Today's shower thought:
WT's main asset and income source now is basically commercial-grade real estate. As we've seen in many locations, KHs can easily be turned into something else. Similar for bigger building complexes like assembly halls etc (after some slight remodel up to the buyers' preference etc.)
But there's a catch...
There's plenty of posts on this wonderful subreddit on how this cult should die and burn and how it could actually happen. You know, we might actually see this but from completely different set of circumstances many of us assume. Yes, ongoing and future lawsuits are eating cashflow but you know what could be much, much more significant than this?
Global financial crisis (that's coming whether you like it or not) and as a result - commercial real estate crisis. This world is running on tons and tons of debt. WT basically has no debt, I think we could safely assume that based on all that free labour they had to create this real estate empire they own
There's a very basic catch. If you wanna sell something but there's no market for it (no actual buyer) - well, no matter the price you're basically screwed. Real estate runs on debt pretty much like no other aspect of our global economy. When that market becomes illiquid (no one is really interested to buy commercial type buildings)... well this whole thing might significantly crumble
WT needs to keep selling their stuff (gradually but surely) to make up for day-to-day liquidity to run this show. Lawsuits take a lot of money as we've seen. The amount of buildings they own isn't infinite even tho it's a lot. And once real estate prices decline (due to overall debt/liquidity crisis that'll unfold soon) they'd need to sell more and more to make up for needed amounts of $$$ to cover any costs they have
Everything is stable until it isn't and all they care about is money...

As International Coaching Week 2024 wraps up, I find myself deeply reflecting on the essence of what makes the coach-client relationship not just work, but thrive. It's a partnership unlike any other, where mutual respect, open communication, and a commitment to personal and professional growth sit at the heart of transformative experiences. In this space, I want to explore the underpinnings of a truly productive coaching dynamic and share some insights on how both coaches and clients can foster a relationship that maximizes the benefits of coaching.
The Foundation of Mutual Respect
At the outset, the coaching relationship is built on a foundation of mutual respect. This means recognizing each other as individuals with unique strengths, challenges, and aspirations. Respect creates a safe space for vulnerability, where honest conversations can happen, and real growth can begin. It's about seeing and valuing the person behind the goals.
The Art of Communication
Communication in a coaching context goes beyond merely exchanging information. It's about being clear, intentional, and constructive. For clients, this means being open about your goals, fears, and the obstacles you perceive. For coaches, it involves listening deeply, providing feedback that challenges and supports, and always aiming to understand the heart of what your client is saying. Misunderstandings and challenges are inevitable, but they offer rich soil for growth if approached with a willingness to understand and adapt.
Commitment to the Process
Coaching is a journey, not a destination. Both coach and client must be committed to the process, ready to embrace change and tackle challenges head-on. This means being prepared to revisit goals, adjust plans, and remain flexible in the face of new insights and changing circumstances. The most successful coaching relationships are those where both parties are invested in the process for the long haul, understanding that growth happens in layers and over time.
Navigating Challenges Together
Challenges and misalignments aren’t setbacks; they’re opportunities for deepening the coaching relationship and fostering growth. Addressing these issues head-on, with honesty and openness, can lead to breakthrough moments and enhanced understanding. It’s crucial for both coaches and clients to view challenges as a natural part of the coaching journey, signaling points where learning and adaptation can occur.
Enhancing the Coaching Dynamic
Tip for Coaches and Clients: Regularly schedule time to reflect on the coaching relationship itself. What’s working well? What could be improved? This meta-conversation can lead to valuable adjustments and deepen the relationship. Actionable Insight: Implement a practice of shared reflections at the end of each session. What was learned? What was challenging? These moments of shared vulnerability can significantly enhance the coaching dynamic. Closing Thoughts
As we move forward beyond International Coaching Week, let's carry with us the lessons learned about the profound impact of a strong coach-client dynamic. For those new to coaching or looking to deepen their existing coaching relationships, remember that the journey is as unique as you are. There's no one-size-fits-all approach, only the path you create together.
I'm curious to hear from others—what are your experiences with coaching, either as a coach or a client? What challenges have you faced, and how have you overcome them? Share your stories and insights, and let's continue to learn from each other.
If you’re exploring the possibility of coaching and wondering how it could benefit you personally or professionally, feel free to reach out. Let’s discover how we can navigate your path to growth together.

Heres my theory on the Stormveil corpse.
Its fully-grown Deathroot.
We get Deathroot as an item in-game but its also all over the world, especially where you find Tibia Mariners or in catacombs. All the mounds covered in eyes are Deathroot as well, some even mimic the inventory icon art, but larger.
Now these mounds are combining corpses with roots and rise to the surface to start raising the corpses and skeletons, and almost always form Godwyn's eyes and sometimes even his hair and face(crabs and pustules). You can see the start of this process in most catacombs, with bodies being combined and lifted in the boss rooms by roots.
If you look at the corpse under Stormveil it is surrounded in open graves, bone piles, and rat corpses while looking like it was once hidden by a tarp. I believe it didnt do this on its own, it was fed enough to spawn its own Ulcerated Tree Spirit (ulcerated from the bodies fed to it) and become fully-grown.
Who fed it and why? Godefroy and to create Grafting.
Godefroy is a part of The Golden Lineage (He is in the Golden Lineage evergaol and holds the Godfrey icon, the game is screaming this at us.) so what on earth could he have done to be locked up and erased from history?
Invent Grafting.
I think Godefroy is similar to Godrick in more way than one, i believe he was weak and sickly just like Godrick and he is supposed to be Godrick's dad and Godwyn's son.
This is what i think happened.
Godefroy was Godwyn's sickly son with little to no power, very similar to Godrick. He was given a castle far away from Leyndell where he could go, as a weak sickly demigod was likely a embarrassment to The Golden Lineage, Godefroy was likely mocked openly by most, again just like Godrick, for his weakness.
Then, suddenly, Godwyn the Golden was horrifically half-murdered on the Night of Black Knives, leaving Godefroy fatherless, weak, sickly, and a public laughing stock. Godwyn was then just thrown in the roots and became a Taboo subject, showing Godefroy that even the strongest and most beloved of demigods are disposable.
After some time, Godefroy would eventually visit Godwyn, seeing a horrifically twisted corpse (that likely much more resembled Godwyn back then) that still showed signs of life. It grew, it spread, and, probably most creepy of all to Godefroy, it stared. Seeing his dad in this state, after everything else, likely cemented his idea to rebel.
How could they let something like this happen to Godwyn the fucking Golden?
Godefroy would then take back a piece of Godwyn, maybe just to give him a grave or shrine in Stormveil he could visit easier. Unknown to him pieces of Godwyn spread Deathroot now.
This piece would keep growing though, eventually foricing Godefroy to hide it with a tarp and sparking his curiosity. Eventually the piece would start to resemble more of a body, growing a face, nose, and eyes, and Marika's Tits did this thing just keep staring. I think if u were constantly getting stared at by ur dads zombified corpse, youd likely remove the eyes.
He would then begin to experiment on the piece of Deathroot, feeding it bodies and watching how it would fuse them to continue its own growth. This gave Godefroy an idea. He would likely start small, maybe with a finger or simply a patch of skin, but eventually he would try to stick a piece of this dead flesh to himself, and saw it worked.
Grafting was born.
In secret, after Godefroy felt he had control, he would teach Godrick about grafting, but told him not to do it yet. Shortly after teaching Godrick, Godefroy's grafting became noticable and began turning heads.
Maybe someone asked a naive Godrick who told them, maybe someone scouted stormveil, but someone caught wind that Graftng was born of an ancient taboo, something the Golden Order now considered the root of all evil, Grafting was born of Godwyn, Prince of Death.
The second this was discovered Godefroy was locked away in a evergaol and erased from history, and Godrick, who was also considered guilty (maybe sins of the father, maybe he talked about grafting) was marked and fled Leyndel in disguise with Mimic Veil. The Leyndel Knight that caught Godefroy was sainted and likely given a gag order or maybe straight up killed, and was venerated in their own Hero Grave.
Godrick would then just hide in Stormveil and fully dive into Grafting, maybe even intentionally mimicing the way his father was Grafted to mock The Golden Order. I think his "BEAR WITNESS" line is more of a taunt to the Golden Order than asking for recognition. He did just tell his forefathers to watch him graft a dragon head.
The rest is in-game.
Theres still some questions, like whether Godrick or Godefroy participated in The Shattering, but i think this explains extremely well whats going on with Stormveil.
Also just throwin this in, the Thorns in Stormveil is Deathroot without dead bodies to cover it with flesh, look at normal deathroot tendrils and theres spikes coming out of what look like octopus suckers. The the thorns are basically the 'skeleton' of deathroot and dead bodies are its flesh.
The thorns are boring holes (mottling) in the castle trying to get at all the corpses Godrick stores for Grafting, and the thorns are removed from Stormveil regularly. You can see the lower part of the castle where the commoners stay is infested with thorns, but the higher parts where the Knights and Godrick stay, and the corpses are stored, are absolutely thorn-free. You can also find several gashes on the ground that look stitched or stapled up. The exiles are most likely the ones assigned to clear the thorns, so they all get infected by them. Everywhere there is mottling in the walls, there was once thorns that were burned or chopped away.
You can however find a single thorn branch in Godrick's boss room along the top of the eastern wall, somewhere unreachable, proving the thorns do reach this high in the castle, they just get removed.

