Army lateness 4856 form

The bits:
-Not only does the flesh of Chaos marines fuse with their armor, but their minds also fuse with the machine spirits of their wargear. A Chaos Marine's armor will mutate and be reshaped by the Warp taint to reflect his obsessions and their affinity/allegiance to the gods of Chaos.
-Following the Scouring and the exile to the Eye of Terror, none of the Traitor Primarchs were interested in unifying the Traitor Legions. Mortarion and Lorgar mostly shunned Real Space. Mortarion busied himself in reshaping his Daemon world into an image of his destroyed homeworld Barbarus. Lorgar self-exiled himself to the Daemon world of Sicarus. Magnus focused his attention on curing his legion from their curse of mutation. Fulgrim lost himself in a spiral of excess and pleasure. Perturabo fixated on pursuing his vendetta with the Imperial Fists rather than the pursuit of grand conquest. And so with no unifying leader, the traitor legions were fragmented by infighting and the cruel whims of the Chaos Gods.
-When Abaddon rose as Warmaster, he resolved to learn from the mistakes of his genesire. He swore to never bend the knee to the gods of Chaos, and to never sell his soul to them no matter how tempting their offers of powers. Abaddon refused to surrender his morality for immortal power and guarded it well.
-The 13th Black Crusade hasn't ended. It's reaching its peak in the Indomintus Era. Though Cadia had fallen, the war for the Cadian Gate continues. Furthermore, Abaddon is expanding his warfront elsewhere such as the Nachmund Gauntlet. These are but a few of the schemes Abaddon seeks to enact to topple the Imperium. Should Abaddon succeed in them then the power of Chaos will be unleashed from the Warp toward Terra itself.
-With each conquest, Abaddon paved a path toward Terra. However, what was unknown for the rest of the galaxy was his plan to unpick the veil between the Materium and the Warp. For thousands of years under the cover of false objectives and even entire Black Crusades Abaddon sought out and destroyed the Pylons wherever he found them. Sometimes he did so personally, other times via his agents, or by using the Planet Killer and the Blackstone Fortresses.
-The Fall of Cadia was the culmination of Abaddon's millennia-spanning grand plan, a plan that tied together the events of Pandorax, the Siege of Fenris, and others. The Great Rift was born, flooding the galaxy with the stuff of the Warp. Acting as his vanguard the traitor legions and renegade warbands smashed their way through the Cadian Gate and emerged on the other side. The traitor forces brought destruction and bloodshed to world after world empowering the Warp and causing the daemonic legions to follow in their wake. Invasion after invasion, the Crimson Path expands toward Terra.
-The Chaos Gods and their legions believe that the fall of Terra and the destruction of the Emperor would be the ultimate prize, the conclusion of the war between the Materium and the Immaterium. Yet, Terra's fall is one part of Abaddon's plan for vengeance, not the end. Abaddon is aware that the ultimate victory of the Chaos Gods would be bad for his mortal self so he has no intention of depending on the Chaos Gods in achieving the victory he seeks. For now, Abaddon is all too content to have the forces of Chaos carve a path toward Terra.
-In the Age of the Great Rift, the forces of Chaos are prowling the stars in numbers not seen since the HH. Not even the Imperium Sanctus is safe from their wrath. However, it's in the Imperium Nihilus where they are at their strongest. Isolated from each other and shorn from the guiding light of Terra, the isolated bastions of the Imperium are being beset by the forces of Chaos from within and without. The overstretched defenders of the Imperium still valiantly attempt to stem the overwhelming tides of Chaos, chief among them are Dante and the returned Primarch the Lion who rage against the encircling darkness. Yet their efforts are nothing but futile gestures. Candles of hope set before a raging inferno of hate.
-Roboute launched the Indomintus Crusade to save the Imperium from collapse yet even this colossal assemblage of Imperial might cannot hope to repel every Chaos incursion. Conflicts are flaring up in every Segmentum of the Imperium and in each the influence of the Despoiler can be felt.
-Though Chaos is ascendant gutted on conquest and slaughter, Abaddon knows that he must maintain the momentum of his Black Crusade by feeding it constant conquests and victories or else risk his forces fragmenting before he could topple the Imperium.
-Abaddon and the Black Legion value value renegades from the Space Marine chapters who join their ranks. These turncoats bring them an abundance of information about the Imperium and its defenders allowing Abaddon's formidable intellect to fashion accurate and complex plans that inflict the maximum damage to the Imperium. In the past it allowed the Black Legion to deceive sector fleets, steal geneseed from loyalist chapter strongholds, and strike at key industrial zones.
-Lord Iordax Quan is one of the most singularly dedicated Black Legion commanders to the cause of destroying the Imperium. His focus on the Long War resulted in him rejecting the blessings of the Dark Gods and surrounding himself with fellow true veterans of the Long War whose thirst for vengeance remains undimmed. His focus, his dedication, has led to Abaddon deploying him to crucial warzones. He is currently serving in the Cadian system purging the last Imperial holdouts.
-Solomon Akurra the character from Mike Brooks' novel "Harrowmaster" is mentioned in the codex. Akurra had seized control of the Serpent Teeth's warband and now commands the mobile Star Fort the Unseen. He gathered around him a loose alliance of Alpha Legion warbands that he dubbed the Ghost Legion. In his burning desire to take the fight to the Imperium, he is exploiting the sorry state of the Imperium to add to its misery. Using his strategic mind and the sinister skills of the Alpha Legion, Akurra had deceived entire systems to swear allegiance to the Ghost Legion further destabilizing the Imperium. The majority of the Psyphos subsector is now under his rule. Yet this is merely the start of the seeds of anarchy he will plant in Segmentum Pacificus.
-When the Great Rift opened, the three stars of a system close to the galactic core and bordering the territories of the Greater Thurian League were swallowed up by the expanding Warpstorm known to the Kin as Orgvayr. The surging Warp energy resulted in the trio of stars going supernova at the same time creating a nebula of tainted clouds of astral debris riddled with Warp rifts which acted as refuge for many Chaos warbands including the Iron Warrior warband known as Abrial's Claw. The determined Iron Warriors took to besieging the mighty strongholds of the Kin and several fell before them.
-The short story "The Traitor's Tarot" from the 9th ED CSM codex is again here in the 10th Ed codex. They added four images to accompany the paragraphs that described the heretical artwork. I appreciate rereading the short, it's a good story but I would have very much liked a new story to come with the new codex. You get me?
-Traitor fleets have no fear of the raging tides of the Warp. They sail through and from even the hearts of Warpstorms. The remarkable ease with which the heretics are navigating the turbulent Warp makes it seem that the hands of the Chaos Gods protect them as they emerge over their prey worlds. Within the darkness of the Imperium Nihilus, the traitors have enacted butchery and atrocity of epic proportions on the isolated worlds of the Imperium. The luckiest of their victims are those who meet quick ends. Those who survive face a fate worse than death at the hands of the heretics.
-Worse still for humanity, within Nihilus many of the traitors' unnatural abilities and blessings are being empowered. Their wargear swell and blaze with the power of the Chaos Gods and their sorcery are reaching new levels of dark majesty and potency.
-The isolation of Imperial territories in the Imperium Nihilus made many Imperial worlds and systems believe that they are the last of humanity. Some broke off from Imperial rule and transformed into their own kingdoms and nations. The decline of Imperial faith soon saw these independent realms and worlds rot from the inside out as the insidious whispers of daemons spread to the populace and Chaos cults flourished.
-Traitor empires are rising in the Imperium Nihilus. Worlds that had once served the Imperium now fuel the warbands and legions of Chaos with their resources and industry. Abaddon has a hand in the creation and location of some of these heretical empires. It's unknown whether these empires are part of some scheme of his or are merely a vision of a galaxy under his rule.
-Vashhtorr's origins are unknown, forgotten by history. It's possible he was created by the technological and scientific advancements of the DAoT, spawned by the galaxy-shaping technology of the Old Ones, or came to being when primitives first mastered fire and created sharp tools.
-Vashtorr and Perturabo enjoy a beneficial but less than friendly relationship with each other. They cooperated in many nightmarish projects. The Daemon Primarch has regularly allied his Iron Warrior warbands with the Arkifane.
-Wyrmwood is a perversion of the tunneling devices used by the Old Ones to create the Webway. It's the Key for the Lock of a vault that contains a godly weapon capable of altering the fate of the galaxy. In search for the lock, Wyrmwood carves its way through the Webway and Real Space in an insane pattern known only to Vashtorr. Wyrmwood is unrestrained by the laws of time and space. The Imperial agents are struggling to catch up to Wyrmwood as it emerges into sectors across the breadth of the galaxy. The daemon world is crossing vast tracks of space in mere hours, that would have taken Imperial fleets months to sail through. By the time Imperial fleet heeded distress calls and arrived at Wyrmwood's reported location, the daemonic world engine would have long departed having left behind nothing but ruined worlds and tears in reality.
-Even the Asuryani, who are enraged at the corruption of the Webway technology and fearful of the damage Wyrmwood will inflict on the Webway tunnels, are struggling to track down Wyrmwood. Their seers are unable to crack the code of Vashtorr's insane search pattern. Only Craftworld Altansar, due to their bitter experience with the Warp and its mutilation of reality, are making progress in tracking Wyrmwood. However, thus far, the Asuryani's efforts to draw Vashtorr into battle were met with dismal failure.
-Reports hint that Wyrmwood is about to appear in the Pariah Nexus. Other reports hint that it will appear in the Ghoul Stars. What is certain is that nowhere is safe from Vashtorr's wrath.
-Vashtorr is a timeless being. Linear time is of no consequence to him. While the efforts of his foes might delay his search, he will have his prize sooner or later.
-Vashtorr has near limitless control over technology. The nature and origin of the technology do not matter to Vashtorr, his understanding is without limit. Vashtorr can unmake or take control of any device created by mortal hands with a mere gesture.
-Within the superstructures of the Soul Forges nests the daemon engines known as the Venomcrawlers. They hunt and down devour daemonic entities that get discarded by Warpsmith and Masters of Possessions. The raging essences of these consumed entities power the daemon engines' weapons. When daemonic prey becomes lacking Venomcrawlers start hunting the Soul Forges' heretic marine masters to keep themselves fed.
-The Dark Mech provides the hosts of Chaos with armor, weapons, daemon engines, and even battle fleets. Without the Dark Mech the armies of Chaos might grind to a halt.
-While the physical shells of captured Imperial war machines are desecrated and reshaped into horrific forms, their machine spirits are sent to the Soul Forges within the Warp to be driven to madness.
-Some Soul Forges are rumored to predate mankind, that they are eternal and ruled over by unknowable entities.
-The captive daemons are dragged screaming by ropes fashioned from the hair of murderers and chains of bones into the Soul Forges where Warpsmiths bind them into daemon engines and then bludgeon them to submission with runic wards and rituals.
-Abaddon is not only feared by the High Lords of Terra. Within the halls of the greatest Xenos Empires, the Warmaster's name invokes fear.
-So mighty has Abaddon become after 10K years that only the Daemon Primarchs could challenge his position. Yet these figures are too focused on their pursuits to risk war with the Despoiler and his vast legion.
-Only Abaddon can unite the forces of Chaos. To do so is a continuous fight for the Warmaster especially when marshaling allied forces whose allegiance belongs to their gods alone. Getting these opposing servants of the Chaos Gods to set aside their rivalries not only for a short period of time but for years is proof of his supreme willpower and the high regard and fear felt toward him by the traitors even by those who hate him and wish him to fail.
-Haarken was once a Night Lord. His ruthlessness saw him rise to the command of the Night Lord warband known as the Gloomtalons. Haarken would lead his warband into raids on the worlds of the Imperium. He would always proclaim his coming victory and a world's doom on the vox broadcasts before leading his formation of raptors through the night sky to butcher any who foolishly resists and make examples of them. Haarken would kidnap the leaders of Imperial worlds and give them the choice of swearing fealty to him or suffering a prolonged agonizing death. Through a network of spies, Haarken ensured the Imperial leaders who bowed before him were kept in line. Thus Haarken grew rich in wealth and plunder. However, despite his successes as a pirate and raider, he found no satisfaction. He felt empty. His black heart yearned to strike a lasting blow against the Imperium.
-Haarken prayers were answered when Abaddon's attention fell on him. During the muster for the fifth Black Crusade, Abaddon offered the Haarken the honor of fighting alongside his Black Legion. Abaddon was straightforward with Haarken. He did not promise Haarken riches and plunder but the chance to strike a telling blow against the hated Imperium. And if he served well Abaddon would grant him further chances to bleed the Imperium. It was as if Abaddon peered through Haarken's soul and fulfilled his deepest desires. Haarken then and there knew he was standing before greatness, a warlord with the strength, charisma, and vision to bring the Imperium crashing down.
-During the battle for the city of Kasyr Lutein, Haarken and his Gloomtalons flew ahead of Abaddon and his Black Legion. Haarken unleashed unspeakable acts of violence and terror on the defenders of the city. The demoralized Imperials were annihilated by the combined might of the Black Legion and the Night Lords.
-Ultimately, the Fifth Black Crusade came to an end and the traitors were forced back to the Eye of Terror. However, the Imperials paid a terrible price to do so and the Elysian sector was ravaged. Having witnessed firsthand the supreme might and leadership of Abaddon, Haarken bent the knee to the Despoiler and donned the black and gold of the Black Legion. Since then Haarken carved a place for himself among the vanguard of the Black Legion eventually earning himself the title of the Worldclaimer for the countless worlds he conquered in the name of Abaddon.
-Abaddon acknowledged the loyalty and good service of Haarken by bestowing upon him the title of the "Herald of the Apocalypse" and the Helspear, a weapon that befits his new position as Abaddon's mouthpiece.
-Haarken is wholly devoted to Abaddon and his cause. From the Nachmund Gauntlet, he is committed to tearing a path toward the Sol system. He yearns for the day when he would drive his spear into Terra's surface and proclaim the end of the rule of the False Emperor.
-The Iron Warriors honor the Chaos Gods as a pantheon, though few among their number are truly devoted. Their true loyalty belongs to their Daemon Primarch whom they believe saved them from being sacrificed by the Emperor.
-Many Chaos warlords look down on the methods of Alpha Legion, but Abaddon does not. Abaddon appreciates their skills and makes good use of them. More than once the Warmaster employed the Alpha Legion to sow discord and anarchy before his invading fleets. However, Abaddon knows that the Alpha Legion are dangerous allies for their goals and true motivations are closely guarded secrets.
-Despite the revulsion and mistrust Abaddon feels toward the Word Bearers for reminding him of the shameful depths Horus fell into in his worship of the Chaos Gods. he had made common cause with them on many occasions. The effectiveness of the Word Bearers as warriors, both possessed or not, is something the Warmaster cannot deny. It's a source of strength he cannot afford to discard. Lorgar for his part sees Abaddon as a tool to spread the Word of the Ruinous Powers to the very heart of the Imperium.
-Most Night Lords do not seem to worship the Chaos Gods in the same degree as the other traitor Legions. They fight only for material gain and personal pleasure. They look down on fanatical marines, be they worshipers of Dark Gods or the False Emperor. They place their respect not in faith but in strength, strength and terror.
-The Night Lords will fight for any cause as long as the plunder is good and they have ample opportunity to inflict as much bloodshed and anguish as they can. This made some Night Lords warbands pledge their service to alien warlords.
-After the birth of the Great Rift, the Red Corsairs have become experts in navigating the border regions between Warpstorms and Real Space. They established secret bases in the liminal zones. One of them is a significantly large base called the Tyrant's Gate in the Imperium Nihilus. Every sin and vice is indulged on that world. The world is orbited by weapon shops, docks, and defense platforms. Within the Warp, a sorcerous anchorage allows the battleships of Chaos to translate directly from and to the planet's orbit swiftly.
-Imperial reports that Huron Blackheart was spotted in two Segmentums at once seem to all but confirm that he struck some sort of bargain with the Chaos Gods.
-In exchange for his skill, Fabius had struck bargains with Chaos warlords, including the Daemon Primarch. He favours no client over the other, not even his gene-father.
-In recent years, Fabius has acquired samples from the Primaris marines and the Custodes. What he intends to do with them is unknown.
-The daemon Q'o'ak the Boundless is said to have drawn the ire of his master Tzeentch by meddling in his plans. To rid himself of Q'o'ak's ceaseless meddling, Tzeentch bound him to a weapon. Each time the weapon clashes with an enemy blade, the enemy falls victim to Q'o'ak temporal tampering. How Q'o'ak traverses time while imprisoned within the weapon remains unknown but with each soul he pulls from the web of fate a fresh plume manifests from the weapon's hilt.
Emeys Varran, the Apostle of Discordance, is unusually zealous in his devotion to Dark Gods for a trusted lieutenant of Abaddon. Despite his zealous faith in the Chaos Gods, Varran's true loyalty lies with Abaddon and the Black Legion. He is one of the Warhamer's few trusted confidants. Varran holds an intense and violent hatred toward the Sisters of Battle after losing his left eye to a neural wipe during the siege of the Chaos Knight World of Dharrovar. Abaddon dispatched Varran to aid Haarkin in seizing control of the Nachmund Gauntlet.
The Vashtorr and Black Legion vs T'au short story:
The world that Vashtorr manifested upon had a half-destroyed ancient city. Within the city was a temple whose structure was etched with daemonic scripture. This was Vashtorr's target. The T'au presence on the world was an unexpected complication. The T'au were giving the traitor and heretic forces stiff resistance and barring their way to the temple. The T'au in their determination to cling to the world had littered the battlefield with the Black Legion dead. Yet Vashtorr knew that the mortals' resistance was futile. Wyrmwood was entering into alignment over the world and it would seal their doom.
As Wyrmwood completed its alignment, the planet's surface quaked and monolithic structures erupted from the earth. This disordered the T'au lines and forced them into a fighting retreat. The Black Legion and Vashtorr's tech cultists pressed the attack.
Vashtorr could sense the call of the Warp-tainted relic, how it begged for release. He made his way to the temple but found T'au stubbornly standing between him and it. The Black Legionaries, daemonic engines empowered by Vashtorrr and his servants, and a horde of cultists fell on the T'au. Vashtorr himself joined the fray. With a gesture, he turned the energy of a force field that protected a squad of fire warriors against them. The fire warriors screamed as their armor melted and their skin was seared. The Black Legion marines finished off the reeling survivors with their chainaxes and bolter stocks.
T'au reinforcements sent from their orbiting fleet joined the battle. Battlesuits, tanks, hovering barricades, and aircraft plunged from the skies. The firepower of the T'au scythed through cultists and marines alike.
Vashtorr waded into the T'au lines with his hammer, pulping and smashing the Xenos aside. With a gesture, he unmade a T'au skimmer from within causing it to crash into a trio of battlesuits and explode. Through the flames, he strode toward the temple's entrance only to find his way barred again.
A T'au suit descended down in front of Vashtorr. Its pilot uttered a warcry before shooting Vashtorr. The shots impacted Vashtorr causing him to stagger back slightly. Vashtorr examined his form where the shots were hitting him. His daemon flesh was being burned away revealing the cogs beneath and his form was flickering.
Vashtorr extended his wings and was carried toward his Xenos foe by unholy energies. As he fell upon the battlesuit he projected his voice into its communication system telling the pilot that he was being so proud of the ingenuity of his technology, he was so reliant on the mechanical.
Vashttorr smashed down the battlesuit with his hammer and hit it again and again until he cracked its armor. Then pinned it down with his hoof. From his form tentacles emerged and wormed their way into the suit. Vashtorr poured a fragment of his power into the battlesuit and willed it to be unmade. Even though the pilot's soul was weak and small, he could still feel their fear.
Vashtorr stepped away from the battlesuit's wreckage and strode again toward the temple. As ever mortal resistance was nothing more than obstacles to be overcome by a being of infinite patience such as he. He will find the Lock and then reality itself will tremble before him.

