Charli XCX's new album 'Brat' is dropping this week. Lyrics have been revealed and one track, "Sympathy is a knife" is gaining attention as people are noticing potential references to Taylor. Lyrics below from Genius with the portions bolded.

[Verse 1] I don't wanna share the space I don't wanna force a smile This one girl taps my insecurities Don't know if it's real or if I'm spiraling One voice tells me that they laugh George says I'm just paranoid Says he just don't see it, he's so naive I'm embarassed to have it but need the sympathy
[Chorus] 'Cause I couldn't even be her if I tried I'm opposite, I'm on the other side I feel all these feelings I can't control Oh no, don't know why All this sympathy is just a knife Why I can't evеn grit my teeth and lie? I feel all these feelings I can't control Oh no, don't know
[Verse 2] Why I wanna buy a gun? Why I wanna shoot mysеlf? Volatile at war with my dialogue I'd say that there was a God if they could stop this Wild voice tearing me apart I'm so apprehensive now Don't wanna see her backstage At my boyfriend's show Fingers crossed behind my back I hope they break up quick

For those without context, Charli opened up for the Rep tour, and there was minor scuttle afterward when she said something to the effect of "I felt like I was waving to 5-year-olds" in regards to the shows she played. Charli quickly clarified her thoughts via Twitter and it seemed to be the end of the conversation.

Hey a few people on the internet have taken something I said out of context and I want to clarify there is absolutely no shade and only love here! As I say in the article and have said many times before, I am extremely grateful to Taylor for inviting me to open for her. She's one of the biggest artists of my generation and the reputation tour was one of the biggest tours in history. In the printed version of this much wider conversation my answers about this tour were boiled down into one kind of weird sentence - leading up to that tour I'd been playing a tonne of 18+ club shows and so to be on stage in front of all ages was new to me and made me approach my performances with a whole new kind of energy- more so I talked about how it was brilliant opening for Taylor, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I was given and how much fun it was to perform to a new audience! Any tour I've been on with any other artist as an opening act has always taught me so much. It's always wonderful to watch other artists do their thing, own their stage and speak their language to their dedicated fan bases - and this was especially true for the reputation tour. Hope this gives clarity to what was a great interview !! lots of love

Flash forward to much more recently, Charli begins dating George Daniel of The 1975 and frequents their shows. There was overlap between George dating Charli + Matty dating Taylor. Charli is also the eventual link between Matty & Gabriette, the latter of whom Charli knew prior, is very close with, namedrops on the album & is featured in her 360 video.
There is one other interesting tidbit, which is that last year Charli shared a video reacting to this article from The Sun on her then-private 360brat account. The headline reads:

Huge pop star follows Taylor Swift’s lead and asks rocker boyfriend to help write her new album. Taylor Swift is working with her The 1975 boyfriend Matty Healy and now Charli XCX is following suit.

There have also been a couple of playful references to Taylor in Charli's marketing, in this tweet about her upcoming Sweat Tour with Troye Sivan, and in this instagram caption, "it's bad blood for girls who ____"
In regards to the album as a whole, Charli does seem to be getting ahead of the conversation with this Tik Tok she posted last week. There is another track, "Girl (so confusing)" that fans think references Lorde or Marina. Transcript:

“I’m seeing online that some people think that there are diss tracks on Brat, and I just wanted to come on here and clarify that there aren’t- apart from Von Dutch which kind of is, but the other tracks in question aren’t diss tracks.
They’re really just about how it’s so complicated being an artist, especially a female artist, where you are pitted against your peers but also expected to be best friends with every single person constantly. And if you’re not, you’re like, deemed a bad feminist. And that to me is just, like, such an unrealistic expectation.
Um, so yeah, these songs are kind of about how, as a woman, as an artist, some days you can feel on top of the world, some days you can feel unbelievably insecure, other days you can feel highly competitive, sometimes you can feel like literal trash. Um, and it’s really emotional and it’s complicated to deal with, and we’re not supposed to talk about it, but these songs do talk about it, and I’ll probably be chastised for it, but whatever. It’s reality.”

The lyrics for "Sympathy is a knife" honestly do seem to be referencing Taylor, but seem more like commentary about Charli's own insecurities in her relationship with Taylor as someone who makes her feel smaller / lesser than without Taylor really even doing anything herself. Personally I think this is really interesting / complex and shouldn't be diminished as a "diss track."
If it is about Taylor, I do find Charli's brutal honesty about Taylor's omnipresence hilarious.
Curious what everyone else thinks!

Battle Karbala and the uprising of Imam Husayn (a)! The actual reason behind the uprising of Imam Husayn is that very few people know what exactly it is. You will find out after reading this extraordinary speech by Ayatollah Jawadi Amoli!
For many of us, our fundamental problem is that we do not know ourselves. We do not know where we came from, nor we do not know where we are going. Thus, we have fallen asleep, and we live our lives in a numb and lifeless state.
In many verses of the generous Quran, when Allah (ﷻ) mentions the disbelief of the unbelievers, the hypocrisy of the hypocrites, and the plots of the ill-intentioned hypocrites, He swt says these people do not know themselves. With an expression of sympathy, He said that they had not recognized themselves. They do not know who they are.
In another verse, He swt says, “They do not know.” In some places, “They do not perceive.” In another verse, “They do not listen.” Allah (ﷻ) says, “They are fools, but they know it not.” He swt says they are fools, but they do not know they speak foolishly.
Well, who is within us? What is within us that we are unaware of it? We have been told that within you lies a true identity: who you really are. You have an encasing that is meant to be a tool for you.
In other words, you have a physical body that you all can feel and perceive. This body has a natural and animalistic force through which you eat, drink, experience pleasures, sleep, speak, work, etc. These are all part of your animalistic existence.
Animals also have this kind of existence. This physical body is just a vessel. It is not the real you. It is just there as a tool for you. Allah (ﷻ) has given you this natural and animalistic life so you can search, preserve, provide for your sustenance, reproduce, and so forth.
Your true Identity is hidden deep within you. You must search and dig deep for it. Your true Identity is not in your hands. It is in the innermost part of your existence. The Prophets came to mine and excavate, and as stated in the Nahj al-Balagha, they opened up these treasures. (Taqwa in Islam)
They showed Human beings their true identities and told them, “This is what you truly are!” Just like an expert geologist who finds treasures buried deep in the earth, this geologist examines the earth and mines, excavates the treasures, and brings them out of the earth. (Tawakkul in Islam)
The Prophets are the actual geologists. They mined and excavated, brought out our true identities, and showed them to us, telling us that this is the eternal part of you. That which will infinitely continue is this.
It is because of this inner Identity that Allah (ﷻ) says He swt subjugated the skies and earth for human beings. So, in the marketplace of the material world, if we were to sell ourselves in exchange for the sun, we would be at a loss. If we were to sell ourselves in exchange for the entire Milky Way, we would be at a loss.
There is nothing more valuable than us because we are eternal. For this reason, Allah (ﷻ) has created heaven for us. Whatever a Human being desires, they will find it in that heaven.
Sometimes, a human being lives a poor lifestyle, while within him lies such an identity and a treasure rich with angelic qualities. It is this temporary body that has covered up our true identities.
If we are not better than angels, then we are certainly no less than them. Many people knew this during the time of the Holy Prophet (s). After his passing away, they tried to return society back to a state of ignorance, and so Imam Husain (a) rose against them.
And his uprising was successful. They asked Imam Sajjad (a), “In the uprising movement and resistance, who was the victor?“
He replied, “We were.” He (as) said this even though he was brought to Damascus in chains. He (as) said we were victorious. We revived this school of thought; we showed humanity to human beings, and we showed them their true identities.
We dug and excavated and uncovered their treasures. Many people realized these truths, and the religion came back to life. Therefore, after the passing of the Prophet (saws), it is through Hussain ibn Ali (a) that our true identities were made clear to us.
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(note to teacher: you made a mistake by having one of the prompts be “what are you interested in”, get ready to experience the true power of an autistic hyperfixation. Warning for,, kinda vulgar lyrics? They’re important in the context of the song and it's actually really interesting. I swear I PROMISE I'm not insane.)
I will be analysing Will Wood’s song ‘Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Marybell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally’. which, for simplicity, most fans refer to as simply ‘Suburbia Overture’. This song is the first on his first solo album entitled ‘The Normal Album’, which came out in July 2020.
This song, in the most general possible terms, is a criticism of modern suburban life, how it is advertised as “the perfect life”, and how this advertising is incredibly false unless you fit the picture perfect standard that these facets of society seem to require.
The song itself is split up into 3 distinct sections, "Greetings from The Marybell Township!", “(Vampire) Culture” and “Love Me, Normally”. I'll be tackling each section one at a time in order to properly break down what each means, what different analogies they use, how they all relate to each other and the intended end result of the song and the message it intends to convey.
Let's begin with 'Greetings from The Marybell Township!'. This section of the song uses a lot of analogies that compare suburban life to a warzone, the first line of this section being “white picket fences, barbed wire and trenches”. This section also focuses heavily on the concept of the nuclear family, and it often literalises the term and uses analogies based around radiation and nuclear warfare. Such analogies can be found in lines such as “the snap crackle pop of the Geiger, camouflage billboards for lead lined Brookes Brothers”. Now there's a couple of terms that require definitions in this line. The first of course being “the Geiger”. A Geiger counter, which is what this lyric is referring to, is a tool used to measure levels of harmful radiation. This, paired with the concept of billboards advertising “lead-lined Brookes Brothers” when lead is a material used to deflect radiation, and the knowledge that ‘Brookes Brothers’ is an American vintage style clothing brand, this line really paints a picture of a seemingly post apocalyptic/post nuclear war but still consumerist and capitalistic suburban society. The last line in that verse is “buy now or die”, which ties back to the concept of safety equipment being advertised on billboards, while residents of this town have no choice but to buy the products. This all relates back to the hyperconsumerism that plagues our society, and runs particularly rampant in middle to upper middle class neighbourhoods. The very same neighbourhoods that are often referred to as “suburban”
In the second verse of this section there are a lot of hard hitting lyrics that to me really show that this perfect idealised life is far from perfect or even good, so we will work through them one by one because I feel that they all deserve proper analysis.
The first line that i want to point out from that verse is the line “takes a village to fake a whole culture” which is clearly a rip off of the phrase “it takes a village [to raise a child]” but it also references the fact that usually suburban towns are incredibly monotonous in both residents and architecture, and so it takes the collective effort of the entire population of the town to pretend that there is an actual culture to it.
The next few lines I'll speak on all come in quick succession of one another, essentially blending them into one line. “Your ear to the playground, your eye on the ball, your head in the gutter, your brains on the wall.” So let's break these down. This line is easily split into 4 distinct phrases, and all of these phrases have a few things in common, which I will point out later.
“Your ear to the playground” is a play on the phrase “ear to the ground” which essentially means that the person with their ‘ear to the ground’ is attempting to carefully gather intel about something. Someone having their ear to the playground simply reinforces the idea of this suburban “paradise” being. Not as paradise-y as one would hope, seeing as the people who use playgrounds most of all are children, so this line is demonstrating that the picture perfect life that this suburban town offers is actually corrupting children so young that they are still on the playground. The next phrase is “your eye on the ball” isn't a play on anything and is in fact in itself a common phrase. To have your eye on the ball means to be entirely focused in and paying attention to something, and not allowing anything to divert your attention. Given the last line this line very well could be another reference to the corruption of the youth and the idea that their every day play has already been tainted with the hostilities of modern life usually reserved for adults. Following this is another well known saying “your head in the gutter” which, as most know, someone whos head is ‘in the gutter’ is someone who will see some sort of innuendo or otherwise vulgainappropriate meaning in something that was intended to be entirely innocent, leading to others in the interaction telling the perpetrator to ‘get [their] mind out of the gutter’ And finally, in my opinion the most hard hitting phrase in this set, “your brains on the wall” which is clearly in reference to the notion of ending your own life with a shot to the head, which would lead to, well, brains being on the wall. These last 2 phrases come in stark contrast to the seemingly picture perfect life that suburban towns offer and advertise, the concepts of suicide and perversion are not concepts one expects to see or hear when imagining this idealised form of life.
There is one main similarity in each of the 4 phrases, that being that each phrase has some body part being on something else, your ear to the playground, your eye on the ball, your head in the gutter, your brains on the wall. This similarity almost offers a body horror aspect to the song, which when paired with the concept that this is written about a seemingly post nuclear apocalyptic town presents an interesting idea of possible mutation, but i'll be the first to admit that may be a little far fetched. However that's not the only similarity that these 4 phrases share, another is the fact that they are all directly, or only slightly modified versions of already well known phrases, a similarity that is found in many lines over this entire song, through all 3 sections.
I want to analyse a few more lines before we move on to the second section of the song.
This next line comes directly after the previously analysed line, and it goes “home is where the heart is, you ain't homeless, but you’re heartless” Sticking with the theme of using already existing and commonly used phrases, “home is where the heart is'' is once again a phrase that you could likely find as a cross stitch hung up on the wall of any of the homogenous houses you could likely find in this idealised suburbia. But what Wood is saying in this line is that home is where the heart is, and that while people in this town may not be homeless, they are certainly heartless, meaning that they in fact don't have homes. They have houses. Rows upon rows of houses that all look the exact same in the horrifying monotony that is suburban living.
Following this line is the lyric “it's the safest on the market, but you still gotta watch where you park it”. These lines seem to be in reference to buying a car. The car being the "safest on the market" is likely in reference to the fact that it may have a lot of safety features. But this is immediately negated by the fact that you “still gotta watch where you park it” meaning that the safety features could be a reason that the car gets stolen, rendering all the safety that those features offered useless because in the end it made the car and the owner less safe.
In the third verse of this section, you immediately hear the line “so give me your half-life crisis” which partially is a play on the term ‘mid life crisis’ wherein which one realises that they may have wasted their life up till that point and they're already halfway through, but the use of the term “half-life” instead of ‘mid-life’ is very intentional, as the term “half-life” can also be used to refer to the half-life of an isotope, which is the amount of time that isotope takes to lose half of its radiation, which ties back into the theme of radiation that we see mentioned a lot in this section.
Later in the same verse is the line “if it's true that a snowflake only matters in a blizzard”, which is interesting in a few ways, first, it brings up the idea of a singular individual means nothing on their own and that they only matter when they’re part of something larger or a larger group, but i also think that the use of the terms “snowflake” and “blizzard” instead of something like ‘raindrop’ and ‘storm’ is very intentional in the fact that snowflakes are known for being individual, none are alike, every single one is different. So saying that a snowflake doesn't matter unless it's in a blizzard is yet another hit at individuality, essentially implying that in this town individuality means nothing and is essentially rendered useless.
The final line in this verse is “everybody's all up in my-” repeated thrice, and on the third time the sentence is finished to say “everybody’s all up in my business” and before the word “business” can be finished its overlapped with the beginning of the chorus, the first word of which is a very loud “SUBURBIAAAA!”. I believe this is reminiscent of the fact that in towns like this, everyone cares so much about what everyone else is doing, they’re all so interested in everyone else's business, and i think that sentiment being stated and cut off by the word “Suburbia” is essentially saying that ‘this is the norm, this is just Suburbia, this is how it works around here.’
After the final chorus of this section, in the final verse, you'll find the line “chameleon peacocks are talk of the town” which particularly interests me because if you know anything about chameleons or peacocks you’d find that they seem incredibly different as animals. Chameleons blend into their environment in order to stay safe, whereas peacocks are known for parading around bright colours to make themselves look better, but if you think about it the term “chameleon peacock” actually makes a lot of sense, a person who blends into their surroundings in order to make themselves look good. This sentiment seems to perfectly describe the homogeneity of the people that live in these perfect towns, they're all the same, they blend in with one another in order to make themselves look good, or perfect.
Another line heard shortly afterwards is the phrase “he cums radiation”, rather vulgar, I grant you, but it's important because it is yet another literalisation of the phrase ‘nuclear family’. It could also be a reference to the general toxicity of this societal norm.
The final line in this section of the song is “the dog bites the postman, as basement eyes dream of a night at the drive-in, with an AR-15”. Which is another use of juxtaposition, intended to cause a kind of whiplash in the listener and reinforce the idea that while in this place there is scenarios that would happen in a hollywood movie esque picture perfect neighbourhood, like the dog biting the postman, there's also horrors that lurk below the surface. (although clearly not TOO far below.
Now let’s move on to the second part, ‘(Vampire) Culture’.
If you listen to the song, you’ll immediately be able to recognise where 'Greetings from The Marybell Township!' ends and ‘(Vampire) Culture’ begins, due to the insane juxtaposition between the two. Where 'Greetings from The Marybell Township!' is soft and sort of reminiscent of the 1950’s, ‘(Vampire) Culture’ is loud, jarring and grotesque, complemented with much raspier and strained sounding vocals compared to 'Greetings from The Marybell Township!' ’s soft and melodic ones. The tone for this section of the song is immediately set with much more graphic lyrics, the very first line of this section (after the opening scream) is “i dropped my eyeballs in the bonfire, we fucked on a bed of nails” which absolutely sets the scene for how different this section will be to the previous.
This song immediately jumps into using cannibalism as a metaphor, with the first line after the jump start opener being “I caught kuru from your sister, and I'm laughing in jail”. While this line is written to sound like the concept of catching an STD from an act of adultery, Kuru is actually a disease only found in human brain tissue, meaning that you can only contract this disease by eating a human brain, and what's one of the symptoms for this disease? Uncontrollable laughter.
This use of cannibalism as a metaphor is used again immediately after in the line “smell those screaming teenage sweetbreads on that 4th of July grill”, ‘sweetbread’ is the term used to refer to the pancreas and thymus gland of an animal, usually a lamb, but in this particular case it is in reference to the human teenagers that supposedly lived in The Marybell Township, or a least they did before they were dissected, cooked and served at a neighbourhood 4th of July barbeque hosted by the same people that were once referred to as their neighbours.
This line adds an interesting level of patriotism to the song and criticism of how America utilises patriotism and their love for their country as means to justify harming the youth, however a 4th of July neighbourhood barbeque is also commonly associated with white picket fence gated community America, which ties us back to the base criticism of that style of life and how it is seen as the “proper” and “perfect” way to live. These cannibalistic sentiments are followed up with the line “smile and wave boys, kiss the cook, live laugh and love, please pass the pills.” which brings us back to the repeated use of commonly known sayings being taken directly or modified only slightly to remind the listener of the setting were in, that being a seemingly 1950’s era tight knit neighbourhood.
Phrases like “live laugh [and] love” or “kiss the cook” are both phrases that could easily be seen in a setting like this, especially “kiss the cook”, as this is a phrase commonly associated with aprons worn by grillmasters at neighbourhood barbeques, not unlike the cannibalistic 4th of July barbeque that this particular neighbourhood seems to be hosting. These phrases being immediately followed up with a sentiment such as “please pass the pills” serves to entirely undermine the pleasantries that, until a moment ago, seemed to be plastered all over the faces of the people living in this fictional town that Wood has created. I think that final phrase brings the listener back to the realisation that not all is right here, quite the opposite in fact, and drags them from their momentary paradise. Circling back very quickly to the phrase “smile and wave”. I felt the need to point out that this phrase has been used for centuries as a way to say “stop talking and act normal” which once again reinforces that these people are pretending to be something they’re not in order to fit in.
We enter the next verse with the repeated phrase “it's only culture”, after that line is repeated three times we hear “sulfur, smoke and soot”, which could either be a reference to how dirty and disgusting the ‘culture’ is, or it could be a different way of saying that this culture and the people participating are going to hell, as per the common phrase ‘fire and brimstone’ and the fact that sulfur is another way of saying brimstone, and smoke and soot are both byproducts of fire.
The last line of this verse and the first line of the chorus blend into each other, so I’ll speak on them both.
First, the last line of the verse. It goes “you cocked and sucked your lack of empathy, pulled the trigger with your foot to prove you've got-” Putting aside the clear innuendo, this line refers to the idea of ending one's own life with a long shotgun. According to the media, by the time the gun is cocked and the barrel is in your mouth, you're not able to pull the trigger with your hands due to the length of the barrel. This line instead presents the solution of pulling the trigger with your foot to end your life.
So this person “cocked and sucked” the gun (cocked the gun and put the barrel in their mouth) before pulling the trigger with their foot to prove they’ve got-
And here's where the verse blends into the chorus.
Because the first line only consists of one word.
“Blood”.
The person who was shooting themselves with a shotgun only to prove that they bleed. Which is where the title of this section comes in. “(Vampire) Culture”. This section seeks to portray either the people in this culture or, the more likely option, the culture itself, as metaphorical vampires, who aim to destroy those around them. This knowledge makes the next line “didn't they want your blood, so why apologise for being blue and cold” make a lot more sense. After all, if these culture vampires have drained you of your blood, is it not their fault that you’re now “blue and cold”, as bodies tend to be if they lack blood flow. However if you look at synonyms for the words “blue” and “cold”, you could also interpret this phrase as meaning “sad and apathetic”. A sad and apathetic person doesn't seem to be the kind of person this ‘culture’ seeks to enlist however, and so one who is “blue and cold” is shunned as an outsider. What Wood is getting at is that if this culture is the one who made you sad and apathetic, then you should not apologise to it for being so.
The next verse is short, and like the previous one, also blends into the chorus in the same way, by having the last line of the verse cut off right where the chorus would finish the sentence with the word “blood”. However in this verse, there's an interesting line. “It's only culture and it's more afraid of you than you are of it”, which is a sentiment usually used by adults to attempt to subdue a child's fear of something, usually insects. However it's interesting in the fact that it brings up the idea that this culture that has caused so much damage and harm is actually incredibly fragile, and would, in theory be very afraid of the concept of the individual, because if this ‘culture’ is only being held together by the silent agreeance that everyone will simply pretend, then the idea that there is people who refuse throws the whole idea into jeopardy.
This line is followed up however, by the line that blends it into the chorus. “Go on drink that-”, clearly intended to be finished by the first line of the chorus, making the full line, “go on drink that blood”. This line is in reference to the phrase “drink the kool-aid” which essentially means to pledge your undying loyalty to something, a concept, a person, a god, etc. and it derives from an infamous mass cult suicide where over 900 people drank poisoned Kool-Aid and subsequently died for the cult. It is not a far cry to believe that this event and this phrase is what the line is referring to, as it's something that Wood has referenced in other songs, so it only makes sense to believe that this is what he means here.
After that chorus we move on to the bridge, which begins by listing 3 pairs of names, all famous or semi famous, and each pair being similar in one right but opposite in another, the line goes as follows; “were you Nabokov to a Sallinger, were you Jung to Freud or Dass to a Leary”, so let's break down these pairs one by one.
First “Nabokov to a Sallinger”, these names belong to Vladimir Nabokov and J.D. Sallinger, both authors who wrote famous books that both surround the theme of innocence, but in very different ways. Nabokov’s book “Lolita” is a story told from the perspective of a grown man about his sexual obsession and attraction to a little girl, and his desire to ruin her innocence, exploring the theme of innocence in a grotesque and frankly horrifying way, which is in stark contrast to Sallinger’s book “The Catcher in the Rye”, which explores the topic of innocence through the main characters desire to preserve their little sisters innocence, and in that desire displays hesitancy at the idea of sex themself. Both books explore the topic of innocence, however while one seeks to preserve it, the other seeks to destroy it, two sides of the same coin.
The next pairing is “Jung to Freud”, meaning Carl Gustav Jung and his mentor Sigmund Freud, who once again are similar in one right, but opposite in another. Jung and Freud both had theories on the nature of the human mind, but where Jungs was all about the concept of spirituality and how that ties into the collective unconscious, Freud's approach was much more focused on the individual unconscious and the concept of sexuality.
The final pairing is “Dass to a Leary”. both psychologists, both at the forefront of the ‘Harvard Psilocybin Project’ (before they both got dismissed from harvard entirely following controversies around the project) Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary were both psychologists and eventually authors who studied the effects of psychedelic drugs on the human mind, and while they were co workers they ended up with pretty conflicting views. Dr. Richard Alpert, who apparently ‘died’ and was ‘reborn’ as spiritual guide Ram Dass, centred his teachings heavily around the concept of living in the moment, (in fact his best selling book, written in 1971 was titled ‘Be Here Now’) and he believed that psychedelic drugs were not needed and that a permanent version of the same effects could be achieved through meditation. Whereas Dr. Timothy Leary advocated heavily for the use of psychedelics, believing that LSD specifically had great potential for therapeutic psychiatric use.
All of these pairings and examples utilise the concept of duality and speak on how every coin has two sides, which can easily be tied back to the idea that the picture perfect suburban life is just one side of the coin. This idea is then reinforced by the next line, “were you mother, daughter, subject and author?”, The use of the word ‘and’ here shows that it's possible to be two sides of the same coin at once, just like how this town, which is perfect on one side of the coin, is still terrible on the other side of the coin. The line is stating that it's possible to be both at once.
The very last line in this section is; “you don't make the rules, you just write them down and do it by the book you throw around”. This line combines a few relatively well known phrases. The first being of course ‘i don’t make the rules’, which can have two distinct meanings. The first is to express a kind of sympathy for someone being punished, and the second is to absolve yourself of the blame for that person being punished, a sort of ‘don't shoot the messenger’ situation.
The ‘rules’ that are likely being referred to here are the societal norms and expectations forced upon people who reside in these towns, the standard for ‘perfection’.
However, following this sentiment up with the phrase “you just write them down” is essentially saying that while it's not the fault of the people in these towns, they didn't create the norms, they still enforce them. They expect everything to be in line and perfect at all times, they follow these ‘rules’ to a T, and they shun and punish anyone who doesn't fit the standard and/or refuses to follow these ‘rules’, which is where the line “do it by the book you throw around” comes in, doing something ‘by the book’ means to follow rules strictly and to the letter, nothing out of line, and to throw the book at someone means to punish them as severely as possible, usually used in the legal sense to mean punishing someone for their crime as severely as the law will allow. So in all, the lyric “you don't make the rules, you just write them down and do it by the book you throw around” ends up meaning ‘you didn't create these norms but you still enforce them by following them to an absolute T and punishing anyone who doesn't.’
With that we enter the third and final section of the song, entitled ‘Love Me, Normally’, a title it shares with another song on the album, but of course this song is partially meant to serve as an overture for the whole album, meaning it shares some similar lyrics with lyrics from other songs on the album, so sharing a title isn't all that surprising.
The first lyric in this section is “do you know the difference between blazing trails and slash and burn?” which is another instance of duality in this song. Trailblazing or being a trailblazer means doing something no one has done before, paving the way for other people to follow in your footsteps, it comes from the literal act of creating a trail in the woods for people to follow, usually by creating notches in trees or setting small fires, hence ‘blazer’, as blaze is another word for a fire. However “slash and burn” is a method of deforestation that involves cutting down and burning a section of forest to create a field. Both examples include using fire to change something, but where one is seen as progress and positive, the other is negative, and seen as a means of destruction. Once again, two sides of the same coin, innovation and destruction.
This is followed up with the line “going against the grain and catching splinters”, which is a line i particularly like because while it is something that literally can happen, if you run your hand along wood in the opposite direction to the grain, you're more likely to get a splinter because you're essentially pushing your hand against the chips of wood, but it also is another metaphor for the dangers of not being the same. Going against the grain in this instance means daring to be different, not going the same way everyone else is going but instead the opposite of that, and in this example splinters are the consequences one would face for being different, especially in a setting like this perfect town, where everyone is the exact same as everyone else.
A little bit later you hear the line “well Lot he had his lot in life, Job his job and i guess you’ll too, and die”. Lot and Job are both figures found in the Bible, whose names both share spelling with common English words, but are pronounced slightly differently.
Job, from the Book of Job, was a man that was tested by God, made to suffer to test his loyalty, his ‘job’ was to believe unendingly in God and see Him as always correct no matter what.
Lot, from the Book of Genesis, was a man who went through a lot, and the phrase ‘my lot in life’ is a phrase commonly used by people to write off/explain why they don't have it as good as others, they say it's simply their ‘lot in life’.
The end of this line “i guess you’ll too, and die” i believe refers to the fact that everyone will have their own job and their own lot in life, and then everyone in the end will die.
This theory is solidified by the fact that the next line is “The Lord looked down and said ‘hey, you're only mortal’” which is a play off of the phrase ‘you're only human’. Wood himself said that the phrase ‘you're only human’ has always felt weird to him, he says, “cause like, of course I am, aren’t we all? How is that fact supposed to help? I still feel bad. What does being human mean to you?”. He follows this up by saying that the idea of God saying "hey, you're only mortal" offers the same kind of sentiment, but in a “cosmically condescending” sort of way.
The following line reads “giveth and taketh away, till things come out a certain way, leave you wondering when they might go back to normal… leave you wondering why they can't have just been normal”.
This line presents a sort of hopelessness in the realisation that things are constantly changing, nothing is any more ‘normal’ than anything else, there's no such thing as ‘normal’, which is an overarching theme found throughout the album. Once again bringing back the fact that for all intents and purposes this song is an overture for the rest of the album.
To conclude, ‘Suburbia Overture’ is, in my opinion, one of the greatest criticisms of suburban, middle class, gated community, nuclear family life i've ever seen, it highlights the problems in that life and showcases how this kind of lifestyle in its incredibly rigid and restrictive standards is incredibly harmful to the very concept of individuality, because the expectations and unspoken rules set in communities like this and the widespread idea of forced normality seeks to crush any individuality before it even has a chance to blossom.
The use of metaphors and phrases that are well known and are likely to be seen in settings such as this gated community suburban town that Wood has created really paint a subconscious picture of what this community looks like, the use of duality, how every story has another side, and how nothing that is seemingly perfect from the outside is actually perfect on the inside.
Will Wood is an incredible lyricist and the fact that he was able to cram so much symbolism and such a powerful message into a song just over 6 minutes long is genuinely incredible.
Thank you for listening to my/reading my autistic hyper fixated rambling, i hope i didn't melt your brain too badly.
small edits made because I forgot to add them and was reminded!! the new word count is 5216!!! (the revised version has been sent to my teacher, wish me luck y'all!!! I'll update you guys on what he says 🤞)
MAJOR UPDATE !!!! I GOT A RESPONSE FROM MY TEACHER !!!!!! POST HERE!!!!!!!!

