(If you know who Dias is, you probably have read Distortion Detective. If you don't, go and read it. Also includes LC and LoR spoilers, though I think you who clicked on this post should be already familiar with them) I don't know if I'm burning the kitchen with this but here's my reasonings: 1. In the Woods (The part which supports and rules out quite some theories) Here I quote Lion and Panther: Lion: "Ah~ If we’re being technical, what our master has planned apparently isn’t one of the City’s taboos. It’s just the kind of thing that… no one has ever dared to consider, you catch my drift?" Panther: "You managed to get a different head in so fast. Do people like you always come prepared?" From this, I deduce two traits that Pre-Limbus Dante would probably have: 1.1 High social status It was mentioned that Dante used to have a high calibewas sort of a bigwig, plus Vergilius somewhat views Dante as an equal (When he isn't angry) and Dias is definitely one who has influence in the city. Although we don't know what exactly she is, it is apparent that she's very, very rich and has great authority. Also, the fact that Dante doesn't carry a weapon should either mean they originally have special abilities and can fight without weapons, or they usually don't encounter fights, and I figure that Dias falls into the latter category. Panther's question of "Do people like you always come prepared?" could possibly imply that Dante was the kind of people that's reasonable to have a couple of survival equipment that cost a ton. The fact that the furries didn't capture Dante shows that Dante made their memories inaccessible, either by getting an expensive "lock" from J Corp, or maybe simply Dante's clockhead is immune to mental attack (Even Hong Lu can't do that, Dante must have an invaluable moonstone) , so I believe that Dante used to have a high social status. 1.2 Independent If Dante is a person with high status that belongs in some kind of organization, their disappearance would probably be discovered, and as someone with a high status there should be some investigation (It shouldn't be impossible to find a particular person in the city with all those technology) , but now we see nothing. Or maybe the organization knows what happened, but that's also not very possible since it would be hard to convince a organization that LCB and their higher-up establishes a contract that needs Dante to loss memory AND may put Dante in danger. Therefore, Dante should be some independent high status individual. However, I would rule out some possibilities here: ✗Color Fixer I don't think Dante would be a Color because 1. Don/Ryoshu would probably smell it out with their instincts 2. A Color should be able to get rid of the furries even if they're weakened/partial memory lost, since the power difference is exponential (like, weakened Sinners can still wield their weapons and kill one another at least) 3. Killing a Color wouldn't be something that "no one has ever dared to consider" since we know of the Vermillion Cross and the Roland bad ending in LoR, and also Argalia and Angelica... ✗The Head Although the Head also has astonishing efficiency (it took them the whole LC and LoR) , should Dante be a part of the Head, they would have some more roundabout speech in the woods, nor would Vergilius mention that Dante used to be only "sort of" a bigwig. ✗Lob. Corp. related For Ayin it's the same reason, the establisher of Lob. Corp. himself is definitely a bigwig (Not to mention that according to Carmen, Ayin is also in the Light) . The probability of being a manager of a fallen L Corp branch facility is also low because they either got buried (How could a manager without ego equipment break through the facility themselves?) or died because of depression (like the poor person in the concept incinerated Wonderlab) . Other important people are>! in the Outskirts, !!the Eyeball !!T Corp actually because of its tears!<) Narrowing down, this leaves us high grade lone fixers/workshop meisters (YuRia would instinctively feel bad about Faust's Hex Nail so not her) , distortions/evil human/non-city human (btw does a humanoid abno that's AI themed with human level intelligence break the Head's law?) , and also the rich. 2. Reason of Concealing Design-wise gloves and other things are used to reflect a person's personality eg it suits Sinclair being timid. (or they just don't want to have physical contact/ eg>! to show Gabriel's trauma is no longer Yesod's!<) But in this case, they're used to hide Dante's skin. (Poor Dante wearing so much clothes, must be hard to bear when it's hot eg facing Ardor Blossom Moth and other burn abnos) Dante's clothes are most likely to be provided by LCB due to the name Dante on it (Creepy that LCB knows their size of clothes) . Seeing the unique garments of each Sinner, we can know that the tailor behind LCB put a lot of thoughts in it (since everything is canon) , and a notable thing is that Dante and Sinclair are the only two sinners who has gloves. Gloves are provided for Dante by LCB──Why? It's not likely that sinners (Except Faust) would recognize Dante. Dante is usually being protected at the back, so the chance for an enemy to observe Dante's skin and recognize them at a close distance should also be low theoretically. (Seriously