Would super appreciate it if everyone reads this long-ass thesis of a post with an open mind and to the end...its me being vulnerable in an anonymous reddit sub because i think these things matter in the larger framework of a uniquely special show and the larger world we all as humans live in. My last post in this sub was downvoted to hell which btw totally ok...and i dont depend on reddit currency for my livelihood so its all good. I just care about my posts being read...specially this one.
Some context:
I'm very new to this community and the show as well. Currently have time off work and going ham on reddit and venturing very scared into the deep dark of world of rabid fandoms and small niche communities. Getting a little burnt along the way but also learning from some super talented fans with their own eye-opening ideas and funny posts. Im also an aspiring writer and well...some of my best ideas have come from reddit lurking on cool and active subs with bridgerton sub being new for me. Jet lagged, anxious and just a tad bit antsy, I'm trying to go down and deep and maybe open some deeper discussions here.
I am Indian and lived primarily in India my whole life and now for the last 10 years between London and Canada (why am I sharing all this like am I going to tell you my weight, my height etc too...No but hopefully you'll understand this revelation as you read ahead without me spelling it ou)
So I've been trying to figure out why fan wars about this show prick so personally.
I think fandoms anywhere in every country are full of insane people, obsessive chronically online people who find comfort through living through their faves..your beyonce stansm your rihanna stans, your Taylor Swift stans, your harry styles stans, your k pop fans, etc efc..
This show also has some rabid fans..But there is a conversation I want to open up only because I think it's important...Is fighting extra hard for your poc fave because you know their representation in pop culture is limited, their getting jobs is limited, subconscious biases exist even though we have been making great strides and even eradicated overt biases in employment, in accessibility, in government service etc etc ..
Our ideas of beauty are framed by the extensiveness and longevity of colonial rule across the world.
there are shit people across all ethnicities religions and genders and natjonalies. Barbarians, conquerors, invaders, pillaging villages raping women destroying livelihoods suppressing the peasant class, mutilating and diluting cultures exist in Africa, Indian subcontinent, East asia, middle East etc so not just Britain. Basically being brown, black or East Asian and Middle Eastern doesnt grant you moral superiority over white people and you can be racist and casteist and colorist and bigoted and biased and just all around shitty as a black, brown, east asian middle eastern just as much as white people.
So now that thats settled, lets look at specific issues that POC only face because that eventually streams into the show and its politics and its discussion as well.
But for whatever reason ...the British were able to colonize on a scale that the other countries and ethnicities were able to.. African and the Indian subcontinent's conquests and invasions were limited in area and time period...their scale of conquest limited to a small radious around their own countries...and not foreign lands travelled via sea etc. As a result and only as a result and not because and I cannot emphasize enough that black, brown or east asian invaders, rulers etc were morally superior, kinder, less assholes...the culture that became dominant was white british culture..or european culture...if Indians had conquered the world, they would have imposed their culture on the lands and countries rhey invaded, if different african countries invaded the world to the extent of the british colonists, same thing...the dominant culture that would have been forcibly imposed by the people of african ethnicity would be their culture... Black skin would have been considered beautiful, white fair skin would not have been the standard....thats history....thats something we know to be true even through modern wars...the victor dictates...But that simply didnt happen.
it's not because they were Africans or Asians or basically non white people morally superior or I don't know were like we don't invade and conquest, we so good. But because that's history. They just didn't manage it. thats simply our current historical reality. Being that the country that did manage to conquer the world or close to 9/10ths of it were european or more specifically British white nationals..which means as would happen even if another nationality had managed to invade the world, the culture that is dominant across the world is a west/white slanted world..
Colorism as a concept didnt exist until colonization: Why would it? If everyone existed under the same harsh sun, had the same skin color with minor variances...why would they think fair is more beautiful. Its because they wouldnt...the first blond haired blue eyed people would have been introduced to India via early traders of east india company in India and dutch colonists before them...Its like if everyone around you is brown, you assume thats just how everyone else looks like...thats the only reality you know...you simply havent seen anyone look any different..you havent seen blue eyes or anything else....same for africans and within that framework as humans are wont to do you create ideas of beauty.
So yes. POCs across the globe had just as arbitrary ideas of beauty as white people (chiense mutilated young women feet cuz small feet more beautiful, in africa genital mutiliation) because humans are humans and humans mess everything up...and animals are so much better...but color as a construct is a colonial one and one which managed to find deeep deep roots because of the extent of the rule, the sheer longevity, For context, India has been independent for the last 75 years..from over 200 years of colonial british rule...Not even the length of the life of a single human. Not even as long as Britains former queen was alive. It will take some more time for that in fighting and ideas of colorism deeply penetrated from the inheritance of our rulers to get dismanted...and totally thrown own...because you can freee from literall bondage more easily, the mind takes longer to adjust and form independent thought. But it will happen.
White people are not more or less racist than POC. Thats not a thing. There are shit people and you can find shit people anywhere...I have shit people right in my own home country, bigots, destroying the diversity of India by bullshit tactics...
But as it stands...because this cultural superiority of British and white people took over, the framing of beauty, of whats fashionable, of whats cool, of whats civilized is all seen through the lens of white culture...eating with hands which many cultures across the world do uncivilized unhygienic, paris fashions and made in italy...mark of excellence...made in India and China...cheap, low quality, scammers and shit people, (thats not to say shit people and scammers dont exist in India and China and there arent industries of scammers across these poorer nations but there is also denying the equisite craftasmanship across fashion and beauty in both countries-China and India.
Brown skin bad, even darker skin even bad etc etc...We wear clothes that our colonial masters did across the world, you wont find people in china wearing Chinese clothes, same for India, african countries etc...everything from clothing, to beauty, to furniture, to houses everything indigenous was changed to a foreign ideal from our rulers. The same would have happened whoever whichever ethnicity had invaded the world...like i said above..
Now and thanks for reading whoever read till here and I hope a lot of people did-on to to the show...
There is this frequent refrain and accusation of oppression olympics that I read about when it comes to this show, in general online discourse and also this insanely disgusting article fat shaming Nicola Coughlan in The Spectator.
And i really really want to open up this conversation...cuz race gets discussed a lot on this sub and other bridgerton subs and therefore a perfect place to have conversation...Do Non-POC really believe in the concept of opression olympics and that all kinds of biases are equally faced...
So I was overweight in my teens...I had a friend in a wheelchair...my life was hard and I was bullied but surely surely I do not think that my plight was the same as my friend in a wheelchair...In class 10th, a close friend's father passed away, the same year my grandmother passed away, surely, surelly, I dont think we are experiencing the same pain the same setback to our life...10th was when in India we have something akin to A levels in Britain and SAT in the USA..
You know why I didnt think any of this and why if I had i was wrong, because there is a hierarchy to opression, to loss, to struggles. There simply is. Pain is pain...but privilge is a thing and some loads just lighter compared to others. I could lose weight and get over the opression I was facing because of my weight in school. My wheelchair bound friend didnt have that option..I wouldnt get my grandmother back...but my fathers loss would have a more immediate affect on my life.
So when show fandom compare Jonathon Baileys struggle to Rege Jean George or say Victor Ali, they are simply pointing out that yes while Jonathon Bailey is gay...there is a difference between being white and gay and being black and gay or simply harder being black. And therefore there is a hierarchy. Why POC are less loath to crticize the average acting of their POC faves because they know the opportunities for them are limited. Lets do an exercise name 5 shows led by a POC in the USA or Britain or Canada-any POC..brown, black i dont care. And im not talking about black or brown actors in a show or film, im talking leads...
Also biases are self perpetuating....When black or brown led films fail, the opportunities immediately dry up because it shows that its just fairness and the numbers dont lie..Except this is not maths.....Maths would be first making equal amount of shows starring black or brown people, and then comparing...Now if the end result is white led shows do better-that would be correct math...but ratios and comparisons and statistics need to first start with an even scale...thats not even me taking about diversity...thats just math formulas...
If lets say there are 500 actors who are white in hollywood and 200 who are Black in hollywood, and lets say all 200 black actors are shit...would you say the statement...god white actors are so much better than black actors...no cuz the maths is not adding up...you compared 500 actors who were white of which 300 were excellent 200 bad and you made that into the conclusion that white actors are better because you were comparing only with 200 black actors to begin with...the actual math formula yieled equal number of bad and good actors..
Why people defend Kanthony harder...or wanted Simone Ashley to be promoted as much as Polin is because (lets go with my Math analogy again) all things being the same) unless Nicola and Luke are really bad actors compared to Simone Ashley, theyll still have it easier in acting...they simply will. they wont have to change their confusingly, long foreign sounding name, they wont have to work at assimilation in other ways, lets say they were muslim they wouldnt have been trying hard to sell themselves as Im just as liberal as you, im not a threat. And I love Luke Newton and Nicola Coughland-both seem like throughly, likable, personable, kind hearted beans..
Now my own experience. I have stated in an earlier post on this sub that I'm a Shonda Rhimes fan...because I have personally benefitted from the diversity she has included so naturally, so elegantly in all her shows. My own ideas of beauty, have been tested and transformed. In fact I know exactly the moment it happened...watching Christina Yang as a 14 year old...and thinking god meredith is so beautiful and I want to see more of HER and Izzie but then seeing christina again and again and again over each episode over hundreds of hours of binging, school, college, masters, big move outside India, my own constant this show..my brain was soft mushy and impressionable and christina yang, korean Sandra Oh became suddenly but actually slowly and then all at once became beautiful to me...I dont know when it happened but like the book Colin telling Penelope I dont know when or how and why others dont see it but you ARE beautiful in the book carriage scene. I found her hot, I found her cool. I cared to learn more about her Korean mother and her Jewish father and it didnt matter that the show never covered that culture..Christina was atheist and could handle her shit..even around racists.. But I still wanted to learn more about HER..a woman I simply didnt think was beautiful comparable to meredith and Izzie..me an impressionable 14 year old..just made that turn because of a show.,..a fluffy...not that deep soapy as hell show.
But it was only possible cuz I saw 24 episodes day in day out,...over many many years....for that to happen. I had many more years of falling asleep to dawsons creek joey and dawson, joey and pacey, gilmore girls rory and jess rory and dean rory and logan..i imagined and dreamt of windswept Mr. Darcy...and of course I luckily had my own countrys pop culture cuz I grew up and lived in a country where I was repped plenty eveywhere... So i found bollwood heroes hot and I found White americans or british people hot...my brain simply didnt have a framework for East Asians hot. And I needed to seem them constantly and frequentlyn and in Hot front and center, desirable covetable-their culture, their families all respected, admired again and again and again over many years for that switch to happen.
So why do we fight for our POV faves.. fight hard (some fight really ugly too which....they are not my people ( as in I dont know them) so sorry for that)....because we know how much more repping they need...we know how much MORE MORE MORE important it is to see POC culture done right...because it simply is not accessible,...cannot be to people outside..
K POP is making waves super..., people love themselves some MANGA and kimchi...so good and progress...but a lot of countries pop culture is in the native tongue...people outside of it cannot access it...in the same way one would English language content-books, podcasts, news, films, shows etc etc. And hollywood does our culture wrong, played up for laughs, stinky curry, stinky indians, scamming Indians, uncivilized heathens, oh so funny that Sofia Vergara and her funny accent (The Ellen Show), niche shows that dont become popular behemoths because it stars all ethnic casts-Fresh Off the Boat.
You simply will not understand how brilliant and gorgeous my country's embroideries, temple art, clothing and fashion, actors and sculptors, museums and writing and authors are...not because YOU are racist..but because you dont speak-my language and my culture isnt dominant or wide spread enough-insert again-my above explanation of colonialism and dominant and suppressed cultures. History made one culture the most widespread...again not because white people, bad and racist...brown and black people good and not racist and benevolent..but they simply were the victors...for centuries...plural.
We want to fight harder for Rege and defend him leaving the show (im not even black but when you live outside of your home country, all POC seem like a united underrepresented group and you find kinship everywhere) because any potential cancellation or quote unquote unlikeability and hes difficult accusations would hurt him far far more than Nicola Coughlan, Luke Thompson, Newton, Phoebe etc. for the same crimes. And there just arent enough of us to begin with to lose even one. For what is quite honestly a mid Netflix show with seeds of promise but a lack of ambition.

