Emily dickinson poems about death and moving on
Real Estate Investing
2008.10.24 20:05 Real Estate Investing
Interested in Real Estate Investing? You've come to the right place! /realestateinvesting is focused on sharing thoughts, experiences, advice and encouraging questions regardless of your real estate investing niche! Structured Deals, Flipping/Rehabbing, Wholesaling, Lending, Land, Commercial Real Estate and more! If it has to do with real estate investing this sub is for you!
2008.01.25 06:12 Philadelphia
News and happenings in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
2008.12.11 13:41 /r/brighton - Between Downs and Sea We Flourish
A subreddit for all of the lovely people that live in Brighton and Hove. It's okay, you're safe now.
2024.05.02 21:03 BilinmeyenlerEng TİER - 1
ELİSA LAM
Elevator Video
Lam traveled from Vancouver, Canada to Los Angeles, United States. After arriving in Los Angeles, she stayed at the Cecil Hotel and shortly after went missing. The Los Angeles Police Department searched for clues for a week before releasing a video containing Lam's last moments before her death. The video was obtained from the hotel's elevator security camera. The viral video shows Lam pressing multiple floor buttons in the elevator and looking out of the elevator. She then suddenly takes a few steps, sticks her head out of the elevator, and looks left and right before going back inside. She then appears to hide in the corner of the elevator as if she saw something frightening. After a while, she slowly approaches the elevator door and waits there for a moment. She takes a step back and looks to the left. Lam continues to exhibit strange behaviors by taking steps left, backward, and left again. She eventually exits the elevator and re-enters, making strange hand gestures as if she is talking to someone. After a while, she leaves the elevator completely and the door opens and closes a few times before she walks away. Lam's body was found 19 days after her disappearance. A hotel employee, Santiago Lopez, discovered her body in the water tank after investigating complaints from hotel guests about low water pressure and strange tasting tap water. Lam's body being found in the water tank raised many questions as the access to the tank is not easy. The water tanks are located on the roof of the building and require a key to unlock the door, which only hotel staff have. Lam could have used the fire escape to access the roof, but this would trigger alarms. The fact that no alarm was heard by hotel staff indicates that Lam did not use the fire escape. Assuming Lam somehow accessed the roof, the water tanks are 3 meters high, meaning a ladder would be needed to reach them. However, there was no ladder on the roof that night. Lam's clothes, watch, and room key were with her, but her cell phone was never found. This detail raised suspicions of foul play. The autopsy report revealed that Lam died of drowning. The toxicology report confirmed that Lam had taken some medications for bipolar disorder, but there were no signs of alcohol or illegal substances in her system. Reddit posts highlighted some details from the report, indicating Lam had taken at least one antidepressant that day, but had not taken her other medications. This raised the possibility that Lam's erratic behavior in the elevator could be related to her medication regimen. Testimony from hotel manager Amy Price in court supported this hypothesis, stating that Lam initially shared a dorm-style room with others but had to move to a single room due to complaints about her behavior. Despite Lam's psychological issues, questions remain about how she died. How did she manage to access the roof to commit suicide and get into the water tank? Why was her cell phone never found? These questions continue to fuel the mystery surrounding Elisa Lam's case.
submitted by BilinmeyenlerEng to u/BilinmeyenlerEng [link] [comments]
Elevator Video
Lam traveled from Vancouver, Canada to Los Angeles, United States. After arriving in Los Angeles, she stayed at the Cecil Hotel and shortly after went missing. The Los Angeles Police Department searched for clues for a week before releasing a video containing Lam's last moments before her death. The video was obtained from the hotel's elevator security camera. The viral video shows Lam pressing multiple floor buttons in the elevator and looking out of the elevator. She then suddenly takes a few steps, sticks her head out of the elevator, and looks left and right before going back inside. She then appears to hide in the corner of the elevator as if she saw something frightening. After a while, she slowly approaches the elevator door and waits there for a moment. She takes a step back and looks to the left. Lam continues to exhibit strange behaviors by taking steps left, backward, and left again. She eventually exits the elevator and re-enters, making strange hand gestures as if she is talking to someone. After a while, she leaves the elevator completely and the door opens and closes a few times before she walks away. Lam's body was found 19 days after her disappearance. A hotel employee, Santiago Lopez, discovered her body in the water tank after investigating complaints from hotel guests about low water pressure and strange tasting tap water. Lam's body being found in the water tank raised many questions as the access to the tank is not easy. The water tanks are located on the roof of the building and require a key to unlock the door, which only hotel staff have. Lam could have used the fire escape to access the roof, but this would trigger alarms. The fact that no alarm was heard by hotel staff indicates that Lam did not use the fire escape. Assuming Lam somehow accessed the roof, the water tanks are 3 meters high, meaning a ladder would be needed to reach them. However, there was no ladder on the roof that night. Lam's clothes, watch, and room key were with her, but her cell phone was never found. This detail raised suspicions of foul play. The autopsy report revealed that Lam died of drowning. The toxicology report confirmed that Lam had taken some medications for bipolar disorder, but there were no signs of alcohol or illegal substances in her system. Reddit posts highlighted some details from the report, indicating Lam had taken at least one antidepressant that day, but had not taken her other medications. This raised the possibility that Lam's erratic behavior in the elevator could be related to her medication regimen. Testimony from hotel manager Amy Price in court supported this hypothesis, stating that Lam initially shared a dorm-style room with others but had to move to a single room due to complaints about her behavior. Despite Lam's psychological issues, questions remain about how she died. How did she manage to access the roof to commit suicide and get into the water tank? Why was her cell phone never found? These questions continue to fuel the mystery surrounding Elisa Lam's case.
2024.05.02 21:00 Vast-Passenger1126 [Discussion] Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch Prologue to Part 1: Reminiscence: Best-Laid Plans
Welcome Gentleman and Gentlewoman Bastards! We are back in the world of scheming and thieving with Locke Lamora and his best (and only remaining) buddy Jean. After the events in the last book, they've decided to lie low and take things easy, right? ... right?
You can find the full schedule here and the marginalia here. Chapter summaries are below and discussion questions are in the comments.
Prologue – A Strained Conversation: We open with Locke and Jean going crossbow to crossbow with two men. Just as the Gentleman Bastard banter is picking up, Jean TURNS HIS CROSSBOW ON LOCKE. Is it a trick? Well, there’s no hand signal to show Jean’s lying and Locke seems pretty damn scared…
Chapter One – Little Games: We’re now in Tal Verrar, also called the Rose of the Gods. It’s made up of black Eldren glass islands and surrounded by an artificial reef which calms the Sea of Brass to allow for ships from all different kingdoms to pass through. On the western island, there’s a district called the Golden Steps, filled with gambling dens, fighting pits, ale houses and brothels. And slavery is illegal so everyone can get wasted and pass out on the streets without worrying about being taken. Yay! The higher up you go in the Golden Steps, the classier the places get, with the exclusive ‘chance houses of quality’ at the very top. Sinspire is the crème de la crème and people need to work their way up its multiple levels of luxury gambling. Cheating is punishable by death. So of course, Locke and Jean are cheating their way to top!
They’re playing a game called Carousel Hazard against two women – Maracosa Durenna and Izmila Corvaleur – and are losing on purpose, which means at the end of each hand they get to drink some random liquors of varying strength. The match has the whole club’s attention, including Requin, the master of Sinspire and ruler of the Tal Verrar underworld. Just as Locke and Jean are about to lose the eighteenth, Corvaleur passes out and the winnings go to the Bastards! This catches the attention of Selendri, Requin’s majordomo, who invites them up to the sixth floor.
We learn that Locke and Jean defeated the women by dusting bela paranella, a narcotic powder, onto the playing cards knowing that Corvaleur would be licking her fingers the whole game. They stumble across two men engaging in a crossbow duel and briefly chat to a young woman. The Bastards decide they’re hungry and head off to the Night Market to get some food. But first, a brief interruption for some more world building! There’s three islands of the Great Guilds (Alchemists, Artificiers and Merchants) that curl around the Castellana, which has the Mon Magisteria, the fortress of the archon. Even though Tal Verrar is officially ruled by the Priori, most of the power lies with the archon or the master of arms.
Ok, back to our late night snacks. Jean and Locke make their way through the market, but things seem off. One vendor calls Locke by his real name, and although he first imagines it’s a drunken mistake, another vendor also says his name and references the scorpion hawk. Suddenly, all the people in the market turn on the Bastards and, led by an incredibly creepy little girl, chant about how the Bastards need to pay for what they did to the Falconer in the last book. Locke’s like, “Hey we didn’t kill him. Only cut off his fingers and tongue which isn’t technically against your rules,” but the bondsmagi aren’t buying that. The spell is broken and the Bastards discuss what to do. Jean wants to leave since they Bondsmagi know his real name and can therefore turn him against Locke, but Locke isn’t having it.
Reminiscence – The Capa of Vel Virazzo: We travel back in time two years to when Locke and Jean first fled Camorr and land in Vel Virazzo, a port southeast of Tal Verrar. Locke is not in good shape physically or mentally and spends the majority of his time wallowing in self-pity and booze. Jean, meanwhile, sets out to become the leader of Vel Virazzo’s underworld. He tracks down the main gang, the Brass Cove, beats the shit out of a few of them and declares himself their new boss. While the gang is hesitant at first, Jean wins them over and starts turning them into a proper gang with a fancy lair.
He tries to involve Locke but they end up getting into an argument instead. Jean decides enough is enough and traps Locke in his room, forcing him to rely on his old thieving skills to get out. The strategy works and Locke decides to show Jean how badass of a Bastard he still is. He eventually returns with a whole stash of stolen goods, including the necklace of the governor’s mistress that he literally took off her while they were asleep In bed. Oops – that was maybe a bit too far. Time to flee the city! Jean is upset to leave his budding gang behind (and before he got to teach them to cook!), but Locke is back in fine form and ready to move onto bigger schemes in Tal Verrar.
Chapter Two – Requin: Jean and Locke try to forget about their creepy encounter with the Bondsmagi while eating miniature cake sculptures of themselves. Locke goes back to Sinspire and tells Selendri that him and Jean have been cheating the whole time. This gets him taken all the way up to the eighth floor, past some super fun statues, to Requin’s office. Selendri reveals that her brass hand is also a concealed weapon and Requin is ready to chop Locke’s hand off and add it to his collection, so he better start talking fast. Locke does some fun magic trick to prove to Requin that his guards suck at doing pat downs. He also reveals how him and Jean/Jerome managed to cheat at the different games.
So why has he done all this? Locke says he’s been hired by someone to break into Requin’s vault and steal everything. But Locke is over the job and wants to swap sides. In exchange for giving Requin information, Locke wants a job as floor boss and the right to kill his partner Jerome, who’s apparently deeply insulted him. Requin agrees to his proposition…for now.
Locke finds Jean waiting for him in a restaurant and they exchange some literary banter and briefly discuss/avoid discussing our beloved Sabetha. But as they head out onto the street, they are stopped by a woman and forced into a building where they have their weapons taken away and hoods put over their faces. They’re led back out onto the streets, apparently heading off for a boat ride.
Reminiscence – Best Laid Plans: Jean and Locke are on their way to Tal Verrar, scheming up their big job against Requin. We learn that Requin has a TON of money which is kept locked away in his super intense, multi-layer, booby-trapped vault. But no fear, Locke has a plan! We don’t really get to know much about it except it involves a climbing harness and Locke pretending like he wants Jean dead. They have a bit of an emotional moment, but forgive each other for the past and are ready to head back out as Bastards vs. the world.
submitted by Vast-Passenger1126 to bookclub [link] [comments]
You can find the full schedule here and the marginalia here. Chapter summaries are below and discussion questions are in the comments.
Prologue – A Strained Conversation: We open with Locke and Jean going crossbow to crossbow with two men. Just as the Gentleman Bastard banter is picking up, Jean TURNS HIS CROSSBOW ON LOCKE. Is it a trick? Well, there’s no hand signal to show Jean’s lying and Locke seems pretty damn scared…
Chapter One – Little Games: We’re now in Tal Verrar, also called the Rose of the Gods. It’s made up of black Eldren glass islands and surrounded by an artificial reef which calms the Sea of Brass to allow for ships from all different kingdoms to pass through. On the western island, there’s a district called the Golden Steps, filled with gambling dens, fighting pits, ale houses and brothels. And slavery is illegal so everyone can get wasted and pass out on the streets without worrying about being taken. Yay! The higher up you go in the Golden Steps, the classier the places get, with the exclusive ‘chance houses of quality’ at the very top. Sinspire is the crème de la crème and people need to work their way up its multiple levels of luxury gambling. Cheating is punishable by death. So of course, Locke and Jean are cheating their way to top!
They’re playing a game called Carousel Hazard against two women – Maracosa Durenna and Izmila Corvaleur – and are losing on purpose, which means at the end of each hand they get to drink some random liquors of varying strength. The match has the whole club’s attention, including Requin, the master of Sinspire and ruler of the Tal Verrar underworld. Just as Locke and Jean are about to lose the eighteenth, Corvaleur passes out and the winnings go to the Bastards! This catches the attention of Selendri, Requin’s majordomo, who invites them up to the sixth floor.
We learn that Locke and Jean defeated the women by dusting bela paranella, a narcotic powder, onto the playing cards knowing that Corvaleur would be licking her fingers the whole game. They stumble across two men engaging in a crossbow duel and briefly chat to a young woman. The Bastards decide they’re hungry and head off to the Night Market to get some food. But first, a brief interruption for some more world building! There’s three islands of the Great Guilds (Alchemists, Artificiers and Merchants) that curl around the Castellana, which has the Mon Magisteria, the fortress of the archon. Even though Tal Verrar is officially ruled by the Priori, most of the power lies with the archon or the master of arms.
Ok, back to our late night snacks. Jean and Locke make their way through the market, but things seem off. One vendor calls Locke by his real name, and although he first imagines it’s a drunken mistake, another vendor also says his name and references the scorpion hawk. Suddenly, all the people in the market turn on the Bastards and, led by an incredibly creepy little girl, chant about how the Bastards need to pay for what they did to the Falconer in the last book. Locke’s like, “Hey we didn’t kill him. Only cut off his fingers and tongue which isn’t technically against your rules,” but the bondsmagi aren’t buying that. The spell is broken and the Bastards discuss what to do. Jean wants to leave since they Bondsmagi know his real name and can therefore turn him against Locke, but Locke isn’t having it.
Reminiscence – The Capa of Vel Virazzo: We travel back in time two years to when Locke and Jean first fled Camorr and land in Vel Virazzo, a port southeast of Tal Verrar. Locke is not in good shape physically or mentally and spends the majority of his time wallowing in self-pity and booze. Jean, meanwhile, sets out to become the leader of Vel Virazzo’s underworld. He tracks down the main gang, the Brass Cove, beats the shit out of a few of them and declares himself their new boss. While the gang is hesitant at first, Jean wins them over and starts turning them into a proper gang with a fancy lair.
He tries to involve Locke but they end up getting into an argument instead. Jean decides enough is enough and traps Locke in his room, forcing him to rely on his old thieving skills to get out. The strategy works and Locke decides to show Jean how badass of a Bastard he still is. He eventually returns with a whole stash of stolen goods, including the necklace of the governor’s mistress that he literally took off her while they were asleep In bed. Oops – that was maybe a bit too far. Time to flee the city! Jean is upset to leave his budding gang behind (and before he got to teach them to cook!), but Locke is back in fine form and ready to move onto bigger schemes in Tal Verrar.
Chapter Two – Requin: Jean and Locke try to forget about their creepy encounter with the Bondsmagi while eating miniature cake sculptures of themselves. Locke goes back to Sinspire and tells Selendri that him and Jean have been cheating the whole time. This gets him taken all the way up to the eighth floor, past some super fun statues, to Requin’s office. Selendri reveals that her brass hand is also a concealed weapon and Requin is ready to chop Locke’s hand off and add it to his collection, so he better start talking fast. Locke does some fun magic trick to prove to Requin that his guards suck at doing pat downs. He also reveals how him and Jean/Jerome managed to cheat at the different games.
So why has he done all this? Locke says he’s been hired by someone to break into Requin’s vault and steal everything. But Locke is over the job and wants to swap sides. In exchange for giving Requin information, Locke wants a job as floor boss and the right to kill his partner Jerome, who’s apparently deeply insulted him. Requin agrees to his proposition…for now.
Locke finds Jean waiting for him in a restaurant and they exchange some literary banter and briefly discuss/avoid discussing our beloved Sabetha. But as they head out onto the street, they are stopped by a woman and forced into a building where they have their weapons taken away and hoods put over their faces. They’re led back out onto the streets, apparently heading off for a boat ride.
Reminiscence – Best Laid Plans: Jean and Locke are on their way to Tal Verrar, scheming up their big job against Requin. We learn that Requin has a TON of money which is kept locked away in his super intense, multi-layer, booby-trapped vault. But no fear, Locke has a plan! We don’t really get to know much about it except it involves a climbing harness and Locke pretending like he wants Jean dead. They have a bit of an emotional moment, but forgive each other for the past and are ready to head back out as Bastards vs. the world.
2024.05.02 20:43 cumtitsmcgoo TIL: Denver locals believe their airport is satanic and home to the Illuminati
Not exactly a shitpost and not really related to Delta, but this is the only airline sub I engage in. Was watching an airport documentary and was surprised to learn that the Denver airport has a bizarre reputation among locals. Pulled from the wiki…
Tunnels: The delay in opening the airport and the large budget overrun led to a variety of rumors about the tunnels that were built under the airport. The scope has been exaggerated, and there is lore that the tunnels lead to underground survival bunkers for the rich and elite, military bases, homes for aliens, homes for lizard people, or to the North American Aerospace Defense Command.[68][69][67] The actual use for the tunnels is to move luggage between check-in counters, airplanes and baggage claim areas. Employees have been known to prank the media by wearing lizard masks. Videos of blurry lizard people have appeared online and drawings of aliens have appeared on tunnel walls. However, other graffiti, besides alien drawings, exist along the tunnels.[67]
New World Order and other secret societies: Because of the isolated location, there are rumors that the airport will be used by the New World Order as a prison or concentration camp.[68] The time capsule at the airport showcases an inscribed plaque that has the Freemason symbol and the words "New World Airport Commission," which is a group that has never existed, prompting the conspiracy theory that the airport is controlled by Freemasons and linked to the New World Order or other secret societies.[69][67] A spokesperson for the Denver International Airport, Alex Renteria, has said that the Freemasons had created the cover, and thus had included their symbol, but there is no evidence that they have any influence in running the airport.[67][69] The wording about the commission was used to represent that the new airport would permit access to the world and is a reference to Dvorák's New World Symphony.[69][67]
Nazism: Tanguma's murals have been purported to represent Nazism, death, or a prophecy of the end of the world, counter to the artist's meaning.[68][69] The removal of the murals to keep them safe during construction prompted rumors that the project was an excuse to cover the truth.[68] In addition, there are conspiracy theories around Nazism based on the supposed swastika-shaped runway, which aerial views refute.[67][68]
Alien languages: People have noted apparent markings that are supposed to represent alien or secret languages. The markings are actually Navajo language characters and identifiers for the airport artists.[67]
Blue Mustang eyes: The red, glowing eyes have led some to call the horse statue demonic, thinking that the glowing eyes are referencing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The eyes are actually a tribute to the artist's father, who owned a neon light shop in Mexico.[67][69][68]
Flat Earth: On TikTok in April 2023, a video went viral, claiming that an artistic 30-year-old world map art installation was new and confirmed flat earth theory.[68]
Anyone from Denver care to weigh in? Has anyone tested your water?
submitted by cumtitsmcgoo to delta [link] [comments]
Tunnels: The delay in opening the airport and the large budget overrun led to a variety of rumors about the tunnels that were built under the airport. The scope has been exaggerated, and there is lore that the tunnels lead to underground survival bunkers for the rich and elite, military bases, homes for aliens, homes for lizard people, or to the North American Aerospace Defense Command.[68][69][67] The actual use for the tunnels is to move luggage between check-in counters, airplanes and baggage claim areas. Employees have been known to prank the media by wearing lizard masks. Videos of blurry lizard people have appeared online and drawings of aliens have appeared on tunnel walls. However, other graffiti, besides alien drawings, exist along the tunnels.[67]
New World Order and other secret societies: Because of the isolated location, there are rumors that the airport will be used by the New World Order as a prison or concentration camp.[68] The time capsule at the airport showcases an inscribed plaque that has the Freemason symbol and the words "New World Airport Commission," which is a group that has never existed, prompting the conspiracy theory that the airport is controlled by Freemasons and linked to the New World Order or other secret societies.[69][67] A spokesperson for the Denver International Airport, Alex Renteria, has said that the Freemasons had created the cover, and thus had included their symbol, but there is no evidence that they have any influence in running the airport.[67][69] The wording about the commission was used to represent that the new airport would permit access to the world and is a reference to Dvorák's New World Symphony.[69][67]
Nazism: Tanguma's murals have been purported to represent Nazism, death, or a prophecy of the end of the world, counter to the artist's meaning.[68][69] The removal of the murals to keep them safe during construction prompted rumors that the project was an excuse to cover the truth.[68] In addition, there are conspiracy theories around Nazism based on the supposed swastika-shaped runway, which aerial views refute.[67][68]
Alien languages: People have noted apparent markings that are supposed to represent alien or secret languages. The markings are actually Navajo language characters and identifiers for the airport artists.[67]
Blue Mustang eyes: The red, glowing eyes have led some to call the horse statue demonic, thinking that the glowing eyes are referencing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The eyes are actually a tribute to the artist's father, who owned a neon light shop in Mexico.[67][69][68]
Flat Earth: On TikTok in April 2023, a video went viral, claiming that an artistic 30-year-old world map art installation was new and confirmed flat earth theory.[68]
Anyone from Denver care to weigh in? Has anyone tested your water?
2024.05.02 20:37 what_the_-_-_-_ Updated character tier list + Disventure Camp season 2 thoughts (I finally watched it after putting it off for months)
After putting it off for months I finally sat down & binged DCS2. Was it a good idea to do it late at night up to 2 in the morning? Probably not. Did I enjoy myself? Yes I did, more than I thought I would tbh.
The voice acting wasn't that awful. Aidens VA especially killed it. What bothered me a little were the mic quality & as bad it might sound, some of the accents. Riya & Rosa Maria were hard to understand occasionally but it's nothing subtitles couldn't help with! Since we're on the negatives I might as well mention the challenges. A majority of them weren't interesting or innovative, the kissing & trivia ones were especially AWFUL. I LOVED the horror movie & balloon challenges tho, those were really fun. In general, the season got better as it went on!
Krystal - she started off REALLY unlikable. She went completely overboard in episodes 2-5, I mean drugging people? Forcing a 16 & 20 something year old make out? Making people burn their belongings including medication for their depression? Exposing some really sensitive information such as abortions & sex changes?? Also her treatment of Oliver early on was trash too. However, she's been progressively getting better from episode 6 onwards. I liked how she helped out Lake & apologized to Oliver. Overall, I enjoyed her character arc quite a bit once she wasn't a complete monster.
Marcus - he was cool. Not much to say, I enjoyed the dude and that's it.
Nina - now they might be cooking here... Listen, going into the season I thought she'd be an unnecessary, annoying background character but I was wrong. She's so funny & I loved how she played a role in a few of the challenges, episode 8 especially. I'm hoping Marcus & Nina get some more screen time in AS as well.
Oliver - what do you expect me to say? He's a silly little guy who deserves a hug & well paying job. I really liked him for the time he got. Hopefully he returns in AS because he's been missing for a few episodes now.
Karol - she deserves so much better omg 😭😭. She's probably in my top 3 this season and she was only here for 4 episodes lol. James & Aiden really screwed her over TWICE and for what?? They should've let her get James eliminated in episode 9 but instead she leaves with a broken leg after being betrayed by the gays AGAIN. Seriously, what is James's problem with her? She's a normal person who was only mean to Oliver because she wanted to win a challenge but never did anything to James or Aiden, so why do they hate her so much? Same with the fandom, why do y'all not like her? People act as if she's a despicable villain when the worst thing she did was complain about the camp being ran down which... I mean it is? Underrated queen, should've been in AS & helped Jake vote off James lowkey 😔
Kai - this dude is so stupid man 😭😭. He's funny and that's all I have to say. His voice while annoying at first added to the comedy, his romance with Maggy was fine enough and rivalry with Yul was really fun while it lasted. I enjoyed him more than I probably should've.
Connor - he should've lasted longer. His accepting his age arc is an interesting idea that should've been explored further and he should've had more interactions with Riya given how crucial he is to her character. Overall, he's a cool dude but definitely wasted.
Maggy - she is everything people told me she was, which is nothing. She's easily my least favorite this season, not bad, but not good either. The only memorable moment of hers is her threatening Yul with another black eye in the finale, other than that I've got nothing.
Yul - he wasn't as funny as in AS but still entertaining nonetheless. I especially liked his more strategic side. He's a monster and I love him for it ❤
Tess - she is bland. To quote Tess herself: "there is nothing interesting about me" and she was right. Her struggle with depression could've been really impactful & lead to some heartwarming or heartbreaking scenes but it lead to nothing. I don't understand the hype for her at all, neither here or in AS.
Lake - I really liked Lake! Was her arc cliche & done before? Yes, but it was done well and that's what I needed. I really liked her interactions with Rosa Maria, Maggy, Riya & Aiden especially. She's a nice, lovable character & one of my favorites this season.
Ally - similarly to Tess, she's also bland. There isn't much to say about her this season tbh, she's just gaming & vibing with Hunter and Tess. She GREATLY improves in AS where she's one of my favorites but here? She's mid.
Rosa Maria - she's my favorite of the season! Yes, she's a support character but she's a really good one. She has a distinct personality & morals as well as the highest number of character interactions of the season. She's just an all around sweetheart. I loved her friendship with Lake, Maggy & Riya and to an extent James & Hunter. She's also quite funny lol. Love her to death ❤❤
Hunter - I really enjoyed him honestly, which is a surprise because I didn't care much about the love triangle thing with Tess & Ally, but as is, he's by far the most entertaining of the trio. He's also funny, not as funny as in AS (or the greetings lol) but still great nonetheless. My one issue with him is his immunity run. Lake deserved that immunity in episode 7 and Karol in episode 9. But other than that, he's probably my favorite guy from the season! Him keeping Tess's meds was a weirdo move tho, but I guess it was for the better 🤷♂️.
Aiden - he started off good and quickly became boring. He's like a watered down Jake. Honestly, him & James didn't interest me at all. At his best Aiden was fine but at his worst he was awful. The way they treated Karol especially was sucky, not only with the broken leg but also the spider. Overall, Aiden is mid & occasionally annoying despite having valid reasons to be angry. Didn't care for him much 🤷♂️
Riya - with how mixed she is in the fandom I expected A LOT worse from her but, and ik some people will not agree, I enjoyed her. May I say she even carried the final 2/3 episodes alongside Hunter, Karol, Rosa Maria & Lake.
Maybe it was because I knew of it beforehand but her turning into a villain didn't bother me, especially since she saw that it works. I mean James sends Karol packing with a broken leg & manages to stick around despite being in the bottom 2 like every single elimination ceremony, why wouldn't Riya try the same? Anyways, I also liked her when she was nicer. Sure, she was a bit of a background character but her friendship with Rosa & Lake were really fun + her & Connor were nice too. The only thing I didn't like was how she let Aiden hang off a cliff, but even then he had the wings suit on so it wasn't that bad I guess.
James - what a bland ending this will be to a post but I didn't care for James. I appreciate his arc & him and Aiden are cute I guess, but I preferred when he was a villain. Working with Yul was probably my favorite interaction of his. I didn't enjoy his treatment of Karol & being xenophobic of Rosa Maria and immediately suspecting her of stealing his phone because of her background. They made up in the finale but still not a great moment...
Anyways, if you have any questions regarding the tier list just ask lol.
submitted by what_the_-_-_-_ to Totaldrama [link] [comments]
The voice acting wasn't that awful. Aidens VA especially killed it. What bothered me a little were the mic quality & as bad it might sound, some of the accents. Riya & Rosa Maria were hard to understand occasionally but it's nothing subtitles couldn't help with! Since we're on the negatives I might as well mention the challenges. A majority of them weren't interesting or innovative, the kissing & trivia ones were especially AWFUL. I LOVED the horror movie & balloon challenges tho, those were really fun. In general, the season got better as it went on!
- Favorite episode: episode 10 - Popping Trust
- Least favorite episode: episode 4/5 - The Kiss-a-thon/Truth Hurts
Krystal - she started off REALLY unlikable. She went completely overboard in episodes 2-5, I mean drugging people? Forcing a 16 & 20 something year old make out? Making people burn their belongings including medication for their depression? Exposing some really sensitive information such as abortions & sex changes?? Also her treatment of Oliver early on was trash too. However, she's been progressively getting better from episode 6 onwards. I liked how she helped out Lake & apologized to Oliver. Overall, I enjoyed her character arc quite a bit once she wasn't a complete monster.
Marcus - he was cool. Not much to say, I enjoyed the dude and that's it.
Nina - now they might be cooking here... Listen, going into the season I thought she'd be an unnecessary, annoying background character but I was wrong. She's so funny & I loved how she played a role in a few of the challenges, episode 8 especially. I'm hoping Marcus & Nina get some more screen time in AS as well.
Oliver - what do you expect me to say? He's a silly little guy who deserves a hug & well paying job. I really liked him for the time he got. Hopefully he returns in AS because he's been missing for a few episodes now.
Karol - she deserves so much better omg 😭😭. She's probably in my top 3 this season and she was only here for 4 episodes lol. James & Aiden really screwed her over TWICE and for what?? They should've let her get James eliminated in episode 9 but instead she leaves with a broken leg after being betrayed by the gays AGAIN. Seriously, what is James's problem with her? She's a normal person who was only mean to Oliver because she wanted to win a challenge but never did anything to James or Aiden, so why do they hate her so much? Same with the fandom, why do y'all not like her? People act as if she's a despicable villain when the worst thing she did was complain about the camp being ran down which... I mean it is? Underrated queen, should've been in AS & helped Jake vote off James lowkey 😔
Kai - this dude is so stupid man 😭😭. He's funny and that's all I have to say. His voice while annoying at first added to the comedy, his romance with Maggy was fine enough and rivalry with Yul was really fun while it lasted. I enjoyed him more than I probably should've.
Connor - he should've lasted longer. His accepting his age arc is an interesting idea that should've been explored further and he should've had more interactions with Riya given how crucial he is to her character. Overall, he's a cool dude but definitely wasted.
Maggy - she is everything people told me she was, which is nothing. She's easily my least favorite this season, not bad, but not good either. The only memorable moment of hers is her threatening Yul with another black eye in the finale, other than that I've got nothing.
Yul - he wasn't as funny as in AS but still entertaining nonetheless. I especially liked his more strategic side. He's a monster and I love him for it ❤
Tess - she is bland. To quote Tess herself: "there is nothing interesting about me" and she was right. Her struggle with depression could've been really impactful & lead to some heartwarming or heartbreaking scenes but it lead to nothing. I don't understand the hype for her at all, neither here or in AS.
Lake - I really liked Lake! Was her arc cliche & done before? Yes, but it was done well and that's what I needed. I really liked her interactions with Rosa Maria, Maggy, Riya & Aiden especially. She's a nice, lovable character & one of my favorites this season.
Ally - similarly to Tess, she's also bland. There isn't much to say about her this season tbh, she's just gaming & vibing with Hunter and Tess. She GREATLY improves in AS where she's one of my favorites but here? She's mid.
Rosa Maria - she's my favorite of the season! Yes, she's a support character but she's a really good one. She has a distinct personality & morals as well as the highest number of character interactions of the season. She's just an all around sweetheart. I loved her friendship with Lake, Maggy & Riya and to an extent James & Hunter. She's also quite funny lol. Love her to death ❤❤
Hunter - I really enjoyed him honestly, which is a surprise because I didn't care much about the love triangle thing with Tess & Ally, but as is, he's by far the most entertaining of the trio. He's also funny, not as funny as in AS (or the greetings lol) but still great nonetheless. My one issue with him is his immunity run. Lake deserved that immunity in episode 7 and Karol in episode 9. But other than that, he's probably my favorite guy from the season! Him keeping Tess's meds was a weirdo move tho, but I guess it was for the better 🤷♂️.
Aiden - he started off good and quickly became boring. He's like a watered down Jake. Honestly, him & James didn't interest me at all. At his best Aiden was fine but at his worst he was awful. The way they treated Karol especially was sucky, not only with the broken leg but also the spider. Overall, Aiden is mid & occasionally annoying despite having valid reasons to be angry. Didn't care for him much 🤷♂️
Riya - with how mixed she is in the fandom I expected A LOT worse from her but, and ik some people will not agree, I enjoyed her. May I say she even carried the final 2/3 episodes alongside Hunter, Karol, Rosa Maria & Lake.
Maybe it was because I knew of it beforehand but her turning into a villain didn't bother me, especially since she saw that it works. I mean James sends Karol packing with a broken leg & manages to stick around despite being in the bottom 2 like every single elimination ceremony, why wouldn't Riya try the same? Anyways, I also liked her when she was nicer. Sure, she was a bit of a background character but her friendship with Rosa & Lake were really fun + her & Connor were nice too. The only thing I didn't like was how she let Aiden hang off a cliff, but even then he had the wings suit on so it wasn't that bad I guess.
James - what a bland ending this will be to a post but I didn't care for James. I appreciate his arc & him and Aiden are cute I guess, but I preferred when he was a villain. Working with Yul was probably my favorite interaction of his. I didn't enjoy his treatment of Karol & being xenophobic of Rosa Maria and immediately suspecting her of stealing his phone because of her background. They made up in the finale but still not a great moment...
Anyways, if you have any questions regarding the tier list just ask lol.
2024.05.02 20:34 IrinaSophia Some questions about Judas answered
By Father Maximus of the Sacred Monastery of Paramythias in Rhodes
Q: It is worthy of wonder, how Judas betrayed his Master, even though he saw Him do many great miracles?
A: Judas initially must have been good. Like the other disciples of Christ, he left family and work for the Messiah.
Surely he must have endured hardships on his journeys during the three year public ministry of Christ. Christ would send His disciples on missions to towns and villages to prepare the people.
The disciples then, together with Judas, preached that the Messiah came, and they would confirm their words with miracles (Matt. 10:1-8). Judas was particularly honored by Christ to hold the common funds. From this he would shop and give money philanthropically to the poor (Jn. 13:29). When Christ began from Galilee to Judea to be sacrificed, Judas followed Him, listening to the words of his fellow disciple Thomas: "Let us go and die with Him" (Jn. 11:16).
John the Evangelist writes that Judas had a certain passion for avarice (12:6). It seems he was committed to this passion, and driven to infidelity against Christ. Avarice opened his soul to Satan, giving rights to the evil one.
Luke the Evangelist (22:3) writes that before Judas consulted with the chief priests for the betrayal, Satan entered him. This is confirmed by John the Evangelist (13:2), saying that Satan put betrayal into the heart of Judas. The same Evangelist says that at the end of the Mystical Supper Satan again entered Judas (13:27). Let us see: in Bethany Christ's feet were anointed by a woman with very costly myrrh. Judas with other disciples resentfully complained (Matt. 26:8 and Jn. 12:4-6). This protest is a sign that they questioned the infallibility of Christ: how did He allow this? When Christ stepped in and asked not to embitter the woman for her manifestation of love, for she prepared His body for burial, the others humbly hushed, but Judas was annoyed, and influenced by Satan he left to betray Him. Selfishness blinded him. Surely Judas did not believe in the divinity of Christ. A God deserves all honor and sacrifice, not betrayal. He wanted to be a teacher to Christ. Indeed he hid his avarice under the cover of being interested in the poor. Sinners usually try to cover their sins and justify them.
Through the mediation of Judas the chief priests rejoiced (Mk. 14:11 and Lk. 22:5), because now they could arrest Christ away from the mob at night, while everyone slept. Judas even openly assured them and gave them a promise that Christ will be delivered without the presence of a mob (Lk. 22:6).
The cause of the betrayal was not so much greed as it was about ego. If he was only a miser, he would have left his poor teacher Christ earlier. Although he eventually received money, yet he did not abandon Christ. Now he abandoned Him, because his ego elevated. If he did not have a big ego, he would have continued stealing and not betrayed his Master. Certainly he had avarice, because he took the money to betray Christ.
