Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait, the story is not abandoned, I just got a bit lost in other stuff and have fallen out with the world of NoP a bit. I will continue the story, through I can't promise a new chapter every month.
On another note, I am quite proud of this chapter, this is definetly my favourite one, and I enjoyed expanding on Velnils past and mental health. (And tormenting him, of course. Nah, just joking. xD)
Thank you for creating this beautiful universe!
Also thanks to for proofreading!
Criticism is very much welcome, let me know what you think!
Enjoy!
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Memory transcription subject: Velnil, Arxur deserter Date [standardized human time]: 25th of October, 2136, Middle of the night
CW: panic attack, hallucination, self harm
[Note: Dream state detected. Reliving memory. Proceed? (Y/N)]
[Y]
The cold seeped deep into Velnil’s scales as he trudged up the hidden path of the forest, up onto a small hill where a single, just barely alive tree stood still. There was no wind, no new smells and no sound. It was calm, eerily calm, forcing Velnil to periodically stop and look around, seeing if anyone had followed him.
Every time, there was nothing. It was just the empty forest, filled with dying trees and withered bushes. There were a few animal bones here and there sticking out of the ground, but he did not care enough to spare a glance at them.
As he ascended higher and higher on the small hill, he felt as his breathing slowly returned to normal from the usually used powerful intakes and blowouts. He took a slow, deep breath, as he arrived at the tree, letting the cold air run into his lungs, and calming down his beating heart. He was here again. The only question was if he was really alone or not.
“Frostbubble, are you there?” He asked, almost in a whisper as he looked around, moving towards the tree. It still felt strange to use this nickname, but if it kept her safe and happy, he was more than glad to use it.
“Aww, you did come, Velny.” The voice was almost sickeningly sweet for Velnil’s ears, but he knew it was because of everything he had been learning. The warmth in his chest was just another proof to it, as he noticed her lanky shadow climb down from the tree, keeping a small bag up with her tail as she did so. He felt a slight blush creep onto his face as she hopped down, and quickly approached him.
“How have you been? I hope they didn’t manage to rough you up too badly this time.” The care in her voice made Velnil shutter and relax at the same time, as her hand landed on his arm, caressing the scar he had first received for insubordination.
He was four back then.
“No. I’m okay, Zar… Frostbubble.” More warmth filled his chest at her wide toothed smile. “They didn’t get me this time. I managed to trick them.”
“So clever and cunning, Velny.” Her grating chuckle, while repulsive to his ears, was music to his heart. He felt a soft pressure on his hand as she took it, and began leading him to the other side of the tree, facing away from the facility, and out towards the dying wilderness. The view has always filled him with dread, seeing as nature had slowly withered away with his feelings, only to eventually be replaced by even more factories and facilities. It was truly as if the planet felt his pain, his suffering as he was slowly broken down, only to be replaced by the ideals and will of Betterment.
They sat down on the ground, neither of them caring about the cold, as they leaned back a bit, looking up at the night sky. Everything was so calm, yet Velnil couldn’t keep himself from looking around, listening for any noise that could tell him they were not alone.His anxiety only grew, until he felt a soft touch on his chin. He let his head be turned back towards her.
Her smile was horrible(line through) beautiful. The shine of her eyes as she looked at him so calmly, like they weren’t in constant danger of being found out and killed. It angered him, but at the same time, it filled him with a strange feeling. It was still so alien to him, he never felt it before, only when he was with her.
“We are safe here, Veln. Don’t worry so much about it. I am always watching and also making sure that no one is following you. You don’t need to turn around that often. Let yourself relax a bit.” It didn’t make any sense. How could he relax? They were out and about without the knowledge of the masters, they were going against the rules.
She is not even supposed to be here. She was never in the facility.
He opened his mouth, but couldn’t say anything as she closed it, playfully flicking one of her claws on his snout. He shook his head, incredulous about what just happened.
“I know that look, Velny. Relax, just for this once.” As she leaned forward, his heart rate spiked, the alien feeling shooting up like fire as warmth filled his face at the feeling of her nuzzling his snout. He leaned towards her, eyes half-lidded as he felt his muscles relax ever so slightly. Perhaps Zartha is right. He could relax with her, and not be on the lookout for any danger that may be around them.
“Maybe… maybe you are right, Frostbubble.” He mumbled, his eyes closing momentarily as his snout moved to rub at her throat, with a sharp intake of air coming from her.
“Veln, I…” Zartha stopped for a few seconds, prompting Velnil to lean back a bit to look at her. She looked… troubled? Unsure? No, it was something else. Her eyes fluttered while looking all around, as if searching for danger, but they always returned to him, at which point she flicked with her tailtip, until it snagged at her satchel.
“I made something for you.” Velnil cocked his head as he watched her pull out a thermos, quickly unscrewing its top. He watched as steam rose from the thermos, filling the air with a sweet scent, creating an even more serene atmosphere.
“It’s Trilltilla tea. It took a long time, but I wanted to make it for you.” Velnil watched as she presented the top part of the thermos for him. Slowly reaching out, he took hold of it, their hands touching as their eyes met. The shining in her eyes, the way her irises grew, her tail that wagged more and more. He was sure she felt the same strange feeling he felt, as his tail wagged as well, albeit slowly.
He then took hold of it properly, lifting it up to drink. There was no need to say thanks. She knew he was thankful for it.
“So, this is where you have been sneaking off.” Velnil jumped up and whipped around, the top of the thermos falling to the ground as its contents spilled. Next to the tree stood his master, with two burly arxur standing on either of his side. The scowl on his master's face told him everything. They saw everything, the two of them have been found out.
It was over for them.
Zartha slowly stood up, to which one of the arxur moves so quickly to her, it was almost a blur. A painful yelp came from her as she was punched in the gut, tumbling forward, but she wasn’t allowed to fall to the ground. The arxur kept her up, while his master and the other moved in.
“So, you must be Zartha. I have heard quite a lot of you. A disgrace to our kind, really.” His master’s voice was full of contempt. Velnil didn’t dare to speak, nor did he dare to move, lest he might lose his head.
Or worse…
“I’m no disgrace. The only disgrace here is how you trea-” She wasn’t allowed to finish. Master didn’t allow her. The arxur holding her punched her again, forcing the air out of her lungs.
“Tssk. Such a waste of resources. This one is unfixable.” As his master’s eyes landed on him, Velnil felt himself freeze under the glare. “But you will still be redeemed, boy. Oh, you will be. I will make sure of that. You are allowed to return to your dwelling, at this instant.” His heart didn’t want to, but his mind knew he must move. Velnil’s legs, almost like he was on auto-pilot, moved, one after the other, as he began making his way down. He heard as his master turned to address the other arxur.
“Find its father and wipe its disgrace off this world. Then find its mother, and make sure that woman brings a proper arxur into this world.” An acknowledging grunt was the only answer.
The cold seeped deep into Velnil’s scales as he made his way down the hill, the warmth escaping, leaving him with a cold, painful pressure on his rumbling stomach that yearned for her tea.
But it will never feel its warmth.
~~~
Growling, and pressure on his stomach was what woke Velnil up. On instinct, he striked with his right arm, his sharp claws swiping at nothing. His head swiveled around, with no need for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the night, trying to find whatever was threatening him.
There was nothing.
Velnil began to work on calming his breathing as he tried to listen, focusing on the nightly sounds of the forest, seeing if he can hear the soft running of paws, or the strong thumps of human legs.
Again, there was nothing.
With a grumble, he rolled onto all fours, sniffing around and looking for any clues on what might have growled and pawed at him.
The sound repeated itself, this time however, Velnil felt the painful clamps of his stomach as it rumbled loudly, seemingly discontent with the lack of food inside of it. With the realization that he is just hungry - very much so -, Velnil got into a bipedal stance, and began making his way towards the farm.
Looking around as much as he could see of the sky, it must have still been well into the night. He could have just checked it on his holopad, but then his eyes would have to adjust to the dark again, and he would possibly give away his location - after all, he could never know if something or someone was watching him.
The night was annoyingly cold, but it was nothing like what he had to survive during his training. It molded him, made him stronger, able to ignore the cold seeping into his bones and keep on going.
He always had to keep going.
He promised it.
Velnil didn’t know how long he was walking when another rumble left his stomach, this time however, his mouth began to water at the enticing smell his nostrils had caught. It was a familiar smell, divine even, and the bigger breath he took, the more it filled his being, as the picture practically smashed itself into his mind.
Krakotl.
Yumm.
Dropping onto all fours, he made his way towards the source of the smell, taking great care to avoid stepping on a branch, or making any noise that might give away his position. He froze, and silently cursed himself at another rumble of his stomach. Do you want to be filled or not?! If so, be silent!
His stomach did not respond. Good.
Continuing to stalk forward, the smell started to become stronger as the wind carried it to him. Reaching another, much smaller clearing, he hid inside one particularly big bush, easily seeing out of it.
There, in the gentle moonlight kneeled a young, healthy looking krakotl. Its feathers reflected the moonlight beautifully, and he could make out some kind of red pattern on the otherwise greenish plumage that covered it. From scent alone he could tell that it was a female, possibly the same age, or maybe older than he was.
It was just the right age. He could feel himself salivating as he watched it do something, it had its back to him, he could jump out and just get it!
His muscles tensed as he prepared himself, but a sudden thought of realization of where he was exactly forced him to stop, tensing up even more as to not jump. Just then, the krakotl leaned back up, revealing what it had been doing.
Velnil felt himself recoil a bit at the sight of the familiar flower. How did the krakotl get it here?! Who even allowed it to plant that? Why…?
The slits of his eyes slowly rounded out as he watched the light of the moon shine onto the flower, prompting it to slowly unfurl, revealing five sickly green colored petals, with a bright blue colored inside. Velnil felt himself lowering onto the ground, his eyes becoming blurry - but why?
Reaching up, he felt something wet in his eye - tears. He was… crying? Why was he…
It is what she used to make tea for you that day. The memory hit him like a plasma bolt. The flower - Triltilla, or Lover’s poison as some used to call it, was a rare flower from the krakotl turned arxur colony world. Interestingly, the prey was the one that came up with the nickname for the flower - it was said that when the lover made tea from the petals, it’s effect depended on the care that was put into it - the petals had to be cleaned from any pollen, then cured and dried for the right amount of time, which was then followed by making the tea. If the maker of the tea put the proper care to it, it worked as sort of a love potion - it helped with maternity and helped the mates bond.
But if even the slightest mistake was made, if the maker wasn’t careful enough, the pollen, or not drying it for the proper amount of time greatly changed its effect - causing severe pain for whoever drank the tea, and in some cases, even death.
It was dumb. Of course it was, it came from a prey infested world that was cleansed by his ancestors!
And yet, that single flower was one of her favorites. He never truly understood why, but of course, how could he.
He was well into his training back then. He saw it as her weakness. One of her oh so many flaws that plagued her ability to live as a proper arxur.
Oh, because you always lived as a proper arxur? Came the sudden response to his thoughts, feeling another pang of pain from his stomach as he once again wiped a tear from his face. He forced back down a slight growl as he looked back up at the prey, his tongue running over his lips as he kneaded the ground beneath his paws. He wanted to to jump out, to strike, to once again taste his favorite food.
Could he really kill through?
A third, this time much louder rumble had escaped his stomach, it seemed this time the prey had heard it.
“Hello?” The prey’s head whipped around, staring at his general direction, as her soft trilling voice rang out. “Is anyone there?” Another question rang out, it sounded so young, and yet, he watched as his prey’s eyes slowly went over her surroundings, forcing Velnil to slightly pull back, and close his eyes until there was only a slight line visible.
As he imagined how it would taste, his tongue running over his lips, the krakotl took a tentative step forward, eyes still scanning the treeline.
“Lia, is that you?” As Velnil finally got over the fight inside his head, his hunger slowly winning, he prepared to pounce, his eyes opening more ever so slightly as his claws dug into the dirt a bit.
“Aw, damn it. How did you know?” Once again, Velnil almost stumbled out of his hiding spot as a sudden voice came from somewhere to his right. He watched as the prey turned their head towards the voice, as Velnil barely held back an angry hiss at the appearance of a female human.
The woman, referred to as ‘Lia’ seemed to be around [180cm] in height, as she made her way over to the krakotl with surprising silence. Light brown hair flowed down her back, tied into a ponytail. Similarly to other humans, she was also wearing fake pelts, with surprisingly light colored blue jeans and light green shirt.
For a second, Velnil wondered how the human does not shiver from the cold, but his mind quickly wound up with another question: how in the twisted wriss does she hunt in such light clothes? What other thing could she do here at a time like this?
“I didn’t. You scared the… Why are you even here?” The krakotl puffed its feathers up as it turned its head to its side to glare at the predator in front of it. Albeit the body language of the prey showed slight alarm and trepidation, its voice was surprisingly calm, maybe even reproachful. The human seemed to also take note of its voice, putting up her hands as she looked at the prey.
“Oh, I’m sorry miss ‘I go for a walk into the forest in the middle of the night’”. At this, the krakotl seemed to deflate, lowering their head a bit, but not for long, as the human stepped up to them, and brought their head back up with what he assumed was a gentle touch. “I just woke up to being cold, and after waiting a bit, and looking and not finding you, I became worried. Besides, what do you expect if my living, breathing blanket suddenly disappears?” The human chuckled, which was soon joined by the prey's own chuckling, extending a wing to strike at the human.
“Oh, hush, you! It’s not my fault your only protection is your strange pelts! Plus, why are you not wearing anything else, aren’t you cold?” A slight worry in its tone was sickening to listen to, as Velnil continued to watch the two interact, until the human female suddenly stopped, snapping their head towards his direction, accommodated by a cracking sound, which was then followed by the woman groaning, and massaging their neck.
“Shit.. That hurt…” She mumbled. Both the prey and Velnil seemed to jump slightly at the sudden movement, albeit for different reasons. As the prey started worrying over the human, Velnil pulled back even more, laying completely flat on the cold ground as his heart beat even faster. Impossible, this is impossible! The wind is coming from their direction, I was as silent as a night stalker, how could she know I’m here?!
His question wasn’t left unanswered, which confused him greatly.
“Are you okay? What was that?” Asked the krakotl for the third time, thankfully silenced by the human.
“Nothing, nothing, I just… I thought someone was looking at me. I could feel whatever it was.” At the answer, the krakotl tilted its head in confusion, clicking its beak a few times in contemplation.
“You… felt something staring at you? But… how? Aren’t you humans… you know?” The meek thing shrunk a bit again, but was quickly calmed by the human, who ran their hand over their back.
“Eh, it’s hard to explain, and it’s quite late. Let’s just say that sometimes we just get this… feeling of being watched. I have to say, it wasn’t the best idea to come out here without a flashlight, now that I think about it. This place gives me the creeps.” The human seemingly shuddered as she looked around, while the prey looked even more confused.
Before it could say anything however, the human sighed, and turned back to the krakotl.
“Anyways, we should probably head back, Suyla. I heard that tomorrow we will have a… not so good surprise. So we should probably, at the very least, get well rested.” At this, the krakotl seemed to realize something, as they huddled closer to the human, looking around with fear.
“Do you think that it’s… here?” It asked, its voice quivering a bit as the human put their hands on its back, trying to calm the prey.
“Well, I saw Rich arrive, so he must be already here somewhere.” At this point Velnil realized they were talking about him, and he held back a growl once again. He watched as the human led his catch away, leaving him with an empty stomach and an even sourer mood.
“NoT sO gOod SuUrPRisE..” Velnil mimicked mockingly, growling to himself after the human and his food left, grabbing and squeezing a handful of earth as he sulked. This is so dumb, as if the humans would be any better! They are weak and pathetic predators! Even he could take on a few of them! Probably.
Yeah, and you would get yourself killed. And prove them right.
Whatever! He thought to himself with a rumble. It’s not like I care about what they think.
Of course you don’t. Otherwise you would have to accept you are a-
Silence! Growled Velnil as he shook his head. For a few moments, he waited for a reply, but when it didn’t arrive, he raised his chin smugly.
He was about to get up to be on his way when he heard some rustling in front of him. Looking up, he noticed something that looked a lot like a sivkit, except it was wrong in almost every aspect, except for its eyes. He watched the animal approach the newly planted flower, and Velnil scoffed as the animal began to sniff at it.
Dumb prey. You don’t even know what that is, and you just approach it. As Velnil watched the animal, his eyes widened, and time seemed to slow down as he saw it open its mouth.
Oh no, you won’t. With a growl, he sprung from his hiding spot, his maw opening wide with razor sharp teeth as he caught the prey just before it could turn and run.
The metallic taste was a welcome sensation.
~~~
Velnil hummed a low tune for himself as he was walking back to his clearing, his hunger somewhat satiated as he let the cold air fill his lungs to their capacity. With his hunger sated for the foreseeable few hours, he could think a bit more clearly about his situation.
This place looked nothing like a farm. At least, not how a cattle farm would look like, but even those places had parts where they grew prey food to feed the cattle.
So if the humans are not going to keep cattle on this farm, apart from the alien one, why grow so much on such a big area? He knew humans can eat prey food, as revolting of a thought it was, they all could just eat more meat. Do they really care that much about the walking and talking prey that they don’t eat meat because of them?
Bah. Of course they care about their cattle. That way they won’t run away.
Though, the more he thought about it, the less sense it made. Do they really not eat the alien cattle that are here? Albeit he only just arrived, the animals didn’t seem to be scared at all. That woman - Lia, was his name, if he remembered correctly - even went out into the cold night to find her feathered ‘friend’.
Growling softly, he shook his head, banishing the line of thought to the back of his mind. He didn’t need to think about this - it was useless when it came to his survival. He knew the humans would do anything to save cattle - even if said cattle bombed them. If it needs to be, he can always take one as a hostage, and on the other hand - he probably could still get at least one of the prey riled up enough to attack him.
That will be spectacular.
But what else could he do? There was one saying he saw on a human website that described his current position quite nicely - He was a wolf among sheep. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. He had to get them to lower their guards, to not view him as a threat, but rather, one of those weak useless arxur who cannot do anything right.
Oh, you have experience in that, don’t worry.
“Shut. Your. Mouth.” He hissed to himself, stopping in his tracks as he looked forward. His arms shook slightly, but he forced his hands into fists to stop it.
What’s the matter, Velnil? Forgot about me so quickly? You hurt my - sorry -, our feelings.
“I said shut up!” Growling filled the air as Velnil leaned forward, the shaking moving to his shoulders.
Why should I? We are no longer in the Dominion. Betterment can’t get a hold of us. We are free.
“We are not free… We will never be.” growled Velnil suddenly turning to swiftly strike at a tree. He winced from the pain shooting through his right hand, but he didn’t care. He didn’t want to feel. He shouldn’t feel anything.
But we are. We ran away, fooled the humans, fooled their prey. We could go where we want. Or stay here. Live a new-
“This is NOT my home!” Velnil yelled. “This will never be. I am not free, just a damned prisoner of another species! I can never be as free as I want to be!”
And what would you call being free? Not like you would know it, of course. I can see it, after all. You know nothing about being free. You are just-
“Shut up! Shutupshutupshutup!” Velnil yelled as he began hitting his head against the tree, each time his body shaking in pain while the tree stood steadfast.
Unmoving.
Uncaring.
Emotionless.
With tears in his eyes, he slunk down against the tree, his breathing fast and uneven. The shadows danced around him, waiting in silence, waiting to pounce on his weak form. The sounds of the night sky became howls of predators, the ground further ahead opened up, the rotten, clawed hand of an arxur suddenly appearing at the edge of it, pulling it’s body up, revealing a set of familiar yellow eyes.
“V-veeeeelniiiilll” Groaned her corpse as she pulled herself up, taking a step closer. His breathing fastened as his eyes were trained not on her head, but her torn open neck.
“No… No… I- I didn’t…” His whines were left unanswered as her corpse took another step towards him, an arm reaching out as one of her eyes fell out, leaving the empty socket as a void to peer into and devour his weak soul.
“I didn’t want to!” He yelled, trying to crawl away, but the tree behind him didn’t let him. “I never wanted to! I-I-I wanted to keep you safe, but I-”
“Veeeeeel-” The corpse sighed out, before taking in a shallow breath - her torn open throat moving along with the action, opening to let air in, before she continued. ”-nyy.” Another step, then as he blinked, she was standing over him. A startled whine left him as he scooted back even more, pressing against the tree as she reached out.
“I’m sorry! I’m so fucking sorry, I wanted to save you, I did!” He screamed hiding away behind his arms as he shouted one last thing: “I loved you!”.
As he shrunk back even more, his breath slowed, his head became woozy as soon his consciousness began to slip away, hearing her speak one last time.
“Veeeeeelnnnyy.”
~~~
Velnil came back to consciousness with a start, head rapidly turning around as his breath hitched, until pain shot through his head. With a wince, he pulled himself up, gingerly touching his head - his scales were damaged, and blood was dried on his head. He winced slightly as pain shot through both his head and right hand.
Shit. They will definitely notice this… He thought to himself as he took a ragged breath. He looked where the hole had appeared - there was nothing, the ground was undisturbed. His gaze lingered on it, before he eventually turned, and continued to make his way towards his clearing, still in the darkness of the night, like nothing had happened.
It has been so long since the last one. Why now? Why is she tormenting me? His questions were left unanswered. He forced himself to stop, and after taking a deep breath, he looked around, listening for any nearby river or something. Sniffing around, he could feel the smell of water off in the distance, and so, he began making his way there.
I need to wash off the blood.
