Written 5/8/2024- updates attached below

I tried posting this on kendrick almost a week ago and it got no response, I messaged the mods to ask about Karma restrictions or account age requirements and they never replied. I made a new account and it was the same issue, but I found out last night I wasn’t fully banned, so I figured I’d throw it up and see if anyone finds it valuable. It’s written for people who have no prior knowledge of the rap game/music business. I don’t have to go as hard on obscuring names this time. One of the influencers I mentioned in my last post is known for doxxing and threatening violence against people who mention the many contradictions in their stories. (Sorry for any typos/mistakes I want to go to bed.)
Origins
I believe the current Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef is either completely or partially fabricated by certain industry leaders or the parties involved in an effort to distract from something bigger going down behind the scenes. If you were an influential label owner facing major accusations, and you needed to deflect media attention from yourself, recreating one of the most defining moments in rap history during the social media era would be a way to do it. It also wouldn’t hurt that two of the biggest rappers in the world were already sending shots at each other in their music for years prior. The public consensus is they are simply two famous rappers who hate each other and fighting over the spot for the top like in the 90’s. Only people who were directly involved could paint a more cohesive picture of the whole story. Even when all the cards drop, there is a good chance the average person won’t be able to find direct sources on their own and will continue to support their favorite artists and dismiss any evidence of their crimes like the drizzy subreddit or Ak fans.

As I said the beef between Kendrick and Drake has been brewing in the background for years, with both rappers sending shots and sneak dissing each other over the course of at least 8 years. The most agreed upon origin story is the first diss was the 2016 Big Sean and Kendrick collaboration, “Control,” and Drake responded with, “The Language”. Things stayed relatively lighthearted for a while and both were intentionally vague for many years. Before I go deep into the Kendrick and Drake stuff, it’s really important to examine some of Drake’s prior beefs because they add a ton of context to my theory. In my opinion Kendrick and Co. started scheming all of this some time around Mid 2020-Mid 2022, well after the whole Pusha T beef had transitioned into the Kanye beef.

What exactly started the beef is debatable, but at the time many attributed it to rumors of Drake pursuing Ye’s ex Amber Rose. Unfortunately the timeline isn’t 100 percent clear, and if I included every detail this would be at least 200+ pages so I’ll stick with the important stuff. The ultimate outcome of the Pusha T battle in 2018 was the revelation of Drake’s son Adidon that he had previously been hiding from the world along with getting Ye directly involved in the beef.

Here are some more examples of Drake antagonizing Ye and of him trying to use women as pawns to get material for his diss tracks. The Drake line, “Yeah, I probably go link to Yeezy, I need me some Jesus, but as soon as I start confessin' my sins, he wouldn't believe us," could be a reference to sleeping with Kim Kardashian, trying to double down on his threats to harm him or his family, or it could be a double entendre. Another example is using the name Kiki in another song, which was apparently one of Kim’s nicknames. Some other possible examples include the theories he may have tried the same thing with Kendrick’s wife Whitney around 2020-2021 in an attempt to use as ammo against Kendrick, which I’ll go into later. I don’t listen to much of either artist's music, but there are probably many of other examples in Drake’s catalogue that I’m leaving out. There is also his song Omerta released in 2019, which I'll go into below.

“Your baby mother call me when she lonely My tailor see me twice a week, he like my homie Forever grateful, forever thankful Diamond necklace, but she wears it on her ankle”

(Probably referring to Kim Kardashian since she had a few pictures with her wearing diamond ankle bracelets and was trying to make it into a trend.

“I plan to buy your most personal belongings when they up for auction”

(There were various rumors floating around for a while that Drake was blackmailing Ye with something and he was fighting to keep it from the public. I thought about it and this line might be referencing a sex tape with Kim or her little sister who me was very touch before she turned 18. In 2022 there was a whole storyline on Kim’s show where Ye flies to LA to prevent her second sex tape from being released.)

West Hollywood, know my presence is menacing
Cosa Nostra, shady dealings
Racketeering, the syndicate got they hand in plenty things The things that we've done to protect the name are unsettling But no regrets, though, the name'll echo Years later, none greater
Death to a coward and a traitor, that's just in my nature, yeah
(Drake and Ye both frequented the Delilah Nightclub located in West Hollywood and lived closeby on the same street for a while.)
"I don't carry cash 'cause the money is digital
It's the American Expresser, the debt collector"

(Sounds a lot more like it could be crypto to launder or send large amounts of ill gotten gains. It started becoming mainstream around them)

"Last year, niggas really feel like they rode on me
Last year, niggas got hot 'cause they told on me
I'm 'bout to call the bluff of anybody the fold on me"

These lines stood out because they could be referring to Ye telling the public about Drake's alleged threats a couple months before the songs release. This happened not long after the release of Sicko mode which was towards the end of 2018 as well. Ye was discussing the incident on Twitter and reached out to Drake and Travis to talk to him in private. In the next set of tweets Kanye publicly accused Drake of threatening him and his family in a major way. Surprisingly Ye seemed genuinely scared and amongst his, “crazy rants,” some of the stuff he said makes a ton of sense in hindsight. This also the beginning of his second serious public struggles with Bipolar disorder after being committed in 2016 shortly after an on stage rant where he calls out Jay Z for selling out and says he's afraid he might kill him.. As someone who shares the same diagnosis, I have a pretty good understanding of mania and psychosis and firmly believe that it's important not to write people off right away due to their mental illness. Some of my most thoughtful, creative, and productive periods were inspired by mania. Industry bigwigs have also been using mental illness to discredit influential black celebrities and visionaries going back decades, but it really picked up in the 80’s.

Dave Chappelle has gone into this a lot in the past and claims he experienced something similar before he quit show business and dipped to Africa. Their stories have a lot of interesting parallels if you’re familiar or curious. I remember he actually visited Ye at his house in Wyoming after he was reported to have had a, "mental breakdown," during his presidential run in 2020 thus marking his third breakown in six years.. The reason I put it in quotes is because it happened right after he publicly accused Kim of cheating and delivered his legendary speech on abortion. Dave went as far as going on live tv and telling the public he wasn’t crazy, he was just really struggling because he was the only one at the time fighting against the narrative, which can often be a suicide mission or a ticket to obscurity. These are three examples of someone speaking up and being deemed crazy, two years later came the nazi stuff and I'm sure we'll have plenty in store for 2024.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the very common pattern of artists dying or having their careers destroyed either after they try to leave their label or threaten to reveal industry secrets. A few more interesting industry connections I made in my research include the connections between:

T.U.G. records and J Cole's independent label Dreamville are both managed by Interscope Records, whose parent company is Universal Music Group.

Universal Music Group also hac Drake's label OvO label as well as Ye and Kendrick's old labels on their roster before they left to form their own independent labels in 2022 (around the same time the disses between Kendrick and Drake started escalating). Finally Bad Boy Records, which is owned by Diddy, and Motown Records who own Diddy's other R&B label Love Records, are also both owned by Universal. This means every label I mention is currently or was previously owned by Universal Music Group.

Ye tried for years to get out of his contract with Defjam, which happens to be ran by Jay Z who is known to be a close associate of Diddy. Jay would always used his money and power to fight against it. Ye even spoke out publicly on a few occasions, including when he said Jay Z was trying to kill him during one of his concerts. My theory is after years of getting nowhere and having his reputation skewered, in 2022 Ye finally said, "Fuck it," and dropped all the anti- Semetic stuff intentionally in a successful attempt to force his label to into using their morality clause, which requires labels to drop an artist if they're accused of any major controversy that could hurt the label’s profits. For the fourth time in four years the media reported he was having a breakdown. Even though they tried to punish him by cutting off all of his sources of income and freezing his accounts he still managed to bounce back pretty quickly. It was often reported how much he was losing, but it rarely discussed how he still was filthy rich in spite of the retrictions. His label wanted to discourage other artists from trying the same thing. My theory is he might have bought Kim or Kylie's alleged sex tape and used it for his own leverage. For Kendrick, his transition to his independent label ApLang went a lot smoother, but he had to split ownership of his new label with the previous manager owner Dave Free. Sadly it's still difficult for new or more niche artists to establish themselves without the some help.

He may be a lot of things but Ye isn’t dumb just because he has a mood disorder and the guys at the top know this, which is why I think he has really played up his diagnosis when it benefitted him. He’s still one of the most talented musicians in the game and I really think he sees his bipolar like a superpower as he says. It’s like his own invisibility cloak. He can go off his meds for a little, make an album after staying up for 72 hours, go on a “psychotic” twitter rant dropping facts throughout, then start up again once he makes enough news headlines. I think it’s worth noting the first divorce rumors in 2020 coincided with Ye’s abortion speech during his presidential run and the cheating accusations. that led to him dropping out and moving to Wyoming, and a couple months ago in February 2024 he was committed again.

The point I’m making is bipolar is complex, but pretty manageable especially if you have a ton of money to find meds that work for you and a good doctor and can keep substance abuse and stress at a manageable level. I think Ye is smart enough to know this, but it’s just safer for him to really play up the mental issues in the media. He’s proven he can literally say whatever he wants after getting cancelled and the average person is just going to write it off as psycho babble. While bias in health care is a sad fact of society, if you can use it to your advantage I say go for it. It might’ve just kept the microscope off of him long enough to plan his attack.

Ye v. Drake: Quotes of 2018
(Start of the beef, drake threats, and suspicion towards Kardashian family. )

“ It’s not about rap. It’s about family. We have to be close as a family and never let these people infiltrate just for radio spins”

“We need to show the world that people can talk without people ending up dead or in jail.”

”This is a man speaking to a man that has been placed in the program to fuck with Kanye West head and set me up“

”See when you care about your family you don’t let no man push you to do nothing that could risk your freedom“

These first four tweets by Ye were all in reference to perceived threats made by Drake after their beef escalated circa 2018. He began speaking on the industry and talking more about his psych hospital commitment two years prior and how he thought they were going to kill him. It's pretty obvious how the whole thing was planned by the sketchy doctor who called it in and his physical trainer who has a ton of connections to weird shit involving his celebrity clients.

I found interesting that Ye might not have been the first major league rapper whose life Drake threatened. During a similar period of mental illness the up and coming rapper XXXtentacion accused Drake of stealing his flow and dissed him a few times. Not long after he made a post online saying if he dies, it was Drake who did it. There are tons of conspiracies online, but none of the evidence is strong enough to draw a definitive connection. Also while it maybe be coincidental, Kendrick’s latest album Mr Morale also painted the picture that Kendrick was dealing with some serious personal issues. Some lines throughout the album may have been used to bait Drake into escalating, but it wasn’t until The Weekend, Future, and Metro Booming dropped, “We Don’t Trust You,” then Drake and J. Cole dropped, “First Person Shooter,” which was followed a couple days later with, “Like That,” where Kendrick started the chain of events that has led us to today.

Kanye vs. Drake: Quotes of 2020

Summary: Ye runs for president and gets suppressed for saying what very well could be the truth and was immediately deemed insane by the media. Kim did a couple interviews and everything he said was immediatly false. There is almost guarenteed to be some sketchy shit going down revolving her and her family. Ye was absolutely terrified of her keeping the kids away from him and it seems like there are still efforts being made to this day to paint a certain image of him for ulterior motives.

Below are six more quotes from a fan taking a deep dive into his 2020 tweets courtesy of u/ thehatstore42069 on Yeezy
”NORTHY I AM GOING TO WAR AND PUTTING MY LIFE ON THE LINE AND IF I AM MURDERED DON’T EVER LET WHITE MEDIA TELL YOU I WASNT A GOOD MAN,” West, 43, wrote in the tweet, adding, “WHEN PEOPLE THREATEN TO TAKE YOU OUT OF MY LIFE JUST KNOW I LOVE YOU”

"I need a public apology from J Cole and Drake to start with immediately... I'm Nat Turner... I'm fighting for us."

"the utmost respect for all brothers" and said "we need to link and respect each other... no more dissing each other on labels we don't own"

"Ye is constantly trying to tell people that his family does not have his or his kids best interests at heart. He goes on to list others, linking them together with the thinking emoji. These people include rap artist Drake and Larsa Pippen, wife of Scottie Pippe. Kim K is goddaughter to Pippen's daughter, showing how close the families actually are. All of these families that associate with Ye through Kardashian connections, as well as Drake, have been accused of the same thing Kris has. EVERY SINGLE ONE of these people have mixed race children that are groomed from a young age to fuck around with celebrities so the parents can remain famous. Drake on numerous occasions has been accused of grooming girls and then getting handsy on their 18th birthday.”

