So a little bit of backstory: Sometime ago i was scrolling YT shorts and stuck upon a video titled "watch me grow out of my non-binary phase" or smth like that (doesn't really matter since i can't find it anymore prob for the best cuz it was more likely taken down). Tbh it caused me to rage so hard since it brought me back all those infuriating memories when people didn't took my gender seriously but rather took at as some sort of trend. Those aholes didn't even bother to try to respect my identity, they just treated it as a joke, for them i was just rebellious teen "non-binary girl" (they were saying it like it's the new "emo girl" or "punk girl" or "insert any other subculture girl"). I'm tired of ignorant bitchfaces thinking that's it's just some new trendy subculture (like emo, punk, tomboy etc as i said already), and not a gender identity. Specially for you, my fav covert pseudointellectual transphobes that really don't want to admit they're transphobes but "questioning beliefs, challenge opinions and looking for answers" (and totally not just trying to find excuses to be transphobic): No, it's not a fashion, it's not a trend, it's not a subculture. There's no such thing as "dressing non-binary" or "non-binary hobbies". You can't "look non-binary" or "act/talk non-binary" and you definitely can't "stop being non-binary" or "grow out of phase" (this one feels on another level of invalidation for some reason). No, we didn't "became" non-binary because we want to "hide insecurities" or "escape gender roles". Ugggh transphobia is so fundamentally stupid... Like those coinsize-brains would come and ask me without any ounce of tactfulness or respect: "ArE yOu StILl NOn-BinARy????", you can't even imagine how much i wanted to tear those idiots apart!!!!!! Like, they reeeeeeaaaaaaallllyy want me to "grow up", leave this "rebellious teen phase" and finally become "normal girl", but for some reason can't say it straight. Non-binary ppl can present how they want, act how they want, dress how they want. CLOTHES/PRONOUNS/NAME/HOBBIES/WAKING UP AT 6AM EVERY FUCKING MORNING IS NOT WHAT MAKE ME NON-BINARY PERIOD. IT HELPS ME SHOW OTHER PEOPLE AND MYSELF WHO I AM, IT MAKES ME MORE COMFORTABLE BUT THAT'S NOT THE REASON I'M NON-BINARY!! I WAS BORN LIKE THAT, DEAL WITH IT.
Now, as a flame of rage starts to cool down... Can someone explain me why they act like this? Why they want to invalidate us so badly? What the fuck did we do to them that they hate us and want to erase us so MUCH?

A few months ago I did a little project where I wrote an in-depth Overview of each Job (and all their combos), it’s been a while and to make it easier for those that enjoyed my posts here is a link to each and every class guide I did:
Archer (Sagittarius)
Black Mage (Capricorn)
Bushi (Aquarius)
Foebreaker (Scorpio)
Knight (Leo)
Machinist (Gemini)
Monk (Virgo)
Red Battlemage (Cancer)
Shikari (Pisces)
Time Battlemage (Libra)
Uhlan (Taurus)
White Mage (Aries)
NOTE: I'll update this to add some other info, going to post this now in case someone wants to suggest something. Some info I'll include: Esper recommendations, Notable elemental/status, gear and accessories, and useful gambits.
EDIT 1: Added weapon section, going to add gear later today, working on the Gambits and Esper part.
EDIT 2: Added armor section, fixed some grammar and info.
As a little send-off (for now at least, as I want to revise those posts on a later date) to this project, I decided to add some extra useful info for players in a way they can quickly reference, I tried to make it a bit more concise and to the point compared to the main posts, but yeah...... I’ll also avoid stating some obvious things like how the Cure spell heals.
Some FFXII Original info will be included for the sake of comparison, and as a little bonus. Feel free to give recommendations in case I missed something! If it is your first time playing I don’t recommend seeing all sections as they can spoil some of the fun of finding things out for yourself, ultimately you’ll be judge of what is fine spoiling or not.

Character info

A reference to the raw base stats and starting licenses of each character, keep in mind that while some of theses attribute gaps may seem large, you are looking at their raw stats without any Magic/Battle Lores (stat increasing augments) and gear, and that they also only get bigger like that on later levels, even on Weak Mode/New Game Minus, Original (where Battle Lores/Magic Lores cap at +5) and IZJS (Single Job), classes, gear and augments defines your character and not their base stats. Point is see these as suggestions/lore/min-maxing things rather than something enforced, not even gonna touch on the topic of animation speed.
Base Stats
HP and MP are random when a character joins the party, and when they level up, each party member has a different modifier and base value that dictates how much of each they will get, to keep things simple I’ll simply note the range, it can vary for you due to RNG, however it isn’t worth stressing over it as HP nodes, gear and extra MP from Quickenings (in Original only) give you a ton of HP and MP (MP is pretty bad for everyone in Weak Mode/New Game Minus). Values were rebalanced between Original and Zodiac to account for the different progression systems and other balance changes.
NOTE: Reiterating character stats don’t matter, this is for comparison and for the sake of having a quick reference for those that care, do whatever you want.
I’ve used Balthier as mage and Penelo as a physical fighter plenty of times with no issue, same with using Fran on those roles. Even something like a single-job Knight and Time Battlemage can heal well with Basch and Balthier.
Vaan
Original:
LV 1: 82-84 HP, 25-27 MP, 23 STR, 20 MAG, 24 VIT, 24 SPD.
LV 99: 4,818-6,203 HP, 204-330 MP, 77 STR, 64 MAG, 61 VIT, 37 SPD.
Zodiac:
LV 1: 82-83 HP, 30-33 MP, 23 STR, 22 MAG, 24 VIT, 24 SPD.
LV 99: 4,786-5,643 HP, 473-786 MP, 78 STR, 73 MAG, 61 VIT, 37 SPD.
Summary: High stats all-around with the highest STR (tied with Basch) and great HP (second best), also high MAG. Great for any single-job/job combo, especially ones that focus on either physical, magic damage or use dual stats for their weapons (like Bushi), also great for hybrids that need the extra magic and MP for their spells (Knight, Uhlan, Monk, Time Battlemage or even Archer and Machinist). Steal and high STR are also helpful for White Mage.
Penelo
Original:
LV 1: 65-66 HP, 36-37 MP, 20 STR, 18 MAG, 23 VIT, 24 SPD.
LV 99: 4,321-5,096 HP, 217-346 MP, 70 STR, 69 MAG, 60 VIT, 36 SPD.
Zodiac:
LV 1: 64-66 HP, 38-41 MP, 20 STR, 21 MAG, 23 VIT, 24 SPD.
LV 99: 4,288-5,058 HP, 539-895 MP, 70 STR, 76 MAG, 60 VIT, 36 SPD.
Summary: High MAG and MP, decent VIT, low STR and HP, tied with best MAG with Ashe on Original, and second best on Zodiac. Any mage class, especially ones that need the extra MP (White Mage and Time Battlemage), Foebreaker (uses VIT weapons, also Black Mage and Machinist if you get Hand-Bombs) or high STR single-jobs/combos with Heavy Armor and magic (will max out STR anyway, and have more MP and magic for spells, Knight, Uhlan, Time Battlemage and Archer with Shemhazai fit that bill).
Balthier
Original:
LV 2: 99-103 HP, 20-22 MP, 25 STR, 17 MAG, 24 VIT, 24 SPD.
LV 99: 4,691-6,044 HP, 177-289 MP, 75 STR, 56 MAG, 58 VIT, 38 SPD.
Zodiac:
LV 2: 101-105 HP, 34-39 MP, 25 STR, 18 MAG, 24 VIT, 24 SPD.
LV 99: 4,661-5,495 HP, 453-752 MP, 75 STR, 63 MAG, 58 VIT, 38 SPD.
Summary: Second best STR, third best HP, best SPD, low MAG and MP. Any physical single-job/combo, with an edge for SPD weapons (Shikari and Archer, especially with their lower innate STR), tanking (Foebreaker and again Shikari, also Knight and Monk, though he lacks MAG to help them as much), also good for lower STR single-jobs/combos that need to do physical damage (White Mage, since it will max MAG anyway, and Steal is helpful for the job, Red Battlemage if you plan on nabbing Greatswords and Heavy Armor, Machinist and Black Mage if you get Hand-Bombs as STR is still priority even with his slightly lower VIT).
Fran
Original:
LV 2: 85-89 HP, 25-27 MP, 23 STR, 18 MAG, 20 VIT, 23 SPD.
LV 99: 4,486-5,879 HP, 205-333 MP, 71 STR, 59 MAG, 53 VIT, 36 SPD.
Zodiac:
LV 2: 84-89 HP, 44-50 MP, 23 STR, 20 MAG, 26 VIT, 24 SPD.
LV 99: 4,453-5,252 HP, 489-807 MP, 71 STR, 68 MAG, 62 VIT, 36 SPD.
Summary: Stats aren’t as high as Vaan’s or Ashes (the other Jack-of-all stats party members), however, they are decent all around, some greatly exaggerate how bad her base stats are, even in Original before they got buffed they were perfectly fine, highlights are her decent HP and MP, and in Zodiac her VIT, her balanced stats make her decent for any class. Good Tank with her HP (Foebreaker which also uses VIT weapons, Knight, Shikari and Monk), MP is helpful for any mage, but, especially for those that can benefit from it more (White Mage and Time Battlemage, for the former Steal and ok STR is also helpful), lastly similar to Vaan, Penelo and Ashe she works well for hybrids due to her MP and ok MAG (Knight, Uhlan, Time Battlemage, Monk, Red Battlemage, Machinist and even Archer).
Basch
Original:
LV 3: 138-145 HP, 19-22 MP, 26 STR, 21 MAG, 20 VIT, 23 SPD.
LV 99: 4,903-6,347 HP, 161-264 MP, 77 STR, 58 MAG, 47 VIT, 35 SPD.
Zodiac:
LV 3: 139-146 HP, 31-38 MP, 26 STR, 21 MAG, 26 VIT, 24 SPD.
LV 99: 4,841-5,703 HP, 410-684 MP, 78 STR, 63 MAG, 47 VIT, 35 SPD.
Summary: Highest HP, tied with Vaan for best STR, lowest VIT and slightly lower SPD (Speed has the least difference between characters, outside of Balthier having a bit more), low MAG (slightly better than Balthier's in Original, and when he joins) and MP. Any physical class outside of Foebreaker (needs VIT), also not as helpful for something like Knight that also benefits from MAG, like Balthier he is also good for high MAG, low STR mages that need to do physical damage as he will max out his MAG anyway and have more STR to do physical attacks (White Mage, and Red Battlemage with Greatswords+Heavy Armor)
Ashe
Original:
LV 3: 100-106 HP, 25-27 MP, 22 STR, 22 MAG, 24 VIT, 23 SPD.
LV 99: 4,452-5,827 HP, 216-349 MP, 73 STR, 69 MAG, 57 VIT, 36 SPD.
Zodiac:
LV 3: 99-106 HP, 56-65 MP, 22 STR, 25 MAG, 24 VIT, 23 SPD.
LV 99: 4,420-5,512 HP, 529-871 MP, 73 STR, 78 MAG, 57 VIT, 36 SPD.
Summary: Her stats are very similar to Vaan’s, however, she trades his STHP for MAG/MP, highest MAG (tied with Penelo on Original), slightly lower HP on Original, but good in Zodiac, third best STR. Everything I said about Vaan applies to her, with her having an edge magic while Vaan has on physical.
Initial Licenses
Pre-unlocked abilities that are going to be available independent of job assignment, not game-defining, but can lead to some fun synergies (Original included as bonus/comparison, not relevant to jobs and combos. A lot of balance and equipment changes between Original and Zodiac).
Worth noting that character levels and initial LP when they join the party are based on Vaan’s, so don’t be afraid of other party members lagging behind if you don’t proceed with the main story quickly, also characters that join later naturally have more initial licenses, that doesn’t give them a significant advantage over other characters outside of very particular challenge runs (like Original no Licence Board):
Vaan:
Original: Steal (Technick), Light Armor 1 (Leather Cap, Leather Clothing), Smallswords (Mythril Sword, Mythril Blade). Comes with 150 gil and 5 Potions.
Zodiac: Steal (Technick), Light Armor 1 (Leather Cap, Leather Clothing), Daggers 1 (Dagger). Comes with 150 gil and 5 Potions.
Penelo:
Original: White Magick 1 (Cure, Blindna), Daggers 1 (Dagger, Mage Masher), Light Armor 1 (Leather Cap, Leather Clothing). Comes with 100 gil, 2 Potions and 1 Phoenix Down.
Zodiac: White Magick 1 (Cure, Blindna), First Aid (Technick), Daggers 1 (Dagger), Mystic Armor 1 (Cotton Cap, Magick Curch, Cotton Shirt, Light Woven Shirt). Comes with 150 gil, 3 Potions and 1 Phoenix Down.
Balthier:
Original: Steal, First Aid (Technicks), Guns 1 (Altair, Capella), Guns 2 (Vega, Sirius), Shields 1 (Escutcheon, Leather Shield), Light Armor 1 (Leather Cap, Leather Clothing), Light Amor 2 (Headgear, Headguard, Chromed Leathers, Leather Breastplate), Heavy Armor 1 (Leather Helm, Bronze Helm, Leather Armor, Bronze Armor). Comes with 200 gil.
Zodiac: Steal, First Aid (Technicks), Guns 1 (Altair), Light Amor 2 (Headgear, Headguard, Chromed Leathers, Leather Breastplate). Comes with 300 gil.
Fran:
Original: Steal (Technick), White Magick 1 (Cure, Blindna), Black Magick 1 (Fire, Thunder, Blizzard), Bows 1 (Shortbow, Silver Bow), Bows 2 (Aevis Killer, Killer Bow, Longbow), Shields 1 (Escutcheon, Leather Shield), Light Armor 1 (Leather Cap, Leather Clothing), Light Amor 2 (Headgear, Headguard, Chromed Leathers, Leather Breastplate), Heavy Armor 1 (Leather Helm, Bronze Helm, Leather Armor, Bronze Armor). Comes with 200 gil, automatically unlocks Cure+Fire without having to buy them.
Zodiac: Steal (Technick), White Magick 1 (Cure, Blindna), Black Magick 1 (Fire, Thunder), Bows 1 (Shortbow), Light Amor 2 (Headgear, Headguard, Chromed Leathers, Leather Breastplate). Comes with 300 gil, 2 Phoenix Downs, automatically unlocks Cure+Fire without having to buy them.
Basch:
Original: Libra (Technick), Smallswords (Mythril Sword, Mythril Blade), Swords 1 (Broadsword, Longsword), Axes & Hammers 1 (Handaxe, Iron Hammer), Shields 1 (Escutcheon, Leather Shield), Shields 2 (Buckler, Bronze Shield, Round Shield), Light Armor 1 (Leather Cap, Leather Clothing), Heavy Armor 1 (Leather Helm, Bronze Helm, Leather Armor, Bronze Armor), Heavy Armor 2 (Sallet, Iron Helm, Scale Armor, Iron Armor), Accessories 3 (Armguard, Tourmaline Ring).
Zodiac: Libra (Techinck), Swords 2 (Longsword, Iron Sword), Shields 1 (Leather Shield, Buckler), Heavy Armor 1 (Leather Helm, Bronze Helm, Leather Armor, Bronze Armor).
Ashe:
Original: White Magick 1 (Cure, Blindna), White Magick 2 (Vox, Poisona), Swords 1 (Broadsword, Longsword), Swords 2 (Iron Sword, Zwill Blade, Ancient Sword), Shields 1 (Escutcheon, Leather Shield), Shields 2 (Buckler, Bronze Shield, Round Shield), Light Armor 1 (Leather Cap, Leather Clothing), Mystic Armor 1 (Cotton Cap, Magick Curch, Cotton Shirt, Light Woven Shirt), Heavy Armor 1 (Leather Helm, Bronze Helm, Leather Armor, Bronze Armor), Heavy Armor 2 (Sallet, Iron Helm, Scale Armor, Iron Armor), Accessories 1 (Orrachea Armlet), Accessories 2 (Bangle, Steel Gorget). Automatically unlocks Cure without having to buy it.
Zodiac: White Magick 1, Swords 2 (Longsword, Iron Sword), Shields 1 (Leather Shield, Buckler), Heavy Armor 1 (Leather Helm, Bronze Helm, Leather Armor, Bronze Armor), Accessories 2 (Bangle, Firefly). Comes with 6 Hi-Potions, 2 Phoenix Downs, automatically unlocks Cure without having to buy it.
Notable Synergies:

• Characters with Steal can unlock Poach without Zalera as Black Mages.
• Characters with Steal are also appealing as tanks or healers, the former as a party leader (for consistency and also staying in front of the rest of the party) since with Steal they tend to be the first ones to engage enemies, pulling their attention, the latter as it gives them something to do during downtime while traversing safe areas.
• Fran can use her innate Black Magicks 1 well as a Bushi, White Mage and Red Battlemage, especially in IZJS where they were AoE spells, that is due to those Jobs innate magical abilities (high Magic Lores, all magic augments, Mystic Armor and Rods for White Mage), this doesn’t apply to Time Battlemage as their Magic Lores and augments are spread far apart, and they lack Mystic Armor, by the time they get decent magic those spells will very likely have fallen off in damage and utility.
• For the above, same logic applies for White Magicks 1 from the women (it is also AoE in IZJS), even outside of early game healing, it is useful endgame for off-battle healing and topping off characters, for this reason Time Battlemage can also use the spell well despite lacking Mystic Armor due to it’s high magic stat and access to Serenity/Spellbreaker.

What each Stat does and what weapons it affects

• Level = Pretty obvious what it does, but it also affects damage of most weapons and spells, so even if you cap a stat, leveling up still increases your damage.
• MP = Also obvious, but, getting Quickenings in Original increases your max MP, double for Lv2 Quickenings, triple for Lv3 ones.
• EXP and LP = KO, Stone and X-Zone prevent gaining those stats, Guest also don’t level up in Original (they also don’t waste items from your inventory there, you also can’t change their gambits though).
• Strength = Unarmed, Swords, Daggers, Axes & Hammers, Greatswords, Katanas, Ninja Swords, Spears, Poles (this one hits for Magick Defense instead of Physical, it still does physical damage though), Rods, Staves, Bows, Crossbows and Hand-Bombs, some of these arms also use a secondary stat, but, STR will always have the bigger impact on their damage output (that doesn’t mean you can ignore the secondary stat though).
• Magic = Magic Attacks, rate of hitting status effects, healing spells, as well as Maces, Katanas and Staves. The arms that use MAG deal physical damage, and simply use the stat for scaling.
• Vitality = Duration of status effects (increases for positive ones, decreases for negative ones), used for Axes & Hammers, and Hand-Bombs.
• Speed = Affects ATB/CT speed (not significantly though), used for Daggers, Ninja Swords and Bows.

Clearing up some things about Augments

Some augment descriptions don’t give all details about how certain augments work, so here are some clarifications. Note that the board Augments don’t stack with their accessory counterparts, so for example Focus doesn’t stack with Blazer Gloves.

• Focus: 1.2x multiplier in Original, and 1.5x in Zodiac. Important thing is that since it isn’t a flat stat increase, so it affects all normal attacks, this includes Guns.
• Adrenaline: Same as the above, however it is a 2.0x multiplier that activates below or equal to 15% of your character's HP, since it is percentage based, this means that it also counts for the extra HP from Bubble, which can lead to safer use of the augment.
• Serenity: In Original the increase is 20% for damage Spells and 50% for healing, in Zodiac both are 50%. It also doubles your chance of hitting status effects.
• Spellbreaker: Offensive spell damage is doubled, but healing stays at 50% and status effect hit rate stays at double. The threshold is the same as Adrenaline.
• Last Stand: It specifically halves physical damage, it doesn’t do anything to magic damage, the threshold is the same as Adrenaline and Spellbreaker.
• Martyr, Inquisitor and Warmage: MP received from dealing/receiving damage are based on certain thresholds. To keep it simple, if you deal/receive 1-499 damage in Zodiac you recover 1 MP, 9000 - 9998 gives you 15, above that 30, MP recovery values change between Original and Zodiac but there isn’t a huge difference. High damage classes like Black Mage can recover MP quickly, while low damage ones like White Mage don’t recover a whole lot (this is one of the reasons why great physical damage is great for White Mage's MP recovery).
• Item Lores: Phoenix Lores are the simplest, a 10% increase in all versions. Potion Lores are 10%, 15% and 25% on Original, and 20%, 30% and 40% for Zodiac. Ether Lores are the same as Potion Lores for Original, but are 10%, 20% and 30% on Zodiac. Remedy Lore 3 is the only way to cure Doom, however it doesn’t cure Reverse (Esuna), Stone (Stona) and X-Zone (leaving the current area after the battle, touching a save crystal).
• Battle and Magic Lores: They are flat stat increases to your characters base stat and not multipliers.

Overview on Weapon classes

NOTE: Melee weapons combo (chance to do more than one attack, increases at lower HP and with Genji Gloves), Ranged weapons do Critical hits (double-damage for single-target attack). CT speed difference between arms don’t have that noticeable of a difference outside of extremely fast or extremely slow weapons.
One-handed:

• Unnarmed = Only does good damage on really high levels even with great STR, or with Brawler and the Amber Armlet (an augment/accessory that improves it), mostly for flavor or roleplay, also fun on a Strong Mode/New Game Plus run. It can be used with a Shield.
• Swords = Consistent damage, can be paired with a Shield. The three best Swords have ok-ish combo rates (much lower than dedicated combo weapons though). Average elemental and status effect variety. Slightly low CT speed in Original, improved in Zodiac so it is a bit faster.
• Daggers = Extremely fast CT speed, hits fast not hard, can be paired with a Shield. Good status variety, and wind options. Slightly better combo rate on average compared to other one-handed weapons outside of ultimate weapons. Main Gauche has ridiculous Evade, which can be paired with a Shield and a Jade Collar to make your character nearly untouchable to physical attacks (outside of those that ignore Evasion).
• Hammers & Axes = Extremely high ATK at the expense of consistency, can hit for extremely high or low damage, can be paired with a shield. Axes have good CT speed, Hammers have average ones. Ultimate weapon have a good combo rate. No status effect or elemental coverage, they are purely designed to hit hard, and relatively fast.
• Maces = Average CT speed on Original, and good in Zodiac, can be paired with a Shield. Tends to lag behind a little in attack power compared to other one-handed weapons, but since it only uses MAG for scaling it is a good damage option for magick geared party members as they focus on using Mystic Armor. Ok status effect variety, but, lackluster elemental coverage.
• Measures = They have a pierce property like Guns, so they ignore defense, they also don’t take character stats into account, and can be paired with a Shield. They have extremely low Attack power, but have buffs tied to them, and also really good Evade, they are a tool for support or evasion tanking, not for damage dealing, also as an option to remove the Confuse or Sleep status from a party member due to its low damage. For some ungodly reason they can crit in Original, but not anymore in Zodiac.

Two-handed:

• Greatswords = Great ATK power, but two-handed. Good CT speed in Original, but average in Zodiac. Great endgame holy damage, but lackluster status effect coverage. Some late game Greatswords also have an ok-ish combo rate.
• Katanas = Lower ATK power than other two-handed weapons, but, great combo rates to compensate for that. Lackluster status and elemental coverage (strong wind options though), good CT speed (slightly lower on Zodiac). They also use MAG for scaling so they are a decent option for magick geared characters for physical damage. Their ultimate weapon in Zodiac is a one-handed Katana that can be paired with a Shield.
• Ninja Swords = Second fastest CT after Daggers, great combo rates overall, they are two-handed for balancing purposes despite the characters holding them with one hand. Decent status effect and elemental coverage, includes some rare elements too (In Zodiac at least, they are all dark elemental in Original, which is more of a curse than a blessing as few enemies are weak to dark, and a lot of them resist it).
• Spears = Good ATK power, good CT speed in Original (slightly lower in Zodiac). They aren’t as strong as Greatswords, but they don’t need accessories like Germinas Boots, or Genji Gloves to optimize their damage compared to other arms, so they are consistent and reliable, and great for using accessories to counter fight mechanics without losing out on damage. Good elemental coverage (including great Holy), lackluster status coverage, but, later Spears have a high hit chance to inflict deadly negative status effects on enemies. Pitiful combo rates outside of one particular Spear. It can hit flyers (in Zodiac only).
• Poles = Decent ATK power, great Evade, high combo rates like Katanas, average CT speed in Original, but, fast in Zodiac. They hit for Magick Resist instead of Physical, so they are good for low Magick Resist enemies. Lackluster elemental and status coverage (it has a strong wind option though), it has a weapon that increases water damage, which is a bit niche. It can hit flyers (in Zodiac only).
• Rods = They aren’t that great in normal game, outside of one particular endgame Rod (that does great Holy damage, and also increase the damage of the Holy element). Low ATK power, can’t combo, they increase a bit of MAG and give a decent increase to MP, however that is mostly relevant on the very early game, on Original before you got Quickenings for MP, on Weak Mode/New Game Minus where everyone has really bad MP, even then the best Rod doesn’t give that significant of an increase in that area, especially by the time you get it. They can hit flyers though (Zodiac Only), and some have beneficial status effects that can be useful before you get certain spells, or if you miss them (one of them hits for the rare Earth element, but it is pretty weak overall). Average CT speed, but, outside of that particular Rod I mentioned they aren’t made for beating enemies (even single-job White Mage can eventually unlock much better options for damage).
• Staves = Most of the things I said about Rods apply, but, Staves are actually great, again not intended for fighting physically (one of them can inflict Stop on-hit though, 25% chance, they can also hit flyers in Zodiac), but most Staves have a pretty good increase to Magic, and more importantly increases the elemental damage by 50% for example the Flame Staff increases Fire damage, some later Staves can even increase damage of multiple elements. Overall a great tool to increase elemental damage. They are slightly slower than Rods.

Ranged:
NOTE: All ranged weapons can hit flyers in all versions.

• Bows = Ranged physical damage, great elemental variety with Arrows which includes a rare element, but, lackluster status coverage (it has a KO arrow though). Ammo from Ranged arms scale well due to not being tied to weapon attack power, so they will always be useful even if you got an elemental arrow right at the start of the game. Later Bows have a good Critical rate, all Bows receive a 20% accuracy penalty during bad weather (like raining). Reliable and quite powerful with good equipment. One of the Bows increases Fire damage.
• Crossbows = They are pretty bad compared to other arms sadly, they tend to have better ATK power and Critical early on, and win on the CT speed front (third fastest CT), but all the other ranged options surpass them one way or another in other areas. In Zodiac even their bolts provide little status effects utility as they mostly overlap with Time Battlemage’s kit, and they have no elements tied to them. Their accuracy is generally worse than Bows, and is halved in bad weather. They aren’t completely unviable or awful if you want to use them for flavor, roleplaying or are playing single-job Time Battlemage, but, mechanically, pretty much every other option is better.
• Guns = Ignore targets defense and evasion, also character stats (like Measures, they are affected by buffs and augments as they aren’t flat stat increases, early game Guns are generally a bit weak, but mid-late game ones fare much better in terms of reliable damage), however they have incredibly slow CT speed, it is one of the few arms where CT difference is noticeable in any significant way (there are ways to mitigate that though). Their uniqueness does lend them to have a lot of interesting niches though, for one they are great for undergeared characters, and are royalty in Weak Mode/New Game Minus (consistent damage in a run where you can’t level up speaks for itself), even better elemental coverage than Archer, also including some rare elements, decent status coverage. Low Critical rate chance outside of the best Gun which has ok-ish Critical chance. Certain enemies are also highly resistant to Guns and Measures, it is pretty noticeable when your Gun suddenly starts doing no damage.
• Hand-Bombs = A bit of an odd one, they are the ranged version of their sister arms (Hammers & Axes), they have high ATK power at the expense of consistency, can hit for really high damage or really low damage, decent status variety with their bombs (25% hit rate), they have a specific niche in doing Water elemental damage due to one of them increasing Water damage and also having access to Water Bombs. They can’t do Critical hits, but they ignore weather penalties.