Colovia long been a vital component of the Empire, its mineral riches and hardy people, ideally suited to serve in the Legions, complementing the Niben's vast agricultural output and advanced wizardry. This is for these very reasons that, during the Second Great War, the Aldmeri focused their initial assault on the region. But the devastation brought on by the fierce fighting would pale in comparison to the ravages brought on by the Silver Plague, often carried there from far-off lands by unsuspecting human Legionnaire or Elven soldiers. As a result the region suffered the highest death toll of the epidemic, with estimates ranging from three fourths to five sixths of the population dying. Ghastly tales abound of cohorts coming to the defense of specific settlements only to find them inhabited only by corpses showing the infamous pale sheen that gave the disease its name. In order to survive, the people fled towns and cities to the relative isolation of the countryside. While some gathered to the ancient Wayshrines of the Divines whose blessings seem to offer some amount of protection (in particular those dedicated to Arkay near Skingrad and Kvatch), most turned to banditry with a crueltry born of desperation. This period of lawlessness, colloquially known as "The Days of Lean Wolves", crippled any attempt at centralized governments and even today, almost two hundred years later, the Colovian city-states can only reliably control their close surroundings.
The largest and most powerful city of Colovia is Chorrol. Of all the kingdoms of the region it is the one who has changed the least from the days of the Empire. Indeed, Chorrol fancies herself the leader of reborn "Colovian Estates" and a rival of Cheydinhal for the legacy of the Empire of Cyrodiil, to the point that her monarchs have eschewed the title of king in favor of that of Archduke of Colovia. The greatest pride of the Chorrolinas is the Great Chapel of Stendarr, which has been continously expanded in size to serve as fortress to the Knightly Order of the Crusaders of Stendarr, which has swelled to numbers not seen since the Interregnum of the Second Era. More academically-minded visitors will no doubt seek the College of Whispers, seated in the Great Oak Plaza and whose advances in enchanting, though religiously controversial, have done wonders for the economy of the city, which relies mainly on lumber, tin and copper.
The second most powerful city in the region, and Chorrol's main rival, is Skingrad, the City of Julianos. During the First Great War, the city's count was revealed by the invading Elves to have been an undying vampire, Janus Hassildor, who had ruled the county continously since the late Third Era through intermediaries and passing himself as his own descendants. While he was saved in extremis from death by sunlight exposure in public by faithful servants, the visible toll the punishment had taken on him had made his nature undeniable and following the White-Gold Concordate, Titus II saw fit to name General Jonna Countess of Skingrad, as reward for her service during the Great War. Unfortunately for the people of the City, their new Nordic Countess was a soldier through and through and her main concern was preparing for the coming second conflict with the Dominion, all other matters be damned, and she became widely unpopular. Nonetheless, when the city found herself to be among the first urban center hit by the Sivler Plague just as an Aldmeri army marched on, Conutess Jonna recognized the impossibility of holding under siege and ordered the entire city to be evacuated while she lead her troops into a sacrificial charge against the Elves. It is perhaps then unsurprising that when Janus Hassildor made himself known again, his former subjects flocked to the one who they associated with their former Golden age. King Janus now openly rules the City as a vampire, a condition shared by several of his courtiers, though he insists that they only feed on those criminals sentenced to death and willing donors (indeed it is rumored to be a way of quick advancement within the Vampire King's court). Despite the best efforts of "the wine capital of Cyrodiil", this state of affair casts a gloomy image on the city, something not helped by the persistent rumors that the ghosts of the Elven army, who allegedly all died of the plague less than a day after taking the city, haunt the streets at night.
While her leadership has traditionally belogned to the Crown party of Redguards, descended from the Totambu aristocracy of Yokuda, the common people of Elinhir have always mingled with their Cyrodiilic neighbors to the East and adopted many trappings of their culture, to the point the city is now considered a part of Colovia rather than Hammerfell by her people, something that the Yokedate to the South-West objects to in the strongest possible way. As such, it is perhaps unsuprising that when the city's nobility fell victim to the plague, the Elinhirri turned to the Blackcasters, the ancient order of wizards who gave the "City of Mages" its epithet. While their remedies where only mildly effective in combatting the Plague, their potent destruction magic proved invaluable in defending the city against its various enemies. As a result the Elinhirri are now ruled by a concil of six Archmagisters, each specializing in one of the Schools of Magic, who serve for life (after which their surviving colleagues pick their replacement from the order's most talented wizards). Should the council be tied, a, elected representative of the common people, the Speaker, whose role is otherwise purely advisory, is allowed a deciding vote.
During the Interwar Period, the ancient city of Sutch, which had become nothing more than a ruin occupied by bandits was re-fortified to defend against and invasion from Valenwood. The old Great Chapel of Kynareth was rebuilt and commoners moved from the Highlands to support the Garrison. While it was undeniably fought over fiercely, it is unknown which side (if any) came on top as the belligerants were decimated byt the plague and all corpses found inside were burned by the town's new masters. Indeed when the Plague had abated and people moved to re-settle the city, they found it already inhabited, by goblins. Several tribes had come under the leadership of a particularly cunning warlord and taken the fortress as their own. As the humans prepared to make war, to free their homeland, the Primate of Kynareth, Andreas Jarrol, brokered a peaceful solution to the conflict, allowing humans and goblin-ken to co-exist as he spread the the teachings of Kynareth to the primitives, today the city is still lead by Goddess' Primate. Sutch remains the smallest of city states of Colovia, but it profits immensely from trade with nearby Anvil and the Freehold Republic.
Kvatch was long a successful example of a city re-ermerging from the Days of the Lean Wolves as the ruling monarchs took advantage of Bsomeri refugees fleeing the chaos of Valenwood to bolster their economy and even found satellite cities. Unfortunately a fringe movement of Ayleid Revivalists successfully overthrew them and created a "New Ayeleid Imperium" which spread over Valenwood, leaving the city a client state of Silvenar. Furthermore the Chantry of Akatosh was made to incorporate ever more elements of Almderi/Ayleid religion, now even referring to the Time God as Auri-El and open worship of the Daedric Prince Meridia. Despite this state of affair, many Kvatchians have kept ties with Colovia and a small but growing Akatoshic movement gathers regularly at the Wayshrine of Akatosh near the City.
The final city of note to mention is Sancre Tor, the Craddle of Empires. The Golden Hill had been abandonned and considred cursed since the days of Tiber Septim but in 4E 266, the many minotaur tribes of Cyrodiil congregated towards Sancre Tor, at the behest of the Cow-Queen Ahrzum, who had received a vision of her distant ancestor Morihaus, and proceeeded to rebuild the city with amazing speed. This was initially witnessed with worry by the neigbouring towns and the city of Chorrol in particular who clashed several times with the Manbeasts as they foraged for supplies. But in 4E 320, the largest nomad horde yet seen moved through the region, and both cities allied together to repel them, this alliance was followed by a trade deal, and soon enough the Kingdom of Sancre Tor became a recognized polity of Cyrodiil. It has even become a major pilgrimage site as people come to pray on the spots where Alessia, Reman and Tiber were granted the Amulet of Kings. The Minotaurs have allowed this although they keep their own religion, whose major figures are the Heavenly Bull, Morihaus, his mother the Storm, his wife Alessia and her father Shezarr.
As explained above, these cities only control a fraction of the region and many villages and small towns are de facto independent, while large stretches of lands remain unclaimed, their mineral and agricultural wealths dormant. However this sorry state of affairs is soon to be a thing of the past as the East Empire Company has vastly invested in the revalorisation of the region by re-establishing ancient roads (made secure by Company security forces trained by Legion veterans), connecting isolated villages, and sponsoring indepedent settlers. Colovia shall soon enough once more be a beacon of civilization for the rest of Tamriel!
Yzmul gra-Maluk: by "connecting villages" and "sponsoring settlers" they mean using predatory loans to trap them in debt and use them as cheap labor, at least until they can get undead to do it for even less. They are entire tracks of lands where the EEC might as well be the government. Makes sense, the Potentate's got some restrictions about how bad you can treat your people and that's already too much for the EEC fatcats. Also, most people I've talked to in Kvatch don't seem to mind having Bosmer, sorry Ayleid, rulers instead of humans. And the goblins of Sutch are on equal footing with the Colovians there, hell, it's their connection with the goblins of the Freehold that made trade possible.

I am going to write down my personality traits that I think most stand out, and probably add extra bits here and there to allow more insight to who I am.
I am aware the MBTI test is completely stupid, but its cool to know what my type can be.
I range from thinking I am ENTP, INTJ or INTP. Ni or Ti seems to be more me, but not entirely sure if I am honest.

1. Emotionally Detached or just lack of understanding towards other emotions / care for them. Whenever someone is sad, annoyed etc and keeps complaining about their issues rather than just finding a solution to it, it drives me mad. Sure I don’t care if its about someone I like, such as my gf, but shes not bad with that at all. In fact I could just listen to her all day. [She will read this :3 ]
   
2. Competitive nature. So I enjoy playing games for a reason. Its to win or gain LP, RR or rank points. I simply cannot play a game without a challenge, threshold, requirement or achievement to obtain or beat. Only tome I can actually enjoy video games is when I am teaching someone it or I am learning a new segment of the game entirely. So for example Valorant gas 4 different roles, I play Controller mostly, however only recently branched out to other roles, so I am learning the play-style / comfort plays of those roles. Same with League, usually Top Lane but whenever I am Mid or JGL I give less of a f**k.
   
3. Hate losing or not having efficiency in something. Games I hate losing, especially if I know why but can’t quite do something about it. Sometimes I get annoyed at myself for making a mistake, fix it and another is made. For real life though I don’t quite care as much. However, at my work place where me and my gf works, I like to be ahead as much as possible, if I feel slightly behind then I will try to create the optimal route / way of making it so I am not so behind later. Many people at work though are reluctant to work around logic, better solutions or adapting.
   
4. Reserved around people I don’t know. People I know, for example the one of only two places I am ever at, I can be open, energetic, dismissive, rude, cold, harsh, annoying, abrasive etc. Although… I’d like to just blame that on my monotone voice. Autism? Possibly, most likely. Runs quite a bit on my dad’s side of the family, and then my uncle on my mum’s side is similar to me but probably a little worse with it.
   
5. I do not have daily routines, however I am trying to now get into something of the sorts. That way I can create a routine for the morning, and be ready to begin my day a lot sooner. As I tend to sleep anywhere between 10pm to 4am, on average probably about 2-3am. Especially when on call with gf.
   
6. I don’t get along with those who are very reluctant to improve. Especially those that show little results after being provided an idea, concept, solution or some other form of correction / possibility to their issues.
   
7. I like money, but don’t actively seek it. Only recently have I started betting on football, turning £20 into £500. Did manage to get it to £800 but lost £400 due to teams doing poorly. Got £100 in a game though so. But yeah, gambling? Sure. However, I wont ever be addicted to it as I know how it works. Casino stuff I wont trust, as that is purely luck. I want to rely more on Football bets, as you can sort of rely on who will win most of the time if not all the time. Recently made some risky bets and lost a few, but my Win% was like 72%. Probably around 63% at the moment.
   
8. I usually stay home all the time, as the outside world shows little interest to me. Especially in the town / city I live in. Everybody knows everyone and I have some deep rooted depression and anxiety that affects how I do stuff. Whenever I am with my gf though, the world sort of fades away soo
   

GF I believe she is Fi Dom, emotional but she doesn’t allow it to control how she acts towards others. She can get along with whoever she wants by putting on a facade, but she is not false. Is she doesn’t like someone then she doesn’t converse with them. We enjoy talking almost all the time, about small or deep conversations. People at work? Space? Science? Random facts? Whatever! We talk about it. She knows she is smart but doesn’t believe she is, I know she is so… its just her ADHD gets the better of her so she looks dumb and she is ;) [ YEAH BISH TALKING ABOUT YOU ]

1. I like being alone and away from others. The silence is amazing, people who rant about their petty lives irritate me. If you don’t have something interesting to talk about or converse to me with, then leavee or stfu thanks.
   
2. Being exactly on time or late is my way of life for work. I don’t get paid to work early so I never start early unless asked and paid for.
   

I don't remember much about the plot beyond that. I must have seen it sometime around the mid to late 2000s, the animation looked very similar to disney movies from that time. The movie was set in the US in the 40s or 50s. The uniforms looked like american WW2 uniforms. The conscription scene showed the protagonists big brother or father being picked up by an army truck. He throws a duffle bag on it and takes a seat in the back of the truck with other conscripted men. I think he told the protagonist that he'll understand why he has to leave when he's older or something along those lines before he gets on the truck.

