Edit2: Ok folks, I am very sorry, but things are back to normal, I am a bonehead after all.
As far as I can tell, only the books I downloaded with the OLD kindleForPC app transferred easily into calibre.
Once my kindleForPC app updated, I can no longer seem to bulk import those files, and it seems I will have to use the "transfer via USB" slow misery download method to get the books into calibre. I guess that explains how I "discovered" such an easy method. I simply hadn't updated my kindle app yet. Now that I have, I am not sure I can downgrade it. It was an ollld version too because I hadn't opened it in years. If you have an old version of the Kindle for pc app, do NOT update it until you have used it to download all your kindle books. the new version of the app won't let you do it the way I describe below. This is probably something a lot of other people already know, but if not, hopefully this helps explain it.
Edit: If your Kindle library books are older than January 2023, you can use the kindle PC app to more rapidly download your collection (the updated kindle for pc app requires double click to download, hello carpal tunnel syndrome! Instead, do one click to hilight, press enter with your other hand, repeat) After 2023, use the Dylan Can read method. Hopefully this will make things easier for people as I can't imagine all those hundreds of books people have are newer than 2023. I got my entire collection downloaded and converted (almost 400 books) in about 45 minutes) I know it only shaves off a few seconds, but multiply that by hundreds of books!)
Ok, so not exactly in bulk, but with the amazing help of this and the kobo sub, I set about what I thought would be an arduous, impossible task of converting my kindle books to epub. Someone suggested the Dylan can Read youtube channel, and his directions involve putting a kindle e-reader device's serial number in the dedrm plugin in calibre, then tediously going to each individual book on amazon's site, and using "download and deliver by usb" for each book. Several clicks per book involved, easy to lose your place, etc.
I followed the instructions, but realized that my kindle for PC is a much easier (though not truly bulk) way of downloading books. In the KindlePC app, you blaze through, clicking each title and it downloads them pretty quickly to your PC. I then tested it by downloading 35 books; then I added the entire folder where my kindle books were downloaded to Calibre, then selected all in calibre, and converted all to epub. As far as I can tell, this worked. While it's not bulk, it's a darn sight faster to blaze through clickclickclicking in the Kinlde PC app, then add to calibre, and finally bulk convert.
As far as I can tell, finding a kindle ereader serial# and placing that in calibre is a completely unnecessary step.
Unless someone tells me differently, it seems to have worked, and while I only tested it on 35 books I quickly downloaded via the pc kindle app, doing the rest should be a piece of (relative) cake.
I feel like I MUST be missing something, because following tutorials to do some software havoc is usually a tear-ridden, swear-word laden misery that ends with my keyboard making a dent in the wall-- how is it possible I not only accomplished this task, but found a better way to do it than the video?
So, my purpose is two-fold, to see if anyone can tell me I messed up and what I think is working isn't actually working, OR to share this easier method that allows rapid downloading of your library, with a single click per title.
As far as I can tell, all these books were converted to Epub, and that means the drm was stripped and I can read them on whatever the heck I want, right?

I would love to hear everyone’s inputs. Well for starters I just platted the game on my second save file, and I can’t help but draw comparisons to some Soulsborne titles. For starters you can tell FS has been at it a lot longer and here’s some things I’ve noticed. Maybe yall can add more and critique these too.
1) Enemy Balancing: Even though enemies are fairly weak if you’re upto the recommended level (character and weapon), most enemies don’t let you get in hits and you’re mostly required to trade which sucks because of the lack of player poise or hyperarmor, and paired with slow weapons like most motivity weapons it’s much more evident. After some testing I found that hyperarmor exists for some fable arts (not 100% of the time) and at the VERY END of Charged heavies. I assume it’s because the game emphasizes perfect parry gameplay but that ends up creating subcultures of people who can get it, and people who don’t, and the latter end up hating on a beautiful game
2) Lore Balancing: this one is kinda nitpicky. Again drawing a comparison to Soulsborne titles, a boss’s role in the lore kinda matches up with their in game difficulty. Gwynn was the king of anor londo, but when you fight him he’s a husk of his former self, Manus was the father of the abyss, and wildly aggressive, a trait you can see in Artorius one of Gwynn’s strongest knights after he succumbs to the Abyss. Malenia kicks your teeth in cuz she’s an undefeated Demi goddess, Gale does it cuz he’s been killing from the War on the dragons till the end of time, and he picks up a habit of consuming his victims. Sure it pisses you off when Malenia does the waterfowl dance for the 5th time in 30 seconds, but it makes sense. NOW HOW IS A PUPPET BEING CONTROLLED BY AN OLD MAN SHREDDING ME FASTER THAN AN AWAKENED GOD.
That said Lies of P has a new special place in my heart and I wanna see what they do in the future with the whole Dorothy tease. Hopefully if they do the fairytale thing, I would love to see a Hansel and Gretel reimagining and make it something like that one movie with Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton.

Quickly posting as I suspect MN will delete.
BIWI · Yesterday 19:44 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/chat/5086152-do-you-support-the-proposed-5-day-strike-by-jnr-docs?reply=135671690
It wasn't an attack on the OP. It was a criticism of their posts.
(From memory, as I'm not entirely sure what you've deleted).
I haven't had any contact from MN telling me why it was deleted, and I would appreciate it if you could let me know the reason for deletion.
LilyMumsnet · Yesterday 19:52
Hi BIWI
The post was deleted, as we felt it crossed the line into a personal attack. This was the part of the post that resulted in deletion: 'on various of your stupid, ignorant and fucking awful threads'
We wouldn't let this post stand if it were aimed at any Mumsnetter, so we would ask that you avoid posting in this way. Quote Thanks Add post Report
Bookmark BIWI · Yesterday 19:56
But @LilyMumsnet I didn't attack the poster. I attacked their posts. That has always been something that we are allowed to do.
How has it changed? OP posts: See next See all Quote Thanks Add post Report
Bookmark Justcats · Yesterday 19:56
Biwi was right though and only said what most on MN think about that poster. Quote Thanks Add post Report
Bookmark Holibobbin · Yesterday 19:57
That poster makes me wish there was a block button on MN
ObliviousCoalmine · Yesterday 22:16
That poster deserves all the 'personal' attacks they get tbh. Half the time they're inciting it anyway. Quote Thanks Add post Report
Bookmark EffortlesslyInelegant · Yesterday 22:21
Agree with all the above. That poster is a disruptor and posts in a deliberately disingenuous and goady way the better to attract negative attention about which he then whines to HQ. As far as I can see the post by BIWI was spot on and could have been a whole lot ruder. Quote Thanks Add post Report
Bookmark specialsauce · Yesterday 22:29
I got a post deleted on that thread too. For suggesting the OP use spellcheck and saying their point of view was embarrassing 🙄
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5086794-why-was-my-post-deleted?page=1

First Book Series Index Galactic Map RoyalRoad Patreon Discord
++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Story So Far

As humanity reached out into the stars, the nations of the world joined the newly formed Terran Republic, with the exception of some criminal elements that resisted the reach of its authority around Saturn. Through discreet interstellar exploration, the Republic found the neighboring galaxy a place of wonder and prosperity, filled with peaceful civilizations like the Malgeir Federation, the Schprissian Confederacy, the Granti Alliance…etc. Perfectly ripe for the taking for the uniquely bloodthirsty herbivore species, the Znosian Dominion, known to all other species in the region as Grass Eaters.
Motivated by a religious and psychological need to expand, the rabbit-like Znosians invaded the bear-like Granti. Despite the peaceful Granti species receiving direct military assistance from their old friends, the canine-like Malgeir, they were overwhelmed and forced to evacuate their entire territory, including their homeworld of Grantor. The Znosians then turned their sights to the Malgeir, who they proceeded to also dominate on the battlefield due to their superior understanding of interstellar war and logistics. In the course of the brutal invasion, the Znosians colonized, then efficiently exterminated any predators remaining on the occupied planets.
Still hidden and insulated from the war due to its grasp of stealth technology and the legacy of the Prime Directive, a cornerstone law that prohibited revelation of Terran presence to aliens, the people of the Terran Republic watched the ongoing war and xenocide with a mix of horror and indifference… until one of its reconnaissance fleets was forced to act to prevent its own discovery. The presence of one of its recon ships was observed during the act by the Malgeir and Znosian ships present, and the Terran Republic finally decided to join the war covertly on the Malgeir side.
With centuries of experience with constant war, excellent logistics, computing technology, and wild underestimation from the Znosian enemy, the Terrans helped the sworn-to-secrecy and retrained Malgeir Sixth Fleet beat back an invasion of the Malgeir core world of Datsot, capitalizing on enemy missteps to push them all the way back to the occupied Malgeir system of Gruccud, finally trapping and forcing the surrender of the invasion fleet with technological deception.
But the threat was not over. The vast Znosian Dominion still outweighed the alliance of the predators by more than ten to one in tonnage, particularly the Terran Republic which was still practically a single-system species. The Znosian leadership had its suspicions of the recent, unexplained losses. And they still occupied the worlds of the entire Granti civilization and most of the periphery of the Malgeir Federation.
The known galaxy held its breath to see what the two sides would do next…
++++++++++++++++++++++++
(Footage: First day of ground combat, Liberation Battle for Gruccud)
Voice 1: I’m a butcher.
Voice 2: I’m a welder.
Voice 3: I’m a programmer.
Voice 4: I’m a musician.
Voice 5: I was working on my sire’s farm.
Voice 6: I was the daughter of a High Councilor.
Voice 7: My dame was on Gionlu.
Voice 8: My friends didn’t get out of Grantor in time.
Voice 9: I wanted to be a xenogeologist.
Voice 10: I’m your litter’s schoolteacher.
Voice 11: I’m your neighbor.
Voices Mixed: I am you.
Title text: None of us were born for this war.
Title text: We fight so no one else has to be.
“Born for this War”, Malgeir Federation Marine Infantry Recruiting Commercial, July 2124
++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dashch Station, Znos-4 (36,000 km)

POV: Irtisl, Znosian Dominion Navy (Rank: Four Whiskers)
Four Whiskers Irtisl looked around at her team of civilian engineers and technicians scurrying around the station, the bustle of their hurried movements like an orchestrated dance, punctuated by the sharp clatter of tools and the distant hum of machinery. Welding torches occasionally erupted with bright blue fire, casting flickering shadows that danced and played along the cold, metallic walls.
Amidst the cacophony, Irtisl’s ear flicked at an approaching sound. The deliberate clicks of magnetic boots on metal echoed into her suit through the structure she was standing on — a measured, hammering beat as one of her technicians cautiously navigated the hazardous zero-gravity environment, relying on the technology beneath their paws to anchor them to safety.
Her helmet radio buzzed. “Project Manager, we are almost ready to proceed with the test.”
Irtisl turned on the spot, her movements slow, carefully keeping her own balance. Her eyes met those of the speaker, her mask of composed patience concealing her simmering irritation. “Head Technician Stultam, we are already two weeks behind schedule, and this date was picked after your repeated assurances that—”
“I take responsibility for this delay,” Stultam interrupted breezily, his tone almost dismissive. “My people are inexperienced in your military testing protocols, Project Manager, and the additional last-minute requirements from the—”
“I’m not interested in your excuses, Head Technician,” Irtisl sliced through his words. “Your people were allocated significant resources to complete this project because your design group assured us that you had a viable solution for the functionality the Navy requires. If this delay results in cancellation, you will be hold solely responsible for the waste.”
“Yes, Four Whiskers,” Stultam replied, his head dipping by the minimum needed for her to perceive the movement.
Even his show of respect is sloppy! These undisciplined civilians, Irtisl seethed internally, if I had my way, we wouldn’t be using anyone outside the Design Bureau. Alas, no one inside the Bureau had any idea where to even start on this one…
“How much more time does the team need before we can begin validation?” she asked, her tone clipped.
“Thirty minutes,” Stultam estimated. “We are securing the testbed, and one of the transport shuttles is just arriving in time for the trials.”
Irtisl’s nose crinkled in mild exasperation. “More officers? I thought everyone is already waiting on the observation deck.”
“Not from the Navy, Four Whiskers,” he almost whispered, a hint of fear threading his voice. “It’s her.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++
POV: Svatken, Znosian Dominion State Security (Position: Director)
State Security Director Svatken, her eyes flickering with impatience, cast a cursory glance at the screen. It displayed the shuttle’s diligent verification of its docking seal’s integrity with the station. Without a moment’s hesitation, she slammed the override button. As if sensing her urgency, the doors flew open. Svatken’s stride was purposeful, her trusty attendant Fstrofcho shadowing her every step.
The head of the welcoming party donned a mask of rehearsed delight. “Welcome, Director. I am Four Whiskers—”
“You are Four Whiskers Irtisl,” Svatken interjected with icy precision. “You are the Project Manager and Navy liaison for the civilian group operating this station. Your head technician needs twenty-five more minutes to complete preparations, which you will take full responsibility for. Now, you are going to lead me to the observation deck so I can interview one of your superiors.”
Caught off guard, Irtisl stammered, “I— I—”
“Was I mistaken?”
Recovering, Irtisl replied, “Of course not, Director. Right this way.”
“Good,” the Director said, following the stiff footsteps of the flustered four whiskers. “And do not consider my assignment of responsibility unfair. Responsibility implies credit. This is an important project for the proper course of the Prophecy. If you did your job correctly, you and your bloodline will be rewarded appropriately despite the delay. If you did not…” She left the hanging threat unspoken.
“Yes, Director,” Irtisl murmured, leading her onto the elevated observation deck.
Several high-ranking officers were deep in conversation around an instrument console. Upon the sound of the doors opening, they paused and turned towards Svatken as she entered.
“You may leave us now, Four Whiskers,” Svatken ordered. Irtisl happily obliged, turning around and hopping out the door to get as far away from the menacing State Security Director.
Svatken fixed her gaze on the tall creature at the head of the table. “Eleven Whiskers Sprabr. I have some questions for you. Alone.”
The elderly 25-year-old Grand Fleet Commander Sprabr looked surprised — feigned, no doubt — but bowed his head in respect. “Of course, Director.” He looked at his subordinates and gestured at the exit. “Allow me a moment with the Director.”
The officers, all visibly relieved, quickly filed out of the deck.
“I am happy to answer any questions you have, Director, but—”
“You are a hard creature to reach, Eleven Whiskers,” Svatken interrupted, her eyes narrowing. “Four calls to your office, two to your domicile. That might be a record. For my patience, that is. Usually, one of those unanswered calls would have been followed by an armed raid by a squad of armed agents.”
“I take full responsibility for my unavailability, Director. Managing the many squadrons of the Grand Prophetic Fleet has consumed much of my free time, and my office attendant is forgetful—”
“She was not,” Svatken countered. “I interviewed her before I arrived here. You will not pawn your responsibility off to your subordinates or lie to me. And if managing your fleet is taking up too much of your time, I can arrange a reduction in your responsibilities.”
Sprabr dropped his cautious veneer. “That will not be necessary, Director. Please forgive my personal transgressions towards your more valuable time; I take full responsibility. I will answer all your questions in detail.”
Svatken glanced at Fstrofcho, busy entering new notes into his datapad. “Make a note of that, Attendant. I will determine the level of your transgression after this interview, Eleven Whiskers.” She turned back to Sprabr. “But enough of wasting my time. You will now answer my questions. What is the nature of your relationship with Zero Whiskers Ditvish?”
If he was surprised by the question, he did not show it. “I was Ditvish’s superior when he commanded the Datsot Invasion Fleet, Director. I was not aware of his intent to defect until after—”
“If you were aware of his apostasy and did not report it, you would be facing a firing squad, Eleven Whiskers, not my questioning. Keep your irrelevant commentary to yourself. How long did you know Ditvish before that?”
“18 years, Director.”
“18? The records show you were his superior for most of his career, and his Navy Retraining Center instructor before that. That adds up to 15.”
“I met Zero Whiskers Ditvish three years prior to his qualification and acceptance to Znos Navy Retraining Center. I was the one who convinced him to apply when I discovered that he was grasping concepts at a much higher level than the six whiskers rank he was bred to be.”
“So your relationship with him was deeply personal?”
“It was indeed. I did not obscure that detail from my initial interview with the second Apostasy Commission after his defection was—”
“Less wasting of my time, please. When he defected, what was your initial reaction?”
“Complete shock, Director. The Ditvish I knew for 18 years would never contemplate defection to the Lesser Predators out of personal fear.”
She tilted her head. “Why?”
“Like all good Servants of the Prophecy, he did not fear death. And like all great Servants of the Prophecy, he did not fear failure. Instead, Ditvish welcomed both as mere challenges. More than once, I have seen him charge into great danger, at risk of both death and failure, without reluctance or delay. Surely you have seen that in his career records too. In my experience, those who defect hold one of these fears, and those fears are what drive them to abandon the Prophecy.”
“So if not personal fear, what was it? Out of greed, then? For power? Maybe revenge? Or perhaps perverted pleasures of the flesh?” She made a disgusted face.
Sprabr shook his head. “No, to defect to the Lesser Predator for those would be irrational, and Ditvish was not that either.”
“Then why?”
“Perhaps he thought the Prophecy abandoned him. After all, it was after your commission announced—”
Svatken interjected, “His schism plot was what led to the commission. I know you have read the full commission report on the sequence of events, Eleven Whiskers.”
“I’ve seen the evidence for that supposed plot. It may have been good enough to convince your superiors, but the totality of the evidence prior to the decision was clearly circumstantial—”
She bristled. “The evidence was incontrovertible. We had physical evidence of the crime. Sensor data, communication logs, and I saw those supply ships with my own eyes!”
“Director, have you considered the possibility that your first case was built on an enemy ruse? Lesser Predator manipulations. They may not be very bright, but they are practiced in such matters, even amongst themselves.”
“It would be— it would be extremely unlikely,” Svatken said, catching herself. “I am used to dealing with predators, Eleven Whiskers. Such a clean execution would be unheard of. They may be able to conjure up some data, but all of it? That they really did defeat several of our convoys, fluffles, and fleets in open battle despite the odds heavily in our favor? We should not underestimate our enemy, but in my experience, the simpler option is the most likely one.”
“And yet, you have doubts,” Sprabr pointed out. “Or you would not be asking me questions about Ditvish six weeks after his case was officially closed. And you would not be here observing a test for technology that doesn’t exist, inspired by an impossible weapon that our enemies don’t have.”
“I— I— yes, I have an open mind for an alternative hypothesis,” Svatken admitted. “As any good State Security officer should be.”
“Here is mine: in addition to their new technology upgrades, the Lesser Predators managed to get into our communication network. They heard what we heard and saw what we saw. Then, they fabricated the appearance of a conspiracy, a schism plot, and left clues they knew you would eventually find at the sites of our defeats, tailoring the evidence to fit your suspicions. And after the Apostasy Commission completed their judgement, they intercepted that too and leveraged it to convince Ditvish and his fleet to defect to the enemy, depriving us of one of our most successful commanders and leading to the greatest Znosian naval defeat in living memory.”
“That— that is your idea of a more likely theory?” Svatken gaped at his brazenness incredulously.
“It is. And I take full responsibility for coming up with it. But it is not just mine. These are now the worst-case planning assumptions of the Navy, which is why we have upgraded our encryption systems and why,” Sprabr pointed out the windows of the observation deck, “We are taking these… allegations of new predator threats very seriously.”
“You actually believe this theory of yours.”
“I do.”
Svatken pondered his words for a moment, wondering whether she should believe his sincerity or have him shot. She settled for wait-and-see.
She could always have him shot later.
“You can call your subordinates back in now. And let’s see if there is any merit to these technological wonders that our enemies have allegedly cooked up.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++
POV: Irtisl, Znosian Dominion Navy (Rank: Four Whiskers)
Irtisl depressed the big red button firmly with her a claw. Its crisp click in the chamber was the only immediate response.
Then, in synchrony, the symbols on the consoles arrayed before her began to dance. The calm of the blue and green indicators gave way to orange and red, signifying a dramatic rise in power draw as the test device drained the reserve power of the station and demanded more. The very air in the room seemed to hum with the flood of energy being poured into the machinery.
She looked over at Head Technician Stultam’s station. He gave her a positive gesture with his paws.
It’s working.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
POV: Svatken, Znosian Dominion State Security (Position: Director)
“Thank you, Operative, that is an excellent find,” Svatken’s voice was low but clear as she spoke into her communicator device. “This proves that their deliveries have been intentionally slow for weeks.”
Fstrofcho gently tapped her on the shoulder. He leaned in, his voice a whisper against the hum of the station’s systems, “Director, they are beginning the test now.”
Svatken, without turning, raised a single claw, mouthing to him, “Hold one moment.”
Refocusing on the call, her tone shifted to brisk efficiency. “Yes, Operative, get to the camp, find out why, and get that report to my office within the week.”
A brief pause followed. Frowning, she looked confused at her receiver when the expected confirmation didn’t come out. “Hello? Operative? Are you still on the call?”
++++++++++++++++++++++++
POV: Znufchu, Znosian (Civilian)
The primary traffic controller at Znos Space Control looked askance at the confusing lights blinking on the panel in front of her.
“Traffic control to 2411, you are deviating from your flight path. Please return to autopilot as soon as possible,” she asked the incoming warship on the FTL radio.
“Traffic control to 2411, did you copy my last? Please return control to autopilot.”
“Traffic control to Navy command ship 0114, I can’t reach 2411. There may be a communication emergency on board their ship.”
“Traffic control to ground control, I can’t reach the Navy command ship in orbit. Can you check on your end?”
“Traffic control on the open FTL channel. Does anyone copy? Can anyone hear me?”
++++++++++++++++++++++++

Outpost McMurdo, McMurdo System (600 Ls)

POV: Zwena Tanith, Terran Republic Navy (Rank: Commander)
Station Commander Zwena’s eyes locked onto the six pulsating alerts on their console in the dimly lit command center. “Shit, can anyone reach the FTL frequency for any of our receivers in Znosian sector zero-zero-zero? I’m still receiving, but none of our observation drones are responding to commands.”
Their second in command, Bert Williams, cast a seasoned gaze toward the communications station. “LT, reach to the side of the console and manually flip the squelch control knob to the off position.”
The lieutenant on duty at the station did as he ordered. An abrupt static hiss erupted from the speakers, assaulting their ears. She flinched, her hand darting to the volume control knob, twisting it until the cacophony subsided to a bearable hum.
Unperturbed, Bert continued, “Now hit two-two-zero on the pop-out pad to disconnect the transmission lock.”
As her fingers danced over the pad, the static dimmed further, sinking into a whisper against the backdrop of the command center’s quiet hum.
Confusion clouded Zwena’s expression. “What does that mean?”
“It must be an FTL jamming signal from the other end, Commander,” Bert said with increasing certainty. “Some kind of noise-modulated jammer. Primitive, but powerful enough to stop our commands from reaching them. We should still be able to hear them though.”
“Can we burn through it somehow to send commands?”
Bert shook his head. “Unlikely. We’re too far away and we don’t mount FTL frequency hoppers on those buoys. No blink drive, and they would have taken too much of the volume budget anyway. But unless they are discovered, our buoys will just keep transmitting data to us until they get a command back from us. These jamming signals aren’t selective, Commander. They can’t possibly continue jamming their own home system forever. Most likely it’s some kind of test or emergency, and it’ll stop when they’re done.”
“I’m glad someone paid attention in Electronic Warfare Theory class at the Academy. Well, you know the SOP: continue all operations as normal. Don’t let the enemy know they’re having an effect on us. And file a Signals Interference report with Luna. Someone over there will know what to do.”}
++++++++++++++++++++++++

Meta

Welcome all! For anyone new to Grass Eaters, this is book 2 of an ongoing series. You may want to start from the very beginning.