who could make the connection between a high-status individual you knew and an amnesiac with a clock-ticking head?) Vergilius probably already knew Dante's identity, and I don't think Dante has anything to do with Charon's past, so... I have a wild guess that the company is hiding Dante's identity from LCD: Ezra, Moses, etc. Since it seems that only the higher-ups of LCB actually know Dante's identity, (Judging by the attitude of LCCA in Canto3 and Caiman) and Ezra saying Dante really tick tocks like a clock using "They", so I guess the LCD doesn't know about Dante's past. Athough Moses and Ezra still listened to Dias the last time we saw them interact, after the events of Distortion Detective, I doubt that they would continue to be Dias' pawn (Although DD got cut, director Jihoon must have gotten some character realization arc for Moses/Ezra/Vespa,etc. up his sleeves prior to starting DD) . Therefore, they probably joined LCD of their own accord. This leads to a dilemma of either choosing Dias (money and power) or LCD (solving distortions) , so in order to get them both, Limbus company have to hide at least one of them to the other. Dias' skin color is not the most common among the high status individuals in the city (Her skin looks similar to Outis' but is probably much smoother since Dias has an extravagant life and seems not to age much. Dias didn't look like she's older than Moses but she is) . As someone who had known Dias for a long long time and were in so much pain because of her, Moses and Ezra probably had Dias' features carved in their mind. It shouldn't be hard for them to recognize Dias solely from hands or neck, and if this happened, LCD's reaction could cause Limbus Company's plans to fall apart, so it's reasonable for Limbus Company to cover Dante from head to toe, not letting an inch of skin to be seen. 3. PM things PM's not one who likes to throw main characters' important info out without any foreshadowing. Well for the other sinners we more or less know something from their source material, but among the main characters only Dante we know nothing about their past except they had a high status before (Other sinners at least have their description and CGs in TGS trailer, but for Dante we only know that their life wasn't going very well from the source material) . But even Roland slipped out tons of facts that a grade 9 fixer wouldn't know, along with the Pianist in the trailer, and the fact that his thing was quite directly related to WNDD which was caused by LC Angela... And so Dante should also have relations to the sequels in whatever way. But what do we have for Dante now? Demain and a to-be-drawn sheep, which is... more confusing than Binah maybe. So, I think PM would have some more foreshadowing that we didn't realise. Then where could that foreshadowing be? LC and LoR are pretty much ended with some people getting unbooked and releasing the Light, but I don't really think the Dante from Seven Association is LCB Dante since they said themselves the name "Dante" doesn't feel familiar. Iori is a Color, and nor do I think she will ask the furries to attack herself. Afterall, not many independent high status people were unbooked since the thing about invitations are that they cause ripple effect, from the Rats to ultimately Associations and more, so most guests have a relationship with one another here or there. Leviathan is written for Vergilius, and since Faust was there, it is hardly likely that Dante is the people that Vergilius has encountered. (Sadly Dante shouldn't be Garnet) Wonderlab was concept incinerated, so that leaves us with... Distortion Detective. What if, Jihoon stopped writing it indeed because they hope to make DD into a game and are busy developing LCB, but also because Jihoon realized that continuing DD will reveal one of the biggest mystery in LCB? 4. Mili We all know that Mili songs are composed of a ton information, so here are some lyrics of In Hell We Live, Lament: I walked down a path Leading to the past Stole from the tree's hands A regretter's friend -- the forbidden fruit Pretty sure that this part is about Dante. Here, the word "stole" implies that Dante is once again probably not Ayin himself, since Ayin was using Carmen's nervous system all along in LC. I bite off the skin Chewing on its tender flesh Quaff down its lukewarm pus You became the "me" who you despised We swallowed the time Let us rewind Not too sure, but this part should be either about all the Sinners or Dante themself. Either way, the "You became the 'me' who you despised" line in the middle could mean that Dante's past self won't like the way they're acting now (which is definitely something Dias would feel) 5. Dias and Limbus 5.1 Dias' Goal As shown in DD, Dias is probably someone who thinks anyone that is useless to her is trash and hate lowly beings. (She straight up ignored Vespa, only answering a “Mm.” apathetically because Moses asked her about Vespa) Her goal is to become the Head (and therefore helped LC takeover the old L Corp) and I believe that would be the reason why Dias would be interested in Limbus Company, but unfortunately ended up getting partially tricked by this shady company into becoming the manager. (Ya must be a coincidence that a bus went into the woods