TL;DR: Thinking about dating again, and I think it should be a ND woman.
Undiagnosed 35-M Aspie ADHD-PI INTP. I've only had one real relationship in my life, between ages 15 and 20. I broke up with her when I was going to another country for university. It was very clear to me then, that we were headed in very different directions in life, and we were moving at a very different pace. I broke things off because of the awareness that being together was going to be a source of friction and eventually resentment. This realization is the same reason why I've been single ever since. (She's married with 2 kids now, by the way.)
At the time, however, I knew nothing of neurodivergence, personality types or any disorders that directly influence a person's romantic relationships, I just made decisions intuitively and in response to how I felt, through experiences, or as a result of observation. It's only in the last couple of years I've been able to articulate what was happening back then and why I made the decisions I made, or to actually put a label to the behavior in retrospect.
I'm at an age where I can say I know myself pretty well, and I'm no longer driven by fear. While I still have some reason to avoid being in a relationship, I also feel lonely and empty because of the isolation I've imposed on myself for about 15 years, so I've been thinking a lot about dating again.
The thing I'm realizing now, as a result of all the thinking, is the kind of woman I think I would be interested in being with. The more and more I think about it, I'm leaning towards women that are ND too. I don't think we have to be identical, but I really think I need her to at least be from the same world. The biggest problem I've had with interacting with NT women, so far, is the need to educate them. Unfortunately I'm one of those people who are "high-functioning" enough to appear as just a quiet or lazy NT, and I mask pretty well too, so it tends to be a source of all kinds of friction when the person starts to argue with you about what you are and aren't, and what you should be doing more of or less of for the sake of love. There's more to this, of course, I could get into the struggles of trying to balance between sharing and over-sharing, etc.
I don't think I have the energy or interest to educate or change someone to make us a better fit for each other. I get that people put real effort into making things work, and no relationship is without its problems, but this feels to me like trying to turn a car into a boat, or a plane into a car. I'm sure you could do it, technically, and I see a lot of people who do and make it work. I just don't think that's me. I'm more of a planner in that sense, so I prefer to narrow things down before I start looking, than to work backwards from having a spark of attraction with someone and then trying to align our interests after the fact.
How I process things and navigate the world is too fundamental to me to not be more thoughtful and deliberate about who I choose to do it with. Same decision-making process for choosing a career, I think, which is something I've also struggled with quite a bit in the past.
I wonder what your views are on this, and if you have a different perspective or opinion, please share in the comments. If you're in a relationship with a NT partner, what's your experience, and would you change anything if you could do it all over? If you're in a relationship with a ND partner, do you agree with my view on this, or do you see it differently?

I'm not implying anything or talking about specific cases, if you feel some of my words are too harsh i'm apologising in advance. I know also that there are too many things , from politics to religion based view and emotional factors, to be considered to have a proper answer , but i would like you to be devoid of these matters if possible.
I'm also not trying to get a solution for this question, i want simply know if i'm right or wrong.
I do am very thankful for the scientists that made the world a better place to live and to be able to live and better.
I'm wondering if we are already too dependant from medicine and thus making our species weaker. Weaker like we aren't capable to live well with or without certain stimuli gotten from these medicine.
I consider caffeine and nicotine to be part of these "medicine" , and less the alcohol , since i believe it's story is already tangled with our story since it's discovery.
We probably have any kind of medicine for any kind of mildly incovenience we suffer everyday. I'm not talking about vaccine and problems outside of us. I'm talking about having dry skin even if we eat healthy, obesity even if we exercise, myopia even if we don't have any lifestyle that impacts our eyes like reading too much or playing too close on devices that emits light like a smartphone.
But these are only some problem that everybody might have and doesn't affect the life of a normal person too much , and there are other problems or diseases that can't be simply can't be cured , yet.
I know that we are far from knowing if certain problems are a result of our enviroment or just straight from our parents , but even if their impact are awful on certain people, it doesn't make them unable to procreate.
In most of the developed countries , data shows that people make less children. So if people make less children there are less gene pool for future generations, and we will more likely to marry one of our distant relatives if they are born in the same place as us that might share some potential recessive gene o new gene that might result in some health problem.
We can already manipulate humans to conceive even if the subject is naturally incapable of doing so ( like low sperm/egg count or other related problems ) , but still i fear that we are creating a problem that doesn't exist in nature.
Putting morality and empathy aside, we are if not already, playing a game that i personally think will bite us in the future.
In other words, it's like building an APP on a system that has a native bug and we are creating short-cuts to avoid or overcome that problem, or cooking a meal knowing that the pan we use need more energy to work because there is a zone where there is less heat , or that in a cold climate the dress we are wearing have a hole and it's less warm.
With the app we might encounter a fatal problem that require a lot of resoucers to solve, with cooking we might risk getting something undercooked or pay more bill , with the clothes we might get a cold or the dress might broke.
If we put back morality and empathy , those may be the parts that answer the "while we could fix, we simply can't ". The app might not work on another system or we can't write it from zero, that pan might be the only shape of pan i like for what i love to cook, there might not be a shop near my house and i can't afford to replace it.
Poor countries that might not be able to provide certain healthcare to solve child mortality might just have average "healthier" humans alive based on their genetic traits and not current health.
What's is your opinion on this matter?
Do you believe like me that humans are or will be "genetically weaker" by retaining certain problematic genes ?

My gang stalking is strange because before this all started I saw a man’s face disform and completely change before my eyes as he yelled at his employee and me (If I told you this whole story, you will think I’m a undercover bot spreading misinformation or an insane person, ill trim the fat of this story completely) I couldn’t understand how someone’s face could be moving like that, as a logical non drinking, smoking or drug doing adult, I reasoned the best I could… I assumed he had major plastic surgery that was “unwinding” due to the heat and his yelling. Only the next day for him to walk up to me not only looking extremely handsome, but 20 years younger. 2 years just accepting something’s in life are unexplainable until I just happened across a tik tok talking about reptilians. I only left it on because the Asian girl was crazy hot as I did not believe in aliens. Not until she showed a police sketch a person who encountered one had made…. Man even now I can feel the shock reverberate through my body as it looked like that person had drawn that previous guys deformed face with ridiculous detail. That was the point where my understanding of the world broke because without a doubt I had encountered something outside the matrix. This is important to how I figured out how to stop the pain because I’ve always known there was some connection between gang stalking and my encounter before my gang stalking started. And when I realized yesterday after it suddenly popping into my mind is that reptilian was doing to his employee what they’ve been doing to us except at 1000x speed (this was a hotel, they hired him from out of town and gave him a room ,3 weeks into working there despite ample sleep he looked like he would die any second I told him to quit immediately and within days of quitting he went back to normal). Now back to the reason this matters, after remembering this I started looking at defense against reptilian across the webs. And in there sphere they even have a separate name for what targeted individuals go through, they call it hell realm. Well a lot of people had defenses for hell realm, I tried the simplest one and I felt the difference easily… but the simplicity makes it not believable, so please try it before you knock it. So apparently these entities need permission to do what they do to you and they use all kinds of means to obtain including subliminal and psychic etc. you simply need to say out loud (although it works for me in my head now but the advice originally was to say out loud, to be safe in saying that) “I revoke all previous permission’s I’ve given and do not consent, that includes A.I.” now for me I felt sudden cooling in my body. For the first time in 2 years I was pain free, it lasted about 15 minutes at first then it slowly started creeping back, which then I simply said it again. The time gets longer and longer in between and now I’m up to an hour without pain.another thing that worked for me that I found (this one really tripped me out) was to close your eyes and imagine where your hurting, then ask questions about the area and the pain, then imagine that pain is energy and then imagine what color that energy is. After that paint a healing color in your mind…. I don’t know how but it completely works without fail. If it worked or didn’t please comment your results, even if science has failed me the scientific method never has, so with enough data we can mass produce results for people I believe. Good luck.

You are being reincarnated into the Gu world, luckly you have been granted access to this character creator. Pick and choose your perks, etc.
You don't need to pick options from any category except, timeline, Innate traits, location and aptitude.
Start with 1.500 Character Points

Timeline:
Choose your timeline.

First timeline. +300 CP
You are born on the 11th of November the same time as Fang Yuan. Some 17 years later Fang Yuan is forced to join a caravan and leaves Qing Mao mountain. Spectral Soul's heaven defying plan succeeds, however Spring Autumn Cicada is never refined instead Fang Yuan refines blood deity and becomes a demonic powerhouse.

Second timeline. Free
You are born the same time as Fang Yuan in his first life. After 15 years, the night before the awakening ceremony, Fang Yuan's will travels 500 years back in time, and the events of Qing Mao mountain ensues…

I Am Fang Yuan! +100 CP
You are born Gu Yue Fang Yuan, the Fang Yuan we know will never transmigrate to the Gu world. The world will be as it was, when set in motion in chapter 1 of reverend insanity. Will Spectral Soul resurrect and dominate the five regions and two heaven? Will you destroy fate? You do not have Spring Autumn Cicada, but every other benefit from this character creator. Skip the location and innate traits section.

Late Antiquity Righteous Era. +250 CP
You are born many years after Spectral Souls demon venerables death. Shadow Sect haven't been created yet and the rise of an immortal venerable is inevitable. Soul path is flourishing and the demonic path has a foothold in the mainstream, but the tides will turn with the birth of paradise earth. Cultivate to your hearts desire.

Late Antiquity Demonic Era. +450 CP
You are born at the end of the medieval antiquity era. Giant Sun immortal venerable is dead and the Huang Jin tribes are flourishing in northern plains. Soul path has yet to be created and a murderous demon venerable is inevitable going to rise. May you leave a footprint in history.


Innate traits:
You may choose which sex you are born as for no cost

Variant Human. +250 CP
You may choose to be born as any variant human. If you choose dragonman then you start your own bloodline, with you as ancestor instead of Duke Long. Thereby being immune to Duke Long's Dragonman Extermination killer move.

Human. Free
You may choose to be born as a human, a safe choice. Although nothing is safe in the Gu world.


Location:
You may freely choose which of the five regions you are born into.
You may choose any tier of clan and additionally choose which status you are born into in that clan.
If you choose central continet you will be born to a sect member instead of in a clan.
You may choose to be born into any clan/sect from the story or to be born into one at random according to the chosen criteria.

Mortal Village +150 CP

Mid-tier clan +50 CP
Rank 2 heir +50 CP
Heir of an elder Free
Heir of the clan leader -50 CP

High tier Clan -50 CP
Random +50 CP
Rank 2 heir Free
Heir of an elder -50 CP
Heir of the clan leader -100 CP

Super Clan -100 CP
Random +50 CP
Rank 2 heir Free
Heir of an elder -50 CP
Heir of a rank 5 -100 CP
Child of an immortal -200 CP

*In the mortal village you and one of your parents are the only Gu masters.
*If you pick Child of an immortal, you will be the child of a random immortal from the super clan you picked or a random super force.


Aptitude:
If you pick a grade you will get a random aptitude within that aptitude range. You can roll a 2d10 or use a number generator to get a number between 0-19.
If you buy one of the ten extreme physiques, you are guaranteed a super grade blessed land.

Random +50CP
D-Grade Aptitude (20%-39%) +100 CP

C-Grade Aptitude (40%-59%) Free

B-Grade Aptitude (60%-79%) -50 CP

A-Grade Aptitude (80%-99%) -100 CP

Ten(Eleven) Extreme Physique (Your choice of physique) -150 CP

*If you picked random you can roll a d100.
*If you choose A grade, and get 99% you can't evolve into an extreme physique.


Soul:
Throw a d10, that number is where you are in your bought category. Meaning, if you pick Ten Thousand man soul and get a 6, on the d10, you will have a 60.000 man soul.
You body also gains the necessary Dao marks to contain such a powerful soul.

Ten thousand man soul. -50 CP
This is the soul foundation of a rank 5 expert. A clan leader of a super force, with all the resources that comes with, can expect to reach this soul foundation in 30 years, 20 if they use special or detrimental methods.

Hundred thousand man soul. -100 CP
The soul foundation of a rank 6 immortal who has spent a great deal of effort strengthening their soul.

One million man soul. -200 CP
The soul foundation of a great expert of a path that benefits from soul foundation, like refinement path, wisdom path, enslavement path, etc. Any higher and the Dao mark interference from your soul will become too great.

Ten million man soul. -300 CP
Only a soul path immortal would have a soul foundation this great. At this level the interference from the soul path Dao marks on your soul would be detrimental to cultivating other paths. That is, unless you have a way to get around this Dao mark interference.


Attainment:
You can buy attainment in a path. When you gain the attainment, it acts as if you had gained the attainment through practice and hard work. Not through dream realms or true meaning. You can only buy a limited amount of grandmaster and great grandmaster attainment.
You can only buy grandmaster attainment in 6 paths.
You can only buy great grandmaster attainment in 3 paths.

Master. -50 CP
You can choose to gain master attainment in 3 paths each time you buy this option.
Master attainment is the attainment level of an expert among mortal Gu masters often taking decades to achive. This level attainment gives the Gu master uncanny intuition concerning their path.

Grandmaster. -50 CP
Among mortals only once in century genius' can become grandmaster in a path. Usually grandmaster attainment is reserved for rank 7 experts. Having this level of attainment, one will be able to mimic other paths and to create immortal killer moves using immortal materials, instead of immortal Gu.

Great grandmaster. -100 CP
Only experts among rank 8 have great grandmaster attainment. This level of attainment will allow the user to easily think up new recipes for mortal level Gu worms of their path. Great grandmaster's can even utilize the natural Dao marks of the Gu world.


Immortal ascension:
The quality of ones blessed land is dependent on ones accumulated human Qi. To accumulate human Qi one need to deep ones foundation, by increasing attainment level, experiencing the multitudes of life as a cultivator and attuning oneself to ones chosen path, by carving the apropiate dao marks onto ones body, mind and soul.

Immortal aperture
Immortal aperture are divided into four grades, low, medium, high and super grade. Each grade is defined by the size of the arear inside the blessed land, the immortal essence production and the size of the tributary of the river of time.
The spaciousness of your aperture determines the room for development inside it. The more developed an immortal aperture the more immortal essence it produces, and the more resource it produces to use, sell and trade. You will be rollling for how much space is inside your aperture.

The immortal essence production of an immortal aperture is indicative on how vigorously or often an immortal can fight and use immortal cultivation methods. Without immortal essence beads immortal Gu can't be activated, leaving the Gu immortal impotent. You will be rolling for how many immortal essence beads your aperture produces for each year that passes inside it.

The size of the tributary of time decides how much faster time passes inside your immortal aperture, compared to the five regions time (FRT). This determines how fast you pass tribulations and calamities. As an immortal at rank 6 or above, every 300 years that pass inside your aperture ascends you one rank until you reach rank 9. Meaning it takes 900 years of time inside your aperture to become rank 9. You will roll for how many times faster time flows in your aperture compared to the five regions time.

If you ascend as a time path immortal double the tributary of the river of time in your aperture
If you ascend as a space path immortal gain 50% more space in your aperture.


Low grade blessed land. +400 CP

Starting blessed land size:
2000 km2

Base tributary of the river of time (TRoT):
1d6 = x TRoT

Immortal essence beads (IEB) production per year:
1d10+10 = IEB at


Medium grade blessed land. Free

Starting blessed land size:
(d4+1) * 1000 = Area km2

Base tributary of the river of time (TRoT):
2d10 = x TRoT

Immortal essence beads (IEB) production per year:
1d10+20 = IEB at


High grade blessed land. -100 CP

Starting blessed land size:
(1d4+4) * 1000 = Area km2

Base tributary of the river of time (TRoT):
1d10+20 = x TRoT

Immortal essence beads (IEB) production per year:
1d10+30 = IEB at


Super grade blessed land. -300 CP

Starting blessed land size:
(1d6+6) * 1000 = Area km2

Base tributary of the river of time (TRoT):
2d10+20 = x TRoT

Immortal essence beads (IEB) production per year:
2d10+50 = IEB at

*you don’t have to be an extreme physique to buy super grade blessed land.

Immortal Gu
When the immortal aperture is created there will be heaven and earth Qi left over that can be used to refine immortal Gu. You as a privileged CYOA participator, can use your points to refine immortal Gu. However you can't refine any immortal Gu from the or any Gu that was the vital Gu of a venerable, including Fortune Rivaling Heaven.
These Gu worms will be created from nothing, and Heavens will doesn't need to approve of you having these Gu worms.
*Purchase immortal Gu responsibly, it's more fun if you don't break the setting.

Rank 7 and 8 immortal Gu are very powerful, therefor there is a limit to how many you can refine at ascension:
You can only buy 3 rank 7 immortal Gu
You can only buy 1 rank 8 immortal Gu

A rank 6 immortal Gu cost 200 CP.

A rank 7 immortal Gu cost 400 CP.

A rank 8 immortal Gu cost 800 CP.


Grab bag:
Grab bag perks are minor perks that are nice to have but not substantial enough to be full perks by themselves.

Pick 3 of any grab bag perks -50 CP

Pick 5 of any grab bag perks -100 CP

Pick 7 of any grab bag perks -150 CP

Reading materials.
You have a popup window where you can read Reverend Insanity and the Reverend Insanity wiki, only you can read it.

Gu professor.
You always know if an immortal Gu exist or not.

Polyglot.
You can speak and read the language of every region.

Thousand man soul.
You are born with a 1.000 man soul. With this soul foundation you could control more then 100.000 beast with enslavement path methods. As a Gu master your soul is also strong enough to beat all but rank 5 experts in a battle between souls.

Otherworldly Dao.
Choose what otherworldly Dao mark your soul comes with.

Settra.
Slavery Gu, of any rank, does not work on you.

Instant success.
Gu worms that carve Dao marks on the user, like Black Boar Gu, Iron Bone Gu etc., will have their full effects shown immediately and painlessly upon use and they won't need primeval essence to activate.

Mutated soul.
You may choose for your soul to be a mutated soul. For example if you chose to have a wolfman soul, your soul would have wolf characteristics and would be many times stronger when controlling wolves. You can also choose to have mutated soul of a path. For example an ice soul, which will boost the effect of ice path Gu worms.

Flying master.
You now have master level attainment in flying.

Extremely attractive appearance.
You have an extremely attractive appearance, and people will subconsciously treat you better because of it.

Eidetic memory.
You gain perfect eidetic memory. However, you may still forget things if you so wish.

Aptitude reroll.
You get to reroll your aptitude and choose the higher number. You can pick this grab bag perk multiple times.


Perks:
Perks are divided into tiers.
Any perk that gives Gu worms or recipes for Gu worms may not give Lifespan Gu or the recipe for them, unless otherwise stated.

Tier 1 perks

Primeval wealth. -50 CP
You gain a rank 4 Primeval elder Gu containing ten million primeval stones. This is the wealth of a mid sized clan. You may buy this option multiple times.

Gu set. -50 CP
You may pick 10 Gu worms of the same path from rank 1 to 5, they will individually appear in your aperture when you choose. If the Gu worm you have chosen can be refined to a higher rank, you can do so instantly at no cost when you wish, but not to a rank higher than 5. You may buy this perk as many times as you want.

Mortal recipes. -50 CP
You may pick any 10 mortal Gu worms and gain their rank 1 through to rank 5 recipes. The recipes will use modern materials. Meaning, if you choose an ancient or extinct Gu worm, like All-out effort Gu, you will gain a recipe containing materials that are reasonably available. You may purchase this perk multiple times.

Close combat master. -50 CP
You are a battle genius and you have mastered of Krav Maga, Boxing, Brazilian Jujitsu, Grappling and Mauy Thai. Furthermore, you have master level proficiency with longsword, spear, axe and polearm.

Inhuman transformations. -50 CP
If you transform into a less then human form, you will automatically have the ability move and control your body as if you were born in such a form.

Flying grandmaster. -50 CP
You now have grandmaster attainment in flying. Geniuses renowned for their flying skill, at most have qusai-grandmaster flying attainment.

Longevity. -50 CP
You gain a hundred year lifespan Gu. You can use it to increase your lifespan or keep it for a different use.


Tier 2 perks

Dual Dao. -100 CP
You may choose two paths. Those paths do not interfere with each other when you use them.

Variant Dao. -100 CP
If you are a variant human you gain great grandmaster attainment in the path of your Dao. Meaning dragon men gain great grandmaster in enslavement path, hairy men gain refinement path, etc. This doesn't count towards your great grandmaster attainment limit.

