Viper gts streaming
Exotic Cars on a Budget
2014.08.11 06:36 teckademics Exotic Cars on a Budget
In protest against Reddit API and nsfw management, which I consider harmful to us users and mods, this sub is shutting down today.
2015.05.11 21:37 Prais Every Second Matters
Are you a master of time and casually style on people? Do you revel in the salty tears of your stomped enemies, finding joy in their post-game despair? If outsmarting opponents with a dash of flair and a sprinkle of sass is your game, then /ekkomains is your ultimate place-to-be. Join us, where every second counts and every play is a chance to hone your skills. Welcome to the home of those who bend time to their will – for the strategists and the newcomers, this is your community!
2024.05.16 16:57 astrodomekid Can someone make a square-resolution grid of Test Drive 5's American cover art?
 | A week or two ago I finally got around to adding the game's soundtrack to my iPhone's music library - way overdue if you ask me considering how badass the soundtrack is - and right now I'm using the cover art from the PAL version 'cause it's the only one on SteamGridDB that's in a square resolution ideal for album art. Being an American, I'm more accustomed to the NTSC-U cover art, with that '96 Dodge Viper GTS which remains one of my all-time favorite dream cars. So if anyone is able to make it happen, I would really appreciate it. submitted by astrodomekid to steamgrid [link] [comments] I'd make an attempt myself, but I'm at work today and I'm not a pro photo editor anyway so I have no idea how it would turn out on my end. |
2024.05.16 16:24 BigHeadDjango Series 33 Week 4 - Spring Seasonal Tunes! (Apex Allstars) by BigHedDjango
Hello everyone! BigHedDjango here, tunes for this week to help you out.
Weekly photo: https://i.imgur.com/88KGCCS.png
All feedback on tunes is appreciated - good or bad. Specially when tunes are bad. At the end of the day I am just the mechanic and you guys are the racers. Do not hesitate irrespective of your tuning knowledge or racing skills!
Tuning method: 1. Stock look - stock wheel rims and size, no aero (unless absolutely necessary for handling and stability) 2. Tuned for automatic/manual players by not skipping clutch+gearbox upgrades 3. Max performance with max handling possible 4. All cars tuned vs. Unbeatable AI, tracks/weather conditions are now unknown since time travel no longer works. Since release AI has been inconsistent between many car types and weather conditions, not every car will win 10/10 races vs Unbeatable AI without rewind/restart abuse 5. Bodykit used if it does not hurt performance
Easy Win Road Circuit - 177 632 200
Easy Win Dirt Trail - 991 376 926
Easy Win Dirt Scramble - 135 436 707
Easy Win Cross Country Sprint - 114 199 871
Easy Win Cross Country Circuit - 181 401 852
Easy Win Street Scene Sprint - 134 229 457
Easy Win Drag Strip - 812 084 897
📸 Also don't stop yourself from checking out my photos on the creative hub. Wow! What beautiful photos! 📸
Don't hesitate to ask if you need any help!
🛠️ I am open to requests for cars you might want me to tune! It would also help me understand FH5 tuning better. So let me know the car and class and I'd get back to you! 🛠️
submitted by BigHeadDjango to forza [link] [comments]
Weekly photo: https://i.imgur.com/88KGCCS.png
All feedback on tunes is appreciated - good or bad. Specially when tunes are bad. At the end of the day I am just the mechanic and you guys are the racers. Do not hesitate irrespective of your tuning knowledge or racing skills!
Tuning method: 1. Stock look - stock wheel rims and size, no aero (unless absolutely necessary for handling and stability) 2. Tuned for automatic/manual players by not skipping clutch+gearbox upgrades 3. Max performance with max handling possible 4. All cars tuned vs. Unbeatable AI, tracks/weather conditions are now unknown since time travel no longer works. Since release AI has been inconsistent between many car types and weather conditions, not every car will win 10/10 races vs Unbeatable AI without rewind/restart abuse 5. Bodykit used if it does not hurt performance
___
Forzathon Weekly Challenge - Time to Play
2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray * Tune - 142 362 222 * Easy to use; Decent grip even in rain; Good braking; Lacks S1 top speed; 6-gears; Sigala wide body kit; Chevrolet rear wing; Custom rims; v1 * Event Lab BP - Easy Win Drag Strip - 812 084 897
___
Trial - MX-5 Drive
Road Racing - Mazda MX-5 - A 800
NOTE: Try to block and slow down AI and help teammates in order to win. One player on the team needs to take at least P3 and slow down the AI for a guaranteed win2016 Mazda MX-5 * Tune - 446 488 045 * Fastest option; v1
2005 Mazda Mazdaspeed MX-5 * Tune - 386 598 479 * Low A class top speed; v1
1994 Mazda MX-5 Miata * Tune - 686 056 119 * Lacks braking; Lacks A class top speed; v2 - rebuild, smoother, faster
2013 Mazda MX-5 * Tune - 159 091 037 * Low A class top speed; v1
___
Event Lab 1 - Eagle Forest Raceway
Modern Supercars - A 800
2012 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Spyder Performante * Tune - 171 863 878 * Playlist car; Good braking; Low A class top speed; Slowish car overall; Stock engine; True Purist; v1
2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupe * Tune - 575 887 945 * Tune by Naitsab243; Custom rims; Rear aero
___
Event Lab 2 - Emerald GP Circuit
Retro Hot Hatch - B 700
1974 Honda Civic RS * Tune - 689 859 387 * FWD; Meta car; Meta tune; Lacks top speed; Wide body kit + Classic rear wing + Custom rims; Dry only; v2
___
Seasonal PR Stunts
2010 Mosler MT900S * Tune - 106 016 211 * Superb grip; Good handling but oversteery; v3
Speed Trap - Northern Passage - Extreme Track Toys - S2 998
- Start at least 0.7 miles from the west
Speed Trap - Escarpment - Extreme Track Toys - S2 998
- Start 0.5 miles from the west. Turn in hard on final right hand corner, can even cut offroad
Speed Zone - Camino Del Cielo - Extreme Track Toys - S2 998
NOTE: All Championships are locked at Highly Skilled difficulty
- Start at least 1.3 miles away on the north east road. Enter the east gate at full throttle, feather brake for first right hand corner and final hairpin only. You can also start max 1 mile from the west cause need to brake immediately upton entering the west gate
Championship 1 - Picking Favorite
Road Racing - Forza Cover Cars - S1 900
2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS Anniversary Edition (Maybe not an option) * Tune - 301 899 128 * Meta car; Meta tune; Good grip; Oversteer but no traction loss; * Lacks S1 top speed so sprints with lots of corners or circuits only; * Drag tires - great launch, weak at slow corners, tuned for wet roads as well; * Stock engine; Custom rims; Full aero; Rear diffuser; Sideskirts; v1
2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS * Tune - 693 168 484 * Stock engine; v3
2014 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 * Tune - 204 826 092 * Fast; Stock engine; True Purist; v3
2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 * Tune - 156 811 181 * Stock tirebombs; Good grip; Excellent braking; 7-gears; Stock engine; True Purist; v2
2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS * Tune - 246 355 163 * Stock rear wing; Stock engine; v1
2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray * Tune - 142 362 222 * Easy to use; Decent grip even in rain; Good braking; Lacks S1 top speed; 6-gears; Sigala wide body kit; Chevrolet rear wing; Custom rims; v1
___
Championship 2 - Going the Distance
Road Racing - GT & Super GT - A 800
2012 Jaguar XKR-S * Tune - 173 823 336 (v4)
2013 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S * Tune - 963 723 177 * Decent grip; Good top speed; Stock engine; Hot Wheels tune; v1
2010 Maserati Gran Turismo S * Tune - 547 023 206 * Lacks braking; Stock engine; v2
2017 Aston Martin DB11 * Tune - 153 787 435 * Stock engine only; v2
2021 Lexus LC 500 * Tune - 305 052 584 * Playlist car; Stock engine; v1
2019 Aston Martin Vantage * Tune - 404 086 715 * Downgraded to A class; Good handling but slow overall; Stock engine; v2
___
Treasure Hunt - Blame Impala
What to do: Using any Chevrolet Impala either get an Ultimate Wreckage skill or maybe lots of wreckage skills___
RALLY ADVENTURE DLC
Seasonal PR Stunts
Speed Trap - La Cantera - Mustang - A 800
2018 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5 * Tune - 589 436 345 * Start ~500 yards in the east dirt hairpin
Championship 3 - Mustang Rally
Night Rally - Mustang - A 800
2018 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5 * Tune - 589 436 345 * Good mid-speed accel; Comfortable to drive; v2
1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302 * Tune - 246 848 148 * Superb; v2
___
HOT WHEELS DLC
Seasonal PR Stunts
Speed Zone - Supersonic Spiral - Lamborghini - S1 900
2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 * Tune - 156 811 181 * Start at least 0.7 miles away on the north east track (try to spawn in small loop)
Championship 4 - It's Race-a-Bull
Speed - Lamborghini - S1 900
2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 * Tune - 156 811 181 * Stock tirebombs; Good grip; Excellent braking; 7-gears; Stock engine; True Purist; v2
2014 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 * Tune - 204 826 092 * Fast; Stock engine; True Purist; v3
2016 Lamborghini Aventador SuperVeloce * Tune - 124 905 282 * Arcade racing game car; Excellent braking; Stock engine only; True Purist; v2
___
Event Lab Blueprints!
Easy Win Road Sprint - 696 659 852Easy Win Road Circuit - 177 632 200
Easy Win Dirt Trail - 991 376 926
Easy Win Dirt Scramble - 135 436 707
Easy Win Cross Country Sprint - 114 199 871
Easy Win Cross Country Circuit - 181 401 852
Easy Win Street Scene Sprint - 134 229 457
Easy Win Drag Strip - 812 084 897
___
Horizon 4 and 5 Tunes Archive!
https://www.reddit.com/useBigHeadDjango/comments/r4ptt6/forza_horizon_4_and_horizon_5_tunes_archive/Thank you to everyone for your downloads, uses, likes, follows, shares and feedback! Check my in-game profile for more tunes. You can check my reddit profile for more content___
📸 Also don't stop yourself from checking out my photos on the creative hub. Wow! What beautiful photos! 📸
Don't hesitate to ask if you need any help!
🛠️ I am open to requests for cars you might want me to tune! It would also help me understand FH5 tuning better. So let me know the car and class and I'd get back to you! 🛠️
___
Have a great week! 🥳
2024.05.16 16:23 BigHeadDjango Series 33 Week 4 - Spring Seasonal Tunes! (Apex Allstars) by BigHedDjango
Hello everyone! BigHedDjango here, tunes for this week to help you out.
Weekly photo: https://i.imgur.com/88KGCCS.png
All feedback on tunes is appreciated - good or bad. Specially when tunes are bad. At the end of the day I am just the mechanic and you guys are the racers. Do not hesitate irrespective of your tuning knowledge or racing skills!
Tuning method: 1. Stock look - stock wheel rims and size, no aero (unless absolutely necessary for handling and stability) 2. Tuned for automatic/manual players by not skipping clutch+gearbox upgrades 3. Max performance with max handling possible 4. All cars tuned vs. Unbeatable AI, tracks/weather conditions are now unknown since time travel no longer works. Since release AI has been inconsistent between many car types and weather conditions, not every car will win 10/10 races vs Unbeatable AI without rewind/restart abuse 5. Bodykit used if it does not hurt performance
Easy Win Road Circuit - 177 632 200
Easy Win Dirt Trail - 991 376 926
Easy Win Dirt Scramble - 135 436 707
Easy Win Cross Country Sprint - 114 199 871
Easy Win Cross Country Circuit - 181 401 852
Easy Win Street Scene Sprint - 134 229 457
Easy Win Drag Strip - 812 084 897
📸 Also don't stop yourself from checking out my photos on the creative hub. Wow! What beautiful photos! 📸
Don't hesitate to ask if you need any help!
🛠️ I am open to requests for cars you might want me to tune! It would also help me understand FH5 tuning better. So let me know the car and class and I'd get back to you! 🛠️
submitted by BigHeadDjango to ForzaHorizon [link] [comments]
Weekly photo: https://i.imgur.com/88KGCCS.png
All feedback on tunes is appreciated - good or bad. Specially when tunes are bad. At the end of the day I am just the mechanic and you guys are the racers. Do not hesitate irrespective of your tuning knowledge or racing skills!
Tuning method: 1. Stock look - stock wheel rims and size, no aero (unless absolutely necessary for handling and stability) 2. Tuned for automatic/manual players by not skipping clutch+gearbox upgrades 3. Max performance with max handling possible 4. All cars tuned vs. Unbeatable AI, tracks/weather conditions are now unknown since time travel no longer works. Since release AI has been inconsistent between many car types and weather conditions, not every car will win 10/10 races vs Unbeatable AI without rewind/restart abuse 5. Bodykit used if it does not hurt performance
___
Forzathon Weekly Challenge - Time to Play
2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray * Tune - 142 362 222 * Easy to use; Decent grip even in rain; Good braking; Lacks S1 top speed; 6-gears; Sigala wide body kit; Chevrolet rear wing; Custom rims; v1 * Event Lab BP - Easy Win Drag Strip - 812 084 897
___
Trial - MX-5 Drive
Road Racing - Mazda MX-5 - A 800
NOTE: Try to block and slow down AI and help teammates in order to win. One player on the team needs to take at least P3 and slow down the AI for a guaranteed win2016 Mazda MX-5 * Tune - 446 488 045 * Fastest option; v1
2005 Mazda Mazdaspeed MX-5 * Tune - 386 598 479 * Low A class top speed; v1
1994 Mazda MX-5 Miata * Tune - 686 056 119 * Lacks braking; Lacks A class top speed; v2 - rebuild, smoother, faster
2013 Mazda MX-5 * Tune - 159 091 037 * Low A class top speed; v1
___
Event Lab 1 - Eagle Forest Raceway
Modern Supercars - A 800
2012 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Spyder Performante * Tune - 171 863 878 * Playlist car; Good braking; Low A class top speed; Slowish car overall; Stock engine; True Purist; v1
2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupe * Tune - 575 887 945 * Tune by Naitsab243; Custom rims; Rear aero
___
Event Lab 2 - Emerald GP Circuit
Retro Hot Hatch - B 700
1974 Honda Civic RS * Tune - 689 859 387 * FWD; Meta car; Meta tune; Lacks top speed; Wide body kit + Classic rear wing + Custom rims; Dry only; v2
___
Seasonal PR Stunts
2010 Mosler MT900S * Tune - 106 016 211 * Superb grip; Good handling but oversteery; v3
Speed Trap - Northern Passage - Extreme Track Toys - S2 998
- Start at least 0.7 miles from the west
Speed Trap - Escarpment - Extreme Track Toys - S2 998
- Start 0.5 miles from the west. Turn in hard on final right hand corner, can even cut offroad
Speed Zone - Camino Del Cielo - Extreme Track Toys - S2 998
NOTE: All Championships are locked at Highly Skilled difficulty
- Start at least 1.3 miles away on the north east road. Enter the east gate at full throttle, feather brake for first right hand corner and final hairpin only. You can also start max 1 mile from the west cause need to brake immediately upton entering the west gate
Championship 1 - Picking Favorite
Road Racing - Forza Cover Cars - S1 900
2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS Anniversary Edition (Maybe not an option) * Tune - 301 899 128 * Meta car; Meta tune; Good grip; Oversteer but no traction loss; * Lacks S1 top speed so sprints with lots of corners or circuits only; * Drag tires - great launch, weak at slow corners, tuned for wet roads as well; * Stock engine; Custom rims; Full aero; Rear diffuser; Sideskirts; v1
2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS * Tune - 693 168 484 * Stock engine; v3
2014 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 * Tune - 204 826 092 * Fast; Stock engine; True Purist; v3
2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 * Tune - 156 811 181 * Stock tirebombs; Good grip; Excellent braking; 7-gears; Stock engine; True Purist; v2
2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS * Tune - 246 355 163 * Stock rear wing; Stock engine; v1
2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray * Tune - 142 362 222 * Easy to use; Decent grip even in rain; Good braking; Lacks S1 top speed; 6-gears; Sigala wide body kit; Chevrolet rear wing; Custom rims; v1
___
Championship 2 - Going the Distance
Road Racing - GT & Super GT - A 800
2012 Jaguar XKR-S * Tune - 173 823 336 (v4)
2013 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S * Tune - 963 723 177 * Decent grip; Good top speed; Stock engine; Hot Wheels tune; v1
2010 Maserati Gran Turismo S * Tune - 547 023 206 * Lacks braking; Stock engine; v2
2017 Aston Martin DB11 * Tune - 153 787 435 * Stock engine only; v2
2021 Lexus LC 500 * Tune - 305 052 584 * Playlist car; Stock engine; v1
2019 Aston Martin Vantage * Tune - 404 086 715 * Downgraded to A class; Good handling but slow overall; Stock engine; v2
___
Treasure Hunt - Blame Impala
What to do: Using any Chevrolet Impala either get an Ultimate Wreckage skill or maybe lots of wreckage skills___
RALLY ADVENTURE DLC
Seasonal PR Stunts
Speed Trap - La Cantera - Mustang - A 800
2018 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5 * Tune - 589 436 345 * Start ~500 yards in the east dirt hairpin
Championship 3 - Mustang Rally
Night Rally - Mustang - A 800
2018 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5 * Tune - 589 436 345 * Good mid-speed accel; Comfortable to drive; v2
1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302 * Tune - 246 848 148 * Superb; v2
___
HOT WHEELS DLC
Seasonal PR Stunts
Speed Zone - Supersonic Spiral - Lamborghini - S1 900
2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 * Tune - 156 811 181 * Start at least 0.7 miles away on the north east track (try to spawn in small loop)
Championship 4 - It's Race-a-Bull
Speed - Lamborghini - S1 900
2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 * Tune - 156 811 181 * Stock tirebombs; Good grip; Excellent braking; 7-gears; Stock engine; True Purist; v2
2014 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 * Tune - 204 826 092 * Fast; Stock engine; True Purist; v3
2016 Lamborghini Aventador SuperVeloce * Tune - 124 905 282 * Arcade racing game car; Excellent braking; Stock engine only; True Purist; v2
___
Event Lab Blueprints!
Easy Win Road Sprint - 696 659 852Easy Win Road Circuit - 177 632 200
Easy Win Dirt Trail - 991 376 926
Easy Win Dirt Scramble - 135 436 707
Easy Win Cross Country Sprint - 114 199 871
Easy Win Cross Country Circuit - 181 401 852
Easy Win Street Scene Sprint - 134 229 457
Easy Win Drag Strip - 812 084 897
___
Horizon 4 and 5 Tunes Archive!
https://www.reddit.com/useBigHeadDjango/comments/r4ptt6/forza_horizon_4_and_horizon_5_tunes_archive/Thank you to everyone for your downloads, uses, likes, follows, shares and feedback! Check my in-game profile for more tunes. You can check my reddit profile for more content___
📸 Also don't stop yourself from checking out my photos on the creative hub. Wow! What beautiful photos! 📸
Don't hesitate to ask if you need any help!
🛠️ I am open to requests for cars you might want me to tune! It would also help me understand FH5 tuning better. So let me know the car and class and I'd get back to you! 🛠️
___
Have a great week! 🥳
2024.05.16 16:13 poiklers Summary of all the job changes from the Live Letter
Was typing these up for my friend who isn't able to watch and thought I may as well post them here. If any clarifications are needed let me know, I will fix it. I won't be going through Viper and Pictomancer, as they would require much more explanation than I am willing to go into lol, plus I want to explore them when they release myself. As with the disclaimer on the stream, this is NOT a full list of all changes and may be subject to change
submitted by poiklers to ffxiv [link] [comments]
Tank
- Rampart and other 30% damage reducing abilities will be upgraded at level 90+
- Reprisal will be increased to 15seconds at level 90+
- big 3 move blade combo (starting with confeitor) gets an additional move
- MP generating move (atonement) gets changed from a stack of 3 charges into a 3 move combo
- Goring blade can now only be used under Fight or Flight
- adds two new abilities that are available after using certain abilities with Inner Release active
- To reduce inputs during burst, Blood Weapon will now upgrade into Delirium
- New ability added for when Living Shadow is active
- Living Shadow no longer uses Blackblood
- New action added that can be used after Fated Circle
- New 3-step combo after using Bloodfest
- Sonic Break can now only be used under No Mercy
Melee DPS
- Second Wind gets increase healing in 90+
- Feint gets increased to 15secs in 90+
- Job no longer centered around maintaining buff or DoT, performing actions in order will increase next actions potency
- Can accumulate up to 10 charkra while Brotherhood is active
- To reduce positional in the single target combo, the fifth combo action has been changed to a new non-directional action, Drakesbane. (wheeling thrust/fang of claw will be combined into Drakesbane)
- Life of the Dragon will now be available without accumulating Dragon Gauge
- To reduce inputs during burst, certain actions will be remove/adjusted
- Spineshatter Dive has been replaced with a gap closer that deals no damage
- Huton's effect has been moved to a trait and will always be active
- Huton now changed to an AoE attack which grants the effect of Hidden, similar to Suikon
- Actions which increased Huton's duration will be adjusted accordingly
- To simplify, Tsubame-gaeshi will be changed to be executable after Meikyo Shisui
- Hakaze (first ability in single target combo), Tenka Goken (2 symbols) and Midare Setsugekka (3 symbols) will be upgraded into new actions
- Plentiful Harvest no longer increases Shroud Gauge by 50, instead just allows execution of Enshroud
- New action added for when Enshroud is active
Physical Ranged DPS
- Second Wind increases in potency at 90+
- Class specific defensive abilities (Troubador, Tactician and Shield Samba) get increased to 15% damage reduction
- Songs will be changed into buffing actions which do not attack enemies
- Pitch Perfect will be changed into an AoE attack for ease of use with multiple enemies
- Barrel Stabilizer no longer increases Heat Gauge by 50, instead allows free execution of Hypercharge
- New trait which accumulates charges for Drill
- New action that can be used after Flourish
- New action which consumes Esprit and can be executed after Technical Finish
Magical Ranged DPS
- Swiftcast's recast will be reduced to 40secs at 90+
- Addle's duration will be increased to 15seconds at 90+
- Various adjustments made to streamline certain aspects, i.e. restoring MP upon landing ice spells while Umbral Ice is active, instead of passively
- New action which repositions Ley Lines beneath the caster
- Solar Bahamut, a new summon akin to Bahamut and Phoenix will be added
- New action that can be executed after Searing light will be added
- Manafication no longer increase Black and White Mana by 50, increase allows the execution of enchanted swordplay actions without cost
- The AoE enchanted swordplay combo beginning with Enchanted Moulinet will now consume a total of 50 black and white mana, similar to single target
- New finisher will be added
Healer
- Swiftcast's recast will be reduced to 40secs at 90+
- New action that allows the caster to [move quickly forward](https://fxtwitter.com/lacelaziestatus/1791085647039791348)
- New AoE attack, which can be executed up to 3 times after using Presence of Mind
- Seraphism, a new action that changes the caster appearance and enhances healing magic will be added
- New AoE attack that can be executed after Chain Stratagem will be added
- Card system will no longer be random, and will isntead simultaneously draw cards with offensive, defensive and curative effects
- Astrodyne will be removed with the discontinuation of astrosigns
- Essential dignity will get 3 stacks
- Eukrasia will now enhance Dyskrasia II into Eukrasian Dyskradia, an AoE attack which deals DoT
- New party puff, which heals nearby party members whenever the caster casts a spell, will be added
2024.05.15 14:34 MountainSkald [A Valkyrie's Saga] - Part 102
Prequel (Chapters 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
First ¦ Previous ¦ Royal Road ¦ Patreon
Christie emerged from the bathroom once her nerves had calmed and found one of the chateau’s windows that looked out on the western ridgelines. She reached into her handbag and produced a stick of lipstick, sighted on a curve of blackness intersecting a particular constellation rising into the night sky, and pushed a discreet button on the base. The task force now had confirmation that Rayker was inside the chateau and the machine would be set in motion.
As she turned to head back to the party, Christie saw a different range of mountains in the corner of her eye. A fishhook stabbed into the muscle of her heart and tugged, while she was nearly overwhelmed with nausea. For a moment, a dusty valley surrounded her, the rocky ground coursing with streams of blood. The ghostly white face of Rose Djallen was before her, life fading from her eyes. Christie wanted to gasp, but she let the pain wash over her in silence, as they had all done so often. A moment’s concentration brought her back to the present, and the dangerous operation ahead.
Rayker’s expression had been so devoid of warmth—as though she wore her psychotic nature with pride. Christie couldn’t understand how someone could be so inhuman. She wondered what would happen if Rayker sensed the trap that was closing around her. Christie knew that she, and probably some of the guests, would be taken hostage. No doubt the dozens of Rangers stalking through the darkness would break cover, racing through the night to rescue her, with one particularly hard-headed individual out front. The highly skilled operators now preparing their own move on the chateau would fight their way inside, killing anyone who resisted them. The Banshee, their well-armed gunship, would break its cloak, leaving its position behind Ambrosia’s second moon to rain hellfire down on the small army that provided security for the Helvetic League’s pleasure planet. Rayker would probably die in a hail of gunfire—giving Rose her deserved retribution—for the Valkyrie would eagerly sacrifice their own lives before leaving one of their own behind.
Then the news of the incident would spread, and humanity’s thirty-seven worlds would talk of nothing else but the secret army of super soldiers that protected them from the arsenal of the Jotnar—an ancient and extinct civilization, who’s abandoned weapons and warships littered the stars. Nations, corporations and crime syndicates would find ways to track down those weapons, exploiting their incredible destructive power for their own selfish purposes. There would be war, billions would die, and, like those who had preceded them, humanity would probably wipe itself out.
Rose had died protecting Christie from Rayker’s drone army, but she had also died to uphold Valkyrie’s ancient responsibility.
That operation had ultimately saved the planet Caldera, but in the chaos and confusion of the battle Rayker had managed to slip away. The organization had spent nearly two years trying to hunt her down, but she was too skilled, too deeply enmeshed in the Helvetic League’s underworld.
The council of chiefs, Valkyrie’s inscrutable governing body, had agreed to form Task Force Nemesis under the command of General Smyrna. She was assigned the Mountain Ranger’s Bravo company—the Venomous Vipers—a Raider squadron of elite counter terrorists, and a task unit from Orbital Demolition Team Four. Supported by the Banshee and guided by Christie’s intelligence gathering unit, their mission statement was simple—do whatever it took to kill or capture Allana Rayker.
As they made slow, painstaking process, they began to receive indications that their target had rejoined her old corporate paymasters at VennZech, the most powerful weapons manufacturer in the galaxy. Then, the news broke that Joakkim Meissner, one of Rayker’s suspected allies, had been promoted to Chief Executive, arranging his party on Ambrosia to celebrate.
He had also invited one of the League’s rising stars in physics. The brilliant young doctor Ernst Kolar was a specialist in theoretical energy development. He had recently published a paper describing a theoretical anti-matter reactor alarmingly similar to those that powered the warships and killing machines of the Jotnar. Christie’s team leader, Jiao Zhang, had offered the high-confidence assessment that Rayker would refuse to let such an asset out of her sight. And, on the protected world of Ambrosia, what could she have to fear?
But Valkyrie had been breaking through Helvetic security barriers since the creation of the quasi-imperial state, and had become extremely good at it. And so, the operation had been set in motion.
Christie took a deep breath and prepared herself, soothing away any traces of nervousness. She left the outer hall and re-entered the party.
***
“Olympus, Olympus, Olympus,” a voice intoned through Kayla’s headset.
The code word signaled that Christie had identified Rayker in the chateau, and the operation was a go. A double burst of static followed; a squad-level transmission from Kes. It was the order to take out the security guards.
Kayla and Ray had crawled as close as they could to their position, readied their stun rifle and waited patiently. As the signal came in, the men had pushed away from their boulder rest spot and were resuming their patrol through the woods. Kayla waited until their line of sight had passed her, before she stood slowly, weapon aimed. A faint rustle told her that Ray had done the same.
The guard at the back, still slurping from a water bottle, fell a little further behind. The stun rifle’s projectile hit him in the neck, shocking his nervous system into an overload state. He seized and dropped to the ground, unconscious. The men ahead of him span and there was a mechanical thump from Ray’s weapon. Her shot struck center mass, and another figure collapsed, just as Kayla pulled the trigger again. The last guard went down quickly, but, to Kayla’s shock, seemed to remain conscious. He struggled on the ground like a dying fish as he tried to reach for his radio, so she sprinted forward and kicked him in the head.
Kayla wrinkled her nose and cursed quietly. The scientist who had trained her squad on the weapon had explained that a failed shot would result in the victim emptying the contents of their bowels and bladder. Looks like she had been right.
“Three down,” she muttered into her helmet mic. “No other contacts in sight.”
Even so, she continued to scan the distant trees carefully.
Ray secured the guards with serum injections while Tian and Yak, the other two members of the fire team joined them. The projectiles were gathered into Tian’s rucksack, and, when the rest of the squad arrived, they moved off through the trees together, climbing the slope until they reached another crest, and a chain link fence.
Half a mile away from the chateau, the main security compound provided a base for the guard’s rapid reaction force. The compound had a single entrance and out of the blockhouse blue light flickered to the loud chatter of an excited racing commentator.
Kayla stopped in the shadows of the trees and waited patiently. The air above her head snapped and cracked as rounds shot past, impacting security cameras and sensors around the compound. The bullets were a large caliber, but with a thermic charge core. Each strike glowed brilliantly as intense temperatures melted through their targets, leaving no evidence of what had neutralized them.
She grinned. Thandi was going to work, and though her presence and skill made Kayla feel much more confident, she would still tease her about doing the ‘easy part’ later.
In the near distance, there were a pair of flashes and loud zaps as the base’s generator and backup went out to EMP charges. Another squad from their platoon was working their own approach. That made Kayla nervous. The two elements would soon have to meet up, and nothing could be more dangerous to those who owned the night than confusing each other for the enemy.
She took her team around the base to the now dark main gate as the on-duty guards emerged to check on the loss of power. Stun rifle shots knocked them out, and the squad regrouped behind the cover of a vehicle bay, while Kayla identified the largest building in the compound and watched it attentively.
They waited patiently until the silence was broken by a new voice on the radio.
“Eyes on the barracks, north side. No movement.”
“South side clear,” Kayla confirmed.
“Approaching,” the other squad leader said.