Within a few minutes, he had found a large river, the water flowing down with relative force. Kneeling down at its edge, he leaned forward, and began cleaning his head and hand with practiced, almost robotic movements. The proof of his weakness stinged and flared up at the cold touch of water, but he did not care. He watched as the water slowly took on a red hue, before disappearing down the river.
Within another few minutes, Velnil could easily make out the outline of the injury - it wasn’t too big, but it was most definitely noticeable, and will take days - if not a few weeks - to properly heal. He could hide it, since he was still somewhat bigger than everyone else - but then that would go against his plan on appearing meek and unsure about things.
Maybe I could use it. Play it off as having a bad night. Maybe I could get them to give me more food than they planned. The humans are very empathetic, I’m sure that after seeing this, they would feel bad enough for me to somewhat drop their guard. Maybe I can even fool some of the prey. Yes, that, being attacked by one should be enough for them to not view me as a threat.
Satisfied with the plan, Velnil got back up, and with a sigh and a few minutes of walking, he finally made his way back to the clearing. Lying down on the cold ground, he carefully rested his head atop his bag once again, looking at nothing in particular.
His next few minutes were filled with rolling around, unable to go back to sleep, as his thoughts were slowly but surely going back to the krakotl he saw. The green feathers, adorned by a red pattern, its yellow beak, and similarly yellow eyes.
Yellow eyes that stared deep into his soul.
The yellow eye that has fallen out of its socket, to leave an empty void to devour his soul.
Velnil forced his eyes shut, turning around again. Not again. He thought, forcing himself to think of other things - the taste of the prey animal he caught, his way towards Earth, the russif.
Eventually, within a gruesome few minutes, Velnil was finally granted the sweet release of sleep.
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Morgan had been in his fair share of…well, he couldn’t really call them battles. Scraps maybe? Yeah, Morgan had been in his fair share of scraps in the past. Quick little things on the deck of a ship, the rotting timbers of a dock, and even once on the crowded streets of Braavos. Trading was a cutthroat business and merchants needed to be ready to defend themselves and their cargo.
This…roiling mess on some shit field near Selkirk? This was no scrap. It was a lot bigger for one; he’d never been in a fight bigger than maybe a few dozen lads total. Here there had to be thousands of men strung out on both sides of the field. It was also harsher for another. The scraps he’d gotten into? They’d been mostly posturing; showing the other pricks you were willing to fight for your stuff or kill them if need be. Make em think twice about whether what you had was worth dying for—then you’d mock charge them. All sound and fury so they’d panic and run before things got real bloody. It was what he’d expected from the clansmen. It was the only way this made ‘sense’ to him. They were a bunch of scantly armed, barely armored scum against the Vale’s iron fist. What chance did they have in a straight fight?
At first it seemed like he’d had the right of it—the clansmen had started by hanging back and chanting some ominous sounding babble at them from across the battlefield. No doubt psyching themselves up and trying to shake the Knights’ resolve. They’d kept it up a bit longer than he would’ve but to each their own. Then they’d launched the mock charge—except it wasn’t a mock charge because the crazy bastards actually hurled themselves straight into the line of knights.
It utterly baffled Morgan, to watch a frothing madman try to squeeze through the thicket of halberds his Guard put up, get pincushioned for his trouble, and then have another one immediately step up for his turn. The sentiment must’ve been shared by the rest of the knights because the entire line flinched back from the reckless assault. It was short lived though, as orders barked hoarsely along the line put steel back in the knights’ spine and had them force the clansmen back.
Just in time for an unlucky few to get caught in a volley of crude, yet still deadly, arrows and javelins. Something that had the Lord of Gulltown cursing the face he’d only brought along his halberd bearing knights. Some crossbowmen and their handy pavises—he ducked behind one of his Guard with a muddled oath as another rain of missiles approached—would be greatly appreciated right now.
It went like that for what felt like hours. The clansmen’s archers and javelinmen kept up a persistent hail of ranged death as both sides jockeyed for position on the increasingly muddy and mangled field. The clansmen would try to force their way through the line only to be punished for their gall. In turn the zeal with which the knights struck out at their foes left the flanks thin and ripe for the clansmen to wrap around them. Trapped as he was in the press of armored bodies, the wretched back and forth felt like madness to Morgan.
Thankfully, he didn’t have long to wait before he picked up the brassy blare of a horn followed up by the horrendous crash of steel meeting flesh and the faint sound of whinnies from off to the right. If he craned his neck he could just about make out Lord Hunter’s pennants fluttering over the chaos—looked like the heavy horse had been committed. To damn good effect, given the panicked screaming coming from that direction.
It was a sound that filled the Valemen’s hearts with joy and vigor—which was probably why they ignored that the clansmen had started up their chanting again. And probably why they were caught by surprise when a group of clansmen threaded their way through the ranks of the larger horde to slam into the left flank hard.
These weren’t the foaming madmen they’d been dealing with so far. These clansmen wore battered, if functional chainmail and bore castle forged steel they’d managed to pilfer from somewhere. And, somehow, they knew how to make best use of both. The change threw his men off and their foes capitalized quickly. Thrusting halberds failed to deal killing blows and were dragged out of position—allowing an alarming gap to open up in their thicket of blades.
A gap the clansmen moved to exploit.
A gap he quickly stepped into spewing threats and curses.
A gap, he realized just as quickly, that his padded gambeson and short cutlass were ill-suited to hold.
A gap that was suddenly full of better armed and armored savages—that were much better prepared for this melee than he was.
Things got a bit…hectic after that. He remembered flashes—losing his blade after a slash opened his arm from wrist to elbow—a crack over his head with something blunt and heavy—then howling? Movement? He couldn’t say for sure.

I know this is homeimprovement but hopefully this is close enough.
During our last trip I noticed our plastic sink had cracked near the drain. We decided to replace it with a stainless sink. The dimensions of the hole are 23.5" x 15.5". I found this sink that was 25 x 18 that fits almost perfectly in the hole, but the hole where the faucet previously was isn't fully covered up.
I'm debating cutting a plug out of the counter fill in pieces that went with the old sink since we wouldn't need them anymore. It wouldn't be perfect though.
Anyone else have a recommendation aside from replacing the whole counter top?
Apparently it's very difficult to find a replacement sink, especially the correct size.
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After a couple of hours of non-stop work, R’aart still puzzled as it cut out yet another section of bulkhead from around the galley. It was supposed to be a technician, repairing and maintaining, not a deconstruction element. It looked over at its fellow Dravitian, Lindr, who was loading cut sections of structural members onto a servoloader, and raised its voice over the sounds of the cutter, “Why are even doing this? Those Terrans have already used all our spare bar stock. This just feels wrong.”
Lindr turns its triangular head to face where R’aart was silhouetted against the sparks and glowing metal from the cutter’s action on the bulkhead. “They need more reinforcing for the cargo bay project. I do not understand how they plan to terraform the vacuum, though.” It paused, “Do you think that those geriatric Terrans have suffered neural damage from the extended time in cold-sleep?”
R’aart finished the last line of the cut and a section of plating with edges glowing orange clanged ti the deck. As it sent the cutter into its cool-down safety setting, it offered, “I suspect that could be the case. The noises that pass for their entertainment…” It shuddered slightly. “However, Engineer Allyson holds them in high esteem. She spoke of them as if they were super-beings.”
Lindr nodded slowly, “Yes. But if they flaunt safety limits at a degree proportionally higher than Engineer Allyson does, relative to how she speaks of them, I fear for our safety.”
R’aart turned on its lower four extremities, fully facing its fellow technician. “As opposed to the Jaxorians that are bound to catch us?”
-=-=-=-=-=-
“The two Jaxorian vessels are will be within weapons range within the hour.” The Dravitian Captain’s words came over the music that still came from the Terran’s console on the bridge.
William sighed. “Crap. Okay, sooner than I wanted, but we can work with that.” He thumbed the control on his console and the sounds of The The’s Infecteddied away as he leaned in toward the microphone on the side of the touchscreen. “Hey guys. We have an hour before they blast us. How close to ready are we?”
AJ’s voice came over the console speaker, “Capacitors are all charged, and we’ve reinforced all the wiring to take the extra amps. These reactors are showing some strain, though, so keep that in mind.”
Tony’s voice sounded sort of hollow with the echos, “These engines will flare, probably for three minutes give or take. Because of the way I had to disable these dampers, once the flare starts there’s no way of stopping it, so make sure we’re aimed at empty space, okay?”
Allyson’s voice came next, “Pete says that he’s almost done with welding the braces. Everything’s wired, and there’s a relay switch set back in engineering.” Her voice paused, then asked, “And, once we get this set, what is it going to do?”
William chuckled, “Allyson, thank Pete and have him explain about Puff, okay? AJ, Tony, great job guys. Harden up anything you can, then see if there’s anything you can rig up that might stop invaders if things go south, okay?”
As the crew’s voices chimed in with their agreement, William cued up Yaz’s Situation and went back to his coding.
The Dravitian navigator looked over at the Terran, “Sir? May I be filled in on your plan?”
William’s fingers continued to work on the virtual keys as he started to speak, “Sorry, I’ve just been focused here. I should have said something before. We’re going to pretend to lose power in one of the fusion reactors, and let the crab-guys catch up. Then, when we get close, we’ll attack the ship that’s going to want to board, and then we’ll peel out, doing some damage to the other ship.” He looks up from the keys and over to the insectoid, “I’ll just need you to maneuver us so that the ass-end of this ship is pointed toward the enemy and the nose is headed toward about 10 million miles of clear space.”
The navigator’s upper set of extremities moved in small circles, a Dravitian gesture indicative of anxiety. “But if they board, we will all end up as feeding matter.”
William grinned a lopsided grin and shook his head, “Oh, I guarantee you that if they actually get on-board, they will heartily regret it, and we won’t go out on a platter.”
-=-=-=-=-=-
“Primary Command Crew to stations!” The sound vibrations rippled through the hydodynamic fluid.
The Jaxorian scuttled sideways out of his bunk and reached up with pincers that had small gems crusting the carapace ridges, and opened the interior hatch, feeling the slightly warmer water swirl into the bunkroom. He swam out and into the corridor, and scuttled toward the Command Center.
As he entered the large cave of the command room, he scuttled around the large black carapace of the Commissar as he moved to the weapons station. Keeping his legs in as close as he could to make himself as small as possible, he settled in and looked at the readouts.
The Coalition vessel they were chasing was rapidly coming into range. The power readings had lowered from earlier in the chase. The Jaxiorian offered, “High One, the prize will be in range for the main cannon in approximately [2 minutes]. Shall I begin charging the coils?”
The Commissar swiveled its eyestalks and took in the enhanced image on the gel projector screen. “It is a cargo vessel, yes?” she asked. Her legs churned under her and she turned her carapace to a more comfortable position on the grippy surface of the commander’s mound.
“Yes, Commissar,” answered the bright green Jaxorian at the intelligence console. “It appears laden with goods, including not only colony gear and edible beings shipped as cargo. They will be easy prey.”
The Commissar flexed her ebony bulk, “We will not fire. We could damage the prize. Ready a boarding party. Plot an intercept solution. Communicate with the escort and have them stand ready, but not to fire until I command it.” She paused, “And communicate with the prize. Alert them that they are to stand down and prepare themselves to submit.”
Activity started around the bridge as these orders were put into motion. On the screen of the weapons station, the tiny shape of the CCV K’gara B’rak slid within the orange delimiter of the targeter’s range.
-=-=-=-=-=-
“Heads up! They’ve taken the bait, and should close to boarding distance in about three minutes. Crew, get to your emergency stations, Tony be ready for my signal, and AJ, spin that reactor back up at the same time. Pete, you and Allyson make sure that the terraformers are set, because they’re going off first.” William’s voice came through all the speakers and communicators throughout the ship. “And if anyone’s been waiting on a last minute question, this is the time.”
William removed his finger from the communication control and waited in the silence. There weren’t any questions, though he didn’t expect any from the guys. And the Dravitians were good at following protocol, so they wouldn’t be panicking, at least outwardly. He waited another few seconds, then cued up the next bit of media, a slow build of steady guitar and base leading into a sudden beat that started the steady, almost ominous, beat of Don Felder’s ”Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride)”.
The Captain looked over from the navigation console, the chitinous plates of its face pale green at the edges, “The vessel closes toward our side with the main docking area. This is in accordance with your plan, yes?”
William nodded slowly, still watching the readouts and monitors that were displayed on his touchscreen. “Yeah, though I still hate these moments before we find out if everything works out. Oh, I know my guys did everything they could, but you never know what the other guy will do.”
The Captain cocked its head, “So we gave up running so that we could let the Jaxorians catch us, inviting capture rather than running until the very end?”
William chuckled, “Oh, they’d be able to run us down, but the only way to win that game is not to play. So what we needed to do is play with home field advantage and our tricks up our sleeves. It’s a classic FAFO situation.”
The Captain held its gaze steady, “I have no translation for ‘FAFO’, sir.”
William grinned, “Let’s just say that it’s one where someone gets the consequences they deserve for the actions they take.”
The Captain paused and looked back to the navigation console. “About two of your minutes, sir.” He poked at the touchscreen. “Did you realize that you have that noise playing on all of the broadcast communications channels as well?”
-=-=-=-=-=-
The Jaxorian communications manager continued to be perplexed. “Commissar, even once I have filtered the background noise and consulted the translator circuits, I do not understand this message. Perhaps it is in code? Perhaps the background noise is significant to interpreting the meaning?”
The Commissar shifted her bulky carapace, “Overlay the translation with the background noise and put it on speaker.”
”My, oh my, how this lady can fly, once she starts rollin’ beneath you. You know you just can’t lose, the way that she moves, you wait for her to finally release you. It’s not a big surprise to feel your temperature rise; you’ve got a touch of redline fever. ‘Cause there is just one cure that they know for sure; you just become a heavy metal believer.”
The Commissar scoffed. “Nonsense words. Continue the docking approach.”
-=-=-=-=-=-
The song had ended by the time the Jaxorian cruiser had matched speed and heading with the larger form of the old Terran combat freighter and was closing the distance between them, [meter] by [meter]. The cruiser extended a docking corridor to cover the [10 meter] distance that the ships would maintain once locked in place.
The smaller Jaxorian escort ship trailed behind slightly, as the Terran craft seemed to have something wrong with it’s engines and was making a sort of lazy curve that the cruiser was on the inside of to get to the Terran ship’s docking hatch.
Automated docking lights illuminated the main boarding hatch on the Terran craft, as if in invitation, and the corridor adjusted. Just as the seals touched, however, a Terran voice came across the open communication channels, yelling “WOLVERINES!”
The side of the combat freighter glowed orange, then yellow, then white, then boiled away into the pinkish-purple of plasma. As the engines continued their work, the metal burned away and joined the cloud, then arcs of lightning and superheated matter ripped and tore at the skin of the cruiser, boiling it away and adding its mass to the cloud.
The Terran’s voice came over the channels again, calling out, “Turbo boost, KITT! Everybody hang on!” Then came a steady drumbeat.
The ion engines at the aft of the Terran craft glowed blue, and grew brighter and brighter.
Across the channels a piano’s glissando running from high to low preceded its melody, adding to the drums which added a short run to the steady beat that they went back to.
As the flare behind it gave a powerful burst, like that of a nova, the hulking cargo ship lurched forward. The front quarter of the escort ship behind it shattered and peeled, as the freighter pushed ahead. As the freighter accelerated, the following blue-white flare from the four engines tore at the cruiser as it passed.
Again across the all the communication bands driving bass and guitar joined a female Terran who sang out, “Lying in your bed on a Saturday night; you're sweatin' buckets and it's not even hot. But your brain has got the message, and it's sending it out, to every nerve and every muscle you've got.”
The force of the flare cut straight to the central core of the cruiser, seeming to ‘unzip’ the ship, folding the two halves back from the longitudinal wound that the terraforming engines had formed. While the metal skin, structure, bulkheads, and decks peeled back, sections fractured and came away in shards, releasing the hydrodynamic liquid flowed out and boiled.
Explosions wracked the surviving portions of both Jaxorian vessels while the cargo freighter continued to accelerate, leaving the destruction farther and farther behind it.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Inside the CCV K’gara B’rak, crewmembers fought against the constant shuddering acceleration to move to where makeshift power cords had overheated and caused fires, or where the sudden thrust from the initial engine flares had caused bulkhead ruptures; where some slight flaw in the materials had given way as the ship had been taken far beyond the tolerances it had been built for.
While the Dravitian crew were frantically working in the corridors, the Terrans in the engineering bay were trying to take care of their pieces, but with grins.
Tony had a cut on his forehead from an unsecured tool from the workbench that had come straight back to the engine gantry where he’d braced himself. The force of the thrust had essentially changed ‘down’ by ninety degrees, putting him at the ‘bottom’ of the huge room. As he clambered from engine to engine, making manual adjustments, he had to keep wiping at it to keep the blood out of his eyes, and he was singing along with the music on the speakers.
”You've got so many dreams, that you don't know where to put 'em, so you'd better turn a few of 'em loose. Your body's got a feeling that it's starting to rust; you'd better rev it up and put it to use.”
AJ had tied himself to a rail by the control panels for the reactors, and was hanging near an open access panel with a heavy pair of gloves, holding something in place. His face was sporadically lit by electrical arcing from within the guts of the output transformers.
”And I don't know how I ever thought that I could make it all alone. When you only make it better, then it better be tonight. I'll be there for you tonight.”
Pete was climbing his way to one of the structural beams holding an engine in place. A crack had started halfway along it and wearing one of the cuttewelder backpack units that he never knew he needed so badly before, he was pulling himself along it to try to tack it back together.
”And if you don't have anywhere to go, you go down on the pedal and you're ready to roll. And your speed. Is all you'll ever need. All you'll ever need to know.”
Tony and Pete paused and belted out with the singer on the speakers, “Darlin’, darlin’! You and me we're goin' nowhere slowly. And we've gotta get away from the past. There's nothin' wrong with goin' nowhere, baby, but we should be goin' nowhere fast! It’s so much better goin’ nowhere fast.”
Allyson marveled as she worked on the main engineering controls, trying to direct the damage control teams that R’aart and Lindr led to the worst problems, and manage routing power through undamaged circuits to where it needed to go. She had to admit that the music fit the juddering speed in a way, but it was almost like these older men had simply come alive during this crisis, almost sustained by the continual playlist. It was probably the just the cold-sleep drugs wearing off, she told herself, but still…
-=-=-=-=-=-
On the bridge, William was using his console to try and help out the Captain, whose console with the Efficiency Interface was nearly useless in this situation. In the military code, there remained the ability to adjust how much power went to which engine within a few percentages of the synchronized setting. William had four different windows with their own sliders and readouts, one for each engine, and as Tony made a mechanical adjustment or some engine gave more or less thrust than the others, he tried to control it. The shuddering of the entire ship didn’t make this an easy job.
The music still came from his console as he worked, the singer’s voice continuing, ”Stalkin' in the shadows by the light of the moon; it's like a prison and the night is a cell. Goin' anywhere has gotta be heaven tonight, 'cause stayin' here has gotta be hell.”
William knew that all it would take was for one engine to get too far out of sync and they could rip the ship apart. The Space Venture crew all knew about that. They’d learned it the hard way. The first set of Troubleshooters bound for Mars, the ones to back up the team of Explorers who had been there for two months, and help them put together the parts for the permanent outpost that had landed a week before the ten Troubleshooters left LEO on the Space Venture.
”Dyin' in the city like a fire on the water. Let's go runnin' on the back of the wind. There's gotta' be some action on the face of the earth, and I've gotta see your face once again.”
The engines had flared that trip, and the smart controls didn’t have the capacity to stabilize them. One of the three engines had ripped off, tearing part of the cargo area open, and sending four of the first-generation cold-sleep capsules adrift. The other six capsules, along with the most of the tools, stayed in the hold while the two remaining engines flared them off into The Dark.
None of Earth’s space agencies of 2026 had ships capable of catching up to them, let alone rescuing them, so they had been written off as heroic figures and relegated to the list that included Soyuz 1, Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia. Besides, those people in their fifties chosen for the one-way trip for being the practical engineers with that creative mindset knew that they were expendable. They were never meant to come back to Earth anyway.
”And I don' know where I ever got the bright idea that I was cool; so alone and independent. But I'm depending on you now.”
That trip that should have taken two weeks had turned into almost two hundred years. They were rescued by an asteroid mining facility, but with the limited medical facilities there, only five of the rescued Troubleshooters woke back up. Robert Federman never came out of cold-sleep, his brain functions at such a low level that only medical support was able to keep the body alive.
Without ready transport, they stayed on that mining facility for more than a standard year, chipping in to pay for their keep, even as it stretched the supplies of the small facility’s crew. While the survivors weren’t up on all the technological changes of the past centuries, they learned fast, and before too long, had made improvements to the facility, making life easier and more comfortable there, solidifying their reputation as Troubleshooters.
After that, there were more long, slow trips on cargo ships, again and again in cold-sleep. William wondered if the others felt that sense of dread getting back into the capsules each time. Mark Haynes sure did. He broke down and huddled into a little rocking ball, and refused to leave that space station a couple of trips back. The little furry medics had helped him away, and some Skynet was going to try and help coax him back to reality. Supposedly there would be updates.
But for the last four of the Troubleshooters, they couldn’t stop. Finally they were going to get their chance. This last voyage was supposed to take them to help set up a new colony; not a human colony, but every colony was going to have problems to solve, and that’s why they had all volunteered so long ago. There would be something solid, with real gravity to live on.