Second aperture. -100 CP
You can awaken your second aperture at a time of your choosing. The second aperture functions as if created by rank 6 Second Aperture Gu, meaning it has no restriction of which rank it can rise to. Ascended to an immortal aperture this aperture will be have the same characteristics as your first one. If you picked Dual Dao and Second Aperture, you may also choose two paths that don't interfere in the second aperture.

Superior Gu set. -100 CP
You may pick 10 Gu worms they will appear in your aperture when you choose. If the Gu worm you have chosen can be refined to a higher rank, you can do so instantly at no cost when you wish, but not to a rank higher than 5. Furthermore, these 10 Gu worms do not need to be fed. You can buy this perk twice.

Immortal recipes. -100 CP
You can choose 10 Gu worms and you will obtain the rank 1 recipes, and the rank 2. etc. all the way to rank 9 for each Gu you choose. That is, you will receive the recipe for the lowest possible rank that the Gu worm can be and up. You can choose when you receive each recipe. Whether or not you recive the whole family of recipes at the same time or not. The recipes will only contain materials that can all be found in the current era, with the higher ranked recipes being possible exception. They may contain very exotic or necessarily extinct, but still existing, materials. Some Gu can't exist at the mortal level to a functional degree. You will still recive the recipes for these, but they can at most serve as reference value. You may pick this perk twice.

Auto balancer. -100 CP
When undergoing immortal ascension your Heaven, Earth and Human Qi will automatically be balanced for you. It's guaranteed that you will pass immortal ascension, the only thing that can stop your ascension is being killed by the tribulation itself or outside influences.

Year essence pool. -100 CP
Your immortal aperture gains a year essence pool. This is a enviroment mimicking the river of time, that exist parallelly to your aperture. Meaning that the year essence pool doesn’t take up any space in your aperture. The year essence pool also allows you to control the size of the tributary of the river of time flowing into your aperture. Meaning that you can slow the time of your aperture to anywhere between the time you rolled for, in the immortal ascension section, and that of the five regions.

Wealth of Food -100 CP
Upon immortal ascension a resource point is created inside your aperture for each rank 6 immortal Gu. Each resource point produces food for a corresponding immortal Gu.


Tier 3 perks

Great era inheritance. -150 CP
You gain a rank 6 immortal inheritance, that guide you from rank 1 to the peak of rank 6. However, the inheritance will be 500 years ahead of time from the time of chapter 2 of Reverend Insanity. Furthermore, you may choose for the inheritance to be a path of the great ere like weapon path, pill path, etc. The inheritance contains a myriad recipes for mortal Gu worms of the path that you choose and 5 rank 6 immortal Gu recipes of that path. The inheritance contains no Gu in it of itself.

Dream realm. -150 CP
A dream realm appears at a time and location of your choosing. It will contain true meaning pertaining to a path of your choice. It will be big enough for one person to achive great grandmaster attainment and another one to achive grandmaster attainment, or for three people to attain grandmaster attainment.

Immortal killer moves. -150 CP
You can choose 10 immortal killer moves. You learn the lowest to the highest rank possible of these killer moves. You can pick the same killer move more then once. This means that if you picked time cutting edge you can learn it again when it disappears from your memories.

Life and death aperture. -150 CP
Upon immortal ascension you will experience tribulations at half the strength they normally would be, but you still gain the same amount of Dao marks. With this perk you are also guaranteed to get a high grade blessed land. Unless you posses an extreme physique then you will gain a super grade blessed land like you normally would.

Reinforced physique. -150 CP
If you have an extreme physique you suffer non of the down sides. You will not need to fear exploding by cultivating too high in the mortal ranks. You won't need an immortal Gu corresponding to your physique to ascend. You will soar through the mortal ranks. Your ascension will be on the high end of what a normal immortal might experience, so relativly tame compared to ten extreme physiques. After this Heaven's will isn't going to hold back on tribulation.

Dao physique. -150 CP
Don't pick anything in the aptitude section. Choose a path, you now have an extreme physique equivalent in that path. Meaning, if you chose sword path, you would have a sword path physique with all the benefits and drawbacks of a normal extreme physique.

Tier 4 perks

Anti-divination. -300 CP
You have a rank 9 perpetual killer move applied to you. Only a rank 9 wisdom path immortal with a rank 9 Gu will be able to deduce anything about you. Anytime someone makes deduction about you, they either fail or get an obfuscated answer. You can toggle this killer move so if you want Heavens will to be able to send you tribulations can toggle the killer move off.

Gu house. -250 CP
Choose 5 immortal Gu houses, you gain the blueprint of how to create each of these Gu houses.

Imperial staff. -250 CP
You gain a staff with three teleportation opportunities. You have three opportunities to teleport to any place mentioned in the novel that exist in your era. Except you cannot go to the 9th layer of crazed demon cave.

Rank 8 inheritance. -250 CP
You may choose one or two paths and gain a rank 8 inheritance of the path(s) you choose. You may not pick heaven path. If you bought 'Great era inheritance', this rank 8 inheritance may also be of a great era path along with the other features of 'Great era inheritance'. Regardless of if you bought 'Great era inheritance', you may pick three aspects that the inheritance specializes in. If you only choose for the inheritance to contain one path you may instead pick five: Offense, Defense, Movement, Investigation, Concealment, Healing, Aperture Management and path specialty.
Path speciality meaning, whatever your chosen paths speciality is. For wisdom path it would be deduction, soul path would be soul cultivation, etc.
If you choose two paths then the inheritance contain an excellent method to duel cultivate these two paths. The inheritance does not contain any Gu worms, however it contains the knowledge or how to refine, feed and use a myriad of Gu including several immortal Gu. The inheritance also contains peak strength mortal killer moves that cover all aspects, and how to empower these killer moves to immortal level by using immortal materials. Of course, the inheritance also details these killer moves when used with apropiate immortal Gu. The inheritance also comes with a battlefield killer move, you may choose one specialization for the battlefield killer move : Activation speed, Killing power, Concealment, Suppression. With this inheritance you cultivation will be smooth sailing from beginning to end.

Dao carver. -300 CP
You now gain twice as many Dao marks, from any source, as you otherwise would. Heavens will doesn't take into account how the existence or effect of this perk when sending you tribulations as an immortal.

Pocket paradise. -400 CP
You gain an orb with an blessed land inside. The orb can be carried inside your aperture. When not in your aperture you can activate it, which makes the orb immobile. When placed the orb functions like a blessed land with a land spirit you are in control of. When outside of the blessed land you can deactivate the orb and put it inside your aperture again. The orb supplies the blessed land with heaven and earth Qi, so you can move place the orb any of the five regions without problems. The blessed land has an interior size of 7.000 m2 and time that moves 40 times faster then the Gu world. The blessed land has enough resource production to earn 50 immortal essence stones every year that passes inside the blessed land. There is still a lot of room for development. The resources are related to the path of the blessed land, which you may choose. The blessed land is a paradise, and therefore won't experience tribulations.

Tier 5 perks

Prodigy. -350 CP
In a path of your choice, you now great grandmaster attainment and venerable talent in that path. Meaning you can reach supreme grandmaster without needing outside help. This includes dream realms or absorbing true meaning. Though it may take a few centuries to reach your potential. This does not count towards the limit of how many great grandmaster attainments you can buy.

Small Dream Immortal Venerable. -400 CP
You have master attainment in every path. Master attainment gives have an uncanny and accurate intuitions about everything in the Gu world. For example, when searching for a person or object you will have an accurate, if vague, intuition about which way to search. There are no longer restrictions on how much attainment you can buy.

Legendary expert. -400 CP
You have quasi supreme grandmaster attainment in two paths of your choice. You are now the undisputed expert in your field alive today, but you will still need to exert a great deal of effort to raise your attainment to supreme grandmaster. If taken with prodigy you will immediately gain supreme grandmaster attainment in the path you picked for prodigy.

Gugle maps. -400 CP
Gain a perfectly accurate map of the entire Gu world. The map is in your head but can also be projected as a 3d hologram, and you can choose if others can see it. The map is in google earth like detail and contains information on resource points, hidden inheritances, blessed lands and grotto-heavens, secluded domains. You cannot use the map to see into blessed lands or grotto heavens, but you can see where they are located. The map is not merely a videogame map, it also contains highly detailed information on demographics, infrastructure, detailed economic data, beast territory and more. This map is accurate enough for fixed immortal travel Gu to work with, but activation becomes more likely to fail, the longer since it was updated. To update the map as a mortal sacrifice 100% of your current essence type. As an immortal sacrifice 300 beads of your current immortal essence.


Venerable traits:
You may pick only one of these, but they are free.

Primordial Origin immortal venerable.
You gain ten one thousand years lifespan Gu. You can choose when to recive each Gu individually.

Star Constellation immortal venerable.
As an immortal, every time your aperture produces an immortal essence bead, you can experience the effect of the light of wisdom as if from a rank 9 wisdom Gu, but without the loss of lifespan, for 10 minutes. You can save up these minutes.

Limitless demon venerable.
Chose a path. For as long as you cultivate only that path, and don't use immortal Gu of a different path. you will gain 5x the amount of dao marks in that path as you otherwise would. If you use other paths you permanently loose this perk. This stacks multiplicatively with dao carver.

Reckless Savage demon venerable.
You gain 3 slots. Each slot can be filled with a path. The paths your slots have been filled with don't interfere with each other. You also have great grandmaster attainment in these paths while you have them slotted. You can change the paths of in your slots once every week, central continet time.

Red Lotus demon venerable.
Choose a moment. From now on, whenever you die you or when you choose, your are sent back to that moment. You cannot change the moment that you regress to, it will always be the same moment. Every time you regress, your luck gets massively worse. After 10 regressions, it will be as if everyone but you has Fortune Rivaling Heaven.

Genesis Lotus immortal venerable.
As a mortal your primeval essence regeneration is a 100 times what it normally would be. As an immortal, your origin core produce ten time the normal amount of immortal essence. Meaning if your have an average high grade blessed land with no development, you will produce 300 beads of immortal essence every year that passes in your aperture.

Thieving Heaven immortal venerable.
When you kill someone you can guarantee that they can't destroy a certain amount of immortal Gu. If you kill a rank 6 immortal, they can't destroy one of their rank 6 immortal Gu. If you kill a rank 7 immortal Gu they can't destroy one rank 7 immortal Gu and two rank 6 immortal Gu. If you kill a rank 8 immortal, they can't destroy one rank 8 Gu, two rank 7 Gu and four rank 6 immortal Gu. Etc.
If there are multiple choices, the saved Gu are chosen at random.

Giant Sun immortal venerable.
You have enourmous luck, like a child of human path. Only Red Lotus and Feng Jin Huang are above you in terms of luck.

Spectral Soul demon venerable.
You are born with a one thousand desolate soul, you soul alone has the strength of an high tier desolate beast. But you might be more susceptible to enslavement path methods, but it hardly matters since your soul is so devastatingly powerful.

Paradise earth immortal venerable.
As an immortal you gain natural inspiration, every time you face one of your major tribulations. Heavenly tribulations as rank 6, grand tribulations at rank 7, etc.

Heaven Refining demon venerable.
You gain unlimited willpower and motivation. You now have the perseverance to casually swim through the reverse flow river. Your will to power will never waver.


Missions:
These are objectives that you give you extra points, but you have to complete them within 300 years or you explode and die. Spectral Soul eats your soul, Heavens Will foils any rival methods. You cannot escape the consequence of not completing your missions.
You may pick as many mission as you want.

Extra time. -100 CP
You gain 200 more years of time to accomplish your missions.


Easy missions

Traditional. +100 CP
Create an inheritance and a suitable inheritance ground. Describe what the trials and requirements there are to get your inheritance.

Imperial Court. +200 CP
Enter the imperial court blessed land at least once.

Medium missions

Paradise. +200 CP
Enter the Grotto-Heaven Blue Dragon Whale at least once.

Secluded Domain.+200 CP
Obtain a secluded domain of heaven and earth. You have to have had ownership of a secluded domain for a month for this mission to be considered successful. You can take this missions three times. You have to obtain three different secluded domains for it to count. You can't 'loose' one and obtain it again later.

Supreme inheritance. +300 CP
Obtain a complete true inheritance of any venerable. Thieving Heavens three refinement opportunities from Lang Ya isn't a true inheritance.

Problem? KILL!. +350 CP
Destroy a super force. You don't have to kill all the members of that force, although it would be a good idea. You simply have to make it so that the super force doesn't exist anymore. This also counts if you can convince someone to exterminate for you, by trickery, commission, or other means.

Hard missions

Homewrecker. +400 CP
Your mission is to destroy 88 True Yang building. If 88 True Yang building is destroyed without your direct involvement, you fail.

Founding ancestor. +500 CP
Create a super force, it may be a clan, sect or other. The force has to span the five regions and each branch must have at least one entity with rank 8 battle strength. Be it a rank 8 Gu master, a rank 7 Gu house or ancient battle formation. 5 immemorial beast also counts as rank 8 battle strength. You have an extra 500 years to accomplish this missions.

Grand theft Gu. +400 CP
Obtain Sovereign Immortal Fetus Gu. With the time limit, you would probably have to complete this mission by either stealing it from Spectral Soul at Yi tian mountain. Or, you could refine it again using it's user, be it Spectral Soul or Fang Yuan, as a refinement material.

Become venerable. +400 CP
Break through the heavenly dao blockade and become venerable. Heavens Will isn't interested in you becoming venerable so you have to destroy or control Fate Gu. You only have 300 years though, so you have to be very quick.

Heavenly court. +600 CP
Join Heavenly Court and loyally serve it's interest. You don't have to save Fate Gu, you might even think it preferable if Red Lotus' plan comes to fruition. But, you have to do what you think is best for Heavenly Court.

Supremacy. +800 CP
As a variant human, make your race dominant in the five regions. You have a 10.000 year time limit.


Specific missions
These can only be picked if you chose the following timelines: Late Antiquity Righteous Era and Late Antiquity Demonic Era.

Pseudo venerable. +300 CP
You must reach pseudo venerable battle strength in all of your aspects of combat. E.I. having pseudo venerable defensive methods isn't enough.

Dao opponet. +300 CP
Defeat one of the coming venerables in battle. You must not be more then one rank above then when you defeat them, and you must not fight them while having immortal level cultivation while they are still mortal.


Drawbacks:
You may take as many drawbacks as you want. However you may not take drawbacks more then once.
Drawbacks overwrite other options picked in this character creator.

Easy drawbacks
No spoilers. +50 CP
You cannot share the contents of Reverend Insanity with anyone. You may still act on the information but you may not try to explain it to others.

Dao monogamous. +100 CP
Other paths interfere twice as much with the path of your vital Gu as they normally would. If you have dual Dao or Reckless Savage Demon Venerable as your venerable trait you cannot pick this drawback.

Un-undead. +100 CP
You cannot turn into a zombie. For good or ill you cannot become a zombie. Lifespan is always in short supply and you no longer have a fail safe.

Local dao. +200 CP
You are no longer an otherworldly demon. You will not have otherworldly dao marks and others cannot figure out your origin no matter what method they use. Not even soul searching you will let them find out you aren't from the Gu world.

True to your word. +200 CP
Alliance agreements become empowered. Dao marks related to any contract or alliance can only be forcefully removed by a specialized rank 9 killer move. You will have to be very carful with what you sign up to and always add a time limit.

Weakness. +200 CP
Choose one path, you are now twice as vulnerable to that path as you normally would be. You can pick this multiple times.

Medium drawbacks
Inhospitable enviroment. +300 CP
Choose a region, you cannot enter that region. This goes away when the regional walls disappears.

Like a mistress. +350 CP
Gu worms you own need twice as much food to be properly fed.

Halved lifespan. +300 CP
Your lifespan is halved, meaning if you are human you only have 50 years to live. Lifespan extension methods are as effective as they normally would be.

Clear Conscience. +300 CP
You cannot knowingly lie, and you are compelled to answer any question asked truthfully.

Indivisible. +300 CP
You cannot create clones. Others may not create clones of you either. You may still create external wills.

Forget me now. +400 CP
You loose all memory of reading Reverend Insanity upon rebirth. You still remember the options you took in this CYOA, and your previous life. If you picked reading materials in your grab bag it is removed and you can pick another.

Hard drawbacks
Dao dunce. +800 CP
You cannot increase your attainment level beyond what you buy in this character creator. Unless you buy prodigy, then you can become supreme grandmaster in that chosen path.


Multiplayer:
The Gu world is a capricious thief and has stolen not just but another unfortunate soul. But, this CYOA is fair to all, and so, you will not be the only one who gets too go through this character creator.
Convince another person to go through this CYOA and be reincarnated with you. You will have to both decide on a
Timeline.
This is entirely optional, I just thought it would be fun for people to test out builds together and against other people. I have also create some rules/objectives to facilitate the multiplayer, but you can make up your own.

Twin start:
Two players pick the 'I Am Fang Yuan!' timeline, one person will be reborn as Fang Yuan, the other will be reborn as Fang Zheng. Flip a coin to determine whos who. Optionally, you can also pick one of the two options below.

Co-op:
Each player picks a starting location and they have to collectively accomplish as many of the Missions as possible.

Feud:
Each player picks a separate starting location, and they have 300 years to kill each other. Come up with strategies to reach immortal level, and how to aquire the strength to fight each other

During my PG, we were a group of 4 girls and we used to meet once or twice a week since we had different specialisations and hence, different schedules. There is one particular friend, let’s call her Grace. We used to have a good understanding and relaxed equation. She went through a personal tragedy (loss of a parent) and we as friends, tried our best to support her emotionally and practically (helping her to pack and postpone her exams etc). Once our PG ended, we had to move to a flat and Grace and I decided to pair up to search for a flat since the other two friends had gone back to their hometowns. Earlier, we used to have a decent equation and I would check up on her everyday by going to her room because she had confided that she is unable to sleep due to negative thoughts and we would also go out whenever possible.
She picked up a part time job to earn money and to get her mind off things and once when I visited her room, I got very unwelcoming vibes so I stopped going there until she approached me. I guess it was because she was tired and overwhelmed but she started getting slightly nasty and short for no reason like she would accuse me of zoning out whenever she would talk about her boy problems (essentially which guy should I choose from Bumble, I am so confused) although I would give her advice and help her as much as possible, accuse me of distracting her because of which she messed up her form but later she approached me and told me to sit with her while filling a fresh form because she feels nervous. She would taunt me about my short attention span although she is the type of person who talks only about herself and even if the topic is changed, she will circle back to herself.
Before we became flatmates, once my mom had come over and we were in line at the grocery store. I spotted Grace and called out to her. She stood with us in line while the others behind us grumbled and she did not greet my mom even once. She started talking about herself very loudly and how somebody told her that it was very easy to get a part time job. My mom did not like her and found her very rude and self- centred and later when she needed a guarantor for the flat and asked my sister, they said that she didn’t make a good impression and this was risky to undertake. She even asked our other flatmate and a Bumble guy and they obviously reduced. I am mentioning this to give an idea of her nature.
Anyway, there came a point that she had the 8-4 shift and even if both of us would be at home, we wouldn’t see each other for days and once in a fortnight we would update each other for like 10-15 minutes. I was also suffering with loneliness during that time. If she needed something, she would only text/call me even if she would be in the next room. She would accuse me of not flushing/cleaning the toilet properly and if I disagreed, she would taunt. She even said once that there is nothing to talk about just ‘No job yet’ since we are both looking for full time work.
What really annoyed me was randomly after two weeks, she came to my room and told me to come to her room and it was because she suspected a rat in her room. She would keep unwashed utensils in her room for days at a stretch and I had feared that this would lead to rats/cockroaches. A week later, my landlord messaged that I should give my key to Grace for now since he was busy. I had no idea so I said okay but didn’t act on it as Grace hadn’t told me anything. After 2-3 days, she called and messaged to ask if I was at home since she had lost her key. When I opened the door, she said that she had thought the other flatmate would be around but he wasn’t. After that also, I barely saw her and the one time I told her that she isn’t around, she told me that I wasn’t there (!). She even went off on a day trip with her close male friend and told only my other flatmate about it.
I know this has already gotten very long but up till this point, I want advice on what really happened. I will make a separate post on Part 2 as well.
In the middle of all this, one of the girls in our group who had gone back to her hometown (let’s call her Mary), she got engaged to her high school sweetheart. She posted a picture of the same on social media. While I was happy for her and left a positive comment, I felt odd that she never mentioned it but I didn’t think much of it. A few days later, Mary texted me and told me to call when I was free. I called her and I found out that she was coming with her parents for her graduation ceremony and had some doubts regarding the accommodation. At the end of our conversation, I told her, ‘I believe that congratulations are in order’. She thanked me and said that she was surprised that she didn’t hear from me. I told her I found it odd to get the news only on social media. She then said that her parents had just gone to the boy’s family to fix the date and the roka got fixed for two days later. Everything happened too fast and she randomly texted all the people she could remember and she was also just processing everything. We talked a bit more and she said that it’s been a long time and we should meet when she comes.
When she arrived, I saw her social media stories of the graduation and her parents at tourist attractions. I thought she would be busy showing her parents around and she would probably text for a meet up once she is free. Next day, I noticed that Grace had gone out in the evening and after some time, I saw that Mary put up a story with her in a mall. I felt weird but I thought that maybe it was impromptu or because Grace has hectic working hours. The next few days, Mary was roaming around in nearby cities and one day, I was in a party and having a good time. I saw Grace’s story and she was at a restaurant with Mary. Now I was having an amazing time with my new partner and his friends so I had no FOMO but I was drunk and I felt pissed at these ‘friends’. I thought that if they deliberately exclude me, why pretend that everything is hunky dory? I then deleted their numbers and removed them from social media. I told my partner everything, who then asked if I was okay and if I feel any regrets about doing all this. I said no and that rather than putting up this pretence of being ‘friends’, let’s be real.
The next few days, as usual, I would encounter Grace only in the kitchen where there would be pin-drop silence and not even a greeting. She knew that I was going back home for good in a few days and asked in a dead voice whether I found a replacement for my flat and the date of my flight. I answered coldly and greeted her from my side only when I felt like it. The day I left for the airport, she wasn’t there when I booked the cab and it has been 15 days since I came back. She didn’t even message me a goodbye.
I want your opinion on whether I am wrong or overreacting and why this must’ve happened- a friendship gone sour all of a sudden.

