Ruby groaned as the alarm went off signaling that one of her charges had arrived back from their mission. While troublesome in its own right, what really got under her skin was that she only had one charge at the moment, and that edge lord piece of shit wasn’t supposed to complete his task for AT LEAST another 4 deca-cycles according to the prediction algorithm. Grumbling to herself, she rolled out of bed and poured herself a glass of water to offset the hangover she was trying to recover from.

A few moments later she was gliding down the hall to the meeting room. She knew Jason was going to pitch a fit that she had left him waiting, the self-entitled brat always did think the world revolved around him; but perhaps he should have thought about that before freaking dying so early. If he wanted her to be there to meet him upon death, he could at least have the decency to not die the morning after one of her binges.

Other staff members gave her a wide berth, even if it was a hollow title, she was still technically far above basically anyone else in the pecking order, at least those who had a physical presence within the Agency. She knew they all mocked her behind her back, even divine beings were sadly prone towards gossip. She put the anger at her subordinates/coworkers out of her mind for now; even if she didn’t particularly LIKE Jason, he still didn’t deserve her coming in with baggage.

Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed that she’d arrived in front of the conference room door. She had been mulling over her thoughts, just staring into nothingness, for several minutes before she finally snapped back to the present. With a soft rap on the door, she opened it and floated inside. Jason was lounging, sprawled out on the regally padded chair throne he so fancied.

They exchanged pleasantries before she sat down to go over the mission summary. Upon seeing the cause of death, she had regrettably lost her composure and started to laugh uncontrollably. Her mighty subordinate had been felled by a goblin?! The mighty Jason Alexander Coyle, “mercenary extraordinaire”, had gotten his shit kicked in by a lowly goblin using what looked like a shiny butter knife. Oh, it was just too rich to not laugh at the absurdity.

It took her much longer than she would like to admit, to stop laughing. Jason of course wore a sour look through the entire endeavor. She shrugged it off, she had little doubt that if the same thing had happened to someone else, he would have been right beside her doubled over in laughter. Hell, once he was in a less pissy mood, she might even be able to get him to laugh about it later.

As luck would have it, it appeared that Jason’s actions had been enough to alter the tides of the war. The kingdom, and its divinity, would still lose many to the battles ahead, but Jason had done enough that the Agency could still bill the client for services rendered. As she spoke, she could see the disdain the man had for her, he always complained that she was drunk and reeked of liquor. Sure, that was often true, but he didn’t need to be such a stick in the mud about it all.

She went ahead and authorized the transfer of credits to Jason’s account. As soon as she did so, he opened up the store page and tuned her out. She watched him open up the back-channel site and purchase something, a small part of her wondered who was going to get roasted over the coals this time for allowing their admin privileges to be hacked. She toyed with the idea of bringing up his illegal actions, but truth be told she didn’t really give a shit. The other divinities were far too lax with their security, it had been child's play for one of her previous wards to hack into the Agency’s system and build the black site.

She’d ask him once about the whole thing, didn’t really grasp as much as she would have liked, but basically it functioned by spoofing a handler's credentials. This allowed the user to gain access to encrypted parts of the network, specifically access to certain privileged services that handlers enjoyed and most importantly, access to the mission assignment database. Users could buy and sell restricted or banned goods, and a part of the profits would be siphoned off to her ward’s personal account.

With Jason’s attention otherwise occupied, Ruby went ahead and reviewed the logs for his previous mission. Something about it was nagging at her. She couldn’t put it into words; however, the whole series of events just didn’t feel like ‘bad luck’. Using her divine authority, she rewound events, watching Jason’s lungs unfill with blood and refill with air.

The goblin skulked back to its den of corpses, resheathing the dagger at its hips, and reburied itself underneath the bodies. She let it rewind another few moments before stopping the feed and letting it run at normal time. She watched the goblin, slowly shifting the bodies out of the way, making sure they made no noise when it moved them. Slowly, carefully, it began to creep towards Jason’s exposed back. It drew the blade, again slowly and quietly. It closed the distance making sure to never let Jason see it or to give him any reason to think someone was behind him. Then in a flash of movement it leapt, burying the dagger right into a joint in Jason’s armor. The placement was perfect, no resistance, so the blade sank to the hilt. Allowing it to puncture Jason’s right lung.

Ruby rewound the log once more. This was wrong, very wrong. The goblin was way too good to just be some random grunt. Its movements were too smooth, its aim too precise. No, she was sure of it now, this was not a normal goblin. She focused her attention on the thing, aiming to scan the goblin for abnormalities, the dust covering it offering a surprising level of resistance to her scan. Not enough to stop her from doing what she wanted, but more resistance than she felt was reasonable for the anti-magic powder.

When she finally gained access to the monster’s stat block, her suspicions were proven correct. That was no normal goblin, that was a Redcap, a Redcap assassin no less. What in the dozen hells was a Redcap assassin doing in the middle of a freaking battlefield?! Such a valuable unit wouldn’t be used on the front lines, their skill set was terribly suited for the chaos that was an active battle. No, something was very wrong here and Ruby was going to figure out what.

As her mind raced trying to puzzle out what the actual fuck was going on, something else about the goblin flagged in her mind. It had come out of the corpse pile with the dagger already in its possession. She highlighted the various bodies that had made up the goblin's hidey hole, and then rewound the scene back. Every time one of the highlighted bodies met their fate, she froze the moment and pulled the scene into a separate window. It took a few minutes, but she eventually had all of the corpses frozen in the heartbeat before their deaths. She went through and scanned every single individual. Not a single one had been equipped with a magic disruptor blade. “So, where the fuck did the Redcap get a kingdom issued disruptor?”

Looking up, she saw that Jason was still fiddling with whatever it was that he bought. She tried to make idle conversation with the man, but he had gone full auto pilot, giving curt one-to-two word answers when asked a question or having to respond to a comment. She rolled her eyes, as much as she and him butted heads, she did have to admit that she did kind of like the guy. He had been going a little too hard into the whole dark and brooding edge lord thing recently, but that was hardly his fault. The human soul was ill suited to withstand the trauma of death, much less multiple deaths. The Agency usually did a memory scrub every couple missions, to prevent that kind of issue, but Jason had been dodging the screenings. For a moment she considered just letting sleeping dogs lie. Jason was dead and the mission was over regardless of what she might find, but the whole thing just rubbed her the wrong way.

Taking a little nip from her pocket flask, she once more focuses her attention on the Redcap. After scrubbing through the last several months of the creature’s life, she finally finds what she was looking for. The blade had come from one of Jason’s personal guards.

Ruby did a deep dive on the guard, and what came back made her blood run cold. The man had recently lost his lover. Jason had ordered a company to mop up a fleeing enemy force, before it could regroup and cause more issues. The entire thing had been a ruse and the company had been slaughtered to the last. The guard's lover had been part of that company. The loss had hit the man hard, driving him to the only rock left in his life. His deep belief in the kingdom’s divinity.

And wouldn’t you know it, apparently the kingdom’s divinity had some issues with Jason that it couldn’t be bothered to address through the proper channels. So instead of letting Ruby handle the trainwreck that was Jason’s social skills, this little scum lord of a God, had taken upon themself to deal with the issue. Several months of holy visions were enough to convince the grieving widow to betray everyone and everything he had ever known.

Once the guard had been properly brainwashed into turning his coat, it had been a simple matter to worm his way on to all of Jason’s post-fight surveys of the battlefield. The magic scanners that were exclusive to Jason’s retinue, had allowed him to see that Jason’s inhuman ability to avoid taking damage was really just a creative use of high-level magic. High-level magic that could have easily been used to save many of the kingdom’s soldiers. But of course, Jason believed himself too good to give the common man a means to protect themselves and those they loved. All this knowledge was of course worthless to the guard, he was nowhere near skilled enough to actually challenge Jason. But wouldn’t you know it, the divinity had thought of that too.

The podunk worm had brokered a secret deal with the enemy he’d contracted the Agency to deal with. In exchange for getting rid of a thorn in the God’s side, it would use its powers to scale back the war. Instead of facing a war of eradication, the enemy would be allowed to keep some of the land it had conquered.

At the urging of his God, the guard held a series of clandestine meetings with the Redcap. Imparting all the information he had learned in the months of shadowing Jason. He also gave the beast two gifts, the first was a Disruptor blade the guard had swiped from a fellow honor guard; when Jason’s corpse was found the blade would be traced back to the unfortunate guard instead of the traitor. The second was a satchel of Grarothian powder that had been blessed by the divinity, to ensure that Jason wouldn’t see the attack coming. It had worked of course; Jason hadn’t even known he was in danger till the blade was already buried in his lung. Oh, she was going to have the wannabe God’s head on a pike after this.

It pained her to admit it, but Jason deserved the final say in how this was all going to go down. She attempted to grab his attention, but the man was lost in his own little world. She tried waving her hands, ignored. She tried snapping her fingers in his ears, ignored. She even went so far as to beat her wings, blasting his face with the wind force of just under a category 1 hurricane; again ignored. Her rage was starting to reach fever pitch. So, she defaulted to the most tried and true method of stress reduction she had in her arsenal. She decided the only way for herself and Jason, once he knew the truth, to calm down would be to relax with a drink of the finest Earth treats.

With a heavy heart she opened up her most beloved extra planer storage space. This place was used for the only two things Ruby really cared about anymore. It was where she kept her most prized and coveted liquor, and where she kept the last few mementos, she possessed of her fallen wards. Her eyes scanned the room, she needed to pick the right apology gift. As she carefully made her way towards the back, she saw it. Tucked in about two thirds of the way to the back wall, stood a single hogshead of ancient scotch whiskey. The second to last gift she had received from one of her dearest friends, all those years ago.

Yes, this was the correct one. She felt it deep within her chest, a proper atonement requires a proper level of sacrifice. With a heavy heart she lifted the barrel over her head and began to stride out of the extra dimensional space. As she neared the opening, the soft clink of something falling and a flash of gold caught her eye. Sitting on a tiny end table was a small pouch of coins, one of which had somehow gotten loose and tumbled face up onto the polished table face.

For a moment she hesitated, she knew exactly what those coins were; and knew how much trouble she would get into if upper management found out she had them. That said, she also knew a sign when she saw one. The artifacts that she held within this place were the last remnants of those she had failed most of all. She pondered the meaning behind the fact that two of her previous charges seemed to have taken a shine to Jason, offering up to him their most precious of gifts. With a heavy heart and a plea to those long lost, she grabbed the coin before closing the pocket dimension.

With a loud *CLUNK* She set the hogshead down. Apparently, the sound of the barrel had finally made enough noise to draw Jason’s attention away from his screen. From a much smaller storage pocket she produced two crystal glasses. Pouring a hefty serving into each glass, she set one down in front of herself and the other in front of Jason. Locking eyes with the man, she said a single word.

“Drink”

The man twisted his face up in disgust at the sight of the liquor.

“Thanks, but no thanks, I’m not inclined to degr...”

“I said, DRINK!” Ruby growl bellows, casting the Command spell on the last word. Jason, despite his best efforts to ignore the compulsion, is forced to do as he is told, and takes a hearty swig of his hundred-year-old Scotch. With a smile on her lips, Ruby takes the opportunity to sip the illustrious gift. The hours melt away as they both sip and savor the deep complex flavors of this legendary brew.

As the drink flows her recollection of events becomes just a tad bit hazy. She can’t really remember how long it takes, but she does eventually come clean about the reason for this impromptu bout of drinking. It comes as little shock that Jason is... less than pleased to learn about the events that led to his death. He downs the rest of his drink in a single gulp, a waste of grand booze in Ruby’s opinion, and demands she fill his next one to the brim. For the first time in FAR too long, Ruby gets to see the Jason she had known all those years ago was still in there.

As the festivities carried on, she would occasionally catch him fiddling with the token he had bought. Curiosity finally getting the better of her, she decided to ask him about it, deciding to NOT mention that she knew it was illicitly purchased. He was cagey about it at first, but eventually loosened up and told her the truth.

He had grown bored with the usual missions that he had been assigned. He was sick of always having to play support, always cleaning up someone else’s messes, always laying the groundwork for someone else’s story. So, he had decided to cash in his points, and finally make use of the vacation time he had accrued. He had picked out what looked to be a pretty basic Isekai mission. Ruby suggested not mentioning his luck to anyone else, even she was aware how rare and coveted those missions were.

As the night wound to a close, they said their goodbyes. Before taking her leave, Ruby remembered the other present she had for Jason. A sharp whistle was the only warning she gave him before flicking the coin at his head. Even drunk, the man’s senses were still a thing to marvel at as he caught it in midair .

“The fuck is this?”

“Think of it as a gift.” She snorts.

“Oh, how generous of you. A whole gold coin, whatever will I spend it on.” Jason responds as he jangles the large coin pouch at his hip.

“Oh, fuck off. I’ll take it back if you’re going to be a brat about it.”

Jason drops the coin into his wallet and shakes it again for good measure. “Oops, too late now. Guess you’ll just have to let me keep it.” He gives her a smug grin.

She scoffed before turning around and making for the door. She could hear him activate the token as she closed the door behind her. As she wandered down the hallways back to her room, she pondered the events of the day. The rogue client would need to be dealt with, but she still wasn’t sure if burying him in legal paperwork for the next millennia or two, or just giving him a good old fashion human curb stomping, was the better punishment for his actions.

The choices bounced around in her head till she finally reached her residence. Having made no real progress in deciding her actions, she elected to just table the decision till she woke up next. The God was small time, so it wasn’t like it was going anywhere.

She took her time getting ready to sleep. Being a divine being herself, she didn’t actually NEED to sleep, but she did so enjoy the human customs surrounding the whole process. She took a long hot bath to unwind, before summoning a pair of adorable pajamas. Her body clean, and her mind at peace she laid down in her oversized excessively fluffy bed.

She had barely closed her eyes and began to drift off to blissful sleep, before she was awoken once again by the sound of her alarm going off.

“You have got to be shitting me. HOW?!?!”

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So I was trying to work on drop/meso gear to maximize hunting efficiency and originally was curious about whether to use glowing or bright cubes and heard people generally prefer bright cubes. So I decided to deep dive and do the math to figure out exactly how much the average cost will be for each piece of equipment with each type of cube.
Assuming you are STARTING at legendary tier potential already, lets do a comparison of glowing (blue) and bright (purple) cubes. Based on this website https://strategywiki.org/wiki/MapleStory/Potential_System, it lists the chances of multi priming for brights at 10% for the 2nd line and 1% for the 3rd line for glowing cubes, and 20% for line 2 and 5% for line 3 for bright cubes. It also shows that cash cubes have a 1 in 14.3333 (or 3/43) chance of giving you a drop rate line in the legendary prime category. Meso also has the same chance of 3/43, so if you want either that is a 6/43 chance in one line. So for line 1 because it is guaranteed 100% prime you have:
Line 1: 6/43 success, 37/43 fail
Line 2 first has to first roll prime then also roll meso/drop, so with glowing/bright you have:
Line 2 (glowing): 1/10 * 6/43 = 6/430 success, 424/430 fail
Line 2 (bright): 2/10 * 6/43 = 12/430 success, 418/430 fail
Line 3 similarly has to first roll prime then also roll meso/drop, so with glowing/bright you have:
Line 3 (glowing): 1/100 * 6/43 = 6/4300 success, 4294/4300 fail
Line 3 (bright): 5/100 * 6/43 = 30/4300 success, 4270/4300 fail.
So now you have 8 combinations of success/fail across the 3 lines. (note according the to wiki 3L for drop specifically is impossible but since its nearly impossible to get probability-wise anyway and to make the calculations simple I'll ignore that you cant get 3L and suppose you can, i mean you can 7/8ths the result afterwords for that part of the equation if thats the only combination of 3L you cant get should you get a 3L consisting of drop/meso)
Glowing Bright
Line 1/2/3 success = 6/43 * 6/430 * 6/4300 = 216/79507000 6/43 * 12/430 * 30/4300 = 2160/79507000
Line 1/2 success = 6/43 * 6/430 * 4294/4300 = 154584/79507000 6/43 * 12/430 * 4270/4300 = 307440/79507000
Line 1/3 success = ... (note all will have something/43 * something/430 * something/4300 so from this line after i will just only do the numerators for sanity) 6*424*6 = 15264/79507000 6*418*30 = 75240/79507000
Line 2/3 success = 37*6*6 = 1332/79507000 37*12*30 = 13320/79507000
Line 1 only success = 6*424*4294 = 10923936/79507000 6*418*4270 = 10709160/79507000
Line 2 only success = 37*6*4294 = 953268/79507000 37*12*4270 = 1895880/79507000
Line 3 only success = 37*424*6 = 94128/79507000 37*418*30 = 463980/79507000
No Lines of success = 37*424*4294 = 67364272/79507000 37*418*4270 = 66039820/79507000
So in summary: (Glowing Bright)
3L = 216/79507000 2160/79507000
2L = 171180/79507000 396000/79507000
1L = 11971332/79507000 13069020/79507000
0L = 67364272/79507000 66039820/79507000
or better yet:
2L/3L = 171396/79507000 398160/79507000
0L/1L = 79335604/79507000 79108840/79507000
per each roll. Now finally we account for how many trials it will take until one success. When something of interest happens in a row like flipping a coin and it landing heads 3 times in a row, we do 1/2 * 1/2 * 1/2. The same concept applies for failing to get the result we want over and over again. Lets try to compute the median cubes (the amount of cubes necessary to be in the 50%th percentile of luck of all people will typically use until success).
For glowing cubes we are trying to solve: (79335604/79507000)^x = 0.5, where x is the number of cubes it will take to be in the 50th percentile. To solve for b in a^b = c, you can rearrange the equation as such: ln(c)/ln(a) = b. So ln(0.5)/ln(79335604/79507000) = 321.19 -> 322. After 322 glowing cubes you are less lucky than the majority of players.
Similarly for bright cubes, ln(0.5)/ln(79108840/79507000) = 138.06 -> 139 cubes. Since packs of 10 are 120m or 220m for glowing or bright cubes respectively, the average would be 12m or 22m per cube.
12m * 322 = 3.864 billion meso for glowing cubes and
22m * 139 = 3.058 billion meso for bright cubes. This makes bright cubes the more cost efficient choice for double priming.
The average cost now rather than the median for each can be calculated by doing (1 / p) * cost, where p = 171396/79507000 for glowing and 398160/79507000 for bright cubes. (Just swap the numerators and denominators when doing 1/(a/b) to get (b/a). So 79507000/171396 = 463.87 -> 464 (glowing cubes) = 79507000/398160 = 199.68 -> 200 (bright cubes). Which costs 12m * 464 = 5.568 billion meso for glowing cubes and 22m * 200 = 4.4 billion meso for bright cubes.
TLDR:
Glowing cubes on median cost 3.864B meso and an average cost of 5.568B meso for a 2L/3L.
Bright cubes on median cost 3.058B meso and an average cost of 4.4B meso for a 2L/3L. <- More cost efficient.