[First] [Previous] [Next]
Number 282 very rarely heard his own name anymore, at least during work. Sitting on a lonely, cold cubicle in a huge building in the middle of Ujong Tanah, thousands of kilometers away from our story… Number 282 could not feel more detached from everything in the world. His working space was reduced, barely customized with a few pictures of his family, for the old and bulky computer he worked with used most of his space.

He was what people usually know as a “Mechanical Turk”, an “anonymous working man”, an “automaton made out of flesh”. He had one task, and one task only, and he was paid miserably to do so: stare at the screen, and report any strange behavior happening in the private quarters of some woman in Obuda.

He knew nothing more of her, her life, or anything. And he was not paid to care in the slightest. It’s not like he was cruel and mean about it, either. It’s not like he didn’t sometimes think of the mysterious woman he spied on and worried about her fate… but again, he was not paid to do that. And with the soulcrushing amount of staring and reporting he had to do? Soon the concerns dissipated from his mind.

Number 282 was a sleeper, like the many ‘snitches’ contracted by the Brotherhood. A mere Sleeper, kept in the dark about what he was looking at. The higher ups never answered his questions: For example, the woman disappeared often, how did she do that? Why did she do it and where did she go when she did that? Not on his paygrade. Stop asking things.

He reported the woman’s disappearance every time that it happened, and that was the end of it.

But that night? That night the woman not only reappeared… she brought company. Some random guy had appeared in the room and was now walking around like nobody’s business. The woman appeared too soon after.

“What the Hells…?”

Now, he had been told weird things were going to happen here, and he was used to teleporting ladies now, but this new guy? Who the hell was he and what did he want here?

He immediately picked up his phone and dialed the number for emergencies.They picked up instantly.

“Number 282. What is your emergency?” A gentle, feminine voice attended. The young man smiled a little bit, the executive always got him a good mood.

“Ah yes. Hello. Uh, there’s a new person here now?”

“...Excuse me, could you repeat that?”

“There’s a new person in the camera. Some random guy.”

There were strange sounds on the other side of the phone. Coughing, gasping, gesticulating. All until the executive spoke again.

“I will inform the superiors about this, please wait in line.”

Calm and smooth music started playing on the phone, as the young man simply looked up to the ceiling and waited on his chair, making it spin slowly. It took a long while of waiting until the executive actually got back to him.

“We’ll access your computer for a moment, okay? Please don’t touch the keyboard or the mouse while we do this.”

“Sure.”

The whole ‘remote access’ deal was honestly a bit unnerving to the young worker. Just, watching the mouse suddenly gain a conscience of its own and move around? Terrible stuff, really. But, he couldn’t really do much more than just watch.

“I see… this person is new, he’s not in any of our files…” The executive was talking without thinking.

“What was that?” The young man asked.

“Nothing, nothing. Thank you for informing us of this, we will add a bonus to your monthly pay for your services.”

“Oh yes! Thank you!”

Click.

The young worker celebrated, this would certainly bring a smile to the face of his beloved! But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had just gotten the woman on the screen into some big trouble.

Oh well. In this world, one had to look after their own interests, or they couldn’t get anywhere.


The alchemist was already a little tired from all the interactions she had to endure today. Tav had fallen completely silent soon after they had both left the apartment, but the silence between them wasn’t comfortable. Mustafá cursed her empathy, as she could clearly feel the intense turmoil going on in her apprentice’s mind. She frowned and closed her eyes for an instant, breathing in and out, trying to think. Where did this all come from?

The old mage was not one to take care of the emotions of others, for she considered such efforts to be completely useless in the end. People got hurt, it was up to them to get back up. and continue on living.

… Why did this feel so oddly familiar, though?

The ringing of her phone interrupted her thoughts. A perfectly generic tune, for customizing efforts would be pointless. Mustafá sighed and picked up the phone, giving Tav one look as they both went into the building’s old and rusty elevator. They stood close to each other as the rusty metal box began sliding down.

“What.”

“Hello, miss Mustafá. How are you feeling?” The feminine voice of a Brotherhood Executive spoke through the phone with all the energy in the world.

“Cut the crap, Dawn.” Mustafá knew Dawn for a while now, one of the two executives in charge of her case. “What do you want.”

“...So much for a pleasant conversation.” All the excitement and warmth abandoned Dawn’s voice almost instantly. “May I ask what you are doing right now?”

“None of your business.” The less Mustafá could relay to the Brotherhood, the better.

“You know it kind of is my business.” Dawn tried to impose a bit of authority.

“And that is not my problem. At all.” Mustafá felt no compassion whatsoever for members of the Brotherhood, not even ones she knew personally.

“Urgh, come on Mustafá, please? I am literally begging you here.” Dawn had learned, the bad way, that sometimes humiliating herself was the only way to advance with this woman.

“I am going to buy bread.” She said, simply.

There was a pause.

“...Alright? And who’s with you?” The executive decided to focus.

“None of your business.” Mustafá cut those ambitions down very quickly.

“He doesn’t have a license and is not on any of our files, but you brought him to Obuda via instant transportation. That is a crime.” Dawn tried to pressure.

“It is not. She’s a mage.” Mustafá crossed her arms

“S-She?” The executive hesitated.

“She.” Mustafá reaffirmed without even missing a beat.

“Fine. She. She is an unlicensed mage.” Dawn insisted. “You can really get in trouble for this on–”

“Rulebook 1, Item 18, addendum 2.”

There was silence while Dawn quickly scrambled to read what Mustafá was citing.

“Let’s see, yadda yadda yadda, ‘Any Bastard has a period of one week since their first encounter with a Brotherhood Officer to ask for their License before they can be held in contempt.’... Urgggh.”

“She’s not in the files, is she?” Mustafá shrugged, as the elevator loudly descended. “That means she has not been contacted by the Brotherhood yet. She still has time.”

“... Look, Mustafá, please. Work with me here. You know your situation is not exactly normal! Pretty please!?” Dawn was not above begging, clearly.

“Fine. She’s to be my apprentice from now on. After we get this bread, we are going to get her license.” There were loud coughs on the other side of the call. Mustafá sighed. “Tell Jasper to calm down. I take apprentices from time to time, get over it.”

“Ok… please include this in your monthly report?” Dawn tried to regain some of her bubbly personality. “I really don’t need more trouble today!”

“Sure.”

“Good talk. Thank you~.”

Click.

Sigh.

The old alchemist put her phone back in her pocket, and as the elevator continued to descend, she finally gave up and looked at the mumbling Tav.

“... Breathe in.”

“W-Whuh?” The apprentice looked up. Her eyes were a little red, a little swollen.

“Breathe in. Do it now. Hold it in for two seconds, then let it out slowly.”

Tav looked a little doubtful, but she did as told. There was probably no energy in her to complain anymore. Eventually, she let it all out

“...Sorry…” She mumbled, hands fidgeting with each other.

“Don’t be. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“It’s just…” The bastard mage tried to speak up, but then they quieted down. They were probably wrestling with the idea of opening up. Mustafá frowned, examining at her apprentice from top to bottom. What a mess, Tav had been biting her nails, her hands were trembling and fidgeting nervously, and despite the short breathing exercise, she was clearly still in distress.

Mustafá knew what had to be done… but she did not like it in the slightest. Still, as the elevator came to a stop, she decided to take the metaphorical plunge.

“... We will have a talk when we return to your home.”

Now this took Tav completely by surprise. Her posture straightened a little bit.

“H-Huh?”

“There’s something on your mind.” Mustafá continued. “You will let it out when we get home. That will give you time to actually think about it and order the ideas.”

There was another motion in Tav’s body, she was.. relaxing, at least a little bit. Predictably enough, the apprentice only needed to be reassured.

“...Thank you.” She said, trying to put up a smile. The alchemist turned away, not really enjoying the sight of a forced grin like that.

Mustafá knew this was not a good idea. This would only get her more involved with this unstable individual! But by now she was remembering what made this whole situation so familiar.

This felt just like when she had to teach Telonius, back in the days of the First Sacrifice.

For some reason, she felt like this parallel wasn’t an accident at all…

“Damn you, Humiko.”


Seeing magic in action was a little shocking. Honestly, I wasn’t really processing the fact that I am on the literal other side of Jericho until I actually went out of the building and saw the picturesque streets of Obuda. Turns out this woman has a rather well placed apartment, right besides a Museum and not too far from the beautiful Central Market, a huge building constructed with orange brick and metallic details.

The air feels so different in a touristic city, people are taking their time watching every detail of the place and taking picture after picture of every beautiful corner. They feel happier than the folks at Saüle, much more energetic too. The weird thing though, is that I could understand everything. The collar is probably translating for me, even if the words were in languages I can’t even identify, I can get the gist of what they said.

I can hear entire phrases being said in what I assume is a slavic language, and seconds later I am hit by the realization that they are a couple of tourists from Georgia, trying to decide what to have for lunch. In the same way, I can hear people mumbling and comparing their own homes to this beautiful city, looking for pieces of memorabilia and souvenirs, clumsily trying to communicate and peddle services to one another. It is kind of a mess… so much noisier than in Saüle.

“I… guess this doesn’t work for written words, right?” I manage to say, still trying to recover from that fit of anxiety.

“It does. But only for languages spoken by humans.” Mustafá answers with a hint of sadness on her words. If only things were ever simple.

I guess magic doesn’t count for that, huh? Strange limitation, but I guess it makes sense that you can’t use magic on itself. That would be … uh… metamagic?

“You’re just making up words now.”

I guess so.

“This is my favorite Bakery.” Mustafá suddenly says.

I have to stop to look at her, and then at the little shop in the middle of the Central Market. The scent of freshly baked goods is alluring, but it is sadly mixed with the smell of people pushing each other to try and get some traditionally made bread for tea time.

“Is it… good…?” I wonder out loud.

“Yes.” Mustafá nods. “Fairly priced, good crunch, golden crust. It doesn’t get better than this.”

The woman clearly has some strong opinions on bread. I just nod and let her enter. While Mustafá is in the bakery, I simply stop and look down on my feet, waiting for her return. I don’t feel like getting into places full of people right now… I also don’t feel like being perceived at all right now, but I guess there are some things we simply can’t help.

“You should use this time to think about what you’ll tell her at home.”

Well, yeah, maybe.

“What is she now, your therapist? Want this to end up just like those times? Keep quiet.”

“She offered. That means she cares.”

“Why would she care, though? She just met you. This is probably a chance for her to tell you to shut up and fuck off.”

My hands get sweaty and restless again. Can’t we just not do this? Not now, or ever really? Let’s just… continue as if I had never shown any freaky attitudes. Yeah. Let’s just ignore what I say and do, and focus on magic!

“Exactly. Magic is all that ties you to this woman.”

Mustafá arrives soon enough with a bag full of warm, freshly baked bread.

“I, uh. I’ll pay you back for this.”

“You will. But not with money.” The mage keeps on walking. “Come now. We’re wasting time.”

I doubt for a moment before actually following, trying to speak up.

“Uhm, about that talk you wanted to have…”

“You’re chickening out.” She doesn't even turn around.

“W-What!? No, it’s not like that. I just, uhm…” I don't have enough time to conjure a lie in these conditions!

“I may have a solution to the problem that attacks you. But we need to have that talk first.” Mustafá still refuses to look me in the eye.

“The problem that attacks me…?” I blink a few times.

She refuses to elaborate, simply walking on. Why.. does this feel so promising? Watching this tiny woman stride with all the confidence in the world, it makes things feel much easier to deal with. I've been listening to the way she speaks to people, she doesn’t take shit from anyone! My anxiety soon turns to sudden anticipation. What could be on her mind? If she says that she can fix this, she certainly can! I believe in that for sure!

Not even the voices seem to be capable of doubting her!

I… honestly don’t know what that means, but maybe magic could finally make me feel less miserable. Like, magic antidepressants or something.

I begin following with renewed interest. This is promising.

This megathread is about the ongoing conflict between HYBE and the management of sub-label ADOR.
DO NOT make new posts related to this story to the subreddit. If you have new information/articles, add them to the comments below so they can be integrated into the main post.
THIS POST MAY BE LOCKED OR UNLOCKED AT VARYING TIMES based on what the moderators are able to manage during their shifts. Please be patient with us while we work to balance keeping up with the queue and our own lives.
DISCLAIMER ABOUT SOURCES: We prefer to focus on official statements from companies or other vetted sources. There will be widespread speculation and rumor-heavy articles, but until presented in an official capacity we consider them unsubstantiated. As Mods, all we can do is compile and summarize, but we are not investigators or journalists.

Summary of Previous Megathreads

MEGATHREADS ONE and TWO and THREE covered events from April 22nd to the 26th

• Contains: Announcement of HYBE auditing sub-label ADOR, evidence of ADOR management planning to break away, HYBE filing a 'breach of trust' complaint to police, ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin's emergency press conference to explain her frustrations within the company, and HYBE's refutation of her claims.

MEGATHREAD FOUR provided a SUMMARY of all events up to April 30th.

• Contains: Basic info and summary of dispute, other HYBE sub-labels BIGHIT Music and SOURCE Music's vow to take legal action against slander and groundless conspiracies, and future board/shareholders' meetings were scheduled.

MEGATHREADS FIVE and SIX covered the first half of May up to the 18th.

• Contains: Potential embezzlement by an ADOR employee, Min Hee Jin's injunction filed against HYBE, a letter from the parents of NewJeans, HYBE's rebuttal to it, HYBE's request to investigate the timing of ADOR's VP selling his shares, the injunction hearing, old emails between Min Hee Jin and HYBE, and alleged chat messages from MHJ to NewJeans.

MEGATHREAD SEVEN covered May 19th to the 25th.

• Contains: MHJ and HYBE statements with claims and counter-claims post-hearing, Belift Lab's criminal complaint filing against MHJ for defamation, HYBE's internal town hall, and HYBE going in for police questioning to support their 'breach of trust' case against MHJ.

MEGATHREAD EIGHT covered the last week of May.

• More old text messages became public which featured various conversations including MHJ, VP Lee, ADOR staff, among others, and particularly MHJ and her shaman friend. The topics covered are the same HYBE had cited previously as having been discovered during the audit.
  
• MHJ's preliminary injunction was granted by the court on May 30th, protecting her from immediate dismissal at the upcoming shareholders' meeting. The court's judgment was based on a clause in MHJ's contract despite the court acknowledging she had acted treacherously towards HYBE. Both MHJ and HYBE representatives made statements accepting the court's decision. HYBE vowed to pursue the next steps within the limits of the law.
  
• The shareholders' meeting was held on May 31st.
  

Articles / Timeline

240531

• The extraordinary shareholders' meeting was held in the morning. MHJ retained her position as CEO of ADOR. HYBE dismissed two board members associated with MHJ from their positions and appointed three new board members to replace them. MHJ announced a new press conference following the meeting.
  
• Min Hee Jin's press conference was held in the afternoon following the shareholders' meeting.
  
  • Post: Min Hee Jin (ADOR CEO) holds a 2nd Press Conference - Live Discussion
  • Press Conference replay links on YouTube: SBS News, KNN, TV10
  • Korea JoongAng Daily: As it happened — ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin's second press conference (realtime English translation)
• Yonhap News: ADOR CEO retains position after shareholders' meeting, offers compromise with Hybe
  
• Korea JoongAng Daily: 'Let's make up for NewJeans' sake': Min Hee-jin offers peace to HYBE after winning court injunction
  

Ongoing Investigations:

