Free flourishes

No Gods or Kings. Only Man.

2009.09.11 22:34 No Gods or Kings. Only Man.

Somewhere beyond the sea, our community of free thinkers flourishes.

2019.10.04 01:34 sbret a truly iconic man. the definition of god-tier.

A place for top-tier funny quotes from teachers inspired by the man, the myth, the legend himself, Mr. Kardouche. If you know this glorious man feel free to post anything at all that relates to him (memes, videos, images, stories, etc.)

[link]

2024.05.19 18:47 adulting4kids Genre Specific Prompts

Fantasy:
- "The enchanted mirror revealed a world that existed parallel to their own."
Science Fiction:
- "A signal from deep space hinted at an extraterrestrial presence, captivating humanity's attention."
Mystery:
- "An anonymous note left on their doorstep unveiled a web of interconnected secrets."
Romance:
- "Their love story began in a bustling airport during an unexpected flight delay."
Horror:
- "A cursed object passed down through generations brought tragedy to every owner."
Historical Fiction:
- "An unexpected friendship blossomed amidst the chaos of a bygone era."
Thriller:
- "A series of unexplained events pointed towards an elusive and dangerous perpetrator."
Adventure:
- "A long-lost artifact resurfaced, beckoning intrepid explorers on a perilous quest."
Dystopian:
- "In a world devoid of nature, the discovery of a single flower sparked hope for change."
Comedy:
- "A case of mistaken identity at a prestigious gala led to hilarious misunderstandings."

Feel free to use these prompts as a starting point for your short fiction stories, allowing your creativity to flourish across various genres!

submitted by adulting4kids to writingthruit [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 18:46 adulting4kids Genre Specific Prompts

Fantasy:
- "The forgotten heirloom revealed a hidden gateway to a realm of mythical creatures."
Science Fiction:
- "The experimental serum granted extraordinary abilities to an unsuspecting test subject."
Mystery:
- "A series of bizarre symbols carved into ancient stones held the key to an unsolved mystery."
Romance:
- "Their love story unfolded against the backdrop of a quaint seaside town's annual festival."
Horror:
- "A cursed painting's unsettling gaze seemed to follow anyone who dared to glance at it."
Historical Fiction:
- "A forbidden romance flourished amidst the backdrop of a revolution's chaos."
Thriller:
- "The classified documents uncovered a conspiracy that threatened national security."
Adventure:
- "An old journal detailed a legendary treasure hidden deep within an untamed jungle."
Dystopian:
- "In a world controlled by AI, a small group fought for the restoration of human autonomy."
Comedy:
- "A mistaken identity at a prestigious cooking contest led to culinary calamity and hilarity."

Feel free to use these prompts as inspiration for your short fiction endeavors, allowing your imagination to take flight across a diverse array of genres!

submitted by adulting4kids to writingthruit [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 15:25 TheGangstaGandalf Discussion of the Diamond Handbook (Part 1)

Hey everyone, this will be my first attempt at a serious post on this sub. I’m not exactly practiced in articulating my thoughts (I’m more of a fiction writer) so please ~~bear~~ bull with any mistakes and please correct me if I’m wrong. The last thing I want to do is spread misinformation, I’m not an expert (or a financial advisor) on any of this. I'm here to learn, not to teach.
This post will be the first in a series of me reading through the entire Diamond Handbook (2nd) and just commentating on points I find interesting or discussion worthy. I will be asking questions as well as giving my own personal thoughts based on my understanding of the events that have transpired. I became an ape right after the sneeze, and followed a lot of the discussions back then, but have been zen for a while so I haven't fully kept up with a lot of the new developments.
I haven't actually sat down and read DD in a long time, so I decided to give myself a refresher and actually look at the Diamond Handbook (2nd) for the first time. I had read a lot of these posts as they had come out, so I had never felt the need to look at the full PDF before. For the apes that haven’t read it either, I recommend giving it a read. You can find the full DD library in the pinned post of this sub, and the Diamond Handbook is the first one there.
As I have been reading it, I’ve quickly realized that some of the stuff is a little outdated. That can’t really be helped since so much DD has been done between then and now, but this brings me to the two reasons for this post. The Diamond Handbook is likely the first piece of DD a new ape will be recommended; I want to spark discussion to clear up some things that are misguided or outdated in this handbook. The second reason is more of a personal challenge. Whenever someone denies the legitimacy of the DD, an ape usually responds by saying something like “Well, read the DD and prove it wrong”. The average MOASS denier won’t do this though, in my experience they just think it’s ridiculous on a conceptual level, and won’t take the time to actually look through all the DD available and construct a proper debate. I can’t really blame them for this though, spending so much time on something you have no interest in doesn’t sound like a fun time.
But I have a lot of interest in this, and I am an aspiring author who writes 400K word fanfictions for fun. I’ve got the time and the writing willpower. I am very big into trying to understand how a reader will interpret a piece of my writing, so I’ll be looking through that lens and will be writing this with the assumption that you have already read the Diamond Handbook (2nd). Please take the time to respond/correct what I say here, I want to learn.
With all that out of the way, let’s get started.

The Mother of All Short Squeezes (MOASS) Thesis, Published on May 26, 2021, by u(slash)HCMF_MACEFACE
Before we even get into the meat of this section I already see a bit of an issue. A lot of the language implies that MOASS is imminent, take this section for example:

*“If you don't believe me, just look at the chart of GME which our DD (Due Diligence/research/analysis) has been forecasting for a while now. The below pattern has only preceded massive spikes in price, but this time, those on the other side of the trade are going to have a much harder time suppressing the price like they did in January and March. Thanks to the activity on 5/25, we have entered the end-game. The MOASS is beginning.”*

I think most new apes will look at this, then look at the date of posting (three years ago), and think this is delusional thinking. They will say that MOASS did not ‘begin’ because it hasn’t happened yet. This would be pretty short sighted though, GME has always been a Deep Value investment, long positions are called long for a reason. ‘Buy and HODL’ is such a repeated mantra because that is the investment strategy most apes employ. Like most investments, it takes a long time to realize gains. Your retirement account will be growing for 40+ years before you cash that thing out, GME is my retirement plan so I don’t expect it to be much different.
Just because the sneeze happened in a week doesn’t mean MOASS will, in theory it should be a very long event as both the shorts and longs have a test of wills to see who caves first. However, the sneeze was the ‘beginning’ because it was exposed a lot of the fuckery that is going on in the market right now, I think that is the message that should be taken from this section.

*“These terms are key to understanding the theory and speculated value of a GME investment. Hyperlinks to Investopedia, "the world's leading source of financial content on the web", have been included for most market terms and concepts and it is recommended to check them out if they are not clear. We will be breaking down some of the more complex terms and concepts within the post and framing them within the context of GME.”*

After the introduction, this post does a great job of explaining all the concepts of the stock market that are relevant to the MOASS thesis. However, I do wish it mentioned some other stock terms for the sake of new investors. Since none of the DD is supposed to be financial advice, I can’t really blame them for these omissions, but at the beginning the OP does say they wanted the post to be good for newer investors, so I think some more pointing in the right direction should’ve been provided. I do appreciate the link to Investopedia, but this DD is already a novel, and the average reader might forget about that link by the time they finish it. So an additional link should’ve been provided at the end.
The two big concepts I see missing are Options and Wash Sales/Stop-Losses.
Options are interesting because they create a different type of buying/selling pressure compared to just buying/selling stocks regularly. There are concepts like gamma ramps and stuff that can be relevant when discussing catalysts for price movement. However, options are pretty scary for most investors, I’ve only ever bought one, and forgot about it so it auto-exercised for me (lol), so it’s not a concept I would call essential. I just think it’s better to be educated than not.
The much more egregious omission is that of Wash Sales and Stop-Losses. Wash Sales are extremely dangerous to new investors who still make decisions based on emotions and are not used to the volatility that comes with GME.
If you are unfamiliar, a Wash Sale is when a person sells a stock at a loss, then buys the stock again within a short period of time. As an example, let’s say you bought a stock at $50, then the stock goes down to $40.00 and you no longer feel comfortable with your investment. You sell the stock at a loss. You lost $10.00 on this transaction, but it’s not all bad. When you go to do your taxes, you can report this $10.00 loss to the IRS. This is good because if you make a $10.00 profit off another trade, you now don’t have to take taxes out of that profit, since the IRS will see this as you breaking even in the grand scheme of your portfolio. You didn’t actually make any money, so they aren’t going to tax you for it.
A Wash Sale is triggered when you buy back the stock you sold in a short period of time, this can even apply if you buy a stock in the same sector. So if you buy a stock at $50.00, sell it at $40.00 then buy it again. That $10.00 loss you took can no longer be reported to the IRS as an actual loss. So when you make $10.00 on some other trade, the IRS won’t see you as breaking even, they will tax you on that $10.00.
For a stock as volatile as GME this can be very dangerous, I know people who brought in the peak, then as the price went back down they triggered a Stop-Loss (auto-sale you can program to trigger when a price falls), only to then buy back in when the stock dropped even lower, creating a wash sale that fucked their taxes.
We say “Buy and HODL” a lot, but I think the ‘why’ of it has been lost in the meme. I personally buy and HODL because averaging down is a lot better for me than accidently triggering a Wash Sale. I fucking hate the IRS and don’t want any of that smoke.

*“SPOILER: GME and \[Popcorn\] have tons of FTDs reported.”*

I just kinda don’t like the mention of the Popcorn stock here, it has never been a deep value investment. If you are unfamiliar with the Deep Value investment strategy, please take a look at the old Roaring Kitty livestreams. In summary, Deep Value investing is defined by looking for stocks that are extremely undervalued and unpopular due to no fault of the company. These external factors that are making the stock undervalued can be anything, shorting, COVID, stuff like that. But what makes it a Deep Value investment is always strong management within the company. If the company is not mismanaged in any way, then it is very unlikely to go bankrupt, and will have opportunities to make a comeback. GME has Ryan Cohen leading, a proven successful businessman that has already taken precautions to ensure GameStop never goes bankrupt. Popcorn just doesn’t have that. It is very short-squeezable, but it’s not deep fucking value.

*“Short sellers must eventually close, or cover, their short position.”*

Ok, but why ‘must’ they? This is another point I think has been lost in the memes. There are two problems with just saying ‘shorts must close’ without providing context. The first is the simple fact that there isn’t a due date. Unlike a common car loan or mortgage, a short position doesn’t operate on a time table. They can wait forever to close, unless they get margin called.
This next part I’m a little shaky on, I’m probably getting some things wrong here:
Ok, well how are they going to get margin called? The problem I see is that these Short Hedge Funds (SHF) are making a lot of money by selling naked shorts. It’s really hard to get margin called when they are literally printing money, and since they don’t have to report these their books just look to be filled with an infinite amount of cash.
So, there are a couple solutions to this:
1, Government regulation. If the SEC puts a stop to naked shorting, these SHF can’t print money anymore. Eventually the interest from their positions will eat them alive, and they will get margin called. Unfortunately, MOASS has the potential to destroy the economy like in 2008, so they probably aren’t too keen on just doing this without creating some kind of safety net. So I can’t really count on them to help, because the government has a vested interest in keeping MOASS from happening. It’s just not something I believe will be the catalyst. Although they might just do it on purpose given the right reason, like pinning the economic collapse on a scapegoat, or by GameStop forcing their hand by exposing the fraud somehow. I’ve seen a lot of apes hoping for one of these reasons to come to pass, but for me, I don’t see enough motivation from the participating parties.
2, A price run-up. If the price of the stock can unbalance the books of the SHF enough then they could also get margin called. I’m not counting on this either, since the price is manipulated by the process of naked shorting. Sure, they are digging a bigger grave when they suppress the price like this, but it can also help smaller SHFs with exiting their positions with OTC stuff. Over-The-Counter trades are trades made off the lit exchanges, historically it was intended to kind of simulate a transaction between two individuals, like buying a video game from a buddy off the books, no taxes, no regulation. Unfortunately, this is abused by institutions and can’t even be used by individuals, making dark pools of trades full of fraud and undermines the free market. Smaller SHFs that are more at risk of getting Margin Called due to their lack of collateral, can make OTC trades with the big naked-shorting market makers to ‘close’ their positions using fake shares. Of course, this only passes the buck so to speak, but it’s a viable strategy for them since the big SHFs that take on these ‘bucks’ are less likely to get margin called. A lot of historic short squeezes happen because a small SHF gets margin called, then drives the price up and causes a bigger SHF to get called, and so on until they’re all in the grave. This is why I don’t really give a shit if the price goes up to $80 in a week, it’s not enough, the buck has been passed. (To be clear, I don’t have proof that this is the reason for the uptick in OTC transactions, it’s just a theory. If a smarter ape than I can get on this that would be great.) But, even if a price run-up itself doesn’t cause MOASS, it may give motivation for the true trigger:
3, Interest Rates. Here is the big one that I look at, that I believe will be the true cause of MOASS. Now please, correct me if I’m wrong again, I am just an ape who dropped out of college. So, from what I understand a Short institution has to pay a certain amount of interest to the people they borrow the stocks from. This is the cost of borrowing and is how these Lenders make money. For a long time, the interest rate was at like 1%, this means that selling one naked short could cover the cost of the interest 100 times over. However, let’s say that the interest rate becomes 110%, sounds crazy, but this would mean that borrowing the share would cost more than the share. This would destroy the balances of the SHFs and ensure they get margin called. Why would this ever happen though? Because these lenders want to make money. These lenders are the real winners of MOASS, and they aren’t talked about enough in my opinion. Lenders can’t sell the shares they’ve lent out, their income is in the interest rates, there has to be a balance here between it being more profitable to lend the shares or to sell them. If Lenders start to think that lending their shares aren’t making them more money than the alternative, they will raise interest rates to make these profits until SHFs can’t pay them, then the SHFs have to return the shares, causing MOASS with the massive buyback, then lenders can just sell the shares on the way down. Lenders have a monetary business interest in causing MOASS, so they are the most likely cause of it in my opinion.

*“This is the GME MOASS thesis. GME is a stock that stands to hit an unprecedented price point due to the fact that manipulators of the market have failed to bankrupt GameStop thanks in huge part to the Legendary Keith Gill AKA* u(slash)DeepFuckingValue*, Ryan Cohen, and all of the GME investors who took part in this saga. It may not be today, this week, or even this month, but one day soon, these toxic participants have no choice but to buy the stock to close out their short positions.”*

I don’t think this is necessarily inaccurate, but I think it’s misguided, and the language here is a bit to emotive for my taste. I think the reason the company didn’t go bankrupt is because of the strategic share offering made by Ryan Cohen to build up more cash than the company’s valuation (at the time). All the other stuff was just dressing, DFV and retail did not make RC do this, this move by RC is what ensured the company literally can’t go bankrupt, until then (and at the time this was posted) it was still a risk in my opinion. So this huge thanks feels kinda like a pre-cum celebration, and I've never really liked putting Keith on a pedestal, he's just an individual investor, just like the rest of us.

FAQ, Published April 12, 2021, by u(slash)BYE_TRIANGLE

*“Why does Holding do anything?”* *“They need your shares to cover their short positions! They got greedy. Thinking GameStop would fail, the short sellers started Naked Shorting the stock. Long story short they created synthetic stocks with their special privileges as Market Makers. But they can’t cover a short with a synthetic share. So because of the Naked Shorting, the Short Sellers, multiple large greedy money managers, and Hedge Funds need a total number of shares greater than the number available to purchase. THEY NEED EVERY SHARE, EVEN YOURS CONAN!”* *“aRe YoU GuYs MaNipuLatIng THe MaRKeT?!”*

Holding does something else that I think is really important. It proves that retail is not responsible for the manipulation of the price. You see it in the mainstream media every time the price fluctuates, they say that retail and Roaring Kitty is driving the price up for the memes, and that the ‘meme stock craze is dead’ whenever the price falls, claiming that retail is selling. However, it quickly becomes clear to anyone with the willingness to research that retail holds. Holding doesn’t move the price at all, so they literally can’t blame this sub for the fuckery that happens.
Now, on the flip side, I know people on the old sub to buy and sell with these fluctuations, they did it during the sneeze and I’ve seen comments claiming to do it last week. I think this is why Roaring Kitty really had to speak to congress about this, because a legitimate-seeming argument could be made that retail was buying and selling at high volumes. The loss and gain porn on the old sub could be presented as evidence. Here though, apes hold, we glaze purple doughnuts.
So when MOASS does happen, the massive price increase will be only due to buying pressure from SHFs, so they are the only ones that can take the blame for what happens next.

*“No one knows how high the squeeze could take the stock price. The best rational reasoning says that these numbers \[500k per share\] are possible through the laws of supply and demand. Furthermore, it is likely that the Short Percentage is a lot higher than reported, with many suggesting that the short-sellers, cumulatively, need more than 100% of the float to cover.”*

A lot of naysayers will claim people are insane for thinking that phone number prices are possible. They will cite that it would make the company’s valuation higher than the amount of money in the world, which is true. However, with the nature of fraudulent naked shorts being fake, the price is fake too, and the valuation of the company doesn’t necessarily mean that the whole float will be sold at those prices. Yes, it shouldn’t be possible, by all accounts it wouldn’t make sense, but it is possible due to the naked shorting. Also, institutions that own shares likely won’t HODL out for the phone number prices, they will sell when they think it’s safe, and when they won’t get in trouble with the SEC for destroying the economy. The infinity pool (the shares that will be sold at these prices) will be a small fraction of the total amount even among retail investors. So the argument that I see against the possibility of this doesn’t hold a lot of weight.
Keep in mind that even though ‘buying pressure’ moves the price up, someone has to be willing to sell in order for someone to buy. So as the price creeps up from $100 to $1000 to $100000 to $8675309 someone will be selling on the way up to get there.

*“Synthetic long positions could be used to disguise their short positions as well, the mechanisms behind this practice utilize the options markets and could explain some of the crazy options activity that we have seen in GameStop the last few months.”*

So uhm… I don’t understand ‘Synthetic Longs’ at all. Could an ape with more wrinkles elaborate on this? From what I can extrapolate, this may refer to an institution purchasing a naked shorted share from someone else?

*“While at the same time they employed the use of social engineering to slowly depress the positive sentiment for the stock on Reddit and elsewhere.”* *“You may have been called a Shill for one of a number of reasons. This community is very inclusive and open to everyone, but because of the blatant attacks this forum has suffered a lot of people are understandably paranoid. (Myself included). Please, unless you really are a shill, don’t take it personally.”*

I want to address this, because there is a lot of misconception about SuperStonk. A lot of people will claim that this sub is just an echo chamber cult that can’t handle anyone questioning the narrative. This may seem true on the surface, but I think the reality is just that we’ve become hyper sensitive to the social engineering the old sub fell victim to, and I remember this sub being attacked with that as well. So whenever we see a post that has extremely emotive language, we become skeptical and down vote it. Emotions have no place in investing, that is a common rule touted in even the oldest investing books, so posts that try to incite an emotional response are shot down. Apes aren’t about to be manipulated again. That being said there are emotive posts that still get upvoted, ones with positive hype-filled narratives. Since these get upvoted and the negative ones don’t that sometimes gives the impression of an echo chamber. This is because the facts do support the MOASS thesis, so a hype title and opening paragraph is just more agreeable with the facts-based narrative. Some people are just scrolling on their phone and don’t have time to read the whole post.
However, if you go into the comments of these posts, there are apes investigating the profile history to determine if posters are bots, regardless of the pushed narrative. If you look past the upvote counter, apes are very skeptical of any post that isn’t based in fact or harmless memes. The comments rule the post, and I have to say I’ve very proud of this sub for staying vigilant in the wake of Reddit restricting moderation tools.

*“Ryan Cohen clearly believes in Gamestop, to the point of announcing that he will be taking equity as compensation. In fact, as of writing this all of the new Gamestop board members are going to be taking equity as compensation. This is seen as an incredibly bullish sign of the company's future success.”*

This is one of the principles of Deep Value investing, I wish this was elaborated on more of why this is bullish. This means that the board, and more importantly Ryan Cohen, is tying their individual self-worth to the company. Due to this tie, they will essentially ‘go down with the ship’ if the company goes down. This means that the board and Ryan actually have an interest in the company doing well, instead of having an interest in making money off the company. You may think this sounds like the same thing, but it’s not. If RC cared more about money than the company, then he could destroy the company to make money (this is what’s happening to popcorn), but by tying his worth to the shares, the only way for him to become richer is for the company to flourish.
I don’t really like the language being used here, stuff like ‘clearly believes’ ‘seen as incredibly bullish’ are all pretty emotive and doesn’t actually explain why these are positive growth signs for the company, they are just saying it is ‘bullish’, the average new investor isn’t even going to know what that really means. Even though GME is extremely manipulated, causing Technical Analysis to become increasingly difficult to depend on, the investment is still rooted in fundamentals of deep value.

*“Below is a shortlist of some of the potential catalysts people are speculating about:*

-A Stock Split, or some similar move from Gamestop that recalls shares
-Gamma Squeeze
-Gamestop’s Q1 Earnings Call
-Some speculate Gary Gensler (Newly appointed head of the SEC), may make some move that sets things in motion
-DTCC rule changes taking effect
-Appointment of a new CEO”
Yeah… this feels bad man. I’ve talked about this already, but we can rapid fire down this list.
The stock split didn’t work out, since those in charge of distributing the splits did it fraudulently. Gamma Squeeze is the kind of thing that could trigger a smaller hedge fund to get margin called and cause a domino effect, but I’ve shared my theory of the OTC action. Earnings are nice, but public sentiment has always been more tied to the media manipulation than actual facts. Fucking Gary.
On the subject of bringing in new talent, I do feel like a big move will happen soon. We’ve already seen a lot of job offerings from the Corporate side of GameStop so this could be the next phase of the plan. I really think that RC has spent these last few years taking precautions to make sure the company can’t go bankrupt, the last thing he wants is to turn out like Toys-R-Us. A lot of downsizing happened, so now he can start thinking about upsizing again.
I’m not necessarily saying that these things can’t trigger the squeeze, but I am saying that depending on something to start it is just inviting disappointment. I think the ‘no dates’ rule has been sorely forgotten lately with all the hype and speculation around Roaring Kitty’s tweets and stuff. I am a zen ape, it happens when it happens.

*“First of all, it is incredibly important to note your potential biases when determining if someone is just a shill trying to spread FUD. Not all FUD is invalid, someone may bring up a solid point against an otherwise great DD, and that could scare you. Remember that just because you do not like what someone is saying, doesn’t make it invalid. It is important users here work with constructive criticism to refine their theories.”*

Damn, wasn’t I just talking about this? This critique isn’t going to just be wagging fingers, this is really good stuff that still applies today, and from what I’ve seen apes are doing a great job of distinguishing between FUD and legitimate criticism. I also want to take a second to thank the mod team, especially after their tools were restricted, they’ve been a great help.

