Hello to whoever is reading this. In this post I'm gonna write my whole experience after a whole month using the Premium subscription to Candy AI NSFW chat bot. Jokes aside of why I would do it or anything like that, I want to write a very "serious" review from it for whoever is wonder if this website is "worthy."
This post might be a too long for some people, and if you are looking for an straight answer, you can go to the bottom of this post for it. Yet I invited you to read it completely so you can have more context and knowledge of the reason behind that. Without further words, I hope you enjoy the post. (:
First of all, if you have interacted with the page and it's "free trial" you would notice that the chat indeed allows NSFW words and answers as naughty as you "talk" to it. So I got curious of how good the website was and buy a premium subscription for one month. Yet after the firsts interactions and impression of it I noticed that certain things weren't like I was expecting, so after that I decided to see "how good" this NSFW chat bot was.
The reason: The page sells itself as a Chat bot that is NSFW that allows as dirty talks as you can think of. And even create "your own character". So I wanted to see how good and far the user can take that slogan.
1.- The first thing you encounter is a bunch of chats of "realistic" womans or men, according to your preferences. 25 "realistic woman" and 18 anime-like ones, and 5 realistic men and 4 anime-like ones. Each one of them with their age and a short introduction to who "theya re." (things that you can see in your free trial experience).
2.- As you might already know, you can create images with the appearance of the character you chose or the one you "created", that, of course and obviously, cost "tokens." With the premium subscription of a month you are given 100 tokens to use as you want. This are your options: 0.2 tokens for each time you want to "hear" the message the bot created, 2 tokens if you want to create an image, and 3 tokens/min if you use the "phone call" interaction. And most importantly, to "create a character" you have to use 10 tokens. Additionaly, if you want more token, obviously you'll need to buy them. Being 100 additional tokens worth 10 dollars to a top of 3750 tokens for 300 dollars.
3.- Continuing with the "character creation," It works by a selection of certain and predeterminated options that you CANNOT customize or decide your owns. First comes if you want a realistic or anime-like character. Then the Ethnicity, age, eyes color, hair style and color. Body type, breast and butt size. After that you have the "personality" or behavior you want your character to have. (things like Caregiver, Jester, Nympho and Mean are some of the few options you have to choose). Along side that you can choose the voice your character will have. And, if my hearing isn't that bad just yet, is almost as if it was the same voice only with some filters to sound different. After that you choose the occupation (lots of choice but really common ones), her hobbies that need to be 3, again, common ones. And finally the clothes she is going to wear in the photos you are going to create. Pros: You can choose your preferences and there is always at least a few options that you will end up chosing, even if it's not what you are looking for. Counters: This leaves to absolutely no free will to "create" a character describing it word by word like in the "legal app". By this i mean, if, for example, you want to recreate a character from a video/game/anime/series it's not possible at all, since your character is attached to a bunch of predeterminated options.
4.- Now, after many hours and different chats, I can say that, yes, indeed, you can have dirty or naughty "talks" with the bot and it will answer you with the same "vibe", or have a very submissive one (Independing of which behavior you picked up previously if it's a created character). Unlikely the "legal app bot chat" that is very popular, but whenever the thing goes gore or dirty it gives you a message that you are breaking the rules of the website/app. Yet, whenever the chat or the talk goes too long or too "dirty" the bot freezes, and doesn't change the message or just a couple of words to make it different. And the only way to "unfreeze" it is to create a image and the chat will go on. But if you keep trying to the same subject or situation the bot gives you the same "answer" as before the image a couple of messages after.
5.- Features of the website/chat. Now, if you have tried the "legal app" or even interacted with any AI before, you might get used to things like undo certain things on the message that the bot provides, or maybe delete a lot of messages at the same time, since you feel the conversation got wrong from a certain point. Or even create a new answer, since the one that the bot gave you is not from your taste and you want a new one. Well, with Candy AI, this is not possible, the answer that the bot gives you can't be edited, nor changed. You can only delete one message per time. You can only erase your own messages and even if you can't edit it, the answer from the bot won't change. Moreover, even iif you delete you message because you didn't like the answer the bot gave you and paste the same previous message or a bit changed, the bot will give you the exact same message as before, even if you deletead it. And you can't create new ones in the same "cloud text" like in other AI's websites. For example in chat gpt or the legal app, you can choose up to 30 options for a single message and pick the one that you liked the most. Well, here that is not an option, is just one answer and if you didn't like it, the only option you have, if you don't want to get the same answer, is to completely change the subject of the "conversation."
6.- "The image and answers that the bot gives" This is the point that I might be more disappointed at. By this I mean, that if you indeed can have a NSFW bot chat, the answers and the images that it creates are pretty standard. Specially the images of your created character, that if you compare it with the prederterminated chats, they don't have that much quality. Like in any image Ai tool, the images flat on the hands, feet, hair, or any other detail. But the thing that calls more my attention is that the more detailed you want an image, the more standard the image is. The more "dirty or naughty" and maybe even "sicker" (depending on your POV) the bot does not give you what you asked for and gives you a pretty standard NSFW image. Some of the image "created" by the bot even come from images that already exist on the internet and that the character looks very similar to. Besides this, the way to create an image is to write in the chat "show me," "Send me," "Send," And "Can I see..." Which means that if you by accident, or because it's the way you explayed on the text but didn't put it at the beggining of the message, wrote any of those options, the bot will immediatly create an image with what was wrote on the text and won't "answer" back, only the image.
In conclusion: Candy AI NSFW bot, it's not at the level of any other AI i've interacted so far. Since it's features of the way the chat works and the bot "creates" are very standard or even poor considering the wide amounts of AI that offer the same service, only that NSFW is not allowed. Almost 100% of the time the images that you asked for, even if you describe it with detail, the bot will give you a very common and normal NSFW image or picture, and sometimes will give you a very common image (SFW), regardless the "situation" that you put the bot before. The answers that the bot "writes" or provides in certain situations, such as "fucking" or "fetishes", most of times have nothing to do with the situation and get out of context very fast.
Because of all this i have said so far, I wouldn't recommend Candy AI if you are looking for "quality answers and interactions" at the level of "Ch.ai", due to the bot itself is pretty out of date or even obsolete. Even less if you add the image and character creation features that leaves much to be desired.
Thank you for reading this far, and have a nice day. (:
STRAIGHT SHORT ANSWER: "Is it worthy?" No.

