Part 72 Gene mods (Part 1) (Part 71)
[Support me on Ko-fi so I can get some character commissions done and totally not buy more Gundams]
“Alright, calm down. It's really not that serious.” Though the holographic representation of War Chief Neshkaname, complete with ocean blue eyes and linear facial tattoos on his tan face, looked quite noticeably tired, his overall demeanor seemed fairly positive. “I just got out of a meeting with representatives from the different protesting groups and all of them agree with the general idea of what we're trying to do with our united defense fleet. There's just quite a bit of disagreement about how our Confederacy should approach the questions related to Earth, Mars, and everyone in Sol.”
“What kind of questions are we talking about here?” General Robert Andrews, the now former General of the US Army, was the first to speak up amongst the crowd of military leaders. “Nothing about invading Earth, I hope.”
“Well…” Though Rob was only half serious about his comment concerning Earth, the way the commanding officer of the Nishnabe Militia’s Blue Fleet began his response put a genuinely concerned expression on a few faces from Sol. “It's only a small percent of our population who are calling for war to reclaim land. A few million people at most, none of whom hold any positions of leadership in our military. Luckily, there are far more people calling for boycotts, embargoes, or blockades as opposed to anything direct.”
“War Chief, to many governments on Earth, an embargo, and especially a blockade, would be considered akin to a direct declaration of war.” General Renee Descartes, the former Chief of Defense Staff of France and Second in Command of the European Union's Unified Military, despite the dark bags under her eyes implying she hadn't gotten anywhere near enough sleep before this meeting, retained her rather elegant poise when adding that bit of necessary context. “You see, the economy of Earth is highly reliant on importing raw materials from space. With the climate being as delicate as it is, no one is willing to risk the kinds of planetside resource harvesting necessary to keep the thirteen billion people in the Earth’s Sphere of Influence employed, fed, and happy. More importantly, we are starting to run out of easily accessible mineral deposits in space.”
“Yes, the lunar mines and the near-Earth asteroid colonies still under UN-E control simply aren't producing nearly enough material to meet growing demand.” Admiral Nathaniel Adeoye, who had also given up his position as the Chief of Astral Naval Staff of the African Federation, chimed in with a clearly worried tone in his deep voice. “While I can understand the rage some of your people must feel, especially towards Americans, the many different people of Africa were in no way responsible for the colonization of America. In fact, we were subject to colonialism ourselves.”
“At least y'all still got yahr homelands!” Commandant General Daniel Chasinghorse, the former Commander of the entirety of MarsGov's Void-Marine Corps, didn't mean for his statement directed at Adeoye to sound as vitriolic as it did. However, the idea of him, his Lakota people, and all the displaced Native American Nations who were now mostly living in space or on Mars potentially being included in the Nishnabe’s reasonably negative reaction towards the people of Earth had put him on edge. “Sorry for snappin’ at yah like that, Nate. But the people livin’ on Mars ain't nothin’ done to deserve bein’ restricted by an embargo or blockade. We need all the extra-Solar tech we can get if we're gonna keep our population's health from declining even further. And I’m sure the African Lunar colonies could really use that medical and gravity tech too!”
“Nothing's been decided yet, and most people on Shkegpewen want peace, we just haven't reached a consensus on how that peace will look.” War Chief Msko Pkwenech, the commander of the Nishnabe Militia’s Red Fleet, interjected while making an open gesture with his hands to try to pat down the tension building up in this meeting room. “And if helps at all, we did take quite a few public votes concerning technology sharing for things we consider essential. But Maser probably has quicker access to the results than I would.”
“About ninety percent of respondents voted to immediately authorize and start sending out medical and gravity tech, including a production ship to come out and make things in-system, which is well above the seventy-five percent consensus needed to move forward.” As soon as the Light-born AI holographically representing their consciousness as an androgynous human began to speak in an incredibly soothing tone, the stress levels in the room began to fall. “There are currently a few councils debating the finer details and arranging logistics of what will be sent. However, the specifics of who gets what and when they get it will be negotiated between the respective governments in Sol and the Nishnabe Intergovernmental Council. Our job as the United Human Defense Fleet is not to interfere with diplomacy between nations, just to ensure that diplomacy is handled in a reasonable and non-threatening manner. Now, with that said, the vote to provide essential assistance was just one if a few taken over the last couple weeks. And while that poll was overwhelming and definitive, the ones concerning visas, immigration, galactic trade, and interspecies relations all fell below the consensus threshold for the Confederacy to adopt an official policy. When we say embargoes and blockades, we are purely referring to trade interactions between species, not between humanity and your economic exclusive zone. Once the relevant councils develop updated options for people to vote on, the next vote will be held.”
“An’ how long's all that gonna take?” Commandant Admiral Carol Nez, as the former head of MarsGov’s Astral Intelligence Collective and Councilmember in the Navajo Nation of Mars, was keenly aware of both the pressing urge of many on the red planet to live on a world with a breathable atmosphere and how just long it often took to for Native Nations to build a consensus. “Everaday we got at least a thousand babies born in Martian maternity stations an’ at least thirty percent ‘ave some kinda health issues. The sooner we get y'all's medical tech, the more kids that're gonna grow up to be happy an’ healthy!”
“We are well aware of the negative health implications of trying to raise children in low-gravity.” Msko already had his tablet out and was in the process of sending over the relevant information to his counterparts from Earth and Mars. “Our genetic modification technologies require individualized sequencing but they can be applied before or after birth to correct any serious issues. They can even be used well into adulthood. I got my eye color changed when I became an adult, so we can help anyone who hasn’t already gotten cybernetic replacements for affected body parts. All of our ships still in Sol are actively trying to produce as much of the base materials as they can and are working with doctors from your stations to get everything deployed as quickly as possible.”
“Why don’cha just teach our docs how to do it?” As soon as Carol got the question out, Msko and Nesh shot each other cautious glances before they both looked towards Maser.
“Well, Commandant Admiral Nez…” As soon as the hologram of the AI began to speak, it was clear their words were directed at everyone present from Sol. “To be completely blunt with all of you, we have reason to believe that the moment people from either Mars or Earth got full access to the genetic manipulation technology the Nishnabe utilize, someone would begin conducting experiments to turn humans into living weapons even more dangerous than the cybernetic ones you already produce. The cybernetics sported by many of your civilians would be legally considered military-grade combat modifications, and individuals with those cybernetics would be barred from entering many GCC standard space stations. We know there are doctors within both UN-E and MarsGov already working on projects to modify your species genome to produce what you call super soldiers, which something which is generally highly illegal under GCC laws. In fact, the genetic manipulation done to Sarah and Johnathan McAfree would likely be considered combat adjacent modifications according to GCC standards, and they would also be subject to various limitations due to their enhanced physiology.”
“Hey, now! Spooky an’ ‘er brother ain’t that scary!” Though he had been spending most of this meeting quietly sitting in his corner of the round table and trying to stay out of things he considered to be beyond his expertise, Professor Mikhail T. River felt compelled to say something now that his ex and her brother had been brought up. “Sure, she can bench press me. An’ Johnny can pick up the stove to sweep under it. But that ain't the gnarliest I ever seen! I mean, jus’ look at Comandante Harrison over here!”
/----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While the members of the United Human Defense Fleet Council were in their meeting and discussing the rumors of Nishnabe protests Sarah had also caught wind of, that was far above her paygrade. Despite a tinge of concern fluttering away in the back of the unusually tall and rather athletically built Scotswoman’s mind, she wasn't worried about the things she had no control over. At the moment, she, her rather short and somewhat pudgy mother, and her colossal but cognitively limited brother were relaxing in the stables of the opulent nature area aboard UHDF DS-1 and spending time with the unicorn-like kaehi'xito that Mik had gifted to them. Though the three gingers were each busy with different things most of the day, Donna and Johnny with their Nishnabemwin and remote job training courses while Sarah performed her role as an intelligence analyst, the small family from Glasgow truly cherished this time they got to spend together. And the fact they were bonding with the closest living creatures in the galaxy to unicorns only made this even better for all of them.
“Hey Sarah! There you are!” As soon as Miakorva's voice called out from the entrance to the stable building, Sarah, her family, and the three unicorn-like creatures turned to see the Qui’ztar approaching them with familiar canine at her side. “And look who I found wandering around the ship! Did you know that Mikhail lets her walk around unsupervised?”
“Hiya Mia!” Being the closest to the entrance, Johnny was the first to greet the lanky and seemingly muscular blue woman before he crouched down low and extended a hand towards the Cane Corso. “An’ Micky lets her roam cuz she's a good girlie. Isn't tha’ righ’, Terry?”
“Terry Good dog!” Terry’s soft but deep whine was translated by her collar while she approached the man with her tail vigorously wagging.
“Terry's a trained station guard dog, Mia.” Sarah added while shooting the Qui’ztar intelligence officer a cheeky wink and coy smile. “It's ‘er job to wander a station, ‘r in this case a ship, an’ be on the lookout for trouble. An’ now that she can talk, she's a perfect workin’ animal. But wha’s up? Were yah lookin’ for me?”
“Oh, yes. Yes, I was. But… uh…” Mia paused for a moment as she watched the massive beast of a dog place her paws on Johnny's shoulders and begin licking the man's face as if he had smothered some kind of invisible but quite tasty treat across his skin. “Isn’t there a concern that Terry may… Well… Hurt someone? Her species are non-sapient apex predators with strong hunting instincts, correct?”
“Tha's why she and most other workin’ dogs ‘re so well trained, love.” Donna replied with a giggle, the adorable display of affection between her son and Mik's dog forcing a massive smile across her freckled and slightly wrinkled face. “There's always a bit o’ risk with dogs, especially the biggins like Terry ‘ere. But if these unicorns aren't freakin’ out cuz o’ ‘er, then we don’ gotta be worried.”
“Kaehi'xito didn’t evolve with canine predators, so they likely don't even recognize her as a potential threat.” As Mia watched the beast of a dog lean more of her weight on to Johnny, she half expected the large and well-built man to fall over from the force. However, much to her surprise, the man stopped his energetic scratching on Terry's sides, wrapped his arms around her waist, and effortlessly lifted the gargantuan animal into the air, all the while it continued to lick his face. “But seeing you carry that creature like a baby would be enough to make almost anyone with caniphobia be cautiously curious about these creatures. And they must not be as heavy as they look if you can pick one up so easily.”
“Oh, Terry’s a thickin! At least fifteen stone!” In a motion that seemed in utter opposition to Johnny's comment, the man half-tossed the Cane Corso into the air so that he could reposition his hands to cradle the massive canine as if she were a literal baby. “But she's still a good lil pupper, ain't yah, Terry?”
“Terry, good baby!” Though Terry hadn't started flailing or showing any obvious signs of discomfort, she suddenly turned her head towards Sarah with a longing look in her golden eyes. “Pack-mother cuddle?”
“Yeah, sure, yah big ol’ lunk.”
Though Mia could believe a man as impressively large as Johnny may not have much difficulty in lifting a hundred kilo canine, she was completely flabbergasted by Sarah's ability to simply pull Terry from Johnny's grasp and continue to hold the animal up without even the slightest indication of strain. Not only had she just gotten confirmation that this creature was just as heavy as she thought, Miakorva was now being faced with the fact that the woman she had been cuddling with a night for quite some time was significantly stronger than she had realized. According to all the interspecies education she had received, which may have been slightly biased by the Qui’ztar professor teaching the courses, her own species had the highest ratio of strength to body mass of any Ascended species. And while she was aware that this woman she had formed a relationship with weighed about the same as she did despite being several centimeters shorter, Mia had yet to witness Sarah's capabilities demonstrated in such a casual manner.
“By the Matriarch, Sarah!” The lanky blue woman couldn't help herself as her bioluminescent freckles lit up at the shocking display of strength. “How are you that strong?!?”
“Gene mods.” Though Sarah didn't hesitate in her answer, she did wince slightly as she did so. “Me muscles’re almost twice as dense as the average human's. Tha's actually somethin’ I had to talk to Maser an’ NAN abou’ the other day. ‘Parently tha’ ain't a thing most species do for some reason. Bu’ I'm pre’y sure we talked abou’ tha’ already.”
“You did mention it but… Well… I didn't realize your people's genetic engineering was that sophisticated. But I guess that does confirm a couple of the rumors I've heard that I was going to ask you about.”
“Wha’ rumors?” Donna blurted out with a bit too defensive of a tone as her eyes fell upon her son who had gone back to brushing his vaguely moose-like unicorn. “An’ who's spreadin’ ‘em?”
“Well…” Mia hesitated for a moment, causing the two Scotswomen to shoot her suspicious looks. “I was assisting with the logistical planning with the Nishnabe in charge of the distribution of medicine to people on Earth and Mars, most of which involved genetic modification serums. And when I asked why there was no plan, or even consideration, of passing on the technology so it could be locally produced, the people I was working with told me there were rumors of… Well… My people would call it Qui'kijarto niko'txo, which would roughly translate to an enhanced soldier project.”
“Yahr people tried to make super soldiers, too?” Sarah asked with a laugh that implied a sense of relief.
“No!” The instant denial caused Sarah to cease her laughter and forced a slight frown on her rather pale and freckled face. “As soon as my people began developing genetic engineering almost thirty thousand years ago, our government and scientific community came together to completely outlaw any attempts to enhance our form in a way that would make us even deadlier in combat. Besides that, even after thirty thousand years of research, we have only recently mastered the ability to stabilize our genetics and guard against speciation due to diverse environmental conditions.”
“Yah really tryin to tell us yahr people never tried to improve themselves?” The older Scotswoman chimed in with a clearly doubtful expression. “No one ever tried to give their kids an advantage in life? Super soldiers experiments ain't the only thing we use gene modding for.”
“Well… No… I don’t believe we ever have.” Mia hadn't really put much thought into it, even when she and Sarah had talked about it before. But now she was starting to realize that an attempt to give a child an advantage in life by increasing their physical capabilities could directly translate to turning that child into an ideal soldier. “As far as I know, very few other species have engaged in that form of genetic modification. And the ones who have tried struggled to produce anything truly successful.”
“Gene mods ain't always successful, Mia.” Johnny didn't bother to look away from the unicorn he was brushing as he made the comment lest he see the sadness that suddenly appeared in his mother's eyes. “Bu’ I learned the other day tha’ Nishnabe gene tech is way better than wha’ we got on Earth. Maybe they'll ‘ave some stuff to teach us after they feel we're trustworthy enough to learn it.”