• HYBE's criminal complaint for 'breach of trust' against Min Hee Jin
  
• Belift Lab's criminal complaint against Min Hee Jin for defamation
  

Link back to MEGATHREADS 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8

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The following will be a general write up about the voting rights for Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico and US citizens moving to terrtories. To keep things from being repetitive you may notice that I will seemly use Puerto Rico and US territories interchangeablely. This is because 95% of the things in this post(Excluding American Samoa and bits of the Northern Mariana Islands.) applies to ALL territories.(I will not be addressing The District of Columbia in this post.)
To conserve literary real estate I will be abbreviating Puerto Rico as PR and US territories as UST. Final note, when you see the " G" symbol, know that the statement before it applies to ALL territories.
The information in this post has been gathered from index searches, asking Deputy City Clerks, City Clerks, and County Clerks but the greatest source of this post is from the US Commission on Civil Rights and I'll putting direct quotes from their website. The reason I'll be adding direct quotes is that the wording for voting rights for territories is very precise and the issue I've had with shows, articles, and discussions is that individuals will just throw out mindless phrases; for example, "X people can't vote in elections".(Certain individuals will NOT go to say WHICH exact elections X people can not participate in.
This will be a TL;DR summary of the bars I'm about to spit.
Do people living in UST 🇵🇷 face disenfranchisement in terms of voting rights and opportunities? YES! IRREFUTABLY YES!
Is this a stain 💩🇺🇲 on our Country's ideals? YES! IRREFUTABLY YES!
Should all US citizens 🇺🇲🇺🇲 born in UST G be allowed to vote in elections? Maybe.
Is there a shadow group of Washington politicians 👹👹👹 in some dark room somewhere scheming to keep people in UST G from voting? No, I truly don't believe so.
Hopefully, by the end of this write up you'll see things in a similar compacity as I do. the issue of voting disenfranchisement for UST is a product of past racism but is currently reinforced by morden bureaucracy and pure ignorance rather than malicious intent.
I started off the adventure by driving around my state and asking my city Clerks the following:
1: "As a US citizen born in Denver, I have the right to vote in a General and Primary election. I could even move to a foreign country like France(Exp) and STILL get a ballot sent to me so I can participate in the general or primary election. Puerto Ricans are US citizens. Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico can vote in a Primary election but not a General.....unless they move to one of the 50 states and then suddenly they can. What change happens that allows Puerto Ricans to do such a thing?"
2: "Can I, as a US citizen born in Denver, lose my right to a mail in ballot should I move to a UST G?"
Those are the exact phrases I used when addressing the Clerks. The answer to some of you might be obvious but I still found the reaction to the question by the Clerks to be intriguing.
Let's go over how the 5 Deputy City Clerks responded. 3 misunderstood my question and didn't seem to know Puerto Rico was a UST to begin with.(It's admittedly 50% my fault since my wording starting out was ATROCIOUS.) 4 of the 5 weren't aware Puerto Ricans couldn't vote in general elections. All 5 couldn't give me an answer,(And added they've never gotten such a question before.) 2 of that 5 deferred me to their City Clerk and those conversations were a bit more enlightening.
After spending some time with City Clerk X she informed me that I was more knowledgeable on the subject than she was and I was teaching HER something.(She was made some surprisingly subjectively statements calling the restrictions, "Stupid" and "Bullshit." She then recommended that I contact the County Clerk or Deputy County Clerk since they're the Roosters of the pin.( City Clerk X also kind of touched my butt, is that relevant? No. Did it remind me how fine I looked? Yes.)
City Clerk Z along with the Deputy County Clerk were the most knowledgeable and basically echoed the same words.
1: It is entirely residency based and should a Puerto Rican or anyone from a UST(Excluding American Samoa.) want to move to a US state to participate in general elections they would just have to abide by whatever that state's guidelines is for voting in local elections. From my understanding, seemly no different from me leaving Colorado for Nebraska and just abiding by whatever election guidelines they have for their local kerfuffles. IE, the treatment is the same. Puerto Ricans leaving Puerto Rico for the mainland are seemly treated no different from any other US citizen just moving into a different state from another state.
This part was the most fascinating to me.
2: The US government goes out of it's way to provide those overseas, military or civilian with the ability to vote in elctions. Very much comparable to that black cop from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with how courageously litigious the government tries to be about voting opportunities for Americans overseas. Even to the point where you could've been born in a hospital in Texas, have your Mother and Father punt you over to Britian when you're a day old, spend 30 years in Ireland and guess what, you can still apply for an absentee ballot using that hospital as your last place of residency! I'm highlighting this all because I don't subscribe to this belief that the US is making a continuous and malicious effort of keeping people in UST G from voting. If US wanted to do so, it wouldn't allow 5 Million Puerto Ricans (That's more than the 3 million that live on the island.) to so easily travel and vote in US states. I believe this is a remnant of a bygone racist age where the only support pillars it has currently are outdated lybrith bureaucratic red tape. I believe the following I learned adds credence to this notion.
I, A US CITIZEN BORN IN DENVER, CAN LOSE MY ABILITY TO RECEIVE A MAIL IN BALLOT DEPENDING ON WHICH TERRITORY I MOVE TO WETHER MY STATE ARBITRARY DECIDES IT'S WORTHY.
I'm going to post a bar for bar excerpt from the U.S.C.C.R. that will further elaborate on that above statement and will be providing a downloadable PDF of the full Advisory Memorandum I got from City Clerk Z. I will preference that the excerpt might appear to contradict my earlier statements but do note that while I praise the U.S.C.C.R. on their factual correctness there are certain points where it devleves into subjectiveness which is where raise a hand in disagreement.(When American Samoa is mentioned for example.)
"Connecticut Background Although federal law requires states to extend absentee voting rights to former residents either in foreign countries or the Northern Mariana Islands, extending voting rights to the rest of their former residents in other American territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa is discretionary.8 Despite having this authority, most states— including Connecticut—have failed to afford most of these citizens the right to vote.9 4Neil Weare Testimony, Briefing Before the Connecticut State Advisory Committee to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hartford, CT, Jul. 7, 2021. 5Ibid. 6Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), 52 U.S.C. §§ 20301—20311 (2018). 7Id. 8Id. 9See e.g., https://www.courthousenews.com/seventh-circuit-rejects-bid-to-extend-voting-rights-to-territories/).
Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 145 § 9-158b grants eligibility to overseas voters no longer residing in the U.S. who, prior to leaving the U.S., were residents of Connecticut.10 Specifically, §9-158b states that: Each citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age, is a former resident and who has not forfeited such citizen's electoral privileges because of a disfranchising crime, may vote for presidential and vice-presidential electors, but for no other offices, in the town in this state in which such citizen formerly resided… Each citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age; who resides outside the United States and who, immediately prior to moving outside the United States, was a bona fide resident of a town in this state; who is not registered to vote and is not voting in any other state or election district of a state or territory or in any territory or possession of the United States, who has a valid passport or card of identity and registration issued under the authority of the Secretary of State of the United States or alternative form of identification and who has not forfeited his electoral privileges because of a disfranchising crime, may vote in federal elections in the town in this state in which he formerly resided immediately prior to his departure from the United States in the manner provided in sections 9-158c to 9-158m, inclusive.11 Section 9-158b further permits those born outside of the U.S. who are at least eighteen years of age to vote if they are not registered in any other state or territory of the U.S. and their parent or guardian was a bona fide resident of Connecticut immediately prior to moving out of the U.S.12 Connecticut law requires that, to be eligible to vote under this statute, a person must live outside the “United States” and not be registered to vote in any other state. For the purposes of determining whether an individual is eligible to vote under §9-158b, the statute defines the term “state” as “any of the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.”13 Further, it defines “United States” as “the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.”14 Notably, both definitions exclude American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. Thus, under Connecticut state law, former Connecticut residents may maintain their absentee voting rights if they move to a foreign country or these two U.S. territories, but not if they move to Puerto Rico, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is only slightly more expansive than UOCAVA, which does not require absentee voting for former state residents who move to American Samoa.15 This differential treatment means that Connecticut discriminates against similarly situated former state residents depending not just on whether they move to a foreign country or a U.S. territory, but also which U.S. territory they move to. As a result, a resident of Connecticut who moves to American Samoa or France to take care of an elderly parent would retain the right to vote in Presidential and Congressional elections in Connecticut by absentee ballot, but the same resident would completely lose the right to vote for President and voting representation in Congress if he or she moved to Puerto Rico for the same reason. This kind of differential treatment presents a possible violation of the equal protection guarantees found in the United States and Connecticut Constitutions.16 Former state residents living in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have filed equal protection challenges to this discriminatory statutory regime, with a District Court in Hawaii recently denying motions to dismiss by federal and Hawaiian defendants." https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:f841fa29-335c-4bac-97f3-1fafd0c52150
So in conclusion:

 I believe this is an issue not fueled by racism or maliciousness but by a massive stick of bureaucracy that is just in need of picking up. 

The following will be a general write up about the voting rights for Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico and US citizens moving to terrtories. To keep things from being repetitive you may notice that I will seemly use Puerto Rico and US territories interchangeablely. This is because 95% of the things in this post(Excluding American Samoa and bits of the Northern Mariana Islands.) applies to ALL territories.(I will not be addressing The District of Columbia in this post.)
To conserve literary real estate I will be abbreviating Puerto Rico as PR and US territories as UST. Final note, when you see the " G" symbol, know that the statement before it applies to ALL territories.
The information in this post has been gathered from index searches, asking Deputy City Clerks, City Clerks, and County Clerks but the greatest source of this post is from the US Commission on Civil Rights and I'll putting direct quotes from their website. The reason I'll be adding direct quotes is that the wording for voting rights for territories is very precise and the issue I've had with shows, articles, and discussions is that individuals will just throw out mindless phrases; for example, "X people can't vote in elections".(Certain individuals will NOT go to say WHICH exact elections X people can not participate in.
This will be a TL;DR summary of the bars I'm about to spit.
Do people living in UST 🇵🇷 face disenfranchisement in terms of voting rights and opportunities? YES! IRREFUTABLY YES!
Is this a stain 💩🇺🇲 on our Country's ideals? YES! IRREFUTABLY YES!
Should all US citizens 🇺🇲🇺🇲 born in UST G be allowed to vote in elections? Maybe.
Is there a shadow group of Washington politicians 👹👹👹 in some dark room somewhere scheming to keep people in UST G from voting? No, I truly don't believe so.
Hopefully, by the end of this write up you'll see things in a similar compacity as I do. the issue of voting disenfranchisement for UST is a product of past racism but is currently reinforced by morden bureaucracy and pure ignorance rather than malicious intent.
I started off the adventure by driving around my state and asking my city Clerks the following:
1: "As a US citizen born in Denver, I have the right to vote in a General and Primary election. I could even move to a foreign country like France(Exp) and STILL get a ballot sent to me so I can participate in the general or primary election. Puerto Ricans are US citizens. Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico can vote in a Primary election but not a General.....unless they move to one of the 50 states and then suddenly they can. What change happens that allows Puerto Ricans to do such a thing?"
2: "Can I, as a US citizen born in Denver, lose my right to a mail in ballot should I move to a UST G?"
Those are the exact phrases I used when addressing the Clerks. The answer to some of you might be obvious but I still found the reaction to the question by the Clerks to be intriguing.
Let's go over how the 5 Deputy City Clerks responded. 3 misunderstood my question and didn't seem to know Puerto Rico was a UST to begin with.(It's admittedly 50% my fault since my wording starting out was ATROCIOUS.) 4 of the 5 weren't aware Puerto Ricans couldn't vote in general elections. All 5 couldn't give me an answer,(And added they've never gotten such a question before.) 2 of that 5 deferred me to their City Clerk and those conversations were a bit more enlightening.
After spending some time with City Clerk X she informed me that I was more knowledgeable on the subject than she was and I was teaching HER something.(She was made some surprisingly subjectively statements calling the restrictions, "Stupid" and "Bullshit." She then recommended that I contact the County Clerk or Deputy County Clerk since they're the Roosters of the pin.( City Clerk X also kind of touched my butt, is that relevant? No. Did it remind me how fine I looked? Yes.)
City Clerk Z along with the Deputy County Clerk were the most knowledgeable and basically echoed the same words.
1: It is entirely residency based and should a Puerto Rican or anyone from a UST(Excluding American Samoa.) want to move to a US state to participate in general elections they would just have to abide by whatever that state's guidelines is for voting in local elections. From my understanding, seemly no different from me leaving Colorado for Nebraska and just abiding by whatever election guidelines they have for their local kerfuffles. IE, the treatment is the same. Puerto Ricans leaving Puerto Rico for the mainland are seemly treated no different from any other US citizen just moving into a different state from another state.
This part was the most fascinating to me.
2: The US government goes out of it's way to provide those overseas, military or civilian with the ability to vote in elctions. Very much comparable to that black cop from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with how courageously litigious the government tries to be about voting opportunities for Americans overseas. Even to the point where you could've been born in a hospital in Texas, have your Mother and Father punt you over to Britian when you're a day old, spend 30 years in Ireland and guess what, you can still apply for an absentee ballot using that hospital as your last place of residency! I'm highlighting this all because I don't subscribe to this belief that the US is making a continuous and malicious effort of keeping people in UST G from voting. If US wanted to do so, it wouldn't allow 5 Million Puerto Ricans (That's more than the 3 million that live on the island.) to so easily travel and vote in US states. I believe this is a remnant of a bygone racist age where the only support pillars it has currently are outdated lybrith bureaucratic red tape. I believe the following I learned adds credence to this notion.
I, A US CITIZEN BORN IN DENVER, CAN LOSE MY ABILITY TO RECEIVE A MAIL IN BALLOT DEPENDING ON WHICH TERRITORY I MOVE TO WETHER MY STATE ARBITRARY DECIDES IT'S WORTHY.
I'm going to post a bar for bar excerpt from the U.S.C.C.R. that will further elaborate on that above statement and will be providing a downloadable PDF of the full Advisory Memorandum I got from City Clerk Z. I will preference that the excerpt might appear to contradict my earlier statements but do note that while I praise the U.S.C.C.R. on their factual correctness there are certain points where it devleves into subjectiveness which is where raise a hand in disagreement.(When American Samoa is mentioned for example.)
"Connecticut Background Although federal law requires states to extend absentee voting rights to former residents either in foreign countries or the Northern Mariana Islands, extending voting rights to the rest of their former residents in other American territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa is discretionary.8 Despite having this authority, most states— including Connecticut—have failed to afford most of these citizens the right to vote.9 4Neil Weare Testimony, Briefing Before the Connecticut State Advisory Committee to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hartford, CT, Jul. 7, 2021. 5Ibid. 6Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), 52 U.S.C. §§ 20301—20311 (2018). 7Id. 8Id. 9See e.g., https://www.courthousenews.com/seventh-circuit-rejects-bid-to-extend-voting-rights-to-territories/).
Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 145 § 9-158b grants eligibility to overseas voters no longer residing in the U.S. who, prior to leaving the U.S., were residents of Connecticut.10 Specifically, §9-158b states that: Each citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age, is a former resident and who has not forfeited such citizen's electoral privileges because of a disfranchising crime, may vote for presidential and vice-presidential electors, but for no other offices, in the town in this state in which such citizen formerly resided… Each citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age; who resides outside the United States and who, immediately prior to moving outside the United States, was a bona fide resident of a town in this state; who is not registered to vote and is not voting in any other state or election district of a state or territory or in any territory or possession of the United States, who has a valid passport or card of identity and registration issued under the authority of the Secretary of State of the United States or alternative form of identification and who has not forfeited his electoral privileges because of a disfranchising crime, may vote in federal elections in the town in this state in which he formerly resided immediately prior to his departure from the United States in the manner provided in sections 9-158c to 9-158m, inclusive.11 Section 9-158b further permits those born outside of the U.S. who are at least eighteen years of age to vote if they are not registered in any other state or territory of the U.S. and their parent or guardian was a bona fide resident of Connecticut immediately prior to moving out of the U.S.12 Connecticut law requires that, to be eligible to vote under this statute, a person must live outside the “United States” and not be registered to vote in any other state. For the purposes of determining whether an individual is eligible to vote under §9-158b, the statute defines the term “state” as “any of the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.”13 Further, it defines “United States” as “the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.”14 Notably, both definitions exclude American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. Thus, under Connecticut state law, former Connecticut residents may maintain their absentee voting rights if they move to a foreign country or these two U.S. territories, but not if they move to Puerto Rico, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is only slightly more expansive than UOCAVA, which does not require absentee voting for former state residents who move to American Samoa.15 This differential treatment means that Connecticut discriminates against similarly situated former state residents depending not just on whether they move to a foreign country or a U.S. territory, but also which U.S. territory they move to. As a result, a resident of Connecticut who moves to American Samoa or France to take care of an elderly parent would retain the right to vote in Presidential and Congressional elections in Connecticut by absentee ballot, but the same resident would completely lose the right to vote for President and voting representation in Congress if he or she moved to Puerto Rico for the same reason. This kind of differential treatment presents a possible violation of the equal protection guarantees found in the United States and Connecticut Constitutions.16 Former state residents living in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have filed equal protection challenges to this discriminatory statutory regime, with a District Court in Hawaii recently denying motions to dismiss by federal and Hawaiian defendants." https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:f841fa29-335c-4bac-97f3-1fafd0c52150
So in conclusion:

 I believe this is an issue not fueled by racism or maliciousness but by a massive stick of bureaucracy that is just in need of picking up. 

The following will be a general write up about the voting rights for Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico and US citizens moving to terrtories. To keep things from being repetitive you may notice that I will seemly use Puerto Rico and US territories interchangeablely. This is because 95% of the things in this post(Excluding American Samoa and bits of the Northern Mariana Islands.) applies to ALL territories.(I will not be addressing The District of Columbia in this post.)
To conserve literary real estate I will be abbreviating Puerto Rico as PR and US territories as UST. Final note, when you see the " G" symbol, know that the statement before it applies to ALL territories.
The information in this post has been gathered from index searches, asking Deputy City Clerks, City Clerks, and County Clerks but the greatest source of this post is from the US Commission on Civil Rights and I'll putting direct quotes from their website. The reason I'll be adding direct quotes is that the wording for voting rights for territories is very precise and the issue I've had with shows, articles, and discussions is that individuals will just throw out mindless phrases; for example, "X people can't vote in elections".(Certain individuals will NOT go to say WHICH exact elections X people can not participate in.
This will be a TL;DR summary of the bars I'm about to spit.
Do people living in UST 🇵🇷 face disenfranchisement in terms of voting rights and opportunities? YES! IRREFUTABLY YES!
Is this a stain 💩🇺🇲 on our Country's ideals? YES! IRREFUTABLY YES!
Should all US citizens 🇺🇲🇺🇲 born in UST G be allowed to vote in elections? Maybe.
Is there a shadow group of Washington politicians 👹👹👹 in some dark room somewhere scheming to keep people in UST G from voting? No, I truly don't believe so.
Hopefully, by the end of this write up you'll see things in a similar compacity as I do. the issue of voting disenfranchisement for UST is a product of past racism but is currently reinforced by morden bureaucracy and pure ignorance rather than malicious intent.
I started off the adventure by driving around my state and asking my city Clerks the following:
1: "As a US citizen born in Denver, I have the right to vote in a General and Primary election. I could even move to a foreign country like France(Exp) and STILL get a ballot sent to me so I can participate in the general or primary election. Puerto Ricans are US citizens. Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico can vote in a Primary election but not a General.....unless they move to one of the 50 states and then suddenly they can. What change happens that allows Puerto Ricans to do such a thing?"
2: "Can I, as a US citizen born in Denver, lose my right to a mail in ballot should I move to a UST G?"
Those are the exact phrases I used when addressing the Clerks. The answer to some of you might be obvious but I still found the reaction to the question by the Clerks to be intriguing.
Let's go over how the 5 Deputy City Clerks responded. 3 misunderstood my question and didn't seem to know Puerto Rico was a UST to begin with.(It's admittedly 50% my fault since my wording starting out was ATROCIOUS.) 4 of the 5 weren't aware Puerto Ricans couldn't vote in general elections. All 5 couldn't give me an answer,(And added they've never gotten such a question before.) 2 of that 5 deferred me to their City Clerk and those conversations were a bit more enlightening.
After spending some time with City Clerk X she informed me that I was more knowledgeable on the subject than she was and I was teaching HER something.(She was made some surprisingly subjectively statements calling the restrictions, "Stupid" and "Bullshit." She then recommended that I contact the County Clerk or Deputy County Clerk since they're the Roosters of the pin.( City Clerk X also kind of touched my butt, is that relevant? No. Did it remind me how fine I looked? Yes.)
City Clerk Z along with the Deputy County Clerk were the most knowledgeable and basically echoed the same words.
1: It is entirely residency based and should a Puerto Rican or anyone from a UST(Excluding American Samoa.) want to move to a US state to participate in general elections they would just have to abide by whatever that state's guidelines is for voting in local elections. From my understanding, seemly no different from me leaving Colorado for Nebraska and just abiding by whatever election guidelines they have for their local kerfuffles. IE, the treatment is the same. Puerto Ricans leaving Puerto Rico for the mainland are seemly treated no different from any other US citizen just moving into a different state from another state.
This part was the most fascinating to me.
2: The US government goes out of it's way to provide those overseas, military or civilian with the ability to vote in elctions. Very much comparable to that black cop from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with how courageously litigious the government tries to be about voting opportunities for Americans overseas. Even to the point where you could've been born in a hospital in Texas, have your Mother and Father punt you over to Britian when you're a day old, spend 30 years in Ireland and guess what, you can still apply for an absentee ballot using that hospital as your last place of residency! I'm highlighting this all because I don't subscribe to this belief that the US is making a continuous and malicious effort of keeping people in UST G from voting. If US wanted to do so, it wouldn't allow 5 Million Puerto Ricans (That's more than the 3 million that live on the island.) to so easily travel and vote in US states. I believe this is a remnant of a bygone racist age where the only support pillars it has currently are outdated lybrith bureaucratic red tape. I believe the following I learned adds credence to this notion.
I, A US CITIZEN BORN IN DENVER, CAN LOSE MY ABILITY TO RECEIVE A MAIL IN BALLOT DEPENDING ON WHICH TERRITORY I MOVE TO WETHER MY STATE ARBITRARY DECIDES IT'S WORTHY.
I'm going to post a bar for bar excerpt from the U.S.C.C.R. that will further elaborate on that above statement and will be providing a downloadable PDF of the full Advisory Memorandum I got from City Clerk Z. I will preference that the excerpt might appear to contradict my earlier statements but do note that while I praise the U.S.C.C.R. on their factual correctness there are certain points where it devleves into subjectiveness which is where raise a hand in disagreement.(When American Samoa is mentioned for example.)
"Connecticut Background Although federal law requires states to extend absentee voting rights to former residents either in foreign countries or the Northern Mariana Islands, extending voting rights to the rest of their former residents in other American territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa is discretionary.8 Despite having this authority, most states— including Connecticut—have failed to afford most of these citizens the right to vote.9 4Neil Weare Testimony, Briefing Before the Connecticut State Advisory Committee to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hartford, CT, Jul. 7, 2021. 5Ibid. 6Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), 52 U.S.C. §§ 20301—20311 (2018). 7Id. 8Id. 9See e.g., https://www.courthousenews.com/seventh-circuit-rejects-bid-to-extend-voting-rights-to-territories/).
Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 145 § 9-158b grants eligibility to overseas voters no longer residing in the U.S. who, prior to leaving the U.S., were residents of Connecticut.10 Specifically, §9-158b states that: Each citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age, is a former resident and who has not forfeited such citizen's electoral privileges because of a disfranchising crime, may vote for presidential and vice-presidential electors, but for no other offices, in the town in this state in which such citizen formerly resided… Each citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age; who resides outside the United States and who, immediately prior to moving outside the United States, was a bona fide resident of a town in this state; who is not registered to vote and is not voting in any other state or election district of a state or territory or in any territory or possession of the United States, who has a valid passport or card of identity and registration issued under the authority of the Secretary of State of the United States or alternative form of identification and who has not forfeited his electoral privileges because of a disfranchising crime, may vote in federal elections in the town in this state in which he formerly resided immediately prior to his departure from the United States in the manner provided in sections 9-158c to 9-158m, inclusive.11 Section 9-158b further permits those born outside of the U.S. who are at least eighteen years of age to vote if they are not registered in any other state or territory of the U.S. and their parent or guardian was a bona fide resident of Connecticut immediately prior to moving out of the U.S.12 Connecticut law requires that, to be eligible to vote under this statute, a person must live outside the “United States” and not be registered to vote in any other state. For the purposes of determining whether an individual is eligible to vote under §9-158b, the statute defines the term “state” as “any of the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.”13 Further, it defines “United States” as “the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.”14 Notably, both definitions exclude American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. Thus, under Connecticut state law, former Connecticut residents may maintain their absentee voting rights if they move to a foreign country or these two U.S. territories, but not if they move to Puerto Rico, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is only slightly more expansive than UOCAVA, which does not require absentee voting for former state residents who move to American Samoa.15 This differential treatment means that Connecticut discriminates against similarly situated former state residents depending not just on whether they move to a foreign country or a U.S. territory, but also which U.S. territory they move to. As a result, a resident of Connecticut who moves to American Samoa or France to take care of an elderly parent would retain the right to vote in Presidential and Congressional elections in Connecticut by absentee ballot, but the same resident would completely lose the right to vote for President and voting representation in Congress if he or she moved to Puerto Rico for the same reason. This kind of differential treatment presents a possible violation of the equal protection guarantees found in the United States and Connecticut Constitutions.16 Former state residents living in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have filed equal protection challenges to this discriminatory statutory regime, with a District Court in Hawaii recently denying motions to dismiss by federal and Hawaiian defendants." https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:f841fa29-335c-4bac-97f3-1fafd0c52150
So in conclusion:

 I believe this is an issue not fueled by racism or maliciousness but by a massive stick of bureaucracy that is just in need of picking up. 