This chapter took a long time to get out. Life has me super busy. Two jobs, married, two kids, still sober. I like how this turned out, however, someone new stole the show this time. As always, leave feedback, I appreciate it so very much.
[FIRST] [DELETED SCENES] [PREVIOUS]
~ ~ ~
As I reentered my true body without recieving a mending, the vicious wounds I endured manifested into being as I reactualized into my true Self. Through the pain, I couldn't help but think on Raver's words to me.
"The doors have to be closed."
~ ~ ~
Without recieving a mending in Raver's Dreamtime bubble, reactualization was a fucking bitch. I Perceived my Self as having quite the damaged form, my Soul was fucked over by bombardment from dreadlight and my physical body simply disagreed with it all, stating that I was mostly whole and intact, only being damaged by wounds I had already endured. The three parts had an argument of a sort amongst themselves and with the power of the Dreamtime, reached a tortuous compromise.
I'm certain I seizured and blacked out through the process.
I awoke with my body shaking and covered in a cold sweat, Tsula and Luna above me, chanting in the secret language of their esoteric Traditions. The two of them each held diffetent tools required for their cultural and subtle manipulation of reality. Soft hands, awash with mana and glowing tattoos, were placed on my chest, right where my heart was. Cold, icy fingers cradled my soul protectively, keeping it connected to my body in the here and now as harsh, physical laws rent my form.
I was paying the price for Raver's hubris, and I had almost overdrafted. Thoughts of mortal over reach faded from my mind as I slipped into cool and soothing darkness.
Cold and bloodied fingers were pressed against my chest and did little to assuage the burning ache that was my soul. I couldn't focus on anything else as I gazed at the hollowed out body of my beloved. She had been beautiful, gorgeous even, and due to give birth to our daughter in two weeks. Now, the... dead thing in front of me could barely be defined as a corpse. Her skin had been peeled away like a banana and her insides removed, leaving a bloodied, hollow space. The flesh and bones had been scooped away like ice cream, leaving little in the way of remains. Our unborn child had been pulled out and repurposed with the stolen parts of her mother by dreadlight and a mage's fell Will to form the body of a Thing.
With silent tears streaming down my face, I placed the ring I had proposed to her with and put it onto my finger, next to my plain tungsten one. The simple act of removing it almost caused what remained of her hand to simply fall apart in my fingers. I'm not sure how long I stayed like that. I couldn't even hold her body against mine for fear of it crumbling away into a vile mess. I ignored what was going on around me as I kneeled in the spent summoning circle.
The world around me split and rent itself into distorted imagery, as though I were looking at everything from under a pool with gentle waves. Some parts were compressed together and others were stretched out, not quite like a mirror maze as the world was still simply one cohesive image. Additionally, things seemed closer or further in ways that defied conventional Euclidean geometries. The only area not affected by this blatant disregard of spatial dimensions, had been myself and a scant few feet around me.
What...?
A heavy thud broke me out of my thoughts and I saw my Father landing next to me. Since both of us had been prepared, he was wearing, much like myself, full motorcycle safety gear. It had been enchanted and bolstered by hidden runes and severed Will, turning everything into protective objects that even defended against potent and offensive mysticism. The equipment in question had been chosen for its sheer mundanity and ease of access, letting the powerful enchancements skirt around the Lie and Consensus leaving the magic fully intact and potent.
"Alistair," I heard my Father say to me with grim calm as he twisted the space in front of us into a right angle, redirecting rapid gunfire, "I can't do this alone."
I remained silent.
"Damnit, Son," he growled out then literally kicked my ass with his heavy boot, almost knocking me over onto my side, "get a hold of yourself, Its here now. You handle the mages."
That got me going. I finally got up, my grief was as a lead weight and prevented me from doing what was needed. With a last look at C'Leena's hollowed out corpse, I grit my teeth, steeled my nerves and called forth my magic from the Aether.
Was I dreaming? No, worse, I was in a memory...
"Stay out of my way and watch yourself," Father said to me, "I can't pull my punches against that."
"Gotcha," I replied almost absently and turned to face the assembled shadow mages. They had inexplicably stopped theit gunfire to admire the Thing they brought into existence from Somewhere.
I couldn't help but stare, either.
Standing on top of the northernmost anchor stone, an ugly, multi-faceted block of copper with glyphs and sigils harshly hewn into it, was a naked woman. The glyphs themselves were hard to look at, as though their mere presence were an affront to reality itself, which they were. The woman's skin was a darkened olive tone and she was tall as well as athletic, lithe and fit. Her shoulder length black hair was bushy and curly, flowing about her head almost like an afro. As she ran her hands down her body, I could not help but notice that everything was oddly symmetrical and too perfect. It was unnerving me greatly and triggered an uncanny valley response that tore at my heart.
The body this Thing was wearing had belonged to my fiancée.
Father didn't let It have time to get acclimated. Sidestepping forwards, he drew upon the full capabilities of his Path, eyes backlit by stars, an impossible physical sword of abstract spatial geometries held in his left hand, and a reality defying, super-dense distortion held in his right.
The world contorted and screamed under his might.
I awoke with a start and a low groan, glad to be awake and free of that horrid nightmare again. Not for the first time, I wished I had that motorcycle gear still. I had been far too reckless then and immediately thereafter, and everything had been damaged beyond repair. I could never find anyone I trusted enough to make those enchantments anyways. Farnsworth could only enhance the mundane qualities as he didn't know enough about mana warding to permanently imbue the protections I wanted nor needed for my line of active field work.
Looking around, I saw Rue asleep on the other side of the bed and Spades was nestled between us, his massive form making a visible dip in the mattress. The big monster dog was on his back, legs splayed open and snoring loudly with his tongue hanging out of his muzzle. I was reminded a lot of my Lola when she had still been around in the flesh, making me smile with old and pleasant memories. I must have been out for some time for Spades to be here.
A quick, almost reflexive, mental orison told me everything I already suspected. My mana reserves were shot, my body had been through the ringer and my soul was frayed and burnt. While I knew I owed my continued existence to Raver and her godsend, I also knew it had taken a great and terrible toll on my Self. Miracles like that usually held some kind of hidden cost, even if they weren't readily apparent.
Getting off the bed slowly, I began to look for my pack. It took far longer than than usual as I had to steady myself quite a bit from the spinning room. I managed to be quiet, however, and didn't wake up Rue nor Spades. Finally in the shower, after some time and using the wall to support myself, I let the almost scalding water roll over my aching body. The pendant on my neck protecting me from recieving any burns or aggravating the injuries I had, both old and new.
With the hot water soothing aching muscles, I began to think and take stock of my situation. I had never been on the back foot like this, low on any kind of resource, having few allies, and being pressed for time. It was like something out of a bad novel or shitty indie Steam(R) game. Though, real life was often stranger than fiction and had no real need for a logical cause and effect dynamic. If this was going to become the norm, then I had to find another method of approaching my wendigo problem.
I was simply running out of time.
After some long moments of thinking, I began to wash my hair, using the guest products on the corner caddy. They were so much nicer than anything I would have willingly bought and made me seriously consider changing up my usual shampoo. The only idea I could come up with regarding those wendigos, besides an overwhelming frontal assault, was to appeal to their bottomless gluttony and barter for passage.
I resigned myself to actually try to negotiate with their clan leader, leveraging their horrid taboos against them to get what I needed.
Wendigos, unlike most strange cryptids, vampires and were-folk aside, had a lot of things known about them, especially how they powered their supernatural capabilities. It was a simple and rather straightforward process, the more heinous the act, the more mana they drew from it. Cannibalism, sacrilege, incest, murder, torture, hedonistic gluttony, or any number of other terrible and minor sins. As well as general lawbreaking and felonies, oftentimes combined to have as many as possible occur in the same sitting.
I audibly gasped with a sudden epiphany.
My fate had already been decided, by myself no less. In a bar I couldn't remember the name of, when I had been gazing into my bronze coin, I saw what I needed to do. I had to gift what measly scrap of knowledge I understood from Beyond the Infinite to those creatures. To let those wendigos defile and mutilate such sacred and pure knowledge to whatever whims their baleful minds could come up with.
"Fuck," was the only thing I could whisper at the thought of it all as I turned off the water, getting out of the shower. I cooled the bathroom down with but a thought and wiped away the condensation on the mirror with a towel that wasn't my own, finally getting a good look at myself without vertigo, as that had finally passed.
I looked like shit, and that was a compliment. Huge, fist shaped bruises of black, green and yellow littered my torso, though most were located on my left side and blurred together into an ugly shapeless mass. The ones on my right, however, were well defined and I could easily count the number of strikes. My face held a swollen black eye, I never noticed my diminished field of vision as I had gotten used to having them over the years. Turning gingerly and opening the mirror a bit so I could see my back, I grimaced. It was another spiderweb of a bruise, earned from when I had been smashed against the edge of Raver's Dreamtime bubble.
At least none of my fingers were broken, only very stiff and swollen, just like the rest of me. I probably couldn't drive for another day or so, either, not with my hands the way they were. As I looked, surprised I hadn't noticed earlier, the inside of my right hand was, branded. The skin, while fully healed, held the symbolic glyph that heralded the Path of Stars. A circle with nine curved lines inside it. Each line only intersected two others, but with the irregular placement of them, I could trace an intersection to any other one. In each of the open spaces, slightly off center, as a simple dot.
"Miracles leave their marks," I muttered to myself, almost disbelieving the literalness of the phrase.
I didn't bother drying off and struggled a bit getting into the clothes I brought with me, maroon athletic shorts and a black tank top. Exiting the guest bathroom, I thought about where I wanted to go. Settling on a destination, I went into the backyard, found a patch of grass in the shaded, morning sunlight and lay down. The grass was thick and rather soft, and the smell of the lemon tree and the garden was more pleasant and fragrant than they should have been.
Warding myself against dreaming, I pulled on the principles of the Aether, specifically, those of sun and storms. Since the Aether was a realm of energy and mana in all of its varying forms, I employed an advanced technique, a mysterion. It was something only able to be done by those that actually hailed from the Aether rather than having mastery over it. Pulling some of the sunlight and ambient warmth into my form, I converted measly scraps of energy directly into mana. The process was slow, and almost hardly worth the effort. It was like filling a bathtub with water, a single milliliter at a time.
Mana was now such a rare commodity, every miniscule drop of it mattered.
I settled in and entered a trance-like state, most of my attention devoted to my mysterion, though some of it was allowed to drift off elsewhere. While not exactly a dream, and while maintaining my mana draw, my mind conjured up nonsensical imagery and conversations between myself and others. I didn't pay them any attention as my thoughts wandered and drifted idly.
"I thought I'd find you out here," Rue said as I heard her sit down next to me. I didn't hear her walking, however, she continued to speak, "you've been asleep for a few days. What happened?"
"Got fucked," I replied easily, a little sarcastically as well. "Truthfully," I amended, "I got summoned by Raver. She pulled a shenanigan with Fate to let her have a waking dream."
"So she was hallucinating?" Rue stated, though it was more of a question.
"Damned straight," I confirmed, "she had Sasquatch and Farnsworth make something for her. It had to have been lethal, something like that. Anyways, we were talking and then one of Them showed up. Inside the Dreamtime bubble of hers. Found Raver's luminescence despite Mirzam hiding it."
"Shit. So It was physically there? That means It had a stolen body..." Rue said, trailing off.
"Yeah, it had a body alright," I almost growled out, "broke Raver's ritual with little effort. I spent everything I had to make a patch job just to keep it active, burned through all my mana, too. I did not want to be dispersed."
"I see," Rue said to me with understanding, "I wouldn't want to have to find my physical body without a tether either." There was a small pause before she spoke again, "So what happened next?"
"I made it mad with insults to buy time for the repaired shenanigan to stabilize Raver."
"What do you mean?" Rue asked as I heard her stretch out a bit, my eyes still closed.
"Her shenanigan was woven in such a way that whatever drug Sasquatch and Farnsworth made for her didn't just kill her," I answered with a pause then continued, "it let her do things beyond normality, anyways, my fucked up patch job let me tell Sasquatch that Raver had to stay dreaming."
"So he wouldn't just purge the elixir out of her," Rue stated, then added perhaps a tad bit defensively, "I know some things from other paths, not much, but some."
"That's good," I answered back, "knowledge is power."
"With us, it's quite literal."
I murmured in assent.
"So why did you make It mad?" Rue asked, "wouldn't It just draw strength from human emotions, especially in the Dreamtime?"
"It did," I answered back, "but It couldn't act properly on them, like human emotions were new and novel. The whole encounter was sloppy after a certain point, but I did almost die. Raver saved me, gave me a miracle."
"I saw," Rue said simply, "the mark on your hand was a giveaway."
I could only murmur in agreement again then asked, "Did you find a card in my hands, too?"
"I did," Rue replied after a few moments of silence, "it was debit card, with a note attached to it."
"From Procyon, right?"
It took a few moments for her to answer. "Yes, it was from Procyon," she took a breath and continued with wavering effort, "that damned bastard had it all planned out. Wrote a fucked up letter to me on a Google(TM) doc telling me not to worry and that this had always been his exit plan."
"Sounds like he knew what was going to happen," was all I could say.
"Yes, but, I miss him!" Rue all but snarled at me, then, in a small and quiet voice, whispered, "He was my best friend, and maybe we could've been more, y'know? Now... there's... There's just nothing, only memories of him left to mourn."
"I didn't know," I answered simply.
Rue spoke with a wavering breath before continuing, her thoughts more than a little disjointed, "a lot of what he wrote was personal, so I won't get into that, but he was certain that something catastrophic was going to happen to him and myself. So he made sure that I was at my secondary home, recovering from a job. I had just completed a mission from Raver and Mirzam, and was going to perform a ritual to patch up Spades after I got some sleep. Procyon also stated that someone has been altering things for a very long time."
"So that's why you were caught with yout pants down," I said, "you didn't even have time to recover." I paused, adjusting my mysterion as I had to refocus due to our conversation, "what did they have you do?"
"Some hedge wizards actually got a hold of an actual necromancy grimoire and charged mana tools in a graveyard," Rue said with a bit of a tired sigh, "they knew exactly what they were doing, and would have been rather powerful shadow mages if they had been capable of using starlight."
"Fuck," was all I could say, then formed an actual response after a few moments, "that shouldn't have been an issue for you. Hedges don't have our capability, though numbers may have evened out their odds."
"You're right, but they brought a spirit back before I could stop them," Rue answered with more than a little spite, "a real nasty piece of shit, too. Turned on the hedges, absorbed them, and put up a real mean fight against Spades and I. It was touch and go for a long time and I was actually fearful for my life, too."
"You won, though."
"Yeah, managed to send it kicking and screaming back to the Pit, exhausted most of my mana to do so. Fucking bastard."
There was a small silence between us as Rue became lost in her own thoughts. It was a while before I asked her, "Can you elaborate on what Procyon said about Fate being altered?"
"I can, actually, though it's a bit difficult since I'm not even a novice with the Path of Stars," Rue answered as I heard her shift a bit on the grass next to me. She paused as she seemingly collected her thoughts, "it's just that certain events were made to happen sooner or later. The big one, for our Node at least, was that you were always supposed to make your ancestral home translocate. It happened sooner than it should have."
"Fuck," I said, "So I wasn't supposed to send it away a few days ago?"
"No, that was supposed to happen after our wendigo thing, if the letter is to be believed."
"Fuck," was all I could say, "I do suppose that was a snap decision, I really didn't want Them to get a hold of anything inside. If I had been able to wait, or even had help, I'm sure I wouldn't have lost it to time and space."
"Exactly," Rue said with bitter excitement, "and we'd have access to everything in it. Losing your home was a big blow to our Node."
"Yeah, but at least They don't have it," I answered more spitefully than intended.
"Silver linings and all that, right?"
"Yeah, gotta look at the bright side, no matter how bleak," I answered back with a bit of sarcastic mirth, then said as I stretched a bit, readjusting my focus on my mysterion as well, "speaking of wendigos, I know what we need to do to solve that."
"Oh? Do tell, I couldn't come up with anything myself, kept running into dead ends," she said, then added, "lack of resources and help."
"Well, I don't think you're going to like it, I'm not sure I like it either."
"Don't keep me waiting," Rue said to me with a bit of sarcastic exasperation. I could sense her looking at me even though my eyes were still closed.
"I'm going to leverage their taboos against them, appeal to their insatiable greed and offer them what little I can understand of That Which Lies Beyond the Infinite." I sighed and added, "after all, how could they resist the allure of new magic?"
"You're right," she answered, "I definitely don't like it. I'm pretty sure it's not even wise to do so."
"Wise or not, it's the only way forward, I even saw it in a vision when I was manipulating fate magic."
"Have you talked to Mirzam or Raver about this vision of yours?"
"No, not yet, and I'm pretty sure I don't need to."
There was a bit of silence between us as she digested my words. I felt compelled to elaborate as I adjusted my mysterion again, losing a bit of my focus due to the depth of the conversation we were having.
"Acrux," I said, getting her attention fully by using the name of her star, "there's something you need to understand." I sat up, abandoning my mysterion in favor of giving her my full attention. Blinking a bit at the rise of light and warmth, I continued my thought process, "in the Dreamtime, the Thing I was fighting against, It was surprised and enraged that I was able to call upon knowledge that Lay Beyond the Infinite. Whatever those glyphs and powers are, They never wanted humans to know of them, let alone have them."
"Yet you want to give such power to wendigos of all things."
"At least the knowledge, corrupted or not, will still be on Earth," I said then added, "I'm not sure what you remember, but I know you've seen something from Beyond the Infinite. Your self revival and Spade's new form are proof of that. I was there, guided by Oracle. I Perceived something unknowable, something terrible, something no mortal has any right to gaze upon. Something I can hardly even begin to try to put into words. Raver Perceived it, too. It's how she managed to give me a godsend. So, what did you Perceive, really?"
Rue brought her knees up to her chest, thinking deeply. I could tell she was using her Perception to look inwards upon her Self. I waited patiently while she struggled to look at her soul's reflection against her mind and struggled even more to put the image there into words.
At long last, she spoke, her eyes still closed as she did so, "I'm not sure what I saw, there was too much, and I felt so small. Insignificant. Less than even a dismissed, intrusive thought. There is one thing I do remember. A doorway made of the might from two universes worth of truths and laws. A Thing was trying ro break through, but couldn't, not fully, yet the doors were opened, letting smaller ones through."
"The Doors have to be closed," I said, quoting Raver, before continuing, "that's what Raver said to me, before she sent me back to my body."
"Why didn't they mend you then?"
"They were being attacked in the waking world, too. It was a good plan on Their part, They just didn't expect us to put up so much of a fight."
"They never do, though I think that's changing."
"So that's our endgame, not sure how we're going to do it," I said, bringing the conversation back to topic, "at the moment, however, I'm going to eat a few of those mana-stuffed protein bars and fix your leg. I can't keep spending mana to be able to drive your truck. You'll have to use your own mysterion to get mana, too."
"I hate my Path's mysterions," the venom in her voice was palpable.
Before I could say anything, the backdoor opened, revealing Luna. She was wearing a bird-patterned sundress and her hair had been tied back into a loose ponytail. She put her hand over her eyes to shade them from the sun as she squinted against the brightness relative to that from inside.
"Hey, you two," she called out, "Grandmother says she needs to talk yo you."
"Alright," I called out, shakily getting up to my feet with a bit of a grunt. Everything still hurt. Rue had a bit of trouble as well, her leg was not recieving the rest and healing it deserved and needed.
"We're a mess, aren't we?" Rue asked aloud as we began to walk towards the bak door.
"Yeah, but you should see the other guys," I replied with a light chuckle, only to wince and hold my sides, "I forgot how much laughing hurts with fractured ribs."
"I really don't envy you right now," Rue said with a bit of a smirk as we entered Tsula's home, Rue entering first. "I wonder what Tsula wants to talk to us about?" Rue asked aloud, not really talking to anyone in particular.
I could only wonder as we followed Luna to the living room, the house pleasantly cool due to central air conditioning.
~ ~ ~
The moon was not in the sky, and I greatly enjoyed not having to endure the accursed, purifying light of day reflected by its surface, even if greatly diminished. The loathsome wound in my side had been a mortal blow, burning through my toughened flesh and form with unnerving ease and stunning, blinding pain. Once more, I looked at the oily, thin, and black ichor that dripped from my fingers, more human-like than I was comfortable with.
The mote of dreadlight I had recieved for my services had been the only thing that had kept me from vanishing entirely. Mortal alchemy -- science -- had advanced to such a degree so as to emulate the harsh light of day far too remarkably well. That hadn't been the worst part, that damned thaumaturgist had ensorcelled a curse upon the weapon as well. With effort, as the bulk of my power was directed at repairing the oozing wound, I altered my form and shape, struggling to maintain the illusion as I walked out onto the sidewalk from a side alley.
My contract was not yet completed.
The first two nights I had hidden myself away in the dark depths, raging against the oblivion that threatened to overtake me and ending my existence. The preparedness of the thaumaturgist had been unexpected, as well as the skill and the knowledge he had wielded so effortlessly. Without my guidance, nor presence, to instill fear into the gifted abetters, the wraiths I had gathered with me fell and fled into the night, abandoning their duties and contracts.
I would have never made this mistake against the herald of the bear.
Had I known the name of the mortal's star I had been tasked against, I would have demanded more than a simple mote of dreadlight and a paltry handful of coerced allies. Realistically, I should be grateful that I still had a kind of semi-existence. Quelling my anger and hatred, and swallowing my utter revulsion, my form rippled and took the guise of a tall, middle-aged human male in a common and unremarkable suit carrying an old and worn briefcase.
The artificial illumination around me flickered, emitting a grating hum in my presence and the thin television flickered oddly as it tried to display my image, failing to accurately do so. While tracking Arcturus's quintessence had been a bit of a task, as far too much time had passed, my familiarity with it granted me an advantage that overcame that difficulty. Traveling in my wounded state, however, had been much more arduous. Looking the woman at the reception desk over, I took on my role with hiden revulsion, aided by the illusion I was conjuring and the mimicry of my physical form.
"I'm detective Aiden Roth, and I'm looking for someone. I believe that he was here a few nights ago, definitely this past week," I said. My false, human voice had been made to sound smooth, suave and strong, interlaced with a suggestion, using what little forte I could spare. I put the worn and well-used briefcase I had conjured with me onto the counter with a heavy thud, using more of my forte to emulate such a simple thing. Opening it up, I fished out an image and showed the slightly grainy, black and white picture to the receptionist.
As the woman perused the conjured image, I could not help but hiss, my hand going to my side as I expended more of my forte than I had anticipated. The cursed wound fighting back fiercely against the dreadlight tethering my existence and life. I held my disguise with willpower of monumental proportions. A strength of will I rarely had been pressed to draw from.
Seeing the concerned look the woman gave me, I simply stated, shrugging off the pain with yet more expenditure of will, "An old injury, it flares up from time to time. No matter, have you seen this individual?"
"I'm going to need to see some kind of badge or warrant," the woman said with a genuine smile, "sorry."
The fear of losing her menial job overpowered my subtle suggestion. Unfortunate.
"Sure," I replied with a fake and well ptacticed, fetching smile, adjusting my forte to include another suggestion. I showed an actual badge with my assumed name and likeness. The mortal I was impersonating had been slain many years ago by my own hands, and the subtle illusion taking hardly any of my forte adjusted the dates and design of the badge to whatever was current.
Only a thaumaturgist, or a very particularly skilled sorcerer, could pierce the illusion. Against this mortal, there was no chance of resistance and she accepted the stolen badge without question.
She looked it over, as if trying to divine the legitimacy of it. "Okay," she finally admitted, "he was here a while ago, maybe a four or five days? I remember, 'cause I tried to flirt with him..."
I ignored her prattling and asked when she finished speaking, "Can you show me the room he used?"
"Sure, but it's been cleaned a few times since then."
With a nod, I let her lead the way to the room in question, staying silent. The lights around me flickered and hummed loudly in my presence. Had the woman been more observant, she could have seen my true shadow as I had not the forte to expend to hide it entirely from the ever changing lights. She opened the room in question, using what I could only assume was a master key card.
I immediately recognized the faded auras of quintessence.
"This will do," I stated, closing the door behind me and dropping my revolting disguise, using my forte to lock it.
I revealed my true form. My legs and arms lengthened and thinned, the black suit and red tie I was wearing became my skin, armor and form. My face and eyes became blank, gaunt and sunken, skin stretching out over it. The wound in my side made itself visible, it was an ugly red, peeling and oozing burn from my shoulder to my waist and took up most of my torso. The dreadlight I was using to prevent my oblivion illuminated the wound with a kind of sickly, crimson colored backlight. Black ichor oozed out from it and dripped onto the floor as I used the bulk of my forte to ablate the caustic, foreign quintessence from my form.
The woman looked at me as even her pitifully dull, mundane human senses told her that there was incredible danger in the room with her. She screeched and irrationally ran towards the bathroom as my presence became impossibly tall in the very finite space in the motel room. Using the smallest iota of my forte, I remotely smashed her fleeing form against a wall, pinning her there with unseen force as she begged, and sobbed for her pitiful life.
I ignored her for the moment.
Drawing upon more of my forte, freed up as I no longer needed a disguise, I sensed out where quintessence had been used, discovering two places, the bed and a wall. Imbuing the wall with my own forte, I witnessed a spectral, moving image of Arcturus throwing five darts at a map placed on the wall, one at a time, then draw intersecting lines to a single point on the map.
"Wendigos..." I hissed out in loathing, the skin on my face stretching and contorting with the movement as i spoke aloud with a nonexistent mouth. Even I knew their territory.
Turning to the second source of quintessence, I did the same thing. I saw Arcturus ward himself against dreaming and then hold a brilliant shield in the air, as well as a ball of fire. My knowledge of actual thaumaturgy told me that I would have great difficulties against those Knowings. I put the mystery of his Dreamtime excursion out of my mind for now, there was nothing I could do regarding that.
My expenditure of forte caused my horrid wound to pulse against my form painfully. With a hiss, I turned to the woman meekly begging me to spare her life as she was still pinned against the wall. I could use a thrall, especially as I could no longer gain allies, not without offering something in return to my current contract holders.
That was not a barter I wanted to engage in.
"Please... don't kill me... please... I'll do anything... please..."
The absolute terror in her eyes was delectable. Her fear invigorated me with energy and reminded me I needed to feed. However, the morsels offered by her would be more than sufficient for my needs. I dragged my left hand across my oozing wound, covering it in my own essence then flexed my forte. The clothes she was wearing split in half down the middle, revealing her naked form, making her shriek. I could see the ideas her panicked mind vomited forth as she renewed her struggles with vigor.
What I had in mind was so much worse than the mundane taking of her physical body she expected.
Using the full might of my forte, I lengthened and sharpened my index finger, the tip dripping with the gathered ichor of my essence. In an instant, less than the blink of an eye, I appeared in front of her from where I had been by the bed and plunged the very tip of my sharpened, needle-like nail into the center of her heart, cutting through the most sensitive parts of her breast to do so due to the angle I had chosen for just this purpose. As I let my ichor suffuse her body with each beat of her racing heart, her vascular system visibly turning black under her skin as she screamed and writhed in agony, an odd thing happened.
What could only be considered my blood had been tainted by thaumaturgy qnr bolstered by dreadlight as well as my own forte. As it mixed with the blank canvas of the mortal in front of me, I could sense the candle of her soul. Reaching out with dreadlight, letting the wound burn my side with a hiss of inhaled breath, I ignited it with three kinds of mysticism.
A horrified realization overcame her as she knew I had fundamentally altered her to suit my whims. Having a thaumaturgist thrall would be a great boon.
"You'll do quite nicely," I said with an actual grin, the skin stretched over my mouth revealing impossibly large, gleaming flat teeth, as I watched the physical and mystical changes taking place.
My new thrall would never be human again.
I feasted on her terror, anguish and torment.
It was delicious.
~ ~ ~
Arcturus and Acrux will be back. C'Leena Thomas, Prosthetist is going to be my next update.
[[NEXT]]