payseur family
Here are some things what may be associated with world control
My answer is central banks. When looking into the makings of central banks and financal affairs in the uk and europe i came up with this
Some interesting links to consider. Finance has been run predominantly by jewish families long before 1066 when William the conquerer borrowed significant funds in securing his throne in England from French Rouen Banking family, name still undisclosed. If anyone knows let me know.
government bonds from 1066 in the british library
The Worshipful goldsmiths company a 700 year old group of investors to this day buys up government guilds aka bonds aka loans. Aswell as owning vast estates in and around london. This was formed after the jewish were originally exiled from britian for controlling the UKs finances between 1066 and 1290 🤔 ( insert capitalism cloak and dagger) hide behind a business
a group of goldsmith lenders unnamed but prominent figures in london financing that formed the basis for the state bank of England This company became of interest to me, little is said about who founded the goldsmiths company other than goldsmiths of the time. But they controlled london finance as they were the gold standard by royal charter. Coincidence?
I wonder who these prominent people were that formed vastly wealthy corporation that controlled englands gold from then until now. 700 years ago goldsmiths were almost all jewish as in england lending money was strictly forbidden in Christianity (if you weren't Christian in england 1000 years ago what even were you?
Also note the Rothschilds family owned the building to the royal mint for the last 200 years. Strange that🤔
royal mint
Also an interesting financial scale. Jewish law states that jewish can only charge interest to non jewish. So if a huge percentage of banks are jewish owned and only charge interest to non jewish that would denote a pyramidal scale. Note the largest hedge companies are jewish owned.
halachah or jewish law
Now i am not saying this is the entire jewish race, but certainly prominent familes hidden behind a cover of a capitalist system that obscures it for what it is. If you have checked out the links above note- from jewish sources. You can start to imagin how long the banking business has been going on for. If halachah must be followed that would mean continual money supply into a pot for one race from everyone else.
Some examples of said families
rothschilds family archives
The duke of wellington recieved 1 billion in 1815 now worth over 20 trillion in todays money. This is supposedly being still repaid by british taxpayers today.
Can you imagin what interest repayments the Rothschilds must be recieving for a loan that's over 200 years old. Calculations below
Oh and guess who funded the loan to pay slave owners for freeing slaves. You guessed it the Rothschilds and Montefoire family if you haven't already come across the latter another one to consider.
Rothschilds and Montefoire
The slave ownership loan has only just been repaid by british tax payers only a few years ago. If you understand how loan repayments work from mortgages you can imagin what a 200 year old loan does to the total repayment cost.
For those unable to work it out 15 million over 200 years at 4% works out to a total repayment of 38,261,246,866.00 thats just over 38 billion. So where is all this money as their net worth vastly differs 🤔.
I believe that we are built on a system of finance, either capitalist who want a share of other nations interests or communist who want to retain the financial system for their own.
who ever owns the finance owns the world.
Im not sure who secretly runs the countrys of the world but in delving deeper into the history behind finance i found the above. Some will say this is antisemetic trope. But everything i looked up was backed up by jewish authors and resources. Jewish chronicles being one of them
Thodore Herzle is another prominent name in zionism as its founder who started the zionist movement from Basel switzerland, the mothership of all central banks the IBS International Bank of Settlements. He also founded the jewish colonial bank which later became the central bank of israel
jewish virtual library source
Its interesting that more of this is not known or more public knowledge, or is that the point keep this buried and call everyone antisemitic for brining it up?
Whilst im not from the US, its domination in war time affairs raises some questions. As war requires large bonds borrewed from the prominent families mentioned above. Creating debts that continue to be paid by tax payers. Worth researching who bought the long term bonds for the covid packages and Ukraine/ Israel piggy bank.
Nearly the entire biden administration is made up of jewish, so theres no wonder why he keeps vetoing everything. A list below of his jewish team.
biden administration jewish team list
and well the US economy has a big hand in debt making and taking. If you arent with it, your in the way as many countries have found out the hard way.
I have lots more, but conscious this is long and getting bored now.
Enjoy your rabbit hole hunting