Kayla waited until she saw shapes emerging from the shadows and sprinting behind the back of the large structure. Then, one leaned out from the corner, watching. Kayla tapped a control on her helmet, and a perfect white line broke through her grey world, pointing towards the figure. She was answered with a similar flash of infra-red energy, and her anxiety eased.
Kes, who had also been watching, tapped her shoulder, and Kayla led off towards the barracks.
From outside the Rangers could make out the annoyed calls of men and women stumbling around in the darkness. One emerged from a side door and nearly got off a shout before Tian tackled him and knocked him out. The two squads moved quickly, cracking open doorways and rolling gas grenades inside.
Invisible and odorless, the gas contained the signature compound Valkyrie used to erase memories. The Rangers waited a few minutes, safe behind their face masks, then entered and confirmed that all inside were unconscious. Kes and Thandi smashed a few liquor bottles against the walls, while others dragged the bodies into the main room, and distributed more ‘evidence’.
Eventually, Kes called ‘all clear’, and Kayla emerged from the building into the night, lifting her faceplate to breathe in some fresh air. She saw her fire team, Ray, Tian and Yak, heading to the vehicles to place EMP charges, and began to follow them, when a sharp rap on her helmet brought her up short.
She turned to see Thandi, vizor up, and an expectant expression on her face.
“Was that a curse word I heard earlier?” Thandi asked, keeping her voice low.
Kayla shook her head. “Negative. I was providing a biological assessment of the dude.”
“Ick. Two in the barracks were uh… in the middle of something when they passed out. I had to pull them apart.” She pulled a face. “That was gross.”
Kayla winked at her friend, who was spiritual enough for the both of them. “Unmarried, I bet. Your god approves.”
Thandi nodded gratefully, then shot her a look. “He’s not just my—"
Kes marched over, her expression severe. “Do either of you have EMP charges left?” she demanded.
“Yes Corporal,” Kayla nodded, and patted her rucksack.
“There’s a couple of transports left in the north corner. Get on it, then rejoin us on the east fence. Come on, we need to move quickly!”
Kayla scampered away, buzzing with energy. The squad still had to head for the chateau, and take up their position in the perimeter that was slowly drawing tighter around Rayker. She glanced at the dark mountains around her. In a dozen locations, radar arrays, missile defenses and communications stations were being similarly neutralized by small teams of Valkyrie from the various units. Soon they would have their prey, and Kayla privately hoped that she wouldn’t surrender.
***
Christie found Doctor Kolar, alone as usual, in the main hall and painfully out of place at such a large social gathering. He nursed a champagne glass, and smiled at passersby. Christie stared at him until their eyes met, and he quickly looked away, pretending to study one of Meissner’s diamond statues.
She walked in his direction, and as she passed, she flashed him a shy smile. Then, returning to her coterie of admirers, she looked back with another friendly expression.
Kolar cautiously approached the group, obviously unsure of what to do. The men ignored him, but the second he managed to breach the outer mass of bodies, Christie was on him.
“Oh hello! I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure!” she cried, extending her hand and beaming like a searchlight.
The other men frowned as they lost her attention.
“Um… All mine,” stammered Kolar. “Sorry. I’m—”
“Doctor Kolar, isn’t it?” interrupted a renowned and pompous pianist. “You’re working on space batteries for VennZech weapons research, or some such thing?”
“Well…” Kolar gulped. “We’re starting a new project on micro-singularities at the Planck scale, you see the current theory on weak—”
“It’s weak, you say?” The pianist laughed raucously as he slapped the doctor’s back. “Well, I never would have guessed, old boy.”
“Tell me, Zotty,” Christie cut in, addressing one of the other men, “Didn’t you just tell me this was one of Meissner’s inner circle?” she tottered forward slightly as she spoke.
“Correct,” the elder son and heir apparent of the largest media corporation in the League replied with a smile. He lifted his gaze from her bosom. “Doctor Kolar’s work is vital for the Maestro.”
Kolar smiled gratefully. “Indeed. Well, it’s about energy generation.”
“Oh, I hope you aren’t helping him make more of those dreadful bombs,” Christie said, and pouted. “War is very wrong! Really, I don’t know why they haven’t sanctioned the company for some of the absolutely horrid things they produce.”
The surrounding billionaires nodded their approval, while Kolar flushed. “No… well, I mustn’t talk about it, but I shouldn’t be getting involved in that side of VennZech’s business.”
“Quite right.” Christie nodded. “Oh, but you’re dry.” She turned to a waiter, grabbed a pair of glasses from his tray and handed one to Kolar.
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Prequel (Chapters 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
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1. Rise of a Valkyrie
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Christie emerged from the bathroom once her nerves had calmed and found one of the chateau’s windows that looked out on the western ridgelines. She reached into her handbag and produced a stick of lipstick, sighted on a curve of blackness intersecting a particular constellation rising into the night sky, and pushed a discreet button on the base. The task force now had confirmation that Rayker was inside the chateau and the machine would be set in motion.
As she turned to head back to the party, Christie saw a different range of mountains in the corner of her eye. A fishhook stabbed into the muscle of her heart and tugged, while she was nearly overwhelmed with nausea. For a moment, a dusty valley surrounded her, the rocky ground coursing with streams of blood. The ghostly white face of Rose Djallen was before her, life fading from her eyes. Christie wanted to gasp, but she let the pain wash over her in silence, as they had all done so often. A moment’s concentration brought her back to the present, and the dangerous operation ahead.
Rayker’s expression had been so devoid of warmth—as though she wore her psychotic nature with pride. Christie couldn’t understand how someone could be so inhuman. She wondered what would happen if Rayker sensed the trap that was closing around her. Christie knew that she, and probably some of the guests, would be taken hostage. No doubt the dozens of Rangers stalking through the darkness would break cover, racing through the night to rescue her, with one particularly hard-headed individual out front. The highly skilled operators now preparing their own move on the chateau would fight their way inside, killing anyone who resisted them. The Banshee, their well-armed gunship, would break its cloak, leaving its position behind Ambrosia’s second moon to rain hellfire down on the small army that provided security for the Helvetic League’s pleasure planet. Rayker would probably die in a hail of gunfire—giving Rose her deserved retribution—for the Valkyrie would eagerly sacrifice their own lives before leaving one of their own behind.
Then the news of the incident would spread, and humanity’s thirty-seven worlds would talk of nothing else but the secret army of super soldiers that protected them from the arsenal of the Jotnar—an ancient and extinct civilization, who’s abandoned weapons and warships littered the stars. Nations, corporations and crime syndicates would find ways to track down those weapons, exploiting their incredible destructive power for their own selfish purposes. There would be war, billions would die, and, like those who had preceded them, humanity would probably wipe itself out.
Rose had died protecting Christie from Rayker’s drone army, but she had also died to uphold Valkyrie’s ancient responsibility.
That operation had ultimately saved the planet Caldera, but in the chaos and confusion of the battle Rayker had managed to slip away. The organization had spent nearly two years trying to hunt her down, but she was too skilled, too deeply enmeshed in the Helvetic League’s underworld.
The council of chiefs, Valkyrie’s inscrutable governing body, had agreed to form Task Force Nemesis under the command of General Smyrna. She was assigned the Mountain Ranger’s Bravo company—the Venomous Vipers—a Raider squadron of elite counter terrorists, and a task unit from Orbital Demolition Team Four. Supported by the Banshee and guided by Christie’s intelligence gathering unit, their mission statement was simple—do whatever it took to kill or capture Allana Rayker.
As they made slow, painstaking process, they began to receive indications that their target had rejoined her old corporate paymasters at VennZech, the most powerful weapons manufacturer in the galaxy. Then, the news broke that Joakkim Meissner, one of Rayker’s suspected allies, had been promoted to Chief Executive, arranging his party on Ambrosia to celebrate.
He had also invited one of the League’s rising stars in physics. The brilliant young doctor Ernst Kolar was a specialist in theoretical energy development. He had recently published a paper describing a theoretical anti-matter reactor alarmingly similar to those that powered the warships and killing machines of the Jotnar. Christie’s team leader, Jiao Zhang, had offered the high-confidence assessment that Rayker would refuse to let such an asset out of her sight. And, on the protected world of Ambrosia, what could she have to fear?
But Valkyrie had been breaking through Helvetic security barriers since the creation of the quasi-imperial state, and had become extremely good at it. And so, the operation had been set in motion.
Christie took a deep breath and prepared herself, soothing away any traces of nervousness. She left the outer hall and re-entered the party.
***
“Olympus, Olympus, Olympus,” a voice intoned through Kayla’s headset.
The code word signaled that Christie had identified Rayker in the chateau, and the operation was a go. A double burst of static followed; a squad-level transmission from Kes. It was the order to take out the security guards.
Kayla and Ray had crawled as close as they could to their position, readied their stun rifle and waited patiently. As the signal came in, the men had pushed away from their boulder rest spot and were resuming their patrol through the woods. Kayla waited until their line of sight had passed her, before she stood slowly, weapon aimed. A faint rustle told her that Ray had done the same.
The guard at the back, still slurping from a water bottle, fell a little further behind. The stun rifle’s projectile hit him in the neck, shocking his nervous system into an overload state. He seized and dropped to the ground, unconscious. The men ahead of him span and there was a mechanical thump from Ray’s weapon. Her shot struck center mass, and another figure collapsed, just as Kayla pulled the trigger again. The last guard went down quickly, but, to Kayla’s shock, seemed to remain conscious. He struggled on the ground like a dying fish as he tried to reach for his radio, so she sprinted forward and kicked him in the head.
Kayla wrinkled her nose and cursed quietly. The scientist who had trained her squad on the weapon had explained that a failed shot would result in the victim emptying the contents of their bowels and bladder. Looks like she had been right.
“Three down,” she muttered into her helmet mic. “No other contacts in sight.”
Even so, she continued to scan the distant trees carefully.
Ray secured the guards with serum injections while Tian and Yak, the other two members of the fire team joined them. The projectiles were gathered into Tian’s rucksack, and, when the rest of the squad arrived, they moved off through the trees together, climbing the slope until they reached another crest, and a chain link fence.
Half a mile away from the chateau, the main security compound provided a base for the guard’s rapid reaction force. The compound had a single entrance and out of the blockhouse blue light flickered to the loud chatter of an excited racing commentator.
Kayla stopped in the shadows of the trees and waited patiently. The air above her head snapped and cracked as rounds shot past, impacting security cameras and sensors around the compound. The bullets were a large caliber, but with a thermic charge core. Each strike glowed brilliantly as intense temperatures melted through their targets, leaving no evidence of what had neutralized them.
She grinned. Thandi was going to work, and though her presence and skill made Kayla feel much more confident, she would still tease her about doing the ‘easy part’ later.
In the near distance, there were a pair of flashes and loud zaps as the base’s generator and backup went out to EMP charges. Another squad from their platoon was working their own approach. That made Kayla nervous. The two elements would soon have to meet up, and nothing could be more dangerous to those who owned the night than confusing each other for the enemy.
She took her team around the base to the now dark main gate as the on-duty guards emerged to check on the loss of power. Stun rifle shots knocked them out, and the squad regrouped behind the cover of a vehicle bay, while Kayla identified the largest building in the compound and watched it attentively.
They waited patiently until the silence was broken by a new voice on the radio.
“Eyes on the barracks, north side. No movement.”
“South side clear,” Kayla confirmed.
“Approaching,” the other squad leader said.
Kayla waited until she saw shapes emerging from the shadows and sprinting behind the back of the large structure. Then, one leaned out from the corner, watching. Kayla tapped a control on her helmet, and a perfect white line broke through her grey world, pointing towards the figure. She was answered with a similar flash of infra-red energy, and her anxiety eased.
Kes, who had also been watching, tapped her shoulder, and Kayla led off towards the barracks.
From outside the Rangers could make out the annoyed calls of men and women stumbling around in the darkness. One emerged from a side door and nearly got off a shout before Tian tackled him and knocked him out. The two squads moved quickly, cracking open doorways and rolling gas grenades inside.
Invisible and odorless, the gas contained the signature compound Valkyrie used to erase memories. The Rangers waited a few minutes, safe behind their face masks, then entered and confirmed that all inside were unconscious. Kes and Thandi smashed a few liquor bottles against the walls, while others dragged the bodies into the main room, and distributed more ‘evidence’.
Eventually, Kes called ‘all clear’, and Kayla emerged from the building into the night, lifting her faceplate to breathe in some fresh air. She saw her fire team, Ray, Tian and Yak, heading to the vehicles to place EMP charges, and began to follow them, when a sharp rap on her helmet brought her up short.
She turned to see Thandi, vizor up, and an expectant expression on her face.
“Was that a curse word I heard earlier?” Thandi asked, keeping her voice low.
Kayla shook her head. “Negative. I was providing a biological assessment of the dude.”
“Ick. Two in the barracks were uh… in the middle of something when they passed out. I had to pull them apart.” She pulled a face. “That was gross.”
Kayla winked at her friend, who was spiritual enough for the both of them. “Unmarried, I bet. Your god approves.”
Thandi nodded gratefully, then shot her a look. “He’s not just my—"
Kes marched over, her expression severe. “Do either of you have EMP charges left?” she demanded.
“Yes Corporal,” Kayla nodded, and patted her rucksack.
“There’s a couple of transports left in the north corner. Get on it, then rejoin us on the east fence. Come on, we need to move quickly!”
Kayla scampered away, buzzing with energy. The squad still had to head for the chateau, and take up their position in the perimeter that was slowly drawing tighter around Rayker. She glanced at the dark mountains around her. In a dozen locations, radar arrays, missile defenses and communications stations were being similarly neutralized by small teams of Valkyrie from the various units. Soon they would have their prey, and Kayla privately hoped that she wouldn’t surrender.
***
Christie found Doctor Kolar, alone as usual, in the main hall and painfully out of place at such a large social gathering. He nursed a champagne glass, and smiled at passersby. Christie stared at him until their eyes met, and he quickly looked away, pretending to study one of Meissner’s diamond statues.
She walked in his direction, and as she passed, she flashed him a shy smile. Then, returning to her coterie of admirers, she looked back with another friendly expression.
Kolar cautiously approached the group, obviously unsure of what to do. The men ignored him, but the second he managed to breach the outer mass of bodies, Christie was on him.
“Oh hello! I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure!” she cried, extending her hand and beaming like a searchlight.
The other men frowned as they lost her attention.
“Um… All mine,” stammered Kolar. “Sorry. I’m—”
“Doctor Kolar, isn’t it?” interrupted a renowned and pompous pianist. “You’re working on space batteries for VennZech weapons research, or some such thing?”
“Well…” Kolar gulped. “We’re starting a new project on micro-singularities at the Planck scale, you see the current theory on weak—”
“It’s weak, you say?” The pianist laughed raucously as he slapped the doctor’s back. “Well, I never would have guessed, old boy.”
“Tell me, Zotty,” Christie cut in, addressing one of the other men, “Didn’t you just tell me this was one of Meissner’s inner circle?” she tottered forward slightly as she spoke.
“Correct,” the elder son and heir apparent of the largest media corporation in the League replied with a smile. He lifted his gaze from her bosom. “Doctor Kolar’s work is vital for the Maestro.”
Kolar smiled gratefully. “Indeed. Well, it’s about energy generation.”
“Oh, I hope you aren’t helping him make more of those dreadful bombs,” Christie said, and pouted. “War is very wrong! Really, I don’t know why they haven’t sanctioned the company for some of the absolutely horrid things they produce.”
The surrounding billionaires nodded their approval, while Kolar flushed. “No… well, I mustn’t talk about it, but I shouldn’t be getting involved in that side of VennZech’s business.”
“Quite right.” Christie nodded. “Oh, but you’re dry.” She turned to a waiter, grabbed a pair of glasses from his tray and handed one to Kolar.
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Prequel (Chapters 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
2024.05.15 14:29 MountainSkald A Valkyrie's Saga - Part 102
Prequel (Parts 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
First ¦ Previous ¦ Royal Road ¦ Patreon
Christie emerged from the bathroom once her nerves had calmed and found one of the chateau’s windows that looked out on the western ridgelines. She reached into her handbag and produced a stick of lipstick, sighted on a curve of blackness intersecting a particular constellation rising into the night sky, and pushed a discreet button on the base. The task force now had confirmation that Rayker was inside the chateau and the machine would be set in motion.
As she turned to head back to the party, Christie saw a different range of mountains in the corner of her eye. A fishhook stabbed into the muscle of her heart and tugged, while she was nearly overwhelmed with nausea. For a moment, a dusty valley surrounded her, the rocky ground coursing with streams of blood. The ghostly white face of Rose Djallen was before her, life fading from her eyes. Christie wanted to gasp, but she let the pain wash over her in silence, as they had all done so often. A moment’s concentration brought her back to the present, and the dangerous operation ahead.
Rayker’s expression had been so devoid of warmth—as though she wore her psychotic nature with pride. Christie couldn’t understand how someone could be so inhuman. She wondered what would happen if Rayker sensed the trap that was closing around her. Christie knew that she, and probably some of the guests, would be taken hostage. No doubt the dozens of Rangers stalking through the darkness would break cover, racing through the night to rescue her, with one particularly hard-headed individual out front. The highly skilled operators now preparing their own move on the chateau would fight their way inside, killing anyone who resisted them. The Banshee, their well-armed gunship, would break its cloak, leaving its position behind Ambrosia’s second moon to rain hellfire down on the small army that provided security for the Helvetic League’s pleasure planet. Rayker would probably die in a hail of gunfire—giving Rose her deserved retribution—for the Valkyrie would eagerly sacrifice their own lives before leaving one of their own behind.
Then the news of the incident would spread, and humanity’s thirty-seven worlds would talk of nothing else but the secret army of super soldiers that protected them from the arsenal of the Jotnar—an ancient and extinct civilization, who’s abandoned weapons and warships littered the stars. Nations, corporations and crime syndicates would find ways to track down those weapons, exploiting their incredible destructive power for their own selfish purposes. There would be war, billions would die, and, like those who had preceded them, humanity would probably wipe itself out.
Rose had died protecting Christie from Rayker’s drone army, but she had also died to uphold Valkyrie’s ancient responsibility.
That operation had ultimately saved the planet Caldera, but in the chaos and confusion of the battle Rayker had managed to slip away. The organization had spent nearly two years trying to hunt her down, but she was too skilled, too deeply enmeshed in the Helvetic League’s underworld.
The council of chiefs, Valkyrie’s inscrutable governing body, had agreed to form Task Force Nemesis under the command of General Smyrna. She was assigned the Mountain Ranger’s Bravo company—the Venomous Vipers—a Raider squadron of elite counter terrorists, and a task unit from Orbital Demolition Team Four. Supported by the Banshee and guided by Christie’s intelligence gathering unit, their mission statement was simple—do whatever it took to kill or capture Allana Rayker.
As they made slow, painstaking process, they began to receive indications that their target had rejoined her old corporate paymasters at VennZech, the most powerful weapons manufacturer in the galaxy. Then, the news broke that Joakkim Meissner, one of Rayker’s suspected allies, had been promoted to Chief Executive, arranging his party on Ambrosia to celebrate.
He had also invited one of the League’s rising stars in physics. The brilliant young doctor Ernst Kolar was a specialist in theoretical energy development. He had recently published a paper describing a theoretical anti-matter reactor alarmingly similar to those that powered the warships and killing machines of the Jotnar. Christie’s team leader, Jiao Zhang, had offered the high-confidence assessment that Rayker would refuse to let such an asset out of her sight. And, on the protected world of Ambrosia, what could she have to fear?
But Valkyrie had been breaking through Helvetic security barriers since the creation of the quasi-imperial state, and had become extremely good at it. And so, the operation had been set in motion.
Christie took a deep breath and prepared herself, soothing away any traces of nervousness. She left the outer hall and re-entered the party.
***
“Olympus, Olympus, Olympus,” a voice intoned through Kayla’s headset.
The code word signaled that Christie had identified Rayker in the chateau, and the operation was a go. A double burst of static followed; a squad-level transmission from Kes. It was the order to take out the security guards.
Kayla and Ray had crawled as close as they could to their position, readied their stun rifle and waited patiently. As the signal came in, the men had pushed away from their boulder rest spot and were resuming their patrol through the woods. Kayla waited until their line of sight had passed her, before she stood slowly, weapon aimed. A faint rustle told her that Ray had done the same.
The guard at the back, still slurping from a water bottle, fell a little further behind. The stun rifle’s projectile hit him in the neck, shocking his nervous system into an overload state. He seized and dropped to the ground, unconscious. The men ahead of him span and there was a mechanical thump from Ray’s weapon. Her shot struck center mass, and another figure collapsed, just as Kayla pulled the trigger again. The last guard went down quickly, but, to Kayla’s shock, seemed to remain conscious. He struggled on the ground like a dying fish as he tried to reach for his radio, so she sprinted forward and kicked him in the head.
Kayla wrinkled her nose and cursed quietly. The scientist who had trained her squad on the weapon had explained that a failed shot would result in the victim emptying the contents of their bowels and bladder. Looks like she had been right.
“Three down,” she muttered into her helmet mic. “No other contacts in sight.”
Even so, she continued to scan the distant trees carefully.
Ray secured the guards with serum injections while Tian and Yak, the other two members of the fire team joined them. The projectiles were gathered into Tian’s rucksack, and, when the rest of the squad arrived, they moved off through the trees together, climbing the slope until they reached another crest, and a chain link fence.
Half a mile away from the chateau, the main security compound provided a base for the guard’s rapid reaction force. The compound had a single entrance and out of the blockhouse blue light flickered to the loud chatter of an excited racing commentator.
Kayla stopped in the shadows of the trees and waited patiently. The air above her head snapped and cracked as rounds shot past, impacting security cameras and sensors around the compound. The bullets were a large caliber, but with a thermic charge core. Each strike glowed brilliantly as intense temperatures melted through their targets, leaving no evidence of what had neutralized them.
She grinned. Thandi was going to work, and though her presence and skill made Kayla feel much more confident, she would still tease her about doing the ‘easy part’ later.
In the near distance, there were a pair of flashes and loud zaps as the base’s generator and backup went out to EMP charges. Another squad from their platoon was working their own approach. That made Kayla nervous. The two elements would soon have to meet up, and nothing could be more dangerous to those who owned the night than confusing each other for the enemy.
She took her team around the base to the now dark main gate as the on-duty guards emerged to check on the loss of power. Stun rifle shots knocked them out, and the squad regrouped behind the cover of a vehicle bay, while Kayla identified the largest building in the compound and watched it attentively.
They waited patiently until the silence was broken by a new voice on the radio.
“Eyes on the barracks, north side. No movement.”
“South side clear,” Kayla confirmed.
“Approaching,” the other squad leader said.
Kayla waited until she saw shapes emerging from the shadows and sprinting behind the back of the large structure. Then, one leaned out from the corner, watching. Kayla tapped a control on her helmet, and a perfect white line broke through her grey world, pointing towards the figure. She was answered with a similar flash of infra-red energy, and her anxiety eased.
Kes, who had also been watching, tapped her shoulder, and Kayla led off towards the barracks.
From outside the Rangers could make out the annoyed calls of men and women stumbling around in the darkness. One emerged from a side door and nearly got off a shout before Tian tackled him and knocked him out. The two squads moved quickly, cracking open doorways and rolling gas grenades inside.
Invisible and odorless, the gas contained the signature compound Valkyrie used to erase memories. The Rangers waited a few minutes, safe behind their face masks, then entered and confirmed that all inside were unconscious. Kes and Thandi smashed a few liquor bottles against the walls, while others dragged the bodies into the main room, and distributed more ‘evidence’.
Eventually, Kes called ‘all clear’, and Kayla emerged from the building into the night, lifting her faceplate to breathe in some fresh air. She saw her fire team, Ray, Tian and Yak, heading to the vehicles to place EMP charges, and began to follow them, when a sharp rap on her helmet brought her up short.
She turned to see Thandi, vizor up, and an expectant expression on her face.
“Was that a curse word I heard earlier?” Thandi asked, keeping her voice low.
Kayla shook her head. “Negative. I was providing a biological assessment of the dude.”
“Ick. Two in the barracks were uh… in the middle of something when they passed out. I had to pull them apart.” She pulled a face. “That was gross.”
Kayla winked at her friend, who was spiritual enough for the both of them. “Unmarried, I bet. Your god approves.”
Thandi nodded gratefully, then shot her a look. “He’s not just my—"
Kes marched over, her expression severe. “Do either of you have EMP charges left?” she demanded.
“Yes Corporal,” Kayla nodded, and patted her rucksack.
“There’s a couple of transports left in the north corner. Get on it, then rejoin us on the east fence. Come on, we need to move quickly!”
Kayla scampered away, buzzing with energy. The squad still had to head for the chateau, and take up their position in the perimeter that was slowly drawing tighter around Rayker. She glanced at the dark mountains around her. In a dozen locations, radar arrays, missile defenses and communications stations were being similarly neutralized by small teams of Valkyrie from the various units. Soon they would have their prey, and Kayla privately hoped that she wouldn’t surrender.
***
Christie found Doctor Kolar, alone as usual, in the main hall and painfully out of place at such a large social gathering. He nursed a champagne glass, and smiled at passersby. Christie stared at him until their eyes met, and he quickly looked away, pretending to study one of Meissner’s diamond statues.
She walked in his direction, and as she passed, she flashed him a shy smile. Then, returning to her coterie of admirers, she looked back with another friendly expression.
Kolar cautiously approached the group, obviously unsure of what to do. The men ignored him, but the second he managed to breach the outer mass of bodies, Christie was on him.
“Oh hello! I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure!” she cried, extending her hand and beaming like a searchlight.
The other men frowned as they lost her attention.
“Um… All mine,” stammered Kolar. “Sorry. I’m—”
“Doctor Kolar, isn’t it?” interrupted a renowned and pompous pianist. “You’re working on space batteries for VennZech weapons research, or some such thing?”
“Well…” Kolar gulped. “We’re starting a new project on micro-singularities at the Planck scale, you see the current theory on weak—”
“It’s weak, you say?” The pianist laughed raucously as he slapped the doctor’s back. “Well, I never would have guessed, old boy.”
“Tell me, Zotty,” Christie cut in, addressing one of the other men, “Didn’t you just tell me this was one of Meissner’s inner circle?” she tottered forward slightly as she spoke.
“Correct,” the elder son and heir apparent of the largest media corporation in the League replied with a smile. He lifted his gaze from her bosom. “Doctor Kolar’s work is vital for the Maestro.”
Kolar smiled gratefully. “Indeed. Well, it’s about energy generation.”
“Oh, I hope you aren’t helping him make more of those dreadful bombs,” Christie said, and pouted. “War is very wrong! Really, I don’t know why they haven’t sanctioned the company for some of the absolutely horrid things they produce.”
The surrounding billionaires nodded their approval, while Kolar flushed. “No… well, I mustn’t talk about it, but I shouldn’t be getting involved in that side of VennZech’s business.”
“Quite right.” Christie nodded. “Oh, but you’re dry.” She turned to a waiter, grabbed a pair of glasses from his tray and handed one to Kolar.
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Prequel (Parts 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
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1. Rise of a Valkyrie
First ¦ Previous ¦ Royal Road ¦ Patreon
Christie emerged from the bathroom once her nerves had calmed and found one of the chateau’s windows that looked out on the western ridgelines. She reached into her handbag and produced a stick of lipstick, sighted on a curve of blackness intersecting a particular constellation rising into the night sky, and pushed a discreet button on the base. The task force now had confirmation that Rayker was inside the chateau and the machine would be set in motion.
As she turned to head back to the party, Christie saw a different range of mountains in the corner of her eye. A fishhook stabbed into the muscle of her heart and tugged, while she was nearly overwhelmed with nausea. For a moment, a dusty valley surrounded her, the rocky ground coursing with streams of blood. The ghostly white face of Rose Djallen was before her, life fading from her eyes. Christie wanted to gasp, but she let the pain wash over her in silence, as they had all done so often. A moment’s concentration brought her back to the present, and the dangerous operation ahead.
Rayker’s expression had been so devoid of warmth—as though she wore her psychotic nature with pride. Christie couldn’t understand how someone could be so inhuman. She wondered what would happen if Rayker sensed the trap that was closing around her. Christie knew that she, and probably some of the guests, would be taken hostage. No doubt the dozens of Rangers stalking through the darkness would break cover, racing through the night to rescue her, with one particularly hard-headed individual out front. The highly skilled operators now preparing their own move on the chateau would fight their way inside, killing anyone who resisted them. The Banshee, their well-armed gunship, would break its cloak, leaving its position behind Ambrosia’s second moon to rain hellfire down on the small army that provided security for the Helvetic League’s pleasure planet. Rayker would probably die in a hail of gunfire—giving Rose her deserved retribution—for the Valkyrie would eagerly sacrifice their own lives before leaving one of their own behind.
Then the news of the incident would spread, and humanity’s thirty-seven worlds would talk of nothing else but the secret army of super soldiers that protected them from the arsenal of the Jotnar—an ancient and extinct civilization, who’s abandoned weapons and warships littered the stars. Nations, corporations and crime syndicates would find ways to track down those weapons, exploiting their incredible destructive power for their own selfish purposes. There would be war, billions would die, and, like those who had preceded them, humanity would probably wipe itself out.
Rose had died protecting Christie from Rayker’s drone army, but she had also died to uphold Valkyrie’s ancient responsibility.
That operation had ultimately saved the planet Caldera, but in the chaos and confusion of the battle Rayker had managed to slip away. The organization had spent nearly two years trying to hunt her down, but she was too skilled, too deeply enmeshed in the Helvetic League’s underworld.
The council of chiefs, Valkyrie’s inscrutable governing body, had agreed to form Task Force Nemesis under the command of General Smyrna. She was assigned the Mountain Ranger’s Bravo company—the Venomous Vipers—a Raider squadron of elite counter terrorists, and a task unit from Orbital Demolition Team Four. Supported by the Banshee and guided by Christie’s intelligence gathering unit, their mission statement was simple—do whatever it took to kill or capture Allana Rayker.
As they made slow, painstaking process, they began to receive indications that their target had rejoined her old corporate paymasters at VennZech, the most powerful weapons manufacturer in the galaxy. Then, the news broke that Joakkim Meissner, one of Rayker’s suspected allies, had been promoted to Chief Executive, arranging his party on Ambrosia to celebrate.