ordered cogeco last Monday, 54$ for 1gb fibe is a steal, compared to the 109$ I'd been giving bell for the same package. Great, quick and easy sign up, address validation, etc.. install was booked for Friday, 4 days?.. okay I get it, it's busy, all the students are leaving.. which actually doesn't make sense as to why it'd be so busy, techs don't come Uninstall services anymore but okay. Friday comes, tech comes, he can't get roof access aside from my kitchen window (which is the roof access) so he tells me to ask the landlord how to get to the roof, he'll go do another job then come back. Not even 10 minutes later I call and text the tech explaining where the stairway is. He never comes back. I call cogeco several hours later to find out what's going on, get disconnected 3 times and transfered several times before finally getting someone in the right department. She explains that the tech put no roof access in the notes and canceled the job? Cool, would have been nice to know that sooner to get another tech out. Lets get someone saturday then, i dont worm til 2pm so... Nope, soonest tech is Sunday, and that slot was only there briefly due to a cancel. I work from home and require a ethernet connection for security and its mandatory so my job is going to be on the line. That's life, and yes I got in a lot of trouble for not being able to work, it's in my work contract and they don't care what my excuse is.. i assured them sunday i'll be in and will work a double to make up the lost time. Well, it's Sunday. My install was set for between 8 and 12. 1030 hits and I get a call from cogeco (me thinking: awesome the techs coming).... nope, the tech called in sick and they can't do same day appointments to get another tech here today....... the soonest they can get is Thursday night... okay so, I've already got 1/3 warnings for the entire year from work and I can't use any sick days cause they're not going to believe I'm actually sick, my job doesn't require me to speak to anyone it's jsut typing mostly so that's not gonna fly. So not I have to miss 6 consecutive day of work before I can get internet. Assuming they don't fire me or do, let's math 20x8 is 160. 160x6 is 960. That's 960$ I'm losing out on, all for 54$ internet. And potentially losing my job which my rent is already expensive enough. Also assuming a tech actually comes Thursday (doubting at this point).. I'm not sure how this company is still a business.. if this was any other business, they'd be shut down by now and it seems this is not uncommon after browsing some posts. In my city I know at least 30 technicians personally who do this stuff for bell, Roger's, cogeco etc.. I in fact use to do this for cogeco back when they were just cable TV but as a independent contractor. Sp how does the biggest provider locally not have a tech they can send? Like escalate as priority. They can come at 3am for all i care just send someone please. Waiting a week for install after a hard credit check is insane. Maybe I'm just being a Karen at this point and I sound naggy but this isn't normal. When I got bell, they came next day during the busiest time of the year and had me up and running in 20 minutes, before that was a local company called spark and they had a tech an hour after I ordered services. But cogeco is playing reindeer games and I'm Rudolf apparently. Also to add on the customer service on Friday acted like I did something wrong and said no follow up was scheduled then transfered me to several different departments and even the next rep was like why did they send you here? Idk man. This is wild. I'm already struggling to make ends meet and this is just adding on to the pile and considering I've only been at this job for 2 and a half months, they can literally fire me for this with no remorse and incant do a thing about it. I've ebevr been late or missed a shift until now.. should I play ISP roulette and see who comes first and take several hits to my credit and screw it completely after working hard to get it into good standing?.. smh

We all fairly often talk about our wishlists and ideas when it comes to the next AC game's story, missions, aircrafts etc.
But what are your ideas for the multiplayer?
We all know the standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes from AC7, which should and definitely will return. The only thing that I'd like them to add is more maps and BGM's for better variety and replayability.
As for other modes, I think that PA should really focus on some PVE/Co-Op modes. Something similar to Infinity Co-Op but on an even larger scale - some missions would be pure air-to-air, ground-to-naval, some would be variations of them, or all of them at once. Also, this could work as a PVE and PVP mode at the same time, two teams consisting of two squadrons each fighting each other and AI enemies.
In addition, some attack and defend modes could be cool. Literally Infinities Naval Fleet Assault, but other than defending or attacking ships, you could also do the same with each teams idk. Arsenal/Ark Bird type of superweapon - something like Star Wars Squadrons Fleet Battles.
I guess it's hard to think about something else; at least my imagination is running out of ideas for now, but hey, maybe you have some cool ideas?

Hi all first off brand new to this site so ty glad to be here.
I'm just a little confused about something people have read the overwhelming overwhelming even medical statements mostly that gaba supplements or gaba and supplemental form does not in fact cross the blood-brain barrier and there is an abundant amount of information confirming this.
But then yes you do have some contradictory information that states either a it can and does somehow across or B even though it can't by another method I forget can still in fact get to the brain.
But again the overwhelming to overwhelming majority of the information confirming that he can't why in the world would you spend so much money on taking a chance with gaba when you have something like l-theanines taurine or picamilion all also totally natural supplements that you could choose over gaba that do in fact without a doubt any doubt can cross the blood-brain barrier why would you take the smallest chance and wasting money when you have a few that have no doubt getting to the brain.
Second I firmly believe gaba is a little overrated gaba is coming it is sedating it is hypnotic but I don't believe just increasing job as a whole or in general can actually directly impact severe anxiety disorders.
I frustrated with meds went to natural route and tried two of these first was l-teanine and because of it's amazing truly truly amazing profile pharmacology profile of raising dopamine and gaba I ran out and bought a bottle and I became obsessed with getting again to his profile how great it was getting it to work and that including different dosages different brands etc etc but never got any anxiety relief from it at all.
Then there was taurine I've seen now very complex pharmacology that I can't even understand but I remember the one that got me was simple taurine can cross the blood-brain barrier and in there it has a direct impact on raising gaba levels causing anti-anxiety effects and could also stabilize electrical current in the brain and body and I was like wow and I ran out and bubble bottle of that.
Both of the above mentioned failed completely I got no relief or effect from either. So then I ordered of course take a guess picamilion once again read the profile pharmacology was amazed how they were able to bond it and get it to cross and ordered it right away and once again nothing at all at least for anxiety nothing.
I want to reinstate gaba is a great thing it's calming it's a dating it's hypnotic it shows you out but just raising gaba in general in general increasing gaba levels I do not believe confirm has a direct effect on stopping anxiety especially severe clinical anxiety.
I believe and I'm sure I'll get some heat and probably a tax for this but I believe they found the answer the one most powerful substance that could actually alleviate anxiety or ease it are in fact the hated benzodipines.
Now I want to make a quick suggestion or idea as what's happening with them I'm on the MAOI parnate. It's the first and only med that actually works for me I take it in the morning and immediately has a robust rapid antidepressant effect and within minutes I feel a total relief of depression and misery totally gone it gives me a strong I don't give a f-k attitude towards problems or worries that won't help me and don't need to think about.
but here's the part I'd like you to pay close attention to I'm on an antidepressant that actually works and works really really well with depression itself and alleviates it almost completely as well as extremely calming effect that alone calms you and gives you a piece of serenity a feeling of peace and serenity overall but mostly gives you an extreme calming feeling as well.
And I believe because my particular antidepressant is so effective in alleviating depression as well as calming effect that and directly affects the benzodipine I take the night before Klonopin because my antidepressant is giving me some relief too and I'm not basing my anxiety treatment solely on a benzo alone.
My anxiety Klonopin dose is 1 mg before bed and people sit online but I'm telling you the truth I take it before bed for anxiety the next day and to help me sleep that the night I'm taking it I'm going to take it at night before I go to bed the next day I do not need a dose at all until night time so it lasts the whole day over the next day the next day the whole day over at last. And I firmly believe that I don't have any problems with Klonopin a benzodiapine even close to the ones that I sadly hear about because I do in fact have a potent powerful antidepressant that is alleviating my depression as well as giving me a call me overall effect too which didn't turn helps the Klonopin keep at a low dose and not tolerance and work better.
I believe and I can't say this for a fact but it's a belief that a lot of people who are suffering with really bad anxiety and aren't getting the results they need with benzodipines and even worse escalated in a dose I believe a good possibility of this is because the antidepressant and leaving the depression enough or at all so they're walking around with bad depression which is that alone worsens or causes anxiety by itself also the antidepressant isn't working well enough not only for depression but any added anxiety relief at all instead of walking around without a substantial relief of the depression and that's terrible for anxiety alone and also walking around with any benefit from the antidepressant on anxiety at all. So not only are they getting enough relief from the depression from the med they're not getting any anxiety relief and now what happens is they're basically basing the entire treatment for anxiety solely on the benzodipine alone.
And this is where I see problems arise if you're relying solely on a benzodipine to totally be the soul treatment for your anxiety that doesn't sound like a good idea using a benzodipine solely by itself to treat anxiety I could easily see tolerance and escalation happening. I believe to State one last time an antidepressant working really well and truly alleviating a person's depression significantly right off the bat less depression less anxiety also a really well working antidepressant should also add the smallest amount of anti anxiety as well both of those should happen with an antidepressant and if they're not at least not significantly enough then once again you're relying solely on the methodipine to do all the work and that's why I see where a problem could arise. Again I am not stating this as fact just an opinion because in my case when my situation I'm positive it I'm on 1 mg of Klonopin that I take at night before bed and the last do the entire next day I don't need any and I've been on that 1 mg dose with 10 years and have an escalated once. I think my MAOI antidepressant and it's positive effect on depression and calming effect on anxiety coincide with the Klonopin and help the Klonopin work better and also keep it effective at a low dose. I had severe severe anxiety I mean really bad. Now with the way things are my antidepressant work is so well and my anxiety under control I actually forgot I even had it I always put my Klonopin for the night on a nightstand the other night I went and it was done there I looked in the bottle and realized it was empty and I didn't spill it and I thought to myself the hell with it I don't even have anxiety anymore I don't need it no big deal because I really truly felt like it was gone.
3 days with no Klonopin my system I learned a hard lesson I still do indeed have severe anxiety that finally started erupting back after three days and I also experienced withdrawal from the Klonopin of no 3 days using as well. So there sorry for the long post I hope it at the very least it makes some kind of sense I'm not stating this fact or something that I thought about thank you for reading

Hi everyone! I'm looking to build my first PC after exclusively using a laptop for 10+ years. Currently I'm running off of an Alienware m15r3 laptop plugged into a monitor, so I do have some peripherals, but no actual PC parts.
New build or upgrade? - New build
Existing parts/monitors to reuse? (List with models/links) - Monitor: AOC Q32G3S (1440p, 165Hz. 31.5 inch flat screen) - Mouse: Logitech G502 Lightspeed - Keyboard: Cidoo ABM066 - Speakers: Creative Pebble V3
PC purpose? (Gaming, editing, etc. List apps/games) - Gaming examples:

• Overcooked! (AYCE) & PlateUp!
• Outer Wilds
• Jackbox Party Packs
• Tunic, Ori Franchise (completed)
  
• Productivity apps (mostly used on a hobbyist level, so my life doesn't really depend on them, but if they run smoothly it'd be a massive increase in QoL):
  
• Fusion 360 (mostly for modeling 3D prints)
  
• AutoCAD
  
• Recently looking into lighting software (not using them professionally - just as a hobby):
  
  • Eos Software (requirements here): for ultra settings, it recommends Dual Core CPU 2.5GHz/Geekbench CPU rating 900+, 4GB RAM, GPU Geekbench OpenCL rating 6000+
  • grandMA3 onPC (requirements here): it recommends 16GB RAM, 4096MB VRAM (4GB..?) *the recommendations for grandMA2 onPC is much lower so I guess I'll just use MA3 as the standard...
• Davinci Resolve...? (I used it heavily for one semester previously, and while I can see myself very occasionally editing a video, I don't think I would use it often, nor as intensely as before.)
  

Purchase country? Near Micro Center? - Hong Kong. (not near Micro Center) I can get things from Amazon (and Taobao if needed), and there are offline locations where I can get hardware.
Monitors needed? (Number, size, resolution, refresh rate) - No need
Budget range? (Include tax considerations) - Actual budget around 1500USD, but if it's justified, I'm willing to spend up to ~1900USD.
WiFi or wired connection? - Will need WiFi and maybe Bluetooth, but I should probably buy an adapter for Bluetooth.
Size/noise constraints? - Size: Preferably smaller and compact, but I understand that Mini-ITX stuff is more expensive and limited, so I've been trying to look for smaller MATX cases in hopes that parts for it would be cheaper. (Actually looking at the Lian Li & Dan Cases A3 because it came up on my YouTube home page) If there's a decent Mini-ITX build within the price range though, I wouldn't mind.
-Noise: Preferably quieter, but there isn't a really hard requirement for that because I'm most likely going to put it under my desk.
Cololighting preferences? - I want to go for a clean/inconspicuous look, so I don't need the RGB nor the glass side panels. Matte black is nice. But if the price for the RGB counterpart is really similar or even cheaper, I don't mind having some RGB parts.
Any other specific needs? - It's my first time building a PC, so I'd like it if the parts (mostly the case I guess?) are beginner-friendly.

• I'm leaning towards air cooling, but at the same time I'm not quite sure if air coolers would fit in smaller form factor cases as a lot of the small builds I've seen around the internet use AIOs.
  
• Currently considering an Intel i5-14600KF, but I see that AutoCAD's website recommends i7 or higher... but I'm not sure if an i7 would work within my budget. Could I get away with the i5, or should I switch to the 14th gen i7? Or maybe an older gen i7 would work? I believe that Fusion 360 depends on single core performance and not multi-core/GPU, so I guess that needs to be taken into consideration..
  
• For the GPU, I'm considering the RTX 4070 Super. I'm not sure if going for the 4070 Ti (not Ti Super) would be worth my money. To be fair, I don't think I need ray tracing, so I am not sure if Nvidia is worth it.
  
• I am not familiar with AMD, but I'm open to AMD recommendations if you think it's the better choice over Intel/Nvidia, since AMD is usually the more budget-friendly choice from what I've gathered.
  

Thank you for spending time on this post! Have a good day~

Hello, I hope you're having a good time! I'm looking for someone whom I can have conversations with in the long term but if you want to have a short conversation, that's okay as well. Who knows if we get along well and end up being in touch for years? I prefer talking to people within the age range of 18–25 as I have talked to older people all my life but it's fine if you're a bit older than the specified range.
Please read the post entirely before you decide to send a chat request or message. It will take about five minutes or more depending on your reading speed. You may skip this post if you can't bother reading it. This is only for people who love reading and typing lengthy messages, because that's the only way we can communicate with each other when we don't get enough time to have real-time conversations. I am mentioning this only to save your time; I don't mean to come off as rude. The messages I send can be way longer than this post if we happen to click, and people who can't read the post entirely won't bother reading my messages properly either, and that would be a waste of time and energy for both individuals. You might have seen my posts very often in case you visit this subreddit on a regular basis, but I assure you that I only post so frequently because I don't receive any responses—and when I do, they're from people who either can't hold a conversation for long or message me without reading the post at all.
A bit about me:
I'm interested in all types of visual and aural arts. Writing, drawing, listening and composing music, watching movies and photography (I'm an amateur though) are my interests and hobbies. I'm broke so I'm not a gamer. I do have a fairly powerful PC but with a low-end graphics card I play older games on. Nothing online though.
Speaking of music, I'm mostly interested in Jazz, Funk, Hip-Hop, R&B/Soul (both classic and modern). I like listening to The Weeknd, Prince, Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars, Sade, Aaliyah, The Isley Brothers and various artists from the 70s to late 2000s generally. I'm a movie buff so I can recommend you movies too if you're looking for something to watch. And yeah, I LOVE MEMES! Keep sending them all day and I won't complain!
I'm an ambivert (more of an introvert though). My MBTI is INFP-T if that matters. I'm looking for people who are willing to share the events which occur in everyday life, joy and sorrow, secrets, deepest fears, and build a genuine connection over the course of time. I'll be there for you throughout the good and bad times; I expect the same from you too. I am active on most social media platforms. We can move on to other platforms once you feel comfortable with me.
Now here's the important stuff:
I would appreciate it if you don't just send me a "Hi/Hello/Hey." Introduce yourself; the longer the introduction is, the better. Makes room for questions. Instead of simply stating that you like movies/music, mention what genres you prefer. Makes the conversation more interesting. Please put effort into maintaining the conversation. Ask plenty of questions with the data I have provided in this post so I know that you're actually interested in getting to know me as well rather than simply talking about yourself. I feel like an interviewer if the conversation is one-sided. Don't bother messaging me if you're not naturally inquisitive and just want to talk about yourself all the time. I won't respond to any short messages (4-8 lines). If you want to leave, don't ghost me without stating a reason if we've been talking for longer than two weeks. Just tell me that we can't get along if you think the conversation isn't going anywhere. I won't get offended.
Your gender, race, sexuality don't matter at all, but tell me your age and gender just so that I know who I am talking to and follow social etiquette. I absolutely love lengthy messages; I don't feel overwhelmed by them. So bonus points if you're capable of typing lengthy messages. I'm a person who would spend an hour(s) typing a well-thought lengthy message rather than having small talk in real time. I type as if I'm writing a letter. I can chat in real time as well, it's just that I don't get much time throughout the day and I'm active at odd hours. And time zones exist, unfortunately. Short messages or long messages, the amount of time and energy you have to spend will be the same anyway.
Please don't message me if you're just looking for people to kill your boredom and later abandon them. No, I'm not being rude. I have had enough. Those one word or one sentence responses lead nowhere. Also, if you're someone who wishes to stay anonymous forever even after talking for a considerable amount of time, I'm not the person you're looking for. This is an important thing to keep in mind. I am open to revealing my identity if we get along well so I would appreciate it if you're open minded as well. But that doesn't mean I want you to reveal your identity in the very beginning itself. However, I won't wait more than three months just for you to reveal your identity if we communicate regularly. In fact, it's a great feat to converse for longer than a month on the internet. I personally think that anonymity acts as a barrier in any kind of relationship. I would love to meet you in real life at some point in the future if we get along and stay in touch for a considerable amount of time.
In the past 12 years, I have talked to several people around the globe on different platforms who wished to stay anonymous. I had conversations with them for months and years, but they always considered me as a stranger and eventually left. I'm tired of being a disposable person. What's the point of having a friend without a name and a face? I have no reason to trust someone who doesn't trust me. You can call me picky; I indeed am. I don't want to have conversations where both parties only ask each other about hobbies and interests and leave once they feel there's nothing in common. That's the reason why I asked you to cover those topics when introducing yourself. And just because I have already talked about my interests and hobbies doesn't mean there's nothing more to know about me. Human connection is a lot more than mere interests and hobbies.
I would love to interact with someone who doesn't treat me like an AI chatbot and acknowledges the fact that I'm an actual human being with feelings and emotions beyond the digital screen who spends his valuable time and energy to communicate with people—precious time and energy that I'll never be able to get back. I understand that these connections over the internet are very fragile and I can't control things the way I want so if you're interested feel free to send me a message anyway. I enjoy having conversations with people even if only for a while. Sometimes people you expect to be in touch for years leave you while the ones you don't expect to be in touch for long end up staying for a long time. Nothing is set in stone. All I ask you is to not leave without notifying me. Yes, I know whatever I have expressed so far sounds contradictory, but that's how life works, right? Reminds me of this quote by Japanese author Haruki Murakami:
"Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another? We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything important about anyone?"
While I agree with the fact that it's not possible to get to know a person entirely, I think connecting with another human being is a beautiful experience in itself. In the end, we are just lost souls yearning for human connection; searching for people who will provide attention and affection and accept us as we are. If you're still reading this, it means you are a good listener and reader. Message me if we have similar interests or ideals and if you think we can be potential friends. It doesn't really matter whether we have similar interests or not though, I would love to have you as a friend.
There's a lot more to learn about me but I would rather tell you all that when we begin interacting with each rather than typing it all here. Feel free to ask me any questions. I'm open to having a conversation with people around the globe any time. I'm also very patient so I don't mind waiting for weeks or a month if the messages are lengthy. I understand that you might find all of this intimidating, but there's nothing about me to be afraid of. My messages can be lengthy, but only if you reciprocate my efforts and keep on adding stuff to the text. I know that this post sounds like a contract. I know I sound very serious but that's not entirely true. In fact, I can crack jokes sooo bad that will make you laugh. Thank you for spending your precious time reading this post. What are you waiting for? Text me right now! Feel free to message me even if you're seeing this several hours or days later.
Have a nice day/night and I hope you find someone to develop a strong bond with in case I'm not the person you're looking for. Take care of yourself and always stay hydrated!