Perhaps Judas, when he lost his faith in the divine origin of Christ, started to explain away the miracles of Christ, like the Pharisees, as demonic energies. Egoism darkens man, so that he cannot discern what is right.
Judas was blinded by avarice, egoism and the devil and did not know where he was going.
Q: Was the betrayal of Judas inevitable and had to be done?
That a disciple would become a traitor, God foreknew. Besides that, David also prophesied it in the Old Testament (Ps. 40:10 (41:9)). Christ prophesied it many times. Christ foreknew it, but did not predetermine it. He prophesied it because He knew it would happen. God saw the betrayal and foretold it. The foreknowledge of God is not to blame, but the freedom of Judas.
When after the multiplication of the five loaves and two fish, long before His Passion, Jesus spoke of Holy Communion, His body and blood, and some disciples told Him, "this is a hard saying" and left Him. Christ then told the twelve: "Do you also want to leave?" Peter responded: "Where will we go, You speak words of eternal life and we believed and have seen that You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Jesus responded: "I did not choose the twelve of you, and yet one of you is a devil." Here he was speaking of Judas (Jn. 6:60-71). Here Christ says something paradoxical: "If I chose you, among you is a traitor."
The sacrifice of Christ on the Cross was more painful, having been betrayed by His disciple. This betrayal teaches us that all of us who are near to Christ are in danger of betrayal. Judas is a model of many future traitors. If the disciple of Christ who saw the great miracles of Christ betrayed Him, how much more danger are we in who have not beheld Christ and His miracles?
Christ would have been arrested and sacrificed without the mediation of Judas. It is not possible for the All-Good God to use a person for His plan and lead him to eternal damnation. If Judas did pious work, He would not have allowed him to commit suicide. Judas shows the great corruption of people and the need for the divine sacrifice.
Q: Why did Christ allow His disciple Judas to betray Him?
Christ many times tried to dissuade him from betrayal. Long before His Passion, Jesus repeatedly (Matt. 12:40; 16:21-28; 17:12; 17:22-23; 20:17-19) prepared His disciples for the Passion. He told them that He would suffer much, would be rejected by the religious leaders, would be killed, and on the third day would rise again.
In one foretelling of His Passion (Matt. 16:21-28), Peter responded and asked that His Passion not take place. Jesus answered Peter: "Get thee behind me Satan,... you do not follow the will of God, but think as men think." He then asked His disciples if they would deny Him and said: "What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul." These words were a hard warning to Judas who lost his soul for thirty pieces of silver.
At the Mystical Supper, after the washing of His disciples feet, Christ said: "You are clean, but not all of you" (Jn. 13:10-11). He knew the one who would betray Him. Then, though He was teaching about humility (which is why He washed the disciples feet), He warns Judas again by saying the prophecy of David (Ps. 40:10): "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me." Judas' hypocritical anxiety was shaken due to the loss of his soul by Him clearly stating that someone would betray Him (Jn. 13:21). Judas again did something ignorantly. Christ refers to him implicitly by saying: "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with Me will betray Me" (Matt. 26:23). And though Judas continued to hide himself, Christ says in a menacing way: "Woe to the man through whom the Son of Man (the Messiah) will be delivered. It would have been good for him had he not been born" (Matt. 26:24). And while everyone was saying, "Is it me?", Judas, in order not to show himself by his silence, also asked Jesus without shame, "Is it me?" Christ told him: "You have said it", that is, it is as you say.
His bosom disciple says that Christ at Gethsemane knocked Judas and the soldiers backwards when they approached (Jn. 18:5-6). Judas was not moved, but hypocritically greeted Christ, saying "Hail Rabbi!" and kissed Him heartily (Matt. 26:49). Christ did not speak evil of him, but said to him: "Friend, for that which you came to do, do quickly" (Matt. 26:50). Luke (22:48) completes the words of Christ with a question: "You betray the Son of Man with a kiss?" It's as if He said to him: I know why you came, you are a traitor; your warm kiss does not fool me."
Christ tried to warn him. Judas, however, was adamant in his treason.
Q: Perhaps Judas betrayed Christ because He was not the liberator from the Romans?
Christ never spoke of a revolution with weapons. His warnings of His Passion never included talks of a possible revolution. If Judas was a zealot, or a revolutionary, he should have waited lest Christ show later His divine power and liberate the people. With his betrayal he led Christ into obscurity. With the death of Christ he gained nothing for the cause of a revolution. If Christ disillusioned Judas, he should have abandoned Him and waited for another liberator Messiah.
Also a revolutionary Judas does not justify being a traitor and hanging himself. When he returned the money, he told the priests: "I handed over innocent blood" (Matt. 27:4). The revolutionary Judas would have had to keep the money for the needs of the expected revolution. His hanging did not change the status of Roman rule.
All the people were waiting for a liberator Messiah. When Christ multiplied the five loaves and the two fish and thousands of people ate, those who ate said: "This really is the expected prophet. Jesus realized they intended to make Him king, so He departed the mountain by Himself" (Jn. 16:14-15).
And the disciples of Christ were awaiting liberation from the Messiah. In fact two of His closest, the brothers James and John together with their mother, asked Christ that when He was soon to be the king in Jerusalem, if He would put them to the left and right of His throne. Christ explained to them that the bitter cup of His Passion awaited Him in Jerusalem (Matt. 20:20-23). They, however, did not betray their teacher.
Judas was not a revolutionary, but fainthearted, selfish and avaricious.
Q: Didn't Judas repent when he returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and told them that he sinned by handing to them innocent blood?
Real repentance is one thing, simple remorse is another. True repentance is characterized by the attempt to correct the evil, while simple remorse is a change of mind (a shifting) without any attempt to correct the evil. Judas acknowledged his mistake, but he didn't do anything to correct it. If he truly repented, he would have went to find Christ and with tears asked for forgiveness, like Peter.
That he committed suicide shows that his ego now operated towards self-destruction. Obviously also the devil had influence and led him to despair.
If Judas truly repented, he would have been saved.
Source
submitted by IrinaSophia to OrthodoxGreece [link] [comments]
Q: It is worthy of wonder, how Judas betrayed his Master, even though he saw Him do many great miracles?
A: Judas initially must have been good. Like the other disciples of Christ, he left family and work for the Messiah.
Surely he must have endured hardships on his journeys during the three year public ministry of Christ. Christ would send His disciples on missions to towns and villages to prepare the people.
The disciples then, together with Judas, preached that the Messiah came, and they would confirm their words with miracles (Matt. 10:1-8). Judas was particularly honored by Christ to hold the common funds. From this he would shop and give money philanthropically to the poor (Jn. 13:29). When Christ began from Galilee to Judea to be sacrificed, Judas followed Him, listening to the words of his fellow disciple Thomas: "Let us go and die with Him" (Jn. 11:16).
John the Evangelist writes that Judas had a certain passion for avarice (12:6). It seems he was committed to this passion, and driven to infidelity against Christ. Avarice opened his soul to Satan, giving rights to the evil one.
Luke the Evangelist (22:3) writes that before Judas consulted with the chief priests for the betrayal, Satan entered him. This is confirmed by John the Evangelist (13:2), saying that Satan put betrayal into the heart of Judas. The same Evangelist says that at the end of the Mystical Supper Satan again entered Judas (13:27). Let us see: in Bethany Christ's feet were anointed by a woman with very costly myrrh. Judas with other disciples resentfully complained (Matt. 26:8 and Jn. 12:4-6). This protest is a sign that they questioned the infallibility of Christ: how did He allow this? When Christ stepped in and asked not to embitter the woman for her manifestation of love, for she prepared His body for burial, the others humbly hushed, but Judas was annoyed, and influenced by Satan he left to betray Him. Selfishness blinded him. Surely Judas did not believe in the divinity of Christ. A God deserves all honor and sacrifice, not betrayal. He wanted to be a teacher to Christ. Indeed he hid his avarice under the cover of being interested in the poor. Sinners usually try to cover their sins and justify them.
Through the mediation of Judas the chief priests rejoiced (Mk. 14:11 and Lk. 22:5), because now they could arrest Christ away from the mob at night, while everyone slept. Judas even openly assured them and gave them a promise that Christ will be delivered without the presence of a mob (Lk. 22:6).
The cause of the betrayal was not so much greed as it was about ego. If he was only a miser, he would have left his poor teacher Christ earlier. Although he eventually received money, yet he did not abandon Christ. Now he abandoned Him, because his ego elevated. If he did not have a big ego, he would have continued stealing and not betrayed his Master. Certainly he had avarice, because he took the money to betray Christ.
Perhaps Judas, when he lost his faith in the divine origin of Christ, started to explain away the miracles of Christ, like the Pharisees, as demonic energies. Egoism darkens man, so that he cannot discern what is right.
Judas was blinded by avarice, egoism and the devil and did not know where he was going.
Q: Was the betrayal of Judas inevitable and had to be done?
That a disciple would become a traitor, God foreknew. Besides that, David also prophesied it in the Old Testament (Ps. 40:10 (41:9)). Christ prophesied it many times. Christ foreknew it, but did not predetermine it. He prophesied it because He knew it would happen. God saw the betrayal and foretold it. The foreknowledge of God is not to blame, but the freedom of Judas.
When after the multiplication of the five loaves and two fish, long before His Passion, Jesus spoke of Holy Communion, His body and blood, and some disciples told Him, "this is a hard saying" and left Him. Christ then told the twelve: "Do you also want to leave?" Peter responded: "Where will we go, You speak words of eternal life and we believed and have seen that You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Jesus responded: "I did not choose the twelve of you, and yet one of you is a devil." Here he was speaking of Judas (Jn. 6:60-71). Here Christ says something paradoxical: "If I chose you, among you is a traitor."
The sacrifice of Christ on the Cross was more painful, having been betrayed by His disciple. This betrayal teaches us that all of us who are near to Christ are in danger of betrayal. Judas is a model of many future traitors. If the disciple of Christ who saw the great miracles of Christ betrayed Him, how much more danger are we in who have not beheld Christ and His miracles?
Christ would have been arrested and sacrificed without the mediation of Judas. It is not possible for the All-Good God to use a person for His plan and lead him to eternal damnation. If Judas did pious work, He would not have allowed him to commit suicide. Judas shows the great corruption of people and the need for the divine sacrifice.
Q: Why did Christ allow His disciple Judas to betray Him?
Christ many times tried to dissuade him from betrayal. Long before His Passion, Jesus repeatedly (Matt. 12:40; 16:21-28; 17:12; 17:22-23; 20:17-19) prepared His disciples for the Passion. He told them that He would suffer much, would be rejected by the religious leaders, would be killed, and on the third day would rise again.
In one foretelling of His Passion (Matt. 16:21-28), Peter responded and asked that His Passion not take place. Jesus answered Peter: "Get thee behind me Satan,... you do not follow the will of God, but think as men think." He then asked His disciples if they would deny Him and said: "What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul." These words were a hard warning to Judas who lost his soul for thirty pieces of silver.
At the Mystical Supper, after the washing of His disciples feet, Christ said: "You are clean, but not all of you" (Jn. 13:10-11). He knew the one who would betray Him. Then, though He was teaching about humility (which is why He washed the disciples feet), He warns Judas again by saying the prophecy of David (Ps. 40:10): "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me." Judas' hypocritical anxiety was shaken due to the loss of his soul by Him clearly stating that someone would betray Him (Jn. 13:21). Judas again did something ignorantly. Christ refers to him implicitly by saying: "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with Me will betray Me" (Matt. 26:23). And though Judas continued to hide himself, Christ says in a menacing way: "Woe to the man through whom the Son of Man (the Messiah) will be delivered. It would have been good for him had he not been born" (Matt. 26:24). And while everyone was saying, "Is it me?", Judas, in order not to show himself by his silence, also asked Jesus without shame, "Is it me?" Christ told him: "You have said it", that is, it is as you say.
His bosom disciple says that Christ at Gethsemane knocked Judas and the soldiers backwards when they approached (Jn. 18:5-6). Judas was not moved, but hypocritically greeted Christ, saying "Hail Rabbi!" and kissed Him heartily (Matt. 26:49). Christ did not speak evil of him, but said to him: "Friend, for that which you came to do, do quickly" (Matt. 26:50). Luke (22:48) completes the words of Christ with a question: "You betray the Son of Man with a kiss?" It's as if He said to him: I know why you came, you are a traitor; your warm kiss does not fool me."
Christ tried to warn him. Judas, however, was adamant in his treason.
Q: Perhaps Judas betrayed Christ because He was not the liberator from the Romans?
Christ never spoke of a revolution with weapons. His warnings of His Passion never included talks of a possible revolution. If Judas was a zealot, or a revolutionary, he should have waited lest Christ show later His divine power and liberate the people. With his betrayal he led Christ into obscurity. With the death of Christ he gained nothing for the cause of a revolution. If Christ disillusioned Judas, he should have abandoned Him and waited for another liberator Messiah.
Also a revolutionary Judas does not justify being a traitor and hanging himself. When he returned the money, he told the priests: "I handed over innocent blood" (Matt. 27:4). The revolutionary Judas would have had to keep the money for the needs of the expected revolution. His hanging did not change the status of Roman rule.
All the people were waiting for a liberator Messiah. When Christ multiplied the five loaves and the two fish and thousands of people ate, those who ate said: "This really is the expected prophet. Jesus realized they intended to make Him king, so He departed the mountain by Himself" (Jn. 16:14-15).
And the disciples of Christ were awaiting liberation from the Messiah. In fact two of His closest, the brothers James and John together with their mother, asked Christ that when He was soon to be the king in Jerusalem, if He would put them to the left and right of His throne. Christ explained to them that the bitter cup of His Passion awaited Him in Jerusalem (Matt. 20:20-23). They, however, did not betray their teacher.
Judas was not a revolutionary, but fainthearted, selfish and avaricious.
Q: Didn't Judas repent when he returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and told them that he sinned by handing to them innocent blood?
Real repentance is one thing, simple remorse is another. True repentance is characterized by the attempt to correct the evil, while simple remorse is a change of mind (a shifting) without any attempt to correct the evil. Judas acknowledged his mistake, but he didn't do anything to correct it. If he truly repented, he would have went to find Christ and with tears asked for forgiveness, like Peter.
That he committed suicide shows that his ego now operated towards self-destruction. Obviously also the devil had influence and led him to despair.
If Judas truly repented, he would have been saved.
Source
2024.05.02 20:33 SetTrippin82 Dealing with roommate and grief.
I recently moved in with this guy (44m) 2 months ago. It’s his house. He is very smug, pretentious, dismissive, and in love with himself. He has pictures all over his apartment of himself in different scenarios.
I (41m) am grieving over the loss of my mother and fiancé. They both died within 2 months of each other about 4 months ago. My fiancés death was extremely tragic and traumatic for me.
After my fiancé died, I had to quickly find a situation that was affordable and would take in my dog as well. I was up front with the roommate about my situation and honest about my grieving.
I’ve actually been very proactive and productive all things considered. I get up and go to work every day, I applied for a promotion at my job, I keep to myself and maintain cleanliness, and really try to keep my grieving quietly and to myself. I’m seeing a therapist and I’m in support groups. I exercise and try to get out to see live music and meet new friends as much as I can.
Last night, we took our dogs for a walk. We got home around 9pm and it was a long day at work. I was in my room with my bedroom door open while he was within earshot from me in the living room.
As I was getting ready for bed, I looked at my calendar and work schedule, and I thought of how much I miss my old life. I think about my fiancé and mom constantly. So I just let out a sigh and quietly said to myself, “just another fucking day”. I emphasize on quietly. I was thinking to myself how every day is just another fucking day without the two most important women in my life.
My roommate says to me in an irritated, insincere and condescending tone, “are you alright, dude?”
I was kind of taken back a little bit. Considering how quietly I said it within my room. And in my opinion, is a fairly reasonable statement within the context of self talk.
So I wanted to clear the air. I basically said “no, I’m grieving. I didn’t mean to disturb the peace.” “Did that bother you?”
He said that it’s “a little weird that you are mumbling and cursing”
I responded with “I’m just decompressing over the day and thinking about my dead mother and fiancé.” “I did tell you that my mother died as well, right?”
In a dismissive tone, he replied “you’ve mentioned it.” “It’s very unusual to me that you are mumbling and cursing to yourself in your room”
So took a minute to think about the situation.
I then said, “hey man, I wasn’t mumbling. I also wasn’t cursing for nothing, and I certainly wasn’t directing it towards you. It was self talk.” “It was a long day, and I just simply said, “just another fucking day”
He in turn tells me that it wasn’t prompted. He said “It’s not like you dropped a hammer on your toe”
To me, that take validated my suspicion of his insincerity and irritability when he asked if I was okay.
I told him “you’re right, I only had a 10 ton brick drop on my life.” “I’d say that grief is a fairly valid prompt”.
I didn’t yell or get angry. I definitely wasn’t mad, but I also wasn’t about to back away from my grief or my position about my feelings.
He continued to compare me to past roommates, saying that it’s unusual behavior. He basically scoffed at my 10 ton brick metaphor. And his pretentious self righteousness came out saying, “I work with people who have behavioral issues, so I just have to keep my head on a swivel.”
I also work with people with behavioral and emotional issues. So that bs didn’t work on me. Also, I’m not one of his students. I pay rent and It’s not as if I’m in a manic state running around the house cussing and screaming.
Even though we hugged it out and shook hands in the end. I don’t know who is valid in this situation.
What do you all think?
submitted by SetTrippin82 to GriefSupport [link] [comments]
I (41m) am grieving over the loss of my mother and fiancé. They both died within 2 months of each other about 4 months ago. My fiancés death was extremely tragic and traumatic for me.
After my fiancé died, I had to quickly find a situation that was affordable and would take in my dog as well. I was up front with the roommate about my situation and honest about my grieving.
I’ve actually been very proactive and productive all things considered. I get up and go to work every day, I applied for a promotion at my job, I keep to myself and maintain cleanliness, and really try to keep my grieving quietly and to myself. I’m seeing a therapist and I’m in support groups. I exercise and try to get out to see live music and meet new friends as much as I can.
Last night, we took our dogs for a walk. We got home around 9pm and it was a long day at work. I was in my room with my bedroom door open while he was within earshot from me in the living room.
As I was getting ready for bed, I looked at my calendar and work schedule, and I thought of how much I miss my old life. I think about my fiancé and mom constantly. So I just let out a sigh and quietly said to myself, “just another fucking day”. I emphasize on quietly. I was thinking to myself how every day is just another fucking day without the two most important women in my life.
My roommate says to me in an irritated, insincere and condescending tone, “are you alright, dude?”
I was kind of taken back a little bit. Considering how quietly I said it within my room. And in my opinion, is a fairly reasonable statement within the context of self talk.
So I wanted to clear the air. I basically said “no, I’m grieving. I didn’t mean to disturb the peace.” “Did that bother you?”
He said that it’s “a little weird that you are mumbling and cursing”
I responded with “I’m just decompressing over the day and thinking about my dead mother and fiancé.” “I did tell you that my mother died as well, right?”
In a dismissive tone, he replied “you’ve mentioned it.” “It’s very unusual to me that you are mumbling and cursing to yourself in your room”
So took a minute to think about the situation.
I then said, “hey man, I wasn’t mumbling. I also wasn’t cursing for nothing, and I certainly wasn’t directing it towards you. It was self talk.” “It was a long day, and I just simply said, “just another fucking day”
He in turn tells me that it wasn’t prompted. He said “It’s not like you dropped a hammer on your toe”
To me, that take validated my suspicion of his insincerity and irritability when he asked if I was okay.
I told him “you’re right, I only had a 10 ton brick drop on my life.” “I’d say that grief is a fairly valid prompt”.
I didn’t yell or get angry. I definitely wasn’t mad, but I also wasn’t about to back away from my grief or my position about my feelings.
He continued to compare me to past roommates, saying that it’s unusual behavior. He basically scoffed at my 10 ton brick metaphor. And his pretentious self righteousness came out saying, “I work with people who have behavioral issues, so I just have to keep my head on a swivel.”
I also work with people with behavioral and emotional issues. So that bs didn’t work on me. Also, I’m not one of his students. I pay rent and It’s not as if I’m in a manic state running around the house cussing and screaming.
Even though we hugged it out and shook hands in the end. I don’t know who is valid in this situation.
What do you all think?
2024.05.02 20:31 moondog151 The body of a pregnant teenager would be found next to a river, 8 months later the skeleton of a woman was found wrapped in a bag inside of a cave. 10 years later these two would be identified as mother and daughter. Her disappearance went unreported, presumed to have died in an earthquake.
 | (I may be uploading another Chinese case but I'm not going back to focusing on them. I just couldn't find a good or lengthy enough case for Brunei or Cambodia so China is next on the A-Z order) submitted by moondog151 to TrueCrimeDiscussion [link] [comments] On May 7, 2008, a fisherman in Sinan County located in China's Guizhou Province, was walking along the Wujiang River looking for a good spot to set up his fishing equipment. While looking for a good spot he found the half-naked corpse of a girl by the river lying on some rocks. The fisherman called the police who had initially expected a drowning upon receiving the call, what they saw instead was a young girl who had a long and smooth cut across her throat, deep enough to expose her severed esophagus and trachea. She had also suffered wounds around her eyes caused by a sharp object and her eyes themselves were missing. Forensic investigators at the scene As the Wujiang River was a tributary of the Yangtze River and flowed through various different locals, there was no way of determining where the woman had been murdered, just that it had likely been elsewhere and drifted downstream. A thorough examination showed that she was around 18-19 years old, 156 cm tall and had been dead for 10 days. For clothing, she was wearing a bra but behind that, was completely naked on the upper half of the body. She was wearing Kappa jogging pants covered in mud with a misprinted logo suggesting that the brand was a knockoff, underneath was a pair of pyjama pants and on her feet was a pair of sneakers with the soles nearly worn out. Her nails were painted and she was also wearing a bracelet. Her knees were heavily bruised but aside from that, no other non-fatal wounds. She was 8 months pregnant. The removal of her eyes was done post-mortem. The post-mortem mutilation and the late stage of the pregnancy led police to believe that the killer likely knew the woman and was probably the father of the unborn child. They also believed that she had been attacked in her sleep. https://preview.redd.it/s5vnpebzv1yc1.png?width=1557&format=png&auto=webp&s=8cb20be538ce7cfaf5a108fd6b6be38b66461dd1 The girl's clothing and belongings The first task was naturally identifying the victim, her clothing was considered unusual and even a bit expensive for the local area leading investigators to conclude she was likely not from the area, but her stomach contents showed that on many occasions, she had last eaten pickled peppers, something typical of the local diet meaning she had been there for a while. In 2008, construction had begun on the Silin Hydropower Station which attracted many migrant workers from all parts of China. Believing she may be one of them, the police questioned all migrant workers and even actual local employees at the construction site but nobody recgoinzed her. Flyers containing pictures of her clothing and belongings were also placed all around the local area asking for anyone to come forward but nobody did. Police setting up flyers and notices They then checked missing person records across in the surrounding area going along the length of the river but no one seemed to match. One local did mention someone bringing home a young girl from Sichuan Province and that she went missing relatively recently. Eventually, the police tracked her down alive and well rendering this a dead end. Lastly, police extracted both DNA from her and the fetus in hopes of either identifying her or the father but no matches were in their databases. She would remain a Jane Doe and the case slowly went unsolved. On January 7, 2009, also in Sinan County, a local villager out for a hike was struck by a foul odour. He soon followed the smell to Mazai Cave, a very secluded cave with a low-hanging entrance and about 20 meters deep. The villager entered the cave and saw a cloth sack normally used for holding grain tied with rope, wrapped in cloth and waterproof plastic. He cut open the bag and the first thing to greet him was a pair of decomposed and skeletal feet. The police were called and tasked with identifying a second body. Mazai Cave The sack/bag https://preview.redd.it/n18iqin502yc1.png?width=1558&format=png&auto=webp&s=1570c135b6cf32628f32a6bc5b49438dec451858 Forensic investigators at the scene The skeleton belonged to a middle-aged woman in her 40s who had been deceased for approximately 10 months-1 year likely having died in the first half of 2008. She was dressed in a short-sleeved nightgown and only wearing panties on her lower body. Her nails were manicured and painted red while the hair on the skeleton was dyed blonde. Just like with the first Jane Doe, the woman's clothing and cosmetics such as dyed hair and nails indicated that she was not a local, likely a migrant worker or was the girlfriend/wife of a local migrant worker who had just returned home with her. She had been killed at night likely while asleep, and while no cause of death was ever determined the discovery was treated as a murder. While the police suspected that the victim was not from Sinan, the killer was almost assuredly a local. Firstly, the rice sack containing the body was confirmed to be locally made and the same sack was used by all local villagers and farmers. The cave was also very secluded and a bit far from any nearby homes so by the police's reasoning, only a local could possibly know about it and think of using it to dispose of a body. The police then went to as many neighbouring villages as they could find, questioning locals about recently divorced or single men who had previously brought back a bride, wife or girlfriend home with them after working in other provinces but to no success. The victim's DNA was also collected but didn't get any hits in their databases. Despite their similarities, both being killed at night time when they were likely asleep and having both likely died around the same time, the two cases were seemingly never linked and were investigated completely separate from one another. Eventually, this other Jane Doe case would also go unsolved. But not for a lack of trying, for both cases across Henan, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Guangxi, Fujian, Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou, over 10,000 people would be ruled out as the decedents. Although the skeleton in the cave was slowly forgotten, the very first Jane Doe found on the Wujiang River, not so much. Over the years the police would keep retesting her and the fetus's DNA in case it matched any new additions to the database and in early 2018 it paid off. Nearly 10 years later they tested the DNA from the fetus yet again and finally got a match with a worker in Guangdong named Yuan Da who was identified as the father of the child. A quick background of Da would make him a compelling suspect. Originally from Chongqing, Da had amassed a lengthy criminal record for street fighting in public, extortion and as it is illegal in China, gambling. But that last offence was taken a step further as he would run and operate underground casinos and gambling dens. At 16 he left to work in Guangdong when he met his future wife marrying in 2006 and having a child in 2007. Da was detained for questioning and he admitted his past misdeeds including various affairs he had during 2008, he even admitted that one of his mistresses was from Guizhou but they broke up after a month when she found another job. He said that she was named Xie Fang and that she was from Zunyi. Fang was highly similar in age and body type to the dead girl and no records of her past 2008 could be found. Da was shown a picture of Fang and he said that was indeed who he was dating. Da though, professed his innocence and swore that he turned his life around since then. Eventually. he was found to have an alibi and ruled out as a suspect. Fang's father, Xie Gang lived in Zhejiang. When the police attempted to contact him he actually hung up the first time and dismissed them as scam callers. It took a while until they could actually convince Gang they were truly police but when they did, he explained why he thought they were fake. He said that Fang had died in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. When the police asked where Fang's body was. he said he didn't know. He said that Fang rarely ever talked as she typically worked in other provinces. She briefly returned home in January 2008 for a wedding but soon left for Guangdong because there was a man there who could help her find a job. Gang decided to follow her and met with a man, a man whose name he could not remember, only the family name "Zhang". He described Zhang as stout, not very tall, had a slight limp, and was not "conventionally attractive". He said that the man spoke with the same accent as the police officers questioning him and lastly he recalled Zhang's home village only being accessible by boat or waterway. Zhang also got him a job as a concrete mixer at a construction site but he later quit and moved to other provinces. He would still occasionally contact Fang until April 2008 when he was unable to get a hold of her. In May, he eventually called Zhang to ask about Fang. He told him that he eventually found a boyfriend and travelled to Sichuan to work. On May 12, 2008, an 8.0 Earthquake struck Sichuan, causing $150 billion dollars in damages and according to Wikipedia, 87,587 dead, 374,643 injured, and 18,392 missing. As this occurred right when Gang had lost contact with his daughter and her last known location being Sichuan, Gang drew his own conclusions. A DNA sample was taken from Gang and compared to the body, identifying her as 19-year-old Xie Fang. Xie Fang Gang had one more thing to say though, his wife, 37-year-old Wu Xue had also gone missing in 2008. Wu Xue Sometime in 2000 their relationship fell into trouble and declined until 2004 when Xue left for Chongqing to work alone. Although they never officially divorced, they were in all but name since from that moment the two rarely ever spoke. Gang also made no effort to speak with her again as she still spoke to her other friends and via them, Gang learnt that Xue was dating another man in Chongqing. The next time that Xue and Gang would ever see and speak to each other would be in January 2008 when she returned for the wedding mentioned above but as soon as it was over, Xue returned to Chongqing and yet again cut off all contact with Gang. The police went to Chongqing and tried to track down Xue and although unsuccessful, locals did tell them about a woman named Wu Ying who had been missing and looked very similar to Xue. After looking into Ying they found the boyfriend that Gang had mentioned, a now-married father named Deng Chao who had also introduced Fang to Da. Chao was shown a picture of Xue and he identified her as the woman she used to date but said that he thought Ying was her real name. According to Chao, the two began dating in 2004 and kept living together, Xue was described as very "flirtatious and cunning" and that he never seemed to know what her plans were. She had gotten pregnant three times and every time she would "disappear" for a while and come back after having an abortion. Chao tried to marry her many times but Xue would keep putting it off. In January 2008, after returning from the wedding, she told Chao without warning that she needed to go to Guangdong to work and abruptly left never to contact him again. Seemingly at a dead end, Zhou Shifei, the director of the Sinan County police suddenly remembered the skeleton found in the cave in 2009. He also remembered that both were likely not locals, both killed around the same time, both near the Wujiang River and both were underdressed and likely attacked in their sleep. Shifei then theorized that the skeleton may in fact belong to Xue. Now that China's DNA technology had advanced considerably and they had Fang's DNA on file after her identification, they decided to compare the skeleton's DNA and Fang's DNA. The results confirmed they were both relatives leading police to identify the skeleton as Wu Xue As mentioned before, most of the local villages could only be accessed via boat and a majority of the people in each of them had the family name Zhang so police had to be more specific in their questioning. They asked them all about a short man named Zhang with a limp who had brought back someone from outside the village a few years back. Eventually, a local boatman told them of someone named Zhang Bin, age 45. Zhang Bin Bin lived only a few meters away from the cave and had brought back two women from outside Guizhou. Not long after Fang's body was found, Bin left for work outside of the province. None of the two women he brought back with him had been seen since. The police found a picture of Bin and it was shown to Gang who identified him as the person he met up with before his daughter went missing. On August 19, 2018, Bin was arrested and he soon confessed, expressing no remorse. Surprisingly, Bin said that he was not Fang's girlfriend, instead, he was dating Xue. He met Xue in late 2006 at a hair salon in Zhongshan while he was working at a construction site. Bin who had recently been divorced found Xue attractive so he kept going to that salon on repeat and was hoping Xue would be the one tending to him on that day. Eventually, after many visits, the two soon became a couple. Just like with Chao, Xue was using the name "Wu Ying" and Bin didn't know that was an alias and that technically, she was still married. Bin said that Xue was "extravagant" and often asked for money from him and whenever she was given this money she would disappear for a little while. From tracking her movements, the police determined that she went to Chongqing during these disappearances to be with Chao, spent all the money there and then returned to Guangdong. In January 2008, Xue suddenly proposed to Bin and wanted to go to his home village. Bin's parents were excited to hear that their son was getting married and even mailed an envelope containing several thousand yuan as a "meeting gift". Xue only stayed in Sinan for one day before saying she had to return home and took the money with her. In all likelihood the police again believed she went to Chongqing to be with Chao. Bin was upset with her over this but she didn't apologize and decided to take him to a mall for clothes shopping for her, Bin and his family. While Bin was in the fitting room, Xue quickly left the mall. Panicked, Bin tried calling her phone only for her to never pick up. He didn't want to explain to his parents why their daughter-in-law suddenly left after getting money from them so he just brushed it off and soon returned to Guangdong in hopes of finding work. Soon, Xue called him and said that her phone dyed and she had gotten lost while in the mall. Luckily, some strangers helped her find her way to a train station where she went back to Chongqing. Bin accepted this explanation and the two soon reconciled. Not long after, Xue introduced him to Fang although he referred to her as her "niece" and that she was looking for work. Eventually, Fang moved in with her mother and Xue as well. In late April 2008, Bin was sleeping after he mother Li Chang had cooked everyone dinner. Soon Xue woke Bin up and claimed to be indebted to many locals and that she needed help paying the debt off. Bin kept saying that he'd do so once he got paid more but Xue wouldn't accept this even bringing up a recent paycheck and asking how he couldn't have any money at all. Bin said that he said something else but couldn't remember what it was since he was tired. But whatever he said, it made Xue furious and she soon began cursing at and insulting him. Eventually, Bin got angry too and remembered the incident at the shopping mall. In the spur of the moment, he stood up and grabbed a fruit knife on a bedside table and swung it toward Xue's neck, killing her instantly. Everyone heard the commotion and rushed over with Chang falling to the floor crying and Bin's father storming out of the house in anger. Fang also fled but didn't know where to go and just stayed outside the house trembling. After calming down, Chang decided she would help her son cover up the murder, with the two stuffing her body and her belongings into the rice sack. Bin then went outside toward Fang while Chang stayed behind to clean up the blood. Bin then disposed of Xue's body in the cave before returning back home planning on leaving Sinan to go back to work and planned on taking Fang with her. Fang refused and said she was going to the police which angered Bin. So Bin, took the same fruit knife out of his backpack and slashed Fang's throat also. Bin, still feeling angry, proceeded to gouge out Fang's eyes. After the murder, he then disposed of her body, belongings and the knife in the river. According to him, he didn't know she was Xue's daughter or that she was pregnant. According to Bin, all the pent-up anger his father felt caused him to eventually pass away. The police were a bit skeptical of Bin's story, they felt that his crime of passion story made him too sympathetic without Xue and Fang alive to describe what really happened, Chang was a known accomplice and his father wasn't alive either and thus couldn't explain his side of the story. They wondered why, if the murder wasn't premeditated, he was carrying a knife with him and also scoffed at the notion that he somehow didn't know that Fang was pregnant this late into her pregnancy. But they were unable to come up with any other version of events and Bin had already confessed so they were satisfied enough. https://preview.redd.it/psjenhle22yc1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=0fb5ebc40079601218b7592638709d06d80849c9 https://preview.redd.it/qxz1c5yg22yc1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=bee95a9585e22c33dc239bece1243e185db0cd13 https://preview.redd.it/l92ga7kh22yc1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=143b41002f0ec1ccc3473451d4dc937d2d4e92fb https://preview.redd.it/nl7wq35i22yc1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=c13d45fa15794bbfcd7bacdd3b316f1808f0a557 https://preview.redd.it/n58lgf0k22yc1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=9179f3f492e0e4fc644a7146d7bbf4982d2f4415 https://preview.redd.it/db4ind0l22yc1.png?width=660&format=png&auto=webp&s=2f1ac399a552242657bcd4565b7c907fc93f8dfd Bin and Li Chang reenacting the crime for police The trial began on July 26, 2019, at The Tongren Intermediate People's Court. The trial In September 2019, Bin was sentenced to death but no updates report on his execution. Bin in prison Sources (In the comments) |
2024.05.02 20:31 SetTrippin82 Roommate advice. Thoughts?
I recently moved in with this guy (44m) 2 months ago. It’s his house. He is very smug, pretentious, dismissive, and in love with himself. He has pictures all over his apartment of himself in different scenarios.
I (41m) am grieving over the loss of my mother and fiancé. They both died within 2 months of each other about 4 months ago. My fiancés death was extremely tragic and traumatic for me.
After my fiancé died, I had to quickly find a situation that was affordable and would take in my dog as well. I was up front with the roommate about my situation and honest about my grieving.
I’ve actually been very proactive and productive all things considered. I get up and go to work every day, I applied for a promotion at my job, I keep to myself and maintain cleanliness, and really try to keep my grieving quietly and to myself. I’m seeing a therapist and I’m in support groups. I exercise and try to get out to see live music and meet new friends as much as I can.
Last night, we took our dogs for a walk. We got home around 9pm and it was a long day at work. I was in my room with my bedroom door open while he was within earshot from me in the living room.
As I was getting ready for bed, I looked at my calendar and work schedule, and I thought of how much I miss my old life. I think about my fiancé and mom constantly. So I just let out a sigh and quietly said to myself, “just another fucking day”. I emphasize on quietly. I was thinking to myself how every day is just another fucking day without the two most important women in my life.
My roommate says to me in an irritated, insincere and condescending tone, “are you alright, dude?”
I was kind of taken back a little bit. Considering how quietly I said it within my room. And in my opinion, is a fairly reasonable statement within the context of self talk.
