, breathing heavily. I approached, cocking the revolver again as I did. It reached out with its mangled hand but I kicked it away before placing my barrel to its skull. Squeeze. And then silence.
​
After dragging the body back to the field, I spent the next few hours retrieving my lost and damaged equipment, as well as tediously finding every one of my cameras. I then retrieved my vehicle and drove it to the edge of the field. There was just one more thing to do.
​
I opened my trunk and pulled out the metallic box. I don’t understand why they make these things so goddamn heavy. I opened it and placed the corpse inside before securing the extremely heavy-duty lock. Next was the hole. It wasn’t easy digging after I had been roughed up and tossed around by an undead religious maniac with superhuman strength, but at least this was the last thing I had to do.
​
I finished digging the hole, placed the metal casket inside, and covered it up. From there, I collected my equipment, packed it up, and took off. Supposedly there’s a cleanup crew that comes in after we’re done with these missions and destroys any bizarre evidence.
​
I suspect they take the body as well. Where do they take it? What do they do with it? I have no clue but I’ve been strictly reminded to not ask questions on the matter and to just stick to doing my job. Still, I always find myself wondering.
​
What I have even more questions about is why these things exist in the first place. What the hell is going on? Why them? Why now? Has this been going on for longer than I know? Am I being lied to? What happens next, in the future, if this keeps going on? It’s only been getting worse. They’ve only been popping up more and more frequently. When does it end? Does it end?
​
I have more questions than I do answers but what I can tell you is that this problem isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s only going to get worse. There are only going to be more of them, not less. The death toll will only continue to rise. People are going to find out sooner or later. It might as well be now. Maybe we will stop them. Maybe this will all come to an end one day, or maybe we are the ones who are all going to meet our end. Either way, I’ll be there to see it.

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The previous thread revolved around Plinkett's logic/realism comparison between the Death Star's interior and the "Theed power room", the much more reasonable Bespin comparison that was left out of the picture, and how this omission compromised the point that was being made.
https://old.reddit.com/RedLetterMedia/comments/11yn4jh/flawsinsufficiencies_in_rlms_spacewar_commentary/
This post is going to be about the high/low stakes of the Ep1/Ep4 plotlines and the way those are analyzed by RLM:

Plinkett audio commentary: SW Ep1
And he has one last chance, and he puts that part in the pod - and finally, the pod starts working, and he can enter the big race - you know, to win the big prize at the end which will save.. the whole.. family.
And then he says "it's woorrrkiiing.." and you know, then you swell the dramatic music... - and that's when that scene works?
That scene doesn't work.. 20 minutes into a movie that's not about podracing.
I'm sorry to get all bitchy on you, but-.. but-... d'you ever watch this movie and, and be like... why did that happen, or, or-.. "I don't feel anything inside".... you know, I'm- like "I'm dead inside"?
Well.. - I'm.. just trying to explain why you feel dead inside when you watch this movie, or you don't feel excited - even at the end when they have the, big.. celebration? You know, [impression]- [...]
But even at the end when they have the big, like, festival - like-... you're just like.. "So?" So what, there's a midget there now with an eyepatch on, and-... some boring-ass bitch.. gives a frog a glowing ball. Wwhy the fuck do I care?
It's not like the end of the original Star Wars when Luke, Han, and.. Chewbacca, get medals from Princess Leia - it's like, those guys saved the fucking day; what did these guys do? Oh, they resolved a tax dispute...

Plinkett: Ep1
Number 10: Anakin Skywalker
[...]
Oh we're still on this planet are we?
So Qui-Gon manages to pull off the most convoluted bet ever, and somehow wins everything except for Anakin's mother.
Even at the end of the movie when they save the day and probably could get the cash to buy the mom from Watto - they don't go back for ten years.

So - what's going on here?
In one quote, he says "they save the day (at the end of Ep1)", and then in another he says they don't save the day - in contrast to the heroes at the end of EP4 who do save the day.
This is of course a direct self-contradiction;
and between two excerpts that are both talking about Anakin on Tatooine, in the context of the podrace, no less.

Plinkett audio commentary: Ep1
Oh.. - that's a good question, are you here to free the slaves Qui-Gon? No, actually we're.. we're in the process of settling a tax dispute... ohhh.
Yeah I guess freeing slaves would've made a better movie...
it's good we went with something boring, we wouldn't want to excite the audience too much...

So instead of joining the dramatic high-stakes cause of freeing the slaves, Anakin instead joins the undramatic low-stakes cause of settling a tax dispute,
quickly and easily fixing his pod in an undramatic low-stakes fashion, reflecting the undramatic low-stakes nature of said tax dispute where they don't save the day, that is contrasted with the dramatic high-stakes Ep4 ending where they do save the day, and then forgets to return to pick his mom up after saving the day with the tax dispute?

Plinkett audio commentary: SW Ep4
But the real thrust of this scene is, this is when the stakes are really raised - insteada just a giant floating ball in space, we are now shown that the Death Star is capable of blowing up whole planets; and our ragtag group o' heroes are the only ones that can stop it...
Tension, stakes, a ticking clock!; heroism, and adventure - it's what makes Star Wars great.
Much like the Phantom Menace - when the Gungans fight the Robots to help Queen Amidala find the Viceroy, so that she doesn't have to sign a treaty to make the non-violent invasion legal in the courts...
[crickets...] Uhmm.. [..........]

Now it's an "invasion" instead of a "tax dispute", however a "non-violent" one - hence still low-stakes.

Number 6: Invasion! Of Boring…

Plinkett: Ep1
Number 10: On to Planet Number 3. Is it time for death yet?
Welcome to Coruscant - home of the mid-air collision; and BORING SCENES.
So the Queen waits around for some kind of approval, o-.. for something, to stop her people from dying- Why are they dying? I guess they're dying though...
But I didn't see anyone die?
In fact I haven't even seen any Naboo citizen at all - as far as I know it's a city with 20 or so pilots, a couple of bureaucrats and officials.

Now there's talk of "people dying" all of a sudden - how "non-violent" was this invasion tax dispute again?

Why are they dying? I guess they're dying though... But I didn't see anyone die?

"I guess x is happening" = treating it as an uncertainty (although arguably also some indifference);
the fact that it isn't shown is presented as a reason for doubting that it's happening (although it could also be referring to presentation - implying that not showing it leads to indifference:

Plinkett: ST Generations
He was trying to save a pre-industrial civilization that we never see... - or care anything about.

);
"why" is literally inquiring about the reasons and causes behind it, but really it also kinda means "why am I supposed to believe that it's happening".
Clearly along with lines like this:

So the Queen waits around for some kind of approval, o-.. for something,

, Plinkett isn't making any moves to go through the movie and analyze the information - instead he's just comically trying to piece together his foggy memories of the plot, while channeling confusion and indifference.
A more proper look at this, one that the review probably should've taken, potentially reveals the source of this uncertainty and confusion:

"How will you explain this invasion to the Senate?"
"The Queen and I will sign a treaty that will legitimize our occupation here - I have assurances it will be ratified by the Senate."
"I will not cooperate."
"Now, now, Your Highness - in time, the suffering of your people will persuade you to see our point of view.
Commander." "Yes, sir." "Process them." "Captain - take them to Camp 4."

Makes what can be called a "credible threat" about doing something to the people.

"Your Highness, under the circumstances, I suggest you come to Coruscant with us."
"Thank you, Ambassador - but my place is with my people."
"They will kill you if you stay."
Sio Bibble: "They wouldn't dare!"
Panaka: "They need her to sign a treaty to make this invasion of theirs legal, they can't afford to kill her!"
"There is something else behind all this, your Highness - there's no logic in the Federation's move here. My feelings tell me they will destroy you."

Here the psychic Jedi senses some lethal intentions on their part, probably making the earlier threats even more credible;
of course Panaka already thinks they're capable of murder - and seconds earlier, Qui-Gon's retort was probably meant to be understood as "they tried to kill us instead":

"Your negotiations seem to have failed, Ambassador."
"The negotiations never took place. It's urgent that we make contact with the Republic."

Either way, now there's a credible threat of "suffering" against the population, and a credible danger of them killing the Queen.

Number 8: I'm gonna slit my wrists
[Sigh...] It's hard to stomach any more of this shit - I still don't know who the main character is and why we should care about any of this.
At around this point in the original Star Wars movie, we've been with Luke almost the whole time getting to know him.
We see his plight;
his hopes and dreams...
we feel his frustration...
and then his sadness...
The slow build-up added depth, and emotion; and anticipation for the story to expand.
In the Phantom Menace we have nothing - we've a monotone queen, who's hiding from signing a treaty that's supposed to do something.
Why in fuck's name should we care at all.. I don't care about any of these characters?

What is the treaty supposed to do again?

Number 6: Invasion! Of Boring…
So what exactly is the purpose of this invasion?
It's almost like after Lucas wrote the invasion scenes, he didn't.. really know what to do next? - so he thought he'd make the Queen have to sign a treaty, to make the invasion legal; I mean, why not?

The guys that want this treaty signed (whatever it's about) threaten her with making the people "suffer" - and the content of this treaty is that this faction that threatens the population with suffering while invading, arresting and keeping them as hostages, will get to "legally" stay there with no one doing anything about it.
The stakes of fending these invaders off vs. succumbing to them already seem quite high - and Plinkett is obviously going out of his way to downplay it all (if he's remembering it to begin with, at that moment):

In the Phantom Menace we have nothing - we've a monotone queen, who's hiding from signing a treaty that's supposed to do something.

One might wonder how he managed to miss or forget this; a look at the part where he covers the threat scene, reveals a few things:

Invasion! Of Boring...
Inside the city, Queen Aminalan has been captured by the green guys; but instead of forcing her to sign the treaty right then and there - or keeping her locked up inside the big capital building under heavy guard - they inexplicably send her away from them. ["I will not cooperate." "Now, now, Your Highness - in time, the suffering of your people will persuade you to see our point of view."]
"Commander." "Yes, sir?" "Process them..."
Remember - this is the most important person in their whole plan - and they send her to be... "processed"?, in some place called "Camp 4".
Droid: "Captain - take them to Camp 4."
Ohh; but at least they remember to send her with a whopping 8 battle droids to protect her from the 2 Jedis that they just discussed they had not found yet.
"You didn't tell him about the missing Jedi..." "No need to report that to him, until we have something to report."
But don't worry - these battle droids have proven very effective against Jedi Knights.

So there are 2 alternative options that Plinkett is suggesting the green guys should've gone with, instead of "sending them to Camp 4":
a) "Forcing her to sign the treaty right then and there" - this is of course in the very scene where they're expressing the threat against her population if she doesn't sign it.
While it's possible to speculate about what other more direct forms of force or coercion they could've applied there to accomplish it "right then and there", these pseudo-euphemistic threats against the population are the method of coercion they're going with here, and it's not clear whether Plinkett is even aware of this at all.
b) "Keeping her locked up in the Palace instead of sending them away, where the 2 Jedi could jump in."
This is correct - however his focus on just this one aspect of this scene causes him to talk over the part where Gunray is verbalizing his threat, and only turn on the sound right after, when Nute moves to the "Camp 4" part:

they inexplicably send her away from them. ["I will not cooperate." "Now, now, Your Highness - in time, the suffering of your people will persuade you to see our point of view."]
"Commander." "Yes, sir?" "Process them..."

So now as a result, Plinkett is talking over the part where Nute is issuing his threat to the Queen, saying how they should force the Queen to sign the treaty "right then and there"...
And, this of course also facilitates the massive downplaying of this situation later in the review:

Number 8: I'm gonna slit my wrists
In the Phantom Menace we have nothing - we've a monotone queen, who's hiding from signing a treaty that's supposed to do something.
Why in fuck's name should we care at all..

Now they escape the planet instead of "cooperating", so the possibility arises that the Trade Federation might repeat their threats a bit more emphatically, or even start making them real in order to exact pressure:

"The death toll is catastrophic... We must bow to their wishes! You must contact me!"
"It's a trick. Send no reply - send no transmissions of any kind."
"It sounds like bait to establish a connection trace."
"What if it is true - and the people are dying?"
"Either way, we're running out of time."

So now it sounds like they're making it real - "catastrophic death tolls".
Going a step further however, instead of merely exacting that pressure, they're also trying to trace them in case they merely decide to just reply at first - even if they refused to "bow to their wishes" at first, they'd already betray their location.
The "bait" conclusion is stated with a high level of certainty here - and is in fact immediately confirmed to be real, even if the details of it seem inconsistent and confusing (since the ship didn't reply, but Darth Maul still has a trace?):

"Tatooine is sparsely populated - if the trace was correct, I will find them quickly, Master."

However the possibility that the assertion about the "death tolls" might still be true, is left up in the air - the Jedi / Queen don't know, and the audience isn't clued in either.
That is until they've left Tatooine for Coruscant, where it's then also confirmed as true:

"Your Queen is lost, your people are starving... and you, Governor, are going to die much sooner than your people I'm afraid..."
"This invasion will gain you nothing! We're a democracy - the people have decided!"
"Take him away."

However upon a closer look, 2 factors still cause a certain amount of doubt, or uncertainty:
1) Technically the only thing that's confirmed here is that Bibble hadn't been made to lie, and in fact does believe that "the people are starving" (or at least isn't shown doubting it)- however he's shown to be alone with Gunray and some of his droids in what looks like an empty part of the palace; if this is representative of his general situation, and he's being kept here isolated while being told about mass starvation, how is it a certainty that he's not being lied to as well?
Perhaps the movie isn't thinking that far, and considers the confirmation that he was being honest and hadn't been performing under pressure or threats, as an automatic confirmation that it's all true - however it's not clear.
2) "The people have decided"? This makes it sound as if the pressure is being applied to the population itself, to presumably accept the Trade Federation as their new rulers - as opposed to the Queen or even him or any of the other remaining officials to "sign the treaty".
So some kind of different thing seems to be going on here, and this casts doubts on whether this scene even takes place in the same continuity, or might be from a different script version.
However, the very next scene it cuts back to the ship, and Padme is replaying a recording of his message (not having seen it herself while on Tatooine) - and, with no thoughts given to it having been a confirmed trick, and possibly untrue, seems to believe it without question:

"The death toll is catastrophic! We must bow to their wishes! You must contact me!"
"You all right?"
"It's very cold."
"You come from a warm planet, Ani - a little too warm for my taste. Space is cold."
"You seem sad..."
"The Queen is worried - her people are suffering, dying...
She must convince the Senate to intervene, or... I'm not sure what'll happen."