This chapter took a long time to get out. Life has me super busy. Two jobs, married, two kids, still sober. I like how this turned out, however, someone new stole the show this time. As always, leave feedback, I appreciate it so very much.
[FIRST] [DELETED SCENES] [PREVIOUS]
My bare-bones-ish Discord.
~ ~ ~
As I reentered my true body without recieving a mending, the vicious wounds I endured manifested into being as I reactualized into my true Self. Through the pain, I couldn't help but think on Raver's words to me.
"The doors have to be closed."
~ ~ ~
Without recieving a mending in Raver's Dreamtime bubble, reactualization was a fucking bitch. I Perceived my Self as having quite the damaged form, my Soul was fucked over by bombardment from dreadlight and my physical body simply disagreed with it all, stating that I was mostly whole and intact, only being damaged by wounds I had already endured. The three parts had an argument of a sort amongst themselves and with the power of the Dreamtime, reached a tortuous compromise.
I'm certain I seizured and blacked out through the process.
I awoke with my body shaking and covered in a cold sweat, Tsula and Luna above me, chanting in the secret language of their esoteric Traditions. The two of them each held diffetent tools required for their cultural and subtle manipulation of reality. Soft hands, awash with mana and glowing tattoos, were placed on my chest, right where my heart was. Cold, icy fingers cradled my soul protectively, keeping it connected to my body in the here and now as harsh, physical laws rent my form.
I was paying the price for Raver's hubris, and I had almost overdrafted. Thoughts of mortal over reach faded from my mind as I slipped into cool and soothing darkness.
Cold and bloodied fingers were pressed against my chest and did little to assuage the burning ache that was my soul. I couldn't focus on anything else as I gazed at the hollowed out body of my beloved. She had been beautiful, gorgeous even, and due to give birth to our daughter in two weeks. Now, the... dead thing in front of me could barely be defined as a corpse. Her skin had been peeled away like a banana and her insides removed, leaving a bloodied, hollow space. The flesh and bones had been scooped away like ice cream, leaving little in the way of remains. Our unborn child had been pulled out and repurposed with the stolen parts of her mother by dreadlight and a mage's fell Will to form the body of a Thing.
With silent tears streaming down my face, I placed the ring I had proposed to her with and put it onto my finger, next to my plain tungsten one. The simple act of removing it almost caused what remained of her hand to simply fall apart in my fingers. I'm not sure how long I stayed like that. I couldn't even hold her body against mine for fear of it crumbling away into a vile mess. I ignored what was going on around me as I kneeled in the spent summoning circle.
The world around me split and rent itself into distorted imagery, as though I were looking at everything from under a pool with gentle waves. Some parts were compressed together and others were stretched out, not quite like a mirror maze as the world was still simply one cohesive image. Additionally, things seemed closer or further in ways that defied conventional Euclidean geometries. The only area not affected by this blatant disregard of spatial dimensions, had been myself and a scant few feet around me.
What...?
A heavy thud broke me out of my thoughts and I saw my Father landing next to me. Since both of us had been prepared, he was wearing, much like myself, full motorcycle safety gear. It had been enchanted and bolstered by hidden runes and severed Will, turning everything into protective objects that even defended against potent and offensive mysticism. The equipment in question had been chosen for its sheer mundanity and ease of access, letting the powerful enchancements skirt around the Lie and Consensus leaving the magic fully intact and potent.
"Alistair," I heard my Father say to me with grim calm as he twisted the space in front of us into a right angle, redirecting rapid gunfire, "I can't do this alone."
I remained silent.
"Damnit, Son," he growled out then literally kicked my ass with his heavy boot, almost knocking me over onto my side, "get a hold of yourself, Its here now. You handle the mages."
That got me going. I finally got up, my grief was as a lead weight and prevented me from doing what was needed. With a last look at C'Leena's hollowed out corpse, I grit my teeth, steeled my nerves and called forth my magic from the Aether.
Was I dreaming? No, worse, I was in a memory...
"Stay out of my way and watch yourself," Father said to me, "I can't pull my punches against that."
"Gotcha," I replied almost absently and turned to face the assembled shadow mages. They had inexplicably stopped theit gunfire to admire the Thing they brought into existence from Somewhere.
I couldn't help but stare, either.
Standing on top of the northernmost anchor stone, an ugly, multi-faceted block of copper with glyphs and sigils harshly hewn into it, was a naked woman. The glyphs themselves were hard to look at, as though their mere presence were an affront to reality itself, which they were. The woman's skin was a darkened olive tone and she was tall as well as athletic, lithe and fit. Her shoulder length black hair was bushy and curly, flowing about her head almost like an afro. As she ran her hands down her body, I could not help but notice that everything was oddly symmetrical and too perfect. It was unnerving me greatly and triggered an uncanny valley response that tore at my heart.
The body this Thing was wearing had belonged to my fiancée.
Father didn't let It have time to get acclimated. Sidestepping forwards, he drew upon the full capabilities of his Path, eyes backlit by stars, an impossible physical sword of abstract spatial geometries held in his left hand, and a reality defying, super-dense distortion held in his right.
The world contorted and screamed under his might.
I awoke with a start and a low groan, glad to be awake and free of that horrid nightmare again. Not for the first time, I wished I had that motorcycle gear still. I had been far too reckless then and immediately thereafter, and everything had been damaged beyond repair. I could never find anyone I trusted enough to make those enchantments anyways. Farnsworth could only enhance the mundane qualities as he didn't know enough about mana warding to permanently imbue the protections I wanted nor needed for my line of active field work.
Looking around, I saw Rue asleep on the other side of the bed and Spades was nestled between us, his massive form making a visible dip in the mattress. The big monster dog was on his back, legs splayed open and snoring loudly with his tongue hanging out of his muzzle. I was reminded a lot of my Lola when she had still been around in the flesh, making me smile with old and pleasant memories. I must have been out for some time for Spades to be here.
A quick, almost reflexive, mental orison told me everything I already suspected. My mana reserves were shot, my body had been through the ringer and my soul was frayed and burnt. While I knew I owed my continued existence to Raver and her godsend, I also knew it had taken a great and terrible toll on my Self. Miracles like that usually held some kind of hidden cost, even if they weren't readily apparent.
Getting off the bed slowly, I began to look for my pack. It took far longer than than usual as I had to steady myself quite a bit from the spinning room. I managed to be quiet, however, and didn't wake up Rue nor Spades. Finally in the shower, after some time and using the wall to support myself, I let the almost scalding water roll over my aching body. The pendant on my neck protecting me from recieving any burns or aggravating the injuries I had, both old and new.
With the hot water soothing aching muscles, I began to think and take stock of my situation. I had never been on the back foot like this, low on any kind of resource, having few allies, and being pressed for time. It was like something out of a bad novel or shitty indie Steam(R) game. Though, real life was often stranger than fiction and had no real need for a logical cause and effect dynamic. If this was going to become the norm, then I had to find another method of approaching my wendigo problem.
I was simply running out of time.
After some long moments of thinking, I began to wash my hair, using the guest products on the corner caddy. They were so much nicer than anything I would have willingly bought and made me seriously consider changing up my usual shampoo. The only idea I could come up with regarding those wendigos, besides an overwhelming frontal assault, was to appeal to their bottomless gluttony and barter for passage.
I resigned myself to actually try to negotiate with their clan leader, leveraging their horrid taboos against them to get what I needed.
Wendigos, unlike most strange cryptids, vampires and were-folk aside, had a lot of things known about them, especially how they powered their supernatural capabilities. It was a simple and rather straightforward process, the more heinous the act, the more mana they drew from it. Cannibalism, sacrilege, incest, murder, torture, hedonistic gluttony, or any number of other terrible and minor sins. As well as general lawbreaking and felonies, oftentimes combined to have as many as possible occur in the same sitting.
I audibly gasped with a sudden epiphany.
My fate had already been decided, by myself no less. In a bar I couldn't remember the name of, when I had been gazing into my bronze coin, I saw what I needed to do. I had to gift what measly scrap of knowledge I understood from Beyond the Infinite to those creatures. To let those wendigos defile and mutilate such sacred and pure knowledge to whatever whims their baleful minds could come up with.
"Fuck," was the only thing I could whisper at the thought of it all as I turned off the water, getting out of the shower. I cooled the bathroom down with but a thought and wiped away the condensation on the mirror with a towel that wasn't my own, finally getting a good look at myself without vertigo, as that had finally passed.
I looked like shit, and that was a compliment. Huge, fist shaped bruises of black, green and yellow littered my torso, though most were located on my left side and blurred together into an ugly shapeless mass. The ones on my right, however, were well defined and I could easily count the number of strikes. My face held a swollen black eye, I never noticed my diminished field of vision as I had gotten used to having them over the years. Turning gingerly and opening the mirror a bit so I could see my back, I grimaced. It was another spiderweb of a bruise, earned from when I had been smashed against the edge of Raver's Dreamtime bubble.
At least none of my fingers were broken, only very stiff and swollen, just like the rest of me. I probably couldn't drive for another day or so, either, not with my hands the way they were. As I looked, surprised I hadn't noticed earlier, the inside of my right hand was, branded. The skin, while fully healed, held the symbolic glyph that heralded the Path of Stars. A circle with nine curved lines inside it. Each line only intersected two others, but with the irregular placement of them, I could trace an intersection to any other one. In each of the open spaces, slightly off center, as a simple dot.
"Miracles leave their marks," I muttered to myself, almost disbelieving the literalness of the phrase.
I didn't bother drying off and struggled a bit getting into the clothes I brought with me, maroon athletic shorts and a black tank top. Exiting the guest bathroom, I thought about where I wanted to go. Settling on a destination, I went into the backyard, found a patch of grass in the shaded, morning sunlight and lay down. The grass was thick and rather soft, and the smell of the lemon tree and the garden was more pleasant and fragrant than they should have been.
Warding myself against dreaming, I pulled on the principles of the Aether, specifically, those of sun and storms. Since the Aether was a realm of energy and mana in all of its varying forms, I employed an advanced technique, a mysterion. It was something only able to be done by those that actually hailed from the Aether rather than having mastery over it. Pulling some of the sunlight and ambient warmth into my form, I converted measly scraps of energy directly into mana. The process was slow, and almost hardly worth the effort. It was like filling a bathtub with water, a single milliliter at a time.
Mana was now such a rare commodity, every miniscule drop of it mattered.
I settled in and entered a trance-like state, most of my attention devoted to my mysterion, though some of it was allowed to drift off elsewhere. While not exactly a dream, and while maintaining my mana draw, my mind conjured up nonsensical imagery and conversations between myself and others. I didn't pay them any attention as my thoughts wandered and drifted idly.
"I thought I'd find you out here," Rue said as I heard her sit down next to me. I didn't hear her walking, however, she continued to speak, "you've been asleep for a few days. What happened?"
"Got fucked," I replied easily, a little sarcastically as well. "Truthfully," I amended, "I got summoned by Raver. She pulled a shenanigan with Fate to let her have a waking dream."
"So she was hallucinating?" Rue stated, though it was more of a question.
"Damned straight," I confirmed, "she had Sasquatch and Farnsworth make something for her. It had to have been lethal, something like that. Anyways, we were talking and then one of Them showed up. Inside the Dreamtime bubble of hers. Found Raver's luminescence despite Mirzam hiding it."
"Shit. So It was physically there? That means It had a stolen body..." Rue said, trailing off.
"Yeah, it had a body alright," I almost growled out, "broke Raver's ritual with little effort. I spent everything I had to make a patch job just to keep it active, burned through all my mana, too. I did not want to be dispersed."
"I see," Rue said to me with understanding, "I wouldn't want to have to find my physical body without a tether either." There was a small pause before she spoke again, "So what happened next?"
"I made it mad with insults to buy time for the repaired shenanigan to stabilize Raver."
"What do you mean?" Rue asked as I heard her stretch out a bit, my eyes still closed.
"Her shenanigan was woven in such a way that whatever drug Sasquatch and Farnsworth made for her didn't just kill her," I answered with a pause then continued, "it let her do things beyond normality, anyways, my fucked up patch job let me tell Sasquatch that Raver had to stay dreaming."
"So he wouldn't just purge the elixir out of her," Rue stated, then added perhaps a tad bit defensively, "I know some things from other paths, not much, but some."
"That's good," I answered back, "knowledge is power."
"With us, it's quite literal."
I murmured in assent.
"So why did you make It mad?" Rue asked, "wouldn't It just draw strength from human emotions, especially in the Dreamtime?"
"It did," I answered back, "but It couldn't act properly on them, like human emotions were new and novel. The whole encounter was sloppy after a certain point, but I did almost die. Raver saved me, gave me a miracle."
"I saw," Rue said simply, "the mark on your hand was a giveaway."
I could only murmur in agreement again then asked, "Did you find a card in my hands, too?"
"I did," Rue replied after a few moments of silence, "it was debit card, with a note attached to it."
"From Procyon, right?"
It took a few moments for her to answer. "Yes, it was from Procyon," she took a breath and continued with wavering effort, "that damned bastard had it all planned out. Wrote a fucked up letter to me on a Google(TM) doc telling me not to worry and that this had always been his exit plan."
"Sounds like he knew what was going to happen," was all I could say.
"Yes, but, I miss him!" Rue all but snarled at me, then, in a small and quiet voice, whispered, "He was my best friend, and maybe we could've been more, y'know? Now... there's... There's just nothing, only memories of him left to mourn."
"I didn't know," I answered simply.
Rue spoke with a wavering breath before continuing, her thoughts more than a little disjointed, "a lot of what he wrote was personal, so I won't get into that, but he was certain that something catastrophic was going to happen to him and myself. So he made sure that I was at my secondary home, recovering from a job. I had just completed a mission from Raver and Mirzam, and was going to perform a ritual to patch up Spades after I got some sleep. Procyon also stated that someone has been altering things for a very long time."
"So that's why you were caught with yout pants down," I said, "you didn't even have time to recover." I paused, adjusting my mysterion as I had to refocus due to our conversation, "what did they have you do?"
"Some hedge wizards actually got a hold of an actual necromancy grimoire and charged mana tools in a graveyard," Rue said with a bit of a tired sigh, "they knew exactly what they were doing, and would have been rather powerful shadow mages if they had been capable of using starlight."
"Fuck," was all I could say, then formed an actual response after a few moments, "that shouldn't have been an issue for you. Hedges don't have our capability, though numbers may have evened out their odds."
"You're right, but they brought a spirit back before I could stop them," Rue answered with more than a little spite, "a real nasty piece of shit, too. Turned on the hedges, absorbed them, and put up a real mean fight against Spades and I. It was touch and go for a long time and I was actually fearful for my life, too."
"You won, though."
"Yeah, managed to send it kicking and screaming back to the Pit, exhausted most of my mana to do so. Fucking bastard."
There was a small silence between us as Rue became lost in her own thoughts. It was a while before I asked her, "Can you elaborate on what Procyon said about Fate being altered?"
"I can, actually, though it's a bit difficult since I'm not even a novice with the Path of Stars," Rue answered as I heard her shift a bit on the grass next to me. She paused as she seemingly collected her thoughts, "it's just that certain events were made to happen sooner or later. The big one, for our Node at least, was that you were always supposed to make your ancestral home translocate. It happened sooner than it should have."
"Fuck," I said, "So I wasn't supposed to send it away a few days ago?"
"No, that was supposed to happen after our wendigo thing, if the letter is to be believed."
"Fuck," was all I could say, "I do suppose that was a snap decision, I really didn't want Them to get a hold of anything inside. If I had been able to wait, or even had help, I'm sure I wouldn't have lost it to time and space."
"Exactly," Rue said with bitter excitement, "and we'd have access to everything in it. Losing your home was a big blow to our Node."
"Yeah, but at least They don't have it," I answered more spitefully than intended.
"Silver linings and all that, right?"
"Yeah, gotta look at the bright side, no matter how bleak," I answered back with a bit of sarcastic mirth, then said as I stretched a bit, readjusting my focus on my mysterion as well, "speaking of wendigos, I know what we need to do to solve that."
"Oh? Do tell, I couldn't come up with anything myself, kept running into dead ends," she said, then added, "lack of resources and help."
"Well, I don't think you're going to like it, I'm not sure I like it either."
"Don't keep me waiting," Rue said to me with a bit of sarcastic exasperation. I could sense her looking at me even though my eyes were still closed.
"I'm going to leverage their taboos against them, appeal to their insatiable greed and offer them what little I can understand of That Which Lies Beyond the Infinite." I sighed and added, "after all, how could they resist the allure of new magic?"
"You're right," she answered, "I definitely don't like it. I'm pretty sure it's not even wise to do so."
"Wise or not, it's the only way forward, I even saw it in a vision when I was manipulating fate magic."
"Have you talked to Mirzam or Raver about this vision of yours?"
"No, not yet, and I'm pretty sure I don't need to."
There was a bit of silence between us as she digested my words. I felt compelled to elaborate as I adjusted my mysterion again, losing a bit of my focus due to the depth of the conversation we were having.
"Acrux," I said, getting her attention fully by using the name of her star, "there's something you need to understand." I sat up, abandoning my mysterion in favor of giving her my full attention. Blinking a bit at the rise of light and warmth, I continued my thought process, "in the Dreamtime, the Thing I was fighting against, It was surprised and enraged that I was able to call upon knowledge that Lay Beyond the Infinite. Whatever those glyphs and powers are, They never wanted humans to know of them, let alone have them."
"Yet you want to give such power to wendigos of all things."
"At least the knowledge, corrupted or not, will still be on Earth," I said then added, "I'm not sure what you remember, but I know you've seen something from Beyond the Infinite. Your self revival and Spade's new form are proof of that. I was there, guided by Oracle. I Perceived something unknowable, something terrible, something no mortal has any right to gaze upon. Something I can hardly even begin to try to put into words. Raver Perceived it, too. It's how she managed to give me a godsend. So, what did you Perceive, really?"
Rue brought her knees up to her chest, thinking deeply. I could tell she was using her Perception to look inwards upon her Self. I waited patiently while she struggled to look at her soul's reflection against her mind and struggled even more to put the image there into words.
At long last, she spoke, her eyes still closed as she did so, "I'm not sure what I saw, there was too much, and I felt so small. Insignificant. Less than even a dismissed, intrusive thought. There is one thing I do remember. A doorway made of the might from two universes worth of truths and laws. A Thing was trying ro break through, but couldn't, not fully, yet the doors were opened, letting smaller ones through."
"The Doors have to be closed," I said, quoting Raver, before continuing, "that's what Raver said to me, before she sent me back to my body."
"Why didn't they mend you then?"
"They were being attacked in the waking world, too. It was a good plan on Their part, They just didn't expect us to put up so much of a fight."
"They never do, though I think that's changing."
"So that's our endgame, not sure how we're going to do it," I said, bringing the conversation back to topic, "at the moment, however, I'm going to eat a few of those mana-stuffed protein bars and fix your leg. I can't keep spending mana to be able to drive your truck. You'll have to use your own mysterion to get mana, too."
"I hate my Path's mysterions," the venom in her voice was palpable.
Before I could say anything, the backdoor opened, revealing Luna. She was wearing a bird-patterned sundress and her hair had been tied back into a loose ponytail. She put her hand over her eyes to shade them from the sun as she squinted against the brightness relative to that from inside.
"Hey, you two," she called out, "Grandmother says she needs to talk yo you."
"Alright," I called out, shakily getting up to my feet with a bit of a grunt. Everything still hurt. Rue had a bit of trouble as well, her leg was not recieving the rest and healing it deserved and needed.
"We're a mess, aren't we?" Rue asked aloud as we began to walk towards the bak door.
"Yeah, but you should see the other guys," I replied with a light chuckle, only to wince and hold my sides, "I forgot how much laughing hurts with fractured ribs."
"I really don't envy you right now," Rue said with a bit of a smirk as we entered Tsula's home, Rue entering first. "I wonder what Tsula wants to talk to us about?" Rue asked aloud, not really talking to anyone in particular.
I could only wonder as we followed Luna to the living room, the house pleasantly cool due to central air conditioning.
~ ~ ~
The moon was not in the sky, and I greatly enjoyed not having to endure the accursed, purifying light of day reflected by its surface, even if greatly diminished. The loathsome wound in my side had been a mortal blow, burning through my toughened flesh and form with unnerving ease and stunning, blinding pain. Once more, I looked at the oily, thin, and black ichor that dripped from my fingers, more human-like than I was comfortable with.
The mote of dreadlight I had recieved for my services had been the only thing that had kept me from vanishing entirely. Mortal alchemy -- science -- had advanced to such a degree so as to emulate the harsh light of day far too remarkably well. That hadn't been the worst part, that damned thaumaturgist had ensorcelled a curse upon the weapon as well. With effort, as the bulk of my power was directed at repairing the oozing wound, I altered my form and shape, struggling to maintain the illusion as I walked out onto the sidewalk from a side alley.
My contract was not yet completed.
The first two nights I had hidden myself away in the dark depths, raging against the oblivion that threatened to overtake me and ending my existence. The preparedness of the thaumaturgist had been unexpected, as well as the skill and the knowledge he had wielded so effortlessly. Without my guidance, nor presence, to instill fear into the gifted abetters, the wraiths I had gathered with me fell and fled into the night, abandoning their duties and contracts.
I would have never made this mistake against the herald of the bear.
Had I known the name of the mortal's star I had been tasked against, I would have demanded more than a simple mote of dreadlight and a paltry handful of coerced allies. Realistically, I should be grateful that I still had a kind of semi-existence. Quelling my anger and hatred, and swallowing my utter revulsion, my form rippled and took the guise of a tall, middle-aged human male in a common and unremarkable suit carrying an old and worn briefcase.
The artificial illumination around me flickered, emitting a grating hum in my presence and the thin television flickered oddly as it tried to display my image, failing to accurately do so. While tracking Arcturus's quintessence had been a bit of a task, as far too much time had passed, my familiarity with it granted me an advantage that overcame that difficulty. Traveling in my wounded state, however, had been much more arduous. Looking the woman at the reception desk over, I took on my role with hiden revulsion, aided by the illusion I was conjuring and the mimicry of my physical form.
"I'm detective Aiden Roth, and I'm looking for someone. I believe that he was here a few nights ago, definitely this past week," I said. My false, human voice had been made to sound smooth, suave and strong, interlaced with a suggestion, using what little forte I could spare. I put the worn and well-used briefcase I had conjured with me onto the counter with a heavy thud, using more of my forte to emulate such a simple thing. Opening it up, I fished out an image and showed the slightly grainy, black and white picture to the receptionist.
As the woman perused the conjured image, I could not help but hiss, my hand going to my side as I expended more of my forte than I had anticipated. The cursed wound fighting back fiercely against the dreadlight tethering my existence and life. I held my disguise with willpower of monumental proportions. A strength of will I rarely had been pressed to draw from.
Seeing the concerned look the woman gave me, I simply stated, shrugging off the pain with yet more expenditure of will, "An old injury, it flares up from time to time. No matter, have you seen this individual?"
"I'm going to need to see some kind of badge or warrant," the woman said with a genuine smile, "sorry."
The fear of losing her menial job overpowered my subtle suggestion. Unfortunate.
"Sure," I replied with a fake and well ptacticed, fetching smile, adjusting my forte to include another suggestion. I showed an actual badge with my assumed name and likeness. The mortal I was impersonating had been slain many years ago by my own hands, and the subtle illusion taking hardly any of my forte adjusted the dates and design of the badge to whatever was current.
Only a thaumaturgist, or a very particularly skilled sorcerer, could pierce the illusion. Against this mortal, there was no chance of resistance and she accepted the stolen badge without question.
She looked it over, as if trying to divine the legitimacy of it. "Okay," she finally admitted, "he was here a while ago, maybe a four or five days? I remember, 'cause I tried to flirt with him..."
I ignored her prattling and asked when she finished speaking, "Can you show me the room he used?"
"Sure, but it's been cleaned a few times since then."
With a nod, I let her lead the way to the room in question, staying silent. The lights around me flickered and hummed loudly in my presence. Had the woman been more observant, she could have seen my true shadow as I had not the forte to expend to hide it entirely from the ever changing lights. She opened the room in question, using what I could only assume was a master key card.
I immediately recognized the faded auras of quintessence.
"This will do," I stated, closing the door behind me and dropping my revolting disguise, using my forte to lock it.
I revealed my true form. My legs and arms lengthened and thinned, the black suit and red tie I was wearing became my skin, armor and form. My face and eyes became blank, gaunt and sunken, skin stretching out over it. The wound in my side made itself visible, it was an ugly red, peeling and oozing burn from my shoulder to my waist and took up most of my torso. The dreadlight I was using to prevent my oblivion illuminated the wound with a kind of sickly, crimson colored backlight. Black ichor oozed out from it and dripped onto the floor as I used the bulk of my forte to ablate the caustic, foreign quintessence from my form.
The woman looked at me as even her pitifully dull, mundane human senses told her that there was incredible danger in the room with her. She screeched and irrationally ran towards the bathroom as my presence became impossibly tall in the very finite space in the motel room. Using the smallest iota of my forte, I remotely smashed her fleeing form against a wall, pinning her there with unseen force as she begged, and sobbed for her pitiful life.
I ignored her for the moment.
Drawing upon more of my forte, freed up as I no longer needed a disguise, I sensed out where quintessence had been used, discovering two places, the bed and a wall. Imbuing the wall with my own forte, I witnessed a spectral, moving image of Arcturus throwing five darts at a map placed on the wall, one at a time, then draw intersecting lines to a single point on the map.
"Wendigos..." I hissed out in loathing, the skin on my face stretching and contorting with the movement as i spoke aloud with a nonexistent mouth. Even I knew their territory.
Turning to the second source of quintessence, I did the same thing. I saw Arcturus ward himself against dreaming and then hold a brilliant shield in the air, as well as a ball of fire. My knowledge of actual thaumaturgy told me that I would have great difficulties against those Knowings. I put the mystery of his Dreamtime excursion out of my mind for now, there was nothing I could do regarding that.
My expenditure of forte caused my horrid wound to pulse against my form painfully. With a hiss, I turned to the woman meekly begging me to spare her life as she was still pinned against the wall. I could use a thrall, especially as I could no longer gain allies, not without offering something in return to my current contract holders.
That was not a barter I wanted to engage in.
"Please... don't kill me... please... I'll do anything... please..."
The absolute terror in her eyes was delectable. Her fear invigorated me with energy and reminded me I needed to feed. However, the morsels offered by her would be more than sufficient for my needs. I dragged my left hand across my oozing wound, covering it in my own essence then flexed my forte. The clothes she was wearing split in half down the middle, revealing her naked form, making her shriek. I could see the ideas her panicked mind vomited forth as she renewed her struggles with vigor.
What I had in mind was so much worse than the mundane taking of her physical body she expected.
Using the full might of my forte, I lengthened and sharpened my index finger, the tip dripping with the gathered ichor of my essence. In an instant, less than the blink of an eye, I appeared in front of her from where I had been by the bed and plunged the very tip of my sharpened, needle-like nail into the center of her heart, cutting through the most sensitive parts of her breast to do so due to the angle I had chosen for just this purpose. As I let my ichor suffuse her body with each beat of her racing heart, her vascular system visibly turning black under her skin as she screamed and writhed in agony, an odd thing happened.
What could only be considered my blood had been tainted by thaumaturgy qnr bolstered by dreadlight as well as my own forte. As it mixed with the blank canvas of the mortal in front of me, I could sense the candle of her soul. Reaching out with dreadlight, letting the wound burn my side with a hiss of inhaled breath, I ignited it with three kinds of mysticism.
A horrified realization overcame her as she knew I had fundamentally altered her to suit my whims. Having a thaumaturgist thrall would be a great boon.
"You'll do quite nicely," I said with an actual grin, the skin stretched over my mouth revealing impossibly large, gleaming flat teeth, as I watched the physical and mystical changes taking place.
My new thrall would never be human again.
I feasted on her terror, anguish and torment.
It was delicious.
~ ~ ~
Arcturus and Acrux will be back. C'Leena Thomas, Prosthetist is going to be my next update.
[[NEXT]]