So i only finally got my first Fully-awakened Weapon+Terminus-like+Warpath with Twen a few days ago and certainly enjoying how Proto bahamut and Behemoth runs feel alot faster, though its certainly driving home the half burn out i feel on the `grind` still, even when i only do a few runs a day.
So thought it be neat to maybe see what some others might want out of the game before they feel its a `complete` game overall.
Just to start off the list here`s a few i feel it could really need, especially would of been nice day 1 of the game: -Proud mode versions of the Primal Beasts and Tayu`itar: I spammed about it multiple times already around the reddit for this game, but I`m sure many would agree that its half a pain to get multiple copies of dread-tails, sequester manes, Tayu`itar head units and Ukar units. Problem aint present with the Avia Commanders thanks to Wolf and Veil.
-Probably over-used, but a Rogue-lite mode or a `Proper bonus reward system` might be nice, maybe to replace quick quest itself: Since i seen plenty, including myself complain there`s nothing really to justify the grind one has todo even after acquiring the `base stuff` of a good sigil combination or put all the effort into fully awakened a weapon. Plus how sparse the end game feels since its just boiled down to Proto Bahamut, then Lucy and now Behemoth, which even if the latter feels way more interactive and you dont have bosses constantly spamming either cutscenes or being out of range causing forced fixed down times of no damage or SBA generation...
...Well them doing something to FIX a problematic mode that had the intention of doing multiple quests back to back for a goodie reward would of been kind of nice, especially since many games whether triple A or not seem to want to include a Rogue-lite every since stuff like Slay the spire popularized it and it fits into many genres. So just like how Dragon Quest: Infinite Strash started right off with a rogue-like for the sake of grinding levels/materials/etc. GBF: Relink could take a page from that or even how Warframe a f2p online looter-shooter made its diviri paradox into a rogue-lite gamemode of collecting buffs and getting more and more ridiculously powerful in that mode in particular.
In GBF: Relink`s case, this could simply be done where each quick quest could add a small resource & drop rate multiplier, which could probably either reset 24 hours after you did the first one or when doing a non-quick quest, and after 3 or maybe 5 quick quests it could gurantee a gold dahlia badge and give an additional chest till maybe it caps to giving 5 additional chest rewards (after say, 15 quick quests for that `24 hour period), every quick quest past that and a gold dahlia badge every quick quest. While having multi player double the rewards instead of guranting the badge and the tickets would just let you add +1 to it period, no online requirements at all so one can stop staring at 99/99 gold tickets in storage. Very least this way when the ability to play online for GBF: Relink can`t happen anymore, it would let it still work as a stand alone game.
As for how they could push it into a rogue-like mode, well, a solo only version of quick quests might be nice that maybe trade off chain bursts and link time by giving buffs as you progress that could serve as an alternative way to get dahlia badges and maybe push players to enjoy favorites more then `meta cheesies or something.` Probably be too much to ask for at this point, but if they were to suddenly take a Xenoblade chronicles 3 approach due to game popularity, i can totally see them re-rigging some content with some basic tweaks and easily adding a dozen or two dozen new kinds of buffs you get for running thru hyper scaled up versions of particular bosses and having things like movement speed buffs, break power buffs and more could even fix some issues in particular characters, make them feel awesome like most rogue-lite modes in many games do, even when the character itself is normally `bad` in the standard gameplay loop of said game.
-Quick-scrap during Transmute/marvel screen and max capacity of Vouchers when GBF:Relink team?: Deeeefinitely one of my earliest complaints because im sure even if its to match up with the cap of 30, on multiple transmutes, it would be nice while looking at the list of pulled sigils, if i could say, press Square on my PS5 controller and immediately scrap those back to vouchers, when i `exit` the results screen, like how a number of games have with similar `pulling` systems. With of course, i think it would be nice to loop around 400~ sigils per voucher cap stock instead of going back-forth every 40, even if multi-rolls cut the spam down from 39 `rolls` to only 2, even if it might of been smoother to let us have a button to just roll as many time as we have vouchers instead.
-With just to finish things up, probably a more tuned up filter system: This is more of a minor gripe but it would be nice if i could select a specific sigil effect so i can only see sigils of that specific type. Despite the fact they have icons to SLIGHTLY differ certain effects(Too bad thats not the case with all so its a dissonance design headache with that), its still a bit of an eye-sore when i could be checking 10 or more sigils of a specific category. Especially if im say, wanting to only look at my sigils with Critical hit rate to drag out a particular combination i want to optimize-match up a build without overlap issues.
Anywho, what else do you guys think the game could use, if we are guranteed further updates, even if they will be `unplanned` after 1.3.1, which as far as im aware of, outside of impossible Lucy and Sandy, is mostly just additional character improvements and transmutation Synthesis, which we still have no idea what kind of resources it will require, if it will be locked behind defeating impossible lucy first and if it will be more unreasonable by requiring something like 10 copies of a sigil with a specific effect to `allow` you to remove the secondary effect on a sigil to replace it with the one you want from the 10 copies.
Probably wont be that extreme, but its likely not gonna be as simple as Transmarvel i would think, to force people to keep having to burn vouchers for `sigil fodder` atleast...