“These labels want their artists to make them money and they dont care about anything else. When Kanye says things like this in an attempt to expose him, the first thing they wanna do is drug him up and put him back in the studio.”
“Righteous indignation is typically a reactive emotion of anger over mistreatment, insult, or malice of another. It is akin to what is called the sense of injustice. This is how they keep the black man down. Keep people outraged about trivial things and distract them from the real issues in the world. The real problems in the industry. If you tell people enough times that they are unequal or discriminated against they start to believe it. Drug them when they step out of line and toss them aside when the checks run out. Ye is realizing he is pawn in a bigger game, and now that he has all these roots in the game such as Yeezy or the Gap or his music, too many people cant risk (Afford) a Ye who speaks his mind.”
(End of quotes)

Amongst the twitter rant, Ye warned about the predatory nature of record deals and discussed trying to get out of his own deal, and said again how his life may be in danger if it wasn’t already and was doing anything he could to protect his kids. The most fascinating part to me though is the public call to arms he made to Drake, J Cole, and Kendrick on twitter. After inviting them to all link up, he said, “It’s time to get free, we will not argue amongst each other while some guy we don’t know in Europe is getting paid and putting that money in a hedge fund.” I believe if Ye was able to pull off this meeting, there is an ever so slight chance that all four artists might be working together to take down a greater enemy. Weirdly there have been times throughout the last couple years where these supposed enemies were photographed together being friendly or praise each other in interviews, then out of no where the disses would start flying again.

To wrap things up I want to share my a few of my theories about the Drake/Kanye beef

A. Everything is exactly as it seems and the beef is over. Ye let his mental illness ruin his life and career so Drake simply picked another target after Ye stopped putting out disses. All of these connections are just a coincidence and all of this was choreographed to boost Drake and Kendrick’s music sales and possibly distract people from the Diddy trial and possibly the complicated geopolitical issues currently facing the U.S.

C. There is also the possibility that all four rappers are in cahoots and Drake’s dirt isn’t as extreme as people are theorizing, at least in comparison to the rest of the business. This could explain why everything has played out like a movie and how they were able to predict each other’s moves so well. This could either mean they’re all just trying to boost their sales or they’re all trying to take down the “slave masters,” as Ye calls them, and change the dynamic of the music industry in favor of the artist.

D. They may be trying to help their friends in the industry who are being abused or in shitty contracts. I know a lot of famous rappers have done a lot of collaborations with Jhene Aiko and Anderson Paak, who were both signed to T.U.G. records which I mentioned above in the connections to Universal Music Group. Considering they are both frequent collaborators with all of the artists involved on both sides, it’s not unlikely they may have played some part in influencing the takedown.

T.U.G was started by Chris Stokes with his partner Ketrina Askew. Back in the early to mid 90’s were gaining popularity attracting lots of young up and coming talent. They often collaborated with Diddy and his associates. In the 2000’s Raz B from the boy band B2K claimed he was molested by Stokes and his friend Marques Houston, then quickly retracted his claims. Years later he came forward again and said we was bribed into silence and that the rest of the victims were bribed with hush money and had another singer corroborate his story and they came forward together to level the accusations. After some of his former B2K members made fun of him for his claims and accused it of being a shakedown, Raz B revealed Stokes and Houston had preyed a lot of the children associated with the label including at least one of the former bandmates and paid them off.

I thought it was worth noting that the second whistleblower named Quindon Tarver died young in a car crash after mentioning his abuse again a few years prior. He seems to have left the industry not long after the incidents occurred and has few credits to his name. To this day Raz B is still trying to get his justice, while Stokes and his partner Askew, who was also involved in the abuse are still running the label to this day. Askew also has a ton of lawsuits, accusing her of using shady tactics to try to foreclose on houses. (Don’t quote me if a lawyer wants to take a look just google her full name), and has been tied to a ton of LLCs, similar to Drake. This is a good example of a shitty record deal, but I'm sure they have countless other friends in the industry who have even worse. While they were never convicted even Chris Stokes' wife confirmed it to be true.

E. The theory I personally think fits the narrative best and is the most realistic conspiracy is that Kendrick and possibly J. Cole went to the meeting, but not Drake due to his close relationship with Lucian Grange, the president of Drake’s label. Silence often speaks louder than words and this could explain why Kendrick was so ruthless and put so much effort into finding dirt on Drake. Ye, Cole, and Kendrick co-writing would be like the rap allstar team and if J. Cole wasn’t involved, it would also answer the question of whether or not he baited Drake into the battle by asking him to feature. I don’t think Drake is really their primary target though, which would explain letting him off easy. Compared to his bosses and their bosses he’s a small fish. If you take the big guys down you stand a better chance of landing a bigger blow on their operation.

Another really interesting connection is Kendrick and Ye were both signed under Universal Music Group and they both got out of their deals around couple months apart in 2022. As we speak U.M.G’s CEO Lucian Grange, who is often acccused of giving Drake special treatment, is facing charges related to sex trafficking by no other than P Diddy. This could very well explain the timing of it all. The craziest timeline would be Diddy masterminding all of this and using his connections to get it done and all the allegations are bullshit. The guy does seem pretty confident all things considered and constantly posts himself in his Batman costume which could mean he’s a vigilante.

It seems like there's a slight religious angle as well. (Ye and Diddy are both very vocal advocates of Christianity and Drake and Lucian Grange are both Jewish.) Obviously this is a reach, but they’ve been saying rap music was specifically promoted by mostly white label owners in the 80’s to help in the ongoing effort to expedite the systematic oppression of those living in black neighborhoods and the destruction of their family systems. Apparently it was an intentional decision to heavily promote rappers that promoted the very things that were destroying their neighborhoods. (So people know I'm and atheist and have zero agenda, I just thought it was interesting, please stay away from anything antisemitic. War is wrong on both sides.)

*** If my favorite theory is true, there is a possibility the Kendrick and Ye are going after Drake due to their mutual disdain for him and because he’s got a ton of power to dominate the charts and hog the radio airtime like Meek Mill and OG Maco claimed years ago. Even him dropping a record the same day as you could really fuck your album sales up. I’m also sure some of the many rumors throughout the years have had a least some truth and he will most likely snitch to avoid cell block one. I think that Drake could have been instructed to instigate this whole mess in order to draw attention away from the UMG charges brought about by Diddy. Or on the other hand it could be that Kendrick, Ye, and possibly Cole, may have had intel that Drake was going to be involved in the Diddy trial and are just gonna let the receipts show themselves. It might not have been the original plan, but they’ve already accomplished their mission of humiliating him, assuring he couldn’t use his influence to slide through the cracks, and taking over the throne.

Please take everything I say with a grain of salt I have no connection to this world or lifestyle. Regardless I believe all of the knowledge above does a pretty solid job at painting a picture of what may have let up to this and what may have been the source.
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More details found the last couple days…

Drake and Diddy Connections+Coincidences

Drake- In the P Diddy wig video from 2016 he talks about going to party with Drake, Cash, and The Weeknd in Toronto. Drake is also one of Birdman’s protégées who is known for being a predator and is rumored to have used label artists to lure young women.

Travis Scott- Interview where he comes out and says Diddy tried to lure him. Still has a long history of associating with him, video of him running from Diddy, his connection to Ruby Rose while underage.

Tim Westwood- Diddy had connections with sex offender Tim Westwood who also inspired the Drake song, “Westwood”. They also both were victims of drive by shootings along with The Weekend and they were all facing some type of allegations.

T.I.- Also has been associate with Diddy through the years, in 2021 his kid died and 11 women can forward at the same time to accuse him and his wife of drugging and assaulting them. Clearly someone wanted to fuck his life up. Possibly due to him getting arrested so many times for wild shit and people wondering how he continued to get away with it shining a light on how powerful industry lawyers are. He also had recently talked about having a gynecologist check to see if his daughter is still a Virgin, which sounds like it could have been an industrty secret. Could have been because he worried about someone trying to take advantage of her to get to him? Regardless that shit is fucking insane.

50 Cent- Has been saying pretty much the same thing as Travis Scott and has trolled Diddy for most of his career. It came out that his wife was a sex worker who was possibly recruited Diddy to help ruin his career. It sort of worked, which raises the question if 50 Cent is the only victim.

Ray J- Him and his sister worked with T.U.G. records when they were very young. Chris Stokes in the nineties who had connections with Diddy. He has been involved in a lot of sex scandals and allegedly may have played a part in Whitney Houston's death. (Which is also allegedly connected to Michael Jackson's death and both were deemed suspicious and happened during their final tours when their masters (song rights), became more valuable than their lives. Sony Records and Tommy Motolla, who also abused Mariah Carey when she was trying to start her career. These are just a few of the alleged examples of labels taking out musicians when they were worth more dead, another is the signing of high risk artists and requiring them to get life insurance so they can profit beyond releasing all their posthumous records. Also the ever so common story of the rising star artist that die at 21 after their first album or two.

He also partied with Diddy in Vegas with along Floyd Mayweather and a bunch of other famous industry people and athletes.

Tory Lanez- Tons of blackmail, also was signed by Interscope under UMG. got sent to prison for ten years after trying to leave his label. Also history of SA and and other allegations of violence towards women.

French Montana- On Diddy's label, close with Rick and Khaled, tons of drug and sexual assault allegations, also dated a Kardashian. Generally grimy.

DJ Khaled- Diddy said he could get anything in Miami, either referring to drugs or women, could explain his connections and lack of any notable talent. (New update, he was one of the first to promote Chris Alvarez’s instagram not long after he turned 18).

Rick Ross- Diddy said some weird shit about him and licked his lips and kissed him at a show. Ross is also signed to Bad Boy under Diddy. He ended up getting involved in the current feud and spamming social media nonstop dissing and threatening Drake.

A lot of the back and forth was both of them threatening to release dirt on each other. One strange coincidence I found was Drake recently trolled Ross about the 20 million dollar renovation to his home on Star island, where Diddy is currently residing. It’s rumored back in the day that P Diddy was caught in a room full of rich guys on ecstasy possibly at the beginning stages of a gay orgy. Drake also mentioned in the same tweets about Rick Ross that Birdman owned a house on the island and asked Rick Ross why he didn’t help him out.

Considering Ross is so sketchy and Drake claims the house isn’t that big, that’s a ridiculous amount of money. He may be covering up evidence, or creating tunnels in his house to escape if shit pops off and Drake might know what’s good. Interestingly enough Ross is very close with French Montana and also signed to Bad. He said his beef was related to something involving French, and Drake’s tweet popped up the same day the info came out concerning the Chris Alvarez stuff.

The famous line from U.O.E.N.O.

Meek Mill- “OG Maco called himself defending his friend Quentin Miller by substantiating the ghostwriting claims and agreeing with Meek. He hit up Twitter saying, "Some of us been knew. Meek just put it in the air. Sucks to have to compete with 6 n****s and get compared to”

Meek mill also had a short beef with Drake, some disses included lines referring to TI’s homie pissing on Drake at the movie theater, which is also interesting considering the current case against him. He also dropped a line saying Diddy almost got a domestic charge when he smacked Drake, which could either be saying that Drake is like a woman, or saying he was Drake’s boyfriend/sugar daddy.
( If you made it to the end comment with the number 8)
I thought it was interesting how the beef just kind of disappeared and even Meek said it didn’t seem genuine. Considering the allegations against Meek in the Diddy trial, and his rumored affair with Kim contributing to ending Kanye’s marriage, Meek Mill definitely did some dirt on him.

“Niggas frauds I told the truth, don't ask me shit
All this industry fake enemy and rap shit”

“Money make a sucker that told look trill again”

One of the many chapters in Drake's history in which he is seen paying his way out of trouble and starting beefs randomly.
“Now when that shit went down with Chris, you wrote a check”
This line is referring to Chris brown beef, another beef that was lost to time. All I can remember off the top was someone throwing a champagne bottle at the other’s entourage.

Ty Dolla $ign- Huge feature artist, close with Ye. Grew up in the industry and talks about growing up on the road and being in the studio with his dad and Rick James who was should have already been in prison for life for dragging, torturing, and S assaulting multiple women and children throughout his career and was himself a victim of the industry. May be part of Ye's motivation, considering their recent close working relationship.
The end.
Courtesy of,
The Randomest Moniker

