with the monarchs gone and the eight man empire becoming a mini abidan like organization to guard against the return of the monarchs, The world will be shared among the strongest heralds and sages.
sages will be so important because they can make void keys, gatekeys, facilitate spatial travel and world wide communication, Heal on a level of authority.
Powerful factions headed by heralds will enter alliances with factions that have sages while trying to cultivate their own sages.
thanks to Lindon's two years on cradle, There was peace and the major powers entered some kind of stability without major conflicts so as to not risk his wrath.
the new sages and heralds will get a visit from the eightman empire to extract an oath to ascend in case of advancement to monarch. they will be able to pull support from the other heralds and sages in case of resistance. obviously not everyone will be doing it out of the desire to preserve cradle but out of their own interests to preserve their own power so that they don't lose it to the tyranny of a monarch.
many factions will bloom but the ones with a sage or herald already will be ahead. The Arelius family, the Akura clan, the nine cloud court and the twin star sect will be the leading factions of the world.
the eightman empire will be taking on disciples but not territories so as to ensure there is always someone who will take on the mantle when one of their own wants to ascend or dies.
I think the uncrowned king tornament will continue under the eightman empire for this purpose with the major factions sending their best disciples to compete on a world stage. having a member of your clan be part of the only monarch power allowed in cradle would be the highest honor and a sign of might.
the top 8 will be considered candidates and the winner will most definitely be assured a spot as long as they are willing to take an oath to uphold the eightman empire mission and not conquer territory or get too involved in the affairs of sage and herald factions.

Car audio systems have come a long way from the days of crackling AM radios. Today, a quality car audio system can transform mundane commutes into exhilarating experiences, turning your vehicle into a mobile concert hall or a private audio oasis. In this article, we delve into the world of car audio systems, exploring their key components, types, installation processes, maintenance tips, and future trends.

1. Introduction to Car Audio Systems

In the modern age, where we spend a significant amount of time commuting, having a high-quality audio system in your car is paramount. Whether you enjoy blasting your favorite tunes at full volume or prefer a more refined listening experience, a good car audio system can make every journey enjoyable. Car audio systems have evolved significantly over the years, incorporating cutting-edge technology to deliver immersive sound experiences on the go.

2. Key Components of a Car Audio System

A typical car audio system comprises several essential components, each playing a crucial role in delivering high-fidelity sound to listeners. These components include:
I. Head Unit
The head unit serves as the control center of the car audio system, housing features such as radio, CD player, USB input, Bluetooth connectivity, and navigation systems.
II. Amplifier
The amplifier boosts the audio signal from the head unit and delivers it to the speakers with sufficient power to produce loud and clear sound.
III. Speakers
Speakers convert electrical signals into sound waves, reproducing audio from various sources with accuracy and clarity.
IV. Subwoofers
Subwoofers specialise in producing low-frequency bass sounds, adding depth and richness to the audio experience.
V. Wiring and Connectivity
Wiring and connectivity components ensure seamless communication between different parts of the audio system, minimising signal loss and interference.

3. Types of Car Audio Systems

Car audio systems are broadly categorised into three types:
I. OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)
OEM systems are factory-installed audio setups provided by car manufacturers. While they offer convenience and integration with the vehicle’s design, they may lack in terms of sound quality and features compared to aftermarket alternatives.
II. Aftermarket Systems
Aftermarket systems are audio setups installed by third-party manufacturers or professional installers after purchasing the vehicle. These systems offer greater flexibility, allowing users to customise their audio experience according to their preferences.
III. Custom Audio Systems
Custom audio systems are tailor-made setups designed to meet the specific requirements and preferences of individual users. These systems often involve extensive modifications and aftermarket components to achieve desired audio quality and performance.

4. Factors to Consider When Choosing a Car Audio System

When selecting a car audio system, several factors should be taken into account:
I. Sound Quality
The primary consideration should be the overall sound quality, including clarity, accuracy, and richness of the audio output.
II. Compatibility
Ensure that the chosen audio components are compatible with your vehicle’s make and model to avoid compatibility issues during installation.
III. Budget
Set a budget that aligns with your audio preferences and financial constraints, balancing quality and affordability.
IV. Installation Complexity
Consider the complexity of installation and whether professional assistance may be required to ensure proper setup and functionality.
V. Brand Reputation
Choose reputable brands known for their quality, reliability, and customer support to avoid potential issues and ensure a satisfactory user experience.

5. Installation Process of Car Audio Systems

Installing a car audio system involves several steps, including:
I. Preparation
Gather all necessary tools and materials, including audio components, wiring harnesses, and mounting hardware.
II. Head Unit Installation
Remove the existing head unit and install the new head unit, ensuring proper wiring and connection to the vehicle’s electrical system.
III. Speaker Installation
Replace factory speakers with aftermarket speakers, ensuring proper fitment and wiring for optimal performance.
IV. Amplifier Installation
Mount the amplifier in a suitable location, connect it to the head unit and speakers, and configure settings for the desired sound output.
V. Subwoofer Installation
Install subwoofers in the vehicle, either in the trunk or interior compartments and connect them to the amplifier for enhanced bass response.
VI. Wiring and Connection
Route wiring neatly throughout the vehicle, ensuring proper insulation and connection to prevent signal loss or interference.

6. Tips for Maximising Car Audio System Performance

To get the most out of your car audio system, consider the following tips:
I. Proper Speaker Placement
Position speakers strategically for optimal sound distribution and imaging, avoiding obstructions and reflections that may affect sound quality.
II. Sound Deadening
Apply sound-deadening materials to reduce vibrations and resonance within the vehicle, improving overall audio clarity and reducing outside noise.
III. Tuning the System
Adjust audio settings such as equalisation, crossover points, and time alignment to fine-tune the sound to your preferences and vehicle acoustics.
IV. Upgrading Components
Consider upgrading individual components such as speakers, amplifiers, and head units to improve overall sound quality and performance.
Conclusion
A high-quality car audio system can significantly enhance your driving experience, whether you’re on a long road trip or a short commute. By understanding the key components, types, installation processes, and maintenance tips outlined in this article, you can make informed decisions when upgrading or optimising your car audio system. Whether you’re a casual listener or an audiophile seeking the ultimate sound experience, there are options available to suit every preference and budget.

3.0. THE THIRD BUDDHIST COUNCIL:

Venerable Moggaliputta Tissa Thera led the 3rd Buddhist Council of Theravada School. That was not a schism as the outsiders were not the true members of the Sangha. However, the king supported them like the members of the Sangha.

Because it helped promote tolerance and mutual respect, Asoka desired that people should be well-learned (bahu sruta) in the good doctrines (kalanagama) of other people's religions. [The Edicts of King Asokaan, English rendering by Ven. S. Dhammika © 1994]

King Asoka was supporting everyone who claimed he belonged to the Dhamma-Vinaya community (the Sangha) established by the Sakyamuni. However, they did not join the Dhamma-Vinaya community, nor know, nor care the Buddha's teaching.
Venerable Moggaliputta Tissa Thera determined that "the Vibhajjavāda alone contained the teaching of the Buddha."

Rest of the monks who were true believers, told about the doctrine of the Buddha, that it was Vibhajjavāda i.e. the religion of analytical reasoning. This answer was supported by Moggaliputta-Tissa who was present there. He told that the Buddha was Vibhajjavādin (analyser). The Thera was made the gurdian of the Order. To purify the Sangha, the king requested to hold the Uposatha ceremony.

Uposatha

uposatha : [m.] Sabbath day; observance of 8 precepts; biweekly recitation of the Vinaya rules by a chapter of Buddhist monks.
Mūḷuposatha sutta (AN 3.70), (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

“There are, Visākhā, three kinds of uposatha. What three? The cowherds’ uposatha, the Nigaṇṭhas’ uposatha, and the noble ones’ uposatha [...] (3) “And how, Visākhā, is the noble ones’ uposatha observed? The defiled mind is cleansed by exertion. And how is the defiled mind cleansed by exertion?

The mentioned uposatha ceremony is for the monks to recite the Vinaya rules. It cannot be observed with the participation of the public, including the monks (and priests) from other religions.

[Uposatha (Thanissaro Bhikkhu)] The monastic observance may be held in one of four ways, depending on the size of the Community in a particular territory: If four bhikkhus or more, they meet for a recitation of the Pāṭimokkha; if three, they declare their mutual purity to one another; if two, they declare their purity to each other; if one, he marks the day by determining it as his uposatha. In addition to these regular observance days, the Buddha gave permission for a Community to recite the Pāṭimokkha only on one other occasion: when unity has been reestablished in the Community. This, the Commentary says, refers only to occasions when a major dispute in the Community has been settled (such as a schism—see Chapter 21), and not to occasions when the uposatha has been suspended for minor reasons. Thus there are two occasions on which the bhikkhus are allowed to meet for the uposatha: the last day of the lunar fortnight and the day for reestablishing unity.

The public uposatha is open to everyone, including non-Buddhists. The participants are expected to observe a set of uposatha sīla, either 8, 9 or 10 (aṭṭha-sīla, navanga-sīla or dasa-sīla).
uposathika : [adj.] one who observes [uposatha] precepts.

Aṭṭha-sīla 8 (Uposatha, Uposatha-sīla): 6. Vikālabhojanā veramaṇī； 7. Naccagītavāditavisūkadassanā mālāgandhavilepanadhāraṇamaṇanavibhūsanaṭṭhānā veramaṇī； 8. Uccāsayanamahāsayanā veramaṇī;

On the basis of not-Dhamma as ‘Dhamma’… Dhamma as ‘not-Dhamma’… not-Vinaya as ‘Vinaya’… Vinaya as ‘not-Vinaya’, Emperor Asoka expelled the non-Vibhajjavādis who could not observe the uposatha, including the Sarvāstivādis, from the Sangha.

[Schism (Thanissaro Bhikkhu)] Ven. Upāli: “‘A split in the Community, a split in the Community (saṅgha-bheda)’ it is said. To what extent is the Community split?” The Buddha: “There is the case where they explain not-Dhamma as ‘Dhamma’… Dhamma as ‘not-Dhamma’… not-Vinaya as ‘Vinaya’… Vinaya as ‘not-Vinaya’… [...] a light offense as ‘a heavy offense’… a heavy offense as ‘a light offense’… an offense leaving a remainder as ‘an offense leaving no remainder’… an offense leaving no remainder as ‘an offense leaving a remainder’… a serious offense as ‘a not-serious offense’… a not-serious offense as ‘a serious offense.’ On the basis of these eighteen grounds they pull away, pull apart, they perform a separate uposatha, perform a separate Invitation, perform a separate Community transaction. To this extent the Community is split.”—Cv.VII.5.2

Devadatta caused the first schism on the basic of Vinaya rules. The Vajjian monks caused the second schism on the same ground. The Sangha established by the Sakyamuni was attacked several times from within.

Vibhajjavādi Dhamma Missions

Emperor Asoka sent forth nine missionaries to nine different countries to propagate the religion of the Buddha and crowned it with success... also the Bhikkuni Sangha in Aparantaka, Suvannabhumi and Ceylon.

Emperor Asoka sent his son and daughter, Arahant Maha Mahinda Thera and Arahant Sanghamitta Theri, to Sri Lanka, where the events of the 3rd Buddhist Council were recorded.
"Arahant Mahinda, who introduced the Buddhadhamma to Sri Lanka, is the Redactor of the Buddhapåjàva in Sinhala Buddhism."
Sri Lanka became a foothold of the Dhamma-Vinaya Tradition. Suvannabhumi was also a foothold where Thera-vada Buddhism thrives presently.

Vibhajjavādi Dhamma Paṭisambhidā-ñāṇa

Analytical Knowledge (Paṭisambhidā-ñāṇa) allows the arahants to reason and teach in detail analytically. Understanding the nature of the Teachings of the Buddha and the Sangha, Venerable Moggaliputta Tissa Thera described them as Vibhajjavādis. That is Theravada, the doctrine of the arahants. Dhamma paṭisambhidā-ñāṇa is the ability to analytically and in detail explain the nature of reality.
The Buddha as an awakened sage is neither a theorist nor a philosopher. Theravada is not philosophy. The Buddha is an arahant.
The Buddha's disciples, who are also arahants, know the Four Noble Truths through their own observation and release from delusion. Knowing modern views and modern science is not their task. They are not philosophers and philosophical scholars. They do not claim to possess omniscience.

Titthiya Sutta (Sectarians):

[The Buddha advises the monks,] you should answer those wanderers of other sects in this way, ‘Friends, passion carries little blame and is slow to fade. Aversion carries great blame and is quick to fade. Delusion carries great blame and is slow to fade. [Thanissaro Bhikkhu]

3.1. Kaccānagotta Sutta (Right View)

Kaccānagotta Sutta Pali:

‘sammādiṭṭhi sammādiṭṭhī’ti, bhante, vuccati. Kittāvatā nu kho, bhante, sammādiṭṭhi hotī’’ti?... ‘‘‘Sabbaṃ atthī’ti kho, kaccāna, ayameko anto. ‘Sabbaṃ natthī’ti ayaṃ dutiyo anto. Ete te, kaccāna, ubho ante anupagamma majjhena tathāgato dhammaṃ deseti – ‘avijjāpaccayā saṅkhārā; saṅkhārapaccayā… L. Feer, Saṃyutta-nikāya,V. 16 —[copied from Early Buddhism: A New Definition (Vijitha Kumara, page 130)]

• sammādiṭṭhi : right view
• What is the right view, bhante?

Sarvāstivāda

Sarvāstivāda means "those who claim that everything exists" [...] the Sarvāstivādins suggest that "everything," that is all conditioned factors (dharma), "exist" and can exert causal efficacy in the three time periods of the past, present, and future. [Sarvastivada And Mulasarvastivada (Encyclopedia.com)]

The main Sarvāstivādi concept 'all dhamma exist in all three times' was familiar to the Buddha, not because He taught it, but because He rejected it.

'Everything exists': That is one extreme. 'Everything doesn't exist': That is a second extreme. Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathagata teaches the Dhamma via the middle: From ignorance as a requisite condition come fabrications (saṅkhārā). From fabrications as a requisite condition comes consciousness. [Kaccānagotta Sutta (SN 12:15) (Thanissaro Bhikkhu)]

Somehow, that concept, despite the Buddha's famous rejection, came to associate with Buddhism once again, not because the Buddha taught it, but the outsiders made it as if the Buddha accepted it.
We, too, must reject the notion of 'everything exists' just the way the Buddha rejected it. The rejection is also present in the paṭicca samuppāda, as He explains:

Imagine two sheaves of reeds the one leaning against the other. In the same way consciousness depends on named-shapes, named shapes depend on consciousness [...] birth depends on existing, aging and death depend on birth — the coming into existence of upset, grief, lamentation, pain and misery. [...] If, however, friend, I were to remove one of those sheaves of reeds one would fall down if I were to remove the other the other would fall down. — SN 5.67 [Dependant Uprising, Downbound Dependent Own-making (Dependent Origination, Conditioned Genesis, The Causal Law),

The Paṭicca Samuppāda provides two sheaves of reeds that support each other, but one of them can be removed to topple them both. When they are toppled, we cannot say everything exists. The Buddha's Dhamma, which shows us the four Paramattha, is nothing like a "dharma theory" that was created by the Sarvāstivādis.
Kaccānagotta Sutta continues:

[The Buddha:] By & large, Kaccayana, this world is supported by (takes as its object) a polarity, that of existence & non-existence. But when one sees the origination of the world as it actually is with right discernment, 'non-existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one. When one sees the cessation of the world as it actually is with right discernment, 'existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one. "By & large, Kaccayana, this world is in bondage to attachments, clingings (sustenances), & biases

3.2. Vibhajyavāda & The Present Dhamma

The Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia:

vibhajyavāda; A school of thought doctrinally opposed to the Sarvāstitvāda. holds that the present dharma-s alone exist. However, some among them like the followers of the Kāśyapīya, concede that the past karma that have not yet given fruit (adatta-phala) can also be said to exist.