January 29, 2384 - the day of the last total eclipse is when the raid began. “The day of the sun's false shadow” as people call it now. We, humans, were an unsuspecting victims in a universe habited by multiple vastly stronger existences. When it happened the world had been thrown into utter chaos and shock. The sun had been completely covered by the moon and this event was supposed to last only a short while however after two hours sunlight had still not shown its face upon the earth's surface. This was the beginning of humanity's greatest tribulation. After days of the sun's light not being shown the planet's temperature began to drop and to compensate for this people began to create massive fires but this did not stop the problem. Photosynthesis in plants began to stop, making it harder for humans to breathe. This made humans build labs and create artificial oxygen, which took care of that problem but humans still began to die from hypothermia, frozen oceans, and forced stoppage of blood flow. After two weeks, the sun finally revealed itself and all hope had been restored in humanity collectively only for half the population to be massacred in an instant. “The watchers” had been slowly waiting with armies to colonize our planet and technology beyond our wild comprehension. Technology we can only dream of had been shown and used right before our very eyes and for the first time in all of human history, we had been united as one in our mutual fear and horror. 2 months later, 90% of humanity has been wiped out and the few who remained were used as slaves to cultivate energy. With the use of a Dyson shell, nearly 80% of the sun's energy and heat had been directed into maintaining their energy. Amongst all this time, humanity had collectively agreed to fight back. This began the creation of the liberation group, “the Plague”. These groups of people were the last hope of humanity and carried an extremely large ambition and dream on their shoulders. While “the watchers” were extremely advanced this doesn't change the fact that they were fallible and this group of people were their scourge. They didn't have the military might nor the advanced brain to even keep up against “the watchers” but through slavery and forced labor, the human body began to develop into something stronger. They began to surpass their limits and break the barriers that the human mind had once placed on themselves. Through the selective farming of “the watchers” a new plant had developed that was essentially a stimulant to the human body and a limit breaker for their physical capabilities. At first, they began by using strong levels of acid to corrode the buildings and structures and then stopping their heartbeat to give the impression of suicide so they could not be caught, however, they did not die due to a new system developed from the human's newfound evolution. Due to the strict regimen that we had to follow, we knew all of the places where they would and wouldn't be, all the blind spots of the planet, all the places where they were in close proximity to a chasm, and all the places where we were at a disadvantage. We used the blindspots as bases and hideouts where we could plan our vengeance. After a year of just observing their behavior, habits, bodily functions, and even their schedules we developed a hypothesis that 24 seconds after 7:39 PM we have approximately 19 minutes and 53 seconds in Greenland where we are not being watched nor located. We used this small window of time to gather the fundamental items we needed to fight back and build the foundation for our organization. We gathered food, plants, water, armor, and weapons. We realized that they were immune to cutting/slicing damage and could only be hurt through blunt attacks. With this knowledge, we developed a specific fighting style and used that small time frame to train others in it. We adapted to the harsh conditions and created clothes using spare pieces from “the watchers” specially made for insulating heat, weighing less, and being less penetrable by outside attacks. After a year every person on the planet was a master at this martial arts and had fully developed a counter to all technology that “the watchers” had. However, we could not initiate immediate war on them so we needed a plan. We came up with the idea to have one of our strongest members report to the watchers about our activity and give away one of our bases. This created the false notion that not only did they have someone working as a double agent on their side but also they knew where we would be so they could catch us off guard. We were all there like they expected and they attacked like planned. We had all moved our weapons, armor, and vital items into a different base but kept some things where they attacked to make them think we had not gotten far but this was a dud. Eventually, we had all “died” and had our bodies left at that place as a sign of victory on their side. However, because of this, their ego had grown and they began to underestimate us. The surveillance had gotten weaker as they assumed their “double agent” would tell them everything as a trade for luxury living. We knew that physical power would not be enough so our smartest man collaborated to develop a virus specifically made for their genetic makeup which took about 5 years to extract small strands of DNA without them realizing. Once the virus had been created the incidence began and eliminated more than 60 percent of “the watchers” because of how they were too distracted trying to develop a cure and the vast amount of them dying, we had gained more time to develop our forces and we began to ingest various harmful substances but in small doses in order to gain resistance to any harmful poisons and acids. After new children start to be born this began the origin of a new human species. One massively stronger, smarter, more durable, and with all the immunities and benefits without the downsides. With the birth of this new generation, all of the human race had experienced a collective euphoria. We had begun to secretly train these kids for years and strengthen them in a way the human race had never been before. Due to the circumstances of their birth, they had also developed a strong ability for adaptation and healing factor which ultimately led to humans finally being able to physically compete with “the watchers”. However, we were still lacking in numbers despite the virus taking a vast majority of “the watchers” away. Some of us grew confident and because we were now physically capable some believed we could win the war while others believed we couldn’t yet. This created division within our ranks but did not necessarily break our ranks but that was all depending on your interpretation. We gathered our smartest men and women to make a plan to initiate war, and for 14 days they were stuck in ruminative thought. 2 years passed and we had finally built up the numbers, technology, and physical capabilities to contend with the watchers. Now on the day of the war, all of our strongest soldiers imitated the attack. But this time they were an unsuspecting victim on a planet habited by a stronger species. During the war we had counters for nearly everything the watchers could dish out but one thing we were not aware of was the fact that the watchers could transform into a smaller but faster, stronger, and more durable form. This form took the shape of humankind. So closely related that it struck fear into the hearts of many. Not only was this extremely off-putting but the revelation that came along with it had altered the perception of humanity as we know it. The war had been put to a halt, and all forced fighting in the war had directed their attention to one watcher and one watcher alone. All forces had been completely immobilized and fighting back was no longer capable. With this, the words that had been spoken out of the watcher were a revelation that humanity had not even considered possible. “We are not your enemies. We are you but from the future. In our original timeline, we have been attacked by a species even higher than us. We had been pushed to the brink of extinction and our last hope was only to go back in time in hopes that if we returned to our past selves we could help evolve even more to contend with the world-ending threats from the future. This siege we had laid on this planet and the forced evolution, progression, and tragedy among humankind also brought extreme progression in human capabilities. All of you are vastly superior to your previous forms because of our arrival. While we acknowledge our methods were not the ideal we had no other option. This was the fastest and most effective method to progress the human species although we could not allow the human race to have this win. It would boost the ego of your race and our all of you in a state of comfort and stagnation. With this being said we resign from our participation in this war and would greatly appreciate it if you allowed us to help humanity rebuild and donate technology.” Speechless as to what humanity has just heard we just stood there in utter shock and disbelief. Not a single soul knew what to say and all of humanity had stood in confusion. One man spoke “how do we know this is true” the watcher proceeded to show pictures and videos of them being massacred while some stood in human form and others did not. They showed is this along with the words, “we initiated this war as a way to put the human race through natural selection and eliminate all the weak human being who would not be able to contribute to our growth and success in any upcoming battle. So with that being said what is your decision?” Our leader, and the smartest woman among us had stated, “We humbly decline this offer as we would prefer to evolve by our capabilities and we have already surpassed you so what can you possibly teach us.” After this being stated the war had been started again and the watchers had been for the first time since the “great cleansing” began utterly defeated and annihilated. With the war being won, humanity being victorious, and newfound abilities being discovered humanity had been thrown into an era of peace and prosperity. All tragedies had been blamed on the watchers and for the first time humanity had an ever lasting peace and a perfect utopia where everyone agreed and benefited from each other. With this, we have been vastly improving and slowly but steadily rebuilding our planet and all of humankind. Our members started family’s and genuinely enjoyed the life they were living once again. Everyone acting coyly and with one another was a beautiful side to behold. Everything was perfect until the same monsters who killed the watchers, showed up to eliminate us due to fear of what we could evolve into this time we had no way to fight back and our ranks were already diminished or severely weakened. How would humanity be able to survive this time???Most people had been massacre and captures to be experimented on. Very few of us had actually managed to get away from them and we had only been able to do this through shadow banishment. It was a skill that we had acquired through the technology of the watchers. Living in the void was not the ideal lifestyle as it was ruthless, dirty, and unsafe but the chances of surviving here were massively higher than surviving on earth. Only a hundred of us remained and the human species were basically extinct. With this small group left we had resorted to instead of trying to repopulate and exact revenge immediately we would take the short route. In the void monsters had no sort of civilization and the only rule amongst these creatures were the strongest prevail. There was no sort of rule, order, or even a sense of respect between these monsters. The weak were prey for the strongest, and the strong were killed by the stronger. We took this as an opportunity to not only increase our strength by training and battling but also amassing an empire. The remind of humanity collectively agree that we would bring order and peace to the void. The best way to go through this was by entering the tournament. The monsters held tournaments to watch the strongest fight and kill each other for pure fun. We joined this colosseum and while at first we easily overwhelmed our opponents we had slowly been facing harder and harder opponents as we rose through the ranks. By the time even a single one of us was defeated we had made a name and gained the attention of multiple monsters within the void. We were not necessarily respected or followed but we were feared and simultaneously an opponent that monsters wished to fight. After this we had developed our own fighting ring in which monster could fight and battle against us and only us. We implied a set of rules in this ring. Rule 1; no killing Rule 2; reservations must be made to fight Rule 3; both parties must consent Rule 4; do not make the fight personal Rule 5; it must be between a human and monster. These rules created a sense of security amongst the monsters and while driven by their desire of battle they also abided by the rules. Eventually after fighting throughout the tournament and gaining more traction with the monsters in it. Eventually even the most high ranked demons had begun to make reservations in for our fights. Our strongest soldiers had been the ones to fight them as nobody else can really compete. The first fight had been with a demon who had the ability of immunity. This ability did not only revolve around internal status effects but also could be applied to his physical body. The fight had been the biggest one the ring had ever experienced and it did not disappoint. Eventually we had won and this through the whole entire void and everyone in it into an uproar. Monsters who never even bothered to fight had shown up to battle. The strongest monster in the void and the only monster with a sense of order, self, and purpose had shown up to fight all humans by himself. He agreed that if we win he would pledge allegiance to us all and work under our rule however if we lose we will be killed. This monster bore an extreme resemblance humans. The structure of his body and the contents of it were all human like however he claimed not to be. This monsters name was angel and he possessed the ability to manipulate and control all matter with the sole exception of any other organic material that resided outside of his own body. Our commander and strongest member amongst us was the person to fight him. His name was Alexander and despite the fact that we didn't have any singular special powers like him however our physical bodies were honed greater than any other species in existence. They were evenly matched in speed and strength and even in our capabilities to rapidly heal from damage. They had been evenly matched in all physical ability and the fight had ultimately come to hand to hand combat and who could last longer. Angel was unmatched in combat and had barely even been hit due to how experienced in martial arts he had been; however throughout the fight Alexander had been naturally adapting to his fighting style and developing counters to everything. Our natural ability to adapt to all attacks and effects placed upon us had given a clear win condition; however time was needed to actually see and fully understand how to possibly adapt to everything. The longer the fight took the higher the chance of Angel losing. Alexander had slowly but steadily been adapting and developing new combat styles to counter everything angle could do and even had grown to use his own severed limbs as projectiles and use his blood as a coat over all other objects to cancel his ability to use his field. Angel's main ability had been to control the air around him to increase speed, power, and even get a sense of what his opponent would be doing before it happened. After finally adapting to this his body had begun to heat itself in an attempt to turn it into vapor and due to blood being organic matter of another life form he would no longer have control of the air and the surrounding area. After this the fight had come down to solely base physical capabilities and for 10 minutes they had been mindlessly brawling and instantaneously healing through the damage taken. After a long period of time their healing began to slow down due to bodily fatigue. Biting, punching, scratching, kicking, anything you can think of, they did it. That fight was a bloodbath unlike anything else and in the end they both passed out on the floor with nothing left besides their bodies soaked and bathed in each other's blood. After they had both been knocked unconscious their bodies had been left there in anticipation for them to awaken. The ring filled beyond capacity as people argued and fought about who would awaken first. In anticipation for this once in a lifetime event the whole void had stopped with all its attention. Angel was the first to awaken and he had been exhausted and utterly stunned as to how he actually had gotten knocked out. He had the opportunity to kill his opponent as he had technically won the battle but out of respect for his opponents strength and capabilities he possessed. After the fight had finished Angel had left and was never to be seen again. After 2 weeks Alexander had awoken in a small shack being guarded by one other human and confused after everything had been explained to him he had went around looking for angel but he was not to be found. After awakening Alexander had been massively stronger than before. Due to the physical state his body was put in and all the damage that he had taken from Angel his body had adapted and become more dense in order to take all the attacks while sustaining the least amount of damage possible. After his awakening this began our political revolution. We had now implemented the ring with rules and gotten multiple monsters to follow by these rules and with them being accurate to filling orders more now we had decided to initiate a leadedictator in a sense. The top 5 strongest creatures in the void had been the leaders and this had consisted of Alexander at 1, 2 other demons at 2 and 3, and humans to fill the final spots. We began to implement laws and rules in order to stop the mass murder and destruction happening and within a small time frame we had created structures similar to the ones of the earth. Houses and gyms in order to train in hopes of becoming stronger and even professional combat sports. After 2 months time had passed we had developed a military with our best members in it and humbly had began to repopulate. All this had been done in hopes of regaining the earth and defeated our oppressors. Fast forward 1 months the and the siege of the home planet had begun. They had not been suspecting us however took the preparations in case we had come. Based and soldiers set up in every corner of the world to fight back when the time came we did come back. With this an all out war for the fate of humanity had began and the extinction of either race lay in the balance between life and death.
After the war had began all forces had been deployed to different areas of the planet. Groups that had worked together best being deployed to one part while our strongest being deployed to another. At first we had been nearly even in everything besides technology. They had everything that we lacked and this gave them the combative edge. However despite lacking in technology we made up for it in numbers. Most fights had consisted of large groups of monsters fighting against one or two of our enemy and this has convoluted till their forces had been somewhat deployed. The one on one fights had been more dragged out and heavily impacted the war. Our strongest soldiers fighting against their strongest soldiers in a one on one fight. Everyone has put their all into this battle and left nothing to spare. Our second and third strongest soldiers had the most impact in this war not because of who they fought but because of what they could do. They didn’t actually have abilities specific to them but instead they were born with a type of energy within their bodies in which they called “synergy”. This synergy could be used to amp all their physical abilities but also be used to crate and use techniques or even use techniques that are specific to the traits of the individuals soul. The strength and physical stats of the individual depended on how much synergy they had at their disposal and while some of them were able to gather strength from other life forms it was not a very common occurrence. Alexander fought someone with the ability to control and manipulate momentum. They used synergy and funneled it through all objects of their choice to increase or decrease of momentum of that. This didn’t do much on a wide scale and was a very basic ability but in a solo battle this made it extremely hard to land attacks and even when they were landed they did little to no damage. The most important one to kill had the ability to manipulate all probability. Meaning the likelihood of us even winning this war was less then .0001 percent with them being alive. Whether it was because of a collection of small losses or one major loss did not make a difference. All odds were stacked against us as long as this person remained on the battlefield. In simple terms the whole war relied on the defeat of that person. Our second in command and smartest soldier, “Cassandra” decided to take this upon herself. She was the only one among us who possessed an innate ability and was viewed as the most special soldier but this came at a cost. She gained a talent no other human possessed but in return she no longer had the natural ability to adapt to all circumstances. Her ability was to take the form and attributes of any and all creature she knew to exist. Mythical or not she could take the shape and ability of these creatures and use it as long as she desired. However she could only use one at a time and had to wait 30 seconds in between shifting. Our third in command, “Vladimir” had took the roll of fighting their head technologist. While his opponent had not specialized in battle he still was one of the most dangerous and this was because of his ability to create machines as small as molecular level that shared his thoughts and emotions. These machines were used to repair his body in case on injury, transport information, invade any opponents body and restrict movement, anything that he deemed possible could be done with the use of those machines. But he chose to mainly use them as sort of technological tools to help him further advance his society. The rest of our battles were not nearly as important and were mostly group battles. Afro the beginning portion of Alexander’s fight he had been losing severely and could barely land any attacks at all. After a few minutes of getting beat down and not being able to fight back the adaptation process began. The first adaptation was only a temporary solution to the problem but his body had been explosively shooting out sharpened pieces of his bones and even using tiny droplets of blood as weapons. However this was only a temporary solution because eventually those bones and blood just started being slowed also. The final adaptation and most effective one happened when his body created a function in which he can store kinetic energy and then release it at any given time. This allowed him to rapidly boost his speed whenever his momentum had been slowed and basically cancel out his opponent power. However this still did not stop how his opponent made himself significantly faster. After this the fight had been more tipped into Alexander’s favor but still not enough to actually win. Throughout the progression of the fight Alexander had been gathering more and make friction between the clothes he had and his feet running against the floor. After gathering as much friction and kinetic energy as possible he let it all explode and release all over his body. This altered the form of his body. His body and skin began to form cracks and let off steam. He began to turn dark red and his eyes became shot with blood. His body was slowly crumbling and deteriorating. He had 5 minutes left to defeat his opponent and if he did not then his body would crumble and he would die. Due to his rapid healing factor he had a chance of living if he was able to end the fight within 5 minutes and give himself some time to rest but this all depended on how much he could get done. The battle had been tilted all the way in Alexander’s favor and had no longer been a battle. It had turned into if his opponent could outlast him in those 5 minutes. Brutally beating his opponent and taking full advantage of the situation Alexander did not relent on his rampage. Stopping his momentum no longer mattered and it seemed like the more he tried the faster Alexander got. Steam had been blowing off him. In the end he had managed to kill his opponent within those 5 minutes and had been at deaths door. Cassandra had began her battle and had been absolutely obliterating her opponent. The ability to shape shift from dragons, unicorns, hydras, centaurs, and any mythical creature you can think of. At first she had taken the abilities of a dragon but throughout the fight she had been developing into stronger and more complex creatures. After a while her opponent had been decreasing the probability of her even landing attacks. This made it extremely hard for her to fight and maintain the advantage. She took the appearance and abilities of the mythical deity sun wukong. Due to sun wukong being a monkey that ascended into a higher power he is one of the only gods that she can transform into. After this she gained the ability to not only make clones out of every hair on her body but also multiply the power of each clone. While she does not possess every power sun wukong has she possesses some of them and the most prominent ones. This fight had been a one sided beatdown and only lasted longer than 2 minutes because the probability of each clone attacking each other had been raised to its maximum percentage. Despite this every 1000 punches that had been thrown at least 1 hit her opponent and this was more than he could handle from millions of clones. Vladimir had no special capabilities; he only possessed an extremely honed body and battle experience. At first they had been near equal but the battle began to take a turn when the tiny bugs began to infest his body and eat him from the inside. Due to his advanced healing factor he had been able to stop any significant damage and fight with mild discomfort but this did not change that if he continued in for a longer period of time then he would inevitably be defeated by these bugs and killed. This made the battle a race against time. Expending everything his body had to offer and leaving not a single drop of energy left. Pushing his body to the absolute peak and physical limit. Even going beyond the known capabilities of his body he began to evolve into a higher form. He did not develop any new type of power or gain a newfound power but he did increase and rapidly evolve his physical capabilities. He began to punch with such speed and strength that he created shockwaves from breaking the sound barrier. With this his punches became far more explosive and with every punch thrown he was exploding giant parts of his opponents body and everything within the perimeter. With no regard to his surroundings the battle had destroyed everything in sight and left them fighting in a bare wasteland. Basically erasing everything within line of his punches he began to annihilate his opponent with speed and strength unmatched. Due to all the tiny machines within his body he regrow limbs and was able to counter attack with near no fatigue or even lag in his action. While pushing his body to its absolute limit his body had given up on him. Rapidly healing from constant damage, pushing muscles to their utmost limit, moving, attacking at his highest speed, and even understanding/ perception of all attacks massively faster then he could ever before. Due to all this his body began to give out and in the midst of battle he fell and was unable to recover. No longer able to fight back and maintain the performance he had, he was defeated. Being eaten from the inside, limbs being torn from his body, and being damaged so much that not even his regeneration could keep up. His head had been ripped off his body and with this humanity had suffered its first major loss. After this all other forces began to gain support from all his other bugs and humanities forces had been rapidly depleting. With loss in sight humanity had lost hope and accepted defeat. Right when humanity had accepted defeat and all hope had been lost the king had shown himself once again. Like an Angel coming to bless all of humanity he had run through and obliterated all enemies of humanity. Destroying everything in sight and bringing all enemies to his feet he had saved humanity and restored hope and just like that he had disappeared into the void once again. There was no explanation as to how or why but in that moment all of humanity knew who we would be forever grateful and indebted to. Not many opponents had been left standing but the few who were, were extremely weakened and overwhelmed by numbers. After this decisive battle humanity had been in a state of joy and excitement out of their new victory. Once all the excitement and happiness from winning had worn off all the sorrow and remorse from the losses had come rushing in. All the lost family members, dead soldiers, limbs lost, and mental trauma had taken a toll on humanity. After we had gotten our planet back we did not spend our time rebuilding and trying to repopulate. We spent months mourning the loss of our loved ones and all our soldiers. We laid in depression and sorrow for our mutual loss and mental trauma. This brought humanity closer as a whole and we bonded over our suffering. Humanity had been one but at what cost. After years of processing humanity had finally been able to rebuild all of our structures, population, and even expand to different planets. After all these trials and tribulations we had finally evolved completely and after ages of loss we had finally entered a golden age of humanity. After all this we had begun to explore the deep parts of our planet and while exploring we discovered something far beyond our comprehension. Humanity had only been a small part of a vastly bigger world and a whole new world had now been exposed to us. We had breached through the ice caps of the north pole and had been greeted with hostility from a race on our planet we did not even know existed. After entering this “new world” humanity had found out the truth of our existence and creation. After finding out the truth of our creation and the prophecy of our faith we had all collectively regretted winning that war. Beyond our world laid horrors and truths we were not yet prepared for. After all this we had once again been thrown into a dark age with no will to fight. In the end this was the beginning of the end for humanity…

My family has always been of great minds. I hated it. Growing up and having to study day and night to try and live up to them was extremely exhausting when I couldn't care how things worked as long as I was happy. I gave up but somehow everything kept turning out to be true.
Over my lifetime I have become the Gorden Ramsey of the science world. Known for my temper and also for huge things like curing world hunger using play-doe and cancer with baby powder I got in a back street ally while drunk.
To get my family off my back I started making random ideas so they could see me as a failure and leave me alone but...they keep working. And soon people started to praise me. Fame has left me with nothing but more and more attention. So today I plan to make sure that everyone can just think I'm insane and leave me alone and not some king.
I chuckled like a kid who was opening a Christmas present as I heard the crowd of people chatting and talking loudly as I hid behind my stage in a grey tight suit that my sister had picked out. I sighed and was ready to walk out and make a fool out of myself but my brother stopped me.
" Jack... I just want you to know how proud I am of you. Dad would have loved to see you right now. "
I thought it was ironic because last night while chilling on the couch watching TV and eating chips I made this theory up. He dusted off my shoulders held them tight and looked me in the eyes taking in the moment.
" go give them hell man. "
He had a goofy smile just like Dad but spoke with confidence.
" you got it, man. "
I heard my name being called onto the stage and the uproar startled me for a second but I collected myself and headed out after giving him a nod just to entertain him.
The lights were blinding as I grabbed the mic and looked at the table in front of me with a small box with the ingredients I needed and a chalkboard behind me.
After I stood still for a minute the crowd died down. I had not told anyone what I was presenting so the whole world was watching without a clue of what I was doing this time.
"Hello everyone. Today I believe I have my most important presentation yet..."
The crowd grew silent and hung on every word. And I heard my voice around the room through the speakers.
" Today I have with me a box...and inside is spaghetti I had for breakfast. "
The crowd laughed thinking it was a joke
" shut up "
The crowd grew silent once more
"Behind me is a chalkboard and I will now present my new findings to all of you...I have found out how to make portals to other worlds. "
A man in the far back of the audience yelled bullshit in a heavy Indian accent but he was so far it was a faint sound for me. I smiled at that thinking I had finally found something that would make me lose my title and I could go ahead and live a life without people making me feel like an evil man for not helping others.
I opened the box got a handful of the noodles and threw them at the chalkboard. I then grabbed a paper towel on standby to clean myself.
The noodles hit the board and slowly moved and rested on a spot on the board. I made eye contact with my brother backstage and he had a look on his face showing he believed in me.
I spun the board dropping the noodles to the ground I then grabbed the chalk and drew around the sauce and noodles that stuck to the board then drew my attention to the others that had fallen on the floor and drew an outline of that.
After it finished I threw the chalk in the crowd violently hitting an old lady in the face.
" Quickly I want a show of hands who thinks I'm a crazy guy "
Everyone raised their hands and I laughed to myself
I then went behind the board and laid it horizontally. I grabbed a small knife in my pocket and poked my finger with it. The crimson blood fell and hit the chalk and then as more and more blood hit the chalk it started glowing.
" you have got to be joking. "
I said out loud as it started to spark an orange glow and it slowly grew color to the rest of the chalk in orange sparks.
Once the symbol was fully sparking with orange the sauce began to swell and move around in a counterclockwise manner. I stepped away from it in shock as small parts of the blood in my finger began to float to the parts where it fell on the floor I drew my outlines on and started sparking those as well.
It started to smoke and hiss as if lightning could whisper and the orange began to take shape and the sauce made a doorway. The parts that were not on the board began to grow ice around them and started to make designs on the floor circling me and the board. Suddenly it grew in size and a large booming voice was heard through the portal as I felt panic of people start to set in.
A huge claw came out and scrapped the sides of my table trying to crawl out from the world it had been trapped in. Cold winds hit me as they cut my skin and threw around my clothes. As I saw the table was now melting from its touch.
A slimy green claw with mucus like a face-hugger egg from the movie Alien carved through the floor and pulled the rest of its body out slowly. A beast stood at 12 feet tall adjusting to our world as goop grew and shaped its body as people screamed, ran, and stood frozen in fear.
As it looked around it locked its spider-like eyes and swerled around coming out from the portal and twisting and turning around the body as it made its way to its head finding a place to rest. It then locked its eyes with me and its jaw twisted slowly from an ant-like maw to mine and slowly shrunk and it soon took the shape of me and knelt on the floor and spoke to me.
" master. "
I stood in shock as everyone seemed to calm down and watched to see what I would do.
"...umm "My family has always been of great minds. I hated it. Growing up and having to study day and night to try and live up to them was extremely exhausting when I couldn't care how things worked as long as I was happy. I gave up but somehow everything kept turning out to be true.
Over my lifetime I have become the Gorden Ramsey of the science world. Known for my temper and also for huge things like curing world hunger using play-doe and cancer with baby powder I got in a back street ally while drunk.
To get my family off my back I started making random ideas so they could see me as a failure and leave me alone but...they keep working. And soon people started to praise me. Fame has left me with nothing but more and more attention. So today I plan to make sure that everyone can just think I'm insane and leave me alone and not some king.
I chuckled like a kid who was opening a Christmas present as I heard the crowd of people chatting and talking loudly as I hid behind my stage in a grey tight suit that my sister had picked out. I sighed and was ready to walk out and make a fool out of myself but my brother stopped me.
" Jack... I just want you to know how proud I am of you. Dad would have loved to see you right now. "
I thought it was ironic because last night while chilling on the couch watching TV and eating chips I made this theory up. He dusted off my shoulders held them tight and looked me in the eyes taking in the moment.
" go give them hell man. "
He had a goofy smile just like Dad but spoke with confidence.
" you got it, man. "
I heard my name being called onto the stage and the uproar startled me for a second but I collected myself and headed out after giving him a nod just to entertain him.
The lights were blinding as I grabbed the mic and looked at the table in front of me with a small box with the ingredients I needed and a chalkboard behind me.
After I stood still for a minute the crowd died down. I had not told anyone what I was presenting so the whole world was watching without a clue of what I was doing this time.
"Hello everyone. Today I believe I have my most important presentation yet..."
The crowd grew silent and hung on every word. And I heard my voice around the room through the speakers.
" Today I have with me a box...and inside is spaghetti I had breakfast. "
The crowd laughed thinking it was a joke
" shut up "
The crowd grew silent once more
"Behind me is a chalkboard and I will now present my new findings to all of you...I have found out how to make portals to other worlds. "
A man in the far back of the audience yelled bullshit in a heavy Indian accent but he was so far it was a faint sound for me. I smiled at that thinking I had finally found something that would make me lose my title and I could go ahead and live a life without people making me feel like an evil man for not helping others.
I opened the box got a handful of the noodles and threw them at the chalkboard. I then grabbed a paper towel on standby to clean myself.
The noodles hit the board and slowly moved and rested on a spot on the board. I made eye contact with my brother backstage and he had a look on his face showing he believed in me.
I spun the board dropping the noodles to the ground I then grabbed the chalk and drew around the sauce and noodles that stuck to the board then drew my attention to the others that had fallen on the floor and drew an outline of that.
After it finished I threw the chalk in the crowd violently hitting an old lady in the face.
" Quickly I want a show of hands who thinks I'm a crazy guy "
Everyone raised their hands and I laughed to myself
I then went behind the board and laid it horizontally. I grabbed a small knife in my pocket and poked my finger with it. The crimson blood fell and hit the chalk and then as more and more blood hit the chalk it started glowing.
" you have got to be joking. "
I said out loud as it started to spark an orange glow and it slowly grew color to the rest of the chalk in orange sparks.
Once the symbol was fully sparking with orange the sauce began to swell and move around in a counterclockwise manner. I stepped away from it in shock as small parts of the blood in my finger began to float to the parts where it fell on the floor I drew my outlines on and started sparking those as well.
It started to smoke and hiss as if lightning could whisper and the orange began to take shape and the sauce made a doorway. The parts that were not on the board began to grow ice around them and started to make designs on the floor circling me and the board. Suddenly it grew in size and a large booming voice was heard through the portal as I felt panic of people start to set in.
A huge claw came out and scrapped the sides of my table trying to crawl out from the world it had been trapped in. Cold winds hit me as they cut my skin and threw around my clothes. As I saw the table was now melting from its touch.
A slimy green claw with mucus like a face-hugger egg from the movie Alien carved through the floor and pulled the rest of its body out slowly. A beast stood at 12 feet tall adjusting to our world as goop grew and shaped its body as people screamed, ran, and stood frozen in fear.
As it looked around it locked its spider-like eyes and swerled around coming out from the portal and twisting and turning around the body as it made its way to its head finding a place to rest. It then locked its eyes with me and its jaw twisted slowly from an ant-like maw to mine and slowly shrunk and it soon took the shape of me and knelt on the floor and spoke to me.
" master. "
I stood in shock as everyone seemed to calm down and watched to see what I would do.