This list is made by showing the highest-rated American/part American film of each year on Letterboxd.
This excludes documentaries, shorts, concert films and limited series.
1927: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1929: Lucky Star
1930: All Quiet on the Western Front
1931: City Lights
1932: Trouble in Paradise
1933: Duck Soup
1934: It Happened One Night
1935: Bride of Frankenstein
1936: Modern Times
1937: Make Way for Tomorrow
1938: Bringing Up Baby
1939: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1940: The Great Dictator
1941: Citizen Kane
1942: To Be or Not to Be
1943: The Ox-Bow Incident
1944: Double Indemnity
1945: Mildred Pierce
1946: It's a Wonderful Life
1947: Out of the Past
1948: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1949: The Heiress
1950: Sunset Boulevard
1951: Ace in the Hole
1952: Singin' in the Rain
1953: Roman Holiday
1954: Rear Window
1955: The Night of the Hunter
1956: Tea and Sympathy
1957: 12 Angry Men
1958: Vertigo
1959: Some Like It Hot
1960: The Apartment
1961: Judgment at Nuremburg
1962: Lawrence of Arabia
1963: The Great Escape
1964: Dr. Strangelove
1965: The Sound of Music
1966: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1967: Cool Hand Luke
1968: Once Upon a Time in the West
1969: They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
1970: Five Easy Pieces
1971: The Devils
1972: The Godfather
1973: Paper Moon
1974: The Godfather Part II
1975: Barry Lyndon
1976: Network
1977: A Special Day
1978: The Deer Hunter
1979: Apocalypse Now
1980: Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982: The Thing
1983: Scarface
1984: Amadeus
1985: Back to the Future
1986: Aliens
1987: Full Metal Jacket
1988: Die Hard
1989: Do the Right Thing
1990: GoodFellas
1991: The Silence of the Lambs
1992: Malcolm X
1993: Schindler's List
1994: The Shawshank Redemption
1995: Before Sunrise
1996: Fargo
1997: Good Will Hunting
1998: Saving Private Ryan
1999: Fight Club
2000: Dancer in the Dark
2001: The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2003: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
2004: Before Sunset
2005: Brokeback Mountain
2006: The Departed
2007: There Will Be Blood
2008: The Dark Knight
2009: Inglourious Basterds
2010: Inception
2011: Warrior
2012: Django Unchained
2013: Prisoners
2014: Whiplash
2015: Spotlight
2016: Moonlight
2017: Get Out
2018: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
2019: Sound of Metal
2020: Little Fish
2021: Mass
2022: Everything Everywhere All at Once
2023: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Thoughts on this list?
Does this make a good canon?

This list is made by showing the highest-rated American/part American film of each year on Letterboxd.
This excludes documentaries, shorts, concert films and limited series.
1927: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1929: Lucky Star
1930: All Quiet on the Western Front
1931: City Lights
1932: Trouble in Paradise
1933: Duck Soup
1934: It Happened One Night
1935: Bride of Frankenstein
1936: Modern Times
1937: Make Way for Tomorrow
1938: Bringing Up Baby
1939: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1940: The Great Dictator
1941: Citizen Kane
1942: To Be or Not to Be
1943: The Ox-Bow Incident
1944: Double Indemnity
1945: Mildred Pierce
1946: It's a Wonderful Life
1947: Out of the Past
1948: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1949: The Heiress
1950: Sunset Boulevard
1951: Ace in the Hole
1952: Singin' in the Rain
1953: Roman Holiday
1954: Rear Window
1955: The Night of the Hunter
1956: Tea and Sympathy
1957: 12 Angry Men
1958: Vertigo
1959: Some Like It Hot
1960: The Apartment
1961: Judgment at Nuremburg
1962: Lawrence of Arabia
1963: The Great Escape
1964: Dr. Strangelove
1965: The Sound of Music
1966: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1967: Cool Hand Luke
1968: Once Upon a Time in the West
1969: They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
1970: Five Easy Pieces
1971: The Devils
1972: The Godfather
1973: Paper Moon
1974: The Godfather Part II
1975: Barry Lyndon
1976: Network
1977: A Special Day
1978: The Deer Hunter
1979: Apocalypse Now
1980: Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982: The Thing
1983: Scarface
1984: Amadeus
1985: Back to the Future
1986: Aliens
1987: Full Metal Jacket
1988: Die Hard
1989: Do the Right Thing
1990: GoodFellas
1991: The Silence of the Lambs
1992: Malcolm X
1993: Schindler's List
1994: The Shawshank Redemption
1995: Before Sunrise
1996: Fargo
1997: Good Will Hunting
1998: Saving Private Ryan
1999: Fight Club
2000: Dancer in the Dark
2001: The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2003: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
2004: Before Sunset
2005: Brokeback Mountain
2006: The Departed
2007: There Will Be Blood
2008: The Dark Knight
2009: Inglourious Basterds
2010: Inception
2011: Warrior
2012: Django Unchained
2013: Prisoners
2014: Whiplash
2015: Spotlight
2016: Moonlight
2017: Get Out
2018: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
2019: Sound of Metal
2020: Little Fish
2021: Mass
2022: Everything Everywhere All at Once
2023: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Thoughts on this list?
Does this make a good canon?