English: throw

1. as, he threw a detachment of his army across the river
   
2. to drive to a distance from the hand or from an engine
   
3. to twist two or more filaments of, as silk, so as to form one thread
   

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Translations

• Catalan: tira
  
• Chinese: 扔
  
• Esperanto: ĵetas
  
• French: jette
  
• Galician: bota
  
• German: der Wurf, werfen
  
• Hindi: सौप
  
• Italian: lancio/tiro
  
• Portuguese: arremeçar
  
• Romanian: a arunca
  
• Spanish: echa
  
• Swedish: kasta
  
• Welsh: bwrw
  

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See previous words @ https://wordofthehour.org/past

(⬆️example - not me) I’m an (almost) 15 year old girl living in Australia and basically since march of last year (2023) I’ve doing two braids on the side of my head and pulling them extremely tight to lift my eyes & brows up. I’ve caused severe SEVERE traction alopecia (worse than i can even find on google) but I don’t want to stop, what should I do? Basically this all started because I felt super ugly. I was 13 turning 14 at the time and had recently stopped wearing like a proper full face of makeup + lashes (which lifted my eyes). I could not look at pictures of myself and if i went out to the shops after school with my friends I had to avoid all the mirrors. I would frequently sob about how gross I looked. I know for a fact that this was not all in my head as I barely had any friends, nobody had taken romantic interest in me since I was a small child and I never received any compliments. I was also bullied pretty bad over my looks and had people mistaking me for a GUY. I still do not think I am attractive with my natural eyes at all. Although I took notice of how much better I looked when I had just woken up - my eyes were much more lifted and nice. I started trying to get as much sleep as possible, but it was never enough. One day I got home from being out all day and saw myself in the mirror. Suddenly all the good memories I had made that day vanished with me now realizing I looked that ugly all day. I stand in the mirror and lift my eyes up with my hands and again wish my eyes were naturally lifted as I look so much better this way. While crying I found a hack on tiktok where you braid the hair next to your eyes tightly and put it in a high ponytail and pull tightly, but I extremed it by using 4 hairties and pulling extremely tight after each individual one, this lifts my eyes, eyebrows and my cheeks. You can guess where it went from there. Immediately at school everybody pointed out I had noticeably changed, but they couldn’t figure out what exactly had changed (thank god) and I got lots of compliments. Obviously a rash began to form though and my hair started falling out but I always asked myself: would I rather have “thin” hair or have a pretty face?I’ve adapted my basic high ponytail since many times as I had to hide the balding. Now it’s been well over a year, almost 15(?) months and I’m at a loss. My hair is almost completely gone and my eyes aren’t lifting as much anymore. I physically can’t go back to how I was, I’ve already grown more friends now then I’ve ever had, I’m so much happier, confident and I can stand going to school and looking in mirrors, boys have actually taken an interest in me and i’m not constantly sobbing over how I look. If I have to stop lifting my face and have to go back to how I look naturally I will not be able to go to school. I won’t leave the house. I’ve looked almost completely different daily now and I’ve grown to love myself more than I ever could before. Everybody will notice the difference, and the bullying will probably come back when people realize what I’ve been doing. Boys will regret talking to me and the friends I have will think I’m a complete freak! Plus, most importantly, I want to look how I do now. I’m happy with how I look and how I’ve looked for the past year. I like liking how I look, I like being excited to get ready and leave the house and I like not hating what I see back in the mirror. Now, I would 100% get plastic surgery if it was that easy. But as aforementioned, I’m only 15 and the ways things are going lately I’m definitely not making it three more years with my two strands of hair. But I’m happy with everything else, all my other features and I have been since. Is there any way I can get my eyes surgically or non surgically lifted at my age? If so, how? Please. My life has improved so drastically since I started looking better and my happiness is through the roof compared to before. At the top of the post you’ll see an example of how my eyes are pulled everyday and also the look I’m surgically hoping to achieve.

Hey everyone,
I recently moved to Spruce Grove and I wanted to share my story. I am a single late 20's male who is starting a new life here without any friends. All three I knew are gone and never got to meet.
Some years ago, I struck up a conversation with a woman near this area who became a close friend during a tough time when I was facing racism in another town. She was incredibly kind and genuinely interested in learning about my culture. Unfortunately, we lost touch. A few years ago, when I reached out to her again, she responded briefly before disappearing. Later, I found out on the news she passed away in a car accident due to a drunk driver.
Last year, I formed a strong bond with a girl online from this area, but she ghosted me a few months ago when my anxiety about career rejections was at its peak. She was getting overwhelmed supporting me. It was a difficult time, feeling like a failure after being turned down by numerous job opportunities. Then, I connected with another woman from this area. We called and got close as she asked me to make a trip. Then later she stopped responding. Two weeks later, I received a message from her ex-husband informing me of her passing due to an overdose.
I've applied to nearly 30 jobs across Alberta in my field, and this area is the only place that invited me for a job interview. Now, I am excited to start a new job, but it's frustrating because I never got to meet any of these women in person, and I carry a lot of guilt and shame about not being able to mend things with the girl who ghosted me. If only we had the chance to reconcile, we could still be friends. I hope I don't freak her out and make her feel uncomfortable if I ever run into her. I believe Spruce Grove is small enough.
Despite these challenges, I feel a sense of obligation to be kind to everyone and make a positive difference in the community. I wonder if the next person I meet will be relatable to any of the woman I've known. I feel isolated and alone in navigating these emotions as the coincidence is nearly unbelievable. I feel suffocated internally with shame, guilt and grief, yet outside I want to go above and beyond for my new community.
Thanks for listening):

In school, I often found myself alone, especially during events and competitions. While most students formed teams, I struggled to connect and was left on my own. My eyesight issues made me a target for bullying and made it difficult to follow classes, so I wasn't a standout student. Losing my father at a young age added to the challenges. I had a few friends, but they drifted away when they found other groups. In 12th grade, I had a crush on someone who didn't feel the same way, which made me feel even more down. Alongside this, my clumsiness and eyesight problems subjected me to bullying, further affecting my confidence. These experiences left me feeling isolated until I entered college. In college, determined not to repeat the loneliness I felt in school, I made a conscious effort to expand my social circle. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, paid more attention to my appearance with stylish clothes and a good hairstyle. I even learned to play the guitar and joined a college band. I embraced the college experience fully, occasionally skipping classes to explore the city, making numerous friends who felt like family. Despite enjoying this vibrant social life, I intentionally avoided falling in love with anyone. The fear of potential heartbreak, based on my past experiences in school, held me back. I was content with the joy and friendships around me, not actively seeking romantic involvement. It allowed me to focus on having a good time and maintaining decent academic performance, ensuring a well-rounded college experience. After completing college, I decided to pursue my passion for filmmaking, and for the past few years, I've been dedicated to this dream. I've written numerous screenplays and created several short films to enhance my skills. While progress is steady, I am confident in my ability to improve over time. However, I've isolated myself during this period to focus on my work. Now, when I attempt to reconnect with my college friends, they are occupied with their jobs or family responsibilities. Some have even gotten married, leaving them with limited free time. This sense of loneliness has started to haunt me, reminiscent of my school days. Interestingly, my fear seems to be loneliness itself, rather than any specific negative event. Even though nothing terrible has happened, my mood reflects the isolation I experienced in school. The financial aspect adds to the stress, as it takes time to earn in the field of filmmaking. Sometimes I just feel very, very down. Since I'm feeling alone lately, I've planned to work somewhere for a while where I can meet new people, make more friends, and interact with them. This will also help me make money, which will be very helpful for creating more short films and pilot films in my filmmaking career. However, I've been rejected from every job I have applied for because it's been a huge gap since I completed my degree, and I'm not considered a fresher anymore. All these things are making me feel a bit down, but I'm trying to stay positive. Now I regret that I didn't allow myself to fall in love during my college days because it's not like I would have been rejected by every girl. Maybe some girl might have loved me back. At present, I feel like I'm not going to find love anymore since even speaking with someone is a big deal now that I'm all alone. What do you guys think about my situation? Is this normal? What would you do in my situation? Do you have any advice for me? Am I just experiencing adulthood? lol

I often think about Celebrimbor, and I simply can’t get over the obvious visual parallel with St. Sebastian. This is St Sebastian’s martyrdom: by Reni), and Mantegna).
Celebrimbor died thus: “In black anger [Sauron] turned back to battle; and bearing as a banner Celebrimbor’s body hung upon a pole, shot through with Orc-arrows, he turned upon the forces of Elrond.” (UT, p. 307–308)
The iconography (see drawings by peet, and Kaaile) is the same.
And this led me to wondering about what made Tolkien, a Catholic, decide to give his Elf who fell to Sauron’s manipulations a famous Christian martyrdom, and why St Sebastian in particular?
I don’t know enough about St Sebastian or Tolkien to do more than speculate.
First, as a hint of Celebrimbor’s feelings for fair Annatar. St. Sebastian has a strong gay association. This was so even at the turn of the 20th century: Oscar Wilde clearly loved St Sebastian and the associated iconography. Here he refers specifically to Guido Reni’s wonderful painting of St Sebastian. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, St Sebastian is highlighted in Chapter XI, the chapter about Dorian’s personal (and generally rather decadent) passions. St Sebastian also appears in Thomas Mann’s Der Tod in Venedig(Zweites Kapitel). I can see the whole thing as being a hint at Celebrimbor falling for Sauron in more ways than one, particularly given what we know of his seduction (the term used in LOTR, p. 1083) by Annatar in his “fair form” (Sil, Index of Names, entry Annatar; UT, p. 328). Sauron is said to have “used all his arts upon Celebrimbor and his fellow-smiths” (UT, p. 306). “All his arts” would include this: “Yet such was the cunning of his mind and mouth, and the strength of his hidden will, that ere three years had passed he had become closest to the secret counsels of the King; for flattery sweet as honey was ever on his tongue, and knowledge he had of many things yet unrevealed to Men. And seeing the favour that he had of their lord all the councillors began to fawn upon him, save one alone” (Sil, Akallabêth). To me, this passage sounds distinctly sexual, and also like something that Oscar Wilde could have written, with this imagery.
(I admit that having Celebrimbor fall in love with Annatar makes the eventual betrayal even worse. I also am aware that in one of the many different versions presented in The History of Galadriel and Celeborn, it is said that Celebrimbor loved Galadriel (UT, p. 324–325), but according to Christopher Tolkien, this “Celebrimbor is here again a jewel-smith of Gondolin, rather than one of the Fëanorians” (UT, p. 325), which is why I tend to take his characterisation here with a pinch of salt.)
The other thought I had is quite dark: rape. It’s an association that I personally feel imposes itself, in a way. “The arrow is a highly phallic image” (source) already, and there’s the image of Cupid’s two arrows, causing uncontrollable desire in one victim, and revulsion in the other. The result for the person who was shot by the second arrow was rape—or death (or transformation into a tree if your father happened to be (1) a god, and (2) nearby: Daphne). I’m not the first person to connect the iconography of St Sebastian with rape: see this (NSFW, nudity and violence) blogpost. This could be a very Tolkienian hint of what Celebrimbor suffered in his “torment” (UT, p. 307) at the hands of Sauron before his death—subtle, “clean”, deniable, but intriguing.
We know that Morgoth wanted to rape Lúthien (“Then Morgoth looking upon her beauty conceived in his thought an evil lust, and a design more dark than any that had yet come into his heart since he fled from Valinor. Thus he was beguiled by his own malice, for he watched her, leaving her free for awhile, and taking secret pleasure in his thought.” (Sil, QS, ch. 19)) and that, while the above passage implies that Morgoth only ever wanted to rape Lúthien and no other, that is not true: he also attempted to rape Arien, the Maia of the Sun, in order specifically to break her: “though he attempted to ravish Arien, this was to destroy and ‘distain’ her, not to beget fiery offspring” (HoME X, p. 405, fn omitted).
Sauron, meanwhile, is described thus: “Sauron was become now a sorcerer of dreadful power, master of shadows and of phantoms, foul in wisdom, cruel in strength, misshaping what he touched, twisting what he ruled, lord of werewolves; his dominion was torment.” (Sil, QS, ch. 18) I do not think that it would be either out-of-character for Sauron or “out-of-world” for the Legendarium (especially as Sauron used to be Morgoth’s second-in-command in Angband) to assume that Sauron raped Celebrimbor in order to break him or just because he’s an obvious sadist who would enjoy every last second of it, or had others rape Celebrimbor as grisly a method of torture—and then turned him into his banner to show the Elves what he’d done, and dishonour Celebrimbor even further in death.
(Note that it is a common misconception that Elves die when raped. As per HoME X, p. 228 (a text likely from the late 1950s: HoME X, p. 199), this only applies to married Elves raped by someone who is not their spouse: “there is no record of any among the Elves that took another’s spouse by force; for this was wholly against their nature, and one so forced would have rejected bodily life and passed to Mandos.” (Emphasis mine) This is confirmed by the fact that in a later (from 1959–1960: HoME XI, p. 359–360) text, Eöl rapes unmarried Aredhel and Aredhel survives: “Eöl found Irith, the sister of King Turgon, astray in the wild near his dwelling, and he took her to wife by force: a very wicked deed in the eyes of the Eldar.” (HoME XI, p. 409, fn omitted, emphasis mine) Note the same expression used to describe a rape.)
This post turned out longer than I planned. I’ve speculated on two possible associations that the imagery of St Sebastian and the character and story of Celebrimbor invite. Do you have other ideas? Why do you think that Tolkien chose this imagery?
Sources:

• Unfinished Tales of Númenor & Middle-earth, JRR Tolkien, ed Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollins 2014 (softcover) [cited as: UT].
• The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien, HarperCollins 2007 (softcover) [cited as: LOTR].
• The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien, ed Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollins, ebook edition February 2011, version 2019-01-09 [cited as: Sil].
• Morgoth’s Ring, JRR Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollins 2015 (softcover) [cited as: HoME X].
• The War of the Jewels, JRR Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollins 2015 (softcover) [cited as: HoME XI].

I have always read that the Roman Military apparatus was so successful because of how adaptable it was and while I know that some of the changes in the structure came as political moves like the Marius Reforms I’ve never read about how changes like the adoption of lorica segmentata came to happen.
Was it a political thing as well? Like some politician would introduce a bill in the senate asking for an upgrade or reform of the equipment the basic soldier used? Or was it an ad hoc decision by a local military commandegeneral? If the later is the answer how was it possible to equip the thousands of soldier of a campaign army on the go? I have read about late the empire Manufactories but even those would seem unable to cope with a sudden rise in demand for a particular item that a general decides is more suitable for his men.