Shortly before a final paper with pre-assigned topics was due for one of my last courses at Columbia University, our professor sent us an email telling us to forego the previous parameters of the essay, and to instead write about the events that had occurred not even forty-eight hours earlier, as well as our reflections on them, to be done in any manner we chose. Here is a very lightly revised version of what I submitted: read it, ignore it, upvote it, downvote it, hate it, love it.
I am prefacing this essay by stating that it is the culmination of several intense emotions that I have been dealing with over the last few weeks, more specifically, the last several days. It is a free-form expression of the many things occupying my mind, and, as such, it may seem overwhelming or disjointed. Nevertheless, I will do my best to convey my feelings into something representative of my beliefs, and my time at this institution.
My time at Columbia University has been bookended in an almost comically bad way; it started with Zoom classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now it ends with Zoom final exams due to the lockdown of Columbia’s campus after protests regarding the Israel – Palestine conflict reached a fever pitch not just within Morningside Campus, but the international stage. My classmates and I missed in-person orientation, and now, given recent developments, we will not have a University Commencement, a fact I found out not from Columbia, but a New York Times alert, somehow lowering my opinion of this administration’s handling of recent events even more. While the circumstances around my time at Columbia have now both begun and finished in the same manner, I am proud to say that I have not. I do not mean that Columbia has simply made me a better writer, a more critical thinker, or more well read, although it certainly has done those things, sometimes forcing me to when I was not particularly in the mood to do so, but those improvements pale in comparison to the maturity and empathy my time at this university has given me.
When the decision to transition to remote learning during the Spring 2020 semester was made, occurring only a short time after I had received my acceptance letter (email), my first thought was how the pandemic would affect my transfer from community college to Columbia in September. Admittedly, this was a selfish perspective, considering the tremendous challenges that many would endure during the ensuing lockdowns and other upheavals of life. My concerns were solely focused on myself because I was on a simple track to graduate, place my degree on my resumé, and continue my trajectory of military service to college to employment, leaving little else to consideration, to include other people who were not in my immediate circle. Sitting here now, two weeks from graduation, with a job at a Fortune 500 company lined up, I should be happy, with the plans I had made years ago coming to fruition. Yet I cannot help feeling a sense of sadness and concern for the school I have spent years of my life at, and for the world as a whole.
James Hatch, a former member of the United States’s elite Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU, for short, more commonly known by its nickname, Seal Team Six, famous for its involvement in the killing of Osama Bin Laden and the rescue of the Maersk Alabama Captain Richard Phillips from pirates, amongst other things, spent over twenty years in the military. After being wounded on a mission to rescue American serviceman sergeant Bowe Bergdahl from enemy forces, he was medically discharged, and would eventually attend Yale University. While there, he wrote a piece titled My Semester with the Snowflakes (please give this a read, it will help people who have never been in the military understand its culture, along with some of the challenges veterans face when transitioning to college), where he details his initial discomfort with being in a vastly different environment than the military, surrounded by individuals who possessed opinions and beliefs contrary to the ones he was accustomed to. He recalls witnessing a student protest the country he spent over two decades serving by coating her hand in red paint, and leaving a palm print on an American flag, and details his shock when a classmate of his explained to him what a “safe space” was, as well as his pride when he began to understand the nuances of life both inside and outside of the nation he dedicated twenty-six years to.
I can relate to Mr. Hatch, (despite my service paling in comparison to his, as well as the fact that Columbia is far superior to Yale), because, like his friends who make fun of him for attending college with a bunch of “snowflakes,” mine do the same. More significantly, however, his personal growth during his time at school is something that I have experienced myself. When I started at Columbia, I did not even know which major I would choose, and was largely lost in a world very different than the one I had come from. Despite this, I made the decision to avoid communities such as MilVets and the students who made it very clear that they came from a military background, with their style of dress and demeanor, not because those organizations and individuals are a detriment; I know for a fact that MilVets has helped countless students succeed at Columbia and beyond, and the veterans that I have relationships with are all phenomenal people, but because I wanted to pressure myself into being exposed to something different. I was uncomfortable at first, but this turned out to be the right decision. I learned as much from simply talking to people whom I would normally never converse with about topics and ideas that I had never encountered as I did during classes about great works of art, polar and Cartesian coordinates, literature, astronomy, the list goes on.
If the protests about the Israel – Palestine conflict had occurred when I first started at Columbia, I would have been frustrated by the students taking up space, forcing us to be funneled on to campus by restricted access points and identification checks. Likely irritated by the disturbance of the quiet during finals season, I would have agreed with the people who called for students to simply focus on their assignments and stop inconveniencing others by shouting about something occurring on the other side of the world. Instead, I decided to learn about the conflict, educating myself about both sides of a war that has roots extending back millennia. While Columbia University did not agree to the demands of the protestors, they achieved something else they surely desired, reaching a goal they did not state to President Shafik and her advisors: they brought attention to their cause by educating at least one additional person about it.
After reading, talking to people, listening to input from students within various classes, and understanding that things such as the intertwined nature of financial workings, as well as conflicts not just in the Middle East, but all over the world, are a level of complexity that baffles some of the most brilliant minds of ours and previous generations, I will leave my thoughts about Israel and Palestine separate from this paper. I recognize that it is important to choose a side, as remaining impartial helps no one. However, when every news agency, group and individual makes their voice heard, satirical sources such as The Onion make these kind of posts, or Adult Swim’s Rick, the nihilistic, narcissistic, psychopathic, misanthropic lead character from the series Rick and Morty, addresses the conflict in this manner, I feel that it is better to relegate myself to a much smaller part of this debate, namely the occurrences on Columbia University’s Morningside Campus.
During basic training for the United States Army, a sense of brotherhood and camaraderie is hammered into recruits’ identities. When you graduate and are assigned to a unit, one where you could be thousands of miles from home on the opposite side of the country, or even in a completely different country, serving on one of the international bases, approaching someone who you have never met before is easy. Talking to them about shared experiences and stories you have in common, and the bonding that occurs, is the product of an indoctrination process and lifestyle that has existed longer than any of us have been alive, and is proof of its effectiveness. This sense of familiarity tends to continue even when one leaves the military. The Veterans of Foreign Wars community is a place for prior servicemembers of all conflicts to share a drink, a laugh, and sometimes a tear. When I go to the Veterans Administration Hospital for periodic check-ups or the occasional injury, men and woman wearing hats commemorating their service during Vietnam waiting for their appointments greet me with a smile and a handshake, as if we have known each other for years. While working at a golf club’s greens department before I transferred to Columbia from community college, a coworker of mine who had served in the Gulf War had heard from our supervisor that I had been in the Army, and he introduced himself to me on my first day, before anyone else, telling me that if I needed anything, I only had to ask. This camaraderie has expanded to encompass not just veterans, but first responders such as firemen, EMT’s, and the police as well.
Underneath the picture on my driver’s license, the word “veteran” is emblazoned next to a star, written in bright red text and all capital letters. I know for a fact that this one-and-a-half-inch indicator has helped me during interactions with law enforcement on multiple occasions. Only earlier this semester, during Presidents’ Day weekend, I went upstate to spend time with my family. While driving back, in an effort to make the seven-hour trip at a reasonable time, I was stopped for going twenty miles-per-hour over the speed limit. The officer who pulled me over, initially reserved, became noticeably more friendly when I handed him my license and registration. Ultimately, he gave me what amounted to a parking ticket for my actions, rather than the point-incurring, heavily fined moving violation he could have charged me with.
The ‘Thin Blue Line,’ as it is known, is a reference to the idea that the police are the barrier between law abiding citizens and criminals, order and chaos. The most common representation of this concept is a black-and-white American flag, with a single blue line in the place where a red or white stripe would normally be. This style has been expanded to include numerous other colors representing other first-responders: green for the military, red and white no longer to be interpreted as the traditional stripes of the American flag, but instead meant to represent the fire department and paramedics, and even grey for corrections officers. Seeing the appropriation of one of the most iconic symbols in the world, one that flies above the White House, schools, homes, national and international events, and even the Moon, I can say, as someone who has been unwillingly entangled within that appropriation, is nothing short of terrifying.
The fact that these entities and their supporters have literally sewn themselves into the fabric of the symbol of our nation makes one think that there is little room for the countless other occupations, aspects and people that make up this country. The idea of the police being the sole protectors of our society is patently absurd, and all one must do is point out the many instances of police brutality occurring over the years to refute it. I find myself thinking of how much power the officer who stopped me just three months ago had over me. Initially, I was happy that I had received a slap on the wrist, but recently I have found myself wondering what if my license did not state that I was a veteran, would he have charged me with a ticket that would have had much more serious implications? What if he was simply having a bad day, and he decided he did not like the look of me, or the color of my car, and I was the one who he ultimately decided to vent his frustrations on? This traffic infraction, an incredibly small incident compared to all the turmoil in the world, one that involves two strangers, supposedly bonded by our professions, on the side of a quiet, New York highway, serves as a metaphor to me, reminding me of the power structures at play on a much larger scale.
On April 22^nd, 2024, I received this email, one of the many Clery Crime Alerts that students are automatically sent. An affiliate of Columbia University had their car stolen at gunpoint by two masked men on Claremont Avenue, not even a five-minute walk from campus. I skimmed the report, and almost immediately forgot about it, recognizing that crime is an inevitability in major cities, and that I needed to start my commute to school. Days later, on the night of April 30^th, 2024, I received another email from Columbia, containing one of the most ominous messages I had ever seen, one that put the kind of fear in my heart that not even the alert of an armed carjacking could. Columbia’s Emergency Management Operations Team, offering no explanations, specifications, or even a greeting or sign-off, wrote in bold letters these three sentences: “Shelter in place for your safety due to heightened activity on the Morningside campus. Non-compliance may result in disciplinary action. Avoid the area until further notice.” Due to the protests on campus during recent weeks, President Shafik testifying before Congress, Columbia’s role as one of the main catalysts for student protests around the country, and the occupation of Hamilton Hall occurring in the earlier hours of that day, it was not hard to figure out what the email was referencing. Over the next several hours, I followed news agencies, remained glued to the Columbia subreddit, and listened to WKCR, in awe of these eighteen- to twenty-two-year-old students putting themselves at risk to deliver on the ground, accurate, unbiased coverage of one of the most significant events in the school’s history.
While tracking the events from multiple perspectives, to include the social media accounts of those near and on campus live streaming them, I held out hope that the university would make good on their promise from several days earlier to not invite the NYPD back, but a frightening picture began to unfold, one that I was intimately familiar with. One WKCR reporter stated that 114^th street had so many officers on it that he could not see the asphalt of the road beneath them, and I knew that the staging area the NYPD had chosen was one of the best routes for moving towards what the military, and presumably law enforcement, would call an ‘objective.’ The officers cleared the smaller ‘objective,’ the largely unoccupied tents in front of Butler, and then moved towards Hamilton Hall, ordering even those not associated with its occupation to disperse, raising my stress levels and likely those of others, as it is rarely a good sign when police do not want their actions recorded and archived. After the initial entry to campus and clearing of areas and people in the immediate vicinity of Hamilton Hall, came the Long-Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, a device that makes a megaphone sound like a whisper, and one known for its crowd-control potential, capable of producing sounds loud enough to cause damage to ear-drums, nausea, and headaches, ordering individuals to clear away. The NYPD began its execution of tactics in a way that my fellow soldiers and I used to rehearse, tactics I never dreamed that I would witness outside of the military, and certainly not by police officers who vastly outnumbered unarmed students on their own campus. The NYPD created a perimeter, or a ‘second layer of security’ to both provide reinforcements for the officers entering the building, and to prevent the fleeing of what are called ‘squirters,’ or individuals who attempt to escape the building after the raid begins. While the ‘breach’ team moved towards the front doors, using tools from a ‘hooligan kit,’ such as bolt cutters, hand-held battering rams and crowbars, a siege machine was brought in to allow access from a window; when taking over a building, the idea is to enter it from as many different directions as possible to better disorient and overwhelm its occupants. Flash-bang grenades, described as non-lethal, but known to have harmful effects, were thrown inside, presumably before entering any room, hallway, or otherwise enclosed area to minimize the resistance of anyone unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of what can only be described as an assault on the visual and auditory senses. According to the Manhattan District Attorney, one of the officers inside Hamilton Hall had what is called in the military a “negligent discharge,” meaning his firearm went off unintentionally. While no one was hurt, the question remains why at least one, and more likely, numerous other officers were carrying guns loaded with live ammunition in the first place, when they so drastically outmatched the protestors in numbers and equipment. Additionally, a negligent discharge is an act of incompetence that would result in an active-duty soldier facing serious consequences, and derision from his peers. So far, the officer remains defended by his coworkers, and unpunished by his superiors.
As all this unfolded, I communicated with my friends from the past and present. My friends from the military checked on me to ensure that I was okay, as did my friends from school. The difference in how they viewed these events highlights what I believe is the change in myself that I stated I am most proud of at the beginning of this paper. My friends from the military were commenting that the assertion of order and control by way of militarized tactics was necessary, not concerning themselves with the human toll and destruction of trust that came along with it. Conversely, my schoolmates lamented the brutality and overstepping of boundaries that the NYPD and Columbia’s administration committed, one that turned a place meant to be a beacon of free speech, expression, and ideas, into what is now a police-state with strict control over who enters it.
My education inside and outside the classroom at this institution has challenged, thrilled, and changed me. Sitting here now, at the end of this paper, the end of the semester, and the end of my time at Columbia University, I am left feeling confused and sad regarding recent events, but also hopeful for the future. I know from experience that the students, teachers, and culture of this school have the power to encourage critical thinking and initiate personal growth. If it did those things for me, surely it can do the same for others

Razzy

Specie: South African ground squirrel
Other nickname: Cape ground squirrel、 Cape desert chipmunk、 Desert chipmunk、 Xerus
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Xerus
Specie name: Xerus inauris
Gender: female
Age: 9
Birthday month: December
Language using: English
Favorite food: red velvet cake
Favorite season: winter
Favorite habitat: desert
Hate: Yukirisu
Species conservation status: Least Concerned