Been putting in some serious hours lately (haven't we all lmao), and I've been pondering the weapons lineup in the game. While we've got a solid arsenal, there's always that itch for more, right? So, let's chat: What's missing in Rust's gun department?
Here are some fresh ideas I've been tossing around:

1. Railgun: Picture this bad boy—a cutting-edge weapon that hurls projectiles at insane speeds using electromagnetic force. Sure, it might take a while to charge up, but when it hits, it hits hard. Just imagine the chaos it'd bring to the battlefield. (although I'm not sure how well this would fit with the game I think it would be too cool to care aha)
2. Net Gun: Ever felt the need for a more humane way to deal with foes? Enter the net gun. It's all about non-lethal takedowns and snagging those slippery targets. Whether you're subduing an enemy or capturing some critters for dinner, this tool adds a whole new layer to Rust's combat dynamics.
3. Tranquilizer Gun: Sometimes, stealth is the name of the game. The tranquilizer gun lets you take down opponents quietly, putting them to sleep temporarily. It's perfect for those who prefer a more subtle approach to their missions, giving you the option to choose between lethal force or slipping by undetected.

What do you all think? Any other firearms you think would spice things up in Rust? Let's brainstorm together and see if we can't cook up some ideas that catch the devs' attention for future updates!

I took a week off of work and college had started their two-week break before the next semester. I took my chance and cleared my calendar and booked a trip to the town where my grandfather stayed while he was a journalist. The greyhound ride was a good time for me to figure out my approach, while the busy cityscape outside my window slowly faded into Southern African wilderness, nothing but trees and empty kilometers of road before I reached my stop, a homely town that seemed well connected to the rest despite the distance. It had been many years since my grandfather had set foot in this town, yet I could feel his influence. The roads were now cracked and showed their wear, shops and residences had been renovated and upgraded, looking more modern and slightly out of place.
The hotel my grandfather stayed at while on the investigation was now a more comfortable looking lodge, with a view over the rolling foothills of the Drakensberg and the surrounding cities, one of which I could see my home, vaguely. The sun had begun to set and I still needed to get my information from the residents. I unpacked my things after booking my room and set out, like a tourist with a pen and notebook in hand asking anyone what they may know. To no one’s surprise, they mostly looked at me like I was insane or a knock off Leon Schuster trying to get them to react in a funny way. I had almost given up completely until I sat near one of the social areas where they would light a fire and residents at the lodge would sit and relax while watching the sun go down. I was alone there and just sat drawing the distant landscape dreading the silence for the next week while I waited for the next bus to arrive and I’d return home. Two days passed in mainly silence.
That was until a man sat near me, dressed in weathered jeans and an old top with work boots covered in dust and dirt, his face obscured by a large hat covering his face, his hands in his pockets even as he sat but his arms almost looked skeleton like, his long white hair flowing from either side of his hat.
“Can I help you?” I asked, feeling like he was trying to get my attention.
“No, but I can help you. You cause quite a lot of noise, trying to get the people to talk about something that scares them.” He said, his voice didn’t come across as harsh, more like cautious. The first person who decided to talk to me in a casual manner since a couple days ago. He wanted to tell me what I wanted to know.
Without any hesitation I turned to the page I set aside for notes when the man chuckled.
“Something funny?” I asked.
“You’re going to need more pages than that.” He said, flicking his hat up slightly while he sat back and got comfortable.
“Trust me, this is all I need.” I said feeling like I had to tiptoe around the subject as to not let the opportunity slip, but I also felt overwhelmingly anxious, almost like someone else was watching us. I felt my gaze shift every so often over my shoulder trying to find the entity that was staring a hole through me, apart from a quiet street crossing and some pedestrians; nothing.
“Something there?” Asked the man, as I shook off the feeling. I started getting a bit annoyed by the short answers and questions.
“Just feel like-, never mind. If you’re ready to help give me some information, what should I call you?” I asked as the man took a moment.
“Call me ‘Farmhand’. Since it’ll sound better than my real name, you’ll find that out in time.” Said Farmhand as I wrote that down in my notebook and began phrasing the question in my mind as to get the proper answer. Furiously tapping my pen on the page.
“Just ask, I already know what you want to know.” He said, I looked up from the page, slightly irritated by the confidence.
“How can you be so sure, Farmhand?” I blurted.
“You aren’t the first person to go on this goose chase. The Lady in White is very particular in her targets.” Farmhand explained, I wrote down everything.
“What’s her story, like the true story; why does she haunt this stretch of road?” I asked. Farmhand chuckled.
“She doesn’t haunt, she’s simply looking for a lift.” He said in the distinct Afrikaans twang that so many white South Africans have, it’s by no means ominous, more of a conversation encouragement than anything else.
“A lift? To where?” I asked. I heard so many different types of tales, from her being hostile to men, a companion to young women and a bit of both to younger males. But the main part that stayed the same was that they were alone.
“Her matric dance, my seun.” Farmhand said, the only other person to call me ‘Seun’ was my dad, the Afrikaans for son.
“What exactly happened?” I asked, pen at the ready.
“The legend goes far back, but the main story that my pa always told me was that she was with her boyfriend in the car, they went along this road and broke down; one of the worst places to break down since around eight is when the busses shut down and the last train has departed from the station. She chose to try down the street, bearing in mind how dangerous that is these days, it was a little bit less so then.” Farmhand said as he took off his hat, keeping his gaze at the setting sun.
“How much less dangerous?” I asked.
“Snakes, though the venomous Boomslang doesn’t go out of its way to kill you, no Black Mamba’s live up here. No, we have jackals and caracals, they hunt in packs and pick you off in the dead of night.” Farmhand explained.
“Is that how it happened, how she died?” Farmhand chuckled lightly.
“Nope, she saw a car in the distance and flagged them down, asked them to help take her to town or help her boyfriend. The man took her up the road and when they started to approach where she had broken down, the boyfriend tried flagging them down. Her joy turned to terror as the stranger sped up and before the boyfriend knew it, the car had hit him. The last she saw of him was him tumbling down the hill among the trees.” Farmhand said. Placing his hat on his chest, closing his eyes and bowing his head. After a short silence, I asked:
“What happened next?”
“Well, the girl was hysterical, the car was still speeding up and she yelled at the man to stop, and kept pleading for him to let her go. Eventually the man had stopped, the girl got out and started calling to the boyfriend to see if he had somehow survived, as she did, the stranger hit her on the back of her head and had his way with her.” Farmhand said, provoking a sour taste in my mouth, a sheer sense of guilt welled up in my stomach.
“Now I understand why no one was willing to tell me the story.” I said, slightly defeated. The man put a hand on my knee like my grandfather used to and looked me in the eye. For the first time I noticed his wrinkled but kind face, he smiled.
“It’s not a story everyone can stomach. Come, let’s finish this so you can write your story.” Farmhand said as he sat back on the couch, a thought struck me; was I so obvious that he knew I was a journalist writing a story? Because I don’t remember ever disclosing the fact I was a journalist. Regardless, we continued.
“After the stranger- did the act, what happened?” I asked uneasily, feeling sick to my stomach.
“He put her in his car, and drove back to the spot where they broke down, but a half a kilometer away she woke up and he pushed her out of the car at high speed. She should’ve died there, but she crawled, half her body scratched, scraped and broken. She died slowly and alone. Before she died she heard her boyfriend calling for her.” Farmhand continued.
“Did he ever find her?”
There was silence, even the birds had stopped chirping and the street had gone quiet.
“No, I don’t believe he did. Whether or not he died looking is another story, but that’s not what you’re here for.” The Farmer said as he stood up, placed his hat on his head and began to walk off, before he passed me, he put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it.
“Promise me one thing; be careful. Can you do that for me, Alex?” Farmhand said before he patted me on the shoulder and walked off without waiting for my answer. I turned to confront him but he was gone, it couldn’t have been more than a second, but it was like he vanished into thin air. I was left confused and bewildered. The notes were real, the pen marks solid and clear. The events I was informed of felt vivid, yet the silence that fell around me felt otherworldly. I was feeling lost and exhausted before, now I was more awake than I had ever been.
Around eight that night, the sun had set and the mountain had cast a chilling shadow over the down I stayed, sleet had been reported near us and snow on the mountain. If I was going to get the answer I so desperately wanted, I was going to have to earn it. I walked to my car, steam cascading from my nostrils as the cold air turned frigid with even the slightest of breezes. I got in my car and drove to the first rest point along the mountain to gather some supplies: Some water and snacks, a couple of pre-charged battery packs for my recorder as I don’t want to stop every fifteen to twenty minutes to write down my experience. This would also prove if I was going insane or not, when asked by a couple of the staff at the store, I told them my intentions and they sounded interested for the first time. When I left I tested the packs and sure enough; fully charged and my recorder was clean and ready to be used.
I approached the entrance to the mountain pass that had been the setting for this ghost story that has latched on to me since childhood. No street lamps, no signs, yet the road itself was painted brightly and every so often a glowing marker was placed to ensure you knew when to turn and when to slow down. The threshold felt like a portal, the point where light didn’t reach and would not pass, even down to the road, where it was light, it looked traveled on, occupied and used; the mountain pass looked pristine; almost as if it hadn’t been touched for decades. As I looked beyond the pass, far below what was called the foothills of the Drakensberg, a large highway was built, the lights from the cars, the lamps and signs glowed for kilometers in the distance. After delaying for twenty minutes, I turned my car on, flicked on the high-beams and began my journey.
Every few minutes I would check my recorder, to make sure it was on and still functioning, it lay on the passenger seat in plain view, I could see some bright lights giving me the information if the screen was somehow obscured. It was a long while before anything happened. Maybe it was paranoia, maybe it was anxiety, whatever it was wouldn’t stop me from exploring this legend. Worst thing that could happen is I travel sixty kilometers and nothing happens and it turns out my grandfather was just trying to scare me. I turned again after a lengthy passage of time and I got my answer.
I don’t remember stopping, I don’t even think I saw anyone on the side of the road, maybe it was while I was looking at my recorder, but I felt a cold presence behind me.
“Do you know where you’re going?” Asked a voice, a quiet but feminine voice. A chill erupted throughout my body; a violent sense of panic coursed through my mind because I knew where the sound came from. It came from behind me. My hands began to shake but I dared not take my hands away from the wheel.
“Do you?” It asked again. The answer got caught in my throat, I found myself unable to speak.
“No, not really.” I managed though my voice felt hoarse.
“You seem to know what you want.” The voice said again, it sounded curious. I stayed silent, the road twisted and wound around the mountain in a chaotic and frantic fashion.
“Are you scared?” She asked again, the voice coming from next to me. I turned to look but a cold hand kept my eyes glued to the road.
“Keep your eyes on the road, enough people have died here.” She said, as my nerves calmed slightly.
“Who are you?” I asked, my eyes focused and the world around me much less than an echo.
“Why do you want to know?” She asked, sounding more like she was in a void, her voice had more of an echo than anything else.
“I want to know what happened here. The true story.” I said after taking a breath and gathering my nerves, the road seemed to calm down, from sharp uphill turns to moonlight sweeping curves that allowed my gaze to rest as the shadow of the trees passed us by.
“Can I trust you?” She asked, the question rang through my head as I remember what Farmhand said, how she trusted a stranger who took advantage of her.
“Yes. Yes you can.” I said after a while. The figure turned to me; I could feel her eyes scrutinize every inch of me.
“You’re not like him?” Her questions kept hammering into me, I felt a mix of fear and guilt, knowing who she was referring to.
“I won’t hurt you. I want to help.” I said after a while, gathering a fragile sense of courage as my hands shook furiously. The road seemed to twist and turn, harsh rising hills. Sharp corners told the tale of her many victims as my headlights passed by, the scrapes and dents of hard hits leading to a drop that seemed to have no end, not a single tree could be seen and the moonlight from high above could not pierce the dark veil that lingered joust over the edge of the road. After a while, she spoke again.
“Alright, I trust you.” She said as I allowed my eyes to wander, the figure relaxed in the passenger seat for a while, my recorder on the center console as I saw her blue skin, almost emitting a frozen chill as I saw her dress, torn and tattered, my stomach felt uneasy when I saw bruising and swelling near her inner thighs. Her hands crossed in her lap as I saw the scratches and what looked like deep cuts on her arms and exposed shoulders from the straps on her dress. I could not see much of her face as it seemed her face was bleeding.
“What happened that night?” I asked, concentrating on the road again. My passenger stayed quiet for a while, quietly shuddering and sniffing before she spoke again.
“I was happy, a man I loved decided I would be his date for the matric dance. We’d known each other since we were children. My best friend. We were driving along this road to get to the lodge, where the dance was being held.” Her voice sounded sourly-joyful, her hands didn’t move from her lap much, so as to not distract me with her hand movements.
“It was a while before town, the car started shaking. I thought the tire had blown, but smoke came from the front. We stopped nearby.” She pointed and I could see the flashing of hazard lights and the smell of smoke invaded my nostrils.
“I thought I’d get some help, he said he’d be fine and that I should hurry back. I walked for a while; it was a cold night still. I walked for, I don’t know how long. But I managed to get an old man to stop. He said he’d help; we just need to get my man and he’d sort out the car.” She said as the road began to crack and fall apart at the edge.
“Do you know what he did?” She asked me, I assumed it was a test to see if I was listening.
“He deceived you.” I answered. She nodded, looking down for a short while before continuing.
“He asked why I was alone on this road. I told him I wasn’t, that I was on my way to town with my man, and I told him about who he was, what he meant to me. I was overjoyed when I saw him, my joy turned to confusion, to horror as he sped up and ran him over. I saw his body roll into the trees, I thought for sure he was dead.” She pointed to the part of the road that had a piece of cloth swaying in the breeze, marking where her man was hit and last seen by her.
“After I witnessed my childhood innocence be ripped from me, he finally stopped, that butcher! I blacked out with a sharp pain, when next I woke, I couldn't feel my legs and my fingers were numb. Just before I said anything, he pushed me out of his car. I remember falling, the road was like ice, all I could do was crawl.” She said, her anger translating to the road shifting and breaking apart, turning violently uphill only for the sheer drops and sharp turns that threatened to throw me off the edge. I barely managed to keep the car on the road as the road shifted again, it was so silent that I could hear the tires screeching like a distant wail.
“I’ve searched for years, if he’d ever return, I’d make sure he never left like he left me.” She said as the note my grandfather left in his books, the man who was panicked and sketchy, had his autopsy reveal that he was of the elderly group. I felt a slight pang of guilt as I realized that the man who did this to her was probably dead for a while. I weathered her storm of rage as the stretch of road became calm, as did she.
“I’m sorry you suffered like that; I wish there was something I could do.” I said unconsciously. I felt her gaze soften to me; her rage calmed as she went back to her neutral position.
“He was called ‘Farmhand. Because he was trustworthy, kind and reliable..” My eyes widened as the realization crashed on my face: He lived.
“If you aren’t like how he was, then you don’t deserve to leave this road.” Her voice was harsh, the road began to fall apart, the cracks forming as parts fell away like they had been falling apart for years, though my body was fatigued, I kept the car on the road. As uncomfortable as the ride was, the road soon turned into dirt paths, completely unlit and unpredictable. It felt like hours before it returned to normal, albeit slowly, my hands still shook relentlessly. I understood her outrage. I couldn’t imagine the trauma she experienced, the sadness.
“If you would like, I can take you back to town.” I asked. In retrospect, that was a stupid question.
“I don’t know.” She replied, unsure and confused.
“No rush, we have time.” I said as I turned around and began my long drive back to town. The road swerved and waved calmly, completely different to the approach. I drove to the point where The Lady in White was last seen, after a while I parked my car near the spot and looked to my side. The woman wasn’t there. I looked at my watch and my recorder. The sun had begun to rise over the hills, the air was crisp and fresh, I stayed for a while to just take in the sight of a calm morning before turning my recorder off and driving back.
I returned to my hotel room and after placing everything on the desk, I fell onto my bed and fell asleep, my body was exhausted and my mind was fatigued beyond words. I fell into a dreamless sleep and woke up in the afternoon. Having something to eat I went over the events from last night, pen and paper at the ready, I prepared to hear myself talking to nothing and no one. The doubt set in before I even hit the play button, after a while of convincing myself that I have some concrete evidence, I pressed play. To my surprise, it sounded like there were two people in the car, me and a woman, although the woman’s voice was covered by static. I wrote down all I could, that is what you’re reading.
The next couple of days went by and nothing special happened, I kept to myself most of the time. While analyzing everything I captured. It all seemed like a dream, an incredibly vivid dream. The last note I made during this investigation was: if something like that exists here, surely more stories remain in this part of the world. As the trees faded into the distance as the bus trundled along the trail back, the forest retreating as I returned back to the concrete and steel, it wasn’t long before the questions I had before, followed me home.

Shortform

• Massive exploration of the Society beyond the big names we've spent time with in Across
• Villains forsaking their rivalries for survival and universes paving their own roads
• Gwen temporarily eating it but coming back, then leaning on her comic self (A variant)'s new Ghost-Spider ident to mark her defying fate's scythe

Premise

Here is the textual taxonomy of trilogys as I've heard in (obscure, hard-to-find) writing structure lessons

• Installment 1: Exposit - What is the subject
• Installment 2: Analyze - What is the subject's meaning
• Installment 3: Perspectivize - What is the subject's value and suasoria

Across may not have been a conclusive Act 2, but it is definitely a valid standalone one

• Expanded the 'verse and the major cast by throwing a curve into their relationships and own philosophies
• Delved deeper into what makes a Spider-Man by presenting a free will vs. determinism arc a la Civil War that also happens to have metacommentary

"I'ma do my own thing."
"We're supposed to be the good guys."
Miles summarized his new path throughout the movie, then Gwen called out the Society for their enabling of so much death and suffering to serve a misguided dogma.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/File:Spider-Man_Across_the_Spider-Verse_poster_003_textless.jpg
There's almost certainly gonna an all-out ideological civil war (fists or not, composite of MCU and comics, but Spiders-only) like that split poster teased.
Gonna be grimly hilarious seeing Spinneret/Spiderling fight Peter B. and Mayday (the former are on Miguel's side to the left, along with Insomniac Spidey)
Yes, I believe there will be a few more new support characters in Beyond - there's a reason certain folks were at the front, and it's just really curious and a wasted opportunity that this Spider-MJ didn't interact at all with this active version of her other (stillborn) daughter or her (Mayday-616B) dad.
I very much appreciate the lifting of other Spidey variants to the zeitgeist fold - Noir, Ham, Gwendy-65, the UK/Punk and Indian ones, the weirdos like Parkedcar from Not! Pixar's Cars, a damn popsicle possibly (lol), a plushie, etc. - but they

Events and Themes

1. Universes

Serving the Installment 3 role, Beyond will probably tie up loose ends and make the above themes reverberate across universes. Like, for 42:

• Miles Prowler can prove that the world doesn't always need Spider-Heroes to save itself, only the spirit of the concept - Spider-Man isn't the center of the multiverse, and given the last movie's title, it will navigate its own fate independent of any Spider at all - let the world do its own thing

Beyond the 'verse of men of spiders, Reality-42 rises up against villainy.