Prequel (Parts 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
First ¦ Previous ¦ Royal Road ¦ Patreon
When Kayla awoke, she found herself curled up on a couch in the Banshee’s infirmary. In the nearest bed, Thandi appeared to be sleeping peacefully. Across from her, Yak was hooked up to several scary looking tubes, but her vitals looked stable. Most of the rest of the beds were also filled. Another successful Valkyrie operation, Kayla thought, bitterly.
She didn’t remember the trip back from the planet. She did remember being told that nobody had found any sign of Rayker, and that memory kindled a little of the rage that never burned out. They had been through a nightmare for nothing.
“I wondered how long you would be asleep,” a voice said.
Kayla turned to see Christie sat on the end of her couch. Her friend seemed to be weighed down by sadness as she put aside the tablet she was typing on and smiled back at her.
“Wha— uh…” Kayla managed, as her stiff tongue flapped helplessly. She yawned and stretched.
“Twenty-three wounded in total,” Christie said. “Thandi will walk again in a week. Yak’s going to be in a coma for the next month. Fortunately, nothing struck her vital organs. And, by the way, one of the Raider squads was also involved in a friendly fire incident.”
Kayla focused on her, then looked away. “Jesus,” she said to herself. “God dammit.”
“Thandi wouldn’t like that,” Christie scolded. “Heathen.”
Kayla stood up and began to pace slowly as she wrapped her arms around herself. “I can’t believe I—”
“I’m going to stop you right there,” Christie said, “because you’ve been asleep for about ten hours. In the interim, I was able to speak with several Rangers about what happened. It was not your fault. Not entirely.”
Kayla shook her head. “Yes, it was. Oh, God, yes it was. I should have seen them, I should have had a stronger optic, I should have—”
“Corporal Rudaski misread her map. So did the leader of second squad. You were both actually in hall hotel-four. The base was constructed in a circular pattern of radially linked zones, orbiting a central facility. It’s a highly abstract layout that we have never seen before. Most Ranger battalions have spent the last several centuries clearing logical, grid-like layouts in ships and bunkers. Under fire, it is easy to see how confusion caused units to lose track of their positions as they advanced. Most of the platoons did, actually, at one point or another. And, in my opinion, we did not have anything like the troop numbers needed to comfortably secure that site. A consequence, no doubt, of Valkyrie’s failure to prepare and train for large scale deployments, for which there has been no requirement in at least a millennia, so they tell me.”
Kayla turned to her with a puzzled expression. “You figured all that out already?”
“I’m drafting a report on the matter. I can’t sleep, you see, because the flaws of this operation stem entirely from the task force’s desire to follow Rayker until she discovered the tracker. We found it in the central command chamber. It was sealed in a wrapping of fat and muscle tissue, which she obviously cut out of herself hours before the tamper alarm sensed the toxins of cell decay. She left it there for us to find. To taunt us, no doubt.”
Christie yawned deeply, stood up and brushed her sweater off. “Do you see, Kayla, that the intelligence team were making decisions based off of my actions on Ambrosia, when I planted that device?” She smiled bitterly. “And I had the arrogance to think I was outwitting the woman. So, in a way, it’s my fault.”
Kayla swallowed and slowly shook her head. Then she grabbed her friend and held her in a tight hug. “War sucks,” she said. “Everything about it is awful.”
“I agree. Nevertheless, we are drawn to it, like moths to a flame perhaps?”
Kayla released her and collapsed into the couch. “When I slept, I had a dream. I was in Plato’s cave, but I got free. Outside there was a dragon, burning everything in sight. The world was covered in ash, and the puppets casting shadows were dead bodies,” She wiped moisture out of her eye. “He said, ‘come out and play, little girl’.”
Christie nodded. “We were lucky nobody was killed today. Rayker will certainly cost us more blood before we manage to catch her. She could have set up a much stronger defense than a battalion of light combat drones, but she didn’t.”
Kayla reached into her pocket and found her necklace. She placed it over her head and ran a thumb over the engraved name.
She looked back at Christie. “Why not?”
“The freighter the Sirène caught was carrying several large combat walkers, produced by that plant. A deep space survey revealed that a second freighter had jumped away earlier. No doubt Rayker’s escape—she seems to have plotted a course opposite the star from where we stopped at the minefield. There seems to be no question that she had the main force of those machines with her.”
“Any idea where they went?”
Christie turned away to retrieve her tablet. “Not yet, unfortunately.”
“May the saints have mercy,” said a voice, “if a shot up woman cannot get a wink of sleep with all the talking in here.”
Kayla whirled around to see Thandi, sitting up in her bed. She darted over and grabbed her into a bearhug.
“I’m really sorry I got you shot,” she said.
“Yeah,” Thandi said looking pleased with herself. “And to apologize, you’ll be fetching me chocolate cake from the mess until I get out of here.” She lowered her voice. “Seriously though, Kayla, I need you. The food is terrible.”
Kayla chuckled. “You can count on me.”
“How are you feeling, wonder woman?”
“Oh, uh… not that wonderful to be honest.”
“Leaping tall structures in a single bound?” Thandi grinned admiringly at her. “You had a bit of a superhero moment.”
Kayla raised her eyebrows. “I tore half the muscles in my body. It was definitely not awesome.”
“Sure looked like it. I don’t even know how you do stuff like that. The Lord moved you.”
Christie cleared her throat and gave Thandi a significant look.
Thandi rolled her eyes. “It’s a compliment—I’m not diminishing what you did.”
Kayla returned her cheerful gaze with a flat expression. She had felt like everyone she cared about was about to die. Like her soul had been lit on fire, and the only way to put it out had been to move like a lightning bolt. It was not something she ever wanted to experience again.
“I was on probation for the incident on Ambrosia,” she reminded Thandi. “I will definitely be dropped back to private from now on.”
“Oh,” Thandi’s sparkling eyes darkened. “Well, that sucks. I hope they don’t. You straight up saved us all from an ambush at the start of that firefight. And the illume drone—you made lots of good calls down there.”
Kayla shook her head. “I shouldn’t be a team leader. I keep losing control. I can’t let… I don’t respond well when any of you are in danger.”
Thandi grabbed her hand, and squeezed it. “What happens to us is not up to you, my dear. It’s in God’s hands alone.”
Kayla didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t sure if she could accept that.
“How’s the pain?” Christie asked.
“Oh,” Thandi said and waved her hand. “Nothing too severe. I think of how Rose would be responding, and I know I can handle anything.”
Christie nodded silently.
“She speaks to me, in my dreams. She tells me how proud she is of us.” Thandi glanced at Kayla. “She says you are a true leader.”
Kayla turned away, unable to keep her eyes from tearing up.
“Will you be up in time for the merger?” Christie asked.
“On crutches maybe,” Thandi said. “But I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I can’t imagine anything more glorious.”
“What’s that?” Kayla asked before slowly turning back.
“The Banshee is returning to Tyr,” Christie explained. “On the way back, we have been tasked with collecting a probe that was observing a binary star merger. We will have the opportunity to observe the event live.”
“Whatever,” Kayla said with an eye roll. She was a little offended that their task force had been assigned a science project after what had happened. “Nerd stuff, right?”
Christie laughed, and met Thandi’s eyes with a smirk. “If you say so.”
Thandi shifted against her pillows. “How is the mood of the ship?” she said to Christie. “Are people still angry?”
“What do you mean?” Kayla cut in.
Thandi glanced back and forth between them. “You didn’t tell her?”
Christie waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, but with all that’s happening I didn’t think it pertinent. Why add to our already substantial burdens?”
“What’s going on?” Kayla demanded, and felt her hair stand on end.
Christie smiled tightly. “ODT Four seized the freighter and searched it thoroughly. No evidence of Rayker, as I said.”
“Yeah? And?”
“Well, they found a false compartment in one of the holds. And there were a pair of young teenagers inside. A boy and a girl.”
“In rags, and chained up,” Thandi added.
Kayla realized her jaw had clenched. She felt her skin crawl with a new kind of horror. “Oh my God,” she said, then glanced at Thandi. “Sorry.”
“In this case you get a dispensation.”
“Obviously,” Christie continued, “the pour souls will be returned to their families. A terrible situation.”
Kayla’s mind buzzed with questions. “What is—uh… where was it from? The ship?”
“Intaba,” Thandi said sullenly. “A VennZech registered vessel. Justice cannot come swiftly enough for the demon scum who perpetrated this evil on my homeworld…” she frowned as she lost her words, and clenched her fists together.
“Do you think Valkyrie will start interdicting their ships?” Kayla asked.
“No,” Christie said. “Hence the angry mood. It is a problem the organization has faced since humanity took to the stars. The chieftains have resolutely refused to address it. Our mission statement is to protect humanity, not interfere with their conduct. Frankly I have to agree with them, though I appear to be in the minority.”
Kayla stared at her incredulously. “But that’s bullshit,” she said. “How can you be okay with letting something like that go?”
Christie arched an eyebrow. “A secret army of super soldiers, with access to civilization destroying technology, and who answer—as far as we know—to nobody but themselves? The very thought of interfering gives me an existential crisis. However tragic the situation, it seems obvious that we must maintain our distance.”
Kayla shook her head. She already felt hot anger driving her to act. How could such monsters be allowed to walk freely in a just galaxy?
“All that it takes for evil to succeed—” Thandi began.
“Please can we not continue this conversation?” Christie snapped. “I’ve had enough of being insulted by some of my colleagues. I don’t want it from my friends too.”
Kayla exchanged looks with Thandi, but she owed her best friend the space she wanted.
“I promise, I won’t bring it up again, Chris,” she said.
***
Kayla ate in the ship’s mess then returned to her bunk, where the rest of the squad were waiting. They were talking in somber tones, but fell silent when she approached.
Kes stood up and beckoned to her. “Platoon ready room, this way.”
Once shut away in privacy, Kes sat her down and they retraced every event that had occurred inside the base. Every decision was picked apart minutely, with no judgement or grievance allowed.
“I needed us to go through this as soon as possible,” she explained. “This will sit with you for the rest of your life. We all made mistakes, but nobody should feel incriminated. I have been through five blue on blue incidents. This shit just happens, and I guarantee it will happen to you again in the future.”
Kayla felt a little relief as she spoke with her squad leader and found that she was neither alone, nor justified in hating herself. They had been moving quickly through a confusing environment, making a deadly situation much more likely.
“One last thing, though,” Kes added somberly. “Private Voigt from second squad fired the burst that hit Yak and Thandi. She is being removed from the battalion. By her own account, she returned Yak’s fire without any kind of communication with her team leader, or any attempt to check the position of friendlies. That was a major SOP violation when she knew they were expecting to move in our direction.”
Kayla absorbed this with shock. She couldn’t argue with it; after all, what good was a Ranger who couldn’t do her job? And didn’t that mean that the same punishment should apply to her?
She cleared her throat. Terror gnawed at her insides as Kes stared at her expectantly.
“I lost control again,” Kayla said.
“Yup,” Kes said, and rubbed her eyes with obvious frustration. “And this time, your actions swiftly ended a dangerous firefight following a terrible accident. Yak got immediate medical attention because of that. On the other hand, you put yourself in a position to be killed or wounded where no-one could help you.”
There was a long pause while the corporal appeared to search a distant horizon. “You don’t need a lecture, and Akane can’t make a decision on you. Yak was my next choice for Lance Corporal, but she’s out of action, along with a bunch of others. Together with this Rayker shitshow, it is not the time to be shuffling people around.”
Kayla’s brow furrowed “What about Ray?”
“Oh,” Kes ran a hand through her hair. “Every time I’ve offered it, she’s refused. Anyway, we’ve already been told by Captain Aguilar to expect a new private out of Ranger school once we return to Tyr.”
“Yes, Corporal,” Kayla said, unsure what to think about the decision.
“I’ve seen you make good decisions in the field. But I will push to replace you when the opportunity comes up again.” Kes narrowed her eyes. “Unless you can show me I’m wrong before that happens.”
Kayla left the room with her head spinning. She was keeping her job, even though she obviously didn’t have what it took to lead Rangers in combat.
First ¦ Previous ¦ Royal Road ¦ Patreon
Prequel (Parts 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie

I have so far been up all night as I can’t fall asleep for nothing. I have been stressing so much lately and there is nothing that can ease the stress.. on top of the thoughts of what can happen to the baby long term medical wise from all this stress. It’s honestly so much eating away at me and I just don’t know what to do with these thoughts. I am going to just write away everything that’s been eating away at me.. that is why this is going to be very long as it’s been a lot so far… I got off birth control in December as life was going amazing and it was giving me awful migraines as I was rearing my third year being on nexplanon. I knew that there could be a possibility of getting pregnant and honestly with how life was going the thought of potentially getting our boy as we have two girls right now was really exciting me. I have been working from home and recently got a huge raise and things were looking great. A month after getting off the birth control I started feeling weird, that intuition feeling came. Shortly after, my job that I had been with for almost 3 years randomly lays off a lot of employees including me with no notice or anything. I thought it would be a long term job but they eventually grew financial issues. Of course I didn’t want to abort this baby just because my job laid me off. I am a very independent person so of course I would do anything to make sure me and mine are straight. I start back doordashing full time from 9 am to 9 pm and I stay an hour from the nearest city so the stress of wear and tear on my car has always scared me but you gotta do what you gotta do as a parent. Of course they say I’m eligible for unemployment and I’ve tried endless times to file for it and they always denied me due to work searches as I wasn’t applying to the right places when I was applying EVERYWHERE. No matter what I put. Every week would get denied cause of this and the phone number is impossible to reach someone. So I’ve given up on unemployment. We lived off of our tax return plus DoorDashing which I really wanted to save this money. The work search has been so stressful. I got a seasonal job and did amazing at it working up to 18 hours overtime one day but they over hired people so there was way to many people to consider hiring everyone full time so once it ended less then a month of working there that was it. Until I got a call from my dream job which my mom and my bf mom both work there and it pays way higher then what I’ve made on top of providing a hybrid schedule too. I felt it was a stretch applying but my resume looked really good so I went for it. I got an interview with them and the interviewer loved me and said he felt really confident in me and would like to offer me the position. Of course I’m overly excited cause this is my dream job. After filling out the onboarding and going to scheduled onboarding appointments they state there was only one issue stopping my onboarding which was a previous account with them that had restrictions on it that I was not aware of. I trusted the wrong “friends” back in high school 7 YEARS AGO with my personal information not knowing any better and they did fraud with my information and of course it fell back on me. I even paid back every owed penny from the fraud to clear my name to move on from that mistake. They never told me they also proceeded to put restrictions cause of it. So my onboarding was put on hold until I handled the restrictions. Fast forward a month later of struggling making ends meet. We have no more income tax money.. but at least I finally receive a response saying the restrictions would be removed. So finally we receive great news. I let the people know and they proceed to let me know that someone will reach out to me in 5-7 days and it has now surpassed that time frame with no response and I am just so scared that they won’t follow through.. It is now June and I have been struggling to get a full time job since February and I am holding onto the little ounce of hope that this job will follow through like they said… Holding onto that ounce of hope as doordash grew very stressful I decided to pull all of my retirement out from my previous job to put into savings in case we need it for an emergency especially if the car were to go out on us. on top of our apartment lease renewal coming up. We did NOT want to renew the lease because this apartment has treated us HORRIBLY since we moved in. We came from a clean bug free apartment due to the rent randomly increasing twice since we moved in it and moved 30 minutes to be closer to my OLD job and his family. We moved into this apartment because I had a work friend refer it to me saying it was her first apartment and she fell in love with it. Not knowing we were going to get the worst apartment building probably out of the whole complex. Since we moved in we could not look at the apartment until after the lease was signed and given the keys. We moved ONE box into the place and came back days later to move the rest of our stuff. We moved that box and SO MANY roaches scattered from it and we knew instantly we got played and that now all of our things were going to be roach infested now. Fast forward almost a whole year later we have tried endless methods to get rid of them such as boric acid, orthene, endless traps, endless raid bottles, ONTOP of the apartment buildings monthly pest control coming in doing whatever they do and WE STILL HAVE THEM. No matter what we do they are not leaving as I believe even tho we try different methods it won’t matter if everyone else in the building aren’t trying to get rid of them. They are probably being constantly rotated between the other apartments around us so it’s useless. I DO NOT WANT TO BRING MY NEW BORN BABY INTO THIS APARTMENT. On top of all the plugs in the walls has blown in the living room. I let the landlord know about this and they sent there only technician to check it out and they didn’t know what they were doing. They switched the power surge switches on and off and it fixed the plugs but they proceeded to go back out the next day. We haven’t even been there a year and the refrigerator has been tearing up like crazy. The whole bottom of it has ripped off cause apparently the adhesive is so strong when closing and opening that it slowly tore its own frame off. We had to use gorilla glue to glue it back on and it’s so far worked. On top of the rims around the door got so many rips in it. The door holders on the fridge can’t hold anything heavy or else the whole shelf falls off same as the door handles on the freezer so we have to carefully move things around it and put only certain things in those spots or else it’s all going to the floor. The first red flag of the apartment is there are no washer and dryer hook ups and that is honestly the least of our problems with this place.. the bolts on the dish washer are so tiny and unscrewed with time and randomly the whole dish washer completely fell down from being poorly connected to the counter. Whenever you open it to put dishes in you have to hold the racks or else the whole dish washer will fall forward and they will roll out with all the dishes in it. I’m so over this place and we have BEEN ready to move out. So once the 30 days came up I contacted the landlord about the 30 day notice that we were going to move out before the lease renewed. She proceeded to tell me with no emotion that they required a 60 DAY notice in advance prior to our lease end date and that our lease already renewed for another YEAR. She didn’t even try to help us out and did not provide any kind of notice or reminding about the 60 day notice. She just kept repeating that we signed the lease and it is written in the lease. She said if we move out we will be responsible to pay the months rent for each upcoming month until a new tenant moves in and takes over the lease which is very unlikely as they have full control on whether they want to move someone new in or continue to bill us the monthly rent.. So now we are trying to figure out how we are going to work out this New obstacle/road block and I am already halfway through my pregnancy. All of this stress has been eating me alive for the whole beginning of my pregnancy and it ALL came out of the blue. This is not how I pictured being pregnant with my third baby and I feel completely miserable right now. I am struggling doordashing all day just waiting for any kind of good news. We are thinking about ditching this apartment and going to stay with my mom until we find a full time job to afford a new apartment as we just want to start the process of this landlord potentially searching for a new tenant to take this burden off of us. We do not wish to pay two apartment rents as my credit is amazing and I know if they put any of this apartments owed rent when we move out on my collections it will ruin my credit.. we have been growing it for when we are ready to get our first home. So I know not paying it is not an option for me. I’ve just been wishing this ongoing nightmare will finally come to an end and I can finally receive any kind of good news. I was sooo excited about this pregnancy but now I have zero excitement for it as I have been through endless stressing and roadblocks the whole pregnancy so far. I am afraid that this stress and pain will affect the baby long term.. I do not wish to bring this baby into this apartment as I fully wish to be in a new upgraded apartment bug free when the baby comes in October my birthday month.. It’s just super hard holding onto any kind of motivation right now and the pain is slowly eating me up inside.. I just really needed to get all of this off of my chest and hopefully maybe I can finally get some sleep right now. If you read all of this.. thank you for listening and all I can really say is check on your people cause you never know what they could be going through as life can hit so random at times..

