Wordpress editor shows the theme I purchased under my temporary domain. How can I switch this to activate it under my official domain? or is this necessary?
Picture included for reference
https://preview.redd.it/h4fjh3dqml5d1.png?width=1182&format=png&auto=webp&s=851b067aca13088992e37d1e6296d92204c7384c

So basically my game started to freeze out of nowhere everytime I wait or sleep. Fast travel doesnt work either. Game is completely playable up until i wait, fast travel or sleep. I have deleted skyrim and reinstalled it. I have LOOT for the load order, I have used SSEEdit and ReSaver to clean up. I have no previous saves to go back to and autosave is turned off. I have messed around with removing certain mods (via vortex, mostly graphic related mods) and so forth to se if they are the problem but no luck so far. I also started a new game quickly and used "wait" to see if worked, it did so guessing its related to my save :(. I also for some reason had quicksave on FAAAAAR to much for some reason up until this point guessing that could cause issues.
Load order copied from LOOT:
0 0 Skyrim.esm
1 1 Update.esm
2 2 Dawnguard.esm
3 3 HearthFires.esm
4 4 Dragonborn.esm
5 5 ccBGSSSE001-Fish.esm
254 FE 0 ccQDRSSE001-SurvivalMode.esl
254 FE 1 ccBGSSSE037-Curios.esl
6 6 ccBGSSSE025-AdvDSGS.esm
254 FE 2 _ResourcePack.esl
7 7 Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp
254 FE 3 DynamicCollisionAdjustment.esl
254 FE 4 Landscape and Water Fixes.esp
8 8 RealisticWaterTwo - Resources.esm
9 9 Falskaar.esm
254 FE 5 EVGAnimatedTraversal.esl
254 FE 6 TrueHUD.esl
254 FE 7 TES4WaitMenu.esl
10 a SkyUI_SE.esp
dD - Enhanced Blood Main LITE.esp
11 b Audio Overhaul Skyrim.esp
12 c Immersive Sounds - Compendium.esp
254 FE 8 AOS_ISC_Integration.esp
13 d Summermyst - Enchantments of Skyrim.esp
14 e WeightLessLegacyAll.esp
15 f WeightLessTrueGems.esp
16 10 WeightLessTrueScrolls.esp
17 11 WeightLessTrueSoulGems.esp
18 12 20 More Perk Points.esp
19 13 IcePenguinWorldMap.esp
254 FE 9 Bandit Lines Expansion.esp
254 FE a ArcheryLocationalDamage.esp
20 14 Dr_Bandolier.esp
21 15 DiverseDragonsCollectionSE.esp
22 16 DaedricAssassinArmorLight.esp
254 FE b Dynamic Sprint.esp
23 17 JKs Skyrim.esp
24 18 Eli_Breezehome.esp
25 19 SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esp
26 1a Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp
27 1b SimplyBiggerTreesSE.esp
28 1c Inigo.esp
254 FE c Falskaar - Fast Travel.esp
254 FE d Falskaar - Bug Fixes.esp
29 1d GIST soul trap.esp
30 1e Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp
31 1f Improved Combat Sounds v2.2.esp
32 20 Improved Eyes Skyrim.esp
254 FE e Infinite Stamina Out of Combat.esp
254 FE f MCMHelper.esp
33 21 Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp
34 22 LrsamwaysExpandedSkyrimWeaponry.esp
254 FE 10 Thuldor's Smithing Tweaks.esp
254 FE 11 TrueDirectionalMovement.esp
35 23 Ultimate Dodge Mod.esp
36 24 ValhallaCombat.esp
254 FE 12 aMidianBorn_Book of Silence.esp
254 FE 13 Keytrace.esp
254 FE 14 Precision.esp
37 25 Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim.esp
38 26 Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp
39 27 RealisticWaterTwo.esp
254 FE 15 RealisticWaterTwo - Falskaar.esp
40 28 RealisticWaterTwo - Waves - Falskaar.esp

Wall of text + massive spoilers here. Don't read on unless you've completed Returnal.
--
Have you ever scrolled reddit in an attempt to understand Returnal's lore?
Have you ever watched a YouTuber break down their interpretation of the nuances? Maybe you crawled the scout logs, audio files, xenoglyphs and Helios logs looking for your own answers to understand Selene's experience?
In your search, did you ever find concrete story fragments - or read them in the comments - that directly contradicted what you thought was an otherwise sound, logical and thoughtful interpretation of the game?
You're not alone my friend!
Returnal is a game full of paradoxes. How are you ever going to make sense of a single one of them when the paradoxical nature of Returnal is the whole point?
--
Within Returnal lies a series of paradoxes, contradictions and oxymorons within a larger paradox.
Spend a few minutes digging into the narrative breadcrumbs and you're bound to find something that doesn't add up, or is just proper-unsatisfying.
I'll start with smaller examples; these feel more poetic than outright contradictory in any way that would harm the story's cohesion, yet they set the stage for something larger to be built on top of them -

• "My end is waiting at the beginning..." (AST-AL-002)
• "...on the edge of my sight I see a black sunrise beneath the ocean, when will it break through the surface?" (AST-AL-046)
• "Myriad eyes beholding in the longing dark sunlight as it rains like pitch... (AST-AX-002)
• "I've had... visions? And headaches that fracture into future events I've already experienced..." (AST-AL-044)
• The CreatoDestroyer
  • The simple presence in the Sentient lore of a CreatoDestroyer creates a contradiction due to the opposing natures of both descriptors. Is this person a protagonist or an antagonist? How can they be both at the same time?

These are contradictory, but maybe not outright paradoxical if you want to be really particular. Let's go a little deeper then, because it isn't just text and collectibles that conflict with themselves, it's much larger strokes of the game's story.
We also see that...

• Selene is alive, yet finds her own dead corpses throughout the game
• Selene must first ascend the mountain in the desert in order to descend into the depths. Her descent into the depths is what's required for her to mentally ascend beyond her trauma.
• Theia is the Astronaut. Selene is the Astronaut.
• The more Selene descends into madness & insanity during her time on Atropos, the more she truly unravels the truth of what's happening to her and gains an understanding of why she is there
• Selene is at the heart of Sentient culture despite her arriving on Atropos long, long after Sentient civilization collapsed
  • She is the CreatoDestroyer and is depicted in their Xeno-Archives

What does all this contradiction do to those of us trying to piece together the game's narrative?
--
It makes it impossible to do.
If you've delved into the lore, I bet you came out with a great interpretation of Returnal... that almost worked. It almost clicked, almost tied up all all loose ends, and was almost good enough to warrant a Reddit post, if not for that one indisputable thing.
Maybe it was...

• Are there two car crashes in Selene's life, or one?
• Is Helios Selene's brother, or son? Or both?
• In the cutscene at the end of Act I, do we seen Selene driving Helios, or Theia driving Selene?
• Is Atropos real? Or does it only exist in Selene's head?
• Is the Astronaut Theia or Selene?
• Was Theia pregnant? Did Selene have a brother? Was Helios abused? Did Selene have an abortion? Did Selene kill her mother?

Pick one of the above to fit your interpretation of Returnal and you're bound to find another that contradicts it. You'll always find one logical leap you have to take or one plot point you have to omit to make the story make sense.
If Atropos is real, then you're going to have a hard time explaining how Selene is at the center of the Sentient's culture or why Selene shot down her own spaceship. If Atropos is in Selene's head, those things can now make sense, but instead you have to contend with her escape from the planet after defeating Nemesis or the suggestions the game gives that Selene was found mentally unstable and not permitted to join Astra.
If Theia is driving the car and Selene is in the backseat, then why is Selene wearing the same wristwatch that Helios wears in House segment 5? If Selene is driving the car and Helios is in the backseat, then why does the news broadcast in House segment 3 name Theia as the driver and mention her spinal injuries (which are corroborated by the hospital visions)?
And so on, and so forth.
Returnal's story is a puzzle that no matter how hard you work to assemble it, there's always going to be one piece that doesn't fit. Explain Returnal one way, and you're bound to hit a roadblock that sends you derailing into a lake.
--
Don't misunderstand me, though! The building blocks that make up Returnal's narrative are beautifully layered and intricately weaved throughout our experience with the game; they ebb and flow with Selene's own confusion, they crescendo as Selene's madness does - it's all so expertly done.
But they're also just a series of impossible paradoxes that should serve to snap the story's cohesiveness in half.
And yet they don't. But why's that?
--
If you aren't aware, Returnal's developers have outright stated that there never was an agreed upon narrative for the game.
Big shoutout to u/RepulsiveWeather4592, whose countless copy/pasted comments I encountered on various threads while diving into this sub's lore posts (you have a vendetta, dude, and I respect it).
Here's Game Director Harry Krueger on the topic in this video:

Harry Krueger: I would often get asked, so you know what's really the mystery of Atropos? Is this all in Selene's head? Is she really there? Did this happen? And I'm like, those are exactly the kind of questions we want players to be asking. Mikael Haveri: So the answer would be yes. Harry Krueger: So the answer would be all of the above, yes.

And here's Senior Narrative Designer, Eevi Korhonen admitting there was no agreed upon version of the story - even internally.

One thing Harry was adamant about was there would be no agreed upon story even internally... When I talk with my team sometimes internally we still find [that we all have different understandings of Selene's actions and the story as a whole]. We are still internally at-odds sometimes about what the story means.

Remember the bullet points from above? All the paradoxes, contradictions and contrasts we outlined earlier? They're all impossible to be true at the same time.
And yet, from the mouths of the game's very creators, they are all true at the same time.
--
I think one reasonably valid reaction to the above would be frustration in the direction of the developers for just mindlessly throwing some paint splatters at the wall and calling it art.
One could read those statements and apply them to Returnal and see it as a careless, unfinished and pointless mess with no ability to teach, show, or tell us anything due to its creators offhanded attitude towards crafting a connected narrative.
While I believe one can react in that manner, I worry it would be fairly reductive.
You see, Returnal leaves its narrative disconnected and bewilders its player with paradox on purpose. The game makes use of its vague and ambiguous storytelling and world to create an effect on the player and it is this very effect that ratchets up the experience of playing Returnal at all.
I’d argue that you can reconcile Returnal’s incoherent story fragments and paradoxes by squaring your own experience as a player with that of Selene’s. Let’s look.
This game’s narrative and its paradoxes are a mindfuck. Players must face all of the above discussed paradoxes as well as plenty more confounding, impossible situations, drip-fed to them slowly over time incoherently, erratically and seemingly randomly. Returnal’s story is in part difficult to consume and understand because of the nature of its diffusion to the player; flashbacks are short and lacking context, clues are presented outside of chronological order (consider the audio logs) and discoveries that would link everything together are not made until deep into the game. When the player does receive story bits, they come in the form of paradoxes, or as the musings of a madwoman.
As our Selene speaks more and more worried nonsense in the game’s second act, so too does our confusion compound based on what we are finding around us. Returnal’s worldbuilding and setting enhance the experience of confusion and uncertainty by creating paradoxical and impossible situations — What is this music and why is Selene obsessed with it? The Crimson Wastes have somehow become frozen? Atropos’ moon is repaired? How can the Sentients know about The Astronaut?
From the get-go, our experience playing Returnal is much like Selene’s living in it — a constant state of disarray, of confusion, of uncertainty. What’s happening to us? What is real and what is not?
Returnal layers paradox on top of ambiguity in its worldbuilding and narrative diffusion to simulate a mirrored experience between the player and Selene in which both are stuck in a cycle of constantly questioning reality.
This, in a sense, syncs the player and Selene. Both are confused. Both want answers. Both feel a need to plunge themselves deeper into the endless, unknown abyss.
The player, now more connected and able to easily identify with their avatar in this manner, must at the game’s conclusion take part in a form of moral gymnastics upon discovering that their avatar — someone they grew to understand, trust and relate to — was likely an abusive, selfish killer.
When the player understands this, the experience of engaging with Returnal shifts powerfully. Players now have additional context with which to grapple with Atropos, its inhabitants, Selene’s past and her mental or physical fate.
We can see now how the paradoxical nature of Returnal brought us here and how it was the point all along.
With a new lens to peer through, Returnal takes on new shapes and forms. It almost begs for a second playthrough to view the game’s previous experiences through this newly earned understanding.
Good thing Act III exists.
--
So, Returnal’s narrative isn’t concrete on purpose.
It’s completely against my usual nature to say this, but I love that about this game. The blurriness of the story dovetails brilliantly with the ambiguity of Selene’s mental health and the confusion of the player.
The story does not need a concreteness to it because the narrative and worldbuilding themselves have have used paradox and impossibility to establish a confusion & uncertainty, even hinting that it is a confusion and uncertainty that is unsolvable.
Somehow, understanding that — for me — ended up solving it.
Huh. What a paradox.
--
You can't answer Returnal's narrative non-continuities because the game's story creates a paradox. It's disparate cues, incidents and plot points are all true at the same time, even though they cannot be.
In the swirling, disorienting whirlpool of Returnal's lore, the fates of The Severed, The CreatoDestroyer and The Astronaut disconnect, unravel and spiral into one tapestry..." (AST-AX-017)
And it's beautiful.

Wall of text + massive spoilers here. Don't read on unless you've completed Returnal.
--
Have you ever scrolled reddit in an attempt to understand Returnal's lore?
Have you ever watched a YouTuber break down their interpretation of the nuances? Maybe you crawled the scout logs, audio files, xenoglyphs and Helios logs looking for your own answers to understand Selene's experience?
In your search, did you ever find concrete story fragments - or read them in the comments - that directly contradicted what you thought was an otherwise sound, logical and thoughtful interpretation of the game?
You're not alone my friend!
Returnal is a game full of paradoxes. How are you ever going to make sense of a single one of them when the paradoxical nature of Returnal is the whole point?
--
Within Returnal lies a series of paradoxes, contradictions and oxymorons within a larger paradox.
Spend a few minutes digging into the narrative breadcrumbs and you're bound to find something that doesn't add up, or is just proper-unsatisfying.
I'll start with smaller examples; these feel more poetic than outright contradictory in any way that would harm the story's cohesion, yet they set the stage for something larger to be built on top of them -

• "My end is waiting at the beginning..." (AST-AL-002)
• "...on the edge of my sight I see a black sunrise beneath the ocean, when will it break through the surface?" (AST-AL-046)
• "Myriad eyes beholding in the longing dark sunlight as it rains like pitch... (AST-AX-002)
• "I've had... visions? And headaches that fracture into future events I've already experienced..." (AST-AL-044)
• The CreatoDestroyer
  • The simple presence in the Sentient lore of a CreatoDestroyer creates a contradiction due to the opposing natures of both descriptors. Is this person a protagonist or an antagonist? How can they be both at the same time?

These are contradictory, but maybe not outright paradoxical if you want to be really particular. Let's go a little deeper then, because it isn't just text and collectibles that conflict with themselves, it's much larger strokes of the game's story.
We also see that...

