In case anybody needs to know this, TicketOne allows you to change name on your tickets (3,50 euros per ticket) That said, I'm pretty sure IDs checking in Rome will be based on the name written on the tickets.
I'm quite saddened about the fact that as soon as the pre-sale started there was no map on the website and I purchased two tickets with no further information about the actual seating plan and, as if that wasn't enough, there is no fan resale service for this event: you can only change names. What about you? Did you manage to get good seats?

This is taken from and is copyright protected by globalsoup.net, a website that promotes flash Fiction with annual writing contests.
I am reprinting these Flash Fiction Prompts because they are outstanding ways to freewrite and offer plenty to work with for those who want to learn how to write Flash Fiction.
So check out these prompts and the article and work some of them into your journal! Post the best responses!
100 Awesome Flash Fiction Prompts - Plus Bonus Prompts!
We’ve put together 100 flash fiction prompts, each one designed for a very short story. These prompts will probably be best suited to a story of between 300-1,000 words. If you want to write a longer story using these prompts, you can easily expand these ideas to fit a story of any length.
What is flash fiction?
Flash Fiction is defined as a very short story that can be anywhere from just a couple of words to about a thousand in length. The beauty (and difficulty) of writing flash fiction lies in trying to tell a complete story in so few words. Great flash fiction is succinct, emotive, thought-provoking, and impactful.
What’s the difference between flash fiction and a short story?
The only difference between flash fiction and a typical short story is the word count. However, this scarcity of words means that writing flash fiction can feel like a completely new skill. Just like the short story is a different animal to the novel or novella; flash fiction is kind of unique.
When writing flash, you’ll need to use fewer characters, a simpler plot, and you’ll have to make each word count. This is why editing is so important. You have to be brutal. Cut out everything superfluous and really make sure each and every word is performing an important function in the story. If you’re interested in writing very short fiction, why not check out drabbles? Drabbles are stories of exactly 100 words in length, and they can be a great way to practice keeping your stories very, very short.
How to plot a flash fiction story
When you sit down to write flash fiction, you must begin by choosing an appropriate plot. You cannot simply use a short story plot and tell it using fewer words. A typical flash fiction plot is like looking at one part of a story under a microscope.
For example, let’s look at prompt #21 in our list of 100 Flash Fiction Prompts:

1. Two people on a sinking ship must decide who should take the last seat in the last lifeboat. If you were writing a novel about a sinking ship, you’d probably want the actual sinking to be the climax of the story. Of course, there are infinite ways to write a novel about a sinking ship, but this would structurally be the most obvious. You’d use the first part of the novel to introduce your characters and describe the voyage leading up to the sinking and the sinking of the ship would be the dramatic climax, leaving the last part of the book as the resolution.

The golden rule of writing short stories is to begin as close to end as you can. So, to turn the same story from novel to short story, you’d probably want to begin with the ship sinking. You haven’t got time to introduce the characters before the action begins, so you’d need to feed in exposition and backstory here and there during the events.
All stories need a good climax. So, you would find the most dramatic moment in the story and build up to it. Perhaps your climax would be the two main characters having to decide who will take the remaining seat on the last lifeboat.
Finally, you need a resolution. In a longer short story you do have time to bring in some kind of satisfying resolution at the end.
But, if you’re writing flash fiction and your story is only a few hundred words, you really need to zoom in on one tiny moment in that story.
You don’t have time to tell the entire story of a sinking ship, but you can turn one moment into a story.
We’ve chosen the lifeboat situation as the key moment in this hypothetical story. Two characters must decide which one of them will take the last seat on the last lifeboat. This is an appropriate plot for flash fiction because it’s simple, high-stakes, dramatic, and thought provoking.
Not all flash fiction will have a plot quite this dramatic, but all great flash fiction will have a plot that can be expressed in just one or two sentences.
If you have a plot in mind, but it seems more suitable for a longer story, you can sometimes find several flash fiction plots hidden within it. Just look for little stories within the story, like the lifeboat moment in our hypothetical tale of the sinking ship.
This brings us to our top tip for coming up with ideas for flash fiction stories:
if you’re ever stuck for ideas, you can find little stories within the story in books, movies, and TV shows. A full length feature film might have as many as 20 little incidents in it that could easily be flash fiction.
Don’t directly write a story based on the film, though. Just carefully pick out those little moments, write down what’s happening as a one or two sentence plot, and then use it to inspire your own, completely original flash fiction story.
One of our 100 Flash Fiction Prompts was actually taken from the movie Pulp Fiction!
How to write very short flash fiction
There are several reasons writers might start writing flash fiction. Of course, it could be that they just love and enjoy the form, but sometimes they’ll be a more strategic and practical reason at play.
Perhaps they want to practise the process of writing stories within the confines of a certain word limit. Maybe they are trying to develop a daily writing routine and they don’t have a lot of free time. It could be that they’re trying to break a habit of not finishing writing projects, or perhaps they are entering a flash fiction competition.
Whatever the reason, very often when we sit down to write flash, we must work under an imposed or self-imposed word restraint. We’ve set ourselves (or been set) the task of keeping the story under a particular number of words.
So, how do you plot a flash fiction story when you have to keep your story very, very short.
We’re not going to discuss stories of 100 words or fewer here. Technically, those stories are still flash, however, we prefer to categorise 100 word stories as drabbles and anything under 100 words as micro fiction.
But what if you have to keep your flash fiction story under, let’s say, 300 words? How do you write a flash fiction story that short?
The answer is: get your microscope out again. Remember earlier when we said writing flash fiction is like looking at part of a story under a microscope? If you have to write very short flash fiction, you’ll need to zoom in even further.
Let’s look at a couple of examples from our 100 Flash Fiction Prompts:

1. During a match, a young boxer must decide whether to throw the fight.

If you had 1,000 words to devote to the story, you could have time to tell the story of the entire fight. With only 300 words, it might be better to zoom in on the very moment when the boxer must choose whether or not to go down.
In a longer flash fiction story you might have time to go into detail about why he’s in this situation and why he’s so conflicted. In a 300 word story, you might only devote one or two sentences to his gambling debt and the large sum of money waiting for him if he goes down in the third round, as instructed.

1. A family must decide what to take and what to leave behind as a wildfire approaches their home.

If you had 1,000 words to devote to this story, you might be able to write about the whole process of choosing what to take and what to leave behind. You might be able to mention many different choices and have the whole family participate in the story. You’d be able to go into some details about certain choices and the stories behind individual objects or mementos, as well as the implications of choosing certain things over others.
With only 300 words, it would be advisable to zoom in on one member of the family and to focus on one profound and important choice.
How to write a flash fiction story
Now you have your mini plot, you still need to make sure your flash fiction feels like a complete story. It should still have a beginning, middle, and an end.
Just like a short story, you may need to bring in a little exposition here and there to give texture, context, backstory, and to bring some depth to the characters. But, unlike a short story, you won’t necessarily need to end with a full, detailed resolution. It’s quite common for a flash fiction story to end with a quick twist or plenty of ambiguity.
Flash Fiction is much more about eliciting emotions and provoking thought, than setting up and resolving a complex story.
100 Awesome Flash Fiction Prompts
A young ballet dancer chooses not to tell the other dancers in her troop about a loose paving stone outside their dance studio.
Two sisters realise they’ve both been on a perfect first date … with the same man.
On the car journey home, two parents realise they’ve left their child’s favourite teddy on a park bench several hours away.
A writer suffering from writers’ block looks for inspiration in a strange place.
Set 200 years in the future, a young man realises he’s too emotionally dependent on his robot assistant.
A young woman discovers she’s taken the wrong suitcase home from the airport. The contents of the case make her question her own life choices.
A murderer realises he has only 10 minutes to dispose of a body.
A child decides to walk home by themselves after their parent forgets to pick them up from school … again.
Your protagonist manages to talk the grim reaper out of collecting their soul.
Your protagonist suddenly realises they’ve been living in a simulation.
A young couple has chosen to spend the night in a haunted house to fix their marriage. Your story starts just as things get very weird.
Your protagonist finds a letter they wrote to themselves when they were a teenager.
Your protagonist must decide whether or not to drink from a fountain that erases all painful memories from the mind.
Your protagonist comes across a street called ‘Memory Lane’. They quickly realise the name is eerily apt.
A bride finds out something startling about her future husband an hour before the wedding.
Your protagonist finds an advertisement for a company that promises everlasting youth.
A youngest sibling shows up at a family reunion they weren’t actually invited to.
Your protagonist finds a piece of paper with a spell on it. If they say the words out loud they aren't sure if something terrible or wonderful will happen.
Your protagonist is watching a jazz band play when they realise they know the drummer from somewhere — but where? It takes a whole song for them to figure it out.
Your protagonist must meet their ex for lunch to tell them they’re now engaged. It’s been just a few weeks since they split up.
Two people on a sinking ship must decide who should take the last seat in the last lifeboat.
During a match, a young boxer must decide whether to throw the fight.
Your protagonist must pack their belongings before moving to a new colony on mars.
A pilot realises they have lost control of their aircraft.
Your protagonist doesn’t want to attend their 100th birthday party — and for good reason!
Your protagonist gets stuck in a lift with their ex … 5 minutes after breaking up with them.
A child says goodbye to the fairies in his garden before moving to a new home.
Your protagonist saves someone’s life … and then wishes they hadn’t.
Your protagonist arrives at a blind date. They’ve been set up with someone they actually know a little too well.
Set in a dystopian future in which public displays of affection are banned, your protagonist faces an agonising choice.
An agoraphobic must face their fear in order to save something important.
Your protagonist must make her partner fall out of love with them. Both their lives depend on it.
Your protagonist is hiking with her small children, they come face to face with a grizzly bear and her cubs.
Cinderella and Prince Charming realise they got married too quickly.
A message written in graffiti on a bathroom wall has serious implications for your protagonist.
Your protagonist finds a bag, looks inside, and realises the owner might just be their soulmate.
Your protagonist has been seeing the same stranger everywhere they go for months. They finally decide to confront them.
A couple realise their relationship is over during the trip of a lifetime. They’ve been saving up for the trip for years.
A public debate sees two previously married people letting their private grievances come into their arguments.
Your protagonist plans their escape from a retirement home.
A couple realise their fundamental beliefs are at odds with each other.
An artist develops an obsession with drawing a next-door neighbour.
Your protagonist finds themselves trapped in a cabin with a group of hikers during a heavy snowfall.
An ice skater must face going back on the ice after a dangerous fall.
A couple must decide their plan for New Year’ Eve. They both have secret reasons for their choice.
A family must decide what to take and what to leave behind as a wildfire approaches their home.
Your protagonist is waiting for someone important at the airport. They begin to think that person isn’t going to show up … and then they realise why.
Your protagonist must find their way through a maze. What they find in the middle of the maze is the last thing they were expecting.
An actor waiting in the wings has forgotten his first line.
Your protagonist is wrongly identified as a hero. Do they come clean?
Your protagonist realises their past is catching up with them.
Your protagonist overhears something that has serious implications for them while trying on clothes in a changing room.
Your protagonist is in a costume shop trying to decide what to dress up as for Halloween.
Your protagonist realises they’ve slipped into an alternate dimension.
A surgeon must make an impossible choice on the operating table.
A pregnant journalist interviews the mother of a missing child.
Your protagonist must ask his girlfriend’s father for his blessing, only to discover the father knows his deepest secret.
Your protagonist sees something on social media that will change their life forever.
Two work colleagues realise they’ve been dreaming the same dreams for weeks.
A reluctant daughter comes to terms with having to carry on the family business.
Your protagonist realises she must go on the run.
Two bank robbers disagree on their plan to rob a bank. This leads to a disastrous consequence.
A strange case of deja vous leaves your protagonist convinced of supernatural interference.
A sceptic begins to question their beliefs during a psychic reading.
Your protagonist uncovers a scandal at their workplace.
A hapless cook tries to recreate her late father’s favourite recipes in an effort to feel connected to him.
Your protagonist has a premonition that makes them certain they can’t visit their mother-in-law for Christmas. Now he must convince his husband.
A young backpacker discovers something unexpected in a cave.
An impulsive character and an indecisive character are brought together by chance. They must make an important choice.
Two characters cleaning up after a party discover an object that sheds light on something strange that happened earlier.
Two strangers are trapped together during a blackout.
Your protagonist must take a leap of faith in order to save something important to them.
Your protagonist discovers a huge part of their life has been a lie.
Your protagonist has set up an elaborate way to propose. Inexplicably, everything goes wrong.
Your protagonist must buy a dress for her mother’s funeral.
Your protagonist goes back to her favourite city in the world, only to find it has completely changed.
While stargazing, your protagonist realises the stars are forming secret messages in the sky.
Your protagonist hears a news story on the radio that will mean the world changes forever. However, she seems to be the only person who heard it.
Your protagonist is crossing a frozen lake. They see something under the ice that definitely shouldn’t be there.
A workaholic must come to terms with retirement.
An Olympic athlete must decide whether or not to report their teammate for doping.
A young mother feels isolated from her childless friends.
Your protagonist is about to realise their greatest ambition. Will it be everything they were hoping for?
Onboard a spaceship, a couple prepare to go into stasis for hundreds of years.
Your protagonist has an obsession with thinking about the past.
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, your protagonist meets an unlikely love interest.
Your protagonist visits a place from their childhood and realises their memories of that time might not be accurate at all.
A small child has decided to run away from home. Her parents watch on with amusement as she decides what to put in her backpack.
On a whim, a bus driver decides to radically change his route, much to the chagrin of his passengers.
Dystopian. A couple in love are only allowed to spend time with each other one day a year.
A shapeshifter begins to realise their powers are fading. They must decide what form will be the last one they take before they cannot change again.
The devil visits your protagonist with an offer on her soul.
Your protagonist suddenly has the ability to read minds. There’s only one place they want to go now!
Your very wealthy protagonist has designed a simple test to see who will inherit her estate.
An archaeologist discovers something that will change how we see the history of the world. It could be dangerous. Does he keep it to himself?
Your protagonist must clear out their late mother’s house. She discovers an incredible family secret.
Your protagonist is meeting his brother. They haven’t seen each other for 20 years.
Your protagonist develops the ability to see the world literally through someone else’s eyes.
Your protagonist starts to believe their partner might be a spy.
Your protagonist discovers a hidden camera in their living room.
Looking for a flash fiction competition? Check out our ‘Big List of International Writing Competitions!’ Looking for inspiration? Why not check out our list of the 20 Greatest Short Story Writers of All Time! Just received another short story rejection? Here’s our post about ‘How to Deal With Story Rejections’ Bonus Prompts! Two characters waiting by the side of the road realise they are both meeting the same person.
A woman loses her young niece in a busy shopping mall.
Three strangers must solve a riddle in order to gain entry to a secret club.
A poor woman must borrow ingredients from her neighbours to bake her husband a birthday cake.
A waiter finally finds out why an old man has been coming to the restaurant where he works every day at exactly the same time.
Two work colleagues must decide which of them is to take the blame for a terrible mistake at work.
Your disgruntled protagonist goes to confront the couple next door about the strange noises they’ve been hearing at night.
A family dinner party sees three characters make three very surprising announcements.
Two women argue over who should get to buy the last dress available in a store. How do they decide who should get it?
A young couple find out they knew (and disliked) each other vehemently as children.
Love writing stories? Register now for our free 7 Day Story Writing Challenges. Write a short story in a week, get extensive feedback on your entry, and compete for a prize of £500 in each round of the challenge. Register today!
Mastered the art of flash fiction? Now you can try submitting your stories to literary magazines! We’ve compiled a list of the best literary magazines that don’t charge a reading fee! Check out our Big List of No-Fee Literary Magazines.

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/canon-fodder-in-zane-in-the-membrane
Header Image ^[Imgur]
It’s not a Cypress Hill song, it’s a new issue of Canon Fodder!
By now, you’ll no doubt have made headway through the latest Operation in Halo Infinite —titled “Banished Honor”—which was accompanied by a new Waypoint Chronicle based around a simple question: “What would the story of a Spartan who joined the Banished be?”
We had the perfect character lined up to tell that story, one who hasn’t been seen since the end of Hunt the Truth's second season all the way back in 2015.
Welcome back, Ilsa Zane.

THE THIRD LIFE

Our ninth Waypoint Chronicle has arrived, which follows on from the concluding events of Hunt the Truth where a Guardian awakens on the colony world Laika III. Broadly, these events are concurrent with the story that unfolds in Halo 5 as Cortana lays claim to the Mantle, rallies AIs to her cause, and sets about imposing an imperial peace upon the galaxy.
Where Hunt the Truth saw the mantle of narrator pass from journalist Benjamin Giraud to undercover ONI agent Maya “FERO” Sankar in its second season, that torch is once again passed on to a character who made her presence felt in this story... the rogue Spartan known as Ilsa Zane.
Halo: The Third Life is available here on Halo Waypoint, as a free PDF, and in audiobook format on YouTube.
“October 2558. After being taken prisoner by the Banished as chaos erupts across the galaxy, Ilsa Zane’s hunt for the truth leads her to a new stage of life she never expected...”

EMPTY THRONE

Last issue, we gave you a totally legitimate look at the cover art of Halo: Empty Throne. Art is in the eye of the beholder, and unfortunately the powers that be decided that we could do better than a screenshot made in Halo 3's Forge mode in ten minutes with some crudely edited-in elements... it was a close call, really, but we ultimately pivoted towards something with the vibe of it having come from an incredibly talented and brilliant artist—namely, Will Staehle, whose other work you can check out here.
So, here you go. Here’s the official cover art for Halo: Empty Throne, coming later this year.
Pre-order your copy of Halo: Empty Throne here!
Cover art of Halo: Empty Throne illustrated by Will Staehle depicting a young girl and a Spartan emerging from a blue explosion coming from a Forerunner structure
“2559. It has been a year since the rogue artificial intelligence Cortana seized control of the Domain, an otherworldly dimension housing a vast information network. With an array of Forerunner weapons at her disposal, Cortana set out to enforce an authoritarian peace on the civilizations of the galaxy. But as the United Nations Space Command flagship Infinity prepares to strike against Cortana at Zeta Halo, another plan has also been set in motion.
An ancient access point hidden on a seemingly insignificant human colony has become the focus of a parallel effort to claim the Domain and its immeasurable capabilities. The UNSC, however, needs a key: a living, forsaken product of an old war. As a new generation of heroes rise to meet this challenge and Cortana's pursuit of control reaches a desperate and sudden crescendo, a cunning, ruthless warrior emerges from the shadows of the Banished, who has vowed to fill the new power vacuum by any means necessary....”