Other

• Always read equipment descriptions, certain weapons can be equipped without needing a license, others have on-hit effects, etc. The same logic applies to armor and accessories.
• Invisible weapons are extremely overpowered (they are significantly better than even the ultimate weapons, and are practically debug tools) that are meant more as secrets or Easter Eggs, they are pretty much impossible to bump into if you don’t know their deal, unless you enjoy a power trip just ignore their existence for your first playthrough or if you even remotely want some kind of challenge.

Notable elemental/status weapons

I won’t spoil their location, or comment on how to get overpowered stuff early, this mostly focuses on powerful mid-endgame viable options, with some exceptions. I’m also ignoring invisible and non-licence weapons for this (with two exceptions).
Ammo:

• Ammo in general since it isn’t tied to weapon attack power. Bows, Guns and Hand-Bombs also cover the rare water (Guns & Hand-bombs only) and earth element (Bows & Guns only), and also have good alternatives to other ones. For status effects you normally want to use spells as they are much more reliable, but having some coverage can be helpful.
• Bows = Fire, Lightning, Ice & Earth. Can also hit for Poison and KO in a 25% rate.
• Guns = Water, Fire, Earth, Wind & Dark. Can also hit for Silence, Blind and Petrify in a 25% rate.
• Bolts = Hit for Slow, Disable, Immobilize, Blind, Doom and Sap in a 25% rate, outside of Blind all the others status can be hit for more reliably with Time Battlemages normal spell kit.
• Bombs = Water. Mostly focused on status effects with Poison, Stop, Oil, Confuse and Sap in a 25% rate.

Swords:

• Blood Sword = 100% Sap rate, Sap isn’t all that great as it doesn’t scale with enemy HP, so it is mostly a drop in the bucket compared to Poison, it is an option for a bit of extra damage if you are undergeared on running Weak Mode/New Game minus, just don’t expect much.
• Karkata = Good ATK power, slightly higher combo rate than earlier Swords, 100% Confuse rate, this means you can pretty much stunlock any enemy that isn’t immune to Confuse, so in a way it is more powerful than even the Simha in certain circumstances.

Daggers:

• Gladius = Great wind damage for early game.
• Zwill Crossblade = Wind damage for endgame due to its good ATK power and ok combo rate.
• Mina = 70% KO rate, good ATK power, but the first part is the highlight, it consistently kills enemies that aren’t immune to one-hit KO effects.

Maces:

• Zeus Mace = Ok ATK power, but, the main highlight is the 50% increase to dark damage, for doing damage with dark spells, but, it can even be used on your party for healing with dark absorbing equipment.
• Bonebreaker = Non-licence, but terrible attack power, uses Gun/Measure damage formula, main niche is 100% Sap and Disease rate, it is one of the few ways to inflict Disease which is incredibly useful for certain foes.

Measures:

• Available buffs are: Protect, Shell, Bravery, Vanish, Haste and Bubble at 50% hit rate in Original, and 70% in Zodiac.

Greatswords:

• Excalibur = Pretty much the best source of Holy damage in the game (not counting the next one), great ATK power, ok-ish combo rate, holy weak enemies are plenty in certain parts of the game so it speaks for itself in terms of usefulness.
• Wyrmhero Blade = Was a bit of a trophy in Original, but it is useful for Trial Mode in Zodiac, amazing ATK power, Holy element, 80% combo rate, permanent Bravery and Faith. One big downside, it is unbelievably slow with a max CT value, you need to invest in a lot of ways to increase its speed to make good use of it.

Katana:

• Ame-no-Murakumo = Endgame wind Katana, good ATK power and combo rate.

Ninja Swords:

• In Original, all Ninja Swords are dark elemental so they are all useful for Dark damage, since damage was capped to 9999 there was little reason to get the ultimate Ninja Sword as Dark damage is only useful for certain enemies, which you could already hit for cap with some earlier swords, and it’s combo rate was only a bit higher than other ones.
• Koga and Iga Blade: Hit for the rare Earth and Water element respectively, good ATK power with decent combo rate.

Spears:

• Gungnir: Good ATK power, fire elemental and 10% chance to disable.
• Holy Lance: Good ATK power, holy elemental, not as strong as Excalibur (outside of gear synergies that I will talk about next section).
• Dragon Whisker, Zodiac Spear and Vrsabha: 15%, 20% and 50% Disable hit rate, 50% Disable is extremely useful to traverse dangerous areas, all of them either have good or great ATK power, and Vrsabha even has an ok-ish combo rate compared to the pitiful ones from other Spears.

Poles:

• Six-fluted Pole: Increases water damage by 50%, not that useful for the Aqua spells as it falls off pretty quickly, but great for Aquara/Water Motes.
• Zephyr Pole: Decent wind option, decent ATK power, decent combo rate.

Rods:

• Healing Rod: 100% Regen on-hit, uses the same damage formula as Guns/Measures, but, its use is meant for the Regen effect as its ATK power is pitiful even for Rod standards, and also you probably don’t want to give Regen to enemies.
• Holy Rod: Holy elemental, and also increases the damage of the Holy element (50%), so it increases its own damage, a decent source of Holy damage especially when paired with Heavy Armor+Battle Lores+Physical damage augments. The Holy spell is a bit lackluster so you are actually better off hitting things with this weapon.

Staves:

• Cherry Staff: Increases the potency of Wind damage (50%).
• Flame Staff: Increases the potency of Fire damage (50%).
• Storm Staff: Increases the potency of Lightning damage (50%).
• Glacial Staff: Increases the potency of Ice damage (50%).
• Cloud Staff: Increases the potency of Lightning, Water and Wind damage (50%), better MAG stat.
• Staff of the Magi: Increases the potency of Ice, Wind and Holy damage (50%), better MAG stat.

Bows:

• Burning Bow: Increases the potency of Fire damage (50%). Can be paired with Fiery arrows for increased damage. Eventually even with the elemental boost, you’ll need better Bows to do damage with Fiery arrows.

Hand-Bombs:

• Fumarole: Increases the potency of Water damage (50%). Can be paired with Water bombs for increased damage. Eventually even with the elemental boost, you’ll need better Hand-Bombs to do damage with Water bombs. Black Mage can make good use of it with Aquara Motes as the Cloud Staff comes in a lot later.

- = Continued in the comments = -

Another crazy day full of defeated comments and posts..... NOT
So everyone got pretty scared today huh?
Yeah, tbh, so did I. No matter where I looked, I couldn't find answers.
I came home from work today absolutely devastated.
I absolutely cant believe it. We lost.......
.
.
.
SIKE! I know everything. And once again, FFIE shorters played a HUGE hand today. But nothing gets by me.
No losing today. If you sold, I'm sorry. I totally understand. It was very scary. However, fear not. I'm here to explain that the heck happened today.
To be honest, this is a very complicated topic today so try to follow along.
In this post, I will explain:

1. Short interest numbers. Are we doomed? (spoiler, no. There is actually a double down here)
   
2. Why the drop
   
3. Re-iteration of why FFIE WILL NOT BE DELISTED.
   

So strap in! But first, my disclaimer:
I'm not a professional. Do your Due diligence. This is not financial advice. Just be aware, I really really fkn love the stock.
Alright. Lets do it.
Here you go. You deserve this if you had diamond hands today
Lets start with by addressing the short interest.
MANY people have been posting various numbers regarding short interest ALL WEEK. The simple answer, as you all know by now if you have been reading my posts, is that:
SHORT INTEREST HIGH. YOU HOLD.
In general, I agree. But this is a very huge oversimplification once a squeeze begins to apply pressure (which you did wonderfully).
But here's where things get complicated. First, as always, the technical terminology followed by a simplification. Below, I have attached two graphs illustrating:

1. The price per share of FFIE
   
2. The "Oustanding short volume" pretty much meaning, how many shorts are in place throughout the days.
   

Lets take a look (sorry I gotta use a google document link to share as the Subreddit only allows 1 attachment per post for some reason)
CLICK HERE
Now initially, this looks very daunting. In essence, this shows that there was a large spike in the price around the same time as the short volume began declining. Scary right? Who knows?
In fact, I bet people over the last few days (since the short volume drop) have been SCREAMING that the squeeze is over. Right?
Okay. First glance, Yes. I agree. It definitely appears this way. However, lets look a bit closer.
Lets look at the second image on that link.
You can see that "graph 2" actually has the short volume (blue) overlayed over the price per share (as seen in "graph 1")
Pay very very close attention. Now, if short volume were to DECREASE, then that would mean the price of the stock would INCREASE. This is the law. In essence, when HFs buy out of their shorted shares, then the price increases.
This is the law of shorting.
Did you get that.
Here let me say it again lounder.
IF SHORTS DECREASE, PRICE PER SHARE INCREASES!!! REMEMBER THIS SIMPLE RULE!!!
Now watch the dates on those graphs. It matters big time.
The highest day for FFIE was on May 17th. What do we notice about the shorted volume between the dates of May 14th-May 17th
Lets go day by day
May 14th- about 520 million shares in short volume. This is the beginning of retail traders' attempt to short.
Thus, on May 15th- a sight decline in short volume (by a little bit) accompanied by a decent uptick in price. It's safe to say that the difference in shorts between May 14-15th was a few smart HF's covering their shorts before the attempted squeeze. They saw it early and dipped resulting in a spike.
Now onto May 15th-17th- There wasn't a significant decrease in short volume between these 3 days. Thus, we can conclude that because there wasn't a DECREASE in short volume, but there was an INCREASE in cost per share, that no shorts were covered during this time. If shorts were covered (in the simple, easy to understand way), then the short volume would've declined, and the price would've SKYROCKETED. I'm talking like 30 bucks a share skyrocketed.
Therefore, between May 15th and May 17th, there were TONS of shares purchased, but no shorts covered. Thus, we can say (almost) conclusively, that retail hype caused this jump (YES this includes those who bought at 3 bucks and are now panicking).
So far so good?
All "Laws" of shorting and market price have been followed so far.
Now onto May 20th-27th. This is where this shizzy gets INSANE. Like, so insane, its only been seen (during i guess every short squeeze to ever exist?). Once you are done reading, yall are gonna be back on board!
May 20th: A decent drop in short volume. In fact, short volume declines from 324 million shares, down to 174 million shares! NICE THAT WAS A QUICK SQUEEZE RIGHT? This should mean price goes up? As per shorting law (discussed earlier)???? Congrats, you successfully completed half of a short squeeze and are free to move onto the next (when this happens, you are gonna see ALOT of people posting that "the squeeze is over" and "Okay bag holders are idiots")
SIKE. Short volume decreases AND SIMULTANEOUSLY, Price begins its decline!?!?!
This violates the "law" of shorting!!!! WTF?!?!
Alright, if its just today, it must just be an accident in the reporting. Lets check the next days:
May 21st:
Cant make this shit up man. ANOTHER "LAW" violation? Shorting volume declines from 174 million down to 59 million. As per the law, short volume declines, then price should go up. However, another decline.
Okay okay. So you get the idea now. Over the next few days (May 20th-May 28th) the pattern CONTINUES. Every day (almost) the short volume declines (or stays approximately equal) yet the price continues to decline!!
Are you with me so far? At this point, I had to make posts reassuring everybody about their convictions. Had to bring yall up from the ashes. And try to hold onto what (seemingly) little you had left.
I'm so so sorry that I couldn't be of more help. But I had to wait. I was waiting for something VERY specific to happen that tipped me off as to exactly what was happening. And that finally happened.
But before we move onto that, we need to address why there was a decline during the time that HFs were "declining" in their short volume.
Why was the "law" broken. And how did it affect daily trades.
But first, here. You've followed along thus far.
You earned it
Here, listen to this while you eat your banana
Okay, are we refocused? Now to the "rule" violation
The question that needs answering:
How can short volume decline AT THE SAME TIME that price declines?
The answer.... is in loans. Thats right folks. HFs take out more loans to cover their shorts. These loans are generally offered up by hedge funds who didn't short the stock, and have the capital to cover their shorts. Ofc, the lender in these cases charge MUCH higher interest for these "loans"
ASIDE: This is actually happening to GME right now. Somebody confirmed today that the companies vanguard and BlackRock make TONS of money "helping" other hedge funds out of their shorts.
This is very confusing. But imagine it like this.
If I borrow like 100 bananas to "short" the market on bananas, then the market on bananas gets squeezed, It is in my best interest to return my "shorted" bananas as quickly as possible to imply to the squeezers that their "squeeze" is over. Therefore, to accomplish this, I will have a buddy of mine LOAN me even more bananas, which I then return to "cover" my shorts without actually buying any. This makes make it look like I've returned all my "shorts" but will NOT raise the price of the company.
However, think about how this can backfire should the squeezers discover that HFs took out more loans to "cover" their shorts (private and not as easily reported nor found).
Should the squeezers discover this information, all they would need to do would be to simply wait it out longer. At some point, the, now, DOUBLE loans they took out need to be paid back TWICE.
In essence, this strategy that hedge funds use buys them some time to continue to manipulate the market to show down trends in the share price in the hopes of scaring retail traders to sell.
WELL I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT
I FOUND THE LOAN NUMBERS AND CAN CONFIRM THAT THEY DOUBLED DOWN THIS WEEK!!!!!
I even paid for ORTEX to look for it (you are welcome. I hope you all reimburse me)
Graph 3
The new, private loans taken out are represented by the green line in that graph. The blue columns still represent shorted volume.
As you can see, the number of loans SKYROCKETS once the price hits its rising point.
Note: This graph ONLY shows NEW loans. Not existing ones.
Notice that the number of new loans taken during the time when the short volume mysteriously disappears nearly EXACTLY matches the number of shares shorted.
Coincidence?
Conclusion from this post:
Yes the price declined.
Yes the short shares vanished
But those two things DO NOT co-exist and violates what we simpletons know as the "law" of shorting.
Therefore, we can conclude (and later I confirmed with ORTEX) that hedge funds made that short volume disappear by doubling down on their shorts behind the scenes.
Now, I know I have 2 more things to address on this post. But i'm tired of DMing and explaining all day and my wife is tired of me ignoring her.
Therefore, i can refer you to my post about "short ladder attacks" for why the price continued to drop until they hit a breaking point where you all got scared and sold.
Furthermore, I can confidently tell you that FFIE will not be delisted anytime soon. I just can't explain now as I havent slept or eaten in 2 days to prepare this for you all.
For the time being, you should all know that for a successful squeeze, you need DIAMOND FKN HANDS
You all keep screaming "i have diamond hands" but then sell soon as you get scared. That title is an earned title. Not a given one. Now go earn it.
Love yall
-MAX-FKN-PURPOSE
P.S. Please try to answer each other's questions. Im turning my phone off for (i feel) a well earned night of rest and quality time with my lady. I'll be back on tomorrow to help.

Another crazy day full of defeated comments and posts..... NOT
So everyone got pretty scared today huh?
Yeah, tbh, so did I. No matter where I looked, I couldn't find answers.
I came home from work today absolutely devastated.
I absolutely cant believe it. We lost.......
.
.
.
SIKE! I know everything. And once again, FFIE shorters played a HUGE hand today. But nothing gets by me.
No losing today. If you sold, I'm sorry. I totally understand. It was very scary. However, fear not. I'm here to explain that the heck happened today.
To be honest, this is a very complicated topic today so try to follow along.
In this post, I will explain:

1. Short interest numbers. Are we doomed? (spoiler, no. There is actually a double down here)
   
2. Why the drop
   
3. Re-iteration of why FFIE WILL NOT BE DELISTED.
   

So strap in! But first, my disclaimer:
I'm not a professional. Do your Due diligence. This is not financial advice. Just be aware, I really really fkn love the stock.
Alright. Lets do it.
Here you go. You deserve this if you had diamond hands today
Lets start with by addressing the short interest.
MANY people have been posting various numbers regarding short interest ALL WEEK. The simple answer, as you all know by now if you have been reading my posts, is that:
SHORT INTEREST HIGH. YOU HOLD.
In general, I agree. But this is a very huge oversimplification once a squeeze begins to apply pressure (which you did wonderfully).
But here's where things get complicated. First, as always, the technical terminology followed by a simplification. Below, I have attached two graphs illustrating:

1. The price per share of FFIE
   
2. The "Oustanding short volume" pretty much meaning, how many shorts are in place throughout the days.
   

Lets take a look (sorry I gotta use a google document link to share as the Subreddit only allows 1 attachment per post for some reason)
CLICK HERE
Now initially, this looks very daunting. In essence, this shows that there was a large spike in the price around the same time as the short volume began declining. Scary right? Who knows?
In fact, I bet people over the last few days (since the short volume drop) have been SCREAMING that the squeeze is over. Right?
Okay. First glance, Yes. I agree. It definitely appears this way. However, lets look a bit closer.
Lets look at the second image on that link.
You can see that "graph 2" actually has the short volume (blue) overlayed over the price per share (as seen in "graph 1")
Pay very very close attention. Now, if short volume were to DECREASE, then that would mean the price of the stock would INCREASE. This is the law. In essence, when HFs buy out of their shorted shares, then the price increases.
This is the law of shorting.
Did you get that.
Here let me say it again lounder.
IF SHORTS DECREASE, PRICE PER SHARE INCREASES!!! REMEMBER THIS SIMPLE RULE!!!
Now watch the dates on those graphs. It matters big time.
The highest day for FFIE was on May 17th. What do we notice about the shorted volume between the dates of May 14th-May 17th
Lets go day by day
May 14th- about 520 million shares in short volume. This is the beginning of retail traders' attempt to short.
Thus, on May 15th- a sight decline in short volume (by a little bit) accompanied by a decent uptick in price. It's safe to say that the difference in shorts between May 14-15th was a few smart HF's covering their shorts before the attempted squeeze. They saw it early and dipped resulting in a spike.
Now onto May 15th-17th- There wasn't a significant decrease in short volume between these 3 days. Thus, we can conclude that because there wasn't a DECREASE in short volume, but there was an INCREASE in cost per share, that no shorts were covered during this time. If shorts were covered (in the simple, easy to understand way), then the short volume would've declined, and the price would've SKYROCKETED. I'm talking like 30 bucks a share skyrocketed.
Therefore, between May 15th and May 17th, there were TONS of shares purchased, but no shorts covered. Thus, we can say (almost) conclusively, that retail hype caused this jump (YES this includes those who bought at 3 bucks and are now panicking).
So far so good?
All "Laws" of shorting and market price have been followed so far.
Now onto May 20th-27th. This is where this shizzy gets INSANE. Like, so insane, its only been seen (during i guess every short squeeze to ever exist?). Once you are done reading, yall are gonna be back on board!
May 20th: A decent drop in short volume. In fact, short volume declines from 324 million shares, down to 174 million shares! NICE THAT WAS A QUICK SQUEEZE RIGHT? This should mean price goes up? As per shorting law (discussed earlier)???? Congrats, you successfully completed half of a short squeeze and are free to move onto the next (when this happens, you are gonna see ALOT of people posting that "the squeeze is over" and "Okay bag holders are idiots")
SIKE. Short volume decreases AND SIMULTANEOUSLY, Price begins its decline!?!?!
This violates the "law" of shorting!!!! WTF?!?!
Alright, if its just today, it must just be an accident in the reporting. Lets check the next days:
May 21st:
Cant make this shit up man. ANOTHER "LAW" violation? Shorting volume declines from 174 million down to 59 million. As per the law, short volume declines, then price should go up. However, another decline.
Okay okay. So you get the idea now. Over the next few days (May 20th-May 28th) the pattern CONTINUES. Every day (almost) the short volume declines (or stays approximately equal) yet the price continues to decline!!
Are you with me so far? At this point, I had to make posts reassuring everybody about their convictions. Had to bring yall up from the ashes. And try to hold onto what (seemingly) little you had left.
I'm so so sorry that I couldn't be of more help. But I had to wait. I was waiting for something VERY specific to happen that tipped me off as to exactly what was happening. And that finally happened.
But before we move onto that, we need to address why there was a decline during the time that HFs were "declining" in their short volume.
Why was the "law" broken. And how did it affect daily trades.
But first, here. You've followed along thus far.
You earned it
Here, listen to this while you eat your banana
Okay, are we refocused? Now to the "rule" violation
The question that needs answering:
How can short volume decline AT THE SAME TIME that price declines?
The answer.... is in loans. Thats right folks. HFs take out more loans to cover their shorts. These loans are generally offered up by hedge funds who didn't short the stock, and have the capital to cover their shorts. Ofc, the lender in these cases charge MUCH higher interest for these "loans"
ASIDE: This is actually happening to GME right now. Somebody confirmed today that the companies vanguard and BlackRock make TONS of money "helping" other hedge funds out of their shorts.
This is very confusing. But imagine it like this.
If I borrow like 100 bananas to "short" the market on bananas, then the market on bananas gets squeezed, It is in my best interest to return my "shorted" bananas as quickly as possible to imply to the squeezers that their "squeeze" is over. Therefore, to accomplish this, I will have a buddy of mine LOAN me even more bananas, which I then return to "cover" my shorts without actually buying any. This makes make it look like I've returned all my "shorts" but will NOT raise the price of the company.
However, think about how this can backfire should the squeezers discover that HFs took out more loans to "cover" their shorts (private and not as easily reported nor found).
Should the squeezers discover this information, all they would need to do would be to simply wait it out longer. At some point, the, now, DOUBLE loans they took out need to be paid back TWICE.
In essence, this strategy that hedge funds use buys them some time to continue to manipulate the market to show down trends in the share price in the hopes of scaring retail traders to sell.
WELL I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT
I FOUND THE LOAN NUMBERS AND CAN CONFIRM THAT THEY DOUBLED DOWN THIS WEEK!!!!!
I even paid for ORTEX to look for it (you are welcome. I hope you all reimburse me)
Graph 3
The new, private loans taken out are represented by the green line in that graph. The blue columns still represent shorted volume.
As you can see, the number of loans SKYROCKETS once the price hits its rising point.
Note: This graph ONLY shows NEW loans. Not existing ones.
Notice that the number of new loans taken during the time when the short volume mysteriously disappears nearly EXACTLY matches the number of shares shorted.
Coincidence?
Conclusion from this post:
Yes the price declined.
Yes the short shares vanished
But those two things DO NOT co-exist and violates what we simpletons know as the "law" of shorting.
Therefore, we can conclude (and later I confirmed with ORTEX) that hedge funds made that short volume disappear by doubling down on their shorts behind the scenes.
Now, I know I have 2 more things to address on this post. But i'm tired of DMing and explaining all day and my wife is tired of me ignoring her.
Therefore, i can refer you to my post about "short ladder attacks" for why the price continued to drop until they hit a breaking point where you all got scared and sold.
Furthermore, I can confidently tell you that FFIE will not be delisted anytime soon. I just can't explain now as I havent slept or eaten in 2 days to prepare this for you all.
For the time being, you should all know that for a successful squeeze, you need DIAMOND FKN HANDS
You all keep screaming "i have diamond hands" but then sell soon as you get scared. That title is an earned title. Not a given one. Now go earn it.
Love yall
-MAX-FKN-PURPOSE
P.S. Please try to answer each other's questions. Im turning my phone off for (i feel) a well earned night of rest and quality time with my lady. I'll be back on tomorrow to help.

Reposting!!!!!
Another crazy day full of defeated comments and posts..... NOT
So everyone got pretty scared today huh?
Yeah, tbh, so did I. No matter where I looked, I couldn't find answers.
I came home from work today absolutely devastated.
I absolutely cant believe it. We lost.......
.
.
.
SIKE! I know everything. And once again, FFIE shorters played a HUGE hand today. But nothing gets by me.
No losing today. If you sold, I'm sorry. I totally understand. It was very scary. However, fear not. I'm here to explain that the heck happened today.
To be honest, this is a very complicated topic today so try to follow along.
In this post, I will explain:

1. Short interest numbers. Are we doomed? (spoiler, no. There is actually a double down here)
   
2. Why the drop
   
3. Re-iteration of why FFIE WILL NOT BE DELISTED.
   

So strap in! But first, my disclaimer:
I'm not a professional. Do your Due diligence. This is not financial advice. Just be aware, I really really fkn love the stock.
Alright. Lets do it.
Here you go. You deserve this if you had diamond hands today
Lets start with by addressing the short interest.
MANY people have been posting various numbers regarding short interest ALL WEEK. The simple answer, as you all know by now if you have been reading my posts, is that:
SHORT INTEREST HIGH. YOU HOLD.
In general, I agree. But this is a very huge oversimplification once a squeeze begins to apply pressure (which you did wonderfully).
But here's where things get complicated. First, as always, the technical terminology followed by a simplification. Below, I have attached two graphs illustrating:

1. The price per share of FFIE
   
2. The "Oustanding short volume" pretty much meaning, how many shorts are in place throughout the days.
   

Lets take a look (sorry I gotta use a google document link to share as the Subreddit only allows 1 attachment per post for some reason)
CLICK HERE
Now initially, this looks very daunting. In essence, this shows that there was a large spike in the price around the same time as the short volume began declining. Scary right? Who knows?
In fact, I bet people over the last few days (since the short volume drop) have been SCREAMING that the squeeze is over. Right?
Okay. First glance, Yes. I agree. It definitely appears this way. However, lets look a bit closer.
Lets look at the second image on that link.
You can see that "graph 2" actually has the short volume (blue) overlayed over the price per share (as seen in "graph 1")
Pay very very close attention. Now, if short volume were to DECREASE, then that would mean the price of the stock would INCREASE. This is the law. In essence, when HFs buy out of their shorted shares, then the price increases.
This is the law of shorting.
Did you get that.
Here let me say it again lounder.
IF SHORTS DECREASE, PRICE PER SHARE INCREASES!!! REMEMBER THIS SIMPLE RULE!!!
Now watch the dates on those graphs. It matters big time.
The highest day for FFIE was on May 17th. What do we notice about the shorted volume between the dates of May 14th-May 17th
Lets go day by day
May 14th- about 520 million shares in short volume. This is the beginning of retail traders' attempt to short.
Thus, on May 15th- a sight decline in short volume (by a little bit) accompanied by a decent uptick in price. It's safe to say that the difference in shorts between May 14-15th was a few smart HF's covering their shorts before the attempted squeeze. They saw it early and dipped resulting in a spike.
Now onto May 15th-17th- There wasn't a significant decrease in short volume between these 3 days. Thus, we can conclude that because there wasn't a DECREASE in short volume, but there was an INCREASE in cost per share, that no shorts were covered during this time. If shorts were covered (in the simple, easy to understand way), then the short volume would've declined, and the price would've SKYROCKETED. I'm talking like 30 bucks a share skyrocketed.
Therefore, between May 15th and May 17th, there were TONS of shares purchased, but no shorts covered. Thus, we can say (almost) conclusively, that retail hype caused this jump (YES this includes those who bought at 3 bucks and are now panicking).
So far so good?
All "Laws" of shorting and market price have been followed so far.
Now onto May 20th-27th. This is where this shizzy gets INSANE. Like, so insane, its only been seen (during i guess every short squeeze to ever exist?). Once you are done reading, yall are gonna be back on board!
May 20th: A decent drop in short volume. In fact, short volume declines from 324 million shares, down to 174 million shares! NICE THAT WAS A QUICK SQUEEZE RIGHT? This should mean price goes up? As per shorting law (discussed earlier)???? Congrats, you successfully completed half of a short squeeze and are free to move onto the next (when this happens, you are gonna see ALOT of people posting that "the squeeze is over" and "Okay bag holders are idiots")
SIKE. Short volume decreases AND SIMULTANEOUSLY, Price begins its decline!?!?!
This violates the "law" of shorting!!!! WTF?!?!
Alright, if its just today, it must just be an accident in the reporting. Lets check the next days:
May 21st:
Cant make this shit up man. ANOTHER "LAW" violation? Shorting volume declines from 174 million down to 59 million. As per the law, short volume declines, then price should go up. However, another decline.
Okay okay. So you get the idea now. Over the next few days (May 20th-May 28th) the pattern CONTINUES. Every day (almost) the short volume declines (or stays approximately equal) yet the price continues to decline!!
Are you with me so far? At this point, I had to make posts reassuring everybody about their convictions. Had to bring yall up from the ashes. And try to hold onto what (seemingly) little you had left.
I'm so so sorry that I couldn't be of more help. But I had to wait. I was waiting for something VERY specific to happen that tipped me off as to exactly what was happening. And that finally happened.
But before we move onto that, we need to address why there was a decline during the time that HFs were "declining" in their short volume.
Why was the "law" broken. And how did it affect daily trades.
But first, here. You've followed along thus far.
You earned it
Here, listen to this while you eat your banana
Okay, are we refocused? Now to the "rule" violation
The question that needs answering:
How can short volume decline AT THE SAME TIME that price declines?
The answer.... is in loans. Thats right folks. HFs take out more loans to cover their shorts. These loans are generally offered up by hedge funds who didn't short the stock, and have the capital to cover their shorts. Ofc, the lender in these cases charge MUCH higher interest for these "loans"
ASIDE: This is actually happening to GME right now. Somebody confirmed today that the companies vanguard and BlackRock make TONS of money "helping" other hedge funds out of their shorts.
This is very confusing. But imagine it like this.
If I borrow like 100 bananas to "short" the market on bananas, then the market on bananas gets squeezed, It is in my best interest to return my "shorted" bananas as quickly as possible to imply to the squeezers that their "squeeze" is over. Therefore, to accomplish this, I will have a buddy of mine LOAN me even more bananas, which I then return to "cover" my shorts without actually buying any. This makes make it look like I've returned all my "shorts" but will NOT raise the price of the company.
However, think about how this can backfire should the squeezers discover that HFs took out more loans to "cover" their shorts (private and not as easily reported nor found).
Should the squeezers discover this information, all they would need to do would be to simply wait it out longer. At some point, the, now, DOUBLE loans they took out need to be paid back TWICE.
In essence, this strategy that hedge funds use buys them some time to continue to manipulate the market to show down trends in the share price in the hopes of scaring retail traders to sell.
WELL I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT
I FOUND THE LOAN NUMBERS AND CAN CONFIRM THAT THEY DOUBLED DOWN THIS WEEK!!!!!
I even paid for ORTEX to look for it (you are welcome. I hope you all reimburse me)
Graph 3
The new, private loans taken out are represented by the green line in that graph. The blue columns still represent shorted volume.
As you can see, the number of loans SKYROCKETS once the price hits its rising point.
Note: This graph ONLY shows NEW loans. Not existing ones.
Notice that the number of new loans taken during the time when the short volume mysteriously disappears nearly EXACTLY matches the number of shares shorted.
Coincidence?
Conclusion from this post:
Yes the price declined.
Yes the short shares vanished
But those two things DO NOT co-exist and violates what we simpletons know as the "law" of shorting.
Therefore, we can conclude (and later I confirmed with ORTEX) that hedge funds made that short volume disappear by doubling down on their shorts behind the scenes.
Now, I know I have 2 more things to address on this post. But i'm tired of DMing and explaining all day and my wife is tired of me ignoring her.
Therefore, i can refer you to my post about "short ladder attacks" for why the price continued to drop until they hit a breaking point where you all got scared and sold.
Furthermore, I can confidently tell you that FFIE will not be delisted anytime soon. I just can't explain now as I havent slept or eaten in 2 days to prepare this for you all.
For the time being, you should all know that for a successful squeeze, you need DIAMOND FKN HANDS
You all keep screaming "i have diamond hands" but then sell soon as you get scared. That title is an earned title. Not a given one. Now go earn it.
Love yall
-MAX-FKN-PURPOSE
P.S. Please try to answer each other's questions. Im turning my phone off for (i feel) a well earned night of rest and quality time with my lady. I'll be back on tomorrow to help.