He waited to call me, he literally thought about my sleep and that he’d called to wake me up a couple times already this past week so he thought no I’ll let her sleep and call at a more normal time. Is he not the most thoughtful thing? My baby. He woke me right out of a dream, it was an odd one which I cbf going into, but I was making a friend in it, I don’t know who but the dream was partly me trying to be friends with this other girl. Maybe it’s a sign I’ll find a new friend soon :) Anyway so he called and we chatted while he finished making up his keyboard. It sounds so good, like sooooo good. Like creamy marbley rain drop goodness. It’s funny because I thought his last keyboard sounded delicious, but in comparison to the new one the old one makes me envision large spiders tip tapping along a corrugated iron roof. Whereas the new one sounds like sitting by a fire with a hot chocolate with marshmallows and being read a story while the rain pitter patters outside. I wonder if this new one will sound like spiders whenever he makes a newer one? I’m truly such a fickle thing. They all sound good though, obviously. He said how when we live together he’ll make one for me! Or rather he’ll guide me through the process, because I need to pick the sounds and colours and feelings out. I’m not sure what I’d like it to be like, I’ll have to start thinking. I flip between wanting something cute, like a pink one with strawberries and hearts and glitter and then a sleek, profesh looking one. A light one? Or a dark one? And I have no idea about the sounds, but he’ll help me. And then we can make it up together! It sounds so fun, I really can’t wait. Anyway so he called and it’s still my favourite way to wake up.
Then we hung up and I was laying in bed debating whether I should get up or doze and I ended up having dirty lil thoughts about him… twice. I can be so boring with my lil fantasies now, I can’t entirely remember now what I thought about but it was just us two. I think he thinks I think about someone else involved more than I do, I definitely do but nowhere near as often as just him. I sound like a total creepy perve but I’ve even thought about just him… but I’ll be dead and buried before I ever tell him that. And that saying something because I think I’d like to be cremated… TBD on that. But so anyway, thinking about just me and him is always my favourite and works the fastest every single time. My honey baby handsome man.
I truly have a life full of first world problems, it makes me feel so guilty sometimes. I say sometimes because I only think about how lucky I am sometimes, which makes me feel even more guilty. There are SO many horrible awful things happening in the world to people who absolutely do not deserve a hair on their heads touched.. and here I am lambasting my cuticles for being in good condition after I bought some products to tidy them up. I just caught myself out before, I was looking at my cuticles and was negatively thinking about how clean they look lately - I’m not surprised I found a way to be negative about something good. They definitely need some nourishment and cuticle oil and things, but they’re so clean and neat? Why? I haven’t done anything? Anyway I caught myself looking at them thinking ffs why do they look nice I need to fix them - firstly that makes no sense and secondly it hit me a second later how terrible it was. And then the guilt washed over me and there are children dying across the world for no reason and here I am critiquing my cuticles. I truly don’t think I deserve the air I breathe sometimes. More than sometimes. I know I’m not a person that adds anything to this world, if anything I just take from it by worsening the health of the planet with the plastic, travel etc etc I do. I do my best to save bees who look sickly? That’s about it. I don’t bring joy to anyone else - I mean I make Andy miserable, I probably stress and worry my parents… I think the only one I bring any semblance of joy to is pups because I play with him and take him for walks and cuddle him and I won’t move an inch if he’s comfy and I’m not. Other than that… I offer nothing. So like I said, I am drenched in guilt. I wonder how I can change it? Or how I can offer more? I just feel like I have nothing to actually offer, even if I gave everything up. I guess physical labour…? But even then, I’m not strong and my hand skin is so sensitive so I can only really do so much before it hurts and gets bad. But I guess if I wasn’t being selfish I would ignore my skin, wouldn’t I? I would really like to volunteer. I used to a bit here and there, before I really got bad with my mental health. Not a lot but sometimes. I’d like to make it more of a regular thing - it’s something I’ve talked about in therapy about it being a part of the life I’m working towards. I’m thinking once every three weeks or so, so still nothing impactful but it’s something? I think I’d like to volunteer at an animal shelter, I wouldn’t mind even cleaning up their little areas and things, idk why but I don’t find animal stuff gross whereas I do people stuff. Then again I’ve only had to clean up after an animal I love with my whole heart so maybe it would be different for other ones, I could do it though. Or I’d like to volunteer at a retirement home, or visiting elderly people at their own homes. Just spend time with them, it makes my heart hurt to think of how lonely some of them can be and coming from someone who feels extremely lonely I would want to lessen that - especially in their final years. They’re the main places I’d like to volunteer. I’ve done time in “soup kitchens” here and in the UK, which I enjoyed, I only worked in the kitchen though helping prepare things and cleaning up - every time I wasn’t allowed out the front to serve, which is weird because I have LOTS of experience with that sort of thing? The way they implied it was that I was a young woman, but still? I guess 99% of those visiting there would be fine but maybe 1% wouldn’t be? Still though. Anyway I’d like to volunteer more. I need to learn to be comfy leaving the house first, maybe get my social anxiety under control a little more but I don’t need to be perfect because doing these things will help my issues. What else could I do? I donate to charities and have for years, sometimes I’ve had monthly deductions, sometimes I just donate on a whim. Like that fresh water one, I can’t remember the name off the top of my head but every few months I impulsively donate $100 or so. It’s not enough though, I should be better. I just get suss of the charities themselves and I don’t know how much actually goes to the cause, like I know they need to fund admin costs which makes sense but anyway. I just don’t have any skills, so other than vague stuff there’s not any real impact I can offer. Andy for example, he’s so talented and clever and creative, I bet he would have ways to make an impact. Like if he was to visit elderly people it would be SUCH a success as he’s so chatty and personable and kind and lovely and everything that’s good, so he would keep them entertained and ask the right questions. Whereas I’m not a talker so I would be awkward and quiet and they would have to lead the conversation and they likely don’t want that, unless I asked to be paired with chatty kathys of course. My nana was like that, you ask one question and she won’t stop talking for an hour. At least from memory, I don’t remember so well as I was littler. Hm. Anyway. I just feel like I’m a big time detractor of the world. That’s kind of a good villain name, The Detractor. Another way I can offer more is to be better, for example if I’m better then I don’t make Andy miserable which means he would feel more encouraged to live his life happily which would therefore positively affect everyone who comes into contact with him, which I know happens now anyway but maybe if he has a supportive loving girlfriend it will be even more so? Like I can be a lil battery for him, because I don’t really like interacting with others too much, or I do but I don’t like to be an active member, I like to listen and observe and chime in every now and then. None of this makes sense. But if I’m better then that has a positive effect on people around me. That’s what I’m trying to say. I’m always polite though, like if I take the bus I always say thank you when I hop off, I always say thank you when a waiter refills my drink or puts down my cutlery or whatever else. Even when I don’t want to talk at all and an Uber driver clearly does I will chat away even though my social battery is running on fumes because I don’t want them to feel rejected and maybe they need to chat, even if it’s about nothing. I always put supermarket trollies back into their homes. I never litter. I hold doors open for people, but only when it means they won’t have to do an awkward run for it because that’s not polite that’s annoying. So I think I’m polite, but a polite person does not make a good person - and I am not a good person. Or a worthwhile one.
So far this morning I have chatted to Andy, got up and made a strawbs smoothie, did a lil kitchen clean/tidy up, went back to lay on my bed but not IN bed and I read for a little bit, I journaled the bit up there and now I’m watching some YT. I’m really trying to stretch out my read time of this book, I’m excited to get into HP after this one but I also don’t want to let go of this world and these characters yet, even though it’s a reread. I’d like to have a productive day but I’m also going to let myself do whatever I fancy… I hope I fancy being productive.
I wound up reading/watching about those body and face types again, because a YT video came up as suggested. Anyway, so apparently you can be more yin or yang and I’m a definite yin. Yang is more angular, sharp and blunt whereas yin is soft, rounded and curved. I also feel like I’m a yin person, I was reading about that recently, I think I need to actively work to have more yang in my life in order to be more balanced? I mean these descriptors? Negative, passive, feminine, dark, cool, soft, reflective, still, calm, nurture, quiet, introspective, prefers solitude, cautious etc. Hellllllllllllo. Whereas yang is more embodied by words like active, light, warm, outgoing/sociable, masculine, direct, expressive, loud, restless, productive, growth, passion etc. Things that don’t really describe me. So I think maybe in that sense I’m imbalanced. It seems I’m imbalanced in everything, so that’s great. Excellent, even. I feel like Andy is 100% the yang to my yin. Maybe that’s a factor in why we work well? We balance each other? I think he has a mix of both though, he’s much more balanced. I was about to write “he’s perfect” but I am also a biased, love sick girl soooo… but I think we balance each other well, no? Anyway I’m reading more about yin vs yang and I definitely need more Yang in me because these are all yin:
Signs of “excess” in yin: * Oversleeping * Overthinking * Slow thinking * Sluggishness * Laziness * Compulsive behaviour * Lack of motivation * Apathy * Overeating :(
Versus yang that lists things like anger, restlessness, violence, frustration, inability to relax & let go, insomnia, addictions, need for constant stimulation, regular headaches etc.
And “personality traits” in yin: * imagination * peacefulness * wisdom (not for meee) * relaxation * satisfaction (?) * persistence (only with some things) * introversion
Versus yang that lists things like action, ambition, courage, adventurousness, extroversion, getting things done etc.
And “activities” for yin: * yoga * tai chi * slow walking * golf * qi gong * weight lifting * stretching
Versus yang that lists things like cardio, running, fast dancing, wrestling, hiking, swimming, biking etc.
Anyway I know this is all just one of those things, but also it makes total sense. But this reminds me of the therapy lesson where I learned I like these sorts of things, similar to the Myers Briggs thing etc, because I don’t really know who I am and so I find being grouped into a category really affirming and makes me feel less… outsidey. Which is a thing for me as I don’t easily click with people, I can get along fine with more or less anyone but I don’t genuinely enjoy the company of just anyone and I find it very difficult to be myself with just anyone, I have some form of a wall up with everyone bar a couple of people like my parents, Andy, M and K to an extent. But it also depends, if I don’t spend time with someone for awhile my walls go back up. It’s a huge reason why I don’t really enjoy social things, if it’s a one on one thing I can but in a group? Even with the girls from work who I know well, but I can’t relax and I don’t enjoy myself at all. I try to but I just feel like I’m outside of the bubble. But so anyway all that is why I gravitate towards these groupings of personality, even looks like the fact I was watching a video about face/body types which is why I started this paragraph. I like being able to see examples and do a quiz and find out I’m whatever and then seeing similarities in others who are in the group. It makes me feel included and less alone. It basically all comes down to the fact I always feel like I’m on the outside, of everything. I don’t feel included in anything really. Which comes back to my self esteem/self worth… or lack thereof. I’m wondering when I’m meant to be getting more of that btw, like WHEN? It’s the root of all my issues. Mostly.
I’ve been wondering if I should consider lightening my eyebrows… that sounds kinda crazy, well crazy in the land of eyebrow stuff, but idk. I have warm brown hair… but basically black eyebrows? It’s weird and I’ve always hated it. I know eyebrows always lean cooler than the hair on your head, so that’s natural, but idk, it’s just my hair is so warm and my brows so cool - it’s always irked me. I’ve never quite realised it was that though, I just always thought something was off, but I’m now starting to wonder if my brows should be ever so lightened. I never even thought of it as a potential solution til I saw some girl doing it and it gave her a much softer look. I know they also need to be darker by a shade or two, well they don’t NEED to be but that’s generally the natural look and I only want a natural result. So a deep brown? Because right now they’re damn near black. And I find the black jarring against my fair skin too, I like having dark brows - I would hate to have light/fair brows, and dark brows are supposedly wanted because they make the person with them appear younger, or rather fair brows can age a face. So I like that mine are dark… I just want them MAYBE a fraction lighter. But the idea scares me! Because if you bleach them then anything you add on top will likely lean super warm and idk. So idk how I’d even go about it. The woman I watched doing it on YT just used an at home bleach kit or something and she used it several times so I guess it won’t do much but still… I’m scared :(
I set up my new monitor!!!!!!!!!!! By myself!!!!!!! I know how tiny it is but I’m still so pleased with myself. I felt so embarrassed telling Andy, or less embarrassed and more silly/stupid I guess. Like it’s such a nothing thing but idk, I was nervous and I wrote out a step by step list to work through so I wouldn’t get overwhelmed and things while doing it. And when I say step by step I literally mean:

1. Unwrap the boxes and take each item out
2. Make sure to keep them in their own little areas and don’t mix them up
3. Clear my desk of everything
4. Clean my desk
5. Set up the new monitor with the stand
6. Place both monitors on the desk
7. Plug both monitors into power source
8. Put laptop on the desk
9. Put the HDMI connector usb into the laptop
10. Put one monitor HDMI cable into the laptop, as normal
11. Put the other monitor HDMI cable into the connecter
12. Connector should be connected to laptop with only one external HDMI a cable inside
13. Turn on my laptop and see if they all connect up - don’t stress if they don’t
14. Play around/google/ask Andy if any issues
15. Arrange my new desk! Try use the cable tidy things and make it nice.

So I mean, an absolute step by step. It didn’t cover all the steps as I forgot about the mouse parts and things. But anyway I did itttttt. I need to move the stuff around though because they’re too far apart but I’ll do that tomorrow. I also need to work out how to add an extra plug so I can charge my laptop too as there’s not enough plugs.
I asked him if he wanted to watch Bridg erton and I wish I hadn’t because he feels weird about it. I only asked because idk, wishful thinking? I want to watch it with him :( From season one, obviously. Idk I know he doesn’t want to so I won’t push it, but I want to show him shows I love too. I just like regency era stuff like this and idk. I shouldn’t have asked, now he thinks I want to watch with someone else? Like… who? I guess mum or M. But why get suss about that. Anyway. I guess I’ll watch it by myself, like I expected. I can’t wait for the music. And the costumes!!!!!!!! My favourite. Anyway idk. I just want to share things I love with him the way he does with me.. but maybe I just don’t like anything he’ll like?
I want the Laura Mercier strawberry blush a lot :( But I’m really trying to not buy makeup I don’t need and I already have 30-odd blushes which I don’t get enough use out of, including LM ones. But it’s such a pretty colour!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I had a trillion dollars so I could have all the colours and formulas my little heart desired. But also in saying that I love the idea of being one of those women who have one makeup bag and everything fits inside, and they have maybe one or two shades or blush/lip colour and the rest is just one. It seems so easy and simple and I would really like to be like that but I am definitely not like that at all. I’m slowly learning to be more like that with skincare because that’s how it should be, but makeup…? Even though I don’t wear a lot I just love having it and looking at it. Like I just swiped some highlighter on my hand the other day to look at how shimmery it was, I didn’t apply it to my face, I just had a tiny swipe on my hand and I’d just look at it now and then. I only do that with highlighter though obviously and I love shimmery glittery sparkly things. Mum has always called me a magpie for a reason.
He’s asleep. I miss him. I can’t wait til we live together and when he’s asleep and I’m not and I miss him I can just go snuggle in next to him for a while. But not too close, as he gets too hot. I also don’t want to wake him. The idea of him doing the same with me makes me feel like floating on a cloud. And the time he said he’d still cuddle me to sleep even when he was on a different sleep cycle to me??????? Still obsessed. I wonder if that was a turning point in when my feelings were developing? I know I already fancied the hell out of him, I did from the beginning and I fell so hard and so fast for him. But I wonder if when he said that it was one of those moments that cemented him as the kind of man he is? Or rather the kind of partner he’d be? Because I’ve always wanted someone that cares about what makes me happy and I mean let’s not beat around the bush, I’ve not had a relationship where that’s been a priority to them. So the fact he knows I love being held and cuddled and I would sometimes miss it when he slept differently but if I wanted it he’d come to bed and stay with me til I fell asleep or close enough. And the fact he didn’t see it as anything special, it was just a normal thought to him?! It’s such a minor thing in comparison to everything else he has done for me and everything he has been to me and everything he’s helped me through, but it’s just a little thing that means everything. Anyway.
I watched wish with M tonight, it wasn’t good. I just can’t get on board with the latest movies of theirs lately, they’re just so bleh. The music isn’t right - there’s nothing magical about it and I wonder if it’s because they seem to hire pop music people not composers and things now? And the animation is never 2D anymore, which tbh I understand and that’s purely nostalgia of mine than anything bad but the animation doesn’t feel magical either anymore. Apart from some of the scenes were beautiful. Anyway.
I think I’ll stop now. It’s 9:30 so it’s too late for to start BT so I think I’ll read for a lil bit then go to sleep soon. Night night