I've been playing the game since launch and am by no means a game developer or balancer, but I thought I'd start some discussion on how I'd like to see the game's weapons balanced to provide more choice and interesting weapon options.
Overall, I feel that many of the current primaries feel too similar to each other with no distinguishing features and I'd like to see these weapons stand out by offering a higher risk and reward aspect to the player. Guns that offer higher damage, penetration, or explosive traits should be balanced by higher recoil, lower rate of fire, bullet drop etc.
Here are my thoughts on some specific guns:
ARs (Tbh, there are so many of them, making them harder to balance and differentiate)
Adjudicator: Rather than lowering the recoil like in the last balancing patch, I would rather increase the recoil and the damage (to be similar but less than Diligence at 100-120). Additionally, I would give it worse handling like the Dominator or the original Diligence CS (not as bad though)
Tenderizer: I'm OK with not giving this medium armor pen if we can increase the damage (80?) and give it a slight stagger while also increasing recoil (in-between Liberator and Adjudicator) and weapon sway. This would position it as harder hitting than the Liberator, but with less ammo and more recoil.
Liberator Penetrator: I'd like to see the burst fire come back as a quick, 3 round burst option with higher damage (80?) like a Halo 3 BR to offset the lack of full auto and a much smaller magazine size.
Liberator Concussive: Make the gimmick more useful for its trade offs, such as slowing down Brood Commander charges or staggering Bile Spewers out of spewing if you shoot them in the head a few times.
Slugger: Give it back the stagger it had previously, but lower the range by increasing damage fall off and bullet drop. This would prevent it from being used a sniper and more like a shotgun (up close engagements) while offering higher damage potential vs the regular punisher
Eruptor: While I never thought the release version of this weapon with shrapnel was too strong (balanced by slow rate of fire and tendency to kill yourself at close range), I thought it didn't make sense that the large explosive projectile it fired traveled in a straight line like a regular bullet. It would further increase the skill required for this weapon by giving it a slower projectile speed and bullet drop.
Crossbow: I don't agree with the changes this weapon got since it offered something unique in its original form, a large AoE weapon that was difficult to use due to the slow projectile speed and drop, as well as the possibility of killing yourself if used too close to the player. Ammo could have been reduced to 8 or 10 instead of 12 since I never ran out of ammo while using it.
Defender: To differentiate it more from the Pummeler, I'd like to see this get a higher rate of fire (800-900) with a larger magazine (55-60) since it didn't make sense that an SMG had the same magazine size as the Liberator. Recoil should be slightly increased to compensate.
Grenade Launcher support weapon: This only tickles most armored enemies on higher difficulties and I don't see it used much anymore as a result. It could use another reload and damage/penetration that matches the impact grenade.
Breaker: I haven't really used it since the nerf but the magazine should be brought back to 16 with the higher recoil but also higher spread (like an auto shotgun should have).
Let me know if you agree or disagree and why!

I (47M) am trying to plan my retirement after a 4.5 year divorce process. The IRA I kept after my ex-wife took the other half is at about $460k, and since then I’ve added about $84k more. I wish I’d put more away, but I’d have only had half of anything I put in there anyway. Additionally, the retirement that was split was earned over only a 10 year period since I didn’t start earning in my career until I was 32 (my career training took a long time). The cost of my divorce legal fees was around $150k which greatly diminished my ability to save over the last 4.5 years (as did the cost of acquiring and sparsely furnishing a new home). Despite that I’ve managed to put $295k in a savings account currently earning about 5% interest. My divorce put me into a mode of pinching pennies, which isn’t a bad thing at all, but I don’t want to be so frugal I don’t have chances to enjoy life or take modest risks to help my savings grow.
Data: Gross income is quite variable but it appears it might average $35k-40k per month after a raise I got- previously it was about $25k/month- all as an S-Corp 1099 (before the divorce I was a W2 at a different job). I’m paying about $2500/month in child support for the next 7 years (I have 50/50 custody of my two teen children). My ex thankfully remarried last Fall which did away with the $5k/month I was paying in alimony over the previous 4.5 years. I am currently spending about $11k per month- a decent chunk of that is stuff I can’t really change easily—like professional insurance (about $800 monthly), health insurance (about $500/month), mortgage (about $3100 monthly), and other business expenses etc. I don’t spend that much per month for actual living, but usually I now have about $15k-20k average per month to save from here on out (hopefully). My home is worth around $850k and I owe about $535k on it.
I’d rather not have to work until I’m 65. Many colleagues seem to have way more socked away at my age, but most don’t talk about what they really have. When I actually retire I shouldn’t have the business-related expenses. I’m having a really hard time figuring out what my retirement “number” needs to be because any calculator I use assumes when I retire I’ll have similar expenses as I have now. To make it worse it’s hard getting advice from a pro since anytime I go into an investment office to discuss goals they usually just want to sell me financial instruments.
Ideas I have: 1) real estate investments- these seem to be popular among colleagues, but horror stories of bad tenants or market swings scare me. 2) I tried a small test of GroundFloor app, and it did give about 10% return on the $100 I put in lol. Maybe invest more there? 3) start a second business of some sort? I usually only work 30 or so hours a week- maybe I could come up with a good idea for a small business? These are just ideas kicking in my head…
TLDR: I’m 47, and I’d like to retire earlier than 65 if possible. I have about $544k in my IRA, $295k in savings, and about $315 in my home’s equity. I am able to save $15k-20k/month now, but I have no idea what to do with my savings or extra money to hit an as-yet undefined retirement goal other than not wanting to work until I’m 65. Any advice is appreciated!

Hello everyone! It's about time I finally posted an update to this and thanks to some contributions, now's a better time than ever!
In case you're new to this and haven't seen my previous post - I brainstormed a way to play AC6 as if it were a roguelike game, starting from literally nothing and obtaining new parts each mission. This way you have to heavily improvise your build and work with the whims of RNGsus to overcome everything Rubicon throws at you. If you're bored of the same 'ol PvE experience, this could be something just for you!
The rules are explained in detail in this here spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AiQLuzCRLoocbEs_tr6GFUXRrMvDtGTdV4NOaG2Fbwc It also contains the link to the dedicated webapp created by u/breakfast_tacoMC, which lets you easily roll for part rewards and keep track of the ones you own, even if you refresh or close the tab. For convenience, I'll also link it right here: https://ac6-roguelike-challenge.com/
The briefly summarize: you start with the Jailbreak frame, starter internal components and no weapons (optionally you can roll Stage 1 parts until you roll a single weapon). After every mission, you roll for randomized rewards. The further you get in a playthrough, the better your chances to score endgame gear become. If you die, you start your run all over again. Can you complete 3 full playthroughs of the game on randomized equipment?
For returning players, here are the two key rules changes from the previous version of the run:

• loot rolls are much more forgiving and allow for some strategizing - if you don't like your mission reward, you can reject it and reroll for something hopefully more useful, but you have to accept the second roll no matter what; this way you can get rid of some chaff rolls that could otherwise end a run early as well as better specialize for the endgame; challenges allow you to roll twice and get both parts, no rerolls, just as before
• speaking of challenges, they were heavily overhauled and now focus less on completionist runs and more on actual combat effectiveness, which in turn makes many of them much harder to pull off and will require some risk/reward assessment; to balance that out, EVERY mission has a challenge now, meaning that if you're confident in your skills, you could potentially jumpstart your parts stockpile in anticipation of tougher missions.

Massive thanks to u/breakfast_tacoMC again, whose work on the webapp really got my motivation going to rework some of this stuff.
Feel free to let me know what you think of the new version and if you do give it a shot, I hope you have fun and wish you the best of luck!

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MNS Oengro

“How’s the fuel status of the Oengro?” Grionc asked.
Vastae, eyes glued to his console, replied without hesitation. “We have just enough blink fuel for one jump, but we aren’t going anywhere once we get to the other side without a refueling ship.”
“One blink is all we need. And if the Oengro is good to go, the other, smaller ships should be fine too then,” Grionc responded, bringing up the system map on screen with her paws. “Four minutes to blink limit. Have the ship’s crew secure themselves for the blink and get ready for shift change to execute post-blink procedures when we arrive.”
“Yes, High Fleet Commander,” Vastae acknowledged with a brisk nod.
Suddenly, three quarters of the sensor readings on her sensor board disappeared, and the fidelity on the remaining took a nose-dive in accuracy. A low murmur ran through the sensor stations, which she waved away with a paw. “No need to panic. It looks like our friends jumped before we did, as arranged. Our sensors are on their own for now.”
Vastae swallowed hard. “Are you certain about this plan, High Fleet Commander?” Vastae asked nervously. “Not that I don’t trust what Sphinx— Speinfoent cooked up, but this is a last-minute plan modification we haven’t rehearsed. And with our fuel situation, we only get one chance here.”
Grionc put a calm smile on her face. “Remember that exercise we did with the Grass Eaters a while back?”
“Which one?”

4 months ago

“Since it’s New Years, it’s time to have some fun,” Mark announced with a grin to Grionc and the rest of the curious bridge crew. “I’m going to show you guys a fun teambuilding exercise we did on Terra.”
“Teambuilding exercise?” Grionc asked suspiciously.
Mark didn’t let her skepticism color his enthusiasm. “Well, I’m not sure how much teambuilding it does, but it is fun. And I have never seen aliens do it. In fact, this might be the first time this has ever been done outside of Sol!”
“Fine, fine. What are we doing?” she relented.
“This exercise is what we call the trust fall.”
“The trust fall?” Grionc repeated. “It’s about building trust? Like trust in your crew?”
Mark nodded vigorously. “It’s supposed to. I’m not sure if it truly works, but it truly is fun. You and I can demonstrate for the crew.”
Grionc sighed. “Sure. What do I do?”
“Come stand over here,” Mark pointed to a spot on the floor, and then stood in front of her with his back to her. “What I’m going to do is I’m going cross my arms… like this… and on the count of three, I’m going to fall backwards, and you have to catch me when I do.”
“Huh. That seems dangerous. What happens to you if I don’t catch you?” Grionc asked, mild concern creeping into her voice.
“Traumatic brain injury, probably. Something similar for your species too, I assume,” Mark shrugged nonchalantly. “But don’t worry about that. We have good medical facilities on the Nile, and you will catch me. That is the point of the exercise. Alright, you ready?”
Sensing his insistence, Grionc sighed and held her paws out, bracing herself. “Ready.”
“One, two, three…” Mark did as he described, crossing his arms, and falling backwards into Grionc’s outstretched arms. She grunted with slight effort as she intercepted his fall and then gently lowered him onto the ground, “Oomph. Huh. You Terrans are lighter than you look.”
“Yeah, my bones are nano-grafted,” Mark grinned, bounced up to full height, and circled around her back. “Okay, now it’s your turn.”
Grionc crossed her arms and held her breath for a moment. “One, two…”
She didn’t move. A few seconds later, she let go of her held breath. “I can’t.”
“What? Why not?”
Grionc muttered excuses. “No, it’s just— my tail— our balance mechanisms are different, I can’t just fall backwards on purpose—”
Mark insisted. “It’s not that difficult. Just let go. Don’t worry. I’m right here. I promise I’ll catch you.”
She held her breath once again, psyching herself up for a few more moments.
“One, two… doh, I can’t.”
Mark lightly patted her on the shoulder. “That’s okay… don’t worry… Hey, Speinfoent, come over here and give her a light shove. Alright, on the count of three. One, two—”
“Oh, no. Don’t you dare! No! Don’t touch— Yowwwwwww!”
Grionc continued, “And now… we fall. And we trust that our new friends will be there to catch us.”