Here is a part of Magganga Dipani by Ledi Sayadaw:

kammassakata samma-ditthi Sabbesatta kammadayada, kamayoni, kammabandhu kammappatisarana yam kammam karissanti kalyanam va papakam va tassadayada bhavissanti. Sabbe satta kammassaka: There exist such properties as elephants, horses, vehicles, cattle, fields, buildings, gold, silver, jewels, etc. Those properties can be said to belong to us in the present existence before we pass away. But when we pass away those properties do not accompany us beyond death. They are like properties which we borrow for some time for our use. They are liable to destruction during the present existence. As those properties which beings possess do not accompany them to their new existences, they cannot be claimed as properties belonging to those beings. The Buddha therefore said, 'sabbe satta kammassaka.' The only property of all beings that accompanies them is their own volitional action... [Ledi Sayadaw explains the entire thing here.]

• Venerable Mogok Sayadaw warned us to avoid sassata ditthi, the belief in permanence (nicca), 'eternity-belief'. Based on his explanation: A kamma (action) exists while it is happening between the start and the end. For example, feeding an animal: this action exists only while that animal is fed. That action cannot exist before and after that animal is fed. However, as if following the doers, the potential effect of certain wholesome and unwholesome kamma (volition) is inevitable.

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

Furthermore, bhikkhus, this is the dukkha ariya·sacca: jāti is dukkha, jarā is dukkha (sickness is dukkha) maraṇa is dukkha, association with what is disliked is dukkha, dissociation from what is liked is dukkha, not to get what one wants is dukkha; in short, the five upādāna'k'khandhas are dukkha.

• The Buddha introduced the Dukkha Sacca in His first sermon.
• Vedayita-dukkha: The truth is dukkha are birth, aging, death, association with what is disliked, dissociation from what is liked, and not to get what one wants.
• Bhayattha-dukkha: The truth is the constant fear of these dukkha is also dukkha.
• Due to the past wholesome and unwholesome kamma, one gets birth, aging, death, etc.
• However, Beings born in the sugati-loka do not suffer from birth, aging, and bodily pain (kayika-dukkha), as these dukkha do not exist there.
• The past unwholesome kamma do not affect these beings during their existence in sugati-loka, especially the arupa-brahmas.
• The Buddha understood the followers of Nigaṇṭha (the Nigaṇṭhas) did not know the existence of the sugati-loka. Thus, they were speculators who fell into sassatavada (eternalism) and ucchedavada (nihilism/annihilation). Details can be read here: The Buddhist Critique of Sassatavada and Ucchedavada: The Key to a proper Understanding of the Origin and the Doctrines of early Buddhism (Y. Karunadasa).
• In the Devadaha Sutta, the Buddha pointed out the mistakes of these Nigaṇṭhas.

Devadaha Sutta (the Law of Kamma)

[MN 101] “‘So, friends, it seems that you don’t know that you existed in the past, and that you did not not exist… you don’t know what is the abandoning of unskillful qualities and the attainment of skillful qualities in the here & now. That being the case, it is not proper for you to assert that, “Whatever a person experiences—pleasure, pain, or neither pleasure nor pain—all is caused by what was done in the past. Thus, with the destruction of old [kamma] through asceticism, and with the non-doing of new actions, there will be no flow into the future. With no flow into the future, there is the ending of [kamma]. With the ending of [kamma], the ending of [dukkha]. With the ending of [dukkha], the ending of feeling. With the ending of feeling, all [dukkha] will be exhausted.” (Thanissaro Bhikkhu)

• If the present is completely conditioned by the past [kamma] and if we could not break that condition to do new kamma in a condition not determined by the past, then at this present we could not even do anything intentionally (kamma) as our action would be restrained by the past kamma.

A Vibhajjavādi cannot accept Sarvāstivāda's notion of the three times:

all dharmas exist in the past, present and future, the "three times".

Past and future exist at this present moment implies they merge with the present time. Yesterday and tomorrow are today and they are so every day without meaning one can live yesterday and tomorrow today. If one's injury healed yesterday, both injury and healing exist today, right now. For three times doctrine (Sarvāstivāda), dead people are dead, alive and exist at all stages and every moment of time. Even though one has reborn countless times, one still lives in the past lives and also the future lives. One has lived the past infinity and the future infinity. As the future has also been lived, there is no way to change the future, so what will happen will happen — according to the God one believes. After one passes away, one will relive the same life again and again countless times in the past and the future. Someone who will become a Buddha is already a Buddha. Someone who will go to hell is already in hell while living this life as a human.
Rational and irrational people, including the physicists, philosophers, writers and filmmakers, took the doctrine of three times seriously and imagined time machines.
Assuming kamma (action) exists constantly (past, present and future) constitutes sassata ditthi (eternalism). Assuming actions and their effects do not exist constitutes ahetukaditthi (view of uncausedness) — see the 8th question on page181 of this book: Milindapanha: kammaphalaatthibhavapanha. King Milinda asked many questions about kamma. The answers of wisemen and philosophers of the time did not satisfy the king. He got the answers only when he met Venerable Nagasena; see A SEARCH FOR THE LEARNED (TALENT HUNT), pages12-16.
Venerable Nagasena explained how the future is yet to exist:

Can anyone point out the fruits that a tree has not yet produced, saying: “Here they are, there they are”?” [See 3.2. QUESTION REGARDING VALIDITY OF FRUIT AND RESULT OF WHOLESOME AND UNWHOLESOME]

Real is the present; the past is gone; the future is yet to exist. That is the knowledge of the arahants.
Every action has the process of existence: birth, decay and death. Understanding anicca can abandon sakkaya ditthi.
Sakkaya ditthi is a sense with which one perceives a nama-rupa complex as me, you, he, she, it, cat, dog and so on.

Right View according to the Sakyamuni

The Buddha and His disciples visited Vesāli, the capital of the Vajjians, several times, and many arahants were made there. Saccaka, who the Buddha addressed as Aggivessana, was a famous Jain teacher of the Licchavi rājās. They accompanied Saccaka when he went to challenge the Buddha. There a famous debate on anattavada occurred, as recorded in the famous Cula-Saccaka Sutta.

[The Buddha asked,] “Well, Aggivessana, when you say that [rūpa] is self, do you have power over that [rūpa]. Can you have your [rūpa] be any different than it is?” Saccaka could not answer and remained silent [...] “Released they are endowed with unsurpassed Right View, unsurpassed practice, and unsurpassed release. Released, they honor and respect the Tathagata in this manner: The Buddha teaches the Dhamma for awakening (to Four Noble Truths), the Buddha teaches the Dhamma to develop restraint, the Buddha teaches the Dhamma for developing tranquility, the Buddha teaches the Dhamma for ending samsara (ignorance). The Buddha teaches the Dhamma for total unbinding.” (John Haspel).

• [rūpa]: The four mahabhuta (solid, liquid, gas, heat), each changes according to its nature.
• Self (atta) means the owner or arbitor of the five aggregates of clinging.
• do you have power over that [rūpa]: None of the five aggregates is self (atta).
• Vesāli became a Buddhist capital after the debate. But not all the Nigaṇṭhas were happy. Their attack on the Buddha and the Sangha never stopped. They succeeded only after a few centuries later.

3.3. QUESTION REGARDING VALIDITY OF FRUIT AND RESULT OF WHOLESOME AND UNWHOLESOME

(kammaphalaatthibhavapanha page181) 8. King Milinda said: “If, O Venerable Nagasena, with the (present) Mind-body-complex (nama-rupa) either wholesome or unwholesome kammical actions were performed where will the fruit and result of those actions (kamma) be located?” “The fruit and result of kammical actions tend to follow the Mind-body-complex, O King, like a shadow that never leaves it.” (So replied the Elder.) “Now what do you think, O King? Can any one point out the fruits which a tree has not yet produced, saying: “Here they are, there they are”?” (So asked the Elder.) “Not possible it is, O Venerable One.” (So replied the king.)

• Shadow means the potential. As long as the tree exists, the potential of fruiting of that tree exists. The fruits will be on that tree, not elsewhere. The potential never leaves the tree.
• Mahayana created the concept of Ālayavijñāna (storehouse consciousness).
  • Ālayavijñāna is also regarded as the store house of vāsanas and karmic tendencies (vāsanāparibhāvita and sarvabījaka). However, it is neither the permanent identity of a person nor a form of collective unconscious. Continuous build-up and discharge of karmic tendencies cause the ever-changing nature of ālaya-vijñāna. [Wisdom Lib]
• Compare ālayavijñāna with indestructable buddha-nature. Buddha-nature is also vijñāna/citta. Awareness is Buddha-nature.
  • [Breakthrough Sermon, Bodhidharma:] The Sutra of the Ten Stages says, “In the body of mortals is the indestructible buddha-nature [...] Our buddha-nature [the self-nature of Buddha] is awareness: to be aware and to make others aware. To realize awareness is liberation.
  • be­cause garbha (which nearly always means 'embryo' in Sanskrit) is translated by ts'ang, ( = 'womb'; lit. 'storehouse'), a certain vacuum was created in the Chinese vocabulary which the terms fo hsing and fo hsin ( = buddha-citta) neatly filled. [Rawlinson, Andrew. "The Ambiguity of the Buddha-Nature Concept in India and China."]
  • Ālayavijñāna belongs to or a part of buddha-nature (buddha-citta).
  • According to the concept of citta-matrata

THE NIYAMA-DIPANI The Manual of Cosmic Order Mahathera Ledi Sayadaw

[Kamma-Niyama] The moral order--Kamma (action) is that by which men execute, deeds, good or evil, meritorious or the opposite. What is it ? It is volition (cetana), moral or immoral. We are told in the Pali texts: 'By action, Bhikkhus, I mean volition. It is through having willed that a man does something in the form of deed, speech or thought.'

The nama-rupa process, which occurs according to the law of paticcasamuppada (Pratītya-Samutpāda), is like a tree; See 2.3. PATICCASAMUPPADA. The nama-rupa process, which occurs due to the niyama(s) other than kamma niyama, is outside the law of paticcasamuppada but not unrelated.

Naked Kassapa

The ascetic Acelakassapa put forward four theories of origination of suffering and wanted to know Buddha’s answer to them. [Dependent Origination and the Buddhist Theory of Relativity (Kottegoda S. Warnasuriya (page 154)]
"'He who performs the act also experiences [the result]' — what you, Kassapa, first called 'suffering caused by oneself' — this amounts to the Eternalist[3] theory. [Acela Sutta: Naked Kassapa]

An action was done by a doer, not someone else. However, the doer and the action (kamma) can exist only during the action is being done, not before or after. The doer happens to exist because of doing. The doer and doing exists at the same time. Action and doer don't exist outside doing or before or after the action is done.
Saying there is no doer falls into ahetukavada and probably uccedavada, too, as 'no doer' means 'nobody is responsible' to take the consequences. When the action is done, it becomes a seed that grows into a tree (as nama-rupa process) according to the paticcasamuppada law. The fruiting or consequences of volition (kamma/seed) will appear on this tree.

Of Causal Genesis [Mahathera Ledi Sayadaw (contrinues)]

Paticcasamuppada is Causal Genesis or Dependent Origination (Process). The key words are depdendent and process. The process depends on the action done by the doer, which no longer exists by the next stage of the process. For example, a sound comes out after the drummer hit a drum with a drumstick. The birth of the sound is dependent on the hitting process, but the sound itself is independent to be in the law of impermanence—no butterfly-effect here.
That is how things exist, but not "everything exists".

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Asgards wrath 1
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New Infitech 2u: Fear the Night Fossil Edition server launching June 7th, 2024. Server is whitelisted so join our discord to get whitelisted. 40+ players plan on joining so far making it one of the largest gregtech server in existence! Server is run by the Aura Fury non-profit and a dedicated box, experience the difference
Join our discord here to join the server and say you are here for Fear the Night: discord.gg/aurafury
Pack can be downloaded on the prism launcher or manual install files are avalible in our discord.
Aura Fury is a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to bring you a relaxing community you can call home on the internet
-We run with the Aura Fury promise so no worries about world resets or wipes, single worlds run for years
-Visit us at conventions such as Dreamhack Dallas, HGX, Galveston Esports Summit, and more
-Level 3 Boosted Discord for high quality audio/video and direct chat with VS server through discord
-Content creator friendly servers and discord (many youtubers/streamers in the group)
-Worlds completely built in survival and by the players, the players decide how the world looks and run our events
-Dedicated bare metal servers with dedicated internet lines for little lag for everyone around the world even with 30+ players on
-Not a pay to win community, donating to help the community gets you nothing but a thank you
-Community has been around more than 10 years and has grown to 1000+ members
-Main spoken languages are English, French, Russian and German but all languages are allowed
-Players on around the clock
We play multiple games including: Minecraft, Vintage Story, Starbound, Eco, Ark, Among Us, Overwatch, Squad, Medal of Honor Allied Assault, Phasmophobia, Factorio, Cryofall, Rise of Nations, Command and Conquer, Diablo, and Valheim. We add games as the community is interested
Join our discord here to join the server and say you are here for Fear the Night: discord.gg/aurafury

New Infitech 2u: Fear the Night Fossil Edition server launching June 7th, 2024. Server is whitelisted so join our discord to get whitelisted. 40+ players plan on joining so far making it one of the largest gregtech server in existence! Server is run by the Aura Fury non-profit and a dedicated box, experience the difference
Join our discord here to join the server and say you are here for Fear the Night: discord.gg/aurafury
Pack can be downloaded on the prism launcher or manual install files are avalible in our discord.
Aura Fury is a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to bring you a relaxing community you can call home on the internet
-We run with the Aura Fury promise so no worries about world resets or wipes, single worlds run for years
-Visit us at conventions such as Dreamhack Dallas, HGX, Galveston Esports Summit, and more
-Level 3 Boosted Discord for high quality audio/video and direct chat with VS server through discord
-Content creator friendly servers and discord (many youtubers/streamers in the group)
-Worlds completely built in survival and by the players, the players decide how the world looks and run our events
-Dedicated bare metal servers with dedicated internet lines for little lag for everyone around the world even with 30+ players on
-Not a pay to win community, donating to help the community gets you nothing but a thank you
-Community has been around more than 10 years and has grown to 1000+ members
-Main spoken languages are English, French, Russian and German but all languages are allowed
-Players on around the clock
We play multiple games including: Minecraft, Vintage Story, Starbound, Eco, Ark, Among Us, Overwatch, Squad, Medal of Honor Allied Assault, Phasmophobia, Factorio, Cryofall, Rise of Nations, Command and Conquer, Diablo, and Valheim. We add games as the community is interested
Join our discord here to join the server and say you are here for Fear the Night: discord.gg/aurafury

For context, I post cool teams that I made using some underplayed path or tactic, and on the last one, Unorthodox Gameplay 3 : Monarchnesis, a fellow user u/Alexandergus (COME, SAY HI TO EVERYONE) asked me to build a team with not only Anamnesis, but Berserker Helion as well... And as the title says : ASK AND THOU SHALL RECEIVE
Sidenote: If there's too much text for your liking, dear reader, feel free to skip to the summary part down bellow ;)
So, with that out of the way, let's get to strats!

Occultist

I took inspiration on a setup that ShuffleFM (Darkest Dungeon youtuber,twitch streamer and really good reference) showcased on one of his teams. The concept is that you have a Virtuoso Jester using Encore on Occultist, which proceeds to Chaotic Offering on his bonus turn, generating an Unlimited Power Token(UP). After that, when the regular Occ turn rolls in, he gets the second UP because of the turn start effect, which he originally used to nuke someone with Warlock's Burning Stars turn 1; on my case is to perform Aspirant Anamnesis and open the first turn with a really strong cleave, I also run Burning Stars as an option for larger enemies like size 2s or bosses.

