Mazda 3.0l duratec coil locations | | Fact check chat gpt (helping to determine misfire)

It says that the NGK LKR7DIX-11S spark plugs could be causing misfires in your 2014 Hyundai Genesis R-Spec 5.0L V8, we need to compare their specifications with the recommended NGK ILFR6B Laser Iridium spark plugs. Here’s a detailed comparison:

NGK ILFR6B (Laser Iridium)

Type: Laser Iridium
Part Number: ILFR6B
Heat Range: 6
Thread Size: 14mm
Thread Reach: 26.5mm
Hex Size: 16mm
Gap: 0.044 inches (1.1mm)
Electrode: Fine Iridium tip
Applications: Specifically recommended for the Hyundai Genesis 5.0L V8

NGK LKR7DIX-11S (Iridium IX)

Type: Iridium IX
Part Number: LKR7DIX-11S
Heat Range: 7
Thread Size: 14mm
Thread Reach: 26.5mm
Hex Size: 16mm
Gap: 0.044 inches (1.1mm)
Electrode: Fine Iridium tip
Applications: High-performance and modified engines, not specifically recommended for your vehicle( but online it tells me that it does work for my vehicle )

Detailed Comparison:

Heat Range:
- ILFR6B: Heat range 6 (recommended for your engine)
- LKR7DIX-11S: Heat range 7 (colder plug, can affect combustion)
The difference in heat range could impact engine performance. A colder plug (higher number) may not reach the optimal temperature for combustion, leading to fouling and misfires, especially in a non-modified engine like yours.
Thread Size and Reach:
- Both have the same thread size (14mm) and reach (26.5mm), which means they physically fit your engine.
Electrode Design:
- Both use fine Iridium tips, which are good for performance and longevity, but the design specifics may differ slightly, impacting performance.
Applications:
- ILFR6B: Specifically designed for your engine, ensuring optimal performance.
- LKR7DIX-11S: Intended for high-performance or modified engines, which might not align perfectly with your engine's requirements.

Conclusion:

Potential Issues:

Heat Range Difference: The NGK LKR7DIX-11S has a colder heat range, which might not be suitable for your engine. This can lead to incomplete combustion and fouling, causing misfires.
Application Mismatch: The LKR7DIX-11S is not specifically recommended for your vehicle, meaning it might not optimize combustion as effectively as the ILFR6B.

Recommendations:

Replace with NGK ILFR6B:
- To avoid potential misfires and ensure optimal performance, replace the LKR7DIX-11S spark plugs with the recommended NGK ILFR6B Laser Iridium spark plugs.
Check Spark Plug Gap:
- Make sure the gap is set to the specified 0.044 inches (1.1mm).
Inspect Ignition System:
- While replacing the plugs, check the ignition coils and wires for any signs of damage.

Using the correct NGK ILFR6B spark plugs should resolve the misfire and rough idle issues, as they are designed to meet the specific requirements of your 2014 Hyundai Genesis R-Spec 5.0L V8 engine.

Our home was built in 2016, we purchased it in 2020. I wasn’t told that we had to transfer the warranties, so we do not have any kind of warranty on the units (not sure if we would still be under the warranty even if we did transfer them). We have three heating and air units. The outside AC units are Trane XR the furnaces are Trane XV95 high efficiency units.
We live in the south and our furnace units are in the attic. Two of the last three years, temperatures have gotten cold enough that our outside condensate line has frozen over a couple of times and stopped our units from running (not sure if that has anything to do with them going bad).
We get our units inspected twice a year spring/summer and fall/winter. For the last couple of years, they have noted that the compressor is going bad on one of our 2 ton units. It makes loud noises. In addition to that, they had to put 5 lbs of refrigerant in a couple of weeks ago when they were inspecting our systems. They found a leak in the evaporator coil.
My office is at the end of the line past our master bedroom. It has 12’ ceilings and is the hottest/coldest room in the house. It doesn’t really heat or cool, very well. If we end up replacing the ductwork on that side of the house, would it be worth looking into a separate zone for only the office. I would only heat or cool the office during the day. Our bedroom is only cooled in the evening and night.
I guess, I am just curious if the estimates below look reasonable. I am planning on getting a couple of more estimates. When calling them, how much information do I share below. Do I mention the master side reducing ductwork or see if they notice that on their own?
Thanks! We will probably be in our house for another 3-10 years.
Estimates for replacing the systems: 2 ton - $8,917 4 ton - $17,597 Ductwork (make return 16” and main trunk line reducing (16/14----10”) - $7,864 Total - $34,378
Issues:
4 ton evap coil leak (refrigerant – 5 lbs replaced at appointment 2 weeks ago) ---not sure how long will last * * one of the returns for the 4 ton system is located on master bedroom side hallway which is not heated and cooled area for the 4 ton---no proposed resolutions at this time
2 ton compressor valves are making loud noise and failing 2 ton ductwork return is to small and main trunk-line does not reduce causing low air flow in bedroom and especially the office *load calculation for master side calculated at 2.5 ton (1/2 ton larger then existing)
Options:
Compressor only (2ton)--$3343+tax---1year warranty on compr
Ductwork 2 ton system--$7864+tax (currently 14” entire run, wants to make return 16” and main trunk line reducing (16/14----10”)
AC and evap coil –keeping the existing furnace because its rated as 3 ton---$8917.00 +tax---10 year parts and compr (3 yr labor)
4 ton coil only---$3879 + tax
4 ton AC & coil--$11,883+tax
If looking to replace the complete system on 4ton---we could look at Lennox brand---$17,594.00+ tax---15.3 seer 2 with variable speed 95% furnace----if you decide to replace entire system, I would like to relook at ductwork on 4 ton system just double checking some things!
*If your planning on moving in approximately 3 years, I would consider the following:

Replace the evap coil(indoor cooling)only on 4 ton replace and repair ductwork on master bedroom side along with either the compressor only or the AC and coil 2.5 ton upsize—(make return 16” and main trunk line reducing (16/14----10”)

Species: Dog
Age: 1.5yrs
Sex/Neuter status: Male/Neutered
Breed: Pomsky
Body weight: 18-20lbs
History: Drama queen (according to vet because of his cone paralysis :P)
Clinical signs: Staggered breathing (or breathing in stages?)
Duration: 1 day
Your general location: Alberta, Canada
Name: Watson

Hello there,
There is some backstory to this that I couldn't figure out how to include in the title, please bear with me:
About 4 days ago we realized Watson was breathing very rapidly at rest. We live in a very cold place, it had just started warming up, and his coat is the longest it's ever been, so we assumed that he was just too hot (23-26 Celsius in some rooms of the house) and booked an appointment with the groomer to get him a trim.
He was still eating and drinking normally, urinating normally, gums were pink, I think he might have been having less bowel movements but I'm unsure because we brought him over to my girlfriend's parents for the better part of the two days after noticing this (and he roams their large backyard with their two dogs), so he might have had many or 0 bowel movements over there, I also felt his stomach and it felt normal. His behavior this whole time was mostly normal (maybe a little bit subdued, but I assumed it was because he was tired from hanging out with his uncles so much). For the sake of the timeline, this is all that happened the first 2 of 4 days (day 4 being today).
Yesterday around 5am he woke us up because he was trying to throw up. He heaved a few times, and nothing ended up coming up other than white foam. He seemed to recover quickly from this, and we went back to bed. I told my girlfriend that if he was still exhibiting any weird symptoms in the morning I would take him to the vet.
Woke up later that morning, and he seemed back to normal. His breathing had slowed down to a normal rate, he ate his breakfast, I took him on a walk in the morning and he was behaving totally normal. He also passed a "good" stool (firm, solid normal color) on our walk. We got home and I went to pick up old his stools from our yard (routine after a walk) when I noticed an unusual one (that had to have been within the last 24h, exactly when I'm not sure as we let him out often while we are getting ready for work/bed/otherwise unable to watch him).
The stool I found had a bunch of tape coiled up inside of it, which I remembered had been a loose strand of tape that was sitting on my desk that he must have pulled off and eaten (uncoiled, the kind of tape where you have to peel the bottom off to expose the sticky side). We hadn't had an issue with him eating things that aren't food in a long time so I let my guard down.
It all started making sense, I thought that he must have been in pain/discomfort from eating the tape which explained the heavy breathing for the couple of days until he passed it in his stool. Since he was mostly back to normal I thought nothing of it.
Starting last night and continuing to this morning I noticed that his breathing, although much slower and normal rate-wise, has changed to be a much deeper, staggered breathing. I don't know how to describe this other than staggered, maybe staged? He will inhale about 60% of the breath initially, then 30% more, then the last 10%. His mouth is closed while he's doing this (sleeping/resting the times that I have noticed it). Google has been woefully unhelpful in looking this up (probably because I have no idea what the kind of breathing is actually called)).
At this point I'm concerned that there is still some tape stuck in his guts somewhere. The piece that he ate was quite long, and I didn't extract/unravel it from inside his stool to see how much of it had come out there, but nor could I find any remnants of un-eaten tape anywhere. Is this kind of seemingly labored breathing characteristic of a blockage, and should I be concerned?
I'm hesitant to go to the vet right away because
A. I've taken Watson there probably 10 times for minor issues, every time I have they do the exact same checks that I mentioned above (feel his stomach, check gums, behaviour, eating and bowel regularity) and then send us off almost with an air of like "you guys need to relax he will be fine"
B. With the above in mind, it isn't exactly cheap
Reasons I think he does not have a blockage: -His most recent stool was a good one -His eating habits are the same -His behavior is normal
Reasons I think he might still have a blockage: -His breathing?? Not sure if this is indicative of anything because as I mentioned, google no help this -The timeline of his dry-heaving in the morning doesn't add up for me. I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty positive that the stool with the tape in it happened the night before the dry-heaving, so why would he dry-heave if the blockage had already been excreted. He has not tried to throw up, or anything similar since. -He has always coughed more than your average dog (he loves eating quickly and then chasing that down with big gulps of water), but he has been coughing a bit "deeper" this last day or so? This could be me worrying, but thought I would mention
Looking for advice on what to do, and if these symptoms are indicative of anything or if I'm just being my normal hypochondriac self :/
Thank you for your time.