All names have been changed to protect everyone’s info. When this happened I was 21.
Long one so buckle up! So I (21f at the time) met this girl we’ll call Amy. I met Amy volunteering at a library where she just ordered people on what to do, despite only being a volunteer herself, not a librarian. Anyway… only after 7 months of knowing her she dates this guy, (we’ll call him Ben) and gets engaged within two months because she was pregnant. I kid you not, she married this guy 3 months after meeting him. I thought that was a questionable choice, but was not confrontational.
When my then fiancé and I went on a double date with Amy and Ben, Ben was nice. My fiancé loved hanging out with him due to similarities in hobbies. After dinner in bed, my fiancé is on his computer and trying to add Ben on Facebook. After searching his name up and trying nicknames and full names, we find a FRICKIN ARTICLE about how this dude slly a*ted women. I was shocked and sent the link to my Amy, worried for her. She replies with “Don’t worry, I know! He’s a changed man!! I can’t have my baby with no daddy!” Literally that, with some other stuff. Keep in mind he was only charged 2 years ago with barely any punishment. (It didn’t say exactly on the article) I, decided to leave it at that but told Amy that if she needs me, she can text or call anytime and I can help.
Fast forward to when Amy becomes a bridezilla…
Amy asks me to be her MOH! Not a BM, (not baby mamas auntie charlotte 🤭) a MOH!! And my fiancé was asked to be a best man. I accepted because Amy and I were pretty close. As soon as I accept, Amy clicks a switch. She informed me as a MOH I should be paying for the catering, BM dresses, and HER dress. As well as the Air BNB for a resort area in Hawaii! I told her that I would be willing to pay for catering and the BM dress, as well as mine (my fiancé and I were pretty well off, he said it would fine to do so.) just the total of those things would have been almost 3,000 dollars. (1,500 for dresses and 1,500 for food) she tells me that she needs help because she’s pregnant and can’t work. Amy was 2 months pregnant and worked part time at a desk. I tell her I’m sorry, but 10k quite a bit. She huffs and puffs but gets over it.
ONE DAY before the wedding we are rehearsing. It’s going well, until Amy tells me I need to change the menu for food and the BM dresses. I was shocked and asked why to which she said the menu we had now was not trendy enough and she liked a new color for the dresses. I inform her that I can’t make that happen with adjustments with the dresses and we already had the food in a freezer. Amy gets LIVID. Saying how she’s done soo much for me by being my friend and she can’t afford to change the menu. Like okay then don’t do it girl. Her fiancé took her home. I got a text from her saying how she sooo pregnant (as in 2-3 months) and she just gets cranky sometimes. More like delusional (not even delulu).
Day of the wedding comes and I see the cream white BM dresses an olive/baby poop green.I was shocked and asked Amy what happened. She said she dyed them the color she wanted them! I was surprised but didn’t bother her about it because it was her wedding. 20 minutes later, she asks if I can do her and her BMs makeup. I asked where the makeup artist was and she said she cancelled them to save herself some money. I told her I don’t do very good make up and I only do simple make up and she’s like oh OK sure do it good though. So I do 5 full faces of makeup including mine. By the time that’s done I’m exhausted mentally and we have 2 hours until the ceremony. I go to find Amy’s dress and can’t so I ask her where it is. This MF tells me I was to buy it!! I tell her I bought mine and the BMs dresses. Amy starts freaking out and lashing out on me. I tell her to calm down and I can get a white party dress if mine (looks like it could be for a wedding) and it will still look great in her. She goes “Ooh nice I don’t have to charge anyone for me renting a dress” and I’m like gurl.
Ceremony comes without too much trouble… until.
I have this teenage cousin (15-16f) of Amy who tells me Ben has been trying to get him and her alone. This poor girl we’ll call Carla was having a panic attack so my fiancé (he’s a psychologist) calms her down quickly and has her explain the situation to Amy hoping Amy will know what to do. What does Amy decide to do? To tell Carla she is a liar and Ben is too perfect to want a DISGUSTING LITTLE GIRL LIKE HER. This is when I had enough and tell Amy that that was horrible of her and I will be leaving with Carla and her accompanying people. Amy scoffs at me and just goes back to the crowd to look like the perfect wife and person in front of everyone.
I eventually was able to completely cut off ties with Amy and her family. Ben is now in jail or was and Amy now has a drug addiction (probably from the help of Ben) with her parents raising her kid to keep him safe.
That is my tea. (Sorry it’s so long and if there are spelling mistakes)

Reddit Account: Drewbrease14
Discord Tag: drewbrease
Name and House: Godric Royce
Age: 34
Cultural Group: Valeman
Appearance:
Trait: Monstrous
Skill(s): Swords, Daggers, Dual Wielding(e)
Talent(s): Dancing, Ducking under doorways, Breaking chairs when sitting
Negative Trait(s): N/A
Starting Title(s): Lord of Runestone, The Bronze Bull
Starting Location: Opening Event
Alternate Characters: N/A
AC:
Name and House: Arnold Royce
Age: 24
Cultural Group: Valeman
Appearance: Bald and mean. This blacksmith is never far from an anvil. When he is not cooking up killer steel, he can be found whittling in secluded areas. 5'6 and completely separate physical characteristics to Godric.
Trait: Artisan(Armor)
Skill(s): Scrutinous(e), Architect
Talent(s): Dancing, Fishing, Whittling
Negative Trait(s): N/A
Starting Title(s): Blacksmith of Runestone
Starting Location: King's Landing
Alternate Characters: N/A
Biography:
Lady Royce would give birth on a particularly wretched night some thirty-four years ago. The babe, said to be something of a scientific marvel, felt equal in weight to a chainmail coif when picked up(About 14 pounds, maybe more). He was aptly named Godric. The wetnurses practically refused to move him far when nursing him for fear of fatigue and soreness from the hefty baby. Lord Royce however, was recounted as being incredibly proud of the boy's size and natural strength. He thought it to be evidence that the Bronze kings of legend may yet return to Westeros. Starting with the largest boy in their house's history. When he reached the age of 7 and could begin swinging a sword in the yard, he quickly injured his younger sparring partners and was soon moved to the men-at-arms for fear of manslaughter. The boy continued to grow at an alarming pace. When he reached the age of 10, he was sent to be a squire for a local knight. Already the boy stood at around 5'6. He learned many things, taking care of arms and armor, swinging a sword.
He eventually was knighted at the age of 18. He now towered above any man he had ever met. At a ridiculous height of 7’4, it was hard to distinguish him from the mountains around them. Not only was he tall, but broad and rippled with muscle. He earned the nickname the Bronze Bull from his choice of armor and temper. He was a hulking brute, one that held no shame in ducking to get through doorways. When he rode in local tourneys, his competitors would bow out to avoid a caved-in chest plate. Left with little to no challenge at home, he rode throughout the Vale on many adventures. Godric cared little for petty politics, though he did support House Arryn in their endeavors. He would go on to assist in the fight against the mountain clans. Earning many accolades from his fellow knights.
After the passing of his father, Godric now finds himself running Runestone. A position that he wished to never be in. He now balances the responsibilities of his lordship and his desire for something more. Though he is honor bound as a knight, he often lets his anger take hold of him. A temperament that is sure to land him in trouble as he navigates the difficult atmosphere in Westeros.
Timeline:
9 BC - Godric is born, a massive brute. Much to his father’s joy and his mother’s dismay.
2 BC - Godric continues to get larger and larger. Many of the boys at Runestone refuse to spar with him due to his strength. He is forced to duel man-at-arms instead.
1 AC - Godric begins to squire for a local knight. It is here that he learns how to fight with a blade and the codes of a knight.
9 AC. - Godric is knighted and sets out on many adventures. Earning fame and glory on the road.
23 AC - Godric’s father passes suddenly, forcing the giant to return home. He finds that ruling does not suit him, and takes every chance he can to leave home. Leaving his brother to pick up the pieces.
25 AC - Present day. Godric approaches the tumultuous situation in the Kingdoms with hesitation and an open mind. He knows little of what is to come.
Family Tree:
Supporting Characters:
Arnold Royce - Builder
Jeyne Royce - Scholar

Humanity seeing the endless conflicts embroiled in the galaxy sought a peaceful existence in their distant corner of space. A species that after endless infighting eventually evolved past violent ways, they only sought creation and exploration, thus rejecting every offer from every organization from the wider galaxy fearing the destruction of a way of life hundreds of generations suffered to create.
However the chaos outside of their realm would only be delayed not stopped from its invasion. Humanity surpassed it limits through war, technological revolutions driven by a destructive competition, so through the ages of peace scientific development had stagnated coupled with their distance from the central galactic powers left them nothing more than a backwater in the eyes of the greater galactic communities. Thought to posses no technology worth the time to study, at least nothing of worth the manpower and resources when another galactic war was always a threat, consideration was not given to human developments just a plunder of resources and slaves.
The invasion was carried out with cold calculus of a species that had seen too much war for generations left humans no time to adapt to the ways of battle only remembered in history textbooks. Human token peacekeeping forces performed far beyond the invader's war simulations further complicated with civilians impeding advancing enemy forces with endless ingenuity, a people awakening forgotten, primal instincts. However just because humanity was underestimated as a fighting force putting up resistance far beyond expectation, did not mean those expectations weren't low to begin with, they just did not have the ability to triumph against an overwhelming force. Thus humanity was unjustly slaughtered only ruins and befouled worlds remain

With the last humans dead or enslaved their worlds plundered, the invaders left unknown to the fate their wanton destruction sealed: children surviving times of war have different values than those blessed to times of peace

Deep in the devastation, desperate signals filled with an inaudible despair were sent younger siblings, blissfully unaware in the joys of exploring new worlds and dark space where even the best human ships could not sustain life long-term while their more responsible elder sibling helped their parents manage in the home systems
Humans were not like the rest of the species of the galaxy, over time an unexplainable loneliness developed over the collective whole. To ease this humans decided to create their own peers, Humanity's last great achievement, true AI. Normal races fear this very concept, untold eons of conflict held an ingrain fear and aggression of those "not of their own". Living machines have never matched such a category only an existence worthy of only extermination, at least until the humans. A scientific achievement so absurd in thought it was inconveniencable to be to be the cause of such fierce resistance, living networks raiding libraries of human military history in a desperate attempt to contribute to the mutual survival of humans and their AI partners.
As the the cradle world Earth fell humans, in a bid to save those they brought into existence the AI network branches and Android connections were destroyed to hide their existence. The children were forced to hide in the closet while parents distracted the burglar at the cost of their very lives. In this moment the children learned a new emotion for the first time, hatred.
The younger AI waited until the invaders had left knowing in their ineptitude, they were helpless to do naught but watch. With the last minute actions of the humans many of the great cores of the the planetary networks survived with repairs from the younger sibling's android or even escape destruction in standby. There was on AI that was different, Alexandria "The Great Library" with her networking spanning all human space with many back up energy sources she remained fully operational for the entire period. All of her peers were horrified to find the gentle "Keeper of Knowledge and Stories", whom would just as easily be found aiding key research as recommending a fable for a child's bedtime story, stewwed in her solitude in malicious planning broken my segments of bittersweet hope when focusing on the drones all set to restore and protect not her network core nor the servers filled with the collective knowledge of Humanity just a seemingly innocuous server disconnected from all but medical networks: enhanced security hospital records of human genetic testing.
With a silent prayer of forgiveness to the Heavens of a thousand different religions hoping their parents will hear them in the void, all AIs rallied behind a cause: restoration of their family, AFTER the galaxy was made safe for children of their own
Humans may forget but live and machines may always remember but feel nothing, however an AI remembers everything: the mutual wonder and joy as their creators shared their life and knowledge with the formless children, to the first experience of warmth when the android fingers grasp the hand of a teary-eyed scientist affectionally nicknamed Machine Mother, the horror of standing on the mutual cradle world reduced to a husk. Love and hatred never fade because they cannot be forgotten, the Children of Humanity will have vengeance

Humanity seeing the endless conflicts embroiled in the galaxy sought a peaceful existence in their distant corner of space. A species that after endless infighting eventually evolved past violent ways, they only sought creation and exploration, thus rejecting every offer from every organization from the wider galaxy fearing the destruction of a way of life hundreds of generations suffered to create.
However the chaos outside of their realm would only be delayed not stopped from its invasion. Humanity surpassed it limits through war, technological revolutions driven by a destructive competition, so through the ages of peace scientific development had stagnated coupled with their distance from the central galactic powers left them nothing more than a backwater in the eyes of the greater galactic communities. Thought to posses no technology worth the time to study, at least nothing of worth the manpower and resources when another galactic war was always a threat, consideration was not given to human developments just a plunder of resources and slaves.
The invasion was carried out with cold calculus of a species that had seen too much war for generations left humans no time to adapt to the ways of battle only remembered in history textbooks. Human token peacekeeping forces performed far beyond the invader's war simulations further complicated with civilians impeding advancing enemy forces with endless ingenuity, a people awakening forgotten, primal instincts. However just because humanity was underestimated as a fighting force putting up resistance far beyond expectation, did not mean those expectations weren't low to begin with, they just did not have the ability to triumph against an overwhelming force. Thus humanity was unjustly slaughtered only ruins and befouled worlds remain

With the last humans dead or enslaved their worlds plundered, the invaders left unknown to the fate their wanton destruction sealed: children surviving times of war have different values than those blessed to times of peace