and picked up a random person) Limbus company could offer a dream-come-true opportunity if you sign the contract (At least that's what it seems to be) so maybe Dias first wanted to simply finance LCB, but in the end signed a contract instead so they could engrave the aspect (whatever that is) So, it would be reasonable to say that is why Dante would be so angry if they were Dias when they were almost killed by the furries, because she almost got closer to her goal of being the Head if she could finish engraving the aspect. Also, Dias would not be satisfied of being the higher-up of LCB. In order to become the Head HERSELF, she would want to and should need to have 100% control over everything (like she used to do with the Udjat) But now, LCB is not fully under her control (What if some sinners want to leave after fulfilling their wish? Like, Vergilius actually violated his contract) . Dias wouldn't allow this to happen, she wants nothing blocking her path. Since nothing happened, I can say that Dias isn't aware of this, and the reason to this lack of response could be because she became Dante. 5.2 Company Financing Limbus Company has plenty of capital and resources (They can afford to provide ammo for LCCB which consists of relatively disposable and weak units), so where did that money come from? Maybe Hong Lu's family was financing the company, but with realizations comes tragedies, aren't they afraid that what if one day they got involved and died? From Hong Lu's IDs we can know that his grandparents explicitly told him to work at places they want him to, (telling him "To see more of the City and learn how the world goes") but in LCB he didn't mention such a thing unlike his mirror world versions. Since his grandparents are very blatant with Hong Lu regarding their act of nepotism, I doubt that they would hide it to Hong Lu if they really were the financial source behind Limbus Company, so that shouldn't be the case. Also, Roland mentioned a "Jade" when he talked about the strongest fixers. This "Jade" could have relations to Hong Lu, thus it isn't impossible that the financial support comes from there. However, there could be a conflict of interest if another person with a near-Color level is also involved in Limbus Company aside from Vergilius, so that shouldn't be too probable. Honestly, it is completely reasonable for Dias to be the one who dared to finance a no-name company like Limbus, since she did the same thing before and financed Lob Corp in the Smoke War. A war requires astronomical amount of resources and capital, and they were fighting against an EXISTING Wing, which is probably quite rich considering it was the only energy supplier at that time. Yet still, Dias supported LC and they won. Dias probably did this because she thinks that releasing the Light can ultimately allow her to become the Head, but her plan was hijacked along with Ayin's because of LC Angela. Now with the Library releasing the Light, Dias could finally continue her plan. Limbus Company is a perfect opportunity so she seeks to involve in the company by backing up its finances, which led to an outcome that she didn't thought of. 6. Other Miscellaneous By the way, Dante's height is 176cm where Dias' is 171cm. That's close enough, and it makes sense that the few additional centimeters are because of the clockhead. What's more is that Dante and Dias both start with "D" (like whatever is going on with Carmen and Catherine) Conclusion: Indeed I could be wrong, but come on, really? Leaving poor Dias behind all these events? She had been waiting since the start of LC! It should be time for PM to give her some love and get her back on stage instead of pulling another new character out of mid-air... TLDR: Dante=Dias because -was probably rich/powerful -very different from current Dante -had some big goals -have something to do with the Light -LCD and Dias can't knowingly coexist -we're running out of characters to cope on And that's all for now, waiting for PM to drop more info in the upcoming chapters (PM fuel my brainrot plssss)

Madeleine announces she is going back home
* Sarah Palmer behaves oddly *
- I have my apartment, my job…I intend to back home tomorrow, by car.
- Tomorrow? - Asks Sarah
- Oh.. we understand… - Says Leland while he and Sarah stares each other.
- Yes...we understand.
Leland keeps staring at Sarah for while. After some talking, Leland stares at her finger and then kisses her hand.- S2E07
Twin Peaks Season 2
Episode 1 – The Giant and the Old Waiter are the same person.
Dale was shot and the Fireman appears.
“Where do you came from?”
“The question is, where have you gone? I will tell you three things: There is a man in a smiling bag. The owls aren’t what they seem. Without chemistry, he points. “
He,then, took Dale’s Ring.
“We want to help you. One last thing: Leo locked inside Hungry Horse. There is a clue inside Leo’s
house.”
Madeleine is wearing a Blue bathrobe with a flower and had a dream with Bob and in the same day Bob takes total control of Leland’s body, and starts to singing a strange music that makes no sense:“Mairzy Doats”. Interesting to note that when he arrives at Great Hotel he sings the same music and The Horns Bothers dance and looks like Bob sings and their Black Lodges friends dance. Spooky….