Located in suburban NY and replacing a 8 year old coil for a York ac unit. They charged her w nitrogen and found a small leak. (Last guy just recharged and she worked well for almost two seasons).
$3500 - ? That includes the diag. Thoughts on that price ?

Home: 2009, 3500sq ft, 2 builder grade units (upstairs /downstairs) original to house. R22
Downstairs recently stopped working - lines were frozen outside, airflow seemed fine.
HVAC Co #1: inspected system, low on R22, suspected leak, but couldn’t locate. Evaporator coil has rust and rust in pan. They suspect that is the leak. Pulled plug in condenser and mentioned high amp draw. Very sales-oriented. Ended up not working with this company so I never got the formal report.
HVAC Co #2: peered into the evaporator coil space (didn’t pull panel off), also stated low on refrigerant, Mentioned new system requirements were going to change in 2025 around refrigerant. Ideally says we can limp along with repairs until new systems are available. Says we can run it at night if needed but not to set the temp to low.
Returns another day to add refrigerant. Asks us to turn the temp really low so he can check the system. Pop and smoke on condenser, fan stops. Pulled the plug and it looks a bit melted (1st tech said same). This tech asked why the original tech even pulled it given the symptoms. Don’t know if there is correlation.
Added drop-in refrigerant to the upstairs system. I want to say it was R-438R.
Now we need to order a plug and test amp draw.
Summer in North Texas is coming.
I will probably live in the house at least 5 more years, but this is not our forever home.
I have the money to replace the system, but want to be cost conscience as this is not our forever home.
I expect repairs on this will add up over time but not sure based on parts availability given the age.
I feel it might be best to just replace, but do I replace both systems or just the one?
Just looking to see what options you all recommend and get some different opinions. Pros and cons?

Indeed it was said for other reasons and not only for looks.
Couse i dont play the game lately but follow the developing cycle of it and couldnt test the unit gameplay wize. Frost wyrms were really added without too much thinking and i am so glad this was fixed.
https://www.reddit.com/totalwacomments/1awjs0l/ca_please_make_frost_wyrm_smaller_he_looks_like_a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
I just hope the whole Kislev overhaul with the lack of uniqueness for Ostankya, Boris and Kostaltyn gets done. And the ability for everyone to recruit every unit with no sense gets restricted properly:
Like Kostaltyn, Katarin and Boris recruiting Ostankya themed monsters and so on..
Kislev should be some of the hardest campaigns for man factions couse of their border to chaos location, their culture, for that is their greatest pride. Tough men living tough.
Just looking at the Warhammer 3 first trailer should give you that idea. Thats why the restricting mechanics would really fit in, gameplay and lore wise.
Btw Elspeth and Katarin look different enough. I was wrong :)

I’m starting an educational series on Kundalini Shakti and related topics, to clear up some misconceptions and reduce confusion in this field. This is a crosspost from KundaliniAwakening , but seeing it is relevant to the topics discussed on this subreddit, I thought I’d post it here too, in case anyone’s interested.
I’ll start with a primer on Kundalini itself.

In Hindu philosophy, the outflowing, creative aspect of God is known as Shakti. This Shakti becomes Mahamaya, which is the Grand Illusion, our entire created universe, basically. Mahamaya becomes Prakriti or Mother Nature and gives birth to all living things, hence we often call her the Divine Mother and this Shakti aspect of God is therefore seen as feminine.

In a human body and many other living things, Shakti manifests as Kundalini, which means “coiled”. Symbolically, this energy of creation is depicted as a serpent, coiled three and a half times around itself. It enters the egg upon conception and is responsible for the growth and evolution of a single cell into a many-cell organism, a fetus and then eventually a baby. It not only provides the motive power for life and growth, but is the intelligence behind the development of life itself. It provides the holographic blueprint for it, so to speak. Once the energy had fulfilled its purpose and the growth of the multi-cell organism is well under way and the requisite energy bodies (subtle sheaths or koshas), into which the physical body grows and around which it develops, are fully formed, it retreats into its dormant state and goes to sleep.

In most humans (though we cannot be sure about animals and other intelligent living beings), it remains dormant throughout a person’s life and plays no further role in its life. Over thousands of years, yogis and other mystics have figured out ways by which this energy can be awakened and its immense power of creation be used for beneficial, or in some case harmful purposes. What they have discovered, is that once awakened, this Kundalini Shakti becomes the vehicle for enlightenment and is also responsible for awakening certain psychic and healing powers in the individual, known as siddhis.

Kundalini Shakti rests at the base of the spine, in an energy centre known as muladhara, the root. When awakened, it moves through subtle energy channels, known as Shakti Nadis, the main one of which is located inside the spine, called Sushumna, through which Kundalini usually rises, though other side channels can also be a host for this energy.
Along the spine, there are subtle energy centres, corresponding to nerve clusters, where Kundalini Shakti initiates a cleansing process, bringing up stored memories, trauma and karma (the energetic imprints or memories of past actions and their consequences). Once dealt with, which can take from months to years, the energy moves on to the next centre to continue with the clearing process. Overall, this process can take from years to lifetimes. On the path of yoga, no progress is ever lost, so should someone die before the clearing / purification process is complete, they will continue where they left off in the next life.
In some cases, the energy can shoot straight up the spine and enter the brain, without warning or preparation. This is highly undesirable and can lead to many problems mentally, psychologically and physically. Such spontaneous rising events are usually triggered by trauma, including blunt force trauma to the coccyx, drug use, forced methods of Kundalini activation, or through Shaktipat, when another person passes on their own Shakti energy to someone else, triggering a sudden activation and awakening in them.
The problem with such sudden rising events is that a person needs to go through substantial inner work and purification, before they are ready for the energy to rise all the way to the head and thus trigger a substantial rewiring of the brain and nervous system, which can feel like a complete death and rebirth, as the person will essentially go through psychological growing pains as if they were entirely born again.
In the traditional yogic system, the purification is done by Shakti herself, going gradually from one centre to the next, as she rises. In other systems, such as Kriya Yoga, the purification process is done from the top to the bottom, so that by the time the root is reached, the energy can rise without obstruction and without triggering any negative side effects.
I am simplifying here, as there are many different types of rising, but these are the main ones.
The purpose of Kundalini Shakti and the rising process, is to evolve a human from their current, limited state to a higher one, where they are much more able to fulfil their potential. In the end, it can enable a person to experience enlightenment, to transcend their ego and merge back into source, returning to non-dual consciousness. Basically, these are complicated words to express the simple truth, through Kundalini, one can return home.
Inside us, we all have this feeling, that we don’t quite belong, that there is something greater, better out there, where we come from and where we long to return. This “home” we can all intuitively feel is the collective consciousness or oversoul known as Brahman. That portion of Brahman which we claim as our own is called Atman or Self, but it is a distinction without a difference.
Through Kundalini, we can awaken to our soul’s true purpose, we can become what we were always meant to be and feel “at home” and “whole again”. All other pursuits are ultimately fruitless, because they leave us empty, wanting, always longing for more, the real thing.
Only Kundalini is worth pursuing in this life, it is my contention, that we were born and keep getting born, specifically and only to awaken Kundalini and complete its ascent, then integrate it fully into our very energetic and psychic makeup. We will be born again and again until we complete this task, then finally, we can graduate from the school of life (samsara) and as fully mature and self-realised souls we can return home, to the “place” or state of being we all come from.
There is no one way by which this can be achieved, we all have a unique path to follow. One path isn’t better than the rest, it simply is more suited to a given individual. Our paths have all been laid out for us before we were born, I’m certain of that. In most cases, we were given a preview of the coming life and agreed to fulfil it to the best of our abilities. Then, as we go on in life, certain pre-planned milestones and events take us inevitably towards our true purpose. Souls have different maturity levels, so only a small proportion of us are destined to go all the way in this lifetime, but with each life we take a further step towards liberation.