ZNS 2228

“They’ve blinked,” the computer officer reported.
“Did we catch their blink vector?” Skvanu asked urgently.
“Calculating… got it! We triangulated their blink vector and probable destination! Entering it into our fleet navigation computers,” she responded, paws flying over the controls.
“How long before we can execute the blink?” Skvanu pressed.
“Two minutes before we hit the limit ourselves,” she replied, not looking up.
“Good, get the crews ready and start the countdown. I want to blink the millisecond we are clear of the system limit. And get all systems ready for what’s on the other side. They almost definitely have an ambush waiting for us. I’m guessing that’s where the remaining nine or so squadrons of Sixth Fleet are waiting for us,” Skvanu said confidently. “Twelve Lesser Predator squadrons to twenty-six of ours. Doesn’t matter how many upgrades they have, we will defeat them, especially since the first three will be within railgun range. Get those gunnery crews and point defense computers ready.”
“Blinking in seventy seconds,” she announced. “Sixty-five seconds—” Suddenly, she stood up, “Eight Whiskers, our FTL communications are open again! Both Datsot and Gruccud have just responded to our last message!”
Skvanu spun around to face her. “That makes sense. Whatever device they used to stop our communications must have been on one of the ships that just blinked out. Is there any priority intelligence from either?”
“Yes! Datsot has an emergency transmission for us. It’s from Ten Whiskers Ditvish!”
“What is it?” Skvanu asked, his voice serious.
She began to read. “Lesser Predators have entered Datsot system in force. Nine squadrons spotted so far. They may attempt to engage our garrison force there… His guidance is that we return immediately to trap these aggressor ships, but leaves the decision up to you…”
Skvanu absorbed the information with shock. If those ships are really in Datsot, they must not be on the other side of wherever the Oengro is blinking. And with that context, this now smelled exactly like a planned trap.
He thought out loud. “This must be what the Lesser Predators planned from the start. If we chase, we have no idea what they have on the other side. There may be refueling ships. They may have already gotten away. By the Prophecy, they may even be sacrificing three squadrons to get us to blink through a singularity or anomaly. But wait… If we return to Datsot immediately, we might catch those squadrons split from the rest of their ships and cripple their fleet!”
Having made up his mind, he shouted urgently at the navigation station, “Navigation, hold the blink!”
“Halting the blink procedures.”
“A handful of ships have already completed the blink!” the computer officer reported, almost in a panic.
“Cease blink procedures! Fleet-wide, cease the blink!”
The order went out immediately, and it was a testament to the discipline of the Znosian Navy that most squadrons managed to stop the countdown just seconds before it went through.
“How many ships went through?” Skvanu asked urgently.
“We managed to stop most of our ships, Eight Whiskers. Only five combat ships from Squadron 6 went through.”
He sighed in relief. “Only the Prophecy can help them now… Turn us around. Let’s get back to Datsot.”

TRNS Nile

“I think we are in sufficiently deep space,” Captain Gregor Guerrero said to his crew. “Drop us out.”
“Yes, captain. Emergency drop-out in five… four… three… two… one… now.”
The ship shuddered and creaked as the emergency-stop was activated. The blink engine wound down, forcing the ship back into normal space.
Gregor turned to his navigation officer. “How far from Plaunsollib did we travel, in regular space?”
“Two months on their Alcubierre drives if they combat burn with all their fuel. Four if they plan on stopping,” she replied immediately. “They’d be going too fast to aerobrake anyway.”
“Good,” Guerrero said, gluing his eyes to his sensor board. Ships in FTL are difficult to detect, even on gravidar, but the state-of-the-art technology on the Nile gave them a few seconds of warning.
A few seconds later, the sensor officer’s voice cut through the tense silence. “I’ve spotted the Puppers in blink! All of them, tight formation. They’ll pass us in about fifteen seconds.”
Guerrero nodded his pleasure. “Good, let them pass. Tell me when they’re out of range.”
The seconds ticked by. “Ten… five… they’ve passed our position… and now they’re out of range.”
“Now, switch on the blink disruption field,” he ordered.
The hum of the ship’s ambient noise went up an octave, signaling maximum power drain as the ship’s thirstiest system kicked in.
Gregor looked at his information panel. “Full emissions control. EMCOM Alpha. Deploy the FTL jammer drone and then shut off our engines. If things go well, we’re about to be joined by half the fucking Bunny Navy in a minute.”
“Aye, Captain. EMCOM Alpha.” The rest of the crew nodded, working their controls with practiced competence.
“Jammer drone out. You think they’ve got wild weasels, captain?”
“Unlikely, but we take no chances. If they don’t…” He shrugged. “… we’ll just get our drone back later.”
A tense minute passed, then the sensor officer reported, “Captain, Znosian ships spotted on gravidar! Two… three… five in total… They’ve just been forced out of blink.”
“Five squadrons?”
“No, Captain, five ships.”
Gregor furrowed his brow, surprised, and took another glance at his console. “Only five ships?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Alright, keep the disruption field up, and analyze the drive signatures on them. Maybe one of them is this Skvanu guy we’re supposed to hit,” he speculated hopefully.
After half an hour, Guerrero finally called it quits. “No more guests are showing up. Looks like they must have wizened up at the last moment.”
“Aye, sir,” the executive officer said, shaking her head in disappointment as well. “It was a good plan. Could have stranded their whole fleet out here.”
“Well, bad luck— these things happen in war, Lieutenant. Don’t worry. We’ll get them next time. How are the guests we did get doing?”
“Out of blink fuel, as expected. They’ve been dumping cargo in an organized fashion. I think they’re planning to see if they can reach Plaunsollib with their subspace drives in a reasonable amount of time and call triple A.” Then, she asked, “Where do you think the rest run off to?”
“Probably Datsot,” Guerrero guessed. “Phone Sphinx and tell him he’s probably got the whole shit storm heading his way, ETA about a couple days. Get the estimates to him.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, we just need to silence the witnesses so we can use this trick again. Bridge to CIC: let’s keep it simple. One Kestrel for each of the targets. We’ll swiss-cheese them with railguns after. Just in case.”
“Aye, Captain. We’re not dropping off those TRO drones here, are we?”
“Nah. Too much work. No one is finding these guys ever again anyway.”

MNS Trassau

“I just got off a call with the Nile,” Loenda announced. “Looks like the Grass Eaters have discovered our ruse in the other system. The main enemy fleet is heading our way right this second.”
Speinfoent sighed, and suggested, “If we burn closer for just half a day more—”
“No more,” Loenda declared. “We are already risking nine squadrons coming this far into the Datsot system limit.”
“Alright,” Speinfoent agreed reluctantly. “We can still give them a present they won’t forget any time soon.”
“That, we will. That we will.” Loenda turned to her console. “All ships in Battlegroup 2, dump your payloads as quietly as you can. Then wait half an hour to change your vector and make your way to the system blink limit.”
“Yes, Battlegroup Commander.”

ZNS 1841

“Ten Whiskers, the Lesser Predators are turning around,” the computer officer declared, doing her best to hide her relief.
“What? Where are they heading now?” Ditvish asked, confounded.
“Towards the shortest path to the system blink limit, I think.”
“That’s it? They’re just leaving now?”
“Combat computer speculates that they might have seen that Eight Whiskers Skvanu is heading back to Datsot, so they are breaking off the attack,” the officer offered.
“That’s… not very Lesser Predator of them, but very logical,” he admitted. “They must have realized their plan failed and are now cutting their losses.”
He didn’t mention that his fleet was the one that came out behind, losing yet another precious supply convoy and then sending the whole combat fleet on a wild predator chase for nothing. That State Security goon might start to become a problem if he didn’t spin this well in his after-action report.
A few hours later, a foreboding feeling coloring his mood, he ordered, “Sensors, boost our radars towards where they changed vectors. I want to check to see if they dropped any drones or traps.”
“Yes, Ten Whiskers.”
The 1841 boosted its radar towards the direction, blaring out signals on maximum strength and—
“Incoming… missiles? Ten Whiskers, many missiles! Dozens! Over a hundred! They’re well within our minimum abort range!”
“By the Prophecy!” Ditvish exclaimed. “All ships, execute combat burn away from them! Countermeasures and fire counter-missiles, at the ready! Track those missiles!”
Fortunately, the garrison fleet was still in high readiness from before. Their engines were ready to light up to full acceleration immediately.
Unfortunately, the missiles were already close. In desperation, his ships began dumping their entire loads of radar chaffs and flares into space behind them as they maneuvered away from the threat. Counter-missiles sped out of their tubes towards their rear, relying on their motherships’ sensors and radars to find the tiny alien missiles for them to engage.
Quietly gliding through space towards the enemy on inertia inherited from their motherships was the sizable swarm of Terran-made missiles. Obsolete for military purpose in Sol but still produced for the civilian and gray market, they were an easy addition on the TRO’s shopping list. Vast quantities of them had found their way into various shell corporations and dead drops all over Sol, then onto hastily constructed exterior pylons on Sixth Fleet ships.
While they were indeed several times outside of the maximum effective range of the Znosian ships at launch, missiles technically did have unlimited ballistic ranges in space — if their enemies were not moving and they did not need to constantly fire their thrusters to adjust course. Relying on a short first burn and then inertia, they flew most of the way towards the stationary enemy fleet completely undetected. By the time they were spotted, it was too late; the Znosians were well within their effective ranges.
Their intelligence chips might not have been super-Terran state-of-the-art computers, but the Pigeons had no problem realizing that they were discovered. They had been tracking the enemy targets using passive infrared sensors that did not alert enemy threat sensors to their presence. But the second that the targets started dropping flares to blind them, they activated their primitive late twenty-first century radars and homed in onto the priority targets they’d been given. Their main thrusters began their burns, adjusting their vectors to intercept the now-finally-moving enemy ships.
Then, they saw the incoming counter-missiles — fired by the enemies sporadically, obviously in panic.
The makers of the Pigeons might not have bothered to include next-generation electronic dazzlers on them, but penetration aid on missiles had been standard in Terran warfare for a century. They littered the space they were in with chaff and their own bright flares, coordinating with the other missiles in the area with short range laser communication to ensure that none in the swarm would confuse or disrupt each other.
The Znosian counter-missiles were certainly confused and disrupted though. Many veered off into phantom signals. Some lucky ones did manage to find their targets. When a few of their comrades dropped off their impromptu mesh net, the Pigeons constantly corresponded with laser communications to re-prioritize their targeting.
At the top of the list was the fattest, easiest target of them all: the enemy flagship 1841.
Seconds before impact, the missiles finalized their targets, and they spent every drop and fume of their remaining fuel on terminal maneuvers.
The Znosians’ close in weapons systems had milliseconds to engage the incoming threats. They performed admirably… for trying to deal with this unknown alien threat for the first time. A couple dozen more missiles were plucked out of space, but it was not enough.
Not nearly.
The rest slipped through the net.
Miraculously, the 1841 managed to survive initially. Despite it being the primary focus of the Pigeon mob, the other ships did their best to shield its most vital components in its rear with their own point defense. And the Pigeons — like most missiles of its era — were loaded with just enough firepower to destroy much smaller Terran ships. The larger hulls of the Znosian ships gave their obsolete mid-century intelligence chips a slightly more interesting exercise in module identification and targeting.
The massive Thorn-class battleship took fourteen hits to varying systems that the missiles visually identified as “that looks pretty important” on their final approach: its primary missile and gun tubes were trashed, venting atmosphere to space in those compartments. A proximity hit near the stern took out four of its eight massive main thrusters and several system modules at the rear of the ship. And perhaps worst of all, one Pigeon managed to zero in on its vulnerable front bridge, the explosion emptying its contents and occupants into vacuum.
Luckily for Ten Whiskers Ditvish, none of them hit the armored flag bridge where he was in the belly of the ship, vindicating the Znosian Navy’s practice of separating the two for redundancy.
Nonetheless, Ditvish fell to the ground as the simultaneous impacts temporarily overloaded the inertial compensators and shook the ship to its core. Sparks flew around him, and he smelled a pungent stink as the automated fire suppression systems kicked in to save as much as they possibly could.
He slowly climbed to his feet and looked at the scene around him. A sensor officer was spraying foam at a small fire with a handheld device, successfully extinguishing it in seconds. Several other of his crew were recovering and returning to their stations with remarkable calm. After all, they were elite, well-trained spacers and officers of the Znosian Navy.
Ditvish did the same, propping himself back into his command chair with slight effort. He operated his console in a concussed daze. One glance at the status board told him that the 1841 was a write-off. It wasn’t going to be combat effective ever again. At least its life pod systems were working, and he watched in relief as dozens then hundreds of crew members in the damaged sections of the ship climbed into theirs and ejected into the relative safety of vacuum.
He checked up on the other ships: several others were hit. Six had outright detonated: no survivors nor signals came from them. Two were irreparably damaged, their remaining crews also abandoning their ships in an orderly fashion. And another six had visible fires or scorch marks on their damaged hulls, but those crews were still valiantly fighting to keep their ships alive.
Ditvish noticed that the missile didn’t go for all his ships, just the ones on the outer edge on his sensor board— wait, the missiles—
To his horror, several more dozen missiles they’d detected were still active, and they were going for—
He looked at his computer officer’s station and yelled, “We have to warn them!”
She yelled something back at him, but he realized that he couldn’t hear her. Hitting the floor must have injured his hearing organs. He yelled again, hoping that she could still hear. “Warn the orbital support fleet! The logistics and fire support ships! Evasive maneuvers and take cover in the atmosphere!”
Her lips moved again. He got out of his chair and stumbled over to her in a daze, trying to hear what she was saying.
She was saying something.
It must be important.
“… not reach them. Our communication array… destroyed! Ten Whiskers, we need to get… We don’t have much time!”
Ditvish finally understood her from reading her lips. He didn’t respond. Just numbly watched the planetary battlemap of Datsot on the main screen.
It didn’t take long. They were completely defenseless.
The remaining missiles plucked every last orbital fire support and logistics transport ship out of the skies of Datsot. Most detonated; a few left behind trails of black smoke as they sank uncontrollably towards the planet’s surface.
Then, Ditvish’s hind legs gave out and he crumpled onto the bridge floor.
He was dimly aware of one of his subordinates dragging him towards the bridge escape pod as he blacked out.