Note: It looks like, in Twin Peaks, Homophone Lyrics and Poems is a THING: Black Lodge Language, The Poem "Fire,Walk With Me".
Now, when Leland sings this He is already BOB and we can see the aesthetic of the lyric: isn't a Black Lodge aesthetic to you? (If the words sound queer and funny to your ear)
I know a ditty nutty as a fruitcake
Goofy as a goon and silly as a loon
Some call it pretty, others call it crazy
But they all sing this tune:
Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?
Yes! Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?
If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey
Sing "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy"
Oh! Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you-oo?
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?
At the Hospital, when Jacques Renault was strangled by Leland Palmer, Dr. Jacoby felt the smell of scorched engine oil.Andrew Packard described the same smell when he found the entrance of the Black Lodge. [ TSHOTP -Twin Peaks Gazette 1927 – Our Strange Camping Trip.]
“We entered the clearing where we planned to stop for some refreshment. A circle of trees stood in its center that we identified as sycamores.Not fully grown, more like striplings, twelve in number but uniform in size. There is also a strange smell in the air, like burning oil from a seized-up engine with a hint of sufur to it.I noticed a small seeping pool of thick black sludge in the center of the circle and confirmed this as the source of odor we noticed.”
Nearby this region there is a lake named Big Pearl Lake where Leland’s Grandfather had a summer house and their neighbour used to be Robertson [ R B T letters from Ronette’s, Teresa Banks’ and Laura’s nails] From - [Episode 3]
When Dale was sleeping, the Giant appears :
“One person saw the third man. Three person saw him ,yes.But not his body.One only known to you is read to talk.” [ It was Sarah, Madeleine and Ronette. Dale was the forth person].
a) Episode 14 – Windom Earle
“All knowledge is abused, and the more knowledge, the greater power is obtained by those who seek power with all means “ - The Knowledge of Live in The Struggle between Good and Evil, Page 140.
Was Windom possessed by Bob when he killed Caroline? He likes Owls and he was the one who took Dale to Black Lodge – if he was possessed by BOB, it was a revenge against Dale to took him to Black Lodge? When Leland Palmer was possessed at the jail, he said: “I have this thing for knives. Just like what happened to you in Pittsburgh that time”.
Remember that Douglas Milford said in the letter:
“We are utterly incapable of knowing their true intent and their true intent may not be to wish us well. It may be that they’re here to guide or even help our evolution. There may even be a good and evil side at play here and we , the human race, is the game.”
Perhaps everything happened according to the plan from the White Lodge: Laura’s death and Dale Cooper into the Black Lodge who leads us to Bob’s death. In Fire Walk With Me, Laura’s good Side was saved -because Season 3 clarifies that she is a daughter of the White Lodge-and also the Leland’s by the time of his death - you can see , in the Movie, that there was a good side on him when Bob gave a break and he expressed his love for Laura, a father love.
We are told that he has been looking for The Black Lodge [ Episode 19 and 20].On Episode 18 Gordon Cole said that Windom has associations with The Blue Book Project and was found a chemistry in his blood named HALOPERIDOL the same One- Armed Man uses to keep entity Mike calmed. So, Windom never was crazy but possessed and it can be any entity from Black Lodge.
MY OPINION: It explains why he was looking for the Black Lodge: the entity – Bob or else or both – possessed him for any reason and he had many glimpses of Black Lodge, and visions and dreams and became obsessed or he always wanted find it and a black entity found its great opportunity for he was a bad person, anyway – he never showed any remorse for Caroline or Cooper.
Major Garland Brigs to Sherrif Truman and Agent Cooper about Windom Earle and Blue Book Project [Season 2 Episode 20]
Major: Earle was the best and brightest among us but, when our attention turned from outer space to the wooded areas surrounding Twin Peaks,he became destructively obsessive.Possessive of his assignments,finally violent.He was removed from the project.I found this in the project archives.
Windom Earle voice in a Tape:
These...These evil sorcerers dugpas, they're called,they cultivate evil for the sake of evil, nothing else.They express themselves in darkness for darkness without leavening motive. Uh...Now, this...This ardent purity allows them to access a secret placewhere the cultivation of evil proceeds
in exponential fashion,and with it, the furtherance of evil's resulting power.This place of power is tangible,and as such, it can be found, entered and perhaps utilized in some fashion.The dugpas have many names for it,but chief among them, ahem, is the...Is the Black Lodge.You don't believe me, do you?You think I'm mad.Overworked.