So to get out my comfort zone I Decided to attend the conference offline rather online. It was my first time doing presentation in a totally different college, all new people I knew no one there. There were total of 15 participants in each hall I was 14th participant and all while those people were talking i tried all tricks I know to control my breathing and anxiety. I’ve very bad stage fear. I tried doing 5 things you can touch see hear everything after few minutes of desperate trying I calmed myself but then when my turn came I jus did so bad I never spoke the point I was intended to say, never made eye contact. I couldn’t form sentences and there was no clarity in my speech. In the end it became even more awkward with constant pauses, repeating of sentences and saying uh…uhhh… in between the speech. I’m 23F the other candidates were mostly younger than me and they made a very good articulation. Felt so bad about myself I was really embarrassed to be there. I felt like a joke 😔 I don’t know why I can’t speak my mind. P.S: I made two good friends :)) they even got my number and also I appreciated everyone who did well. Overall even though I got my certificate and the experience wasn’t so bad except for the part where I flopped so badly I couldn’t get over it. I feel so ashamed about myself.

TLDR: I want to give you benchmarks and scientific processes to understand the outcome of the 2024 election without any prejudice.
There are many opinion polls and analyses that are giving extreme predictions of 2024 outcome like one from Parakala Prabhakar predicts ~150 seats for BJP and some others predict 375. Coming from a family of politicians .Without any prejudice let me explain how the process works and how to get a correct sense of the election. Thumb rules: I will give a detailed explanation later, but please keep these rules in mind. 1. Elections are won by grassroots cadres who bring voters to the voting booth. You cannot win elections unless that happens.