A real alien world. But they needed to survive to get there. The ship just needed to hold together. Allyson had said it was overbuilt, but still…
”And you'll always be the only thing that I just can't be without. And I'm out for you tonight. I'm comin' out for you tonight.”
“Sir! I read our acceleration slowing!” The Captain chittered. The carapace plates of the insectoid were all very pale green, and all of its extremities seemed to be trembling.
William nodded slowly and adjusted one of the sliders before he keyed the mic and leaned down toward the pickup. “Looks like the nitrous is about done, guys. Hang on for just a little longer.”
-=-=-=-=-=-
After confirming that they were no longer being chased, the CCV K’gara B’rak slowed as the engines cut out so that they could be returned to normal operating specs. Communications had been established to a nearby Coalition vessel that was on its way to provide aid. Allyson, R'aart, and Lindr were in their exosuits, working to rebuild the structure where the plasma had eaten through the ship's outer skin.
William and Pete were playing gofer and being a second set of hands for Tony and AJ as they worked to try and get the reactors and engines safe enough to make it to a real repair facility.
The Captain walked into the Engineering Bay and it paused as its head swiveled back and forth at the disarray. “How? How did this area get to such a state?”
William chuckled and looked over from where he passed AJ new relays to replace the stressed ones in a fusion reactor. “Captain? I assume that you’ve heard the rumors about the way we humans deal with engineering problems, yes?”
The Captain walked over, his four lower extremities carefully picking a clear path through the parts, tools, and coils of wire. “Well, yes, but… Those are just stories. No-one would really take those risks…”
William chuckled, “Yeah, well, now you know first hand that they aren’t just stories…”
From inside the access panel of the nearby reactor, AJ’s voice echoed, “Word. We can really make a mess when we get going…”
The Captain nodded slowly, “I can certainly attest to that. But I do want to pass on my thanks, on behalf of my crew. I must say that I have never seen such work, and I never really expected to escape from the Jaxorians.”
William nodded. “Sure. Glad we could help. We’re Troubleshooters, after all.”

One of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics today is that the forces in galaxies do not seem to add up. Galaxies rotate much faster than predicted by applying Newton's law of gravity to their visible matter, despite those laws working well everywhere in the solar system.
To prevent galaxies from flying apart, some additional gravity is needed. It’s needed because the current concept says that mass is what is displacing space causing gravity, but this is only part of what makes gravity work, so without the missing pieces it’s useless. This is why the idea of an invisible substance called dark matter was first proposed, only it doesn’t exist. But nobody has ever seen the stuff. And there are no particles in the hugely successful Standard Model of particle physics that could be the dark matter—it must be something quite exotic or everyone is missing what is in front of us all of the time.

In its current form, general relativity is incompatible with quantum physics, why? Because mass doesn’t displace space alone causing gravities effect. In the experiment in 1919 (Einstein’s) that supposedly proves that mass displacing space is what causes gravity. While this experiment proves gravity exists and affects light waves as seen with the light bending around the circumference due to gravities effect, so light waves bend because of gravity, but the experiment doesn’t necessary prove that mass and/or speed of the planet alone could cause gravities effects since it doesn’t add up. It essentially does NOT prove that mass alone is displacing space causing the gravity rate for each mass. Example: Since the mass of Mercury is 0.33 x 10^24 kg which is 18 times less than the mass of Earth at 5.972 x 10^24 kg, then (5.972/.33=18.09 less gravity), then Mercury should have 18 times less gravity then Earth based on mass weight (both planets are moving at the same speed, E=MC2) which is also not true. Mercury’s gravity is 3.7 m/s sq. and Earth’s gravity is 9.80 m/s sq. Clearly this does not work out for the math to be correct as based on mass weight since Mercury is 3 times less gravity and not 18 times based on mass weight. So then what is causing gravities affect to be less than our calculations?

In the equation E= MC2, it says that mass plus the planets speed is equal to energy, and really mass is another energy. If mass is energy, then wouldn’t we need to account for all energies and not just the mass and speed of the planet? Doesn’t speed of planet, and rotation, inert energy equals all parts of ENERGY? If any of these energies apply to the mass in question: nuclear, electrical, chemical, mechanical, gravitational, ionization, magnetic, elastic, radiant, thermal and kinetic energy, then all of these energies must be included to account for all energy, just like mass is a small part of energy, but it’s the mass plus all of the total energy that affects the fabric of space and creates gravity as we know it. That’s why we have to add gravity to keep galaxies from coming apart, when actually it is the total energy that affects the fabric of space or creates gravity. Based on Einstein’s theory, E=MC2, essentially energy is equal to mass times speed the object is moving, so his equation is including mass energy and speed/kinetic energy of the object, then why are other energies are excluded? Which is why the example of Mercury being 18 times less mass weight should equal 18 times less gravity and it does not hold true, so the formula is incomplete. Jupiter in turn is around 1,000 times greater in mass than our planet, so why doesn’t Jupiter has a 1000 times more gravity than Earth? The sun weighs 1047 times the mass of Jupiter and both are moving at the same constant speed, so would we find that the sun has 1047 times the gravity Jupiter does? No. Newton's law of gravitation resembles Coulomb's law of electrical forces, which is used to calculate the magnitude of the electrical force (electrical energy) arising between two charged (electrical energy) bodies ( mass energy), so why would we count some of the energy when there are energies not counted?
Newton's law has later been superseded by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, but the universality of the gravitational constant is intact and the law still continues to be used as an excellent approximation of the effects of gravity in most applications. Relativity is required only when there is a need for extreme accuracy, or when dealing with very strong gravitational fields, such as those found near extremely massive and dense objects, or at small distances (such as Mercury)'s orbit around the Sun).
We have learned that with the particle accelerator, when we smash two mass/atoms materials together it creates new mass while expelling energy. The particles in the beam smash into each other with enough force to overpower the strong force holding the quarks and subatomic particles bound together in the smashed particle. As particles crash into each other near the speed of light, some of their combined kinetic energy (which is positive energy) is converted into mass, creating new particles such as the Higgs.

Quarks have various intrinsic properties, including electric charge, mass, color charge, and spin) (ALL ENERGY). They are the only elementary particles in the Standard Model of particle physics to experience all four fundamental interactions, also known as fundamental forces (electromagnetism, gravitation, strong interaction, and weak interaction), as well as the only known particles whose electric charges are not integer multiples of the elementary charge. So the strong force is actually gravity holding it together on a microscopic level because the mass alone isn’t enough to create gravity however when you add the energy from Quarks plus the mass, it now becomes enough “total energy” for the strong force to hold it with gravity. Until the energy applied is greater than the force of gravity in which case it breaks apart (particle accelerator). This shows that gravity has enough force when the mass (energy) is combined with the inert/total energy of Charms/Quarks is combined. Until that point the mass energies are not enough weight to be affected by gravity without the additional energy quarks have. Also quarks being in two places at once shows that time is a factor with the behavior of energy since quarks are energy. We have gravity, time, mass and other energies all together in everything. So the equation E=MC2 says that mass is a property of energy, which we confirmed to be true. So if mass is property of energy and we were to measure this, wouldn’t we also have to count mass plus all the energy from the planet ie: nuclear, electrical, chemical, mechanical, gravitational, ionization, magnetic, elastic, radiant, thermal and kinetic energy since all of it is energies? Positive energy in science can refer to different types of energy that have a positive value or effect. For example, potential energy is positive energy that is stored in an object or system and can be released later. Kinetic energy is positive energy that is associated with motion. Positive charge electrons is a type of energy that is less dense than negative charge electrons and tends to rise in an electric field, or it actually expands. It expands because it’s natural nature is for positive energy to stretch and expand space. The negative electrons in a field stay at the bottom or outer edge of the field and don’t expand or rise up. It stays at the bottom because negative energy contracts or falls, so it remains at the fields edge, and everything in between is the medium of space or neutral energy. Negative energy is a concept used in physics to explain the nature of certain fields, including the gravitational field and various quantum field effects. It is based on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and refers to the inherent fluctuations in energy that exist in any energy or magnetic field, so if we need to account for this negative energy in our theories/formulas of gravitational field and quantum field effects, then it’s ~present~ so we gave a measurement to be able to justify what we were seeing. Since the behavior of positive electrons is to expand up, and negative electrons to stay at the bottom or contract to the edge of the field. These are observed to be true behavior of electrons or energy in a field.

Could one also say that mass + speed of planet + kinetic E planets rotation + IE(inert energy from inside core/planet/sun etc.) + magnetic energy + electrical energy and all other energies etc. create gravity or G = MTE or mass times total energy /T (time), as mass can be in two places at the same time as seen at a microscopic level in quantum physics. When we think of our universe, everything in it black holes, pulsars, suns, gravity etc. all are properties of energy. The only energy not accounted for in the universe to date is what’s been named “dark energy”, ~which based on electrons behavior for positive to rise up and expand and negative electrons stay at the edge of the field,~ then one can deduce that positive energy expands and negative energy stays at the outer field. This would also describe the clumps of “dark energy” observed at the edge of galaxies? Since we have negative electrons, positive electrons and neutral electrons or negative energy, neutral energy and positive energy. Negative energy must also be a factor since it’s energy of some type. If black holes and other gravity pulls apart mass, then at some point it is converted breaking down into fundamental building blocks meaning Quarks and Charms into its smallest parts. My thoughts are that a black hole converts mass and positive energy (matter) at the event horizon expelling quarks and leptons (positive energy, neutral energy and negative energy), into our universe and that’s why it’s so hard to detect because particles are on a sub-atomic level. Also gravity does not affect these particles because mass weight isn’t enough to create gravity. Blackhole/Gravities force is so strong that nothing exists passing the event horizon and simply it breaks everything/energy down to basic building blocks. You can’t see parts of atoms separated at an event horizon because it’s on a microscopic level of particles. Positive energy is everything made up of atoms because it took energy to convert this to mass and mass is another type of energy, neutral energy/neutral electrons is what’s in between objects/space or the medium of space and negative energy contracts or stays close to the outer end of the field, so essentially negative energy is around the outside of space’s field.

Similar to two particles colliding in the particle accelerator, accept in this situation mass and energy is colliding with gravities force/event horizon or being pulled apart by the forces of gravity then converts it to basic building blocks. So one can deduce that if negative electrons exists and is present on earth/universe (same with negative lightning and positive lightning), it must also be present as what we are measuring (dark energy) or missing which is negative energy. When the negative energy (contracts space or as shown in a field stays at the edge of the field and doesn’t expand up) exceeds the positive energy (expands space, rises up in a field) expanding our universe, then this snap back of space on itself is eventual at some point. It would seem to make sense that black holes are created from pulsars and other mass collapsing on itself, which is why there were few black holes at the big bang event. As time goes on more blackholes appear, breaking down mattepositive energy into minute pieces. Negative energy and positive energy both changes the form of our universe expanding and stretching it, until at some point it’s pulled back on itself like a rubber band snapping. This is what everyone refers to as the big bang, only it’s mass, energy, time and gravity crashing into itself thus creating another cycle of expanding/stretching only to contract again. So at this point our universe is filled with more positive energy than negative energy because of the big bang, thus space is expanding. As blackholes continue to breakdown matter into building blocks, or more negative energy accumulates as it is broken down it falls to the edge of the field. When enough negative energy is at the fields edge, then it will push back forcing space to contract or go back to it’s original origin point.

So obviously we have negative and positive charged lightning, so our universe has both positive and negative electrical energy. These are facts because everything is energy (mass, kinetic, electrical etc.). When the negative energy equals to the positive energy then space will stop expanding and as matter is converted to negative energy, space contracts to the point of a singularity point, the start of the big bang all over again. This can happen because positive and negative energies don’t cancel out, as shown in the law of energy conservation E=E, and it never loses its energy. Two opposite energies repel each other so the reality is negative energy is not close to any mass as it repels it naturally unless it was attracted by other quarks/leptons to fill in larger negative/positive/neutral electrons, and these quark/leptons particles are so small with little mass that gravity doesn’t really have any effect until it’s combined with energy making a particle because the weight alone isn’t enough for gravity to have an effect, because it’s not just the weight of the mass, you also have to account all of it’s energy, because gravity is an effect from ENERGY. So when these particles come together and then create positive or negative energy, that in turn is when gravities affects starts. This is why quantum physics has the presence of gravity holding the quarks in place by the strong force because the mass weight plus the internal energy is at the smallest measurement that gravity has an effect on. As nothing ever goes away, as it is converted from one energy (mass) to another energy, kinetic or electrical etc. So all mass and energies converted are universally the same = ENERGY, the energy associated with them is not lost; it is transformed or redistributed. Which means that when a blackholes gravity pulls apart matter, none of this energy is lost. It’s broken down into the smallest unit. This concept aligns with the law of energy conservation that says E=E and never loses energy as it’s converted to another energy or mass, which is a property of energy.

Hello all,
Long-time lurker, first-time poster. The title seems ambiguous but this isn’t an end-of-the-world issue, I just need some advice asap.
I dropped my boyfriend off at work in his car this morning so I could go run errands for myself and him and then pick him up when he’s back from the job he had to go on. I should set some background and say that my boyfriend is very protective of his car; he doesn’t let anyone besides himself and me drive it, but this is only one of the many times I’ve either driven him in his car or taken the car while he’s at work.
When I got back to my house after running errands this morning, I was getting back in the car when my maintenance guy told me that my front left tire was flat. I hadn’t noticed a thing when I had gotten to my house because the tire pressure monitor never went off, and I didn’t hear or feel a single thing on my drive back (I’d also like to note that I took the usual route I would take and did everything as I normally would). Luckily he offered to switch the tire out for the donut we had in the trunk and recommended a place for me to get the tire patched that he’d been to many times as he said the tire and wheel were in perfect condition.
I went to the repair shop and managed to get the microscopic (and I truly mean tiny, it took them forever to find it in the tread) puncture hole in the tire patched within 10 minutes for less than $30 (whatever nail or object punctured it went straight in and straight back out), and they put the tire back on for me. I also got the air checked and recalibrated the tire pressure monitor after to make sure everything was perfect. I also filled up his tank because I just started feeling guilty and anxious even though I know it wasn’t my fault and there’s nothing I could have done to avoid it.
That being said, I’m writing all of this to ask if you think I should tell him what happened. It’s obviously not the end of the world and he would never get angry at something like that (he doesn’t ever get angry anyways), but there is a high possibility that he gets frustrated and/or loses trust in me to drive his car because I never want to give the impression that I’m careless with somebody else’s property, especially property of greater value belonging to someone extremely important to me. There’s a large part of me that doesn’t want to say anything because I managed to take care of it in less than an hour and everything is in tip-top shape. The smaller part of me feels guilty and is worried it could backfire on me later.
I have OCD so now I’m hyperfixating on this situation even though I believe that most people looking from the outside in would think it’s not do or die, which it isn’t.
What do you think I should do? Any advice and/or comforting words (lol) would be appreciated.

I will admit: I was entertained the first episode when I initially watched it.
After watching it again (which I realized I can’t do for this show because then it ruins it) here are my issues:
-SPOILERS-

1. Tariq and Brayden: Tariq and Brayden just magically have marksman aim and just killed 5-8 of Noma’s men with no difficulty. We’re just supposed to believe that Tariq had a stash of guns hidden away in a storage unit? Are those the guns that he was supposed to sell for Mona? We’re just supposed to accept this and move on.
   
2. Anya Covington: I like the parallels between her and Tariq already. Just like Tariq, she was completely oblivious when his father was almost murdered by Jamaicans but ultimately wasn’t because those Jamaicans were murdered by the Serbians on the way to the Knicks game. I just don’t like Tariq’s character overall, and having 2 characters with the same archetype (an annoying one at that) is annoying to me.
   
3. Effie: This woman HAS TO GO! Is she a plant by Tariq to keep tabs on Noma & her moves? Why did she feel inclined to WARN Tariq about her new man tryna kill him at Stansfield?
   
4. Dru: This man is Invincible. He has almost died in every season (1, 2, & 4 now) and has slithered away every single time. What is Dru’s motivation? All he wants to do is be loved and draw, but now he’s so willing to just let his mother die?
   
5. Monet Waking Up: You mean to tell me that Monet was filled with bullet holes protecting Diana, but she survives, but Angela got shot ONCE and was out of there? Ghost was shot once and was out of there? There are plenty of more people who were shot once and died in Power, but by the grace of God (or the writers) she not only survived the Gunshots, but was in a Coma for only a few hours? I want that Tejada super serum.
   
6. Michael Ealy’s Character: I might have to wait until next episode to see what he is about, but we’re 4 season’s in and they’re introducing new characters and backstories that we have to be invested in.
   
7. They didn’t kill anyone significant (as usual): As per usual in typical Ghost fashion, the show refused to kill off any of the main characters. All of the Tejadas are alive, Tariq, Brayden, and Davis are still kicking so as usual, there aren’t any believable stakes. They killed Jr. (an insignificant character in both Power & Ghost) and it was just for shock value so Tariq can get another body on his belt.
   
8. The cover up for the school shooting: You mean to tell me that Tariq is going to get off with killing someone in New York City (one of the most STRICT states regarding gun laws) by claiming it was self defense? That he was randomly in the parking lot (with no vehicle mind you) and saw this cop (the cops should be asking how did he even know he was a cop) get shot by a random school shooter and he picked up the dead cops gun to kill the school shooter? The man was shot in THE HEAD. Again I ask you, when has Tariq ever shown he was a marksman?
   

9: Still no James St. Patrick: The only reason I’ve watched this show for this long is because I believe that James St. Patrick (the real Ghost) is still somehow alive because at the end of Power (Season 6 Episode 15) there was an ambulance with their lights on going away from the crime scene and they still have never shown us his body.
Ultimately: If you watch this show like a superhero movie or like a Fast & Furious movie, it’s good and entertaining. If you watch it trying to look for the logic in it, you’ll ultimately be disappointed. It’s like looking for logic in Grand Theft Auto V. You’ll go mad trying to figure out why certain things are the way they are.

HUNTER BIOGRAPHY: Admira J. Willow- A Certified 🌟Two-StarxHunter🌟, whose truly Useful and Entertaining but also Cleverly Devastating all around capabilities have left the Hunter world nothing but better Time and Time again since Her very early Certification into the Hunter Association.
INFO: Age: 19, Sex: Female, Nationality: Hair Color: Dirty Blonde, Eye Color: Purple, Height: 4’11, Weight: 462lbs,
NEN CLASS: TransmuteTransmutation. Conjuration-Manipulation-Emission-Enhancement.
TYPE: Combat.
ABILITY NAMES: ————————— 🪡Perfect Pitch: When Activated through the Completion of “Silent Band” A Melody lasting 8/Eight Seconds is Released, if used on a Normal Human to Average Hunter the Targets Body will Explode much like a Singer and Glass, if Used on a Expert to Complete Master of Nen, even if Is used to Cover their Ears, this Melody will still result in Destroyed Eardrums that must be repaired by a Master Nen User for any hope of use at all.
⚡️Blood Bass: Throughout a Battle if Admira is Gravely injured but can still keep track of Most-All her Blood Spots and Locations, then “Blood Bass” will Automatically Activate and Cultivate into the shape of either a Bass Guitar or Bass Drum, Depending on the pre-thought of decision during that battle, if a choice was not made then it will fall to Chance.
🥀Forsaken Tune: Through
🌀Dreadful Bang: This Emission move is Dome like in Structure with the exception of having Cracks and Holes to allow Sound to pass through to Boost the Moves overall Output.
🌀Forgotten Beat:
🫧Surround Sound:
🫧Between Tracks: Admira would Emit her Nen in the form of Two Sheets of Music on either side of the Enemy that would expel extremely loud, disorienting sound on them but it is Stationary and must be Cancelled to move from where it is Activated.
🪡Silent Band: A “Band” made up of Transmuted Sound released from Admira (Steps,Breathing,Activation of other Abilities or even Eye Movement), as long as continued uninterrupted for 3/Three minutes within a 30 Meter Radius of Her Enemy, all of these continuous sounds will collect to form a set of 8/Eight Automatous Instruments(Violin, Piano, Harmonica, Trombone, Chello, Drum, Guitar, Harp) that together release a Melody Named “Perfect Pitch”.
ABILITY RESTRICTIONS: ————————————— 🪡Silent Band: A “Band” made up of Transmuted Sound released from Admira (Steps,Breathing,Activation of other Abilities or even Eye Movement), as long as continued uninterrupted for 3/Three minutes within a 30 Meter Radius of Her Enemy, all of these continuous sounds will collect to form a set of 8/Eight Automatous Instruments(Violin, Piano, Harmonica, Trombone, Chello, Drum, Guitar, Harp) that together release a Melody Named “Perfect Pitch”.
🫧Between Tracks: Admira would Emit her Nen in the form of Two Sheets of Music on either side of the Enemy that would expel extremely loud, disorienting sound on them but it is Stationary and must be Cancelled to move from where it is Activated.
🫧Surround Sound:
🌀Forgotten Beat:
🌀Dreadful Bang: This Emission move is Dome like in Structure with the exception of having Cracks and Holes to allow Sound to pass through to Boost the Moves overall Output.
🥀Forsaken Tune: Through
⚡️Blood Bass: Throughout a Battle if Admira is Gravely injured but can still keep track of Most-All her Blood Spots and Locations, then “Blood Bass” will Automatically Activate and Cultivate into the shape of either a Bass Guitar or Bass Drum, Depending on the pre-thought of decision during that battle, if a choice was not made then it will fall to Chance.