Dale Cooper: Gentlemen, when Windom Earle arrived in Twin Peaks,I assumedhe had come for vengeance.For me.But I miscalculated.He has insinuated himself into the lives of people I care for.He has murdered innocents.He has engaged us in subterfuge and red herring.A fish I don't particularly care for.But all of these acts are merely camouflage.He's been after something else all along: the Black Lodge.
Note:
Dugpa, in Theosophical literature, is a term used generally as a synonym for a black magician or sorcerer, frequently referred to as "Brother of the Shadow."
Source: https://theosophy.wiki/en/Dugpa
The dugpas were a society of "evil sorcerers" who cultivated "evil for the sake of evil." They had access to a place of power to streamline this process, known predominantly as the Black Lodge.According to Russian author Helena P. Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, the dugpas were Tibetan Buddhist sect dedicated to cultivating the left-hand path, referring to the Drukpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.
Source: Here
The Drukpa or Drukpa Kagyu lineage, sometimes called Dugpa in older sources, is a branch of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.
Source: Here
The dugpas, according to the novel The Devil’s Guard, are master hypnotists who seek to take over the world. They can “possess” the bodies (and minds) of others and easily dominate those with “weak wills.” These kinds of people, the book states, “render themselves unable to resist the imposition of other wills on theirs.”
This explanation for the dugpas’ ability to possess others meshes perfectly with what happens in Twin Peaks. Leland Palmer was weak-willed and invited Bob inside him. What’s more, Laura Palmer would have been targeted as a dugpa-host because, as The Devil’s Guard explains, dugpas control others by using “the self-destroying acts of whomever they would conquer.” Dugpas will attempt to cultivate a person’s evil side. The book elaborates on this point in a footnote, explaining that “sudden criminal outbursts of otherwise apparently sane people” can be attributed to possession by dugpas. Here, we see that a crucial piece of the Twin Peaks mythology—the possession of human beings by evil spirits— finds its roots in The Devil’s Guard (and by extension, Theosophy).
Dugpas, the book reveals, are agents of a place called The Black Lodge. In Twin Peaks, Windom Earle also described dugpas as having access to the Black Lodge. In fact, the dialog describing dugpas in both show and novel match exactly: In The Devil’s Guard, dugpas are defined as “sorcerers who cultivate evil for the sake of evil!” Earle, seen on an old video recording, explains, “These, uh, these evil sorcerers, uh, dugpas, they’re called . . . they cultivate evil for the sake of evil, nothing else.”
Source: Here
Final Dossier About Windom Earle by Tamara Preston
As a young man, Windom Earle was, by any definition, a prodigiously talented individual. A chess grandmaster by fourteen, admitted to the University of Pennsylvania at sixteen, a graduate at eighteen, Earle obtained a master’s in criminal justice at Penn State and then applied to and was accepted by the Bureau as a trainee. (On his application, he cites having seen, at the age of ten, the popular 1951 film I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. as the pivotal inspiration for his law enforcement career.) After he completed training at Quantico with historically high marks, Earle’s first field assignment came in the mid-sixties, as a liaison and security officer between the Bureau and evolving elements of what had long been known as Project Blue Book, during which time we now know he crossed paths with Douglas Milford. He also was a Founding member of Blue Rose.
(…)
In the early 1980s, an investigation into a murder by a potential serial killer—which we now have strong reason to suspect was a series of killings committed by Earle himself—brought young agent Cooper to the Pittsburgh Bureau office for his first field assignment. (...) While the attack [ against Caroline] appeared to be a classic “crime of passion”— apparently his intention and, perhaps, what he hoped would become the foundation of his legal defense—Windom Earle didn’t count on the fact that Agent Cooper had by this time privately realized that Earle himself was the serial killer they had been chasing all along. Caroline, it seems, reached this same conclusion, also on her own, and confirmed it when she and Cooper finally examined the facts together. It’s now clear that when Earle took his wife’s life and nearly finished Cooper’s, he was acting to prevent their revealing his guilt to the Bureau.
​
b) An explanation to Josie Packard Death
“Coop, what happened to dead Josie?”
By a Reddit User Alewort
There was scene filmed for FWWM but not released that depicted (through a body double actress) Josie's body lying on the floor of the Red Room with her head under the curtain. This suggests that it is her head alone that is in the knob, that she tried to escape the Red Room under the curtain instead of an actual path and wound up stuck. It would then make sense that the missing weight is in the Black Lodge.