• Selene is alive, yet finds her own dead corpses throughout the game
• Selene must first ascend the mountain in the desert in order to descend into the depths. Her descent into the depths is what's required for her to mentally ascend beyond her trauma.
• Theia is the Astronaut. Selene is the Astronaut.
• The more Selene descends into madness & insanity during her time on Atropos, the more she truly unravels the truth of what's happening to her and gains an understanding of why she is there
• Selene is at the heart of Sentient culture despite her arriving on Atropos long, long after Sentient civilization collapsed
  • She is the CreatoDestroyer and is depicted in their Xeno-Archives

What does all this contradiction do to those of us trying to piece together the game's narrative?
--
It makes it impossible to do.
If you've delved into the lore, I bet you came out with a great interpretation of Returnal... that almost worked. It almost clicked, almost tied up all all loose ends, and was almost good enough to warrant a Reddit post, if not for that one indisputable thing.
Maybe it was...

• Are there two car crashes in Selene's life, or one?
• Is Helios Selene's brother, or son? Or both?
• In the cutscene at the end of Act I, do we seen Selene driving Helios, or Theia driving Selene?
• Is Atropos real? Or does it only exist in Selene's head?
• Is the Astronaut Theia or Selene?
• Was Theia pregnant? Did Selene have a brother? Was Helios abused? Did Selene have an abortion? Did Selene kill her mother?

Pick one of the above to fit your interpretation of Returnal and you're bound to find another that contradicts it. You'll always find one logical leap you have to take or one plot point you have to omit to make the story make sense.
If Atropos is real, then you're going to have a hard time explaining how Selene is at the center of the Sentient's culture or why Selene shot down her own spaceship. If Atropos is in Selene's head, those things can now make sense, but instead you have to contend with her escape from the planet after defeating Nemesis or the suggestions the game gives that Selene was found mentally unstable and not permitted to join Astra.
If Theia is driving the car and Selene is in the backseat, then why is Selene wearing the same wristwatch that Helios wears in House segment 5? If Selene is driving the car and Helios is in the backseat, then why does the news broadcast in House segment 3 name Theia as the driver and mention her spinal injuries (which are corroborated by the hospital visions)?
And so on, and so forth.
Returnal's story is a puzzle that no matter how hard you work to assemble it, there's always going to be one piece that doesn't fit. Explain Returnal one way, and you're bound to hit a roadblock that sends you derailing into a lake.
--
Don't misunderstand me, though! The building blocks that make up Returnal's narrative are beautifully layered and intricately weaved throughout our experience with the game; they ebb and flow with Selene's own confusion, they crescendo as Selene's madness does - it's all so expertly done.
But they're also just a series of impossible paradoxes that should serve to snap the story's cohesiveness in half.
And yet they don't. But why's that?
--
If you aren't aware, Returnal's developers have outright stated that there never was an agreed upon narrative for the game.
Big shoutout to u/RepulsiveWeather4592, whose countless copy/pasted comments I encountered on various threads while diving into this sub's lore posts (you have a vendetta, dude, and I respect it).
Here's Game Director Harry Krueger on the topic in this video:

Harry Krueger: I would often get asked, so you know what's really the mystery of Atropos? Is this all in Selene's head? Is she really there? Did this happen? And I'm like, those are exactly the kind of questions we want players to be asking. Mikael Haveri: So the answer would be yes. Harry Krueger: So the answer would be all of the above, yes.

And here's Senior Narrative Designer, Eevi Korhonen admitting there was no agreed upon version of the story - even internally.

One thing Harry was adamant about was there would be no agreed upon story even internally... When I talk with my team sometimes internally we still find [that we all have different understandings of Selene's actions and the story as a whole]. We are still internally at-odds sometimes about what the story means.

Remember the bullet points from above? All the paradoxes, contradictions and contrasts we outlined earlier? They're all impossible to be true at the same time.
And yet, from the mouths of the game's very creators, they are all true at the same time.
--
I think one reasonably valid reaction to the above would be frustration in the direction of the developers for just mindlessly throwing some paint splatters at the wall and calling it art.
One could read those statements and apply them to Returnal and see it as a careless, unfinished and pointless mess with no ability to teach, show, or tell us anything due to its creators offhanded attitude towards crafting a connected narrative.
While I believe one can react in that manner, I worry it would be fairly reductive.
You see, Returnal leaves its narrative disconnected and bewilders its player with paradox on purpose. The game makes use of its vague and ambiguous storytelling and world to create an effect on the player and it is this very effect that ratchets up the experience of playing Returnal at all.
I’d argue that you can reconcile Returnal’s incoherent story fragments and paradoxes by squaring your own experience as a player with that of Selene’s. Let’s look.
This game’s narrative and its paradoxes are a mindfuck. Players must face all of the above discussed paradoxes as well as plenty more confounding, impossible situations, drip-fed to them slowly over time incoherently, erratically and seemingly randomly. Returnal’s story is in part difficult to consume and understand because of the nature of its diffusion to the player; flashbacks are short and lacking context, clues are presented outside of chronological order (consider the audio logs) and discoveries that would link everything together are not made until deep into the game. When the player does receive story bits, they come in the form of paradoxes, or as the musings of a madwoman.
As our Selene speaks more and more worried nonsense in the game’s second act, so too does our confusion compound based on what we are finding around us. Returnal’s worldbuilding and setting enhance the experience of confusion and uncertainty by creating paradoxical and impossible situations — What is this music and why is Selene obsessed with it? The Crimson Wastes have somehow become frozen? Atropos’ moon is repaired? How can the Sentients know about The Astronaut?
From the get-go, our experience playing Returnal is much like Selene’s living in it — a constant state of disarray, of confusion, of uncertainty. What’s happening to us? What is real and what is not?
Returnal layers paradox on top of ambiguity in its worldbuilding and narrative diffusion to simulate a mirrored experience between the player and Selene in which both are stuck in a cycle of constantly questioning reality.
This, in a sense, syncs the player and Selene. Both are confused. Both want answers. Both feel a need to plunge themselves deeper into the endless, unknown abyss.
The player, now more connected and able to easily identify with their avatar in this manner, must at the game’s conclusion take part in a form of moral gymnastics upon discovering that their avatar — someone they grew to understand, trust and relate to — was likely an abusive, selfish killer.
When the player understands this, the experience of engaging with Returnal shifts powerfully. Players now have additional context with which to grapple with Atropos, its inhabitants, Selene’s past and her mental or physical fate.
We can see now how the paradoxical nature of Returnal brought us here and how it was the point all along.
With a new lens to peer through, Returnal takes on new shapes and forms. It almost begs for a second playthrough to view the game’s previous experiences through this newly earned understanding.
Good thing Act III exists.
--
So, Returnal’s narrative isn’t concrete on purpose.
It’s completely against my usual nature to say this, but I love that about this game. The blurriness of the story dovetails brilliantly with the ambiguity of Selene’s mental health and the confusion of the player.
The story does not need a concreteness to it because the narrative and worldbuilding themselves have have used paradox and impossibility to establish a confusion & uncertainty, even hinting that it is a confusion and uncertainty that is unsolvable.
Somehow, understanding that — for me — ended up solving it.
Huh. What a paradox.
--
You can't answer Returnal's narrative non-continuities because the game's story creates a paradox. It's disparate cues, incidents and plot points are all true at the same time, even though they cannot be.
In the swirling, disorienting whirlpool of Returnal's lore, the fates of The Severed, The CreatoDestroyer and The Astronaut disconnect, unravel and spiral into one tapestry..." (AST-AX-017)
And it's beautiful.

Pre-Disclaimer: I have mainly been learning Japanese via Dictionary Diving, Anime and Manga "Diving", and Native Material "Diving", so if some or all of these issues are already addressed via Textbooks, it may not be applicable there (although Textbooks have their own "quirks", from the reading I've done)

For a Summary (Tl;dr): Jump to Section 8

Disclaimer 1: I would like to preface this by saying that I have only been studying Japanese for less than 6 months, so I am not claiming to be an expert who has unlocked the "true secrets" of the Language, but this has been an issue that has been on my mind for a while, and I haven't seen anyone else addressing it
Disclaimer 2: This is not an attack on Dictionaries, Formal Japanese Textbooks, or any of the individuals involved in creating them. Even with the concerns that I am about to address, Dictionary Diving has been my main means of learning Japanese, and the fact that so much work was put into these resources for the sake of providing us with all of these example sentences, is nothing short of awe-inspiring. If you are--or have been a contributor to bringing these Dictionaries and Resources to life, you have my genuine and heartfelt appreciation. My intentions are completely and exclusively designed to be constructive in nature
Disclaimer 3: Although this applies--in varying degrees to all Japanese Learners, the main demographic that I am deeply concerned for, are the entry-level to intermediate-level learners who are still figuring things out. With the proper time investment and erudition, it may start to become easier to understand exactly what is being said, but understanding a Translation of your Target Language should not have to be a separate "skill" that requires cultivation

• Section 1: Introduction

Typically, when you go on to a Dictionary to discover the meaning of a word, you will usually find example sentences that are worded like this:

風が柔らかく木立に触れた。
The wind gently kissed the trees.

or

私のフランスケーキ好きは小学校の時からです。
I've loved French cakes since elementary school.

These Translations certainly look pretty at first glance, but if you are an absolute beginner in learning Japanese and you encounter one of these sentences, you will have left them learning little about how the Japanese Language or its syntax actually works. They are well written and pleasant to look at, but are so heavily processed as to have lost any semblance of nutritional (i.e. educational) value

• Section 2: Disambiguation

Let's try going through these Example Sentences:
In this example, let's say that you searched for the word "柔らかい" in the Dictionary. For now, you have no idea what "木立" or "触れる" mean, but you are willing to learn.

風が柔らかく木立に触れた。
The wind gently kissed the trees.

This is probably the best one of the three (I have one that I'm saving for later)
Since I am no longer a complete beginner, I unfortunately cannot tell you how I would have tried to interpret this Sentence during my first month learning, but being a few months in, I could at least make a few inferences

風が

is establishing the Wind for the rest of the sentence. It is going to be important moving forward

柔らかく

conjugated form of an い-Adjective, going by the Translation. 柔らかい must mean "Gentle", and "く" allows it to modify other actions (therefore: "Gently")
I know that this sounds incredibly boring and redundant, but bear with me, this is going somewhere

木立に触れた
(Kissed the Trees)

This is where I'd say the first problem appears. Remember that for this exercise, you still have no idea what any of these words mean, and are just starting to learn "柔らかい", and, indirectly, "木立".
From what I could find, this figurative usage of the word "kiss" does not seem to exist in Japanese like it does it English. Perhaps 触れる is a literary term, which is why the word "Kiss" is being used in this translation, however the problem with trying to "embellish" these words without any context as to why they're being translated this way, is that in this case, the figurative and literal use of "Kiss" are both embodied in the same word. Imagine hearing this sentence in the wild, being given this translation, then--following the logic that they've established, saying to your Love Interest beneath the Moonlit Sky "触れてもいい？"...
Let's try another one:

私のフランスケーキ好きは小学校の時からです。
I've loved French cakes since elementary school.

This one's probably one of the simpler examples, and while I will admit that it becomes easier to understand the "logic" of the Translation with time, it almost feels like I'm reading two sentences that vaguely related, but aren't quite the same. The English version, in this case, feels like the long-lost Twin Brother of the original Japanese, and while it's certainly a good Translation, it looks like the type of thing you'd see in the English Captions of a Japanese Show, not like a resource that actually helps one to better understand the inner workings of the Language, itself. It is concerning, not for what it does do, but what it doesn't
The Translation is "correct", yes, but in prioritizing flavor over substance, the result is a fun confection that melts on the tongue, but provides nearly no nutritional value
For those particularly avid readers out there, you might recall that I mentioned the presence of three sentences. Yes, that's right, there was one card in my sleeve that I was saving 'til the end, and it is by far the most egregious of the three:

ママはその事については触れなかった。
Mom didn't mention it.

え？
How did that massive wall of Japanese Text produce this? I am not joking when I say that I have studied all of those words (to varying degrees), and still have virtually no idea what this sentence is saying.

• Section 3: The Problem

With all three of the aforementioned sentences being assessed, I would like to address the greatest fundamental issue that permeates, not only through these sentences, but nearly all of the example sentences in the common Dictionaries:

Who are these (Translations) even for?

I highly doubt that the your average casual English-Speaking Japanese Media watcher is diligently combing through the Dictionary on a daily basis, let alone your average English-Speaker in general (the same would also apply if Dictionaries that translate Japanese into other Languages follow these same patterns)
I will readily confess that all of these Translations are certainly poetic--beautiful, even, however, while they may explain what the Japanese is "saying", they do not explain what is actually happening, how it is, or why. They are certainly informational, but they are not educational, thus causing them to feel more like Anime Subtitles, than a means of actually coming to understand the Language.

• Section 4: Potential Solutions

I will take this opportunity to restate the thread that has been running through this entire thesis: I am not claiming to be an expert in Japanese. As someone who has only been studying for a few months, I am not claiming that my opinions are absolute, or that my interpretations are correct.
With that aside, here's how I would attempt to rework some of these Translations to better assist those trying to improve their Japanese:
Sentence 1

風が柔らかく木立に触れた。

Original

The wind gently kissed the trees.

Revision

Wind: Gently: (Cluster of) Trees, to: Touched (upon)
The wind gently kissed the trees.
Explanation: 触れる generally refers to a lighter, gentler touch compared to 触る, and can also be used figuratively, thus, in this context, it can be interpreted to be similar to the figurative usage of "to kiss"

Sentence 2

私のフランスケーキ好きは小学校の時からです。

Original

I've loved French cakes since elementary school.

Revision

My French Cake Love: Elementary School - Time: From
My love for French Cakes: Since Elementary School (i.e. I've loved French cakes since elementary school.) / My love for French Cakes goes back to Elementary School / I've loved French cakes since elementary school.
Explanation: In this sentence, the speaker's love for French Cakes is the subject. "の" subjugates B to A (Imagine Noun + の as a transparent Box, and what follows, being a related set of contents inside the Box), and 時 allows non-Time related words to be changed into moments or spans of time. In this example, "から" indicates progenitorship, thus "小学校の時から" means "From the Time of Elementary School".

^{you may have noticed that "My love for French Cakes: Since Elementary School" is not how English speakers typically talk (unless they are imitating a machine}) ^{, however this is not an Anime; Having a "natural translation"--either in the forefront or the background, is definitely a good idea, however, unlike with Subtitles, the English should serve the Japanese, not the other way around}
Sentence 3

ママはその事については触れなかった。

Original

Mom didn't mention it.

Revised

Mom...: That Matter (Concerning)...: Did not touch (upon)
Mom did not touch upon that matter (Mom didn't mention it.)
Explanation: "ママは" sets the scene for the topic, while "その事" is subsumed into the first subject (So keep "ママ" in your mind as you continue to learn about what is going on with "その事"). "について" in this case, means "concerning" or "regarding", and is transformed into a secondary topic through the use of another "は". "触れる" means "to touch" with the nuance of the touch being light, passing or brief, and can be used both literally and figuratively (in this case, meaning, "to touch upon" the matter).