So I wanted to clear the air. I basically said “no, I’m grieving. I didn’t mean to disturb the peace.” “Did that bother you?”
He said that it’s “a little weird that you are mumbling and cursing”
I responded with “I’m just decompressing over the day and thinking about my dead mother and fiancé.” “I did tell you that my mother died as well, right?”
In a dismissive tone, he replied “you’ve mentioned it.” “It’s very unusual to me that you are mumbling and cursing to yourself in your room”
So took a minute to think about the situation.
I then said, “hey man, I wasn’t mumbling. I also wasn’t cursing for nothing, and I certainly wasn’t directing it towards you. It was self talk.” “It was a long day, and I just simply said, “just another fucking day”
He in turn tells me that it wasn’t prompted. He said “It’s not like you dropped a hammer on your toe”
To me, that take validated my suspicion of his insincerity and irritability when he asked if I was okay.
I told him “you’re right, I only had a 10 ton brick drop on my life.” “I’d say that grief is a fairly valid prompt”.
I didn’t yell or get angry. I definitely wasn’t mad, but I also wasn’t about to back away from my grief or my position about my feelings.
He continued to compare me to past roommates, saying that it’s unusual behavior. He basically scoffed at my 10 ton brick metaphor. And his pretentious self righteousness came out saying, “I work with people who have behavioral issues, so I just have to keep my head on a swivel.”
I also work with people with behavioral and emotional issues. So that bs didn’t work on me. Also, I’m not one of his students. I pay rent and It’s not as if I’m in a manic state running around the house cussing and screaming.
Even though we hugged it out and shook hands in the end. I don’t know who is valid in this situation.
What do you all think?
submitted by SetTrippin82 to Advice [link] [comments]
I (41m) am grieving over the loss of my mother and fiancé. They both died within 2 months of each other about 4 months ago. My fiancés death was extremely tragic and traumatic for me.
After my fiancé died, I had to quickly find a situation that was affordable and would take in my dog as well. I was up front with the roommate about my situation and honest about my grieving.
I’ve actually been very proactive and productive all things considered. I get up and go to work every day, I applied for a promotion at my job, I keep to myself and maintain cleanliness, and really try to keep my grieving quietly and to myself. I’m seeing a therapist and I’m in support groups. I exercise and try to get out to see live music and meet new friends as much as I can.
Last night, we took our dogs for a walk. We got home around 9pm and it was a long day at work. I was in my room with my bedroom door open while he was within earshot from me in the living room.
As I was getting ready for bed, I looked at my calendar and work schedule, and I thought of how much I miss my old life. I think about my fiancé and mom constantly. So I just let out a sigh and quietly said to myself, “just another fucking day”. I emphasize on quietly. I was thinking to myself how every day is just another fucking day without the two most important women in my life.
My roommate says to me in an irritated, insincere and condescending tone, “are you alright, dude?”
I was kind of taken back a little bit. Considering how quietly I said it within my room. And in my opinion, is a fairly reasonable statement within the context of self talk.
So I wanted to clear the air. I basically said “no, I’m grieving. I didn’t mean to disturb the peace.” “Did that bother you?”
He said that it’s “a little weird that you are mumbling and cursing”
I responded with “I’m just decompressing over the day and thinking about my dead mother and fiancé.” “I did tell you that my mother died as well, right?”
In a dismissive tone, he replied “you’ve mentioned it.” “It’s very unusual to me that you are mumbling and cursing to yourself in your room”
So took a minute to think about the situation.
I then said, “hey man, I wasn’t mumbling. I also wasn’t cursing for nothing, and I certainly wasn’t directing it towards you. It was self talk.” “It was a long day, and I just simply said, “just another fucking day”
He in turn tells me that it wasn’t prompted. He said “It’s not like you dropped a hammer on your toe”
To me, that take validated my suspicion of his insincerity and irritability when he asked if I was okay.
I told him “you’re right, I only had a 10 ton brick drop on my life.” “I’d say that grief is a fairly valid prompt”.
I didn’t yell or get angry. I definitely wasn’t mad, but I also wasn’t about to back away from my grief or my position about my feelings.
He continued to compare me to past roommates, saying that it’s unusual behavior. He basically scoffed at my 10 ton brick metaphor. And his pretentious self righteousness came out saying, “I work with people who have behavioral issues, so I just have to keep my head on a swivel.”
I also work with people with behavioral and emotional issues. So that bs didn’t work on me. Also, I’m not one of his students. I pay rent and It’s not as if I’m in a manic state running around the house cussing and screaming.
Even though we hugged it out and shook hands in the end. I don’t know who is valid in this situation.
What do you all think?
2024.05.02 20:25 Prashant-12345 Should we leave the job of enacting the “Same-sex Marriage Law (SSML)” for the Parliament?
Parliament is made of its members who have compulsion to remain popular among the masses because they have to get votes. They can never grant the Human Rights or the Fundamental Rights to a minority class against the wishes of the majority class. The parliamentarians can only concentrate on their vote banks. They can make laws only to appease the masses even at the cost of ignoring the Principle of Natural Justice. The Parliament cannot be relied upon. It is a Parliament of the heterosexuals, by the heterosexuals, for the heterosexuals.
We need not go very far to get a proof of this. Who removed IPC-377? Would parliament have ever removed it? Absolutely not. IPC-377 would have been hanging over our neck like a sword even today had Judiciary not declared it unconstitutional.
Whenever a bill is presented to the parliament for voting, at first the parliament discusses it thoroughly, sometimes for days and may be even for longer periods. Each and every aspect of the bill, its consequences, pros and cons etc. are analyzed at length. The voting is done only after all the members have understood all the prospects of the bill completely and no member has any doubt about them.
However, most MP's know nothing about homosexuality. They think that it is an abnormal and unnatural human behaviour, a mental disease and a perversion. They also think that it is the choice of a person to be a homosexual. In such a situation, the outcome of the voting on SSML is already known.
If the job of enacting the SSML is left to the parliament, first the MP's need to be given a thorough training on Medical Facts about Homosexuality and a rigourous understanding of the opinion of medical science on the subject.
Homosexuality is not a choice, it is a compulsion imposed on a person by nature (or God). Nobody becomes a homosexual by his or her choice. Homosexuals are born and not created or converted. One’s sexual orientation is decided by nature when one is still in one’s mother’s womb and it becomes apparent only after reaching puberty when one starts feeling attracted to other people. Nobody else can know a person’s sexual orientation unless he/she tells. There is no drug or therapy discovered/invented by medical science which can convert a person born as homosexual into a heterosexual. Homosexuality is not based on caste, community, race, region, religion, skin colour, ethnicity, culture etc.
Out of every 100 persons born on this earth, about 2–3 are always born as homosexual. This percentage remains constant in countries where gay marriages are legal such as Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, France, Taiwan etc. (more than 30 countries) and in countries where homosexuality is punished by death such as Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Uganda etc.
Homosexuality is not a mental disorder. Homosexuals are perfectly healthy people as far as their mental condition is concerned. Just like a heterosexual, a homosexual can also do any job. He can be an engineer, a doctor, scientist, lawyer, journalist, teacher, fashion designer, businessman, pilot, CA, sportsman, actor, politician, minister, governor, and even a king. Medical science has declared that homosexuality is 100% same and as natural as heterosexuality with no difference between them. Just like it is normal for a heterosexual man to get attracted towards a woman and for a heterosexual woman to get attracted towards a man, it is also perfectly normal and natural for a man who has taken birth as a homosexual to get sexually attracted to a man and for a lesbian to get attracted to a woman. The only difference between the two is that the number of homosexuals is very small in comparison to heterosexuals. However, being less in number does not mean that they have a mental disorder. The number of Parsis is very small in India and in the world. Are Parsis abnormal? The number of people who do not like Cricket in India is quite small. Has anybody ever said that such people have a mental disorder. Numerous such examples are there.
All these things need to be explained to the MP's before they go for voting on SSML They should also be told that not giving homosexuals their fundamental rights is a great social evil with very serious adverse consequence on the society.
The Constitution is supreme. The parliament has to work under the Constitution. For this reason, the makers of the Constitution developed Judiciary as an organ of democracy. They knew that times will come when the parliament will make anti-constitutional laws to please the majority and to get votes. At these times the judiciary was to keep a check on the parliament. All the laws made by the parliament are subject to scrutiny by the Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court finds that the parliamentarians have made a law which violates the constitution, it can overturn it. The judiciary does not have to get the votes of the masses. Therefore, it can reason, think logically and grant the Fundamental Rights to a single person against the wishes of one hundred persons.
In any society, about 2 to 3% people are born as homosexuals. Additionally, about 7 to 8% people are born as bisexuals. The total population of homosexuals and bisexuals in any country is about 10%. India, with an estimated population of about 140 crores, contains nearly 14 crore homosexuals and bisexuals, half of them men and half women. Nearly 4 crore homosexuals exist in India, 2 crore gay men and 2 crore lesbians. Similarly, India consists about 5 crore bisexual men and 5 crore bisexual women.
Indian heterosexuals have declared that being born as a gay or bisexual person is the most shameful thing on earth. They consider it more shameful than committing a murder or rape. Due to this reason, almost all of India’s gay and bisexual persons are living in closet. They are living in the garb of heterosexuals. This essentially means that not only they cannot marry with the person they want to, but they are also entangled in opposite-sex or the heterosexual marriages. About 99% of India’s 2 crore gay men are married to women and almost 100% of 2 crore lesbians are married to men. Not only the lives of about 2 crore gay men have been completely ruined but also of the 2 crore heterosexual women whom they are married to. About 2 crore Indian lesbians are raped every night for their whole lives by their ‘legalized’ husbands. The punishment for a single rape may be about 7 to 10 years jail term sometimes extending to life-long imprisonment. However, there is no punishment for this life-long rape of lesbians. Lives of 8 crore Indians have been completely destroyed, 4 crore of them being homosexuals and 4 crore heterosexuals. Yes, even the lives of 4 crore heterosexuals have been ruined. Why? Because the heterosexuals want to violate the fundamental rights of homosexuals at any cost. Further, India’s 10 crore bisexual man and women are all, in any case, married to opposite-sex persons whether they want it or not. To say it differently, India’s 10 crore heterosexuals are married to bisexuals which they would have never accepted willingly. These bisexuals, especially bisexual men, cheat with their spouses. They almost always cheat their wives and go to gay/bisexual men. The Indian heterosexuals are harming themselves in their zeal to hurt homosexuals.
This is the worst kind of slavery. India’s gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals are all slaves of heterosexuals. They have no other choice other than living as per the commandments of heterosexuals. A highly educated gay man with a post graduate degree or with a PhD in Science, Engg., Medicine or Law has to live as per the dictums of an illiterate daily wage labourer simply because this labourer is a heterosexual. He is the master of homosexuals. Unless he permits, even the most educated gay man cannot marry with his same-sex partner and enjoy his human right. The parliament will make a law for gay marriages only when he gives his consent. His opinion is supreme. As long as he does not agree, the constitution will keep on being violated.
This slavery is much worse than the slavery which the British imposed on us. The British were not interfering in any of our rights to life. They were just interested in our wealth and taking it away. It was basically an economic slavery for us. But the heterosexuals are taking away homosexuals’ right to life. The right to a life-partner is included in the right to life. Most humans want to spend their lives with a life-partner. They want company, togetherness, and affection from a person to whom they emotionally attached and they want to live with such a person under one roof all their lives and raise a family. Homosexuals are no different. They also have exactly the same desires. They also want to have a family. Not only humans but also many animals and birds live with their life partners. When a single animal of a particular species is left in a zoo, another animal of the opposite sex of the same species is brought from some other zoo to give company to it so that the single animal does not feel lonely. Sometimes such an animal is brought from a foreign country spending lakhs of Rupees. Recently 12 cheetahs were brought from South Africa and released in Kuno National Park and special care was taken so that about half of them are male and half female. However, right to a life-partner of homosexuals is violated. The homosexuals do not have an importance in the eyes of the Indian government even as an animal. It does not consider them more important than worms or insects. Such is the kind of slavery of homosexuals.
Recent research suggests that happily married people enjoy better health than single people. Those who are married tend to live longer, have fewer strokes and heart attacks, have a lower chance of becoming depressed, more likely to survive heart attacks, survive a major operation more often and consume less unhealthy food and alcohol.
The government of India does not give the right of marriage to homosexuals. With whom should they spend their lives then? One’s parents do not live for one’s lifetime. They will die. One’s brothers and sisters will be busy with their own lives. The Indian homosexuals, therefore, are destined to live a lonely life due to the adamancy of the government. As per the medical science, loneliness is silent killer. Human beings are thoroughly social creatures. Loneliness has a wide range of negative effects on both physical and mental health of humans and it takes a grave toll on their health. It has increased risk of heart attack, increased risk of having a stroke, increased risk of developing dementia and other serious medical conditions. Loneliness is a major risk factor for developing depression. It has been linked to insufficient sleep and increased mortality. It increases risk of premature death. It is even linked to higher rates of suicide.
Solitary confinement causing acute loneliness is the hardest punishment sometimes given to hardened criminals. Many times, it is considered violation of human rights even for the prisoners and Human Right Activists have opposed it around the world. The government of India, thus, is directly violating the Fundamental Right to Life of homosexuals.
Has any master in the history of earth ever given freedom on his own to his slave? We have fought about 90-year long war of independence against the British. What if the British had told us that they will themselves bring a bill for India’s independence in the House of Commons, get it passed and grant freedom to India and therefore the Indians need not protest against them? Would we have believed them? If not, then how can we hope that Indian parliament will ever make SSML and take homosexuals out of the clutches of heterosexuals? A slave always has to fight for his liberation and that is what the petitioners in this case are doing in the Supreme Court.
Not making a law to protect the Fundamental Rights of homosexuals is equivalent to making a law which violates the Constitution. Presently the parliament/ government is doing exactly that. The judiciary should, therefore, immediately come into action.
The Government of India does not have faith in the Constitution. We do not have faith in the Parliament.
Those who are advocating that only parliament can decide whether India should have SSML know it very well that parliament will never pass it. The government is strongly fighting against it today in the Supreme Court. What is the chance that tomorrow it will draft a bill for SSML and present it in the parliament for passing/ voting? No political party in India has ever talked about in last 75 years. It has never been on the agenda of any Indian party. No party has ever written about it in their election manifesto or declared their plan about it. The Supreme Court should understand this and should, therefore, order the government to bring SSML Bill in the parliament and get it passed. It is true that writing the draft of a new law is not the job of Supreme Court. However, it has powers to ask the government to do it.
In contrast, the Supreme Court of Nepal, a small and insignificant country in Asia, has done a commendable job and forced the Nepal Government to legalize same-sex marriages. Yes, Nepal has done it under the pressure from its Supreme Court. Although the Nepal Government succumbed to this pressure only in 2023, its SC had ordered it to enact SSML in 2007 itself, i.e., a full 16 years ago and it continuously kept building pressure on the Nepal government which finally bore fruit. In spite of the fact that there has been a political transition in Nepal during all these years and Nepal was re-writing its Constitution, this has been achieved. Here is the history of a fight for SSML in Nepal:
· On March 23, 2007, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the Nepali government to legally recognize same-sex marriages.
· On November 17, 2008, the Supreme Court made Nepal to consider legalizing same-sex marriages. The court asked the government to form a committee to study same-sex marriage laws in other countries.
· In February 2016, Nepal's National Human Rights Commission asked the government to introduce a bill to allow same-sex marriages.
· On 20 March 2023, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered the Nepali government to recognize a same-sex marriage between a Nepali and a German citizen performed in Germany and directed the Federal Parliament to legalize same-sex marriages in Nepal. Judges also directed the government to draft legislation for full marriage equality in Nepal, declaring laws banning same-sex marriages to be unconstitutional and discriminatory. The court asked Nepal’s Ministry of Law and Justice to prepare an equal marriage law or amend existing laws to accommodate the principles of equal marriage.
· Nepal's Supreme Court on 2 May 2023, ordered Nepal Government to recognize the same-sex marriage between a Nepali man and his foreign husband and instructed the government to move towards the legalization of same-sex marriages. The Court ruled that failure to recognize same-sex spouses violates Nepal’s Constitution and its international human rights obligations.
· On 30 November 2023, Nepal formally registered the first case of same-sex marriage. With this historic move, Nepal has become the second Asian Nation (first being Taiwan) and the first South Asian nation and to do so. The marriage between Ram Bahadur Gurung, 36, and Surendra Pandey, 26, was formally registered at the Dordi rural municipality office in the Lumjung district in west Nepal.
· On 12 February 2024, Anju Devi Shrestha, a resident of Bardiya district in western Nepal and Suprita Gurung, a resident of Syangja district, both 33, scripted history by becoming the first lesbian couple in Nepal to officially register their marriage at Jamuna Rural Municipality of Bardiya district.
· Nepal government intends to pass a separate law on same-sex marriages currently being drafted by the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare.
But unfortunately, The Supreme Court of India has already succumbed to the pressure of the Indian government and dismissed all the 18 petitions filed before it. Why India’s Supreme Court is so helpless and so weak when the Supreme Court of a small country like Nepal can assert itself?
. . . . . .
It is said that only 34 countries have made SSML. Out of 195 countries, 34 is a big number in this matter. It is not ‘only’. OK, how many countries should do it before India follows suit? How do we calculate it? What is the formula? Will India do it only when all other counties have done it except India? Is it necessary to be the last when it comes to doing good things? India always remains in the front in doing bad things. It is one of the leading countries in corruption. India’s crime rate is one of the highest in the world. Indian businessmen indulge in profiteering, over-charging, less weighing, adulteration, hoarding, tax evasion and following all unethical business practices. But in doing good things, India wants to remain a back-bencher.
Why did The Netherlands make SSML in 2001 becoming the first country to do it? Why did Denmark made Same-sex Partnership Law as early as in 1989 (which was later renamed as SSML in 2012)? These countries never thought why should they do it when no other country had done it. No good work would ever be done if we keep looking towards one-another not to be the first. Why does India want to prove that The Netherlands and Denmark are superior countries and India is inferior? It cannot even think to match them.
It has also been said that SSML has been made in most of these 34 countries by the government / legislature rather than the judiciary. However, we need to keep in mind that these 34 are developed, civilized and educated countries whose citizens respect the rights of minorities and do not infringe upon them. These are truly democratic countries having high regards for right to equality.
India, on the contrary, is a false, flawed and pseudo-democracy. When Lalu Prasad Yadav go to jail in a corruption case, his totally un-lettered wife who has been confined to family’s kitchen all her life becomes the Chief Minister. One third of the members of India’s parliament and state assemblies have criminal cases against them. Here elections are fought on the basis of caste, region and religion using money and muscle power. When India’s robbers and dacoits, murderers, kidnappers, rapists and extortionists give-up crime for some reason, what do they do? They become MP’s and MLA’s. What human rights can be discussed with likes of Atique Ahmed, Mohd. Shahabuddin, Mukhtar Ansari, Phoolan Devi, Santokben Jadeja and Kuldeep Singh Sengar?
Indian population has a high degree of illiteracy. The citizens do not respect others’ rights and interfere in the internal affairs of their fellow countrymen. They do not understand the laws of nature and interfere in the acts of God. They force others to live as per their whims and fancies. When they find that the others are not living as per their commands, they will thrash, hit, beat, kick, attack, lynch and kill them. Indian heterosexuals have extreme hatred for homosexuals. They ridicule them, laugh at them, hate them, condemn them, shun them and ostracize them. It’s a far cry to expect from them that they will give equal rights to homosexuals. India’s right to equality will remain only on paper if left to people / parliament.
The argument that the SSML has been made in other countries by the government and not the Judiciary goes only against those who are giving this argument. When the legislature of so many countries has already discussed the issue and upheld it, what does India expect to achieve by again discussing it? Why should we reinvent the wheel? Is there any country whose parliament took up this issue and rejected it? No. Then why do we need to take the matter again and waste time.
The question is not who has done it in 34 countries, the Government or the Judiciary. The real question is whether SSML is right or wrong. And we already know the answer.
. . . . . .
The Special Marriage Act, 1954 was essentially made for heterosexuals. Tweaking (fine-tuning) it to suit it to homosexuals also is not practical. Almost each clause of the act will have to have two paras if we do that. One for heterosexuals and the other for homosexuals. As an example, in the heterosexual marriages, a man gives maintenance to his wife if divorce happens and not the vice versa. This provision cannot be used in homosexual marriages. A new provision will be required. Similarly, in the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (which is closely related to heterosexual marriages) there is provision to punish a man if he does cruelty to his wife but there is no provision to proceed against a woman if she does cruelty to her husband. This cannot be applied to homosexual marriages. For such reasons, a completely new law (SSML) is required to be written. Whereas heterosexual marriage laws depend on the religion of the man/woman getting married, SSML will be the same irrespective of the religion of the persons getting married. Whether the two homosexuals getting married are Hindus, Muslims or one is Hindu and the other is Muslim, the same law will govern their marriage. The issues of divorce, succession/inheritance can be handled either by studying the gay marriage laws of other countries or by adopting the best practices of Hindu Marriage Act 1955, Muslim Personal Law 1937, The Indian Christian Marriage Act 1872, The Anand Marriage Act, 1909, and the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 etc.
The issue of adoption is unrelated to marriage. It can be decided later on. Not all gay/lesbian couples will adopt. It will not be correct, therefore, to refuse/delay SSML If we cannot decide whether to allow gay couples to adopt. They cannot be stopped from marriage itself if the issue is pending. The same is true for surrogacy. As long as we do not decide the adoption/surrogacy issues, married gay couples can be considered as unmarried for this purpose and the provision used for single people can be applied on them.
submitted by Prashant-12345 to u/Prashant-12345 [link] [comments]
We need not go very far to get a proof of this. Who removed IPC-377? Would parliament have ever removed it? Absolutely not. IPC-377 would have been hanging over our neck like a sword even today had Judiciary not declared it unconstitutional.
Whenever a bill is presented to the parliament for voting, at first the parliament discusses it thoroughly, sometimes for days and may be even for longer periods. Each and every aspect of the bill, its consequences, pros and cons etc. are analyzed at length. The voting is done only after all the members have understood all the prospects of the bill completely and no member has any doubt about them.
However, most MP's know nothing about homosexuality. They think that it is an abnormal and unnatural human behaviour, a mental disease and a perversion. They also think that it is the choice of a person to be a homosexual. In such a situation, the outcome of the voting on SSML is already known.
If the job of enacting the SSML is left to the parliament, first the MP's need to be given a thorough training on Medical Facts about Homosexuality and a rigourous understanding of the opinion of medical science on the subject.
Homosexuality is not a choice, it is a compulsion imposed on a person by nature (or God). Nobody becomes a homosexual by his or her choice. Homosexuals are born and not created or converted. One’s sexual orientation is decided by nature when one is still in one’s mother’s womb and it becomes apparent only after reaching puberty when one starts feeling attracted to other people. Nobody else can know a person’s sexual orientation unless he/she tells. There is no drug or therapy discovered/invented by medical science which can convert a person born as homosexual into a heterosexual. Homosexuality is not based on caste, community, race, region, religion, skin colour, ethnicity, culture etc.
Out of every 100 persons born on this earth, about 2–3 are always born as homosexual. This percentage remains constant in countries where gay marriages are legal such as Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, France, Taiwan etc. (more than 30 countries) and in countries where homosexuality is punished by death such as Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Uganda etc.
Homosexuality is not a mental disorder. Homosexuals are perfectly healthy people as far as their mental condition is concerned. Just like a heterosexual, a homosexual can also do any job. He can be an engineer, a doctor, scientist, lawyer, journalist, teacher, fashion designer, businessman, pilot, CA, sportsman, actor, politician, minister, governor, and even a king. Medical science has declared that homosexuality is 100% same and as natural as heterosexuality with no difference between them. Just like it is normal for a heterosexual man to get attracted towards a woman and for a heterosexual woman to get attracted towards a man, it is also perfectly normal and natural for a man who has taken birth as a homosexual to get sexually attracted to a man and for a lesbian to get attracted to a woman. The only difference between the two is that the number of homosexuals is very small in comparison to heterosexuals. However, being less in number does not mean that they have a mental disorder. The number of Parsis is very small in India and in the world. Are Parsis abnormal? The number of people who do not like Cricket in India is quite small. Has anybody ever said that such people have a mental disorder. Numerous such examples are there.
All these things need to be explained to the MP's before they go for voting on SSML They should also be told that not giving homosexuals their fundamental rights is a great social evil with very serious adverse consequence on the society.
The Constitution is supreme. The parliament has to work under the Constitution. For this reason, the makers of the Constitution developed Judiciary as an organ of democracy. They knew that times will come when the parliament will make anti-constitutional laws to please the majority and to get votes. At these times the judiciary was to keep a check on the parliament. All the laws made by the parliament are subject to scrutiny by the Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court finds that the parliamentarians have made a law which violates the constitution, it can overturn it. The judiciary does not have to get the votes of the masses. Therefore, it can reason, think logically and grant the Fundamental Rights to a single person against the wishes of one hundred persons.
In any society, about 2 to 3% people are born as homosexuals. Additionally, about 7 to 8% people are born as bisexuals. The total population of homosexuals and bisexuals in any country is about 10%. India, with an estimated population of about 140 crores, contains nearly 14 crore homosexuals and bisexuals, half of them men and half women. Nearly 4 crore homosexuals exist in India, 2 crore gay men and 2 crore lesbians. Similarly, India consists about 5 crore bisexual men and 5 crore bisexual women.
Indian heterosexuals have declared that being born as a gay or bisexual person is the most shameful thing on earth. They consider it more shameful than committing a murder or rape. Due to this reason, almost all of India’s gay and bisexual persons are living in closet. They are living in the garb of heterosexuals. This essentially means that not only they cannot marry with the person they want to, but they are also entangled in opposite-sex or the heterosexual marriages. About 99% of India’s 2 crore gay men are married to women and almost 100% of 2 crore lesbians are married to men. Not only the lives of about 2 crore gay men have been completely ruined but also of the 2 crore heterosexual women whom they are married to. About 2 crore Indian lesbians are raped every night for their whole lives by their ‘legalized’ husbands. The punishment for a single rape may be about 7 to 10 years jail term sometimes extending to life-long imprisonment. However, there is no punishment for this life-long rape of lesbians. Lives of 8 crore Indians have been completely destroyed, 4 crore of them being homosexuals and 4 crore heterosexuals. Yes, even the lives of 4 crore heterosexuals have been ruined. Why? Because the heterosexuals want to violate the fundamental rights of homosexuals at any cost. Further, India’s 10 crore bisexual man and women are all, in any case, married to opposite-sex persons whether they want it or not. To say it differently, India’s 10 crore heterosexuals are married to bisexuals which they would have never accepted willingly. These bisexuals, especially bisexual men, cheat with their spouses. They almost always cheat their wives and go to gay/bisexual men. The Indian heterosexuals are harming themselves in their zeal to hurt homosexuals.
This is the worst kind of slavery. India’s gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals are all slaves of heterosexuals. They have no other choice other than living as per the commandments of heterosexuals. A highly educated gay man with a post graduate degree or with a PhD in Science, Engg., Medicine or Law has to live as per the dictums of an illiterate daily wage labourer simply because this labourer is a heterosexual. He is the master of homosexuals. Unless he permits, even the most educated gay man cannot marry with his same-sex partner and enjoy his human right. The parliament will make a law for gay marriages only when he gives his consent. His opinion is supreme. As long as he does not agree, the constitution will keep on being violated.
This slavery is much worse than the slavery which the British imposed on us. The British were not interfering in any of our rights to life. They were just interested in our wealth and taking it away. It was basically an economic slavery for us. But the heterosexuals are taking away homosexuals’ right to life. The right to a life-partner is included in the right to life. Most humans want to spend their lives with a life-partner. They want company, togetherness, and affection from a person to whom they emotionally attached and they want to live with such a person under one roof all their lives and raise a family. Homosexuals are no different. They also have exactly the same desires. They also want to have a family. Not only humans but also many animals and birds live with their life partners. When a single animal of a particular species is left in a zoo, another animal of the opposite sex of the same species is brought from some other zoo to give company to it so that the single animal does not feel lonely. Sometimes such an animal is brought from a foreign country spending lakhs of Rupees. Recently 12 cheetahs were brought from South Africa and released in Kuno National Park and special care was taken so that about half of them are male and half female. However, right to a life-partner of homosexuals is violated. The homosexuals do not have an importance in the eyes of the Indian government even as an animal. It does not consider them more important than worms or insects. Such is the kind of slavery of homosexuals.
Recent research suggests that happily married people enjoy better health than single people. Those who are married tend to live longer, have fewer strokes and heart attacks, have a lower chance of becoming depressed, more likely to survive heart attacks, survive a major operation more often and consume less unhealthy food and alcohol.
The government of India does not give the right of marriage to homosexuals. With whom should they spend their lives then? One’s parents do not live for one’s lifetime. They will die. One’s brothers and sisters will be busy with their own lives. The Indian homosexuals, therefore, are destined to live a lonely life due to the adamancy of the government. As per the medical science, loneliness is silent killer. Human beings are thoroughly social creatures. Loneliness has a wide range of negative effects on both physical and mental health of humans and it takes a grave toll on their health. It has increased risk of heart attack, increased risk of having a stroke, increased risk of developing dementia and other serious medical conditions. Loneliness is a major risk factor for developing depression. It has been linked to insufficient sleep and increased mortality. It increases risk of premature death. It is even linked to higher rates of suicide.
Solitary confinement causing acute loneliness is the hardest punishment sometimes given to hardened criminals. Many times, it is considered violation of human rights even for the prisoners and Human Right Activists have opposed it around the world. The government of India, thus, is directly violating the Fundamental Right to Life of homosexuals.
Has any master in the history of earth ever given freedom on his own to his slave? We have fought about 90-year long war of independence against the British. What if the British had told us that they will themselves bring a bill for India’s independence in the House of Commons, get it passed and grant freedom to India and therefore the Indians need not protest against them? Would we have believed them? If not, then how can we hope that Indian parliament will ever make SSML and take homosexuals out of the clutches of heterosexuals? A slave always has to fight for his liberation and that is what the petitioners in this case are doing in the Supreme Court.
Not making a law to protect the Fundamental Rights of homosexuals is equivalent to making a law which violates the Constitution. Presently the parliament/ government is doing exactly that. The judiciary should, therefore, immediately come into action.
The Government of India does not have faith in the Constitution. We do not have faith in the Parliament.
Those who are advocating that only parliament can decide whether India should have SSML know it very well that parliament will never pass it. The government is strongly fighting against it today in the Supreme Court. What is the chance that tomorrow it will draft a bill for SSML and present it in the parliament for passing/ voting? No political party in India has ever talked about in last 75 years. It has never been on the agenda of any Indian party. No party has ever written about it in their election manifesto or declared their plan about it. The Supreme Court should understand this and should, therefore, order the government to bring SSML Bill in the parliament and get it passed. It is true that writing the draft of a new law is not the job of Supreme Court. However, it has powers to ask the government to do it.
In contrast, the Supreme Court of Nepal, a small and insignificant country in Asia, has done a commendable job and forced the Nepal Government to legalize same-sex marriages. Yes, Nepal has done it under the pressure from its Supreme Court. Although the Nepal Government succumbed to this pressure only in 2023, its SC had ordered it to enact SSML in 2007 itself, i.e., a full 16 years ago and it continuously kept building pressure on the Nepal government which finally bore fruit. In spite of the fact that there has been a political transition in Nepal during all these years and Nepal was re-writing its Constitution, this has been achieved. Here is the history of a fight for SSML in Nepal:
· On March 23, 2007, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the Nepali government to legally recognize same-sex marriages.
· On November 17, 2008, the Supreme Court made Nepal to consider legalizing same-sex marriages. The court asked the government to form a committee to study same-sex marriage laws in other countries.
· In February 2016, Nepal's National Human Rights Commission asked the government to introduce a bill to allow same-sex marriages.
· On 20 March 2023, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered the Nepali government to recognize a same-sex marriage between a Nepali and a German citizen performed in Germany and directed the Federal Parliament to legalize same-sex marriages in Nepal. Judges also directed the government to draft legislation for full marriage equality in Nepal, declaring laws banning same-sex marriages to be unconstitutional and discriminatory. The court asked Nepal’s Ministry of Law and Justice to prepare an equal marriage law or amend existing laws to accommodate the principles of equal marriage.
· Nepal's Supreme Court on 2 May 2023, ordered Nepal Government to recognize the same-sex marriage between a Nepali man and his foreign husband and instructed the government to move towards the legalization of same-sex marriages. The Court ruled that failure to recognize same-sex spouses violates Nepal’s Constitution and its international human rights obligations.
· On 30 November 2023, Nepal formally registered the first case of same-sex marriage. With this historic move, Nepal has become the second Asian Nation (first being Taiwan) and the first South Asian nation and to do so. The marriage between Ram Bahadur Gurung, 36, and Surendra Pandey, 26, was formally registered at the Dordi rural municipality office in the Lumjung district in west Nepal.
· On 12 February 2024, Anju Devi Shrestha, a resident of Bardiya district in western Nepal and Suprita Gurung, a resident of Syangja district, both 33, scripted history by becoming the first lesbian couple in Nepal to officially register their marriage at Jamuna Rural Municipality of Bardiya district.
· Nepal government intends to pass a separate law on same-sex marriages currently being drafted by the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare.
But unfortunately, The Supreme Court of India has already succumbed to the pressure of the Indian government and dismissed all the 18 petitions filed before it. Why India’s Supreme Court is so helpless and so weak when the Supreme Court of a small country like Nepal can assert itself?
. . . . . .
It is said that only 34 countries have made SSML. Out of 195 countries, 34 is a big number in this matter. It is not ‘only’. OK, how many countries should do it before India follows suit? How do we calculate it? What is the formula? Will India do it only when all other counties have done it except India? Is it necessary to be the last when it comes to doing good things? India always remains in the front in doing bad things. It is one of the leading countries in corruption. India’s crime rate is one of the highest in the world. Indian businessmen indulge in profiteering, over-charging, less weighing, adulteration, hoarding, tax evasion and following all unethical business practices. But in doing good things, India wants to remain a back-bencher.
Why did The Netherlands make SSML in 2001 becoming the first country to do it? Why did Denmark made Same-sex Partnership Law as early as in 1989 (which was later renamed as SSML in 2012)? These countries never thought why should they do it when no other country had done it. No good work would ever be done if we keep looking towards one-another not to be the first. Why does India want to prove that The Netherlands and Denmark are superior countries and India is inferior? It cannot even think to match them.
It has also been said that SSML has been made in most of these 34 countries by the government / legislature rather than the judiciary. However, we need to keep in mind that these 34 are developed, civilized and educated countries whose citizens respect the rights of minorities and do not infringe upon them. These are truly democratic countries having high regards for right to equality.
India, on the contrary, is a false, flawed and pseudo-democracy. When Lalu Prasad Yadav go to jail in a corruption case, his totally un-lettered wife who has been confined to family’s kitchen all her life becomes the Chief Minister. One third of the members of India’s parliament and state assemblies have criminal cases against them. Here elections are fought on the basis of caste, region and religion using money and muscle power. When India’s robbers and dacoits, murderers, kidnappers, rapists and extortionists give-up crime for some reason, what do they do? They become MP’s and MLA’s. What human rights can be discussed with likes of Atique Ahmed, Mohd. Shahabuddin, Mukhtar Ansari, Phoolan Devi, Santokben Jadeja and Kuldeep Singh Sengar?
Indian population has a high degree of illiteracy. The citizens do not respect others’ rights and interfere in the internal affairs of their fellow countrymen. They do not understand the laws of nature and interfere in the acts of God. They force others to live as per their whims and fancies. When they find that the others are not living as per their commands, they will thrash, hit, beat, kick, attack, lynch and kill them. Indian heterosexuals have extreme hatred for homosexuals. They ridicule them, laugh at them, hate them, condemn them, shun them and ostracize them. It’s a far cry to expect from them that they will give equal rights to homosexuals. India’s right to equality will remain only on paper if left to people / parliament.
The argument that the SSML has been made in other countries by the government and not the Judiciary goes only against those who are giving this argument. When the legislature of so many countries has already discussed the issue and upheld it, what does India expect to achieve by again discussing it? Why should we reinvent the wheel? Is there any country whose parliament took up this issue and rejected it? No. Then why do we need to take the matter again and waste time.
The question is not who has done it in 34 countries, the Government or the Judiciary. The real question is whether SSML is right or wrong. And we already know the answer.
. . . . . .