THE BANISHED SPARTAN

ILSA ZANE
Cropped profile image depicting Ilsa Zane surrounded by fire and Banished banners ^[Imgur]
RANK: Bloodstar BIRTH WORLD: Kholo DATE OF BIRTH: June 11, 2528 APPEARED IN: Halo: Initiation, Hunt the Truth, Halo: The Third Life
Born on the Outer Colony world Kholo, Ilsa Zane was just eleven years old when she lost her parents and everyone she had ever known as the Covenant descended upon her home and reduced its surface to glass. Taken to the remote colony Asphodel as a ward of the state, Zane remained largely silent and solitary until coming of age in 2547, where she was conscripted into UNSC military service.
In 2550, Zane was selected as a candidate for the prototype phase of the SPARTAN-IV program. Though she survived the augmentation process, additional experimental cocktails caused severe neurological damage to Zane. After escaping the facility, she was recovered by Admiral Mattius Drake and integrated into the rebel group known as the New Colonial Alliance.
In the immediate aftermath of the Covenant War, Zane led a group of operatives who attempted to commandeer the UNSC Infinity —securing it as the flagship of the New Colonial Alliance and to prevent the UNSC from deploying it to police independent colonies. This plan was thwarted by Spartan Sarah Palmer, who ejected Zane into space where the rogue Spartan was once more rescued by Drake, who was on standby in a nearby Prowler.
Following this, Zane served as an acquisitions specialist for weapons and materiel, as well as a ruthless instructor for mercenary and rebel groups that joined the New Colonial Alliance, forging them into a veritable fighting force in preparation for a large-scale strike against the UNSC. However, the awakening of the Guardians in 2558 waylaid these plans, leaving Zane as a prisoner of the Banished—with whom she ultimately came to find both common cause and brotherhood.

BANISH THY HONOR

Halo: Tales From Slipspace - Hunting Party
Image ^[Imgur]
What does it mean to be Banished?
To be Banished is to seek to liberate oneself, to pledge loyalty not to false promises of divine ascension but to the fearsome might and will exemplified by Atriox.
Service is welcome from any species, of any previous affiliation or loyalty—from the lowliest Unggoy thrall to the mightiest Sangheili warrior, and all between and beyond.
Power is its own end. In the wake of the Covenant War, opportunity is rife to carve up the remnants of the fallen empire’s vast resources and obtain technology that furthers the prime directive of the Banished: to never bow again, a “reclamation” all their own of freedom.
Following decades of calamitous conflict that has left even the most capable commanders war-weary, it is the Banished that are energized and fortified in purpose and will. Payment for those who share common cause with Atriox comes in blood and sport and spoils.
But those who would choose this path must unshackle themselves from ties to the past—unbind themselves from old masters, cast off their piety, and banish their sentimental devotion to honor.
Only then can one become a true vessel for victory.
Only then is one truly Banished.

THIEVING MITTENS

Halo: Escalation Issue #3 page depicting a showdown between Spartan Scruggs, who has taken Admiral Hood hostage, and Spartan Palmer, Chieftain Lydus, and Arbiter Thel 'Vadam ^[Imgur]
Why would a Spartan go rogue?
It’s an apt question. After all, Spartans are meant to represent paragons of humanity in both strength and spirit. But across the generations of Spartans, there have been traitors, rebels, or those who simply wanted to leave the UNSC behind to live on their own terms.
For the Spartan-IIs, these examples came as a result of their training—of recognizing and rebelling against the horrific context of their situation.
In the “Homecoming” episode of Halo Legends, Daisy-023 and several of her fellow candidates sought to escape the program following the augmentation procedures that killed or maimed many of their brothers and sisters, but were ultimately brought back into the fold.
Likewise, in the Halo: Evolutions short story “Pariah,” Soren-066 was left disfigured by the augmentations and was gradually radicalized by a technician named Partch, eventually attempting to escape Reach and join the Insurrection. Indeed, the Spartan who sought to apprehend Soren was Randall-037, who later appeared in Halo: Nightfall where we learned that he had evaded the UNSC after the Battle of Vodin in 2532, even starting a family before ONI eventually caught up to him over a decade later, "reversing" many of his augmentations in exchange for release from UNSC service.
Looking to the Spartan Field Manual, originally released back in 2018, we can gain further insight into the risk of rogue Spartans as it applies to the SPARTAN-IV program:
STOLEN GAUNTLET
Nevertheless, the SPARTAN-IV selection process is not foolproof. Spartan-IVs are soldiers with preexisting philosophies and loyalties, and even the most carefully screened candidate can react to their augmentation and training in unexpected ways. Individual Spartans represent a strategically significant level of combat power and pose a major security threat if their loyalty is compromised.
The STOLEN GAUNTLET fail-safe protocol has been created to provide training and permissive rules of engagement for special agents tasked with tracking down and swiftly neutralizing rogue Spartans.
~ Halo: Official Spartan Field Manual, p. 86
Rogue Spartans
Halo Mythos artwork by Isaac Hannaford depicting Mickey's betrayal of Buck and Romeo in Halo: New Blood ^[Imgur]
Ilsa Zane represents the earliest example of this manifesting as a critical issue for the Spartan-IV program, and she is far from a singular example.
In Halo: Escalation, we see Spartan Vladimir Scruggs—another New Colonial Alliance defector—attempt to sabotage the peace talks between Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam and Chieftain Lydus.
Another prominent example is Michael Crespo in Halo: New Blood, who became disillusioned with being sent to kill other humans in the wake of the Covenant War and defected to the United Rebel Front with fellow Spartan Rudolf Schein.
Of course, defecting is one thing, but what is it about the Banished that would be attractive to a rogue Spartan? That is something wholly contingent upon the individual, and at present there is a specific example we can examine: Ilsa Zane.
Having been discarded by the UNSC after falling victim to experimental augmentation cocktails that ravaged her body and mind, she was eventually left for dead by Admiral Drake as well—she was herself “banished” from the places she had sought to belong. This, in combination with her proclivity for violence and a ruthless mindset, led her to discover a certain kinship with the Jiralhanae on Laika III, leading her to willingly pledge herself and the New Colonial Alliance to the Banished.
In the words of Spartan Scruggs: "I am a Spartan. But what you fight for isn't always the same as who you fight for."

ARMORY INFINITUM

The Ravager was a new weapon introduced to the sandbox in Halo Infinite, though it made its fictional debut in Halo: Shadows of Reach.
“The cacophony of gunfire was replaced by the sizzle of shock rifles and the thump-hiss of ravagers.”
~ Halo: Shadows of Reach, Chapter 21
Featuring a semi-automatic, three-round burst and a charge ability that can create a burning pool for area-of-effect damage, the Ravager quickly became a favorite tool of Jiralhanae warlords for its capacity to flush out garrisoned infantry.
A unique version of the weapon, the Rebound Ravager, can be found in the possession of Captain Arthoc—a high value target the Master Chief encountered on Zeta Halo. Rounds fired by this weapon have the ability to bounce, to which the words of Agent Washington from Red vs. Blue may come to mind: “It bounces? Who designs a gun that bounces?!”
Halo Infinite screenshot of Arthoc ^[Imgur]
ARMORY OF RECKONING CAPT ARTHOC FWD: RAVAGER
The Armory of Reckoning—it is a fitting name for the tools of conquest and destruction birthed from its forges.
When we advanced on the human remnants that had sought shelter within their crashed ship, I requested of Commander Bannix an augmented version of the plasma tossers produced by the Forge of Torograd.
Where we have mastered both spike and spear in our weaponry since before the Immolation, infusion matter remains an object of study for our alchemists. I was informed by the Screecleaver that there is a great savant stationed on Oth Liqattu who has sought to unlock further secrets of this fetid power, applying it to our own troops and many of our vehicles.
It is said that prolonged exposure to this corrosive bile can addle the mind and rot the body... that is good, for there are many small spaces in human ships. The capacity for this weapon to launch projectiles that bounce before erupting into toxic piles was of great use in flushing our foes from cover. How they flailed and danced to our battle song!
It is my understanding that pure infusion matter is pumped throughout Forerunner facilities, so we must dedicate resources to finding these wellsprings within the substructures of this ring. I shall bring this to Tremonius once he has returned from investigating a disturbance at his outpost.

MERIDIAN SLOANCOMING

Last month saw the arrival of Halo: Battle Born's rerelease, featuring two new short story “adjuncts” which we took a closer look at in our previous issue.
On April 30, the rerelease of Halo: Meridian Divide hit the shelves and—as folks have noticed—there's another adjunct in this one as well!
MERIDIAN HOMECOMING
Halo 5 screenshot of a Promethean Knight on Meridian ^[Imgur]
Completing the trifecta of new adjuncts in these rereleases is “Meridian Homecoming,” which is set in the immediate aftermath of Cortana’s final sacrifice on Zeta Halo in December 2559.
With the leader of the Created dead, the future of this fledgling faction has been thrown into doubt. High Auxiliary Sloan has returned to Meridian where he occupies a Promethean Knight’s carapace and wanders the vast glasslands of his home to find his own fate.
Of course, fans who followed the Precipice short story series last year (which accompanied Halo Infinite's recurring FIREWALL events) know that Sloan has emerged as a new leader within the Created and set into motion the creation of the Executors. “Meridian Homecoming” gives us a small moment in time with Sloan as he contemplates what the concept of home means to him, Cortana’s unfulfilled promise of salvation, his regrets over how he departed from Meridian, and the memories held within a Promethean Knight that set him on a new path.

COMMUNITY LORE CORNER

For this month’s Community Lore Corner, we kick things off with GammaCompanyMark who has put together a media order for the Halo series if you really, really want to experience it in some form of “timeline order.”
The fine folks at JumperScape have been adapting some of the lore and stories we’ve put out for Halo Infinite, beginning with the Intel drops we did for Season 2: Lone Wolves. (If you can believe it, it’s just passed the two-year mark for when this season launched!)
We recently discovered Lore VoidCat while checking out the latest Halo lore content on YouTube, and he has put together a fantastic series of videos about various expanded universe aspects—from every blade of the Covenant, to recounting the stories of various games and books, and more. Here’s one of his latest!
Would it be surprising if you learned that Covenant Canon has put out a new video featuring some... you guessed it, Covenant canon? In his latest release, we take a look at every known Arbiter throughout the Halo universe’s history.
Every now and then, the nostalgic longing for those halcyon days of 2007 return, which is exactly what you will feel when watching Meaning In-Between and Frogarchist's exploration of how mystery was a core thematic pillar of Halo 3.
And finally, David and Ian of Podcast Evolved have done a new “book club” episode on one of our previous Waypoint Chronicles: Saturn Devouring His Son.
With that, it’s time to sign off for this month’s issue.
If you haven’t already checked out Halo: The Third Life, be sure to do so—and if you have, well, go and read or listen to it again! Let the gears of speculation turn for what is depicted on the cover art for Halo: Empty Throne (don’t forget to secure your pre-order), and you can get your in-game Ilsa Zane cosplay sorted by completing the Banished Honor Operation Pass!
We depart with our favorite Ilsa Zane comic panel for your entertainment.
Halo: Initiation panel of Ilsa Zane shutting of the UNSC Infinity's original AI, Aine, saying "Quiet you." ^[Imgur]
This post was made by a script written and maintained by the Halo mod team to automatically post blogs from Halo Waypoint. If you notice any issues with the text output or think this was posted by mistake, please message the mods.

Life insurance is a financial product that provides a lump-sum payment to designated beneficiaries upon the death of the insured person, through life insurance companies in Sri Lanka. This payment, known as the death benefit, can help cover funeral expenses, replace lost income, pay off debts, and provide financial security for loved ones left behind.

For self-employed individuals, life insurance in Sri Lanka is particularly important for several reasons:
· Income Replacement: Self-employed individuals often do not have the same safety nets as employees, such as employer-provided life insurance or pension plans. Life insurance can help replace lost income for their families if they pass away unexpectedly, ensuring that their loved ones are financially secure.
· Debt Coverage: Many self-employed people have loans or debts associated with their business, such as business loans, mortgages, or credit card debt. Life insurance can help cover these debts, preventing financial burdens from being passed on to their heirs.
· Business Continuity: For self-employed individuals who own businesses, life insurance can be crucial for business continuity. It can provide funds to cover expenses during a transition period or help buy out a deceased partner's share of the business, ensuring the smooth continuation of operations.
· Estate Planning: Life insurance proceeds can be used to pay estate taxes or other expenses associated with transferring assets to heirs. This can help preserve the value of the estate and ensure that assets are distributed according to the individual's wishes.

Life insurance, similar to retirement plans in Sri Lanka, provides peace of mind for self-employed individuals, knowing that their loved ones and businesses will be financially protected in the event of their death. It is a crucial component of financial planning for anyone who relies on their income to support themselves and their families.

How do I find the right life insurance policy for my needs?
Finding the right life insurance policy for your needs involves assessing your financial situation, understanding your goals, and comparing various insurance options. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you through the process:
· Assess Your Needs: Start by evaluating your financial obligations, including outstanding debts, mortgage, future expenses (such as college tuition for children), and the income replacement needs of your dependents. Consider how much coverage would be necessary to meet these needs if you were to pass away.
· Understand Types of Life Insurance: There are two primary types of life insurance: term life insurance and permanent life insurance. Term life insurance provides coverage for a specific period (e.g., 10, 20, or 30 years), while permanent life insurance (such as whole life or universal life) provides coverage for your entire life and includes a cash value component. Determine which type aligns best with your needs and preferences.
· Calculate Coverage Amount: Use online calculators or consult with a financial advisor to estimate the amount of coverage you need based on your financial obligations and goals.
· Compare Quotes: Get quotes from multiple insurance companies to compare premiums for the coverage amount you need. Consider factors such as the company's financial stability, reputation, and customer service.
· Review Policy Features: Pay attention to the features and riders offered by each policy, such as accelerated death benefits, guaranteed insurability options, and waiver of premium riders. These features can add flexibility and additional benefits to your policy.
· Check Underwriting Requirements: Understand the underwriting process for each insurance company, including medical exams, health questionnaires, and pre-existing conditions. Some companies may offer simplified or no-exam underwriting, which can be beneficial for certain individuals.
· Read the Fine Print: Carefully review the policy contract, including terms, conditions, exclusions, and any limitations. Make sure you understand how the policy works and what is covered.
· Consider Additional Riders: Depending on your needs, consider adding riders to your policy for additional coverage, such as accidental death benefit riders, critical illness riders, or disability income riders.
· Seek Professional Advice: If you are unsure about which policy is best for you, consider consulting with a licensed insurance agent or financial advisor who can provide personalised recommendations based on your financial situation and goals.
· Regularly Review Your Coverage: Life insurance needs can change over time due to factors such as marriage, the birth of children, career advancements, or changes in financial obligations. Review your coverage periodically to ensure it still aligns with your needs and make adjustments as necessary.

What should a life insurance policy include?
A comprehensive life insurance policy should include the following key components:
· Death Benefit: This is the primary component of a life insurance policy. It provides a lump-sum payment to the designated beneficiaries upon the death of the insured individual. The death benefit amount should be sufficient to meet the financial needs of the insured's dependents and cover outstanding debts, funeral expenses, and other obligations.
· Policy Term or Duration: For term life insurance policies, the policy will specify the coverage duration, such as 10, 20, or 30 years. Permanent life insurance policies provide coverage for the insured's entire life.
· Premiums: The policy will outline the amount and frequency of premium payments required to keep the policy in force. Premiums can be paid annually, semi-annually, quarterly, or monthly.
· Cash Value (for Permanent Policies): Permanent life insurance policies typically accumulate cash value over time, which can be accessed by the policyholder through loans or withdrawals. The policy should specify how the cash value grows and how it can be utilised.
· Riders and Optional Benefits: Policyholders can often add additional coverage or benefits to their life insurance policy through riders. Common riders include accelerated death benefit riders, which allow the policyholder to access a portion of the death benefit if diagnosed with a terminal illness, and waiver of premium riders, which waive premium payments if the insured becomes disabled.
· Coverage Exclusions and Limitations: The policy will outline any circumstances or events that are not covered by the insurance, such as suicide within a certain period after the policy is purchased or death resulting from illegal activities.
· Policy Renewal and Conversion Options: For term life insurance policies, the policy may include options for renewal or conversion to a permanent policy at the end of the term without the need for a medical exam.
· Policy Ownership and Beneficiary Designation: The policyholder has the right to designate the policy's owner and beneficiaries. The owner has control over the policy and can make changes to beneficiaries or coverage as needed.
· Grace Period: The policy should specify a grace period during which premium payments can be made after the due date without the policy lapsing.
· Policy Surrender and Lapse Provisions: The policy should outline the process and consequences of surrendering the policy or allowing it to lapse due to non-payment of premiums.

It is important to carefully review the terms and conditions of a life insurance policy before purchasing to ensure that it meets your needs and provides the necessary financial protection for you and your loved ones.

Welcome to the newest edition of BoxOffice Long Range Forecast.
We're making long range predictions for films, 4 weeks out from their premieres. You will predict the opening weekend, domestic total and worldwide gross of this film. These predictions will be open for 48 hours and the results will be polled to form a consensus and posted the next week.
So let's meet the one film for the week.

Inside Out 2

The sequel to Inside Out (2015), the film is directed by Kelsey Mann (in his feature directorial debut) and written by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein. It stars the voices of Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Diane Lane, and Kyle MacLachlan, Tony Hale, Liza Lapira, Maya Hawke, Ayo Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, and Kensington Tallman. The film focuses on Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who are astonished when new emotions are introduced in Riley's mind.
Now that you've met this week's new release. Let's look at some pros and cons.

PROS

• Inside Out is one of Pixar's most beloved films from the 2010s onward, so there's already a built-in audience for the film.
  
• Despite having to compete with Minions a few weeks later, the film earned a massive $858 million worldwide. As previously said, it already has a huge built-in audience.
  
• The trailers and synopsis have offered a pretty intriguing look at the sequel: Riley growing up, and the addition of new emotions. So the film can avoid feeling repetitive compared to the original.
  
• Its sole animated competition by the time it hits theaters is The Garfield Movie, which will be 3 weeks old by that point. Considering the audience's familiarity with the film, there's a chance audiences prioritize Inside Out 2 over Garfield.
  
• It's just one day, but so far, the pre-sales look incredibly good.
  

CONS

• Pixar and Disney have had an... underwhelming run ever since they returned to theaters in 2021. Pixar had a huge bomb with Lightyear, and while Elemental had great legs, it barely broke even at best. Disney, meanwhile, had it worse: Encanto underwhelmed at the box office before blowing up on streaming, Strange World was one of the biggest bombs in history, and Wish was another colossal bomb. Inside Out 2 won't fare this badly, but it's a sign that their brands have taken a dive in the past years.
  
• The original's director and writer Pete Docter is not back in his roles. While it's unlikely audiences pay much attention to who is involved on an animated film, Docter's involvement in these two roles is usually a sign of guaranteed quality (Monsters, Inc., Up, Inside Out and Soul). His only involvement was that the film would use his "five to 27 emotions" idea.
  
• The film will face Despicable Me 3 three weeks later, which could eat into its family demographic.
  

And here's the past results.