With just those simple changes (i.e. including a "Fundamental Translation", and an Explanation segment to supplement the "standard" Translation), the Translations have now been modified to interact with the original Sentences, rather than overriding them.
Yes, translating "あらゆる犬、しゅきだよ！" as

"(Implicit Pronoun + は): All/Every Dog (+ Unspoken Particle): Liked (Slang, with よ added for emphasis in a manner that directly engages the interlocutor)"
All Dogs, liked
I wuw all Dogs!

doesn't sound as mellifluous as

"I wuw ALL dogs, yo!"

by itself*
But we are not using Japanese Dictionaries to have our eyes and ears tickled, we are using them to Learn Japanese
Not only do the revisions preserve either exact copies, or moderate revisions to the "anglicized" translations, but they also manage to solve the big three aforementioned questions of "What", "How", and "Why".

• Section 5: Pieces on the Board

Going back to Sentence 2 for a moment:

私のフランスケーキ好きは小学校の時からです。
I've loved French cakes since elementary school.

If you're an entry-level Japanese Learner with only a few trusty words in your quiver, and you see this daunting wall of Japanese Text, juxtaposed against an equally ambiguous English Translation that's your sole, dim light in this expansive labyrinth of darkness: Depending on the word that you searched up to get you there, it could take you months before you're able to actually begin to understand sentences like these.
Meanwhile, if all of the components are already laid out before you, you're immediately able to begin "playing" with the pieces, and accelerate the process of acquisition.
For instance, if I purchased a French Cake for a Party, and someone asked me:

"フランスケーキ（が）好きですか。"

could I then, with my new knowledge, reply:

"(実は)小学校の時から好き(です)！"

???
Perhaps I could trim even more and simply respond:

"小学校の時からです！"

since the "フランスケーキ", and "好き" "pieces" have already been laid out on the "board"??? ^{(In this case, I'm genuinely asking; I could very well be wrong})

• Section 6: Benefits to the Fundamental Translation Method

I will take this moment to iterate that the ideal solution would be to have both the Fundamental Translations, and "Traditional" Translations, as they are both complimentary to each other. On its own, a "Fundamental" Translation may be too abstract, while the Traditional ones tend to be processed beyond the point of recognizability. Blending them together allows for one to absorb as much Japanese as possible, while also having being able to see a tangible Translation as a safety net
With that said, there are various benefits to adding these Fundamental Translations

• Dissolves the walls of Japanese Text into smaller, comprehensible pieces
  
• Explains not only what the Japanese is saying, but how they are saying it. For example, one could theoretically translate "日本語喋れますか" as "Do you speak Japanese?", but doing so removes the nuance that what is actually being asked, which is "If you can speak Japanese". The conclusions are similar, but the method of getting there is slightly different.
  
• Rendering the Japanese into English at all, helps the Second Language to become comprehensible, however the utilization of these formulaic and unnatural syntax could potentially force one to draw new conclusions regarding the information that were not present in their Native Language, helping the aspiring learner to begin viewing Japanese on its own terms, and hopefully, acquiring it.
  

In addition to those aforementioned points: dissolving the Sentences gives one a starting point to begin building their own sentences.
For instance, with the principles established from dissolving Sentence 1
For a refresher:

風が柔らかく木立に触れた。
Wind: Gently: (Cluster of) Trees, to: Touched (upon)
The wind gently kissed the trees.

I am now able to begin switching the pieces around and experimenting with "new" sentences, such as
Experiment 1

波が激しく船に衝突した
なみが、はげしく、ふねに、しょうとつした
Waves: Violently: to Ship: Crashed
The Waves violently crashed against the Ship

Experment 2

できるだけ速くまゆちゃん家へと走始めた
できるだけ、はやく、まゆちゃん、いえ、へと、はしはじめた
(Implicit Personal Pronoun + Particle): [To be able + To the extent of] (Collectively: To the extent to which I am able): [Quickly]: [Mayu-Chan (implicit の) House]; [toward] (with へ for directionality, and と added to emphasize what precedes the Particle): [Run + Started]
To the extent that (I) am able, quickly, toward Mayu-Chan's House, I started to run
I started running to Mayu-Chan's House as fast as I could

Disclaimer: I am not claiming that these sentences are grammatically natural or even "correct". Please let me know what errors are present, so I can improve them. The point is to illustrate how a beginner could start to experiment, once they understand the mechanics of a sentence, not to make a statement on my own particular Japanese level
It is still your prototypical "Subject + Adverb + Object + Action" (or SOV) sentence, but now that the actual alignment of the sentence's components have been made clear, the writing process goes from being an insurmountable hurdle that takes months to even attempt, to being immediately accessible.

• Section 7: Using Fundamental Translations to compose Japanese

For reference, this is one of the first sentences that I tried composing during my first Month of learning Japanese

日本語を大好きけど漢字が楽しい無いと思う

Aside from the fact that there are blatant grammatical errors that even a beginner such as myself can now see: As one of the individuals who critiqued my sentence acutely stated, I was simply "Speaking Japanese with English Syntax" What I had intended to say: "Although I love Japanese, Kanji is not fun" would probably make for a nifty example Translation, however when you try working backwards (as a beginner), and rendering it into Japanese, the result is an incomprehensible mess
If I were to impersonate my Month 1 self for a moment, and attempt to render the Translation for Sentence 1 back into Japanese without seeing the original text, I probably would have come up with something along the lines of:

風が木達を柔らかいキスした
(Please forgive me for this abomination!)

Granted, some of the simulated mistakes simply come down to my own terrible Japanese, however I would honestly not blame someone who was only armed with years of Anime, and a few Videos, for making a similar set of miscalculations during their initial periods of study.
Going back to my aforementioned sentence: At my current level, I would likely attempt to render it as:

日本語が大好きだけど漢字は。。。(ちょっと難しいな？)
Japanese (Subject); Liked (However); Kanji... (with the unspoken implication that Kanji is not regarded with the same warmth)
I like Japanese, but Kanji...

If the unspoken part was rendered aloud, I would likely interpret it as

日本語が大好きだけど漢字はちょっと難しいな？
Japanese (Subject); Liked (However); Kanji: Somewhat + Difficult (with な being used to make to turn the statement in a matter of rumination that engages the Listener, in such a manner as to suggest that Kanji is an aspect of the Language that is disliked)
I like Japanese, but Kanji is pretty difficult, eh?

For my final sentence (and another Month 1 excerpt), I incorrectly wrote:

実は人間に変身前に余は天使だった

in an attempt to say:

In truth, before being changed into a Human, I used to be an Angel

Thankfully, someone was kind enough to try salvaging my terrible Japanese, and produced:

実は人間に変身する前に余は天使だった
In truth, before transforming into a Human, I was an Angel

Even still, though there's a discrepancy between what was initially intended, and what could be salvaged by combing through my clutter
If we were to assume that someone knew all of the requisite Vocabulary, however, and was given the Fundamental Translation as a guide for what was intended for the Japanese, perhaps one could turn:

[Truth (Subject)]: [Mortal (into)] + [Transform (Passive Present Verb)] + [Before (with に to subjugate the following portion of the sentence to the concept of "Before")]: [Pronoun suggesting one's status as a supernatural being of a higher order (Subject)]: Angel (Literary Past Tense form of "だ", used to fix something's place in a sentence as "being")

One could hopefully begin to "insert" the Japanese into the English spaces--like a Puzzle, and create something along the lines of:

実は人間に変身される前に我は天使であった
Truth: Human/Mortal, before I was changed/transformed into: Angel, was.
In truth, before I was transformed into a Human, I used to be an Angel

Disclaimer: I am not claiming that this sentence is necessarily correct, however, hopefully, I was able to demonstrate how synthesizing Natural Japanese with a Fundamental-Based Interpretation System can at least help one to construct something better than what I was writing on Month 1

• Section 8: Conclusion

One of the most prevalent issues that can be seen across many Learners of all levels in Japanese, is that, even if one's Vocabulary manages to reach astronomical levels, they may still have difficulty actually producing anything in Japanese. There have even been many cases of rather high-level learners who could tear through a Manga or translate something into English rather quickly, but still openly confess to struggling with their output into Japanese, and I believe that the current manner that Dictionaries and Textbooks are formatted, is responsible for this
The current state of English Translations are optimized to be convenient, however convenience is a privilege.
Perhaps if one is studying a Target Language that resides in a similar Language Family, one can afford to adapt the Translations to the Learner's "ear", however, one cannot afford to take these same liberties when the Languages are as distant as English and Japanese

• Since English and Japanese are irretrievably difference on a fundamental level, a good educational Translation should not prioritize appearing "natural"
  
• Yes, "English is a SVO Language, and Japanese is SOV", however it is not enough to just say it, then go on producing Translations as though it is not true. Not only are Japanese Sentences constructed differently, but the terminology, conjugations, expressions, cultural nuances, and implications are all distinct from those of the Anglosphere
  
• Rather than trying to interpret Japanese through the lens of one's Native Language, the Native Language should merely be used as a visual aid to help us understand the Japanese
  
• This means that the first priority with an Educational Translation should be to state what is literally happening, and why, and only after this, should it use an adapted English-centric Sentence to help solidify the enumerated concepts into the Learner's mind.
  
• Since English and Japanese have no "natural" connection, the "proper" manner of creating an Educational Translation should be [Natural Japanese -> Unnatural English], because [Unnatural English] (i.e. when handled correctly) = [Natural Japanese]
  
• If you attempt to translate [Natural Japanese -> Natural English] you usually end up with "Anime Subtitles" that communicate the "point", but are so heavily processed, as to be completely stripped of their educational substance or nuance.
  
• Likewise, if your only input is [Natural Japanese -> Natural English], this is how many learners end up with an output of [Natural English -> Unnatural Japanese]. My experience is comparatively limited on this one, but from what I have observed, this seems to be the cause of the infamous "Textbook" Japanese, which overuses Pronouns, Particles, "です", specifically, and leads to one producing sentences like "このリンゴは赤いだ" (日本語上手ですね！)
  
• I do not think that Fundamental English Translations should replace the adapted ones, but they should be included alongside them to help one better understand the Japanese
  
• To see how the Fundamental Approach works on one's own Native Language: Take this sentence
  

"The Weather is humid today".

You could also dissolve this English Sentence following the same principles

[The Weather (Establishes the subject; Since "The" is used, "Weather" is being referred to in a general sense, with no emphasis toward the particular Weather--as would be signified by "this")]: [is (indicates that the condition still applies) + Humid (the condition, itself)] + [Today (indicating the position that this sentence is occurring, which happen to be in a temporal one, namely, the current Day)]

and shuffle the pieces to create:

Today, the Weather is humid
[Today (establishes the position, which shapes the rest of the sentence)]: [The Weather (Subject, being referred to generally, rather than particularly)]: [is (indicates that the condition still applies) Humid (the condition, itself)]

Which, at least to my ears, carries a more literary flair
or you could substitute some pieces to say

The Weather was humid Yesterday

Which follows the same (Subject) + (Condition) + (Position) Pattern

• Following this logic, one could argue that Fundamental Translations for Japanese are merely Fundamental Japanese being expressed through the medium of one's Native Language, as it makes the otherwise unknown Target Language easier to visualize and experiment with.
  
• In this way, even without fully understanding the Source Code of one's Target Language, they are nonetheless able to "hack" it, by using their Native Language as a remote controller.
  

As far as implementation goes, unless there are legal prohibitions that prevent Dictionaries from modifying their example sentences, the best method (at least for Online Dictionaries) would be to introduce an expandable "Tab" next to some of the given Sentences that provides the Fundamental Translation, and the logic behind it (or some variant of this)
Because, once again "Informational" does not mean "Educational", and unlike Subtitles, the purpose of these Translations is not Entertain, but to Educate.

Disclaimer: Please note that, as I am only a few months into studying Japanese, one or more of the arguments, explanations, or assertions that I have proposed could be inaccurate or incomplete.
Since I am also learning, and desire to learn: If there are any genuine mistakes, either in my arguments, or in my Japanese, please feel free to provide me with any corrections, so that we can all continue to grow our Language skills, together.
This Write-Up took over 15 Hours to compose, and I tried my hardest to make it as thorough and informative as possible for the benefit of the Japanese Learning Community, so please be kind.
May we all eat heartily, rest well, and Learn Japanese.

(Not sure if this is the right place to find help) so basically I moved out of my apartment 8-9 months ago and I owed them some money (we’ll just $520.70) in the form of a cashiers check as my last payment. They said I had 30 days to pay it, I paid it right away on time. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago I get a notification saying I have a new account on my credit report. It’s a debt collection company saying I owe my old apartment $520.70, the same amount I already paid in person. I got in contact with my old apartment and they claimed they never sent me to collections, and they also sent me my ledger proving I paid them, I also have the copy of the cashiers check. Anyways I sent that info to the collections company and they said they would investigate it or something. Today I get a letter from them saying they reviewed my dispute and it alleges no new facts to form a new investigation and they will not be conducting another investigation, which is confusing to me. What should I do? Should i contact my old apartment again and try to get something from them to prove I paid? This is a first time for me so I have no idea on what to do and would appreciate any advice. Thank you

Hello! I'm fairly new to MTG (started playing Jumpstart like 2 months ago and now getting into EDH).
I learned from https://www.reddit.com/mtgrules/comments/14yf2lm/copying_copies/ and https://www.reddit.com/magicTCG/comments/37rli9/can_someone_eli5_me_artisan_of_forms/ that [[Artisan of Forms]] can target itself to stack the Heroic trigger, since it becomes its own copy, which I think is pretty neat.
That got me thinking what if I copy a creature that has a "once each turn" effect. Let's say I target my [[Artisan of Forms]] twice so that it gets the Heroic trigger three times. I then target it a third time and copy someone's [[Kami of Jealous Thirst]]. Assuming I've drawn three cards this turn and can pay the cost for Kami of Jealous Thirst, can I rearrange the triggers on the stack as follows?

1. I cast an enchantment aura on Artisan of Forms.
2. For the first Heroic trigger, I copy Kami of Jealous Thirst.
3. I use Kami of Jealous Thirst's ability. It's once per turn. It resolves.
4. For the second Heroic trigger, I copy Kami again.

Can this second copy of Kami use its ability as well? I know it's not a super OP combo, but I think it's pretty fun.
I guess my question is are the creatures Artisan of Forms copies considered new objects with no "memory"? Even though Artisan of Forms itself will be the first, second, and third copy?
I hope this makes sense. Thank you.