It seems like the moment it's "confimed" to the audience via a villain cut-away, the protagonists now automatically start treating it as true as well.

Plinkett audio commentary: Ep1
the audience knows - but he doesn't know.

This continues into this later scene:

"The Courts take even longer to decide things than the Senate! Our people are dying, Senator - we must do something quickly to stop the Federation!"
"To be realistic, Your Majesty... I think we're going to have to accept Federation control for the time being."
"That is something I cannot do."

Later in the Senate session, even before anyone mentions anything about death tolls, the very notion of the invasion is already placed under doubt:

"Honourable representatives of the Republic - I come to you under the gravest of circumstances. The Naboo system has been invaded by the droid armies of the Trade-"
"I object! There is no proof! This is incredible... We recommend a commission be sent to Naboo to ascertain the truth!"
"The Congress of Malastare concurs with the honourable delegate from the Trade Federation - a commission must be appointed!"
"The point..."
Mas Amedda: "Excuse me, Chancellor."
"Enter the bureaucrats - the true rulers of the Republic; and on the payroll of the Trade Federation, I might add. This is where Chancellor Valorum's strength will disappear."
"The point is conceded. Will you defer your motion to allow a commission to explore the validity of your accusations?"

Initially by bad actors, of course - and Valorum seems to be under pressure to act like he's sharing or at least respecting these doubts:

Number 3: Death and Space Taxes
At the end of the movie, Amidalen goes back to the planet to solve the problem herself - cause the Senate wanted to send an independent team to investigate whether or not the invasion was real.
"Will you defer your motion to allow a commission to explore the validity of your accusations?"
I guess the testimony of two Jedi Knights wasn't good enough; [Qui-Gon talking to Valorum on the Coruscant platform] those were the guys that Valorum trusted enough to settle the whole dispute in the first place? That don't make sense?..

However the Malastare speaker may or may not be genuine, and generally the Senate is not presented with any additional proof for these allegations;
could the Jedi have been used as witnesses, given how they had been sent in "secret" to begin with?

"the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict...."

Given how backed into the corner the Valorum is,

"Chancellor Valorum seems to think there is hope?" "If I may say so, Your Majesty, the Chancellor has little real power - he is mired by baseless accusations of corruption; the bureaucrats are in charge now."

probably not.
Then, after all the preceding interruptions, Amidala finally brings up the deathtolls - stating it as fact (even though she has no reason to be certain about that part - unlike the invasion and "attack on sovereignty" itself):

"I will not defer - I've come before you to resolve this attack on our sovereignty NOW. I was not elected to watch my people suffer and die, while you discuss this invasion in a committee!"

Proof or reason aside, the room is instantly won over and apparently has no doubts left.

"Yousa tinking yousa people ganna die?"
"I don't know..."
"Gungans get pasted too, eh?"
"I hope not."

In this scene it's not clear whether Jar Jar is just getting things wrong and she's merely humoring him, or whether this talk about "gonna die" (as opposed to already dying in the present - does this mean he's asking if they're all gonna eventually die?) and her uncertain response ("don't know whether they'll all die before they can intervene"?) are rather, again, from yet another alternate continuity / script version,
where the Neimoidians haven't yet started claiming to be already causing death tolls, but are rather threatening that they'll genocide them all if their demands aren't met - and that Amidala doesn't really know if that's gonna happen or not, or if they'll manage to prevent it or not.

"I fear by the time you have control of the bureaucrats, Senator - there'll be nothing left of our people, our way of life."
"I understand your concern, Your Majesty - unfortunately, the Federation has possession of our planet."
"Senator - this is your arena; I feel I must return to mine.
I've decided to go back to Naboo."
"Go back? But your Majesty, be realistic, th-they'll force you to sign the treaty!"
"I will sign no treaty, Senator. My fate will be no different than that of our people."

Apparently Palpatine agrees with Plinkett that they could potentially apply some more direct and successful form of "force" here - since otherwise the pressure they're applying now (causing those "death tolls") isn't going to fundamentally change if she returns.
Apparently the talk is about them threatening her directly, to which she responds with "my fate won't be different than the people's".
However this line here:

"I fear by the time you have control of the bureaucrats, Senator - there'll be nothing left of our people, our way of life."

once again casts doubts on what exactly is being referred to here, or which script version continuity is currently on display - especially if compared to / combined with this:

"The Trade Federation has destroyed all that we have worked so hard to build - if we do not act quickly, all will be lost forever."

What have they "worked hard to build"? And what "way of life"?
Before that it was all about drastic life-and-death issues - however these lines, esp. in a vacuum, rather make it sound like the Federation is just eroding their culture/projects/values/sovereignty/spirit/etc. which is worth fighting for, but isn't blotted out by the even a lot worse CATASTROPHIC DEATH TOLLS.
Back here on Naboo, however, things generally seeming to undergo another shift - after the somber tone of the Coruscant stay, where one might say depressing notions about death tolls matched the general mood, here in this new chapter the tone is upbeat and optimistic, and perhaps for this reason nothing more about any deaths is brought up again:

"What is the situation?"
Panaka: "Almost everyone's in camps.
A few hundred police and guards formed an underground resistance movement. I brought back as many of the leaders as I could.
The Federation army's also much larger than we thought - and much stronger. Your Highness, this is a battle I do not think that we can win."

"Almost everyone's in camps", but that's all he says.
No one cares to find out whether

"What if it is true - and the people are dying?"

It's never confirmed, nor refuted, nor ruled out - just no longer mentioned.
However at the very least, at this point they're already firmly planning to end this occupation, and now have the means to do it (more on the confused unclarities regarding this aspect at some later point) - they're no longer faced with the decision to either contact Sio Bibble and potentially expose themselves, or accept further death tolls; and no longer powerlessly stuck on Coruscant hoping the government does something; now there's just one way forward.
So does that somewhat account for all of this? Well, somewhat, sure, maybe - if that mindset is what leads to the more upbeat attitude and corresponding tone of film, there may be a connection there; however they're still not finding out anything about this highly dramatic question, and the lines they're saying ambiguously seem to be taking place in a much lighter reality to begin with.
Earlier, they checked on the Gungan city - and there, Panaka did voice speculations about what might've happened to them:

Obi-Wan: "Do you think they have been taken to the camps?"
Panaka: "More likely they were wiped out."
"Mesa no tink so."
Qui-Gon: "Do you know where they are, Jar Jar?"

However that was of course instantly resolved.
Ultimately, between its different "chapters", this movie has a noticeable cognitive dissonance about how high these particular stakes are:
at first a threat is made;
then the villains claim to have started making the threat real, however they're using that as a trap in order to trace them - creating a sense of creeping uncertainty about it all, as Darth Maul is closing in on them;
then once "the audience is shown", everyone starts treating it as a fact, in the context of the somber tone of the Coruscant stay;
and finally it all gives way to an upbeat tone during which this notion softly disappears from the narrative, and the lines that are used to refer to the nature of the occupation are now much more compatible with the notion that this is a:

Tension, stakes, a ticking clock!; heroism, and adventure - it's what makes Star Wars great.
Much like the Phantom Menace - when the Gungans fight the Robots to help Queen Amidala find the Viceroy, so that she doesn't have to sign a treaty to make the non-violent invasion legal in the courts...

However while it's possible to view this all as a fragmented combination of several mutually contradicting continuities, it also remains true that Gunray had expressed a violent threat, the protagonists were shortly after given the impression that he may very well have started putting it into practice, this was then "all but confirmed" by the cut to Sio Bibble on Naboo (though only to the viewers, not the protagonists), and then none of this was ever explicitly contradicted, or ruled out - even not by all the lines that, in isolation, would make a very different impression.
The selective memory of these lines seems to be the basis for this "non-violent invasion" comment - without the realization that they are effectively refuted by all the other (much more emphasized and explicit) parts that indicate a violent one (or, at the very least, one in which a mass starvation is induced);
an equivalent, albeit a very disproportionate one, would be if someone selectively remembered these lines from Ep4's black roundtable here:

"The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us; I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the old Republic have been swept away."
"That's impossible! How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?"
"The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line - fear of this battle station."
"And what of the Rebellion? If the Rebels have obtained a complete technical readout of this station, it is possible, however unlikely, that they might find a weakness and exploit it."
"The plans you refer to will soon be back in our hands."
"Any attack made by the rebels against this station"

Never mind the "fear of this battle station" or "attacks" or "

This scene is pretty important to the plot, but it's really just there to engage an element they call the "ticking clock" - it's a basic function used to create tension in a story. They almost have the Death Star ready; it's ready to shoot giant lasers, and they plan to use it to crush the Rebellion - by destroying their hidden base.

; the plot of this movie is about governors non-violently controlling their local territories while non-violent rebels want to exploit the technical readouts of a station.

So the Queen waits around for some kind of approval, o-.. for something, to stop her people from dying- Why are they dying? I guess they're dying though...
But I didn't see anyone die?
In fact I haven't even seen any Naboo citizen at all - as far as I know it's a city with 20 or so pilots, a couple of bureaucrats and officials.

While obviously some "citizens" are eventually shown in the celebration at the end, the closest the movie ever gets to "showing anyone die", or confirming that it's taking place, is by showing Nute Gunray bringing it up to Sio Bibble who's acting like he accepts it as true (with the possibility that he's seen it not ruled out, but not confirmed either), and otherwise by having Padme believe his hologram transmission after that palace scene (although before that, the very same message was explicitly doubted).

Why are they dying? I guess they're dying though...

It looks like Plinkett is remembering the Padme lines, but not why she believes it's taking place, or what the cause of it is supposed to be in the first place;
obviously the answer to the first question is that "she's believing the governor's hologram message", and the answer to the second question is "because Gunray is trying to pressure her into agreeing to that treaty".
His uncertainty seems to primarily stem from ignoring and forgetting the information in the movie instead of going through it properly - however if he had gone through it, he would've also found a degree of uncertainty surrounding this: first as a direct part of the plot,
later in the form of residual doubts about how much of a "confirmation" the Bibble/Gunray scene is supposed to be (followed by Padme's sudden acceptance of his claims without learning anything new since it had been determined as dubious),
and eventually by the seeming dissonance created by lines that convey a milder version of the events and cast doubts on this plotline's internal continuity.
It's possible that this actual uncertainty created by the film subconsciously contributed to his uncertainty in some ways as well, in addition to him just not remembering stuff.

I guess they're dying though...

This seems like a casual acceptance of her claims - which coincides both with Padme's (unjustified, by rational metrics) acceptance of Sio's "death tolls" claim in the message, and the film's largely overwhelming (but not full) confirmation that it it was in fact true,
and, once again, may have been subconsciously influenced by that angle, but isn't directly based on any precise analysis or recollection of those elements.
Aside from all this, his indifferent and semi-dismissive tone is also incongruent with, and unrepresentative of the dramatic intensity that those scenes are presented with - even if going farther with it (say, for starters, by showing any "Naboo citizens" before the very last scene) could have increased this intensity further.
Jumping to the preceding step of the Neimoidian's master plan -

But the conflict from the blockade and the subsequent invasion

:

Number 11: Please, God - make it stop. Make it end.
I mean I know George wanted the Jedis to fight in a cool place that's really Star Warsy? - so.. so what this is like a power generator? What does it power, the Universe??
So you're expecting me to believe that the people that built this technological wonder were dying without space supplies for 2 days??
Number 3: Death and Space Taxes
So the Trade Federation have set up a blockade around... Naboo, in order to stop them from getting space supplies - which instantly causes some kinda... crisis? - that we never see.
[...]
Anyways, so I realize that Senator Palpatine was using the Trade Federation to create a crisis to advance himself politically; like that was the plot I think? But the conflict from the blockade and the subsequent invasion is the entire movie! Understanding what role the Trade Federation played in this, is important...
You know what the blockade was about, who was getting taxed, what kinda supplies were so crucial to the Naboo - what was it, like medical supplies? Just some kinda plague? Did they not have the capacity to survive on such a lush planet with a huge power reactor for one day without space trade?
You see I would've accepted the idea of some kinda mystery villain if the basics were at least clear...

Both when discussing the invasion as well as the preceding blockade, Plinkett consistently doesn't bother with going through the available information (while already not remembering it properly to begin with, naturally) - however for some reason the two instances are given the polar opposite treatment:
While seemingly intent on downplaying/doubting/denying the "death tolls" and high stakes of the invasion (or, more specifically, Gunray's methods of trying to force the treaty agreement) way beyond the residual amount of uncertainty left by the information in the film,
the effects of the blockade are instead being vastly overblown here not based on anything in the script.

"Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo.
While the Congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of events,"

"Deadly battleships" implies potential danger, and "alarming" just means that everyone is "alarmed" by this (easily explainable by it being perceived as a "bold move", or something people hadn't been sure was legal to begin with - judging by Gunray's emphatic insistence that it is "perfectly legal", and Sidious' ability to "make things legal" that weren't so before) - no resulting high-stakes crisis is implied by this at all; let alone one emerging after just a few days.

So the Trade Federation have set up a blockade around... Naboo, in order to stop them from getting space supplies - which instantly causes some kinda... crisis? - that we never see.

The bolded part is invented; "we never see it", nor does anyone imply it's taking place at all, or behave as if it does.

"Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute."
"Supreme Chancellor, delegates of the Senate - a tragedy has occurred, which started right here with the taxation of trade routes, and has now engulfed our entire planet in the oppression of the Trade Federation."