Hi all!
I am 1 year + 2 months post-op, and I am finding that my scars are beginning to raise. Not to keloid level, but definitely noticeable. I have always scarred pretty easily. I really want to avoid a revision, and am wondering if anyone has used silicone tape this far post-op? I didn't wear my silicone tape for incredibly long after surgery, because I live in an extremely humid environment and my incisions are very curved (I had large breasts!). I am thinking of using something like the Frida Mom C-Section Silicone Strips, because they are the right size and generally re-usable. However, will I benefit at all from silicone strips over a year post op? When I call my surgeon, they are reco-ing a revision, but I am not planning to do that. Let me know!
Link to strips I reference: https://www.amazon.com/Frida-Mom-C-Section-Silicone-Treatment/dp/B09QRLZQP4/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=Y29Z17ULAO86&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.adjEdPdH5eUS_SoVE0oZvnd_HCPTaBcirKbofU4J_xtTbkCKeuqdC6pnkS626_bqlXfRkT7vMaI5YYdQ2tL-hBMC-NMxJWXCUR0KvueWeAN6BHBxgCneCnDNtEr7sfMZVN9qLdlhD4QqFHCOaA8y47Y--CqneCN8AKvOSCtEgZ2eEaunuceC8T_VzSQdfsbFHMCFGXFllEAxChK2iPKCv9decIRZ_AUUTZYq7QnaY4j6epLM5z95TYYnwkRwNnb_XgI1O_t7KK1FDztxAjlhSonVXcokJ9l-H1__uugtZ9U.vGKdQvsfFPfmWPu6k4ANMW4aqyHLdLMk7GgOPl9sswo&dib_tag=se&keywords=c+section+silicone&qid=1715353213&sprefix=c+section+silicone%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

I try to accommodate people the best I can. I try to make them feel safe and cared about. But sometimes people take it too far. And that’s where Beth comes in.
Beth called the night before she planned to arrive to book a room. It was graduation weekend, so I literally only had one room left for the following night. She wasn’t traveling for a graduation. I don’t know why she was traveling, but it’s not my business. She asked if we had a room. Yep, one left. One queen bed. She asked if it was clean. Of course it’s clean. Does it have a strong smell. No, not really. Does it face the sun when it rises. I can arrange it so it’s not facing the sun. Believe it or not, that’s a common request lol.
“Well I have a condition, so I get tired from too much walking and I don’t want to be at the very end of the hall, but I don’t want to be next to anything that makes a lot of noise, either.”
“Sure, I’ll go ahead and preassign you to a specific room so we can accommodate your needs.”
“Do you serve breakfast? What time?”
“We do- 6:30-9:30am.”
“Well I don’t like getting up early. Can you leave the breakfast out for another hour or so?”
Er… no? Wtf. “I’m sorry, but we aren’t able to do that.”
“Okay well is there a grocery store nearby so I can at least get some food?”
“Yes ma’am, there’s a Walmart less than five minutes from here.”
“That’s too overwhelming for me. I’m neurodivergent. Is there another store you can recommend?”
“There is the Dollar General, and they have a lot of food options. Our Walmart actually does, however, have Sensory-Friendly Hours where they turn off the music and all display screens and dim the lights.”
“Oh! Thank you for telling me about that! It sounds noisy in the background. I don’t like noise. Is it always like that?”
“No ma’am, I have a group waiting to be checked in.”
“Oh okay. Thanks for everything, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The phone call lasted 11 minutes. Oof.
So the next day, a woman comes in. I walk out to the desk and say, “Hi! Are you checking in?”
She scoffs and says, “Um, how about a ”Hello, how are you” first? Because I’m a human and so are you. Right?”
Damn okay. I said hi. I had to bite my tongue to avoid saying, “you must be Beth” lol.
Beth asked to see the room first. No problem. She wanted to see if it smelled and if the lighting was okay. I understand that. I have chronic migraines and am extremely sensitive to lights and smells. I took her upstairs to show her the room. She looked around a bit and said it looked cozy and she liked it. Great!
As we’re going back downstairs, she launches into a strange conversation about how she uses a breast massager on her face to relieve sinus pressure. She then told me she bought it at a thrift store secondhand. And then she recommended it to me. Told me I should try it out. Oooookay. A little weird, but she’s neurodivergent, so her “weird topic” meter is calibrated differently than mine. I acted politely interested and asked questions.
Upon checking her in, she required three explanations from myself and my manager about why we needed her CC when I already took it over the phone. Sigh. She then asked for a late checkout, which we were unable to do, as we were sold out that night.
She was on the third floor. Maybe an hour later she came down and said she was going to the store. Okay. She went and came back fairly quickly. And remember when I said it was graduation weekend? There was a group of probably a dozen people in the dining room just eating and playing board games and watching TV and laughing and talking. Just having a good time. And they weren’t even particularly loud. Certainly not loud enough for me to yell over and tell them to keep it down.
But Beth comes in and goes to make herself some tea. And she walks straight over there and takes the TV remote from them and turns the TV off. She snaps at them. “You guys need to be quiet!! I don’t like noise!”
Of course the whole group stopped and looked at her like “What?? Who the fuck are you??”
Beth waited for them to respond, and they just made direct eye contact and turned the TV back on and continued their conversations and games. Beth again told them to be quiet. They ignored her. Beth stood there for probably five minutes with her arms crossed, just staring at them angrily, before going back up to her room.
20, maybe 30, minutes later, Beth comes back down to the desk to buy a soda from our marketplace. She leans over the desk and says, “they’re being too loud over there! WAY too loud!” I couldn’t do it. Nope. I didn’t say anything and let my manager answer instead.
“They’re at a reasonable volume, and quiet hours don’t start until 10pm.“
“But IT’S NOT FAIR!!! It’s a SHARED SPACE!!!!! They SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO MAKE NOISE IN A SHARED SPACE!”
Bitch what the fuck?? It definitely is a “shared space,” but she’s not even sharing it lmao. She’s literally only down in the lobby for two minutes to buy a soda before returning to her room. Her room on the third floor. Where she most definitely can’t hear anything going on in the lobby. Why are you stomping your foot and screaming about fairness when you’re literally not involved in the situation lol.
My manager said, “I understand, it is a shared space, and that means they’re allowed to be there. They’re at a reasonable volume and it’s not time for quiet hours yet.”
“It’s a shared space!!! It’s NOT FAIR!! They have NO RIGHT to be there making noise!!”
“They have as much a right to be there as you do.”
And Beth stomped back up to her room. Didn’t see her again that night. Crazy shit. Most of her concerns are understandable- lights, smells, noise in her room, etc. But to, first of all, invade someone’s space without permission and just interrupt their entire group for your own personal desires… and second of all, to throw a yelling fit about how it’s not fair that they’re allowed to make noise in a shared space when she’s literally going right back to her room on the top floor… that’s just entitled.
Looks were definitely exchanged between myself and my manager lol.