Kernel: 5.15.0-70-generic.
I used to (parameter is_remap=0) in a similar task, upon receiving an input request bio, I formed my request bioto a higher-level device, and everything worked. But slowly. The writing speed to the flash drive was ~460 kb/sec. Then I decided to forward the request bioto the upstream device directly ( is_remap=1). If you do not try to modify the data, then everything works, and the speed increases to 1.8 Mb/sec, i.e. ~ 4 times. But if you start modifying the data (and this is necessary), then only recording works. When reading, dd receives undecrypted data, and bioin stackbd_end_io_read_cloned(previously cloned using bio_clone_fastin stackbd_io_fn_remap) generally has a zero size. In this case, the size obiois non-zero. How does this even happen, and how to do it right?
It’s interesting that if stackbd_end_io_read_clonedyou change the data after the call bio_endio, then ddthe decrypted data arrives, but I feel that doing this is not correct. Which is confirmed by the fact that fsckafter that mkfsthe system crashes.
For example, I read the sector: user@linux:~/git/stackbd/module$ sudo dd if=/dev/stackbd0 count=1 hexdump -C 00000000 63 d0 18 e5 e3 ee fb a6 ee e9 fc 88 8a a8 a8 88 c............... 00000010 8a 88 88 88 88 70 88 88 98 88 8c 88 88 88 88 88 .....p.......... 00000020 88 48 26 8b 88 b3 88 88 88 88 88 88 8a 88 88 88 .H&............. 00000030 89 88 8e 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 ................ 00000040 08 88 a1 57 55 08 9b c6 c7 a8 c6 c9 c5 cd a8 a8 ...WU........... 00000050 a8 a8 ce c9 dc bb ba a8 a8 a8 86 97 36 ff f4 24 ............6..$ 00000060 aa 48 fc 83 de 3c 86 33 8f 88 45 98 d6 63 78 ba .H...<.3..E..cx. 00000070 6c 45 9e 45 91 63 76 dc e0 e1 fb a8 e1 fb a8 e6 lE.E.cv......... 00000080 e7 fc a8 e9 a8 ea e7 e7 fc e9 ea e4 ed a8 ec e1 ................ 00000090 fb e3 a6 a8 a8 d8 e4 ed e9 fb ed a8 e1 e6 fb ed ................ 000000a0 fa fc a8 e9 a8 ea e7 e7 fc e9 ea e4 ed a8 ee e4 ................ 000000b0 e7 f8 f8 f1 a8 e9 e6 ec 85 82 f8 fa ed fb fb a8 ................ 000000c0 e9 e6 f1 a8 e3 ed f1 a8 fc e7 a8 fc fa f1 a8 e9 ................ 000000d0 ef e9 e1 e6 a8 a6 a6 a6 a8 85 82 88 88 88 88 88 ................ 000000e0 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 ................ * 000001f0 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 88 dd 22 ..............." 1+0 records in 1+0 records out 512 bytes copied, 0,0063565 s, 80,5 kB/s 00000200 user@linux:~/git/stackbd/module$ And this is what I see in the log: kernel: stackbd [task=00000000c60564d5] stackbd_io_fn_remap: HIT.r.1 kernel: debugbd [task=00000000c60564d5] debugbd_submit_bio: debugbd: make request read block 0 #pages 0 total-size 16384 kernel: stackbd [task=00000000c60564d5] stackbd_io_fn_remap: HIT.r.2 kernel: stackbd [task=0000000089abc07d] stackbd_end_io_read_cloned: HIT.1 kernel: stackbd [task=0000000089abc07d] stackbd_end_io_read_cloned: HIT.2: obio.size=16384; bio.size=0 kernel: stackbd [task=0000000089abc07d] stackbd_end_io_read_cloned: HIT.3 kernel: stackbd [task=0000000089abc07d] stackbd_end_io_read_cloned: HIT.4 kernel: stackbd [task=00000000c60564d5] stackbd_io_fn_remap: HIT.r.1 kernel: debugbd [task=00000000c60564d5] debugbd_submit_bio: debugbd: make request read block 32 #pages 0 total-size 32768 kernel: stackbd [task=00000000c60564d5] stackbd_io_fn_remap: HIT.r.2 kernel: stackbd [task=0000000089abc07d] stackbd_end_io_read_cloned: HIT.1 kernel: stackbd [task=0000000089abc07d] stackbd_end_io_read_cloned: HIT.2: obio.size=32768; bio.size=0 kernel: stackbd [task=0000000089abc07d] stackbd_end_io_read_cloned: HIT.3 debugbd is the same driver, but displays information about requests for debugging.
stackbd driver source code: ```

include

include

include

include

include // printk()

include // everything...

include // error codes

include // size_t

include

include

include

include

include

include

include "logging.h"

include "../common/stackbd.h"

define STACKBD_BDEV_MODE (FMODE_READ FMODE_WRITE FMODE_EXCL)

define KERNEL_SECTOR_SHIFT 9

define KERNEL_SECTOR_SIZE (1 << KERNEL_SECTOR_SHIFT)

define DECLARE_BIO_VEC struct bio_vec

define ACCESS_BIO_VEC(x) (x)

define DECLARE_BVEC_ITER struct bvec_iter

define BIO_SET_SECTOR(bio, sec) (bio)->bi_iter.bi_sector = (sec)

define BIO_GET_SECTOR(bio) (bio)->bi_iter.bi_sector

define BIO_GET_SIZE(bio) (bio)->bi_iter.bi_size

define BIO_SET_BDEV(bio, bdev) bio_set_dev((bio), (bdev));

//#ifdef CONFIG_LBDAF

define SEC_FMT "llu"

//#else //#define SEC_FMT "lu" //#endif
MODULE_LICENSE("Dual BSD/GPL");
static int major_num = 0; module_param(major_num, int, 0); static int LOGICAL_BLOCK_SIZE = 512; module_param(LOGICAL_BLOCK_SIZE, int, 0); static bool is_remap = false; module_param(is_remap, bool, 0);
typedef struct { char path[PATH_MAX]; fmode_t mode; bool is_bdev_raw_ok; struct block_device *bdev_raw; } stackbd_target_t;
/* * The internal representation of our device. / static struct stackbd_t { sector_t capacity; / Sectors / struct gendisk *gd; spinlock_t lock; struct bio_list bio_list; struct task_struct *thread; int is_active; stackbd_target_t tgt; / Our request queue */ struct request_queue *queue; } stackbd;
static DECLARE_WAIT_QUEUE_HEAD(req_event);
typedef void (* t_stackbd_io_fn)(struct bio *); static t_stackbd_io_fn p_stackbd_io_fn = NULL; static struct bio_set bs;
int buffer_read( struct stackbd_t *dev, unsigned long sector, unsigned long nsect, char *buffer ) { int result = 0; unsigned nsize = nsect << KERNEL_SECTOR_SHIFT; int npages = ((nsize - 1) >> PAGE_SHIFT) + 1; struct bio *bio; struct block_device *bdev = dev->tgt.bdev_raw;

//PINFO("begin; sector=%ld; nsect=%ld; buffer=%p\n", sector, nsect, buffer); if(unlikely(!dev->tgt.is_bdev_raw_ok)) { PERROR("bdev is NULL!\n"); result = -EFAULT; goto out; } bio = bio_alloc(GFP_NOIO, npages); if(unlikely(!bio)) { PERROR("bio_alloc failed!\n"); result = -ENOMEM; goto out; } BIO_SET_BDEV(bio, bdev); BIO_SET_SECTOR(bio, sector); bio_set_op_attrs(bio, REQ_OP_READ, REQ_PREFLUSH); { char *ptr = buffer; do { struct page *page; page = virt_to_page(ptr); if(unlikely(!page)) { PERROR("virt_to_page failed!\n"); result = -ENOMEM; break; } { unsigned op = offset_in_page(ptr); unsigned this_step = min((unsigned)(PAGE_SIZE - op), nsize); bio_add_page(bio, page, this_step, op); nsize -= this_step; ptr += this_step; } } while(nsize > 0); if(likely(!result)) { result = submit_bio_wait(bio); } bio_put(bio); } 

out: //PINFO("end (%d)\n", result); return result; }
int buffer_write( struct stackbd_t *dev, unsigned long sector, unsigned long nsect, char *buffer ) { int result = 0; unsigned nsize = nsect << KERNEL_SECTOR_SHIFT; int npages = ((nsize - 1) >> PAGE_SHIFT) + 1; struct bio *bio; struct block_device *bdev = dev->tgt.bdev_raw;

//PINFO("begin; sector=%ld; nsect=%ld; buffer=%p\n", sector, nsect, buffer); if(unlikely(!dev->tgt.is_bdev_raw_ok)) { PERROR("bdev is NULL!\n"); result = -EFAULT; goto out; } bio = bio_alloc(GFP_NOIO, npages); if(unlikely(!bio)) { PERROR("bio_alloc failed!\n"); result = -ENOMEM; goto out; } BIO_SET_BDEV(bio, bdev); BIO_SET_SECTOR(bio, sector); bio_set_op_attrs(bio, REQ_OP_WRITE, REQ_PREFLUSH); { char *ptr = buffer; do { struct page *page = virt_to_page(ptr); if(unlikely(!page)) { PERROR("alloc page failed!\n"); result = -ENOMEM; break; } { unsigned op = offset_in_page(ptr); unsigned this_step = min((unsigned)(PAGE_SIZE - op), nsize); bio_add_page(bio, page, this_step, op); nsize -= this_step; ptr += this_step; } } while(nsize > 0); if(likely(!result)) { #if LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(4, 8, 0) result = submit_bio_wait(bio); #else result = submit_bio_wait(WRITE REQ_FLUSH, bio); #endif } bio_put(bio); } 

out: //PINFO("end (%d)\n", result); return result; }
static void stackbd_end_io_read_cloned(struct bio *bio) { struct bio *obio = bio->bi_private; PINFO("HIT.1"); if (bio_data_dir(bio) == READ) { DECLARE_BIO_VEC bvec; DECLARE_BVEC_ITER iter;

 PINFO("HIT.2: obio.size=%u; bio.size=%u", BIO_GET_SIZE(obio), BIO_GET_SIZE(bio)); bio_for_each_segment(bvec, bio, iter) { char *p = page_address(ACCESS_BIO_VEC(bvec).bv_page) + ACCESS_BIO_VEC(bvec).bv_offset; int len = ACCESS_BIO_VEC(bvec).bv_len; int i; print_hex_dump(KERN_INFO, "readed data (1-st 16 bytes) ", DUMP_PREFIX_OFFSET, 16, 1, p, 16, false); for(i = 0; i < len; i++) { //*p++ ^= 0x12345678; *p++ ^= 0x88; } //p += len; } PINFO("HIT.3"); bio_put(bio); bio_endio(obio); } else { bio_put(bio); bio_endio(obio); } //bio_put(bio); PINFO("HIT.4"); 

}
static void stackbd_io_fn_remap(struct bio *bio) { DECLARE_BIO_VEC bvec; DECLARE_BVEC_ITER iter; struct bio *cbio = bio_clone_fast(bio, GFP_NOIO, &bs);

BIO_SET_BDEV(cbio, stackbd.tgt.bdev_raw); cbio->bi_end_io = stackbd_end_io_read_cloned; cbio->bi_private = bio; //submit_bio_noacct(cbio); //trace_block_bio_remap(/*bdev_get_queue(stackbd.bdev_raw), */bio, // stackbd.tgt.bdev_raw->bd_dev, BIO_GET_SECTOR(bio)); if (bio_data_dir(bio) == READ) { PINFO("HIT.r.1"); submit_bio_noacct(cbio); PINFO("HIT.r.2"); } else { PINFO("HIT.w.1"); bio_for_each_segment(bvec, cbio, iter) { char *p = page_address(ACCESS_BIO_VEC(bvec).bv_page) + ACCESS_BIO_VEC(bvec).bv_offset; int len = ACCESS_BIO_VEC(bvec).bv_len; int i; for(i = 0; i < len; i++) { // *p++ ^= 0x12345678; *p++ ^= 0x88; } print_hex_dump(KERN_INFO, "writed data (1-st 16 bytes) ", DUMP_PREFIX_OFFSET, 16, 1, p, 16, false); //p += len; } PINFO("HIT.w.2"); submit_bio_noacct(cbio); PINFO("HIT.w.3"); } 

}
static void my_bio_complete(struct bio *bio, int ret) { if (ret) bio_io_error(bio); else bio_endio(bio); }
static void stackbd_io_fn_clone(struct bio *bio) { int res; DECLARE_BIO_VEC bvec; DECLARE_BVEC_ITER iter; sector_t sector = BIO_GET_SECTOR(bio); int size = BIO_GET_SIZE(bio); int nsect = size >> KERNEL_SECTOR_SHIFT; char *src, *p;

do { if (bio_data_dir(bio) == READ) { p = src = kmalloc(size, GFP_KERNEL); if (!src) { PERROR("Unable to allocate read buffer!\n"); res = -ENOMEM; break; } do { res = buffer_read(&stackbd, sector, nsect, src); if (unlikely(res)) { PERROR("i/o error while read!\n"); break; } bio_for_each_segment(bvec, bio, iter) { char *dst = page_address(ACCESS_BIO_VEC(bvec).bv_page) + ACCESS_BIO_VEC(bvec).bv_offset; int len = ACCESS_BIO_VEC(bvec).bv_len; memcpy(dst, p, len); p += len; } } while (0); } else { p = src = kmalloc(size, GFP_KERNEL); if (!src) { PERROR("Unable to allocate write buffer!\n"); res = -ENOMEM; break; } bio_for_each_segment(bvec, bio, iter) { char *dst = page_address(ACCESS_BIO_VEC(bvec).bv_page) + ACCESS_BIO_VEC(bvec).bv_offset; int len = ACCESS_BIO_VEC(bvec).bv_len; memcpy(p, dst, len); p += len; } res = buffer_write(&stackbd, sector, nsect, src); if (unlikely(res)) { PERROR("i/o error while write!\n"); } } kfree(src); } while (0); my_bio_complete(bio, res); 

} // stackbd_io_fn_clone
static int stackbd_threadfn(void *data) { struct bio *bio;

set_user_nice(current, -20); while (!kthread_should_stop()) { /* wake_up() is after adding bio to list. No need for condition */ wait_event_interruptible(req_event, kthread_should_stop() !bio_list_empty(&stackbd.bio_list)); spin_lock_irq(&stackbd.lock); if (bio_list_empty(&stackbd.bio_list)) { spin_unlock_irq(&stackbd.lock); continue; } bio = bio_list_pop(&stackbd.bio_list); spin_unlock_irq(&stackbd.lock); p_stackbd_io_fn(bio); } return 0; 

}
// Handle an I/O request. static blk_qc_t stackbd_submit_bio(struct bio bio) { /PINFO("stackbd: make request %-5s block %-12" SEC_FMT " #pages %-4hu total-size %-10u\n", bio_data_dir(bio) == WRITE ? "write" : "read", BIO_GET_SECTOR(bio), bio->bi_vcnt, BIO_GET_SIZE(bio) );*/

spin_lock_irq(&stackbd.lock); if (!stackbd.tgt.bdev_raw) { PERROR("Request before bdev_raw is ready, aborting\n"); goto abort; } if (!stackbd.is_active) { PERROR("Device not active yet, aborting\n"); goto abort; } bio_list_add(&stackbd.bio_list, bio); wake_up(&req_event); spin_unlock_irq(&stackbd.lock); goto exit; 

abort: spin_unlock_irq(&stackbd.lock); PERROR("<%p> Abort request\n", bio); bio_io_error(bio); exit: return BLK_QC_T_NONE; }
static int stackbd_target_open(stackbd_target_t *p_tdev) { int res = 0; char *path = p_tdev->path;