The "trade/taxation dispute" has long escalated into the blockade before the movie even begins - which then escalates into the invasion a few minutes into said movie; the threats against the population start shortly after, eventually followed by the Governor's distress message.
Somehow during those segments of the audio commentary, Plinkett seems to have forgotten all about this, and apparently thinks that the "tax dispute" is still the full extent of what's at stake at any point after the 1st paragraph of the opening crawl:

Plinkett audio commentary: SW Ep1
And he has one last chance, and he puts that part in the pod - and finally, the pod starts working, and he can enter the big race - you know, to win the big prize at the end which will save.. the whole.. family.
And then he says "it's woorrrkiiing.." and you know, then you swell the dramatic music... - and that's when that scene works?
That scene doesn't work.. 20 minutes into a movie that's not about podracing.
I'm sorry to get all bitchy on you, but-.. but-... d'you ever watch this movie and, and be like... why did that happen, or, or-.. "I don't feel anything inside".... you know, I'm- like "I'm dead inside"?
Well.. - I'm.. just trying to explain why you feel dead inside when you watch this movie, or you don't feel excited - even at the end when they have the, big.. celebration? You know, []- [...]
But even at the end when they have the big, like, festival - like-... you're just like.. "So?" So what, there's a midget there now with an eyepatch on, and-... some boring-ass bitch.. gives a frog a glowing ball. Wwhy the fuck do I care?
It's not like the end of the original Star Wars when Luke, Han, and.. Chewbacca, get medals from Princess Leia - it's like, those guys saved the fucking day; what did these guys do? Oh, they resolved a tax dispute...
Oh.. - that's a good question, are you here to free the slaves Qui-Gon? No, actually we're.. we're in the process of settling a tax dispute... ohhh.
Yeah I guess freeing slaves would've made a better movie...
it's good we went with something boring, we wouldn't want to excite the audience too much...

All in all, on a general dementia--accuracy spectrum, Plinkett's commentary on this aspect of the plot keeps oscillating between these cases of sincere amnesia on the one side, and this bit on the other side:

So the Queen waits around for some kind of approval, o-.. for something, to stop her people from dying- Why are they dying? I guess they're dying though...
But I didn't see anyone die?
In fact I haven't even seen any Naboo citizen at all - as far as I know it's a city with 20 or so pilots, a couple of bureaucrats and officials.

This is the closest he ever comes to being "accurate", and it's still very far.
However while leaving out all the most dramatic scenes revolving around this, he also imagines a mass death crisis on Naboo caused by the pre-invasion blockade;
it's possible that this is him misattributing Padme's "people are dying" lines to the blockade and the resulting lack of space supplies - perhaps even forgetting that a subsequent invasion occurred at all, in those excerpts that is.

Number 8: I'm gonna slit my wrists
[Sigh...] It's hard to stomach any more of this shit - I still don't know who the main character is and why we should care about any of this.
At around this point in the original Star Wars movie, we've been with Luke almost the whole time getting to know him.
We see his plight;
his hopes and dreams...
we feel his frustration...
and then his sadness...
The slow build-up added depth, and emotion; and anticipation for the story to expand.
In the Phantom Menace we have nothing - we've a monotone queen, who's hiding from signing a treaty that's supposed to do something.
Why in fuck's name should we care at all.. I don't care about any of these characters?
Plinkett audio commentary: Ep1
But even at the end when they have the big, like, festival - like-... you're just like.. "So?" So what, there's a midget there now with an eyepatch on, and-... some boring-ass bitch.. gives a frog a glowing ball. Wwhy the fuck do I care?
It's not like the end of the original Star Wars when Luke, Han, and.. Chewbacca, get medals from Princess Leia - it's like, those guys saved the fucking day; what did these guys do? Oh, they resolved a tax dispute...
Plinkett audio commentary: Ep4
But the real thrust of this scene is, this is when the stakes are really raised - insteada just a giant floating ball in space, we are now shown that the Death Star is capable of blowing up whole planets; and our ragtag group o' heroes are the only ones that can stop it...
Tension, stakes, a ticking clock!; heroism, and adventure - it's what makes Star Wars great.
Much like the Phantom Menace - when the Gungans fight the Robots to help Queen Amidala find the Viceroy, so that she doesn't have to sign a treaty to make the non-violent invasion legal in the courts...
[crickets...] Uhmm.. [..........]

Since all the segments with the direct Ep4 comparisons happen to be the amnesia ones, this causes the Ep1-Ep4 stakes comparisons to completely fall apart - as opposed to partially/overwhelmingly fall apart, if the less amnesia segments had been used instead.

Currently as I’m writing this, I’ve had very severe symptoms which interfere with my day-to-day life. My symptoms have been on-going now for several months and have not improved at all. Oddly enough, I had symptoms appear at the end of October and then go away after a couple of weeks that match what I’m currently experiencing. Prior to experiencing my symptoms in October, I’ve had a number of other symptoms appear that I think are related, but I can’t verify if they are or not.
Cognitive Issues
Currently the symptom I’m experiencing everyday is a cognitive disorder. It’s hard to explain exactly, but it feels as if I haven’t slept for a week or that I'm buzzed. The symptoms are typically worse in the morning and night. If I’m working in the middle of the day I don’t experience this issue (as much). The symptom also gets worse if I do any sort of physical activity like walking my dog, hiking, or mountain biking. That being said, I do sometimes notice I feel better after doing physical activity. Sometimes the cognitive issue is also paired with odd head sensations like head pressure that I notice around my ears and the back of my head. Sometimes I’ll also have a tingling feeling that happens on the sides of my head near my ears. In addition to the tingling sometimes I’ll have an odd aching sensation on the top of my head near the vertex (the coronal suture) and back of my head near where the occipital bone and parietal bone meet. The aching sensation almost feels like my skull is about to split open. I’ve also experience increased head pressure and a pulsing sensation on my head sometimes when my cognitive issues are at their worst. Less commonly, I’ll also have issues with vertigo and balance. Specifically, if I’m walking I’ll feel like my balance is off and I’ll lean to one side- usually my left side. I’ve had on-going issues with tinnitus as well. It’s not persistent, but it seems to happen most often at night. I experience it almost everyday. Sometimes I'll lose my hearing temporarily as well and it'll come back after about a minute. Lastly, my left ear will sometimes feel clogged and nothing I do seems to relieve the pressure. My cognitive issues also seem to be much worse after taking a hot shower. Specifically I’ll have increased head pressure and have an increased jet lag/hangover feeling.
Chest Pain
The second most common issue that I’ve experienced is chest pain. The chest pain I have manifests in different ways, but usually it’s an aching sensation that I notice on my clavicle head and extends to the sternocostal head slightly and it occurs on both sides of my chest. Sometimes the pain is also a burning sensation. I’ve also had pain that occurs in my sternum that’s a sharp pain. Most often these pains occur at night or in the evening.
Heart
My heart related issues seem to happen less often, but have started becoming more frequent as of late. The most common issues that I experience is heart palpations. Commonly it manifests with either a racing heart, the feeling I skipped a beat, or a fluttering feeling. I experience these symptoms most often at night and especially while I’m sleeping. I’ve had a few incidents where I’ll wake up in the middle of the night with my heart racing. I wear an Apple Watch SE most of the time now since my symptoms started and I’ve noticed my pulse is as high as 96 when I wake up in the middle of the night with my heart racing. I don’t have nightmares- I can’t honestly the last time I remember having a nightmare in fact. My pulse has recently been pretty high when I'm sleeping as well. Usually it's between 40 - 50, but recently it's been between 50 - 70.
Another issue I used to have, but has sense improved greatly since I cut down dramatically on caffeine and stopped eating late at night is heart burn.
Rashes
Another odd symptom that I’ve started having is red rashes that manifest on my chest, stomach, arms, or legs. The rashes are usually a solid red color or are spotty and sometimes cover a large area or a very small specific area. I’ve had a very large chest rash that covered the entirety of my chest and other times I’ve had small rashes on my legs that look like a small line.
Eyes
Another very common issue for me is bloodshot eyes. I will usually wake up in the morning with my eyes completely bloodshot. The only thing that seems to relieve it is eye drops which I use at most once a day. I will strangely also sometime have very red and visible veins that extend from my pupil to the tear duck. Near my pupil I’ll have a spot that can be either very red or slightly pink. I usually know I’ve having this issue because my eye will burn and begin to water. Sometimes I wake up with this issue and other times it will come and go throughout the day. I usually notice it during the middle of the day while I’m working on my computer.
Veins
I really don’t know if this is a cause for concern or not or if it’s even related, but I’ve noticed my veins on my arms and hands are more visible than they've ever been. They’re a very deep blue color and they’re most pronounced in the morning, after I take a shower, or do any sort of physical activity.
Muscle Mass/Weight Loss
I’ve noticed that since of February last year to today, I’ve lost quite a bit of weight. Last February I weighed approximately 138 and now I weigh about 130. I haven’t had any significant changes in my diet other than not eating late at night. I attribute most of my weight loss to muscle loss which I notice physically because I’m not able to lift as much weight as I use to be able to. I use to take creatine monohydrate regularly which I know will increase muscle mass and weight so I’m sure this is part of the reason I’m losing weight, however, even after not taking creatine for several months I’ve still struggled to keep on weight and muscle mass. Since my symptoms began I’ve been diligently tracking my diet and on average I eat approximately 2,400 - 3,000 calories per day.
Muscle Twitching
This is a symptom I’ve had for at least a year now. Typically I’ll notice it in my arm near the extensor carpi radials longus. What will happen is an uncontrollable twitching sensation that will be visible if I happen to look at it. This happens on both arms around the same area. I’ll also have muscle twitching as well in my ankles sometimes, but it’s not very frequent. I've had it in my face as well on my eyes and lips. Occasionally I’ll also have restless legs when I’m sleeping, but this does not happen often.
Uncontrollable Teeth Chattering
One strange event that I had before was while I was sitting on the couch. I was feeling otherwise normal, but my teeth began to chatter uncontrollably for no apparent reason. I didn't feel cold either.
Hands
An issue that I’ve had for many years now is cold hands. Sometimes they’re purplish in color, very pale or very red. My hands will become cold for no apparent reason. They’re not cold 24/7 but at least several hours of the day. A specific problem that I have with my left-hand is that it will often be weak, specifically it’s difficult to pick things up with my left hand. Also when I type on my computer I’ll frequently have pain in my wrist associated with it. My pinky and ring finger also sometimes go numb especially if I bend my arm for a long period of time.
Arms
As I mentioned above, I frequently will have muscle twitching in my arms. Another thing I’ve noticed is that while I’ve had my symptoms, I’ve had a few nights where I’ll wake up and my arm is totally numb. Lately for the last few weeks my left arm has felt heavy and perhaps slightly numb. It seems to happen on the outward facing side of my arm specifically.
Face
An on-going issue that I’ve had for years is facial flushing. It seems to have gotten worse since my symptoms began. It feels like I have a fever, despite taking my temperature and not having one. I’ll typically notice the flushing mostly on my nose and it will extend to my cheeks. Sometimes when I get facial flushing I’ll have congestion as well. I noticed I’ll frequently have dark circles under my eyes as well. I’ve had this issue for quite a while now, but it’s become even more pronounced lately.
Feet
My feet are also frequently cold. I’ve noticed my toes often are purple. My big toe on my right foot also has dry skin. This has been an on-going issue for years. Recently my left heel went completely numb. I’ve since gotten feeling back but it lasted for a few days.
Ankles
I’ll frequently have heaviness in my ankles like they’re swelling, but they don’t appear to be visibly swollen at all. It’s been an on and off experience that can sometimes last for days at a time. One night my left ankle felt extremely swollen and painful. The veins in my legs were pulsating as well.
Thighs
I haven’t had much thigh pain, but occasionally I’ll get the same muscle twitching in my thigh or aching pain in my quadricep or my abductors.
Privates
This is one of the strangest symptoms I’ve had. Sometimes I’ll have issues where I’ll have pressure near my prostate (I think). It makes me feel like I need to urinate even though I don’t have to. Also have I finish urinating sometimes I’ll have a pain in my privates like I just passed a kidney stone which I definitely don't have.
Stomach
When I started having my symptoms I would typically have pain in areas like left flank above my left hip. It was either an aching pain or a sharp pain. I haven’t had that pain recently. Another pain that I’ve had frequently (maybe a few days per week) is located on my top left abdominal muscle.
Back
I’ve had a dull aching pain in my upper back for quite some time that I attributed to my sedentary lifestyle, but lately it’s gotten a lot worse to the point where it’s very painful. It’s still an aching pain but it’s much more severe. It's since gotten better.
Ribs
I don’t usually have rib pain, but when I do it’s an aching pain that’s tender to the touch and lasts a few days.
Breathing
I haven’t had any issues feeling out of breath at all even when I had Covid.
Nausea
Since December I’ve had nausea maybe 5 or 6 times total and I didn’t start having symptoms of it until January. It seems like it’s gotten more frequently lately. I haven’t vomited, but I have the feeling like I might.
Bad habits
I had a bad habit of drinking a lot of caffeine per day. For at least a couple of years I think it was higher than 600mgs per day. I cut down to 600mgs per day prior to having my symptoms, but I’ve slowly gotten down to having 100mgs of caffeine a day or none at all. I also used to eat at night shortly before going to bed which gave me heart burn and caused me to have sleep issues. I also used to drink lots of diet drinks like diet sodas. I’ve since almost entirely cut out aspartame from my diet except I might have a diet soda a couple times per month. I think I also had a lot of sodium in my diet from the vegetarian meat substitutes and canned foods I was eating. I also drank a lot of water per day. Probably at least a gallon.
Past events
In addition to the other strange past events I’ve had like uncontrollable teeth chattering. I’ve had a few other strange symptoms that have come and go. One such event I had was in July or September while I was mountain biking. I was biking up a hill but I didn’t feel like I was pushing my self exceptionally hard. When I got up to the top of the hill I got very lightheaded and had the same jet lag/hangover feeling I’m experiencing currently. The same happened in November shortly after I got over my symptoms in October. I had the same lightheaded feeling and cold sweats I experienced before while mountain biking. Also a few months back I had the same experience but while walking on the treadmill. I began having sudden cold sweats without explanation, but I didn’t feel light headed at all. Another time I was taking my dog
Sleep
I’ve mentioned that I’ll frequently wake up with my heart racing, but I also sometimes wake up suddenly without any explanation. Sometimes I’ll wake up because my back is in pain and I have to transition to my side or vice-versa. I’ve tried both firmer and softer mattresses and neither seem to make a difference.
Supplements
Melatonin at night to help with sleep
Cannabis sleep capsules
Gingko biloba to help with cognitive issues
Creatine (cut out since symptoms began)
Pre-workouts like amino energy or L-Arginine (stopped taking these when my symptoms began)
Energy drinks like Reign, Alani Nu, and Ghost that have 300mgs of caffeine and high B vitamins and taurine
Covid
I had Covid in mid-November that I tested negative for on Black Friday. It wasn’t severe- mostly cold like symptoms with a very bad headache and head pressure. I thin Covid probably contributed to my current condition, but I’m not sure if it’s the cause of my issues considering my major symptoms began before I got Covid in October.
​
Tests Done:
UTI - negative
PSA - waiting on test
Urinalysis - normal
CBC - normal
JAK2 - negative
EPO - normal
CRP - near 0
Sedimentation rate- near 0 / 2 march
Creatinine - low 7.3
High co2 in metabolic tests
NT pro BNP - 26
Troponin - 5
Lipase - normal
Ferritin - normal
Iron - normal
Folate - normal
Cortisol - normal
T4 - normal
Free T4 - normal
T3 Uptake - normal
Free T3 - normal
Creatine Kinase - normal
TSH- high in October but tested twice and was normal high again in March
Immuglobulin - normal
A1C - normal
Lyme - negative
Kidney stones - negative
CT scan on head - normal
Whole body MRI - normal except for a minor bulging disc in my lower spine
HIV - negative
ANA - negative
Sleep apnea- negative
Comprehensive Metabolic Panel - normal except slightly low creatinine, slightly high co2, and high albumin on very test
Liver panel - normal except high albumin and low globulin sometimes. High a/g ratio- 3.5
EKG- low resting pulse rate (53 - 56) and borderline abnormal T-wave. Last test I did I had a left axis deviation (-32 degrees).
Micronutrient test - borderline low vitamin D, B12 ok, high selenium, high zinc, high magnesium
​
Veins
Eye
Rash
Facial Flush