"...umm "

Part two of the noodle demon.
Now that this creature knelt before me I realized that the room I was in was so terrible quietly you could hear everyone's ass get tight in anticipation of what would happen next.
" ...what...are you. "
I spoke carefully to the being that had taken the shape of myself. It still took my breath away and my throat was dry.
The beast was a deep green. The color mixed with shades of grey streaming from it. The longer I looked at it I could see it getting closer to what I looked like shaping itself.
From small flowing green tendrils to an arm they grew as they twisted and made bone then muscle and finally skin.
It locked eyes with me and it smiled deeply at me. As it formed the face finally.
" Your vassle. "
My eyes had not moved to the crowd at all but even though the lights hit the stage so hard it was enveloped in smoke.
The creature's eyes glowed as it answered brightly, not figuratively. This thing's eyes were glowing.
"To serve you, We are bound by blood magic. I am a reflection of your desires, Master, " it said, its voice now a whisper in my mind.
It began to stand up as my grey suit began to form on it and by the time it stood fully up it had copied what I looked like.
" let me explain everything. "
My body frozen in fear woke up with adrenaline as I blinked and a flash of green smoke covered my vision as he teleported right to me face to face.
Its body turned to smoke and went into the slits of my eyes. I felt visions follow me in my peripheral vision but surprisingly no pain followed power filled me and it felt like one hell of a drug.
My body and mind altered.
I was now in a very dark place with no walls or light except my reflection on the floor which waved like water.
I took a step back looking around and back to the reflection of me on the ground.
Soon the water rippled and my reflection fell through the floor like gravity was inverted. he flew upright and water fell off of him as he looked at me as he now stood straight ahead of me. He was just reflecting in the water but now eyed me down.
Collecting my nerves.
I begin to speak.
" what do you want..."
He was still in my form and stood perfectly straight. Now with water dripping from his...my hair.
Slight stubble with hair that hung down and my hazel eyes were not present within him but I was greeted with a swelling acidic green that doubled the size of my pupil.
" to serve you. "
He made no other movement than putting his hands behind his back like a soldier at ease.
I could not tell if it was lying or not.
" ...is that it? "
" I am the embodiment of your fear desires and brilliance. You have shaped me. Your desire for solitude birthed me. I will aid you in shaping the world how you see fit. Your reality becomes mine. "
There was a slight echo in the room as he spoke.
" wait...where are we "
I questioned haphazardly
" your mind. "
An awkward silence was in the air until I spoke
" so...am I just standing on the stage not making a sound? "
He gave me a concerned look.
" no...time has frozen outside for you. You may sleep here without having to in the real world so to others you look as if you never rest and you may think and plan what to do in battle here. For them, it will be about two seconds...Do...do you not have any knowledge of what I am? "
Suddenly I felt bad like I had encountered someone famous and I had no idea who they were. A slap in the face like a popular kid meeting someone who had never heard of them. Ego shattered.
" ok sorry no. I...don't go around reading about...monsters?"
I felt like was I saying the n-word of the demon realm not knowing if that word was offensive.
He folded his arms a little upset.
"Are you not a warrior? "
" well...no I...just watch TV and cook here and there- "
The demon cut me off
" weak. "
" excuse me? "
" look. I am an immortal being and after a while you get bored. So I'm sorry if I may be a little upset after being bonded with some nobody. "
I got quiet and I was a little annoyed that I was being roasted by some demon that I just met.
Its form wavers and eyes begin to open on its skin. Cheeks forhead etc.
"After being a god for so long it's fun to play with limitations. Makes things extremely exciting. "
" what do you mean by that? "
" look. You can only be so entertained by the same things. Life gets boring and now...you are going to help me with this. I get to have pure entertainment while you get every wish you could ever want. A mutual bond no? "
He then closed his eyes annoyed and the other eyes meshed back to his skin.
" though... the TV is not that interesting...life is what gets the blood pumping"
I felt the need to quickly change the topic
"Are there others like you? "
The room began to take shape very slowly as the water floor turned to wood and walls went around us.
" of course. You may meet them one day "
Confused and curious I pressed.
"Meet them? "
" yes. Summoning one of us is considered a threat to them. "
He spoke while opening and closing his newly found hand except backward.
" hm...no that don't look right "
I quickly responded
" Wait! How is doing that a threat! "
"Well, one doesn't just accidentally Summon one of us to suddenly get powers beyond human control. "
I thought back to how I summoned him by accident with some food I made.
" well...funny story but I summoned you using my breakfast..."
I had never regretted speaking so much as in that moment.
" What... "
Acid dripped from his words. Literally. His pupils split in half and his bottom jaw ripped open like an ant and curved giving sharpness to the bone.
"Please don't kill me. "
The room began to look like a cozy cabin with a fireplace and he slowly went back to normal.
" I would if I could. I've never felt so disrespected. We are bonded by your blood. If you die...I die. "
Suddenly I felt at ease by this new information.
Then a thought came to my mind
" ...God's can die? "
" you did hear me, right? "
The SAS from this guy was unneeded and I was starting to miss him being on his knees as weird as that sounds.
" so...all that power gone.... in an instant... "
" well...no actually God's powers don't just disappear they transfer to whoever killed them...wait...hold up."
He suddenly had an epiphany.
A smile grew on his face and he grabbed my shoulders
" you! You are going to help me kill the other gods! "
He sounded proud but I let him down.
" ha! No. "
" oh come on! Don't be like that. "
He did a pout.
"Look, man. I'm not killing gods for you. Just because you are bored. "
" hey...they might send people to kill you because you bonded with me. "
"What did I ever do to them? "
"They have a system to this stuff. They like to build and watch things play out. You're a problem. That can mess it up. So...they kill ya...to be honest, I don't know any other way to explain it, man. You know people normally just use my power to kill people and become a king and know this already. "
"This is outrageous. "
" bro. Look if you do this I will be able to get their powers and you will be able to do so much more than what I offer "
I tilted my head
" what can you do? Know what never mind. I will just talk to them and figure things out. "
He groaned and his form melted down sagging and it shot back up reforming
"Is there not anything that you want? Anything in the world? Gods don't put themselves in physical forms. They give people power and can make beings to hunt you. And if they care enough to come down themself. Ha, good luck."
I stopped and thought about it trying to weigh the options of pissing off higher beings.
Suddenly. I found something.
"Can you bring back the dead..."
He stopped confused.
" well...no "
" then I don't want anything "
" wait! "
He threw his arms out pleading
"I don't...but another God does..."
He crosses his arms smiling. He had left the question hanging letting me reconsider his offer.
I stopped and thought for a while before looking back up to him.
I let out a sigh and looked him in the eyes
" ok...you are going to help me get my father back. "
The demon smirked.

I don't think a lot of people realize that Dawn of the Infinite has an additional difficulty above Hard Mode - called Deathless / Immortal.
There is an achievement tracking it: https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=18706/put-that-thing-back-where-it-came-from
The challenge is do all bosses on HM but have no one die from beginning to end (we've seen similar things in previous mega dungeons - Tazavesh and Mechagon). The 'Deathless' twist is four hourglasses that only prevent you from jumping - this isn't really a big deal and on Deos the hourglasses is auto-chucked by a player when they are near a keeper add.
The reward if you haven't done it before is an achievement plus transmogs. Relevant this season is that the final boss loot is upgraded from 509 Hero 3/6 gear to 519 Myth 1/4 gear. Some specs rely on Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows which is BiS for some specs since you can upgrade it all the way to 528.
Also relevant this week is the Dragonflight Dungeon bonus which upgrades Chrono-Lord Deios and drops an additional piece.
The Good

• I underestimate how much the key squish would affect Mega Dungeons. We've got this nice Normal raid experience with Mega Dungeon M0, then Heroic raid level with Hard Mode, and Deathless is akin to low Mythic raid level.
  I'm in favor of pushing more Mega Dungeon challenges and this fills in the niche that players wanting a small raid experience but don't want to feel 'rushed' by the timer in regular M+.
  
• HM puts in some nice interesting twists. Deathless on top forces in playing safer builds which can in turn create more interesting gameplay.
  

The Bad

• This is badly advertised. Wowhead seems content on spamming random posts even spamming the DF dungeon post twice despite having double 519 loot drops being extremely relevant to a lot of players.
  I had to dig through to find a relevant log: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2142447030?t=0h52m42s
  I tried to group finder PUG this but it took hours to get a full team because (A) people don't know about it (B) it is badly advertised (C) this is sort of a +10 difficulty level but pretty hidden in the 'HM' category which is kinda of a +5 ish in the 'Dawn of the Infinite (Mythic) category.
  Had to relent and corral and bribe guildies. I doubt I'll be doing this again this season but we're happy that two of the guildies got their BiS drops from the run.
  At least BfA Mechagon had the Rank 4 Essence animation plus mount.
  
• There's basically nothing that is relevant for Healers on Deos.
  
• Bullions should also include M+ dungeon items and Mega Dungeon items. I had so much trouble trying to find people for this, I can't imagine players who 'technically' have BiS items coming from Deathless specifically but can't run this because no one is interested.
  
• Deathless is a bit much. I'd recommend getting in at 515+ item level just to smooth out the damage going out. I wouldn't rank Chrono-Lord Deos 'harder' than say Mythic Igira this week, but no one can make a single death throughout the 1-2 hours of the run.
  This is akin to a +10 keystone right now in difficulty but no one can die.
  Deathless makes a lot more sense when you can come in with 30+ item levels. You can't really do that this season, and it isn't uncommon to have something random one shot you or some bug or something random kill you through no fault of your own on top of some random difficulty spikes (those eels near the Horde / Alliance timeway area can truck if you decide to pull them)
  I think we can redesign this so 'mythic' level ups the tuning and adds a small little extra twist. This smooths out the entire experience.
  
• Having to click through a variety of things to activate difficulties is a bit convoluted. I think a simple 'choose your level at the start' 'normal, heroic, mythic' is best.
  
• There should be an option in the group finder to indicate the difficulty level you want to participate in.
  

In short, liked what I got. Was interesting and different feeling from M+. Looking forward to Blizz's iteration on this system going forward especially with added QoLs.