Jester

As for the Jester, since I'm basing my entire schtick on Encore, I'm also running Solo and Finale. That's because you can actually use the dazed in your favor and the cooldowns sync. EG: Encore turn 1 > gets dazed and pushed to last turn 2 action order > Solo > Forward 3> gets Speed token and Jester, specially Virtuoso is really fast > goes first on turn 3 > uses Finale > Back 3 and dazed >If encounter's still going, Encore and Repeat. I topped him with Inspiring Tune for Stress heal (literally the best in the game) and Razor's Wit for poke.

Helion

Now let's talk about Helion. She likes the cleave since it helps her kill rank 4 in 1 turn with Iron Swan, specially ordained and modified enemies like elite and sturdy, not only that but as she's Berserk and is at Rank 1, I run Bleed Out as a strong option after I dealed with the backline; Bleed Out doesn't even have a cooldown, it "just" grants you winded tokens, which means you can spam it to stack monstrous bleeds. I just did act 3 and had 18 bleeds on the last phase for 5 turns (I crited). Another synergy is that after you cast Burning Stars at a chonky target, it gets combo; Bleed Out on Berserker on a combo tarket has 63% BLEED PIERCING. It's basically guaranteed (unless you're using this on Warlord, this bastard has 100 base... He's a VERY good reason to not go overboard on bleeds; not only that but if your whole team wants to bleed someone, you'll end up fighting for the same trinkets). For the rest of her kit, I had Toe to Toe for Taunt, Rooted and movement, Adrenaline Rush for heals and Bloodlust for really long fights and as an alternative to remove Winded tokens that isn't dependent on Adrenaline Rush's health threshold AND grants 30% more damage against bleeding targets. With Jester Encore, you can mix a ton of good sequences, specially in later stages of the fight, granting Helion bonus actions, for example stacking Bleed Out faster, or clearing winded with Bloodlust/ Adrenaline Rush/Toe to Toe+ and then hitting again with Bleed Out.

Plague Doctor

And to stitch the team together, I chose Plague Doctor as the Rank 4 hero, but not any Plague Doctor; Physician. I managed to weld together Physician, Anamnesis and Bleed Out and it's ...GOOD? The thing with Physician is that, except for Magnesium Rain that has a cooldown of 3 turns, she doesn't have a damaging skill to use. Instead, her supportive capabilities are enhanced, and they're great with this team because she provides much needed utility with crowd control, corpse clearing, heals and offensive tokens.
Usefulness Utility listed bellow!

• Turn 1 she can use Emboldening Vapors on Occ to boost Anamnesis and Burning Stars, not only that but on this path this skill grants 2 Strenght Tokens instead of 1, with a cooldown of 1 turn or 0 when upgraded.
  
  • She can blind and daze the two backrow enemies wit Blinding Gas+ to delay their actions long enough so Helion and Occ can make quick work of Rank 4 before the target does something WHILE Rank 3 is Blinded!
  • Magnesium Rain is good for chip damage, dodge clearing and corpse removal(therefore, Bleed Out setup)
  • Heals are as great as ever!
  • Even Ounce of Prevention gets an honorable mention for better handling heavy DOT enemy comps and diseases, like creature dens and the Sprawl; and at this path even grants Stress Damage RES
  But one of the reasons I really liked Phys here is because the team can make full use of her Disorienting Blast, which not only has +20% Stun Piercing on upgrade with combo, but grants Vulnerable as well. A problem I had is that some key heavy hitting skills from the rest of the cast are heavelly reliant on position, like Leper's Chop hitting Ranks 1 and 2, PBS hitting 1, Pistol Shot not hitting 1; so it was kinda like a gamble most of the time. But Finale and Burning Stars hit ALL ranks REALLY HARD ; which means that it doesn't really matter where the enemy ends up, it's going to get CLAPPED. Helion also makes good use of it in later stages of the fight, where your Magnesium Rain is on cooldown and the enemy is standing at rank 2, where rank 1 is a corpse and rank 3 and 4 are cleared. You can try to fish it and grant vulnerable at the same time; it's good!
  

Maps

For regions, try to prioritize the Shroud, for the bleed trinkets for Helion and Ocultist and other trinkets for the Jester, like Seamen's Boots and Compass.
Defensive trinkets on Helion aren't bad either, since she's gonna eat 80% of the hits thrown at her, so Tangle isn't a bad choice. Burning Stars ignores Block and Blinding Gas can help by "dodging" some heavy hitting moves.
Sprawl can be okay because of burn trinkets that can up the usefulness of Mag. Rain and speedy trinkets for Jester
Foetor is the lowest priority map to go, literally no one wants blight buffing trinkets and you even risk getting your heroes sick; I'd go if the map mission grants a good reward but that's about it.

Lair Boss matchups

• You can wreck Levi, specially with a bit of scaling since Bleed Out+ gives good damage with 6 points of bleed; the hand has 24 hp and the bleed by itself deals 18. Burning Stars is a Nuke as well as Finale. BTW he has a trophy that DOUBLES BLEED CAUSED. Just saying
  
• Dababy can be dealt with by Helion using Toe to Toe to lock her on Rank 1, which halts the hungering shenanigans from others behind her; try to get Holy Water to get rid of hunger tokens on Helly so you can Toe to Toe again. Other than that just play as normal with the Encore > Chaotic Offering > Emboldening Vapors > Burning Stars setup, use D. Blast as well to try and get Dababy out of Rank 1.
  
• Librarian is okay, try to have a few throwable items on Jester to spend his dodge tokens and try to Encore > Solo > Finale him. Helion can eat the Blinds thanks to Toe to Toe.
  
• The General is the one I worry the most, he has a huge healthpool and only takes 1 action per turn, which makes DOT tick slowly and gives him plenty of time to stall and disrupt you with his stress inducing attacks, Waking Dead and, if you don't deal with the root, Nightmare. I'd avoid fighting him if my team didn't scale enough and I'd bring Cause of Death+ to speed things up.
  

Pets

They are pretty flexible on this team. I like the Rabbit here since everyone has trouble tanking hits, so the bonus HP goes a long way if you get it rolling(HMMM FLAPJACKS). Some good optins are: - The Tick to get the blood for guaranteed crit tokens and huge damage and bleeds - The Owl helps the debuffs from PD to stick and can provide good flow of Combat Items - The Pliskin can be good since the team is squishy and can use more sustain between fights - The Slime if you like running over debris and don't want to deal with negative tokens - This last one is highly experimental and I still have to test it, but it got to my attention that Larval Carrion Eater can be good as a Crit token Generator, specially since Anamnesis cleaves the whole party. On turn 2 you'd have only 1 UP at your turn which means you can either heal or Sac Stab something. If you have Stab+, you can use it on a corpse, kill it, generate another UP, heal 30%, gain a Block Token and a Crit token for next round, and on that round you'll have 3 UPs at your disposal to spend. This translates to 2 Anamnesis / Burning Stars casted on sequence, since you would spend 2 on this turn, and you would generate another one at the beginning of your next turn. Try this at your own courage and peril (and tell me the results later!)

Summary of the team:

Rank 4: Physician Plague Doctor
Emboldening Vapors Disorienting Blast Battlefield Medicine Blinding Gas* Magnesium Rain*
You can swap these with: Indiscriminate Science+ (heals without limited uses, good for Act 5), Ounce of Prevention for DOTS and disease prevention, Cause of Death+ if you want to nuke some large target that has a ton of bleed stacked into it, after Jester's Finale, you can use since he moves you into rank 3
Rank 3: Virtuoso Jester
Encore Solo Finale Inspiring Tune Razor's Wit
Rank 2: Aspirant Ocultist
Chaotic Offering Anamnesis Burning Stars Sacrificial Stab* Wyrd Reconstruction*
You can swap one of these with Binding Shadows if you're worried about shuffles, on Aspirant it moves you Forward 1 and can generate you a stack of UP
Rank 1 : Berserker* Helion
Iron Swan Toe to Toe Bleed Out Adrenaline Rush Bloodlust*
You can swap Bloodlust with: Raucous Revelry for a heal not dependant on limited uses, stress heal, and on upgrade, DBR Wicked Hack for better damage at rank 2 Breakthrough for Shuffles
As for the * on Berserker, is just that maybe it's a good idea changing the path depending on which act boss you're going against; the ones that came to mind are act 2 and 3. Vs act 2, Bleed Out gets absolutely no value so there's no reason to run Berserker, I'd recomend changing to Ravager for easier management of the lungs. You can also change to Carcass to better deal with high damage since apart from this path she doesn't generate blocks; I had her take every inn item I could buy to give her a better chance at survivability against the Focused Fault, but even then I got a few Deathblow checks; would recommend either running Cause of Death on PD with Berserker, or changing to Carcass to tank with Yawp. I'd also recommend not running Bloodlust if you're running Cause of Death on PD, since it clears all DOT for instant damage, making your turn go to waste, in this case just use Toe to Toe+ to get rid of Winded.
phew... this took a WHILE. Feel free to ask any questions about the team and tell me if you'd want some help with a specific path you'd like to play. ASK AND THOU SHALL RECEIVE
Heheh, have a good one! PS: I'm going straight to bed, but I'll try to answer you guys tomorrow. Good night!

This letter is for my girl. I love you. I only want you. I only see a future with you. I miss you. Let’s talk soon. I need to hear your voice.
XoXO
do not love just because
I am a fool in love
Goofing and gaffing
Detonating all love faux pas
I ardently and breathlessly love deep into the recesses of your heart
Your orbs have beheld and admired the captivating wonders of ancient civilization
Your optics have the accuracy and precision of an X-ray
To distinguish between fierce, boundless love and ooly-drooly infatuation
My adoration and devotion are often misconceived and underestimated
My physical displays of affection and words of affirmation were not surreptitiously and disgeniously orchestrated
Love is bittersweet
Agathokakological (contradictory)
A tragicomic like, “The Merchant of Venice”
A poisonous berry like Nightshade
Our love does not emulate the blueprint
Or adhere to the model of a perfect triangle
Our love is quintessential and sublimate in its own way
A blissful parfait
The tailor-made proportion, congruity, and harmony of intimacy, passion and commitment
You dubiously wavered and distrusted me and my love for you
Because your lenses were obfuscated and befuddled
Obstructing a spiritual awakening and breakthrough
Your confusion retarding and stonewalling your point of view
Words, actions, and intentions mused, assumed, and misconstrued
I love faithfully and steadfastly with high-minded principles
Integrity, virtue, honor, righteousness, and goodness
Unconditionally, truthfully and wholeheartedly
No diabolical motivations
No closeted skeletons
No quid pro quo
Please do not restrain, repress or restrict out of fear of meeting in disaster
Or of belly-whopping and belly-flopping
Bounce, bound, vault carefree
Catapult into an airborne, aerial descent with me
Free-fall
Leapfrog
Balloon
Parachute
I recognized and understood that I hungered for you for a long time
Like a famished Ethiopian deficient on mealtimes
I love the whole caboodle that you are
The wrecked, the prickly, the complete and the 24-carat authentic superstar
It took forever and a day for the universe to prep and prime you for my deserving love
Love is an emotion and a choice
Our behavior and actions establish and rule whether love extinguishes or endures
I covet a few intentions and wishes for us Long and lust with our eyes
Inspire, exalt, elevate, and empathize
Tune in, listen, and be all ears
Acknowledge, accept and appreciate each other
Hierarchize, synchronize, harmonize and apologize
Our love is a melding linkage that cracks, cleaves and crushes any prescripts and axioms
Propagating and perpetuating all things osculating and aphrodisia to be desired