DISCLAIMER I know a lot of this post is barely related to the subject or very redundant. The main reason I’m sharing is to get people engaging and maybe help others if they’re at a dead end with their research. I didn’t include any in my original posts for this reason. Please don’t read if you’re going to get pissed and say I wasted your time. I warned you.
One last weird connection with loose ties to Drake
The Drake and Delilah Connection: An Expose on the Hollywood Club Scene and it’s Controversial Connections and History
Before I start I just want to say this is a fraction of the info online, but many articles are behind a paywall on the LA Times site. If anyone is interested and has or wants to buy a subscription feel free to add more in the comments. The price is not too bad, I just don’t need any more links because this post is already insanely long. I’d also be willing to bet there are thousands of court cases related to these clubs that could be relevant.
I think I may have shared this first part or seen it posted, but I have a real weird feeling about the club Delilah in Hollywood. It is located on 7969 Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood. I find this interesting because it’s a huge celebrity hotspot and has been shouted out constantly these last couple years. I read an article about AK meeting SixNine’s manager and him saying it felt like some Illuminati shit was going down. A very interesting connection is it used to be called Club 7969. Here’s a quote from a very interesting article about Club 7969 along with a link to the full article. From the looks of it the location has been extremely popular over the last couple decades despite a couple name changes. Excuse the outdated terminology, a lot of sources are from the nineties and early 2000’s.
“Club 7969, at the corner of Santa Monica and Fairfax in West Hollywood, was packed as usual last Friday night. Fridays and Mondays are drag night at the club, and flocks of trannies in full feather turn out for the midnight stage show. The drag revue also draws a large contingent of transsexual prostitutes and their johns, including, until recently, the house celebrity, Atison Seiuli, a.k.a. Shalimar, who was riding with Eddie Murphy in his Land Cruiser when the pair got stopped by the LAPD a year ago this week.
Seiuli died two weeks ago, falling to her death from the roof of her apartment building on South Berendo Street in Koreatown. According to Rampart homicide detectives, Seiuli, wearing only panties and a bra, had locked herself out of her apartment and was trying to lower herself from the roof to her fifth-floor window with a towel tied to a railing.” https://www.laweekly.com/the-new-hollywood-sinkhole/
Not only does the above quote possibly directly connect to the whole ballroom drag stuff, it may also contribute to rumors of many male rappers and other famous people being caught with trans women. Obviously it’s not a huge deal anymore, but it’s always been a thing. A few more interesting connections are the Drake song 7969 Santa and all the Delilah shoutouts he’s made throughout the years. The owner even calls him family.
I linked a very interesting Reddit post I found from five years ago with more info below. Y’all can thank the Drake sub for digging up dirt in their boy. https://www.reddit.com/Drizzy/comments/dpnk0n/a_study_into_some_of_drakes_street_ties/?rdt=60420
Another weird connection is the initials of Santa Monica are S and M, which is interesting considering the past history with Dominatrix shows, which can get fucking nuts apparently. I have a wild theory this may be where Drake got his alleged blackmail on Ye and potentially a lot of other artists. In the description on Delilah’s Instagram page it says, “nothing to see here.”
Delilah is part of a large group of famous nightclubs owned by a company called The h.wood Group, which is owned by Brian Toll and partner John Terzian. Apparently they’re involved with Coachella, Cannes, and F1, along with many others.
Below are two very interesting articles about Terzian. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/style/john-terzian-hwood-clubs.html
This one talks about his ambitions to get into the hotel business. https://hwoodgroup.com/h-wood-groups-john-terzian-dishes-on-what-it-took-to-build-a-35m-nightclub-and-restaurant-business/
I don’t mean to go to weird here, but does anyone find his love of chicken tenders a little odd? With the tender reference that Kendrick made I’m starting to think there might be something more to this word and chicken tenders could had some other meaning. I know it sounds like some p gate shit, but you never know. Please don’t take the definitions below too seriously odds are the dude just has the pallet of a ten year old or he could be a Wall Street Bets bro 😭
Potential possibilities from urban dictionary:
Chicken Definitions- “A term used to describe a young (generally gay) male; often used with connotations of twink.”
“An underage male who prostitutes himself to middle-age men -- usually married professionals and businessmen -- by standing on certain city streetcorners known for the "chicken trade."
“chicken is an underage boy who older guys like to have sex with.”
“An attractive woman with thighs and breasts (like a real chicken)”
“An attractive woman with thighs and breasts (like a real chicken)”
“A young woman/A young homosexual”
I know there is also the expression “choking the chicken,” so it could be referring to male genitalia. I also see a few people using it as a code word for weed and meth, which are both massively popular in the club scene, LBGTQ community, and LA (also the whole west coast pretty much).
Tender Definitions- “Used to descibe a female who is very good looking in that innocent way.”
“The dating app for underage children”
“A feminine acting male”
“A male’s tender meat, the testicles, the softies, the soft ones”
“Young innocent girl”
“These said "Tendahs" must be of legal age otherwise they're just chicken nuggets.. stay away from chicky nuggets.”
“an adjective describing someone or something being sexually attractive or "hot", this term is especially used in the male gay community”
“A pussy or vagina”
Chicken tender definitions- “Testicles”
“Fat elongated cocks”
A girl under the age of 18, but looks of that to be older.”
“Refers to a man over 40 years old who is sexually appealing to younger females”
“Someone who is especially well skilled with cock”
As I said, there are probably similar definitions for most words on UD, and even if there was some hidden meaning, chances are it’s probably just a gay thing.
The same article also spoke about going into the hotel game. Has anyone made the connection between Hilton hotels and Paris Hilton who inspired the Kardashians and many other families to exploit their daughters to get them famous. Anyone remember her talking about the Elon school recently? She also used to be the OG do nothing celebrity back in the day. It could just be my distaste for most billionaires, but who knows how deep the hotel shit really goes.
I also found a high end hotel in Hollywood that may be for swingers, but also may be into some weird shit behind closed doors. I was going to post the link, but their site conditions were so strict and scary I’m not even mentioning their name. It is in LA, as are pretty much all the places I mention below. I tried to narrow things down to West Hollywood which is where Delilah is located and where Drake and Ye used to live, along with tons of other hugely influential people. I never knew until recently, but there are two other Delilah locations in Miami and Vegas. All three cities are known for a lot of debauchery and they all tend to be celebrity hotspots.
LA articles- Background of club mentions a TON of relevant people. https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2023/06/how-delilah-became-unofficial-sanctuary-for-the-rich-and-famous
Apparently no phones allowed, maybe unless you’re considered family. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/kanye-west-drake-more-flock-new-west-hollywood-hot-spot-delilah-thr-eats-952265/
Vegas Articles- Mentions a lot of h.wood clubs and more attached celebrities. https://hwoodgroup.com/hollywoods-swanky-supper-club-delilah-is-coming-to-the-strip/
Another article with more info. https://www.forbes.com/sites/yolarobert1/2021/06/16/the-hwood-group-is-partnering-with-the-wynn-to-bring-delilah-to-las-vegas/?sh=39362e04c9fe
Miami Article- Discusses the opening of new location and history of club https://www.miaminewtimes.com/restaurants/waterfront-restaurant-and-lounge-delilah-miami-opens-in-brickell-18646289
Some more articles about the previous clubs at 7969 Santa Monica, the owners, LGBTQ community connections, and some sex/fetish clubs that are still operating to this day. This whole section is going to be NSFW. I tried avoiding any direct links to anything super explicit, but I’ll make another warning before the link if I think it’s important enough to post. I can’t promise what you’ll come across if you research further into this subject. Please be careful going on any direct sites tied to any sex related organizations and if you find something sketchy at least read the user conditions on the site before posting or sharing any info. You never know if they’re doing everything by the book, and one of the sites I visited seemed to be trying very hard to download malware on people’s devices. They even mention they can’t be held liable if anything you click on their site happens to give you a virus.
I found that kind of odd considering the rest of the site looked like a p gate researchers wet dream lol. There is always the chance they could just be trolling that exact same crowd. The one thing that made me take it at all somewhat seriously was the fact that the site belonged to a pretty high end location. The owners could also just be quirky, but I’m definitely being more careful to make it clear that my claims are just theories from now on. The way the sub is going lately it couldn’t hurt. One last thing please don’t harass any businesses or people related to them for any reason, even if they seem sketchy. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty and it’s not fair to accuse someone of anything unless you have irrefutable evidence. This is one of the biggest reasons I believe that there is more to the story. I really don’t think Kendrick would have said what he said if he didn’t know at least something for certain.
Ok last thing I promise, another important thing to remember is just because you see some freaky ass shit doesn’t mean it’s illegal. Some BDSM stuff can seem really fucked up to someone who is more reserved or has no experience with these types of kinks and fetishes. As long as everyone is of age, chances are it’s all consensual and no one should be shamed for their kinks. These connections are more for people to see how heavily sex influences Hollywood. Please don’t harass or kink shame some innocent people trying to get their freak on. I know there’s a big gray area here, but it’s always best not to antagonize anybody unless you want to pay to back it up in court. It also makes it fair game for them to do the same to you and things may not always end up going in you favor.
Another article about h.wood and it’s connection to Hakkasan group. Hakkasan is now owned with Mohari which has a massive portfolio of hotels, apartments, yachts, and restaurant groups. https://hwoodgroup.com/the-h-wood-group-announces-reacquisition-of-global-rights-from-hakkasan-group/
https://moharihospitality.com/portfolio/
Warning there is a lot of policitcal incorrectness or generally offensive shit in some of these articles and quotes. Please try to just look at the facts and avoid any anti-LBGTQ language or conspiracies. A ton of different rappers and famous black men have been accused of or have been caught with men or trans women. It really shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but I get why it is for some people. There is no excuse for any type of ignorance and I will gladly remove some of these links if people think they’re harmful.
Club 7969 has a very wild history, and was formerly known as Peanuts. Here are a few more related articles I found aside from the Eddie Murphy one.
An article from 95 about club 7969 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-03-24-ca-46449-story.html
Articles describing area around Club 7969 as a hotspot for trans folk and further discusses a famous hate crime murder in the area. This is still a HUGE issue today. https://la.indymedia.org/js/?v=cont&url=/news/2003/10/86034.json
https://www.advocate.com/crime/2021/11/09/marquiisha-lawrences-death-makes-2021-deadliest-transgender-people
Article going in to the club’s history and some of it’s many name changes. Apparently it used to be a jazz club at first, then it turned into The Pink Pussycat which was apparently super popular with The Rat Pack. I find it interesting some members were known for having some interesting sexual proclivities. After it closed it was bought again and renamed Peanuts, which was primarily targeted towards lesbians for a while. After Peanuts came Club 7969. https://forward.com/life/122322/the-jewish-matriarchs-of-striptease/
An article related to the one above that may have a House of Ebony connection. I honestly can’t understand more than half of it lol https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/nyregion/thecity/18burl.html
Another article mentioning two more clubs previously located at 7969 Santa Monica, this is like five now and some appear pretty kinky. Voyeur came after Club 7969 and was followed by The Box, which became DBA then Delilah. I may be missing some, but I think I covered them all. https://patch.com/california/westhollywood/burlesque-club-to-open-in-former-voyeur-location
Some random magazine saying Voyeur was one of the top five LA party spots. https://www.thefashionspot.com/runway-news/170899-partying-in-los-angeles-top-5-celebrity-hotspots/
Here is an article about Voueur saying it was inspired by the movie Eye’s Wide Shut. Jesus Christ! Stanley Kubrick probably did get killed. http://www.guestlisthollywood.com/voyeur-club.html
Article mentioning political scandal attached to Voyeur club. https://patch.com/california/westhollywood/new-nightclub-going-into-former-voyeur-club
NSFW Only video ever filmed inside the club Voyeur, I thought I was about to watch someone get murdered at first, but it’s just a weird, five minute commercial with tons of boobs. https://vimeo.com/106139205
Articles about DBA which only was open for like two years before it was taken over by owners of Delilah. Apparently DBA was one of the best fetish clubs in Hollywood. https://patch.com/california/westhollywood/new-weho-nightclub-replacing-voyeur-to-be-always-evolving-always-changing
https://laist.com/news/entertainment/the-best-fetish-clubs-in-los-angeles
When I was looking up more about Voyeur, which was also a huge celeb hotspot, a lot of other really sketchy looking results popped up with direct links to current sex clubs. I’m not gonna link any and I’d stay away from most of them besides the SNCTM one that seems to be pretty mainstream knowledge and has a Showtime series dedicated to it. Regardless there probably are a lot of very risky clicks on all these sites.
I advise people to stay away from any direct sites and stick mostly to articles. The LA times has more than enough. Trust me I’m sure some of these sites also contain shit you wouldn’t want to see or have in your search history.
I also found a few links to a couple very well funded, massive swinger groups with tons of connections all over the world. I would hope it’s just a lot of rich and horny old people, but this whole industry tends to attract some unsavory people as well. I never expected this LA sex club rabbit hole to go so deep. It all started with the Eddie Murphy connection.
Articles about a VIP Hollywood sex club called SNCTM. Apparently the founder got blacklisted for revealing Hunter Biden is a member lol no wonder all the republicans want what’s on his laptop! You really can’t make this shit up. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snctm_(club)
The website is Illuminati as hell, also extremely NSFW. How the fuck does a sex cult have m a full product line? The founder’s website also looks like it belongs to a 60’s sex cult. He kinda reminds me of Jared Leto. If this is what they’re willing to show the public I can not imagine how wild shit gets behind closed doors. Apparently, SMCTM hosts events in LA, NYC, Miami, Moscow, Kiev, and other places around the world.
I find the political ties here very interesting. I wonder who else might be a member? Apparently it’s based out of NYC, but it’s flagship club was in LA. Anyone want to start a Gofundme to try and raise a million dollars so someone in the sub can become a Violet Key Benefactor and collect some more dirt? Kidding please don’t. https://www.menshealth.com/sex-women/a22116662/snctm-celebrity-sex-party/
https://nypost.com/2023/05/20/damon-lawner-founded-sex-club-snctm-it-ruined-his-marriage/
https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/karley-sciortino-sanctum-unmasked-podcast-snctm-sex-club-interview
It reminds me a lot of NXIVM cult with the celebrities that got busted not too long ago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NXIVM
Some more popular Hollywood nightclubs that were notorious or very sketchy
Article about Fake club https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/01/the-secret-history-of-hollywoods-wildest-club-in-the-1980s
The Chapel in The Abbey is a popular LGBTQ club in West Hollywood that seems to be connected to the culture. https://thepridela.com/2020/01/las-only-known-trans-nightlife-event-just-got-a-little-more-fierce/
An article from late 2023 about the history of the bar https://www.foxla.com/news/the-history-of-the-abbey-west-hollywoods-world-famous-gay-bar
Another interesting article from a few months later about The Abbey’s sudden closing. Good think it only took 17 years of allegations for them to get shut down 🙃 https://19thnews.org/2024/01/investigation-the-abbey-los-angeles/
The Odyssey club’s owner John Nash was allegedly the mastermind behind the Wonderland murders and a huge celebrity drug dealer. He also owned the Starwood Club in West Hollywood, the Soul'd Out club in Hollywood, Paradise Ballroom, the Seven Seas, Ali Baba’s and The Kit Kat strip club. Celebrity dealers are another really interesting rabbit hole to go down as well. https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/laistory-all-ages-dance-club-the-od
Two more articles about the famous Viper Room where River Phoenix died. https://www.thevintagenews.com/2022/04/13/viper-room-closing/
https://www.visitwesthollywood.com/stories/feature-the-viper-room/
NSFW More about all types of fetish clubs and communities in LA https://thekinkytourist.com/the-kinky-guide-to-los-angeles/
One group claims to host a Dominatrix convention at the Hilton near LAX and also claims to have worked with HBO, Netflix, Showtime, Epix, and VH1. “Hotel parties” also seem to be a common trend amongst these very sex-positive communities. Renting out cruise ships and resorts all over the world seems to be common as well. To me this shows they are at the very least well funded and have a global reach. Chances are it’s a bunch of fat, old, married couples who no one would want to watch get down like at The Villages in Florida. It seems like many of the more exclusive ones could potentially have some influential members.
Article about sex club The Vault and it’s celebrity guests including Naomi Campbell. Looks like it’s from an old ass gossip site though so I would do further research. https://www.cinema.com/news/item/2779/stars-secret-sex-club-revealed.phtml
Unfortunately homophobia was always been prevalent in the industry and the source of lots of gossip. It was definitely very prevalent in the rap game in the nineties and early 2000’s. For those who don’t know Ma$e was part of Bad Boy Records. Considering the blackmail allegations against Diddy, and how Ma$e seems to have a vendetta against the guy, I wonder if this info hitting the public had anything to do with him. https://hiphopdx.com/news/id.5241/title.mase-caught-with-a-transvestite
I also stumbled onto the song Disguise by Skepta, it’s super offensive, but weirdly on Genius.com the number one related song is Pi by J. Cole and Daylyt, which has been mentioned on the sub a few times. I just thought it was interesting because it just randomly popped up in my searches while looking into this whole subject. I looked into Skepta and saw he was a British rapper who once did a song with a Nigerian rapper named Wizkid and Drake. It’s funny when you read the Wizkid wiki he also got caught denying a son. Skepta also did a few songs with the A$ap crew including A$ap Bari, who got kicked out of the crew a few years later. Lastly he also did a whole private show with Ye, so he could have connections to the whole blind item thing with the British rappers.
This next section is mostly for education, entertainment, and engagement so free to skip this one, especially if you though the rest was a waste of your time lol
Dolph Theory Continued…
I forgot to add something to my Young Dolph conspiracy in the last post. I find it very interesting that his song “Hall of Fame” came out in 2022, after his death. He also just so happens to directly call out Diddy and Jay Z. Considering the timeline it seems like he died not long after recording it unless it was just part of his catalogue of unreleased songs. He also calls himself “the Frank Lucas of the south” which might have also pissed Diddy off considering who his father is. I attached the lyrics of the first part below.
“Ha, I see you niggas goin' broke tryna keep up with me (I see you)
Bad boy spendin' millions out here like I'm signed to Diddy (it's Dolph)
Showed up plain jane Rolex, had a meetin' with Roc Nation (okay)
But they got 'bout four, five, six rap niggas over there that be hatin' (on God)
But I still fuck with Jigga, tell him I got two million for him (for what?)
To do a verse, and if he don't, I still got love for him (on God)“
In my opinion he’s implying that he’s above both of them and has more power in the south than they do up north. I’m sure neither appreciated the shout out considering their past histories. It makes me wonder if this whole beef with Yo Gotti was started as an excuse to take Dolph out. Hilariously it ended up backfiring and making him even more famous and their own artist look like the bitch he is. That would explain the many broad day assassination attempts following a relatively tame diss track compared to “Not Like Us” or some others in the last. I always loved Dolph because he never had any real dirt come out about him despite his past and long history in the rap game.
Another Disclaimer I’m not super into all of these artists and I know very little about most of their backgrounds. Honestly some of them are pretty corny in my opinion, but seem to connect with a lot of people. Please don’t attack me here, I’ve just been pretty good at finding artists with mainstream potential. I’m getting old and I’m sure it shows, but if you do agree or disagree I’d love to hear why. I hope all of this could possibly lead to changes in the industry that will allow some of these artists to get the attention they deserve. Maybe if Drake isn’t able to manipulate the algorithms and hog the spotlight it will open up some room for new talent.
I also tried making a separate list of as many people I could think of that I see possibly making waves in the future. I tried including artist’s that might not be on everyone’s radar for anyone in the same boat as I am. If you’re a rap fan I’m sure you know the majority though. The list includes some independent, some local, a few underground, and a couple brand new artists who I think are slept on or that might have mainstream potential. The list contains mostly rappers or artists who I consider at least somewhat adjacent to the rap game (they are in no particular order).
That Mexican OT, Key Glock, Peso Peso, Lil Darkie, Lil Boondang, Azizi Gibson, Paris, Texas, Kurffew, Lil Ugly Mane, RXKNephew, Tom the Mailman, ilyTOMMY, Lil Toe, Curtis Waters, ICECOLDBISHOP, 1nOnly, Mick Jenkins, Injury Reserve, Danger Incorporated, Alex Wiley, Finesse2Tymes, Mach Hommy, Navy Blue, 42 Dugg, Teezo Touchdown, AM, TrippyThaKid, MIKE, Chester Watson, Tabby, Shy Glizzy, Jakey, Savage Ga$p, BigXthePlug, Hunxho, Kenny Mason, Billy Marchiafava, Jean Dawson, Daylyt, SpotemGottem, Pooh Shiesty, Victor Internet, Kevin Abstract, KYLE, Powfu, Shrimp, NF, Tiagz, Lentra, Michael Motorcycle, Oh Geezy, L’Orange, Jeremiah Jae, Hoodrich Pablo Juan, Ramirez, Ghostmane, Witchhouse 40k, Kxllswxtch, Haarper, Yunggoth, Dom McLennon, Merlyn Wood, Woodie Smalls, Sniper2004, Teejayx6, Kasher Quon, BabyTron, Polo G, Famous Dex, Felix Flexin, Hemlock Ernst (Sam Herring), 83 Cutlass, Snupe Bandz, Big Moochie Grape, Sikworld, Futuristic, Dash, Hooligan Chase, Freddie Sunshine, Triple One, Roy Blair, OG Maco, Cousin Stizz, Desiigner, Nebu Kiniza, Bas, KAYTRANADA, DRAM, $NOT, The Buttress, Rav, NADA5150, Tierra Whack, Father, IDK, Rich Brian, Lil Wop, Bill $aber, Warhol.SS, Mike Lolli, Lil Tecca, August 08, Rejjie Snow, Princess Nokia, Lil Mariko, Fukkit, Guapdad 4000, Key!, 24kGoldn, Salami Rose Joe Louis, Terror Reid, Ameer Vaan, ITSOKTOCRY, Divine Council, Rob $tone, Hozzy, Yung Scandoo, Clipping., Junglepussy, Kenny Beats, Zack Fox, UnoTheActivist, Hodgy, Left Brain, GERM, Al Wonder, SBTRKT, Gao the Arsonist, Christ Dillinger, BRUHMANEGOD, Armand Hammer, Manny Sanchez, Big Baby Scumbag, Bishop Nehru, Allan Kingdom, Nosaj Thing, Bobby Raps, Earthgang, SadBoyProlific, Milkavelli, Zzz., Lilbootycall, and Higher Brothers if they can improve their English.
RIP Cloudy Nueve, Lil Keed, and Sad Frosty *Update I forgot Injury Reserve broke up after Groggs died. I don’t want to start any conspiracies, but they’re another example of a group that was hit by tragedy when they were possibly on the verge or taking off. I always felt like they could have taken some of the spotlight off of Migos and I know they both recorded in LA a lot around the time. My ex’s brother used to intern at a studio where Quavo and some other QC artists frequented and he said they were all kinda shady. Also another friend of mine with close industry ties has been saying QC was shady for almost a decade now.
And last but not least…Captain Murphy if Flylo hasn’t abandoned the project or rapping entirely and he doesn’t retire first or switch entirely to soundtracks and directing movies. It was released in the form of a 35 minute music video made by Xavier Wulf. Along with the music it includes a step by step guide to becoming a cult leader. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys MF Doom or other sample heavy rappers. I won’t include the link because it is EXTREMELY NSFW, but the album/video is called Duality. The version on Vimeo is the full uncensored version, but I’m pretty sure you can find an edited version on YouTube that doesn’t contain the graphic sex scenes.
For those who don’t know Flylo and Kendrick are frequent collaborators. My wet dream collab would be the two of them with Flylo rapping alongside Kendrick. If I could bring one rapper back from the dead to make it a trio, it would without question be Doom. It can’t be AI generated though because we all saw how that went for Drake. On top of that Doom’s wife already lost her husband and son and one of his past collaborators stole all his journals. Last I heard still hasn’t returned them, but I could be wrong. It might be a good thing this collab is no longer possible. I doubt anyone would ever be able to top it in my eyes and even if they did fifty full albums it would never be enough. I’d probably never feel music the same again.
My big three rappers who are still alive include Kendrick, Flylo, and probably Earl Sweatshirt. My big three dead rappers I’d want to see collaborate would probably be Young Dolph, MF Doom, and probably Mac Miller. My alternates would probably be Ye, Bone Thugz, and maybe Tyler the Creator on team Earth, along with Lil Peep, Xxxtentacion, and Juice Wrld on team Universe. Also RIP Lil Bo Weep, the poor girl was clearly a victim of the industry and I think she could have been huge, especially with the Tumblr crowd, if her mental health didn’t get in the way.
Below are some more artists I see being very competitive or marketable in the future. It mostly contains musicians who are already pretty well established, but still not really considered mainstream.
03 Greedo, Jasiah, JID, Khalid, Curren$y, Big K.R.I.T., Oliver Tree, Ski Mask The Slump God, slowthai, Steve Lacy, YG, Jay Electronica, Lil Tjay, G Herbo, Maxo Cream, D4VD, Danny Brown, A$AP Ferg , Action Bronson, Kevin Gates, MadeinTYO, Yung Lean, Thundercat, Cuco, Sheck Wes, FKA twigs, Baby Keem, Jpegmafia, Joey Bada$$, Rico Nasty, Freddie Gibbs, Shakewell, Cordae, Rx Papi, Isaiah Rashad, Flatbush Zombies, Freddie Dredd, bbno$, Yeat, Death Grips, Yung Gravy, Smino, Pouya, Fat Nick, Corbin, Goldlink, BIA, Joji if he starts rapping again and actually takes it seriously.
For my bilingual people I’m not sure how mainstream these guy are outside the states so if any are already major league, retired, or horrible people let me know. Same goes for all the rappers above.
Kaktov, Happy Colors, Santa Fe Klan, Jackson, Gig Yag, Mora, and Big Soto
Some potential producers that I could see making a name for themselves
Shlomo, TNGHT, XXYYXX, Psymun, Giraffage, Getter, NxxxxxS, and Nedarb
Unfortunately I ran out of room for some additional info about Kodak Black, substance use disorders, psychology, and recovery options anyone can use. If anyone is interested I can send it. I know I’m already gonna get shit all the tangents. I also have another in depth essay I recently wrote outlining my conspiracy about the US opioid epidemic. Again I won’t attach it here, but if these type of subjects are relevant or interesting to you I can send it through private messages. I hope some of this knowledge may be helpful to someone struggling or helping someone who’s struggling with their mental health or substance abuse issues.
Last thing I want to talk about is the current issue I’ve seen a lot of people being threatened, doxxed, and harassed. I know how much this can suck, so everyone who has avoided it thus far please be thoughtful about what your posting here. I always try to make it clear everything I post are theories strung together by facts or coincidences. Every single thing I claim that can’t directly be backed up by a legitimate source is just my personal opinion or theory. There are also a lot of ways you can avoid any issue. Don’t be dumb, but also don’t let anyone intimidate into staying silent.
If there are any lawyers in this sub or possibly reading this post, it would be very helpful if you could share some guidelines for what is ok and what to be careful about posting. Most people including myself probably aren’t aware about the specifics of these types of things and what would qualify as defamation vs. what’s protected by free speech. Even if you’re on the other team and here to build a case against a user in this community, if you took a minute or two to share some advice you’d gain a lot of my respect.
If you made it this far I hope you were able to gain something from this little bonus section. If you feel like I wasted your time I apologize, but I did warn you. I encourage people to keep criticism productive or at least keep the trolling to a minimum. Feel free to downvote me to hell, it’s really not important to me and you guys also shouldn’t let things like Karma influence what you share and what you don’t. If you see something good or bad speak up and don’t be afraid of negative feedback. Not everyone is going to agree with everything you say, especially when it’s important. Having the bravery to say it anyway is what separates leaders from followers and often the good from the bad. It may be more important than anyone realizes.
Thanks again for sticking around,
The Randomest Moniker