Here
Hawk said that “Every spirit must walk through Black Lodge in search of the perfection, but if you face the Black Lodge with an Imperfect Courage, it will annihilate your soul.” From [Season 2 Episode 11].

Hadım Şehabeddin Paşa 1453
I sit in the shadowed space between living and death and think of what I have done and my heart is half joyful and half filled with old griefs.
When I was but a functionary and had my little role at court, then there were glad times with colour, music, and light for all so blessed to live there.
Not all was warmth and beauty for I was one pulled from home, enslaved to the Great Turk's will, and there were nights of tears and pain and loss and keening.
But I, a little child enchained, broken spirit and gelded body, learned more than they knew; I was raised to high positions and found hints of privilege.
Then I was made a warrior and rode off to the fronts unafraid of what might be. I commanded many men, and vanquished many foes.
There was a sort of glory to be had in battle camps, and war spoils were mine— gold and goods to control and disperse at my will.
Of course, not all was glory; now and again easy victory slipped out from our grasp. Then, there was such shame; o, endless, chilling shame.
Then, the plum assignment! I was called to be a lala, to train a young prince up. Those were the sweet days, learning just as he from me!
Still, the darkness crept in. The good and precious lady, my princeling's own mother, faded so suddenly from life. O, what trials we are given!
Still and all, I have survived when others all fell down. I can claim age and wisdom as rightfully as any might, and my prince sits the throne.
Life is so strange a thing, twisted as a mountain path. I have carried on all along and the journey's ending is now within my sight.
Previous Poem Dragons, Lions, Doves — Book Three Next Poem

Me and my boyfried bought an apartment together 6 months ago and both of us are expats in a different country.We are together from 5 years but after the 3rd year he started to be less responsible,caring and attracted to me.He never bought me a present on his own will even for my birthday,i asked 1 time for a b-day card with a poem because he is really good with writing and i wanted a bit special and see what he can come up with, he gave me the card 3 months after my b-day because i had to "remind him every 3rd day" that he didnt get me a present or what i aksed for. When we finally gave me the b-day card it was written -Happy birthday,i wish your dreams come true i love you. Nothing special just the average wishes u get from ppl on facebook... We devided the house chores i cook he cleans the dishes,i do the laundry he trows the trash and so on...he stopped doing almost everything he was supposed to do and 1 day yelled at me that i have to prepare the trash for him and i stopped cooking and that im a bitch for it (i didnt cook 1 day because i was renovating the apartment which he doesnt really help ether) We have close to 0 intimacy. I gained 10kg since we r together,i have hormonal imbalance and its extremely difficult to lose the killos and im trying but he is not helping allot,he would buy chips or sweets and eat half of it in the bedroom and leave it on the cabinet infront of my eyes and expects i will not want it.I aksed him not to leave them where i can see them because i dont have a good control and its painfull that i have to restrictmyself from foods i love but he brushed me off.We had multiple conversations that he is not in a relationship with me more like a mother-son type of living,where i am expected to take care of him and cant expect even a flower from him.When he gets angry, he yells i love you and be happy im not cheating on you and that im not interested in other women and that i look 5/10 and its not his problem that i have insecurities...Couple of days ago we had a big fight about him not appreciating me and not doing anything for me to which he promised (like always) that he will change because he understands,so he is being closer and nicer for 2 days,he cleaned the apartment while i was in work and he had free,when i came back he went to the shop for his beer,came back and played till almost midnight (i bought him a VR to make because he really wanted 1)... I was really anoyed brcause he expected i would go to his feet and thank him for cleaning....I told him he is a narcissist and good for nothing and send him to sleep in his gaming room (which is the coldest room) and that i am done with him....I felt bad because its really cold night but i cant live like this anymore....AITAH???

These eyes have clouded my mind
I'm trying to improve my sight after years and years of wear and tear
Sometimes, it feels like this world is obsessed with being unkind
I give my all, but who cares?
By the way, in case you were unaware, this treatment isn't of any help to my "self-esteem"
That fuckin phrase feels like a fever dream
I find myself deep within sickening despair
Once again, holding onto fragments of mental health and self care
But why? When it'd be easier to clutch onto clumps of my own hair
I can't find the motivation
I can't believe this shadowy situation
I believed so much in you
Remember giggling when I'd help take out your clip-in extensions? I do.