• Maybe Kingpin and Dr. Octopus return someway, then emulate their TAS 1994 counterparts in allying with the Spiders out of existential pragmatics

2. Characters and Developments

By "reverberate," the Spider-Hero question is going to strike real nerves that change the Society and the world, making them examine the morality of the war they fight against anomalies like Spot; survival at all means and costs vs. idealistic stand against fate. And for certain Spiders, we could get more screentime with certain Society members and ex-members - preferably Spinneret and Spiderling, the Insomniac Spideys, and Scarlet Spider - and Endgame-ify Beyond's length.

• The RYV (Reality-18119, Renew Your Vows) Parkers confide with the others including Peter B. on family and how do they keep it together in light of their role as preserving fate and existence itself
• PS4/5 bros relate their experiences of loss and keeping going, especially to 1610B Miles. A great way of giving a layman on the games' plots while relaying their themes to the wider non-gamer audience
• Ben Reilly (Scarlet bro), being a Pete clone and a technical predecessor to Miles, will have his status put to address. His struggles with his inheritance and identity - bearing the names of Peter's parental figures - will probably mirror Ultimate Spider-Woman, and hopefully, he's a major outcrier against Miguel's misguided cause
• Jess-332's and Peter B's babies will interact, leading to the former's moral realization due to Peter B's time with Miles being the reason for his family's reconstruction - influenced solely by extrauniversal (of course anomalous) factors. Throw that Madame Web Spidey (Julia Carpenter) into the fray somehow?
• Interuniversal linkage like in the comics (616/928 and 65/8) can be explored to further the fate-changing theme; whether 928B the bad future of 616B is an inevitability - we haven't really explored 928B - and whether 42 is 1610B's worst possible self and how it can change. The Miles/Gwen dynamic could play here too, 65B and 1610B and the references to the number 8 (which happens to resemble the infinity sign - "infinite Spider possibilities") in Across. Not suggesting that Comics Earth 8's characters play any role, tho, 'cuz per the themes, the duo should connect on their terms
• Variant Miguels when, Sony - like the variant MJs, Harrys, Normans, Flashes, and Gwens, etc. Get freaking Edge of Time, not just Ultimate and 1994, in it
• The locked-up anomalous villains perhaps even helping stop Spot - like Kingpin and Ock above. Basically No Way Home's scenario but tweaked a bit and writ large; let them decide whether to have a new lease of life or to keep their exploits going - their outcomes, their terms as usual. I wonder how would Atari Osborn fare, though, XD

Feel free to add more :) Not quite a Marvel binger yet, XD

3. Fates

Another element to be addressed is the room elephant of canon events. Their loopholes, their flexibility have to be expanded upon: They are fluid like time's arrows and oceans. For one:

• George lives? Sorry, but Gwen's relationship with him remains strained, on top of her guilt from treachery and deception. Also, the canon event ain't really death, but the Captain losing their job

Maybe we even trade one event for another, as in a major death of sorts. In my opinion:

• Not Peter B., because he's a living meta rebuttal to people holding off (at the very least) on an aged-up/married/parent Peter, the 616 editorial included. Him dying, let alone Mayday (toddler, so definite write-off), would undermine this subtext
• Not Jess, 'cuz she's a mother and despite her jerkish mentor habits seems willing to look the other way for turncoats like Margo/Byte
• Not Jeff, 'cuz that would just prove Miggy's point in light of George being living proof, as well as utterly render worthless all the effort thrown into saving him
• Not Miguel (yes, how dare I), 'cuz for all his pain-motivated harshness, he deserves better than the cliche'd fatal redemption trope of villains, of which he technically ain't one (and don't "Thanos" this as unlike Migs, he knew of better options but foregone it)

Here's a unique twist: The mastermind behind this Spider- conspiracy grows a conscience after all the breaking lectures against his warped view of canon events, then resolves to save as many lives as possible, dropping all pretenses of controlling the Spider-War
At risk to himself, he'll unhesitatingly save lives while one/some of those who blindly followed him give theirs. As shitty as his Society's turned out to be, they still have their main directive of fixing multiversal incursions, and someone has to keep giving the orders, someone with the most drive and commitment (especially for atonement)
Why on Miguel? Matured thinking aside, it evokes how science and philosophy works; cognitive science has this cliché of at least two sides theorizing extremes that are contrary to one another, and as time passes with discovery, the proof points to both sides having a point and deciding on a compromise; this of course goes beyond simple personal disagreement
So who'll it be?
Spider-gents and ladies, none other than Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy of Earth-65B
In the vein of MCU Aunt May being her Pete's Uncle Ben delivering that responsibility quote, and through it occurs the Spider-Verse's true Ultimate Fallout/Death of a Spider event this way
Gwen being slain and (certainly) coming back would be a wakeup call to both her world and the Society, as well as the latter group's morality in their internal strife and conflict against Spot. Redeem her image to everybody, Miles included, while allowing them to get together on solitary terms
That way:

• Miguel's right that being a Spider is a sacrifice, it's just their assigned canon events ain't 1:1 across every universe
• Miles' right that you can have and eat two cakes - meaning canon events can be alleviated (such as debris falling on Singh without killing him) - it's just that there's a cost

It'd also be a roundabout redemption for blindly following the Society's beliefs and causing unnecessary pain to Miles, deeper than "My well-meaning side right, your well-meaning side wrong" - no, both sides can have their two cakes; say, the rest save Jeff, Gwen herself - the motherless one - saves Rio, let 1610B not be 1610A in this particular way
I'ma spitball here, but it's kinda like Nolanverse (TDKR) Batman, come to think of it. Maybe George is informed of and reveals his daughter's "demise" and publicizes her ident? The latter I admit is questionable
Maybe Gwen goes to 1610B and RVs with Miles to Florence - there's this café on the banks of the Arno - for a fine evening sitting there and ordering a Fernet Branca
XD

(Potential) Foreshadowing

• Proof for the 42 antiheroes' case:

... "We wanted to craft this moment where Miles encounters this powerful figure in his life that he loved so much and he lost," says director Justin K. Thompson. "That's when he realizes that he is not really in his own dimension, as well as the gravity of what he has lost. In this reality, Aaron had to shake off his life of crime and became a surrogate father figure to Miles."
... In this alternate reality, the Sinister Six have been able to flourish and take over the world. "Criminality runs rampant," says Thompson. "We wanted to create a world where it felt like Aaron and Miles G. Morales of Earth-42 [this reality's counterpart to Miles Morales] are the only heroes.
Zahed, R. (2023). Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: The Art of the Movie. Abrams Books. THE WORLDS → Earth-42, p.190
... This version of the character was never bitten by a radioactive spider and doesn't have any superpowers, but he has fallen into the role of becoming the vigilante the Prowler, under the tutelage of his uncle Aaron. ...
Zahed, R. (2023). Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: The Art of the Movie. Abrams Books. THE WORLDS → Miles G. Morales: The Prowler, p.200

• Here's a pattern: We meet multiple Spidey-Peters and our intro hero is, well, RIPeter, then some podcast revealed we'd be meeting multiple Gwens in Beyond; timestamp 17:51-18:45

Interviewer: Will we see other multiversal variants of Gwen Stacy in the future even if they don't have spider powers, like you do with MJ, Uncle Aaron, and Miles?
Lord: Currently yes. ... But there’s one I’m very excited about.
Miller: Yes, yeah, I know exactly the one you’re talking about.
Lord: You know the one I’m thinking of, which is based on... I’m not gonna say anything, I’m not gonna say anything.
Miller: But it is sort of plot-integral, I would say.
Interviewer: If there are other multiversal variants of Gwen in Beyond the Spider-Verse, will they impact her arc, her relationship with Miles?
Lord: I would say yes.

The Pete variants showed up after Blondie's demise, so they might reverse the sequence here - as I said, a bookend.
Yea, all these signs totally bode well for the other blonde Spidey here
https://preview.redd.it/kpz7vzvub64d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d25e78b18f3fc82e58eb1516d1ac915fc130470

• Friendly reminder they referenced fuckin' Ultimate Fallout of all storylines in Gwen's room, under which she mostly lingers while speaking with her dad. Are you telling me that scene just happened to be shot like that? No, they orchestrated it! L&M! The story that deals with Miles' overall debut and the (of course, cue pathos) fallout of 1610A Spidey's demise! Been struggling to find and spot it honestly, damn lighting and coloring
• Guess what's 1610A Pete (the original Ultimate comics version, not blond RIPeter)'s death age? 16, exactly 65B Gwen's present age. MCU Pete's too when he was snapped
• Notice the last part of the Canon Event exposition scene; Hobie's got the Spider-Man No More comic panel, Jess-332 the If This Be My Destiny one, Peter B. the wedding, and Gwen? Spidey rising from the grave in Kraven's Last Hunt, modified with herself doing the feat. The kicker here: Neither Hobie nor Gwen's displayed events have official releases yet, although Hobie did say he opted out of chasing Miles - which is to say she's next and last, as well as #4 (so deathly the connotations) on the shown list

In Defense

Now calm down before you web pitchforks on me

• People keep saying there has to be a much more nuanced wrap-up - an idea with traction around these subs in a good way; to this day, people argue whether that Mumbattan hole was Spot BS or a canon event's unraveling. Mine has that nuance IMO
• Migs up and stated Mumbattan wasn't their first canon event ruptures rodeo and they couldn't save some 'verses from them, why would he be bullshitting or even fully wrong on CEs if he had that Spider team with specialized equipment for canon event containment? They were conveniently there right as that hole formed, and hell, they could reconcile that hole with the Dead Migs dimension where everything digitally evaporates as the latter being the end result
• He put on his shitlist Spider-Holland (maybe along with Maguire, Garfield (the light one)) for a reason - not hesitating to save MCU MJ (Michelle Jones-Watson) rather than let her be Spider-Tom's ASM-121 moment - although one can argue the memory wipe counts as first love loss, along with his Iron Man being his police captain canon event - and Raimi-verse Gwen is very much (per that meme) hot, single, and alive. Observing Sinister, Supreme, and 838/Illuminati-Strange's destroyed realities made him a rage button for 2099
• Showing the other 'verses like the comic-based What Ifs and that Armored Spider-Man one from the 1994 cartoon? It's kind of like a cheat out of the dilemma, and I'm not sure the other viewers would agree. Miguel also knows of Dr. Strange and possibly his What If? versions
  • Before someone "Absolute Points solve themselves, Society's unneeded" me, we know too the APs are a nascent concept and Miguel probably thought no two universes will always solve themselves and CEs are probably spontaneous - maybe a day, a week, or even a year plus, they will happen, scapegoat or not
  • To the people who say Migs was mistaken in how he destroyed that reality and that it was an Incursion: IT WASN'T ONE, because it would have caused a collision course between that 'verse and 928B, which I don't think they have any means to stop - only someone like Strange. Aside from the trolley sacrifice of one Earth, we're not privy to what are the other seven ways to averting Incursions. Guess what, Gabri's reality went poof on its apparent own while 928B stayed very much alive. Didn't even look like 928B was approaching from the skies at the time either
  • Returning to Miles' side, I also hear of the fixed time points comparison from Dr. Who; I'd like to point out the Doctor was able to fake his death by hiding inside a, uh, humanoid ship at Lake Silencio, so I've read, despite records saying so
• They keep insisting "First time for everything," right, plus the cake stuff? Why not a Venom Blast resuscitation somehow on the brink of death, then being comatose or some other critical injury so the "lost Lenore" event doesn't stick? Or! In the style of BvS Dawn of Justice and What if? Spider-Man The Other (plus Ultimate Gwen ofc)...symbiotic resurrection (possibly even transporting that one symbiote drop in that bar in the MCU), and cue Gwenom arc in some spinoff like Spider-Women
• Alternatively, to avoid the fridged LI trope absolutely, Rio gets the Ultimate comics treatment of death somehow - but as said repeatedly, doing one's own thing, and I think this Spider-War's seen enough dead Moraleses. Miles has already grown and seen enough from the other Spiders' losses and his own. Honestly, people need to hear comic quotes often, take Mark Waid's Daredevil run:

Rachel Cole: You know what gives me the strength? My loss. We're alike that way, I imagine. Admit it, nobody who's a stranger to that particular pain could ever be as driven as us.
Daredevil: Never... Don't you ever say that to me ever again, that is a repellent statement, it's a vomituous insult to every cop, every fireman, every soldier alive who steps up to fight for those who can't! I am sorry for your loss, but if you genuinely believe that only the death of a loved one can motivate a human being to take up a cause...then get your pathetic cynical ass out of my way so I can do my job!

It's relevant because Rachel's stance here was that people like them who fight for causes are solely inspired by loss, only for Matt to verbally skewer her. The subtext here, synthesizing it with the Spidey mythos is that it's misguided to think that losing forever more loved ones is the only way to make a true Spider-Hero.
Flip the narrative and say "Villainy only happens if they're abused/poorly raised, alas, poor villain;" one is warranted to call it a vomitous insult to every abuse victim/improperly raised junior out there who became better than their elders/superiors - i.e. not go evil.
Either way, the greater gist of this is losing a close one for good isn't the way, emphasis on "for good"

Future Implications

Wrapping everything up like above (I mean the objectives), one way or another (not necessarily mine), would show full commitment to the theme of forging one's own destiny right down to the metatextual. The Spidersoc let confirmation bias blind themselves to possibilities and seemingly have yet to expose themselves to the preestablished branch realities where, say, Spider-People lose nobody or a Gwen Stacy ties neatly her romance quest with a Spidey. The themes of doing your own thing openly and honestly and in safety - rather than requesting permission from broken systems - resonate much with an Excel list: People who are queeof colowomen/disabled
Beyond that obviousness, we have disabled Spideys, Muslim Spideys (that female UK one), Blob-fat Spideys - even PLUSHIE Spideys, just to name a few, all to show the movie being the most diverse and inclusive Spidey work to date. These themes are so incredibly applicable to the lives of atypical people or otherwise people who live under systems that aren't designed for them to succeed. IE: POC, women, queer people, people with disabilities, etc. One can argue "doing your own thing" was what made ItSV such a breakthrough success and a decade phenomenon: Everything about the animation
I get that a teen girl dying, even temporarily - especially one who resonates much with LGBT (transgwender specifically) themes - is real bad optics, but we went through this before with Luz Noceda (bi rep exactly) from The Owl House, and things landed on their feet :)
If/When she comes back to crimefighting, this would be the moment she goes by Ghost Spider like her A self - a Gwen who fought fate and died for it, but another Spider loved her so much, he raised her from death to life in Ultimate defiance (getting flowery prose here) that prevails

Shortform

• Massive exploration of the Society beyond the big names we've spent time with in Across
• Villains forsaking their rivalries for survival and universes paving their own roads
• Gwen temporarily eating it but coming back, then leaning on her comic self (A variant)'s new Ghost-Spider ident to mark her defying fate's scythe

Premise

Here is the textual taxonomy of trilogys as I've heard in (obscure, hard-to-find) writing structure lessons

• Installment 1: Exposit - What is the subject
• Installment 2: Analyze - What is the subject's meaning
• Installment 3: Perspectivize - What is the subject's value and suasoria

Across may not have been a conclusive Act 2, but it is definitely a valid standalone one

• Expanded the 'verse and the major cast by throwing a curve into their relationships and own philosophies
• Delved deeper into what makes a Spider-Man by presenting a free will vs. determinism arc a la Civil War that also happens to have metacommentary

"I'ma do my own thing."
"We're supposed to be the good guys."
Miles summarized his new path throughout the movie, then Gwen called out the Society for their enabling of so much death and suffering to serve a misguided dogma.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/File:Spider-Man_Across_the_Spider-Verse_poster_003_textless.jpg
There's almost certainly gonna an all-out ideological civil war (fists or not, composite of MCU and comics, but Spiders-only) like that split poster teased.
Gonna be grimly hilarious seeing Spinneret/Spiderling fight Peter B. and Mayday (the former are on Miguel's side to the left, along with Insomniac Spidey)
Yes, I believe there will be a few more new support characters in Beyond - there's a reason certain folks were at the front, and it's just really curious and a wasted opportunity that this Spider-MJ didn't interact at all with this active version of her other (stillborn) daughter or her (Mayday-616B) dad.
I very much appreciate the lifting of other Spidey variants to the zeitgeist fold - Noir, Ham, Gwendy-65, the UK/Punk and Indian ones, the weirdos like Parkedcar from Not! Pixar's Cars, a damn popsicle possibly (lol), a plushie, etc. - but they

Events and Themes

1. Universes

Serving the Installment 3 role, Beyond will probably tie up loose ends and make the above themes reverberate across universes. Like, for 42:

• Miles Prowler can prove that the world doesn't always need Spider-Heroes to save itself, only the spirit of the concept - Spider-Man isn't the center of the multiverse, and given the last movie's title, it will navigate its own fate independent of any Spider at all - let the world do its own thing

Beyond the 'verse of men of spiders, Reality-42 rises up against villainy.

• Maybe Kingpin and Dr. Octopus return someway, then emulate their TAS 1994 counterparts in allying with the Spiders out of existential pragmatics

2. Characters and Developments

By "reverberate," the Spider-Hero question is going to strike real nerves that change the Society and the world, making them examine the morality of the war they fight against anomalies like Spot; survival at all means and costs vs. idealistic stand against fate. And for certain Spiders, we could get more screentime with certain Society members and ex-members - preferably Spinneret and Spiderling, the Insomniac Spideys, and Scarlet Spider - and Endgame-ify Beyond's length.