When I was in junior high a transfer student arrived in the middle of the semester; a kid that was different from everyone else. Right away he had caught my eye, in fact he caught everyone's attention because he had a very unique disability; he couldn’t speak. I guess you could say he was deaf, though it was clear to me after getting to know him that he could in fact hear; every word spoken to him was understood with simple nods or gestures; facial expressions contorting into understood language; so I guess he was mute; yeah, that would describe him best. He was an oddity to most but to me he was a unicorn, something that sparkled in our dim monotonous lives and it wasn’t until he revealed who he was did I become terrified of him and his shine.
I was in 7th grade maneuvering my way through the jungle of middle school, avoiding trouble and premature violence. I was an undersized boy for my age, no more than 5ft tall; puberty had yet to visit me leaving me left out of the herd; the other students or the ‘sheep’ as I called them that infested my school. They were all the same, kids that were driven by hormones constantly talking about boys or girls, their deep voices riding on the coattails of the wind that breezed in and out of our hallways. I was a mere shadow, always walking a few paces behind the others not wanting to be seen or acknowledged; I saw what others that looked like me went through, they were tortured and abused for simply existing.
Once Bryce Ellis and his friends stuck Timmy Easton’s face in the shitter for over 10 flushes, I was in a stall over, hiding and waiting for the torment to be over. I slithered my feet up on to the stall caressing them to my chest as I sat in a fetal position horrified of how one human could treat another. Eventually the bullies had gotten bored, their short attention span driven minds directed them to another endeavor leaving Timmy to fester in his tears and possible filth.
He sobbed for minutes that felt like hours as I remained silent in the stall over, I placed my hand cautiously on the barrier wall trying to absorb a bit of his pain, my heart ached for him in that moment and I wanted to lend him a compassionate hand if only I had the courage to do so. So yeah, I did my best to stay hidden, unseen to all the dwellers that mindlessly walked in and out of our school on a daily basis, the boys that believed themselves to be men or the girls that pontificated to anyone that listened. I was lost into an enteral sea of vindictive young adults that searched for any reason to lash out at anyone that stood in their way.
So when ‘Tape boy’ — as they would eventually call him — came to my little middle school that stood still in the secluded hills of our small town I was enthralled almost immediately with his existence. He was introduced to my home room class, I sat in the back burying my head into my arms, occasionally lifting my head to listen on the days lecture. My day dreams entertaining me as the clock slowly ticked away at our lives and it wasn’t until my teacher promptly stopped talking did it trigger a primal emotion in me to sit up and pay attention. I postured myself up straight, pausing the internal movie that played in my mind to see what the interruption was about.
There he was, a new boy that no one had ever seen before, by middle school everyone knew each other; we had went to the same elementary school, the same holiday events and grocery stores. So getting a new student was like getting a new flavor at Baskin Robbins; a mystery taste simmering on the tip of your tongue as you digested every drop, his presence was intriguing. He wasn’t small like me, I would say average height for a 12 year old; about 5'4, slender body with unkempt dark black hair. He looked timid, his head tilted towards the ground not wanting to accidentally lock eyes with any of us as the teacher introduced him, my mind wandering with such intrigue because to all of our astonishment he was wearing a surgical face mask — mind you this was in the 90’s; eons before the Covid pandemic breached the windows of our thoughts.
Right away I could hear the murmurs, the questions erupting throughout the classroom as everyone pondered of why this boy sheltered his face. I stared on for what must of been minutes as the shy boy kept his gaze down, I could see him slightly squeezing the arm straps to his backpack nervously the longer he stood there on full display for all.
I had my fill and I relaxed my postured sinking back into my chair directing my stare out the window but then Billy Sherman asked the question we all had on our minds,
“Uhm, why is he wearing that mask?”.
Our teacher explained to us that it was because of some weaken immune system, something about how his ticker didn’t click like the rest of ours, she then also told us about him being mute. This drew my eyes right back to him, I think it did for all of us and for a moment the quiet kid raised his head and locked eyes with me. His dark black eyes glistened with despair, the deep purple bags that sagged under his eyes were more indicative of someone that hadn’t slept in days. I felt something for him in that moment, our third eye conversing in some cosmic dialogue and as quickly as he rose his head did it drop once again towards the ground. I could still hear all the the other kids snickering, questioning and some even giggling; it made me sick, if I was a braver boy I would of stood on top of my desk and verbally lashed out to all the sheep, instead I rose my hand asking something Mrs. Willis never said, what was the timid boys name?
“Oh I’m sorry, how rude of me, this is Gabriel”.
She sat Gabriel upfront next to her desk, wanting him close in case he needed to write or sign something to her and just like that everyone went back to their simple lives; including myself.
The next few weeks I saw little of Gabriel other than the back of his head during class, once the bell rang everyone that my eyes glimpsed at for the day disappeared or just maybe it was me who dissolved into the ambience of our school. Either way I saw little of the boy who wore a mask, the one that sheltered his true identity and my curiosity with the new flavor of the week gradually faded into the abyss of non-existence; well, that was until the day I saw the mask slip.
It was end of the day, I spent most of the time turning corners anytime Bryce Ellis approached; evading the wrath of him and his band of merry men who were the pinnacle of human torture; finding any opportunity to demean those who crossed their path. I remember leaving Chemistry class, my mind all to occupied with leaving the hell hole of every kids dread and that’s when I saw Gabriel walking down the hall towards the cafeteria; his head still tilted down; his gaze tracking every step he took; face mask still tightly fitted around his face.
This time I saw someone was following him, it was Tom Ingram one of Bryce’s guys, a kid that tried to be the “alpha male” of the group numerous times, doing his best to dethrone the reign of Bryce. He was a big boy for his age, probably about 5'9 and easily weighed 200 pounds, he was a wild card alright; he got caught pouring sugar down Mr. Whitakers old Pontiac gas tank for giving him a poor grade. So when I saw him berating poor Gabriel; taunting him as grotesque laughter followed every insult, I felt like I had to do something and my consistent stealth veneer of camouflage morphed into into a full on sprint towards the two. I saw Tom was closing in on him, other kids looking on with bewilderment on their faces — not knowing if they should laugh out of fear or grimace from disgust. For the first time in a long while did a burning sensation of courage ignite in my soul, I was tired of seeing monsters preying on the sheep and I was going to stop it somehow.
Finally Gabriel had stopped walking and stood still, his head hanging even lower than before, the strands of his long hair covered the remainder of his face. Tom began slapping the top side of the poor kids head, yelling out obscenities, angered that he didn’t stop sooner. I was close, I was gonna stop this since all anyone else could do is cower in fear while looking on and then it happened causing me to stop dead in my tracks, my eyes widening with befuddlement. Tom had torn away the mask from Gabriel's face, awes with groans came from everyone then silence blanketed the entire school and for those few seconds our existence had been swallowed up by the earth itself.
“What the hell” Tom yelped out breaking the still but heavy disquietude.
I wanted to say something, but no words could be manifested only gurgles as I choked on my own disbelief. The timid boy under the mask of intrigue had a strip of black duct tape covering his mouth, it stretching from the side of his face to the other almost resembling what would be some hideous smile. The timid boy then collapsed his hands over his face as faint muffles of sobbing protruded from him, he ran into the nearest restroom only for Tom to pursue. Finally my thoughts had been gathered while my body came back to life, I brushed off the bizarre occurrence of that grizzly smile and I reminded myself of what was about to happen. Tom was going to punish Gabriel for simply existing as he and his gang have been doing for years and like some old factory machine the cogs of my body set into motion as I ran towards the restroom.
Before I could open the door the most horrid scream exploded outwards into the hallway, the sound sending a cold shiver down my spine and Tom came running out of the restroom gripping at his face crying. He was hysterical running and bumping into the walls until finally crumbling onto the floor only to continue sobbing. My mind was clouded with a whirl wind of confusion, I no longer knew what to do, I mean I was going to run in there and stop the assault but now the assaulter was on the floor destroyed. Then Gabriel calmly came out of the restroom, his mask firmly back on and he turned to look at me, his dark eyes burning an image of anguish into my mind. I asked if he was okay of course he said nothing though, he didn’t need to I could just sense his response and it was one of gratitude. I almost could see him smiling at me from underneath the mask and I reminded myself of what was under it; that abysmal duct tape that looked like a sinister grin.
From that day on most of the kids were afraid of Gabriel, I could see the look of terror in their eyes anytime he passed by them even though his headed was still shifted downwards but that’s the day whenever someone mentioned him they referred to him as “Tape boy”. I had heard through the whispers of our school that Tom had suffered some mental breakdown, that the doctors couldn’t find anything psychically wrong with him, it was as if his mind had shattered. He remained in some mental hospital, memories of him gradually fading and the sheep went on with living their mundane lives. Bryce even slowed his bullying, I think he knew that their were now more eyes watching everyone after the altercation and he didn’t want to get caught in some bad situation, though I could see he was itching to get at Gabriel. I went back to being a shadow, avoiding all the others still not too confident that the days of torture were over.
Even though Gabriel was regarded as some magical or perhaps malevolent being by most; not sure which one; he still appeared to be sad; lonely, his head always dragging with despondency. I made an effort in getting to know him, I wasn’t afraid like the rest of them something about the day we locked eyes gave me the resolve to understand he wouldn’t hurt me. I approached him during lunch break, he was outside sitting underneath a tree, the shade showering him a gloom of haze. I think I surprised him or maybe it was just my stealth nature but I saw him jump when I sat next to him. I began talking about the origins of Darth Vader, of how he was originally a hero using his force power for good only to eventually turn to the dark side.
Gabriel just looked at me confounded of why I was even talking to him, his stare looking on with indifference. I told him that he was like a super hero, doing whatever he did to Tom was just like a super power, that I was thankful. His gazed then returned back to the floor almost out of shame, I guess whatever he did that day he didn’t see it as something special, or something to praise. I then told him that I still envied his ability to defend himself, that having such an ability was better than winning the school lottery — which was a week supply of free cafeteria food. I kept blabbering on for the remainder of the break while he still postured his stare towards the floor until the bell had finally rung. Before getting up I told him that if I could have a super power mine would be invisibility that’s when he turned to me pulling out a small spiral from his back pack writing something down, he then showed me.
“Why?” it read.
I told him that I didn’t like being seen, that if I could I would melt away into the noise, then life would be better he just stared at me with what I could assume was disbelief. He didn’t write anything back, he just remain seated while I stood to my feet. I asked if he was coming back to class but he ignored me and just stared out into space presumably lost in his own thoughts.
For the next several months I would catch Gabriel in the hallways, talk to him about the latest edition of whatever comic I was reading, Superman being my favorite and I would go on and on about how his true super power wasn’t strength but hope. I think he became more comfortable with me, pulling out his spiral notebook to write down his thoughts; his questions and answers — a new gateway of communication had formed between us. Most times I could tell what he was going to write by looking at his eyes, those dark haunting eyes, he was a mysterious book slowly being revealed to me and I was completely beguiled by his friendship. Bryce and his little posse slowly went back to bullying the sheep, though they kept their distance from Gabriel and me.
I guess I had a new protector one that wouldn’t be crossed and something about that protection left me feeling proud. I knew in my heart that the timid kid that now went by “Tape boy” wouldn’t hurt a fly that maybe the day of Tom going crazy was all by chance, perhaps his rage snapped his mind. I tried asking him about that day numerous times but he never explained what happened he would redirect the conversation back to super hero’s. I would walk home with him on certain days, well, more like he would walk me home I never got to see where he lived, he was too reserved to give up that kind of information but the days we would walk together was always fun. I finally felt like I belonged, the longing emotion of needing acceptance was found by his friendship.
One day when I was walking home by myself I decided to stop in at the gas station to pick up a drink and scour the latest edition of comic books in the small rack of magazines. Before entering the store I could hear arguing voices engaging in combative dialogue and it became vividly clear that it was more of a yelling match than conversation. It was coming from the side of the building, most times I would just ignore it but one of the voices sounded all too familiar and I crept slowly to the edge of the building poking my head out to get a glimpse of the disturbance. It was Bryce, his back was up against the wall while someone who I presumed was his father berated him with such a vicious snarl on his face. The angry man kept slapping Bryce across the face anytime he tried to say something and soon tears began drizzling off the face of the mighty bully only for the man to laugh.
I didn’t know why the older man was treating Bryce the way he was, information cut out of my understanding, for all I know it could of been because of something the bully did at school. I found it to be poetic justice that the boy that caused so much heart ache suffered the same amount only at home. It felt like a cliche, the angry kid was angry because of the angry father; a cruel loop of never ending proportions. Eventually the man or father walked away getting back into his car leaving the bully to brush away the tears from his face. I cautiously retreated my head away deciding to ditch the store completely when that same broken voice only minutes ago shouted out to me with a hefty dominance.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Bryce howled out.
I didn’t bother turning around, I just ran home, dodging into alley ways trying my best to not been seen. It didn’t appear as if he was following, but seeing him in such a vulnerable state was bemusing. We were a small town how could I not know who the man was, we all knew each other since we were small and then it hit me; Bryce’s dad had left when he was little. This man must of been his step dad or perhaps mom’s boyfriend, it didn’t matter I was going to mind my own business, I was going to slither back into the shadows; but my attempts would only fall on defeated shoulders.
I didn’t want to tell anyone of what I saw, I hoped that keeping my mouth shut would of been enough for the bully to leave me be. Unfortunately there is no reasoning when it comes to human beings, we base our actions on emotions, our anger and Bryce confronted me the next morning in front of Gabriel.
“Hey fairy, did you enjoy the show?” the angry kid spouted out at me.
I tried explaining to him that I wasn’t trying to intrude, that the arguing concerned me, that I didn’t like seeing him being mistreated and then he punched me right in the gut. I fell to the floor gripping at my stomach, the pain slicing through every fiber of my body. I tried catching my breath but inhaling was too painful and I sheltered my face expecting another punch but the bully walked off leaving me to sweat. Gabriel kneel down to me taking out his spiral notebook writing the obvious question, I gestured to him to give me a moment and I honestly felt like crying. I had spent years doing my best to blend into the background, the invisibility power I was so desperate to have amongst the sheep was now gone; I was on Bryce’s radar.
For the remainder of the school year I tried avoiding the bullies, the monsters that preyed on the sheep but their leader would actively search for me, he was no longer intimidated by Gabriel; his once menacing allure had dwindled and now we both were sitting ducks. Luckily there was only a few weeks left until summer break and I only had hoped that the time off would be enough for the monster of monsters to cool off.
Entering summer was a relief much needed for my sanity, I took a few thrashings but it was over, me and Gabriel had big plans on spending time together. He wasn’t an out door kind of kid, he usually would just come over my place and we would read my comic books. He quickly grew enchanted with the idea of super hero's, their powers restoring balance to the nature of our world. I enjoyed every minute of it, my parents on the other hand looked less jovial to our friendship, they didn’t like the mask; it worried them. They thought that whatever illness he had could be passed on to me, but they didn’t do anything to stop us from seeing each other, they only silently protested.
So after awhile we decided to meet somewhere outdoors, away from my parents judgmental stares, there was a creek close to my house, the trees giving us enough shade to stay cool on those long summer days. The small stream that flowed through the trenches of the creek enriched our view as we would find the perfect rock to perch on while reading our comics. We didn’t see much of any of the other classmates that summer, the sheep kept their distance or maybe it was just us, but the days seem to pass quickly and before we knew it summer was coming to an end. I couldn’t remember how many volumes we must of read but Gabriel was now a fan of almost every super hero. He tend to raise out his arms while walking, mimicking the premise of flying like Superman; his ponderous eyes cutting through the brush as we escaped our secluded summer spot.
It was on the final day of our summer break did I pressure the shy timid boy to explain to me what had happen that day, the day Tom lost his marbles, I needed to know. Gabriel as always tried redirecting the conversation, holding up a comic of Batman, pointing at some dialogue. I got upset, I raised my voice telling him that if we were friends then he should tell me, that there wasn’t secrets between us. His heavy eyes collapsing to the ground, shifting his posture on the rock that we both sat on.
“Look, I just need to know, you’re my best friend” I told him with genuine longing.
The school year was about to start up again and I could already envision a future of slithering through the hallways how I have always done, but with Gabriel maybe that could change. I needed to know and I was done guessing, fantasizing that he was some super hero or at least my hero; my protector. I stood up off the rock walking over to the stream, the sound of water colliding unto the small stones that infested the trench triggered something awful in my gut. I took a deep breath and made my final stand with my best friend.
“If you don’t want to tell me then I’m going home, see ya” I said with impatience dripping off of my words.
Gabriel ignored my warning and continued pointing at the comic book, that’s when I noticed what he was pointing at, it wasn’t dialogue it was one of Batman's villains — he was pointing at Clayface. This made me stop, my minding halting after speeding at 100 miles per hour; it crashing my thoughts.
“Yeah, what about Clayface?” I curiously asked with a withered and tired voice.
That’s when his pointer finger was no longer on the page but rather it was pointed towards his mouth; the mouth that was hidden behind his mask. He could see my face drop with sadness, whatever disfigurement he had underneath that horrid black duct tape must of been something like the villain from the comic and my heart broke for him. Gabriel’s eyes gleaming with absolute sorrow, the boy that only wanted to be left alone, the person all the others feared just wanted solitude and here I was badgering him to no end about something so insignificant. We stared at each other for several seconds, our eyes meeting in some altered state and I reached my hand up to his face tenderly taking off his mask. There it was, the black duct tape that resembled a grin, a nightmarish one that could only been seen in some horror movie. I then placed my fingers on the edge of the tape, my cold grip causing him to shiver and I slowly began to remove it.
“What the hell are you fairy’s doing?” a voice called out from the brush, one that sank my heart into my stomach.
I turned trying to locate the voice and sure enough there he was, the bully that had tortured so many for so many years — it was Bryce. His body slowly revealing itself from the brush like some despicable ooze frothing from the depths of hell. Though, something about him was different, his cold stare no longer fictitious but more intimidating and as his body fully emerged did I see the blood trickling down his soaked stain shirt. He was covered in the crimson fluid, there was even some on his cheeks almost as he had some open wound and smeared the remnants of it on his face. The devilish grin that bestowed his bruised and beaten face quickly led me to a conclusion; one that I wish I didn’t conclude. A purplish black infested the out layer of his left eye, it practically closed shut and his nose had been bent to a unsightly angle. I started to whimper as my lips trembled from fright because this Bryce was not the same one that had given us wedgies or swirlies this one was a true monster, a beast that devoured souls. His gaze was enough to display a vacancy of any humanity and my eyes crawled down his arm into his hand to see the black pistol that he firmly gripped.
“Uh, Bryce what happened? Are you okay?” I groaned out while sniffling.
He didn’t answer, he just kept grinning at me, the ghastly smile that stretched ear from ear plagued my vision and I knew that he had done it, that he had hurt someone badly. I was terrified and in the moment I had completely forgotten about Gabriel, my tunnel vision only focused on that firearm.
“Where the hell did the other one go?” the monster asked, I turned and realized Gabriel in fact had run away leaving me behind.
I wanted to run, I wanted to flee while screaming but horror kept me in place and I felt like some dear trapped in headlights contemplating my entire life in mere seconds.
“Everyone always messes with me!” Bryce yelled out with such ferociousness.
There was no talking my way out of this one, no pleading, I knew in that moment he was going to kill me; his rage over flowing to the point of lunacy. He quickly pounced dropping me to the floor, screaming with madness and he repeatedly hit me over the head with the but of the gun causing me to see stars. His words became incoherent sounding like muffled tones that slushed it’s way into my hearing, I shook my head trying to collect myself, just maybe I could figure a way out of this but as soon as my vision corrected itself Bryce would strike me another time causing it to blur once again. I fell into a darkness, my world collapsing into an eternal void of loneliness as my body began to float effortlessly but as soon as I thought this was my final moments flashes of Gabriel flooded into my mind awakening me out of whatever slumber I found myself in. That’s when I realized Bryce was no longer hitting me, instead he was talking to someone and as I grabbed at my head trying to steady my balance I saw it was Gabriel standing still head as always tilted downwards.
Bryce confronted him pointing his 9mm directly at his head yelling, screaming at the top of his lungs but my best friend remained unmoved, just quiet and then he slowly removed his mask. This caused Bryce to pause, his tone weaken and I think for the first time he digested if he should proceed doing what he was doing.
“What are you doing freak?” the bully yelped out.
Gabriel remained quiet, eyes still directed towards the floor, his breathing escalating; I could see his chest pump more vigorously with each passing second. With the mask off me and Bryce could see the bewildering black duct tape strapped to his face, Gabriel’s face began to tremble violently as if he was trying to yell through the bondage. He then finally began to peel of the thick layer of black duct tape and it came off with a wicked screech as I could see my friends eyes squint with pain.
Bryce was no longer pointing the gun at Gabriel, no longer was he even saying a word his arm lowered to his side and both him and I stared on with amazement. What was under the tape was layers of skin, twisting and binding to each other like some thriving organism living it’s own life on Gabriel's face. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t say anything I was in shock and my head still throb from pain. Then Gabriel's mouth — if you want to call it that — began to stretch open, he tilted his head backwards while the mountain of dead flesh started to drip down his face allowing some endless void to open up inside of him. I could hear the cracking of bones breaking, his jaw shifting to accommodate the massive hole that was now his mouth and then horrid dwindling fingers began to protrude from the darkness.
My mouth gaped open with trepidation and if I had the ability to adjust my head I would think Bryce had the same facial expression. Then a grotesque head forced it’s way out of my friends mouth revealing a face that could only exist in the realms of the dead, this new creature having two large almond shape eyes; eyes that looked very similar to the ones that were attached to my friend. This ‘thing’ then stared at Bryce, that’s all it did, no words were spoken no violence was created it just stared at him and soon the bully grasped at his face and began to yell. He ran frantically in different directions, his gun firing out into the tree line, I jumped for cover; falling to the floor sheltering my head with my arms. Bryce’s terrified screams caused my stomach to turn and soon those dire cries stopped along with the gunshots.
I must of stayed on the floor for what felt like hours, too scared to rise to my feet and through my peripheral did I see the sun begin to set plunging the small creak into darkness. I eventually mustered up enough courage to get up and I looked around, Bryce was mere feet away from me, he lay still on the floor blood spewing out of his head; it appeared as if had shot himself. I walked over to his body befuddled of what to do I then remembered Gabriel, I turned to look for him but he was gone it was only me and Bryce's dead corpse. I ran home telling my parents about everything, of the encounter I experienced, at first it seemed as if they didn’t believe me but they still phoned for the police.
I led them to the creek to the bullies dead body, I initially thought perhaps they would blame me, connect me to his death but the police believed me; well the believed me about Bryce but not about Gabriel. They told me that Bryce had killed his step father, apparently they had gotten into some altercation and afterwards he went into his mothers bedroom and shot her to death. They told me that the once bully was a disturbed individual, suffering abuse for many years; that I was lucky to escape from his wrath. I told them that they needed to find my friend I wanted to know if he was okay, but all the officers could do was pat my back with sympathy trying to relax me.
It has almost been 30 years since the event, I still have nightmares of what had happened, I see the dead stare Bryce had while pointing his pistol at me, I see him repeatedly hitting me over the head again and again. Though, what still haunts me more is Gabriel's mouth contorting into that horrid shape revealing the creature that lived inside of him. He was never found, I’m pretty sure he moved on to another city, another place where bullies like Bryce tormented their schools and I could only imagine Gabriel was there to balance the wrongs of the world. I am scared of my best friend, but I know at the same time he is my protector; my super hero, he is out there doing good, I can feel it and I hope he can sense my love for him. Maybe we will never meet again, perhaps it’s not written in the stars for us to reunite but one thing is for sure, I get comic books mailed to me randomly every month; most are of Superman and I know exactly who they are from.