*“…but since then retail investors have been buying on every single dip in the price… That's more than two whole months of buying-the-dip. Now, I will not speculate on numbers here, if you want to know more you will have to read the DDs on that.”*

This is pretty outdated now. Apes have been buying for three years now, and with the advent of Direct Registering we have a much better idea of how much apes hold. I can say with confidence now that retail owns a floats worth of shares. Since there is so much naked shorting, a lot of institutions probably own their own floats too.
I glaze those purple doughnuts, yum.

Citadel Has No Clothes, Published March 14, 2021, by u(slash)ATOBITT
Ohhhh, this one is special to me, I read it when it first came out, first time I was there on release night. Let’s see how it hodls up.

*“TL;DR - Citadel Securities has been fined 58 times for violating FINRA, REGSHO & SEC regulations. Several instances are documented as 'willful' naked shorting. In Dec 2020 they reported an increase in their short position of 127.57% YOY, and I'm calling bullsh\*t on their shenanigans.”*

58 times. I don’t actually know how much that number has gone up, but I’m sure it has. I am reminded of an old saying, that if the punishment for a crime is a fine, then it only a crime for the poor. The crime being done to GME is class warfare, it’s nothing less.

*“$295,347,948,000 of that is split into options (calls & puts), while $78,979,887,238 (20.52%) is allocated to actual, physical, shares (or so they say). The rest is convertible debt securities.”*

This is why I’m skeptical that it’s even possible for Citadel to get margin called by a normal price run-up. Let’s do some math here. GME’s float is at 232 million-ish shares, let’s say they shorted 300% of that, just to be conservative (lmao), so that’s 696 million. To take what the first post said, Margins don’t get called unless an entities’ collateral becomes less than 80% of what they’ve borrowed. If they use their entire $384,926,232,238 portfolio as collateral, then GME would have to soar to a price of… divide by 4, multiply by 5… $691.32 per share. That may sound relatively reasonable, but I don’t think a normal catalyst would be enough for that. I really think interest rates are the key, think about it, if they have to pay like 30% interest on all of those shares, their portfolio will be reduced by that much (kinda) and we can find a much more reasonable midpoint. Now brace yourselves, I’m about to spend an unreasonable amount of effort on something that is probably wrong because I don’t know shit about fuck about margins or getting called (I have a cash account and I lack rizz).
In order to calculate that we gotta do one of those double equation variable bullshit things we all hated in school, I forgot what they were called but I remember how to do them.
So, we have a few variables:
C = Citadel’s Portfolio = $384,926,232,238
S = Shorted Shares = 696,000,000
I = Intrest = 0.30
X = Price Per Share
Y = Citadel’s new portfolio amount after paying interest
So, X and Y are undetermined, but we have two equations to work with
C – I(X*S) = Y
This one calculates how much money is going to be in citadels new portfolio after paying interest, we calculate the interest by multiplying the cost per share, by the amount of shorted shares, and multiplying that by the interest rate, then subtracting it from their total portfolio.
Y * 1.25 = X * S
This one calculates the total amount those shorted shares have to be in order for Citadel to get margin called, by multiplying their new portfolio by 5/4 and calculating the total cost of the shares.
X * S has a direct value; we can plug the left side of the second equation into the first to get
C – I(Y*1.25) = Y
Now we just gotta isolate Y on one side of the equation.
C = Y + 0.3(Y*1.25)
C = 1.3Y * 0.375
C= 0.4875Y
C * 0.4875 = Y
Y = $187,651,538,216.03
Now we gotta find X, we can just plug in the other stuff.
(Y* 1.25)/ 696,000,000 = X
X = $337.02 per share for shitadel to get margin called on 30% interest.
Holy shit, now that’s what I call reasonable. See how much interest can completely fuck a portfolio? They lost almost half of their portfolio value to a 30% interest to this. This is why the whole market will bleed red on the run up to MOASS, they will have to sell half of their portfolio just to pay the interest.
Citadel is probably not a good example of this, since they print the naked shorts themselves... so they would be paying interest to... themselves... when they borrow them? Citadel is so fucked up, I don't have enough wrinkles for this.
But hey, I think the concept of what I said is fine. High interest rates can reduce collateral and cause margin calls. Hey, just out of curiosity, how much is the borrowing interest rate looking now?
16.5%
SHF are fucked.

Anyway, I’m writing this on a Wordpad document so I’m not sure if I’ve come up on the character limit, but I think I’m getting close so I’ll end this part here. Please let me know what I’ve got wrong or any insights you want to share, I’ll be sure to talk about any interesting comments when I do a part 2!
TLDR: I am reviewing the Diamond Handbook (2nd) and seeing what has changed in the three years since it’s been compiled. I have a bias in thinking that high borrowing interest rates are what will cause MOASS, and that is shown here. This is not meant to be an impartial analysis, just my thoughts. Not financial advice.

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2024.05.19 13:43 Count-Daring243 Best Cash Registers for Small Business

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Whether you run a bustling café or a cozy boutique, a reliable cash register is an essential tool for the smooth operation of your small business. With our comprehensive roundup of the best cash registers available, you can confidently choose the perfect device to manage your sales, inventory, and transactions. So, let's dive in and find the right fit for your flourishing small business.

The Top 13 Best Cash Registers for Small Business

Royal Consumer 500DX Cash Register for Small Business - The Royal Consumer 500DX Cash Register is an all-in-one solution for small businesses with its unlimited messaging capabilities, quick transaction processing, and user-friendly design, making it ideal for grocery stores and beyond.
Sharp XE-A102 Compact Electronic Cash Register with LED Display - The Sharp XE-A102 Electronic Cash Register is a compact, reliable, and versatile option for start-up retailers, offering 8 departments, 80 PLU/Items, 3 payment methods, and a bright LED display.
Professional XE Series Electronic Cash Register - The Sharp XE Series Electronic Cash Register is a high-speed thermal printer, ideal for businesses, with advanced reporting capabilities, seamless QuickBooks integration, graphics customization, and an 8-line display for accurate order entry.
Casio Single-Tape Thermal Cash Register for Business - The Casio PCR-T280 is a top-performing cash register for medium-sized grocery stores, offering up to 1,200 item price lookups, easy tax programing, and hygienic anti-bacterial keyboard, ensuring patrons' peace of mind and efficient operation.
Heavy-Duty Cash Register with Alpha Keyboard and LCD Display - Discover the Royal Alpha 1100ml heavy-duty cash register, designed for high-traffic establishments with 200 departments for sales analysis, 40 clerk ID system, and automatic tax computation to streamline your cash management system.
Fast and Accurate Cash Register System with Thermal Printing and 8-Line Display - The Sharp XEA407 Cash Register offers a wide range of advanced features for efficient and streamlined operations, making it ideal for businesses seeking improved productivity and customer satisfaction.
Royal 100Cx Portable Battery/AC Powered Cash Register - The Royal 100Cx Portable Battery/AC Powered Cash Register is a compact, efficient solution ideal for small businesses, vendors, and market stands, offering automatic tax computation, quick sales entry, and flexible department configurations.
Royal 435dx Cash Register with 16 Department Capability and 8 Clerks - The Royal 435dX Electronic Cash Register is an exceptional choice for grocery stores, boasting 16 departments, 8 tax rates, and memory protection with backup batteries, making it a reliable and efficient addition to your business operations.
Casio SE-S700 Cash Register: High-Speed Single-Station Thermal Printer - The Casio SE-S700 Cash Register combines speed, precision, and customizable features in a single-station thermal printer designed for grocery stores, streamlining operations while ensuring accurate pricing data for both operators and customers.
Clover Station POS System with Cash Register - Clover Station: A sleek, reliable, and feature-rich POS system with large touchscreen, swipe card reader, and high-speed printer - perfect for streamlining your cash register management in grocery stores.
Casio PCR-T2300 Electronic Cash Register - The Casio PCR-T2300 offers versatile and reliable cash register functionality with a 10-line display, 30 department keys, and customizable receipts, perfect for grocery stores and small businesses.
Square Register Touchscreen Display, Gray - Elevate your sales game with Square Register's seamless design, intuitive controls, and compact size, perfect for efficient point-of-sale transactions for grocery stores.
Royal Alpha 583x Electric Cash Register for Small Business - Flexible and efficient cash management: The Royal Alpha 583xcash register provides 99 departments, 1000 PLUs, and 4 tax rates, simplifying transactions and enhancing small business operations.

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Reviews

🔗Royal Consumer 500DX Cash Register for Small Business

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As a small business owner, I can attest that the Royal 500DX Cash Register has been an absolute game-changer for me. The dual LCD displays provide clear visibility for both the clerk and the customer, making transactions seamless and efficient.
One of the standout features is its capacity to handle up to 2,000 employees, which is more than adequate for a small to medium-sized business. Additionally, the unlimited messaging capability ensures that you won't miss any important announcements or updates. However, the product does feel a bit flimsy due to its predominantly plastic design, which might concern those who prefer a sturdier build.
Another fantastic aspect of this cash register is the 999 Price Look-Ups, allowing for quick processing of transactions. Programming four different tax rates also makes the setup process incredibly straightforward. On the downside, the impact printer, although functional, occasionally feels outdated compared to more advanced models.
Overall, the Royal 500DX Cash Register has proven to be a reliable and user-friendly addition to my small business. Its features cater to my daily needs and have undoubtedly contributed to the efficiency and success of my operations.

🔗Sharp XE-A102 Compact Electronic Cash Register with LED Display

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I have been using the Sharp XE-A102 Electronic Cash Register for a start-up retail business, and it's been a reliable and efficient partner. The compact design allows it to fit easily in our small store, and the bright LED display makes it easy for us and our customers to see the transaction details. The 8 departments feature helps us organize our inventory, and the 80 PLU/Items capacity allows us to input all our products without issues.
One of the standout features of this cash register is its ability to accept different payment methods like cash, cheque, and credit card, which has made it easy for us to cater to our customers' preferred payment options. Additionally, the time and date display feature ensures that our transactions are accurate and timely.
However, there are a few minor drawbacks to the Sharp XE-A102. It can be a little noisy and slow compared to some other cash registers, which may be an issue during peak hours when we need to serve customers quickly. Moreover, the instructions provided are quite small, making them difficult to read and follow.
Overall, the Sharp XE-A102 Electronic Cash Register has been an excellent addition to our start-up retail business. Its compact design, 58 mm wide reliable printing, and ability to accept multiple payment methods make it a valuable tool for any small retailer. While it may have a few minor issues, the majority of users, including myself, are satisfied with its performance and recommend it to others.

🔗Professional XE Series Electronic Cash Register

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I recently added the Sharp XE Series Electronic Cash Register to my tiny boutique store, and I couldn't be happier. Before settling on this model, I spent a lot of time researching various cash registers, but the XE Series stood out for its advanced sales reporting capabilities and seamless tie-in with QuickBooks Pro. The moment I unboxed it, I was impressed by its sleek, professional appearance and built-in SC card slot for easy connectivity and data back-up.
Setting up the register was incredibly easy, and within just a few hours, it was ready to go. Its intuitive interface made training my employees a breeze. The thermal printer was a pleasant surprise; it's much quieter and faster than traditional receipt printers. Plus, the customizable receipts with graphics and logos definitely give my store a professional edge.
One of my favorite features is the automatic tax system, which not only saves time but also reduces the potential for errors and makes reporting so much easier. The locking drawer ensures security and comes with multiple bill and coin compartments, making deposits a lot more organized.
The only downside is the rather complicated user manual, which could definitely be improved. It's not a complete deal breaker, though, as there are plenty of helpful YouTube tutorials available online.
All in all, I'm thrilled with my purchase of the Sharp XE Series Electronic Cash Register. It's a perfect fit for my small business and a real game-changer when it comes to streamlining sales transactions and accounting. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this cash register to anyone running a small retail or service business.

🔗Casio Single-Tape Thermal Cash Register for Business

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Casio's PCR-T280 is a fantastic single-tape thermal cash register that offers more functionality for medium-sized businesses than entry-level models. With the ability to track up to 1,200 price lookups, it offers a level of specificity in item sales tracking not commonly found in its class. It also allows businesses to track sales up to eight different operators, making it an excellent tool for business tracking and growth.
One of the standout features of this product is its hygienic, antibacterial keyboard. In our current world, where cleanliness is paramount, this characteristic provides a measure of peace of mind for both business owners and customers alike. Furthermore, its multipurpose tray can hold money in four bill compartments and five coin compartments, ensuring the efficient flow of transactions.
The PCR-T280 also boasts a high-speed thermal printer, which can be used either for customer receipts or as a journal printer for recording all the store's activities. Its mode lock with key control feature provides multiple operation positions through physical keys, providing a level of security usually found in more expensive models.
Although it is not touch-screen, its simple and intuitive design makes it easy to program and use. Some users did find the manual a bit difficult to follow, but with a bit of practice, most find it quite manageable. With its ability to handle multiple sales tax needs and its capacity for PLU capabilities, the Casio PCR-T280 has proven itself as a reliable tool for various businesses, small or medium-sized.
However, one minor drawback is the depth of the money/change drawer, which could have been a little deeper for added convenience. Despite this minor issue, the vast majority of users recommend this register for its performance and price point, providing an excellent value for businesses looking for an affordable, reliable cash register solution.

🔗Heavy-Duty Cash Register with Alpha Keyboard and LCD Display

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As an avid user of cash registers in my grocery store, I recently discovered the Royal Alpha 1100ml Cash Register, and my experience has been quite satisfactory. This heavy-duty register is perfect for my high-traffic establishment, offering a reliable and swift cash management system that I can always depend on.
The first thing that caught my eye about this cash register was its single fast and quiet alphanumeric thermal printer, capable of handling over 1 million lines. It's been able to keep up with the constant rush of customers, making it a reliable addition to my store.
The large 10-line LCD user display and alpha keyboard ensure easy programming, which was a breeze, even for a beginner like me. The SD Card slot is another excellent feature, enabling efficient accounting data transfers to a PC, a necessity for any modern business.
However, I will say that the software included with the register can be a bit flaky at times. While it is supposed to read the x and z reports that the machine puts on the sd card, I sometimes find myself having to use the sd card to transfer report data manually. Additionally, getting in touch with their tech support doesn't seem to be very helpful, as they often provide no real technical assistance.
Despite these minor issues, the Royal Alpha 1100ml Cash Register has been a solid addition to my store. Its heavy-duty locking cash drawer with four slot bill and removable five slot coin tray, along with its automatic tax computation, has made managing funds and keeping track of sales much easier for me. If you're in need of a reliable cash register for your business, I'd highly recommend giving this one a try.

🔗Fast and Accurate Cash Register System with Thermal Printing and 8-Line Display

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I recently discovered the Sharp XEA407 Cash Register while searching for a reliable and feature-rich solution for my little grocery store. After trying it out, I must say it's exceeded my expectations.
The first thing that impresses anyone who lays their eyes on it is the sleek eight-line display. It's not just a pretty face though; it's got brains as well with 7000 Price Lookups (PLU's), allowing quick and accurate entry. The inclusion of 99 departments is brilliant as it makes managing diverse product types a breeze.
My favorite feature? Hands down, the microban keytops. They provide built-in antimicrobial protection, keeping those pesky germs at bay, which is particularly important given the current health situation. And let's not forget about the large 32GB SD card slot for computer connectivity and data storage.
However, there were a few hiccups too. The lack of French documentation was a letdown for me, a French-speaking Canadian. Plus, a few customers have reported missing parts upon delivery, making the product unusable.
So, while there are some minor issues, the Sharp XEA407 Cash Register has overall been a reliable and efficient addition to my store. It's fast, easy to set up, and offers more than enough features for most small businesses. If you're looking for a cash register that combines modern tech with dependability, this might just be the one for you.

🔗Royal 100Cx Portable Battery/AC Powered Cash Register

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As a small business owner, I've been on the hunt for a reliable, portable cash register to make sales easier at my farmer's market stand. The Royal 100Cx, with its compact design and battery-powered operation, has been a reliable companion for me. The automatic tax computation feature is a game-changer, allowing me to easily manage sales and taxes on-the-go. However, the initial setup can be a bit daunting, and the manual doesn't do a fantastic job of explaining everything.
The preset department pricing and sales analysis by category of merchandise are standout features that have helped me keep track of inventory and sales trends. It's crucial for businesses like mine, where inventory and sales fluctuate frequently. The ink roll printer provides a receipt printout, providing a professional touch to every transaction.
In terms of drawbacks, one thing to note is that the tax computation is limited to only four rates – VAT, Canadian, and a couple of others – which may not cater to everyone's business needs. However, for my small farm market business, it's more than sufficient.
Overall, the Royal 100Cx is a dependable piece of hardware, and it's been a significant asset in streamlining my sales process. It may have a slightly steep learning curve, but once mastered, it's a powerful tool for any small business seeking a portable, autonomous cash register solution.

🔗Royal 435dx Cash Register with 16 Department Capability and 8 Clerks

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As a small business owner, I can attest to the convenience of the Royal 435dX Electronic Cash Register in my daily operations. Its 16 departments and 800 PLU's ensure an efficient flow of transactions, while the 8 clerk capacity and 4 tax rates enable seamless management, even for those serving in various locations or catering to international clientele.
One of the highlights of this cash register is the front and rear LCD displays, allowing both the clerk and customer to see each transaction clearly. The memory protection with backup batteries provides added security to safeguard data in case of a power outage, a particularly valuable feature for businesses operating in areas with unpredictable power supply.
However, a minor con would be the single station 57mm impact printer, which could limit the pace of transactions during peak rush hours. Also, the locking cash drawer tends to be a bit cumbersome, requiring more time than necessary to retrieve and return change.
Despite these minor drawbacks, the Royal 435dX Electronic Cash Register has significantly improved my business operations, allowing me to keep track of transactions efficiently, even during peak hours. I would recommend this cash register to other small business owners looking for a reliable and feature-rich option that delivers exceptional performance at an affordable price point.

🔗Casio SE-S700 Cash Register: High-Speed Single-Station Thermal Printer

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I recently upgraded my old, heavy cash register to the Casio SE-S700, and I must say, it has made running daily transactions a breeze. The built-in rear customer display ensures that prices are accurate, while the 8 department keys and 999 PLUs make it a cinch to organize my inventory.
One of my favorite features is the customizable receipt header, allowing me to print unique messages on each customer receipt. The large, easy-to-read LCD display ensures that no mistakes are made during sales transactions.
However, there are a few cons to consider. The plastic construction doesn't instill much confidence in its durability, and I wish the cash register drawer featured a more secure locking mechanism.
Overall, the Casio SE-S700 has proven to be a reliable and efficient cash register for my small business, saving me time and preventing any hassles when it comes to handling transactions.

🔗Clover Station POS System with Cash Register

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I recently picked up the Clover Station POS System for my little cafe, and it's been quite the rollercoaster ride. Imagine a sleek, brushed aluminum body with a 11.6" touchscreen display that's as responsive as a well-trained puppy. Sounds appealing, right? Well, it is. But let's dive a little deeper.
First off, the touchscreen is large and bright, perfect for both me and my customers to navigate. The high-resolution camera embedded within the system makes scanning barcodes or QR codes a breeze, which is super helpful for keeping track of inventory. Plus, the swivel arm swivels smoothly between my side and the customer's, making transactions feel seamless and personal.
However, there have been some hiccups. For one, the single power source for the display and printer can create a tangled mess of cords, especially when you're trying to juggle other peripherals. And while the connectivity options (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth) are great, I sometimes find myself struggling with Wi-Fi lags.
Moreover, the customer service has proven to be quite the challenge. You see, I bought the Clover Station from a seller who didn't provide much support. When things went awry, I was left to figure it out on my own. Needless to say, getting in touch with their customer service has been a nightmare. It feels like they're speaking a different language sometimes, and getting a call back is as rare as a winning lottery ticket.
Despite these cons, I still find the Clover Station POS System useful for my small cafe. It's a stylish, reliable system that offers a range of features and connectivity options. However, be prepared for the occasional frustration and confusion, especially when it comes to their customer service.
In conclusion, the Clover Station POS System is a mixed bag. While it boasts a sleek design, large touchscreen, and versatile connectivity options, it also has its fair share of challenges, such as the messy cords and difficult customer service. I'd recommend this product for businesses looking for a stylish and reliable POS system, but be prepared to face a few hurdles along the way.

🔗Casio PCR-T2300 Electronic Cash Register

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I recently got my hands on the Casio PCR-T2300 Electronic Cash Register and let me tell you, it's been a game-changer for my business. With its 10-line LCD display, it's incredibly easy for me to check the current transaction and eliminate errors. The raised keyboard with 30 department key locations makes inputting data a breeze. Plus, with the built-in pop-up customer display, I can ensure my customers always know exactly what they're paying for.
One of my favorite features of this cash register is the ability to customize receipts with a graphic logo or programmable top and bottom messages, adding a personal touch to each transaction. The heavy-duty metal cash drawer provides more than enough space for five bill compartments and five coin compartments, making it perfect for a busy retail environment.
However, there are a few drawbacks that I've noticed during my time using this product. The instructions provided for programming the cash register could be more clear, leaving some users (like myself) scratching their heads at certain points. Additionally, while the register performs well overall, I have found that there can be some issues with the tape feeding, which can be frustrating at times.
All in all, the Casio PCR-T2300 Electronic Cash Register has proven to be a reliable and efficient addition to my business operations. With its user-friendly design and robust feature set, it's definitely worth considering for any small retailer or grocer looking to streamline their cash-handling processes.

🔗Square Register Touchscreen Display, Gray

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I've been using Square Register - Touchscreen Display, Gray for quite a while now, and it's been a game-changer for managing my small grocery store. The system is incredibly intuitive, with a sleek touchscreen display that makes transactions a breeze. The customer display is perfect for keeping lines moving smoothly, and the compact design ensures my countertop stays clutter-free.
One standout feature of the Square Register is its seamless integration with other Square services, like inventory management and customer feedback. This has made it incredibly easy for me to keep track of my stock and stay in touch with my regular customers. Additionally, the hardware is built to last, which is always a plus when you're investing in new equipment.
However, there's one area where Square Register could improve – the lack of customization options. While the system works great out of the box, I sometimes wish I could tweak some settings to better suit my specific needs. Despite this minor flaw, the Square Register - Touchscreen Display, Gray has definitely helped streamline my operations and improve my customers' experience.