PINFO("Open %s\n", path); { struct block_device *bdev_raw = blkdev_get_by_path(path, p_tdev->mode, p_tdev); p_tdev->bdev_raw = bdev_raw; if (unlikely(IS_ERR(bdev_raw))) { res = PTR_ERR(bdev_raw); PINFO("error opening raw device %s <%d>\n", path, res); } p_tdev->is_bdev_raw_ok = !res; return res; } 

}
static void stackbd_target_close(stackbd_target_t *p_tdev) { if (p_tdev->is_bdev_raw_ok) { blkdev_put(p_tdev->bdev_raw, p_tdev->mode); p_tdev->bdev_raw = NULL; p_tdev->is_bdev_raw_ok = false; } }
static int stackbd_start(char dev_path[]) { unsigned max_sectors; sector_t lba;

stackbd_target_t *p_tgt = &stackbd.tgt; strcpy(p_tgt->path, dev_path); p_tgt->mode = STACKBD_BDEV_MODE; if(stackbd_target_open(p_tgt) < 0) { PERROR("Error while stackbd_target_open(..)!"); return -EFAULT; } /* Set up our internal device */ lba = i_size_read(p_tgt->bdev_raw->bd_inode) >> KERNEL_SECTOR_SHIFT; stackbd.capacity = lba;//get_capacity(stackbd.bdev_raw->bd_disk); PINFO("Device real capacity: %" SEC_FMT "\n", stackbd.capacity); set_capacity(stackbd.gd, stackbd.capacity); max_sectors = queue_max_hw_sectors(bdev_get_queue(p_tgt->bdev_raw)); blk_queue_max_hw_sectors(stackbd.queue, max_sectors); PINFO("Max sectors: %u\n", max_sectors); stackbd.thread = kthread_create(stackbd_threadfn, NULL, stackbd.gd->disk_name); if (IS_ERR(stackbd.thread)) { PERROR("error kthread_create <%lu>\n", PTR_ERR(stackbd.thread)); goto error_after_bdev; } PINFO("done initializing successfully\n"); stackbd.is_active = 1; wake_up_process(stackbd.thread); return 0; 

error_after_bdev: stackbd_target_close(p_tgt);

return -EFAULT; 

}
static int stackbd_ioctl(struct block_device *bdev, fmode_t mode, unsigned int cmd, unsigned long arg) { char dev_path[80]; void __user *argp = (void __user *)arg;

switch (cmd) { case STACKBD_DO_IT: PINFO("\n*** DO IT!!!!!!! ***\n\n"); if (copy_from_user(dev_path, argp, sizeof(dev_path))) return -EFAULT; return stackbd_start(dev_path); default: return -ENOTTY; } 

}
/* * The HDIO_GETGEO ioctl is handled in blkdev_ioctl(), which * calls this. We need to implement getgeo, since we can't * use tools such as fdisk to partition the drive otherwise. */ int stackbd_getgeo(struct block_device * block_device, struct hd_geometry * geo) { long size;

/* We have no real geometry, of course, so make something up. */ size = stackbd.capacity * (LOGICAL_BLOCK_SIZE / KERNEL_SECTOR_SIZE); geo->cylinders = (size & ~0x3f) >> 6; geo->heads = 4; geo->sectors = 16; geo->start = 0; return 0; 

}
/* * The device operations structure. */ static struct block_device_operations stackbd_ops = { .owner = THIS_MODULE, .submit_bio = stackbd_submit_bio, .getgeo = stackbd_getgeo, .ioctl = stackbd_ioctl, };
static int __init stackbd_init(void) { PINFO("is_remap=%d\n", is_remap);

if (is_remap) { p_stackbd_io_fn = stackbd_io_fn_remap; } else { p_stackbd_io_fn = stackbd_io_fn_clone; } /* Set up our internal device */ spin_lock_init(&stackbd.lock); /* Get registered */ if ((major_num = register_blkdev(major_num, STACKBD_NAME)) < 0) { PERROR("unable to get major number\n"); goto error_after_alloc_queue; } /* Gendisk structure */ if (!(stackbd.gd = blk_alloc_disk(NUMA_NO_NODE))) { PERROR("unable to alloc disk\n"); goto error_after_register_blkdev; } stackbd.gd->major = major_num; stackbd.gd->first_minor = 0; stackbd.gd->minors = 1 << 4; stackbd.gd->fops = &stackbd_ops; stackbd.gd->private_data = &stackbd; strcpy(stackbd.gd->disk_name, STACKBD_NAME_0); stackbd.queue = stackbd.gd->queue; if(bioset_init(&bs, 64, 0, BIOSET_NEED_BVECS) < 0) //if(bioset_init(&bs, BIO_POOL_SIZE, 0, 0) < 0) { PERROR( "Cannot allocate bioset"); goto error_after_register_blkdev; } if(add_disk(stackbd.gd) < 0) { PERROR("unable to add disk\n"); goto error_after_register_blkdev; } PINFO("init done\n"); return 0; 

error_after_register_blkdev: unregister_blkdev(major_num, STACKBD_NAME); error_after_alloc_queue: blk_cleanup_queue(stackbd.queue);

return -EFAULT; 

}
static void __exit stackbd_exit(void) { PINFO("exit\n");

if (stackbd.is_active) { kthread_stop(stackbd.thread); stackbd_target_close(&stackbd.tgt); } del_gendisk(stackbd.gd); put_disk(stackbd.gd); bioset_exit(&bs); unregister_blkdev(major_num, STACKBD_NAME); blk_cleanup_queue(stackbd.queue); 

}
module_init(stackbd_init); module_exit(stackbd_exit); ``` https://github.com/zenboostestackbd/blob/5.15.0-70-generic/module/main.c

My attorney filed my i-485 with the derivative applications ( EAD,etc) on May 22nd. I attached copies of the the authorization form for credit card transactions. Since then I have been monitoring my credit card account to see if USCIS charged me for the application and so far nothing! I heard that normally USCIS is quick to collect fees. I also see people who filed their petitions at the same time already get their receipt notices and their biometrics appointments. Should I be worried? What can I do ? This doesn’t seem right