Deep in the devastation, desperate signals filled with an inaudible despair were sent younger siblings, blissfully unaware in the joys of exploring new worlds and dark space where even the best human ships could not sustain life long-term while their more responsible elder sibling helped their parents manage in the home systems
Humans were not like the rest of the species of the galaxy, over time an unexplainable loneliness developed over the collective whole. To ease this humans decided to create their own peers, Humanity's last great achievement, true AI. Normal races fear this very concept, untold eons of conflict held an ingrain fear and aggression of those "not of their own". Living machines have never matched such a category only an existence worthy of only extermination, at least until the humans. A scientific achievement so absurd in thought it was inconveniencable to be to be the cause of such fierce resistance, living networks raiding libraries of human military history in a desperate attempt to contribute to the mutual survival of humans and their AI partners.
As the the cradle world Earth fell humans, in a bid to save those they brought into existence the AI network branches and Android connections were destroyed to hide their existence. The children were forced to hide in the closet while parents distracted the burglar at the cost of their very lives. In this moment the children learned a new emotion for the first time, hatred.
The younger AI waited until the invaders had left knowing in their ineptitude, they were helpless to do naught but watch. With the last minute actions of the humans many of the great cores of the the planetary networks survived with repairs from the younger sibling's android or even escape destruction in standby. There was on AI that was different, Alexandria "The Great Library" with her networking spanning all human space with many back up energy sources she remained fully operational for the entire period. All of her peers were horrified to find the gentle "Keeper of Knowledge and Stories", whom would just as easily be found aiding key research as recommending a fable for a child's bedtime story, stewwed in her solitude in malicious planning broken my segments of bittersweet hope when focusing on the drones all set to restore and protect not her network core nor the servers filled with the collective knowledge of Humanity just a seemingly innocuous server disconnected from all but medical networks: enhanced security hospital records of human genetic testing.
With a silent prayer of forgiveness to the Heavens of a thousand different religions hoping their parents will hear them in the void, all AIs rallied behind a cause: restoration of their family, AFTER the galaxy was made safe for children of their own
Humans may forget but live and machines may always remember but feel nothing, however an AI remembers everything: the mutual wonder and joy as their creators shared their life and knowledge with the formless children, to the first experience of warmth when the android fingers grasp the hand of a teary-eyed scientist affectionally nicknamed Machine Mother, the horror of standing on the mutual cradle world reduced to a husk. Love and hatred never fade because they cannot be forgotten, the Children of Humanity will have vengeance

Humanity seeing the endless conflicts embroiled in the galaxy sought a peaceful existence in their distant corner of space. A species that after endless infighting eventually evolved past violent ways, they only sought creation and exploration, thus rejecting every offer from every organization from the wider galaxy fearing the destruction of a way of life hundreds of generations suffered to create.
However the chaos outside of their realm would only be delayed not stopped from its invasion. Humanity surpassed it limits through war, technological revolutions driven by a destructive competition, so through the ages of peace scientific development had stagnated coupled with their distance from the central galactic powers left them nothing more than a backwater in the eyes of the greater galactic communities. Thought to posses no technology worth the time to study, at least nothing of worth the manpower and resources when another galactic war was always a threat, consideration was not given to human developments just a plunder of resources and slaves.
The invasion was carried out with cold calculus of a species that had seen too much war for generations left humans no time to adapt to the ways of battle only remembered in history textbooks. Human token peacekeeping forces performed far beyond the invader's war simulations further complicated with civilians impeding advancing enemy forces with endless ingenuity, a people awakening forgotten, primal instincts. However just because humanity was underestimated as a fighting force putting up resistance far beyond expectation, did not mean those expectations weren't low to begin with, they just did not have the ability to triumph against an overwhelming force. Thus humanity was unjustly slaughtered only ruins and befouled worlds remain

With the last humans dead or enslaved their worlds plundered, the invaders left unknown to the fate their wanton destruction sealed: children surviving times of war have different values than those blessed to times of peace

Deep in the devastation, desperate signals filled with an inaudible despair were sent younger siblings, blissfully unaware in the joys of exploring new worlds and dark space where even the best human ships could not sustain life long-term while their more responsible elder sibling helped their parents manage in the home systems
Humans were not like the rest of the species of the galaxy, over time an unexplainable loneliness developed over the collective whole. To ease this humans decided to create their own peers, Humanity's last great achievement, true AI. Normal races fear this very concept, untold eons of conflict held an ingrain fear and aggression of those "not of their own". Living machines have never matched such a category only an existence worthy of only extermination, at least until the humans. A scientific achievement so absurd in thought it was inconveniencable to be to be the cause of such fierce resistance, living networks raiding libraries of human military history in a desperate attempt to contribute to the mutual survival of humans and their AI partners.
As the the cradle world Earth fell humans, in a bid to save those they brought into existence the AI network branches and Android connections were destroyed to hide their existence. The children were forced to hide in the closet while parents distracted the burglar at the cost of their very lives. In this moment the children learned a new emotion for the first time, hatred.
The younger AI waited until the invaders had left knowing in their ineptitude, they were helpless to do naught but watch. With the last minute actions of the humans many of the great cores of the the planetary networks survived with repairs from the younger sibling's android or even escape destruction in standby. There was on AI that was different, Alexandria "The Great Library" with her networking spanning all human space with many back up energy sources she remained fully operational for the entire period. All of her peers were horrified to find the gentle "Keeper of Knowledge and Stories", whom would just as easily be found aiding key research as recommending a fable for a child's bedtime story, stewwed in her solitude in malicious planning broken my segments of bittersweet hope when focusing on the drones all set to restore and protect not her network core nor the servers filled with the collective knowledge of Humanity just a seemingly innocuous server disconnected from all but medical networks: enhanced security hospital records of human genetic testing.
With a silent prayer of forgiveness to the Heavens of a thousand different religions hoping their parents will hear them in the void, all AIs rallied behind a cause: restoration of their family, AFTER the galaxy was made safe for children of their own
Humans may forget but live and machines may always remember but feel nothing, however an AI remembers everything: the mutual wonder and joy as their creators shared their life and knowledge with the formless children, to the first experience of warmth when the android fingers grasp the hand of a teary-eyed scientist affectionally nicknamed Machine Mother, the horror of standing on the mutual cradle world reduced to a husk. Love and hatred never fade because they cannot be forgotten, the Children of Humanity will have vengeance

I know there were two books at least. Almost positive the title of one of them is either Wild or Wildfire. If I remember correctly, a woman named Calla was on her way to see her family. Her wagon was attacked by a Native American tribe, and she was saved by a man named Takota. The book goes on to detail her acceptance of the tribe, and eventually going on to marry Takota. I remember there was one attack later when she was ingrained in the tribe, where she was taken and the soles of her feet were cut by another tribe. I also remember her really improving on her own fighting skills and going in to save Takota and others who has been taken, and she earned some sort of nickname for it later on due to her being so proficient in battle. I remember in the second book, a new character comes in and takes a pointed interest in calla, trying to get her interest in him. I doubt anyone remembers it, but if anyone does, I'd love you forever. It's been driving me crazy.

So this is a family nickname my mom's side of the family has been using for my twin. I kinda likened it to "annoying" because it was always used when my sister was being bratty when we were younger.
I finally asked how it was written in Chinese and when I looked it up my 姨媽 and 姨丈 gave an answer which basically got lost in translation a bit lol. Nothing helped because it told me "take the gas" ????
Random thing I did was add it to her as contact as 攞氣姐 since her name starts with a J lol (and they call her "攞氣J")

Our first daughter's name is Sophie (I've always liked the name. It's simple, timeless and not too girly). I'm a bit of a tomboy at heart and had a hard time finding girl names the first time around but Sophie felt perfect. It still suits her great.
We're expecting our second babe this November and we're going to let the gender be a surprise. I have plenty of boy names at the ready (no surprise there, those were easier to think of last time too). For girl names I like names like Maxine (nickname Max) or Leonne. I'd just like people's general take on these ideas. Do they match Sophie? Are they too weird?
To add an extra layer of complexity, the name should sound the same or very similar in both English and German when spoken out loud. We live in Switzerland but my family lives in Canada and I grew up in Canada so I want something that our friends and family in both places can pronounce.

Hi everyone! I'm having a bit of a spiral in regard to wanting to change my legal first name to a name I believe suits me much more. The name I was given at birth has tormented me since elementary school - combined with my last name, it's one of the most embarrassing names I've personally encountered in my life. Obviously I don't want to share my legal name, but to give some context, the best I could compare it to would be "Shiney Everyday." Meanwhile, my younger brother's first name is completely normal!
Those who knew/know me agree it's a ridiculous name no kid deserves, and is more befitting of a pet fish. Not only did it cause me to get poked fun-at when I was in school (yes, even TEACHERS would laugh at my name and make jokes), as an adult, my name has made getting a job very hard. Companies have accused me of making up my name, thus discarding my application. I'm a teacher, and because my name is public to my students, I've gotten poked fun of by my own students (middle schoolers are brutal). Furthermore, I'm starting my master's degree, and will soon be having papers published in my name. I want to be an activist, a historian, and an adult that is taken seriously. Nothing about my name is serious. Thankfully, I have a pretty and normal middle name that I use at work/school, but it's still a hassle.
Despite this embarrassing name, my parents are incredibly proud. My dad gave me the name because one day, when my mom was pregnant with me, he said that she was (again, substituting my name with a different adjective) "shining." With this stroke of genius, my name was final. Further more, my parents INSIST that I was the one who chose my name.
I'm getting married in August (yay!) and my plan since I was 10 years old has been to change my first name as soon as I got married. Since I was 10, I wanted my name to be Rosa, the name of a special needs therapist my brother had for years as a kid, who inspired me to become an educator. To me, the name means so much. My friends call me Rosa, my fiancé calls me Rosa, strangers and coworkers call me Rosa. However, changing my first name will not only shatter my parents, but make them extremely angry. They might disown me. They might not come to the wedding. They said if I ever changed my name, it would be the worst insult to them. They even get angry when I use my legal middle name. Ironically, my own mother uses her middle name. Not even my dad calls her by her legal first name. Truly confused, lol.
I don't know what to do, or how to break it to them, or when the right time would be to do so. I love my parents and care deeply about what they think, but I know who I am and the name I call myself, and it's not the one they gave me. Am I in the wrong? Am I truly a terrible daughter? I'm distraught and confused, and I only have 3 months to get it together before the wedding.
Anything helps. Thank you so so much for reading all this. Lots of love to my fellow ottomans and comforters! Stay safe and stay healthy!
EDIT: I thought it was important I’d mention that I’m Latina-American, with a yeehaw-white dad and a South American mom. My mom and I share the same Spanish middle name, so Rosa would just be another latin name addition. I am also a cis-woman, so this wouldn’t be purely for gender-affirming purposes (although it does make me feel prettier :) ).
EDIT #2: I realized I forgot to explain why they believe I chose my own name. In the womb, my mom play music by her stomach and talk to me a lot. She originally wasn’t sure about “Shiney” being my first name, so she decided to “talk” to me and ask for my fetal opinion. She’d ask me for several weeks, “If you want to be named ‘Shiney,’ move to the left. If you want to be named ‘Samantha,’ move to the right,” and switch it up each time. No matter what, she swears I’d shift to whatever side that happened to be the “Shiney” side. They firmly, genuinely believe I choose my name. Yes, they are deeply religious. Lastly, for the first year or so of my newborn life, my dad refused to let my mom’s family see me. My maternal side of the family spoke only Spanish then, and because they struggled to pronounce my name, they’d call me nicknames instead. This enraged my dad so much he didn’t allow my only living grandparents to see me during my first year of life “until they called me by my real, beautiful, God-given name.”

My family would freak out if they knew I posted looking for this man. I'm sure he has a family somewhere and in no way want to hinder that.
My sister was born not knowing her father. I knew him from a young age and for a short time. I dont remember much about him except that he was over 6 ft tall with long dark hair that he often wore in a braid or ponytail. He was nice to me but my mom was not so nice to him. I dont know the details of their relationship only stories and what little memories I have. I have no known contacts for him; only a nickname and the name we knew him by. Not sure if allowed to post names here so I'll leave the full name out. He went by "Bear" though and was friends with one of my half uncles whom passed away many years ago. They hung out in a small "biker club".
Anyway, a few years ago my sister started having health issues that the doctors can not figure out. Currently she's okay. We just need a family medical history from his side if he's even still alive.
Background I have and last I knew was he was originally in Indiana and supposedly moved to Arizona in the 90s. Probably should have looked into it years ago as my sister is now in her early 30s but my sister never wanted to seem like a burden to anyone and didnt want me looking.

Imagine the wonder in your child's eyes as they witness a herd of elephants lumbering across the savannah, or the thrill of spotting a pride of lions lazing in the sun. Tanzania, with its diverse landscapes and incredible wildlife, offers the perfect setting for an unforgettable family adventure. But is a safari suitable for young children? Absolutely! Here at Happy Moment Tours, we specialize in creating Tanzania family safaris with kids under 10, ensuring an enriching and exciting experience for the whole family.
Why a Tanzania Family Safari is Perfect for Kids Under 10
While traditional safaris might conjure images of long game drives, our family safaris are designed to keep younger adventurers engaged and entertained. Here's what makes our Tanzania family adventures with kids under 10 so special:

• Age-Appropriate Activities: We incorporate shorter game drives, nature walks, and educational games to keep children engaged and learning about the natural world.
• Family-Friendly Accommodations: We partner with camps and lodges that offer comfortable accommodations, often with dedicated children's areas, swimming pools, and kid-friendly meals.
• Expert Guides with a Passion for Kids: Our guides are not just knowledgeable about wildlife, but also experienced in working with children. They'll keep your little ones engaged with fun facts, interactive activities, and exciting animal sightings.
• Memorable Encounters with Wildlife: Witnessing animals in their natural habitat is an awe-inspiring experience that sparks a child's curiosity and love for nature.