Hi there!
Disclaimer: this is a very long post. If you read all of it, I appreciate it endlessly! 🥹
After taking a break that has lasted way too long, I have decided to return to writing with my usual enthusiasm and am looking for an equally eager, literate and detailed, male (24+) partner.
My name is Elise, I am twenty-five and have been roleplaying for countless years now. I love creating stories that keep my partner and me on the edge of our seats, as well as inventing characters that find new layers of themselves throughout the journey. I consider myself a literate and write in third person, past tense on Discord. I live in the GMT+2 timezone, however I want to mention that I have been living with insomnia for years now, so I am incredibly flexible when it comes to the hours I am able to write.
For the longest time, mafia and crime settings have been my favorite! (I blame it on the countless dark romance books I have read.😝 ) I love having two dark and complex characters with backstories that influence their beings meet and let the fire start. Morally grey characters that sometimes do not make the best decisions have a special place in my heart, lmao. Also, I think that the combination of crime and romance can be incredibly interesting. It offers countless opportunities for the story to unfold and tropes to make use of.
For the longest time, I have had a specific setting in mind. It includes a young, woman who does not believe in love and has fingers that like to dip into other people's pockets meeting a stern and power hungry man who is involved in the world of crime.
Down below, you can find the starter. If you happen to be interested, please feel free to shoot me a message with an introduction of yourself and perhaps even any ideas you would like to incorporate. I would appreciate a bit of an effort, instead of the generic 'hey, wanna rp?' Merci!
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"Correct. I have just landed and had to check your boutique out. I have read such good things about it." Gianna lied effortlessly to the friendly sales lady. Part of the brunette even felt sorry for her, considering the fact that this was about to turn into one of the worst days she would have at her job. The young woman had really just landed from Los Angeles, quickly having come to the realization that her summer wardrobe was awfully out of place in snowy New York in the middle of December. "I'll try these dresses on as well. This sweater and this skirt look amazing, too.“ She added, knowing she had to bring a pile to the changing room, so the saleswoman would not notice some pieces being missing right away. The poor employee had been told some bullshit story about Gianna having come to the city that never sleeps with her boyfriend and assuming he was going to propose, she needed to look good at all times.
Minutes later, she found herself stood inside the spacious changing room, having managed to sneak her suitcase inside with her. Opening it, she quickly knelt down and stuffed a few of the things inside. First came the jacket, it was freezing outside. Then the skirt, sweater and another dress. The rest of the pile remained hung up. "I will be right back!" The saleswoman announced from the other side of the door, as the store's phone rang. Gianna heard her footsteps grow more and more distant, before quietly opening the door. Perfect. She was gone. Instead of rolling her suitcase behind her and making noise, she quickly lifted it, groaning internally at the weight of it. With quick steps and quite as a mouse she then made her way out of the store. She did not even have to run, the woman was busy with the phone on the other side of the store. Gianna was lucky, she knew that. She always was.
She smiled triumphantly to herself as she quickly turned a corner outside, knowing it was only a matter of time, until her absence would be noticed. After walking for around fifteen minutes, she spotted a public bathroom and quickly got inside to get changed. Ignoring the more than disgusting scent inside, Gianna got out of her jeans and thin sweater, before putting on the dress and the coat she had just stolen. Admittedly, it did look good on her. The dress was black and strapless, exposing her delicate shoulders and neck. It reached her knees and hugged her body. Her legs were elongated by a pair of heels she had snatched on the way out. The black coat fit perfectly, no one would assume the brunette did not even have a place to sleep.
Neither would anyone assume she had lit an entire casino on fire thirteen hours ago. By now, it was almost eight pm and Gianna took confident steps through the streets of New York, as if she belonged to the Upper East Side and nowhere else. Finally, she reached her destination. Tilting her head, she glanced up at a bright colored sign above an expensive looking bar. From the outside, it was almost impossible to look through the windows, but considering the way guests stepping inside were dressed, it had to be a somewhat upscale establishment. She neared the bodyguards controlling the entrance who at first seemed unsure about her, mustering her petite frame and the suitcase up and down.
"Come on, gentlemen. I am freezing." The brunette smiled softly and batted her eyelashes in an innocent matter at them. She was not wearing any makeup, but the look on her face apparently seemed to be enough for them to let her in. With a polite nod, she stepped inside. Gianna had visited a lot of upscale establishments in her twenty-six years of living, but this..this truly was something else. Everything was held in dark colors, the bar, the interior. It all dripped in exclusiveness, letting her know she was exactly where she wanted to be.
She sat down at the bar on one of the high stools and crossed her slim legs, with her suitcase beside her. Still wearing her coat, she glanced around. Several men were here already, some in groups and some on their own. Some had rings on their left finger and some had not. However, Gianna knew it did not mean a thing. Manipulating married men was even easier, since they were up for every thrill. Except, Gianna was not a thrill. She was not some fun for one night. Instead, she was good company, being able to giggle and talk for hours, until her companion was blacked out, or simply too intoxicated to notice her slipping her long and slim fingers into their pockets and taking out what she had wanted all along; their wallet. Perhaps a watch, too. Whatever she could get.
With every married man that fell into her trap, Gianna felt more and more discouraged about trusting any male. It had destroyed her illusion of faithfulness completely. Her gaze landed on the man to her right. He was younger than the rest, but older than her. Admittedly, he was handsome. And he was not wearing a ring. However, there was one problem: He was not looking, unlike the other creeps. Letting her coat glide down her shoulders, she exposed her bare skin, without looking at her right anymore, hoping the somewhat seductive gesture would be enough to get his attention. When the bartender asked what she would like to drink, she gave him a small smile. "An old fashioned, please." She answered, knowing very well she did not have an ounce of cash on her. Surely, someone to pay her bill could be found tonight.

A typical debate between a libertarian and a Marxist would go around the labor theory of value, exploitation of labor, surplus value, thought experiment of the property monster on an island, monopolies, the economic calculation problem, and so on. You have probably watched dozens of such debates, read thousands of comment threads, etc. However, all of this, although technically correct, is missing the big picture. Namely, that all of these arguments are simply an artificial facade behind which Marxists hide their real motivations.
I will explain the Marxist trap and how you can escape it with a much clearer argument against their gaslighting.
Now, imagine for the sake of an abstract thought experiment if an average person, who has never been interested in politics, starts watching one of those debates (where the libertarian takes the Marxist arguments at face value). What would he or she see? They would actually perceive the Marxist as a reasonable person and you as someone who is gaslighting the public (unlike what you might expect). Why? In real life, many (if not most) people have had bad experiences with their employers, many people silently hate their managers, they struggle to pay their bills, they live from salary to salary, and they have never interacted with the market themselves (i.e., they have never been an entrepreneur or investor). Marxists often mock libertarians by saying - yeah sure, you could just become a millionaire, you just choose to be a struggling employee. It does resonate with the general public.
However, there is a much sharper argument against Marxism. Namely, they gaslight people about the exploitation of labor by capitalists and, according them, to free themselves from this exploitation, all workers have to become ...... employees of the ultimate monopolist agency, (i.e., the state), which will have the ultimate and final say in all matters (and have all the guns to enforce its final say). Again, they do not like many employers because, according to their theory, the market will eventually be completely monopolized by capitalists (sometimes in a theoretical future), and hence, ...... let's all be employees of the ultimate monopoly (making a full circle!).
That's not all, they claim that you are theoretically forced to work as an employee under capitalism, hence, ...... let their ultimate employer (i.e., the state) actually force you to work:

Soviet law "On Intensification of the Struggle against Persons who avoid Socially Useful Work and lead an Anti-social Parasitic Way of Life" which criminalized parasitism entered into force. Those who refused to work were critiqued as "able-bodied citizens who refuse to fulfill their important constitutional duty - to perform honest work to the best of their ability".