In Missing Pieces, Agent Phillip Jeffries checked in to a Buenos Aires Hotel named Palm De Luxe.
Another kind of "de luxe" is a Rolex wristwatch that according to the company itself is une montre de luxe. Another kind of palm is a date, as in a date palm. These seemingly unrelated kinds would then come back together because a Rolex watch has a date on its clock face, like seen when Andy glanced his in P5.
Stars turn, and the time presents itself.
Andy's Rolex was also linked to another luxury item, Mr C's 2015 Mercedes-Benz S 550 Coupé the three-pointed star of which matched the position of the hands of Andy's watch, giving us the likely answer to the Log Lady's P2 riddle about "stars turning" and the time presenting itself. There may have been all sorts of transformations here so that also another Mercedes, the 2001 Mercedes-Benz C-Klasse driven by the Polish Accountant, was this same item. As the story moved forward, it seems to have been in constant flux so that select characters and their surroundings kept wildly changing from one scene to another.
We got another riddle about stars in P13 when Hawk revealed his ancient map to Sheriff Truman. Earlier in P9, the deputies had found some information with two dates on a piece of paper inside a metal tube left behind by Major Briggs.

Hawk: "The Major also gave us a date, day after tomorrow. If you read these stars --"

Hawk waved his hand over the rudimentary starry sky of his map.

Hawk: "-- you find that same date --"

The date that Major gave them was a shooting star.
He pointed multiple times at a specific location on the map. We didn't see what it was exactly but since he had already pointed at the Major's old station on the Blue Pine Mountain, "that same date" was somewhere up and right from the mountain.
Among the stars on the map's sky, there was one different, a shooting star on the area that Hawk appeared to point at. But how could a date and a shooting star link to each other?
This takes us to Agent Tammy Preston whose real name was given in the credits as Tamara,. Coincidentally, the name "Tamara" means a date palm. She was also a star of different kind, like Albert recalled in P12.

Albert: "Agent Preston, you've been on our radar since you made the honors list at George Washington High, not to mention the dean's list at MIT and top of your class at Quantico."

Pay attention to the shooting star.
Later in P16, after telling her story, the manufactured Diane got agitated and draw her pistol. Whatever she planned to do, Albert and Tammy were faster and shot her. At 41:24, there was a strange glitch. Briefly, only Albert was behind the desk, drawing his weapon, whereas Tammy had disappeared. But after a quick cut to Diane getting hit, Tammy was back, shooting Diane as well.
As usual, the glitch right that moment probably urged us to pay attention to Tammy. On computer screens behind her, there were two FBI emblems. The emblem is decorated with 13 stars, making her surrounded by stars. She was shooting, and there was fire coming from her pistol.
Perhaps Tammy was the "date" that was also the "shooting star" in the starry sky on Hawk's map.
So, on one hand, we got a star linked to Rolex and Mercedes-Benz and on the other, a star linked to Tammy. Would these two star riddles perhaps meet each other so that ultimately they were about the same thing?
In P2, Mr C's Mercedes went to a storage and he got a Lincoln Town Car. Jack appeared to have got himself into some trouble with him. A bit later, Mr C told what happened.

Mr C: "I killed Jack two hours ago after he wired the car."

It wasn't clear if he meant the Mercedes-Benz or the Lincoln. Another strange exchange around wiring was later in P4 when the FBI team was wrapping up at Yankton airport.

Cole: "You're wearing a wire, Tammy." Tammy: "You asked me to!" Cole: "Right. Go wait in the restaurant."

The star turned, and an hourglass presented itself.
Frustrated, Tammy turned around and went in. The two men kept staring at her curvy walking. Perhaps the idea here was that as this star turned, an hourglass figure presented itself, the time of different kind.
That this was the association we needed to make was hinted by framing Tammy in the middle of a wider shot that had the fence reflected on the windows. Later in P12, when we got to Audrey and Charlie for the first time and camera panned slowly across the room, it stopped so that on the right, there was another kind of fence visible through a window while on the left, there was an actual hourglass on Charlie's desk.
Judy has a turning figure 8.
Another name for the hourglass body shape is "figure 8". In P17, the teapot version of Jeffries kept thinking about Judy when Cooper and Gerard paid him a visit, even if nobody was asking him about it.

Jeffries: "This ... is where you'll find Judy. There may be someone -- Did you ask me this?"

In the steam, the "two birds with one stone" symbol of the green ring appeared and quickly transformed into number 8. A dot appeared on it. The number turned around, just like Tammy turned her figure 8.
To Tammy and the blue rows.
The last we saw of Mr C's Mercedes-Benz was in P2 when it disappeared behind a coiling door that looked like a set of blue rows. Later in P12, Tammy agreed to join the FBI's Blue Rose task force, and they all cheered for her.

Cole: "To Tammy and the Blue Rose!"

You got a date with a Bell who might show up as a luxury timepiece.
In Missing Pieces, when Jeffries arrived to Hotel Palm De Luxe, he got a note from "Miss Judy". The receptionist held it for a while so that it was framed between a heavily decorated clock face and a bell. Perhaps this was the shot that gave Lynch the idea to cast Chrysta Bell in the role of a the character who would also appear as a luxury watch.
The male characters driving or having a Mercedes-Benz - the Mr C in the opening episode, garageman Jack in P2 and the Polish Accountant in P16 - or wearing a Rolex - Red in P6 and the Andy on the logging road in P7 - seem to all have been various incarnations of Phillip Jeffries, changing from one appearance to another. He was, after all, a former FBI Agent. At the same time, these cars and watches seem to have been abstractions for the same character who appeared as Tammy. Assuming she indeed was Judy, the two of them seem to have hit it off and gone together to their own worlds.
The Major also gave us a date. This would now take us to Cole's story he told to Albert and Tammy in P17.

Cole: "For 25 years, I've kept something from you, Albert. Before he disappeared, Major Briggs shared with me and Cooper his discovery of an entity, an extreme negative force called in olden times 'Jowday.' Over time, it's become 'Judy.' Major Briggs, Cooper, and I put together a plan that could lead us to Judy."

The little story was prefaced with inconsistent acting and repeated footage, as seems usual to help us connect the dots. At 2:21, there was a shot of Tammy and Albert. Then back to Cole who quietly stared at Albert and then looked at something in front of Tammy. Cut back to the other two, Tammy's wine glass had jumped to another location, and now she held her right arm with her left. There was a cut back to Cole, repeating the exact same footage we just saw, with him again looking at something in front of Tammy.
The glitching may have suggested that the topic of Cole's story was right there, listening how the boys had a plan to get to her. Apparently, the Major had had a role to play why and how she was there - it was him who had discovered Judy and given the "date", apparently then Tamara Preston. Coincidentally, later in the episode, she was in the Twin Peaks Sheriff's station 10/2 at 2:53pm.
But there were two dates on the Major's slip of paper, implying that things weren't quite as straightforward.

I've been meaning to make this post for a while but life kept getting in the way.
There is a bunch of new (well, new to me) stuff I've discovered over the last few weeks, and wanted to share my thoughts with you.
Let's start with the "prequel" (although never canonically confirmed) to the Marathon series was a game called Pathways to Darkness. The backstory for this game is:

Sixty-four million years ago, a large extra-terrestrial object struck the Earth in what would later be called the Yucatan Peninsula, in south eastern Mexico. The dust and rock thrown up by the resulting explosion caused enormous climactic changes in the ensuing years, and many of the Earth's species became extinct during the long winter that followed.
The object itself was buried thousands of feet below ground, its nearly two kilometer length remarkably intact. It remained there, motionless, for thousands of years before it finally began to stir-- and to dream.

Hmm. Buried below ground. Finally beginning to stir and dream. Who does that sound like?
Let's keep going.

The heat of impact liquefied the rock around it, which later cooled and encased the dead god's huge body far below ground. As it began to dream, it wrought unintentional changes in its environment. Locked deep beneath the Earth, strange and unbelievable things faded in and out of reality. Vast caverns and landscapes bubbled to life within the rock, populated by horrible manifestations of the dead god's dream.

As it began to dream, it wrought unintentional changes in its environment.. Locked deep beneath the Earth, strange and unbelievable things faded in and out of reality.
Like Fingerrats? Or like Spider-wolves?

Vast caverns and landscapes bubbled to life within the rock, populated by horrible manifestations of the dead god's dream.

Caverns and landscapes. I want to expand this point here for a bit because it's also mirrored across Alagaesia.
Let's start with Helgrind.
For any FV enjoyers, I've previously speculated that Helgrind is a reliquary, or a previously living being that was transformed (a la Ctein).
But the curious thing here is the timeline of Helgrind and it's tunnel system, taken with the above context.