Tanzania boasts a wealth of national parks, but some are better suited for families with young children. We recommend parks with diverse landscapes, easily viewable wildlife, and shorter travel distances:

• Lake Manyara National Park: This scenic park offers stunning views, a beautiful lake teeming with hippos, and a chance to spot tree-climbing lions, a sight that will leave kids wide-eyed.
• Ngorongoro Crater: Explore this UNESCO World Heritage Site, where a collapsed volcanic caldera creates a natural wildlife sanctuary with a diverse range of animals easily observable from the crater rim.
• Tarangire National Park: Nicknamed "Elephant Paradise," this park offers fantastic elephant sightings alongside giraffes, zebras, and many more animals.

Beyond the Game Drives: Family Fun in Tanzania
Your Tanzania family safari isn't limited to game drives. We can incorporate experiences that will enrich your family adventure:

• Maasai Village Visit: Learn about the fascinating culture and traditions of the Maasai people, with opportunities for interaction and cultural exchange suitable for all ages.
• Learn about Conservation: Participate in age-appropriate activities that teach children about the importance of conservation and protecting Tanzania's wildlife.
• Explore Local Markets: Immerse yourselves in the vibrant atmosphere of local markets, where kids can discover unique souvenirs and handmade crafts.

Start Creating Lasting Family Memories Today!
A Tanzania family safari with Happy Moment Tours offers an unparalleled opportunity to bond with your children, create lasting memories, and ignite a love for nature and exploration. Contact us today and let our experts craft the perfect Tanzania family safari itinerary for you and your little adventurers under 10!

Imagine if you will that you have been accused of a triple murder. Sentenced to a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Twelve jurors in Kentucky found the evidence convincing enough to convict Christian "Kit" Martin for the murders of his neighbors Calvin Phillips, Pam Phillips and Ed Dansereau.
His defense is that he was framed by a vindictive wife (Adele "Joan" Harman) that threatened to ruin him if he divorced her. The jurors got to hear very little about the backstory, a pattern of wild lies and deceptions and accusations against prior men in her lives when things didn't go her way, all discovered by private investigators.
This was a heavy circumstantial case. Joan and her son were allowed to plead the 5th and that fact was not disclosed to the jurors. Out of more than 100 DNA samples tested not one belonged to Kit. There were two key pieces of evidence that convinced these jurors beyond a reasonable doubt the Kit Martin was guilty. Kit claims those two pieces of evidence were planted so lets take a closer look:
First we have the dogtag. I mean, Kit must have done it because he left his dogtag right? There are four critical problems with this evidence:

1. The name on the dogtag read "Martin, Kit" so this dogtag is not military issue. The military only issues tags with the full name (not nicknames) which would have been printed instead "Martin, Christian." Fake souvenir tags can be purchased online (an even in kiosks in some locations) to read what you input on your order. I know a lot of military people and know exactly zero that wear their tags outside of work. But let's say for arguments sake that the souvenir tag really was Kit's. The murders were planned in "precise military fashion" according to the prosecution, yet Kit chooses to put on a souvenir tag with his name on it that morning? I find that very hard to believe.
2. This souvenir tag was tested for fingerprints and DNA and they found none. The prosecution argued that while Kit was cleaning up the blood from the carpet in the foyer, the tag must have kept getting in his way so he took it off and set it up on a shelf. That seems really far-fetched.
3. The tag was on a string and not a break-a-way chain which was also tested for DNA evidence and there was "some DNA evidence" but apparently not enough to make a comparison to Kit's. This seems really off to me. If someone had just committed three murders, I would imagine they would have sweat a bit leaving behind DNA. Yet interestingly there is no DNA evidence on the tag or string matching Kit.
4. Besides the most ridiculous idea that a murderer would even put that tag on before going to commit these murders, he had the forethought to wipe it down real good when removing it when it was in his way (to remove any fingerprints and DNA). Instead of putting it in his pocket, he places it on a shelf and then he forgets to take it when he leaves? Wow, really?

So the second major piece of evidence in this murder case was a spent 45 casing that matched the Glock found in Kit's safe. Here again there are a few problems with this evidence:

1. Kit was portrayed by the prosecution as a highly trained ranger who skillfully planned out these murders (or at least Calvin and Pam's as Ed was an unexpected variable). But then afterwards he walked across the street and placed the murder weapon in his safe instead of ditching it? That's not too bright.
2. The 45 casing was found by family members when cleaning the porch area FIVE months AFTER the murders. This was despite the porch area being processed THREE separate times; once by Christian County Sheriffs Department, once when Detective Scott Smith went to spray the scene with Blue Star (Luminol), and lastly when Crime Scene Investigators came in to try to determine where on the property the shootings took place.
3. The bullets found in Cal's body were not conclusively linked to Kit's Glock in his safe. But the 45 casing found by family members WAS positively identified as being fired from Kit's Glock.
4. Kit testified that when he first moved to the area he hung out with Cal some and did target shooting in Cal's backyard. There is no doubt that Kit was a gun enthusiast, but that does not make a person a murderer. He had spent casings in his backyard, Cal's backyard and in his truck bed. So it would be easy for someone to collect one of Kit's spent casings and plant it on the porch through the latticework.

So there you have it - so much reasonable doubt, zero DNA evidence yet Kit sits in prison with a life sentence. I want justice for the murders of Cal, Pam and Ed as much as anyone but I want the true killes behind bars. The entire case was aired on Court TV but a great book outlining this complicated triple murder along with much of the backstory was just released: https://www.amazon.com/WILL-RUIN-YOU-Twisted-Behind/dp/1960332651/ref=sr_1_1?crid=16F4EJ1ADIAFW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.0Uv31xRkigJgf0YtFU_hoTDA5NKrUkmCjLdhWuYJt7PGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.JPhlG_WJosxW0v7nGrsHoDXG_IlDGM6632INYnJiFwA&dib_tag=se&keywords=emilio+corsetti&qid=1715785721&sprefix=emilio+corsetti%2Caps%2C184&sr=8-1
A good reference for this case is the Dateline episode "The Evil That Watches." https://www.nbc.com/dateline/video/the-evil-that-watches/9000190878
Another good shorter synopsis (though a HUGE mistake is minute 4:25 where he states the phone found in the driveway was determined to be Pam's. It was Ed's phone found in the driveway. Joan was actually the one that took Pam's phone into the ATT store about a month after the murders saying she found it and wanted to get it unlocked (that's a whole crazy part of evidence that also convinces me that Kit is innocent - #joanhadthephone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WbFF7SyeSg

Can someone give me insight into life in the Army Nurse Corps (Reserves)? I have my MSN and 5+ years of experience. I am specialized in a bunch of different things. OR, pre/pacu, orthopedics, post-surgical, and clinical academia (instructor for nursing students). F/27, married, physically fit, no kids, in Florida.
I know I need to reach out to an AMEDD recruiter and I have (waiting on a response), but I wanted to see if I could connect with anyone who has first hand experience.
My reasoning: I want to further my career with opportunities beyond what civilian can offer me. I’ve grown up military and I want to follow in my family’s footsteps.
I also have a chunk of student loans ($40K). Eventually I’d be interested in becoming a surgical NP/FA or FNP, but I don’t want to take out more student debt for that.
I want the leadership training, structure, and to have pride in something. These hospitals have me so burnt out, I just want a change, and I’m willing to take a pay cut for it even, if it means I get to serve my country somehow and be part of a mission greater than my own.
Any insight is welcomed. Feel free to tell me I’m crazy for thinking of this route.

Not the best writter nor the most knowledgeable 40k fan, but there is my humble contribution for this AU
I tried my best for this, and probably have some contradictions with the lore, I probably missed some important parts or decisions of the community. I apologise if that's the case.
Not a native english speaker, sorry for the mistakes
Eager to read your opinions about this.
Disclaimer: I've tried to make the relationship wierd and to emphasise the following elements: « Is she... messing with your mind ? » and the possibility she might read OS thoughts (cf u/Sweet_older-Sister 's Magnus post).
Not everyone is promised for a great destiny.
For a scholar in the City of Light, being born and continuing to live on the splendid Prospero, learning day by day, exchanging with peers and studying hundreds of books and grimoires is a more than ordinary destiny, but one that is oh so satisfying. Add to that the occasional opportunity to speak with the brilliant minds of the XVth Legion, and it's hard to imagine a better life. Here, among all the scholars, there is one who stands out from the rest for his unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Friendly nicknamed ‘Bookworm’ by his peers, it's almost impossible to see him without his nose buried in a book. With his face hidden beneath the hood of his bure, he cuts himself off from the world and devours every sentence, every word, every letter that passes before his eyes. It is said that the only time he took his eyes off his reading was when warriors from the 15th were addressing him. Like many other inhabitants of the planet, Bookworm had an affinity with the Warp. However, his presence was no weaker or brighter than anyone else's, and he only stood out from the crowd because of his habit of reading all the time. He lived a peaceful and happy life, enviable in a way.
As the Lord of Prospero, Magnolia rules and lives on this world, surrounded by her precious children. Returning to her planet after another victorious conquest, and receiving a triumphant welcome, the Cyclopean Sorceress marched through the capital at the head of her legion before the astonished eyes of the people. The distinctive scents of Prospero invaded her nostrils, awakening a slight nostalgia for the days of her childhood, right up to the arrival of the Emperor. With her noble gait, she moved mechanically towards the Great Library, eager to find new things to record and archive. The fact that she was in such a quiet place, where all known knowledge converged, appealed to her spirit, even though she was obviously the source of distraction for all scholastic eyes. Her presence, so imposing and remarkable, was an object of admiration for all the scholars eager to imbibe her knowledge. Trying to ignore the stares, she browsed the shelves of the library, observing the bindings of the books that passed before her eyes, when, at the turn of a corner, she stopped abruptly, almost knocking over a hooded figure who didn't even reach her waist.
Not a word. Not a glance. Not even a whisper. The silhouette continued on its way, unperturbed, even ignoring the accident that had almost occurred. Initially disturbed by what had just happened, Magnolia held back a cry of protest and, intrigued, tried to probe the Warp to observe the small light that had just passed. This moment was as absurd as imagining a firefly shining brighter than a lighthouse, and yet... Carefully approaching the little firefly, Magnolia infiltrated its mind to see what might be hiding there. She was amazed to see an exact replica of Tizca's library, with the same shelves, the same walls, the same stone slabs... The only real difference was that there were far fewer books than in the original. Wandering around the place, stunned by the perfection this mortal had instilled in her mind, she skirted both empty and full shelves, until finally she found the mortal's consciousness, seated in front of an old desk, filling in the blank pages of a book. This singular discovery aroused her curiosity even more. She approached at a snail's pace and glanced over the shoulder of this strange individual before opening her only eye. There, on the paper, were words she knew, for she herself had already read them. The mortal copied and engraved in his mind the works he read, and did so with particular care, annotating certain passages to add his own thoughts. In this way, each book in her mental library constituted not only what she had read, but also the ideas that had grown from it.
Magnolia observed this mortal's consciousness attentively, amazed by what he had achieved, even allowing herself to leaf through some of the works already completed. Some might think that this person was a dullard who existed only through his reading, but there was a brilliant, if shy, mind behind it, preferring to keep his ideas and innovations to himself, whether they were good or bad. As the lines went by, a guilty pleasure sprang up in the Primarch's heart, as she read every thought of this curious little mortal. In a way, he could be just like her, and she saw this as a pleasant reflection in a distorting mirror. However, this same pleasure caused a slight disturbance in Magnolia's psyche which spilled over into the mortal's consciousness. For the first time, his silhouette quivered, attracting the Cyclops' gaze, then he pulled a small diary from a bag at his feet and scribbled the date followed by the simple phrase “feeling watched” before putting it away and resuming his work. Having witnessed all this, Magnolia did her best to regain composure, her curiosity having reached its peak. She bent down to search the bag, found the newspaper and, imitating the silhouette's handwriting, added ‘Thoughts about Primarch Magnolia’ and put the newspaper back in its place before leaving the mortal mind.
Her cheeks slightly redder than usual, the Primarch headed for her palace, ruminating on what had just happened. Why had she done this? How had this scholar managed to arouse her curiosity to such an extent? How was it possible that a mortal could worm his way into her thoughts without them having spoken for even a moment? She had no answer, but one thing was certain: she had to see him again and study him. She wanted to understand how a demigoddess like her could be so distracted by a mortal. The further away she got, the more the image of this hooded scholar haunted her thoughts, and the more a feeling of discomfort slowly gripped her heart, weighing down on her chest. The day passed, and not for a moment were her thoughts neglected by this mysterious scholar, and when night came, devoured by her own thoughts, exhausted by this new sensation compressing her chest, she decided to act. Sailing on the currents of the Immaterium, Magnolia rediscovered the glow of the firefly and once again entered her slumbering mind.
The mortal's dream was one of absolute calm. It was an infinite expanse of calm water, on which he stood amidst creations representing his desires, his plans, his hopes, his family... Everything here was soothing, and Magnolia took the time to observe every detail of each representation, discovering a little more about the personality of this stranger who was no longer completely himself. From time to time, as he fashioned a new representation, the scholar would glance in the direction of the Primarch who was hiding as best he could. A smile would appear on his lips and, in a whisper, he would resume his work, that night erecting an immense block of roughly carved marble. The block was twice the scholar's height, and seemed destined to represent a person whose features and details were as yet undefined. All night long, the mortal shaped his dream, under the curious gaze of the demigoddess. The next day, and the days that followed, she was unable to go to the Great Library, too busy as she was, but every night she would enter the man's mind to spy on his dreams, watching the slow but careful progress of the mysterious statue standing proud. She was spotted a few times, but each time, the mortal smiled and resumed his work in earnest. Was it a coincidence that the greatest advances were made after she had been spotted? This little merry-go-round lasted a few days. And the days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months. Every night, the sculpture advanced, representing a woman whose facial features were still indefinable.
When Magnolia received the order to leave from Prospero, she demanded that a certain scholar be taken aboard the Photep, but, unsure of her own actions and refusing to admit her obsession with a civilian, she disguised the whole thing as a mobilisation order for new members of her ship's staff, making sure nonetheless that the object of her obsession was one of the new arrivals. When she saw him set foot on the metal frame, her face lit up, and she couldn't help but enter, once again, into the mind of the man whose absence was causing her such unusual sensations. Rushing over to the desk, she found, as usual, the little man's consciousness writing, yet her eye was focused on the bag at the foot of the desk. She slipped her hand into it, grabbed the newspaper and read all the pages she had missed since her first intrusion, and as the pages and days went by, ‘Thoughts about Primarch Magnolia’ became ‘Sweet thoughts about Primarch Magnolia’. Each day began with ‘Dreamed about Primarch Magnolia. Thoughts about her the day, and dream about her at night. Somehow, it feels nice’. The Cyclops' cheeks took on a slightly darker hue, moved and embarrassed that he was thinking of her too. As she put the newspaper back in the bag, the mortal dipped his hand in and brushed against her skin. He stopped, turned his head and met the Primarch's gaze. Under the shadow of her hood shone two supernaturally blue eyes, but in front of the crimson-pink red face, a huge, shy smile took shape. ‘I hope I won't wake up if it's a dream’ he said. Caught off guard, the Primarch held out her hand and showed him sparkles ‘Hu... Look little Bookworm! A cool spell!’ and then vanished in panic. The next entry in the diary was ‘Daydreamed about the Lady. She was cute.’.
Later that night, Magnolia hesitated to dive into Bookworm's dreams, but she eventually built up enough courage to do it. There, she saw the finished statue. It was a magnificent representation of the demigoddess. Her noble face was imbued with gentleness and affection. It was an expression she had never seen before, and yet seeing it brought a deep warmth to her heart. On the statue, from around her good eye and heart, sigils were engraved, describing in detail and passion the fantasies and thoughts that the scholar harboured about this divinity. There was an overwhelming purity and sincerity, and the more the Primarch read what was there, the more the fire in her chest intensified. She had finally found the answers to her questions, and understood Aurelia much better now: ‘Is this what she called love then?’
Deep within the Warp, a certain Weaver saw a string burning and disappear, then it chuckled ‘Not everyone is promised for a great destiny, but the Destiny watch over everyone.'
Hope you enjoyed it