🔗Royal Alpha 583x Electric Cash Register for Small Business

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I recently purchased the Royal Alpha 583cx Cash Register for my small business, and I couldn't be happier with my purchase. This little gem has made managing sales transactions a breeze. With 99 departments, 1000 PLUs, 26 clerks, and 4 tax rates, this cash register is fully equipped to handle the needs of any small business.
One of the features that I absolutely love is the alpha numeric single station thermal printer. It not only prints fast but also allows me to customize the receipts with my company's message, making it a great marketing tool. Another great feature is the serial port for PC connection, which lets me use an optional bar code scanner, making the checkout process even smoother.
However, one minor issue I experienced was with the paper feed. It tends to jam at times, but a quick fix usually solves the problem. Additionally, the display that shows the purchase amount could be more visible, especially in bright lighting conditions.
Overall, I would highly recommend the Royal Alpha 583cx Cash Register to anyone running a small business. Its user-friendly interface, customizable receipts, and reliable performance make it a valuable asset to have in any retail or service environment.

Buyer's Guide

Important Features to Consider

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When choosing a cash register for your small business, there are several features you should consider:

Calculating Functionality

Ensure that the cash register can handle the volume of sales your business makes daily.
Look for features such as tax calculations, price look-up (PLU) functions, and discount management.
Customizable receipts can also be helpful for providing customers with important information about their purchases.

Security Features

Protecting your business's cash and card transactions is essential. Look for cash registers with:

Password protection to restrict access to sensitive information and functions.
Real-time tracking of cashier operations, including transaction audits.
Optionally, consider a cash register with built-in anti-theft technology, such as alarms or motion sensors, to further secure your valuable assets.

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Integration Capabilities

Many modern cash registers can connect to other systems within your business. Consider the following:

Integration with point-of-sale (POS) systems, which can streamline sales and inventory management processes.
Compatibility with accounting software, allowing for seamless bookkeeping and financial reporting.
Compatibility with payment gateways and card readers, enabling your customers to make secure and convenient electronic payments.

Scalability and Expandability

As your small business grows, you may need to expand your cash register's capabilities. Consider these points:

Choose a cash register with room for add-on peripherals, such as barcode scanners, credit card readers, or customer displays. ]
Ensure that the cash register's software is scalable and can handle increasing transaction volumes.

Consider Your Budget

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Cash registers come in a range of prices and configurations. When selecting a cash register, factor in:

The upfront cost of the cash register itself.
The cost of any necessary software or hardware upgrades.
The cost of installation, training, and ongoing support.

General Advice for Choosing a Cash Register

Before making your final decision, take the following steps:

Research different models and manufacturers to ensure you are getting the best value for your money.
Read customer reviews to gain insight into the real-world performance and reliability of the cash registers you are considering.
Consult with industry experts or other small business owners for advice and recommendations.

Conclusion

Choosing the right cash register for your small business is an important decision. By considering the features, security, integration capabilities, scalability, and cost of the options available, you can select the best cash register to help your business thrive now and into the future.

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FAQ

What is a cash register and why does a small business need one?

A cash register is an electronic device used to process sales transactions at a point of sale, or POS. It stores sales data, calculates prices, and prints receipts. A small business needs a cash register for efficient inventory tracking, accurate financial reporting, and secure storage of cash on hand.

What features should I look for in a cash register for my small business?

Features to consider include a touch screen display, built-in scanner and credit card reader, programmable tax rates and discounts, inventory management, employee time clock, and multi-user capabilities. Additionally, look for a cash register that is simple to use, yet offers robust reporting options for better business insights.

How much does a cash register typically cost?

The cost of a cash register varies depending on its features, brand, and model. Basic models can start around $100, while more advanced systems with multiple functions may cost several thousand dollars. Always compare prices and consider the specific features you need before making a purchase.

How do I integrate my cash register with my existing accounting software?

Most modern cash registers can be easily connected with popular accounting software through USB or Ethernet cables or via Wi-Fi. Ensure that your cash register and accounting software are compatible before purchasing. After installation, you may need to configure settings to synchronize the two systems seamlessly.

Are there any portable cash registers for on-the-go sales?

Yes, there are numerous portable cash register solutions available on the market. These include handheld POS systems, mobile card readers, and compact cash registers designed for use in food trucks, markets, or kiosks. These devices often include wireless connectivity, rechargeable batteries, and lightweight designs for easy transport and handling.
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2024.05.19 10:59 exsapphi New Zealand needs to be looking towards a green future for our own economic viability (as told through the history of glass)

The thing about this climate crisis that no one talks about is that economically, this is not new. This is the same sort of shift as any other massive economic shift we've seen in history, whether resulting from technology or environment or society or any combination of the three. It will be rapid; as rapid as the economic expansion of Europe when it discovered just how profitable colonisation and slavery were. But it's not really anything unseen in an economic sense.
How markets work is this: everything is just supply and demand. If there is a known demand for something, in a roundabout way, the market will ensure that demand is supplied. It might melt a few glaciers in the meantime, or be delayed by a war or two, but it's a force akin to that of nature, or evolution, or cause and effect. The markets will balance. Eventually.

A detour through history

The Chinese never developed eye-glasses. They didn't have the need for glass, because their drink of choice was tea, so the materials they worked with were mostly ceramics. In Europe, the cultural drink of refinement was wine. This didn't need to be kept hot, or be brewed and poured perfectly and all that stuff I'm told is important with tea. But it had requirements and qualities of its own, and one of them is that it looks pretty on display -- and that's why Europe developed and refined glass so much faster than China.
Glass is an incredibly old invention. It's fragile, much more fragile than pottery, so we rarely find it in archeological digs. But it's been invented in and/or expanded to many many cultures throughout history since at least 2000 BC in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syria, followed by the Greeks, the Romans, the Canaan, and the Persians. Basically anyone with an empire, including the Chinese, was making glass. Unfortunately they'd only just discovered transparent glass by the late Bronze Age, when the Bronze Age collapsed due to a series of environmental, migratory and urban changes.
(A good reminder that historically, periods of mass technological advancement are followed by civilisation collapses and dark ages. Until the present, of course. But that's been true of every present.)
A lot of glass-making technology was lost, but some important things were saved and some new stuff was rediscovered, and most of this discovering happened in Europe because they had, as I mentioned, wine. And rich people wanted to show off their pretty, colourful wine, and that only worked if your glass was transparent. And Italy had access to pure silica quartz, plus soda ash via their trade with the Levant, and so some clever spark there developed the first pair of eyeglasses.
And that's how you have Mecca, Italy and Venice (the latter of whom had been producing the famous Venetian glass, but moved all their glassmakers to Italy because they'd built all their buildings out of wood) all mass producing eye-glasses with consistent standards for Europe and the Middle East by the 14th century.
This might seem like a small development, but gradual loss of sight used to be a disability. Like, it seriously disabled people from doing many things. Far-sightedness meant artisans couldn't create and scholars couldn't read -- I can't even imagine how many people died falling off a horse just because they were short-sighted. For civilisations to have access to devices that got them decades of productivity out of some of the most skilled people in their societies was massive. And that's part of how you get European dominance over Asia, because the Chinese economic powerhouses didn't care about glass as much as Europe did. It's not enough to just invent something. To develop a technology, a society needs both the resources to play with and the need to play with it. That's why we get so much advancement from war. You can thank Germany for your microwave.

How on earth is this relevant to the market or our climate crisis?

Glass will be invented, and then it will be forgotten, and then it will be invented again. But only some economies flourished from it.
We have no control over anything but us. And that's terrifying. The climate change that crippled the Bronze Age wasn't even their fault and they still got thrown back to the Dark Ages.
We are going to see our own change in the market. We are going to live it. And one thing is true, whether National or ACT or BP like it or not: fossil fuels cannot continue to be relied upon as a commodity. Not long-term. It's a dying industry, slowly but surely, and it'll die whether we manage to wean ourselves off petrol or whether we use it all up first.
To a lesser extent, this is true of other non-renewables too. We are not at critical mass yet with our lithium-ion batteries, but we're now at the stage where people in the third world all seem to have cellphones. This is not a sustainable practice for a limited metal we have to mine from the earth. When something is running out, we don't have to stop using that material in the things we build; if we start to use it all up, it will soon get too expensive to build with, and that will stop us.
And that's why we have to stop using it: because if you as a country or industry pour all your energy and resources into developing technology based off that now-scarce resource, you will be left with no usable technology when that resource runs out.

What are National doing?

This is a political sub, so I won't mince words: something's gone wrong with National. Something's always been wrong with ACT, but National's change is recent. Power has been centralised in the board and the candidate selection process is no longer in the hands of the rank and file after Steven Joyce's shakeup, instead dominated by corporate interests. And they have dominated. We have a cabinet of lobbyists, and not just on National's side of the board; Luxon has pulled together the whole industry.
When we attribute "intentions" to things like forces and political parties, it can be easy to forget there's not a concerted, rational mind at play behind their decisions, and their actions are influenced by all of the people and factors and forces that make them up. When I say, "National has been bought by lobbyists", I don't mean every single person in the party is a corporate shill. I just mean that there is enough corporate, business, and big-money influence in the party that they are no longer being governed primarily by their voter base or even their party members.
Nothing makes this more obvious than National's direction in politics. When your LABOUR and GREEN parties are the ones proposing to fix your climate crisis via free-market ingenuity that we can patent, sell on and capitalise off, something has gone wrong. There is money to be made in climate change, and National are off chasing oil down the bottom of a well.
If we don't wean ourselves off fossil fuels, we will find ourselves paying for it the increased price for them when we don't have the green technology to utilise at the end of supply. If we don't put our minds to green tech and science, we won't have the environment-saving and cleaning and reinforcing products and knowledge to sell on when the demand for them peaks through the ceiling -- instead we will be buying from other countries at big prices, paying to ship their experts here to tell us how to manage our estuaries or dump sites or skink habitats or whatever it is we need to fix next. New Zealand got lucky with our green energy; we were already using renewables by sheer coincidence when the climate crisis struck, and it made our transition to this new world very smooth. We will not be that lucky again.
Look at what we produce as a country. We held on far too long to our wool market out of some idea that it was "what we were supposed to be doing", and it nearly wrecked the country. Because it took us so long to change, and because we'd converted all our land into pasture, the most effective market for us to turn to became beef. Now that market is thriving, and we are willfully ignoring the real economic costs that will come with being a beef export country, and that cost is methane. There is not a future where countries will be allowed to emit methane for free. And there are no methane-light cows to switch to. Not until we develop them.
And this is what people talk about when they talk about environmental solutions still to be developed -- as if other people are going to develop them. That is incorrect. WE are the Cow Country. WE are the ones that should be foremost of the cow-fart field. If we do, we will be the ones benefitting by selling our bio-engineered cows and our science that made it happen. But if we don't, if we trail behind, we let other countries get out in front, and then our industry relies on them, and their industry outgrows us.
And these are all individual product or problem examples, but we are dragging our feet across the entire green industry. Why?

Big Oil does not care if your tech is Green

I say big oil, but there are other anti-environment and pro-corporate interests at play here. And again, there's not some big puppetmaster moving his pawn pieces, but there is influence, and companies don't want the world to go green, because when they do, they stop getting money for all the things they're getting money from right now. They don't care about the environment because they don't have the capacity to care; they are not a they. They are a force, a conglomeration, a hivemind of workers breaking their back for the company, until they clock off and become their own person again.
Their only interest is keeping ahold of their incredibly profitable market, and that market needs machines that use oil, and consumers willing to buy those machines, and people who aren't thinking about switching to a non-oil version of their tractor that doesn't exist yet (because no one has found the need to invent it. Or had the right resources.)
Oil cares about oil. Mining cares about mining. Tobacco cares about tobacco. Beef cares about beef. And we get value out of these industries as a country, as a society, so when they say"This thing is bad for me", we do have to listen to that. Otherwise we won't get our beef, or our oil. But "This thing is bad for ME" isn't the same as "This thing is bad for YOU". And companies are relying on consumers to not know the difference.

Back to National

Tobacco lobbyists have bought out Parliament, and are literally drafting our tobacco laws. And they are just one interest around the table. But they have had a huge effect. Imagine what's happening to the interests of your politicians when you have your lobbyists working together. Imagine where the interests of lobbyists for mining and oil might meet. Now imagine fisheries has a guy in there too.
Our oceans should be feeling very nervous right now.
It's the small influences we can't see that make these big decisions later on. The people who select our future MPs. The people who decide, hey, I'm going to try this new glass technique. But it takes an awful lot of decisions to make a glassblowing society.
A lot of what we do, we don't do consciously, like developing eye-glasses. But the benefit of our open democracies, of our information-based societies, of our unprecedented understanding of economies and markets and science and climate, should mean that when we choose to do something consciously, we can do it.
When we don't, something has gone wrong.

A Green Future

To get to the sort of green economy the non-business parties are picturing, you need someone who has the time and acumen to get us there.
That SHOULD be National. There is so much involved in politics; our politicians are running so much. And they're spending most of their time undoing the last guy's policies. Labour's policies sound like the Greens. National doesn't have any except "win". ACT are doing Charter Schools again. And the policies being made are being made in the interests of business people.
Our politicians don't have visions like Hollyoake of a New Zealand forging our own future, or Muldoon's determination to make things better for the average kiwi, or (heaven help me), Roger Douglass's respect for politics. None of the old guard are happy with how politics is shaping up, and certainly not the right, or who eventually became the right, in Douglass's case -- this is what he had to say on the subject: “John Key lived by the polls and it’s very dangerous. If you want to help people, you have to tell them the truth. The problem is that the politicians of today, they want to help themselves. So they poll in order to know what to say and it’s disgusting.”
I think in that one sentence, Douglass sums up everything wrong with the modern National Party. Once upon a time, National were in it to help people. They're not anymore.

Where to now?

It's all just markets.
If National won't change, they'll kill their market and they'll be replaced by a new party, just like the Liberal Party and Reform Party and Social Credit Party before them. National and Labour have always been around, but not always as these parties, or in these forms. The political spectrum will move to meet demand -- even when curtailed by corporate interests.
Or National will change, take control of their candidates and board, and live to fight for another century or so.
Either way, the economy will continue, and so will climate change. We will still need to develop new technologies using our available resources, and direct our technology-developing towards fixing environmental solutions. I hope New Zealand will benefit from this, and not just witness it. But if it's not National making the push, another political party will. We can see that happening right now, with the other parties suggesting their own green business ideas that National should be sweeping up votes for. There is voter and consumer demand for green businesses, and National are distracting us instead with shiny baubles because the corporations influencing them don't want you to see them.
Another thing Douglass was frustratingly right about: all our parties are doing at the moment is undoing each other's policies. It's hard to see New Zealand making any forwards progress at all if that's our direction.

submitted by exsapphi to nzpolitics [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 10:35 Effective-Midnight75 You broke me

I finally escaped you just over two years ago today. I kept coming back trying to make it work. I continued making excuses for everything you put me through. For years, I justified giving you chances over and over again.
I broke free. Finally. We finally stopped talking completely and I have, in most ways, flourished since. Only problem is I can’t let anyone in. I can’t give anyone a chance. Any time someone acts like they care I shut them out.
I feel like I am letting you win somehow. I feel like I should seek out a partner for this life that’s actually going pretty well. But I can’t trust anyone or anything but myself.
Thanks for that.

submitted by Effective-Midnight75 to offmychest [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 10:16 PreserveGame Preserve - Bitmap Galaxy - Relaxing nature building game inspired by Dorfromantik & Islanders with unique mechanics

Preserve is a relaxing puzzle nature-building game in which you flourish a vibrant ecosystem by cleverly placing plants and animals to create an ecosystem to your liking. Take a look at Announcement Trailer and Play our free Demo on Steam! Preserve will also be part of Steam next Fest in June, where we will bring a new and improved demo.
Key Features of Preserve:
Vertical map expansion In Preserve, you can expand the map not only horizontally, but you also posses an ability to stack layers of nature, forming a vertical network of interconnected habitats.
Diverse biome habitats From alpine forests and savannas to carribean reefs, each biome will have its own unique set of plants, animals, and environmental challenges to discover and overcome.
Multiple Game Modes Besides regular harmony and puzzle game modes, creative mode lets you build the land without limitations and photo mode allows you to capture and share your creations at the end of each session.
Natural Wonders Nothing can beautify your map more than natural wonders like the snowy Alps, lavender fields or redwood forests, which you can acquire thanks to a unique card upcycle system
If you like the game, play our demo, leave us feedback and Wishlist Preserve on Steam. This will help us a lot! Have a nice Sunday everyone!

submitted by PreserveGame to Games [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 09:24 ReasonAndHumanismIN The greatness of our people will depend on the extent to which we can out-West the West at their own scientific, technological, and intellectual traditions.

Looking around, I see that there is one thing that is common to prosperous and advanced societies worldwide: they avidly pursue a high degree of excellence in science, technology, and commerce that have their origins in the West. The scientific and rational worldview is a core part of their cultures. There are some exceptions to this, such as some middle-eastern nations that coast on oil wealth. But the trend largely holds.
As a rank amateur, I have often thought about what it is about the West that made them the epicenter of the modern scientific and industrial revolution. I don't have any definitive answers yet, but my current thesis is that it's the heritage of philosophical inquiry of ancient Greece that sets them apart. The Islamic world itself flourished intellectually for a while when it freely pursued the kind of philosophical inquiry that was typical of the ancient Greeks.
When you look at the "munitraya" of Greece - Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle - you find some interesting features.

They all took reason very seriously; in fact, Aristotle laid the foundations of Western logic. There was a recognition that it was not enough to know the truth, but also, that it's important to justify why things are true. To do this, they didn't take recourse to religious doctrines, but argued from naturalistic first principles.
They are marked by a profound sense of straightforwardness and intellectual humility. They dared to inquire while fully admitting their ignorance. Socrates was said to be the wisest man in the Hellenic world because he knew that he knew nothing; he didn't experience any "loss of face" in doing so. There was no compulsion to be "profound"; in fact, he scoffed at faux profundity, and was pretty much killed for being a nuisance. When you read their works, you never get a sense of being talked down to by a "wise", "all-knowing" seer; instead, it's more like having a conversation with an advanced peer.
They took a deep interest in nature and the real problems that people faced. Socrates asked questions about how to live a good life in practical terms. Aristotle was probably the first great empirical scientist, avidly examining specimens for his studies in Biology. Nature and mundane human affairs were not something to be overcome, but to be studied and explored. I feel that it could almost be said that the pursuit of truth for the Greeks meant the study of nature. You see this sentiment in Newton - a prototypical natural philosopher - who spoke of himself as a child gazing at a vast ocean of truth.
They had a keen interest in Mathematics and an appreciation for its beauty. We see this trend begin as early as Pythagoras who had a mystical faith in the ability of Mathematics to reveal Truth. Plato considered training in Mathematics as an integral component of the education of rulers. Mathematics was useful, true, but they pursued it also for the sake of its beauty. Here too, they were not merely interested in collecting Mathematics facts, but in proving them from first principles accepted by everyone. We see an insistence on justification come up again and again throughout Western culture.

Above all, there is a tendency to self-analyze. The modern West is the most self-critical of cultures in today's world. They are constantly critically examining their methods, their assumptions, their values, and their social systems. There is no seeming compulsion to slavishly uphold their tradition, even though they study their traditions avidly. Instead, there is a frantic search for new and better traditions whose value again has to be argued for rigorously. They think nothing of incorporating ideas from outside into their own if they see them worthwhile. There is a culture of free and open dialog in which all of this happens.
I am sure that I am over-simplifying matters. For instance, neo-Platonists and neo-Pythagoreans were religious and mystical cults. Aristotle was wrong about many fundamental notions that he took for granted. Newton was as much a "sorcerer" indulging in alchemy as he was a rigorous natural philosopher. The West had its dark ages where certain aspects were not allowed to be questioned.
But that notwithstanding, it's clear to me that if our people are to have a shot at true greatness and glory, we must out-West the West at their own game. I further believe that this must be a citizen-led, peer-to-peer affair. We must all be thinking about how deeply and authentically we can naturalize the Western intellectual and scientific traditions in our society.
The sooner we can do this, the better we will be able to face the challenges that we are up against today.

submitted by ReasonAndHumanismIN to scienceisdope [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 08:15 ReasonAndHumanismIN The greatness of our people will depend on the extent to which we can out-West the West at their own scientific, technological, and intellectual traditions.

They all took reason very seriously; in fact, Aristotle laid the foundations of Western logic. There was a recognition that it was not enough to know the truth, but also, that it's important to justify why things are true. To do this, they didn't take recourse to religious doctrines, but argued from naturalistic first principles.
They are marked by a profound sense of straightforwardness and intellectual humility. They dared to inquire while fully admitting their ignorance. Socrates was said to be the wisest man in the Hellenic world because he knew that he knew nothing; he didn't experience any "loss of face" in doing so. There was no compulsion to be "profound"; in fact, he scoffed at faux profundity, and was pretty much killed for being a nuisance. When you read their works, you never get a sense of being talked down to by a "wise", "all-knowing" seer; instead, it's more like having a conversation with an advanced peer.
They took a deep interest in nature and the real problems that people faced. Socrates asked questions about how to live a good life in practical terms. Aristotle was probably the first great empirical scientist, avidly examining specimens for his studies in Biology. Nature and mundane human affairs were not something to be overcome, but to be studied and explored. I feel that it could almost be said that the pursuit of truth for the Greeks meant the study of nature. You see this sentiment in Newton - a prototypical natural philosopher - who spoke of himself as a child gazing at a vast ocean of truth.
They had a keen interest in Mathematics and an appreciation for its beauty. We see this trend begin as early as Pythagoras who had a mystical faith in the ability of Mathematics to reveal Truth. Plato considered training in Mathematics as an integral component of the education of rulers. Mathematics was useful, true, but they pursued it also for the sake of its beauty. Here too, they were not merely interested in collecting Mathematics facts, but in proving them from first principles accepted by everyone. We see an insistence on justification come up again and again throughout Western culture.

submitted by ReasonAndHumanismIN to unitedstatesofindia [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 07:31 ReasonAndHumanismIN The greatness of our people will depend on the extent to which we can out-West the West in their own scientific, technological, and intellectual traditions.