HEDGIES DOUBLED DOWN THERE SHORTS. All CREDIT TO - u/Maximum-Purpose-1568
Another crazy day full of defeated comments and posts..... NOT
So everyone got pretty scared today huh?
Yeah, tbh, so did I. No matter where I looked, I couldn't find answers.
I came home from work today absolutely devastated.
I absolutely cant believe it. We lost.......
.
.
.
SIKE! I know everything. And once again, FFIE shorters played a HUGE hand today. But nothing gets by me.
No losing today. If you sold, I'm sorry. I totally understand. It was very scary. However, fear not. I'm here to explain that the heck happened today.
To be honest, this is a very complicated topic today so try to follow along.
In this post, I will explain:

1. Short interest numbers. Are we doomed? (spoiler, no. There is actually a double down here)
   
2. Why the drop
   
3. Re-iteration of why FFIE WILL NOT BE DELISTED.
   

So strap in! But first, my disclaimer:
I'm not a professional. Do your Due diligence. This is not financial advice. Just be aware, I really really fkn love the stock.
Alright. Lets do it.
Here you go. You deserve this if you had diamond hands today
Lets start with by addressing the short interest.
MANY people have been posting various numbers regarding short interest ALL WEEK. The simple answer, as you all know by now if you have been reading my posts, is that:
SHORT INTEREST HIGH. YOU HOLD.
In general, I agree. But this is a very huge oversimplification once a squeeze begins to apply pressure (which you did wonderfully).
But here's where things get complicated. First, as always, the technical terminology followed by a simplification. Below, I have attached two graphs illustrating:

1. The price per share of FFIE
   
2. The "Oustanding short volume" pretty much meaning, how many shorts are in place throughout the days.
   

Lets take a look (sorry I gotta use a google document link to share as the Subreddit only allows 1 attachment per post for some reason)
CLICK HERE
Now initially, this looks very daunting. In essence, this shows that there was a large spike in the price around the same time as the short volume began declining. Scary right? Who knows?
In fact, I bet people over the last few days (since the short volume drop) have been SCREAMING that the squeeze is over. Right?
Okay. First glance, Yes. I agree. It definitely appears this way. However, lets look a bit closer.
Lets look at the second image on that link.
You can see that "graph 2" actually has the short volume (blue) overlayed over the price per share (as seen in "graph 1")
Pay very very close attention. Now, if short volume were to DECREASE, then that would mean the price of the stock would INCREASE. This is the law. In essence, when HFs buy out of their shorted shares, then the price increases.
This is the law of shorting.
Did you get that.
Here let me say it again lounder.
IF SHORTS DECREASE, PRICE PER SHARE INCREASES!!! REMEMBER THIS SIMPLE RULE!!!
Now watch the dates on those graphs. It matters big time.
The highest day for FFIE was on May 17th. What do we notice about the shorted volume between the dates of May 14th-May 17th
Lets go day by day
May 14th- about 520 million shares in short volume. This is the beginning of retail traders' attempt to short.
Thus, on May 15th- a sight decline in short volume (by a little bit) accompanied by a decent uptick in price. It's safe to say that the difference in shorts between May 14-15th was a few smart HF's covering their shorts before the attempted squeeze. They saw it early and dipped resulting in a spike.
Now onto May 15th-17th- There wasn't a significant decrease in short volume between these 3 days. Thus, we can conclude that because there wasn't a DECREASE in short volume, but there was an INCREASE in cost per share, that no shorts were covered during this time. If shorts were covered (in the simple, easy to understand way), then the short volume would've declined, and the price would've SKYROCKETED. I'm talking like 30 bucks a share skyrocketed.
Therefore, between May 15th and May 17th, there were TONS of shares purchased, but no shorts covered. Thus, we can say (almost) conclusively, that retail hype caused this jump (YES this includes those who bought at 3 bucks and are now panicking).
So far so good?
All "Laws" of shorting and market price have been followed so far.
Now onto May 20th-27th. This is where this shizzy gets INSANE. Like, so insane, its only been seen (during i guess every short squeeze to ever exist?). Once you are done reading, yall are gonna be back on board!
May 20th: A decent drop in short volume. In fact, short volume declines from 324 million shares, down to 174 million shares! NICE THAT WAS A QUICK SQUEEZE RIGHT? This should mean price goes up? As per shorting law (discussed earlier)???? Congrats, you successfully completed half of a short squeeze and are free to move onto the next (when this happens, you are gonna see ALOT of people posting that "the squeeze is over" and "Okay bag holders are idiots")
SIKE. Short volume decreases AND SIMULTANEOUSLY, Price begins its decline!?!?!
This violates the "law" of shorting!!!! WTF?!?!
Alright, if its just today, it must just be an accident in the reporting. Lets check the next days:
May 21st:
Cant make this shit up man. ANOTHER "LAW" violation? Shorting volume declines from 174 million down to 59 million. As per the law, short volume declines, then price should go up. However, another decline.
Okay okay. So you get the idea now. Over the next few days (May 20th-May 28th) the pattern CONTINUES. Every day (almost) the short volume declines (or stays approximately equal) yet the price continues to decline!!
Are you with me so far? At this point, I had to make posts reassuring everybody about their convictions. Had to bring yall up from the ashes. And try to hold onto what (seemingly) little you had left.
I'm so so sorry that I couldn't be of more help. But I had to wait. I was waiting for something VERY specific to happen that tipped me off as to exactly what was happening. And that finally happened.
But before we move onto that, we need to address why there was a decline during the time that HFs were "declining" in their short volume.
Why was the "law" broken. And how did it affect daily trades.
But first, here. You've followed along thus far.
You earned it
Here, listen to this while you eat your banana
Okay, are we refocused? Now to the "rule" violation
The question that needs answering:
How can short volume decline AT THE SAME TIME that price declines?
The answer.... is in loans. Thats right folks. HFs take out more loans to cover their shorts. These loans are generally offered up by hedge funds who didn't short the stock, and have the capital to cover their shorts. Ofc, the lender in these cases charge MUCH higher interest for these "loans"
ASIDE: This is actually happening to GME right now. Somebody confirmed today that the companies vanguard and BlackRock make TONS of money "helping" other hedge funds out of their shorts.
This is very confusing. But imagine it like this.
If I borrow like 100 bananas to "short" the market on bananas, then the market on bananas gets squeezed, It is in my best interest to return my "shorted" bananas as quickly as possible to imply to the squeezers that their "squeeze" is over. Therefore, to accomplish this, I will have a buddy of mine LOAN me even more bananas, which I then return to "cover" my shorts without actually buying any. This makes make it look like I've returned all my "shorts" but will NOT raise the price of the company.
However, think about how this can backfire should the squeezers discover that HFs took out more loans to "cover" their shorts (private and not as easily reported nor found).
Should the squeezers discover this information, all they would need to do would be to simply wait it out longer. At some point, the, now, DOUBLE loans they took out need to be paid back TWICE.
In essence, this strategy that hedge funds use buys them some time to continue to manipulate the market to show down trends in the share price in the hopes of scaring retail traders to sell.
WELL I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT
I FOUND THE LOAN NUMBERS AND CAN CONFIRM THAT THEY DOUBLED DOWN THIS WEEK!!!!!
I even paid for ORTEX to look for it (you are welcome. I hope you all reimburse me)
Graph 3
The new, private loans taken out are represented by the green line in that graph. The blue columns still represent shorted volume.
As you can see, the number of loans SKYROCKETS once the price hits its rising point.
Note: This graph ONLY shows NEW loans. Not existing ones.
Notice that the number of new loans taken during the time when the short volume mysteriously disappears nearly EXACTLY matches the number of shares shorted.
Coincidence?
Conclusion from this post:
Yes the price declined.
Yes the short shares vanished
But those two things DO NOT co-exist and violates what we simpletons know as the "law" of shorting.
Therefore, we can conclude (and later I confirmed with ORTEX) that hedge funds made that short volume disappear by doubling down on their shorts behind the scenes.
Now, I know I have 2 more things to address on this post. But i'm tired of DMing and explaining all day and my wife is tired of me ignoring her.
Therefore, i can refer you to my post about "short ladder attacks" for why the price continued to drop until they hit a breaking point where you all got scared and sold.
Furthermore, I can confidently tell you that FFIE will not be delisted anytime soon. I just can't explain now as I havent slept or eaten in 2 days to prepare this for you all.
For the time being, you should all know that for a successful squeeze, you need DIAMOND FKN HANDS
You all keep screaming "i have diamond hands" but then sell soon as you get scared. That title is an earned title. Not a given one. Now go earn it.
Love yall
-MAX-FKN-PURPOSE
P.S. Please try to answer each other's questions. Im turning my phone off for (i feel) a well earned night of rest and quality time with my lady. I'll be back on tomorrow to help.

Another crazy day full of defeated comments and posts..... NOT
So everyone got pretty scared today huh?
Yeah, tbh, so did I. No matter where I looked, I couldn't find answers.
I came home from work today absolutely devastated.
I absolutely cant believe it. We lost.......
.
.
.
SIKE! I know everything. And once again, FFIE shorters played a HUGE hand today. But nothing gets by me.
No losing today. If you sold, I'm sorry. I totally understand. It was very scary. However, fear not. I'm here to explain that the heck happened today.
To be honest, this is a very complicated topic today so try to follow along.
In this post, I will explain:

1. Short interest numbers. Are we doomed? (spoiler, no. There is actually a double down here)
   
2. Why the drop
   
3. Re-iteration of why FFIE WILL NOT BE DELISTED.
   

So strap in! But first, my disclaimer:
I'm not a professional. Do your Due diligence. This is not financial advice. Just be aware, I really really fkn love the stock.
Alright. Lets do it.
Here you go. You deserve this if you had diamond hands today
Lets start with by addressing the short interest.
MANY people have been posting various numbers regarding short interest ALL WEEK. The simple answer, as you all know by now if you have been reading my posts, is that:
SHORT INTEREST HIGH. YOU HOLD.
In general, I agree. But this is a very huge oversimplification once a squeeze begins to apply pressure (which you did wonderfully).
But here's where things get complicated. First, as always, the technical terminology followed by a simplification. Below, I have attached two graphs illustrating:

1. The price per share of FFIE
   
2. The "Oustanding short volume" pretty much meaning, how many shorts are in place throughout the days.
   

Lets take a look (sorry I gotta use a google document link to share as the Subreddit only allows 1 attachment per post for some reason)
CLICK HERE
Now initially, this looks very daunting. In essence, this shows that there was a large spike in the price around the same time as the short volume began declining. Scary right? Who knows?
In fact, I bet people over the last few days (since the short volume drop) have been SCREAMING that the squeeze is over. Right?
Okay. First glance, Yes. I agree. It definitely appears this way. However, lets look a bit closer.
Lets look at the second image on that link.
You can see that "graph 2" actually has the short volume (blue) overlayed over the price per share (as seen in "graph 1")
Pay very very close attention. Now, if short volume were to DECREASE, then that would mean the price of the stock would INCREASE. This is the law. In essence, when HFs buy out of their shorted shares, then the price increases.
This is the law of shorting.
Did you get that.
Here let me say it again lounder.
IF SHORTS DECREASE, PRICE PER SHARE INCREASES!!! REMEMBER THIS SIMPLE RULE!!!
Now watch the dates on those graphs. It matters big time.
The highest day for FFIE was on May 17th. What do we notice about the shorted volume between the dates of May 14th-May 17th
Lets go day by day
May 14th- about 520 million shares in short volume. This is the beginning of retail traders' attempt to short.
Thus, on May 15th- a sight decline in short volume (by a little bit) accompanied by a decent uptick in price. It's safe to say that the difference in shorts between May 14-15th was a few smart HF's covering their shorts before the attempted squeeze. They saw it early and dipped resulting in a spike.
Now onto May 15th-17th- There wasn't a significant decrease in short volume between these 3 days. Thus, we can conclude that because there wasn't a DECREASE in short volume, but there was an INCREASE in cost per share, that no shorts were covered during this time. If shorts were covered (in the simple, easy to understand way), then the short volume would've declined, and the price would've SKYROCKETED. I'm talking like 30 bucks a share skyrocketed.
Therefore, between May 15th and May 17th, there were TONS of shares purchased, but no shorts covered. Thus, we can say (almost) conclusively, that retail hype caused this jump (YES this includes those who bought at 3 bucks and are now panicking).
So far so good?
All "Laws" of shorting and market price have been followed so far.
Now onto May 20th-27th. This is where this shizzy gets INSANE. Like, so insane, its only been seen (during i guess every short squeeze to ever exist?). Once you are done reading, yall are gonna be back on board!
May 20th: A decent drop in short volume. In fact, short volume declines from 324 million shares, down to 174 million shares! NICE THAT WAS A QUICK SQUEEZE RIGHT? This should mean price goes up? As per shorting law (discussed earlier)???? Congrats, you successfully completed half of a short squeeze and are free to move onto the next (when this happens, you are gonna see ALOT of people posting that "the squeeze is over" and "Okay bag holders are idiots")
SIKE. Short volume decreases AND SIMULTANEOUSLY, Price begins its decline!?!?!
This violates the "law" of shorting!!!! WTF?!?!
Alright, if its just today, it must just be an accident in the reporting. Lets check the next days:
May 21st:
Cant make this shit up man. ANOTHER "LAW" violation? Shorting volume declines from 174 million down to 59 million. As per the law, short volume declines, then price should go up. However, another decline.
Okay okay. So you get the idea now. Over the next few days (May 20th-May 28th) the pattern CONTINUES. Every day (almost) the short volume declines (or stays approximately equal) yet the price continues to decline!!
Are you with me so far? At this point, I had to make posts reassuring everybody about their convictions. Had to bring yall up from the ashes. And try to hold onto what (seemingly) little you had left.
I'm so so sorry that I couldn't be of more help. But I had to wait. I was waiting for something VERY specific to happen that tipped me off as to exactly what was happening. And that finally happened.
But before we move onto that, we need to address why there was a decline during the time that HFs were "declining" in their short volume.
Why was the "law" broken. And how did it affect daily trades.
But first, here. You've followed along thus far.
You earned it
Here, listen to this while you eat your banana
Okay, are we refocused? Now to the "rule" violation
The question that needs answering:
How can short volume decline AT THE SAME TIME that price declines?
The answer.... is in loans. Thats right folks. HFs take out more loans to cover their shorts. These loans are generally offered up by hedge funds who didn't short the stock, and have the capital to cover their shorts. Ofc, the lender in these cases charge MUCH higher interest for these "loans"
ASIDE: This is actually happening to GME right now. Somebody confirmed today that the companies vanguard and BlackRock make TONS of money "helping" other hedge funds out of their shorts.
This is very confusing. But imagine it like this.
If I borrow like 100 bananas to "short" the market on bananas, then the market on bananas gets squeezed, It is in my best interest to return my "shorted" bananas as quickly as possible to imply to the squeezers that their "squeeze" is over. Therefore, to accomplish this, I will have a buddy of mine LOAN me even more bananas, which I then return to "cover" my shorts without actually buying any. This makes make it look like I've returned all my "shorts" but will NOT raise the price of the company.
However, think about how this can backfire should the squeezers discover that HFs took out more loans to "cover" their shorts (private and not as easily reported nor found).
Should the squeezers discover this information, all they would need to do would be to simply wait it out longer. At some point, the, now, DOUBLE loans they took out need to be paid back TWICE.
In essence, this strategy that hedge funds use buys them some time to continue to manipulate the market to show down trends in the share price in the hopes of scaring retail traders to sell.
WELL I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT
I FOUND THE LOAN NUMBERS AND CAN CONFIRM THAT THEY DOUBLED DOWN THIS WEEK!!!!!
I even paid for ORTEX to look for it (you are welcome. I hope you all reimburse me)
Graph 3
The new, private loans taken out are represented by the green line in that graph. The blue columns still represent shorted volume.
As you can see, the number of loans SKYROCKETS once the price hits its rising point.
Note: This graph ONLY shows NEW loans. Not existing ones.
Notice that the number of new loans taken during the time when the short volume mysteriously disappears nearly EXACTLY matches the number of shares shorted.
Coincidence?
Conclusion from this post:
Yes the price declined.
Yes the short shares vanished
But those two things DO NOT co-exist and violates what we simpletons know as the "law" of shorting.
Therefore, we can conclude (and later I confirmed with ORTEX) that hedge funds made that short volume disappear by doubling down on their shorts behind the scenes.
Now, I know I have 2 more things to address on this post. But i'm tired of DMing and explaining all day and my wife is tired of me ignoring her.
Therefore, i can refer you to my post about "short ladder attacks" for why the price continued to drop until they hit a breaking point where you all got scared and sold.
Furthermore, I can confidently tell you that FFIE will not be delisted anytime soon. I just can't explain now as I havent slept or eaten in 2 days to prepare this for you all.
For the time being, you should all know that for a successful squeeze, you need DIAMOND FKN HANDS
You all keep screaming "i have diamond hands" but then sell soon as you get scared. That title is an earned title. Not a given one. Now go earn it.
Love yall
-MAX-FKN-PURPOSE
P.S. Please try to answer each other's questions. Im turning my phone off for (i feel) a well earned night of rest and quality time with my lady. I'll be back on tomorrow to help.

I decided to write a short summary about just (almost) finished season of Polish football. Let me tell you a story about losers - this season was great drama for all the neutral fans, one of the best football sitcoms I saw in past few years.

Ekstraklasa

We start with top flight of Polish football pyramid scheme. Everyone could believe their team will become champions this year. We had an amazing turtle race, but final standings are:

1. Jagiellonia
2. Śląsk Wrocław
3. Legia Warszawa
4. Pogoń Szczecin (we'll come back to them later, worth it, I promise)

The main losers of Ekstraklasa this season are of course Raków Częstochowa, Legia Warszawa, Pogoń Szczecin and Lech Poznań. The winner among them is Legia (or maybe the loser, because they weren't even that good at being bad) - the only team from last year TOP4 to get European spot this year - but for their fans 3rd place is never enough.
Raków? The man, the myth, the legend - Marek Papszun - coach, who guided them to the title last season resigned back then after the final game. Raków began long, well prepared search for a new coach... just joking. They appointed Papszun's assistant to the job. The start wasn't even that bad, Raków was really close to advance to Champions League group and in the end played in Europa League, but Ekstraklasa? It was an entirely different story. Raków was dull and predictable.
Of course, Szwarga couldn't keep the job. It was a surprise their owner didn't fire him during the season - however he made some comments on Twitter as "We are now a mediocre team" and "We'll make decisions in few days" which didn't make an impression of Szwarga having his trust. Now Raków decided to make a change. They got a perfect coach, who just for them resigned from work in Sunderland, Olympiacos, Maccabi Haifa, Aris Saloniki, Dynamo Kyiv, Schalke 04, OFI Kreta, Girondins Bordeaux, Ferencvaros and Polish, Czech, Latvian, and Canadian national teams - they got Marek Papszun who spent last year in unsuccessful job search. And they made Szwarga his assistant again xDDDD
Losers? Maybe. But boy oh boy, let me tell you about Lech Poznań. Lech had everything. One of the best squads in the league, good coach, great run in last season's Conference League. So how did they start this season? With losing to Slovakian Spartak Trnava in Europa Conference League qualifiers, a team full of players who were too weak for Ekstraklasa. I'm not joking. In the rematch (1:3) Spartak fielded Erik Daniel - former player of Zagłębie Lubin, Roman Prochazka - former player of Górnik Zabrze, Martin Miković - former player of Termalica. From the bench joined them Martin Bukata - former player of Piast Gliwice and Martin Sulek - former player of Wisła Płock. These are not the players that Lech would want to buy (except maybe for Bukata in prime).
But, but, but maybe Lech could use this to their strength. With Legia and Raków in European Cups, they could win the league!!! WRONG. Lech fired their coach. It was not a bad decision, they were going nowhere with him, it was clear something ended. But they hired Mariusz Rumak. The man whose first tenure in Lech was a catastrophe, and any other job he got later too. Last time he managed anything in 2021. They took him as an interim coach because he knew the team. When? IN DECEMBER. Rumak averaged 1,33 points a game. Lech could easily win the league, but decided to hire a clown. Fans had enough, so in the last game of the season they played Polish songs and classics like Desenchantee on the stands, danced and did not give a fuck altogether: https://x.com/mwantola/status/1794454536385376265
How Lech finished? In the last game of the season they played against Korona Kielce, a team fighting to stay in Ekstraklasa. They lost 1:2. And because of that, Warta Poznań was relegated. And here we have kind of a special relationship because Lech and Warta although are from the same city - don't hate each other. Most Lech fans will root for Warta and vice versa. Warta played against Jagiellonia and lost 0:3 - they pretty much had to rely on Lech to at least draw against one of the worst teams in the league.
I won't write much about Legia Warszawa, because in the end their season wasn't tragic. Their future seems very bad - at least in terms of squad quality - but 3rd place is good enough. The funniest event was probably their firing of Kosta Runjaić. He criticized their sports director and was fired not long after that, even tough Legia's results began to improve by then. Oh and they hired a coach from 1. Liga who in the middle of the season was involved in big drama after assaulting the CEO of his former club Motor Lublin. How this ended? Motor fired their CEO.
POGOŃ SZCZECIN Oh man it's just sad. Pogoń never won anything. Literally. In all-time table of Ekstraklasa they are 7th, but they were never champions. They also never won Polish Cup. Champions thing? Their fans accepted this fate. But this season, Pogoń played well in the Cup. They got to the final! They played against Wisła Kraków in the final! Best possible outcome, it's a team from 1. Liga! 75' - Pogoń scores. 75' - 90+8' - nothing happens. Pogoń fans are all prepared to celebrate. 90+9' - Wisła scores 1:1 Okay, but could be worse. They will push them in ET and will win. 93' - Wisła scores again. After Pogoń's defender passed the ball to Wisła's attacker
The end. I know some Pogoń fans. This match just broke them. It crushed their souls. They seem to be alive, but not really. They just don't care any more. At least for now. Pogoń fans also ignored the last league game of the season. They were silent.

1. LIGA

Imagine that your team spent last few months in TOP2 which guarantees promotion to Ekstraklasa. The season started rough, with conflict with (former now) owner and boycott. You have two last matches to play. A draw in any of them will give you promotion. The first one is a derby game against your arch nemesis. Usually you lose these games. If you draw, it's probably after another last minute goal from your rivals. Your team is Arka Gdynia, and it plays against Lechia Gdańsk away. Almost 40000 fans in the stands. Pressure eats you away, but Lechia just got a red card. You scored a goal soon after. It's 1:1. It's enough to get a promotion. You have several 100% chances to get another goal and just can't, but it's alright, a draw is fine and Lechia with 10 men can't do anything. Then this happens: https://x.com/polsatsport/status/1792290709875163260 Arka lose the derby.
Fans are furious, some hools came to the training and start to "motivate" your players: https://x.com/DawidDawson_/status/1793950327198109934 "Art of Motivation" by Arka hools:

• Fuck these derby, kurwa, fuck these bitches from Gdańsk, it's not important anymore. We have a new target - these fucking shepherds with their dirty claws are coming to our ground, that's why we set the rules. Everyone, kurwa, has to give 100 per cent of themselves, heart and character to the end. Someone will fuck something up, they will be held accountable for it. The whole stadium will be there, all the fans are counting on you, kurwa. Let this be our day, our celebration.