Localised: Shock Troops
User: Lennon Skynner
Manifestation: Colonial. Each Stormtrooper is a clear, shiny sphere, about the size of a standard ping pong ball. Inside each Stormtrooper, there is a floating red arrow, making them look like 3-dimensional compasses. The arrows all randomly point in different directions. There can be up to 30 Stormtroopers at any one time, and each can travel about 80 meters from Lennon.
Ability: Aside from controlling where each arrow points, Lennon can "activate" the Troopers. While active, they softly glow blue like an arc, and will act like fans, producing a force on the air around them, in the direction of their arrow, at an adjustable strength.
Examples of use: ● Lennon can arrange the Troopers in a ring, with the arrows following the circular path, to produce a whirl of air. ● Lennon can cluster the Troopers over someone's face, and blow air away, suffocating the victim.
Namesakes: Stormtroopers (song by Sabaton), Lynyrd Skynyrd (band)
Trivia: ● When 2 Troopers collide, they produce a "tink" sound, comparable to thin glass. ● All 30 Troopers blowing directly upwards at full power is enough to suspend 200kg.

TLDR: This is the indigenous tradition of the megalithic site today referred to as Stonehenge. A bit lengthy, but again its counterintuitive to split this into 2 thread's. Im certain youll find some dots connect, and the information will resonate. It's partly a followup from the thread hereas well as many discoveries recently by the scientific community which confirms the accounts & why the oath "to preserve the integrity of the knowledge itself " was so important that migrations to the edges of civilization were necessary. StoneHenge
The legends speak of The Tuatha Dé Danann who brought fascinating skills and wisdom to Ireland when they arrived there. The issue ive found since moving to the west is the tendency to take the symbolism Literally & dismiss accounts as myth if they dont line up perfectly. Thats the absolute opposite of what our ancestors wanted us to do. The 7 sages 7 is for spiritual enlightenment that they brought, the return of 9 speaks of the beginning of a new cycle .
*NOTE:They gained those skills from four wise men who resided in the four cities; one in each. Senias was the wise man who resided in Murias; Morias in Falias; Urias in Gorias; and Arias in Finias. Over and beyond, the Tuatha Dé Danann brought four treasures from the four cities; isn't this exactly what ive shown the Dogon, Hopi, speak of? Symbolism is key. I previously mentioned initiations for the Cult of Lebe recordkeeper required me to live with 2 Aboriginal communities Kima/Ngemba(Aus ), Naga-Maya, Hopi clan of BeaSnake, 3 summers spent in India under the tutelage of Swamiji. We study the sacred stone tablets academia says doesnt exist from Naacal. Like the dalai lama visit Hopi Indians we have been referred to as Nomadic priests for thousands of years from the Hindu text to the Bible & DNA evidence has proven our relationship in 2021.
Like Emperor Asoka 'Anu & ancient seers in the rig veda' , 5,000yr ago in Ur, ancient Sumer, 2013 In India, its the gathering of the bloodlines known as 'Children of Enki' . I've cited my ancestor Sundiata who founded imperial Mali who ive shown in reference to the Maya popul Vuh text, ima direct descendant of Mayta Capac,4th Inca Emperor, recently deceased elder Hunbatz welcomed me as his ancestors did upon arrival of those who gave the Olmec our personal writing system 'Mande'. Independent invention is nonsense.ld never heard of that theory until very recently. Each of us recieved a serpent tattoo *'The Shining One's enlightened the minds of men.The Shining Ones 'bear the weight of mankinds previous transgressions 'after completing our studies in each area. Swamiji said that we have to learn about each of them to learn ourselves, only then is the title ' Naga' (one who is wise)earned.* Dynasty of Keita, our surname isn't Keita.. Keita just means Inheritors
First for the builders, there was a recent article science alert released 'Stonehenge Builders Pythagorean theorem ' that you'll find interesting. Now, once again you see construction of a megalith thousands of years older than the person who this theory is named after. The proof is undeniable, The Shining Ones had the knowledge. This is the Celtic account of 'Tuatha De Danu- the Shining Ones' , sounds similar to 'Te-Pito-O-Te Henua'which is the REAL name for what was recently renamed Easter Island.
The Legend of the Rapa Nui speak of Hotu Matu'a and his captain, Tu'u ko lho as part of a two-canoe discovery expedition leaving the lost Polynesian homeland of Hiva. Much taller than everyone else & having sort of aristocratic distinction from the populace.We have discovered, in ancient Ireland, there were more than a few races that existed. Among the most powerful was the Tuatha de Danann. The Tuatha Dé Danann was a magical race that possessed supernatural powers. Most of them were god-like creatures or divine beings that were being worshipped. This race was also known to believe in Goddess Danu. She was sometimes referred to as the mother, and another translation of their name is “followers of Danu”. The Tuatha Dé Danann came from four major cities; Falias, Gorias, Finias, and Murias.was supposedly meant for the Tuatha Dé Danann. The text included the following “..in ancient Greece… there lived a race of nomads known as the Pelasgians. Tribal in nature, they were seafarers who claimed to be born from the teeth of the Comic Snake Ophion, and the Great Goddess Danu
Scientific Validation of Subtle Energy -Fmbr.org
Certain typs of geology, magnify telluric currents. Conductivity Discontinuities , where 2 of what you'd know as 'ley line 'connect.(1 -high conductivity & the other low conductivity). If your experts want to study these subtle energies, the best time is the predawn hrs, the daily changes in the geomagnetic field are strongest at those times in terms of magnetic strength per hour. An electric current is generated in anything thatll conduct electricity...i THINK the term is Induction??
Geomagnetic field inside the circle was much weaker than outside, it acted like a shield. John Burke also discovered how the stones of Avebury are deliberately placed and aligned so they'd focus electro-magnetic currents to flow in a premeditated direction..Brooker says its just like our modern day atomic particle collider geological analysis Durability stonehenge The core was 99.7% silica—almost entirely quartz, through-and-through, which was more pure than any sarsen stone Nash had worked on. Under the microscope, its sand-sized quartz grains were tightly packed together and supporting each other. The grains were then coated in an overgrowth cement—at least 16 different growth layers that could be counted almost like tree rings—which produced an “interlocking mosaic of quartz crystals that bind the stone together,” Nash said.
This is only learned through the serpent wisdom. Basin at different sites across the globe, including Göbekli Tepe. The limestone surfaces of the square basins revealed the presence of oxalates, leading to speculation about beer production. However, the presence of oxalates results from geopolymer stone casting processes employed at Göbekli Tepe to produce megaliths from a liquid slurry of sand, fly ash and water. Oxalic acid was used to chemically disaggregate available bedrock into fine grains. In South America, oxalic acid residues were identified on the Saqsaywaman temple megaliths, and on the surfaces of the Tiwanaku Gate of the Sun. Göbekli Tepe's standing stones also retain residual oxalates....clip Basins -Clip Basins
At the Temple of Edfu in Egypt there is a wall featuring what amounts to a recipe for establishing a space that differs energetically from its surrounding landscape — a temple. The instructions describe how certain creator gods first established a mound and 'pierced a snake' to the spot, whereupon a special force of nature impregnated the mound, which led to the construction of the physical temple. Edfu-Horus The symbol of the serpent has always been a culturally shared metaphor of the earth's meandering lines of force, what scientists refer to as telluric currents.The important realisation is that the stone circles act as amplifiers of subtle Earth frequencies, which are harmonic coherent fractals of Earth frequencies – all perfectly resonating with the Prime Resonant Frequency of the Earth.
By being exposed to the amplified frequencies of the stone circles, we are exposed to the coherent harmonic frequencies of Gaia (Mother Earth). All the cell of our bodies begin to vibrate and resonate in harmony with these natural Earth frequencies – or energies – and all the cells and organs of our body slowly start to come into coherence with the natural frequencies of Earth itself. Egyptian principles of Ma'at , Thoth (sacred geometry). TheOur reality, our physical world, and everything in creation, whether it is seen or unseen, is a consequence or harmonic resonance – where everything is manifested into physical form by its prime resonance frequency This physical form is held in a coherent grid of source-code unity by constantly vibrating or resonating in harmony with everything else in creation. From what I've seen dealing with academics & discussions of these sites, the reason there's so little known is because of the tendency to project modern beliefs rejecting sacred geometry, symbols such as Letter h which in Alchemy meant 'grounding, or finding your center, the esoteric concepts like 'As above, so below' answer all of rhe questions anyone has. H
Modern science has much to learn, don't dismiss things that your experts have yet to discover. If you dismiss the spiritual aspects of these cultures, you'll never have the answer. Materialism was Evil in these people's eyes, the worst possible outcome would be a result of 'man becoming Materialistic' I showed all the ancient historians who spoke this and its true.
Earth energy grid is an ancient matrix of lines of subtle forces that form a pattern around the globe. Using scalar waves produced by Mother Earth advanced ancient civilizations built megalithic stone structures along these grid lines and at the intersecting nodal points. Later civilization is scientifically known that alterations in the local electromagnetic field can influence the perception of the human body and can lead to changes in consciousness. For thousands of years it was considered normal behaviour to attend these sacred sites for healing, divination, fertility and childbirth, practices that were slowly outlawed over the past eight hundred years by emerging religious dogma. NewScience: Dr Brooker- Magnetism & Standing stones Petrological Studies
At least four different types of stone in the overall structure, each brought from different locations: Over 80 5-10 ton 'Bluestones'' from Wales, the huge 20-50 ton 'Sarsens' from 20km north near Avebury, the mica-sandstone 'Slaughter stone' from Milford Haven, and the limestone packing-stones from Chilmark.. Although the area just north of Stonehenge is littered with perfectly suitable sarsen stones, the builders chose to use over 80 Bluestones instead, requiring them to transport them over 200 miles from the Presily mountains in Wales. It is perhaps relevant then that a piece of bluestone was found in almost every one of the 59 Y and Z holes. (8)
The reverence for Blue-stones was noted by Mackenzie, who said of it:'The colours of stones were supposed to reveal the characters of the spirits that inhabited them. In Egypt, for instance, the blue turquoise was connected with the mother-goddess Hathor, who was, among other things, a deity of the sky and therefore the controller of the waters above the firmament as well as the Nille. She was the mother of sun and moon. She was appealed to for water by the agriculturalists and for favourable winds by the seafarers. The symbol used on such occasions was a blue stone. It was a "luck stone" that exercised an influence on the elements controlled y the goddess. In the Hebrides a blue stone used to be reverenced by the descendants of ancient sea-rovers. Martin in his Western Isles tells of such a stone, said always to be wet, which was preserved in a chapel dedicated to St. Columba on the Island of Fladda. "It is an extraordinary custom," he has written, "when any of the fishermen are detained in the isle by contrary winds, to wash the blue-stone with water all round, expecting thereby to procure a favourable wind, which, the credulous tenant living in the isle says, never fails, especially if a stranger wash the stone." )
It seems that the specific selection of stones at Stonehenge extended to the slaughter stone which is unique at the site, being made of a sandstone laden with Mica(found at Aztec sites as well) which came from the Cosheston Beds, composed of Devonian sandstone, near Milford haven on the coast of Wales, some 30 miles to the southwest of the Presily quarries. While it is reasonably clear that the stone which once stood at the centre of the site was chosen for its unique properties, the exact relevance can only be guessed at. Kalb suggests that 'Stones transported over long distances to build megaliths were pieces of places'.
'There were also a small number of limestone blocks and slabs used in the construction of Stonehenge brought to the site for the specific purpose of packing material to support the much larger sarsen uprights. The limestone quarries have been identified as Chilmark, 12 miles west, and 3 miles southeast at Hurdcot'.
magnetometer survey of the site revealed how a band of magnetic force is attracted into the stone circle through a narrow gap of stones that act as the entrance. The band then spirals towards the center of the circle as though descending down a rabbit hole.
Two of the circle’s western stones were also found to pulsate with concentric rings of alternating current, resembling ripples in a pond.The composition of the stones and their ability to conduct energy was not lost on Mereux and others. Being very high in quartz, the specially chosen rocks are piezoelectric, which is to say they generate electricity when compressed or subjected to vibrations. The megaliths of Carnac, positioned as they are upon thirty-one fractures of the most active earthquake zone in France, are in a constant state of vibration, making the stones electromagnetically active.Significantly then, at Stonehenge we find the inner horseshoe comprised of the finely worked spotted-dolerites from the main ridge of Carn Meini in the Preseli Hills, with the outer bluestone circle comprising of unworked rhyolites, tuffs and unspotted dolerites from the outlying landscapes north and south of the main ridge. The Preseli Hills purposefully created in microcosm in the Stonehenge landscape. Healing Properties Stonehenge

Now that we're three matches in, the rankings include the lowest 2 matches dropped! With that, we've had quite the bit of shake up. u/36ers and u/nowaygreg are out to a quick lead with 36 and 34 points respectively. Also, we've got a new competitor with u/Houstopia joining in putting us at 15 players!
Make sure to only have 3 players predicted for cards!
Good Luck & Go Dynamo!