DAY: DAY: MAY 12, 2024

• 5-12-2024CAN I TAKE YOUR ORDER—AND YOUR DATA? THE HIDDEN REASON RETAILERS ARE REPLACING STAFF WITH AI BOTS You might have seen viral videos of Wendy’s drive-thru customers in the United States ordering their fast food from the firm’s generative AI bot Wendy’s FreshAI. Most show a very human-like transaction punctuated with cries of amazement at how fast, accurate and polite the system is. While the system and others like it are in their infancy, and some still rely heavily on human assistance, retailers are investing huge sums in AI to replace human workers. Why the rush to automate? It might seem like it’s all about slashing
• 5-12-2024AI FILM FESTIVAL GIVES GLIMPSE OF CINEMA’S FUTURE With fantastical characters including mud people and giant grandmothers, an AI film festival is giving a glimpse of the storytelling made possible by the novel technology. Nearly 3,000 short films were submitted to the festival organized by Runway AI, one of the leading start-ups in the field of AI-powered video generation. The 10 films selected put the filmmakers’ vivid imaginations on display, with their stories set in aesthetically stunning universes. “There is a perception of … AI- driven filmmaking and creation as having a very specific style
• 5-12-2024AI SYSTEMS ARE ALREADY SKILLED AT DECEIVING AND MANIPULATING HUMANS, STUDY SHOWS Many artificial intelligence (AI) systems have already learned how to deceive humans, even systems that have been trained to be helpful and honest. In a review article published in the journal Patterns on May 10, researchers describe the risks of deception by AI systems and call for governments to develop strong regulations to address this issue as soon as possible. “AI developers do not have a confident understanding of what causes undesirable AI behaviors
• 5-12-2024THE END OF THE PACKAGE HOLIDAY PROVIDER? BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY COULD REVOLUTIONIZE TRAVEL EXPERIENCES Forget the middleman—blockchain technology could lead to the end of the traditional package holiday provider, putting power back into the hands of customers, according to a new study from the University of Surrey. The research looked into user acceptance of blockchain-based sharing platforms similar to Airbnb. The study found that blockchain technology could eliminate intermediaries, such as holiday providers, potentially slashing costs by bypassing booking platforms. The study also suggests that property owners stand to gain from blockchain adoption and gain more direct income
• 5-12-2024NOW THEY FEAR IT WAS A SCAM Sleep-deprived and anxious about feeding their babies, tens of thousands of moms in Illinois and elsewhere recently turned to a variety of Facebook groups offering support for breastfeeding, pumping breast milk and postpartum care. Direct responses were often remarkably prompt from the creator and admin of these groups, a Facebook user named “Cathy Marie Chan,” whose profile featured a smiling picture of a woman purporting to be a board-certified lactation consultant
• 5-12-2024HERE ARE FOUR RED FLAGS TO WATCH FOR IN YOUR CHATBOT ‘FRIEND’ It’s been seven years since the launch of Replika, an artificially intelligent chatbot designed to be a friend to human users. Despite early warnings about the dangers of such AI friends, interest in friendships and even romantic relationships with AI is on the rise. The Google Play store shows more than 30 million total downloads of Replika and two of its major competitors since their respective launches. With one in four people around the world reporting being lonely, it is no wonder so many are drawn to the promise
• 5-12-2024CALL FOR SAFEGUARDS TO PREVENT UNWANTED ‘HAUNTINGS’ BY AI CHATBOTS OF DEAD LOVED ONES Without design safety standards, artificial intelligence that allows users to hold text and voice conversations with lost loved ones runs the risk of causing psychological harm and even digitally “haunting” those left behind, according to University of Cambridge researchers. “Deadbots” or “Griefbots” are AI chatbots that simulate the language patterns and personality traits of the dead
• 5-12-2024TURING TEST STUDY SHOWS HUMANS RATE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AS MORE ‘MORAL’ THAN OTHER PEOPLE A new study has found that when people are presented with two answers to an ethical question, most will think the answer from artificial intelligence (AI) is better than the response from another person. “Attributions Toward Artificial Agents in a Modified Moral Turing Test
• 5-12-2024FAKE US SCHOOL AUDIO STOKES AI ALARM The fabricated audio clip of the Maryland school principal underscores the ease with which widely available AI and editing tools can be misused to impersonate celebrities and everyday citizens alike. A fabricated audio clip of a US high school principal prompted a torrent of outrage, leaving him battling allegations of racism and anti-Semitism in a case that has sparked new alarm about AI manipulation. Police charged a disgruntled staff member at the Maryland school with manufacturing the recording that surfaced in January
• 5-12-2024ELECTRONIC MUSIC WITH A HUMAN RHYTHM
• 5-12-2024RESEARCHERS TEST AI SYSTEMS’ ABILITY TO SOLVE THE NEW YORK TIMES’ CONNECTIONS PUZZLE
• 5-12-2024SCIENTISTS CONVERT CHICKEN FAT INTO ENERGY STORAGE DEVICES
• 5-12-2024RED, YELLOW, GREEN … AND WHITE? SMARTER VEHICLES COULD MEAN BIG CHANGES FOR THE TRAFFIC LIGHT
• 5-12-2024FRENCH ART GROUP USES BRAINWAVES AND AI TO RECREATE LANDSCAPES
• 5-12-2024MICROSOFT, AMAZON TO INVEST BILLIONS IN FRENCH TECH
• 5-12-2024NEW RESEARCH SHOWS HOW CHILD-LIKE LANGUAGE LEARNING IS POSSIBLE USING AI TOOLS
• 5-12-2024TEAM DESIGNS ROBOTS TO HELP WITH HUMAN HABITATION IN SPACE
• 5-12-2024TRADING BETWEEN HOUSEHOLDS IN SMART ENERGY COMMUNITIES
• 5-12-2024RESEARCHERS DEVELOP AI-POWERED ‘EYE’ FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE TO ‘SEE’ OBJECTS
• 5-12-2024RESEARCHERS DEVELOP A BIOMECHANICAL DATASET FOR BADMINTON PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
• 5-12-2024AMAZON’S NEW FEES ON SELLERS LIKENED TO ‘KICK IN THE GUT’
• 5-12-2024ALMOST HALF OF IT COULD COME FROM PENNSYLVANIA WASTEWATER
• 5-12-2024NEW LARGE LEARNING MODEL SHOWS HOW AI MIGHT SHAPE LGBTQIA+ ADVOCACY
• 5-12-2024RESEARCHER EXPLAINS WHY WE SHOULD CARE MORE ABOUT CONVERGING TECHNOLOGIES
• 5-12-2024COMMERCIAL JET MAKER AIRBUS IS STAYING HUMBLE EVEN AS BOEING FLOUNDERS. THERE’S A REASON FOR THAT
• 5-12-2024BOLSTER SAFEGUARDS AFTER HEALTH CARE CYBERATTACK
• 5-12-2024HUNDREDS OF CITIES HAVE ACHIEVED ZERO ROAD DEATHS IN A YEAR—HERE’S HOW THEY DID IT
• 5-12-2024DIGITAL HUMAN MODEL AIDS DESIGN OF MOTORCYCLES, BASED ON RIDING POSTURE
• 5-12-2024AI TECHNOLOGY IS SHOWING CULTURAL BIASES—HERE’S WHY AND WHAT CAN BE DONE
• 5-12-2024RESEARCH SHOWS VR POSES PRIVACY RISKS FOR KIDS—PARENTS AREN’T AS WORRIED AS THEY SHOULD BE
• 5-12-2024NEW SOFTWARE TRAINED ON PHOTOGRAPHIC DATABASE MAY ALLOW FACIAL RECOGNITION BENEATH THE MASK
• 5-12-2024SMARTPHONE APP CAN UNMASK FORGED DOCUMENTS
• 5-12-2024NEW STUDY FINDS AI-GENERATED EMPATHY HAS ITS LIMITS
• 5-12-2024ROBOTIC SYSTEM FEEDS PEOPLE WITH SEVERE MOBILITY LIMITATIONS
• 5-12-2024PROTOTYPE BROWSER EXTENSION ADDS WIKIPEDIA-LIKE CITATIONS ON YOUTUBE TO CURB MISINFORMATION
• 5-12-2024SAMSUNG TO BUY FRENCH MEDICAL AI FIRM SONIO
• 5-12-2024AI AND HOLOGRAPHY BRING 3D AUGMENTED REALITY TO REGULAR GLASSES
• 5-12-2024DOVE’S LATEST ‘REAL BEAUTY’ DRIVE—AND WHY AI WILL BE HARDER TO DITCH THAN IT THINKS
• 5-12-2024RESEARCH CASTS NEW LIGHT ON BIKE SAFETY IN THE AGE OF SELF-DRIVING CARS
• 5-12-2024A SECOND LIFE FOR DISCARDED LITHIUM-ION CELLS
• 5-12-2024SINCE TESLA RECALLED ITS VEHICLES IN 2023, THERE HAVE BEEN 20 ACCIDENTS AND INVESTIGATORS ARE ASKING WHY

MAY 12, 2024

• 5-12-2024CAN I TAKE YOUR ORDER—AND YOUR DATA? THE HIDDEN REASON RETAILERS ARE REPLACING STAFF WITH AI BOTS
• 5-12-2024AI FILM FESTIVAL GIVES GLIMPSE OF CINEMA’S FUTURE
• 5-12-2024AI SYSTEMS ARE ALREADY SKILLED AT DECEIVING AND MANIPULATING HUMANS, STUDY SHOWS
• 5-12-2024THE END OF THE PACKAGE HOLIDAY PROVIDER? BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY COULD REVOLUTIONIZE TRAVEL EXPERIENCES
• 5-12-2024NOW THEY FEAR IT WAS A SCAM
• 5-12-2024HERE ARE FOUR RED FLAGS TO WATCH FOR IN YOUR CHATBOT ‘FRIEND’
• 5-12-2024CALL FOR SAFEGUARDS TO PREVENT UNWANTED ‘HAUNTINGS’ BY AI CHATBOTS OF DEAD LOVED ONES
• 5-12-2024TURING TEST STUDY SHOWS HUMANS RATE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AS MORE ‘MORAL’ THAN OTHER PEOPLE
• 5-12-2024FAKE US SCHOOL AUDIO STOKES AI ALARM
• 5-12-2024ELECTRONIC MUSIC WITH A HUMAN RHYTHM
• 5-12-2024RESEARCHERS TEST AI SYSTEMS’ ABILITY TO SOLVE THE NEW YORK TIMES’ CONNECTIONS PUZZLE
• 5-12-2024SCIENTISTS CONVERT CHICKEN FAT INTO ENERGY STORAGE DEVICES
• 5-12-2024RED, YELLOW, GREEN … AND WHITE? SMARTER VEHICLES COULD MEAN BIG CHANGES FOR THE TRAFFIC LIGHT
• 5-12-2024FRENCH ART GROUP USES BRAINWAVES AND AI TO RECREATE LANDSCAPES
• 5-12-2024MICROSOFT, AMAZON TO INVEST BILLIONS IN FRENCH TECH
• 5-12-2024NEW RESEARCH SHOWS HOW CHILD-LIKE LANGUAGE LEARNING IS POSSIBLE USING AI TOOLS
• 5-12-2024TEAM DESIGNS ROBOTS TO HELP WITH HUMAN HABITATION IN SPACE
• 5-12-2024TRADING BETWEEN HOUSEHOLDS IN SMART ENERGY COMMUNITIES
• 5-12-2024RESEARCHERS DEVELOP AI-POWERED ‘EYE’ FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE TO ‘SEE’ OBJECTS
• 5-12-2024RESEARCHERS DEVELOP A BIOMECHANICAL DATASET FOR BADMINTON PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
• 5-12-2024AMAZON’S NEW FEES ON SELLERS LIKENED TO ‘KICK IN THE GUT’
• 5-12-2024ALMOST HALF OF IT COULD COME FROM PENNSYLVANIA WASTEWATER
• 5-12-2024NEW LARGE LEARNING MODEL SHOWS HOW AI MIGHT SHAPE LGBTQIA+ ADVOCACY
• 5-12-2024RESEARCHER EXPLAINS WHY WE SHOULD CARE MORE ABOUT CONVERGING TECHNOLOGIES
• 5-12-2024COMMERCIAL JET MAKER AIRBUS IS STAYING HUMBLE EVEN AS BOEING FLOUNDERS. THERE’S A REASON FOR THAT
• 5-12-2024BOLSTER SAFEGUARDS AFTER HEALTH CARE CYBERATTACK
• 5-12-2024HUNDREDS OF CITIES HAVE ACHIEVED ZERO ROAD DEATHS IN A YEAR—HERE’S HOW THEY DID IT
• 5-12-2024DIGITAL HUMAN MODEL AIDS DESIGN OF MOTORCYCLES, BASED ON RIDING POSTURE
• 5-12-2024AI TECHNOLOGY IS SHOWING CULTURAL BIASES—HERE’S WHY AND WHAT CAN BE DONE
• 5-12-2024RESEARCH SHOWS VR POSES PRIVACY RISKS FOR KIDS—PARENTS AREN’T AS WORRIED AS THEY SHOULD BE
• 5-12-2024NEW SOFTWARE TRAINED ON PHOTOGRAPHIC DATABASE MAY ALLOW FACIAL RECOGNITION BENEATH THE MASK
• 5-12-2024SMARTPHONE APP CAN UNMASK FORGED DOCUMENTS
• 5-12-2024NEW STUDY FINDS AI-GENERATED EMPATHY HAS ITS LIMITS
• 5-12-2024ROBOTIC SYSTEM FEEDS PEOPLE WITH SEVERE MOBILITY LIMITATIONS
• 5-12-2024PROTOTYPE BROWSER EXTENSION ADDS WIKIPEDIA-LIKE CITATIONS ON YOUTUBE TO CURB MISINFORMATION
• 5-12-2024SAMSUNG TO BUY FRENCH MEDICAL AI FIRM SONIO
• 5-12-2024AI AND HOLOGRAPHY BRING 3D AUGMENTED REALITY TO REGULAR GLASSES
• 5-12-2024DOVE’S LATEST ‘REAL BEAUTY’ DRIVE—AND WHY AI WILL BE HARDER TO DITCH THAN IT THINKS
• 5-12-2024RESEARCH CASTS NEW LIGHT ON BIKE SAFETY IN THE AGE OF SELF-DRIVING CARS
• 5-12-2024A SECOND LIFE FOR DISCARDED LITHIUM-ION CELLS
• 5-12-2024SINCE TESLA RECALLED ITS VEHICLES IN 2023, THERE HAVE BEEN 20 ACCIDENTS AND INVESTIGATORS ARE ASKING WHY

Novice to septic systems so please be gentle...
Bought a house 3 months ago. Had the tank pumped when we bought it by Company A.
This weekend the overflow was leaking in our basement when we flushed or used water on our 1st floor.
Our plumber said to call a local septic company (Company B) because he thought either (a) there was a clog or (b) the system may be failing.
Called emergency line of Company A and spoke to a tech. He had me go out and look into my tank. Said if liquid was at the lid, system may be failing since I said we had it pumped 3 months ago. If levels were lower then there is likely a clog.
He determined it was a likely clog and scheduled a truck to come out first thing Monday to look at it.
The truck comes out Monday and the driver starts pumping our tank and seepage pits. The driver is cleaning up so I walked out and asked about the clog, he didn't seem to know anything about a clog (told me to call my plumber - LOL).
When I explained the situation he said he could jet the system. He did, and the problem appears to be resolved.
My problem is - I literally discussed with the weekend tech that the levels were good and he said it's likely a clog. Then it seemed like the truck driver on Monday didn't even know about the clog, was just there to pump.
Did the pump even need to happen? It is going to cost me $450 over the $295 for the jet. It feels like the pump was unnecessary since my tank was pumped 3 months ago and the levels were determined to be fine over the weekend.
TYIA

felt like i needed to get some words down. so bare with me.
system sounded crisp around the top and warmly embracing at the low end, not overly loud most of the time. phone db-meter hovered between 97 and 103 dB during the night. fav spot was right in front of the bass bins, surrounded by the dedicated heads, everyone grinning/stankfacing from ear to ear. earplugs in most of the time, the painful highs went slightly over your head there.
loved the venue. a different kind of rave-experience in such a vast venue, with the theatre balconies where you could watch from a distance providing a great chillout space. also location of various, er, activities. quite a few people went overboard with the gear, saw a few serious wobblers get taken outside. also lots of shoving and reckless riot-dancing.
missed aum, but caught most of lemon d's set. loved some of his quite experimental tunes, some seemed to have been made specifically, as they sounded modern, but in that typical muscular-but-still funky lemon d style. some technical issues took out the flow, but not his fault.
clipz and dread mc. not my thing. seemed like a mash up of rnb remixes and some foghorn or wobble thrown in. no arc or anything, just random tune into tune of cheesy cod jungle and dancefloor bashment, with the decent tunes inbetween getting kinda lost. went for drinks. high point was (his own?) the nia archives remix as the closer.
dilinja & GQ. never cease to be amazed at the subtle command GQ takes from the first moment his voice drops. i'm immediately at home and any previous thoughts of "mc's mostly get on my nerves these days" immediately evaporate. dillinja went all in with basically a double drop-bestof-medley, jumping randomly back and forth between older and newer tunes and some crowd-favourites like alien girl. with some fx like a sine-riser thrown in at every other drop. while it was fun for the first 15 minutes, i started to get sort of bored and went to the balcony to watch. again, no arc, just random tunes. he teased some older tunes like threshhold, but barely let anything old really drop, let alone play out without a newer banger layered on top. it was just onslaught without much thought, obviously somewhat saved by the sheer brilliance and versatility of his catalogue. the bane of an overdone laptop-set, i guess. some moments of sheer power where cool to witness, but my high point was when he finally let silver blade play by itself for a little bit. cathedral moment.
i honestly was a bit disillusioned at this point, but then came the revelation with Randall & TI, SP:MC on the mic. after a bold statement of "no rewinds, we haven't much time" from SP:MC, they let loose with an expertly selected and tightly mixed hour of absolute drumandbass/jungle expertise. drawing on everything from bou, benny l, vintage digital and roni size as well as a barrage of brand new stuff, they whipped the crowd into a frenzy, eventually forced to pull up quite a few tunes. GQ returned to tag with SP:MC and things were indeed very good all around.
next up mantra did the best thing at this phase of the night, slowing it down a notch to around 160 bpm and basically taking the soundsystem for an underwater ride with a smooth selection of late 90's-era tech-rollers and some new stuff by basic rhythm and others, before digging out the serious old school breaks and epic strings. only let down was that her set was turned down volume wise, while mc moose's mic was turned up way too hot. the inhouse mixing desk had the mic levels going into the yellow, while the music fader stayed safely green. the engineer spent his time scrolling through insta, ignoring the obvious discrepance. oh well. a shame, because that set was sublime and the old, crusty tunes brought out the full, dubby warmth of the system.
Mantra fittingly closed with capone's Jah, which sounded amazing. then Ky somewhat brutally throttled it off after two minutes and went straight into some ghastly foghorn noise, playing at around 180 bpm and going fully into the red. i get that that's apparently his sound, but it felt like such a lacklustre show of "i matter more than the night itself", that it took all the magic away. we left after fifteen minutes.
had loads of fun, lots of nostalgic feels and some truly amazing phases/moments. all love goes out to dillinja, getting his beast back on the road. witnessing it in brixton itself was fantastic.
would love to ear any other impressions, also from friday night!