MNS Trassau

“Don’t worry, Speinfoent,” Loenda said, putting her paws around the junior commander looking glumly at the image of Datsot retreating from their view as the rest of the bridge cheered the better-than-anticipated success of the raid. “We’ll come back, and next time, we’re coming back for everything.”
“That we will, Loenda. That we will.”

Meta

There is no research that shows the effectiveness of trust falls for building trust in a team and plenty of research showing that falling backwards from a full standing position without adequate bracing or padding can lead to serious brain, spinal, and back injuries.
Coercion or retaliation against Malgeir employees who refuse to participate in trust fall exercises may be considered investigable or actionable violations of workplace safety regulations by the Republic Office of Occupational Safety or anti-discrimination regulations by the Office of Equal Opportunity.
Whistleblowers are entitled to up to 25% of monetary penalties recovered. If you see something, say something.
Previous
Chapter 53: Apostasy

Embracing reality, even when it's challenging or uncomfortable, is indeed a crucial step toward personal growth and progress. However, simply accepting reality as it is may not always lead to improvement or success. Sometimes, it requires going beyond the norm, taking risks, and being the "black swan" — the outlier who defies expectations and achieves remarkable success. Here’s how to navigate this balance and leverage the required perks to move forward:

1. Acknowledge Reality

Realistic Assessment

• Honest Evaluation: Start by honestly assessing your current situation, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.
• Acceptance: Accept reality as it is, recognizing both its challenges and potential for growth.

Learning from Reality

• Insight and Growth: Use reality as a teacher. Learn from your experiences, both successes, and failures, to gain insights and grow.

2. Be the Black Swan

Challenge Conventional Wisdom

• Bold Ideas: Don't be afraid to challenge conventional wisdom and think outside the box. Innovation often arises from questioning the status quo.
• Risk-Taking: Embrace calculated risks, understanding that groundbreaking achievements often require stepping into the unknown.

Differentiate Yourself

• Unique Perspective: Leverage your unique skills, experiences, and insights to stand out from the crowd. Embrace what makes you different.
• Trailblazing: Be willing to pioneer new paths and approaches, even if they seem unconventional at first.

3. Develop Required Perks

Resilience

• Grit and Determination: Cultivate resilience to persevere in the face of setbacks and adversity. Understand that setbacks are temporary and part of the journey.
• Adaptability: Be flexible and adaptable, willing to adjust your strategies and approaches as needed.

Courage

• Bold Action: Have the courage to take decisive action, even when it involves stepping outside your comfort zone.
• Embracing Fear: Embrace fear as a natural part of growth and transformation, rather than letting it hold you back.

Vision

• Clear Goals: Define clear, compelling goals that inspire and motivate you. Keep your vision in mind as you navigate challenges and opportunities.
• Strategic Thinking: Develop a strategic mindset to identify opportunities and chart a course toward your objectives.

4. Move Forward

Continuous Improvement

• Iterative Approach: Adopt an iterative approach to improvement, constantly learning, adapting, and refining your strategies.
• Feedback: Seek feedback from trusted mentors, peers, and advisors to gain insights and identify areas for growth.

Persistence

• Tenacity: Stay persistent in pursuing your goals, even in the face of obstacles or naysayers.
• Belief in Yourself: Maintain confidence in your abilities and vision, trusting that your efforts will eventually yield results.

Celebrating Successes

• Acknowledgment: Celebrate your achievements, no matter how small. Recognize and appreciate the progress you've made along the way.
• Gratitude: Cultivate gratitude for the opportunities, support, and resources that have helped you on your journey.

Conclusion

Balancing the acceptance of reality with the determination to be a "black swan" requires a strategic mindset, resilience, courage, and a clear vision. By challenging conventional wisdom, leveraging your unique strengths, and embracing calculated risks, you can navigate toward extraordinary success. Developing the required perks such as resilience, courage, and vision empowers you to overcome obstacles and move forward with confidence. Celebrate your successes along the way and remain committed to continuous improvement, knowing that your journey as a black swan is a testament to your perseverance and determination.
Embracing reality, even when it's challenging or uncomfortable, is indeed a crucial step toward personal growth and progress. However, simply accepting reality as it is may not always lead to improvement or success. Sometimes, it requires going beyond the norm, taking risks, and being the "black swan" — the outlier who defies expectations and achieves remarkable success. Here’s how to navigate this balance and leverage the required perks to move forward:

1. Acknowledge Reality

Realistic Assessment

• Honest Evaluation: Start by honestly assessing your current situation, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.
• Acceptance: Accept reality as it is, recognizing both its challenges and potential for growth.

Learning from Reality

• Insight and Growth: Use reality as a teacher. Learn from your experiences, both successes, and failures, to gain insights and grow.

2. Be the Black Swan

Challenge Conventional Wisdom

• Bold Ideas: Don't be afraid to challenge conventional wisdom and think outside the box. Innovation often arises from questioning the status quo.
• Risk-Taking: Embrace calculated risks, understanding that groundbreaking achievements often require stepping into the unknown.

Differentiate Yourself

• Unique Perspective: Leverage your unique skills, experiences, and insights to stand out from the crowd. Embrace what makes you different.
• Trailblazing: Be willing to pioneer new paths and approaches, even if they seem unconventional at first.

3. Develop Required Perks

Resilience

• Grit and Determination: Cultivate resilience to persevere in the face of setbacks and adversity. Understand that setbacks are temporary and part of the journey.
• Adaptability: Be flexible and adaptable, willing to adjust your strategies and approaches as needed.

Courage

• Bold Action: Have the courage to take decisive action, even when it involves stepping outside your comfort zone.
• Embracing Fear: Embrace fear as a natural part of growth and transformation, rather than letting it hold you back.

Vision

• Clear Goals: Define clear, compelling goals that inspire and motivate you. Keep your vision in mind as you navigate challenges and opportunities.
• Strategic Thinking: Develop a strategic mindset to identify opportunities and chart a course toward your objectives.

4. Move Forward

Continuous Improvement

• Iterative Approach: Adopt an iterative approach to improvement, constantly learning, adapting, and refining your strategies.
• Feedback: Seek feedback from trusted mentors, peers, and advisors to gain insights and identify areas for growth.

Persistence

• Tenacity: Stay persistent in pursuing your goals, even in the face of obstacles or naysayers.
• Belief in Yourself: Maintain confidence in your abilities and vision, trusting that your efforts will eventually yield results.

Celebrating Successes

• Acknowledgment: Celebrate your achievements, no matter how small. Recognize and appreciate the progress you've made along the way.
• Gratitude: Cultivate gratitude for the opportunities, support, and resources that have helped you on your journey.

Conclusion

Balancing the acceptance of reality with the determination to be a "black swan" requires a strategic mindset, resilience, courage, and a clear vision. By challenging conventional wisdom, leveraging your unique strengths, and embracing calculated risks, you can navigate toward extraordinary success. Developing the required perks such as resilience, courage, and vision empowers you to overcome obstacles and move forward with confidence. Celebrate your successes along the way and remain committed to continuous improvement, knowing that your journey as a black swan is a testament to your perseverance and determination.

Thought I'd write down my experience, since the ones I read helped me too. Started studying almost 7-8 months ago, preparation was very intermittent since I had to concentrate on medical school assessments as well (IMG from India) Resources I used Bootcamp - really helpful, got all my concepts clear, excellent for cardio and Renal Uworld - Gold, prepares you adequately, did it first system wise and later moved to random FirstAid - Stuck to this from the beginning of prep, always annotated points from Uworld, revised it before every NBME Mehlman PDFs - used these towards the end of prep, really helpful in revising and understanding those specific points of information Risk factors, Arrows, Neuroanat are a must Practice scores - took all NBMEs offline and timed 25 - 67% 27 - 72% 28 - 72% UWSA 1 - 67% 29 - 75% 30 - 78% UWSA 2 - 76% 31 - 78% Free 120 (2024) - a week before - 75,75,70 - 73%
Took the Step on 4/24, started off well, stems were long, finished all the blocks with just 2-3 mins remaining. Lots of confusing ethics. Towards last few blocks fatigue kicked in bad, didn't even feel like reading the long stems anymore. Left the center unhappy, thought it went horrible.
Got my result today on 5/15 - Pass Congratulations and Good luck to everyone!

For further information on behalf of MAG Silver Corp. Contact Michael J. Curlook, Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications Phone: (604) 630-1399 Toll Free: (866) 630-1399 Email: info@magsilver.com 

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/canon-fodder-in-zane-in-the-membrane
Header Image ^[Imgur]
It’s not a Cypress Hill song, it’s a new issue of Canon Fodder!
By now, you’ll no doubt have made headway through the latest Operation in Halo Infinite —titled “Banished Honor”—which was accompanied by a new Waypoint Chronicle based around a simple question: “What would the story of a Spartan who joined the Banished be?”
We had the perfect character lined up to tell that story, one who hasn’t been seen since the end of Hunt the Truth's second season all the way back in 2015.
Welcome back, Ilsa Zane.

THE THIRD LIFE

Our ninth Waypoint Chronicle has arrived, which follows on from the concluding events of Hunt the Truth where a Guardian awakens on the colony world Laika III. Broadly, these events are concurrent with the story that unfolds in Halo 5 as Cortana lays claim to the Mantle, rallies AIs to her cause, and sets about imposing an imperial peace upon the galaxy.
Where Hunt the Truth saw the mantle of narrator pass from journalist Benjamin Giraud to undercover ONI agent Maya “FERO” Sankar in its second season, that torch is once again passed on to a character who made her presence felt in this story... the rogue Spartan known as Ilsa Zane.
Halo: The Third Life is available here on Halo Waypoint, as a free PDF, and in audiobook format on YouTube.
“October 2558. After being taken prisoner by the Banished as chaos erupts across the galaxy, Ilsa Zane’s hunt for the truth leads her to a new stage of life she never expected...”

EMPTY THRONE

Last issue, we gave you a totally legitimate look at the cover art of Halo: Empty Throne. Art is in the eye of the beholder, and unfortunately the powers that be decided that we could do better than a screenshot made in Halo 3's Forge mode in ten minutes with some crudely edited-in elements... it was a close call, really, but we ultimately pivoted towards something with the vibe of it having come from an incredibly talented and brilliant artist—namely, Will Staehle, whose other work you can check out here.
So, here you go. Here’s the official cover art for Halo: Empty Throne, coming later this year.
Pre-order your copy of Halo: Empty Throne here!
Cover art of Halo: Empty Throne illustrated by Will Staehle depicting a young girl and a Spartan emerging from a blue explosion coming from a Forerunner structure
“2559. It has been a year since the rogue artificial intelligence Cortana seized control of the Domain, an otherworldly dimension housing a vast information network. With an array of Forerunner weapons at her disposal, Cortana set out to enforce an authoritarian peace on the civilizations of the galaxy. But as the United Nations Space Command flagship Infinity prepares to strike against Cortana at Zeta Halo, another plan has also been set in motion.
An ancient access point hidden on a seemingly insignificant human colony has become the focus of a parallel effort to claim the Domain and its immeasurable capabilities. The UNSC, however, needs a key: a living, forsaken product of an old war. As a new generation of heroes rise to meet this challenge and Cortana's pursuit of control reaches a desperate and sudden crescendo, a cunning, ruthless warrior emerges from the shadows of the Banished, who has vowed to fill the new power vacuum by any means necessary....”

THE BANISHED SPARTAN

ILSA ZANE
Cropped profile image depicting Ilsa Zane surrounded by fire and Banished banners ^[Imgur]
RANK: Bloodstar BIRTH WORLD: Kholo DATE OF BIRTH: June 11, 2528 APPEARED IN: Halo: Initiation, Hunt the Truth, Halo: The Third Life
Born on the Outer Colony world Kholo, Ilsa Zane was just eleven years old when she lost her parents and everyone she had ever known as the Covenant descended upon her home and reduced its surface to glass. Taken to the remote colony Asphodel as a ward of the state, Zane remained largely silent and solitary until coming of age in 2547, where she was conscripted into UNSC military service.
In 2550, Zane was selected as a candidate for the prototype phase of the SPARTAN-IV program. Though she survived the augmentation process, additional experimental cocktails caused severe neurological damage to Zane. After escaping the facility, she was recovered by Admiral Mattius Drake and integrated into the rebel group known as the New Colonial Alliance.
In the immediate aftermath of the Covenant War, Zane led a group of operatives who attempted to commandeer the UNSC Infinity —securing it as the flagship of the New Colonial Alliance and to prevent the UNSC from deploying it to police independent colonies. This plan was thwarted by Spartan Sarah Palmer, who ejected Zane into space where the rogue Spartan was once more rescued by Drake, who was on standby in a nearby Prowler.
Following this, Zane served as an acquisitions specialist for weapons and materiel, as well as a ruthless instructor for mercenary and rebel groups that joined the New Colonial Alliance, forging them into a veritable fighting force in preparation for a large-scale strike against the UNSC. However, the awakening of the Guardians in 2558 waylaid these plans, leaving Zane as a prisoner of the Banished—with whom she ultimately came to find both common cause and brotherhood.