And even that's not all, they claim that under capitalism, you struggle to find another job so your boss constantly underpays you, and hence, ...... let their ultimate employer (i.e., the state) actually force you to stay (e.g., exit visa, propiska which limited even internal emigration).
So Marxism is so absurd that they go to very great lengths criticizing capitalism ...... only to implement what they, themselves, criticized but on steroids! (making a full circle!)
So the real reason why they came up with all of this lengthy nonsense (e.g. labor theory of value etc) is to conceal the fact that it's ideology of crabs (i.e. crab mentality):

If I can't have it, neither can you.
The analogous theory in human behavior is that members of a group will attempt to reduce the self-confidence of any member who achieves success beyond others, out of envy, jealousy, resentment, spite, conspiracy, or competitive feelings, in order to halt their progress even though there are no benefits associated.

That's it, Marxism never been about any labor theory of value nonsense in the first place.

Ever since origin the story to assassins creed has been ass in my opinion . I still like how our companions were figures of history from cleopatra, to rangars sons, to socrates. We were a unknown factor in a somewhat known history.
But we never played a character whos name was in history, even just briefly. There is no guy name ezio, altiar, desmond miles, cassandra.
But there is a yasuke. Ill come back to this guy
The other part i miss and not happy about is the detail to the world that kept us grounded. Remember when people can uses assassin creed to learn about historical places. They took their time to even make a tourist mode where you can tour ride egypt and to learn about the historical relevance of an architectural wonder. Now they cant tell Chinese architecture from Japanese architecture. Which makes me think that the cities are going to feel inorganic.
I dont mind they lean into fictional beast like the sphinx . The first game you get the eden of apple and make people kill them selves that pretty fantastical. Christian religion doesnt have alot of lore creatures like greek or egyptians or norse where you can fight god like creatures. So it was pretty fine to dip into that part of fantasy. While still keeping the story connected to some history.
But now they said to hell with some historical accuracy and our story we have been creating.
In come yasuke. Cassandra and eivor are reincarnation of the isu if i remember correctly. So their fantasy makes sense. But yasuke though not mired in literature but still known enough between anyone that has done any research on sengoku period(lets be honest most gamers either think about rome/greek or sengoku Japan more often than we like to admit.: no wonder we want a good samurai/viking/ninja/warrior like games: i know for honor…but they know they aint historically accurate and never aimed for that).
This means we are no longer playing with someone who is just following a story where their life mixes with our history to tell a fictional story.
Now we will be playing a person who will inevitably create their own history. Which means they will have to fuck up the historical accuracy of japans story. Up until now ubisoft had been good enough to give each culture a pretty fair historical fictional representation. The tv series shogun does a good job in this.
So yah ubisoft fucked up. Their city building is no longer on par with Rome, England, London, Istanbul, Egypt. So why do i want to play Chinese japan. Their character building is trash. I miss my boys ezio, connor, and kenway. Ezio got the most love since he did have the longest story. Their character designs are for checking boxes which means their story. Dont get me wrong their story was never grammy writing but they made sense to their time period, to their people, and to the history.
Yasuke is the opposite of all this. No respect. ✊
For one a vassal can be a concubine, consort, a parent,in law, a good friend, or even a court jester. So not all vassal were samurai or even had the same rank.
Thats what yasuke was to oda. But ubisoft cant say that because of race. He was an umbrella and sword carrier. So their story has to find away of making yasuke a samurai without disrespecting japanese culture but they cant. But they will also have to find away to explain why yasuke is there without calling him a slave and saying japanese people were slave owners for political reason(s/only americans has slave.) so they are disingenuous to japanese culture, they are disingenuous to yasukes historically back ground, they are also making it okay for one guy to kill a ton of other people from a different race. But had this been the shows on the other foot. Japanese enslaving blacks and other asian cultures this would be bad.
So yah ubisoft yall fucked up. And whoever started the franchise and held it together no longer exists and for that the story will inevitably suffer.
Itll spend too much time trying to rewrite history instead of making a game about assassin and templar fighting through the history we knew.
Thats to me what made assassin creed wildly fun to follow and the game play was for me always fun to play.
As a history lover it was fun to see how ubisoft intertwines histroy with fiction. Now they are just making fiction with historical characters but still trying to keep the continuity of all the older games as well. This doesnt work because the other games were more grounded in real locations as well as keeping history some what intact.
Ubisoft and most companies we loved are not held up by the same devs that made the games we loved. This is why game ips die. It as if jk rolling wrote the harry potter 1-3 and then some rando makes 4-7. It just doesnt usually work well if the old author doesnt help the new author.well rant over . Screw ubisoft.

First, an unnecessarily premature and under-suppored prediction (running with scissors): One state of what we call "depression" is an "over-empathy" condition caused by cerebellar map contributions overwhelming the "central" map. I'm still working on a better description for "empathy", so for the time being lets tentatively call it a "social prediction map".
Generally, "depression" isn't a mechanical issue at all, it's working exactly as it should to modify systemic level behavior in response to socio-environmental inputs. The correct "treatment" for it is to change the inputs (it's really weird how much cleaner behavior becomes without "free will").
For individuals with intractable depression which is unresponsive to environment, there will always be a specific functional group that is "stuck" in dorsal/ventral bias that's mucking this up, and we are getting close to the point where we can image this more consistently. For example, full blown impaired salience flavors of "depression" are likely habenular weighting issues, which are crushing out the map "calcs" along the Hab->Interpeduncular->Tegemental nuclei circuits, resulting either a "blow-out" or "full suppression" condition of the ventral side. The results of this seem consistent with a lot of "mental health" symptomology, a "blow out" results in psychosis like symptoms, a "full suppression" runs the other way all the way down to types of catatonia. It also might be a little to convenient/confirmation biasish that the ponto-cerebellar pathway is so important to physical behavior extensions of salient pulses.
There are other flavors of depression (for example, any functional module with a "interal/external", "dorsal/ventral", "medial/lateral" histological differentiation can probably create it's own "type" or contribution) but the type we are most "conscious" of, the one we "feel" the most is usually that social map overexpression since those are almost pure prediction and need to be constantly compared and updated.
Okay, second part of the post - I can't help seeing our "behavioral" systems (across all nervous system types) as this core "midbrain/red nuclei" processing type initially which is relatively "simple" but still amazingly flexible. For example, most speech in humans is probably an artifact of brainstem circuits exclusively, and I'm pretty confident human children use these same circuits up until about two years old to produce speech.
Just got a jolt of self-awareness that I'm attempting to overexplain the context before getting to the point, because if you had the context the point would present itself in the data right? Slap my wrist on this one.
The point of the innies vs. outies is that nervous system behavior has been, for nearly all vertebrates been dominated by processing circuits connected directly to the central brainstem (if we are weird and consider the brainstem to be everything up to the thalamus as the cap). Some vertebrate nervous systems have developed more complex "off brainstem" processing capability. For humans specifically, this "off brainstem" development has been a crucial part of our differentiation, both among homo as a group compared to other hominids, but among homo itself. For humans, we are still "evolving" the capacity and flexibility of this "off brainstem" capability.
Tying back to the first point, most "mental health" issues might actually be better described as the teething pain of this integration between our archaic "inner" brainstem primary systems and our much higher resolution "off-brainstem" systems.
Using our "autism" model, if we imagine nearly all the symptomology as a mating issue between brainstem centric circuits and the off-brainstem circuits, IMO we get a pretty clean set of symptomatic outputs when things go "wrong". I think it might even be appropriate to genericize "autism" itself into a "inner v. outer" integration issue (either systemically, or between specific functional groupings).
It's my prediction that the "homo-technius" flavor of humans is "evolving" toward an increasingly higher integration state, one which will essentially result in most brainstem control circuits becoming almost as vestigal as the red nucleus is in humans.
Does this make sense? Please ask questions.

This is a topic I’ve always wanted to comment on, because of how intriguing it is. Indian fans are the only people in the world who will troll a player who wears the Indian team jersey and walks out on the field to play for INDIA. It’s understandable if you hate other nation players, but when it comes to your our nation I don’t understand how you can. While I understand IPL creates fanbases and division, that doesn’t mean you can hate every other player. People will call players names/abuse them and their families or whatever other abuse they can hurl to any player; yet they still play for India and win them games. Is it really that hard to appreciate someone who brings you entertainment and brings your team success. There’s nothing wrong in having a favourite player, but that doesn’t warrant to trash talking every other player. Especially with instagram comments. This has become almost a mandatory ritual where it’s compulsory to hurl abuse at a player either because they had a bad day out, or they thrashed your team. This generally happens with IPL matches. Why won’t you appreciate the fact that an Indian player has performed well, and do you not hope he can do the same for India. Do you also not think that it’s normal for a player to not perform on some days. Hate towards people like Kohli, Dhoni, Rohit and other greats of India is disappointing. Suddenly you forget their contribution for India. You either troll them all the time, because you idolise one of them, so you must hate the others, or you’ll troll them mercilessly in the IPL and then pray and cry they win every match for India. And when they don’t perform, you go back to merciless trolling and in some instances when they do perform you’ll still find something to troll them about. ‘Kohli 1 run in World Cup semifinal, KL 1 run, Rohit 1 run’ the same Kohli, Kl and Rohit scored runs in the 2019 WC to even get India to the semis, and the ‘Dhoni strike rate’ is the same guy who finished matches for India. Learn to appreciate, because it’s not easy to step out on a cricket field knowing 1b+ people are watching and judging you. Criticism is fine. Constructive cricism that highlights an underperforming player, poor technique, attitude is fine. But trolling and abusing is not criticism. Experts and pundits of the game scrutinise and criticise players, because at the end of the day this is competitive sport, and in a nation of 1 billion cricket players, you have to be the absolute best to play for India. There have been some absolute bests, but also there’s been poor performers, who have played for India, but they’re not capable of competing at this level. That doesn’t mean abuse them, they’re just not cut out to play for India. The same goes for abuse anyone else. People that have performed get abused. They don’t score runs, abuse them, they do score runs, abuse them by bringing up their past failures. These are the same players your cheer for and pray they take your team over the line. Toxic fan wars and cults have tarnished Indian fans. Some people are dedicated to hate a player, no matter how well they perform. Just because they don’t play for your IPL team, or they do things you don’t like, at the end of the day, they play for India, they lose with India, they win with India, all for our entertainment. Just appreciate the players that wear the Indian jersey. You can love Kohli and not hate Rohit or Dhoni, you can love Rohit without hating Kohli or Dhoni and you can love Dhoni without hating Rohit or Kohli, you can love any player without hating the other. Toxic fan wars and cults is what creates division and keyboard warriors and abusers. I still don’t ever understand why Indian cricketers get hate. I am a Dhoni fan, but why does Virat get so much hate. Rohit gets so much hate as well. Did everyone forget what these people have done. No doubt if Sachin played in this era, he would’ve been abused. IPL is a competition, cheer for your team, cheer for your player. If a player doesn’t perform, they’ll know they’re not performing, hurling abuse in their instagram comments does nothing, apart from appease your satisfaction. If they don’t perform, you can constructively criticise and point out that they are struggling or are not fit to play at this level. You don’t need to compare them with X and Y and abuse them. They play for your entertainment, they play for your nation. Support them in their highs and don’t abuse them in their lows, the best players comeback and we’ve seen that. Don’t claim yourself as a cricket fan if you feel happy abusing your nations own players.
Sorry for the rant, just wanted to get all my thoughts out

Recently there has been a lot of posts arguing about the name of the novel name now being useless that Sunny is not a slave anymore.
In my opinion you guys have it all wrong. The novels name doesn’t refer to Sunny’s aspects name. What you guys are missing is that what this story is about.
The main topic of Shadow Slave has never been about how strong anyone is was nor what happened to the dream realm etc. Shadow Slave is a story about an unlucky kid of humble upbringing trying to win his own war against fate.
The “Shadow” in the title refers to Sunny, an unknown kid with no outstanding qualities (so effectively coming from shadows) yet reaching such heights and “Slave” stands for him being a slave to fate.
Fate not only controlled and made a huge portion of his life miserable figuratively and (after the Forgotten Shore) literally enslaving even if it was through Nephis.
Now that he has lost his fate he thought that he was free but he saw that he was fully forgotten and will try and get it back. We can further solidify his will to get his fate back and his regret by his future self being back at the Estuary and telling his past self to stop.
In addition as some people has stated he seems to have been fated to lose his fate and become [Fateless] then to later regain it, effectively still making him a slave.
TLDR: The title of the novel isn’t rendered useless as it isn’t about his aspect but about him fighting his enslavement from fate and that isn’t even fully gone with [Fateless].