Movie	Release Date	Distributor	Domestic Debut	Domestic Total	Worldwide Total
IF	May 17	Paramount	$26,625,000	$87,791,666	$166,888,888
Back to Black	May 17	Focus Features	$7,895,000	$18,987,500	$39,750,000
The Strangers: Chapter 1	May 17	Lionsgate	$13,863,636	$36,704,545	$60,218,750
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga	May 24	Warner Bros.	$45,443,378	$149,213,403	$352,304,347
The Garfield Movie	May 24	Sony	$58,104,545	$158,836,363	$391,090,909
Young Woman and the Sea	May 31	Disney	$4,700,000	$12,855,555	$21,587,500
Bad Boys: Ride or Die	June 7	Sony	$63,437,500	$180,437,500	$389,200,000
The Watchers	June 7	Warner Bros.	$15,333,333	$41,708,333	$71,291,666

Next week, we're predicting Kinds of Kindness and The Bikeriders.

Hi folks,
I have a question on contributions to a 457b deferred compensation plan. I understand the mechanics of it (invest w/pre-tax money, withdrawals in the future are taxable income) but I'm wondering if I should contribute more to this plan.
I work for a state government agency and am fortunate enough to contribute to a pension system. This pension contribution is a fixed % of my income that I have no discretion over. I have maxed out my Roth IRA contribution this year and intend to do so in the future as well if I'm able. For what it's worth, my pre-tax income is about $91k and I am 28 years old. I am firmly in the middle of the 22% federal income tax bracket so reducing my taxable income will not reduce my marginal tax rate as I understand it.
I also contribute to a 457b deferred compensation plan. As you may know, there is no employer match for this plan. I currently contribute 8% of my pre-tax income to this plan, which appears to be decent: the to-date annualized return is about 8.5% and the total fees are 0.08%.
Budget-wise, I tend to have enough money left each month to invest anywhere from $100-$800 a month in a taxable brokerage account. I currently have about $51k in Vanguard ETFs in this account, which I consider to be for mid- to long-term expenses though I aim to buy-and-hold as much as possible.
My question is whether I might be better off upping my contribution to my 457b plan to something like 15%, which would likely come at the "expense" of contributions to my taxable brokerage account. I know that it depends on a variety of factors like how much I anticipate needing in retirement and how much I want to have in my brokerage account, so I am looking for your personal perspective if you were in my position. Is it favorable tax-wise to defer even more of my current income, given that I will have a measure of control over how much I withdraw annually from this 457b in the future?
TLDR: should I boost contributions to a 457b plan and reduce investment in my taxable brokerage account, given that I am feeling decent about my other retirement contributions? Thanks in advance.

Hello! I've made comments here on this subreddit before, but this is my first time as a contributor. If you have any tips or feedback, then that'd be great. Thank you, have a great day and God bless! :D

Adonijah Sets Himself Up as King

1 When King David was very old, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him. ² So his attendants said to him, “Let us look for a young virgin to serve the king and take care of him. She can lie beside him so that our lord the king may keep warm.”
³ Then they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful young woman and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. ⁴ The woman was very beautiful; she took care of the king and waited on him, but the king had no sexual relations with her.
⁵ Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said, “I will be king.” So he got chariots and horses^\)^a\) ready, with fifty men to run ahead of him. ⁶ (His father had never rebuked him by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?” He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom.)
⁷ Adonijah conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest, and they gave him their support. ⁸ But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei and Rei and David’s special guard did not join Adonijah.
⁹ Adonijah then sacrificed sheep, cattle and fattened calves at the Stone of Zoheleth near En Rogel. He invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the royal officials of Judah, ¹⁰ but he did not invite Nathan the prophet or Benaiah or the special guard or his brother Solomon.
Footnotes: a) 1 Kings 1:5 Or charioteers
Observations/ Questions
1) So here we see David towards the end of his reign. 2 Samuel 5:4 says that David was 30 years old when he became king and ruled for 40 years, so he's now 70 years old. For verses 1-4 in my Bible, I had a note directing me to 2 Samuel 21: 15-17. At this stage, David's days of fighting in wars are over, so he's no longer in the best shape physically. I don't think he's completely confined to his bed though. 1 Chronicles 29: 22 mentions Solomon being acknowledged as king a second time, so I believe the events of 1 Chronicles 28-29 happen in between the first and second chapter of 1 Kings.
I don't particularly have much else to say about verses 1-4. Enduring Word Commentary on 1 Kings 1 has this note: "It was proper because it was a recognized medical treatment in the ancient world, mentioned by the ancient Greek doctor Galen. When Josephus described this in his Antiquities of the Jews, he said that this was a medical treatment and he called the servants of 1 Kings 1:2 “physicians.” I should also mention that I looked up Abishag on Bible Gateway and she's not mentioned again in the Bible after the next chapter. Feel free to add any further insights/ takeaways that you have for verses 1-4.
2) What are your impressions of Adonijah in this section?
According to 2 Samuel 3:2-4, Adonijah is David's 4th son. Amnon and Absalom (David's 1st and 3rd sons) are dead as we know from 2 Samuel. David's 2nd son is Kileab/Chielab (AKA Daniel in 1 Chronicles 3:2), the son of Abigail the widow of Nabal (from 1 Samuel 25). From what I've seen in commentary notes, the belief is that this 2nd son was either dead or somehow unfit to be king. The thought crossed my mind that it could be possible that Kileab could be both alive and eligible, but turned down the crown. I'm not familiar with how succession rules worked in those days, so feel free to correct me if that possibility I came up with is unlikely.
For verses 5-6, I have John 5:44, 2 Samuel 14:25 and Proverbs 3:5-6 written down in my Bible. Adonijah takes a lot after Absalom and even uses some of Absalom's strategies like 2 Samuel 15:1.
Verse 6 stands out a bit for me. One modern phrase I've seen recently was something like "This person sounds like someone whose parents never told them no", which could apply here to Adonijah. I think it's safe to say that from what we've seen in 2 Samuel 13 that David wasn't really a great father unfortunately.
Not to put all the blame on him of course, for what Adonijah ends up doing. For verses 7-8, I have Psalm 75:6-7, James 4:10 written down in my Bible. I also have Leviticus 3 written down for verse 9. I would assume that's included since Adonijah's trying to use these sacrifices to act like he has God's approval in front of the people.
3) I'd also like to bring up Proverbs 22:6 as a possible verse in regards to Israel's leadership as a whole so far. I was rereading 1 Samuel recently and came to a realization. Israels' most current leaders so far have been Eli, Samuel, Saul, and David.
Eli-We see God judging Eli and his house for what happens in 1 Samuel 2-3. 1 Samuel 3:13 mentions that "he(Eli) failed to restrain them(his sons)"
Samuel-We don't know how good/bad of a father Samuel was, but his sons were corrupt(1 Samuel 8:1-3)
Saul-We don't know how Saul treated his other 2 sons. Saul tried to kill Jonathan twice (1 Samuel 14: 38-45 and 1 Samuel 20: 24-34), but Jonathan turned out well even when Saul was falling apart as his reign went on
David-already brought up
Solomon later on-Rehoboam has very little(if any at all) of Solomon's wisdom as we'll see
Israel's leadership really seems to struggle overall with the next generation. Still, I don't think Proverbs 22: 6 is a permanent rule, if we consider later on from Ahaz up to Josiah in 2 Kings (Josiah in particular was one of the Southern Kingdom's best kings despite the ungodliness of his grandfather Manasseh and his father Amon).
4) Why do you suppose Joab and Abiathar decided to side with Adonijah? What(if anything) was so different that they didn't side with Absalom before?
Joab and Abiathar are the 2 big names in David's kingdom(Joab as the army commander and Abiathar the priest). Joab I can see conspiring with Adonijah since he's done stuff before without David's knowledge and/or approval(ex: killing Abner, Absalom and Amasa). The next chapter in verse 28 mentions that Joab had conspired with Adonijah but not Absalom. Abiathar I'm not too sure about. I've seen commentary notes state that Abiathar was envious of Zadok the priest. It's not completely out of the question, but the way the commentary notes I've seen try to explain this felt like a bit of a reach to me.
5) Minor note here. Joab has 2 brothers, Abishai and Asahel. Asahel we know was killed in battle by Abner in 2 Samuel 2. Abishai is never mentioned after Sheba's revolt in 2 Samuel 20 and the list of David's men in 2 Samuel 23, so chances he died at some point before 1 Kings.
6) What else stands out to you in this passage? (Any further insights, questions, etc?)

Just had Pre trial conference:
Judge called my motion for request for production of documents and the debt buyer purchase agreement burdensome.
“It could be 1,000 pages”, he said. According to the rules the Plaintiff had 14 days from receipt to answer. They didn’t answer. I filed a motion to compel production.
Today was the first time the judge looked at the documents. He skimmed them.
It looks like he considers the bill of sale, the affidavit, and the redacted spreadsheet with my name on it as valid assignment to the junk debt buyer.
I explained to the judge that junk debt buyers pay about 4 cents on the dollar for written off debt. That the typical junk debt buyer purchase agreement has exceptions like as is, no warranty, might have errors, and even an exception that the junk debt buyer can collect but cannot sue. Facts that benefit me, and strike the single page documents that the junk debt buyer presented in the complaint.
I also explained that the documents provided aren’t admissible evidence for trial… they are designed for default and summary judgments.
And that I’m entitled to the complete records as per Ohio civil rule 106 - Evid. 106. When a writing or recorded statement or part thereof is introduced by a party, an adverse party may require the introduction at that time of any other part or any other writing or recorded statement which is otherwise admissible and which ought in fairness to be considered contemporaneously with it.
We were given 60 days to file our motions, 21 days to respond, and then we have another pre-trial conference on July 17th.
What should be my next move?

Does Anyone Have a Copy of a Purchase Agreement?

I'd like to get a copy of a purchase agreement to put in an exhibit for my next motion on my case.
Pre-trial conference the judge said my request to have junk debt buyer produce it was burdensome.
I'd like to show him terms where the debt file is as is, no warranty etc.,
I've searched online, but can't find an example.Does Anyone Have a Copy of a Purchase Agreement?

Function
Integrated circuits (ICs) specifically designed for memory function store data in binary format. This data can include programs, data, settings, and more. Memory ICs can be classified into two main types:

• Random Access Memory (RAM): RAM stores data that can be read, written, and erased. Data in RAM is lost when the power is turned off. RAM is used to store data that is currently being used by the computer, such as running programs and data that is being edited.
• Read-Only Memory (ROM): ROM stores data that can only be read, not written or erased. Data in ROM is written into the chip during manufacturing and cannot be changed afterward. ROM is used to store the computer's boot program, BIOS, and other data necessary for system operation.

Components
Memory Cell
The memory cell is the basic unit of memory in integrated circuits, responsible for storing information in the form of bits (0 or 1). Each memory cell is composed of the following main components:

• Transistor: Transistors are semiconductor components that play a key role in storing and reading data. Two common types of transistors used in memory cells are MOSFETs and bipolar junction transistors (BJTs).
• Storage Structure: The storage structure is where the bit value (0 or 1) is stored. The most common storage structure is the bistable structure, which uses two stable states of the transistor to represent the two bit values.
• Access Circuit: The access circuit provides the ability to read and write data to the memory cell. The access circuit includes transistors and logic circuits to decode addresses, select the memory cell, and control data read/write operations.

Operation of Memory Cells
The operation of a memory cell depends on the type of storage structure used. Here is a description of how a bistable memory cell using MOSFETs operates:
Storing Data:

• To store a 1 bit, a voltage is applied to the gate of the first MOSFET transistor, causing it to conduct and create a current flow through the transistor. This current changes the voltage on the capacitor, creating a stable state that stores the 1 bit.
• To store a 0 bit, no voltage is applied to the gate of the first MOSFET transistor, causing it not to conduct and no current to flow through the transistor. The voltage on the capacitor maintains the current state, storing the 0 bit.

Reading Data:

• To read data, a voltage is applied to the gate of the second MOSFET transistor. This transistor conducts and allows current to flow, depending on the voltage on the capacitor.
  • If the capacitor is charged (storing a 1 bit), the current will flow through the second MOSFET transistor, generating a voltage at the output that represents a 1 bit.
  • If the capacitor is not charged (storing a 0 bit), no current flows through the second MOSFET transistor, and the voltage at the output represents a 0 bit.

Writing Data:

• To write data, a voltage is applied to both gates of the MOSFET transistors. This voltage changes the voltage on the capacitor, overwriting the new bit value into the memory cell.

Significance and Purpose of Memory Cells
Memory cells play a crucial role in integrated circuits, enabling the storage of information essential for circuit operation. Common types of memory that utilize memory cells include:

• Random Access Memory (RAM): RAM stores temporary data that can be read and written multiple times. RAM is used to store data that is currently being processed by the CPU or other parts of the computer.
• Read-Only Memory (ROM): ROM stores fixed data that can only be read. ROM is used to store the computer's boot program, BIOS, and other data that does not need to be changed.
• Flash Memory: Flash memory is a non-volatile type of memory that can be read, written, and erased multiple times. Flash memory is used in flash drives, memory cards, and other portable storage devices.

In addition, memory cells are also used in applications such as:

• Digital Signal Processors (DSPs): DSPs use memory cells to store data and filters required for signal processing.
• Microcontrollers: Microcontrollers use memory cells to store programs and data necessary for controlling peripheral devices.

In summary, memory cells are essential components of integrated circuits, playing a vital role in storing information and supporting the operation of various electronic devices.
Address Decoder Circuit
Function
An address decoder circuit is a crucial component in integrated circuits (ICs) responsible for converting binary code into control signals to activate the corresponding functional blocks within the IC. With the help of an address decoder circuit, ICs can perform complex functions such as accessing memory, performing calculations, communicating with peripheral devices, and much more.
Components and Operation of Each Component

1. Comparator Array:

• Consists of logic comparators that compare each bit of the input binary code with the address values stored pre-programmed inside the IC.
• Each comparator has two inputs:
  • Data input: Receives the corresponding bit from the input binary code.
  • Address input: Receives the corresponding address value stored pre-programmed in the IC.
• The comparator output is high if the two input values match and low if they do not match.

1. Logic Circuit:

• Combines the comparison results from the comparators to generate control signals for the functional blocks.
• Utilizes logic gates like AND, OR, NOT to process the comparison results and generate the appropriate control signals.
  • For example, if the input binary code indicates a specific memory location, the logic circuit generates a control signal to activate the transistors that access that memory location.

1. Buffer:

• Amplifies and stabilizes the control signals before sending them to the functional blocks.
• Ensures that the functional blocks receive clear and accurate signals for precise operation.
• Minimizes noise and ensures system reliability.

Overall Operation

1. The address decoder circuit receives an input binary code.
2. Each bit of the input binary code is compared to the corresponding address value in the comparator array.
3. The comparison results from the comparators are fed into the logic circuit for processing.
4. The logic circuit combines the comparison results and generates the appropriate control signals for the functional blocks.
5. The buffer amplifies and stabilizes the control signals before sending them to the functional blocks.
6. The functional blocks receive the control signals and perform their corresponding functions.

Significance and Purpose
Address decoder circuits play a critical role in controlling the operation of integrated circuits. Because of them, ICs can perform numerous complex functions accurately and efficiently. Some specific applications of address decoder circuits include:

• Memory: Selecting a specific memory location for access.
• Processor: Selecting the instruction code to execute.
• Peripheral Controller: Selecting the peripheral device to communicate with.
• Decoder Circuit: Converting binary code into analog signals.

How it works:
An address decoder circuit works by receiving an input binary code and converting it into control signals for the corresponding functional blocks within the IC. The input binary code can represent a memory address, a register location, or any other information needed to identify the functional block that needs to be activated.
Significance and Purpose:
Address decoder circuits play a vital role in controlling the operation of integrated circuits. With the help of address decoder circuits, ICs can perform complex functions like memory access, calculations, peripheral device communication, and much more.
Buffers in Integrated Circuits (ICs)
Concept
A buffer is an electronic circuit that amplifies an input signal without altering its waveform or amplitude. In other words, a buffer strengthens a weak signal so that it can be used by other circuits, while also isolating the signal from noise and loads.
Structure
Buffers are typically constructed using transistors arranged in a voltage or current amplification configuration. These transistors are connected together in a specific structure to create the function of amplifying the input signal.
Operation
Buffers operate based on the principle of amplifying the input signal. The input signal is applied to a first transistor, and then amplified through subsequent transistors until it reaches the desired voltage or current level. This amplification process occurs without changing the waveform or amplitude of the input signal.
Classification
Based on their primary function, buffers are classified into two types:

• Voltage Buffer: Amplifies the voltage of the input signal.
• Current Buffer: Amplifies the current of the input signal.

Applications
Buffers are widely used in electronic circuits, especially in integrated circuits (ICs). Some common applications include:

• Signal Isolation: Helps protect signals from noise and loads.
• Signal Strengthening: Enables weak signals to be used by other circuits.
• Impedance Conversion: Matches the impedance of the signal to the impedance of the other circuit.
• Interconnecting Different Circuits: Connects circuits with different voltage or current levels.

Examples

• Operational Amplifier (Op-amp): A common type of buffer, amplifies voltage signals, inverts signals, compares voltages, and performs basic mathematical operations.
• Bus Buffer: Amplifies signals on the data bus, ensuring accurate, undistorted signal transmission.
• Output Buffer: Amplifies the output signal of an IC, providing enough current to drive the load.

Advantages

• Increases signal strength.
• Isolates signals from noise and loads.
• Converts impedance.
• Connects different circuits.
• Protects signals.

Disadvantages

• Introduces signal delay.
• Increases power consumption.
• May alter signal distortion.

Read/Write Control Circuit in Integrated Circuits (ICs)
Detailed Structure

1. Address Decoder:

• Decoder Type:
  • Combined Address Decoder (CCD): Utilizes logic gates to decode the binary address into control signals for rows and columns in memory or registers. Advantages: simple, saves chip area. Disadvantages: slower decoding speed.
  • Hierarchical Address Decoder: Employs multiple small decoders arranged in a hierarchical manner to decode the binary address. Advantages: faster decoding speed. Disadvantages: more complex, consumes more chip area.
• Decoder Size: Depends on the memory capacity or the number of registers to be accessed. For instance, a 256-byte memory requires an 8-bit address decoder, while a 64KB memory needs a 16-bit address decoder.

1. Chip Select:

• Logic Gates: Uses AND and OR gates to combine control signals from the CPU, DMA, interrupts, and other sources.
• Control Signals:
  • Chip Select (CS): Enables or disables internal IC circuits upon receiving a high signal.
  • Read Enable (RDEN): Allows data reading from the IC.
  • Write Enable (WREN): Allows data writing to the IC.

1. Read/Write Controller:

• Logic Circuit: Employs flip-flops, logic gates, and a finite state machine to generate read (RD) and write (WR) control signals.
• Access Mode:
  • Synchronous: Data is transferred into or out of the IC along with the clock pulse.
  • Asynchronous: Data is transferred into or out of the IC without a clock pulse.
  • Single Cycle: Data access completes within one clock cycle.
  • Multi-Cycle: Data access requires multiple clock cycles to finish.

1. Data Buffer:

• Type:
  • Register: Stores data as voltage signals on transistors.
  • Flip-Flop: Stores data as the state of a latch.
• Capacity: Depends on the data bus size and the number of bytes to be temporarily stored.