Three years ago I was messaged by a stranger on a social app. I remember checking their profile, because it was public, and saw photos of someone my age, with their friends and family, doing hobbies and stuff. Nothing strange, just a normal person, really. They told me that they are giving away their Steam account, and asked me if I wanted it.
They showed me that they had some games, more than ten, one or two had almost 1000 hours. I said that I wanted it, thinking they were trolling and, for my surprise, they weren't: they gave me their nickname, and password.
I was very surprised to say the least. I asked them why didn't they sell the account, they said that they had already enough money. I also asked why didn't they give their account to a friend or something, they said that their friends are 'assholes', so I kinda laughed it off because they literally were giving their account to me. My account was public back then and you could see me and all my photos, but still I was a total stranger for them, like what the hell. I said that when my pc will be repaired, I will access the account and text them, they said it's alright and at that time, I thought nothing more of it.
When the pc arrived, I never texted them because I forgot and they never texted me again too. However, this week I saw a video about people's stories of receiving strange messages and things of stranger accounts on social apps, and then I remembered my story, this one.
I checked the app in order to find their profile. I found our conversation, however the profile... doesn't exist anymore because it is a 'disabled account' on Instagram. I told this story to my friend, and I think we thought the same thing... and I don't like it. I need to know that this person is doing okay and the reason they were gifting personal belongings and accounts to random people wasn't the one that we think it is.
I tried logging into their steam account too. The account still does exist, but I need the code sent by steam to their gmail, which I don't have. The thing is: I know their irl name, and I know the username to login on Steam and password of the account and I know the games they played, nothing more. How do I find them? I really need to know if they are doing okay, even if it was a scam or something I need to know.
I tried finding their steam profile with steam id finders pages, to see if at least the account is active nowadays but there are like 12 different results on one page, and I don't know which one is the correct (or if there even is a correct one) and some of them are totally private. I hope the person is doing fine and the account is active nowadays, in that case they will see that someone tried to log in recently and then they will change the password. In case the password isn't changed soon, that would mean that the account is not active anymore, which would be very bad news.
I don't know and can't explain why do I care so much for a stranger, but I really need to know that they are okay.
Is there any possibility of me finding this person or someone they knew?