	Player	Points w/ 2 Lowest Dropped	Overall Points	Points From Last Match
1st	36ers	36	66	16
2nd	nowaygreg	34	69	17
3rd	texwarhawk	27	52	27
4th	Poptwo1234	26	35	26
5th	Few-Seaweed-8569	24	44	24
6th	ZacAce316	21	30	21
7th	WeedMan420000000	20	20	0
8th	Orange_crocs_army	18	44	18
9th	infernalyle	17	27	17
10th	cmortis	16	30	0
11th	Houstopia	12	12	12
12th	sidneywatt	10	10	0
13th	Jamesunderwood2255	9	9	0
14th (tied)	Overthetop47mc	8	8	0
14th (tied)	Christopherdr97	8	8	0

Continuing last year's new rule - edits will result in comment invalidation. So if you want to make any edits to your picks, they must be done in a new reply to your comment!
Everyone can view the scoring document and are free to DM me with any issues/questions! If you'd like to help out with threads or scoring, send me a DM.
Good luck, and LET'S GO DYNAMO!!!
Categories and Scoring
10 points - Predicting the correct scoreline (i.e. Dynamo 3:1 FC Dallas, Dynamo 1:0 FC Dallas, etc.)
5 points - Predicting the correct outcome (i.e. Dynamo win, draw, etc.)
5 points - Correctly predicting the Dynamo MOTM (according to whoscored.com)
3 points - Correctly predicting the attendance +/- 500 people, 1 point for +/- 1000
3 points - Correctly guessing any of the goalscorer(s), regardless of team
2 points for guessing a correct yellow, 5 points if they get 2 yellows, 10 if they get a straight red. (List three players total from either team)
1 point - For correctly guessing each player in the Dynamo starting XI (1 pt/player); if you get all 11 players correct, then you get 5 bonus points
*Lowest 2 scores are dropped. Scores will be dropped following the 3rd match.*
Sample Prediction:

Score: Dynamo 3 - 1 Minnesota
Outcome: Win
Dynamo MOTM: Carrasquilla
Attendance: 14,000
Goal scorers: Urruti, Picault, Dorsey/Hunou
Cards: Hadebe; Dibassy, Gasper
Dynamo XI:
------- Picault ------- Urruti ----- Dorsey -------
---- Carrasquilla ----- Ceren ------ Vera -------
--- Lundkvist - Hadebe - Parker - Valentin -
-------------------------- Maric -----------------------

TLDR: This is the indigenous tradition of the megalithic site today referred to as Stonehenge. A bit lengthy, but again its counterintuitive to split this into 2 thread's. Im certain youll find some dots connect, and the information will resonate. It's partly a followup from the thread hereas well as many discoveries recently by the scientific community which confirms the accounts & why the oath "to preserve the integrity of the knowledge itself " was so important that migrations to the edges of civilization were necessary. StoneHenge
The legends speak of The Tuatha Dé Danann who brought fascinating skills and wisdom to Ireland when they arrived there. The issue ive found since moving to the west is the tendency to take the symbolism Literally & dismiss accounts as myth if they dont line up perfectly. Thats the absolute opposite of what our ancestors wanted us to do. The 7 sages 7 is for spiritual enlightenment that they brought, the return of 9 speaks of the beginning of a new cycle .
*NOTE:They gained those skills from four wise men who resided in the four cities; one in each. Senias was the wise man who resided in Murias; Morias in Falias; Urias in Gorias; and Arias in Finias. Over and beyond, the Tuatha Dé Danann brought four treasures from the four cities; isn't this exactly what ive shown the Dogon, Hopi, speak of? Symbolism is key. I previously mentioned initiations for the Cult of Lebe recordkeeper required me to live with 2 Aboriginal communities Kima/Ngemba(Aus ), Naga-Maya, Hopi clan of BeaSnake, 3 summers spent in India under the tutelage of Swamiji. We study the sacred stone tablets academia says doesnt exist from Naacal. Like the dalai lama visit Hopi Indians we have been referred to as Nomadic priests for thousands of years from the Hindu text to the Bible & DNA evidence has proven our relationship in 2021.
Like Emperor Asoka 'Anu & ancient seers in the rig veda' , 5,000yr ago in Ur, ancient Sumer, 2013 In India, its the gathering of the bloodlines known as 'Children of Enki' . I've cited my ancestor Sundiata who founded imperial Mali who ive shown in reference to the Maya popul Vuh text, ima direct descendant of Mayta Capac,4th Inca Emperor, recently deceased elder Hunbatz welcomed me as his ancestors did upon arrival of those who gave the Olmec our personal writing system 'Mande'. Independent invention is nonsense.ld never heard of that theory until very recently. Each of us recieved a serpent tattoo *'The Shining One's enlightened the minds of men.The Shining Ones 'bear the weight of mankinds previous transgressions 'after completing our studies in each area. Swamiji said that we have to learn about each of them to learn ourselves, only then is the title ' Naga' (one who is wise)earned.* Dynasty of Keita, our surname isn't Keita.. Keita just means Inheritors
First for the builders, there was a recent article science alert released 'Stonehenge Builders Pythagorean theorem ' that you'll find interesting. Now, once again you see construction of a megalith thousands of years older than the person who this theory is named after. The proof is undeniable, The Shining Ones had the knowledge. This is the Celtic account of 'Tuatha De Danu- the Shining Ones' , sounds similar to 'Te-Pito-O-Te Henua'which is the REAL name for what was recently renamed Easter Island.
The Legend of the Rapa Nui speak of Hotu Matu'a and his captain, Tu'u ko lho as part of a two-canoe discovery expedition leaving the lost Polynesian homeland of Hiva. Much taller than everyone else & having sort of aristocratic distinction from the populace.We have discovered, in ancient Ireland, there were more than a few races that existed. Among the most powerful was the Tuatha de Danann. The Tuatha Dé Danann was a magical race that possessed supernatural powers. Most of them were god-like creatures or divine beings that were being worshipped. This race was also known to believe in Goddess Danu. She was sometimes referred to as the mother, and another translation of their name is “followers of Danu”. The Tuatha Dé Danann came from four major cities; Falias, Gorias, Finias, and Murias.was supposedly meant for the Tuatha Dé Danann. The text included the following “..in ancient Greece… there lived a race of nomads known as the Pelasgians. Tribal in nature, they were seafarers who claimed to be born from the teeth of the Comic Snake Ophion, and the Great Goddess Danu
Scientific Validation of Subtle Energy -Fmbr.org
Certain typs of geology, magnify telluric currents. Conductivity Discontinuities , where 2 of what you'd know as 'ley line 'connect.(1 -high conductivity & the other low conductivity). If your experts want to study these subtle energies, the best time is the predawn hrs, the daily changes in the geomagnetic field are strongest at those times in terms of magnetic strength per hour. An electric current is generated in anything thatll conduct electricity...i THINK the term is Induction??
Geomagnetic field inside the circle was much weaker than outside, it acted like a shield. John Burke also discovered how the stones of Avebury are deliberately placed and aligned so they'd focus electro-magnetic currents to flow in a premeditated direction..Brooker says its just like our modern day atomic particle collider geological analysis Durability stonehenge The core was 99.7% silica—almost entirely quartz, through-and-through, which was more pure than any sarsen stone Nash had worked on. Under the microscope, its sand-sized quartz grains were tightly packed together and supporting each other. The grains were then coated in an overgrowth cement—at least 16 different growth layers that could be counted almost like tree rings—which produced an “interlocking mosaic of quartz crystals that bind the stone together,” Nash said.
This is only learned through the serpent wisdom. Basin at different sites across the globe, including Göbekli Tepe. The limestone surfaces of the square basins revealed the presence of oxalates, leading to speculation about beer production. However, the presence of oxalates results from geopolymer stone casting processes employed at Göbekli Tepe to produce megaliths from a liquid slurry of sand, fly ash and water. Oxalic acid was used to chemically disaggregate available bedrock into fine grains. In South America, oxalic acid residues were identified on the Saqsaywaman temple megaliths, and on the surfaces of the Tiwanaku Gate of the Sun. Göbekli Tepe's standing stones also retain residual oxalates....clip Basins -Clip Basins
At the Temple of Edfu in Egypt there is a wall featuring what amounts to a recipe for establishing a space that differs energetically from its surrounding landscape — a temple. The instructions describe how certain creator gods first established a mound and 'pierced a snake' to the spot, whereupon a special force of nature impregnated the mound, which led to the construction of the physical temple. Edfu-Horus The symbol of the serpent has always been a culturally shared metaphor of the earth's meandering lines of force, what scientists refer to as telluric currents.The important realisation is that the stone circles act as amplifiers of subtle Earth frequencies, which are harmonic coherent fractals of Earth frequencies – all perfectly resonating with the Prime Resonant Frequency of the Earth.
By being exposed to the amplified frequencies of the stone circles, we are exposed to the coherent harmonic frequencies of Gaia (Mother Earth). All the cell of our bodies begin to vibrate and resonate in harmony with these natural Earth frequencies – or energies – and all the cells and organs of our body slowly start to come into coherence with the natural frequencies of Earth itself. Egyptian principles of Ma'at , Thoth (sacred geometry). TheOur reality, our physical world, and everything in creation, whether it is seen or unseen, is a consequence or harmonic resonance – where everything is manifested into physical form by its prime resonance frequency This physical form is held in a coherent grid of source-code unity by constantly vibrating or resonating in harmony with everything else in creation. From what I've seen dealing with academics & discussions of these sites, the reason there's so little known is because of the tendency to project modern beliefs rejecting sacred geometry, symbols such as Letter h which in Alchemy meant 'grounding, or finding your center, the esoteric concepts like 'As above, so below' answer all of rhe questions anyone has. H
Modern science has much to learn, don't dismiss things that your experts have yet to discover. If you dismiss the spiritual aspects of these cultures, you'll never have the answer. Materialism was Evil in these people's eyes, the worst possible outcome would be a result of 'man becoming Materialistic' I showed all the ancient historians who spoke this and its true.
Earth energy grid is an ancient matrix of lines of subtle forces that form a pattern around the globe. Using scalar waves produced by Mother Earth advanced ancient civilizations built megalithic stone structures along these grid lines and at the intersecting nodal points. Later civilization is scientifically known that alterations in the local electromagnetic field can influence the perception of the human body and can lead to changes in consciousness. For thousands of years it was considered normal behaviour to attend these sacred sites for healing, divination, fertility and childbirth, practices that were slowly outlawed over the past eight hundred years by emerging religious dogma. NewScience: Dr Brooker- Magnetism & Standing stones Petrological Studies
At least four different types of stone in the overall structure, each brought from different locations: Over 80 5-10 ton 'Bluestones'' from Wales, the huge 20-50 ton 'Sarsens' from 20km north near Avebury, the mica-sandstone 'Slaughter stone' from Milford Haven, and the limestone packing-stones from Chilmark.. Although the area just north of Stonehenge is littered with perfectly suitable sarsen stones, the builders chose to use over 80 Bluestones instead, requiring them to transport them over 200 miles from the Presily mountains in Wales. It is perhaps relevant then that a piece of bluestone was found in almost every one of the 59 Y and Z holes. (8)
The reverence for Blue-stones was noted by Mackenzie, who said of it:'The colours of stones were supposed to reveal the characters of the spirits that inhabited them. In Egypt, for instance, the blue turquoise was connected with the mother-goddess Hathor, who was, among other things, a deity of the sky and therefore the controller of the waters above the firmament as well as the Nille. She was the mother of sun and moon. She was appealed to for water by the agriculturalists and for favourable winds by the seafarers. The symbol used on such occasions was a blue stone. It was a "luck stone" that exercised an influence on the elements controlled y the goddess. In the Hebrides a blue stone used to be reverenced by the descendants of ancient sea-rovers. Martin in his Western Isles tells of such a stone, said always to be wet, which was preserved in a chapel dedicated to St. Columba on the Island of Fladda. "It is an extraordinary custom," he has written, "when any of the fishermen are detained in the isle by contrary winds, to wash the blue-stone with water all round, expecting thereby to procure a favourable wind, which, the credulous tenant living in the isle says, never fails, especially if a stranger wash the stone." )
It seems that the specific selection of stones at Stonehenge extended to the slaughter stone which is unique at the site, being made of a sandstone laden with Mica(found at Aztec sites as well) which came from the Cosheston Beds, composed of Devonian sandstone, near Milford haven on the coast of Wales, some 30 miles to the southwest of the Presily quarries. While it is reasonably clear that the stone which once stood at the centre of the site was chosen for its unique properties, the exact relevance can only be guessed at. Kalb suggests that 'Stones transported over long distances to build megaliths were pieces of places'.
'There were also a small number of limestone blocks and slabs used in the construction of Stonehenge brought to the site for the specific purpose of packing material to support the much larger sarsen uprights. The limestone quarries have been identified as Chilmark, 12 miles west, and 3 miles southeast at Hurdcot'.
magnetometer survey of the site revealed how a band of magnetic force is attracted into the stone circle through a narrow gap of stones that act as the entrance. The band then spirals towards the center of the circle as though descending down a rabbit hole.
Two of the circle’s western stones were also found to pulsate with concentric rings of alternating current, resembling ripples in a pond.The composition of the stones and their ability to conduct energy was not lost on Mereux and others. Being very high in quartz, the specially chosen rocks are piezoelectric, which is to say they generate electricity when compressed or subjected to vibrations. The megaliths of Carnac, positioned as they are upon thirty-one fractures of the most active earthquake zone in France, are in a constant state of vibration, making the stones electromagnetically active.Significantly then, at Stonehenge we find the inner horseshoe comprised of the finely worked spotted-dolerites from the main ridge of Carn Meini in the Preseli Hills, with the outer bluestone circle comprising of unworked rhyolites, tuffs and unspotted dolerites from the outlying landscapes north and south of the main ridge. The Preseli Hills purposefully created in microcosm in the Stonehenge landscape. Healing Properties Stonehenge

There are some problems with IOMMU and Expansion card and hope it might correlate. However, there weren't such problem with AMD 5600g at all, but there were another even bigger one (short story long: boot drives were disabled/failed at the same time when I've run VM with passthrough PCIe to 2.5Gib Ethernet card) .
Now, hardware:

• Intel i5 12500
• MSI B660M with latest BIOS
• 128 gb non ECC memory
• Expansion card PCIe to SATA
• 7x WD Red Pro 10TB, 4 x SATA Kingston SSD 120GB, 2x NVMe Samsung Evo plus 980

​
3x WD and 2x Kingston are connected to Expansion card and Proxmox cant list them. However, it shows the card. At the same time there are no IOMMU groups, but VT-d, VT-x and something that reminds IOMMU are enabled.
About IOMMU in BIOS, there is the thing that is called "control iommu pre-boot behavior" which is enabled.