• The RYV (Reality-18119, Renew Your Vows) Parkers confide with the others including Peter B. on family and how do they keep it together in light of their role as preserving fate and existence itself
• PS4/5 bros relate their experiences of loss and keeping going, especially to 1610B Miles. A great way of giving a layman on the games' plots while relaying their themes to the wider non-gamer audience
• Ben Reilly (Scarlet bro), being a Pete clone and a technical predecessor to Miles, will have his status put to address. His struggles with his inheritance and identity - bearing the names of Peter's parental figures - will probably mirror Ultimate Spider-Woman, and hopefully, he's a major outcrier against Miguel's misguided cause
• Jess-332's and Peter B's babies will interact, leading to the former's moral realization due to Peter B's time with Miles being the reason for his family's reconstruction - influenced solely by extrauniversal (of course anomalous) factors. Throw that Madame Web Spidey (Julia Carpenter) into the fray somehow?
• Interuniversal linkage like in the comics (616/928 and 65/8) can be explored to further the fate-changing theme; whether 928B the bad future of 616B is an inevitability - we haven't really explored 928B - and whether 42 is 1610B's worst possible self and how it can change. The Miles/Gwen dynamic could play here too, 65B and 1610B and the references to the number 8 (which happens to resemble the infinity sign - "infinite Spider possibilities") in Across. Not suggesting that Comics Earth 8's characters play any role, tho, 'cuz per the themes, the duo should connect on their terms
• Variant Miguels when, Sony - like the variant MJs, Harrys, Normans, Flashes, and Gwens, etc. Get freaking Edge of Time, not just Ultimate and 1994, in it
• The locked-up anomalous villains perhaps even helping stop Spot - like Kingpin and Ock above. Basically No Way Home's scenario but tweaked a bit and writ large; let them decide whether to have a new lease of life or to keep their exploits going - their outcomes, their terms as usual. I wonder how would Atari Osborn fare, though, XD

Feel free to add more :) Not quite a Marvel binger yet, XD

3. Fates

Another element to be addressed is the room elephant of canon events. Their loopholes, their flexibility have to be expanded upon: They are fluid like time's arrows and oceans. For one:

• George lives? Sorry, but Gwen's relationship with him remains strained, on top of her guilt from treachery and deception. Also, the canon event ain't really death, but the Captain losing their job

Maybe we even trade one event for another, as in a major death of sorts. In my opinion:

• Not Peter B., because he's a living meta rebuttal to people holding off (at the very least) on an aged-up/married/parent Peter, the 616 editorial included. Him dying, let alone Mayday (toddler, so definite write-off), would undermine this subtext
• Not Jess, 'cuz she's a mother and despite her jerkish mentor habits seems willing to look the other way for turncoats like Margo/Byte
• Not Jeff, 'cuz that would just prove Miggy's point in light of George being living proof, as well as utterly render worthless all the effort thrown into saving him
• Not Miguel (yes, how dare I), 'cuz for all his pain-motivated harshness, he deserves better than the cliche'd fatal redemption trope of villains, of which he technically ain't one (and don't "Thanos" this as unlike Migs, he knew of better options but foregone it)

Here's a unique twist: The mastermind behind this Spider- conspiracy grows a conscience after all the breaking lectures against his warped view of canon events, then resolves to save as many lives as possible, dropping all pretenses of controlling the Spider-War
At risk to himself, he'll unhesitatingly save lives while one/some of those who blindly followed him give theirs. As shitty as his Society's turned out to be, they still have their main directive of fixing multiversal incursions, and someone has to keep giving the orders, someone with the most drive and commitment (especially for atonement)
Why on Miguel? Matured thinking aside, it evokes how science and philosophy works; cognitive science has this cliché of at least two sides theorizing extremes that are contrary to one another, and as time passes with discovery, the proof points to both sides having a point and deciding on a compromise; this of course goes beyond simple personal disagreement
So who'll it be?
Spider-gents and ladies, none other than Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy of Earth-65B
In the vein of MCU Aunt May being her Pete's Uncle Ben delivering that responsibility quote, and through it occurs the Spider-Verse's true Ultimate Fallout/Death of a Spider event this way
Gwen being slain and (certainly) coming back would be a wakeup call to both her world and the Society, as well as the latter group's morality in their internal strife and conflict against Spot. Redeem her image to everybody, Miles included, while allowing them to get together on solitary terms
That way:

• Miguel's right that being a Spider is a sacrifice, it's just their assigned canon events ain't 1:1 across every universe
• Miles' right that you can have and eat two cakes - meaning canon events can be alleviated (such as debris falling on Singh without killing him) - it's just that there's a cost

It'd also be a roundabout redemption for blindly following the Society's beliefs and causing unnecessary pain to Miles, deeper than "My well-meaning side right, your well-meaning side wrong" - no, both sides can have their two cakes; say, the rest save Jeff, Gwen herself - the motherless one - saves Rio, let 1610B not be 1610A in this particular way
I'ma spitball here, but it's kinda like Nolanverse (TDKR) Batman, come to think of it. Maybe George is informed of and reveals his daughter's "demise" and publicizes her ident? The latter I admit is questionable
Maybe Gwen goes to 1610B and RVs with Miles to Florence - there's this café on the banks of the Arno - for a fine evening sitting there and ordering a Fernet Branca
XD

(Potential) Foreshadowing

• Proof for the 42 antiheroes' case:

... "We wanted to craft this moment where Miles encounters this powerful figure in his life that he loved so much and he lost," says director Justin K. Thompson. "That's when he realizes that he is not really in his own dimension, as well as the gravity of what he has lost. In this reality, Aaron had to shake off his life of crime and became a surrogate father figure to Miles."
... In this alternate reality, the Sinister Six have been able to flourish and take over the world. "Criminality runs rampant," says Thompson. "We wanted to create a world where it felt like Aaron and Miles G. Morales of Earth-42 [this reality's counterpart to Miles Morales] are the only heroes.
Zahed, R. (2023). Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: The Art of the Movie. Abrams Books. THE WORLDS → Earth-42, p.190
... This version of the character was never bitten by a radioactive spider and doesn't have any superpowers, but he has fallen into the role of becoming the vigilante the Prowler, under the tutelage of his uncle Aaron. ...
Zahed, R. (2023). Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: The Art of the Movie. Abrams Books. THE WORLDS → Miles G. Morales: The Prowler, p.200

• Here's a pattern: We meet multiple Spidey-Peters and our intro hero is, well, RIPeter, then some podcast revealed we'd be meeting multiple Gwens in Beyond; timestamp 17:51-18:45

Interviewer: Will we see other multiversal variants of Gwen Stacy in the future even if they don't have spider powers, like you do with MJ, Uncle Aaron, and Miles?
Lord: Currently yes. ... But there’s one I’m very excited about.
Miller: Yes, yeah, I know exactly the one you’re talking about.
Lord: You know the one I’m thinking of, which is based on... I’m not gonna say anything, I’m not gonna say anything.
Miller: But it is sort of plot-integral, I would say.
Interviewer: If there are other multiversal variants of Gwen in Beyond the Spider-Verse, will they impact her arc, her relationship with Miles?
Lord: I would say yes.

The Pete variants showed up after Blondie's demise, so they might reverse the sequence here - as I said, a bookend.
Yea, all these signs totally bode well for the other blonde Spidey here
https://preview.redd.it/kpz7vzvub64d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d25e78b18f3fc82e58eb1516d1ac915fc130470

• Friendly reminder they referenced fuckin' Ultimate Fallout of all storylines in Gwen's room, under which she mostly lingers while speaking with her dad. Are you telling me that scene just happened to be shot like that? No, they orchestrated it! L&M! The story that deals with Miles' overall debut and the (of course, cue pathos) fallout of 1610A Spidey's demise! Been struggling to find and spot it honestly, damn lighting and coloring
• Guess what's 1610A Pete (the original Ultimate comics version, not blond RIPeter)'s death age? 16, exactly 65B Gwen's present age. MCU Pete's too when he was snapped
• Notice the last part of the Canon Event exposition scene; Hobie's got the Spider-Man No More comic panel, Jess-332 the If This Be My Destiny one, Peter B. the wedding, and Gwen? Spidey rising from the grave in Kraven's Last Hunt, modified with herself doing the feat. The kicker here: Neither Hobie nor Gwen's displayed events have official releases yet, although Hobie did say he opted out of chasing Miles - which is to say she's next and last, as well as #4 (so deathly the connotations) on the shown list

In Defense

Now calm down before you web pitchforks on me

• People keep saying there has to be a much more nuanced wrap-up - an idea with traction around these subs in a good way; to this day, people argue whether that Mumbattan hole was Spot BS or a canon event's unraveling. Mine has that nuance IMO
• Migs up and stated Mumbattan wasn't their first canon event ruptures rodeo and they couldn't save some 'verses from them, why would he be bullshitting or even fully wrong on CEs if he had that Spider team with specialized equipment for canon event containment? They were conveniently there right as that hole formed, and hell, they could reconcile that hole with the Dead Migs dimension where everything digitally evaporates as the latter being the end result
• He put on his shitlist Spider-Holland (maybe along with Maguire, Garfield (the light one)) for a reason - not hesitating to save MCU MJ (Michelle Jones-Watson) rather than let her be Spider-Tom's ASM-121 moment - although one can argue the memory wipe counts as first love loss, along with his Iron Man being his police captain canon event - and Raimi-verse Gwen is very much (per that meme) hot, single, and alive. Observing Sinister, Supreme, and 838/Illuminati-Strange's destroyed realities made him a rage button for 2099
• Showing the other 'verses like the comic-based What Ifs and that Armored Spider-Man one from the 1994 cartoon? It's kind of like a cheat out of the dilemma, and I'm not sure the other viewers would agree. Miguel also knows of Dr. Strange and possibly his What If? versions
  • Before someone "Absolute Points solve themselves, Society's unneeded" me, we know too the APs are a nascent concept and Miguel probably thought no two universes will always solve themselves and CEs are probably spontaneous - maybe a day, a week, or even a year plus, they will happen, scapegoat or not
  • To the people who say Migs was mistaken in how he destroyed that reality and that it was an Incursion: IT WASN'T ONE, because it would have caused a collision course between that 'verse and 928B, which I don't think they have any means to stop - only someone like Strange. Aside from the trolley sacrifice of one Earth, we're not privy to what are the other seven ways to averting Incursions. Guess what, Gabri's reality went poof on its apparent own while 928B stayed very much alive. Didn't even look like 928B was approaching from the skies at the time either
  • Returning to Miles' side, I also hear of the fixed time points comparison from Dr. Who; I'd like to point out the Doctor was able to fake his death by hiding inside a, uh, humanoid ship at Lake Silencio, so I've read, despite records saying so
• They keep insisting "First time for everything," right, plus the cake stuff? Why not a Venom Blast resuscitation somehow on the brink of death, then being comatose or some other critical injury so the "lost Lenore" event doesn't stick? Or! In the style of BvS Dawn of Justice and What if? Spider-Man The Other (plus Ultimate Gwen ofc)...symbiotic resurrection (possibly even transporting that one symbiote drop in that bar in the MCU), and cue Gwenom arc in some spinoff like Spider-Women
• Alternatively, to avoid the fridged LI trope absolutely, Rio gets the Ultimate comics treatment of death somehow - but as said repeatedly, doing one's own thing, and I think this Spider-War's seen enough dead Moraleses. Miles has already grown and seen enough from the other Spiders' losses and his own. Honestly, people need to hear comic quotes often, take Mark Waid's Daredevil run:

Rachel Cole: You know what gives me the strength? My loss. We're alike that way, I imagine. Admit it, nobody who's a stranger to that particular pain could ever be as driven as us.
Daredevil: Never... Don't you ever say that to me ever again, that is a repellent statement, it's a vomituous insult to every cop, every fireman, every soldier alive who steps up to fight for those who can't! I am sorry for your loss, but if you genuinely believe that only the death of a loved one can motivate a human being to take up a cause...then get your pathetic cynical ass out of my way so I can do my job!

It's relevant because Rachel's stance here was that people like them who fight for causes are solely inspired by loss, only for Matt to verbally skewer her. The subtext here, synthesizing it with the Spidey mythos is that it's misguided to think that losing forever more loved ones is the only way to make a true Spider-Hero.
Flip the narrative and say "Villainy only happens if they're abused/poorly raised, alas, poor villain;" one is warranted to call it a vomitous insult to every abuse victim/improperly raised junior out there who became better than their elders/superiors - i.e. not go evil.
Either way, the greater gist of this is losing a close one for good isn't the way, emphasis on "for good"

Future Implications

Wrapping everything up like above (I mean the objectives), one way or another (not necessarily mine), would show full commitment to the theme of forging one's own destiny right down to the metatextual. The Spidersoc let confirmation bias blind themselves to possibilities and seemingly have yet to expose themselves to the preestablished branch realities where, say, Spider-People lose nobody or a Gwen Stacy ties neatly her romance quest with a Spidey. The themes of doing your own thing openly and honestly and in safety - rather than requesting permission from broken systems - resonate much with an Excel list: People who are queeof colowomen/disabled
Beyond that obviousness, we have disabled Spideys, Muslim Spideys (that female UK one), Blob-fat Spideys - even PLUSHIE Spideys, just to name a few, all to show the movie being the most diverse and inclusive Spidey work to date. These themes are so incredibly applicable to the lives of atypical people or otherwise people who live under systems that aren't designed for them to succeed. IE: POC, women, queer people, people with disabilities, etc. One can argue "doing your own thing" was what made ItSV such a breakthrough success and a decade phenomenon: Everything about the animation
I get that a teen girl dying, even temporarily - especially one who resonates much with LGBT (transgwender specifically) themes - is real bad optics, but we went through this before with Luz Noceda (bi rep exactly) from The Owl House, and things landed on their feet :)
If/When she comes back to crimefighting, this would be the moment she goes by Ghost Spider like her A self - a Gwen who fought fate and died for it, but another Spider loved her so much, he raised her from death to life in Ultimate defiance (getting flowery prose here) that prevails

Shortform

• Massive exploration of the Society beyond the big names we've spent time with in Across
• Villains forsaking their rivalries for survival and universes paving their own roads
• Gwen temporarily eating it but coming back, then leaning on her comic self (A variant)'s new Ghost-Spider ident to mark her defying fate's scythe

Premise

Here is the textual taxonomy of trilogys as I've heard in (obscure, hard-to-find) writing structure lessons

• Installment 1: Exposit - What is the subject
• Installment 2: Analyze - What is the subject's meaning
• Installment 3: Perspectivize - What is the subject's value and suasoria

Across may not have been a conclusive Act 2, but it is definitely a valid standalone one

• Expanded the 'verse and the major cast by throwing a curve into their relationships and own philosophies
• Delved deeper into what makes a Spider-Man by presenting a free will vs. determinism arc a la Civil War that also happens to have metacommentary

"I'ma do my own thing."
"We're supposed to be the good guys."
Miles summarized his new path throughout the movie, then Gwen called out the Society for their enabling of so much death and suffering to serve a misguided dogma.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/File:Spider-Man_Across_the_Spider-Verse_poster_003_textless.jpg
There's almost certainly gonna an all-out ideological civil war (fists or not, composite of MCU and comics, but Spiders-only) like that split poster teased.
Gonna be grimly hilarious seeing Spinneret/Spiderling fight Peter B. and Mayday (the former are on Miguel's side to the left, along with Insomniac Spidey)
Yes, I believe there will be a few more new support characters in Beyond - there's a reason certain folks were at the front, and it's just really curious and a wasted opportunity that this Spider-MJ didn't interact at all with this active version of her other (stillborn) daughter or her (Mayday-616B) dad.
I very much appreciate the lifting of other Spidey variants to the zeitgeist fold - Noir, Ham, Gwendy-65, the UK/Punk and Indian ones, the weirdos like Parkedcar from Not! Pixar's Cars, a damn popsicle possibly (lol), a plushie, etc. - but they

Events and Themes

1. Universes

Serving the Installment 3 role, Beyond will probably tie up loose ends and make the above themes reverberate across universes. Like, for 42:

• Miles Prowler can prove that the world doesn't always need Spider-Heroes to save itself, only the spirit of the concept - Spider-Man isn't the center of the multiverse, and given the last movie's title, it will navigate its own fate independent of any Spider at all - let the world do its own thing

Beyond the 'verse of men of spiders, Reality-42 rises up against villainy.

• Maybe Kingpin and Dr. Octopus return someway, then emulate their TAS 1994 counterparts in allying with the Spiders out of existential pragmatics

2. Characters and Developments

By "reverberate," the Spider-Hero question is going to strike real nerves that change the Society and the world, making them examine the morality of the war they fight against anomalies like Spot; survival at all means and costs vs. idealistic stand against fate. And for certain Spiders, we could get more screentime with certain Society members and ex-members - preferably Spinneret and Spiderling, the Insomniac Spideys, and Scarlet Spider - and Endgame-ify Beyond's length.

• The RYV (Reality-18119, Renew Your Vows) Parkers confide with the others including Peter B. on family and how do they keep it together in light of their role as preserving fate and existence itself
• PS4/5 bros relate their experiences of loss and keeping going, especially to 1610B Miles. A great way of giving a layman on the games' plots while relaying their themes to the wider non-gamer audience
• Ben Reilly (Scarlet bro), being a Pete clone and a technical predecessor to Miles, will have his status put to address. His struggles with his inheritance and identity - bearing the names of Peter's parental figures - will probably mirror Ultimate Spider-Woman, and hopefully, he's a major outcrier against Miguel's misguided cause
• Jess-332's and Peter B's babies will interact, leading to the former's moral realization due to Peter B's time with Miles being the reason for his family's reconstruction - influenced solely by extrauniversal (of course anomalous) factors. Throw that Madame Web Spidey (Julia Carpenter) into the fray somehow?
• Interuniversal linkage like in the comics (616/928 and 65/8) can be explored to further the fate-changing theme; whether 928B the bad future of 616B is an inevitability - we haven't really explored 928B - and whether 42 is 1610B's worst possible self and how it can change. The Miles/Gwen dynamic could play here too, 65B and 1610B and the references to the number 8 (which happens to resemble the infinity sign - "infinite Spider possibilities") in Across. Not suggesting that Comics Earth 8's characters play any role, tho, 'cuz per the themes, the duo should connect on their terms
• Variant Miguels when, Sony - like the variant MJs, Harrys, Normans, Flashes, and Gwens, etc. Get freaking Edge of Time, not just Ultimate and 1994, in it
• The locked-up anomalous villains perhaps even helping stop Spot - like Kingpin and Ock above. Basically No Way Home's scenario but tweaked a bit and writ large; let them decide whether to have a new lease of life or to keep their exploits going - their outcomes, their terms as usual. I wonder how would Atari Osborn fare, though, XD

Feel free to add more :) Not quite a Marvel binger yet, XD

3. Fates

Another element to be addressed is the room elephant of canon events. Their loopholes, their flexibility have to be expanded upon: They are fluid like time's arrows and oceans. For one:

• George lives? Sorry, but Gwen's relationship with him remains strained, on top of her guilt from treachery and deception. Also, the canon event ain't really death, but the Captain losing their job

Maybe we even trade one event for another, as in a major death of sorts. In my opinion:

• Not Peter B., because he's a living meta rebuttal to people holding off (at the very least) on an aged-up/married/parent Peter, the 616 editorial included. Him dying, let alone Mayday (toddler, so definite write-off), would undermine this subtext
• Not Jess, 'cuz she's a mother and despite her jerkish mentor habits seems willing to look the other way for turncoats like Margo/Byte
• Not Jeff, 'cuz that would just prove Miggy's point in light of George being living proof, as well as utterly render worthless all the effort thrown into saving him
• Not Miguel (yes, how dare I), 'cuz for all his pain-motivated harshness, he deserves better than the cliche'd fatal redemption trope of villains, of which he technically ain't one (and don't "Thanos" this as unlike Migs, he knew of better options but foregone it)

Here's a unique twist: The mastermind behind this Spider- conspiracy grows a conscience after all the breaking lectures against his warped view of canon events, then resolves to save as many lives as possible, dropping all pretenses of controlling the Spider-War
At risk to himself, he'll unhesitatingly save lives while one/some of those who blindly followed him give theirs. As shitty as his Society's turned out to be, they still have their main directive of fixing multiversal incursions, and someone has to keep giving the orders, someone with the most drive and commitment (especially for atonement)
Why on Miguel? Matured thinking aside, it evokes how science and philosophy works; cognitive science has this cliché of at least two sides theorizing extremes that are contrary to one another, and as time passes with discovery, the proof points to both sides having a point and deciding on a compromise; this of course goes beyond simple personal disagreement
So who'll it be?
Spider-gents and ladies, none other than Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy of Earth-65B
In the vein of MCU Aunt May being her Pete's Uncle Ben delivering that responsibility quote, and through it occurs the Spider-Verse's true Ultimate Fallout/Death of a Spider event this way
Gwen being slain and (certainly) coming back would be a wakeup call to both her world and the Society, as well as the latter group's morality in their internal strife and conflict against Spot. Redeem her image to everybody, Miles included, while allowing them to get together on solitary terms
That way:

• Miguel's right that being a Spider is a sacrifice, it's just their assigned canon events ain't 1:1 across every universe
• Miles' right that you can have and eat two cakes - meaning canon events can be alleviated (such as debris falling on Singh without killing him) - it's just that there's a cost

It'd also be a roundabout redemption for blindly following the Society's beliefs and causing unnecessary pain to Miles, deeper than "My well-meaning side right, your well-meaning side wrong" - no, both sides can have their two cakes; say, the rest save Jeff, Gwen herself - the motherless one - saves Rio, let 1610B not be 1610A in this particular way
I'ma spitball here, but it's kinda like Nolanverse (TDKR) Batman, come to think of it. Maybe George is informed of and reveals his daughter's "demise" and publicizes her ident? The latter I admit is questionable
Maybe Gwen goes to 1610B and RVs with Miles to Florence - there's this café on the banks of the Arno - for a fine evening sitting there and ordering a Fernet Branca
XD

(Potential) Foreshadowing

• Proof for the 42 antiheroes' case:

... "We wanted to craft this moment where Miles encounters this powerful figure in his life that he loved so much and he lost," says director Justin K. Thompson. "That's when he realizes that he is not really in his own dimension, as well as the gravity of what he has lost. In this reality, Aaron had to shake off his life of crime and became a surrogate father figure to Miles."
... In this alternate reality, the Sinister Six have been able to flourish and take over the world. "Criminality runs rampant," says Thompson. "We wanted to create a world where it felt like Aaron and Miles G. Morales of Earth-42 [this reality's counterpart to Miles Morales] are the only heroes.
Zahed, R. (2023). Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: The Art of the Movie. Abrams Books. THE WORLDS → Earth-42, p.190
... This version of the character was never bitten by a radioactive spider and doesn't have any superpowers, but he has fallen into the role of becoming the vigilante the Prowler, under the tutelage of his uncle Aaron. ...
Zahed, R. (2023). Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: The Art of the Movie. Abrams Books. THE WORLDS → Miles G. Morales: The Prowler, p.200

• Here's a pattern: We meet multiple Spidey-Peters and our intro hero is, well, RIPeter, then some podcast revealed we'd be meeting multiple Gwens in Beyond; timestamp 17:51-18:45

Interviewer: Will we see other multiversal variants of Gwen Stacy in the future even if they don't have spider powers, like you do with MJ, Uncle Aaron, and Miles?
Lord: Currently yes. ... But there’s one I’m very excited about.
Miller: Yes, yeah, I know exactly the one you’re talking about.
Lord: You know the one I’m thinking of, which is based on... I’m not gonna say anything, I’m not gonna say anything.
Miller: But it is sort of plot-integral, I would say.
Interviewer: If there are other multiversal variants of Gwen in Beyond the Spider-Verse, will they impact her arc, her relationship with Miles?
Lord: I would say yes.