He had also invited one of the League’s rising stars in physics. The brilliant young doctor Ernst Kolar was a specialist in theoretical energy development. He had recently published a paper describing a theoretical anti-matter reactor alarmingly similar to those that powered the warships and killing machines of the Jotnar. Christie’s team leader, Jiao Zhang, had offered the high-confidence assessment that Rayker would refuse to let such an asset out of her sight. And, on the protected world of Ambrosia, what could she have to fear?
But Valkyrie had been breaking through Helvetic security barriers since the creation of the quasi-imperial state, and had become extremely good at it. And so, the operation had been set in motion.
Christie took a deep breath and prepared herself, soothing away any traces of nervousness. She left the outer hall and re-entered the party.
***
“Olympus, Olympus, Olympus,” a voice intoned through Kayla’s headset.
The code word signaled that Christie had identified Rayker in the chateau, and the operation was a go. A double burst of static followed; a squad-level transmission from Kes. It was the order to take out the security guards.
Kayla and Ray had crawled as close as they could to their position, readied their stun rifle and waited patiently. As the signal came in, the men had pushed away from their boulder rest spot and were resuming their patrol through the woods. Kayla waited until their line of sight had passed her, before she stood slowly, weapon aimed. A faint rustle told her that Ray had done the same.
The guard at the back, still slurping from a water bottle, fell a little further behind. The stun rifle’s projectile hit him in the neck, shocking his nervous system into an overload state. He seized and dropped to the ground, unconscious. The men ahead of him span and there was a mechanical thump from Ray’s weapon. Her shot struck center mass, and another figure collapsed, just as Kayla pulled the trigger again. The last guard went down quickly, but, to Kayla’s shock, seemed to remain conscious. He struggled on the ground like a dying fish as he tried to reach for his radio, so she sprinted forward and kicked him in the head.
Kayla wrinkled her nose and cursed quietly. The scientist who had trained her squad on the weapon had explained that a failed shot would result in the victim emptying the contents of their bowels and bladder. Looks like she had been right.
“Three down,” she muttered into her helmet mic. “No other contacts in sight.”
Even so, she continued to scan the distant trees carefully.
Ray secured the guards with serum injections while Tian and Yak, the other two members of the fire team joined them. The projectiles were gathered into Tian’s rucksack, and, when the rest of the squad arrived, they moved off through the trees together, climbing the slope until they reached another crest, and a chain link fence.
Half a mile away from the chateau, the main security compound provided a base for the guard’s rapid reaction force. The compound had a single entrance and out of the blockhouse blue light flickered to the loud chatter of an excited racing commentator.
Kayla stopped in the shadows of the trees and waited patiently. The air above her head snapped and cracked as rounds shot past, impacting security cameras and sensors around the compound. The bullets were a large caliber, but with a thermic charge core. Each strike glowed brilliantly as intense temperatures melted through their targets, leaving no evidence of what had neutralized them.
She grinned. Thandi was going to work, and though her presence and skill made Kayla feel much more confident, she would still tease her about doing the ‘easy part’ later.
In the near distance, there were a pair of flashes and loud zaps as the base’s generator and backup went out to EMP charges. Another squad from their platoon was working their own approach. That made Kayla nervous. The two elements would soon have to meet up, and nothing could be more dangerous to those who owned the night than confusing each other for the enemy.
She took her team around the base to the now dark main gate as the on-duty guards emerged to check on the loss of power. Stun rifle shots knocked them out, and the squad regrouped behind the cover of a vehicle bay, while Kayla identified the largest building in the compound and watched it attentively.
They waited patiently until the silence was broken by a new voice on the radio.
“Eyes on the barracks, north side. No movement.”
“South side clear,” Kayla confirmed.
“Approaching,” the other squad leader said.
Kayla waited until she saw shapes emerging from the shadows and sprinting behind the back of the large structure. Then, one leaned out from the corner, watching. Kayla tapped a control on her helmet, and a perfect white line broke through her grey world, pointing towards the figure. She was answered with a similar flash of infra-red energy, and her anxiety eased.
Kes, who had also been watching, tapped her shoulder, and Kayla led off towards the barracks.
From outside the Rangers could make out the annoyed calls of men and women stumbling around in the darkness. One emerged from a side door and nearly got off a shout before Tian tackled him and knocked him out. The two squads moved quickly, cracking open doorways and rolling gas grenades inside.
Invisible and odorless, the gas contained the signature compound Valkyrie used to erase memories. The Rangers waited a few minutes, safe behind their face masks, then entered and confirmed that all inside were unconscious. Kes and Thandi smashed a few liquor bottles against the walls, while others dragged the bodies into the main room, and distributed more ‘evidence’.
Eventually, Kes called ‘all clear’, and Kayla emerged from the building into the night, lifting her faceplate to breathe in some fresh air. She saw her fire team, Ray, Tian and Yak, heading to the vehicles to place EMP charges, and began to follow them, when a sharp rap on her helmet brought her up short.
She turned to see Thandi, vizor up, and an expectant expression on her face.
“Was that a curse word I heard earlier?” Thandi asked, keeping her voice low.
Kayla shook her head. “Negative. I was providing a biological assessment of the dude.”
“Ick. Two in the barracks were uh… in the middle of something when they passed out. I had to pull them apart.” She pulled a face. “That was gross.”
Kayla winked at her friend, who was spiritual enough for the both of them. “Unmarried, I bet. Your god approves.”
Thandi nodded gratefully, then shot her a look. “He’s not just my—"
Kes marched over, her expression severe. “Do either of you have EMP charges left?” she demanded.
“Yes Corporal,” Kayla nodded, and patted her rucksack.
“There’s a couple of transports left in the north corner. Get on it, then rejoin us on the east fence. Come on, we need to move quickly!”
Kayla scampered away, buzzing with energy. The squad still had to head for the chateau, and take up their position in the perimeter that was slowly drawing tighter around Rayker. She glanced at the dark mountains around her. In a dozen locations, radar arrays, missile defenses and communications stations were being similarly neutralized by small teams of Valkyrie from the various units. Soon they would have their prey, and Kayla privately hoped that she wouldn’t surrender.
***
Christie found Doctor Kolar, alone as usual, in the main hall and painfully out of place at such a large social gathering. He nursed a champagne glass, and smiled at passersby. Christie stared at him until their eyes met, and he quickly looked away, pretending to study one of Meissner’s diamond statues.
She walked in his direction, and as she passed, she flashed him a shy smile. Then, returning to her coterie of admirers, she looked back with another friendly expression.
Kolar cautiously approached the group, obviously unsure of what to do. The men ignored him, but the second he managed to breach the outer mass of bodies, Christie was on him.
“Oh hello! I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure!” she cried, extending her hand and beaming like a searchlight.
The other men frowned as they lost her attention.
“Um… All mine,” stammered Kolar. “Sorry. I’m—”
“Doctor Kolar, isn’t it?” interrupted a renowned and pompous pianist. “You’re working on space batteries for VennZech weapons research, or some such thing?”
“Well…” Kolar gulped. “We’re starting a new project on micro-singularities at the Planck scale, you see the current theory on weak—”
“It’s weak, you say?” The pianist laughed raucously as he slapped the doctor’s back. “Well, I never would have guessed, old boy.”
“Tell me, Zotty,” Christie cut in, addressing one of the other men, “Didn’t you just tell me this was one of Meissner’s inner circle?” she tottered forward slightly as she spoke.
“Correct,” the elder son and heir apparent of the largest media corporation in the League replied with a smile. He lifted his gaze from her bosom. “Doctor Kolar’s work is vital for the Maestro.”
Kolar smiled gratefully. “Indeed. Well, it’s about energy generation.”
“Oh, I hope you aren’t helping him make more of those dreadful bombs,” Christie said, and pouted. “War is very wrong! Really, I don’t know why they haven’t sanctioned the company for some of the absolutely horrid things they produce.”
The surrounding billionaires nodded their approval, while Kolar flushed. “No… well, I mustn’t talk about it, but I shouldn’t be getting involved in that side of VennZech’s business.”
“Quite right.” Christie nodded. “Oh, but you’re dry.” She turned to a waiter, grabbed a pair of glasses from his tray and handed one to Kolar.
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Prequel (Parts 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
2024.05.15 08:02 gotintocollegeyolo Buff Iso by making his wall block projectiles
Iso is by far the weakest agent in the game, so let's take a look on how he could get buffed. It's rather difficult to buff Iso to be honest, because there are rather limited ways to do so:
This leads to most people suggesting the wall be buffed to work like Harbor's wall where Iso could stop it anytime he wants. However, I don't like this idea and I don't think Riot likes it either because it takes away from the uniqueness of both Iso and Harbor's walls. Other basic ideas include making the wall wider or having it last longer. These basic ideas could definitely be good changes, but I propose that Riot should lean into the anti-bullet shield idea of the wall and also make it block projectiles. This would work like the buy phase barrier where projectiles such as Killjoy mollies, Raze nades, Sova darts, really any projectile would just bounce off the wall.
I believe this change could make Iso viable even in coordinated pro play. In fact, this buff may have the biggest impact in pro play but would be a great buff across the board at all elos.
For starters, this would make Iso much better on defense. As soon as a site exec starts, Iso can just drop the wall and suddenly the Sova dart bounces back in Sova's face, the Viper molly drops to the floor, etc., etc.
This buff would also have the funny additional benefit of denying lineups. When you see that Brim molly flying at the spike, just throw the wall and suddenly the lineup misses and you can stick the defuse.
But the greatest impact might just be that this change could maybe make Iso viable on Lotus. In my opinion, Lotus was already one of Iso's better maps in ranked as it is one of the few maps where his wall in its current state can be useful on attack. It's decent at denying the default C long peek while your team takes mound. B site is one of the only sites where the wall can actually be fully utilized to cover waterfall while you exec because it's such a short site. Iso also has some decent plays on defense as his vulnerable is very useful to combo with a Raze nade every round on defense to fight A, and it is not as valuable as an Omen flash so you could always do it every round (plus he has two of them).
The Lotus meta has always been to heavily fight for A rubble control. Some teams always do it, some teams do it less, but all teams do it pretty frequently and have multiple set plays for fighting A rubble. Even during ranked games across all ranks people know to fight for it on defense, throwing Raze nades and Omen blinds.
If Iso's wall was buffed to reflect projectiles, he would be extremely valuable on Lotus attack as he could throw the wall on A every round to completely shut down any defender aggression. The wall serves a dual purpose as you and your team can get across to rubble for free behind cover. You would essentially get easy rubble control every round for 200 credits.
If we're talking specifically pro scene, having that free rubble control may already be enough to make Iso a niche pick. However, this could also have the added benefit of allowing teams to switch from Omen to Brim as their primary controller. Some teams already have shown that they prefer Brim, such as NRG or Navi, although it is still considered a niche pick. One reason teams go for Omen is because of how good the Omen flash can be for fighting for A. However, if teams used Iso they could use the Iso vulnerable instead and also pick Brim without having to sacrifice all of the capabilities of the Omen flash.
As a final note, I know that some people will probably complain about how it is too OP if you can just drop a wall and completely shut down a Raze rocket or Deadlock ult, but do remember that a simple Kayo knife can already do that.
submitted by gotintocollegeyolo to VALORANT [link] [comments]
- Iso's vulnerable ability is already a good ability and doesn't need a buff. Even if you wanted to buff it, there are not a whole lot of good options available. Make it faster is an idea I've seen floating around but it's already pretty fast and it really wouldn't do anything to make Iso better
- Iso's ult doesn't really need any unique changes either, maybe you can reduce the cost by one but there are really limited options available to buff his ult without making it a completely free kill. It's also just a decent ult already
- Iso's shield is finnicky and could definitely use a buff. I think making it so you don't have to pre-activate the ability and could just shoot the orb on kill anytime is a huge quality-of-life change but honestly doesn't really move the needle in terms of Iso's viability. The shield kind of just is what it is. There's really not a whole lot else you can do with it, it already tanks one instance of damage. You can't make it two instances without it becoming broken. Making it last longer won't do much to help buff Iso out of F tier. I saw on TenZ's stream when he was talking about Iso buffs that he thought of an idea where the shield could tank a stun as if it was the instance of damage. It's a definitely cool idea, but overall this would not buff Iso by any significant amount. How many times a game will you actually have an Iso shield up and then get stunned? I'm betting less than once a game. Maybe once every two games
This leads to most people suggesting the wall be buffed to work like Harbor's wall where Iso could stop it anytime he wants. However, I don't like this idea and I don't think Riot likes it either because it takes away from the uniqueness of both Iso and Harbor's walls. Other basic ideas include making the wall wider or having it last longer. These basic ideas could definitely be good changes, but I propose that Riot should lean into the anti-bullet shield idea of the wall and also make it block projectiles. This would work like the buy phase barrier where projectiles such as Killjoy mollies, Raze nades, Sova darts, really any projectile would just bounce off the wall.
I believe this change could make Iso viable even in coordinated pro play. In fact, this buff may have the biggest impact in pro play but would be a great buff across the board at all elos.
For starters, this would make Iso much better on defense. As soon as a site exec starts, Iso can just drop the wall and suddenly the Sova dart bounces back in Sova's face, the Viper molly drops to the floor, etc., etc.
This buff would also have the funny additional benefit of denying lineups. When you see that Brim molly flying at the spike, just throw the wall and suddenly the lineup misses and you can stick the defuse.
But the greatest impact might just be that this change could maybe make Iso viable on Lotus. In my opinion, Lotus was already one of Iso's better maps in ranked as it is one of the few maps where his wall in its current state can be useful on attack. It's decent at denying the default C long peek while your team takes mound. B site is one of the only sites where the wall can actually be fully utilized to cover waterfall while you exec because it's such a short site. Iso also has some decent plays on defense as his vulnerable is very useful to combo with a Raze nade every round on defense to fight A, and it is not as valuable as an Omen flash so you could always do it every round (plus he has two of them).
The Lotus meta has always been to heavily fight for A rubble control. Some teams always do it, some teams do it less, but all teams do it pretty frequently and have multiple set plays for fighting A rubble. Even during ranked games across all ranks people know to fight for it on defense, throwing Raze nades and Omen blinds.
If Iso's wall was buffed to reflect projectiles, he would be extremely valuable on Lotus attack as he could throw the wall on A every round to completely shut down any defender aggression. The wall serves a dual purpose as you and your team can get across to rubble for free behind cover. You would essentially get easy rubble control every round for 200 credits.
If we're talking specifically pro scene, having that free rubble control may already be enough to make Iso a niche pick. However, this could also have the added benefit of allowing teams to switch from Omen to Brim as their primary controller. Some teams already have shown that they prefer Brim, such as NRG or Navi, although it is still considered a niche pick. One reason teams go for Omen is because of how good the Omen flash can be for fighting for A. However, if teams used Iso they could use the Iso vulnerable instead and also pick Brim without having to sacrifice all of the capabilities of the Omen flash.
As a final note, I know that some people will probably complain about how it is too OP if you can just drop a wall and completely shut down a Raze rocket or Deadlock ult, but do remember that a simple Kayo knife can already do that.
2024.05.12 13:37 SquareAltruistic5548 X-Men in 1997--Reading Every X-Franchise Comic released in 1997: Alpha Flight, Beast, Bishop: XSE *SPOILERS*
https://preview.redd.it/11dsma6pfzzc1.jpg?width=787&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a6df4992f805e96fa7b0e8782be1018a2fff0a70
With the success and popularity of the X-Men '97 animated streaming series, I thought it would be a good idea to look directly at the year, and X-Men comics, that inspired its title. 1997 was a bit of a strange year in Marvel history. The Onslaught event had put a third of the Marvel universe into the alternate "Heroes Reborn" continuity, DC was working in conjunction with Marvel to publish the Amalgam line of one shots, longtime and beloved executive editor Mark Gruenwald had just passed away suddenly from a heart attack the previous summer, and Thunderbolts #1 would deliver one of the greatest plot twists in comic book history. The X-Line was still still an absolute leviathan at this point, publishing 30+ titles of various on-goings, one shots, and limited series across the year. Are any of them any good? Let's find out.
We'll be breaking this up into chunks since I have to read over 100 comics and I also don't want to be posting a novel every time I make out of these posts. I'll also not be reviewing reprints that were published in Essential X-Men as they were not actually written to be published in 1997.
--Alpha Flight Vol 2. #1-7 and Alpha Flight: In the Beginning #-1 by Writer Steve Seagle, and Pencilers Scott Clark, Martin Egeland, Brian Denham, Bryan Hitch, and Anthony Winn
The most evil government in the 616 Marvel Universe isn't Latveria, The United States, Russia, or China, it's Canada. The engage in child trafficking, kidnapping, mass surveillance, mind control, and human experimentation--all in the first issue! Beast was right, our insidious neighbors to the north are Mutantkind's greatest foe.
The new series, which picks up "several" years after Alpha Flight Vol 1., opens the only way that it really could: With Wolverine! Of course this is just a Wolverine robot copy that Guardian, aka James MacDonald "Mac" Hudson, is in a training exercise with. Things don't go well when the Ol'Canucklehead does what he does best, in a robot clone sort of way, to Mac and impales him with his claws. James is dragged off by some men, and General Clarke and some mysterious figures wrapped in shadow say some cryptic things. This is a common motif for this volume so get used to it.
We then flash forward to Puck, aka Eugene Milton Judd, who is sort of our main character for this volume. He has been living like an average Canadian since Alpha broke up at the Vol 1. Drinking beer, saying "eh" a lot, and having an apartment. He receives a mysterious piece of information about the nefarious dealings going on at a reformed Alpha Flight. This is a common motif for this volume so get used to it.
Puck decides to bring this information to Vindicator, aka Heather McNeil Hudson, his former teammate and and Guardian's Ex(?) Wife. She has been been having PTSD flashback dreams about witnessing Guardian blowing up back in Volume 1. She and Puck meet at a coffee shop to discuss the message when they're suddenly attacked by armored goons! Said goons turn out to be Department H operatives who knock out our heroes and drag them back to Department H to be drafted into a new Alpha Flight.
We have some old and new members to be introduced to in the new Alpha. Maddison Jefferies is there, although he gets kidnapped at the end of issue 1 and everyone is mind controlled to forget this so don't worry too much about him. Sasquatch, who everyone thinks is Walter Langkowski but turns out is a literal Big Foot, is completely bestial and looks very different from classic Sas. "Very Different" meaning he's drawn like a WildC.A.T.s or Spawn character. Then we have our new characters and ohhhh boy. First up is Manbot, who's a guy named Bernie Lachenay that Department H grafted into an old Box robot. He mostly rolls around, is mysterious, and may have his own agenda. Then we have our trio of new mutant characters. First is Murmer, aka Arelette Truffaut, who is uhhhh French Canadian and talks with a french accent. Her power is touch based mind control that is as effective as the plot requires. She is also constantly trying to get with Radius, aka Jared Corbo, who has Unus the Untouchable powers but worse since he can't turn them off and also a terrible personality. He CAN'T FEEL or LIVE A NORMAL LIFE due to his force field, so don't even try to get close to him, MAN! One of those edgy 90s characters that everyone hates 25 years after the fact and kind of only shows up today as an easter egg or corpse for some sort of mutant massacre. Finally we have Flex, aka Adrian Corbo, who is a wimpy little sad boy. He can make his hands, and occasionally ankles, into knives. Sunfire makes an appearance seeking help for a radiation poisoning/cancer plot line. Finally, Guardian reappears, who has been mysteriously de-aged to 19 years old and has no memories of his former life.
So many mysteries lie at the heart of Department H, will our heroes ever get to the bottom of them? I think my main problem with the title is two fold, the art and the fact that they are just kind of spinning their wheels for these issues. They fight a new Zodiac, who has some sort of elaborate plot that will be resolved later I presume. They fight The Master of the World, except not really since he is a robot clone created by Department H to train the team. They fight Mesmero for two and half issues in a diner that just ends with him getting away and Murmur having a breakdown after being hit in the face with a pie. All of it feels like the team is just having its time wasted by Department H. The series itself is operating off of this 90s X-Files style paranoia about corrupt governments, militarized super heroes, and thought control through the institutions we trust. Which is a neat concept, and predates the Ultimates and The Authority by several years. However it just is really taking its sweet time getting going.
The art, with the exception of Issue #6 drawn by Bryan Hitch, is very...Liefeldian in parts. Guardian has that sort of sneering muzzle that Liefeld patented in X-Force in the early 90s. Vindicator and Murmur are incredibly, impossibly, thin and elongated and at times almost look like they don't have organs or bones. The action is kind of hard to follow in parts as well. Not my favorite visual style at all.
The -1 issue follows the meeting and then the marriage of James and Heather, and features, who else, WOLVERINE. It has Stan Lee show up as a Catholic priest to marry them as well. The issue is also notable in that it's the first appearance of Chinook, a golden age Canadian superhero who controls the wind, who shows up for all of one page to save Wolverine before crashing into a cosmic ray collector screaming "AIEEEEEE THE PAIN" and horribly mutating into a villain. Funny stuff.
Would I recommend Alpha Flight Volume 2? Well, it's starts off really slow and the art is really damn spotty at times. The themes and ideas it's dealing with are about a half decade ahead of their time, so I'll give it that. If you can grin and bear it, maybe?
--Beast Vol 1. #1-3 by Writers Keith Giffen and Terry Kavanagh and Penciler Cedric Nocon
Karma, aka Xuân Cao Manh, has been, editorially, stuck in a really shitty situation. For the past 10 years, real time, she has been searching for her kidnapped younger siblings Leong and Nga. Well guess what Karma fans? The dozens of you out there will finally see this plot point resolved! In a 3 issue limited series starring Beast and Cannonball!
Viper, who is seeking revenge against Karma because her evil brother Trân mindcontrolled her to be a part of Karma's evil uncle's harem(gross), has turned over the siblings to Spiral. Old six arms mutates them into aged up killing machine genetic abominations. Oh yeah, this is a 90s Terry Kavanagh X-Men story alright. Karma tracks them down with Beast and Cannonball's help and uhhhh rescues them? However, Beast says they're going to be stuck as freakish living weapons forever. Sucks to be you Karma.
You know, this is a lost art in modern comics. Devoting an entire limited series about a whole other character to resolving a long outstanding plot point that no one else has really addressed in years. It's kind of charming almost. The art is fine. Read if you want to see a throwback to a style that isn't really used in modern comics a lot. Or if you're a fan of Karma.
--Bishop: XSE Vol 1. #1 by Writer John Ostrander and Penciler Steve Epting
Bishop leads the XAVIER SECURITY ENFORCERS consisting of his racist sister and two other dorks against evil mutants who want to see the fragile peace between humans and mutants established after they had worked together to overthrow the evil sentinel regime broken. A decedent of Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club are also pulling the strings from the shadows, natch.
I like John Ostrander a lot. Suicide Squad, The Spectre, and Grimjack are some of my favorite comics of all time. Steve Epting is also a really good artist, and while he's not quite what he would become here the art is clean and attractive. However, I feel like this issue is a bit light on both plot and character. One doesn't really get a sense of Bishop at all, he's just sort of there. Oh well, read if you're a fan of the character. Plus there's a character named Dogface!
Next Time: Cable & Deadpool & The Daydreamers.
submitted by SquareAltruistic5548 to xmen [link] [comments]
With the success and popularity of the X-Men '97 animated streaming series, I thought it would be a good idea to look directly at the year, and X-Men comics, that inspired its title. 1997 was a bit of a strange year in Marvel history. The Onslaught event had put a third of the Marvel universe into the alternate "Heroes Reborn" continuity, DC was working in conjunction with Marvel to publish the Amalgam line of one shots, longtime and beloved executive editor Mark Gruenwald had just passed away suddenly from a heart attack the previous summer, and Thunderbolts #1 would deliver one of the greatest plot twists in comic book history. The X-Line was still still an absolute leviathan at this point, publishing 30+ titles of various on-goings, one shots, and limited series across the year. Are any of them any good? Let's find out.
We'll be breaking this up into chunks since I have to read over 100 comics and I also don't want to be posting a novel every time I make out of these posts. I'll also not be reviewing reprints that were published in Essential X-Men as they were not actually written to be published in 1997.
--Alpha Flight Vol 2. #1-7 and Alpha Flight: In the Beginning #-1 by Writer Steve Seagle, and Pencilers Scott Clark, Martin Egeland, Brian Denham, Bryan Hitch, and Anthony Winn
The most evil government in the 616 Marvel Universe isn't Latveria, The United States, Russia, or China, it's Canada. The engage in child trafficking, kidnapping, mass surveillance, mind control, and human experimentation--all in the first issue! Beast was right, our insidious neighbors to the north are Mutantkind's greatest foe.
The new series, which picks up "several" years after Alpha Flight Vol 1., opens the only way that it really could: With Wolverine! Of course this is just a Wolverine robot copy that Guardian, aka James MacDonald "Mac" Hudson, is in a training exercise with. Things don't go well when the Ol'Canucklehead does what he does best, in a robot clone sort of way, to Mac and impales him with his claws. James is dragged off by some men, and General Clarke and some mysterious figures wrapped in shadow say some cryptic things. This is a common motif for this volume so get used to it.
We then flash forward to Puck, aka Eugene Milton Judd, who is sort of our main character for this volume. He has been living like an average Canadian since Alpha broke up at the Vol 1. Drinking beer, saying "eh" a lot, and having an apartment. He receives a mysterious piece of information about the nefarious dealings going on at a reformed Alpha Flight. This is a common motif for this volume so get used to it.
Puck decides to bring this information to Vindicator, aka Heather McNeil Hudson, his former teammate and and Guardian's Ex(?) Wife. She has been been having PTSD flashback dreams about witnessing Guardian blowing up back in Volume 1. She and Puck meet at a coffee shop to discuss the message when they're suddenly attacked by armored goons! Said goons turn out to be Department H operatives who knock out our heroes and drag them back to Department H to be drafted into a new Alpha Flight.
We have some old and new members to be introduced to in the new Alpha. Maddison Jefferies is there, although he gets kidnapped at the end of issue 1 and everyone is mind controlled to forget this so don't worry too much about him. Sasquatch, who everyone thinks is Walter Langkowski but turns out is a literal Big Foot, is completely bestial and looks very different from classic Sas. "Very Different" meaning he's drawn like a WildC.A.T.s or Spawn character. Then we have our new characters and ohhhh boy. First up is Manbot, who's a guy named Bernie Lachenay that Department H grafted into an old Box robot. He mostly rolls around, is mysterious, and may have his own agenda. Then we have our trio of new mutant characters. First is Murmer, aka Arelette Truffaut, who is uhhhh French Canadian and talks with a french accent. Her power is touch based mind control that is as effective as the plot requires. She is also constantly trying to get with Radius, aka Jared Corbo, who has Unus the Untouchable powers but worse since he can't turn them off and also a terrible personality. He CAN'T FEEL or LIVE A NORMAL LIFE due to his force field, so don't even try to get close to him, MAN! One of those edgy 90s characters that everyone hates 25 years after the fact and kind of only shows up today as an easter egg or corpse for some sort of mutant massacre. Finally we have Flex, aka Adrian Corbo, who is a wimpy little sad boy. He can make his hands, and occasionally ankles, into knives. Sunfire makes an appearance seeking help for a radiation poisoning/cancer plot line. Finally, Guardian reappears, who has been mysteriously de-aged to 19 years old and has no memories of his former life.
So many mysteries lie at the heart of Department H, will our heroes ever get to the bottom of them? I think my main problem with the title is two fold, the art and the fact that they are just kind of spinning their wheels for these issues. They fight a new Zodiac, who has some sort of elaborate plot that will be resolved later I presume. They fight The Master of the World, except not really since he is a robot clone created by Department H to train the team. They fight Mesmero for two and half issues in a diner that just ends with him getting away and Murmur having a breakdown after being hit in the face with a pie. All of it feels like the team is just having its time wasted by Department H. The series itself is operating off of this 90s X-Files style paranoia about corrupt governments, militarized super heroes, and thought control through the institutions we trust. Which is a neat concept, and predates the Ultimates and The Authority by several years. However it just is really taking its sweet time getting going.
The art, with the exception of Issue #6 drawn by Bryan Hitch, is very...Liefeldian in parts. Guardian has that sort of sneering muzzle that Liefeld patented in X-Force in the early 90s. Vindicator and Murmur are incredibly, impossibly, thin and elongated and at times almost look like they don't have organs or bones. The action is kind of hard to follow in parts as well. Not my favorite visual style at all.
The -1 issue follows the meeting and then the marriage of James and Heather, and features, who else, WOLVERINE. It has Stan Lee show up as a Catholic priest to marry them as well. The issue is also notable in that it's the first appearance of Chinook, a golden age Canadian superhero who controls the wind, who shows up for all of one page to save Wolverine before crashing into a cosmic ray collector screaming "AIEEEEEE THE PAIN" and horribly mutating into a villain. Funny stuff.
Would I recommend Alpha Flight Volume 2? Well, it's starts off really slow and the art is really damn spotty at times. The themes and ideas it's dealing with are about a half decade ahead of their time, so I'll give it that. If you can grin and bear it, maybe?
--Beast Vol 1. #1-3 by Writers Keith Giffen and Terry Kavanagh and Penciler Cedric Nocon
Karma, aka Xuân Cao Manh, has been, editorially, stuck in a really shitty situation. For the past 10 years, real time, she has been searching for her kidnapped younger siblings Leong and Nga. Well guess what Karma fans? The dozens of you out there will finally see this plot point resolved! In a 3 issue limited series starring Beast and Cannonball!
Viper, who is seeking revenge against Karma because her evil brother Trân mindcontrolled her to be a part of Karma's evil uncle's harem(gross), has turned over the siblings to Spiral. Old six arms mutates them into aged up killing machine genetic abominations. Oh yeah, this is a 90s Terry Kavanagh X-Men story alright. Karma tracks them down with Beast and Cannonball's help and uhhhh rescues them? However, Beast says they're going to be stuck as freakish living weapons forever. Sucks to be you Karma.
You know, this is a lost art in modern comics. Devoting an entire limited series about a whole other character to resolving a long outstanding plot point that no one else has really addressed in years. It's kind of charming almost. The art is fine. Read if you want to see a throwback to a style that isn't really used in modern comics a lot. Or if you're a fan of Karma.
--Bishop: XSE Vol 1. #1 by Writer John Ostrander and Penciler Steve Epting
Bishop leads the XAVIER SECURITY ENFORCERS consisting of his racist sister and two other dorks against evil mutants who want to see the fragile peace between humans and mutants established after they had worked together to overthrow the evil sentinel regime broken. A decedent of Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club are also pulling the strings from the shadows, natch.
