Good Morning RonaPA!
Still having some tech issues over here on my end. I will edit this post multiple times so I don't lose my work. Please check back later or reload if it looks wonky. Many apologies. 🙏
(Aaaah!! you're starting to watch me work...lol
IMGBB is having some networking issues right now so I can't upload images to there yet. As soon as I can link up images I will. So sorry this is such a mess 😞
OK, Imgbb is finally working.)
Still a bit of a breather for the beginning of the summer. So far, so good.

VOCs

Nationally, still not much changing on the leaderboard, but XBB.1.5's lead now down to under 30%.
FU.2 (which is XBB.1.16.1.2) is now showing up on the leaderboard and this has to be watched carefully along with FE.1.2 and FU.1.
The amount of sequencing has changed dramatically. Sequencing is the primary "early warning system" we have. Fewer samples being sequenced impacts the effectiveness of this system. The US is still in the lead with sequencing, though.

Wastewater

Nationally and across all regions, the amount of C19 material in wastewater continues on a good downward trend.
Some PA shed highlights:
Very slight upticks in Butler and Chester areas. Please continue to take advantage of good weather to improve ventilation. Stay home and use a quality respirator if sick..... focus on NOT transmitting this! COVID-19 is not the flu.
IndianaCo is starting to show dropping levels after an increase slightly above national average. KUTGW IndianaCo!
MontCo is SMASHING IT!!! Way below national average!! Good job MontCo!

C19 Research

The next vaccine/booster we might see for the Fall will probably be based on XBB.x.y. Ancestral vaccines have been rendered nearly irrelevant due to antigenic drift. Please get them when available!
It's imporant to keep in mind that the acute stage is only the beginning of SARS2's effect on us. The longer it's around, the more it has a chance to intermingle with older virus reserviors. It also has the chance to dysregulate the immune system, "resurrect" long-buried pathogens (such as Cytomegalovirus ) and open opportunities to previously extremely rare conditions like fungal infections.
A study has been released that shows that elderly people emit more CO2 than younger people, and this could be a huge factor in nursing home illness and being more at risk to transmit to each other.
From Dr. Eric Topol on Mastodon: Another study of unvaccinated people saw significant neuro changes even a year after mild to moderate infection.

Editorials

Neat trackers:
🔴-Covid Variant Dashboard and Tracking SARSCoV2 XBB.1.16 Lineage Over Time by Arkansas data scientist Raj Rajnarayan
🔴-Biobot (Wastewater)
🔴-CDC NOWCAST variant proportion tracker
🔴-Honey/Gilchrist variant proportion visualizer and How to Use It!
Education:
🔴 -An important post here (found on Twitter, posted by tern) recently on this EXTREMELY IMPORTANT .PDF release from the CDC that contains:

However, patients who recover from the acute phase of the infection can still suffer long-term effects (8). Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), commonly referred to as “long COVID,” refers to the long-term symptoms, signs, and complications experienced by some patients who have recovered from the acute phase of COVID-19 (8–10). Emerging evidence suggests that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, can have lasting effects on nearly every organ and organ system of the body weeks, months, and potentially years after infection (11,12). Documented serious post-COVID-19 conditions include cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, renal, endocrine, hematological, and gastrointestinal complications (8), as well as death (13).

It's under "Certifying deaths due to post-acute sequelae of COVID-19".
If you didn't catch/test +/deal with symptoms of COVID-19, DO NOT seek out to get infected with it.
If you caught COVID-19 once, DO NOT seek out catching it again.
And WEAR A MASK. Don't spread it!
🔴 -COVID-19 Immunology 101 for Non-immunologists by Dr. Akiko Iwasaki
🔴 -How the Immune System Works, beautifully illustrated by Kurzgesagt. (Seriously, Kurzgesagt is wonderful, go check it out.)
🔴 -The T-cells are Not Alright, an interview with Dr. Anthony Leonardi
🔴 -How SARS-CoV-2 Battles Our Immune System: Meet the protein arsenal wielded by the pandemic virus
🔴 -How to Build a Corsi-Rosenthal Box and then make them look snazzy!
🔴 -Safer, more cautious gatherings.
🔴 -MASK TYPE MATTERS with the latest Omicron Sars-CoV-2 mutations. Here is a chart comparing mask types, mutation type, and the time it takes in each to receive a problematic dose of Sars-CoV-2.
🔴 -A thread by Dr. Jeff Gilchrist explaining how high level respirators work, more mask comparisons, and answers to why we can still smell things even with high level respirators on.
Continue to have a great and safe spring season!!! 🌷🌷🌷

Hello Everyone!
How Do Solo Game Developers Make Video Games?
TL;DR
The process solo developers go through to build a game breaks down into 6 phases: Idea, Prototype, Iteration, Polish, Release, and Post-Release. Each phase impacts the game in a specific way.

1. Idea: Have an idea for a game to create.
2. Prototype: Build a small, quick, playable version of the game that reflects the game’s core idea.
3. Iteration: Assemble and expand on the game’s core gameplay loop.
4. Polish: Integrate extra details that make the game pop and stand out.
5. Release: Share the game for others to play.
6. Post-Release: Expand, Maintain, or leave the game as is.

This post is a direct copy from my website here.
Let’s jump right into it!
How do solo game developers make video games? Game development is a large topic to cover with many nuances. Today, we’ll walk through the process that solo game developers go through to develop the game itself.
Why is this important for solo game developers to understand this process?
Like the gaming industry, you have limited resources. Your time. Your money. Your effort. Your skills. Unlike the industry though, you are the driving force behind your game. You are responsible for everything. Marketing. Business. Art. Engineering. Building the game itself is a tiny part of the process. But, it is the core of the entire process.
How does the gaming industry build games? It breaks down into 6 phases:
Where does the game fit into each of these phases? Which ones are specific to the game themselves? These are vague and we can do better. Let’s break it down further.
Here’s how each of the 6 game industry phases relate to the game itself:

1. Idea -> Idea
2. Pre-Production -> Prototype
3. Production -> Iteration
4. Post-Production -> Polish
5. Release -> Release
6. Post-Release -> Post-Release

Let’s walk through each one of these game phases.

Idea

The idea is the thought or scenario for a game. This is the backbone and vision for the game. The more catchy, fun, and original it is, the better. The goal of this phase is to have an idea that you build a game off of.
It can come from anywhere: video game, board game, personal background, an experience, your brain, random idea generator, AI, players, friends, a team, group of people, family, etc.
The game idea we are going to use throughout this blog is for a survival crafting game.

Prototype

A prototype is the smallest, quickest, playable version of the game that reflects the game’s core idea. The goal of this phase is two fold: Build the prototype and decide whether this prototype is worth growing into a full game.
Let’s elaborate on the definition of what makes up the prototype.
Smallest
Smallest meaning you only want the core game elements present in the prototype.
How do you do this?
Start by disassembling the game idea into its core gameplay loop. A gameplay loop contains the main tasks that the player will be doing throughout the game.
In a survival crafting game, the core gameplay loop would look like this: gather resources, craft items and weapons, defeating enemies, and repeat.
The next step is to break down each task into systems that make the task possible. Then, you build those systems.
For example, to gather a wood resource, what systems do you need to get wood? Here’s a few you would need:

1. To get wood from a tree, you need a tree to exist. Build a tree.
2. How do you interact with the tree? You need to hit it. Need a system to contain a way to trigger actions with the keyboard and mouse. Then, you need to use that system to trigger actions like hit. You need a system on a tree to recognize the hits from you.
3. How does the tree know when to turn into wood? When it’s destroyed, after 3 hits. Then, you’ll need the tree to have a health system.
4. How do you get to the tree? You need to move to it. Need a player controller for the player to move around.
5. Once you get the wood, how do you pick it up? Need a pick up system to pick up nearby resources.
6. Once you pick up the wood, where is it stored? Need an inventory system to track the wood you’ve picked up.

You continue this process with each task until you have gone through each one.
Quick & Playable
We want a fast way to play and test out these tasks and the game itself. The two ways to do this are with a physical prototype or with a digital prototype.
The physical prototype is building the pieces and components that make up the game. Then, using them to interact with rules (which are in your head) and the environment. This method is quick and tangible. Unfortunately, it doesn’t scale well. It doesn’t work for all games (like our survival crafting game). You’ll need to convert it into a digital format anyway for the rules, systems, etc.. It’s hard to share and get feedback. For these reasons, solo developers favor the digital prototype.
The quickest way to create a playable digital prototype is with a game engine.
What is a game engine?
It’s a software tool embedded with many features and functionality that you build your game on top of. A good way to think about it is with an analogy: a game engine to a game is what a foundation is to a house. They are convenient, powerful, and ready to use (little to no setup required).
If you are new to game development, use a game engine. Picking one is a whole topic in itself. Depends on:

1. What matters to you (e.g. support, tutorials, asset store, open source)
2. What kind of game you’re building (e.g. 2D vs. 3D, pixel art vs realistic)
3. Your skills and experience you have (e.g. programming).

Do your research and pick one. Don’t think about it too long.
Reflects the game’s core idea
Are you building systems related to the game idea and the game you want to make? If so, keep it. Else, drop it.
Using our survival crafting game example, a system to transition from day to night and back is nice. But, the game doesn’t depend on it.
This also includes the art. Use simple images for 2D and basic shapes, like spheres, capsules and cubes, for 3D. Remember we want small, quick and playable. This also avoids scope creep, a process of adding features until the game it’s too big and too complex to finish.
When you finish the prototype, it’s going to feel underwhelming to play.
Why is that? We have expectations.
First, we have expectations of ourselves. We know we can do better.
Second, we have expectations based on the games we’ve played. We’ve had great experiences and memories playing these amazing feeling and looking games. This prototype is not that.
This is 100% normal.
Remember the end goal of the prototype phase: decide whether to transform this prototype into a full game.
Deciding this is up to you and your goals. Is it fun? Does it offer a different and unique experience? Play around with it. Explore the space of the game idea. Don’t be afraid to experiment. This is when you should share it with people and get their thoughts with a playtest. As this blog relates to development of the game itself, we are going to skip it right now and move on to the iteration phase.

Iteration

This is when you start to build up the game. You will spend a majority of your time here assembling and expanding the core gameplay loop. You’ll work on elements of the game that not only add breath but also depth.
For our survival crafting game example, during this phase you might do the following:

1. Make more enemies (Zombies, Raiders, Mercenaries)
2. Add more resources to gather (rock, metal)
3. Make more weapons (swords, throwing knives, guns)
4. Create more items (first aid kits, pickaxe, torch)
5. Expand crafting to make interesting weapons and items (bottle + gas + cloth = molotov cocktail)
6. Create puzzles to complete (Need key to unlock safe, solve riddle to find rare resources)
7. Start a progression system or skill tree (Learn to craft more items, enhance melee abilities)
8. Make more levels (dense green forest, snowy mountain, dry arid desert)
9. Incorporate art assets (rocks, trees, buildings, first aid kits, swords, guns, zombies, birds, bears, etc.)
10. Create a menu with settings (audio, video, gameplay)
11. In-Game UI
12. Day and Night Cycle
13. Hunger, Stamina & Hydration system
14. Interesting enemy AI (enemies maneuver in groups, find cover, attack with different weapons, reposition themselves)
15. Narrative (why are you trying to survive?)
16. Vehicles (Cars, motorcycles)

A key part of this phase (as the title suggests) is to iterate. Build. Test. Analyze. Repeat.
Build a system or improve an aspect of the game. Test to make sure it works. Analyze if it improves the game and aligns with the game’s idea. If it does, great! Move to the next thing. If not, why not? Was it not fun? Hard to use? Decide whether to improve it, shelve it or drop it.
With your time, effort and dedicated focus, the game will grow. It will morph into the game you are expecting. The game may scratch the itch but is not satisfying. It’s missing that extra umph that makes it special and impactful. This is where polish comes in.

Polish

Polish is the process of making the game look pretty, feel good to play, and elevate it to the next level. An important step before beginning the polish phase is that the game should be close to finished. Adding more content, systems and assets into the game puts you back into the iteration phase. Polish can be a distraction if done too early.
What do you do during this phase then? Integrate those extra details that make the game pop.
Using our survival crafting game example, this could include but is not limited to:

1. Ambient sounds (water flowing, birds chirping)
2. Music (tense music when an animal chases you, cheerful music when walking through a meadow, creepy music when walking around in the dark)
3. Sound effects (firing a gun, chopping a tree, walking on rocky terrain, “oof” and “uggs” when taking damage)
4. Particles (gun’s muzzle flash, wood chunks fly off of trees when hit, smoke rising from a fire)
5. Post-processing (red bloody outline on screen when getting hit, chromatic aberration when feeling woozy)
6. Screen shake (gentle sway when running, violent shake when taking damage)
7. Visual effects (grenade explosions, x-ray vision)
8. Animations (squash & stretch, player running, UI Transitions)

At this point, the game should look, feel and play like the game idea you had to begin with. If it doesn’t, that’s ok. Go back to the iteration phase to add content or keep adding polish. It’s rare to get it right the first time. Take a few passes through the iteration and polish phase to get it where you want it and are happy with it. Don’t be afraid to get feedback from others too.
Once you feel it’s ready, the next step is to put it into the player’s hands. Releasing it.

Release

Congrats, you’ve made it to the end! 🥳 Time to let the game shine and let your players play it. Releasing your game means to share it online for players to access it by put it on a marketplace.
For PC, a few locations are Steam, itch.io and Epic Games. For Mobile, there is the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. For consoles, there is Sony’s Playstation Store, Microsoft’s Xbox Store and Nintendo’s Store & eShop.

Post-Release

You finished the game. Where do you go from here? There are three options: Expand it, Maintain it, or Leave it as-is.
You can expand the game using updates or Downloadable Content (or DLC). This could be adding more to the game that you couldn’t fit or didn’t have time to put in before release.
Examples for our survival crafting game could be:

1. Additional guns
2. Cosmetic upgrades
3. More game modes (like playing as an animal and hunting the player)
4. A level editor
5. Mod support
6. New levels (like an abandoned metropolitan area.

You can maintain the game through bug fixes to improve the current player’s experience.
Examples could be:

1. Prevent visual glitches
2. Stopping enemies running through walls
3. Fix the save system
4. Prevent item duplication
5. Fix the inventory

You could leave it as-is. The game is what it is. You get what you get and that’s it. No planned updates, fixes or DLC.
It depends on you, your goals and your time. It’s up to you on what to do next.

Summary

The process solo developers go through to build a game breaks down into 6 phases: Idea, Prototype, Iteration, Polish, Release, and Post-Release. Each phase impacts the game in a specific way.

1. Idea: Have an idea for a game to create.
2. Prototype: Build a small, quick, playable version of the game that reflects the game’s core idea.
3. Iteration: Assemble and expand on the game’s core gameplay loop.
4. Polish: Integrate extra details that make the game pop and stand out.
5. Release: Share the game for others to play.
6. Post-Release: Expand, Maintain, or leave the game as is.

I hope this provided a sneak peek behind the curtain of game development.

I am writing this with tears in my eyes as I have just lost the dearest thing in my life. She was just 4 months old, a beautiful mini dachshund that was not meant to live and passed away too fast.
I've always liked dogs but I hadn't thought of getting one before living in a big house with a yard. My girlfriend managed to change my mind about this and she convinced me to get a dachshund, and 1.5 months ago we stumbled online upon the most beautiful little creature and decided to bring her home. She immediately showed us so much affection and we responded by giving her all the love we had. We live in an apartment so we took her to the park multiple times a week, we walked her at least 6 times a day and played with her the whole day through. We were so motivated to do things right that we even followed a training course for little dogs and she already knew many tricks for her young age.
Four days ago, the wineries in our region opened their doors to everyone for wine tasting and it was a beautiful day along the lake so we took her with us. There are obviously a lot of vineyards so we were extremely careful to not let her go near the grapes. It was quite hot, around 24°C so we made sure to do plenty of breaks where our little baby could nap and drink water to hydrate. We were so careful. Later that day we sat outside at a bar, and we could feel our dog pull the leash. When we looked we saw that she was sniffing or licking some sort of vomit on the floor that we hadn't seen because the color of it was similar to the grass beneath it. We immediately changed table and our little baby fell asleep on my lap. A little bit later she woke up and puked on my shirt, we thought it was funny at the moment and that she must have eaten something that upset her tummy, probably the vomit which came from another dog. On the walk back home she was completely fine, wagging her tail and sniffing everything with her little snout as she usually did. We put her in her crate, kissed her goodnight and went to sleep.
The next day we woke up to her vomiting and being very lethargic. She didn't jump out of her crate like she usually did to greet us and lick our faces, she wasn't hungry while she usually destroys her meals in a few seconds and she didn't want to walk outside. She also randomly screamed in pain for a very brief moment here and there. We immediately called an emergency vet to come home because our usual clinic was closed for a national holiday. He came fast and examined her thoroughly, after which he concluded that it must be an acute gastritis, and provided some meds to make her feel better. However, our baby did not improve. She continued puking and screaming in pain after the vet left and we were already crying by then. We called the vet again and he came back, checked her thoroughly a second time by running an echograph and gave her an antispasmodic to stop the sharp pain. He still thought that it was a gastritis, and she would likely feel better very quickly, in a day or so. The antispasmodic made appeased her, she was still very lethargic but stopped having sharp pains so we were hopeful she would go back to jumping and running in no time.
Unfortunately, we woke up to her vomiting again. She hadn't eaten and barely drank for a day now, so I brought her to the emergency vet as soon as I woke up. They took her in very quickly to run an x-ray and other tests, and the doctor told me that she could have eaten something that stayed inside her in which case they would need to operate. Regardless, they kept her, and would call to give more information after getting the lab results. Not even an hour later, I was shopping groceries and I received the dreadful call. Her Potassium levels were way too high, the doctor was suspecting kidney failure and told me that she might need dialysis very quickly. There were two clinics that had the medical equipment necessary for this, one was 1 hour away but would be extremely expensive (~10k) and the other was 2.5 hours away and would be about half the price if not less. We are not rich by any means but to save our baby we would have paid the price... I asked her if the 1.5 hours extra would lower the chance of survival of our baby and she said no, so we decided to go with the second option. I called my girlfriend sobbing and she came home right away, after which we left for the clinic... When we arrived there, they told us to wait, which made me so mad because they told us to be there by a certain hour which we did. However when our little baby, which was so tired and fragile by now, started vomiting again, they took her in right away. The vet told her that because our dog is so small and weak they would not start with the dialysis right away and will try to lower the potassium levels by other agressive treatments. She also said that the puppy was in a very bad state and her survival is not guaranteed. We broke down crying. We asked to see our baby, and when we saw her she managed to wag her little tail and look at us with her loving eyes while we were struggling to keep our tears from pouring out. We wanted to look strong for our baby and not worry her, she looked so lost and fragile... I will never forget that look in her eyes. The vets obviously knew better, so we agreed to let them do whatever they think is best to save our baby... We were told she would stay there multiple days, and because my girlfriend needed to work the next day, we drove all the way back and would come see our puppy in a couple of days. On the drive home, we received a call from the doctor saying that they managed to lower her potassium levels with the treatment, and the pup peed by herself which were both very good signs. This gave us a glimmer of hope and we were able to stop crying for the night and start having positive thoughts when going to sleep.
And this is where it all comes crashing down. We were told to call after 11:00, so the wait until then was unbearable. I am not working at the moment so I was home alone, crying, shouting, trying to make sense of this situation that happened so quickly and unexpectedly. I just wanted to hear good news. It didn't have to be great news, just some improvement that would let us have a bit more of that hope we so desperately needed. My girlfriend called them at 11:00... the Potassium levels were back up, they didn't manage to stabilize them. They realized that a dialysis might not be needed because there were other factors that would point to other diseases such as her increased hormone levels. They didn't know what was causing our baby to be like this... they had no idea. They called again twice in the following hour to tell us that her health deteriorated and she was now under assistance to breathe. We decided to leave and go see her right then and there... Once we got here after the 2.5 hour drive, our legs were shaking. We did not want to face the situation, we had cried the whole way and could not stop having horrible thoughts. The vet took us in and calmly explained to us that our baby's brain had been damaged irreparably due to an acute reaction to the anesthesia they gave her. She said it would have happened either way, anesthesia or not. The dialysis would likely kill her now and would probably not even solve the problem, because they could not find the cause. The doctor said that they had never seen a case like this, for a dog's health to degrade so fast and aggressively, they even put their whole team to brainstorm on possible diseases that would act this way to no avail. We were told that the most probable thing was a disease, possibly autoimmune, that she carried inside her and was maybe triggered by a gastritis. They said she was not suffering although I don't know if that was just to make us feel better. I fell on the floor crying. I could not believe this was happening to our baby. We took her in at 10 weeks, she was just 4 months old, we didn't even have her for the biggest part of her life and yet we felt like she had been with us for an eternity. I had never loved and cared for another being quite like I did for her. I spent all my days with her, she was the only thing making me feel less alone while I stayed home looking for a job. She was our everything. And she was dying.
They let us see her. She had cables everywhere. She was in a coma, her eyes were half-open and had a viscous liquid in them. Her tongue was sticking out from the side. She looked dead and she wasn't even being sedated. That image keeps replaying in my head over and over. Just the other day she was wagging her little tail and now she looked like her soul had left her body. We broke down crying again... we talked to her a bit, telling her that it would soon be over and she would be able to go to sleep forever, and we would hopefully see her one day again. We kissed her on her forehead as we usually did to tell her goodnight. We had brought her favorite toy so she would feel less alone. We were so devastated. I asked multiple times if there was any chance she would recover, even a tiny one, but the doctor said that the damage she had suffered to her brain would not be able to be reversed. The only other choice we had is that they would keep her to run more tests and hopefully find out what caused this... but she would not come back. We were hurt enough by the situation and could not bear more suffering, so we decided to put her away without pain. We held her little paws when she left us and I rubbed her between the eyes like I used to do when she fell asleep on the couch. After it happened, I asked to take off all the cables and let me hold her again for one last time. I just hope she didn't feel alone in her last moments...
They brought her in the other room covered in a blanket. I closed her eyes, it looked just like she was asleep. I held her lifeless body in my arms and sobbed uncontrollably. We called our parents and we couldn't say a word, just cries. We stayed with our baby a little bit longer in the room, talking to her even if she was already gone. After a while we had to go... we decided to cremate her body and not keep the ashes as it would just be a sad memory of her. They told us that she would get an autopsy as a last chance to find the cause but the probability of finding it was very slim.
We drove back home. The house felt empty, dead. I have never cried so much in my life. When I thought I had no more tears left in my body, more would come and I would start sobbing again. We hugged. We told ourselves that there was nothing else we could have done, and she would have died either way sooner or later. My dad said the only thing that managed to make me feel a little better: dogs don't have the same perception of time as we do. Our baby doesn't know that she died so young, all she knows is that she lived happily and was loved very much throughout her life. When we got in the shower, a hair brush fell on the floor. It was the hair brush that our puppy would always grab and run away with and would make us go mad. We like to think that she was still being silly from up there and that she was telling us to be strong and that she's okay. We took all her stuff and put it in the cellar, except her favorite toy that we kept as a memory. We booked the first flight in the morning to go see my girlfriend's family because we could not stay in the house right now. Our baby was not meant to live... Everything happened so fast, not even four days ago we thought it was just gastritis, and now we will never see her again. I hope she didn't suffer. I hope that in her dying moments she thought of the good times when she was running in the park chasing dogs 10 times her size while we were watching her, laughing our ass off. I hope she knew we loved her very much and will never be able to replace her. I hope she's in a better place now and can eat all the food she wants.
If anyone has any tips on how to feel better I would be more than glad to know about them. Right now it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel and I don't know how I will emotionally recover from this. We want to get another puppy soon but the void left by our baby in our hearts will never be truly filled. We already miss her so much, she was our everything. Rest In Peace baby girl.
TL;DR: Our 4 month old puppy died unexpectedly and brutally from an unknown illness and my girlfriend and I are struggling to make sense of the world right now.