Detailed Operation

1. Access Request:

• The CPU or external device sends an access address and control signals to the system bus.
• The access address identifies the specific location in memory or a register to be accessed.
• The control signals indicate the access type (read or write) and access timing.

1. Address Decoding:

• The address decoder receives the access address and decodes it into row and column signals to determine the specific location in memory or a register.

1. Chip Select:

• The chip select checks the control signals to determine if the access request is intended for the IC or an external device.
• If the request is valid, the "chip select" signal is asserted to activate the internal IC circuits.

1. Access Validation:

• Other control signals (like RDEN and WREN) are checked to ensure access is allowed.

1. Read/Write Control:

• The read/write controller generates RD and WR signals to control data read or write operations.
• It determines the timing and method of data access based on the memory or register access protocol.

1. Data Access:

• Data is read from or written to the memory or register at the location identified by the address decoder.

1. Data Buffer:

• The data buffer temporarily stores data during access to reduce noise and ensure data integrity.

1. Data Transfer:

• Data is transferred from the data buffer to the system data bus for the CPU or external device to read or write.

Advanced Example of Read/Write Control Circuit Operation in an IC

1. Reading Data from Memory:

• The CPU sends memory address 0x1234 and a read signal (RD) to the system bus.
• The address decoder of the memory IC decodes address 0x1234 into row select 4 and column select 12.
• The chip select checks the "chip select" signal and other control signals to ensure valid access.
• The read/write controller generates an RD signal to activate the read operation.
• Data from the memory cell identified by address 0x1234 is read and stored in the data buffer.
• Data is transferred from the data buffer to the system data bus.
• The CPU receives the data from the data bus.

2. Writing Data to a Register:
· The microcontroller sends register address 0xABC and a write signal (WR) along with data 0x5F to the system bus.
· The address decoder of the microcontroller IC decodes address 0xABC into the specific register select signal.
· The chip select checks the "chip select" signal and other control signals to ensure valid access.
· The read/write controller generates a WR signal and transmits data 0x5F to the selected register.
Many Sources

See my original post here.
tw: birth trauma, mention of self-harm
Hi, it’s me. The FTM whose FIL brought COVID into the NICU where our son was and subsequently caused me to be separated from him, leading to almost two years of trauma therapy, couples’ therapy, and more. My son is in PT and speech and we still don’t know if it’s because he was born not breathing. The update is long but I really need y’all’s advice because we are seeing my in laws on Saturday and I’ve been having panic attacks all week and I could use some support.
So, it’s been 20 months and this remains an issue. Our son was born September 2022; here is an overview of what’s happened since then:
-As I said in my original post, we tried to initiate a visit with him in November 2022. He declined. -February 2023: he sends us a letter saying he “will do whatever it takes” to repair things and he wants to be a grandfather to his grandson. Still not taking accountability for how he treated us, icing us out, ignoring my birthday and our wedding anniversary while the baby and I were still hospitalized because he was angry, etc. None of it. -In laws reach out a couple more times throughout 2023: husband’s birthday, Mother’s Day (though I didn’t get anything this year unlike the flowers I got a day late last year), and baby’s first birthday.
My FIL never asks about his grandson or his health.
Here’s the big one: we invite them over November 2023. Baby is at my parents’. It’s the first time I’m having any contact with FIL since I was lying in a hospital bed getting an emergency blood transfusion. During this visit, I cry, my husband cries, my MIL cries. FIL is somewhere between stoic and defensive. FIL hears from my husband why we are so upset. He still doesn’t apologize for anything: the situation he put us in, how he got angry at us for “not checking on him,” and “being disrespectful” when my husband asked why he wasn’t more careful and why he told us he was masking before my induction when we got confirmation from his mom that he wasn’t. Why, when I was in the hospital getting psych treatment a day after giving birth for the first time because I couldn’t see my child and felt suicidal, he did nothing. No “I love you, I’m here for you, I’m sorry you’re in this situation.”
The most we got was him telling my husband privately “I guess I let my ego get in the way.” That’s it, that’s all we got. Then I went to get the baby so he could meet his grandfather for the first time and it was weird. He was very distant, not emotional at all. It was so strange.
So here we are. My husband wants to go see them this weekend, so we are driving 6 hours round trip and I am FINALLY going to tell my FIL what’s been on my mind for the last year and a half plus.
So my question is this: do I just let him have it? Yell? Cry? Read all my points I’ve written in my Notes App like a letter? Ask him why he abandoned us after he exposed a NICU of newborns to COVID? Why he blamed ME for the rift between us? Why he was more focused on my husband “checking on him” when my husband was juggling a baby with a brain bleed in the NICU and a wife struggling with thoughts of self-harm?
Do I suck it up and put this to the side for the sake of my son, so he can know his grandfather?
Please help. Happy to answer in more detail because there’s a lot more but I didn’t want this post to be too long. Thank you so much for reading this far, it means the world to me.

Its far from original. Its a mix of many narratives across different genres. That's not a slam on it or anyone that likes it, just the reality. More importantly, understanding the ingredients to its success as a narrative not only gains a deeper appreciation of what it accomplished but also highlights what made Pt 2 fail narratively. Not that anything I say matters but, for reference, I taught film and screen writing for some years before returning to my field.
The story is nothing original. The idea of the older paternal mentor figure protecting and guiding a younger apprentice or child figure is a tale as old as time. The premise of man is the real monster has been around forever, as well, but in the "zombie" genre it was there from the start with Romero's "Night of the Living Dead". The characterization of Joel isn't even that remarkable as he shares the DNA of many seasoned warrior of few words characters in fiction. TLoU takes many of the best of these and makes them stand out with a few choice decisions.
First, brevity. TLoU is not a long game. It can be experienced casually in a day. This is one of its greatest strengths. Few cutscenes ever keep you from playing for more than a couple minutes. The cutscenes that are experienced are all purposeful and don't waste time. In fact, if you watch them, the dialogue and action moves fast, only giving breathing room for the most impactful of moments. The script and direction are tight to give what's needed, to feel what's needed, and then put you back in control. Furthermore, like Uncharted before but perfected, many story moments are gameplay moments through environmental design, dialogue prompts, or QTE. Ultimately, it gives players the narrative equivalent of a woman's skirt; long enough to cover what's needed but short enough to grab our attention.
Second, classical narratives. I used to ask my students who liked Star Wars: A New Hope. Hands always shot up. I asked why and would hear a bunch of reasons but I'd always turn it to Lucas following classical narratives and filmmaking. Spectacle aside, Star Wars followed the classical 3 act structure and the monomyth (Hero's Journey). These time proven structures can make good stories great, especially when you include the spectacle. TLoU had spectacle with what I said before of mixing brief cutscenes and story driven gameplay. The actual story, though, is nearly beat for beat on the Hero's Journey and engrosses us in its tale. Joel has something unique going in that he has 2 journeys, one of them only being referenced.
The first journey begins with Joel in his known world of the pre-apocalypse. He is a hardworking dad but far from who he'd become. The outbreak is what sends him on his journey. The loss of his daughter is the point of no return. Then...the story jumps into the future. We learn bits of his backstory but there is clearly a lot of details missing. Ultimately, he went from a survivalist who did reprehensible things but he also clearly had an offscreen "redemption" moment. When we start the game proper, Joel is again in a known stable world. He has carved out a life that he finds acceptably comfortable. This is where the second journey starts and why the game's narrative hits so well.
Call to Adventure- Tess arrives and, despite some apprehension, convinces Joel to recover their guns. This leads to Marlene recruiting them to smuggle Ellie.
Supernatural Aid- During the attempt to smuggle Ellie, they learn of her immunity and the significance of their "quest".
Point of No Return/Threshold- The Fireflies are dead and Tess dies. Joel must now continue to deliver Ellie despite his reluctance to such an impossible task and his discomfort being reminded of his past life.
Obstacles/Temptations/Helpers- The middle part of the game has 3 distinct chapters that force Joel to confront himself and grow. I'll be breaking them down.

1. Bill comes at a low moment for Joel. Confusion and sorrow from the loss of Tess, Joel finds Bill as a dark reflection, the future if he lets his pain consume him. While Bill helps Joel, he also serves as a lesson of what not to become. When Joel departs, he has processed some of his grief, is more committed to the quest, and has now opened up more to Ellie.
   
2. Sam and Henry arrive at a time Joel is beginning to open his heart. Through their journey, Joel can recognize the love he had and wants again. The tragedy of their final day is Joel really does open up with Sam and Henry and you see traces of happiness. Then...the morning comes.
   
3. Joel reunites with Tommy. While he is still open with Ellie, this entire chapter has Joel even more determined to pass Ellie off. The tragedy of Sam and Henry make him see that more time with Ellie will lead to more pain. He reassures himself that passing her off will get him the security he needs to live comfortably, that she's better off with someone else, and then his rageful response that all he's done has kept him and Tommy alive. Joel is dangerously close to embracing the temptation of Bill's life. Yet, it's none other than Ellie who brings Joel back.
   

Abyss- Joel and Ellie are at their most optimistic. They share more life details freely. They talk about the future (unrelated but this is also where Ellie mentions the entire "vaccine" procedure being easy because she doesn't like needles, highlighting that she never meant to sacrifice herself. Suck it Pt. 2). However, they find the Fireflies abandoned it and are ambushed by raiders. Joel is gravely injured.
Transformation- When Joel awakes to find Ellie missing, something in him is triggered. He goes on the war path to find and save her. When he does find her, he finally lets all his emotional guards down. She is his "baby girl". Ellie had, arguably since Tommy's chapter, embraced Joel as a father figure but now Joel no longer denies him being that.
Atonement- Ellie has been taken and soon to be murdered. Unlike the unfaithful show, the Joel that fights through the hospital is scared and anxious as he rushes to get to Ellie. Where he failed to save Sarah, he desperately fights to save Ellie (both from callous militaries convinced they are serving the "greater good"). In the end, he does.
Return- Joel returns to Tommy with Ellie. He has become a master of two worlds. Able to still be the one to make hard decisions but also able to open his heart. This is accentuated in his lie to Ellie. He knows she is wrestling with all her pain and gives her an honest answer in finding something to live for. When she demands him to swear, he lies, yes, but he does so to protect her emotionally. With Ellie's "ok", they begin their new life.
First off as I wrap up this essay, I refuse to acknowledge the sequel. I did even when it was announced. The first game was perfect as a stand alone experience. Furthermore, I don't acknowledge it as it is not even made by the same team or direction. Neil moved it forward and we see how that worked out. But it holds as much validity as the Star Wars sequels to me. Lucas sold it to Disney. This is not a genuine continuation of the original vision and I don't hold them as valid to what came before (though I also despise the prequels for other reasons).
I say this because I firmly believe the game concluded definitively with Ellie accepting the lie. She has been shown as perceptive and intelligent. She obviously knows the events are not as Joel said. The weight of her "ok" is far more impactful and reflects her own hero's journey. The truth is, she doesn't believe Joel. She knows he's lying. Every indicator of her pause, reflection, and line delivery reflect that. She says "ok" because the reality of Joel's speech to find something worth fighting for hits home. She has known nothing but abandonment, terror, and suffering. She still feels the pain of loss and wants to despair in survivor's guilt. But now...on the outskirts of a new stable home, she recognizes Joel now sees her in the same way she sees him. She knows he's shielding her from something horrible and will continue to protect her. Her "ok" isn't out of childish naivety but in becoming more like Joel and moving forward with determination.
In the end, while the franchise screwed the pooch, the original game utilized classic narrative structure through effective brief cutscenes and environmental story telling to tell a greatest hits from its various genres.
Anyways, here's Wonderwall.

This loan was pre-arranged with the lender u/SirWhoaWait. This post was written from a template provided by u/SirWhoaWaitWhat

When we tone down the rabid emotions tied to this hot button, the idea of arming teachers is actually not a bad idea. There is considerable evidence that mass shooters gravitate towards target gun free zones, and the logic for why shouldn't be difficult to understand to anyone with an operating pre-frontal cortex.
When people argue against this, they often fail to understand how the program would work.

1. These people would work with or without dedicated security officers as necessary.
2. Any school faculty who would be armed would be required to submit to an additional background check, if necessary.
3. Armed faculty would be required to attend extensive training on how to hand a mass shooting scenario, as well as additional de-escalation training.
4. The program would be 100% voluntary, requiring no more than 10-20% of faculty at most. No faculty who is uncomfortable with carrying a firearm would be expected to do so. In fact, just legalizing this as a policy at the state level without actually arming anyone at a specific school might be enough to dissuade some shooters from targeting the school to begin with. (Some teachers at some schools would still have to be armed for this to be at least somewhat effective.)

So why can't we do this?
"Because teachers would be uncomfortable carrying a gun!"
Answer: re-read point #4.
"What about armed teachers who is gets in a confrontation with a student."
Answer: reread point #3. It is also worth pointing out that millions of people in America carry concealed every day. These people occasionally get in heated confrontations with strangers and relatives alike without resorting to violence. In fact, there is counter-intuitive evidence to suggest that the average CCP is less violent than the average civilian.
As an anecdote, my mom is a retired schoolteacher of 24 years. I asked her about this, and although she said she personally wouldn't be comfortable carrying a gun at work, she would have no problem if some of her colleagues were to step up to the challenge.
Now, to be clear, arming teachers is not a panacea. It will help with the problem, but it won't fix it. If we really want to tackle the problem of gun violence in America, we need to face the atrocious rate of fatherless homes - of which, America has the highest rate in the developed world.

Professional conduct regulation cases do not support the constitutionality of this rulemaking

The existing broker disclosure obligations as applied to customer agents and principals, though never explicitly validated in the courts, may alternatively be found constitutional as a reasonable regulation of professional conduct that incidentally burdens some speech activities of the persons engaged in that regulated conduct. In that interpretation, the conduct being regulated is that of entering into an agency relationship with a customer or else acting as the principal in a sale to the customer. While a written contract is speech, the assumption of a legal relationship that it embodies is doubtlessly conduct and can be the subject of regulation.
As the Court held in United States v. O’Brien, laws affecting speech that are aimed at the regulation of non-expressive conduct are still analyzed under First Amendment jurisprudence, but face a lower level of constitutional scrutiny than laws aimed directly at the regulation of expressive conduct or at speech activities themselves: “a sufficiently important governmental interest in regulating the nonspeech element [of the regulated conduct] can justify incidental limitations on First Amendment freedoms.”⁴⁷ The compulsion to merely report privately to the IRS and to the taxpayer certain “purely factual and uncontroversial information” about the regulated non-expressive conduct may rightly be framed as an “incidental” limitation on traditional brokers’ otherwise unabridged First Amendment rights.
The O’Brien standard, however, is only applicable if the rule is targeted at regulating non-expressive conduct. Things become more complicated when the rule is targeted at regulating expressive conduct or at speech itself. There is a long though underappreciated line of cases stemming from O’Brien that points toward a reasonably straightforward series of tests for when regulation of professional conduct that burdens speech activities is constitutional. That line has been best illuminated by attorney Robert Kry in his article, “The ‘Watchman for Truth’: Professional Licensing and the First Amendment.”⁴⁸ Kry, summarizing and synthesizing many cases, finds that

In the case of a broker who is, in fact, an agent of a customer or a principal in a sale to a customer, the regulation is plausibly aimed at the non-expressive component of the professional’s activity. An agent under common law principles is acting on behalf of her customer. When a broker agrees to a sale, she binds the customer to that sale. The reporting requirement, therefore, is merely a requirement to disclose certain facts about one’s sales, i.e. one’s conduct as an agent. As a principal in a sale to a customer, the broker is, once again, engaged in conduct, a sale, and the reporting requirement merely discloses facts about that conduct. Additionally, brokers of this type are in most cases already subject to a licensing or registration requirement under other statutes.⁵⁰ Those forms of professional conduct are traditionally regulated and the tax laws merely provide for an additional recordkeeping and reporting requirement associated with that conduct. Altogether, the reporting requirement, though compelled speech, appears to be a regulation aimed at the non-expressive component of a professional’s activity. It is therefore likely constitutional.
As described earlier however, the Treasury Department’s proposed rule inappropriately departs from that customer agent or principal standard and seeks to compel speech from persons who are engaged in no such regulated conduct. A mere publisher or maintainer of software, websites, or smart contracts is not in an agency relationship with any customer, nor is she selling anything to any customer apart from, potentially, a license to use her tools or a fee charged for relaying or publishing the user’s data on a communications network or blockchain. Additionally, unlike typical brokerage, these activities do not trigger any licensing or registration requirements under other state or federal statutory schemes.
Indeed, even when such person is relaying actual cryptocurrency transaction messages that, once recorded in the blockchain, will effect a sale of some cryptocurrency, these entities typically have no actual ability to act on behalf of the user and no actual or apparent authority under agency law to act on their behalf. At most, they can choose whether or not to relay the signed transaction message (but so too can an internet service provider); they cannot alter the contents of that message such that the terms of the sale would change. They cannot and do not act as an agent of any customer nor are they a principal in a digital asset sale to any customer.⁵¹
These persons may be involved in conduct in other ways, such as paying for web hosting services, paying fees on cryptocurrency networks to record software or data in the blockchain, taking fees from users to relay their messages, or simply paying rent or otherwise maintaining facilities wherein they or their employees do the work of developing software or maintaining communications tools, but all of those activities are aimed at engaging in speech, the publication of software and data, and none of those activities give rise to the type of fiduciary or agency-like financial relationship, i.e. conduct, that justifies third-party tax reporting obligations.
Moreover, these persons have deliberately designed their software, websites, and smart contract tooling such that it can be useful to a trader and capable of facilitating their trades or other desires without the need for any agency relationship or for any legal or trust-based relationship with the publisher or any other party whatsoever. The user can and does do it all themselves. That is the point of cryptocurrency and “decentralized finance.” We can debate the merit of such a design goal,⁵² but what is not debatable is that this is how these tools are presently designed.⁵³ By demanding that these publishers rewrite their tools such that an agency relationship is established between the author of the tool and its user, such that the name, Social Security number, and other intimate details of the user are entrusted to the alleged “broker,” the regulation is squarely aimed at compelling not merely the disclosure of trading data and taxable gains, but also the compelled creation of significant expressive software and tooling to solicit and collect data in a manner that would otherwise be antithetical to the goals of the software developer. Such an order is so unprecedented that it is difficult to find appropriate metaphors or past examples. It is as if a state—frustrated that it cannot determine who is reading which books—ordered that novelists shall hold in-person book readings during which they must collect and report information about their audience.
Accordingly, when applied to mere publishers and maintainers of software, websites, and smart contracts, these regulations target the expressive activity of the alleged broker. That does not mean, however, that such rules will automatically be unconstitutional. The Court has dealt with several regulatory schemes aimed at expressive professional conduct, such as a lawyer giving legal advice to a client. Throughout these cases the Court has developed a robust series of standards for constitutionality that are focused primarily on “which kinds of advice are licensable based on how closely they resemble forms of communication associated with fiduciary relationships.”⁵⁴ This leads us to the second question in Kry’s analysis of the First Amendment limits to regulating professional conduct, what he calls the “value neutral test” because it applies irrespective of whether the speech affected is a matter of public concern and irrespective of the motives of the speaker:

Given the in-person and client-specific nature of legal services, there should be no surprise that under these cases the professional regulation of attorneys, including licensing, limits on solicitation and advertising, and—as in this rulemaking—compelled disclosures, typically withstands constitutional scrutiny. In the context of developers of cryptocurrency systems, however, the answer to Kry’s twin questions of characteristic-dependence and person-to-person context is an unqualified “no.” It is taken as written that software, websites, and smart contracts in the cryptocurrency space are built such that they are generic, serving the needs of whoever wants to use them irrespective of the characteristics of that user. It is also a given that these tools are shared widely over the internet and used freely by whoever happens to download them or (in some cases) whoever pays to license the software or pays to have their transactions relayed by the software. As such, they are never “delivered in the context of a person- to-person relationship.”⁵⁶ Accordingly, regulation of the speech activities of these developers, including compulsions to report and develop expressive software that enables that reporting, would face strict scrutiny by the Court and be found unconstitutional.
While these standards are general principles that are equally applicable to any kind of expressive conduct regulation, it is nonetheless worth noting that several of the cases that first articulated these standards dealt explicitly with speech, including software, that advised and facilitated sales of valuable assets. As such, the speech in question in these cases was very similar factually to the speech that would be burdened under the Treasury Department’s proposed rule. The value-neutral test was developed in Lowe v. SEC, a case involving the unconstitutional application of the Investment Advisers Act to a person merely publishing a public newsletter,⁵⁷ and it was further reinforced in Taucher v. Born⁵⁸ and two similar cases⁵⁹ dealing with the unconstitutional application of the Commodities Exchange Act to the developers of commodities trading software.⁶⁰

Professional conduct regulation cases do not support the constitutionality of this rulemaking

The existing broker disclosure obligations as applied to customer agents and principals, though never explicitly validated in the courts, may alternatively be found constitutional as a reasonable regulation of professional conduct that incidentally burdens some speech activities of the persons engaged in that regulated conduct. In that interpretation, the conduct being regulated is that of entering into an agency relationship with a customer or else acting as the principal in a sale to the customer. While a written contract is speech, the assumption of a legal relationship that it embodies is doubtlessly conduct and can be the subject of regulation.
As the Court held in United States v. O’Brien, laws affecting speech that are aimed at the regulation of non-expressive conduct are still analyzed under First Amendment jurisprudence, but face a lower level of constitutional scrutiny than laws aimed directly at the regulation of expressive conduct or at speech activities themselves: “a sufficiently important governmental interest in regulating the nonspeech element [of the regulated conduct] can justify incidental limitations on First Amendment freedoms.”⁴⁷ The compulsion to merely report privately to the IRS and to the taxpayer certain “purely factual and uncontroversial information” about the regulated non-expressive conduct may rightly be framed as an “incidental” limitation on traditional brokers’ otherwise unabridged First Amendment rights.
The O’Brien standard, however, is only applicable if the rule is targeted at regulating non-expressive conduct. Things become more complicated when the rule is targeted at regulating expressive conduct or at speech itself. There is a long though underappreciated line of cases stemming from O’Brien that points toward a reasonably straightforward series of tests for when regulation of professional conduct that burdens speech activities is constitutional. That line has been best illuminated by attorney Robert Kry in his article, “The ‘Watchman for Truth’: Professional Licensing and the First Amendment.”⁴⁸ Kry, summarizing and synthesizing many cases, finds that

In the case of a broker who is, in fact, an agent of a customer or a principal in a sale to a customer, the regulation is plausibly aimed at the non-expressive component of the professional’s activity. An agent under common law principles is acting on behalf of her customer. When a broker agrees to a sale, she binds the customer to that sale. The reporting requirement, therefore, is merely a requirement to disclose certain facts about one’s sales, i.e. one’s conduct as an agent. As a principal in a sale to a customer, the broker is, once again, engaged in conduct, a sale, and the reporting requirement merely discloses facts about that conduct. Additionally, brokers of this type are in most cases already subject to a licensing or registration requirement under other statutes.⁵⁰ Those forms of professional conduct are traditionally regulated and the tax laws merely provide for an additional recordkeeping and reporting requirement associated with that conduct. Altogether, the reporting requirement, though compelled speech, appears to be a regulation aimed at the non-expressive component of a professional’s activity. It is therefore likely constitutional.
As described earlier however, the Treasury Department’s proposed rule inappropriately departs from that customer agent or principal standard and seeks to compel speech from persons who are engaged in no such regulated conduct. A mere publisher or maintainer of software, websites, or smart contracts is not in an agency relationship with any customer, nor is she selling anything to any customer apart from, potentially, a license to use her tools or a fee charged for relaying or publishing the user’s data on a communications network or blockchain. Additionally, unlike typical brokerage, these activities do not trigger any licensing or registration requirements under other state or federal statutory schemes.
Indeed, even when such person is relaying actual cryptocurrency transaction messages that, once recorded in the blockchain, will effect a sale of some cryptocurrency, these entities typically have no actual ability to act on behalf of the user and no actual or apparent authority under agency law to act on their behalf. At most, they can choose whether or not to relay the signed transaction message (but so too can an internet service provider); they cannot alter the contents of that message such that the terms of the sale would change. They cannot and do not act as an agent of any customer nor are they a principal in a digital asset sale to any customer.⁵¹
These persons may be involved in conduct in other ways, such as paying for web hosting services, paying fees on cryptocurrency networks to record software or data in the blockchain, taking fees from users to relay their messages, or simply paying rent or otherwise maintaining facilities wherein they or their employees do the work of developing software or maintaining communications tools, but all of those activities are aimed at engaging in speech, the publication of software and data, and none of those activities give rise to the type of fiduciary or agency-like financial relationship, i.e. conduct, that justifies third-party tax reporting obligations.
Moreover, these persons have deliberately designed their software, websites, and smart contract tooling such that it can be useful to a trader and capable of facilitating their trades or other desires without the need for any agency relationship or for any legal or trust-based relationship with the publisher or any other party whatsoever. The user can and does do it all themselves. That is the point of cryptocurrency and “decentralized finance.” We can debate the merit of such a design goal,⁵² but what is not debatable is that this is how these tools are presently designed.⁵³ By demanding that these publishers rewrite their tools such that an agency relationship is established between the author of the tool and its user, such that the name, Social Security number, and other intimate details of the user are entrusted to the alleged “broker,” the regulation is squarely aimed at compelling not merely the disclosure of trading data and taxable gains, but also the compelled creation of significant expressive software and tooling to solicit and collect data in a manner that would otherwise be antithetical to the goals of the software developer. Such an order is so unprecedented that it is difficult to find appropriate metaphors or past examples. It is as if a state—frustrated that it cannot determine who is reading which books—ordered that novelists shall hold in-person book readings during which they must collect and report information about their audience.
Accordingly, when applied to mere publishers and maintainers of software, websites, and smart contracts, these regulations target the expressive activity of the alleged broker. That does not mean, however, that such rules will automatically be unconstitutional. The Court has dealt with several regulatory schemes aimed at expressive professional conduct, such as a lawyer giving legal advice to a client. Throughout these cases the Court has developed a robust series of standards for constitutionality that are focused primarily on “which kinds of advice are licensable based on how closely they resemble forms of communication associated with fiduciary relationships.”⁵⁴ This leads us to the second question in Kry’s analysis of the First Amendment limits to regulating professional conduct, what he calls the “value neutral test” because it applies irrespective of whether the speech affected is a matter of public concern and irrespective of the motives of the speaker:

Given the in-person and client-specific nature of legal services, there should be no surprise that under these cases the professional regulation of attorneys, including licensing, limits on solicitation and advertising, and—as in this rulemaking—compelled disclosures, typically withstands constitutional scrutiny. In the context of developers of cryptocurrency systems, however, the answer to Kry’s twin questions of characteristic-dependence and person-to-person context is an unqualified “no.” It is taken as written that software, websites, and smart contracts in the cryptocurrency space are built such that they are generic, serving the needs of whoever wants to use them irrespective of the characteristics of that user. It is also a given that these tools are shared widely over the internet and used freely by whoever happens to download them or (in some cases) whoever pays to license the software or pays to have their transactions relayed by the software. As such, they are never “delivered in the context of a person- to-person relationship.”⁵⁶ Accordingly, regulation of the speech activities of these developers, including compulsions to report and develop expressive software that enables that reporting, would face strict scrutiny by the Court and be found unconstitutional.
While these standards are general principles that are equally applicable to any kind of expressive conduct regulation, it is nonetheless worth noting that several of the cases that first articulated these standards dealt explicitly with speech, including software, that advised and facilitated sales of valuable assets. As such, the speech in question in these cases was very similar factually to the speech that would be burdened under the Treasury Department’s proposed rule. The value-neutral test was developed in Lowe v. SEC, a case involving the unconstitutional application of the Investment Advisers Act to a person merely publishing a public newsletter,⁵⁷ and it was further reinforced in Taucher v. Born⁵⁸ and two similar cases⁵⁹ dealing with the unconstitutional application of the Commodities Exchange Act to the developers of commodities trading software.⁶⁰