The Pete variants showed up after Blondie's demise, so they might reverse the sequence here - as I said, a bookend.
Yea, all these signs totally bode well for the other blonde Spidey here
https://preview.redd.it/kpz7vzvub64d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d25e78b18f3fc82e58eb1516d1ac915fc130470

• Friendly reminder they referenced fuckin' Ultimate Fallout of all storylines in Gwen's room, under which she mostly lingers while speaking with her dad. Are you telling me that scene just happened to be shot like that? No, they orchestrated it! L&M! The story that deals with Miles' overall debut and the (of course, cue pathos) fallout of 1610A Spidey's demise! Been struggling to find and spot it honestly, damn lighting and coloring
• Guess what's 1610A Pete (the original Ultimate comics version, not blond RIPeter)'s death age? 16, exactly 65B Gwen's present age. MCU Pete's too when he was snapped
• Notice the last part of the Canon Event exposition scene; Hobie's got the Spider-Man No More comic panel, Jess-332 the If This Be My Destiny one, Peter B. the wedding, and Gwen? Spidey rising from the grave in Kraven's Last Hunt, modified with herself doing the feat. The kicker here: Neither Hobie nor Gwen's displayed events have official releases yet, although Hobie did say he opted out of chasing Miles - which is to say she's next and last, as well as #4 (so deathly the connotations) on the shown list

In Defense

Now calm down before you web pitchforks on me

• People keep saying there has to be a much more nuanced wrap-up - an idea with traction around these subs in a good way; to this day, people argue whether that Mumbattan hole was Spot BS or a canon event's unraveling. Mine has that nuance IMO
• Migs up and stated Mumbattan wasn't their first canon event ruptures rodeo and they couldn't save some 'verses from them, why would he be bullshitting or even fully wrong on CEs if he had that Spider team with specialized equipment for canon event containment? They were conveniently there right as that hole formed, and hell, they could reconcile that hole with the Dead Migs dimension where everything digitally evaporates as the latter being the end result
• He put on his shitlist Spider-Holland (maybe along with Maguire, Garfield (the light one)) for a reason - not hesitating to save MCU MJ (Michelle Jones-Watson) rather than let her be Spider-Tom's ASM-121 moment - although one can argue the memory wipe counts as first love loss, along with his Iron Man being his police captain canon event - and Raimi-verse Gwen is very much (per that meme) hot, single, and alive. Observing Sinister, Supreme, and 838/Illuminati-Strange's destroyed realities made him a rage button for 2099
• Showing the other 'verses like the comic-based What Ifs and that Armored Spider-Man one from the 1994 cartoon? It's kind of like a cheat out of the dilemma, and I'm not sure the other viewers would agree. Miguel also knows of Dr. Strange and possibly his What If? versions
  • Before someone "Absolute Points solve themselves, Society's unneeded" me, we know too the APs are a nascent concept and Miguel probably thought no two universes will always solve themselves and CEs are probably spontaneous - maybe a day, a week, or even a year plus, they will happen, scapegoat or not
  • To the people who say Migs was mistaken in how he destroyed that reality and that it was an Incursion: IT WASN'T ONE, because it would have caused a collision course between that 'verse and 928B, which I don't think they have any means to stop - only someone like Strange. Aside from the trolley sacrifice of one Earth, we're not privy to what are the other seven ways to averting Incursions. Guess what, Gabri's reality went poof on its apparent own while 928B stayed very much alive. Didn't even look like 928B was approaching from the skies at the time either
  • Returning to Miles' side, I also hear of the fixed time points comparison from Dr. Who; I'd like to point out the Doctor was able to fake his death by hiding inside a, uh, humanoid ship at Lake Silencio, so I've read, despite records saying so
• They keep insisting "First time for everything," right, plus the cake stuff? Why not a Venom Blast resuscitation somehow on the brink of death, then being comatose or some other critical injury so the "lost Lenore" event doesn't stick? Or! In the style of BvS Dawn of Justice and What if? Spider-Man The Other (plus Ultimate Gwen ofc)...symbiotic resurrection (possibly even transporting that one symbiote drop in that bar in the MCU), and cue Gwenom arc in some spinoff like Spider-Women
• Alternatively, to avoid the fridged LI trope absolutely, Rio gets the Ultimate comics treatment of death somehow - but as said repeatedly, doing one's own thing, and I think this Spider-War's seen enough dead Moraleses. Miles has already grown and seen enough from the other Spiders' losses and his own. Honestly, people need to hear comic quotes often, take Mark Waid's Daredevil run:

Rachel Cole: You know what gives me the strength? My loss. We're alike that way, I imagine. Admit it, nobody who's a stranger to that particular pain could ever be as driven as us.
Daredevil: Never... Don't you ever say that to me ever again, that is a repellent statement, it's a vomituous insult to every cop, every fireman, every soldier alive who steps up to fight for those who can't! I am sorry for your loss, but if you genuinely believe that only the death of a loved one can motivate a human being to take up a cause...then get your pathetic cynical ass out of my way so I can do my job!

It's relevant because Rachel's stance here was that people like them who fight for causes are solely inspired by loss, only for Matt to verbally skewer her. The subtext here, synthesizing it with the Spidey mythos is that it's misguided to think that losing forever more loved ones is the only way to make a true Spider-Hero.
Flip the narrative and say "Villainy only happens if they're abused/poorly raised, alas, poor villain;" one is warranted to call it a vomitous insult to every abuse victim/improperly raised junior out there who became better than their elders/superiors - i.e. not go evil.
Either way, the greater gist of this is losing a close one for good isn't the way, emphasis on "for good"

Future Implications

Wrapping everything up like above (I mean the objectives), one way or another (not necessarily mine), would show full commitment to the theme of forging one's own destiny right down to the metatextual. The Spidersoc let confirmation bias blind themselves to possibilities and seemingly have yet to expose themselves to the preestablished branch realities where, say, Spider-People lose nobody or a Gwen Stacy ties neatly her romance quest with a Spidey. The themes of doing your own thing openly and honestly and in safety - rather than requesting permission from broken systems - resonate much with an Excel list: People who are queeof colowomen/disabled
Beyond that obviousness, we have disabled Spideys, Muslim Spideys (that female UK one), Blob-fat Spideys - even PLUSHIE Spideys, just to name a few, all to show the movie being the most diverse and inclusive Spidey work to date. These themes are so incredibly applicable to the lives of atypical people or otherwise people who live under systems that aren't designed for them to succeed. IE: POC, women, queer people, people with disabilities, etc. One can argue "doing your own thing" was what made ItSV such a breakthrough success and a decade phenomenon: Everything about the animation
I get that a teen girl dying, even temporarily - especially one who resonates much with LGBT (transgwender specifically) themes - is real bad optics, but we went through this before with Luz Noceda (bi rep exactly) from The Owl House, and things landed on their feet :)
If/When she comes back to crimefighting, this would be the moment she goes by Ghost Spider like her A self - a Gwen who fought fate and died for it, but another Spider loved her so much, he raised her from death to life in Ultimate defiance (getting flowery prose here) that prevails

Shortform

• Massive exploration of the Society beyond the big names we've spent time with in Across
• Villains forsaking their rivalries for survival and universes paving their own roads
• Gwen temporarily eating it but coming back, then leaning on her comic self (A variant)'s new Ghost-Spider ident to mark her defying fate's scythe

Premise

Here is the textual taxonomy of trilogys as I've heard in (obscure, hard-to-find) writing structure lessons

• Installment 1: Exposit - What is the subject
• Installment 2: Analyze - What is the subject's meaning
• Installment 3: Perspectivize - What is the subject's value and suasoria

Across may not have been a conclusive Act 2, but it is definitely a valid standalone one

• Expanded the 'verse and the major cast by throwing a curve into their relationships and own philosophies
• Delved deeper into what makes a Spider-Man by presenting a free will vs. determinism arc a la Civil War that also happens to have metacommentary

"I'ma do my own thing."
"We're supposed to be the good guys."
Miles summarized his new path throughout the movie, then Gwen called out the Society for their enabling of so much death and suffering to serve a misguided dogma.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/File:Spider-Man_Across_the_Spider-Verse_poster_003_textless.jpg
There's almost certainly gonna an all-out ideological civil war (fists or not, composite of MCU and comics, but Spiders-only) like that split poster teased.
Gonna be grimly hilarious seeing Spinneret/Spiderling fight Peter B. and Mayday (the former are on Miguel's side to the left, along with Insomniac Spidey)
Yes, I believe there will be a few more new support characters in Beyond - there's a reason certain folks were at the front, and it's just really curious and a wasted opportunity that this Spider-MJ didn't interact at all with this active version of her other (stillborn) daughter or her (Mayday-616B) dad.
I very much appreciate the lifting of other Spidey variants to the zeitgeist fold - Noir, Ham, Gwendy-65, the UK/Punk and Indian ones, the weirdos like Parkedcar from Not! Pixar's Cars, a damn popsicle possibly (lol), a plushie, etc. - but they

Events and Themes

1. Universes

Serving the Installment 3 role, Beyond will probably tie up loose ends and make the above themes reverberate across universes. Like, for 42:

• Miles Prowler can prove that the world doesn't always need Spider-Heroes to save itself, only the spirit of the concept - Spider-Man isn't the center of the multiverse, and given the last movie's title, it will navigate its own fate independent of any Spider at all - let the world do its own thing

Beyond the 'verse of men of spiders, Reality-42 rises up against villainy.

• Maybe Kingpin and Dr. Octopus return someway, then emulate their TAS 1994 counterparts in allying with the Spiders out of existential pragmatics

2. Characters and Developments

By "reverberate," the Spider-Hero question is going to strike real nerves that change the Society and the world, making them examine the morality of the war they fight against anomalies like Spot; survival at all means and costs vs. idealistic stand against fate. And for certain Spiders, we could get more screentime with certain Society members and ex-members - preferably Spinneret and Spiderling, the Insomniac Spideys, and Scarlet Spider - and Endgame-ify Beyond's length.

• The RYV (Reality-18119, Renew Your Vows) Parkers confide with the others including Peter B. on family and how do they keep it together in light of their role as preserving fate and existence itself
• PS4/5 bros relate their experiences of loss and keeping going, especially to 1610B Miles. A great way of giving a layman on the games' plots while relaying their themes to the wider non-gamer audience
• Ben Reilly (Scarlet bro), being a Pete clone and a technical predecessor to Miles, will have his status put to address. His struggles with his inheritance and identity - bearing the names of Peter's parental figures - will probably mirror Ultimate Spider-Woman, and hopefully, he's a major outcrier against Miguel's misguided cause
• Jess-332's and Peter B's babies will interact, leading to the former's moral realization due to Peter B's time with Miles being the reason for his family's reconstruction - influenced solely by extrauniversal (of course anomalous) factors. Throw that Madame Web Spidey (Julia Carpenter) into the fray somehow?
• Interuniversal linkage like in the comics (616/928 and 65/8) can be explored to further the fate-changing theme; whether 928B the bad future of 616B is an inevitability - we haven't really explored 928B - and whether 42 is 1610B's worst possible self and how it can change. The Miles/Gwen dynamic could play here too, 65B and 1610B and the references to the number 8 (which happens to resemble the infinity sign - "infinite Spider possibilities") in Across. Not suggesting that Comics Earth 8's characters play any role, tho, 'cuz per the themes, the duo should connect on their terms
• Variant Miguels when, Sony - like the variant MJs, Harrys, Normans, Flashes, and Gwens, etc. Get freaking Edge of Time, not just Ultimate and 1994, in it
• The locked-up anomalous villains perhaps even helping stop Spot - like Kingpin and Ock above. Basically No Way Home's scenario but tweaked a bit and writ large; let them decide whether to have a new lease of life or to keep their exploits going - their outcomes, their terms as usual. I wonder how would Atari Osborn fare, though, XD

Feel free to add more :) Not quite a Marvel binger yet, XD

3. Fates

Another element to be addressed is the room elephant of canon events. Their loopholes, their flexibility have to be expanded upon: They are fluid like time's arrows and oceans. For one:

• George lives? Sorry, but Gwen's relationship with him remains strained, on top of her guilt from treachery and deception. Also, the canon event ain't really death, but the Captain losing their job

Maybe we even trade one event for another, as in a major death of sorts. In my opinion:

• Not Peter B., because he's a living meta rebuttal to people holding off (at the very least) on an aged-up/married/parent Peter, the 616 editorial included. Him dying, let alone Mayday (toddler, so definite write-off), would undermine this subtext
• Not Jess, 'cuz she's a mother and despite her jerkish mentor habits seems willing to look the other way for turncoats like Margo/Byte
• Not Jeff, 'cuz that would just prove Miggy's point in light of George being living proof, as well as utterly render worthless all the effort thrown into saving him
• Not Miguel (yes, how dare I), 'cuz for all his pain-motivated harshness, he deserves better than the cliche'd fatal redemption trope of villains, of which he technically ain't one (and don't "Thanos" this as unlike Migs, he knew of better options but foregone it)

Here's a unique twist: The mastermind behind this Spider- conspiracy grows a conscience after all the breaking lectures against his warped view of canon events, then resolves to save as many lives as possible, dropping all pretenses of controlling the Spider-War
At risk to himself, he'll unhesitatingly save lives while one/some of those who blindly followed him give theirs. As shitty as his Society's turned out to be, they still have their main directive of fixing multiversal incursions, and someone has to keep giving the orders, someone with the most drive and commitment (especially for atonement)
Why on Miguel? Matured thinking aside, it evokes how science and philosophy works; cognitive science has this cliché of at least two sides theorizing extremes that are contrary to one another, and as time passes with discovery, the proof points to both sides having a point and deciding on a compromise; this of course goes beyond simple personal disagreement
So who'll it be?
Spider-gents and ladies, none other than Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy of Earth-65B
In the vein of MCU Aunt May being her Pete's Uncle Ben delivering that responsibility quote, and through it occurs the Spider-Verse's true Ultimate Fallout/Death of a Spider event this way
Gwen being slain and (certainly) coming back would be a wakeup call to both her world and the Society, as well as the latter group's morality in their internal strife and conflict against Spot. Redeem her image to everybody, Miles included, while allowing them to get together on solitary terms
That way:

• Miguel's right that being a Spider is a sacrifice, it's just their assigned canon events ain't 1:1 across every universe
• Miles' right that you can have and eat two cakes - meaning canon events can be alleviated (such as debris falling on Singh without killing him) - it's just that there's a cost

It'd also be a roundabout redemption for blindly following the Society's beliefs and causing unnecessary pain to Miles, deeper than "My well-meaning side right, your well-meaning side wrong" - no, both sides can have their two cakes; say, the rest save Jeff, Gwen herself - the motherless one - saves Rio, let 1610B not be 1610A in this particular way
I'ma spitball here, but it's kinda like Nolanverse (TDKR) Batman, come to think of it. Maybe George is informed of and reveals his daughter's "demise" and publicizes her ident? The latter I admit is questionable
Maybe Gwen goes to 1610B and RVs with Miles to Florence - there's this café on the banks of the Arno - for a fine evening sitting there and ordering a Fernet Branca
XD

(Potential) Foreshadowing

• Proof for the 42 antiheroes' case:

... "We wanted to craft this moment where Miles encounters this powerful figure in his life that he loved so much and he lost," says director Justin K. Thompson. "That's when he realizes that he is not really in his own dimension, as well as the gravity of what he has lost. In this reality, Aaron had to shake off his life of crime and became a surrogate father figure to Miles."
... In this alternate reality, the Sinister Six have been able to flourish and take over the world. "Criminality runs rampant," says Thompson. "We wanted to create a world where it felt like Aaron and Miles G. Morales of Earth-42 [this reality's counterpart to Miles Morales] are the only heroes.
Zahed, R. (2023). Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: The Art of the Movie. Abrams Books. THE WORLDS → Earth-42, p.190
... This version of the character was never bitten by a radioactive spider and doesn't have any superpowers, but he has fallen into the role of becoming the vigilante the Prowler, under the tutelage of his uncle Aaron. ...
Zahed, R. (2023). Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: The Art of the Movie. Abrams Books. THE WORLDS → Miles G. Morales: The Prowler, p.200

• Here's a pattern: We meet multiple Spidey-Peters and our intro hero is, well, RIPeter, then some podcast revealed we'd be meeting multiple Gwens in Beyond; timestamp 17:51-18:45

Interviewer: Will we see other multiversal variants of Gwen Stacy in the future even if they don't have spider powers, like you do with MJ, Uncle Aaron, and Miles?
Lord: Currently yes. ... But there’s one I’m very excited about.
Miller: Yes, yeah, I know exactly the one you’re talking about.
Lord: You know the one I’m thinking of, which is based on... I’m not gonna say anything, I’m not gonna say anything.
Miller: But it is sort of plot-integral, I would say.
Interviewer: If there are other multiversal variants of Gwen in Beyond the Spider-Verse, will they impact her arc, her relationship with Miles?
Lord: I would say yes.

The Pete variants showed up after Blondie's demise, so they might reverse the sequence here - as I said, a bookend.
Yea, all these signs totally bode well for the other blonde Spidey here
https://preview.redd.it/kpz7vzvub64d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d25e78b18f3fc82e58eb1516d1ac915fc130470

• Friendly reminder they referenced fuckin' Ultimate Fallout of all storylines in Gwen's room, under which she mostly lingers while speaking with her dad. Are you telling me that scene just happened to be shot like that? No, they orchestrated it! L&M! The story that deals with Miles' overall debut and the (of course, cue pathos) fallout of 1610A Spidey's demise! Been struggling to find and spot it honestly, damn lighting and coloring
• Guess what's 1610A Pete (the original Ultimate comics version, not blond RIPeter)'s death age? 16, exactly 65B Gwen's present age. MCU Pete's too when he was snapped
• Notice the last part of the Canon Event exposition scene; Hobie's got the Spider-Man No More comic panel, Jess-332 the If This Be My Destiny one, Peter B. the wedding, and Gwen? Spidey rising from the grave in Kraven's Last Hunt, modified with herself doing the feat. The kicker here: Neither Hobie nor Gwen's displayed events have official releases yet, although Hobie did say he opted out of chasing Miles - which is to say she's next and last, as well as #4 (so deathly the connotations) on the shown list

In Defense

Now calm down before you web pitchforks on me

• People keep saying there has to be a much more nuanced wrap-up - an idea with traction around these subs in a good way; to this day, people argue whether that Mumbattan hole was Spot BS or a canon event's unraveling. Mine has that nuance IMO
• Migs up and stated Mumbattan wasn't their first canon event ruptures rodeo and they couldn't save some 'verses from them, why would he be bullshitting or even fully wrong on CEs if he had that Spider team with specialized equipment for canon event containment? They were conveniently there right as that hole formed, and hell, they could reconcile that hole with the Dead Migs dimension where everything digitally evaporates as the latter being the end result
• He put on his shitlist Spider-Holland (maybe along with Maguire, Garfield (the light one)) for a reason - not hesitating to save MCU MJ (Michelle Jones-Watson) rather than let her be Spider-Tom's ASM-121 moment - although one can argue the memory wipe counts as first love loss, along with his Iron Man being his police captain canon event - and Raimi-verse Gwen is very much (per that meme) hot, single, and alive. Observing Sinister, Supreme, and 838/Illuminati-Strange's destroyed realities made him a rage button for 2099
• Showing the other 'verses like the comic-based What Ifs and that Armored Spider-Man one from the 1994 cartoon? It's kind of like a cheat out of the dilemma, and I'm not sure the other viewers would agree. Miguel also knows of Dr. Strange and possibly his What If? versions
  • Before someone "Absolute Points solve themselves, Society's unneeded" me, we know too the APs are a nascent concept and Miguel probably thought no two universes will always solve themselves and CEs are probably spontaneous - maybe a day, a week, or even a year plus, they will happen, scapegoat or not
  • To the people who say Migs was mistaken in how he destroyed that reality and that it was an Incursion: IT WASN'T ONE, because it would have caused a collision course between that 'verse and 928B, which I don't think they have any means to stop - only someone like Strange. Aside from the trolley sacrifice of one Earth, we're not privy to what are the other seven ways to averting Incursions. Guess what, Gabri's reality went poof on its apparent own while 928B stayed very much alive. Didn't even look like 928B was approaching from the skies at the time either
  • Returning to Miles' side, I also hear of the fixed time points comparison from Dr. Who; I'd like to point out the Doctor was able to fake his death by hiding inside a, uh, humanoid ship at Lake Silencio, so I've read, despite records saying so
• They keep insisting "First time for everything," right, plus the cake stuff? Why not a Venom Blast resuscitation somehow on the brink of death, then being comatose or some other critical injury so the "lost Lenore" event doesn't stick? Or! In the style of BvS Dawn of Justice and What if? Spider-Man The Other (plus Ultimate Gwen ofc)...symbiotic resurrection (possibly even transporting that one symbiote drop in that bar in the MCU), and cue Gwenom arc in some spinoff like Spider-Women
• Alternatively, to avoid the fridged LI trope absolutely, Rio gets the Ultimate comics treatment of death somehow - but as said repeatedly, doing one's own thing, and I think this Spider-War's seen enough dead Moraleses. Miles has already grown and seen enough from the other Spiders' losses and his own. Honestly, people need to hear comic quotes often, take Mark Waid's Daredevil run:

Rachel Cole: You know what gives me the strength? My loss. We're alike that way, I imagine. Admit it, nobody who's a stranger to that particular pain could ever be as driven as us.
Daredevil: Never... Don't you ever say that to me ever again, that is a repellent statement, it's a vomituous insult to every cop, every fireman, every soldier alive who steps up to fight for those who can't! I am sorry for your loss, but if you genuinely believe that only the death of a loved one can motivate a human being to take up a cause...then get your pathetic cynical ass out of my way so I can do my job!