Sorry for wall of text. I want to get perspective on what I did/didn't do wrong through all of this, or could have done better. And also advice for how to deal with my life shattering.
People:
triad: Me (32F) Ash (32NB) Bella (21F)
auxiliary: Cedar (27NB) Dennis (30M)
background:
Me and Ash got together in mid-december, with both of us monogamous. date 2, they asked to bring their friend Bella along (as a friend) since they were interested in checking out the destination. Ash and Bella had been friends for a while, and had a sibling-ish relationship between each other. Couple months in, Ash starts pretty heavily suggesting that Bella is attracted to me, and says they'd be fine with the two of us exploring. So Ash and I had a long talk to figure out how we're going to approach opening up our relationship. I had a history with partners being non-ethically nonmonog, so I had some reservations, and Ash said they weren't interested in seeing other people anyways, but also said they were totally fine with me...interacting with other people. I basically said that I didnt want it to be one-sided open because that felt fundamentally unfaiwrong, but also recognized the differences in our life experiences and objectives. Our agreement was to be very honest with each other, communicate a lot and very honestly, and check in often with each other as anything progressed on either of our sides to make sure we were still doing well.
A little time passes, Me, Ash, and Bella are hanging out at a bar, and Ash is being provocative about me and Bella doing things, me and Bella are being shy with each other, and so Ash basically physically pushes us together (in a not-rude way). Bella and I make out for a while and have a nice time. I check in with Ash to make sure they're still doing well with this, and they say yes and seem to mean it. Time goes on, and me Ash and Bella end up in a few 3-ways together, and by this point, Ash is also being physically interactive with Bella. During this time, I communicate a lot about where my feelings are or could end up with Bella, and Ash is supportive. Ash takes a prescriptive hierarchical stance and wants us to be primary, with Bella as....not-primary. I say that the prescriptive approach doesn't sit well with me, since it seems pretty disrespectful of Bella, and encourage the three of us to talk about things.
Time passes, Bella and I have grown closer, feelings emerged. Ash and Bella also grew closer, and the three of us together all have good chill vibes. Ash starts half-joking with Bella about her moving in to their place. Meanwhile, I'm also starting to make plans with Ash to move in to their place, since we vibe well, I have a big surgery coming up, and Ash has been saying that they would support me through the recovery.
At some point, I hook up with Dennis for a one-time casual encounter, and it's....not super great for me for reasons I wont go into. But Dennis was a decent human being, and did nothing wrong. More just a matter of me not being super self-aware of exactly what sort of sex acts I wasn't totally comfortable with. Things didn't continue with Dennis. I communicated a lot with Ash prior and afterwards to make sure they were still ok with how things were proceeding.
A little time later, Ash, Bella, and myself host a small friend get-together with a couple other people, including Cedar. At some point, Cedar is talking to me only and brings up the topic of poly things, and starts talking about how in poly things, its fucked up for one person to be poly but for the other person to not be. I genuinely agree, since that's also my personal view as well, despite it being more or less a reasonably accurate description of the state of things between myself and Ash. It did seem a little strange that they would want to bring that specific topic up, like it was personally targeting me (basically calling me an asshole), though I assume that Ash hadn't told them the intimate details of exactly what was going on very recently in our relationship, so I just let myself operate under the assumption that it wasn't personally targeted, and was just coincidence. To be clear, I hadn't forbidden Ash from seeing other people or anything, we just agreed to go slowly and cautiously and communicate a lot prior to taking steps with new people, since I have a lot of old wounds from former lovers cheating. I later learn that Ash had indeed already talked to Cedar about exactly what had been going on in our intimate lives as we were getting started in poly, including my recent encounter with Dennis. This makes me feel like Cedar's comments may indeed have been personally targeted against me.
Time passes, Ash mentions that they feel like they want to...'platonically kiss'(?) their friend Cedar. This surprised me, since Ash had previously said that they knew that Cedar wanted a sexual, monogamous relationship with them, but Ash didn't have any interest in Cedar because Cedar was a "jealous, possessive person". So I was a little taken aback by Ash saying they wanted stuff with Cedar, but gave thumbs-up to their stuff, because that's what our agreement was, and I trusted Ash.
Time passes, and Ash, Bella, and myself officially become an open triad. We start making plans to all move in together into Ash's place. Ash says they still want to support me during surgery and after, but wants me to promise that I wont drop them and leave them unable to pay rent if they end up losing their job due to taking a month off to deal with that. I agree.
Later, I physically manifest that promise to Ash by giving them an envelope with 2 months worth of their rent, in cash. Its a not-small amount of my personal savings, and before handing it to them, I let them know that it's a big deal, and it's me trusting them and wanting to honor my promise to them, and give them some tangible security about their concerns regarding losing their job. I also note that I recognize that it could represent a power differential, and that they should say no to it if they felt uncomfortable with it. I also request that they hold onto it in cash form, and specifically not to deposit it unless/until absolutely necessary (ie: in the case of job loss), because Ash is in deep cc debt, and when they file for bankruptcy, I assume those assets would be seized/garnered or such. Ash promises they wont, and accepts the envelope.
Recent situation:
A couple weeks ago, Ash told me they were ace, and that I should expect for them to not want sex >95% of the time. We previously had...a lot of fun times together, in which they seemed to be having...a lot of fun. The neighbors could attest. I was a little surprised, but was supportive because I cared deeply about Ash, and I basically said I'd be happy to work on finding a way to make sure things still worked well between us, while being respectful of each others boundaries.
A few days later, I hosted a big outdoor party with lots of friends, and encouraged Ash and Bella to feel free to invite anyone they wanted to, including other friends/dates/etc if they wanted to and felt comfortable doing so. Bella invited one of her dates, and Ash also invited Cedar. Things were pretty normal between myself and Bella, with casual physical affection, tho not super excessive since I was somewhat in host mode. Ash was pretty distant though, and once Cedar showed up, basically didn't interact with myself or Bella at all, with basically 0 physical affection for either of us. Instead, Ash spent about 95% of the day being very closely physically affectionate with Cedar - hugging, lying down with, holding hands, etc. To the point where half the people were calling them 'romeo and juliet', while also people who hadn't met us before literally told me they didnt even realize that we were partners until after the shindig, and only because their own partner (my friend) informed them after they left. At one point near the end, I was walking towards Ash and Cedar, who were walking towards me, and tho they had been walking holding each others waists closely, they physically disconnected once I came into view.
Day 1: A few days later, Bella and myself have completed lease applications for Ash's place, I've already moved my basic daily use items and pets, I have my apartment 85% packed into cardboard boxes and am looking into hiring movers, and Ash asks me and Bella if we want to go to the office to officially sign the lease. We end up not doing so because Bella was running a little late to work.
Day 2: The next day (when we finally had a chance to talk again), Ash asks me to very seriously consider not moving in until after my surgery. I'm taken aback by this, and tell Ash that it would be way too much to turn back on these plans right now. I'm a little shaken, but eventually Ash agrees to continue moving forward with our existing plans. The conversation continues and I chatted with Ash and I let them know that I was still totally ok with them pursuing things with Cedar if that's what they wanted, but also that I felt a bit neglected at the shindig, and that since we both had recently been quite busy with life things, that I was really looking forward to having a chance to have a nice, casual opportunity for closeness between us in a relaxed setting. Also mentioned that them and Cedar physical disconnecting near the end there felt a little weird and clandestine, but I accepted that it could have just been coincidental timing. Ash tells me that the disconnecting was just a coincidence, that Cedar gets social anxiety and they wanted to be supportive of Cedar at the event, and that they think that they are already in a non-sexual partnership with Cedar, and also that they want to 'platonically make out' with Cedar. I'm taken aback by this, because we had previously agreed that our 'rules of engagement' were to communicate a lot, be honest, and check in with each other regularly as things progressed with other people. I reiterate that it's ok, but also that I would have liked a little more communication about things. I also express my confusion about the...'platonic making out' because....what? Does not seem platonic to me at all. Ash says they're still ace, and that it would just be platonic making out and they dont want a sexual relationship with Cedar. But also that they think they're already in a partnership with Cedar, though they dont know Cedar's feelings on the matter.
Ash then tells me that Cedar will be moving in for two weeks immediately prior to when Ash and me are supposed to travel together for my surgery. The purpose is to help Ash deal with their own post-op recovery period for a procedure they are having two weeks prior to our departure. I feel gut-punched. We had previously discussed Cedar maybe staying over for a night or two, but definitely not two weeks, up to the minute that me and Ash are supposed to leave for my surgery. I tell Ash that I feel really uncomfortable about that length of stay, because I'm pretty scared for my surgery, and was really looking forward to having some time before we left to spend in the close company and support of Ash and Bella.
I ask Ash what they want from their relationship with Cedar.
They say they dont know.
I ask Ash if they have romantic feelings for Cedar.
They say they dont know.
I ask Ash what boundaries they have with Cedar.
They say they dont know.
I ask Ash if they have ANY boundaries with Cedar.
They say they dont know.
Feeling sick to my stomach, I explain to Ash that they cant be honest with me if they cant be honest with themselves. I re-assert that I'm totally okay with them doing things with Cedar, and even having Cedar stay over for a week or so to help them out during their recovery, but I also assert that I need to be able to have a little time just to us immediately prior to me traveling out for the biggest surgery of my life. I also ask Ash if they even asked Bella about Cedar moving in for 2 weeks, and Ash says 'yeah...I think we talked about it before...'. Ash says they will talk to Cedar to figure out how they view their 'partnership?', and also about not staying quite the full 2 weeks.
Ash goes to work, Bella comes over and we go out to a bar. I'm feeling pretty shaken and insecure by the conversation with Ash, and I ask Bella if Ash asked her about Cedar moving in. She says 'yeah, just yesterday. Did they not ask you?' I say no, and feel worse. Things are feeling really not good, and I talk with Bella a bit about what's been concerning me. I mention that Ash has been feeling distant lately, that it feels like there's been a communication break-down, and mention some of the not-great feelings I've had regarding Cedar.
Bella says she also felt neglected by Ash at the party.
Bella recounts a previous time when me, Bella, Ash. and Cedar met to hang out at a bar, and says that Ash specifically asked her to not be physically affectionate because Cedar gets jealous. I recalled that night and remember feeling like Ash was being physically distant with me also, though at the time I assumed it was just to be more casual in a friends environment. Though that night, they were also...very physically affectionate with Cedar, taking pictures in a 'sexy princess carry' and everything.
Bella asks me if Ash ever told me that Ash and Cedar also dated in the past. I say no.
Meanwhile, the pit in my stomach is growing more and more with each passing moment. Bella recounts that before she was poly, she would cheat a lot, and it always followed a similar pattern - the distancing, the breakdown in communication, etc. She makes it clear that she deeply believes that Ash is following that same pattern. Ash is working night shift, and Bella and I return to Ash's place with me feeling like shit. Bella is comforting and supportive though as we turn in for the night.
Day 3: I left in the morning to meet up with a close friend I had made plans with, and we discuss this whole situation. They are very concerned about a lot of it, I feel bad about a lot of it, but I also want to work to improve the situation, and I know I need to have another conversation with Ash. I message Ash to ask if they'll have some time to talk that day, and they say yes, but later in the day. I eventually go back to Ash's place and start the conversation. I start it by saying that I have a few concerns I want to talk about rather than allowing them to get bottled up and become a breeding ground for resentment, and that I want for us to communicate from positions of kindness and empathy in order to clear up anything that might be a misunderstanding and find a productive path forward for us.
I ask if they talked with Cedar.
Ash said they did, but they didnt have time to ask Cedar not to stay the full 2 weeks. They did however ask Cedar if they thought they were in a partnership, and Cedar's response was that they 'believed that Ash didn't have enough time to be in a partnership with them'
I said that there were a few things that felt a little dishonest, and that I wanted to clear some things up. I asked Ash why when I asked if they asked Bella about Cedar moving in, their response was 'yeah... i think we talked about it in the past...', when they had literally texted Bella the day before.
Ash just reiterated that they thought we all talked about it at some point in the past and were aligned.
I asked about them telling Bella not to be affectionate with them at that bar hangout in the past because Cedar would get jealous.
Ash said they didn't remember that night or telling Bella that.
I asked if Ash had ever dated Cedar.
Ash said no.
I said that wasnt the information I got.
Ash said they didnt remember if they ever had a date, and that they would need to ask Cedar.
I reiterate to Ash that I've been feeling kinda neglected by them recently, and that while I was still ok with them progressing with Cedar, but that I was feeling pretty significantly deprioritized, and said that we really needed to work on our communication and being honest with each other.
Ash said that the conversation had 'become too much'. And that it was 'too much too early'. And that they felt like they needed to 'take a step back from our relationship'.
My heart fucking fell to the floor. I asked if they would be willing to consider couples therapy to try to work through whatever was going on between us.
Ash said no, and told me I needed to respect their agency.
I said that of course I would respect their agency, but maybe they could at least sleep on it?
Ash agreed to, and we went to bed together. I sobbed. A lot.
Day 4: Ash left without a word in the morning to go to a short work event. I sat on the couch for those few hours, not knowing if I was still in a relationship with Ash or not. Eventually Ash returned. I started, and asked 'so...where are we at?'
Ash said their feelings hadn't changed and that they needed to take a step back from our relationship.
I asked 'what does that mean exactly? are you saying we're broken up right now?'
Ash said 'yes'.
Ash continued 'but I still want you move in and I want to travel with you for your surgery, and I want to take care of you afterwards'
I replied 'what the fuck, Ash?' and ran off sobbing to the bathroom.
Ash left for another work thing. I eventually came out of the bathroom, packed some of my basic daily use items in a bag, and went back to my home, devastated.
Rest of the day was mostly me feeling like my world was shattering, since I now had only a few weeks left before my surgery, and I would now need to undo all of my moving plans, would need to find someone new to take care of my pets while I was away, not to mention- would now need to go through big scary complicated surgery and recovery period alone. Extremely overwhelming. Told close friends and Bella that Ash had broken up with me. Made plans with a close friend for them to help me transport my things from Ash's place the next day.
Day 5: Went to Ash's place. They were in the bath, so I started packing my things and bringing them down to my friend's car. I texted Ash that we needed to have a short talk before they left. Ash responded accusing me of being disrespectful of their time. I was floored. Ash had never been unkind or accusatory like that before. When they got out, we sat down and I communicated some very clear expectations for them - that since they broke up with me, 1) I would not be moving in, 2) I would be taking my things and my pets, 3) that they would not be traveling with me for my surgery, or staying with me afterwards, and 4) that since they would no longer need to take the time off from their work, that I would deeply appreciate if they returned the several thousand dollars I had previously given them as a physical manifestation of my promise to not let them be screwed and unable to pay rent if they lost their job on account of taking care of me during/after surgery.
Ash said I was being ridiculously volatile and that they were dodging a bullet by breaking up with me. They reiterated that they still wanted me to move in, and that I was being a terrible person by not following through with that. I explained to them (between a hell of a lot of sobbing), that I needed 4 things from our relationship: security, stability, honesty, and communication. And that going from asking me to sign a lease with them one day, to asking me not to move in the next, and then breaking up with me one day after was EXCEPTIONALLY destabilizing, especially when so little time remained before my surgery, with 85% of my life packed away in cardboard boxes. Ash continued to berate me, saying I was being ridiculously volatile, and that I was choosing to throw everything away. Reiterating that they were dodging a bullet by ending things with me. I asked if Ash could return the $. Ash said no, because they had to deposit it. I felt so immensely betrayed, since Ash had specifically promised not to do that, and they knew how much it was to me.
I sobbed a lot more, Ash left, and I took my remaining things to my friend's car before heading back to my home. A lot more sobbing and nightmares and panic attacks and feeling like my soul was shattering for the next week or so.
Ash sent Bella a long message, but Bella had chosen not to read it for some time, because of what she expected it to be. Eventually I went to our usual bar, met with friends. Ash showed up for a little while, and we spoke briefly before Ash left. I asked Ash why they hadn't responded to any of the messages I sent them, asking where we went wrong, and explaining how destabilizing that sequence of events was for me.
Ash said they didnt respond because it was hard. Then they said that I needed to be able to share the bar together with them because they had been coming to that place before I ever started. I asked Ash why they had deposited the $$ when they promised they wouldnt. Ash said they never wanted it in the first place. That they detested that I inserted that power differential into our relationship. That they didnt squander it, but had to use it to pay their subcontractors prior to them getting paid by their client. That they felt like they had already earned the money. That they were shocked that I had any conditions at all about the money. That it was too much anyways, and they were planning to return 40% of it after using the rest to cover costs during my surgery trip. I told Ash that I just wished they communicated what they needed, because they knew that I would always do my best to help them if and when they needed help with things, and that more than the dollar value of the cash, I was most hurt by the lack of communication, and the broken promise to not deposit it.
I walked away sobbing. Eventually Ash left. Later Bella arrived. Other people there were telling me that Ash had broken up with both me and Bella. So I recounted this to Bella, since she still hadnt read Ash's message. Bella said thats what she expected.
Rest of the night was not great for me, but the details arent important.
I was calling Bella every day or two during that time because it was all really really hard to deal with, and she still cared about me, and our conversations were comforting.
Several days later, I exchanged some text messages with Ash, and I asked them if they were seriously saying that they didn't mean to break up with me. Ash said that no, they didn't mean to break up with me. I explained that that was really confusing, and that if the tables were turned, I would have been on my knees to try to clear up any miscommunication of that scale as soon as possible because I loved them dearly. I explained that I took my things and pets from their place because I truly believed that they had broken up with me. I asked if they really didnt mean to, if they would be willing to stand in recognition of the mutual wrongs and pains we had caused each other, and try to try to work together to find some way to make things work between us again.
Ash said I was being completely one-sided and immature, and painting this all like I hadn't done anything wrong, and that because of all the pain I had caused them, that they were no longer willing or interested in being in any relationship at all.
I explained that's not at all what I meant, rather that I was trying to actively acknowledge the mutual pains/wrongs, and was offering to still try again for us.
Ash said no, and asked 'so then are you saying you're not willing to be friends, and that you're only interested in a romantic relationship?'
I told Ash that I couldn't go straight from being in a relationship to just being friends.
Since then, communication between myself and Bella has become a little sparse, as I'm trying to walk a careful balance between trying to be supportive of her also, since this has been a pretty terrible experience for her too, while also trying to meet my own wants/needs of some communication/support from my remaining partner (her), while also trying to give her what space she needs to process things also. It's difficult and scary and I really want to be able to hug with her before I have to leave alone for my scary surgery. She says we're still ok, but that its also been pretty overwhelming for her also, so I'm trying to err on the side of giving space.
Aftermath:
The last conversation with Ash felt enlightening, given that even when I set my pain aside to allow the possibility that it was all just a big miscommunication, they still were steadfast in not wanting us to be together, and still pushing this bizarre request to go straight to being friends. I'm terrified that I'll never see the $$$ returned, because that was a significant chunk of what was going to keep me afloat, and now that I'm not moving in with Ash, my rent will continue to be significantly more expensive. I'm not even sure I'll have enough to last through my post-op period since I was recently fired in an act of blatant discrimination (yes i'm filing a lawsuit).
I'm super scared that this will end up being too much for my relationship with Bella, and that that will end up breaking too from the stress of it all. After all, Bella and Ash were friends long before we were ever a triad, and Bella is completely shocked by how out of character Ash's behavior towards me has been. Ash had previously only ever been extremely kind, caring, and supportive.
It still blows my mind how suddenly and unexpectedly things changed. one day, Ash was asking me to sign a lease with them. The next, they asked me not to move in, while also telling me that Cedar would be moving in for 2 weeks. The next day, they broke up with me. All of my many plans for the very short-term shattered, and it feels like I'm crumbling as a person. I am beyond overwhelmed, and I leave for my surgery in less than 2 weeks. I told Ash I couldnt do it alone, but now I have to, and I'm so fucking scared.
I loved Ash deeply, and I only ever gave them complete honesty, and always my genuine best, even in the hardest of times. Even when communicating the hard, but important things to communicate. I always acted with kindness and good will, and never any malice, even through our final conversations. I only ever gave honesty, and I only ever sought honesty.
So internet, please tell me: What did I do wrong through all of this? What should I have done better? Is it all really as fucked up of a situation as it feels like? Do you have any advice on how to walk this tightrope to keep things stable with Bella? To give support, but not add too much more stress for her? Do you have any other advice for getting through this all? Im already leaning heavily on some close friends and especially my therapist for working through and processing things, though I've also been open with Bella about it all as well. Only with her explicit consent to hear about any of the details or my feelings through the breakup, of course.
Thanks in advance, and sry again for the wall of text. I just really want to make sure I can do better in the future.