I like John Ostrander a lot. Suicide Squad, The Spectre, and Grimjack are some of my favorite comics of all time. Steve Epting is also a really good artist, and while he's not quite what he would become here the art is clean and attractive. However, I feel like this issue is a bit light on both plot and character. One doesn't really get a sense of Bishop at all, he's just sort of there. Oh well, read if you're a fan of the character. Plus there's a character named Dogface!
Next Time: Cable & Deadpool & The Daydreamers.
2024.05.12 12:33 kannterart [STATIC][SAVAGE][EU][LFM][sHC][7.0] PROG FROGS recruiting 1x PURE HEALER or 1x MELEE DPS
[LFM] LIGHT DC PROG FROGS Savage Group recruiting for Dawntrail
7/8 friends trying to push into sHC
Current team: [Paladin] + [Gunbreaker] + [Sage] + [Flex Pure Heal/Melee] + [Dancer] + [Caster] + [ReapeViper]
Looking for: 1x [Healer] (Pure) or 1x [Melee]
We're a group of friends who cleared previous Savage tiers together on content but would like to delve into a more sHC setting.
Raiding times would be 3 times a week for 3 hours, TUE / WED / THU, 18:00ST.
The plan is to knock out boss #1 and #2 in week 1 and then get the tier cleared within 2 months.
PLD Logs - https://www.fflogs.com/characteid/19568906
DNC Logs - https://www.fflogs.com/characteid/8569739
Caster Logs - https://www.fflogs.com/characteEU/Zodiark/Naeris%20Liadon
RPR Logs - https://www.fflogs.com/characteeu/moogle/rylai%20crystal
submitted by kannterart to FFXIVRECRUITMENT [link] [comments]
7/8 friends trying to push into sHC
Current team: [Paladin] + [Gunbreaker] + [Sage] + [Flex Pure Heal/Melee] + [Dancer] + [Caster] + [ReapeViper]
Looking for: 1x [Healer] (Pure) or 1x [Melee]
We're a group of friends who cleared previous Savage tiers together on content but would like to delve into a more sHC setting.
Raiding times would be 3 times a week for 3 hours, TUE / WED / THU, 18:00ST.
The plan is to knock out boss #1 and #2 in week 1 and then get the tier cleared within 2 months.
- Reclears are done together until everyone has their BiS.
- Respect the time and effort of the people within the static. This is no small commitment! Be prepared to study up.
- We openly welcome pf'ing outside of raid hours, but with consideration for any impact on the static's reclear runs.
- We will use Discord. Be comfortable to sit in and listen, being able to talk is very much preferred.
- Communication is absolutely essential. Be willing to give and take constructive criticism in a personable manner, since we're all here to help each other.
- Raid will be streamed live by our DNC, including Discord chat.
- Being queer friendly is an absolute must! 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️
PLD Logs - https://www.fflogs.com/characteid/19568906
DNC Logs - https://www.fflogs.com/characteid/8569739
Caster Logs - https://www.fflogs.com/characteEU/Zodiark/Naeris%20Liadon
RPR Logs - https://www.fflogs.com/characteeu/moogle/rylai%20crystal
2024.05.12 07:49 Enough-Supermarket94 Tuned #3
 | Hoping I would get to complete the campaign tomorrow, currently at 142 level. submitted by Enough-Supermarket94 to nfsnolimits [link] [comments] |
2024.05.10 23:37 CreativeProcess7848 How to fix error in content manager
 | How do I fix this like no water what I do it doesn’t work and also I reinstalled and still it doesn’t work please help. submitted by CreativeProcess7848 to assettocorsa [link] [comments] |
2024.05.10 18:00 Contactunderground The Peruvian Contact Network known as Rama reported having an on-board encounter deep in a remote rainforest locale called Paititi.
 | Rama’s Mission to Paititi submitted by Contactunderground to HighStrangeness [link] [comments] Joseph Burkes MD 2018, edited 2023 https://preview.redd.it/qc3aps0jgmzc1.jpg?width=287&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f22df0ab50e0812492d38e504e469c3bd28efe8b The amazing story of Mission Rama dates to the 1970s. The first group of Rama contact workers had their initial encounters in Peru. Their experiences involved many sightings of what they described as “extraterrestrial craft” that were facilitated using a form of telepathic communication called automatic writing. The Mission Rama activists even reported having onboard encounters. Sixto Paz Wells and other Latin-American contactees have published books in Spanish describing their experiences. In my opinion, their narratives should be seriously studied by all contact and disclosure activists. Representatives of both the North and South American Contact Networks Meet in Los Angeles. In 1994 Fernando Limaco, a retired dental surgeon and experienced Rama leader drove down from the San Francisco Bay Area with several close supporters to meet with our Los Angeles based Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind Initiative (CE-5) team. A member of our group, Captain Joe Vallejo, was a United Airlines 747 pilot. He arranged for us to meet the Mission Rama representatives at his home located in the Simi Valley. Fernando’s talk was given entirely in Spanish with the help of simultaneous translation provided by his companions and Captain Vallejo. Having Joe there was extremely helpful because of his language skills and his excellent command of Latin American contactee literature. This combination of talents helped him translate some of the more advanced concepts of the Rama cosmology as presented by Dr. Limaco. Mission Rama Started in Peru in 1974 Our Los Angeles CE5 team was very eager to hear what the Mission Rama people were prepared to tell us. I had given each member of my group a copy of an article published in “UFO Library Magazine” by Yolanda Marcino, a past United States Rama President. This authoritative document, in a rather obscure publication with limited circulation, described the early Mission Rama extraterrestrial encounters that started in Peru in 1974. Those contacts involved the experiences of university student Sixto Paz Wells and a group of his young friends. They reportedly had repeated encounters in the desert region near Lima called Chilca. From Yolanda Marcino’s account, we also learned that Sixto and others had reportedly been transported via an inter-dimensional portal to an extraterrestrial base located on a moon of Jupiter. We know this satellite as Ganymede. Dr. Limaco spoke with authority as a seasoned Rama activist. That afternoon in the Joe Vallejo’s living room, we heard a spellbinding account of what in my opinion is an adventure demonstrating great courage and high ideals. Since 1993, I have followed the developments in Mission Rama. It now goes by the name Rahma. In Sanskrit, “Ra” signifies the heavens; “ma” means the Earth and the “h” in between the “Ra” and “ma”, stands for humanity. As a contact activist with 30 years of experience, in my judgment Rahma is still playing an important role in helping humanity build a cooperative relationship with flying saucer intelligences. Dr. Limaco and his companions explained that it was Mission Rama’s custom to promote the development of psychic ability through meditation and certain other special mental exercises. Over time, many people in their network have become skilled in the practice of automatic writing. Telepathically received information is deemed accurate when multiple automatic writers working separately obtain the identical or at least very similar messages. (This is like the practice of remote viewing in which multiple viewers are independently tasked with the same target.) An individual that consistently channels accurate messages is described by Rama people as being a “good antenna.” Rama’s Mission to Patiti Our contact team was composed of middle-class people with good paying jobs. Among our ranks were three physicians working for the Southern California Permanente Group. Other members included Dr. Dixie Sullivan working as a clinical psychologist and her friend Dotha Weybourne, married to a wealthy lawyer. In contrast, Dr. Limaco’s team was mostly composed of immigrants, some newly arrived. Even those that were professionals in their nations of origin could be severely challenged by a new language and culture. Some didn’t have papers to work in the US. I later learned from Dr. Limaco that he had assisted Rama activists who were having problems with the INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service. Once in 1990, he even drove all the way to Salinas Valley to help a comrade file papers to avoid deportation. On the ride back to the Bay Area he had a remarkable sighting. It was late at night, and he reported hearing the word “Paititi” repeatedly in his mind. In a field nearby, he saw a disc shaped object hovering close to the ground. If I recall correctly, Dr. Limaco stated that when he first heard the word, he did not know that Paititi was a remote location deep in the Peruvian Andes rainforest. Later in 1990, via mental communications received by multiple Rama activists in different locations, it became known that a major encounter was going to take place. This time it would not occur in Chilca, the desert site south of Lima. Instead, the location was Paititi in the remote jungle situated on the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains. According to Dr. Limaco, in 1990 there were no roads to Paititi. It was sparsely populated by indigenous people that had little contact with the rest of the country. The only way to get there was by foot and this meant trekking through densely forested jungle full of poisonous plants, insects, and snakes. Those chosen for the mission would have to cross rivers infested with alligators, some up to six feet long. Automatic Writing Revealed Who Was Selected for the Jungle Mission Via a series of telepathic communications, Rama people learned that six individuals for the perilous expedition would be selected by the alleged “ETs.” In Spanish. the Rama activists call them “los hermanos mayors” (older brothers). At a general meeting in Peru attended by over two hundred supporters, the question was asked, who in the audience would be willing to go on the mission to Paititi? Everyone in the crowd raised a hand to volunteer for the encounter. Later it became clear as the result of ongoing messages from the flying saucer intelligences, that if any of the six initially selected by the “extraterrestrials” could not participate, then there could be no substitutions. Only those specifically chosen by “los hermanos mayores” would be welcomed to journey on foot to the far distant jungle location. According to Dr. Limaco’s account, the Rama people carried rice and beans as their only food during their trek to Paititi. They prepared these provisions nightly in a large cast iron pot. They were city people and not skilled woodsmen accustomed to the hardships of the rainforest. These Rama contact workers were, however, empowered by an intense desire for further contact with what they imagined was a technologically and ethically advanced extraterrestrial civilization. Daily prayer and meditation provided them with both emotional support and spiritual sustenance. They believed that they were somehow being protected by an unseen intelligence that was profoundly spiritual and desired their mission to succeed. Battery Packs Were Mysteriously Drained Dr. Limaco told us that they carried a video camera to document their anticipated encounter. After several days of marching into the jungle, they checked the camera’s batteries. The packs had been fully charged prior to their setting out for Paititi. To their dismay, they found that all the batteries were dead. The Rama team buried the now useless heavy equipment under a tall tree. They hoped to retrieve it on their way back to civilization. The Hired Guide Warned Them of Danger During the first portion of their trek, a hired guide led them further and further into the rainforest. He was well-aware of their destination and the risks to their safety that the journey entailed. The team used machetes to cut a path for themselves. After several days of hacking their way through the jungle their guide gave them this warning. “I am not going on any further and neither are you! Because beyond this point the people out there eat people! The Rama activists were disappointed to hear this disturbing pronouncement. They discussed their options, and the consensus was they would go on without the guide. Some days after exhausting trail blazing, they reportedly were so exhausted that they failed to cook supper. At nightfall, they crowded together in their small tent that was their only shelter. Despite being hungry, sleep came quickly. One evening according to Dr. Limaco, they were so drained of strength that they threw themselves down on the sand adjacent to a river. Huddled together for warmth, they fell asleep. At daybreak, they were shocked to find themselves surrounded by poisonous snakes. They apparently had slithered up to the contact workers to keep warm. One might expect the vipers to bite their frightened human bedpartners, Instead the venomous creatures slowly moved away as the morning temperature rose. Rivers and streams provided the Rama group with freshwater for drinking and bathing. This vital resource, however, was also a source of danger. Alligators were abundant in the waters they had to cross. A Grim Decision Was Made Uncertain as to how long they could go on before someone sustained injury, they made a grim decision. If one or more were seriously wounded or became sick, the rest of the team would leave most of the supplies with the casualties. Those that could still go on, would do so, without the others. They promised one another that they would return to pick up the sick or wounded on the way back. Fortuitously, none sustained serious injury or became too ill to continue. A Surprise Peace Offering Another potential danger came from the indigenous peoples of the rainforest as mentioned above. These groups have their own languages and cultures. Historically they have had bad relations with the European influenced population of Peru. Encroachment on indigenous peoples’ hunting grounds by settlements of townspeople and forestry operation have resulted in mutual suspicion and even violent confrontations. One day while passing through the indigenous people’s territory, the Rama group became frightened when a dugout canoe approached them. In the canoe were several native hunters armed with bows and arrows. However instead of expressing hostility towards the city people, the hunters volunteered to help “guide them on their mission.” As astounding as this may sound, it was Doctor Limaco’s impression that their arrival had been heralded by the ETs via telepathic messages sent to the hunters. The indigenous people were reportedly given instructions to help the Mission Rama emissaries. One hunter in a supreme act of solidarity insisted that Dr. Limaco take his hunting bow as a peace offering. This prized possession was the instrument by which the hunter fed his family and Dr. Limaco recognized its importance as a gift. As the Rama contact workers approached Paititi, their spirits rose. The telepathic communications that they were receiving were getting stronger and clearer. At night around the campfire, they carried out Rama prescribed mental exercises. They reportedly experienced profoundly peaceful states that reassured them that their mission would be successful. They Arrive at Paititi The night before reaching Paititi, each member of the team had an out-of body experience. As described to me by Dr. Limaco, each was mentally taken on-board a large ET craft that was waiting for them some one day’s marching distance away. The next morning, they continued trudging through the jungle. Although exhausted, their spirits were high because they knew that they did not have much further to go. Finally, they arrived at Paititi. Hovering above a clearing in the jungle, they encountered a large ET craft. Everyone immediately recognized it from the out of body experience of the previous night. This time the Rama team physically went onboard via a blue tractor beam that transported them one by one into the belly of the hovering ship. The Planet Earth as a Spiritual Dynamo The ET group that hosted them is known as the “Great White Brotherhood.” (This designation unfortunately sounds like the one used by criminal gangs of white nationalists.) The “ETs” received this designation because on repeated encounters the beings of this group all wore white robes. The Rama people were informed by their non-human hosts how vitally important Rama’s mission was. The goal was reportedly awesome in scope and involved nothing less than the spiritual transformation of humanity. This achievement would presumably set the stage for open contact with spiritually and technologically advanced non-human civilizations. According to the “ETs”, this transformation was happening not only on Earth, but throughout the entire galaxy as well. As reported to the Rama missionaries, vast numbers of advanced ET civilizations were awaiting a spiritual leap forward on our planet. This supposedly would allow us to join them in a galactic civilization of technologically and ethnically advanced star systems. The Rama activists explained that the Earth was a “spiritual dynamo.” A massive expansion of human consciousness on Earth would provide a psychic energetic boost to the civilizations that were assisting us. In the process, they would be lifted to the next wrung of their spiritual evolutionary ladder. They were helping us, and our transformation would be helping them to achieve their destiny. Undeniably, critics of this narrative will point out that this all sounds like a New Age oriented Star Trek episode. The Rama activists however are real people. As documented by numerous media reports in Latin America, they have an established track record of co-creating with the non-human intelligences associated with UFOs what I call Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE). And they have been doing this since the 1970s. If this account is accurate, as I believe it is, then the story of Dr. Limaco and his companions serves as an inspiration for contact activists and UFO truth seekers alike. In my opinion, their astounding story should inspire people all over the world to actively engage the intelligences responsible for the flying saucer phenomenon. Who knows, perhaps in a generation or two, the courageous efforts described in this narrative will no longer be so unusual? It is conceivable that someday, dozens of contact teams all over the world might be replicating the astounding work of the contact network now called “Rahma.” Links to additional articles about Mission Rama The article linked below is a detailed description of the origins of Mission Rama, a spiritually based Peruvian network of volunteer contact workers. They reported experiencing direct face to face encounters with what they believed were friendly extraterrestrial beings. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/01/28/mission-rama-one-of-the-most-important-contact-networks-of-the-20th-century/ A description of how activists from CE-5 Initiative met with activists from the Peruvian network now called Rahma. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/06/02/the-north-and-south-american-contact-networks-meet/ United Airlines Captain Joe Vallejo’s description of Rama activists opening a dimensional portal at a California UFO contact site in 1994. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/25/xendra-inter-dimensional-portal-opened-at-rama-contact-site-called-shasta/ Long time Rahma activist Enrique Villanueva explains that UFO contact work is more than having a sighting or meeting friendly extraterrestrials. It is about the expansion of human consciousness. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/03/et-contact-and-the-expansion-of-human-consciousness/ |
2024.05.10 17:58 Contactunderground The Peruvian Contact Network known as Rama reported having an on-board encounter deep in a remote rainforest locale called Paititi.
| | Rama’s Mission to Paititi submitted by Contactunderground to Experiencers [link] [comments] Joseph Burkes MD 2018, edited 2023 https://preview.redd.it/kigvvn92gmzc1.jpg?width=287&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6517b98c9a386f2efed1070cf57d30c489c5c6ce The amazing story of Mission Rama dates to the 1970s. The first group of Rama contact workers had their initial encounters in Peru. Their experiences involved many sightings of what they described as “extraterrestrial craft” that were facilitated using a form of telepathic communication called automatic writing. The Mission Rama activists even reported having onboard encounters. Sixto Paz Wells and other Latin-American contactees have published books in Spanish describing their experiences. In my opinion, their narratives should be seriously studied by all contact and disclosure activists. Representatives of both the North and South American Contact Networks Meet in Los Angeles. In 1994 Fernando Limaco, a retired dental surgeon and experienced Rama leader drove down from the San Francisco Bay Area with several close supporters to meet with our Los Angeles based Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind Initiative (CE-5) team. A member of our group, Captain Joe Vallejo, was a United Airlines 747 pilot. He arranged for us to meet the Mission Rama representatives at his home located in the Simi Valley. Fernando’s talk was given entirely in Spanish with the help of simultaneous translation provided by his companions and Captain Vallejo. Having Joe there was extremely helpful because of his language skills and his excellent command of Latin American contactee literature. This combination of talents helped him translate some of the more advanced concepts of the Rama cosmology as presented by Dr. Limaco. Mission Rama Started in Peru in 1974 Our Los Angeles CE5 team was very eager to hear what the Mission Rama people were prepared to tell us. I had given each member of my group a copy of an article published in “UFO Library Magazine” by Yolanda Marcino, a past United States Rama President. This authoritative document, in a rather obscure publication with limited circulation, described the early Mission Rama extraterrestrial encounters that started in Peru in 1974. Those contacts involved the experiences of university student Sixto Paz Wells and a group of his young friends. They reportedly had repeated encounters in the desert region near Lima called Chilca. From Yolanda Marcino’s account, we also learned that Sixto and others had reportedly been transported via an inter-dimensional portal to an extraterrestrial base located on a moon of Jupiter. We know this satellite as Ganymede. Dr. Limaco spoke with authority as a seasoned Rama activist. That afternoon in the Joe Vallejo’s living room, we heard a spellbinding account of what in my opinion is an adventure demonstrating great courage and high ideals. Since 1993, I have followed the developments in Mission Rama. It now goes by the name Rahma. In Sanskrit, “Ra” signifies the heavens; “ma” means the Earth and the “h” in between the “Ra” and “ma”, stands for humanity. As a contact activist with 30 years of experience, in my judgment Rahma is still playing an important role in helping humanity build a cooperative relationship with flying saucer intelligences. Dr. Limaco and his companions explained that it was Mission Rama’s custom to promote the development of psychic ability through meditation and certain other special mental exercises. Over time, many people in their network have become skilled in the practice of automatic writing. Telepathically received information is deemed accurate when multiple automatic writers working separately obtain the identical or at least very similar messages. (This is like the practice of remote viewing in which multiple viewers are independently tasked with the same target.) An individual that consistently channels accurate messages is described by Rama people as being a “good antenna.” Rama’s Mission to Patiti Our contact team was composed of middle-class people with good paying jobs. Among our ranks were three physicians working for the Southern California Permanente Group. Other members included Dr. Dixie Sullivan working as a clinical psychologist and her friend Dotha Weybourne, married to a wealthy lawyer. In contrast, Dr. Limaco’s team was mostly composed of immigrants, some newly arrived. Even those that were professionals in their nations of origin could be severely challenged by a new language and culture. Some didn’t have papers to work in the US. I later learned from Dr. Limaco that he had assisted Rama activists who were having problems with the INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service. Once in 1990, he even drove all the way to Salinas Valley to help a comrade file papers to avoid deportation. On the ride back to the Bay Area he had a remarkable sighting. It was late at night, and he reported hearing the word “Paititi” repeatedly in his mind. In a field nearby, he saw a disc shaped object hovering close to the ground. If I recall correctly, Dr. Limaco stated that when he first heard the word, he did not know that Paititi was a remote location deep in the Peruvian Andes rainforest. Later in 1990, via mental communications received by multiple Rama activists in different locations, it became known that a major encounter was going to take place. This time it would not occur in Chilca, the desert site south of Lima. Instead, the location was Paititi in the remote jungle situated on the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains. According to Dr. Limaco, in 1990 there were no roads to Paititi. It was sparsely populated by indigenous people that had little contact with the rest of the country. The only way to get there was by foot and this meant trekking through densely forested jungle full of poisonous plants, insects, and snakes. Those chosen for the mission would have to cross rivers infested with alligators, some up to six feet long. Automatic Writing Revealed Who Was Selected for the Jungle Mission Via a series of telepathic communications, Rama people learned that six individuals for the perilous expedition would be selected by the alleged “ETs.” In Spanish. the Rama activists call them “los hermanos mayors” (older brothers). At a general meeting in Peru attended by over two hundred supporters, the question was asked, who in the audience would be willing to go on the mission to Paititi? Everyone in the crowd raised a hand to volunteer for the encounter. Later it became clear as the result of ongoing messages from the flying saucer intelligences, that if any of the six initially selected by the “extraterrestrials” could not participate, then there could be no substitutions. Only those specifically chosen by “los hermanos mayores” would be welcomed to journey on foot to the far distant jungle location. According to Dr. Limaco’s account, the Rama people carried rice and beans as their only food during their trek to Paititi. They prepared these provisions nightly in a large cast iron pot. They were city people and not skilled woodsmen accustomed to the hardships of the rainforest. These Rama contact workers were, however, empowered by an intense desire for further contact with what they imagined was a technologically and ethically advanced extraterrestrial civilization. Daily prayer and meditation provided them with both emotional support and spiritual sustenance. They believed that they were somehow being protected by an unseen intelligence that was profoundly spiritual and desired their mission to succeed. Battery Packs Were Mysteriously Drained Dr. Limaco told us that they carried a video camera to document their anticipated encounter. After several days of marching into the jungle, they checked the camera’s batteries. The packs had been fully charged prior to their setting out for Paititi. To their dismay, they found that all the batteries were dead. The Rama team buried the now useless heavy equipment under a tall tree. They hoped to retrieve it on their way back to civilization. The Hired Guide Warned Them of Danger During the first portion of their trek, a hired guide led them further and further into the rainforest. He was well-aware of their destination and the risks to their safety that the journey entailed. The team used machetes to cut a path for themselves. After several days of hacking their way through the jungle their guide gave them this warning. “I am not going on any further and neither are you! Because beyond this point the people out there eat people! The Rama activists were disappointed to hear this disturbing pronouncement. They discussed their options, and the consensus was they would go on without the guide. Some days after exhausting trail blazing, they reportedly were so exhausted that they failed to cook supper. At nightfall, they crowded together in their small tent that was their only shelter. Despite being hungry, sleep came quickly. One evening according to Dr. Limaco, they were so drained of strength that they threw themselves down on the sand adjacent to a river. Huddled together for warmth, they fell asleep. At daybreak, they were shocked to find themselves surrounded by poisonous snakes. They apparently had slithered up to the contact workers to keep warm. One might expect the vipers to bite their frightened human bedpartners, Instead the venomous creatures slowly moved away as the morning temperature rose. Rivers and streams provided the Rama group with freshwater for drinking and bathing. This vital resource, however, was also a source of danger. Alligators were abundant in the waters they had to cross. A Grim Decision Was Made Uncertain as to how long they could go on before someone sustained injury, they made a grim decision. If one or more were seriously wounded or became sick, the rest of the team would leave most of the supplies with the casualties. Those that could still go on, would do so, without the others. They promised one another that they would return to pick up the sick or wounded on the way back. Fortuitously, none sustained serious injury or became too ill to continue. A Surprise Peace Offering Another potential danger came from the indigenous peoples of the rainforest as mentioned above. These groups have their own languages and cultures. Historically they have had bad relations with the European influenced population of Peru. Encroachment on indigenous peoples’ hunting grounds by settlements of townspeople and forestry operation have resulted in mutual suspicion and even violent confrontations. One day while passing through the indigenous people’s territory, the Rama group became frightened when a dugout canoe approached them. In the canoe were several native hunters armed with bows and arrows. However instead of expressing hostility towards the city people, the hunters volunteered to help “guide them on their mission.” As astounding as this may sound, it was Doctor Limaco’s impression that their arrival had been heralded by the ETs via telepathic messages sent to the hunters. The indigenous people were reportedly given instructions to help the Mission Rama emissaries. One hunter in a supreme act of solidarity insisted that Dr. Limaco take his hunting bow as a peace offering. This prized possession was the instrument by which the hunter fed his family and Dr. Limaco recognized its importance as a gift. As the Rama contact workers approached Paititi, their spirits rose. The telepathic communications that they were receiving were getting stronger and clearer. At night around the campfire, they carried out Rama prescribed mental exercises. They reportedly experienced profoundly peaceful states that reassured them that their mission would be successful. They Arrive at Paititi The night before reaching Paititi, each member of the team had an out-of body experience. As described to me by Dr. Limaco, each was mentally taken on-board a large ET craft that was waiting for them some one day’s marching distance away. The next morning, they continued trudging through the jungle. Although exhausted, their spirits were high because they knew that they did not have much further to go. Finally, they arrived at Paititi. Hovering above a clearing in the jungle, they encountered a large ET craft. Everyone immediately recognized it from the out of body experience of the previous night. This time the Rama team physically went onboard via a blue tractor beam that transported them one by one into the belly of the hovering ship. The Planet Earth as a Spiritual Dynamo The ET group that hosted them is known as the “Great White Brotherhood.” (This designation unfortunately sounds like the one used by criminal gangs of white nationalists.) The “ETs” received this designation because on repeated encounters the beings of this group all wore white robes. The Rama people were informed by their non-human hosts how vitally important Rama’s mission was. The goal was reportedly awesome in scope and involved nothing less than the spiritual transformation of humanity. This achievement would presumably set the stage for open contact with spiritually and technologically advanced non-human civilizations. According to the “ETs”, this transformation was happening not only on Earth, but throughout the entire galaxy as well. As reported to the Rama missionaries, vast numbers of advanced ET civilizations were awaiting a spiritual leap forward on our planet. This supposedly would allow us to join them in a galactic civilization of technologically and ethnically advanced star systems. The Rama activists explained that the Earth was a “spiritual dynamo.” A massive expansion of human consciousness on Earth would provide a psychic energetic boost to the civilizations that were assisting us. In the process, they would be lifted to the next wrung of their spiritual evolutionary ladder. They were helping us, and our transformation would be helping them to achieve their destiny. Undeniably, critics of this narrative will point out that this all sounds like a New Age oriented Star Trek episode. The Rama activists however are real people. As documented by numerous media reports in Latin America, they have an established track record of co-creating with the non-human intelligences associated with UFOs what I call Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE). And they have been doing this since the 1970s. If this account is accurate, as I believe it is, then the story of Dr. Limaco and his companions serves as an inspiration for contact activists and UFO truth seekers alike. In my opinion, their astounding story should inspire people all over the world to actively engage the intelligences responsible for the flying saucer phenomenon. Who knows, perhaps in a generation or two, the courageous efforts described in this narrative will no longer be so unusual? It is conceivable that someday, dozens of contact teams all over the world might be replicating the astounding work of the contact network now called “Rahma.” Links to additional articles about Mission Rama The article linked below is a detailed description of the origins of Mission Rama, a spiritually based Peruvian network of volunteer contact workers. They reported experiencing direct face to face encounters with what they believed were friendly extraterrestrial beings. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/01/28/mission-rama-one-of-the-most-important-contact-networks-of-the-20th-century/ A description of how activists from CE-5 Initiative met with activists from the Peruvian network now called Rahma. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/06/02/the-north-and-south-american-contact-networks-meet/ United Airlines Captain Joe Vallejo’s description of Rama activists opening a dimensional portal at a California UFO contact site in 1994. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/25/xendra-inter-dimensional-portal-opened-at-rama-contact-site-called-shasta/ Long time Rahma activist Enrique Villanueva explains that UFO contact work is more than having a sighting or meeting friendly extraterrestrials. It is about the expansion of human consciousness. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/03/et-contact-and-the-expansion-of-human-consciousness/ |
2024.05.10 17:46 Contactunderground The Peruvian Contact Network known as Rama reported having an on-board encounter deep in a remote rainforest locale called Paititi.