Just what your team needs before the last game of the season. In which Arka plays against GKS Katowice. If you lose, then GKS surpasses you in front of your fans, and you are forced to play in the play-offs in which you lost in 2 of 3 last seasons.
Of course, this happened.
Arka lost against GKS Katowice 0:1. GKS came back to Ekstraklasa after 19 years and Arka will have to play in play-offs. To the great joy of Lechia fans who reminded Arka fans how happy they were when few weeks ago Lechia lost with GKS Katowice 0:1 and because of that Arka was then in the 1st place.
WISŁA KRAKÓW "Oh it's that team which once was pretty strong. Shame they play in 1. Liga. But it was mentioned they won Polish Cup against Pogoń. I thought that should be fine. Why are they losers?" - you might think.
Wisła's run in Cup was of course great, but their main target was promotion to Ekstraklasa. But the last few weeks were a nightmare for Wisła fans.
Just after the final Wisła goes to Zagłębie Sosnowiec - worst team of the season, their former coach sought advice from journalists - and drew there 1:1.
Okay not great, but Wisła is still in the play-offs (the dream of promotion from TOP2 was already lost), it's not that bad.
Next game - Wisła plays against Lechia at home. Lechia may be the best team in the league, but certainly Wisła can at least draw that? Maybe it could. But 56' and 82' red cards didn't help. 3:4.
Wisła is now 7th. Not great, but still not terrible. A win against - checks notes - oh GKS Katowice... draw will be nice too. 5' red card. 2:5.
Last game of the season. Wisła plays at home against 14th Termalica. They have to win to get to the play-offs and even then it's a lottery. 25' red card. 0:3.
Wisła finishes 10th in 1. Liga. The worst result in the history of the club. New low point.
Of course, there are some additional spices in this story. Wisła fans... let's say many of them act very entitled. One of my favourite theories is that Wisła is REAL MADRID OF 1. LIGA - even their player said that. Why Real? Wisła only loses because everyone wants to beat them and they play finesse football which just doesn't get you good results in 1. Liga. This theory could maybe pass if Wisła finished 4th, but now I don't think anybody believes in that.
But there's more. Wisła's finesse comes also from the fact it has 2137 Spanish players too. And Director of Football. And coach. These players are not particularly good (except for Angel Rodado. He's phenomenal) but they are Spanish and Wisła has a certain idea of football which these players are good at. Shame they couldn't win any of last four games in the season.
And there's the owner Jarosław Królewski. Businessman (but not that rich, Wisła had financial problems, but he helped to save the club few years back), fan of Elon Musk (he likes to @ him on Twitter) and AI. He bragged about using AI to find players and their new coach - Albert Rude - who not only won the Cup, but also got amazing average of 1,27 points/match in 15 1. Liga matches he managed Wisła in. The owner likes to discuss on Twitter, has a lot of fans but recently wasn't that active. However he made one promise. Albert Rude will stay in Wisła if he wants to.
That's all folks. There were of course more losers in Polish football. I could write some funny stories that happened in Radomiak for example, but here you have the most interesting and important ones. Who would you vote for the biggest losers? I would choose between Pogoń and Wisła. Pogoń definitely had some magical particle in its story, Wisła's took few weeks. Arka are my favorites if they'll lose in play-offs, but for now they can still save their face.

Hi; for a while now I've been working on a list of known issues or differences between JPN and ENG versions in VIZ's official translations for the DGM manga. I was going to do up until the latest volume and then post it all, but recent health conditions have me reconsidering whether I'll last that long. So here's what I have at the moment:
Apologies that I don't have the time to format this properly (anyone know how to manually add spaces to every line?).
*Viz v01 (10th printing): On the cover, Viz has altered the colors of the title and changed the shape of the cross found in between G and r. *Viz volume missing black/white/red insert cover with Komui (raw p3) v01.05 "Those possessed by the gods" > "God" (should be Christian setting) v01.19 "An Akuma"? Allen says "Akuma" (アクマ) but Moor hears 悪魔 (demon). She continues to use 悪魔 until Allen clears up their true identity. v01.25 "They specialize in destroying Akuma", Eng. vol. removes that they're "clergymen" When Moor calls Marc "brother", the kanji say "brother-in-law". v01.29 "As your sister, I'm hoping for the same thing from heaven." This is a translation error, pure and simple. Moor says "I'm sure my sister [Claire] in heaven feels the same way." v01.32 Eng manga switches placement of two text boxes: "Akuma" is the name of a weapon + weapon from the dark side created to prey on humans. v01.44 "Even that Akuma ... once had a soul embedded in it." 'Once' is wrong, it still does. v01.54 When the Earl is singing Happy Birthday, the Eng. manga removes "dear" before Claire's name. "to you" is also removed. The JPN volume copyright page says the lyrics were used with permission. v01.63 "A member of the Black Order" in ENG is "black clergyman" in JPN vol. v01.72 "You can't deceive my eyes" should be "eye" v01.74 "New World Alliance" is "the Vatican" in JPN. The omake in v05 correctly have "Vatican", though v01.99 "you little runt" in the JPN is "you death cheater" v01.109 "soldier of life doomed by fate" is "apostle possessed by God" in the JPN v01.112 In the profile of the Earl, the Eng says "he was one of the most peculiar people who had ever lived," but the JPN vol adds that he was from the 18th century. v01.127 "soldier of life" in ENG is "apostle of God" in JPN v01.148 "That was too close" in the JPN volume is Allen thinking Kanda is scary. v01.150 The Eng. volume accidentally switches two text placements: "Clean your desk once in a while will ya!" and "I'm going to go get another cup of coffee." v01.171 "soldier of life" in the Eng. vol. is a euphemism for where the JPN vol. has "apostle of God". This continues to recur throughout the series where Exorcists are referred to as "apostles". However, v05.70 correctly has "apostle of Innocence", so this may only occur in early volumes? v01.180 "New World Alliance" is censorship for "the Vatican" in the JPN vol., and "several hundred years ago" should instead be "about 100 years ago". In the Special Thanks page at the end of v01, the drawing of Allen has a note in the JPN version that "Okei" (one of her assistants?) drew him. Viz v02 (9th printing): The title logo has been changed in placement and the cross has been altered again. The photograph of Hoshino's cat Koro with a fanmade Timcanpy plush is in color in the JPN vol, but greyscale in Viz's ENG vol. Once again the ENG vol is missing the inner black/white/red page. This time it's General Cross with a hammer and glass of wine (and giant Tim chomping on his head), saying (to Allen?) "Become an Exorcist, you bastard" v02.29 Toma's mention of the "New World Alliance" is "the Vatican" in the JPN vol. v02.44 In the profile for Reever, the Eng. vol. misses a place and has "Riba". v02.79 Kanda says the "beansprout" is "Allen" in the Eng. vol., but he just says "that guy" in the JPN and doesn't name him. v02 Komui says "Por favore" in Eng. vol. when it's supposed to be "Per favore" as in JPN vol v03 (8th printing) once again cuts the red/black/white insert cover; this time it's Jeryy, Komui and Komlin. The cross in the logo is altered also v03 the "STORY" summary on the characters page is significantly changed/reduced in the ENG version. The JPN version talks about the Cube, Noah's Flood, 7000 years ago etc, and the ENG version doesn't have any of that. v03.13 "I'll terminate you" from Komlin is a mistranslation, it says something like "Time for an operation". v03.16 There's a panel where the ebook (8th printing) failed to update "Linali" into "Lenalee" v03.23 "Be rational" in ENG is literally "Please become an adult" in JPN v03.39 Jeryy's "Ahh! Why do I have to do repairs? It was the Head Chief!" (ENG) should be "Ahh! Why do I have to do repairs! I'm the Head Chef!" v03.45 Road says "Millennium Earl" in the Eng. vol. where the JPN has 千年公 / Lord Millennium. v03.50 "the same cloudy skies" (ENG) are "the same snowy skies" in JPN vol. v03.57 In the JPN vol., the kanji for "death" is shown on Johnny's forehead. This is removed from the ENG vol3 v03.58 The JPN vol. has Komui say the order was made on Oct. 9th and set to be delivered on the 10th, but the ENG vol. cuts the month out v03.61 The JPN vol has Allen or Lenalee call her "Miss Miranda" (ミス・ミランダ) but the Eng. vol. only has "Miranda" v03.69 "Punk Voice" misses the G, it's "Pang Voice" in the anime, which is more accurate v03.104 Road writes "FUCK" on Miranda's wall in the JPN manga, which is changed to "THANK" in the ENG vol v03.105,188 "Fuck you! exorcist" is changed to "THANK YOU EXORCIST!" in the ENG vol. v03.106 has "Rabi" not corrected to "Lavi" v03.123,127,135,168,183 has "the (Millennium) Earl" where Road says 千年公 / Lord Millennium in JPN v03.124 has "Riba" not corrected to "Reever" v03.126 Ch23's chapter title is "Akuma" in the ENG vol but it's the kanji 悪魔 "demon, devil" in the JPN v03.160 Miranda's character profile says she's a Capricorn in the JPN, but the ENG vol. mistakenly mixes this up with Aries v03.182 In the stylized drawing, the ENG vol has "Hey" in the bottom left, but the JPN has "Oi", which I think stands for Oi-chan her assistant, the one who drew that page v03.195,197 Komui says "Miranda" in the ENG vol but it's "Miss Miranda" (ミス・ミランダ) in the JPN v03 in ENG doesn't have the fanart corner (6 pages) found in v03 JPN's endpages v04 (7th printing) cover once again changes the shape of the cross in DGM's logo v04 in ENG omits the black/white/red inner cover, this time of panda!Bookman and Lavi v04 ENG summary "It all began centuries ago" -> "It all began about a century ago" v04 ENG summary, omits that the Flood was about 7000 years ago v04 ENG summary adds more info on previous arc, about Lenalee's coma and Allen's damaged eye v04.11 ENG "Why did you come here?" omits "when you're so busy" from JPN v04.16 ENG "Let's play again soon, Allen" is "Next time will be according to the Lord Millennium's scenario" in JPN v04.41 "I'm going to keep following the path" -> "I decided to keep walking this path." v04.44 "I keep a mental record of everything" -> "No matter what I'm doing, it's my habit to keep a mental record" (literal) v04.48 The ENG vol removes the heart symbols after the Earl's sentences v04.54 ENG vol has "God matter" carved on Yeegar's back, whereas JPN vol says 神狩り "god hunt" v04.55 ENG vol "Thousand-year duke" should be "Lord Millennium" or "Millennie", what the Noah call the Earl v04.57 ENG "With the Heart, we could bring this conflict to an end once and for all!" -> "With the Heart, we'll finally have the power to prevent the End (of the world)." v04.57 ENG Komui's explanation about the Heart is way longer in JPN, saying the Cube doesn't describe how to identify it, saying Hevlaska inspects each piece, etc. (he rants for a while) v04.63 ENG "General Theodore" -> "General Tiedoll" (we start seeing "Tiedoll" by v05.135, though I don't know if that's a later printing v04.67 ENG vol "Our scientists created these Golems." -> "Cross, who is also a scientist, created this Golem." v04.67 ENG vol "They're meant to be able to find their masters no matter where they are." > "It [Tim] should be able to be to find its master [Cross] wherever he is." v04.67 ENG vol "Between Tim and Allen, General Cross will be like a rat in a trap!" -> "Also, now that Allen, who knows his patterns of movement so well, is here, he'll be like a rat in a trap!" v04.69 ENG "You took the bandage off? But it made you look tough." -> "What, you took the doodles off? But you had such an interesting face!" v04.69 ENG "At a great distance, a golem" might instead be "At a great distance, Tim" v04.70 ENG Lavi's "What does he live on? / Debt?" should be "What does he live on? Does he pay his own way? / He's rich?", which is why Allen is holding up the X and saying "DEBT" v04.78 ENG "Hoshino and his editor" -> "Hoshino and her editor Mr. Y" v04.79 ENG "We have to go back and look for him!" and "What is he, a little kid?" are in the wrong text boxes, and Bookman saying "If you go now you can make it there in one jump with your extending pole", which is why Lavi replies "It's a hammer, panda!" v04.84+85+93+98 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Baron Krory" v04.89 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Krory" (x2) v04.123 ENG "Lavi and I will deal with the Count." -> "Lavi and I will go to the castle." v04.132 ENG "no time to be finding love" -> "no time to be getting aroused" v04.133+153 ENG "Count" -> "Baron" v04.147 ENG "my grandfather's precious flowers", furigana say "flowers" but the kanji read "memento" v04.148 ENG "It will make you strong and ferocious." -> "When you take (my) blood into your mouth, you're able to transform into a powerful vampire." v04.155 ENG "It's him ..." -> "Baron" v04.156 ENG "The uniforms of the Black Order" -> "Exorcist uniforms" v05 (8th printing) cover once again changes the shape of the cross in DGM's logo v05 black/white/red inner cover omitted in ENG vol; this time it's Road and the Earl pulling on Tyki's arms from opposite directions v05 ENG summary "It all began centuries ago" -> "It all began about a century ago" v05 ENG summary, omits that the Flood was about 7000 years ago and that they're fighting to prevent the second coming of the End, the 'three days of darkness' v05.24 ENG "Wenham" -> "Wenhamm" v05.24 ENG "centuries ago" -> "about a century ago" v05.25 ENG "there was just a command center" is missing next part of phrase, "there were only Exorcists and a few personnel who supported them" (check trans!) v05.36 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Kro-kins, Kro-chan, Krorykins", however you want to translate Lavi's nickname for him v05.40 ENG "Go! Help Krorykins!!" -> "I can't get to Krorykins!!" v05.42 ENG "centuries" -> "century" v05.65 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Mr. Krory" v05.69 ENG "And you'll be saving a lot of people." -> "If you have a reason, you can keep on living." v05.70 ENG "That could give you a reason to live." -> "It's okay to live for that reason." v05.74 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Krorykins" (how manga translates nickname Kro-chan) v05.78 ENG refers to Hoshino as "he" when she's female (but this may not have been widely known back then?) v05.89 ENG Bookman's line "Lenalee" > "Miss Lena" v05.90 ENG "demons" > "Akuma" v05.93 ENG "Maybe he found something interesting" -> "Don't tell me, he got lost ...?" v05.100 ENG "But he's just a kid! Sheesh!" -> "We underestimated him, thinking he's just a kid!" v05.100 ENG "Where'd he learn that stuff?!" -> "He's no ordinary person!!" v05.100 ENG "This can't possibly be luck!" -> "Aren't you way too strong?" v05.101 ENG "That's not like you." -> "You were that sort of character!?" v05.101 ENG "risked my life learning to play cards" -> "risked my life polishing my skills" (at cheating, presumably) v05.101 ENG "Never seen Allen like this" - > "Allen is daaark ..." v05.101 ENG "Creepy ..." -> "Dark ..." v05.101 ENG "Lavi was a little disturbed by Allen's wicked side" -> "Lavi saw an unexpected side of Allen." v05.102 ENG "Isn't it kind of cold to walk around naked?" -> "Isn't it too cold this time of year to walk around naked?" v05.102 ENG "Hmph ..." -> "Boy ..." v05.103 ENG "We're starting work in the mines today." -> "Actually, starting today we're supposed to work outside in the mines around here." v05.113 ENG "Millennium Earl" -> "Lord Millennium" v05.114 ENG "Tap Dop" -> "Tup Dop" v05.117 ENG "two miles" -> "three kilometers" v05.117 ENG "three miles" -> "five kilometers" v05.118 ENG "six-mile" -> "ten-kilometer" v05.119 ENG "Fire!" -> "Shoot!" v05.122+125 ENG "Tyki" -> "Tycky" v05.124 ENG "I want you to be my messenger." -> "I want you to go to this place as my messenger." v05.126 ENG "Tyki" -> "Tyki-pon, Tyki-pet" v05.132 ENG "have a scene where Allen has to dig up a graveyard" -> "[this] and a scene where a beloved woman Akuma is bitten to death" v05.132 ENG "I wanted to draw" -> "I wanted to draw it so I got them to do it / let me do it" (I'm not sure if this is Hoshino writing or if the (Oi) is supposed to indicate it's her assistant Oi-chan? kakitakute yarasete moratta ... v05.137 ENG "I'm a General. My mission is more important." > "I will fulfill my duties as a General." v05.139,144,145 ENG "Zokalo" > "Socalo" v05.139 ENG "Cloud" > "Klaud" v05.147 ENG "But his poor family ..." > "How cruel" v05.150 ENG "a handsome guy like Beckham" > "a handsome Noah like Beckham" (or "a handsome guy like Beckham as a Noah") v05.158 ENG "Lenalee" > "Miss Lena" v05.159 ENG "BLUSH" > "HUSH" v05.168 ENG the Special Thanks page is missing "Yamada-kun" above "Oi-chan" v05.172 ENG "I like it. It's understated" must be sarcasm, as JPN says it's flashy/gaudy v05.175 ENG "Yowza" > "Strike" v05.177 ENG "Would you like to speak to your brother?" > "to the Chief?" v05.177 ENG "I figured he was indisposed" > "Then that would defeat the purpose of intentionally calling you, Sect. Ldr. Reever" v05.177 ENG "Komui's sleeping" > "the Chief's sleeping" v05.182 ENG "For years I have been a supporter" > "I have been a supporter since my mother's time" JPN v05 has 2 pages of fanart submitted by readers after the chapters (before next-vol preview)
v06 cover (7th printing) changes the design of the cross in the logo, as with previous volumes The JPN volume has a color spread of Lavi, Kanda and Allen not found in the ENG vol. (It also has Yossy the rabbit on a cross) There's also a rough sketch double-page showing the prototype of DGM, "Robin's" Then the insert page (only in JPN vol) has Cross in a pose above Allen saying "Pay up" with debt/bills falling down, in parody of the scene with Tyki and the deck of cards. STORY: "It all began centuries ago" > "about a century ago". Also missing the details that the Flood ('the three days of darkness') was 7000 years ago. The paragraph beginning "Forces of the Millennium Earl" is pretty loosely translated too. v06.09-10: "Are they coming for us?" > "Are they coming to stop us?" v06.40 ENG "... God is wroth. Such an act is a terrible sin, and one that falls from grace." > "'Fall' refers to the sin of a non-apostle trying to synchronize with God." v06.41 ENG "There is no escape" > "Running away is unforgiveable" v06.42 ENG "that Hoshino guy / he" > "that Hoshino gal / she" v06.42 ENG "hamburgers" > "hamburg steaks" v06.43+78 ENG "Wenham" > "Wenhamm" (the original is clear, so this must be an intentional change) v06.44+48 ENG "Sokaro" > "Socalo" (and v7 "Zokalo" same) v06.46 ENG "What power!" > "What destructive power!" v06.46 ENG "It vaporized the Akuma!" > "It vaporized that many Akuma in an instant!" v06.48 ENG "Suman has a parasite-type Innocence like you do." > "Suman is a parasite-type accommodator like you are." v06.48 ENG Lenalee says "I heard" the info about Suman (probably from Reever or Komui?) v06.49 ENG "I don't know what happened ... to the boy." > "I don't know what happened ... to the boy who became a Fallen One." v06.52 ENG "Don't get too close to him" > "We'd better not step into this hole." v06.58 ENG "Suman's memories" > "Suman's feelings/emotions" v06.59 ENG "and begged the Akuma to spare you" > "and made a deal with the devil" (it's written 悪魔 here, not the usual AKUMA) v06.59 ENG "You betrayed the Innocence." ('Innocence' is the furigana given for the kanji 'God') v06.60 ENG "KEVIN BARRY" is a typo and should be removed. Also note "Jerry" for Jeryy and "The Millennium Earl" for "The Earl of Millennium" v06.61 ENG "He fled the battle in fear." > "He became afraid of dying and fled the battlefield." v06.70 ENG "my friend" > "my comrade" (does Allen even know Suman?) v06.78 ENG Komui omake #3: "What kind of stupid question is that?" > "At least write 'noodle' with the kanji." (Reader used katakana instead) v06.96 ENG "in the bath in vol. 4." > "in the bath that Allen showed in vol. 4." v06.96 ENG "Grr ...", JPN vol. explains that it's the sound of Kanda's blood vessel/s bursting v06.96 ENG "Twitch", JPN vol. explains that it's the sound of a vein in his forehead sticking up v06.102 ENG "Section Chief Reever, does this mean that Suman ..." - they use 'incompatible' / no longer an Accommodator, and say yappari 'after all' so I think the speaker is speculating that this confirms that Suman betrayed the Order v06.104 ENG "But I haven't seen him in the commissary for a while." > "So now whenever we see each other in the cafeteria he's been ignoring me." v06.105 ENG "What ... are you saying ... Komui?" > "What ... are you saying ... Brother?" v05.107 ENG "The Earl's minions killed more than a hundred of our people in their quest for the Heart." > "You heard how the other day, the Order lost more than a hundred of our people, right?" v06.115 ENG "but of a man who loved his family more than anything, a man who was forced to make terrible choices" isn't based on what the JPN text says. Rather, it's more like "but this is the story of an Exorcist who fought as a soldier. I drew this fully realizing that they aren't warriors who live in the horrors of war, but humans who became soldiers." "Pity him" is also unique to the ENG version. v06.120-1 ENG "Someone's ... breaking" is wrong. Allen says "Someone [help me!]", and then the panel "Break" as a command isn't Allen speaking ... I think it might be Suman's Innocence, or possibly Allen's. It's written weird in katakana. v06.134 ENG "Count Krory" - JPN just has "Krory", and he's a Baron in the JPN version v06.148 ENG "his soul" - mind, heart, soul ... kokoro is harder to translate. But this isn't tamashii here v06.152 ENG "They were made by the Earl" has lero after it, which is who's speaking v06.152 ENG "HEY" in the box in the bottom right is Gunma in katakana in the JPN vol v06.155 ENG "No ... No ..." should be "No ... ah ..." (i.e. 'Noah') v06.164 ENG "by the Earl" > "by the Lord Millennium". "the Earl's choice" > "his choice/taste" v06.166 ENG "without even exerting myself" > "without cutting your body with a blade" v06.170 ENG Special Thanks: the placement of Yamada-san and Akiyama-san are mixed up. v06.174-5 ENG "start with your Innocence". Tyki actually says Innocence no yarou, 'that Innocence bastard' v06.176 ENG "The Heart is the jackpot" > "That's the 'sign' it's the Heart." v06.183 ENG "You were ordered to" > "The Lord Millennium ordered you to" v07 ENG (6th edition), the photograph of Koro is in color in the JPN vol v07 ENG is missing the inner black/white/red page. The JPN vol7 has an illustration showing that Bak, who's the same age (29) as Komui, is the same height as Allen (15) v07 ENG "STORY": "It all began centuries ago" > "It all began about a century ago" v07 ENG "STORY": like previously, the JPN volume says the Flood occurred 7000 years ago and that the Cube calls it "the three days of darkness." The 2nd paragraph of STORY in the ENG volume is a pretty loose reinterpretation, but the changes don't really matter so I won't bother translating the original. v07 ENG: cross in title logo altered like in previous volumes v07 Characters: Bak Chan > Bak Chang v07.10 ENG "A card?" > "A Western playing card?" v07.19 ENG "Samo Han Wong, Assistant Director. Black Order, Asia Branch" > "Sammo Han Won, Black Order, Asia Branch Director's Assistant." v07.24 ENG "Well, Kanda made a mess of things" > "Well, Yu made a mess of things" v07.24 ENG "ordered the two of us to do it" > add here "and answer the questions properly." v07.24 ENG "Q. Does Lavi have a thing for cute girls with big breasts?" > "Q. Is Lavi's taste in girls for ones with cute faces and big breasts, but he doesn't care about their personalities?" v07.24 ENG "(Allen): He's a menace." > "(Allen): His taste lies in female enemies, right?" v07.35 ENG "Lenalee's having a hard time" > "Miss Lena is having a hard time" v07.37 ENG "Sorry, Lenalee" > "Sorry, Miss Lena." v07.38 ENG "Remember that we cooperate with the Black Order only for the purpose of keeping records." > "Remember that we only happen to be on this side in order to make our records." v07.39 ENG "Don't forget your duty" > "Don't forget your goal" v07.47 ENG "He scares me" > "She scares me" (Mahoja is female, which Lavi knows by now) v07.50 ENG "I don't intend to sleep" > "Ah, we're good then. Not sleeping is my specialty." v07.57 ENG "I'm not the one" > "We're not the ones" v07.58 ENG "Allen's heart was punctured. Death was imminent. But his heart was healed ... when particles of his Innocence entered his body and sealed the wound." > "Allen's heart was punctured. Death was imminent. But what healed his heart ... was particles of his Innocence that had become like dust and shouldn't even be activated, which entered his body and sealed the hole all on its own, acting as a substitute for his cells." v07.60 ENG Lavi "I'd be a Bookman. I have no interest in being anything else." The JPN vol has another sentence in between those two about how he even became an Exorcist. v07.60 ENG "A noodle maker?" > "A merchant who makes soba?" v07.62+67+77 ENG "Allen" > in the JPN, Won calls him "Walker-kun" v07.62 ENG "It's still cruel" - Specifically, Rohfa says "God" is cruel v07.78 ENG "80 square feet" and "120 square feet" are "10 jou" and "15 jou" in Japanese (畳, tatami mat). A 'jou' is either 1.54 or 1.82 square meters, so 10 jou is either around 165 or 196 square feet, and 15 jou is around either 249 or 294 square feet. So I'm not sure where Viz gets their numbers, unless the online converters I used are off. v07.82 ENG "She did?" > "'ore-sama?'" (Allen is reacting to the pronoun Bak uses when upset) v07.83 ENG "Allen Walker" > "Walker-kun" (by Won) v07.84 ENG "Allen" > JPN "Walker" (by For) v07.84 ENG "People have been known to take a wrong turn and nearly starve to death" > "One time, someone got lost for two weeks and nearly starved to death." v07.87 ENG "this stuff was swirling around you like a fog" excludes the JPN "as if to protect you" v07.87 ENG "TRUDGE" > "can't see" v07.87 ENG "It was no picnic ..." > "That's when I realized it was Innocenc v07.87 ENG "That surprised me" > "He even said something unscientific for once." v07.89+95+102+117+123 ENG "Allen" > Bak and Rikei call him "Walker" in JPN v07.96 ENG Discussion Room "whisper into Komui's ear WHILE HE'S ASLEEP" v07.96 ENG the ? after Lavi's "I can't take it" should be an ! v07.105 ENG "... Even with a high synchronization rate." > "Even if they're able to synchronize, they can't restrain the vast force of the Innocence that well." v07.109 ENG "Allen" > For calls him "Walker" in JPN v07.109 ENG "Fo is the materialized form of the guardian deity" is missing the detail where JPN says Fo "isn't a human but ..." v07.114 ENG "between the ages of 18 and 40" > JPN has "10 and 40" v07.122 ENG "Allen" > Rohfa calls him "Walker-san" in the JPN v07.124 ENG the placement of "Lo Hwa!" and "I'm sorry!" should be reversed v07.128 ENG "General Zokalo" > the ENG volume omits his first name, "Winters" which is in the JPN page here v07.140 ENG "For a Bookman ... attachments are a liability" could be "doesn't need a heart." v07.150 ENG name spellings in character ranking: Jerry, Eeze, Bak Chan, Alestina (JPN has full name), Tap Dopp, Pazu, Baba, Skin Boric, Place Robin (just 'Robin'). Pazu should be Bazu v07.168 ENG Special Thanks page. The JPN version has different formatting for the names: alternating black/white letters, and three columns. So "Coro" and "Adam" are separate entries, as are "Sakuma" and "Yoshida-san." v07.182 ENG check Kindle: ebook version is missing chapter page, instead has ad for next volume v07.183 ENG "Sorry, Count" > "Sorry, Krory" v08 ENG (6th printing): cover page changes cross in DGM logo like previous volumes v08 ENG (like previous volumes) omits the special insert art. This time it's Shifu, Rikei, Won and Allen dressed in the same female outfit/hairstyle as Rohfa v08 ENG 'STORY' same issues as before, i.e. "centuries ago" > "about a century ago", omitting 3 Days of Darkness and 'about 7000 years ago' v08.16 ENG "Sound Shackles" > "Water Shackles" v08.28 ENG "The ship! It must be sinking!" This is wrong; the first is Lenalee's thoughts "So that means that ..." and the second part is Eshi saying "The ship is sinking". v08.40 ENG omake "who has his hair styled like a girl's" > literally "man (with) straight-cut bangs". This term, pattsun, will show up in following chapters later on as a derogatory nickname for Kanda v08.40 ENG omake "gentle stream of water" instead of mushin and shaberu shikabane "talking corpse" v08.40 ENG omake "he" for Hoshino should be "she" v08.43 ENG moves "The ecstasy" down to the bottom panels, and in doing so omits all of what's written there in the JPN original. Quoting Funimation's TL of those lines: "I can ... I can tell that woman's heartbeat is getting weak. I can hear her heart squeak from the oppression of the water pressure." v08.44 ENG "Not even Eshi can go to those terrible depths" omits "even since evolving to Level 3," v08.47 ENG "I see the twisted faces of tortured souls. They enter my eye and crawl around inside my head." > "The screams of many souls that I shouldn't be able to hear, they pass through my left eye and crawl around inside my body." v08.55 ENG "are my comrades from the Order" > Funi TL "the faces of my comrades inside the wall called the Order." v08.58 ENG version is missing an entire sentence about Komui's reaction to Komlin being dismantled from the Discussion Room omake. v08.65 ENG "Eshi's ability" > "Eshi's ability caused by dark matter" v08.65 ENG "then my Innocence" missing that Innocence is dark matter's opposite v08.73 ENG "Why aren't you using your hammer?" > "Why aren't you using the Wood Stamp?" v08.76 ENG omake "Millennium Earl" > "Lord Millennium". And the JPN version has ages/locations/gender for the people submitting questions. v08.86 ENG "Wha..." > "Above?" v08.89 ENG "She's gathering all the mass around her!!" > "With that excessive amount of gravity ..." v08.93 ENG "tens of thousands of pounds" > "tens of thousands of tons" v08.94 ENG the omake is missing 2 sentences from Allen about Hoshino's personal opinion on the whole Gintama/Lavi thing v08.98 ENG "You're the one who will die, girl!" > "You're the only one who will become cinders, girl!" v08.100 ENG "You're important to me" > they're important to Anita v08.109 ENG "Kamui" > "Komui" v08.127 ENG "Lord Exorcist!?" should be "Aaaaah! Mr. Krory!!?" and "Aaaah! Count Krory?!" should be "Sir!!!!" (just has danna). And he's a Baron in the JPN version, not a Count v08.127 ENG "What is this...?!" > "This chain...!?" v08.134 ENG "They sacrificed themselves to save the ship!!" is missing "the ship and me" from the JPN v08 ENG manga omits Chomesuke's verbal tic 'cho' at the end of sentences v08.145 ENG "by General Cross" > "by Cross Marian" v08.152 ENG "Or is Lenalee" > "Or is Lenalee Lee" v08.152 ENG "valuable information for the archives" > "a valuable record/log" v08.156 ENG "Ark" > "box" v08.156 ENG "General Cross" > "Marian" v08.156 ENG "factory for manufacturing Akuma" > "Akuma enchanted body plant" v08.157 ENG "The General instructed me to tell you ... to go home. You'll only slow him down." > "Marian said that if after hearing this [warning] you'll become a hindrance, you should just go home." v08.164 ENG "release" > "forced release" v08.186+7 ENG Hoshino should be "her" instead of "his" v08.186 "wild eye" > "Hoshino" v08 has 6 pages of reader-submitted fanart after the final omake in the JPN volume (omitted in ENG vol.)