The Special Marriage Act, 1954 was essentially made for heterosexuals. Tweaking (fine-tuning) it to suit it to homosexuals also is not practical. Almost each clause of the act will have to have two paras if we do that. One for heterosexuals and the other for homosexuals. As an example, in the heterosexual marriages, a man gives maintenance to his wife if divorce happens and not the vice versa. This provision cannot be used in homosexual marriages. A new provision will be required. Similarly, in the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (which is closely related to heterosexual marriages) there is provision to punish a man if he does cruelty to his wife but there is no provision to proceed against a woman if she does cruelty to her husband. This cannot be applied to homosexual marriages. For such reasons, a completely new law (SSML) is required to be written. Whereas heterosexual marriage laws depend on the religion of the man/woman getting married, SSML will be the same irrespective of the religion of the persons getting married. Whether the two homosexuals getting married are Hindus, Muslims or one is Hindu and the other is Muslim, the same law will govern their marriage. The issues of divorce, succession/inheritance can be handled either by studying the gay marriage laws of other countries or by adopting the best practices of Hindu Marriage Act 1955, Muslim Personal Law 1937, The Indian Christian Marriage Act 1872, The Anand Marriage Act, 1909, and the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 etc.
The issue of adoption is unrelated to marriage. It can be decided later on. Not all gay/lesbian couples will adopt. It will not be correct, therefore, to refuse/delay SSML If we cannot decide whether to allow gay couples to adopt. They cannot be stopped from marriage itself if the issue is pending. The same is true for surrogacy. As long as we do not decide the adoption/surrogacy issues, married gay couples can be considered as unmarried for this purpose and the provision used for single people can be applied on them.
2024.05.02 20:21 That-Possibility-427 Hot Take: Blaming Dutch for botched bank heist in Saint Denis is incorrect.
TLDR: Hosea didn't do his job. Arthur chooses to press forward when based on the circumstances the prudent move is to hold fast and reevaluate.
Currently I'm in chapter 4 on playthrough 15 ( I think) and this is going to be extremely unpopular but I'm starting to question Hosea and tbh laying the debacle that was the Saint Denis Bank robbery at the feet of Dutch is just incorrect.
Which begs the question. How did someone as "seasoned" as Hosea miss that? This isn't his first rodeo and determining the overall police presence and response time was part of his job in all of this.
Beyond that why would Hosea ever think that "causing a distraction" was still the best way to go about it? Prior to the above mentioned events a distraction would have made sense. Smoke and mirrors. Get everyone looking this way while you sneak in over here and do your thing. But after Bronte is dead the only thing that his distraction is going to do is alert every LEO in the area that the robbery has commenced. I mean Hosea and Abigail may as well have ridden through town on that wagon yelling "The gang is coming, the gang is coming!!!!" Because there's no way in hell that any of those LEO's get "sucked in" by the "distraction." Like I said. It just told EVERYONE that the game's afoot.
Logically (unless I'm forgetting something) I can only arrive at one of three reasons.
A. Hosea saw it, and ignored it/didn't report it for whatever reason.
B. Hosea completely missed something that should have been obvious to someone as experienced as he.
C. Abigail or Hosea tipped off the PDA in an effort to lead Dutch into a trap. Now I'm NOT implying that option C is even remotely the answer. I merely mention it because in chapter 4 Hosea is.....well wonky. He seems to be doing a lot of brooding and his dialogue around the camp fire is pretty bleak. Despite saying that he doesn't regret anything he's done, the tone and content of his conversations would suggest otherwise. Add that in with the fact that he's pretty damn mad that Hosea is going to in essence stage a kidnapping to kill Bronte and you have to wonder just a little (at least I am) is he just "over it" enough to set Dutch up. Is that reason for the confused look on his face just before Milton kills him? Was that look of disbelief because Milton double crossed Hosea? Again C is 100% speculation, so those that are prone to go from zero to 😡😡😡 next level incensed just calm down. Like I said, it makes me think a bit.
Regardless, it was Hosea's responsibility to have picked up on any increased police presence and he didn't. Even if he'd checked and nothing seemed amiss prior to Bronte's death, after Dutch made him "disappear" Hosea should have gone back and scoped it out again. Someone with his experience had to have known that when the information flow stopped the police would double down on their presence in the area. Incidentally when I hear him chastise Dutch for the poor execution in Blackwater in my head I'm pretty much saying "ok Hosea. Are you the pot or the kettle?" Dude literally gives a lecture on execution right before he (knowingly or not) leads them all into a trap because he doesn't do his due diligence in the planning phase.
And then there's Arthur. When you walk up you can hear Dutch and Hosea going back and forth, not arguing per se' but having a discussion where Dutch says he's apprehensive. He doesn't specifically state why, but based on everything that's happened it's logical that he would be. Well Arthur should have been apprehensive as well. Again these are all seasoned outlaws. He should have been thinking that an increase in police presence was at least a high probability if not an outright given. But does he question Hosea at all? No, he doesn't. And bare minimum here, Arthur knows Hosea hasn't been himself. Hell Arthur is how I know! 😂 He is literally there as Hosea is talking about not regretting what he's done, but regretting....not listening, paying attention in his youth.....hell who knows what he means. Honestly it's pretty damn ambiguous. The point is Hosea isn't on his "A game" and Arthur knows this better than anyone. So why isn't he at least questioning whether or not a "distraction and daylight raid" still makes the most sense? And if Arthur just doesn't feel like it's his place to question his "dad" then why isn't he at least sharing this information with "dad number two" so that he can?
The bottom line is this. I've seen a lot of posts pointing fingers at Dutch for the botched bank job and the deaths of Hosea and Lenny. Yet Dutch didn't plan it, wasn't responsible for gathering the intel, and isn't all together comfortable with the plan as it sits. Ultimately he's convinced that it's the right thing to do by Arthur and Hosea.
submitted by That-Possibility-427 to RDR2 [link] [comments]
Currently I'm in chapter 4 on playthrough 15 ( I think) and this is going to be extremely unpopular but I'm starting to question Hosea and tbh laying the debacle that was the Saint Denis Bank robbery at the feet of Dutch is just incorrect.
- It wasn't his "heist/job" it was Arthur's and Hosea's. As a matter of fact I just saw a bit of camp dialogue between Arthur and Hosea that I've recorded but have downloaded yet. I'd just come back from hunting, Dutch was waiting for me in Saint Denis (trolley job) and Hosea says to Arthur "I've checked into that bank like you asked and it's looking real good." Or something to that effect. Based on previous playthroughs I knew, or at least I thought that I knew, that Hosea was "lead." Apparently not. Based on that bit of dialogue it sounds like Arthur is the "lead" on it. Regardless of who actually has lead on it, it's their heist/job.
- Based on the conversation between Bronte and Dutch (Country Pursuits) we know that Bronte has been in touch with the PDA. Therefore Dutch, Arthur and Hosea have to assume that the PDA knows that they're planning on hitting the bank. The only thing that the PDA doesn't know is when. Incidentally that's why IMO killing Bronte made sense strategically, but that's a different discussion altogether. Like I said Bronte's been in contact with the PDA. Saint Denis is his city. He would have had people looking for members of the VDLG, at least the ones (VLDG)he knows about from the party. However, once he's dead that flow of information would have been interrupted. Here's why. Let's say someone saw one of the VDLG snooping around. They would have immediately reported it back to Bronte. Not the PDA, not SDPD but Bronte. However since he's now gator food there's no one to report to.
Which begs the question. How did someone as "seasoned" as Hosea miss that? This isn't his first rodeo and determining the overall police presence and response time was part of his job in all of this.
Beyond that why would Hosea ever think that "causing a distraction" was still the best way to go about it? Prior to the above mentioned events a distraction would have made sense. Smoke and mirrors. Get everyone looking this way while you sneak in over here and do your thing. But after Bronte is dead the only thing that his distraction is going to do is alert every LEO in the area that the robbery has commenced. I mean Hosea and Abigail may as well have ridden through town on that wagon yelling "The gang is coming, the gang is coming!!!!" Because there's no way in hell that any of those LEO's get "sucked in" by the "distraction." Like I said. It just told EVERYONE that the game's afoot.
Logically (unless I'm forgetting something) I can only arrive at one of three reasons.
A. Hosea saw it, and ignored it/didn't report it for whatever reason.
B. Hosea completely missed something that should have been obvious to someone as experienced as he.
C. Abigail or Hosea tipped off the PDA in an effort to lead Dutch into a trap. Now I'm NOT implying that option C is even remotely the answer. I merely mention it because in chapter 4 Hosea is.....well wonky. He seems to be doing a lot of brooding and his dialogue around the camp fire is pretty bleak. Despite saying that he doesn't regret anything he's done, the tone and content of his conversations would suggest otherwise. Add that in with the fact that he's pretty damn mad that Hosea is going to in essence stage a kidnapping to kill Bronte and you have to wonder just a little (at least I am) is he just "over it" enough to set Dutch up. Is that reason for the confused look on his face just before Milton kills him? Was that look of disbelief because Milton double crossed Hosea? Again C is 100% speculation, so those that are prone to go from zero to 😡😡😡 next level incensed just calm down. Like I said, it makes me think a bit.
Regardless, it was Hosea's responsibility to have picked up on any increased police presence and he didn't. Even if he'd checked and nothing seemed amiss prior to Bronte's death, after Dutch made him "disappear" Hosea should have gone back and scoped it out again. Someone with his experience had to have known that when the information flow stopped the police would double down on their presence in the area. Incidentally when I hear him chastise Dutch for the poor execution in Blackwater in my head I'm pretty much saying "ok Hosea. Are you the pot or the kettle?" Dude literally gives a lecture on execution right before he (knowingly or not) leads them all into a trap because he doesn't do his due diligence in the planning phase.
And then there's Arthur. When you walk up you can hear Dutch and Hosea going back and forth, not arguing per se' but having a discussion where Dutch says he's apprehensive. He doesn't specifically state why, but based on everything that's happened it's logical that he would be. Well Arthur should have been apprehensive as well. Again these are all seasoned outlaws. He should have been thinking that an increase in police presence was at least a high probability if not an outright given. But does he question Hosea at all? No, he doesn't. And bare minimum here, Arthur knows Hosea hasn't been himself. Hell Arthur is how I know! 😂 He is literally there as Hosea is talking about not regretting what he's done, but regretting....not listening, paying attention in his youth.....hell who knows what he means. Honestly it's pretty damn ambiguous. The point is Hosea isn't on his "A game" and Arthur knows this better than anyone. So why isn't he at least questioning whether or not a "distraction and daylight raid" still makes the most sense? And if Arthur just doesn't feel like it's his place to question his "dad" then why isn't he at least sharing this information with "dad number two" so that he can?
The bottom line is this. I've seen a lot of posts pointing fingers at Dutch for the botched bank job and the deaths of Hosea and Lenny. Yet Dutch didn't plan it, wasn't responsible for gathering the intel, and isn't all together comfortable with the plan as it sits. Ultimately he's convinced that it's the right thing to do by Arthur and Hosea.
2024.05.02 20:18 SetTrippin82 Roommate advice. Am I wrong? Long story. Sorry
I recently moved in with this guy (44m) 2 months ago. It’s his house. He is very smug, pretentious, dismissive, and in love with himself. He has pictures all over his apartment of himself in different scenarios.
I (41m) am grieving over the loss of my mother and fiancé. They both died within 2 months of each other about 4 months ago. My fiancés death was extremely tragic and traumatic for me.
After my fiancé died, I had to quickly find a situation that was affordable and would take in my dog as well. I was up front with the roommate about my situation and honest about my grieving.
I’ve actually been very proactive and productive all things considered. I get up and go to work every day, I applied for a promotion at my job, I keep to myself and maintain cleanliness, and really try to keep my grieving quietly and to myself. I’m seeing a therapist and I’m in support groups. I exercise and try to get out to see live music and meet new friends as much as I can.
Last night, we took our dogs for a walk. We got home around 9pm and it was a long day at work. I was in my room with my bedroom door open while he was within earshot from me in the living room.
As I was getting ready for bed, I looked at my calendar and work schedule, and I thought of how much I miss my old life. I think about my fiancé and mom constantly. So I just let out a sigh and quietly said to myself, “just another fucking day”. I emphasize on quietly. I was thinking to myself how every day is just another fucking day without the two most important women in my life.
My roommate says to me in an irritated, insincere and condescending tone, “are you alright, dude?”
I was kind of taken back a little bit. Considering how quietly I said it within my room. And in my opinion, is a fairly reasonable statement within the context of self talk.
So I wanted to clear the air. I basically said “no, I’m grieving. I didn’t mean to disturb the peace.” “Did that bother you?”
He said that it’s “a little weird that you are mumbling and cursing”
I responded with “I’m just decompressing over the day and thinking about my dead mother and fiancé.” “I did tell you that my mother died as well, right?”
In a dismissive tone, he replied “you’ve mentioned it.” “It’s very unusual to me that you are mumbling and cursing to yourself in your room”
So took a minute to think about the situation.
I then said, “hey man, I wasn’t mumbling. I also wasn’t cursing for nothing, and I certainly wasn’t directing it towards you. It was self talk.” “It was a long day, and I just simply said, “just another fucking day”
He in turn tells me that it wasn’t prompted. He said “It’s not like you dropped a hammer on your toe”
To me, that take validated my suspicion of his insincerity and irritability when he asked if I was okay.
I told him “you’re right, I only had a 10 ton brick drop on my life.” “I’d say that grief is a fairly valid prompt”.
I didn’t yell or get angry. I definitely wasn’t mad, but I also wasn’t about to back away from my grief or my position about my feelings.
He continued to compare me to past roommates, saying that it’s unusual behavior. He basically scoffed at my 10 ton brick metaphor. And his pretentious self righteousness came out saying, “I work with people who have behavioral issues, so I just have to keep my head on a swivel.”
I also work with people with behavioral and emotional issues. So that bs didn’t work on me. Also, I’m not one of his students. I pay rent and It’s not as if I’m in a manic state running around the house cussing and screaming.
Even though we hugged it out and shook hands in the end. I don’t know who is valid in this situation.
What do you all think?
submitted by SetTrippin82 to Life [link] [comments]
I (41m) am grieving over the loss of my mother and fiancé. They both died within 2 months of each other about 4 months ago. My fiancés death was extremely tragic and traumatic for me.
After my fiancé died, I had to quickly find a situation that was affordable and would take in my dog as well. I was up front with the roommate about my situation and honest about my grieving.
I’ve actually been very proactive and productive all things considered. I get up and go to work every day, I applied for a promotion at my job, I keep to myself and maintain cleanliness, and really try to keep my grieving quietly and to myself. I’m seeing a therapist and I’m in support groups. I exercise and try to get out to see live music and meet new friends as much as I can.
Last night, we took our dogs for a walk. We got home around 9pm and it was a long day at work. I was in my room with my bedroom door open while he was within earshot from me in the living room.
As I was getting ready for bed, I looked at my calendar and work schedule, and I thought of how much I miss my old life. I think about my fiancé and mom constantly. So I just let out a sigh and quietly said to myself, “just another fucking day”. I emphasize on quietly. I was thinking to myself how every day is just another fucking day without the two most important women in my life.
My roommate says to me in an irritated, insincere and condescending tone, “are you alright, dude?”
I was kind of taken back a little bit. Considering how quietly I said it within my room. And in my opinion, is a fairly reasonable statement within the context of self talk.
So I wanted to clear the air. I basically said “no, I’m grieving. I didn’t mean to disturb the peace.” “Did that bother you?”
He said that it’s “a little weird that you are mumbling and cursing”
I responded with “I’m just decompressing over the day and thinking about my dead mother and fiancé.” “I did tell you that my mother died as well, right?”
In a dismissive tone, he replied “you’ve mentioned it.” “It’s very unusual to me that you are mumbling and cursing to yourself in your room”
So took a minute to think about the situation.
I then said, “hey man, I wasn’t mumbling. I also wasn’t cursing for nothing, and I certainly wasn’t directing it towards you. It was self talk.” “It was a long day, and I just simply said, “just another fucking day”
He in turn tells me that it wasn’t prompted. He said “It’s not like you dropped a hammer on your toe”
To me, that take validated my suspicion of his insincerity and irritability when he asked if I was okay.
I told him “you’re right, I only had a 10 ton brick drop on my life.” “I’d say that grief is a fairly valid prompt”.
I didn’t yell or get angry. I definitely wasn’t mad, but I also wasn’t about to back away from my grief or my position about my feelings.
He continued to compare me to past roommates, saying that it’s unusual behavior. He basically scoffed at my 10 ton brick metaphor. And his pretentious self righteousness came out saying, “I work with people who have behavioral issues, so I just have to keep my head on a swivel.”
I also work with people with behavioral and emotional issues. So that bs didn’t work on me. Also, I’m not one of his students. I pay rent and It’s not as if I’m in a manic state running around the house cussing and screaming.
Even though we hugged it out and shook hands in the end. I don’t know who is valid in this situation.
What do you all think?
2024.05.02 20:09 Simple-Tangerine839 English records.
Hello there to anyone reading this. I was wondering I was talking to my grandmother about her own grandmother. She told me that she doesn’t know who her grandmother was as she died during childbirth. As well as everyone in the family was raised to believe her stepmom was her bio mom
My grandmothers mother was Jane Luke born December, 1907 in Lanchester, Durham, England to William Luke born 1881 in Lanchester, Durham, England and her mother who died giving birth to her. The problem is I don’t have a first name or a surname to look up death records. Also the birth records for Jane dont list her mom as far as I can see.
I was wondering I’d it possible to find her mother with little to no information. All me and gam-gam have to go on is she might have been young might have been married to William before she died.
https://imgur.com/a/S3QzBBi
1911 English census with Jane Luke, William Like and stepmom Emily.
https://www.ancestry.ca/imageviewecollections/2352/images/rg14_30008_0241_03?pId=35743300
same record on Ancestry
Any idea if I can find her mother? I seem unable to as the birth records for Jane don’t seem to list her mother as far as I can see. I’m a little stuck to be honest.
submitted by Simple-Tangerine839 to Genealogy [link] [comments]
My grandmothers mother was Jane Luke born December, 1907 in Lanchester, Durham, England to William Luke born 1881 in Lanchester, Durham, England and her mother who died giving birth to her. The problem is I don’t have a first name or a surname to look up death records. Also the birth records for Jane dont list her mom as far as I can see.
I was wondering I’d it possible to find her mother with little to no information. All me and gam-gam have to go on is she might have been young might have been married to William before she died.
https://imgur.com/a/S3QzBBi
1911 English census with Jane Luke, William Like and stepmom Emily.
https://www.ancestry.ca/imageviewecollections/2352/images/rg14_30008_0241_03?pId=35743300
same record on Ancestry
Any idea if I can find her mother? I seem unable to as the birth records for Jane don’t seem to list her mother as far as I can see. I’m a little stuck to be honest.
2024.05.02 20:08 DTG_Bot This Week In Destiny 05/02/2024
Source: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/twid-05-02-2024
This week in Destiny we’re fine tuning our PvP loadouts. We’ve got three new beautiful Crucible maps coming next week, and we want to make sure we’re ready. So, grab that Rose you’ve been dominating with, and let’s get into it.
This week topics:
With only a few days until their release, we wanted to take a final look at these maps from a slightly different angle. That's why we partnered with our favorite community cartographer, Relikt, to develop callout map overviews. We've been fans of his callout maps for years, and we are thrilled to work with him on this new set of Crucible maps. Let’s jump in and take a look!
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With initial spawns near point A at the Warehouse and near point C at the Ice Caves, players will make their way to contest the Servitor area that holds point B and a valuable Heavy ammo crate. But be careful! While the interior of the map by the Promenade and Upper Glacial is more closer-quarters battle focused, a handful of longer sight lines in the space between Air Dock and Loading Bay means you’ll have to ensure that you approach carefully, or you may be on the wrong side of a Sniper Rifle.
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There are four distinct areas on Cirrus Plaza with the Arcade, Restaurant, Aquarium, and Atrium. Players will spawn in the Arcade near point A and the Restaurant near point C. The Atrium will be an area of interest, as players will seek the Heavy ammo crate that spawns in the middle and battle to earn the valuable high ground. However, with sight lines spanning multiple floors and players battling for point B nearby, Guardians will need to get in and out quickly or ensure they have teammates watching their back.
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With initial spawn points near the Fossils at point A and the Sigil at point C, the map offers somewhat direct paths through the middle, where players will be drawn to Orbits to engage in heated brawls over the Heavy ammo and across the bottom of the map towards point B.
Additionally, while New Territory is the designated playlist for the new maps, the maps will be available in other playlists and the private lobby as usual.
Lastly, New Territory will be available until the end of the Season, at which point any player who engaged in the playlist will be awarded with the new Slaycation emblem!
Slaycation
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VANGUARD – GUARDIAN DISPATCH – ALL POINTS BULLETIN
DEFENDERS OF THE CITY,
You are tasked with the elimination of the following targets:
CLASSIFICATION
CLASSIFICATION
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CLASSIFICATION
CLASSIFICATION
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The Pantheon Raid Ring features a legendary re-envisioning of our iconic first Raid Ring, launched in 2020. Beyond the striking raid symbol as the focus of the ring, owners will also have a private reminder of the importance of loyalty in the face of adversity. Etched on the inside is a message that reads, “Glory comes easy when you have allies you can trust.” The epitome of strength and camaraderie, The Pantheon Raid Ring stands as a testament to the valor and unity found in the heat of battle. This special Bungie Rewards offer is available for purchase only to players who complete all encounters from any tier of The Pantheon in Destiny 2 by June 3, 2024.
The Godslayer Title Pin will also be available for purchase via Bungie Rewards for players who complete the Godslayer Title by June 3, 2024.
Luckily, the Econ Team has established a good working relationship with the Tower’s Number One Cryptarch over the last year as we added Exotic armor focusing, and we have managed to help Rahool set up a new promotional program of sorts that makes farming the armor you want more deterministic and less dependent on rotators.
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Starting in The Final Shape, Rahool is going to be the source for any new Exotic armor that we release. When you first talk to Rahool after The Final Shape launch, he will introduce you to a new rewards program tied to his brand-new Reputation Track. The idea is simple: the more you decode engrams with him, the more you increase your reputation with him. Once you completely fill the reputation track once and reset your rank, Rahool will allow you into an elite club, giving you access to a new tier of focusing.
Once you become one of Rahool’s “Engram Ensiders” (he was very proud of the name, so be nice to him), you’ll be able to purchase any piece of Exotic armor for any character on your account for one Exotic engram and one Exotic cipher, in addition to the previous focusing options. Because this is tied to Rahool’s new reputation track, there is no weekly limit to using this tier of focusing; as long as you still have Exotic ciphers and engrams, you can keep rolling armor.
With this change, we are also altering the way that old sources of Exotic armor work. First, Lost Sectors will keep the same drop rates for Exotics but will instead drop engrams whenever they would have previously dropped gear. Neomuna will also still drop new Exotic armor when you complete a Vex Strike Force encounter, but we won’t be adding any more new armor to the drop list after Season of the Wish.
With these changes, we know you’re wondering, “How long will it take to get this newfangled tier of focusing? I’ve got the World’s First Race to prepare for, wot wot!” Without going into the exact numbers, the actions that will give the most reputation will be precision decryption (aka Tier 2 focusing), followed by advanced decryption, then opening an Exotic engram , and last but also least, opening a prime engram. So, if you want to be ready for the Witness’s forces as soon as possible, make sure to stock up on Exotic engrams and Ascendant Shards before June 4, as with a little more than a full stock of Exotic engrams you’ll be able to start focusing new armor.
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Currently, there are some issues that can make the experience of applying a shader inconsistent. The first being that, while each shader applies six colors, only four are currently shown on the shader icon. This can sometimes result in the shader appearing differently than players may expect from the icon preview.
Adding to this is the fact that all four color sections of the current shader icon are equal in shape and size, making it difficult to distinguish what the main colors will be when applied. There are also many shaders that have unique glows that players strive for, and with the current design, they are not represented. Gambit Jadestone is a great example of this.
Gambit Jadestone Shader Icon - Current
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To help address these issues, we've made updates to the shader icon design that includes all six colors for that shader. We are also changing the design in a way that makes the primary colors appear to take more space than the secondary colors for a more accurate representation with most gear items. Glows are also reflected in the updated design so it will be easier to distinguish those shaders within your shader selection screens.
Gambit Jadestone Shader Icon - Updated In The Final Shape
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We tested many different design solutions for this goal, and eventually settled on adding a diamond to the center of the current icon design and changing the layout of the color slots on the icon.
We’re hoping these new improvements will offer a better experience for Guardians looking to show off their best looks.
Hello everyone, PvP Strike Team here to talk about Special ammo in the Crucible. Since Update 7.3.5, we’ve been doing a substantial amount of iteration on our Special ammo distribution systems. We’ve tried the meter system in multiple playlists as well as two different versions of the ammo crates system in Competitive, Hardware, and for a limited time in Trials. Some people asked why we are bothering to do this level of experimentation, and we’d like to explain it.
The Respawn System
The original Special ammo distribution system was brought into the game with Forsaken and, combined with allowing players to pick up ammo from defeated opponents, it eventually peaked in a short period of time where Special weapons eclipsed Primary weapons for final blows in Crucible. We walked it back several times, mostly focused on how much ammo you could pick up from bricks on the ground, but we were still left in a position of one-shot kill Special weapons making up a substantial percentage of Crucible final blows and contributing to many of the issues with sandbox readability we have discussed before.
While the respawn system had its issues and we felt there was some room for improvement, it did do a decent job of balancing ammo distribution between high- and low-performing players, with high-performing players on average utilizing Special ammo 1.5-2 times more than low performing players. Similarly, with years of the system in place, the Special weapon meta had solidified nicely. Shotguns were at the top, with around 47% of Special weapon kills. Snipers and Fusions combined to make up 43%, and all the other Special weapons were the remaining 10%.
When investigating changes to the respawn system, it became apparent that we were very limited in terms of how we could tune the system to get the desired effects, and that led us to investigate two additional systems. While we wanted to be able to solve the problem of too many one-hit kills in PvP, it was important to us that the new systems did not introduce new and potentially worse problems.
The Meter System
To understand the meter system, we first need to take you through its development. This system was originally intended to be experimental, utilized only in the temporary Labs mode, Checkmate. It was built using a combination of other existing systems co-opted from various parts of the game that allowed us to do things we could not usually do in Crucible, like retaining the state of the meter between lives and between rounds (an invisible stat on the scoreboard the game reads back every time you respawn), dropping ammo directly onto the player in a transmat (an invisible ammo crate that opens directly above you and then deletes itself), carrying the full amount of ammo over between deaths (utilizing the logic system we use in PvE activities to re-grant you ammo on spawn), and displaying the current progress of the meter (the UI bar borrowed from Exotic weapon and activities buffs).
Reception to the system in Checkmate was mixed, but we saw there was a lot of potential in our first truly “earnable” Special ammo system. Since its introduction, we have iterated on it several times, including earlier this week, and have gotten it into a much more acceptable state. Unfortunately, as the meter system has been exposed to the wider game for an extended period, we have run into two core issues which have required us to continue to look for possible solutions.
Balance Issues – The overall balance of the meter system in the wider sandbox has been concerning. It primarily benefits one player type over all others, with players who routinely perform above average in their lobbies getting the double benefits of having more Special ammo than the respawn system allowed at certain points in the game, while their opponents often have much less. In the meter system, high-performing players are earning Special ammo at 3.5 times the rate of lower-performing players, a delta which has led to many non-high-performing players abandoning Special weapons entirely. In Competitive, for example, with the meter system in use low-performing players were more likely to get kills with Heavy ammo weapons than they were with Special ammo weapons.
The weapon balance has become similarly one-sided, as it promotes Shotguns as the main solution, and all other Special weapons are perceived as no longer useful for most players when in an ammo-limited situation. Under the meter system, Shotguns have more than 76% of Special weapon kills, with Fusions and Snipers reduced to a combined 18%, and the rest of the Special weapons making up only 6%. This has led to a very “rich get richer” meta, where the best performing players and weapons are now even stronger by comparison without having to do anything differently.
Earlier this week we took steps to improve on these issues, but the difficulty we face in a system where Special ammo is almost entirely earned is that we have limited room to close the gap between high and low performers before it functionally becomes "everyone gets Special ammo on a timer," which is something we'd like to avoid.
Technical Issues – Balance problems aside, being built on tech that was not designed to be used in this way has exposed multiple issues that, upon investigation, we determined could not be easily fixed in the meter’s current state. Some things, like being unable to notify opponents that an ammo transmat has occurred or give starting ammo on join-in-progress, are already apparent to players. Other problems, which are far more significant, appear in the backend and affect how we handle several of the processes, impacting our ability to both balance and maintain the system in the long term. Functionally, these combined issues require us to rebuild the meter from the ground up as a new, dedicated system. We feel the system has shown enough merit that this is something we are undertaking for a future release.
The Crates System
As a potential fallback for the meter system, the Special ammo crates system was resurfaced and iterated upon. The crates system has several benefits from a design perspective, including the ability to place crates in key zones around the map to help encourage player movement in non-objective or objective-optional modes and prevent coagulation around a single power position, as well as offering the ability to delay Special weapon pushes in round-based modes.
The crates system has also, based on its time in Competitive and Trials, done some positive things in terms of moving Special ammo distribution closer to healthy values. The delta between high- and low-performing players has moved back to 2.4 times, and it has led to less late-game snowballing, as players who do try to hoard Special ammo lose it upon death. Weapon balance is similarly improved, although not optimal, and there is significantly increased variety with Shotguns coming down to 59% of kills, Fusions and Snipers combining for 28% of kills, and all other Special weapons increasing to 13% of kills.
Ultimately, the crates system in isolation also has several major problems. It can present a frustrating amount of friction between playing the game how you want and playing the game how you need to if you want to run a Special ammo weapon. Additionally, in round-based modes, it is too frictionless to run double Special ammo weapons. It is also the first system we have introduced that allows players to directly influence the Special ammo economy of the opposing team, as controlling most crates can help starve the other team of Special ammo.
From a strategic perspective this is an interesting mechanic, but with no other way to earn Special ammo in gameplay it serves to be more frustrating than fun, and many players have struggled to adapt to the change, causing additional friction when playing in matchmade teams.
The “Blended” 1-1-1 System
Each of the above-listed systems has both positives and negatives. In isolation, each system helps and hurts a different part of the population, but none of them holistically solves the Special ammo problem.
Image Linkimgur
Known Issues List Help Forums Bungie Help Twitter
WINDOWS 7 AND 8 SUPPORT
Beginning on June 4, 2024, Destiny 2 is ending support for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 operating systems. This decision is to align with Steam and Microsoft ending support for these systems.
Destiny 2 may continue running on these older operating systems after June 4, 2024, but we are unable to guarantee continued functionality after that date.
Players using these operating systems to play Destiny 2 are urged to upgrade to a more recent version of Windows or move to another platform so that their playtime won't be interrupted.
For more information, please view our Windows 7 and 8 Support article.
PANTHEON CHECKPOINTS
Due to an issue preventing players from progressing in The Pantheon when joining at a checkpoint, we have disabled checkpoints for The Caretaker and Zo'aurc, Explicator of Planets. We are attempting to resolve this issue as soon as possible and will provide an update when we have more information to share.
ARCHIE QUEST INFORMATION
We've seen confusion surrounding the weekly Archie Hunt quests and wanted to offer clarification. These quests are only intended to be available for one week each and were made with this time limit in mind. We understand that this is not ideal for all players, which is why we made the shader available for one completion for any of the weekly quests. The lore attached to these triumphs will become available to all players when The Final Shape launches on June 4.
KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:
To be a Titan is to live and die by the melee, even if that means a gruesome but spectacular death.
Movie of the Week:
[
Image Linkimgur](https://www.reddit.com/destiny2/comments/1c8ve7a/the_most_titan_way_to_die/)
For a Final God of Pain, Nezarec is pretty stylish and colorful. Probably because we are not sharing that Superblack shader with him.
Art of the Week: AliveWake via TwitteX
Image Linkimgur
That’s everything we have for this week. Hopefully you’re enjoying The Pantheon so far. Remember, this is only the first wave of bosses and more are on the way. It only gets more fun from here. And we swear that wasn’t an evil laugh we were stifling, it was just…a cough. cough
We’ll be back next week with another TWID. Until then, be good to each other, and thanks for hanging out with us.
Destiny 2 Community Team
submitted by DTG_Bot to LowSodiumDestiny [link] [comments]
This week topics:
- PVP map pack launch.
- The Pantheon boss profiles.
- The Pantheon Bungie Rewards.
- New Rahool reputation and Exotic system.
- The Final Shape shader icon revamp.
- PvP Strike Team update.
- Superblack shader now available.
- Windows 7 and 8 deprecation. ##PvP Map Pack Launch
With only a few days until their release, we wanted to take a final look at these maps from a slightly different angle. That's why we partnered with our favorite community cartographer, Relikt, to develop callout map overviews. We've been fans of his callout maps for years, and we are thrilled to work with him on this new set of Crucible maps. Let’s jump in and take a look!
Eventide Labs
Eventide Labs is set in a long-forgotten human colony research outpost on Europa that Eramis chose to use as a refueling station.Image Linkimgur
Image Linkimgur
With initial spawns near point A at the Warehouse and near point C at the Ice Caves, players will make their way to contest the Servitor area that holds point B and a valuable Heavy ammo crate. But be careful! While the interior of the map by the Promenade and Upper Glacial is more closer-quarters battle focused, a handful of longer sight lines in the space between Air Dock and Loading Bay means you’ll have to ensure that you approach carefully, or you may be on the wrong side of a Sniper Rifle.
Cirrus Plaza
Our next map takes us to Neptune. Cirrus Plaza is set in a shopping and entertainment center on Neomuna.Image Linkimgur
Image Linkimgur
There are four distinct areas on Cirrus Plaza with the Arcade, Restaurant, Aquarium, and Atrium. Players will spawn in the Arcade near point A and the Restaurant near point C. The Atrium will be an area of interest, as players will seek the Heavy ammo crate that spawns in the middle and battle to earn the valuable high ground. However, with sight lines spanning multiple floors and players battling for point B nearby, Guardians will need to get in and out quickly or ensure they have teammates watching their back.
Dissonance
If you’ve always wanted to PvP on a terraformed Pyramid ship , then we’ve got you covered. Equal parts beautiful and haunting, Dissonance is set on the Witness’s former ship, Essence, which was terraformed by the Traveler.Image Linkimgur
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With initial spawn points near the Fossils at point A and the Sigil at point C, the map offers somewhat direct paths through the middle, where players will be drawn to Orbits to engage in heated brawls over the Heavy ammo and across the bottom of the map towards point B.
New Territory
When these maps arrive on May 7, they’ll be on a separate 3v3 playlist called "New Territory," so you can enjoy the new experience these maps offer on demand. The playlist will replace the 3v3 Quickplay node and feature the three new maps with the following game modes: Survival, Elimination, Clash, and Collision. Be sure to pick up the introductory quest from Shaxx for more details on the maps and playlist.Additionally, while New Territory is the designated playlist for the new maps, the maps will be available in other playlists and the private lobby as usual.
Lastly, New Territory will be available until the end of the Season, at which point any player who engaged in the playlist will be awarded with the new Slaycation emblem!
Slaycation
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The Pantheon Boss Deep Dive
The Pantheon is upon us. The new PvE raid gauntlet opened this week featuring four bosses as part of the first wave. With more bosses on the way each week, we wanted to take a moment to highlight the targets you’ve been tasked with taking down. We’ve got the details to ensure you know thy enemies well.DEFENDERS OF THE CITY,
You are tasked with the elimination of the following targets:
-GOLGOROTH-
Image LinkimgurCLASSIFICATION
- Hive
- Blood of Oryx
- Ogre
- Worm
- Void eye beam
- Venomous gaze
- Unstable Light
- Monstrous strength and durability
- Ogres are forged -- through tortuous trials and dark rituals -- from corrupted and deformed Thralls known as Unborn. They know only pain and are conditioned to hate and despise the Light.
- Golgoroth is a Hive Ogre, infested with burrowing parasites related to the Worm gods and committed to Oryx’s service. One of the most powerful ogres ever known, Golgoroth was felled aboard the Dreadnaught by the same brave fireteam that delivered the Taken King his final death.
- Vanguard operatives uncovered that Golgoroth was enlisted as a vessel to both tithe violence directly to Oryx and corrupt hordes of stolen Light from Oryx’s conquests. The ogre’s flesh also served as containment for a Tablet of Ruin.