Part 14.3

Heracles VS Lernaean Hydra

Author Note: I was thinking about it and I really wish that GT9 used more draconic symbolism throughout the story when (or if) I revisit Team Crowley VS Rosencreutz I'll have symbolism of Aleister (TheBeast666), Aiwass (Codename: DRAGON) and Coronzon (The Dragon of the Abyss) all have symbology of them being Dragons preying on a God/Hero like CRC and the reversed conflict of Chaos VS Order you see in mythology, I also wanted to achieve something similar with Kakine Teitoku as he can represent the Fallen Angel and the Seraphim but for now I'll try adding draconian symbolism into Gunha VS CRC.
True Expert Christian Rosencreutz, with his golden rosy cross sword, clashed relentlessly against the indomitable force of the Strongest Gemstone, Sogiita Gunha. With each clash of their powers, the air crackled and compressed, and the pavement trembled beneath.
CRC, observed Sogiita with a mixture of intrigue and disdain. "You fight like the legendary Heracles," he remarked, his voice carrying over the din of battle. "But know this, I am the Lernaean Hydra, and no matter how many heads you sever, I shall always rise again!" Rosencreutz roared to slice the #7’s midsection.
Sogiita, his entire body wreathed in unknowable energy, met CRC's blade unyielding. "Bring it on, old man!" he retorted, his voice brimming with confidence. "I'll knock you down as many times as it takes! I won't stop till you come to your senses and remember your roots, like the roses you love so much, Rosencreutz!!"
Their clash intensified, that old man’s higher dimensional sword colliding with the raw power of that boy’s fists and kicks as they pushed each other to their limits with each sword swing, punch, kick and flash.
Sogiita unleashed a barrage of punches, each strike carrying the force of a meteor, while that silver young man countered: he wielded his sword in his right hand and released impacts followed by white light that was enough to previously take down all of The Bridge Builders Cabal.
As the battle raged on, the very fabric of reality seemed to warp and shift around them, bearing witness to the titanic struggle between two unparalleled forces.
The founder of Rosicrucianism who intimidated reality itself to obey his will and that Gemstone with an unstable personal reality that could change on a whim.
The atmosphere crackled with electrifying distortion.
Sogiita's fists tore through the air with the ferocity of meteors, their velocity enhanced by his ability to adapt and accelerate, surpassing even CRC's speed. As each blow was released, the friction with the surrounding air molecules ignited a scorching heat, intensifying the impact.
The rapid movement of molecules generated an escalating thermal energy, causing the air to seethe with increasing temperature. It was akin to a tempest of incandescent projectiles hurtling towards CRC, their speed surpassing the limits of human perception.
It was like a storm of brilliant fiery arrows was fired at Rosencreutz.
These blazing arrows of force were reminiscent of the elusive strikes employed by the Rose & Cross Leader, ignoring distance with deceptive agility.
With each thunderous punch, that bandana boy sought to overpower his adversary through sheer kinetic force, his unwavering resolve palpable in every motion.
But that wasn't enough for this superhuman.
CRC, wielding his cross sword with precision and skill, deflected each and every one Sogiita's flaming arrows with calculated strikes of his own. Each impact unleashed a burst of blinding white light, sending shockwaves rippling through the chaotic city.
"You think brute strength alone will defeat me?" the silver man taunted, his voice cutting through the chaos of battle. "You may be strong, but strength without strategy is nothing but raw power wasted."
Sogiita grinned, his confidence unshaken. "Strategies for cowards who can't handle a real fight," he retorted, his voice ringing with defiance. "I'll K.O. you with my fists and guts alone!!!!"
Rosencreutz's eyes narrowed as he parried another of Sogiita's punches. "Your arrogance will be your downfall," he warned, his tone tinged with certainty. "I may not match your overall speed, but I have something you lack: intellect and precision.”
Christian Rosencreutz then plunged his cross sword into the ground.
"This is what harmed Kamijou Touma," he declared, grinning and unleashing a torrent of lethal invisible attacks from his outstretched palms.
However, the #7 countered with a relentless barrage of flaming arrows from the thermal aftershock of his punches.
Each strike akin to a particle accelerator in its intensity and speed. That Gemstone was the particles being fired on the right and that True Expert was the particles fired on the left.
As the attacks clashed, the battlefield became a spectacle of raw power and precision.
“Roar!” CRC held his open palm to his mouth and blew gently on the tip of the middle finger.
That was all it took for a blaze easily outdoing a flamethrower to rush out. And this was not just any fire. It fed on the power of a ley line and stole vitality from space itself. This overwhelming mass of light and heat was wielded for no other purpose than to take lives. Anyone who tried to survive it using simple composite armor or special fibers would dry up and burn away in less than a second.
But that wouldn't kill another superhuman would it?
Of course not.
“Aaaaarghhhh!!!!” screamed the #7.
Some assaults bypassed the fray entirely, slipping through the chaos like elusive particles in a collider.
A smokescreen.
Those brilliant fireworks from hell weren't meant to take Sogiita’s life. They were meant to disrupt the Gemstone's senses and sight so he couldn't counter all of that old man’s deadly attacks.
Invisible strikes found their mark on that Gemstone, and the searing arrows of the arrows scorched Rosencreutz.
CRC was wounded but he rejected to make any whimpers. Instead with a sudden burst of velocity, the young silver man picked up his cross sword from the ground and launched a flurry of strikes, cutting at the #7’s body with pinpoint accuracy.
His arms, his head, his face, his stomach, his legs, his midsection, his back.
Each blow landed with devastating force, causing Sogiita to stagger back under the onslaught.
If that bandana boy hadn't had his defenses and general stats raised by the #5 he’d be cut to pieces.
The #7 fell on his back.
"There's a fire," Sogiita declared, his voice ringing out amidst the chaos of battle.
With each attempt to break his spirit, Sogiita's resolve only grew stronger, fueling the flames of his determination. "Every time someone tries to make me give up, it's like wind feeding my flames, making them burn even brighter just like my punches," he explained, his words carrying the weight of his unwavering determination.
He refused to stay down.
With a roar of defiance, Sogiita surged forward once more, his movements blurring with speed as he disappeared from view. In the blink of an eye, he reappeared behind Christian Rosencreutz, catching the magician off guard.
"Hey, old man," Sogiita taunted, his voice filled with confidence as he seized Rosencreutz from behind.
Christian Rosencreutz's eyes widened in surprise as he realized he had been outmaneuvered.
As Sogiita Gunha faced off against Christian Rosencreutz in their airborne duel, he felt the flames of determination burning within him, driving him forward with unstoppable force.
Before he could react, the boy lifted him effortlessly and slammed him onto the pavement below with a resounding thud.
"I'm not just a kick-boxer!!" Sogiita sang.
As the impact reverberated through the air, the young silver man let out a pained cry. The force of the collision compressed the surrounding air, heating it up until it crackled with energy. Christian Rosencreutz's head struck the ground with a velocity equivalent to mach 20, igniting his body in flames upon impact.
This move is called a suplex.
Struggling to regain his bearings, Rosencreutz muttered in a daze, "The House of the Holy Spirit...the seven walls..."
"You said it yourself, didn't you?" the gutsy boy retorted, cocky. "My power and my guts can break through your impenetrable walls. And I can spread those same guts to the world around me."
With a grimace, Christian Rosencreutz acknowledged the truth of the boy's words. "Your uncontrolled AIM field grants you the ability to imbue non-organic objects with the properties of your virus," he observed, his voice tinged with begrudging admiration. "Allowing them to bypass even the defenses of the seven-walled tomb.”
"A virus? Don't be so gutless, CRC," the #7 retorted, his voice filled with defiance. "This battleground ruled by wills is a two-way road between you and me."
Christian Rosencreutz raised an eyebrow at the boy's words. "Hey Gemstone, you could've killed me if I weren't a superhuman with an idealized body that accomplished The Great Work and crossed the Ungrund, what then short-stack?" he questioned while fitting an insult against his height.
Even without the seven-walled tomb or sheets of diamonds Rosencreutz was cartoonishly durable.
"Sorry, old man," Sogiita replied, his tone tinged with annoyance. "I might've gotten carried away, but I know it'll take more than that to kill you. No matter how many heads you regrow, like Hydra, I will not give up until I've completed all my labors."
"Mhm, so you do know your mythology," CRC remarked, a hint of amusement in his voice. "The Lernaean Hydra, or simply Hydra, is a serpentine lake monster in Greek and Roman mythology. Its lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, known as an entrance to the Underworld. In the canonical myth, the monster is slain by Heracles as part of his Twelve Labors."
"Yeah, I know," Sogiita replied confidently. "I studied the tales of great gutsy heroes in school.”
"So, short-stack," Christian Rosencreutz began, his voice carrying a hint of scholarly interest. “Have you ever considered the parallels between our battle and ancient Near Eastern religions?”
Sogiita listened intently. "Are you saying you see yourself as a god of war or a hunter?" he inquired.
CRC chuckled softly. "In a sense, indeed. We are both assuming roles in this grand theater, are we not? I, the Hydra, and you, Heracles."
He continued, "Consider the Second Labor of Heracles. Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns, sent Heracles to slay the Hydra, which Hera had raised specifically to defeat him. Heracles approached the swamp near Lake Lerna, where the Hydra dwelled. To protect himself from the poisonous fumes, he covered his mouth and nose with a cloth and shot flaming arrows into the Hydra's lair, causing it to emerge and terrorize the surrounding villages."
CRC paused, drawing a comparison. “In our own clash, the flaming arrows that Heracles hurled at the Hydra find their echo in your lightning-fast fists, generating shockwaves that ignite the air with their speed and force. It's as though each strike of yours is akin to shooting a flaming arrow, much like Heracles did.”
“Huh? Are you suggesting we're caught in a time loop? That some enigmatic group, like the Bridge Builders Cabal, manipulated events to resurrect you, pitting us against each other in a timeless struggle? I've never met them, and I'm certainly no child of Zeus. Are you implying that our battle will be distorted into a Greek legend by a meddling time traveler?!” frantically asked the boy.
“No, no, you simpleton. This world contains synchronicities. In Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian mythology, the war and hunting god Ninurta was celebrated for his deeds. The Angim credited him with slaying eleven monsters during an expedition to the mountains, including a seven-headed serpent, possibly identical to the Mushmahhu, and Bashmu, whose constellation was later associated with the Hydra by the Greeks. In Babylonian contexts, the Hydra's constellation is also linked to Marduk's dragon, the Mushhushshu.”
“Uhhh….” That shounen boy was dumbfounded.
"Hhm, I suppose calling it a time loop isn't technically wrong," Christian Rosencreutz began, his tone measured. "I'll break it down from history class and reconstruct it through the lens of the occult. Historic recurrence, young Gemstone, is the phenomenon of events echoing throughout time. Whether it's the rise and fall of empires or the repetitive cycles within a single society, it's all part of this grand plan that was decided when Adam ate the forbidden fruit."
The #7 with his guard up but curious listened: "So, history just keeps repeating itself? Just a series of coincidences?"
Christian Rosencreutz shook his head sagely. "There is no such thing as coincidences. Take, for instance, the Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence, pondered upon by thinkers like Heinrich Heine and Friedrich Nietzsche. While it's said that 'history repeats itself,' it's not quite that simple. Rather, these recurrences stem from identifiable circumstances and chains of causality."
He continued, his voice carrying the weight of centuries of philosophical debate. "Consider the phenomenon of multiple independent discoveries in science or the reproducible findings in natural and social sciences. These recurrences, whether in the form of rigorous experimentation or comparative research, are vital to our understanding of the world."
Christian Rosencreutz paused, allowing the weight of his words to sink in. "G.W. Trompf, in his seminal work, The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought, illustrates the recurring patterns of political thought and behavior since ancient times. Through these patterns, history offers us invaluable lessons, often leading to a sense of resonance or déjà vu."
Their words reverberated like a challenge to destiny itself, a testament to their unyielding determination in the face of adversity.
That Gemstone didn't surrender his characteristic fervor. "History echoing through time, huh? It's like the universe itself is stuck on repeat, and we're just caught in the cycle. But you know what? If history's gonna keep looping, then let's break the pattern! Let's smash through those chains of causality and forge our own path. Who cares about déjà vu? We'll create something entirely new, something that'll shake the very foundations of this world and we’ll do it with guts!!!" He defied that silver monster.
But Rosencreutz wasn't finished. He pulled out his Crystal World Map.
The supposedly old man listened intently to that boy's impassioned response, his expression inscrutable behind his clairvoyant card. After a moment of contemplation, he spoke.
“Gemstone, you speak of breaking free from the chains of repetition, of forging a new destiny against the backdrop of eternal return. It is a noble aspiration, indeed. However, consider this: eternal return is not merely a philosophical concept or a whimsical notion of fate. It is the very fabric of existence, woven into the nature of time itself.” He pressed his finger on the Miniature Garden and a 3D holographic projection flew out—
“In ancient times, the Stoics grappled with the idea, seeing in it both a sense of cosmic order and a challenge to individual agency. Augustine and others recoiled from its implications, fearing it as a negation of free will and salvation. And yet, Nietzsche, in his brilliance, dared to confront the concept anew, exploring its depths in the crucible of human consciousness.”
Didn't Aleister Crowley say that he had to shatter every single phase in order to eliminate the concept of fate?
“I will shatter every last phase and put an end to all mysticism. It can be helped and we need not restrain our tears and bite our lip when faced with tragedy. I will bring back the pure world in which everyone can feel anger like normal and question it all like normal!!”
And didn't Coronzon appear to break down all the phases including the Pure World?
Partial destruction would be meaningless. If anything remains and an eternal distortion is born from that, then it will all happen again. I will eliminate the ten spheres, the twenty-two pathways, and the hidden eleventh symbol. Collisions between phases? Sparks and spray? You cannot save anyone if you only treat those symptoms. All of the fundamental clogs must be removed. All so we can pass the baton to whoever comes next.”
“Sparks and Sprays…” Rosencreutz muttered.
“Eh?” The #7 didn't quite hear him.
"Beside time stands fate, cruelty's steadfast herald. In the silent chambers of the soul, whispers the most profound wisdom. Humanity, in its folly, neglected to exalt life's splendor, its radiance, its grandeur. Truly, it is a rare gift to comprehend the forces that shape our existence.” That magician spoke in despair.
“From the moment man ate the fruit of knowledge, he guaranteed your species’ failure... Entrusting his future to the whims of fate, man clutches to a flickering hope. Yet, within the Miniature Garden lies the key to all revelation. Beyond the well-trodden path lies the ultimate terminus. It matters not who you are; Death is the sole certainty awaiting all.” he finished with scorn.
Shokuhou Misaki was currently linked to Sogiita Gunha so was overhearing the entire conversation.
“Are you okay, Leader?” asked Kamijou back at the hospital.
“Yeah…” she responded.
“Really?” Mikoto breathed a white sigh. “It wasn’t the shock of seeing their school destroyed. Nor was it the fear of having those rioters attack. …They’re afraid of their own power. And after learning how exactly to use that power to survive, they’re not sure they can just switch it off and return to their normal lives. So their gears have ground to a halt.” Tokiwadai Middle School was a prestigious esper development school.
The young ladies registered there were Level 3 at the lowest and Level 5 at the highest.
Almost all of the students had a power that surpassed that of a blade or handgun if used properly, but something had become twisted.
Yes.
“A lot of them weren’t really sure why they were training their powers.”
Shokuhou breathed a white breath, wrapped her own arms around herself, and rubbed her thighs together.
Why are you studying?
How many people could give a proper answer to that question? Because my parents told me to, because my teachers taught me to, because that’s how the world works. Those would be most people’s answers. Even the students with a clear vision of their future would only have something vague like “for the entrance exams” or “for my future”.
Only a small handful would have specific puzzle pieces in mind, such as “I need to learn how to use this equation so I can build a rocket”.
The young ladies of Tokiwadai Middle School were the same.
What if the very gears that humans have…their actions, reactions, inactions were all the result of some transcendental entity hovering above.
Like God or The Devil watching over humanity’s reality sphere and ordering around his system like everyone was a pre-programmed NPC that had specific events occur to them to get them to develop in the way that they did and determined their genetic bloodline that composed their psyche?
Is there truly a free will?
It was said that in order for you to break out of the system of society that the working class was stuck in you had to climb to the top where the corrupt elites resided.
Imagine Breaker negated sparks, Aleister Crowley could see through the veil thanks to Holy Guardian Angel Aiwass, Great Demon Coronzon could always see the cogs.
Christian Rosencreutz could view the entire world through his Miniature Garden.
The rest of humanity was at the mercy of their own destinies.
A Guardian Angel wouldn't arrive to save a parent’s child from fate every single time.
"Okay, nice poetry, can we get back to fighting already?" asked the #7 impatiently.
"Seems I got carried away," the old man conceded with a nod. "The synchronicities of this world, akin to the astral configurations in astrology, serve as an example of synchronicity, according to Jung. It describes circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection, much like the parallel relationship between celestial and terrestrial phenomena. Synchronicity experiences entail subjective encounters where coincidences between events in one's mind and the external world may lack a clear causal link but still harbor an unknown connection.”
"Ah," Sogiita chimed in, recalling his philosophy class discussions. "We talked about synchronicity back then. Jung thought it was a good thing for the mind, but said it could get dicey in psychosis. He cooked up this theory as a kind of mental link between those meaningful coincidences, calling it a noncausal principle. This term came about in the late 1920s, and then he teamed up with physicist Wolfgang Pauli to dive deeper. Their work, The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche, dropped in 1952. They were big on this idea that these connections, even the ones that don't seem to have a cause, could still teach us a lot about how our minds and the world work."
“Mhm, you know more than you lead on, Gemstone.” pondered CRC.
“Oh this? My teachers say I'm not good at remembering speeches hahaha…” The #7 looked slightly nervous. “You know, analytical psychologists really push for folks to get what these experiences mean to boost their awareness instead of just feeding into superstitions. But funny thing is, when clients spill about their synchronicity experiences, they often feel like no one's really hearing them out, or getting where they're coming from. And hey, having a bunch of these meaningful coincidences flying around can sometimes ring the schizo bell. Delusions aren't healthy.”
Where was this conversation going?
"Delusion! Hah! That's a good one coming from you," CRC fired back.
"The real delusion is thinking humanity isn't worth a damn," Sogiita shot back, pulling out some info from Johansen and Osman. "Some scientists think coincidences are just random flukes, but counselors and psychoanalysts reckon there's more to it, like some deep-down stuff needing to come out.”
"Delusion! Hah! That's a good one coming from you," CRC fired back.
"The real delusion is thinking humanity isn't worth a darn," Sogiita shot back, pulling out some info from Johansen and Osman. "Some scientists think coincidences are just random flukes, but counselors and psychoanalysts reckon there's more to it, like some deep-down stuff needing to come out. Unconscious material to be expressed."
Rosencreutz interjected, his expression reflecting a mix of confusion and concern. "Aleister Crowley's actions have left a lasting scar on this world and this city," he began, his voice weighted with solemnity. “The vacuum-like dichotomy between magic and science created by the use of that colossal psychotronic weapon, has damaged this world's memory irreparably.”
Psychotronic weapon?
The Archetype Controller?
He paused, his gaze piercing as he continued, "Jung's exploration of synchronicity as evidence of the paranormal paved the way for further inquiry, notably by Koestler and the subsequent embrace of these ideas by the New Age movement.”
Sogiita shrugged, "Some folks say synchronicity is impossible to test or prove, so it gets labeled as pseudoscience. Jung even acknowledged that these synchronicity events are basically just coincidences, statistically speaking. But hey, who's to say what's really going on without some solid scientific studies, right?"
"Dubious as his experiments may have been," CRC interrupted, "Jung believed in a connection between synchronicity and the paranormal, drawing parallels to the uncertainty principle and works by parapsychologist Joseph B. Rhine.” CRC posed a thought-provoking question, "How are we to recognize acausal combinations of events, since it is obviously impossible to examine all chance happenings for their causality? The answer lies in the fact that acausal events are most readily expected where a causal connection appears inconceivable upon closer reflection. It's impossible, with our current resources, to explain ESP or meaningful coincidences as mere phenomena of energy. This challenges the very notion of cause and effect, as these events occur simultaneously rather than in a linear cause-and-effect manner. Hence, I have coined the term 'synchronicity' to describe this phenomenon, placing it on equal footing with causality as a principle of explanation."
Getting closer to that Gemstone, CRC emphasized, "Esper abilities cannot be fully understood with science alone. They defy traditional cause-and-effect explanations, instead representing a convergence of factors that create a quantum phenomenon affecting both the micro and macro. Why were there the naturally gifted and the naturally ungifted?”
Why did some students get praised for their abilities while others needed to work harder?
Others among them would have worked every hour of their free time and not progressed anywhere in this city’s leveling curriculum.
Why did this city present such an unfair and unpredictable status quo of potential?
Why did hard work barely matter in a city of empirical evidence to record any possible progress?
Sogiita Gunha wasn't a normal Level 5 but he wasn't always this powerful. He went through the curriculum same as everyone but if the outside conditions for his Gemstone ability to manifest didn't form in the exact way that it did, in such an acausal form then would he even be here to challenge Christian Rosencreutz right now?
Everything just happened to fall right into place.
All those puzzle pieces that would lead to this moment here and now.
Was it all just talent? God picking a fool as his champion?
The #7 leaned back, absorbing CRC's words with a thoughtful expression. "So, what you're saying is, there's this whole other layer to reality that we can't quite wrap our heads around," he summarized, nodding slowly. "I mean, it's like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands—slippery and elusive."
He chuckled, shaking his head slightly. "Historic recurrence, synchronicities, all these things—they're like pieces of a puzzle scattered across this substantial reality. And sometimes, they just... click into place, right? It's like the universe has its own plan, and we're just along for the ride."
That bandana wearing boy's gaze drifted, lost in thought. "You know, CRC, it's funny," he remarked, a wry smile playing on his lips. "Here we are, with all our powers and potential, but at the end of the day, we're still grappling with the same questions as everyone else. Talent, destiny, divine intervention—maybe they're all just different sides of the same coin."
He shrugged, the weight of the philosophical musings settling over the broken city. "Who knows? Maybe God does have a sense of humor, after all.” that boy chuckled.
There was a deep silence between them.
Rosencreutz’ response was swift and resolute, his tone filled with certainty. "All this ‘universe has a plan’ banter is just a distraction from the inevitable," he declared, his eyes narrowing. "We can debate the nature of us being all-powerful yet struggling with mortal issues until the sun burns out, but it won't change the fact that our fate was sealed upon the knowledge Adam learned."
“To think so many trivialities have developed while this old man wasn’t watching. Heh heh. Then I should assume the thread of fate has again begun to weave its strange connections between myself and some unknown human.”
He rose forward, his movements purposeful. "It's time to put an end to this dance of platitudes," CRC continued, his voice cold and unwavering. "We'll settle this the only way that somewhat matters—through objective action in this grand play."
“Silence, preserved doll. Illusionists are meant to remain silent. That is all we magicians are: wielders of substanceless illusions. Opening your mouth serves only to break the illusion.”
With a flicker of resolve in his eyes, he locked gazes with the #7. "I am Hydra, Gemstone," he said, his voice carrying a hint of challenge. "Our battle ends now.” CRC opened both his palms and began shooting at their surroundings, the buildings, the pavement, the apartments, the rubble.
It probably wasn't random as it seemed to create a pattern.
“Huh are you getting senile old man?” asked the young Gemstone.
“What fun. I never imagined someone would bother diligently polishing their skills this far while knowing it is all essentially an illusion. Didn’t you ever feel silly going to the effort?”
Rosencreutz dropped to all fours, his rosy cross sword gripped tightly in his right hand.
He moved—
“Arrgh!” Sogiita yelled amidst the relentless and precise and precise strikes from that golden cross. “Old man?” he asked.
That magician didn't say anything.
That silver man’s movements became more beastly.
Faster.
Stronger.
Fiercer.
Something new was beginning to manifest.
With each strike of his higher dimensional blade that old man’s blows seemed infused with an otherworldly energy.
The wounds inflicted by his weapon burned with a venomous intensity, sending searing pain coursing through Sogiita's body.
That boy grimaced as the poison from that silver man’s strikes surged through his being, each wound feeling like it was ablaze with venomous fire.
"Damn... That burns…like a killer hornet’s sting," he muttered through clenched teeth, his voice strained with effort. Gritting, he fought to maintain his focus, despite the agony threatening to overwhelm him.
Was this another application of The Four Stages? Citrinitas? No, there was nothing yellow here, it was more like a dirty purple.
But it wasn't just the physical damage that posed a threat.
As the Rosy Cross leader leaped on all fours his movements took on an almost erratic quality, he was bouncing from one building to another with an animalistic agility.
With each jump, a shockwave rippled through the air, carrying with it a palpable sense of dread.
Something was spreading.
The air around them seemed to thicken with a toxic miasma. The #7 struggled to breathe, the noxious fumes clouding his senses.
Like a chaotic monster’s venomous poison breath.
The once-clear air now felt thick and suffocating.
Gasping for breath, the bandana boy struggled to maintain his focus amidst the swirling chaos.
His vision blurred, his movements sluggish as he fought against the oppressive atmosphere.
Blinded that heroic boy could only fire a flame arrow without his sight.
His fists striking out with all the strength he could muster. Igniting in that poisonous compressed air.
It seemed to be flammable like a dragon’s breath.
???
At the hospital, Shokuhou's voice carried a mix of surprise and relief. “He caused real damage.” she exclaimed.
Kamijou turned his attention to her, intrigued. “What happened?”
“It's hard to see clearly, but it looks like the #7 managed to rip off CRC's left arm,” she explained. “Though, I'd say it was more of a lucky shot. I can read he acted on pure instinct.”
Kamijou nodded, a hint of melancholy in his tone. “Yeah... the psychic link and all.”
Had the #7 Level 5 given up on the old man?
Back on the battlefield, Sogiita cursed under his breath. “Dammit... Sorry, old man,” he muttered. “I was aiming to hit your whole body to maximize the surface area, maybe break a few bones as a casualty. We can probably get your arm reattached at the hospital. Heaven Canceller has enough guts to even fix me.”
It was clear—he hadn't given up.
It was an accidental strike of his arm.
“As each ghastly head was severed from its serpentine form, dreadfully, two more writhed forth from the abyss.” a cryptic voice amidst the chaos spoke.
Wasn't it said that the Hydra’s lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid.
Lerna was reputed to be an entrance to the Underworld.
The abyss.
The Ungrund.
There is no limit to the depth of the Alcyonian Lake, and I know of nobody who by any contrivance has been able to reach the bottom of it since not even Nero, who had ropes made several stades long and fastened them together, tying lead to them, and omitting nothing that might help his experiment, was able to discover any limit to its depth. This, too, I heard. The water of the lake is, to all appearance, calm and quiet but, although it is such to look at, every swimmer who ventures to cross it is dragged down, sucked into the depths, and swept away.
The keeper of the gate to the Underworld that lay in the waters of Lerna was the Hydra.
The serpentine Lake Monster.
“Rosencreutz……?” The #7 muttered.
That magician chuckled ominously. "Indeed, young Heracles," he intoned, his voice echoing with a bizarre resonance. “The Lernaean Hydra's curse is upon you now.” as he said that he ripped off a bit of his arm that was cuterarised and it began bleeding.
Anna Sprengel’s blood was said to create unknown miracles when spilled.
Christian Rosencreutz’ blood was so virulent that even its scent was deadly.
As Sogiita Gunha glanced at his severed arm lying on the ground, a creeping sense of horror enveloped him. "All fate is a curse and that curse," he murmured, his words barely audible over the din of battle, "extends even to my severed limb.”
Christian Rosencreutz’ left arm grew back.
No.
Two new arms grew in its place.
The arm was fully functioning with no defects.
Although one of the arms appeared somewhat scaly and lanky like a serpent.
It had human anatomy but something was abnormal here.
He almost looked like a spider as he emerged from the poisonous fog as he remained on all fours.
“So short-stack. Are you ready to complete your final labor: Crossing the abyss!!!” He challenged that boy with his cross sword facing him.
"Boss, what's up? You look kinda stuck," Kamijou asked, his tone concerned.
Two students were sitting together in the waiting room at a hospital.
"—abyss, Hydra, curse, synchronicities, Historic recurrence." she replied, her words carrying a weight of unease.
"Huh? What? Can you give me the lowdown?" Kamijou prodded, his urgency evident.
"Can't quite wrap my head around it. But what I can tell you is that after CRC started talking about these esoteric concepts, he leveled up his power ability, managed to seriously hurt the #7 despite me cranking up all his stats for the win condition," the honey-blonde girl explained, frustration creeping into her voice.
"Can you beam all that stuff into my head, like a memory download? You're a psychological esper, right? My right hand won't mess with it, and we've done the telepathy thing before," Kamijou suggested.
"Memory download's not quite it, but I can send you a recording," she clarified.
"Got it," Kamijou muttered as he absorbed the info.
"You got any ideas to help the #7’s situation ability, Kamijou-san? We're kinda desperate here," she asked.
"I wish Index was still here, dammit.” he lamented, “But you know about magic, right?" he queried.
"Yeah, people converting their delusions into reality right?," she admitted.
"Well, magic's not just about delusions; it can be tied up to the whole world. Not sure if it's relevant, but based on Idol Theory, Rosencreutz might be pulling in 'energy’ from the Greek 'phase’ of Heracles for an edge," Kamijou theorized.
"Like a chessboard flip?" Shokuhou Misaki inquired, her brow furrowed with concern.
"No, more like... imagine you're playing checkers with a buddy, and you're totally crushing it because you're a checkers pro. Then suddenly, your buddy switches it up and challenges you to an arm wrestling match, and you lose because, well, arm wrestling isn't your forte," Kamijou Touma explained, trying to paint a vivid picture.
"So, by taking on the role of the Hydra from Greek myth, he's essentially forcing the #7 into the role of Heracles? But didn't Heracles defeat the Hydra?" Shokuhou sought clarification.
"Yeah, but..." Kamijou recalled the tale from the movies he'd seen. "Lichas gave Heracles a shirt soaked in the Hydra's poisonous blood from his arrows, which ends up killing him by tearing his flesh down to the bone," he elaborated.
"It was actually Nessus seeking vengeance and tricking Deianira into giving it to Heracles as a gift, delivered by Lichas without disclosing the tunic's lethal bloodstained secret from the Lernaean Hydra, but you're right," Shokuhou corrected gently. "So, Rosencreutz is harnessing the power of that legend to slowly poison the #7?"
"Not literal. I mean the poison is real but his slashes do significant harm now so it's more like shifting the paradigm in his favor…shifting his position.” The spiky-haired boy wasn't in the mood to explain Phases, “Earlier, he mentioned Sogiita spreading his 'virus' throughout the world. A virus isn't a poison in the traditional sense, but the Rosicrucians originally sought to create a universal cure for all illnesses. Now, CRC is spreading a literal poison, positioning himself as the ultimate predator and his opponents as prey rather than his savior role, the paradigm has been shifted." Kamijou concluded, his voice tinged with gravity.
“So he’s changed the environment to get the win condition? The #7’s durability doesn't matter in the face of the world being forced to go about a certain way because of Rosencreutz stage play?” The girl asked.
“Yeah…if things keep going this way…Sogiita will….goddamnit….” The spiky haired boy swore. “I can't let someone else die after all that's happened but I feel like if I go out there I really will kill him…” he muttered that last bit while clenching his right fist that began shaking uncontrollably.
The girl’s eyes seemed confused. “What did you say?” The honey blonde middle schooler asked.
“Nothing, just mumbling to myself.” he spat out.
That boy and girl could never come to the right conclusion on their own without the aid of former Magic God Othinus by their side.
“Did you think I had challenged you with no hope of succeeding, you cesspool? The magic born on earth is bound by the directions based on the earth’s magnetic field and by the density and composition of the air which is determined by air pressure which is in turn influenced by gravity. That is inevitable when you are focused on the cardinal directions of north, south, east, and west or on the basic elements of fire, water, wind, and earth. But what you will find upon leaving the atmosphere is an unknown. Coronzon, are you sure there will be no malfunction in the magic giving you control of Avatar Lola? And before, my power was bound by the puny speck named earth which failed to become a black hole or even a sun, but once we enter outer space, just how far do you think that power will be released? I do not mind at all that I will lose the support of Academy City.”
Well the boy was half right.
“Let us test it out, you cuspidor. On one side, we have you using the planet and bound to an avatar. On the other, we have me exposed and freed from the planet. Now, who will be the star of this show?”
Christian Rosencreutz did not shoot at his surroundings for no reason.
The battlefield transformed into Rosencreutz's canvas, resembling the legendary battleground of Lerna where Heracles once clashed with the Hydra.
Yes.
He didn't unleash his powers randomly; every action was deliberate.
In the magical side of Idol Theory, mimicking an object, event, or person allowed one to tap into a fraction of its power.
And that even applied to locations that essentially worked as stage plays.
Idol Theory was so absolute that even the basic cross held a portion of the son of God’s power.
As Above, So Below.
As Below, So Above.
Macro to micro.
Micro to macro.
And the macrocosm and the microcosm are always linked.