| | Rama’s Mission to Paititi submitted by Contactunderground to ContactUnderground [link] [comments] Joseph Burkes MD 2018, edited 2023 https://preview.redd.it/2ev7ouvzdmzc1.jpg?width=287&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=76a02b0829a3ee0f4ea1fe9e349704f1e2588b49 The amazing story of Mission Rama dates to the 1970s. The first group of Rama contact workers had their initial encounters in Peru. Their experiences involved many sightings of what they described as “extraterrestrial craft” that were facilitated using a form of telepathic communication called automatic writing. The Mission Rama activists even reported having onboard encounters. Sixto Paz Wells and other Latin-American contactees have published books in Spanish describing their experiences. In my opinion, their narratives should be seriously studied by all contact and disclosure activists. Representatives of both the North and South American Contact Networks Meet in Los Angeles. In 1994 Fernando Limaco, a retired dental surgeon and experienced Rama leader drove down from the San Francisco Bay Area with several close supporters to meet with our Los Angeles based Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind Initiative (CE-5) team. A member of our group, Captain Joe Vallejo, was a United Airlines 747 pilot. He arranged for us to meet the Mission Rama representatives at his home located in the Simi Valley. Fernando’s talk was given entirely in Spanish with the help of simultaneous translation provided by his companions and Captain Vallejo. Having Joe there was extremely helpful because of his language skills and his excellent command of Latin American contactee literature. This combination of talents helped him translate some of the more advanced concepts of the Rama cosmology as presented by Dr. Limaco. Mission Rama Started in Peru in 1974 Our Los Angeles CE5 team was very eager to hear what the Mission Rama people were prepared to tell us. I had given each member of my group a copy of an article published in “UFO Library Magazine” by Yolanda Marcino, a past United States Rama President. This authoritative document, in a rather obscure publication with limited circulation, described the early Mission Rama extraterrestrial encounters that started in Peru in 1974. Those contacts involved the experiences of university student Sixto Paz Wells and a group of his young friends. They reportedly had repeated encounters in the desert region near Lima called Chilca. From Yolanda Marcino’s account, we also learned that Sixto and others had reportedly been transported via an inter-dimensional portal to an extraterrestrial base located on a moon of Jupiter. We know this satellite as Ganymede. Dr. Limaco spoke with authority as a seasoned Rama activist. That afternoon in the Joe Vallejo’s living room, we heard a spellbinding account of what in my opinion is an adventure demonstrating great courage and high ideals. Since 1993, I have followed the developments in Mission Rama. It now goes by the name Rahma. In Sanskrit, “Ra” signifies the heavens; “ma” means the Earth and the “h” in between the “Ra” and “ma”, stands for humanity. As a contact activist with 30 years of experience, in my judgment Rahma is still playing an important role in helping humanity build a cooperative relationship with flying saucer intelligences. Dr. Limaco and his companions explained that it was Mission Rama’s custom to promote the development of psychic ability through meditation and certain other special mental exercises. Over time, many people in their network have become skilled in the practice of automatic writing. Telepathically received information is deemed accurate when multiple automatic writers working separately obtain the identical or at least very similar messages. (This is like the practice of remote viewing in which multiple viewers are independently tasked with the same target.) An individual that consistently channels accurate messages is described by Rama people as being a “good antenna.” Rama’s Mission to Patiti Our contact team was composed of middle-class people with good paying jobs. Among our ranks were three physicians working for the Southern California Permanente Group. Other members included Dr. Dixie Sullivan working as a clinical psychologist and her friend Dotha Weybourne, married to a wealthy lawyer. In contrast, Dr. Limaco’s team was mostly composed of immigrants, some newly arrived. Even those that were professionals in their nations of origin could be severely challenged by a new language and culture. Some didn’t have papers to work in the US. I later learned from Dr. Limaco that he had assisted Rama activists who were having problems with the INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service. Once in 1990, he even drove all the way to Salinas Valley to help a comrade file papers to avoid deportation. On the ride back to the Bay Area he had a remarkable sighting. It was late at night, and he reported hearing the word “Paititi” repeatedly in his mind. In a field nearby, he saw a disc shaped object hovering close to the ground. If I recall correctly, Dr. Limaco stated that when he first heard the word, he did not know that Paititi was a remote location deep in the Peruvian Andes rainforest. Later in 1990, via mental communications received by multiple Rama activists in different locations, it became known that a major encounter was going to take place. This time it would not occur in Chilca, the desert site south of Lima. Instead, the location was Paititi in the remote jungle situated on the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains. According to Dr. Limaco, in 1990 there were no roads to Paititi. It was sparsely populated by indigenous people that had little contact with the rest of the country. The only way to get there was by foot and this meant trekking through densely forested jungle full of poisonous plants, insects, and snakes. Those chosen for the mission would have to cross rivers infested with alligators, some up to six feet long. Automatic Writing Revealed Who Was Selected for the Jungle Mission Via a series of telepathic communications, Rama people learned that six individuals for the perilous expedition would be selected by the alleged “ETs.” In Spanish. the Rama activists call them “los hermanos mayors” (older brothers). At a general meeting in Peru attended by over two hundred supporters, the question was asked, who in the audience would be willing to go on the mission to Paititi? Everyone in the crowd raised a hand to volunteer for the encounter. Later it became clear as the result of ongoing messages from the flying saucer intelligences, that if any of the six initially selected by the “extraterrestrials” could not participate, then there could be no substitutions. Only those specifically chosen by “los hermanos mayores” would be welcomed to journey on foot to the far distant jungle location. According to Dr. Limaco’s account, the Rama people carried rice and beans as their only food during their trek to Paititi. They prepared these provisions nightly in a large cast iron pot. They were city people and not skilled woodsmen accustomed to the hardships of the rainforest. These Rama contact workers were, however, empowered by an intense desire for further contact with what they imagined was a technologically and ethically advanced extraterrestrial civilization. Daily prayer and meditation provided them with both emotional support and spiritual sustenance. They believed that they were somehow being protected by an unseen intelligence that was profoundly spiritual and desired their mission to succeed. Battery Packs Were Mysteriously Drained Dr. Limaco told us that they carried a video camera to document their anticipated encounter. After several days of marching into the jungle, they checked the camera’s batteries. The packs had been fully charged prior to their setting out for Paititi. To their dismay, they found that all the batteries were dead. The Rama team buried the now useless heavy equipment under a tall tree. They hoped to retrieve it on their way back to civilization. The Hired Guide Warned Them of Danger During the first portion of their trek, a hired guide led them further and further into the rainforest. He was well-aware of their destination and the risks to their safety that the journey entailed. The team used machetes to cut a path for themselves. After several days of hacking their way through the jungle their guide gave them this warning. “I am not going on any further and neither are you! Because beyond this point the people out there eat people! The Rama activists were disappointed to hear this disturbing pronouncement. They discussed their options, and the consensus was they would go on without the guide. Some days after exhausting trail blazing, they reportedly were so exhausted that they failed to cook supper. At nightfall, they crowded together in their small tent that was their only shelter. Despite being hungry, sleep came quickly. One evening according to Dr. Limaco, they were so drained of strength that they threw themselves down on the sand adjacent to a river. Huddled together for warmth, they fell asleep. At daybreak, they were shocked to find themselves surrounded by poisonous snakes. They apparently had slithered up to the contact workers to keep warm. One might expect the vipers to bite their frightened human bedpartners, Instead the venomous creatures slowly moved away as the morning temperature rose. Rivers and streams provided the Rama group with freshwater for drinking and bathing. This vital resource, however, was also a source of danger. Alligators were abundant in the waters they had to cross. A Grim Decision Was Made Uncertain as to how long they could go on before someone sustained injury, they made a grim decision. If one or more were seriously wounded or became sick, the rest of the team would leave most of the supplies with the casualties. Those that could still go on, would do so, without the others. They promised one another that they would return to pick up the sick or wounded on the way back. Fortuitously, none sustained serious injury or became too ill to continue. A Surprise Peace Offering Another potential danger came from the indigenous peoples of the rainforest as mentioned above. These groups have their own languages and cultures. Historically they have had bad relations with the European influenced population of Peru. Encroachment on indigenous peoples’ hunting grounds by settlements of townspeople and forestry operation have resulted in mutual suspicion and even violent confrontations. One day while passing through the indigenous people’s territory, the Rama group became frightened when a dugout canoe approached them. In the canoe were several native hunters armed with bows and arrows. However instead of expressing hostility towards the city people, the hunters volunteered to help “guide them on their mission.” As astounding as this may sound, it was Doctor Limaco’s impression that their arrival had been heralded by the ETs via telepathic messages sent to the hunters. The indigenous people were reportedly given instructions to help the Mission Rama emissaries. One hunter in a supreme act of solidarity insisted that Dr. Limaco take his hunting bow as a peace offering. This prized possession was the instrument by which the hunter fed his family and Dr. Limaco recognized its importance as a gift. As the Rama contact workers approached Paititi, their spirits rose. The telepathic communications that they were receiving were getting stronger and clearer. At night around the campfire, they carried out Rama prescribed mental exercises. They reportedly experienced profoundly peaceful states that reassured them that their mission would be successful. They Arrive at Paititi The night before reaching Paititi, each member of the team had an out-of body experience. As described to me by Dr. Limaco, each was mentally taken on-board a large ET craft that was waiting for them some one day’s marching distance away. The next morning, they continued trudging through the jungle. Although exhausted, their spirits were high because they knew that they did not have much further to go. Finally, they arrived at Paititi. Hovering above a clearing in the jungle, they encountered a large ET craft. Everyone immediately recognized it from the out of body experience of the previous night. This time the Rama team physically went onboard via a blue tractor beam that transported them one by one into the belly of the hovering ship. The Planet Earth as a Spiritual Dynamo The ET group that hosted them is known as the “Great White Brotherhood.” (This designation unfortunately sounds like the one used by criminal gangs of white nationalists.) The “ETs” received this designation because on repeated encounters the beings of this group all wore white robes. The Rama people were informed by their non-human hosts how vitally important Rama’s mission was. The goal was reportedly awesome in scope and involved nothing less than the spiritual transformation of humanity. This achievement would presumably set the stage for open contact with spiritually and technologically advanced non-human civilizations. According to the “ETs”, this transformation was happening not only on Earth, but throughout the entire galaxy as well. As reported to the Rama missionaries, vast numbers of advanced ET civilizations were awaiting a spiritual leap forward on our planet. This supposedly would allow us to join them in a galactic civilization of technologically and ethnically advanced star systems. The Rama activists explained that the Earth was a “spiritual dynamo.” A massive expansion of human consciousness on Earth would provide a psychic energetic boost to the civilizations that were assisting us. In the process, they would be lifted to the next wrung of their spiritual evolutionary ladder. They were helping us, and our transformation would be helping them to achieve their destiny. Undeniably, critics of this narrative will point out that this all sounds like a New Age oriented Star Trek episode. The Rama activists however are real people. As documented by numerous media reports in Latin America, they have an established track record of co-creating with the non-human intelligences associated with UFOs what I call Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE). And they have been doing this since the 1970s. If this account is accurate, as I believe it is, then the story of Dr. Limaco and his companions serves as an inspiration for contact activists and UFO truth seekers alike. In my opinion, their astounding story should inspire people all over the world to actively engage the intelligences responsible for the flying saucer phenomenon. Who knows, perhaps in a generation or two, the courageous efforts described in this narrative will no longer be so unusual? It is conceivable that someday, dozens of contact teams all over the world might be replicating the astounding work of the contact network now called “Rahma.” Links to additional articles about Mission Rama The article linked below is a detailed description of the origins of Mission Rama, a spiritually based Peruvian network of volunteer contact workers. They reported experiencing direct face to face encounters with what they believed were friendly extraterrestrial beings. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/01/28/mission-rama-one-of-the-most-important-contact-networks-of-the-20th-century/ A description of how activists from CE-5 Initiative met with activists from the Peruvian network now called Rahma. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/06/02/the-north-and-south-american-contact-networks-meet/ Long time Rama activist retired dental surgeon Fernando Limaco describes how he and four other volunteer contact workers marched into the Peruvian rainforest to rendezvous with friendly ETs in a remote region called Paititi. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/01/21/ramas-mission-to-paititi/ United Airlines Captain Joe Vallejo’s description of Rama activists opening a dimensional portal at a California UFO contact site in 1994. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/25/xendra-inter-dimensional-portal-opened-at-rama-contact-site-called-shasta/ Long time Rahma activist Enrique Villanueva explains that UFO contact work is more than having a sighting or meeting friendly extraterrestrials. It is about the expansion of human consciousness. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/03/et-contact-and-the-expansion-of-human-consciousness/ |
2024.05.10 17:44 Contactunderground The Peruvian Contact Network known as Rama reported having an on-board encounter deep in a remote rainforest locale called Paititi.
| | Rama’s Mission to Paititi submitted by Contactunderground to CE5 [link] [comments] Joseph Burkes MD 2018, edited 2023 https://preview.redd.it/lyhs9gwndmzc1.jpg?width=287&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09f89bed4f0be2d04d4625eff9aa42d065715707 The amazing story of Mission Rama dates to the 1970s. The first group of Rama contact workers had their initial encounters in Peru. Their experiences involved many sightings of what they described as “extraterrestrial craft” that were facilitated using a form of telepathic communication called automatic writing. The Mission Rama activists even reported having onboard encounters. Sixto Paz Wells and other Latin-American contactees have published books in Spanish describing their experiences. In my opinion, their narratives should be seriously studied by all contact and disclosure activists. Representatives of both the North and South American Contact Networks Meet in Los Angeles. In 1994 Fernando Limaco, a retired dental surgeon and experienced Rama leader drove down from the San Francisco Bay Area with several close supporters to meet with our Los Angeles based Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind Initiative (CE-5) team. A member of our group, Captain Joe Vallejo, was a United Airlines 747 pilot. He arranged for us to meet the Mission Rama representatives at his home located in the Simi Valley. Fernando’s talk was given entirely in Spanish with the help of simultaneous translation provided by his companions and Captain Vallejo. Having Joe there was extremely helpful because of his language skills and his excellent command of Latin American contactee literature. This combination of talents helped him translate some of the more advanced concepts of the Rama cosmology as presented by Dr. Limaco. Mission Rama Started in Peru in 1974 Our Los Angeles CE5 team was very eager to hear what the Mission Rama people were prepared to tell us. I had given each member of my group a copy of an article published in “UFO Library Magazine” by Yolanda Marcino, a past United States Rama President. This authoritative document, in a rather obscure publication with limited circulation, described the early Mission Rama extraterrestrial encounters that started in Peru in 1974. Those contacts involved the experiences of university student Sixto Paz Wells and a group of his young friends. They reportedly had repeated encounters in the desert region near Lima called Chilca. From Yolanda Marcino’s account, we also learned that Sixto and others had reportedly been transported via an inter-dimensional portal to an extraterrestrial base located on a moon of Jupiter. We know this satellite as Ganymede. Dr. Limaco spoke with authority as a seasoned Rama activist. That afternoon in the Joe Vallejo’s living room, we heard a spellbinding account of what in my opinion is an adventure demonstrating great courage and high ideals. Since 1993, I have followed the developments in Mission Rama. It now goes by the name Rahma. In Sanskrit, “Ra” signifies the heavens; “ma” means the Earth and the “h” in between the “Ra” and “ma”, stands for humanity. As a contact activist with 30 years of experience, in my judgment Rahma is still playing an important role in helping humanity build a cooperative relationship with flying saucer intelligences. Dr. Limaco and his companions explained that it was Mission Rama’s custom to promote the development of psychic ability through meditation and certain other special mental exercises. Over time, many people in their network have become skilled in the practice of automatic writing. Telepathically received information is deemed accurate when multiple automatic writers working separately obtain the identical or at least very similar messages. (This is like the practice of remote viewing in which multiple viewers are independently tasked with the same target.) An individual that consistently channels accurate messages is described by Rama people as being a “good antenna.” Rama’s Mission to Patiti Our contact team was composed of middle-class people with good paying jobs. Among our ranks were three physicians working for the Southern California Permanente Group. Other members included Dr. Dixie Sullivan working as a clinical psychologist and her friend Dotha Weybourne, married to a wealthy lawyer. In contrast, Dr. Limaco’s team was mostly composed of immigrants, some newly arrived. Even those that were professionals in their nations of origin could be severely challenged by a new language and culture. Some didn’t have papers to work in the US. I later learned from Dr. Limaco that he had assisted Rama activists who were having problems with the INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service. Once in 1990, he even drove all the way to Salinas Valley to help a comrade file papers to avoid deportation. On the ride back to the Bay Area he had a remarkable sighting. It was late at night, and he reported hearing the word “Paititi” repeatedly in his mind. In a field nearby, he saw a disc shaped object hovering close to the ground. If I recall correctly, Dr. Limaco stated that when he first heard the word, he did not know that Paititi was a remote location deep in the Peruvian Andes rainforest. Later in 1990, via mental communications received by multiple Rama activists in different locations, it became known that a major encounter was going to take place. This time it would not occur in Chilca, the desert site south of Lima. Instead, the location was Paititi in the remote jungle situated on the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains. According to Dr. Limaco, in 1990 there were no roads to Paititi. It was sparsely populated by indigenous people that had little contact with the rest of the country. The only way to get there was by foot and this meant trekking through densely forested jungle full of poisonous plants, insects, and snakes. Those chosen for the mission would have to cross rivers infested with alligators, some up to six feet long. Automatic Writing Revealed Who Was Selected for the Jungle Mission Via a series of telepathic communications, Rama people learned that six individuals for the perilous expedition would be selected by the alleged “ETs.” In Spanish. the Rama activists call them “los hermanos mayors” (older brothers). At a general meeting in Peru attended by over two hundred supporters, the question was asked, who in the audience would be willing to go on the mission to Paititi? Everyone in the crowd raised a hand to volunteer for the encounter. Later it became clear as the result of ongoing messages from the flying saucer intelligences, that if any of the six initially selected by the “extraterrestrials” could not participate, then there could be no substitutions. Only those specifically chosen by “los hermanos mayores” would be welcomed to journey on foot to the far distant jungle location. According to Dr. Limaco’s account, the Rama people carried rice and beans as their only food during their trek to Paititi. They prepared these provisions nightly in a large cast iron pot. They were city people and not skilled woodsmen accustomed to the hardships of the rainforest. These Rama contact workers were, however, empowered by an intense desire for further contact with what they imagined was a technologically and ethically advanced extraterrestrial civilization. Daily prayer and meditation provided them with both emotional support and spiritual sustenance. They believed that they were somehow being protected by an unseen intelligence that was profoundly spiritual and desired their mission to succeed. Battery Packs Were Mysteriously Drained Dr. Limaco told us that they carried a video camera to document their anticipated encounter. After several days of marching into the jungle, they checked the camera’s batteries. The packs had been fully charged prior to their setting out for Paititi. To their dismay, they found that all the batteries were dead. The Rama team buried the now useless heavy equipment under a tall tree. They hoped to retrieve it on their way back to civilization. The Hired Guide Warned Them of Danger During the first portion of their trek, a hired guide led them further and further into the rainforest. He was well-aware of their destination and the risks to their safety that the journey entailed. The team used machetes to cut a path for themselves. After several days of hacking their way through the jungle their guide gave them this warning. “I am not going on any further and neither are you! Because beyond this point the people out there eat people! The Rama activists were disappointed to hear this disturbing pronouncement. They discussed their options, and the consensus was they would go on without the guide. Some days after exhausting trail blazing, they reportedly were so exhausted that they failed to cook supper. At nightfall, they crowded together in their small tent that was their only shelter. Despite being hungry, sleep came quickly. One evening according to Dr. Limaco, they were so drained of strength that they threw themselves down on the sand adjacent to a river. Huddled together for warmth, they fell asleep. At daybreak, they were shocked to find themselves surrounded by poisonous snakes. They apparently had slithered up to the contact workers to keep warm. One might expect the vipers to bite their frightened human bedpartners, Instead the venomous creatures slowly moved away as the morning temperature rose. Rivers and streams provided the Rama group with freshwater for drinking and bathing. This vital resource, however, was also a source of danger. Alligators were abundant in the waters they had to cross. A Grim Decision Was Made Uncertain as to how long they could go on before someone sustained injury, they made a grim decision. If one or more were seriously wounded or became sick, the rest of the team would leave most of the supplies with the casualties. Those that could still go on, would do so, without the others. They promised one another that they would return to pick up the sick or wounded on the way back. Fortuitously, none sustained serious injury or became too ill to continue. A Surprise Peace Offering Another potential danger came from the indigenous peoples of the rainforest as mentioned above. These groups have their own languages and cultures. Historically they have had bad relations with the European influenced population of Peru. Encroachment on indigenous peoples’ hunting grounds by settlements of townspeople and forestry operation have resulted in mutual suspicion and even violent confrontations. One day while passing through the indigenous people’s territory, the Rama group became frightened when a dugout canoe approached them. In the canoe were several native hunters armed with bows and arrows. However instead of expressing hostility towards the city people, the hunters volunteered to help “guide them on their mission.” As astounding as this may sound, it was Doctor Limaco’s impression that their arrival had been heralded by the ETs via telepathic messages sent to the hunters. The indigenous people were reportedly given instructions to help the Mission Rama emissaries. One hunter in a supreme act of solidarity insisted that Dr. Limaco take his hunting bow as a peace offering. This prized possession was the instrument by which the hunter fed his family and Dr. Limaco recognized its importance as a gift. As the Rama contact workers approached Paititi, their spirits rose. The telepathic communications that they were receiving were getting stronger and clearer. At night around the campfire, they carried out Rama prescribed mental exercises. They reportedly experienced profoundly peaceful states that reassured them that their mission would be successful. They Arrive at Paititi The night before reaching Paititi, each member of the team had an out-of body experience. As described to me by Dr. Limaco, each was mentally taken on-board a large ET craft that was waiting for them some one day’s marching distance away. The next morning, they continued trudging through the jungle. Although exhausted, their spirits were high because they knew that they did not have much further to go. Finally, they arrived at Paititi. Hovering above a clearing in the jungle, they encountered a large ET craft. Everyone immediately recognized it from the out of body experience of the previous night. This time the Rama team physically went onboard via a blue tractor beam that transported them one by one into the belly of the hovering ship. The Planet Earth as a Spiritual Dynamo The ET group that hosted them is known as the “Great White Brotherhood.” (This designation unfortunately sounds like the one used by criminal gangs of white nationalists.) The “ETs” received this designation because on repeated encounters the beings of this group all wore white robes. The Rama people were informed by their non-human hosts how vitally important Rama’s mission was. The goal was reportedly awesome in scope and involved nothing less than the spiritual transformation of humanity. This achievement would presumably set the stage for open contact with spiritually and technologically advanced non-human civilizations. According to the “ETs”, this transformation was happening not only on Earth, but throughout the entire galaxy as well. As reported to the Rama missionaries, vast numbers of advanced ET civilizations were awaiting a spiritual leap forward on our planet. This supposedly would allow us to join them in a galactic civilization of technologically and ethnically advanced star systems. The Rama activists explained that the Earth was a “spiritual dynamo.” A massive expansion of human consciousness on Earth would provide a psychic energetic boost to the civilizations that were assisting us. In the process, they would be lifted to the next wrung of their spiritual evolutionary ladder. They were helping us, and our transformation would be helping them to achieve their destiny. Undeniably, critics of this narrative will point out that this all sounds like a New Age oriented Star Trek episode. The Rama activists however are real people. As documented by numerous media reports in Latin America, they have an established track record of co-creating with the non-human intelligences associated with UFOs what I call Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE). And they have been doing this since the 1970s. If this account is accurate, as I believe it is, then the story of Dr. Limaco and his companions serves as an inspiration for contact activists and UFO truth seekers alike. In my opinion, their astounding story should inspire people all over the world to actively engage the intelligences responsible for the flying saucer phenomenon. Who knows, perhaps in a generation or two, the courageous efforts described in this narrative will no longer be so unusual? It is conceivable that someday, dozens of contact teams all over the world might be replicating the astounding work of the contact network now called “Rahma.” Links to additional articles about Mission Rama The article linked below is a detailed description of the origins of Mission Rama, a spiritually based Peruvian network of volunteer contact workers. They reported experiencing direct face to face encounters with what they believed were friendly extraterrestrial beings. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/01/28/mission-rama-one-of-the-most-important-contact-networks-of-the-20th-century/ A description of how activists from CE-5 Initiative met with activists from the Peruvian network now called Rahma. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/06/02/the-north-and-south-american-contact-networks-meet/ Long time Rama activist retired dental surgeon Fernando Limaco describes how he and four other volunteer contact workers marched into the Peruvian rainforest to rendezvous with friendly ETs in a remote region called Paititi. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/01/21/ramas-mission-to-paititi/ United Airlines Captain Joe Vallejo’s description of Rama activists opening a dimensional portal at a California UFO contact site in 1994. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/25/xendra-inter-dimensional-portal-opened-at-rama-contact-site-called-shasta/ Long time Rahma activist Enrique Villanueva explains that UFO contact work is more than having a sighting or meeting friendly extraterrestrials. It is about the expansion of human consciousness. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/03/et-contact-and-the-expansion-of-human-consciousness/ |
2024.05.10 17:41 Contactunderground The Peruvian Contact Network known as Rama reported having an on-board encounter deep in a remote rainforest locale called Paititi.
| | Rama’s Mission to Paititi submitted by Contactunderground to AnomalousEvidence [link] [comments] Joseph Burkes MD 2018, edited 2023 https://preview.redd.it/a2vmzl36dmzc1.jpg?width=287&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13672142cb851edd7ef286aca659d4c9bcab683c The amazing story of Mission Rama dates to the 1970s. The first group of Rama contact workers had their initial encounters in Peru. Their experiences involved many sightings of what they described as “extraterrestrial craft” that were facilitated using a form of telepathic communication called automatic writing. The Mission Rama activists even reported having onboard encounters. Sixto Paz Wells and other Latin-American contactees have published books in Spanish describing their experiences. In my opinion, their narratives should be seriously studied by all contact and disclosure activists. Representatives of both the North and South American Contact Networks Meet in Los Angeles. In 1994 Fernando Limaco, a retired dental surgeon and experienced Rama leader drove down from the San Francisco Bay Area with several close supporters to meet with our Los Angeles based Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind Initiative (CE-5) team. A member of our group, Captain Joe Vallejo, was a United Airlines 747 pilot. He arranged for us to meet the Mission Rama representatives at his home located in the Simi Valley. Fernando’s talk was given entirely in Spanish with the help of simultaneous translation provided by his companions and Captain Vallejo. Having Joe there was extremely helpful because of his language skills and his excellent command of Latin American contactee literature. This combination of talents helped him translate some of the more advanced concepts of the Rama cosmology as presented by Dr. Limaco. Mission Rama Started in Peru in 1974 Our Los Angeles CE5 team was very eager to hear what the Mission Rama people were prepared to tell us. I had given each member of my group a copy of an article published in “UFO Library Magazine” by Yolanda Marcino, a past United States Rama President. This authoritative document, in a rather obscure publication with limited circulation, described the early Mission Rama extraterrestrial encounters that started in Peru in 1974. Those contacts involved the experiences of university student Sixto Paz Wells and a group of his young friends. They reportedly had repeated encounters in the desert region near Lima called Chilca. From Yolanda Marcino’s account, we also learned that Sixto and others had reportedly been transported via an inter-dimensional portal to an extraterrestrial base located on a moon of Jupiter. We know this satellite as Ganymede. Dr. Limaco spoke with authority as a seasoned Rama activist. That afternoon in the Joe Vallejo’s living room, we heard a spellbinding account of what in my opinion is an adventure demonstrating great courage and high ideals. Since 1993, I have followed the developments in Mission Rama. It now goes by the name Rahma. In Sanskrit, “Ra” signifies the heavens; “ma” means the Earth and the “h” in between the “Ra” and “ma”, stands for humanity. As a contact activist with 30 years of experience, in my judgment Rahma is still playing an important role in helping humanity build a cooperative relationship with flying saucer intelligences. Dr. Limaco and his companions explained that it was Mission Rama’s custom to promote the development of psychic ability through meditation and certain other special mental exercises. Over time, many people in their network have become skilled in the practice of automatic writing. Telepathically received information is deemed accurate when multiple automatic writers working separately obtain the identical or at least very similar messages. (This is like the practice of remote viewing in which multiple viewers are independently tasked with the same target.) An individual that consistently channels accurate messages is described by Rama people as being a “good antenna.” Rama’s Mission to Patiti Our contact team was composed of middle-class people with good paying jobs. Among our ranks were three physicians working for the Southern California Permanente Group. Other members included Dr. Dixie Sullivan working as a clinical psychologist and her friend Dotha Weybourne, married to a wealthy lawyer. In contrast, Dr. Limaco’s team was mostly composed of immigrants, some newly arrived. Even those that were professionals in their nations of origin could be severely challenged by a new language and culture. Some didn’t have papers to work in the US. I later learned from Dr. Limaco that he had assisted Rama activists who were having problems with the INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service. Once in 1990, he even drove all the way to Salinas Valley to help a comrade file papers to avoid deportation. On the ride back to the Bay Area he had a remarkable sighting. It was late at night, and he reported hearing the word “Paititi” repeatedly in his mind. In a field nearby, he saw a disc shaped object hovering close to the ground. If I recall correctly, Dr. Limaco stated that when he first heard the word, he did not know that Paititi was a remote location deep in the Peruvian Andes rainforest. Later in 1990, via mental communications received by multiple Rama activists in different locations, it became known that a major encounter was going to take place. This time it would not occur in Chilca, the desert site south of Lima. Instead, the location was Paititi in the remote jungle situated on the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains. According to Dr. Limaco, in 1990 there were no roads to Paititi. It was sparsely populated by indigenous people that had little contact with the rest of the country. The only way to get there was by foot and this meant trekking through densely forested jungle full of poisonous plants, insects, and snakes. Those chosen for the mission would have to cross rivers infested with alligators, some up to six feet long. Automatic Writing Revealed Who Was Selected for the Jungle Mission Via a series of telepathic communications, Rama people learned that six individuals for the perilous expedition would be selected by the alleged “ETs.” In Spanish. the Rama activists call them “los hermanos mayors” (older brothers). At a general meeting in Peru attended by over two hundred supporters, the question was asked, who in the audience would be willing to go on the mission to Paititi? Everyone in the crowd raised a hand to volunteer for the encounter. Later it became clear as the result of ongoing messages from the flying saucer intelligences, that if any of the six initially selected by the “extraterrestrials” could not participate, then there could be no substitutions. Only those specifically chosen by “los hermanos mayores” would be welcomed to journey on foot to the far distant jungle location. According to Dr. Limaco’s account, the Rama people carried rice and beans as their only food during their trek to Paititi. They prepared these provisions nightly in a large cast iron pot. They were city people and not skilled woodsmen accustomed to the hardships of the rainforest. These Rama contact workers were, however, empowered by an intense desire for further contact with what they imagined was a technologically and ethically advanced extraterrestrial civilization. Daily prayer and meditation provided them with both emotional support and spiritual sustenance. They believed that they were somehow being protected by an unseen intelligence that was profoundly spiritual and desired their mission to succeed. Battery Packs Were Mysteriously Drained Dr. Limaco told us that they carried a video camera to document their anticipated encounter. After several days of marching into the jungle, they checked the camera’s batteries. The packs had been fully charged prior to their setting out for Paititi. To their dismay, they found that all the batteries were dead. The Rama team buried the now useless heavy equipment under a tall tree. They hoped to retrieve it on their way back to civilization. The Hired Guide Warned Them of Danger During the first portion of their trek, a hired guide led them further and further into the rainforest. He was well-aware of their destination and the risks to their safety that the journey entailed. The team used machetes to cut a path for themselves. After several days of hacking their way through the jungle their guide gave them this warning. “I am not going on any further and neither are you! Because beyond this point the people out there eat people! The Rama activists were disappointed to hear this disturbing pronouncement. They discussed their options, and the consensus was they would go on without the guide. Some days after exhausting trail blazing, they reportedly were so exhausted that they failed to cook supper. At nightfall, they crowded together in their small tent that was their only shelter. Despite being hungry, sleep came quickly. One evening according to Dr. Limaco, they were so drained of strength that they threw themselves down on the sand adjacent to a river. Huddled together for warmth, they fell asleep. At daybreak, they were shocked to find themselves surrounded by poisonous snakes. They apparently had slithered up to the contact workers to keep warm. One might expect the vipers to bite their frightened human bedpartners, Instead the venomous creatures slowly moved away as the morning temperature rose. Rivers and streams provided the Rama group with freshwater for drinking and bathing. This vital resource, however, was also a source of danger. Alligators were abundant in the waters they had to cross. A Grim Decision Was Made Uncertain as to how long they could go on before someone sustained injury, they made a grim decision. If one or more were seriously wounded or became sick, the rest of the team would leave most of the supplies with the casualties. Those that could still go on, would do so, without the others. They promised one another that they would return to pick up the sick or wounded on the way back. Fortuitously, none sustained serious injury or became too ill to continue. A Surprise Peace Offering Another potential danger came from the indigenous peoples of the rainforest as mentioned above. These groups have their own languages and cultures. Historically they have had bad relations with the European influenced population of Peru. Encroachment on indigenous peoples’ hunting grounds by settlements of townspeople and forestry operation have resulted in mutual suspicion and even violent confrontations. One day while passing through the indigenous people’s territory, the Rama group became frightened when a dugout canoe approached them. In the canoe were several native hunters armed with bows and arrows. However instead of expressing hostility towards the city people, the hunters volunteered to help “guide them on their mission.” As astounding as this may sound, it was Doctor Limaco’s impression that their arrival had been heralded by the ETs via telepathic messages sent to the hunters. The indigenous people were reportedly given instructions to help the Mission Rama emissaries. One hunter in a supreme act of solidarity insisted that Dr. Limaco take his hunting bow as a peace offering. This prized possession was the instrument by which the hunter fed his family and Dr. Limaco recognized its importance as a gift. As the Rama contact workers approached Paititi, their spirits rose. The telepathic communications that they were receiving were getting stronger and clearer. At night around the campfire, they carried out Rama prescribed mental exercises. They reportedly experienced profoundly peaceful states that reassured them that their mission would be successful. They Arrive at Paititi The night before reaching Paititi, each member of the team had an out-of body experience. As described to me by Dr. Limaco, each was mentally taken on-board a large ET craft that was waiting for them some one day’s marching distance away. The next morning, they continued trudging through the jungle. Although exhausted, their spirits were high because they knew that they did not have much further to go. Finally, they arrived at Paititi. Hovering above a clearing in the jungle, they encountered a large ET craft. Everyone immediately recognized it from the out of body experience of the previous night. This time the Rama team physically went onboard via a blue tractor beam that transported them one by one into the belly of the hovering ship. The Planet Earth as a Spiritual Dynamo The ET group that hosted them is known as the “Great White Brotherhood.” (This designation unfortunately sounds like the one used by criminal gangs of white nationalists.) The “ETs” received this designation because on repeated encounters the beings of this group all wore white robes. The Rama people were informed by their non-human hosts how vitally important Rama’s mission was. The goal was reportedly awesome in scope and involved nothing less than the spiritual transformation of humanity. This achievement would presumably set the stage for open contact with spiritually and technologically advanced non-human civilizations. According to the “ETs”, this transformation was happening not only on Earth, but throughout the entire galaxy as well. As reported to the Rama missionaries, vast numbers of advanced ET civilizations were awaiting a spiritual leap forward on our planet. This supposedly would allow us to join them in a galactic civilization of technologically and ethnically advanced star systems. The Rama activists explained that the Earth was a “spiritual dynamo.” A massive expansion of human consciousness on Earth would provide a psychic energetic boost to the civilizations that were assisting us. In the process, they would be lifted to the next wrung of their spiritual evolutionary ladder. They were helping us, and our transformation would be helping them to achieve their destiny. Undeniably, critics of this narrative will point out that this all sounds like a New Age oriented Star Trek episode. The Rama activists however are real people. As documented by numerous media reports in Latin America, they have an established track record of co-creating with the non-human intelligences associated with UFOs what I call Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE). And they have been doing this since the 1970s. If this account is accurate, as I believe it is, then the story of Dr. Limaco and his companions serves as an inspiration for contact activists and UFO truth seekers alike. In my opinion, their astounding story should inspire people all over the world to actively engage the intelligences responsible for the flying saucer phenomenon. Who knows, perhaps in a generation or two, the courageous efforts described in this narrative will no longer be so unusual? It is conceivable that someday, dozens of contact teams all over the world might be replicating the astounding work of the contact network now called “Rahma.” Links to additional articles about Mission Rama The article linked below is a detailed description of the origins of Mission Rama, a spiritually based Peruvian network of volunteer contact workers. They reported experiencing direct face to face encounters with what they believed were friendly extraterrestrial beings. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/01/28/mission-rama-one-of-the-most-important-contact-networks-of-the-20th-century/ A description of how activists from CE-5 Initiative met with activists from the Peruvian network now called Rahma. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/06/02/the-north-and-south-american-contact-networks-meet/ Long time Rama activist retired dental surgeon Fernando Limaco describes how he and four other volunteer contact workers marched into the Peruvian rainforest to rendezvous with friendly ETs in a remote region called Paititi. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/01/21/ramas-mission-to-paititi/ United Airlines Captain Joe Vallejo’s description of Rama activists opening a dimensional portal at a California UFO contact site in 1994. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/25/xendra-inter-dimensional-portal-opened-at-rama-contact-site-called-shasta/ Long time Rahma activist Enrique Villanueva explains that UFO contact work is more than having a sighting or meeting friendly extraterrestrials. It is about the expansion of human consciousness. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/03/et-contact-and-the-expansion-of-human-consciousness/ |
2024.05.10 17:38 Contactunderground The Peruvian Contact Network known as Rama reported having an on-board encounter deep in a remote rainforest locale called Paititi.