They all took reason very seriously; in fact, Aristotle laid the foundations of Western logic. There was a recognition that it was not enough to know the truth, but also, that it's important to justify why things are true. To do this, they didn't take recourse to religious doctrines, but argued from naturalistic first principles.
They are marked by a profound sense of straightforwardness and intellectual humility. They dared to inquire while fully admitting their ignorance. Socrates was said to be the wisest man in the Hellenic world because he knew that he knew nothing; he didn't experience any "loss of face" in doing so. There was no compulsion to be "profound"; in fact, he scoffed at faux profundity, and was pretty much killed for being a nuisance. When you read their works, you never get a sense of being talked down to by a "wise", "all-knowing" seer; instead, it's more like having a conversation with an advanced peer.
They took a deep interest in nature and the real problems that people faced. Socrates asked questions about how to live a good life in practical terms. Aristotle was probably the first great empirical scientist, avidly examining specimens for his studies in Biology. Nature and mundane human affairs were not something to be overcome, but to be studied and explored. I feel that it could almost be said that the pursuit of truth for the Greeks meant the study of nature. You see this sentiment in Newton - a prototypical natural philosopher - who spoke of himself as a child gazing at a vast ocean of truth.
They had a keen interest in Mathematics and an appreciation for its beauty. We see this trend begin as early as Pythagoras who had a mystical faith in the ability of Mathematics to reveal Truth. Plato considered training in Mathematics as an integral component of the education of rulers. Mathematics was useful, true, but they pursued it also for the sake of its beauty. Here too, they were not merely interested in collecting Mathematics facts, but in proving them from first principles accepted by everyone. We see an insistence on justification come up again and again throughout Western culture.

submitted by ReasonAndHumanismIN to TamilNadu [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 23:00 r4nD0mU53r999 What if Algeria managed to ward off the French and industrialized?

Introduction to Alternative History Scenario: Independent and Industrialized Algeria:

In this alternative history scenario, Algeria manages to ward off French and European colonialism, subsequently achieving industrialization while preserving its culture and religion.

The Pre-Colonial Context and Initial Resistance:

As we all know in the early 19th century, Algeria was a semi-autonomous province under the Ottoman Empire, with a society deeply rooted in its Islamic traditions and Berber-Arab culture, this doesn't change in this scenario. In this alternative scenario when France launched its invasion in 1830, the Algerians, under the leadership of Emir Abdelkader, who managed to unify various tribes and communities in a cohesive resistance movement in this timeline. Would be able to foster a sense of national identity among diverse ethnic groups, emphasizing the defense of Islam and the homeland. Utilizing guerrilla tactics, exploiting the rugged terrain, and establishing fortified strongholds, Abdelkader's forces would conducte effective hit-and-run attacks against the French who would be unable to adapt to such tactics in this timeline. Additionally, Abdelkader would establish successful diplomatic relations with neighboring countries and other Islamic states including Morocco, securing arms, supplies, and even volunteers to aid the resistance.
Berber piracy would play a significant role during this period. The Barbary pirates, operating from Algerian ports, would disrupt French maritime trade in the Mediterranean. This not only would provide resources and funds for the Algerian resistance but it would also divert French military attention. The piracy network, deeply integrated into the local economy, would facilitate the smuggling of arms and provisions vital for the ongoing conflict. However, the practice of slavery, which would be prominent in the Barbary States in this period, would pose a moral and political challenge. So to garner broader international support and modernize the society, Emir Abdelkader would initiate reforms to gradually abolish slavery, aligning with global humanitarian trends and strengthening Algeria’s moral stance which would allow it to gain larger international support in its struggle.
And as such international support would play a crucial role in sustaining Algerian resistance. The Ottoman Empire, seeking to maintain its influence in North Africa, provides military advisors and financial support, while Britain, motivated by its desire to limit French power and influence in north Africa, supplies Algeria with modern weapons and naval support. This external backing, combined with internal unity and strategic warfare, eventually forced France into a diplomatic stalemate, leading to the French recognition of Algeria’s autonomy in the 1850s. And thus Emir Abdelkader’s leadership transitioned from wartime governance to peacetime state-building, focusing on centralizing administration, integrating Islamic law with modern legal practices, and reforming the education system to promote literacy and technical skills.

Separation from the Ottoman Empire:

As Algeria established its sovereignty, tensions with the Ottoman Empire began to surface. The Algerian leadership grew increasingly frustrated with the Ottomans, viewing them as weak after their inability to providing adequate defense against the French threat. This sentiment was exacerbated by the declining power of the Ottoman Empire, which was struggling to maintain its territories and influence. Abdelkader and his advisors saw an opportunity to fully assert Algeria’s independence and distance themselves from what they perceived as an ineffective and distant sickly empire. By the 1860s, Algeria declared complete independence from the Ottoman Empire, severing the authority of the sultan over Algiers and focusing on building a self-sufficient state.

Transition to Sovereign State and Early Industrialization:

Realizing the necessity of industrialization to maintain sovereignty against the growing expansionism of Europe in Africa, Abdelkader’s government embarked on a comprehensive modernization program. The initial phase involved infrastructure development, such as building roads, railways, and ports to facilitate trade and movement. The British desiring a strong ally in the region especially one that can oppose the French help Algeria in it's modernization effort, and as such British engineering expertise and technology were instrumental in these projects. The new government also focused on exploiting Algeria’s abundant natural resources, including minerals and oil reserves. Strategic partnerships with European investors provided the necessary technology and capital for resource extraction and processing. Simultaneously, modern agricultural techniques were introduced to boost productivity, ensuring food security and providing surplus for export.
The industrialization process involved several key figures and institutions. Abdelkader would appoint several talented ministers and advisors, many of whom had been educated extensively in their fields, to oversee various aspects of the modernization effort. This strong governmental body would devise technologies and industrial practices, which would be adapted to fit Algeria’s unique context. Educational reforms would be a cornerstone of Algeria’s modernization strategy. New schools and universities would be established, blending traditional Islamic teachings with modern sciences and engineering. These institutions would produce a generation of skilled workers and intellectuals who contributed to the industrialization effort. Furthermore, the government incentivizes private enterprise, offering tax breaks and subsidies to businesses that invested in industrial ventures. This creates a vibrant entrepreneurial environment, leading to the establishment of factories, workshops, and research centers across the country.

Impact on Regional and Global Power Structures:

As Algeria industrialism continues, it emerges as a significant power in North Africa and the Mediterranean. It's new found economic strength turned it into an economic hub, attracting investments and labor from neighboring regions. Leveraging its economic influence, Algeria plays a crucial role in this timeline's regional politics, mediating conflicts and fostering cooperation among North African and Middle Eastern countries. On the global stage, Algeria establishes extensive trade networks with Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and emerging industrial powers like Japan. Its success against adversity inspires other colonized nations in Africa, Asia and the the new world, contributing to the rise of anti-colonial movements worldwide by providing a model of modernity without compromising cultural identity.

Modern-Day Borders of Algeria:

Without French colonization, Algeria's borders would reflect the territories recognized under the Ottoman Empire's jurisdiction in 1830. This means the modern-day borders might be slightly more fluid, particularly in desert regions where tribal territories were less formally defined. While the coastal and northern regions would remain similar to present-day boundaries, southern borders might be more influenced by agreements with neighboring Saharan tribes and states as well as surrounding Muslim states, potentially resulting in a slightly smaller southern and south western boundary than our own timeline's Algerian borders.

Present-Day Algeria in this Alternate History:

In this alternative scenario, contemporary Algeria stands as a mostly prosperous, industrialized nation with a rich cultural heritage. Its economy is diversified, with strong industrial, technological, and agricultural sectors. This Algeria would play a significant role in global trade, exporting high-value goods and technologies. The country would also likely experience a cultural renaissance, with flourishing arts, literature, and scientific achievements. This Algeria would boast a better more sophisticated education system, producing leading scholars and innovators. Politically, it would be characterized by stability and strong governance and a larger influence on the global stage. It would be a leading voice in the African Union and the Arab League, this more developed Algeria would strengthen regional development and cooperation, influencing the broader geopolitical landscape.
Note: this is the first time I tried creating an alternative history scenario so there might be some inaccuracies or major mistakes here.
So if you have any issues with this scenario feel free to voice your thoughts in the comment

submitted by r4nD0mU53r999 to algeria [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 22:25 Nariod144 Neo Vortex - "Pioneering Industry Beyond the Event Horizon." [C2, USTZ]

About Us
Welcome to Neo Vortex, a pioneering industrial corporation operating within the depths of wormhole space under the Seker Academy alliance. We are committed to pure industry, catering exclusively to seasoned industrialists who are eager to excel in New Eden through the various industrial benefits of J-space. Our mission is to cultivate a thriving community of individuals united by a shared passion for production and resource extraction in J-Space.
Timezone: USTZ (US Time Zone) Location: C2 Wormhole with a High-Sec and C3 Static
Who Are We Looking For?
Neo Vortex seeks industrious pilots who:

Possess a minimum of 5 million skill points
Embrace the challenges and rewards of wormhole life and are willing to abide by the rules required to succeed within it.
Are primarily industry-minded. This is an indy corp, focusing primarily on industrial operations. If you seek a more well-rounded playstyle, this corp may not be for you.
Flourish within a USTZ environment. This is where most of us are, making it rather important.
Dedicated industry alts are welcome, but they NEED to be active.

We welcome individuals with a comprehensive understanding of game mechanics, prepared to immerse themselves in the intricacies of industry. This isn't a Newbro corp, so please don't come in expecting that.However this also isn't an elite corp. We know you have a life outside of EvE. We simply seek people who know they want to do industry and base themselves in J-Space.
What We Offer
From high-security ice mining fleets to ventures into low-security gas and ore anomalies within Amarr space, we offer a diverse range of industrial activities.
Join Neo Vortex and benefit from:

Access to cutting-edge manufacturing facilities within our C2 wormhole. Most things you can make from wormholes, you can make here.
Ridicucloulsy good PI; You're able to make most anything easily.
A C3 static dedicated to farming, be it mining, ratting or huffing.
Regular high-security ice and veldspar mining fleets for lucrative ventures (what you mine is free after all!)
Opportunities to explore and exploit low-security gas and ore anomalies (Nocxium!)
A supportive community dedicated to industry and production

Delve into the boundless opportunities of wormhole space with Neo Vortex. Connect with us on Discord to learn more about your prospective journey.
Why Choose Neo Vortex?
At Neo Vortex, we prioritize:

Collaboration: Work closely with experienced industrialists in a cooperative environment. Selfishness has no place here.
Growth: Expand your skills and knowledge through engaging industrial activities, with ample opportunities for advancement within this space.
Prosperity: Take advantage of lucrative opportunities unique to wormhole space, and rest assured that your interests align harmoniously with others'.

Whether you're seeking new industrial opportunities or a fresh start to the world of dedicated industry, Neo Vortex offers the platform to realize your ambitions.
Ready to Craft Your Future?
If you're prepared to embark on a rewarding industrial journey, apply to Neo Vortex today. Embrace the complexities of wormhole life and unlock the limitless potential of New Eden alongside us.
Join our Recruitment channel in game (Neo Cataclysmica), or join our discord to see if Neo Vortex is right for you!
Discord: https://discord.gg/jMrjrwyjbE
"Envision. Create. Ascend, with Neo Vortex."

submitted by Nariod144 to evejobs [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 19:57 Alexiolio Honour Mode Victory Report

Last night I finally completed honour mode for the first time! It was my third playthrough of the game after two successful tactician runs (good but blind Tav run and full tilt evil durge run), and it went excellently. I've been a 5e forever DM for a long time so this game has been an -absolute- blessing! I started this run mid February but had to take about a 6 week break or so right after Act 2 due to some real life commitments.
The only content I skipped was the owlbear fight because I didn't want to break my oath, and the Baldur's Mouth Gazette quest because I honestly just forgot about it.
Party comp:

Tav, wood elf, 12 Ancients Paladin with the Giantslayer, GWM, Alert, and Savage Attacker. Used STR elixirs after getting the Amulet of Greater Health, so I dumped STR and CON so I could have DEX and CHA. Multi attribute builds are tough to optimize. Strongly considered multi-classing, but my damage was always good and I liked the auras.
Karlach, 8 OH Monk with Tavern Brawler, 4 Thief. I used STR elixirs. Honestly she was the key to this successful run. She was unstoppable. Used tons of soul coins.
Wyll, the 11/1 fire acuity sorc-lock build. Amazing build, every bit as strong as BG3Builds suggests. He even got the extra CHA +1 from the mirror of loss!
Jaheira, 12 Swords Bard with the helmet of arcane acuity, band of mystic scoundrel, sharpshooter, and the Deadshot. Also insanely good with special arrows and command/counterspell from magical secrets. (Was Lae'zel, then Halsin before Jaheira was recruited). Tried both 10/1/1 and 10/2 swords bard builds, but I ended up finding 12 in bard suited me best for the acuity playstyle. I think I'd have rather taken Sanctuary over Command looking back though.

This party was overkill. Most encounters were over in 2-3 rounds, so having 2 sources of acuity CC was unnecessary. Wyll would usually just end up blasting as I found acuity easier to abuse with ranged flourishes and the mystic scoundrel ring. After the first round of monk and paladin attacks, arrow of many targets/flourishes, and a chain lightning, there weren't many enemies left to lock down with command/hold.
STR elixirs were not hard to come by. I thought they would be an annoying thing to keep up with, especially since Ethel had already left the grove by the time I made the decision to use them. I didn't need to farm at all, just checked in with vendors for pots/fingers as often as I could. Had both Tav and Karlach using them by the end and still had 7 in my inventory when I fought the brain.
I had a hireling cleric cast heroes feast and level 5 aid every morning once I got into the Elf Song, but didn't mess around with any other camp casting setups.
There were only two encounters where I thought I was going to lose my run:
- The Gnolls attacking the Zhents in the cave in act 1. I hit this encounter at level 4. The hunters that get three attacks got a ton of crits on me and downed Tav and Karlach super quickly, and brought Wyll down to critical. I had to have Wyll keep them occupied while Lae'zel used her super jump to get out of there and flee to camp.
- Haarlep. Not Haarlep himself, but the imps! Karlach and Jaheira got yeeted out the window by eldritch blasts, then Wyll got hit with dominate person. It was just Tav left standing. From a full health/resources party to just Tav in one round. Fortunately between Balduran's helm, the armour of persistence, and haste off the darkfire shortbow, I held it together until Wyll came back to his senses and we pulled through.
Regarding companions, NPCs, and quests:
- All companions got their good ending, all alive. Orpheus became illithid and told Lae'zel to carry on his mission. Karlach (romance), Wyll, and I went to Avernus. Gale was not sacrificed, Shadowheart saved her parents, Astarion is leading the spawn, Minsc, Boo, Halsin, and Jaheira are doing their thing.
- I think I messed up knocking out Minthara, it was pre patch 6 when I did the goblin camp.
- No tadpoles were consumed by any party member (except to cure Lae'zel's failed Zaith'isk rolls debuff). I only broke my oath twice. Once to rescue Lae'zel immediately after the Nautiloid, second when letting the vampire spawn go free.
- Managed to save every person in the Iron Throne, though significantly fewer Gondians made it out of the Steel Watch Foundry.
- No bhaalist armour, no shar's spear, no strength potion from Araj, no hag's hair, no vendor exploits (including donating for approval while level 1), Withers was the only pickpocket victim, and I never force closed the game, etc... I did get mirror of loss buffs on the party though, even respec'ed the whole party into high int rogues to ensure it. I've done many of these things on my two other playthroughs, and certainly don't mean to imply anything bad about them. It's just not how this run worked out for me.
Several of my favourite NPCs died unfortunately...
- For some reason I didn't get an option to tell the owlbear cub to come with me, and the goblins killed him.
- Rolan was crit twice and killed from full health by the only myrmidon left standing after I unloaded on Lorroakan's crew.
- Scratch was killed by a shadow that came out of the Necromancy of Thay after I destroyed it. Almost quit the run after this. I've read so many stories of people messing up in camp and it ruining their run, yet I still decided a hotel room was the best place to cast sunbeam on a cursed book.
- Hope was blown away by Raphael on his first turn, before she got to go. I was miffed to miss the gloves of soul catching the first time I've had a monk in my main party.
My biggest tip for honour mode is to prioritize high initiative. Alert is great, but getting to +5/6 initiative is usually enough, and it can be done through items and a starting +2/3 DEX modifier rather than using a feat. The Sentinel Shield, Hellrider Longbow, Mask of Soul Perception, and Bow of Awareness were all I needed to have my party clumped at the top of the initiative. Though if you're doing a good run, have a +7 or higher initiative character with access to sanctuary in your party at all times to protect NPCs. For example, I'd have taken sanctuary over command from magical secrets on Jaheira if I could go back. Wyll already could command CC enemies, and hold person/monster with acuity is preferable with a paladin in the party to set up crits.
Now that I've got my golden dice, I'm about to start another durge run (redemption this time) and do all the risky and silly sub optimal strategies now that I can save scum again!
Thanks for reading!

submitted by Alexiolio to BaldursGate3 [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 12:08 softtechhubus Dip Your Hand Into Artificial Intelligence in Project Management WIth this Free Course

https://preview.redd.it/1hdu7t8ys51d1.png?width=1790&format=png&auto=webp&s=e9db3e64db52e14d32752078b540b3d21b8171ff

Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept but a present reality disrupting various industries through innovative applications. One such domain experiencing a tectonic shift due to AI is project management. Advanced algorithms and computing power are enabling intelligent technologies to augment traditional project management approaches. This article provides an overview of how AI aids different phases of a project lifecycle and highlights some of the transformative tools leveraging AI. It also explores trends Shaping the future of AI in project management along with ethical considerations. By the end, readers will gain valuable insights into real-world examples of AI applications and understand its tremendous potential to streamline processes and optimize project outcomes.

Overview of AI in Project Management

Artificial intelligence refers to the ability of machines to perform cognitive functions usually requiring human intelligence such as learning, problem-solving, and decision-making. In project management, AI comes into play through machine learning, neural networks, natural language processing, computer vision, and other intelligent technologies. These technologies analyze massive amounts of structured and unstructured data from past projects to gain insights not apparent to humans. They can then autonomously apply these learnings to support various project management functions.
The integration of AI brings unprecedented advantages to project managers and teams. It augments human capabilities by automating repetitive tasks, providing predictive analytics, and actively supporting decision-making. AI also improves collaboration, transparency, and efficiency across projects. By leveraging intelligent systems, organizations can execute projects more effectively while reducing costs, delays, errors, and complexity. Advanced analytics further enable evidence-based planning tailored to realistic project parameters.
Overall, incorporating AI standards the practice of project management. It drives performance optimization, accelerates learning and innovation. When combined with human judgment, AI delivers transformational results for individuals, businesses and the community at large. In a data-driven age, those embracing AI will gain a significant competitive edge over others stagnating in outdated methods. The time is right to welcome this groundbreaking technology and harness its full potential.

Planning Phase

AI-Driven Planning Tools

Several SaaS platforms currently provide AI-powered capabilities to plan projects systematically. Popular tools like Smartsheet, Trello, and Monday.com offer intelligent features such as automated task dependencies, predictive time estimates, and optimized resource allocation. Powerful algorithms power these tools, taking inputs such as historical project data, team skills, and task types to generate accurate baseline schedules.
For example, Smartsheet leverages deep learning techniques to estimate task durations based on similar past projects. Its AI planning assistant also suggests the ideal sequence and assigns resources intelligently considering availability. Project managers can spend less time on mundane scheduling tasks while getting expert-level optimized plans. Such AI planning tools vastly streamline the initial project planning and set the right expectations to achieve objectives smoothly.

Predictive Analysis

Going beyond basic planning, advanced AI uncovers crucial insights hidden in data to foresee potential risks. Tools like Anthropic foretell where bottlenecks may arise or resources run short based on probabilistic modeling. Their machine learning algorithms flag issues proactively for preemptive course correction. Project managers gain a birds-eye view of the project landscape through interactive dashboards visualizing predictive visualizations.
Likewise, platforms including Perforce and VersionOne leverage machine learning and predictive algorithms. Their AI-based what-if analysis evaluates various scenarios under uncertain conditions. Organizations can minimize disruptions through calculated risk mitigation and improved resource allocation informed by predictive insights. Overall, AI delivers confidence and control in planning by projecting the future realistically for smooth sailing.

Execution Phase

Task Automation

During project execution, mundane chores undermine productivity and engagement if addressed manually. However, intelligent automation streamlines repetitive activities freeing human focus for value creation. Software bots powered by AI and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) handle mechanical tasks such as status reporting, document routing, data entry, and transaction processing around the clock.
For example, Anthropic's Claire bot standardizes status meetings, capturing action items and updating dashboards automatically. Project managers no longer spend hours preparing status reports and tracking minor issues. Instead, they address genuine problems through freed bandwidth. Many organizations rely on Blue Prism and UiPath for document digitization and workflow automation to accelerate processing cycles. Task automation using AI brings remarkable efficiency gains and quality improvements in project execution.

Real-Time Monitoring and Adjustments

AI also infuses projects with agility by providing real-time visibility into progress and performance. Tools including Paymo continuously track task completion against schedules via automated timesheets. Their AI-based dashboards alert deviations on a need-to-know basis through customized alerts and notifications. Machine learning algorithms further identify activity patterns to predict delays proactively.
Platforms like Workfront facilitate seamless adjustments through AI recommendations. Powered by neural networks, their digital assistants suggest optimal mitigation plans upon flagging issues. Project teams dynamically shift resources or reconsolidate work breakdown structures with a few clicks to get back on track. Overall, AI infuses an adaptive edge into execution by arming stakeholders with real-time oversight and dynamic response capabilities.

Collaboration and Communication

Enhanced Team Collaboration

Effective collaboration lies at the heart of successful projects. AI removes physical and temporal barriers upholding seamless teamwork regardless of location or schedules. Platforms including Asana, Jira, and monday.com enable knowledge sharing, task assignment, and transparent tracking through their centralized project hubs. Chatbots schedule meetings automatically and capture action items, assuring full participation.
Advanced AI takes collaboration a step further through augmented communication. Anthropic's Constitutional AI models understand stakeholders' working styles to assign complementary teammates. Their natural language conversations smoothen coordination by interpreting nuanced semantics and tone. Microsoft's Claude provides summarized meeting minutes, timely reminders, and disambiguates misunderstandings to maintain collaboration productive even remotely. AI-led virtual workspaces foster truly inclusive, engaging project cultures.

Virtual Assistants and Chatbots

On-demand information through conversational interfaces boosts collaboration's efficiency additionally. Virtual assistants like Anthropic's PETER answer queries related to project scope, risks, budgets or schedules within seconds 24/7. Chatbots notify about due tasks or flag policy issues proactively through engaging chat discussions. Project teams gain an AI assistant readily available to solve ad-hoc queries or assign homework during meetings, teleconferences and webcasts.
Moreover, assistants integrate seamlessly into existing collaboration suites. For instance, Anthropic's bots provide guidance within platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Project Online. Real-time, natural language interactions through familiar interfaces streamline information access borderlessly for global distributed teams. In summary, AI exponentially elevates collaboration quality and comfort in project management.