I recently went to cancel a gym membership, and once they gave me some trouble I went and looked at my “contract” again. I signed up for the gym pre-opening, and gave them my information (name, address, etc) over the phone to sign up.
The contract that was filled out on my behalf by the gym sales person has my name written at the top, but in any signature or initial box, it just says staff. Examples below.
member initials: “STAFF” Member: “STAFF” Account Holder Signature: “STAFF”
As I clearly never signed this: 1) Confirming the contract is not valid 2) Do I have the right to recoup prior monthly charges as they were charged under the context of a contract I did not actually sign?
Thank you in advance for the help

FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800 u/BakeGullible9975 u/Didnotseemecomein and u/medium_jock
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Caution swearing!
Also, god I love you Conn… please never change!
Previous First [Next](link)
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
"Both of you get your suits back on."
"What the hell is going on!?”
Richards demanded, Adam took a deep breath,
"Captain Richards that was not an opening for a discussion, that was an order. Now put the damn suit on, or I swear I will knock you out and do it myself!”
The three of them were floating in the module staring at each other, hands resting against what must have been no more than a few millimeters of aluminum.
He stared at them, and they stared back.
Adam did not break eye contact with the two, willing them to do as they were told. Chavez was the first to move, hurrying over to her space suit and struggling to pull it on in a near panic as bright lights flashed from outside. Inside his heart was pounding but he tried to remain calm for the two standing before him.
He hurried over to help Chavez pull on her gear, finally sealing the helmet in place as Richards finally moved to do the same.
Adam helped pull the hard torso over the man's head and link it to the waist before helping him pull on his gloves and, eventually the helmet. Before he let go, he kept hold of Richards by either side of the helmet staring at him through the glass,
"I promise, if you listen to me, I will keep you safe."
He kept eye contact with the other man until Richards finally nodded, and Adam let him go to float over and put on his own suit. His hands were steady, for now, but he knew as soon as the crisis was over he'd be shaking like a leaf.
If he survived…
He gritted his teeth, cursing himself for thinking like that.
He was Admiral Vir for crying out loud. He had survived far too much to go and die now.
He returned to the helm of the command module as he looked out the thick window at the lights flashing on either side of them. Despite the war that was raging around them, everything seemed so strangely quiet. There was no sound no rumbling, not even a vibration as one of the jets flew past. Despite being at the controls of the vehicle, there was nothing he could do. They only had a certain amount of fuel to get them to the lunar surface, and if he wasted any of it at all, they would be either caught in orbit, or miss the moon entirely.
He had to keep his cool.
Another bright burst of light lit the window to his right. This one was closer this time.
His heart leaped up into his throat.
Richards and Chaves joined him buckling into their seats.
"What is going on?”
Richards demanded again, his mike distant and tinny with the sound of very old technology.
"I believe Anti-Alliance forces are attempting to assassinate me. They have been trying for months now, and I think they are being encouraged by very powerful members of the government."
They watched as another set of ships zoomed past.
He saw a flash of a silhouette, just enough to know that one of them was a Thunderhawk and the other was a silver Rundi drone.
It confirmed his worst fears. The Chairwoman had been behind this the whole time!
[…]
Red nearly collided with the rocket. The Thunderhawk had pulled up the last minute, but he had almost been too late. He jerked the stick to the side, throwing up his wing just in time to avoid hitting the rocket as it made its slow way through space. He dove down on the other side forced to break off pursuit and cut in front of another Thunderhawk coming in from above. He made to look like he was going to ram them, playing a dangerous game of chicken, which he won at the last second as the other pilot panicked and cut to the left.
There were too many of them. Only five out of the original twenty had been destroyed, and he and the rest of their pilots were busy just keeping the thunder hawks away from the rocket, much less to have any time of firing at them. He had sent one of his people down to earth and one of them off towards the moon for backup. The moon was still hours away yet, so the hope that some help would be sent from them was unlikely, and even the woman he had sent down to earth's surface was cutting it close.
He didn't have much hopes that they would be able to hold out that long.
Inside the cockpit his warning lights began to blink and blair as one of the other jets got a lock on him. He rolled right to avoid them and dove down, cutting off the lock but still being pursued by those behind him. Up ahead he saw one of the silver balls erupt into flames as it was targeted by an expert hit from one of the Thunderhawk pilots.
He rolled right.
Someone else rolled left. He cut up just in time to avoid being hit and raced forward to cut off another Thunderbird that was heading directly towards the rocket.
[…]
Eris hurried down the hallway, her knees screaming as she did her very best to sprint, but despite her human anatomy, she was a little too much like a starborn.
With a cry of frustration she reached up and tore off her hoodie, throwing it to the ground and engaging her anti-gravity belt. The ribbons on her back billowed out behind her.
Light spilled in from the windows on either side of the catwalk she was now on, filling her with a buzzing energy that she could feel radiating through the ribbons like electricity. She knew from her study of starborn that they could travel at thousands of miles an hour in the vacuum of space, especially when under the power of a star. She didn't think she needed to go THAT fast, but anything would be better than what she was doing now.
As if in response to her will, she suddenly began to glide forward, picking up speed as she swooped towards the end of the hall, wind catching her in the face and roaring along her cheeks. With her starborn skin, she barely felt a thing as she raced around the corner and out of the waiting door. Two men dressed in military ACUs dived to the side as she blew past them crying out in alarm and confusion as the "Alien" floated by.
Somewhere distantly, she could sense Conn racing in the opposite direction towards the base.
Sunny and Admiral Kelly had Admiral Massie in their custody and were dragging him out into the hallway.
She blew across the open ground her ribbons snapping and billowing behind her as she did. She didn't even have time to imagine what she looked like as she roared over the open field and towards the waiting news vans which were just beginning to pack up their things. They were close to leaving, but she set out a sharp hard telepathic pulse ordering them to stop.
Compelling them to stop.
They froze in their tracks and looked up to see her coming.
Someone scrambled to turn on their camera, not sure what was going on but sure it had to be something good.
She tried not to think about what they would see as the camera flared to life following her approach.
"Make us live."
She ordered,
The news people glanced between each other in confusion,
"But no… we aren’t-"
"What are-"
She came to a sudden jolting stop before them, her billowing black hair fanning out behind her like a curling halo.
"I said, put us on air."
This time the telepathic pulse was too strong to resist. Mostly that, paired with the fact that none of them were sure they really wanted to resist. She was way too interesting to pass up.
They hurried to do what they were doing, and Eris was given just enough time to feel nervous before the camera was turned to her.
They were live.
She read it in the minds of those behind camera who she cut off as she began to speak,
"Citizens of Earth, there has been a horrible conspiracy against you. The UN president has ordered the assassination of Admiral Adam Vir and has continually attempted to sabotage the mission. Just now General Massie was taken into custody after ordering the deployment of twenty Thunderhawk’s to harass the rocket and make its destruction look like some sort of collision with space debris."
The group gawked at her as she raised her hand with the small silver device and began playing the recording.
She knew something like this would never be admissible in court. She was pretty sure it would be considered entrapment of some kind, which is why it must be heard now, before everyone, so that the actions of the president could be judged by a jury of the world where it could not be hidden by political machinations.
"Communications have been lost with Apollo 11. And it is... Well... It is likely that he is already dead..."
Her voice broke,
"No matter what happens, I need you, and this nation to understand what is happening before it gets swept under the rug. I saw it with my own eyes, heard it with my own ears and experienced their meeting in the thoughts of a man who is both xenophobic and hateful to his own humankind."
She kept talking trying to give them all the information she could, spilling thoughts she had heard in the head of the UN president and General Massie alike. Every meeting, every liaison, every name until her voice was beginning to crack.
[…]
The UN president was just standing to enter her vehicle when a slow muttering began in the crowd behind her. She turned as the ground before her went silent.
She watched as a wave ran through the people. A wave of nudging and whispering and showing off news feeds they had pulled up on their wrist implants. It wasn't long before the entire crowd was either staring down at their arms or clustered around someone else for viewing.
"What is going on?”
She wondered, turning to one of her men who was staring down at her own wrist.
"Madame president?"
He said with a look of confusion.
She could hear it now.
"Her and General Massie have ordered members of the UNSC to adjust funds in order to hide the twenty Thunderhawk’s they were squirting away for just such an event."
She hurried forward, grabbing the secret serviceman by the arm, staring at it as she watched the streaming newsfeed and the freaky white alien with the large dark eyes and flowing black hair.
"She is afraid of aliens, she wishes to isolate and eventually use humanity's superior forces to overtake trade in the galaxy, forceful if need be."
The muttering behind her had turned into an angry grumbling, and she turned to see the eyes of hundreds that turned towards her.
"Get me out of here."
She hissed. the Secret Serviceman took a step back with a look of confusion and indecision on his face.
"It's your job."
She snarled, but he just stared at her.
She hurriedly ran over to her car as the crowd began to filter in around them pressing close. A few of the secret service men pulled guns, but a large majority of them were frozen with indecision and were taken over by the crowd. She scrambled into the back seat of her vehicle and slammed the door shut screaming at the driver to get moving.
The crowd was surrounding them now, pounding at the glass.
She could hear their angry voices raised for her to be heard behind bullet proof glass.
Outside, she watched a lone figure step onto the platform where the lectern was and stare at her with its beady black eyes. The Chairwoman of the GA stood over the crowd like it's filthy alien lord.
And even though Rundi could not smile, she could swear it was smiling.
[…]
Baby K hit a rough patch of turbulence coming down from the atmosphere. She struggled with the controls as she was thrown left and right inside the cockpit of her rickety shuttle.
Donovan Red had ordered her down here to grab the UNSC, but she was so scared and full of adrenaline that she had dropped it at too steep an angle. The ride was much bumpier than it was supposed to be, and her teeth were rattling inside her head.
Just then two Jets suddenly cut in behind her out of nowhere, and she heard her console beep and warn her about a lock on, making it clear that she was just one click of a trigger away from imminent doom.
"This is Eagle Dispatch One, unidentified vessel, you have crossed into restricted UNSC airspace, identify yourself or be destroyed! You have ten seconds to comply, over."
She scrambled for her communications, but her fingers felt as stiff as wood as she scrambled for the button.
"I repeat, this is Eagle Dispatch One, unidentified vessel, you have entered restricted UNSC airspace, you are ordered to identify yourself or be destroyed. Five seconds remaining. Over."
She slammed her first into the comms button nearly panicking,
"UNSC!"
Her voice was rattling,
"This is B-baby K, and I... The Apollo 11 is under attack!"
She was breathless as she forced the words out.
There was silence over the coms,
"Say again? Uhm I mean please repeat over.”
"Apollo 11 is under attack!"
”…”
”…”
More silence,
”Roger that. Please stand by. Over."
The lock lifted and the two jets pulled up to the side of her, staying close now.
She recognized those jets as two F-90 Darkfires.
They stayed by her side for a moment, and as close as they were she could see one of the pilots fidgeting with the coms, talking and wildly gesticulating, while his copilot was beginning to wildly flip switches.
Meanwhile, a second voice came in over the coms.
"On your left! Eagle Dispatch Two here, unidentified vessel, please land on UNSC base airstrip one. Just contact the control tower once you get close for guidance and instruction."
Baby K looked over into the other jet, just to see the pilot adjusting his helmet and clicking an oxygen tube to the front of his helmet. His co-pilot had already put the additional oxygen mask on and was also flipping switches.
”Uhm aren’t you going to escort me?”
Baby K managed to blurt out in confusion,
”Godspeed Baby K, Eagle Dispatch Two over and out.”
Both men in the jet to her left had apparently finished their preparations and gave her a quick salute.
Then suddenly, both jets adjusted their angle and cut engines, before switching to their big fusion engines, rocketing them up and out of sight within seconds.
[…]
So far it had been a relatively quiet day at the Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base. Most of the air traffic had been canceled due to the launch of the Apollo mission, so there was not much to do, leaving much of the Airport less staffed than normal.
In the Air Traffic Control tower of the base, only two men were working. Though “working” was stretching it, considering Senior Controller M. Fredrick was currently in the middle of his book (though he was at least in front of his station) and his comrade Senior ATC Instructor A. Millard was currently sitting in a corner, watching a movie on his implant.
”So what are you watching? One of those old Star Wars movies?”
”You bet! Those are the best! By the way any info on that “lost civilian” who got into our airspace?”
”No not yet, though I sent Eagle Dispatch and told them to be extra unfriendly, that will scare these civilians off for sure!”
”Pffft, why couldn’t they watch the start like any other person? There is always some dumb rich kid doing dumb stuff with daddies private shuttle… I don’t understand why we always let them off with a warning…”
The console started beeping,
”Oh look that’s them now!”
”Put ‘em on speakers!”
”Will do!”
…
”ATC this is Eagle, come the FUCK in!”
Fredrick rolled his eyes,
”Ahem… This is Elling Field ATC, calling Eagle Dispatch One. We hear you, over.”
”ATC what the FUCK took you so long!?”
”Ellington Field ATC, to Eagle Dispatch one, firstly: language, secondly: please follow standard radio rules, over.”
”THE APOLLO IS UNDER ATACK BY HOSTILE ELEMENTS!”
”Ellingt-WHAAAAT!? Repeat please! Over!”
”THE APOLLO IS BEEING ATACKED BY HOSTILE ELEMENTS! REQUETING IMMEDIATE ASSIST!”
Fredrick just stared at Millard dumbfounded. As the senior officer Millard was quick to collect himself and jumped up and towards his console.
”What are you waiting for Fredrick! Are we blind!? DEPLOY THE GARRISON!”
Fredrick ignored all protocol and just flipped the switch to connect his comms to every recipient available.
”ATC to all personnel and everyone who can hear me, the Apollo is under attack, I repeat, the apollo is under attack. I want all available planes that can reach the outer atmosphere ready ASAP! Get the darkfires on the runway I want them in the air yesterday!”
[…]
Conn raced towards the airstrip, feeling the wind in the ribbons at his back. He couldn't go nearly as fast as he wanted to with air resistance.
Why the hell did Adam always have to get into so much trouble, why did he always have to be the center of attention!?
Everyone either hated him or loved him, but the problem was people who hated him also wanted to kill him.
Why did he have to be so controversial!?
Why did he have to be hated for something that was such a big deal. Why couldn't he be hated for having controversial political opinions. Conn paused…
On second thought, controversial political opinions were kind of what had gotten them here in the first place, so he guessed that was kind of a useless comparison. How about being the kind of guy who liked to talk too much about fishing. That was a great way to make people hate you for being boring, but it didn't usually mean that people wanted to kill you.
Maybe they could get the man a hobby doing something that wasn't so controversial…
Like…
Kicking small Animals or…
Cannibalism.
He came roaring to the stop at the edge of the airfield just in time to watch an entire platoon of pilots racing towards jets. He could hear their minds and looked up to see a rather dinky shuttle descending from the sky. He floated forward towards one of the jets as two pilots leaped inside.
He was going to need a ride.
The pilots turned to look at him, but Conn just shook his head.
The pilots decided to ignore him in the confusion and Conn grabbed on tight.
Starborn, he had come to learn, were a very interesting species in comparison to others. Vertically, as in from the top down he was very fragile and likely to break his neck or collapse his spine if there was any kind of pressure, but with horizontal forces, he was practically indestructible. Below him the ship roared to life and soon they were gathering speed along the runway.
His grip was tight, and he used the extra energy from his ribbons to speed himself up along with the jet to reduce the pull on his arms.
His grip wasn't that strong.
They went vertical almost immediately, and he made sure to orient his body in the correct direction as they went hurtling into the sky.
[…]
Red's right wing had been hit. If there had been atmosphere around him he would have been a goner, but there was no air resistance here, so once he regained control of his roll, he pulled back into position and fired one last shot as the opportunity arose. The sixth Thunderhawk was destroyed in an eruption of debris, which he dodged only with difficulty, limping without the aid of the maneuvering jet on the end of his one wing. Things were only speeding up now, the Rundi were almost gone and the pressure was being laid thick on his people. They were hard to hit but the pursuit made it almost impossible for them to do any real maneuvering of their own. He was almost hit again as another Thunderhawk sped underneath him. They rolled this way and that rocking from one side to the other. Flying through debris and over strips of silver metal.
Below them the earth hung as a glowing orb.
Red cut in a wide circle coming in with the sun at his back, using it to blind one of the enemy Thunderhawk’s as he came in. He watched the group of them form up suddenly as a ring around the slow moving rocket, intending quite certainly to rush it all at once. He screamed into the comm trying to order his men around, but it was going to be too late, he could already see it coming.
The jets rushed forward, and he did too, screaming inside his helmet as they went to broadside Apollo 11.
And then with all the silence of space, sixteen F-90 Dark Fires came spitting overhead all at once, raining down a line of ordinance that cut through the group of unsuspecting Thunderhawk’s.
Space around them was filled with a myriad of silent explosions as each and every one of them was ripped to shreds.
All except one…
He saw it at the last moment.
It had been hit in the tail and had gone wildly off course.
It turned sideways, but had just enough force... For its wing to tear straight through the aluminum siding of the rocket.
FUCK!
[…]
Chavez and Richards had been ordered to strap into their seats.
Adam had taken it upon himself to lock down the rest of the main cabin. Outside the flashing lights were like a fireworks display without sound. He grabbed onto one of the rails, forcing equipment back into place, so that if anything happened it wouldn't fly out.
His legs were kicked up behind him as he floated forward reaching for some of the controls as a sudden bright wash of light filtered in through the windows. He heard a scream over his com, and then the air around him was rent with a horrific tearing noise, which suddenly went silent. There was a rush, and he jerked forward as he was sucked back... And out of the ship entirely.
His hands and legs kicked and flailed as he tried to right himself, hearing his own breathing as the only sound as he watched the rocket begin to spin, debris erupting around him as air, and whatever wasn't strapped down was sucked through the small opening.
The rocket was spinning wildly but still on course, while he was spinning wildly in a silent abyss.
Grunting against the force of his spin, he reached down for the controls to the CO2 canister built into the pack of his spacesuit.
He groaned, not sure which way was up or down or back. He tried to right himself against the spin by firing in the opposite direction to slow his spin.
He could see the rocket now spinning in the opposite direction with the sudden loss of oxygen. He hoped the other astronauts were ok. He saw the silhouette of a jet fly past in the distance making its way towards the spinning rocket.
At least there was someone here to help.
Maybe the others would survive-
And then he just… stopped, coming to a confusing halt in the middle of space.
That shouldn't have been right!
He should have kept going forever!
He tried turning his head, but he felt like the pillsbury doughboy in this two thousand year old suit.
What was happening?
"Did you miss me Baby?”
Well shit, now he sort of wished he could keep spinning.
There was a tugging on the outside of his suit, and Conn floated into view in front of his helmet.
"Hey sweetheart."
"You are probably the last person I wanted to see."
He said, though he didn't entirely mean it, and unfortunately Conn knew that too, the mindreading asshole that he was.
”I could hardly let the father of my child go spinning off into space without taking accountability for his family. After al child support is paying way more than widows pension."
"Shove it up your ass Conn."
"No really, not even the vacuum of space is going to save you from your responsibilities. Now, about custody, I was thinking you could have every other weekend and a couple of major holidays…”
He gave a rueful sort of smile as Conn grabbed him by the life support pack and started floating them towards the rocket.
The F-90s had somehow managed to slow the spin of the rocket, and pull it back on course with grappling magnets.
All around them space was filled with debris. No more working Thunderhawk’s were present and those that were were quickly being grappled. One sleek racing jet slowly cruised past them. One of its wings was damaged, but whoever was inside waved with one hand as he rolled past.
Adam lifted a hand as Conn brought him the last few hundred feet to the torn opening in the side of the ship, allowing him to step through.
Conn patted him on the side of the helmet,
"Make sure to be home by dinnertime sweetie."
Before blowing him a kiss and vanishing back out the hole.
Adam floated there, a bit nonplussed for a moment before turning back to the front of the ship where Chaves and Richards were still strapped into their seats staring at him and after Conn. He floated over to strap himself in.
"Admiral! You're ok!”
"Yes, it seems that I am, thanks to a... Friend of mine."
Just then Conn appeared again just before their right side window, and like the classy gentlemen that he was began rubbing his butt up against the glass.
He sighed,
"Friend is kind of stretching it."
"Apollo 11 this is Houston, do you copy!"
The man on the other end of the line sounded close to tears, and Adam hurried to respond,
"Houston this is Apollo 11."
On the other side he thought he heard the sound of voices cheering in relief.
"What is your status, over?”
"We are a bit beat up Houston, we have a tear in our hull, but our suits are ok, and we have help."
"Prepare to abort mission."
Adam frowned,
"Now wait a second there Houston! I didn't get sucked out the side of my own rocket to just quit now. Tell the boys to come up here and patch us up and we can finish the mission. All systems are still functioning, and we are back on course."
He glanced over at the others,
”That is, if the crew wants to continue."
There was a pause and then Chavez timidly piped in,
"I'd be ok with that."
Richards sighed,
"Roger Houston, patch us up."
Granted it may have been cheating. Apollo 11 hadn't had support with special tools that could just patch up a spaceship within ten minutes, but then again the original Apollo 11 hadn't been in the middle of a firefight while on their journey to the moon.
So it was with some trepidation that Houston allowed it, and before long they had air back inside the cabin back up to pressure, but they also had a sixteen-man rotating escort for the rest of the way.
The group of them were even shocked to see Rundi drones join the formation, only to learn that it had been the UN president who had allegedly called the hit on him. It was hard to believe, but they were only getting snippets here and then from over radio and from Conn, who floated around occasionally to rub another part of his anatomy against the window and give them teasing updates.
The moon was growing slowly in their vision.
"Hehe, I can see my house from here."
Adam remarked as they prepared to detach the lunar module from the rest of the ship.
They landed without incident, observed by mobile camera crews and news reporters as he made his own footprint on the never changing dust of the moon's surface. He gave them a thumbs up to let them know he was fine and hesitated only once before setting up the UN flag in the dirt. He refused to let his enthusiasm be dampened by the day's events and hopped around dancing and leaping for joy as another one of his childhood dreams was fulfilled.
…
That was before he plowed face first into the moon's surface and required help from Richards to stand back up again.
They left soon after taking another three days of escort back to earth before strapping themselves in for final entry.
Conn left them just as they were entering orbit with a very big and very drawn out middle finger for all three of them.
"Your friend is super delightful isn't he?”
"You don’t know the half of it, try having a child with him."
Adam muttered, refusing to elaborate even as they stared at him in confusion.
They fell from the sky and landed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, picked up by the waiting navy vessel who was within nine miles of their landing site. They were fished from the water and returned safe and sound to the ship to cheers and cameras. Adam's legs felt a little like jelly after days of not using them, and he was finally able to relax lying on the deck of the ship under the sun as people ran around them on either side.
His hands shook slowly building up after the stress of the last week. He took long deep breaths and closed his eyes.
The next few days were going to be a real shit show.
And somehow it wasn’t because he was now known as the man who faceplanted not one, but TWO interstellar bodies…
The media was way to busy with the other story, a massive net of deceit and corruption that would now be uncovered.
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Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author
Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story written by starrfallknightrise and I'll just upload some of it here for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.