I need some expert advice!
I have an older hot tub which was installed in 2005. (Manufacturer was Orca Bay - they have been out of business for years).
The original heatecontrol unit died last fall, and I had it replaced (by a local technician) with a Balboa BP7.
The system worked ok for a couple of weeks (with occasional flow issues) but I had to shut it down for the winter at the end of October.
I restarted it a couple of weeks ago, and it will not run for more than a few minutes before stopping with a "HTR FLOW FAIL" message.
I have tried all the recommended procedures (removing filter, opening the jets/valves, emptying/refilling, etc.) but nothing works.
The Balboa manual states that the circulation pump must provide 23 gallons/minute of flow. My circ pump is a TinyMight which is rated as providing only 19 GPM.
So, it seems possible that the problem could be due to an insufficently powerful circ pump.
But I would hate to spend $$ on a new pump, only to find that the problem still exists.
So ...

• is it likely that the pump is actually the problem?
  
• if so, why did it work for a few weeks at the end of last season?
  
• what should I replace the TinyMight with? (manufacturemodel)?
  

Thanks in advance!

Hi! Call me V for now, I'm 23, an engineering student in Philly, originally from northern NJ. tbh, my luck hasn't been very good these past few weeks with a bunch of my critical stuff breaking at the same time, so maybe someone here can be the good luck that I need?
I'm a natural baritone/bass in speaking voice, example here. 5'10", 235lb or somewhere thereabouts, South Asian/European heritage, bisexual. Fairly light skin tone, and you can see my face here. I've got a slightly stocky build, perfect for cuddles and late night snuggling. My chest doubles as a convenient pillow when needed. I'm finishing up my bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering & Manufacturing Technology currently, I've been at my current school for almost 5 years, and I should be graduating in 2026 if everything goes to plan.
I like to say that I'm kind of a creme brulee as a person. I have a shell, but once that shell's cracked, I'm as sweet as can be on the inside. I've been called a loverboy before, and I can't say that's wrong. I'm fiercely loyal to my partner, and I am also a decent baker, so maybe I can bake you some of my own cookies one day! I've been a car guy since I was a tiny young boy, to be frank one of my dream cars is a C2 Corvette drop-top with an LS or LT swap. I deal a lot with tech as a hobby, everything from building my own systems to doing high-end commissioned system builds for private clients. I do have a specialty in small form factor systems, being that I have one on my desk right now in a Terra case.
My music taste is pretty varied. My main library on Amazon Music has people like Post Malone, The Weeknd, Florida Georgia Line, plenty of Taylor Swift, Lil Nas X, Avicii, Marshmello, Billy Joel, Elton John, & S3RL. I even listen to a good amount of Sabaton when I'm in the mood for some power metal. My biggest pastime though is photography. Living in Philly taught me how to do night urban photography really well, and I pride myself on my work. I'd be more than happy to share some of my shots if you're into that. The downside of this is that I use my mirrorless Sony as a webcam because I can't stand the crappy quality of typical webcams. I also do mountain biking, hiking, and camping when I get the time and when my damn bike doesn't break.
I love doing random dates. Stuff like a trip to Ikea and pretending we have a home to shop for, doing a tour of parks in the city, going to a hobby shop and having fun for a few hours, movie nights with snacks we found on allrecipes, stuff like that. I'll do a restaurant date without issue, I guess I'm just more of a nontraditional guy.
My ideal partner would be someone kind, loving, understanding, and open. I to have a fair bit of the 'tism, in addition to a few other things, so having someone who's understanding of those things would be a huge plus. I am bisexual, though as of late the guys that I've talked to haven't been very good people. I'm looking primarily for a woman here, but I guess femboys & femme-leaning guys are welcome too. I have always had a soft spot for the girls that love going hiking and camping with me, and especially ones that also know their way around power tools.
I'm hoping there's someone out there that's wanting something real, in-person and genuine. I've done posts on the normal r4r subs and haven't seen much luck. Maybe there's someone here? Shoot me a DM if I've interested you at all. Let's talk!
For the guys that will inevitably ask, I physically can't bottom, sorry!

PART ONE THOUSAND AND ELEVEN
[Previous Chapter] [The Beginning] [Patreon+2]
Sunday
“Daaaaddy!”
Levi groaned, for the shouting whine from his bedside dragged him kicking and screaming out of sleep in a way no other alarm could. Only two other sounds garnered a faster reaction from him: someone vomiting right beside him or his baby girl screaming in either pain or fear.
He opened one eye, wondering if someone had ever made an alarm that sounded like either of those last two. Parents everywhere would never sleep in again, so maybe not.
A blurry red-headed vision was so close that he could smell her morning breath as it tickled his nose. “Heeey,” he yawned, pulling away enough to bring her back into focus. “What’s up, Peaches?”
He didn’t recognise the room they were in. Not even a little bit. He sat up fast and looked around, causing Maddy to let out an ‘eep’ of fright. “Daddy! You made some come out!”
And then the events of the night before came crashing in: the party, the knowledge that his roommate was going to have the kind of company Maddy didn’t need to see, the invitation to stay in Luke’s old room, and Maddy’s late-night escapades after he’d dropped like a rock after doing a double shift to make it to the party.
He saw Maddy’s uncomfortable wiggle-dance and the strained look on her face and remembered he’d locked the door. “Oh!” He flew out of bed, scooping her up in the process. If he ended up getting peed on, it was his own fault for not setting an alarm for his baby girl’s tiny bladder.
He unlocked the door and dove around the corner, willing to go through the shut bathroom door if he had to, but thankfully found the room open and vacant. Then he flipped the toilet lid before depositing her on the ground in front of the toilet. He immediately pivoted away, not because he was embarrassed by her but because Maddy had grown old enough not to like him watching her go to the toilet. She was starting to get antsy about her bath, too, but until she could adequately bathe herself and not merely play with her bath toys the whole time, that was a hard ‘don’t care’ line.
“Do you want to have a bath, baby, or wait until we get home?” he asked, crossing the room to hold the door almost shut to prevent anyone else from seeing her either.
“I don’t got clothes, Daddy,” she answered like he was an idiot.
Word choice aside, the sentiment was true. They’d borrowed the shirt she was wearing from Charlie. “Well, we need to figure something out, Peaches, because you are not leaving this house in only a nightgown and no underwear.” He’d send Charlotte out to buy her some clothes if he had to.
He heard the toilet flush and Maddy move up behind him, and turned long before she could touch him. “Three guesses what I didn’t hear, young lady?” he asked with a paternal frown. He pointed at the vanity when she looked up at him without a clue.
“But I can’t reach!”
“Then what are you supposed to do?”
Her shoulders slumped. “Daddy, c’n you help?”
He then smiled. “Better.” He put a hand on top of her head and spun her towards the vanity before guiding her forward. After they crossed the room, he loosened the faucet without turning it on and curled his hands around her waist, lifting her high enough that she could lean over the sink. She washed her hands, rinsing them thoroughly, then scooped the water and let it fall over the faucet before turning it off. Not that water alone would wash away the ‘germs’ of the initial contact, but the sentiment was there. Her mother had been a nurse, after all.
“Is Mister Larry still here?”
“I don’t know, baby. But how about we go and see if we can track down either Aunty Charlotte or Robbie and figure out where we’re at, okay?”
“We’re in Uncle Luke’s and Aunty Charlotte’s home,” she said, again like he was an idiot.
That had been a rather stupid thing to say to a three-and-a-half-year-old. “Alright, Miss Smarty-pants. And what are we going to eat for breakfast in Uncle Luke and Aunty Charlotte’s home if we can’t find them to ask them, hmm?”
“Food, silly.”
Clearly, he was going to have to up his game in parental rhetorical questions. Gone were the days when she’d take him at his word, and she was only three. Thirteen was going to be fun. “Right,” he muttered, shaking his head as he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.
While holding Maddy’s hand, he peeked in the open door across the hall from the bathroom and saw a very plain bedroom in terms of the rest of the apartment’s décor. At first, he’d thought it was a guest room until he remembered the teenage kid Robbie had recently adopted. This was probably his room.
He’d seen Charlotte and Robbie’s room the day they moved Charlotte in here, so a quick glance to confirm the room was empty was all he needed on that score. That left two doors on the right. And since both were close together, with the one on the left barely a couple of feet from the other and the front wall separating the living room, Levi was willing to assume the second one was a half-bath or a powder room or something. He went to the second door and knocked.
“Yeah?” Mason called from inside.
Levi opened the door and poked his head inside. “Hey, you wouldn’t by any chance happen to know where Robbie or Charlotte are, would you?”
Mason was at his desk, drowning in paperwork, it seemed. “Robbie, no,” he said, shaking his head. "As for Charlie, I’d try her office next door, between us and Boyd’s studio. She has a massive garage refit happening soon, so last I checked, she was in there getting things ready.”
The emphasis on his sister’s preferred name wasn’t lost on him. A sharp, jarring motion to his right caught his eye, and he saw something that really belonged in a space program somewhere.
“What the hell is that?” he demanded, ducking down low enough to see Robbie’s adoptee with his eyes glued on whatever was going on overhead and his fingers typing in a blur of speed.
“Naughty word, Daddy!”
Mason snickered at Levi’s slow blink. “It’s a gaming system courtesy of Robbie’s family. The damn thing is very addictive, though, and I haven’t told Brock that there’s a screen you pull down from inside the headset to cover your eyes that takes the game into 3D playing.”
Levi whistled. “I don’t even want to know how much that costs.”
“I know, and this Sectra table here is up there too,” Mason agreed, gesturing at the electronic display beside him. “But it certainly makes learning a lot more fun.” He tilted his head forward. “Isn’t that right, bunny?”
Bunny?
Maddy leaned into Levi’s leg, but she was grinning ear to ear when she nodded. “I wanna be a vert when I grow up,” she declared, looking up at him.
“Vet, baby,” Mason corrected. “We’re vets. Sounds like “bet’ and ‘get’ and ‘set’.”
“Vet,” Maddy repeated.
“There ya’ go. Step one is getting the name right.” He glanced up at Levi, his cheeky grin on full display. “Step two is getting Daddy to save up for the rest of his life to pay for the classes.”
“I hate you,” Levi whisper-smirked, and Mason pursed his lips in a cocky air-kiss.
Still shaking his head, Levi waved at Mason and left the room, leading Maddy through the kitchen and living room and into the hallway outside. For so many years, his baby brother and their friends had crushed themselves into that ninth-floor horror show, and no amount of pleading from everyone would budge Luke. Not pressure from their parents nor peer guilt from his brothers, who refused to bring their families over to the cramped space.
Charlo—Charlie was the only one who visited regularly, and at the time, he’d put it down to her being skinny, single with no kids, so she could squeeze into whatever gap she found. He knew who she was really visiting now, and Robbie had better be ready for the mother of all guilt trips coming from the family to make an honest woman of their sister. Nascerdios descended or not, he’d be a dead man if he broke her heart.
Thinking about his little brother’s relationship with all these men, it was like Luke knew the payoff was just around the corner. People like them didn’t live like this.
Well, Maverick kind of did, but he’d worked hard for what he had and could rattle off his list of sporting injuries to prove it. Robbie and Sam had simply taken a running dive off the world’s highest diving platform and landed in the kind of wealth the rich and shameless could only dream about.
Luke—Lucas was lucky in a different way. Yes, his friendship with Robbie and Sam had certainly opened the right doors financially, but what Levi had seen of Boyd’s work yesterday, the big guy was well on his way to becoming his own type of rich; much like Mav did for his family. And like Marley, Lu—ucas wouldn’t have to work a day again in his life if he didn’t want to. (Though he had just made detective and loved his job, so Levi couldn’t see him quitting anytime soon.)
He knocked on the closed door. “Come in,” Charlie called, proving Mason right. And like Mason, she was sitting behind a desk covered in paperwork with a phone cradled against her shoulder.
“Aunty Charlotte, we’re hungry!” Maddy declared, and Levi closed his eyes to hide from his sister’s evil chuckle.
“Well, we can’t have that, sweetie,” she said, and he heard the phone click as it was dropped onto the receiver. "Daddy gets very grumpy when he’s hungry.”
“It’s not the only reason he gets cranky,” he said, opening one eye a slit to give his baby sister the stink eye.
Charlie cackled and slid out from behind her desk. “C’mon. Robbie has your breakfast all ready for you in Voila.”
“We didn’t want to start going through things and guessing what we could eat,” Levi explained as they backtracked to the main apartment.
“That’s fine. Grab a seat—any seat,” she said, gesturing to the line of kitchen barstool chairs as she moved through the living room. She headed around the island and over to the box under the window without checking if they had.
Levi wasn’t thrilled about the height of the barstool chairs off the floor. “Do you have a belt or something I could use to tie Maddy in?”
Charlie swung around to him. “Oh! Oh, yeah! Hold on.” She slipped around the island and down her side of the apartment, coming back from her room with the kind of square booster seats that could be found in a restaurant. “Robbie ducked out and got this for her this morning.”
Levi scratched his head as the booster was attached to the second chair along the front of the island. “Where’d he get that from at this hour?”
Charlie looked at him derisively. “This is Robbie, bro. You know he’s got connections all over the place.”
It killed Levi not to ask for more details, but given it was probably either connected to the Nascerdios or, more likely, a wealthy former client in the city that still looked favourably upon Robbie, he hadn’t wanted Maddy to overhear the specifics of the latter. Too many times, his little girl had asked Robbie about different ‘gifts’ he’d been given by clients and how she had wanted to do whatever he did to get presents like that. ‘Over my dead body’ had been his mental declaration.
Maddy was pulling on his boxers. “Up, Daddy,” she said, holding her hands over her head for him.
Levi lifted her into the seat, and then buckled her in. In the meantime, Charlie went back to that wooden box, lifting the lid. “Robbie has this gift with food, so assume everything in the place is for you to eat, because it probably is.”
“Not everything,” Levi countered at Maddy’s wild squeal of delight. He gave her hand a firm squeeze. “Do not take anything without asking, young lady, or you’ll be in big trouble.”
“But Daddy…”
“It’s Daddy’s call, Maddy,” Charlie said, backing his play. She turned, holding a plate with two fist-sized Minnie Mouse-shaped waffles (the bow between the ears made it Minnie) with some type of white marshmallow fluff spread across them and a honey drizzle that drew perfect facial features on each. “Here’s breakfast for one cute-as-a-button Dobson,” she said with a flourish, sliding the plate in front of Maddy and pulling out a children’s stubby fork from the cutlery drawer.
“It’ll have to be cut u—” The words died in Levi’s throat as Maddy stabbed the nearest piece, and it broke into a small, bite-sized piece that Maddy happily popped into her mouth.
“Imma bi’ ’irl,” she said, in and around her food.
Levi tapped her nose. “Big girls don’t talk with their mouths full, Peaches.”
When he glanced at Charlie, she’d gone back to the box and returned with a dinner plate of fluffy scrambled eggs on two pieces of toast with cheese and bacon, and three sausages cut almost in half longways on the side. She nodded at the seat beside Maddy, then slid the plate into the empty spot at the end. “Siddown, bro.”
He might have whimpered a little on the first bite as Charlie went and poured them both a glass (technically, Maddy got a plastic tumbler) of citrus juice (not orange), leaving the jug on the bench between them. “Help yourselves to as much juice as you want. Even if you wipe this whole jug out, there's plenty more.”
“This is really awesome, Charlie. Thanks.”
Charlie placed her hand on her brother’s shoulder as she moved around the island into the hallway. “Anytime, Levi. But now I’ve gotta love you and leave you. There’s a mountain of work to get through in my office, so are you good here?”
“Totally. Thanks again, sis.”
As she walked out the door, Maddy held out a piece of her waffle to him. “Try?”
Waffles were usually too sweet for his blood, but this was the game he’d set up with her a long time ago to make her at least attempt to eat new foods. He couldn’t very well expect her to eat what he wanted her to if, now and again, he didn’t reciprocate the motion.
The honey and marshmallow whip (which tasted nothing like the jar-bought type) melted into the perfectly heated/not-too-hot waffle, giving it a sweet crunch as if it had just come out of the waffle iron. His surprise must have been written all over his face, for Maddy giggled, and he grinned. “That’s yummy.”
“Mmmm-hmmm,” she hummed, just as he always had when a new food passed the initial taste test.
* * *
((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I’d love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here
For more of my work, including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!

Hey everyone, I've been facing a bit of a challenge when DJing with drum and bass tracks (and some other genres), especially when I discover a great double or triple drop. I'm looking for advice on the best way to organize my library to easily recall and mix these track combinations (I dont really make whole sets). Currently, I'm considering a few options:

1. Creating a single playlist where I add all potential tracks in sequence and try to memorize their order and combinations.
2. Utilizing the comment field in each track or at specific cue points to note which tracks mix well together.
3. Making several small playlists, each containing 2-4 tracks that are known to work well together in a folder.

What do you guys think? Which method do you find most effective for keeping track of good mixes, or do you have other systems or tips to share? Thanks in advance for your help.