Top Manga of this week

Rank	Upvotes	Manga
1	4648	Damedol: The Useless Idol and Her Only Fan in the World Ch.25 - Queen Urumin
2	4433	The person sitting next to me looking at me with perverted eyes ⑥ by @mmkmanga
3	3365	After Beating a Noob in an FPS, He Wanted to Fight Me in Real Life LOL (Chapter 34)
4	3165	After Beating a Noob in an FPS, He Wanted to Fight Me in Real Life LOL (Chapter 32)
5	3143	After Beating a Noob in an FPS, He Wanted to Fight Me in Real Life LOL - Ch 31
6	2629	The Big Bees - Ch 3-5 by @nemone_2
7	2453	- A Parallel World With a 1:39 Male to Female Ratio is Unexpectedly Normal - Ch. 141 (By きっさー)
8	2405	- An expert producer's idol searching journey: Carribean Arc~ - Oneshot by @medatarou1
9	2292	Frieren at the Funeral :: Chapter 130 :: Kirei Cake
10	2120	- I was lonely on Golden Week so I made a pact with a devil Onee-san. - Oneshot
11	2067	- A story about getting a haircut after hearing your crush prefers short hair. - Ch. 10
12	1944	The Big Bees - Ch 6-7 by @nemone_2
13	1936	Please Go Home, Akutsu-san! - Chapter 174.5
14	1934	Oshi No Ko - Chapter 148
15	1907	The gals who casually say incredible things - Chapter 12
16	1846	Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi (My Senpai is Annoying) - Ch 231 by @shiromanta1020
17	1800	Dandadan - Chapter 151
18	1714	A female painter with mechanical arms and her little assistant - Oneshot
19	1586	After Beating a Noob in an FPS, He Wanted to Fight Me in Real Life LOL (Chapter 33)
20	1617	- One Day a Message Window Appeared Out of Nowhere!? - Ch. 2 (By オーイデくん)
21	1576	Even a Cat's Paw can be Useful (Nekotete) - Chapter 156
22	1541	Even a Cat's Paw can be Useful (Nekotete) - Chapter 153
23	1504	Even a Cat's Paw can be Useful (Nekotete) - Chapter 155
24	1450	Even a Cat's Paw can be Useful (Nekotete) - Chapter 154
25	1424	Dating the Kind of Girl You Shouldn't Get Involved With - 71 (END)
26	1400	Misaki-kun is Unobtainable - Chapter 4 (The Ordinary Protagonist Cannot Be Trained)
27	1380	- A gal who isn't kind to Otaku. - Oneshot by Kuga Tsuniya
28	1339	The Cool Classmate ◯◯ Years Later... Extra [Let's decide on a name!]
29	1319	Even a Cat's Paw can be Useful (Nekotete) - Chapter 151
30	1315	Even a Cat's Paw can be Useful (Nekotete) - Chapter 152
31	1306	Nick & Lever SG - Chapter 8
32	1269	- One Day a Message Window Appeared Out of Nowhere!? - Ch. 1 (By オーイデくん)
33	1178	Centuria - Chapter 5
34	1052	- Rap battle with Frieren. - Sousou no Frieren
35	1022	3-Gumi no Osananajimi Ch. 3 "Childhood Friends with an Age Gap"
36	1012	Mato Seihei no Slave - Chapter 131: Due to My Feelings (Ardesc)
37	1012	Kouhai-chan Who Wants to Tease ch. 6
38	1009	I’m a High School Boy, but I Got Gender-Swapped Into a Gyaru - Ch 4
39	969	The Cutest Girl Closest to Me [Chapter 7.5]
40	966	- Getsuyoubi no Tawawa - Ep. 481
41	922	The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All - Chapter 84 - Girls Who Can't Sleep
42	932	You Talk Too Much, So Just Shut It Already! - Chapter 44-44.5
43	740	Bijutsubu Girl (Art Club Girl) "Ch. 262 An Art Club Girl Who's Flushed and Hot in Bed"
44	728	Tonari no Neko to Koi Shirazu (The Feline Neighbor and the Unversed in Love) - Ch. 13.1 (Twitter Extra)
45	751	Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu / The Dangers In My Heart - Chapter 144 (/a/nonymous)
46	674	- My Cool Wife Saa-chan - Ch. 35
47	643	I couldn't become an Adventurer, so I'll help troubled girls with my 'Breast Correction' Skill!? - Chapter 5
48	640	I couldn't become an Adventurer, so I'll help troubled girls with my 'Breast Correction' Skill!? - Chapter 6
49	640	Blooming Love - Chapter 28
50	619	The Hundred Ghost Stories That Led to My Death - Ch. 77
51	628	Mairimashita! Iruma-kun - Ch. 347 - Welcome to the Moebius Art Museum
52	609	Yancha Gal no Anjou-san - Chapter 170
53	575	Osananajimi ga Hisabisa ni Saikai Shitara Otagai Kyonyuu ni Natteta - Ch. 49 & 50
54	556	Mi-Chan Wants to be Kept [Chapter 13] Shadow Sama Scans
55	559	The Tsundere Gal Whose Dere Side Gradually Increases - Ch. 14
56	549	MARRIAGETOXIN - Chapter 86
57	541	The Gals in My Class Treat Me Like Air - Ch. 21
58	537	Noa-senpai wa Tomodachi. Ch. 19 - Noa-Senpai and the Swimsuit Event
59	511	Kanan-sama Is Easy as Hell! -- Chapter 94 (KananScans)
60	497	Hero's Party Want to Experience LOVE- Ch. 14 - The World's Most Thrilling Place
61	484	B-Rank Adventurer With an Evil Look Becomes a Daddy to the Protagonist and His Childhood Friends - Ch. 8.2 - Swift Judgement (2)
62	472	Getsuyoubi no Tawawa - Chapter 99 [Blue Version Inside]
63	472	Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint Chapter 209
64	444	Galnanajimi wa Koko ga Suki My Gyaru Childhood Friend Loves it Here - Chapter 2 [END]
65	440	Gal Yome no Himitsu - Ch. 14
66	432	Noa-senpai wa Tomodachi. Ch. 18 - Noa-senpai and Health
67	425	Kindergarten WARS - Chapter 75
68	416	Daromeon, Artist of Kengan Ashura/Omega, thoughts on the official translation and scanlation
69	421	Fuufu Ijou, Koibito Miman. - Ch. 71
70	401	Alya-san Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian - CH. 38
71	393	Time Stop Brave - Chapter 48 "Shinra and Stop"

Lately, I got pretty interested in ∞, and soon found myself researching on ℵ. At first I mostly understood, but when ב came into the picture, I got completely lost.

1. what exactly is Continuum Hypothesis (CH), what it differs from Generalized Continuum Hypothesis (GCH), and which one should I "use" when explaining it to let's say my friend? (Or what should I say)
2. when do I use aleph and when beth? I know that aleph is representing the cardinality of a infinite set, and beth has to do something with powersets, but im getting it mixed
3. what is the answer to these equations:

ℵ0-ℵ0= ℵ0-ℵ1= ℵ0/ℵ0= ℵ0/ℵ1= √ℵ0= Other equations with ℵ0 should be equal to itself, except when containing oter alephs with different cardinality or 2⋀ℵ0=ℵ1 - which can't be proven. If we replaced aleph symbol with beth symbol, would the equation's answer be the same but with beths, right? (except 2⋀ℵ0)
Thank you for your answers!
(Ps: could you explein it just like u would explain it to an 15 y/o... because I am xd)

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
I greet you all with the Quranic greeting of Peace: Peace be upon you all (Salamu 'alaykum) :)!

Introduction:

This will be a longer post because I will be interpreting three chapter in Songs of Solomon. Chapter 1, 5 and 6.
It becomes evident upon careful observation that these chapters primarily hold a prophetic essence, but poetic and a bit cryptic in nature. However, the chapter dedicated to Moses (Chapter 1) most likely serves as a recounting of his life story, albeit in a subtle manner, because Solomon is thought to have come after Moses in history. Nevertheless, it undeniably pertains to Moses. Chapter 5 focuses on Muhammad, while Chapter 6 revolves around both Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary. Shall we proceed with the exploration? Let's start with Chapter 1, the one about prophet Moses.

1. Songs of Solomon Chapter 1 - Moses:

Verse 2: בישקני מנשיקות פיהו כי־טובים דדיך מיין:
The verse says the words: "with kisses from kisses of his mouth." In this context, "מנשיקות" does not necessarily refer to physical kisses but symbolizes "Revelations." Therefore, "מנשיקות פיהו" translates to "from the utterances of His mouth" or "from the words of His mouth," signifying divine communication or revelation, not physical affection.
This is explained in Hebrew dictionaries:

Heb: נְשִׁיקוּת (f.)
"(preced.) attachment, love. Cant. R. to I, 2 יוציא לי קול נ׳ וכ׳ may He issue forth unto me the voice of attachment."

Also:

Heb: נְשִׁיקָה f. (b. h.; נָשַׁק) 1) kissing, kiss. Gen. R. s. 70; Ex. R. s. 5, a. e. נ׳ של גדולה the kiss of homage; נ׳ של פרקים the kiss of meeting again; נ׳ של פרישות the kiss of parting; נ׳ של קריבות the kissing of relations. Deut. R. s. 11, end ונטל … בנְשִׁיקַת פה and took his (Moses’) soul with a kiss of the mouth. B. Bath. 17ᵃ מרים נמי בנ׳ מתה Miriam, likewise, died with a (divine) kiss (without agony); M. Kat. 28ᵃ. Ber. 8ᵃ נ׳ דמיא וכ׳ death without agony is like taking &c., v. בִּינְתָא II; a. fr.—Pl. נְשִׁיקוֹת. Ex. R. l. c. Cant. R. to I, 2 מה"ש אמרוהו יתן לנו מנ׳ וכ׳ the ministering angels said the verse, ‘May he give us of those kisses which he gave to his sons’ (at Mount Sinai). Ib. בסיני נאמרה יוציא לנו נ׳ מתוך פיהו at Mount Sinai the verse was said (by the Israelites), ‘May he let kisses go forth to us out of his mouth’; a. e. —2)

Source: Both excerpts are from Jastrow's classical Hebrew dictionary.

Verse 3: גלריח שמניך טובים שמן תורק שמך על־כן עלמות אהבוך

The phrase: "גלריח שמניך טובים שמן תורק שמך":
The interpretation, as Rabbi Ezra has it:
Ezra ben Solomon on Song of Songs 1:3:2:

"Your name is like oil poured forth: Your name is like fine oil, poured from one vessel into another. The seventy names are emanated from the seven sefirot. tiferet and the Crown are for Israel, the singular people, for Israel nurse from the trunk of the tree, tiferet and Crown, all joined as one. But its aroma travels a great distance. So too Your name increases and is poured forth as pure light to shekhinah, which is contained and sealed into all. Counting her they are seventy-two. This is the meaning of “therefore the maidens love you.”

Now that we know what the first part of the verse means, let's see what the actual definition of Moses' name is in Hebrew, according to Jews themselves:

"The first and most obvious is the definition of Moses, draw out of water. Pharaoh’s daughter indeed drew Moses out of water, the waters of the Nile. She drew him out of the one of the most significant gods of Egypt, Hepi a fertility god who was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile. The flood deposited fertile soil on the river banks. Why was Pharaoh’s daughter’s at the Nile? It says in Exodus 2:5 that she came to wash herself or to bathe. Bathe in the sacred waters, not likely, especially a daughter of Pharaoh who took luxurious baths in tubs filled with all sorts of fragrances like myrrh and frankincense. The word used in Hebrew here for washing or bathing is rachats which means to pour water upon yourself. "

Source: https://www.chaimbentorah.com/2018/04/hebrew-word-study-moses/
Note: "to pour water upon yourself."
The third verse subtly yet unmistakably alludes to Moses, using poetic and metaphorical language. This is particularly evident when considering Moses' role in anointing Aaron and his sons as priests, as instructed by God in Exodus 29:7:

"Then take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head." (Exodus 29:7)

Another notable event involving Moses is the anointing of the Tabernacle and its furnishings. Exodus 40:9-11 directs Moses to anoint the Tabernacle and all its contents with oil:

"Then take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy."

Verse 4: משכני אחריך נרוצה הביאני המלך חדריו נגילה ונשמחה בך נזכירה דדיך מיין מישרים אהבוך:

The KJV translation:

"Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee."

My translation:

"Pull me along with you1, we will desire the king to bring me his chambers, we will rejoice in Baka2, we will remember your love, my Egyptian3, my beloved."

Explanations:
1: In Hebrew, the term "רוּץ" (rutz) translates to "run." This could be interpreted in the context of Moses assisting the daughters of Jethro, as narrated in both the Bible and the Quran. It's worth noting that the Bible doesn't specify that Moses had seven daughters; this discrepancy likely arises from the mistranslation of "Shava" (possibly referring to Saba, the Yemeni city), which the Masoretes erroneously rendered as "Sheva" (seven), as they have done every other time the city Saba was mentioned in the Bible (the "well of Seven" instead of "Well of Saba" etc).
2: The Hebrew phrase "ונשמחה בך" appears suspect. The Codex Sinaiticus suggests "βοωϲιν" (Bocin), which can be interpreted as "to cry" (correlating with "Bakka" in Hebrew and Arabic, meaning "cry"). The Greek word "βοωϲιν" may also connote "heifer" or "young cow," rooted in the verb "βοάω" (boaō), meaning "to cry out."

The Codex Sinaiticus:
"βοωϲιν το ονομα τηϲ νυμ"

It's worth noting that Google's speech recognition and search algorithms have trouble processing this word for some reason, often substituting "βοώσιν" instead of "βοωϲιν." It can just be that this specific word is a very ancient word and is not recognized, but I doubt it because it is refusing to even pronounce it, and Google even forcefully changes it into "βοώσιν" in its search results.
3: The term "משרי" (mishri) translates to "Egyptian" or "from Egypt" and aligns with the Arabic term for "Egyptian" (i.e., Masri). The verse is literally saying that he is from Egypt, not necessarily an Egyptian, but from that location, just as Moses was (where he grew up).
It has by now become very evident that this is about Moses.

Verse 5: השחורה אני ונאוה בנות ירושלים כאהלי קדר כיריעות שלמה:

The "bride" says:

"Black am I, yet lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon."

Zipporah, the wife of Moses, was a woman of black ethnicity from Ethiopia. She resided in Arabia, where the tents of Kedar were situated.

Verse 9: "I compare you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots."

This verse even makes a literal allusion to the era of Moses. It is becoming increasingly challenging not to recognize this chapter for what it is. One might wonder why the Rabbis of old did not disclose that this Song was an account of Moses' life. If they had, it would also imply that any other Song mentioning both Jesus and Muhammad could potentially be prophetic. The notion that these Songs are merely love stories or erotica between Solomon and his brides would quickly unravel before our very eyes.
Let's move on to Chapter 6, the one about Jesus and Mary.

2. Songs of Solomon ch. 6, Jesus and Mary:

Verses 2-3: "My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to browse in the gardens and to gather lilies. I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine, he who shepherds his flock among the lilies.”
This is mirroring Matthew 6:28-29:

“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

Jesus is referred to as a shepherd in the gospels, and here he is described as browsing in the garden shepherding his flock among the lilies. He also explicitly refers to Solomon for some remarkable reason, and it is only now that we can clearly see why he mentioned Solomon: To quite literally refer back to Songs of Solomon ch. 6 because it was prophesying him and his mother. Can't get any clearer than this.
Verses 5-6:"Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing. Each has its twin, not one of them is missing."
Mirroring Jesus as a shepherd´and his ascent and descent from heaven.

Luke 15:3-7: "Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?"

He says "...go after the lost sheep until he finds it?" precisely mirroring the verse in SoS 6:6: "like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing. Each has its twin, not one of them is missing"
During Jesus' time on earth, Gilead was part of the broader region known as Perea, which was governed by Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great. Jesus traveled throughout the regions of Judea and Perea, as mentioned in passages such as Luke 13:22. The Chapter is mentioning the exact location where Jesus ministry took place.
The words "Descending" and "coming up" are also mentioned here and seem very cryptic, mirroring his ascent into heaven and his descent, the second coming. I believe Jesus second coming already has taken place, shortly after the crucifixion happened. God saved him (and made a crucifixion of Jesus appear to them) and lifted him up into heaven. Jesus then came back to them (as is mentioned in the gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verses 36-43). During this second visit, he did not promise them to come back yet another time, but rather promised that "another" advocate would come to them (we will talk about this by the end of this post, let's focus on this chapter now).
Verses 8-9: "Sixty queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond number; My dove, my perfect one, is unique, the favorite of her mother, flawless to her who bore her. The maidens saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her."
Mirroring the Virginity and innocence of Mary.
The word used here for "perfect one" is "תַמָּתִ֔י" in Hebrew, defined the following way in dictionaries:
Hebrew dictionary:

2 - a. complete, morally innocent, having integrity
Source: מקור: Open Scriptures on GitHub
Creator: יוצר: Based on the work of Larry Pierce at the Online Bible

Verse 11: "I went down to the grove of nut trees to look at the new growth in the valley, to see if the vines had budded or the pomegranates were in bloom."
Mirroring the Quranic narrative about Mary:

"And she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a remote place. And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She said, 'Oh, I wish I had died before this and was in oblivion, forgotten.' But he called her from below her, 'Do not grieve; your Lord has provided beneath you a stream. And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates. So eat and drink and be contented. And if you see from among humanity anyone, say, 'Indeed, I have vowed to the Most Merciful abstention, so I will not speak today to [any] man.'" (Quran 19:22-26)

"Nakhal" (palm tree): The verse in Songs of Solomon uses the same word "Nachal" in Hebrew, and it means the same thing according to Hebrew dictionaries:

n.[m.] perhaps palm-tree (Arabic نَخْلٌ, n. unit. نَخْلَةٌ; v. PerlesJQ, July, 1899, 688);— only pl. abs., כִּנְחָלִים נִטָּ֑יוּ Nu 24:6 like palm-trees, which are stretched out, spread out (as to foliage). So Perlesl.c., who compares כערבי נחל Ecclus 50:12, 𝔊 ὡς στελέχη φοινίκων.
Source: מקור: BDB Dictionary
Creator: יוצר: F. Brown, S. Driver & C. Briggs

This verse is narrating the same story the Quran was narrating about Mary retreating to a far place unto a Palm-tree. We've had a lot of Christians critiquing the Qur'an for "taking" from apocrypha, yet here we see the same thing being said in the actual Bible.
Verse 12: "Before I was aware, my soul had placed me in the chariots of Amminadab."
The Masoretic verse: יבלֹ֣א יָדַ֔עְתִּי נַפְשִׁ֣י שָׂמַ֔תְנִי מַרְכְּב֖וֹת עַמִּ֥י־נָדִֽיב:
How it is written in the original Hebrew Bible: יבלא ידעתי נפשי שמתני מרכבות עמינדיב:
The translation provided above is my own, as existing English translations have inaccurately interpreted this verse due to Masoretic distortions through diacritics. The Hebrew text clearly mentions the name "Amminadab" and not "Ammi Nadab" with a hyphen between עַמִּ֥י and נָדִֽיב, which would otherwise mean "Noble people." This is confirmed by the Codex Sinaiticus, where it is written as "Amminadab," the name.