🪡Perfect Pitch: When Activated through the Completion of “Silent Band” A Melody lasting 8/Eight Seconds is Released, if used on a Normal Human to Average Hunter the Targets Body will Explode much like a Singer and Glass, if Used on a Expert to Complete Master of Nen, even if Is used to Cover their Ears, this Melody will still result in Destroyed Eardrums that must be repaired by a Master Nen User for any hope of use at all.

Part 2
​
It was late when I got back home but for as tired as I was, I knew that I wasn’t going to sleep a wink.
​
I went into my computer room and opened up my laptop, before plugging in the USB the bartender had given me. There were four folders on it, each one containing the feed from a different camera in the Rooster. I clicked into one of the folders at random and picked through the video files inside, looking for the stretch of footage that I needed. It didn’t take me long to find it either.
​
I clicked into one of the video files, and watched as the chaos of the Red Rooster played out before me. People drinking, flirting, laughing. Living their lives. Nothing I hadn’t seen before. I let the footage play for a bit, before getting up to grab myself a couple of beers from the fridge. When I got back, I started skipping through the video, waiting for the moment my two victims showed up.
​
When I’d taken the bartender's statement, he’d told me that he’d seen the two before, both separate and together. He didn’t know their names, but he knew their faces. Other patrons recognized them too. One of them had identified the red haired girl as ‘Kayley’ and had mentioned she lived down at River Ridge, a trailer park outside of town. Nobody had been able to name the Elegant Woman, although a lot of patrons had said they’d seen her around before.
​
Apparently, both of them usually came to hook up, leaving with a different stranger on most nights. Odds are, they’d why they were there on that night too. They’d come in at around 8:47. The Elegant looking dark haired woman seemed to be the one taking the lead, and seemed to be the one doing most of the talking. She and Kayley went to sit at the bar, talking amongst each other all the while. I couldn’t say for sure what they were talking about. Even if the file had audio, I doubt I’d have been able to single them out over the crowd. They looked at ease though.
​
They shared a couple of drinks. Nothing seemed that out of the ordinary. I took a sip of my beer, watching them. Eventually, Kayley got distracted talking to a man further down the bar, while the Elegant Woman stayed at the bar, drinking casually as if she had all the time in the world.
​
The man in the suit came in at around 9:12.
​
My attention shifted to him the moment he came in through the door.
​
He fit the description that every witness I’d spoken to had given about the shooter. A tall man with a red beard in a black suit who was wearing a pair of reflective sunglasses despite the fact that it was 9 at night. Even beneath his suit, it was easy to tell he had a good physique, and his crew cut implied a military history to me.
​
Red Beard took a seat at the bar, a few seats down from the Elegant Woman. He ordered a drink, and nursed it for a bit, discreetly looking around at the other patrons of the bar but not seeming to look directly at either the Elegant Woman or Kayley. He just drank his beer, and when he was finished, he got up and switched seats, moving to sit beside the Elegant Woman. She looked over at him, putting on a charming smile as they talked. I almost got the impression that they were flirting with each other.
​
They kept talking for a while and as they did, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. If I didn’t know what was coming next… it would have caught me completely off guard. When she turned to take a sip of her drink, the gun appeared in his hand, almost without warning. She didn’t even have time to react before he shot her at point blank range. Three bullets straight to the chest.
​
I saw Kayley spin around and freeze up. Her entire body tensed, as if she was ready to lunge at the shooter. If that was her intention though, she never got the chance. He put two bullets in her without even thinking, then without so much as a glance backward, he took off toward the door.
​
I rubbed my temples, watching as the chaos of the aftermath unfolded. Some people called 911. Some, like the bartender, ran to the aid of the bodies. I saw myself run in through the door less than six minutes after the shooting had happened.
​
That was where I stopped the video.
​
I took another sip of my beer, and sighed. I rewound it a little bit, watching as the shooter came in and watching as he left. I might recognize this man on the street if I saw him, but other than his red hair and sunglasses, there wasn’t really much to go off of.
​
The way he left… he walked away almost casually, as if he had someplace to be. He didn’t run. He didn’t panic. He was cold, calm, and professional. I guess that fit with the other murders, didn’t it?
​
I steeled myself to review the footage again, this time from another camera. Maybe there’d be something from one of the angles that I didn’t see. I checked the angles of the other three cameras. Two of them wouldn’t offer me much. One of them didn’t even catch the shooting. But the last one…
​
The last one looked promising.
​
It was situated near the back of the bar and through it, you could see out a window onto the street. It wasn’t the best view… but it was different.
​
From that angle, I could see a black sedan pull up to drop the man in the suit off. I saw him walk in the door and sit by the bar and from there, the scene played out the same as it did before. The man in the suit shot the two women and he left.
​
He strode out toward the sedan parked out front, got in the passenger seat and the sedan took off like a shot. There’d been a getaway driver. Interesting…
​
I set my unfinished beer down. I could drink the rest of it later. I needed to go on a little drive.
​
It was around 4 AM when I returned to the Red Rooster. I parked my car on the street, exactly where the black sedan had parked, and got out. The downtown area around me was dead silent. Lifeless almost. There wasn’t another soul in sight. But that was fine by me. That just meant that there were no distractions.
​
It didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for. There was a bank across the street and I walked toward it. The doors were locked, but that was fine. I could see what I needed through the windows.
​
Bank machines.
​
More specifically, bank machines with cameras. Cameras that were pointed right at the Red Rooster.
Perfect.
​
***
​
I was off shift the next day, but that just gave me time to get some actual work done. It was probably better I do it all from home. This case was Di Cesares now. I wasn’t sure what she’d do if she caught me working on it, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to find out. Judging by those fangs in her mouth, she wasn’t human either. Hell, I wasn’t sure if she was actually even from the State Police… I got the impression that Sheriff Smith didn’t seem to think so. But if she wasn’t with them, who was she with? Why hadn’t the State Police sent someone else? Had she done something to them? Even if she had, I couldn’t just believe that the State Police wouldn’t notice something like that.
​
No… there was something else going on here. But I could figure that out later.
​
First things first - I needed to review the footage from the bank machines. The bank was more than willing to give me access to the footage when I asked. They knew who I was, they knew what had happened and they knew why I was asking.
​
Once I got back home, it didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for. Just as I’d hoped, the bank machines had recorded the car that had been waiting outside the Red Rooster. I couldn’t make out the license plate from the footage… but I could see enough to identify the make and model of the car.
​
An Audi A6 Sedan.
​
I’m not much of a car guy, but I can say that there’s not a lot of Audi’s in rural Ohio. Even without the license plate, this shouldn’t have been hard to find. I made a call to a buddy of mine in the BMV, told him what I was looking for and within the hour, he had the results for me.
​
It turns out, there were actually only eight Audi A6 Sedans registered in our county and all of them were registered to the same company.
​
Apostle Security.
​
Naturally, I did a bit of research on them. Apostle was a mid-sized private security firm based in Cincinnati, although they had a few other offices in Ohio and some of the surrounding states. It’d been started by a man named Joseph Cray about ten years ago, although beyond that I couldn’t find out much about their history and really, I didn’t care. Their website didn’t list any offices in my county… but the BMV seemed to say otherwise. My friend there had given me an address outside of town and even if I was off duty, I figured that no one could give me any guff for taking a little scenic drive. And if I just so happened to see some black Audi’s that looked like the one that had been parked outside of Red Rooster last night… well, maybe I’d pass that information along to whoever was on duty at the time. I’m pretty sure it was Biggs and Hoffman. They could decide whether or not to tell Di Cesare. It would be completely out of my hands.
​
I headed out to my car, plugged the address I’d gotten into my GPS and took a little drive.
​
As I drove through the backroads leading out of town, I felt a sense of quiet apprehension. Maybe I was being naive, putting my hopes on this lead. But I’d done the work. If Apostle really was behind this, it would make sense for them to have some sort of location in the county. If I was right, maybe I wouldn’t find all the answers to this surreal mess of a case, but I’d at least find the shooters. That was something. At least people wouldn’t be dying anymore.
​
Christ… I still didn’t know what to make of the victims. The gills on Kayley, the fangs on Patricia Russell, the fractures on Geoffery Vickers bones. Maybe these people really were monsters? If so… maybe these shooters knew that. Maybe that was why they did it.
​
But even if that was the case - I still couldn’t just leave a roving kill squad to wander around unchecked. The way things were going, it was just a matter of time until one of the victims was just some innocent bystander. I passed by a familiar sign as I neared the edge of the county. An advertisement for the local Volkswagen dealership.
​
‘You’re in Smith Country!’ It declared, along with a prominent smiling photo of Aaron Smith himself. I’d always found that sign a little creepy. The eyes and the smile were both a little too wide. It made the man look downright unhinged. I’d never actually met Aaron Smith in person, despite working for his older brother. The Sheriff would mention him from time to time and I could see the family resemblance, but it was hard to imagine the face on that sign sitting down to an odd Sunday dinner with Sheriff Smith.
​
To be fair, they probably didn’t talk much. I don’t think Aaron Smith himself even lived in town anymore. He owned a bunch of other dealerships scattered around southwest Ohio. Smith Volkswagen was just the oldest. But the sign had been there forever, and why fix what ain’t broken, even if it is creepy as hell?
​
Either way, just past that unsettling sign was my destination. Once upon a time, it’d been a small auto garage that had long since gone defunct. It’d been closed down since before I moved to town. From what I’d seen, Smith Volkswagen had used the property as an additional lot to store the cars they had no room for, from time to time but it didn’t seem like they did that anymore. Now the place just looked completely dead. There were no cars parked out front, Audi or otherwise.
​
I pulled into the parking lot, and checked the address I had to make sure it was correct. This was definitely the place. I parked my car and got out, before making my way to the front door. I found it locked.
​
Naturally.
​
Guess my luck had to run out somewhere. Maybe this was a dead end? I already knew I probably wasn’t getting inside without a warrant, and I didn’t exactly know what my chances were of getting one.
​
I tried the door again. It still didn’t open. From the corner of my eye, I noticed a security camera by the door. I stared up into it. The presence of a camera probably didn’t mean much. Whoever owned this property probably wanted to deter adventurous kids and urban explorers from going in. Maybe it was nothing, but I still couldn’t help but find it interesting.
​
I considered just going back to the car but didn’t want to feel like I’d wasted my time, so I figured I’d snoop a little bit. I took a quick walk around the perimeter, peeking in through the windows that I passed. I didn’t see much, but judging by what I could see, this place wasn’t abandoned. I didn’t see anyone inside, but the inside looked awfully clean for an abandoned building.
​
Going out around back, I noticed that there were garbage bags in the dumpsters out back. Not a lot… but enough to confirm to me that there were people here. Maybe this wasn’t a dead end…
​
I heard a sudden mechanical whirr from the other side of the building that made me pause. I rounded the corner, moving along the back of the building just in time to see a convoy of five black Audi’s rolling out of the garage door, one after the other. They turned onto the road, moving almost in perfect sync as they headed toward town. I felt a knot form in my stomach as I watched them go.
​
I’d found the cars I’d been looking for… although if they were going somewhere, odds are that we’d be getting a call about it all too soon.
​
My heart was beating faster in my chest.
I knew I couldn’t just sit there and watch. I knew I needed to do something.
So I did.
​
I ran back to my car as fast as my legs could carry me, leaping behind the wheel and keying the engine. I tore back out onto the road, speeding after the convoy. I didn’t know what my plan was. I didn’t have a plan. I just knew that if I didn’t do something, people were going to die.
​
The convoy turned away from downtown, following the river north. They passed by the River Ridge RV park, moving further down the road towards the outskirts of the county. It was hard to say exactly where they were going. There wasn’t much out that way, not for several miles. But they were moving with purpose and so was I.
​
About ten miles past River Ridge, I noticed something up ahead. Flashing lights, like what you’d see on a squad car, although there was no color to them. They were just white.
​
The convoy in front of me finally began to pull off the road. I could see them passing another Audi, this one outfitted with an LED bar. Two men on the road waved them off. Both of them were dressed in well pressed suits and wore reflective sunglasses. One of them was bald with a very thick dark stubble, and the other had a familiar red beard and military crew cut.
​
The knot in my stomach grew tighter as I drove toward the men, waiting for them to stop me. I reached for my pistol, ready for them to make a move. They just waved me on, barely even looking at me. I still kept my hand on my gun as I drove past, watching Red Beard and Baldy like a hawk.
​
I could see two other men behind the parked Audi with the flashing lights out of the corner of my eye. They were on the ground, fidgeting with something. It took me a moment to figure out what it was.
​
Spike strips.
​
I’d seen them before. We’d used them back during my army days at vehicle checkpoints and while we’d never had to use them while I’d been working as a city cop, we did have them.
​
They were setting up an ambush here. The five Audi’s that had pulled off the road parked along the shoulder further down. I could see men in suits getting out of them. I didn’t see any guns… I guess they were still partially trying to be subtle. But I still had a feeling that they were armed.
​
I kept on driving, going further down the road. Stopping and confronting these men wasn’t an option. Maybe they weren’t interested in making a mess by shooting any random schmuck who passed by their little trap, but that didn’t change the fact that they were probably dangerous. Charging in and dealing with them by myself wasn’t a smart idea. So instead, I reached for my phone, and I called Biggs.
​
He answered on the first ring.
“Hey Sawy-”
“Ethan, we have a situation,” I said. “Who’s on duty with you right now?”
“Right now it’s Hoffman, why what’s going on?”
“Call Hoffman, call the Sheriff and call Lopez. There’s going to be another attack.”
“What? Where?”
​
“I’ve spotted some suspects setting up some kind of ambush ten miles north of River Ridge. How soon can you be here?”
“Twenty, thirty minutes, maybe?” He said, “Sawyer, where are you right now?”
“I just passed the ambush point. They’re gearing up for something, now move your ass!”
“Y-yeah, of course!”
Biggs hung up immediately, and I pulled off to the side of the road. I took a deep breath, before checking the magazine of my pistol and getting out.
​
I wasn’t going to charge in needlessly… but I needed to have eyes on this situation. It’d be easier if I could get closer on foot. Leaving my car behind, I dipped into the woods along the other side of the road, letting them hide me as I walked back along the road toward the ambush.
​
The river whispered beside me as I crept through the trees, and the steep incline leading down toward the river helped keep me low and hidden from sight.
​
I could see the flashing white lights of the parked Audi, and watched as they suddenly went dark. Red Beard was speaking into a walkie talkie, and on the far side of the road, I could see several men waiting by the five parked Audi’s. This time, they had guns. Assault rifles, by the looks of it.
​
I was right. There was another attack coming and it was coming now.
“Fish market’s on the move, gentlemen. Put out the nets!” Red Beard said.
​
On his order, I watched one of the men pull the spike strip across the road, while Red Beard addressed the men on the far side of the road. He spoke like a drill instructor and the men he addressed carried themselves like soldiers.
“As of right now, we are locked in on this operation! We run things smooth, we run it clean, we get the job done. No mistakes like last time! No stragglers! Understood?”
“Sir yes sir!” Came a familiar chorus.
​
After a few minutes, headlights appeared further down the road. I watched them from my vantage point, praying they belonged to Biggs. But the oncoming vehicle was too big to be a squad car. This looked more like an RV.
​
No…
​
This was a whole convoy of RV’s. Most likely coming from River Ridge.
​
I couldn’t count them all, but they were all heading towards the ambush… and that was when the pieces slowly began to click into place.
​
Kayley, the girl who’d survived… the girl the people at Red Rooster had been able to ID. She’d lived at River Ridge. If she and her friend from the other night weren’t human… then there was a damn good chance that there were others just like them there. Other women with gills. I guess River Ridge would be the perfect place for them… it was quiet, away from the hustle and bustle of downtown and close to the water. Whatever these people were… it’d just about be the perfect place for them.
‘Fish market’s on the move.’
​
That’s what Red Beard had said.
​
The other killings hadn’t exactly been low key… if there were more girls like Kayley at River Ridge, odds are they’d heard about them. And odds are that once they realized they were being targeted too, their first instinct would be to get the hell out of dodge. That would explain why they were carrying out this attack in broad daylight too. They weren’t going off of their own schedule, they were trying to catch the monsters as they fled. And now their targets were here… drawing closer and closer to their massacre with each passing second.
​
There was no sign of Biggs or anyone else. They still had to be at least fifteen minutes out… probably more.. By the time they got here, the shooting would probably already be over.
​
I couldn’t let that happen.
​
For the record - I knew that what I was about to do was extraordinarily stupid, but I didn’t see a whole lot of other options. I couldn’t allow them to ambush those RV’s. I couldn’t. I didn’t really stop to weigh the pros and cons in my head. Sure, I knew that what I was about to do had a chance of survival that was damn near zero… but hey, everyone dies sometime, right? This was the only option I had available to me. In a lot of ways, it wasn’t really even a choice I made. I just did it. I took aim at the nearest target, and I fired.
​
I saw one of the men by the car, the bald one with the scruff grab his shoulder and stumble back a step. He wasn’t dead, but he was hurt. I shot at him again, but he was low enough to the ground and far enough away that I didn’t hit him. He hastily dragged himself off the road and behind the Audi. He still managed to stand, so clearly he wasn’t in that bad a shape.
​
The moment he heard the gunshots, Red Beard spun around, drawing his own pistol as he did. I knew that he saw me. I could see his expression creasing into a scowl the moment he did. Our eyes locked for only a split second before the air was filled with the sound of gunshots.
​
POP. POP. POP.
​
I felt a white hot pain sting across my arm as one of his bullets grazed me, and even though I returned fire I doubt I hit him. Red Beard dove behind his Audi, but behind him I could see his little kill squad moving in.
​
I couldn’t count how many of them there were. More than ten. Fifteen, maybe? Twenty at most? Who could say.
​
I retreated back into the trees, skidding down the forested incline toward the river as I waited for the gunmen to come for me.
“Keep off the road!” Red Beard snarled, “Watch your fire! Wait until you have a shot!”
He must’ve been trying to salvage this operation… Although from where I sat, the RV’s looked to be slowing down. Seems they’d noticed the gunfire.
​
Red Beard glanced in the direction of the RV’s, and I could see the gears in his head spinning. This was all going wrong… but he didn’t seem the type to give up. On the road, the lead RV moved to make a U turn. I could see Red Beard watching it, and took a pot shot at him. It didn’t hit him, but it did shatter the driver's side window of his Audi.
​
Roaring in frustration, Red Beard fired three shots back at me.
“Goddamnit! Fuck it! Squads 1 and 2, kill that son of a bitch! 3 to 5, intercept the convoy, NOW!”
​
I saw some of his men back off, running back to their cars. The rest moved onto the road, coming after me. I fired at them, and I saw one of them stumble back as I shot him dead in the chest. But he didn’t die. He stumbled, but picked himself right back up.
​
Great, they were armored too.
​
I was punished for poking my head out by a burst of machine gun fire. The trees by my head splintered as I dove down into cover. I lost my footing, sliding further down the incline toward the river. The only reason I didn’t fall all the way down was because I caught myself on a tree. Looking up, I could see about eight figures at the top of the incline, coming down off the road. One of them spotted me and opened fire. All I could do was scramble out of the way and roll further down the hill toward the water.
​
Gunfire followed me, but I couldn’t see who was shooting. I couldn’t see where they were. I couldn’t stop to try and get a shot. There were too many of them. I dove down to safety behind a fallen old tree. Bullets rained down on it, tearing off chunks of bark and sending splinters raining down on me.
​
I gripped my gun tight. My blood rushing in my ears. Somehow… I always wondered if I’d die like this. Dug into the dirt, with bullets whizzing past my head. Maybe there wasn’t any other way for me to die? Who’s to say? But I’d be damned if I didn’t take at least one of those bastards down with me.
​
I took a deep breath. Steeled myself for what I was sure was going to be my last stand.
​
Then, gun in hand I rose to return fire.
​
Only when the rifles went off, they weren’t aimed at me.
​
I could see the eight figures standing in between the trees, but they’d turned away from me. They were shooting at something else now, although I couldn’t immediately see what. I just saw a shape, moving between the trees. I heard the ground shift and saw a cloud of dirt fly up. One of the armed men was sent screaming down the incline, into the river. I wasn’t sure if he’d survived the fall or not.
​
One of the other men opened fire, only for the shape to grab his rifle, I saw them force it down, before lunging at his throat. He screamed as they sank their teeth into him, but didn’t seem to be able to put up much of a fight otherwise. Two of his friends opened fire on him, hoping to kill the shape that had him in its grasp. The ground seemed to shift beneath them, sending both of them down the incline and into the river. Within seconds, whoever or whatever the hell this was had just taken out half of the men who were supposed to be killing me.
​
They tossed the man they’d just bitten to the ground and for the first time, I got a good look at my savior. Clementine Di Cesare’s mouth was smeared red with blood. Her sunglasses were absent and in her blue eyes I could see an unsettling calm. As if this wasn’t so much different to her than any other mundane chore.
​
The remaining gunmen seemed to freeze at the sight of her, not seeming to know how to react until Di Cesare moved. She was fast. It was hard to tell if she was running, or if the ground simply shifted beneath her. She lunged for the nearest gunman, kneeing him in the stomach and tossing him aside like he weighed nothing, although while she dealt with him, the man beside him got off a lucky shot.
​
Before Di Cesare could deal with him, he emptied half his magazine into her chest… but she didn’t fall. Hell, there wasn’t a scratch on her. The guy who’d shot her on the other hand?