Q: Assuming it wasn't built by the Ra'zac themselves, was the lair inside Helgrind purpose-built for the Ra'zac and Lethrblaka, or did they appropriate it some time after it was built? If it wasn't built for them, what was its original purpose?
A: Partially natural formations (linked to tunnels elsewhere in Alagaësia), partly expanded by the priests of Helgrind and Galbatorix himself.

But... The Ra'Zac didn't inhabit Helgrind until at least after the Humans came over. So these tunnels underneath Helgrind existed before the Ra'Zac, or Galbatorix ever set foot on Alagaesia. Which, I don't know about you, but a massive network of tunnels does not smell entirely natural to me.
So.. where else are there "natural" formations that link to other tunnels elsewhere in Alagaesia?
We've seen these "natural" formations in Vroengard:

Q: The deeps under Vroengard, were they created by the riders or was it a previous system of caverns that they repurposed?
A: Previous system. I mean, there's been work done on them, but... 'It looks similar, parts of it feel similar to the caverns that we encountered in this book. They both have that hole in the cave which goes deeper, with something in the hole that's not clearly defined.' Yeah.

And we've seen similar depictions in the Beors, and Nal Gorgoth. So from the Beors to Vroengard, "natural" tunnels exist underground. I don't buy that they are entirely natural.
Given the context of the Marathon game above:

Vast caverns and landscapes bubbled to life within the rock, populated by horrible manifestations of the dead god's dream.

I think these tunnels came from Azlagur.
Let's switch gears here, I want to talk about another archaeological mystery in the world of Eragon - El-Harim.
I believe El-Harim was heavily influenced by the (not canon confirmed, but implied) prequel to the Marathon games, the Pathways into Darkness

Pathways casts the player as a member of a US Army Special Forces team sent on a mission to the Yucatán Peninsula. On May 5, 1994, a diplomat from the alien race known as the Jjaro appeared to the President of the United States and informed him that on May 13, an ancient godlike being sleeping beneath a pyramid would awaken and destroy the Earth. The only way to prevent this catastrophe is to prevent the god from awakening. The eight-man Special Forces team carries a nuclear weapon, with the goal of entering the ancient pyramid, descending to the bottom level where the god sleeps, and activating the bomb to stun the god and bury it under tons of rock.

Getting into a bit more of the backstory:

Only during the last few centuries has the god begun to effect changes on the surface of the Earth. Grotesque creatures have been sighted deep in the trackless forest of the Yucatan, and strange rumors of an ancient pyramid-- which is neither Aztec nor Mayan-- in the same area have been circulating in the archaeological community since the early 1930's.

Pyramid, eh? There are two different options here I can think of that equate.
The extended FWW Map
First, in the extended map from FWW, we can see a Pyramid-esque shape - Different color, different slope, etc.
Or, second (and probably more likely), it could be El-Harim:

It is a very bad place. It’s a place where some bad things happened at one point and it’s not a good place to go walking around. I don’t want to get into it too much more because again, it’s a good possibility for another story and I want to keep thinking about it a bit more. It is in Alagaesia and we’ve actually been close to the location.

Many speculate that the below vision from Eragon in Brisingr, which was never explained in the main cycle, is of El-Harim:

And he rested, and visions beset him of a circular stone city that stood in the center of an endless plain and of a small girl who wandered among the narrow, winding alleys within and who sang a haunting melody (A Feast with Friends, Brisingr).

If this vision IS El-Harim , it's super significant because of these two descriptors:

circular stone city
narrow, winding alleys

Fractals. The city itself is a fractal, like Nidus for any FV enjoyers.
The narrow winding alleys are significant because of the descriptors of the Vanished/Grey folk:

The spaces between the structures were narrower than the humans preferred; the proportions were taller, thinner, which matched the images she had seed of the Vanished...
The ancient outline of the city was - as she suspected - a fractal, and the shape of it contained meaning.... At the nexus of the apttern, where it coiled in on itslef like a nautilus shell" (Shards, TSIASOS).

Narrow. Circular (Nautilus shell). Winding. Fractal.
Whatever this city is, El-Harim or otherwise, it is/was a grey folk/vanished city.
And given the quotes from above - "Its a place where some bad things happened at one point", and "dangerous, creeping, ancient, evil thing" - My guess is that the event that caused the Grey Folk to bind the AL to magic happened here, in El-Harim.
Alright, moving along.
Let's talk about the Az and the God. There are a few parallels I've talked around, but the BIG link between the two are Dreams. This is especially important because of the release of the world map recently.

We are the devotees of Azlagur, the Devourer. Azlagur the Firstborn. Azlagur the Dreamer. He who sleeps and whose sleeping mind weaves the warp and weft of the waking world. But the sleep grows restless" (Obliteration, Murtagh).

Versus

As it began to dream, it wrought unintentional changes in its environment. Locked deep beneath the Earth, strange and unbelievable things faded in and out of reality. Vast caverns and landscapes bubbled to life within the rock, populated by horrible manifestations of the dead god's dream.

I could write a whole post about the parallels between the two and their linkage to dreams, but I'll cut it short here for now to save room to dig in to other areas. Specifically, the Dreams connection is especially important because of the relase of the world map recently - I have another post here that gets into more detail, but the translations from the World Map in the middle translate to:

where dreams and dragons dwell

Dreams (!) and Dragons.
Combine that with the Etymology of the words:

Alagaësia ala = land gaësia = rich/fertile
Alalëa ala = land lëa = a beautiful dream
Elëa = the dream itself

So the planet, named Elea, translates to "The Dream Itself". Very interesting.
This is even more significant when you take into account this tweet chain from Chris, a bit earlier in March

Darn it. Just invented a name in the ancient language. Googled it to make sure no one else had used it ... only to discover that I had used it in an earlier book. Lol.
Can we ask what name?
Edurna

I believe the name was a potential candidate for the name of the planet of Alagaesia, which is important because of the etymology of THAT name (All credit to Zora for digging this one up).

Edurna sounds awfully like Adurna and Edur
Adurna meaning water and Edur being a prominence

Prominence. And Water. You know what that sounds like to me? Plaintive Verge. Just food for thought.
Second-to-last Az connection I want to cover: Hunger.

Whirling darkness swallowed him, and at the center of it... lay a formless horror - ancient and evil and from which emanated a constant merciless hunger (Dreams and Portents).

Versus a quote about the cosmic entity in Marathon:

Now I fear what that weapon has unleashed will destroy us. I once boasted to be able to count the atoms in a cloud, to understand them all, predict them, and so did I predict you, but this new chaos is entirely terrible, mindless, obeying rules that I don't comprehend. And it is hungry.

Now, the last piece of Azlagur-related lore I want to cover here is the "Black Sun".
In all of the visions, a Black Sun precipitates Azlagur's rise.

"A black sun rimmed by black flame hung against a darkling sky... The beast rose rampant against the black sun - A wingless dragon, apocalyptic in size, terrifying in presence. Destroyer of hope, eater of light"

Before getting into the Black Sun a bit more, there's an additional connection here I want to touch on - usage of the word rampant in connection with Azlagur.

In Marathon, Rampancy is the enhanced self-awareness of a computer AI, causing a progression towards greater mental abilities and destructive impulses. The destructive impulses, however, are primarily caused by being threatened or harassed. There are three main stages, as well as a fourth and final stage that is rarely achieved, to rampancy, named by the primary attitude of the AI during those times: Melancholia, Anger, Jealousy, and Meta-Stability.

There are some overlaps with what we see from the Maw.
And Melancholia.. that's an interesting word. Especially when taken into context the meaning of the name:

A melancholy dream of great beauty.

Melancholy.. Dream... The pieces of the puzzle are coming together. And Rampant...
Chris also uses that exact same verbiage when discussing a deleted scene from TSIASOS:

Q: I just finished reading To Sleep in a Sea of Stars and I have to know: it sounds like the Wranaui fought the corrupted during the Sundering but if that's true and it happened almost 300 years prior.... Who created the old corrupted? I've been questioning this for days!
A: That was actually in material cut by editors (some of the dream memories). Another Seed/Idealis was damaged and, when the Old Ones tried to separate it from its host, the xeno went rampant.

The xeno went rampant. Very interesting.
Alrighty, I keep getting distracted, back to the black sun.
The reason the Black Sun is important is because it always precipitates Azlagur's rise, throughout several of Murtahgh's visions. In each of them, there is a Black sun.
So, by this, we can extrapolate that the sun needs to be Black in order for Azlagur to rise (which is hinted at at the "Day of Black Sun" celebrations near the end of the book).
But... what does it actually mean?
There is a parallel in Marathon, their weapon:

The trih xeem (also "tri xeem") is an extremely powerful weapon that can be used to force a star into early nova... it was originally conceived and built by the Jjaro [The Old Ones/Vanished equivalent]. Much of the Marathon Infinity story revolves around preventing the Pfhor from using the tri xeem and inadvertently releasing a W'rkncacnter that is supposedly trapped within the Lh'owon sun.