I am writing this with tears in my eyes as I have just lost the dearest thing in my life. She was just 4 months old, a beautiful mini dachshund that was not meant to live and passed away too fast.
I've always liked dogs but I hadn't thought of getting one before living in a big house with a yard. My girlfriend managed to change my mind about this and she convinced me to get a dachshund, and 1.5 months ago we stumbled online upon the most beautiful little creature and decided to bring her home. She immediately showed us so much affection and we responded by giving her all the love we had. We live in an apartment so we took her to the park multiple times a week, we walked her at least 6 times a day and played with her the whole day through. We were so motivated to do things right that we even followed a training course for little dogs and she already knew many tricks for her young age.
Four days ago, the wineries in our region opened their doors to everyone for wine tasting and it was a beautiful day along the lake so we took her with us. There are obviously a lot of vineyards so we were extremely careful to not let her go near the grapes. It was quite hot, around 24°C so we made sure to do plenty of breaks where our little baby could nap and drink water to hydrate. We were so careful. Later that day we sat outside at a bar, and we could feel our dog pull the leash. When we looked we saw that she was sniffing or licking some sort of vomit on the floor that we hadn't seen because the color of it was similar to the grass beneath it. We immediately changed table and our little baby fell asleep on my lap. A little bit later she woke up and puked on my shirt, we thought it was funny at the moment and that she must have eaten something that upset her tummy, probably the vomit which came from another dog. On the walk back home she was completely fine, wagging her tail and sniffing everything with her little snout as she usually did. We put her in her crate, kissed her goodnight and went to sleep.
The next day we woke up to her vomiting and being very lethargic. She didn't jump out of her crate like she usually did to greet us and lick our faces, she wasn't hungry while she usually destroys her meals in a few seconds and she didn't want to walk outside. She also randomly screamed in pain for a very brief moment here and there. We immediately called an emergency vet to come home because our usual clinic was closed for a national holiday. He came fast and examined her thoroughly, after which he concluded that it must be an acute gastritis, and provided some meds to make her feel better. However, our baby did not improve. She continued puking and screaming in pain after the vet left and we were already crying by then. We called the vet again and he came back, checked her thoroughly a second time by running an echograph and gave her an antispasmodic to stop the sharp pain. He still thought that it was a gastritis, and she would likely feel better very quickly, in a day or so. The antispasmodic made appeased her, she was still very lethargic but stopped having sharp pains so we were hopeful she would go back to jumping and running in no time.
Unfortunately, we woke up to her vomiting again. She hadn't eaten and barely drank for a day now, so I brought her to the emergency vet as soon as I woke up. They took her in very quickly to run an x-ray and other tests, and the doctor told me that she could have eaten something that stayed inside her in which case they would need to operate. Regardless, they kept her, and would call to give more information after getting the lab results. Not even an hour later, I was shopping groceries and I received the dreadful call. Her Potassium levels were way too high, the doctor was suspecting kidney failure and told me that she might need dialysis very quickly. There were two clinics that had the medical equipment necessary for this, one was 1 hour away but would be extremely expensive (~10k) and the other was 2.5 hours away and would be about half the price if not less. We are not rich by any means but to save our baby we would have paid the price... I asked her if the 1.5 hours extra would lower the chance of survival of our baby and she said no, so we decided to go with the second option. I called my girlfriend sobbing and she came home right away, after which we left for the clinic... When we arrived there, they told us to wait, which made me so mad because they told us to be there by a certain hour which we did. However when our little baby, which was so tired and fragile by now, started vomiting again, they took her in right away. The vet told her that because our dog is so small and weak they would not start with the dialysis right away and will try to lower the potassium levels by other agressive treatments. She also said that the puppy was in a very bad state and her survival is not guaranteed. We broke down crying. We asked to see our baby, and when we saw her she managed to wag her little tail and look at us with her loving eyes while we were struggling to keep our tears from pouring out. We wanted to look strong for our baby and not worry her, she looked so lost and fragile... I will never forget that look in her eyes. The vets obviously knew better, so we agreed to let them do whatever they think is best to save our baby... We were told she would stay there multiple days, and because my girlfriend needed to work the next day, we drove all the way back and would come see our puppy in a couple of days. On the drive home, we received a call from the doctor saying that they managed to lower her potassium levels with the treatment, and the pup peed by herself which were both very good signs. This gave us a glimmer of hope and we were able to stop crying for the night and start having positive thoughts when going to sleep.
And this is where it all comes crashing down. We were told to call after 11:00, so the wait until then was unbearable. I am not working at the moment so I was home alone, crying, shouting, trying to make sense of this situation that happened so quickly and unexpectedly. I just wanted to hear good news. It didn't have to be great news, just some improvement that would let us have a bit more of that hope we so desperately needed. My girlfriend called them at 11:00... the Potassium levels were back up, they didn't manage to stabilize them. They realized that a dialysis might not be needed because there were other factors that would point to other diseases such as her increased hormone levels. They didn't know what was causing our baby to be like this... they had no idea. They called again twice in the following hour to tell us that her health deteriorated and she was now under assistance to breathe. We decided to leave and go see her right then and there... Once we got here after the 2.5 hour drive, our legs were shaking. We did not want to face the situation, we had cried the whole way and could not stop having horrible thoughts. The vet took us in and calmly explained to us that our baby's brain had been damaged irreparably due to an acute reaction to the anesthesia they gave her. She said it would have happened either way, anesthesia or not. The dialysis would likely kill her now and would probably not even solve the problem, because they could not find the cause. The doctor said that they had never seen a case like this, for a dog's health to degrade so fast and aggressively, they even put their whole team to brainstorm on possible diseases that would act this way to no avail. We were told that the most probable thing was a disease, possibly autoimmune, that she carried inside her and was maybe triggered by a gastritis. They said she was not suffering although I don't know if that was just to make us feel better. I fell on the floor crying. I could not believe this was happening to our baby. We took her in at 10 weeks, she was just 4 months old, we didn't even have her for the biggest part of her life and yet we felt like she had been with us for an eternity. I had never loved and cared for another being quite like I did for her. I spent all my days with her, she was the only thing making me feel less alone while I stayed home looking for a job. She was our everything. And she was dying.
They let us see her. She had cables everywhere. She was in a coma, her eyes were half-open and had a viscous liquid in them. Her tongue was sticking out from the side. She looked dead and she wasn't even being sedated. That image keeps replaying in my head over and over. Just the other day she was wagging her little tail and now she looked like her soul had left her body. We broke down crying again... we talked to her a bit, telling her that it would soon be over and she would be able to go to sleep forever, and we would hopefully see her one day again. We kissed her on her forehead as we usually did to tell her goodnight. We had brought her favorite toy so she would feel less alone. We were so devastated. I asked multiple times if there was any chance she would recover, even a tiny one, but the doctor said that the damage she had suffered to her brain would not be able to be reversed. The only other choice we had is that they would keep her to run more tests and hopefully find out what caused this... but she would not come back. We were hurt enough by the situation and could not bear more suffering, so we decided to put her away without pain. We held her little paws when she left us and I rubbed her between the eyes like I used to do when she fell asleep on the couch. After it happened, I asked to take off all the cables and let me hold her again for one last time. I just hope she didn't feel alone in her last moments...
They brought her in the other room covered in a blanket. I closed her eyes, it looked just like she was asleep. I held her lifeless body in my arms and sobbed uncontrollably. We called our parents and we couldn't say a word, just cries. We stayed with our baby a little bit longer in the room, talking to her even if she was already gone. After a while we had to go... we decided to cremate her body and not keep the ashes as it would just be a sad memory of her. They told us that she would get an autopsy as a last chance to find the cause but the probability of finding it was very slim.
We drove back home. The house felt empty, dead. I have never cried so much in my life. When I thought I had no more tears left in my body, more would come and I would start sobbing again. We hugged. We told ourselves that there was nothing else we could have done, and she would have died either way sooner or later. My dad said the only thing that managed to make me feel a little better: dogs don't have the same perception of time as we do. Our baby doesn't know that she died so young, all she knows is that she lived happily and was loved very much throughout her life. When we got in the shower, a hair brush fell on the floor. It was the hair brush that our puppy would always grab and run away with and would make us go mad. We like to think that she was still being silly from up there and that she was telling us to be strong and that she's okay. We took all her stuff and put it in the cellar, except her favorite toy that we kept as a memory. We booked the first flight in the morning to go see my girlfriend's family because we could not stay in the house right now. Our baby was not meant to live... Everything happened so fast, not even four days ago we thought it was just gastritis, and now we will never see her again. I hope she didn't suffer. I hope that in her dying moments she thought of the good times when she was running in the park chasing dogs 10 times her size while we were watching her, laughing our ass off. I hope she knew we loved her very much and will never be able to replace her. I hope she's in a better place now and can eat all the food she wants.
If anyone has any tips on how to feel better I would be more than glad to know about them. Right now it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel and I don't know how I will emotionally recover from this. We want to get another puppy soon but the void left by our baby in our hearts will never be truly filled. We already miss her so much, she was our everything. Rest In Peace baby girl.
​
TL;DR: Our 4 month old puppy died unexpectedly and brutally from an unknown illness and my girlfriend and I are struggling to make sense of the world right now.