​
Blood dribbled from his mouth. His body jerked violently as he collapsed to the ground. It was as if he’d been the one who’d gotten shot, not her. Di Cesare barely paid him any mind, regarding the final two men with that eerie calmness.
​
I could see one of them stumbling away, trying to get back up the incline. The other one just gritted his teeth and decided to fight on until the end. He was smart enough to know that shooting her wasn’t going to work, so instead he pulled a combat knife from his jacket and charged at her, as if it would do him any good.
​
Di Cesare barely even reacted. She sidestepped him and casually sent him down the incline into the river below. I saw him tumble down into the river before crashing into the water below with a final scream.
​
Di Cesare watched him fall with a quiet disinterest, before her attention shifted to me. I took a step back, half expecting her to come for me just like she did with the others. Instead, she simply wiped the blood from her mouth before she turned away from me, and headed back up the incline, moving with purpose.
​
I hesitated for a moment before following her. Di Cesare stepped out onto the road and surveyed the scene before her with an intense gaze. Whatever Red Beards plan had been… clearly everything had gone catastrophically wrong. I could see some of the black Audi’s on the road, trying to follow the RV’s, although the one that got the closest to one of the RV’s near the back of the convoy got rammed by it and sent careening off the road.
​
The tires of Red Beard’s Audi screeched as it tore back out onto the road. I saw him behind the wheel, sparing Di Cesare and I a single glance as he took off at top speed. I raised my gun to shoot at him but Di Cesare seized me by the wrist, stopping me from doing so. I looked over at her, confused.
“Let them run,” She said calmly. “We know where they are now.”
​
She looked down the road, back toward the fleeing RVs, and seemed momentarily content. One of the five parked Audi’s, driven by the survivor of the group who’d gone after me sped onto the road and Di Cesare regarded it with quiet disinterest before walking over to the road spikes and beginning to move them.
“Help me with this,” She said coolly.
​
I hesitated for a moment before doing exactly what she asked.
“You called for backup?” She asked, as we dragged the spikes off the road.
“I did,” I said. “Wait, you’re not with them?”
“No,” She replied plainly. We packed away the spikes but left them at the side of the road. Someone else could collect them as evidence. “I was with the RV convoy.”
​
I raised an eyebrow at her.
“You were with them?” I asked. “So you knew about the attack?”
“I knew it was likely,” She said. “Although I didn’t expect you here, Deputy Sawyer,”
She tilted her head at me.
“Working behind my back, I see.”
​
“I was following up on a lead,” I said. “I tracked the vehicle that last night's shooter used to a garage just on the edge of town. I saw some cars leaving and figured it was probably bad news, so I followed them here.”
“I see… you’re quite sedulous, aren’t you?”
“Well I couldn’t exactly sit around given the past few days, could I?” I asked. “What the hell just happened back there, on the incline? How did you… what the hell did you do? I watched someone shoot you, then die of their own gunshot wounds! How the hell did you do that? What the hell are you?”
​
The questions spilled out of me without much thought, although Di Cesare didn’t seem to care much.
“That’s a question with a complicated answer,” Di Cesare replied.
“Uncomplicate it, then!”
“I’m an old soldier, same as you,” She said. “Maybe I know a little bit of magic… maybe I’m not entirely human anymore, but that’s what I am at my core.”
“Vampire…” I said quietly.
She didn’t answer, but there was a look in her eyes that told me I was right. At this point, after seeing what I’d just seen, I wasn’t in much of a state of mind to doubt it.
​
“So that trick with the bullet wounds… was that a vampire thing or a magic thing” I asked.
“Attribution spell,” She said. “Makes me harder to kill. Not a lot gets through it. I’ll tell you what. Give me your car keys, and I’ll answer any questions you have later.”
She extended a hand to me.
​
“I’m sorry, my car keys?” I asked, “Why?!”
“I need to follow the RV’s to make sure they make it out of the county safely. You said you’ve called in backup. You still need to be here for when they arrive. So… I’ll be borrowing your vehicle.”
I hesitated for a moment, before swearing under my breath and handing my keys off to her.
“Do what you’ve got to do…” I said under my breath.
​
She nodded.
“It’ll be returned to you when I’m done, no worse for wear.”
With that, she pushed past me and walked toward my car and all I could really do was just watch. She took my car, and sped off after the RV’s, leaving me in the road to clean up the mess.

Some Backstory:
I've been experimenting with the goal of being able to achieve NEO (None Ejaculatory Orgasm) and Multiple Orgasms. (of course with an interest in Energy Orgasm as well, but as a later goal).
Having read a lot of materials online and through books, I of course tried the popular method of doing a strong kegel just prior to PONR - a prevalent method that is often recommended online and also one that was described in Keesling's book "How to Make Love All Night" in which it says to practice edging up to say 40%, 60, 80% arousal and doing a strong kegel followed by a deep breath and relxation. However, when I attempted it, what I noticed was that even if I was stopping at say 60% arousal, the strong kegel I performed and held ironically skyrocketed my arousal in a rapid acceleration. And within seconds I felt the strong sense of semen being loaded up into the tubes that triggers the inevitable eruption/ejaculation. I remembered clearly that the 60% arousal wasn't anywhere close to the PONR and in all honestly, the arousal would've just stopped by itself if I just relaxed instead of performing a strong kegel at that moment. In hindsight, this is no surprise as a strong kegel is supposed to temporary trigger and increase the arousal. Of course I've tried kegeling hard closer to the PONR, at say 90%.... perhaps I didn't do it right, but it had never worked for me. My arousal always increased after the strong kegel.
Recent Experiment and Result:
After having read people's discussions in regards to the Relaxation Method, I've tried it myself and finally felt like I was onto something. Here I will describe my experience a bit but I also have some questions for those who have more experience.
Basically I did some belly breathing to relax my mind and body. Then the next step is basically getting to a very light arousal state. I usually listen to erotic audio during this, but some light touches around the genital region, top part of the shaft, head sometimes when it's required. Basically just to slowly jump start the subtle arousal feeling (penis can sometimes be erect but doesn't have to be). This is followed by slowly sending/gathering more energy down at the genital region (sacral chakra?)
Here you will have to experiment yourself, I think both inhaling and breathing into the stomach/belly rise as well as exhaling into the belly work. It takes a lot of experimenting to really feel what feels right for you and to do it without tensing your body - either raising/inflating the belly too hard or tensing the abs too much. After some experimenting, what systematically worked for me was a fast exhale through the nose which at the same time will raise/push out the belly a little bit. dont exert force on pushing the belly out, the force from exhaling from your nose is enough and the belly doesn't have to get pushed out/raised that much. at the end of that exhale/belly rise, relax the stomach and 'roll' into a nose inhale. (this whole process should feel like wave. the wave pushing up and out (from nose exhale and the subsequent result of slight belly rise) to relaxing and starting the nose inhale which will slowly relax your stomach and lower until it's time to exhale through the nose again. (i know earlier i've said that the belly rises with the exhale, but when you're doing this in a cycle the more appropriate description is that the belly rise coincides with the end of the inhale/from the belly drop and into the exhale of belly rise. an effortless transition of the breath. this will help you avoid tensing your body as well because it's very natural. This I feel is very pivotal to my progress and I hope I have described it well, because there's so many different ways to breathe and in the past I had a real hard time pinning down the exact way to breathe so I would breathe a certain way, then another, and sometimes I would feel a slight arousal build-up, and sometimes it felt like I was tensing my body too much, my abs too much, inflating my belly too much, etc.
I'm really not an expert, and I'm still at the very early stage of discovery. Can anyone confirm if i'm describing it correctly? OK, I will describe what I noticed next.
Doing the above rhythm of breathing seems to slowly gather energy to that region and you will feel the energy build up. It will feel like tingles and this will build up. What happened to me next was a pulsating feeling to my penis. up and down? in and out? it's hard to describe. but the pulsating feeling felt like my penis subtly bouncing up and down (i dont know if my penis actually was bouncing 'cuz i did this at night with the lights off... but it felt like that).
This is a stronger arousal feeling and a more pleasant feeling than the initial tingles. and once in a while i would feel a slight trickle of precum? liquid coming out? sometimes it might just be the feeling? not really sure.
After a while, the arousal feeling will subside and I would just start all over again. Lightly touch the genital region, the head, the top of the shaft. you can also do a few kegels once you start noticing some arousal feelings and the few quick kegels (dont have to hold, just squeeze and release) should make your penis jump up and down and quickly get you to a more erect/aroused state. after that, just do the rhythm breathing again and you will get to enjoy the same sensations as before.
My analysis and thoughts:
The breathing I am doing I believe is basically triggering a very natural reverse kegel throughout the whole process. and reverse kegel - unlike regular kegel allows continuous bloodflow into the penis unlike the regular kegel squeeze which even-though will give more more erection temporary, but will actually cut off the bloodflow if holding it for too long. In addition, reverse kegel relaxes the pelvic floor muscles and prevents your bc muscle from getting triggered when you get too aroused or when your penis starts ejaculating. So after these experiments, I am now a strong believer in the importance of reverse kegel. I think this is why I was able to keep riding this wave for hours without ejaculating. because the reverse kegel is keep the bc muscle in check and preventing it from tensing.
QUESTIONS to those with more experience:
This was already a very pleasant experience for me, but what was the pulsating feeling and the occasional precum/liquid oozing out feeling that I was experiencing? was that NEO? or some kind of mini orgasm? if not, what does a NEO feel like? Is it the physical feeling of penis pumping like during an actual ejaculation - albeit, without the semen? A 'Dry Orgasm'?
So far I have just worked on continuously getting to that state... and most times it would subside which will require me to build it back up again to experience that pulsating feeling. and that was wonderful. However, ONE TIME, I was able to keep the rhythm going for longer than usual and there was definitely a stronger buildup type of feeling in the penis. a stronger arousal, like my penis is completely filled up with energy and about to burst kind of feeling - even a little sharp sting at the tip of the penis (hole area?). Maybe it's from too much bloodflow to the penis? In any case, I relaxed at that point and just let the feeling subsided and continued to build up again.
Should I have kept going? was that the next higher arousal state and I should just let it continue to buildup and happen? Where does that lead? a dry orgasm (NEO) ? Any tip on what I should do next to achieve a dry orgasm (NEO)? and how to transmute that sexual energy into an Energy Orgasm that is felt throughout the whole body?
A side note: I'm usually a guy who cums rather quickly from masturbation. And in the past, even if i stop manually touching my penis in the hopes of lowering my arousal, the tingling arousal feeling would never truly go away even if i have lost my erection and am flaccid. It would remain in a very highly sensitive state and any moderate touch or attempt to edge again would inevitably lead to a ejaculation short after. YET, somehow this this completely different. I was able to build up the arousal using this rhythm and breathing approach and keep going for hours.

A summation of the major lore from Gold Road. Mostly main quest related.
Major Spoilers for ESO Gold Road
Ithelia has been set free and "her presence threatens both our world and the realms beyond". Leramil theorizes that the very act of "restoring her memory was enough for her to set herself free" as Mora claimed in the prologue quest that "this spire was never Ithelia's prison-being forgotten was."
It is noted stopping Ithelia will be difficult as "Ithelia is a Daedric Prince. No mortal can match her power without assistance." and Hermaeus Mora can't "move against her while she walks our world. He is bound by the Coldharbour Compact while Ithelia is not."
The Compact is said to "prevent many of the most powerful Daedric Princes from directly manifesting on Nirn." Ithelia and "the Daedra that serve her" are "not party to it's restrictions" since they were imprisoned "long before the deal was struck"
Ithelia and the Many Paths
Is first encountered at Elenglynn. In the vicinity of Elenglynn Leramil claims that "the threads of fate simply vanish" a phenomenon she's never encountered before.
Ithelia's memories are fragmentary, she has trouble recalling concepts as basic as what a Daedric Prince. Nonetheless she senses the Echonir, demanding it be used to reveal what she experienced.
Here we see that Mora confronted Ithelia and tried to get her to abandon "the Many Paths" as he foresaw that otherwise "all existence/reality" would end:
Quote:"You risk everything Ithelia. You must forsake the Many Paths.
You seek to diminish my Prince. Why should she agree to such a demand ?
To preserve reality. Her willfulness threatens all existence.
You let your fear control you and foresee an apocalypse that will never be. Depart Mora!
Ithelia disappears and won't be encountered for a while.

Leramil observes that she's confused . She believes this is "the moment Hermaeus Mora first confronted Ithelia about the danger she posed to reality" but "refused to heed him". Leramil notes that it is "a hard thing for any creature to change it's nature, especially a Daedric Prince".
You view a memory of Ithelia in Hoperoot:
Quote: Where am I ? What draws me to this place ? Yes, I believe they call it a tavern. I see the Many Paths converging there.
This tavern is the second major appearance. Approaching, it is surrounded by a shimmering field of light. Leramil says:
I am glad you are here Proxy. Threads of fate tangle around the Outcast Inn in an ever expanding knot, fraying the bonds of cause and effect with each bend and twist. Should they snap, the results would be catastrophic
What's causing the tangles Leramil ?
I cannot discern the origins. Hermaeus Mora gifted me an ability to perceive the threads of fate. This tangle painfully overwhelms that very gift whenever I try to approach the inn.
Someone without such sight must act as my agent. Namely, you.
Pass through this tangle and enter the inn. Find the source of this disturbance. Stop it however you can.
I cannot assist you in this. You shall stand alone against a force that tangles fate and unravels reality. Succeed and you shall be rewarded.
I'll enter then inn and find the cause of the disturbance.
If we allow this tangle in fate to persist. Our localized reality could collapse. In short, we would all cease to exist.

Inside is the confused Ithelia who says the following:
I don't know if you can understand me. My mind is a storm of images and voices and memories. I can see every reality at once-the Many Paths. But my grip on this realm keeps slipping.
But you. I see that you are real.
You mentioned The Many Paths. What are those ?
Possibilities, probabilities, places where fate takes a different course. Some lead to here, others to there. And a few they lead to..elsewhere. But this place. It has something I need.

You look for a way to make something called Sage's Brew. Outside the sky has morphed into one resembling Fargrave and Daedra are appearing.
Ithelia calls forth an artifact she senses, the Lamp of Clarity. She claims she can't focus through all the "overlapping paths" and urges you to shine the lamp on a "path that yearns to be explored". Opening the first portal to the Many Paths we see.
Inside Ithelia glows gold and claims "my power abandons me here"
In the shrine you meet another Ithelia and Torvesard.
Torvesard claims that he can't understand why his Prince would allow you and "that other Ithelia" to remain while "other Daedric Princes lead by Hermaus Mora approach".
When asked for help in restoring the Ithelia following you Path Ithelia explains that the Sage's Dream is the mortal name for their connection to the Many Paths, manifested as a drink brewed from ingredients made of her own essence, each path's ingredient being unique.
All Ithelias across the Many Paths are connected, extended separation weakens the bond causing distress, but Sage's Dream melds the essence of many Ithelias and allows the imbiber to take in power and understanding from said Ithelias, reintegrating her with the others.
She clarifies that your path's Ithelia was stripped of her powers when she suffered Mora's punishment. The chaos around her is the result of her power seeking to return to her.
Quote:A mortal pathwalker ? Such a creature is quite rare. And I see you are accompanied by one of my reflections. An Ithelia from a different path.
You carry something else with you it feels like..hatred. Tell me why have you come to my reality ?
The other Ithelia can't control her power. She's a threat to my reality. The lamp led us here.
Ah. Sage's Dream is the mortal name for our connection to the Many Paths. It manifests as a drink but is brewed from ingredients infused with my very own essence.
Drinking it will recollect my reflection to the Many Paths and stabilize her power.
Where do I get the ingredients ?
They bloom in my shadow. Or the shadows of other Ithelias. Each path's ingredient is unique. You can find Tirum Weed here, but the rest grows in other realities.
Take what you need pathwalker. Than you must leave before my fellow Princes arrive.
Can you explain more about Sage's Dream ?
The Many Paths connect all Ithelias across all realities. This bond can weaken over time, causing distress to an Ithelia. We developed a means to reintegrate calls Sage's Dream. It manifests as a drink to consume, but it's only an illusion.
What do you mean ?
The ingredients grow in an Ithelia's shadow. They form from our own essence. we each produce only one ingredient.
Mixing these ingredients melds the essence from many Ithelias. When imbibed, we take in the power from our reflections.
How will this help the Ithelia from my reality ?
When she drinks Sage's Dream, she takes in the combined essence of her reflections. She gains their understanding of her power. Your Ithelia will reconnect to the Many Paths and regain control of her power.
Why would an Ithelia lose control of her powers ?
An extended separation from the Many Paths, perhaps. Or yes. I see it now. Your Ithelia has already suffered Mora's punishment. Her power was stripped from her when she was locked away.
She needs to calm the storm as her power seeks to restore her.
The other Ithelia explains the Many Paths as follows: "Possibilities scatter across Aurbis, each defined by distinct choices with unique outcomes that lead to new realities. The Many Paths are the web that binds them" and these "connections" some can "traverse" as you did to get there.
Fine. But how do they work?
Ithelia: Possibilities scatter across the Aurbis, each defined by distinct choices with unique outcomes that lead to new realities. The Many Paths are the web that binds them. Some can traverse these connections, as you have done here.
And you control the Many Paths?
Ithelia: Control? No. But I have the power to see them, to follow their threads, and alter their fates. It is one of the things that Hermaeus Mora respects about me. And one of the things he fears most.
What’s strange about a mortal entering the Many Paths?
Ithelia: The mortal mind is limited. Intentionally so. Comprehending the Many Paths should overwhelm you, and actually traversing them should be impossible. I can barely do that. You are unique among your kind. Thus the title I give you — pathwalker.
What do you mean intentionally so?
Ithelia: Mortals are servants performing tasks to maintain reality. Every field plowed, child born, or war fought keeps the Aurbis stable by design. This fact is kept from them. The slave should not understand the master’s plan, lest they seek to undo them.
Why did you call the Ithelia from my path a reflection ?
Each reality bound by the Many Paths contains a version of an entity, mortal or Daedra. They each differe in some way, but each springs from the same seed.
I am no different, she and I are the same but distorted, like an image in a cracked mirror.

Ithelia explains that Mora hunts her because he "foresees a cataclysm approaching", she used her ability to "manipulate the Many Paths" to "prevent one disaster" but in that Mora saw a prelude to something "even more terrible" and sought to imprison her. She explains her plan for freedom is already in motion though she'll accept imprisonment now.
You go to a Path where the same scene is playing out a bit further along. Difference being this path's Ithelia is bitter and angry unlike the acceptance of the one before. She exclaims upon the revelation of your Ithelia's condition "of course, all Ithelias are fragile creatures. They break under the slightest pressure. Just like glass."
She laments that all she is will soon "vanish from reality" and how she is faced with "annihilation". She supposes her followers will be "locked away or scattered across Oblivion".
In the third path the shrine is being consumed by crystal and tides of ink tentacles. Ithelia notes that *"Reality in this path is extremely fragile. It might shatter. Hurry." and that Hermaeus Mora is "trying to consume the shrine. His response to the savagery of Ithelia's defense."
This Path's Torvesard he says you must "not bring that reflection any closer", he explains that in her attempts to defend herself this Path's Ithelia has "lost herself" becoming the "monster that Mora feared" and that "if she cannot regain control this reality is finished".
Quote:Your Ithelia. Does she not sense it ? The Ithelia of this Path, my Prince, has lost herself. She has become the monster that Hermaeus Mora foresaw. If she cannot regain control this reality is finished.
You explain what's going on and he theorizes the Lamp of Clarity is helping you reveal the portals because "Azura's lamp wants to preserve your reality. By helping your Ithelia regain control, she can be safely imprisoned again.
Torvesard yells to flee as he believes the end has come.
Flee while you can mortal. Save your own life. Just spare a thought for this doomed path if you survive. I suspect we will not last much longer.
I suggest you take the berries and run. Good luck.
What did you mean that Ithelia has become the monster that Hermaeus Mora foresaw ?
Torvesard: Ithelia is the Fate-Changer, the Unweaver. She has power unlike any other Daedric Prince — the power to shift existence itself. Mora long suspected that Ithelia was dangerous. But full of uncontrollable rage? Reality itself unravels around her.
What happens than ?
Torvesard: The unimaginable. Can you contemplate what happens when reality shreds like parchment beneath a sabre cat’s claws? Nothing remains when existence ceases to be.

In the background Ithelia rises up exclaiming "Behold the Last Tomorrow. Behold the Destroyer of Reality."
Your Ithelia notes that:
Quote:This Ithelia chose uncontrolled rage. It will consume every piece of this reality.
We must leave this path before my reflection destroys it.

In the background you see reality cracks forming. With the brew Ithelia regains control. She sends the echoes of beings from other paths unintentionally dragged to the Inn to their realities and leaves.
Quote:Finally the storm abates and I can clearly see the Many Paths. I can discern one reality from the next and my mind is clear.
I am myself again. I am Ithelia, Prince of Paths, Mistress of the Untravelled Road.
Ithelia: I shall set things right. The echoes I dragged from disparate paths are free to return to their own realms. And allow me to untangle the threads of fate and restore balance to this reality. I thank you, pathwalker. And I am jealous of you.
You're jealous of me ?
Ithelia: We learned that Ithelia is dangerous, a broken creature that ends up hunted. We cannot change what we are. But mortals? You choose your paths. You don’t need the powers of a Daedric Prince to alter your fate. I envy this. Goodbye, pathwalker.

Encountering Leramil she notes that:
I sense the knot in the threads of fate has untangled Proxy. This threat to our reality has passed. Should I assume you're responsible for what occured within the Outcast Inn ?