 | The Peruvian Contact Network known as Rama reported having an on-board encounter deep in a remote rainforest locale called Paititi. submitted by Contactunderground to aliens [link] [comments] Rama’s Mission to Paititi Joseph Burkes MD 2018, edited 2023 https://preview.redd.it/ccly28nbcmzc1.jpg?width=287&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13c9f6c538f8386051e6e8c12cf88977b717916e The amazing story of Mission Rama dates to the 1970s. The first group of Rama contact workers had their initial encounters in Peru. Their experiences involved many sightings of what they described as “extraterrestrial craft” that were facilitated using a form of telepathic communication called automatic writing. The Mission Rama activists even reported having onboard encounters. Sixto Paz Wells and other Latin-American contactees have published books in Spanish describing their experiences. In my opinion, their narratives should be seriously studied by all contact and disclosure activists. Representatives of both the North and South American Contact Networks Meet in Los Angeles. In 1994 Fernando Limaco, a retired dental surgeon and experienced Rama leader drove down from the San Francisco Bay Area with several close supporters to meet with our Los Angeles based Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind Initiative (CE-5) team. A member of our group, Captain Joe Vallejo, was a United Airlines 747 pilot. He arranged for us to meet the Mission Rama representatives at his home located in the Simi Valley. Fernando’s talk was given entirely in Spanish with the help of simultaneous translation provided by his companions and Captain Vallejo. Having Joe there was extremely helpful because of his language skills and his excellent command of Latin American contactee literature. This combination of talents helped him translate some of the more advanced concepts of the Rama cosmology as presented by Dr. Limaco. Mission Rama Started in Peru in 1974 Our Los Angeles CE5 team was very eager to hear what the Mission Rama people were prepared to tell us. I had given each member of my group a copy of an article published in “UFO Library Magazine” by Yolanda Marcino, a past United States Rama President. This authoritative document, in a rather obscure publication with limited circulation, described the early Mission Rama extraterrestrial encounters that started in Peru in 1974. Those contacts involved the experiences of university student Sixto Paz Wells and a group of his young friends. They reportedly had repeated encounters in the desert region near Lima called Chilca. From Yolanda Marcino’s account, we also learned that Sixto and others had reportedly been transported via an inter-dimensional portal to an extraterrestrial base located on a moon of Jupiter. We know this satellite as Ganymede. Dr. Limaco spoke with authority as a seasoned Rama activist. That afternoon in the Joe Vallejo’s living room, we heard a spellbinding account of what in my opinion is an adventure demonstrating great courage and high ideals. Since 1993, I have followed the developments in Mission Rama. It now goes by the name Rahma. In Sanskrit, “Ra” signifies the heavens; “ma” means the Earth and the “h” in between the “Ra” and “ma”, stands for humanity. As a contact activist with 30 years of experience, in my judgment Rahma is still playing an important role in helping humanity build a cooperative relationship with flying saucer intelligences. Dr. Limaco and his companions explained that it was Mission Rama’s custom to promote the development of psychic ability through meditation and certain other special mental exercises. Over time, many people in their network have become skilled in the practice of automatic writing. Telepathically received information is deemed accurate when multiple automatic writers working separately obtain the identical or at least very similar messages. (This is like the practice of remote viewing in which multiple viewers are independently tasked with the same target.) An individual that consistently channels accurate messages is described by Rama people as being a “good antenna.” Rama’s Mission to Patiti Our contact team was composed of middle-class people with good paying jobs. Among our ranks were three physicians working for the Southern California Permanente Group. Other members included Dr. Dixie Sullivan working as a clinical psychologist and her friend Dotha Weybourne, married to a wealthy lawyer. In contrast, Dr. Limaco’s team was mostly composed of immigrants, some newly arrived. Even those that were professionals in their nations of origin could be severely challenged by a new language and culture. Some didn’t have papers to work in the US. I later learned from Dr. Limaco that he had assisted Rama activists who were having problems with the INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service. Once in 1990, he even drove all the way to Salinas Valley to help a comrade file papers to avoid deportation. On the ride back to the Bay Area he had a remarkable sighting. It was late at night, and he reported hearing the word “Paititi” repeatedly in his mind. In a field nearby, he saw a disc shaped object hovering close to the ground. If I recall correctly, Dr. Limaco stated that when he first heard the word, he did not know that Paititi was a remote location deep in the Peruvian Andes rainforest. Later in 1990, via mental communications received by multiple Rama activists in different locations, it became known that a major encounter was going to take place. This time it would not occur in Chilca, the desert site south of Lima. Instead, the location was Paititi in the remote jungle situated on the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains. According to Dr. Limaco, in 1990 there were no roads to Paititi. It was sparsely populated by indigenous people that had little contact with the rest of the country. The only way to get there was by foot and this meant trekking through densely forested jungle full of poisonous plants, insects, and snakes. Those chosen for the mission would have to cross rivers infested with alligators, some up to six feet long. Automatic Writing Revealed Who Was Selected for the Jungle Mission Via a series of telepathic communications, Rama people learned that six individuals for the perilous expedition would be selected by the alleged “ETs.” In Spanish. the Rama activists call them “los hermanos mayors” (older brothers). At a general meeting in Peru attended by over two hundred supporters, the question was asked, who in the audience would be willing to go on the mission to Paititi? Everyone in the crowd raised a hand to volunteer for the encounter. Later it became clear as the result of ongoing messages from the flying saucer intelligences, that if any of the six initially selected by the “extraterrestrials” could not participate, then there could be no substitutions. Only those specifically chosen by “los hermanos mayores” would be welcomed to journey on foot to the far distant jungle location. According to Dr. Limaco’s account, the Rama people carried rice and beans as their only food during their trek to Paititi. They prepared these provisions nightly in a large cast iron pot. They were city people and not skilled woodsmen accustomed to the hardships of the rainforest. These Rama contact workers were, however, empowered by an intense desire for further contact with what they imagined was a technologically and ethically advanced extraterrestrial civilization. Daily prayer and meditation provided them with both emotional support and spiritual sustenance. They believed that they were somehow being protected by an unseen intelligence that was profoundly spiritual and desired their mission to succeed. Battery Packs Were Mysteriously Drained Dr. Limaco told us that they carried a video camera to document their anticipated encounter. After several days of marching into the jungle, they checked the camera’s batteries. The packs had been fully charged prior to their setting out for Paititi. To their dismay, they found that all the batteries were dead. The Rama team buried the now useless heavy equipment under a tall tree. They hoped to retrieve it on their way back to civilization. The Hired Guide Warned Them of Danger During the first portion of their trek, a hired guide led them further and further into the rainforest. He was well-aware of their destination and the risks to their safety that the journey entailed. The team used machetes to cut a path for themselves. After several days of hacking their way through the jungle their guide gave them this warning. “I am not going on any further and neither are you! Because beyond this point the people out there eat people! The Rama activists were disappointed to hear this disturbing pronouncement. They discussed their options, and the consensus was they would go on without the guide. Some days after exhausting trail blazing, they reportedly were so exhausted that they failed to cook supper. At nightfall, they crowded together in their small tent that was their only shelter. Despite being hungry, sleep came quickly. One evening according to Dr. Limaco, they were so drained of strength that they threw themselves down on the sand adjacent to a river. Huddled together for warmth, they fell asleep. At daybreak, they were shocked to find themselves surrounded by poisonous snakes. They apparently had slithered up to the contact workers to keep warm. One might expect the vipers to bite their frightened human bedpartners, Instead the venomous creatures slowly moved away as the morning temperature rose. Rivers and streams provided the Rama group with freshwater for drinking and bathing. This vital resource, however, was also a source of danger. Alligators were abundant in the waters they had to cross. A Grim Decision Was Made Uncertain as to how long they could go on before someone sustained injury, they made a grim decision. If one or more were seriously wounded or became sick, the rest of the team would leave most of the supplies with the casualties. Those that could still go on, would do so, without the others. They promised one another that they would return to pick up the sick or wounded on the way back. Fortuitously, none sustained serious injury or became too ill to continue. A Surprise Peace Offering Another potential danger came from the indigenous peoples of the rainforest as mentioned above. These groups have their own languages and cultures. Historically they have had bad relations with the European influenced population of Peru. Encroachment on indigenous peoples’ hunting grounds by settlements of townspeople and forestry operation have resulted in mutual suspicion and even violent confrontations. One day while passing through the indigenous people’s territory, the Rama group became frightened when a dugout canoe approached them. In the canoe were several native hunters armed with bows and arrows. However instead of expressing hostility towards the city people, the hunters volunteered to help “guide them on their mission.” As astounding as this may sound, it was Doctor Limaco’s impression that their arrival had been heralded by the ETs via telepathic messages sent to the hunters. The indigenous people were reportedly given instructions to help the Mission Rama emissaries. One hunter in a supreme act of solidarity insisted that Dr. Limaco take his hunting bow as a peace offering. This prized possession was the instrument by which the hunter fed his family and Dr. Limaco recognized its importance as a gift. As the Rama contact workers approached Paititi, their spirits rose. The telepathic communications that they were receiving were getting stronger and clearer. At night around the campfire, they carried out Rama prescribed mental exercises. They reportedly experienced profoundly peaceful states that reassured them that their mission would be successful. They Arrive at Paititi The night before reaching Paititi, each member of the team had an out-of body experience. As described to me by Dr. Limaco, each was mentally taken on-board a large ET craft that was waiting for them some one day’s marching distance away. The next morning, they continued trudging through the jungle. Although exhausted, their spirits were high because they knew that they did not have much further to go. Finally, they arrived at Paititi. Hovering above a clearing in the jungle, they encountered a large ET craft. Everyone immediately recognized it from the out of body experience of the previous night. This time the Rama team physically went onboard via a blue tractor beam that transported them one by one into the belly of the hovering ship. The Planet Earth as a Spiritual Dynamo The ET group that hosted them is known as the “Great White Brotherhood.” (This designation unfortunately sounds like the one used by criminal gangs of white nationalists.) The “ETs” received this designation because on repeated encounters the beings of this group all wore white robes. The Rama people were informed by their non-human hosts how vitally important Rama’s mission was. The goal was reportedly awesome in scope and involved nothing less than the spiritual transformation of humanity. This achievement would presumably set the stage for open contact with spiritually and technologically advanced non-human civilizations. According to the “ETs”, this transformation was happening not only on Earth, but throughout the entire galaxy as well. As reported to the Rama missionaries, vast numbers of advanced ET civilizations were awaiting a spiritual leap forward on our planet. This supposedly would allow us to join them in a galactic civilization of technologically and ethnically advanced star systems. The Rama activists explained that the Earth was a “spiritual dynamo.” A massive expansion of human consciousness on Earth would provide a psychic energetic boost to the civilizations that were assisting us. In the process, they would be lifted to the next wrung of their spiritual evolutionary ladder. They were helping us, and our transformation would be helping them to achieve their destiny. Undeniably, critics of this narrative will point out that this all sounds like a New Age oriented Star Trek episode. The Rama activists however are real people. As documented by numerous media reports in Latin America, they have an established track record of co-creating with the non-human intelligences associated with UFOs what I call Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE). And they have been doing this since the 1970s. If this account is accurate, as I believe it is, then the story of Dr. Limaco and his companions serves as an inspiration for contact activists and UFO truth seekers alike. In my opinion, their astounding story should inspire people all over the world to actively engage the intelligences responsible for the flying saucer phenomenon. Who knows, perhaps in a generation or two, the courageous efforts described in this narrative will no longer be so unusual? It is conceivable that someday, dozens of contact teams all over the world might be replicating the astounding work of the contact network now called “Rahma.” Links to additional articles about Mission Rama The article linked below is a detailed description of the origins of Mission Rama, a spiritually based Peruvian network of volunteer contact workers. They reported experiencing direct face to face encounters with what they believed were friendly extraterrestrial beings. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/01/28/mission-rama-one-of-the-most-important-contact-networks-of-the-20th-century/ A description of how activists from CE-5 Initiative met with activists from the Peruvian network now called Rahma. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/06/02/the-north-and-south-american-contact-networks-meet/ Long time Rama activist retired dental surgeon Fernando Limaco describes how he and four other volunteer contact workers marched into the Peruvian rainforest to rendezvous with friendly ETs in a remote region called Paititi. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/01/21/ramas-mission-to-paititi/ United Airlines Captain Joe Vallejo’s description of Rama activists opening a dimensional portal at a California UFO contact site in 1994. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/25/xendra-inter-dimensional-portal-opened-at-rama-contact-site-called-shasta/ Long time Rahma activist Enrique Villanueva explains that UFO contact work is more than having a sighting or meeting friendly extraterrestrials. It is about the expansion of human consciousness. https://contactunderground.wordpress.com/2022/02/03/et-contact-and-the-expansion-of-human-consciousness/ |
2024.05.10 15:00 Mees2312 Finding an extreme exotic in the Benelux - pt. 1
Netherlands
Aston Martin DB11
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Qm2oTn2Y96DXmkni7
Aston Martin V8 Vantage 2005
https://maps.app.goo.gl/n3jf35oVRVTJV7r47
Audi RS4 Avant B9
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hEbAn7Y3sAEwJmiz7
Audi RS5 Coupe B9
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZbpHqgdxFMPt6j5Y7
Audi RS6 Avant C7
https://maps.app.goo.gl/e244LrHUP4h19Zgf8
Audi RS6 Avant C7
https://maps.app.goo.gl/NahZuarzJPhHGaSC9
Bentley Arnage + Maserati Quattroporte V
https://maps.app.goo.gl/94MoHwTQMf8hZ4A27
BMW i8
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dtGBWYc3XKuQCkyd8
BMW i8
https://maps.app.goo.gl/gQw5APdxzkJHmgLC6
BMW M5 F10
https://maps.app.goo.gl/bpmxTUqpgR1k9VaN9
BMW M6 F06
https://maps.app.goo.gl/56uwmwjZqP1HFNvB6
BMW M6 F12 + Ferrari California T + Maserati Quattroporte VI
https://maps.app.goo.gl/uLcwzZv19FSYtCP8A
BMW X6M F86
https://maps.app.goo.gl/VgxeJkfHR5bJ8XeY8
Excalibur Phaeton
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Z7vRqBSivPBrPPTT8
Ferrari 488 Spider
https://maps.app.goo.gl/k631hp2X7dT8p6mo9
Ferrari 612 Scaglietti
https://maps.app.goo.gl/VS9EupmwWHKsYWjT9
Fisker Karma
https://maps.app.goo.gl/BpwW4HSpNSQvU8GU8
Jaguar F-Type
https://maps.app.goo.gl/k8kk8kaX62ESzW3q7
Jaguar MK2
https://maps.app.goo.gl/sSAtV3GKLLERUW5x9
Lexus LC 500 Convertible
https://maps.app.goo.gl/KMFu7oFaDm9gDzAC7
Maserati 3200 GT
https://maps.app.goo.gl/qw3H3hLmcWZ9FYWs9
Maserati 3200 GT
https://maps.app.goo.gl/iFBxZRGTpXdkQhSS8
Mercedes-Benz 300 S Roadster
https://maps.app.goo.gl/LhAtMNGRQrA1E22ZA
Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 2012
https://maps.app.goo.gl/piCSLezceHb41Kxg6
Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG W222
https://maps.app.goo.gl/aGZuU1BMTDqTCzVh7
Morgan 4/4
https://maps.app.goo.gl/taR1T9LK4FpFhdAz8
Opel Speedster
https://maps.app.goo.gl/QFzkEdRqwb9WkKvp6
Porsche 964 Carrera
https://maps.app.goo.gl/9jHPamyowdAiWsj19
Porsche 991 Carrera GTS Cabriolet
https://maps.app.goo.gl/N771mNXyxCYXLuwM6
Porsche 993 Carrera
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZEPBgRqBpE4v5uYu9
Porsche 996 Turbo
https://maps.app.goo.gl/NKVEtUh2TChm5FGj7
Porsche 997 Carrera 4S
https://maps.app.goo.gl/zwxFj4n5LbcoGYr56
Porsche 997 Carrera S
https://maps.app.goo.gl/tLCfgTLpuXp3tjyV9
TVR Chimaera
https://maps.app.goo.gl/F862FVzCzL4A4m7n7
Luxembourg
Audi RS3 Sportback 8V
https://maps.app.goo.gl/qB1RJ4H8EiwvwGCa7
Audi RS4 Avant B9
https://maps.app.goo.gl/DeGxJWpioY9r23pU6
Audi RS7 Sportback C8
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4ZkdUXHW8arZztVP7
Audi RSQ3 Sportback F3
https://maps.app.goo.gl/91SC9sqTH5H135WL7
BMW M3 E93
https://maps.app.goo.gl/QkA91WCFn45NUf7F8
Dodge Viper SRT-10 Coupe
https://maps.app.goo.gl/FU8U1KD1AcxsaQZJ7
Ferrari F430 + Porsche 964 Carrera Cabriolet
https://maps.app.goo.gl/EUCp1qJczFmD4rVk6
Ford Focus RS MK2
https://maps.app.goo.gl/CKqTovNECYUqdAcN9
Ford Focus RS MK2 + Maserati Quattroporte V
https://maps.app.goo.gl/eTEGuNXRK9a2RgHG6
Ford Mustang I Convertible
https://maps.app.goo.gl/QwvbeCwDHaxs6tzw8
Jaguar F-Type Coupe
https://maps.app.goo.gl/HTD1Q1D9Sg6Cxjum6
Maserati GranTurismo
https://maps.app.goo.gl/PA8gurGMyDQgFP8P6
Maserati Quattroporte VI
https://maps.app.goo.gl/MVBKNcwFqKpN1ChP6
Maserati Quattroporte VI
https://maps.app.goo.gl/RsMjdRFBrYLWU2f36
Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG C219
https://maps.app.goo.gl/bGTJuaqAjsK4HGi9A
Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG W164
https://maps.app.goo.gl/8L55hQs8UuCYS3kQ8
Porsche 718 Cayman GT4
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4QU4FkW3sgjcit4u6
Porsche 997 Carrera 4S
https://maps.app.goo.gl/b46R61m5ENttkgRXA
Belgium
Abarth 695 Rivale
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Nhurfmm5x5or7Cp19
Audi R8 Type 42
https://maps.app.goo.gl/p5WdCJ3sggsCUEEQA
Audi RS6 Avant C8
https://maps.app.goo.gl/j12ZsauB3a1dEmst8
Bentley Turbo R
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Hafd843ksddTxScAA
BMW M2 F87
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6zgDriXWqnuqDjSF8
BMW M2 F87
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Qt9AT6XceBW81kBh9
BMW M3 E92
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3HMkkTMhcoQYWG2N6
BMW M4 F82
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6GxQ73x5uVHavQgz9
BMW M5 F90
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Cd8j2R3DTGsgM8kx9
BMW M6 E64
https://maps.app.goo.gl/uenFopZpJ5owcodR9
BMW Z4M Coupe
https://maps.app.goo.gl/vdt129f6QMTkqSnt7
Chevrolet Corvette C3
https://maps.app.goo.gl/a535cgPQMS6Biy5n8
Jaguar F-Type Coupe
https://maps.app.goo.gl/AwSdrWLx9sBg41jL7
Lotus Elise S2
https://maps.app.goo.gl/AcXv11dGJnz69chB9
Maserati GranTurismo
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6HUY6QGes2hFMCvv9
Maserati Quattroporte V
https://maps.app.goo.gl/WpDWG3zw5mRa76Le8
Mercedes-Benz AMG GT
https://maps.app.goo.gl/1MdixmfPEK1fGV247
Porsche 964 WTL Cabriolet
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Gnn4PV7htYcFJa1P9
Porsche 991 Carrera GTS Cabriolet
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hgSx3Ubkc333FEdB8
Porsche 993 Carrera
https://maps.app.goo.gl/r4UNhruaPod6bHoc7
Porsche 997 Carrera S
https://maps.app.goo.gl/X6yiPg4LYhVmcAc76
Smart Crossblade
https://maps.app.goo.gl/xmZfWWQrZUNzDF1R9
Tesla Roadster
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Qu4srvM7BVkXUMMd7
submitted by Mees2312 to StreetviewCarSpotting [link] [comments]
Aston Martin DB11
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Qm2oTn2Y96DXmkni7
Aston Martin V8 Vantage 2005
https://maps.app.goo.gl/n3jf35oVRVTJV7r47
Audi RS4 Avant B9
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hEbAn7Y3sAEwJmiz7
Audi RS5 Coupe B9
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZbpHqgdxFMPt6j5Y7
Audi RS6 Avant C7
https://maps.app.goo.gl/e244LrHUP4h19Zgf8
Audi RS6 Avant C7
https://maps.app.goo.gl/NahZuarzJPhHGaSC9
Bentley Arnage + Maserati Quattroporte V
https://maps.app.goo.gl/94MoHwTQMf8hZ4A27
BMW i8
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dtGBWYc3XKuQCkyd8
BMW i8
https://maps.app.goo.gl/gQw5APdxzkJHmgLC6
BMW M5 F10
https://maps.app.goo.gl/bpmxTUqpgR1k9VaN9
BMW M6 F06
https://maps.app.goo.gl/56uwmwjZqP1HFNvB6
BMW M6 F12 + Ferrari California T + Maserati Quattroporte VI
https://maps.app.goo.gl/uLcwzZv19FSYtCP8A
BMW X6M F86
https://maps.app.goo.gl/VgxeJkfHR5bJ8XeY8
Excalibur Phaeton
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Z7vRqBSivPBrPPTT8
Ferrari 488 Spider
https://maps.app.goo.gl/k631hp2X7dT8p6mo9
Ferrari 612 Scaglietti
https://maps.app.goo.gl/VS9EupmwWHKsYWjT9
Fisker Karma
https://maps.app.goo.gl/BpwW4HSpNSQvU8GU8
Jaguar F-Type
https://maps.app.goo.gl/k8kk8kaX62ESzW3q7
Jaguar MK2
https://maps.app.goo.gl/sSAtV3GKLLERUW5x9
Lexus LC 500 Convertible
https://maps.app.goo.gl/KMFu7oFaDm9gDzAC7
Maserati 3200 GT
https://maps.app.goo.gl/qw3H3hLmcWZ9FYWs9
Maserati 3200 GT
https://maps.app.goo.gl/iFBxZRGTpXdkQhSS8
Mercedes-Benz 300 S Roadster
https://maps.app.goo.gl/LhAtMNGRQrA1E22ZA
Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 2012
https://maps.app.goo.gl/piCSLezceHb41Kxg6
Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG W222
https://maps.app.goo.gl/aGZuU1BMTDqTCzVh7
Morgan 4/4
https://maps.app.goo.gl/taR1T9LK4FpFhdAz8
Opel Speedster
https://maps.app.goo.gl/QFzkEdRqwb9WkKvp6
Porsche 964 Carrera
https://maps.app.goo.gl/9jHPamyowdAiWsj19
Porsche 991 Carrera GTS Cabriolet
https://maps.app.goo.gl/N771mNXyxCYXLuwM6
Porsche 993 Carrera
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZEPBgRqBpE4v5uYu9
Porsche 996 Turbo
https://maps.app.goo.gl/NKVEtUh2TChm5FGj7
Porsche 997 Carrera 4S
https://maps.app.goo.gl/zwxFj4n5LbcoGYr56
Porsche 997 Carrera S
https://maps.app.goo.gl/tLCfgTLpuXp3tjyV9
TVR Chimaera
https://maps.app.goo.gl/F862FVzCzL4A4m7n7
Luxembourg
Audi RS3 Sportback 8V
https://maps.app.goo.gl/qB1RJ4H8EiwvwGCa7
Audi RS4 Avant B9
https://maps.app.goo.gl/DeGxJWpioY9r23pU6
Audi RS7 Sportback C8
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4ZkdUXHW8arZztVP7
Audi RSQ3 Sportback F3
https://maps.app.goo.gl/91SC9sqTH5H135WL7
BMW M3 E93
https://maps.app.goo.gl/QkA91WCFn45NUf7F8
Dodge Viper SRT-10 Coupe
https://maps.app.goo.gl/FU8U1KD1AcxsaQZJ7
Ferrari F430 + Porsche 964 Carrera Cabriolet
https://maps.app.goo.gl/EUCp1qJczFmD4rVk6
Ford Focus RS MK2
https://maps.app.goo.gl/CKqTovNECYUqdAcN9
Ford Focus RS MK2 + Maserati Quattroporte V
https://maps.app.goo.gl/eTEGuNXRK9a2RgHG6
Ford Mustang I Convertible
https://maps.app.goo.gl/QwvbeCwDHaxs6tzw8
Jaguar F-Type Coupe
https://maps.app.goo.gl/HTD1Q1D9Sg6Cxjum6
Maserati GranTurismo
https://maps.app.goo.gl/PA8gurGMyDQgFP8P6
Maserati Quattroporte VI
https://maps.app.goo.gl/MVBKNcwFqKpN1ChP6
Maserati Quattroporte VI
https://maps.app.goo.gl/RsMjdRFBrYLWU2f36
Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG C219
https://maps.app.goo.gl/bGTJuaqAjsK4HGi9A
Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG W164
https://maps.app.goo.gl/8L55hQs8UuCYS3kQ8
Porsche 718 Cayman GT4
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4QU4FkW3sgjcit4u6
Porsche 997 Carrera 4S
https://maps.app.goo.gl/b46R61m5ENttkgRXA
Belgium
Abarth 695 Rivale
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Nhurfmm5x5or7Cp19
Audi R8 Type 42
https://maps.app.goo.gl/p5WdCJ3sggsCUEEQA
Audi RS6 Avant C8
https://maps.app.goo.gl/j12ZsauB3a1dEmst8
Bentley Turbo R
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Hafd843ksddTxScAA
BMW M2 F87
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6zgDriXWqnuqDjSF8
BMW M2 F87
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Qt9AT6XceBW81kBh9
BMW M3 E92
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3HMkkTMhcoQYWG2N6
BMW M4 F82
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6GxQ73x5uVHavQgz9
BMW M5 F90
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Cd8j2R3DTGsgM8kx9
BMW M6 E64
https://maps.app.goo.gl/uenFopZpJ5owcodR9
BMW Z4M Coupe
https://maps.app.goo.gl/vdt129f6QMTkqSnt7
Chevrolet Corvette C3
https://maps.app.goo.gl/a535cgPQMS6Biy5n8
Jaguar F-Type Coupe
https://maps.app.goo.gl/AwSdrWLx9sBg41jL7
Lotus Elise S2
https://maps.app.goo.gl/AcXv11dGJnz69chB9
Maserati GranTurismo
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6HUY6QGes2hFMCvv9
Maserati Quattroporte V
https://maps.app.goo.gl/WpDWG3zw5mRa76Le8
Mercedes-Benz AMG GT
https://maps.app.goo.gl/1MdixmfPEK1fGV247
Porsche 964 WTL Cabriolet
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Gnn4PV7htYcFJa1P9
Porsche 991 Carrera GTS Cabriolet
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hgSx3Ubkc333FEdB8
Porsche 993 Carrera
https://maps.app.goo.gl/r4UNhruaPod6bHoc7
Porsche 997 Carrera S
https://maps.app.goo.gl/X6yiPg4LYhVmcAc76
Smart Crossblade
https://maps.app.goo.gl/xmZfWWQrZUNzDF1R9
Tesla Roadster
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Qu4srvM7BVkXUMMd7
2024.05.09 16:30 tommyseckar 33 Series – Winter – TOP Car Tunning Setups Share Codes
 | https://preview.redd.it/aw5kw87lvezc1.png?width=1102&format=png&auto=webp&s=00b4bf742b35ea79a8f9ca6694fd3e7a749cccc5 submitted by tommyseckar to ForzaHorizon [link] [comments] Hi all, You will be TOP racer with following setups (if you can drive of course :D ). It is for all races in Winter Season (3rd week) of Series 33 Apex Allstars (except for Hot Wheels cause I don’t play that, but if you wish I could do that later for you). The Trial – Clio Clash (class B 700) Renault Clio Williams 1993 – share code: 337 777 805 Renault Clio R.S. 200 EDC 2013
Caterham Superlight R500 2013 – share code: 114 517 979 Eventlab by Pato Bincidi – Retro Sports Cars (class A 800) The best: Lotus Elise Series 1 Sport 190 1999 – share code: 108 254 845 Alternative: Forsberg Racing Nissan ‚Gold Leader‘ Datsun 280Z 1975 – share code: 630 985 752 Eventlab by Masterli9 – Track Toys (class S1 900) The best: KTM X-Bow R 2013 – share code: 819 095 670 Alternatives: Lotus 3-Eleven 2016 – share code: 224 276 564 Bac Mono 2014 – share code: 891 864 740 Vuhl 05RR 2017 – share code: 997 579 825 Seasonal Playground Games - Dodge (class A 800) Dodge Charger T 1969 – share code: 890 535 678 Dodge Viper GTS ACR 1999 - share code: 149 176 002 Dodge Viper SRT GTS 2013 - share code: 577 588 925 PR Stunts - Classic Racers (class A 700) Ford #2 GT40 MK II 1966 - share code: 141 391 214 Seasonal Championship - Going for Marigold – Classic Racers (class B 700) Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe 1965
Ford Lotus Cortina 1966 - share code: 166 906 647 Seasonal Championship – On The Run – GR Supra Vs. Z4 Roadster (class A 800) Toyota GR Supra 2020
Mini John Cooper Works 2009 – share code: 251 492 459 |
2024.05.09 03:52 MirkWorks Excerpt from The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch (The Flight from Feeling: Sociopsychology of the Sex War)
VIII: The Flight from Feeling: Sociopsychology of the Sex War
The Trivialization of Personal Relations
Bertrand Russell once predicted that the socialization of reproduction - the supersession of the family by the state - would “make sex love itself more trivial,” encourage “a certain triviality in all personal relations,” and “make it far more difficult to take an interest in anything after one’s own death.” At first glance, recent developments appear to have refuted the first part of this prediction. Americans today invest personal relations, particularly the relations between men and women, with undiminished emotional importance. The decline of childrearing as a major preoccupation has freed sex from its bondage to procreation and made it possible for people to value erotic life for its own sake. As the family shrinks to the marital unit, it can be argued that men and women respond more readily to each other’s emotional needs, instead of living vicariously through their offspring. The marriage contract having lost its binding character, couples now find it possible, according to many observers, to ground sexual relations in something more solid than legal compulsion. In short, the growing determination to live for the moment, whatever it may have done to the relations between parents and children, appears to have established the preconditions of a new intimacy between men and women.