1. Voters vote in their best interest and they have clarity on that and the illiterate/poorly educated ones have better clarity. Voters are not stupid or could be fooled or people's mandate can be stolen.
   
2. वक़्त करता है परवरिश बरसों, हादसा एक दम नहीं होता : Things doesn’t happen all of a sudden, it happens over a while. Likewise, people don’t change their minds just because X incident has happened. Let's say on a weighing scale while pouring peanuts on one pan, on the 100th peanut scale tilts on its side so we cannot categorically say that the 100th peanut was historic or there is something special about it.
   
3. Media and money cannot buy votes.
   
4. EVMs cannot be hacked/manipulated.
   
5. In God we trust, others bring data.
   

Let’s say you go to a Mercedes showroom and say to the salesman that you have a strong feeling that I should own this Mercedes and even all my friends feel the same. You are not going to get that Mercedes unless the sum total of the money in your bank is more than what the price of the car. If not, then the salesman would ask you to get lost, the same thing you should tell anyone who analyses something based on their feeling. This is why analysis of Parakala P can be dismissed as he has mentioned in the beginning that it is his feeling.
Next in line are charlatans like Yogendra Yadav who with their sweet talk mix data with their feelings. He is taking data from previous elections and mixing his feelings to predict the outcome. I would trust the analysis of Pradeep Gupta or News24 Today’s Chanakya. These people have a very high rate of predicting election outcomes correctly, we need to understand their methods and how they can predict them correctly.
To understand their methods, we must first understand how people arrive at a decision to vote for a specific party.
Every party has 3 distinct types of voters:

1. Core voters: These voters will vote for a given party even if the sun rises in the west. A classic example is BSP. Its core voters are the SC/ST community and without any effort or presence in media or SM in the 2022 UP election, they got ~13% vote. Every major party has 10-20% (of the total eligible voters).

The core voter base will vote for a party even without a leader, even if leaders engage in crimes or corruption, it doesn’t matter. Long back I asked an old man who would vote for in a gram panchayat polls? He said, Indira Gandhi. At that time, I thought the old man was delusional however, I now understand that he voted for Congress because he felt obligated to vote for Indira Gandhi even if she died 3 decades ago. A core voter feels a lifetime obligation towards a specific party for any specific incident that has changed their life. E.g. Core voters of Shiv Sena voters vote because Shiv Sainiks saved their lives in the riots post Babri demolition or BSP voters vote for Kanshi Ram because he educated them about their constitutional rights and gave them a dignified life.

1. Loyal voters: These voters are loyal to a specific party/leader however, they have a defined fault line and if their party/leader crosses that fault line they vote against that party/leader. E.g. a BJP voter has a fault line of Hindutva or nationalism and if they feel that fault line is crossed they would vote against BJP to express their anger because that fault line is crossed. As long as the fault line is not crossed the party/leader engaged in crime or corruption doesn’t matter. The percentage of loyal voters changes each election, but you cannot win unless you have ~15-20% loyal voters. Floating voter: This voter would vote based on his criteria and perception however this kind of voter is usually in the range of 5% of the total voters. Core voters form the bulwark of the party and support the party voraciously even at it’s lowest point, these voters keep the party alive in its bad days, but you cannot win the elections without the support of the loyal voters. These voters along with the floating voters help the party cross the finish line which is usually 30-45%. When an incumbent party loses elections with a major loss, it usually means the loyal voters have voted against them. Floating voters matter when there is regime change because, in that kind of a fight, every vote counts. Bhau Torsekar , a Marathi journalist had accurately predicted 2014 and 2019 results without any survey and wrote books on he arrived at these figures. Let me summarise his methodology. He has identified swing seats, i.e. a constituency where the difference between the 1st and 2nd candidate should be less than 15% or BJP had won that seat in recent part, which he calls fight seats, i.e. seats where a party has a realistic chance of winning. That number was close to 300 and with Modi as PM candidate and Amit Shah as strategist of UP state that swing of 15% was achieved and in some cases even more and that is how the majority was won. Anyone who was closely involved in that election would know what fever was there to elect Modi. I personally remember that my family members who were loyalists of Congress had been angry with Congress since 90s and would say that they would now vote for Vajpayee just before going to vote and for Congress. Despite the disgruntlement and a charismatic leader like Vajpayee, they voted for Congress. The breaking point came when the Congress leadership behaved in a very high-handed manner with my Uncle and refusing to meet him, which was considered as a big insult by his supporters. BJP leadership grabbed the opportunity with both hands, had a series of meeting and scales were titled in 2014 election. 5 lakh voters switched from Congress to BJP and they became loyal voters of BJP. This fever I had seen in my colleagues and neighbours. With all the scandals of the world, bad publicity and wide-scale protests, Modi’s allure, and Shah’s micromanagement, unprecedented rise of 8% in the polls, the BJP’s vote share rose by just 12%. For India alliance to come tilt the scales, they will have to raise their vote share by at least 10% and I see no signs of that happening. Having disgruntled voters is one part, but disgruntled voters are not going to switch parties unless the opposition has addressed all the needs of the voters. Predicting 2024 elections: Please watch this video before making any opinion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwnnn1M-T5U . Here Shekhar Gupta speaks his observations on how he saw that Modi was able to deliver social benefit schemes to people( meanwhile he was making videos onhow bad modi's defeat would be in 2014 elections.) .

Most voters in India are directly dependent on the government’s social benefit schemes and it used to be a struggle to get those benefits from Sarkari babu. Modi turned the tables and made the Sarkari Babu struggle to deliver the promised benefit. The voters is mostly voting for his issues like water, food, social justice, and security. He is not bothered by Modi being a dictator or a democracy in danger. For them, issues can range from getting 5 Kg of free rice to road from village to highway. If that is done he is happy to vote for the leader who has done that.
Please take these factors into account.

1. 55 swing seats are there for BJP.
   
2. The vote share of the India alliance will fall. Why? Because the cadre is leaving these parties.
   
3. The vote share of the BJP will rise because the above cadre has come to the BJP. Tag this with streamline and tight control of central leadership.
   

While most people will call Amit Shah as Chanakya, I see him as a top class administrator who has set processes for the BJP karyakartas to execute their task which is mind-boggling. These guidelines come with minute details like font size. There are leaders like Amit Shah or better in other parties however, they have not given a thought of putting down their experience on paper making guidelines, creating a robust feedback system, etc. You can consider BJP like McDonald's which has detailed processes to replicate the success in every franchise, while the other parties are like top restaurants in your city which are top class where they operate but cannot take their success beyond that restaurant because they have not made their restaurant process oriented.
The best-case scenario for BJP is 355 however, 325 would be a rational figure.

How its working?
We are using a Script which changes the timezone of our browser whenever we make a new order on G2A. As soon as we get redirected to the payment page, the timezone will change, which will result in our order getting marked as "Expired" on G2A's payment processor called "Bitbay", but not on G2A's side itself. So, if we pay for the products our order will get processed and delivered by G2A anyway, but the money will get INSTANTLY refunded to our wallet by Bitbay.
Important
Make sure on the top right corner where your extensions are the, also change your G2A settings to USA. Bitbay will refund your expired order only if it’s above 0.0025 Btc. Any lower amount is not prioritized by their refund system and will not work. Basically you have to add to your cart products that are worth at least 0.003 Btc in total, it can be one or multiple products.
Okay, let’s begin.
Here are the things you need:

• At least 0.0025 Btc (85$) to pay for the order.

-Tampermonkey extension: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/tampermonkey

• Script that changes the Timezone. https://textbin.net/raw/hzriuxsmyy

Okay if ready follow my steps:

1. Click on Tampermonkey’s icon and click “Create a new script.”
2. Remove any preset code
3. Copy the script and paste it in the Editor from Step 2
4. Go to “File” and click “Save”.
5. Go to https://www.g2a.com and add products to your cart.

Example: $100 Amazon Giftcard. Log in and click “Go to payment”.