I believed so much we'd always do whatever was necessary
But you know, feelings they vary
The one who gives less of themselves is in control, that's fuckin scary
You never truly gave yourself - Kept your truth buried
You were so hidden and I didn't detect it
Unfortunately, Honey, your dots are being connected
I'm not there anymore to ensure you're protected
Even now somehow that scares me for you so much
The one who cared so much wriggled free from your clutch
Again, I care too much
As I always do
I gave all of myself to you
Now he's dead and gone
To myself I still hold on
I'm never going to be gone
I pinky promised & stood by it all along
I told the truth
But, where are you?
Despite what you've done to me, to this day
I hope you're okay
Somehow, I do
-- This is a rewrite/edit of an older poem
Link 1
Link 2

Finally gotta to write my thoughts during like late February to early March. But maybe as time goes by, I forget some cuz I remember they were at least 12 chapters (Still be editing)
1
On the Fear of Death
Rabindranath Tagore
Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers
but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain
but for the heart to conquer it.
Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield
but to my own strength.
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved
but hope for the patience to win my freedom.
Grant me that I may not be a coward,
feeling your mercy in my success alone;
but let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure.
2 My parents are just very toxic, I'll make a complain of it and along with my hate to my homeland which I call it as land of Sodom. And actually my hatred towards Sodom ofc not just these words could describe, it would be books, endless
i) A small part of the conversation with a German dude who I mistook as a woman
And it was on Nov 18
Me Haha, when I was little I saw a high school chemistry textbook and was fascinated by the beautiful crystals (or more literally, whether they were ores or gems) and wanted to study chemistry, which wasn't guided by my father, as chemistry is not a lucrative profession in China. I then saw a romance novel in my middle and high school years where the hero and heroine were aiming at learning for being perfumers in the future, so I was still mesmerized by that and wanted to study chemistry again haha. To be honest, chemistry is not a good choice for girls in China, and I couldn't say I haven't regretted it, but I know that changing majors is not allowed in Germany either. So I had to stick with it.
Him You're such a hopeless romantic and his reminds me of the German novel das parfume which is like the most popular contemporary German novel
I have studied pharmacy which contains a lot of chemistry too in germany
And only studying what is lucrative is what ruins peoples lifes
Me I actually graduated in 2021, but on the one hand I can only earn 3000€ a year working here and can't save up to go to Europe (my parents wouldn't agree with that), and on the other hand I think too highly of myself and I don't like to talk about boring topics with shallow people, so I can't actually continue my job. Also, lack of a master's degree is getting harder and harder to get a job in China nowadays. Furthermore I have another thing I'm very afraid of, which is that I'm afraid my controlling parents will look back and see that I can't get into grad school nor can I find a job or even if I do find a job, force me to get married haha and I don't want to be with someone I look down on, I'm actually originally a radical feminist since December in 2021, and I've said before in my own family, "Whether it's black, white or yellow, males are all masters and I don't want any of them". (My mind and thoughts have been poisoned by romance novels and fanficton so I've restarted having good expectations to men again since May this year... I'm really losing sense and poisonous hahaha) If I don't have a degree and with I'm not beautiful enough, I'm just worthless in society and I won't be able to find any good ones. In short, I need to go to graduate school in China to save myself from a miserable life that I can see at a glance already.
And some words could be seen as footnotes I have mentioned to you before
Of course I want to leave, I wanted to leave in 2021. But after trying to work, I can only earn about 3,000 euros a year here, that's all I have right now, and I've calculated that my family doesn't even have more than 150,000 euros combined (because I'm a girl, my parents never tell me how much properties my family has, and are very disdainful of me for wanting to know that). Our wages here are even as low as 2 euros per hour with two days off a month, and I used to have a job with six days off a month. My parents wouldn't give me money to leave China either, they don't agree that I have feminist ideas in my brain. Also, I'm their only child and they say they're afraid I'll die abroad, yes, they think the West is full of dangers and believe every day that the view is unique, safe and beautiful here when one look at the world. All I can hope for is that I might be able to get into grad school, save up in the meantime, go to Europe to continue my education or just work, and then of course I want to live there forever.