BANISH THY HONOR

Halo: Tales From Slipspace - Hunting Party
Image ^[Imgur]
What does it mean to be Banished?
To be Banished is to seek to liberate oneself, to pledge loyalty not to false promises of divine ascension but to the fearsome might and will exemplified by Atriox.
Service is welcome from any species, of any previous affiliation or loyalty—from the lowliest Unggoy thrall to the mightiest Sangheili warrior, and all between and beyond.
Power is its own end. In the wake of the Covenant War, opportunity is rife to carve up the remnants of the fallen empire’s vast resources and obtain technology that furthers the prime directive of the Banished: to never bow again, a “reclamation” all their own of freedom.
Following decades of calamitous conflict that has left even the most capable commanders war-weary, it is the Banished that are energized and fortified in purpose and will. Payment for those who share common cause with Atriox comes in blood and sport and spoils.
But those who would choose this path must unshackle themselves from ties to the past—unbind themselves from old masters, cast off their piety, and banish their sentimental devotion to honor.
Only then can one become a true vessel for victory.
Only then is one truly Banished.

THIEVING MITTENS

Halo: Escalation Issue #3 page depicting a showdown between Spartan Scruggs, who has taken Admiral Hood hostage, and Spartan Palmer, Chieftain Lydus, and Arbiter Thel 'Vadam ^[Imgur]
Why would a Spartan go rogue?
It’s an apt question. After all, Spartans are meant to represent paragons of humanity in both strength and spirit. But across the generations of Spartans, there have been traitors, rebels, or those who simply wanted to leave the UNSC behind to live on their own terms.
For the Spartan-IIs, these examples came as a result of their training—of recognizing and rebelling against the horrific context of their situation.
In the “Homecoming” episode of Halo Legends, Daisy-023 and several of her fellow candidates sought to escape the program following the augmentation procedures that killed or maimed many of their brothers and sisters, but were ultimately brought back into the fold.
Likewise, in the Halo: Evolutions short story “Pariah,” Soren-066 was left disfigured by the augmentations and was gradually radicalized by a technician named Partch, eventually attempting to escape Reach and join the Insurrection. Indeed, the Spartan who sought to apprehend Soren was Randall-037, who later appeared in Halo: Nightfall where we learned that he had evaded the UNSC after the Battle of Vodin in 2532, even starting a family before ONI eventually caught up to him over a decade later, "reversing" many of his augmentations in exchange for release from UNSC service.
Looking to the Spartan Field Manual, originally released back in 2018, we can gain further insight into the risk of rogue Spartans as it applies to the SPARTAN-IV program:
STOLEN GAUNTLET
Nevertheless, the SPARTAN-IV selection process is not foolproof. Spartan-IVs are soldiers with preexisting philosophies and loyalties, and even the most carefully screened candidate can react to their augmentation and training in unexpected ways. Individual Spartans represent a strategically significant level of combat power and pose a major security threat if their loyalty is compromised.
The STOLEN GAUNTLET fail-safe protocol has been created to provide training and permissive rules of engagement for special agents tasked with tracking down and swiftly neutralizing rogue Spartans.
~ Halo: Official Spartan Field Manual, p. 86
Rogue Spartans
Halo Mythos artwork by Isaac Hannaford depicting Mickey's betrayal of Buck and Romeo in Halo: New Blood ^[Imgur]
Ilsa Zane represents the earliest example of this manifesting as a critical issue for the Spartan-IV program, and she is far from a singular example.
In Halo: Escalation, we see Spartan Vladimir Scruggs—another New Colonial Alliance defector—attempt to sabotage the peace talks between Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam and Chieftain Lydus.
Another prominent example is Michael Crespo in Halo: New Blood, who became disillusioned with being sent to kill other humans in the wake of the Covenant War and defected to the United Rebel Front with fellow Spartan Rudolf Schein.
Of course, defecting is one thing, but what is it about the Banished that would be attractive to a rogue Spartan? That is something wholly contingent upon the individual, and at present there is a specific example we can examine: Ilsa Zane.
Having been discarded by the UNSC after falling victim to experimental augmentation cocktails that ravaged her body and mind, she was eventually left for dead by Admiral Drake as well—she was herself “banished” from the places she had sought to belong. This, in combination with her proclivity for violence and a ruthless mindset, led her to discover a certain kinship with the Jiralhanae on Laika III, leading her to willingly pledge herself and the New Colonial Alliance to the Banished.
In the words of Spartan Scruggs: "I am a Spartan. But what you fight for isn't always the same as who you fight for."

ARMORY INFINITUM

The Ravager was a new weapon introduced to the sandbox in Halo Infinite, though it made its fictional debut in Halo: Shadows of Reach.
“The cacophony of gunfire was replaced by the sizzle of shock rifles and the thump-hiss of ravagers.”
~ Halo: Shadows of Reach, Chapter 21
Featuring a semi-automatic, three-round burst and a charge ability that can create a burning pool for area-of-effect damage, the Ravager quickly became a favorite tool of Jiralhanae warlords for its capacity to flush out garrisoned infantry.
A unique version of the weapon, the Rebound Ravager, can be found in the possession of Captain Arthoc—a high value target the Master Chief encountered on Zeta Halo. Rounds fired by this weapon have the ability to bounce, to which the words of Agent Washington from Red vs. Blue may come to mind: “It bounces? Who designs a gun that bounces?!”
Halo Infinite screenshot of Arthoc ^[Imgur]
ARMORY OF RECKONING CAPT ARTHOC FWD: RAVAGER
The Armory of Reckoning—it is a fitting name for the tools of conquest and destruction birthed from its forges.
When we advanced on the human remnants that had sought shelter within their crashed ship, I requested of Commander Bannix an augmented version of the plasma tossers produced by the Forge of Torograd.
Where we have mastered both spike and spear in our weaponry since before the Immolation, infusion matter remains an object of study for our alchemists. I was informed by the Screecleaver that there is a great savant stationed on Oth Liqattu who has sought to unlock further secrets of this fetid power, applying it to our own troops and many of our vehicles.
It is said that prolonged exposure to this corrosive bile can addle the mind and rot the body... that is good, for there are many small spaces in human ships. The capacity for this weapon to launch projectiles that bounce before erupting into toxic piles was of great use in flushing our foes from cover. How they flailed and danced to our battle song!
It is my understanding that pure infusion matter is pumped throughout Forerunner facilities, so we must dedicate resources to finding these wellsprings within the substructures of this ring. I shall bring this to Tremonius once he has returned from investigating a disturbance at his outpost.

MERIDIAN SLOANCOMING

Last month saw the arrival of Halo: Battle Born's rerelease, featuring two new short story “adjuncts” which we took a closer look at in our previous issue.
On April 30, the rerelease of Halo: Meridian Divide hit the shelves and—as folks have noticed—there's another adjunct in this one as well!
MERIDIAN HOMECOMING
Halo 5 screenshot of a Promethean Knight on Meridian ^[Imgur]
Completing the trifecta of new adjuncts in these rereleases is “Meridian Homecoming,” which is set in the immediate aftermath of Cortana’s final sacrifice on Zeta Halo in December 2559.
With the leader of the Created dead, the future of this fledgling faction has been thrown into doubt. High Auxiliary Sloan has returned to Meridian where he occupies a Promethean Knight’s carapace and wanders the vast glasslands of his home to find his own fate.
Of course, fans who followed the Precipice short story series last year (which accompanied Halo Infinite's recurring FIREWALL events) know that Sloan has emerged as a new leader within the Created and set into motion the creation of the Executors. “Meridian Homecoming” gives us a small moment in time with Sloan as he contemplates what the concept of home means to him, Cortana’s unfulfilled promise of salvation, his regrets over how he departed from Meridian, and the memories held within a Promethean Knight that set him on a new path.

COMMUNITY LORE CORNER

For this month’s Community Lore Corner, we kick things off with GammaCompanyMark who has put together a media order for the Halo series if you really, really want to experience it in some form of “timeline order.”
The fine folks at JumperScape have been adapting some of the lore and stories we’ve put out for Halo Infinite, beginning with the Intel drops we did for Season 2: Lone Wolves. (If you can believe it, it’s just passed the two-year mark for when this season launched!)
We recently discovered Lore VoidCat while checking out the latest Halo lore content on YouTube, and he has put together a fantastic series of videos about various expanded universe aspects—from every blade of the Covenant, to recounting the stories of various games and books, and more. Here’s one of his latest!
Would it be surprising if you learned that Covenant Canon has put out a new video featuring some... you guessed it, Covenant canon? In his latest release, we take a look at every known Arbiter throughout the Halo universe’s history.
Every now and then, the nostalgic longing for those halcyon days of 2007 return, which is exactly what you will feel when watching Meaning In-Between and Frogarchist's exploration of how mystery was a core thematic pillar of Halo 3.
And finally, David and Ian of Podcast Evolved have done a new “book club” episode on one of our previous Waypoint Chronicles: Saturn Devouring His Son.
With that, it’s time to sign off for this month’s issue.
If you haven’t already checked out Halo: The Third Life, be sure to do so—and if you have, well, go and read or listen to it again! Let the gears of speculation turn for what is depicted on the cover art for Halo: Empty Throne (don’t forget to secure your pre-order), and you can get your in-game Ilsa Zane cosplay sorted by completing the Banished Honor Operation Pass!
We depart with our favorite Ilsa Zane comic panel for your entertainment.
Halo: Initiation panel of Ilsa Zane shutting of the UNSC Infinity's original AI, Aine, saying "Quiet you." ^[Imgur]
This post was made by a script written and maintained by the Halo mod team to automatically post blogs from Halo Waypoint. If you notice any issues with the text output or think this was posted by mistake, please message the mods.

Whew, so glad that’s over! What a relief! I provisionally passed yesterday. Thank you so much to everyone in this group for the help and encouragement. Paying it forward by sharing my experience and study methodology.
I’ve posted a few other times here leading up to take the exam but rather than linking to those posts, I’ll just recap here.
My background:
I’ve spent 8 years in security training and awareness. I was recently laid off from one of the big tech companies. No technical background whatsoever. I have a bachelor’s degree in marketing, a bachelor’s in finance, and an MBA. No formal education in IT. Two years ago, I studied off and on for about a year and sat for the CISSP. But I didn’t get it. I made it to 150 questions and didn’t pass. So starting out with the CISM, I had a lot of test anxiety and really didn’t want to feel like I felt when I failed the CISSP.
My study resources (in order of time spent):

• QAE
• Mike Chapple’s Study Guide
• Gwen Bettwy’s Audiobook
• PocketPrep

Total study time: ~30 days about 2-3 hours per day
Study Methodology:

• QAE - Take practice exam 1 - scored 63%
• QAE - Complete structured study plan - averaged around 70%
• QAE - Take practice exam 2 - scored 80%
• Reference notes from QAE and review other study materials to fill in gaps
• QAE - Take practice exam 1 - scored 85%
• QAE - Switch to adaptive study plan - averaged around 78%
• Take practice exam 2- scored 83%