1. Now choose Bitcoin (Bitbay).7. Now pay for the products by sending the Btc.

Once you pay for the order just wait for 1 confirmation in the blockchain. Shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes, then you will receive an email from G2A and your btc will be refunded.
Any help contact dm

Hello everyone,
I analyze your Vedic Astrology , Palmistry & Numerology Chart.
My Service offers you Depth analysis of your life base on your Palm lines , Vedic Astrology , Numerology & Tarot.
I cover
Life Theme ✅
🎯This entails understanding the purpose of your life and your soul mission, the reason for your existence in this world. It also includes the lessons you need to learn in order to align yourself with the purpose of your life.
Careers ✅
🎯 Identifying Fruitful careers or jobs in which you will excel if pursued.
Marriage ✅
🎯In this section, I extensively discuss your marriage,
Such as
💫What kind of person will you end up marrying?
💫Where will you likely meet him/her?
💫How many serious relationships will you go through?
💫Appearance & Characteristic of Your Future Spouse
Major Influencing Planets ✅
🎯Your Previous, Current, Future Influencing Planet
💫What is your Previous & Current Influencing Planet & its Effects on You.
💫What will be your Future Influencing Planet & its Effects on You.
💫Effects of Significant Planets Coordinating Your Life & Your Personality
💫Additional Astrological Insights of your Inner self
🌟 Yearly Predictions 🌟
💫Precise Upcoming Year Overall Report of Your Career, Relationships, Health, Finances & More..
Palmistry ✅️
🎯In Palmistry,
Through palmistry, I read the lines on your dominant hand and provide insightful information about your past and future directions in life.
Such as
💫Your Childhood
💫Relationship with Family
💫Your Success & Life Factors
💫Your Inner Self
Numerology ✅
🎯In Numerology,
In numerology, I delve into,
💫The Energy you inherit with your Name
💫Birth Number Effects & its Influence on You
💫Fate Number Influence on You
💫Health Effects/Issues
Tarot ✅
🎯In Tarot,
By channelizing your current energy ,I will pull 3 cards and answer your questions that inclusively considering overall analysis for an accurate answers. 3 Questions Only [Charges will add on for more].
🎯 Price Accordance
🌟Depth Personalized Analysis + Numerology + Tarot 70 USD
🌟Depth Personalized Analysis+ Numerology 60 USD
🌟Depth Personalized Analysis + Tarot 55 USD
🌟Depth Personalized Analysis 45 USD
🌟Normal Personalized Analysis + Numerology +Tarot 50 USD
🌟Normal Personalized Analysis +Numerology 40 USD
🌟Normal Personalized Analysis+ Tarot 35 USD
🌟Normal Personalized Analysis 25 USD
🎯Via PayPal ✅ Zelle ✅ Cashapp ✅
🎯Via Venmo ✅ Wise ✅ USDT ✅
💢For Authenticity & Accuracy💢
📌Check Out My Profile Page
🕉 Do Not Hesitate to Chat , If You have questions regarding my Service 💯

For a few days I’ve noticed that some female cosplayers get sour attitude from commenters. Not saying names or linking posts, I’ll describe what I’ve seen. One post was a woman cosplaying as Princess Peach, the cosplayer is a black womanly and her Peach outfit is pretty nice (sure exposed shoulders, but gives personality to the outfit since the outfit looks like a Mario Tennis one), but some commenter had to say racist things by saying she looks nothing like Princess Peach then went on to how the cosplayer shouldn’t be cosplaying fictional pale women. Naturally there’s arguments I wasn’t part of, but I had a facepalm when I see just how immature some people are, and this better be some child not understanding somethings are not acceptable. Speaking of which, another commenter who claims to be a minor criticizes the Peach cosplayer about her profile containing certain mature content such as sexy cosplay for more adult subreddits. Thing is you, that person, can just filter our 18+ content on your feed, and not see that stuff, but you instead would want to stir up trouble and try to make the lady look like a troublemaker. Oh I bet you took 5 minutes before getting to insulting her.
Another post; a cosplayer for Tifa did an amazing job dressing up as her, I praised by saying she looks like she would be in a live action movie and that got me a -10 on my comment. But, the real trouble is when some A*hole just calls her post an ad for her OnlyFans without even having to check her profile page. I seen her page and yeah she does, but that post isn’t for advertising as the subreddit where that post is doesn’t allow that nor was the post even NSFW.
I get onto Reddit for a week and seeing two cases of female cosplayers getting sour comments. Like seriously, just don’t upvote and move on instead of causing trouble for yourself and others. If this happens to many other cosplayers, both with an OF and no-OF, then that’s just sad. I know, free speech, but you don’t need to just be a rude person. I’m sorry for whatever isn’t going right with your lives, but those cosplayers have lives too as well as feelings. Understand that some women just want to share nice cosplays without judgment for being beautiful women who happens to have OF, they might not have other ways to make an income and if they’re able to get damn good jobs to make big piles, I’d assume they would do so.
I’m sorry that those sour commenters couldn’t get a girlfriend, jealous of a woman having a bunch of upvotes while your memes only have 3, or whatever is the cause just remember to be a human. Of course there are bots, but you’re not robots. I bet you you’d get kicked out of a club if you do the same crap you pull online.
I know there are such people, but I’m not going to hate unless the cosplayers who post are terrible and horrible. I want us to just live our lives to best we can and not to have some people just being rude for little to no reason. And I know there’ bound to be comments where I’m the closet simp, coomer, or whatever is the trending insult. All I want is just basic decency. If I don’t like something online, I just move on from it. No reason for me to just randomly insult a drawing, a cosplay, or blog on what character you like.

Hello, this is a short theory – more of a possibility – about Juste’s backstory.
Here’s their Type-Moon wiki page. For more information, go to the Beast’s Lair thread for the Lord El-Melloi II novels.
The basics of their character are that they’re the black Power Ranger, but with chainsaws and look up to Kiritsugu. They introduce themselves by blowing up a building and rank mages based on the threat level. They blame Shirou for Kiritsugu’s death and prove they are probably secretly Sialim under that mask trying to one-up her sister’s wifu game by using memory partition to keep an exact replica of Type-Moon’s third edgiest protagonist in their mind. (Number one may surprise you!)
(Note: that’s a joke, not the theory. Nothing says “Leatherface.” Juste and Sialim “Slavery is cool” Eltnam Re-Atlasia)
As you can guess from the use of memory partition – a spell used by Atlas Alchemist – Juste is/was once a part of the Atlas Institute.
The question is, how did Kiritsugu end up mentoring Juste – someone form the NEET Institute – well enough for them to consider the old man their master and reconstruct the Magus Killer’s personality in their head? Furthermore, why do they think Shirou killed Kiritsugu?
One possible answer comes from the Fate/Zero Season 2 Drama CD:

Kiritsugu: Anything, Shirou? Can't get any sleep?
Shirou: Yeah... I saw that dream again...
Kiritsugu: I see....
Shirou: Hey gramps, the medicine you gave me this morning.... Can I take some now?
Kiritsugu: Hm? It's still rather too soon for that but.... Fine, I guess. But what's the occasion here? You always hated that medicine, didn't you?
Shirou: Of course I don't like it. It's bitter and it's mushy and all... But gramps, you made that medicine with magic didn't you?
Kiritsugu: Well, it's magecraft to be specific. But yeah, somewhere along that line.
Shirou: When I think of it that way, it sorts of calms me down. I get uneasy in this kind of night...
Kiritsugu: I see.... Can't really blame you for that...
Shirou gulps that drink
Shirou: Gramps.... How much longer should I take in this medicine?
Kiritsugu: Well, once you are old enough to attend Middle school you won't be needing that anymore. Until then, bear with it, will you?
Shirou: Ehhh?
Kiritsugu: The healing spell I used on you 2 years ago... Seems to be a little too strong for you. The danger still lurks within you, Shirou. Until you grow up and let your body put on some more antibodies, you will have to rely on this medicine.