Hello! I am considering using Ada for my bachelor's thesis since I've had nice experiences before (I've moved to GNAT Studio and everything is alright now).
Specifically, I am implementing a Forth interpreter, which means I (obviously) need to get data from the user and you can guess by the title I am doing that over USB.
https://pico-doc.synack.me/#usb_device_controller points me to the usb_embedded crate and its usb-echo example... the problem is that I can't make it to show anything other than the string I entered as per the example (or see anything in picocom or minicom). I am using Picoprobe + OpenOCD (external, I couldn't figure out how to make it also take -f interface/cmsis-dap.cfg) + gdb from inside GNAT Studio, if that helps.
To cite the example (with the only changes being formatting and the USB stack details:
``` with RP.Device; with RP.Clock; with Pico;
with USB.Device.Serial; with USB.Device; with USB; with HAL; use HAL;
procedure Hello_Pico is Fatal_Error : exception; Max_Packet_Size : constant := 64;
USB_Stack : USB.Device.USB_Device_Stack (Max_Classes => 1); USB_Serial : aliased USB.Device.Serial.Default_Serial_Class (TX_Buffer_Size => Max_Packet_Size, RX_Buffer_Size => Max_Packet_Size);
use type USB.Device.Init_Result; Status : USB.Device.Init_Result;
Message : String (1 .. Max_Packet_Size); Length : HAL.UInt32; begin RP.Clock.Initialize (Pico.XOSC_Frequency);
if not USB_Stack.Register_Class (USB_Serial'Unchecked_Access) then raise Fatal_Error with "Failed to register USB Serial device class"; end if;
Status := USB_Stack.Initialize (Controller => RP.Device.UDC'Access, Manufacturer => USB.To_USB_String ("Something"), Product => USB.To_USB_String ("Here"), Serial_Number => USB.To_USB_String ("1337"), Max_Packet_Size => Max_Packet_Size);
if Status /= USB.Device.Ok then raise Fatal_Error with "USB stack initialization failed: " & Status'Image; end if;
USB_Stack.Start;
loop USB_Stack.Poll;

 if USB_Serial.List_Ctrl_State.DTE_Is_Present then USB_Serial.Read (Message, Length); if Length > 0 then USB_Serial.Write (RP.Device.UDC, Message (1 .. Natural (Length)), Length); end if; end if; 

end loop; end Hello_Pico; ```
I understand the logic behind this, however I don't get where I should do USB_Serial.Write(RP.Device.UDC, "> ", Length);. Nothing is displayed if I add it before the loop, inside it on either part of the USB_Stack.Poll; line OR in either of the ifs. I really feel like I am missing one key part.
Additionally, every (and I mean every) embedded project of any kind on Ada (at least on GitHub, although my Google-fu and DDG-fu showed no results either) has everything BUT an USB example. I would really, really like to avoid C and not give up on this beautiful language, so can someone help me? I really feel like I'm not seeing something so obvious.
Thank you and have a beautiful [insert time of day]!

There is a tempting theory that Fromville is a government experiment. I would like to rule out this theory as best as I can, so we can move on to other theories. The most compelling evidence for the Government Experiment theory, in my opinion, is that all of the residents have been taken from somewhere in the continental United States. Let's talk about that.
Map of locations people arrived in the town from, showing no entry points from outside the continental US.
There's someone from San Diego, but nobody from Mexico, 17 miles away. There are pins tantalizingly close to the Canadian border too, but nobody was actually grabbed from Canada. Nobody from the Caribbean either, and nobody from Alaska or Hawaii.

Does it matter? Could it just be the writers catering to an US audience?

I think this map is intentional evidence of something. If they can have two characters (Kenny's Parents) who speak very little English, I don't think having a Mexican or a Canadian marked on a map would make Americans less likely to watch the show. Remember, these characters wouldn't even have to be still living or appear in the show. The pins on the map don't all correspond to still living characters, and it is an intentional choice to simply stop at the border.

How many people are counted here?

One thing worth mentioning is that these are only people who came after some undefined point, but I think given that this map is in the Sherriff's office we can assume they started keeping track after Boyd's arrival 2 years ago.
I can't quite make out most of the names, and my screenshot doesn't help, but I can't find any names from Colony House. Let me know if you can. It might help for someone who is better than me at reading handwritten text to open this in the actual show where you can get the best resolution. The questions to answer here are whether its only people from the town, and who is the longest staying resident we can find.

Why just the US?

Here are all of the theories I have for why this would only be happening to Americans.

1. Fromville is an experiment being carried out by the US Government.
2. The entrance to Fromville, being a wormhole or whatever else, has to be transported physically, by land, and it would be problematic to get it through customs.
3. Fromville is designed to punish Americans for something. This would have to be a punishment for something that Canadians and Mexicans didn't also do, which rules out settling the Americas.
4. Every country gets their own.
5. Its some mystical, paranormal force that for some reason cares about modern political borders. Maybe its the ghost of Osama Bin Laden or something.
6. Something cultural or logical prevents them from making it onto this map. If its only people who settled in the town that make it onto the map, maybe it was impossible to convince Spanish speakers to get inside. The problem with this is that Canada is not culturally different enough from the United States to create a filter here. Maybe Canadians are all lumberjacks and when they hit the tree in the road they just cut it up and haul it out. Who knows. I can't think of how this theory would work, but its still possible.
7. Its coincidence. Canada and Mexico have a lower populations than the United States, and if you squint the pins seem to have some correlation with regional population density. Maybe they just got lucky.
8. It has to do with the interstate system. All of these pins seem to be placed on interstates. Mexico and Canada do not have an interstate system the same way the US does. I heard somewhere that one motivation for building the interstates was the Cold War, as an efficient way to evacuate cities in case of a nuclear attack. Maybe there's something there.
9. Its a simulation so anything can happen, who cares.
10. The people running Fromville don't want to introduce a language barrier. This theory is also weak, considering Kenny's parents speak very little English, and people were taken from south Florida, south Texas, and San Diego, who could very easily have been Spanish speakers. America in general is not a monolingual country. On the other hand, if people are selected individually (which the bus with Krysti's fiancée implies) then Kenny's family could have been selected *because* they have Kenny to translate, and the people from heavily Spanish speaking parts of the United states could be collected at no risk of introducing a language barrier to isolate them.
11. It could be because of something I haven't thought of, let me know in the comments.

I don't like most of these answers, but they're what I've got.

Why just the continental US?

1. The US Government is running the experiment, but lacks the resources to do anything in Alaska or Hawaii despite having wormhole technology. Or they just don't care to run this experiment on Hawaiians and Alaskans, because they wouldn't get useful data from them for some reason.
2. The entrance to Fromville, being a wormhole or whatever else, has to be transported physically, by land, and it would be problematic to get it through customs.
3. Hawaii and Puerto Rico don't have long enough stretches of empty country roads, while Alaska just doesn't have enough people for it to be likely that one is here, the same reason why there's nobody from Wyoming, Idaho, or Nebraska.
4. The wormhole operates within some radius, you can draw a circle on a map which includes all of these pins but excludes Hawaii and Alaska.
5. It could be something I haven't thought of, let me know in the comments.

Again, none of these are great answers, but its all I've got.

Dating the beginning of Fromville.

If Fromville is 5 years old, the government experiment theory is plausible. The older Fromville is, the less likely it is that the US Government had the potential to create this kind of thing. Even setting aside the impossible geometry, we have seen wires that go nowhere but still power things. We've seen bioengineered superhumans who can shapeshift and rip a person apart in seconds, all while being impervious to bullets. Not to mention the ability to induce shared hallucinations and read minds.
Not only are these things beyond present technology, they are things a government would find extremely useful for projects that make a lot more money than torturing two dozen of its own citizens secretly. I think, without some kind of magic, we can rule out almost all human causes. Terror attacks, government experiments, basically every explanation of a manmade Fromville, except The Matrix or something supernatural, like magic. All we need to do is prove that Fromville is very old.
So, maybe the present-day government has this technology and is keeping it a secret, or its still being tested. In that case, did they have this technology in the 70's, when Victor arrived? As we go further back, it becomes less plausible.
We see Civil War uniforms on some of Jade's hallucinations, which would be dated to the 1880s, but these civil war soldiers may not necessarily have been trapped in Fromville or may not have actually existed at all.
What about the US Marine that Boyd meets in the tower? He doesn't recognize Boyd's style of pistol, presumably because its a semi automatic. The first semi automatic sidearm formally adopted by the US military was the Colt 1911, adopted in 1911. If you've seen a Colt 1911, you wouldn't look at Boyd's pistol and say "That doesn't look like any pistol I've seen.'(Or whatever his exact wording was.)
That marine was probably a civil war soldier or earlier, who would only have been familiar with revolvers. I doubt the technology we see in the show is older than the semi automatic pistol.
If we wanted to date Fromville older than this, we can get into things I can't prove.
​
A picture of the talismans.
When I first watched the show, my first thought was that these symbols were Rongorongo because of the human shapes. Then, I started thinking about writing systems that would more plausibly have been in North America at some time. Looking more into it, these look like they could be Icelandic staves. I am neither Icelandic nor am I an anthropologist, but I feel like there isn't enough discussion on who would have carved these so I'll try to at least say enough to get a discussion going.
Icelanders used to carve symbols into a form of stone called lignite. Lignite is a soft stone which, from google image searches, often has this same blueish-gray color. If these are Icelandic staves, they probably date back to around 1000 AD, the approximate possible date when Icelandic people settled Newfoundland. The middle of the talisman looks like the rune ᛝ and the dashes along the outside look like ᚫ, but with an extra notch. The only examples I was able to find with three notches were on this runic calendar dated around the 12th or 13th century AD found in Finland.
\"Sami Runic Calendar\" showing a character resembling ᚫ but with an extra notch. Look in the bottom right if you don't see it.
I have no idea what the significance of the extra notch is, or if its something that was only done on calendars. If the talismans are calendars, obviously the circular shape is significant. This could also be an older form of the rune, or any number of other possibilities because languages and writing systems are hard, constantly evolving, and I am not an anthropologist. Also, there are only so many shapes you can make when carving notches into a rock and the talismans don't necessarily have to be Icelandic just because they look like some runes.
One counterargument to all of this is that this same symbol appears on the cave writings by the monsters.
Victor showing the cave drawings.
My theory, assuming the talismans are Icelandic, is that the domain of Fromville either used to extend to Newfoundland 1000 years ago, or that some Vinlanders(which is what I will call Icelandic settlers in Newfoundland, I don't know if this is a real word) were blown off course and found their way into its domain. Obviously, if Fromland is over 1000 years old, sticking to the modern day boundaries of the continental United States would be extremely strange. It would also be extremely strange that there is evidence of Vinlanders but 0 evidence of any First Nations people despite Fromville being 1000 years old.
Regardless, these Vinlanders found themselves trapped, much like our modern day protagonists. They desperately designed staves that they hoped could ward off the creatures, and eventually someone managed to make one that worked. These staves were then passed down or dug up by more and more generations of Fromlanders, until eventually Boyd found them. Meanwhile, the monsters, either by somehow assimilating humans or through their observation of the talismans, came to draw these symbols themselves.
My theory on why the stave worked is that it could say some equivalent of "I'm not afraid of you", the same thing Darrel says to the creatures surrounding the bus.
The stick with three notches could also be depicting trees or waves, and not be a rune at all. On the cave drawing, surrounding the boats and spaced randomly, they look like waves. On the talisman, evenly spaced in a ring around the human figures, they look like trees
Regardless, if any of this holds up, a healthy majority of historians believe that the United States Federal Government was not functional or existent in 1000AD. At the very least, their technology was extremely limited.

Crutic felt the realspace reasserted itself with a faint lurch and a rattle of the spaceframe, the darkness behind his eyelids peeled away just in time to witness the streaks of light coalescing into a field of stars. And after that...nothing. Outside of the angry red glow of the indicator lightings around him and the graphics of the instrument cluster before him, he might as well be witnessing a portal into an infinite abyss so dark that his eyes may as well have remained shut. It wasn’t unexpected, though: the brief mission overview had made it abundantly clear that where his flight element was needed was among the interstellar void. The nearest star was nearly three parsecs away and was only called a star as a tribute to its fiery past - its photosphere likely offered its last gimmer millions of years ago. But it never mattered on how much prep was given, it was never a comfortable feeling to know that something is out there in the consuming absence. It was a small solace then, when his sensors chirped to indicate that it had achieved what the Human eye could not and found something out there within seconds. Before the modulated tone of his flight lead even made it through the constant hissing of the life support airflow, Crutic had his hands around the control yoke to disengage his TIE from the Gozanti’s docking tube.
“Target identified as a Ghtroc 720, range three-seventy kicks, armed. Form up to intercept and dissuade.”
The brisk affirmation from himself and Mynock Two and Four was almost drowned out by the whine from the engine as the four Imperial fighters screamed away from their transport and aligned themselves in a rough quadrilateral formation towards the sensor blip. It was drifting, sublights inactive and transponder silent, all in a valiant effort to blend into the interstellar background. But without jammers to further obscure their presence or a cloak to hide it completely, they were simply a something in a sea of nothing. And the moment the occupants realized this and that the Empire was there to do something about it, the engine arrays that flanked either side of the light freighter flared to life.
”Unidentified Ghtroc 720, you are in a restricted sector, return to designated Region 12 volume or face the consequence.”
Despite his attempt at civility, Mynock One and everyone present knew that this wasn’t an accidental drift into the gap between Region 12 and the edge of the greater galaxy; it was merely the latest instance of another group of beings from within that thought that they had the stealth necessary to break the region-wide lockdown. And with no change to their vector, it appeared that this particular group has the will to do a little more resisting. Crutic can’t help but consider a brief flicker of irony in that the energy spent into presently futile evasive flying would be better applied to their hyperdrive to make it to their next jump. As it is, either option would result in the TIEs landing shots on them, but at least the latter would be more…inconvenient for him and his immediate comrades in the long term.
The last warning was issued as the four fighters closed the last hundred kicks and this time a response came through in the form of a pair of crimson bolts fizzling through the formation. And at the same instant, Crutic Jo’ran retreated into the crevasse in the back of his mind and RG-273-76 took his place.
Safeties off. Targeting computer rendered an approximation of the freighter’s saucer shape upon the display. Align it with the crosshair. Target lock shrilled. Squeeze the trigger. Shields rippled violently as green energies hammered home.
Not good enough.
Check surrounding for teammates within immediate maneuvering vectors. Opening between Mynock One and Four. They peeled off after they had done their own run. Good. Pour in speed to gain distance.
Sounds of laser cannons from behind. Dodge. Stabilize as the rain of bolts trailed behind his flight path, too slow. Perform a sharp banking turn to bring the freighter back in front. Check for alignment to target. Sensor flagged a new relevant information: steep power draw on the hyperdrive module.
“Target almost ready to jump,” he notified into the comms, a practiced motion with a hand to divert power from the engines to the laser cannons.
Trigger down. Shields flashed but held. Tough gutkurr of a target, could do with a bomber’s warhead right about now. No time to linger on what is not available, focus on what is available now. Time for another run. Shields ate another strafe-
Mynock Two reports shield failure as explosion flared directly ahead in the profound blackness, revealing the viewport’s spoked features for the first time. Apply maximum deflection of etheric rudder to avoid the blast, clench against the inertia. Beads of molten metal showered the fighter chassis, but nothing to prompt damage notification.
A little too close for comfort, will have to talk to Two later.
Mynock Four snarled his own displeasure and reported his intent to break off due to damage sustained on his starboard radiator array. No time to worry about him, as long as the target is not disabled. Loop high over target, reacquire lock. Send down pelting fire across the freighter’s dorsal power conduit. Something exploded and their portside sunlight array wavered.
New target. Engine endured a respectable volley before belching out a blast of unfocused ionized particles with most of its glowing innards, submitting the starship into an uncontrolled yaw.
A sudden garble of noises filled his helmet as he directed his focus to the starboard engines, and before his thumb had a chance to render that to equally inoperable slag, a stilted Galactic Basic superimposed itself on top of the audio intrusion.
“Stop! Imperials, stop! We surrender!”
Crutic found himself sucking in a lungful of the stale, cool air as he recognized the Aqualish language and its translator assisted intentions. The rest of the Mynock flight also shared this moment of realization as they broke off from their attack vectors. Well, most of them anyway. At some point Mynock Four became a barely visible trail of titanium and quadanium steel. No life signs. Dank farrik.
”Ghtroc 720, power down immediately and stand by for boarding.” Mynock One’s voice had been level, but there was no denying that those benign words were layered with vitriol that preemptively silenced any kind of protest the other party might want to say. After a few satisfied seconds, the seething hatred dissipated as he changed frequency to the Gozanti to confirm that the onboard boarding party was prepared for the task.
Not long later, the frequency switched back to local and started with a deep sigh that Crutic could practically hear the muscles unclench itself. ”Mynock Flight, systems check.”
“Mynock Two, all systems nominal.”
”Mynock Three, likewise,” Crutic said, examining the reading his flight systems were offering him. Though, in the back of his mind, he could virtually hear the choice words picked by the maintenance team about the surface defects that were received during his near-miss of the explosion. At least he can point the blame to Two this time.
“Good, perform one last sensor sweep before redocking with the Deliverance and meet up at the main hold for debrief.”
A pair of affirmations later, the trio flowed over the crippled freighter at maximum sensor sweep to detect any kind of trap or other possible hindrances for the Gozanti boarding party. They also made sure to fly as uncomfortably close to the freighter as realistically plausible. Although the occupants surely wouldn’t see them, they will make sure they can hear them as loud as their aural sensors are willing to emulate, and hope that the distinctive howl of the twin ion engines resonate deep within the instinctive part of their psyche. The scans turned up nothing more than some dozen beings crammed in its cargo hold, and with that, they pulled back to give a wide berth to the docking Gozanti before connecting with it themselves. What happened next was out of their hands, they have an after action report to perform. With a layer of grief in their hearts.
***
While the return to Marjora Space was a transit that took only a matter of minutes, the sublight transit from the system’s edge to the Decadence was long enough to complete the debrief to an educational amount of detail, clean up, and prepare for the early departure. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a month or so more until the patrol rotation brought them back to the star destroyer low in Majora Prime’s atmosphere, but the recent development had details to iron out. Such as the prisoners they now have board that needed to go through processing - and if they looked like the stormtroopers were rougher with them than necessary, Crutic had chosen not to comment - and registering the loss of a member and securing their replacement. All of that meant at least a few days of shore leave.
At least, what actually constitutes a “shore leave” for the Imperials. It was anybody’s guess on how well the collective bulkhead of owned and affiliated starships, bases, and outposts have achieved a semblance of civilian life where enlisted and officers alike could loosen their mask of professionalism and indulge in a slice of greater society beyond their duty to the Imperial preservation and continuation. It was never intended to interfere with the military aspects and readiness, to be sure, but being surrounded slightly-different-walls and training bouts that might have been less about fitness and more about unspoken exchange of credits sets the scene for much needed stimulation to distract from the monotony of service. It was also an open secret that the galaxy’s assortment of liquid courage and other vile substances that Crutic would begrudge someone for partaking had slipped past regulation and formed an elusive enterprise that based themselves in various need-to-know locations. And the less said about the “flecks of inspiration” fresh from the Sapius Corp mines the better.
That being said, not all non-standard marketplace have to be so despicable, there were also demands from the more respectable members of society: the market for local goods. Ranging from simply a more comfortable clothing that could be worn under uniforms to prevent chafing to non-regulation but cozy blankets to keep warm during power rationing wherever one get stationed, or - one that Crutic is currently partaking in - foods that is used to supplement the stubborn mess droid’s nutritionally balanced but nonetheless dreary meals. Today was some kind of fried fish topped with a grated and pickled Marjora native seafloor tuber, courtesy of “The Shuttle Pilot” in the Decadence’s forward hangar’s armory. It wasn’t ba’buir Eres-Cruzia’s squirmer tiingilar that viciously strikes at the nose, but it was enough of a comfort food to dull the edges to a rough day.