Unfortunately it seems likely that the non-Muslims who comment on the Gaza war don't understand Islam, and that the Muslim commentators don't admit that they have a bias, meanwhile Islam in fact plays a role in the Gaza war. A relevant summary:
Muhammad started his own religion when he was forty and immediately came into conflict with the other religious people of his community, mostly polytheists and Jews. Muhammad became a war general and spent the next ten years of his life trying to kill off the other religions around him. He succeeded.
During this time, every day he in essence gave war pep-talks to his troops. As most of their fighting was against Jews, most of the war pep-talks were against Jews. His followers wrote down everything he said every day, mostly in the form of scraps of paper containing short segments. When he died, his followers swept these scraps of paper together to make first the Quran, then the Hadith, as there were thousands of these scraps of paper.
The entirety of the Islamic literature reads, therefore, like a slow, hypnotic rant against Jews, and also against Christians, against polytheists, against other now obscure and defeated religions, and against all non-Muslim "disbelievers" in general.
Mostly though, it focuses on Jews. The first two main chapters of the Quran in fact are about Jews: chapter 2 "The Cow", criticizing the Jews for once worshipping a golden calf, and chapter 3 "The Family of Imran (Moses)", meaning all of the Jews. There's not much difference between any of the Quran or Hadith chapters though; they all continue along mostly in the same way as the first two and are titled variously by the scant amounts of other concepts sometimes explored in the chapters. Mostly it's all a slow, hypnotic rant against all Jews and other non-believers.
If you don't believe any of this, check it for a first time. You'll be shocked. Islam is an inherently discriminatory religion toward Jews, and that's really the basis of the aggression that comes out of Gaza and other places toward them.
Most revelatory of all in this regard is the fact (if you check your history books) that the Ottoman Empire participated in attacking Britain and the allies in World War 1, and Britain won over them, obtaining what is today the Gaza, Israel, and West Bank areas. There was never any Jewish theft. Britain wanted to let the Jews move into that land afterward, and it was their choice to do so, as it was the Brits' land.
The Jews were met with immediate violence from the Muslims, whose religion tells them to attack Jews. It got worse. Sick of the violence, the Jews declared independence for their territory and formed a state. This was fair and appropriate. Immediately, large groups of Muslims combined armies to try to massacre the Jews. They were repelled.
It never stopped. The Muslims tried to combine armies and massacre the Jews again, in '67. They were repelled that time too.
Then in 2007 Gaza started the Gaza War against the Jews, and have fought it every day since, including today. They've been rocketing Israel constantly since 2007; October 7th was just a sort of culmination.
By the way, declaring independence and forming a state was the pattern set for and by every other territorial area that was formed out of the Ottoman Empire- resulting in every Middle Eastern state you see today- Israel did nothing different, and did not need a reason to do it- Gaza and the West Bank have always had the same ability, but have torn themselves apart fighting each other instead, while the world continues to wait on them. Also, they need to not form a government that declares war against Israel as part of its foundation. That’s the other reason they haven’t formed any real states yet. No one would stop them from doing so if they did it without any war declarations. The concept that anyone else in the world would somehow be able to give them a state is bogus.
The real problem will be solved when the world has a conversation with Islam, telling them to give up the part about cursing non-believers: approximately half the content of the Islamic religion. Then the Gazans can live non-aggressively with Jews next to them. So as well with the West Bank, Jordan/Iraq/Syria/Libya/Yemen/Iran, the twenty-or-so other nations that don't accept Israeli passports, etcetera.
Before any moderators, members of this site, or non-members of this site, try to get me banned or give me -100 karma points, insisting that I’m biased or that I’ve made this up: I challenge you to read or watch any summary of the life of Muhammad and the first ten years of Islam, then to read the first hundred pages of any English translation of the Quran, then to read the sub-chapter “Fighting Jews” of the chapter “Jihad” of the Al-Bukhari hadith book, then to read Gaza’s government charter “The Hamas Covenant”. If you put in a few minutes a day it’ll take you about two weeks. Don’t complain about me asking you to do this much research; it’s not much and it’s a bare minimum I can think of for you to check my work. Then you’re going to ask the same question I asked, “Why haven’t I heard of this from anyone or any side reporting on the Gaza war?” I believe the answer is several-fold: one is that there is simply a shocking lack of bothering to do much research by even those most vocal about the conflict. Two is that those who know about this know that no outsider asked for support of Gaza would sympathize with them if they knew about this. Three is that this stuff is outrageous, and no one wants to be the deliverer of that outrage, or get accused themselves of making this up. Four (and you’ll have to read to understand this) is that the believers are told in general to not trust disbelievers, which would include not telling them the truth. If you believed someone else was going to Hell, but that they didn’t know about it, would you tell them? They’re not gonna like hearing it; why tell them? Count the number of times Muhammad says all Jews and disbelievers are going to Hell in the Quran. You’ll lose count by about page 25 and it just keeps going like that.
All the resources mentioned are easily available online for free in pdf form or otherwise; just do a search for each, and youtube has lots of good videos on Muhammad’s life. I also highly recommend you watch overhead-battle-analysis-style videos (like Kings & Generals channel & similar) to review every single early battle of Islam, in order. You may also want to watch some on the first few battles of Abu Bakr also, the guy who picked up Muhammad’s war banner after him and carried on the violent conquest of the entire Arabian Peninsula, eradicating one by one what used to be a diverse array of now-extinct local religions. You could check out a copy of the Quran translated or order one, which I also recommend. I have Pickthall’s translation as a hard copy and I recommend it; I also used three different online Qurans and three different online Al-Bukhari hadiths (I wanted to make sure I wasn’t making any mistake by reading some bad translation; turned out nope they all read like that).
And before anyone says, well, that kind of stuff is said in the Bible too… First of all, find it; second of all, if it says that kind of stuff even a handful of times in the Bible, that’s different from Islam’s thousand times saying it, over and over again- it’s really a different sort of book.
I want to say last that the Muslims aren’t “like this”; rather, they’re told to be like this, by a high-pressure, demanding religion. They’re also told I’m sure, as for Gaza, by their friends, parents, neighbors, grandparents, local TV stations, and government, what is truly an altered version of history, wherein the Jews “stole” Palestine. They’re taught to distrust anything that the West says against that, because they’re taught to distrust disbelievers- of course the disbelievers would lie about this stuff- “hasbara”. The Jews “stole” Palestine, so, they’re “occupiers”. They don’t want to sound racist because they know discrimination is not tolerated in the disbelievers’ world, so they say “Zionists”, in place of “Jews”. Underneath it, they’re not saying much to the outside world- just enough and in just the right ways to sound presumably appropriate and reasonable, legitimate. It’s like a big game to try to get what they want (Jews expelled or killed), or, as discussed above, it's that they unfortunately don't know any better cause they've been lied to themselves. To the extent that anyone knows this stuff though and hasn't mentioned it, I would feel that we’ve been lied to and played for fools, and it makes me want to say screw the Squad, Sanders, and the campus protests... all right here on American soil!!!! I trust the vast majority of Muslims are not like this. I think they are too afraid though to voice any opposition to any of the Muslims who are hardcore about this stuff, of which Gaza and the West Bank have become the best examples- I told you to read the Hamas Covenant so I’ll trust you’ll do it; meanwhile I’ll add that the guy who ran the West Bank, Abbas, wrote his own dissertation as a youth on his conspiracy theory that the Jews “did the Holocaust to themselves, to create false international sympathy and a pretext for stealing Israel”, and he has continued to educate the West Bank’s people with this line of reasoning, making “Nakba day” into a sort of mockery of anyone else’s Holocaust remembrances. Meanwhile Iran continues determined to one day lead the eradication.
If you care about caring, do the right thing- help educate others on what’s really going on in Gaza. It’s bigger than the past few months, it’s bigger than October 7^th, it’s even bigger than tens of thousands of casualties, and if we don’t do the right thing (demand and converse about how disbelievers have rights too), one day far in the future that total may be millions or billions. The time is now to resolve this between all of us, with words. Learn about and then be vocal about the unfairness of Islam. Demand rights. Have conversations.
To add to this goal, I offer the following:
I make this contract with Islam, whether they agree or not:
Disbelievers’ Bill of Rights:

1. The disbelievers have rights too.
2. The disbelievers have wonderful and diverse cultures of their own, that are not to be eradicated; Earth is good when its cultures are diverse and not homogenized.
3. The disbelievers are not going to Hell for disbelieving Islam.
4. The believers are not going to Paradise for eradicating the disbelievers.
5. There will be no “final day” where all the Jews are killed.
6. Jesus will not show up on the final day to personally kill all the Jews (Islamic eschatology).
7. Disbelievers have the right to not be discriminated against or degraded by the believers. Any disbelievers neighboring believers are not to have rocks thrown at them, suicide attacks launched at them, rockets launched at them, rifles or pistols fired at them, etcetera.
8. Disbelievers have the right to not tolerate any literature that discriminates against them or is derogatory or degrading toward them, or that advocates any sort of violence against them, or that proscribes any mistreatment of them.

Furthermore, I liberate all Muslims, with the following lines:
You don’t have to surrender to Islam, completely, if any of it seems wrong to you. For that matter, you can pick any religion, you can pick no religion, you can make up your own religion, you can institute your own renewal of Islam and start a new chapter on it; you can do anything you want on this planet, and no lightning bolt will strike you from anyone’s god. If the afterlife is real, then you’re going to it whether you believe in it or whether you disbelieve in it. If there’s Heaven and Hell, you’re going to Heaven for being a good person, Hell for being a bad person.
Also, Muhammad may have said that his teachings were “a Book”. However, Muhammad did not give any specifics instructions to make any book exactly in the fashion in which the Quran and Hadith and others (Kitube of Shia, Wahhabiism’s books, Salafist works etcetera) were made, and, I believe that Muhammad would have seen the error in making them in those exact ways- this would cause problems later- the format is too heavy on the disbelievers- it will someday make for a problematic relationship between different faiths- you should feel free to rearrange any and all verses, excluding as many as you like, reinterpreting any you like, to make any new Book that makes more sense for use as an every-day, all-time religious book: one that focuses on “the good stuff” and not the bad. Muhammad needed to rally an army every day. We don’t need that in our daily lives now that we’re all trying to put war away. This is the 21^st century. Nine nations use nukes, and two of them are Muslim (Pakistan, Kazakhstan). We need to right now make decisions that will put away all war inclinations between us forever. If you don’t like my way of doing it, come up with something better and suggest it. I say we can do it by having a conversation where disbelievers stick up for themselves and believers listen.
And, I suggest this interpretation: perhaps Allah wanted to include a sort of test, within Islam, to separate hypocrites from believers- Allah included a bunch of stuff telling you that disbelievers are bad and to attack them. Maybe it’s to see who rejects that, to send them to Paradise, and to see who decides to act on it, to send them to Hell.
There is plenty of evidence that this is true in Gaza right now. Why would Allah punish them unless they were bad? They have relentlessly attacked Israel for years. Maybe this is Allah’s punishment.
Also, you are free to associate with disbelievers, at any time and place, whatever they’re saying at the time. You can date and intermarry with disbelievers if you like. Try not calling them disbelievers and you’ll have luck.
I also state that I am a learned scholar (college degree earned, floor-to-ceiling stacks of nonfiction books read, research published) and I am authorized to make fatwa (judgments) and to issue tafsir (commentary/interpretations on holy works).
As a warning to angry-comment-posters: you may find that I can back up with references and examples every point I’ve made! Watch out!
That being said, am I wrong about anything? Please tell me if I have anything wrong; I can only do so much research and then sweep it all together off the top of my head. Let me know. I’ll apologize if I get something wrong and perhaps adjust my thesis.