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Two items — a crystal ball, and a green leather-bound notebook — sat benignly and idly atop of the black-robed professor’s desk.
The camera lingered on them, giving them what most may see as an undeserved moment in the spotlight.
But to those that knew, to the parties invested in this controversy, this little pause and dramatic zoom-in was accompanied by a hair-raising excitement… along with an untempered nervousness for what was to come.
It definitely caused the investigative duo on the other side of the screen some pause for thought; prompting them to stand intently, pondering both the orb and the notebook.
Ilunor, as far as I could tell, was entranced by the green notebook in particular. Though it wasn’t a trance born out of any positive emotion, but instead, one of abject horror.
“Recommended Reading Materials for the Studious Student.” Sorecar announced with a steady breath, prompting Ilunor to visibly flinch in his seat, as the man reached a finger over to point at the hand-scrawled title of the leather-bound notebook. That finger soon found itself carefully manipulating its pages, opening the cover first, before turning over the internal dust-cover to reveal letters and symbols written in High Nexian, but arranged in a manner the EVI simply could not translate.
“Error: Unable to Translate. Cause: Unrecognized and/or unintelligible organization of local script-forms.”
Yet despite this, it seemed as if both Sorecar and the Apprentice were able to draw something from its otherwise senseless pages. As despite being written haphazardly, with letters and pictograms arranged in no meaningful order, they were able to still draw meaning where the EVI couldn’t.
“Within these pages lie materials for the studious student. Materials are to be found within The Library, and are to be retrieved with great haste. May you make swift work of their contents, and may those after you find only ash in your wake. Seek, unlearn, and remove from the grip of the eternal entity, that which was once a gift but is now a curse. Seek, unlearn, and remove; with the fires of your passion, oh studious student.” Sorecar read aloud, managing to read something verbatim from the nonsensical pages of the book.
Ilunor’s eyes were practically glazed over at this point, as he began bringing his cape over across his chest, tucking his legs towards his chin in the process.
“This is it.” The apprentice announced with a half-cracked smile. “Please, keep going. I’m certain your skills of appraisal far exceed my own, Professor.”
Sorecar obliged by flipping the page, turning over to two pages of complete gibberish, once again watermarked by the EVI’s error message; but proving no challenge at all for the ever-inquisitive professor.
“Section One, A Tainted Reality: A Wretched Collection of Historical Affidavits During the Reconciliation and Reformation of Otherwise Lost Realities.” Sorecar paused, before turning towards the apprentice. “It lists an entire section’s worth of books, in titles held within spatial positions with reference to their potentialities within the ever-evolving library.”
Thacea’s features visibly flinched at that revelation, but similar to the apprentice in the footage, she refused to comment. At least not for now. Her eyes however betrayed a look of mild distress, which subsided somewhat as the apprentice urged the armorer to continue.
Which he did, as he flipped from page to page across the relatively small notebook, only pausing to read in between what he interpreted to be different sections and ‘chapters’.
“Section Two. The Unspoken War and the Treacherous Alliance.”
“Section Three. All surviving works from Alaroy Rital.”
The apprentice cocked her head, as if trying to recall some familiarity in that name. “Alaroy Rital.” She repeated. “I don’t recall hearing of such a name before.”
“Well his full name, as far as I recall, and vastly aided by the book is as follows: Alaroy Rital, Lord-Mayor of the Township of the Two Rivers, Slayer of the Dragon of the Grey Canyon, Repeller of the Tainted Blight of the Orsin, Liberator of the Aether, and Grand Master of the Elusian Guild Hall of Adventurers.” Sorecar responded succinctly, prompting the apprentice to once more clench her eyes shut in deep thought, before finally letting out a sigh of defeat.
“The name is both familiar yet foreign at the same time.” She finally admitted.
“As far as I recall, and mind you, my memory of those years are far from perfect… the man was a local hero of sorts. Though his record was besmirched by some controversy or another.” Sorecar offered, prompting the apprentice to finally shrug, giving up on this particular subject matter entirely.
“There are more sections, yes?”
“Correct.”
“Then let’s move on.”
Sorecar nodded promptly at that, flipping the pages over until he hit the next section.
“Section Four. A Sordid Account of the Most Bizarre of Newrealmer Arrivals: A Death By Harmonization and the Ensuing Investigation.”
That immediately got my attention, causing me to jolt forwards, prompting the armor to quickly follow as it automatically switched from the currently active in-armor-postural-readjustment mode, and back into its active configuration.
“Section Five. The Unfortunate Procedures Against Unruly Realms and the Instances in Which Such Procedures Were Incurred.”
The armorer paused after that, not necessarily due to its contents, but as if puzzled by what lay ahead in the next few final pages. In fact, he flipped back and forth between the pages soon after that, treading and retreading what were effectively the last five pages of the book. “There is an appendix which includes titles not covered by these sections, however it will take some time to read through them.”
“That’s enough for now, professor.” The apprentice offered, prompting the man to quickly pull back, closing the notebook with an unsatisfying thump. “We have our glowing wand.” The apprentice surmised. “The oeuvre of works which are no doubt the subject of this grand controversy. Now all we need to find is the contract which ties everything together.”
“I’m assuming you haven’t forgotten about our second item of interest?” Sorecar gestured towards the crystal ball.
“Of course not, professor. However, the fact we’ve found that book implies that we must be close to its dependent article.” The apprentice responded with a renewed sense of urgency, as she began using that same ornate magnifying glass in an attempt to further pick apart each and every nook and cranny of Mal’tory’s desk.
Part of me wanted to make some joke about how this was every unpaid intern’s dream, to be rummaging through your boss’ stuff.
But that part of me was completely buried underneath the confusion and dread that came with the revelations from within that little green book.
I… honestly didn’t know what I was expecting, but I felt like I’d been suckerpunched, with the wind being knocked right out of me from the implications of exactly what had been selectively purged from the library.
It was a struggle to process it all, which more or less made me dull out the more eccentric aspects of the apprentice’s investigation; as she unlocked drawer after drawer, pulling out pile after pile of magical nicknacks and more documents than what was possible from that finite amount of space.
Sorecar was clearly of the same opinion as the rest of us right now however, as he continued obsessing over the book, his hands once more trailing over to inspect its cryptic pages. The man seemed transfixed on the second and third sections in particular, though his featureless visor made it difficult to really pin down what his reactions were.
Yet throughout all of this, it was clear the reactions on the homefront were much, much more animated, as Ilunor was just about ready to pass out from the stress, and Thacea seemed about ready to burst at the seams if her featureless facade was of any indication.
“That was the book.” Ilunor finally chimed out, just as the narration through the recording had died down during the more tepid phase of the apprentice’s investigation. “I know it.”
“I thought your memories when it came to the whole Mal’tory book burning situation was lost, Ilunor?” Thalmin countered.
“It was. I mean, it still is. But I remember parts of that room. I vaguely recall the emergence of a book that I was forced to…” The Vunerian trailed off, as if struggling to piece together words.
“... to sign?” Thalmin offered in a surprisingly helpful tone which stood at odds with how he earlier regarded the Vunerian.
“No. No you imbecil-” The Vunerian paused, realizing his misstep as he backtracked from what would’ve otherwise been an expected response. “That wasn’t a book of binding. It’s not comparable to the yearbook, if that was where your assumptions were leading to, Prince Thalmin.” Ilunor clarified, gripping the armrests of his seat tight between his fingers.
It was about this point in time that I expected Thacea to chime in, to elaborate on the nature of the book with her encyclopedic knowledge on seemingly every aspect of the magical world.
But she didn’t.
Instead, her eyes remained practically glued to the screen, as I realized that whatever had been revealed thus far had hit much, much harder than I could’ve imagined.
Ilunor, as if taking note of this silence, elected to fill in for Thacea. “The book… is an adjacent artifact. It is, as the apprentice has noted, an eclectic oeuvre of works, a list if you will, to be bound to and referenced by a contract and a spell of binding. The book itself isn’t the binding agent, moreso the reference material by which the contract is hinged upon.”
“So what’s with the illegible text? Are they ciphers or some magical equivalent of it?” I gestured once more at the bird’s eye view offered by the drone, and the pages of indecipherable text currently beneath Sorecar’s hands.
“Those are anchor runes, earthrelamer.” Ilunor answered with a frustrated sigh. “It is frustrating to see them for what they are not. Frankly, it’s as if your sight-seers and memory-shards were designed to mimic the world as it is seen through the eyes of a particularly weak-fielded commoner.” The Vunerian went off, venting his frustrations through a rant before finally calming down. “But I digress. Those runes are referred to as anchors for a reason. For tethered to them are akin to pages of text to be openly read and deciphered within the manastreams. Granted, this form of writing is not common; moreso used for the purposes of contracts and other such magical binds.”
“And on the topic of contracts. I’m assuming that the contract… your contract, is what the Apprentice is currently rummaging for?” I gestured towards the screen once more, at the apprentice who was now buried ankle-deep in piles upon piles of books, documents, and an assortment of scrolls that criss-crossed across the room’s mahogany and carpeted floors.
“Unless she’s a complete nitwit, then I’d imagine so, yes.” Ilunor responded with his signature cattiness. “In any case, the fact she’s even trying proves that she’s barely above a fool anyways.” The Vunerian shrugged. “And before you ask, earthrealmer, let me preempt your question. The contract, at least on the professor’s end, has more than likely suffered the same fate as my own. Namely, its existence is more than certain to be dubious at best. What the apprentice will surely find will be nothing more than ash at the bottom of that bottomless drawer. Which… given its sheer size and scale, and the potential inhabitants within its limitless confines, will more than likely result in even ash being difficult if not impossible to find.”
There was… more than one point I wanted to raise with Ilunor’s statements. However, before I could address any of them, the elf in question finally spoke up once more; now surrounded by an entire archive’s worth of documents and nicknacks.
“Nothing.” Larial spoke with a sullen breath, taking a moment to steady herself as she made a point of not sitting on Mal’tory’s chair. “At least nothing that’s relevant to our case.” She continued, resting her palms flat against the green suede of the desk.
“Were you really expecting anything different, Apprentice?” Sorecar countered, having since moved from pondering the pages of the book to now pondering the depths of the crystal ball.
“I’d assumed the damage to the man hadn’t been so severe.” Larial admitted, alluding to something else that drew all of our collective attention. “When I first saw him in the healing ward… he looked… intact. You couldn’t even tell there was anything wrong with him.”
“And yet they called you of all people, to aid in the ritual.” The armorer surmised, with a tone of voice that now more resembled that of a fully fledged Academy Professor. His happy go lucky persona had subsided completely, at least for now, as he addressed Larial in a manner more akin to what I’d expected of the Dean. “You have been around the Academy for long enough to understand that calling upon the aid of apprentices is unprecedented. Which means that despite how things may seem on the surface, that lurking beneath the seemingly calm waters, is a hydrostorm of epic proportions.”
“This entire situation is unprecedented, professor.” Larial countered meekly. “But you are correct. It… must have been desperate if they required the aid of apprentices. I just… cannot fathom the fact that the professors must have…” The apprentice trailed off, her face scrunching up and breaking eye contact with the armorer as if too skittish to broach the next point.
Sorecar didn’t reply, nor did he complete her sentence for her, simply allowing her to recuperate and reorganize her thoughts herself.
“... brought the man back from the brink.” She managed out, offering what was in effect a euphemism that didn’t seem to sit right with the armorer, if his immediate head cock was of any indication.
“That is the only way you can explain the complete loss of a contract.” Sorecar reasoned. “You were hoping to find it, despite knowing well that it, amongst the rest of his contracts, have more than likely gone up in flames.” It was around that point that he walked around behind the desk, and reached down into the drawer the apprentice had been searching in. His arm sank impossibly deep, deeper than what should have been physically possible inside of that small and limited space. After a few moments, the man finally brought his hand back up, holding within it what appeared to be fine specks of ash that he allowed to filter back down into the dark depths of the seemingly bottomless drawer. “And there you have it — ash. Most of it has no doubt already been consumed by the bottom-feeders. However, what remains is enough to account for what is perhaps more contracts than most would form in their lives.”
The man stood back up soon after, before once more taking his place at the front of the desk.
“Well, I believe that answers our prior speculations on Auris Ping’s potential relations, contractual or otherwise, with Professor Mal’tory.” Thalmin growled out, punctuating the moment of silence within the footage; which soon continued with a resonant sigh from the apprentice.
“I guess, in a way, I was trying to find the contract not so much because of my assigned task, but because I wanted to perhaps prove to myself that the situation wasn’t as dire as my intuition leads me to believe. The loss of all these contracts can only mean one thing.” Larial paused, once more trying to find the strength inside of her to face whatever facts were self-evident in this case. “The man was lost.” She finally managed out through a shaky breath. “His soul must have departed from his mortal coil. And yet…”
“... and yet he remains.” Sorecar surmised.
“They must have re-tethered it before I arrived that night.” The apprentice shot back. “But I felt nothing different when they asked me to aid in the mana-channeling processes. This whole situation is just…” She sighed, prompting Sorecar to cock his head.
“Unprecedented?”
“Yes.” The apprentice once more admitted, sinking her face into her hands and taking a moment to process it all, more or less falling into the same camp all of us were currently in. “Moreover, it brings up a very disturbing question.”
“Which is?”
“If his soul was truly untethered, even for a split second… how exactly were they able to retether it? Or more specifically, through what means are they using to permanently retether his soul to his mortal coil?”
This question seemed to cause some level of concern from Sorecar, as his answer soon demonstrated. “There are… ways of doing so that aren’t exclusive to being spellbound to armor.” The man offered under a dour breath. “Especially if the body is… fresh, in a manner of speaking. Though it requires the use of-” He stopped, halting himself from going down what was clearly a darkening path. “I apologize for prompting this rather… dark and dreary subject matter, Apprentice.” Sorecar offered, as that empathetic, kinder side of him returned without much prompting.
“It’s quite alright. It… it needed to be said, if we are to complete this investigation with any degree of professionalism.” The apprentice concluded with a small smile. “Whatever the case may be, it is clear that we are unable to procure the contract through which the perpetrator of the library’s burning was bound. We have, however, undeniable proof of Professor Mal’tory’s involvement with the scandal.” She pointed at the green notebook. “And of course, a potential interloper who may or may not have been a part of this conspiracy; thereby expanding this from a mere Academy matter, to one which could implicate others beyond its walls.” She pointed at the crystal ball. “Have you discovered anything from your observations thus far, Professor?” The apprentice inquired, prompting the man to nod, as he knelt down to eye-level, pondering the orb from desk-height.
“The inherent limitations of the Echovale make it so that it’s near impossible to transcribe anything following the cessation of a communique.” Sorecar began. “Though of course, you knew this, and hoped that because I am perhaps one of the greatest armorers to have ever lived, that I would be able to aid in this impossible endeavor, hmm?” The armorer’s tone of voice had more or less resumed that flighty, happy-go-lucky one I knew him for.
The apprentice, hearing this, could only smile awkwardly in response. “I wouldn’t have put it that… bluntly, professor. But I do indeed have faith in your ability to make the impossible, well… probable, at the least.”
“Hmph! Well, I couldn’t pin a face or a name, but I was able to pin a definite location if that helps.” The man offered.
“Any stray piece of information will help tremendously, professor.”
“The Crownlands.” He answered without a hint of hesitation, prompting the Apprentice to raise both of her brows up high.
“That’s as far as I am able to draw from the residual echoes within the vale.” He tapped at the ball, generating a series of satisfying clinks in the process.
“So the man wasn’t acting alone. Or rather, perhaps he was consulting someone.” The apprentice pondered. “Then again, that final communique could very well be with Lord Lartia—” The apprentice paused, before placing both palms softly across her throat. “—may his soul rest in peaceful slumber.” Following another moment of silence, the apprentice’s hands soon shifted towards the ball. “In any case, if it isn’t Lord Lartia, then who could it possibly be? Maybe we should…” The apprentice suddenly stopped; as if realizing the dangers of diving any deeper into this growing conspiracy. “No.” She quickly corrected herself. “Whatever the case may be, this is probably now completely out of my purview. I was assigned to collect any evidence I deemed to be relevant to recent happenings, and I believe this should suffice.”
“Whatever you believe is best, apprentice.” Sorecar acquiesced, prompting the apprentice to slowly, but surely, pack the archive’s worth of documents, books, and scrolls all back into the drawer using nothing but telekinetic spells.
This left just the crystal ball, and the little green book, both of which the apprentice promptly pocketed into a small pouch, before placing it somewhere beneath her cloak.
“Though on that note…” Sorecar began, pointing towards the apprentice’s cloak. “If I may ask, how do you plan on divvying up these finite pieces of evidence?”
This caught the apprentice off-guard, as her mouth opened, but no response came through.
“Moreover, are you even obligated to hand in this evidence? Or are you only expected to write a report to all parties involved?” Sorecar continued, pressing the matter further, causing the apprentice to stop mid-stride. “Because if primary evidence isn’t explicitly required, might I offer my services as a master forger?” The man spoke with a hint of mischievousness, the duality of the word perhaps translating equally well despite the language barrier.
“I may need to contact my superiors to ask if a… copy will be satisfactory to their needs. I believe not, but… we shall see. In any case, I am due to submit the evidence along with my report no later than the end of next week. As such, this should give me ample time to organize my findings, which is especially convenient given the roster of duties I am expected to cover over the next few days.” The apprentice took a moment to pinch the bridge of her nose, halting her rambles as she steadied herself with a sigh. “But I digress, I believe I will take you up on that offer, Professor Pliska.”
“It would be my pleasure to welcome you into my domain, apprentice.”
The rest of the footage consisted of small talk between the pair, with nothing in particular standing out as the topics being addressed soon turned from high-stakes espionage, and back into faculty banter.
Yet despite that, none of us broke the silence that now dominated the boring trip back. Not even as the footage came to a complete stop, and there was nothing more left to play.
I leaned back against the armor, eliciting a series of creaks from the couch below me, echoing across the high-ceilinged room and disrupting the tentative peace that came with this ominous silence.
“This explains… a lot.” Thalmin offered, finally breaking the silence with a tentative tone of voice. “It explains your contract, and its abrupt cessation.” He continued, turning towards Ilunor. “It explains Mal’tory, or at least, his current lack of public appearances. And it reveals to us exactly what he was trying to hide from you, Emma.” The lupinor eventually turned towards me. “And I think the sections of the library, selectively pruned, are self-explanatory as well.”
“Section four, and section five, at least.” I replied shortly thereafter. “I have no idea who or what Alaroy Rital has to hide in section three, and don’t even get me started on section two, let alone section one.” It was at that point that I turned towards Thacea, who let out a sharp exhale upon me bringing up section one.
“The removal of all information relevant to… and I quote — Tainted Realities — speaks volumes to the inherent fears of the Nexus. Though I know not what specifically they may fear from your discovery of its deep and now-lost lore.” Thacea offered through a pensive gaze. “There are many rumors, legends that come with the phrase Tainted Reality. Though most are mythical; epics of long lost eras that dwell between the blurry line that exists between history and legend. Perhaps the records within the library were pieces of irrefutable evidence that would’ve shed light on this nebulous subject matter. But even so… that begs the question… why? Why would they hide what is effectively a non-issue when it comes to your discovery of its lore? Taint, and more specifically, the concept of a Tainted Reality, is something that is inconsequential in the contemporary world. Its history, even if it proves to be true, is neither a disruptive political element, nor a practical tool for war, that could be used in countering the Nexus.” The avinor’s explanations were clear, concise, and yet they belied something personal that she clearly wasn’t broaching.
And I wasn’t about to dig either, not when this topic very clearly hit close to home for her.
“This leaves the second subject matter then.” I offered, giving the avinor an off-ramp towards a potentially more palatable topic.
“The Unspoken War and the Treacherous Alliance?”
“Correct.” I nodded.
“That… I have no knowledge of.” The avinor admitted, prompting me to turn to both the lupinor and the Vunerian for answers.
“Don’t look at me, earthrealmer, I’m the one who lost all memories on the subject, remember?” Ilunor countered.
“I’m afraid I’m as in the dark as you are on this one, Emma.” Thalmin replied with a loud huff, leaving me with perhaps more questions than answers at this point.
“Right then.” I nodded. “Well, regardless, as disquieting, confusing, and disturbing as these revelations have been, they are exactly that — revelations.” I took a moment to stand up, resting both hands on my hips, as if adopting Ilunor’s more theatrical approach to things. “We started today off with no intel on Mal’tory, with no idea how we were going to complete The Library’s Seekership questline, and no knowledge on exactly where we stood in this game. We’re ending today off with a firm grasp on exactly what we need to do, what exactly was scorched in the library, and a tentative understanding on Mal’tory’s fate. I’d say that’s an incredible step forward, even if the answers we now have are leading to even more questions.”
“Reality is often filled with disturbing truths, but only when we acknowledge them, can we act to change them.” Thacea offered.
“Here here!” Thalmin reaffirmed through a firm stomp, standing up tall and ready.
“While certain revelations come as disappointments… namely the survival of Professor Mal’tory… it is indeed somewhat satisfying to hear that the man is at the very least suffering for his actions.” The little thing spoke maliciously, as he too stood up. This prompted a look of worry to form amidst all three of us, but instead of reacting accordingly, he instead displayed an expression of confusion. “What? The man was a monster! He actively antagonized not only me, but this entire group! Surely you also feel at least some sense of satisfaction at the consequences of his actions catching up to him!”
“The delight in an enemy’s defeat, best comes from the resistance of the blade against his body. Not from the suffering incurred from happenstance.” Thalmin countered, whilst Thacea and I refused to entertain that line of thought, as I quickly placed a palm across my forehead, bonking it once again in the process.
“Right, well, here’s the game plan. We now have a clear target to complete our first objective — the notebook. We grab that, hand it in to the library, and presto, we accomplish the Seekership questline. Now comes the difficult part… how exactly do we do that?” I turned to the group, as offers and suggestions finally came flying in.
“Take advantage of your life debt?” Ilunor offered.
“I wouldn’t take advantage of that card just yet, Ilunor. Not if we have other options.” Thacea countered.
“What if we steal it?” Thalmin proposed.
“Thievery isn’t a diplomatic approach, Thalmin.” Thacea shot back with a glare.
“Well, Emma here was able to grapple her way, through manaless means, across the outside of the castle towards the apprentice whilst she was in the medical wing. I’m sure we can pull something else off in a similar capacity!” The lupinor countered.
“No, Thalmin. As much as I would like to try, I believe it might be best if we try a more diplomatic approach.” I offered, prompting the three to cock their heads.
“We could just ask, right?”
First Previous Next
​
(Author’s Note: And there we have it! The first step towards the completion of the Library's questline! We've found exactly what we were looking for, the list of books that were ordered to be put to the dragon flame by Mal'tory. With that being said however, a new series of questions arises... exactly why were these books targeted in particular? Moreover, what exactly was lost as a result? These questions and more will continue to linger in the back the gangs' minds as we push forward! Especially as we now find ourselves in the midst of another conundrum, exactly how are we going to get the book to the library! Regardless, this is still a massive step forward, and one that will surely bring Emma and Ilunor closer towards addressing the first phase of their intertwined fates with the library! I hope you guys enjoy! :D The next Two Chapters are already up on Patreon if you guys are interested in getting early access to future chapters!)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 84 and Chapter 85 of this story is already out on there!)]