A sigh brought back the reprimanding words of FS-273-4 - then, Mynock One - to the forefront of his mind. Yes, HG-273-81 - Mynock Two - shouldn’t have shot the target when there were friendly within the field of fire, but it was Crutic that blocked Mynock Four’s view of his projected flight path that costed him the necessary reaction time to recognize the explosion that crippled his craft and subsequently made him easy pickings for the freighter’s turret. It was an honest mistake, if a costly one. A life and an entire TIE fighter, the former a loyal member of the Empire and the latter an entire craft worth of irreplaceable components, gone to deep space. It wasn’t an uncommon occasion in the attrition against time, but missed all the same. With a sharp breath and an exertion of will, he suppressed the emotional baggage and sank into another crumbly bite to focus on its fishy, floral flavors that accompanied the textureless slurry of carbs and fiber methodically dispensed upon his metal platter.
Unable to keep it idle for long, his mind suggested the possibility of stopping by the star destroyer’s training facility, its spacious quality an allure to contrast against the cramped confines of the Gozantis. The notion was immediately dashed by a mouse droid that weaved through the forest of legs and beckoned for his attention. And with it came the news that his immediate future would be occupied by a debatably better use of his time. Downing the last of the vitamin enriched baked cuboid with a glass of water, he dismissed the droid and deposited the tray onto the outgoing conveyor on his way out of the mess hall. Helmet replaced securely on his head, he tackled the maze-like corridors and the necessary turbolifts at a brisk jog that eventually deposited him in front of the comms substation. The naval troopers guarding the room eyed him briefly before offering a nod of recognition and returning their bored stare at the opposite wall, implicitly granting him access to the inner workings.
With no combat situations or priority broadcast in effect to demand its full use, the ship’s comms served as a node that services a miniscule bandwidth to the greater galactic network. To the Imperial personnel with investment to the wider galaxy, it was a treasured peephole. It was monitored, of course, but it was a small price to pay for the privilege to be in touch with family and friends. Such as the case for Crutic. An exchange of relevant information to the comms operator later, a small monitor on the wall buzzed to life and resolved into a grainy image of a familiar woman that warmed something deep within his being.
”Su’cuy, buyca’kov,” she greeted, the sarcasm in her voice somehow making it through the heavy warping and choppiness of signal loss.
Crutic paused in his process of unraveling the layers of his persona for a second to grimaced slightly from what he considered to be an uncultured greeting; although the jab at the end served as a reminder that his helmet was still on, an issue he fixed immediately in one smooth motion.
“Hey, Lythsia, are ba’buire home?”
His half-sister took a few seconds to receive the message before shaking her head, assuming that’s what the poorly captured head blur would suggest. ”No, ba’buir Allisyr is out of business meeting down south ba’buir Eres is in the shop. It’s restock day.”
“It’s a miracle that you are at home at all!” Crutic offered a smile he reserved for a few beings in the entire Galaxy. While he had wanted to at least exchange pleasantries to his grandparents after a few long months, he is more than glad to share the time with his sibling.
“Oh, I could be elsewhere too if that’s what you prefer.”
“No, you’ll do,” he paused for a few seconds before speaking again, andt this time, his voice was grim, “how’re things out there?”
Lythsia gave an expression that’s hard to read through both the video’s low resolution and just the mix of emotions that fought for dominance in mere seconds. “If you mean the rebels, they are still focusing their efforts at Coruscant. We haven't really heard much about their interaction with the Governor after the demand for disarmament.”
“So you're holding up?”
“The ‘New Republic’ doesn’t bother my sector much. Shame, I got a backlog of datacard I’m fully willing to let someone ‘liberate’.”
Crutic could feel his eyebrows furrowed slightly as he shot a glance at the comm operator, who didn’t seem to take much notice about the details of the conversation. Of course, he has no reason to suspect his sister of treacherous thoughts as she is an alumni of SAGEducation, but it never hurts to be cautious against misinterpretations.
“Lythisa…”
”I know, I know, I shouldn’t joke about these things. But honestly? I don't know how long it would hold out. The talking heads up top don’t give a gundark’s sheb about who taxes them at the end of the day. And our government is too worried about the lack of star destroyers to correct that.”
Crutic sighed and scratched at his hair, untangling a few helmet-induced knots along the way. It seems like that was a trend that would progressively get worse as the years went by. Not that he can do anything about it, he has an obligation here in Region 12, and it’s entirely up to the whims of Admiral Jaquinn - and Governor Ryehall above him - to see if they plan to do anything about the anarchy going on in the galaxy.
“Well, anything good happen since we last spoke?”
Lythisa thought for a long moment - or the video feed froze, hard to say - before she shrugged. ”Team Uviuy made it through the preliminary in Galactic Cup, there’s that.”
A light chuckle escaped his lips at the new topic. As far as good news goes, it was quite low bar but he could at least appreciate the effort to ease the tension. He chose to latch onto it. “Think they will make it to at least the Semi-Finals?”
“Only if Team Fondor gets disqualified.”
“So that’s a no.”
”Last time Uviuy even got close to the podium, the Unknown Regions was still being charted.”
Crutic offered a puzzled expression at what appeared to be a trivia, given that the subject referenced was self-defining. “It still is-”
”Exactly,” Lythsia face was smug.
The conversations continued amicably, delving onwards from sport recaps to a prod at Lythsia's quest for romance and the subsequent defense of her character by criticizing her now-former-partners despite him having never met them, which naturally lead her to remind him that he should be more worried about his own lack of engagements. And inevitably brought the focus back on his activities for the last few months that wasn't obscured by confidentiality.
But far too soon, a movement by the doorway signaled that his allotted time had ran out. The monitor blacked with his sister's parting words, leaving behind a pang of wistful homesickness to swirl in his mind, as it always tended to do after such a session. And as he has done before and will do in the coming times, he took a moment to regained his composure. A process where vulnerability abdicate its role to the facade that grew away from the tender care. One of arrogance, pride, and ruthlessness; but also one of conviction, determination, and intensity. One of an Imperial pilot. As the helmet consumed his head, his soul stilled and he stepped forth down the grey halls with renewed resolve.

ƒoolish is a close-knit group prioritizing fun and success in both Endgame PvE/PvP content. Our team enjoys tackling various high-level activities, including Seal/Gild Hunting, Grandmaster Nightfalls, Master Raids/Dungeons, Flawless Raids/Dungeons, Day-1s, Competitive, and Trials of Osiris.
While we do like to have a good time and embrace a bit of degeneracy, we also value respect and camaraderie within our circle. This means we have zero tolerance for toxic and malicious behaviors, and expect all members to uphold our standards. At the end of the day, we're all here to enjoy the game.
If you share our values of respect and camaraderie, and looking for a group with your passion for challenging Endgame content, then we warmly invite you to join Foolish today. Kindly note that we do prefer to meet up first to evaluate team compatibility. Our Discord server is also open to like-minded Guardians regardless of Clan affiliation. For a Discord invite link or Clan inquiries, feel free to send me a direct message.
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This post is an overview of the blackmail tactics used to control most of the influential people and governments around the world. Obviously I cannot cover everything in a single post, so as with my previous posts I highly encourage you to research further yourself. All sources and links are at the bottom of the post. An understanding of what trauma-based mind control programming (MKULTRA/MONARCH) is, and how it works, is again necessary to understanding much of this. My other posts here:

• Deep Underground Military Bases
  
• Alice in Wonderland Programming
  
• Overview of the Mind Control Running our World
  

The world is run on blackmail, mind control, and shame.
There exist many collections of videotapes of 'high-up' people engaging in some of the worst, sickest things imaginable. Drugs, torture, pedophilia, and murder are common themes to these videos. These tapes are in the hands of many different people, groups, and especially intelligence agencies. 'Honey-trap' operations are constantly being run to gather compromising and incriminating evidence on people of importance. Child slaves will be used to compromise people on video. Global leaders are often covertly videotaped doing perverted things with sex slaves sent to them by intelligence agencies, the Illuminati, or other groups, and this is then leveraged. Rape and murder of a child (forced or not), one of the most repulsive things possible, is many times filmed to ensure future compliance.
"Back in 1966, Rothstein became the first police detective assigned to investigate the prostitution industry. Almost immediately he discovered an underground sexual blackmail operation that compromised politicians with child prostitutes. ‘Human Compromise’ is what he labelled the honey-trap process. Rothstein and his colleagues found that approximately 70 percent of top US Government leaders were compromised in this way. Rothstein said, the CIA conducted the human compromise operation, while the FBI was tasked with covering up any leaks."

• Fiona Barnett [6]

"One of the things I found out over the last ten years of studying governments and listening to intelligence and counter-intelligence is that those in government are sexually compromised, and their sexual secrets are collected and then they are promoted into governments and into judiciaries and into all the positions of importance. Paedophilia is the preferred dirt as it is easily photographed, easily presented in a range of media, immensely shameful, and the public demands your resignation."

• Greg Hallett [12]

"Paul Bonacci, one of the victim-witnesses in the Franklin affair, also clearly stated Larry King used him in blackmail operations in New York and Washington. The latter was in connection with the activities of a close associate of Larry King, Craig Spence, who was involved in a prostitution ring consisting of underaged boys that were supplied to Washington's upper class, which went right up to the White House."

• The Reality of Protected Child Abuse Networks [11]

"Sexually bent politicians in denial of their sexuality to the public are a threat to their own country and policies. They are easily setup, photographed, politically bribed, toppled, and supported in the destruction of their country. This method of altering a country’s policies is epidemic and now endemic to politics."

• Greg Hallett [12]

"Bob (Hope) was politically connected and knew how to lure people in and insure they would work for him. He invited them to his parties and dangled various kinds of illegal or immoral perversions in their faces. Once their perversions were uncovered, he could blackmail or control them. That is how Bob worked. Bob was very good at this. I watched him do it to people over and over. He lured them in, detected their weaknesses, then used that knowledge in his favor, for his connections, and ultimately for his personal gain."

• Brice Taylor [5]

These blackmail 'practices' are often used in conjunction with trauma-based mind control. This mind control is an integral component of, and is deeply intertwined with child trafficking, sex slavery, Satanic ritual abuse, and many other horrific crimes. Many of the children used for blackmail are programmed, and many of the people being blackmailed (including (sometimes future) politicians, leaders, presidents, etc.) are also programmed themselves.
"My personal belief, based on my experiences, is that over the years, more leaders were under mind control."

• Brice Taylor [5]

"Fritz Springmeier notes that 'It is a standard tactic of the Illuminati, their New World Order and its various branches to use fear and blackmail to bring people into line.' Cheryl Beck had a 'sexy Sadie' program that was used to blackmail government and military people as a child prostitute seductress. Cathy O’Brien’s daughter Kelly was 'being prostituted to the CIA for blackmail purposes.' Svali notes that using child prostitutes to blackmail political leadership outside of the Illuminati was very common."

• Veronica Swift [10]

"Beryl-Green said Epstein knew about MKULTRA. He was into mind-controlling victims and satanic ritual abuse (SRA). Epstein was into DNA mixing, human cloning and he knew about New World Order plans."

• Hope Beryl-Green [17]

"This dirty game has been honed to a fine art, which is a standard feature of the Illuminati/intelligence groups. The CIA term for blackmail is an 'OK FIX.' When they use a person’s past sins to force someone to do something they refer to this as 'biographic leverage.' Any weak point in a person can and will be exploited. Sexual entrapment for blackmail is referred to as a 'HONEY TRAP'. Black widow alters are being trained and sent out for this purpose. In order to blackmail, or threaten, you have to have something to threaten the person with. Men are frequently entrapped by sexual behavior which is criminal. Sometimes they are also entrapped by murder. The Monarch slave will be allowed to have children so that they can be blackmailed into complying to save the children or grandchildren. The Monarch slave in turn may be used to blackmail others. Certain alters are trained in this. A Monarch Beta model is highly trained in seduction. Many politicians and ministers are operating under blackmail today. The extent that blackmail is being used by the NWO would boggle people’s minds. Porn films are taken of the Monarch victims, so that they can be used to blackmail the victim. Monarch victims are forced to commit ritual murders which are photographed and then used to blackmail the mind-controlled victim."

• Fritz Springmeier [15]

Intelligence agencies all over the world utilize blackmail, routinely employing and exploiting it as much as possible. It is an extremely important 'tool' of theirs. Operations are done to gather the incriminating evidence.
"Other 'neutralisations' verge on the bizarre. An individual who must remain nameless for a variety of reasons - but whose name is known to this writer - underwent an experience that is both horrific and chilling. I shall call this individual 'Mr. X' or, simply, 'X'. Mr. X was a leader of one of the largest CIA-backed Contra groups. He recently testified before the US Senate Intelligence Committee. Formerly, X was a senior executive in a South American subsidiary of a leading US soft drinks corporation. During his Senate testimony, he denied any knowledge of CIA involvement in the narcotics trade, adding that condoning such activity would have been foreign to his way of life. Not so, says Tatum. Mr. X had been recruited into the CIA by then-Director William Casey, with the assistance of Oliver North. In 1990, when Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega announced there would be 'free elections', X was ecstatic. He began jostling for position and asked President Bush to ensure he be given a prominent position in the new government - in return for his years of toil at the behest of the CIA and the Enterprise. The pressure came in a form that Bush could not ignore. Failure to help his friend would result in X's intimate knowledge of Bush's involvement in the dope trade being made public. His threat left Bush with a sour taste. A Pegasus team was assigned to 'neutralise' him in early 1990. Mr. X, Tatum states, 'fancied himself a lover of women. Tall, large-breasted blondes were his favourite. It was determined that, if effectively neutralised, [X] could be an asset. Therefore, it was decided that intimidation would be used to control [X].' They chose to use the drug Scopolamine, which also went by the nickname 'Burundanga' or 'the Voodoo drug'. The drug is extracted from the pods of a flowering shrub that grows in remote regions of South America. In its processed, powdered form, Scopolamine is 'void of smell, void of taste'. When properly administered 'it causes absolute obedience' without this being 'observable by others'. Importantly, the target will not recall any of the events that occurred during the period they were under the spell of the drug. Tatum states that X was invited to spend a relaxing weekend at a luxury hotel as a guest of his friend George Bush. His host for the weekend was a trusted 18-year veteran field-intelligence officer. The evening started with cocktails and was followed by a fine meal. ''Nothing but the best' were the orders.' Following the meal, he was ushered into the suite of a 'blonde bombshell' supplied by the CIA. Mr. X had already ingested a dose of Burundanga during pre-dinner cocktails. X was gallant with the blonde as they both moved into the bedroom where video cameras were already set up in one corner. In short order, the blonde had X standing naked in front of her and began to indulge his desires. All the while, the video cameras whirred. Slowly stripping off, the 'blonde' revealed his manhood in all its glory. Mr. X was instructed to reciprocate the favour and perform fellatio. He obliged, his intimate activities recorded at 24 frames a second on videotape. Tatum says the male prostitute was hired from a bar in New York and killed that same evening. Two weeks later, X - wholly unaware of the events of that evening - was visited in Nicaragua. He was presented with a copy of the video footage, along with instructions. Tatum says that X can never allow that video to be seen: 'Not only does it reveal his homosexuality, but it also reveals his bestiality and satanic worship rituals.' As frame after frame flicked by, X reportedly wept, forced to watch himself kill his homosexual 'lover' and then engage in the most grisly cannabalistic ritual imaginable. Neutralised, Mr. X became a leading member of the Nicaraguan government a few short weeks later."

• The Pegasus File [13]

"Check out the FBI records on Scarlett: What was his original HOOK that got him so deeply embedded into UK Illuminati culture? He murdered the nanny of Lord Lucan in the 1970's. Lucan wasn't actually involved. Scarlett got it wrong. He was under mind control at the time. How we all laughed on his training sessions when we heard that one. Not funny, really. We were all in the same boat. Each had something terrible attached to us, in our past. That is all part and parcel of the Illuminati contract. Young people forced under mind control to commit murder when young and then later on, picked up by British Intelligence to be used and abused as they wished - as loyal servants of the British Crown. One can only hope that by exposing these HOOKS, that some sort of amnesty can prevail. If these people are freed from the demonic Illuminati contract by exposing their HOOKS - one can only hope that they will come forward as a sizeable and influential body of political and public figures, in order to put an end to it. Here's hoping. Check out Rimington's hook to see what sort of mind ran MI5 for so long. It's a game called 'mafia' and it is ALL about blackmail."

• Ex MI6 [2]

"...He had previously signed off on Epstein’s 'sweetheart deal' because Epstein 'had belonged to intelligence.' Acosta, then serving as US attorney for Southern Florida, had also been told by unspecified figures at the time that he needed to give Epstein a lenient sentence because of his links to 'intelligence.'"

• Whitney Webb [4]

"Detective Rothstein found that the CIA were behind a blackmail operation in which child prostitutes were used to honey-trap and compromise politicians, military brass, top businessmen, and key government officials. Rothstein, who arrested the key Watergate perpetrator, said Watergate solely concerned this human compromise racket, and specifically was an attempt to obtain a list of compromised pedophile VIPs and their proclivities that was held at the Democratic National Headquarters."

• Fiona Barnett [8]

"Michael Aquino was in the military. He had top Pentagon clearances. He was a pedophile. He was a Satanist. He founded the Temple of Set. And he was a close friend of Anton LaVey. The two of them were very active in ritualistic sexual abuse. And they deferred funding from this government program to use in this experimentation on children. Where they deliberately split off the personalities of these children into multiples, so that when they're questioned or put under oath or questioned under lie detector, that unless the operator knows how to question a multiple-personality disorder, they turn up with no evidence. They used these kids to sexually compromise politicians or anyone else they wish to have control of...they were taken to be used by professional pedophiles. People that have the money to buy what they want, take the kids wherever they want...and by splitting the children’s personalities they could then train each one of the personalities to do a different function. And the rest of the personalities within that host personality would not be aware of it or remember it."

• Noreen Gosch, Johnny Gosch's mother (of the 'Franklin Boys') [1]

"Vinson also told Nick Bryant that Spence and Larry King were 'partners' and 'hooked up with the CIA', stating specifically that 'King and Spence were in business together, and their business was pedophilic blackmail.' They were transporting children all over the country. They would arrange for children to be flown into Washington, DC and also arrange for influential people in DC to be flown out to the Midwest and meet these kids. Per Vinson, Larry King had confided in him that he had clients who liked to torture and even kill children: 'King said they had clients who actually liked having sex with kids as they tortured or killed the kid. I found that totally unbelievable.' After Vinson said this to Nick Bryant, he asked Bryant later on in the interview if King’s disclosure had indeed been true. He was unaware at the time that other evidence, including witness testimony, had suggested that it was."

• Whitney Webb [4]

"According to fugitive ex-CIA officer Frank Terpil, CIA-directed sexual blackmailing operations were intensive in Washington at about the time of the Watergate scandal. One of those operations, Terpil claims, was run by his former partner, Ed Wilson. Wilson's base of operations for arranging trysts for the politically powerful was, Terpil says, Korean agent Ton Sun Park’s George Town Club. In a letter to the author, Terpil explained that ‘Historically, one of Wilson’s Agency jobs was to subvert members of both houses [of Congress] by any means necessary. Certain people could be easily coerced by living out their sexual fantasies in the flesh...A remembrance of these occasions was permanently recorded via selected cameras...The technicians in charge of filming were TSD [Technical Services Division of the CIA]...The unwitting porno stars advanced in their political careers, some of whom may still be in office.'"

• The Reality of Protected Child Abuse Networks [11]

"Intelligence and counter intelligence ‘work’, and they ‘work together’ to create scenarios that are so unbelievable that they cannot be published in the mainstream media, and if they are, they will appear like a joke. The information to blackmail a country, to blackmail its politicians, to blackmail its Prime Ministers and Presidents, to blackmail its judges and lawyers is a very serious matter."

• Greg Hallett [12]

The Illuminati and other cults also engage in the same blackmail operations. There is a huge overlap between secret societies/cults and intelligence, with top intelligence usually being run by them. All of them do this.