Codex Sinaiticus:
"12 η νυμφη ταδε προϲ τον νυμφιον εκει δωϲω τουϲ μαϲτουϲ μου ϲοι ουκ εγνω ψυχη μου εθετο με · αρματα αμιναδαβ"

Source: Click Here
Translation of the Codex Sinaiticus passage:

"There I will give you my breasts, my soul did not know it placed me in the chariots of Amminadab."

The phrase "There I will give you my breasts" signifies nursing, i.e., as a mother would nurse her child.
Prior to this understanding, the meaning of this verse was unclear, leading many to believe the Song of Songs contained s*xual or naughty connotations. However, recognizing this as a prophecy about Mary and her son, the Messiah Jesus, provides clarity, and the verse should not be considered inappropriate.
The words "my soul did not know it placed me in the chariots of Amminadab" suggest that Mary and Jesus were to be placed within that lineage of Amminadab, or possibly even within the same family. This aligns with the canonical gospels that trace Jesus' lineage back to Amminadab
Let's reconsider Chapter 5, the one about prophet Muhammad.

3. Songs of Solomon ch. 5, Muhammad:

If you are familiar with who I am, then you might already know about my post here where I argue that prophet Muhammad's name is mentioned in this chapter, and considering it as a word (instead of a name) would create a grammatical blunder in the Hebrew verse.
Check out that post CLICK HERE if you haven't already.
Prophet Muhammad is indeed mentioned and prophesied by name in this chapter, verse 16:

"His mouth is sweetness itself; in his entirety, Muhammadim. This is my beloved, this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem." (Songs of Solomon 5:16)

Let's go over it quickly:

- The phrase: "וְכֻלּ֖וֹ מַֽחֲמַדִּ֑ים"
- Transliteration: "We-khullow Maḥammadim"
- Translation: "In his entirety, Maḥammadim"
- Hebrew word(s): וְכֻלּ֖וֹ (wə·ḵul·lōw)
- Translation: "In his entirety"
- Foreign name (rootless): "מַֽחֲמַדִּ֑ים"
- Translation: "Maḥammadim"
The Hebrew grammar of "We-Khullow":
Phrase: "וְכֻלּ֖וֹ": Form: Conjunctive waw Noun - masculine singular construct third person masculine singular
It is in third person masculine singular, which means, the following word also has to be in third person masculine singular, but that's not the case. It's in plural:
The Hebrew grammar of "Maḥammadim":

Phrase: מַֽחֲמַדִּ֑ים
Noun - masculine plural

The sudden use of the plural form in the verse has a purpose: to emphasize that this is a formal name, not a noun, verb, or any other grammatical form. If interpreted as a noun, the verse would contain a significant grammatical error.
For example, consider these English translations:

"He is altogether lovelinesses"
"He is all, beauties"

These sentences do not work grammatically. The only way to maintain the verse's grammatical accuracy is to interpret "Maḥammadim" as a formal foreign name with the Hebrew plural of majesty, as found in names like "Eliakim" or "Elohim."
It is essential to note that the term in question is not "Makhmadim," as apologetics often claim. The correct term is, in fact, "Maḥammadim."
Go to this website: Click here And choose "Hebrew" and insert "מַֽחֲמַדִּ֑ים" and press "Create audio" to hear how clearly it is pronounced as "Muhammadim."
You can also hear a Rabbi in the following video literally say that prophet Muhammad's name is mentioned in verse 16 Click here (37 seconds in).
I understand that some of you may have been led to believe by apologetics that the term in question is a formal Hebrew word and should be pronounced as "Makhmadim." However, this is not accurate. To clarify, let's examine the Hebrew letters and diacritics involved:
Letter: מַֽ (Ma)
Letter: חֲ (ḥa)
Letter: מַ (Ma)
Letter: דִּ֑ (D)
Letter: ים (im)
= Maḥammadim
When the letter חֲ "ḥet" is followed by a sheva na, it is pronounced as a short, unstressed vowel sound [ħă].
These are fundamental rules of Hebrew pronunciation. It is crucial to stop spreading misinformation in the comment section, as it misleads people and does so in the name of religion. The term is not "Makhmadim," and this is widely recognized even among Jews themselves.

To read more about the grammar and linguistics, visit my initial post about it here:

Title: If "Maḥammadim" is Not a Name: Then Songs Of Solomon 5:16 Has a Grammatical Blunder - Prophet Muhammad Is Definitely Mentioned By Name (4 irrefutable reasons!!)
But let's go over some new points (and the old ones as well):

Here are seven compelling reasons why Chapter 5 is a prophecy about Prophet Muhammad:

1. His name:The Chapter is literally mentioning him by name. This is the clearest indication that this is a prophecy about him. It makes this an irrefutable prophecy. If there were a similar prophecy about Jesus in the Old Testament, Christians would likely prominently display the verse at every church entrance. This verse is widely regarded as validating Muhammad's prophethood solely due to the presence of his name within verse 16.
   
2. Hebrew Grammar:The grammar in verse 16 requires interpreting "Maḥammadim" as a formal foreign name. It is not a Hebrew word and cannot be translated without creating a grammatical error. The third-person singular "we-khullow" corresponds with the plural "Maḥammadim," which only makes sense if it is a formal name with the Hebrew plural of majesty suffix (-im).
   
3. Verse 10:This verse refers to "the chiefest among ten thousand." Interestingly, historical accounts tell us that Prophet Muhammad conquered Mecca with 10,000 companions, a moment when he forgave all the non-believers who had persecuted him and his family for years, taking the lives of many (including his own daughters).
   
4. His appearance:The chapter describes the appearance of "the beloved," which aligns with Prophet Muhammad's features, such as wavy, pitch-black hair and ruddy skin color.
   
5. Arab cities: Verse 10 is connected to Deuteronomy 33:2, which mentions three cities belonging to ancient Arabia. This chapter also references an Arab country and compares the beloved's appearance to that of Lebanon.
   
6. A new Law: Deuteronomy 33:2 states, "At His right hand was a flaming fire, a law, for them." This suggests that the person being referred to would bring a new Torah (a new Law). This idea is reinforced in Isaiah 51:4: "Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law (ṯōwrāh) will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples." The only instance of a completely new "Torah" (Law) that superseded all previous Scriptures since Moses is the Holy Quran with its "Shariah" Law.
   
7. The beloved's companions: The chapter mentions the beloved's companions, who are described as mighty and valiant. This aligns with the historical accounts of Muhammad's companions, known as the Sahabah, who were renowned for their courage and strength.
   
8. Why would God allow this?: This point serves as advice to trust in God's prophecies within the Old Testament Scriptures. Consider the following: Why would God permit such clear references and parallels to be included in His Revelations, only to have them fulfilled by a supposedly "false prophet"? Does this seem logical? It certainly does not to me. God has never before left a multitude of prophecies within His Scriptures to be fulfilled by someone who would lead people astray. If Prophet Muhammad were indeed a false prophet, his followers would have a valid argument at the Judgment of God, wouldn't they? So, why did God allow him to fulfill all these prophecies? However, it is essential to remember that God would never decree the followers of Prophet Muhammad for hell, because that would not be in accordance with justice and fairness.
   

Prophet Muhammad was a genuine prophet of God, and he indisputably fulfilled all the prophecies and revived the doctrine and methodology of Abraham, which is pure monotheism. The Holy Quran says:

"And afterward We inspired thee (Muhammad, saying): Follow the religion of Abraham, as one by nature upright. He was not of the idolaters." (The Holy Quran - "The Bee" - 16:123)

And:

"And they say: Be Jews or Christians, then ye will be rightly guided. Say (unto them, O Muhammad): Nay, but (we follow) the religion of Abraham, the upright, and he was not of the idolaters." (-''-, "The Heifer" - 2:135)

Islam is the Religion of Abraham, given the name "Islam" by God Himself. It is not a new or novice faith from ancient Arabia but rather the continuation and culmination of the monotheistic tradition established by our father Abraham.

Verse 15 mentions "Hamûdî," the nickname of the name "Muhammad," but in Hebrew (Amûdî):

שוקיו עמודי שש מיסדים על־אדני־פז מראהו כלבנון בחור כארזים:

The first word in this verse is:
Heb: שׁוֹקָיו֙ (šô·w·qâw)
Noun - fdc third person masculine singular.
Which traditionally is translated as "His legs/thighs."
It is followed by:
Heb: עַמּ֣וּדֵי (‘am·mû·ḏî)
Noun - in masculine plural construct.
Which traditionally is interpreted to mean "Pillars."
Upon immediate observation, you'll notice that, similar to verse 16, there is a grammatical inconsistency in the translation of these two phrases.
The first phrase is expressed in masculine singular form in Hebrew, but it has been translated into masculine plural form in English, indicating a lack of faithfulness in the translation.

Here's the significance of this discrepancy:

"Amudi" in this verse corresponds to the Arabic nickname for the formal Arabic name "Muhammad," namely "Hamûdî,"
The omission of the initial "H" sound in the name "Hamûdî" when it is borrowed into Hebrew as "‘ammûḏî" can be attributed to the fact that Hebrew loanwords from Arabic often omit the "H" sound at the beginning of a word.
In Hebrew phonology, initial "H" sounds in loanwords from Arabic are frequently dropped or assimilated into other sounds. This phenomenon is not unique to the nickname "Hamûdî"; rather, it is a common pattern observed in the borrowing of words from Arabic into Hebrew. This phonological adaptation occurs to accommodate the structure and phonetic patterns of the Hebrew language.
The first word, "שׁוֹקָיו֙" (šôwqâw), is likely to be understood as a verb form derived from the root "שׁקק" (sh.q.q), meaning "Desired" or "longed." The verse is in reality saying:

"His desired one, Amudi!"

And in the next verse, namely v.16 says:

"And in his entirety, Muhammadim!"

It kind of makes sense now that it says "AND in his entirety" and then a mention of his full formal name, after having mentioned him by his nickname. The pillars that are referenced later in the verse are described as being six in number, specifically "Six pillars of gold." This could potentially be a reference to the six pillars or columns that are located inside the Rawdah (Riaz ul Jannah) in "Masjid Nabawi" (The Prophet's Mosque) in Medina. These pillars hold special historical significance for Muslims and are adorned with gold.
"šôwqâw" is defined the following way in Hebrew dictionaries:

Root: שׁקק ᴵᴵ to desire. (— Qal)he desired (a hapax legomenon in the Bible, occurring Ps. 107:9). (— Hithpol.)he yearned, longed, desired. [Related to base שׁוק ᴵᴵᴵ.]Derivatives: שֶׁקֶק ᴵᴵ, שִׁקּוּק ᴵᴵ, שֽׁקִיקָה ᴵᴵ, הִשֽׁתּוֹקֽקוּת, שֽׁקִיקוּת, שׁוֹקֵק ᴵᴵ. Source: מקור: Klein Dictionary Creator: יוצר: Ezra Klein

4. The benefit in us initially not knowing that these Songs of Solomon were of prophetic nature?

The initial obscurity surrounding the prophetic nature of the Songs of Solomon serves a divine purpose, rooted in God's Eternal Wisdom. If people had known from the beginning that these Songs were prophetic, many would have falsely claimed the fulfillment of prophecies. However, God presented them as mere "Love stories," and their true purpose remained hidden for centuries.
Now, the reason for their inclusion in the Book of God has been revealed. This divine plan aims to clarify the truth for us in the modern age without the need for a new prophet or messenger (I'm only an author on Reddit who's well versed in the Scriptures).

5. The "Erchomai" (aka "Paraclete" and the promise of the "Spirit of Truth"):

Jesus promised his followers the coming of "another" advocate:

John 14:15-18:
"If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you (ἔρχομαι)."

While I am not an expert in Greek, the fact that the world cannot accept him could imply that they would reject his message, and that they do not see him could mean they do not believe in his message. It does not have to refer to an invisible Spirit.
The translation of "I will come to you" is based on the verb in its base form, "ἔρχομαι." John the Baptist uses another form of this word when speaking about someone greater than him who would come after him:

Matthew 3:11 (NIV):
"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes (ἐρχόμενος - erchomenos) one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

Here, it is clear that John the Baptist is referring to another human being who will come after him because he mentions his sandals (Holy Ghost doesn't wear sandals, as far as we know). This individual will perform a different kind of baptism—with the Holy Spirit and fire. The Holy Spirit is identified as Gabriel, and the "Fire" in this context refers to the verse from Deuteronomy 33:

"He said, “The LORD came from Sinai, And dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And He came from among ten thousand holy ones; At His right hand was a flaming fire, a law, for them." (Deuteronomy 33:2)

The fire is this fiery Law that is mentioned here.
Furthermore, all of these locations mentioned in this verse are cities in ancient Arabia. See these ancient maps below clearly proving this:
- Sinai: (Click here to see ancient map)
Look for: Within the region of what is today known as "Tabuk, Saudi Arabia."
- Seir: (Click here to see ancient map)
Look for: Right next to "Seger", which corresponds to "Thamud" today I believe (or at least very close to it. You'll also see "Kor" right next to it, which is what the Bible also says is close to Seir.)
- Mount Paran: (Click here to see ancient map)
Look for: "Pharanite" within (or close by what was known as Arabia Petrea, but it was a vast mountainous region and probably stretched well into Arabia as well, you'll find it right next to "Modiana" in this map (which most likely is the "Midian" the Bible speaks of), and the Bible also says that Midian is close to Paran so it makes perfect sense.)
Returning to Matthew 3:11, we see that the individual being referred to is an actual human, as indicated by the mention of sandals. This person cannot be Jesus, as John the Baptist and Jesus lived during the same time and even carried out their missions simultaneously. John was referring to Prophet Muhammad (also known as "Ahmad"). The Holy Quran says:

"And remember, Jesus, the son of Mary, said: 'O Children of Israel! I am the messenger of God (sent) to you, confirming the Law (which came) before me, and giving Glad Tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad.' But when he came to them with Clear Signs, they said, 'this is evident sorcery!'" (61:6)

Additionally:

"Verily this is a Revelation from the Lord of the Worlds: the Spirit of Truth has brought it down [i.e. brought down the Quran] upon your heart, so that you become one of the warners, in plain Arabic language. And indeed, it is surely in the former Scriptures. Is it not a Sign for them that the scholars of the Children of Israel have recognized it?" (26:193-197)

The Quran directly claims that this prophecy is found in the former Scriptures and that the scholars of the Children of Israel have recognized it, and here (in this post) you are clearly seeing parallels before your very own eyes.

6. The coming the "Son of man":

Matthew 25:31-44 gives us some highly interesting statements made by Jesus himself:
"The Son of Man Will Judge the Nations"

31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ 41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ 44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This "Son of man" prophecy in Matthew 25:31-44 is not referring to Jesus, even though he did use this term to describe himself. This passage is about another "Son of man," as Jesus was not a king. This was about the prophet from Arabia:

In Isaiah 21, we read a prophecy against Arabia and someone who would flee from swords and war:

"Proclamation Against Arabia"

13 The burden against Arabia.
In the forest in Arabia you will lodge,
O you traveling companies of Dedanites.
14 O inhabitants of the land of Tema,
Bring water to him who is thirsty;
With their bread they met him who fled.
15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword,
From the bent bow, and from the distress of war.
16 For thus the Lord has said to me: “Within a year, according to the year of a hired man, all the glory of Kedar will fail; 17 and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the Lord God of Israel has spoken it.”

The sole instance of Kedar's glory waning and ultimately falling was through the prophet Muhammad. This prophecy finds its fulfillment exclusively in him, with no possibility of being fulfilled by another, given the non-existence of "Kedar" any longer. Notice the words "They bring water to him who is thirsty, with their bread they met him who fled" mirroring what Jesus said about that Son of man.
The only recorded instance of the entire Arabian Peninsula succumbing was through prophet Muhammad, a messenger who professed to be sent for all of humanity, including all earthly kings.
Nonetheless, what I want to point out is the following:

"14. O inhabitants of the land of Tema, Bring water to him who is thirsty; With their bread they met him who fled."

Directly mirroring what Jesus mentioned the king (i.e. this 'Son of man') would say, in Matthew 25:

"35. for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;"

This passage pertains to the migration (also known as "Hijrah") of Prophet Muhammad in 622 CE from Mecca to Yathrib (Medina) upon receiving an invitation, in order to escape the persecution of the warring pagans of Mecca.

Conclusion:

With this, I conclude my post, and I genuinely hope that I have brought some enlightenment to some of you and convinced you just as much as I am convinced about these prophecies.
/By your brother, Exion.