In the ’80s, the spy agency investigated the "Gateway Experience" technique to alter consciousness and ultimately escape spacetime.
The intrigue revolves around a classified 1983 CIA report on a technique called the Gateway Experience, which is a training system designed to focus brainwave output to alter consciousness and ultimately escape the restrictions of time and space.
The CIA was interested in all sorts of psychic research at the time, including the theory of applications of remote viewing, which is when someone views real events with only the power of their mind. The documents have since been declassified and are available to view.
This is a comprehensive excavation of The Gateway Process report. The first section provides a timeline of the key historical developments that led to the CIA’s investigation and subsequent experimentations. The second section is a review of The Gateway Process report. It opens with a wall of theoretical context, on the other side of which lies enough understanding to begin to grasp the principles underlying the Gateway Experience training. The last section outlines the Gateway technique itself and the steps that go into achieving spacetime transcendence.
Let’s go.
THE TIMELINE
• 1950s - Robert Monroe, a radio broadcasting executive, begins producing evidence that specific sound patterns have identifiable effects on human capabilities. These include alertness, sleepiness, and expanded states of consciousness.
• 1956 - Monroe forms an R&D division inside his radio program production corporation RAM Enterprises. The goal is to study sound’s effect on human consciousness. He was obsessed with “Sleep-Learning," or hypnopedia, which exposes sleepers to sound recordings to boost memory of previously learned information.
• 1958 - While experimenting with Sleep-Learning, Monroe discovers an unusual phenomenon. He describes it as sensations of paralysis and vibration accompanied by bright light. It allegedly happens nine times over the proceeding six weeks, and culminates in an out-of-body experience (OBE).
• 1962 - RAM Enterprises moves to Virginia, and renames itself Monroe Industries. It becomes active in radio station ownership, cable television, and later in the production and sale of audio cassettes. These cassettes contain applied learnings from the corporate research program, which is renamed The Monroe Institute.
• 1971 - Monroe publishes Journeys Out of the Body, a book that is credited with popularizing the term “out-of-body experience.”
• 1972 - A classified report circulates in the U.S. military and intelligence communities. It claims that the Soviet Union is pouring money into research involving ESP and psychokinesis for espionage purposes.
• 1975 - Monroe registers the first of several patents concerning audio techniques designed to stimulate brain functions until the left and right hemispheres become synchronized. Monroe dubs the state "Hemi-Sync" (hemispheric synchronization), and claims it could be used to promote mental well-being or to trigger an altered state of consciousness.
• 1978 to 1984 - Army veteran Joseph McMoneagle contributes to 450 remote viewing missions under Project Stargate. He is known as “Remote View No. 1”.
• June 9th, 1983 - The CIA report "Analysis and Assessment of The Gateway Process" is produced. It provides a scientific framework for understanding and expanding human consciousness, out-of-body experiments, and other altered states of mind.
• 1989 - Remote viewer Angela Dellafiora Ford helps track down a former customs agent who has gone on the run. She pinpoints his location as “Lowell, Wyoming”. U.S. Customs apprehend him 100 miles west of a Wyoming town called Lovell.
• 2003 - The CIA approves declassification of the Gateway Process report.
• 2017 - The CIA declassifies 12 million pages of records revealing previously unknown details about the program, which would eventually become known as Project Stargate.
THE REPORT
Personnel
The author of The Gateway Process report is Lieutenant Colonel Wayne M. McDonnell, hereon referred to simply as Wayne. There isn’t a tremendous amount of information available on the man, nor any photographs. In 1983, Wayne was tasked by the Commander of the U.S. Army Operational Group with figuring out how The Gateway Experience, astral projection and out-of-body experiences work. Wayne partnered with a bunch of different folks to produce the report, most notably Itzhak Bentov, a very Googleable American-Israeli scientist who helped pioneer the biomedical engineering industry.
A scientific approach
From the outset of the report, Wayne states his intent to employ an objective scientific method in order to understand the Gateway process. The various scientific avenues he takes include:
• A biomedical inquiry to understand the physical aspects of the process.
• Information on quantum mechanics to describe the nature and functioning of human consciousness.
• Theoretical physics to explain the time-space dimension and means by which expanded human consciousness transcends it.
• Classical physics to bring the whole phenomenon of out-of-body states into the language of physical science (and remove the stigma of an occult connotation).
Methodological frames of reference
Before diving into the Gateway Experience, Wayne develops a frame of reference by dissecting three discrete consciousness-altering methodologies. He’s basically saying, there’s no way you’re going to get through The Gateway without a solid grounding in the brain-altering techniques that came before it.
1) He begins with hypnosis. The language is extremely dense, but the basic gist is as follows: the left side of the brain screens incoming stimuli, categorizing, assessing and assigning meaning to everything through self-cognitive, verbal, and linear reasoning. The left hemisphere then dishes the carefully prepared data to the non-critical, holistic, pattern-oriented right hemisphere, which accepts everything without question. Hypnosis works by putting the left side to sleep, or at least distracting it long enough to allow incoming data direct, unchallenged entry to the right hemisphere. There, stimuli can reach the sensor and motor cortices of the right brain, which corresponds to points in the body. Suggestions then can send electrical signals from the brain to certain parts of the body. Directing these signals appropriately, according to the report, can elicit reactions ranging from left leg numbness to feelings of happiness. Same goes for increased powers of concentration.
2) Wayne continues with a snapshot of transcendental meditation. He distinguishes it from hypnotism. Through concentration the subject draws energy up the spinal cord, resulting in acoustical waves that run through the cerebral ventricles, to the right hemisphere, where they stimulate the cerebral cortex, run along the homunculus and then to the body. The waves are the altered rhythm of heart sounds, which create sympathetic vibrations in the walls of the fluid-filled cavities of the brain’s ventricles. He observed that the symptoms begin in the left side of the body, confirming the right brain’s complicity. Bentov also states that the same effect might be achieved by prolonged exposure to 4 - 7 Hertz/second acoustical vibrations. He suggests standing by an air conditioning duct might also do the trick. (David’s Lynch and other celebrities are committed adherents to transcendental meditation today.)
3) Biofeedback, on the other hand, uses the left hemisphere to gain access to the right brain’s lower cerebral, motor, and sensory cortices. Whereas hypnosis suppresses one side of the brain, and TM bypasses that side altogether, biofeedback teaches the left hemisphere to visualize the desired result, recognize the feelings associated with right hemisphere access, and ultimately achieve the result again. With repetition, the left brain can reliably key into the right brain, and strengthen the pathways so that it can be accessed during a conscious demand mode. A digital thermometer is subsequently placed on a target part of the body. When its temperature increases, objective affirmation is recognized and the state is reinforced. Achieving biofeedback can block pain, enhance feeling, and even suppress tumors, according to the report.
The Gateway mechanics
With that, Wayne takes a first stab at the Gateway process. He classifies it as a “training system designed to bring enhanced strength, focus and coherence to the amplitude and frequency of brainwave output between the left and right hemispheres so as to alter consciousness.”
What distinguishes the Gateway process from hypnosis, TM, and biofeedback, is that it requires achieving a state of consciousness in which the electrical brain patterns of both hemispheres are equal in amplitude and frequency. This is called Hemi-Sync. Lamentably, and perhaps conveniently, we cannot as humans achieve this state on our own. The audio techniques developed by Bob Monroe and his Institute (which are comprised as a series of tapes). claim to induce and sustain Hemi-Sync.
Wayne employs the analogy of a lamp versus a laser. Left to its own devices the human mind expends energy like a lamp, in a chaotic and incoherent way, achieving lots of diffusion but relatively little depth. Under Hemi-Sync though, the mind produces a “disciplined stream of light.” So, once the frequency and amplitude of the brain are rendered coherent it can then synchronize with the rarified energy levels of the universe. With this connection intact, the brain begins to receive symbols and display astonishing flashes of holistic intuition.
The Hemi-Sync technique takes advantage of a Frequency Following Response (FFR). It works like this: an external frequency emulating a recognized one will cause the brain to mimic it. So if a subject hears a frequency at the Theta level, it will shift from its resting Beta level. To achieve these unnatural levels, Hemi-Sync puts a single frequency in the left ear and a contrasting frequency in the right. The brain then experiences the Delta frequency, also known as the beat frequency. It’s more familiarly referred to these days as binaural beats. With the FFR and beat frequency phenomena firmly in place, The Gateway Process introduces a series of frequencies at marginally audible, subliminal levels. With the left brain relaxed and the body in a virtual sleep state, the conditions are ideal to promote brainwave outputs of higher and higher amplitude and frequency. Alongside subliminal suggestions from Bob Monroe (naturally), the subject can then alter their consciousness.
The Gateway system only works when the audio, which is introduced through headphones, is accompanied by a physical quietude comparable to other forms of meditation. This increases the subject’s internal resonance to the body’s sound frequencies, for example the heart. This eliminates the “bifurcation echo”, in which the heartbeat moves up and down the body seven times a second. By placing the body in a sleep-like state, The Gateway CD’s, like meditation, lessen the force and frequency of the heartbeat pushing blood into the aorta. The result is a rhythmic sine wave that in turn amplifies the sound volume of the heart three times. This then amplifies the frequency of brainwave output. The film surrounding the brain—the dura—and fluid between that film and the skull, eventually begin to move up and down, by .0005 and .010 millimeters.
The body, based on its own micro-motions, then functions as a tuned vibrational system. The report claims that the entire body eventually transfers energy at between 6.8 and 7.5 Hertz, which matches Earth’s own energy (7 - 7.5 Hertz). The resulting wavelengths are long, about 40,000 kilometers, which also happens to be the perimeter of the planet. According to Bentov, the signal can move around the world’s electrostatic field in 1/7th of a second.
To recap, the Gateway Process goes like this:
• Induced state of calm
• Blood pressure lowers
• Circulatory system, skeleton and other organ systems begin to vibrate at 7 - 7.5 cycles per second
• Increased resonance is achieved
• The resulting sound waves matches the electrostatic field of the earth
• The body and earth and other similarly tuned minds become a single energy continuum.
We’ve gotten slightly ahead of ourselves here though. Back to the drawing board.
A psycho-quantum level deeper
Wayne then turns to the very nature of matter and energy. More materially (or less if you will), solid matter in the strict construction of the term, he explains, doesn’t exist. The atomic structure is composed of oscillating energy grids surrounded by other oscillating energy grids at tremendous speeds. These oscillation rates vary—the nucleus of an atom vibrates at 10 to the power of 22, a molecule vibrates at 10 to the power of 9, a human cell vibrates at 10 to the power of 3. The point is that the entire universe is one complex system of energy fields. States of matter in this conception then are merely variations in the state of energy.
The result of all these moving energies, bouncing off of energy at rest, projects a 3D mode, a pattern, called a hologram, A.K.A our reality as we experience it. It's best to think of it as a 3D photograph. There’s a whole rabbit hole to go down here. Suffice it to say, the hologram that is our experience is incredibly good at depicting and recording all the various energies bouncing around creating matter. So good, in fact, that we buy into it hook, line, and sinker, going so far as to call it our "life."
Consciousness then can be envisaged as a 3D grid system superimposed over all energy patterns, Wayne writes. Using mathematics, each plane of the grid system can then reduce the data to a 2D form. Our binary (go/no go) minds can then process the data and compare it to other historical data saved in our memory. Our reality is then formed by comparisons. The right hemisphere of the brain acts as the primary matrix or receptor for this holographic input. The left hemisphere then compares it to other data, reducing it to its 2D form.
In keeping with our species' commitment to exceptionalism, as far as we know humans are uniquely capable of achieving this level of consciousness. Simply, humans not only know, but we know that we know. This bestows upon us the ability to duplicate aspects of our own hologram, project them out, perceive that projection, run it through a comparison with our own memory of the hologram, measure the differences using 3D geometry, then run it through our binary system to yield verbal cognition of the self.
The click-out phase
Wayne then shows his cards as a true punisher, issuing, "Up to this point our discussion of the Gateway process has been relatively simple and easy to follow. Now the fun begins." Shots fired, Wayne. What he's preparing the commander reading this heady report for is the reveal—how we can use the Gateway to transcend the dimension of spacetime.
Time is a measurement of energy or force in motion; it is a measurement of change. This is really important. For energy to be classified as in motion, it must be confined within a vibratory pattern that can contain its motion, keeping it still. Energy not contained like this is boundary-less, and moves without limit or dimension, to infinity. This disqualifies boundary-less energy from the dimension of time because it has no rate of change. Energy in infinity, also called "the absolute state," is completely at rest because nothing is accelerating or decelerating it—again, no change. It therefore does not contribute to our hologram, our physical experience. We cannot perceive it.
Now back to frequencies. Wave oscillation occurs because a wave is bouncing between two rigid points of rest. It's like a game of electromagnetic hot potato (the potato being the wave and the participants' hands being the boundaries of the wave). Without these limits, there would be no oscillation. When a wave hits one of those points of rest, just for a very brief instant, it "clicks out" of spacetime and joins infinity. For this to occur, the speed of the oscillation has to drop below 10 the power of -33 centimeters per second. For a moment, the wave enters into a new world. The potato simply disappears into a dimension we cannot perceive.
Theoretically speaking, if the human consciousness wave pattern reaches a high enough frequency, the “click-outs” can reach continuity. Put another way, if the frequency of human consciousness can dip below 10 to the power of 33 centimeters per second but above a state of total rest, it can transcend spacetime. The Gateway experience and associated Hemi-Sync technique is designed for humans to achieve this state and establish a coherent pattern of perception in the newly realized dimensions.
Passport to the hologram
In theory, we can achieve the above at any time. The entire process though is helped along if we can separate the consciousness from our body. It’s like an existential running head start where the click-out of a consciousness already separated from its body starts much closer to, and has more time to dialogue with, other dimensions.
This is where things get a little slippery; hold on as best you can. The universe is in on the whole hologram thing, too, Wayne writes. This super hologram is called a "torus" because it takes the shape of a fuck-off massive self-contained spiral. Like this:
Give yourself a moment to let the above motion sink in...
This pattern of the universe conspicuously mirrors the patterns of electrons around the nucleus of an atom. Galaxies north of our own are moving away from us faster than the galaxies to the south; galaxies to the east and west of us are more distant. The energy that produced the matter that makes up the universe we presently enjoy, will turn back in on itself eventually. Its trajectory is ovoid, also known as the cosmic egg. As it curls back on itself it enters a black hole, goes through a densely packed energy nucleus then gets spat out the other side of a white hole and begins the process again. Springtime in the cosmos, baby!
And that is the context in which the Gateway Experience sits.
[Deep breaths.]
THE TECHNIQUE
The following is an outline of the key steps to reach focus levels necessary to defy the spacetime dimension. This is an involved and lengthy process best attempted in controlled settings. If you’re in a rush, you can apparently listen to enough Monroe Institute Gateway Tapes in 7 days to get there.
The Energy Conversion Box: The Gateway Process begins by teaching the subject to isolate any extraneous concerns using a visualization process called “the energy conversion box.”
Resonant Humming: The individual is introduced to resonant humming. Through the utterance of a protracted single tone, alongside a chorus on the tapes, the mind and body achieve a state of resonance.
The Gateway Affirmation: The participant is exposed to something close to a mantra called The Gateway Affirmation. They must repeat to themselves variations of, “I am merely a physical body and deeply desire to expand my consciousness.”
Hemi-Sync: The individual is finally exposed to the Hemi-Sync sound frequencies, and encouraged to develop a relationship with the feelings that emerge.
Additional Noise: Physical relaxation techniques are practiced while the Hemi-Sync frequencies are expanded to include “pink and white” noise. This puts the body in a state of virtual sleep, while calming the left hemisphere and raising the attentiveness of the right hemisphere.
The Energy Balloon: The individual is then encouraged to visualize the creation of an “energy balloon” beginning at the top of the head, extending down in all directions to the feet then back up again. There are a few reasons for this, the main one being that this balloon will provide protection against conscious entities possessing lower energy levels that he or she may encounter when in the out-of-body state.
Focus 12: The practitioner can consistently achieve sufficient expanded awareness to begin interacting with dimensions beyond their physical reality. To achieve this state requires conscious efforts and more “pink and white noise” from the sound stream.
Tools: Once Focus 12 is achieved, the subject can then employ a series of tools to obtain feedback from alternate dimensions.
Problem Solving: The individual identifies fundamental problems, fills their expanded awareness with them, and then projects them out into the universe. These can include personal difficulties, as well as technical or practical problems.
Patterning: Consciousness is used to achieve desired objectives in the physical, emotional, or intellectual sphere.
Color Breathing: A healing technique that revitalizes the body’s energy flows by imagining colors in a particularly vivid manner.
Energy Bar Tool: This technique involves imagining a small intensely pulsating dot of light that the participant charges up. He or she then uses the sparkling, vibrating cylinder of energy (formerly known as the dot) to channel forces from the universe to heal and revitalize the body.
Remote Viewing: A follow-on technique of the Energy Bar Tool where the dot is turned into a whirling vortex through which the individual sends their imagination in search of illuminating insights.
Living Body Map: A more organized use of the energy bar in which streams of different colors flow from the dot on to correspondingly-colored bodily systems.
Seven days of training have now occurred. Approximately 5 percent of participants get to this next level, according to the report.
Focus 15 - Travel Into the Past: Additional sound on the Hemi-Sync tapes includes more of the same, plus some subliminal suggestions to further expand the consciousness. The instructions are highly symbolic: time is a huge wheel, in which different spokes give access to the participant’s past.
Focus 21 - The Future: This is the last and most advanced state. Like Focus 15, this is a movement out of spacetime into the future.
Out-of-Body Movement: Only one tape of the many is devoted to out-of-body movement. This tape is devoted to facilitating an out-of-body state when the participant’s brain wave patterns and energy levels reach harmony with the surrounding electromagnetic environment. According to Bob Monroe, the participant has to be exposed to Beta signals of around 2877.3 cycles per second.
CONCLUSIONS
Wayne expresses concern about the fidelity of information brought back from out-of-body states using the Gateway technique. Practical applications are of particular concern because of the potential for “information distortion.”
The Monroe Institute also ran into a bunch of issues in which they had individuals travel from the West to the East Coast of the U.S. to read a series of numbers off of a computer screen. They never got them exactly right. Wayne chalks this up to the trouble of differentiating between physical entities and extra-time-space dimensions when in the out-of-body state.
Wayne swings back to support mode though, lending credence to the physics foundation of the report. He cites multiple belief systems that have established identical findings. These include the Tibetan Shoug, the Hindu heaven of Indra, the Hebrew mystical philosophy, and the Christian concept of the Trinity. Here he seems more interested in hammering home the theoretical underpinnings that make The Gateway Experience possible, rather than the practical possibilities promised by The Gateway Tapes.
Possibly with his CIA top brass audience in mind, Wayne then gives an A-type nod to The Gateway Experience for providing a faster, more efficient, less subservient, energy-saving route to expanded consciousness. This finishes with a series of recommendations to the CIA for how to exploit Gateway’s potential for national defense purposes.
The missing page
One curious feature of The Gateway Report is that it seems to be missing page 25. It’s a real cliffhanger too. The bottom of page 24 reads “And, the eternal thought or concept of self which results from this self-consciousness serves the,” The report picks back up on page 26 and 3 sections later as if Wayne hadn’t just revealed the very secret of existence.
The gap has not gone unnoticed. There's a Change.org petition requesting its release. Multiple Freedom of Information Act requests have demanded the same. In all cases, the CIA has said they never had the page to begin with. Here’s a 2019 response from Mark Lilly, the CIA’s Information and Privacy Coordinator, to one Bailey Stoner regarding these records:
One theory goes that that rascal Wayne M.-fricking-McDonnell left the page out on purpose. The theory contends that it was a litmus test—if anyone truly defies time-space dimensions, they’ll certainly be able to locate page 25.
[Cosmic shrug.]
Writing Credit Vice
​
CIA Declassified Report– The Gateway Experience
Here is a copy of the Missing Page 25
There will be a Gateway Help Post following within the next couple days. Thought you might be interested in a little history in the meantime. Cheers!