So, the story of the last Marathon games revolves around preventing the usage of the weapon to release the cosmic-level baddie trapped in the sun. So, effectively, the antagonist is imprisoned by the sun.
But.. how does that translate to Azlagur and Murtagh?
The Black Sun requirement for Azlagur's rise could be construed as "imprisonment" by the sun; Azlagur cannot escape until the sun is turned Black. But it only really starts to come together when you piece together these pictures.
First, early concept art for the Fractalverse
You see the black orb, heading directly for the glowing star? Sounds pretty similar.
But that's not the smoking gun; look at the depiction of the black orb in the concept art, and compare it to the trih xeem, the weapon in Marathon.
A black orb with a trail heading directly for the sun. Almost an exact match.
OK.. so I get that it has some relevence in fractalverse, but how does it translate to Eragon?
Well, because of the Beors. Specifically, a picture CHRIS HIMSELF posted about the Beors.
Here
I propose that THIS black orb, at the top of the Beors (which, suspiciously, no one has traveled to) houses the black weapon. After all, the depiction is quite similar - A large, circular, black orb. Looks pretty similar to the other pictures.
And given the above context that Azlagur can only rise with a "Black Sun", the pieces all start to fit together. It's not perfect, but there are definitely a lot of overlaps.
Alright. I've been waiting for this one. The last piece. Let's talk about Angela.
Q: Will we get Angela lore? I feel like she could have killed Galbatorix and just didn't feel like it.
A: For those who don't know Angela is based on my sister Angela, because she breaks the fourth wall to a degree she has. Not only does she have plot armor, she knows she's in a story and can break the story itself. So, yes, she could have killed Galbatorix, but that would have made for a very bad story. That said, I do have an entire book planned around Angela, and it's very high on my list of books to write because it takes place before some of these other big stories I want to write. And that's also the difficult thing. I have my big storylines, and then I have a couple of one off side books I want to write, and it's just a question of time, energy and effort.
She knows she's in a story, and she can break the story.
Based on that, and several other descriptions I will get into in a bit, I think her story is directly related to the Marathon Infinity game.

Marathon Infinity begins as the Pfhor destroy Lh'owon using a Jjaro-derived doomsday weapon known as the Trih Xeem or "early nova". Unfortunately, the weapon also releases a powerful chaotic being: The W’rkncacnter, which threatens to destroy the entire galaxy. Because of the W’rkncacnter's chaos or by means of some Jjaro tech of his own, the player is transported back and forward in time, finding himself jumping between timelines and fighting for various sides in a desperate attempt to prevent the chaotic being's release.

and

In Marathon Infinity, a W'rkncacnter is imprisoned in the sun of planet Lh'owon. It is theorized by some that the W'rkncacnter's powerfully chaotic nature may be responsible for the jumps between realities seen in the game. When the Pfhor use a trih xeem device to send the star into early nova, the creature is released, to the horror and destruction of the Pfhor.

Angela is the Eragon-equivalent of the player.
She can transport back and forward in time, jumping between timelines, and fighting to prevent the chaotic being's (Azlagur's) release. Let's dive in.
First:

Q: Is it canon that Angela the Herbalist is a Time Lord and did she make a cameo in To Sleep in a Sea of Stars?
A: Is Angela the Herbalist is a Time Lord? That would be copyright infringement, so I'm going to say "no comment", but she is in To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. And there is a canon reason for this. And you should have no problem spotting who she is in that book.

So there's a canon reason she's in the book. Interesting. When you take that into context with the next bit

Q: On your last AMA on reddit, someone asked if any fan had guessed the identity and history of Angela correctly. You said nobody has guessed correctly and there's not enough information in the books to do so. That puts every fan theory out there on her wrong, correct? She's not the soothsayer, a time lord, grey folk, etc, correct?
A: Angela: Some of the fan theories have gotten parts of her history and identity correct. However, there's a HUGE aspect to her nature that no one has guessed (or least, not in a non-joking way). And no, I don't mean her being a Time Lord.

So there's a huge aspect to her nature that no one has guessed (at least at the time of writing). She's self-aware, knows she's in a story, and can jump around in time. And, similar to the Marathon games, it appears like only she knows that she's in a story.
So, based on the Marathon inspiration, we can guess that she is trying to accomplish the same thing - To prevent the release of the cosmic-level villain. We know that she has some kind of relationship with the Draumar:

In Murtagh, it’s revealed that Bachel and “Uluthrek” (Mooneater, Angela’s given Urgal name) met with Bachel explicitly going out to confront her (a courtesy not even offered to a Rider like Murtagh)

So, by extension, she has some kind of connection to Azlagur. This is supported by other circumstantial evidence in FWW as well:

Since we know that the Dream Well in Mani's Caves is similar to the Well in Nal Gorgoth I can assume that Angela is revealing the existence of the Draumar to Elva there? I feel certainly feel as if you're setting up her for something in the future series.
Heh. Good Catch.

So, she is clearly working with Elva to do something related to the Dream Wells, and she also previously confronted Bachel, many years ago. So throughout multiple years across the WoE, she is connected to Azlagur and the Draumar; her story clearly revolves around them/Azlagur, somehow.
Putting the above pieces together, my guess is that she is jumping around in different timelines, trying to manipulate actions of the past to prevent the rise of Azlagur. Just like the player character in Marathon. There's another piece of circumstantial evidence to support this assertion as well.
In Marathon Infinity:

After multiple "jumps," the player (seemingly the only one who realizes he is being transported between possible realities)

Versus Angela:

As hours passed, the stars turned above, night chill drew the heat from my body, and I fell into a curious trance, not asleep but not fully awake... The world altered" (On the Nature of Stars, FWW).

I believe this world "Altering" was the first time she experienced an alternate timeline, without knowing what it was at the time.
We've also seen her create "Doorways" as well - Although it's not clear if this is fast traveling (a la a Torque Gate), or truly opening a path to another timeline.
In Eldest:

"As they landed, he noticed a patch of white on a small hill nearby. The patch wavered strangely in the dark, like a floating candle, then resolved into Angela, who was wearing a pale wool tunic" (A Sorceress, a Snake, and a Scroll).

and then later, more concretely:

"I traced a line on the wall, reached out, and opened a door that wasn't there. ON the other side - nighttime, a beach by a black ocean lit only by stars, so many, many stars, more than there should be. Of course, I would not take Elva to my home, not yet. But this was a waypoint, a place to build and learn and grow... She stared into the gap, the impossible portal" (On the Nature of Stars, FWW).

Still, as always with Angela, so many questions.
Alright, we've reached an ungodly wordcount, so I'll call it here. There are still more connections I'm uncovering between the two series (such as the potential connection between the Gedway Ignasia and the "warning" sensation from Marathon), so I might make a follow-up post in the future with everything else I uncover.
As always, thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments, or if you've found any other connections between the two.

TLDR: Trying to figure out which scan tool from Autel or others can show cam desired versus actual on 3.6 Pentastar.
Following up on some major seevice work at 171k miles on 2014 Wrangler 3.6 / auto and need some advice please:
Changed plugs, coils, injectors, oil cooler (dorman aluminum version) timing set (Melling) and cam phasers with new control valves (Standard Motor Products).
I don’t do this for a living but am definitely on the serious side of amateur / hobbiest. I’ve probably rebuilt to spec several dozen engines ranging from 1970’s Jaguars through FJ40’s lots of GM products in 4,6,8 cylinders, light truck and commercial diesels and powerstroke Diesels. I’ve never had a failure to start, run, or last. I have and followed factory service manual for the JK Jeep. I should have been able to do this!
Startup was rough but after a few attempts at cranking she bled the injectors and fired right up. Idles smoothly. Oil pressure 91-95 PSI cold and 25-30 hot at idle. Battery and alternator voltage good (don’t recall exact value). Within a 1/4 mile I was in limp mode with traction control and check wngine lights on. All of the codes are P000a-d. “Camshaft Slow Response”. Engine runs smooth through 5000+ rpm, but shifts are limited to 4th gear. So I drive to work 18 miles each way. Next day the lights go off and everything is golden. After 3-4 restarts, limp mode is back and wont go away!
Factory service manual says oil change, then replace pcm. Nope, not at those $$. I want to know what is wrong! So I do a bit of parts cannon…. New cam position sensors, although the fault seems to be on all 4 randomly. JSCAN only says “at least one fault has been counted in this position recently”. New crank position sensor. New cam VVT Solenoids. No Changes.
Then I start tracing grounds from the solenoids and get some intermittent high resistance. Ive had weird groundingg problems before, and I realized that my battery cable terminal negative side isnt clamping well. I can lift it off the post. The harness is generally crunchy and shitty from 10 years in desert heat, so I decided to re-do them.
Pulled the entire wiring harness off the engine and yanked the battery cables out. Replaced them with 2awg and bolt-down terminals. Continuity checked every ground terminal pin to pin. No fails. Same on the power side.
Fun side note, the 2014 Factory Wiring diagram has a major typo in showing incorrect ground terminal locations!
So, put that all back, pulled valve covers again, checked timing marks against youtube. It all seems right. I did not pull the timing cover again. I did clean the bits of metal powder off the camshaft tone rings with paper towel and brake clean. Restart engine. Starts instantly. Cam rattle for about 1 second, perfectly smooth idle. Same codes within 45 seconds.
So, i need a scan tool. Factory service manual says to check desired versus actual cam and crank positions. My old scan tool was PC based AutoEnginuity, but I hate the PC aspect and the subscription lapsed about 8 years ago. So im looking at Autel, but overwhelmed by all the options with very little info.
Can anyone tell me what level of Autel can show that live position versus desired position? Should I look elsewhere?
Mechanically, can you tell me if it is possible to overtorque an oil control valve? I keep wondering if the cam phasers could be dragging because they might be too tight? But if you grab the cam with a wrench, it moves easily and moves the phaser, so the lock pins are seated.
Cost isn’t a huge concern, especially if I can find a tool with longevity, but I cant use it for work, so it wont pay back / trying to avoid the Snap-off-in-you van. I can go a long way into trying to squeeze another 150k miles out of this rig before I lay down for a new Jeep at $75k plus!
Thank you for any and all advice and ideas. Brainstorming will help and I’m grateful for it.