Ithelia was here and her power was out of control. I used the Lamp of Clarity to set things right.
If helping Ithelia saved reality than you made the right choice. But the Lamp of Clarity is a powerful relic, I am glad you found it.

Here the rest of the Recollection stuff takes place. During the siege on the Keep, we see another memory where Mora tries to get Ithelia to stop, warning that the "Many Paths splinter" from her manipulations. Interestingly Torvesard addresses Mora as "Ur-Daedra".
Quote:Why do you trouble my Prince ? Ur-Daedra ?
The Many Paths splinter. You manipulate fate in ways that were not meant to be!
What I do I do for the good of all. Why can you not see that Mora ?
I am not alone in my concerns. Constrain yourself Ithelia, or we will constrain you.
And you will fail. Now begone!
A memory of the past battle also appears in Miscarcand ,the place where Ithelia ultimately lost:
Why continue this struggle Ithelia ? Every fate before me says you cannot win.
But you do not see everything Mora in the Many Paths all things are possible. I will write my own fate.
Go my Prince! You must escape!
Ithelia, wait!
Ayleids of the West Weald
Something catastrophic has happened to Ostumir "the ground rumbled like an angry timber mammoth" and "whole buildings collapsed" as strange beasts appeared.
When questioned on whether Bosmer magic could be responsible for the new forest Beragon says that while it "can speed and direct growth" the results of Bosmer magic are "not to this scale" and "not so wild and untamed it can destroy whole villages".
Greenspeakers are "the finest practicioners of nature magic" who can "wiggle their fingers and a tree bends it's shape into a home". The Greenspeaker claims it involves "merging my voice with the song of nature and guiding how things grow", but no regular Greenspeaking could sprout something as large as a "new forest" and not "as fast as this appeared".
Sorilen, claims that "all Bosmer can trace their roots back to the ancient Ayleids. Well, almost all".
What happened to Ostumir is tied to the initial forest's emergence.
The forest, was grown through a ritual carried out by the Recollection. And around the epicenter of said ritual things called "Wildburn Seeds" naturally sprout, which the cult is gathering for their plans.
Sorilen describes the Wildburn Seed as similar to seeds the Greenspeakers use but "different, filled with unique potential". She also explains that the Ayleid ruins dotted throughout the West Weald date to the "late Merethic Era" and that these Ayleids were "particularly fond of someone they called the Prince of Paths".
She is a Recollection member, and the Recollection are Ayleid revivalists focused on the legacy of the West Weald Ayleids. They believe what was Ayleid land "rightfully belongs to the Wood Elves" and "wish to make it reality".
The Recollection is said to not have existed "a year ago", it's like "hundreds of people woke one day and decided to join a cult" as they're "convinced something's been taken from them and will do anything to reclaim it". They're implied to have been influenced by the restoration of the memory of Ithelia, essentially. They're recruiting people "who feel lost" mostly wood elves but "not exclusively" and are working with the Mirrormoor Daedra.
The Wildburn Seeds were Greenspring Seeds, "sacred seeds of the Green" which Greenspeakers use to "grow new sections of forest and shape them into enclosures and settlements". They became Wildburn Seeds after being infused with Daedric magic, causing an "unprecedented explosion of energy" and the Wildburn.
The Vashabar Bosmer are split into two factions: Green Pact Bosmer and Dawnway Bosmer.
The latter faction are those who adhere to the ideas of King Nantharion, a descendant from House Rayn of Silvenar, an ancient house of Ayleid origins, who claims this new forest is the "Dawnwood", a "gift" from Valenwood which they're meant to follow to reclaim their "heritage".
Dawnwood Bosmer harvest crops, eat plants, and follow the "roots of the Dawnway", the idea that the legacy of the Ayleids, the Saliache, flows through the veins of the Bosmer and the land itself thus they must follow these "roots" and reclaim their heritage.
Investigating more you travel to Hoperoot, this practically mountainous living fortress of colossal twining trees and rock grown through Bosmer magic, interspersed with ruins which the trees raised into the sky when they grew.
You discover that Nantharion leads the Recollection and wishes to create a new Ayleid domain in the West Weald. He is the one creating the Wildburn Seeds through infusing Greenspring Seeds with energy from the Staff of Many Paths, a relic of Ithelia that's "filled with her power".
You interrupt a ritual to create an especially potent Wildburn Seed, causing the seed to release it's energies uncontrollably and Hoperoot is destroyed in the process.
It's revealed that the Wildburn Seeds are meant to awaken the magic sleeping in the Ayleid ruins in the West Weald and use it to "restore the ancient realm".
There's one especially potent font of power that's the goal, the Well of Miscarcand, a kingdom whose kings Nantharion descends from. The Well is something Ithelia remembers:
Quote:The Wildburn is but a tool my Prince. A way to awaken the ancient magic sleeping beneath this land.
Yes, the Well of Miscarcand, I remember it now.
Miscarcand was the ancient realm of my ancestors, my Prince. But the well lies hidden.

He says Ayleid Wells collect magicka, "starlight, the pure power of Aetherius". Miscarcand was "the capital city of a powerful kingdom", one of "the more powerful city-states on the western part of the empire", so it's Well must be "huge". Enough to "restore the Ayleid Empire, restore Ithelia to her ancient might, do anything they can imagine".
Miscarcand survived Alessia's Rebellion and joined the Empire. It also survived the Alessian Order as their forces couldn't breach it's defenses. It fell when it's populace left in bands on their own to travel to Valenwood, with only the last king, Morimath, staying behind
Miscarcand is where Ithelia lost her battle with Mora and the Three Good Daedra. In the memory seen Torvesard urges to "guard the door, they must not reach the Well", hinting at it's importance.
Vargas intervenes to somehow trap you within the memory with Alea noting you "vanished" in the real world. But you escape using Abolisher. Ithelia awakens the well though the Seeds are destroyed.
Nantharion intends to use the energy of the Well to both create a Wildburn Seed so potent it will cover the West Weald and restore Ithelia's might.
Your foes destroyed your seeds. But do not fear, my very presence has awakened the well.
Than draw power from the well my Prince. You will be restored, and I will create a Wildburn that will transform the Weald
He is fought wielding the Staff of Many Paths and killed. But he manages to absorb the Well's energy into the Staff before that. Ithelia's minions retrieve the Staff and channel the energy into Ithelia, restoring her.
Mirrormoor
When leaving Vargas asks Ithelia to "free us from the chains of fate", Ithelia affirms that "with the Loom I'll restore all that was lost."
Leramil exclaims the threads of fate are "fraying at an alarming rate". She says that reality is endangered by Ithelia's choices rather than he travels. Whatever she chooses to do "reality must accomodate her" but it will "shatter in the attempt".
Quote:I do not think this reality is endangered by Ithelia's travels but by her choices. Whatever she decides to do, reality must accomodate her. It will shatter in the attempt.
The threat of her next decision causes fate to now fray.

You use the Skein to track Ithelia's last portal and reopen it with Abolisher to reach..Fargrave.
Leramil notes that this quarter of Fargrave she's never been to before. She speculates that Fargrave, whose origins are lost, might have been Mirrormoor before Ithelia was forgotten and is reshaping in response to it's Prince's return.
Alternatively, if this "lost quarter" was "part of Ithelia's realm" it may have "fallen into ruin during her long absence".
Ithelia's crystals are seen growing through the quarter, it is said "Mirrormoor follows in it's Prince's wake".
You encounter Vargas who says "you dare trespass into Mirrormoor. In the very heart of our power ? I banish you to the Many Paths". She banishes Alea and Beragon but Leramil manages to shield you and her. Leramil notes this was possible because Vargas is "much more powerful" now.
Leramil explains:
Yes. Beragon and Alea ceased to be real to us and became real somewhere else. That is the nature of the Many Paths, and a terrifying example of how the ability to navigate them can be misused.
When asked if they can be retrieved Leramil says:
Perhaps, but only if we can find a point of connection in this place. Shardmaster Vargas must have hurtled our allies through physical distance as well as beyond this reality.
They are..someplace else. The Many Paths lead to different possibilities. different realities. There is no way to know where Vargas sent them.

She notes the "threads of fate surrounding Fargrave are in turmoil, something significant will soon occur"
Crossing a portal to the Loom (speculated by Leramil as a pocket dimenion within the demiplane of Fargrave), the loading screen reveals the cause of the whole conflict:
This is a gift. The gift of unconstrained choice. The Loom will weave a new story for every being. What they choose to be true.
And than from the memory:
Quote: My Loom of the Unravelled Road fills this place. From it's core I can break the shackles of fate. Undo mistakes. Unlock possibilities. Create new histories.
It's magnificent. But won't the other Princes see it as a threat ?
A threat ? This is a gift. The gift of unconstrained choice.
The Loom will weave a new story for every being. What they choose to be. All shall benefit!

Not content with her normal forays into the Paths. Ithelia created a great fate altering engine, the Loom, with which she intended to give every being the story they desired for themselves, believing all would benefit.
As Leramil notes this is not actually possible "we must reach them before they destroy the reality we know". Fate would just snap and reality would be destroyed. Mora tried to warn Ithelia, but she wouldn't listen.
Unrolling the Skein triggers a "paroxysm" in the Vestige and Leramil is surprised they survived, a defense.
Quote:Something blocked me from using the Skein of Secrets ?
I cannot say. Daedric Princes are supreme within their own realms. The longer we are delayed, the stronger Ithelia grows. In fact the next defense we trigger may be more dangerous-I do not think it wise to use Abolisher here.

You see one of the Bearers of Fargrave transforming. Leramil says:
The great skeleton above is one of the Bearers of Fargrave. Ithelia is changing it to it's Mirrormoor reflection.

Vargas diverts Leramil's portal to Ithelia's Prison. We see a memory where Ithelia claims she'll be free but Mora argues he doesn't see such a path. Leramil notes Mora was wrong as he "could not predict what he could not perceive-Ithelia's scions, the Unseen"
In the mirrors you see Beragon. Leramil realizes that "these ruined mirrors look into different realities. They may be doors to the Many Paths". You use the Lamp to open the doors and retrieve them.
You reach the Loom with Abolisher. Here Ithelia says:
Quote:Now I can undo my long imprisonment! Make it so I was never forgotten.
The Loom awaits my Prince. Reshape the fates and restore the glory of Mirrormoor.
Mirrormoor stands ready my Prince. Weave a better reality with your Loom!

You beat Vargas and destroy the Loom using Abolisher. However Ithelia has absorbed an immense amount of power, "filled with the power of the Many Paths" and become "something else", the "Last Tomorrow, the Unweaver"
While fighting she questions why you're attempting to stop her and says she's "doing this for you".
Ending
Scruut appears warning that Mora "senses fates and futures, winking in and out of existence. Potentials he predicted that will never be! I feel these instabilities rippling across reality."
Scruut says these are "places where the threads of fate fray and shred. And it's getting worse!" one is forming in the Weald and, though Scruut's duty is to repair fate anomalies, these "scare even me".
Scruut realizes that "what started as instabilities in the threads of fate has become tears in the fabric of reality itself. This is the realization of Mora's fears.
The relics have been depleted, so you need to restore them. You are confronted by Torvesard. He claims that fears about reality are due to Mora having "blinded you" and when Mirrormoor is resurrected and history altered, you might "have a different opinion".
Leramil exlpains that Torvesard's: "faith to his Prince has made him blind to the danger she poses to existence itself.These tears are spreading. Soon the fabric of reality may be too damaged to repair. We need to find Ithelia before that happens.
A memory from the Loom reveals Ithelia's plan now the Loom is gone, to take Apocrypha and turn it into a new Mirrormoor from where she may rewrite history.
Leramil notes the power Ithelia absorbed from the Loom "turned her into the very monster Hermaeus Mora foresaw".
The Vestige asks why everyone keeps saying Daedra can't change if that's what you just saw happen. Leramil says that this is different, "Changes does not come naturally to Daedric Princes, not like it does for mortals." what happened was the "result of untold power, not conscious effort". The other Path Ithelias were different because of the "different way events played out in those other realities" but Daedric Princes have no experience with "the constant evolution and transformation of mortals. They are eternal, and have no point of reference for the transient."
The Vestige notes that Ithelia was different when first met, she was confused and "as powerful as a mortal". Leramil says that that's not the same as truly being mortal.
Still she realizes that getting her to reflect on other possibilities might be a way to changer her perspective.
Scruut notes that "more tears in reality keep appearing" and scoffs at the idea of Ithelia changing:
Quote:Daedra don't change! Daedric Princes especially. It's their nature! We're not like you mortals, constantly reflecting on possibilities and remaking yourselves over and over.
She's a monster, and will always be a monster."

Vestige points out how Ithelia wasn't like that at first, and what they saw on the other Paths. Scruut concedes it might work and comes up with a plan.
There was once a relic created by a wizard, a mirror that "revealed the innermost thoughts and dreams of the viewer".
You are told to seek a Primordial Shattered Titan, one of the first Daedra Ithelia ever created and get one of it's shards.
Torvesard appears and attempts to manipulate one of the cracks in reality to erase you, moving it on top of you. Curate Gadayn is erased instead.
Scruut claims "we all face nonexistence" if something isn't done about Ithelia and the cracks. You make the Mirror of Truth to make Ithelia reflect on her innermost self, and depart for Apocrypha as "with each passing minutre reality breaks down a little more".
Vestige asks how you'll find them. and Leramil answers:
Quote:Apocrypha, like all Oblivion realms, is infinite. But we have the Skein of Secrets. I shall open a portal. Use the Skein once we cross into the realm and see if it can pinpoint Ithelia's location.

Apocrypha is physically transforming to reflect Mirrormoor. In the Mythos the skies are becoming like those of Fargrave. Mora is trapped by Ithelia and Torvesard and is being drained of his power by Torvesard via the Staff of Many Paths,and Ithelia.
Mora says Ithelia has become "the monster he foresaw" and that "reality collapses" around her as "fate's threads unravel".
Ithelia descends, bidding Torvesard to keep draining Mora.
You fight her for a bit, than use the Mirror of Truth on her. Ithelia explains that Mora was right and she saw the truth before being imprisoned, but it was too late as she'd already set her escape in motion.
Now it's too late. The power she took from the Loom and from Mora is too much, a "madness" is upon her that will not abate. She needs to shed the excess power for it to be quelled.
Quote: That mirror... it showed me the truth. I have become the monster that Mora predicted. And I remember. I saw it, too. As Mora sealed my prison all those eons ago, I realized at the end... he was right. I am the Last Tomorrow.
Vestige: What does that mean, the Last Tomorrow ?
Ithelia: It was what Mora saw when he examined my threads of fate. That I would become the Unweaver, the Destroyer of Reality. In that last moment, as the door to my prison slammed shut and my memories frayed, I saw it, too. But it was too late.
Vestige: Why was it too late ?
Ithelia: Because I had already set the compulsion in Torvesard's mind. I had already unspooled the thread to freedom. Now your actions have brought me a moment of clarity, but it will not last. Already I feel the power, the madness, reassrting itself.
Vestige: But you saw the truth. You know what happened. You can change.
Ithelia: A nice though, but I am Daedra. I cannot change. And once the madness comes upon me, I doubt you will be able to contain me again. Forgotten memories and near-limitless power blinded me. It led us exactly to the moment in time Mora feared.
Vestige: Can't you simply surrender ?
Ithelia: Not while the power of Loom and the energy I took from Hermaeus Mora flows through me. I must shed this power once and for all. Only then can the growing madness be quelled.
All right. If you can shed the power, do it now. Hermaeus Mora. You were right, i am a danger to fate and reality, let me return what is rightfully yours.

She attempts to return Mora's power and shed the excess from the Loom. But Torvesard intervenes, he imprisons Ithelia and absorbs the power of both Princes into himself using the Staff of Many Paths. claiming he'll finish this himself.
You defeat Torvesard (Vestige notes in the quest logs this is possible because it's too soon and he doesn't control the power yet, but will become "unstoppable" if given time to gain control).
Ithelia is freed and reaffirms both that she created her Scions and that she planted this compulsion in Torvesard's mind to avert a fate she now sees had to pass.
Torvesard's Vestige appears and claims he will never relent, he is eternal and will return as many times as it takes to complete his mission. Ithelia laments the inability of Daedra to change, returns Mora's power and disperses hers (the excess that is) into the Void and assigns Torvesard's "essence to nothingness, never to return" urging him to at last "be at peace".
Quote:I created my Scions to save me from a fate I finally accepted though I forgotten until you reminded me.
Torvesaad: No, my Prince. I am Dremora. I am eternal. I will reform and complete the task you set before me.
Ithelia: Such is the nature of daedra, never changing, never growing. I return your power to you Mora and I disperse mine into the void. Then she look Torvesaad and says: And you Torvesaad, my most faithful, I can assign your essence to nothingness, never to return. Be at peace. At last. Poor Torvesaad, blinded by a compulsion I never should have bestowed.

Mora says it's time to imprison Ithelia but Ithelia notes that this means nothing, it's temporary by nature. Even if she's imprisoned, forgotten and stripped of her power, she is a Prince. Her power will always find a way to return to her and release her, and the madness will eventually resume once all this energy grips her again. Such is the true nature of their "Princely Dispositions".
Mora claims there's nothing else to do, Princes are "forever". So Ithelia asks Vestige for another solution.
Quote: Fate's chosen accomplished the tasks I set before them. Now Ithelia, it is time to resume your imprisonment.
To what end ? As long as I remain in this reality, the threat I pose persists. My power will always find a way to return to me, such is the nature of our..Princely Dispositions.
The threads of fate agree with you, but what choice do we have ? You are Deadra, immortal forever, I see no other path before us.
Our natures confound us. We need different perspective, one you so elegantly provide.

Vestige asks whether the Paths only lead to alternate realities. Ithelia explains they lead "everywhere, other places, other possibilities, parallel realities". So it's suggested she go to a place where there "is no power. Ithelia says it's possible, a path with "no magic or Daedra" where her power "doesn't exist" and "can't gain a foothold". Mora can find the path, Ithelia will show him how to open it, and Vestige will sever the link with Abolisher.
Quote:My very nature makes returning me to prison a temporary reprieve at best. My power will always find a way back to me. And with it, the threat of the madness that overcomes me and can unravel reality. Mortal, talk with me more about change.
Mortals change all the time. And we saw different versions of you on the Many Paths.
Yes, my reflectons. When we walked the Many Paths at the Outcast Inn, we visited realities where things had gone another way. I am different in those realities, but that is not choice. That is consequence. The aftermath of alternative events.
Do the Many Paths only lead to alternate realities ?
The Many Paths lead everywhere. Other places, other possibilities, parallel realities. You can go anywhere, if you can just find the path.
If the threat to reality comes from you power, what about someplace where there is no power ?
No power ? A path where Daedra and magicka do not exist ? Hmm. It would need to be a place where my Daedric power held no sway and could gain no foothold. I feel the tendrils of my discarded power searching, reaching toward me. We must hurry, mortal.
Is such a path possible ? What would we need to do to make that happen ?
Indeed. Hermaeus Mora find an acceptable path and I can show him how to open the way. And then we would need you to use the Abolisher. To destroy the path so that I could never return to this reality. Ask Mora if this will suffice.

Mora is skeptical but concedes. He and Ithelia open the gate together, and Ithelia walks through after bestowing some knowledge onto Leramil's mind to comfort her, as she crosses she transforms from her divine/winged form into the smaller hooded form she first had when you saw her (when she was still stripped of her powers due to Mora's punishment).
Abolisher is used to sever the link.
Quote:Speak, fate's chosen. You were deep in conversation with the Prince of Paths. What do your mortal eyes see that elude my Daedric senses ?
Since prison is temporary solution at best, why don't you send Ithelia down a different path ?
A path that is better that the solution I devised so long ago ? Inconceivable! Do not overstep your bounds, mortal.
Isn't that why you chose a mortal to help you ? Because we see things differently from you ?
Do not use my own words against me! Still, you are correct in that regard. Very well, chosen of fate. What do you suggest we do with Ithelia to preserve our reality ?
Ithelia can find a distant reality without magicka. Where she would have no power and pose no harm.
Leave this reality for a realm where she would have no access to her Daedric power ? I had not considered that. I would need to confirm that the reality guarantess our safety, but how will we make certain that she would indeed be exiled forever ?
Wait, we lost good friend to one of the reality tears. Is there anything-
The tears were not my creation, only an effect of my passing. All I can offer this wisdom to ease your mind.

The issue of the cracks in reality remains however. The cracks will grow and "fully unravel" the "fabric of fate" and end "all of existence". Reality cracks allowed to persist grow until all is gone, and altering fate too much can cause them, this is the manner in which Ithelia's power endangers reality.
Quote:Even though Ithelia has been exiled and Torvesard defeated, the threat to all of existence posed by the tears in reality remains. I need to find a way to repair them before the fabric of fate fully unravels.

You use the relics of the Three and a spell by Mora to restore reality, the relics are undone, they're just "a map, a lamp, and a sword" now.
Beragon notes that once Torvesard first "forced us all to remember, history changed".
When you meet Mora Leramil is there and asks to be given understanding of what Ithelia showed her, the Many Paths (as Mora's exclamation reveals). Mora provides no explanation, but claims he'll restore Gadayn as long as she promises to pay a price he will ask one day.