- Recovered from Golgoroth’s remains, Tablet of Ruin x1.
- The item has been vaulted for proper containment.
- Deciphered Hive apocrypha suggests Golgoroth was fond of flower petals. Daughters of Savathûn would send warriors with petals stuffed beneath their chitin as deathly delights for the Ogre.
-CARETAKER-
Image LinkimgurCLASSIFICATION
- Scorn, Abomination, altered
- Resonant
- Eliksni, former, House unknown
- Worm, altered
- Scale drone swarm
- Overcharged ether blast
- Sacred dematerialization
- Resonant empowerment
- Slain by the intrepid fireteam that stormed the Sunken Pyramid in the fetid Court of Savathûn, the Caretaker is a being of which we know little. It resembles a Scorn Abomination but has been the subject of several experiments and is believed to have been host to a Worm.
- The Caretaker was entrusted with a collection of Wormspawn as well as other entities the Witness and Rhulk had obtained to be analyzed and stored within the Pyramid.
- Reports from fireteams raiding the Sunken Pyramid mention that the Caretaker appears to have been both victim to and overseer of experiments seeking to fuse Worms and Scorn together.
- Multiple fireteams have commented on what appear to be “pet” mutations that are believed to have belonged to the Caretaker. Whether these were rejected experiments or unsanctioned creations isn’t known.
- There is a discrepancy in the number of Wormspawn marked as collected from the Pyramid and those delivered to the Tower’s vault containment. Guardians who have information regarding their whereabouts should submit a report to Vanguard Leadership.
-ATRAKS-1, FALLEN EXO-
“The Wildcard”Image Linkimgur
CLASSIFICATION
- Eliksni
- Exo(s)*
- House Salvation, Baroness
- Ex-House of Devils, Council
- Modified Shock Rifle
- Extinction protocol
- Self-replication
- Teleportation
- Stasis empowerment
- *Exos are humanoid machines that house a living mind. Atraks-1 obtained this technology from a BrayTech station orbiting Europa. Atraks’s mind commands multiples copies of her Exo frame.
- Before converting herr form, Atraks acted as Council to Eramis, Kell of House Salvation for many years. Atraks was entrusted with command of the Deepstone Crypt. She was destroyed by the Guardian fireteam that brought the Morning Star down from orbit.
- Atraks-1 created multiple copies of herself to deceive foes. Fireteams encountering this tactic in the future are advised to locate the original target and focus a simultaneous strike.
- Atraks was at one time seen as a voice of reason, an orator, able to speak to the hearts of the Eliksni youth in House Salvation.
- The Hidden have relayed rumors that a copy of Atraks-1’s mind exists, stored somewhere on Europa. This has yet to be verified.
- At least two of the initial six fireteam members that destroyed Atraks-1 believe they destroyed a clone and that the real Atraks-1 still lives. This is under investigation.
- Atraks-1 was known to prefer synthetic lubricant when undergoing maintenance.
-ZO’AURC, EXPLICATOR OF PLANETS-
Image LinkimgurCLASSIFICATION
- Manufactured
- Cabal Shadow
- Legion Incendior
- Clone
- Cabal magma launcher
- Searing beam (column of flame)
- Magma launcher compression blast
- Paracausal shielding
- Resonant empowerment
- Zo’Aurc is a Cabal clone created by the deposed Emperor Calus and is assigned to a detachment of the Shadow Legion forces aboard the Witness’s personal Pyramid ship.
- According to Vanguard decryption teams, Zo'Aurc, who was granted the title Explicator of Planets, has surveyed a collection of worlds conquered by the Black Fleet for an unknown purpose. Preliminary theories span weighing the worlds for Discipleship to searching for the Veil or a method of contributing to the Final Shape.
- Reports conclude that even the Shadow Legion was not immune to Nezarec’s torment. Zo’Aurc details his own nightmares and more reports of nightmares and violent incidents among his forces.
- Zo’Aurc’s personal logs have been decoded. It seems that, whatever their official goal was, they were personally cataloging worlds that had once been part of the Cabal empire but were no more. ##The Pantheon Bungie Rewards
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The Pantheon Raid Ring features a legendary re-envisioning of our iconic first Raid Ring, launched in 2020. Beyond the striking raid symbol as the focus of the ring, owners will also have a private reminder of the importance of loyalty in the face of adversity. Etched on the inside is a message that reads, “Glory comes easy when you have allies you can trust.” The epitome of strength and camaraderie, The Pantheon Raid Ring stands as a testament to the valor and unity found in the heat of battle. This special Bungie Rewards offer is available for purchase only to players who complete all encounters from any tier of The Pantheon in Destiny 2 by June 3, 2024.
The Godslayer Title Pin will also be available for purchase via Bungie Rewards for players who complete the Godslayer Title by June 3, 2024.
Rahool’s Frequent Decryptor Program
The experience of grinding out new Exotic armor can be a time-consuming process. It can take quite a few runs to get the drop you’re looking for, and many more to get one that has stats that support your build. Besides that, with Exotic armor pieces often forming the backbone of a powerful build, new players are regularly asked to spend a long time tackling challenging content solo before being able to run builds that support the most effective tactics.Luckily, the Econ Team has established a good working relationship with the Tower’s Number One Cryptarch over the last year as we added Exotic armor focusing, and we have managed to help Rahool set up a new promotional program of sorts that makes farming the armor you want more deterministic and less dependent on rotators.
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Starting in The Final Shape, Rahool is going to be the source for any new Exotic armor that we release. When you first talk to Rahool after The Final Shape launch, he will introduce you to a new rewards program tied to his brand-new Reputation Track. The idea is simple: the more you decode engrams with him, the more you increase your reputation with him. Once you completely fill the reputation track once and reset your rank, Rahool will allow you into an elite club, giving you access to a new tier of focusing.
Once you become one of Rahool’s “Engram Ensiders” (he was very proud of the name, so be nice to him), you’ll be able to purchase any piece of Exotic armor for any character on your account for one Exotic engram and one Exotic cipher, in addition to the previous focusing options. Because this is tied to Rahool’s new reputation track, there is no weekly limit to using this tier of focusing; as long as you still have Exotic ciphers and engrams, you can keep rolling armor.
With this change, we are also altering the way that old sources of Exotic armor work. First, Lost Sectors will keep the same drop rates for Exotics but will instead drop engrams whenever they would have previously dropped gear. Neomuna will also still drop new Exotic armor when you complete a Vex Strike Force encounter, but we won’t be adding any more new armor to the drop list after Season of the Wish.
With these changes, we know you’re wondering, “How long will it take to get this newfangled tier of focusing? I’ve got the World’s First Race to prepare for, wot wot!” Without going into the exact numbers, the actions that will give the most reputation will be precision decryption (aka Tier 2 focusing), followed by advanced decryption, then opening an Exotic engram , and last but also least, opening a prime engram. So, if you want to be ready for the Witness’s forces as soon as possible, make sure to stock up on Exotic engrams and Ascendant Shards before June 4, as with a little more than a full stock of Exotic engrams you’ll be able to start focusing new armor.
Shader Icon Revamp
With The Final Shape, we're upgrading the look and design of the shader icon layout. Shaders are a core way a player can provide a unique look and feel to their Guardian, and we wanted to help continue to make that a better experience. Our goal with this update is to help make the shader icons more accurately reflect the colors and textures they will apply.Image Linkimgur
Currently, there are some issues that can make the experience of applying a shader inconsistent. The first being that, while each shader applies six colors, only four are currently shown on the shader icon. This can sometimes result in the shader appearing differently than players may expect from the icon preview.
Adding to this is the fact that all four color sections of the current shader icon are equal in shape and size, making it difficult to distinguish what the main colors will be when applied. There are also many shaders that have unique glows that players strive for, and with the current design, they are not represented. Gambit Jadestone is a great example of this.
Gambit Jadestone Shader Icon - Current
Image Linkimgur
To help address these issues, we've made updates to the shader icon design that includes all six colors for that shader. We are also changing the design in a way that makes the primary colors appear to take more space than the secondary colors for a more accurate representation with most gear items. Glows are also reflected in the updated design so it will be easier to distinguish those shaders within your shader selection screens.
Gambit Jadestone Shader Icon - Updated In The Final Shape
Image Linkimgur
We tested many different design solutions for this goal, and eventually settled on adding a diamond to the center of the current icon design and changing the layout of the color slots on the icon.
We’re hoping these new improvements will offer a better experience for Guardians looking to show off their best looks.
PvP Strike Team Update
Image LinkimgurHello everyone, PvP Strike Team here to talk about Special ammo in the Crucible. Since Update 7.3.5, we’ve been doing a substantial amount of iteration on our Special ammo distribution systems. We’ve tried the meter system in multiple playlists as well as two different versions of the ammo crates system in Competitive, Hardware, and for a limited time in Trials. Some people asked why we are bothering to do this level of experimentation, and we’d like to explain it.
The Respawn System
The original Special ammo distribution system was brought into the game with Forsaken and, combined with allowing players to pick up ammo from defeated opponents, it eventually peaked in a short period of time where Special weapons eclipsed Primary weapons for final blows in Crucible. We walked it back several times, mostly focused on how much ammo you could pick up from bricks on the ground, but we were still left in a position of one-shot kill Special weapons making up a substantial percentage of Crucible final blows and contributing to many of the issues with sandbox readability we have discussed before.
While the respawn system had its issues and we felt there was some room for improvement, it did do a decent job of balancing ammo distribution between high- and low-performing players, with high-performing players on average utilizing Special ammo 1.5-2 times more than low performing players. Similarly, with years of the system in place, the Special weapon meta had solidified nicely. Shotguns were at the top, with around 47% of Special weapon kills. Snipers and Fusions combined to make up 43%, and all the other Special weapons were the remaining 10%.
When investigating changes to the respawn system, it became apparent that we were very limited in terms of how we could tune the system to get the desired effects, and that led us to investigate two additional systems. While we wanted to be able to solve the problem of too many one-hit kills in PvP, it was important to us that the new systems did not introduce new and potentially worse problems.
The Meter System
To understand the meter system, we first need to take you through its development. This system was originally intended to be experimental, utilized only in the temporary Labs mode, Checkmate. It was built using a combination of other existing systems co-opted from various parts of the game that allowed us to do things we could not usually do in Crucible, like retaining the state of the meter between lives and between rounds (an invisible stat on the scoreboard the game reads back every time you respawn), dropping ammo directly onto the player in a transmat (an invisible ammo crate that opens directly above you and then deletes itself), carrying the full amount of ammo over between deaths (utilizing the logic system we use in PvE activities to re-grant you ammo on spawn), and displaying the current progress of the meter (the UI bar borrowed from Exotic weapon and activities buffs).
Reception to the system in Checkmate was mixed, but we saw there was a lot of potential in our first truly “earnable” Special ammo system. Since its introduction, we have iterated on it several times, including earlier this week, and have gotten it into a much more acceptable state. Unfortunately, as the meter system has been exposed to the wider game for an extended period, we have run into two core issues which have required us to continue to look for possible solutions.
Balance Issues – The overall balance of the meter system in the wider sandbox has been concerning. It primarily benefits one player type over all others, with players who routinely perform above average in their lobbies getting the double benefits of having more Special ammo than the respawn system allowed at certain points in the game, while their opponents often have much less. In the meter system, high-performing players are earning Special ammo at 3.5 times the rate of lower-performing players, a delta which has led to many non-high-performing players abandoning Special weapons entirely. In Competitive, for example, with the meter system in use low-performing players were more likely to get kills with Heavy ammo weapons than they were with Special ammo weapons.
The weapon balance has become similarly one-sided, as it promotes Shotguns as the main solution, and all other Special weapons are perceived as no longer useful for most players when in an ammo-limited situation. Under the meter system, Shotguns have more than 76% of Special weapon kills, with Fusions and Snipers reduced to a combined 18%, and the rest of the Special weapons making up only 6%. This has led to a very “rich get richer” meta, where the best performing players and weapons are now even stronger by comparison without having to do anything differently.
Earlier this week we took steps to improve on these issues, but the difficulty we face in a system where Special ammo is almost entirely earned is that we have limited room to close the gap between high and low performers before it functionally becomes "everyone gets Special ammo on a timer," which is something we'd like to avoid.
Technical Issues – Balance problems aside, being built on tech that was not designed to be used in this way has exposed multiple issues that, upon investigation, we determined could not be easily fixed in the meter’s current state. Some things, like being unable to notify opponents that an ammo transmat has occurred or give starting ammo on join-in-progress, are already apparent to players. Other problems, which are far more significant, appear in the backend and affect how we handle several of the processes, impacting our ability to both balance and maintain the system in the long term. Functionally, these combined issues require us to rebuild the meter from the ground up as a new, dedicated system. We feel the system has shown enough merit that this is something we are undertaking for a future release.
The Crates System
As a potential fallback for the meter system, the Special ammo crates system was resurfaced and iterated upon. The crates system has several benefits from a design perspective, including the ability to place crates in key zones around the map to help encourage player movement in non-objective or objective-optional modes and prevent coagulation around a single power position, as well as offering the ability to delay Special weapon pushes in round-based modes.
The crates system has also, based on its time in Competitive and Trials, done some positive things in terms of moving Special ammo distribution closer to healthy values. The delta between high- and low-performing players has moved back to 2.4 times, and it has led to less late-game snowballing, as players who do try to hoard Special ammo lose it upon death. Weapon balance is similarly improved, although not optimal, and there is significantly increased variety with Shotguns coming down to 59% of kills, Fusions and Snipers combining for 28% of kills, and all other Special weapons increasing to 13% of kills.
Ultimately, the crates system in isolation also has several major problems. It can present a frustrating amount of friction between playing the game how you want and playing the game how you need to if you want to run a Special ammo weapon. Additionally, in round-based modes, it is too frictionless to run double Special ammo weapons. It is also the first system we have introduced that allows players to directly influence the Special ammo economy of the opposing team, as controlling most crates can help starve the other team of Special ammo.
From a strategic perspective this is an interesting mechanic, but with no other way to earn Special ammo in gameplay it serves to be more frustrating than fun, and many players have struggled to adapt to the change, causing additional friction when playing in matchmade teams.
The “Blended” 1-1-1 System
Each of the above-listed systems has both positives and negatives. In isolation, each system helps and hurts a different part of the population, but none of them holistically solves the Special ammo problem.
- The respawn system offers a safe distribution of ammo amongst players, and the ease of availability promotes special weapon diversity, but giving two kill’s worth to every player every life also results in far too many one-hit kills for a healthy sandbox.
- The meter system allows players to earn Special ammo in a deterministic way and increases the rate of earning if you’re playing well, which feels rewarding for high-performing players. On the other hand, for low-performing players, it feels significantly worse, and it promotes a homogenous Special weapon meta.
- The crate system allows us to promote movement around the map, alter push timings, reward map control, and give players more direct control over the amount of Special ammo in play for their opponents. It also causes significant friction by forcing conflict with optimal player flows and between matchmade teams, and it allows too much Special ammo in round-based modes.
- Players will respawn each life with one kill worth of Special ammo for their chosen weapon. This serves as a stopgap for players to make sure they are never going long amounts of time with an empty weapon and encourages more players to continue to utilize Special weapons, albeit in a limited fashion. Setting the ammo at one instead of two kill’s worth ensures that there is not a surplus of Special ammo that is available for minimum effort. Spawning with one also functions as a healthy mid-point between spawning with none in the crates system and retaining all ammo with the meter.
- All Primary weapon final blows will drop a personal ammo brick that awards one kill’s worth of Special ammo. This is our deterministic, earnable method of distributing ammo in the blended system until our purpose-built version of the ammo meter is ready. What this means is that any of your final blows with a Primary weapon will drop an ammo brick that only you can pick up, regardless of whether the opponent you defeated had Special ammo on them. Likewise, if you defeat a player who has Special ammo using a Special ammo weapon, that will not drop a brick on the ground, so like the meter system, you cannot use Special to directly earn more Special. We will be initially introducing this specific portion of the system into the Competitive playlist starting next week, to help address player complaints about the economy in those modes.
- Crates will continue to exist, but their icon visibility range on the HUD has been decreased, and they will only provide a single kill’s worth of Special ammo when opened. These crates will continue to serve as points of interest around a map, but it will no longer be a requirement for players to interact with them to partake in the Special ammo system. They will instead function as a small bonus for players who take the time to engage with them and an optional mid-point step for players to gain Special ammo that is more effort than simply respawning with it, but less effort than getting a Primary weapon final blow.
Superblack Shader Now Available
With the final two BRAVE weapons available this week, players will receive the final quests needed to unlock the much-anticipated Superblack shader. Players can unlock the shader by earning the Superblack Key Alpha from Shaxx, and Superblack Key Omega from Arcite 90-40. Using both will grant you access to the Superblack Containment and to the shader. If you’re a Hunter…er…a player of any class, you’ll want to grab this new Shader and look your finest.Player Support Report
Reject modernity. Embrace tradition. Equip Anarchy.Image Linkimgur
Known Issues List Help Forums Bungie Help Twitter
WINDOWS 7 AND 8 SUPPORT
Beginning on June 4, 2024, Destiny 2 is ending support for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 operating systems. This decision is to align with Steam and Microsoft ending support for these systems.
Destiny 2 may continue running on these older operating systems after June 4, 2024, but we are unable to guarantee continued functionality after that date.
Players using these operating systems to play Destiny 2 are urged to upgrade to a more recent version of Windows or move to another platform so that their playtime won't be interrupted.
For more information, please view our Windows 7 and 8 Support article.
PANTHEON CHECKPOINTS
Due to an issue preventing players from progressing in The Pantheon when joining at a checkpoint, we have disabled checkpoints for The Caretaker and Zo'aurc, Explicator of Planets. We are attempting to resolve this issue as soon as possible and will provide an update when we have more information to share.
ARCHIE QUEST INFORMATION
We've seen confusion surrounding the weekly Archie Hunt quests and wanted to offer clarification. These quests are only intended to be available for one week each and were made with this time limit in mind. We understand that this is not ideal for all players, which is why we made the shader available for one completion for any of the weekly quests. The lore attached to these triumphs will become available to all players when The Final Shape launches on June 4.
KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:
- In Onslaught, players may be teleported back to the incorrect ADU location after completing certain phases.
- The ADU in Onslaught can occasionally despawn.
- On rare occasions, the Spark in Onslaught can be lost.
- The portal to leave a boss phase in Onslaught will sometimes not open when killing a boss too quickly.
- BRAVE weapons The Recluse and Hammerhead don’t highlight enemies like their previous models.
Titan Smash(ed)
Image LinkimgurTo be a Titan is to live and die by the melee, even if that means a gruesome but spectacular death.
Movie of the Week:
[
Image Linkimgur](https://www.reddit.com/destiny2/comments/1c8ve7a/the_most_titan_way_to_die/)
Final God Of Pain
Image LinkimgurFor a Final God of Pain, Nezarec is pretty stylish and colorful. Probably because we are not sharing that Superblack shader with him.
Art of the Week: AliveWake via TwitteX
Image Linkimgur
We’ll be back next week with another TWID. Until then, be good to each other, and thanks for hanging out with us.
Destiny 2 Community Team
2024.05.02 20:07 DTG_Bot This Week In Destiny 05/02/2024
Source: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/twid-05-02-2024
This week in Destiny we’re fine tuning our PvP loadouts. We’ve got three new beautiful Crucible maps coming next week, and we want to make sure we’re ready. So, grab that Rose you’ve been dominating with, and let’s get into it.
This week topics:
With only a few days until their release, we wanted to take a final look at these maps from a slightly different angle. That's why we partnered with our favorite community cartographer, Relikt, to develop callout map overviews. We've been fans of his callout maps for years, and we are thrilled to work with him on this new set of Crucible maps. Let’s jump in and take a look!
Image Linkimgur
Image Linkimgur
With initial spawns near point A at the Warehouse and near point C at the Ice Caves, players will make their way to contest the Servitor area that holds point B and a valuable Heavy ammo crate. But be careful! While the interior of the map by the Promenade and Upper Glacial is more closer-quarters battle focused, a handful of longer sight lines in the space between Air Dock and Loading Bay means you’ll have to ensure that you approach carefully, or you may be on the wrong side of a Sniper Rifle.
Image Linkimgur
Image Linkimgur
There are four distinct areas on Cirrus Plaza with the Arcade, Restaurant, Aquarium, and Atrium. Players will spawn in the Arcade near point A and the Restaurant near point C. The Atrium will be an area of interest, as players will seek the Heavy ammo crate that spawns in the middle and battle to earn the valuable high ground. However, with sight lines spanning multiple floors and players battling for point B nearby, Guardians will need to get in and out quickly or ensure they have teammates watching their back.
Image Linkimgur
Image Linkimgur
With initial spawn points near the Fossils at point A and the Sigil at point C, the map offers somewhat direct paths through the middle, where players will be drawn to Orbits to engage in heated brawls over the Heavy ammo and across the bottom of the map towards point B.
Additionally, while New Territory is the designated playlist for the new maps, the maps will be available in other playlists and the private lobby as usual.
Lastly, New Territory will be available until the end of the Season, at which point any player who engaged in the playlist will be awarded with the new Slaycation emblem!
Slaycation
Image Linkimgur
VANGUARD – GUARDIAN DISPATCH – ALL POINTS BULLETIN
DEFENDERS OF THE CITY,
You are tasked with the elimination of the following targets:
CLASSIFICATION
CLASSIFICATION
Image Linkimgur
CLASSIFICATION
CLASSIFICATION
Image Linkimgur
The Pantheon Raid Ring features a legendary re-envisioning of our iconic first Raid Ring, launched in 2020. Beyond the striking raid symbol as the focus of the ring, owners will also have a private reminder of the importance of loyalty in the face of adversity. Etched on the inside is a message that reads, “Glory comes easy when you have allies you can trust.” The epitome of strength and camaraderie, The Pantheon Raid Ring stands as a testament to the valor and unity found in the heat of battle. This special Bungie Rewards offer is available for purchase only to players who complete all encounters from any tier of The Pantheon in Destiny 2 by June 3, 2024.
The Godslayer Title Pin will also be available for purchase via Bungie Rewards for players who complete the Godslayer Title by June 3, 2024.
Luckily, the Econ Team has established a good working relationship with the Tower’s Number One Cryptarch over the last year as we added Exotic armor focusing, and we have managed to help Rahool set up a new promotional program of sorts that makes farming the armor you want more deterministic and less dependent on rotators.
Image Linkimgur
Starting in The Final Shape, Rahool is going to be the source for any new Exotic armor that we release. When you first talk to Rahool after The Final Shape launch, he will introduce you to a new rewards program tied to his brand-new Reputation Track. The idea is simple: the more you decode engrams with him, the more you increase your reputation with him. Once you completely fill the reputation track once and reset your rank, Rahool will allow you into an elite club, giving you access to a new tier of focusing.
Once you become one of Rahool’s “Engram Ensiders” (he was very proud of the name, so be nice to him), you’ll be able to purchase any piece of Exotic armor for any character on your account for one Exotic engram and one Exotic cipher, in addition to the previous focusing options. Because this is tied to Rahool’s new reputation track, there is no weekly limit to using this tier of focusing; as long as you still have Exotic ciphers and engrams, you can keep rolling armor.
With this change, we are also altering the way that old sources of Exotic armor work. First, Lost Sectors will keep the same drop rates for Exotics but will instead drop engrams whenever they would have previously dropped gear. Neomuna will also still drop new Exotic armor when you complete a Vex Strike Force encounter, but we won’t be adding any more new armor to the drop list after Season of the Wish.
With these changes, we know you’re wondering, “How long will it take to get this newfangled tier of focusing? I’ve got the World’s First Race to prepare for, wot wot!” Without going into the exact numbers, the actions that will give the most reputation will be precision decryption (aka Tier 2 focusing), followed by advanced decryption, then opening an Exotic engram , and last but also least, opening a prime engram. So, if you want to be ready for the Witness’s forces as soon as possible, make sure to stock up on Exotic engrams and Ascendant Shards before June 4, as with a little more than a full stock of Exotic engrams you’ll be able to start focusing new armor.
Image Linkimgur
Currently, there are some issues that can make the experience of applying a shader inconsistent. The first being that, while each shader applies six colors, only four are currently shown on the shader icon. This can sometimes result in the shader appearing differently than players may expect from the icon preview.
Adding to this is the fact that all four color sections of the current shader icon are equal in shape and size, making it difficult to distinguish what the main colors will be when applied. There are also many shaders that have unique glows that players strive for, and with the current design, they are not represented. Gambit Jadestone is a great example of this.
Gambit Jadestone Shader Icon - Current
Image Linkimgur
To help address these issues, we've made updates to the shader icon design that includes all six colors for that shader. We are also changing the design in a way that makes the primary colors appear to take more space than the secondary colors for a more accurate representation with most gear items. Glows are also reflected in the updated design so it will be easier to distinguish those shaders within your shader selection screens.
Gambit Jadestone Shader Icon - Updated In The Final Shape
Image Linkimgur
We tested many different design solutions for this goal, and eventually settled on adding a diamond to the center of the current icon design and changing the layout of the color slots on the icon.
We’re hoping these new improvements will offer a better experience for Guardians looking to show off their best looks.
Hello everyone, PvP Strike Team here to talk about Special ammo in the Crucible. Since Update 7.3.5, we’ve been doing a substantial amount of iteration on our Special ammo distribution systems. We’ve tried the meter system in multiple playlists as well as two different versions of the ammo crates system in Competitive, Hardware, and for a limited time in Trials. Some people asked why we are bothering to do this level of experimentation, and we’d like to explain it.
The Respawn System
The original Special ammo distribution system was brought into the game with Forsaken and, combined with allowing players to pick up ammo from defeated opponents, it eventually peaked in a short period of time where Special weapons eclipsed Primary weapons for final blows in Crucible. We walked it back several times, mostly focused on how much ammo you could pick up from bricks on the ground, but we were still left in a position of one-shot kill Special weapons making up a substantial percentage of Crucible final blows and contributing to many of the issues with sandbox readability we have discussed before.
While the respawn system had its issues and we felt there was some room for improvement, it did do a decent job of balancing ammo distribution between high- and low-performing players, with high-performing players on average utilizing Special ammo 1.5-2 times more than low performing players. Similarly, with years of the system in place, the Special weapon meta had solidified nicely. Shotguns were at the top, with around 47% of Special weapon kills. Snipers and Fusions combined to make up 43%, and all the other Special weapons were the remaining 10%.
When investigating changes to the respawn system, it became apparent that we were very limited in terms of how we could tune the system to get the desired effects, and that led us to investigate two additional systems. While we wanted to be able to solve the problem of too many one-hit kills in PvP, it was important to us that the new systems did not introduce new and potentially worse problems.
The Meter System
To understand the meter system, we first need to take you through its development. This system was originally intended to be experimental, utilized only in the temporary Labs mode, Checkmate. It was built using a combination of other existing systems co-opted from various parts of the game that allowed us to do things we could not usually do in Crucible, like retaining the state of the meter between lives and between rounds (an invisible stat on the scoreboard the game reads back every time you respawn), dropping ammo directly onto the player in a transmat (an invisible ammo crate that opens directly above you and then deletes itself), carrying the full amount of ammo over between deaths (utilizing the logic system we use in PvE activities to re-grant you ammo on spawn), and displaying the current progress of the meter (the UI bar borrowed from Exotic weapon and activities buffs).
Reception to the system in Checkmate was mixed, but we saw there was a lot of potential in our first truly “earnable” Special ammo system. Since its introduction, we have iterated on it several times, including earlier this week, and have gotten it into a much more acceptable state. Unfortunately, as the meter system has been exposed to the wider game for an extended period, we have run into two core issues which have required us to continue to look for possible solutions.
Balance Issues – The overall balance of the meter system in the wider sandbox has been concerning. It primarily benefits one player type over all others, with players who routinely perform above average in their lobbies getting the double benefits of having more Special ammo than the respawn system allowed at certain points in the game, while their opponents often have much less. In the meter system, high-performing players are earning Special ammo at 3.5 times the rate of lower-performing players, a delta which has led to many non-high-performing players abandoning Special weapons entirely. In Competitive, for example, with the meter system in use low-performing players were more likely to get kills with Heavy ammo weapons than they were with Special ammo weapons.
The weapon balance has become similarly one-sided, as it promotes Shotguns as the main solution, and all other Special weapons are perceived as no longer useful for most players when in an ammo-limited situation. Under the meter system, Shotguns have more than 76% of Special weapon kills, with Fusions and Snipers reduced to a combined 18%, and the rest of the Special weapons making up only 6%. This has led to a very “rich get richer” meta, where the best performing players and weapons are now even stronger by comparison without having to do anything differently.
Earlier this week we took steps to improve on these issues, but the difficulty we face in a system where Special ammo is almost entirely earned is that we have limited room to close the gap between high and low performers before it functionally becomes "everyone gets Special ammo on a timer," which is something we'd like to avoid.
Technical Issues – Balance problems aside, being built on tech that was not designed to be used in this way has exposed multiple issues that, upon investigation, we determined could not be easily fixed in the meter’s current state. Some things, like being unable to notify opponents that an ammo transmat has occurred or give starting ammo on join-in-progress, are already apparent to players. Other problems, which are far more significant, appear in the backend and affect how we handle several of the processes, impacting our ability to both balance and maintain the system in the long term. Functionally, these combined issues require us to rebuild the meter from the ground up as a new, dedicated system. We feel the system has shown enough merit that this is something we are undertaking for a future release.
The Crates System
As a potential fallback for the meter system, the Special ammo crates system was resurfaced and iterated upon. The crates system has several benefits from a design perspective, including the ability to place crates in key zones around the map to help encourage player movement in non-objective or objective-optional modes and prevent coagulation around a single power position, as well as offering the ability to delay Special weapon pushes in round-based modes.
The crates system has also, based on its time in Competitive and Trials, done some positive things in terms of moving Special ammo distribution closer to healthy values. The delta between high- and low-performing players has moved back to 2.4 times, and it has led to less late-game snowballing, as players who do try to hoard Special ammo lose it upon death. Weapon balance is similarly improved, although not optimal, and there is significantly increased variety with Shotguns coming down to 59% of kills, Fusions and Snipers combining for 28% of kills, and all other Special weapons increasing to 13% of kills.
Ultimately, the crates system in isolation also has several major problems. It can present a frustrating amount of friction between playing the game how you want and playing the game how you need to if you want to run a Special ammo weapon. Additionally, in round-based modes, it is too frictionless to run double Special ammo weapons. It is also the first system we have introduced that allows players to directly influence the Special ammo economy of the opposing team, as controlling most crates can help starve the other team of Special ammo.
From a strategic perspective this is an interesting mechanic, but with no other way to earn Special ammo in gameplay it serves to be more frustrating than fun, and many players have struggled to adapt to the change, causing additional friction when playing in matchmade teams.
The “Blended” 1-1-1 System
Each of the above-listed systems has both positives and negatives. In isolation, each system helps and hurts a different part of the population, but none of them holistically solves the Special ammo problem.
Image Linkimgur
Known Issues List Help Forums Bungie Help Twitter
WINDOWS 7 AND 8 SUPPORT
Beginning on June 4, 2024, Destiny 2 is ending support for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 operating systems. This decision is to align with Steam and Microsoft ending support for these systems.
Destiny 2 may continue running on these older operating systems after June 4, 2024, but we are unable to guarantee continued functionality after that date.
Players using these operating systems to play Destiny 2 are urged to upgrade to a more recent version of Windows or move to another platform so that their playtime won't be interrupted.
For more information, please view our Windows 7 and 8 Support article.
PANTHEON CHECKPOINTS
Due to an issue preventing players from progressing in The Pantheon when joining at a checkpoint, we have disabled checkpoints for The Caretaker and Zo'aurc, Explicator of Planets. We are attempting to resolve this issue as soon as possible and will provide an update when we have more information to share.
ARCHIE QUEST INFORMATION
We've seen confusion surrounding the weekly Archie Hunt quests and wanted to offer clarification. These quests are only intended to be available for one week each and were made with this time limit in mind. We understand that this is not ideal for all players, which is why we made the shader available for one completion for any of the weekly quests. The lore attached to these triumphs will become available to all players when The Final Shape launches on June 4.
KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:
To be a Titan is to live and die by the melee, even if that means a gruesome but spectacular death.
Movie of the Week:
[
Image Linkimgur](https://www.reddit.com/destiny2/comments/1c8ve7a/the_most_titan_way_to_die/)
For a Final God of Pain, Nezarec is pretty stylish and colorful. Probably because we are not sharing that Superblack shader with him.
Art of the Week: AliveWake via TwitteX
Image Linkimgur
That’s everything we have for this week. Hopefully you’re enjoying The Pantheon so far. Remember, this is only the first wave of bosses and more are on the way. It only gets more fun from here. And we swear that wasn’t an evil laugh we were stifling, it was just…a cough. cough
We’ll be back next week with another TWID. Until then, be good to each other, and thanks for hanging out with us.
Destiny 2 Community Team
submitted by DTG_Bot to DestinyTheGame [link] [comments]
This week topics:
- PVP map pack launch.
- The Pantheon boss profiles.
- The Pantheon Bungie Rewards.
- New Rahool reputation and Exotic system.
- The Final Shape shader icon revamp.
- PvP Strike Team update.
- Superblack shader now available.
- Windows 7 and 8 deprecation. ##PvP Map Pack Launch
With only a few days until their release, we wanted to take a final look at these maps from a slightly different angle. That's why we partnered with our favorite community cartographer, Relikt, to develop callout map overviews. We've been fans of his callout maps for years, and we are thrilled to work with him on this new set of Crucible maps. Let’s jump in and take a look!
Eventide Labs
Eventide Labs is set in a long-forgotten human colony research outpost on Europa that Eramis chose to use as a refueling station.Image Linkimgur
Image Linkimgur
With initial spawns near point A at the Warehouse and near point C at the Ice Caves, players will make their way to contest the Servitor area that holds point B and a valuable Heavy ammo crate. But be careful! While the interior of the map by the Promenade and Upper Glacial is more closer-quarters battle focused, a handful of longer sight lines in the space between Air Dock and Loading Bay means you’ll have to ensure that you approach carefully, or you may be on the wrong side of a Sniper Rifle.
Cirrus Plaza
Our next map takes us to Neptune. Cirrus Plaza is set in a shopping and entertainment center on Neomuna.Image Linkimgur
Image Linkimgur
There are four distinct areas on Cirrus Plaza with the Arcade, Restaurant, Aquarium, and Atrium. Players will spawn in the Arcade near point A and the Restaurant near point C. The Atrium will be an area of interest, as players will seek the Heavy ammo crate that spawns in the middle and battle to earn the valuable high ground. However, with sight lines spanning multiple floors and players battling for point B nearby, Guardians will need to get in and out quickly or ensure they have teammates watching their back.
Dissonance
If you’ve always wanted to PvP on a terraformed Pyramid ship , then we’ve got you covered. Equal parts beautiful and haunting, Dissonance is set on the Witness’s former ship, Essence, which was terraformed by the Traveler.Image Linkimgur
Image Linkimgur
With initial spawn points near the Fossils at point A and the Sigil at point C, the map offers somewhat direct paths through the middle, where players will be drawn to Orbits to engage in heated brawls over the Heavy ammo and across the bottom of the map towards point B.
New Territory
When these maps arrive on May 7, they’ll be on a separate 3v3 playlist called "New Territory," so you can enjoy the new experience these maps offer on demand. The playlist will replace the 3v3 Quickplay node and feature the three new maps with the following game modes: Survival, Elimination, Clash, and Collision. Be sure to pick up the introductory quest from Shaxx for more details on the maps and playlist.Additionally, while New Territory is the designated playlist for the new maps, the maps will be available in other playlists and the private lobby as usual.
Lastly, New Territory will be available until the end of the Season, at which point any player who engaged in the playlist will be awarded with the new Slaycation emblem!
Slaycation
Image Linkimgur
The Pantheon Boss Deep Dive
The Pantheon is upon us. The new PvE raid gauntlet opened this week featuring four bosses as part of the first wave. With more bosses on the way each week, we wanted to take a moment to highlight the targets you’ve been tasked with taking down. We’ve got the details to ensure you know thy enemies well.DEFENDERS OF THE CITY,
You are tasked with the elimination of the following targets:
-GOLGOROTH-
Image LinkimgurCLASSIFICATION
- Hive
- Blood of Oryx
- Ogre
- Worm
- Void eye beam
- Venomous gaze
- Unstable Light
- Monstrous strength and durability
- Ogres are forged -- through tortuous trials and dark rituals -- from corrupted and deformed Thralls known as Unborn. They know only pain and are conditioned to hate and despise the Light.