https://xenagoguevicene.wordpress.com/2024/05/17/us-stuck-on-stupid-biden-and-the-democrats-face-disaster-in-november-by-stewart-lawrence-17-may-2024/
“Let them eat cake,” Marie Antoinette once famously said, disdaining the immiseration of peasants in pre-revolutionary France. Joe Biden didn’t use those exact words last week during his interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, but his tone-deafness about the suffering of millions of Americans grappling with high food and gas prices and unaffordable rents was palpable.
Burnett did her best to allow Biden the opportunity to address voters with a measure of simple empathy – but Old Joe was having none of it. When Burnett gently suggested that Americans weren’t feeling the vaunted “recovery” the White House keeps touting, Biden all but insisted that Americans were simply wrong – and needed to buck up.
It was an embarrassing performance, and coming on the heels of Donald Trump’s remarkable mass rally in Jersey City in the midst of his trial in the Stormy Daniels case, it suggests that the White House is sinking deeper into denial about its prospects for losing – and losing big – in November.
Despite weeks of campaigning and TV ad buys in the key swing states – outspending Trump by a whopping 13-1, while the former president is largely sidelined – Biden hasn’t moved the needle in the polls. In fact, he appears to be losing ground. The latest NY Times/Siena poll has Trump up by a whopping 13 points in Nevada, 9 in Georgia, and 6 in Arizona, three states Biden carried in 2020. In Pennsylvania, where Biden recently barnstormed, Trump went from slightly behind to ahead by 3. Trump also inched up in Wisconsin, a state that many consider the pre-eminent 2024 bellwether.
Only in Michigan, where Biden clings to a 1 point lead, is there a fresh sliver of hope, and that could soon fade as the prospects for peace in Gaza slip further and further away.
Burnett’s willingness to challenge Biden on his administration’s economic performance is just one of the many signs that the mainstream media is unlikely to continue fronting for an administration that keeps gas-lighting voters with misleading data on jobs and GDP growth while a growing number of metrics point to the country’s continuing descent into full-blown stagflation.
By almost every indicator – from sagging consumer confidence and rising home prices to declining real wages and mass layoffs at major firms – Americans do not feel better off than they were during the heyday of the Trump administration – before COVID-19 and the mandated government shutdown all but destroyed the burgeoning economy, resulting in jobless numbers not seen since the Great Depression.
A large number of those jobs – maybe three-quarters – have since returned, but those are hardly jobs that Biden “created” from scratch. Americans, still traumatized by the COVID experience, are grateful for a return to a semblance of “normalcy.” But they hardly credit Biden for putting America back on a solid footing. Unemployment at 3.9%? Perhaps, but many Americans are working two jobs that still don’t pay enough to feed their families, while a record number of those without jobs are homeless – with an increase of 12% between 2022 and 2023 alone.
America, of course, has never been just one country economically, current trends mask the continuing divide. Some, in fact, were protected during COVID and large corporations reaped billions. And though funded through deepening consumer debt, the fortunes of some are now improving. But what many analysts don’t recognize is that a disproportionate share of the nouveau riche and comfortably salaried professionals, especially in government and health care, are now Democrats, not Republicans. The party may still be the “party of the working class” when it comes to the labor aristocracy in the trade unions – but those workers represent less than 10% of the total workforce. Many blue-collar workers – even a goodly share (close to half) of those in unions like the UAW – have drifted to the Trump camp, while the greater mass of non-union workers are voting GOP, and indeed, have done so for years. These voters generally don’t eat cake – not the fancy stuff, at least.
And their ranks now include a growing number of Hispanics and African Americans, especially men, who find Trump’s angry macho posturing appealing, or least comforting. “Polls are just polls,” Democrats keep saying, but we haven’t seen numbers like this since…..well ever. Trump could end up with well over 20% of the Black vote, besting the historic percentages reached by the Nixon-Ford regimes in the 1970s. And amazingly, if current trends hold, he might well take close to 50% of the Hispanic vote –besting George W. Bush’s former record of 41% in 2004, and completely reversing the more recent 2-1 – and even 3-1 – Democratic voting trend. Hispanics interviewed in Larino-rich swing states like Arizona and Nevada tell reporters a simple truth: they can’t afford the rising price of beans and tortillas, their family staple.
Something is happening to the U.S. electorate that goes far beyond Joe Biden. The old “Obama coalition” – the one that analysts John Judis and Ruy Texeira famously predicted – or, at least hoped – would become a “permanent” Democratic majority – is falling apart. It’s not just the large-scale defection of workers of colors, but of youth. Amazingly, Trump, in most polls, is now leading or tied with Biden among 18-29 year old voters, completely reversing the president’s former advantage. And while Biden leads strongly among women, some polls have the gap surprisingly narrow, while Trump’s lead among men remains wide. While the GOP is not about to become the “populist multicultural working-class coalition” that Republicans like Marco Rubio still fantasize about, Democrats are in danger of losing their once broad demographic support, giving Trump and GOP a fresh opening not just in 2024 – but well beyond.
The good news? Signs of a serious freak-out — and even a potential meltdown – about Biden’s prospects in November – once dismissed as mere “bed-wetting” – are finally appearing among party pooh-bahs. Witness the remarkable drunken rant of former Clinton strategist James Carville posted on Twitter last week. Never one to mince words, an angry and exasperated Carville bemoaned the continuing slide of Biden in the polls and confessed that “nothing is working” to convince disaffected Democratic voters to return to the fold. “You can prepare and you can be on TV, you can write pieces, you can have a YouTube channel, you can have a podcast…and it doesn’t matter. Everything we’re throwing is spaghetti at a wall, and none of it is sticking, me included,” he fumed.
Another staunch Biden supporter, CNN’s Farid Zakaria, also took to the airwaves to issue his own stern warning about Biden’s rapidly diminishing prospects. In a blistering six minute review, he listed one area after another where Trump’s political resurrection and standing with voters is exceeding expectations, noting that a landslide win – including a popular vote victory – by Trump in November was looming. Zakaria even broke with the party line on Trump’s presumed “criminality.” suggesting that the four legal trials aimed at discrediting the former president were largely motivated by simple politics, not a concern for justice. “I doubt a criminal indictment in New York would have been brought against a defendant whose name wasn’t Donald Trump,” he deadpanned.
Could all this dire hand-wringing lead to another public call for Biden to step down? That seems highly unlikely for now. Top White House apologists like Simon Rosneberg and Jim Messina continue to insist that Biden is simply suffering from the usual presidential first-term blues – disaffection at the base combined with pre-general election apathy among all voters. Sustained outreach coupled with a persistent hammering of the challenger can turn things around, they say. Once voters realize what the real stakes are – democracy, abortion rights, climate change – and the threat posed by Trump, they’ll surely pull a lever for Biden, even if it’s not with great enthusiasm.
It sounds logical – but the accumulating evidence strongly suggests otherwise. Most voters do question Trump’s commitment to upholding democracy, but nearly as many now question Biden’s. And by a wide margin, they also rate Trump as a stronger and more effective leader. Trump enjoys a 10 to 20-point edge over Biden on the handling of the economy overall, inflation, immigration, crime and foreign and defense policy which are also deemed by voters to be the nation’s top issues. Dismissing this perception – and support for Trump generally – as a form of irrational “nostalgia”– as pro-Biden pundits continue to do, is self-defeating. 2024 wasn’t destined to become a classic “change” election – not with a current incumbent battling a former scandal-ridden one – but that’s what it’s becoming. By all appearances, 2024 is now Donald Trump’s to lose.
Of course, there’s still six months left before the election – and “anything can happen.” But anything includes a further deterioration of Biden’s position. One election-year wild card Democrats clearly didn’t count on was Gaza, which has only compounded voter concerns about Biden’s weakness on the world stage. The chimera of a pending peace may have helped Biden in the polls in Michigan recently – the one battleground where he’s gained ground just slightly – but it’s unlikely to last. Despite mounting pressure from the White House– or perhaps because of it – Netanyahu is digging in his heels and will likely stall in any deal until November, hoping that Trump wins and gives Israel a freer hand to prosecute the war as it sees fit. By trying to have it both ways – castigating Netanyahu publicly, while sending massive new amounts of military aid, Biden has managed to alienate Arab-Americans and Jews both, while leaving many undecided voters both aghast at the carnage and dismayed by Biden’s obvious pandering to both sides.
“Genocide Joe” and the Democrats could well face a decline in support thirty highly competitive congressional districts where the Arab-American vote (though relatively small nationally) is large enough to make a difference, and not just in Michigan. But a loss of support among the much larger and traditionally Democrat-leaning Jewish population – concentrated heavily in the four main “Blue” states, California, Florida, New York and New Jersey – could also weigh heavily on key House and Senate races. And if Trump is right – God forbid – it could even help put New Jersey – where Biden won by 16 points in 2020 – in play for the first time in years.
“We need to do something completely different,” Carville moaned at the conclusion of his recent Twitter rant, before wandering, Biden-like, off camera. But from all appearances, the Democrats, right now, have no Plan B. Not in Gaza or anywhere else.
Biden’s apologists insist on comparing his re-election prospects to Obama’s in 2012, when a once-popular incumbent began sinking in the polls, and for six months prior to the election, seemed headed to defeat, only to pull out of his tailspin, thanks to Bill Clinton and Hurricane Sandy. But the more obvious if daunting parallel might be Jimmy Carter’s predicament 30 years earlier. In 1980, Carter was saddled with domestic discontent over inflation, a general feeling of pessimism and malaise, and a series of intractable foreign policy challenges, including a never-ending hostage crisis. Ronald Reagan – whom Democrats derided as a right-wing “madman” – threatened Carter’s re-election. Democrats were clearly rattled by Reagan’s rise in the polls and decided to play it safe, pivoting to the center and closing ranks against Ted Kennedy, who enjoyed a fierce loyalty among liberals. There are eerie parallels to Biden’s predicament today, with another Kennedy RFK, Jr., Teddy’s nephew, stoking discontent. And of course, there’s another madman, Trump, fueling a right-wing insurgency – or in this case, resurgence.
Overconfidence and a misreading of the public mood killed Carter in the end. Right up to the final week of the campaign, he enjoyed a small but seemingly unshakable single-digit lead over Reagan.. Most pundits – and Carter’s senior advisors – confidently predicted victory. It was conceivable that voters would choose as their leader a man steeped in anticommunism, pro-life family policies while promising – much like Trump – to “make America great again.”
But Reagan won big. Capitalizing on a groundswell of discontent with Carter, even among Democrats missed by pollsters, the Gipper, ended up winning by a whopping 10 points, with a near-landslide in the electoral college. The party, shut out of power for the next 12 years, eventually recovered, but it wasn’t easy. Bill Clinton led the Democratic comeback, largely by moving the party even further to the right than Carter had. And America – saddled with Reagan’s legacy of militarism and free market fundamentalism for much of the past half century – has never been the same.
Is it really too late to reconsider Biden’s faltering candidacy? LBJ, facing antiwar opposition, pulled out before the Democratic convention in 1968, at roughly the same distance from the election that year. Democrats are headed for another potentially riotous convention – and in Chicago, no less – which will only further damage Biden’s standing with the public. Most Democrats, shocked by the prospects of Trump 2.0, are quietly loitering in the shadows, just holding their breath, while an increasingly emboldened right – championing their beleaguered King – is eagerly waiting to exhale.
Democrats, it seems, are destined to soldier on. They missed their chance to replace Biden painlessly months ago, and are now stuck on stupid. Barring a miracle, the price for their cowardice and lack of vision is likely to be severe.