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For this roleplay, I am thinking of two distinct but connected options - depending on which specific theme you are looking for. Read below for details on each!
RESTRICTED GAMMA // NOT APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE BY THE DIRECTORATE
ASSET: AN - 4789
DATE: 2.18.2107
CURRENT DIVISION: OPERATIONS
CURRENT TEAM: DEEP COVER TEAM
You are hereby reassigned to the DEEP COVER (DCT) team within the OPERATIONS BRANCH (OPs).
You are to report to your new handler, AN - 2364, immediately for tasking.
Details of your reassignment will be provided after current assignment debriefing with AN - 2364.
RESTRICTED GAMMA // NOT APPROVED FOR RELEASE BY THE DIRECTORATE
For this roleplay, you are a member of an interstellar clandestine organization called The Directorate.
You may have already had an illustrious career within the organization, or perhaps you are about to be given your first real assignment. You get to decide!
The plot of this roleplay focuses on the investigation into a criminal organization called the Kidari Syndicate.
Your character will need to operate as they see fit, working to infiltrate, sabotage, misdirect, or even play double-agent with the Kidari Syndicate.
If you are interested in intrigue, thrillers or mystery roleplays - this is a great option!
Make no mistake though, this roleplay will be grand in scope - with your character potentially influencing way more than just the Syndicate itself through their actions.

Seeking entrepreneurial minds, brave souls, or affluent investors!
Kidari Enterprises is seeking to expand its roster of exceptional employees and benefactors.
For those interested, interviews will be conducted at the Higari Corporate Megatower - Floor 89, Suite 103.
Looking forward to introducing the best to our organization.
For this roleplay, you are an aspiring member of an interstellar enterprise called “Kidari Enterprises” - though the company itself is really just a front for the Kidari Syndicate.
You may be a visionary, someone who joins the organization hoping to do great things in their career only to be led down a much more sinister path. Or, you are a well networked mercenary who knows exactly what the organization stands for - and you just want in on the profit. The possibilities are pretty open!
The plot of this roleplay focuses on the character’s entrance, either knowingly or unknowingly, into a large criminal organization.
Your character will need to climb the “corporate ladder”, to impress the criminal bosses who run the day to day operations of the Syndicate. One day, they may even become a boss themselves, or they could turn tail and try to run with all their newly acquired dangerous knowledge.
If you are interested in dark, gritty, sometimes evil roleplays - this is a great option!
Make no mistake though, this roleplay will be grand in scope - with your character potentially influencing way more than just the Syndicate itself through their actions.

Hi there! My name is Sean and I have been roleplaying for probably close to 15 years now. I am 26 by the way! I got started with text-based roleplay while playing Runescape when I was (probably) way too young... Since then, I've had many different partners over the years. I've even created and ran a Discord group RP server that had around 30 members at its peak - but that just got to be way too much for me to deal with... Having a full time job made it extremely difficult, even with staff members!
Even though I had to leave that server behind, I still love diving into in depth roleplays with enthusiastic people. My ideal partner would enjoy collaborative worldbuilding, slow burn, intrigue and epic tales. As a Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master in real life, I have no problem creating various NPCs as the story unfolds, but I also love when my partner is comfortable doing the same - after all, I find most amazing roleplays have truly grand scope and scale and will more than likely involve more than just our main characters.
If you are interested in the options above, and made it this far - first off, congratulations! Feel free to send me a message in whatever way you feel comfortable. If you’d like to introduce yourself personally, that works. If you want to come up with a starting scene for the roleplay - go for it! I look forward to hearing from you!

About

The goblins from the Village of Gob are waking up clean every morning, and this has directly impacted the local market for the worst and a great danger emerges from the woods putting pressure to fix Gob's mystery. However, this is only the beginning of a 3 session adventure that uncovers a tragic conspiracy.

What You Get For Playtesting

• Your name will be added to the list of playtesters in the credits page on the final version of the book.
• A copy of the playtest material used to keep
• A PDF of the adventure run for the playtest after the last session

Playtest Content

We will be playtesting three ancestries that were made for the Pratalia setting. The goal with this playtest is to see how the ancestries function mechanically in-game and get feedback on the lore and roleplay for them.
🐸 Roog

Frogs that can jump very far, mastered the art of calming one's mind, and have a weakness to psychic energies and emotional disturbances

🦋 Orphaned

Celestial moth-like beings that master the fine arts and have a very naïve and curious demeanor

🐱‍🚀Noblins

Hairless Cat like beings that like to live life to the max, live chaotically, and have a penchant to overdo it "just a tad"

​

Game Details

• Players: 4-6
• Played Using: Foundry, Discord Voice Channels
• Adventure Length: 2-3 hour sessions, 3 total sessions, same time weekly
• Cost To Play & Ways To Save $
  • Cost: $12 per session ($36 total)
  • Early Bird: First 2 players that sign-up for any group get Half-Off the first session
  • Bring A Friend: Sign-up with up friends and you and your friends reduce the price per session by $3 (Saves $9) (This does stack with Early Bird)
  • Free $10 Towards Your First Game: If you never made an account on StartPlayingGames, you can use this referral link to get a free $10 that you can immediately use towards these games
    • https://startplaying.games/referral/cl710ephv7978109iegq1bdu4m

GROUP TIMES AND SPG LINKS

There are 6 groups that people can join to play. Below is when the first session starts for each group. Sessions 2 and 3 are on the same day and time each week.
Group 1: Wednesday May 22 8PM EST 1 EARLY BIRD SEAT AVAILABLE!
Seats Filled: 1 out 6
SPG Listing: https://startplaying.games/adventure/clw614ptv001tg1r0ati6w2kn
​
Group 2: Thursday May 23 8PM EST
Seats Filled: 2 out 6
SPG Listing: https://startplaying.games/adventure/clw617x5i00038yd5fxj4x4r8
​
Group 3: Friday May 24 2PM EST
Seats Filled: 2 out 6
SPG Listing: https://startplaying.games/adventure/clw618ty50003mz3nln48qjuu
​
Group 4: Friday May 24 8PM EST 2 EARLY BIRD SEATS AVAILABLE!
Seats Filled: 0 out 6
SPG Listing: https://startplaying.games/adventure/clw619mly005i8zr30m94vkxe
​
Group 5: Saturday May 25 2PM EST 2 EARLY BIRD SEATS AVAILABLE!
Seats Filled: 0 out 6
SPG Listing: https://startplaying.games/adventure/clw61ad8a000x3754vi2xbfue
​
Group 6: Saturday May 25 8PM EST TWITCH STREAMED GAME
Seats Filled: 2 out 6
SPG Listing: https://startplaying.games/adventure/clw61b654004lidjceukus48y

I have a Python script that generates hashes for strings and writes them to individual text files based on the first characters of the hash. However, the script is running extremely slowly, barely writing 0.1MB of data every half a minute.
Here's the code snippet:

import hashlib import os import sys import time # Set the interval for saving progress (in seconds) SAVE_INTERVAL = 60 # Save progress every minute BUFFER_SIZE = 10000 # Number of hashes to buffer before writing to file def generate_hash(string): return hashlib.sha256(string.encode()).hexdigest() def compress_hash(hash_value): return hash_value[6] + hash_value[13] + hash_value[20] + hash_value[27] def create_directory_structure(base_path): for i in range(256): folder_name = f"{i:02x}" os.makedirs(os.path.join(base_path, folder_name), exist_ok=True) def write_hashes_to_file(start_length, base_path): buffer = [] # Buffer to store generated hashes last_save_time = time.time() # Store the last save time for generated_string in generate_strings_and_hashes(start_length): full_hash = generate_hash(generated_string) compressed_hash = compress_hash(full_hash) buffer.append((compressed_hash, generated_string)) if len(buffer) >= BUFFER_SIZE: save_buffer_to_files(buffer, base_path) buffer = [] # Clear the buffer after writing to file # Check if it's time to save progress if time.time() - last_save_time >= SAVE_INTERVAL: print("Saving progress...") save_buffer_to_files(buffer, base_path) # Save any remaining hashes in buffer buffer = [] # Clear buffer after saving last_save_time = time.time() # Save any remaining hashes in buffer if buffer: save_buffer_to_files(buffer, base_path) def save_buffer_to_files(buffer, base_path): for compressed_hash, generated_string in buffer: folder_name = compressed_hash[:2] file_name = f"{compressed_hash}.txt" folder_path = os.path.join(base_path, folder_name) file_path = os.path.join(folder_path, file_name) with open(file_path, "a") as output_file: output_file.write(f"{generated_string}\n") def generate_strings_and_hashes(start_length): for length in range(start_length, sys.maxsize): # Use sys.maxsize to simulate infinity current_string = [' '] * length # Initialize with spaces while True: yield ''.join(current_string) if current_string == ['z'] * length: # Stop when all characters reach 'z' break current_string = increment_string(current_string) def increment_string(string_list): index = len(string_list) - 1 while index >= 0: if string_list[index] == 'z': string_list[index] = ' ' index -= 1 else: string_list[index] = chr(ord(string_list[index]) + 1) break if index < 0: string_list.insert(0, ' ') return string_list def load_progress(): # You may not need this function anymore return 1 # Just return a default value if __name__ == "__main__": base_path = "hashes_directory" create_directory_structure(base_path) write_hashes_to_file(load_progress(), base_path) 

Any suggestions on how to improve the performance of this script would be greatly appreciated.