- Golgoroth is a Hive Ogre, infested with burrowing parasites related to the Worm gods and committed to Oryx’s service. One of the most powerful ogres ever known, Golgoroth was felled aboard the Dreadnaught by the same brave fireteam that delivered the Taken King his final death.
- Vanguard operatives uncovered that Golgoroth was enlisted as a vessel to both tithe violence directly to Oryx and corrupt hordes of stolen Light from Oryx’s conquests. The ogre’s flesh also served as containment for a Tablet of Ruin.
- Recovered from Golgoroth’s remains, Tablet of Ruin x1.
- The item has been vaulted for proper containment.
- Deciphered Hive apocrypha suggests Golgoroth was fond of flower petals. Daughters of Savathûn would send warriors with petals stuffed beneath their chitin as deathly delights for the Ogre.
-CARETAKER-
Image LinkimgurCLASSIFICATION
- Scorn, Abomination, altered
- Resonant
- Eliksni, former, House unknown
- Worm, altered
- Scale drone swarm
- Overcharged ether blast
- Sacred dematerialization
- Resonant empowerment
- Slain by the intrepid fireteam that stormed the Sunken Pyramid in the fetid Court of Savathûn, the Caretaker is a being of which we know little. It resembles a Scorn Abomination but has been the subject of several experiments and is believed to have been host to a Worm.
- The Caretaker was entrusted with a collection of Wormspawn as well as other entities the Witness and Rhulk had obtained to be analyzed and stored within the Pyramid.
- Reports from fireteams raiding the Sunken Pyramid mention that the Caretaker appears to have been both victim to and overseer of experiments seeking to fuse Worms and Scorn together.
- Multiple fireteams have commented on what appear to be “pet” mutations that are believed to have belonged to the Caretaker. Whether these were rejected experiments or unsanctioned creations isn’t known.
- There is a discrepancy in the number of Wormspawn marked as collected from the Pyramid and those delivered to the Tower’s vault containment. Guardians who have information regarding their whereabouts should submit a report to Vanguard Leadership.
-ATRAKS-1, FALLEN EXO-
“The Wildcard”Image Linkimgur
CLASSIFICATION
- Eliksni
- Exo(s)*
- House Salvation, Baroness
- Ex-House of Devils, Council
- Modified Shock Rifle
- Extinction protocol
- Self-replication
- Teleportation
- Stasis empowerment
- *Exos are humanoid machines that house a living mind. Atraks-1 obtained this technology from a BrayTech station orbiting Europa. Atraks’s mind commands multiples copies of her Exo frame.
- Before converting herr form, Atraks acted as Council to Eramis, Kell of House Salvation for many years. Atraks was entrusted with command of the Deepstone Crypt. She was destroyed by the Guardian fireteam that brought the Morning Star down from orbit.
- Atraks-1 created multiple copies of herself to deceive foes. Fireteams encountering this tactic in the future are advised to locate the original target and focus a simultaneous strike.
- Atraks was at one time seen as a voice of reason, an orator, able to speak to the hearts of the Eliksni youth in House Salvation.
- The Hidden have relayed rumors that a copy of Atraks-1’s mind exists, stored somewhere on Europa. This has yet to be verified.
- At least two of the initial six fireteam members that destroyed Atraks-1 believe they destroyed a clone and that the real Atraks-1 still lives. This is under investigation.
- Atraks-1 was known to prefer synthetic lubricant when undergoing maintenance.
-ZO’AURC, EXPLICATOR OF PLANETS-
Image LinkimgurCLASSIFICATION
- Manufactured
- Cabal Shadow
- Legion Incendior
- Clone
- Cabal magma launcher
- Searing beam (column of flame)
- Magma launcher compression blast
- Paracausal shielding
- Resonant empowerment
- Zo’Aurc is a Cabal clone created by the deposed Emperor Calus and is assigned to a detachment of the Shadow Legion forces aboard the Witness’s personal Pyramid ship.
- According to Vanguard decryption teams, Zo'Aurc, who was granted the title Explicator of Planets, has surveyed a collection of worlds conquered by the Black Fleet for an unknown purpose. Preliminary theories span weighing the worlds for Discipleship to searching for the Veil or a method of contributing to the Final Shape.
- Reports conclude that even the Shadow Legion was not immune to Nezarec’s torment. Zo’Aurc details his own nightmares and more reports of nightmares and violent incidents among his forces.
- Zo’Aurc’s personal logs have been decoded. It seems that, whatever their official goal was, they were personally cataloging worlds that had once been part of the Cabal empire but were no more. ##The Pantheon Bungie Rewards
Image Linkimgur
The Pantheon Raid Ring features a legendary re-envisioning of our iconic first Raid Ring, launched in 2020. Beyond the striking raid symbol as the focus of the ring, owners will also have a private reminder of the importance of loyalty in the face of adversity. Etched on the inside is a message that reads, “Glory comes easy when you have allies you can trust.” The epitome of strength and camaraderie, The Pantheon Raid Ring stands as a testament to the valor and unity found in the heat of battle. This special Bungie Rewards offer is available for purchase only to players who complete all encounters from any tier of The Pantheon in Destiny 2 by June 3, 2024.
The Godslayer Title Pin will also be available for purchase via Bungie Rewards for players who complete the Godslayer Title by June 3, 2024.
Rahool’s Frequent Decryptor Program
The experience of grinding out new Exotic armor can be a time-consuming process. It can take quite a few runs to get the drop you’re looking for, and many more to get one that has stats that support your build. Besides that, with Exotic armor pieces often forming the backbone of a powerful build, new players are regularly asked to spend a long time tackling challenging content solo before being able to run builds that support the most effective tactics.Luckily, the Econ Team has established a good working relationship with the Tower’s Number One Cryptarch over the last year as we added Exotic armor focusing, and we have managed to help Rahool set up a new promotional program of sorts that makes farming the armor you want more deterministic and less dependent on rotators.
Image Linkimgur
Starting in The Final Shape, Rahool is going to be the source for any new Exotic armor that we release. When you first talk to Rahool after The Final Shape launch, he will introduce you to a new rewards program tied to his brand-new Reputation Track. The idea is simple: the more you decode engrams with him, the more you increase your reputation with him. Once you completely fill the reputation track once and reset your rank, Rahool will allow you into an elite club, giving you access to a new tier of focusing.
Once you become one of Rahool’s “Engram Ensiders” (he was very proud of the name, so be nice to him), you’ll be able to purchase any piece of Exotic armor for any character on your account for one Exotic engram and one Exotic cipher, in addition to the previous focusing options. Because this is tied to Rahool’s new reputation track, there is no weekly limit to using this tier of focusing; as long as you still have Exotic ciphers and engrams, you can keep rolling armor.
With this change, we are also altering the way that old sources of Exotic armor work. First, Lost Sectors will keep the same drop rates for Exotics but will instead drop engrams whenever they would have previously dropped gear. Neomuna will also still drop new Exotic armor when you complete a Vex Strike Force encounter, but we won’t be adding any more new armor to the drop list after Season of the Wish.
With these changes, we know you’re wondering, “How long will it take to get this newfangled tier of focusing? I’ve got the World’s First Race to prepare for, wot wot!” Without going into the exact numbers, the actions that will give the most reputation will be precision decryption (aka Tier 2 focusing), followed by advanced decryption, then opening an Exotic engram , and last but also least, opening a prime engram. So, if you want to be ready for the Witness’s forces as soon as possible, make sure to stock up on Exotic engrams and Ascendant Shards before June 4, as with a little more than a full stock of Exotic engrams you’ll be able to start focusing new armor.
Shader Icon Revamp
With The Final Shape, we're upgrading the look and design of the shader icon layout. Shaders are a core way a player can provide a unique look and feel to their Guardian, and we wanted to help continue to make that a better experience. Our goal with this update is to help make the shader icons more accurately reflect the colors and textures they will apply.Image Linkimgur
Currently, there are some issues that can make the experience of applying a shader inconsistent. The first being that, while each shader applies six colors, only four are currently shown on the shader icon. This can sometimes result in the shader appearing differently than players may expect from the icon preview.
Adding to this is the fact that all four color sections of the current shader icon are equal in shape and size, making it difficult to distinguish what the main colors will be when applied. There are also many shaders that have unique glows that players strive for, and with the current design, they are not represented. Gambit Jadestone is a great example of this.
Gambit Jadestone Shader Icon - Current
Image Linkimgur
To help address these issues, we've made updates to the shader icon design that includes all six colors for that shader. We are also changing the design in a way that makes the primary colors appear to take more space than the secondary colors for a more accurate representation with most gear items. Glows are also reflected in the updated design so it will be easier to distinguish those shaders within your shader selection screens.
Gambit Jadestone Shader Icon - Updated In The Final Shape
Image Linkimgur
We tested many different design solutions for this goal, and eventually settled on adding a diamond to the center of the current icon design and changing the layout of the color slots on the icon.
We’re hoping these new improvements will offer a better experience for Guardians looking to show off their best looks.
PvP Strike Team Update
Image LinkimgurHello everyone, PvP Strike Team here to talk about Special ammo in the Crucible. Since Update 7.3.5, we’ve been doing a substantial amount of iteration on our Special ammo distribution systems. We’ve tried the meter system in multiple playlists as well as two different versions of the ammo crates system in Competitive, Hardware, and for a limited time in Trials. Some people asked why we are bothering to do this level of experimentation, and we’d like to explain it.
The Respawn System
The original Special ammo distribution system was brought into the game with Forsaken and, combined with allowing players to pick up ammo from defeated opponents, it eventually peaked in a short period of time where Special weapons eclipsed Primary weapons for final blows in Crucible. We walked it back several times, mostly focused on how much ammo you could pick up from bricks on the ground, but we were still left in a position of one-shot kill Special weapons making up a substantial percentage of Crucible final blows and contributing to many of the issues with sandbox readability we have discussed before.
While the respawn system had its issues and we felt there was some room for improvement, it did do a decent job of balancing ammo distribution between high- and low-performing players, with high-performing players on average utilizing Special ammo 1.5-2 times more than low performing players. Similarly, with years of the system in place, the Special weapon meta had solidified nicely. Shotguns were at the top, with around 47% of Special weapon kills. Snipers and Fusions combined to make up 43%, and all the other Special weapons were the remaining 10%.
When investigating changes to the respawn system, it became apparent that we were very limited in terms of how we could tune the system to get the desired effects, and that led us to investigate two additional systems. While we wanted to be able to solve the problem of too many one-hit kills in PvP, it was important to us that the new systems did not introduce new and potentially worse problems.
The Meter System
To understand the meter system, we first need to take you through its development. This system was originally intended to be experimental, utilized only in the temporary Labs mode, Checkmate. It was built using a combination of other existing systems co-opted from various parts of the game that allowed us to do things we could not usually do in Crucible, like retaining the state of the meter between lives and between rounds (an invisible stat on the scoreboard the game reads back every time you respawn), dropping ammo directly onto the player in a transmat (an invisible ammo crate that opens directly above you and then deletes itself), carrying the full amount of ammo over between deaths (utilizing the logic system we use in PvE activities to re-grant you ammo on spawn), and displaying the current progress of the meter (the UI bar borrowed from Exotic weapon and activities buffs).
Reception to the system in Checkmate was mixed, but we saw there was a lot of potential in our first truly “earnable” Special ammo system. Since its introduction, we have iterated on it several times, including earlier this week, and have gotten it into a much more acceptable state. Unfortunately, as the meter system has been exposed to the wider game for an extended period, we have run into two core issues which have required us to continue to look for possible solutions.
Balance Issues – The overall balance of the meter system in the wider sandbox has been concerning. It primarily benefits one player type over all others, with players who routinely perform above average in their lobbies getting the double benefits of having more Special ammo than the respawn system allowed at certain points in the game, while their opponents often have much less. In the meter system, high-performing players are earning Special ammo at 3.5 times the rate of lower-performing players, a delta which has led to many non-high-performing players abandoning Special weapons entirely. In Competitive, for example, with the meter system in use low-performing players were more likely to get kills with Heavy ammo weapons than they were with Special ammo weapons.
The weapon balance has become similarly one-sided, as it promotes Shotguns as the main solution, and all other Special weapons are perceived as no longer useful for most players when in an ammo-limited situation. Under the meter system, Shotguns have more than 76% of Special weapon kills, with Fusions and Snipers reduced to a combined 18%, and the rest of the Special weapons making up only 6%. This has led to a very “rich get richer” meta, where the best performing players and weapons are now even stronger by comparison without having to do anything differently.
Earlier this week we took steps to improve on these issues, but the difficulty we face in a system where Special ammo is almost entirely earned is that we have limited room to close the gap between high and low performers before it functionally becomes "everyone gets Special ammo on a timer," which is something we'd like to avoid.
Technical Issues – Balance problems aside, being built on tech that was not designed to be used in this way has exposed multiple issues that, upon investigation, we determined could not be easily fixed in the meter’s current state. Some things, like being unable to notify opponents that an ammo transmat has occurred or give starting ammo on join-in-progress, are already apparent to players. Other problems, which are far more significant, appear in the backend and affect how we handle several of the processes, impacting our ability to both balance and maintain the system in the long term. Functionally, these combined issues require us to rebuild the meter from the ground up as a new, dedicated system. We feel the system has shown enough merit that this is something we are undertaking for a future release.
The Crates System
As a potential fallback for the meter system, the Special ammo crates system was resurfaced and iterated upon. The crates system has several benefits from a design perspective, including the ability to place crates in key zones around the map to help encourage player movement in non-objective or objective-optional modes and prevent coagulation around a single power position, as well as offering the ability to delay Special weapon pushes in round-based modes.
The crates system has also, based on its time in Competitive and Trials, done some positive things in terms of moving Special ammo distribution closer to healthy values. The delta between high- and low-performing players has moved back to 2.4 times, and it has led to less late-game snowballing, as players who do try to hoard Special ammo lose it upon death. Weapon balance is similarly improved, although not optimal, and there is significantly increased variety with Shotguns coming down to 59% of kills, Fusions and Snipers combining for 28% of kills, and all other Special weapons increasing to 13% of kills.
Ultimately, the crates system in isolation also has several major problems. It can present a frustrating amount of friction between playing the game how you want and playing the game how you need to if you want to run a Special ammo weapon. Additionally, in round-based modes, it is too frictionless to run double Special ammo weapons. It is also the first system we have introduced that allows players to directly influence the Special ammo economy of the opposing team, as controlling most crates can help starve the other team of Special ammo.
From a strategic perspective this is an interesting mechanic, but with no other way to earn Special ammo in gameplay it serves to be more frustrating than fun, and many players have struggled to adapt to the change, causing additional friction when playing in matchmade teams.
The “Blended” 1-1-1 System
Each of the above-listed systems has both positives and negatives. In isolation, each system helps and hurts a different part of the population, but none of them holistically solves the Special ammo problem.
- The respawn system offers a safe distribution of ammo amongst players, and the ease of availability promotes special weapon diversity, but giving two kill’s worth to every player every life also results in far too many one-hit kills for a healthy sandbox.
- The meter system allows players to earn Special ammo in a deterministic way and increases the rate of earning if you’re playing well, which feels rewarding for high-performing players. On the other hand, for low-performing players, it feels significantly worse, and it promotes a homogenous Special weapon meta.
- The crate system allows us to promote movement around the map, alter push timings, reward map control, and give players more direct control over the amount of Special ammo in play for their opponents. It also causes significant friction by forcing conflict with optimal player flows and between matchmade teams, and it allows too much Special ammo in round-based modes.
- Players will respawn each life with one kill worth of Special ammo for their chosen weapon. This serves as a stopgap for players to make sure they are never going long amounts of time with an empty weapon and encourages more players to continue to utilize Special weapons, albeit in a limited fashion. Setting the ammo at one instead of two kill’s worth ensures that there is not a surplus of Special ammo that is available for minimum effort. Spawning with one also functions as a healthy mid-point between spawning with none in the crates system and retaining all ammo with the meter.
- All Primary weapon final blows will drop a personal ammo brick that awards one kill’s worth of Special ammo. This is our deterministic, earnable method of distributing ammo in the blended system until our purpose-built version of the ammo meter is ready. What this means is that any of your final blows with a Primary weapon will drop an ammo brick that only you can pick up, regardless of whether the opponent you defeated had Special ammo on them. Likewise, if you defeat a player who has Special ammo using a Special ammo weapon, that will not drop a brick on the ground, so like the meter system, you cannot use Special to directly earn more Special. We will be initially introducing this specific portion of the system into the Competitive playlist starting next week, to help address player complaints about the economy in those modes.
- Crates will continue to exist, but their icon visibility range on the HUD has been decreased, and they will only provide a single kill’s worth of Special ammo when opened. These crates will continue to serve as points of interest around a map, but it will no longer be a requirement for players to interact with them to partake in the Special ammo system. They will instead function as a small bonus for players who take the time to engage with them and an optional mid-point step for players to gain Special ammo that is more effort than simply respawning with it, but less effort than getting a Primary weapon final blow.
Superblack Shader Now Available
With the final two BRAVE weapons available this week, players will receive the final quests needed to unlock the much-anticipated Superblack shader. Players can unlock the shader by earning the Superblack Key Alpha from Shaxx, and Superblack Key Omega from Arcite 90-40. Using both will grant you access to the Superblack Containment and to the shader. If you’re a Hunter…er…a player of any class, you’ll want to grab this new Shader and look your finest.Player Support Report
Reject modernity. Embrace tradition. Equip Anarchy.Image Linkimgur
Known Issues List Help Forums Bungie Help Twitter
WINDOWS 7 AND 8 SUPPORT
Beginning on June 4, 2024, Destiny 2 is ending support for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 operating systems. This decision is to align with Steam and Microsoft ending support for these systems.
Destiny 2 may continue running on these older operating systems after June 4, 2024, but we are unable to guarantee continued functionality after that date.
Players using these operating systems to play Destiny 2 are urged to upgrade to a more recent version of Windows or move to another platform so that their playtime won't be interrupted.
For more information, please view our Windows 7 and 8 Support article.
PANTHEON CHECKPOINTS
Due to an issue preventing players from progressing in The Pantheon when joining at a checkpoint, we have disabled checkpoints for The Caretaker and Zo'aurc, Explicator of Planets. We are attempting to resolve this issue as soon as possible and will provide an update when we have more information to share.
ARCHIE QUEST INFORMATION
We've seen confusion surrounding the weekly Archie Hunt quests and wanted to offer clarification. These quests are only intended to be available for one week each and were made with this time limit in mind. We understand that this is not ideal for all players, which is why we made the shader available for one completion for any of the weekly quests. The lore attached to these triumphs will become available to all players when The Final Shape launches on June 4.
KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:
- In Onslaught, players may be teleported back to the incorrect ADU location after completing certain phases.
- The ADU in Onslaught can occasionally despawn.
- On rare occasions, the Spark in Onslaught can be lost.
- The portal to leave a boss phase in Onslaught will sometimes not open when killing a boss too quickly.
- BRAVE weapons The Recluse and Hammerhead don’t highlight enemies like their previous models.
Titan Smash(ed)
Image LinkimgurTo be a Titan is to live and die by the melee, even if that means a gruesome but spectacular death.
Movie of the Week:
[
Image Linkimgur](https://www.reddit.com/destiny2/comments/1c8ve7a/the_most_titan_way_to_die/)
Final God Of Pain
Image LinkimgurFor a Final God of Pain, Nezarec is pretty stylish and colorful. Probably because we are not sharing that Superblack shader with him.
Art of the Week: AliveWake via TwitteX
Image Linkimgur
We’ll be back next week with another TWID. Until then, be good to each other, and thanks for hanging out with us.
Destiny 2 Community Team
2024.05.02 20:05 leoseth_drake Help
I’m on mobile so if formatting is a mess I’m sorry, but I need help identifying this.. thing.
My husband and I were going to some family land to bury our daughter yesterday, and when we got there we were met with some unidentifiable horror that I can’t wrap my head around. No matter how much research I do I can’t find anything that fits this thing. I haven’t found a single description of this thing, and I’m hoping maybe someone in this community knows something I don’t.
For reference I live in the foothills of Appalachia. This family land is a decent sized plot with some dense woods, a swampy area, a house and a cemetery where my great grandmother, and now my daughter, are currently laid to rest. The burial site is near to the house and a small utility shed.
When we pulled up to the cemetery we pulled in maybe twenty feet from this shed. It was about 6:45 in the evening. My husband got out of the car and was coming around to my door to open it and he just stopped and stared at the tall grass by the shed. I asked him what was wrong and he said “What is that?” At first I just saw black hair in the grass, and the way it was moving and how low to the ground it was made me think it was a cat, so I said as much. My husband replied with “If that’s a cat I’m a white man” (he is not 😅)
When I looked closer it looked human but as soon as it locked eyes with me I knew it wasn’t. It was opening and closing its mouth at me like a dying fish, its eyes were like.. glassed over? Milky? And it was slithering like a snake backwards. Just.. on its stomach army crawling -slithering- backwards. Its legs did not move like people legs. They moved like they had more joints than they were supposed to. It was clothed, it had long black hair and a bald spot in the front. It looked like its skin was melting off. Think— that alien wearing a skin suit from the first men in black movie, because it looked startling similar.
My husband jumped in the car, we sped off, and I called 911 because in the moment I’m thinking “certainly it’s just a methhead those are common here” we circle the road until the cop shows up, the first couple times we pass I see it still slithering on its belly beside the shed getting close to the back side, and by maybe the third or fourth time we pass it was gone.
The cop finally shows, we explain as best as we could what happened, there were some other people on the property that shouldn’t have been there so he was trying to figure out if maybe one of them was the slithering man (neither of them were) but while the cop was checking the surrounding woods I went to the shed and looked at the trail this thing left in the grass, and it’s like as soon as it slithered behind the shed the trail was gone. There was no trampled grass leading away from the shed. Only the squashed grass beside it, and this horrible death smell.
The cop checked the shed, and I looked in behind him, it was empty, there was nothing dead in the shed, so signs of people in the shed. There was a bad water leak but that was about it. The doors and windows to the house were secure, all the other sheds were padlocked, but the thing was gone.
I just can’t get it out of my head. Honestly if my husband hadn’t seen it too I probably would’ve chocked it up to a hallucination, my grief telling me there was something there that wasn’t, but the way it looked.. the way it moved.. the way it smelled.. living people don’t move like that, the don’t smell like that.. living people don’t smell like a corpse.. that thing looked like it maybe used to be human but it’s definitely not anymore. My husband, a staunch skeptic of anything ‘paranormal’ even said “maybe that used to be human but it isn’t anymore”
Do any of you have any clue what that thing might have been?? Any suggestions help. I just want some kind of answers. We’re going back to make sure our daughter is undisturbed this afternoon, I’ll update if I need to.
submitted by leoseth_drake to cryptids [link] [comments]
My husband and I were going to some family land to bury our daughter yesterday, and when we got there we were met with some unidentifiable horror that I can’t wrap my head around. No matter how much research I do I can’t find anything that fits this thing. I haven’t found a single description of this thing, and I’m hoping maybe someone in this community knows something I don’t.
For reference I live in the foothills of Appalachia. This family land is a decent sized plot with some dense woods, a swampy area, a house and a cemetery where my great grandmother, and now my daughter, are currently laid to rest. The burial site is near to the house and a small utility shed.
When we pulled up to the cemetery we pulled in maybe twenty feet from this shed. It was about 6:45 in the evening. My husband got out of the car and was coming around to my door to open it and he just stopped and stared at the tall grass by the shed. I asked him what was wrong and he said “What is that?” At first I just saw black hair in the grass, and the way it was moving and how low to the ground it was made me think it was a cat, so I said as much. My husband replied with “If that’s a cat I’m a white man” (he is not 😅)
When I looked closer it looked human but as soon as it locked eyes with me I knew it wasn’t. It was opening and closing its mouth at me like a dying fish, its eyes were like.. glassed over? Milky? And it was slithering like a snake backwards. Just.. on its stomach army crawling -slithering- backwards. Its legs did not move like people legs. They moved like they had more joints than they were supposed to. It was clothed, it had long black hair and a bald spot in the front. It looked like its skin was melting off. Think— that alien wearing a skin suit from the first men in black movie, because it looked startling similar.
My husband jumped in the car, we sped off, and I called 911 because in the moment I’m thinking “certainly it’s just a methhead those are common here” we circle the road until the cop shows up, the first couple times we pass I see it still slithering on its belly beside the shed getting close to the back side, and by maybe the third or fourth time we pass it was gone.
The cop finally shows, we explain as best as we could what happened, there were some other people on the property that shouldn’t have been there so he was trying to figure out if maybe one of them was the slithering man (neither of them were) but while the cop was checking the surrounding woods I went to the shed and looked at the trail this thing left in the grass, and it’s like as soon as it slithered behind the shed the trail was gone. There was no trampled grass leading away from the shed. Only the squashed grass beside it, and this horrible death smell.
The cop checked the shed, and I looked in behind him, it was empty, there was nothing dead in the shed, so signs of people in the shed. There was a bad water leak but that was about it. The doors and windows to the house were secure, all the other sheds were padlocked, but the thing was gone.
I just can’t get it out of my head. Honestly if my husband hadn’t seen it too I probably would’ve chocked it up to a hallucination, my grief telling me there was something there that wasn’t, but the way it looked.. the way it moved.. the way it smelled.. living people don’t move like that, the don’t smell like that.. living people don’t smell like a corpse.. that thing looked like it maybe used to be human but it’s definitely not anymore. My husband, a staunch skeptic of anything ‘paranormal’ even said “maybe that used to be human but it isn’t anymore”
Do any of you have any clue what that thing might have been?? Any suggestions help. I just want some kind of answers. We’re going back to make sure our daughter is undisturbed this afternoon, I’ll update if I need to.
2024.05.02 19:58 acowboylikeme13 Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? & Emily Dickinson!
I was reading Emily Dickinson today, and I came across one of her poems I hadn’t read that reminded me so much of Taylor Swift.
Here’s the poem:
A solemn thing – it was – I said A Woman – white – to be And wear – if God should count me fit – Her blameless mystery –
A hallowed thing – to drop a life Into the mystic well – Too plummetless – that it come back – Eternity – until –
I ponder how the bliss would look – And would it feel as big – When I could take it in my hand – As hovering – seen – through fog –
And then – the size of this “small ” life – The Sages – call it small – Swelled – like Horizons – in my vest – And I sneered – softly – “small”!
-*One of the poem’s editors called it a “culturally blasphemous poem,” and cut out the last two stanzas…you know, the ones where the speaker finds her power and sneers at the wise men/women (“Sages”) who dared to see her life as “small.”
1) Interestingly, this untitled poem has been used as evidence that Emily Dickinson was actively crafting a mysterious persona. Either only in her poems or in her real life (always dressing in white, being a “recluse,” never marrying)— is up for debate! But definitely reminds me of Taylor Swift, the real girl and her persona Taylor Swift, the celebrity
2) The poem itself is prophetic in the sense that Emily Dickinson’s life was probably “small” to the people of Amherst and she nor them were aware that she would ever become one of the greatest poets to exist (or a member of the tortured poets department 😝). Although, I do love the idea that maybe, Emily did know—like she knew she was meant for greatness.
Anyways, here’s my analysis of the poem, and I would love to know if you guys see the connection to WAOLOM?
I believe stanza 1 is a direct allusion to Dickinson’s dressing in white and is her “blameless mystery.” She sees her persona as something serious and sacred and pure. The choice to described the mystery of her persona as “blameless” followed by “if God should count me fit,” tells me that despite the innocence of her dress, others still see her eccentricity as something blamable and against God (because they do not understand her.)
Then in the second stanza, she describes dropping a life (or letting go of the life she desired for herself, who she truly is) as sacred, or “hallowed.” That is the devout thing to do—throw away all her desires and eccentricities into a deep well where can’t return until…
In the third stanza, she thinks about the happiness she would find in doing so and then she metaphorically writes about how she tangibly hold this happiness— and then we have fog! Fog is not necessary white but I do think it’s a call back. Suddenly, fog has blanked out the landscape of her mind..
And in the fourth stanza, it’s as if she is reminded of the power she already holds in her hands as the fog blurs out her mind. Reminded of this power, the speaker grows stronger, decided she’d rather “sneer” at the supposedly wise men of Amherst who call her life “small” as if it is anything but that. Her life is like the Horizons—endless and vast.
To me, the poem is about Emily Dickinson realizing her own power amidst societal judgements and even recognizing that in doing so, she would no longer be seen as “hallowed,” even though she knows her true self is “blameless.”
that reminds me so much of the themes in The Tortured Poets Department. Taylor Swift knows that if she gives up the persona she’s crafted, she will be disgraced by society despite knowing what it did to her to make her the way she really is (her version of the woman in white.) and I relate it to Who’s Afraid of Little Old me because Taylor seems to be realizing her power, like Dickinson, throughout the song and is “sneering” at the wise men of her society, who don’t understand her, who don’t see her for all she is— but only as something “small.”
submitted by acowboylikeme13 to GaylorSwift [link] [comments]
Here’s the poem:
A solemn thing – it was – I said A Woman – white – to be And wear – if God should count me fit – Her blameless mystery –
A hallowed thing – to drop a life Into the mystic well – Too plummetless – that it come back – Eternity – until –
I ponder how the bliss would look – And would it feel as big – When I could take it in my hand – As hovering – seen – through fog –
And then – the size of this “small ” life – The Sages – call it small – Swelled – like Horizons – in my vest – And I sneered – softly – “small”!
-*One of the poem’s editors called it a “culturally blasphemous poem,” and cut out the last two stanzas…you know, the ones where the speaker finds her power and sneers at the wise men/women (“Sages”) who dared to see her life as “small.”
1) Interestingly, this untitled poem has been used as evidence that Emily Dickinson was actively crafting a mysterious persona. Either only in her poems or in her real life (always dressing in white, being a “recluse,” never marrying)— is up for debate! But definitely reminds me of Taylor Swift, the real girl and her persona Taylor Swift, the celebrity
2) The poem itself is prophetic in the sense that Emily Dickinson’s life was probably “small” to the people of Amherst and she nor them were aware that she would ever become one of the greatest poets to exist (or a member of the tortured poets department 😝). Although, I do love the idea that maybe, Emily did know—like she knew she was meant for greatness.
Anyways, here’s my analysis of the poem, and I would love to know if you guys see the connection to WAOLOM?
I believe stanza 1 is a direct allusion to Dickinson’s dressing in white and is her “blameless mystery.” She sees her persona as something serious and sacred and pure. The choice to described the mystery of her persona as “blameless” followed by “if God should count me fit,” tells me that despite the innocence of her dress, others still see her eccentricity as something blamable and against God (because they do not understand her.)
Then in the second stanza, she describes dropping a life (or letting go of the life she desired for herself, who she truly is) as sacred, or “hallowed.” That is the devout thing to do—throw away all her desires and eccentricities into a deep well where can’t return until…
In the third stanza, she thinks about the happiness she would find in doing so and then she metaphorically writes about how she tangibly hold this happiness— and then we have fog! Fog is not necessary white but I do think it’s a call back. Suddenly, fog has blanked out the landscape of her mind..
And in the fourth stanza, it’s as if she is reminded of the power she already holds in her hands as the fog blurs out her mind. Reminded of this power, the speaker grows stronger, decided she’d rather “sneer” at the supposedly wise men of Amherst who call her life “small” as if it is anything but that. Her life is like the Horizons—endless and vast.
To me, the poem is about Emily Dickinson realizing her own power amidst societal judgements and even recognizing that in doing so, she would no longer be seen as “hallowed,” even though she knows her true self is “blameless.”
that reminds me so much of the themes in The Tortured Poets Department. Taylor Swift knows that if she gives up the persona she’s crafted, she will be disgraced by society despite knowing what it did to her to make her the way she really is (her version of the woman in white.) and I relate it to Who’s Afraid of Little Old me because Taylor seems to be realizing her power, like Dickinson, throughout the song and is “sneering” at the wise men of her society, who don’t understand her, who don’t see her for all she is— but only as something “small.”
2024.05.02 19:57 Soggy-Hotel-2419 Feeling like I've made no progress in recovery
I don't know if this is just general grief from other recovery work I've been doing and I admit that I feel like a fool because I assumed working on my CPTSD would also cover my codependency issues. I..... Honestly can't say if that's true or if I just made a dumb decision and ended up igboring many opportunities for healing but anyway.
I've been trying to be more social. I've been putting myself into places to be rejected, for example, on purpose. It hurt but I have been getting more used to being rejected.
It's been lonelier, but I've also just been avoiding people who's behavior makes me uncomfortable/violates my own boundaries, and I'm getting more used to rejecting people either by telling them directly or just straight up by blocking their info and avoiding them. Really the challenge there is when I learn AFTER the fact that they are someone who's beliefs/behavior makes me uncomfortable and we've had positive interactions because then I feel like an asshole for saying, "Hey I'm not comfy with us being friends."
I'm explaining myself less and am okay with people misunderstanding me. Idk what it is but I'm letting myself not be perfect in communication, I don't try to overexplain or justify myself cuz why bother? Why do I need to make everyone like me? I can't, it's not possible and I'll be working myself to death if I do even though I don't need or even want everyone to like me.
I've been holding back on just sharing willy nilly and always asking myself if 1. if this level of info is appropriate to share and 2. if it is, do i personally want to do that. I realized that I'm not obligated to share information with others, even if I feel safe, and I'm allowed to have privacy. If anything it's made me realize that safe people don't make you feel obligated to share but free to do so. now i share in order to show interest in other people, like in a "oh you feel safe to share this, so i will share a similar anecdote i am okay sharing to show you you're not alone in your problems or whatever." Not feeling ibligated, but having genuine moments of empathy where I realize this person is trying to be vulnerable to get to know me better by being more authentic, and I express that by reciprocating (it's a two way street, isn't it?). In many ways, even if I can't be close to people around me like I'd like to be due to possible differences in certain big and important stuff, I have at least realized that being honest never hurts and even if i cant be super close to everyone, i can still maintain different levels of rapport with people around me that i'm interested in.
and hey, i'm not feeling guilty when i decide to be alone for a while. I actually enjoy it and look forward to having an inner life to escape to.
I journal now, especially before socializing and I find that it's made me more private. I actually like it because I feel like I KNOW myself better and what I feel okay with sharing (or don't share) with others, who I talk to and what kind of boundaries/relationship i want with them. In general it's helped me have more confidence and self validation, and I notice I havent been running to my friends and am relying on myself for help and finding bravery in the face of adversity and solutions.
i avoid gossip, and while i do give advice, i try to offer however much isnt invasive and dont try to boss people into doing it.
I'm trying to reassure myself when people assert their own boundaries or needs in our relationship. I'm better at knowing when it's something I'm actually willing to compromise over or change about, and when I won't (and i try to let go, and let the other person decide if my refusal to chabge is a deal breaker. or in other words i'm letting others decide if they want to be my friend or not). I'm trying to catch myself when I try to people please, like in these moments where I have to deal with anxiety over possibly angering them.
hell recently i stood up to a creep who was touching me without my consent in a "friendly" way and even told my friends.
in general, i feel more assertive or at least like an asshole and it does feel weird.
though the biggest game changer in recent memory has been my breathing routine, which has made me feel. safe, self assured, confident, ready to solve problems, and generally unafraid to risk offending people in the process of enforcing boundaries, expressing wants or jist being authentic if i have to.
i'm feeling my feelings better, knowing my needs more, recognizing what my biundaries are and when people cross them and how to defend myself... just not all the time. :(
Still, I just don't feel like it's enough. I'm slowly waking up to noticing red flags in people, as well as noticing not like red flags, but just personal things I don't want in my friendships, ya know? even if they are people who are nice and i get along with, but i am ultimately not comfy within the relationship or feel i can be as close as i'd like to. i'm trying to remember that i'm not obligated to be other's friends or not. but its hard.
i dont know, but i just feel like what i'm doing isnt enough, and i'm scared of continuing this because i feel i'm still risking befriending more predators. its so scary i'm too afraid to even start dating even when i'm in a safer enviroment than the one i'm in rn. i'm afraid that if i date someone, they'll be a predator and the more toxic people i attract the more likely it'll be that the streak of abusive people continue (and in the end, that's all my fault for being weak).
hell there are still moments where i make myself small out of fear or speak vaguely because i'm scared of being abused by others if i stand up for myself and my needs and boundaries.