Study material overview:
Echoing what everyone else says here: the QAE is key. The exam questions are super similar in structure and difficulty. I learn best by taking practice questions so that’s where I spent 85% of my study time. You just need to make sure you're reading the explanation part, even if you answered correctly. There's good information included in the wrong answers.
Book wise, I probably wouldn’t use Chapple’s book again and would opt for the Official Review Manual. And I really only used the book to reference areas I couldn’t get my head around. Do I think the QAE was enough? Hard to say. I had a decent foundation starting out since I’d studied for the CISSP prior. But you can see from my first practice exam score that I was no expert starting out.
Again, repeating what most people say, PocketPrep was decent for testing knowledge but I found the actual question wording to be unnecessarily confusing, at times (sorry, Gwen!). I liked the audiobook for drilling concepts into my brain while I was gardening, cooking, driving, etc. I really liked the questions and answers at the end of each chapter. I feel like hearing the questions being read out loud and having to think about the answer triggered my brain to work a little differently.
How I managed my test anxiety:
A few days before the exam, I drove to the testing center to see where it was. This alleviated some anxiety about parking, where I actually needed to go, and how long it would take me to get there. I saved my second stab at Practice Exam 2 for my final day of study which was two days before the exam. I pretended it was the actual day of the exam. I woke up early, had my coffee, ate some breakfast, did an exam meditation from Calm, and then locked myself in my office with ear plugs and sat for the test. Took me about an hour and a half to complete the practice exam and was good for building some stamina. The day before the exam, I did zero studying.
Day of the exam:
My exam was scheduled for 9AM. I’d been fighting a sinus cold a few days prior (hello allergy season) and I coughed ALL. NIGHT. LONG. Not only that, but I’d been coughing so hard I pulled a muscle in my neck the night prior. When I woke up the morning of the exam, I was working with about 2-3 hours of sleep. I felt terrible. Had my coffee, ate some breakfast, cried a little and felt super sorry for myself, popped some Advil, pulled myself together, and then drove to the exam center. I’d brought a little pack of tissues and some cough drops but I wasn’t allowed to bring them in with me. But that turned out to be okay; it forced me to take breaks every 30 minutes or so. I’d walk out of the exam room, blow my nose, grab a cough drop, take a deep breath, and then get back to it. Since I was so exhausted and having trouble focusing, I think this helped keep me alert.
I found the exam to be really similar to the QAE. The questions were straightforward and I didn’t feel like I was doing mental gymnastics like with the CISSP. I read each question several times and, before even looking at the possible answers, I paid attention to what my brain was serving up as an answer. Lots of questions around business impact analysis, risk assessments, risk management and BCP, DRP and incident response. Questions posing scenarios and asking “What should you do FIRST?” I flagged maybe 20 questions and came back to them before ending the exam. I changed a few of my initial answers but not sure if that was wise. I’d say I felt fairly confident I was passing as I was answering questions.
When I clicked the “End Exam” button, my heart starting pounding. “This is it,” I thought. But no, that wasn’t it. There’s a survey. And the survey asks if you used ISACA’s official study materials and your satisfaction with them. I was thinking “How do I know if I’m satisfied with the study materials if I don’t know whether I passed or not!?” After I quickly made my way through the 15 question survey, my heart started pounding again. Alright, now, THIS is it. But again, it wasn’t. I had to answer a survey about my exam center. For the love of Pete, another 15 questions. I blew through those questions as quickly as possible and FINALLY, I got the “Passed” screen. I had a huge smile on my face and intentionally took a long moment to just take it all in.
Side note: a week before, I booked myself a 90 minute massage for later in the day of the exam. I figured it’d be a great way to decompress regardless of whether I passed or not. And it was such a clutch move. Definitely do something nice for yourself after the exam because you deserve it!
Hope this is helpful to someone. Study hard, prepare well, believe you're going to pass, and go for it!

Hey, i would like you guys two cents about Arishem's deck, please theorycraft with me.
https://preview.redd.it/5bma9k9ftl0d1.png?width=907&format=png&auto=webp&s=994fe5ab7bd758d813c9c011759169810d325ed9
this is the very bad deck i've built, if you don't care about text, i'll try to explain the reasoning behind each pick, and the feeling of the deck (sorry for my bad english, not my main language):
THE NON INCLUDED: I'm considering quinjet not working here as he does not works in thanos. i'm also keeping mockingbird out to slightly increase in blink quality, but i can see she being subbed in doom's spot.
ARISHEM: Mathematically arishem will add 3 and 2 costs cards more often to your deck (with 6 cost being the least likely), and due to his nature, any original card in the deck is half as likely to be draw, this data means two things: no combo will be consistent, and we can't consider arishem as a ramp card, since he usually will add few high cost cards, and the original ones you includes will be draw fewer times than any common ramp deck. With that information in mind, i've tried building a deck that diminishes the randomness and takes advantage of the extra energy by drawing cards.
COULSON: Coulson's randomness in common decks is actually less randomness in arishem's decks, as said previously, 2 and 3 costs will be the more likely outcome of most cards added to the deck, so coulson garantees you two less common costs (4 and 5), and also 2 extra cards for you to spend your extra energy, doing both things i wanted.
HOPE: If quinjet works, hope will be subbed by it, if not, hope serves the purpose of capitalizing on the extra cards played. To be fair, shes the 12th card in the deck, and could probably be subbed for rogue too, giving a fighting chance against darkhawk, since hope will most likely just float energy anyway due to the nature of the costs of random cards added by arishem and the limited board space.
CRYSTAL: This one is quite a weird inclusion, the reasoning behind it was "you will have more energy than your opponent to capitalize on the extra card" but one can argue that the quality of card draw will be so inferior than your opponent's one that its not worth the risk, and if thats the case, rogue is a suitable sub.
PHASTOS: A nobrainer add, phastos will most likely be the best card in the month and probably one of the best cards in the game, he is probably the cornerstone of the deck, making the extra card draws/add to hand work due to the cost reduction side of his effect. even if at random.
LOKI: Another easy inclusion, the extra energy pairs well with loki's discount, and the extra cards keep the hand at an ok size, i think loki is the way the deck would fall if (when) this "draw more cards" deck idea fails, adding more loki cards to the original deck, like snowguard and cable.
BLINK: Blink is the soul of the part of the deck that wants to reduce randomness, since the deck was crafted with a gap between 3 and 5 (broken by loki, but he is a core piece) the idea is playing one of your original 3 (or the commonly 3 cost generated ones) and switching then for one of the top end in the deck, wich, again, following the math, will be the majority of options available for swap, increasing the realiability of the deck.
ADAM: Yeah, i know he is a bad card, even when played a turn early, but hear me out: this whole list is bad, he is at home here... apart from that, the extra energy early not only gets you to adam faster, but also gives you a fighting change for board power, if there is any deck that would fit adam's lackluster effect, arishem is the one, and his onesided draw effect is actually very, very valuable here, i think he is in the upper half of card in the deck, not being cut first at all.
SERSI: Sersi is obviously not tested yet, and her random effect is probably not gonna make the cut in the normal decks, but Arishem should not be considered a normal deck, nor respond to the normal meta. The same as coulson, her randomness is heavily reduced here, considering you are not only playing more cards, but also higher cost cards, especially since the deck was built considering blink's effect (with mostly 3 costs cards with good effects but not stats), sersi could use this too, becoming a plan B to blinks, even mitigating a bad result from adam warlock losing the location by changing him into a 6 cost.
MAGNETO: Magento is just a good body with good effect, not much here, can be subbed by other six costs, but usually he outperforms most.
DOOM: Doom is actually pretty close to the cutting block, if my idea is anything close to reality, arishem will probably have board space issues, and if so, doom will be a bad pick, he may be subbed for mockingbird or any other high impact 6 cost.
BLOB: I don't have math to back this up, but i think Blob will most of the time have the effect of removing garbage from your deck, since the majority of random cards will be lower cost, and those usually have lower power, he will probably eat those more often than he will eat your magento (like the drawing chance of any card, the eating chance of a original piece is also halved).
My final thoughts about this list is, as you know if you read all the way, it's bad, and not optimized at all, but i think theres something in not considering arishem a "ramp deck", while slotting him as a tempo/board flood deck, and all cards in the list take advantage of that line.
thank you for reading this far, again i apoligize for spelling mistakes, and hope you guys spread some hate towards mt in the comments s2.

Business
GO Digit Insurance started in 2017 as a full stack digital insurance company with GWP ( Gross Written premium) of Rs 7240cr in FY23 ( GWP growth of 49% CAGR between FY21 to FY23). Go Digit offers motor insurance, health insurance, travel insurance, property insurance, marine insurance, liability insurance.
As of Dec '23, there were 4.33 crore customers who availed insurance at Go Digit since the inception in 2017. Go Digit is focused on simplifying insurance documentation with aim to ensure that the language of the insurance contract is understandable to all, including a 15 year old.
According to RedSeer report, Go Digit constitute 82.1%of the GWP written by digital full stack insurance players ( others Acko , Navi) making them the largest digital full stack insurance player in India. Go digit has 3.3% market share in FY23 in non- life GWP across all non- life insurers, and 6% market share among the motor insurers. Go Digit grew 37.5% in FY23 while the private non-life insurers (excluding standalone health insurers) overall grew by approximately 20.1% during the same period.
Product mix (in terms of GWP- FY23)
Motor 62.5% Health 10.5% Property & engineering 10.4% Liability 9.2% Personal accident 2.4% Others 5%
Go Digit has 6% market share in motor insurance, which is 6th largest motor insurer. Competitors New India has 12.2%, ICICI Lombard has 10.1%, Tata AIG 8.1%, United 7.3%, Bajaj Allianz 6.4%
https://preview.redd.it/5w4rz4jvql0d1.png?width=496&format=png&auto=webp&s=757a7d308eee61090f740997e4f50eec32156172
https://preview.redd.it/kxxtrmu0rl0d1.png?width=796&format=png&auto=webp&s=014b67866ad33890b8b4497260dd44f0f44f0152
Go Digit is present in 24 states , has relationships with 61,972 Key Distribution Partners, including approximately 58,532 POSPs ( point of sale persons- selling insurance of multiple insurance cos. ), as well as individual agents( tied to single insurance co.), corporate agents, brokers and others. Go Digit has 74 products in total.
The traditional manual underwriting processes are being disrupted by AI/ML-based risk modelling and predictive underwriting. The use of IoT and telematics is making risk analysis more efficient with the use of large data packets that can tailor personalized insurance products at flexible pricing to customers. Using AI systems that assess an application profile against large number of data points accrued from multiple sources, underwriters can gain visibility into the most relevant risk factors. Using predictive ML solutions, Go Digit is able to roll out fairly-priced quotes quickly and achieve higher profitability through their pricing strategy. Thus, AI/ ML based underwriting helps improve underwriting efficiency compared to manual traditional underwriting
Digital full stack insurance companies have been progressively gaining market share from incumbents. Go Digit GWP grew by approximately 37.5% while the private non-life insurers (excluding standalone health insurers) overall grew by 20.1% in FY23. Go Digit caters for approximately 82.1% of the GWP of the digital full stack insurance players in FY23. ( Go Digit, Acko, Navi)
Industry overview
Insurance industry
80cr Indians have access to internet, 65cr are smartphone users, 45 cr are online transactors. According to IBEF, Life insurance industry is 7,32,000 cr ( F22) in terms of GWP ( Gross Written Premium) and non-life insurance industry ( health, motor, fire, marine, others) is 2,73,060 cr (FY23), out of which health GWP is Rs 92840cr , Motor GWP is Rs 84650cr. Non- life insurance is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 15-16% till 2028. Life insurance penetration in India is 3.2% ( Japan 5.8%) and non-life penetration is 1% ( China 1.9%). Non- life insurance density (total GDPI on a per capita basis) in India is 23, for China it is 234.
Distribution mix looks like this
https://preview.redd.it/thyjaomfrl0d1.png?width=313&format=png&auto=webp&s=59d41ce433d742a95b60f2f30ce1ea38b99730c2
https://preview.redd.it/69melijhrl0d1.png?width=744&format=png&auto=webp&s=e312809d6f2dedf35637fd4a6b2ac8554d9567d8
https://preview.redd.it/gm41lerirl0d1.png?width=713&format=png&auto=webp&s=3e45d1d9564f7cda1c004eb776b1475e6d867db9
Motor insurance
The 4 Public sector insurers account for 30.2% of the Motor insurance market in Financial Year 2023 with the rest fragmented among the Private players. Among Private players, Go Digit accounted for a GWP market share of 6% FY23. In motor, competitors New India has 12.2%, ICICI Lombard has 10.1%, Tata AIG 8.1%, United 7.3%, Bajaj Allianz 6.4%
In FY23, as per Government sources, 54% of total vehicles plying on the Indian roads were estimated to be uninsured, indicating that the motor insurance market is still highly under-penetrated in India, figure for US is 14%
Health Insurance
In health, govt. players (New india, Oriental, United, National) control 48% of market, then Star health 14%. Private non-life insurers control 63.4% of the overall market share, rest 36.6% by public health insurers.
Operating Metrics
Distribution mix (count of each channel in graphic below)
Brokers & Web Aggregators 66% This channel includes retail brokers, corporate brokers and web aggregators.
Individual Agents and POSPs 13% This includes business written through insurance agency partners and POSP.
Corporate Agents 1% We also have partnerships with corporations, such as financial institutions and NBFCs
Motor Insurance Service Providers 1.1% partnerships with auto dealers that establish a point of sale presence for personal and commercial vehicle
Direct to Consumer 18.9% Customers looking to purchase insurance can do so directly from Go Digit website or through web aggregators.
Investment portfolio
Total AUM stands at Rs12670cr as on FY23 with an yield of 6.3% ( vs 7.1% of ICICI Lombard). AUM increased by 2.67 times from FY21 to FY23. As of FY23, Go Digit had invested in securities issued by the Indian government (which constituted 68.5% total investments), corporate bonds issued by corporates (which constituted 24.7% ), Additional Tier 1 bonds (which constituted 3.3% ), money market, AIF and mutual funds (which constituted 2.3%) and equity issued by corporates (which constituted 1.2%). 97% of assets in govt bonds or corporate bonds,with 72% of corporate bonds AAA rated.
https://preview.redd.it/j1doibnorl0d1.png?width=793&format=png&auto=webp&s=a0fec228ac389054c3f8f17ee93bae9f169c99dd
Combined ratio of GoDigit stands at 107.4% ( ICICI Lombard 103.2%, HDFC Ergo 121.2%) Combined ratio of public cos stands at 129.1%, private insurers at 105.9% Expense ratio of Go Digit stands at 40.2% ( that of ICICI Lombard at 32.1%, HDFC Ergo at 23.7%.). Loss ratio of FY23 is 67.2% vs 74% in FY21. Solvency ratio stands at 1.78 (ICICI 2.51, HDFC Ergo 1.81)
https://preview.redd.it/8hvhtslrrl0d1.png?width=648&format=png&auto=webp&s=6a5bc34442c8d91ea60c84a541c0de9eaadd2b97
ROA stands at 1.5% ( ICICI Lombard at 17%, HDFC Ergo 18.1%) Operating profit ratio stands at -1.3% ( vs 16% of ICICI Lombard, 8.4% of HDFC Ergo).
Total investment AUM growth of 50.5% from FY21 to FY23 to 12670cr. Gross Written Premium of Rs 7240cr, with 49.4% CAGR from FY21 to FY23.
Financials
https://preview.redd.it/6ld853cxrl0d1.png?width=609&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef59a75744b9b526494e72bc3ee35c1133f5017e
Underwriting loss of 66cr in FY23, reduced to 10cr as on 9M FY24. Investment income of 105cr in FY23. Profit after tax of 39cr in FY23, that of 130cr in 9M FY24. Branding/ ad expenses for FY23 account for Rs 11480cr ( 15% of GWP)
Points to consider
As per 9M FY24 PAT, P/E ratio comes at 145 as per price of Rs 272 per share, whereas P/E ratio for ICICI Lombard is at 41, Star health insurance at 37.
Dependence on motor insurance is 62.5% of GWP, which is little skewed towards one segment.
Operating losses / underwriting losses amount to Rs 66 cr for FY23, making Go Digit dependent on solely investment profits, which is the case for some players in the industry.
Combined ratio stands at 107.4%, tad higher than average of private insurers figures of 105%
AUM CAGR of 50.5% from FY21 to FY23 , which is commendable. GWP CAGR of 49.4% between FY21 and FY23. Co is growing real fast.
ROA stands at 1.5% as still in nascent stage vs ICICI Lombard of 17%
Despite being a newer player, Go Digit has garnered 6% market share in motor insurance, which makes them 6th largest motor insurer. ( ICICI Lombard at 10% ms stands 2nd)
Go Digit is a full stack digital insurance player, using AI/ ML to automate most of the insurance customers onboarded and claims underwritten, giving them cost advantage once they achieve considerable scale.