So long story, I started senior year of high expecting nothing but a cruise to an easy degree. Then, our teacher announced the design class (for tech school, a school I go to for part of the day as a version of electives, while taking normal classes at my hometown school) next door has too many kids and some are moving up into our class early. Now I want you to think of your ideal partner. What do they look like, what do they act like, does their hair curl, do they sing too loud in the car, do the twiddle their thumbs when they're nervous, every checklist you could have for a partner.
And who walks in but Mr. Perfect. Every. Single. Box. Ticked. I didn't realize it at the time, I was too busy focusing on my high school degree to realize anything besides a passing, "Eh, he's kinda cute." But the week after, we did presentations with a randomly assigned group partner for an introduction project. He got to see the entirety of mine, but since I didn't know I liked him at the time, I'm not sure if he was paying any attention
When it came his turn for the introduction presentation, I got pulled out of class for some event I can't remember and only saw the first third of his. It was about then that I realized the first signs of a crush were blooming.
I don't fall often, but I've fallen so horrendously disgustingly hard for two people before him that I can recognize the stages of my new crushes. Brief interest and a random nagging feeling, slight blushes and widening eyes out of curiosity, interest, realization, suppression, explosion into full daydreaming obsession, a long time of obsession-depression-acceptance while making no moves besides brief 10 seconds interactions, a creepy amount of staring glances, letting go.
It was I'd say about October when I realized I was already in too deep, I was stuck in crushing waters with no sight of shore. I've never been particularly social, I've struggled with chronic anxiety since the age of 6, along with a lifetime of severe untreated traumas that have left me lacking faith in humanity, but stubbornly optimistic.
It was basically that cycle, constant thoughts, staring, occasional 10 seconds interactions like "standing near each other, holding doors, thank yous and your welcomes, guiding him to whatever art material he needed, occasional glancing, staring way too much at him, way too much daydreaming, learning his last name from a glance at his log in screen, finding an old Instagram from 2021 about him run by a friend of his, buying the same brand of mints, dressing better, caring for my body more, trying to be more social"
I did get some moments here and there, nothing movie worthy but everything to me, it basically became a tradition for me to briefly hold and open the door for him whenever possible, drills, walking out of school, etc. Never waiting too long, just a simple "Thank you!" and "You're welcome.", except if it seemed like he was upset or the wait was too suspiciously long so I'd just open the door as much as possible and hope he'd catch it, or take out my phone and pretend to be texting, so it was "Mhm." instead of "You're welcome."
I eventually got the chance to choose or suggest my seat, so as requested by my teacher, I asked to sit next to him, she put me closer, but my back faces him and we're a row apart separated by giant Mac Monitors so I don't think he can see me either.
Luckily enough, I actually had a vague conversation with him. He's pretty good friends with a girl I sit next to, I'd say me and this girl are probably vague good acquaintances? She's described her and him as friends, but she has a boyfriend. Anyways they were talking about their embarrassing exes, I only caught the tail end and heard that he had one that was a little cuckoo, he was smiling at her but went quiet about it.
Later on I saw him playing this unknown shooter zombie game on the school Mac Monitor, he was talking about something with her, when I somehow got into a conversation with him. We discussed something about Nintendo and how Nintendo 3DS was such a good console for us. He's a quiet but cool kinda guy, so I was a little too excited and rambled about how I lost 3 different 3DS and a bunch of 3DS games too, once on a bus. He turned and gave me a brief eyebrow raise and curious smile from his game, and asked me about it again. So I continued to ramble until the bell rang and our conversation naturally fizzled out.
I can't remember exactly when, but some time after that we had another interaction. I wear giant headphones all the time, and he wears tiny air pods all the time. We were hanging examples of our monthly assignment for presentations like we always do. I hung mine first, the girl next to me didn't even know I was the one who hung it first, so this is what makes it so interesting. He ended up coming to me, airpods out, smiling, saw me with headphones on, and asked me where the frames we use to hang our projects are. I was so shocked that I just blandly said, “Oh, sure.” Led him to the frames, crouching down I opened the drawer and just went, “Here ya’ go.” I remember him having this dreamy smile on his face as he thanked me, but I was kinda obsessing over my work at the time and just mumbled agreement and went back to work. Yes, I did beat myself for basically the entire week after realizing how dumb I was.
Eventually, Valentine's Day rolls around. Our Marketing class swings by and tells us they're selling Valentine's gift deals. Unfortunately, I have a 20$ bill I've been meaning to get rid of, the highest gift deal is 20$, and a crush. Unfortunately, unlike all the other schools, they don't deliver it anomalously, you have to deliver it yourself. (In this modern world? In this economy?) So dumb me, I buy the deal. A handheld heart balloon wrapped in ribbon with a cute bear keychain. I type up a heartfelt letter, place it on the ground in front of his locker, he ignores the strange gift on the ground, and I miss him by a few lockers. The second no one was looking I threw out the note and scrambled the gift into my backpack. Still have it.
Now we get to this week.
I've been dressing better than I ever have, taking care of myself physically and mentally, happier than I've been since I was an ignorant elementary schooler, distant but amiable in conversation with classmates, not too friendly but way less aggressive than I was at the beginning. Unfortunately, I know I've dug my own grave and it's too late to dig myself out, because I can feel the rising heat of magma beneath me.
We ended up doing a project that I need an Exacto Knife for (kind of a very small box cutter used for precise cutting work). It was optional, but helped more with cutting out the images we needed. Especially me, because I needed some pixel art for my project that had a lot of sharp edges and hidden corners a scissor couldn't get too. Our teacher was super busy since it's the last week of school for most of us, so she was rushing from person to person doing important stuff and I didn't want to interrupt, but we can't use an Exacto Knife without her permission, hormonal teenagers with an unsupervised sharp object is rarely a good combination.
We were at the same table, him on one side, me on the opposite. It's a bigger table no one uses except for big projects like this where your original desk space just isn't enough. He was also using an Exacto Knife for his project to get clean edges. He ended up moving to the “gluing images” part of his assignment, but still had the Exacto Knife out, the good one too, the one I was using yesterday. I end up asking him for the knife, gently tapping on the table space next to him so as not to startle him. I may have made a little too much eye contact, but he was gentle and let me grab it. After quite a while, I gave it back, same gentle table tap, gentle thanks. It wasn't long after, a few minutes at most, that I realized I was once again having issues with the scissors, and would need it again. I came over again and asked. He was gentle, I suppose, maybe a little suspicious since a barely invisible classmate acquaintance was talking to him for the 3rd time in a matter of an hour or half. He just said, “Hey, why don't I sign the knife back in so you can sign it back out.” I was surprised, but agreed shyly, and we spent the rest of the class doing our projects and although I caught us locking eyes a few times, nothing more than that.
Anyways, that was a very long ramble, here's some details I couldn't include. I came out as a Trans guy at the start of the year before he came to the class, but I still dress and style very feminine since I live in a very conservative area with questionably supportive parents who don't know, only my Design class knows, because there's like 5 other Trans kids there. I assume he doesn't know me as anything, but my Trans-ness, but I don't know. He seems straight, ex-girlfriend and all. I mean he's snow white, most brilliant blue eyes, dirty blondish brown hair that is so fluffy and curly. He dresses SO well, I can only describe it as like, cool city kid grunge maybe if you took a Spencer's, Converse, and Vans store and threw a boy into a store combined with those three. My point to remind you that basically all the boys around me are stinky conservatives who don't know what a razor or shower is. This man cleans suspiciously good. There's a girl who sits next to him, I think right from his perspective, as the only thing to his left is the door in and out of the classroom. Ya’ know, the seat I wanted. They seem to be pretty good friends, I think. They only really talk when they need to, or mandatory group projects, but she's gotten way farther than I have in conversation with him, shared interests and everything. Know what's worse? We do this thing every year in my Design class called “Notes of Kindness,” essentially a relationship for platonic Valentine's Day cards. We get a random partner assigned and have to give them something encouraging about them specifically. Guess who I got? The girl that sits next to him. I noticed she was kinda shy and insecure at the time, so I gave her a self portrait showcasing her heart and something about kindness. Apparently it had a surprising effect on her, as she started dressing way better and talking more, to him specifically. Jealousy is stupid and I always quell that feeling as soon as it appears, but it does drive me crazy she turned into the girl I wanted so badly to be. His birthday is November 20th, he turned 18 last year in 2023. Scorpio with a 1 day cusp on Sagittarius. I'm Sun in 26° Pisces, cusp of Aries, Moon in 16° Libra, Rising in 29° Aries or Leo, Mercury in 16° Pisces, Venus in 9° Aquarius, Mars in 14° Gemini, Jupiter in 18° Scorpio, Saturn in 4° Leo, Ur@nu$ (avoiding censor I.G.) in 11° Pisces, Neptune in 18° Aquarius, Pluto in 26° Sagittarius, Chiron in Aquarius. I practice Tarot and watch Tarot videos, but unfortunately I'm kinda in this situation because of them. Blah blah blah focus on yourself, did that rocking it and enjoying it hard, blah blah blah he needs to do the same and confess to you but you also need to confess to him, but also he needs to do it. Just a lot of confusion with the online videos, and my guides really only answer me in a roundabout way that also just says focus on yourself.
Anyways enough of my journalizing. TLDR: Dumb Trans guy fell for a probably straight guy and now has to confess to him on the last day of school before graduation

So long story, I started senior year of high expecting nothing but a cruise to an easy degree. Then, our teacher announced the design class (for tech school, a school I go to for part of the day as a version of electives, while taking normal classes at my hometown school) next door has too many kids and some are moving up into our class early. Now I want you to think of your ideal partner. What do they look like, what do they act like, does their hair curl, do they sing too loud in the car, do the twiddle their thumbs when they're nervous, every checklist you could have for a partner.
And who walks in but Mr. Perfect. Every. Single. Box. Ticked. I didn't realize it at the time, I was too busy focusing on my high school degree to realize anything besides a passing, "Eh, he's kinda cute." But the week after, we did presentations with a randomly assigned group partner for an introduction project. He got to see the entirety of mine, but since I didn't know I liked him at the time, I'm not sure if he was paying any attention
When it came his turn for the introduction presentation, I got pulled out of class for some event I can't remember and only saw the first third of his. It was about then that I realized the first signs of a crush were blooming.
I don't fall often, but I've fallen so horrendously disgustingly hard for two people before him that I can recognize the stages of my new crushes. Brief interest and a random nagging feeling, slight blushes and widening eyes out of curiosity, interest, realization, suppression, explosion into full daydreaming obsession, a long time of obsession-depression-acceptance while making no moves besides brief 10 seconds interactions, a creepy amount of staring glances, letting go.
It was I'd say about October when I realized I was already in too deep, I was stuck in crushing waters with no sight of shore. I've never been particularly social, I've struggled with chronic anxiety since the age of 6, along with a lifetime of severe untreated traumas that have left me lacking faith in humanity, but stubbornly optimistic.
It was basically that cycle, constant thoughts, staring, occasional 10 seconds interactions like "standing near each other, holding doors, thank yous and your welcomes, guiding him to whatever art material he needed, occasional glancing, staring way too much at him, way too much daydreaming, learning his last name from a glance at his log in screen, finding an old Instagram from 2021 about him run by a friend of his, buying the same brand of mints, dressing better, caring for my body more, trying to be more social"
I did get some moments here and there, nothing movie worthy but everything to me, it basically became a tradition for me to briefly hold and open the door for him whenever possible, drills, walking out of school, etc. Never waiting too long, just a simple "Thank you!" and "You're welcome.", except if it seemed like he was upset or the wait was too suspiciously long so I'd just open the door as much as possible and hope he'd catch it, or take out my phone and pretend to be texting, so it was "Mhm." instead of "You're welcome."
I eventually got the chance to choose or suggest my seat, so as requested by my teacher, I asked to sit next to him, she put me closer, but my back faces him and we're a row apart separated by giant Mac Monitors so I don't think he can see me either.
Luckily enough, I actually had a vague conversation with him. He's pretty good friends with a girl I sit next to, I'd say me and this girl are probably vague good acquaintances? She's described her and him as friends, but she has a boyfriend. Anyways they were talking about their embarrassing exes, I only caught the tail end and heard that he had one that was a little cuckoo, he was smiling at her but went quiet about it.
Later on I saw him playing this unknown shooter zombie game on the school Mac Monitor, he was talking about something with her, when I somehow got into a conversation with him. We discussed something about Nintendo and how Nintendo 3DS was such a good console for us. He's a quiet but cool kinda guy, so I was a little too excited and rambled about how I lost 3 different 3DS and a bunch of 3DS games too, once on a bus. He turned and gave me a brief eyebrow raise and curious smile from his game, and asked me about it again. So I continued to ramble until the bell rang and our conversation naturally fizzled out.
I can't remember exactly when, but some time after that we had another interaction. I wear giant headphones all the time, and he wears tiny air pods all the time. We were hanging examples of our monthly assignment for presentations like we always do. I hung mine first, the girl next to me didn't even know I was the one who hung it first, so this is what makes it so interesting. He ended up coming to me, airpods out, smiling, saw me with headphones on, and asked me where the frames we use to hang our projects are. I was so shocked that I just blandly said, “Oh, sure.” Led him to the frames, crouching down I opened the drawer and just went, “Here ya’ go.” I remember him having this dreamy smile on his face as he thanked me, but I was kinda obsessing over my work at the time and just mumbled agreement and went back to work. Yes, I did beat myself for basically the entire week after realizing how dumb I was.
Eventually, Valentine's Day rolls around. Our Marketing class swings by and tells us they're selling Valentine's gift deals. Unfortunately, I have a 20$ bill I've been meaning to get rid of, the highest gift deal is 20$, and a crush. Unfortunately, unlike all the other schools, they don't deliver it anomalously, you have to deliver it yourself. (In this modern world? In this economy?) So dumb me, I buy the deal. A handheld heart balloon wrapped in ribbon with a cute bear keychain. I type up a heartfelt letter, place it on the ground in front of his locker, he ignores the strange gift on the ground, and I miss him by a few lockers. The second no one was looking I threw out the note and scrambled the gift into my backpack. Still have it.
Now we get to this week.
I've been dressing better than I ever have, taking care of myself physically and mentally, happier than I've been since I was an ignorant elementary schooler, distant but amiable in conversation with classmates, not too friendly but way less aggressive than I was at the beginning. Unfortunately, I know I've dug my own grave and it's too late to dig myself out, because I can feel the rising heat of magma beneath me.
We ended up doing a project that I need an Exacto Knife for (kind of a very small box cutter used for precise cutting work). It was optional, but helped more with cutting out the images we needed. Especially me, because I needed some pixel art for my project that had a lot of sharp edges and hidden corners a scissor couldn't get too. Our teacher was super busy since it's the last week of school for most of us, so she was rushing from person to person doing important stuff and I didn't want to interrupt, but we can't use an Exacto Knife without her permission, hormonal teenagers with an unsupervised sharp object is rarely a good combination.
We were at the same table, him on one side, me on the opposite. It's a bigger table no one uses except for big projects like this where your original desk space just isn't enough. He was also using an Exacto Knife for his project to get clean edges. He ended up moving to the “gluing images” part of his assignment, but still had the Exacto Knife out, the good one too, the one I was using yesterday. I end up asking him for the knife, gently tapping on the table space next to him so as not to startle him. I may have made a little too much eye contact, but he was gentle and let me grab it. After quite a while, I gave it back, same gentle table tap, gentle thanks. It wasn't long after, a few minutes at most, that I realized I was once again having issues with the scissors, and would need it again. I came over again and asked. He was gentle, I suppose, maybe a little suspicious since a barely invisible classmate acquaintance was talking to him for the 3rd time in a matter of an hour or half. He just said, “Hey, why don't I sign the knife back in so you can sign it back out.” I was surprised, but agreed shyly, and we spent the rest of the class doing our projects and although I caught us locking eyes a few times, nothing more than that.
Anyways, that was a very long ramble, here's some details I couldn't include. I came out as a Trans guy at the start of the year before he came to the class, but I still dress and style very feminine since I live in a very conservative area with questionably supportive parents who don't know, only my Design class knows, because there's like 5 other Trans kids there. I assume he doesn't know me as anything, but my Trans-ness, but I don't know. He seems straight, ex-girlfriend and all. I mean he's snow white, most brilliant blue eyes, dirty blondish brown hair that is so fluffy and curly. He dresses SO well, I can only describe it as like, cool city kid grunge maybe if you took a Spencer's, Converse, and Vans store and threw a boy into a store combined with those three. My point to remind you that basically all the boys around me are stinky conservatives who don't know what a razor or shower is. This man cleans suspiciously good. There's a girl who sits next to him, I think right from his perspective, as the only thing to his left is the door in and out of the classroom. Ya’ know, the seat I wanted. They seem to be pretty good friends, I think. They only really talk when they need to, or mandatory group projects, but she's gotten way farther than I have in conversation with him, shared interests and everything. Know what's worse? We do this thing every year in my Design class called “Notes of Kindness,” essentially a relationship for platonic Valentine's Day cards. We get a random partner assigned and have to give them something encouraging about them specifically. Guess who I got? The girl that sits next to him. I noticed she was kinda shy and insecure at the time, so I gave her a self portrait showcasing her heart and something about kindness. Apparently it had a surprising effect on her, as she started dressing way better and talking more, to him specifically. Jealousy is stupid and I always quell that feeling as soon as it appears, but it does drive me crazy she turned into the girl I wanted so badly to be. His birthday is November 20th, he turned 18 last year in 2023. Scorpio with a 1 day cusp on Sagittarius. I'm Sun in 26° Pisces, cusp of Aries, Moon in 16° Libra, Rising in 29° Aries or Leo, Mercury in 16° Pisces, Venus in 9° Aquarius, Mars in 14° Gemini, Jupiter in 18° Scorpio, Saturn in 4° Leo, Ur@nu$ (avoiding censor I.G.) in 11° Pisces, Neptune in 18° Aquarius, Pluto in 26° Sagittarius, Chiron in Aquarius. I practice Tarot and watch Tarot videos, but unfortunately I'm kinda in this situation because of them. Blah blah blah focus on yourself, did that rocking it and enjoying it hard, blah blah blah he needs to do the same and confess to you but you also need to confess to him, but also he needs to do it. Just a lot of confusion with the online videos, and my guides really only answer me in a roundabout way that also just says focus on yourself. He also had a girl from the Photography class next door go, "My friend likes youuuuu!" and he straight up walked by her ignoring her completely because it was the end of the day
Anyways enough of my journalizing. TLDR: Dumb Trans fem guy fell for a probably straight guy and now has to confess to him on the last day of school before graduation but can't because he has chronic anxiety and needs a step by step 100% success plan for everything

This is the last episode of the first half of the season with the actors for young Rhaenyra and Alicent and it ends in both a fantastic way and absolutely stupid and odd way all at the same time. This is one of the more dissected episodes in discussion but still felt like sharing:
-First point is how the hell is Daemon complaining about lady Rhea when she is absolutely gorgeous and a total badass with her armor. If there was a character I wish we could see more of it was her, just because of how she verbally obliterates Daemon in the few minutes. Her death being caused by Daemon is an odd point, it’s one of the things that he actually didn’t do in the book though I could see his character doing, but still just felt unnecessary as they could have just mentioned that lady Rhea passed away in passing dialogue. I don’t know, as someone who wants as close an adaptation as possible I just don’t see the reason especially after a certain change I absolutely despise some episodes later but we will get there eventually and I will just leave it at odd.
-The scene between Alicent and Otto was really emotional. At this point Alicent is still trying to stay convinced she did the right thing, and the actress does such a great job but Otto tells her the hard truth that no matter how much she may try to ignore the succession issue, it’s not simple matter of dinner table politics but a matter of life or death for her children and stability of the realm. She clearly needed to have it said out loud in this blunt way to truly encapsulate what is at stake and the actress just does a phenomenal job. That scene captures perfectly a lot of the spirit of Team Green and why we support the rightful king.
-The whole power move of Corlys making the king walk all the way to him while he sat on the driftwood throne was pretty cold and so disrespectful but again the actor just Carries that aura of power that it just seems natural. Even when he does bend to Viserys, he is still the “gravity” of the scene. One small nitpick that gets me is how they constantly talk about how it’s time to unite the two great Valyrian Houses, but this isn’t a first time thing, like Velaryons have married Targaryens before many times including during the dynasty. Obviously it makes sense to keep the ties close but just the way they mention the idea, they make it sound like it’s never be done before which annoys me. I don’t know maybe I’m the only one. Still just a slight nitpick. Also I do like how they actually discuss the surname issue of would Rhaenyra’s heir would go by Targaryen or Velaryon. It makes sense they go with the former since they are the upper house, but still an odd thing that’s it’s never mentioned in the literal historical book that is all about showing and analyzing these small facts.
-Ser Criston offers Rhaenyra to escape and go to Essos leaving it all behind. While this is definitely a bit naive, it’s clear he is trying to cope with his mistake by wrapping it under a blanket of romanticism. When Rhaenyra just shows that it will never happen and this is basically a fling for her, a very likely a childish game, it just sets on him the full weight of what he did. The actor just perfectly captures the level of regret, shame, anger, disappointment, heartbreak and loss of self the character is experiencing. He isn’t a second or third son of some great House, this position is literally all he had and he betrayed it. Rhaenyra doesn’t understand the full weight of this and instead just doubles down on how her future husband will still allow her game, just frustrating him even more. If he had been caught he could have ended like Lucamore Strong or worse. Again some of Fabien’s best acting is in this episode. He later accidentally (I’ll admit it’s a bit funny still how he spills the beans on himself when Alicent was just asking a different about a different suspicion all together) tells this to Alicent and you can how heavy it rests on his conscience. His character will later be paralleled and reversed with Arys Oakheart, a character who also broke his vow of chastity and feels massive guilt over this and tries to make up for it and find some honor ironically trying to become the Queenmaker as Cole would become the Kingmaker which is funny to me, granted I would argue Arianne is clearly manipulating Arys while Alicent later on genuinely offers Ser Criston a second chance (I know a lot of people don’t like the Soiled Knight chapter, but I just love POV’s from Kingsguard members and will take as many as I can, even if it’s just one.) Technically different canons, but the comparison is an obvious one that stuck with me
-While on that subject, it is perfectly paralleled by Alicent’s own realization. She got her own father and one of few people she could personally count on despite some issues dismissed all to defend an ungrateful friend who swore on her dead mother something that is just awful in general, but twice the insult considering her own background of having lost a mother. She has to reanalyze everything. Including what her father just recently told her. This is where later we get the iconic scene with the green dress. Obviously I am not breaking new ground by saying how the dress, the walk, the score were just perfect! The way Alicent just coldly and sarcastically congratulates Rhaenyra knowing the truth and ready to fight for her children becoming the green queen. I get why after this scene many fans in this sub wanted more of that demeanor. While I personally like the more diplomatic and sympathetic side to Alicent and have defended some of her portrayal and actions, I must admit I also loved seeing this more hardened type.
-This is where the stupid writing shows its face. Joffrey Lonmouth guesses that Ser Criston is Rhaenyra’s paramour and despite the fact that Laenor and her already came to an agreement of allowing each other to have their own people under the hush hush, this absolute moron decides to engages Ser Criston who could have very well not been the paramour, and tells him it’s best for everyone to keep everything well hidden (he doesn’t know about the whole reveal to Alicent but generally just wanted to warn him for whatever reason). Then Ser Criston beats him to death. Now how will the episode deal with the consequences of this, I mean a Kingsguard literally killed what was an innocent man under everyone’s perception unless he tries to explain the situation which is even more incriminating. There is a nice later scene where Criston Cole tries to commit Seppuku out of shame and regret with the moonlight shining on him next to a weir wood tree which is some gorgeous imagery, and when Alicent just comes and stops him, giving him a new path in life towards redemption. It is really beautiful crafted but because we have that stupid Joffrey Lonmouth scene right before it just makes it so frustrating. Of course this is also an awkward inclusion since this is the last episode right before the time jump, so all the questions that arise are left absolutely unanswered. Yeah you can guess Alicent probably pulled some strings to help him keep his head, but this scene just did more harm than good and honestly should just been cut. This episode was about the final rise of the green queen and the mostly formed factions, it should have ended on that note.
Overall this is one of the weaker episodes so far, despite having some of the strongest and most iconic moments of this season. Again they had a good structure until they decided to add that scene for tension.