Decision Making

Data-Driven Decision Making

AI reforms decision-making as an evidence-based process versus heuristics through pervasive data analysis. Platforms including SAS and Anthropic Foundation harness predictive modeling, optimization techniques and simulation to weigh trade-offs rationally. Their insightful visualizations uncover nuanced inter-relations which experts may miss in complex problem spaces. Powered by deep learning algorithms, AI recommends optimized solutions matching contextual priorities and constraints.
Proactive risk-minimization represents a core advantage. Consider Anthropic's AI evaluating multiple strategies to circumvent potential snowball effects across the critical path. Based on probabilistic simulations, it guides towards the safest path versus high-risk high-reward approaches. Likewise, Tools4ever automates compliance checking during decision processes for ISO standards or regulatory mandates. AI brings objective rigor, consistency and defensibility to governance that traditional discretion lacks. Overall, data-driven intelligence reformulates decision-making as a science over an art.

Case studies

A 2020 project at Anthropic Foundation demonstrates AI's impact. Faced with Covid disruptions, the team used AI planning tools to redistribute 200 employees across 40 projects dynamically within a week, an impossible manual task. Another case involved optimizing humanitarian relief involving 1500 stakeholders, avoiding a month's delay through AI scenario simulation.
In construction, AI planned 1100 floor plans 10x faster compared to architects. Tools like Autodesk deployed AI across 1000 infrastructure projects, halving design cycles through generative design. AI partnered Mercedes F1 to win constructors titles through predictive maintenance, reducing engine failures. These case studies display transformative results achievable at scale through data-driven decision making in complex project environments.

Scenario Simulation

Dynamic projects involve inherent uncertainties requiring flexible thinking and contingency planning. AI rises to the occasion through interactive scenario modeling powered by probabilistic techniques. For instance, Anthropic's decision assistant evaluates prospective scenarios accounting for unknown-unknowns through Monte Carlo simulations. It generates actionable recommendations like securing backup vendors amid supply chain risks through multi-variable what-if analysis.
Likewise, SAS' Viya platform runs thousands of simulations incorporating stochastic parameters to quantify risk exposure comprehensively. Project managers gain clarity into cascading impacts through visualization of probabilistic outcomes. Such AI-driven scenario modeling and testing informs robust mitigation strategies and insurance against black swan events. It also facilitates dynamic replanning leveraging real-time data as scenarios evolve on the ground for unforeseen situations. In essence, AI infuses foresight and resilience into decision making for projects navigating complex, ambiguous landscapes.

Trends and Future Directions

Generative AI

Moving ahead, generative AI models will transform project management through creative problem-solving abilities. Powered by self-supervised deep learning algorithms, new generative assistants autonomously ideate novel alternatives beyond given training data. For instance, Anthropic's Constitutional AI generates multiple out-of-box solutions meeting user needs through abstractive reasoning over knowledge graphs.
Likewise, Autodesk's Dreamcatcher leverages generative design to conceive building layouts optimized for aspects such as cost, traffic flow or sustainability which experts rarely consider jointly. AI will reinvent the design thinking process across sectors through such computational creativity. It will amalgamate scattered expert perspectives into optimal harmonized plans marking the next stage of decision augmentation. Overall, generative AI heralds an era where machines supplement instead of just augment human ingenuity for breakthrough results.

Ethical Considerations

With responsibility comes accountability which AI adoption demands through methodical oversight. Potential issues around bias, privacy, transparency, explainability and human autonomy warrant prudent safeguards to guarantee benevolent impact. Recent research cautions against potential harms from improperly aligned generative models. Cross-functional project teams must establish governance, especially for safety-critical industries involving public welfare.
Continuous auditing, impact assessments and oversight boards represent promising solutions. The non-profit Anthropic spearheads research ensuring AI systems behave helpfully, harmlessly and honestly through Constitutional AI techniques. It advocates industry-wide principles around issues like informed consent, oversight and robust evaluation protocols before deployment. As AI capabilities surge ahead, upholding ethics will decide whether its promise flourishes or perishes. Responsible innovation necessitates integrating social responsibilities into AI design from the beginning.

Conclusion

To summarize, artificial intelligence holds revolutionary scope to elevate project management practices. Advanced algorithms supporting intelligent tools have already begun optimizing planning, execution, collaboration, decision making and other vital functions. Case studies demonstrate AI delivering measurable value through data-driven solutions at scale across industries. Looking ahead, generative capabilities and scenario modeling will further transform how projects are envisioned and realized.
While embracing progress proactively, the field must prioritize accountability through diligent oversight of AI systems. Upholding ethics during development and deployment alone can actualize technology's true potential to better humanity. Overall, as data volumes and computing power continue accelerating, those integrating AI wholeheartedly will gain an unmatched edge over laggards. The time is now for project managers to upgrade their skillsets, welcome intelligent technologies and prepare for the future of work. Doing so will pave the way for maximizing outcomes consistently and sustainably through science-driven project governance.

Further Learning

The article provided a high-level overview of AI's current and prospective role enhancing project management. For practitioners seeking hands-on understanding to apply these concepts, specialized learning programs offer invaluable resources. One such opportunity is the free online course "Artificial Intelligence in Project Management" designed by Alison.
Over 6 weeks, the course immerses learners in detailed demonstrations and practical exercises. Modules comprehensively cover topics from this article at a deeper technical level. Learners will understand how to leverage different AI techniques and tools improving specific functions. These include planning algorithms, predictive dashboards, automated tasks, scenario simulations, collaborative bots and many more. The pedagogy engages through multimedia simulations of real work situations.
Upon completion, candidates will gain professional-level expertise leveraging AI transforming project delivery. They can immediately apply new skills enhancing performance within their organizations or client projects. The flexible self-paced learning also fits busy schedules. Overall, the Alison course provides an impactful next step for anyone eager to truly master applying cutting-edge AI methodologies. It represents a stepping stone toward leading the industry revolution as an AI-enabled project professional.

Suggestion to Explore Alison Course

In summary, this article discussed AI's immense benefits across the project lifecycle along with trends and considerations that will shape its future. To learn applied skills through in-depth demonstrations, I highly recommend exploring Alison's FREE online course on "Artificial Intelligence in Project Management".
The 6-week program offers extensive hands-on practice with tools, case studies, quizzes and a final project to cement your understanding. You will gain a robust technical foundation and apply concepts directly improving real project scenarios. Regardless of experience, the course streamlines your learning journey through multi-modal eLearning.
Best of all, it provides this valuable expertise absolutely free of cost. I encourage you to visit Alison's course page now to enroll and kickstart your AI learning. Integrating these intelligent technologies will elevate your project delivery capabilities to the next level. Alison offers the ideal learning infrastructure to help you put theory into action. Do check it out and start benefiting from AI in project management.
Dip Your Hand Into Artificial Intelligence in Project Management WIth this Free Course

Introduction

Overview of AI in Project Management

Planning Phase

AI-Driven Planning Tools

Predictive Analysis

Execution Phase

Task Automation

Real-Time Monitoring and Adjustments

Collaboration and Communication

Enhanced Team Collaboration

Virtual Assistants and Chatbots

Decision Making

Data-Driven Decision Making

Case studies

Scenario Simulation

Trends and Future Directions

Generative AI

Ethical Considerations

Conclusion

Further Learning

Suggestion to Explore Alison Course

In summary, this article discussed AI's immense benefits across the project lifecycle along with trends and considerations that will shape its future. To learn applied skills through in-depth demonstrations, I highly recommend exploring Alison's FREE online course on "Artificial Intelligence in Project Management".
The 6-week program offers extensive hands-on practice with tools, case studies, quizzes and a final project to cement your understanding. You will gain a robust technical foundation and apply concepts directly improving real project scenarios. Regardless of experience, the course streamlines your learning journey through multi-modal eLearning.
Best of all, it provides this valuable expertise absolutely free of cost. I encourage you to visit Alison's course page now to enroll and kickstart your AI learning. Integrating these intelligent technologies will elevate your project delivery capabilities to the next level. Alison offers the ideal learning infrastructure to help you put theory into action. Do check it out and start benefiting from AI in project management.

submitted by softtechhubus to u/softtechhubus [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 11:43 keryn00 5 years no contact with my biological father

This year is 5 years no contact with my abusive father. Even just typing that feels really freeing.
My entire childhood, my father was horrendously abusive, both physically and emotionally. He’s been in and out of jail my entire life, but always continued the abuse towards myself and my sister when he was out. This included coming to my grandmas house (where we both lived for a large majority of our childhood) and smashing the entire house up, including the front window and often hitting my grandma too. He is an addict, and often the only time he would ever talk to me cordially without some sort of conflict was asking for money for crack or heroin.
He would continuously weaponise the fact he had diagnosed ptsd, and make me feel guilty for having a lot of pent up anger and disdain towards him. He would often text me calling me his ‘number 1’ (I’m his eldest daughter) and even branded my name into his arm with a hot iron to ‘show how much he cares.’ When you’re a child/young teenager, you can’t comprehend just how psychotic and abusive this kind of behaviour is, but when I was 19 I decided enough was enough and cut any form of contact with him entirely.
I’m 24 now, and 5 years on I feel so incredibly free. From things I’ve heard though the grapevine, he hasn’t changed one bit. He’s right where I left him, in a sense.
Through the process of no contact, there were times I felt incredibly guilty. I would think about how terrible his life was as a child, and the kind of abuse he endured. But I had to constantly remind myself that that does not mean he deserved to mirror that and put me through hell for the amount of years he did.
My life has only flourished since going no contact. I’m in the process of getting a degree, and live far away from him and where I grew up. I have a job I love, and I really do accredit a lot this to going no contact.
I don’t forgive him, nor do I have to, but I can move on and heal, and I certainly am.

submitted by keryn00 to raisedbynarcissists [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 11:29 oceanadawn My absolute most deranged, psychotic, "seek help OP" Rejuvenation lore theory: [SPOILER] is playing a game called "Pokemon Rejuvenation" against [SPOILER].

Pokemon Rejuvenation is about Karma playing a game called Pokemon Rejuvenation.
Here's why.

Karma was tasked by Variya to judge worlds as based or unbased and decide if they should continue or not continue. In each of these cases, each world can get some number of Interceptors who, effectively, get to compete against Karma, and can foil Karma's goals by choosing to destroy that world that Karma might think is going quite well. Even though the literal purpose of Karma is to get The Best Ending, Variya placed Interceptors in each world that effectively work for her, and might make contracts with her directly, outside of Karma. Why?
Karma also notes his true enemy is World Shatterer, who is the one who's trying to destroy "all worlds"... but the way he says it makes it sound like that all worlds that get destroyed are because of World Shatterer. This would imply that whatever Madame X or Indriad are going around doing, somehow, this comes back to World Shatterer - that World Shatterer is responsible. How and why?
In the Dev Q&A, Zumi was asked if there was enough information in the games to at least "make a guess" about who World Shatterer is, who Madame X is, and who Eden's real world counterpart is. And she said yes, for everyone but Eden. So whatever the answer to "who is World Shatterer", it's not some completely out of nowhere solution of "This character that hasn't yet been introduced", it's either "A character we're already aware of", or "Some concept we can easily guess at".

To that end, I think there's only one non-deranged answer - Variya. Let's go with that for a second.

World Shatterer is, explicitly, a she. It's not Melia, because Karma talks about World Shatterer in front of Melia. How many female characters are there who could conceivably be a multiversal threat that's killing everything everywhere? We basically have Madame X, some non-M2 evil version of Melia (so, Madame X lol), Clear, The Sinnoh Trio, Melanie, Angie, a renegade Interceptor, some evil version of Erin, or some evil version of Alice.
Clear and the Sinnoh girls can be ruled out pretty much instantly. Clear works for a higher power, so presumably any alternates she/Xara has are the same. The Sinnoh Girls, likewise, take all their cues from Variya. Melanie, even after overlapping with Melia, became basically a god, but never seemed like she'd have the power it takes to be World Shatterer - but maybe more importantly, Karma didn't seem to recognize Melia, even an evil Melia, as being close to World Shatterer at all. If World Shatterer is just some kind of M9001, wouldn't he show a sign of this? Maybe being less shocked that Melia was mean to him? Anything?
I did say World Shatterer could be some kind of Renegade Interceptor - but then why specify a "she", if it's meant to be a known, named Interceptor? The only definitely canonical female Interceptors are Spacea, Tiempa, Crescent, and... I think V is Genderfluid? But we can rule out all four of those as World Shatterer very very easily. And it's not like there's any others... right?
There are - Kieran, Clear and Eden are Interceptors. It's not any of them. I'll get back to that.
But by process of elimination, the only real options are Angie and Variya, and of the two, come on it's not Angie.
There's more evidence. Adrest is shocked to hear that Variya is still alive. She's not meant to be alive. That's going against the original plan that Variya had told Adrest. In fact, the realization of this appears to be what alerts Karma to Adrest and gets Adrest killed.
Furthermore, Spacea and Tiempa are unequivocal - they call Variya "Her Majesty". They treat her like God. Effectively, she is. She's pulling a lot of strings. She's engineering things quite deliberately, and we know that because Spacea and Tiempa go out of the way to lay down the path for her Interceptor to follow since Crescent is barely interested in Intercepting.

Variya is the ONLY non-deranged candidate for World Shatterer, out of characters that have already been introduced. You could theorize it's maybe someone like Nymiera or Rune, Nymiera is still beneath Variya in the pecking order, and Rune was trying to save the world, not shatter it. And here's another thing.
Kieran, Clear, and Eden are Interceptors.

The New Game Plus chessboard has specific pieces that appear to be only for Interceptors. Crescent and Paragon Interceptor each have a specific styled piece, labelled a star of hope. Team Xen has three Interceptor pieces - Kieran, Clear, and the Lumiceptor, which is what I call the Renegade Interceptor because I'm not playing that route myself I be watching the game footage on youtube, and Lumi was the name of the Interceptor I was watching and so that's the Lumiceptor to me now.
Presumably, if Kieran and Clear are Interceptors, Eden must be one too, right? But KC are keenly aware of their own mortality, which is NOT very Interceptorly. We also KNOW they don't have access to Zeight or Zeight's Interceptor revives. Furtheremore, unlike the other Interceptors, they DON'T have access to the Core. That's kind of their entire goal!
What's more, Kieran definitely goes on about how much he's NOT an Interceptor, doesn't he? He talks a lot about fate and wanting to be free of fate and how Fate Bad. If you Intercept him when playing as Ren by showing Interceptor knowledge you shouldn't have, he calls out The Interceptor, Singular, which would seem to imply... it's not him. So how can he be an Interceptor and not be an Interceptor?
Because KC are attempts at creating ARTIFICIAL Interceptors without the need for Variya or Karma. Xara and Jean were the Interceptors in their homeworld - likely Madame X's homeworld - and Kieran and Clear were based on them for that reason. They were built on the moonbase lab and assigned to Madame X and Team Xen to help accomplish the goal of destroying everything everywhere - World Shattering.
The moonbase lab does not work for Team Xen - it works for Variya, and represents an escaped fraction of the Original Humans who are totally outside of Karma and the system. The visor that Moon Lavender had resembles Kieran and Clear's. The moonbase is, primarily, a World Shatterer lab, working against Karma. To help Team Xen shatter worlds, they built Kieran and Clear, their Artificial Interceptors, but they still haven't quite perfected it - they can't access Zeight so they can't get Interceptor revives, and they can't fully escape Karma's ability to just control the timelines.

Variya is World Shatterer, and Kieran and Clear are Artificial Interceptors built by a moonside lab that supervises Karma from the outside and works for her as well. But Variya built Karma to save and protect everything. Why would she be fighting Karma too?
Because it's a game.
Karma could sit down and just create worlds of happy sunshine joy joy forever and be satisfied with that perfect ending being achieved in every world, and just strategically not make worlds that have certain types of people in it. To prevent Karma from doing that, the worlds need outside elements beyond just the Interceptors. Those outside elements are Team Xen and other threats to the world, all of which are supported by, or come from, the moonbase lab, which operates under the supervision of Variya and understand her true nature. Beyond just letting the system do all the work with the singular failsafe of The Interceptor, Variya has an entire faction of her own that exists to compete with Karma.
And Karma kind of enjoys it.
The way Karma talks about World Shatterer isn't like someone who's deeply concerned with all the people who are going to die. It's a competition. Karma makes "new versions" to really show World Shatterer who's boss. Karma kind of talks in a whiny and childish way, which for the record is awesome for this kind of character, but it again suggests someone who's not in an existential struggle for the soul of everything - it's someone who wants to win. Because playing this game is part of what Karma is supposed to do.
Karma was built to take the Pokemon world that was destroyed, and to... revive it. To make the new world, the best possible world, or the best possible, flourishing worlds, as would be approved by Variya and the Overseers. Karma is playing a game, of restoring the Pokemon world. A game of...
Pokemon Rejuvenation.
Wait, why would it be so meta? Why would Karma's game be called Pokemon Rejuvenation? Because that was the password to the secret files about Karma that Adrest was holding onto. The words "Pokemon Rejuvenation" are already right there for Karma and Adrest.
Karma is supposed to play this game against an adversary, like an Ellimist/Crayak situation from Animorphs. That's why Karma deleted Adrest for realizing Variya was still there, before Adrest could truly do anything to work against Variya - he's meant to play the game against her. The Lumiceptor and Kieran and Clear are working against Karma, which is why Karma tries so hard to stop them by mutating Talon and eventually Aelita. Karma can supposedly control everything and everyone, but can't just stop them. Maybe that's not so shocking - they're all Interceptors of a type, except Madame X and Team Xen are trying to do the same thing that Karma doesn't want to happen. Why can't Karma just stop them and say "And then they didn't do that"?
Because Karma can't truly, completely bind the fate of Team Xen, because they're not Karma's pieces to play. They're World Shatterer's. Variya's. As part of the game - she plays both sides, by introducing Interceptors who can stop Team Xen, and also supporting Team Xen, all to try to engineer stronger, healthier worlds by forcing Karma to put in the extra work, and letting worlds that can't defeat Team Xen perish in a sort of cosmological natural selection. The moonbase lab is semi-independent to her - they do things that they know are sort of in the general direction of her goals, but she's not controlling their every move. Hence why she can both choose her own Interceptor to go out there and Intercept It Up, while the moonbase can try to work on creating their own artificial Interceptors to have as many as they need.
Except.
What if there's something else that Variya is after?
It was either Spacea or Tiempa who said that the boundaries between alternate selves was collapsing. We keep seeing this happen when Mosely and Amber remember Chapter 12. Let's circle back even further. Jan has said the actual purpose of Karma in the game is to prove there can be no True Ending. How can Karma's existence prove there's no True Ending, and why is Tiempa saying that the breakdown of the barriers between alternate selves is by the will of the Interceptor - and implicitly, by extension, Variya?
And what if, this is actually the key to beating Karma - beating Karma meaning not just freeing every world from Karma's control, but even freeing past worlds and past people from Karma's control?
Karma has overseen countless worlds filled with alternate selves, but the boundaries between these alternate selves are breaking down. I think this is Variya's win condition. She made Karma thinking that at some point, Karma would have to be shut down after enough blooming, flourishing worlds were created.
Here's my theory: When the barriers between alternate selves breakdown, if Karma isn't online, they won't overlap. But they won't just coexist either. Instead, they'll start to merge, and in a very fluid, weird way, that allows them to pick and choose which aspects of their history they want to be true.
All of a sudden, all those past histories that were fixed and chosen only by Karma are now in the control of all the characters freed from Karma's control, who now have the ability and power, in this weird fucked up non-overlapping state to pick and choose what they wanted their past to be too, and by extension, their future, and what worlds they'll fit into, and what the new worlds that exist after Karma will even be. Because for this to happen...
The old worlds will have to be Shattered.
You know, by some kind of, World Shatterer.
This would lead to all the characters not just gaining their freedom, but because they'll have so many different pasts and alternate selves to choose from, they'll have in some sense, never lost it in the first place. It will also lead to a fracturing of the timelines as new ones take shape, making it impossible to say any ending of the timelines is "more canonical" than the other. And this is the end that Variya is trying to force now that she believes Karma is no longer needed.
You know what I'm not done being deranged. Either Anathea and the Theolias are the descendants of MISSING.EXE, or Melia was created by MISSING.EXE, and MISSING.EXE is absolutely named Zed and probably looks a lot like Zetta.

The New Game Plus Chessboard has Zetta labeled as the descendant of Zed. We've never heard this name before.
Zetta doesn't HAVE human ancestors. So any humans he's descended from, or humanoids, have to come from Melia's side.
Melia is explicitly Erin, Alice and Allen's sister. Even though she has some other freaky origin shit going on being 75 and everything, and her body rejecting the Archetype, we're told in no uncertain terms that Anathea is her mother. The weird thing is she says that she's Maria, that she knows she's Maria, and keeps feeling Maria's memories, but then later tells us she's not Maria like two minutes after.
This means one of two things as far as I'm concerned - either Anathea's family is descended from Missing.EXE, who is Zed, or Melia's origin specifically comes from Zed and MISSING.EXE.
As for why I'm identifying Zed as Missing.EXE - I mean come on. It's in the name.
Zetta's name is very close to Zed. For that reason, and family resemblance alone and knowing it would make Impact when you see the resemblance in the game, I'm going with the assumption that Zed actually looks a lot like Zetta, which is a good way to have an impactful, shocking reveal, but also for it to be a character we've never met.

You know what I'm still not done. Rune was Madame X once. Fuck it let's go wild. Why does Madame X have such a weird, irrational attachement to former Axis High Students? Who could she be to have those wild attachements while also possessing a weird, mysterious amount of knowledge? Who else fits that bill? Of course it's impossible for current Rune to be Madame X, but then again, Rune was found in the Voidal Chasm where your history and past are eaten and everything goes weird about you, and everyone assumed she came from Miera directly from her past, instead of being in some freaky Timey Wimey situation - or it's a Rune from a past timeline, like I said in my other unhinged theory.
The Madame X armour carries her memories over to whoever becomes the new Madame X. Why not. Let's go apeshit.

Indriad's goal is to find a way to resurrect the original Arceus and remove the worlds created by Karma.
Ren kisses boys but he's not very good at it.
Madame X's Yveltal is missing Indriad's Soul, which got separated from it and placed in Angie.
Angie is also partly the result of attempting to turn a human into a servant like what Kanon is. Angie is to Anju... as Melia is to Maria.
Melia is the result of attempting to do this to Maria and it ultimately failing.
Madelis likes men.
Erick secretly likes Brawl.
I've got nothing for Lord Xenadin. He's Huey. Fuck it. Huey is a devolved aged down Lord Xenadin from the Voidal Chasm. What the fuck. Let's go.
Valarie can't read.
Aevium has not been accepted into the Poke-European Union.
Anju is based.