I (f 30) am the youngest of two. My older sister (f 36) lives in the same state but a few hours away. She never came home after college because she was in a relationship. When we were younger she was a total mother's girlie girl and I was a daddy's girl. With that dynamic you can conclude that me and mom (f 55) weren't very close back then. When my sister went to college and it was just me and mom, we clashed all the time. I couldn't wait to go to college and be free. Unlike my sister, when i graduated from college I went back home and lived with my mom. While in school she found out she had cancer and I realized how important she was to me, during the summer I would take care of her. I became super protective because my dad (m 60) had died the second part of my freshman year. I guess realizing you only get one dad and mom did something to me and our relationship changed. Strangely, while in college I transformed into a girlie girl with all female roommates that treated me like a toy by dressing me up and taking me to parties. So, when I came home I started working right away. Had some messy relationships and crappy jobs, but my mom always supported me. From what I seen my mom and sister were still close, even with the distance. When Shawn would come home her and mom hung out, sometimes she would stay with us, sometimes not but they talked often. Note, I don't know if it was the age difference or what but me and my sister never got along. Somewhere in my 20's I realized that we were never going to be "those sisters" and called it for what it was. We are blood, but not friends, and I know if we weren't related we would never befriends on purpose. Don't get me wrong, I love her and if Shawn was hurt or in trouble I would help her but for now, for my mom's sake I talk to her on major holiday's and important family matters, but not to just catch up or anything. I honestly don't care. Sadly, if other family member didn't ask "how is your sister", I could probably go years without thinking about her. Anyways, it started off slow, like Shawn would come to town not stay with us, then she would come to town and not reach out until she was leaving, and then we wouldn't know she was in town at all unless she called my grandmother or posted something on social media in a familiar place. It was weird because they would always link up. Shawn loves mom's cooking and would come home just for that. Mom would go visit her and go to work events with Shawn, at the last one mom said they got into an argument because she was tired from driving 5 hours, going to the event without a nap and being on her feet all night. After the event mom just wanted to go back to Shawn's apartment and rest, but there was an after party she wanted to go to. Not wanted to go to the after party mom just wanted her to walk her back to the apartment and then Shawn could go. Shawn wanted mom to go with her and said they wouldn't be there long, but mom was tired. She was trying to convince her that she would only stay for 30 minutes, but we both know when Shawn is in a room she will talk to everyone and 30 minutes could turn into 3 hours real quick. When mom put her foot down and asked her to take her home Shawn got upset and started yelling "this is mom's side of the story", you never want to do anything, ugh, why can't you just have fun, ugh..... She said Shawn was just yelling her on the corner of the street while people were walking. Shawn stays in town where a lot of people walk and everything is close by. Then she agreed to walk mom back but walked super fast and mom couldn't keep up. She is shorter than me and my sister. When they got back, she let mom in, changed her shoes and went back out. When mom came home and told me what happened I was so confused. It isn't like them to argue. I guess you can say this was the beginning of the end. Shawn stopped calling her as often, went out of the country and said nothing about it until the day of. There were just a lot of things she was doing without communicating with mom, it came to a head when our phone plan bill went up 100's of dollars. See, the bill is in Shawn's name but mom pays the bill, well she use to until Shawn got an iPhone and added the cost of the phone to the bill. Mom and I have Samsung's. She did this without telling mom and because the bill was automated it took mom while to notice. When she did, she told Shawn to start paying the bill for the portion of the phone itself. She agreed but wouldn't pay it on times, there were times that my phone was off but didn't notice because I was always near wifi. Somewhere in the middle of this she got another iPhone and the bill went again. Shawn didn't know that just because she got another phone didn't mean she wouldn't have to pay off the other one. They went back and forth on the phone one day arguing, Shawn claiming she paid and mom asking her to go through the payment history and tell her where...... the arguing ended when she started yelling at mom, saying "you're triggering me, you're triggering me" my mom just stared into the phone in disbelief... We're black and raised in a very much black household so for those who know, know those are words that we just don't say..... Well that was last week and this past weekend was mothers day and Shawn didn't call mom.... We have a family group chat of about 23 people and she said it there but not directly to mom or sent a card or anything.... I asked her the Thursday before if she would be sending mom something on mother's because we usually work together to get her something or she send me money and I get her something and Shawn will send a card. But nothing. She didn't even call our grandmother.... I went to my boyfriends house after then mother's day dinner at my grandmother's house, where I stay most weekends and while there she called me. Mom calls when she says things are too much to text. bet she went home and found a package with a 15 pound weight in it and a note saying "I hope your mother's day brought you some joy",.... Um what??? I want someone to tell me why she picked this as a mother's day gift.... and just one ... one 15 pound weight, not a set. Mom works out but already has a set for 5,10,15, and 20 pounds weight that I know Shawn knows she has. Mom was really sad and she isn't the super emotional one of us 3, the emotional one is me. If there is one thing I hate is my mom feeling bad, but then for it to be caused by her own child was different. Shawn NEVER answers the phone like NEVER, I had to tell her our dad passed away via text after calling almost 100 times. Mom sounded like she wanted to cry and just kept asking me " Brit, what did I do wrong, I don't know what I did wrong". Dang, that broke me. Now I'm the bigger of the two of us, and my sister knows me well enough that she don't want these problems so instead for even calling I sent a long text, basically saying I was disappointed to call her my sister and she should be ashamed of how she is treating our mother because when she got fired and unemployment wasn't paying enough to cover her bill's mom paid. Shawn never paid her back. Over all she is one of the most selfish people I know. I just asked her how hard is it to say happy mother's day or send a card. I didn't expect a response, but she did, in only 15 minutes. She said " I appreciate your concern and believe me, this runs much deeper than a phone bill. I don't have the same relationship with mom as you. You only know what you experienced and what happened to you. So, I'm not going to try and explain the various dynamics between mom and I that led to where we are now. It maybe hard for you to understand today. Pls don't blame it all on me. I love you. " I don't even know what that means. I responded something like other than physical, emotional, or mental harm i don't know what could have happened so bad that she couldn't call and say happy mothers day though. I can't imagine my mom doing any of those things. but again she gave some therapy like response and asked me to give her time to heal.... Mom has no clue what various dynamics she is talking about. I'm asking for advice because I feel like she is going down the same path she did with our dad. After our parents marriage ended and we were living with dad, mom still came over 3 times a week and cooked, had us on weekends. It was like she never left the only difference was she didn't sleep at home. When the arrangement changed, dad came 2 weekends in a row. then every other weekend, then once a month, then we were lucky if we saw him at all. It broke my heart in high school when a boy in my class told me to tell my dad that he would be late for practice. I was confused and bugged him all day to explain what he meant. I found out that my dad was coaching baseball across the street from our subdivision about 3 times a week with games on the weekend. So, he could see random boys at my school almost everyday for at least 3 hours and couldn't come over before or after to see his own kids? I actual walked over to the park one day because I refused to believe it, but there he was. We never talked about it. I just started walking there and sitting in the dugout to be near him and he would drive me the 2 minutes back home. All of the players lived in our neighborhood and dad had a flat bed so he would drop them off too. When Shawn graduated high school she never talked to our dad again after that day. She never told me why. He also developed cancer while I was in college and was very sick, when he got better he tried to get back in our lives and I let him in mine, called him on holidays but he did some messed up stuff to me my first year of college so I pushed back a little between that dad would call me and tell me to call my sister on 3 way, if she answered she was forced to talk to him. She wouldn't say much and would always say she was busy or had to do something to do and promise she would call him back and never would. So, now .... as part of my trying to figure out what my mom did, I reminded her how she cried when she found out our dad passed and she just kept saying she thought she had more time and who would walk her down the ail when she gets married and never got a chance to fix things. I would hate for that to happen with our mom too. I know because of our relationship once mom passes away we will most likely not talk or see each other ever again. So, I asking what did my mom do to her? What can I do to help fix this or should I even try? Anyone have any suggestions or ideas, also sorry for the typos or misspelled words or if its hard to follow, but I ask for anyone's input if they have experience this type of situation? Side note, idk if this helps but when Shawn came to town the last few times she stayed with our Aunt Carla. She has baby of the family syndrome, where she thinks she had hard but was actually spoiled rotten and believes all her sisters and brother and their wives are jealous of her. It's total BS but once when mom and I weren't getting along and I stayed with her, she told me some crazy stories about mom sleeping around, getting drunk, trying to fight her and someone else and some other stuff. This was when I was in college and I believed what she said mom and I continued to be on the outs for awhile before I found out about her cancer and became her protector and caregiver for a while. I don't believe those stories so much now be her and mom had issues before, Carla has actually had issues with all her siblings at one point and finds the need to the the main character of her own story and everyone else's. Simply she's a "One Upper". Aunt Carla getting in Shawn's ear is one idea I believe, also Shawn's friend have ummmmm "other people problems" like mellow dramatic soap opera drama and she maybe internalizing their issues. But yeah help, where do I go from here?

I've been trying to make a simple 2 player game, where one player can create a session and give another player the session name for the other player to join the session. Its a simple, "whoever picks up the most pickups in a set time wins" with a mechanic of simple projectiles that the players can shoot to stun each other for a second or so. I wanted to find a relatively simple, easy to learn easy to use networking solution, because its the first time I try creating multiplayer. I saw some PUN tutorials and I actually managed to get the matching to work and the movement to sync relatively painlessly before I was informed on another topic that there is no point developing with PUN because its obsolete and not supported anymore.
I've been searching for another solution ever since. PUN works in a sort of shared connection, which means that each player can spawn their own objects which is good for the projectiles and other such things, like pickups "falling" off the player on stun. But most tutorials of other solutions show host/client structures. Another problem is that all of the solutions I've seen are complicated to set. I thought, because I already tried PUN, that I would try Photon's newer solutions- Fusion for example. However, turns out that the documentation is lacking in detail, and there are so many changes between Fusion 1, 1.1 and 2 that tutorials just refuse to work between them, and the few tutorials that actually exist are not at all for the use case I want, and I've been trying to get them to work to no avail. (even the simple matching prototypes they offer do not work for me out of the box and its very frustrating)
So I'm here for advice, because I'm frustrated. What is a good, relatively simple to use networking solution that does not cost money (because its a small game and I do not plan to make it anything commercial, just free to use for friends and discord friends), that I can use for my use case? I would be very grateful for any insight. Thank you.

First of all I want to say that I really would like to believe. This post is not coming from someone that would like to not believe or hates religion or something. I truly believe Christianity is a good thing in the world and the teachings of Jesus are obviously good. These are all simply questions of its authenticity, not of the values being taught.

1. How can you explain seemingly insane stories like Noah’s Ark? It seems insane to genuinely think that a few guys built a wooden boat thousands of years ago that was able house two of every animal to ever live. On top of that they would need to also pack enough food for all these animals, and finding space for enough food for just 2 elephants would be difficult, let alone that hundreds of thousands or millions of other animals on board. Did the animals just poop and pee on each other the whole trip? How did they keep all the animals around before boarding? Obviously tracking down and catching all these animals would take years at minimum, and then finding a place to keep all these animals without them eating each other or starving to death or just escaping seems unlikely. And what about the insects? How did they catch every species of bug? Did they get them all in a jar? How did they not fly away at any point before boarding the boat?
   
2. If God created Adam and Eve and every other animal at the same time, why are there no accounts of humans interacting with dinosaurs? I would imagine someone would have written something at some time to indicate this, or at least a drawing, and it doesn’t exist. On top of this, how can you explain no dinosaurs existing now, of any kind, and how do you explain the amount of fossils we have found that date them back further than the Bible says the Earth has existed? And how do you explain the amount of fossils we have that shows slow change of species as they evolved and developed of hundreds of thousands and millions of years if they were all created at the same time approximately 6000 years ago?
   