ETA: I'm barely remembering to do IFS but its working as well as it can when you have no idea what to do. (tips please). I started journaling as a first thing before socializing thing because a part wanted it, and I do feel peace there.
i dont know what advice i need to hear. i just wish i had never been like this, it feels hopeless and like i'm stuck and not likely to make a good change. i know i dont have to be entirely healed to have connections or even love, but idk, i fear if i'm not the cycle will continue. ugh. what would you all do if you were me? when i'm moved i want to attend coda meetings and take the 12 steps just to see if it's for me (and if not that's okay), i'm going to reread Codependent No More as I never finished it (i know i know...), I'm going to journal more today. I dont know what else I'll do though.
submitted by Soggy-Hotel-2419 to Codependency [link] [comments]
I've been trying to be more social. I've been putting myself into places to be rejected, for example, on purpose. It hurt but I have been getting more used to being rejected.
It's been lonelier, but I've also just been avoiding people who's behavior makes me uncomfortable/violates my own boundaries, and I'm getting more used to rejecting people either by telling them directly or just straight up by blocking their info and avoiding them. Really the challenge there is when I learn AFTER the fact that they are someone who's beliefs/behavior makes me uncomfortable and we've had positive interactions because then I feel like an asshole for saying, "Hey I'm not comfy with us being friends."
I'm explaining myself less and am okay with people misunderstanding me. Idk what it is but I'm letting myself not be perfect in communication, I don't try to overexplain or justify myself cuz why bother? Why do I need to make everyone like me? I can't, it's not possible and I'll be working myself to death if I do even though I don't need or even want everyone to like me.
I've been holding back on just sharing willy nilly and always asking myself if 1. if this level of info is appropriate to share and 2. if it is, do i personally want to do that. I realized that I'm not obligated to share information with others, even if I feel safe, and I'm allowed to have privacy. If anything it's made me realize that safe people don't make you feel obligated to share but free to do so. now i share in order to show interest in other people, like in a "oh you feel safe to share this, so i will share a similar anecdote i am okay sharing to show you you're not alone in your problems or whatever." Not feeling ibligated, but having genuine moments of empathy where I realize this person is trying to be vulnerable to get to know me better by being more authentic, and I express that by reciprocating (it's a two way street, isn't it?). In many ways, even if I can't be close to people around me like I'd like to be due to possible differences in certain big and important stuff, I have at least realized that being honest never hurts and even if i cant be super close to everyone, i can still maintain different levels of rapport with people around me that i'm interested in.
and hey, i'm not feeling guilty when i decide to be alone for a while. I actually enjoy it and look forward to having an inner life to escape to.
I journal now, especially before socializing and I find that it's made me more private. I actually like it because I feel like I KNOW myself better and what I feel okay with sharing (or don't share) with others, who I talk to and what kind of boundaries/relationship i want with them. In general it's helped me have more confidence and self validation, and I notice I havent been running to my friends and am relying on myself for help and finding bravery in the face of adversity and solutions.
i avoid gossip, and while i do give advice, i try to offer however much isnt invasive and dont try to boss people into doing it.
I'm trying to reassure myself when people assert their own boundaries or needs in our relationship. I'm better at knowing when it's something I'm actually willing to compromise over or change about, and when I won't (and i try to let go, and let the other person decide if my refusal to chabge is a deal breaker. or in other words i'm letting others decide if they want to be my friend or not). I'm trying to catch myself when I try to people please, like in these moments where I have to deal with anxiety over possibly angering them.
hell recently i stood up to a creep who was touching me without my consent in a "friendly" way and even told my friends.
in general, i feel more assertive or at least like an asshole and it does feel weird.
though the biggest game changer in recent memory has been my breathing routine, which has made me feel. safe, self assured, confident, ready to solve problems, and generally unafraid to risk offending people in the process of enforcing boundaries, expressing wants or jist being authentic if i have to.
i'm feeling my feelings better, knowing my needs more, recognizing what my biundaries are and when people cross them and how to defend myself... just not all the time. :(
Still, I just don't feel like it's enough. I'm slowly waking up to noticing red flags in people, as well as noticing not like red flags, but just personal things I don't want in my friendships, ya know? even if they are people who are nice and i get along with, but i am ultimately not comfy within the relationship or feel i can be as close as i'd like to. i'm trying to remember that i'm not obligated to be other's friends or not. but its hard.
i dont know, but i just feel like what i'm doing isnt enough, and i'm scared of continuing this because i feel i'm still risking befriending more predators. its so scary i'm too afraid to even start dating even when i'm in a safer enviroment than the one i'm in rn. i'm afraid that if i date someone, they'll be a predator and the more toxic people i attract the more likely it'll be that the streak of abusive people continue (and in the end, that's all my fault for being weak).
hell there are still moments where i make myself small out of fear or speak vaguely because i'm scared of being abused by others if i stand up for myself and my needs and boundaries.
ETA: I'm barely remembering to do IFS but its working as well as it can when you have no idea what to do. (tips please). I started journaling as a first thing before socializing thing because a part wanted it, and I do feel peace there.
i dont know what advice i need to hear. i just wish i had never been like this, it feels hopeless and like i'm stuck and not likely to make a good change. i know i dont have to be entirely healed to have connections or even love, but idk, i fear if i'm not the cycle will continue. ugh. what would you all do if you were me? when i'm moved i want to attend coda meetings and take the 12 steps just to see if it's for me (and if not that's okay), i'm going to reread Codependent No More as I never finished it (i know i know...), I'm going to journal more today. I dont know what else I'll do though.
2024.05.02 19:56 DerPanzerjager The ultimate Tank Hunter guide.
After looking around in the community, I noticed there's a distinct lack of a comprehensive guide on how to play the Tank Hunter elite class; usually guides on how to play this class are very barebones, just offering some basic advice rather than detailed instructions for a variety of different situations. So, as someone with a combined total of 27 Tankgewehr service stars across PC and Xbox, and with a username which literally means "The Tank Hunter" in German, I figured I should be the first (to my knowledge) to provide the community with a comprehensive, detailed guide on the Tank Hunter. I will include a TL;DR at the end of each section.
First, let's take a look at the weapons and gadgets available to the Tank Hunter in detail.
The Tankgewehr deals massive damage (max 180, minimum 160) and has a muzzle velocity of 780 m/s. The downside is that it must be bipodded in order to use, and it has a very slow fire rate of only 20 RPM.
The Sawn-Off Shotgun deals 12 to 6 damage per pellet, and fires 12 pellets per shot. It is excellent in CQC but performs poorly beyond around 20 meters or so.
You also get access to a trench periscope, two AT grenades and 3 frag grenades.
Second, let's discuss what maps the kit spawns on (conquest only; I don't have as much experience in Operations, sadly):
Vanilla: Fao Fortress (flag D, first spawn at 01:03 into the match, 5 minute spawn interval after last user's death; these are the basic spawn rules) Giant's Shadow (flag D, basic spawn rules) St Quentin's Scar (flag B and E, starts out with basic rules at B, immediately spawns at E after B user's death; after match reaches halfway, the kit will alternate between B and E and spawn immediately after the last user's death) Sinai Desert (flag G, basic spawn rules)
DLC: Soissons (flag D, spawns at 01:03, 3 minute spawn interval after last user's death) Galicia (near flags B and C; first spawns at C 3 minutes into the round, will then randomly spawn at either B or C immediately after last user's death) Albion (this one's complicated - 3 kits available at F, B and A - will first spawn 2 minutes into the round, usually at F but could also be A - it's RNG from here where and when it'll spawn) Zeebrugge (flag A, basic spawn rules) Heligoland Bight (flag A, spawns 3 minutes into a round with 5 minute interval between deaths) River Somme (in a trench near flag B, spawns 5 minutes into the round, 5 minute interval) Volga River, Passchendale, Caporetto: spawns in place of a behemoth for the losing team among other elites.
Memorising these timings will let you know when to grab the kit without having to camp it. That being said, don't hog it; if someone else clearly wants to use the kit (i.e. by standing next to it), be a good sport and let them use it.
Now, let's get into how to actually use the kit effectively.
The first thing I want to cover is targeting priority - many people will use the kit solely to hunt infantry, which is fun, but also the least helpful to your team.
1st priority: Tanks This should be pretty obvious - it's in the name, after all. The Tankgewehr does some serious damage against tanks of all types - 4-6 shots to kill heavies, 3-4 for lighter tanks and armored trucks. Targeting tanks is the most helpful to your team, as it can enable assault players to finish off tanks even faster, even if you don't end up getting the destruction yourself. Just make sure to switch up positions if the tank finds you; otherwise you won't last too long.
2nd priority: Light vehicles (armored cars, horses, bikes, boats, etc.) Light vehicles get absolutely SHREDDED by the Tankgewehr - bikes and scout cars are destroyed in 1 hit, armored cars in 2, boats in 3. Horses take 2 hits to kill with body shots, but instantly die from headshots. Don't aim for the rider as he can tank one shot. If you find a fully manned armored car or boat, target it - it's an easy opportunity for a nice multikill.
3rd priority: Infantry This speaks for itself. Deleting infantry is fun as hell. Don't ignore tanks and vehicles in favor for infantry, though - only start targeting infantry when there's no vehicles in sight.
4th priority: Planes This is highly situational, and will depend on a number of factors depending on the pilot and aircraft in question. The Tankgewehr deals huge damage against planes, but if you're fighting a skilled pilot, specifically targeting them can be a fruitless endeavour. Something like a slow, straight flying Ilya Muromets makes a great target, especially if you can hit the plane's weak spot on its underbelly, 1-shotting it. On the other hand, a fast-moving attack plane or fighter is rarely worth going for - you might be able to land 1 or 2 shots, but chances are you'll just be wasting ammo trying to hit it once it flies too far and repairs. Analyse the situation and determine whether the plane is worth fighting or not. (Of course, you can always take potshots at planes buzzing around just as a "fuck you" to irritate them. That's always great fun.)
5th priority: Heavy vehicles (Behemoths, L-class destroyers, airships) The Tankgewehr can only do around 6-8 damage to the Destroyer and Airship, making it relatively ineffective at taking these down. AA guns, coastal guns and torpedo boats will be far more effective, so just leave these vehicles to them. Behemoths should be pretty self-explanatory. You might take a cheeky shot once it's at a sliver just to take the kill, but you should reserve your ammo for targets of better value instead.
TL;DR: Target tanks first, then light vehicles, then infantry, then planes, then heavy stuff.
Next, let's discuss how exactly to use the kit to counter vehicles and infantry.
When fighting heavy tanks, do your best to stay as far as you can - this will delay your detection and allow you to finish off the tank more efficiently. If you end up too close, then you may need to fall back on your AT grenades to dish out sufficient damage. But by that point, the tank has likely spotted you and your days are numbered anyways. Aim for tanks' weak spots; you can disable the guns by targeting them, as well as the tracks. Against light tanks, aim for the chassis and tracks - this will do the most damage. Avoid the turret and back plate, as this soaks up more hits. Armored trucks are fairly straightforward - just aim for flat surfaces to do maximum damage. When going against cavalry, aim for the horse's head. It will die instantly. The Ilya Muromets has a weak spot on its underbelly - aim for this (it looks a bit like a bird cage) and the bomber will be taken out instantly. Against other planes, try and aim for the wings or engine to reduce the plane's speed or maneuverability.
When fighting against infantry, your biggest threats will be scouts and supports with scoped LMGs - scouts can take you out in 3-4 shots, and LMGs can suppress you and make you far more inaccurate. Try your best to take them out as quickly as possible; when you see a scope glint, aim directly for it. If the suppression gets too intense, just retreat. It's not worth trying in vain to kill 1 guy suppressing you with his M1917 Telescopic and potentially losing the fight, and in turn a valuable asset to your team. Your kit is exceptional in close quarters, thanks to your double-barreled shotgun, and unstoppable at long ranges. However, there is a medium range gap in your capabilities - the Tankgewehr requires you to have the bipod deployed, making it somewhat impractical, and the shotgun can't dish out enough damage over those slightly further ranges. You have two options here; either rush in with the shotgun to close the distance (this can be more dangerous, especially if there's more than 1 or 2 enemies waiting for you) or widen the distance and use the Tankgewehr. In certain situations you will have no choice other than to rush with your shotgun, due to not having enough time or cover to get further away. The Tank Hunter has the most favorable matchup against other elites - it can take down the Flame Trooper, Infiltrator and other Tank Hunters (yes, it's possible, only on Albion though I believe) in one shot, and it deals massive damage against Sentries and the Trench Raider. Its huge range advantage means that if you find one of these elites off in the distance, already wounded, there's precious little they can do against you.
TL;DR: Stay far away from tanks, aim for weak spots. For infantry, target scout and support players primarily. If you're forced into mid-range combat, close the distance as much as possible and use your shotgun.
Let's go over some general usage tips.
1- PTFO - well, sometimes. This depends on a couple of things such as flag distance in relation to your position, enemy presence, etc. But if your team is doing a well-coordinated push, and taking an objective with little to no opposition, then feel free to join them and get some extra points for capturing an objective. Just don't linger on the objective for too long, and retreat back to a more distant position once you've capped it. Be careful, though. If an enemy squad is pushing back, giving some resistance, then it's better to hang back - the Tank Hunter is very weak against multiple enemies in close quarters. Your shotgun can deal with 1 or 2, but if more arrive then it's basically GG.
2- A tank hunter with a horse is a truly devastating combination. You can heal, resupply, and quickly retreat if things get too heated. You can dart around the map, switching positions so that your enemies can't find you quickly and get revenge. If you're already a skilled cavalry player, you can be almost unstoppable with this combination. However, there is a high chance of your horse being stolen or killed by enemies (or, worse, idiotic teammates) so make sure you keep it close, and in range.
3- Make sure to hang around supports and medics, in case you take damage or need ammo. If possible, squad up with some friends for healing and ammo - teammates can be unreliable, and not bother dropping ammo or health. Friends who can heal and resupply you are almost as powerful of an asset as having the horse at your disposal.
4- Situational Awareness - This is quite possibly the most important trait you'll need to use the Tank Hunter effectively. Make sure you're aware of what's going on around you so you can adapt accordingly. For example, if you see that you're alone with no teammates nearby, and the closest objective to you is being captured by the enemy, then it's time to GTFO. Lingering too long in enemy territory without any teammates for support will almost always get you killed. On the flip side, if you're in a safe position, with plenty of teammates around, then you can afford to lower your guard slightly. The battlefield is constantly evolving, so you need to stay on top of what's happening around you to minimise your chances of dying. This goes for all classes, but doubly so if you're playing as the Tank Hunter.
5- Don't camp. Though your rifle has tremendous range and power, don't play with it like you would a scoped scout rifle. Staying in one spot will almost certainly mean the poor sod you killed for the 4th time will rush to your position and jam a knife right up your backside. Instead, while maintaining some distance from the heat of combat, switch up your positions after getting 3-4 kills. This will ensure that if someone comes looking for you, they won't find you.
TL;DR: PTFO if the situation is right, use a horse, squad up with medics and supports, have good situational awareness, and don't camp.
Finally, I want to talk about my top 5 maps for Tank Hunting, and why.
And, that's about it. Feel free to comment if you have any questions, let me know if i missed anything, or if you have any disagreements with my tips.
submitted by DerPanzerjager to battlefield_one [link] [comments]
First, let's take a look at the weapons and gadgets available to the Tank Hunter in detail.
The Tankgewehr deals massive damage (max 180, minimum 160) and has a muzzle velocity of 780 m/s. The downside is that it must be bipodded in order to use, and it has a very slow fire rate of only 20 RPM.
The Sawn-Off Shotgun deals 12 to 6 damage per pellet, and fires 12 pellets per shot. It is excellent in CQC but performs poorly beyond around 20 meters or so.
You also get access to a trench periscope, two AT grenades and 3 frag grenades.
Second, let's discuss what maps the kit spawns on (conquest only; I don't have as much experience in Operations, sadly):
Vanilla: Fao Fortress (flag D, first spawn at 01:03 into the match, 5 minute spawn interval after last user's death; these are the basic spawn rules) Giant's Shadow (flag D, basic spawn rules) St Quentin's Scar (flag B and E, starts out with basic rules at B, immediately spawns at E after B user's death; after match reaches halfway, the kit will alternate between B and E and spawn immediately after the last user's death) Sinai Desert (flag G, basic spawn rules)
DLC: Soissons (flag D, spawns at 01:03, 3 minute spawn interval after last user's death) Galicia (near flags B and C; first spawns at C 3 minutes into the round, will then randomly spawn at either B or C immediately after last user's death) Albion (this one's complicated - 3 kits available at F, B and A - will first spawn 2 minutes into the round, usually at F but could also be A - it's RNG from here where and when it'll spawn) Zeebrugge (flag A, basic spawn rules) Heligoland Bight (flag A, spawns 3 minutes into a round with 5 minute interval between deaths) River Somme (in a trench near flag B, spawns 5 minutes into the round, 5 minute interval) Volga River, Passchendale, Caporetto: spawns in place of a behemoth for the losing team among other elites.
Memorising these timings will let you know when to grab the kit without having to camp it. That being said, don't hog it; if someone else clearly wants to use the kit (i.e. by standing next to it), be a good sport and let them use it.
Now, let's get into how to actually use the kit effectively.
The first thing I want to cover is targeting priority - many people will use the kit solely to hunt infantry, which is fun, but also the least helpful to your team.
1st priority: Tanks This should be pretty obvious - it's in the name, after all. The Tankgewehr does some serious damage against tanks of all types - 4-6 shots to kill heavies, 3-4 for lighter tanks and armored trucks. Targeting tanks is the most helpful to your team, as it can enable assault players to finish off tanks even faster, even if you don't end up getting the destruction yourself. Just make sure to switch up positions if the tank finds you; otherwise you won't last too long.
2nd priority: Light vehicles (armored cars, horses, bikes, boats, etc.) Light vehicles get absolutely SHREDDED by the Tankgewehr - bikes and scout cars are destroyed in 1 hit, armored cars in 2, boats in 3. Horses take 2 hits to kill with body shots, but instantly die from headshots. Don't aim for the rider as he can tank one shot. If you find a fully manned armored car or boat, target it - it's an easy opportunity for a nice multikill.
3rd priority: Infantry This speaks for itself. Deleting infantry is fun as hell. Don't ignore tanks and vehicles in favor for infantry, though - only start targeting infantry when there's no vehicles in sight.
4th priority: Planes This is highly situational, and will depend on a number of factors depending on the pilot and aircraft in question. The Tankgewehr deals huge damage against planes, but if you're fighting a skilled pilot, specifically targeting them can be a fruitless endeavour. Something like a slow, straight flying Ilya Muromets makes a great target, especially if you can hit the plane's weak spot on its underbelly, 1-shotting it. On the other hand, a fast-moving attack plane or fighter is rarely worth going for - you might be able to land 1 or 2 shots, but chances are you'll just be wasting ammo trying to hit it once it flies too far and repairs. Analyse the situation and determine whether the plane is worth fighting or not. (Of course, you can always take potshots at planes buzzing around just as a "fuck you" to irritate them. That's always great fun.)
5th priority: Heavy vehicles (Behemoths, L-class destroyers, airships) The Tankgewehr can only do around 6-8 damage to the Destroyer and Airship, making it relatively ineffective at taking these down. AA guns, coastal guns and torpedo boats will be far more effective, so just leave these vehicles to them. Behemoths should be pretty self-explanatory. You might take a cheeky shot once it's at a sliver just to take the kill, but you should reserve your ammo for targets of better value instead.
TL;DR: Target tanks first, then light vehicles, then infantry, then planes, then heavy stuff.
Next, let's discuss how exactly to use the kit to counter vehicles and infantry.
When fighting heavy tanks, do your best to stay as far as you can - this will delay your detection and allow you to finish off the tank more efficiently. If you end up too close, then you may need to fall back on your AT grenades to dish out sufficient damage. But by that point, the tank has likely spotted you and your days are numbered anyways. Aim for tanks' weak spots; you can disable the guns by targeting them, as well as the tracks. Against light tanks, aim for the chassis and tracks - this will do the most damage. Avoid the turret and back plate, as this soaks up more hits. Armored trucks are fairly straightforward - just aim for flat surfaces to do maximum damage. When going against cavalry, aim for the horse's head. It will die instantly. The Ilya Muromets has a weak spot on its underbelly - aim for this (it looks a bit like a bird cage) and the bomber will be taken out instantly. Against other planes, try and aim for the wings or engine to reduce the plane's speed or maneuverability.
When fighting against infantry, your biggest threats will be scouts and supports with scoped LMGs - scouts can take you out in 3-4 shots, and LMGs can suppress you and make you far more inaccurate. Try your best to take them out as quickly as possible; when you see a scope glint, aim directly for it. If the suppression gets too intense, just retreat. It's not worth trying in vain to kill 1 guy suppressing you with his M1917 Telescopic and potentially losing the fight, and in turn a valuable asset to your team. Your kit is exceptional in close quarters, thanks to your double-barreled shotgun, and unstoppable at long ranges. However, there is a medium range gap in your capabilities - the Tankgewehr requires you to have the bipod deployed, making it somewhat impractical, and the shotgun can't dish out enough damage over those slightly further ranges. You have two options here; either rush in with the shotgun to close the distance (this can be more dangerous, especially if there's more than 1 or 2 enemies waiting for you) or widen the distance and use the Tankgewehr. In certain situations you will have no choice other than to rush with your shotgun, due to not having enough time or cover to get further away. The Tank Hunter has the most favorable matchup against other elites - it can take down the Flame Trooper, Infiltrator and other Tank Hunters (yes, it's possible, only on Albion though I believe) in one shot, and it deals massive damage against Sentries and the Trench Raider. Its huge range advantage means that if you find one of these elites off in the distance, already wounded, there's precious little they can do against you.
TL;DR: Stay far away from tanks, aim for weak spots. For infantry, target scout and support players primarily. If you're forced into mid-range combat, close the distance as much as possible and use your shotgun.
Let's go over some general usage tips.
1- PTFO - well, sometimes. This depends on a couple of things such as flag distance in relation to your position, enemy presence, etc. But if your team is doing a well-coordinated push, and taking an objective with little to no opposition, then feel free to join them and get some extra points for capturing an objective. Just don't linger on the objective for too long, and retreat back to a more distant position once you've capped it. Be careful, though. If an enemy squad is pushing back, giving some resistance, then it's better to hang back - the Tank Hunter is very weak against multiple enemies in close quarters. Your shotgun can deal with 1 or 2, but if more arrive then it's basically GG.
2- A tank hunter with a horse is a truly devastating combination. You can heal, resupply, and quickly retreat if things get too heated. You can dart around the map, switching positions so that your enemies can't find you quickly and get revenge. If you're already a skilled cavalry player, you can be almost unstoppable with this combination. However, there is a high chance of your horse being stolen or killed by enemies (or, worse, idiotic teammates) so make sure you keep it close, and in range.
3- Make sure to hang around supports and medics, in case you take damage or need ammo. If possible, squad up with some friends for healing and ammo - teammates can be unreliable, and not bother dropping ammo or health. Friends who can heal and resupply you are almost as powerful of an asset as having the horse at your disposal.
4- Situational Awareness - This is quite possibly the most important trait you'll need to use the Tank Hunter effectively. Make sure you're aware of what's going on around you so you can adapt accordingly. For example, if you see that you're alone with no teammates nearby, and the closest objective to you is being captured by the enemy, then it's time to GTFO. Lingering too long in enemy territory without any teammates for support will almost always get you killed. On the flip side, if you're in a safe position, with plenty of teammates around, then you can afford to lower your guard slightly. The battlefield is constantly evolving, so you need to stay on top of what's happening around you to minimise your chances of dying. This goes for all classes, but doubly so if you're playing as the Tank Hunter.
5- Don't camp. Though your rifle has tremendous range and power, don't play with it like you would a scoped scout rifle. Staying in one spot will almost certainly mean the poor sod you killed for the 4th time will rush to your position and jam a knife right up your backside. Instead, while maintaining some distance from the heat of combat, switch up your positions after getting 3-4 kills. This will ensure that if someone comes looking for you, they won't find you.
TL;DR: PTFO if the situation is right, use a horse, squad up with medics and supports, have good situational awareness, and don't camp.
Finally, I want to talk about my top 5 maps for Tank Hunting, and why.
1- St Quentin's Scar
Since you get access to two kits, you can theoretically go for another round even after you die, as the kit will respawn almost immediately at the second site. Aside from that. St. Quentin is an extremely well-balanced map which allows you several excellent vantage points to shoot from, most notably Flags B, D, C, and the windmill in the centre of the town.2- Galicia
Though I don't like much about this map, the Tank Hunter is extremely effective thanks to the vast, open terrain allowing fantastic views for taking vehicles and infantry alike out from a distance. Be careful of snipers, though. I had some of my best games ever on this map.3- Albion
Having three spawns at your disposal means you can really hog the kit (you shouldn't, but you can). Coupled with the map's long-ranged design, excellent verticality, and abundance of torpedo boats (which the Tankgewehr eats for breakfast) means you can be tremendously effective on this map.4- Soissons
The reduced spawn cooldown means that the kit can be utilised more often. This map also offers great positions, especially the large hill of the French spawn.5- Fao Fortress
Obviously, a sniper's haven will also be an excellent place to use the Tank Hunter. Great vantage points near Flag D, and of course the fortress itself if your team has control over it.And, that's about it. Feel free to comment if you have any questions, let me know if i missed anything, or if you have any disagreements with my tips.
2024.05.02 19:52 Arbrand The Fleshweaver [Part 1]
The rain began as a soft patter against the windows of the Plymouth, a gentle interruption to the otherwise oppressive silence of the stormy afternoon. I drummed my fingers against the steering wheel, the rhythm a futile attempt to dispel the tension that had settled between us like a dense fog. The car door opened with a creak, and Finn slid into the passenger seat, bringing with him a gust of chilled air and the cloying scent of cheap cologne that seemed to cling to the back of my throat.
Took you long enough," I muttered, my gaze fixed on the rain-slicked road ahead. "We're going to be late."
Finn grunted in response, fishing a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket. He lit one, the ember glowing bright in the dark, and inhaled deeply, filling the car with the acrid stench of tobacco. "Horses," he said, nodding toward a nearby field where a group of the animals huddled together, their coats glistening with rain.
I ignored his remark, pulling the Plymouth back onto the muddy track just as lightning streaked the horizon, casting fleeting shadows inside the car. Finn flipped open the case file, the pages rustling as he scanned the contents.
"So, this broad," he began, his voice rasping as he exhaled smoke against the windshield, "Allison Novak, 34, no rugrats. Teaches snot-nosed brats for a living. Goes to church every Sunday like a good little sheep, and spends her Tuesday evenings with other dried-up housewives reading trashy romance novels."
I shot him a glare, my knuckles whitening as I gripped the steering wheel. "Watch your fucking mouth, Finn. That's someone's daughter you're talking about. Someone who just went through hell. She didn’t deserve this and she doesn't deserve your dumbass comments.”
He scoffed, flicking ash out the window into the storm. “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it,” he retorted, tossing a stack of crime scene photos onto the dash. The images, illuminated intermittently by lightning, revealed a horror I'd seen too many times. Allison's body, twisted and mutilated beyond recognition, her flesh woven into some kind of tapestry.
"Gotta hand it to the bastard," Finn remarked, his eyes alight with a morbid fascination. "Takes a special kind of creativity to come up with this shit. Almost makes you appreciate the artistry of it all."
I swallowed hard, bile rising in my throat. "Creativity? Artistry? Jesus Christ, Finn, this is a human being we're talking about. A woman who was tortured and mutilated. There's nothing creative or artistic about it."
He shrugged, taking another long drag from his cigarette. "Call it what you want, but you can't deny the skill it took to do this. The precision, the attention to detail. This isn't some amateur hour bullshit. This is the work of a true master."
I shook my head, disgusted by his callousness. "You're sick, you know that? Absolutely fucking sick." He leaned forward, tapping the stack of photos with a nicotine-stained finger. "Look at these markings, these symbols carved into her flesh. They don't match any known cult or religious iconography. Not Hermetic, not Abrahamic, not even fucking Satanic. This is something new, something we haven't seen before."
Despite my revulsion for Finn's crassness, I couldn't deny his expertise. The FBI had sent him for his knowledge of ritualistic crimes, and though it often felt more like I was there to babysit rather than collaborate, I knew we needed his insights to catch this killer.
I often wondered how Finn ended up in his role. It was hard to picture him navigating the bureaucratic maze of the FBI, rubbing shoulders with the top brass and climbing the corporate ladder. Yet, when you're scouting for experts in occultism, you're not exactly sifting through the cream of the crop. It made a twisted kind of sense that someone like Finn, drawn to the darker recesses of human nature, would find his niche where his unconventional skills could be utilized by the Bureau.
"We're here," Finn announced abruptly, snapping me out of my musings. He pointed toward a nondescript office building that seemed to cower behind a screen of tall reeds, its facade as drab and lifeless as the overcast sky above. We entered, flashed our badges, and found ourselves standing over a cadaver moments later, the chill of the morgue seeping into my bones.
Nothing could have prepared me for the sight that greeted us. Even now, the image of Allison Novak's mutilated body is seared into my memory, a nightmare that will haunt me until my dying day. Her once beautiful face was a grotesque mockery of itself, metal stilts protruding from her flesh at odd angles, stretching and distorting her features into a macabre caricature. The stilts formed an intricate pattern, almost like a blossoming flower, a sick juxtaposition of beauty and horror.
Her torso was an abattoir of horrors, her sternum removed, her ribs splayed out like the wings of some monstrous creature. Intricate markings adorned her skin, the charred edges suggesting they had been burned into her flesh. And her legs... God, her legs. They had been twisted, rearranged in a way that defied anatomy, defied reason.
I've seen my fair share of brutality, witnessed atrocities that would break a lesser woman. But this... this was something else entirely. The sheer depravity, the meticulous cruelty of it all, spoke to a level of evil that I had never encountered before. This wasn't just a murder, it was a violation of the very laws of nature. We weren't hunting a man, we were chasing a demon in human skin.
I could feel Finn's eyes on me as I took in the scene, gauging my reaction. He seemed almost bored, as if he had seen this all before, just another day at the office. It chilled me to the core, wondering what kind of darkness he had immersed himself in to become so desensitized to such horror.
The local coroner, a man who had no doubt seen his fair share of death and decay, seemed shaken as he prepared to brief us. It was odd seeing a man that spent his days cutting open corpses and weighing viscera stutter. He cleared his throat, his hand trembling slightly as he consulted his notes.
"The, uh, the facial mutilations," he began, his voice unsteady. "They don't seem to serve any physiological purpose. Initially, the lack of blood led me to believe that the victim was deceased when this was done. But then I found traces of anticoagulants around the puncture sites."
He paused, swallowing hard. "This suggests that she was alive when the metal was inserted. The precision, the care taken to minimize blood loss... it's as if he wanted to keep her alive. To prolong her suffering."
I felt bile rise in my throat again, a wave of nausea threatening to overwhelm me. The thought of Allison Novak, awake and aware as this monster transformed her into his twisted masterpiece... It was too much to bear.
Finn, however, seemed intrigued. He leaned forward, his eyes glinting with a morbid fascination. "Interesting. So, our boy has medical knowledge, or at least a rudimentary understanding of anatomy. That narrows the field a bit."
The coroner gestured towards the victim's torso. "The removal of the sternum and the positioning of the ribs further support this theory. The way the ribs were splayed out, the muscles and tendons meticulously cut and arranged, it was almost surgical in its precision. It would have taken considerable time, skill, and a profound understanding of human anatomy to achieve this while the victim was still breathing."
He looked up at us, his face pale and his eyes haunted. "Based on the state of her muscles, blood flow patterns, and what appears to be strap marks, I believe she was not only alive during this process but likely conscious, albeit to a limited degree. She was almost definitely in shock."
A chill ran down my spine as the implications of the coroner's words sank in. The killer had not only subjected Allison Novak to unspeakable physical torment but had also ensured that she was fully conscious, aware of her agony in excruciating detail.
"Do you have any idea how long she might have survived in this state?" I asked, my voice strained, echoing the hollowness I felt inside.
The coroner shook his head. "It's difficult to say for certain, but based on the extent of the mutilations and the signs of healing around some of the wounds, I'd estimate she endured this hell for several days, if not longer."
Exiting the morgue, the image of Allison Novak enduring days of unimaginable torture haunted my thoughts. We had barely taken a few steps outside when a wave of nausea that had been building all day suddenly overwhelmed me. I stumbled toward a nearby bush, my body convulsing as I vomited. I could feel Finn’s gaze on me, yet he said nothing, maintaining a respectful distance as I regained my composure.
Straightening up, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. Finn offered a bottle of water, his expression unreadable. "Here," he said, "rinse your mouth out."
I accepted the bottle gratefully, taking a moment to splash water on my face as well. For a brief instant, it seemed we might have shared our first genuine moment of connection, a glimpse of understanding beneath his rough exterior.
But before I could fully grasp it, Finn blurted out, "So, ready for lunch? I was thinking Mexican." His tone was casual, as if he hadn't just witnessed me losing my composure in the most undignified manner possible.
At the time, I pretended to be annoyed by his apparent insensitivity. But looking back, I realize that I was actually grateful for how he handled that moment. Vulnerable and exposed in a way I rarely allowed myself to be, especially in front of a new partner, Finn could have berated me or questioned my ability to handle the case as a senior detective. Instead, he brushed it off as nothing, giving me the space to collect myself without judgment. It was then I understood there was more to him than the callous facade he presented. I never got the chance to thank him for that.
The rest of our drive through the county unfolded in silence, the gentle hum of the Plymouth's engine a soothing constant as we ventured deeper into the heart of Texas. The rain had cleared, giving way to a vast expanse of sky that stretched endlessly above us, an uninterrupted blue save for the occasional drift of wispy clouds. The landscape rolled by, marked by herds of cattle and plumes of smoke rising from distant oil refineries, painting a picture of rural industriousness.
As we neared Willowbrook, Finn unfolded a map with practiced hands, confirming our entry into the city limits. The town, home to 54,382 souls, had transformed over the years from a modest oil outpost into a thriving agricultural hub. Rich, fertile soil had been discovered beneath the once-barren surface, breathing new life into the area and drawing local and migrant ranchers to capitalize on the agricultural boom. I was struck by the verdant fields and pastures that contradicted my dusty, arid preconceptions of Texas.
Finn pulled the car off the road, bringing it to a stop beside a gently babbling creek. The serene sound of the water provided a momentary respite from the weight of our earlier discoveries. As I scanned our surroundings, my gaze fell upon a structure nearly consumed by the encroaching vegetation, its faded red roof peeking out from amidst the overgrowth. Finn, following my line of sight, gestured towards a rusted plaque half-hidden beneath a tangle of vines.
Intrigued, I pushed aside the foliage, revealing the weathered inscription:
"Willowbrook Confederate Hospital Est. 1862
Dedicated to the brave Texas soldiers who fought in the New Mexico Campaign and the noble medical staff who tended to their wounds.
'No greater love hath any man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' John 15:13."
Finn, cigarette dangling from his lips, exhaled a plume of smoke as he studied the faded lettering.
"Places like this," he mused, his voice taking on a rare, contemplative tone, "they have a way of soaking up the past. All that pain, all that desperation—it seeps into the very walls. Makes you wonder if it ever truly fades away."
I considered his words as I gazed at the crumbling edifice, my mind conjuring images of the countless souls who had passed through its halls—the wounded, the dying, and those fighting to save them. "Maybe so," I conceded, "but it's worth remembering that this place was also a symbol of hope and healing, once upon a time."
Finn scoffed, flicking ash from his cigarette with a dismissive gesture. "Hope? In a place like this? More likely they did more harm than good, if you ask me."
Rolling my eyes, I felt a surge of exasperation at his relentless cynicism. "Christ, Finn, do you ever give it a rest? Not everything has to be so goddamn bleak all the—" My words died in my throat as a flicker of movement caught my eye.
There, across the creek and through the dense foliage, a face peered out from one of the hospital's cracked windows. Pale and ethereal against the shadowed interior, it stared directly at us, sending a chill racing down my spine. As quickly as it had appeared, the figure retreated back into the gloom, leaving me with a lingering sense of unease.
Finn, noticing my abrupt silence, turned to follow my gaze, his brow furrowing in concern. "What is it?" he asked, an uncharacteristic note of apprehension in his voice.
"I saw someone," I managed, my words scarcely more than a whisper. "In the window. Watching us."