"I was able to have first hand access to the Jeffrey Epstein case investigation documents. According to the documents, Epstein was the head of a global fraternity related to the Shriners called The Royal Order of Jesters. This order is covered with scandals and lawsuits related to human trafficking, but they are very protected because many members of the order are high-profile political figures and businessmen. It is crazy how these people manage to operate under the radar for so many years, decades...Now you may ask how they do this? Easy...By using blackmail tactics, they manage to have Judges and Law Enforcement licking their feet. That's how Jeffery Epstein got assassinated. After he was out of the game, the whole business is run by other people. Major names are involved and many high-profile people who are all bound to the order by means of blackmail. This is particularly disturbing when you find out that the cases of Catholic priests involved in sex scandals are events organized by The Order of Jesters. They run blackmail operations with the purpose of seducing people in power...With those videos in their power, the careers and the public image of many people are in the Jester's hands. They are free to do anything, they can turn even the President of the United States into a slave."
-- "Jeffrey Epstein Post" [7]
"Illuminati 'FROG ON A LILYPAD' programming: The FROG as a paedophile - with no 'tadpole tail/tale', as in no memory of what he/she has done until they get past 40 years old. It becomes clear that so many people were forced to be paedophiles and to abuse their children - only to wake up to all of this later on - post 40 years old. Then to have Stella Rimington on their doorstep with a videotape - telling them that she will send it to the police if they do not do precisely what she says. The ultimate blackmail weapons combined: A tape of you committing paedophilia - and even worse - incest with your own children. Guaranteed to 'silence' most people for life. The scope of this Illuminati blackmail project has been immense, in British society and it has to be exposed. There is safety in numbers."

• Ex MI6 [2]

"(Sue) Arrigo adds that the kids with the most smarts and/or looks, about 5% are skimmed off the top by the Luciferians in charge like the Bushes and used as either spies or corporate sex slaves or both. They’re typically pimped out on high priced loans to influential politicians as house boy and girls to ensure the puppets in Congress are happy and blackmail-able for control."

• Joachim Hagopian [14]

"The Masonic leadership of Freemasonry in a given area will have thousands of 'blackmail' files on essentially everyone of importance in their area. Upper echelon people such as judges, lawyers, and politicians are generally controlled via IRS infringements, and many of the lower echelon people are controlled through weird sexual items. This is where the Delta and Beta Monarch slaves are so helpful to the Illuminati. (This information comes from several witnesses who are informed about the blackmail files & their methods for blackmailing.)"

• Fritz Springmeier [16]

These people are already in power, and have set their system up so that nobody rises to a prominent, powerful, or influential position without being selected, extensively compromised, controllable, and usually under mind control. They are all 'in it together', and because of this they protect eachother. Most have 'insurance' on one another.
"The most common phrase associated with that one was ‘talk about the pot calling the kettle black’, meaning that each Illuminati slave had been caught on camera and from an early age – doing something terrible – as Rimington was fond of saying ‘we are all as bad as each other and all in it together.’"

• Ex MI6 [2]

"Oftentimes when I and others were prostituted to various government (New World Order) leaders, Dante had hidden cameras filming perverse sexual acts apparently for future blackmail leverage. These videos were scandalous in proportion and were usually ordered by Reagan. Dante turned the videos over to Reagan, and covertly kept copies to protect himself. Dante converted a small room of his Beverly Hills mansion into a security vault, where he kept his personal copies of the international blackmail porn tapes there. Blackmail was openly initiated to ensure that each criminal participant understood that if one fell, they all fell. Maintaining 'dirt' on each other through this Mafia-style method was seemingly the only way these criminals implementing the New World Order kept each other 'honest.'"

• Cathy O'Brien [3]

"The Watergate break-in was strictly based on one thing - the pedophile records that were being kept at the Democratic National Headquarters."

• Detective James Rothstein (NYPD, Retired) [6]

"In 1972, Rothstein arrested one of the five Watergate burglars, CIA operative Frank Sturgis. During a subsequent two-hour interrogation, Rothstein discovered the truth about Watergate (plus Sturgis’ and the CIA’s involvement in the Bay of Pigs incident, and the related assassination of JFK). Sturgis told Rothstein, the Watergate burglars sought something they nicknamed ‘The Book’ which listed the Democratic and Republican politicians who accessed child prostitutes, their sexual proclivities, the amounts they paid to rape kids, etc."

• Fiona Barnett [6]

There are certain places known for this, two famous examples being Little St. James island or Bohemian Grove (there are many, many others).
"For those of you who are interested in Bohemian Grove and the current list upon the Internet of those poor unsuspecting 'invitees' who will be pressganged into going (and subsequently blackmailed out of their minds afterwards, by the Illuminati)...the entrapment going on at Bohemian Grove is of an avaricious and esoteric nature - in relation to all of those unlucky 'invitees' who want to join this 'prestigious club' but then get videoed doing things that they wouldn't want anyone to know about - 'guests' who are then subsequently blackmailed out of their brains...and for the rest of their lives. But then that was what the Illuminati cult and their Sat B'hai contract has always been about...promising that you would get everything for nothing (if you agreed to be unquestioningly obedient to the Crown) and that you would now be part of an 'esoteric' prestigious Satanic club."

• Ex MI6 [2]

"Numerous videos are covertly produced at the supposedly secure political sex playground in northern California, Bohemian Grove. High tech undetectable cameras use fiber optics, and fish-eye lenses were in each of the elite club's numerous sexual perversion theme rooms. I was programmed and equipped to function in all rooms at Bohemian Grove in order to compromise specific government targets according to their personal perversions. 'Anything, anytime, anywhere with anyone' was my mode of operation at the Grove. My perception is that Bohemian Grove serves those ushering in the New World Order through mind control, and consists primarily of the highest Mafia and U.S. Government officials. Project Monarch mind controlled slaves were routinely abused there to fulfill the primary purpose of the club: purveying perversion. Bohemian Grove is reportedly intended to be used recreationally, providing a supposedly secure environment for politically affluent individuals to 'party' without restraint. The only business conducted there pertained to implementing the New World Order, through the proliferation of mind-control atrocities, giving the place an air of 'Masonic Secrecy'. The only room where business discussions were permitted was the small, dark lounge affectionately and appropriately referred to as the Underground. The wooden sign was carved to read: 'U.N.DERGROUND'. My purpose at the Grove was sexual in nature, and therefore my perceptions were limited to a sex slave's viewpoint. As an effective means of control to ensure undetected proliferation of their perverse indulgences, slaves such as myself were subjected to ritualistic trauma. Slaves of advancing age or with failing programming were sacrificially murdered 'at random' in the wooded grounds of Bohemian Grave, and I felt it was 'simply a matter of time until it would be me'. Rituals were held at a giant, concrete owl monument on the banks of the Russian River. These occultish sex rituals stemmed from the scientific belief that mind-controlled slaves required severe trauma to ensure compartmentalization of the memory. I witnessed the sacrificial death of a young, dark-haired victim at which time I was instructed to perform sexually 'as though my life depended upon it'. I was told, 'The next sacrifice victim could be you.' The club offered a 'Necrophilia' themed room to its members. I was so heavily drugged and programmed when used in the 'necrophilia' room, that the threat of actually 'slipping through death's door' and being sacrificed 'before I knew it' did not affect me. Other perversion theme rooms at the Bohemian Club included what I heard Ford refer to as the 'Dark Room'. When he not so cleverly said, 'Let's go to the Dark Room and see what develops,' I understood from experience that he was interested in indulging in his perverse obsession for pornography. In the Dark Room, members had sex with the same mind-controlled slave they were viewing in porn on a big screen television. There was a triangular glass display centered in a main through way where I was locked in with various trained animals, including snakes. Members walking by watched illicit sex acts of bestiality, women with women, mothers with daughters, kids with kids, or any other unlimited perverse visual display. I was once brutally assaulted by Dick Cheney in the Leather Room, which was designed like a dark, black leather-lined train berth. There was a room of shackles and tortures, black lights and strobes, an opium den, ritualistic sex altars, a chapel, group orgy rooms including poster beds, water beds, and 'kitten' houses. I was used as a 'rag doll' in the 'toy store,' and as a urinal in the 'golden arches' room. From the owl's roost to the necrophilia room, no memory of sexual abuse is as horrifying as the conversations overheard in the Underground pertaining to implementing the New World Order. I learned that perpetrators believed that controlling the masses through propaganda mind manipulation did not guarantee there would be a world left to dominate due to environmental and overpopulation problems. The solution being debated was not pollution/population control, but mass genocide of 'selected undesirables'."

• Cathy O'Brien [3]

News 'headlines' with hidden symbolic communication are also used by intelligence and other groups, many times referring to blackmail (among the many other varieties of covert operations).
"'Nuclear' is a comm used all over the world to symbolize extraordinarily explosive information, like blackmail. Which is why if we reconcile blackmail with news about nuclear, a secret truth will become clear. The two most powerful blackmailers ever? That would probably be Jeffrey Epstein and Hugh Hefner. And this is why the deaths of blackmailers like Hugh Hefner and Jeffrey Epstein both coincided with 'Nuclear Accidents':"
08/09/2019 Is Putin covering up a Nuclear disaster?

• 08/09/2019 = Russia Hides a Nuclear Accident!
• 08/10/2019 = CIA Blackmailer Epstein Dead
• 09/26/2017 = Russia Hides a Nuclear Accident!
• 09/27/2017 = CIA Blackmailer Hefner Dead

09/26/2017 Nuclear explosion kept secret by Russia
"Why are CIA blackmailers dying the day after Russia declares nuclear accidents? The reason for the -1 day in Epstein’s case is they likely died before the official day, and these comms were to give agents a heads up on the upcoming BOOM before it hits papers. In Hefners case they had to signal people to move the blackmail. The point as stated is a lot of 'nuclear' is all about blackmail. Not all of it, but a lot of it."

• "Symbolic Communication" [9]

Blackmail is a worldwide 'practice', with all countries and their governments engaging in aquiring and utilizing it to the fullest.
"Just as the 1986 Mirano scandal, the X-Dossiers contain evidence that sexual blackmail operations, whoever is running them, are not limited to the United States. In 1996, X1 reported how the same activities had been going on in Brussels."
"As the bewildered Belgians tried to make sense of what was going on, incredible rumours began circulating that Dutroux might have been protected in some way, that he had friends in high places. Pornographic videos taken from his home were said to feature prominent individuals, one a senior member of the Roman Catholic church. It almost defied belief. Who would protect a psychopath, other than people with something truly terrible to hide?...'It is quite obvious,' said Katarin de Clercq, Belgian coordinator of the pressure group End Child Prostitution Abduction and Trafficking, 'that some people were protecting Dutroux. The government tried to convince us that he was a lone serial killer and psychopath, but now we hear stories about unnamed famous personalities being involved in sex orgies and blackmail and pornographic video tapes. People feel that something is completely wrong here and we have to show we will not tolerate it.'"

• The Reality of Protected Child Abuse Networks [11]

"I was unfortunate enough to attend the IHS Templar Castle rite in 2001. Amongst the people in attendence were: J. K. Rowling. Gordon Brown. David Miliband. Stephen Daldry. Stella Rimington (she was the Dr. Mengele of the organisation, organising the torture and murder of kidnapped children). Dr. Joanne Collie. Andrew Marr (he spent most of the time naked and screaming - off his head on some form of narcotic). John Scarlett (he was so drunk/drugged up that he had very little idea of what was going on around him). The Templars had captured a large amount of people whom they called the 'snakes' i.e. slaves in a large dungeon underneath the castle. One brave person managed to set them free and the result in the neighbouring village of Mons and other places nearby, ensured that the British Army had to move in. Thus began the most incredible cover-up in recent European history. It was like WACO, Guyana. I was one of the 'slaves' taken at that castle but subsequently freed by the British Army (who also know what happened - a MASSIVE cover-up). The British Army ordered those in the Castle to come out. They then sent a tank in to bulldoze the walls. Prince Philip and Prince William were in that Castle. Both of them had murdered countless tiny children in their rites. The British Army assembled watched as both walked out with large, dark, woven potato sacks over their heads. They were then bundled into a van and driven away. The name SPUDNIKS was coined because Prince Philip and Prince William had to exit the castle with potato sacks pulled down over their heads and bodies. The British Army present at the time - may or may not have had any idea who they were but the SIS general there, certainly did. They might have managed to cover it up regarding the ordinary soldiers there but the videotapes are now on sale worldwide. The whole event had been closely monitored for blackmail purposes."

• Ex MI6 [2]

The CIA also blackmails incestual/pedophilic parents for their children to use in trauma-based mind control slave projects like MONARCH.
"My Uncle Bob, also implicated in manufacturing the porn, out of apparent desperation informed my father of a U.S. Government Defense Intelligence Agency TOP SECRET Project to which he was privy. This was Project Monarch. Project Monarch was a mind-control operation which was 'recruiting' multigenerational incest abused children with Multiple Personality Disorder for its genetic mind-control studies. I was a prime 'candidate,' a 'chosen one'. My father seized the opportunity as it would provide him immunity from prosecution."

• Cathy O'Brien [3]

"The expendables are the children of parents who were blackmailed into turning their children over to the CIA. This is all hidden by the power of the National Security Act. These are children, who have been sold by pedophile fathers, or pornographic parents. The programmers/masters program them with the expectation that they will be "thrown from the freedom train" when they get to age 30. (Freedom Train is the code word for the Monarch trauma-based mind-control. To be thrown from the Freedom Train means to be killed.) The CIA and the Illuminati are skilled at blackmailing parents to give up their children. They would watch the mail for porn. Pedophile and murderers who abuse their children are warned that they will go to prison for long lengths of time if they do not cooperate by selling their children into mind-controlled slavery. In return for the parent’s cooperation, they provide rich financial rewards to the parent(s). It’s clearly a case of 'if you don’t cooperate you lose in life big time, if you do cooperate you win big time.'"

• Fritz Springmeier [15]

Blackmail is the glue holding all of the sick people in charge together, one of the top methods of control. This is the truth. Blackmail, pedophilia, and mind control are how this world is really run.
"Former CIA director William Colby giving advice to John DeCamp, urging him to quit his investigations into the Franklin child abuse affair:"
"'What you have to understand, John, is that sometimes there are forces and events too big, too powerful, with so much at stake for other people or institutions, that you cannot do anything about them, no matter how evil or wrong they are and no matter how dedicated or sincere you are or how much evidence you have. This is simply one of the hard facts of life you have to face.'"

• The Reality of Protected Child Abuse Networks [11]

"Again, it’s built in, entrenched foxes guarding the predatory henhouse that permeate all levels of government, military, courts, law enforcement, entertainment and news media, corporate global finance and education. With pedophile puppet masters controlling the pedophile puppet strings of blackmailed, compromised and controlled Western politicians, courts and law enforcement, their diabolical infrastructure has afforded them living above the law continuing to rape and kill our innocents for centuries."

• Joachim Hagopian [14]

Links and Sources
[1] - Noreen Gosch Speaks About - Jeff Gannon, Johnny Gosch And The Attempted Theft Of Her Book 'Why Johnny Can't Come Home'

• Noreen Gosch

[2] - Master List of Quotes and Comments

• Ex MI5/MI6 Agents and Royal Arch Illuminati slaves

[3] - Trance-Formation of America

• Cathy O'Brien

[4] - One Nation Under Blackmail

• Whitney Webb

[5] - Thanks for the Memories

• Brice Taylor

[6] - Eyes Wide Open

• Fiona Barnett

[7] - "I had access to classified documents about the Jeffrey Epstein case"
[8] - Child Trafficking, Ritual Sex Abuse & MK-ULTRA Are A Single Worldwide Operation, Run by the U.S., U.K. and AUS Secret Services

• Fiona Barnett

[9]- Symbolism Communication
[10] - An Illuminati Primer

• Veronica Swift, Jessie Czebotar

[11] - The Reality of Protected Child Abuse Networks
[12] - The Hallett Report No. 1

• Greg Hallett

[13] - The Pegasus File

• David G. Guyatt

[14] - Anatomy of the Luciferian Elite’s Global Child Sex Trafficking Pedophile Operations

• Joachim Hagopian on CathyFoxBlog

[15] - The Illuminati Formula Used To Create An Undetectable Mind Control Slave

• Fritz Springmeier and Cisco Wheeler

[16] - Deeper Insights Into the Illuminati Formula

• Fritz Springmeier and Cisco Wheeler

[17] - Hope Beryl-Green Article

TLDR: I cannot be the only person who sees this.... Biden is too old and frail, a bit shady, and his VP is clueless and completely unqualified.... Trump is a criminal and also too old and unfit for office and totally corrupt.... Can we please please please get a couple of reasonable candidates to vote for... literally any regular ass American would be better.
Let's start out with my intention. I would love for this post to get 69 million 420 thousand upvotes... but seriously, I want as many people as possible to see this because the media is starting to make me feel like I am the only person who sees that this election cycle is nuts.
This Presidential election is looking to be a choice between two terrible options... I will outline all of my demographics followed by my thoughts and I would really like to hear some alternative opinions because as a regular ass voter, I see nothing but terrible options from the two parties and I am starting to feel like I am the only one who sees that the current political landscape is a total shit show.
Demographics: Ethnicity: Caucasian Gender: Male Age: 35 Occupation: Military Officer Education: BS (it was a bullshit degree but also a bachelor of science) Relationship: Married (divorced once but I deserved it. I was a total shithead the first time) ... happy to provide any other demographics but at the end of the day I am a regular American with a regular salary, a regular job, a regular everything else.
Biden Let me start off by admitting that I was wrong about this guy. I voted for him in the last election because I felt like President Trump was unstable as fuck and presidential policy should not be posted on social media or be based on how one man is feeling that particular day. Biden promised a lot, I didn't expect much from him, to be honest, but I had hoped that we would at least get a president who was able to fill the role at a basic level. I was not looking for Teddy Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln. I was simply hoping for a President who would show up to work, have a reasonable foreign policy, who would put some pressure on the corporations and their CEOs making millions of dollars, and who would address the issues that the majority of Americans were dealing with like student loans, health care, unfair taxes, and loopholes that benefit the 1% and fuck the 99%. End of the day I was hoping that he would look out for the 99 and not the 1%. So far we have got some good and bad in terms of policy... he got us out of the war in the middle east even though that was completely fucked up... poor planning... total rush to failure. Thank God that more people were not killed or injured and God bless those service members who sacrificed all for this shitty plan, they were patriots and I am thankful every day that we have Americans like them willing to "stand the watch." He got some relief for parents who could use the help financially when times were tough during covid but he totally fucked it up when he fumbled the ball when it came to supporting the unions like the rail workers, amazon, etc, he fucked up student debt relief (we shouldn't ONLY forgive loans...we need to address the outrageous price tag on education in addition to the loans)... He appointed Mayer Pete who had one job as Transportation Secretary and totally fucked that up by prioritizing his image over actually dealing with airline travel (I am a pilot so a bit read in on this topic... he screwed the pooch on this one), trains, and the supply chain.... he also has been a bit short sided on Ukraine support.... (Ukraine deserves independence but there needs to be an explanation of what we are getting as taxpayers for our money... Please explain to me what the return on investment is for the billions we are spending. I do not have an issue with spending our tax dollars on helping make the world a better place but I need to know how my $50B+ is making a difference before you spend it.) Also his sons.... Beau was a naval officer who allegedly did a bunch of drugs.... should have been booted out of the military and Hunter absolutely took dirty money and it was all covered up. President Biden may not have been involved in any of that but at the end of the day, all of the sins of his sons were covered up for the benefit of their father.
Trump As a white male military officer, I thought I was definitely a Republican before this guy came into office. I mean come on, I was basically their prime demographic. At least that is what I was told my whole adult life. I was unsure when he was elected as I thought this was a publicity stunt. Then he put "Mad Dog" Mattis in office as the Sec Def and I thought "America, Fuck YEA!" he had a bunch of crazy ass tweets and I wrote most of them off because I trusted that General Mattis and the rest of the cabinet would keep the country on the right track. And then he fired Mattis. This was the point when I realized this dude is a sociopath who only cared about being "right". He gave no fucks about what the correct decision was... all he wanted was to be "right." The most respected military General since Colin Powel was fired/resigned from the office of Sec Def under President Trump.... This was shocking. But who knows what happened behind closed doors.... perhaps this was for the best. Then the election and Jan 06. And since then this dude has been the sorest loser I have ever seen. It has been 3 years and he is still talking about how the election was stolen and if you disagree with him he will blackmail you into agreeing with him or he will support your opposition candidate. Fuck this dude. That is not how democracy works..... I do not disagree with his foreign policy as a military officer... He made some solid decisions regarding China and his critique of NATO was not completely incorrect. He said things and made decisions that others were afraid to say and do and I was into it but he also said and did things that was I absolutely not into... if you want America's help then there has to be some benefit to the American taxpayer... if you want to fuck around and find out with OPEC and your pilot students shooting up an American Military Base... then enjoy fighting your wars with Iran on your own.... I full-heartedly believe that the American Tax Payer should see a return on investment for their taxes but President Trump seems to only actually give a shit about his own personal gain. Let's not be naive, his son-in-law totally got paid off by Mohammed bin Salman. He 100% had the support of the Putin regime. He gave himself and his buddies tax breaks that he did not afford the 99%. He said a lot of crazy shit. This guy is nuts and doesn't give two shits about the 99%. He will gladly give you a MAGA hat for your donation but when it comes to actual policy, he has shown that he will take your money, put some in his own pocket, some in the pockets of his friends, and then give you just a little bit back so that you feel like you got the good end of the deal.....The average American made much less than the 1%... he gave you some back in covid relief to make you forget that you were getting royally fucked.