3. Why would God create Satan? You can say that he allows for free will and that is why Satan was allowed to continuing existing, but this doesn’t really follow when there is multiple times in the Bible that God intervened with people’s free will to save people or get what he wants done, so why not get rid of the embodiment of evil? Why allow Satan to interact with Adam and Eve, especially when they were “innocent” and didn’t know any better, and why do we all have to pay for their mistake when God could have prevented it entirely. God obviously knew it was happening considering he is all knowing, so why did he allow it? You could say it was a test for Adam and Eve, but if he knew it would doom all of mankind why would he allow it? He intervened for much less in other parts of the Bible, but not when all of humanity will be cursed due to the actions of 2? And further, why does God allow Satan to have such reign over this world? Why does he allow Satan to control so many parts of this world when he could destroy him at any point he wanted to?
   
4. I don’t think the existence of God answers any real questions about our existence. People say that we are so complex that there is no way there wasn’t a creator and that there is no way we just evolved this way, but doesn’t that bring up more questions than answers? If we are so complex we needed to be created by some higher being, who created God? He is like 10 trillion times more complex than us, and somehow he doesn’t have a creator? And then people would say well God is infinite and he just is and has always existed, but couldn’t I just say that about the universe? And if just by chance God exists and always have, I don’t find it more unlikely that we just happened to evolve by chance to be the way we are.
   

These are not all my questions but I want to keep it relatively short. Thank you for reading and I look forward to reading other perspectives.

Hey guys, I used to work at a private equity marketing agency that bought, scaled, and sold DTC e-commerce, SAAS, info & digital product online brands and I was a media buyer. I have over $10M worth of spend under my belt for clients, and have worked with multiple 7-8 figure online companies.
No I’m not looking to sell you anything so don’t assume that I’m making this post for that reason.
I am trying to build a network of like minded people and am focused on building an engaged community with the same goals to help each other and stuff.
I’ve had the luxury of being able to see many different business models by working for a P.E agency. I will share some businesses I saw and you can do what you want with that info

1 - $100M a year self cooling bedsheet brand

When I tell you self cooling bedsheets had the highest revenue I’ve seen of any ecom store I am not exaggerating. It was f*cking baffling how much money these mfs were making by selling self cooling bedsheets.
The craziest part is that they did it all thru paid ads. I was stunned looking at the backend of the Shopify account and seeing these numbers. The reason a product like self cool bedsheets works so well is because of a few things:
A) Broad TAM (total addressable market) This means they can sell to a broader range of people. The more people you can sell to for e com the better.
Their AOV (average order value) was $110 as well. So not only are they targeting a broad audience, but they have really good margins
I think another reason why this product / brand is doing so well is because of timing as well. They exited in 2018, but really blew up during 2020 when everyone was home.
F it I’ll name drop. They’re called Miracle brand. Go study their LP and ads. Their LP is really high converting like 5-7%. Their offer is amazing (3 free towels with your bedsheets) and the CRO is fully optimized.

2 - subscription based Digital Assets

This one is really good, but super niche. The company basically sells digital editing assets that go with editing software like Davinci, IMovie, and whatever other editing softwares there are
They have 100% profit margins on the product and they offer a subscription. Their AOV is $60 per month and people actually subscribe because they know that these digital assets are really really good and it will save them time when editing. They were doing $2-$3M per year in revenue on a 100% margin product which is now offered as a subscription. I believe the overall margins on the business was like 70-80% they had low overhead.
These mfs are absolutely PRINTING. It’s not easy to make really good digital editing assets either so it’s hard to replicate. The #1 thing when buying or selling a business is margins. Their business if an easily be sold for 7-9x because of big margins, big AOV, and the MRR (monthly recurring revenue). On average businesses sell for 3-6x in the DTC (direct to consumer) e commerce space, but when you add a subscription model and it’s a digital product, you double the valuation of your company
Like I said, I am just sharing business models I’ve seen that were absolutely amazing!

3 - Sticker company

This one I think surprised me the most. These guys were selling a subscription for you to get a pack of custom anime stickers every single month.
Yup, you get high quality anime stickers every single month. This business wasn’t doing $1M but they did take in 6-figs. The reason this model is smart is because the margins are really good. It only costs like $0.50 USD to make a full pack of these custom stickers and you add $3-$4 for shipping. Their AOV was like $25-$30.
I think this business worked well because it caters to a strong fan base of people who love anime. Personally I like avatar and one piece but there’s a lot of anime super fans who would love to subscribe to a sticker club that sends you a custom pack of cool stickers of your favorite anime. Not sure how the legal side of it worked.
Comment what you think, and let me know if you have any questions. Half of these business models were very surprising and to this day it’s hard to believe that they work so well.
Feel free to also share good business models you’ve seen. There’s a lot more I can share but these stand out the most

📜 Experience the Political Machinations of a Kingdom ruled by a lich in this dark fantasy setting of Dead Gods and a Shattered Sun.
3/5 Seats are Filled and we're starting this Saturday!!!

Overview

The Arisen is a Political Intrigue campaign based around a country ruled by the Lich Queen Estelle. It is heavily inspired by gothic horror genre's, as well as taking influence from sources such as darkest dungeon, dark souls, and bloodborne. Explore a unique political landscape of a country of undead and demons, bordered by a Divine Land and in the sights of the Avexin Empire ruled by The Blood and allies of devils.

The Dead Rise

You are an adventurer of some renown is respected or feared by the select few who’s lives you have directly impacted, and you are dead.
You remember little of your death, perhaps fleeting memories, sensations, and flashing images. You might even remember the events or days leading up to your death clearly. However, the details of your untimely demise are shrouded in mystery.
As you list aimlessly in whatever afterlife you have found yourself in a voice echoes around you. A tether wraps around your neck as your spirit begins to burn. “...come forth lost souls and join me….Aslendus I call upon you...come forth and become Arisen!” Bits and pieces of a chant fill your ears as you can feel the weight of mortal flesh settle upon you once more and, finally, your eyes open once more!

Who are you?

You are five 1st-level adventurers. You met an untimely end, but now have been resurrected by the powers of Estelle Ofros, the Lich Queen. However, the power and abilities you once held seem to be weakened. You find yourself in The Lichdom of Ofros bound to the queen by the Hand of Estelle. How your body got here, the circumstances of your death, and the intricacies of your newfound life are few among the mysteries you must discover answers for.
Even with the cloud of your death filling your mind, what matters most is Estelle’s motives. War is brewing at her borders. Her people are restless, and some of her subjects plot against her. Political intrigue can be found everywhere as the Divine Land of Astrana musters forces and intel on the Lichdom, all while the Avexin Empire, land ruled by devils and The Blood, sit quietly behind the scenes plotting their machinations.
You now find yourself bound to this ancient Queen, rumored to be one of the most powerful liches, second only to The Ruler of Death himself. She who sacrificed her entire country to ascend, turning them into Undead and Demons to save them from the end of an era, from The Black Month.
How will you navigate the political landscape of this odd country ruled by the dead, for the dead? Will you seek to free yourself from the Queen, or help your newfound

Handout

House Rules

You can find more detailed info on the World Lore Here:

💥 Expectations

• Free Session 0 & first session to see how we all vibe.
• We will be starting the game once we get 3 players with the hopes of eventually having 5 players.
• 3 to 4 hour sessions.
• Session every week
• Custom Website for Setting & Campaign Lore.
• All source material is accessible in Foundry VTT.
• Constant Access to Foundry Server through Forge.com hosting.
• Fully integrated and animated Foundry VTT.
• Custom Discord Server for the campaign.
• Custom character backstories and arcs.
• Homebrew rules and custom Bloodlines System. Character creation is performed on FoundryVTT. All races and classes in dnd5e are allowed. As well as a few homebrew options including custom races or Laserllama's alternate classes.

I have multiple resources to help with character creation and I like to be involved if you want. We use Discord for voice chat. Foundry VTT handles the character sheet, items, and rolls.
Backstories are created together to immerse your character. First, you will write something original and creative then I will provide ideas and supplements until the backstory truly comes alive. each player will also write 4 rumors about their character that may be true, false, or partially true. These rumors will be distributed to the other players.
Once the seats are filled, we will run Session 0 and schedule Session 1. Session 0 is a group activity to learn Foundry VTT and to get to know each other. Session 0 is free!
🔎 Want to Join? Please message me with the following... Name or Nickname: Pronouns: Age: Discord: What interested you: How much TTRPG experience do you have: Anything I should know: Questions for me:

People keep ignoring that the best LLM's are 0.1% the size of the human brain, trained on 0.1% of the data of the human brain, largely trained on 1 modality, we have 5, and given no time to think. A house mouse brains is literally bigger(1 trillion synapses) or at least comparable than the best models.
Now GPT-4o has been released, it has more modalities, way faster and even better. When will people realize?We can add even more modalities to it like:Video(continually embedding images/pixels only which fluctuations), 3D(possibly utilizing gaussian splatting), Weather(herein: temperature ,wind ,pressure, air quality(several molecules), sea level, gravitational waves, amino acids, protein structures, .video games(each video game can kind of count as its own modality, and can help both as simulators, embodiment, but also as learning to think) and I can keep going. Some might seem crazy but they are not they all help make the models converge to a perfect world model, as well as thinking and reasoning about abstract representations.
These models can compress huge amount of data down to a much smaller size, you don't just do that magically, u need to create abstract representation(like how light shines and bounces) to utilize and chain together to create stuff like a specific image. These models learn similarities between all kinds of stuff, even stuff we might never have thought of, which is why a huge amount of data and different modalities are crucial, even if a modality might seem unconventional.
We have all the data in the world. The best models are trained on 15 trillion tokens which is 44GB tokenized, but YouTube has 1.500.000.000GB of data alone.It is all about how much is enough now, not if it is possible, but of course these systems will start gaining superhuman abilities before we reach full ASI, and many tasks don't need anything near human-level intelligence.
There are skeptics that I respect the opinion of like Yann Lecun. I don't have any problems with object driven ai, and think Jepa is both really promising for world model building as well as efficient search, but he admits it himself(in Lex Fridman podcast), the problem is really just that generative architectures is a very inefficient way, and has several problems. But still generative architectures def. have perks in how easy it is to modify, utilize, RL etc. Still there are many things being worked on that will help it, even simple ones like multi token prediction or token level search, and still these are just efficiency gain and not a bottleneck. Q* is of course one such attempt, which is why ASI might be closer than it appears :).
Also confabulation/hallucination are just discrepancies in the dataset, and models have very low certainty for predictions of names and similar, so you can indeed look at the models percentage accuracy of prediction to infer its certainty. Everything lies between certainty and uncertainty to an intelligent observer, there are no facts, as you cannot trust your brain. Like how people with dementia are certain of an occurence that has not happened before. The dataset could say that unicorns exist on the moon in the dataset, and without anything directly stating it can still say they don’t like if they have read fantasy books they won’t say necrophages exist, so in a way confabulations are what make them great.These things will improve with scale, RL, thought etc, and interpretability could give a number of the model certainty on certain stuff.
Reasoning isn’t a pretty prevalent in biological brains, generally only in mammals, and specifically really just Humans. There are so many shortcomings to develop high reasoning and cognitive capability through evolution. Human brains have so many biases and are not wired to be math experts, doctors, and computer scientist. Most importantly we have no text modality, making us remarkably inefficient at obtaining knowledge, and matching patterns in huge data sets. Remember ai doesn’t have the same constraints; it doesn’t matter if it takes several trillion dollars, tera-watts, hectares of datacenters, 10+ modalities and Exa-Bytes of data.
With the current post training paradigms I think a Mixed-Modal, Sparse-MoE utilizing XOT will get us there in under 2 years.