This isn't a rant about old word being good nor is it a rant about liking LaTeX, it's about the objective complexification of this app that has nothing to do with its features being bad, it's about the end user experience being horrible. Most people can't do much more but change text size, font, boldness and color, their maximum formatting expertise is alignment to a side. So why are all of the things so often used so hidden? Like 2 columns or page enumeration that has actual useful options?
I remember word used to have all the most used options all aligned and listed nicely, you could format text, you could have two column designs, you could easily get text to wrap around an image, tables just worked and images inserted were quick to edit. Not to mention it ran faster - I'm running a 12 core 20 thread CPU, it's literally lagging...
Nowadays I have office 365 paid for by my school so I use it and it's always the newest available version of word/power point and all the other programs. I recently made the switch to LaTeX and it changed my life, I now actually enjoy writing seminars and lab reports. When I used to use word for them I'd spend 30 minutes on how to write one equation that had a symbol word doesn't have... but that's besides the point, this isn't a rant about the equation editor, which is pretty ok actually in my opinion.
I have various issues with writing just simple plain text - no equations in sight. My beef with word is more about formatting and ease of use. I was helping my brother with some high school "seminar-type thing" and the teacher wanted a word file. So I fired up word and started editing his horrid document, immediately the title page was so hard to make, but I managed, then I had many issues with the table of contents straight up not displaying stuff cuz "there was an empty line somewhere where there shouldn't be one". After all of that I spent 2.5h trying to make the page numbers start on page 2 (with the number 1 of course, word has the convenient option for god knows who that makes the numbers start on page 2, but with the number 2... What's the point of that?), yes, I know there's a tutorial on how to do that and I've watched it, but I had to google every single thing the guy did cuz the layout of the app has been changed in the 3 months that I haven't used it and every single option is now hidden in a different place. I swear, like 3 people are adding links to other documents on your same PC, like how does that even work?, also who uses the dictate function?, who wants to add a table of authorities so often that they need the button to be so large? While I was trying to make the page numbers start from page 2, the guy said to select my first number and deselect "link to previous" which was conveniently grayed out for me... I had to find another tutorial... These word tutorial go out of date in 2 months now?
I hate mac, but I think that pages is so much better than word, of course I love LaTeX more but it's a different breed of product all together, I do find the formatting of LaTeX to be so much easier and simpler to use since I just copy code from 2008 and everything still works... it's very very different in word (I do not want to mention excel since this is a word subreddit, but I hate that f-ing thing so much as well).
All of these office apps were so easy to use just a couple of years ago, I remember having issues with 2016 word but it was more or less intuitive to use and stuff kind of worked, you didn't have to know specific rules to make page enumeration work or to make a table that works.
Just a few things I don't know how to do without an extensive tutorial:
minipages, text that wraps around images, 2 column designs (that work with normal one column designs in between), table of contents that looks good, headings with actual numbers (1.1.1. format, like what did they remove that option for? is it modern for people to not want numbers in their sections?), adding footnotes that don't suck, references that actually work
Just a few buttons I know how to use but are useless to most people:
quick parts, table of authorities, envelopes, start mail merge, select recipient list, insert merge field, check accessibility, accept, reject, restrict editing.... I do not know of a person who has used any of this nor can I imagine more than like 1 extra specific scenario where this'd be used, how do these things deserve not only buttons but large icons as well?
Why can't simple formatting option be simply displayed, why is changing my language so hard - I'm bilingual and often have a document in another language in between 2 documents in English that I'm also writing, I have the language package and everything but word sometimes just decides not to let me change the language on a section... why? for no reason, it's just grayed out sometimes idk
Sorry for the rant, but I really liked using word in the past, why is it so random now? I don't think it's nostalgia speaking since I know 0 kids that actually know how to use it properly (most of them are writing manual tables of contents and drawing tables in paint), it's incredibly sad to see that word can do so much but it's seemingly hidden behind this wall of boring out of date tutorials? Why is this? Why does this app keep changing its button and feature layout so often?

Hello everyone !
Time to speak about new experiments on my iPhone 5 64GB that do not have any SHSH unfortunately.
That iPhone is in very good shape, the battery has already been replaced by the previous owner and it has no scratches even on the screen. So I do not want to replace it by searching for hours for any iOS 7 (powersnow) or iOS 6 iPhone 5 with a good amount space (32 or 64GB minimum) at a correct price. I paid for mine just 50 euros which is a very good deal in my opinion considering the battery has been already changed and considering its physical shape.
My priority now is to turn it into a very fast iPod Touch, primarly for offline music (around 20000 songs) synced with "Music" app on the Mac, along with some old games.

iOS 8.4.1

It is possible to downgrade to this iOS without any SHSH blob using Legacy iOS Kit. Let me tell anyone : don't waste your time with this iOS. It's terrible for music playing, since it has a terrible bug with large music librairies : as soon as you have duplicates (partial or total), the sync will be completely broken and thousands of songs will be missing without producing any bug to help you debugging by removing problematic files one by one. Not only on the Apple Music app, using a 3rd party app like "Foobar2000" will not circumvent syncing problems. The only way to be able to get all of my music was to transfer manually the music files to Foobar2000 with iFunBox. But well, syncing become very painful this way.

iOS 10

It is the maximum iOS supported by this device. Is is kinda boring, and it is also difficult to jailbreak and to keep the jailbreak.
Apple Music app is very laggy on the iPhone 5 with a lot of songs. Very bad experience. FooBar2000 works great and is beautiful with dark theme but the experience is in my opinion slower and less natural compared to the iOS 6 music app.

Coolbooted 6.1.4 with iOS 8.4.1

It's iOS 6, untethered ! But for some reason, Coolbooter has a terrible bug that no-one has reported somewhere : it has audio glitches. Those audio glitches can happen at any time especially when you use your device while playing music : when you lock your device, when you unlock it, when you switch between apps, when you open the notification center, etc
It is very frustrating. I tried every possible coolbooter setups (app, cli, and with data protection workaround enabled and disabled).
This problem does not exist on my real iOS 6 iPhone 4S or in a tethered setup that I explain below.

Tethered 6.1.4 with Legacy iOS Kit

Same as on top, but without the music sound glitches and with full disk space capacity. But there's a problem even worse with this setup : sometimes the phone decides to shut down while playing music : the music stops suddently to play and the phone performs a full reboot without producing any crash log.
Booting from an M2 mac is also painful : I need to launch 2 times the process because the tethered boot always fail the first time for whatever reason. It's also boring to always specify the specific build (10B350) each time I need to tethered boot.

Tethered 6.1.4 with n1ghtshade

This is my current setup since today. I don't know yet (did not use enough at the moment) if it is going to also completely freeze and reboot at random times while playing music. This setup is my last hope.
This setup was more difficult to make it work. The restore process was easy through the GUI app of nightshadde, but the jailbreak process from nightshade does not work anymore because some servers are down.
Posixpwn jailbreak has completely bricked by nightshade installation so don't use it to not waste time just like me.
Legacy iOS Kit worked for me to jailbreak my n1ghtshade installation, but it was tedious to do (I had to do 2 tethered boots during the process).

Audio file formats

To fit around 20000 songs on a 64GB device, you need a very good compression provided by the best encoder.
I use the tool "DBPoweramp" on a Mac to convert everything and add replaygain and soundcheck tag to all of my music files then I import everything to the "music" app of the Mac before syncing everything. Almost all of my source files are FLACs to get the best result after convert because it's not recommended to convert lossy a track that is already lossy (you will always lose more informations).
I first tried Apple HE-AAC v1 encoder VBR quality 54 (estimated bitrate : 81kbps) but the iOS 6 music app has a strange bug with those files. Often, when starting to play a song, the song will be in very poor quality during the first 2 seconds. It's a bit disturbing.
I now use the Apple HE-AAC v2 encoder at VBR quality 90 (estimated bitrate : 75kbps). But the quality was already really good with default settings which was : VBR quality 63 (estimated bitrate : 50kbps). Choose your poison depending of the amount of tracks you need to fit in. But always select a "VBR" preset, never CBR (Constant Bitrate). VBR will adapt the quality depending of the complexity of each music so it's better for quality and for saving space.
I also own a rockboxed iPod Classic full of FLACS and the audio quality is pretty much the same (which is kinda shocking considering the difference of file sizes, but well, that's how I feel it).

What's great compared to an iPod Classic

Almost just like old iPod Touchs, but a bit more. I will mainly focus on things as a fully offline device, so I will not mention a lot of apps and things that require Internet connection like YouTube.
So here is my little list :

• Bluetooth 4.0 on-board that work great to send sound to any portable speaker
• Take photos and videos (with poor quality for today standards but it's still fun)
• A flash that can be used as a torch-lamp. Very useful during the night or in dark environments, and the iPhone 5 had a powerful Flash (better than the iPhone 4S one).
• Touch controls are really much faster to navigate and to search for music content. Click wheel is funnier to use though.
• iOS 6 music app is insanely fast and smooth, it can search for things in around 2 seconds only before listing the results and it really never lags even with that huge amount of songs
• Fun games
• Passbook is great to store fidelity cards and things. It's a bit tedious to setup since you need to generate the files then send those card files to yourself by mail. Only the mail app since able on iOS 6 to import to passbook. But when your cards are imported, it will just work.
• Playing any web-radios using TuneIn Radio Pro v4.3 (don't use VLC, it has a strange bug where it glitches the sound each time you lock your device)
• Having maps of whole cities offline using the app "OpenMaps" which is based on OpenStreetMaps

My iOS 6 Cydia Tweaks List

Here is the list of every tweaks I am currently using :

• Activator (shortcuts everywhere)
• Apple File Conduit "2" (allows to transfer files easily through iFunBox)
• AppSync Unified (to sideload .ipas)
• AutoLSMusicControls (it will show music controls directly on the lockscreen without the need to double tap your home button if music is playing)
• Auxo (it is so good and brings the perfect multitask with cards to iOS 6)
• Bridge/ProTube (allows to import mp3 directly to the music library from the YouTube app repaired by TubeRepair)
• Clutch 2.0.4 (allows to backup .ipas)
• CrashReporter (gives important info about crashs)
• Cylinder (cool effects when moving from pages on the springboard)
• Display Recorder (allows to record your display)
• FullForce for Phone (allows to stretch non compatible games to the iPhone 5 screen)
• Harlem Shake (lol)
• iCleaner Pro (an utility to clear caches)
• iFile (the perfect file manager for iOS)
• Jukebox (a cool music widget for the notification center)
• LowPowerBanner (very good tweak for iOS 6, you will not get those annoying popups on your screen at 10 and 20% of battery but just little banners that will not interrupt your activity)
• MapsX (bring back Apple plans app)
• mikoto (allows to customize many things and to remove the EU volume limit)
• MobileTerminal (a terminal utility)
• NCSettings (a very cool tweak that add many toggles on the notification center)
• Nitrous (allows to get faster javascript on external web browsers like Chrome)
• redeb (allows to re-package everything as .deb to backup everything in case repos will be down)
• Safari Download Enabler (allow to download any file from Safari)
• Safari Unibar (merge the search bar and the URL bar from Safari)
• SIM Alert Suppression (remove that annoying "NO SIM" popup)
• Springtomize 2 (many many things. I enabled : seconds in lock screen, notification center in lockscreen, old TV effect when locking the device, and custom carrier name)
• SSLPatch (very important, it fixes a security bug in iOS 6)
• SwipeSelection (very useful tweak, it will allow you to navigate in a text just by swiping through your keyboard. Saves a lot of time)
• System Info (allows to add a lot of useful info everywhere in the settings)
• TubeRepair (repair the official YouTube app)
• UnlockFX (add a cool animation each time you unlock your device)
• WeatherX (repair the meteo widget and app)

If you have any advices and feedback to make everything even more stable and cool, feel free to share ! :)

Edits

2024/05/31 : I had a freeze today that forced me to hard reset my phone because I could not wake it up from sleep after having listened to music. I disabled the old TV effect on Springtomize and disabled UnlockFX. I also disabled control center and seconds on lockscreen.

// Create parameter for Agent ID; Get AssociateIndicator Events aid=?aid #event_simpleName=AssociateIndicator 

// Create parameter for Agent ID; Get AssociateIndicator Events and ProcessRollup2 Events aid=?aid (#event_simpleName=AssociateIndicator OR #event_simpleName=ProcessRollup2) 

// Create parameter for Agent ID; Get AssociateIndicator Events and ProcessRollup2 Events aid=?aid (#event_simpleName=AssociateIndicator OR #event_simpleName=ProcessRollup2) // Use selfJoinFilter to join events selfJoinFilter(field=[aid, TargetProcessId], where=[{#event_simpleName=AssociateIndicator}, {#event_simpleName=ProcessRollup2}]) 

// Create parameter for Agent ID; Get AssociateIndicator Events and ProcessRollup2 Events aid=?aid (#event_simpleName=AssociateIndicator OR #event_simpleName=ProcessRollup2) // Use selfJoinFilter to join events selfJoinFilter(field=[aid, TargetProcessId], where=[{#event_simpleName=AssociateIndicator}, {#event_simpleName=ProcessRollup2}]) // Create pretty process tree for ProcessRollup2 events case { #event_simpleName="ProcessRollup2" ExecutionChain:=format(format="%s → %s (%s)", field=[ParentBaseFileName, FileName, RawProcessId]); *; } // Use groupBy to aggregate groupBy([aid, TargetProcessId], function=([count(aid, as=Occurrences), selectFromMin(field="@timestamp", include=[@timestamp]), collect([ComputerName, UserName, ExecutionChain, Tactic, Technique, DetectDescription, CommandLine])])) 

// Create parameter for Agent ID; Get AssociateIndicator Events and ProcessRollup2 Events aid=?aid (#event_simpleName=AssociateIndicator OR #event_simpleName=ProcessRollup2) // Use selfJoinFilter to join events selfJoinFilter(field=[aid, TargetProcessId], where=[{#event_simpleName=AssociateIndicator}, {#event_simpleName=ProcessRollup2}]) // Create pretty process tree for ProcessRollup2 events case { #event_simpleName="ProcessRollup2" ExecutionChain:=format(format="%s → %s (%s)", field=[ParentBaseFileName, FileName, RawProcessId]); *; } // Use groupBy to aggregate groupBy([aid, TargetProcessId], function=([count(aid, as=Occurrences), selectFromMin(field="@timestamp", include=[@timestamp]), collect([ComputerName, UserName, ExecutionChain, Tactic, Technique, DetectDescription, CommandLine])])) // Add Process Tree link to ease investigation; Uncomment your cloud rootURL := "https://falcon.crowdstrike.com/" /* US-1 */ // rootURL := "https://falcon.us-2.crowdstrike.com/" /* US-2 */ // rootURL := "https://falcon.laggar.gcw.crowdstrike.com/" /* Gov */ // rootURL := "https://falcon.eu-1.crowdstrike.com/" /* EU */ format("[Process Explorer](%sgraphs/process-exploretree?id=pid:%s:%s)", field=["rootURL", "aid", "TargetProcessId"], as="Falcon") drop([rootURL]) sort(@timestamp, order=desc, limit=20000) 

Table of Contents 1. My typing speeds before and after practice 2. My lefty / righty approach to faster typing 3. 1 month of lefty / righty typing practice 4. How to further increase your typing speeds 