I am not running for president but if I was this would be my platform... in other words, this would be the platform that I wish we could vote for!

• National policies
  • Politicians are public servants - Elected officials are elected to serve the American public, not themselves. Stop being greedy!
    • If you hold a political office, you are allowed to only buy the total US stock market index. -This would force politicians to be financially vested in the US economy and prevent them from insider trading with specific companies.... if you want to serve in public office you need to sacrifice some autonomy. No one should use political office to benefit themselves personally. You were elected to enrich the lives of your constituent, not your own personal net worth.
    • Term Limits - Congress and Senate should not be allowed to serve more than 10 years.
    • Lobbyists - Lobbyists serve a purpose or so am I told but they should not be allowed to contribute any money at all to any political agenda.... period. Nothing. They can voice their opinions like any other voter but that is it.
    • There should be a public fund to pay for political campaigns. That fund should be standard for each candidate. They all get the same amount. I am not certain what the right move here is but it is not currently an equal playing field. Someone from the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder against someone from the top run should have the same chance. The candidate with the policies that best represent the people they stand for should win.
  • Abortion
    • This is a state issue. Allow states to vote on their own policy..... if California wants to allow abortion then let them. If Georgia wants to ban abortion then let them... If you live in a state that does not share your personal beliefs on this then you are welcome to move and become a resident of another state that does share those same principles. There is no reason why every state needs to be the same. Some can be conservative, others can be liberal. Use your vote to voice your opinion in your individual state elections. This should not be a federal decision.
  • Taxes
    • Taxes should be fair - There is no logical reason why Warren Buffet or the rest of the 1% should pay less than 99%. - Close the tax loopholes that allow the wealthy to pay less taxes than the average American. A consumption tax is the most practical policy here although it does unfairly tax lower income until you begin to factor in luxury taxes. I am cognizant that there is not an easy solution to this issue but that does not mean it is impossible. Cap taxes for basic necessities like food, utilities, housing (Under $1M for 1st house), and vehicle (under $100k) at 0%. Elevate taxes for luxury items (houses over $1M, second homes, Vehicles over 100K, personal jets, restaurants, etc) to 25%, and everything else at a flat 10% sales tax. Adjust income taxes to reflect average incomes and tax the lowest 50% at 0-15%, tax the top 25% of income at 15-20%, and tax the top 25% at 20-25%. Capital gains tax remains the same as that is an equal playing field... you hold the stock for 365 days or more and only pay 15%....This may or may not be the best tax policy but at least it is considerate of those who need the tax relief most. The more you spend on nonessentials the more taxes you pay. I am definitely open to some conversation/deviation here but this is a hell of a lot more fair than what we currently have and a consumption tax also generates some tax income for travelers and illegal migrants who currently do not pay any taxes but often receive free or reduced healthcare over tax-paying Americans (looking at you California).
  • Immigration
    • This is a core tenant of our nation. We need an immigration policy that protects our citizens but also allows others to come to this country to contribute to our success. There is a tough balance here to navigate but not impossible. Let's fund the applicable departments and ensure they have highly qualified agents to sort those who would add value to our nation and those who would cause problems. We have the most robust intelligence apparatus in the world. I am sure that if we focus our attention on external threats instead of internal threats we could figure out who to recruit to our team and who to pass on, all while making our country more productive and safe.
  • Education
    • This is a big one... Our children are our future... and we are failing them! Parents get 4 years with their kids before they head off to start school. That is the last time that we get 100% of their attention before they start receiving input from other adults and peers. We are doing them a disservice by not recruiting the best and brightest to mold them into tomorrow's workforce. Teaching is like every other career field. If we paid teachers the same as we paid CEOs, athletes, celebrities, etc. We would get more applicants than we would know what to do with. We could then choose the best and brightest to spend 8 hours a day teaching our children to invent the next best thing.... Obviously, we cannot as a nation afford to pay every teacher $25M a year but you get the point. Let's make a starting salary for a teacher $100k and choose the best applicants to teach our children. Teachers should be the best of society and should be regarded as such.....
    • Now let's talk about college. A college degree is overrated as fuck currently. A bachelor's degree from a state school should not cost you more than what you make for the first 5 years of working. There needs to be a cap on what colleges can charge. It's great that we are looking into student loan repayment and I absolutely think that we need to help even the scales there but first, we need to stop the bleeding. A college degree from a state school receiving federal funding should not cost a student more than $50k for a 4-year degree. If you want to go to a private school then you are all on your own but let's give everyone an option to go to school for a reasonable price. We should not have to spend our lives repaying a loan for education. This is only going to discourage young men and women from attending these storied institutions. It is criminal what these schools are charging.
  • Healthcare
    • First, let me start out by saying fuck all of these people at the top. I am looking at the corporate fat cats, the insurance companies, the Sacklers. Healthcare is out of control even worse than education. We need to put limits on what they can charge, limits on what medications cost, and very strong quality assurance in the FDA to make sure that these drug companies are not poisoning us. Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. We all deserve quality healthcare. Make it happen POTUS.
  • Equal Opportunity
    • Everyone deserves equality of opportunity... not equality of result. We all deserve the ability to succeed but success should not be given just because of our race/gendeethnicity/sexual orientation/economic resources. I personally do not care what color you are, what gender you are, or what you like to do with your free time. I only care about what you contribute. Black, Brown, White, or any other color of the rainbow, gay, straight, or anything in between, none of it matters. All that does actually matter is results and we should all have the same opportunity to succeed regardless of the details because, at the end of the day, we are all people striving for a "more perfect union"!
  • Defense
    • Completely UNSATISFACTORY that the Pentagon cannot pass an audit. We talk about our defense spending like it's a badge of honor but there is no mention of the efficiency of our tax dollars. If we give the DOD $2T then we should know what our return on investment is! The budget should not increase for defense spending until the DOD can pass an audit. This is Ludacris! I see fraud, waste, and abuse daily but there is nothing that can be done about it. We do not need to spend millions of dollars on a base right next to another base because they are "historic." We do not neet do complete training exercises spending thousands of dollars per hour just to say that we have done the thing that we will never actually do in war. There is absolutely no reason we need to pay millions of dollars for program overruns just because have already contributed so much to that project. We need to hold the DOD and the defense contractors accountable and to be honest we need to account for every penny that is spent.... With that said, Veterans have sacrificed a lot and we owe it to them as a country to compensate them and ensure that they are taken care off after they have sacrificed their future for the good of the republic. Many of our veterans will live much shorter lives than their civilian counterparts due to their service and the least we can do is ensure that their sacrifice is noticed and compensated for. How much is a year of your life worth? Ask yourself that next time you think veterans shouldn't receive healthcare or disability after their service is complete.
    • Conscription..... this one is going to be controversial so buckle up.... I think every VOTING American should be required to contribute to the nation as a whole. This does not necessarily mean military service although this is inside of my "defense" bullet. But think about it for just a moment. If you first two years out of high school you were required to contribute to the public good, either through military service or through social service. You could be a bus driver, firefighter, work for public parks, or for your county. There are infinite ways to serve your local community. You serve your community, draw a reasonable paycheck, learn a skill, and earn the right to vote. You are giving back to the society that you are a member of and getting a skill and a couple of years to mature before being sent off into the world on your own. We could tie education benefits to this in a similar fashion to the way the military does. If you give two years to public service then you get two years of state college paid for....If you decide that you absolutely do not want to contribute to your nation then that is fine, we will not arrest you or revoke your citizenship, you just will not be afforded the opportunity to have an opinion on policy as you have no skin in the game. You don't get to vote until you contribute.
• Foreign policy
  • Russia - They are bullies.... We have been the world police since the end of WW2 and this needs to change. Every country needs to take some ownership of its own sovereignty, however, like the comics say "With great power, comes great responsibility." We, as the dominant world power, have an obligation to balance the scales. Russia needs to stop picking on the weak and if the weak cannot defend themselves then it is our obligation to assist them but that does not mean that we need to fight the battle for them. Ukraine has done a great job of standing up for itself but the rest of Europe needs to continue to provide support in this war if they care about the outcome. End of the day, Russia is a dying country and we only really need to wait them out. We should not buy their exports, we should not sell them our exports, and we should make it very clear that we will evaluate our relationship with any country that does not feel the same way we do.
  • China - They WERE a rising power. China is doing its best to continue to the illusion that they are rising to the top but at the end of the day they do not have the internal infrastructure or resources to become the dominant world power. They would like the world to view them as pacifists but in reality, they are antagonists. Their actions within the "9-dash line" make it very clear what they want. They want security. Once they have that security then they want influence. But they cannot possibly hold that security or influence for very long if they continue to be opposed in their values to the USA and our allies. USA, Japan, and Australia alone pose a significant challenge to China's power for as long as we remain united. That does not even factor in the other allies that the US has in the region like the Philippines, or India who both pose significant defense challenges to CCP. Our policy towards China should be "Play nice or you don't get to play at all." This policy will be painful for us as we may have to pay more for some of our consumer goods but it will be even more painful for them if they do not play along. We hold all the cards for as long as we are willing to sacrifice just a little. The POTUS should just be honest with us and we will as a nation, will understand. "We will have to pay more for some things but in the long run the world will be better off because we held strong to our ideals and the world will be a more fair place."
  • Ukraine - Happy to send them aid but that aid should have an audit. Let's make sure that the money and equipment we are sending them is going to the place we intend for it to be sent. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
  • NATO - NATO is necessary until the remnants of the USSR are completely destroyed... but the other members of NATO need to hold up their end of the bargain and POTUS needs to hold Europe's feet to the fire until they pony up what they agreed to. End of the day the USA's sovereignty does not need NATO to exist to remain whole. We have all the resources we need and are well-defended. There is no need for us to defend them for the sake of trade anymore. NATO needs us more than we need them so if they would like to continue to receive the benefits of our alliance then they need to make it worth our while and it's POTUS's job to ensure that happens.

There are a lot of other policies that we can go through here and no POTUS is going to have all the answers (that's why he or she needs a strong cabinet). I hope that there is some discussion started here... but at the end of the day.... the two candidates that we are likely looking at are both unfit. We deserve some quality candidates and not the old crazy reality TV star and the Old washed-up politician with a terrible VP. Give me someone reasonable to vote for, please!

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We return from the commercial, a five-minute video that was just a still image of Dexter Flux.
Babaganoush: The following contest is scheduled for -
Crowd: ONE FALL!
Javier smiles at this response, and he’s clearly got confidence that he’s shook the rust off.
Babaganoush: ...And it is for the WiR Tag! Team! Championship!
Crowd: YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Babaganoush: Introducing first, the challengers…
Shit, you judge me on my appearance… face value ennat…
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOO!
As “Inglorious” plays, King Mustafa exits from behind the curtain with Eddie Skelter following closely. Mustafa has a suit - a blindingly light-blue Christian Dior one - on over his gear and he curses at the crowd, but Eddie, dressed in red sweats, just mean-mugs and gets up in the faces of a few front row spectators.
Mann: Look, I - I know why people hate these lads. I really do! Not blessed with great social graces and they get off on getting ill-gotten cash and hurting people. But they make for a tremendous team, both covering each other’s flaws and fighting as more than the sum of their parts.
The two of them hop up on the ring apron and remove their outer gear - horrifyingly enough, they take off their pants to reveal their short tights - and point to their chests: Mustafa has a lion symbol on his blue gear, while Eddie has a rose symbol on his red gear.
Babaganoush: …From the United Kingdom, weighing in at a total of 445 pounds, they are King Mustafa and Eddie Skelter… TWO! SMOKING! BARRELS!
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOO! / ENGLAND SUCKS! ENGLAND SUCKS! ENGLAND SUCKS!
Woodbridge: They’re right! They should say it! England DOES suck! That’s why guys like Brendan Byrne came here! He’s a good boy and he’s smart!
Mann: Moving on, and I’d like to apologize to our UK-based fans… as much respect as I have for 2SB, they’ve got their work cut out for them. Because here comes…
Babaganoush: And now, introducing the titleholders…
There is the completely incongruous sound of a blast on a Viking war horn before the jazz classic “Cantaloupe Island” begins to play and champions Jim Baker and Dexter Flux come from behind the curtain together, belts around their waists. Baker has on a chainmail shirt, while Dexter is in a huge fur cloak, which doesn’t even seem to be making them sweat. Their faces are painted with blue woad designs.
Crowd: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! HORDE! HORDE! HORDE!
Flux: OC BABY!
Crowd: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! DEXTER! DEXTER! DEXTER!
Mann: The crowd in Dexter Flux’s home region are giving him love.
Woodbridge: They’re wearing the belts! As it should be! Too much of this damn “I’ll put it over my shoulder” nonsense in wrestling these days.
Mann: And the rejuvenated Horde seems to be taking their name very seriously, judging by those outfits!
Woodbridge: What? What’s that mean?
Mann: Because of the barbarian type clothes -
Woodbridge: I still dunno what you’re talking about.
Mann: sigh I finally am starting to empathize with Allen Paisner.
On their way to the ring, Baker and Flux hand out a bunch of fist bumps; they take a brisk walk up the stairs, get their entrance gear off and hand it to Maurice Chondon for safekeeping, and Baker steps on the middle rope to help Flux in - Dexter is apparently adamant about starting.
Babaganoush: …from Orange County, CA -
Crowd: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Babaganoush: …and Cincinnati, OH, weighing in at a total of 425 pounds, they are the WiR Tag Team Champions - Jim Baker and Dexter Flux, THE HORDE!
Crowd: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Mann: Dexter Flux clearly going to be in the match first, and it looks like out of 2SB, Eddie Skelter wants to start…
Referee Harry Undersach checks over the four competitors - everyone complies even though Mustafa calls him a “chi chi man” - and signals for the match to begin!
DING DING DING!
Skelter offers a lockup to Flux, which the champion accepts, doing his best to ignore King Mustafa pounding on the ringpost and goading him while making rude English gestures at Baker from across the ring. The two wrestlers in the ring grapple - Skelter puts a facelock on Flux, goes to lock his right arm as well, but Flux gracefully gets out and tries to get a headlock on Skelter. Skelter has none of this and pushes Flux off, but Flux gets him down with an arm drag!
Crowd: YAAAAAAAAAY!
Mann: Both of these men are accomplished technical wrestlers. Skelter is obviously more a traditional mat wrestler, Flux is well-known for his high flying, but they’re going to do more of feeling each other out like this, I think.
Skelter attempts to put a wrist hold on Flux while the two are both down, but Flux gets out of his grip and kips up, and Skelter gets into a crouch, rising slowly and deliberately with both his eyes fixed on Flux, who assumes a readied stance but doesn’t go to attack Skelter yet. They re-assume a lockup, seemingly out of mutual agreement - this time, Flux manages to snap off a headlock takeover, bringing Flux to the ground again! Instantly he tries for a jumping elbow drop but Skelter rolls out of the way, and Flux makes a smooth recovery, landing on both his hands and pushing back up.
Crowd: AWWWWWWWWW…
Woodbridge: Both guys still actin’ wary. For now. Even Flux didn’t commit too hard to that elbow drop. Woulda been cool to see him break Skelter’s nose like that, hah.
Mann: Be that as it may, I feel like this pace will pick up soon!
Mustafa shouts a little more while Baker looks on calmly but still at the ready. The two stare each other down, and Skelter decides to take the first swing, throwing a fast but vicious jab towards Flux’s face. Flux, however, is able to dodge backwards and follow through with a forward jumping elbow! It hits Skelter square in the chest and he winces but SLAPS Flux right across the right cheek!
Crowd: OHHHHHHHHHHHHH! / BOOOOOOOOOO!
Woodbridge: The level of disrespect!
Mann: It’s still a legal strike, Mark. And it’s a treasured part of Eddie Skelter’s arsenal.
Mustafa is obviously pleased at the pimp smack, while Jim Baker looks irate, and is about to gesture for Flux to come back to their corner and tag him in. But Baker thinks the better of it, letting Flux avenge the insult himself instead. This he does, with a nice uppercut to Skelter’s jaw, but even as the Brit reels, before Flux can hit a follow-up attack, Skelter ducks behind him and grabs at his arm, a hold which Flux spins out of. But Skelter isn’t unprepared for this and knees Flux in the gut! He brings a chop down towards Flux’s head as Flux doubles over, but Flux is able to block it - Skelter then locks Flux’s arm and attempts to drop Flux with a Russian legsweep - Flux dodges and goes behind but Skelter turns around in time and throws a hard left-handed punch which Flux counters with an elbow, and both men’s strikes connect! They both stagger!
Crowd: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Woodbridge: Both of ‘em have their fire up! Kill him, Flux!
Mann: No easy task! Now it’s going to be a question of which man is forced to tag out first!
It’s Skelter who gets his head clear first and dives in for a double-leg takedown, which Flux blocks by splitting his legs - Skelter goes under and uses the leverage to attempt to lift Flux onto his shoulders - but Flux is ready for it! He clamps his legs and THROWS skelter with a modified headscissor takedown!
Crowd: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Woodbridge: That tijeras came straight from Guadalajara!
Mann: And now both competitors are on the mat!
Skelter sits up and winces and Flux scrambles to take advantage, but Skelter grabs his ankle and flips him to the mat with an ankle pick! Suddenly both men get about the same idea at the same time - Skelter takes further hold of Flux’s ankle but Flux tries to grapevine one of Skelter’s legs! They battle for a hold on the mat!
Crowd: LET’S GO DEXTER LET’S GO! clap clap LET’S GO DEXTER LET’S GO! clap clap
Meanwhile, dark gray clouds are gathering in the sky above the ring. The venue turns on some extra lights for better visibility.
Woodbridge: We’re onto Indian leg wrestling now!
Mann: That, and it looks like rain.
Woodbridge: You think the Tongva Indians ever used leg wrestling to do a rain dance?
Mann: …I do not think the one thing has to do with the other. Anyhow, the battle in the ring’s been VERY evenly matched so far.
Whilst Skelter goes for a modified figure-four leglock, Flux has something else in mind. He suddenly grips both of Skelter’s ankles, bridges onto his neck, and surprises Skelter by forcing him into a pin!
Woodbridge: DAMN!
Mann: Whoa, a flash pin attempt!
ONE!
TWO!
NO!
Crowd: AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW…
The pin catches Skelter off guard but it’s clearly not enough. Both men spring to their feet and Skelter tries another double leg takedown attempt which is fended off by a flurry of overhead elbows by Flux! Skelter holds his head and decides he’s had enough for now, backing into his corner and tagging in the furiously waving hand of King Mustafa.
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Mann: His partner Eddie Skelter may have started off, but the big man of Two Smoking Barrels has wanted in all match so far.
Mustafa leaps in the ring and curses at the crowd once more.
Woodbridge: Dexter Flux is standing firm!