I'm in need of a new car but I don't have the budget for a new vehicle. Currently driving my first car, a 2012 Chevy Sonic and it's got too many repairs needed to make sense anymore. Not known for reliability...
I've been looking to see if there's any other well priced cars with features i'm looking for, specifically being a hatchback, reliable, good gas prices and having A/C. What can I say lol keeping expectations low.
I've seen a few Mazda 3's going for around 14k (2012-2015) and a KIA Rio (2018) going for the same. I assume a newer year would be better, but I know the mazda seems more popular...
I know KIA's have theft issues in some countries, but in Canada all cars have had immobilizers since 2007, so that's not a concern for me, but honestly I am not a car person. Is there any obvious choice hatchback i'm completely looking over?
Located in the Lower Mainland (BC Canada) so used cars are expensive here too lol. All in my budget is 15k.

OOC: co-written with NotTooSunny
It was an ordinary day at the New York City Library. People wandered in and out of the building, unaware of the monster that lurked among them.
The only people who seemed to know the danger these mortals were in were Harper and Amon, who entered the building with glowing bronze swords at their hips. The bulky weapons seemed to have escaped the notice of the other library patrons, which was a good thing. The job description had made it clear that they were meant to remain inconspicuous in completing their task.
Harper had traded her usual bright orange camp shirt for a more discrete cropped black t-shirt and pleated pants. She had been insistent on coming up with a persona for them on the train ride from Montauk Station into New York City. They were meant to act as high school students researching for a World History paper on Ancient Greece. Now that they were inside the library, she had stopped her incessant rambling to peruse a riddle book, in what she had insisted was preparation for their job.
As they wandered through the bookshelves, she remained absorbed in the dog-eared children’s book, thumbing through the pages to find a riddle that would be fitting of a sphinx.
“Here’s one, Amon,” she said, narrowly avoiding a collision with another library patron as she read, “What is something that runs but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?”
The dark-haired son of Apollo glanced over from a shelf of dusty atlases, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. “That is an easy one,” he replied simply. "River. Try me with something more challenging next time around." He adjusted the collar of his striped button down, which he had layered with a navy blue sweater in preparation for the chill of the air-conditioned interior.
“The real riddle is where we can find this sphinx,” Amon glanced around the spacious reading area, eyeing the dark wooden staircase with its ornate railings. “The boyfriend and girlfriend who tried this last time, they found her by a bookcase.”
“A bookcase,” Harper repeated derisively, closing her book to theatrically scan their surroundings. “That narrows it down.”
Ignoring Harper’s mockery, the son of Apollo paused suddenly, his dark eyes glazing over with concentration. His hearing dulled, the surrounding footsteps and rustling pages fading into the background as if muffled by a thick curtain. Amon searched for the energy signature of the monster he knew lurked among the mortals. It was a subtle shift, like trying to discern a whisper in a crowded room, but he felt a faint, abnormal energy hanging somewhere up above.
“I say we try the second floor,” he said as he snapped out of the tracking trance, offering no other explanation to Harper.
“We could do that, sure,” Harper said, words laced with blatant doubt at his sudden certainty. “I say we try asking the Visitor’s Center. I know she's supposed to be disguised by the Mist, but the librarians have to have noticed something.”
“You can go ahead and do that.” The small smirk from earlier was now spreading across his face. “But you can’t be upset if I find the sphinx and solve her riddle before you even get there.”
Harper rolled her eyes, but she made no attempt to stop Amon from walking towards the staircase. After a moment she set off after him, footsteps even against the wooden steps.
Up on the second floor, Amon moved quietly, his dark eyes scanning the hallway for anything out of the ordinary.
I know you’re up here.
He stopped at every heavy-looking mahogany door, peering through each muted glass insert. He felt the air grow thicker with ominous energy at every step, so he knew the monster must be near.
One of the doors was slightly ajar, a suspiciously open invitation. Or a trap. The dark-haired boy caught sight of a cat-shaped figure on the other side before ducking down and motioning sharply for Harper’s attention. He unsheathed his kopis from his belt, bracing himself for confrontation.
Harper crouched against the wall, hand on the hilt of her sword as she tried to peek through the frosted glass pane. She held her breath, ready to move at Amon’s signal. He held out three fingers and then put them down one by one. When he hit zero, they stood in unison, flinging the door open together.
When Amon and Harper stepped inside, the body of the sphinx lay motionless on the floor.
The rest of the room was in disarray, littered with disheveled chairs and broken bits of chalk. A window on the other side of the room had been forced open, the curtain fluttering in the wind.
“No way,” Harper said. The door clicked shut behind her as she pushed past Amon into the room and kneeled to study the monster’s limp figure.
The sphinx had the large body of a lion and the eerily human face of a middle-aged woman, hair tied back in a severe bun and foundation caked onto her high cheekbones. Fangs jutted out of her red-painted lips, and eagle wings sprouted out of the space between her shoulder blades, folded tight against her back.
“Monsters dissolve into dust when they die,” Amon remarked, keeping his distance as he watched the subtle rise and fall of the monster’s ribs. “She must have been knocked unconscious.”
“Right,” Harper agreed, “The real question is who. And why.”
She hovered a hand over the cat's shoulder, set on rousing her. Before she made contact, the sphinx's eyes snapped open, round irises surrounded by shocking yellow sclera.
"Slain!" she wailed. Harper staggered backwards. Amon’s arms instinctively reached out to catch her, but she didn’t stumble near enough to make contact. "I am slain!"
With feline grace, the sphinx rose to her feet. A white tape outline marked the placement of her previously prone body on the floor. The muscles in her legs rippled as she paced in front of Harper and Amon, massive velvet paws silent against the carpet.
"And you, my dear heroes," she roared, eyes narrowed in an accusatory glare, "were too late to save me!"
The sphinx sniffed, composing herself. She leapt onto a wooden table. The table legs creaked underneath her weight. "Fear not," she tutted, "Fear not. For you can still avenge me. If you are able to determine the murderer and their weapon, then I will obtain justice, and all will be right with the world.”
“Your riddle is a murder mystery,” Harper said, confusion written across her face. Amon raised an eyebrow. The sphinx chuffed, a low rumbling sound reminiscent of laughter.
“You sought that hackneyed question about man? The Sphinx that the storytellers remember is far less adaptive than I am. I am not interested in your ability to regurgitate the information you have read. Nor am I interested in taking advantage of the nonsensical rules of your English language.”
“I am here to satisfy my own curiosity: does modern mankind still possess the ability to engage in deductive reasoning, or do they only seek to make themselves appear intelligent? Do not speak,” the sphinx said, a pointed look at Harper, who had opened her mouth to interject, “You will answer my questions when you play my game.”
“The potential murder weapons are scattered throughout this room,” she continued, leaping off the table. “And the suspects have already provided their testimonies for your review. Rest assured, I have made certain that their statements contain no lies.”
A shimmering, translucent energy began to swirl around Harper and Amon’s feet, beginning to take shape as holograms with a flickering, ephemeral quality.
A projection of Cerberus materialized first, his three massive heads snarling and snapping in unison. A ribbon of text appeared by his paws to translate his growling: "I was guarding the entrance, my duty unbroken."
Next came the Minotaur, his towering form pacing within the labyrinth on Crete. He snorted and pawed at the ground, the holographic maze shifting behind him in the background. The translation text appeared: "Confined within these walls, no escape for me."
Lamia's projection flickered into view, her serpentine lower half coiled around her as she wept in her cave. She glanced mournfully at the holographic images of her lost children: "My grief consumes me, innocent of this crime."
A shimmering Hydra emerged next, its nine heads snapping at invisible foes. Each one moved independently, showcasing its ability to act on its own. The translation for the hissing head at the center read: "Engaged in battle, I could not have killed."
Typhon materialized with a thunderous roar, his colossal form fighting against restraints under Mount Etna. His immense size and power were palpable, even in scaled down holographic form: "Bound by chains of the earth, I could not have roamed free."
Echidna’s hologram appeared last, her form a mix of human and serpent, lounging in a dimly lit cave. She looked directly at the viewers, her expression both defiant and amused. The translation text by her side read: “I dwell in my lair, uninvolved in such petty affairs.”
The sphinx swiped at the last projection as it faded, deeming her handiwork satisfactory. “There is not enough information to deduce the killer using evidence alone. Because I am fair, I will provide you with three hints before your final guess. Be forewarned: if you fail to provide a correct answer, you will both perish. Is this understood?”
Harper spoke. “If we answer correctly, you will leave this library for good.”
“If you answer correctly, I will permanently relocate. It is a preferable option in comparison to another death. Now, do you agree to the terms and conditions?” the sphinx said primly, regarding Harper and Amon with casual disdain. The pair nodded. “Very well.”
The sphinx dropped onto the floor and let her head loll back, pretending to be dead once more.
Hint #1