This has def been discussed, but I have yet to see it all in one place. I’ve compiled a list of all the times Drake either 1. Compliments Kendrick or 2. Disses himself from First Person Shooter through THE HEART PART 6. It’s crazy how obvious Drake’s envy over Kendrick’s artistry is fully on display. It’s giving jealous bully classmate tbh.

Every time Drake thought he was dissing Kendrick but really he was just relentlessly complimenting him:

Taylor Made Freestyle

• Tupac (AI)
  • Kendrick, we need ya, the West Coast savior
    • Engraving your name in some hip-hop history
    • If you deal with this viciously
    • You seem a little nervous about all the publicity
    • Fuck this Canadian lightskin, Dot
    • We need a no-debated West Coast victory, man
    • Call him a bitch for me (done)
• Snoop Dogg (AI)
  • Nephew, what the fuck you really 'bout to do?
    • We passed you the torch at the House of Blues
    • And now you gotta do some dirty work,
    • You know how to move, right? Right? (absolutely)
• Drake
  • You better have a motherfuckin’ quintuple entendre on that shit
    • Some shit I don’t even understand, like
    • That shit better be crazy (corny af; I cannot believe Aubrey meant this as a diss, bro is straight up telling Kendrick that he is more lyrically gifted)

Family Matters

• Always rappin’ like you ‘bout to get the slaves freed (so…with passion?)
• Kendrick just opened his mouth, someone go hand him a Grammy right now (Drake Grammy wins: 5, Kendrick Grammy wins: 17)
• They shook about what I’ma say, but textin’ your phone like “We already won” (they did)

THE HEART PART 6

• The Pulitzer Prize winner is definitely spiralin’ (Grammy diss pt 2)
• Instead you in that Venice studio, it’s a celebration (“We already won” pt. 2)

Every time Drake thought he was dissing Kendrick but really he was just relentlessly dissing himself:

First Person Shooter

• I search one name and end up seein’ twenty tings (sounds uncannily like “20 teens”)
• Will they ever give me flowers? Well, of course not (oof)
• They know The Boy, the one they gotta boycott (self-own)

Push Ups

• I’m out in Tokyo because I’m big in Japan (he will need to move to Japan after all of this is said and done)
• What’s a prince to a king? He a son, ni**a (proceeds to diss MJ in Family Matters)
• Drop and give me fifty, all you fuck ni**as teamin’ up (“Why are you all picking on me?”)
• What top five you smokin’ on, Kendrick? (cornyyyyyy)

Push Ups + Family Matters

• I was really, really tryna keep it PG (those are the only movies the girls he likes can see)

Taylor Made Freestyle

• Ni**as usually send they verses back to me and they be terrible, just like a two-year-old (“Yes I am such a prolific writer that other rappers send their verses to me and I can tell when they are good or bad I do not have ghostwriters of any kind at all no sir not me.”)

Family Matters

• You mentioned my seed, now deal with his dad (he did not publicly claim Adonis until eight months after his birth)
• You better have some paperwork or that shit fake tea (in retrospect of the MTG cover)
• I mean it’s true a ni**a slimed me for my AP (self-own)
• Say you hate the girls a fuck, but what you really mean? (girls =/= women; Kendrick had not mentioned the pedophilia allegations at this point yet)
• Ni**a said “Uh, uh,” almost started reachin’ for my waist (...bro; can be interpreted as reaching for a gun or his dick)
• Ozempic got a side effect of jealousy and doctor never told y’all ni**as (I cannot believe this came out of his mouth knowing he has an Ozempic prescription; this was before the MTG cover dropped)
• Which one of my so-called ni**as need a shell from the clip? (admitting to the OVO mole)
• Ross callin’ me the white boy and the shit kind of got a ring to it (self-own)
• A cease and desist is for hoes (this man literally pulled a C&D on French Montana and possibly/probably “Like That”)
• You called the Tupac estate and begged ‘em to sue me and get that shit down (because that C&D actually had footing)

THE HEART PART 6

• [Sample: Now let me see ya prove it] (self-own, especially in light of the MTG cover)
• The ones that you’re getting your stories from, they all clowns
  • [4 lines later] We plotted for a week, and then fed you the information (self-explanatory)
• I am a war general, seasoned in preparation
  • My jacket is covered in medals, honor, and decoration (this is a RAP battle, Aubrey)
• The Epstein angle was the shit I expected (Kendrick never mentioned Epstein)
• Aw, fuck me, I just made the whole connection (he didn’t)
• I don’t wanna diss you anymore, this really got me second-guessin’ (he misunderstood the entire verse he just rapped)
• If I was fucking young girls, I promise I’d have been arrested ("I was fucking young girls, I promise")
• Drake is not a name that you gon’ see on no sex offender list (...okay Aubrey -__-)
• You mentionin’ A minor, but ni**as gotta B sharp and tell the fans, “Who was it?”
  • You thought you left D flat, D major (cornyyy)
• Only fuckin’ with Whitneys, not Millie Bobby Browns (Kendrick never mentioned MBB)
• I give a fuck about your streamin’ data (he really does)
• I don’t wanna fight with a woman beater, it feeds your nature (calling himself a woman; “When I see you stand by Sexxy Red, I believe you see two bad bitches”)
• I’m not gonna lie, this shit was some good exercise, like [sucks in air]
  • It’s good to get out, get the pen workin’ (corny, also fitting that one of the only times we can be certain Aubrey wrote the entire track himself, it’s basically one big self-diss)

Edit: formatting
Edit 2: My very first Reddit Cares ❤️

I am looking for the following. Do not message me without posting here first. DM's/chat messages without a post here will be ignored.
I'm also looking for PS1 memory cards.

Console	Game	Desired Condition
NES	Amagon	game+manual or manual only
NES	Faria	game+manual or manual only
NES	Little Ninja Brothers	game+manual or manual only
FC	Battle City	CIB
FC	Choujin Sentai Jetman	CIB
FC	Crisis Force	game only
FC	Double Dragon II	CIB
FC	Layla	CIB
FC	Mitsume ga Tooru	game only
FC	Robocco Wars	game only
FC	Saiyuuki World	CIB
FC	Spartan X2	game only
FC	Time Zone	game only
SMS	Castle of Illusion	CIB
SMS	Phantasy Star	CIB
Genesis	Air Buster	CIB
Genesis	Jammit	box
SNES	An American Tail: Fievel Goes West	game+manual or manual only
SNES	Hyper V-Ball	game+manual or manual only
SNES	Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates	game+manual or manual only
SNES	Lufia II	game+manual or manual only
SNES	The Mask	game+manual or manual only
SNES	Nosferatu	game+manual or manual only
SNES	Rise of the Phoenix	game+manual or manual only
SNES	Shien's Revenge	game only
SNES	Ultimate Fighter	game+manual or manual only
SFC	Battle Racers	CIB
SFC	Cyborg 009	CIB
SFC	Edo no Kiba	CIB
SFC	Holy Umbrella	CIB
SFC	Laplace no Ma	CIB
SFC	Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together	CIB, revision 2 only (can tell by a number in the part number on the manual or on the ROM chip)
PS1	Alundra	CIB with map
PS1	Apocalypse	CIB
PS1	Armored Core	CIB
PS1	Castlevania: Symphony of the Night	CIB
PS1	Clock Tower	CIB
PS1	CTR: Crash Team Racing	CIB
PS1	Croc 2	CIB
PS1	Disruptor	CIB
PS1	Final Fantasy VII	CIB
PS1	Future Cop LAPD	CIB
PS1	G. Darius	CIB
PS1	Gekioh Shooting King	CIB
PS1	Ghost in the Shell	CIB
PS1	Incredible Crisis	CIB
PS1	Jet Moto	CIB
PS1	Jumping Flash	CIB
PS1	Medal of Honor	CIB
PS1	Mega Man 8	CIB
PS1	Mega Man X4	CIB
PS1	Omega Boost	CIB
PS1	Parappa the Rapper	CIB
PS1	Powerslave	CIB
PS1	Raiden Project	CIB
PS1	Raycrisis	CIB
PS1	Rayman	CIB
PS1	Resident Evil Director's Cut	CIB
PS1	Rising Zan	CIB
PS1	Silent Hill	CIB
PS1	Spyro 2	CIB
PS1	Star Ocean Second Story	CIB
PS1	Street Fighter Alpha 3	CIB
PS1	Strider 2	CIB
PS1	Tales of Destiny	CIB
PS1	Thunder Force V	CIB
PS1	Vanark	CIB
PS1	Wipeout XL	CIB
PS1	WWF Smackdown 2	CIB
N64	Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine	game+manual or manual only
N64	Rat Attack	game+manual or manual only
N64	S.C.A.R.S	game+manual or manual only
N64	Starcraft 64	game+manual or manual only
PS2	Amplitude	CIB
PS2	Castlevania: Curse of Darkness	CIB
PS2	Clock Tower 3	CIB
PS2	Darkwatch	CIB
PS2	Drakan: The Ancients' Gates	CIB
PS2	Frequency	CIB
PS2	Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex	CIB
PS2	Gitaroo Man	CIB
PS2	God Hand	CIB
PS2	God of War	CIB
PS2	Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus	CIB
PS2	Gungrave	CIB
PS2	Ico	CIB
PS2	Kinetica	CIB
PS2	Mark of Kri	CIB
PS2	Neo Contra	CIB
PS2	Neopets: The Darkest Faerie	CIB
PS2	Odin Sphere	CIB
PS2	Onimusha 2	CIB
PS2	OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast	CIB
PS2	Parappa the Rapper 2	CIB
PS2	Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy	CIB
PS2	Psyconauts	CIB
PS2	The Punisher	CIB
PS2	Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando	CIB
PS2	Red Star	CIB
PS2	Rez	CIB
PS2	Samurai Western	CIB
PS2	Skygunner	CIB
PS2	Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus	CIB
PS2	Twisted Metal Black	CIB
PS2	Under the Skin	CIB
PS2	Whiplash	CIB
GB	Aerostar	game+manual or manual only
GB	Bionic Commando	game+manual or manual only
GB	Kingdom Crusade	game+manual or manual only
GB	Kung Fu Master	game+manual or manual only
GB	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue	game+manual or manual only
JP GB	Cave Noire	CIB
JP GB	Ikari no Yousai 2	CIB
JP GB	Little Master	CIB
JP GB	Vattle Giuce	CIB
GBC	Motocross Maniacs 2	game+manual or manual only
PAL GBC	Merlin	game+manual or manual only
GBA	Blender Bros	game+manual or manual only
GBA	Gekido Advance: Kintaro's Revenge	game+manual or manual only
3DS	Zero Time Dilemma	CIB

I have released another 3 "one-shot" solo RPG scenarios. They are all free (no string attached)

• Silent Thunder : Set in a apocalyptic war zone. Secure a critical supply route. (Good for Twilight 2000)
• Urban Pursuit : A modern day framed fugitive on the run through a cityscape - trying to prove innocence
• Whispers of Honor : Feudal Japan/Samurai. Deliver a critical message

They all come with example encounters, key locations, key characters, secrets/clues, optional 12 scene arc, and dialog openers for use with Mythic (or other) Yes/No Oracles
Enjoy!!
Link to solo modules: https://solojournaling.com/free-one-shot-rpgs/
The Whispers of Honor module was created because of a request on Facebook. if you have a specific idea you have always wanted to try, send me a request - and I will see what I can do
Requests: https://solojournaling.com/requests/