Mann: He did well against Skelter, who was his equal in terms of physical strength, but I have a feeling King Mustafa’s going to absolutely overpower him now!
Mustafa steps right up to Flux and proceeds to slap him in the left cheek!
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Mann: The cycle of disrespect is completed by Skelter’s teammate!
Flux backs off, before returning back in for a lockup with Mustafa, who uses his size advantage to throw Flux back into his corner, where he tags Skelter back in, and the two stomp Flux down into the corner. Skelter then immediately tags back out to King Mustafa.
Woodbridge: I can’t judge. Literally can’t. Used that tag team tactic there too many times to count.
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOO
King Mustafa once again overpowers Flux, using her superior size to launch him into the hard camera turnbuckle. He attempts to charge in, but Flux skitters out of the way! Flux tries to bring down King Mustafa with a kick to the knee, but he doesn’t budge. King Mustafa blocks an attempt at a strike, and throws Flux by the arm off the ropes! As Flux careens towards the opposite end, Baker sticks out his hand, and smacks Flux on the shoulder!
Woodbridge: That’s a legal tag!
Flux baseball slides underneath King Mustafa, who is unaware the tag has been made, while Baker comes in and pearl harbors him! Baker takes control with an overhand right, a blow to the chest, and a Russian leg sweep, before attempting a body slam, which King Mustafa is too large for. Mustafa offers Baker a test of strength, but before Baker can even accept, he kicks him in the gut.
Crowd: BOOOOOO
Mustafa scoops Baker up with ease, and delivers a gorilla press slam, taking a moment to flex for the unappreciative crowd before continuing his assault. Mustafa wrenches the arm of Baker, before tagging Skelter back in. Skelter climbs up to Bret’s Rope, and while Mustafa wrenches the arm, Skelter dives off, and delivers a double axe handle to the trapped arm!
Mann: Some solid teamwork here by The Barrels!
Skelter puts the larger Baker on the mat with a clubbing blow to the back, before delivering a fist drop to the skull. Skelter, relishing his small victory, backs off the ropes and prepares an elbow drop, but Baker rolls out of the way, and tags Flux back in! Flux charges in once again to meet Skelter… and is caught instantly with an arm drag. Skelter brings him down to the mat, and applies a sleeper hold…
Crowd: BOOOOO
But Baker charges back into the ring, and breaks it up! King Mustafa enters the ring to try and chase Baker off, drilling Flux with a shoulder tackle as soon as he lands on his feet with a kip-up, planting him back on the ground. Mustafa returns to his corner, while Skelter ascends a turnbuckle!
Mann: Not something we’re used to seeing! Skelter wants to beat Flux at his own game!
Skelter dives off the top, attempting a flying forearm… and falls short. As he tries to get back to his feet, Flux batters him with a closed fist, before whipping him off the far ropes, but Skelter is able to turn it around. Flux attempts a sunset flip to regain control, but Skelter simply pops down and pokes him in the eye.
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
While Skelter is told off by the official, King Mustafa sneaks into the ring to deliver a stomp to Flux, before skittering back to the apron. Skelter picks up Flux, to deliver a forearm, before walk-dragging Flux over to the corner by his hair, and tagging Mustafa back in. Skelter holds Flux by the hair, and Mustafa stomps his boot before delivering a knee to the stomach as Skelter heads back to the apron. Mustafa whips Flux, and as he returns, scoops him up for a powerslam, before rising to his feet, walking to the ropes, and preparing a knee drop, which Flux avoids! Flux crawls on his knees over to the corner before Mustafa can catch him, and tags Baker back in! Flux takes position on the apron, one foot on the second turnbuckle.
Finally, the sky has opened up! It begins to rain on the ring, the crowd, and even the announcers!
Mann: Didn’t I say it was going to rain?
Woodbridge: It’s not bothering anybody one bit!
Crowd: YEEEAAAHHHHHH
Baker charges in, delivering a pair of punches to try and slow down Mustafa, but they fail to knock him off his feet. Baker tries charging in for a clothesline, Mustafa ducks, but as Baker approaches, he attempts a sunset flip!
Crowd: A-LO-HA KING! A-LO-HA KING!
Mann: Uncharacteristic offense from Baker!
Woodbridge: I’ll say! Baker’s a great power guy, but I didn’t think he’d even ever seen one of those!
Mustafa refuses to go down, but as he struggles, Flux suddenly leaps from the apron to the top turnbuckle, before flying in with a dropkick! Mustafa stumbles, and Baker pulls him down for the rollup!
Woodbridge: Oh shit!
Mann: Huge missile dropkick, and the mat’s slick with rain now! Mustafa had to go down!
ONE
TWO
THR-
Skelter breaks up the pin! Skelter then grabs Flux by the hair again, and darts him shoulder-first into his own ringpost. He bends the aching Flux backwards and grabs his neck for a dragon sleeper…
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! / GO FLUX GO!
Mann: He won’t be able to submit Flux unless Mustafa gets tagged out!
Woodbridge: I don’t think he wants to! This is gonna be Lack of…
Skelter twists Flux around and fires off a fat open-palm thrust to Flux’s throat, making Flux sputter and drop to his knees!
Woodbridge: TRUST! Nasty!
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Mustafa, who has recovered from the takedown, then proceeds to deliver an elbow to Flux’s crown! The two work over their opponents in the corners- Skelter attempting to ground Flux with kicks to the knee, Mustafa using his large arms to deliver repeated clotheslines, and with Flux and Baker tied up in opposite corners, Two Smoking Barrels attempt to whip their Horde counterparts into each other! As the two partners head on a collision course, Baker suddenly drops down, in back-body drop position to Flux, who lands on his feet!
Crowd: YEEAAAHHHH
Flux continues his momentum by delivering a running knee to King Mustafa, who is in his corner, before charging back a Baker, who offers a hand, and gives Flux a launching pad to deliver a flying forearm to Skelter! Skelter flops out of the corner, and out of the ring, and with the support of Knott’s Berry Farm behind him, Flux charges, and flies through the ropes with a dive that takes out both men!
A few members of the crowd begin to open up umbrellas, including the fan who got The Milkman’s earlier
Baker approaches Mustafa in the corner, and attempts to lift him to the second rope, but gets met with a boot for his troubles. Mustafa trades places with Baker, and pops him in the jaw, before delivering another one to the ribs, and a third to the temple. Baker blocks a fourth attempt, and turns it around on Mustafa! Baker unloads with a series of right hands of his own! Mustafa powers Baker out of the corner, and throws him to the opposite. Mustafa charges in, but as he tries to charge in, Baker moves out of the way, and attempts another rollup! This time he’s able to get Skelter off balance!
ONE
TWO
Kickout!
Flux ascends from the grass to the apron, and Baker tags him in! Baker attempts to lift Skelter once again, but struggles to, as he breaks free, but Flux delivers a dropkick, and Mustafa stumbles into Baker’s arms, who lifts him for a scoop slam!
Crowd: YEEEAAAHHHHH
Mann: He did it! He slammed him!
Woodbridge: This is where Baker shines! Not only displaying his power, but being great in the clutch!
Skelter tries to get in the ring again, but Flux meets him with a superkick! Skelter tries to keep his balance, but slips on the wet Apron and drops to the grass! Flux grabs the arm, and tags Baker back in, who delivers a clothesline to the trapped Mustafa, dropping him again. Flux gets the tag back in, and ascends the ropes…
And delivers Quantum Flux! He blasts down onto the King, into a puddle of rainwater forming in the center of the ring!
Woodbridge: QUANTUM FLUX! QUANTUM FLUX! DEXTER SEIZES THE MOMENT! MAN HAS FOLLOWTHROUGH!
Skelter tries to scramble back to the ring to make the save, Baker meets him, and holds him down! Flux scrambles into the cover!
ONE
TWO
THREE
DING DING DING
Crowd: YYEEEEAAAHHHHHH
Mann: And The Horde are victorious!
Woodbridge: And damn do they deserve it!
Babaganoush: Your winners and STILL WiR Tag Team Champions, at a time of twelve minutes and forty-three seconds, The Horde!
Flux and Baker hug it out in the ring, holding their tag belts high. Tony “The Milkman” Stevens emerges from the back, knee wrapped in medical tape and casts, limps to the ring, and raises the hands of his stablemates! Everyone is going crazy, especially because the hometown boy defended the stable’s belts by getting the pin!
Flux and Baker each get up on a turnbuckle, holding their tag belts up high, while in the ring, Stevens stands alone in the middle, one leg down, hair slicking back over his face from rain.
Mann: Fans at home, this has been Sound Off! The weather outside has turned frightful, but this show has been delightful! I have been Shay D. Mann filling in for Allen Paisner, alongside Mark Woodbridge. Take us home, Woodbridge!
Woodbridge: I finally feel confident in saying this - it has felt like a wonderful, shine-drunk dream so far - but folks, we are so fucking back. For all of the incredible fighters in WiR, for our whole staff and crew, and for my short-term broadcast partner Shay D. Mann, this has been Sound Off, and I have been Mark Woodbridge - gooooood night everybody!

In a world gripped by the fever of AI, tech behemoths are scrambling to unleash their latest chatbot brainchildren. In this mad dash, Google declared its entrant in the race, Bard, in the sprouting days of March 2023. A mere two months later, Bard started its digital tour, gallivanting across a whopping 180 regions. However, a slight snafu occurred in the grand plan – European nations were nowhere to be found on Bard's travel itinerary. Every EU dweller hoping for a tête-à-tête with Bard would instead receive the digital equivalent of a "Sorry, we're closed" sign: “Bard isn’t currently supported in your country.
But every dark cloud has a silver lining, and the silver lining here is the ease with which one can invite Bard into the EU. Google plays Sherlock Holmes, investigating your IP address to discern if you're browsing from an EU country. So, with the right digital props, you can impersonate an IP address from an approved location, tearing down Bard’s regional walls as easily as one might tear a page from a book.
Enter stage left: Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs. These services have the magical ability to convince Google you're sunning yourself on a beach in Miami, not trudging through snow in Stockholm. Not just a one-trick pony, VPNs also encrypt your online activities, turning them into unintelligible gibberish to any nosy parkers or the too-helpful owners of your favorite cafe's Wi-Fi. This guide is your backstage pass, your secret map, your golden ticket to getting access to Bard within the EU.
The Great Bard Caper: Tricking Google's Chatbot into Thinking You're Anywhere But Here
Want to invite Bard into your digital living room regardless of where you're sipping your coffee in the real world? Here's a simple step-by-step choreography to the Bard dance:
First things first, cast a discerning eye over the VPN market and select a service that values your security as much as a squirrel values acorn. NordVPN frequently stars in our recommendations, but you're the director of this little performance.
With your chosen VPN in hand, proceed to download, install, and log in. It's a bit like getting the key to a secret clubhouse, only this clubhouse allows you to be anywhere in the world at the click of a button.
Next, choose a server from your home country (or whatever non-EU location is nearest). It's like choosing a costume for a masquerade ball – you want to pick something that conceals your identity, but doesn't make you stand out too much.
By doing this, you'll be switching your IP address and thereby pulling the wool over Google's eyes, who would otherwise deduce that you're beyond the boundaries of Bard's jurisdiction.
Last but not least, waltz on over to Bard’s website. As soon as you accept the terms of use, you should be able to chat away with Bard as freely as a kid discussing his superhero aspirations. And there you have it, a magical, yet practical guide to using Bard from wherever your heart, or rather your physical self, is located.
NordVPN
Playing hide-and-seek with Google's Bard from some sun-soaked piazza in Europe? Let NordVPN step into the role of your savvy accomplice. Boasting servers in a not-too-shabby 60 countries, some even pulling the late shift to dodge the stringent barricades of online blocking, this is the VPN equivalent of a digital Houdini.
Not only does it take the top podium spot in the sprint race of VPNs, posting a cheetah-esque average speed of 190 Mbps in our stopwatch trials, but NordVPN also juggles a laundry list of streaming services like Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney+. Plus, it's got a heart big enough to secure up to six of your devices simultaneously. And should you ever find yourself in a pickle, NordVPN has round-the-clock customer support standing by like a digital cavalry.
A VPN's raison d'etre is to make your online activities as clandestine as a classified operation. NordVPN rises to the challenge with a potent mix of encryption that would put Fort Knox to shame, an array of digital shields like leak protection and a kill switch, and a no-logs policy as stern as a Victorian headmaster. True, it stashes away advertising IDs on mobile gadgets, but it kindly gives you a cheat sheet on how to wipe them clean. Toss in some fancier gizmos like Onion over VPN servers, automatic tracker-blocking, and a MeshNet tool for securely linking your devices even if they're scattered across different continents, and you've got yourself a swanky VPN package.
No matter your device's operating system - Linux, MacOS, Windows, Android, or iOS - NordVPN has an app for it. And for those wielding a router, it's got a manual setup guide to turn it into a NordVPN conduit. All in all, NordVPN is like a digital chameleon, helping you blend into the online world while you enjoy your chat with Bard from wherever you might be.
SurfsharkVPN
In the aquatic realm of the VPN universe, Surfshark swishes its digital tail among an impressive crowd of 3,000+ servers, dotting the map in 100 countries, many of them lounging comfortably outside the EU's borders. Unlike many of its compatriots in the digital ocean, this service boasts a swanky resume of geo-blocked platforms it has conquered: Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Amazon Prime Video, to name a few. So, the challenge of sneaking into Bard's restricted zone is about as difficult as eating a piece of cake for Surfshark.
Blessed with Olympian speeds and an open-door policy for the number of devices you can connect (an online cornucopia, if you will), Surfshark is the perfect digital wingman for families who have a thing for streaming. And with a customer support crew buzzing with activity 24/7, you're never more than a few clicks away from your digital life-raft.
Surfshark is a veritable digital fortress when it comes to safeguarding your data, equipped with encryption that would give Alan Turing a run for his money, a kill switch that would make MI6 proud, and leak protection that is about as watertight as the Titanic was supposed to be. It also takes its no-logs policy seriously, a claim verified by independent auditors. Plus, it’s adept at swatting away ads, trackers, and malware like pesky digital flies, and can even switch up your IP address every so often to keep your online identity as elusive as Bigfoot. Toss in an antivirus, a privacy-focused search engine, and a data-breach monitor (not part of the basic subscription, mind you), and you've got a serious contender for your VPN affections.
With apps crafted for iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows, and Linux, Surfshark is ready to hitch a ride on any device. And for the router-savvy among you, a manual installation guide stands ready at your disposal. Surfshark really is the ideal VPN: a veritable Swiss Army Knife in a digital ocean of butter knives.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN, a steam-powered engine in the digital realm, whizzes along the virtual track at astonishing speeds, gracefully bypassing servers in more than 90 countries. Not only can it poke a hole in Bard's geo-restriction bubble, but it can also cloak your torrenting antics, offer a secure browsing tunnel in the deepest trenches of online restrictions, and stream your beloved TV series from all corners of the globe. With a user interface as uncomplicated as a three-piece jigsaw puzzle and a support team that never sleeps, ExpressVPN is the perfect travel companion for any VPN newcomer, or for those who simply prefer their digital services without a surplus of bells and whistles.
As a digital toolkit for accessing Bard, ExpressVPN carries everything you'd need: The Fort Knox of encryption methods, 256-bit, a kill switch (which abruptly halts data traffic if your connection acts like a petulant teenager and drops), and safeguards against DNS, IPv6, and WebRTC leaks. It also boasts the ability to give certain apps a hall pass to sidestep the VPN, or to switch on auto-connect when on a network you don't recognize. ExpressVPN doesn't jot down any data that could unmask you and has undergone an audit to vouch for this. And for those digital privacy enthusiasts who wish to pay in Bitcoin, ExpressVPN gladly accepts your digital gold.
From iOS to MacOS, Android to Windows, and not forgetting Linux, ExpressVPN has an app for almost any device. Moreover, it's the only top-tier provider with its own blueprint for router firmware, simplifying the process of fortifying every device on your network with a VPN shield. ExpressVPN: like the bullet train of VPNs, only without the pesky physical limitations.
Behind the Curtain: Unveiling the Bard VPN Selection Saga
Deeming which VPNs are the cream of the crop for specific endeavors is akin to navigating through a digital labyrinth. A myriad of services, all wearing similar façades, are in reality, as different as chalk and cheese when you pop their hoods. That's why, to shine a light on the most reliable contenders, we rolled up our sleeves, delved into a plethora of providers with Bard, and subjected them to a battery of tests. We meticulously examined their offerings across a spectrum of categories:
Geographic Mettle: Bard is a bit of a wallflower in EU countries, meaning providers must offer a healthy sprinkling of locations that give it the green light, such as the US and the UK. We also rummage through the closets of providers using virtual servers since these can muddle the waters about which country's legalities preside over your data.
Speed and Sturdiness: Our stopwatch is always at the ready to see which VPNs have their running shoes on, and how their sprint has altered over time. A hat trick of tests per provider (three locations at thrice different times) helps us strike an average, curbing some of the fickleness and ensuring services with unflinching speeds lead the pack.
Versatility: Despite your primary hunt being a VPN to unblock Bard, your digital pursuits might expand to secure streaming, torrenting, or gaming. Hence, we conduct a variety of tests that mirror the average Joe's usage, giving the boot to any VPNs that can't keep pace.
Security and Privacy: One of our key missions is to ensure that VPNs come equipped with the digital arsenal necessary to keep your traffic concealed from digital peeping Toms. We search for encryption that would baffle even the most cunning of codebreakers, safety nets like a kill switch, and any superior tools such as stealth mode. We also scrutinize their logging policies and audit history, so you're not left taking a company's privacy claims on a wing and a prayer.
User-friendliness: We have a soft spot for VPNs that roll out the red carpet for newbies. This entails offering a multitude of apps, transparently described settings, and an accessible customer support hotline. Other cherries on top include task-dedicated servers, a lack of connection restrictions, and auto-connection gadgets.
Pricing: Although it shouldn't be your North Star, price is a worthy compass. We pit services against their similarly priced adversaries, while also keeping an eye out for any money-back assurances, free trials, or seasonal discounts, so your digital wallet doesn’t feel any unnecessary strain.

I can't help but think that Milton would have lost his job after St. Denis at the latest. He manages to get only 3 of the gang members off the table and in the process shoots up half the city. He then locks the rest down for at least a night or two, and comes up empty.
He could have tracked them as they left, or set the ambushes just outside of town with gattlings and an open field of fire to boot. Yet he chose to start a massive firefight in the heart of a super populated town.
Against fighters he KNEW to be capable of shooting their way through insane odds. A group of fighters with more guns currently on them than they have had in any previous fights, and they are inside a fortified structure, which gives them time to adapt their escape plans.
One of the three kill/captures he has (arguably the biggest of the three) can't even be publicized heavily because the how has to be covered up for image sake. He then loses the body. The hunt wouldn't have let up, but Milton would have had a desk job in DC or a pink slip for how badly he had conducted the hunt and how much destruction he was helping create while failing utterly time and time again.

Posted to reddit lighting design forum on 1 JUN 2023
I am designing the lighting for a new build residence. The calculations for Kitchen lighting suggest that my design is not achievable with available luminaires. I am concerned that I am making a glaring error. Please help me identify my problem or my expectations.

COMPONENTS

OVERALL

The kitchen is 287 sq ft with two sides open to other spaces

FOOD PREPARATION COUNTER

Counter area is 23 sq ft.
I chose 90 fc for light Intensity
Which suggests I need 22.4k lumens (23sqft * 90 fc * 10.7639)

ISLAND

is 29 sq ft
I chose 45 fc for light density
which suggests i need 14.2k lumens

WALKING SPACE

is 202 sq ft
I chose 20 fc for light density
suggests i need 43.5k lumens

DESIGN

FOOD PREPARATION COUNTER

The food preparation counter is illuminated by two independent lighting systems. Undercabinet and recessed ceiling lights positioned to luminate the counter and the contents in the cabinet above the counter.

Undercabinet

Led string offers 706 Lumens/ft for 8 ft producing 5.65k Lumnes

Recessed lights

3 Led recessed lights offering 2k lumens producing 6K lumens

Total Counter illumination

11.65k lumens generated by chosen lights NOT meeting the above stated 22.4k Lumens

ISLAND

The Island is illuminated by a three light pendant. Each light offers 2450 lumens for a total of 7.4k lumens which is considerably less than the desired 14.2k Lumens

WALKING SPACE

for the walking area i used 9 recessed led cans each offering 2000 lumens for a total of 18k lumens (need 45.5k)
So my question is this....is my calculation procedure amiss or do I have unrealistic expectations. What am i doing wrong?
See attached jpg image of kitchen region
Respectfully
William H. Burling

Guide available! Go here.
Series beginning is here.
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Once we had taken down the camp, I loaded the cart with the animal carcasses using my Hands of Air. While I was strong, there was no way I was lifting a female Dire Bear. Once our quarry was loaded onto the cart, I helped my Haarthuu friends up as well. They all situated themselves in the front seat, and I took my place behind the handle.
“Off we go!” I exclaimed and pushed off from the ground. It was difficult to get the cart rolling, but once I did, keeping it there wasn’t too much strain.
We continued in this way for about five hours, which is when we came to a hill that I would be unable to climb with the cart, and I doubted my companions would be much help. I had stopped and was leaning against the handle, breathing hard and heavily.
“Well, I can’t climb this, and I don’t have it in me to tunnel through. What should we do, Liss-ran?” I asked, panting.
Liss-ran sat there in a slight panic. “Um, I’m not sure. If there were Uror nearby, I’d say to convince one of them to help?”
I snapped my fingers. “That’s it! I’ll call Walter,” I said happily.
I closed my eyes and leaned on the cart.
“Walter?”
“Yeah, Boss? You okay? You sound beat.”
“I’m fine. Just kinda tired. Where are you located right now? I could use some help.”
“Yeah? Let’s see…. I’m about an hour or so away from where you are right now. What’s going on?”