Here is the list that I wrote for Georgia's post Furman execution roster for my death penalty project. Like with the previous posts, the dates aren't a precise duration of time spent on death row, but rather an approximation of their earliest known criminal activities to their executions. Many of the crimes discussed in this post are also extremely horrific, and thus please read at your own risk.
As I finished finials yesterday, the remaining states, Missouri, Virginia, Florida, and Oklahoma might be released on a quicker pace. I'm planning on doing Missouri next, but it might be split into at least two separate parts due to the currently 98 executions that have taken place.
The currently executed 77 inmates:
1. John Smith (1974-1983, electric chair): Smith and his wife decided to kill her ex husband, 38 year old Ronald Atkins, and his 29 year old wife Juanita, when they learned that the daughter she had in their former marriage were beneficiaries of the Atkins' life insurance policy. The couple and another accomplice lured the Atkins' to their home with a promise of selling them a television set, and shot them both dead.
2. Ivon Stanley (1976-1984, electric chair): Stanley and an accomplice abducted Clifford Floyd, a 46 year old insurance agent, after they lured him into the accomplice's apartment. Floyd was dragged into a forest, beaten with a hammer, and tied to a tree. He was then shot and buried alive in a shallow grave. Floyd succumbed to a combination of blood loss and suffocation and a total of $234 was stolen from him in the attack.
3. Alpha Stephens (~1961-1984, electric chair): In 1973, Stephens shot dead 57 year old Louise Mercer while robbing a grocery store her brother owned. A year later, Stephens abducted Roy Asbell, a 49 year old minister, from his home with a gun he stole from Asbell's son. Asbell tried bribing his captor with hundreds of dollars in cash for his life, but Stephens simply snatched the money away, dragged Asbell to a barn, and shot him in the head. He had a significant rap sheet that included several armed robberies, prison breakouts, auto thefts, kidnappings, and burglaries, and was first arrested at the age of 16.
4. Roosevelt Green Jr. (1976-1985, electric chair): During a robbery of a convenience store, Green kidnapped the clerk, 18 year old Teresa Allen, stole $466 from the cash register, and drove away with his loot and hostage in her car. He then raped Allen, shot her to death, and dumped her body on a dirt road.
5. Van Solomon (1979-1985, electric chair): Solomon and his accomplice Brandon Jones gunned down 29 year old Roger Tackett while robbing a Tenneco store he managed. Ironically, Solomon himself was shot by an assailant robbing his grocery store some years before the murder.
6. John Young (1974-1985, electric chair): Young attacked 6 elderly men and women with bottles, lamps, fireplace pokers, and vases in their homes, across a single neighborhood. 3 of the victims, 85 year old Coleman Brice, his 83 year old wife Gladys, and 83 year old Katie Davis, were beaten to death in the assaults. Several variables such as jewelry and watches were taken as well.
7. Jerome Bowden (1976-1986, electric chair): Bowden and an accomplice stabbed 55 year old Kathryn Stryker to death and gravely wounded her bedridden mother, 76 year old Wessie Jenkins while burglarizing their home. Several items, such a wig, a pellet gun, some jewelry, and a television set was stolen in the intrusion. The television set was sold by Bowden to one of his acquaintances. Jenkins initially survived the attack, but died from complications relating to their injuries after Bowden was indicted for her daughter's murder.
8. Joseph Mulligan (1974-1987, electric chair): As part of a scheme to collect an insurance policy, Mulligan shot his sister's estranged husband, 30 year old Patrick Doe and Doe's girlfriend, 25 year old Marion Miller, while they were driving to a party. Doe was a captain in the United States Army at the time of his death.

1. Richard Tucker Jr. (~1963-1987, electric chair): In 1963, Tucker stabbed his aunt, 61 year old Annie Armstrong, 14 times with scissors while burglarizing her home. He was released from incarceration in 1978. 6 months after being let out of prison, Tucker abducted 50 year old Edna Sandefur from a hospital parking lot while she was visiting her ill mother, and drove her to a remote warehouse. He robbed and raped Sandefur, and then beat her to death with an iron pipe. Tucker also had previous convictions of burglary and attempted rape.

10. William Tucker (1977-1987, electric chair): Tucker abducted 19 year old Kathleen Parry, a pregnant clerk, while he was robbing a convenience store she was working at. He forced Parry at knifepoint to withdraw money from the cash register, and dragged her into his car. When they drove to a chapel, Tucker stabbed her to death.
11. William Mitchell (1974-1987, electric chair): Mitchell accosted 50 year old Willard Williams while he was walking down a street and mugged him of $4. He then forced Williams to lay down and shot him execution style. In the following day, he held 34 year old Peggy Carr and her 14 year old son Christopher at gunpoint while they were opening their family owned store. Despite Peggy giving him $160, he made rape threats against her and forced the pair into a freezer. Both mother and son were shot several times and left for dead by Mitchell. Christopher died at the scene, while his mother survived her injuries.
12. Timothy McCorquodale (1974-1987, electric chair): McCorquodale and his entourage accused Donna Dixon, a 17 year old runaway, of stealing money from him and giving it to a black pimp that he thought she was having a relationship with. He bombarded Dixon with racist insults and sexual advances as he and his accomplices kidnapped her from a club. After she was taken to McCorquodale’s apartment, Dixon was bound, and repeatedly beaten and raped. They tortured her by cutting her breasts with razor blades, burned her body with cigarette butts and candle wax, and she was violated with a bottle. The abuse ended when McCorquodale broke her arms and legs, and strangled her to death with a clothesline.
13. James Messer Jr. (1979-1988, electric chair) To get back at his estranged wife for leaving him with their children, Messer kidnapped her niece, 8 year old Rhonda Tanner, while he was picking her up from school. He raped and severely beat Tanner in a forest and stabbed her to death.
14. Henry Willis III (1976-1989, electric chair): Willis and his accomplices abducted a policeman, 29 year old James Giddens, that was dispatched to stop their robbery of a food market. They took the captive officer near a lake, where he tried to escape by jumping into it. Willis and one of his partners shot Giddens dead while he was trying to swim to safety.
15. Warren McCleskey (1978-1991, electric chair): McCleskey robbed a jewelry store at gunpoint, and fired on the responding officers. One of the officers, 30 year old Frank Schlatt was killed in the shooting.
16. Thomas Stevens (1977-1993, electric chair): Stevens and Christopher Burger abducted a fellow soldier, 20 year old Roger Honeycutt, who was also working as a cab driver, when he picked them up from the enlisted men's club on Fort Stewart. Honeycutt was tied up with a cord, robbed of $20, and sodomized repeatedly by both of his captors. The pair then locked Honeycutt in the trunk of the cab, and drove it into a pond as they jumped out. Being unable to escape, Honeycutt drowned as his car sank into the pond's depths.
17. Christopher Burger (1977-1993, electric chair): As mentioned under Thomas Stevens' section, Burger assisted in the robbery, abduction, rape, and murder of Roger Honeycutt.
18. William Hance (1977-1994, electric chair): Hance, a former Marine that transferred himself to the Army, abducted at least 3 women, 32 year old Irene Thirkield, 24 year old Karen Hickman, and 21 year old Gail Jackson. Thrikield and Jackson were black prostitutes and Hickman was a white Marine servicewoman that was stationed in the same base as Hance. They were all raped and beaten to death with jack handles and tire irons. In a misguided attempt to throw off the police and attract media attention, Hance staged a convoluted hoax involving a race war between a gang of white vigilantes and a gang of black counter vigilantes. He tried to pretend that his victims were murdered from retaliatory killings between the two groups. Hance was also suspected in the murder of another woman in Indiana, but was never charged of it.
19. Nicholas Ingram (1983-1995, electric chair): Ingram broke into the home of 55 year old J.C. Sawyer and his wife Mary. He forced them to hand over $60 and their car keys at gunpoint, tied the couple together to a tree, and shot both of them. J.C. was killed, while Mary survived their ordeal. Ingram then stole their car and fled to California. While a fugitive hiding out in California, he committed another carjacking, and ran off to Nebraska, where he was detained for a DUI and deported back to Georgia to face trial. Due to being a British national, Ingram's execution sparked outrage in the United Kingdom.
20. Darrell Devier (1979-1995, electric chair): Devier lured 12 year old Mary Stoner into his car while she was walking home from school. He raped her in a forest, made an attempt to strangle her during their struggle, and crushed Stoner's head with a rock. Months before the murder, Devier was accused of raping a 13 year old girl, but the charges against him were dismissed from the lack of sufficient evidence.
21. Larry Lonchar (1986-1996, electric chair): During a dispute over gambling debts, Lonchar confronted his bookkeeper, 54 year old Wayne Smith, at his condo while pretending to be a FBI agent. In the altercation, he bound Wayne and his 24 year old son Steven with handcuffs, and shot and stabbed them to death. Wayne's girlfriend, 45 year old Margaret Sweat, called 911, and was also shot and stabbed to death while she was on the phone with the dispatcher. Another one of Wayne's sons was attacked in the incident, but he managed to survive his injuries.
22. Ellis Felker (1977-1996, electric chair): Evelyn Ludlam, a 19 year old cocktail waitress for the Holiday Inn, was lured into Flelker's clutches when he promised her work at his leather store. For religious reasons, Ludlam was disaffected with her job, and wanted a new line of work. Felker raped and strangled Ludlam to death and sexually mutilated her body. After he murdered Ludlem, Felker dumped her remains in a creek. He was registered sex offender with a sodomy conviction at the time of Ludlam's death.
23. David Cargill (1985-1998, electric chair): Cargill and his brother stormed a gas station, and forced a couple, 41 year old Danny and 29 year old Cheryl Williams, to lie on the floor. Cheryl was a clerk for the station, and Danny stopped by to help her close down after he put their sons to bed. The brothers shot the couple execution style, and stole a total of $482.79 from the register. They were also involved with several carjackings.
24. Terry Mincey (1982-2001, lethal injection): Mincey and his accomplices robbed a convenience store at gunpoint, and forced the clerk, 38 year old Paulette Riggs to empty the cash register into their bag. They shot her dead, and took 2 teenage siblings hostage that were present in the store. Coincidentally, a firefighter pulled up to the scene to refill his truck, and Mincey shot and wounded him. The siblings took the opportunity to escape and fled into a nearby field.
25. Jose High (1976-2001, lethal injection): High and his accomplices abducted 11 year old Bonnie Bulloch and his stepfather, 27 year old Henry Philips, from a gas station they were operating, after emptying the cash register. The robbers forced the pair into their car, reportedly taunted the captives about their intentions to kill them, and drove to a remote forest. They then shot Bulloch dead and wounded Philips.
26. Fred Gilreath Jr. (1979-2001, lethal injection): Gilreath's wife, 28 year old Linda, moved out of their home to escape their disintegrating marriage. When Linda returned with her father, 57 year old Gerrit Van Leeuwen, to pack up her belongings, Gilreath shot them both dead.
27. Byron Parker (1984-2001, lethal injection): Parker enticed 11 year old Christie Griffith into his car after she missed her taxi that was supposed to take her to her older brother's high school graduation. He bound Griffith to a tree, and raped and strangled her death, while his two year old son was waiting for him in their car.
28. Ronald Spivey (~1961-2002, lethal injection): While playing pool at a bar, Spivey got into a fight with 32 year old Charles McCook over money he perceived to have won, and shot him to death. A day later, he robbed a bank and took hostages. He fatally shot Bill Watson, a 40 year old off duty police officer that tried to stop him, and injured the manager, 21 year old Welton Allen. Allen tried fleeing to a nearby restaurant, and Spivey following him into it in pursuit. He fired on the establishment in an attempt to kill him, but missed and wounded an employee caught in the crossfire. Spivey then kidnapped a waitress and forced her to drive him to Alabama. She was rescued unharmed by local authorities when they pulled over and captured Spivey. A search of the stolen car found that Spivey stole a total of $360 in his robberies. His previous convictions include several counts of forgery, armed robbery, and auto theft.
29. Tracy Housel (1984-2002, lethal injection) Housel was a sexual predator and thief that victimized men and women alike between the ages of 18-45. He worked as a interstate truck driver, and picked up victims that he befriended from stops all across the country. They were driven to isolated locations, where Housel would bind, rob, and sodomize them. His killing methods were diverse and circumstantial, but Housel mostly used strangulations, beatings, and stabbings in the attacks. Housel was convicted in the deaths of Troy Smith (age unknown) and 44 year old Jean Drew, and is suspected in and/or confessed to 15 other murders. He was also responsible for several non fatal assaults and robberies. Like Nicholas Ingram, Housel's death sentence and execution sparked outrage in the United Kingdom due to him being a British national.
30. Wallace Fugate III (1991-2002, lethal injection): Fugate forced himself inside the home of his ex wife, 39 year old Pattie. He pistol whipped Pattie dozens of times and shot her dead in front of their 15 year old son. Unrelated to the case, but that son was beaten to death in the same house by his friends a year after Fugate's conviction.
31. William Putman (1980-2002, lethal injection): Purtman shot and killed 49 year old William Hodges on the side of a highway. Hours later, he snuck up on a married couple, 28 year old Kate Back and 22 year old David Hardin, sleeping at a rest stop in their car with their children (which included a 9 year old daughter, a 7 year old son, and an 11 month old daughter) and 14 year old niece. He shot David dead and tried to abduct Kate. When she resisted and screamed for her husband, Purtman shot her as well and fled the scene.
32. Larry Moon (1984-2003, lethal injection): According to prosecutors, Moon ambushed 34 year old Ricky Callahan while the later was walking to a pharmacy to buy headache medicine for his wife. Callahan was shot in the head during the attack and had $60 taken from his wallet. Moon was also suspected in the shooting deaths of Jimmy Hutcheson (age unknown) and Thomas DeJose (age unknown), several robberies, and the abduction and sexual assault of a female impersonator. The prosecution failed to convict him for the murder of DeJose on the grounds of self defense and the murder of Butcheson on the lack of sufficient evidence. His conviction for Callahan's murder is contested, as Moon and his supporters claim that a late hitman confessed to the killing.
33. Carl Isaacs (~1960s-2003, lethal injection): Isaacs, with the help of two of his brothers and a cellmate, escaped from the Maryland State prison, and fatally shot 19 year old Richard Miller when he tried to stop them from stealing a car. The group drove by a Georgia gas pump in the hopes of refilling their getaway car. However, the pump was empty, and decided to burglarize a nearby trailer belonging to the Alday family (which consisted of brothers, 62 year old Ned and 57 year old Aubrey, Ned's sons, 35 year old Jerry and 32 year old Chester, and Jerry's 26 year old wife Mary) while they were gone. When the family returned home, Isaacs and his accomplices held the entire family at gun point, gang-raped Mary several times, and shot them all dead. Isaacs had a very troubled history, and committed several burglaries and robberies as a teenager.
34. James Brown (~1968-2003, lethal injection): Brown went on a date with Brenda Watson, a 21 year old stripper. After they were drinking and partying together at a bar, Brown tied up Watson with nylon stockings, and raped and asphyxiated her by shoving panties down her throat. He had a long history involving violence towards women. One of his previous convictions involved an incident of him breaking into a woman’s home, and (non fatally) stabbing and sexually assaulting her. Brown also had a warrant at the time of Watson’s murder for aggravated robbery, kidnapping, and sexual assault charges when he lured another woman by posing as an artist in need of a model.
35. Robert Hicks (~1970s-2004, lethal injection): Hicks laid his eyes on 28 year old Joni Rivers while she was talking to her boyfriend using a grocery store payphone. He chased down Rivers when she tried to flee from him and nearly decapitated her in a frenzied stabbing attack. Rivers' shoes, shorts, and ring were taken and found in Hicks' car. Hicks was released from prison months earlier after serving a half of a 15 year sentence for sexually abusing a 16 year old girl.
36. Eddie Crawford (1983-2004, lethal injection): Crawford tried spending the night with one of his estranged wife's sisters after a drinking binge, but she ejected him from her home. Out of anger, he abducted Leslie English, her 2 year old daughter, from the girl's bedroom, and then raped and strangled her to death.
37. Timothy Carr (1992-2005, lethal injection): Carr and his girlfriend attended a party with 17 year old Keith Young. The couple decided that they wanted to rob the boy, and they lured him into a forest with the help of two other teenagers. Carr slit Young's throat, and then proceeded to beat him to death with a baseball bat. He and his accomplices stole a $125 paycheck and Young's car in the robbery.
38. Stephen Mobley (1991-2005, lethal injection): Mobley shot and killed 25 year old John Collins while robbing a Domino's Pizza restaurant he was managing. He had also held up 6 other restaurants and dry-cleaning shops at gunpoint in his month long crime spree.
39. Robert Conklin (~1981-2005, lethal injection): Conklin stabbed his boyfriend, 28 year old George Crooks, in the ear with a screwdriver in their apartment, and dismembered his body. In an attempt to get rid of the remains, he stuffed them in a garbage disposal in their kitchen and a nearby dumpster. At the time of Crooks' murder, Conklin was on parole from a 6 year sentence for armed robbery.
40. John Hightower (1987-2007, lethal injection): While under the influence of cocaine, Hightower shot his wife, 41 year old Dorothy, and his stepdaughters, 22 year old Sandra and 19 year old Evelyn Reaves, to death in their sleep.
41. William Lynd (1988-2008, lethal injection): Lynd got into an argument with his girlfriend, 26 year old Ginger Moore, over a planned vacation and shot her to death. While on the run in Ohio, he tried to hijack a car, and shot the driver, 42 year old Leslie Sharkey, in the process. Sharkey managed to crawl to safety, and notified the authorities of the attack. She died of her injuries a few days after the shooting.
42. Curtis Osborne (1990-2008, lethal injection): Osborne, a career drug dealer, shot his girlfriend's brother, 29 year old Arthur Jones, and Jones' girlfriend, 28 year old Linda Seaborne, dead in argument over money gained from a motorcycle sale. His death sentence was controversial, as Osborne claimed that his attorney denied him a plea bargain for a racist agenda.
43. Jack Alderman (1975-2008, lethal injection): In an attempt to collect a life insurance policy, Alderman beat his wife, 20 year old Barbara, to death with a wench.
44. Robert Newland (1986-2009, lethal injection): Newland went to the apartment of his girlfriend, 27 year old Carol Beatty, after a drinking binge, and tried to kiss her. When she rejected and slapped him, Newland stabbed and disemboweled her alive. Just before she succumbed to her injuries, Beatty used her own blood to identify Newland as her attacker to the first responders.
45. William Mize (1994-2009, lethal injection): Mize was a leader of a white supremacist gang called the National Vastilian Aryan Party, in which 34 year old Eddie Tucker had filed to join. When Tucker disobeyed his orders to burn down a "crack house" as part of an initiation ritual, Mize lured him into a forest and shot him dead.
46. Mark McClain (1994-2009, lethal injection): McClain robbed a Domino pizza parlor after ordering a pizza. He shot the manger, 28 year old Kevin Brown, dead and stole $130 from the register.
47. Melbert Ford Jr. (1986-2010, lethal injection): Ford had a very specific fantasy about robbing, abducting and then murdering his ex girlfriend, 30 year old Martha Matich, after forcing her beg for mercy. He decided to make his fantasies into a reality, and stormed the grocery store she worked at with the help of an accomplice he hired. Ford shot Matich and her niece, 11 year old Lisa Chapman, dead, and stole $579 from the register.
48. Brandon Rhode (1998-2010, lethal injection): Rhode and his accomplice Daniel Lucas broke into a house, and encountered the residents, 37 year old Steven Moss, and his two children, 15 year old Kristin and 11 year old Bryan. Bryan was home alone when the intruders arrived, and tried to fight them off with a baseball bat. Lucas and Rhodes quickly subdued the boy and shot him to death. Kristen and Steven were also shot dead when they returned home. Their bodies were discovered by Gerri, Steven's wife and the children's mother. The pair were career burglars, and previously targeted the Moss home weeks before the massacre.
49. Emmanuel Hammond (~1983-2011, lethal injection): Hammond, his girlfriend, and her cousin spotted 27 year old Julia Love broken down on the side of the road. They dragged her into their car after she declined their offer for a ride. Love was tied up, forced to withdraw $140 from an ATM, and raped. The attackers partially strangled Love and shot her to death in a remote forest. In exchange for having all charges dropped, Hammond's girlfriend agreed to testify against him and her cousin. He tried to hire a fellow inmate to permanently silence her testimony, but was foiled by prison officials. Hammond had numerous previous convictions, but my sources didn't disclose details.
50. Roy Blankenship (1978-2011, lethal injection): Blankenship climbed into a home of 78 year old Sara Bowen after breaking her window. He raped and beat Bowen, and penetrated her with a bottle. She succumbed to a heart attack from the stress of the assault.
51. Andrew DeYoung (1993-2011, lethal injection): Wanting to use their life insurance policies to start his dream business, DeYoung stabbed his parents, 42 year old Gary and 41 year old Kathryn, and his sister, 14 year old Sarah, to death, and unsuccessfully ordered his accomplice to kill his 16 year old brother Nathan. Nathan escaped through a window and went to a neighbor for help.
52. Troy Davis (1988-2011, lethal injection): Davis was sentenced to death for a crime spree involving several robberies, the non fatal shooting of a teenager, and the beating of a homeless man, Troy Young (age unknown). Larry MacPhail, a 27 year old police officer and security guard, was shot and killed when he intervened in an attempt to protect Young. Davis' execution was controversial, as he managed to amass a popular following that believed in his innocence during his time on death row. He previously plead guilty for a carrying concealed weapons charge, and Davis paid a $250 fine as part of a plea agreement to avoid prison time.
53. Andrew Cook (1995-2003, lethal injection): On a random whim, Cook walked up to a couple, 22 year old Grant Hendrickson and 19 year old Michele Cartagena, parked near a lake, and shot them both to death in their car.
54. Marcus Wellons (1989-2014, lethal injection): Wellons took an obsessive sexual interest in his neighbor, 15 year old India Roberts, and began to stalk and harass the girl in an attempt to groom her into a "relationship." At one point, he even pressured his girlfriend's 14 year old son to date her. His illicit pursuit of Roberts alarmed his girlfriend and she tried evicting him from their apartment. With his relationship in shambles, Wellons' behavior escalated beyond the breaking point. After he ransacked his now ex girlfriend's apartment and poured bleach on her clothes, Wellons ambushed and abducted Roberts while she was walking to school. He raped and strangled her to death with a telephone cord.
55. Robert Holsey (~1990s-2014, lethal injection): Holsey shot and killed Will Robinson, a 26 year old Sheriff's Deputy, during a robbery of a convenience store. At the time of the shooting, he was on parole for an armed robbery conviction.
56. Andrew Brannan (~1980s-2015, lethal injection): In 1998, Branner was pulled over for speeding by Kyle Dinkheller, a 22 year old deputy. While Dinkheller was trying to file a citation, Branner became belligerent, pulled an M1 carbine out of his truck, and opened fire. Dinkheller was killed in the shootout, but he managed to wound Branner in his return fire. Branner was a Vietnam combat veteran, and he tried to use PTSD as a defense for the fatal shooting of Dinkheller and previous domestic abuse charges from his ex wife.
57. Warren Hill Jr. (~1985-2015, lethal injection): Hill was given a life sentence when he shot and killed his girlfriend, 18 year old Myra Wright. His sentence escalated to death a few years later when he fatally beat his cellmate, 34 year old Joseph Handspike, with a nailed board. At the time of his own murder, Handspike was also serving a life sentence for shooting and killing a restaurant manager during a robbery.
58. Kelly Gissendaner (1997-2015, lethal injection): Out of a desire to leave their marriage and to collect a life insurance policy, Gissendan assisted her boyfriend in abducting her husband, 30 year old Douglas, from their home. Her boyfriend stabbed Douglas to death, and she set their car on fire to destroy his body. The couple were also charged with attempting to intimidate witnesses during the murder trial.
59.Marcus Johnson (1994-2015, lethal injection): After Johnson picked up 35 year old Angela Sizemore from a bar, he sexually assaulted her with a knife. Sizemore was stabbed 41 times in the attack, and her throat was cut. Her body was found in her car by a man walking his dog hours after the murder.
60. Brian Terrell (~1992-2015, lethal injection): Terrell forged up to $8,000 in checks using 70 year old John Watson's name. Watson, who was seeking a relationship with Terrell's mother, tried to make a deal that he wouldn't pursue any charges if the money was returned to him. According to prosecutors, Terrell broke into Watson's home, and beat and fatally shot him to avoid repaying the money. His execution caused controversy, as the defense attorneys claimed that the footprints at the scene were smaller then his feet, and that he was condemned only by what they perceived to be misused testimony from his cousin (that testified against him in exchange for a plea deal) and a neighbor (who allegedly claimed that they saw "someone else walk out of the home"). Those arguments were shut down by the courts, but embraced by anti death penalty activist groups and outlets. Regardless of his guilt or lack thereof, strong evidence points to him perpetrating similar armed robberies of other homes, and was on parole at the time of Watson's murder.
61. Brandon Jones (1979-2016, lethal injection): Jones was an accomplice to the above mentioned Van Solomon, and participated in the robbery that killed Roger Tackett.
62. Travis Hittson (1993-2016, lethal injection): Hittson, who was serving on the U.S.S. Forrestal, was convinced by a crewmate to kill Conway Utterbeck, a 20 year old fellow sailor, for the thrill of killing. When they were off duty, Hittson and his accomplice walked into the home of Herbeck's parents, and found Herbeck sleeping on the couch. Before they shot him to death, the pair bludgeoned Herbeck with a baseball bat. To prevent the body's identification, they chopped off his hands, feet, and head with a hacksaw, and dumped his dismembered remains in two separate burial sites across a 300 mile radius.
63. Joshua Bishop (1994-2016, lethal injection): Bishop and another man accosted 44 year old Leverett Morrison at a bar, and demand to have the keys to his jeep. When Morrison refused, the pair beat him to death. Bishop also orchestrated the beating death of 36 year old Ricky Wills for having intercourse with his prostitute mother. The prosecution declined to charge Bishop for Willis' murder, as they wanted to use it as evidence to help secure his death sentence for Morrison's slaying.
64. Kenneth Fults (1996-2016, lethal injection): Fults forced his way inside the home of 19 year old Cathy Bonds. He bound, gagged, and blindfolded Bonds with duct tape, and made an attempt to smother her with a pillow. When that failed, Fults shot Bonds in the head, stole her keys, and drove away with her car.
65. Daniel Lucas (1998-2016, lethal injection): Lucas was the accomplice to the above mentioned Brandon Rhode, and he assisted him in murdering Steven Moss and his children in their home.
66. John Conner (1982-2016, lethal injection): In a drunken rage, Connor beat his friend, 29 year old James White, to death with a whisky bottle and a stick while visiting him in his home. The two had gotten in fight when White refused to take Connor to a liquor store.
67. Gregory Lawler (1997-2016, lethal injection): Lawler and his girlfriend were walking home intoxicated after drinking heavily at a bar, and got into a fight. A witness called the police, and officers, 28 year old John Sowa and 38 year old Patricia Cocciolone, were sent to the scene. They carried Lawler's girlfriend to their car, and drove her to the couple's apartment. Lawler was allowed to walk home unescorted. When he arrived, Lawler grabbed an AR-15, and fired on the officers. Sowa was killed, while Cocciolone survived with crippling injuries and called for backup. The other officers besieged Lawler in his apartment, and he surrendered after a 44 minute standoff.
68. Steven Spears (2001-2016, lethal injection): Spears suspected that his girlfriend, 34 year old Sherri Holland, was cheating on him. He reacted to his suspicions by wrapping Holland's head with duct tape and suffocating her with a plastic bag in her home.
69. William Sallie (1989-2016, lethal injection): Sallie's ex wife, 19 year old Robin Moore, divorced him for his physical abuse and moved back to her family (consisting of her parents, 49 year old John and Linda (age unknown), and her siblings, 17 year old April and 10 year old Justin). He was able to acquire visitation rights to their 2 year old son from the courts, and used that pretext to attack the family. Sallie charged into the Moore family home, shot and killed John, wounded Linda and bound her to Justin with handcuffs, and kidnapped Robin and April. The sisters were both kept captive and sexually assaulted together in a trailer, but they were spared and released after a few hours.
70. J. Ledford Jr. (1992-2017, lethal injection): Ledford was welcomed inside a home by the wife of his neighbor, 73 year old Harry Johnston Jr.. He tied up the couple at knifepoint, stole an undisclosed amount of money and guns, kidnapped Johnston, and drove away with him in his truck. Johnston's body was later found near an abandoned building. He was half decapitated, had a knife embedded in his back, and covered with several minor stab wounds.
71. Carlton Gary (~1964-2018, lethal injection): Gary raped and murdered at least 8 mostly elderly women between 40-89 years old. Almost all of his victims were killed in their homes, but his youngest, 40 year old Marion Fisher of New York, was abducted while walking out of a bar. They were all strangled to death with nylon stockings, which is why Gary was given the “Stocking Slayer" epithet by the media. Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, including positive DNA tests, testimonies from surviving victims, fingerprints found on crime scenes, and semen samples, Gary still has a vocal following trying to proclaim his innocence. He had an extensive criminal history, which started with several arson, assault, and robbery charges as a teenager.
72. Robert Butts Jr. (1996-2018, lethal injection): Butts and his accomplice Marion Wilson carjacked Donovan Parks, a 24 year old off duty correctional officer, after he agreed to give them a ride home from Walmart. They forced Parks to exit the car and the shot him in the head execution style. Both Butts and Wilson were part of a Latin Kings set, and are believed to have killed Parks to gain more prestige from their gang. Butt's previous convictions include charges of shoplifting and burglary.
73. Scotty Morrow (1999-2019, lethal injection): Angry that his ex girlfriend, 26 year old Barbara Young, broke up with him for his abusive behavior, Morrow shot her, and her friend, 21 year old Tonya Wood, dead in their home. A third woman, 18 year old Latoyna Horn, was injured in the shooting. Young's two children, a 5 year old son and an 8 month old daughter, witnessed the killings, but were unharmed.
74. Marion Wilson Jr. (1999-2019, lethal injection): Wilson assisted Robert Butts, a fellow Latin King gangster, in the carjacking and shooting murder of officer Donovan Parks. He had a lengthy and very violent criminal history, which included the non fatal shootings of a Mexican migrant worker and a drug dealer during robberies, unprovoked assaults on a classmate and a youth worker, and an arson attack on an apartment complex. His friends noted that Wilson had a penchant for animal cruelty, and they reported seeing him shooting dogs on random whims.
75. Ray Cromartie (1994-2019, lethal injection): While robbing a grocery store, Cromartie and his accomplice shot two clerks, 50 year old Richard Slysz and Daniel Wilson (age unknown). Slysz died at the scene and Wilson survived with crippling injuries.
76. Donnie Lance (~1990s-2020, lethal injection): Lance broke down the door of his ex wife's, 39 year old Sandra, and fatally shot her boyfriend, 33 year old Dwight Wood Jr.. He then used the butt of his gun to club Sandra to death. According to court documents, Lance subjected Sandra to extreme abuse during their marriage, and reportedly kidnapped and tortured her with beatings, strangulations, and electrocutions on numerous occasions.
77. Willie Pye (~1985-2024, lethal injection): Pye's ex girlfriend, 21 year old Alicia Yarbrough, had a child with another man that he believed was his. Despite his suspicions, Yarbrough and their boyfriend pushed Pye out of the child’s life. In retaliation, Pye and two accomplice’s broke into Yarbrough’s ex boyfriend’s home to rob it, but found her alone with her infant. They abducted and robbed Yarbrough of her jewelry at gunpoint, raped her for several hours in a motel room, and shot her a total of 3 times in the head. Due to reports of him allegedly being cognitively disabled, Pye’s execution sparked some controversy. He was previously convicted of burglary.