This appearance is an illusion. The cult of intimacy conceals a growing despair of finding it. Personal relations crumble under the emotional weight with which they are burdened. The inability “to take an interest in anything after one’s own death,” which gives such urgency to the pursuit of close personal encounters in the present, makes intimacy more elusive than ever. The same developments that have weakened the tie between parents and children have also undermined relations between men and women. Indeed the deterioration of marriage contributes in its own right to the deterioration of care for the young.
This last point is so obvious that only a strenuous propaganda on behalf of “open marriage” and “creative divorce” prevents us from grasping it. It is clear, for example, that the growing incidence of divorce, together with the ever present possibility that any given marriage will end in collapse, adds to the instability of family life and deprives the child of a measure of emotional security. Enlightened opinion diverts attention from this general fact by insisting that in specific cases, parents may do more harm to their children by holding a marriage together than by dissolving it. It is true that many couples preserve their marriage, in one form or another, at the expense of the child. Sometimes they embark on a life full of distractions that shield them against daily emotional involvements with their offspring. Sometimes one parent acquiesces in the neurosis of the other (as in the family configuration that produces so many schizophrenic patients) for fear of disturbing the precarious peace of the household. More often the husband abandons his children to the wife whose company he finds unbearable, and the wife smothers the children with incessant yet perfunctory attentions. This particular solution to the problem of marital strain has become so common that the absence of the father impresses many observers as the most striking fact about the contemporary family. Under these conditions, a divorce in which the mother retains custody of her children merely ratifies the existing state of affairs - the effective emotional desertion of his family by the father. But the reflection that divorce often does no more damage to children than marriage itself hardly inspires rejoicing.
Battle of the Sexes: Its Social History
While the escalating war between men and women have psychological roots in the disintegration of the marital relation, and more broadly in the changing patterns of socialization outlined in the preceding chapter, much of this tension can be explained without reference to psychology. The battle of the sexes also constitutes a social phenomena with a history of its own. The reasons for the recent intensification of sexual combat lie in the transformation of capitalism from its paternalistic and familial form to a managerial, corporate, bureaucratic system of almost total control: more specifically, in the collapse of “chivalry”; the liberation of sex from many of its former constraints; the pursuit of sexual pleasure as an end in itself; the emotional overloading of personal relations; and most important of all, the irrational male response to the emergence of the liberated woman.
It has been clear for some time that “chivalry is dead.” The tradition of gallantry formerly masked and to some degree mitigated the organized oppression of women. While males monopolized political and economic power, they made their domination of women more palatable by surrounding it with an elaborate ritual of deference and politesse. They set themselves up as protectors of the weaker sex, and this cloying but useful fiction set limits to their capacity to exploit women through sheer physical force. The counterconvention of droit de seigneur, which justified the predatory exploits of the privileged classes against women socially inferior to themselves, nevertheless showed that the male sex at no time ceased to regard most women as fair game. The long history of rape and seduction, moreover, served as a reminder that animal strength remained the basis of masculine ascendancy, manifested here in its most direct and brutal form. Yet polite conventions, even when they were no more than a façade, provided women with ideological leverage in their struggle to domesticate the wildness and savagery of men. They surrounded essentially exploitive relationships with a network of reciprocal obligations, which if nothing else made exploitation easier to bear.
The symbiotic interdependence of exploiters and exploited, so characteristic of paternalism in all ages, survived in male-female relations long after the collapse of patriarchal authority in other areas. Because the convention of deference to the fair sex was so closely bound up with paternalism, however, it lived on borrowed time once the democratic revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had destroyed the last foundations of feudalism. The decline of paternalism, and of the rich public ceremonial formerly associated with it, spelled the end of gallantry. Women themselves began to perceive the connection between their debasement and their sentimental exaltation, rejected their confining position on the pedestal of masculine adoration, and demanded the demystification of female sexuality.
Democracy and feminism have now stripped the veil of courtly convention from the subordination of women, revealing the sexual antagonisms formerly concealed by the “feminine mystique.” Denied illusions of comity, men and women find it more difficult than before to confront each other as friends and lovers, let alone as equals. As male supremacy becomes ideologically untenable, incapable of justifying itself as protection, men assert their domination more directly, in fantasies and occasionally in acts of raw violence. Thus the treatment of women in movies, according to one study, has shifted “from reverence to rape.”
Women who abandon the security of well-defined though restrictive social roles have always exposed themselves to sexual exploitation, having surrendered the usual claims of respectability. Mary Wollstonecraft, attempting to live as a free woman, found herself brutally deserted by Gilbert Imlay. Later feminists forfeited the privileges of sex and middle-class origin when they campaigned for women’s rights. Men reviled them publicly as sexless “she-men” and approached them privately as loose women. A Cincinnati brewer, expecting to be admitted to Emma Goldman’s hotel room when he found her alone, became alarmed when she threatened to wake the whole establishment. He protested, “I thought you believed in free love.” Ingrid Bengis reports that when she hitchhiked across the country, men expected her to pay for rides with sexual favors. Her refusal elicited the predictable reply: “Well, girls shouldn’t hitchhike in the first place.”
What distinguishes the present time from the past is that defiance of sexual conventions less and less presents itself as a matter of individual choice, as it was for the pioneers of feminism. Since most of those conventions have already collapsed, even a woman who lays no claim to her rights nevertheless finds it difficult to claim the traditional privileges of her sex. All women find themselves identified with “women’s lib” merely by virtue of their sex, unless by strenuous disavowals they identify themselves with its enemies. All women share in the burdens as well as the benefits of “liberation,” both of which can be summarized by saying that men no longer treat women as ladies.
The Sexual “Revolution”
The demystification of womanhood goes hand in hand with the desublimation of sexuality. The “repeal of reticence” has dispelled the aura of mystery surrounding sex and removed most of the obstacles to its public display. Institutionalized sexual segregation has given way to arrangements that promote the intermingling of the sexes at every stage of life. Efficient contraceptives, legalized abortion, and a “realistic” and “healthy” acceptance of the body have weakened the links that once tied sex to love, marriage, and procreation. Men and women now pursue sexual pleasure as an end in itself, unmediated even by the conventional trappings of romance.
Sex valued purely for its own sake loses all reference to the future and brings no hope of permanent relationships. Sexual liaisons, including marriage, can be terminated at pleasure. This means, as Willard Waller demonstrated a long time ago, that lovers forfeit the right to be jealous or to insist on fidelity as a condition of erotic union. In his sociological satire of the recently divorced, Waller pointed out that the bohemians of the 1920s attempted to avoid emotional commitments while eliciting them from others.
Since the bohemian was “not ready to answer with his whole personality for the consequences of the affair, nor to give any assurance of its continuance,” he lost the right to demand such an assurance from others. “To show jealousy,” under these conditions, became “nothing short of a crime…. So if one falls in love in Bohemia, he conceals it from his friends as best he can.” In similar studies of the “rating and dating complex” on college campuses, Waller found that students who fell in love invited the ridicule of their peers. Exclusive attachments have way to an easygoing promiscuity as the normal pattern of sexual relations. Popularity replaced purity as the measure of a woman’s social value; the sentimental cult of virginity gave way to “playful woman-sharing,” which had “no negative effect,” as Wolfenstein and Leites pointed out in their study of movies, “on the friendly relations between the men.”(*) In the thirties and forties, the cinematic fantasy in which a beautiful girl dances with a chorus of men, favoring one no more than the others, expressed an ideal to which reality more and more closely conformed. In Elmtown’s Youth, August Hollingshead described a freshman girl who violated conventional taboos against drinking, smoking, and “fast” behavior and still retained her standing in the school’s most prominent clique, partly carefully calibrated promiscuity. “To be seen with her adds to a boy’s prestige in the elite peer group…. she pets with her dates discreetly never goes too far, just far enough to make them come back again.” In high school as in college, the peer group attempts through conventional ridicule and vituperation to prevent its members from falling in love with the wrong people, indeed from falling in love at all; for as Hollingshead noted, lovers “are lost to the adolescent world with its quixotic enthusiasms and varied group activities.”
These studies show that the main features of the contemporary sexual scene had already established themselves well before the celebrated “sexual revolution” of the sixties and seventies: casual promiscuity, a wary avoidance of emotional commitments, an attack on jealousy and possessiveness. Recent developments, however, have introduced a new source of tension: the modern woman’s increasingly insistent demand for sexual fulfillment. In the 1920s and 1930s, many women still approached sexual encounters with a hesitance that combined prudery and a realistic fear of consequences. Superficially seductive, they took little pleasure in sex even when they spoke the jargon of sexual liberation and professed to live for pleasure and thrills. Doctors worried about female frigidity, and psychiatrists had no trouble in recognizing among their female patients the classic patterns of hysteria described by Freud, in which a coquettish display of sexuality often coexists with powerful repression and a rigid, puritanical morality.
Today women have dropped much of their sexual reserve. In the eyes of men, this makes them more accessible as sexual partners but also more threatening. Formerly men complained about women’s lack of sexual response; now they find this response intimidating and agonize about their capacity to satisfy it. “I’m sorry they ever found out they could have orgasms too,” Heller’s Bob Slocum says. The famous Masters-Johnson report on female sexuality added to these anxieties by depicting women as sexually insatiable, inexhaustible in their capacity to experience orgasm after orgasm. Some feminists have used the Masters report to attack the “myth of vaginal orgasm,” to assert women’s independence of men, or to taunt men with their sexual inferiority. “Theoretically, a woman could go on having orgasms indefinitely if physical exhaustion did not intervene,” writes Mary Jane Sherfey. According to Kate Millett, “While the male’s sexual potential is limited, the female’s appears to be biologically nearly inexhaustible.” Sexual “performance” thus becomes another weapon in the war between men and women; social inhibitions no longer prevent women from exploiting the tactical advantage which the current obsession with sexual measurement has given them. Whereas the hysterical woman, even when she fell in love and longed to let herself go, seldom conquered her underlying aversion to sex, the pseudoliberated woman of Cosmopolitan exploits her sexuality in a more deliberate and calculating way, not only because she has fewer reservations about sex but because she manages more successfully to avoid emotional entanglements. “Women with narcissistic personalities,” writes Otto Kernberg, “may appear quite ‘hysterical’ on the surface, with their extreme coquettishness and exhibitionism but the cold, shrewdly calculating quality of their seductiveness is in marked contrast to the much warmer, emotionally involved quality of hysterical pseudo-hypersexuality.”
[*. The transition in American movies from the vamp to the “good-bad girl,” according to Wolfenstein and Leites, illustrates the decline of jealousy and the displacement of sexual passion by sexiness. “The dangerousness of the vamp was associated with the man’s intolerance for sharing her with other men. Her seductive appearance and readiness for love carried a strong suggestion that there has been and might be other men in her life…. The good-bad girl is associated with a greater tolerance for sharing the woman…. In effect, the woman’s attraction is enhanced by her association with other men. All that is needed to eliminate unpleasantness is the assurance that those relations were not serious.”]
Togetherness
Both men and women have come to approach personal relations with a heightened appreciation of their emotional risks. Determined to manipulate the emotions of others while protecting themselves against emotional injury, both sexes cultivate a protective shallowness, a cynical detachment they do not altogether feel but which soon becomes habitual and in any case embitters personal relations merely through its repeated profession. At the same time, people demand from personal relations the richness and intensity of a religious experience. Although in some ways men and women have had to modify their demands on each other, especially in their inability to exact commitments of lifelong sexual fidelity, in other ways they demand more than ever. In the American middle class, moreover, men and women see too much of each other and find it hard to put their relations in proper perspective. The degradation of work and the impoverishment of communal life force people to turn to sexual excitement to satisfy all their emotional needs. Formerly sexual antagonism was tempered not only by chivalric, paternalistic, conventions but by a more relaxed acceptance of the limitations of the other sex. Men and women acknowledged each other’s shortcomings without making them the basis of a comprehensive indictment. Partly because they found more satisfaction than is currently available in casual relations with their own sex, they did not have to raise friendship itself into a political program, an ideological alternative to love. An easygoing, everyday contempt for the weaknesses of the other sex, institutionalized as folk wisdom concerning the emotional incompetence of men or the brainlessness of women, kept sexual enmity within bounds and prevented it from becoming an obsession.
Feminism and the ideology of intimacy have discredited the sexual stereotypes which kept women in their place but which also made it possible to acknowledge sexual antagonism without raising it to the level of all-out warfare. Today the folklore of sexual differences and the acceptance of sexual friction survive only in the working class. Middle-class feminists envy the ability of working-class women to acknowledge that men get in their way without becoming man-haters. “These women are less angry at their men because they don’t spend that much time with them,” according to one observer. “Middle-class women are the ones who were told men had to be their companions.”
…
Strategies of Accommodation
Because the contradiction exposed (and exacerbated) by feminism are so painful, the feminist movement has always found it tempting to renounce its own insights and program and to retreat into some kind of accommodation with the existing order, often disguised as embattled militancy. In the nineteenth century, American feminists edged away from their original programs, which envisioned not only economic equality but a sweeping reform of marriage and sexual relations, into a protracted campaign for woman suffrage. Today many feminists argue, once again in the name of political realism, that women need to establish their influence within the two-party system, as a kind of loyal opposition, before they can raise broader issues. Such tactics merely serve to postpone the discussion of broader issues indefinitely. Just as the women’s rights movement of the nineteenth century drew back from discussions of love and marriage when they met with public hostility, so strong forces in the National Organization for Women today propose to improve woman’s image, to show that feminism in no way threatens men, and to blame “social conditions” or bad attitudes, not male supremacy, for the subordination of the female sex.
More subtle forms of accommodation pose as radical challenges to mainstream feminism and the status quo. Some militants have revived discredited theories of matriarchal origins or myths of the moral superiority of women, thereby consoling themselves for this lack of power. They appear to the illusory solidarity of sisterhood in order to avoid arguments about the proper goals of the feminist movement. By institutionalizing women’s activities as “alternatives to the male death-culture,” they avoid challenging that culture and protect women from the need to compete with men for jobs, political power, and public attention. What began as a tactical realization that women have to win their rights without waiting for men to grant them has degenerated into the fantasy of a world without men. As one critic has noted, the movement’s “apparent vigor turns out to be mere busyness with self-perpetuating make-work: much of it serving in the short run to provide its more worldly experts with prestige, book contracts, and grants, its dreamers with an illusory matriarchal utopia.”
“Radical lesbians” carry the logic of separation to its ultimate futility, withdrawing at every level from the struggle against male domination while directing a steady stream of abuse against men and against women who refuse to acknowledge their homosexual proclivities. Proclaiming their independence from men, militant lesbians in fact envision a protected enclave for themselves within a male-dominated society. Yet this form of surrender - the dream of an island secure against male intrusion - remains attractive to women who repeatedly fail to find a union of sexuality and tenderness in their relations with men. As such disappointments become more and more common, sexual separatism commends itself as the most plausible substitute for liberation.
All these strategies of accommodation derive their emotional energy from an impulse much more prevalent than feminism: the flight from feeling. For many reasons, personal relations have become increasingly risky - most obviously, because they no longer carry any assurance of permanence. Men and women make extravagant demands on each other and experience irrational rage and hatred when their demands are not met. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that more and more people long for emotional detachment or “enjoy sex,” as Hendin writes, “only in situations where they can define and limit the intensity of the relationship.” A lesbian confesses: “The only men I’ve ever been able to enjoy sex with were men I didn’t give a shit about. Then I could let go, because I didn’t feel vulnerable.”
Sexual separatism is only one of many strategies for controlling or escaping from strong feeling. Many prefer the escape of drugs, which dissolve anger and desire in a glow of good feeling and create the illusion of intense experience without emotion. Others simply undertake to live alone, repudiating connections with either sex. The reported increase in single-member households undoubtedly reflects a new taste for personal independence, but it also expresses a revulsion against close emotional attachments of any kind. The rising rate of suicide among young people can be attributed, in part, to the same flight from emotional entanglements. Suicide, in Hendin’s words, represents the “ultimate numbness.”
The most prevalent form of escape from emotional complexity is promiscuity: the attempt to achieve a strict separation between sex and feeling. Here again, escape masquerades as liberation, regression as progress. The progressive ideology of “nonbiding commitments” and “cool sex” makes a virtue of disengagement, while purporting to criticize the depersonalization of sex. Enlightened authorities like Alex Comfort, Nena and George O’Neill, Robert and Anna Francoeur insist on the need to humanize sex by making it into a “total experience” instead of a mechanical performance; yet in the same breath they condemn the human emotions of jealousy and possessiveness and decry “romantic illusions.” “Radical” therapeutic wisdom urges men and women to express their needs and wishes without reserve - since all needs and wishes have equal legitimacy - but warns them not to expect a single mate to satisfy them. This program seeks to allay emotional tensions, in effect, by reducing the demands men and women make on each other, instead of making men and women better able to meet them. The promotion of sex as a “healthy,” “normal” part of life masks a desire to divest it of the emotional intensity that unavoidably clings to it: the reminders of earlier entanglements with parents, the “unhealthy” inclination to re-create those relations in relation with lovers. The enlightened insistence that sex is not “dirty” expresses a wish to sanitize it by washing away its unconscious associations.
The humanistic critique of sexual “depersonalization” thus sticks to the surface of the problem. Even while preaching the need to combine sex with feeling, it gives ideological legitimacy to the protective withdrawal from strong emotions. It condemns the overemphasis on technique while extolling sexual relations that are hermetically free of affect. It exhorts men and women to “get in touch with their feelings” but encourages them to make “resolutions about freedom and ‘non-possessiveness,’” as Ingrid Bengis writes, which “tear the very heart out of intimacy.” It satirizes the crude pornographic fantasies sold by the mass media, which idealize hairless women with inflated mammaries, but it does so out of an aversion to fantasy itself, which so rarely conforms to social definition of what is healthy minded. The critics of dehumanized sex, like the critics of sport, hope to abolish spectatorship and to turn everyone into a participant, hoping that vigorous exercise will drive away unwholesome thoughts. They attack pornography, not because they wish to promote more complicated and satisfying fantasies about sex, but because, on the contrary, they wish to win acceptance for a realistic view of womanhood and of the reduced demands that men and women have a right to make of each other.
The Castrating Woman of Male Fantasy
The flight from feeling, whether or not it tries to justify itself under an ideology of nonbinding commitments, takes the form above all of a flight from fantasy. This shows that it represents more than defensive reaction to external disappointments. Today men and women seek escape from emotion not only because they have suffered too many wounds in the wars of love but because they experience their own inner impulses as intolerably urgent and menacing. The flight from feeling originates not only in the sociology of the sex war but in the psychology that accompanies it. If “many of us,” as Ingrid Bengis observes of women and as others have observed of men as well, “have had to anesthetize ourselves to [our] needs,” it is the very character of those needs (and of the defenses erected against them) which gives rise to the belief that they cannot be satisfied in heterosexual relations - perhaps should not be satisfied in any form - and which therefore prompts people to withdraw from intense emotional encounters.
Instinctual desires always threaten psychic equilibrium and for this reason can never be given direct expression. In our society, however, they present themselves as intolerably menacing, in part because the collapse of authority has removed so many of the external prohibitions against the expression of dangerous impulses. The superego can no longer ally itself, in its battle against impulse, with outside authorities. It has to rely almost entirely on its own resources, and these too have diminished in their effectiveness. Not only have the social agents of repression lost much of their force, but their internal representations in the superego have suffered a similar decline. The ego ideal, which cooperates in the work of repression by making socially acceptable behavior itself an object of libidinal cathexis, has become increasingly pallid and ineffective in the absence of compelling moral models outside the self. This means, as we have seen, that the superego has to rely more and more on harsh, punitive dictation, drawing on the aggressive impulses in the id and directing them against the ego.
The narcissist feels consumed by his own appetites. The intensity of his oral hunger leads him to make inordinate demands on his friends and sexual partners; yet in the same breath he repudiates those demands asks only a causal connection without promise of permanence on either side. He longs to free himself from his own hunger and rage, to achieve a calm detachment beyond emotion, and to outgrow his dependence on others. He longs for the indifference to human relationships and to life itself that would enable him to acknowledge its passing in Kurt Vonnegut’s laconic phrase, “So it goes,” which so aptly expresses the ultimate aspiration of the psychiatric seeker. <“Western” Buddhism>
But although the psychological man of our times frightens himself with the intensity of his inner needs, the needs of others appall him no less than his own. One reason the demands he inadvertently imposes on others make him uneasy is that they may justify other in making demands on himself. Men especially fear the demands of women, not only because women no longer hesitate to press them but because men find it so difficult to imagine an emotional need that does not wish to consume whatever it seizes on.
Women today ask for two things in their relations with men: sexual satisfaction and tenderness. Whether separately or in combination, both demands seem to convey to many males the same message - that women are voracious, insatiable. Why should men respond in this fashion to demands that reason tells them have obvious legitimacy? Rational arguments notoriously falter in the face of unconscious anxieties; women’s sexual demands terrify men because they reverberate at such deep layers of the masculine mind, calling up early fantasies of a possessive, suffocating, devouring, and castrating mother. The persistence of such fantasies in later life intensifies and brings into the open the secret terror that has always been an important part of the male image of womanhood. The strength of these pre-Oedipal fantasies, in the narcissistic type of personality, makes it likely that men will approach women with hopelessly divided feelings, dependent and demanding in their fixation on the breast but terrified of the vagina which threatens to eat them alive; of the legs with which popular imagination endows the American heroine, legs which can presumably strangle or scissor victims to death; of the dangerous, phallic breast itself, encased in unyielding armor, which in unconscious terror more nearly resembles an implement of destruction that a source of nourishment. The sexually voracious female, long a stock figure of masculine pornography, in the twentieth century has emerged into the daylight of literary respectability. Similarly the cruel, destructive, domineering woman, la belle dame sans merci, has moved from the periphery of literature and the other arts to a position close to the center. Formerly a source of delicious titillation, of sadomasochistic gratification tinged with horrified fascination, she now inspires unambiguous loathing and dread. Heartless, domineering, burning (as Leslie Fiedler has said) with “a lust of the nerves rather than of the flesh,” she unmans every man who falls under her spell. In American fiction, she assumes a variety of guides, all of them variations on the same theme: the bitchy heroine of Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzegerald; Nathanael West’s Faye Greener, whose “invitation wasn’t to pleasure but to struggle, hard and sharp, closer to murder than to love”; Tennessee Williams’s Maggie Tolliver, edgy as a cat on a hot tin roof; the domineering wife whose mastery of her husband, as in the joyless humor of James Thurber, recalls the mastery of the castrating mother over her son; the man-eating Mom denounced in the shrill falsetto of Philip Wylie’s Generation of Vipers, Wright Morris’s Man and Boy, Edward Albee’s The American Dream; the suffocating Jewish mother, Mrs. Portnoy; the Hollywood vampire (Theda Bara), scheming seductress (Marlene Dietrich), or bad blonde (Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield); the precocious female killer of William March’s The Bad Seed.
Child or woman, wife or mother, this female cuts men to ribbons or swallows them whole. She travels accompanied by eunuchs, by damaged men suffering from nameless wounds, or by a few strong men brought low by their misguided attempts to turn her into a real woman. Whether or not the actual incidence of impotence has increased in American males - and there is no reason to doubt reports that it has - the specter of impotence haunts the contemporary imagination, not least because it focuses the fear that a played-out Anglo-Saxon culture is about to fall before the advance of hardier races. The nature of impotence, moreover, has undergone an important historical shift. In the nineteenth century, respectable men sometimes experienced embarrassing sexual failures with women of their own class, or else suffered from what Freud called “psychic impotence” - the characteristic Victorian split between sensuality and affection. Although most of these men dutifully had intercourse with their wives, they derived sexual satisfaction only from intercourse with prostitutes or with women otherwise degraded. As Freud explained, this psychic syndrome - “the most prevalent form of degradation” in the erotic life of his time - originated in the Oedipus complex. After the painful renunciation of the mother, sensuality seeks only those objects that evoke no reminder of her, while the mother herself, together with other “pure” (socially respectable) women, is idealized beyond reach of the sensual.
Today, impotence typically seems to originate not in renunciation of the mother but in earlier experiences, often reactivated by the apparently aggressive overtures of sexually liberated women. Fear of the devouring mother of pre-Oedipal fantasy gives rise to a generalized fear of women that has little resemblance to the sentimental adoration men once granted to women who made them sexually uncomfortable. The fear of women, closely associated with a fear of the consuming desires within, reveals itself not only as impotence but as a boundless rage against the female sex. This blind and impotent rage, which seems so prevalent at the present time, only superficially represents a defensive male reaction against feminism. It is only because the recent revival of feminism stirs up such deeply rooted memories that it gives rise to such primitive emotions. Men’s fear of women, moreover, exceeds the actual threat to their sexual privileges. Whereas the resentment of women against men for the most part has solid roots in the discrimination and sexual danger to which women are constantly exposed, the resentment of men against women, when men still control most of the power and wealth in society yet feel themselves threatened on every hand - intimidated, emasculated - appears deeply irrational, and for that reason not likely to be appeased by changes in feminist tactics designed to reassure men that liberated women threaten no one. When even Mom is a menace, there is not much that feminists can say to soften the sex war or to assure their adversaries that men and women will live happily together when it is over.