I, m43, recently discovered something horrifying about my wife that made me want to break up with her. I found out that she had a foot kink. I know it's stupid of me not to realise earlier, considering her constant gravitation towards my grippers despite a raging fungal infectionwhenever we have sex, but I never really felt that it was anything for me to worry about. I shunned the question of my wife's attraction out of my head. Until two weeks ago, when I stumbled upon her search history in the internet bill. Her device was full of searches towards feet, a multitude of crimes against God in website form, ranging from InstaFeet to FootFindr. I secretly took pictures of all of these results and held onto them for a few days, going over my next move in my head. After a long shower last night, with serious consideration, I took the timeframe of my wife going out with her friends to open ChatGPT and give it the prompt, "Write a divorce prompt in which I confront my wife about her foot kink." I was given the prompt and in one breath copied it and sent it with the attachments of her search history. My wife saw the response and told me she'd be coming home to talk. After 3 hours, she arrived, and we began a debate over her love for my disgusting, stinky trotters. She tried to shut me down with points of how attraction doesn't define her personality, but I quickly denied her point with blocking my ears and going "lalalalala I can't hear you" I'm aware that I was acting like a baby, and would appreciate if you didn't rub it in my face, but at the time it felt like the most constructive response. I have since been kicked out of the house and am staying next to the local Library, where I use the free wifi to browse reddit and youtube shorts. Am I The Asshole?

This started out as a response to another comment, but ended up as enough for its own post.
https://scryfall.com/search?q=is%3Aalchemy+-is%3Arebalanced+-format%3Avintage&order=released&dir=asc&as=grid&unique=cards
Looking at their respective approaches:

• [[Angel of Eternal Dawn]]: Tracking number of turns is technically doable but Wizards seems to consider anything more than [[Serra Avenger]] too much of a hassle. I don't expect that to change.
• [[Angel of Unity]]: Perpetual in paper is impossible. Counters can be tracked within public zones, and stickers leaned into this - I think there's some interesting possible design space in sticker-like counters that can let arbitrary cards function like [[Skullbriar]]. But tracking changes to cards in hidden zones is too far to be practical.
• [[Captain Eberhart]]: Caring about cards in hidden zones is impossible. A paper card would do this by revealing relevant cards.
• [[Expedition Supplier]]: MH3's tokens work a lot like conjure, but they're tokens, not cards. In Vintage-legal sets, a card must be represented by a card. The closest way I can think of to implement this is: "Put a card you own from outside the game onto the battlefield. As long as it's face-up in a zone other than a player's hand or library, that card is a copy of Utility Knife." This would work to roughly emulate cards like [[Boneyard Aberration]] where conjuring cards into a graveyard is necessary, while conjuring cards into your hand is already roughly emulated by effects that let you exile them and then cast them from exile. However, there's no way to emulate the library interactions of a card like [[Goblin Morale Sergeant]], and being functionally different means it wouldn't work for exact reprints of any conjure cards.
• [[Faithful Disciple]]: Spellbooks are conjure with even more complications. Wizards could, theoretically, create a mechanic with a reminder card listing out the cards constituting a spellbook and make a keyword for "select three of those cards at random, then choose one of the selected cards, exile a card you own from outside the game, and that card becomes a copy of the chosen card as long as it's in public zones and you can cast it from exile". This would most likely require "token" cards for every card in the spellbook, as well as the reminder card for the spellbook itself, so for a 15-card spellbook, it would require 16 token slots. Maybe doable in a high-complexity set where they're willing to have a single spellbook appear on a number of cards, but even then, it wouldn't work to reprint the actual spellbook cards that exist.
• [[Inquisitor Captain]]: Seek interacts with hidden zones in ways that aren't feasible in paper, while paper can get similar effects just by revealing cards from the top of the library until the desired kind of card is found.
• [[Geist of Regret]]: Same as Seek. Paper would do this just by revealing cards from the top of the library until hitting an instant and sorcery, put them into the graveyard, and put the rest on the bottom in a random order. Close enough for design purposes, not close enough for a reprint.
• [[Patient Zero]]: Like turn tracking, this is technically doable but just annoying. Paper would probably use some sort of counters.
• [[Bloodrage Alpha]]: Another effect that's doable but annoying to track. Paper would probably use a boon-like marker for it.
• [[Town-Razer Tyrant]]: This one is fine but paper would probably prefer to use counters, like with [[Obsidian Fireheart]].
• [[Lupine Harbingers]]: This might be a more feasible approach to turn counting since it only counts from when the card is used, but having the card be hidden complicates the matter of tracking it publicly. Paper would probably use a foretold variant where you declare it as a variant at the point you foretell it and then count the turns from there, but this would make it public information that it's not a regular foretold card.
• [[Begin Anew]]: This is another perpetual one, but it's one where perpetual-from-hand could easily be emulated: "Destroy all creatures, then exile all cards from your hand face down. As long as those cards remain exiled, you may play them, and if you cast a creature spell this way, the creature enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it." Another case of a card that's roughly equivalent for design purposes but different enough that it couldn't count as a reprint.
• [[Wickerwing Effigy]]: Like Town-Razer Tyrant, this is totally fine but would probably use a counter.
• [[Forsaken Crossroads]]: Tracking the starting player is probably fine.
• [[Inchblade Companion]]: This is completely fine. Was it supposed to say conjure?
• [[Mothrider Cavalry]]: Paper would just have you reveal your hand if you want the discount.
• [[Holographic Double]]: Another conjure card, but one with a particularly interesting possible paper counterpart: "U, Exile Holographic Double from your hand: Exile a card from your hand face down. For as long as that card remains exiled, you may play it if it's a creature card. When you do, note that card's name, and as long as Holographic Double remains exiled, you may play it as a copy of that card." With this, you don't even need a sideboard card to stand in... but it's still slightly functionally different.
• [[Bellowsbreath Ogre]]: It looks like this has been changed to no longer use the word "perpetually" in its rules text, but intensifying a specific card still has all the issues of perpetual changes.
• [[Herald of Vengeance]]: Works fine in paper. Tracking issues are possible but at least it's only looking one turn in the past.
• [[Imoen, Trickster Friend]]: A lot of specialize cards use mechanics that are already off-limits, but this is one of the few that doesn't. Still, you'd never fit all the needed text onto one card, even a DFC, and more importantly, IIRC it's a perpetual change which is off-limits anyway.
• [[Hag of Ceaseless Torment]]: The individual hags are all fine, although they don't seem to be Alchemy-legal on their own in the first place.
• [[Moradin's Disciples]]: Double team involves both conjure and perpetual.
• [[Water Weird]]: A paper version would have you look at the card.
• [[Stroke of Luck]]: There is nothing digital exclusive about this. (Edit: Missed the lack of reveal.)
• [[Arcane Archery]]: Boons would be fine in paper. They'd probably have printed tokens.
• [[Favored Enemy]]: This is ruled out for checking hidden information, but it's still a bit novel for its "most prevalent" check.
• [[Jon Irenicus, the Exile]]: Works fine. Counting libraries has precedent in paper, this would just mean needing to keep tracking them.
• [[Minthara of the Absolute]]: Using intensity on a group of cards rather than an individual card is fine, but paper would probably use counters.
• [[Tasha, Unholy Archmage]]: Fully within paper mechanics, even declining to use perpetual changes or seek because they'd make her weaker. But who would want to play against this nightmare of a card?
• [[Assemble the Team]]: Works fine in paper.
• [[Quicksilver Servitor]]: Another "paper would have you reveal it" one. Maybe something like: "As you put a card into your hand, you may reveal it. If you do, when you next cast a spell from your hand this turn with the same name as that card, proliferate."
• [[Dedicated Dollmaker]]: Fine in paper. Paper might use counters, but there have been exceptions.
• [[Draconic Debut]]: This is fine but looks like it wants a boon or something like it for tracking.
• [[First Little Pig]]: This is fine, its associated cards are not. Probably wouldn't be printed without them.
• [[Captivating Crossroads]]: Like other starting player cards, it should work fine, and has the benefit of only caring during the first three turns.
• [[Legion's Chant]]: Chorus cards intensifying as a group seems fine rules-wise but could get confusing. Paper could support equivalent cards but would probably use a different form of tracking. Most likely it would use player counters, but that would be a significant functional change.
• [[Merfolk Tunnel-Guide]]: Three-time boons are trickier than one-time ones but seem fine.
• [[Reflection Net]]: Another "activate only once" one that would be fine in paper.
• [[Ominous Lockbox]]: This is fine in paper.
• [[Concert Kaboomist]]: Another one where the paper rules can support it but keeping track could be annoying.
• [[Rampaging Ursaguana]]: Like with Lupine Harbingers, this would want a variant that keeps count.
• [[Sproutwatch Dryad]]: Another "paper would have you reveal it" one.
• [[Thought-String Analyst]]: This is fine in paper. Most likely, a paper version would tell you to note the card's mana value and lose that much life, so the opponent can confirm that you were telling the truth when the card is revealed, but this would not be a functional change.
• [[Stalwart Realmwarden]]: Another almost-a-boon that could probably be templated to be trackable without any functional changes.
• [[Thieving Aven]]: Heist has the same issues as seek. A paper equivalent would probably have you look at cards from the top of your opponent's library, with the option to reveal any lands among them, until you choose not to reveal three cards, then exile one of the cards, gain the option to cast the exiled card if it's a nonland, and return the other revealed and unrevealed cards. This would be a functional change, though, and the reminder text would be quite long.
• [[Intruder's Inquisition]]: Can't tell the greatest mana value among cards in the opponent's hand without making them reveal it.

Another version of the search with the problem keywords removed: https://scryfall.com/search?q=is%3Aalchemy+-is%3Arebalanced+-format%3Avintage+-o%3Aperpetually+-o%3Aspellbook+-kw%3Aconjure+-kw%3Aseek+-kw%3Aspecialize+-o%3A%22double+team%22+-o%3Aheist&unique=cards&as=grid&order=released&dir=asc

^{This is a repost with new info, corrections and better formatting. Thanks for previous contributions! <3}
I've seen quite a few "All lost My Chemical Romance songs" and "My Chemical Romance rarities" posts, but they mostly all either:

A: Conflate "Lost" with "Rare" or "Not studio-produced" B: Aren't Sourced C: Incomplete D: Have disinfo E: Mistakenly include working titles for later released tracks as "lost"

So, here we go! I've gotten most of my info from a few archives and long-time fans in the community but I would love to hear any additions you have to add! The more eyes the better!

For clarity: Bullets = I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love Revenge = Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge LOTMS = Life on the Murder Scene TBP = The Black Parade TBPID = The Black Parade Is Dead! DD = Danger Days CW = Conventional Weapons TPK = The Paper Kingdom MDNSY = May Death Never Stop You

^{Tracks are listed in supposed creation order, then by discovery or release} Nine Volt Heart ^aka Android [..?] - Song title found in now-lost Flash player elements of My Chemical Romance's official site going back to at least 5/25/2002. According to a 2011 text interview by Cassie The Venomous with Gerard and Mikey, the song was played once live at NJ's Loop Lounge to bad reactions from the band and poor fanfare and as a result shelved from future releases. Later possibly reworked into an unreleased song named "'Android...' something?". Though according to a 2004 post by SpaceyRaygun, a long-time friend of the band, Nine Volt Heart was instead reworked onto a Revenge track. ^{Fandom rumors going back to at least 5/3/2006 claim Nine Volt Heart was a cover of the Smashing Pumpkins' song Bodies albeit with slightly different lyrics. Although the poster's source songmeanings.net has since taken down the potentially false lyrics page.}
The Attic Demos ^aka Dreams ^\of/about]) Stabbing and/or Being Stabbed - A CD Distributed at early shows and among the band's circle. Later partially released on 2014's MDNSY, though these demos circulated the fandom pre-2014 from these promotional CDs.

Wish You Away ^aka Drowning Lessons Rough Mix - If community sources are to be believed (1) (2) (3) (4)) (5) a variant of The Attic Demos distributed among friends and family of the band contains recordings of 'Vampires Will Never Hurt You' titled "Stabbing" and 'Drowning Lessons' titled "Wish You Away" (Pre-release titles corroborated by the early instances of My Chemical Romance's website).
Stabbing ^aka Vampires Will Never Hurt You Demo - Found as of July 23rd, 2022. Demo released via Instagram from for Bullet's 20th anniversary. This CD was given to Nada Recording in 2002 prior to their recording of Bullets. Clip is partially cut off and downloaded through Instagram API.
Early Sunsets Over Monroeville Demo - An Attic Demo found by SpaceyRaygun with an Early Sunsets Over Monroeville recording not included on MDNSY. Included in notable bootlegs such as Self-titled MP3 Collection released 2010. ~Fake demo debunked by (Friend of Matt Pelissier) and SpaceyRaygun (The track's original source).

Sister to Sleep - One of the earliest songs written for Revenge, revealed in a 2003 interview as conceptualized for The Freddy vs. Jason Soundtrack before licensing fell through. It was re-conceptualized around The Sandman series of comics, where sleep is anthropomorphized as the titular Sandman, and his sister as Death. In its released form, the lyrics explore sleep as an analogy for death and themes of insomnia and institutionalization. Ultimately, the track was cut from release by producer Howard Benson. Two live recordings (1) (2) of this song have circulated the fandom for a number of years, with one found more recently all from the same show played in NYC's the Knitting Factory on 6/26/2003. On 10/17/2022, it was played once more in Inglewood during the RETURN Tour, albeit slightly different lyrics. Later, Frank spoke on a 2023 interview about using live footage for practice, likely explaining the difference in lyrics. In 2013 the band had stated in an interview potentially none of the members still possessed a copy of Sister to Sleep's demo recording (A claim still supported by Frank in a 2022 interview) except possibly for a soundcheck library recording Mikey was given from the Knitting Factory show. With renewed interest in the song, Matt Pelissier was asked via Twitter about the track. ^{If community sources \}1]) ^\2]) ^{are to be believed, a Twitter user "Martin" asked Gerard the whereabouts and existing number of these demos, Gerard would share that they lost the only existing copy moving from coast to coast a number of years ago. Martin then asked Matt about the demos to corroborate Gerard's story, which prompted Matt to reveal more info.} Matt claimed he was given an additional copy of Sister to Sleep, as were all of the band members, their studio and their label. Fans supposedly questioned his demo's legitimacy. (1) (2) (3) Matt then posted three 15 second clips of the track to his Instagram. These clips were DMCA claimed by Warner and Matt was threatened with potential legal action if he continued copyright violations. However, fans downloaded these clips before they were taken down. (1) (2) Afterwards, Matt was asked via text conversations by his Revenir bandmate u/dansplayslol11 after hearing the track if he still intended on leaking it. Matt explained that he didn't intend on releasing them being content as the apparent sole owner of the demo.