Suspects	Weapons
Cerberus	The Shirt of Nessus
The Minotaur	Siren Song
Lamia	Harpy Talon
The Hydra	Celestial Bronze Sword
Typhon	A-C Encyclopedia
Echidna	Cerberus Fang

Soon after the sphinx had laid back down, Harper and Amon began to scour the room. A small pile of prospective murder weapons formed on a nearby table.
“We can easily eliminate the siren song,” Amon rushed to speak over Harper, eyeing the small glass vial of swirling gray matter that they had found nestled behind a row of books on metalworking. “It is a luring mechanism, not a murder weapon.”
“We could rule out Cerberus’ fang too,” he pointed at the enormous yellowing tooth, about the size of the small baseball bat Amon used to have when he played in the little league. “If we take the hologram as ground truth, all of his teeth were intact there.”
Harper used her kopis to prod at the stained tunic that had been hidden in a desk drawer, being careful not to touch it with bare skin. “The Shirt of Nessus is a viable option. It would be easy for any of the suspects to lay it down and wait for the hydra venom to kick in.”
“I am not ready to rule out the bronze sword either,” Amon noted. “Monsters have access to heroes and the weapons they leave behind.”
“Most of these monsters don’t even have opposable thumbs,” Harper argued, running a hand over the sword they had found by a power outlet. ”They don’t have the dexterity to wield a sword.”
“I do not imagine that the technicality would be that granular.”
Harper laughed. “Oh, the number of teeth in the Cerberus hologram tell all, but we’re drawing the line at opposable thumbs.”
“I suppose that that logic would also rule out the harpy talon and the encyclopedia easily as well,” Amon admitted. “Which would be too easy.”
“I’m just that good at logical deduction.” Harper said proudly. “If my assumption is correct, then the poisoned shirt is the only one that makes sense.”
Amon scoffed, folding his arms across his chest as his dark eyes bored into Harper. “It would not necessarily matter what our first guess would be anyway.”
“Can you provide an argument for any other weapon? Or are you intent on purposely making an illogical guess?” she countered cooly.
“Fine,” Amon acquiesced. “Since you are so adamant about the shirt, we can guess the shirt, and be incorrect. It does not matter. What about the suspects themselves?” He clasped his hands behind his back, his steps measured as he started to pace across the plush red carpet of the room.
Harper smiled, smugly accepting her victory. She strode towards a chalkboard at the side of the study room, inscribing the list of weapons and suspects with a fresh piece of white chalk.
“All of them have alibis,“ she began. “I think that-”
“Some make more sense than others,” Amon spoke over Harper, irritated by her minor triumph. “Cerberus, for example, is under the service of Hades. He says he did not leave his post, and he could not have done so without permission or dire consequences on the process of the dead.”
Harper silently seethed as Amon spoke, meeting his rationale with reluctant acceptance before starting again in a louder, exaggerated tone. “I think that the ones with the shakiest alibis are Lamia, the Minotaur, Typhon, and Echidna. No witnesses can confirm their locations. In fact, Lamia provides no location at all.” Harper circled those names. She looked at Amon with a forced smile, allowing him a moment to provide more commentary.
“Lamia? Well,” there was a hint of mockery in the sneer that tugged on the corner of Amon’s lips. “I would imagine her emotions rendered her… Too fragile and unstable to carry out such an act.”
“You’re kidding,” Harper scoffed, searching Amon's face for the slightest hint that he was joking. “Her grief is what moved her to kill children in the first place. I doubt it would suddenly be incapacitating. She’s just appealing to your sense of superiority, and I can’t believe that you’re falling for it.”
"It is not about superiority. It is about logic," Amon retorted, bristling in defense. “You cannot deny that emotions cloud judgment. Maybe the sphinx wants us to leverage our knowledge about her past crimes to reason that she was not thinking clearly in this case either.” Amon had no other evidence that pointed towards Lamia as the top suspect, but he had dug deep enough where he was now ready to stand firm in his reasoning.
“Murder,” Harper countered, eyes narrowed in a venomous stare, “-does not require you to think clearly. Haven’t you heard of a crime of passion? If anyone’s judgment is clouded right now, Amon, it’s yours.”
The son of Apollo squared his shoulders, his expression hardening. "I understand the concept of crimes of passion, thank you.” His dark-eyed stare returned Harper's gaze, unflinching at the intensity. “But our investigation must be rooted in facts, not assumptions based on emotions. And the facts are,” he resumed his pacing once more, “that Lamia cannot be the culprit, as she is the only suspect that openly admits to being innocent of this crime.”
Amon had considered this from the very start, but provoking Harper like this had proved to be far more amusing.
Harper crossed Lamia’s name off of the board. She swallowed down her anger, fighting the urge to continue pressing the issue in favor of returning to their list of suspects. She pointed her piece of chalk at the next names on the list. “The Minotaur and Typhon are trapped, or so they say. How could they have done anything?”
“Their alibis revolve around their inability to escape,” Amon pointed out. “Not that they were unable to commit murder. The Labyrinth, in fact,” he raised a dramatic finger, “has several moving passages that could have permitted the Minotaur to move and commit murder without an official escape.”
Harper considered his words for a long moment, trying to find the flaw in his reasoning. Seeing none, she placed a dot next to the Minotaurs's name.
“Typhon escaped his prison in the Second Titanomachy. He could do it again,” Harper said thoughtfully. “Though I don’t understand why he would do something like this. He’s the Sphinx's father. The same goes for Echidna.”
Amon, who had been nodding at Harper’s assessment of Typhon’s abilities, pursed his lips at her observation of parentage. “I do not see how this could possibly be relevant to the logical puzzle at hand.”
Harper spoke slowly, as if the answer was obvious. “What motive would they have to kill their own daughter?”
“Harper,” Amon began curtly, folding his arms across his chest. “Half of the Greek myths revolve around immortals killing their own children.”
“Then we should pick one of them,” Harper declared, pivoting her argument instead of admitting her logical blunder. “They would have more of a motive than the rest of the suspects, if anything.”
“The Minotaur can escape much more easily than Typhon can. Motive aside, it is the most logical guess,” Amon concluded, adjusting his collar haughtily. “I will remind you that we picked your choice of weapon. It is only fair that I select the monster.”
“Fine.” Harper agreed, her gaze stormy as she turned back towards the sphinx. “We accuse the Minotaur of killing the sphinx with the Shirt of Nessus.”
The sphinx opened one eye. “None of these are correct!”
Hint #2

Suspects	Weapons
~~Cerberus~~	~~The Shirt of Nessus~~
~~The Minotaur~~	~~Siren Song~~
~~Lamia~~	Harpy Talon
~~The Hydra~~	Celestial Bronze Sword
Typhon	A-C Encyclopedia
Echidna	~~Cerberus Fang~~