[email protected]:~# uname -a Linux prox 5.15.102-1-pve #1 SMP PVE 5.15.102-1 (2023-03-14T13:48Z) x86_64 GNU/Linux 

This is the expansion card (lspci -v)

 05:00.0 SATA controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1062 Serial ATA Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0]) Subsystem: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1062 Serial ATA Controller Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 156 I/O ports at 3050 [size=8] I/O ports at 3040 [size=4] I/O ports at 3030 [size=8] I/O ports at 3020 [size=4] I/O ports at 3000 [size=32] Memory at 80800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512] Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit- Capabilities: [78] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [80] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00 Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel Kernel driver in use: ahci Kernel modules: ahci 

These are drives which are connected directly to the motherboard (spoiler: with the card it has to be 5 more drives)

[email protected]:~# lsscsi [4:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WD102KFBX-68 0A83 /dev/sda [5:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WD102KFBX-68 0A83 /dev/sdb [6:0:0:0] disk ATA KINGSTON SA400S3 62C3 /dev/sdc [7:0:0:0] disk ATA KINGSTON SA400S3 62C3 /dev/sdd [8:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WD102KFBX-68 0A83 /dev/sde [9:0:0:0] disk ATA WDC WD102KFBX-68 0A83 /dev/sdf [N:0:4:1] disk Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 500GB__1 /dev/nvme0n1 [N:1:4:1] disk Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 500GB__1 /dev/nvme1n1 

By the way, all of these drives that are not showing work. I've connected them to the mobo and then formatted. The first option that come up with buy HBA or another card to SATA, but I want to know if there is software solution.
​
About IOMMU
/etc/default/grub (vfio-pci.ids=1b21:0612 is the card it doesn't matter with or without this thing still doesn't work)

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet intel_iommu=on iommu=pt vfio-pci.ids=1b21:0612" 

​

[email protected]:~# cat /etc/kernel/cmdline root=ZFS=rpool/ROOT/pve-1 boot=zfs quiet intel_iommu=on iommu=pt 

I have no idea why proc cannot be updated (I've tried "update-initframe -u -k all" and "proxmox-boot-tool refresh")

[email protected]:~# cat /proc/cmdline initrd=\EFI\proxmox\5.15.102-1-pve\initrd.img-5.15.102-1-pve root=ZFS=rpool/ROOT/pve-1 boot=zfs 

/etc/modules

vfio vfio_iommu_type1 vfio_pci vfio_virqfd 

But I don't see magic words "IOMMU enabled"

[email protected]:~# dmesg grep -e DMAR -e IOMMU [ 0.013279] ACPI: DMAR 0x000000006E3AA000 000088 (v02 INTEL EDK2 00000002 01000013) [ 0.013320] ACPI: Reserving DMAR table memory at [mem 0x6e3aa000-0x6e3aa087] [ 0.409272] DMAR: Host address width 39 [ 0.409274] DMAR: DRHD base: 0x000000fed90000 flags: 0x0 [ 0.409278] DMAR: dmar0: reg_base_addr fed90000 ver 4:0 cap 1c0000c40660462 ecap 29a00f0505e [ 0.409281] DMAR: DRHD base: 0x000000fed91000 flags: 0x1 [ 0.409283] DMAR: dmar1: reg_base_addr fed91000 ver 5:0 cap d2008c40660462 ecap f050da [ 0.409287] DMAR: RMRR base: 0x00000076000000 end: 0x000000807fffff [ 0.409289] DMAR-IR: IOAPIC id 2 under DRHD base 0xfed91000 IOMMU 1 [ 0.409290] DMAR-IR: HPET id 0 under DRHD base 0xfed91000 [ 0.409292] DMAR-IR: Queued invalidation will be enabled to support x2apic and Intr-remapping. [ 0.410864] DMAR-IR: Enabled IRQ remapping in x2apic mode [ 0.589462] pci 0000:00:02.0: DMAR: Skip IOMMU disabling for graphics 

However, there is

[email protected]:~# dmesg grep 'remapping' [ 0.409292] DMAR-IR: Queued invalidation will be enabled to support x2apic and Intr-remapping. [ 0.410864] DMAR-IR: Enabled IRQ remapping in x2apic mode 

And according to the instruction, I have (in /etc/modprobe.d/iommu_unsafe_interrupts.conf):

options vfio_iommu_type1 allow_unsafe_interrupts=1 

​

[email protected]:~# find /sys/kernel/iommu_groups/ -type l [email protected]:~# 

​
Does somebody know what the hell?

TLDR: This is the indigenous tradition of the megalithic site today referred to as Stonehenge. A bit lengthy, but again its counterintuitive to split this into 2 thread's. Im certain youll find some dots connect, and the information will resonate. It's partly a followup from the thread hereas well as many discoveries recently by the scientific community which confirms the accounts & why the oath "to preserve the integrity of the knowledge itself " was so important that migrations to the edges of civilization were necessary. StoneHenge
The legends speak of The Tuatha Dé Danann who brought fascinating skills and wisdom to Ireland when they arrived there. The issue ive found since moving to the west is the tendency to take the symbolism Literally & dismiss accounts as myth if they dont line up perfectly. Thats the absolute opposite of what our ancestors wanted us to do. The 7 sages 7 is for spiritual enlightenment that they brought, the return of 9 speaks of the beginning of a new cycle .
*NOTE:They gained those skills from four wise men who resided in the four cities; one in each. Senias was the wise man who resided in Murias; Morias in Falias; Urias in Gorias; and Arias in Finias. Over and beyond, the Tuatha Dé Danann brought four treasures from the four cities; isn't this exactly what ive shown the Dogon, Hopi, speak of? Symbolism is key. I previously mentioned initiations for the Cult of Lebe recordkeeper required me to live with 2 Aboriginal communities Kima/Ngemba(Aus ), Naga-Maya, Hopi clan of BeaSnake, 3 summers spent in India under the tutelage of Swamiji. We study the sacred stone tablets academia says doesnt exist from Naacal. Like the dalai lama visit Hopi Indians we have been referred to as Nomadic priests for thousands of years from the Hindu text to the Bible & DNA evidence has proven our relationship in 2021.
Like Emperor Asoka 'Anu & ancient seers in the rig veda' , 5,000yr ago in Ur, ancient Sumer, 2013 In India, its the gathering of the bloodlines known as 'Children of Enki' . I've cited my ancestor Sundiata who founded imperial Mali, ima direct descendant of Mayta Capac,4th Inca Emperor, recently deceased elder Hunbatz welcomed me as his ancestors did upon arrival of those who gave the Olmec our personal writing system 'Mande'. Independent invention is nonsense.ld never heard of that theory until very recently. Each of us recieved a serpent tattoo 'The Shining One's enlightened the minds of men.The Shining Ones 'bear the weight of mankinds previous transgressions 'after completing our studies in each area. Swamiji said that we have to learn about each of them to learn ourselves, only then is the title ' Naga' (one who is wise)earned.* Dynasty of Keita (Sundiata) isn't our surname, it means Inheritors.
First for the builders, there was a recent article science alert released 'Stonehenge Builders Pythagorean theorem ' that you'll find interesting. Now, once again you see construction of a megalith thousands of years older than the person who this theory is named after. The proof is undeniable, The Shining Ones had the knowledge. This is the Celtic account of 'Tuatha De Danu- the Shining Ones' , sounds similar to 'Te-Pito-O-Te Henua'which is the REAL name for what was recently renamed Easter Island.
The Legend of the Rapa Nui speak of Hotu Matu'a and his captain, Tu'u ko lho as part of a two-canoe discovery expedition leaving the lost Polynesian homeland of Hiva. Much taller than everyone else & having sort of aristocratic distinction from the populace.We have discovered, in ancient Ireland, there were more than a few races that existed. Among the most powerful was the Tuatha de Danann. The Tuatha Dé Danann was a magical race that possessed supernatural powers. Most of them were god-like creatures or divine beings that were being worshipped. This race was also known to believe in Goddess Danu. She was sometimes referred to as the mother, and another translation of their name is “followers of Danu”. The Tuatha Dé Danann came from four major cities; Falias, Gorias, Finias, and Murias.was supposedly meant for the Tuatha Dé Danann. The text included the following “..in ancient Greece… there lived a race of nomads known as the Pelasgians. Tribal in nature, they were seafarers who claimed to be born from the teeth of the Comic Snake Ophion, and the Great Goddess Danu
Scientific Validation of Subtle Energy -Fmbr.org
Certain typs of geology, magnify telluric currents. Conductivity Discontinuities , where 2 of what you'd know as 'ley line 'connect.(1 -high conductivity & the other low conductivity). If your experts want to study these subtle energies, the best time is the predawn hrs, the daily changes in the geomagnetic field are strongest at those times in terms of magnetic strength per hour. An electric current is generated in anything thatll conduct electricity...i THINK the term is Induction??
Geomagnetic field inside the circle was much weaker than outside, it acted like a shield. John Burke also discovered how the stones of Avebury are deliberately placed and aligned so they'd focus electro-magnetic currents to flow in a premeditated direction..Brooker says its just like our modern day atomic particle collider geological analysis Durability stonehenge The core was 99.7% silica—almost entirely quartz, through-and-through, which was more pure than any sarsen stone Nash had worked on. Under the microscope, its sand-sized quartz grains were tightly packed together and supporting each other. The grains were then coated in an overgrowth cement—at least 16 different growth layers that could be counted almost like tree rings—which produced an “interlocking mosaic of quartz crystals that bind the stone together,” Nash said.
This is only learned through the serpent wisdom. Basin at different sites across the globe, including Göbekli Tepe. The limestone surfaces of the square basins revealed the presence of oxalates, leading to speculation about beer production. However, the presence of oxalates results from geopolymer stone casting processes employed at Göbekli Tepe to produce megaliths from a liquid slurry of sand, fly ash and water. Oxalic acid was used to chemically disaggregate available bedrock into fine grains. In South America, oxalic acid residues were identified on the Saqsaywaman temple megaliths, and on the surfaces of the Tiwanaku Gate of the Sun. Göbekli Tepe's standing stones also retain residual oxalates....clip Basins -Clip Basins
At the Temple of Edfu in Egypt there is a wall featuring what amounts to a recipe for establishing a space that differs energetically from its surrounding landscape — a temple. The instructions describe how certain creator gods first established a mound and 'pierced a snake' to the spot, whereupon a special force of nature impregnated the mound, which led to the construction of the physical temple. Edfu-Horus The symbol of the serpent has always been a culturally shared metaphor of the earth's meandering lines of force, what scientists refer to as telluric currents.The important realisation is that the stone circles act as amplifiers of subtle Earth frequencies, which are harmonic coherent fractals of Earth frequencies – all perfectly resonating with the Prime Resonant Frequency of the Earth.
By being exposed to the amplified frequencies of the stone circles, we are exposed to the coherent harmonic frequencies of Gaia (Mother Earth). All the cell of our bodies begin to vibrate and resonate in harmony with these natural Earth frequencies – or energies – and all the cells and organs of our body slowly start to come into coherence with the natural frequencies of Earth itself. Egyptian principles of Ma'at , Thoth (sacred geometry). TheOur reality, our physical world, and everything in creation, whether it is seen or unseen, is a consequence or harmonic resonance – where everything is manifested into physical form by its prime resonance frequency This physical form is held in a coherent grid of source-code unity by constantly vibrating or resonating in harmony with everything else in creation. From what I've seen dealing with academics & discussions of these sites, the reason there's so little known is because of the tendency to project modern beliefs rejecting sacred geometry, symbols such as Letter h which in Alchemy meant 'grounding, or finding your center, the esoteric concepts like 'As above, so below' answer all of rhe questions anyone has. H
Modern science has much to learn, don't dismiss things that your experts have yet to discover. If you dismiss the spiritual aspects of these cultures, you'll never have the answer. Materialism was Evil in these people's eyes, the worst possible outcome would be a result of 'man becoming Materialistic' I showed all the ancient historians who spoke this and its true.
Earth energy grid is an ancient matrix of lines of subtle forces that form a pattern around the globe. Using scalar waves produced by Mother Earth advanced ancient civilizations built megalithic stone structures along these grid lines and at the intersecting nodal points. Later civilization is scientifically known that alterations in the local electromagnetic field can influence the perception of the human body and can lead to changes in consciousness. For thousands of years it was considered normal behaviour to attend these sacred sites for healing, divination, fertility and childbirth, practices that were slowly outlawed over the past eight hundred years by emerging religious dogma. NewScience: Dr Brooker- Magnetism & Standing stones Petrological Studies
At least four different types of stone in the overall structure, each brought from different locations: Over 80 5-10 ton 'Bluestones'' from Wales, the huge 20-50 ton 'Sarsens' from 20km north near Avebury, the mica-sandstone 'Slaughter stone' from Milford Haven, and the limestone packing-stones from Chilmark.. Although the area just north of Stonehenge is littered with perfectly suitable sarsen stones, the builders chose to use over 80 Bluestones instead, requiring them to transport them over 200 miles from the Presily mountains in Wales. It is perhaps relevant then that a piece of bluestone was found in almost every one of the 59 Y and Z holes. (8)
The reverence for Blue-stones was noted by Mackenzie, who said of it:'The colours of stones were supposed to reveal the characters of the spirits that inhabited them. In Egypt, for instance, the blue turquoise was connected with the mother-goddess Hathor, who was, among other things, a deity of the sky and therefore the controller of the waters above the firmament as well as the Nille. She was the mother of sun and moon. She was appealed to for water by the agriculturalists and for favourable winds by the seafarers. The symbol used on such occasions was a blue stone. It was a "luck stone" that exercised an influence on the elements controlled y the goddess. In the Hebrides a blue stone used to be reverenced by the descendants of ancient sea-rovers. Martin in his Western Isles tells of such a stone, said always to be wet, which was preserved in a chapel dedicated to St. Columba on the Island of Fladda. "It is an extraordinary custom," he has written, "when any of the fishermen are detained in the isle by contrary winds, to wash the blue-stone with water all round, expecting thereby to procure a favourable wind, which, the credulous tenant living in the isle says, never fails, especially if a stranger wash the stone." )
It seems that the specific selection of stones at Stonehenge extended to the slaughter stone which is unique at the site, being made of a sandstone laden with Mica(found at Aztec sites as well) which came from the Cosheston Beds, composed of Devonian sandstone, near Milford haven on the coast of Wales, some 30 miles to the southwest of the Presily quarries. While it is reasonably clear that the stone which once stood at the centre of the site was chosen for its unique properties, the exact relevance can only be guessed at. Kalb suggests that 'Stones transported over long distances to build megaliths were pieces of places'.
'There were also a small number of limestone blocks and slabs used in the construction of Stonehenge brought to the site for the specific purpose of packing material to support the much larger sarsen uprights. The limestone quarries have been identified as Chilmark, 12 miles west, and 3 miles southeast at Hurdcot'.
magnetometer survey of the site revealed how a band of magnetic force is attracted into the stone circle through a narrow gap of stones that act as the entrance. The band then spirals towards the center of the circle as though descending down a rabbit hole.
Two of the circle’s western stones were also found to pulsate with concentric rings of alternating current, resembling ripples in a pond.The composition of the stones and their ability to conduct energy was not lost on Mereux and others. Being very high in quartz, the specially chosen rocks are piezoelectric, which is to say they generate electricity when compressed or subjected to vibrations. The megaliths of Carnac, positioned as they are upon thirty-one fractures of the most active earthquake zone in France, are in a constant state of vibration, making the stones electromagnetically active.Significantly then, at Stonehenge we find the inner horseshoe comprised of the finely worked spotted-dolerites from the main ridge of Carn Meini in the Preseli Hills, with the outer bluestone circle comprising of unworked rhyolites, tuffs and unspotted dolerites from the outlying landscapes north and south of the main ridge. The Preseli Hills purposefully created in microcosm in the Stonehenge landscape. Healing Properties Stonehenge