So this is a long one. Like, I'm going back over it and damn. This is longer than I thought it would be. Throwaway account, I've only made one other post to this relating to what's going on. Instead of updating the other post, I figured I'd make a separate one about the whole shit show I experienced, and the shit circus I uncovered and avoided. I'll try to keep this in as chronological an order as I can.
As the title says, my abusive/narc mom and pos/delusional/golden child brother started trying to reach out to me a few months ago wanting to make amends and build bridges with me again. There were a few people that commented on my previous post in another subreddit that may be a little disappointed in me for how I handled this, and a few that might enjoy that I handled it the way I did. Someone commented to not let them use my good nature. My nature is dependent on who I'm dealing with, and when it comes to that side of my family, I'm more stick than carrot. So their attempts did not go ignored, and did not go unpunished.
Growing up, I was always closer with my Dad than my mom. My brother was the epitome of "pampered mamma's boy". He started having seizures as a child and was diagnosed with epilepsy, which I thought was why my mom babied the absolute fuck out of him long into adulthood. He would go a year or 2 without any seizures, and then there would be a few months where he'd be having them every other day. At Anytime he got in trouble at home or school, my mom would find a way to blame me, for not making sure he knew whatever he was doing would get him in trouble, or she would blame my dad for not being "involved enough in their baby's life." My dad was in the Navy and I remember any time he'd deploy, I'd dread every day until he came back. My brother would taunt me that he knew whatever he did, I'd be the one to get in trouble for it. My dad would always make things up for me when he got back from his deployments though. We'd often have weekend trips just the 2 of us. And then around my 12th birthday, my mom insisted on sitting us all down and explain to that she and my dad were getting a divorce. We got the whole talk about how they still love us and they just can't be together anymore, etc. my dad told us both that he still loved us and he would be there for us whenever we needed him. He explained that he would be moving out, but he would be by to pick us up to spend the weekends with us. I was nervous and honestly scared of what it would be like without him. But I was looking forward to the weekend when I got to see him again. That never happened though, and that was the last time I ever got to see him.
Right before his weekend with us, my mom explained to us that my dad didn't want anything to do with us anymore. There was some news story about a father that killed his kids when he had custody of them and she used that to terrify my brother and convince him that our dad wanted to kill us to start his life over. We left damn near everything behind and moved in with my mom's brother in Florida (from Virginia) a couple days before my dad was supposed to come get us. After that, she went to great lengths to make sure we had no contact from him.
Years went on, my mom seemed more indifferent towards me than ever. She never seemed interested in anything I did unless my brother also seemed interested in it. She didn't show any interest in my wanting to learn guitar until my brother also showed interest in it. Then we got one guitar that we had to share, I'd take lessons on the condition that I taught my brother whatever I learned in them. My brother eventually wound up breaking the guitar and I was blamed for not storing it in the case it came with. I had to share my N64 with him whenever he wanted to play it. I was playing perfect dark one day and having a hard time killing the skedar leader at the end of the game. My brother burst into the room saying he wanted to play his MegaMan game, to which I just replied "give me a minute, this boss fight is hard, once I'm done you can have your turn" He didn't like that. He left the room and came back with a hammer and smashed the console while I was still playing. My fault for not letting him play it. The only thing I had that he could not use was a pair of roller blades my aunt got me for my 14th birthday. I specifically asked for roller blades to get around instead of a bike because my brother and I had different shoe sizes, so he couldn't wear them Because of constant shit like that, I never really put much value in having things growing up. I didnt want to buy something or get something as a gift just to have it fucked up in a few weeks or months. At some point, my "little" brother became the larger one, so my clothes all became "hand-me-ups" as he outgrew everything. So, because I didn't really have any distractions at home, I turned into a high achieving student, rarely got in trouble. made the honor roll all throughout school. But that wasn't something to celebrate as it was expected of me. I had long since decided that I was moving out as soon as I could once I turn 18. I got a job working at a Walgreens as soon as I could and started saving up for a car. My mom however took issue with this and would never agree to take me looking for one and absolutely refused to ever have it put on her insurance. This is where my Aunt comes in. She and her son are the only 2 on my mom's side that aren't some sort of degenerate. She had her son young, but put herself through college while raising him alone and eventually got her MBA and a cushy upper corporate job. She told me to tell my mom I had to go in to work on one of my days off, that she would pick me up and she would take me car shopping. So that's what we did. I couldn't quite afford a cash car, but she helped me with the financing. I put down what I had as the down payment, the arrangement she made with me was that 1- as long as I was in school, she would cover the insurance and payments for me, however, if I got into an accident, I was responsible for paying the deductable. And 2- as long as i was living with my mom, the car remained in her (Aunt's) name. And if anything happened to it, to let her know so she could get the appropriate authorities involved. My mom was PISSED when she found out I now had a car. Her reasoning (that she said in front of my aunt) was that she didn't think it was fair for one of us-either me or my brother- to have something the other couldn't use. Due to him being 13 and having epilepsy, he couldn't drive, so why should i have a car if my brother doesn't? That turned into a long shouting match between my mom and Aunt that basically ended with my aunt explaining that since it was her car, and all paperwork on her name, I was just on the insurance for it so I could drive it. But if anything at all happened to it while I was living at my Mom's, that the police and insurance companies would get involved. My mom still kept track of all the miles on the car to "make sure I was only going to work and school and wherever she told me I could go". Most of the time, when I hung out with friends, I wasn't the one driving. From that that point though, my mindset was very much "keep my head down and nose clean until I can leave." I graduated a month before my 18th birthday. After graduation, my mom and i got into an argument about me contributing to her bills. I eventually dropped the ball that I planned on getting back in touch with my Dad and leaving. She started laughing. Something about that laugh made me really uncomfortable. She then said "well, you can certainly meet up with him whenever you want! I'll supply the gun if you buy the bullet!" And told me my dad had died when I was 15. That. Fucking. Broke. Me. Later that night, i called my best friend and vented everything to him. He was in the DEP program for the Navy and would be shipping out in a few months, he told me to come by first thing in the morning and talk with him and his parents about the whole situation. I basically packed up all of my clothes and left the day after my 18th birthday. I just left my house key and a note that said "I'm not your problem anymore." I couch surfed for a little while until after my best friend left for boot camp, then I was able to move in and live with his parents (chosen parents basically). My only real rules were keep the house and my space clean and make sure I had a job and/or going to school. I spent a few months mourning my dad and kind of in a haze. Since he was in the Navy though, that meant I was reliable for financial aid for school. My second dad helped me get everything put together to start receiving that so I could start college.
Well, after a couple years of this, my brother, who had spent his time at school more as "forced socializing" instead of learning, was expelled from public schools for allegedly setting off a fire extinguisher in a classroom. He had to enroll at an alternative school called "the drop back-in academy" that was specifically for dropouts or anyone that got the boot from the public school system. My mom reached out to me and asked me if I would drive him to this school in the mornings, she'd pick him up in the afternoons, and she'd pay me $20 a week.I agreed to it thinking this was out of character for her, but she surprisingly held up to that agreement. I drove him for a couple years until I was ready to start my bachelor program. My second parents were getting ready to move back to their hometown and I was going to start school on the other side of the city. So, I was moving to that side of town and couldn't really drive out of my way to pick up and drop off my brother anymore. He continued his enrollment at this place for another 3 years (5 years total) and it turned out, he was never attending. I would drop his ass off there every day and he'd just walk home immediately after I pulled out of the parking lot. He'd just tell my mom that he finished his work early and decided to walk home instead of wait around for her. One afternoon, I'm coming home early from work and my brother is just sitting on the steps to my studio apartment. He tells me that he and our mom got into a really big argument and he needs a place to stay. I (reluctantly) let him in. I'm stuck thinking he must be really desperate if he's coming to me for help. But I start thinking at this point, he's 24, jobless, and probably needs to learn some self discipline and responsibility, and our mom just never did that for him. So I try to help. I ask him what their fight was about and he tells me that he started dating this girl at his alternative school. She was 21 and got the boot from the school system for being too old to attend (we actually have several relatives that were kicked out of the school system for the same reason) and that he accidentally got her pregnant and our mom did not take kindly to that. I called my landlord and explained the situation to him. He was okay with it, so I let him crash on my couch for a little bit (until the end of my lease, then I'd be moving) and just told him to clean up after himself, take care of himself, etc until we could all work this out. He crashed there for a few months and did Jack shit. He would complain that I didn't have a computer for him to use (I only had a laptop I bought for school) and I didn't have any video game consoles for him to entertain himself with. So he was stuck there bored all day. I got tired of the complaining and lack of effort and told him he had to go back to our mom's if he wasn't going to be an adult. We started shouting at each other until he dropped this little bombshell. He yelled "I can't go back to Mom's!" And when I asked why, he just blurted out "because it's to close to that elementary school!" That stopped the whole thing. "And why is that a big deal now?" I asked him. I already knew why that would be the problem, but 1% of me was holding onto the hope that he was got jumped by a gang of 5th graders and the trauma was too much for him to bear. I told him he could either tell me what's going on, or I could make a phone call and get every last detail I needed. He confessed that he had been leaving that school and going over to his "girlfriend's" house and waiting for her to get home. And that one day, her mom ended up catching them in the act. I explained to him that he was leaving out important details if that was the reason he couldn't be near a school.
He told me she was 14, not 21. I. Lost. My. Shit. Everything after that is kinda fuzzy, but he was arrested, mom posted bail, and since she lived right around the corner from an elementary school, he couldn't stay there. So they told his parole officer that he'd be staying at my address until his court date.. his PO had swung by a couple times, but I was always either at work or school or out somewhere. At this point, I told him the lease was up in 6 weeks, I couldn't stand to be around him. I packed my stuff early, moved out into a storage unit, and I stayed at an extended stay hotel until it was time for me to move. Called my landlord and told him what was going on, and if my brother was still there the last week of the lease, nail him for trespassing. My landlord was a good guy. I never had any problems with him. I paid up the last 6 weeks and threw him since extra cash for his troubles as I knew I wouldn't be getting my deposit back. That was the last time I saw my brother. After I moved out of state, I cut all contact with everyone in that family except my Aunt who was the only one that ever helped me out or even had my back. But even then, it was just through email. We'd mainly email birthday and holiday wishes to each other. Updates from my side on how life and career are going.
I never had a myspace or a Facebook growing up. I either never had a computer to check it on, or I was just so accustomed to not having any online distractions that I just never got around to making one. I did finally make a Facebook and I did get in touch with my dad's side of the family and reconnected with them. I hadn't seem most of them since I was 4 or 5. Some of them had been in contact with my brother (he fucking knew our dad died) and was spinning some sort of web about how he graduated high school early, had gone to college for pre-med and then got some sort of full ride scholarship to some prestigious medical school in Florida. He told them I wasn't on social media because I had been arrested for selling drugs and that he was taking me in after I got released. He was also using my senior portrait as a profile pic. They were surprised when they saw me and how I "looked just like my brother!" I had set the record straight. They looked dumbfounded when I told them that he couldn't get himself out of the 9th grade in 10 years, and now would likely never complete his high school journey due to the fact he can't be within 100 yards of a school.
So, fast forward to last week. I checked my email for the first time since late January (for my aunt's birthday) and noticed a few from her saying my mom wanted to reach out, then several emails from a new address. It was my mom's first initial and last name. Subject lines usually read "please respond" and "let me know you're okay" and stuff like that. I'd copy some of them over, but holy shit this is already a novella. Basically she got my email address from sneaking my aunt's phone (aunt did not sell me out). She's trying to apologize for how she treated me growing up and trying to excuse it by saying I reminded her of my dad and then she was going through menopause and just any excuse to dishes full accountability it seems. She acknowledges that it was wrong to hold me accountable for my brother's fuck-ups but dismisses that by saying he didn't know any better and she needed me to be a good role model for him. Things have been hard for her since I left, since she "had" to take my brother back in (I would've left him on the street or in jail), she had to sell her house (she was only 10 years into her mortgage) and buy another smaller one further from a school for him. He never did get a hs diploma or GED because how can he? And she's been going through breast cancer treatment for the last several months and just doesn't have the energy to take care of her 33yo baby anymore. She asked me if I lived close enough to them to take him in for a little bit while she focuses on her health. I left Florida 8 years ago and haven't even lived in the same time zone in 6 years. She can only check her email at work since she no longer has Internet at home. She had to cancel her home Internet service because of him. So, I decided to just put my brother's name into a search bar and the first thing that pops up is a FDLE sex offender's page. And holy shit has he gone downhill. He had a second arrest when he was 27 for the same thing, and then was caught in communications with another girl (like Chris Hansen sting) and was released from prison at the beginning of the year. And the mugshot.... You know the pale lady from the scary stories to tell in the dark movie? Think that, but with a patchy beard. Beady eyes, bad skin and all. According to the sheriff's office inmate search, he's been arrested 5 times in the last 10 years. Twice for lewd and lascivious battery of a minor (aged 12-15), once for solicitation of a minor, and twice for probation violations.
The TL/DR: abusive mom took all her frustrations out on me, blamed me for everything my brother did, hid my father's death from me until I was almost 18, and reaches out after 8 years of no contact and wants me to take care of her pedophile son while she's in poor health.
I'm attaching my response to her below.
Hi. I'm alive. I'm well. I'm also not okay with you contacting me, especially under the circumstances that you violated the privacy of your own sister to get my contact information. I have read your apologies and excuses and I do not accept either. You say I reminded you of Dad? He spent more time with me and showed more interest in my well-being than you ever did, and that's including the 6 years he was absent from my life by your own selfish design. Menopause? I find that hard to believe as this went on for the better part of half a decade and not once in that time did your attitude towards brother change. You always treated him with the same coddling infantile obsession and patience that one would show a toddler. It was and is clear that you have a preferred child as that adult-sized pile of shit is still living comfortably with dear old mama. I'm guessing no one else is willing to take him in? Are Uncle and Cousins afraid of him doing something to their daughters or grandchildren? I do believe you when you say you want to rebuild the bridge that you nuked from orbit years ago, but I can't believe it's not for your own selfish desires. And I can't find any reason or way my quality of life could be improved with your presence. The reality is, my life has been far better without you than it could be with you. I've never said this to anyone, but if there is a sense of karma and balance in the universe, your current situation is proof of that. The next time I see your name on my computer screen, had better be for your obituary. But since you and the monster you raised both decided to keep Dad's death a secret from me, and remove any choice I had to mourn or pay my respects, I'll return that kindness to you.
Please die away from me.

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‎ ‎‎‎[📖First ⏮️Previous Next⏭️]
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One had recently become a 2nd realm martial artist, while the other was renowned solely for her exquisite beauty that turned heads wherever she went.
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Ji Wuye's eyes narrowed as he scrutinized Song Jia, who appeared outwardly calm despite the fury that had been etched across her delicate features moments earlier.
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With a curl of his lip, he muttered inwardly, 'Come to think of it, what realm is she even in now? First? No... perhaps second...'
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As Ji Wuye pondered, his Senior Sister raised a hand, ebony silken robes whispering around her wrists. "Begin!" she commanded, her voice cracking like a whip in the silent sect ground.
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At her signal, Qin Bai burst into motion, his body wreathed in a shimmering azure aura of Qi. He closed the distance in the blink of an eye, crossing the three zhang between them in less than five breaths.
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Qin Bai leapt, raising his wooden sword arm in a blur until the wooden blade was parallel to his body. A vicious grin split his features as he took in Song Jia's seeming lack of reaction.
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"Hahaha, take this, you bitch!" he jeered, assuming her stillness meant she was frozen in fear or shock.
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As the one who has basically stayed longer in the sect, even though Qin Bai rarely practiced, with the ease born from years of being in the sect, he still managed to draw the wooden sword down in a straight, powerful line.
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In addition, confidence blazed bright within him now that he had finally overcome the barriers of the 1st realm. And from what he had gathered, this Song Jia was all beauty with no bite, just another fresh-faced newcomer with no real strength to speak of.
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The wooden blade sang through the air, trailing streamers of azure Qi that stirred Qin Bai's hair into a wild dance as it arrowed down towards her unprotected head.
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To his delight, she made no move to channel her own Qi in defense against his attack. His smile stretched wider, vicious satisfaction blazing in his eyes at being proven right.
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The Kunlun Sword Style he practiced was famed for its elegance and swiftness. The opening stage of Meridian March focused on stimulating the flow of Qi through the body's meridians and was practiced by those below the 4th realm who had not yet formed their Three Main Dantians.
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Meridian March, First Move - SINGLE WHIP! 

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A straightforward vertical slash tracing the path of the Taiying Lung Meridian along one side to promote Qi flow from the hand into the lungs.
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Though not a tremendously powerful technique, it packed more than enough force to easily floor an untrained civilian when fueled by a 2nd realm martial artist. Yet Qin Bai missed one crucial aspect in his arrogance...
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His wooden blade met an impenetrable horizontal guard as Song Jia effortlessly parried his strike!
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With a resounding clank that reverberated through the courtyard, she turned the wooden sword to absorb and disperse the weight of his weapon and the intense momentum of his descending body.
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Qin Bai's victorious sneer froze, transmuting into sheer panic mid-air as he absorbed the impossible scene before him.
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Not only had this slender beauty remained utterly unharmed and unmoved from her position, but she had negated and deflected the full force of his offense with apparently no effort at all!
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Her calm expression didn't even flicker as the impact shuddered through her slim form in a manner that should have been impossible.
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For a lower realm martial artist to withstand an attack from someone of a higher realm was nearly unheard of.
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The only explanations were if she had undergone intense physical conditioning to augment her body's fortitude, but surely not at her delicate size.
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'Or perhaps she had superior skill and experience in the same martial style as me... or even employed a different art entirely designed to counter the Kunlun sword techniques.
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'But no... that couldn't be... could it?' Those were the inward thoughts ranging in Qin Bai's mind.
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In that case, Song Jia could easily exploit any openings or weaknesses left by Qin Bai's overconfident assault and capitalize on her evident advantage.
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And finally, the most logical yet unthinkable conclusion - her realm was higher than him...
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"You..." Qin Bai snarled, poised to rotate his waist and deliver a retaliatory kick. But before he could, a look of acute satisfaction gleamed in Song Jia's eyes as her wooden sword continued halting the progress of his own blade.
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The shock and disbelief writ large across his features made enduring his crude insults absolutely worth it.
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"Stupid," Song Jia retorted, a mocking smile curving her lips as she reveled in his humiliation. For a brief moment she allowed the tension to ease from her slender shoulders, savoring the sight.
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Then, with a subtle adjustment of her wrists, her wooden sword shifted trajectory. The pressure abruptly released from Qin Bai's suspended weapon, sending him stumbling forward towards her in his precarious, airborne position.
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THUD!
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In the next instant, a stunned gasp of surprise escaped Qin Bai's lips as Song Jia's wooden blade struck the unprotected right side of his abdomen with pinpoint accuracy.
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"Gah!" His body flung violently to the side, legs buckling as he crumpled into an undignified heap on the ground. The surrounding disciples squinted against the billowing clouds of dust kicked up by his impact, watching in hushed disbelief as his form convulsed.
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"That's it? He didn't even realize his mistake..."
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"I thought Qin Bai was supposed to be strong...how pathetic am I in comparison..."
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"What a disappointment, it ended in just one move..."
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The whispers and mutterings among the observing disciples filled Qin Bai's stunned mind as he coughed and struggled to push himself up on trembling arms.
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He looked towards Song Jia, who smirked and mockingly stuck out her tongue at his prone form.
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Fear, rather than rage, consumed him in that moment.
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"She's already...in the 3rd realm..." he rasped, grasping at the only explanation that could account for his utter defeat. His obsessive pursuit of climbing through the realms at the expense of true martial skill had clearly blinded him.
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Qin Bai swallowed hard, casting venomous glances around at the other disciples gathered who were all weaker than him in terms of realm alone. The bitter shame and impotent fury churned in his gut as their mocking disdain washed over him.
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Meanwhile, Lian Ruogang, the senior sister who had overseen the duel, observed the scene unfolding with a discerning eye.
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Though her expression remained outwardly inscrutable, inwardly she felt a sense of satisfaction at Song Jia's elegant display of martial prowess against such an arrogant, overconfident opponent.
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As Qin Bai continued struggling fruitlessly to rise from the ground after the devastating blow, Lian Ruogang directed her piercing gaze towards his prone, pathetic figure.
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Instead of focusing on his opponent, he seemed lost and absent-minded, eyes roving wildly around as if uncomprehending of his surroundings. It was clear he either lacked the intention or ability to stand and face her.
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With a tone that demanded respect and carried a sense of finality, Lian Ruogang addressed the defeated youth, each word dripping with censure:
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"Qin Bai, it is evident that your so-called prowess has finally found its match on this day. Will you yield now, preserving what little honor you might have left? Or will you continue to invite further embarrassment and humiliation upon yourself with this disgraceful display?"
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...
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[>>[QUICK ADAPTATION(F)]<<] The proficiency of your passive skill has been increased by 0.01%! 