Hey, everyone. This is a throwaway account just to avoid any issues. I posted here a couple hours ago with my main account, but deleted just in case. I'm happy to provide my other account to the mods if needed. Also, I'm so sorry in advance for the long post. I just needed to at least hear some kind words, so thank you for hearing me out.
My wife struggles with BPD, Bipolar 2, and CPTSD. She also suffers from Fibromyalgia, Endometriosis, Hashimoto’s, and Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria. We’ve been together for about 15 years, and while everything has been extremely hard, I want to stress that I do not blame her for anything. She is in DBT and Trauma Therapy, and is actively trying to work on herself. She accepts responsibility when she’s aware of a problem and tries her best to remedy things where she can. I love her and appreciate all the hard work she puts into trying to fix things and learn where she can improve.
With that said, I can’t fully express how hard things can get on my end. She’s federally disabled, so she stays at home and just focuses on herself as much as she can. The world can be challenging, though, especially with her degree of disability, so she doesn’t go out much. She ends up feeling very alone and has created a codependent situation where she doesn’t feel comfortable going out unless I’m with her, and when she’s not having a good BPD day, approaches me as if I am required to provide her that support or attention and failing to be there for her or failing to want to do those things is treated equivalently to depriving her of an emotional need. She doesn’t act that way when she’s doing well, but when she has a bad day (which can be somewhat often), that’s when I’m blamed. With this, my life is just going to work, working as hard as I can to support her, coming home, giving her all my free time because she’s been alone all day, repeating that until the weekend when I do work around or outside of the house, and give all my free time to her again. I understand how unhealthy it is to not have any form of self-care available to me, but so much as mentioning that I want to do something for me can sometimes devolve into abuse, so I often just stop trying and do my best to get some enjoyment out of the time I give to her.
Outside of those social issues, she also tends to use a coping mechanism she’s developed over the years on me. Whenever she has very heavy feelings about a situational thing (i.e. something that she has no control of or any outlet for, like a cherished pet dying, where she can’t blame or attack anyone but still creates heavy feelings), she doesn’t seem to know how to work through those feelings in a healthy way and ends up holding onto them until they pile up. Her way of coping, then, is to latch onto any problem she can find from me (or anyone else in the way, but typically just me), blow up that problem as big as she can, then try to shove all her feelings into that problem by attacking or emotionally abusing me. And, if that problem is too small to justify all those feelings, then she will pull in any problem she can from the past – small problems, large problems, unresolved problems, resolved problems, things to do with me, or even things that have nothing to do with me. She’ll then take those issues and continue adding it to the base problem until she feels like she’s offloaded all her feelings and can move on. I’ve attempted to tell her about the coping mechanism a few times in the past, but when she started using the fact that I wanted to talk about a problem to use her coping mechanism on me, I stopped trying to bring it up.
So, with these two main issues, things can be an emotional rollercoaster. I feel like I’m chained up in a corner, where sometimes she comes over to really love and care about me, and other times she stops by just to emotionally beat me. I feel so extremely alone, all the time. But, what makes it worse is that I know it’s not really her fault. She’s getting the help she needs and is actively working on her issues. She feels remorse whenever I’m able to talk with her about these issues, and tries her best to support me when she’s doing well. If she wasn’t actively trying to fix the issues, or didn’t accept responsibility for her actions, I would likely be okay just walking away. But, she needs a support system. She needs someone there to help her or she will never get better. It’s like there are two very distinct people I’m married to – one that is loving, kind, appreciative, and supportive, and the other is angry, spiteful, and abusive. And, I know if I walk away from the abusive side of her, I have to abandon the side of her that I love, and that’s just not something I’m willing to do. She deserves support just as much as anyone else, but it’s just so extremely hard, all the time.
I will say, I was able to very recently get her to accept couple’s therapy. I know it’s going to be tricky because she has actively tried to discredit my therapists in the past when they say things she doesn’t agree with. So, I know if we get a couple’s therapist that she doesn’t have some kind of default trust in, there’s the risk she will fall into that mindset again. She does fully trust her therapist at this point, so I asked her to get a recommendation from him in an attempt to create some default trust in whomever we end up seeing together. Today is her next therapy session, so hopefully she comes back with a name and contact information for us to set up our first session. I sincerely wish we didn’t have to do couple’s therapy because most insurances don’t cover couple’s, which means I have to pay out of pocket with money I don’t have. But, the alternative is just remain chained up in the corner with no end in sight, and I just don’t think I have it in me to continue this cycle without entirely just falling apart.
I’m so sorry for the long post. I’m sorry for anyone that made it this far, but thank you for any support you can provide. I don’t want to leave her. I want to support her as much as I can, and hopefully couple’s therapy finally makes things better. But, for now, I feel so extremely alone, so thank you for hearing me out. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

The Cenacle 124 April 2024 29^th Anniversary Issue
https://scriptorpress.com/cenacle/124
[Size = 13.6 MB]
Hello everyone,
Here comes the just-released Cenacle 124 April 2024. Returning to the desired quarterly issue cadence that has been missing for the past couple of years. It was hard doing this issue without the usual many years’ involvement of my dear poet friend, the late Judih Weinstein Haggai, but her poetry features in this issue nonetheless, & will remain so in each issue ever on.
Thus far, 2024 for the human world has been a fairly dark one. The global Pandemic has not ended, though millions risk sickness & death for themselves & others by choosing to join in a kind of mass amnesia about the crisis. Meanwhile, the climate crisis continues to get the same kind of hostile indifference. The genocide in Gaza goes on unabated by any of the many powerful & supposedly democratic nations of the world. And a likely felon has jazzed the US electoral process, its weaknesses & flaws among its many strengths, to be within reach of again taking over &, as he has vowed, taking revenge.
I can’t tell you that this literary journal operates toe to toe on the global scale to oppose these various human catastrophes, but I can say that if we don’t seek Beauty, & Nature, & look beyond the petty fuckeries of the current day, we are much more likely to be lost than if we find a way to do this.
This fine anniversary issue features new poetry by Tamara Miles, Martina Reisz Newberry, Colin James, Sam Knot, Jimmy Heffernan, Judih Weinstein Haggai, & myself.
Also new fiction by Timothy Vilgiate, Algernon Beagle, & myself. And classic fiction from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
And new prose pieces by Nathan D. Horowitz, Charlie Beyer, & myself.
There is also new graphic artwork by AbandonView, Epi Rogan, Louis Staeble, Kassandra Soulard, Sam Knot, Tamara Miles, & Nathan D. Horowitz.
Contents of this new issue include:
From Soulard’s Notebooks [Excerpt]
I find myself leaning back often into 3 questions that I believe most influence human psychology & human culture:
1) Why are we here?
2) Where are we from?
3) What are we supposed to be doing?
* * * * * *
Feedback on Cenacle 123 [Excerpt]
I made it to the first poem by Judih Weinstein Haggai, sank into it, breathed it, needed it, and couldn’t go further into the issue yet. But it’s beautiful. And Kassandra Soulard’s cover photo: wow.
(Tamara Miles)
* * * * * *
From the ElectroLounge Forums:
Selections from Unknot 24, Part 1[Excerpt]
A project that I expect to work on for the rest of my life and never finish is a kind of art project playing with meaning making and the first few layers of knots, so this is all part of that really. I suppose it is a way to give a kind of focus or even kind of “abstract grounding” to some other kind of activity which isn’t necessarily even directly related to or about it.
(Sam Knot)
* * * * * *
Haiku from a Silent Retreat (7/31/2021) [Excerpt]
by Judih Weinstein Haggai
Everybody!
Are you everybody?
I’m not either
* * * * * *
Notes from New England:
Dream Raps, Volume Thirteen [Excerpt]
by Raymond Soulard, Jr.
Now that my friends are gone, the very shy Creatures who sometimes visit my hovel begin to come out, sniffing friendly their hellos. Accept my offer to cluster with me under the blankets, them being cold as ever when outside of the White Woods. White Bunny, Hedgedyhog, Peppermint Bears, Kittees & their Friend Fish. Alvinarah Poesy, & his dear friend Naria Narwhal. Even that cackling little Imp is under there somewhere. They never stay long, but I love them passing through. They’re excited about the Rutabaga Festival & Fleastock in the White Woods, I’m guessing.
* * * * * *
Becoming Archaeology: A Eulogy for Living Moor. (Part Two) [Excerpt]
by Sam Knot
It moves me more than any painting
or poem, seems to encode more meaning,
personal & planetary, than any other art,
this simple offering. This intricate gift.
* * * * * *
Notes Toward Many Musics [Excerpt]
by Raymond Soulard, Jr.
I believe a Narrative should always lead with the best it has, its most potent moment or image or the like. And let this lead set its standard. When I think of the Narrative options for these poems, I come back every time to starting from the start. These poems build on years & years of the work it took to get the six Brother-Heroes reunited rightly, after telling their unique stories as rightly as possible too. I did the best thinking & writing that I could.
* * * * * *
Poetry by Martina Newberry [Excerpt]
Tall on the dirty stage,
from my notebook I conferred
my poems. No time limit,
no faces, noises of shifting
dust and cars out there somewhere,
I read for many minutes,
emoting here and there,
hands rising and falling,
singing through some.
* * * * * *
Rivers of the Mind (A Novel) [Excerpt]
by Timothy Vilgiate
I could not help but fear that he’d attack me as I laid there; I lost count of how many times I got up to check my locks or to peek underneath the bed. I turned over and over, rocking the mattress like an unsteady boat, straining to keep my eyes shut. It was no use. Midnight came, and I was still awake; my hair matted over my irritated face, my blanket clutched in between my hands over my mouth as I tried to stop myself from sobbing. But I couldn’t let it see me cry. I couldn’t let it even see me blink.
* * * * * *
Poetry by Tamara Miles [Excerpt]
A lion’s music—a carnival of sound, beyond the roar of reserve, park, zoo, circus, and
safari, the wild kingdom beyond the definition of safe and unsafe, cruel or kind, in
sub-Saharan Africa, or in India, Gir forest, where the heart beat and drum beat and
incense are heavy.
* * * * * *
The Lagoon of the Air Goblins (Travel Journal) [Excerpt]
by Nathan D. Horowitz
I’m dehydrated from the sun today. I haven’t rehydrated. My hydration’s out of wack. It seems an eternity, maybe two, since I ordered a glass of papaya juice. Inside the café, mysterious café things may be happening, involving blenders and workforce and fruit and power. Time’s ticking by and it sounds like trees falling into a river. I glance at the red and white checkered tablecloth and remember I’ve always hated red and white checkered patterns. Serafín the educator said he would meet me here to tell me about the Secoya cosmovision, and he isn’t showing up.
* * * * * *
Poetry by Colin James [Excerpt]
Episodically craved by adolescents,
Prometheus displays his tats
behind The Dollar Store in Bonita.
The one with the plastic pillars.
* * * * * *
Mad Jack (Prose) [Excerpt]
by Charlie Beyer
We were longhaired teenage criminals. I looked like Jesus and my best buddy had flaming red shoulder-length hair, the devil to rival my divine look. Scott the Red. We were all hair, except Mad Jack (or Bob, as I knew him), who was as shaved as a plastic bag. We all sat in the car outside the 7-11 in the night rain. Blue smoke trickled out of the cracked window. Inside was a haze of marijuana smoke tainted with opium. We were high and crazed.
* * * * * *
Poetry by Jimmy Heffernan [Excerpt]
The moment to which we have access
So Nature can “see” through time
And what is this but awareness?
A tunneling from the immediate future
Back into the present
* * * * * *
Bags End Book #21: What is the Creature Carnival? Part 3 (Fiction) [Excerpt]
by Algernon Beagle
It makes me remember how our teacher Mister Owl in Bags End teached how different places have their different ways of thinking & telling. So if you’re gonna watch a Creature production, whether it’s the Carnival, or a Grand Production, or this time both, you’re gonna be in 4or a good crazy ride.
* * * * * *
The Hound of the Baskervilles (Classic Fiction) [Excerpt]
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a “Penang lawyer.” Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. “To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.,” was engraved upon it, with the date “1884.” It was just such a stick as the oldfashioned family practitioner used to carry—dignified, solid, and reassuring.
* * * * * *
Labyrinthine [A New Fixtion] [Excerpt]
by Raymond Soulard, Jr.
I’m distracted just as this strange fellow appears on stage with some kind of tool in his hand. He is very fancily dressed, some kind of home-made tuxedo? Or one sewn from many scraps? And he starts to recite a poem, I think, in a tongue I don’t know, when something distracts me.
Peace,
Raymond Soulard, Jr.
Scriptor Press New England
scriptorpress.com
[editor@scriptorpress.com](mailto:editor@scriptorpress.com)