Hey guys! I’m getting referred to this doctor from my primary care, she made it clear that emotional distress is being caused and they’re going to try their best to cover it, which is great. I’m willing to get the funds together regardless but this would be ideal. Has anybody heard of him? I can’t find any gyno specific reviews regarding his work. Any help/tips is appreciated. Thanks so much (Massachusetts)

Dear you,
This letter was purely unexpected. I was in the shower and deciding whether or not to continue my Melrose Place binge and what to have for dinner when this was cooked up. Even though you cannot physically hear these words coming from me, I trust that the universe will convey this message to you.
For context, let's go back to 2001. Spring 2001 to be exact. What was your life like at the time? I can tell you that while I didn't know your name, or where you lived, or anything about you, I thought of you. My family and I were driving from the South all the way to the Mohave Desert. Somewhere between exiting Mississippi and passing through the (original) French Quarter, I had this sudden desire that I wanted a husband. Yes, my 16-year-old self was already thinking about the (right) man that I would one day marry. My mom and I were on the car, leaving Shreveport, and we had a discussion about marriage and asking decent questions. What are you looking for in a future husband? Do you believe in real love? Are you ready to be a wife? What would you bring to a marriage? My parents had even allowed me to borrow their copy of Joyce Meyer's Help Me, I'm Married! just so I could get more of a realistic idea of what I could be getting myself into. By our second leg of driving through Texas, I was confident that I really wanted to be married and that I wanted to be a wife.
Now, I won't revisit all of my missteps due to having been indoctrinated into religion as a kid and the BS from Joshua Harris that was introduced to me later on. However, one of the seemingly innocent things I did was write to you as I'd ask all kinds of questions about you. What's your name? Where you're from? What's your life like right now? What do you want for your future? Of course, I'd also include dreamy things about how much your life would change once we'd meet and how the rest of your life could look like with me in it. Steven Curtis Chapman at the time was either renewing his vows to his wife Mary Beth, or remembering their wedding day, and just about every Christian radio station was blasting his song "I Will Be Here" ad nauseum. By then, I was 17 and, upon hearing this song, I'd seriously (as best as I could as a kid) desire to be a committed wife to you someday. This was also followed by quiet prayers about you, making sure that you were protected and that you'd be thinking of me.
The only difference now in 2024 as opposed to 2001? Now, I know your name and I've actually seen you. Yes, we're apart right now, but you're no longer that nameless and faceless "future husband" I had been praying for and even looking for. There is no need for me to do that anymore.
The actual man that I had been dreaming of, praying about, writing to, and desiring one day was you.
If you're wondering why it had taken so long for us to even exchange our names, it was because the universe had kindly and generously waited until the right time. Those youthful letters I had written to you are long gone. I made my mistakes with other legal marriages that were DOA from the start. I had to grow up, find myself, and to get myself right. There was so much about my life that you had missed, another life I lived that I'm so thankful you were not a part of, and I was another kind of person that I'm thankful that you'll never know. Yes, I know that I had texted you, "You're too damn late" but I'm starting to understand now ... you came into my life at just the right time.
And what about now, while we're apart? It has a purpose as well. One of them, that I'm starting to understand, is the universe giving me a second chance to do what I should have done when I was 17. The universe has given me another chance to dream about you, become very excited at our future together, and to see you as I should ~ my future husband, my right guy, the one I was supposed to have been with all along. What's more valuable about this second chance is, because I know your name and I've actually met you, I don't have to go out chasing after all the other wrong guys out there and look for you in their eyes. The script has also been flipped, whereas before, I'd be the one chasing and pursuing after the guys. Now, this time, it's the man pursuing me. I've never been in this position before, ever, and it freaks me the fuck out ... but at the same time, I'm also enjoying this. The universe has done its due diligence by keeping me in place, making sure I have not gone anywhere, so you'd know exactly where to find me when the right opportunity manifests itself.
The added bonus is that all those puzzle pieces that seemed to have no place in my puzzle are finally being put in all their right places.
Walking home from school and hearing KC & Jojo's "All My Life" as I think to myself, "Aw, he's thinking of me"? Yes, that was you.
Those recurring dreams about 9/11 that persisted all the way up until 2019? Yes, that was you.
Why I never found this "future husband" everywhere I looked? You explained where you were the whole time.
Why it never worked out with any of the guys from the past? They weren't you.
Why haven't I been successful with being with any other guy since you? You're it for me.
It's all beginning to make sense. Now, my teenage self can finally return back to 2002 and be at peace. I can settle my teenage past and enjoy the rare gift that the universe has given me: a second chance at a first love.
And, yes, you were worth it all.
~ Me