He scrutinized the building, his expression inscrutable. After a moment, Finn crushed his cigarette under his boot and looked back at me. "Probably just a squatter," he concluded, his usual skepticism returning. "Let's not get sidetracked. We've got enough to deal with."
I wanted to persist, but I knew I didn’t have any good arguments. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched. Finn, too, seemed eager to put the building behind us, his pace quickening as we made our way back to the car.
The relentless Texas sun bore down on the mourners gathered at Willowbrook Cemetery, casting sharp shadows across the sea of black garments and somber faces. It had been a few days since our arrival in town, and Finn and I, having settled in at the local police station and assigned local liaison Detective Steve Martinez, decided to attend Allison Novak's funeral to better understand the community's perception of her.
As the casket (closed, of course), was gently lowered into the earth, the reverend's voice, soothing and somber, invoked words of comfort and promises of eternal peace. The air was thick with the scent of freshly turned soil and the muted grief of the assembled mourners.
One by one, community members stepped forward to share their memories of Allison. Their speeches painted her as a dedicated teacher, a kind soul with unwavering faith. However, amidst the typical eulogies, one definitely differed from the rest.
"Allison was a special soul," the woman began, her heavy German accent lending a mystical air to her words. "She was chosen, blessed by powers beyond our understanding. Her death, tragic as it may be, is not the end. Her soul, forever changed, will watch over us, a spiritual sentinel guarding our community from the forces of darkness."
I glanced at Finn, noting the way his eyebrows shot up at the woman's cryptic statement. It seemed we were both on the same page, our instincts telling us that there was more to this than mere grief-stricken ramblings.
As the service concluded and the mourners began to disperse, Finn and I approached the elderly woman, our curiosity piqued.
"Excuse me, ma'am," I said gently, not wanting to startle her. "We couldn't help but notice your unique perspective on Allison's passing. Could you tell us more about what you meant?"
The woman's eyes widened, a mix of fear and excitement flickering across her weathered features. She glanced around nervously, as if checking to see if anyone was within earshot. "You don't understand," she whispered urgently, leaning in close. "Allison was special. More than you could possibly know."
"Special in what way?" Finn cut in, his tone a mix of skepticism and intrigue.
The woman opened her mouth to answer, but before she could utter a word, a hand gently touched her shoulder. We turned to see a younger woman, likely her daughter, standing beside her. She offered us a small, apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, but we really must be going," she said, her voice gentle yet firm.
The elderly woman looked back at us, her expression fraught with an unsaid urgency. "Just remember," she whispered, her eyes boring into mine with intensity, "she didn't fear death. She feared what her death meant for all of us."
Finn took a long drag from his cigarette, his gaze following the old woman's retreating form. "Well, that was enlightening," he muttered.
I nodded, my mind still processing the implications of her cryptic message. "I'm starting to get the impression this is a bit bigger than a lone torturer," I said, turning to face my partner.
Finn flicked the ash from his cigarette, his eyes narrowing. "You think?" He laughed. "At some point, we need to speak to that woman alone. See if we can't get her to spill the beans.”
"Agreed," I said, glancing at my watch. "But in the meantime, I believe we have an appointment to keep."
Martinez had arranged for us to meet the man who discovered Allison Novak's body, and he insisted on accompanying us himself. "Edgar's a bit of a recluse, old school, you know? He might open up more with a familiar face around," Martinez explained as our vehicle wound through the dense woodland bordering the town.
Edgar Holt was a wiry old man with piercing eyes and a guarded demeanor. He lived in isolation, off the beaten path in a cabin adorned with hunting trophies and antique firearms. As we approached, we found him on his porch cleaning a rifle. His scrutiny was intense as he watched us approach, his expression unreadable.
"Mr. Holt, I'm Detective Hunt, and this is Special Agent Finn," I introduced us, gesturing towards Finn, who offered a curt nod. "Detective Martinez mentioned you could help us understand more about where you found Ms. Novak."
Holt paused, setting his rifle aside with deliberate care and wiping his hands on an old rag. "Yeah, I found her alright," he muttered, his voice rough with a hint of defensiveness. "I was tracking a deer through the woods out back when I stumbled up on her. Nearly jumped out of my boots. I'll show ya."
We followed him into the woods, the underbrush crunching beneath our feet. Martinez stayed close to Holt, making small talk to keep the old hunter engaged. Despite his age, Holt moved with surprising agility, his intimate familiarity with the terrain clear as he navigated through the labyrinth of trees.
"Right around here," Holt announced, stopping in a small clearing. The ground was littered with fallen leaves, and remnants of police tape fluttered lightly in the breeze.
Finn crouched to examine the ground, while Martinez kept his eyes on Holt. "You come out here often, Mr. Holt?" Finn asked in a tone that was casual yet sharp.
"Every day," Holt responded, his gaze sweeping the clearing. "This land's been good to me. Known it all my life. Nothing happens here without me noticing."
I spoke up. "I noticed a fresh deer skin tanning outside your shed, and another looked recently processed. You're quite the marksman, Mr. Holt."
Holt's posture stiffened, his eyes narrowing as he processed my words. "Yeah, that's right. It's been a good season for me," he replied cautiously.
I nodded, keeping my gaze on the ground. "Interesting, since this is BLM land and I understand they've only issued two tags this season. You've had quite a bit of good luck to have already filled your tags this early, wouldn't you say?" I noticed how the color drained from his face, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.
"So, what I'm trying to understand, Mr. Holt, is how you were out here hunting deer when you've supposedly already reached your limit." My question hung in the air, the tension palpable.
The old man grunted, his eyes flashing with anger. "I want a lawyer. And you can get the hell out of here."
I sighed, holding up my hands in a placating gesture. "You're not under arrest, Mr. Holt. We're with homicide, not fish and wildlife. Whatever you're doing, that's for the game wardens to sort out. We're just trying to figure out why you were out here, and I don't appreciate being lied to."
Martinez stepped in, placing a hand on Holt's shoulder. "Give it a rest, will you?" he said, steering the old hunter away from us. He spoke to him in low tones, likely trying to reassure him that he wasn't in trouble.
Finn shook his head, "Wow, great detective work, Hunt. Not five minutes into interviewing a witness and he's already lawyering up. Bang-up job."
I shot him a glare, my patience wearing thin. "Speaking of jobs, why don't you do yours and look for something useful instead of second-guessing me?" I snapped, turning my attention back to the clearing.
Finn chuckled, but set about examining the scene more closely, his keen eyes scanning the ground for any clues we might have missed.
"Mr. Holt, I need you to explain why you were out here," I pressed.
"Hunting, damn you," he retorted. "I didn't have anything to do with that girl's death. I should've just kept walking, with all the trouble y'all are causing me."
"I assure you, Mr. Holt, finding a mutilated corpse and not reporting it would not have been in your best interest. But we need to understand how a woman's body ended up this far out, isolated, with nothing around for miles but your cabin."
"I don't know!" he shouted back, his voice tinged with anger and a hint of fear. "If it were me, I'd have buried her or fed her to the hogs. You might think folks like me are just dumb hicks, but even I would've come up with something better than just leaving her out to attract predators."
"There are predators in the area then? What kind?" I asked, seizing the opportunity to gather more information.
"Oh, you name it," he muttered, "Coyotes, bobcats, maybe even a cougar or two. They'd all take a chance on a free meal," he explained.
I pondered his words, "And yet, she was out here for weeks without so much as a nibble from them?"
Holt paused, "Animals have been steering clear of this spot. Won't come within a hundred yards. They can smell the evil."
"Smell the evil?" I echoed skeptically.
"Yes, the evil," he insisted, his voice dropping to a whisper. "This spot ain't normal no more. There's something dark here, and even the beasts know better than to mess with it. Maybe you could take the hint."
"Well, I appreciate the advice, Mr. Holt, but I have a job to do," I responded with a forced smile, turning to leave. "Enjoy the rest of your evening."
As I rejoined Finn, his expression was pensive, eyes scanning the ground. "Find anything?" I asked.
He exhaled slowly, frustration evident. "Not much. There's hardly any blood, if any at all. But look at this," he gestured around us, "the foliage here is dying off. It might be from some chemicals she was doused with, or something else affecting the area."
I nodded, following his gaze. The ground underfoot was patchy and discolored for a few yards in any direction.
"She wasn't dragged here, either. The ground's soft from recent rains, but there are no tire marks, no signs of a body being dragged." He paused, then pointed towards a specific spot. "But I did find something interesting over here."
I stepped closer, following his gesture to a set of footprints. Finn crouched down, his finger tracing the outline of the prints. "Look at the gait here," he explained. "Nearly four feet between strides. For most adults, it should be closer to two. And look—they seem to be backwards."
The implication of his words slowly dawned on me. "You're saying—"
"Whatever happened, she walked here on her own," he concluded.
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Took you long enough," I muttered, my gaze fixed on the rain-slicked road ahead. "We're going to be late."
Finn grunted in response, fishing a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket. He lit one, the ember glowing bright in the dark, and inhaled deeply, filling the car with the acrid stench of tobacco. "Horses," he said, nodding toward a nearby field where a group of the animals huddled together, their coats glistening with rain.
I ignored his remark, pulling the Plymouth back onto the muddy track just as lightning streaked the horizon, casting fleeting shadows inside the car. Finn flipped open the case file, the pages rustling as he scanned the contents.
"So, this broad," he began, his voice rasping as he exhaled smoke against the windshield, "Allison Novak, 34, no rugrats. Teaches snot-nosed brats for a living. Goes to church every Sunday like a good little sheep, and spends her Tuesday evenings with other dried-up housewives reading trashy romance novels."
I shot him a glare, my knuckles whitening as I gripped the steering wheel. "Watch your fucking mouth, Finn. That's someone's daughter you're talking about. Someone who just went through hell. She didn’t deserve this and she doesn't deserve your dumbass comments.”
He scoffed, flicking ash out the window into the storm. “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it,” he retorted, tossing a stack of crime scene photos onto the dash. The images, illuminated intermittently by lightning, revealed a horror I'd seen too many times. Allison's body, twisted and mutilated beyond recognition, her flesh woven into some kind of tapestry.
"Gotta hand it to the bastard," Finn remarked, his eyes alight with a morbid fascination. "Takes a special kind of creativity to come up with this shit. Almost makes you appreciate the artistry of it all."
I swallowed hard, bile rising in my throat. "Creativity? Artistry? Jesus Christ, Finn, this is a human being we're talking about. A woman who was tortured and mutilated. There's nothing creative or artistic about it."
He shrugged, taking another long drag from his cigarette. "Call it what you want, but you can't deny the skill it took to do this. The precision, the attention to detail. This isn't some amateur hour bullshit. This is the work of a true master."
I shook my head, disgusted by his callousness. "You're sick, you know that? Absolutely fucking sick." He leaned forward, tapping the stack of photos with a nicotine-stained finger. "Look at these markings, these symbols carved into her flesh. They don't match any known cult or religious iconography. Not Hermetic, not Abrahamic, not even fucking Satanic. This is something new, something we haven't seen before."
Despite my revulsion for Finn's crassness, I couldn't deny his expertise. The FBI had sent him for his knowledge of ritualistic crimes, and though it often felt more like I was there to babysit rather than collaborate, I knew we needed his insights to catch this killer.
I often wondered how Finn ended up in his role. It was hard to picture him navigating the bureaucratic maze of the FBI, rubbing shoulders with the top brass and climbing the corporate ladder. Yet, when you're scouting for experts in occultism, you're not exactly sifting through the cream of the crop. It made a twisted kind of sense that someone like Finn, drawn to the darker recesses of human nature, would find his niche where his unconventional skills could be utilized by the Bureau.
Nothing could have prepared me for the sight that greeted us. Even now, the image of Allison Novak's mutilated body is seared into my memory, a nightmare that will haunt me until my dying day. Her once beautiful face was a grotesque mockery of itself, metal stilts protruding from her flesh at odd angles, stretching and distorting her features into a macabre caricature. The stilts formed an intricate pattern, almost like a blossoming flower, a sick juxtaposition of beauty and horror.
Her torso was an abattoir of horrors, her sternum removed, her ribs splayed out like the wings of some monstrous creature. Intricate markings adorned her skin, the charred edges suggesting they had been burned into her flesh. And her legs... God, her legs. They had been twisted, rearranged in a way that defied anatomy, defied reason.
I've seen my fair share of brutality, witnessed atrocities that would break a lesser woman. But this... this was something else entirely. The sheer depravity, the meticulous cruelty of it all, spoke to a level of evil that I had never encountered before. This wasn't just a murder, it was a violation of the very laws of nature. We weren't hunting a man, we were chasing a demon in human skin.
I could feel Finn's eyes on me as I took in the scene, gauging my reaction. He seemed almost bored, as if he had seen this all before, just another day at the office. It chilled me to the core, wondering what kind of darkness he had immersed himself in to become so desensitized to such horror.
The local coroner, a man who had no doubt seen his fair share of death and decay, seemed shaken as he prepared to brief us. It was odd seeing a man that spent his days cutting open corpses and weighing viscera stutter. He cleared his throat, his hand trembling slightly as he consulted his notes.
"The, uh, the facial mutilations," he began, his voice unsteady. "They don't seem to serve any physiological purpose. Initially, the lack of blood led me to believe that the victim was deceased when this was done. But then I found traces of anticoagulants around the puncture sites."
He paused, swallowing hard. "This suggests that she was alive when the metal was inserted. The precision, the care taken to minimize blood loss... it's as if he wanted to keep her alive. To prolong her suffering."
I felt bile rise in my throat again, a wave of nausea threatening to overwhelm me. The thought of Allison Novak, awake and aware as this monster transformed her into his twisted masterpiece... It was too much to bear.
Finn, however, seemed intrigued. He leaned forward, his eyes glinting with a morbid fascination. "Interesting. So, our boy has medical knowledge, or at least a rudimentary understanding of anatomy. That narrows the field a bit."
The coroner gestured towards the victim's torso. "The removal of the sternum and the positioning of the ribs further support this theory. The way the ribs were splayed out, the muscles and tendons meticulously cut and arranged, it was almost surgical in its precision. It would have taken considerable time, skill, and a profound understanding of human anatomy to achieve this while the victim was still breathing."
He looked up at us, his face pale and his eyes haunted. "Based on the state of her muscles, blood flow patterns, and what appears to be strap marks, I believe she was not only alive during this process but likely conscious, albeit to a limited degree. She was almost definitely in shock."
A chill ran down my spine as the implications of the coroner's words sank in. The killer had not only subjected Allison Novak to unspeakable physical torment but had also ensured that she was fully conscious, aware of her agony in excruciating detail.
"Do you have any idea how long she might have survived in this state?" I asked, my voice strained, echoing the hollowness I felt inside.
The coroner shook his head. "It's difficult to say for certain, but based on the extent of the mutilations and the signs of healing around some of the wounds, I'd estimate she endured this hell for several days, if not longer."
Exiting the morgue, the image of Allison Novak enduring days of unimaginable torture haunted my thoughts. We had barely taken a few steps outside when a wave of nausea that had been building all day suddenly overwhelmed me. I stumbled toward a nearby bush, my body convulsing as I vomited. I could feel Finn’s gaze on me, yet he said nothing, maintaining a respectful distance as I regained my composure.
Straightening up, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. Finn offered a bottle of water, his expression unreadable. "Here," he said, "rinse your mouth out."
I accepted the bottle gratefully, taking a moment to splash water on my face as well. For a brief instant, it seemed we might have shared our first genuine moment of connection, a glimpse of understanding beneath his rough exterior.
But before I could fully grasp it, Finn blurted out, "So, ready for lunch? I was thinking Mexican." His tone was casual, as if he hadn't just witnessed me losing my composure in the most undignified manner possible.
At the time, I pretended to be annoyed by his apparent insensitivity. But looking back, I realize that I was actually grateful for how he handled that moment. Vulnerable and exposed in a way I rarely allowed myself to be, especially in front of a new partner, Finn could have berated me or questioned my ability to handle the case as a senior detective. Instead, he brushed it off as nothing, giving me the space to collect myself without judgment. It was then I understood there was more to him than the callous facade he presented. I never got the chance to thank him for that.
As we neared Willowbrook, Finn unfolded a map with practiced hands, confirming our entry into the city limits. The town, home to 54,382 souls, had transformed over the years from a modest oil outpost into a thriving agricultural hub. Rich, fertile soil had been discovered beneath the once-barren surface, breathing new life into the area and drawing local and migrant ranchers to capitalize on the agricultural boom. I was struck by the verdant fields and pastures that contradicted my dusty, arid preconceptions of Texas.
Finn pulled the car off the road, bringing it to a stop beside a gently babbling creek. The serene sound of the water provided a momentary respite from the weight of our earlier discoveries. As I scanned our surroundings, my gaze fell upon a structure nearly consumed by the encroaching vegetation, its faded red roof peeking out from amidst the overgrowth. Finn, following my line of sight, gestured towards a rusted plaque half-hidden beneath a tangle of vines.
Intrigued, I pushed aside the foliage, revealing the weathered inscription:
"Willowbrook Confederate Hospital Est. 1862
Dedicated to the brave Texas soldiers who fought in the New Mexico Campaign and the noble medical staff who tended to their wounds.
'No greater love hath any man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' John 15:13."
Finn, cigarette dangling from his lips, exhaled a plume of smoke as he studied the faded lettering.
"Places like this," he mused, his voice taking on a rare, contemplative tone, "they have a way of soaking up the past. All that pain, all that desperation—it seeps into the very walls. Makes you wonder if it ever truly fades away."
I considered his words as I gazed at the crumbling edifice, my mind conjuring images of the countless souls who had passed through its halls—the wounded, the dying, and those fighting to save them. "Maybe so," I conceded, "but it's worth remembering that this place was also a symbol of hope and healing, once upon a time."
Finn scoffed, flicking ash from his cigarette with a dismissive gesture. "Hope? In a place like this? More likely they did more harm than good, if you ask me."
Rolling my eyes, I felt a surge of exasperation at his relentless cynicism. "Christ, Finn, do you ever give it a rest? Not everything has to be so goddamn bleak all the—" My words died in my throat as a flicker of movement caught my eye.
There, across the creek and through the dense foliage, a face peered out from one of the hospital's cracked windows. Pale and ethereal against the shadowed interior, it stared directly at us, sending a chill racing down my spine. As quickly as it had appeared, the figure retreated back into the gloom, leaving me with a lingering sense of unease.
Finn, noticing my abrupt silence, turned to follow my gaze, his brow furrowing in concern. "What is it?" he asked, an uncharacteristic note of apprehension in his voice.
"I saw someone," I managed, my words scarcely more than a whisper. "In the window. Watching us."
He scrutinized the building, his expression inscrutable. After a moment, Finn crushed his cigarette under his boot and looked back at me. "Probably just a squatter," he concluded, his usual skepticism returning. "Let's not get sidetracked. We've got enough to deal with."
I wanted to persist, but I knew I didn’t have any good arguments. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched. Finn, too, seemed eager to put the building behind us, his pace quickening as we made our way back to the car.
As the casket (closed, of course), was gently lowered into the earth, the reverend's voice, soothing and somber, invoked words of comfort and promises of eternal peace. The air was thick with the scent of freshly turned soil and the muted grief of the assembled mourners.
One by one, community members stepped forward to share their memories of Allison. Their speeches painted her as a dedicated teacher, a kind soul with unwavering faith. However, amidst the typical eulogies, one definitely differed from the rest.
"Allison was a special soul," the woman began, her heavy German accent lending a mystical air to her words. "She was chosen, blessed by powers beyond our understanding. Her death, tragic as it may be, is not the end. Her soul, forever changed, will watch over us, a spiritual sentinel guarding our community from the forces of darkness."
I glanced at Finn, noting the way his eyebrows shot up at the woman's cryptic statement. It seemed we were both on the same page, our instincts telling us that there was more to this than mere grief-stricken ramblings.
As the service concluded and the mourners began to disperse, Finn and I approached the elderly woman, our curiosity piqued.
"Excuse me, ma'am," I said gently, not wanting to startle her. "We couldn't help but notice your unique perspective on Allison's passing. Could you tell us more about what you meant?"
The woman's eyes widened, a mix of fear and excitement flickering across her weathered features. She glanced around nervously, as if checking to see if anyone was within earshot. "You don't understand," she whispered urgently, leaning in close. "Allison was special. More than you could possibly know."
"Special in what way?" Finn cut in, his tone a mix of skepticism and intrigue.
The woman opened her mouth to answer, but before she could utter a word, a hand gently touched her shoulder. We turned to see a younger woman, likely her daughter, standing beside her. She offered us a small, apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, but we really must be going," she said, her voice gentle yet firm.
The elderly woman looked back at us, her expression fraught with an unsaid urgency. "Just remember," she whispered, her eyes boring into mine with intensity, "she didn't fear death. She feared what her death meant for all of us."
Finn took a long drag from his cigarette, his gaze following the old woman's retreating form. "Well, that was enlightening," he muttered.
I nodded, my mind still processing the implications of her cryptic message. "I'm starting to get the impression this is a bit bigger than a lone torturer," I said, turning to face my partner.
Finn flicked the ash from his cigarette, his eyes narrowing. "You think?" He laughed. "At some point, we need to speak to that woman alone. See if we can't get her to spill the beans.”
"Agreed," I said, glancing at my watch. "But in the meantime, I believe we have an appointment to keep."
Edgar Holt was a wiry old man with piercing eyes and a guarded demeanor. He lived in isolation, off the beaten path in a cabin adorned with hunting trophies and antique firearms. As we approached, we found him on his porch cleaning a rifle. His scrutiny was intense as he watched us approach, his expression unreadable.
"Mr. Holt, I'm Detective Hunt, and this is Special Agent Finn," I introduced us, gesturing towards Finn, who offered a curt nod. "Detective Martinez mentioned you could help us understand more about where you found Ms. Novak."
Holt paused, setting his rifle aside with deliberate care and wiping his hands on an old rag. "Yeah, I found her alright," he muttered, his voice rough with a hint of defensiveness. "I was tracking a deer through the woods out back when I stumbled up on her. Nearly jumped out of my boots. I'll show ya."
We followed him into the woods, the underbrush crunching beneath our feet. Martinez stayed close to Holt, making small talk to keep the old hunter engaged. Despite his age, Holt moved with surprising agility, his intimate familiarity with the terrain clear as he navigated through the labyrinth of trees.
"Right around here," Holt announced, stopping in a small clearing. The ground was littered with fallen leaves, and remnants of police tape fluttered lightly in the breeze.
Finn crouched to examine the ground, while Martinez kept his eyes on Holt. "You come out here often, Mr. Holt?" Finn asked in a tone that was casual yet sharp.
"Every day," Holt responded, his gaze sweeping the clearing. "This land's been good to me. Known it all my life. Nothing happens here without me noticing."
I spoke up. "I noticed a fresh deer skin tanning outside your shed, and another looked recently processed. You're quite the marksman, Mr. Holt."
Holt's posture stiffened, his eyes narrowing as he processed my words. "Yeah, that's right. It's been a good season for me," he replied cautiously.
I nodded, keeping my gaze on the ground. "Interesting, since this is BLM land and I understand they've only issued two tags this season. You've had quite a bit of good luck to have already filled your tags this early, wouldn't you say?" I noticed how the color drained from his face, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.
"So, what I'm trying to understand, Mr. Holt, is how you were out here hunting deer when you've supposedly already reached your limit." My question hung in the air, the tension palpable.
The old man grunted, his eyes flashing with anger. "I want a lawyer. And you can get the hell out of here."
I sighed, holding up my hands in a placating gesture. "You're not under arrest, Mr. Holt. We're with homicide, not fish and wildlife. Whatever you're doing, that's for the game wardens to sort out. We're just trying to figure out why you were out here, and I don't appreciate being lied to."
Martinez stepped in, placing a hand on Holt's shoulder. "Give it a rest, will you?" he said, steering the old hunter away from us. He spoke to him in low tones, likely trying to reassure him that he wasn't in trouble.
Finn shook his head, "Wow, great detective work, Hunt. Not five minutes into interviewing a witness and he's already lawyering up. Bang-up job."
I shot him a glare, my patience wearing thin. "Speaking of jobs, why don't you do yours and look for something useful instead of second-guessing me?" I snapped, turning my attention back to the clearing.
Finn chuckled, but set about examining the scene more closely, his keen eyes scanning the ground for any clues we might have missed.
"Mr. Holt, I need you to explain why you were out here," I pressed.
"Hunting, damn you," he retorted. "I didn't have anything to do with that girl's death. I should've just kept walking, with all the trouble y'all are causing me."
"I assure you, Mr. Holt, finding a mutilated corpse and not reporting it would not have been in your best interest. But we need to understand how a woman's body ended up this far out, isolated, with nothing around for miles but your cabin."
"I don't know!" he shouted back, his voice tinged with anger and a hint of fear. "If it were me, I'd have buried her or fed her to the hogs. You might think folks like me are just dumb hicks, but even I would've come up with something better than just leaving her out to attract predators."
"There are predators in the area then? What kind?" I asked, seizing the opportunity to gather more information.
"Oh, you name it," he muttered, "Coyotes, bobcats, maybe even a cougar or two. They'd all take a chance on a free meal," he explained.
I pondered his words, "And yet, she was out here for weeks without so much as a nibble from them?"
Holt paused, "Animals have been steering clear of this spot. Won't come within a hundred yards. They can smell the evil."
"Smell the evil?" I echoed skeptically.
"Yes, the evil," he insisted, his voice dropping to a whisper. "This spot ain't normal no more. There's something dark here, and even the beasts know better than to mess with it. Maybe you could take the hint."
"Well, I appreciate the advice, Mr. Holt, but I have a job to do," I responded with a forced smile, turning to leave. "Enjoy the rest of your evening."
As I rejoined Finn, his expression was pensive, eyes scanning the ground. "Find anything?" I asked.
He exhaled slowly, frustration evident. "Not much. There's hardly any blood, if any at all. But look at this," he gestured around us, "the foliage here is dying off. It might be from some chemicals she was doused with, or something else affecting the area."
I nodded, following his gaze. The ground underfoot was patchy and discolored for a few yards in any direction.
"She wasn't dragged here, either. The ground's soft from recent rains, but there are no tire marks, no signs of a body being dragged." He paused, then pointed towards a specific spot. "But I did find something interesting over here."
I stepped closer, following his gesture to a set of footprints. Finn crouched down, his finger tracing the outline of the prints. "Look at the gait here," he explained. "Nearly four feet between strides. For most adults, it should be closer to two. And look—they seem to be backwards."
The implication of his words slowly dawned on me. "You're saying—"
"Whatever happened, she walked here on her own," he concluded.
2024.05.02 19:49 Important-Parking354 ...and his name is Dirk.
Dirk, Dirk, Dirk...I wish I could make a poem about this guy but I don't wanna waste my words on this SOB!! Honestly, I was so damn pissed at Dirk the entire book. He argued with every choice I made (even the hard ones), blamed us for the Brynn, Cassidy and their other friend's deaths. Like WTF?! MC didn't ask to be leader but they tried their damnest to secure the colony. And of all people, Trent?!!(I kept him alive) but he picked such a fool. And the last straw was him apologising and calling Blackstock behind our backs even after everything he put MC and Brynn through...I chose to put him and the traitors to death...even though i wish he saw Brynn with his own eyes. That was my last straw... So....what did y'all choose between the two?
submitted by Important-Parking354 to Choices [link] [comments]
2024.05.02 19:36 I_HaveGiven_Up Seneca and his hatred of beginnings
I am stumped by some of Seneca's writings on beginnings. In letter 23, he quotes the line from Epicurius "It is wearisome to always be beginning one's life". He also paraphrases it as "They live badly who are always beginning to live." He goes on to further clarify:
submitted by I_HaveGiven_Up to Stoicism [link] [comments]
"Why?" you ask. The saying requires an explanation. It is beause for them, life is always unfinished: a person who has just begun to live cannot stand ready for death. We must endeavor to have enough of life, and no one achieves that when he just at the point of laying out his life's project.He makes a similar point on the end of the 14th letter, again quoting Epiciruis in saying "This too is one of the evils of foolishness: it is always beginning to live." He writes
Most excellenet Lucius, ponder the meaning of this saying, and you will understand how disgusting it is that people are so fickle, every day laying new foundations for life, starting on new projects even in the hour of death. Cast your mind about to individual cases: you will think of old men who are preparing themselves more than ever before a career, for travel, and for business. What is more shameful than an old man making a beginning on life?Now, I can understand what Seneca is saying from a certain perspective. If he means that we should not put off what we want in life and wait until later, but live our lives as if they are the lives that we desire now, and not postpone living as honorably and virtuously for a future date, then I'm in full agreement. What I don't understand is why he's so opposed to the idea of beginnings. Isn't everyone always at the start of something, and don't we all arrive to understanding our life project at different points? Why should it matter whether someone begins to improve, regardless of their age? I know that Seneca isn't really a big fan of travel or career-orientations in general, and I understand that when we're older, it makes more sense to move gracefully into old age - but many don't come to discover wisdom and how they ought to live until much later, and if that's the case, why is it foolish and disgusting to do so?
2024.05.02 19:33 New_Friendship_8487 William is not an impressive killer: my ted talk
William is an all time fav so don't look at my take on his character flaws as hate, but William's initial killings just weren't all that. Children have to be THE EASIEST victims you could go for. It doesn't take a lot of brains or brawn's to trick and kill them, just a black hole for a heart. In fact, I think it's cowardly to choose children over adults. Why not lure a dad or a mom to a back room with a lie about their children getting in trouble or something? Because he knew it would be easier to outsmart and overpower a child because DUH it's a child anyone can do that.
But what about stuffing the animatronics with the corpses, you say? That's got to be really clever, and the police never found them? I will be honest, this is more of a drag on the police than a clever dupe from William. How could the cops not check the animatronics?? There was BLOOD and MUCUS coming out of their eyes and mouth! Come on! But that does go to show more incompetency in William's killings. If the police weren't idiots, they would have found the bodies at least when the blood and mucus started coming out of them, and William would have been arrested. In this case, he got lucky.
But what about Springtrap, you say? He's so sinister and edgy and cool looking! And while that is true, he technically doesn't kill anyone as Springtrap in canon. Whether you get the good or the bad ending, the nightguard (probably Michael) doesn't die. But if he did kill the nightguard, would that be impressive? Unfortunately for William, no. Killing one guy who's isolated and cracked out of his mind from faulty ventilation and probably carbon monoxide isn't hard, and he didn't even manage to kill him.
Let's go outside the games for a moment and visit our friends the Silver Eyes and the Movie. In these mediums, William manages to be a decent killer, not impressive, but decent. In the Movie, William seems to exercise some kind of control over the animatronics to trick them or make them kill people—and adults this time! The reason I say he's a decent killer in these is because it's not really him doing the killing. It's not bad, but he's more far removed from the situation: the same way killing someone with a butter knife is more impressive than shooting them with a gun.
He manages a similar but less impressive feat in the Silver Eyes, at least getting the animatronics to chase around some teenagers. But being able to control the animatronics deserves some merit, and let's not forget the crowning achievement of the Silver Eyes—William murders a cop. An adult cop! Now that's some real killer action! Not as Springtrap, not with other animatronics, just in the Spring Bonnie suit with a knife. Genuine scare-target-then-hit-him-with-the-stabby-stab. Good for him, honestly, because that's the pinnacle of his murdering achievements.
Now, all this is pre-sister location. What about the Funtimes, you say? Truly a mastermind of evil could only come up with those remnant-extracting death traps! Well, this strange feat is a product of where William's character takes a turn for the worst. My best guess is the popularity of the character put the pressure on Scott to place William in a role he didn't fit into: the mastermind—or he just loved sci-fi and a mastermind villian fit the sci-fi like theme better than a gritty serial killer. But honestly, even the post-sister location games don't hold up this role well. The most mastermind-like thing William did was make the Funtimes, and that felt so left-field that I like leaning toward Ryetoasts' theory that William tricked Henry into making the Funtimes.
Enough about what could be or should be, where do the Funtimes fall on killings on behalf of William? They're—fine. If they were made by him, that makes the Funtimes significantly more impressive than when he used the OGs in the movie/silver eyes. But, because he can't control them (ie funtime isn't doing what we want, let's give them a controlled shock!), it makes their killings significantly less impressive, if even able to be attributed to him at all. As far as we're aware, they kill three people for sure. They kill his daughter (which is a bit of a dunce move on his part) and then they hang two technicians (probably has nothing to do with William). So while in theory the Funtimes could make William an impressive killer, the execution was flawed.
Speedrun: Scraptrap is the same as Springtrap except he's not cool looking anymore, and replace carbon monoxide with heat stroke. Glitchtrap is up in the air for whether that's William at all, but he does make Jeremy cut his face off which is pretty impressive if that is William. Burntrap couldn't be less impressive. If the Mimic is mimicking William, let's cross our fingers that the police wherever security breach is set have brains and then that problem will be solved.
That all to say, William doesn't have to be a clever mastermind or super strong to be scary. His black heart alone in choosing children because it's easy is chilling enough. Thanks for reading if you got this far!
submitted by New_Friendship_8487 to fivenightsatfreddys [link] [comments]
But what about stuffing the animatronics with the corpses, you say? That's got to be really clever, and the police never found them? I will be honest, this is more of a drag on the police than a clever dupe from William. How could the cops not check the animatronics?? There was BLOOD and MUCUS coming out of their eyes and mouth! Come on! But that does go to show more incompetency in William's killings. If the police weren't idiots, they would have found the bodies at least when the blood and mucus started coming out of them, and William would have been arrested. In this case, he got lucky.
But what about Springtrap, you say? He's so sinister and edgy and cool looking! And while that is true, he technically doesn't kill anyone as Springtrap in canon. Whether you get the good or the bad ending, the nightguard (probably Michael) doesn't die. But if he did kill the nightguard, would that be impressive? Unfortunately for William, no. Killing one guy who's isolated and cracked out of his mind from faulty ventilation and probably carbon monoxide isn't hard, and he didn't even manage to kill him.
Let's go outside the games for a moment and visit our friends the Silver Eyes and the Movie. In these mediums, William manages to be a decent killer, not impressive, but decent. In the Movie, William seems to exercise some kind of control over the animatronics to trick them or make them kill people—and adults this time! The reason I say he's a decent killer in these is because it's not really him doing the killing. It's not bad, but he's more far removed from the situation: the same way killing someone with a butter knife is more impressive than shooting them with a gun.
He manages a similar but less impressive feat in the Silver Eyes, at least getting the animatronics to chase around some teenagers. But being able to control the animatronics deserves some merit, and let's not forget the crowning achievement of the Silver Eyes—William murders a cop. An adult cop! Now that's some real killer action! Not as Springtrap, not with other animatronics, just in the Spring Bonnie suit with a knife. Genuine scare-target-then-hit-him-with-the-stabby-stab. Good for him, honestly, because that's the pinnacle of his murdering achievements.
Now, all this is pre-sister location. What about the Funtimes, you say? Truly a mastermind of evil could only come up with those remnant-extracting death traps! Well, this strange feat is a product of where William's character takes a turn for the worst. My best guess is the popularity of the character put the pressure on Scott to place William in a role he didn't fit into: the mastermind—or he just loved sci-fi and a mastermind villian fit the sci-fi like theme better than a gritty serial killer. But honestly, even the post-sister location games don't hold up this role well. The most mastermind-like thing William did was make the Funtimes, and that felt so left-field that I like leaning toward Ryetoasts' theory that William tricked Henry into making the Funtimes.
Enough about what could be or should be, where do the Funtimes fall on killings on behalf of William? They're—fine. If they were made by him, that makes the Funtimes significantly more impressive than when he used the OGs in the movie/silver eyes. But, because he can't control them (ie funtime isn't doing what we want, let's give them a controlled shock!), it makes their killings significantly less impressive, if even able to be attributed to him at all. As far as we're aware, they kill three people for sure. They kill his daughter (which is a bit of a dunce move on his part) and then they hang two technicians (probably has nothing to do with William). So while in theory the Funtimes could make William an impressive killer, the execution was flawed.
Speedrun: Scraptrap is the same as Springtrap except he's not cool looking anymore, and replace carbon monoxide with heat stroke. Glitchtrap is up in the air for whether that's William at all, but he does make Jeremy cut his face off which is pretty impressive if that is William. Burntrap couldn't be less impressive. If the Mimic is mimicking William, let's cross our fingers that the police wherever security breach is set have brains and then that problem will be solved.
That all to say, William doesn't have to be a clever mastermind or super strong to be scary. His black heart alone in choosing children because it's easy is chilling enough. Thanks for reading if you got this far!