The first thing to note from this scene is the use of a magical potion. Kiritsugu doesn’t seem like the type to be able to create a magical potion from scratch. He doesn’t have the knowledge or training to be capable of doing such a feat. Meanwhile, this is something that is right up the Atlas Institute’s alley.
There’s also the question of where and how Kiritsugu got the ingredients to brew this elixir and just what they were. (More specifically, how rare they are.)
Building on that, it is clear that the magical potion is being used to help with just nightmares. If it was only that, he could just get regular medication that is probably much easier to get his hands on.
Based on the final part about “the healing spell I used on you 2 years ago” and “the danger still lurks within you.” I think that Avalon didn’t completely remove the taint of Angra Mainyu. Also – as a side note – the part about it being too strong is weird especially with the pause and how it doesn’t make sense with the rest of the statement as a whole. If it were truly super powerful beyond what he could handle, it would have wiped out the ‘danger,’ and there would be no need for ‘antibodies.’ I think... and the pause is meant to make us think Kiritsugu is either lying or hiding something. Or am I just being stupid again?
If we combine all this, it could fit neatly into explain Juste.
Kiritsugu noticed that Shirou was still being affected by whatever was in the grail and tried to find a solution to it while getting information about the Einzberns. (Tying into the plot in The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi 2 about the origin rounds being used in Monaco and all that stuff.)
This attempt ended with him either teaching or inspiring Juste while bargaining with some Atlas scientists or the like for an elixir that could help Shirou. But… the ingredients are too rare for them to treat more than one person. So, Kiritsugu – who is also still suffering from Angra Mainyu – chooses to give it all to Shirou, even if it means his death.
This would explain why Juste thinks Shirou killed Kiritsugu while also adding a lot to Kiritsugu’s relationship with Shirou and emphasizing what was already there.
By that, I mean giving Avalon to Shirou was already this act. It was Kiritsugu sacrificing his future for Shirou’s, even if he probably didn’t know that at the time. He didn’t know Angra Mainyu’s curse would kill him if he gave Avalon to Shirou to heal his utterly destroyed heart and burns. With this, however, he does know and consciously chooses to put Shirou’s life ahead of his own. This also happened over the span of who knows how long, probably years.
It feels more potent in this regard.
As for Shirou, this would open up an interesting story for Sanda to explore as Shirou is forced to confront someone angry at him for surviving in place of someone else and sets them up as ideological enemies.
Juste is very clearly rooted heavily in Kiritsugu’s legacy and ideals of sacrificing the few to save the many. To ‘rational’ save people. From this perspective, Kiritsugu sacrificing himself for Shirou’s survival wouldn’t make sense. Kiritsugu’s life would be worth more since he would ‘save’ more lives than a random kid. Kiritsugu’s selflessness or humanity in this act wouldn’t be seen by Juste as the embodiment – of, dare I say it – the old justice of Kiritsugu before the events of Fate/Zero.
Conversely, saying Shirou killed Kiritsugu would make perfect sense within this nonsense.
Again, it also sets up a conflict between Juste’s logical/utilitarian heroism versus Shirou’s idealistic/childish heroism.
The next volume or two of Adventures will have Shirou ultimately coming out on top of Juste and his counterfeit mental husbando due to his beliefs being strongehaving moved beyond the original ideals of Kiritsugu.

Location Sound related Self-Promotion is welcome in this post

Welcome to the subreddit regular feature post for self-promotion and discussion about your latest site/film/work/product/business. Here is where you can link to and discuss things you are affiliated with. We encourage you to add a comment to this post providing info and links regarding your support site, blog, videos, sfx kickstarter or whatever else you've got related to Location Sound.
Remember to maintain privacy of your personal information on any public comments.
In trying to balance the Reddit policies on SPAM and self-promotion with the understanding that you may have something that our readers will want to know about, we have created this regular feature post for the subreddit. Instead of banning or removing your info outright, this post allows you to get your info to our readers while keeping our front page free from being used as a billboard. Furthermore, we see this as an opportunity for you and our readers to have a regular go-to for discussion regarding your latest news/info, something for everyone to look forward to. Please keep in mind the following:

• Posters and responders to this thread MAY NOT include an email address, phone number, personal facebook page, or any other personal information. Please use PM's to pass that kind of info along.
  
• Posters and responders to this thread CAN respond with appeals for work.
  
• Note that some links may be removed by Automoderator as it checks certain URLs to keep them off the front page. We will manually approve these posts here (except those against the rules stated above) but may need a little time to catch them and approve them.
  

Chat with us in the /LocationSound Discord channel

CLUB STATEMENT: FREDDIE LINDGREN
We can, regrettably, confirm that Freddie Lindgren’s debut for the club has been delayed.
The Swede was expected to make his first appearance in Brummies’ colours in Monday’s (June 3, 7.30pm) Knockout Cup Semi-Final at home to Ipswich - but this will, sadly, no longer be the case due to conditions beyond the club’s control.
Birmingham CEO Nigel Tolley said: “First and foremost I would like to apologise to Brummies supporters, as well as supporters from across British Speedway, who have been let down badly by this entire situation.
“We were expecting what is known as an ‘invitational visa’ within the sport to be granted without any problems or issues whatsoever.
“That would have covered us for the next month or so whilst a longer term solution was worked on which is perfectly normal in these scenarios.
“For reasons we’re not allowed to go into at this moment in time, this has been refused and we must now wait for his ‘international sports persons visa’ to be granted.
“Again, unfortunately, we cannot say exactly when this will be but we would like to think it will be released soon as the application has been submitted and is being processed.
“As the club’s management, we totally understand how supporters will be feeling as they learn of this news, but we plead with them to still turn out in big numbers on Monday with us being just two meetings away from a big cup final.”
Birmingham Speedway FB Page

The blackout is really a flag- for the awareness people and the nosy people to “stay away”. It’s not for the new cycle of people or the stubborn people that desire to remain a minute to minute follower. You are not going to convince the new ones or the patrons to just simply “black it all out”. EVER! I’ve watched the before and after, of the blackout/no blackout visitors. It’s not okay, because it’s all of YOU that is driving her algorithm up and down. Alga pays money. What is really your end goal here? How many years are we into this now? One must sit back and rethink their involvement WHICH IS TECHNICALLY, ENABLEMENT. I suggest educating your self on how algorithms work. And I also suggest only a select few, be following her new page- not all the familiar ones I’ve seen follow it recently to date. I mean, what ARE you doing? I can only conclude that people secretly like to keep this scammepanhandleabusehustler around for their own entertainment and some with the hopes that YOU, in a competitive spirit and competing against other awareness people- feel that YOU will be the one winning the trophy and book/movie deal, after you successfully take this dangerous scammer off the app. It’s not going to happen this way! But I tell you what is going to happen. This scammer is going to continue to spiral from their own dangerous vices- with, or without you around. Period.
I’m only being objective here. Truth serum. Look at this from all angles. I suggest that all stop following this creator except for two, and I suggest all except for two, remain a visitor to their lives and to their videos. Sadly, more vulnerable people are going to get their bank accounts depleted. But the select few awareness ppl, can take copious notes, and video documentation, and go ahead and refresh their reports to the authorities with that information.

Does anyone know a workflow to download several or all songs, e.g. as a ZIP? After 3 months I now have a lot of songs and downloading them all individually is quite time-consuming.
I would like to listen to all the songs offline on the MP3 player to sort good from bad.
Some important features are missing in Suno's file management, e.g. number of all songs, number of pages, changing songs per page, (optional) display of columns such as date, length etc.
Thank you :-)

Use my link and I'll give you half of the £60 just message me once completed!
https://www.revolut.com/referral/?referral-code=ricky0z7m!JUN1-24-AR-H1
For you to be eligible for your Reward, your Invitee must satisfy the below steps before the date set out in the In-app Referral Invite:
Successfully open a Revolut Personal account, for the first time, using your unique referral link. (Someone who has previously signed up for a Revolut Personal account with any of our global entities will not earn you a Reward.) The account the Invitee opens must also be a Revolut Personal account specifically - opening another Revolut account like a Business or Joint account will not earn you a Reward.
Top up their account from an external source (like a card top-up or transfer from another bank, not a transfer from another Revolut account). There is no minimum required amount.
Order a physical card (this may be subject to a delivery fee and/or a fee for the card itself as agreed in the Personal Fees Page that applies to the Invitee’s new Personal account plan).
Make 3 card purchases of £5. The number of card purchases and the required minimum amount for each, or all, is explained in your In-app Referral Invite. These card purchases can be made using a virtual or physical card, and they must be genuine purchases (for example, card transactions to payment, gambling, gift card or currency exchange service providers, and money transfers are not valid). The required minimum amount is determined by the country of the referrer.