On paper, my life is a fucking disaster. But what I've been able to do with the resources that I have is actually pretty crazy. It's gonna be a long time until my life is anything that a person might consider normal, but I think that most people would be doing a lot worse if they had to deal with the same stuff.
I'm 30 years old, I live with my partner's parents, I graduated high school a year late, I've dropped out of college twice, I don't have any friends, and the closest thing I've had to a job is charging furries an absurd amount of money to write erotic short stories (as a side gig).
I entered high school with a 3rd grade education. I graduated a year late. That isn't a failure -- frankly, it's fucking astonishing that I graduated at all.
I made straight As for 2 years in college, double majoring in neuroscience and psychology. I was also writing 2,500-3,000 words of fiction per day. A literary editor said that the novel I was working on at the time was "groundbreaking" and personally excited them.
During this time, my bedroom was previously a walk in closet, in a basement that flooded twice per year and had mushrooms growing out of the carpet. I had a blanket nailed to my doorframe instead of a door. My parents and both of my brothers also actively rooted against me, and tried to gaslight me into believing that I was stupid and untalented.
It turns out that I have severe, combined type ADHD that was being medicated off label, by accident. So when the meds I was on stopped working, I wasn't able to perform in school (and also developed extreme depression and anxiety). But like... It's amazing that I was able to do all of this with the living conditions I had, and the extremely toxic support system!
I spent most of my child and teen years being systematically and intentionally isolated by my parents. I still manage to have a partner that I've been with for almost 4 years, a really good relationship with my sister, and just... A lot of people who care about me, and who I can rely on. How the fuck am I able to maintain healthy relationships at all? (I don't have my own friends, or family besides my sister, but my partner's friends and family actually like me and support me.).
Society at large doesn't value these accomplishments -- but they're still accomplishments. I've still done a lot with my life. It's weirdly nice that the more I progress in therapy, the more obvious this becomes.
Edit: my health is improving a lot thanks to EMDR therapy, and I'm hoping that I can go back to school next year. And start writing fiction again. I've got plenty of stuff that I want to do, and I don't wanna sound like I'm stuck or something when things are actually going really well.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) Lock on to him, R2. Master, General Grievous's ship is directly ahead- Master, General Grievous's ship is directly ahead- the one crawling with vulture droids. I see it. Oh, this is going to be easy. - Oddball, do you copy? - Copy, Red Leader. Mark my position. Form your squad up behind me. We're on your tail, General Kenobi. Set S-foils in attack position. This is where the fun begins. Let them pass between us. They're all over me. - Get them off my- - I'm gonna go help them out. No. They are doing theirjob so we can do ours. Missiles. Pull up. - They overshot us. - They're coming around. All right, R4. No, no. Nothing too fancy. Surge all power units, R2. Stand by reverse thrusters. We got 'em, R2. Flying is for droids. - I'm hit. Anakin? - I see them. Buzz droids. R4, be careful. You have a- Oh, dear. They're shutting down all the controls. Move to the right so I can get a clear shot at them. The mission. Get to the command ship. Get the chancellor. I'm running out of tricks here. In the name of- - Hold your fre! You're not helping. - I agree. Bad idea. I can't see a thing. My cockpit's fogging. They're all over me. Anakin! - Move to the right. - Hold on. You'll get us both killed. Get out of here. There's nothing more you can do. I'm not leaving without you, Master. Get him, R2. Watch out. R2, hit the buzz droid's centre eye. - Yeah, you got him! - Great, R2. The general's command ship is dead ahead. Have you noticed the shields are still up? Sorry, Master. I have a bad feeling about this. There they are. Get them. R2, locate the chancellor. The chancellor's signal is coming from right there- the observation platform at the top of that spire. I sense Count Dooku. - I sense a trap. - Next move? Spring the trap. R2, go back. I need you to stay with the ship. Here. Take this and wait for orders. What's the situation, Captain? Two Jedi have landed in the main hangar bay. We're tracking them. Just as Count Dooku predicted. Destroyers. Drop your weapons. I said drop 'em. - Roger. - Roger, roger. Those are Jedi fghters all right. - Did you press the stop button? - No. Did you? There's more than one way out of here. We don't want to get out. We want to get moving. R2, activate elevator 31174. - Come in, R2. - What that? R2, do you copy? R2, activate the elevator number 31174. Get back to work. That nothin'. Activate the elevator 31174. R2- Always on the move. R2, switch on the comlink. R2, can you hear me? R2? R2! R2! Stop. Stop. R2, we need to be going up. Hands up, Jedi. R2, do you copy? R2, do you hear me? R2, we need to be going up, not down. Hey, you! That's better. You stupid little astro droid. Oh, it's you. My eyes! My eyes! - What was that all about? - R2 has been- - No loose wire jokes. - Did I say anything? - He's trying. - I didn't say anything. - Chancellor. - Are you all right? Count Dooku. - This time we will do it together. - I was about to say that. Get help. You're no match for him. He's a Sith lord. Chancellor Palpatine, Sith lords are our speciality. Your swords, please. We don't want to make a mess of things in front of the chancellor. You won't get away this time, Dooku. I've been looking forward to this. My powers have doubled since the last time we met, Count. Good. Twice the pride, double the fall. Get- I sense great fear in you, Skywalker. You have hate. You have anger. But you don't use them. Good, Anakin. Good. Kill him. Kill him now. I shouldn't. Do it. You did well, Anakin. He was too dangerous to be kept alive. Yes, but he was an unarmed prisoner. I shouldn't have done that. It's not the Jedi way. It is only natural. He cut off your arm, and you wanted revenge. It wasn't the frst time, Anakin. Remember what you told me about your mother and the Sand People? Now we must leave before more security droids arrive. Anakin, there's no time. We must get off this ship before it's too late. - He seems to be all right. - Leave him, or we'll never make it. His fate will be the same as ours. Prepare for attack! All batteries, fre! Fire! Elevator's not working. R2, activate elevator 3224. - Reverse stabilizers. - Reversing stabilizers. Magnetize! Magnetize! Fire the emergency booster engines. We're levelling out, sir. Easy. We're in a bit of a situation here. - Did I miss something? - Hold on. - What is that? - Oops. R2. R2, shut down the elevator. Too late. Jump! Let's see if we can fnd something in the hangar bay that's still flyable. R2, get down here. R2, do you copy? General, we found the Jedi. They're in hallway 328. Activate ray shields. Ray shields. Wait a minute. How did this happen? We're smarter than this. Apparently not. - I say patience. - Patience? Yes. R2 will be along in a few moments... and then he'll release the ray shields. See? No problem. Don't move. Do you have a plan B? Ah, yes. The negotiator. General Kenobi. We've been waiting for you. Excuse me. - That wasn't much of a rescue. - You're welcome. And- Anakin Skywalker. I was expecting someone with your reputation to be a little... older. General Grievous. You're shorter than I expected. Jedi scum. We have a job to do, Anakin. Try not to upset him. Your lightsabres will make a fne addition to my collection. Not this time. And this time, you won't escape. R2. Crush them! Make them suffer! Come. Now! Stay at your stations! Get him! Get him! Run! Don't bother with them. - Keep the ship in orbit. - Yes, sir. You lose, General Kenobi. Get out of here! Run! Time to abandon ship. All the escape pods have been launched. Grievous. Can you fly a cruiser like this? - You mean, can I land what's left of it? - Well? Under the circumstances, I'd say the ability to pilot this thing is irrelevant. Strap yourselves in. Open all hatches. Extend all flaps and drag fns. We lost something. Not to worry. We are still flying half a ship. Now we're really picking up speed. Eight plus 60. - We're in the atmosphere. - Grab that. Keep us level. Steady. Easy, R2. Fire ships on the left and the right. - We'll take you in. - Copy that. - Landing strip, straight ahead. - We're coming in too hot. Another happy landing. Coming, Master? No. I'm not brave enough for politics. I have to report to the council. Besides, someone needs to be the poster boy. Hold on. This whole operation was your idea. Let us not forget, Anakin, that you rescued me from the buzz droids. And you killed Count Dooku, and you rescued the chancellor... carrying me unconscious on your back. All because of your training. Anakin, let's be fair. Today you were the hero... and you deserve your glorious day with the politicians. All right. But you owe me one, and not for saving your skin for the 10th time. Ninth time. That business on Cato Neimoidia doesn't count. I'll see you at the briefng. Chancellor Palpatine, are you all right? Yes. Thanks to your two Jedi knights. They killed Count Dooku, but General Grievous has escaped once again. General Grievous will run and hide, as he always does. He's a coward. But with Count Dooku dead, he is the leader of the droid army. And I assure you... the senate will vote to continue the war as long as Grievous is alive. Then the Jedi Council will make fnding Grievous our highest priority. - Watch it. - Excuse me. - Come along, R2. - The Republic cannot praise you enough. Thank you, Senator Organa. It couldn't possibly be as bad as all that. Now there I agree with you. In fact, I could do with a tune-up myself. But the fghting will continue until General Grievous is spare parts. I will do everything I can in the senate. - Excuse me. - Certainly. I've missed you, Padm. There were whispers that you'd been killed. I'm all right. It feels like we've been apart for a lifetime. And it might have been, if the chancellor hadn't been kidnapped. I don't think they would have ever brought us back from the outer rim sieges. - Wait. Not here. - Yes, here. I'm tired of all this deception. I don't care if they know we're married. Anakin, don't say things like that. Are you all right? You're trembling. What's going on? Something wonderful has happened. Ani, I'm pregnant. That's wonderful. What are we gonna do? We're not gonna worry about anything right now. All right? This is a happy moment. The happiest moment of my life. Yes, Lord Sidious? General Grievous... I suggest you move the separatist leaders to Mustafar. It will be done, my lord. The end of the war is near, General. But the loss of Count Dooku- His death was a necessary loss. Soon I will have a new apprentice- one far younger and more powerful. Ani, I want to have our baby back home on Naboo. We can go to the lake country where no one will know... where we can be safe. I can go early and fx up the baby's room. I know the perfect spot. Right by the gardens. You are so... beautiful. It's only because I'm so in love. No, it's because I'm so in love with you. So love has blinded you? That's not exactly what I meant. But it's probably true. Anakin, help me! What's bothering you? Nothing. I remember when I gave this to you. How long is it gonna take for us to be honest with each other? - It was a dream. - Bad? Like the ones I used to have about my mother, just before she died. And? And it was about you. Tell me. It was only a dream. You die in childbirth. And the baby? I don't know. - It was only a dream. - I won't let this one become real. This baby will change our lives. I doubt the queen will continue to allow me to serve in the senate. If the council discovers you're the father, you'll be expelled- I know. I know. Do you think Obi-Wan might be able to help us? We don't need his help. Our baby is a blessing. Premonitions? Premonitions. These visions you have- They're of pain, suffering. Death. Yourself you speak of, or someone you know? Someone. Close to you? Yes. Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side. I won't let these visions come true, Master Yoda. Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed that is. What must I do, Master Yoda? Train yourself to let go... of everything you fear to lose. You've missed the report on the outer rim sieges. I'm sorry. I was held up. - I have no excuse. - In short, they are going very well. Saleucami has fallen, and Master Vos has moved his troops to Boz Pity. What's wrong, then? The senate is expected to vote more executive powers to the chancellor today. That can only mean less deliberating and more action. Is that bad? It'll make it easier for us to end this war. Be careful of your friend Palpatine. Be careful of what? - He has requested your presence. - What for? He would not say. He didn't inform the council? That's unusual, isn't it? All of this is unusual. And it's making me feel uneasy. I hope you trust me, Anakin. Of course. I need your help, son. What do you mean? I'm depending on you. For what? I don't understand. To be the eyes, ears and voice of the Republic. I'm appointing you to be my personal representative on the Jedi Council. Me? A master? I'm overwhelmed, sir. But the council elects its own members. They'll never accept this. I think they will. They need you. More than you know. Allow this appointment lightly the council does not. Disturbing is this move by Chancellor Palpatine. I understand. You are on this council... but we do not grant you the rank of master. What? How can you do this? This is outrageous. It's unfair. How can you be on the council and not be a master? Take a seat, young Skywalker. Forgive me, Master. We have surveyed all systems in the Republic... but have found no sign of General Grievous. Hiding in the outer rim Grievous is. The outlying systems you must sweep. We do not have many ships to spare. What about the droid attack on the Wookiees? It is critical we send an attack group there immediately. He's right. It's a system we cannot afford to lose. Go I will. Good relations with the Wookiees I have. It's settled then. Yoda will take a battalion of clones to reinforce the Wookiees on Kashyyyk. May the Force be with us all. What kind of nonsense is this? Put me on the council and not make me a master? It's never been done in the history of the Jedi. It's insulting. Calm down, Anakin. You have been given a great honour. To be on the council at your age- it's never happened before. The fact of the matter is you are too close to the chancellor. The council doesn't like it when he interferes in Jedi affairs. I swear to you, I didn't ask to be put on the council. But it's what you wanted. Your friendship with Chancellor Palpatine seems to have paid off. That has nothing to do with this. The only reason the council has approved your appointment... is because the chancellor trusts you. And? Anakin, I am on your side. I didn't want to put you in this situation. What situation? The council wants you to report on all the chancellor's dealings. They want to know what he's up to. They want me to spy on the chancellor? - But that's treason. - We are at war, Anakin. Why didn't the council give me this assignment when we were in session? This assignment is not to be on record. The chancellor is not a bad man, Obi-Wan. He befriended me. He's watched out for me ever since I arrived here. That is why you must help us. Anakin, our allegiance is to the senate, not to its leader... who has managed to stay in offce long after his term has expired. The senate demanded that he stay longer. Yes, but use your feelings, Anakin. Something is out of place. You're asking me to do something against the Jedi code. Against the Republic. Against a mentor and a friend. That's what's out of place here. Why are you asking this of me? The council is asking you. Anakin did not take to his new assignment with much enthusiasm. It's very dangerous, putting them together. I don't think the boy can handle it. I don't trust him. With all due respect, Master, is he not the chosen one? Is he not to destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force? So the prophecy says. A prophecy that misread could have been. He will not let me down. He never has. I hope right you are. Sometimes I wonder what's happening to the Jedi order. I think this war is destroying the principles of the Republic. Have you ever considered that we may be on the wrong side? What do you mean? What if the democracy we thought we were serving no longer exists... and the Republic has become the very evil we've been fghting to destroy? I don't believe that. And you're sounding like a separatist. This war represents a failure to listen. Now you're closer to the chancellor than anyone. Please, ask him to stop the fghting and let diplomacy resume. Don't ask me to do that. Make a motion in the senate, where that kind of a request belongs. - What is it? - Nothing. Don't do this. Don't shut me out. Let me help you. Hold me. Like you did by the lake on Naboo. So long ago, when there was nothing but our love. No politics, no plotting, no war. - You wanted to see me, Chancellor. - Yes, Anakin. Come closer. I have good news. Our clone intelligence units... have discovered the location of General Grievous. He's hiding in the Utapau system. At last. We'll be able to capture that monster and end this war. I would worry about the collective wisdom of the council... if it didn't select you for this assignment. You're the best choice, by far. Sit down. Leave us. You know I'm not able to rely on the Jedi Council. If they haven't included you in their plot, they soon will. I'm not sure I understand. You must sense what I have come to suspect. The Jedi Council want control of the Republic. They're planning to betray me. - I don't think that- - Anakin. Search your feelings. You know, don't you? I know they don't trust you. Or the senate. Or the Republic. Or democracy, for that matter. I have to admit, my trust in them has been shaken. Why? They asked you to do something that made you feel dishonest, didn't they? They asked you to spy on me, didn't they? I don't know what to say. Remember back to your early teachings. All who gain power are afraid to lose it. - Even the Jedi. - The Jedi use their power for good. Good is a point of view, Anakin. The Sith and the Jedi are similar in almost every way... including their quest for greater power. The Sith rely on their passion for their strength. They think inwards- only about themselves. And the Jedi don't? The Jedi are selfless. They only care about others. Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? I thought not. It's not a story the Jedi would tell you. It's a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a dark lord of the Sith... Darth Plagueis was a dark lord of the Sith... so powerful and so wise... he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians... to create... life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side... he could even keep the ones he cared about... from dying. He could actually... save people from death? The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities... some consider to be unnatural. What happened to him? He became so powerful... the only thing he was afraid of was... Iosing his power. Which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew. Then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. It's ironic. He could save others from death... but not himself. Is it possible to learn this power? Not from a Jedi. All Red units, over here! Palpatine thinks General Grievous is on Utapau? A partial message was intercepted... in a diplomatic packet from the chairman of Utapau. Act on this we must. The capture of General Grievous will end this war. Quickly and decisively we should proceed. The chancellor has requested... that I lead the campaign. The council will make up its own mind who is to go... not the chancellor. A master is needed, with more experience. I concur. Master Kenobi should go. I agree. Aye. Aye. Very well. Council adjourned. The droids have started up their main power generators. - Then now the time is, Commander. - Yes, sir. Charge! Head for cover! - You're gonna need me on this one. - I agree. However, it may turn out Just to be a wild bantha chase. Master. I've disappointed you. I haven't been very appreciative of your training. I've been arrogant, and I apologize. I've just been so frustrated with the council. You are strong and wise, Anakin, and I am very proud of you. I have trained you since you were a small boy. I have taught you everything I know. And you have become a far greater Jedi than I could ever hope to be. But be patient, Anakin. It will not be long before the council makes you a Jedi master. Obi-Wan. May the Force be with you. Goodbye, old friend. May the Force be with you. Fortunately, most of the cities are concentrated on this small continent here. On the far side. I'll keep them distracted until you get there. - Just don't take too long. - Come on. When have I ever let you down? Very well. The burden is on me not to destroy all the droids until you arrive. Save your energy. I can't. Don't give up, Padm. Obi-Wan's been here, hasn't he? He came by this morning. What did he want? He's worried about you. He says you've been under a lot of stress. I feel lost. Lost? What do you mean? Obi-Wan and the council don't trust me. They trust you with their lives. Something's happening. I'm not the Jedi I should be. I want more. And I know I shouldn't. You expect too much of yourself. - I found a way to save you. - Save me? From my nightmares. Is that what's bothering you? I won't lose you, Padm. I'm not gonna die in childbirth, Ani. - I promise you. - No, I promise you. Greetings, young Jedi. What brings you to our remote sanctuary? Unfortunately, the war. There's no war here- unless you brought it with you. With your kind permission, I should like some fuel... and to use your city as a base as I search nearby systems for General Grievous. He is here. We are being held hostage. - They are watching us. - I understand. Tenth level, thousands of battle droids. Tell your people to take shelter. If you have warriors, now is the time. Take the fghter back to the ship. Tell Cody I've made contact. - Is he bringing additional warriors? - He didn't say. It won't be long before the armies of the Republic track us here. I am sending you to the Mustafar system in the outer rim. It is a volcanic planet. - You will be safe there. - Safe? Chancellor Palpatine managed to escape your grip, General. Without Count Dooku, I have doubts about your ability to keep us safe. Be thankful, Viceroy, you have not found yourself in my grip. Your ship is waiting. Hello there. General Kenobi. You are a bold one. Kill him. Back away. I will deal with this Jedi slime myself. Your move. You fool. I've been trained in your Jedi arts by Count Dooku. Attack, Kenobi. Army or not... you must realize you are doomed. I don't think so. Cover that corner. Master Windu, may I interrupt? General Kenobi has made contact with General Grievous... and we have begun our attack. Thank you, Commander. Anakin, deliver this report to the chancellor. His reaction will give us a clue to his intentions. Yes, Master. I sense a plot to destroy the Jedi. The dark side of the Force surrounds the chancellor. If he does not give up his emergency powers... after the destruction of Grievous... then he should be removed from office. The Jedi Council would have to take control of the senate... in order to secure a peaceful transition. To a dark place this line of thought will carry us. Great care we must take. Chancellor. We've just received a report from Master Kenobi. He has engaged General Grievous. We can only hope that Master Kenobi is up to the challenge. I should be there with him. It's upsetting to me to see that the council... doesn't seem to fully appreciate your talents. Don't you wonder why they won't make you a Jedi master? I wish I knew. More and more I get the feeling that... I'm being excluded from the council. I know there are things about the Force that they're not telling me. They don't trust you, Anakin. They see your future. They know your power will be too strong to control. You must break through the fog of lies the Jedi have created around you. Let me help you to know the subtleties of the Force. How do you know the ways of the Force? My mentor taught me everything about the Force. Even the nature of the dark side. You know the dark side? If one is to understand the great mystery... one must study all its aspects... not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Jedi. If you wish to become a complete and wise leader... you must embrace a larger view of the Force. Be careful of the Jedi, Anakin. Only through me can you achieve a power greater than any Jedi. Learn to know the dark side of the Force... and you will be able to save your wife... from certain death. What did you say? Use my knowledge. I beg you. You're the Sith lord. I know what's been troubling you. Listen to me. Don't continue to be a pawn of the Jedi Council. Ever since I've known you, you've been searching for a life... greater than that of an ordinary Jedi. A life of signifcance... of conscience. - Are you going to kill me? - I would certainly like to. I know you would. I can feel your anger. It gives you focus... makes you stronger. I'm going to turn you over to the Jedi Council. Of course. You should. But you're not sure of their intentions, are you? I will quickly discover the truth of all this. You have great wisdom, Anakin. Know the power of the dark side. Power to save Padm. So uncivilized. Master Windu, I must talk to you. Skywalker, we just received word that Obi-Wan has destroyed General Grievous. We're on our way to make sure... the chancellor returns emergency power back to the senate. He won't give up his power. I've just learned a terrible truth. I think Chancellor Palpatine is a Sith lord. A Sith lord? Yes. The one we've been looking for. - How do you know this? - He knows the ways of the Force. He's been trained to use the dark side. - Are you sure? - Absolutely. Then our worst fears have been realized. We must move quickly if the Jedi order is to survive. Master, the chancellor is very powerful. You'll need my help if you're going to arrest him. For you own good, stay out of this affair. I sense a great deal of confusion in you, young Skywalker. There is much fear that clouds your judgement. - I must go, Master. - No. If what you've told me is true, you will have gained my trust. But for now, remain here. Wait in the council chambers until we return. Yes, Master. You do know, don't you... if theJedi destroy me... any chance of saving her will be lost. Master Windu. I take it General Grievous has been destroyed then. I must say you're here sooner than expected. In the name of the Galactic Senate of the Republic... you're under arrest, Chancellor. Are you threatening me, Master Jedi? The senate will decide your fate. - I am the senate. - Not yet. It's treason then. You are under arrest, my lord. Anakin, I told you it would come to this. I was right. The Jedi are taking over. The oppression of the Sith will never return. You have lost. You will die! He's a traitor! He is the traitor! I have the power to save the one you love. You must choose. Don't listen to him, Anakin! Don't let him kill me. I can't hold it any longer. I can't. I'm weak. I'm too weak. Help me. Help me! I can't hold on any longer. I am going to end this once and for all. You can't. He must stand trial. He has control of the senate and the courts. He's too dangerous to be left alive. I'm too weak. - Don't kill me. Please. - It's not the Jedi way. He must live. - Please don't. - I need him. Please don't! Power! Unlimited power! What have I done? You're fulflling your destiny, Anakin. Become my apprentice. Learn to use the dark side of the Force. I will do whatever you ask. Good. Just help me save Padm's life. I can't live without her. To cheat death is a power only one has achieved... but if we work together... I know we can discover the secret. I pledge myself... to your teachings. Good. Good. The Force is strong with you. A powerful Sith you will become. Henceforth you shall be known as... Darth... Vader. Thank you, my master. Rise. Because the council did not trust you, my young apprentice... I believe you are the only Jedi with no knowledge of this plot. When the Jedi learn what has transpired here... they will kill us, along with all the senators. I agree. The council's next move will be against the senate. Every single Jedi... including your friend Obi-Wan Kenobi... is now an enemy of the Republic. I understand, Master. We must move quickly. The Jedi are relentless. If they are not all destroyed, it will be civil war without end. First I want you to go to the Jedi temple. We will catch them off-balance. Do what must be done, Lord Vader. Do not hesitate. Show no mercy. Only then will you be strong enough with the dark side... to save Padm. What about the other Jedi spread across the galaxy? Their betrayal will be dealt with. After you have killed all the Jedi in the temple... go to the Mustafar system. Wipe out Viceroy Gunray... and the other separatist leaders. Once more the Sith will rule the galaxy! And... we shall have... peace. Sergeant, over here! Hurry! All of them! All Red units, let's move it! Come on. Let's go! Commander, contact your troops. Tell them to move to the higher levels. Very good, sir. By the way, I think you'll be needing this. Thank you, Cody. Let's get a move on. We've got a battle to win. Yes, sir. Commander Cody... the time has come. Execute order 66. Yes, my lord. Blast him! Come on! Execute order 66. It will be done, my lord. It will be done, my lord. Master Skywalker, there are too many of them. What are we going to do? The chancellor's offce indicated Master Anakin returned to the Jedi temple. Don't worry. I'm sure he'll be all right. - What's going on here? - There's been a rebellion, sir. Don't worry. The situation is under control. I'm sorry, sir. It's time for you to leave. And so it is. Get him! Don't worry about him. Let him go. All these Wookiees are dead. Move to the east. Yes, sir. Goodbye, Tarfful. Goodbye, Chewbacca. Miss you I will. Hopefully we'll be able to intercept a few Jedi... before they walk into this catastrophe. Did you fnd Kenobi? Sir, no one could have survived that fall. Start loading your men on the ships. Move it. Emergency code 913. I have no contact on any frequency. Master Kenobi. - Repeat. - Master Kenobi. Senator Organa. My clone troops turned on me. I need help. We havejust rescued Master Yoda. It appears this ambush has happened everywhere. We're sending you our coordinates. Hush! Not so loud. Are you all right? I heard there was an attack on the Jedi temple. - You could see the smoke from here. - I'm fne. I came to see if you and the baby are safe. What's happening? The Jedi have tried to overthrow the Republic. I can't believe that. I saw Master Windu attempt to assassinate the chancellor myself. What are you gonna do? I will not betray the Republic. My loyalties lie with the chancellor... and with the senate and with you. - What about Obi-Wan? - I don't know. Many Jedi have been killed. We can only hope that he's remained loyal to the chancellor. Anakin, I'm afraid. Have faith, my love. Everything will soon be set right. The chancellor has given me a very important mission. The separatists have gathered on the Mustafar system. I'm going there to end this war. Wait for me until I return. Things will be different. I promise. Please, wait for me. Well, he is under a lot of stress, R2. Take care, my little friend. Oh, my lady, is there anything I might do? No, thank you, 3PO. I feel so helpless. How many other Jedi have managed to survive? Heard from no one have we. I saw thousands of troops attack the Jedi temple. That's why I went looking for Yoda. Have we had any contact from the temple? Received a coded retreat message we have. It requests all Jedi to return to the temple. - It says the war is over. - Then we must go back. If there are any stragglers, they will fall into the trap and be killed. Suggest dismantling the coded signal, do you? Yes, Master. There is too much at stake. I agree. And a little more knowledge might light our way. The plan has gone as you had promised, my lord. You have done well, Viceroy. When my new apprentice Darth Vader arrives... he will take care of you. We're receiving a message from the chancellor's offce, sir. - Send it through. - Yes, sir. Senator Organa, the supreme chancellor requests your presence... at a special session of Congress. - I will be there. - He'll be expecting you. - Could be a trap. - I don't think so. The chancellor will not be able to control the thousands of star systems... without keeping the senate intact. If a special session of Congress there is... easier for us to enter the Jedi temple it will be. R2, stay with the ship. Welcome, Lord Vader. We've been expecting you. And the Jedi rebellion has been foiled. What's happened? The chancellor's been elaborating on a plot by the Jedi to overthrow the senate. The remaining Jedi will be hunted down and defeated. Not even the younglings survived. Killed not by clones this Padawan. By a lightsabre he was. Who? Who could have done this? The attempt on my life... has left me scarred and deformed. But I assure you. My resolve has never been stronger! Stop! In order to ensure the security and continuing stability... the Republic will be reorganized... into the frst Galactic Empire! For a safe and secure society. So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause. The war is over. Lord Sidious promised us peace. We only want- I have recalibrated the code, warning all surviving Jedi to stay away. For the clones... to discover the recalibration a long time it will take. Wait. Master. There is something I must know. If into the security recordings you go, only pain will you fnd. I must know the truth, Master. It can't be. It can't be. You have done well, my new apprentice. Now, Lord Vader... go and bring peace to the Empire. I can't watch any more. Destroy the Sith we must. Send me to kill the emperor. I will not kill Anakin. To fght this Lord Sidious, strong enough you are not. He is like my brother. I cannot do it. Twisted by the dark side young Skywalker has become. The boy you trained, gone he is. Consumed by Darth Vader. I do not know where the emperor has sent him. I don't know where to look. Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and fnd him you will. When was the last time you saw him? - Yesterday. - And do you know where he is now? Padm, I need your help. - He is in grave danger. - From the Sith? From himself. Anakin has turned to the dark side. You're wrong. How could you even say that? I have seen a security hologram... of him... killing younglings. Not Anakin. He couldn't. He was deceived by a lie. We all were. It appears that the chancellor is behind everything, including the war. Palpatine is the Sith lord we've been looking for. After the death of Count Dooku, Anakin became his new apprentice. I don't believe you. I can't. I must fnd him. You're going to kill him, aren't you? He has become a very great threat. I can't. Anakin is the father, isn't he? I'm so sorry. - Milady, let me come with you. - There's no danger. The fghting's over. And this is personal. As you wish, milady, but I strongly disagree. I'll be all right, Captain. This is something I must do myself. Besides, 3PO will look after me. Oh, dear. Do you know? I think I'm beginning to get the hang of this flying business. The separatists have been taken care of, my master. It is fnished then. You have restored peace and justice to the galaxy. Send a message to the ships of the Trade Federation. All droid units must shut down immediately. Very good, my lord. I saw your ship. - What are you doing out here? - I was so worried about you. Obi-Wan told me terrible things. What things? He said you've turned to the dark side. That you... killed younglings. Obi-Wan is trying to turn you against me. He cares about us. Us? He knows. He wants to help you. Anakin, all I want is your love. Love won't save you, Padm. - Only my new powers can do that. - At what cost? You're a good person. Don't do this. I won't lose you the way I lost my mother. I am becoming more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of. And I'm doing it for you. To protect you. Come away with me. Help me raise our child. Leave everything else behind while we still can. Don't you see? We don't have to run away any more. I have brought peace to the Republic. I am more powerful than the chancellor. I can overthrow him. And together, you and I can rule the galaxy... make things the way we want them to be. I don't believe what I'm hearing. Obi-Wan was right. You've changed. I don't want to hear any more about Obi-Wan. The Jedi turned against me. Don't you turn against me. I don't know you any more. You're breaking my heart. You're going down a path I can't follow. Because of Obi-Wan? Because of what you've done. What you plan to do. Stop. Stop now. Come back. - I love you. - Liar! You're with him! You brought him here to kill me. Let her go, Anakin. Let her go. You turned her against me! You have done that yourself. You will not take her from me! Your anger and your lust for power have already done that. You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind... until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy. Don't lecture me, Obi-Wan. I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the dark side as you do. I have brought peace... freedom, justice and security to my new empire. Your new empire? Don't make me kill you. Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy! If you're not with me... then you're my enemy. Only a Sith deals in absolutes. I will do what I must. You will try. I hear a new apprentice you have, Emperor. Or should I call you Darth Sidious? Master Yoda. You survived. Surprised? Your arrogance blinds you, Master Yoda. Now you will experience... the full power of the dark side. I have waited a long time for this moment... my little green friend. At last the Jedi are no more. Not if anything to say about it I have. At an end your rule is. And not short enough it was. If so powerful you are... why leave? You will not stop me. Darth Vader will become more powerful than either of us. Faith in your new apprentice misplaced may be. As is your faith in the dark side of the Force. Hurry. Careful timing we will need. Activate your homing beacon when you're ready. There's no sign of his body, sir. - Then he is not dead. - Double your search. Yes, sir. Right away, sir. Tell Captain Kagi to prepare my shuttle for immediate take-off. - Yes, Master. - I sense Lord Vader is in danger. Into exile I must go. Failed I have. I have failed you, Anakin. I have failed you. I should have known the Jedi were plotting to take over. Anakin, Chancellor Palpatine is evil! From my point of view, the Jedi are evil. Then you are lost! This is the end for you, my master. It's over, Anakin. I have the high ground. You underestimate my power. Don't try it. You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness! I hate you! You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you. Master Kenobi. We have Miss Padm on board. Yes. Please, please hurry. We should leave this dreadful place. Is Anakin all right? Your Majesty, this way. There he is. He's still alive. Get a medical capsule immediately. Yes, sir. Right away. Excuse me, Master Yoda. Obi-Wan Kenobi has made contact. We'll take her to the medical centre. Quickly. Medically, she's completely healthy. For reasons we can't explain, we are losing her. - She's dying? - We don't know why. She has lost the will to live. We need to operate quickly if we are to save the babies. Babies? She's carrying twins. Luke. Oh, Luke. - It's a girl. - Leia. There's good in him. I know. I know there's... still- Lord Vader. Can you hear me? Yes, Master. Where is Padm? Is she safe? Is she all right? It seems, in your anger, you killed her. I? I couldn't have. She was alive. I felt it! Hidden, safe the children must be kept. We must take them somewhere where the Sith will not sense their presence. Split up they should be. My wife and I will take the girl. We've always talked of adopting a baby girl. She will be loved with us. And what of the boy? To Tatooine. To his family send him. I will take the child and watch over him. Until the time is right, disappear we will. Master Kenobi, wait a moment. In your solitude on Tatooine, training I have for you. Training? An old friend has learned the path to immortality. One who has returned from the netherworld of the Force. Your old master. Qui-Gon? How to commune with him I will teach you. - Captain Antilles. - Yes, Your Highness? I'm placing these droids in your care. Treat them well. Clean them up. Have the protocol droid's mind wiped. What? 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