Manhattan Demos ^aka A-Demos - In 2013 the band had stated in an interview Sister to Sleep's studio recording existed on the "Manhattan Demos" or "A-Demos" as Ray called them that also contained demo material later released on LOTMS. Screenshots of other production tracklists around this time have also been leaked and released by several sources including Revenge producer Howard Benson. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

I'm Not Okay (I Promise) Demo - A 1 minute 4 second Clip of an I'm Not Okay demo uploaded by the YouTube channel AJ Serna in 2012 which contains the line "And never mind the drugs you took" instead of Revenge's release version "The photographs your boyfriend took" with notably worse recording quality. ^{This lyric was likely remnants from when the song served as the conclusion to the album with a spoken word outro by Daryl Palumbo \}Of Glassjaw, Head Automatica] and is more in-line with) ^{early production takes of the song.}
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge Instrumentals - Instrumental versions of all 13 original Revenge tracks can be heard as backing tracks for the duration of LOTMS. Never released as a stand-alone instrumental promotional album unlike TBP.
Someone Out There Loves You - Released as a live performance on the official TBPID DVD as Track 30 with a live video. Unofficially titled 'Stay' by fans before its official title was revealed by Gerard on Twitter. Frank revealed in an interview with The Music that the song had a studio demo but "lyrical reservations" prevented its release.
MCRBlog 09' Demos - Throughout 2009, the band would post an occasional series titled 'Practice Cam' where they'd take photos and videos of whiteboards containing song titles. Fans like Cassie the Venomous were able to decipher some of these titles, and later corroborate them with at-the-time newly released live performances. (What was initially titled 'Siren Song' as a live performance eventually released as 'AMBULANCE', ect.) However, some of these teased titles never received accompanying live material. These include:

"Still Alive" ^\Also detailed in) ^{this interview.\}) "Teenage Girl" "Pretty [..?]" "Monster Jam" ^\This could be in reference to the video game 'Monster Jam: Masters of Mayhem' of which 'I'm Not Ok)' ^{appeared as an in-game track})^.\)

Hell Hath No Fury - This track was apparently credited to My Chemical Romance (1) (2) for 2012's The Man With The Iron Fists but never appeared on the movie's soundtrack. ^{It's theorized this track midway through the film is a snippet of the track.}
The Paper Kingdom - Proceeding DD's touring cycle, the My Chemical Romance began work on their 5th studio record before scrapping the album due to burnout, depression and unhealthy habits. (1) (2) Some of this material was likely posted by a user named Excalibur and sold for $10k+ on the leaked music website Leaked.cx in late September 2022. Snippets of these tracks with added auditory watermarks were provided by the leaker for legitimacy from tracks with the filenames "Dark Cloud", "Witch" and "Wake Up!". However, these clips were taken down by Warner both on leaked.cx and on other sites' reposts, likely validating the leak's legitimacy. One track recognized by Warner's automatic content ID system was entitled "Paper Swords" by My Chemical Romance.

The Foundations of Decay Sessions - According to comments by Excalibur made under leaked.cxs TPK leak, they also possessed demo sessions for the My Chemical Romance's 2022 release The Foundations of Decay. It was unclear whether these sessions were also purchased and vaulted alongside TPK's leak by the same or another buyer.

... These aren't exactly "lost", only ^\notable]) live performances with no evidence of official or studio variants: ^{FYI, any of these songs can be heard with a simple YouTube or Internet Archive search \}if I don't already link a primary or secondary source here.)
Everybody Tie Your Shoe - Stage banter on TBP's 2007 tour. Released on the 'Fans of Compilations' bootleg album in 2008.
The Drugs - A scrapped song played live sometime during 2009 during the Summer Sonic Festival. Later never released alongside the other CW-era singles or later DD material. Released as a live track on 'Still Chemical Dependency' bootleg album in 2009.
Everybody Hates the Eagles ^aka Kill Em' All ^aka DD Jam Session - A DD-era Jam Session repurposed for the My Chemical Romance's 2022-2023 tour and given lyrics with a variety of concluding lines rhyming or spinning on the phrase "Everybody Hates the Eagles". (1) (2) (3) (4)
... These aren't in any sense "lost". Some just aren't on streaming services, just obscure or with no official release: ^{FYI, any of these songs can be heard with a simple YouTube or Internet Archive search \}if I don't already link a primary or secondary source here.)
Jack the Ripper (cover) - Live cover of Morrissey's song released on the EP Like Phantoms, Forever in 2002 including live banter, then later released as a cut-down version on the Thank You for the Venom 7" in 2004. ^{Often mistaken for separate live and studio tracks such as mislabeling on the Self-titled MP3 Collection and other MP3 archives.}
Give Em' Hell, Kid Alt. Version - An alternate version of Give Em' Hell, Kid from iTunes.
Under Pressure (cover) - Cover of Queen and David Bowie's song as a collaboration with The Used made for release as a single and a bonus track for The Used's 2004 release 'In Love and Death'.
Astro Zombies (cover) - Cover of Misfits' song released for Tony Hawk's American Wasteland 2005.
I Never Told You What I Do For a Living Demo - Demo track released on LOTMS lyrically and sonically distinct from its Revenge release.
Bury Me in Black - Demo released first as a Japanese Revenge bonus track, later released internationally on LOTMS.
Desert Song - Complete studio track intended for Revenge, released exclusively on LOTMS.
Song 2 (cover) - Cover of Blur's song released on Radio 1's Live Lounge Album in 2006.
The Black Parade Instrumentals - Promotional CDr distributed to advertisers alongside TBP in 2006.
The Black Parade: The B-Sides - Includes My way Home Is Through You, Kill All Your Friends and Heaven Help Us. Released as a stand-alone b-side album in 2009 including bonus tracks released alongside TBP in 2006.
Desolation Row (cover) - Cover of Bob Dylan's song for release with Watchmen (2009) with an accompanying promotional music video set in the Watchmen universe.
All I Want for Christmas Is You (cover) - Cover of Mariah Carey's song for 2009's Christmas compilation album Gift Wrapped: 20 Songs That Keep On Giving.
We Don't Need Another Song About California - Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys iTunes Deluxe bonus track.
Zero Percent - Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys Japanese bonus track.
Sing Single - Radio edit and instrumental single of Sing released in 2010.
The Mad Gear and Missile Kid EP - Collection of songs written during DD's production (Black Dragon Fighting Society being written before DD), intended to be My Chemical Romance's in-universe proxy. Released with DD's 2010 box set and released digitally for the first time in 2022.
Bulletproof Heart Single - Radio edit and instrumental single of Bulletproof Heart released in 2011.
Planetary (GO!) Remixes - Planetary (GO!) single remixes by Lags Gallows & Vasquez/Gorman released in 2011.
Common People (cover) - Cover of Pulp's song for BBC Radio 1, Released on the 2011 The Only Hope For Me Is You EP.
Every Snowflake is Different (Just Like You) - A track made for the show Yo' Gabba Gabba in 2011. Made alongside a music video featured on the show. Notably similar to S/C/A/E/C/O/W and preformed live by My Chemical Romance on tour the same year.
#SINGItForJapan - Full orchestral Japanese instrumental version of SING following earthquakes and tsunamis that devastated Japan in 2011. Released as a single alongside a YouTube upload and merchandise to raise money for Japanese charities.
The Kids from Yesterday Remixes - Australian-exclusive box set released 2012 including remixes from Dan P. Carter, Lags Gallows and Vazquez/Gorman.
Fake Your Death - The first track on May Death Never Stop You and released as a single. Theorized as originally made for TPK. Aside: I hear his VERY widely talked about as a fact, butthe main article citedis mistakenly referencing Gerard's solo work. As likely as this rumor is, there is no evidence.
Black Parade / Living with Ghosts - Black Parade's 10-year anniversary release including a variety of TBP demos both scrapped and reworked onto the 2006 release.
Welcome to the Black Parade (Steve Aoki 10th Anniversary Remix) - Remix of Welcome to the Black Parade by Steve Aoki for TBP's 10th Anniversary.
... Specific thanks to u/mj2000p, u/Tongara, u/danplayslol11, SpaceyRaygun and Party in the affiliated My Chemical Romance Discord for previous edits. To see the edits check out my original post.

Please do not harass or beg band members or those affiliated with the band for unreleased material. Archival efforts are important but many of these songs fall under copyright and/or hold great personal value. Be respectful in reaching out to potential leads.

If anyone has better sources, anything else to correct or add I'd love to add to what I have and will credit.
Thanks for all the help! <3 Happy 20 years to Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge! :3

First, the sources (another note, spoiler text is just me covering more morbid information, Aztec mythology comes with that territory):
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Rosenkreuz#:~:text=Christian%20Rosenkreuz%20(also%20spelled%20Rosenkreutz,early%20in%20the%2017th%20century.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%AAtzp%C4%81p%C4%81l%C5%8Dtl
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion_(chess)
https://mythlok.com/itzpapalotl/
I'll explain all of these by the order of the articles I linked, so first, Christian Rosenkreuz. His story is identical to Signora, or well the first part of it. Aside from her name being derrived from his last name and the Rosicrucianism philosophy, they are both scholars who traveled from Germany (Mondstadt) to Persia (Sumeru), discovering knowledge that would immortalize them figuratively and literally (Signora becoming an elemental and Christian's body being preserved perfectly even after his death). While he is an allegorical figure, his name being possibly fake too, it's worth noting that he is her most relevant inspiration, but not the one relevant to Natlan.
Her inspiration that is the actually relevant to Natlan is the goddess of death and resurrection, Ītzpāpālōtl. Honestly, there is so much aligning inspiration that I wouldn't be shocked if there was an Ītzpāpālōtl like god revealed in Natlan. The most basic similarities are:
-both are represented by moths, and Signora has the Itzpāpālōtl moth in the part of her concept art that was shown at an event in China.
-Ītzpāpālōtl is usually reffered to as the obsidian butterfly, and Signora used to be a cooled down elemental of liquid fire (lava cooled down turns into obsidian)
-The goddess is usually described as a pale, seductive woman who can turn into a monster of clawed wings (Signora's boss form has black pointed ends to her wings)
-Aside from death and resurrection Ītzpāpālōtl is the patron goddess of witches, and a formidable sorceress herself. She also consumed souls, which is rather similar to Signora filling her time piece with spirits.
-Also pretty important, both are fond of children. Signora has her fondness of Arlecchino's adopted children, and Ītzpāpālōtl's realm is a paradise for victims of infant mortality , aside from also being the place where humans were created.
While they aren't 1 to 1 copies (Itzpāpālōtl usually has black hair while Signora's is blonde), they're pretty much 80% related to put it simply. Genshin impact usually takes lots of inspiration from religious and mythological sources (Childe is based on Ajax the great and Ajax the lesser, Deshret's retainers are based on both Egyptian gods and could be a reference to king Solomon summoning demons to assist him), I fully expect this connection to be explored which is why we heard very little of Signora before Natlan, while she also has all of these native American influences. The main reason this is the case is that Natlan is clearly inspired by mainly southern America and Mexico, and Ītzpāpālōtl is a pretty relevant goddess in Aztec mythology.
Last but not least, Signora's chess piece in the winter night's lazzo trailer matches the position needed to promote a pawn to another chess piece of the same colour. This leads me to believe that Signora will resurrect with a huge powerup and possible divinity while still staying a closer ally of the fatui even if she quits being a harbinger. The argument that could be made against this is that Signora's piece fell over, but right as Pierro was about to remove it one of her moths landed on it. Even if we ignore all other mythological references and artifact + item descriptions, this scene specifically is some of the biggest proof there is to Signora's come back.
I don't have a full theory, but with Signora having resurrection symbolism and being specifically based on southern American and Aztec mythology, while her only German influence is related to esoteric concepts, my conclusion is that her most likely, and possibly planned all along spot for resurrection is Natlan. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

I know this will likely get hate, but hear me out because there's actually too much symbolism, first, the sources (another note, spoiler text is just me covering more morbid information, Aztec mythology comes with that territory):
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Rosenkreuz#:~:text=Christian%20Rosenkreuz%20(also%20spelled%20Rosenkreutz,early%20in%20the%2017th%20century.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%AAtzp%C4%81p%C4%81l%C5%8Dtl
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion_(chess)
https://mythlok.com/itzpapalotl/
I'll explain all of these by the order of the articles I linked, so first, Christian Rosenkreuz. His story is identical to Signora, or well the first part of it. Aside from her name being derrived from his last name and the Rosicrucianism philosophy, they are both scholars who traveled from Germany (Mondstadt) to Persia (Sumeru), discovering knowledge that would immortalize them figuratively and literally (Signora becoming an elemental and Christian's body being preserved perfectly even after his death). While he is an allegorical figure, his name being possibly fake too, it's worth noting that he is her most relevant inspiration, but not the one relevant to Natlan.
Her inspiration that is the actually relevant to Natlan is the goddess of death and resurrection, Ītzpāpālōtl. Honestly, there is so much aligning inspiration that I wouldn't be shocked if there was an Ītzpāpālōtl like god revealed in Natlan. The most basic similarities are:
-both are represented by moths, and Signora has the Itzpāpālōtl moth (Rothschildia orizaba) in the part of her concept art that was shown at an event in China.
-Ītzpāpālōtl is usually reffered to as the obsidian butterfly, and Signora used to be a cooled down elemental of liquid fire (lava cooled down turns into obsidian)
-The goddess is usually described as a pale, seductive woman who can turn into a monster of clawed wings (Signora's boss form has black pointed ends to her wings)
-Aside from death and resurrection Ītzpāpālōtl is the patron goddess of witches, and a formidable sorceress herself. She also consumed souls, which is rather similar to Signora filling her time piece with spirits.
-Also pretty important, both are fond of children. Signora has her fondness of Arlecchino's adopted children, and Ītzpāpālōtl's realm is a paradise for victims of infant mortality , aside from also being the place where humans were created.
While they aren't 1 to 1 copies (Itzpāpālōtl usually has black hair while Signora's is blonde), they're pretty much 80% related to put it simply. Genshin impact usually takes lots of inspiration from religious and mythological sources (Childe is based on Ajax the great, Deshret's retainers are based on both Egyptian gods and could be a reference to king Solomon summoning demons to assist him), I fully expect this connection to be explored which is why we heard very little of Signora before Natlan, while she also has all of these native American influences. The main reason this is the case is that Natlan is clearly inspired by mainly southern America and Mexico, and Ītzpāpālōtl is a pretty relevant goddess in Aztec mythology.
Last but not least, Signora's chess piece in the winter night's lazzo trailer matches the position needed to promote a pawn to another chess piece of the same colour. This leads me to believe that Signora will resurrect with a huge powerup and possible divinity while still staying a closer ally of the fatui even if she quits being a harbinger. The argument that could be made against this is that Signora's piece fell over, but right as Pierro was about to remove it one of her moths landed on it. Even if we ignore all other mythological references and artifact + item descriptions, this scene specifically is some of the biggest proof there is to Signora's come back.
I don't have a full theory, but with Signora having resurrection symbolism and being specifically based on southern American and Aztec mythology, while her only German influence is related to esoteric concepts, my conclusion is that her most likely, and possibly planned all along spot for resurrection is Natlan. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.