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Set in the universe created by u/SpacePaladin15
MASSIVE THANK YOU, LIKE SERIOUSLY HUGE THANKS to u/weithbec (this chapter would not be nearly as good if not for your help) and additional thanks to u/Liberty-Prime76 for further proofing on top of Weith's monumental efforts
As always, some appreciation to u/brotanics, u/LeWombat545, and u/JimDandy117 for the art they have done for this little story of mine. It means the world to me to see my characters brought to life. Links to their work at the bottom of the chapter.
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Memory transcription subject: Jack Carver, Human Trail Guide
Date [standardized human time]: August 17, 2137
Following the tracks left by Tevri’s captor was easy enough. Whatever it was that the captor carried left behind a trail of long lines drawn in the moist dirt, carving a wavy trail of depressed grass in its wake. The impression of the claw marks weren’t all that different from that of other birds, with the obvious difference of the impact they left.
I was probably walking straight into a trap; in fact, I knew I was walking straight into a trap. I also knew that I had no choice but to spring it.
My promised support from authorities didn’t arrive as I pushed forward. They doubtlessly would, given enough time, but at the moment, time was a rare commodity and it was slipping through my fingers.
Mud covered my boots and ran up the length of my pants. Sweat soaked the inside of my shirt, and my hair hung like a wet mop from my head. My legs strained beneath me, their muscles burning as I pushed them further than even I knew they could. Nothing could stop me now. Not if I could help it.
The trail led me even deeper into the woods, which for the most part were flat and unchanging. It wasn’t until I practically stumbled into what it was I sought that I stopped — and rather suddenly at that. I had expected some kind of wrecked ship or the remains of a crashed shuttle. Much to my surprise, a small hovel with a roof of grass and walls of dirt mixed with wood took their place.
The shelter wasn’t anything particularly special from what little I could see beneath the light of the moon, but it certainly seemed to do wonders at hiding itself from a distance. If not for the tracks, I likely would have never seen it. Only the door and some faint lights shining through ramshod windows of cracked glass gave it away.
It couldn’t have been up very long. This exterminator had only been out a few months short of a year. That whole time they must have been planning for this exact circumstance. How ‘lucky’ we were to be the ones to fall victim to their trap.
This is it. I looked up to the sky, hoping to see something, anything, but there was nothing other than the pale light of the moon and distant twinkling stars. I didn’t want to do this alone, but I had no other choice. Time was running out. There was no telling what already could have been done to her.
I stood among the shadows of tall, looming trees that fractured what little light the moon offered into thin bands that covered the forest floor. I took a deep breath and leaned back, supporting myself with the trunk of a pine. For once in your life, don’t fuck up. You’ve got one shot—she has one shot. Make it count.
The inside of my mouth was sticky with saliva that had coalesced during my uninterrupted sprint. I dared to take a sip from my canteen, swirling the water around to moisten my mouth and spit out the saliva. With my mouth now cleansed, I took a greedy gulp and let out a gasp before continuing to my rapid, shallow breathing.
As I took a moment to recover, I whipped my bag around from my back and pulled out my handgun, struggling to silently slide in a magazine as my hands trembled. It fell in, and I pulled the slide back and let it go with a heavy metallic click.
Silence. For a few long seconds, I looked up to see if I was heard, but nothing indicated that I had been given away. Gently, I set the bag I had pulled the weapon from beside a tree and raised the sidearm forward, both hands on the handle as I aimed it dead ahead.
The last time I used this thing was a time I would have much rather forgotten, but today wasn’t a day for forgetting. My rifle was an instrument of precision that had picked off the Krakotl from a distance. For those I hadn’t been able to down in a single shot, the far less precise instrument that I now held was terribly effective.
The path forward was a well-trodden one. No grass grew where this exterminator’s footsteps had surely passed by hundreds or even thousands of times. The mud clung to my boots with a soft squelch that I felt more than heard with every step. I had only been standing maybe a hundred feet away from the entrance, and I cleared that distance in a matter of moments despite my slow pace. Nothing seen through the windows indicated motion as I approached. Good. Maybe I’ll catch them off-guard.
Memories of dispatching so many of these exterminators, the memories I saw so often in my dreams, flashed before me like a footage reel. I knew how to handle these bastards. If it came to it, I could do it again.
As I reached the door, I placed an ear against it, listening for anything, but no sound came. Right. Take a deep breath. Focus. Breathe. Just breathe.
With my left hand, I pushed it forward. To my surprise, there was no resistance. With the right hand, I held the gun aloft, pointing it ahead into the darkness.
My heart stopped.
The faint lighting I had caught glimpses of kept most of the single room in darkness, but it was more than enough to illuminate what I was looking at.
Of all the faces in my nightmares, one had haunted me more than any other. I wasn’t exactly well-versed in reading the expression of aliens, but from what little I had learned, fear was an expression that could be read on a universal level. Fear was the last thing I remembered of the child. I spent far too many nights lying awake, wondering to myself what had happened to them after I had let them run free in the forest. Had they frozen to death? Starved maybe? Did another hunter find them, or did something else find them first?
Now I could put such thoughts to rest. The two beady eyes that stared back weren’t filled with fear as they had been the last time I saw them. The plume on their head had also grown, but the feather patterns and beak that had been burned into my mind were still the same.
No… It—it can’t be them. That’s impossible. How did they last this long out here, and alone for that matter?
They held one hand across Tevri’s chest and used the other to press a knife up to her throat. My hands shook as I pointed the weapon directly ahead towards them. I didn’t have a clear shot. They were using Tevri’s body as cover, standing behind her and a makeshift chair.
Tevri’s eyes widened as she saw me and her tail began to wildly flap. A gag was shoved into her mouth, and I could see that she was breathing heavily, trying as best as she could to make up for her lack of nostrils. Despite the excess movement, the exterminator — the child — stood still. To me, their face was indecipherable, other than that uncanny stillness that spoke louder than words. If not for their appearance, I don’t know that I could have said this was the same child.
They nodded my way. “Human. Before you do anything, you should lower your weapon. It’d be a shame if Tevri here was hurt, wouldn’t it?”
Tevri’s shouts were muffled through the gag. Flecks of dried orange coated her forehead and her eyes were far less focused than they normally were. I scowled something fierce, but ultimately complied, aiming the sidearm’s barrel into the dirt.
“Good. See? There’s no reason this needs to get violent.”
My eyes lingered on the blood atop Tevri’s crown. “What did you do to her?”
“Oh, nothing much, but I think I speak for us both when I say Venlil have a tendency to flee. She was never going to come along willingly, and we couldn’t have had that, now could we?” I froze. He knows. He’s been watching us, hasn’t he? He must have seen her go running.
“What do you want, you bastard?”
A huff of air left their beak — is that amusement? “Revenge. Your blood. This wretched world of yours burnt to ash like it should have been ages ago. That would all be nice, but how about something a little more palatable for both of us? I want off this world. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“And you really think I can provide that?”
“I know you can. A warrior as bloodthirsty as yourself has to command the respect of your people, no? You wouldn’t have your own slave if not for that.”
“Slave?! What the fuck!” I growled. “I’m the one in her service, not the other way around.”
“Ah. Right. Of course you are. Now, your hunting party may not be with you now, but I’m going to need you to call in your fellow predators. Oh, and be sure they bring a space-worthy vessel with them.”
“Wha— even if I could get that for you, why the fuck would I do anything you ask?”
As I asked this, the Krakotl tugged on Tevri’s left ear and yanked her head back, driving the dagger even closer to her neck. “This seems like reason enough, wouldn’t you say?”
“Alright, alright!” I raised both hands, pointing the gun to the ceiling rather than the Krakotl. “There’s no reason anyone has to get hurt.”
“You’re right. There isn’t. Now, I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. You are going to call in an FTL capable vessel that I am going to use to escape this planet. To make sure you humans don’t shoot down the craft before I jump, I’ll keep Tevri with me, then allow her to leave using any onboard escape craft before exiting the system. Oh, and for good measure, go ahead and slide that weapon between us, would you?”
The Krakotl didn’t stutter once as he spoke, instead staring me directly in the eyes the entire time. It was unsettling to say the least. Relinquishing my weapon was a terrible idea, no less terrible than letting him take Tevri. I knew that it was, so I stood there delaying my fulfillment of his command. It only took a few seconds of silence however before he pressed the blade closer to her neck, going so far as to dig into the fur that covered her skin.
“Alright! Fine! J-just take that thing away from her throat.”
“Gladly, if you’ll drop the weapon and do as I say.”
I lowered my aim and bowed down, setting the gun on the dirt floor and doing my best to slide it towards the Krakotl. It didn’t go all the way, but it was far enough that I could no longer reach it. As I stood back up, I raised both palms above my head to show I was no longer a threat. “There, now… please, just don’t hurt her.”
The Krakotl scoffed and made an expression that imitated a sneer. “It’s funny, I remember begging just like that not too long ago. Do you remember it?” They pulled away with the dagger, still allowing it to hover close to Tevri’s throat but not close enough to dig into her skin.
I didn’t offer an answer, not that I needed to.
“You probably relished their screams didn’t you? You and the rest of your deranged species can’t help but find joy in the suffering of others. Well, you and your people may have been able to fool some members of the Federation into believing you’re capable of empathy, but when I make it back to Nishtal and tell them what’s been going on down here, I’ll make sure the whole galaxy sees you monsters for who you truly are.”
Nishtal. He doesn’t know.
He couldn’t know, not since he’s been down here without contact for months now. “You’re picking the wrong fight kid. The war’s over. Has been for months now.”
“And you think I’m just going to believe you? Tevri here spewed the same propaganda, no doubt heard from you or other humans. It’s not possible. We far outnumber your pathetic forces. You barely survived the battle above your planet and that was only because your Arxur allies swooped in at the last moment to save you.”
“They weren’t the only ones to support us,” I spat back. “After the truth of the shadow council’s crimes against sapient life came to light, former members of the Federation flocked to our aid. The Zurulians, the Yotul, the Venlil, they all helped us in taking down the same bastards that destroyed their culture and broke their people with that damned cure.”
The Krakotl growled. “You’re lying.”
“And you’re delusional! I’ll gladly try and get you that ship for all the good that it’ll do you once you get to Nishtal, but the world you left behind doesn’t exist anymore.”
The kid screeched, pointing the knife my way rather than towards Tevri. Good. That’s it. Focus on me instead of her.
“SHUT UP! JUST—SHUT UP!” The composure he had seemed so full of moments ago melted away to reveal his manic state. He was far too calm before. This attitude better matched his actions.
“No more of that shit. No more of your lies. I’m not having any of it! If you value your pet’s life, I’d suggest you give the propaganda a rest before I trigger that blood instinct of yours.” He returned the makeshift knife to her throat, erasing any sense of satisfaction I had taken from seeing his true nature reveal itself.
I nodded. Okay, just stay still. As much as it might sting, you’ve just gotta listen to what he wants. For Tevri. This is all for Tevri.
“Good, Now, go ahead and call in that transport.”
“I’ve not called one in, not that I could if I wanted to, but I’ve called some folks who might have access to one.”
“Good. I suppose we wait for them then.”
“Right, well I’ve done what you asked. Could I… Can I speak with her?”
The Krakotl scoffed. “I’ve waited almost a full year for this. You can wait a little longer to speak with your pet.”
With every use of that word I could feel the rage within me begin to boil over and spill out. Control yourself. For her sake. “So help me if you call her that one more time I will—”
“You’ll what? Kill me? As skilled of a hunter as you may be human, I guarantee you, my talon is quicker than anything you could attempt.” As if to display this fact, they spun the knife around in their hand once only to press it back up against Tevri’s neck once more, eliciting muffled squeaks. Her eyes darted back and forth, to him with fear and to me with pleading.
My brow furrowed as I stared daggers at the Krakotl. “She’s not a pet.”
“Sure. Whatever you say. Not that I will, or even can, take your word for it.”
It was as he said this that it finally hit me. How I hadn’t realized it before, I chalked up to whatever sense of urgency and the panic that drove me to confront the child. But it was clear now. There was no point in negotiating. To this child, I was nothing but a monster. He would only accept absolute cooperation from my end. Nothing less, nothing more.
I can’t let him just take her. Who’s to say he won’t go back on his word and take her with him to Nishtal? It’s not exactly federation space anymore, but it certainly isn’t within UN jurisdiction either. I’ve got to get her away from him.
A terrible silence fell between us both as we waited. With my gun now out of reach, I had next to no options for helping Tevri escape his clutches. This was only confirmed as my gaze darted throughout the room searching for anything I might be able to take advantage of. There wasn’t much to take note of. This hovel consisted of a single room, of which every wall was packed dirt. A small nest made of twig and torn up fabric rested in the back right corner of the room while a makeshift table made of wood that looked to have been reclaimed from park benches was shoved against the wall to my left. The two windows I had seen earlier allowed a small amount of moonlight to filter inside while allowing the dull light of a nearby lamp to escape in turn. The seat that Tevri now sat in was no less primitive than the workbench, with each leg being nailed together using small branches and more pieces of reclaimed wood. Out of everything there though, nothing could help me in any way, not that I could reach for anything before the Krakotl reacted by sealing Tevri’s fate.
I felt stupid, standing there as the Krakotl’s gaze bored into me, but there was nothing I could do. I had no choice but to wait for backup and hope against hope that they could somehow negotiate for her release.
I moved on from looking for solutions and instead settled on Tevri. Her chest heaved with exertion from the heavy breaths that the gag demanded of her, and her eyes were stuck in a state of perpetual wideness. Her tail sat still, and both ears stuck up straight. The wool on her head was matted with mud and blood, while thin scrapes of orange marked her forearms and ankles.
We locked eyes, me and her. The Venlil’s orange irises quivered as she did, and shone as a light among our dim surroundings. Then, for a split second, they looked down to something. I stood still, confused for a moment until she repeated the gesture. It wasn’t until the third time that she repeated the motion that what she meant dawned upon me.
The Krakotl’s gaze was still focused upon me. This didn’t change as my own view shifted down at a pace slow enough to not draw his immediate attention. I saw a flash of movement from behind Tevri’s back.
Were those… no, it can’t be. I could have sworn I just saw her hand peeking out. This wasn’t all. A length of rope dangled beneath her legs. The end was frayed, no, not frayed. It was cut.
Smart girl. Those claws of hers were sharper than I thought. They were also sharper than the Krakotl thought as was all too apparent. Okay, I can work with this.
As I looked up, I saw that the Krakotl’s focus hadn’t shifted. He didn’t notice Tevri’s handiwork. Right. If I can just find a distraction to get that knife away from her throat, she can get out of harm’s way.
“So, uh, what’s your name kid?”
“What’s it to you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Only curious. If we want to solve all of this without violence like you’re saying, maybe it’d help to know each other’s name.”
His glare softened, if only somewhat. “Omopaulim. Though I’d prefer Omo.”
“Right,” I said, pressing a flat palm against my chest. “And I’m Jack.”
The Krakotl only gave a grunt of acknowledgement as a response.
“So, anything that you would like to know about me while we wait?”
“No,” he said flatly.
Right. He probably thinks he already knows everything he needs to. “Oh come on, there’s got to be something.”
He paused this time before responding. “Fine, I’ll peck. Why did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“You murdered my only companion in this world. What would compel you to do something like that?”
I hadn’t expected him to ask the question so bluntly, even if it was one I had anticipated. “Despite what you might say, we humans do have empathy. I was like you are now when the bombs that your fleet dropped took my brother: lost, scared, broken, hurting. Hell, I still am.”
If my words had any impression upon the kid, it wasn’t an apparent one. I kept going anyway.
“But you and your people were right about one thing with us. We can be dangerous. We don’t need to be though. We don’t want to either. But, when you hurt a human just wrong enough, you’re only asking for trouble.”
“You would have been trouble anyways if we hadn’t had the foresight to deal with you as early as we did.”
I shook my head. “You’re wrong. We humans, we only ever wanted to meet others like us out there. If you and your people hadn’t showed up on our planet’s doorstep with bombs in tow, you’d still be home with your family, living the life that should have been yours.”
“And if you and your people had gone extinct centuries ago like you should have—“ As Omo said this, he took the knife from Tevri’s throat and pointed it at me.
He was interrupted mid sentence as the back of Tevri’s head slammed against his beak and he was sent reeling. With that, Tevri leapt forward, toppling the chair and throwing herself into the dirt. With her surprisingly strong legs, she managed to clear most of the distance between us.
I rushed forward to pick her up, earning an ear flick of acknowledgement as I yanked the gag from her mouth. “Thanks,” she said with hoarseness to her voice. “I—” A loud screech in the form of Omo interrupted her. The young exterminator rushed towards both of us with his knife pointed at me.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I stood back to my full height and ran to meet the Krakotl rather than let him approach us first.
Omo lunged, attempting to plunge the knife into my abdomen. For the bragging of how dextrous he was with the blade, it was clear he had little to no experience when it came to actual combat. This didn’t mean he couldn’t still be deadly. The knife flicked past me, cutting through the air and striking nothing. He tried again, with slightly more success, managing to slice open my clothes and nick my waist as I danced to the side just in time.
As he extended his arm to make the attack, my hand shot out and seized the wrist that held his makeshift weapon. With a sharp twist, the Omo cried out in pain and dropped it. A single punch decked the kid, and I pounced, making sure to pin him.
He fought back as best he could, but the comparative size between us left no room for competition. I continued to whale on him, throwing punch after punch, each landing home. The last of them spawned a spiraling web of cracks that branched out from the point where my fist met his beak. Despite the blows, he was still up and kicking, screeching and scratching at my arms with his claws.
“P-please,” he sputtered, spitting up violet blood as he spoke. “Don’t—Hrrk“
My hands wrapped around his long neck and squeezed. His eyes bulged from their sockets and his beak opened wide as he struggled to breathe. My grip tightened as he scrambled and clawed at my hands, trying and failing to free himself.
Any sentiment of sympathy for him was washed away by the adrenaline surging through my veins. With every attempt of his flailing talons to swipe at my hands and arms, my grip grew tighter around his throat. I dug my knee into his abdomen, forcing the air from his lungs as I put the full weight of my body against his chest.
He deserves this! Look what he did to her! He could have killed her!
He deserved to die for what he did to her. She was innocent and he could have killed her for nothing more than associating with me. Tevri never could have known about what I did, yet here she was, drugged to high hell and dragged through the woods by this bastard that couldn’t learn to change.
Every time I had killed an exterminator all those months ago, I had made certain my job was done. No loose ends were left, and the town and those I cared about were safe because of it — well, all loose ends but one.
A snarl escaped my lips as I watched the Krakotl’s eyes begin to fade and his struggle grew weaker and weaker. His hands no longer scratched at mine, reaching away from me instead as if he was trying to find some escape. He would find none.
“Stop!” Tevri’s cry cut through the haze of rage. “He’s harmless now! J-just let him go!” I swung around to look at her, and she flinched as I locked eyes with her. The same terror that I had inspired mere hours ago was plastered across her. It was this that yanked me back to reality — to the reality of what I was doing. What was I doing?
My grip loosened, but didn’t relent entirely. Oh fuck. I—I’m doing it again.
Yes. You’re doing it for her, just as you did it for Nick.
For her? Look at her! She’s petrified just standing near you! She’s asked—no, begged you to stop. Can you really excuse this as being for her?
He was with the ones who bombed Earth. He deserves the same fate.
Does he? He’s a kid. Do you really think he was the one to pull the lever? To issue their commands? To muster their fleet?
He’s complicit.
He’s a child*.*
If you take his life, you’ll prove that he and the federation were right. You’d be the monster he thinks you are. He’s helpless. His death by your hands would be murder and nothing less.
So, what will it be then? What are you?
What am I?
I’ve killed before. I’d kill again if I had to, but this… this is different. Even if it was a loose justification, I had something to drive my rampage against the Krakotl. This kid though… they’re helpless against me.
“Please!” croaked Tevri. Her voice was strained and on the verge of breaking as she pleaded with me.
You might not be able to undo your actions, but you can choose to not perpetuate them. This child had suffered enough. You have suffered enough. End the cycle. Be better.
My clenched hands gave way as the tension holding the Krakotl’s neck was released. Omo gasped, coughing haggardly immediately after taking in a breath.
I looked at my hands. Crimson rivers trickled down them from where my forearms had been scratched and scraped by Krakotl claws. Droplets of violet speckled them, but for the most part, the blood was my own.
After poring over my hands, I turned to Tevri, whose tear-filled eyes and terrible condition tugged at my heart. She didn’t speak, but she didn’t need to. She had already done enough.
It was her guidance that helped me make this choice. If she even cared to talk to me after this was all over, it was my hope that she could only continue to better me.
She was panting, her mouth left agape as she tried to catch up on the breath lost by the gag covering her mouth. She looked better though. Then again, it isn’t difficult to look better after you’ve been tied up and held hostage.
Despite it all, despite everything, I gave a weak chuckle and smiled. She wasn’t nearly as capable of smiling as a human, but her lips turned up and her ears stuck upright as her tail flicked behind her.
I-I think that’s a good sign. Maybe things will turn out alright after—
My thought was interrupted as a thunderous bang reverberated through the room.
My ears rang. I saw Tevri’s mouth open, but didn’t hear anything come from it. The brief return to something resembling a comfortable state was shattered, and fear once again constituted her countenance.
It took a moment for reality to catch back up to me. I thought I was safe. I thought we were safe. It was idiotic of me not to remain vigilant considering that this kid had been attempting to stab me mere moments ago, but reveling in my moment of self-triumph had been a bit too much.
I went from sitting on my knees to screaming and scrambling backward across the ground. My hand shot to my abdomen where a stab of pain sprouted from nothing. Heat began to form where the pain originated, and as I looked down, I watched a red spot grow beneath my shirt.
The shot came from Omo, who lay on his back with both claws holding up the same weapon that I had once threatened him with. His eyes were wide, and his face was a terrible mess of blood and bruises. More than a few feathers had fallen free during our scuffle, and those spots were just as apparent.
Tevri stood still, shock and fear taking over her body. The relief at being pried from the Krakotl’s clutches was just as quickly warped into terror.
Omo stood himself up on wobbly legs as I scooted backwards, pressing myself against the wall in an attempt to put as much distance between us as I could manage. Another indecipherable expression coated his face, though it was different from the last. He ignored Tevri and walked past her towards me.
The gun I had tossed aside was held up in both hands. It was far too big for him, but he managed to wield it, pointing its barrel into the dirt.
“I would have thought you’d be a better hunter than to let your prey get the upper hand like this.” His voice was weak and hoarse, but the conviction he spoke with was audible even through my translator.
“You could have killed me, but you didn’t. Why? Why kill Maiatim but stop to give me mercy? Twice!”
The Krakotl still sucked in ragged breaths of air, but as he stopped, he raised the weapon and aimed it directly at my head.
“I—I won’t make the same mistake. You’re too dangerous to be left alive. I can’t say I’m sorry for this, b-but I do regret that it had to be this way. Goodbye, Jack.”
I would’ve been lying if I said I was ready to go. My parents certainly wouldn’t take the news well, not after they had already lost their other son. I doubted my friends would take it much better either. I had no control over how others would react to my passing, but if the general attitude of those in Healy towards aliens was anything to go by, they wouldn’t react well. Atop the pile of all these worries, the prospect of leaving Tevri behind almost hurt more than the growing pain in my abdomen.
She’s strong. She didn’t need you before you met her, and she sure as hell won’t when you’re gone.
You did your best. You changed. Even if you couldn’t stop the violence, you chose to quit participating in it. The sidearm shook as Omo's trembling claw wrapped around the trigger. I closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
The seconds stretched; every beat of my heart lasted minutes, every breath took hours. I had heard of your life flashing before your eyes, but I wasn’t a believer of such experiences until now.
As time slowed, I saw my childhood, the years spent with Nick, our summers spent together goofing off and spending long nights talking beneath the stars as we ignored any semblance of a curfew set by Ma and Pa. I saw us attending school together, me standing up for him against those who dared push him around and the flak I always caught for it. Pa was proud though, and that was all that mattered to me. I sat through every failed relationship I’d ever had, each of which I was probably better off for not having followed through with. I watched through my own eyes as we celebrated Nick’s graduation and acceptance into university, then struggled to stand by as I told him to leave home behind in the pursuit of something greater. The rampage that ensued following his death was just as vivid as ever, every death, every kill, played back as though it were recorded and transmitted back to me. And last, but certainly not least, there were the events of the last week or so.
A hard, crack and thunk were followed by yet another deafening boom.
If this was death, then it wasn’t as bad as I had thought. I was still pretty sore, and that pain in my side hadn’t gone away yet. My heart was still beating and my breaths were still ragged. The stale, earthy air continued to flow in and out of my nose.
For all my lack of belief in religion, I could have sworn I saw an angel wreathed in light as I cracked open my eyes. The figure only grew in brilliance the further my eyes opened — that is until recognition dawned upon me.
Tevri?
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Cover Image
Tevri in a sweater - By u/Brotanics
Tevri - By u/Brotanics
A Depiction of Jack's Dream - By u/LeWombat545
Tevri (Discord Nitro Exchange Commision >:D ) - By u/JimDandy117
Lil' Goob Tevri - By u/JimDandy117
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I thought I would provide some information that would be of interest to anyone interested in the Norman invasion of Ireland, and how Norman propaganda worked back then.
Basically, to understand this part of Irish history, you have to understand some aspect of Welsh/ native Briton history.
I have seen some Irish historians discuss the myths that the 'Geraldines' perpetuated in Ireland, but I want to give information on the myths that pre-dated the invasion of Ireland. There's an Irish history book that covers some of the myths the FitzGerald's created after they conquered Ireland. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Geraldines-Medieval-Ireland-Making-Trinity/dp/1846826276?asin=1846825717&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1

Princess Nest, the mother of the FitzGerald dynasty/ 'the sons of Nest'

Princess Nest was a Welsh princess, she is the mother and grandmother of the Cambro-Norman kings who invaded Ireland. The FitzGeralds, FitzStephen, FitzHenry.
But- her entire family were killed by the Normans, and she was abducted (she would have been a young teen) and taken to King William's (Anglo-Norman king) castle. She 'caught the eye' of his brother, Henry (FitzHenry father). She is often referred to as a 'mistress' of King Henry, but she was a child who had been abducted.
Remember that history was written during times when women were treated very badly, so her history has been written in a very biased way. Usually, the fact she was taken hostage by the Normans usually isn't given much attention.
Let's be clear when we talk about Nest, would a young teenage girl want to bear the children of men twice her age, who were holding her hostage and killed her family? Could she have given informed consent?
In reality she would have had no control over her life and was used to 'breed princes'. This is a Welsh historian talking about her life (in Wales she is seen as a tragic victim of Norman oppression)-

“I feel that she was the victim of the Norman’s serial sexual abuse,” Elin Jones told Golwg magazine. “She was used to breed princes.
“Nest belonged to a time when the invasion of Wales was unfulfilled. The Normans, like the Romans before them, had clearly seen that a way to win over the people they wanted to conquer was to bring up leaders who were half Norman and half Welsh. That’s what happened in the case of Nest.
“She had been used by the king, by his friends and followers. She is described as ‘Helen of Wales’ and that she was seducing men – that’s not right when she was a girl who was abducted as a child by her enemies and sexually exploited by them. That’s how I see Nest.
Nest was taken hostage by the Normans after a battle in Brecon in 1093. Although only around 14 years old at the time, she was taken as a partner by Henry, William’s brother, who later became King Henry I. A medieval manuscript in the British Library (above) shows them in bed together.
After she gave birth to his son, Henry married Nest off to Gerald de Windsor, an Anglo-Norman baron – who ruled Nest’s father’s former kingdom from Pembroke Castle. It is believed that this was done in order to legitimise his rule in the eyes of the Welsh. Nest bore Gerald at least five more children.
After Gerald’s death she was married to two other men, the Sheriff of Pembroke, William Hait with whom she had a child, and then Stephen, the constable of Cardigan, by whom she had at least one son.