Got a call from a guy (local black male) that said he was from Vodacom. Apparently I had won an Audi, 35k in cash and a phone. I was very skeptical and asked to speak to a manger or supervisor. A few minutes later a guy claiming to be the supervisor called (Afrikaner white male). He was extremely convincing and I 99% fell for everything he was saying. He had an answer to every question that I had, and I had some very challenging questions for him because I am naturally very skeptical of these calls. They wanted me to purchase vouchers in order to activate my Vodabucks. Even though I did not enter any competition I was selected based on network usage. As we were chatting I was researching in the background. The competition they mention is on Vodacoms website but the prizes which I apparently won are not listed on the website, which I found strange. He was very good at explaining how the Vodacom apps work and all the numbers which I need to dial to activate the prize. They wanted me to purchase the vouchers and activate my prize before 18:00 or else it rolls over to the next person. When I dial these numbers they actually are Vodacom numbers. I eventually called Vodacom customer care and they confirmed that there was no competition offering those prizes. I survived to tell the tale but these scammers are very good and very convincing. I was on the phone with them for about an hour going back and forth with all the questions I had. The guy even sent me links to vodacoms website about the Vodacom unlock 30 competition via WhatsApp. He had a Vodacom logo as his profile pic and his number came up as “Vodacom” on the Truecaller app. Be careful out there people. There are vultures out there waiting to take advantage.

Hi guys! I'm trying to upload/preview my book for publishing on Amazon KPD and I've run across a problem. Because of my bookcover design I've had to select 'bleed' so I've converted my manuscript to PDF (on word). So far, so good. But now everytime I try and preview it it tells me that there is an issue with the font not being embedded properly and lists a load of page numbers (about 20 in total). I've tried to follow the instructions to 'embed' the font, but am having no luck. It just says the same thing over and over. (I have NO idea what it's talking about!). I'm using the font Aptos(body), if that helps. A fellow self-publishing author told me it was the new 'standard' font. Thanks!

Got a call from a guy (local black male) that said he was from Vodacom. Apparently I had won an Audi, 35k in cash and a phone. I was very skeptical and asked to speak to a manger or supervisor. A few minutes later a guy claiming to be the supervisor called (Afrikaner white male). He was extremely convincing and I 99% fell for everything he was saying. He had an answer to every question that I had, and I had some very challenging questions for him because I am naturally very skeptical of these calls. They wanted me to purchase vouchers in order to activate my Vodabucks. Even though I did not enter any competition I was selected based on network usage. As we were chatting I was researching in the background. The competition they mention is on Vodacoms website but the prizes which I apparently won are not listed on the website, which I found strange. He was very good at explaining how the Vodacom apps work and all the numbers which I need to dial to activate the prize. They wanted me to purchase the vouchers and activate my prize before 18:00 or else it rolls over to the next person. When I dial these numbers they actually are Vodacom numbers. I eventually called Vodacom customer care and they confirmed that there was no competition offering those prizes. I survived to tell the tale but these scammers are very good and very convincing. I was on the phone with them for about an hour going back and forth with all the questions I had. The guy even sent me links to vodacoms website about the Vodacom unlock 30 competition via WhatsApp. He had a Vodacom logo as his profile pic and his number came up as “Vodacom” on the Truecaller app. Be careful out there people. There are vultures out there waiting to take advantage.

Got a call from a guy (local black male) that said he was from Vodacom. Apparently I had won an Audi, 35k in cash and a phone. I was very skeptical and asked to speak to a manger or supervisor. A few minutes later a guy claiming to be the supervisor called (Afrikaner white male). He was extremely convincing and I 99% fell for everything he was saying. He had an answer to every question that I had, and I had some very challenging questions for him because I am naturally very skeptical of these calls. They wanted me to purchase vouchers in order to activate my Vodabucks. Even though I did not enter any competition I was selected based on network usage. As we were chatting I was researching in the background. The competition they mention is on Vodacoms website but the prizes which I apparently won are not listed on the website, which I found strange. He was very good at explaining how the Vodacom apps work and all the numbers which I need to dial to activate the prize. They wanted me to purchase the vouchers and activate my prize before 18:00 or else it rolls over to the next person. When I dial these numbers they actually are Vodacom numbers. I eventually called Vodacom customer care and they confirmed that there was no competition offering those prizes. I survived to tell the tale but these scammers are very good and very convincing. I was on the phone with them for about an hour going back and forth with all the questions I had. The guy even sent me links to vodacoms website about the Vodacom unlock 30 competition via WhatsApp. He had a Vodacom logo as his profile pic and his number came up as “Vodacom” on the Truecaller app. Be careful out there people. There are vultures out there waiting to take advantage.

My solo indie game just reached the 10000 wishlists last week (10484 to be exact). I never thought I could reach that number on my own without a proper marketing team, budget or big following.
I'd like to share with you what worked and didn't in the hopes it can be helpful to you too.
Disclaimer: I did sign with a publisher two months ago, and while they are already working on marketing stuff, nothing has been published yet. Those numbers are 100% from my own "marketing" efforts. There are people way better at this than me! I'm just sharing my experience here and I'll let you judge if it's helpful. Some things that did not work with me might work with others (and vice versa)!
Let's sort what worked out the best for me. Steam Events > Influencers > Reddit > Twitter > Devlogs (I can't put image on this subreddit, but you can take a look at my wishlist graph with key notes on my original free patreon post)
It might sound obvious, but take the time to check your wishlists regularly, especially whenever you're trying to give visibility to the game with a post/video/announcement/mail. It will allow you to know what works and doesn't. I usually check out youtube and twitch for gameplay videos or press articles whenever there's a bump while I'm not in an event or did not post anything.
Keep posting stuff on social networks. I know it takes time for a small reward, but it's good to have those regular wishlists. It also shows development is alive and you never know when it will reach an influencer or press. When I stopped sharing my stuff for a while, wishlists completely dropped, I was even loosing some everyday! Reddit is harsh, but very rewarding.
I publish devlogs on my youtube channel. I got ~200 wishlist from more than 100k views that took me weeks of work. I don't think publishing devlogs is an efficient way to promote your game, UNLESS you go viral or that your videos also target players by being more accessible without too much technical stuff (mine are definitely targeting game devs for now). I'm only speculating here, but I think game developers are mostly interested in learning from your journey than actually wishlisting/playing your game compared to players which results in less wishlists. So do it only if it makes you happy and you want to share your journey (and be careful not to overwork while doing it)!
Influencers are great for 3 reasons:

1. They give your game visibility.
   
2. They give you feedback to make your game better.
   
3. They are usually keen to do it for free to help small indie devs.
   

Build yourself a press list: a list of press and influencer that might be interested in playing your game. Find their mails online, on their website, channel page or social networks. When you have something very interesting to show them (a new demo, event or announce) send them all a mail (but don´t spam them)!
Here are two accounts you should follow to get tips about how to properly reach to influencers (and other game marketing in general): Clemmy and Wanderbot (subscribe to their newsletters!)
Events are huge for wishlists. It's easy and it does not take time to submit and they are usually free. But there are two big issues with events:

1. You have to find them.

The best free place to find most events is on the HTMAG discord created by Chris (@AdventureMtn). There's also this amazing calendar with all the events (thanks to u/mreliptik for sharing this with me)!

1. You have to be accepted.

You need a demo, quality marketing assets to share and a good steam page. Again, Chris has some awesome tutorials (free and paid) to get a great steam page up. Consider supporting him if his tutorials helped you!
WARNING Do not submit your game to the steam next fest too soon like I did. You want to submit as late as possible, ideally just before your release. Each game gets one shot at the steam next fest, and the more wishlists you have going in, the more wishlists you'll get. I made that mistake because I thought I would release the game 2 months later (lol).
On a side note, you will have tons of wishlist deletions. Don't worry about it, that's perfectly normal (I won't lie, the first 1000 deletions still hit me hard though).
I think the best time to create your steam page is as soon you have a small trailer, screenshots and interesting description that do not look like a prototype full of placeholders. The sooner you have it, the sooner you start collecting wishlists! With the steam page also comes the whole steam community package, which is a plus to keep in touch with people who like your game. I don't really see any disadvantage in having a steam page early, but you might want to plan the communication around the page release to maximize visibility right away. Do not release it without telling anyone! When you demo is out, you can update your page and announce it everywhere too (try to give the exclusivity to a big showcase if you can!).
Things that did not work for me: devlogs, replying to influencers asking for games on twitter, using those spammy hashtags to promote your game (#wishlistwednesday etc...), posting uninteresting stuff about the game developement EVERY day, reposting the same content, posting on the popular subreddits, sharing my game on those "share your work" channel on discord servers, paid ads and plenty of other little things I wasted my time on because I was desperate to get more wishlists.
I hope this was was a nice read! Just to make this clear, this is my experience and it might work very differently for different type of games and game developers. If you'd like to try the game for yourself, you can play the demo on steam. And if you'd like to keep following my journey, you'll find all my links/socials/newslettepatreon stuff here.
Don't hesitate if you have questions, I'll do my best to find time and reply!