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[>>[QUICK ADAPTATION(F)]<<] The proficiency of your passive skill has been increased by 0.01%! 

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[>>[QUICK ADAPTATION(F)]<<] The proficiency of your passive skill has been increased by 0.01%! 

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[>>[QUICK ADAPTATION(F)]<<] The proficiency of your passive skill has been increased by 0.01%! 

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Meanwhile, amidst the crowd of onlookers, Ji Wuye's glowing crimson eyes gradually faded.
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His gaze fell upon Song Jia, whose hands now trembled with the force of her exertions as jubilant female disciples swarmed her, hugging and playfully pressing her flushed cheeks in congratulation.
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'It's not the 3rd realm, but her stance...' he pondered inwardly, brow furrowing slightly.
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Having witnessed arrogance and underestimation of an opponent's skills countless times before in those like Qin Bai, Ji Wuye understood that most of the other disciples present were not as oblivious to the truth as the defeated youth.
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Thanks to his passive skill Quick Adaptation constantly analyzing and adapting to situations, Ji Wuye was able to not only identify critical flaws in Qin Bai's movements, but also recognize the subtle preparations and feints behind Song Jia's deceptively simple actions.
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'Firstly, Qin Bai made the mistake of levitating his body off the ground by jumping, sacrificing a solid footing,' Ji Wuye mused to himself.
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The initial Single Whip strike of the Kunlun Sword Style's opening Meridian March sequence relied heavily on proper stancing and grounded footwork to unleash its full potential.
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Yet the overconfident youth had forgone those fundamentals.
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'On the other hand, Song Jia clearly had her stance and rooting mastered.'
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In her brilliant counter-attack, she seemed to have utilized the follow-up Double Slash movement to simultaneously target both flanking sides of Qin Bai's exposed torso - his key vulnerable area left unguarded by his unbalanced posture.
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'Furthermore, Qin Bai has only recently broken through to the 2nd realm after wasting years on frivolous pursuits fixated solely on realm advancement, neglecting the true essence of martial arts...'
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Ji Wuye nodded in satisfaction, confirming the current timeline seemed to still align with the previous one despite the subtle alterations he had introduced.
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Qin Bai's lack of true skill and one-dimensional focus were glaringly evident.
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But there was more to Song Jia's effortless victory. As Ji Wuye's crimson eyes studied her movements, he realized she had not merely relied on superior stancing.
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Even as she appeared to make no attempt at channeling her Qi, deftly concealing it, Song Jia had been circulating and consolidating her Qi beneath her feet the entire time.
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The implications gave Ji Wuye pause.
‎
For Song Jia to already be capable of such fine Qi control, there were only two possibilities - either she had secretly become 5th realm martial artist...or she possessed a hidden, powerful martial art imparted by her Master.
‎
'Hmm…the 5th realm… then, why would she have bothered concealing such an achievement all this time?' Ji Wuye dismissed the former option as unlikely, leaving only the latter conclusion.
‎
'Which means...her Master's sword art is the key,' he murmured, thoughts trailing off as he pieced together the full significance.
‎
'So basically, all this time she used her Master sword art, heh,' This was a new revelation; in the previous timeline, Ji Wuye neither possessed the Quick Adaptation skill nor had knowledge about Song Jia's secret art.
‎
Just as he was about to take his leave and ponder this further, a sudden prickle of unease ran down Ji Wuye's spine.
‎
Almost unconsciously, his crimson eyes scanned the surrounding area, coming to rest squarely on the burning, venomous glare aimed directly at him from none other than the humiliated Qin Bai himself.
‎
'Ah... I almost forgot about this one,' Ji Wuye exhaled softly, lips quirking in a curled-up smile as their gazes met and locked.
‎ ‎
‎‎‎[📖First ⏮️Previous Next⏭️]

N.B.: I'm mainly looking for the games listed in the title and at the bottom of the thread. Feel free to post other offers, but if I haven't responded to your comment(s) by my next posting, I likely wasn't able to find a trade that interested me.
​
For sale (for Steam Gift Cards or gifted Steam Wallet balance):
​

• Dark Souls™: Prepare To Die™ Edition (removed from Steam Store; $350 $400 or best offer)
• Fall Guys (removed from Steam Store)
• Fall Guys - Dragon Hugger Pack (removed from Steam Store)
• Fall Guys - Icy Adventure Pack (removed from Steam Store)
• Marvel's Avengers - The Definitive Edition (removed from Steam Store)
• Spec Ops: The Line (removed from Steam Store)

​

• Humble Hunie Sakura Bundle (can also trade for a full "charity" bundle (Australia Fire Relief Bundle or similar))
• Humble Sekai Project Bundle (can also trade for a full "charity" bundle (Stand with Ukraine Bundle or similar))

​
For trade:
*signifies that a game is tentatively up for trade, assuming I buy the bundle
​

• Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition
• Soulstice
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin – Ultimate Edition

​

• A Little to the Left
• Black Book

​

• Superliminal
• The Talos Principle Gold Edition
• The Witness

​

• Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed
• Life is Strange: True Colors
• Scorn
• There Is No Light: Enhanced Edition

​

• Hellpoint
• Remnant: From the Ashes
• Tails of Iron

​

• Hell Pie
• OTXO
• The Red Lantern
• Twin Mirror

​

• Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace
• Blood Rage: Digital Edition
• Gloomhaven - Solo Scenarios: Mercenary Challenges
• Small World
• Small World - A Spider's Web
• Small World - Be not Afraid...
• Small World - Cursed!
• Small World - Grand Dames
• Small World - Royal Bonus
• Splendor
• Splendor - The Cities
• Splendor - The Strongholds
• Splendor - The Trading Posts
• Terraforming Mars

​

• A Short Hike(?)
• A Story Beside(?)
• Aces & Adventures(?)
• Arcade Spirits(?)
• Battlestar Galactica Deadlock(?)
• Beyond Blue(?)
• Cat Quest(?)
• Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!(?)
• EARTHLOCK(?)
• Harmony's Odyssey(?)
• Homeworld Remastered Collection(?)
• Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure(?)
• Minecraft: Java Edition - MCC Island Jingle Jam Rewards Pack(?)
• Monster Prom(?)
• Sifu Deluxe Cosmetic Pack(?)
• Spirit of the Island(?)
• SUPERHOT(?)
• Tinytopia(?)
• Toodee and Topdee(?)
• Train Valley 2(?)
• Turbo Golf Racing(?)
• Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story(?)
• Xenonauts(?)

​

• Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs

​

• Dark Deity
• Edge Of Eternity
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising

​

• CRYPTARK
• Dead Estate
• Paint the Town Red

​

• Lost Castle
• My Time At Portia

​

• Toodee and Topdee

​

• WWE 2K23

​

• Chivalry 2
• Disco Elysium - The Final Cut
• The Forgotten City
• GRIME
• Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition

​

• Back 4 Blood
• Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
• Batman: Arkham City - Game of the Year Edition
• Batman: Arkham Knight Premium Edition
• Batman™: Arkham Origins
• Injustice 2 Legendary Edition
• Mad Max
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition
• Middle-earth: Shadow of War Definitive Edition
• Mortal Kombat 11
• Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate Add-On Bundle
• Mortal Kombat XL

​

• Alan Wake Collector's Edition
• Bendy and the Dark Revival
• Pathologic 2

​

• CODE VEIN
• .hack//G.U. Last Recode
• Katamari Damacy REROLL
• TEKKEN 7

​

• A Juggler's Tale
• Spirit of the Island

​

• Boomerang Fu
• PlateUp!
• ROUNDS
• Stick Fight: The Game
• Ultimate Chicken Horse

​

• Fae Tactics
• Flynn: Son of Crimson
• Ikenfell
• Ring of Pain
• Void Bastards

​

• After the Fall® - Deluxe Edition
• Zero Caliber VR

​

• Patch Quest

​

• Five Dates
• Late Shift

​

• Demon Turf
• Pumpkin Jack

​

• Trover Saves the Universe

​

• Coromon
• The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos
• Jack Move

​

• Road 96
• SuchArt: Genius Artist Simulator

​

• A Short Hike

​

• Cloudpunk
• Ghostrunner
• Severed Steel

​

• Eternal Threads
• Turbo Golf Racing

​

• Lethal League Blaze
• OlliOlli World
• WWE 2K BATTLEGROUNDS

​

• Dragon Fist: VR Kung Fu
• The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners

​

• Celeste

​

• Blasphemous
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
• Hollow Knight

​

• Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery

​

• Bionic Commando: Rearmed
• Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
• Lost Planet 3 - Complete
• Mega Man Legacy Collection
• STRIDER™ / ストライダー飛竜®

​

• Aground
• Calico
• Evan's Remains
• StarCrossed
• Teacup

​

• Into the Radius VR

​

• Aliens: Fireteam Elite
• Founders' Fortune
• Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp

​

• Nomad Survival
• Scarlet Tower

​

• The Citadel
• Viscerafest
• WRATH: Aeon of Ruin

​

• The Blackout Club

​

• BIOMUTANT
• Edge Of Eternity
• Golden Light

​

• Call of the Sea
• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

​

• 112 Operator
• 911 Operator
• The Amazing American Circus
• Armello
• Backbone
• Calico
• Euro Truck Simulator 2
• Farming Simulator 17
• Ghostrunner
• Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
• Lust from Beyond: M Edition
• Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine
• Orbital Racer
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition
• PAYDAY 2
• Pilgrims
• Soulblight
• Space Crew: Legendary Edition
• Starfinder Core Rulebook (Paizo key) and Starfinder Adventure: Junker's Delight (Paizo key)
• Strange Brigade
• Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
• System Shock 2
• System Shock: Enhanced Edition
• Ticket to Ride
• XCOM® 2
• X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack

​

• Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game
• Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel
• Othercide
• Shady Part of Me

​

• The Last Campfire

​

• Sakura Swim Club

​

• Summer in Mara
• Townscaper

​

• The Long Dark: Survival Edition

​

• Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands

​

• Conan Chop Chop
• Grow: Song of the Evertree

​

• Styx: Shards of Darkness

​

• Hard West
• John Wick Hex
• Phantom Doctrine
• Red Solstice 2: Survivors

​

• Arizona Sunshine

​

• Backbone
• Blade Assault
• First Class Trouble
• Super Magbot

​

• Golf Gang
• Maid of Sker

​

• Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Heart of the Forest

​

• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl

​

• Crown Trick

​

• Guts and Glory
• Hello Neighbor

​

• Day of the Tentacle Remastered
• Grim Fandango Remastered
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• STAR WARS®: Knights of the Old Republic™ II

​

• Duke Nukem Forever
• PGA TOUR 2K21
• WWE 2K Battlegrounds

​

• In Sound Mind

​

• Little Big Workshop
• Not Tonight

​

• Brigador Deluxe Edition
• Verdun

​

• Resident Evil 0
• Resident Evil 6
• Resident Evil

​

• EVERSPACE™

​

• Cultist Simulator
• GWENT: The Witcher Card Game - Ultimate Starter Pack (GOG key)

​

• The LEGO® NINJAGO® Movie Video Game

​

• Legend of Keepers: Career of a Dungeon Manager
• Legion TD 2 - Multiplayer Tower Defense

​

• STAR WARS™: Squadrons (Origin key)(?)

​

• Bionic Commando
• Street Fighter V

​

• As Far As The Eye
• Impulsion

​

• Orcs Must Die! 2 - Complete Pack

​

• Bartlow's Dread Machine

​

• Blaston

​

• White Day: A Labyrinth Named School

​

• The Walking Dead

​

• Total Tank Simulator

​

• Archangel: Hellfire - Fully Loaded

​

• XCOM® 2

​

• Black The Fall
• Goetia

​

• Among the Sleep - Enhanced Edition

​

• Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
• This War of Mine

​

• Tom Clancy's The Division™ (Uplay key)
• Tom Clancy's The Division™ - Survival (Uplay key)

​

• Highway Blossoms
• HunieCam Studio
• KARAKARA
• Sunrider Academy
• Sunrider: Liberation Day - Captain's Edition

​

• A Kiss For the Petals - Remembering How We Met

​

• Hacknet
• Satellite Reign

​

• The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut

​

• The Elder Scrolls: Legends: 2 Card Packs (Skyrim) 1 Event Ticket 100 Gold 100 Souls
• ESO Vanity Pet: Bristlegut Piglet and 15 Days of ESO Plus

​

• Ame no Marginal -Rain Marginal-
• KARAKARA
• Memory's Dogma CODE:01
• Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project
• Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project - Season Pass

​

• A Kiss For the Petals - Remembering How We Met
• Sakura Angels
• Beach Bounce
• Beach Bounce - Soundtrack
• Blue Rose

​

• Lionessy Story
• My Personal Angel
• Natural - Beyond Nature -
• Postmen Of Horizon (removed from Steam Store)

​

• The Reject Demon: Toko Chapter 0 — Prelude

​

• Koi-Koi Japan [Hanafuda playing cards]
• Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle
• Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle : School Girls Edition
• Poker Pretty Girls Battle: Texas Hold'em
• Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire

​

• Guns of Icarus Alliance
• Guns of Icarus Online
• Impossible Creatures Steam Edition
• Lethal League
• Tempest: Pirate Action RPG
• Tempest - Treasure Lands
• Tempest - Original Soundtrack
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf
• Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide

​

• Tenta Shooter
• Gun Gun Pixies
• DUSK
• For The King
• Book of Demons
• PlateUp!
• Kingdom Two Crowns
• White Day: A Labyrinth Named School
• Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War
• Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
• Steel Rats™
• Hue
• Sifu Deluxe Edition Upgrade Bundle (Epic key)
• Gal*Gun: Double Peace
• The Invisible Hours
• Synergia
• ROCKETRON
• Project Nimbus: Complete Edition
• Dead Age
• Spirit Hunter: NG
• Slain: Back from Hell(?)
• Cook, Serve, Delicious!
• Tower of Time
• Danger Scavenger
• Survive the Nights
• Valfaris
• Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
• This War of Mine

​

• Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition
• Knights of Pen and Paper 2 - Here Be Dragons

​

• 112 Operator
• 911 Operator
• Book of Demons
• Broken Age
• Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
• Crying Suns
• Crying Suns
• Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
• Driftland: The Magic Revival
• Liberated (GOG key)
• Moon Hunters
• Out of Reach: Treasure Royale
• Wanderlust: Travel Stories (GOG key)
• WARSAW
• X-Morph: Defense + European Assault, Survival of the Fittest, and Last Bastion DLC (I believe this redeems as the linked Complete Pack, minus the soundtrack)
• ΔV: Rings of Saturn(?)