I hope that adds a context to 'who' Princess Nest was. Often times, I see her young age and the abduction either ignored or not treated with any kind of sympathy by historians.

Nest had two younger brothers, Gruffydd ap Rhys and Hywel, and, possibly, an older sister named Marared, as well as several older illegitimate half-brothers and half-sisters. After their father's death in battle in 1093, "the Kingdom of the Britons fell" and was overrun by Normans. Nest's younger brother Gruffydd was spirited into Ireland for safety; their brother Hywel may have been captured by Arnulf de Montgomery, along with their mother, unless, as appears likelier, their mother was captured with Nest; their fate is unknown. Two older brothers, illegitimate sons of Rhys, one of them named Goronwy, were captured and executed.
Nest was brought as a prized hostage to the court of William Rufus, where she came to the attention of his younger brother Henry Beauclerc (the future King Henry I), to whom she may have borne one of his illegitimate children, Henry FitzHenry) (c. 1103–1158)

I will often see terms like 'union' or 'liaison' or 'mistress' or 'seductress'. used to describe Nest's relationships with the Norman men. These are completely inappropriate terms to use.
This was not some symbiotic 'Cambro- Norman union'. In modern terms, Nest would be classed as a victim of sex trafficking.
I watched a video lecture recently on Princess Nest, and the lecturer rightly pointed out that Nest would have had 'no choice'.
Before the Norman invasion, Ireland and Wales had a good relationship (in medieval terms). Nest's father had allies in Ireland. And Nest's brother fled to Ireland after the Normans killed their family.
It's entirely possible that the Normans used Nest as a pawn to gain favour with the Irish? I would not put anything past them.

'Fake history' that was part of Norman propaganda during the invasion

From reading Irish history, it seems that the Cambro-Normans were spreading myths about their origins.
So this extract from an Irish paper

Gerald of Wales depicts Robert making a speech to his men in which, alluding to the mythical origin of his mother’s (Welsh princess Nest) people, he affirms that ‘in part we come of Trojan stock by direct line of descent’, and, as to his father’s side, ‘we are also partly descended from the men of Gaul’. The combination makes them invincible: ‘From the former we get our courage, from the latter our skill in the use of arms. So we are equally brave and versed in arms because of our twofold character and noble ancestry on both sides

I want to explain the origins of this 'descended from Trojans' belief and why the Cambro-Normans were 'proud' of this lineage, and why it's untrue.

When, in 1066, the Normans invaded Britain they were opposed by an army led by Harold, a Saxon King. The Celts in Wales had been fighting the Saxons before the Normans arrived and, although not welcoming this new invader, would have welcomed this new challenge to a common enemy. Geoffrey of Monmouth seized on the Welsh fight against the Saxons as heroic and chivalrous, good against evil. His first story, written in Latin, ‘Prophetiae Merlini’ (Prophecies of Merlin) was, he claimed, translated from ancient Celtic texts in his possession. This early work was included later in his principle work "History of the Kings of Britain" in which he developed a series of stories around King Arthur. The Welsh warrior Arthur, written of in ancient Celtic manuscripts, was becoming a Norman propaganda tool.
Geoffrey of Monmouth’s work Historia Regnum Brittaniae was written in 1136, far beyond the era of the Anglo-Saxon invasions. Geoffrey’s purpose then, was to include the Normans, who were the last of the wave of invaders to overtake England, into the English community. Rather than to condemn the Britons, like Gildas and Bede had done, Geoffrey sought to include the early Britons by connecting the Normans to the Arthurian legend. By connecting the Normans to the ancient Britons, particularly King Arthur, Geoffrey’s work would establish a line of continuity, thus providing the Normans a sense of legitimacy.
Geoffrey delves into Roman mythology to explain the origin of the Britons. According to Geoffrey, Britain was founded by Brutus, a grandson of Aeneas, who escaped the fall of Troy. Like the origin myths of other peoples, Brutus was given a divine commission by the goddess Diana to establish a kingdom in “an empty land” beyond Gaul and be the father of a line of kings.35 After years of wandering, came upon the island of Albion, which he renamed “Britain” and established his capital at Troia Nova, where he established a people, from which the Britons were derived by the time of the Roman conques
Although taken as historical well into the 16th century,[1] it is now considered to have no value as history. thttps://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004410398/BP000013.xml?language=en

Essentially, the Normans 'appropriated' Welsh/ Briton mythology and created an entire fictitious 'Briton/ Norman' identity. Which was also used to bolster their image and to dispel the 'barbarian' image that the Normans had.
The 'pride' in their lineage, was entirely fictitious. On one hand they were pretending to be 'Welsh/ Briton', but at the same the Welsh were subject to the same treatment that the Irish got later on.

The reason is that Ireland and Wales had very similar experiences of Anglo-Norman aggression—in the case of the Welsh, it came a century before the Irish, shortly after 1066—including dispossession, colonisation, denial of access to the law, erosion of the power of the native rulers, and ultimately the assertion of English lordship over both countries. https://www.historyireland.com/medieval-scotland-ireland-overcoming-the-amnesia/

This book review of History Regnum Brittaniae sums up the absurdness-

This is a classic example of crafting a national identity. Geoffrey promulgated a completely new history for the Normans--Vikings who settled in northern France for a while before accumulating enough money and arms to invade Britain--that cast them as the noble descendants of Romans (Brutus, no less!) who briefly left their true and native Britain while the real invaders, the Saxons, occupied it. You see, the Normans didn't conquer Britain. No, it was theirs all along. And the Welsh and Britons were Normans too, so they should side with their new overlords-- I mean, brothers in any continued conflict. And all those local myths and pagan traditions? No, no. That is all good Norman history, and Christian no less. You are all confused.

And later on, he separated the Welsh from the Britons (although they were the same people!). 'Welsh' is a name the Saxons gave to the Britons- not Gualo or queen Galaes or such nonsense!

As their culture ebbed, they were no longer called Britons, but Welsh, a name which owes its origin to their leader Gualo, or to queen Galaes or to their decline … The Welsh, unworthy successors to the noble Britons, never again recovered mastery of the whole island, but, squabbling pettily amongst themselves and sometimes with the Saxons, kept constantly massacring the foreigners or each other.14
https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004410398/BP000013.xml?language=en

The Irish name for the Welsh is 'Breatnais', btw! So they Welsh were known as some variation of 'Briton' before the Saxons came along.
So the FitzGeralds came to Ireland with a fictitious 'Cambro-Norman' identity.
The 'Welsh pride' they exhibited had no bearing on the reality of Welsh/ native Briton people, or history or mythology. It was fictional.
They appropriated Welsh mythology and identity, while invading Wales. It's still an issue in Wales because so much mythology and ancient history got fictionalised and appropriated by the Normans, and this is why the Brenin Arthur myth (which was a symbol of the Briton/ Welsh struggle against the Saxons) became an English myth.
So in this instance, it's important to understand this period of Welsh history to understand Irish history, and to understand 'who' Ireland was conquered by (it gets confusing due to the Normans coming from different places and also making things up!)
I know that the Normans of this era became 'more Irish than the Irish themselves' due to the fact the Normans were outnumbered and would have thought it was a better plan to integrate, than to try and dominate. IMO, had Ireland been geographically closer to Britain, Ireland would have ended up like Wales where the introduction of a Norman/ English colony- Pembroke, within Wales and the beginning of Anglicisation much sooner.

Gerald of Wales's (very hypocritical) derogatory and damaging descriptions of the Irish

Gerald of Wales (a Norman priest and historian) created very disparaging and damaging stereotypes about the Irish to justify the conquest of Ireland, such as being lazy, uncivilised etc. In reality, Ireland was likely no different to rural England or Wales (especially Wales because the society and culture was similar to Ireland).
I can absolutely understand why the Irish at the time were (and continued to be) upset by these stereotypes.
He also accused the Welsh of being 'incestuous' and 'uncivilised' too. I think it was standard 'go to' Norman insults to justify invading.
One of the more hypocritical accusations that Gerald made were that the Irish were 'sexually immoral'- especially given the way, his grandmother, Princess Nest, had been treated by the Normans as basically a 'child sex slave'. And the Norman kings had concubines. Again, it was likely projection or trying to find things to justify colonisation.
The Normans were seen as savage barbarians during that era (which is why they had to invent a fake Briton/ Arthurian origin story), so IMO the accusations of the Irish being 'uncivilised' (and accusation he also made against the Welsh) were a projection. The Romans and the Saxons also depicted the Welsh/ Britons as 'uncivilised'. I think it was standard coloniser rhetoric.
He also gave very disparaging descriptions of the Welsh too, and gave 'advice' on how the Normans should conquer the Welsh i.e which parts to land on, to 'turn the Welsh against each other' etc. “How the Welsh can be conquered” and “How the Welsh should be governed once they have been conquered”.
Life in pre-Norman Ireland would have been nicer and more civilised than being under Norman rule!
Unfortunately his writings had long-term damaging effects on Ireland and the effects of these stereotypes can't be undone. I saw this being discussed in this post about the effects of his words.
https://www.reddit.com/AskHistorians/comments/gzljowas_the_concept_of_the_irish_being_a_lesser_race/
And in relation to this question- It's down to land quality. The Irish were not 'lazy'- the land in England was better quality so people could do more with it.
https://www.reddit.com/history/comments/8ekyiz/why_was_ireland_underdeveloped_compared_to_england/

More fake history- No, the FitzGeralds are not related to the Tudors

I saw this on Wikipedia and I've seen it mentioned several times when discussing the FitzGeralds

The FitzGeralds claim kinship with the Tudors who descended from the same Welsh royal line as Princess Nest's father, Rhys ap Tewdwr

The Tudors did not descend from Rhys ap Tewdwr (Princess Nest's father). Therefore, they are not cousins. This is fake history.
Tudor is an Anglicisation of 'Tudur' not 'ap Tewdwr'. Completely different family. The Tudur family were from North Wales, the ap Tewdwr family were from Carmarthenshire, which is in the south.
Henry 7th had a Welsh grandfather, Owen Tudur, he was a nobleman. The rest of the Tudor lineage is French/ Norman/ English. They are only 'Welsh' in surname'. Henry 7th was born in Pembrokeshire, which is an English colony within Wales, not 'proper Wales'.
(The Tudors are pretty much hated in Wales, because Henry 7th used his Welsh surname to gain support in Wales and to attack England, only for him to forget his (partial) Welsh lineage and he gained the throne through his English lineage. And Henry 8th conquered and annexed Wales into England and imposed all the penal laws, that Ireland also had later on)
Maybe they created this 'fake history' to appease the Tudors to stop them from conquering Ireland? Or maybe it was a genuine mistake? I'm not sure how 'lineage checks' worked back then?
I hope this clears things up! Until I started to read Irish history I had no idea how much of this 'fake Norman history' had travelled into Ireland.
Norman history can get very confusing and it's unclear of 'who invaded who'.
I can only feel very sorry for the Irish of that time as they must have been blindsided by the arrival of the Normans.
But I hope this gives more of a picture.

Dharma is a teaching of the universe's nature and how it works. "This one Dharma is characterless. Accordingly, this characterlessness manifests all characters." meaning the character of this Dharma is empty of an independent self or one with everything. In accordance with this Dharma, all things, good and bad, "emerge, live, change, and perish." "After seeing this, The abilities, nature's, and desires of living beings can be seen. As natures and desires are innumerable, sermons are innumerable, and as sermons are innumerable, meanings are innumerable. The innumerable meanings emerge from one Dharma." After dwelling at peace in this true character of reality, bodhisattva show great compassion. "They are truly capable of relieving living beings from suffering." But humans can't understand this the way bodhisattva can, therefore Buddha has offered ten blessings to all living beings that read this.
"If living beings can hear this Sutra even once, even only one verse or phrase, they will master a hundred thousand myriad meanings." The first blessing is to become a perfect person, leading one without kindness to aspire to kindness, A murderous heart to great compassion, jealousy to joy, attachments to impartiality, greedy to generosity, arrogance to be moral, anger to patience, laziness to perseverance, distracted to meditation, ignorance to wisdom, prone to backsliding to never retreating, one who commits faulty acts to being faultless, one who suffers from afflictions to detachment, and leads one who lacks concern for saving others to aspire to saving others.
The second blessing is unlimited wisdom. "From one teaching a hundred thousand meanings grow, and this is repeated so that the meanings become unlimited and innumerable."
The third blessing is bravery from following all of the teachings. "Even though they moved through birth and death, they will not know fear. They will have compassion and sympathy for all the living." "They can bear well the heavy treasure of unexcelled awakening and carry the living out of the way of birth and death on their backs."
The fourth blessing is innocence. "Together with bodhisattvas they will become part of the entourage of the Buddha, who will always preach the Dharma to them."
In between the fourth and fifth blessing the sutra gives a blessing to bodhisattvas specifically: "If a bodhisattva can hear this... not yet able to realize ultimate truth, or shake the three thousand great thousandfold world, or turn the great Dharma wheel with a thunderous Buddha voice, this bodhisattva will be admired by all the four groups and the eight guardians of Buddhism, and great bodhisattvas will be in his entourage."
The fifth blessing is if one recites this sutra they will become a bodhisattva. "Extending a day to a hundred eons or shortening a hundred eons to a day, bringing joy to other living beings, they will convince them."
The sixth blessing is the ability to teach the Dharma even without mastering it one's self. "Though they themselves cannot yet live in the first stage of immobility, these good sons will teach the promulgate the Dharma as the Buddha did"
The seventh blessing is rising to the seventh level of bodhisattvas. "They attain the Dharma treasure of the six practices even though they are not consciously seeking it.'
The eighth blessing is the ability to instantly convert anyone to Buddhism using this sutra. "Through the power of this sutra, their faith will be aroused and they will convert suddenly."
The ninth blessing is the ability to purify anyone making them innocent. "they will instantly destroy the heavy hindrance of sins resulting from actions in the past and become purified."
The tenth blessing is the ability to help everyone with everything. "They will spread benevolence widely, always being kind and leading the living who suffer into the track of the Way."
So basically it's a vision board.

South Dakota has its own particular brand of anti-Indigenous racism, and this is my take on it, as a white resident of Rapid City who lived on the reservation for over 20 years. To wit:
With some exceptions, most white South Dakotans are not openly and aggressively racially hostile. The days of “No Indians allowed” in shop windows are thankfully in the past. But a more pernicious strain of prejudice still permeates much of the culture. You hear it in conversations (or, at least, I do, when white people talk openly around me, assuming I am of like mind) and you often read it in social media postings, especially on news sites.
I’m not sure what to call the attitude in question, maybe “performative sympathy” or “passive-aggressive patronizing.” Basically, it’s when somebody laments how Natives in the state can’t “get it together,” can’t “get with the program,” can’t “get their lives on track,” can’t “give up alcohol/drugs,” etc. etc. (By “the program,” they generally mean assimilated American society.) This is usually couched in faux concern, as if the person saying it is genuinely puzzled and sorrowfully bewildered at this predicament. Often, a sad shake of the head will accompany this pronouncement.
The person in question, of course, rarely gives a care about Native people’s “plight,” and these pat statements are just a way of saying, “Oh well, what are ya gonna do with those folks?” and distancing oneself from the situation, shrugging and moving on to a happier topic of conversation. Why can’t “those people” get it together indeed?
When it comes up in a convo that I’m a participant in, I do my best to bring up the history of how things got to where they are today. I’m a history teacher, after all. I’m well-versed in the subjects of manifest destiny, colonialism, broken treaties, and the like. Usually their eyes will start to glaze over or they will start fidgeting and shuffling their feet, uncomfortable at the way the conversation is going, their mind doing its best to reject input that contradicts their view of the world, no matter how diplomatic and non-preachy I’m being. It’s not the tone that intimidates them and puts them off, it’s the very subject itself.
More often than not, after I’ve had my say, they will just mumble something along the lines of, “Yup, I don’t know how those people will ever get it together. It’s too bad,” as if I had never said anything. People’s sincerely-held beliefs are incredibly difficult to dislodge, as we all know. And being brought up white in South Dakota, unless your situation is significantly different from the norm, you get the same whitewashed story over and over, at home, at school, at church. You’ve heard it your whole life, and doggone it, it didn’t include big fancy words like “colonialism” that make people feel bad when they didn’t do anything wrong. So, the mind shuts out the competing information, stays closed.
And here’s the big secret that maybe you already know: If you don’t believe that history in any way informs the present (because it was “so long ago” or whatever), then the only other option is to – consciously or unconsciously – blame the people themselves. Think about it. If history doesn’t matter and generational trauma doesn’t exist and everyone is born at the same starting line, with the same obstacles stretching ahead of them in life, then the only possible blame for people not succeeding individually or collectively HAS to fall on the people themselves. This is the most pernicious aspect of South Dakota racism. At its root lies a belief that the reason why Native people have higher incarceration rates, lower graduation rates, higher rates of substance abuse, etc. etc. etc. is that the people themselves are somehow defective, somehow lesser. Lesser than whom? Lesser than the white majority.
This is white supremacy in one of its purest forms, but most people don’t recognize it as such. This white supremacy doesn’t necessarily wear a white robe or burn a tiki torch (although look at how they vote and they’re not far off), but it is an unearned superiority complex than many whites learn from a young age. “I don’t know what’s wrong with those Indians. What a pity,” with the implicit understanding that “we” are superior. How else can you explain our demographic superiority? Of course, you and I know the answer to that.
This is one of the single greatest obstacles to race relations in the state moving forward and true understanding and reconciliation happening. How can you understand a people when you see them as faulty, unable to progress, victims of nothing but their own indolence and failure to thrive? You have to put the blame for their lot in life squarely on their own shoulders because to do otherwise would mean interrogating your own state’s history and country’s history in a way that you can’t bear (not you, of course, innocent Reddit reader).
But you don’t want to hear about broken treaties. You don’t want to hear about stolen land. You don’t want to hear about historical trauma. You don’t want to hear about boarding school abuses. You just want a nice story where progress has always progressed and the white man brought the light of civilization into a dark continent and the light of the Gospel to the heathen. “My country, right or wrong” is just another way of saying that you take no responsibility for your country’s wrongs.
And “That was a long time ago” is the great hand-washing, the refrain of a people who dare not look into the mirror, dare not teach what really happened in the not-so-distant past. And so, you have a state where nearly all of the positions of power are held by whites, in government, business, school boards and administration, as well as nearly all the wealth in the state, all the best land, and you wonder how things got to be that way. But then you stop wondering because the questions it raises are too challenging. “Why can’t they get it together,” indeed.