Anyway I still can't compete with the person I remember seeing on rebornevo who said World Shatterer is Ame but I did my best.

submitted by oceanadawn to PokemonRejuvenation [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 09:21 Powermetalbunny A Gift From The Void

The new gift-specific dialogue from the 1.6 update has me absolutely tickled pink! This one especially… I also haven’t practiced my creative writing in a while, and I decided it needed to happen sooner rather than later, so here, have a short story! Sorry if it's boring… I’m a little rusty!
“A Gift From The Void”
It was only yesterday… No one was quite sure where it had come from. There had been a sinister cackling noise ringing through the night air and Abigail had mentioned seeing an unidentifiable shape soaring through the sky during her walk home from the cemetery. The townsfolk gossiped and speculated about what it could have been that evening, but by the next morning they still hadn’t come to any reasonable explanation. It was only yesterday, and yet the entire village seemed to have already put it out of their minds and moved on. The scandal and chatter following the “Anchovy Soup Incident” at the Summer Luau several years back had lasted far longer than this… Even now Sam was still getting sideways glances whenever he got within a 20 foot radius of the soup cauldron, but this just blows over in less than a day? The priorities of small town people were strange.
Things had gone back to that same semblance of backwater, middle-of-nowhere kind of normal, and now the night had become just the same as any other Friday evening. Sebastian was playing a round of billiards with Sam, and while Sam was preoccupied with lining up the cue with his intended target ball, the farmer strolled into the saloon and up to the bar. Heads turned and raised to the newcomer for a moment before returning to whatever it was that had been previously holding their attention. Sebastian caught the sudden flourish of movement out of his periphery, but didn’t pay it much mind. The farmer ordered a coffee and a plate of the night’s special, and struck up a conversation with Gus about a peculiar egg that had materialized in their coop seemingly out of nowhere the night before. Apparently they’d decided to tuck it away into the incubator and wait to see what… if anything hatched from it.
Sebastian had never really been one to eavesdrop, but the wait for Sam to make his move was becoming boring, and sometimes the stories that passed around the saloon on Friday evenings got interesting depending on who all was involved. The story didn’t really go too far into detail. The farmer poked at their food until it had cooled enough to not scald the inside of their mouth, then they took a few bites before bringing up the events of the previous evening. What first started off as a funny story seemed to turn into some deep discussion with Gus about the mysteries of life. Eventually, Willy and Elliott were caught up in the mirth and it turned into a medley of strange tales from faraway lands and once-upon-a-times. Obviously exaggerated sightings of fearsome creatures on a midnight stormy sea, legends of colossal white whales, references to works written by masters of the mystery genre, as well as some from a trashy neo-noir novel or two that had probably been picked up from a bookstore clearance shelf.
Willy stroked his beard and mused about some daring battle between himself and a fish of questionable proportions that seemed to grow larger each time he told the story. Sebastian had heard this one before. The fight over the line had gone on for over an hour before the shadow of the fish rose near to the surface, and just before Willy could land the monster of a catch, it dove below again, taking the whole fishing rod overboard and nearly Willy himself with it.
Elliott gulped down the last few swigs of ale in his tankard, slapped the farmer firmly on the back, snorted and chuckled in an ungraceful yet jolly display that only ever crept out of him when he’d had a bit too much to drink.
“That fish becomes more miraculous each time he talks about it!” Elliott shook his head and smiled as he leaned almost a little too far forward. There was a slight sway to his posture and he tried to straighten his body back in line with the barstool. “To life, and her many little silly tricks of fate, my friends!” he declared. He raised the empty mug, and with his free hand, delicately tucked a few strands of stray hair behind his ear with the tips of his fingers. He rested his elbow back on the bar before he could lose his balance and sighed contently. Elliott’s cheeks were practically glowing red at this point and it was a wonder that he wasn’t slurring his words yet.
“Aye, you’ve all heard my fish story haven’t ye?” Willy chuckled. “How ‘bout the one about the Baba Yaga?” the farmer’s head tilted and they gazed curiously at the fisherman. Willy rested his foot on the crossbar of the barstool, lifted the rim of his hat out of his line of sight, and leaned into the counter. “Some know ‘er as the cannibal witch… others say she’s just a misunderstood haggard ol’ woman who lives alone out in woods or marshes. It’s said she lives a rickety old house that stands on chicken feet, and she likes to lure weary travelers into ‘er home, only to gobble ‘em up once they let their guard down. Apparently she’s especially fond of the taste of children…” He laughed in a hoarse tone and made strange spider-like gestures with his calloused hands as if he were telling campfire stories to a group of kids. The farmer’s nose wrinkled at the outlandish notion of some feral old woman devouring toddlers, and Willy laughed heartily at their reaction. “I think that last part the parents like to add into the story to frighten the little ones. It keeps ‘em from wondering into the forests and swamps alone at night.”
Sebastian rolled his eyes and glanced back to the pool table. He watched the cue ball clack into the twelve before the twelve bounced off the barriers in the corner of the table and rolled slowly to a stop on the felt surface without pocketing. Sam huffed and stood back upright.
“You really aren’t very good at this, are you?” Seb chimed as he returned his full attention to the game at hand. Sam grinned and laughed.
“Nope!”
“Watch and learn….” Sebastian took aim at the cue ball, and after a single firm strike, drove it into the tiny gap between the two and seven. The cue stopped hard, but the two and seven sped to the opposite corners of the foot of the table, each dropping into one of the corner pockets simultaneously. Sam scoffed and paced about the pool room, but looked back over his shoulder just in time to catch Sebastian with a triumphantly cheeky grin on his face. Sam clicked his tongue and lightly thumped the base of his cue stick into the floorboards.
“Show-off…” he mumbled.
Elliott lifted the rim of the empty vessel to his lips, then chuckled again as he noticed the absence of ale and gestured it in Gus’ direction.
“Good sir, my glass is empty and…. I’m a writer!”
“Maybe you should stop for tonight…” the farmer interjected. “You won’t be sober enough to start your next chapter in the morning!” Elliott rolled his eyes and leaned against the bar counter. He tried to give one of his best theatrically exasperated sighs, but when the exhale turned into a case of the hiccups, they knew he was down for the count. He smiled defiantly and tried his best to look dignified through the sudden spasms in his diaphragm and soused thousand yard stare.
“I-am fiiine… ne’re betta’…”
“…..Aaaand, there he goes…” Leah giggled from the end of the bar counter. “It’s like dropping a ton of bricks on a peach.”
“I oughtta’ help the ol’ scallywag home, I s’pose!” Willy groaned as he stood from the bar stool. He smiled as he hoisted one of Elliott’s arms over his shoulders and stood him up from the bar stool. “C’mon you menace… Let’s get ya home before you make a fool of yourself in front of all the lassies!” he chuckled. Sam took a moment to appreciate the situation at the bar counter. He shook his head and laughed, then took another shot at the 12 and missed horribly yet again.
“Easy does it there!” Emily cooed as she cleared away the empty tankard. “Try not to drop him too hard!” Elliott wobbled towards the door as Willy struggled to keep him upright, and just before they stepped out into the lukewarm summer evening, the farmer waved one last farewell and called out to the well marinated dandy-man as he staggered away.
“Nighty-night! Sleep tight, Rapunzel!” they chirped. Elliot responded to the joke by blowing an overly exaggerated kiss over his shoulder and daintily waiving his fingertips at the company in the saloon, then he nearly tripped over himself as he turned back to the path home. A couple of snorts, giggles and guffaws rose up over the music and chatter in the saloon and quickly melted back into the white noise once the moment passed.
Seb looked Sam in the eyes with a determined glare and smirked.
“Eight in the corner pocket….” Seb didn’t have a clear shot, but leaned over the table, reared back the stick and spiked it into the cue ball. It ricocheted from the bumper, side-swiped the eight, and put just enough force into the edge to cause it to spin sideways into the pocket he’d called. Sam laughed and scratched at the back of his head.
“Awwww, man…” he groaned. “You got me again!” Sam leaned against his cue stick and looked over the table before his eyes lit up in anticipation. “How about a best three out of five?” Abigail giggled at Sam’s request as she stretched and leaned back into the sofa.
“Give it up, blondie! He cooks your goose at this game EVERY single time…. You’re doomed.” She teased. “It’s getting late anyways…”
…
It had been almost a month since the odd shape had been spotted flying over town at this point. Seb and Abby had talked in depth about it, and though most of the other townsfolk had come to the conclusion that it had merely been some sort of exotic bird flying out toward the fern islands, Abby was positive she hadn’t been mistaken. In fact she was adamant that the form looked human. She hadn’t seen or heard any wings flapping and the “squawking” sounded more so like the laugh of an old woman than the cries of a bird. The figure seemed to levitate or hover effortlessly and without the use of any physical or mechanical assistance. It was slumped over as if it was curled up or sitting and just…. Floated away.
The long night spent coding and researching the relevant programing issues at the computer, had caused Sebastian to rise late. He was groggy, didn’t have much motivation to bother rolling out of bed, and it was almost noon at this point. He could hear the rain pattering against the roof of the house and the rumble of distant thunder. As lazy as he felt, a smoke sounded pretty good about now. The sound and sight of the ocean on rainy days also had a way of clearing his head and a little stroll would probably do him some good.
He didn’t pass anyone on the way out of the house. Robin was likely at her aerobics club, Maru, at work in the clinic, and who knew where Demetrius was… Out shoving dirt samples into test tubes, or measuring the volume and PH of the current rainfall? As long as he wasn’t dissecting frogs. Out of all of Sebastian’s childhood memories, that was the one that stuck in his head and haunted him. Back then, Maru had only just been born, and while Robin was busy keeping her entertained, fixing her bottle or changing diapers, Seb was wandering the house trying to find something to occupy his time. He’d wandered into his step-father’s study and there on the examination tray was a deceased frog pinned on it’s back, limbs splayed like Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” with it’s belly sliced open. Sebastian had cried and pouted over that for several days and had given Demetrius the silent treatment for even days longer intermixed with spells of arm crossing, head turning and the occasional stuck out tongue and blown raspberry. He cringed at the thought even now.
The hinges creaked as he pushed the front door open and paused. The summer was starting to give way to autumn and the parched ground soaked up the rain and turned loose the pungent, almost overpowering scent of petrichor.
Sebastian flipped the hood of his pull-over around his head and tightened up the drawstrings. He took a moment to smell the aroma of wet grass and earth that drifted through the air and held the fragrance in his lungs as he closed the door behind him.
He began his slow, steady march toward the beach and lost count of his steps after he’d passed the old Community Center. He’d barely noticed the changing of terrain under his feet as he moved almost subconsciously toward the ocean. The raw, muddy dirt paths of the mountain, the crunch of rough stones and shuffle of old, dead pine needles that carpeted the ground… They’d transitioned into the grass and cobblestone of the town plaza at some point, but they all seemed to blend together into “just steps” after a while. His inner thoughts distracted him to the point where he barely paid attention to his surroundings until he felt his footfalls sinking and shifting underneath him, and he knew he’d hit sand. He heaved a deep sigh of the salt air and looked over the horizon as he paced toward the docks.
When the sky was this gray and muted, the color of the sea seemed to take on it’s own jewel-like quality and without the blue sky to draw attention away from it, the eyes of each breaking wave became a splendor to watch. They erupted into columns of aquamarine, sapphire and sodalite laced with the bright, almost pearlescent white of the sea foam before curling over, crashing into the tides and giving way to the next one.
Sebastian came to a stop at the furthest reaching section of the wood panels and straightened up his posture as he groped into his pockets for the pack of cigarettes he’d brought with him. He selected one from the box, tucked it between his teeth and plunged his fingers back into the pocket for his lighter. He curled his left hand in front of his face, to protect the fire from the wind, flicked open the lid and thumbed the igniter. The flint sparked into a flame as it spun and lit up the end of the cigarette to a smoldering red glow. He pulled in a breath and held it for a moment before letting it out and watching the smoke dance away in the wind. It still wasn’t quite as satisfying as that first breath of rain when he’d stepped out of the house. Another sigh escaped Seb’s lips as he stared back at the oncoming crests of seawater and his mind started to drift again.
He imagined the city lights blazing somewhere across the ocean like stars, and thought about starting over somewhere far away. Disappearing, and reappearing somewhere else like a shadow moving through fragments of darkness and light, somewhere where no one knew him. Just vanishing and leaving everything behind. His parents, his sister, his friends… the thought excited him for a moment, before giving way to an intense feeling of regret and sadness. Maybe even a little shame. Having everyone was frustrating, but would having none of them be better or worse? He’d never known anything else. The same friends he’d grown up with, the same smell of the changing seasons in the mountain air, the same four walls of his bedroom, the sound of his sister’s laugh, or the taste of his mother’s cooking… even the way his stepfather overreacted to the littlest things was something he'd grown used to. He took another long breath.
The waves lapped and pounded at the underside of the dock so loudly he couldn’t hear the patter of oncoming footfalls against the wood and he was caught unaware when a sudden presence made itself known.
“Hey.” The start was enough to make him tense up, and he almost tripped over his own feet. Seb whirled around and when he found himself face to face with the farmer, he relaxed again.
“You scared the absolute crap out of me…..” He said as he rolled his eyes. He flicked his thumb against the filter of the cigarette to knock away the ashes and looked over the docks. They were alone.
“Sorry….” There was an awkward moment of silence between the two of them before Sebastian tried to force conversation.
“What are you up to out here?” He asked. He wasn’t really interested in the answer, but felt obligated to return the acknowledgement of his presence. The farmer held up the rod that was firmly clasped in their right hand and gestured to the ocean.
“Fishing!” Seb raised an eyebrow and cocked his head at the response.
“In the rain?” he asked. His tone was almost dismissive. The farmer nodded.
“Willy said that there’s a number of fish that only come out when it’s raining, so I wanted to see what bites.” They began. “Some fish just like it better this way I guess.” There was another long pause. “…and you?”
“Hanging out…” Seb shrugged and adjusted the collar of his hoodie.
“In the rain?” The irony of the retort wasn’t lost on either of them though only the farmer seemed to find it amusing.
“Some people just like it better this way too…” Seb declared as he shifted his posture and crossed his arms over his chest. “I like to come out here where it’s quiet and have some alone time with my own thoughts.” There was a brief moment of guilt when Sebastian realized that he hadn’t actually ever bothered to ask the farmer’s name, but his introverted nature snubbed it out pretty quickly.
“Well, if you’re out here for some alone time, I won’t keep bothering you. I’ll go find a spot to fish and leave you to it.” At least they could take a hint. The farmer turned to leave and Sebastian suddenly regretted the entire conversation. Maybe he came off as cold and bristly? Either way, they hadn’t meant any harm. Just engaging in basic pleasantries. He found himself compelled to say something else just so the conversation wouldn’t end on such a sour note, then the thought of the flying figure and the appearance of the strange egg in the farmer’s coop a while back suddenly popped into his head.
“Wait….” Sebastian flicked away the spent cigarette and stamped it out with the toe of his shoe before he continued. The farmer turned back in his direction. “I was just curious… do you remember what happened a couple of weeks ago? The night that… thing… flew over Pelican Town?” The farmer’s eyes narrowed and they nodded slowly. “That was the night that strange egg just showed up in your chicken coop, right?” The farmer looked bewildered. Seb chuckled soundlessly when he realized that, for at least a moment, he was acting like the epitome of some small town country boy who was nosing into someone else’s business. The farmer was likely confused because they hadn’t spoken to Sebastian about it directly. How could he know about that? They didn’t have to ask before he preemptively put the question to rest. “I was in the saloon playing pool with Sam the night after it happened. I overheard you talking about it with Gus, Willy and uh- …Rapunzel.” He explained. A tiny snort escaped the farmer’s nose as they stifled a laugh and they nodded again.
“Right… I still don’t know where it came from.” They rested the handle of the fishing pole on the dock like a staff or walking stick and looked up at the sky as if they were contemplating something. “I don’t know if the egg had anything to do with the flying figure, or if it was just a coincidence… they did both appear on the same night.”
“Everyone in town says that the flying thing was probably just some weird bird heading toward the islands…” Seb droned. He shoved his hands into his pockets to sooth the chill in his fingers. “If that IS where the egg came from, then maybe it was just a bird…” The farmer briskly shook their head before they answered.
“No, I don’t think so.” They rested a hand on their hip, fidgeted with the line strung through the fishing rod and seemed to gaze off into the distance towards the island in question. “That wouldn’t make sense considering what hatched.” Sebastian’s head snapped upright to meet their gaze. Now this was getting interesting.
“It actually hatched?!” He piped as his eyes widened inquisitively. “What was it?”
“A chicken…. And those can’t fly long distances.” The farmer chortled as they watched Sebastian’s face droop back to some semblance of apathy. He looked mildly disappointed.
“Aww…. Well that’s kind of anticlimactic.” He groaned.
“Yeah, sorry it’s not more exciting than that…” There was a sudden gust of wind and both of them had to brace against the pelting of raindrops that came with it. “It is a pretty peculiar looking chicken, if that makes you feel any better.”
“Really?... How so?” He gazed back at them expectantly and waited for them to go into detail.
“The feathers are jet black and the comb and wattles have a bit of an odd shape to them. The eyes are also bright red, like an animal with albinism and they’re almost reflective in the dark too… like a cat’s eyes.” They paused and rested their hand over the lower half of their face as if they were taking a moment to recall more of the specifics to memory. “And there’s just something about the way it clucks.” They added. “It doesn’t really cluck like a normal hen, but it sounds more like… an echo of a cluck, I suppose.”
“What?....” Sebastian laughed as his expression shifted again. The description of the noise sounded completely ridiculous. Not a cluck, but an echo of a cluck? They may as well have likened it to a phantom voice or the cry of a specter. Something that eluded the range of sounds that most humans would ever have the chance or perception to experience. The farmer lifted their eyes back to Sebastian’s as if they’d suddenly remembered something else.
“She started laying eggs a couple of days ago. They look just like the one that appeared in the coop that night…” They let the fishing pole drop from their hand to the wood planking of the dock and slipped their arm out of the left strap of their backpack. “I actually have one with me if you want to see it….” They slid the other strap off of their shoulder and swung the bag around their right side, letting it come to a rest in front of them as they knelt down. Seb took a few steps closer and stooped to get a better look as they dug through the contents.
They gingerly grasped what looked like a tiny bundle wrapped in a kerchief and began to slowly peel away the corners of the fabric, exposing what was probably the most bizarre looking egg he’d ever seen in his life. It was black and somewhat glossy, unlike the calcified matte shells of most chicken eggs, and the surface seemed to be covered in tiny indents or fissures that exposed flecks of a bright, almost luminescent red underneath. The farmer held the egg out to Sebastian as they stood up straight and nodded, silently offering to let him hold it for a closer look. He gently cupped the egg in his hands, tucked his arms in close to his body and cradled it in his palms like a cautious child trying to hold a hamster. It was heavier than he’d expected it to be, and surprisingly warm.
The color reminded him of magma or hot coals. Something like the intense heat glowing through crackling obsidian after a volcanic eruption or a dying fire. He leaned his head even closer to the egg as he examined the texture of the shell, and his nose wrinkled a bit when he caught the scent. It was sulphurous, and almost earthy smelling, but not overpoweringly so.
“It’s not rotten, is it?” he asked as he gently turned the egg over in his hands.
“See, that’s the strange thing about it. It can’t be…. That egg was just laid this morning.” They explained. “All of the eggs that hen lays have that… little whiff of something burning to them.” The rain was starting to slow up a bit. The farmer thought for a moment and giggled at the notion of what they said next. “I’m not inclined to say that they’re edible either… at least, not to people, and I wouldn’t be keen on being the first one to test that.” Sebastian winced at the thought…and smell, and stifled a laugh.
“Me neither…” He smiled softly when the red speckled pattern caught his attention again. “It does look really cool though!”
He really did have a nice smile. It was kind of a shame that he didn’t let people see it more often. His eyes brightened, and his face looked softer and more approachable, yet also, inquisitive and curious. It was a look of fascination and wonder. Like a kid who’d just discovered dinosaurs and outer space for the first time, or someone who’d just felt their first taste of freedom and didn’t quite know what to do with it. An imaginative or inspired sort of expression.
“Since you like it so much, why don’t you hang onto it?” the farmer beamed.
“Can I?” Sebastian’s eyes lit up again and he gazed back at the farmer with a delighted look on his face.
“Sure! Hens lay eggs every day or so. There’ll be more before long!” they chimed. Sebastian chuckled as he curled his fingers about the egg and sheltered it from the rain.
“Thank you!” He gazed at it for a few moments more as the farmer hefted the rucksack back onto their shoulders and pulled the fishing rod from it’s resting place on the dock. “Hey, this might sound kind of stupid….” He began as he gazed back and forth between the farmer and his new prize… “But, do you think it’ll hatch if I put it under my pillow?” he laughed awkwardly at his own question when he realized how foolish it must have sounded, but was pleasantly surprised when the farmer’s response was more optimistic than he had expected.
“Umm, I don’t know… Maybe! It’s worth a try anyway, and stranger things have happened.”
“Only one way to find out I guess!” Sebastian said smiling in anticipation.
“Good luck! You’ll have to let me know what happens!” They scanned out over the tides as if looking for something before turning back to Sebastian. “I should hurry and find a spot to fish before the rain stops again, but it was really nice talking to you!”
“Yeah, you too!” Seb agreed. “I’ll see you later!” He distracted himself for a moment, making sure the egg was tucked away safe and warm in his hoodie pocket, when he suddenly realized something. “Hey, wait!...” he quickly turned back to where the farmer had been standing just a minute before, but by the time he’d remembered what he’d needed to ask, they’d already trotted too far out of earshot to be able to hear him. “Aw, man… I forgot to catch their name again.” He lamented. “I’ll have to remember to ask them next time… Next time for sure.”

submitted by Powermetalbunny to StardewValley [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 08:44 Particular-Skin1901 OxfordWhite brightening serum is my last option, how good is it?

Hi, I’ve been meaning to get my teeth whitened, I keep putting it off but I think it's time. So recently I bought the Flourishing Finish Brightening Serum from OxfordWhite - actually I bought four bottles of these products. Before I begin using it, I just have one question for anyone who has used this product. Did it work? I am willing to send it back and get something that works. I have tried so many off the shelf products and some DIY solutions but I haven’t got my teeth to the shade of white I want. This are the ingredients listed on the product: Glycerin, Aqua/Water, Sorbitol, Hydrated Silica, Xylitol, Polysorbate 80, Cellulose Gum, Mentha Piperita(Peppermint) oil, Phenoxyethanol, Sucralose, Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate, CI7200/D&C Red No.33, CI42090/FD&C Blue No.1, Ethylhexylglycerin. It's also Hydrogen Peroxide Free

submitted by Particular-Skin1901 to beauty [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 05:16 Frogthemouse [Online] [5e] [LGBTQ+] [21+] Experienced Central Time GM looking for highly motivated players for an RP heavy, investigative themed freeform Friday game at 8:30pm CST! New players are entirely welcome.