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 65%. (I'm a bot)

A super tanker anchored off the country's coast and containing more than a million barrels of oil is "Likely to sink or explode at any moment", unleashing an environmental and humanitarian disaster, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen has told Sky News.
Further up the coast of Yemen an estimated two million people rely on desalination plants for their water, but these plants would also be contaminated by the oil spill and have to close.
Nature Sustainability predicts that within three weeks an unabated oil spill could kill almost all of Yemen's Red Sea fishing stock, upending the lives of millions of people living in coastal communities who rely on the ocean for their food and livelihoods.
"Dr Hisham Nagi, professor of environmental science at Yemen's Sana'a University, told Sky News:"The oil tanker is unfortunately located near a very, very healthy coral reef and clean habitat, and it has a lot of species of marine organisms.
The United Nations is so desperate to stop the oil spilling that it has just crowdfunded the purchase of a rescue tanker to go on a salvage operation.
"I know if there was an oil spill, there would be tens of millions of dollars pouring in to solve this spill."

Summary Source FAQ Feedback Top keywords: oil^#1 spill^#2 Yemen^#3 million^#4 Sea^#5
Post found in /worldnews.
NOTICE: This thread is for discussing the submission topic. Please do not discuss the concept of the autotldr bot here.

Apologies if I already missed the discussion about this here, since I haven't really been on the subreddit for the last month or two (or three? idek anymore)
But I can't seem to find any mention of it, so I wanted to go ahead and make this post to share this:

There was a planet with no atmosphere in the dreams of Honkai Beasts. There were no seasons there, and the dark soil constantly burnt under the hot sun. Finality served no purpose there. Everlasting death consumed the planet. [Mercury]
. There was a planet shrouded by acid clouds in the dreams of Honkai Beasts. There, a day felt like a year, and beyond the clouds, the sun rose from the west and set from the east. Finality had long finished its work there. Everlasting death consumed the planet. [Venus] . There was a planet where crimson sand filled the sky in the dreams of Honkai Beasts. There, two moons hung in the sky, and one shone brighter than Venus. Finality had stalled there. The sparse bubble universes are the final echoes of civilization. [Mars] . There was a planet where complex patterns filled the sky in the dreams of Honkai Beasts. One of its satellites was damaged by tidal force and lava constantly spewed on its surface, covering the planet in sulfur. [Jupiter] . There was a gas giant with beautiful light in the dreams of Honkai Beasts. One of its satellites remained dormant in its cradle, waiting for the light and warmth to bestow life upon it. [Saturn] . There were two ice giants with unending blizzards in the dreams of Honkai Beasts. The enchanting pastel blue, the captivating cerulean blue. Cruel in its beauty, just like the galaxy. [Uranus, Neptune]

The "dreams of Honkai Beasts" were each describing planets from the solar system!
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Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, with temperatures far beyond anything that could support life. It also lacks an atmosphere so there's no temperature regulation- you have extreme cold in the night and extreme heat in the day, making it almost impossible for us to make any sort of habitat on Mercury since you'd need materials that could withstand two very different extremes of the temperature scale.
With that in mind, it makes sense that Finality passed it by, lol
There was a planet with no atmosphere in the dreams of Honkai Beasts. There were no seasons there, and the dark soil constantly burnt under the hot sun. Finality served no purpose there. Everlasting death consumed the planet.
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Venus is just a bit outside our solar system's "Goldilocks zone" (Circumstellar habitable zone), so it could possibly have supported life- if it weren't for the extremely acidic atmosphere and high temperatures. It takes 117 Earth Days for 1 Venus Day to pass, and 225 Earth Days for 1 Venus Year to pass- so one day on Venus "from midnight to midnight" would be an entire Venus Year. Venus also orbits retrograde, so the sun rises in the west and sets in the east there.
What's really interesting is that "Finality had long finished its work there." Idk about you guys... but this kinda sounds like Venus had a civilization in its past (in the story of HI3rd of course), and that Finality had already destroyed that civilization/world long before the events of HI3rd.
There was a planet shrouded by acid clouds in the dreams of Honkai Beasts. There, a day felt like a year, and beyond the clouds, the sun rose from the west and set from the east. Finality had long finished its work there. Everlasting death consumed the planet.
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Mars is the Red Planet with its two moons Phobos and Deimos, and this planet is on the outer edge of the Goldilocks zone.
What's really interesting is that it says "Finality had stalled there." What would it mean for a process like Finality to "stall"? Did whatever civilization that might've been on Mars somehow delay Finality but still failed to save itself? (like a "Project Stigma gone wrong")
As for "The sparse bubble universes are the final echoes of civilization", perhaps we might travel to Mars in Part 2 and discover the tales of whatever past civilization Mars once might've had?
There was a planet where crimson sand filled the sky in the dreams of Honkai Beasts. There, two moons hung in the sky, and one shone brighter than Venus. Finality had stalled there. The sparse bubble universes are the final echoes of civilization.
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Jupiter is the gas giant with complex patterns, as it has the most color and movement visible on its surface when compared to the other gas giants of our solar system. The moon Io is also the most geologically active body in the solar system, covered in sulfur because of its 400+ volcanoes, all formed as a result of the gravitational tidal forces that Jupiter exerts on it.
There was a planet where complex patterns filled the sky in the dreams of Honkai Beasts...
...One of its satellites was damaged by tidal force and lava constantly spewed on its surface, covering the planet in sulfur.
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Saturn is the gas giant with beautiful light- likely referring to Saturn's rings. I find it interesting that one of the moons is said to be "dormant in its cradle, waiting for the light and warmth to bestow life upon it." I believe this could be referring to either Titan or Enceladus.
There is speculation that both Titan and Enceladus may have underground oceans, meaning a vast layer of liquid underneath the crust and spanning the entire world. This would be possible because of the same tidal forces that make Io geologically active- the heat from Saturn's tidal forces could melt the lower parts of their icy exteriors, causing these oceans to form. Evidence for this is in the form of massive water-ice plumes coming from vast fissures on Enceladus' surface, as well as "cryovolcanoes" on the surface of Titan.
What's most interesting is that Titan is the only other extraterrestrial body in all of astronomy that is confirmed to have stable bodies of liquid on its surface. No other astronomical body has ever been observed to have this- only Earth (water) and Titan (hydrocarbons like methane and butane). Titan is also larger than Mercury, 50% larger than Earth's Moon, and about 40% the size of Earth.
So, I think Titan is the "dormant" moon waiting for life, as it's one of the mostly likely places in the solar system to house life outside of Earth.
There was a gas giant with beautiful light in the dreams of Honkai Beasts...
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Enceladus
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Theorized Subsurface Ocean of Enceladus
...One of its satellites remained dormant in its cradle, waiting for the light and warmth to bestow life upon it.
Size Comparison
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Map of the hydrocarbon lakes of Titan
Real Photo of Titan's surface, from the Huygens lander that was part of the Cassini mission
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And finally, Uranus and Neptune are described together with their pastel blue and cerulean blue! Not much else to say here, lol
There were two ice giants with unending blizzards in the dreams of Honkai Beasts. The enchanting pastel blue...
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...the captivating cerulean blue. Cruel in its beauty, just like the galaxy.
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also can we get an F in the chat for Pluto, it didn't even get a passing mention :(
But for completion's sake, here's a photo of Pluto too!
\"There was a forgotten little planet in the dreams of Honkai Beasts...\"
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Anyways, that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed this tour of the solar system, given to us courtesy of Kevin absorbing the dreams of Honkai Beasts for breakfast, lunch and dinner~ <3

This is a guide written by a trans woman who wanted to feminize the overall appearance of her bodies as much as possible through exercise, without depending on the effects of hormone therapy.
The following is possible and effective regardless of whether you're on hormone therapy. It's easier to gain muscle with a male hormone profile, but the results are the same either way. Progress is just slower if you're estrogen-primary.
There is nothing inherently female about the effects of the following protocol. "Feminizing" through exercise is a matter of changing your proportions and some of the aesthetic markers that we culturally associate with attractive women. This workout is how I pass in women's clothing without relying on hormone therapy. I look particularly good in dresses that cinch at the waist but don't cling to my hips. But I also pass in skinny jeans and a tank.
The basic essence of this guide is this: you want to increase your lower body muscle mass, minimize your upper body muscle mass, and decrease the fat around your waist.
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Body Fat

Exercise will help with the subtler features of your body, but it can only do so much in that department. It can make your thighs thicker, your butt rounder, and your hips wider, but it won't give them a feminine shape. This, however, is not a long-term problem, since women have the exact same muscle groups and gain muscle in the exact same patterns. So once you have fat on top of your butt and hips, they'll look feminine and you'll have the extra girth from the muscle underneath. This is why gym-rat women look so thicc: they're getting the benefits of both muscle and fat. This guide assumes you don't (yet) have a female pattern fat distribution.
When you have a male pattern fat distribution, your extra weight will typically collect around your midsection. For female patterns, on the other hand, the extra weight is more evenly distributed and often collects at the lower body. If you currently have a male pattern, you will want to lose fat so your waist is slimmer relative to your hips. Your best bet for achieving that is to cut, which is a term for losing weight but preserving muscle when you do. The way to cut is to (a) lift heavy weights and (b) eat at a caloric deficit. More on this below.
There isn't any special exercise that will make you lose weight. The reason people exercise is because it increases their maintenance caloric intake. That allows them to eat more in a day and still lose weight. It keeps the hunger at bay to work out while you're cutting. It also preserves your muscles.
You want to keep your male-pattern fat low but not extremely low. My bodyfat is about 15% and unless it distributes in a female pattern, I don't want any more. I also don't want any less. Until you are depositing fat in a female pattern, I recommend keeping your body fat in the 14%-20% range (google how to estimate/measure your body fat). That will ensure a slim waist and soft features. If you go below 14% you'll have that really cut look that will masculinizes your appearance regardless of how much muscle you have. If you're over 20% bodyfat, slimming down is another way you can change your proportions, since a lot of that fat will come from your midsection. But keep in mind that you're going to want to slim without losing any muscle in your lower body. I'll explain how you should do that in a bit.
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Musculature