Eyes blinded by imagery Lies sided with Sympathy Cries slighted in symphony Ties incited to epiphany
I find you vapid Stimulating like acid Corrosive as a bad habit Complicated and possibly psychopathic
I gave you a hundred words You gave me a gutted verse

Starting things off - I was not a big fan of this movie, as it setup lots of threads without concluding them and had a somewhat dissatisfying ending because of it.
The one thread which did get resolved was Gwen’s character arc, with her fleeing from her father, lying to Peter & Miles, to finally embracing & being accepted by her father. This was a great moment, but IMO it's a little too close to the end of the movie to be the climax (there's no room for falling action after) & she gets robbed a little bit by only taking one scene of action: gathering the ItSV spider folks together to stand in front of a portal and.. do what exactly? Go defy Miguel? Help capture Spot and save Miles's dad? It's not entirely clear what their plan is, and they certainly don't execute it.
IMO the script writers should have leaned into Gwen’s story more and rearranged scenes to be something more like this: 1. Miles fails to escape from Spider society rather than doing the electricity trick (maybe they put him in a proper cell). 2. Gwen is kicked out by Miguel for bringing Miles in the first place, having too much sympathy for Miles, or any old failure reason - he is the antagonist after all. All is lost & hopeless for the audience, Miles, and Gwen. 3. She & her dad reconcile in an emotional climax. She realizes her dad quit being captain. She & the audience gain hope for Miles. 4. She gathers the other spider people from ItSV seen at the end 5. They attack & break Miles out of Spider society prison, basically moving the Miles escape scene to here. 6. Miles gets sent to his spider’s dimension, leaving Gwen & the gang to hold off Miguel We get the end of movie twist Miles v Miles scenes.
I think this would have been overall a much more satisfying movie that still leaves most of the threads open enough for the third movie to conclude. They could also have gone further and focused more on Gwen as the main character and Miles as the supporting co-protagonist rather than the other way around, but I have a harder time imagining how changes past the above rearrangement would have looked.
For others interested in Gwen’s story as is in the movie, this was a good read: https://www.theblogofmazarbul.com/2023/08/06/gwen-stacy-the-heros-journey-in-across-the-spider-verse/

Can you please consider the following.
Maybe Gadd and Fiona had a fling, and Gadd didn't realise until to after she is an obsessive stalker.
When he goes to the police station and didn't tell them about his past sexual promiscuity, it's because part of the history was a fling with Fiona.
He gave her a free drink, she stuck around like the stalker she is, he didn't realise then they banged it out.
He tells the story of an abusive relationship with a male, because we as a society have sympathy for that story, but not for the story of how he slept with Fiona, and then got stalked.
It also explains well, how the scene in the cafe plays out, how he is saying they will just be friends, and why she loses her shit.
It explains why the "I want to have kids scene" plays out, because they slept together, and he is trying to pull away from his stalker with a reason the sex has to stop.
It explains his fansty scene about her, when he was sleeping with some one else, but was flashing to Fiona, because he has slept with her.
It explains why he includes knowledge of why he knows where she lives.
He supplies information that some of the messages they exchanged have him offering sex. (Anal sex message).
There have been posts in this sub saying the male in male rape was a party date rape, so you mix the abusive stalking from Fiona, with the rape and you get the mixed story in the show.
You have the first meeting at the bar with the male, and the drugs with the male after he goes to his place, ending in a male on male date rape.
Then you have Gadd meeting Fiona at the bar and the visits after that are really him going to Fionas for sex, and it turning into abusive stalking.
Is Gadd is telling us he cheated on his real life partner with Fiona, after a male on male rape at a party, and Fiona was part of his risky behaviour after the rape.
It supplies more context to the canal scene, this would be when she first started stalking him after the sexual fling, and why the sexual touching assult happened, Perhaps it was even a hand job.
He made a hanging curtains joke, they slept together, and then later comes her tweets, asking for her curtains to be hung badly, and how great his ass looks.
Then she wouldn't stop stalking him, because as we have been told in articles from her past, she is an obsessive stalker.
Gadd has made a show about the hypocrisy of how society sees male an male abuse, verses female on male abuse, and it is playing out exactly as the show has commented.
If the male rapist was on PM we would of been horrified, but because it was female on male stalking, Fiona is out in public, getting press and sympathy.
Please let me know your thoughts.

Can you please consider the following.
Maybe Gadd and Fiona had a fling, and Gadd didn't realise until to after she is an obsessive stalker.
When he goes to the police station and didn't tell them about his past sexual promiscuity, it's because part of the history was a fling with Fiona.
He gave her a free drink, she stuck around like the stalker she is, he didn't realise then they banged it out.
He tells the story of an abusive relationship with a male, because we as a society have sympathy for that story, but not for the story of how he slept with Fiona, and then got stalked.
It also explains well, how the scene in the cafe plays out, how he is saying they will just be friends, and why she loses her shit.
It explains why the "I want to have kids scene" plays out, because they slept together, and he is trying to pull away from his stalker with a reason the sex has to stop.
It explains his fansty scene about her, when he was sleeping with some one else, but was flashing to Fiona, because he has slept with her.
It explains why he includes knowledge of why he knows where she lives.
He supplies information that some of the messages they exchanged have him offering sex. (Anal sex message).
There have been posts in this sub saying the male in male rape was a party date rape, so you mix the abusive stalking from Fiona, with the rape and you get the mixed story in the show.
You have the first meeting at the bar with the male, and the drugs with the male after he goes to his place, ending in a male on male date rape.
Then you have Gadd meeting Fiona at the bar and the visits after that are really him going to Fionas for sex, and it turning into abusive stalking.
Is Gadd is telling us he cheated on his real life partner with Fiona, after a male on male rape at a party, and Fiona was part of his risky behaviour after the rape.
It supplies more context to the canal scene, this would be when she first started stalking him after the sexual fling, and why the sexual touching assult happened, Perhaps it was even a hand job.
He made a hanging curtains joke, they slept together, and then later comes her tweets, asking for her curtains to be hung badly, and how great his ass looks.
Then she wouldn't stop stalking him, because as we have been told in articles from her past, she is an obsessive stalker.
Gadd has made a show about the hypocrisy of how society sees male an male abuse, verses female on male abuse, and it is playing out exactly as the show has commented.
If the male rapist was on PM we would of been horrified, but because it was female on male stalking, Fiona is out in public, getting press and sympathy.
Please let me know your thoughts.

Even tho I like family matters, I wish it was more dark and nasty like THP6 but without the fake sympathy lines
(“Touch My Body” by Mariah Carey play, you probably start reflectin’) that's the energy he needed.
kendrick wasn't holding off, his lines were more nasty, and he was saying it like he meant it, while in family matters the first and last verses that were directed at kendrick they were kinda light toned.