Hello everyone! My name is Frog, and I’ve been both playing and DMing since 2015- mostly between PF1 and DnD 5e.
Currently, I am a player in a Homebrew Friday DnD Game set in Faerun- run by a Duo of Fabulous DM’s. We got a few sessions in, and unfortunately due to real life catching up with us, 2/3rds of our players had to drop the campaign leaving just two players left . The two DM’s and two remaining players wanted to give it another go though, so we are looking for 4 additional players to relaunch the campaign.
This will be a full Level 1 restart, with the same overarching plot, but updated location, and for myself and the other player- updated versions of the characters we brought to the last attempt. We didn’t make it very far, and the DM’s are planning on changing enough details about the world and plot that the existing players will not have any information the new additions won’t- we’ll all be on a level playing field.
Here’s a short Intro from the “Face” DM- the one who does most of the talking in session:
Hey everyone! My name's Gray and I've been DMing for about 18 years- mostly with DnD 3.5 and Pathfinder 1e. I'm looking for players who want to interact with the world more than they want to kill things. To be blunt, my games are MUCH more roleplay driven than combat driven. Like 85/15 split. I love teaching new players, and I make the game easy to learn for anyone new to 5e, or even tabletop as a whole.
Here’s a short Intro from the “Mastermind” DM- the one who does most of the planning and prep work: Hiya all! I’m Em and I’ve been by Gray’s side as a Co-DM/Planner for about 3-4 months. I have been in the DnD world for about 2 years now however but as an observer and lore enthusiast. Which is where my planning and prep skills flourished from. I assist Gray in overall campaign planning mostly and session guidance if needed as well as assist players in building out backstories and player sheets to ensure all bases are covered. I’m always around to help so never be shy to ask a question as I never see any question as lesser than the rest.
As for the players, there’s myself who’s a TTRPG veteran with a penchant for writing very involved backstories playing a Warlock, and a new player with lots of promise who is currently reworking their class choice. We’re both very invested in the world and the story, and would love to explore it with a new party by our side!
Down to Brass tacks:
Game Restrictions: Please keep to the basic rule selection - no monster races, and no homebrew. Same rules go for the classes, we’re sticking to the player’s handbook and basic rules.
Venue: We'll be using Roll20 for the map, player sheets, and any other media pieces. We use Discord for voice communication only, no video.
Date and Time: We are planning on having session zero on the 31st, and the game at 8:30pm CST on Fridays every week there after.
And what you’ve all been waiting for: The Story Hook- A mysterious new drug is sweeping through the sword coast. One that is surprisingly cheap but extremely powerful. This strange blue powder, when consumed, has the ability to give the average human the ability to cast fantastical spells of their own. Where did it come from? What is the goal of those distributing it? We will investigate all that and more starting within the rich mining city of Keczulla, located in the region of Amn.
So, if this sounds like something that interests you, we'd love to hear back from you! Please leave at least your name, availability, roleplaying experience (if any!), and a little bit about yourself and your play style below. Here’s a few suggested questions to answer so we can get a better idea about who you are and what you’re interested in:

General info about yourself, including age, preferred pronouns, your general whereabouts
Your previous experience with DnD and tabletops in general.
Describe yourself, using only 5 adjectives.
What is it that you are looking for in a game of DnD?
A very short introduction to what you would like to play - this can be as basic as "what kind of a character" or as in-depth as "class, race, alignment" thing. Please do not include any backstory - we’re looking for a high level overview, not your character's biography
Your discord name
Feel free to add anything you think is necessary, or ask any questions you have!

Contact information: Please reply to this thread, and someone from our group will reach out! Feel free to leave your discord if you’re comfortable; otherwise, we’ll reach out through Reddit.
We'll get back to you as soon as we can! Best of luck, prospective heroes. I look forward to adventuring with you!

submitted by Frogthemouse to lfg [link] [comments]

2024.05.17 23:45 Logic_Sandwich JoJo's Bizarre OC Tournament #7 - Round 2 Wrap-Up

The results are in for Match 21. The winner is…
Mahimit was dragged across the battlefield by ｢Young Lives｣, the Stand filling him with a vigor to fight, to please his father who was watching from above—and that vigor filled him with each slash of its claws, keeping the son awake as he was marched down towards the trailer.
The two Stand Users had made their way down there last—secluded within a small container, cornered. The Stand’s puppet had been worn down for certain, but this was the time to finally finish things. As they approached, they saw through the window the older woman pull out her phone, and immediately Mahimit’s arm was raised to aim his gun right for it. As they made him pull the trigger, he couldn’t fire before she had spoken to her allies on the other end:
“Yeah, we figured out who the perp is, it’s Thomas Kent. Singh didn’t even show up, sent a lackey instead. He should be…”
The rest of her sentence faded out as Mahimit stalled…stopped.
The Stand roared in panicked fury as its user lowered his gun, unable to control them with the ease it once had. Mahi barely noticed—neither did they react to Windy’s warm, draining embrace of as ｢Young Lives｣ attempted to claw her off of him. As his eyes began to close, the longcoat of his Stand’s prior form disappeared and revealed the real one beneath, he managed one thought before falling into a deep sleep.
Of course he didn’t. Why did I think otherwise…

Sonika Singha and Windy, with a score of 72 to Mahimit “Hira” Rākin’s 56!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	Sonika Singha and Windy	27 (14+2) - 3 (0+2)	A shutout victory for the players!
Quality	Mahimit “Hira” Rākin	17 (6 5 6) - 20 (7 7 6)	Reasoning
JoJolity	Mahimit “Hira” Rākin	18 (6 6 6) - 23 (8 7 8)	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10	Nothing to report!

The results are in for Match 22. The winner is…
Club Naraka, the site of a hellish pile of bodies and accidents, was practically on fire that night. Thankfully, Sulka, along with a group of armed guards, had brought a fire extinguisher with them. They stormed the ground floor, taking a moment to spread themselves out. “Alright, we’ve-” A hail of gunfire cut the man off. “—THEY’RE HERE!”
A few of the nameless guards rushed in towards Sulka, to catch any strays that might come his way. Sulka himself pulled the nozzle end up, and heard another single shot fire from another nearby pillar. “There’s an accomplice, circle—” Something crawled up his thumb, and bit into the extinguisher, just as a stray bullet drove a dent into the metal casing. “—AUGH!”
The fire extinguisher burst in his hands, filling the room with a heavy white smog. The hip-firing moved, and it came long, low, and in mobile spurts. “Fire back—” As if on cue, fire jettisoned into the cloud of smoke, “—SPREAD OUT, QUICK!” Through blurred vision, Sulka watched one of their own leave through the front door. “Not that far, damnit!”
With the guards spread out along the floor around him, some wearing gouts of fire, some drenched in the liquid refuse of their extinguisher, and others still riddled with bullets, Sulka turned to one of their dead men, and ripped a pistol from their side. They watched the last moving object head for the door, and pulled the trigger, twice. An employee badge caught the edge of his blurred vision.
The cool night air filled the ground floor, and fed the flames atop the burning men. Sulka’s arm fell to his side, letting the gun clatter against the floor.
A spiral of thoughts took him. First, he’d need to make a casualty report, followed by a loss statement. The sheer number of clients who may not come back after an incident like this would likely drive the place out of business. Between that, the viscera, the dead workers, the dead clients, and all the ammunition costs—let alone the licenses he’d have to put in for—his head shrieked at him. For once, he shrieked back.
It was a low, horrid thing, much like a growl or snarl, but loud enough to make itself known against the billowing call of night. A cool hand slicked his hair back, and the night air stopped pouring in through the shutting door. He turned to one of the guards, who’d taken to putting out another with a blanket. “Take everyone alive and go look for everyone else alive.” Sulka sauntered away. “I’ll be in my office.”

Reese McGuffin, with a score of 72 to Markov's 69!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	Reese McGuffin	13 (3+2+2) - 17 (5+2+2)	An even voting period right up until the very end!
Quality	Markov	23 (7 8 8) - 22 (7 8 7)	Reasoning
JoJolity	Tie	23 (8 8 7) - 23 (7 8 8)	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10	Nothing to report!

Somewhere in the night, a Club Naraka coat and hat, usually only worn by guards, lay in a trash can. A woman, caked in blood and all manner of horrors, pressed herself against the wall beside it, and fished through her pocket for a coin. She’d found it there, in the elevator, on her way to her shift. Moonlight danced across its surface, letting the coin shimmer madly in the low light. ”Hah… you… y-you saved me…” Emile was shuddering, clutching the golden coin tight, for fear of dropping it. “I-I don’t know why, but… w-whatever you want of me, I’ll gladly give it in return… p-please, tell me…who…who are you?”
“…aha!” the voice chuckled. “How…terrible of me! In all the commotion, our…introductions com-pletely slipped my…mind.”
The air in front of Emile began to shift and shimmer. As she pulled her gaze away from the coin, she saw something phase into existence—a feminine form, long purple wires for hair, and a peering red eye gazing back at her beneath them.
It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
“My name is Markov. And your ad-mir-a-tion is payment…enough.”
Emile stared, gazing in wonderment at the hovering figure. Whether from exhaustion or reverence, she dropped to her knees, tears beginning to streak down her face. She thought of the ordeals she’d just faced. The people she’d passed. The people she’d fled. The people she’d killed. There was something else, though—the figure’s eyes seemed to- “That…hole in your shoulder.” Emile’s own head turned to match the figure’s gaze. “Do not fret. I can…teach you how to…take care of that.”
From the roof above the pair’s heads, one couldn’t hear the quiet murmurs and shivers of a woman ripping apart her own viscera-caked clothes to seal her wounds. Other things were certainly on the mind of its occupant, one Reese McGuffin.
Before him were two rats. Before them was a whole litany of ghostly creatures. His hand pointed towards the rat to his right, “Alright everyone, this is Splinter—” before it moved to point at the rat on his left, “—and this is Remy!”
Remy waddled up to a Utahraptor first, and started sniffing at it. “Oh, lemme introduce you to pieces, Remy!” Reese put a hand between the ghost animals, and casually shuffled it back and forth as he spoke. “Remy, Pieces! Pieces, Remy!” He turned on his heel to see Splinter eyeing up Finn, the shark. “Hey! He’s a friend, not food!”
A comforting quiet filled the night air as the ghostly animals circled one another, introducing themselves in their own little ways. The only thing left on Reese’s mind was a single odd question, one that had been eating at him since he left. “Where did I put that coral?”
Slowly, Mahimit awoke to the morning sun’s light. They could have sworn that they had a nightmare that night, but they felt refreshed as if waking from a peaceful slumber…
That wasn’t a nightmare, was it? He thought he could manage it all but in the end he just…broke as soon as he saw Ajay lying there with a bullet through his shoulder—wait, is he okay? Was he brought to safety? Did the Suite now think he was involved?
“Hey, don’t worry—you're safe here.”
Mahimit blinked, finally taking note of their surroundings. They were lying in a plain white bed, first aid boxes and equipment scattered about—the architect remembered the claws raking at their back throughout the night. Their torso had been bandaged up thoroughly: their long coat was laid out across a table, while their shirt was currently in Windy’s hands, who must have paused in stitching back up one of the tears when she noticed them awake.
“W-where am I?” Mahi asked. “Is Ajay safe? Where is he?”
“Jon got him to a hospital as soon as he could,” a voice called out from the door. Mahi looked over to see who looked like a detective walking in, followed by the two he recognised having gone after Zafar back then—no, not Zafar. “Had to be more careful with you given how well known you are, Mahimit—or do you prefer Hira?”
The architect sighed with some relief at that, not finding any deceit in the answer. “Either’s fine…not sure which one’s more ‘me’ anyways.” He looked around at the group settling into the room. “…Where’s the other person who was with you? Is she okay?”
A silence filled the room as the four recalled what Windy recounted once they regrouped—Sonika had lost hope, and ended up attempting to kill an unconscious Mahimit before she was stopped by Windy which caused the PI to run off.
Steric didn’t look it, but he was probably one of the most affected within PINDROP. While diving into his work wasn’t the healthiest coping mechanism, he had been increasingly concerned for Sonika’s health and disposition—so to hear that she not only ran off, but wanted to dispand PINDROP was crushing. “She…she ended up leaving.” He refocused onto Mahimit. “You said you’re unsure about yourself—would you be willing to answer why?”
Hira chuckled. “I guess I do owe you some answers. Well, I first went out as ‘Hira’ right around when I manifested my Stand—but then I ended up going out as them more often. Started to look into stuff about myself without the pressure of being the perfect son on my back…haven’t felt I’ve had the chance to really do so since I came back to Rakin.”
“Because of Zafar?” Inago asked, taking a nearby seat. “You don’t have to answer more than you’re comfortable with, but…you only went berserk after you thought he had just shot your friend.”
“Yup,” Windy nodded, setting aside the shirt and needle. “And I couldn’t help but notice ya stopped letting that Stand control ya once Sonika said out loud that it wasn’t your pa.”
Mahi winced. “…Yeah, I thought it was Zafar. He was a great parent and I never wanted to let him down, but things got so out of hand that when that last piece dropped I just…shattered, I guess. Though even if he was told it probably wouldn’t matter…”
“And why’s that?” Steric asked, jotting down some notes.
“He’s stubborn, sticks to how he thinks things are. If anything challenges his view on a friend or ally of his, he’ll just ignore it and carry on. He’s going to learn that I was Tamas and he’ll shrug it off and forget about it, as usual. Probably the sole reason he’s still in the Metro is because he truly believes that they’re doing what’s best for the city—something I found quickly wasn’t the case.”
Drippy stepped forward. “About that: why were you in there in the first place, and for how long? And what do you know about the Middleman?”
“…I can’t tell you anything about them.” Hira spoke, eyes glancing away from her.
“W-why!?” Drippy almost yelled out. “What reason do you all possibly have to not want them stopped?!”
“Well, you plan on killing them once you know, aren’t you?”
“Yes! Perhaps if you actually told us then maybe we could see why we shouldn’t put down this person taking utmost glee in murder. I don’t get why you and Rasna are willing to protect this guy.”
“…Trust me, if I could have stopped them I would have years ago. But if Rasna’s refused to tell you, you should be able to figure out why, right?”
“…they’ve suffered a lot, haven’t they?” Inago asked somberly. “That must be why they’re how they are today.”
“Oh, so they can get off free after everything they did?” Drippy retorted.
Steric put his hands between the two lest things escalated. “We can discuss this later—at the very least that is a lead.” He turned to the guest. “As for the other questions?”
Mahi nodded. “It was a month or two after I began working towards getting into the City Planning Board. Things weren’t looking as good as I hoped, when my father decided to bring me down to see these friends of his. I was offered a deal: they would pull some strings to help get me onto the board as long as I was willing to put forward some things they wanted…even then I figured something was off, but if it meant I could help this city I thought it was worth it. Oh how wrong I was…”
Steric sighed, finishing up with his notepad before putting away his pen. “I think that will be all then…thank you for your time. We’ll leave you to rest now.”
Inago followed the PINDROP members out, looking over his shoulder one last time: “Before I forget, anything you want for breakfast?”
Mahi thought for a moment. “Pancakes?”
Windy hopped off her chair and walked closer to Hira. “You’re a kind soul deep down, aren’t ya? Even as violent as you were, ya never tried to kill anyone…”
“But I just tried to kill you! It wasn’t me but it was born from me…messed with my thoughts as well as my body. So glad my therapist is a Stand user, thank fu—dge.”
She chuckled at the self-censorship. “But you fought back in the end, didn’t ya? I think I understand the feeling of getting puppeted though, and I know Luna and Alex should be able to help with the memory stuff. If you ever want to talk about it, feel free—we’d be happy to.”
“Sure,” Mahi nodded, lying back down into the bed as they allowed themself to smile. “…Thank you.”
Scenario: Verve Residence, Sapatibhatt — 10:23AM
Clink.
The teacup rattled against the table, empty. Idly, Gioia Arancini glanced over the lid, curious to see the shape of her future reflected in the tea leaves. She didn’t believe in that stuff, but Fate had taken stranger forms. Besides, Evergreen had done a lot these past few weeks. She couldn’t help but wonder…
“You were right, Gioia!” Soichi piped up from beside her, sipping on his own cup, “this is really good!”
In front of them, Vasant Verve sheepishly wrung his hands, giving them both a little smile. “I’m glad I haven’t lost my touch, haha…! It really is the least I can do, while you’re here.”
They could not meet at Urban Hymns, as the estate had been closed since Gioia and Charvet fought the man a few weeks prior. Though she had expected the two of them would get arrested, Verve himself had told the authorities that he would not press charges. In return, Gioia had been checking in with him, making sure he was back on his feet, and that ｢Cage The Elephant｣ was well and truly gone.
“Mm,” Gioia nodded, “give Vasudha my thanks as well,”
“No problem, dear!” a woman shouted from another room. Verve had little desire to return to his cabin, so in the meantime he was staying in his younger sister’s house.
For a moment, there was silence. Verve was perfectly still, as if one wrong move would shatter this tenuous peace. Soichi was content to drink in the cozy atmosphere. Gioia was staring at the tea leaves. What shape did they form?

The peace on Mount Parapollah was just as tenuous. Muuru had returned to the mountain now that the sand worms slumbered and the shifting had stopped. There was once a being who was to the Mountain as Muuru was to the City. The being was gone, now, and the Suite was filling in the gaps with trucks and bulldozers. As Muuru watched, a woman with a flute sat down beside him and smiled. Whatever happened next, the Mountain and the City moved together.

Gioia was drawn back to reality as Soichi spoke. “So, what have you been doing during your time off?”
“Oh?” Verve blinked. “Not much, I suppose! Just some odd jobs, here and there, mostly in the South. Just trying to help the rebuilding efforts, you know? Fix what I broke.” He grimaced a moment, before deflecting back to Soichi.
“What about you? It’s usually just Gioia checking in, I haven’t seen you since, you know…”
“The whole New York thing?” Soichi chuckled. “I’ve been alright, yeah. As rough as it was, we ended up making friends with those Riders! Sometimes you need an unlikely situation to help you come together, you know?”
Evergreen had certainly faced unlikely situations before. Gioia mused on this as she looked at the leaves.

The flute was not the only instrument that echoed through Rakin. As Deacon Blues wandered through the Sapatibhatt, the song of his trumpet followed behind. The land, once torn apart, was being rebuilt. The scars from his battle with the weaponsmith were fading, but the man still taught him a valuable lesson. The hand that wields a weapon can also wield a tool. Maybe this was the nature of potential. Whatever it was, Deacon figured it was worth a song.

Gioia glanced up from the cup, giving Verve a smirk. “Tough times help you realize who your real friends are. You’ve realized that too, I’m sure. Thanks to our efforts, the Metropolis Suite is having a tough time of their own. I wonder how quickly they’ll turn on each other?”
“Xen was already convinced they were out to get him. He kept going on about this Stand, ｢Diamond Life｣. No matter what he did for the Suite, it never told him who its user was. It drove him crazy–I think he was trying to solve that one himself.”
“Did he succeed?”
“I don’t think so. It’s not like he could strike a deal with The Gossip, he didn’t have anything ｢She｣ wanted. I’m sure that drove him crazy too.” There was still a sorrow in his voice.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Soichi smiled quietly, patting the man on the arm. Gioia nodded in turn, before she continued.
“Have you had any contact with him?”
“Not really. His assistant texted me, apparently the folks at Hymnal are on indefinite paid leave, until I figure out what to do. I guess that’s on me.” Verve paused a moment, grimacing. “Apparently he might still be at the cottage? I don’t know—I’m not going to—I’m not ready to talk to him, yet.”
“You don’t ever have to talk to him again,” Gioia responded. “I’m sure he’s cowering in the dark now that we’ve exposed his true nature. The other members of Metropolis should realize they’re soon to follow.”
Indeed, the members of Evergreen might not have the same methods…but they were united in this cause. Would this define their future? Gioia glanced over at the tea leaves.

The immortal had lived through countless riots, but the Bedtown Takeover was one of his favorites. He had returned to the area, replaying his grand speech, looking at the bloodstains that marked this territory. Sure, now that Aco’s child had appeared, VULTURE was considering new leadership. But that didn’t matter to Ouroboros, content to remain the (Self-Appointed) Secret Lord of Bedtown. Behind him, Honeydew was simply content to dismantle car batteries.

Gioia glanced back at Verve to see his brow furrowed.
“I can’t believe I ever got involved with those bastards,” he scowled. “Deep down, I knew they were trouble—I talked to Xen about Sing Now!, he just said…sometimes the only way to reach a common goal is to work with people you don’t agree with. He almost made it make sense.”
“He was a smooth-talking control freak. I’m sure you’ve realized how empty those words were.”
Verve rested his chin in his hand, staring into his own empty cup. In the end, all he saw were scattered leaves. No one was guiding him now. No one but himself. “…That’s not all he was. I think he really believed it, you know? That he was doing good. I wanted to believe it too, more than anything. But I think he was just trying to justify it to himself. Even when he had his doubts.”
Gioia curled her fingers around the teacup. “What about you, Verve? What do you think ‘good’ is?”
At this, the man laughed bittersweetly. “You think I can answer that? I thought Xen had the answer, and look where that got us. If you think you’re the only guy who can change the world, you’ll just make it worse.”
He looked up at Soichi. “We saw what his world looks like,” then to Gioia, “he would have trapped us both inside, if not for you.”
It seemed the Suite had a lot of cities within cities, living symbols of their control. Gioia took one last look at the symbol in her cup.

Disco D Lune had been keeping up with her contacts at the military base, catching up with the most recent happenings. Apparently, there had been a falling-out between the general and his child: an opportunity to sew doubt and dissent amongst the ranks. Disco had already designed new buildings to replace this one, and they were beautiful.

“You’re a free man, Verve,” Gioia concluded, staring him down. “So what will you do with that freedom?”
Verve looked between the two, but found no answers. Now, his choices were his own. In the end, the answer was simple.
“…I want to make things right. The Suite they… they ruined my home, they ruined him, they ruined me. I’m tired of seeing kids get pulled into this. Rasna, Ichi, and now poor Mahamit…” Behind him, warm air sang with the soft trumpet of ｢Bitter Sweet Symphony｣. “It needs to end. Those kids, my nieces, all of them, all of us. We all need a city that we can call home.”
Gioia smiled, closing her eyes contentedly as she felt the heat roll over her. Beside her, she could feel Soichi resting a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t even need to see his smile to feel its warmth. She didn’t need to see the leaves to know the shape of her future. She had known many homes, many stories, many tragedies and triumphs. But right now, home was a tree, Evergreen. Seasons changed, and yet its leaves would always flourish.
Soichi glanced at the cup in her stead. To him, the leaves just seemed like a weird square. But soon that shape was washed away, as he poured them all another cup of warm and fragrant tea.
“Well said! This calls for a toast. To new friends!”
Clink!