“I’m pulling a cart through the woods back to Haruma. I’ve hit a hill that I can’t pull it over. It’s too loaded down, and I’m not strong enough.”
“Ah. I see. Well, I can be there in an hour. Or should I send someone else?”
“Well, this cart is narrower than the last. It may be a bit uncomfortable for you.”
“Okay. I can send a kid over to you. They’ll be able to carry you and pull the cart.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, boss. She’s on her way right now. From a different herd, so she can get to you faster.
“Okay. Should I give her some of my magic so she can communicate with me, or are you the only member I will be able to speak with? I don’t know how this all works.”
“Nah. Don’t worry about it. She’ll be able to understand you, and will take you home no sweat. If she decides to stick around, I might uhh… claim her. Have your woman try to bond with her.”
I laughed and let the matter drop. “Okay Walter. Thanks man. If there’s anything I can do for you, let me know. Oh. We’re leaving the week after last frost. Heading to Klearm. If you could meet us in Haruma beforehand, I’ll make sure you’re fed well and your coat is nice and shiny.”
“You got it, Boss! Looking forward to it!”
I pulled my Pack off, and removed a large piece of leather, as well as my tools. “Gonna need these in a few. We have a female Uror heading our way. I’m going to make a harness and a saddle for her once she gets here, and we will be on our way. Sound good?” I announced.
Four heads looked at one another, then at me. “How did you manage that, Ivor?” Liss-ran asked incredulously.
“Uh, I just reached out to Walter, the Uror that brought us here. Apparently when you bond yourself to a Uror, you can speak with them from great distances. He’s an hour away. The female should be here much quicker. She’s from a more local herd,” I explained. “I won’t be able to speak with her the same as I do Walter, but I was instructed to see if Elizabet would like to try and bond with her.” I concluded.
“Okaaayyy….. If you say so, Ivor. I guess we get to see a different Uror,” Liss-ran said, shaking her head.
I rested there, cutting some strips from the leather for makeshift reins, belts and straps. I also took the time to fashion buckles from the Duplicated knife blade I had in my Pack. About fifteen minutes after I had finished making those, a shaggy Uror trundled up and halted beside the cart. She snorted and stamped a paw on the ground, seemingly eager to get this over with.
“Hello, my lady! Thank you for answering Walter’s call to help us. I trust he has explained the situation to you?” I said to the shaggy beast.
She tossed her head twice, which I took as an affirmative. “Excellent. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to fit you for a harness so we can hitch you to the wagon. Would you mind if I got to work? I’ll do my best to make it as comfortable as possible. If it pinches or is uncomfortable, please snort twice,” I said, receiving another toss of her head.
I smiled and got to work, crafting the harness from memory and sizing it to fit the much smaller female. After a few mistakes, she and I fell into a routine, and I had the harness crafted in short order. Once I explained the concept of the saddle to her, I began the process of making that, with similar results. All in all, it took us the better part of an hour to finish the work.
“There we are. Hmm. You know, I can’t just call you ‘Uror’ or something like that. May I call you Lady?” I asked.
The shaggy beast was still for a moment, and then tossed her head twice. “Excellent, Lady! I am Ivor, and we are going to Haruma. I will direct you, if that’s okay?” Another head toss and she began to strain against the weight of the cart. I quickly climbed up, and we were off.
With the assistance of Lady, we made short work of the hill in front of us. I let her choose the pace, and we were slowly, but steadily, on our way to Haruma once more.
“Liss-ran? How long do you think we have until we get home?” I asked.
“At this rate?” she said, taking stock of our surroundings and pace. “We should be there around dinnertime, I’d say.”
“Awesome. Just in time to have some of Gon-rash’s amazing cooking. This day is getting better and better!” I said happily, shrugging my Pack back onto my shoulders.
We rode and chatted for another hour or so, and I saw how lifted everyone’s spirits were. Even Tren-sun was cracking jokes and smiling.
After an hour or so, Kilik-ma called out, “Hey Ivor. What kind of entertainment does your world have?”
“Entertainment? Well, we have books, plays, theater, dance, songs, musical bands, and a form of entertainment that absolutely doesn’t and hopefully will never exist on Chaia, television,” I said. “Why?”
“Well, Liss-ran was describing your music to me when we were hunting, and I was curious to hear some.”
“Oh. Well, that device is back in Haruma, actually. I left it with Elizabet for safe-keeping, so I can’t use it right now to show you my music,” I said regretfully.
“Oh. Okay,” Tren-sun said, sounding dejected.
“But I’m feeling pretty good, so how about I sing a song for you?” I ventured.
Four voices replied in the affirmative, and even Lady tossed her head. Looks like I was committed. I racked my brain, trying to think of a decent one that I actually knew all the lyrics to, when a shiver ran through me. That’s it! I took a deep breath and began…
“Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?....” My rich baritone rang out through the forest, echoing off the trees and the mountain beside us.
As I was atop Lady and had my eyes closed, I was naturally unable to see the stunned reactions on the faces of my companions, as I was also facing away from them.
As I sang, the very air around us changed. The scent of snow that I had grown accustomed to had multiplied, finally depositing its bounty of crystalline glory across the entirety of the forest. Unnoticed by me, some of the buckles had been Duplicated, and now hung on the reins as small tinkling bells.
A smattering of small, blue birds had taken flight shortly after I began, wheeling their way south. The Haarthuu watched, openmouthed, as they took flight, as there had been no birds in those trees before.
Feeling joy course through my core, I opened my eyes to a forest covered in a blanket of fluffy snow. I continued, nearly trancelike, with my song, seeing the images from my mind’s eye blossom into being in a clearing to our left.
Two people made of snow, resembling myself and Elizabet, were building another snowman, giving him a defined beard and a book. These snowy puppets acted out the lyrics to the song I was singing, bowing and dancing about.
The scene shifted, and there was a fireplace made of snow, complete with dancing flames made of snow within. Two puppets, easily the size of a dire bear, pantomimed speaking and were then covered by a snowy blanket.
Once more, we saw an empty field, with the same three puppets from before. They danced and glided about the field, “speaking” to the snow-preacher.
As my song concluded, we saw the two puppets walking arm-in-arm beside the cart, and then they collapsed into a pile of wet snow once I closed my mouth.
As I came back to my senses, I realized I was sweating profusely, and my stomach was protesting loudly.
“Ivor. What. Did. You. Just. Do?” Liss-ran asked breathlessly.
I sat there, panting. Trembling, I reached into my coat for the jerky that I had taken to keeping there. I began stuffing piece after piece into my starving gullet, trying to stave off the unconsciousness that loomed on my horizon. I swallowed more and more of the meat, my mouth eventually going dry. I slung my Pack to the front, and pulled out the pitcher and drank deeply of its cool bounty.
My thirst slaked, my hunger staved off for the moment, I turned and looked at Liss-ran.
“I have no idea. It looks like I can’t be singing things like that. I hope I haven’t royally mucked up the weather…” I said in a shaky voice.
“Was that the Ancient Tongue?” asked Piri-thak.
“Huh?”
“Ivor, we couldn’t understand a word of that. Are you telling me that you didn’t realize you were singing in the Ancient Tongue?” Liss-ran asked gently.
Realization hit me like a truck. I sang the weather into existence. It was effortless and easy. I didn’t even register that I was doing so until after I was done and the shakes hit. What’s more, I sang what I saw in my head into existence. All the images I would see when I heard that song manifested in this world as snowy puppets and props. Even the bells that were on the harness were exactly as my mind’s eye saw them. I could only guess that I may have created a new species of bird. I felt mortified.
“No… I had no idea I wasn’t singing in your language. Well. Now to deal with the fallout. Is this the normal time the snows would begin, Liss-ran?” I asked quietly.
“Thankfully, yes. It’s a week early, but nothing too far out of the ordinary. I wouldn’t worry too much about altering the weather. Those birds, though. That may be a different story. There _were _only twenty or so,” she replied.
I nodded and closed my mouth. This was a new lesson, and one that I needed to ensure stayed present in my mind. I zipped my coat up against the wind, and Lady trudged on.
As the skies darkened, we could see the main road that led into our home. Kilik-ma jumped down and raced ahead, probably to let the village know we were back a little early.
About ten minutes after he left, we had a throng of people rushing out to meet us. At the forefront were Elizabet, Talah-ma’at and our boys.
“Hi everyone! We’re a little early, I know. We’ve got some goodies in the back of the wagon, and a lot more in my Pack. Let’s get Lady into the city, and we’ll unload everything, okay?” I called out.
The crowd of maybe thirty individuals parted and walked beside us like an honor guard, leading the Uror into the central hall of Haruma. Once inside, I called the gentle beast to a halt, and dismounted. I unhooked her from the cart and began to remove her harness when she snorted twice.
“Lady? Is something the matter?”
The Uror walked out of the twin shafts of the cart and turned to face us. Or, more specifically, she faced Elizabet. She looked directly at her and tossed her head.
“Present your magic to her, Elizabet. See if she’ll take it,” I said softly.
Slowly, Elizabet raised a trembling hand and a small, iron-gray sphere rose from her palm and hovered four inches above it. She approached the shaggy beast with her outstretched hand, and waited.
Lady stepped forward and gently plucked the sphere from Elizabet with a delicate tongue. She stood there chewing on it for a moment, and it was then that I heard Elizabet gasp.
“She said her name is Lola. And that she’ll follow us wherever we go. And that you…” she trailed off and turned to stare at me with an arched brow. In a low, dangerous tone she said, “What. Did. You. Do?”
I knew that tone. I sighed and shook my head. “Thanks, Lola. I was going to get around to that shortly.” I said in a wry voice. I looked Elizabet in the eye. “I appear to be able to control the weather to a degree. I don’t know to what extent it goes, but…. I sang a song into existence,” I said, defeated.
Elizabet looked confused. “You… Wait, you can sing?”
Liss-ran piped up. “His voice is rich and deep, too! It was nice,” she said with a little giggle.
“And loud. He has some lung power, he does,” Tren-sun added.
“Does anybody else wish to make her even more upset with me than she already is?” I asked in a loud, exasperated tone. “No? Thank you.”
“Try it again, Ivor. Tell me what you did,” Elizabet said firmly, crossing her arms beneath her prodigious chest.
“Yes, genius. Tell us what wonder you pulled out of your ass this time,” Blainaut said, coming up from behind Elizabet.
“Oh, gods. Not again,” I said, hanging my head.
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Hey! I’m also uploading my work on RoyalRoad! Here is my profile IvorFreyrsson
Join me over at Words_From_Ivor for more!
Master List

Once we had taken down the camp, I loaded the cart with the animal carcasses using my Hands of Air. While I was strong, there was no way I was lifting a female Dire Bear. Once our quarry was loaded onto the cart, I helped my Haarthuu friends up as well. They all situated themselves in the front seat, and I took my place behind the handle.
“Off we go!” I exclaimed and pushed off from the ground. It was difficult to get the cart rolling, but once I did, keeping it there wasn’t too much strain.
We continued in this way for about five hours, which is when we came to a hill that I would be unable to climb with the cart, and I doubted my companions would be much help. I had stopped and was leaning against the handle, breathing hard and heavily.
“Well, I can’t climb this, and I don’t have it in me to tunnel through. What should we do, Liss-ran?” I asked, panting.
Liss-ran sat there in a slight panic. “Um, I’m not sure. If there were Uror nearby, I’d say to convince one of them to help?”
I snapped my fingers. “That’s it! I’ll call Walter,” I said happily.
I closed my eyes and leaned on the cart.
“Walter?”
“Yeah, Boss? You okay? You sound beat.”
“I’m fine. Just kinda tired. Where are you located right now? I could use some help.”
“Yeah? Let’s see…. I’m about an hour or so away from where you are right now. What’s going on?”
“I’m pulling a cart through the woods back to Haruma. I’ve hit a hill that I can’t pull it over. It’s too loaded down, and I’m not strong enough.”
“Ah. I see. Well, I can be there in an hour. Or should I send someone else?”
“Well, this cart is narrower than the last. It may be a bit uncomfortable for you.”
“Okay. I can send a kid over to you. They’ll be able to carry you and pull the cart.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, boss. She’s on her way right now. From a different herd, so she can get to you faster.
“Okay. Should I give her some of my magic so she can communicate with me, or are you the only member I will be able to speak with? I don’t know how this all works.”
“Nah. Don’t worry about it. She’ll be able to understand you, and will take you home no sweat. If she decides to stick around, I might uhh… claim her. Have your woman try to bond with her.”
I laughed and let the matter drop. “Okay Walter. Thanks man. If there’s anything I can do for you, let me know. Oh. We’re leaving the week after last frost. Heading to Klearm. If you could meet us in Haruma beforehand, I’ll make sure you’re fed well and your coat is nice and shiny.”
“You got it, Boss! Looking forward to it!”
I pulled my Pack off, and removed a large piece of leather, as well as my tools. “Gonna need these in a few. We have a female Uror heading our way. I’m going to make a harness and a saddle for her once she gets here, and we will be on our way. Sound good?” I announced.
Four heads looked at one another, then at me. “How did you manage that, Ivor?” Liss-ran asked incredulously.
“Uh, I just reached out to Walter, the Uror that brought us here. Apparently when you bond yourself to a Uror, you can speak with them from great distances. He’s an hour away. The female should be here much quicker. She’s from a more local herd,” I explained. “I won’t be able to speak with her the same as I do Walter, but I was instructed to see if Elizabet would like to try and bond with her.” I concluded.
“Okaaayyy….. If you say so, Ivor. I guess we get to see a different Uror,” Liss-ran said, shaking her head.
I rested there, cutting some strips from the leather for makeshift reins, belts and straps. I also took the time to fashion buckles from the Duplicated knife blade I had in my Pack. About fifteen minutes after I had finished making those, a shaggy Uror trundled up and halted beside the cart. She snorted and stamped a paw on the ground, seemingly eager to get this over with.
“Hello, my lady! Thank you for answering Walter’s call to help us. I trust he has explained the situation to you?” I said to the shaggy beast.
She tossed her head twice, which I took as an affirmative. “Excellent. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to fit you for a harness so we can hitch you to the wagon. Would you mind if I got to work? I’ll do my best to make it as comfortable as possible. If it pinches or is uncomfortable, please snort twice,” I said, receiving another toss of her head.
I smiled and got to work, crafting the harness from memory and sizing it to fit the much smaller female. After a few mistakes, she and I fell into a routine, and I had the harness crafted in short order. Once I explained the concept of the saddle to her, I began the process of making that, with similar results. All in all, it took us the better part of an hour to finish the work.
“There we are. Hmm. You know, I can’t just call you ‘Uror’ or something like that. May I call you Lady?” I asked.
The shaggy beast was still for a moment, and then tossed her head twice. “Excellent, Lady! I am Ivor, and we are going to Haruma. I will direct you, if that’s okay?” Another head toss and she began to strain against the weight of the cart. I quickly climbed up, and we were off.
With the assistance of Lady, we made short work of the hill in front of us. I let her choose the pace, and we were slowly, but steadily, on our way to Haruma once more.
“Liss-ran? How long do you think we have until we get home?” I asked.
“At this rate?” she said, taking stock of our surroundings and pace. “We should be there around dinnertime, I’d say.”
“Awesome. Just in time to have some of Gon-rash’s amazing cooking. This day is getting better and better!” I said happily, shrugging my Pack back onto my shoulders.
We rode and chatted for another hour or so, and I saw how lifted everyone’s spirits were. Even Tren-sun was cracking jokes and smiling.
After an hour or so, Kilik-ma called out, “Hey Ivor. What kind of entertainment does your world have?”
“Entertainment? Well, we have books, plays, theater, dance, songs, musical bands, and a form of entertainment that absolutely doesn’t and hopefully will never exist on Chaia, television,” I said. “Why?”
“Well, Liss-ran was describing your music to me when we were hunting, and I was curious to hear some.”
“Oh. Well, that device is back in Haruma, actually. I left it with Elizabet for safe-keeping, so I can’t use it right now to show you my music,” I said regretfully.
“Oh. Okay,” Tren-sun said, sounding dejected.
“But I’m feeling pretty good, so how about I sing a song for you?” I ventured.
Four voices replied in the affirmative, and even Lady tossed her head. Looks like I was committed. I racked my brain, trying to think of a decent one that I actually knew all the lyrics to, when a shiver ran through me. That’s it! I took a deep breath and began…
“Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?....” My rich baritone rang out through the forest, echoing off the trees and the mountain beside us.
As I was atop Lady and had my eyes closed, I was naturally unable to see the stunned reactions on the faces of my companions, as I was also facing away from them.
As I sang, the very air around us changed. The scent of snow that I had grown accustomed to had multiplied, finally depositing its bounty of crystalline glory across the entirety of the forest. Unnoticed by me, some of the buckles had been Duplicated, and now hung on the reins as small tinkling bells.
A smattering of small, blue birds had taken flight shortly after I began, wheeling their way south. The Haarthuu watched, openmouthed, as they took flight, as there had been no birds in those trees before.
Feeling joy course through my core, I opened my eyes to a forest covered in a blanket of fluffy snow. I continued, nearly trancelike, with my song, seeing the images from my mind’s eye blossom into being in a clearing to our left.
Two people made of snow, resembling myself and Elizabet, were building another snowman, giving him a defined beard and a book. These snowy puppets acted out the lyrics to the song I was singing, bowing and dancing about.
The scene shifted, and there was a fireplace made of snow, complete with dancing flames made of snow within. Two puppets, easily the size of a dire bear, pantomimed speaking and were then covered by a snowy blanket.
Once more, we saw an empty field, with the same three puppets from before. They danced and glided about the field, “speaking” to the snow-preacher.
As my song concluded, we saw the two puppets walking arm-in-arm beside the cart, and then they collapsed into a pile of wet snow once I closed my mouth.
As I came back to my senses, I realized I was sweating profusely, and my stomach was protesting loudly.
“Ivor. What. Did. You. Just. Do?” Liss-ran asked breathlessly.
I sat there, panting. Trembling, I reached into my coat for the jerky that I had taken to keeping there. I began stuffing piece after piece into my starving gullet, trying to stave off the unconsciousness that loomed on my horizon. I swallowed more and more of the meat, my mouth eventually going dry. I slung my Pack to the front, and pulled out the pitcher and drank deeply of its cool bounty.
My thirst slaked, my hunger staved off for the moment, I turned and looked at Liss-ran.
“I have no idea. It looks like I can’t be singing things like that. I hope I haven’t royally mucked up the weather…” I said in a shaky voice.
“Was that the Ancient Tongue?” asked Piri-thak.
“Huh?”
“Ivor, we couldn’t understand a word of that. Are you telling me that you didn’t realize you were singing in the Ancient Tongue?” Liss-ran asked gently.
Realization hit me like a truck. I sang the weather into existence. It was effortless and easy. I didn’t even register that I was doing so until after I was done and the shakes hit. What’s more, I sang what I saw in my head into existence. All the images I would see when I heard that song manifested in this world as snowy puppets and props. Even the bells that were on the harness were exactly as my mind’s eye saw them. I could only guess that I may have created a new species of bird. I felt mortified.
“No… I had no idea I wasn’t singing in your language. Well. Now to deal with the fallout. Is this the normal time the snows would begin, Liss-ran?” I asked quietly.
“Thankfully, yes. It’s a week early, but nothing too far out of the ordinary. I wouldn’t worry too much about altering the weather. Those birds, though. That may be a different story. There were only twenty or so,” she replied.
I nodded and closed my mouth. This was a new lesson, and one that I needed to ensure stayed present in my mind. I zipped my coat up against the wind, and Lady trudged on.
As the skies darkened, we could see the main road that led into our home. Kilik-ma jumped down and raced ahead, probably to let the village know we were back a little early.
About ten minutes after he left, we had a throng of people rushing out to meet us. At the forefront were Elizabet, Talah-ma’at and our boys.
“Hi everyone! We’re a little early, I know. We’ve got some goodies in the back of the wagon, and a lot more in my Pack. Let’s get Lady into the city, and we’ll unload everything, okay?” I called out.
The crowd of maybe thirty individuals parted and walked beside us like an honor guard, leading the Uror into the central hall of Haruma. Once inside, I called the gentle beast to a halt, and dismounted. I unhooked her from the cart and began to remove her harness when she snorted twice.
“Lady? Is something the matter?”
The Uror walked out of the twin shafts of the cart and turned to face us. Or, more specifically, she faced Elizabet. She looked directly at her and tossed her head.
“Present your magic to her, Elizabet. See if she’ll take it,” I said softly.
Slowly, Elizabet raised a trembling hand and a small, iron-gray sphere rose from her palm and hovered four inches above it. She approached the shaggy beast with her outstretched hand, and waited.
Lady stepped forward and gently plucked the sphere from Elizabet with a delicate tongue. She stood there chewing on it for a moment, and it was then that I heard Elizabet gasp.
“She said her name is Lola. And that she’ll follow us wherever we go. And that you…” she trailed off and turned to stare at me with an arched brow. In a low, dangerous tone she said, “What. Did. You. Do?”
I knew that tone. I sighed and shook my head. “Thanks, Lola. I was going to get around to that shortly.” I said in a wry voice. I looked Elizabet in the eye. “I appear to be able to control the weather to a degree. I don’t know to what extent it goes, but…. I sang a song into existence,” I said, defeated.
Elizabet looked confused. “You… Wait, you can sing?”
Liss-ran piped up. “His voice is rich and deep, too! It was nice,” she said with a little giggle.
“And loud. He has some lung power, he does,” Tren-sun added.
“Does anybody else wish to make her even more upset with me than she already is?” I asked in a loud, exasperated tone. “No? Thank you.”
“Try it again, Ivor. Tell me what you did,” Elizabet said firmly, crossing her arms beneath her prodigious chest.
“Yes, genius. Tell us what wonder you pulled out of your ass this time,” Blainaut said, coming up from behind Elizabet.
“Oh, gods. Not again,” I said, hanging my head.