Mary's perspective
So I'm tied to a fucking tree, though at least I'm in the shade. Hooded, panel gagged, wrapped in a white sleep sack, secured with rope. My ass, tits, and pussy exposed. Almost directly beneath my hanging boobs, two of Queen Of Mean's most junior Dommes play Spades on a fold out card table, ignoring me for the moment. Not that I'm complaining.
The filming for the episode where Saarya Rahul's clone is discovered by the Perseverance Co. has started. Yeah, I learned that bitch Lara Gupta is coming back, before I knew why.
I was actually mummified and trapped in the bondage frame on the Amazonian Ship's bridge. We're not filming a scene, QOM's crew just found it a convenient place to strap me into when they're busy and want to make sure their lowest slave stays out from underfoot. Just like in the ready room, I'm supposed to have a domme watch me all the time for my safety.
Of course, Daci is in charge of drawing up the rotation, and she assigns the youngest and most immature of Queen Of Mean's crew to watch me. No big surprise, sometimes they go to screw off with their friends, leaving me trapped alone on the set. A silent mummy with her lady parts hanging out, and her wide, desperate eyes tracking back and forth.
That's what happened the day I was reacquainted with Lara. I had been enjoying the peace and quiet of the set, I actually enjoyed not being tormented by one of QOM's sadistic Junior Dommes. Then I heard steps and laughing voices, coming from the sets back passageway. I braced myself from some sadistic cruelty from my Mistress Daci and her evil minions.
Instead I heard Mistress Daci say "You want to know where Girl Mary is, Miss Nora and I want to surprise you. Surprise, Miss Lara, here she is!" I heard an audible gasp that had to be Lara Gupta. "That's Mar-".
I hear Mistress Nora's girlish chuckle. "You said you read the release material, Lara, this is Girl Mary being her new super submissive self!" Both her and Mistress Daci giggle.
The three women walk around to regard my mummified ass from the front. To the right Mistress Daci, in her black Amazonian pilot flight suit, with red insignia and badges. She grins at me with her usual sadistic delight.
In the center Lara Rajaneesh Gupta in the flesh. I'm surprised she's not wearing the tight bootie shorts and unicorn T-shirt. She is wearing a loose fitting black T-Shirt saying "Want To Impress This Desi Girl? Whip Me Up Some Curry!" And what looks like faded store bought Levis. Most striking is her eyes. Last time her eyes were shifty and sneaky. Now they're warm and open, she actually looks saddened by my plight, and embarrassed for me.
I don't have much time to process that when I hear Mistress Nora speak. My eyes automatically track to my slender former student and current Domme. She's wearing her especially low cut Stellar Compact Navy blue jumpsuit with Commanders rank tabs.
"Girl Mary, why are you contaminating these two fine free ladies with your scummy slave gaze? Eyes down now!" Realizing my mistake, too late, my eyes dropped to the deck. I hear Daci giggle at my plight.
"Mistress Daci, why isn't there a domme to watch this slave and stop behavior like this? This is lax for such a professional crew as yours." Daci seems more serious when she says. "Miss Nora, I apologize, I fix it now." A moment later I hear her chewing ass, presumably on her phone, of the domme she assigned to watch me. I take no pleasure then that, I know the little bitch is going to take out Daci's butt chewing on my sorry slave hide.
"Miss Nora, Miss Lara, I apologize, the domme assigned to watch this subbie is on her way back here. She will be appropriately disciplined for not watching this slave." Miss Nora says "Thank you, Daci." Lara remains silent.
I hear footsteps running down the passage in a rush. Daci orders the junior domme to halt in the entrance, and unleashes another blistering tirade on her. Then she tells her to remain in place until her betters leave.
Nora says "Daci, Lara, lets forget this unpleasantness, I ordered us some curry from Miss Connor's favorite Thai Bistro! She's going to have lunch with Slave Sarah and Slave Constance at her living unit. Layla is going out to eat with a visiting uncle. We have the Ready Room to ourselves, we can eat and chat there."
Lara and Daci agree that sounds good and I hear the three ladies receding steps. Then I hear my designated Domme "Miss High and Mighty barks orders and eats with the cute little bunnies, while I have to watch your stupid ass! But that's okay...I can still get my own back!"
I feel the first stinging line of fire on my behind from her whip. Punishing my slave ass unfairly for her screw up...
A day later, I'm sandwiched between Nora on my right and Layla on my left. I'm naked, hooded, and panel gagged with my arms bindered behind my back. My nipple clamps chained to the desk, my clit leash anchored to the deck.
We're in the classroom where Constance and I were first indoc'd into QOM's crew's way of doing things. Guess I'm not even good enough to be in the ready room anymore. At least for script readings, Daci, for whom English is obviously not her first language, is absent. Layla and Nora can get really rough, but even together they're not as mean as that fucking Romanian bitch.
Today I focus, and obey their directions, keeping my gloomy slave feelings inside. My former protege and the Hispanic girl are surprisingly calm as they guide me through my part of the script.

 Opening Scene 

A mummified, helpless girl secured to a tree. Only her eyes, tits and pussy visible in her slave wrappings. The camera pulls back with her still centered. She's surrounded by a hellscape of burnt out vehicles, scorched earth, and blackened trees.
A robotic AI Voice gives a briefing:
AI briefer: At 0800 we spotted a hostage at the forward observer point guiding artillery pinning down the 6th Stellar Compact Marines Battalion. Obviously female, her identity remains unknown, although she might be one of the MIA Orbit Guard members from when this planet was initially assaulted by a combined Amazonian N'Docc" force.
This tactic was first noted when we were mopping up the surviving ground forces after the retaking of the Botany Bay colony. A captive is secured at a critical strategic point, to buy them time to do the most damage to Stellar Compact forces and slip away. They know we will eventually sacrifice the hostage, if we feel that's necessary. But they know our doctrine, that we have to do a cost benefit analysis and try to save the hostage if we can. They count on this to do the maximum damage as they retreat, if they can't turn the battle to their favor.
Unfortunately, a cost benefit analysis determined this unknown hostage could not be saved without unacceptable losses to the 6th Marines, and possibly jeopardizing the ground campaign on this world. At 0956, the determination was made to terminate the forward observer post with extreme prejudice.
A Plasma Mortar Smart Round was keyed to the coordinates and launched. ( A Holo Data link picture appears, showing the mortar in relation to the forward observer spot. A graphic represents the round launched, and a line with mathematical calculations represents its trajectory).
(The picture shifts back to the restrained slavegirl. You see shifty scrambling in the background) It appears all hostiles manning the outpost detected the launch and escaped without discernible casualties. (The hostage isn't so lucky, her desperate eyes track the flaming football descending on her position. She mmmphs and wiggles, her big breasts swaying. A moment later, in an Orange red flash she is incinerated, a death devoid of dignity bestowed on so many courageous Stellar Compact female soldiers before her).
(The view shifts with no further commentary, which would be superfluous. We see Commander Gail to the left of a large viewscreen, Rear Admiral Mendez to the right. Gail puts her head in her hands and takes a moment to gather herself.)
Mendez: Commander-Nora, I'm sorry. I know that must be hard, especially after what happened to Captain Rommie. But I need you to understand what's going on down there. There are still fierce pockets of resistance. Stellar Compact Intelligence has confirmed that the Amazonians want to take you alive and make you a Whipping Girl, whomever does it will attain greater honor than even Commander Sappho capturing poor Rommie. Is a morale tour really worth it?
Gail (Raises her head, visibly pulls together) I know the risks, but understand why you showed that to me. I don't want to die at all, especially not like that. But war entails risks. I knew that when I pounded my fist on that table, and yelled at a conclave Admirals, that I risked Dismissal from Service, or even Court Martial. I know it now, and think it's important enough to do.
Mendez: It's not just you. The media has dubbed you the "Heroine Of Botany Bay" and "The Savioress Of The Stellar Compact" you being killed, or slowly tortured as a Whipping Girl, could devastate our morale at a critical juncture, even turn the tide of the war against us again!
(Mendez takes a deep breath, pauses)
Don't get me wrong, I care about your well being Commander. I lost one of the finest female command Officers I knew on my watch. If I lost another-I don't know if I could forgive-(The normally poised Admiral casts her head down and seems to be wiping away tears).
(Nora reaches out to gently touch the Admiral's right shoulder with her left hand. Unsolicited contact with a Flag officer in peacetime can be a serious offence, depending on circumstances. In wartime, it can be a Capitol one. The Admiral's Marine Guard starts to move in on the impertinent commander. The Admiral pulls herself together and waves them off).
Mendez (Grabs Gail's hand with her right, clasps it in both hands) Nora, the first time I saw you, you seemed ready to jump behind the Cybo-Chief Warrant Officer ASSHO to escape from my gaze. Now you're a battle tested hero. You've come a long way baby."
Nora: Ma'am, I never wanted to be a hero. I don't FEEL like one. All I ever wanted to do was be an explorer. Also show a society on the verge of revoking women's rights, that we ARE as capable as men. But now that I am one, it's not about me, it's about us, the Stellar Compact as a whole. What kind of hero avoids risks when it comes to encouraging those who look to them as a role model?
Mendez (releases Gail's hand, looks stern again) Young woman, I could order you not to go ground side. (She gets a small, fond smile) an order you might choose not to obey. So I don't have to convene Court Martial proceedings, I give you permission. You be careful down there, Commander, or I will personally spank you like I used to do to my daughters!"
Gail (small smile) Ma'am, I have Chief Warrant Officer ASSHO protecting me-and Gabby-Staff Sergeant Perez and her Marines. I'd bet on them over a Regiment of N'Docc" any day!
Mendez (Stern and serious) Young lady, you may have to. Keep your head on a swivel. Dismissed.
(Nora salutes, the Admiral returns it, the meeting is over. Nora leaves the briefing room, her own Marine Guard falling in after her as she leaves).
I try to cover my chagrin, once again, "Boss Bitch" Miss Connor, makes me look pathetic and my Mistress looks awesome with her writing. I wish I'd never asked Dave to let me start this project! I'm still strapped to this tree, sweltering, with my lady parts exposed for all to see.
Lara's perspective
So "Boss Bitch" asked to meet me at 08:30 at the Ready room for a script meeting about my character. With my security badge, I could walk around unescorted, and I had the cypher lock combo to the ready room. Still when I came to the door ten minutes early, the red privacy light was on, I thought it polite to wait for Sheila.
The pretty half breed girl rolls up almost right on time, trademark fedora on head, coffee cup in hand. She sees the red light and frowns. She politely asks me to hold her cup and pounds the intercom button.
"Alright, bitches, I don't care if you're having a les orgy in there! You have 30 seconds to get dressed and wipe off the table, then I'm coming in!" She takes the coffee cup back and times it on her phone. When time's up, she punched in the combo and stormed in, with me close behind.
Her assertion of them having an orgy isn't far off. Constance is naked, kneeling and facing a chair, her arms secured with padded zip ties to each arm of the chair, panel gagged. Sarah is also naked, behind Constance, standing and with arms bindered behind her, though not muzzled. She is proudly standing facing us, smiling, her fine Asian assets on display.
I take a quick glance at Nora, in her blue jumpsuit, sitting across the table with a coffee cup in hand. Her proud smile shows how far her exotic subbie has come. Sarah knew without being told she had to proudly "present" to Sheila and I, because she was nude. I look back at the two naked girls.
Layla is on the other side of the chair from Constance in her Stellar Compact Marine Uniform, smiling like a Cheshire cat.
Our fearless leader fixes the two Dommes and the Alpha Slave with a "Start talking, ladies" gaze. Nora asks "Sarah, would you like to explain to Miss Connor what we're doing?" Sarah eagerly replies "Yes, Mistress Nora!"
The Asian girl turns to face Sheila earnestly. "We're helping Constance get in touch with her submissive and sapphic desires. I was rubbing my nipples on her back and whispering in her ear, while Mistress Layla reassured her and calmed her. This was an idea the four of us came up with together, and Constance has a safe signal, three mmmphs, if it gets too intense for her."
Sheila's attention turns from the happy, nude former Navy girl to the other sub. "Constance are you ok, and alright with all this?" Constance mmmphs "Yes, Miss Connor." She doesn't sound under duress, this is the most relaxed I've seen her.
Sheila nods. "Girls, make sure you clean up any messes you make, and no going down on each other on the table, remember we eat there. Carry on." Three clear, and one mmmphed "Yes, Miss Connor."
Sheila nods. "Lara and I will be in my office, don't hesitate to knock if you need me." Boss Bitch turns to her office and I move to follow.
"Miss Connor, Lara wait ." Nora is looking at us with a bold, devilish glint in her eye. Where is that mousy little waif I met the first time? "We're ahead of the shooting schedule, we have time, why don't you and Lara join us? Four Dommes, two subs, why not have a little fun, girls?"
Then the gleam in her eyes got even more wicked. "If one or both of you want to sub for awhile, relinquish some of your responsibility? Two hot dommes, four exotic subs, it would challenge Layla's and I's Mistress skills, and we'd all enjoy a big shower of girl come." Nora and Layla exchange looks like they're ready, even eager for that challenge.
Sheila looks intrigued, hell I'm a little intrigued and horny myself, despite what happened last time. But Sheila firmly asserts "Tempting, my little horndogs, but we're ahead because I put business first, my horny little bitches. Lara and I have a lot to do if we want to stay on schedule, so we'll have to pass. Have fun girls." Layla, Nora and Sarah look disappointed, but nod, they know who's in charge.
When Mary, Nora and Sarah "topped" me last time, Shelia helped them Domme me, of course, but never took off her clothing. Does she ever cut loose, get naked with her girls when they get really wild? If Sheila and I had a private session, who would top, and who would bottom? My pussy getting wet, I send those thoughts to horny jail. Sheila's right, we have priorities, not just the show but saving Sandy.
I wait for Sheila to sit, then politely take my seat. With her usual lack of preamble, Boss Bitch shoves a shooting script for my first new episode across her desk at me. I pick it up and page through it.
Basically, Commander Gail does a morale tour of the violently liberated colony world Persephone. The Stellar Compact has the upper hand, the Alliance fleet being driven out of the system. Fierce pockets of N'Docc" and Amazonian Warriors fight on ground side, they'd rather fight to the last cat and woman than surrender.
The Mobile Medical units are overwhelmed with military casualties, so liberated civilian casualties languish. The Red Cross, the Red Crescent and other medical NGO's are allowed on world to pick up the slack. The problem is some of them feel obligated to treat N'Docc" and Amazonian wounded. This causes sometimes enraged reactions among a recently liberated civilian population. Violent acts against aid workers who treat the enemy are common. Military authority usually looks the other way if a victim is the "enemy" or someone known to treat them. Most incidents are blamed on "Insurgents" even when they're obviously not the culprit.
During a tour of a hovel city, Gail, Assho, and their Marine Guard hear screaming. They head down a shadowy alley, and see several men trying to rape a dark skinned woman clad only in a tattered man's work shirt, the rest of her torn clothes strewn around the alleyway.
Gail yells at them to stop, and the woman takes the opportunity to flee her rapists and run to Gail, ASSHO, and their Marine Guard; cowering behind ASSHO. A moment of shock from Gail, when she sees the woman is a dead ringer for her mentor LCDR Saarya Rahul, but she composes herself.
Gail: What are you men doing to this poor woman? Hasn't the enemy done enough, bastards like you need to finish their work?
Scumbag 1: Begging pardon, miss, but this little tart is giving aid and comfort to the enemy, we's just seeing if she got some fur her own, miss.
Gail(looking disgusted) Really? You're a sick freak.
(She's about to say more when a local militia patrol shows up. They ignore the Scumbag and his two minions focusing on the girl hiding behind ASSHO).
Patrol Leader: Causing a ruckus again, you little tease? We let you off easy even though you were the Domina's body servant. You still can't keep from making difficulties.I'm taking you to lock up!
(Gail clears her throat pointedly)
Patrol Leader (Really looking at her, taken aback) Oh, sorry Commander, that this little twitch got you caught up in her troubles. If you'll just hand her over...
Gail: (looking for insignia, seeing faded Sergeant stripes) Sergeant, you will arrest these three men and take them to your lock up immediately, charge them with attempted rape!"
Patrol leader (looking shocked) Ma'am you can't be serious....
Gail: Take them into custody now, or we will. And I'll report you to the planetary Provost Marshall!
Patrol Leader (Looking angry) Aye, Ma'am! (To the scumbags) C'mon boys. (The patrol surrounds the three men but doesn't cuff them. The patrol laughs and jokes with the scum as they saunter away).
(Gail looks disgusted, but then turns to help ASSHO tend to the sobbing girl who is a double of her mentor).
I look up. "Your usual top notch work, Sheila, Ari will believe we're not just phoning it in. Trust me."
Sheila looks at me soberly "I do. Now let's start talking about freeing my sister....
I nod. "So my initial plan is to simply purchase her...
https://www.reddit.com/BDSMerotica/s/MLUHPP4hYL Part 7

This is my first time here. Situation I am describing is a very known situation at many households. But this is happening to me AGAIN and AGAIN.
So, I have an ailing Father in law, completely paralyzed with tracheostomy tube, feeding tube and a catheter, whom we are caregiving in a Tier 2 City since 5+ years, I work from home . I have suffered a missed miscarriage and had a D&E after that in September 2023 at around 12 weeks marks. SInce then we are trying and not had a success. My sister-in-law lives in same city so she comes to support the care. I am a secondary caregiver as I am the only one who is earning. My husband is on career break as the Staff is not permanent & load of caregiving is huge. My mother in law expired in 2020.
My sister in law since marriage was a person I always had doubts on. I make friends for life once I get to know them, but here even if the dynamic was weird, I gave her lots of benefit of doubt & she proved me wrong always. She and my MIL were best friends. They had never included me the way a daughter in law should have been included. So because of my mothe r in law, the home was always under her control. Whenever I used to come, I was being indirectly commented on our stuff lying here and there(we were not having any room, so obv it was to be taken in and out of bags), SIL used to say in a really really bad tone blabbering and going here and there " why do people bring stuff if they don't know how to place" the etc. in short I was never allowed to even touch or know things in house. It has to be done by my sister in law always. For smallest of things, she was always given preference. Please don't take me wrong, but I am from a home where we are 2 sisters and obv I was being trained to handle all the things so that I never ever become dependent. And here I am in a household, where I am being told, "you won't be able to do this" to everything I wanted to attempt. All what I had to do is cooking, which I didn't know much. Btw I was the only working lady that time.
Anyway I don't want to go to my MIL's drama because that was HORRIBLE and I thank God every day for relaxing me!
This is not the first time SIL has done maligning/ bitching, she has been involved to malign the image. It has never happened anywhere that people don't come to talk to me, because I generally listen to the problems and I am amicable! I have lived in Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, but it is only here that I couldn't foster any relationships with anyone! It always was a thought in me which I didn't know had a solid cause. I caught her tarnishing my image on camera (we kept it for FIL) blabbering things like : "She has eaten crab" (Kekde khati hai) which I haven't, I have had fish 2-3 times in my whole life, these guys are purely vegetarian, which I was as well, but I had just shared it with her as a thing! "She is putting pressure on my brother so that we have a fight, and now he came to beg sorry that I did a mistake"(Ary masi, ese hi koi nai karta, jab tak upar se pressure nai aata , and aaya tha maafi maangne fir, ki mujhe maaf kar do, ye to chahti hai ki humari ladai ho jaye and toot jaye relationship) (which I never ever do, I come from a joint family and such adjustments are inbuilt in my nature)
When my husband and herself caught covid, they were isolated, I was at my mother's place and rushed back to support them and fully supported them for 2 weeks managing my work alongwith. Later on during 3rd wave of covid, I had covid and I didn't even was asked for! I missed my parents a lot! She gave the most vile response in that conversation with her Masis. "She got Covid!, She got covid!, Now she will make sure to come to our father's room" (That had broken me that time) (Ab ho gaya usko!, ho gaya!, Ab to aur ayegi papa ke room me) (with an intention to kill him)(I have been dealing with a tough situation where it affected my marriage the most and I had to voice my needs to them as noone was paying any attention to my needs and I wanted to have a family of my own during that time. It was 2020-21, I was 33)
I was a scared bird, I was so so scared of confrontation previously that she exploited a lot out of me. Their home is in a place where people have never gone out of the city so the thoughts are so weird when they see me doing it! For example : employing a maid! Now Imagine ! Her masis are equally involved. When my mother in law was dead, and the rituals were happening, people flocked and populated our home. MIL had 5 sisters, all of them bombarded in the tiny home! and then one of them started saying, "We didn't even get tea! She gets up at 7!"
I am harmless creature, who has never picked up fights, She is argumentative and of a nature where she has to win always which is through talking. I avoid it. If I talk, by hook or crook she will manipulate so that things are in her favor and last sentence is hers. She even called my parents and said "aap logo ko thoda encourage jitna karte ho aur karna chahiye" without my knowledge , and they were speaking for me! and I was at a different city. That was my tipping point! I came back, ignored her for 3 days finally bursting on her. She argued that "are they nothing for me", I said you are not allowed to call without my knowledge, you have to go through ME!!
Coming to problem:
My sister in law just had a baby who is 6 months now. after my miscarriage! 2-3 days before, she left her phone at our place,and asked to forward a number from her mobile. My husband forwarded it and then sifted through her chats. He got into a chat with their cousin sister where my sister in law described me as
"I stopped you to go and made her (me) to go because she puts evil eye on my kid and my baby has stopped drinking milk, you are of pure heart, but not everyone is like that, we dont know what's going on in other's mind"
"Ary behna! Bura mat maniyo, wo nazar lagati hain HAMESHA, Ab bechari doodh bhi nai peeti dhang se, tera dil to saaf hai, lekin sabka nai hota"
I was aghasted by this chat comment. All I gave was a genuine love for the purest soul who is infront of us!
All I do is my job in the only room at this house. Previously I was so disturbed that I took psychologist's support! Can you believe it! SIL problems to psychologist!! And After she had a baby, she became better I thought so, so I forgave her and interacted, went to her home as well. Then I backtraced and found another incident where I could connect the dots:
I was deliberately asked to prepare tea while at her home, her masi were also there, and her masi said, Let me prepare the tea, and she said I want to have her from only her hands!! (While in kitchen I found it weird but I gave her space and didn't come out), Later in remembered that she was feeding her baby! HOW PATHETIC! I am so so hurt by such things happening around me! One of her masi, couldn't bear children and "her nazar" has been talk of town always, another masi she was seperate from all sisters and minded her own business, she has "money" according to all of them(which is for sure hard earned and they are jealous that she earned, kept up with sasural, she didn't give a f**k to such chalak sisters ) her nazar is considered "killing/deadly"! She has been a very kind person when I met ! So when I heard about them from SIL I couldn't believe she is saying all that about her own masi! and now when I heard something about me all I could think of is 20 years in future people will still not talk to me because I put nazar! I thought of confronting her husband as he is humble , talking to her is exhausting and I feel talking doesn't bring any conclusion. I thought of never going to their home, I don't know how feasible that is, so my action plan is to never handle her baby and comment on her like : "dont put your baby with me, she will get nazar" . Or if her husband asked why are you not coming, then I will reveal. But I don't know I am getting anxious, something has shifted inside me for good.
I know this is a difficult phase of my life and I am trying for pregnancy can't leave this place until his father's death. I had been away from family in past and that made me more depressed and abandoned as my husband is crazy for his father and he left everything for him! So I couldn't even ask him during all these years of my needs. He was faced by his mother's death and an ailing father so naturally he had a reaction. I had survived a very very difficult phase alone, we both had different journeys for past 4 years. God has been very kind that my job was there throughout to support my family!
Any suggestions on how to deal are appreciated.

My boyfriend and I have been dating and living together for six years! We've been good friends since middle school! (If you're into zodiacs, I'm a march Aries and he's a January Aquarius) I feel like everything was going great until I stopped working to go to cosmetology school. Going into cosmo school I knew this was going to be a slow process to start making my own money so I had a plan on at least working overnights or part-time and then going to school full-time, luckily my boyfriend offered to give me a $500 allowance every two weeks and told me just to focus on school and he'll help me financially.For context we live with my parents and siblings, he really doesn't pay bills here unless my parents asks him to help with electricity but other than that, all he has is his phone bill and car insurance,No chores or anything as well. NGL I have a bad spending habit, l was used to buying everything myself (Hair, nails and makeup I bought that all myself) so $500 went away pretty fast nothing too bad but my account would go in the negatives, maybe like -$10 at the most but I would ask him if he could just send me at least $12 so my account will not be in the negatives(and avoid overdraft fees) , this was turned into a big deal with him. He stop talking to me for about 2 1/2 weeks(this happened about three times.) His way of ignoring me was getting home from work and he would just stay in his car until 1 am(off of work at 10:30pm and was home by 10:45pm) when he would come inside he would sit in the living room in the dark and anytime l'd walk by He would turn his phone off, so I wouldn't see him . I was the one who had to ask him what was wrong and his reason for ignoring me. His reason was because I was stressing him out cause my account went into the negatives, it really pissed me off since we live together at my parents house and just felt childish of him ignoring me.After I had a "talk" with him (really it was just me asking him what's wrong and if he's OK, kind of felt like I was babying him) he got over it the next day, but the third time he ignored me I told Him that "This is very childish of you and why do you not want to talk things out? If you do this one more time l'm done" he hasn't done it since.
Another point is our sex life is gone. Again, I live with my parents and three siblings so it's a little hard to get intimate, especially in a Mexican household, someone is always home, but when we do have alone time he would rather play Fortnite, sleep all day or work on his car. I feel like I'm also to blame since I did let myself go so that could be another reason why we're not intimate. what I also mean by intimate is him not even wanting to hang out with me on his days off. He's heavily into Godzilla, anime,cars and video games, so of course, anytime he wanted to do some thing or go to an event that he's interested in and I'm not, l would still go because I wanted to be with him and have a good time but when it comes to things that I want to do he acts like it's the worst thing ever, also feels forced. So majority of the time l'm going to the movies or going to a restaurant I'm just doing it by myself because he doesn't want to go. I've also been home alone more lately in order for me to save money. I just stopped getting my hair and nails done and I just stopped going out in general. Unfortunately I did pick up a smoking habit Since all I do is watch him play Fortnite or his other interests, I decided I'll at least make it fun and get high while watching. He says that he doesn't mind me smoking, but there are times where he acts like he's better than me because he smoked when he was younger and not now as an adult. He's also been working a lot lately, He works at a warehouse so 10 hour shifts four days straight and he has three days off, but he's been working six days out of the week now and only has Saturdays off, but on his days off, he sleeps all day and then stays up all night playing video games. I try not to get mad at him because I understand he's tired, but if he has plans with his friends he is up early in the morning and is with them all day and I do get a little jealous of it. At this point, I really feel we're both using each other. He gives me an allowance and he lives in a house rent free. I still love him, but I just feel nothing back. He says he still loves me and I quote " well I still give you money and fix your car so that should mean something right?!" I don't need a pity party. I just need other peoples opinions. This is only a very small portion of my relationship that I am posting here, but from what l have written on here (can provide more stories/info if needed) I just need to know your thoughts and what would you do in my situation.