It's relevant because Rachel's stance here was that people like them who fight for causes are solely inspired by loss, only for Matt to verbally skewer her. The subtext here, synthesizing it with the Spidey mythos is that it's misguided to think that losing forever more loved ones is the only way to make a true Spider-Hero.
Flip the narrative and say "Villainy only happens if they're abused/poorly raised, alas, poor villain;" one is warranted to call it a vomitous insult to every abuse victim/improperly raised junior out there who became better than their elders/superiors - i.e. not go evil.
Either way, the greater gist of this is losing a close one for good isn't the way, emphasis on "for good"

Future Implications

Wrapping everything up like above (I mean the objectives), one way or another (not necessarily mine), would show full commitment to the theme of forging one's own destiny right down to the metatextual. The Spidersoc let confirmation bias blind themselves to possibilities and seemingly have yet to expose themselves to the preestablished branch realities where, say, Spider-People lose nobody or a Gwen Stacy ties neatly her romance quest with a Spidey. The themes of doing your own thing openly and honestly and in safety - rather than requesting permission from broken systems - resonate much with an Excel list: People who are queeof colowomen/disabled
Beyond that obviousness, we have disabled Spideys, Muslim Spideys (that female UK one), Blob-fat Spideys - even PLUSHIE Spideys, just to name a few, all to show the movie being the most diverse and inclusive Spidey work to date. These themes are so incredibly applicable to the lives of atypical people or otherwise people who live under systems that aren't designed for them to succeed. IE: POC, women, queer people, people with disabilities, etc. One can argue "doing your own thing" was what made ItSV such a breakthrough success and a decade phenomenon: Everything about the animation
I get that a teen girl dying, even temporarily - especially one who resonates much with LGBT (transgwender specifically) themes - is real bad optics, but we went through this before with Luz Noceda (bi rep exactly) from The Owl House, and things landed on their feet :)
If/When she comes back to crimefighting, this would be the moment she goes by Ghost Spider like her A self - a Gwen who fought fate and died for it, but another Spider loved her so much, he raised her from death to life in Ultimate defiance (getting flowery prose here) that prevails

First Previous Patreon Royal Road is up to chapter 30!
“FUCK YOU BOAR” Mark said triumphantly as he raised his arms up above his head in the shape of a V “Did you see that, Noah?” Mark looked to his cousin and noticed that he was struggling to prop himself up off the ground “Oh crap sorry, I got a bit too carried away there.”
“It’s fine, you did a great job. Now, let’s get out of here before the other two boars show up and decide to avenge their fallen comrade.” Noah began limping in the direction of the boar and put it away in his artifact. He couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t get a kill notification for that boar… “Hmmm?” in the corner of his vision, a bell icon suddenly materialized. It shook and enlarged as if it was ringing. He mentally pressed the ringing bell and out came a cascade of notifications.
Spell [Waterball] has leveled up!
Skill [Water Manipulation] has leveled up!
**Spell [Waterball] has leveled up!**
**Skill [Air Manipulation] has leveled up!**
**Skill [Mana Sense] has leveled up!**
**Skill [Analyze] has leveled up!**
**Spell [Fireball] has leveled up!**
**Spell [Air Bullet] has leveled up!**
**Spell [Air Bullet] has leveled up!**
You have killed Boar – lvl 3
**You have leveled up! You have 9 status points to spend!**
It was dizzying to see so many notifications so he swiped them all away intending to manage it all when they got back to their base. He started walking lamely towards the direction of the apartment building when Mark came and helped him walk.
“I can heal you while we trek through the forest.” Mark activated his skills, first, he cast his innate skill [Diagnosis] which halved all mana cost for healing skills while also identifying the specific problem, which in this case was a hairline fracture across the tibia, he then cast [Mend Wounds] and [Heal] in quick succession. Mark repeatedly cast his three skills over and over while they were walking until, a half hour later when Noah could finally walk well enough on his own
“Magic truly is miraculous. A fracture that should’ve taken a few weeks to heal on its own in the old world, healed in just half an hour.” Noah said admiringly “I told you you’d save my life one day, I just didn’t expect it to be this soon.”
“Yeah, yeah, you were right again mister right all the time. Now shush, I don’t want another random beast coming out of the tall grass while I’m almost out of mana.”
With that, Noah and Mark proceeded silently towards their destination. As they trudged along across the forest they heard a cacophony of animal noises, it was honestly kind of soothing but, just as they were relaxing, everything turned quiet. Wing flaps could be heard in the distance and they were just getting louder by the second. Noah looked up and he saw a small bird slowly getting larger and larger as his pupils dilated in distress and focus as he cast [Analyze] on the thing flying towards them with an extra 15 mana put into it to see its level.
**Wyvern - lvl ??**
“Crap” was all he could say as he heard and saw the Wyvern screech and swoop down.
“Noah, what are you doing?! Get down!” Mark hurriedly tackled Noah down to the ground and narrowly evaded the Wyvern’s sharp talons. That was when another, much louder screech was heard coming closer. They looked up again and couldn’t believe their eyes, a much larger bird-like beast the size of a commercial airplane dove down and ate the Wyvern in one gulp.
Noah and Mark curled themselves up into balls hoping, praying, that the massive bird-beast would hopefully think of them as too small and too insignificant to even count as a snack for it. Then, as if to mock them the beast flapped its wings toward them summoning strong gusts of wind enough to make them roll around, suddenly, the massive bird spoke but, not out loud, it was as if it was speaking straight into their minds.
“HAHAHA! YOU HUMANS ARE TRULY SUCH FUNNY LITTLE CREATURES. YOUR LIFE IS SAVED BY THE MAJESTIC ME AND STILL COWER IN FEAR”
The massive bird landed on the ground and proceeded to preen itself while speaking to them. Noah abruptly stood up and said “Um, hello Mr. Bird sir…” but before he could finish speaking, the bird screeched and laughed in their minds.
“ME? A MERE BIRD? HAHAHA. TRULY QUITE A FUNNY HUMAN. WHY DON’T YOU USE YOUR INNATE SKILL ON ME, THOUGH I DOUBT IT WILL GIVE YOU ANY INFORMATION WITH ITS PITIFULLY LOW LEVEL.”
“Analyze.”
Roc – lvl 9
Noah couldn’t believe his eyes. Didn’t Rocs only exist in mythology? How was there one standing and preening itself right in front of him?
“HAHAHA! YOU SHOULD SEE YOUR EXPRESSION RIGHT NOW”
“Ummm, Mr. Roc sir, thank you for saving us but, what can we do to repay the favor? Surely a Roc as majestic as you has everything it needs and whatever we could offer you, you could probably get with a simple snap of a finger, uhhh, a snap of a talon in your case”
Suddenly, the preening roc visibly shrunk then morphed into the shape of a human with a multicolored robe around him
“Oh, you are indeed right, you cannot do anything for me. I am only here because I find your little building here quite satisfactory for my new nest.”
“So, you’re telling us to get out of here?” Noah asked as his face turned white
“Oh no no no, this majestic me would not resort to taking the house of someone as insignificant like you. I am just saying hi to my new neighbors! I am moving into one of the rooms, and I am not asking you, I’m telling you.” The roc said threateningly
This was when Mark finally calmed down enough to say “So Mr. Roc sir, you’re telling us that you, someone who is leagues above us in strength and most probably level too…”
“Level? Oh, no, I’m still under level 10 actually but, yes, I am definitely way above you in strength thanks to my heritage as one of the mythological races. You see, all those myths and legends in your history have some truth in them, we’ve just been hiding among you because honestly speaking, humans make some really cool shit. I was an avid gamer myself so color me surprised when game like blue screens suddenly appeared in my vision.”
“I know right?! It’s all so exciting!” Noah beamed at the Roc turned human and asked “So Mr. Roc do you guys have classes too?”
“Please, just call me Talal and no, we don’t. I confirmed it with my fellow Rocs and other mythological creatures but we all only have race and levels as far as we know but, we do get massive increases to our stats per level. Unfortunately, we can’t pick where we put our stats unlike you humans. Anyway, enough talk, I’ll take the top floor and rooftop, you guys get all the other floors, but I will only say this once, since I am taking something from you, you will get one favor from me, otherwise I will not protect you nor will I involve myself with your lives”
Noah and Mark looked at each other and nodded. They were obviously the ones who came out on top of this deal with no obvious downsides, except maybe, living with someone that can pretty much just kill them with a sneeze, but that wasn’t going to happen right?... right?
While they were thinking of the potential downsides to this deal, Talal turned around and started heading towards the building. Noah and Mark hurriedly caught up to him and said “We were previously living on the top floor so it might be a little messy… Want us to clean it up for you?”
“You would do that for me? Oh, but I don’t like it when people are in my nest, I’ll do it myself.” Talal abruptly disappeared from where he was standing. At first, they thought that he could teleport but then they saw a colorful ball flying across the sky towards the apartment. They started running in order to catch up and a few minutes later arrived at the building just in time to see full on concrete slabs flying out of the top floor windows and falling onto the parking lot.
“Guess he’s renovating.” Noah said trying to lighten the mood as he noticed that Mark wasn’t really into the whole idea of living with a mythological creature “Come on Mark, look at the bright side, if he lives here, we probably won’t have to worry about waking up to random beasts knocking on our doors.”
“How’s that?”
“Don’t animals have territories and stuff? Like how wolves and dogs pee on their territory to mark it. Maybe he has something similar.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right”
“Of course I’m right! Now let’s go set up on one of the lower floors. I am tired after having almost died so many times today. We also need to strategize how we’re gonna use all our abilities in order to survive, we can’t rely on that one favor from our new neighbor.”
With that, they started heading towards the building and went up the stairs to the ninth floor which they picked because it was only logical to live close to the powerful neighbor they found themselves with.
Noah filled a couple buckets with [Waterball] which they used to drink and wash themselves with, then, they went out to the parking lot and Noah took the boar carcass out of his artifact and said “So what do we do with this thing?”
“If memory serves me right, we need to bleed it out first. It makes the meat taste better and last longer.”
Noah looked at the 5 feet tall furry boar with the bald spot from when he threw a fireball at it and said “So do I just burn off the rest of the fur?”
“Yeah, that should be fine”
Noah went ahead and summoned a fireball and proceeded to carefully burn off every bit of fur. It took a few minutes and a bit of elbow grease to flip the whole boar around and burn the fur on the other side but they managed to do it. Then they took a kitchen knife and slit its throat, but there was one problem. “Where do we hang it?” Noah asked after unsummoning his fireball.
Mark looked at the now bald boar and said “We could get some rope and tie it to a ladder? No, the ladder probably can’t take that much weight.
Noah began thinking and then had an idea. “I know! I’ll just make something like an arch with earth manipulation and hang it from there!”
Noah walked a few meters away from the concrete floor of the parking lot and began manipulating the earth. It took all of his mana to just make it half way up his planned arch then he suddenly fell down panting.
“Noah! You okay?” Mark asked worriedly
“Uh, yeah. I think I just found out what happens when you use up all your mana.” Noah just laid there on the ground panting and holding his aching head. “I’m definitely not doing that ever again, I feel like shit.”
“You look like shit” they looked at each other and just laughed. They were not laughing because it was funny mind you, they were laughing at the absurdity of the situation. They were building an arch from which they’d hang a boar twice the size of old-world boars, all this they did with magic, real fucking magic. Not to mention that Mark healed an injury that would’ve taken weeks of healing.
Truly absurd indeed.
But all they could do was laugh and accept the situation because otherwise, they’d die and they'd die horribly.

I’m +30h into the game, just beat the wing guy at the start of act 2. I don’t want this to be a hate thread or anything like that since I don’t hate bg3. The game has great production value, dialogues are very well written, characters are full of personalty, I like the combat, character creation and class choices are fun. Everyone knows these things are good. Every other Youtube video essayist has already talked about it. I’m making this post because I couldn’t find any good constrictive criticism. I’d want to go a bit deeper than just accepting the fact it’s not for me and moving on. Mostly since Baldur’s Gate 3 seems like a game that I should enjoy. I like story games and I like long rpgs that I can obsess over. This post is not going to be any “definitive deconstruction”though. I haven’t finished the game and I’m not sure if I will. I’ve watched and read some opinions about later parts and I haven’t found anything that would change my stance.
The biggest issue isn’t that Baldur’s Gate 3 has some one cardinal error or major problem. Although there are some things I have an issue with, I’ll get to it. To put it all in one sentence: My biggest problem is that at no point the game has managed to hook me or make me want to see the whole thing to the end. Their is the good, the bad, nothing ugly but nothing outstanding either. I really don’t feel like spending +100h on a game that I think is just okay. I searched to see what it was that made people truly fall in love with bg3 and some opinions I just don’t vibe with. Some say they’ve got into it when they heard the main menu theme, when they’ve made their custom character or when they first landed on the beach and were hooked by the call of adventure. I don’t share those feelings but they are feelings. The fact that I don’t share them doesn’t mean that they aren’t valid.
At the same time I’ve read some points that made me wonder whether or not we are playing the same game. One thing that everyone always brings up is that “the game is great at giving you freedom to approach and solve problems the way you want”. An example of it is supposed to be how you can put a bunch of explosive barrels near one of the goblin leaders to one shot them. You’ve used your knowledge about the game to cheese an encounter.That’s what I mean when I say that the game is good but not fantastic. I don’t deny that such little things have value but they aren’t a selling point by themselves. Learning about that didn’t make me jump from my chair and make me stand their with my mouth open for an hour. Yeah, It’s cool that you can do it but does it really matter if the end result is always the same?
Speaking of results, the whole “actions have consequences” feels greatly overblown. Maybe I feel like it because I didn’t get to act 3, but from what I googled many people had issues with act 3 and community also seems to be in agreement that the story gets worse over time. The fact that the devs are focused on expanding the late game experience also supports that view. Yet even if turning a dead man into an undead and heaving his wife deal with him is going to return later on, it still doesn’t feel all that revolutionary, does it? “Actions have consequences” seems like a very standard rpg trope. I don’t see how bg3 is any special in that regard. Nothing that I’ve seen so far made me believe that it is and things I read on the internet only strengthens my view.
Another point is that “the world reacts to your actions”. I’ve seen a bunch of those YT shorts titled “what happens if you do X before/when/if you do Y in Baldur’s Gate 3”. My experience was an opposite of that and It’s not like I was going out of my way to break the game. You know how in act 1 you get a quest from Wyll to kill Karlach and later on you learn that she’s fine and can join your team? I didn’t know she’s a potential party member so I went with Wyll, the quest giver, to kill the alleged monster but when I made her join, both of them just stood their looking at each other and didn’t say anything before I took a long rest. That’s just act 1 mind you. Another example, something that made me close the game and write this whole thing. The moment where the wing guy comes in in act 2 saying he wants to bring the cleric lady to his boss alive. Not kill, keep her alive. My immediate though was: what if I would beat him and kept him alive instead? The game has non-lethal combat toggle after all. Maybe we could imprison and interrogate him? Nope, nothing like this happened. You have to either kill him or help him. This entire “play the game your way”, ”be creative with every encounter” or ”the world will react to your action” goes completely out of the window.
But maybe if I would complete the game than my opinion would change. Maybe if I’d keep on playing a bit longer I’d find something that would pick my interest. Surely a critically acclaimed, award winning goty has to blow my mind eventually. I’ve being telling myself this after every enemy encounter and after every major dialogue. “It’ll pick up the pace any second now”, but it never does. If the game couldn’t hook me after 30h, I strongly doubt that seen the ending is going to change anything. The most important thing any story, especially longer ones, must do as early as possible is to develop “trust”. If you want to have your plot to be a slow burn with lots of early set ups and big pay offs, you need to make your audience trust you. You can make your story as slow as you see fit, but you need to make them believe that all of it goes somewhere. There wasn’t a single point in bg3 that would make me believe that this whole deal with worms, cultists, magic artefacts and my teammates’ personal drama is going to evolve into anything truly interesting.
It will go “somewhere”, like I’ve seen with Gale. First you learn that he’s a wizard, then you learn he needs to consume magical artefacts, then you learn that he has a magic bomb inside him and then you learn he can blow himself up to beat the bad guys. None of these plot points I find to be particularly interesting. They are a competent plot points but they don’t form any compelling story. It reminds me of that one time Matt Stone and Trey Parker talked about story structure. Never connect your story bits with “and then”, use things like“but”or“therefore”. What we end up with are a bunch of names and events that I can’t relate to, learn anything useful from or form any emotional connection with. It’s lore over story. The way the main story develops is that you learn that “a guy did a thing so we have to go there and do that”. There doesn’t seem to be any form of nuance to any of this. Every major choice boils down to whether you want to be good or evil. Do you want to save refugees from evil goblins or murder them for some reason. Do you want to let a sadist throw gnomes into lava or do you want to throw him into lava.
Another issue is that the set ups themselves are not all that interesting. Most of them are just classic mystery boxes. What’s the deal Shadowheart’s artefact? What’s Nightsong? Why did Wyll make a pact with a demon? Why have we not turn into an alien? Who is the night visitor? Who or what is the Absolute? A good mystery gives you a question and basic information allowing you to make theories about what the answer could be. A simpler, non-mystery set up establishes all the information at the start and just develops it. A mystery box is when the audience is presented with a problem and when they start asking, the answers are “a good question, for a later time”. You know why Karlach is the best teammate? Because she just tells you what’s going on. Shadowheart claims to have no memory, so she doesn’t say anything. Gale is to afraid open up about his issue, so he doesn’t say anything. Lae'zel sees you as inferior, so she doesn’t say anything. Wyll has made a pact, so he can’t say anything. Astarion is evil, so he doesn’t say anything. Karlach openly talks about her heart and history from the start. Everything else is just mystery box. The answer is simple but we can’t learn it for some arbitrary reasons.
Most of those problems probably comes down to the game just not being for me and that’s fine. I don’t want to convince people who enjoy bg3 to start hating the game. I’m honestly curies of how the fans feel about all of this. I don’t mind the spoilers. I’m trying to be contractive and my hopes are that some more knowledgable people will share their own opinion.