Hello everyone this is my story about my cheating wife because of her insecurities of me being a former amateur porn star. This is straight from my AITAH posts, I just hope my story can help others. Be free to add any input, this is a long read.
I made a new account for this and this is my first time posting so please be easy, but I need an outside perspective on this. I left my wife of 7 years a year ago because she believed that I wasn’t being ‘reflective’ and ‘caring’ for her feelings and cheated on me for it. In my past I did amature porn, I left due to how I was treated and how the company I was with treated my costars. I did 26 scenes with them but outside of my work I wasn’t looking for sex, I wasn’t looking for hookups I want a person to connect with. Then I met my ex-wife, let's call her Sarah, at a bar in Cincy in 07’ and we hit it off. I told her about my past work but she seemed fine with it. We were both open with each other, and if I can be frank she was my dream girl, and had everything I was looking for in a girl. I thought our sex life was great, we had it everyday and she initiated iit the majority of the time. We will go on dates every weekend and our parents love each other. My marriage day was the happiest day of my life.
But when covid hit it changed a lot, she lost her job but since my new job is mostly remote and I made enough for the both of us. She began to gain a little weight and she began to feel insecure about it. I told her bluntly that I love no matter how much weight she gains and if anything there's more of you to love. After the pandemic she still couldn't find a job, so she started to go out with friends more and meet up with some of her old friends from college. She doesn't drink so I wasn’t worried about her, but after she came home she began to ask more questions about my past. How many people did you sleep with? Are you still in contact with them, and how many? I didn’t lie, I still had their contact in my phone but she knew this, she also knew that one of my best friends was one of my co-stars that I slept with in multiple of my scenes. Let's call her Lisa. Me and Lisa left around the same time and we just stayed as friends, we haven’t slept with each other since due to the bad memories we both had with the industry. But Sarah knew this and I told her that everytime I meet with Lisa that she can come with me or if you need me to stay home I can. Sometimes she takes me up on that offer or tells me she wants to stay home. I don’t fight or fuss, I just agree with her. But now around this time she didn’t want me around any women, I told Lisa and she understood and she thought this was gonna happen in the beginning of our relationship.
This went on till 2022 when I grabbed her phone to use it for a second and I noticed that she changed her password. I knew this wasn’t good at all, because we never hide anything. I asked her to unlock her phone for me and she said no. I was confused and I asked why? She told me“Because I can’t trust you” I asked why and she said “because I know”. Now I’m generally confused because I didn’t do anything, so I ask what and she began to yell and berate me saying since I did porn all those years ago and my high body count I must be cheating. After her yelling I calmly ask her if you're cheating on me. She told me no and she changed her password to set boundaries. I said to prove it lets swap phones and lets see. She eagerly agreed and we exchanged phones and searched. I found her girl group chat of them convincing her to cheat on me but she was refusing stating that she still loved me but she felt conflicted. They were asking her flaws about me and what she can change about me. The only things she said was my high sex drive, the size of my little me and my relationship with Lisa. We have been going at once a day since we got serious and again she initiate the sex. My size was new, because I alway try to be careful with her and she never told me this. And my relationship with Lisa I completely understand if she does feel uncomfortable about it. Her friends began to twist her words and try to make it that I'm intentionally hurting her and I’m cheating with Lisa. Once I got done reading and looking at the GC I looked up and I saw Sarah crying. I didn’t yell at her, we talked it out, I asked her about the group chat and she began to tell me that she has always been concerned about me leaving because of my past work and believed that I will cheat due to my relatively high body count and my thought to be high sex drive. Again the Sex was great and very passionate but she did it for me. Which I told her I appreciate but she didn’t need to have sex for my sake. Also she told me I was the biggest she ever had and at times it did hurt on occasion. I said sorry and I will work on it. After that there was tension but nothing too serious to end the relationship.
In December of 2022 past co-stars began to start and Only Fans and they wished to have me on, Sarah saw these messages and asked about them, I said no to all that have reached out and I told her that she can reply to any I missed. This went uptill the the beginning of 2023 and Sarah grew distant because of these messages, I thought I understood how she felt till Lisa out a bar with her friends saw Sarah kissing a guy and left the bar. She called and showed me the pic she took. In my eyes the relationship was over. She began to pack her stuff and as soon as I was about to throw her shit in the front yard she called me to pick her up. The guy she was with was married and his wife found them in their bed and the wife put her hands on Sarah. My natural instincts kicked in and I flew across the city to get to her. I pulled up to her crying on the front door step with the man's wife standing behind her. The man's wife pulled me into the house and began to show the security footage of them having sex. Then the realization kicked in and I remember she cheated on me. Sarah tried to plead her case and make excuses but I wasn’t having it. I told her to find a ride and pick your shit up in the front yard. I drove home leaving my ex-wife crying at a random stranger's house.
This lead to today she dragging on the divorce trying to reconcile, she got her friends and some mutals to take her side stating that my relationship with Lisa drove us apart, my experience in bed drove us apart due to her not having that many bodies in the past and the my size was hurting her which her friends try to say it’s abuse. Her friends try to file a police case on me but thankfully the police through it out. But I started to think AITAH here.
Update - Hello everyone, sorry for the late response. I've been caught up on some things and thank you for the support. I just came on here again to explain in better detail some things and why I did the post. For one the contacts I had are old, I haven’t been actively texting them I just never changed my number. Majority have reached out before for small talk but I never entertain them and kept the contact short. I know I should have deleted them but I never got around and did because again me and Sarah knew they were texting me and she seemed ok with it. I wish I could show how transparent I was with my things with Sarah, before she changed her password and that fight. We shared and at times actively used each other things. To the point that we wouldn’t buy things for ourselves if the other person can’t use it.
This post all came from a mutual friend between me and Sarah let’s call him John. Me and John were watching the Nuggets game and he began to ask how everythings had been. He knows that I have been struggling socially because of the divorce and he tries to tell me about Sarah. Normally I will shut him down, but what he said put in another perspective or rather caused me to think more in depth about it. John told me that she is in the wrong but my past must have been eating her up on the inside. He said imagine all the men who date or marry former or current pornstars, imagine the thoughts that must race through their heads looking or seeing their wife interact with people from their past. I’m just wondering if I was too open with her, should I have lied about my past. Now today I talked with John and he told me again that Sarah just wants to talk too me. Since today I haven’t seen Sarah face to face since I caught her, the week after and at the funeral at one of my best friends. After I finished throwing her things in the front yard I packed some ensitials and stayed at one of my best friends place that I considered a brother lets call him Dave. Dave let me crash at his place for a week, and after the week I returned to my house. But when I got home I saw her car in the driveway and her things were out the front yard. I walk into the house and Sarah runs up to me trying to act like nothing happened. I went outside and closed the door and went to my car and called Dave to come through as backup if she did something drastic. I didn’t think she would because she didn’t follow me outside but I want to be safe and I trusted Dave with my life. When he pulled up I told him to stand behind me and I opened the door and Sarah was crying her eyes out on the floor. I was gonna reach down and talk to her but Dave grabbed me stopping me. So I waited for her to stop crying and she began to explain that I didn’t really care for her and my action showed. I asked how and she stated that if I was a good husband I would let her cheat and get away with it because I was cheating by having girls text my phone. Dave began to yell and berate her saying that logic was dumb because I didn’t do anything physical or emotional with those girls, but I stopped him and I just said ‘get your things and get out of my house.’ She said no, so I found her things and began to throw them out the house again. She didn’t try to stop me, she just cried silently just watching me do it. Once all her things were out of the house again she walked out without saying anything.
The next time we talked was at Dave’s funeral, he passed away two months later because of a car accident. Easily the worst day of my life, the big three were me, him and Lisa. During the funeral me and Lisa were in the front with the family because we were all close, but Sarah sat behind me, she didn’t say anything, she just was there. I began to become irritated but Lisa beat me to it confronting Sarah turning her head around and asked Sarah why is she here? Sarah stated she had the right to be there because she knew Dave too. I told Lisa to not respond because she wasn’t being difficult and let it go, because the funeral was bigger than me and her. After we left the grave sight Sarah walked up to me and apologized for cheating and wished to get back together. This was the closest I ever got to yelling at her ever, this is because she was trying to get me emotionally weak to talk to me. I told her to get out my face and contact me through lawyers.
This leads to today and I don’t know If I should talk to her. I don’t love her anymore but it’s hard to explain because I still care for her. I never want to get back with her but should I hear her out. I know what she done is terrible and can never be forgiven, but I think she is mentally broken and I truly hate seeing her in that state. As of typing this I reached out to John and I’m gonna meet Sarah one last time for closure. I’ll update this post if anything major happens.
Update - I’m glad that I have met Sarah because now I have no feelings for this woman at all. You all have been right John was not an ally or a friend he had hidden objectives that I wished I saw sooner. John was close with a friend of Sarah lets call her Katie, this will be important later
To get this started John set up a dinner between me and Sarah and I wished for him to not be there in which he agreed but I also told Lisa to be close by or at least be in the area. Lisa agreed and stated that she will be at the restaurant before us and try to keep an eye on us. I arrived with Lisa (we rode separately) and I waited for Sarah. When Sarah arrived I swear she looked 10x times better, even though she clearly gained weight it always seems it goes to the right places. She noticed and she began to smile and her eyes began to glow. I swear it seems like we feel in love again. When we walked in and were seated I saw Lisa seated and a guy trying to hit on her, but she was on the other side of the goddamn restaurant, and she couldn't see us. Once we were seated, realization hit so I began to text Lisa and she told me that she was gonna use the guy to get closer to us. Me and Sarah began small talk while I kept an eye out for Lisa. Once the small talk was over I gave up scouting for her and asked flat out, why did you do it. Sarah began to say that ever since she reconnected with her old friends they began to talk about old college stories and talk about their new partners. In college Sarah was the designated driver in the group, since she never drank and wasn’t sleeping around and looking for hookups she was kinda teased about it. Saying she is stuck up and needs to let loose a little bit. And at one of these meetups they showed pictures of their partners, Sarah being proud of our relationship and this being the first time her old college friends knew or seeing me, Sarah began to show me and rub in their faces about me. I remember this night because I was at home and she called me asking questions basically showboating how close we are as a couple. The college friends out of jealousy began to look me up on some fbi agent shit and found out that I’m a former porn star. They asked Sarah about it and Sarah didn’t have a problem with my past until they started planting in her mind that I’ve been cheating and she could never satisfy me, and a whole bunch of nonsense. Sarah began to tear up and started apologizing about the situation. I told her to continue. She goes on saying that one of her friends Katie in one of their meetups started talking about how great sex is with her new man and everybody else jumped in and started to tell their stories. Sarah tried to sit this convo out but was peer-pressured into it. She told them the truth about how often we have sex and other sex life things. Katie then asked how big I am, (Sry for this, but this is important. I remember in the first post that this seems like an ‘elaborate dick flex’ or something like that. It’s not as you can see from my story that it has caused me more trouble than good) Sarah didn’t say anything but Katie and others threaten to pull up my old videos. Sarah folded and talked about it and showed a picture of it. Her group of friends couldn't believe it, especially Katie. After that they started chastising her saying her man got a fake dick, Sarah said that this didn’t bother her because she is used to this type of teasing because this is like what boys do and she is used to it because of male family members. After this her friend convinced her to cheat and basically that all her friends talked her through how to get back with me because in her own words they're the ‘boy whisperers’ because they've been with tons of boys back in college. I was shocked when Sarah admitted that she was wrong and should have just talked to me first. She cut out all her friends and now she has new ones. This brought me a sense of closure, as soon as I felt relaxed Sarah asked me did I ever cheat and pointed behind me. I look back and I saw Lisa a couple rows back still talking to this guy and his friends. I told her no and I asked the inverse, she said not since she was caught. I said ok and I asked why are you taking so long on the divorce, she tells me that she still loves me and she hopes to reconnect and John told her that this is her best chance. I said no I’m done. I asked for my check and she just cried. I didn’t want to ask any more questions, I got what I needed. I told her that she can leave and I’ll cover for her. She just got up with tears in her eyes and said ‘I hope she's worth it’ and walked away. At this point I don’t care, she walked to Lisa and called her a home wrecker. Once Sarah left Lisa walked to my table and sat with me. The guy followed and tried to act tough with his friends, I’m 6 '2 and built. I told them off. I filled Lisa in on what Sarah told me, Lisa kept it real and told me that you know neither of us can have regular relationships again. Once someone finds out about our past they're either gonna breakup or it’ll become some weird dynamic between the two built on distrust. I said maybe you are right and we agreed to hit the bar and see where the night takes us. I agreed and we went to the bar. Once I entered my car to drive off I got a call from an unknown number. I picked up and this girl immediately started to talk dirty to me. I said you got the wrong number and she goes on and says my full government name. I asked who are you and what do you want, she said she wanted me and only me. I asked for a name and address to play along and it was Katie, one of Sarah College friends. I hung up and immediately called Lisa and told her to John house because I believed that there is now way that doesn't have his hand in this. I called John and lied to see his reaction and said Katie ratted you out. He immediately started to apologize saying that I was her Idea and he just wanted her to quit talking about me because he had feelings for her but he has been stuck in the friendzone. So his logic was to get with the girl he wanted, have your friend sleep with her. I told him this and he said “ no she told me she wanted to talk to you if you didn’t want to get back with Sarah.” The pure stupidity infuriated me and I told him he had 10 minutes to be either out of his house or ready to fight. I drove to John's house, Lisa was already outside and she calmed me down and got me to get back in my car. Now I’m here three days later, and it feels like I’ve had a boulder lifted off my shoulders. I just hope that now Sarah doesn't drag her feet on the divorce anymore. Thank you to everyone who stuck around.

Average Reading Time: 38-39 minutes
Part 1: Humanitarian Part 2: Gratitude Part 3: Peacemakers Peacemakers (Continued) Peacemakers (Conclusion)
Threnlis had been deployed for a little six over months defending the planetary ring mining infrastructure in orbit above Agron Six. During that time, she had gained great fame back on the home world. On four separate occasions, she contacted and destroyed multiple raiders from The Enemy. Impressively, she had done so without losing any of the critical mining infrastructure she was tasked to defend.
For the War Department of Information, effectively the government’s propaganda arm, it was the single greatest opportunity to raise public and military moral in centuries. The gun camera footage of her battles and the resulting analysis by military experts was electrifying. Her fame had become so great that reports of her missions would instantly be breaking news.
After the discovery of broadcast equipment on one of the destroyed Enemy fighters, they realized that the hated foe equipped their ships to instantly broadcast battle footage and data to their people. Similar systems were soon put in place on all military fighters. The resulting streams would immediately be sent to all monitors to give the entirety of their civilization access to the latest in the war effort.
Millions would watch as the battles progressed in real time before their eyes. Factory production would stop, agricultural workers would come in from the fields to huddle around monitors, prayers would be lifted, lost pilots mourned, and cheers erupt when an Enemy ship was destroyed.
The fighter pilots soon became the most celebrated figures in the war, and Threnlis was ranked first among them. Her face was on posters encouraging people to work their hardest, and Information Department text encouraged all who saw that finally, after so many centuries, victory was in sight thanks to these new young warriors. They would lead their people into a new age of peace and prosperity.
It didn’t hurt that she was considered quite attractive by her race’s standards. In fact, that was a common theme among all the youth that had been sent to train with the people of Earth. All the former children that returned from training lacked common skin maladies, were well fed, had the benefits of years of state-of-the-art medical treatment, were vibrant in the colors and patterns of their scales, and had excellent musculature. They were, in a word, the very pictures of health. In a society of undernourished, overworked, and sickly people, they stood out like superheroes.
The former children had also been trained to excellence in their given fields, and had all been given impressive combat training, be they in military or civilian roles. Humans called it, “Self Defense Training,” and insisted it was not the same as military instruction. The result was that public and military support for the Human Off-World Training Initiative couldn’t have been higher.
The retuning children were highly sought after and assigned to prestigious positions. Politicians, military leaders, and industry magnates who had sufficient pull demanded they be assigned one of the returned youth, as the posting would further increase their personal standing. After all, only the most important people doing the most important things for the war effort would be allowed such a valuable resource.
As Threnlis walked through the hollowed-out asteroid that served as the base for her air wing, the head of Military Intelligence on the station met her and began walking beside her.
The officer kept up with her quick pace and said, “I must inform you that your scheduled combat patrol may be rather eventful today. We have reason to believe an elite enemy fighter detachment has been deployed to assassinate you and your team.”
She slowed at that, and asked, “What evidence do you have?”
“We have been losing fighters in multiple systems. When lined up chronologically, it shows a pattern of advancement focused on this system. If the pattern holds, we expect them anytime now.”
She stopped and closed her eyes, trying to keep the fear and anxiety from showing in her crest, “Is it the Blue Claw?”
“It is.”
The combat streams she had seen of The Enemy pilot known as Blue Claw indicated an exceptionally lethal and intelligent pilot. Credited with over twenty-five kills, that pilot was recognized as the top ace in the ranks of their adversary.
She nodded once and began again on her brisk pace toward the launch bay.
“Was there anything else?”
“No, Pilot, there is nothing else to report. On a personal note, good luck out there.”
They reached the hangar bay, and she looked over at her ship. It was relatively new, and excellently maintained thanks to the insistence of the Department of Information. It stood out in stark contrast to the other fighters there. They were ancient and showed patchwork repairs. She knew at least a quarter of them were facing some kind of mechanical issue, and despite her personal requests bordering on pleading, had not seen any additional allocations of parts or resources.
Turning to see the intelligence officer was still there, she said, “Thank you for the report,” and walked toward her ship.
She was halfway there when the alarm claxons blared and the illumination in the hanger shifted to emergency lighting.
She heard the old base commander’s gravelly voice grind out over the intercom system, “Enemy raiders spotted in extraction sector three. Battle Stations. I repeat, Battle Stations. All pilots launch immediately. You will be given orders on route.”
She broke into a run. When she reached the ship, a quick jump in the low gravity got her into the cockpit. She secured her helmet and the familiar hiss of pressurization began as she pressed a few buttons on the console. The automated launch check systems came back with an all clear. In seconds she was retracting her landing skids and thrusting out of the bay into the vacuum of space in defense of her people.
When her ship had cleared the hangar, she saw the light turn on indicating the battle recording and broadcasting equipment had been activated by the Department of Information. She knew in that moment, hundreds of millions of people, possibly billions, were watching her every move with interest.
With the professionalism she was drilled in back at the academy, she spoke, “Pilot Threnlis requesting assignment.”
She was a bit surprised to hear the base commander’s reply, “Hold position.”
That was odd. She was usually given coordinates to the nearest enemy fighters, assigned pilots to her wing, and told to engage.
With her senses keyed up and on a razor’s edge, she waited for a subjective eternity of about three minutes. As she watched, the other fighters in her wing all flew by her and diverted to where command instructed them.
When she couldn’t take it anymore, she keyed her comms to the command only channel and asked, “Command, Pilot Threnlis again requesting assignment.”
She noticed the broadcast equipment indicator go dark and a moment later heard an unfamiliar voice, “Pilot Threnlis, this is Director Heshna of the War Department of Information. You are being held back until the location of Blue Claw is identified, at which time you will be ordered to intercept and engage. It is our intention to clear the path for you to engage that pilot in single combat. When you defeat him, I will make sure your name is enshrined in memory for all time as one of the greatest heroes of this war.”
Her voice wavered as she asked “What? Blue Claw is the best pilot I have ever seen. You want me to engage the top ace of the Enemy without support?”
“Yes, I do. It will add to the glory of your victory, and inspire everyone who sees it.”
She felt her crest flare in anxiety and press against the top of her flight helmet, “But, I was never the best pilot in any of the squadrons, even back at the Academy. I do my best in a team.”
There was a long pause before she heard Heshna’s voice again, “Pilot, you will engage and kill the Blue Claw in single combat. If you fail and are destroyed, well, you will be mourned, and our nation will have a new martyr to avenge. Take pride in knowing that either way, you will be an inspiration to your people. I’ll make sure of it.”
With a click over the audio, the indicator light flared to life again.
She sat numbly in the cockpit, watching though the polyglass as the first indications of fighting started lighting up her displays. Slowly, as her mind finished processing the cold sentiments of the State toward her, she realized she needed to figure out a way to gain an advantage over the pilot that was sent out here to kill her.
Shaking off the lethargy of shock, her mind began racing through the various possibilities before her. Dismissing as irrelevant over a dozen different ideas, she finally landed on one that might just work.
The one thing she knew the enemy probably didn’t have was a detailed record of the asteroid cluster. It was riddled with hundreds of years of mineshafts, mechanical debris, gravel tailings asteroids, and an entire scrapyard of worn-out mining machines all waiting to be refurbished or recycled.
Normally, she would get her combat wing to engage and draw any aggressors out and away from the dangerous conditions in the ring. Not only would this insure the precious mining infrastructure remained intact, but also because open combat in space was much more predictable for her.
She switched her communication channel to the civilian mining bandwidth and said, “This is Pilot Threnlis, I need an immediate download of everything you have regarding the planetary ring. I want asteroid sizes, old machinery, equipment locations both active and derelict. Give me anything and everything you have.”
A quivering voice came back over the comms, “Y-you’re Calling m-m-me? I’m on the broadcast?”
Faintly, Threnlis heard in the background a momentary delay before an echo of the unnamed operator’s voice. Whomever this was, they had been watching the broadcast and were freezing up.
She didn’t have time for this. She needed information and needed it now if she had any hope of formulating a plan.
“Listen, I need that information, can you help me?”
“Threnlis n-needs m-m-my help?” the vacant voice replied.
She was weighing the possible benefits of yelling at this moron, when she heard something happen in the background of the transmission.
She faintly discerned the sound of a door being kicked open, and a gruff, unrefined voice shout, “What in the seven deserts of Broltien are you doing you idiot? A pilot is asking for your help and you freeze up like a baby plogan when it sees a predator? Get out of the way!”
There was a thud, followed by the sound of a microphone being grabbed, or adjusted, she wasn’t sure.
“This is Miner Second Class Gronlis. I am sending the first batch of files now. It will take a bit, and you will have to keep a sub-channel open to get all the data you requested.”
She let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding and then asked, “First batch?”
“The system doesn’t keep everything you asked for in one file. I will have to send it in different data groups. Is your ship running a type three or better ECTU?”
She was taken aback somewhat at the technical knowledge of this Miner Second Class. He knew the acronym for the Environmental Combat Tracking Unit. That wasn’t common knowledge.
Breezing past that thought, she replied, “I’m running a type seven.”
“They are up to seven now? Good, that’s good. It should have no problem chewing on these files and integrating them then. You should have your first batch downloaded in, oh, about two minutes give or take. I’m sending the locations of all current orbital objects first. That should give the following batches the reference framework to integrate the other parts.”
Threnlis had now moved past surprised, and firmly into impressed, “How do you know all this Gronlis? Is this standard technical knowledge for a Miner Second Class?”
A gruff, almost hoarse laugh erupted as he said, “Hells no, I used to be a Technician First Class in the First Space Wing of the Home Fleet. I got a mouth on me though, and one day I may have insinuated one of my superiors would be better off in the ranks of The Enemy, as he would be a greater asset to us there than here. He busted me down into the mining core twenty years back. Fedilos, I hope you are seeing this you incompetent twit! If you got what you deserved for sending me to this hell hole your crest would fester and rot off of your head, you sorry excuse of a Shra!”
Threnlis couldn’t help but smirk a little to herself at that, and said, “Well, however it came about, I’m glad you are here to help me now, Technician First Class Gronlis.”
There was a pause, and she swore she could hear the gruff voice crack a little when he eventually responded, “You can rely on me, Pilot.”
“I will, Gronlis. I’m leaving the sub channel open and switching back to military channels now. Keep the data coming.”
Keying back to her squadron command channel she asked, “Is there any sign of the Blue Claw yet?”
“Negative, Pilot Threnlis. You will be notified as soon as we have confirmation on their location.”
The first batch of the data stream had just finished and input all the orbiting objects into her system when she got the call, “Pilot Threnlis, the location of the Blue Claw has been verified in the B ring between seventy-two and seventy-eight degrees. You are ordered to proceed to that location and engage immediately.”
“Affirmative, Command.”
She oriented her fighter and pushed her thrusters to maximum, darting off toward the crossroads that would lead her to glory, or death.