Source: https://tert.nla.am/archive/NLA%20TERT/Mirror-Spectato200713.pdf
July 20 2013
The Armenian Mirror-Spectator
Pages 1 and 16:
Armenian Diocese in Canada in Disarray
Editor’s Note: A crisis erupted at the Diocesan Assembly on May 25, 2013, when the delegates voted to elect a new Primate in the person of the Very Rev. Aren Jebejian. Partisans of the former Primate Bishp Bagrat Galstanyan took the waves of electronic media, trying to reverse the decision of the delegates. Adding fiction to facts, they tried to expand the scope of the crisis reviving old grudges and settling scores.
Eventually, Bishop Galstanyan returned to Echmiadzin, where he was assigned to a new position. Fr. Jebejian resigned grace- fully, preferring not to get involved in a cri- sis to which he was not a party. Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II dispatched Archbishop Nathan Hovhanissian to Montreal to serve as a interim locum tenens, until tempers cool and the Diocese convenes for its annual assembly to elect a new Primate.
It is understood that neither Hovhanissian nor Galstanyan will run as candidates.
A group of sober-headed members of the church have released a statement focusing on the real issues plaguing the church com- munity in Canada. Had these facts been known earlier, the majority in the commu- nity would have perhaps reacted in a more balanced way.
Here below we reproduce that statement.
The community must now be informed that Bagrat Serpazan’s conduct has had two opposite facets. Most have known one only. They now need to know the whole story.
Vehapar is announcing an appropriate Pontifical arrangement for our community.
Archbishop Nathan Hovhanissian will oversee the Canadian Diocese Operations Bagrat Serpazan’s conduct has disqualified him from future posting in Canada. This text has been prepared based on informa- tion gathered from a number of well- informed sources It is very sad to witness the turmoil cre- ated within the Canadian community, fol- lowing the Diocesan Elections of May 25, which were held in exceptionally orderly manner with strict compliance with the pre- vailing bylaws of the diocese. Unfortunately, however, vicious statements are continuing to be spread on the Internet, all instigated and fed by Bagrat Serpazan and his collabora- tors.
This year was the regularly scheduled elec- tion or re-election time of the Primate in Canada. Bagrat Serpazan did not obtain the majority of votes; therefore, according to the universally accepted system in the Armenian Apostolic Church, he is now to be replaced.
This is not an unusual event by any means. Like in any other election in a civilized com- munity, the loser congratulates the winner and continues his journey without leaving destruc- tion behind him.
Archbishops Aris Shirvanian, Sion Manoogian and others lost elections, and they acted gracefully. They moved back to Echmiadzin and eventually were reassigned other positions.
Why did Bagrat Serpazan choose instead to instigate a violent and vicious social media and Internet campaign, slinging mud and slander- ous accusations left and right? Why did he insti- gate, and still continues to feed, this communi- ty destroying action?
It is being said that on the Internet thousands are asking him not to leave. A good number of the latter are genuine in the expression of their feelings, but ignorant of the causes that led Bagrat Serpazan to lose the elections. A number of others bear grudges and find this to be a con- venient opportunity to get at the dedicated pas- tors and at the prominent architects of our com- munity who have impeccable track records.
Canadians must realize that a very large num- ber of the Facebook writers are from any place on the planet such as Russia, Israel, Australia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and quite a few use fake names.
In previous statements, we asked that the comments by the two sides stop in order to stop the issue from expanding further.
However, insults, lies and incriminations con- tinued to be spread. So-called interviews by unknown individuals continue to spread poison in our community. They have to be stopped.
Therefore, the community must now know that Bagrat Serpazan had two very different types of conduct in this community.
He was, and could indeed be, friendly when and where he wanted. He could be a very pleas-ant dinner companion, travel and concert orga-nizer, a very close family friend for some. Those who have been exposed to this side of him are understandably quite upset by his departure. But they should not hope for his return.
Indeed Serpazan’s other type of conduct is known only to those who have been involved in the pursuit of the serious daily business of the diocese.
He has been arrogant and bullying with his subordinates; he was equally arrogant and uncommunicative with those who would nor- mally be his colleagues. You could either agree with him or be classified in his book as an enemy.
His judgment in serious matters of gover- nance of the community have been proven to be wrong or even worse, very costly and cata- strophic, and yet he would turn down any and all advice in those very serious matters, when advice was given to him beforehand.
Our community must know that due to his unwise but stubborn actions, where he found a few willing accomplices, this community came to the brink of losing for good our beautiful St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral. Do his “admirers” realize what that means?
Indeed, he has driven secretly and illegally according to our bylaws, together with his accomplices, the financial negotiation to mort-gage this church. The prepared documents of this transaction, bearing the names of the par- ticipants, with the Chomedey Caisse Populaire are available. It was stopped only because of the prompt action of a few conscientious parish-ioners who asked for an extraordinary general meeting where the illegal plot led by Bagrat Serpazan was exposed and stopped.
The above mortgaging plot was actually prompted by Bagrat Serpazan trying awkward-ly to bring his kind of fast “remedy” or cover up to an even bigger financial blunder in the Laval project.
Unknown to many, he actually was, as usual, ordering those around him to get into a succes-sion of incomprehensible actions leading to the waste of several hundreds of thousands of dollars from funds raised at the expense of well-meaning parishioners of the Laval Holy Cross church. When out of funds, he arranged and forced to make loans left and right. The church now is under the burden of over $1 million in debt.
A detailed accounting was given at the joint meeting of the Laval Parish Council with the Diocesan Council and the Board of Trustees. Our readers should ask for the official reports.
It was only one year ago that those involved in the daily operations of the Laval project have sounded a desperate alarm to intervene and stop the senseless actions in the Laval project which were led by the insistent permanent bul- lying of Bagrat Serpazan, even though he, as a Primate, actually should have stayed entirely out of such primarily financial and legal issues which are outside his domain.
To cite only one of these actions, it was revealed that Bagrat Serpazan had pushed at one point, the financially desperate parish, to accept a $100,000 loan that he personally had arranged at an extravagant interest rate of 36 percent. This is unheard of! A few months later, he told them to not pay that outrageous inter- est. How about the consequences…? Nothing, as far as he is concerned…! In his judgment such things are “small” matters. Those who find this hard to believe should ask for the details from the Laval Parish authorities.
How do Serpazan’s admirers feel about such behavior?
Should one still talk also about a recently dis-covered performing artists promoting private company, registered in Quebec, of which Bagrat Serpazan, as vice chairman, is one of the main officers? Was that part of his religious mission as Primate of Canada?
In conclusion, Bagrat Serpazan’s failure to be elected is the normal result of all of the above and many more of his acts, nothing else. No personal vendetta, no political party inter- vention, none of the latter; those are convenient labels to cover up his very serious problems.
Legally-elected delegates have legally voted him down because of his very serious actions that are only partially exposed above.
It is sincerely wished that he learns from his mistakes in order to serve the Armenian Church elsewhere in a more responsible way in the future.
Coming back to our community, it is now known that given the incredible and highly-dis- turbing turmoil that has been created in our diocese, Vehapar is taking the appropriate extraordinary pontifical measures to bring rem- edy to our community. The legally elected Primate Arèn Jebejian does not deserve to be exposed to the hostile atmosphere.
In spite of all of the above, the primary inter- est of our community now is to heal the wounds and get back to constructive work, all together.
We appeal once more to all to stop further exchanges on this matter. Let us get together to repair what is broken and continue to work to the benefit of our outstanding Canadian com-munity.
credit to Illustrious-Bank-519

This is my personal opinion about the 'eternal sunshine' album by Ariana Grande. These comments are my unfiltered initial thoughts which I typed out whilst listening to each song for the first time (with the exception of the lead single 'yes, and?' as that was released beforehand). I have edited this only to remove abbreviations and sort out grammaclarity issues as much as possible. I also made some of the text bold/italics so it's not one big block of intimidating text to try and make it easier for my neurodivergent besties to read <3 ) The reason I'm posting it now is because I actually created my reddit account just to talk about this album but my post was removed because my account was too new/had low karma. But it's been 2 months now soo yh. Anyways.
TLDR: intro (end of the world): 10/10 bye: 9/10 don't wanna break up again: 9/10 Saturn Returns Interlude: 7/10 eternal sunshine: 10/10 supernatural: 10/10 true story: 9.5/10 the boy is mine: 8/10 yes, and?: 8.5/10 we can't be friends (wait for your love): 10/10 i wish i hated you: 8/10 imperfect for you: 10/10 ordinary things: 9/10 overall: 9/10
FULL REVIEW: intro (end of the world): 10/10 - pretty, slow but sweet, good vibes, kinda reminds me of moonlight actually which is one of my all time FAVS ahhhh
bye: 9/10 - intro is giving early 2000s r&b omg i lovee, song is a fun bop whilst also having 'strong bad b healing from her pain' energy like damnn, only gripe is that the bridge was so unnecessary and just changed the tone of the song for me but it did make sense as well i guess lol
don't wanna break up again: 9/10 - another early 2000s r&b vibe with the music and vocal runs etc haha, very light and feathery musically whilst also being pretty devastating lyrically like wow, lowkey makes me wanna cry for her a little bit
Saturn Returns Interlude: 7/10 - im just confused here tbh, the background music is almost ethereal but why the lil speech about saturn, is it really necessary? like what is it with artists sometimes dropping random stuff in the middle of their albums, like i get it can help with the whole flow of theme and stuff but it's not a real song and just feels kinda annoying mid-album? like even if a fan liked every single song on an album they aren't going to be adding the interlude to their playlist realistically so it's kinda just here right now but will be forgotten 5 months down the line sooo idk (edit: okay the transition from the interlude into the next track is PHENOMENAL go ari woooo i will never criticise or question your creative choices again queen lol)
eternal sunshine: 10/10 aww poor ari, it sounds like she has been through so much pain 📷( OMG THE CHORUS KINDA SOUNDS LIKE SABRINA CARPENTER'S NONSENSE IMAGINE IF SHE ACTUALLY LISTENS TO HER AHHH also aww the lil nod to her older song 'in my head' �� bridge is pure poetry as well i lovee, only thing is i thought the song would be happier based on its title but i don't really care tbh, still deserves a 10 in my opinion
supernatural: 10/10 - okay this song surprised me like the last one did lol, but very very pleasantly because i thought it would be dark and maybe a lil creepy based on the name but it's actually so so pretty and glittery and the chorus (especially the second one) is literal ecstasy i cannot get enough omg and i love the way the lyrics from the intro were repeated in the chorus instead of just being random, really wanna re-listen a few times but gotta move onto the next song if im going to review them all in one go lol
true story**:** 9.5/10 THIS IS LIKE THE SECRET LOVE CHILD OF DANGEROUS WOMAN AND REPUTATION TO ME OMFDS, her vocals absolutely devoured in this with the whole soft sweet ari we all know and love but also the powerful belting (?) that is pretty uncharacteristic for her, almost as if she's telling the world she's tired of being villainised unfairly so she'll give us what we claimed - but all through her singing. also LOVE the way the music switches up within the song without being jarring and giving me whiplash lol
the boy is mine: 8/10 - thought it wld have part of 'fantasize' actually in the song and was very hyped for that because if she's not going to release it then that would have been the next best thing but she didn't so a bit disappointed. also was under the impression that the chorus would be the same/very similar to the OG 'the boy is mine' song but again not the case, so kinda disappointing too. still a really good song though and works great after the previous track but since i had my preconceptions and high hopes completely shattered this one gets a much lower rating from me than it perhaps might have otherwise unfortunately.
yes, and?: 8.5/10 - banger intro, pretty good lyrics mostly and uplifting BUT not great as the first public thing she announced/released after all the scandalous rumours spreading about her in the past year. also hated the new version she released with mariah carey, she legit ruined the song for me (edit: this song makes sense in context with the rest of the album but still DEFINITELY should not have been the lead single released with all the drama surrounding her, really not a good look for her or a clever marketing strategy). super catchy though haha
we can't be friends (wait for your love): 10/10 - i don't know if i'm reading this wrong but this song genuinely feels like a love letter but to the media/the public, kinda like she's saying i know you're all mad at me right now and it's exhausting but i still care for you and i'll still be here waiting for you once 'you like me again', somehow this breaks my heart for her even more than the previous sad songs on her album...(i know my experience is not the same as hers AT ALL, but as someone who has had awful untrue rumours spread about me to the point where my own friendships got awkward for a bit despite everyone knowing the truth, i can definitely relate to some extent 😩 )
i wish i hated you: 8/10 - idk how to explain it but the intro sounds like the feeling of getting older and seeing a young child blowing bubbles and you're watching them thinking about how everything has changed for you but not in the way you had expected or hoped for and now you wish you could go back to a more carefree time in your life but you can't and you're stuck in this inescapable life in a world that seems to be getting worse by the day and you don't want to be a part of it anymore but MOVING ON this song is super heart-breaking lyrically but the music also keeps reminding me of random things from (my?) childhood for some reason, like the inside out film, running around on the school field with friends and blowing bubbles as mentioned earlier which i find kinda distracting lol. anyways it's not something i would actually want to listen to unless i was feeling incredibly depressed but i do really like how the lyrics are vague enough to describe any kind of relationship turned sour, not just a romantic one.
imperfect for you: 10/10 - this song is just pure brilliance, i literally need it injected directly into my brain wow. words don't do it justice omg but again i love the vocals (as always) and the beat ughh and the play on words with 'imperfect for you' sounding kinda like 'i'm perfect for you' haha literally so cutee
ordinary things: 9/10 beautiful song, nothing ordinary about it (get it??) and i'm so happy she sounds happy here. the voice note of her grandmother at the end was just amazing, literally the best way to end off the album.
overall: 9/10 (or if you ignore Saturn Returns Interlude since it's not really a song...still 9/10 but whatever) - i love the gradual transition in this album from her pain and regret at being cheated on (i can't believe that happened to her??) and thus the breakdown of her previous relationship, to the way she deals with being almost demonised in the public view - with strangers passing judgement on her relationships and commenting negatively on her appearance despite not even knowing her as a person - but says she'll still be here for us once this all blows over and we like her again, right up to the end where she has moved on and seems to be in a much happier position with her relationship and life in general. a brilliant musical comeback, much better than i expected and i think it's almost definitely in my top 3 albums by her <3
What do you guys think? Is this album what you imagined it would be? Did it exceed (or fail to meet!) your expectations? Would love to hear your thoughts, let me know below!

“Have a good night, Roman!” the receptionist said to me as I walked past her desk while she was getting ready to close up. I smiled and waved as I left the gym and entered the brisk night air. Checking the time as my stomach made a gurgling sound, I saw that it was 9:47 PM, and every fast food place in my small town would be closed by now. I looked across the road and saw that the local grocery store was open until 10, so I started lightly jogging towards it, the cold breeze biting through my clothes and attacking my face and neck since I didn't dry off my hair properly after showering."
A wave of warmth hit me in the face as I stepped into the store, causing my eyes to water slightly. "Attention shoppers, the store will be closing in 10 minutes, so please start making your way to the checkouts. Thank you, and have a good night," a woman's voice echoed over the intercom. I hurriedly grabbed a pre-made sandwich and headed towards the drinks aisle. With my head down, I walked, reading the label of my less-than-exciting dinner, and I decided I would grab another sandwich on my way out. When I looked up, I found myself staring into the aisle I had entered, only to see my ex-girlfriend Natalie standing there with her boyfriend, Ari.
Her eyes met mine, and I started to tear up again, but not because of the temperature of the air. She broke her gaze and continued talking to Ari, her expression never changing from the smile she had already been wearing before she saw me. I looked away and started making my way to the end of the aisle, walking past them but not acknowledging them in the slightest. As I brushed past Ari, I realized how much bigger he was than me, at least 3 or 4 inches taller and probably a good 20 kgs heavier. For reference, I'm 6'2" and weigh 92 kgs lean, so I'm not small by any stretch, but this guy dwarfed me.
As I grabbed a Red Bull, I wondered to myself why it had hit me that hard. It had been years since I dated her and years since she drifted out of my life. We were 16 when she confessed her feelings for me, five years ago now. We had been good friends before that, and we were still good friends after I broke up with her, but I took her for granted, so when she started becoming a less consistent part of my life, I was too stubborn to tell her that I missed her. I was snapped out of my own internal dialogue suddenly as my phone started vibrating in my pocket, emitting a strange analog beeping sound that I hadn't heard it make before. I looked around to see Natalie and Ari looking confused while also staring at their phones.
"This is an emergency alert, get to the nearest enclosed structure immediately. Close and lock all doors and windows, turn off all the lights, and do not make any noise that will be detectable from outside the structure. If you are in your house, close the blinds and fill as many containers with water as you can. If you are in a public structure such as a store or a recreational facility, then follow as many of those same steps as you can. If you are in a vehicle, shut off the engine and lock the doors. For all who are listening to this alert, do not look into the fog, and under no circumstances should you go outside. This alert will repeat once every twelve hours and any updates will be shared periodically. You should be prepared to stay indoors for at least a week, this is not a drill. Stand by for updates.", all the phones in the store blared in unison.
There was a moment of complete silence as the few late-night customers in the store looked over to the closing staff, who were just as dumbfounded as everyone else. Then the store broke out into a hurried panic as who I assume was the store supervisor made her way to the back of the store to shut off the lights, while the other two ladies who were at the checkouts began to lock the doors. I went to call Marcus, my mate who's in the air force, to ask what the hell is going on, but there was no signal at all.
"Nah, fuck this, bro!" Ari shouted in anger as he grabbed Natalie by the wrist and started walking her over to the sliding glass door that was in the process of being locked. As the lights all dimmed out row by row, we were all left in pitch black darkness, excluding the glowing sign of the service station across the street and the barely visible streetlights outside that were being drowned out by the thick fog that everyone had just noticed. Ari turned on his phone's flashlight and kept walking in the darkness until Natalie pulled away from him. "We can't go out there, Ari, there's something wrong with that fog!" Natalie yelled at her partner.
"Let me out right fucking now!" Ari shouted at the poor lady who had just locked the place up. "I can't do that, sir," she replied softly, causing him to start banging on the glass, threatening to break it. “Ari! Please! Calm down, babe, can't we just wait until we know what’s going on?” Natalie begged as she grabbed Ari’s forearm and attempted to stop him from shattering the only thing separating us from the strange mist outside. “Dude, come on, you don’t know what’s out there,” I interrupted, “it could be a chemical attack or something. Just at least wait until we get an update, man,” I tried to reason, but it was no use. “Fuck you, pussy, I’m not getting held against my will in a supermarket. Who the hell would chemical attack New Zealand, dumbass?” he responded to my reasoning. This is something I had already been thinking. It wouldn’t explain why we had to turn the lights out, and it wouldn’t explain why we had to remain quiet. But I was hoping that he wouldn’t be able to think all that through.
“LET ME OUT I SAID, WHAT THE FUCK DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND, BITCH?” he shouted at the top of his lungs as he shoved Natalie off his arm and onto the hard epoxy floor, then resumed his banging on the glass, but much harder now. “You gotta let him out,” I said to the grocery worker as I helped Natalie to her feet. The rest of the dozen customers who were in the store had crowded behind us, watching the whole thing go down. “He’s gonna get us all killed if he breaks that glass,” I argued. “Let him out.” The worker reluctantly put in the code for the door’s automatic opening system to activate, and the glass began to slide to the side. Ari looked back at Natalie in rage, seeing that she was not going to leave with him. The large man then walked out, and the doors shut behind him, immediately being locked by the store lady whose hands were now shaking.
We all watched in silence as Ari’s silhouette disappeared into the fog until the only thing we could make out was his phone’s flashlight gently glowing through the mist. All of a sudden, it seemed like he had stopped moving; the light didn’t get any dimmer or seem to be getting further away at all. As around 17 of us observed from the darkness of the grocery store, a loud shriek was released into the night, and Ari began sprinting back to the door, and his banging resumed.
“LET ME THE FUCK BACK IN THERE’S SOMETHING OUT HE-!” he began to shout but was cut off as his legs were pulled out from under him, and the wind was knocked out of his lungs as he landed hard on his stomach, his nose cracking on the concrete. Natalie went to scream, but I covered her mouth, and we both watched as Ari was dragged back into the fog by a tall, lanky humanoid silhouette, still clutching onto his phone. Eventually, the light from his flashlight was completely engulfed by the wall of fog, and we were all left with our mouths agape and tears in our eyes as the severity of our situation set in.
Nobody really said much over the next couple of hours; everyone was too shaken up, I guess. At around quarter past 12 AM, I checked my phone as Natalie lay on top of me, fast asleep, her face buried into my hoodie. She had been crying since… Well, we all watched what happened to Ari. After that, everyone found a place to themselves, and Natalie held onto me, soaking my shoulder with her tears, which made their way down to my skin. I hated that I was happy at that moment. I felt so selfish about being content in her sorrow, but I missed her so much. I missed her more than I let myself know and was just thankful that I had her there with me. I thanked God that I didn't have to go through this nightmare alone.
I fell asleep shortly after, closing my eyes and taking in the noises around me: the humming of the fridges, Natalie's soft breathing, gentle sobs from across the store, and I'm sure a couple of times I heard screams in the distance outside the apparent security of this store.
I awoke to my phone vibrating again, but it was only my 7:30 AM alarm. Natalie must have already been awake because she was holding me tight, and there were fresh tears on my hoodie. I lay there for a bit, hugging her, ignorant to the world that, for all I knew, was ending anyway. I was also ignorant to the fact that the sun hadn't come up, or at least, it wasn't reaching us through the fog, meaning that it must be completely encasing us. How far does the fog stretch? How far would it have to extend into the sky for not even a hint of daylight to shine through? These are questions I did not have because I was holding onto the girl who I had never really stopped loving, making me probably the only person at that moment who was trapped in a dream, not a nightmare.
Natalie and I ate breakfast in silence. I guess there are worse places to be trapped than a well-stocked grocery store; however, as 10 AM rolled around, a new alert sounded out from everyone's phones: “This is an emergency alert. It is still very unsafe outside, so stay where you are. Keep all the lights off, and do not make any noise that will be detectable from outside your structure. Avoid looking into the fog or standing in a position where you are visible from the outside. Cover as many windows as possible and preferably hide in a room that can be locked off from the rest of your structure if necessary. If something is in your structure or is trying to get inside, then it knows you're there. In this scenario, hide; do not attempt to confront it under any circumstances. Notable updates: the electrical and water systems will not be operational by this time tomorrow, so if you have not done so, fill up as many containers with water as you can. You will receive another alert every twelve hours. Thank you, stand by for any updates.”
I stood up and stretched, feeling the stiffness in my back from sitting on the hard supermarket floor, and my legs had pins and needles. I looked down at Natalie, who seemed lost in thought. I wasn't sure if she had heard the update, but then again, what did it matter? The loss of power would mean that all the refrigerated items would spoil, but there was enough long-lasting food to feed us all for months, probably, drinks as well. I knew our biggest problem would be warmth as we would lose the electronic heating system, but before I could think any more on that, a commotion broke out on the other side of the store.
A loud crash echoed across the whole building, and as Natalie and I made our way towards the noise, we discovered that one of the other guys who was trapped in here, must have been in his late 50s at least, had been using his free time to get absolutely wasted in the alcoholic section of the store, and was now yanking boxes of booze off of the shelves as he drunkenly laughed to himself. Before I could do anything, another man, maybe in his early 30s, tackled him to the ground and pinned him down, all without saying a word. As the older guy lay there, asking what the problem was in slurred, barely comprehensible English, everyone in the store felt their hearts sink as a loud thumping sound was heard from the front door. And then again, and again, until one of the three store workers, who wandered over to see who was over there, let out an almost impossibly loud scream, and that was what sealed our fate. The store erupted into chaos as the glass door was shattered, and an inhuman shriek reverberated in our ears as whatever was outside was no longer outside.
I looked to Natalie, who appeared to be frozen in place, teary-eyed as she breathed rapid and shallow breaths. I took her by the hand and ran as fast as I could towards the storage room out back. I knew they had to have one in order to hold onto the stock that they couldn't fit on the shelves yet. But as we reached the door, screams and roars filled the store behind us. My heart skipped a beat as I realized that it was locked. I shook the handle out of desperation and then tried to open the other larger door that the forklifts came in and out of, but I didn't know the code.
I embraced Natalie, and I guess I just prepared for it to end until I heard a ‘pssst’ and looked back over to the door to see that the store supervisor was holding it slightly ajar while gesturing for us to quickly come inside. We ran to the entrance and left the main part of the building where we found the supervisor and the other surviving employee, along with one other customer who had apparently been in here ever since Ari was killed.
The lights were on in the storage room because there were no windows, which took a while to adjust to after being in total darkness for the last 12 hours, but it was a nice change. Over the course of the day, we heard many thumps and bangs; occasionally, something would get knocked over, and glass would smash. Whatever was out there was looking everywhere for survivors, but we were safe in here.
Natalie and I made a bed out of a few 20kg sacks of rice, which was honestly so much nicer than the floor. The other three people in there with us tried to ask us about ourselves, our lives, but I did most of the talking. Natalie was still grieving, and the others understood that, though I did see her smile a couple of times, which was nice. The other employee didn't say much; I assumed it was because of what happened to the female staff member after the door shattered, so I didn't really try to push him for conversation. Honestly, I wasn't really in a social mood myself, but it was just nice to have some sense of normalcy after the shitshow that has been our lives over the last couple of days.
On day four, I remembered what the alert had said about the power shutting off. It turns out there's a backup generator that should power everything we need for another couple of days, with most of the lights in the store being off, so it really felt like we were home free. At 10 o'clock on the fourth night, I heard the emergency alert sound off from across the room as I lay next to Natalie, since both of our phones had died already. I tried to listen in on what it was saying, but I couldn't quite make it out from where I was, so I got up in the dark and made my way over to the soft glow of the supervisor's phone screen.
By the time I could hear what was being said, I only just caught the end of it, “Be prepared to stay inside indefinitely. You will receive another alert every twelve hours. Thank you, stand by for any updates.” My heart sank to my stomach hearing this, and as I looked over to the supervisor who shared my expression, I couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. Indefinitely? I mean, it would be easier for us having all of this stock to ourselves, but what about people trapped in their houses, their cars? How were they expected to survive this? As I pondered to myself, I turned around, suddenly startled by the sound of the male employee speaking for the first time since we’d been here. “Fuck this,” was all he said as he entered the code for the large door, which made a loud mechanical whirring as it lifted up.
I didn't even have time to process what had happened. I didn't have time to be angry at this man for killing us, and I didn't have time to sprint back to Natalie before I heard her being dragged away by one of those creatures, her hands squeaking across the floor as they tried and failed to grip onto it.
The creature was pale, humanoid, but not human. If you've ever seen a hairless chimpanzee, it kind of looked like that, but its limbs were grotesque and distorted, too long for its body, and its face was more human. Its skin was a light grey color, pulled tightly over its strangely proportioned body. I noticed how it was shrieking, an ungodly sound, but its face was expressionless, its mouth only slightly open as it screamed. I think that was the weirdest part. I thought all of this as I watched this hideous thing drag the girl I love into the consuming darkness of the grocery store. That's when something grabbed me by the leg and pulled it out from under me, causing me to hit my head on the floor, and everything faded to black.
“Truth or dare?” Natalie asked me. “Umm, truth,” I replied. Natalie thought for a moment before Sarah, my mate Marcus’ Mrs, who was sitting next to her, whispered in her ear, causing a massive grin to form on her face. “Okay, okay,” she giggled as she adjusted her posture and looked me in the eyes, trying to keep a straight face. “Okay, Roman, if you were stuck on an island with all of us, who would you eat first?” I thought for a moment as I looked around the hot tub at all of my close friends. My eyes landed on Max, who is quite overweight, and I couldn't help but smile, causing everyone to laugh, including Max who splashed water in my face and retorted, “I'd eat all of you before you got the chance,” to which Marcus said, “We believe you, bud,” and everyone burst out into laughter again.
“Okay, Natalie… truth or dare?” I asked. “Truth!” she replied without hesitation. I pretended to ponder my question for a moment. “Would you-” I began, as I stood up in the pool, clutching something in my left hand, “-make me the happiest man in the world-” I continued as I got down on one knee before her, “-and marry me?” I asked as I held a ring out of the water for her, eliciting a gasp from both of my mates and their partners. Natalie's eyes began to tear up, and she asked, “Are you for real?” covering her mouth with her shaking hands. I nodded yes, and she screamed out, “Yes! Of course I will!” before she jumped on top of me, taking us both underwater as she kissed me.
After we all dried off and said our goodbyes, Max came up to me, “Hey man, congratulations! Honestly, I've been waiting for this day since you guys met. Always knew she was the one for you,” he said. I looked at him for a moment before replying, “What do you mean, bro? When I first started dating her, you told me that she was no good for me. It's like one of the main reasons I broke up w-” That's when the words I was saying hit me in the face like a bag of bricks.
Max stared at me, his smile not shifting in the slightest. “How long have you and Natalie been together now?” he asked. “Must be around 5 years, about time you popped the question, haha,” he chuckled, but with every second that passed, my heart started beating more and more rapidly. “This isn't real,” I said before squeezing my eyes shut, and waking up.
A long tendril slid out of my throat as I fell to the ground below and threw up everywhere. I looked up to see a giant, glowing figure with a dozen other tendrils protruding from its shoulders. The skinny figure stood still, its frame reaching the height of the streetlight next to it. As I tried to make sense of what I was looking at, my eyes made their way down its inhuman body. At the end of each glowing blue tendril was a person, the tendrils entering through each of their mouths, seemingly absorbing something from their bodies as pulsating rings of light emanated from the person and up the tendril. I almost threw up for a second time until I saw Natalie among the dozen bodies attached to the creature. Without hesitation, I reached up to touch her hand, and as I did, I lost consciousness again.
“Unzip the tent, babe, let some light in,” I said as I wiped the sleep from my eyes and cracked my stiff back, cursing myself for forgetting an air mattress on a trip we'd been planning for months. I watched and admired my beautiful fiancée as she got up half-naked and unzipped our tent.
“I hope you slept better than I did,” I muttered as I lay back down in my sleeping bag. “Babe, you should've had the air mattress. I would've been happy to trade places,” Natalie replied as she opened up her pack and started rummaging through it.
“Nah, I'm fine, honestly. I'm not letting my fiancée sleep on the ground,” I retorted, my arm covering my eyes, immediately regretting that I got Natalie to let the sun in. “You're such a man,” she scoffed jokingly as she tossed me one of the pre-made sandwiches from her pack. I paused for a moment, a split second of déjà vu overtaking my body as I read the label.
All of a sudden, I sat up straight in my sleeping bag. “Natalie, this isn't real! None of this is real!” I said to her in a panic, causing her to stare at me, concerned. “Are you feeling okay, Roman?” she asked. “Did you get any sleep at all?”
“Natalie, the grocery store, the fog, the emergency alert! Don't you remember? None of this is real! We aren't together, we aren't engaged,” I spoke quickly, my voice trembling as I tried to get her to snap out of this false reality. I watched as Natalie's face went white, and her eyes filled with tears.
“What's going on? What is thi-” she started to speak but was interrupted by a familiar shriek in the distance. I looked out of the tent to see at least a thousand of those chimp creatures making their way towards us, seemingly sensing that we weren't being fooled by this illusion any longer.
“Natalie, you have to wake up!” I yelled, the creatures getting closer. “Close your eyes and wake-” I regained consciousness and caught Natalie as the tendril slid out of her throat, letting her fall. She threw up onto the ground as I held her, before staring back up at the massive glowing creature. That's when we looked around. In the distance, there were more glowing creatures, hundreds of them spread out over the town.
“We can see through the fog,” Natalie stated, which I honestly hadn't even noticed until then. That's when we heard frantic screaming and looked to our left. One of those chimp creatures was dragging a man out of his car and over to the glowing figure. We watched as one of the tendrils violently shoved its way down the man's throat, and his screaming stopped. Then, the other creature just walked off, paying us absolutely no mind.
Natalie then looked back up at the bodies attached to the tendrils and gasped as she saw Ari. She went to reach for him, but I grabbed her hand. “Natalie, if you touch him, you'll go back in, and there's no guarantee that you'll ever come back out. It's like it completely wipes your memory every time,” I told her.
“How do you know?" she asked. "Maybe I'll remember the second time.”
“You won't, Natalie. I went back in for you, and I'm lucky that I remembered at all,” I responded. She stared at me for a moment.
“Why did you go back in for me if it's such a big risk?” she questioned.
I paused, my eyes welled up. “Because I love you, Nat-”
An explosion then went off in the distance. I saw it over Natalie's shoulder, then another, then another, each one making its way closer, seemingly each being aimed at those glowing blue creatures. “Run!” I yelled as I grabbed Natalie's hand and sprinted away from Ari and the mass of glowing tentacles. Another explosion went off behind us as a plane roared overhead. The explosion also ignited the service station right next to us, which let off a shockwave that sent us flying off the street. Everything went silent, and I could feel my consciousness once again slipping away. The last thing I saw was Natalie silently screaming in my face, worry overtaking her expression as she held tightly onto my hands. That's when I noticed a piece of fence sticking out of my abdomen. “Shit,” I thought to myself. As everything faded to black, I saw a group of military-looking men running towards Natalie and me, then nothing.
I woke up to the voices of Natalie and Marcus talking to each other. I sat up in the apparent hospital bed I was in and immediately regretted it, holding onto my stomach in pain. “Woah woah, lay back down, bud. Just relax,” Marcus said as he stood up from his chair and slowly laid me back down. Natalie stood up as well, tightly gripping my hand and kissing me on the forehead. “What is this? Is the fog… is it over?” I asked, confused about how we were here right now in a hospital. “No, it's not over. My higher-ups have decided that we have to start over. Most of the remaining world leaders have come to the same consensus,” Marcus paused briefly, “you two were lucky to have survived. Most people didn't. Those… those things-''.
"Those people are still alive, Marcus!" I exclaimed. "You can't just bomb the world when those people are still down there! They're in a trance, living in an illusion that those blue things are creating. I can't explain it, but I saw it. Natalie did too. I only got us out because I felt an unbelievable sense of déjà vu, and realized it wasn't real.”
Marcus looked at me, his expression grave. "I know, Roman. We're trying to figure out a way to deal with them without causing more harm. But right now, the priority is to keep everyone who's still here safe. You and Natalie are the only ones who've had any interaction with those things and came back, and we need your help to understand what happened down there."
I nodded, feeling a mix of relief and frustration. "I'll do whatever I can to help. But we can't forget about them. They're still people, trapped in a nightmare."
Over the next few months, I recounted this story to more officials in suits than I can count. I told them how I had done twice what nobody else had done once. I "went into the dream," as they call it, and I came back both times. Though I did manage to convince them not to bomb the world and kill everyone, it has come at a price.
Natalie sobbed as I told her the plan. She cried into my shoulder, just as she did that night many months ago in the grocery store during the emergency alert. I felt her tears soak down to my skin as I told her that I had to go back into the dream and try to wake everyone up. The chance that I would not wake back up was sitting at the forefront of my mind, but I had to be strong for Nat.
“I just hope that if I do get trapped in a dream, that I'll get to go through with that wedding,” I said to her softly, trying to put on a smile. “If you don't come back, I'm coming in after you,” she replied, tears in her eyes. I wanted to tell her no, I wanted to be selfless. But I knew that I would have no complaints if she and I were trapped together again; that selfish part of my brain was still active.
On the 14th of November, 2023, an emergency alert was sent to every mobile device across the globe. It warned of a thick fog that would swallow any who were caught in its midst, and the whole world locked themselves inside. You may be wondering why I'm telling you this story. You may be thinking to yourself, 'I don't remember the day the fog rolled in and the emergency alert sounded.' That is why I'm telling you this story.
This is not real, you need to wake up.