The Sortino ratio is used to compare assets in terms of return per unit of risk. In this respect, it is similar to the Sharpe ratio.The Sortino ratio only considers the downside of the price. Profitability spikes have no effect on its value.It is not advisable to use the Sortino Ratio for bonds.What Is the Sortino Ratio?The Sortino Ratio is a tool for assessing the risk-return ratio of a portfolio or an individual asset. It is named in honor of Frank A. Sortino. In the 1980s, this economist suggested modernizing the Sharpe ratio. #sortinoratio #sharperatio #stockmarket #investing #beatmarket
Read full article at: https://beatmarket.com/blog/sortino-ratio

Mathematics plays a critical, but often under-appreciated, role in project management. While it may not be the most glamorous aspect of the job, strong math skills equip project managers with the tools to make informed decisions, plan effectively, and ultimately deliver successful projects.
Here's how math is crucial in project management:
​

• Planning and Scheduling: Core mathematical concepts like estimation, critical path method (CPM), and program evaluation and review technique (PERT) are fundamental for creating realistic project timelines and resource allocation plans.
  
• Cost Management: Project managers need to be able to calculate budgets, track expenses, and forecast potential cost overruns. This involves using formulas and financial mathematics.
  
• Risk Assessment: By applying statistics and probability concepts, project managers can identify potential risks, assess their likelihood and impact, and develop mitigation strategies.
  
• Data Analysis: Many project management tools leverage mathematical models and simulations to analyze project data, identify trends, and predict future outcomes.
  

The Level of Math Required
The level of math needed varies depending on the project's complexity. For most project managers, a strong foundation in basic math, algebra, and statistics is sufficient. However, some specialized fields or advanced project management methodologies may require a deeper understanding of financial mathematics or even machine learning concepts.
Fortunately, project management software automates many complex calculations. However, a solid grasp of the underlying mathematical principles allows project managers to interpret the data effectively and make sound decisions.
In conclusion, while project management involves various skills, math provides the foundation for effective planning, resource allocation, risk mitigation, and ultimately, project success.
sources:
https://www.iapm.net/en/blog/mathematics-in-project-management/
https://www.whizlabs.com/blog/project-management-mathematics-planning-part-1/
https://www.quora.com/Is-maths-required-to-become-an-expert-in-project-management
https://gemini.google.com/
https://doitify.com/project-management-questions/does-project-management-require-math/

The CYP family of genes encodes enzymes that are used by the body to break down and get rid of things like toxins, pollutants, drugs, and even things we eat every day. Genetic variants in the CYP genes impact how quickly we break down various drugs and other toxins, and understanding your genetic polymorphisms (variants) can shed light on how your body reacts to things.
The CYP1A2 gene codes for an enzyme involved in the metabolism (breakdown) of several different substances, including:

• caffeine
• aflatoxin B1 (toxic mold found on grain)
• acetaminophen

People who have the CYP1A2 A/A genotype for rs762551 are rapid metabolizers. This means that they will break down or metabolize substances such as caffeine more rapidly. Caffeine will be cleared out more quickly and not affect an ultrarapid metabolizer for as long. Unsurprisingly, ultrarapid metabolizers also tend to drink more coffee, on average.
The rs762551 C/C genotype is linked to decreased CYP1A2 enzyme activity. People with this genotype will break down caffeine more slowly and may find that it bothers their sleep at night.
What are the symptoms of slow or fast CYP1A2?
Well, it depends on what substance you are breaking down.
For example, CYP 1A2 metabolizes some pro-carcinogens from tobacco smoke into carcinogens, or cancer causing substances. It also helps to turn aflatoxins (molds found in grains) into active compounds involved in liver cancer. Once CYP1A2 metabolizes these carcinogens, the body must eliminate them. Genetic variants can also impact how quickly the second phase of detoxification works.
Thus, the rate at which CYP1A2 metabolizes certain toxins affects the risk of certain cancers in conjunction with how well Phase II detoxification moves out the metabolites.
A slow or reduced function isn’t always bad. For example, slow or inactive CYP1A2 is thought to decrease the risk of liver toxicity from aflatoxin B. This is because CYP1A2 turns the pro-carcinogenic molecules into carcinogens, which then have to be removed from the body.
Click here to read my full article on CYP1A2 including how to use your 23andMe or Ancestry raw data to determine your CYP1A2 genotype.

Hey everyone, I’ve got a situation where I’m really not sure what to do and I wanted to ask anyone that was willing to listen on their opinions and advice. I would appreciate it a lot.
Current Situation

• Living in a 3B2B, with a room-mate that watches shows and has friends over consistently until like 4 am, and we have very thin walls, and I’m a very light sleeper, so I lose my sanity trying to sleep
  
• When I go back in September they will be there, and I am dreading it, and my mental health
  
• I’ve communicated in every way about this to them, maturely, kindly, but also sternly when I’ve gotten upset about it, in person, and over text - each time they sound and seem understanding, and say they’ll turn it down or stop, but they don’t
  
• I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve accepted they just do not have the social cues or ability to comprehend how damaging it is to me, or they really just don’t care and put on an act
  

Potential Solution

• I have a lease option, I have to decide by TOMORROW if I take it or not
  
• It is $300/month more, which is a really meaningful amount to me
  
• It is still with 2 other random room mates, so I will have no idea how they are
  

Best Case Scenario: new room mates are understanding of me wanting to sleep by midnight, and I sleep peacefully every night
Worst Case Scenario (and very likely): Room mates are not understanding, and the same/worse, and now I am also down $300/month more
I do not know if I take this gamble. I know I will be miserable if I stay, but I could end up being more miserable and more broke. I know someone might suggest I room with friends, but no one I’m friends with is currently looking for housing, and with this being a fall term, I know how brutal it will be finding housing… don’t want to risk waiting. Also someone might suggest ways of me coping with loudness and sleeping through it, I’ve also tried everything I could ever and it did not work, I have searched and done everything to try to remedy this.
Extension
I also have one odd option that involves a very risky idea. I could get this lease, and keep my old one, and live in the new one, while I do NOT sublet out the old one. I would then try living in the new one for a few weeks (i.e. first 2 weeks of September), and if it’s no better, I go back to my old place and then sublet out the more expensive place. I would lose like half a month of rent (assuming I can find a sublet). The only concern in question with this is that I’m not sure if someone will be looking for housing that late into the term. It’s RezOne so it’s very expensive and that might not work out and then I don’t even have a sublet. Not sure.
I wish I could’ve found a 1B1B and I’d be happy with that even with how much more expensive they are, but I don’t want to wait and risk losing this chance of a new housing when it’s hard to find for fall.
I think I’m panicking a lot and coming up with stupid ideas. I could really use any help and ideas. If I’m talking crazy and my ideas are just absurd just let me know. Thank you all.

Hey, everyone. This is a throwaway account just to avoid any issues. I know getting support is the point of this subreddit, but I still feel badly offloading on anyone, so I’ll start by saying I’m sorry and thank you.
My wife struggles with BPD, Bipolar 2, and CPTSD. She also suffers from Fibromyalgia, Endometriosis, Hashimoto’s, and Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria. We’ve been together for about 15 years, and while everything has been extremely hard, I want to stress that I do not blame her for anything. She is in DBT and Trauma Therapy, and is actively trying to work on herself. She accepts responsibility when she’s aware of a problem and tries her best to remedy things where she can. I love her and appreciate all the hard work she puts into trying to fix things and learn where she can improve.
With that said, I can’t fully express how hard things can get on my end. She’s federally disabled, so she stays at home and just focuses on herself as much as she can. The world can be challenging, though, especially with her degree of disability, so she doesn’t go out much. She ends up feeling very alone and has created a codependent situation where she doesn’t feel comfortable going out unless I’m with her, and when she’s not having a good BPD day, approaches me as if I am required to provide her that support or attention and failing to be there for her or failing to want to do those things is treated equivalently to depriving her of an emotional need. She doesn’t act that way when she’s doing well, but when she has a bad day (which can be somewhat often), that’s when I’m blamed. With this, my life is just going to work, working as hard as I can to support her, coming home, giving her all my free time because she’s been alone all day, repeating that until the weekend when I do work around or outside of the house, and give all my free time to her again. I understand how unhealthy it is to not have any form of self-care available to me, but so much as mentioning that I want to do something for me can sometimes devolve into abuse, so I often just stop trying and do my best to get some enjoyment out of the time I give to her.
Outside of those social issues, she also tends to use a coping mechanism she’s developed over the years on me. Whenever she has very heavy feelings about a situational thing (i.e. something that she has no control of or any outlet for, like a cherished pet dying, where she can’t blame or attack anyone but still creates heavy feelings), she doesn’t seem to know how to work through those feelings in a healthy way and ends up holding onto them until they pile up. Her way of coping, then, is to latch onto any problem she can find from me (or anyone else in the way, but typically just me), blow up that problem as big as she can, then try to shove all her feelings into that problem by attacking or emotionally abusing me. And, if that problem is too small to justify all those feelings, then she will pull in any problem she can from the past – small problems, large problems, unresolved problems, resolved problems, things to do with me, or even things that have nothing to do with me. She’ll then take those issues and continue adding it to the base problem until she feels like she’s offloaded all her feelings and can move on. I’ve attempted to tell her about the coping mechanism a few times in the past, but when she started using the fact that I wanted to talk about a problem to use her coping mechanism on me, I stopped trying to bring it up.
So, with these two main issues, things can be an emotional rollercoaster. I feel like I’m chained up in a corner, where sometimes she comes over to really love and care about me, and other times she stops by just to emotionally beat me. I feel so extremely alone, all the time. But, what makes it worse is that I know it’s not really her fault. She’s getting the help she needs and is actively working on her issues. She feels remorse whenever I’m able to talk with her about these issues, and tries her best to support me when she’s doing well. If she wasn’t actively trying to fix the issues, or didn’t accept responsibility for her actions, I would likely be okay just walking away. But, she needs a support system. She needs someone there to help her or she will never get better. It’s like there are two very distinct people I’m married to – one that is loving, kind, appreciative, and supportive, and the other is angry, spiteful, and abusive. And, I know if I walk away from the abusive side of her, I have to abandon the side of her that I love, and that’s just not something I’m willing to do. She deserves support just as much as anyone else, but it’s just so extremely hard, all the time.
I will say, I was able to very recently get her to accept couple’s therapy. I know it’s going to be tricky because she has actively tried to discredit my therapists in the past when they say things she doesn’t agree with. So, I know if we get a couple’s therapist that she doesn’t have some kind of default trust in, there’s the risk she will fall into that mindset again. She does fully trust her therapist at this point, so I asked her to get a recommendation from him in an attempt to create some default trust in whomever we end up seeing together. Today is her next therapy session, so hopefully she comes back with a name and contact information for us to set up our first session. I sincerely wish we didn’t have to do couple’s therapy because most insurances don’t cover couple’s, which means I have to pay out of pocket with money I don’t have. But, the alternative is just remain chained up in the corner with no end in sight, and I just don’t think I have it in me to continue this cycle without entirely just falling apart.
I’m so sorry for the long post. I’m sorry for anyone that made it this far, but thank you for any support you can provide. I don’t want to leave her. I want to support her as much as I can, and hopefully couple’s therapy finally makes things better. But, for now, I feel so extremely alone, so thank you for hearing me out. I hope you all have a wonderful day.