​

• Arcade Paradise
• Calico
• Say No! More
• Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game
• Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel
• Phoenix Point: Year One Edition
• Deliver Us The Moon
• Morkredd
• Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
• Spirit Hunter: NG
• Survivalist: Invisible Strain
• Warhammer: Vermintide 2
• ENDLESS™ Space 2
• Surviving the Aftermath
• The Long Dark

​

• Duck Game
• SCP: Secret Files
• WWE 2K23
• The Jackbox Party Pack
• Outward (redeems as the base game only, not the linked Definitive Edition)
• Outward - The Soroboreans
• Outward Soundtrack
• Blade Assault
• Founders' Fortune
• Hokko Life
• Monster Crown
• Othercide
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Enhanced Edition
• ScourgeBringer
• Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey
• HOT WHEELS UNLEASHED™
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition
• Sonic CD (removed from Steam Store)
• LEGO® Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• LEGO® Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• STRIDER™ / ストライダー飛竜®
• Bionic Commando
• Full Metal Furies
• Ultra Street Fighter® IV
• Starbound
• Mafia III: Sign of the Times
• BioShock 2
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition
• Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter
• The Mean Greens - Plastic Warfare
• Crusaders of the Lost Idols Legendary Starter Pack
• Project CARS (removed from Steam Store)

​
WANT:
​

• 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel
• Astebreed: Definitive Edition
• Avernum: Escape from the Pit
• BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
• CrossCode
• Dead Rising 4
• Dungreed
• Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2
• Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
• Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition
• Myst (2021)
• NBA 2K23
• NECROPOLIS: BRUTAL EDITION
• Omensight: Definitive Edition
• OPUS: Echo of Starsong - Full Bloom Edition
• OPUS: Rocket of Whispers
• OPUS: The Day We Found Earth
• Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
• RAGE
• Resident Evil Village
• The Jackbox Party Pack 5
• The Jackbox Party Pack 6
• The Jackbox Party Pack 7
• Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
• Zombie Army 4: Dead War

​

• any extra copies of WWE 2K23

​
IGS Rep Page: https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/ti26nz/mizznos_igs_rep_page/

Next month will be 5 years that I have been a Registered Nurse.
In honor of that, I’d like to share one (of many I have had) career defining moments…my first patient code.
I had been a RN for maybe 6 months and was working overnights from 7pm to 7:30am. I had just come on to shift and received report for my patients when the son of one of them called and asked to speak with me.
He goes on to explain that he’s concerned for his Mom because she hadn’t had much to eat or drink in the couple days she had been a patient with us. He was also concerned about her ability to communicate with staff effectively as she was older and had multiple strokes that left her forgetting a lot of her English. Instead, she tended to mumble in her native language…Polish.
After speaking with him, I immediately looked up key words in Polish I knew I would need if I was going to be able to connect with her the same way I do all my other patients.
I looked up the Polish word for nurse. Pielęgniarka.
Next, I looked up the word for pain. Ból.
Medicine. Medycyna.
Potato. Ziemniak.
Water. Woda.
Potato seems random, but in my conversation with her son, he said her favorite food was mashed potatoes (mine too!) and that’s what she had ordered for dinner earlier that was still sitting on her table to eat.
When the time came and I entered her room, I found her lying in bed, seemingly bored, but curious as to who I was. I introduced myself as her nurse using the word I had just looked up and she greeted me with a smile.
The next 10-15 minutes after had her and I laughing together as I haphazardly tried communicating with her using broken Polish and hand gestures. You could tell there was a language barrier, but it didn’t stop either of us from getting our point across, and the giggling from us both lightened the mood.
I remember feeding her the mashed potatoes and hearing her go, “Mmmmmmm” as she swallowed them.
I remember her declining the “woda” I kept offering.
Then I remember her clutching at her hip and writhing in pain. That wasn’t a shock considering she was there with a broken hip awaiting surgery, but had to be off her regularly prescribed blood thinners for a while first. I asked if she had pain and she nodded yes. I asked if she wanted pain medicine and she said yes. I gave it to her and watched her settle back down until she began itching her arms motioning to me that she was uncomfortable. I massaged lotion into both of her arms as she sighed of relief and said, “Very good! Very good” taking both of my hands into hers to thank me.
I smiled back and said that she was welcome. Knowing she was feeling better, I went to round on other patients, occasionally peeking in to see how she was doing. After an hour or so, I went back in her room and saw that she had fallen asleep. I fixed her nasal cannula as it had fallen down from her ears and I checked her foley to make sure the tubing wasn’t getting kinked. I made sure she was covered with her blanket so she wouldn’t be cold. Hospitals are always so cold…
I went to another patient’s room. 2 minutes later, one my CNA’s came to me saying they just went in her room and she wasn’t breathing.
What? How?
I just came from there and she had been sleeping peacefully. There were no signs of distress.
What do you mean she isn’t breathing?
I ran to her room. I checked for a pulse. No pulse.
Panic set in. I quickly confirm she’s a full code and my staff and I jumped into action.
One of us got the crash cart. One of us paged for a code. One of us started compressions while the other ambu bagged her.
Suddenly a bunch of staff are at my side as we all fall into our assigned roles.
I remember those compressions I did on her. No one ever talks about the trauma that CPR does to a person’s body…
How the ribs crack like uncooked pasta underneath your hands.
After rounds of CPR, we managed to get a pulse back and transferred her straight to the ICU where she coded again.
We resumed our roles. We must have tried for over 30 minutes.
She wasn’t coming back.
The family (her son and daughter) had been contacted and the doctor called it.
The rest of that night was a blur to me. I had other patients to take care of, so I went back to my unit until the family had arrived and asked to speak with me.
I told them everything that happened from the first moment I walked in to her room. I showed them my chicken scratch notes of the polish words I looked up. I explained that I had no explanation for what could have happened as I saw no signs that she was in danger. And then I broke down crying apologizing profusely feeling like I had completely failed her and them.
Suddenly the son hugged me, then the daughter. They both thanked me for doing what I did for their mother, stating that most people wouldn’t have even taken the time to look up Polish words. Then he said something I’ll never forget. He said she knew her time was coming as earlier that day she mentioned to them both that she would be going “home” soon.
To this day I wish I knew what happened. To this day I try to think about what signs I could have missed. To this day I wonder if I could have done anything differently.
I’ll never forget her, and I think of her often hoping her last moments here provided some bit of love and comfort.

Hey everyone, it's John from Hypeddit! I run one of the largest music promotion platforms in the world, and I've helped tens of thousands of music artists reach millions of listeners, fans, and streams. Today, I want to share how you can make more money from Merch Sales every month of the year!
Why Merch Sales Matter:
Streaming royalties are great, but they only bring in fractions of pennies per stream. On the other hand, merch sales can bring in $10, $15, or $20 from a single purchase, which can significantly fund your music promotion efforts.
Recent Video Breakdown:
I recently posted a video where I break down my entire merch sales strategy, including how much money I'm making and how I'm making it. If this interests you, feel free to check it out. In this post, I want to give you a merch sales calendar to help you make more money from merch sales every month.
Using MailChimp for Easy Offers:
One simple way to boost your merch sales is through email offers. For example, during Black Friday, I offer a 50% discount on all t-shirts for house music fans. The key elements of a successful email offer include:
✅A clear, descriptive subject line (e.g., "50% off on all house music t-shirts").
✅A substantial discount (50% off is more enticing than 5% or 20%).
✅A reason for the discount (e.g., in honor of Black Friday).
✅Creating a Merch Sales Calendar
Here's a calendar to help you plan your sales throughout the year:
✅January: New Year Sale
✅February: Valentine's Day Sale
✅March: St. Patrick's Day Sale
✅April: Easter Sale
✅May: Memorial Day Sale / Mother's Day Sale / Spring Sale
✅June: Summer Kickoff Sale
✅July: Independence Day Sale (Fourth of July)
✅August: Summer Sale / Back to School Sale
✅September: Labor Day Sale
✅October: Halloween Sale
✅November: Black Friday / Cyber Monday Sale
✅December: Holiday Sale / Christmas Sale
Bonus Tip: Birthday Month Sale:
Offer a sale during your birthday month. Fans will feel a personal connection and are more likely to take advantage of the discount. Many will even reply to wish you a happy birthday, increasing engagement.
Make sure your merchandise is priced so that even at discounted rates, you are still profitable. I use Printful for print-on-demand services, which means no inventory hassle. Price your items to cover costs and ensure a profit margin.
Frequent sales can train fans to wait for the next discount, so price your merchandise to ensure profitability year-round. If you want to learn more, check out my mini training on merch sales and watch my latest video for detailed insights.
Click here!
Start boosting your merch sales today and fund your music promotion effortlessly. Cheers to your success!

Hey all,
First post here, and it is a LONG one, so go easy on me. I am not a mathematician, and I am not seasoned like some of the other creators here, but I figured I'd share my favorite paladin build (for the casual 2H enjoyer) and the calculations (for any nerds like me) for a few variations focused around the Balduran's Giantslayer for Honor Mode.
Credit to u/Prestigious_Juice341 for inspiring me with all of their builds. Their old Oathbreaker build is what sent me down this rabbit hole and inspired the foundation of the Paladin variants.
Basics & My Favorite Variant
6 Vengeance Paladin > 4 GOO lock > 2 Fighter
Start Vengeance Paladin with 17 CHA, 10 STR, rest is up to you. I recommend 16 DEX. Use Hill Giant Strength from Ethyl until character level 9/Warlock level 3 when you can bind your weapon. You can also go 10 Paladin and respec at level 10 if you want 2 feats sooner and don't mind the respec.
Feats: Savage Attacker > Great Weapon Master
End Game Items:
Weapons: Balduran's Giantslayer; Deadshot
Helmet: Diadem of Arcane Synergy
Cloak: Cloak of Protection
Armor: Persistence/Helldusk
Gloves: Helldusk
Boots: Whatever you want here can work. Evasive probably ideal for frontline playstyle, but can also go nightwalkers or acrobat shoes if other classes prefer Evasive.
Amulet: Greater Health
Rings: Strange Conduit Ring & Risky Ring or Caustic Band (I prefer Risky)
Elixir: Hill Giant(early), Vigilance
Key Items to grab prior to BIS:

• Weapons: Everburn Blade, Svartlebee's Woundseeker in Act 1; Halberd of Vigilance in Act 2
  
• Adamantine Armor is my personal armor choice prior to Act 3
  
• Crusher's Ring, Ring of Protection, Caustic Band, and Strange Conduit Ring are all available in Act 1
  
• Disintegrating Nightwalkers will last you through to act 2.
  
• Gloves of Belligerent Skies and Boots of Stormy Clamour are also good options for Act 1.
  
• Grab amulet of the Harpers as soon as you enter Act 2 for free shield and WIS saving throws.
  

Playstyle: Hyper aggressive frontliner. Run at the strongest enemy, burst 'em down with big swings and big smites. Hex and Action surge late game for more big swings and bigger smites. You'll have advantage from Risky Ring & Crit Reduction from Deadshot + GOO Passive so you'll crit somewhat often with high damage rolls thanks to Savage Attacker.
For those who couldn't care less about numbers or the more powerful but less flavorful fighter variants, the guide ends here! Hope you like it!
Calculations and other Variants I toyed with
Assumptions:

• All variations use GWM and Savage Attacker
• Not calculating for attack roll probability.
• All variations use ability drain illithid power for permanent arcane synergy.
• Honor Mode which means:
  • No pact weapon stacking
  • Must either take alert as 3rd feat or use a vigilance elixir. Could theoretically boost damage by ignoring this point, but I really value initiative in Act 3.
• Base stats are 12 ST14 DEX/14 CON/20 CHA (17 + Mirror of loss/hag hair). Patriar's memory could net you an extra +1 in STR but requires luck and isn't a noticeable difference either way.
• Not counting things other than what’s listed (i.e. draconic weapon, weapon coatings, haste, etc.)

Dice:
2d6(base weapon damage) + 1d4(Strange Conduit) + 1d6(hex) + 1d6(helldusk gloves) + 3d8 (level 2 divine smite) + 1d6 (hex proc from smite)
Total Dice: 5d6 (5-30) + 3d8 (3 – 24) + 1d4 (1-4) == 9 – 58 per swing

A) 8 Oathbreaker Paladin/4 Warlock -- most flavor, least damage
\* Pact Bound:*
3rd Feat = +2 CHA; Elixir = Vigilance
+3(enchantment) + 6(Char of 22) + 1(str of 12 giantslayer) + 6(aura of hate) + 6(arcane synergy)
Flat Damage Total: 22 + 10 (GWM) = 32
1^st Turn Max Damage (2 swings – pact variant): 58 + 32 = 90 x 2 == 180
\* Not Pact BOUND:*
3rd Feat = Alert; Elixir = Cloud Giant Strength
+3(enchantment) + 8(STR of 27) + 8(str of 27 giantslayer) + 5(aura of hate) + 5(arcane synergy)
Flat Damage Total: 29 + 10 (GWM) = 39
1^st Turn Max Damage (2 swings – non pact variant): 58 + 39 = 97 x 2 == 194

B) 6 Vengeance Paladin/2 Fighte4 GOO Lock – requires vigilance potion, gets action surge, keeps most of the flavor. Less Death Knight, more Vengeance Knight.
Total Dice: 9 – 58 per swing (level 2 smites)
Action Surge = 8 - 50 per swing (level 1 smites)
+3(enchantment) + 5(Char of 20) + 5(Inquisitor's Might) + 5(arcane synergy)
Flat Damage Total: 18 + 10 (GWM) = 28
1^st Turn Max Damage (4 Swings) = (58+28) x 2 + (50+28) x 2 == 328
C) 11 Fighter – 1 Warlock loses smite and aura of hate, but gets action surge, hex, and 3 feats still which frees potion slot for 27 STR, and 20 CHA.
Total Dice: 8 - 52 subtracting smite results in 5 – 28
+3(enchantment) + 8(STR of 20) + 8(str of 27 giantslayer) + 5(arcane synergy)
Flat Damage Total: 24 + 10 (GWM) = 34
1^st Turn Max Damage (6 Swings) = 28 + 34 = 62 x 6 == 372

D) 11 Fighter – 1 War Cleric: loses smite, loses hex, gets divine favor (1d4), gets another attack as a bonus action, and 3 feats still which frees potion slot for 27 STR, and 20 WISDOM – use hag haimirror of loss on WIS instead of CHA obviously.
Weapon Damage: 2d6
Extra Dice: 1d4(Strange Conduit) + 1d4(divine favor) + 1d6(helldusk gloves)
Total Dice: 3d6 (3-18) + 2d4 (2-8) == 5 – 26 per swing
+3(enchantment) + 8(STR of 20) + 8(str of 27 giantslayer) + 5(arcane synergy)
Flat Damage Total: 24 + 10 (GWM) = 34
1^st Turn Max Damage (7 Swings) = 26 + 34 = 60 x 7 == 420

Conclusions & Comparisons:
Comparing the better Paladin variant vs the better Fighter Variant:
Total First Turn Damage Range for build B: 150 - 332
Total First Turn Damage Range for build D: 273 – 420
Both Fighter variants are stronger than the paladin variants with the war cleric version being the best option in terms of max damage in the 1st turn. That's without including BM bonuses as well, which just put it over the top and it's not even close. As seen above, it also has a higher first turn floor and, due to fighter's consistent 3 attacks and 2 more turns of war cleric extra attacks, it is far and away the best option past turn 1 when you consider smite spell slot fall-off. However, it lacks any flavor (in my own personal opinion). Also, prior to level 11, it's a lot closer in terms of consistent output as fighter doesn't have its 3rd attack or its war cleric charges while paladin still has smite.
I'm sure there are other ways to boost the damage in minor ways by sacrificing AC or funneling items that would be more useful on other builds, but I assume that DEX gloves are going to be better served on an SSB or Sorcerer, so I tried to somewhat account for that here.
Lastly, you could go 6 Sorc 6 Paladin and lose either a feat or the vigilance elixir, but that leaves out action surge as well. This would be better in longer fights and bring more utility than either of the Paladin variants, but it has far less first turn burst than builds B, C, or D.
If you're here, thanks for reading!