“Have a good night, Roman!” the receptionist said to me as I walked past her desk while she was getting ready to close up. I smiled and waved as I left the gym and entered the brisk night air. Checking the time as my stomach made a gurgling sound, I saw that it was 9:47 PM, and every fast food place in my small town would be closed by now. I looked across the road and saw that the local grocery store was open until 10, so I started lightly jogging towards it, the cold breeze biting through my clothes and attacking my face and neck since I didn't dry off my hair properly after showering."
A wave of warmth hit me in the face as I stepped into the store, causing my eyes to water slightly. "Attention shoppers, the store will be closing in 10 minutes, so please start making your way to the checkouts. Thank you, and have a good night," a woman's voice echoed over the intercom. I hurriedly grabbed a pre-made sandwich and headed towards the drinks aisle. With my head down, I walked, reading the label of my less-than-exciting dinner, and I decided I would grab another sandwich on my way out. When I looked up, I found myself staring into the aisle I had entered, only to see my ex-girlfriend Natalie standing there with her boyfriend, Ari.
Her eyes met mine, and I started to tear up again, but not because of the temperature of the air. She broke her gaze and continued talking to Ari, her expression never changing from the smile she had already been wearing before she saw me. I looked away and started making my way to the end of the aisle, walking past them but not acknowledging them in the slightest. As I brushed past Ari, I realized how much bigger he was than me, at least 3 or 4 inches taller and probably a good 20 kgs heavier. For reference, I'm 6'2" and weigh 92 kgs lean, so I'm not small by any stretch, but this guy dwarfed me.
As I grabbed a Red Bull, I wondered to myself why it had hit me that hard. It had been years since I dated her and years since she drifted out of my life. We were 16 when she confessed her feelings for me, five years ago now. We had been good friends before that, and we were still good friends after I broke up with her, but I took her for granted, so when she started becoming a less consistent part of my life, I was too stubborn to tell her that I missed her. I was snapped out of my own internal dialogue suddenly as my phone started vibrating in my pocket, emitting a strange analog beeping sound that I hadn't heard it make before. I looked around to see Natalie and Ari looking confused while also staring at their phones.
"This is an emergency alert, get to the nearest enclosed structure immediately. Close and lock all doors and windows, turn off all the lights, and do not make any noise that will be detectable from outside the structure. If you are in your house, close the blinds and fill as many containers with water as you can. If you are in a public structure such as a store or a recreational facility, then follow as many of those same steps as you can. If you are in a vehicle, shut off the engine and lock the doors. For all who are listening to this alert, do not look into the fog, and under no circumstances should you go outside. This alert will repeat once every twelve hours and any updates will be shared periodically. You should be prepared to stay indoors for at least a week, this is not a drill. Stand by for updates.", all the phones in the store blared in unison.
There was a moment of complete silence as the few late-night customers in the store looked over to the closing staff, who were just as dumbfounded as everyone else. Then the store broke out into a hurried panic as who I assume was the store supervisor made her way to the back of the store to shut off the lights, while the other two ladies who were at the checkouts began to lock the doors. I went to call Marcus, my mate who's in the air force, to ask what the hell is going on, but there was no signal at all.
"Nah, fuck this, bro!" Ari shouted in anger as he grabbed Natalie by the wrist and started walking her over to the sliding glass door that was in the process of being locked. As the lights all dimmed out row by row, we were all left in pitch black darkness, excluding the glowing sign of the service station across the street and the barely visible streetlights outside that were being drowned out by the thick fog that everyone had just noticed. Ari turned on his phone's flashlight and kept walking in the darkness until Natalie pulled away from him. "We can't go out there, Ari, there's something wrong with that fog!" Natalie yelled at her partner.
"Let me out right fucking now!" Ari shouted at the poor lady who had just locked the place up. "I can't do that, sir," she replied softly, causing him to start banging on the glass, threatening to break it. “Ari! Please! Calm down, babe, can't we just wait until we know what’s going on?” Natalie begged as she grabbed Ari’s forearm and attempted to stop him from shattering the only thing separating us from the strange mist outside. “Dude, come on, you don’t know what’s out there,” I interrupted, “it could be a chemical attack or something. Just at least wait until we get an update, man,” I tried to reason, but it was no use. “Fuck you, pussy, I’m not getting held against my will in a supermarket. Who the hell would chemical attack New Zealand, dumbass?” he responded to my reasoning. This is something I had already been thinking. It wouldn’t explain why we had to turn the lights out, and it wouldn’t explain why we had to remain quiet. But I was hoping that he wouldn’t be able to think all that through.
“LET ME OUT I SAID, WHAT THE FUCK DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND, BITCH?” he shouted at the top of his lungs as he shoved Natalie off his arm and onto the hard epoxy floor, then resumed his banging on the glass, but much harder now. “You gotta let him out,” I said to the grocery worker as I helped Natalie to her feet. The rest of the dozen customers who were in the store had crowded behind us, watching the whole thing go down. “He’s gonna get us all killed if he breaks that glass,” I argued. “Let him out.” The worker reluctantly put in the code for the door’s automatic opening system to activate, and the glass began to slide to the side. Ari looked back at Natalie in rage, seeing that she was not going to leave with him. The large man then walked out, and the doors shut behind him, immediately being locked by the store lady whose hands were now shaking.
We all watched in silence as Ari’s silhouette disappeared into the fog until the only thing we could make out was his phone’s flashlight gently glowing through the mist. All of a sudden, it seemed like he had stopped moving; the light didn’t get any dimmer or seem to be getting further away at all. As around 17 of us observed from the darkness of the grocery store, a loud shriek was released into the night, and Ari began sprinting back to the door, and his banging resumed.
“LET ME THE FUCK BACK IN THERE’S SOMETHING OUT HE-!” he began to shout but was cut off as his legs were pulled out from under him, and the wind was knocked out of his lungs as he landed hard on his stomach, his nose cracking on the concrete. Natalie went to scream, but I covered her mouth, and we both watched as Ari was dragged back into the fog by a tall, lanky humanoid silhouette, still clutching onto his phone. Eventually, the light from his flashlight was completely engulfed by the wall of fog, and we were all left with our mouths agape and tears in our eyes as the severity of our situation set in.
Nobody really said much over the next couple of hours; everyone was too shaken up, I guess. At around quarter past 12 AM, I checked my phone as Natalie lay on top of me, fast asleep, her face buried into my hoodie. She had been crying since… Well, we all watched what happened to Ari. After that, everyone found a place to themselves, and Natalie held onto me, soaking my shoulder with her tears, which made their way down to my skin. I hated that I was happy at that moment. I felt so selfish about being content in her sorrow, but I missed her so much. I missed her more than I let myself know and was just thankful that I had her there with me. I thanked God that I didn't have to go through this nightmare alone.
I fell asleep shortly after, closing my eyes and taking in the noises around me: the humming of the fridges, Natalie's soft breathing, gentle sobs from across the store, and I'm sure a couple of times I heard screams in the distance outside the apparent security of this store.
I awoke to my phone vibrating again, but it was only my 7:30 AM alarm. Natalie must have already been awake because she was holding me tight, and there were fresh tears on my hoodie. I lay there for a bit, hugging her, ignorant to the world that, for all I knew, was ending anyway. I was also ignorant to the fact that the sun hadn't come up, or at least, it wasn't reaching us through the fog, meaning that it must be completely encasing us. How far does the fog stretch? How far would it have to extend into the sky for not even a hint of daylight to shine through? These are questions I did not have because I was holding onto the girl who I had never really stopped loving, making me probably the only person at that moment who was trapped in a dream, not a nightmare.
Natalie and I ate breakfast in silence. I guess there are worse places to be trapped than a well-stocked grocery store; however, as 10 AM rolled around, a new alert sounded out from everyone's phones: “This is an emergency alert. It is still very unsafe outside, so stay where you are. Keep all the lights off, and do not make any noise that will be detectable from outside your structure. Avoid looking into the fog or standing in a position where you are visible from the outside. Cover as many windows as possible and preferably hide in a room that can be locked off from the rest of your structure if necessary. If something is in your structure or is trying to get inside, then it knows you're there. In this scenario, hide; do not attempt to confront it under any circumstances. Notable updates: the electrical and water systems will not be operational by this time tomorrow, so if you have not done so, fill up as many containers with water as you can. You will receive another alert every twelve hours. Thank you, stand by for any updates.”
I stood up and stretched, feeling the stiffness in my back from sitting on the hard supermarket floor, and my legs had pins and needles. I looked down at Natalie, who seemed lost in thought. I wasn't sure if she had heard the update, but then again, what did it matter? The loss of power would mean that all the refrigerated items would spoil, but there was enough long-lasting food to feed us all for months, probably, drinks as well. I knew our biggest problem would be warmth as we would lose the electronic heating system, but before I could think any more on that, a commotion broke out on the other side of the store.
A loud crash echoed across the whole building, and as Natalie and I made our way towards the noise, we discovered that one of the other guys who was trapped in here, must have been in his late 50s at least, had been using his free time to get absolutely wasted in the alcoholic section of the store, and was now yanking boxes of booze off of the shelves as he drunkenly laughed to himself. Before I could do anything, another man, maybe in his early 30s, tackled him to the ground and pinned him down, all without saying a word. As the older guy lay there, asking what the problem was in slurred, barely comprehensible English, everyone in the store felt their hearts sink as a loud thumping sound was heard from the front door. And then again, and again, until one of the three store workers, who wandered over to see who was over there, let out an almost impossibly loud scream, and that was what sealed our fate. The store erupted into chaos as the glass door was shattered, and an inhuman shriek reverberated in our ears as whatever was outside was no longer outside.
I looked to Natalie, who appeared to be frozen in place, teary-eyed as she breathed rapid and shallow breaths. I took her by the hand and ran as fast as I could towards the storage room out back. I knew they had to have one in order to hold onto the stock that they couldn't fit on the shelves yet. But as we reached the door, screams and roars filled the store behind us. My heart skipped a beat as I realized that it was locked. I shook the handle out of desperation and then tried to open the other larger door that the forklifts came in and out of, but I didn't know the code.
I embraced Natalie, and I guess I just prepared for it to end until I heard a ‘pssst’ and looked back over to the door to see that the store supervisor was holding it slightly ajar while gesturing for us to quickly come inside. We ran to the entrance and left the main part of the building where we found the supervisor and the other surviving employee, along with one other customer who had apparently been in here ever since Ari was killed.
The lights were on in the storage room because there were no windows, which took a while to adjust to after being in total darkness for the last 12 hours, but it was a nice change. Over the course of the day, we heard many thumps and bangs; occasionally, something would get knocked over, and glass would smash. Whatever was out there was looking everywhere for survivors, but we were safe in here.
Natalie and I made a bed out of a few 20kg sacks of rice, which was honestly so much nicer than the floor. The other three people in there with us tried to ask us about ourselves, our lives, but I did most of the talking. Natalie was still grieving, and the others understood that, though I did see her smile a couple of times, which was nice. The other employee didn't say much; I assumed it was because of what happened to the female staff member after the door shattered, so I didn't really try to push him for conversation. Honestly, I wasn't really in a social mood myself, but it was just nice to have some sense of normalcy after the shitshow that has been our lives over the last couple of days.
On day four, I remembered what the alert had said about the power shutting off. It turns out there's a backup generator that should power everything we need for another couple of days, with most of the lights in the store being off, so it really felt like we were home free. At 10 o'clock on the fourth night, I heard the emergency alert sound off from across the room as I lay next to Natalie, since both of our phones had died already. I tried to listen in on what it was saying, but I couldn't quite make it out from where I was, so I got up in the dark and made my way over to the soft glow of the supervisor's phone screen.
By the time I could hear what was being said, I only just caught the end of it, “Be prepared to stay inside indefinitely. You will receive another alert every twelve hours. Thank you, stand by for any updates.” My heart sank to my stomach hearing this, and as I looked over to the supervisor who shared my expression, I couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. Indefinitely? I mean, it would be easier for us having all of this stock to ourselves, but what about people trapped in their houses, their cars? How were they expected to survive this? As I pondered to myself, I turned around, suddenly startled by the sound of the male employee speaking for the first time since we’d been here. “Fuck this,” was all he said as he entered the code for the large door, which made a loud mechanical whirring as it lifted up.
I didn't even have time to process what had happened. I didn't have time to be angry at this man for killing us, and I didn't have time to sprint back to Natalie before I heard her being dragged away by one of those creatures, her hands squeaking across the floor as they tried and failed to grip onto it.
The creature was pale, humanoid, but not human. If you've ever seen a hairless chimpanzee, it kind of looked like that, but its limbs were grotesque and distorted, too long for its body, and its face was more human. Its skin was a light grey color, pulled tightly over its strangely proportioned body. I noticed how it was shrieking, an ungodly sound, but its face was expressionless, its mouth only slightly open as it screamed. I think that was the weirdest part. I thought all of this as I watched this hideous thing drag the girl I love into the consuming darkness of the grocery store. That's when something grabbed me by the leg and pulled it out from under me, causing me to hit my head on the floor, and everything faded to black.
“Truth or dare?” Natalie asked me. “Umm, truth,” I replied. Natalie thought for a moment before Sarah, my mate Marcus’ Mrs, who was sitting next to her, whispered in her ear, causing a massive grin to form on her face. “Okay, okay,” she giggled as she adjusted her posture and looked me in the eyes, trying to keep a straight face. “Okay, Roman, if you were stuck on an island with all of us, who would you eat first?” I thought for a moment as I looked around the hot tub at all of my close friends. My eyes landed on Max, who is quite overweight, and I couldn't help but smile, causing everyone to laugh, including Max who splashed water in my face and retorted, “I'd eat all of you before you got the chance,” to which Marcus said, “We believe you, bud,” and everyone burst out into laughter again.
“Okay, Natalie… truth or dare?” I asked. “Truth!” she replied without hesitation. I pretended to ponder my question for a moment. “Would you-” I began, as I stood up in the pool, clutching something in my left hand, “-make me the happiest man in the world-” I continued as I got down on one knee before her, “-and marry me?” I asked as I held a ring out of the water for her, eliciting a gasp from both of my mates and their partners. Natalie's eyes began to tear up, and she asked, “Are you for real?” covering her mouth with her shaking hands. I nodded yes, and she screamed out, “Yes! Of course I will!” before she jumped on top of me, taking us both underwater as she kissed me.
After we all dried off and said our goodbyes, Max came up to me, “Hey man, congratulations! Honestly, I've been waiting for this day since you guys met. Always knew she was the one for you,” he said. I looked at him for a moment before replying, “What do you mean, bro? When I first started dating her, you told me that she was no good for me. It's like one of the main reasons I broke up w-” That's when the words I was saying hit me in the face like a bag of bricks.
Max stared at me, his smile not shifting in the slightest. “How long have you and Natalie been together now?” he asked. “Must be around 5 years, about time you popped the question, haha,” he chuckled, but with every second that passed, my heart started beating more and more rapidly. “This isn't real,” I said before squeezing my eyes shut, and waking up.
A long tendril slid out of my throat as I fell to the ground below and threw up everywhere. I looked up to see a giant, glowing figure with a dozen other tendrils protruding from its shoulders. The skinny figure stood still, its frame reaching the height of the streetlight next to it. As I tried to make sense of what I was looking at, my eyes made their way down its inhuman body. At the end of each glowing blue tendril was a person, the tendrils entering through each of their mouths, seemingly absorbing something from their bodies as pulsating rings of light emanated from the person and up the tendril. I almost threw up for a second time until I saw Natalie among the dozen bodies attached to the creature. Without hesitation, I reached up to touch her hand, and as I did, I lost consciousness again.
“Unzip the tent, babe, let some light in,” I said as I wiped the sleep from my eyes and cracked my stiff back, cursing myself for forgetting an air mattress on a trip we'd been planning for months. I watched and admired my beautiful fiancée as she got up half-naked and unzipped our tent.
“I hope you slept better than I did,” I muttered as I lay back down in my sleeping bag. “Babe, you should've had the air mattress. I would've been happy to trade places,” Natalie replied as she opened up her pack and started rummaging through it.
“Nah, I'm fine, honestly. I'm not letting my fiancée sleep on the ground,” I retorted, my arm covering my eyes, immediately regretting that I got Natalie to let the sun in. “You're such a man,” she scoffed jokingly as she tossed me one of the pre-made sandwiches from her pack. I paused for a moment, a split second of déjà vu overtaking my body as I read the label.
All of a sudden, I sat up straight in my sleeping bag. “Natalie, this isn't real! None of this is real!” I said to her in a panic, causing her to stare at me, concerned. “Are you feeling okay, Roman?” she asked. “Did you get any sleep at all?”
“Natalie, the grocery store, the fog, the emergency alert! Don't you remember? None of this is real! We aren't together, we aren't engaged,” I spoke quickly, my voice trembling as I tried to get her to snap out of this false reality. I watched as Natalie's face went white, and her eyes filled with tears.
“What's going on? What is thi-” she started to speak but was interrupted by a familiar shriek in the distance. I looked out of the tent to see at least a thousand of those chimp creatures making their way towards us, seemingly sensing that we weren't being fooled by this illusion any longer.
“Natalie, you have to wake up!” I yelled, the creatures getting closer. “Close your eyes and wake-” I regained consciousness and caught Natalie as the tendril slid out of her throat, letting her fall. She threw up onto the ground as I held her, before staring back up at the massive glowing creature. That's when we looked around. In the distance, there were more glowing creatures, hundreds of them spread out over the town.
“We can see through the fog,” Natalie stated, which I honestly hadn't even noticed until then. That's when we heard frantic screaming and looked to our left. One of those chimp creatures was dragging a man out of his car and over to the glowing figure. We watched as one of the tendrils violently shoved its way down the man's throat, and his screaming stopped. Then, the other creature just walked off, paying us absolutely no mind.
Natalie then looked back up at the bodies attached to the tendrils and gasped as she saw Ari. She went to reach for him, but I grabbed her hand. “Natalie, if you touch him, you'll go back in, and there's no guarantee that you'll ever come back out. It's like it completely wipes your memory every time,” I told her.
“How do you know?" she asked. "Maybe I'll remember the second time.”
“You won't, Natalie. I went back in for you, and I'm lucky that I remembered at all,” I responded. She stared at me for a moment.
“Why did you go back in for me if it's such a big risk?” she questioned.
I paused, my eyes welled up. “Because I love you, Nat-”
An explosion then went off in the distance. I saw it over Natalie's shoulder, then another, then another, each one making its way closer, seemingly each being aimed at those glowing blue creatures. “Run!” I yelled as I grabbed Natalie's hand and sprinted away from Ari and the mass of glowing tentacles. Another explosion went off behind us as a plane roared overhead. The explosion also ignited the service station right next to us, which let off a shockwave that sent us flying off the street. Everything went silent, and I could feel my consciousness once again slipping away. The last thing I saw was Natalie silently screaming in my face, worry overtaking her expression as she held tightly onto my hands. That's when I noticed a piece of fence sticking out of my abdomen. “Shit,” I thought to myself. As everything faded to black, I saw a group of military-looking men running towards Natalie and me, then nothing.
I woke up to the voices of Natalie and Marcus talking to each other. I sat up in the apparent hospital bed I was in and immediately regretted it, holding onto my stomach in pain. “Woah woah, lay back down, bud. Just relax,” Marcus said as he stood up from his chair and slowly laid me back down. Natalie stood up as well, tightly gripping my hand and kissing me on the forehead. “What is this? Is the fog… is it over?” I asked, confused about how we were here right now in a hospital. “No, it's not over. My higher-ups have decided that we have to start over. Most of the remaining world leaders have come to the same consensus,” Marcus paused briefly, “you two were lucky to have survived. Most people didn't. Those… those things-''.
"Those people are still alive, Marcus!" I exclaimed. "You can't just bomb the world when those people are still down there! They're in a trance, living in an illusion that those blue things are creating. I can't explain it, but I saw it. Natalie did too. I only got us out because I felt an unbelievable sense of déjà vu, and realized it wasn't real.”
Marcus looked at me, his expression grave. "I know, Roman. We're trying to figure out a way to deal with them without causing more harm. But right now, the priority is to keep everyone who's still here safe. You and Natalie are the only ones who've had any interaction with those things and came back, and we need your help to understand what happened down there."
I nodded, feeling a mix of relief and frustration. "I'll do whatever I can to help. But we can't forget about them. They're still people, trapped in a nightmare."
Over the next few months, I recounted this story to more officials in suits than I can count. I told them how I had done twice what nobody else had done once. I "went into the dream," as they call it, and I came back both times. Though I did manage to convince them not to bomb the world and kill everyone, it has come at a price.
Natalie sobbed as I told her the plan. She cried into my shoulder, just as she did that night many months ago in the grocery store during the emergency alert. I felt her tears soak down to my skin as I told her that I had to go back into the dream and try to wake everyone up. The chance that I would not wake back up was sitting at the forefront of my mind, but I had to be strong for Nat.
“I just hope that if I do get trapped in a dream, that I'll get to go through with that wedding,” I said to her softly, trying to put on a smile. “If you don't come back, I'm coming in after you,” she replied, tears in her eyes. I wanted to tell her no, I wanted to be selfless. But I knew that I would have no complaints if she and I were trapped together again; that selfish part of my brain was still active.
On the 14th of November, 2023, an emergency alert was sent to every mobile device across the globe. It warned of a thick fog that would swallow any who were caught in its midst, and the whole world locked themselves inside. You may be wondering why I'm telling you this story. You may be thinking to yourself, 'I don't remember the day the fog rolled in and the emergency alert sounded.' That is why I'm telling you this story.
This is not real, you need to wake up.