Hey, so you ever get a birthday present that's so not your style, but you really can't return it because it'd be really awkward? Normally it's like, I dunno. Shoes, or shirts or something like that, right?
For me it was four fire-breathing horses.
Okay, so I should clarify. My dad didn't really give me four fire-breathing ponies to keep. It was more of a test for him to treat me like his son again.
See, I just recently got out of a Styx oath that would have led me to eternal damnation if I didn't fulfill it. It's a long story, but to keep it short: I swore an oath on the Styx to be a brave hero by my eighteenth birthday when I really should have just pinkie promised. But yeah. My dad, God of War and dad of the year took it well. …In that he pretty much said that I was a waste of space, disowned me and he'd personally hand me over to the Styx for eternal damnation.
Nice guy. Really should get into motivational speeches.
The night before, after riding the high of not having the threat of being sent to Super Hell I had a pretty bad dream. I mean, it wasn’t the normal David nightmare. It wasn't me killing endless hordes of monsters while my dad laughed at how pathetic I was.
Well, half of that. It was just my dad. To be honest, rather I’d take the monsters.
He was laughing at me, with that smug face of his, in that all-leather biker outfit with the shades that made him look even more like an asshole, as if that's hard to believe.
Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to cuss. Anyways yeah. Me and my dad. Not the best relationship, even by demigod standards.
He gave me a toothy grin, like a shark’s as he circled around me. I instinctively stood up straight, at attention. As much as I hate my dad, ticking off a god is a pretty dumb thing to do. Plus, I was pretty dumbfounded to see him here in my dream of all things.
“Well, color me surprised. To be honest, boy, I thought I'd end up taking care of this myself. So, congratulations on that front. But, sorry to burst your bubble, it might be good enough for ol’ Styxy but…it’s not good enough for me. But, you know, I'm a generous guy! Prove me you're a warrior. Do that, and I'll welcome you back in the family with open arms. I even got the perfect way for you to prove yourself.”
Without warning, he tossed me a set of keys with a miniature boar-headed keychain and a really big switchblade on the end of it. I fumbled with it before slipping it into my pocket.
“An oldie but a goodie. Used to let my sons prove themselves to me all the time with this one. Now, I'm sure once you see what I got planned you'll know the rules, considering you're a fuckin’ nerd. But in case you forget…”
He lowered his shades, revealing balls of fire as he glared right at me.
“Sundown. My temple. Don't be late or I'll toss you in the Styx myself. Well! Have fun, yeah? I'm looking forward to watching you fail this one, like your last quest. Now, get up. Clock’s ticking after all…”
“Gaah!”
I snapped my eyes open, falling out of my bed and onto the hard floor under me. As soon as I hit the floor, I could hear one of my many siblings start to stir from their sleep. Immediately, my sister Tiffany started to sigh as she shot up from her bed. I could see her pastel pink sleep mask perched on her head as she glared into the darkness of the early morning. She groaned in frustration, her words cutting through the quiet of the dawn.
"What the hell are you idiots doing?"
To be fair, I could see why she’d think that. Most of my siblings were fond of pranking each other every now and then. The chaos of the Ares cabin was unmatched from most cabins, except maybe Hermes. But, when you cut off her beauty sleep, the threat of an angry Tiff was usually was enough to make nighttime a truce. Usually.
My sister rubbed her eyes and looked down at me. I sheepishly gave a smile as I rubbed my head, still sore from when it hit the floor.
"Seriously, David?"
Tiffany got out of bed and silently made her way to me. She wordlessly held out a hand and I grasped at it as she pulled me up.
"Thanks Tiff. I had this dream, where Dad called me a nerd and was talking to me about testing me now that my Styx Oath is..."
I felt something hard and metallic poke against my leg, from my sweats pocket. I pulled out the unfamiliar object and to my surprise, there were the same keys from my dream. My eyes widened as I realized that my dream was a little bit more than usual demigod stuff.
"Oh. That...wasn't a dream."
She raised an eyebrow as she looked at the keys that sat in my hand. I played with the accessories, absentmindedly feeling the boar head and the switchblade knife. She leaned in, peering at the keys as the dawn started to rise.
"What the hell are those for?"
She looked to the keys, then back at my face, and then the keys again. She looked at me as if I just said that Kronos was about to come back and throw an ice cream party courtesy of the Titans.
"You're telling me Dad gave those to you or something? You're joking. Have to be."
I shook my head, but I could see why she thought so. I was pretty sure I was near the bottom, if not at the bottom of his list of favorite kids. If I was being honest, I was pretty sure he wanted me dead more than a few times.
"Tiff, you know that I'm not exactly Dad's favorite by a long shot. Why would I say something like that and risk him getting even mad more mad at me because of my lying? Dad disowned me, remember? He mentioned something along the line in my dream that if I pass his test I'd be treated as one of his sons again but he didn't mention what it..."
The gears started turning as I looked at the keys in my hands.
”A test…keys…sundown…oh no. Oh, no.”
I immediately pocketed up my keys and started putting on my shoes. No time for pants, sweats would do just fine, I just had to make sure to take my wallet with me, considering I was going to New York now. I had to be quick or this test was over before it even started.
"No. I...I think I know what it is. But if I'm right, then shoot I gotta get going then! Before our brothers take it."
In hindsight, I probably should have told Tiff a bit about my thoughts. But, the more I delayed the more issues that could have cropped up. I just had to make sure it was safe.
"Take what? Where the hell are you going?!"
I burst out of the cabin, staring at what was in front of our cabin. I felt a bit of nervousness bubble up as my thoughts were proven true. Tiffany was close behind me as she walked outside our cabin. I looked at her face and caught an expression of wonder as whatever she was going to ask me was forgotten. Parked in front of the cabin was a red and gold Harley. The seat was white leather and gave a sorta…humany vibe to it that I did not wanna think about. Only one thing came to mind, something I knew instinctively from the moment I saw it. Dad's War Chariot.
Or as the god of war would call it, his chariot.
"I...I think dad wants me to take his ride for a spin."
I ran my hand over the cold metal, and I realized what Dad meant about the “oldie but a goodie.” A while back, before the Second Titan war ended, and all of the children of the gods had to be claimed, there was a ritual all sons of Ares went through. It was something all my brothers did at fifteen. Drive around his Chariot and return it before sundown. It wasn't easy, my Godly siblings, Phobos and Deimos both loved to mess with whoever was in charge of the chariot at the time. And you had to deal with monsters too, but overall when it came to demigod stuff it wasn’t the most dangerous around. I dunno if that says a lot about how dangerous this life can get though.
But, shortly after the then-counselor Clarisse La Rue became the first girl to do it, Dad pulled the plug. I dunno if it was good ol’ sexism, someone totaling it, or dad not wanting to let all of his kids drive his ride, either way it wasn't super common nowadays. It wasn't like he stopped, but it was something given, not a right. Dad letting me do this was him at least giving me a chance to prove myself to be one of his kids, which was more than I expected to be honest.
I took a breath as I looked at Dad’s ride, feeling a pit of unease in my stomach as I started to climb in. If it wouldn't end up with me being tormented for the rest of my short life, I'd tell him no and go back to sleep. But, telling a god no, especially my dad is a neat way to be turned into a rodent. Or a fine red paste. Or a rodent that would be turned into said paste.
Tiffany's brows furrowed as she processed my words, a layer of disbelief on her face as she chewed over it.
You? He wants you to drive it? I...that...what the hell?"
I fought off a wince as she looked at me, then the ride, then back at me again. I could tell she was a bit annoyed. I mean, yeah from her perspective I was singled out by dad to do something she probably wanted to do for a while. I felt a pit of guilt in my stomach, it wasn't fair, really. But at the same time I had to do this.
"I mean, seriously? He must be out-"
She cut herself off. Calling my dad crazy was another way to get turned into a rat that would then be turned into a fine paste. Actually a lot of things carried the threat, my dad is kinda a jerk. I sighed, figuring I might as well tell her about why Dad was doing this. I didn't wanna hide it, but it's not like I like to talk about the fact that I've been disowned for two years. She knew, most of us did. But it's not something I like bringing up, because yeah. It sucks.
"I read a bit about previous Ares campers. He used to do this more often, at first only his sons did, but later his daughters could. I dunno why he stopped but, this isn't really like he's doing it because he's proud of me. I'm sorta disowned, remember? He said if I can drive the chariot, he'll take me back as one of you guys again. It's...more of a test to earn myself back into his good graces, I think.”
Tiffany listened to my explanation, not saying anything for a bit She looked a bit bothered about the fact that I was chosen to drive the Chariot, which again, not surprising.
"Ugh, I guess that makes sense."
I could hear the frustration in her voice as she crossed her arms. I winced again, preparing for her to resent or hate me. But to my surprise, I heard her add more in a softer voice.
"Well, don't get yourself killed trying to pass this stupid test, I don't want to have to explain to everyone why you're not coming back."
Her icy tone defrosted as she looked back at me with a bit of concern in her eyes. She seemed less annoyed and more worried about me, which was sweet. Not that I'd let her hear that. I hoped that maybe, dad would let her give it for a spin later down the road. If anyone deserved it, it would be her. I gave a nervous laugh as I took the keys out of my pocket.
"Of course, I passed my Styx Oath, didn't I? It'd be really dumb of me to die right after barely avoiding that, right? Oh, yeah. If Ellie asks for me, tell her about dad's little test he has for me. Hopefully it won't be too long but you know how it is with godly stuff. I should be back in time for us to hang out for the rest of my birthday once I do this for dad. I'll bring back something cool!”
I felt my trepidation fade away as I prepared to drive. Lots of my siblings dreamed of piloting the chariot. It wouldn't be right to reject the opportunity when it was given to me. And, who knows? Getting back in Dad's good graces (or as much as one can get in them) might help me out. At least I would have one less target on my back. As I sat down in the white leather seat, I put the keys in the ignition and instantly it began to morph.
OOC:Read this while listening to whats coming up
The front split apart into one steel horse that slowly split into two, and then four cream-colored horses that looked around with a cruel intelligence. The seat dipped, and warped before it became a horse-drawn chariot I was now standing in. The chariot was gold and blood red, adorned with the lovely images of people dying gruesome deaths, because Dad's taste in decor is somewhere between military surplus and serial killer, apparently.
“Okay…so, I need to get to Dad's temple before sundown. I don't know New York highways though, so how can I…oh hey! A gps!”
My fingers brushed against a touch screen set up on the chariot and punched The Intrepid into the coordinates. I gave one last wave to my sister before I lashed the horses and they immediately took off. I led them out of camp easily enough, but as we reached the highway they sped up to an impossible speed for a chariot. Their speed was even faster than any cars on the highway, rivaling the time that Aphrodite camper drove us to the beach once. I pulled back on the reins, trying to get them to slow down. Instead, they gave a rebellious snort and went even faster.
I would like to say that I embraced my inner Ares kid and relished the challenge. But I'm not going to lie, when you end up going past 80 MPH in a chariot, you tend to think you're going to die, fun fact. I screamed for most of the way, yanking and pulling at their reins so we could bob and weave through traffic.
It's a bit of a drive from Camp Half-Blood to New York City, I know it well, it’s a pretty common place for me to go for some monster slaying. But, up until now, I've been in the passenger seat while Argus drives. The speed of the horses really made the time go by faster. As we entered the city, the horses started to slow down and I felt a ray of hope as I started to steer them through the city. I gave a triumphant laugh as I looked down at my ETA. It was surprisingly quick, considering how congested New York can get. And I didn't see hide or hair of either one of my godly brothers, so I felt pretty good, all things considered.
“Huh. That's weird. There's not many cars today…my luck must be turning around!”
“Traffic update: Incoming Monsters. Rerouting. Cannot reroute.”
“Huh?”
Immediately, a massive boar the size of a garbage truck burst from a nearby alley way behind me. Behind the massive pig, two armored bank cars recklessly merged into traffic. One leaned out, revealing a gray-skinned human in body armor brandishing a shotgun.
“Of course! I had to open my big mouth! Is there anything that I’m going to have to deal with?”
“You are on the fastest route!”
“Well that’s just GREAT! Now I can be on the quickest way to the underworld!”
”Rerouting to: D.O.A. Records, Los Angeles.”
“Woah, woah, woah, no! Keep me on The Intrepid! The Intrepid!”
Seeing all these enemies together though, I started to put a thought in my head. They all had something in common, now that I saw them all in front of me. A boar was sacred to Ares, Spartoi too came from a dragon sacred to him. I put the pieces together as I saw the monsters come out of the woodwork and all to me. Now things made sense. The lack of Phobos and Deimos, the sacred beings to Ares, the lack of mortals on the street.
I didn't see my siblings because Dad wanted to mess with me personally.
Even now, I don't know if he wanted to test me in a Spartan way, or if he just wanted to get rid of me without kinslaying. Either way, I couldn't back down now. Not when I was so close. I snapped on the reins and the rebellious horses continued on their path, bickering and weaving left and right as they snorted and whinnied.
I heard the wiz of something traveling through the air and quickly moved out of the way. A metal feather hit the chariot, bouncing off the hull and onto the ground. I looked up and saw a few birds. They were black and crow-like, but their feathers had a metallic sheen, like iron. Their wings flapped and I heard the sound of metal on metal as they soared above me.
“Dad called in feather-shooters too? Come on!”
I steered left and right as I evaded the metal feathers shooting at me. The newcomers behind me quickly gained as I bobbed and weaved. I had to figure a way out of this, and fast. Problem was, I was quickly outnumbered and outmatched. I wasn't the best at archery, and my sword could shoot a blast of force, courtesy of the then Forgemaster. Main issue was it took a bit to charge, and I couldn't take them on so high up.
I couldn't run. I needed to fight out of this. But even if I could fight the two Spartoi and the big pig, the problem was the birds. I didn't have a ranged option…or did I? I looked to the horses, breathing embers as they huffed and pulled the chariot further on. Ares kids couldn't talk to horses, but these were godly horses. They seemed smarter than your average horse. Maybe I could talk them into behaving, the same way I got some of my siblings to listen to the plan during Capture the Flag.
“Hey guys, are you bored? I'm sure Dad and my brothers take all the good fights, huh? You know, if you guys continue fighting each other, I might lose this and you guys will miss out on a good fight.”
At first, I thought it fell on deaf ears. But then, they stopped their jostling and started to take a more unified path as we raced along the streets. Like I thought, they enjoyed a good fight as much as their owner did.
“That's what I like to see. Look, we're pretty surrounded right now. What do you say we rampage a bit before I take you guys home?”
An evil-sounding whinny came from the horses. I couldn’t really speak horse, but I took that as an okay and pointed at the birds above us. Did I feel stupid? Kinda. But as long as it worked, I couldn’t complain.
“See them? All yours. I'll cover you guys from the ground forces, and in exchange, you guys fall in line. Alright?”
A burst of fire came from one of the horses in response and I heard a loud squawk as it engulfed one of the feather-shooters. I breathed a sigh in relief as the rest of the birds started to scatter. They veered left and right in an attempt to avoid the flaming streams that were now sporadically being fired in their direction.
“Alright! Good job, I'll leave it to you!”
I gave a smile as I turned behind to my land-based foes, quickly gaining on me. I could hear the occasional woosh of fire as the horses fought the birds. One of the armored trucks caught up to my right and one of the spartoi leaned out of the vehicle. They aimed down the sights and pointed their shotgun at me.
“Sudden traffic in your area. You will be delayed by…five minutes. You are still on the fastest route!”
“Woah, that’s not fair! Come on Dad! A gun? Really!?”
I felt a tug in my stomach. It wasn’t something I could do a lot in a row without being exhausted, but I had some sorta pull when it came to weapons. When I gave a command, they were able to fall right out of their owner’s hands.
“Alright, let’s even the playerfield shall we?”
I held out my hand and they dropped it, the gun fell onto the ground, crushed by the wheels of the car. The second caught up to my left and once again, a spartoi leaned out of their car, weapon in hand.
“Another one!? Come on! How am I going to…”
I was jerked to the side as the horses suddenly veered right. At first, I thought it was the horses misbehaving again, but then a monstrous squeal came from behind me, rushing forwards.
Crash
I heard the sound of steel groaning as the boar rushed past the truck, pushing their truck out of the way as they aggressively charged forward. It was a good thing I managed to get out of the way, or else I would have been in trouble. I could see the spartoi shaking their fist as they spun out, their car massively dented with a massive gash in the armor. Now that I had to deal with two enemies, I decided to use the boar’s momentum to my advantage. I pulled back on the reins and the boar kept barreling on, too fast to stop as I made the chariot suddenly stop and then take a sudden turn away from the temple. The boar ran straight into a brick wall, seemingly dazed but otherwise okay.
”Rerouting...”
That temporarily took care of two of my enemies. Now that I had one to worry about, and my horses were pretty steady, I could start this fight in earnest. I kept one hand on the reins as I grabbed my Miku keychain. I unclipped it, and the keychain turned into a katana, with said keychain still on the bottom. It was my sword, Anime (I want to clarify, my friend Jules named it, not me). One of the Spartoi readied a spear and lunged at me. I parried it with my blade, and stabbed at their chest. I felt my blade plunge into their body. I pulled away at it, slashing at it again to tear it apart. To my disappointment though, the monster quickly reformed.
I don't know what I expected, to be honest. They wouldn't be much of an immortal soldier if they died after the first hit. But it bought me valuable time as we pushed forward. Almost as soon as its bones knit back together, it struck at me. I guarded once again, my sword starting to glow brighter and brighter with each strike. Our blades clashed and separated again and again for, I don’t know how long to be honest. I was putting up a good fight, but I just couldn’t gain the upperhand in that fight. For starters, if it was a monster or even a demigod it’d be ten ways to Tartarus at the moment. But, no matter how I sliced or diced it, the immortal soldier kept on coming back. Also, I just wasn't used to multitasking like that, I held on as tightly as I could, but the brief times I practiced Chariot combat with my friends Jules and Cel, I was either driving or fighting. Both at the same time was hard, and I was lucky that the horses were so cooperative.
I heard the whinny of one of the horses ahead as I looked back to the front. No sign of the birds meant that there was a few extra-crispy feather-shooters along the road somewhere, which was good news. But then, I looked out in front and realized that there was a big problem. One of the trucks we left behind somehow got in front of us, blocking the road with their car. Five spartoi were standing outside of the car, swords and spears drawn as they headed the chariot off.
At this moment, I knew I was screwed. I was too fast to just stop. And, even if I did stop, I’d have to deal with all the angry skeleton men chasing me down. I just winced, bracing for impact. But then, I heard a neigh as the horses pulling my chariot started to turn into steel and combined once more. The chariot started to shift, the creak of metal folding and turning. I quickly sheathed my sword as the reins turned into chrome handlebars which I gripped like my life depended on it. The chariot continued to morph until once again it was a motorcycle with flame patterns. I veered as left as I could, narrowly avoiding hitting the side of a nearby building as I sped past the skeletal blockade. I braked, motorcycle now turning back into the chariot form as I turned back and watched as the car that was chasing me slammed straight into the other.
The now pissed spartoi stumbled out of the wreckage and started to scream undead obscenities to each other. I couldn’t speak ghost, but whatever they said seemed to be pretty rude, because both sides started to unsheath their swords and get into an all-out brawl. One of the spartoi sliced the other in two, and they didn’t reform this time as their essence slid into their black sword.
Huh. Well, that was one way to deal with them.
“Whew! Good horses.”
I turned, ready to snap the reins once again, but I stopped as I saw what was waiting for me at the other end of the road. The boar, still very much on my trail stood in front of me. It pawed at the ground in front of it, and my horses started to do the same. I stared at the boar, unsheathing Anime once again as we stared off.
“Keep straight for…500 feet.”
The thing about boars is that they can be pretty deadly. They’re brutish and aggressive, and they go down fighting. You know the crossguard that’s near the pointy end of a spear? That’s so the animal doesn’t run up the spear to take you out with it. You don’t think them being that dangerous, but there’s a reason that dad’s symbol is a boar.
I had to make this quick, and efficient or I’d end up maimed, or worse. I snapped the reins one more time, and the horses started to dash down the street. The boar squealed as it barreled to me. I could see it get closer and closer. I grit my teeth, holding my blade in my right hand as it started to shine more and more brightly. My hand held onto the grip tightly, bracing for my next action.
I’d have one shot at this.
I miss, I’m dead.
I hesitate, I’m dead.
I don’t hit the vitals, I’m dead.
Time started to slow around me as I watched the boar rush at the chariot, enraged as it reached the point where there was no stopping it now. I could see the powerful muscles push and pull, the beast using all its power in an attempt to off me for good. I felt heat coming from the front as all four horses breathed a stream of flames at the swine. The boar kept on charging forwards, through the fire as the flames engulfed it. An angry squeal erupted from the inferno as it lept up from the sea of flames, still on fire as it used its strong legs to clear the horses and go straight for me.
Breathe in
I felt a sense of calm wash over me as I pulled my sword hand back. My blade shined brilliantly, even in the May sun. I watched it fall ever closer to me, the flames still eating away at the flesh. I stared into its ever-angry eyes, burning brighter than the flames surrounding it. I don’t falter. I’ve faced monsters that have crushed my bones. I don’t feel fear. I’ve fought creatures that could have killed me in five seconds. This is it. I need it to be perfect.
Breathe out.
SHING
I swung my blade and a rush of air followed it, making an arc that flew to the boar. I don’t doubt my skills. I simply watch, confident that this will end the monster once and for all. The blast, charged from my fight flew unimpeded. The beast’s chuffs turned into surprised squeal as it sliced the boar cleanly in two, bisecting it from the snout down. I sheathed my sword and put both hands back on the reins, eyes on the road as I barely watched what came next. The flaming boar started to fade into dust, still falling through the air until only a tusk was left. I held out my arm and caught it with my right hand.
“Oh hot, hot!”
I juggled it a bit with one hand before placing it down on the chariot floor. I grinned triumphantly as I realized what happened. Dad tried to test me, to see if I was “worthy” or he genuinely tried to kill me. Either way, I beat him this time, proving to him that I was more. That he underestimated me when we first met, that I was a brave warrior all along. In the end, I proved to him that I could fulfill my Styx oath even past what was expected of me. I laughed as I sped up, I felt pretty good about my victory. I wondered how his face would look, or if I could read his expression past his dumb sunglasses.
But as I rounded the corner, a terrifying sight came to my face as my glee turned to sorrow. I watched with horror as I realized Dad’s influence on the fight kept a more dangerous foe than any before at bay. Now that the fight was over, he had no reason to keep it around, and for once, I wasn’t sure if I could get through this unscathed. I gulped as I put my hands on the reins, not ready to face the impossible challenge alone. I hoped it wouldn’t break me as I prepared what little I had to fight this foe.
”There is an unusual amount of traffic in your area today.”
“Now you tell me…”
None other, than New York traffic.
I’d like to say that I did something else. Like I defeated an army of drakons on my way, or managed to fight off crazed demigods sent by my dad…but no. It was pretty much just traffic the rest of the way there. It was long and arduous, but I managed to make my way over to The Intrepid. After that traffic,I had to say, the amount of crazy drivers was almost San Francisco bad. I’d have taken as many spartoi and boars as dad could throw at me, if it meant I wasn’t drowning in the sea of cars. I drove down Pier 86, feeling a sense of relief as I got closer and closer to the aircraft carrier turned museum. As I got within eyeshot, I realized that dad said to take it to the temple, but not where to drop it off at.
It would be really stupid to end up failing just because I wasn’t sure where to leave dad’s ride. I got off the chariot, and was eyeing the prices of a ticket.
“Adults are thirty-six, Seniors and College Students…thirty four… Oh hey! Children of Ares get in free! Now, how do I wheel dad’s chariot through the front…”
Suddenly the side gate opened, lights flashing and clanging as it automatically retracted. The person standing in the booth waved me over and I hopped back onto the chariot, driving it by cautiously. They were dressed like a security guard, shades covering their eyes as they looked down onto their phone that they were absentmindedly playing with. Eyebrow piercings peeked out from behind the shades. They were tall, looked about early twenties, and seemed like your average bored museum guard, if not for that sorta godly aura I got from them.
“Take the chariot this way, Lord Ares will be at the end of Pier 86. Can’t miss him.”
I eyed the godling suspiciously. They seemed like one of those myriad younger and minor gods I saw when I was on Olympus. Not anyone I’d know, but if they wanted to stop me, it’d be annoying to get past them. They didn’t seem to be that dangerous, at least right now. But when you were a demigod, you learned to be wary of free handouts.
“Uh…look man, I’m going to be honest. I just got through some hellish traffic to get through here. So if like, you’re leading me into a trap or if my godly brothers are going to show up to try and take this, can you just start the fight and save me the trouble? It’s been a long morning, and I just wanna get this over with.”
I stared back at my reflection through their mirrored shades. Growing up, I always thought of myself as gangly and awkward. I could see my messed up hair, tousled from the wind. I stood tall, and although I wasn’t the buffest Ares kid around, you couldn’t call me skinny anymore. I looked almost heroic as I held the reins atop the chariot. Was that how I looked now? The godling shook their head as they chuckled, putting down their phone as they looked at me in the eyes.
“Kid, even for a god like Ares who likes conflict, you don’t do something like that in a temple. You can’t just attack his kid on his own grounds. Plus, it's part of the rules of war to respect neutralized zones. Trust me, you’re home free.”
“Oh. Um, thank you.”
He nodded and went back on his phone. I snapped on the reins and the chariot trotted along, even fire-breathing horses had to follow traffic laws apparently. I was on guard, not taking the godling’s words at face value. Mortals in a daze parted around the chariot, a few snapping pictures at me. I freaked out for a split second before I heard the tourists being in awe at what I heard to be a “vintage bomber”. Dumbfounded, I stopped for a brief second. It didn’t even have wings! But, I could see the mist shimmer around me and for a brief moment, see the silhouette of the plane around the chariot. It was an old fighter, a single propellor with flaming horse art on the nose.
“P-40B Warhawk? Alright, guess we’re working with that.”
I frowned a bit, trying to think if I knew that before this, from a school project or if it was more demigod shenanigans. I was never into fighter jets, but when you’re a demigod sometimes your parent’s godly influence shoves itself into your head and it’s always confusing when it does.
I drove the “plane” to the end of the pier, where I could see my dad sitting down on a barricade, blocking off a massive plane above him. It wasn’t used for war apparently, because I had no clue what type of plane it was. Looked cool though, it was really narrow around the nose end and the wings were all near the back end. He had a big wicked-looking combat knife in his hand that he used to clean his nails. He looked up at me, disinterestedly, before going back down to the knife.
“You’re alive.”
I couldn’t tell from his tone if that was a good or bad thing. It seemed… neutral. Like he was stating the sky was blue. But, overall I’d take that as a good thing, considering our last meeting. I spoke a bit warily, not sure if he was in a good or bad mood considering my victory.
“Uh, so Father. I’m finished with what you-”
“No. You’re not.”
“I’m not!? Do I need to do anything or-”
A moment of panic snuck up into my chest. For a brief moment I was afraid he was going to pull a twelve labors on me, but then he whistled and held out his hand.
“Not until you give me the keys kid, then it’s done.”
I hopped out of the chariot, the reins in my hand turning into keys as the horses went back into their motorcycle form. I somewhat clumsily tossed it to my dad, who grabbed it. He pushed himself off his perch, first making sure his motorcycle was unharmed. Then, he turned to me, eying me up and down as he circled around where I stood. I stood still, at attention as I felt my heart racing in my chest. I felt like a deer, cornered by a wolf just waiting to strike. Yet, the first pang of anxiety soon settled down. If he wanted to take care of me, he would have done so already. Or sent something more dangerous like a Drakon at me when I was driving. I felt my heart leap up into my throat as he clapped a big hand on my shoulder. The gesture wasn’t hostile, if anything, the motion seemed friendly. But his grip was anything but. His hand, like the claws of a tiger dug into my shoulder as he grinned at me.
“I have to say, I thought you were a lost cause, but look at you kid. Took you long enough, but I guess you have enough of me in you after all. Well, a late bloomer is better than being completely useless, but man! You were one of my most pathetic kids when you took that oath. I don’t think I had a kid as wimpy as you in a long time. Well, I’m glad my little nudge helped you keep that oath up after all. It would have been a waste of a perfectly good warrior if you didn’t shape up.”
I looked at him, dumbfounded. He helped me? He didn’t do anything! I wasn’t stupid enough to point it out, but I guess he knew what I was thinking as I felt his grip tighten as he growled.
“Come on, don’t give me that look, kid. Oh, don’t look so surprised. Tip of advice: don’t dip your toes into cards. You have a horrible poker face. Your mom was the same way. But, yes. I helped. Not that kids these days would understand. Parents these days are too soft, including most of us gods. Back in Sparta, we’d leave our kids to fend for themselves. Just give them barely enough food and let them hunt or steal the rest. If they end up dying in the hunt or starved, well that’s fine. They were too weak to do anything of note anyway. You should consider yourself lucky I was generous enough to just turn my back on you.”
He chuckled low, and my blood ran cold as he shook me. I shook my head, fighting off a wave of dizziness as he threatened to take off my arm.
“Oh, but that’s in the past! You passed your agōgē period, all by yourself. Now that is true strength.”
His evil grin widened as he gave me the closest thing to an approved look he’d ever given me. I furrowed my brow as I shook my head. This credit, it wasn’t mine to take, was it? Before I could think, I spoke what was on my mind.
“I’m sorry, but I didn’t do this by myself. Everywhere I went, I had someone to help me out. If it wasn’t for the help from my friends, I don’t think I would be standing here. I didn’t-”
My dad’s good mood instantly soured as his grin warped into a snarl. His grip, although somewhat friendly now seemed dangerously tight as he frustratingly interrupted me.
“Oh for the love of! I’m complimenting you, kid. Look. I don’t care about those other twerps one way or another. Allies are fine enough in war, as long as you don’t make them do all the work. Kid, you’ve gotten strong all on your own, like a true son of mine. Don’t deny you and me the kleos you rightfully deserve ever again. Shut up and just take the honor.”
“I…uh…yes, Dad.”
I was surprised that all it accounted to was a mild scolding. My dad, too seemed to calm down after I agreed with his words, as he went back to a smile. He put his hand back into his pocket as he started to walk up to his chariot. He ran his finger across the chrome finish, taking out a cloth and cleaning off my fingerprints from the metal.
“About your joyride. Not bad, not bad at all. It took you a bit to embrace your birthright, but you ended up not even scratching my ride. Nice. Nice. Saves me the trouble of buffing it out. Now, if you could only stop complaining at everything that opposed you. You’re a man, aren’t you David? Start acting like it. If you think a bag of bones and a pig are hard, just wait until your future. The stronger a warrior gets, the stronger their foes get. Make sure you’re strong enough to stand up against them before you end up a stain on the pavement.”
I heard the engine rev as he got into the seat. He threw a bag at me that I clumsily fumbled with before I fully caught it. I opened it, and a few golden drachmas shined back at me.
“Since your agōgē finished up, consider yourself un-cut off. Even I’m not heartless enough to leave a son of mine stranded in New York. Keep the rest. Feel free to hang around my temple, and help yourself to the gift shop if you want, it’s on the house, happy birthday and all that. Just don’t go overboard.”
He turned the motorcycle, wheeling it around so he could leave the pier. He turned around, giving me a few more parting words he shouted over the roar of the engine.
“Don’t think you’re done yet, David. You got a lot more to grow. Especially now that you can receive my blessings again. What, did you think that taking a good hit was all you can do? You’ll see sooner or later. See ya kid! Don’t disappoint me.”
He revved his engine one more time and took off, leaving me behind on the pier. As I watched my dad leave, I realized that with that resolved, the last of what made my Styx Oath so suffocating was finally finished. A part of me felt that I’d always keep the consequences of it with me. Either dad would continue to disown me, or I’d be horribly injured from my jobs. But, to my surprise, everything worked out alright. I worked as hard as I could, and now everything was over, truly over. I…wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I mean, like obviously I didn’t wanna have them with me for the rest of my life. But, for all of my oath’s lifespan I had the deadline looming overhead, and my expectation was that something would happen to me as a result. I was glad to have it over with, but I never felt that I could relax until now. The feeling of not having the anxiety of my imminent demise was something I wasn’t familiar with, and to be honest I still have trouble relaxing. As he disappeared into the afternoon traffic, I realized that, so too did my previous life.
Maybe…maybe I could afford to enjoy my life now after all.
OOC: And there we have it! The final David storymode relevant to this storyline! I meant to have this yesterday but I didn't see the modmail that gave me the okay until literally an hour ago oop. Which means that yes, the Chariot and Ares both are approved from the mods.
Big thank you to Tiffany's writer, angelspoint for helping me with her parts, I had a blast working with them! Hope you enjoyed David's Victory lap!