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The Trivialization of Personal Relations
Bertrand Russell once predicted that the socialization of reproduction - the supersession of the family by the state - would “make sex love itself more trivial,” encourage “a certain triviality in all personal relations,” and “make it far more difficult to take an interest in anything after one’s own death.” At first glance, recent developments appear to have refuted the first part of this prediction. Americans today invest personal relations, particularly the relations between men and women, with undiminished emotional importance. The decline of childrearing as a major preoccupation has freed sex from its bondage to procreation and made it possible for people to value erotic life for its own sake. As the family shrinks to the marital unit, it can be argued that men and women respond more readily to each other’s emotional needs, instead of living vicariously through their offspring. The marriage contract having lost its binding character, couples now find it possible, according to many observers, to ground sexual relations in something more solid than legal compulsion. In short, the growing determination to live for the moment, whatever it may have done to the relations between parents and children, appears to have established the preconditions of a new intimacy between men and women.
This appearance is an illusion. The cult of intimacy conceals a growing despair of finding it. Personal relations crumble under the emotional weight with which they are burdened. The inability “to take an interest in anything after one’s own death,” which gives such urgency to the pursuit of close personal encounters in the present, makes intimacy more elusive than ever. The same developments that have weakened the tie between parents and children have also undermined relations between men and women. Indeed the deterioration of marriage contributes in its own right to the deterioration of care for the young.
This last point is so obvious that only a strenuous propaganda on behalf of “open marriage” and “creative divorce” prevents us from grasping it. It is clear, for example, that the growing incidence of divorce, together with the ever present possibility that any given marriage will end in collapse, adds to the instability of family life and deprives the child of a measure of emotional security. Enlightened opinion diverts attention from this general fact by insisting that in specific cases, parents may do more harm to their children by holding a marriage together than by dissolving it. It is true that many couples preserve their marriage, in one form or another, at the expense of the child. Sometimes they embark on a life full of distractions that shield them against daily emotional involvements with their offspring. Sometimes one parent acquiesces in the neurosis of the other (as in the family configuration that produces so many schizophrenic patients) for fear of disturbing the precarious peace of the household. More often the husband abandons his children to the wife whose company he finds unbearable, and the wife smothers the children with incessant yet perfunctory attentions. This particular solution to the problem of marital strain has become so common that the absence of the father impresses many observers as the most striking fact about the contemporary family. Under these conditions, a divorce in which the mother retains custody of her children merely ratifies the existing state of affairs - the effective emotional desertion of his family by the father. But the reflection that divorce often does no more damage to children than marriage itself hardly inspires rejoicing.
Battle of the Sexes: Its Social History
While the escalating war between men and women have psychological roots in the disintegration of the marital relation, and more broadly in the changing patterns of socialization outlined in the preceding chapter, much of this tension can be explained without reference to psychology. The battle of the sexes also constitutes a social phenomena with a history of its own. The reasons for the recent intensification of sexual combat lie in the transformation of capitalism from its paternalistic and familial form to a managerial, corporate, bureaucratic system of almost total control: more specifically, in the collapse of “chivalry”; the liberation of sex from many of its former constraints; the pursuit of sexual pleasure as an end in itself; the emotional overloading of personal relations; and most important of all, the irrational male response to the emergence of the liberated woman.
It has been clear for some time that “chivalry is dead.” The tradition of gallantry formerly masked and to some degree mitigated the organized oppression of women. While males monopolized political and economic power, they made their domination of women more palatable by surrounding it with an elaborate ritual of deference and politesse. They set themselves up as protectors of the weaker sex, and this cloying but useful fiction set limits to their capacity to exploit women through sheer physical force. The counterconvention of droit de seigneur, which justified the predatory exploits of the privileged classes against women socially inferior to themselves, nevertheless showed that the male sex at no time ceased to regard most women as fair game. The long history of rape and seduction, moreover, served as a reminder that animal strength remained the basis of masculine ascendancy, manifested here in its most direct and brutal form. Yet polite conventions, even when they were no more than a façade, provided women with ideological leverage in their struggle to domesticate the wildness and savagery of men. They surrounded essentially exploitive relationships with a network of reciprocal obligations, which if nothing else made exploitation easier to bear.
The symbiotic interdependence of exploiters and exploited, so characteristic of paternalism in all ages, survived in male-female relations long after the collapse of patriarchal authority in other areas. Because the convention of deference to the fair sex was so closely bound up with paternalism, however, it lived on borrowed time once the democratic revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had destroyed the last foundations of feudalism. The decline of paternalism, and of the rich public ceremonial formerly associated with it, spelled the end of gallantry. Women themselves began to perceive the connection between their debasement and their sentimental exaltation, rejected their confining position on the pedestal of masculine adoration, and demanded the demystification of female sexuality.
Democracy and feminism have now stripped the veil of courtly convention from the subordination of women, revealing the sexual antagonisms formerly concealed by the “feminine mystique.” Denied illusions of comity, men and women find it more difficult than before to confront each other as friends and lovers, let alone as equals. As male supremacy becomes ideologically untenable, incapable of justifying itself as protection, men assert their domination more directly, in fantasies and occasionally in acts of raw violence. Thus the treatment of women in movies, according to one study, has shifted “from reverence to rape.”
Women who abandon the security of well-defined though restrictive social roles have always exposed themselves to sexual exploitation, having surrendered the usual claims of respectability. Mary Wollstonecraft, attempting to live as a free woman, found herself brutally deserted by Gilbert Imlay. Later feminists forfeited the privileges of sex and middle-class origin when they campaigned for women’s rights. Men reviled them publicly as sexless “she-men” and approached them privately as loose women. A Cincinnati brewer, expecting to be admitted to Emma Goldman’s hotel room when he found her alone, became alarmed when she threatened to wake the whole establishment. He protested, “I thought you believed in free love.” Ingrid Bengis reports that when she hitchhiked across the country, men expected her to pay for rides with sexual favors. Her refusal elicited the predictable reply: “Well, girls shouldn’t hitchhike in the first place.”
What distinguishes the present time from the past is that defiance of sexual conventions less and less presents itself as a matter of individual choice, as it was for the pioneers of feminism. Since most of those conventions have already collapsed, even a woman who lays no claim to her rights nevertheless finds it difficult to claim the traditional privileges of her sex. All women find themselves identified with “women’s lib” merely by virtue of their sex, unless by strenuous disavowals they identify themselves with its enemies. All women share in the burdens as well as the benefits of “liberation,” both of which can be summarized by saying that men no longer treat women as ladies.
The Sexual “Revolution”
The demystification of womanhood goes hand in hand with the desublimation of sexuality. The “repeal of reticence” has dispelled the aura of mystery surrounding sex and removed most of the obstacles to its public display. Institutionalized sexual segregation has given way to arrangements that promote the intermingling of the sexes at every stage of life. Efficient contraceptives, legalized abortion, and a “realistic” and “healthy” acceptance of the body have weakened the links that once tied sex to love, marriage, and procreation. Men and women now pursue sexual pleasure as an end in itself, unmediated even by the conventional trappings of romance.
Sex valued purely for its own sake loses all reference to the future and brings no hope of permanent relationships. Sexual liaisons, including marriage, can be terminated at pleasure. This means, as Willard Waller demonstrated a long time ago, that lovers forfeit the right to be jealous or to insist on fidelity as a condition of erotic union. In his sociological satire of the recently divorced, Waller pointed out that the bohemians of the 1920s attempted to avoid emotional commitments while eliciting them from others.
Since the bohemian was “not ready to answer with his whole personality for the consequences of the affair, nor to give any assurance of its continuance,” he lost the right to demand such an assurance from others. “To show jealousy,” under these conditions, became “nothing short of a crime…. So if one falls in love in Bohemia, he conceals it from his friends as best he can.” In similar studies of the “rating and dating complex” on college campuses, Waller found that students who fell in love invited the ridicule of their peers. Exclusive attachments have way to an easygoing promiscuity as the normal pattern of sexual relations. Popularity replaced purity as the measure of a woman’s social value; the sentimental cult of virginity gave way to “playful woman-sharing,” which had “no negative effect,” as Wolfenstein and Leites pointed out in their study of movies, “on the friendly relations between the men.”(*) In the thirties and forties, the cinematic fantasy in which a beautiful girl dances with a chorus of men, favoring one no more than the others, expressed an ideal to which reality more and more closely conformed. In Elmtown’s Youth, August Hollingshead described a freshman girl who violated conventional taboos against drinking, smoking, and “fast” behavior and still retained her standing in the school’s most prominent clique, partly carefully calibrated promiscuity. “To be seen with her adds to a boy’s prestige in the elite peer group…. she pets with her dates discreetly never goes too far, just far enough to make them come back again.” In high school as in college, the peer group attempts through conventional ridicule and vituperation to prevent its members from falling in love with the wrong people, indeed from falling in love at all; for as Hollingshead noted, lovers “are lost to the adolescent world with its quixotic enthusiasms and varied group activities.”
These studies show that the main features of the contemporary sexual scene had already established themselves well before the celebrated “sexual revolution” of the sixties and seventies: casual promiscuity, a wary avoidance of emotional commitments, an attack on jealousy and possessiveness. Recent developments, however, have introduced a new source of tension: the modern woman’s increasingly insistent demand for sexual fulfillment. In the 1920s and 1930s, many women still approached sexual encounters with a hesitance that combined prudery and a realistic fear of consequences. Superficially seductive, they took little pleasure in sex even when they spoke the jargon of sexual liberation and professed to live for pleasure and thrills. Doctors worried about female frigidity, and psychiatrists had no trouble in recognizing among their female patients the classic patterns of hysteria described by Freud, in which a coquettish display of sexuality often coexists with powerful repression and a rigid, puritanical morality.
Today women have dropped much of their sexual reserve. In the eyes of men, this makes them more accessible as sexual partners but also more threatening. Formerly men complained about women’s lack of sexual response; now they find this response intimidating and agonize about their capacity to satisfy it. “I’m sorry they ever found out they could have orgasms too,”
[*. The transition in American movies from the vamp to the “good-bad girl,” according to Wolfenstein and Leites, illustrates the decline of jealousy and the displacement of sexual passion by sexiness. “The dangerousness of the vamp was associated with the man’s intolerance for sharing her with other men. Her seductive appearance and readiness for love carried a strong suggestion that there has been and might be other men in her life…. The good-bad girl is associated with a greater tolerance for sharing the woman…. In effect, the woman’s attraction is enhanced by her association with other men. All that is needed to eliminate unpleasantness is the assurance that those relations were not serious.”]
Togetherness
Both men and women have come to approach personal relations with a heightened appreciation of their emotional risks. Determined to manipulate the emotions of others while protecting themselves against emotional injury, both sexes cultivate a protective shallowness, a cynical detachment they do not altogether feel but which soon becomes habitual and in any case embitters personal relations merely through its repeated profession. At the same time, people demand from personal relations the richness and intensity of a religious experience. Although in some ways men and women have had to modify their demands on each other, especially in their inability to exact commitments of lifelong sexual fidelity, in other ways they demand more than ever. In the American middle class, moreover, men and women see too much of each other and find it hard to put their relations in proper perspective. The degradation of work and the impoverishment of communal life force people to turn to sexual excitement to satisfy all their emotional needs. Formerly sexual antagonism was tempered not only by chivalric, paternalistic, conventions but by a more relaxed acceptance of the limitations of the other sex. Men and women acknowledged each other’s shortcomings without making them the basis of a comprehensive indictment. Partly because they found more satisfaction than is currently available in casual relations with their own sex, they did not have to raise friendship itself into a political program, an ideological alternative to love. An easygoing, everyday contempt for the weaknesses of the other sex, institutionalized as folk wisdom concerning the emotional incompetence of men or the brainlessness of women, kept sexual enmity within bounds and prevented it from becoming an obsession.
Feminism and the ideology of intimacy have discredited the sexual stereotypes which kept women in their place but which also made it possible to acknowledge sexual antagonism without raising it to the level of all-out warfare. Today the folklore of sexual differences and the acceptance of sexual friction survive only in the working class. Middle-class feminists envy the ability of working-class women to acknowledge that men get in their way without becoming man-haters. “These women are less angry at their men because they don’t spend that much time with them,” according to one observer. “Middle-class women are the ones who were told men had to be their companions.”
…
Strategies of Accommodation
Because the contradiction exposed (and exacerbated) by feminism are so painful, the feminist movement has always found it tempting to renounce its own insights and program and to retreat into some kind of accommodation with the existing order, often disguised as embattled militancy. In the nineteenth century, American feminists edged away from their original programs, which envisioned not only economic equality but a sweeping reform of marriage and sexual relations, into a protracted campaign for woman suffrage. Today many feminists argue, once again in the name of political realism, that women need to establish their influence within the two-party system, as a kind of loyal opposition, before they can raise broader issues. Such tactics merely serve to postpone the discussion of broader issues indefinitely. Just as the women’s rights movement of the nineteenth century drew back from discussions of love and marriage when they met with public hostility, so strong forces in the National Organization for Women today propose to improve woman’s image, to show that feminism in no way threatens men, and to blame “social conditions” or bad attitudes, not male supremacy, for the subordination of the female sex.
More subtle forms of accommodation pose as radical challenges to mainstream feminism and the status quo. Some militants have revived discredited theories of matriarchal origins or myths of the moral superiority of women, thereby consoling themselves for this lack of power. They appear to the illusory solidarity of sisterhood in order to avoid arguments about the proper goals of the feminist movement. By institutionalizing women’s activities as “alternatives to the male death-culture,” they avoid challenging that culture and protect women from the need to compete with men for jobs, political power, and public attention. What began as a tactical realization that women have to win their rights without waiting for men to grant them has degenerated into the fantasy of a world without men. As one critic has noted, the movement’s “apparent vigor turns out to be mere busyness with self-perpetuating make-work: much of it serving in the short run to provide its more worldly experts with prestige, book contracts, and grants, its dreamers with an illusory matriarchal utopia.”
“Radical lesbians” carry the logic of separation to its ultimate futility, withdrawing at every level from the struggle against male domination while directing a steady stream of abuse against men and against women who refuse to acknowledge their homosexual proclivities. Proclaiming their independence from men, militant lesbians in fact envision a protected enclave for themselves within a male-dominated society. Yet this form of surrender - the dream of an island secure against male intrusion - remains attractive to women who repeatedly fail to find a union of sexuality and tenderness in their relations with men. As such disappointments become more and more common, sexual separatism commends itself as the most plausible substitute for liberation.
All these strategies of accommodation derive their emotional energy from an impulse much more prevalent than feminism: the flight from feeling. For many reasons, personal relations have become increasingly risky - most obviously, because they no longer carry any assurance of permanence. Men and women make extravagant demands on each other and experience irrational rage and hatred when their demands are not met. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that more and more people long for emotional detachment or “enjoy sex,” as Hendin writes, “only in situations where they can define and limit the intensity of the relationship.” A lesbian confesses: “The only men I’ve ever been able to enjoy sex with were men I didn’t give a shit about. Then I could let go, because I didn’t feel vulnerable.”
Sexual separatism is only one of many strategies for controlling or escaping from strong feeling. Many prefer the escape of drugs, which dissolve anger and desire in a glow of good feeling and create the illusion of intense experience without emotion. Others simply undertake to live alone, repudiating connections with either sex. The reported increase in single-member households undoubtedly reflects a new taste for personal independence, but it also expresses a revulsion against close emotional attachments of any kind. The rising rate of suicide among young people can be attributed, in part, to the same flight from emotional entanglements. Suicide, in Hendin’s words, represents the “ultimate numbness.”
The most prevalent form of escape from emotional complexity is promiscuity: the attempt to achieve a strict separation between sex and feeling. Here again, escape masquerades as liberation, regression as progress. The progressive ideology of “nonbiding commitments” and “cool sex” makes a virtue of disengagement, while purporting to criticize the depersonalization of sex. Enlightened authorities like Alex Comfort, Nena and George O’Neill, Robert and Anna Francoeur insist on the need to humanize sex by making it into a “total experience” instead of a mechanical performance; yet in the same breath they condemn the human emotions of jealousy and possessiveness and decry “romantic illusions.” “Radical” therapeutic wisdom urges men and women to express their needs and wishes without reserve - since all needs and wishes have equal legitimacy - but warns them not to expect a single mate to satisfy them. This program seeks to allay emotional tensions, in effect, by reducing the demands men and women make on each other, instead of making men and women better able to meet them. The promotion of sex as a “healthy,” “normal” part of life masks a desire to divest it of the emotional intensity that unavoidably clings to it: the reminders of earlier entanglements with parents, the “unhealthy” inclination to re-create those relations in relation with lovers. The enlightened insistence that sex is not “dirty” expresses a wish to sanitize it by washing away its unconscious associations.
The humanistic critique of sexual “depersonalization” thus sticks to the surface of the problem. Even while preaching the need to combine sex with feeling, it gives ideological legitimacy to the protective withdrawal from strong emotions. It condemns the overemphasis on technique while extolling sexual relations that are hermetically free of affect. It exhorts men and women to “get in touch with their feelings” but encourages them to make “resolutions about freedom and ‘non-possessiveness,’” as Ingrid Bengis writes, which “tear the very heart out of intimacy.” It satirizes the crude pornographic fantasies sold by the mass media, which idealize hairless women with inflated mammaries, but it does so out of an aversion to fantasy itself, which so rarely conforms to social definition of what is healthy minded. The critics of dehumanized sex, like the critics of sport, hope to abolish spectatorship and to turn everyone into a participant, hoping that vigorous exercise will drive away unwholesome thoughts. They attack pornography, not because they wish to promote more complicated and satisfying fantasies about sex, but because, on the contrary, they wish to win acceptance for a realistic view of womanhood and of the reduced demands that men and women have a right to make of each other.
The Castrating Woman of Male Fantasy
The flight from feeling, whether or not it tries to justify itself under an ideology of nonbinding commitments, takes the form above all of a flight from fantasy. This shows that it represents more than defensive reaction to external disappointments. Today men and women seek escape from emotion not only because they have suffered too many wounds in the wars of love but because they experience their own inner impulses as intolerably urgent and menacing. The flight from feeling originates not only in the sociology of the sex war but in the psychology that accompanies it. If “many of us,” as Ingrid Bengis observes of women and as others have observed of men as well, “have had to anesthetize ourselves to [our] needs,” it is the very character of those needs (and of the defenses erected against them) which gives rise to the belief that they cannot be satisfied in heterosexual relations - perhaps should not be satisfied in any form - and which therefore prompts people to withdraw from intense emotional encounters.
Instinctual desires always threaten psychic equilibrium and for this reason can never be given direct expression. In our society, however, they present themselves as intolerably menacing, in part because the collapse of authority has removed so many of the external prohibitions against the expression of dangerous impulses. The superego can no longer ally itself, in its battle against impulse, with outside authorities. It has to rely almost entirely on its own resources, and these too have diminished in their effectiveness. Not only have the social agents of repression lost much of their force, but their internal representations in the superego have suffered a similar decline. The ego ideal, which cooperates in the work of repression by making socially acceptable behavior itself an object of libidinal cathexis, has become increasingly pallid and ineffective in the absence of compelling moral models outside the self. This means, as we have seen, that the superego has to rely more and more on harsh, punitive dictation, drawing on the aggressive impulses in the id and directing them against the ego.
The narcissist feels consumed by his own appetites. The intensity of his oral hunger leads him to make inordinate demands on his friends and sexual partners; yet in the same breath he repudiates those demands asks only a causal connection without promise of permanence on either side. He longs to free himself from his own hunger and rage, to achieve a calm detachment beyond emotion, and to outgrow his dependence on others. He longs for the indifference to human relationships and to life itself that would enable him to acknowledge its passing in Kurt Vonnegut’s laconic phrase, “So it goes,” which so aptly expresses the ultimate aspiration of the psychiatric seeker. <“Western” Buddhism>
But although the psychological man of our times frightens himself with the intensity of his inner needs, the needs of others appall him no less than his own. One reason the demands he inadvertently imposes on others make him uneasy is that they may justify other in making demands on himself. Men especially fear the demands of women, not only because women no longer hesitate to press them but because men find it so difficult to imagine an emotional need that does not wish to consume whatever it seizes on.
Women today ask for two things in their relations with men: sexual satisfaction and tenderness. Whether separately or in combination, both demands seem to convey to many males the same message - that women are voracious, insatiable. Why should men respond in this fashion to demands that reason tells them have obvious legitimacy? Rational arguments notoriously falter in the face of unconscious anxieties; women’s sexual demands terrify men because they reverberate at such deep layers of the masculine mind, calling up early fantasies of a possessive, suffocating, devouring, and castrating mother. The persistence of such fantasies in later life intensifies and brings into the open the secret terror that has always been an important part of the male image of womanhood. The strength of these pre-Oedipal fantasies, in the narcissistic type of personality, makes it likely that men will approach women with hopelessly divided feelings, dependent and demanding in their fixation on the breast but terrified of the vagina which threatens to eat them alive; of the legs with which popular imagination endows the American heroine, legs which can presumably strangle or scissor victims to death; of the dangerous, phallic breast itself, encased in unyielding armor, which in unconscious terror more nearly resembles an implement of destruction that a source of nourishment. The sexually voracious female, long a stock figure of masculine pornography, in the twentieth century has emerged into the daylight of literary respectability. Similarly the cruel, destructive, domineering woman, la belle dame sans merci, has moved from the periphery of literature and the other arts to a position close to the center. Formerly a source of delicious titillation, of sadomasochistic gratification tinged with horrified fascination, she now inspires unambiguous loathing and dread. Heartless, domineering, burning (as Leslie Fiedler has said) with “a lust of the nerves rather than of the flesh,” she unmans every man who falls under her spell. In American fiction, she assumes a variety of guides, all of them variations on the same theme: the bitchy heroine of Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzegerald; Nathanael West’s Faye Greener, whose “invitation wasn’t to pleasure but to struggle, hard and sharp, closer to murder than to love”; Tennessee Williams’s Maggie Tolliver, edgy as a cat on a hot tin roof; the domineering wife whose mastery of her husband, as in the joyless humor of James Thurber, recalls the mastery of the castrating mother over her son; the man-eating Mom denounced in the shrill falsetto of Philip Wylie’s Generation of Vipers, Wright Morris’s Man and Boy, Edward Albee’s The American Dream; the suffocating Jewish mother, Mrs. Portnoy; the Hollywood vampire (Theda Bara), scheming seductress (Marlene Dietrich), or bad blonde (Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield); the precocious female killer of William March’s The Bad Seed.
Child or woman, wife or mother, this female cuts men to ribbons or swallows them whole. She travels accompanied by eunuchs, by damaged men suffering from nameless wounds, or by a few strong men brought low by their misguided attempts to turn her into a real woman. Whether or not the actual incidence of impotence has increased in American males - and there is no reason to doubt reports that it has - the specter of impotence haunts the contemporary imagination, not least because it focuses the fear that a played-out Anglo-Saxon culture is about to fall before the advance of hardier races. The nature of impotence, moreover, has undergone an important historical shift. In the nineteenth century, respectable men sometimes experienced embarrassing sexual failures with women of their own class, or else suffered from what Freud called “psychic impotence” - the characteristic Victorian split between sensuality and affection. Although most of these men dutifully had intercourse with their wives, they derived sexual satisfaction only from intercourse with prostitutes or with women otherwise degraded. As Freud explained, this psychic syndrome - “the most prevalent form of degradation” in the erotic life of his time - originated in the Oedipus complex. After the painful renunciation of the mother, sensuality seeks only those objects that evoke no reminder of her, while the mother herself, together with other “pure” (socially respectable) women, is idealized beyond reach of the sensual.
Today, impotence typically seems to originate not in renunciation of the mother but in earlier experiences, often reactivated by the apparently aggressive overtures of sexually liberated women. Fear of the devouring mother of pre-Oedipal fantasy gives rise to a generalized fear of women that has little resemblance to the sentimental adoration men once granted to women who made them sexually uncomfortable. The fear of women, closely associated with a fear of the consuming desires within, reveals itself not only as impotence but as a boundless rage against the female sex. This blind and impotent rage, which seems so prevalent at the present time, only superficially represents a defensive male reaction against feminism. It is only because the recent revival of feminism stirs up such deeply rooted memories that it gives rise to such primitive emotions. Men’s fear of women, moreover, exceeds the actual threat to their sexual privileges. Whereas the resentment of women against men for the most part has solid roots in the discrimination and sexual danger to which women are constantly exposed, the resentment of men against women, when men still control most of the power and wealth in society yet feel themselves threatened on every hand - intimidated, emasculated - appears deeply irrational, and for that reason not likely to be appeased by changes in feminist tactics designed to reassure men that liberated women threaten no one. When even Mom is a menace, there is not much that feminists can say to soften the sex war or to assure their adversaries that men and women will live happily together when it is over.
2024.05.09 02:32 MiracleYang1 Challenge run complete: One mission per troop
 | The one mission per troop campaign is a challenge run I made up where I can only use each troop on one mission each. Basically, you try to expose as many people to the horrors of war as possible. It ends up being a half rookie run, with a massive supply sink for recruiting and long-term planning to put together strong endgame teams. I just completed it on commander, though I absolutely abused save-scumming. Here’s how it went: submitted by MiracleYang1 to Xcom [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/isj2trndnazc1.jpg?width=1334&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a701fa4960f4986a21984566fab9bc72b3b6c5a4 Early-game The first few missions were surprisingly easy, though not having my Reaper was annoying. I built the GTS first so I could get a steady supply of grenadiers, which was VERY useful. Getting a second region unlocked early was nice, as it gave me more opportunities for guerrilla-ops that were solo-able. I got super lucky with the improved assault rifle breakthrough early on. Skirmisher HQ was quite handy once I found it, and I got the resistance order for boosted excavation speed pretty early too. Important missions: -1st retaliation -Supply raid -Council missions, especially those where you recruit soldiers mid-mission. These don’t count towards the mission count for the recruited units, so they can go on another. -Guerilla ops that counter scary dark events like signal jamming, gone to ground, or midnight raids. -I did the blacksite mission early just in case I had to abandon the region later, my 2nd reaper made short work of it. Mid-game I finally got Live Fire Training to get some sergeants. I started training more and more specialists, as aid and haywire protocol came in handy a lot. I also rushed the psi lab pretty hard, since it gave me a new supply of decent soldiers. I killed the Viper King in two missions around the middle of the campaign. I think I skipped every retaliation after the first two. I got lucky with their placements, and it was just too much investment to keep doing them. I definitely missed having the mimic beacon in the midgame, maybe it would’ve been worth it to do the third if I planned better. Covert Ops I sent a bunch of my used soldiers on covert ops. One got all the way up to colonel, which helped with the Chosen hunts. Ambushes are annoying though, I had to reload a save a few times to avoid them on used soldiers. Pro tip: Dismiss used faction heroes before each supply drop, it usually lets you recruit new ones. Late-game: More difficult than usual. I was starting to run low on rookies to buy at this time. Apparently only 5 are added to the pool each month. Thankfully, I got lucky with the locations of the forge and gateway missions, I basically didn’t even have to touch the Americas. Before I did those, I killed the assassin. It was very difficult with only 5 mid-level soldiers; not sure it was worth it. At least I got the katana, which made the gateway mission much easier, even with only 4 soldiers to work with. I cheesed the forge with another Reaper, though it took some reloading to get right. Unfortunately, then I had to do the avenger defense. Avenger defense: This one took some doing, especially since I never got a turret wreck for the defense matrix. The main issue for me was that Bradford sends in a random(?) soldier on turn 2. This is where I finally went and cleaned out all the used soldiers in my armory, going from 66 to 13 soldiers. After quite a bit of trial and error, I finally got Bradford to send out an unused, unimportant soldier on turn 2. Using a sacrificial grenadier and rookie, along with a blaster launcher from the ramp, I was able to take out the objective and leave on turn 3. Final missions After doing some last-minute preparations, my final 9 units were: -A colonel specialist with death from above from the training center -A colonel ranger with all the sword abilities -A colonel Templar with kinda meh extra abilities -A colonel Skirmisher with saturation fire -2 high level psi ops -A colonel Reaper -2 low level psi ops with inspire, one of which is bonded to the Reaper From those last 3 units you can guess what I did to the network tower mission. Move forward in stealth a bit, then give the Reaper all the action points so he can run straight to the objective and complete it without any fighting. The final mission was nothing special. I had a full team of colonels, so I just kinda steamrolled everyone. Shoutout to the last avatar who killed himself through feedback damage. If anyone wants to try this on Ironman for some reason, here’s some tips: -Chosen avenger defenses will be too much of a headache. Either kill the first chosen or beat the campaign fast enough that it won’t matter. -Once the UFO appears, dismiss all used soldiers, or keep them out on covert ops. The minor benefits they give are not worth ending the run through Bradford’s incompetence. -You might need to reset if you don’t find Live Fire Training (or maybe Resistance Network) by mid-game. |
2024.05.08 20:52 KhennySmoove What cars will a dodge viper engine fit in?
Hi this is my first Reddit hope to get some answers. Anywho I want to make a sleeper build but there are very few select cars I will choose from such as: Mitsubishi spyder gts (drop top is also fine), 2012 Camaro, or a jeep grand Cherokee. However i don’t think that the engine will fit inside the Mitsubishi (as much as I want it to) I was wondering what other eye catching car based off looks would fit the dodge viper engine as I really want to hear options and opinions and of course Reddit got the car genius’s.
P.S. my dad killed himself before we could actually make a good relationship and he was the only one I knew to teach me about cars so if anyone is willing to give me lessons advice or best yet a apprenticeship, I would greatly appreciate it I’m 22 btw so I should know a lot but I found my passion way to late.
submitted by KhennySmoove to Cartalk [link] [comments]
P.S. my dad killed himself before we could actually make a good relationship and he was the only one I knew to teach me about cars so if anyone is willing to give me lessons advice or best yet a apprenticeship, I would greatly appreciate it I’m 22 btw so I should know a lot but I found my passion way to late.