Mora says Ithelia has been "exiled from this reality" and must be "once more removed from memory, for the sake of existence". Everyone will remember the mortal realm was threatened and the Vestige saved them, but not Ithelia, Mirrormoor, or the Paths (Vaermina, Peryite and the Recollection are seen as responsible). Mora and the Vestige will remember everything.
The Vestige asks whether Ithelia is really gone forever. Mora says that, though he is Ur-Daedra and sees infinite possibilities he can't necessarily see the final path. This unpredictability is the gift of those like the Vestige.
Quote:A hint of insolence lurks in that quary. You convinced two Daedric Princes to change course. Do you doubt your own convictions ?
No matter. Ithelia has gone to a reality where she has no power, and you destroyed the only path between here and there.
You're all knowing. Why did this outcome surprise you ?
I am Ur-Daedra. The One Who Knows. I see infinite possibilities arrayed before me, but not necessarily the final path.
In you I saw potential, but I could not determine how that potential would be realized. That is your power mortal. Use it wisely.

He erases Ithelia's memory again.
"Now let my word go forth! Purge Ithelia from every mind in our shared reality. Now and for eternity!
Other
The threads of fate are described by Leramil as the "lines of possibility which weave through reality and hold everything together."
Per the Threads of Mirrormoor body art the "threads of fate live within us all, weaving all reality together in a terrible, beautiful tapestry"
The Face art claims that "all destinies may be changed, as the children of Mirrormoor know all too well".

We don't just have what it takes to win, we have what it takes to have one of the best seasons of all time and win the chip in overwhelming fashion. The 26-5 run shows we have something great, this offseason will be big since now harden will have a full offseason to gel with the team which is important because he is the main ball handler and runs our offence. Once our team is clicking on all fronts then 26-5 will seem mediocre, I think we could go on a way better run then that and blow people away. We still have some big needs to fill though, so don't think I'm dismissive of that. If we don't figure out our power forward situation we won't win, we need to get a better front office and the PF situation needs to be solved. Not just that though, we need to get younger and bigger. To many old players that are also kind of slow and get bodied by bigger players and more athletic players. We can not win the chip as the oldest team, so getting younger, more athletic and bigger as well across the roster is very very important. Honestly our front office is bad and Lawrence Frank needs to go, I really hope we can get things sorted on that front. But like I said the 26-5 run showed some of our potential and we can grow on that. Also having our own arena will allow us to have a much better schedule with less back to backs, 5 in 7s, early sunday games etc. Our schedule this season will be the best we've ever seen and that could help keep our players in good shape. Kawhi Leonard is still the best player in the world, people doubt him but he has still shown he has one of the most lethal offences and can still shut down opposing stars. Kawhi will decimate everyone this season, I think he will win MVP and FMVP. We have a good supporting cast which will get better when we fill all the holes and we will go on to win it all.

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Shuttle Oathkeeper-32, Sol (4,700 Ls)

POV: Eupprio, Malgeir (Executive)
“Hey Eupprio, wake up. Wakey wake.”
Eupprio’s eyes fluttered open, greeted by Fleguipu’s persistent nudges. Her body, still cloaked in the remnants of sleep, rebelled against the intrusion. She blinked away the grogginess and asked with a hoarse voice, “What’s going on?”
“We’re passing that ringed planet you said you wanted to look at,” Fleguipu said, pointing a claw at the image of Saturn on the full color external camera display mounted on the hull wall.
Eupprio took in its rings for a minute. The labyrinthine tapestry of shimmering ice and rock, stretching for thousands of kilometers in every direction. The rings appeared like a river of stardust, its particles ranging from tiny pieces of granulated ice to boulders the size of houses, the uneven distribution a result of cosmic collisions and gravitational dances that birthed it eons ago. Amidst them, the Cassini Division stood out as a dark ribbon of emptiness contrasting the luminous ice around it.
“Not bad, eh?” Aida called out across from her. “You have one of these in your Federation?”
“A few,” Eupprio said, not taking her eyes off the spectacle on the screen. “None in Malgeiru though.”
“Yeah, the most famous one in Malgeir space is occupied: Uidquu-8,” Fleguipu added with a hint of sadness. “Maybe we’ll get it back one day.”
As they sailed closer, they noticed that several sections in the rings were dotted with signs of Terran civilization.
Stretched out along the B-ring were a series of mining and habitation stations, like a string of pearls, each one teeming with exterior activity. Their metal surfaces reflected light from the planet, giving them an ethereal glow amidst the natural brilliance of the ring.
Amid the drifting ice and rock, ships darted like gleaming fish in a cosmic pond. Some were lumbering transport vessels, slowly shuttling people and goods between neighboring ring settlements. Others were more rugged, built for the rigors of interplanetary travel, their hull silhouettes followed by the characteristic blooms of their constant acceleration drives.
“Are we going to do a close fly-by?” Eupprio asked curiously.
“Somewhat. It’ll only boost our speed a little for our journey to Mars, but… it saves on fuel.”
Fleguipu’s brow creased in concern. “Isn’t this area supposed to be dangerous? Pirates? Terrorists?”
“Danger is a relative concept,” Aida responded with nonchalance. “We’re going pretty fast, and the smart ones usually don’t mess with our ships. We should be fine.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++
She was proven wrong about an hour later.
Abe’s voice broke through the intercom, “LT, there are a couple of bogeys burning to intercept. Zero decimal four two light seconds. Likely pirates.”
“Damn it,” Aida cursed under her breath as she looked at her alien charges. “Now that’s just embarrassing. Pilot, what transponder codes are they squawking?”
“No codes yet. They’re not that close: we have twenty minutes before we’d have to make a decision. After that, they’ll get close enough for it to get dicey. I’m on the lookout for other traps, but nothing so far. I think it’s just these guys. Should we go evasive?” Abe’s voice crackled through the speaker.
“Nah, save the fuel,” Aida decided swiftly. “Call our guys in the Navy. Free target practice for them.”
Eupprio asked nervously, “Everything alright, Aida?”
“A couple pirates are headed our way. You were briefed on decompression procedures, right?”
“Decompression?!” Eupprio’s voice climbed an octave. “Don’t we have weapons on the shuttle?”
“Only point defense. But don’t worry. I’m handling it.”
Abe’s voice returned, tinged with a hint of urgency. “Navy’s busy right now. They can have a patrol transit through the area in about six hours. Should we ask them to drop by?”
Aida shook her head. “That’s too long. They’re too far away. What are the bogeys mounting?”
“No foxes. Two gunpods each.”
She whistled at the brazenness. “These guys must be new. Fresh outta Titan.”
“Should I start burning now?” Abe asked.
“Not yet, I don’t want an extra deceleration burn,” Aida insisted. “Call them on the radio.”
The cargo bay fell into a tense silence, broken only by the sound of Abe’s attempts to establish contact with the approaching ships.
A gruff, distorted voice eventually crackled through the intercom. “You know the drill, yea? Let’s save us all some time.”
“This is Lieutenant Aida Naser, flying with Black Hole Sun. Who am I speaking to?”
“None of your damn business, merc!” They could hear the pirate spitting into his microphone.
“All due respect, but you made it my business when you started burning your ships towards me on an intercept course. Now, I don’t negotiate with strangers I don’t know the names of.”
“Fine! The name is Greer. Greer Thatch. Of uh… Thatch Enterprises. That’s who you’re dealing with!”
Aida looked around the cargo bay at the other troopers. There were a lot of shrugs and questioning looks in the exchanged glances.
Aida rejoined the conversation with politeness. “Sorry, how do you spell that? Is that two E’s or e-a-r? I can’t find you in our database—”
“Shut up! You know what we’re here for, yea?”
“Please, spell it out for me, Greer. I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding between us when… everything goes down.”
Greer seemed to hesitate and waver at her confidence, but he continued, “We’re going to board you and take your cargo. I suggest you cut engine thrust and comply with our demands.”
The cargo bay filled with laughter, some of the Terran contractors slapping each other on the backs in amusement. A couple did perfunctory checks on their weapons. Aida silenced them all with an impatient wave of her hand.
“That’s cute,” Aida retorted. “But before you try that, you should check our public registration and manifest. The only cargo we have is eighteen direct action troopers coming home from an extrasolar deployment, so unless you have a whole company of boarding specialists hiding in your skiffs, I’d suggest you come up with an alternate retirement plan, Greer.”
A tense silence stretched on the call. “You’re lying!”
Aida remained silent.
After a minute, Greer’s voice returned, tinged with frustration. “Man, that’s some bullshit… But we’re not going home empty. We won’t board you, but we can still blow up your shuttle! Dump your fancy centerline fuel pods or we’ll put a hole in your reactor!”
Aida sighed, her voice dripping with theatrical exasperation. “But what use are our fuel pods to you when our missiles find you?”
“You aren’t carrying anti-ship missiles on that tiny shuttle, no way!” There was a noticeable crack in the pirate’s voice.
“Not on this shuttle,” Aida conceded freely. “But check your charts, we’re within the coverage zones of at least six Black Hole Sun long-range missile batteries in the Red Zone. They’re not just going to let you go after you open fire on us. The only reason they haven’t fired on you yet is because… ah, two reasons actually: one, missiles are expensive, and two, it might make the company look bad on the evening news in Titan. Now, if you had a Charlie-rated or higher constant acceleration drive, you could probably outrun a couple of those missiles…”
Judging by the ensuing lack of reply from the other end, that was clearly not the case.
Aida continued steadily, “In any case, you’re on our radar now. Maybe we’ll just pass your registration on to the Navy, and they’ll come use you for target practice. Now… I know you did your orbital calculations… and you figure the Navy won’t show up within an hour or so. And you’d probably be right about that. But I bet their schedule clears up real quick once those guns of yours go off. And their missiles can get here a lot faster than their ships can too: I hear they aren’t as stingy with their munitions budget as we are.”
More silence.
“Or maybe we don’t call the Reps at all; instead, we pay a few people… find out where you live… Now I won’t get to decide which one of those it’ll be, because I’ll be dead, but in all likelihood, so will you—”
Obvious panic tinged the pirate’s voice now. “No— no wait. Let’s talk this through.”
“I’m listening.”
“First, no funny merc business. And no Navy reports!”
“What do we get in return?” Aida asked nonchalantly.
“We uh— we’ll clear out.”
“Not good enough. That ship has sailed, boys. I’ve already had to call in a couple contacts. This has cost me time and resources, so it’s going to cost you. And the closer you get to us, the more it’s going to cost both of us.”
“Wait, no, we’ll back off!” The sound of hurried movements crackled through the line before the microphone went dead.
From the cockpit, Abe relayed the update. “Looks like they’re cutting their acceleration. They’re no longer on an intercept course.”
The amateur pirate’s voice came through again, desperation clear. “We’ve stopped! We’ve stopped.”
“Good, now let’s talk about conditions.”
“What— What else do you want, merc? We can dump our cargo.”
“What would I want your cargo for,” Aida snorted in derision. “It’ll cost me more in time just to slow down to retrieve them. Nah, I think we’ll just pass the word to the Navy. Have a good afternoon or morning or whenever it is wherever you come from—”
“Wait, no, please! Don’t hang up! We’re just trying to make a living out here! Please, tell us how we can make it up to you!”
“Hm…” Aida pretended to think for a moment. “I guess I can take your dinky boarding skiffs. Might come in handy one day. Here’s what you’re going to do: burn straight back to Pandora Station, dock in ports Charlie-two and Charlie-three, leave the keys in the ignition, and I’ll give you a week to find your own way off the station before I call the cops.”
A strangled, frustrated cry echoed through the line. “But it took us forever to buy and fix up these ships! This is so unfair!”
“Sweetie, you should have thought of that before you got into this line of work.” Aida replied, her voice a blend of sternness… and sympathy, “Tell you what, I’m feeling extra generous today. You can keep one of your ships… your pick of which one. But both your crews better be on that ship and out of Pandora by the end of the business day.”
There must have been some disagreement between the two ships about which one of them was going to lose their spacecraft, but whatever it was, they resolved it in record time.
“Deal! No funny business as we leave, merc!”
“No funny business,” Aida promised. “You know our reputation; we don’t screw around like that. But don’t think you’ll get away with sabotaging my future ship if that’s what you’re thinking. I’ll be billing you for any damage I find when I get to Pandora.”
“We took good care of our ships!” the pirate replied wistfully.
“Aww. Come now, don’t be so melodramatic. Think of it as me doing you a personal favor: I really don’t think this whole piracy thing was going to work out for you anyway. If I were you, I’d suggest something in the tourism industry. Lots of potential for growth… Anyway, good doing business with you, and I hope for your sake we never see you again. Buh bye!”
She severed the connection.
Eupprio regarded Aida with curiosity. “You’re still going to report them to your Navy, aren’t you?”
Aida shrugged nonchalantly. “Nah. Probably not.”
“No?” Eupprio asked, surprised.
“Yeah, in the Red Zone, even now that it’s stabilized, you’re good as your word. People live and die by their reputation out here. I get these guys killed; that’ll probably get some of our other guys killed somewhere else.”
“I guess… that makes sense. Just too bad for some other traders coming by, right?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. You have to understand, these guys probably won’t ever get to do it again. They’re bankrupt: the people they owe money to are not the kind where you can just shuffle assets and declare bankruptcy. And it’s not just this crew. Most pirates are constantly a couple bad hauls away from financial disaster because it’s fundamentally not that great a business model, even if you don’t count the risk to their lives.”
“It’s not?! Seemed like an easy way to make some quick money!”
Aida shook her head, a wry smile on her lips. “Oh yeah, that’s what many of them thought too before their first haul. Nah, the returns are terrible. There’s some glamor if you’re one of the big fish, yes, but fighting in space… it’s expensive. Flying anywhere burns money, and chasing ships?” Aida shook her head. “So many credits. You can see most of them coming, and truckers usually run just because they know it’s too expensive for pirates to chase them; they figure if they’re going to lose money, better to waste it getting to their destination quicker than let the pirates get their stuff. And the weapons… oh God, the munition cost! When we first started in space like a century ago, weapons were literally anything you can bolt onto a ship frame. But after decades of fighting here, effective weapons have gotten increasingly expensive.”
“That makes sense,” Eupprio said, nodding in understanding. “More sophisticated weapons cost more.”
“Yup, as an average cargo pirate now, if you have to fire a missile out here, you’ve already lost… Financially ruined, even if you’re not getting hunted by the Navy. I’m not joking: the big pirate gangs literally buy and sell legit insurance products that pay out for when you fire missiles out here. Gunpods work, but you have to hope they don’t run and let you get in real close, which is rare. I think small-time hostage takers can still make a living… that’s if you don’t get on the radar of those Republic counter-terrorism operators itching for training opportunities, but everything else sucks.”
“Why do they do it then?” Eupprio asked. “If it’s such a raw deal for the average pirate as you say.”
“Nobody gets into this life hoping to be the average cargo pirate,” Aida explained. “There are two types of people out here bucking the long arm of the Republic. First, you have the ones out here for credits. There’s piracy and there’s smuggling—”
“Is smuggling generally unprofitable too?” Eupprio asked, once again recalling the security briefing she’d gotten before the trip.
“Oh no, smuggling is a whole different beast. Smuggling… now, that’s a lucrative business if you want to make some real money in the Red Zone. But you need to have contacts and you need to know the right people. Need some starting capital for deposits, to cover insurance, to pay off the gangs to leave you alone. Need lots of security so people don’t think you’re a pushover or they can screw you over just because you don’t have a lot of legal options.”
Fleguipu looked up sharply at her. “Sounds like you uh… know a lot about the business.”
Aida grinned shamelessly. “Heh yeah. If I hadn’t joined Black Hole Sun after my time in the Marines was up… Anyway, smugglers and pirates, most of them are small-time operations; a few get bigger. The big ones march over to the transport corporations and demand protection fees. They’re not supposed to, but some of these companies pay.”
“You said there were two types of criminals out here.”
“The true believers. Or as they call themselves, the Resistance,” Aida’s face turned dark. “The pirates who are here for money and excitement — they kick up a ruckus from time to time, but they don’t hold a candle to the psychos out here who actually believe every word they say. The ones who are willing to blow up stations and colonies full of innocent people simply because they have a problem with authority and want the Republic gone so they can run things around here. Nothing is off the table for the terrorists.”
“Didn’t your people say those groups are mostly extinct?” Eupprio asked nervously.
“That’s what the tourism brochure says,” Aida smiled thinly at her. She looked out the window at the retreating image of Saturn. “But we all know they’re still out there. Plenty of rocks to hide in the Red Zone. They have their own ships, their own bases. Thousands of their cells, just running cold and hiding in the dark, maybe more. Sure, they haven’t really done anything in years after the last Navy sanitation campaign, but we all know it’s a matter of time before they strike again.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Previous

[Also want to note this is my very first time doing an auto claim] Like title says, been dealing with my auto claim of Oct 11, 2023 I was able to go to their preferred body for pictures and estimate but moving forward with them for repairs I could never get ahold of no one went straight to voice mail.
Called insurance seeing if I could go to a bodyshop that was alot closer and they said I could so I did, they also approved the money from the estimate from their shop.
My local bodyshop finished their repairs and tried calling my insurance couldn't get anyone, so I called them an adjuster (not my claims adjuster) was able to help the bodyshop on submitting the estimate and all which that was done last week on 31st.
On Wednesday, I tried calling my assigned claims adjuster went to voicemail and I left a message saying please contact me as soon as possible. Called again Thursday to a new voicemail saying she will be out til the 11th, didn't bother leaving another voicemail since I have already Wednesday.
I don't have reliable ride as I wasn't smart to add rental to my insurance, had to call in work yesterday one more and ima get fired, managed to pull some money and a ride to get a rental for few days. I literally don't know what to do, no other claims adjuster apparently cannot help me nor can I talk to a supervisor.
Any suggestions or ideas that can help me out I'd appreciate it cause all this mess gots me loosing my cool

Hello again, fellow ingrates. Sorry I am a couple of days late.
I am pleased to return for the 7th year of "DABR Writes a Ton of Words About the New York Giants" and I hope you all enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Season Recap

The Giants were flying high, coming off not just a playoff appearance, but a playoff VICTORY in the 2022 season. They chose to keep the band together, tagging Saquon Barkley and paying Daniel Jones, hoping to take yet another step forward under Coach of the Year Brian Daboll. Fans were feeling the positivity, projecting 10+ win seasons.
With the Giants' success, the NFL decided to give the Giants 4 prime time games through the first 6 weeks of the season, starting with a SNF showdown with the Giants' most common week 1 opponent: their division rival, the Dallas Cowboys.
Things got off to an okay start: The Giants got the ball to start the game and methodically moved it down the field, setting up a 3rd and 2 from the Cowboys' 8 yard line.
Then: disaster struck.
First you had a false start by Andrew Thomas to make it 3rd and 7. Then rookie center John Michael Schmitz botched a snap low, which made it 4th and 21. Okay fine, let's get 3 points and regroup.
But the field goal gets blocked and returned for a touchdown. A three and out on the ensuing possession followed by a Dallas field goal makes it 9-0. And on the Giants' next possession, Jones checks it down to Saquon Barkley, who gets hit, pops the ball into the air...and it's intercepted and returned for a touchdown.
Now with 2:30 left in the first quarter, the Giants are in a 16-0 hole, where 13 of those points were scored by Dallas' defense and special teams. And everything crumbled from there; the Cowboys defense took it to the Giants offense, the Giants OL had no answers for anything Dallas did, and by the end of the game it was a 40-0 embarrassment. All of the hype the Giants had coming into the year, instantaneously vanished.
Things got worse before they got better: Come to find out, Andrew Thomas injured his hamstring chasing down the blocked field goal. He was going to miss time. And now, headed for a 2 game west coast trip, the Giants confidence was shot and they were without their best offensive player, the one offensive lineman they could rely on.
And the Giants showed up for week 2 and immediately got bitchsmacked again, taking a 20-0 deficit into halftime against the Cardinals, a team almost everyone expected to be one of the worst in the league. But somehow, the Giants managed to mount a comeback and win that game 31-28. It didn't feel good to go down like that to one of the worst teams in the league, but the comeback roused some optimism, headed into a TNF matchup against SF.
But the optimism was short-lived, with a loss to SF kicking off a 4 game losing streak that included: being completely outclassed by SF, another disaster prime time game at home against Seattle in which the Giants mustered just 3 points, a bad loss to Miami on the road that included Daniel Jones sustaining a major neck injury that would sideline him for a few weeks, and a tough SNF loss to Buffalo where the Giants defense finally came alive, but Tyrod Taylor and the offense couldn't top 10 points.
Through that first 6 weeks, the Giants had scored 31 points in the 2nd half against Arizona, and 40 points in the other 22 quarters of play. And 7 of those 40 points came from a pick 6 against Miami.
The Giants managed to win against the Commanders the next week before blowing a late lead into an overtime loss against the Jets in one of the worst football games I've ever seen. And oh by the way, Tyrod Taylor got hurt in that game against the Jets, leading to undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito finishing that game.
There was some light at the end of that tunnel though, hopefully. Headed into their next game against the Raiders, Daniel Jones would be returning. Andrew Thomas had played every snap against the Jets, so maybe now that they could have the QB and LT back together, there was some hope to right the ship after a 2-6 start.
But it wasn't meant to be that way. The Raiders fired Josh McDaniels and replaced him with someone Giants fans are very familiar with: Antonio Pierce. That gave the Raiders some life. Jones looked atrocious, missing throws that should have been routine even just to the flats. And on the Giants' 3rd drive, at the beginning of the second quarter, Jones tore his ACL, ending his season, and putting Tommy DeVito back in as the Giants' QB.