Not shared, nor my shade; but something to be weaved; just as the measure of disappointment became it's own solution. But I talked my way through things forbidden, just to find myself blind in bed with those who are dead. Clumsy, but altogether natural of course, because it's consciousness what you refer in the description, yet that's what we don't get a lot about. See your deeds the way you are seen, and then return to a restless place: and the question in-between sheets will be why. Well, I just can't motivate myself to work without hot bitches staring. And that's the truth. Sad but True
— Hearfelt comment for an instagram witch.
Del desprecio a ese descarte, no he visto muchas cosas. Así se pasa una más para las cuentas, y aquí otro más para los versos, por qué aquí no hemos sido vistos. Cuánto más querría uno, que sino lo cuentas ni mucho menos piensas: << lo de este pibe que cosa más horrible>>, haciendo eso lamentable, por qué en decirlo nadie ha mentido. ¡Es horrible! Que cara es entonces la cuenta de lo que le sale a uno vivir sin más complejos; mejor seria cobrarmelo, para así saber que de algo ha valido. Bloqueame.
— Heartfelt comment for a random supermodel-to-be.
The Spirit of Fire
Flames begone, flames in spite: their warmth I felt - so I closed my fist until I could feel the warmth of my blood in my hand. And in dreams Fire came up to me and said: who am I? And I said unto him: you are bound to my bidding, thus your name misery will be. But fire wretched as he was, got closer and asked: and who are you?
And I said unto him that the blood of David ran through my veins, as I was his heir; for the mother of God claim me from death as a son. So Fire tried me, and figured it out.
You are son of woman —said Fire unto me— but as Fire acknowledged the name, I extended my left hand, and took Fire by the neck throwing him into the gound. — You are going to lace yourself to the right hand of the beast, and you'll keep him steady, so I can cleanly take him down. And Fire stayed down, and with his forehead kissing the ground asked unto me —why would the heir of David do so to earthly man?
And I said unto Fire that the beast from the abyss had left no mother for God, so I was to leave none of his body left for his head; as I was going to make it bleed until the end of the end of times.
The Spirit of Earth
Shapeless and without body, but keen within her many numbers, Earth came up to me in dreams, and said: who am I? And posessed in spirit as I was, I said unto her, that God had made her maiden again, and that she shall become the coins that Judas never received, which were to become the due payment of man and women for the body of Christ. Then I extended my right hand, and grabbed Earth by her hair —which descended deep into the abysses of hell— and cut it short so the demons of Lilith would no longer had her gripped by her back.
You are now a woman, and I'm going to rise you from the grounds. You'll lace yourself to the left hand of the beast, and keep it steady so with one shot I can cleanly take him down.
The Spirit of Air
A dream shaped by written words, whispered down for years by the currents of this Montain, and it's requiem witnessed but by a few — the end of dreams. But from where I standed at the peak, I called upon the distant currents that went down, and asked them: who am I?
And Air came unto me as bird, which had thousands of letters for feathers, and in the tongue of dead men answered.
"Somebody who only a few will remember by strange deeds; as the burden on your back, is a past tainted by impossible dreams. You were a lunatic giving new names to folk, and folk never bothered to remember —so your name must be freak, as you died in a forgotten shack some short time ago."
And as Air said these things upon me, I called Misery —as I had dubbed Fire — and told him to get inside my shot. The burden as Air had said, became lesser as i took the shot from my quiver. And I said upon Misery; that he was to set ablaze this arrow, as I was taking down the bird of Britain, and that I would do so, so God would give the deeds of Earth some better names.
The Lord is making a bridge between the empire of strength, and the last empire of men. Now by God's grace, I'm making the tongue of free men, the tongue of Spain. You will be eventually bound to my bidding, and if not me, it will be to the one I'm preceding; for I'm giving you twenty years to attone your wrongdoing. Alas, now because of your wretchedness, my shot on earthly men won't be clean, for his left leg won't stay steady.
Your old name was apathy, now I'm calling you Cisma, which in the tongue of dead men means schism. So now by the will of God lay unto the ground and say the words you've been teached. And as the arrow blazed forward, it's bending motion pierced the veil hiding the secret ladder of men. The bird of Britain catched on Fire, and it's hollering resounded throught the ladders of the mountain until the depths of the abyss. A column of air turned into fire, then violenty erupted from the vowels of the bird, and the wild fire spread as a storm from west to east all throughout the five kingdoms of men away from its own fiery wings, with a gift of misery and a few words to say.
"The name of your woman or the name of your man, will no longer explain their purpose to a man, a woman, or God. Charred words written by thunder will now be the new ladder of men — but until then, darkness upon thee."
The House of Water
I head into the coasts, and the beautiful beaches in-between, to find the stranger who burns images in the skin of men. He is the stranger, and has adopted the body of a monster, and he is one who cannot be understood, so he went on to only go out home in stunts, for the burdens in his heart have become too great to bear. Through terrible pains he has given all he once was for an identity, and as I pick up on his past, i found familiarity in the feelings of his heart. Oh dear friend how we found looking in sadness to ourselves, after doing same but with different means, carrying into our shoulders the loneliness of this world. As you have in-skin the garments of the strange doctrine that I preach — I shall congrate you, for you truly have fought the world entire, for my doctrine is the words of those who shall defeat the world entire.
I may not have your strangeness in-body, but I have it in these words, and in the true feelings of my heart. And I say in admiration that there's no higher form of art, philosophy or religion: than those who perform the highest thing they can give a name about.
Now even within solitude, and at odds with what old dead men call God, I see you and I found strength in you, as I can see you are within me, and in that, you are within everything as it should be - as is meant in everyone who does something that touches the heart of another man. I call this the kingdom of God. Yet blind men and women will wonder how can the kingdom of God possibly be within two outcasts such as you and me.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Upong giving my regards and waiting for response, I found my way into a bench. It was a warm afternoon, and the wind carried the water of the sea. The bird of Britain came about down from the wind of north, and layed on the bench were I was sitting.
The bird asked: why hast thou become this?
And I said back to bird, scorched he was and nearing death, that it was me someone who was supposed to give names, yet for years I couldn't figure out one for myself. Then on went to being given a name, Alas all the wrong ones. Did Adan gave himself a name? - I asked the bird back. And there was no response from bird. Then I continued.
A man has the essence of his soul retained by what he is seen doing. Yet I did things nobody saw, so my soul wasn't with God but with something just as ancient, and nonetheless unknown by men in its true nature — then Satan as the better known devil, came about and pushed me into a hole. It was my own doing. Yet the things I did, I thought were seen. But nonetheless what I did was without contemplation on a posible return. Just as somebody who prints an image on their own skin. It's permanent. This is the essence of a memory in the soul of the man who's seen by others. But in the familiarity of a man who picked every irreversible decision like the Alien, I find myself feeling sympathy, for the man is still not what he has been seen doing, he shall redeem himself by what he decides to turn himself into.
Is this a way of saying that you want to get yourself a tattoo? Get a new look? - the bird mockingly asked.
And I gave the scorched bird no answer.
Then the bird said unto me: what about your career as a prophet, uh? And the things you said about returning with substance? Do you actually think this is substance?
And i considered what the Bird said, then I negated with a movement of my own head. It is not i answered, but i find the memories of me not making sense unbearable. For those mean the memories of a fool, un pendejo, an insane person, or both. And I will always try to amend what I don't do well. But now I wish for only one thing, and it is to be remembered as someone who makes sense, and who out of that sense, made good upon the world. I don't expect anything in return for what I do now, as it is merely an outlet to keep me sane while I finish editing my work. It's clear I'm too incompetent to be a competent influencer. As for once, I don't care about influencing anyone into what I think; but to perform what I think it's important.
Then every proverbial student is free to take classes so as they see fit, and to interpret such classes as their comprehension gives them grasp of what it's said. In such regard, this is what I offer now, while I make the journey to Madrid. And the bird tilted it's head so as to observe me with his left eye, then after a long impasse, it made a loud and painful caw, and finally flew away. Soon after the bird flew, I looked upon the stars in the nascent night, and confessed to them, that it was the memories of who we were, what often stumps us into wrong beliefs of who we should be, maybe even wasting an entire lifetime retained by that which other people remembered us as being. But we are not the owners of our own names, the place we go, and our destiny. That's the biggest lie the western world of hollywood heros tell you, as in truth is collective agreement what determines what we look like doing and thus the meaning we should comfort to, recalling that names are practical mechanisms to remember the purpose of things, their meaning, and how their motion is described in the world.
But making the task of beating that collective belief, akin to the Nietzschean ideal of the camel turning into the lion, so as to transform it's spirit and become something else. But if it's the golden dragon of all the huamn values which judges you insane, will you be prepared to wrestle with the entire culture so as to have your way?
As I layed my eyes upon each star counting up to the number seventeen, I confessed of being scared of those beliefs, as revisiting the past, became a painful deed — and as I prepared to leave, I uttered one wish on the seventeenth point in the sky.
Lord please grant me strength, the way you have given my friend strenght.
2.
The night deepen, while the sea tide sang its own song of breathing. Some time passed, and then on the stranger showed himself approaching at the distance. I waved my hand at him, and after the instant, he found his way into my bench while I welcomed him with an extended fist which he casually bumped - after the short acknowledgement the dark alien looked at my face in between it's cover of dark, and looking at it undiscernable in its true features, with suspicion asked.
— What is it that you want?
I acknowledged him as a friend, then mentioned my brief research, as I had come to know him as man looking for a job, yet nobody would hire for things mundane due to his appearance. I listened closely to the news, and came to understand that this was a man looking for a second chance.Then I saw the intent behind his doing, and two words came to stick to my own thoughts. The first one was <> and the second one was <>. I was admired.
In analytical psychology I figured this man was the ESFP —the personality archetype related to the performer and the entertainer—, possessed in an abnormal way by the spirit by which a person submits to it's contrary nature, seeking to integrate and find fulfillment through the chase of what's perceived absent. If he was the ESFP then doing the flip by following the radial axis of each Jungian function in the stack towards their opposite resulted in the INTJ. The mastermind. The architect. The genius yet awfully complex individual. That was the elusive spirit he was chasing.
But a spirit and a character that at its most pronounced embodiment in a person, would experience life as an eternal foreigner hiding from the light of other men. Such made sense to me, for I myself was the INTJ, and had at spirit the ESFP. Him. So where as this man chased the spiritual fulfillment of being a complex and deep individual, I chased the fulfillment of becoming simpler, so I could demonstrate with action the deepest desires of my heart. One who was born plentiful in means to be liked, becomes complex, mysterious and uncomprehended, meeting one who will be seen trying to make sense becoming simpler. For Carl Jung portrayed the anima and animus of individuals, as the sense of what its absent, yet deeply cherished an valued. So I said these things to the alien, while he silently listened to me.
— All of that sounds like bullshit to me. -Said the alien after some contemplation .— Sorry but the things you say, don't mean anything to me.
And alas for I expected such response, as if one thing was true about this journey, was that explaining the journey in and of itself would become it's grimmest task. I affirmated what he just said with a slight nod of head.
— These things I say and how they relate to each other, in its excercise are similar to doing stecheometric balance with equations in the head, but simpler I'm afraid. - Then I paused, looked back into the sea, and continued. — That's high school chemistry, but I don't expect everybody to pick up on it, nor like it, nor understand it.
— Now i have called you a friend, and where I came from we dub with this title the people we share destiny with. As far as I'm concerned, we are chasing the same thing, which is the hardest posible thing. We both innately understand that we are not home, as we want our spirit to return to us, and that's not what a lot of people ever honestly try to attempt in a lifetime; as such is anyone's call to feel complete.
— And very few people ever reach true individuality, beyond the name they are imposed at birth.
Then I looked into the black alien, and in-between his foreign facial features, I interpreted something familiar. Disturbance. And I continued.
— We have given ourselves hell as we lived chasing something hard, so we can avoid the same hell later on when we are finally back to our own house. This is a christian precept, altought a rundimentary one. Does that makes sense to you?
And after listening such, the black alien calmly looked at the veil in my face in silence. Trying to discern what my face actually looked like, but the night was dark. Then turned his stare back to the reflection of the moon over the waters, giving some thought to what I just said. I opened up my backpack, and drawed two cans of beer from it. Offered one to him, and he silently refused with a gesture of hand. I popped my can and gave it a sip, while I myself stared at the tides coming in and out of the shore.
— If you wan't a tattoo, we can work that out. But this sounds annoyingly familiar, and my interest is not religious. Are you religious?
I nodded in affirmation, and complemented saying. — But my doctrine is something nobody has heard nor seen. For its aim, is doing as Christ said, in perfect means. Yet its true that the teaching fits you, as it's the teaching of the future man; and there's nothing in common between the current man and the future man, as they may very well be different species. This is the precept of evolution.
The alien seemed surprised.
— These two men don't know each other, for the current man doesn't know where the future man comes from, for he himself doesn't know where he is going. Yet in deep realization of your own artistic concept, I think you might want new ideas to meet with your appearance. So tell me, are you curious about what truly happens to a man after he dies? Do you want to learn how to read someone's mind? Do you want to blast with words of fire the hearts of an amazed crowd?
But the black alien broke his calm contemplation of what I was saying, and slighty disturbed, aggressively rebuked after hearing such.
— But you mentioned 'Christ', so you must be christian. How can a christian even say anything interesting in this current time? Last time I asked, their sayings were dreaded by restriction - so why would anyone condemn themselves to a life of bore? Are you a christian?
And I nodded after the question, in silence. Admittedly, for I knew what the problem was with being what I was, and my new companion was bang on identifying it. Made a pause, then raised my sight to where it met with the sky and the stars in it, and I said back to him.
— I am, but not one of a type you have ever seen, for the Christ that comes, is a Christ of art.
2.
The riptide sang, in its secret dialect of earth and sea. I looked upon the coast, turned an eye blind, and saw the ocean as the scorpio, and the land as the taurus; as it was the struggle between two lovers, never meant to consume each other. Ideal love then - yet not to confuse with this partnership as it was whimsilcally tied by the means in which i arranged my current conversation; for my lady somewhere waited for me. Then i allowed my eyes to rest still.
The alien looked upon me, undiscernable in my intentions, and again figured for himself that my interest towards him wasn’t clear. In suspicion, and after the moment he collected his thoughts asked “In your weird words you dubbed me performer, so what is it exactly that you wan’t from me. To me it seems like you are gathering people for some form of religious clown show. When you forced this meeting upon me, was this a proposal you thought i would find amusement in?”. And after the statement my own stare wandered in my conversation partner. While as he had his say, i returned to my can of beer, and finished it with a long gulp. Tempered in an unwillingness to fall to my new found friend irritation, i said within my own thoughts: “The alien looks easy going, but he is barbed in wit”.
Then i opened the can of beer that the stranger rejected; the loud pop resounded in the relative silence, interrupting for a moment the steady chorus of the sea. Gave it a long sip, and said.
– Theres no proposal in place yet. But im certain of something, and that is that both of us are messed individuals which reached the bottom doing the same thing - but the way my understandment of the human soul goes: two people can act by mere interaction as reactives to each other, creating a new chemical compound after the fact.
– This new psychology is very much like chemistry. But it is not my intention to draw you into something, but to pull myself out of this «something» by doing right on another person and maybe that person reflecting the good back on me. I just need a conversation partner, thats all. And i will do this with you, and with many people more. Presidents included.
The alien reflected on it, and after the hiatus of a long standing position of suspicion he finally gave in, and eased up with a slight smile. A strange smile of relief. But the smile, was all too familiar for me, as i realized the man was a tortured individual: a person in long standing pain. I smiled back the way he did, and continued.
– Our pain has a common name, and is a name that can be written with words unfortunately. It’s the devilish mother of all spiritual ills and its foundation, rests at the concept of a past that wasnt solved. It’s called «inadequeacy», and for people like you and me, understanding one day that such inadecuacy had to be solved by our own means, lead us into an act where our name changed as the changes in our cover up act to solve our inadequacy did.
– We never honored the past or the present in our pursuit, as we desired in passion to find solution to the present, by matching it into the idealization of some future without ever realizing that the old or present essence of ones being would be crushed into non existance by said future.
– Then we found the realization of that new name, only to understand that its demands became a tyranny on the other faces of our soul: as our soul is not something that can be undestood in unity, but something that conceives in the beginning in multiple things which try to give shape to one thing. Theres many people in a village, and our minds, are no exception.
— But happiness is only achieved by those who have their soul entire - or those who are the same person regardless of the context and scenario. And we gave to much to somebody that wasn't us, as our spirit took possession and lead us down.
– This is this the essence by which someone goes to hell, only to do one thing over again, getting an ever lasting pain for all the things that were given up chasing that which was absent. The more someone is forced into being shaped by the thing that was concevied in lust, the more the individual misses the place they used to call home, for that is no longer within ones reach. Does this makes sense to you?
The alien left me with no answer, and as he contemplated the sea, a tear travelled through his strange face.
– In this state of anguish, affliction rarely ever feels company, as the very individual condition that was pursued, became a full suit and persona to be forced upon and wear. Hell, is one lonely place man because we only learn to speak a language, that only makes sense to ourselves. But i think we can find a way out of it. This is why I'm here.
“Look, what you’ve done, it’s not something i can see the way you can see my own doing on me.” The alien replied. “Besides the way in which i canno’t see your face in this night, you seem ordinary — but what you talk and the way you say it, evokes in every word regret. What is it that you’ve done that has you regret like this?”
As the alien finished speaking, I emptied the can of beer, layed my eyes on the irregular grooves that my feet had left on the sand, and then replied back to him, after making a recap of the story i had repeatedly told myself after falling down.
“My story, is the fairy tale of a guy who makes way for the new coming of a new man; a better man for the world, while he casts disarray upon the earth: much to his dismay, at the expense of his own soul as the people who become victims of disasters, were ones who this man deemed unfair; cruel, evil, despicable in past. That was at the beginning."
"Theres a pile of corpses behind that character — even in covid time, people as close as the local priest of the small town he lived in, would break their neck after falling in the shower, as he had the slightest suspicion of their secret deeds. All clean deads for that matter. Untraceable to nothing but sheer randomness. Magic as it seeems. But were this folk truly evil people or even guilty of anything? You may ask - the man never knew it for sure, as he never had faculties such as godly omniscience to actually know it; which has taken a toll on him, as the burden of justice is an unberable one for anything but a god."
"Which leads to another point: spontaneously picturing random numbers in the head, associating them with psychological compounds by angular momentum, and actually being bang on the suspicion. Truth friend, in its stochastic presentation: it's unberable.”
“Consequential of such attempts to rationalize his own story in the eyes of people such as close family, my dude became clinically diagnosed with referenced thinking. Which are fancy words for schizophrenia. Nobody believed the story as it was uttered."
"Yet the consequences are there for everyone to see, altought not visible in their cause and effect by anybody but this guy, which lead him first into regret over ever starting his quest as a reformer; and then repent.”
“Now before he realized of this lets call it «curse», he preached for years over the internet as the disasters started to slowly creep up. He preached in a fashion parallel to Niestzches Zarathustra; Zarathustra meaning a famous philosophical device artificied by the philosopher Niestzche, who’s aim was to portray the best posible man, as something he dubbed the <<Übermensch>> ”.
“Such concept being the seemingly more elegant brand of a humanist ideal for a not so distant future: today - albeit a wrong one, for this guy was not dyonisian himself. The backbone of his framework, is analytical psycholgy becoming a chariot for a true understandment of human nature: and ultimately a facilitator for love within light: not within ignorance; not within darkness. Most philosophers today though would mock anything analytical in it's aim."
"Then on the guy preached and dwelved further into the relative hole of his own doctrine: and became imprisoned by what he didn’t got right at first attempt, making him in the process the character that Nietzsche from the comfort of his own writers seat, never attempted to actually embody within realistic means: eventually figuring out within himself the ultimate Nietzschean aristocrat: a magic pen granted by being capetian by mother: from judah by father."
"But Alas, you have no idea how common suicide is within philosophers after they finish their best work. As language, becomes the ultimate barrier for understandment, and then to ones capacity to feel love. Difference — true saliency in ones individual destiny— leads to the gravest posible pain. Ironic isn’t it?”
“Besides technical work with a new form of psychology inspired by analytical chemistry, as that drawed from his efforts during the light of day, five years ago, once he felt the urge to try to reach out to the world from a position of what he deemed was greater understandment: he primitively preached during night his new set of ideas for people to behave beyond the limitations of manipulative psychology, albeit a harsh doctrine meant to clear the way for a better product: Christ himself."
"This is not a doctrine a human being can actually perform, as such its christianity at its highest capacity to bear fruit. It’s an impossible doctrine, yet solves the oldest problem posed in the bible. All which sounds very sci-fi bullshit-y but actual problems started for the protagonist in this tale, when the preaching matched with terrible consequences. Not figurative, but within tangible reality.”
“So just as we talk, theres a small legion of hackers pretending to be doing internet social experiments while talking in an artsy matter: much in my own style, entertaining the exact same concepts - a legion of dangerous monkeys, i have no control over."
"One of the many unexpected consequences being this, yet prompted by something evil; ancient: essentially replicating what my protagonist developed and then preached over the years, while these "hacktivists" lay their attention on things and people, as they select them and enforce upon them strict surveillance, to behave properly. Then to destroy them, as they did in 2020 with many corporations and institutions.A bizarre combination of theater actors to my own liking, and then cyber-security demigods: omniscient in their claims to surveill, and they are - derivative such of another device of what I've done; which is to build a theater so people can make-believe that they are infact performing within themselves something greater - but that's matter for another story."
“Most of the corpses piling up flat out dead, have no relation to him whatsoever; they became victims as my protagonist took measures to fight back the monster he found at the foundation of the known world. This is not an elaborate analogy for one's own unseen capacity for evil, as i mean this: a monster as literally as it can be. For these things friend, im doomed as in true strenght, i have nothing but the pen i use to write down what i think albeit always at danger of it’s eventual inversion. I have no real friends left. Not one who can understand, or help bear the pain: as friendship and love are all gated by understandment."
"The full story has many more vertients, but i think i’ve done it enough justice. This is the predicament of an insane man chased by his own shadow as he builds a better man: one who delivers heavenly things, and then a shadow stringed to deliver tyranny as the very strings behind him make the better man stumble while he tries to keep a grasp of his own spirit, and then of his own soul."
"That monster behind, is wicked smart — and cannot be outwitted nor overpowered but anything but divine smite."
“I’m heading now to a new country, to try to get friends from the only institution in the world who knows and adresses the current times being, and who by extension, might believe me. And to clarify, these being the end of times; but not the end of the world. Yet now i myself have a damocles sword pending over my own head, and i need to do something about it before it falls.”
And as i said these things, i reached out to my backpack drawing a third can of beer from it — besides my own super laptop, thats what my backpack had: an infinite supply of beer. Corona, Indio, Victoria, Dos Equis, Heineken; you name it. I popped the can, and gave it a long and definite sip as i emptied it complete.
The alien didn't try to show that he understood, but stood still in silence, with his sight in the sand below and pressing lips, knowing by my demeanor; that these things as I've said them was something that I needed to do. Then he said: "I don't follow man. You say you preach and then disasters occur. Like a prophet from the bible?"
"Yes. Then I preached to get rid of the things that are actually making the world worse, and something awoke soon after, and since then; everything I do is subject to being misinterpreted due to the diffamatory action of this thing. Now everytime I do something, it can be twisted and turned against my original intent. Right now the hackers are my worst problem: I may have a degree in computers but I have no fucking idea whatsoever of hacking. I earn my living as an A.I engineer.".
The alien raised his sight to meet with mine, and after doing some contemplation on the fact, quite simply said: "You are insane". Then lowered his own sight, and raised it again to meet with the sea and continued. "If you want a tattoo, we can work that out. But either way and whatever parts of your story are true and even worse; the ones you may be lying about: you sound dangerous in a delusional kind of sense, and my life is hard enough as is."
I pressed my fists, knowing then the old same thing had happened again. For I had never forced anything upon anybody, and I was willing to respect that until the bitter end. Then I released the build up of frustration with a loud sigh, and after this amend, I replied back.
"I understand and respect it. But let me just propose you that if you ever want to figure what is beyond life as it's lived by person who has never seen what is like to be someone you write a great story about; you can pin me, and I'll show you what's beyond that door. Give it some thought."
The alien; The Black Alien Project stayed there sitting, spechless but calm, almost expecting something else to be convinced about. But pointless, for i knew that nobody can be forced into anything without bringing a transgression into play – and i wasn’t one to taint myself in sin if it could be avoided. Not anymore.
3.
I made the distance at steady pace walking along the shore, until i found a small group of pines in-between the liminal space of the beach and the land. I sat with one of the pines trunk behind my back, and drawed the Schizo Pills from my eternal supply of traveller goodies.
Quetiapine 100 mg, and Olanzapine 10 mg, i made a smaller fragment from the olanzapine pill, and swallowed both complete. As their side effects were concerned, they would soon knock me out of conscience, as this little ritual was my own way of calling the day complete – then i layed there, vigilant, waiting for my own drowsiness to claim me into sleep - but the Bird of Britan came flying from above, and stood besides me.
\Chirp, Chirp, Chirp**
I watched the bird, annoyed, as its presence had become an omen for contempt. For me and the death people of my past. I frowned upon the little shit, and said nothing. The bird made a little nod, while tilting its head in excentricity the way birds do, and replied. — Hey Andrew!, do you remember when you tried to penetrate your own computer to make a universe grow inside of it? I just wan’t to know something: did your computer moan? Did it finally learnt how to scream your name?
\Chirp Chirp**
Ignoring the bird, i closed my eyes and stayed like that for a long moment, hoping to make the bird think i was asleep. Maybe that would make him leave.
— Can’t bullshit me like that Sweetheart. So please tell me something; why don’t you command one of your supermodels; these muses, to come here and warm the bed for you. It's a cold night and you seem lonely brah
. \Chirp Chirp**
I opened my eyes, and irritated, pointed menacingly at the bird turning my left hand into an imaginary gun. I had already failed at something today, and wasn’t convinced i needed the memory of the things i failed at before. Not now.

• Hol’ up cowboy ! you wan’t to bang my bird ass when you should be banging a bitch ass. What happened with Tyrone huckleberry? Did you managed to make him as impotent as you are right now? —I held steady my hand; and tired, the tempation to pull again the trigger on the bird was growing larger. I saw red roses in my own sight, making a terrible omen for a migraine forthcoming. Said nothing.

— The glowniggers are out there brah. You may not be a hacker – and its true, but i took notice of your last words: so now the glowies are going to instead dreambooth* people into every posible kind of scenario of extorsion, while they surveil like a motherfucker. Like you dream boothed yourself for your little ahem "art project". Then we will use Suno*, then Sora* when it open sources. Are you going to protect your hoes?
Said nothing.