The force of the acceleration pressed her into the shallow foam cushions of the pilot’s chair. Her breathing became labored in a way she had experienced so much that now was almost comforting. Looking down at her display, the objects in the orbital ring started slowly growing on her screens as she hurtled toward her Enemy.
It would be a few minutes before the first data stream was complete, so she opened a line back to command, “Operations, I need a list of the pilots that have been killed by the Blue Claw.”
There was a pause, and the voice of the base commander replied over the channel, “Keep your mind on the task at hand, Pilot. Get through this, and honor the fallen later.”
“Sir, with respect, I am not doing this out of some fatalistic impulse. I almost certainly trained with some of those pilots. It know how good the people I was in the academy with were, and how they flew. I knew their habits and what they would try first. It may help me to determine what opening moves to avoid.
She barely heard a breath being let out, and the commander replied, “Very well, we are sending you the information now.”
A list of names and ranks began scrolling across her screen. She nearly went into shock at the number of people, friends and acquaintances, she recognized. All but one of the twenty-seven names that came across the display were people she knew in one way or another from back at the academy. Even though it was a simple text list, she knew all their faces.
Seliss, a quiet male that had a real talent for space combat, but his first love had always been drawing. He was good at it, too.
Fenia, a girl she had lunch with two days before she left the academy. She was so excited that her brother had just been sent to a Human training program for political leadership.
Ashroka, an outwardly brash boy that you could always rely on to cheer you up if he found you downcast.
Melshia, a boy from third squadron that helped her through her orbital gravitational trajectory mid-terms back in her first year.
Sezkig, the techno-genius that played a key role in her squadron’s defeat during the final academy competition.
The list went on for over twenty more names. Each represented lives, and friends, that she would never see again.
She felt crushed, but the thing that almost broke her was when she saw two names, one right after the other, of pilots she took her final test at the academy with in her wing. Two of hers had been killed by that monster.
Despair, sadness, and fear began worming their icy tendrils around her heart and mind. Her air supply felt as if it were being cut off as she hyperventilated into her combat mask. She opened her flight helmet and pulled it off to try and get more air into her lungs, but it didn’t help.
She allowed herself to panic for about ten seconds, and then her training kicked in.
As one of her instructors from the academy used to say, “In combat, you know you aren’t dead if you can still think. On the other hand, if you aren’t thinking, you’re dead already but don’t realize it.”
She knew that in order to shut down these emotions, she needed to engage her analytical processes. She put aside the personal, emotional, and feeling part of the information she had been presented with, and focused on analyzing the combat styles of the various pilots on the list.
Immediately, the tightness in her throat and the press of her crest’s fear response against her helmet subsided.
She considered carefully the things she knew about the various skill levels and histories of the deceased pilots, and saw no unifying aspect whatsoever. That in itself gave her a valuable insight into the Blue Claw. Whoever that pilot was, they were adaptable, and dangerous.
That wasn’t much to go on, but it did tell her that she needed to figure out something above and beyond if she were going to come out of this alive.
As she came to this understanding, at about half way to her operational area, her system updated. The first packet had been completed, and a new layer of information containing fine structural details of the objects in the ring snapped onto her displays. Mining shafts, materials composition, and tailing disposal areas appeared among other things.
She still had some time, and the target area was still past the horizon of the planet below. With no real danger yet, she keyed her target area and zoomed in. Her keen mind began working over the environment and considering possible ways she could get some advantage over her assassin.
She took careful note of the various tailings asteroids and what exactly they were composed of. For the most part, they were basically larger, mineral poor rocks that had enough gravity to loosely hold on to the gravel sized debris that resulted from the mining process. She didn’t know how that might help, but she made a mental note and moved on to others.
As she was examining a strangely shaped structure, her system finished processing the last of the information sent to her from the civilian mining database. Instantly, mining equipment and other material extraction infrastructure, both used and derelict, appeared overlayed on top of, and sometimes in, the various ring bodies. She was surprised to see how many remote vehicles were in use in the area.
She keyed over to the Civilian channel and said, “Gronlis, what is the status of the mining drones in the area?”
“Some are down for maintenance reasons, but most of them are in shutdown mode to avoid detection. It’s the standard procedure when there is an attack. They make prime targets for raiders.”
She thought on that a moment and said, “How long would it take to start a few of them back up?”
There was a pause, and she heard his gruff voice reply, “About fifteen minutes usually, it can take a while to get the reactors up to functional and heat up the systems on board to operational tolerances. It all depends on the condition of the drone, really. Some of the newer ones can be up and going in a minute or two, but most of them are kept just functional enough to do their jobs. So on average, yeah, about fifteen minutes.”
“Well, in fifteen minutes this will all be over, so that does me no good. Thank you for your help, Technician First Class. I hope the information you provided will prove helpful. I, and your planet, owe you one.”
“It is my duty, Pilot. I will stand by in case you think of anything else I can help with.”
As she keyed back to military channels, an indicator lit up and informed her she needed to begin the breaking portion of her approach. With the speed she had built up, she would blow through where the Blue Claw was last reported in a few seconds, assuming she didn’t hit something going through the ring and shatter into a thousand pieces with her ship.
The thruster nozzles on her fighter reversed direction and her chair adjusted to prepare for the change of forces. She grimaced as she mentally prepared for the high force deceleration. Severe deceleration was required to minimize the chances of the Enemy pilot getting a lock on her ship. No matter how many times she did it, dropping into a combat zone was nerve wracking and painful.
It always hurt.
It was not uncommon for pilots to come back into the hanger with broken ribs and severe bruising as a result of the older harness systems cutting into them. Those exceedingly rare older pilots from before the fresh infusion of Human trained youth oftentimes had permanent scale damage. Such disfigurements were carried proudly by their possessors.
Generally, permanent injuries had been mitigated by new harness systems introduced by the Humans, but she knew she would have significant bruising from this if she lived through the next few minutes.
Normally, it was standard procedure to deploy an ECMF to cover your approach when decelerating into combat. With how significant the forces involved were, the slowing pilot is so debilitated that any effective evasive actions would nearly guarantee injury. The ECMF would protect against weapons locks in this time of operator vulnerability.
The key part of that doctrine was the assumption that every deceleration like this would be into combat. In this case, however, she was decelerating into a planetary ring environment. If the Blue Claw hadn’t detected her yet, deploying a flare would immediately alert everyone this side of the planetary horizon what general area she was in. If she was lucky, she may have enough time to safely get into the ring before her adversary detected her. Once inside, the information from the civilian mining database would give her a distinct advantage, she hoped.
She braced herself and put on her mask again. As was her long habit, she took three short breaths before engaging the breaking thrust.
Once it was triggered, her body slammed into the restraints. The strange and agonizing sensation of her internal organs being crushed against the inside of her ribcage lit up the pain centers of her brain. Each breath was laborious, and out of long habit from training she tensed her arms and legs to inhibit blood from pooling in them.
She felt the pressure of the mask forcing air into her nose and mouth, and down into her lungs. It felt thick and cold. The compressed gasses always seemed out of place with how clean and filtered it was. There was no smell, no life to it.
As she was nearing the ring, an alarm went off indicating she was being painted with a weapons lock from two close by sources.
Missiles, and they were right on top of her.
She twisted her wrist on the joystick and the thrust pods on the sides of the ship swiveled to obey. With her other hand, fighting against the sudden change in forces, she managed to get a hold of the throttle and slammed it to maximum.
The ship responded by catapulting itself to port. She was thrown violently against the restraints on her right side. Two sharp sensations of pain accompanied by corresponding snaps she both heard and felt told her she broke something. Her system medical readouts verified she just fractured two ribs with the maneuver, and her nervous system seconded that assessment by a bloom of bright pain with every breath.
Her evasive action was immediately justified, however, when two missiles went darting by mere feet from her cockpit glass to continue off into the void. At the speed they were traveling, there was no way they would be able to turn and reacquire her before they ran out of propellant. She glanced at one of the panels on her display board and saw their tracking had been activated a mere half kilometer away.
This pilot was dangerous.
A quick look at the tactical readouts showed her the shot was taken with significant deflection. That was both good and frightening.
She could tell by the angle of the attack and where that line intersected with the ring that the Blue Claw was still some distance away, well outside the low percentage hit range for direct fire weapons. If they were outside the sensor cover of the ring, her systems would have easily picked up their fighter.
She triggered the flare release on her joystick and deployed an ECMF before returning the thrust pods to slow her approach to the ring. As she struggled to maintain her breathing through the agony of her injuries, she decided to focus her mind on something other than the pain. The now verified range of the attack and the deployment of the flare gave her a much-needed moment to collect her thoughts and analyze the situation.
With how severe the deflection of the attack was, it would be a herd to manage hit. Adding in the target velocity change and range, and it would have been an almost impossible kill. Her Assassin had seen her approach, but didn’t try for a quick and dirty kill like most pilots would. They took their time and kept a cool head. They plotted the vectors and speeds, and rather than try to take a low percentage direct fire weapon shot, they went with a missile attack.
They were smart enough to know that if they fired missiles and had them immediately go into active tracking, at that range it would have been a simple matter for her to deploy an ECMF and break their targeting lock. Her opponent chose instead to pre-program the missiles to activate their tracking when they got to a specific distance. To get even close, they would have to calculate on the fly her decreasing velocity, the missiles’ increasing velocity, and then set them to start active tracking close enough so she wouldn’t have time to react. The fact that they got the missiles to a half a kilometer before they activated tracking was unsettling to say the least. Unless the sensor packages of the Enemy were generations more sophisticated than what her fighter had, that would mean this was one incredibly skillful pilot.
On the plus side, if the Blue Claw had a standard missile loadout, they had used two of the eight missiles in their arsenal.
Some small satisfaction crossed her mind knowing she had more ordnance than her opponent, but truth be told, an enemy with one missile is just as dangerous as one with eight, and the Blue Claw still likely had six.
These thoughts crossed her mind as she was nearing the cover of the rings.
Her first order of priority would be to find a safe area to fall into the ring. Her velocity was still too high. The juke to avoid the missiles meant that she lost about two hundred meters of safe deceleration. She looked over the readings and saw an area that had been mined out extensively. There was nothing bigger than pea-sized gravel in that space. It had a note that the area was full of tailings dust, whatever that meant. Small rocks and dust wouldn’t do much, if anything, to give her a tactical advantage. The problem immediately in front of her was a safe place to slow down through, and it definitely made for that.
She redirected and pulled away from her previous course. She did so making sure to keep the flare between her and the direction the Blue Claw had to be approaching from.
The next order of business would be to find an area that gave her a tactical advantage of some kind.
She looked over the information provided by the database and saw a mining zone near a mountain-sized piece of material. She noted with frustration that the final portion of the data stream, the artificial object database, was not yet complete. She pulled up the information and saw that the connection was disrupted.
Opening the com, she asked, “Gronlis, please report? What is the status of the data feed?”
She was answered by loud static.
“Oh, of course. The flare,” she muttered to herself, realizing that the civilian communications equipment was not sufficient to break through the interference.
She looked over at the transmission light indicating she was still streaming for the general public. That struck her as odd. They must have some fairly significant technology behind that equipment. Then, she had an idea.
Opening her com, she said, “Gronlis, I am resetting the receiver to bandwidth zero six. That should be affected relatively little by the flare.”
She prepared the system to start receiving again when the data came through on that channel, and was pleased to see the download resume. It was slower at this frequency, but at least it was getting to her.
“Thanks, Tech. I would be in a lot more trouble out here without your help.”
In the last minute or so before she reached the ring, she input a series of waypoints that would lead her through the areas containing the larger, more tactically useful asteroids.
As she dropped down into the ring proper, she avoided the areas with larger pieces of rock and ice with the assistance of the updated tracking, she made her way safely into the mined-out field. The sound of smaller rocks and pebbles bouncing off the armored polyglass cockpit window was novel to her. The first one to hit made a large snapping noise, but the glass was unharmed. Soon, the It sounded like a crackling noise, or possibly static. Also present was the strange, intermittent sound of dust clouds impacting the glass, which reminded her very much of wind blowing through bushes or trees back on her planet.
It wasn’t long after that she broke through the plane of the ring that the countermeasure screen provided by her ECMF abruptly stopped. She figured it wouldn’t take long for the flare, having not changed course or decelerated as quickly as she had, to impact one of the orbital chunks and add its ruined material to the countless other drifting bits of matter.
In a few seconds, she had the Enemy ship on her sensors. It was far closer than it should have been. Her opponent must have taken advantage of the flare to exit the ring and close the distance at speed. She noticed that its trajectory put it in line to intersect with her original entry point to the ring. No doubt they intended to put her in between a rock and a hard place, having to decide between impacting asteroids, or evading incoming enemy fire.
With the ECM screen now down, she saw the Blue Claw redirect and start heading straight for her.
The thought of trying to lay a trap crossed her mind, but after considering the immediate environment she dismissed it. No, the best thing to do now was stick to the plan, follow the waypoints to the large asteroid, and use the home field advantage. Better pilots than her had gone up against this murderer and never came home. She had to outsmart this butcher.
She oriented her craft toward the first waypoint she set. The route sent her deep into the heart of the ring belt.
There was a little part in her mind musing that normally, the pain of broken ribs would detract from her ability to do complex tasks like navigating a course through an asteroid field partially by sight and partially by instruments. In the somewhat detached and analytical state she entered into during combat, however, she noted with both approval and healthy anxiety the clarifying force of being stalked by someone sent to specifically to kill her, personally.
Threnlis was glad to have the ring data. With it, her lead was increasing over her pursuer. Knowing what was behind the next asteroid, or set of asteroids, was proving immensely helpful. She increased her speed, and began pulling up more detailed information on the huge asteroid she picked to make her stand. She glanced down at the panel to read something, and when she looked back up, as she was coming over the horizon of a larger asteroid. She had to veer starboard sharply to avoid hitting a large, deactivated mining barge.
That was a sharp reminder that she didn’t yet have all the information on what was floating around out here.
She knew the more time she had to analyze the combat area, the better her chances were. It was clearly unsafe to try and split her attention in the middle of a chase, so she focused all her attention on speed, and getting to her destination as quickly as possible.
As she increased her thrust, she gasped a few times with short, pained breaths. The new speed meant she had to endure more physically as her ship darted and wove through the celestial obstacle course. Where normally such maneuvering would have been difficult, albeit within the normal course of fighter combat, with broken ribs it was abusive.
After a few long minutes of agonizing flying, she was somewhat relieved to see her display update with the remainder of the civilian mining database information. Drones of all kinds, equipment, even broken drill bits left inside mine shafts were visible. Her display of the target area looked interesting, but that would have to wait.
Visually directing her attention farther into the field up ahead, she could see it now. It was a huge. What surprised her somewhat was how clear the space around it was. There was little to no debris within at least two hundred meters of it in any direction.
She kept up her pace, and soon broke out into the clear area surrounding the mountain-sized asteroid. She looked at her readouts to see how far behind her pursuer was, and was glad to see she had about two and a half minutes lead on them.
She directed her fighter toward the huge floating rock and began looking through the information the database contained on it. There were multiple exploratory mineshafts piercing it to various depths. Apparently, this beast had previously had significant interest by the miners over the centuries.
Of the various tunnels, two stood out to her as being of particular interest. They were large enough to fly her fighter through, and they intersected deep inside. She didn’t know the rationale behind it, but the two shafts met at nearly ninety degrees to one another. Perhaps most importantly right now, however, was that one of the openings was on the same side as her pursuer’s approach. A third tunnel was an oddity and drew her notice only because it’s bore hole still had a large metallic drill bit that had broken off at some point.
In addition to the holes in and throughout the structure, she saw entire fields of its surface that were being used as a convenient place to dump tailings. While not significant by planetary standards, the gravity of this asteroid could certainly keep some loose gravel on its surface. Now that she thought of it, perhaps that was why the area immediately surrounding it was so free of debris.
A quick look at the remainder of the area revealed little else of interest. A pair of hauler drones floated inactive nearby. One had a load of rock to dump, the other was empty having just deposited its refuse.
Her analysis of the area took about a minute, and she decided to use the remaining time to lay some flares. She chose some areas just inside the clear area, and deposited a few along the perimeter in a semi-sphere shape closest to her approaching enemy. As she was dropping them off, she set them to proximity activation. After that pattern was set, she looked and saw the counter indicated only two ECMF’s remained in her ship’s countermeasures bay.
She wondered how much benefit they would even be. This entire battle, at the ranges they were going to be engaging at, would certainly come down to direct fire weapons. As one of her Human instructors back at the Academy used to say, this would be a, “Knife fight.”
She trained her passive sensors on the incoming ship, and positioned herself just above the mineshaft opening that would lead her through to the other side of the floating mountain.
As she watched the dot representing the Enemy ace get closer on the sensors, she felt the creeping doubts and anxiety penetrating her focus. She was used to battling back fear before an engagement, but this time it was different. She was in pain, and about to go up against someone that had killed better pilots than her. This monster had killed over two dozen of her friends and acquaintances.
She was intimidated, scared, and hurting. All she could do now was wait for her assassin to arrive.
As she watched, her target slowed, and came to a stop. She pulled her eyes away from the readouts and looked through the cockpit. There, on the Heads-Up Display, there was an indicator of where the other ship was. Straining her eyes, she looked and verified that there was no clear line of sight between them.
Instinctively, while keeping her nose and weapons pointed at her opponent, she began sideslipping and making other movements that would disrupt any attempt to hit her with the direct fire weapons.
As she watched, a pair of missiles darted through at an angle about fifteen degrees off from the line that would lead to her. When they had gotten about 10 meters inside the low debris zone, they went active.
Immediately, the nearest two flares lit up the electromagnetic spectrum. The munitions never got the chance to even reorient themselves. She watched them streak off, leave the cleared space, and soon one slammed into a ring object, with the second following suit seconds later with an asteroid farther into the field.
Confused, she looked back in the direction of her opponent. The HUD was being disrupted by the ECMF’s that had gone off, and it no longer had the small hexagonal indicator showing where the Enemy pilot was. Then, down about ten degrees from its original position, she saw it. Speeding through the field, slipping through the various obstacles with grace, was the Blue Claw. Then, everything snapped into clarity. Those missiles had been a test. More than that, her clever adversary had used the missiles as a distraction. They must have piled on the thrust the moment they saw the flares go off.
With her aiming computer hampered by the active countermeasures, she did her best to line up the Enemy pilot and opened fire with her recoilless cannons. Every five rounds in the ammo feeds there was a trace round. They proved extremely helpful in correcting her fire and she was positive that she scored a handful of hits on the closing craft.
Unfortunately for her, tracers work both ways.
Next: Peacemakers (Conclusion)
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