Scenario: Hymnal Bazaar, Reshmerasta — 8:58 PM
The market was closed for the evening. This curfew was in place ever since the Middleman attacked. The Bazaar was already struggling—if people were too scared to walk around at night, then why bother staying open? Even when the Bazaar was open, the stall for Urban Hymns stood empty. But for a broom, only a lone figure stood there. Verve used to sweep while his employees handled everything else.
His boyfriend once asked him why he did that.
’It makes me feel like I’m doing something–” he had laughed, “I’m leaving this place better than I found it!’
Verve had a lovely laugh, the figure recalled, staring at the broom.
Slowly, he knelt down to pick it up.
Then, Xenagoras took a deep breath,
and swept the streets that he used to own.

Scenario: ???, ??? — 9:07 PM
“It’s simple, gentlemen…”
The sound of chatter and slow music. The smell of pristine tobacco and the clinking of glasses. This outlined the leadership of the Metropolis Suite, holed up in a skyscraper that overlooked the whole of Rakin. To their right, a window—one that replaced the whole wall, showing the nighttime lights. It almost looked like an alien world, the way the dark purples and reds of the late sunset stretched across the blinking gleams of windows and signs. A single man spoke, an esteemed guest trying his best to rise in their ranks: Luiviton.
“With a little bit of push, we could completely criminalize a number of traffic violations. Of course, they’re already illegal—but I’m talking perfect driving. Instead of community service, we give fines that cut chunks out of bank accounts. Instead of towing cars, we give jail time. I have contacts in the private prison industry who would be willing to pay us good money to multiply the conviction rates~! All it takes is a little bit of sacrifice from Rakin’s people.”
The table was silent. A voice piped up- that of Sing Now!, media conglomerate CEO and one of the Suite’s primary figures of authority. “That’s an awful idea, Luiviton.”
He blanched. “E-Excuse me?” He asked, flabbergasted. “We could stand to gain-”
Sing Now! interrupted him swiftly and curtly. “It doesn’t matter how much we ‘stand to gain’ from selling our city’s soul to prison moguls. You’re a good friend, but everytime you come up here with a suggestion it’s always some kind of short-sighted scheme to make money. That’s not what this thing of ours is about.”
That earned a couple of nods and a “Damn straight.” from Zafar at his left.
He continued. “If we overcriminalize poor driving, what we’re doing is sacrificing Rakin’s workforce in exchange for…nothing. We would completely freeze important institution who are suddenly bleeding key figures and employees who’ve made simple mistakes. We’re not parasites or petty tyrants. We’re leaders. We do these backdoor deals not to increase our wealth, but our resources which we must use for everyone’s benefit. We must direct the people, not root through their pockets.”
Conversation erupted, primarily economic in nature. Some offered to take care of the market in Xenagoras’s stead. Others offered grants to the arts. Others pointed to the need for construction and repairs. Some tried to give statistics on rising rates of crime and discontent within Rakin’s citizens.
One key figure of the Suite, however, was absent. She stood a few meters away, staring out the window at the city below. Her stance was relaxed, yet firm. As if she was on guard against some invisible threat. She held a small glass of scotch in one hand, occasionally sipping from it. She seemed tired. Very, very tired. This was Zhengqi Dianyou, the CEO of the Rakin Rail Corporation. Occasionally, she’d let out a yawn.
Sitting on a loveseat nearby was Ichi Ni San Go—the charge of Sing Now! who was currently too distracted to really remember she existed. Without a babysitter, she was content to simply exist next to Zhengqi, looking out the window with her at the beauty of the city and occasionally asking simple, childish questions.
They were approached by a figure, glowing in the light. Someone followed close behind.
｢Diamond Life｣, the Stand of the every-mysterious head of the Metropolis Suite. Said user hung close behind. Zhengqi always found her boss’s habit of speaking through their Stand peculiar; she understood it as a security tactic, but it often came up even in casual scenarios. “Enjoying the event, you two?” It asked. Its tone was genuine—the Stand could be a tool of intimidation whenever its user willed it so, and this wasn’t that.
Zhengqi just grunted, turning around and finishing off the scotch. She set the glass down on a nearby table, looking at ｢Diamond Life｣. “I’ve never understood how it’s so easy for you to talk through that thing—”
｢Diamond Life｣ shot forward with incredible speed, shushing the name with a single finger gently placed on her lips. “Careful, Ms. Dianyou. The end of the table. Do you see him?”
Her eyes crept towards the table, landing on a man nodding idly to the talk. Iron Butterfly was a member of the Suite who often remained in the background; to her understanding, he helped keep the Suite in control over a good deal of the crop farming in the more rural parts of Rakin. She looked back at the Stand, and it elaborated: “He’s wearing a wire. Loose lips aren’t ideal tonight.”
Zhengqi just sighed, running her hand through her hair as her other put ｢Diamond Life｣’s hand back down. “I’ll take care of him after the meeting.” She offered. ｢Diamond Life｣ chuckled, willingly pulling their hand back.
“I’d appreciate it- I had originally planned on handling the issue myself. You’re always putting your best foot forward with us—it’s something I value.”
She gave a weak smile. “It’s nothing, really. Just me giving back for everything the Suite’s done for me.”
Ichi piped up, eagerly watching the conversation. “I think Ms. Dianyou works too much…she’s always so tired and never has any time to play games or watch cartoons or do anything!”
Zhengqi did her best to put on a friendly smile. “Ichi…when you get older, sometimes you just don’t have the time for-”
｢Diamond Life｣ interrupted her. “She’s right, you know. You overwork yourself. I was being polite about it before, talking about your best foot forward- but I do worry.”
She looked at ｢Diamond Life｣ sternly. “We don’t exactly have the time to rest. I’m certain you’ve seen the news. People are starting to figure out we exist. People are hiring private detectives and holding protests. Things are starting to unravel. We need to act before things break so hard they can’t be put back together.”
｢Diamond Life｣ stood up straight, looking her in the eyes. “Trust me. I have plans, and they involve you. Both of you.”
Ichi immediately raised a little in her seat, glowing a little. “Me~? Really~?”
A friendly chuckle escaped from ｢Diamond Life｣’s nonexistent lips. “Yes, you.” A dour look plastered across its face as it looked back at Zhengqi. “I’m going to need you to handle…key targets. I want certain people out of the way and key infrastructure mapped and maintained for your “ability”—it’ll be valuable to us should the ire of the populace come to a head. Past that, rest. Allow your subordinates at Zuantou Rail to handle things. Take a long holiday. We don’t need an exhausted zombie, we need you.”
Zhengqi could only reply with silence. She knew better than to argue with ｢Diamond Life｣, but to stop working? It felt alien to her. She was tempted to clutch at her sternum from the thought.
“As for you, Ichi…” The Stand continued. “I want you to gather info for me on some of the Stand users around the city.”
Ichi innocently kicked her feet. “How am I ‘sposed to do that? I dunno any cool spy stuff, and Daddy said-”
“I’ll handle your father, don’t worry.” ｢Diamond Life｣ said, walking forward and cupping Ichi’s cheek in their clawed hand. “I just want you to make friends, okay? Go out. Explore. Meet people, as many as you can. Participate in their lives and conflicts. Tell me everything you see and hear, okay?”
Ichi just nodded, smiling widely.
“Perfect,” replied the Stand. They drew their arm back, clasping their hands together. “But enough about work. Have you two tried the finger food that’s been provided? It’s truly divine.”
Scenario: Mili's Diner, Mist City — 7:37PM
The bell above the entrance rang late into the dusk, announcing the arrival of a certain happy customer. He hummed cheerily to himself, taking a seat behind the counter and giving her regards to the woman behind the counter. His order was the same as it was every time he came here, and yet he always flipped through the menu anyway. He was a cheerful, easygoing man, despite everything.
His name was Steric Lou Farin, recently self-appointed head of PINDROP. He hadn’t been planning on it, but with the sudden departure of Sonika, the team needed someone to step up fast. He was the most experienced in the field of investigation and had the sort of charisma the role required. He didn’t mind taking the lead, either. If anything, it made his work a little easier.
Speaking of work, that was the reason for this visit—good as the food was. He glanced over to the other two customers, talking quietly amongst themselves, and smiled. Both were of particular interest.
The first was one Brighid Rhodes. He’d sparred with her a few months back, and an exchange of business cards had proved extremely wise when he needed assistance in dealing with one Texas Aco. She was the one to finally calm her down in the end—albeit forcefully, but all’s well that ends well.
Speaking of which, Texas Aco sat at the counter now, talking in hushed mumbles to Brighid. The notable thing there being that she was talking now. She had been silent in the immediate aftermath of her rampage, but after spending some time at Brighid’s, Steric had gotten the call today that she’d been ready to speak.
“I hope you all had a safe drive here,” he chuckled to himself. “It’s awfully rainy out, isn’t it?”
“Nothing too bad.” Brighid exhaled, and Texas nodded with her, sipping on a chocolate milkshake. Her misshapen insect arm was hidden under a worn old coat draped over her shoulder. Brighid gave the detective a particular glance, and Steric took that as a sign to get to questioning.
“So, Texas…” He cleared his throat, making sure he had the girl’s attention. “I’m sorry for calling you out so soon. You ever want to stop talking about all this, let me know. I don’t want to do you any harm.”
“Mmm.” Texas nodded again.
“Now, I understand you’ve had, er, a difficult last few months.” That was no understatement: she’d been directly responsible for an attempted VULTURE mutiny. It failed, and drove her off into hiding god-knows-where. “In particular, I’d like to ask you about your relationship to VULTURE. It’s a piece of the puzzle here I haven’t entirely been able to ascertai-”
“I’m taking over VULTURE.” Texas deadpanned. Brighid sighed.
“I told you that isn’t the best idea.” The lawyer attempted to flick her on the forehead. “That’s too dangerous. No way you can get it done on your own.”
“No, I mean, like-” Texas grumbled. “She literally told me I could have it. The old boss.”
Brighid blinked a few times. She hadn’t heard about that. Steric nodded.
“Ms. Kaliya told me she’d been in contact with you. She said you’d been pretty against taking the leadership role, though.” Steric raised an eyebrow. “What changed?”
“…It sucks here, man.” Texas smirked. “Even with all the bullshit charities, shit’s gone bad after Rasna left. I’m sure you caught wind of that. Guys turning up dead left and right—there was a fight at a funeral, right? Whole place got blown to smithereens. What the fuck, man.”
“Ahah, yes.” Steric winced. “Quite the festivity, wasn’t it.”
“The place needs someone to step up. And with that little rampage I went on…” She looks embarrassed, for a moment. “I think I’ve got the rep to fill her shoes. Er. Maybe. I’m not really that scary, but, uh…”
“Ms. Kaliya told me you weren’t of that sort of opinion before.” Steric raised his eyebrow again, tapping his pen against his notepad. “What changed?”
“…Nothing, really. I just.” Texas chuckled, reclining on her stool. “I don’t really think anything I’ll do will have any difference. But I can’t stop myself from trying, either. I don’t think she’d want me to, either.”
Brighid placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder, glancing down at her. “Long as you come back to my place when you’re done. I trust you, but you should have a bed to sleep on.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Steric grinned. This was a good development! A bit risky, sure, but it gave him in an in. “Say!” He stopped absentmindedly chewing on his pen’s tip. “Y’think you’d be willing to help us out? VULTURE’s assistance would be a great help…and something tells me we’ve got a common goal.”
“I’ll think on it.” Was Texas’s only response. Brighid flicked her on the forehead again. “Ow! Okay, fine, yeah, I’ll help. You guys don’t seem that bad.”
Steric clasped his hands together. One step closer. “Ah, and you too, Miss Rhodes.”
“Hah?” Brighid scoffed. “I don’t think anyone with me is gonna be much help-”
“I think that’s, er, preposterous.” He tapped his notepad a few times. “I did some looking into the work your people’ve done recently. For museum staff, you folks sure are prolific. A boat raid is quite the accomplishment. Hmm, hmm~.”
“Well, er…” Brighid sighed. Her group had had a history of engaging in combat. Entities like Paranoia and Markov were practically built for it, but her group had had similar exploits recently: Ruby’s left her fight with the swordsman at the art college relatively unharmed, and Roxanne had managed to charm an ex-member of Metropolis. Despite how weird all of them were, they were useful in a variety of ways; it made sense Steric wanted their assistance.
“Alright. I’ll get them to help out.” Much as she didn’t trust some of them with heroism, Brighid found herself more involved than she’d anticipated—and getting into the action herself meant she could help keep Texas as safe as possible, despite everything. “But you gotta help out with the museum. We’re, uh, still working on reconstruction.”
“No worries. I think I’ve got a few artifacts here and there. They’d be fit for your collection.” Steric’s phone buzzed—he rose and nodded at the two. “It’s been a pleasure, folks, but the life of a detective is ever so busy. Be seeing you.” With that, he grabbed his coat and strode away, leaving a good third of his burger.
Several oversized flies crawled out from beneath Texas’s coat, nibbling on the leftovers. “You really okay with me, uh, y’know…” Texas made a few vague gestures with her hands. “It’s a big thing to, uh, undertake. I figured you’d try to stop me.”
“I doubt I’d be able to.” Brighid chuckled. “‘Sides, you’re a pretty tough kid. I was pretty rough and tumble when I was your age, and look how I turned out. I’m a lawyer and everything.”
Texas nodded, returning to her milkshake. She was an ant under an elephant’s foot—she’d become well aware of that. But even so; even an ant had its resolve, and a swarm could pick apart a carcass. Even if it was only delusion, she’d do what she could. Mom would’ve liked that.
“Mmm.” She grinned. “Here goes.”

<=TO BE CONTINUED==

Link to Official Player Spreadsheet
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submitted by Logic_Sandwich to StardustCrusaders [link] [comments]

2024.05.17 22:58 akootco Akoot&Co [Semi-Vanilla] {1.20.4} {Discord} {Events} {Building-Focused} {No Map Resets} {ViaVersion}

Welcome to Akoot & Co, your ultimate destination for a classic Minecraft experience!

Our server is the result of a passionate search for a chill, semi-vanilla Minecraft community with a fresh world and quality-of-life enhancements tailored just for you. Frustrated by the absence of such a haven, we took matters into our own hands to create this medium-scale community Minecraft server.
In our open beta phase, we invite you to join us as one of the pioneering members of our growing community. Here, you'll find a semi-vanilla, SMP-like environment, carefully crafted to offer the finest Minecraft experience possible. Imagine a server where history and lore intertwine, where nations and player bases flourish, and where exciting events enrich your gameplay. We believe in preserving the core Minecraft gameplay while enhancing your adventure with thoughtful features.

Features

Discord Server (Discord + Minecraft integration)
World Map (dynmap)
Bedrock support (Geyser)
Unlimited Homes
No pesky land claims (Honor system + rollbacks)
KeepInventory (Optional per player!)
Timed Ranks/Custom Titles
Text Formatting (+Gradients!)
Brewery (nothing game-breaking, just a treat!)
Big boy ram and big boy processor (minimal lag)

Delight yourself with unlimited homes, a grief-free environment (thanks to our rollback system), and a seamlessly integrated Discord chat system. Explore our world map online and experience the game like never before. Best of all, this exceptional experience comes to you entirely free of charge! This is your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become part of a community that values creativity, camaraderie, and the joy of Minecraft! Join us now, and let's embark on this unforgettable journey together!

No application required! Just launch the game and play!

IP: akoot.co
Bedrock IP: mc.akoot.co
Version: 1.20.4

submitted by akootco to mcservers [link] [comments]

2024.05.17 22:56 Hairy-Expert-8004 The exaltation of Inanna! Ver.2

The Exaltation of Inanna.
…
Lady of all me, resplendent daylight, righteous woman, laden with a terrifying light, loved by An and Urash,nugig of An, she of the great jewels, she who loves the righteous crown, who is suitable for en-ship, who has taken hold of its seven me!
My lady! Of the great me, you are their guardian. You have lifted the me, you have hung the me from your hand, You have gathered the me, you have clutched the me to your breast. Like an ušumgal, you have deposited venom on the foreign land, like Ishkur, where you shout, Ashnan disappears before you.
Flood that streams down from these mountains, supreme in heaven and earth: you are their Inanna.
Blazing fire raining on the land!
She to whom A gave the me, lady riding on lions, who, by the holy order of An, gives orders.Who can understand the great rites that are your possession?
Destroyer of mountains, you give force to the storm.Beloved by Enlil, you impose fear on the land.At the command of Enlil, you stand ready.
My lady! The enemy land bends at your battle cry.
When humanity, (fleeing) from fear, terrifying light, and storms stood before you in silence, you took the most terrifying of the me.
the threshold of tears is opened for you. they walk on the road to the house of great grief for you, before battle, (their) possessions are sacked for you.
My lady! The strength you have can eat through teeth. You charge like the charging storm, you roar with the roaring storm, you shout with Ishkur.
You exhaust yourself with each hurricane, but your feet are filled with tirelessness. With a harp of grief, they perform the lamentation.
My lady! The Anuna, the great gods, flying like bats, flutter to the ruin mounds because of you, as they could not withstand your terrifying gaze.
No one can oppose your terrifying visage. Your angry heart—who can soothe it? Your wicked heart—to soothe it is. overwhelming.
Lady, will this mood be sweetened? Lady, will this heart be pleased? Your anger cannot be cooled, great daughter of Suen.
Lady, greater than the land, who can take away from your dominion? You extended? your dominion over the mountain: Ashnan cannot be found there, its city gates were set on fire.
Because of you, blood flows in its canals; because of you, its people drink it. Its army, all together, is brought to you, its elite troops, all together, are disbanded for you, its strong men, all together, are presented to you. Its city’s place of play is filled up by the storm, its best men, captive, are driven before you.
To the city that did not say, “The country belongs to you,” that did not say, “To your father,” your holy order was spoken: the place returned to your feet.
Its womb is disturbed, its woman does not speak sweet words with her spouse, at nighttime she does not consult with him, she does not show him the pure things within her.
Rearing aurochs, great daughter of Suen. Lady, greater than heaven, who can take away from your dominion?
Great lady of ladies, who, for the righteous me, was born from a holy womb, who surpasses her own mother!
Clever and prescient lady of the lands, of living beings and countless people—I will sing your holy song!
Righteous goddess, to whom the me are brought, it is overwhelming to exalt you.
Distant heart, righteous woman, shining heart! I will sing of your me. For you, I entered the holy ĝipar.
I am the high priestess, I am Enheduana.
As I carried the basket, as I sang the hymns of joy, funeral offerings were presented—did I no longer live there?
I came toward the light—the light burned me. I came toward the shade—it was covered in a storm.
My honey mouth became froth, My ability to sweeten moods is turned to dust.
My fate, Suen, this Lugal-Ane. tell An about it! May A resolve it for me! Tell An about it now, he will resolve it for us.
The woman will tear off this fate, Lugal-Ane. Mountains and floods lie at her feet. The woman is mighty, she makes cities tremble before her. Stand by me! May her heart’s contents be reconciled with me.
I am Enheduana. I will recite a prayer to you!
My tears, which are like sweet beer, I will let flow free for you, holy Inana. I will say to you: “The decision is yours!”
I cannot make Dilimbabbar care. The rituals of holy An, all that belongs to him, have been disturbed, he has wrested the Eana from An. the greatest of the gods he does not fear.
This temple, with whose charm he was not sated, whose delights he had not exhausted. this house he transformed into a house of evil. As he became equal to me, envy followed him.
My righteous Aurochs! May you chase this man, may you seize him! In this life-giving land—what am I?
Like a rebel land hated by your Nanna: may An deliver it. This city—may A tear it to pieces, may Enlil curse it.
Its crying children—may their mother not comfort them. Lady! When their grief has been set up, your boat of grief should be left in a foreign land.
Will I die because of my holy song?
Me! My Nanna has not enquired about me.This false land has completely destroyed me. Dilimbabbar has not pronounced my verdict. If he pronounced it—what then? If he did not pronounce it—what then? Standing victorious, he stepped out of the temple. Like a swallow, he made me fly through the window—my life has been devoured.
Have you dispatched me to the thorns of foreign lands?
He wrested the righteous crown of the high priestess from me, he gave me a knife and dagger. “They suit you,” he said.
Precious lady, beloved by An! Your holy heart is mighty—may it return to me! Beloved wife of Ushumgal-An, you are the greatest lady from horizon to zenith.
The Anuna have submitted to you. From birth, you were a minor lady, but now—how you surpass the great Anuna gods! The Anuna kiss the ground for you.
The trial against me is not over. A hostile verdict surrounds me, as if it were my verdict. I have not defiled the flourishing bed, I have not revealed Ningal’s speech to anyone, I am the shining high priestess of Nanna.
My lady, beloved by An, may your heart be reconciled with me! May it be known, may it be known! Nanna has not spoken, so he has said: “It is yours.”
That you are as mighty as heaven—may it be known. That you are as wide as the earth—may it be known. That you destroy the rebel land—may it be known. That you roar against the enemy land—may it be known. That you smash heads—may it be known. That you devour corpses like a lion—may it be known. That your eyes are furious—may it be known. That you lift these furious eyes—may it be known. That your eyes are iridescent—may it be known. That you are obstinate and defiant—may it be known. That you stand triumphant—may it be known.
Nanna has not spoken, so he has said: “It is yours.” My lady, this has made you great, this has made you mighty.
My lady, beloved by An—I will sing of your wrath. I have piled up the coals, I have performed the ritual. The Holy Inn is ready for you. Will your heart not be reconciled with me? As my heart was filled, overfilled—lady, queen—I gave birth to it for you. That which I sang to you at nighttime, may a gala repeat to you at midday. Because of your captive spouse, because of your captive child, your anger grows, your heart is not soothed.
The powerful lady, who is respected in the assembly, received her prayer. Inanna’s holy heart returned to her. The light pleased her: she was spreading charm, she was exuding passionate delight. Like the moonlight shining forth, she was laden with charm. Nanna rightly expressed his admiration for her, she blessed her mother Ningal, the doorframe said to her: “Welcome!” Her speech to the nugig was mighty.
Destroyer of mountains, to whom the me were allotted by An, My lady, wrapped in delight: Inanna be praised!

submitted by Hairy-Expert-8004 to InannaWorship [link] [comments]

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