• Alright cowboy, i will give meaning to that revelations verse. What was it? Ah yes. Revelations 9:6. Every single person with an internet history will be as paranoid as you were in 2020. Everyone will be diffamated into acts of political terrorism! Aren’t you am-

And as i pulled the imaginary trigger from the imaginary pistol, an imaginary arrow in the sky descended with a blaze of not so imaginary flames on the Bird of Britain, engulfing the little shit in heat, and making it’s body explode into a gore of scorched viscera. As if the bird was in a microwave oven. I inmediately gasped as the explosion was too close from where i was sitting - after the conmotion, stared at the red and burned stain in the floor, and left my sight rest there, as sleep finally found its way into my restless thoughts.
"No longer care for love unless it's between good friends”. Said to myself. There was certainly a migraine coming, but maybe my dreams would help convince it otherwise. And as far as the hoes were concerned, Furious Angels would be there for them. Like the Rob Dougan song.
4.
Found my own mind after the slumber – asleep, then awake. I realized several hours passed - at least enough to wake up and witness the sun rise above the sea. But as for dreams, the light veil of their memories wasn't something to rely upon. But i did remember something, and it was some overtone in dread; an atmosphere of fear – and a kind of dread sustained in it’s inevitability by the urgency that builds upon dearth.
Now what exactly was it though? I couldn’t remember from my dreams, but ever since i falled to my own death i had always present in mind the future succesion of events that would follow when things started to go very wrong. Iran, the U.S, Israel - now whatever was it in the news; the outcome would be the same. A thousand more cuts to an already languishing economy. Make that corpse bleed, and then fall off a cliff.
As such things would be cooked, just as the bird of britain. The bird was still there though: just in pieces and roasted like the contents of a dropped KFC bucket would. But the little shit would return - as it always did. The economy? Not so much.
Yet i digress. None of the world circumstances mattered as far i was concerned – i had built a small and portable solar system to power my laptop, and my beer supply was well, infinite - i made myself sure that i had my needs covered whatever happened around me. Not tied to even a house for that matter. I incorporated myself and gave my back a stretch. The morning breeze coming from the sea evocated in my memories some time that had long passed – late childhood. I rejected those memories as they beared with them things i didnt wan’t to remember - then wen’t on as usual in my morning routine scrolling through my instagram feed, figuring if there were any new hoes to maybe motivate me into doing my God imposed labour.
Labour which was to either write, or to finish the House of Water — then after scrolling i did in fact saw a new hoe; i dropped a Faux Pas comment. Maybe she would play along, maybe not. Whatever. Sometimes I would put in a lot of effort to do a rhyme. But the effort depended on the insta-hoe in question. I know. Not the best of habits, but back in elementary school i was the kind of kid that would only get motivation when the girls in the classroom were present in physEd. And then i would run faster: whole lotta faster. Run Forrest! Run! Women love used to fuel me; and the habit sticked — and at the moment, i was kinda done with the idea of female trascendence. Would rely on their love, but not on their validation. Not like a simp. Fuck that.
Furthermore, what results did i demonstrably mustered after pursuing true egalitarianism and sharing it? Exactly. A bitch gonna do what a bitch gonna do, and so does the human female. After publishing the comment, I locked my phone and walked towards the highway, as i was planning to pay a visit to somebody long forgotten - I had kind of a schedule that i was going to follow, before taking the plane to Madrid and become hispanic Jon Snow from the walgreens Nightwatch.

The Christian apologist, Rev. Dr Carlton Wynne, Professor, Westminster Theological Seminary, wrote: “Scripture is clear that Jesus, the sinless Son of God, was tempted to sin (~Matthew 4:1–11~; ~Mark 1:13~; ~Luke 4:2~; ~22:28~; ~Hebrews 2:18~). In addition, the author of the book of Hebrews assures Christians that it is because he was “tempted as we are” (~Hebrews 4:15~) that our ascended Saviour is able to sympathize with our weaknesses as a fallen people. However, the same verse adds that the tempted Christ was also “without sin.” That is, we Christians have a Saviour who has shared our experience with temptation. But who, as the spotless Lamb of God, was perfectly suited to be our substitutionary sacrifice at Calvary and now lives as our High Priest in heaven. All who look for divine sympathy and relief from the persistently alluring hand of sin may be supremely comforted.” ~https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/could-jesus-have-sinned~ There are two problems with the works of the learned scholar, firstly, Jesus did sin to Jewish law, and was cursed by God. ~Kiddushin 29B, verse 18~. Jewish law on marriage was very strict, and if one did not follow the law, they could be in great trouble and brought before the Sanhedrin court. Secondly, Christians say that Jesus' anger in the temple was righteous anger, when he overturned traders tables. Utter hypocrisy, it's all right for Jesus to get angry, but it is a different story if anyone else gets angry. Assuming this incident actually took place? Then yes, he certainly was guilty of sinning, and lawbreaking. He basically entered an area where people were conducting legal business, and vandalized it, assaulting the merchants and customers with a weapon, and causing a civil disturbance. Christians often say it wasn’t a crime because he had ‘reasons,’ but that isn’t how the law works? You can have ‘reasons’ to rob and steal and assault people, but having ‘reasons’ doesn’t make those any less criminal acts. The sin was perpetrated to Jewish, and Temple laws of the time. However, Christians will try to turn this sin to their advantage, even though Christianity was a long way off in the future. The law at the time was Jewish, not Christian.
I am uncertain if one can be comforted with a lie, as the consensus of biblical scholars says that the epistle to the Hebrews, is pseudepigrapha (as are 2 Thessalonians, Ephesians, Colossians, Titus, 1 and 2 Timothy). Which is a nice way of saying it's a forgery made in Paul's name. However, the learned professor Wynne, seems to know this fact, but skirts around who wrote the epistle by just declaring the author of the book of Hebrews. Omitting any author's name! Yet, Dr Wynne in his eagerness to verify Jesus' total lack of sin cite Hebrews (twice) a known forge epistle.
There is no going away from it, Jesus was a sinner!
~Mark 3:1-5~ Jesus did not adhere strictly to the law himself and even transgressed, especially performing miracles on the Sabbath.
~Mark 11:15-17~, Jesus the Sinner.
~Mark 7:19~ Jesus “declared all foods clean,” directly opposed the law of God as given to Moses. (Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14) Mosaic laws on unclean foods, which set apart the Jews from others. It appears that we are led to believe Peter did not know that Jesus ate unclean food ~Acts 10:9-16~/. Scholars see Acts 10 and Mark 7:19 as early Christian inserts to allow the eating of all foods, so distancing them from the Jews. What do you say?
Sue for Jero

• 476 AD - "Kings Of Nothing"
  
• Aaryan - "Cloudscape"
  
• Aborted - "Vault Of Horrors"
  
• Aborted Bong Rip - "The Lunar Harvest"
  
• ABYSSIUS - "Abyssius"
  
• ACRID DEATH - "Abominable Presence Of Light"
  
• Ancst - "Culture Of Brutality"
  
• Apogean - "Cyberstrictive"
  
• Apparition - "Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State"
  
• Atoll - "Inhuman Implants"
  
• Axiomatic Dematerialization - "Absolute Elimination Of Existence"
  
• Benighted - "Ekbom"
  
• Black Pegasus - "Black Grass Smoker"
  
• Bloodcrusher - "Self Titled"
  
• Blood Red Throne - "Nonagon"
  
• Breath Of Sindragosa - "Shadowflame"
  
• Chains Of Agony - "Imperium"
  
• Cincinatti Bowtie - "Chronicles Of The Damned"
  
• Civerouz - "Maze Envy"
  
• Cogitations - "Relinquished"
  
• Cognizance - "Phantazein"
  
• Contaminated - "Celebratory Beheading"
  
• Dååth - "The Decievers"
  
• DeadVectors - "Mauled"
  
• Deicide - "Banished By Sin"
  
• Depths Of Baciu - "Concealed In Shadow"
  
• Disfiguring The Goddess - "Blood Era"
  
• DIVINITIST - "Blood Dripping From The Knife On The Chest Reflect Your Truth"
  
• Drown In Sulphur - "Dark Secrets Of The Soul"
  
• Dwarrowdelf - "The Fallen Leaves"
  
• ENEMY 906 - "Through The Hell"
  
• Engulf - "The Dying Planet Weeps"
  
• Enterprise Earth - "Death: An Anthology"
  
• Eternal Bloom - "Ov, Misery"
  
• Eternal Storm - "A Giant Bound To Fall"
  
• Exocrine - "Legend"
  
• Filth - "Southern Hostility"
  
• Fire Keeper - "Firekeeper"
  
• Fractal Gates - "One With Dawn"
  
• Galactic Devourer - "Nebula Torture Chamber"
  
• Greybush - "A Never Ending Search For Justice"
  
• Griefgod - "Deterioration"
  
• Hideous Divinity - "Unextinct"
  
• Hour Of Penance - "Devotion"
  
• Ingested - "The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams"
  
• In Vain - "Solemn"
  
• Job For A Cowboy - "Moon Healer"
  
• Klysma - "Death"
  
• Knocked Loose - "You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To"
  
• Laccolith - "Death Incarnate"
  
• Made In Taiwan - "Sui Genesis"
  
• Memento Mori US - "S/T"
  
• MILLHAVEN - "Dualism"
  
• Necrot - "Lifeless Birth"
  
• Necrowretch - "Swords Of Dajjal"
  
• Nogothula - "Telluric Septis"
  
• Obsidian - "Fathomless"
  
• Oracle Spectre - "Decievers"
  
• Orbital Gate - "Astral Scavenger"
  
• Pestilength - "Solar Clorex"
  
• Petrification - "Sever Sacred Light"
  
• Raised By Owls - "Vol.3: (The Satirical Verses)"
  
• Red Bath - "Endless Drowning Under These Skies"
  
• Revisal - "Curtain Call"
  
• Scarlet Rot - "Scarlet Rot"
  
• See You Next Tuesday - "Relapses"
  
• Skeletal Remains - "Fragments Of The Ageless"
  
• Spectral Voice - "Sparagmos"
  
• Stages Of Decomposition - "Raptures Of Psychopathy"
  
• Steven Hufalar - "Eternal Realm Of Agony"
  
• SUGGESTIONS - "Thorns Of Pagan Embryo"
  
• Terminal Nation - "Echoes Of The Devil's Den"
  
• Terranoven - "Valley Of Pariahs"
  
• Thanatophobia - "Kaleidoscope Of Fears"
  
• The Last Ten Seconds Of Life - "No Name Graves"
  
• The Stygian Complex - "Suffer With Me"
  
• Underneath - "From The Gut Of Gaia"
  
• Unhallowed Deliverance - "Of Spectres And Strife"
  
• Uwu - "Uwu"
  
• Vaticinal Rites - "Cascading Memories Of Immortality"
  
• VICTIMOFDECEPTION - "Mighty Rulers"
  
• Vitriol - "Suffer & Become"
  
• Waste - "In Bloom"
  
• Witch Vomit - "Funeral Sanctum"
  
• Wounds - "Ruin"
  
• ZOMBIESHARK - "Die Laughing."
  
• Not DM or DxC:
  
• Aaru - "SWNPL"
  
• Abysmal Growls Of Despair - "Inearthed"
  
• Acid Ghost - "It's Just Music"
  
• Alkaline Trio - "Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs"
  
• Alpha Wolf - "Half Living Things"
  
• Alluce - "Deathbloom I"
  
• Ammanas - "Somewhere Far Beyond"
  
• Andracca - "To Bare The Weight Of Death"
  
• Antichrist Siege Machine - "Vengeance Of Eternal Fire"
  
• Arrow Minds - "S.A.D."
  
• A Scent Like Wolves - "Distant Dystopia"
  
• Ashley Nieve - "Purple Hyacinth.exe"
  
• Austere - "Beneath The Threshold"
  
• AVRALIZE - "Freaks"
  
• Banshee - "Sirencore"
  
• Before I Turn - "The Devil Exists"
  
• Benjamin Croft - "We Are Here To Help"
  
• Beyond Melancholy - "A Lifelover..."
  
• Black Tusk - "The Way Forward"
  
• Blade And Bath - "Rotten In Loneliness"
  
• Blaze Of Perdition - "Upharsin"
  
• Bongripper - "Empty"
  
• Bottom Surgery - "Please Follow Closely"
  
• Boundaries - "Death Is Little More"
  
• Breath Of Wind - "Journey Through The Galaxy"
  
• Caligula's Horse - "Charcoal Grace"
  
• Casey - "How To Disappear"
  
• Corbian - "Butterfly Effect"
  
• Cottontail - "Murderous Melodies I"
  
• CthulhuSeeker - "Age Of The Synth: Elden Ring (Synthwave Arragement)"
  
• Darkthone - "It Beckons Us All"
  
• Dayseeker - "Replica (Acoustic)"
  
• Dead By April - "The Affliction"
  
• DEAFENING - "Have Courage, My Love"
  
• Defocus - "There Is A Place For Me On Earth"
  
• Desolate Thoughts - "Desolate Thoughts"
  
• Diamond Construct - "Anger Killer Zero"
  
• Dødsrit - "Nocturnal Will"
  
• DONT SMILE AT ME - "Suicide On Top Of The Altar"
  
• Doom Beach & Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop - "Doom Beach / Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop (Split)"
  
• Dream State - "Still Dreaming"
  
• Drifts In Autumn - "Ethers"
  
• Dua Lipa - "Radical Optimism"
  
• Ego Depths - "Prognimous Ekk Solthi"
  
• Eidola - "Eviscerate"
  
• Enki (I.L.Y) - "The Unknown"
  
• Ephilexia - "Car Crash Lullabies"
  
• ERRA - "Cure"
  
• Escaping Aghartha"
  
• Evergloam - "Nocturnal No More"
  
• Extortion - "Threats"
  
• Extra Terra - "Accelerate Or Die"
  
• Farsot - "Life Promised Death"
  
• Fawning - "All Around Me"
  
• Flesh Tape - "Flesh Tape"
  
• Fragments Of Lost Memories - "Yakusoku"
  
• From Another Life - "Daydreaming"
  
• Fugit - "Bury Me Here"
  
• Full Of Hell - "Coagulated Bliss"
  
• Galleons - "Violent Delights"
  
• Genital Shame - "Chronic Illness Wish"
  
• Grayscale Season - "Feel Something New"
  
• Green Day - "Saviours"
  
• handkerchief code - "A Story Untold"
  
• Have a nice life... - "Drowned By Suicidal Thoughts"
  
• Heedless Elegance - "The Dream Within"
  
• Hemlokk - "In The Shade Of Irminsul"
  
• High On Fire - "Cometh The Storm"
  
• If I Were You - "Withe/Without"
  
• Imminence - "The Black"
  
• inertia. - "In Limbo"
  
• Infant Island - "Obsidian Wreath"
  
• Infestus - "Entzweiung"
  
• In Tears - "Pale Under My Crown Of Flowers"
  
• Intig - "Vilsen"
  
• Iron Curtain (1) - "Savage Dawn"
  
• Iron Curtain (2) - "West Coast Lover"
  
• ISTOKTOCRY - "Hesh"
  
• Kali Uchis - "Orquídeas"
  
• Kill Ebola - "Ghost In A Drone"
  
• Knoll - "As Spoken"
  
• Krvna - "The Rhythmus Of Death Eternal"
  
• Kyros - "Mannequin"
  
• Lackmagic - "Naiad Doggerland"
  
• Lair - "The Hidden Shiv"
  
• Lamantra - "Be Happy, Life Is Beautiful"
  
• LEACH - "New Model Of Disbelief"
  
• Lightseeds - "Mirage"
  
• Like Moths To Flames - "The Cycles Of Trying To Cope"
  
• lil t4t - "Heaven707"
  
• Local Natives - "But I'll Wait For You"
  
• Lord Dying - "Clandestine Transcence"
  
• Loss Of Hope - "One Step Closer To Lifelessness"
  
• Lost In Seperation - "Sabertooth"
  
• Made Of Pain - "Untitled"
  
• Maggie Lindemann - "Headsplit"
  
• Makari - "Wave Machine"
  
• Malist - "Of Schorched Earth"
  
• Massa Nera & Quiet Fear - "Quatro Vientos Cinco Soles"
  
• May Leitz - "Season Of Slumber"
  
• Merrimack - "Of Grace And Gravity"
  
• Morphine - "Dysphoria II"
  
• my head is empty - "Nothing Is Real, Part XX"
  
• Nailah Hunter - "Lovegaze"
  
• Nänmëë & Departing - "Memory Association"
  
• Newmoon - "Temporary Light"
  
• NOAHFINNCE - "Growing Up On The Internet"
  
• Peter Ries - "Stratus"
  
• Pulchritude - "Impending Beauty"
  
• Ray Noir - "Scorpio"
  
• Red Keep - "Ruminate"
  
• Renesans - "Born From The End"
  
• Rise Of Asura - "Dysphoria"
  
• Rough Justice - "Faith In Vain"
  
• Rupture Of The Gastrointestinal Tract - "Rupture Of The Gastrointestinal Tract"
  
• SAFEHXEN - "Lighthouse"
  
• Sår - "Burning Bridges"
  
• Sea Of Consciousness - "Sea Of Consciousness"
  
• SeeYouSpaceCowboy... - "Coup De Grâce"
  
• Selbst - "Despondency Chord Progressions"
  
• SETYØURSAILS - "Bad Blood"
  
• Shallow Existence - "Killing Myself On Valentines Day"
  
• Shamael - "Il Suono Di Mille Orchestre (Part 2)"
  
• Shrimp Money - "Coffinated"
  
• Shroud Of Blight - "Years Of Failure"
  
• SISSY XO - "Public Humiliation"
  
• Skuggor - "Whispers Of Ancient Spells"
  
• Sorcerer - "Devotion"
  
• Soulmass - "Principality Of Mechanical Violence"
  
• Soulvapor - "Inner Soul"
  
• SPACED - "This Is All We Ever Get"
  
• Status Expunged - "Sorry I'm Not From Winnipeg"
  
• Stygian Crown - "Funeral For A King"
  
• Sunspear - "Sunspear"
  
• Sympathy Pain - "Swan Dive"
  
• The Dog - "Somewhere, Anywhere"
  
• The Ghost Inside - "Searching For Solace"
  
• The Wise Man's Fear - "What Slept Beneath Tarvos"
  
• Thistle Sifter - "Circles"
  
• Too Close To Touch - "For Keeps"
  
• undercurrent - "Blue"
  
• Valadier - "Carmina Belli Apocalypsis"
  
• Various Artists - "Echoes Of Memories"
  
• Velvet - "Romance"
  
• VENUES - "Transcience"
  
• Violin Sky - "Silent Echoes"
  
• Vrøde - "Ostracised"
  
• Wandering Oak - "Resilience"
  
• Waveshaper - "A Void Hope"
  
• Weeping Moon - "Beneath The Weeping Moon"
  
• While She Sleeps - "Self Hell"
  
• Whitelands - "Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day"
  
• Whiteweek - "When Everything Breaks"
  
• Wristmeetrazor - "Degeneration"
  
• Xansei - "Xami"
  
• YEAHRS - "Spiritual Sickness"
  
• ZOZ - "Whendolia"
  
• Deathcore EP's:
  
• And Hell Followed With - "Untoward Perpuity"
  
• Arbitrator US - "Nephilim"
  
• Chaldea - "The Edge Of Perdition"
  
• Curse The Idols - "Gemory"
  
• Despite Exile - "Fading Trace"
  
• Divine Destruction - "Products Of Abomination"
  
• Girl Of Glass - "Girl Of Glass"
  
• Godhand - "Tachykinin"
  
• Lilith's Demise - "Lilth In Aries"
  
• Mana Tomb - "Damage Over Time"
  
• Mark Of The Altar - "A Dramatic Display"
  
• Nyctophile - "A Progression In Regression"
  
• Slamwich - "Bloodthirst Commands This Hellscape"
  
• Synestia & Disembodied Tyrant - "The Poetic Edda"
  
• Vile Revelation - "Cast From Eden"