If you didn’t go to the game and see it live what is your favourite Emirates era moments of Arsenal?
My fave memories are

1. Reiss Nelson last min goal vs Bournemouth. Wow what a moment, honestly thought we would go on to win the league.
   
2. Henry header vs United. Late goal by Henry, out form at our new stadium wasn’t very good and this win vs United was so sweet. The last Henry goal I got to witness live.
   
3. Welbeck vs Leicester. That was a loud celebration. Crazy scenes.
   

So I just got done with penacony which is a bit late, because i took a break from the game for like two updates. But when i reached the finale of us fighting against sunday in his godly form every time he screams he just sounds like Gabriel, am i crazy? Has anyone made that comparison? I looked up His EN va and the only thing that comes up is his JP va, nothing about the EN one. I'm so curious about this now lol, I'm gonna see if anyone else has made that comparison other than me.

The Beholder of Frost

• The Iwi are instantly thrown into a panic as the roar rings out into the caverns, and for a moment, silence replies when suddenly, the entirety of the Hollow Earth shudders as a deafening, thunderous bellow echoes with such ferocity, that parts of the ground collapsed into the earth from the intensity, the air quickly growing colder around them. Flakes of snow slowly fall from overhead, and the wind shifts instantly, becoming harsher and chillier as the Iwi immediately rush to hide in their temples, some even praying to the crystalline pyramids. Monarch gazes out into the distance behind the Skkar King’s throne, noticing a valley being swallowed by the largest snowstorm they could ever witness, parts of the Hollow Earth, and several smaller Titans being instantly frozen over as thunderous footsteps resonated from within the blizzard.
• Kong is frozen solid with growing panic as he watched an enormous shadow with icy, cerulean eyes peering back with savage hunger and seething rage, standing motionless as from behind Ares stomped out a quadrupedal creature bound in chains composed of ancient spinal cords. With pearlescent white scales, blue crystalline spines jutting down its back, a massive tail with a thagomizer made of the same crystals protruding from its end, and a crown-like formation of those crystal spines on its head, it was nearly as big as Ghidorah on all fours.
• Monarch is utterly speechless, following behind the Iwi as they duck for cover from the mountainous leviathan when Jia signs that she’s heard of the ice Titan once before, from legends told to her when she was a child; the Mother of all Old Gods, a primordial ruler as old as the planet itself and the beast who is said to be one of the first living creatures and the ancestors of all Titans, but legends referred to her simply as Shimo, the Beholder of Frost. The Iwi confirm the identity, remarking how the First God was beaten and whipped into submission by the Skkar King thousands of years ago, who uses the odd crystals around them as control, feeding Shimo fallen Titans in her own territory, an icy valley adorned with massive crystals and ancient, frozen pyramids, and using her frost powers to his bidding. The Skkar King commands Shimo with the large crystal to finish Kong off and discipline the insubordinate apes when he glances over at the edge of his den and notices a strange shimmering sight in the distance, to which he snarls out a menacing, toothed grin. Light. He could see the light from beyond the cavern.
• At the same time, Shimo bellows a thunderous warcry as its iridescent crystalline blades along her back glow and the air surrounding the Titans coalesces into a freezing haze, the ground beneath her cracking as the heat is sucked out of it, freezing instantly until she unleashes a concentrated blast of pure supercooled ice at absolute zero from her mouth right at Kong. Kong quickly dodges the blast as the impact causes jagged ice to splinter from the blast, stabbing right through one of the other apes, causing it to freeze instantly, its atoms slowing until ceasing all activity. Kong quickly escapes the tunnels out of the ape den with the Skkar King leaping onto Shimo and giving chase, riding Shimo like a valiant steed while hoisting Kong's axe in victory and ordering his apes to give chase. Jia, Andrews, and the rest of Monarch can do nothing but watch as the Skkar King rides Shimo through the Hollow Earth chasms, chasing after Kong who frantically tries to escape Ares and Shimo when he slams his fists into the walls of the tunnels, causing them to collapse just before Shimo can snap her jaws at him.
• Kong leaps up the sides of the chasm until he’s out of the caverns leading to the Skkar King’s den, only to feel a stinging pain as he notices a large patch of ice on his arm, resulting in an intense frostbite effect, to which he hobbles weakly back to the Monarch HEAT outpost before eventually passing out due to the pain. At the same time, Skkar returns to the den on Shimo and snatches the axe, raising it into the air and cheering triumphantly as he feels the first rays of light from the Hollow Earth in thousands of years, that they have a way to escape, and that it was time to begin his reign of terror, but Suko secretly sneaks away from the others, trying his best to find Kong.

The Divinity

• The Iwi in their village cower in fear as Ares and Shimo’s tumultuous roars echo through the caverns while Monarch attempts to understand what just happened, with Jia praying solemnly to the frozen ape Titan in the middle of the Skkar King's den while Ilene converses with Trapper and the Chen twins on what to do and how to escape. That’s when Ling Chen notices that some of the Iwi’s garments bear the same symbol as the Titan forever connected to their family bloodline, Mothra, and speaks to the Iwi Queen. She takes the main group into the crystal pyramids leading into a glowing, crystalline chamber, using a glowing liquid to highlight the cave murals etched into the rock and glowing with a multitude of colors from the Hollow Earth energy.
• They explain, with Jia translating via sign language, Andrews providing narration, and the cave paintings providing the visuals that Ares was once a member of a colony of Great Apes, with strong bonds with many other species, protecting the lands with a warrior's heart. Shimo was originally the alpha Titan inhabiting the Hollow Earth, creating a peaceful, thriving landscape while the Godzillas remained the alphas on the surface, enacting a mutual monster regime that kept many species from conflict. However, with the increasing conflicts between the Godzillas and the Kongs for resources, territory, and personal grudges on the horizon, a rogue Godzilla attacked the Kongs’ temple and ruthlessly killed the Skkar King’s mate and child, devouring the baby in front of Ares. With his entire family dead, Ares searched for anything to turn the tides in his favor against the Godzillas, and to seek vengeance for the loss of his family, eventually stumbling upon strange crystals deep within the Hollow Earth, powerful enough to force other Titans under its influence through unknown radiation signatures. However, there was one catch: The crystals were in a valley guarded by the hibernating Shimo, who had claimed the land as her territory millennia ago, creating an icy landscape for her own. When he tried to steal some of the crystals for himself, Shimo awoke and tried to defend herself with her frostbite blast until Skkar King managed to harness the slight electrical output the crystals gave, allowing him to essentially shock Shimo into submission. That was when she sensed the imbalance on the surface and in the Hollow Earth due to the Great Titan War raging on between the Godzillas and Kongs.
• Shimo could sense that both the Godzillas and the Kongs were becoming a scourge, a blight on the balance of nature for their destruction of the planet and petty conflicts, and wanted to return things to a purer time, agreeing to help Ares win the Titan war by wiping everything out and starting again. Now, the Skkar King and Shimo traversed the Hollow Earth, wiping out swaths of Titans and many tribal villages scattered about, breaking many sacred rules and taboos, and leading to the final conflict outside the Kongs’ ancient temple. However, with the help of Godzilla and a glowing, godly moth-like Titan simply known as “The Divinity,” they were able to lock the Skkar King, Shimo, and the remaining Kongs left in the Hollow Earth, away deep behind the mountains where none dared to venture, leaving them all to rot alone in solitude. The Iwi reveal that the Divinity was, in fact, an ancient member of Mothra’s species, who had sealed itself after the Great Titan War in a cocoon of transparent, near-invisible webbing infused with the radiation from the massive crystals around the village, preparing to awaken one day and restore the planet from the corruption slowly eating away at it.
• Andrews realizes that The Skkar King and Shimo want to make their way up to the surface to start their global invasion and that while Godzilla has been acting erratic for a while now, it’s because he’s preparing for the inevitable war between himself, Ares, and Shimo. She believes that the Skkar King and Shimo legitimately scare Godzilla and that the mere idea of Ares trying to oppose his rule again is enough to drive him into a ruthless, Titan-killing, city-destroying evolving panic. She realizes the Iwi sent the distress call because they, and even Godzilla, anticipated that Kong, searching for his kind, would soon discover the Skkar King's army. The Chens close the Iwi writings with a prophecy: at the end of the world, an Iwi from Skull Island and the blood of the Shobijin, another sect of Iwi originating from Infant Island, will come to save the world by summoning the Divinity, Mothra. They all realize this can only be referring to Jia and the Chens.
• However, Ilene mentions that he won’t be alone and that if they can somehow heal Kong and get him to persuade Godzilla to work together, they might have a chance, and the Chens see that in order for that to happen, they all must begin the ritual to wake up the elder Mothra. The idea alone terrifies Ilene, believing that Jia performing the ritual was too much for one child to handle, and reflects to Trapper that she promised herself to sacrifice whatever was necessary to give Jia a good life. She's realizing now that she may have to give up Jia herself to let her live with the Iwi, watching Jia quickly fit in amongst the Hollow Earth Iwi, but Trapper and the Chen twins remind her that Jia loves her, that she is a wonderful mother, and that Jia would want to stay with her, even if she’s found people like her and her ancestors.