Hopefully this is received as constructive criticism and discussion instead of an attempt at hate farming. Also, I'm optimistic the dev team can figure out the balance issue.
Right now, a weapon's effectiveness is determined almost entirely by one question: Can it kill armored enemies? More specifically, chargers and bile titans. Players aren't locked into using meta weapons, but are instead forced use "oeta" weapons (ONLY effective tactic available.)
The game has so many fun looking weapons and stratagems available, but I never get the chance to use most of them because I'm always forced to take Anti Armor options. In a game like Deep Rock Galactic, you can experiment and make goofy meme builds that are still able clear missions. Helldivers doesn't have that right now because armored enemies are so oppressive and impossible to handle with most weapons.
Can this support weapon kill armored enemies -- especially chargers and bile titans? (Quasar, EAT, Autocannon and Laser vs bots)
If not, is it at least elite at eliminating high threat trash enemies like spewers? (Grenade launcher)
For primary weapons, highest value is determined by how effectively it helps do some of the heavy lifting against armor that your support weapon is hopefully doing (Scorcher, Dominator, pre nerf Eruptor).
After that, it goes back to the same trash clear secondary question as support weapons (high capacity automatic weapons, most breaker variants, pre nerf crossbow).
If a weapon can't do either of those things, it's pretty much useless (Diligence).
Most of the same applies to stratagems, but there are some exceptions scattered around due to some having utility. But then again, I think I would argue that the value of that utility is based on how much it offsets the frustration of fighting armored enemies.
While clearing out trash enemies is still somewhat helpful, higher difficulties absolutely require pretty much your entire team take anti armor weapons, and this just severely limits creativity and experimentation. Maaaaybe you can get away with a single person not having Anti Armor. I believe this is why the Eruptor nerf was so immensely hated. It was one of the weapons that enabled players to finally take different support weapons like a Stalwart. Finally there was some variety.
I'm sure there are some exceptions that can be found to what I've written, but I wanted to get the general idea out there since weapon balance seems to be a big topic in the community over the last week or so. Armored enemies were a huge problem when the game first launched. Reducing the health of Charger heads was a good band-aid fix for the early life of the game, but I don't think that fixes the big picture problem inherent with the game's armor system, the number of armored enemies, and the arsenal's limited effectiveness against them.

1. Use of spam trigger words and phrases

Email content filters analyze every word in an email to see if it has common spam words. If your email has a large amount of spam words, the server will block your email or send it to junk folders.
There are certain words that will trigger spam filters, so it’s best to use these sparingly or avoid using them completely.

2. Unequal text-to-image balance

Email servers favor messages that have an equal text-to-image ratio. They don’t like emails that heavily feature images. Using more imagery than text will directly affect your email deliverability rates and make sure your messages go straight to junk folders.
Always include at least two lines of text for every image or graphic you put in your email. All images should have Alt text, and don’t use short URLs if you’re including hyperlinks.

3. Poor text formatting

Stick to using ~one font type~, one font size (below 12pt), and one font color. It’s fine to venture away from the standard black font, but don’t use multiple colors. Doing this is as bad as using spam trigger words.
Punctuation is also key; using more than one exclamation or question mark in the subject line or body of the

email is considered spam-like.

4. Not using a legitimate “From:” email address

It’s not recommended to use a free or personal email address like Outlook.com/Hotmail or Gmail as your “From:” address. Instead, use an email address from your organization’s domain. If you don’t want to receive lots of out-of-office replies, set up an email address specifically for marketing emails and send from this address every time.
It’s also best to avoid using email addresses that begin with ‘info’, ‘noreply’ or ‘sales’. These are seen to be generic, so they will often end up heading straight to email junk folders.

5. Bad HTML code

If your code is badly written with extra tags or was designed in Microsoft Word and then copied across, spam filters will be alerted. This will affect your open rates and it’s likely your email will be blocked.
To avoid this, you can use pre-made email templates or find an experienced designer to create a branded HTML email template with properly written code.

In the vanguard of neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI), brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) stand as a testament to human ingenuity and the relentless pursuit of enhancing human capabilities. These groundbreaking technologies, which enable a direct communication pathway between the brain and external devices, promise to revolutionize not only medical therapy for individuals with severe physical disabilities but also applications in diverse fields such as entertainment, marketing, education, and defense. However, as we stand on the brink of this new frontier, the ethical implications of such profound technological advancements beckon for careful consideration.

The Promise of Brain-Computer Interfaces

Recent experiments have made significant strides in internal speech decoding through BCIs, offering a glimpse into a future where thought-to-text conversion could restore communication for those who have lost it due to neurological diseases or injuries. For instance, a pioneering study demonstrated the feasibility of decoding words ‘spoken’ entirely in the brain in real time, achieving remarkable accuracy. This research utilized implanted microelectrode arrays in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and primary somatosensory cortex (S1), uncovering significant neural representation of both internal and vocalized speech. Notably, the study achieved an average decoding accuracy of 55% and 24% for internal speech in offline analysis, with online tasks reaching up to 79% accuracy. This work not only illustrates the technical feasibility of high-performance internal speech BCIs but also highlights the supramarginal gyrus as a critical area for phonetic encoding and the potential for a broad application of BCIs in restoring speech communication.

Navigating the Ethical Terrain

The rapid advancement of BCIs, while promising, introduces a complex web of ethical considerations that must be navigated with diligence and foresight. Ethical concerns encompass a wide array of issues, including human dignity, personhood, autonomy, user safety, stigma, discrimination, privacy, security, responsibility, research ethics, and social justice, particularly regarding access to this emerging technology. The principles of bioethics offer a foundational framework for addressing these concerns; however, they require adaptation to the evolving AI landscape to ensure they remain relevant and responsive.
Human dignity and autonomy are at the forefront of ethical debates, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that BCIs enhance rather than diminish the individual’s capacity for self-determination. Privacy and security issues also loom large, given the deeply personal nature of neural data and the potential for misuse. Additionally, the democratization of access to BCIs is a critical concern, as disparities in availability could exacerbate existing social inequalities.
Moreover, as BCIs find applications beyond the medical field, the potential impact on international relationships and national security becomes a pertinent issue. The dual-use nature of these technologies necessitates a global dialogue to establish norms and regulations that balance innovation with ethical considerations and international peace.

Toward Ethical Harmony

Achieving ethical harmony in the development and application of BCIs requires the concerted effort of all stakeholders, including researchers, policymakers, ethicists, and the public. Multi-disciplinary collaboration is essential to develop guidelines that safeguard human rights and dignity while fostering innovation. Public engagement and education will also play crucial roles in shaping societal norms and expectations regarding the use and regulation of BCIs.
As we chart the course for the future of BCIs, it is imperative to remain vigilant about the ethical implications of these technologies. By fostering an inclusive dialogue and developing robust ethical frameworks, we can harness the full potential of BCIs to enhance human capabilities while ensuring that technological advancements serve the greater good of humanity.

Herbal Formula:

For a more advanced approach to enhancing brain function and facilitating the transmission of thoughts and ideas, we can explore less commonly discussed, yet highly potent, herbs and compounds that target cognitive processes at a deeper level. These selections are based on traditional use backed by emerging scientific research, focusing on neuroprotection, neurotransmitter balance, and cognitive enhancement.
Advanced Herbal Formula for Cognitive Enhancement

1. **Huperzia Serrata (Club Moss)**:

• **Action**: Contains Huperzine A, a compound known for inhibiting acetylcholinesterase, which increases acetylcholine levels, enhancing memory and learning.
  
• **Dosage**: 50-200 mcg of Huperzine A per day.
  

1. **Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica)**:

• **Action**: Enhances dendrite and axon growth in the brain, supporting neural pathways and cognitive function, with additional benefits in reducing anxiety and improving mood.
  
• **Dosage**: 300-600 mg of standardized extract daily.
  

1. **Periwinkle (Vinca minor)**:

• **Action**: Contains vincamine, which is converted into vinpocetine in the body, improving cerebral blood flow, enhancing memory, and offering neuroprotective effects.
  
• **Dosage**: 15-30 mg of vinpocetine per day.
  

1. **Phosphatidylserine**:

• **Action**: A phospholipid that supports brain cell membrane integrity, enhances glucose metabolism in the brain, and improves nerve signal transmission.
  
• **Dosage**: 100-300 mg per day.
  

1. **Noopept**:

• **Action**: Offers a similar effect to piracetam but is considered more potent. It enhances cognitive function, memory, and learning ability with neuroprotective properties.
  
• **Dosage**: 10-30 mg per day.
  

1. **Blueberry Extract (High in Anthocyanins)**:

• **Action**: Antioxidants that cross the blood-brain barrier, protecting the brain from oxidative stress, and improving memory and cognitive functions.
  
• **Dosage**: 500-1000 mg of standardized extract daily.
  

1. **Mucuna Pruriens (Velvet Bean)**:

• **Action**: Contains L-DOPA, a precursor to dopamine, enhancing mood, motivation, and attention, while supporting overall neurotransmitter balance.
  
• **Dosage**: 100-500 mg of standardized L-DOPA content daily.
  

Cutting-Edge Cognitive Enhancers:

• **Magnesium L-Threonate**:
  
• **Action**: Specifically designed to penetrate the brain more effectively, enhancing synaptic density and plasticity, improving memory and learning.
  
• **Dosage**: 1,000-2,000 mg per day.
  
• **Polygala Tenuifolia (Yuan Zhi)**:
  
• **Action**: Traditional Chinese medicine herb with emerging evidence suggesting it enhances memory, neurogenesis, and exhibits antidepressant effects.
  
• **Dosage**: 100-200 mg of standardized extract twice daily.
  

Additional Integrative Strategies:

• **Intermittent Fasting or Caloric Restriction**: Shown to enhance neurogenesis and cognitive function, potentially synergizing with herbal supplementation.
  
• **Cognitive Training Exercises**: Engage in regular, diverse cognitive challenges to complement the biochemical enhancement from the herbal formula.
  
• **Mindfulness and Meditation**: Practice mindfulness and meditation to improve focus, reduce stress, and enhance the quality of cognitive processes.
  

Considerations and Cautions:

• **Interaction and Sensitivity Awareness**: Be aware of potential interactions between these compounds, especially if taking medications or if there are pre-existing health conditions.
  
• **Gradual Introduction**: Consider introducing one compound at a time to monitor effects and adjust dosages as needed.
  
• **Professional Guidance**: Seek advice from a healthcare provider knowledgeable in both traditional herbal medicine and modern nootropic supplements for personalized guidance and monitoring.
  

Conclusion

Brain-computer interfaces represent a frontier of immense promise and profound ethical complexity. The journey toward integrating these technologies into society will require not only technological innovation but also a deep commitment to navigating the ethical terrain with wisdom and integrity.
Sources:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01867-y
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38745805/