Generally, you want bulking exercises that target your hips and legs. You will have to exercise as if you are trying to gain as much muscle as you can in your hips, butt and thighs. When you're satisfied with your gains, just switch to a maintenance protocol and it will be smooth sailing form there.
In addition to doing heavy upper body lifts, I recommend you also do two additional exercises: stomach vacuums and banded facepulls. These exercises improve your posture, which is also an important aesthetic feature. Everyone is prettier with good posture. Additionally, stomach vacuums will make your waist look slimmer--not by losing fat, but by strengthening the muscles that keep your gut in.
I do not recommend sit ups or crunches or any heavy lifts that target your abs. These are a different set of muscles from the vacuum muscles, and isolating them with heavy lifts will make them bigger, increasing the size of your waist. Same for isolating your lower back muscles. You can get all the ab and lower back work you need from squats, deadlifts and hip-thrusts.
You might also want to do some exercises in the upper body, but it's not crucial for your goals. However, if you start doing upper-body exercises with heavy weights, it will backfire: testosterone makes it very easy to gain muscle. So keep your weights light! However, there aesthetic benefits to doing so upper body exercises. you should use very light weights. The goal is just to make your upper body muscles perky, not to make them visually bigger. That's what people mean when they talk about "toning". This will involve some increase in upper body muscle mass, but it will distribute in a visually appealing, non-masculinizing way. It'll make you look more youthful.
Gaining muscle like you really mean it is hard work. You will need to life weights that actually feel heavy. You won't necessarily look forward to it (I don't always). You will also need to eat a lot.
You will also need to gradually increase the weight you lift. This is called "progressive overload". You can google that term for lots of information on it. If you are running on testosterone, you can get away with increasing the weights on lower-body exercises by 5 lbs per week per leg (so if you're doing double-leg exercises, increase by 10 lbs per week). But if you are running on estrogen, you should increase the weight at half these rates. If increasing the weight comes at the cost of proper form for the lift, don't do it. Form is paramount. Form is how you avoid injuries.
But good form is not the only part of injury prevention. You'll need to take off-weeks and reset your weight from time to time. I take an off-week whenever my joints start getting achy. However, it's wise to schedule one every three months or so. Whenever you fail a lift--that is, you can't finish your intended lift without breaking form--you need to reset the weight. After failing, on the next workout, you need to go back three or four increments. Then recommence progressive overload. This will help you get past the wall where you're failing the lift over and over. I also like to reset all my lifts whenever I take a week off. This is generally wise for long-term joint health.
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My Regimen

My workout only requires about $200-$300 of equipment, and a fairly small amount of floor space. And it takes me about 40 minutes, three times a week, to complete. I consider this a low investment for the payoff.
This workout is not designed for bodybuilding. There is a limit to the amount of muscle you can gain using this method because there is a limit to the amount of weight you can lift with the equipment and exercises I'm recommending. This approach is meant to balance results against investment. If you max out your weights and still want to gain more muscle, then it's time to join a gym and do classic barbell lifts. I did that for a couple of years pre-egg-crack. But this workout is all I need now.
It requires the following equipment:

• Exercise bands of different tensile strengths. I use something like these.
• Adjustable dumbbells that range from about 5 lbs to 50 lbs. I use this set. There might be cheaper options.
• Adjustable ankle weights. I have a pair the ranges from 1.5 to 2.5 lbs per weight and another pair that ranges from 1.5 to 7.5 lbs per weight.
• A stable surface to rest your shoulders on while doing a hip thrust (see below). I happen to have an exercise bench, but you don't need one of those. It can be a chair or possibly a sofa, as long as the edge is cushioned, it can handle the weight, and it won't slide when you lift up.
• A door with a sturdy frame.
• A stool that lifts at least 12 inches from the ground.

I do two alternating workouts. And I work out three days a week. So if I do workout A on Monday, I'll do B on Wednesday and A again on Friday. For all of these lifts, form is important. Make sure you're doing them right. I've linked videos of people doing them right, often with a demonstration of how you might do them wrong. But it's a good idea to look up common mistakes for each lift, especially the primary ones. But watch out, some people are doing them wrong on youtube. Took a little digging to find a good video for some of them.
I like to do the following workouts as a circuit: I do one set of each exercise for a total of 3 circuits. That is, I do one set of exercise one, one set of exercise two, and so on. When I finish exercise 6, I start back up at 1 again. This enables me to do them without breaks, so I get a cardio workout as well. The stomach vacuums serve as breaks, but because I do them about 6 or 7 minutes apart my heart is usually racing by then.
I have put a * in front of the primary exercises. These are the lifts that will primarily contribute to muscle gains in target areas. You should get the weight as high as you can in these lifts. I have put a ^ in front of the secondary exercises. These are lifts that will contribute to muscle gains in target areas, to smaller muscles that are especially important for more feminine proportions. You should also progressively overload these exercises, but don't hurt yourself. The remaining exercises are for posture and are not meant to be overloaded.
Workout A:

1. *Single-leg squats 3 sets of 5. I do these on the stool because I don't have the hamstring flexibility for a pistol squat (as in the video). 1. I do these with 15 lb dumbbells on each side. This is an advanced lift that you should work up to. So I recommend starting with goblet squats. Once you get up to 50 lbs doing a goblet squat, you can switch to bodyweight single leg squats.
2. ^Fire hydrants. 3 sets of 15. Start out with body weight, then add as little weight as possible each week, using the ankle weights.
3. ^Banded adduction. 3 sets of 15. Again, start out easy and work your way up by changing your distance from the door or the resistance of the band.
4. Dumbbell rows. 3 sets of 20. Stay at low resistance! No more than 20 lbs.
5. *Hip-thrusts. 3 sets of 10. Increase the weight until you are lifting a 50 lb dumbbell. Then switch to bodyweight single-leg hip-thrusts and keep increasing the weight.
6. Stomach vacuums. 3 reps at 2 minutes each. Build up starting with 20 seconds.

Workout B:

1. *Lunges. 3 sets of 8. Start at bodyweight
2. ^Side lying leg lifts. 3 sets of 15.
3. Facepulls. 3 sets of 15. Stay at low resistance! These aren't supposed to be heavy. They are for your posture.
4. Floor dumbbell bench press. 3 sets of 20. Stay at low resistance! No more than 20 lbs per arm.
5. *Single leg Romanian deadlifts. 3 sets of 8. Start low, build up to heavy weight. Watch out for this exercise. It is also an upper-body exercise. This is the main reason I do them single-leg: that reduces the weight my upper-back and arms have to hold without reducing the amount of weight my butt and legs have to lift.
6. Stomach vacuums. 3 reps at 2 minutes each.

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Bulking and Cutting

To gain muscle, you will need to "bulk". This just means that you eat 250-500 calories per day more than your maintenance intake. Maintenance is hard to measure. Basically, it's the amount you have to eat to neither gain nor lose weight. It's important for you to figure out your maintenance intake, since knowing this will enable you to either gain or lose weight. Here's a calculator made for that job. If you use it, choose the gender marker for your current hormone profile. That's what makes the difference. Keep in mind, though, that the best measure of your maintenance caloric intake is (a) your calorie count and (b) your scale. I recommend to weigh yourself every morning right after you pee wearing nothing but underwear. Then use the average for the week as your weekly weight measurement. If you are trying to gain, you want your weekly average to increase.
If your hormone profile is testosterone based, then you should eat 500 calories per day above maintenance. The goal is to gain 1 lb per week. If your profile is estrogen based, then you should eat at least 250 calories per day above maintenance, but you can eat more if you want to gain fat, too. The reason for the difference is that testosterone enables you to gain muscle faster. On estrogen, you won't really gain more than 1/2 lb of muscle per week.
You also need to make sure that you are eating at least as many grams of protein per day as your lean bodyweight in pounds. So, basically, just subtract off your bodyfat weight (using your estimated percentage). I weight 137 lbs. My bodyfat is about 15%. So I need to eat about 137x0.85 in grams of protein per day if I want to gain muscle. This comes to about 116 grams of protein per day.
When you gain muscle, you won't only gain muscle. You'll gain some fat, too. Don't freak out. It's part of process; you can't really avoid it. This is why bodybuilders cycle between bulking and cutting phases. If you're still gaining fat in a male pattern, you'll probably want to lose that extra weight after a bulking phase. A cutting phase is different from a bulking phase in only two ways: you eat 500-1000 calories less than maintenance weight and you don't increase the weight each week. Keep your workout exactly the same as when you were bulking; just stop increasing the weights. You want to be just as strong at the end of the cut as at the beginning, so do not lower the weight!! This is huge mistake many people make. If you give your body a reason to use muscle to fuel itself, it will. Keeping the lifts heavy will tell your body to use the fat, not the muscle. Similarly, you should not reduce your protein intake beyond the minimum for bulking.
A cutting phase is a great time to lose upper-body muscle, if you have too much of that! I like to stop doing upper body exercises altogether when I cut, then take them back up later. If this is your goal, it might be a good idea to reduce your protein intake to 75% grams per lb of your lean body mass. So for me, that would be 116x0.75, which is about 87 grams of protein. This will mostly spare my lower body but pull from my upper body. Make sure to raise your protein intake if you start to become weaker.
Good luck!

So I’m on week idk at this point. Did a month of 2.5, two at 5, then a week of mixed 2.5/5, this week started 7 so, math.
Im down 50 lbs from my starting weight of 302 to 252. Ideally I’d love to lose another 30-40 lbs.
What I came here to say is; just about everything that I’ve been eating my entire life has been trash. Everything that’s not around the outside aisles of the grocery store I have a hard time eating these days. Occasionally I’ll have some rice with a meal to keep things different.
Im appalled at how terrible food is pushed and people eat it right up. And it’s so addictive no wonder I could never lose weight in the past. “Low calorie” “heart healthy” names like nature valley etc.
Im sure there are plenty of folks on MJ who legit have metabolic issues that kept them from losing the weight or getting their diabetes etc in check. But there has to be many like me who thought the food pyramid was doing them right (even by recommendations of my dr)
I can’t get myself to eat this crap any more ! Our house still has carb and sugar heavy snacks around, but I’m certainly not drawn to it. I’ve been looking at a snack size bag of buffalo wing pretzels for 3 days now and it’s going to sit there till the wife eventually puts it away or eats it.
I hope someday if I stop taking MJ, I can remember what I’ve learned and not fall back into the standard American diet. I now realize that I did this to my body and that’s ok. Because now I’m changing it.
Also this is not meant to say it’s all diet or that I could’ve even thought of doing this without mounjaro. Please don’t attack me. Just a thought I wanted to share at a big milestone.

Hi everyone. As far back as i can remeber iv had vivid dreams. Though some of them where pleasent, most of them have been of Nightmares. I want to tell you guys my story of the most horrific day in my life. The day i lived what i can only describe as a awake nightmare.
Back a couple of years ago i went through what i can only describe as a awake nightmare.
Back when this happened i lived alone in a small village deep in the forests of Swedens heart. I had felt a bit anxious due to a couple of bad nights sleep which had awoken me because of the vivid nightmares i had.
During the day everything seamed fine, went to my school and studied. But once the night kept creeping around i got a bit anxious again. Time goes on for a bit and i manage to calm down somewhat. Around the time everything felt normal again my phone started to ring. This did not trigger anything as i saw that it was one of my best friends who was calling. We had a chat for a couple of minutes before she asks: "is everything ok? You sound a bit worried" I replied that everything was like i usually do. But something was different and she could tell. She did not have to ask or push me to tell, it just happened. "Actually... Im not really fine" i told her of the Nightmares i had been having and that it was not anything unusual. As i tell her this a worrying feeling started creeping up. It felt kind of like the anxiety id felt the same morning. The more i talked to her, the more details i remeberd of the Nightmares. I started to feel sick. Something was terribly wrong and i did not know what to do. I proceed to end the call abruptly, explaining that i was started to get frightened. I needed help, it felt like it was going to die. Once i hung up i immidiatly called my brother. Its 01:00 in the morning and i did not want to wake up my parents. I try my hardest to keep myself together while telling him he needs to come pick me up this instant. He understood i was frightened and told me to ask mom or dad to come get me instead as it was 3 hour drive and he had work in the morning. "Do you want to talk to mom? Maybe she can help calm you down?" "No" at this point im starting to panic. "Wake mom the fuck NOW!" He insisted that i talked to mom so that she could try and calm me down. But its to late for that. I remeber screaming at my brother over the phone: "WAKE MOM THE FUCK UP NOW AND TELL HER TO PICK ME UP! PLEASE! THERE IS SOMEONE IN MY APARTMENT THAT IS TRYING TO KILL ME!!" I can hear my brother waking up my parents and hearing they saying they want to talk to me. But i cant, my mind is going crazy with fear to the point where i dont know what to say to them.
And then, all hell broke lose. Images started to popp into my head. It was like someone was ripping my vision from my eyes and plastered images over them. In the walls in my apartment eyes started to appear, all looking at me. It was like a movie, like a camera that panned in under my bed revealing what hid underneath it. Corpses, several of them missing their eyes with horried expressions on their faces as their mouths gaped at me. And then i saw it. Hovering behind me. A tall black shadow.
The rest of the night is all a blur. The faint few memories i have from here on out is me crying in a paniced state. At some point i must have left my apartment because i found myself outside on the front yard gripping a large kitchen knife. The next thing i remeber is my dad showing up to my apartment. I cant fathom what must been going on in his head when he finally arrived. My bed sheets and pillow had been thorn to shreads by the knife i was still holding in my hand. I had managed to calm down to a reasonable state over the 3 hours it took my dad to get to my place.
He stayed the night and the morning after he drove me straight home to their place where i spend the next week. During this time i went on my own accord to the emergency psychiatrist and told them what happened. They gave me some pills for my sleep and anxiety and sent me home again. And this somewhat solved the problem for the time being.
But for the next 3 years i had spontanious strong halucinations. A few times i saw things that where not there. Like one night where i saw the siluett of a spider the size of my head scutteling along the wall of my bedroom. But the most common, and the worst ones, where the noises. Sometimes i heard voices. They where so clear i could swear they stood right beside me. They did not talk, but only spoke in a single word. Or in the most frightening cases, a child high pitch laugh. Another strong sound i remeber was like when you scratch your nails across a guitar string. All of these sounds and visions happened during night. The times where i was the most anxious, Lieing in my bad, all alone in the dark.
Today these years are but a distant memory. A memory where i lived a awakend nightmare that i will never be able to shake of. I must admit, even as i Wright this i fear that this will happen again.