DeVito would remain the starter the next week against the Cowboys, where the Giants got destroyed. But since Jones' season was over and Taylor wasn't healthy yet, DeVito would remain the starter for the next two games, a rematch against the Commanders, and the Patriots. And somehow, DeVito won both, spawning Tommy Cutlets-Mania.
That mania would last through the bye week, and DeVito would somehow pull out a win against the Green Bay Packers, dragging the Giants back to a 5-8 record.
Things would really hit the fan from there, with the Giants losing their next 3 games, where DeVito would get sent back to the bench for Tyrod Taylor. The Giants almost managed to beat the Rams, but missed a long field goal as time expired. Then finished off their season with a (let's face it) meaningless, but also satisfying win against the Eagles, to finish at 6-11.
Wink Martindale decided he wanted out, embattled ST Coordinator Thomas McGaughey was given the axe, and the Giants parted ways with Brian Daboll's longtime lieutenant, OL coach Bobby Johnson.

Free Agency Recap

The Giants were very targeted in their free agency approach this year.
For the second year in a row, the Giants' biggest "free agency" addition might actually have been a player acquired via trade: a 2nd round pick and some late round picks/swaps for EDGE Brian Burns, and giving him a 5 year, 141m contract to team up with Kayvon Thibodeaux and Dexter Lawrence to hopefully create a fearsome pass rush.
The Giants targeted their offensive line pretty aggressively next. It started with bringing in a new OL coach: Carmen Bricillo, who had been the OL coach for the Raiders. Then they brought Jermaine Eluemunor over, a player Bricillo is very familiar with having worked together the last couple of years with the Raiders. Eluemunor provides a stable vet option for the RT spot in case Evan Neal continues to struggle like he has the first two years of his career. And if Neal can finally put it together with a new OL coach at the helm, the Giants have a solid swing tackle who can also play guard. They also added OL Jon Runyan to hopefully solidify one of the guard spots. That gives the Giants the week 1 starting OL of Andrew Thomas, Jermaine Eluemunor, John Michael Schmitz, Jon Runyan, and Evan Neal.
The Giants would lose Saquon Barkley in free agency, to their bitter rivals, the Eagles, but would replace him with another guy this coaching staff is familiar with: Devin Singletary. Singletary is not Saquon, but the Giants finally understood that Saquon cannot be the answer to all of their problems, and they're seemingly more willing to operate a more committee-based rushing attack. Paying Saquon a lot of money didn't really make sense for the Giants anyways, and Singletary is a cheaper option that should provide a comparable amount of production.
The Giants then replaced Tyrod Taylor with Drew Lock, to help protected them if Daniel Jones wouldn't be healthy for 2024 (and they couldn't draft a QB; more on this later), and invested in other vet minimum type depth.

Draft Needs

A roster that they hoped would compete fell way short, and it opened up a lot more warts than they had expected:

1. QB. Just one year after giving Daniel Jones a 4 year, 160m contract, the Giants were sitting with the 6th overall pick in a draft class that had potentially 6 first round QBs. And now that Jones had suffered both the torn ACL, and a second serious neck injury (the first costing him the last 7 games of the 2021 season), the Giants had to get serious about potentially moving on from Jones.
2. CB. The Giants had invested top 110 picks in CBs in the previous 4 drafts: Darnay Holmes in 2020, Aaron Robinson in 2021, Cor'Dale Flott in 2022, and Deonte Banks in 2023. To this point, the returns on those picks hasn't been all that great. Flott flashes at times but also consistently messes up his assignment. Banks had a very up and down rookie year, tasked with going up against WR1s man to man. Adoree' Jackson had left in free agency. And the Giants really didn't address this position in free agency at all. Heading into the draft, the room was basically the same as it was in 2023, but without Adoree' Jackson.
3. WR. The Giants have had a WR1 problem since Dave Gettleman traded away Odell Beckham Jr. They were hoping to kind of replace it in the aggregate in 2023 by having potentially 5 WRs that could contribute, and having Darren Waller serve as the focal point of their passing attack. But between the OL's struggles, the lack of health and performance at QB, Waller missing time with a hamstring injury, and the WRs maybe not being what the team hoped for (Parris Campbell was a total zero, Jalin Hyatt was essentially a deep threat only), that plan fell apart. After attacking the OL mostly in free agency, finding a consistent focal point for the passing attack felt like the logical next step to fixing this offense.
4. Safety. The Giants let Xavier McKinney walk in free agency, leaving them with Jason Pinnock and Dane Belton. New Defensive Coordinator Shane Bowen found his most success when he had some strong safety play with Kevin Byard in Tennessee, and there are definitely snaps to be found in that room.
5. OL. The Giants attacked the OL aggressively in free agency, but there were still places for investments to succeed. Eluemunor is a more natural fit at tackle, that's where he has played the last couple of years, but the Giants want Evan Neal to stick at RT. Eluemunor can play guard, but the Giants are one injury away from seeing Josh Ezeudu or Aaron Stinnie come into the starting 5, and that is a bit dangerous. Drafting a starting guard and letting Eluemunor focus on being the swing tackle/primary backup could definitely be a benefit.
6. TE. Daniel Bellinger has proven to be a solid piece, but Darren Waller has been considering retirement recently. Heading into the draft, Waller insisted he wanted to give the team an answer sooner rather than later, but there was still no clarity on his situation. To me, if you're not sure, you're not committed, and the team needs to plan like you're gone.
7. Depth. The OL/TE depth has mostly been addressed above, but the Giants also were in need of solid depth at other spots. Singletary is a good start to a committee based RB room, but the group behind him isn't inspiring, with 2nd year RB Eric Gray and primarily ST player Gary Brightwell leading the mix. Another head to that backfield could go a long way. Dexter Lawrence is a dominant force on the DL, but the Giants traded Leonard Williams at the trade deadline and could use more bodies in that room to eat snaps.

Basically, at this point, the only spots the Giants probably felt really good about were their ST spots, and off ball LB, where they returned basically the whole unit from 2023, which was very good. And with just 6 picks to work with, not everything could be addressed.
Now, without further ado, let's get into the picks:

1.6: Malik Nabers, WR, LSU

Before we dive in on Nabers, we first have to talk about the whole picture.
The Giants did a TON of work on the QB class headed into the draft. They had sent people to USC and UNC especially a ton during the season. It's been reported/rumoured that the Giants were aggressive in trying to move up the board. Before the Bears traded Justin Fields and made it clear Caleb Williams was their guy, the Giants tried to move up to 1. And up until the very last minute on Draft Night, the Giants were pushing to trade up to 3 to pick Drake Maye, with their final offer believed to be their 1st, 2nd, and 4th this year, plus their 2025 1st round pick. Depending on who you believe, the Patriots were actually interested in this offer, but Robert Kraft vetoed the deal. Which sucks for Giants fans, but is probably correct for the Patriots.
That left the Giants sitting at pick 6, watching Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, and Drake Maye fly off the board. Then MHJ and Alt went, and the Giants had a decision to make.
They had done a lot of work on JJ McCarthy. Were they comfortable enough with him to pick him at 6, or were they going to go with the best player on their board? In the end, they went with Nabers.
I've already written about the Giants' need for a WR1, so let's focus on Nabers, and why the Giants picked him over Odunze. A lot of Giants fans believed Odunze would be the correct choice because of his size, his contested catch ability, and how that skillset fits into the Giants' current WR room with Darius Slayton, Jalin Hyatt, and Wan'Dale Robinson.
But to me, Nabers is just a much more complete and versatile player. We've seen a lot of LSU receivers over the last decade, and people love to compare them to Odell, but Nabers is legitimately the closest I've seen to Odell's burst and explosiveness. He gets from 0-60 almost instantly, he's a great threat after the catch. The Giants have had an explosive pass play problem over the last few years, and Nabers gives them a huge threat in that way with his ability to turn any play into a an explosive play whether it's his ability to separate deep or taking a quick throw and turning into a big gain after the catch.
He attacks all three levels of the defense effectively, and he is a natural separator. That will be extremely important for a team that doesn't feel like they have a consistent QB at this time and will need a "best friend" for any future QB they draft.
Daboll and Schoen have talked publicly about how the ability to separate and to play any position they need, boundary or slot, are keys to their WR evaluation, and those are areas are areas where Nabers excels.
It will not be easy for Nabers to make this offense great, but if you can get a year or two out of him like Drake London and Garrett Wilson have had with their respective QB situations, you can feel really really good about the impact he'll have if/when the Giants solve their QB problem.

2.47: Tyler Nubin, S, Minnesota

The Giants kept up their "BPA" approach with their second round pick of Tyler Nubin. We know they could use a safety to bolster that room, but Nubin was also legitimately one of the best players available at this pick.
Nubin is a very well-rounded player. He's got the size and strength to play in the box, and he has the coverage instincts to be an impact player there. He had great ball production at Minnesota, and a lot of it was thanks to his ability to read the QB's eyes and anticipate throwing windows, break on the ball, and make a play. The Giants also loved him off the field, they view him as a future leader in the locker room, which something this regime values highly.
His athletic traits don't necessarily pop off the screen, but he more than makes up for it with his instincts. And even though he's not really a nickel defender or man-to-man defender, you just wouldn't put him in those positions.
Nubin has a really good shot to start and play as many snaps as he can for the Giants this year. Xavier McKinney played every single snap for the Giants last year, in a variety of different roles, and if Nubin can step into that role and contribute, this pick will be a huge success. But even if he has more rotation with Belton and Pinnock, Nubin will still have a lot of opportunity to make a difference in the Giants' new defensive scheme.

3.70: Andru Phillips, CB, Kentucky

Surprisingly, this has become one of the most contentious picks in the Giants' draft. People (including me) were happy the Giants passed on the QBs for Nabers, as we didn't want the Giants to take a QB they didn't believe in just to "save their jobs" or whatever. But this pick confused a lot of people.
A lot of that had to do with a) the board b) Giants fans' collective PTSD and obsession with the offensive line. And believe me, I am as obsessed with the offensive line as anyone on the planet.
We've already discussed how the Giants OL could still use an infusion of talent, and there was no shortage of OL talent available. Isaiah Adams went with the very next pick, and a few "fan favorites" of various content creators in the Giants' orbit went in the 16 picks after; Coober Beebe went 73, Christian Haynes 81, Zak Zinter 85, Dominick Puni 86.
That said, it still makes a lot of sense that the Giants maybe prioritized CB over the OL. Like I said earlier, the Giants CB room at this point was just the 2023 CB room minus either the best or second best player (depending whether you rate Deonte Banks better or worse) in Adoree' Jackson.
I personally didn't like Phillips as a prospect, and I have my questions about him coming to the Giants in particular. But let's put that aside and focus on the positives in his game first.
Phillips is a physical player who does not hesitate to fire downhill and get involved in the run game, which is something Giants' slot corners have been lacking over the last few years. He brings the same physicality to coverage as well; despite being a little on the small side (part of why he's moving inside), he's not afraid to attack receivers, even if they outweigh him significantly. The functional strength is pretty impressive at his size.
I do think there are some pretty lacking traits here, which contribute to why he went this late at all (though I had him rated much lower). The ball skills are really disappointing to me, he had very little ball production at Kentucky. For me, the difference between his ability in zone far exceeds his ability in man; this can be worked around since Shane Bowen is not the man coverage fiend that Wink Martindale was, but is still a problem.
What I'm really interested to see is how his athleticism translates; I didn't find it that impressive on film, and the 40 and agilities were just fine, while the jumps were really good. I wonder if he'll come to the league as a really talented athlete, or if it'll continue to limit him.
For what it's worth, I really do not trust CB coach Jerome Henderson anymore. The Giants have drafted a CB in the top 110 every year since he's been here, dating back to 2020, and Deonte Banks is by far the best one, maybe the only one who is a starter level NFL player. And all 3 of the other guys (Darnay Holmes, Aaron Robinson who also has been a walking injury, and Cor'Dale Flott) were supposed to be nickel corners.
Phillips will be the day 1 starter in the slot, and it'll be hard for him to avoid criticism even though he's a rookie making a hard transition, since the Giants have struggled so much to develop talent at this position recently.

4.107: Theo Johnson, TE, Penn State

With Darren Waller's status in limbo, the Giants decide to get aggressive and deepen their TE room.
It feels like every year there are a couple of guys like Theo Johnson: The size and athleticism are off the charts, great testing numbers, but somehow a complete dearth of production. Johnson turned 23 in February, spent 4 seasons at Penn State, but amassed a total of 77 catches, 938 yards, and 12 TDs in his collegiate career, with highes of 34 catches, 341 yards, and 7 TDs in 2023.
It's honestly a little reminiscent of the Giants selecting Daniel Bellinger in the 2022 draft, another guy who tested really well but had similar or worse production than Johnson in every category.
I'm of the opinion that if Johnson was more productive over his collegiate career, he would have gone earlier. He's got great size, he's a good athlete, he's an active and willing blocker with high end flashes in that department. The one major thing that's lacking is that evidence of being an impact player in the passing game. He's not really a threat after the catch, and the film doesn't always back up the testing in terms of separating and being explosive through routes.
If Waller does return to the Giants for 2024, then Johnson gets to be one of the best TE3s in the NFL and really work on his craft, getting ready to compete for the starting gig once Waller presumably retires after the 2024 season. But if Waller retires, as the Giants are currently expecting, then Johnson will be a solid TE2 working with Daniel Bellinger while trying to develop into something a bit more.

5.166: Tyrone Tracy, RB, Purdue

The Giants decide to help out their RB committee by adding Tyrone Tracy to the mix.
Tracy has only been playing RB full time for one season, and you can definitely see that. He has a little trouble with processing moving fronts and picking rush lanes, and he still has to learn when to just lower his shoulder and get a few yards, rather than seeking the big play.
What Tracy does provide is a bursty, one-cut type of runner who also provides a significant receiving threat, having played WR before transitioning to RB. He can run routes out of the backfield and make himself available to QBs and has soft hands. His contact balance is pretty solid as well, since he's pretty solidly built. He'll be a good compliment to Singletary.
In addition, Tracy both has kick return experience and has the type of skillset that teams think will be effective with the new kick return rules.
Tracy's easiest path to playing time will be to lean into being a 3rd down back. He has the receiving skills already, and if he can prove he's a reliable pass protector, he'll definitely earn playing time on offense. At worst, we'll see him on special teams this year while he hones his craft and tries to compete for more significant playing time moving forward.

6.183: Darius Muasau, LB, UCLA

The Giants stick with some special teams focus here. Muasau and new Giants STC Michael Ghobrial have history, with Ghobrial being Muasau's ST coordinator in 2019 at Hawai'i.
Muasau has a relentless motor and reads plays really well. He has a really good feel for rushing lanes and how to fill in, and he plays physical, he doesn't shy away and seems to love getting in the mix even against pulling OL.
He's not a super impressive athlete and can be a little too aggressive at times. He also needs to learn some new tricks to evade OL rather than trying to go through them. When it comes to earning snaps on defense, it'll be hard for him to shake a "two-down" label due to his lack of coverage ability.
With Okereke and McFadden pretty much locked in as the starters and Isaiah Simmons as the "sub package" LB, Muasau's roster spot will be mostly based on his ability to earn Ghobrial's trust on special teams. Over the last few years, Carter Coughlin and Cam Brown earned 53 man roster spots the same way, so the avenue for Muasau is pretty clear.

UDFAs:

As usual, I'll highlight the UDFAs and kind of organize them by guarantees. The guarantees are usually the best way to tell who has the best shot at making the roster. Remember that a practice squad salary for the full year is $225k

1. NDSU OL Jake Kubas ($270k): Kubas is a super experienced player, having played over 2400 snaps at RG at NDSU. He's on the smaller side. He plays pretty balanced, has solid technique, and understands how to position his body. That's how he wins for the most part, since he's not really a freakish athlete and his power profile is pretty underwhelming. He'll be kind of a "stash and develop" type of player who will compete for a bottom of the roster spot with guys like Marcus McKethan, Jimmy Morrissey, and Jalen Mayfield.
2. Oregon DL Casey Rogers ($220k): Rogers posted some really impressive testing numbers, but we need to see it transfer to the field more consistently. He might be a better fit for what Shane Bowen likes to do than what Wink Martindale liked to do; Wink prefers stronger two-gapping IDL with knockback power, while Bowen is looking for DL to penetrate upfield and create chaos. As it stands right now, he'd be a liability in the run game, and doesn't really provide you that much in the pass game to justify it. But maybe he can hang out and develop his craft and get his pad level down under one of the best position coaches in the NFL in Andre Patterson.
3. Missouri OT Marcellus Johnson ($170k): Johnson is an interesting guy to give a lot of money to. He played at Eastern Michigan for 5 seasons, with almost 2300 snaps played, before transferring to Missouri...to be a backup, playing just 84 snaps in 2023. He's another guy that is pretty lacking in power profile. I'm not really sure I see the avenue to a 53 man roster spot for him, as it'll be tough for him to compete with Kubas and the guys I listed in his section, and if he's playing OT, he has to get through not just Thomas/Neal/Eluemunor, but also Matt Nelson, Yodny Cajuste, and Josh Ezeudu (who has been the 2nd team LT in OTAs I believe).
4. UCLA CB Alex Johnson ($115k): Johnson is another player that tested better than I think his film showed; the film made me think maybe he'll be better converting to safety. He mostly played in the slot at UCLA, but struggled a lot in the run game. I was underwhelmed with his ability in coverage. I don't really see it with him, but the Giants CB room is so bad that I guess he does have a shot.
5. West Florida WR John Jiles ($100k): Jiles' highlights are insane. He looks like he's playing against middle schoolers at times the way he just leaps over guys and makes highlight reel catches. That's pretty much all it was to me though. He's a stiff mover and wasn't quite as consistently dominant as you'd like to see in my opinion. If I'm looking for a guy to make a couple of sick catches in the preseason and never be heard from again, it's Jiles, but if I'm looking for a guy who can become a player on Sundays, I'm not looking here.
6. South Carolina RB Dante Miller: Miller wasn't really a UDFA, because he was signed well before the draft, but I want to mix him in here. South Carolina and the NCAA kind of botched his eligibility, so he barely played in 2022, was not part of the 2023 draft, then was ruled ineligible for the 2023 season and 2024 draft. Had a really sick pro day, and his nickname "Lil Turbo" is very apt. He's just really explosive and fast, that's most of his game. Most of his opportunity to make the team will be to maybe compete as a kick returner.

Final Takeaways

The Giants had a good, solid, like B level draft. I didn't think they got exceptional value at any pick, and I thought they kind of played it safer than they had the last couple of years in the draft. In 2022, the story was really about investing in young, athletic players and trying to develop them. In 2023, they mostly continued that, sticking with their tenants of sticking to younger, more athletic players.
This year, they didn't completely shift away from that, but the average age definitely feels like it went up. Malik Nabers is the only player who won't be 23 by Thanksgiving. And while I don't hate any of the Giants' picks, it feels like they were trying to hit singles/doubles after Nabers. None of those players to me feel like swinging for upside, thinking you have a superstar in the making, they feel like players the team thinks will just be good solid pros. I'm not sure how I feel about it, since the swings on upside haven't been the most successful, but I also don't feel like this draft changes the outlook of the team moving forward either. Most importantly, it does feel like a departure from their previous tendencies, so it'll be interesting to see whether it was more conscious and if it works out.
I'm not sure this is a draft we'll be looking back on and thinking about how great an impact it had on the future of the team. But I'm also not sure how likely that was once the trade up for Drake Maye was off the table.

So we just hit ll8 and me and my group want to know what people think of this. Only asked one person outside my group and they were disgusted.
» Thang Atlas // GALAXY «
Spaceborn, LL8
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Act Unseen or Unheard (+4), Apply Fists to Faces (+6),
Blow Something Up (+6), Invent or Create (+4),
Show Off (+4)
[ GEAR ]
Assault Hardsuit, Medium Signature,
Light Signature, Corrective,
SSC Sylph Undersuit, Sound System
[ BOND ]
THE WOLF
Powers: DON’T TELL ME THE ODDS, GO FOR A WALK
***
[ TALENTS ]
Stormbringer 3, Heavy Gunner 3,
Engineer 3, Walking Armory 2
[ LICENSES ]
SSC Monarch 3, IPS-N Drake 3,
HORUS Balor 2
[ CORE BONUSES ]
Full Subjectivity Sync, Sloped Plating
[ MECH ]
« RIGHT THIS MINUTE »
SSC Monarch
H:6 A:0 S:2 E:2 SIZE:2
STRUCTURE:4/4 HP:26/26 ARMOR:2
STRESS:4/4 HEAT:0/8 REPAIR:6/6
ATK BONUS:4 TECH ATK:3 LTD BONUS:1
SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:10 SENS:15 SAVE:14
[ WEAPONS ]
INTEGRATED MOUNT: Prototype Weapon III
FLEX MOUNT: Concussion Missiles
MAIN MOUNT: Sharanga Missiles
HEAVY MOUNT: Gandiva Missiles
[ SYSTEMS ]
Ammo Case II, TLALOC-Class NHP,
EVA Module, Swarm Body,
Portable Bunker, Personalizations
So yea the idea is to get somewhere where I can put the bunker down and fill it with grey wash. I have really good range with the gandiva so you need to deal with me but to do that you need to get close and well I am in a nanite filled zone of fun where I can use heavy weapons and knock back to move and hold people in place. I know its terrible for missions like infiltration or where I need to get somewhere like an objective fast but o well.