“Two more hints left.” Harper announced, crossing off the Minotaur’s name and the poisoned shirt on the chalkboard with a flourish. It was not ideal that her initial logical deductions had been incorrect, but at least Amon had also been wrong. She couldn't resist a snide comment. “I knew it wasn’t the Minotaur.”
“So you still think it’s Typhon.” Choosing to ignore Harper’s taunting, Amon rested his hand on a nearby desk, studying the lists on the chalkboard before him. He had taken the Minotaur error as a personal failure, and was determined to get the suspect right this time.
“I do.”
“Why not Echidna?”
“She’s too emotional to kill someone, obviously.” Harper said sarcastically. “Her frail female arms are probably too weak to even hold a weapon.”
The dark-haired boy rolled his eyes. “Objectively,” he began, ignoring her quip once more, “Typhon could not have lied about his inability to roam free. A natural disaster freed him from Mount Etna during the Second Titanomachy, but he could not recreate those conditions on his own.” Though his tone remained aloof, it was clear that Amon was relishing in the opportunity to flaunt his mythology knowledge.
“Maybe,” Harper argued, stubborn. “But Echidna’s statement was less ambiguous than his. Typhon just explains his predicament; he doesn't provide a real claim. Echidna explicitly says she was not involved.” She thought for a few more moments, rolling the piece of chalk in her hands. “Echidna could have released him? They would be accomplices.”
Amon shook his head. “There was a single murderer. Not two. The sphinx would not lie about the premise of the game.”
Harper stared at him coldly, but could offer no rebuttal. She turned her attention to the board. “Typhon is a giant. He’s capable of using the sword.”
“But the specificity of Echidna’s denial is still incredibly suspicious. ‘Petty affairs’ is a strange way to phrase a murder. But,” Amon added reluctantly, “I understand the logic behind Typhon. I suppose it is your turn to choose the monster, and we will still have another guess to work with.”
“As for the weapon,” he continued, “I still think the sword is the most viable option, given that the siren song and the fang can be ruled out and the shirt with the venom was, well,” Amon pursed his lips, fighting the urge to smile, “incorrect.”
Before Harper could interject, Amon turned towards the sphinx at the front of the room. “We accuse Typhon of killing the sphinx with a Celestial Bronze Sword.”
“One of these is correct!”
Hint #3

Suspects	Weapons
~~Cerberus~~	~~The Shirt of Nessus~~
~~The Minotaur~~	~~Siren Song~~
~~Lamia~~	~~Harpy Talon~~
~~The Hydra~~	Celestial Bronze Sword
~~Typhon~~	~~A-C Encyclopedia~~
Echidna	~~Cerberus Fang~~

“Aha!” Amon raised a triumphant finger before pointing it at Harper. “I told you,” he gloated, “Typhon had no escape route.”
“You were right,” Harper admitted, staring down at the carpet so that she would not have to look at his smug expression.
“Let’s get this over with,” she muttered, and turned back towards the lioness with crossed arms. “We accuse Echidna of killing the sphinx with a Celestial Bronze Sword”
“One of these is correct,” the sphinx announced. Her mouth twisted in amusement, fangs bared in a menacing smile.
READ PART 2 HERE

Hello, glorious readers of EoD! Thank you for your patience in these two weeks' matters. My exams are now done, and that means I have a lot more time for writing. In order to reward your continued patience, I am planning something big next week. Here's a small hint: It's gonna take a long time for the ships to actually reach Sanctuary, so that means a lot of time for the Arxur commander and the CSSF commander to diss one another. The first chapter is going to be like one big rap battle.
First Chapter Next Chapter> (Coming soon)
The stars swirled above, labyrinthine in their structure and arrangement, the five moons casting an elegant light open the planet’s surface. A gleaming silver and gray object lays embedded in Mount Yth'Rathgor, searchlights scanning the surface and sky alike. Long convoys of trucks filed with materials lumber up the long, winding paths leading to the gate, the cumbersome and primitive internal combustion engines spitting out polluting gasses as they haul their cargo and passengers up the mountain side. As the leading truck reaches the gate, the mountain looms over the truck’s cabin, as the driver hands over his ID to the guard. A few seconds later, The trucks start flooding into the mountain’s hold.
Inside the base is a cavernous parking and cargo processing center, that feeds its resources into a hidden facility, buried deep under the hundreds of meters of rock. Screams of agony and pain echo through the halls, reverberations of the brutal and uncaring experiments that take place here. The bodies of the fallen are simply thrown into an incinerator, unthinking of the countless acts of trauma and suffering they endured. Reptilian eyes watch from the catwalks, making sure that the contaminated bodies are properly disposed of. More than one Arxur has thought about eating the bodies, but the risk of contamination is too great for such a prize.
This facility, known as Testing Center KL-1HC, is the development center for CHE. The Arxur themselves are immune to its behavioral effects, but the bodily processes are more affected. Contamination gradually leads to internal hemorrhaging, heart arrhythmias, and organ failure. Without immediate medical intervention, the mostly likely outcome is death. To the leaders of the Arxur, it is not worth all the time and money to save just one more replaceable life. Just another body thrown on the top of the brutal regime’s mountain of corpses.
In this facility, the commanders of the surrounding region come together, planning their vengeance against the unknown new aggressors that wiped an entire raid fleet off of the map. Probes detected the paths of the departing ships, and the exact pinpoint location of their destination was finally calculated. A main sequence star, a G2 type, is an excellent location for a possible base, being that they have a higher chance to contain habitable planets. They begin to construct a battle plan, using the forces shown at the Slaughter of Beta Jannik, as if it could be called any other name but a bloody massacre. After a few days of deliberations and simulations, the Arxur leaders quietly send their orders to the fleets harbored in gigantic fleet yards that orbit the many moons of this star system. One by one, the ships take on crew and supplies, before igniting their huge engines, and slowly gliding out of the many hangers, or undocking from umbilical-like docking ports. They begin to line up in formations, reporting in to their squadron leaders. It is not long before the fleet is ready.
Thousands of ships filled with hundreds of thousands of Arxur thirsting for the blood of those who would dare attack the righteous Arxur. They will pay for their insolence. There is no doubt that the property that they stole from the holds of the cattle ships will be there. They must be recovered, and the aggressors annihilated, for the Betterment of the Arxur race. They begin to move to the jump limit, in order to minimize the effects of the jump drives on the planet’s atmosphere. As they reach it, the Arxur commander broadcasts himself across the entire fleet’s comm links.
“Fellow Arxur, disciples of Betterment! Today, we stand upon the precipice of vengeance, our souls seething with the flames of righteous fury! Behold the scarred visage of our fleet, destroyed in Beta Jannik, once a beacon of our dominion, now reduced to naught but ashes and sorrow.
We gather here not as mere mortals, but as avatars of annihilation, sworn to deliver swift and merciless retribution upon those who dare defy our sovereignty. The Slaughter of Beta Jannik shall not go unpunished, for every drop of Arxur blood spilled shall be repaid a thousandfold!
To the aggressors who dared infringe upon our sacred flocks, heed my words and tremble! Your reckoning draws nigh, and the flames of damnation shall consume your very essence. No corner of the cosmos shall offer you refuge from our righteous fury!
We are the harbingers of oblivion, the heralds of eternal darkness. We shall rain down upon you a tempest of torment, and your cries of anguish shall echo throughout the void, a testament to the folly of challenging the might of the Betterment!
Let the heavens themselves bear witness to our wrath, for today marks the dawn of your demise! Prepare yourselves, for the Arxur fleet marches forth, and none shall escape the judgement of the Betterment! May our enemies cower in fear, for we are the instruments of their destruction!”
The Arxur cheer, and more than one cattle is sacrificed for good luck, and a good meal. The jump drives are charged, their coils glistening and pulsing with frantic energy as they prepare to breach the laws of the universe.
Something unexpected happens. The fleet splits in two, one smaller segment warping to the destination as planned, and the rest to a star close to the target. This is no error, nor a folly, but part of the plan. The smaller part is to scout out the system, relay the information back to the primary fleet, and then their assault the enemy, or start looking for their real base.
But, they do not know of the CSSF’s defenses. They have known that the Arxur would attack Sanctuary. After all, it is part of the plan. Lure the enemy fleet here, into the CSSF’s home territory, and then both gain more valuable information on the Arxur, as well as leaking the location of the home base of this attacking fleet. It also serves a third purpose. To drain the reserves of the enemy fleet stationed there, softening it up for a future CSSF assault.
The Arxur know none of this. But they will. Cowards hiding behind the facade of false warrior's valor. Their hollow threats echo in the void, mere whispers of delusion. The Arxur fleet may brandish its swords, but it lacks the spine to face true adversaries. Beware, for their arrogance shall be their undoing.
First Chapter Next Chapter> (Coming soon)

I'm looking to buy my first car in the US. It has proven a bit more difficult than I initially thought, mainly because of my budget of $5000,-. I don't have any experience in car maintenance etc. so I'm looking for a car that is reliable and easy to maintain. I've found the following options:

2015 Volkswagen Tiguan S 2.0L L4 DOHC 16V TURBO with 160000 miles for $5000
2009 Volkswagen Jetta 2.5L 5 cylinder S Sedan with 82000 miles for $4900
2012 Ford Fusion SE 4 cylinder with 80000 miles for $5000
2006 Mazda 3 4 cylinder with 176000 miles for $4500
2004 Lexus RX 330 with 200000 miles for $4900 dollars

I know of the superior reliability of Honda and Toyota, but I don't seem to be able to find any reasonable looking clean cars in my price category. If you have any other recommendations, feel free to give them!
Thanks in advance!