Rapid Evolution

• Meanwhile, on the surface world, Monarch had still been tracking Godzilla as he traveled across the world to counteract the now-weekly Titan attacks, all bearing the mark of the Skkar King, his body slowly evolving due to the sudden intake of immense radiation, essentially hyper-evolving behind the normal state of his species. Now in Greenland after leaving Europe by way of Cádiz, Spain, a Monarch submarine followed Godzilla as he uncharacteristically ventured into the territory of Titanus Tiamat, who’s been resting here due to the largest stockpile of energy on the planet due to the electrically charged solar winds it absorbs. Godzilla fires his atomic breath into Tiamat's icy lair, narrowly missing the submarine, to which she quickly emerges and uses her whirlpools and phosphorus ink to disorient him long enough for her to constrict him but he rips off a chunk of her flesh; she answers by biting his neck and trying to smother him with her cranial fins.
• But the fins fail to stop him from unleashing a blast of atomic breath, driving her, badly injuring her, away from the area, allowing him to claim the radioactive area as his own. Now unopposed, Godzilla entered her lair and began harnessing the electrically charged energy Tiamat had been feeding on, absorbing the radiating into his dorsal blades, turning his bioluminescent to a fluctuating purple and pink, his dorsal plates growing even more, becoming similar to Godzilla 2000’s dorsal designs. Ice had begun to form around Godzilla as he began a rapid hyper-evolutionary state, seemingly growing even more powerful in preparation for what seemed to be an inevitable war on the horizon.
• Atmospheric radiation in the area would decrease dramatically as Godzilla absorbs any radioactive energy around him to fuel his hyper-evolution while Monarch closely watches by, monitoring whatever happens. At the same time, Mark notices that Godzilla has been sending out infrasonic beacons to the Titans still residing on the surface world to move toward entryways to Hollow Earth/Axis Mundi and serve as guards/sentinels in case anything came out, mentioning how it seems that he’s preparing for what could be World War 3. However, Godzilla’s absence has now caused the dynamic of power on the surface to shift, with the rising amount of Titans bearing the Skkar King’s handprint almost every day, and various weather anomalies involving ice storms and blizzards appearing all over the globe.

Iwi Findings

• Simultaneously, down in the Hollow Earth, Kong, and an arriving Suko, rest outside the Monarch HEAT facility with personnel treating the severe frostbite that has overtaken his right hand and forearm, leaving it stiff and red with peeling skin and flesh. After sending out an emergency beacon from the Iwi village, a HEAV arrives in the village with Bernie and Mikael, both of whom are petrified after their trip through the Hollow Earth portals, with the former shakily filming everything he sees, including seeing what looked like a massive skeletal turtle sleeping next to some Iwi children. The Iwi soon opened their barrier to let in an arriving Kong and Suko after following the HEAV, allowing both apes to glimpse the realm of their worshippers before Kong collapses from exhaustion, but manages to sit up to touch a finger to Jia's hand. He signs to her that he lost his home before falling unconscious with Suko tearfully watching over him.
• Monarch reconvenes in one of the temple pyramids to discuss what to do next, with Bernie mentioning that Kong nor Godzilla can’t stop this on their own, and that soon Shimo and the Skkar King will escape their prison and unleash hell in both realms, but Ilene retorts that they won’t be alone, and that they’ll help each other. Bernie is confused as to why Godzilla would help Kong after he tried to kill him back in Hong Kong, but that’s when Jia and the Chen twins point toward the wall of glowing hieroglyphics detailing the ancient story about the Great Titan War. Ares killing several members of both the Godzilla and Kong species as well as capturing Shimo and working with her were only a few of the sacred taboos he had broken, crimes that provoked war between all life in the Hollow Earth. But something happened where the battle ceased, yet only for a moment as something appeared to bring everything together to defeat it, though they couldn’t seem to find out the translation for what it was.
• But they don’t need to find a translation for it, as it was a Titan the entire world had witnessed before, King Ghidorah. But they weren’t alone in the mural, as three other unknown Titans stood beside it; one resembling a Godzilla adorned with crystalline dorsal fins and wings, one similar to a hybridization of Godzilla, a rose, and a Venus flytrap, and the last being what could only be described as an amalgamation of crustacean, insectoid, and draconic traits into an enormous abomination. The Iwi Queen enters the pyramid and notices Monarch talking about the cave paintings, interjecting into the conversation that they represent the “Follies of Nature,” with Ghidorah having been defeated and frozen in Antarctica by Godzilla and a disturbed Shimo, all of that happening before the events of the Great Titan War. Bernie is confused about how Shimo could be the Mother of All Old Gods considering that many of the Titans vary from mammal, insect, reptilian, and even unknown entities like Ghidorah since they’re an extraterrestrial lifeform, but the Iwi clarify that Shimo is the First God because she was the first living being of that immense size to be seen by the first human civilization. Shimo wasn’t the first Titan in existence, but rather the first one to ever be gazed upon by human beings, cementing her as the First God and Mother of All Old Gods.

Evolution of a God

• That’s when the group gets a call from Monarch, where Mark Russell informs the others that G-Team, along with Trapper, had been experimenting with weapons designed to be built onto Titans to assist them in combat called Project Powerhouse, and they had just finished constructing a superweapon that’ll also heal Kong of his extensive injuries. Ling points into the distance where they see a fleet of HEAVs carrying a huge shipping container with the Monarch logo painted onto it along with the word “B.E.A.S.T” in bold black letters. Over their comms systems, Monarch all watch as Suko tries to protect Kong from the HEAVs, growling, and swatting at them, but quickly realizes that they mean to help Kong, eyeing them open the container to reveal a massive yellow gauntlet, a mechanical brace spanning the Titan’s elbow to his fingertips. Trapper calls the glove the “BEAST Glove,” a weapon conceived from the myths and legends of ancient civilizations building weapons to aid the Titans in combat where their abilities aren’t enough, and while Ilene is a bit upset at Trapper for trying to experiment with an innocent creature, one that she has taken care of for several years, Bernie mentions how Kong being healthy should be the only thing that matters, and that he needs help since The Skkar King and Shimo now have a way to escape.
• It isn’t long before Kong suddenly awakens, his eyes dilated, heartbeat pounding, and as the BEAST Glove injects a cocktail of adrenaline-based meds into his bloodstream, giving him a second wind while Suko cheers excitedly, and Monarch waits to see how Kong will be affected by the brace. Slowly rising to his feet, Trapper remarks that either Kong will absolutely love it, or that he’ll rip it off with his teeth, but to Monarch’s surprise, Kong seems to be noticing something else, spotting what looked like the remains of a Kong laying on an open vein of Hollow Earth energy. Kong slowly presses a finger against the flowing pool of energy, quickly roaring in pain as his eyes roll toward the back of his head, his mind flashing with an array of images; the other Great Apes, Jia, Godzilla, Skull Island, the Skkar King, Shimo… and the last thing he could remember of his family - their last moments on Earth.
• Lightning bursts from the crack in the soil, surging up Kong’s arm and throughout his body as the BEAST Glove imbued Kong with the ability to enhance a now unlocked bioelectrical organ in his chest, allowing him to harness the power of electricity like the Skkar King, but supercharge it with the BEAST Glove. Jia quickly signs to Kong that they’re going to need help in defeating Ares and Shimo, and Kong, knowing exactly who to find, makes his way toward the nearest portal to the surface to find Godzilla, telling Suko to stay behind, and watch over his family. Now harnessing the ancestral power of his kind to control electricity, Kong bellows out a mighty warcry, one that’s not only picked up by the Skkar King and Shimo but Godzilla as well, even while he’s evolving in the ice.
• Meanwhile, in his new den in Greenland, Godzilla awakens midway through his hyper-evolution, his body now leaner and muscular, his skin much spikier than before, dorsal plates curved backward and sporting a crystal-like texture, and a thagomizer made of spikes on his tail. At the same time, his radioactive outpost is nearly 20x as much as any other member of his species, and his normal blue energy has now shifted into a magenta-pink hue, spreading all over his body like veins. Hearing the bellowing roar of Kong deep in the Hollow Earth, Godzilla quickly dives into the sea to follow after him, tearing through any Monarch vessel in his path, his new evolved state causing his temperament to reach an almost unhinged degree of anger.
• At the same time, in the Skkar King’s den, he garbs himself in a shawl made of Godzilla’s leathery hide and a mask resembling the skull of Anguirus marred with the red war paint before hopping onto Shimo’s back like a horse, raising Kong’s axe. Ares then bellows out an almost long-forgotten language triumphantly before leading the army of Kongs out of the den, revealing that the Skkar King could actually speak, though spoke in a dead language from a bygone era. Using her frost blast, Shimo creates a massive crater, allowing her, Skarr King, and the other monsters to finally escape their prison into Hollow Earth, Skarr quickly orders Shimo to begin their invasion, to which she begins unleashing her frostbite blast in all directions, freezing everything in their way until they’re marching through an enormous blizzard. Suko watches on from the shadows, worried about their plans for the surface before going off to warn Monarch and Kong, not knowing that one of the Skkar King’s guards had been following him, finding the Iwi village, and returning to Ares to inform him of a way out - a way to the surface world...

My catfish story - trigger warning talk of suicide and abuse
Soo this still lives rent free in my mind though its been about a year since loss of contact with said catfish. The emotional and mental damage that came from my experience still haunts me and the constant questions I have constantly cross my mind. Who was he? Why? Was anything real? What was the end goal? Are my pictures floating around? Did he sell photos of my son? That last one hits right in the mom guilt...
My story starts the end of 2019 early 2020. I was a new mom struggling with PPD on-top of my already bad depression, untreated ADHD, insomnia and my then husband was no help. For example I had issues with breastfeeding and would often try to nurse for a small amount of time then supplement with formula. One night I was going down to warm up the bottle after another failed attempt of nursing that night. It had been a difficult night and sleep at this time was none existent. I heard my son crying harder after a few moments and heard my ex yelling at him to stop crying. By the time I got upstairs I walked in on him shaking him out of frustration. I took my son, got him settled and fed them attempted to have a conversation with my ex about what happened and as per usual it ended in a verbal fight. I took over all night time wake times from this point forward. I took care of the house, cooking, cleaning, paying bills etc. it was a very hard time in my life and I started having small joints or bowls after giving up breastfeeding to help control my constant anxiety and sleep. I never did this when I was alone with my son and only once he was asleep at night. My ex began to get more and more verbally abusive in the relationship and my mental health took a downward spiral. He blamed my smoking for my lake of affection towards him, my baby weight staying on and causing me not to be a 10 among many other nasty things. He began to pressure me to quite and seek help for my addiction but for free and online as I needed to be home with my son and had minimal money. (My ex hide a huge amount of debt before we got married, had me build us a brand new home to fit his life style as I was fortunate to be in a good finical standing at that time so money was tight) So I joined an app called Sober grid. And that's how I met "Michael"....
So I joined as mentioned about late 2019 earlier 2020, I had received numerous messages on the app from people reaching out to support me becoming sober. Michael was one of them. He was sweet and extremely charming. He came off extremely carrying and empathetic to my situation. As time progressed we chatted more and more and it slowly became more about our personal life's then sobriety. He would make jokes, send memes, listen to me cry over my house situation.. basically became my best friend. We stopped talking on the app and moved to what up as we live in seperate countries but only a few hours apart (he is in the states and I am in Canada) . He began to open up about his personal situation, informing me of his childhood trauma and war traumas as he had been a marine during the height of the Afghan war. I was 27 at the time and he 33. He knew I was married and had a son. He would ask questions about my son, never anything to personal or sus and about my husband. Eventually we began talking on the phone, I was enjoying the feeling of being desired, being appreciated, being dodted on even though he was hours away, he always seemed to make time for me.
Eventually as you all can assume that friendship grew feelings. So I began an emotional affair seeking all the things I was missing and to supplement my lack of self love. We talked from sun rise to sun down. Text and phone calls. The feelings grew, the texts and phone calls became more and more intense and pictures were sent. He sent me millions of photos of himself in different cloths, doing different things, and they mostly matched what he said he was doing at the time. I attempted FaceTime a few times but things just didn't work out. I didn't think much of it as I was addicted to the feeling I was feeling and my mental health was a mess...
Things between my wx husband and I deterated. I was primary caregiver and 9months after having my son I had to return to work so we wouldn't lose our home and could afford food. Mat leave in Canada is 12-18months.. I opted 12 and returned early. At this point my mental health went further down the gutter, my ex and I were seperation and getting back together on repeat and constantly fighting. I am so glad my son will have no memories of this time due to being so young. My choices became worse and judgement continued to be clouded by this delusion that me and "Michael" would be together as he promised. In sept 2020 I began having suicidal ideation a believing I was a horrible human and mom and absolutely useless. I spent sometime in therapy and got medication but I didn't continued the treatments as in my mind once I get to make a plan and remove my marriage I can be with this person who makes me feel like a queen and talks to highly of my son.
I did send him a few photos of my son solo and some of me and him. Never anything exposing just mostly of us playing and what we were up to. He always spoke so kindly of my son, told me he wanted to be a bonus dad and take care of us.
Like I said, I really just ran past those flags..
In Jan 2021 everything in my life came to a crashing end. I ended up informing my ex of "Michael" and explained that this man was going to get himself killed because of me. At the time "Michael" had convinced me that he was going to rejoin the marines and remove himself from this situation n find peace in death as he couldn't live without me and couldn't commit suicide.. Due to the poor state my mental health came to a crashing point in this moment. My ex said some harsh things (deservingly so I was an idiot at this time - though he was abusive an ass what I did was wrong) and "Michael" walked away... I thought... To get himself killed because of me.
I ended up in a spiral and attempting suicide believing that was the only way out. Michael began calling and texting me off 2 numbers (his work and personal cell) to tell me he made a mistake and he wanted to stay in my life. I ended up on a form and in inpatient mental health unit for treatment. I was there for 4 days.
Upon discharge I attempted marriage counseling and personal counseling but things between myself and ex never improved only worsened. And "Michael" had gotten in contact with me and sweet talked his way back into my life..
I left my husband a few weeks later in 2021..
I fully committed to "Michael" and hung off his every word, photo and phone call. He spoke to my friends, my son, and sent me surprise flowers and pizza all the time. Though hours away always tried to look out for me...
This is when I started to become more aware of the flags. Through 2021 and the beginning of 2022 we continued down our path of on and off relationship, him always leaving and coming back. He said he was afraid of me leaving him over his PTSD and wounds from war. That's what he stated then.. the facetiming never happened, he always face timed when I was busy or never answered mine. I became aware of the toxicity that had began happening, him leaving saying he was not good enough for me and my son, me fighting, him coming back and promising me things and then repeat. One time he told me he had obtained a job in my area and was moving here. He was apparently here, completed some training and then the night we were to meet he chickened out and pulled one of his I'm not good enough, I'm a horrible person act as he always did. He would get jealous easy, he had found an inactive dating profile once from a period of time we were not talking and lost his mind. He called me "mo" as he always wanted more of me.
I could provide so many stories and examples of these fights, toxic behavior, red flags I ran past etc.
Then one day he told me he wasn't who he said he was, his storyline was true but the person was not. I asked him to explain and he covered it up with a war PTSD storey, foster home story or homeless teenage story that would distract me to thinking he ment personality wise and decency wise not looks.
I was very on my toes with him at this point but trusted him...why I do not know...
This continued till the end of 2022 when I bought a home and started to live life and not wait for him to join me. We slowly driftes apart as clearly after basically 2 years of this I was at a point where he needed to meet me or leave me.. in early 2023 all contact stopped. Not blocked but I had started treatment a few months earlier, got medicated and mentally stable.. I noticed the red flags and began calling him on them. Asking him about his pipe fitting at "Nicor" and how they let him leave to go to Ukraine. He was trying to convince me he had went to Ukraine to stand with them, text me as if he was there in war fighting to get back to me. Purposing to me over the phone, telling me he placed me as his beneficiary, giving me a marine number that would identify him and allow me access to his fund if something happened.
I did some digging as things just didn't add up. At this point I asked more questions and became more stand off.
This man never told me who he was, why, or that he was even a catfish.
He began to distance himself from me and I to him.
Later 2023 I found out about face ID websites and uploaded one of the images I still had of him just put of curiousity. He had never had any social media - told me he didn't like it but I'm assuming my guliable ass just fell for a lie there.
Well.... He was not in fact the person he sent me all those photos of.. I'm genuinely concerned how he got all these photos of this person he had so many different ones.. the person in those photos was an Italian soccer player..I attempted to confront him up n both numbers but have never recieved an answer. Just silence... He's never blocked me either and clearly still has the number as the person never responds.
I have come a very far way from who I was when I met this man. I have come even further since becoming more active in my mental health care. I am at the most stable I have ever been, the happiest I have ever been, and overall just happy with who I have grown into. I have done some stupid shit and this was probably the number one thing (though it did help me leave a horrific situation I should of handled it way better).
Don't be me.. ask the questions, do the face times and ask for all the proof. Don't be left haunted by a bad choice and if this person, who you have no idea what they look like, could be around you or your son. If your in an abusive relationship, find a safe way out and take your time to heal.
I hope someone who reads this avoids being dragged through it like I did and asks all the smart questions..
Remember it's not capture the flag ppl