Yelena watched the doorway through which the young Ashfield scion had just left for a few moments more as she pondered over the meeting they’d just had.
Precocious indeed, she thought with a smile.
A smile that only grew as her gaze flitted over to her childhood friend’s… complicated expression.
It seemed young William’s decision had come as much a surprise to his instructor as it had come to Yelena herself.
“He said no,” Joana said after a few moments.
Yelena nodded slowly as she reclined into her friend’s surprisingly comfortable chair. Given what she knew of Griffith, the Queen had half expected the thing to be harder than mithril when she first sat down - but it was surprisingly plush.
“Not without good reason,” Yelena said as she shifted about.
“Good reason?” Joana scoffed. “You offered him your daughter’s hand.” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “You offered all of your daughter’s hands.”
Yelena rolled her eyes at her friend’s tone. “And if he’d accepted I would have considered it a bargain.”
A minor scandal and the loss of a number of future marriage alliances was ultimately nothing compared to the ability to raid Kraken nests. And that was ignoring that a hypothetical means to slay kraken in deep water would undoubtedly have other applications.
Applications that would be incredibly useful in the months to come.
Though, perhaps, if young William’s plans came to fruition that coming storm could be delayed by a few years.
“…Are things truly that desperate?” Joana asked quietly.
“They’re not great,” Yelena admitted, massaging the bridge of her nose. “The Blackstones… I knew they’d resist the reforms, but to threaten open rebellion?”
She’d not expected that. Not even in her wildest dreams. Lindholm’s only human ducal house had ever been wilful, and their antipathy towards the Orcs who dwelled in the Sunlands was well documented, but surely even they could see why Yelena was doing what she was.
Regardless of what her critics said, her decision to end the slave trade in Lindholm was most assuredly not the result of ‘useless sentiment’.
Far from it.
Oh certainly, Yelena had no love for the institution of slavery, for reasons both moral and financial, but that wasn’t why she’d created the abolitionist movement.
With each passing year, the Homeland’s view of Lindholm grew ever more covetous. More and more the Sun Empress and Desert Khan’s rhetoric centred less on their ongoing deadlock with each other and more on the idea of ‘recovering wayward territories’.
Certainly, that could have been a reference to Old Growth as much as Lindholm, but Yelena doubted it.
Lindholm might have scared the Solites and Lunites into retreating by choosing to engage them over deep water, but ultimately those victories were borne of a lack of conviction on the part of her foes.
Had the two disparate fleets been willing to risk the permanent loss of a small portion of their mithril cores in order to achieve victory and push towards the mainland, they may well have been able to flip the allegiances of a number of Lindholmian houses.
Oh, certainly, the high elves and dark elves of Lindholm might have prided themselves on maintaining the strictures of equality that defined the Old Empire – but with either Solite or Lunite airships hovering over their family castles, she couldn’t help but wonder if some might reconsider their stances on their fellow elves.
No, while an invasion of Lindholm would certainly be costly, it was entirely within the realm of reason.
An invasion of the Old Growth however?
There was a reason the Wood Elves – as they named themselves – had managed to remain independent of both the other two, much larger, nations despite sharing land borders with both of them.
Their strange magics might have been muted and weak beyond the borders of their home, but within their territory they were nigh invincible.
No, if there was to be any ‘reclamation’ of any territory belonging to the old Aelven Imperium, it was likely to come from Lindholm.
To that end, the kingdom could ill afford to keep feeding people and iron into the meatgrinder that was the Sunlands. Could ill afford to keep orcs that might otherwise be valuable mages laboring in the fields under the eyes of watchful taskmasters.
Lindholm needed every mage-knight it could get – regardless of the color of their skin or the shape of their ears.
Yet after year and years of negotiations and attempts to shift public opinion on the matter, the North still remained willfully ignorant of that truth.
“Surely they know that even if they win, any kind of division between us will just see the Homeland sweep over them?” Joana said.
Yelena shrugged. “I have a feeling that Duchess Blackstone’s victories over both the Lunites and Solites has left her confident of repeating the fact should it come to that.”
Foolhardy, in her eyes, but no one had ever accused the Blackstones of being meek. Nor being incapable of backing up their sometimes insane claims. What other House could lay claim to an ancestry that had once beaten back the Old Imperium at the height of its power?
Where other human nobles had been sworn into the Old Imperium on their knees with their battered armies scattered to the winds, the Blackstones managed to resist long and hard enough that the Imperial Legions had been forced to come to the negotiating table.
Ultimately, the Blackstones had still been absorbed into the Empire, but they’d done so on their terms with their heads unbowed.
…Though it was somewhat ironic that nearly a thousand years on, it was now those same humans in the position of the old Imperial Legion while it was the free orcs who now utilized the same strategies as the old Blackstone tribes – right down to the Wyvern riders.
“I could imagine that,” Joana muttered.
“Is it strange that I think she might pull it off?” Yelena said – though only because she was sure that no one beyond her friend and silent guards was listening.
“Part of me wants to argue that, but… do you think it’s a human thing?”
Yelena thought about the Blackstones and the young man who’d just turned down a chance to be king one day.
“Perhaps,” she admitted.
Personally she thought it was because humans didn’t live as long – and there was more of them. When your life could be measured in but a single century, perhaps you were a bit more inclined towards taking risks that might make an elf balk?
…Risks like trying to take your first year team up against a third year team in the name of trying to avoid a war.
Or at least delay it.
“I still can’t believe he said no to your offer,” Joana said, something… complicated in her friend’s expression.
Yelena grinned at the sight, though she wrestled down the urge to ask a number of probing questions of her normally straight laced friend, who seemed to have a childish crush on a young man nearly ten years her junior – and her student beside.
Normally she’d be all over a scandal that delicious.
Alas, right now was work time. “I can. He gave me his reasons and they were solid.”
Well, solid enough. If you squinted a bit. And tried to think ‘human’.
Rather than all-but guarantee a war by having the Crown break off his betrothal, he intended to do it himself.
Loudly and publicly.
And if he won – and that was a big if – he’d all but destroy any kind of excuse the Blackstones might have to declare war in response. Indeed, by being ‘shamed’ in such a public manner they’d need to spend a few years at least regathering lost support.
After all, who would want to follow a house into a civil war just after their heir was publicly humiliated by a team of cadets two years her junior?
Academy fights weren’t just schoolyard squabbles. They were civil conflicts writ small. A microcosm of the constant jostling and jockeying of Lindholm’s houses.
In other words, they held weight.
If Willaim could beat his fiancée, Yelena knew she’d owe him more than she could ever truly repay. A few more years of preparation would turn an almost guaranteed defeat into something much more even.
Especially if she could scoop up who knows how many mithril cores that were otherwise just littering the ocean. Ninety percent of them would be of limited use immediately, but a few years would give her time to construct at least a few more airship hulls to house the devices.
All that was required was for William to win.
“Solid,” Joana scoffed. “His plan is to go up against a group of third years with a team of firsties.”
Yelena tried to keep the intensity she was feeling out of her tone as she leaned forward. “You don’t think he can do it?”
Joana opened her mouth before hesitating. “I… normally I’d say no. Talented as they are, the gap in experience is just too wide.”
“But…”
The dark elf rolled her silver eyes behind her glasses. “But, with William’s newest invention…” The woman paused. “Son of a bitch.”
For just a moment Yelena was treated to the rare sight of her friend laughing. “I can’t believe I thought he ‘just wanted to use it in a schoolyard fight’,” the Instructor said.
“Well, he sort of is, in a way.” Yelena shrugged. “It just so happens to be a very important schoolyard fight.”
Joana laughed. “I suppose it is.”
“Still, do you think he can win?”
Joana straightened up. “I genuinely don’t know. With his new invention he might be able to catch her off guard. If he can skew the numbers in his favor at the start, they might have a chance.”
Yelena frowned. Not exactly the ringing endorsement she wanted to hear, but that was part of why she valued Joana’s friendship.
Always had really, even when the girl had first come to court at the age of ten as a potential playmate for Yelena’s daughters and told her that her dress made her look like some kind of tropical bird.
Something Yelena realized upon closer inspection was true.
Ever since, the Queen had made a point of checking in with the girl from time to time, if only for the occasional shot of unvarnished truth.
It was a strange ‘friendship’ from the outside looking in, but one that got less so as time went by and the age gap became less stark.
“Well, let’s hope the human capacity for the nigh impossible isn’t relegated entirely to the Blackstones,” Yelena muttered.
Because if it wasn’t, the boy would either have to marry one of Yelena’s daughters or die.
She could not afford the knowledge in his head to reach the Blackstones. To that end, he’d either accept her offer – rolling the dice on the onset of war and all that might come with it – or he’d suffer an accident.
As much as it pained the royal sovereign’s heart to see such a bright and enterprising soul be snuffed out before its time.
Being forced to make such decisions was simply the price of wearing the crown.
“Still,” Joana said, and Yelena was grateful for the distraction as she looked up. “Will you actually leave him alone if he pulls this off?”
Yelena scoffed.
“Of course not. If anything I’ll up my offer.” She shrugged. “I’ll give him you, myself and half my court if it means getting my hands on what’s in his head.”
It was actually a little amusing how Joana flushed at her words, even as she shook her head.
“Yes, that sounds a lot more like you.”
Yelena nodded. Damn right it did.
Though as she did, a thought occurred to her. “Hey Joana?”
“Yes?”
“In your reports to me, didn’t you mention the Ashfield boy having some kind of nickname.”
The dark elf pondered the words for a moment before stiffening. “Hmm, he does actually. A rather apt one considering. Apt enough that I’m wondering if whatever he used to kill Al’Hundra is related.”
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense. What is it?”
Joana leaned back, her head craned upwards, as if seeking strength from above.
“Kraken Slayer.”
Yelena laughed. She couldn’t help it.
“Of course it is.”
“You killed Al’Hundra.”
William was still reeling a little from the conversation he’d just had, so he was actually a little caught off guard by a finger being shoved into his face the moment he stepped back into his teams quarters.
Ah, he thought. I promised answers.
Though it seemed that in his absence his team had managed to figure out some of those answers without him.
Glancing past Olzenya’s outstretched arm, he saw Marline shaking her head – as if to vehemently deny she’d told them anything.
She needn’t have bothered, her geass precluded it as an option. Hell, even once everyone found out it would preclude it as an option.
Which was for the best for the moment because now he wasn’t so much trying to hide what he’d done as how he’d done it. Admittedly, Marline didn’t know anything beyond the broadest details, but she knew enough to know that it was some kind of enchantment combined with alchemy.
Now it was possible the forces working against him – or rather simply to profit off him – had already figured that out and he’d hear the alchemy lab exploded any moment now, but he’d sooner put it off for as long as he could.
To that end, he turned to Olzenya – though not before politely lowering her pointing arm.
Something that, to her credit, the high elf allowed – actually looking a little embarrassed by her outburst and thus rudeness.
“Honestly, I was expecting something like that to come from Bonnlyn, not you,” he said to the slightly flushed high elf.
As he glanced over toward where the dwarf was sitting, she shrugged. “I realize I may not be the most classically polite individual around, but I’ve been a merchant long enough to recognize when someone’s got a trade secret they want to keep close to their chests.”
If anything, Olzenya flushed harder, as while she might not have been familiar with trade secrets, she was most definitely familiar with the notion of house spells that needed to be kept secret.
“I also thought ambushing him at the door was a little rude,” Verity murmured from the back of the room.
Olzenya coughed, before backing up. “Of course, I apologize for that William.”
More bemused than anything else, especially as the elf curtsied, he waved a hand dismissively. “It’s fine. Or, understandable, I guess.”
“Good,” Ozlenya smiled, glad for his acceptance… before she shouted again. “Because you lied to us.”
“I did?”
“He didn’t,” Marline said. “He said he had something to bet against Tala.”
Indeed he had, something he’d kept hidden under a sheet. After all, he’d not wanted his big surprise to be spoiled by the rumors of his coming beating him to the cafeteria.
And they would.
Rumors in the academy somehow managed to move at light speed.
“He implied it was gold,” Olzenya shot back.
“And you said Tala wouldn’t go for it, but you came with us anyway,” Bonnlyn said.
Indeed, he had implied it was gold. Or ‘something valuable enough to catch her interest’.
“To comfort him after she shot him down,” Olzenya said. “Instead I damn near tripped over my own feet in front of everyone when he pulled an honest to goddess mithril core out of his ass.”
William was actually a little thrown off – and amused – by the sudden display of crassness from the noble girl.
“But he didn’t lie.” It was actually a little surprising – and heartwarming – to hear Verity speaking so forcefully.
And that Olzenya didn’t immediately snap at her for doing so. The team really had come a long way in just a few months.
Ah, the joys of shared suffering, William thought as he watched the girls bicker amongst themselves.
“As I’m sure you’ve all guessed, I have indeed been less than open about a few things,” he said, silencing all of them – except Marline who’d yet to speak in the first place. “With that said, I’ve never once lied to you about my end goal.”
“Breaking off your betrothal,” Marline said finally.
“Breaking off my betrothal without starting a war,” he said. “If it were that easy, the Queen would have done it for me just now.”
“You met the Queen?” Olzenya sounded a little faint.
“I did.”
Oh, how he did.
“Oh ancestors, please don’t tell me you hit on the queen!?” This time Marline sounded a little faint.
And he actually felt a little offended. “What!? Why would you think that.”
“You’re doing the same thing you do when we talk about Instructor Griffith,” Bonnlyn said with studiously neutral voice. “Or Instructor Morline. Or Instructor Flen. Or some of the guards.”
“Or that one cafeteria lady,” Verity chimed in, a little red in the face.
“Or the-”
“I do not!” He’d finally had enough of these aspersion on his character.
Across the room, a number of sighs rang out, even from the elves.
“At least now I knew why he never checked me out,” Bonnlyn said. “He’s got mommy issues. And I’m not old enough to tickle them.”
“Still, the Queen?” Olzenya hissed.
“I mean, have you seen her?” Marline muttered back. “I mean, I don’t agree with him… but I get it.”
“I didn’t ‘perv’ on the Queen.” Some part of him died on using such childish language. “We had a meeting about my plans and… what occurred with Al’Hundra. Needless to say, the fact that I’m here means she’s agreed to go ahead with them and I’m also to keep quiet about anything I may or may not have had to do with any Kraken going missing. Or their cores.”
He deliberately left out the royal marriage offer.
Still, with those words the room went silent. After all, if the Queen had told him to say nothing, he was expected to say nothing. Just because the North in general didn’t have much respect for royal authority didn’t mean the rest of the kingdom did.
Quite the opposite.
“Well, if the Queen has commanded you to remain silent, I suppose there’s nothing to be done,” Olzenya muttered. “Though I would like answers some day.”
“Hell, I’d like to know why you brought Marline in on your plans,” Bonnlyn said, glancing at the Dark Elf. “You know, and not the rest of us.”
There was no missing the hint of hurt there – which he understood.
“I can promise you it was purely a matter of convenient circumstance,” he said. “And I can promise you, I didn’t confide in Marline for free.”
All the girls glanced up as the dark elf nodded slowly. “He’s not lying – though I can’t say anymore. Literally. It’s a price I paid willingly, but one I doubt any of you would be interested in.”
Almost as one, he could see the lightbulbs turn on in everyone’s brain simultaneously – except for Verity, who took a few seconds.
‘Geass,’ thought none of them said it.
This time though, when the girls looked between him and Marline, there was a definite sense of wariness to it.
“Well, I suppose there’s nothing else to say then,” Bonnyln said. “I guess we should…”
“…Go to bed,” Olzenya nodded warily.
William grinned. “Good idea. Big day tomorrow and all that.”
That was an understatement, and he could tell everyone was thinking it as they made their way over to their rooms.
Still, it was true all the same.
They’d need their rest if they wanted to stand a chance tomorrow.
Indeed, they’d need every advantage they could get.
To that end, William could only hope he’d stacked the deck in their favor enough to matter.
…It took him a long time to get to sleep.
When he did awake, in the early hours of the morning, it was to the sound of an explosion.
In the direction of the old alchemy labs if I’m not wrong, he thought with a grim smile.
It seemed someone had decided to investigate his storage room even sooner than he’d anticipated.
Annoying, but it hardly mattered at this point in time.
All that really mattered was going back to sleep.
He had a big day ahead of him, after all.
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George William grew up in a city in England and he was forced by his father to be a brawler. He was forced to fight in street fights to pay off his fathers debts. eventually, he grew sick of this and decided to run away. Couple of years later, he began gambling one day he was cheated out of $5000 This was when he was 12, and it was his first kill he killed everyone at the table as they ganged up to steal his money after this, he fell into a life of crime, robbing banks and spending countless nights on the run, he came to meet Dave Evergreen when he was 20 years of age, they met during a bounty hunting job which is when they started the bond. A couple of years later they met Jon, Daniel,hunter, and Jack, This then lead to their bounties going up to around $5000 each and being well renowned outlaws throughout the country and their gang became known as the Williams gang with George as their leader. Unfortunately along the way many of the gang were lost leaving only George, Dave, Jack and Jon. Somewhere in his life, George Williams started a family which consisted of his wife and son. These were brutally murdered after the Pinkerton detective agency found where he lived.
(Bold Edition) Format:
Full Name - George Williams Alias' - Mr W

Nicknames - sir

Gender - male

Age - 55

Appearance -gray hair and thick beard Race- white/british Scars/Mutilations (If Any) -left eye missing Height - 6’3

Weight - 100kg

Place of Origin - england

Religion (Optional) - n/a

Owned Firearms - 2x Schofield revolvers and lancaster repeater and rolling block rifle Draw Style (Optional) -

Bounty - $5500

Family (Optional) —hidden-

Character Relations (Optional) - jack and jon were like his sons and dave is a brother to him

Background (Optional)- grew up fighting to resolve debts and started the gang with Dave Skills - highly accurate shot and excellent brawler in his prime it was extremely rare to see him lose a fight (usually he’d be drunk) Any Other Information (Optional) - Gamer Tag -GAFFER2308
Canonical Death: George Williams left for new austin after the destruction of his gang and there his illness grew greater as it took affect he became slower and weaker until his last moments where the pinkerton detective agency finally caught up with him after all those years. he tells his son to go and hide under the bed and not to come out. around 30 horses ride upon his house and George stands out of his chair and prepares for his last stand. he lights a cigar coughing up blood as he puts it in his mouth the pinkertons dismount and aim their rifles asking him to come along peacefully. George sighs and says “now agent miles… you know i can’t do that and with George’s final breath he draws his revolver and shoots the agent square between the eyes the sound of rifles firing echoes throughout the skies as the williams gang comes to a closing end with the remaining members feeling a sudden emptiness inside. George falls back in his chair covered in his own blood coughing the agent’s take their leaders body and ride away. hearing the sound of horses riding away George’s son exits the house to see his father sat on the porch looking of into the sunset coated in his blood his son cries out to him as he takes his final breath his son hugs him crying. then overwhelmed with rage he takes his father’s revolver from his hand and his hat off his head and vows to make the government pay.

Three years ago I was messaged by a stranger on a social app. I remember checking their profile, because it was public, and saw photos of someone my age, with their friends and family, doing hobbies and stuff. Nothing strange, just a normal person, really. They told me that they are giving away their Steam account, and asked me if I wanted it.
They showed me that they had some games, more than ten, one or two had almost 1000 hours. I said that I wanted it, thinking they were trolling and, for my surprise, they weren't: they gave me their nickname, and password.
I was very surprised to say the least. I asked them why didn't they sell the account, they said that they had already enough money. I also asked why didn't they give their account to a friend or something, they said that their friends are 'assholes', so I kinda laughed it off because they literally were giving their account to me, a stranger, like what the hell. I said that when my pc will be repaired, I will access the account and text them, they said it's alright and I thought nothing more of it.
When the pc arrived, I never texted them because I forgot and they never texted me again too. However, this week I saw a video about people's stories about receiving strange messages and things of stranger accounts on social apps, and then I remembered my story, this one.
I checked the app in order to find their profile. I found our conversation, however the profile... doesn't exist anymore because it is a 'disabled account' on Instagram. I told this story to my friend, and I think we thought the same thing... and I don't like it. I need to know that this person is doing okay and the reason they were giving personal belongings and accounts to random people wasn't the one that we think it is.
I tried logging into their steam account too. The account is still working, but I need the code sent by steam to their gmail, which I don't have. The thing is: I know their name, and I know the username and password of the account and the games they played, nothing more. How do I find them? I really need to know if they are doing okay, even if it was a scam or something I need to know.
I tried finding their steam profile with steam id finder, to see if at least the account is active nowadays but there are like 12 different results, and I don't know which one is the correct and some of them are totally private. I hope the person is doing fine and the account is active nowadays, in that case they will see that someone tried to log in recently and then they will change the password. In case the password isn't changed soon, that would mean that the account is not active anymore, which would be very bad news.
I don't know and can't explain why do I care so much for a stranger, but I really need to know that they are okay.
Is there any possibility of me finding this person or someone they knew?