Lazy to check, maybe there exist problem of grammar and usage 🤣
Hahaha told a lot of people I am radical feminist 🤣In my home country, feminists already be seen as crazy and rebellious, not to mention I am radical
[And there I attached a screenshot of my talk with my first Estonian friend and of course when share screenshots with others I often cut the avatar and username off:
Me I used to be a radical feminist, which means we radical feminist in Korea and China should do 6B4T
Then let me search the English definition https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/6B4T_movement#:~:text=In%20Korean%2Dlanguage%20abbreviation%2C%20%22,refers%20to%20rejecting%20strict%20beauty
Here's it
I used to cut off my hair like man, that's what we radical feminists there suggests, remove feminine symbol from us
Him
Youre brave
I really dont know what to say
Because im a man]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/6B4T_movement#:~:text=In%20Korean%2Dlanguage%20abbreviation%2C%20%22,refers%20to%20rejecting%20strict%20beauty
Him No it reads perfectly and if had to imagine myself in your situation I would have a similar outlook. Thank god women don't have this expectation here to get married asap and actually 23 is still considered early to start studying . I notice that in China people have to decide on their career path very early and there's not much room if you have a change of heart later on
Me You can't imagine my mother wants me to get married since I was around 18, and as girls here, as they grow up parents always taught them, must do something, or you would be scolded in in-laws' family
Him
I sense there's a lot of pressure on someone like you in your surroundings
Me My mother said, why don't you get married before study and work, start a family before building a career
Him That's just terrible. I can appreciate that you'd just want the freedom of "being your own man at your own pace" but I always had that freedom That sounds like the career of raising kids 🤔
Me She would also give me examples of people she knew around her who got married in high school and I said don't they know shame?My mom said there's no shame in getting married and having kids.Even though, my mother (she was born in '65) also got married at 32, which is considered quite late in China, especially in her era.
Him Well they can't really force you. You're not the person to let yourself be dragged Infront of the altar
Sounds like Europe 120 years ago
Me My cousin's twin babies are in bad health, then my father said, why she couldn't just quit her job, like all the people do in the past
Him Well the father could also quit his job of course
Me Also, my cousin's husband can't have children naturally, but in China, always check if it's wrong with women's bodies and blame women first, if women are all healthy, then could check the glorious men
Him Terrible , I heard about this on tv
Me So breathtaking, but average Chinese woman's life [And there I attached a screenshot of my talk with my first Estonian friend as well Him: Your life sounds like movie
Me Average Chinese woman's life
Him Now i feel guilty
Life here is luxury compared to China
Don't mean to make you jealous
Me Forget all the feminist ideas in my head and agree wholeheartedly with patriarchal and traditional culture of this land and then I would feel like many women find this life normal
No, your country and many European countries didn't do anything wrong
China always says that the countries of Europe got rich by plundering, but what have Finland, Iceland, Lithuania and many others done? Nothing.
Him: Vikings hahaha
China kind of reminds me of my parents said about days when we were with Soviet Union]
Shake my head
We all have strong heart here, or just get used to it or never felt wrong by the society's influence
Him Yeah takes a lot of courage to do your own thing but someone like you can't be happy without pursuing your own path Hey you could lead a feminist movement and piss them all off properly 👌
Me Then I will die Already exist many women here dead for this
Him: Considering the declining birthrate, istn there some change occuring already ?
Me: They promote three-children policy or actually no limits for number of children anymore, which results to women more difficult to get a job or study
Sister, I'm finally back from walking and bathing, I was worried about you worried about me got caught by authorities for saying treasonous words haha🤣
Haha, I have a wonder. Before locking the screen my screen stays on the page we are talking on, so do your messages have to be shown as read even if I don't read them?
https://insidechina.rti.org.tw/news/view/id/2072201
Here is a thing I heard of, you can read it with the help of chrome's Google translate
Him: I see, so women don't want to be birthing machines, so that policy is actually backfiring
Me: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism_in_China
Him: Are you joking or serious ? So dreadful that you can't criticise openly, but you are using VPN right ? That ought to be encrypted
I dunno I don't pay any attention to the read thing and you don't need to worry about replying fast just take your time
Me: I know about the movement of Feminist Five, in here I and some people know it as Feminist Sisters Five
No, without VPN we could still surf on this app, but even with VPN, it still without help
Him Interesting , so I guess such articles aren't usually published in China ? But on tw addresses ?
Me: Keep in mind, actually everything is under surveillance
Ah, I found it on Chrome
Him: Spooky. Do you cross the street when the lights are red ? Or is that bad for the social score ?
Me: We have radical feminists online groups, got hidden from Douban (Chinese's version of Tumblr)or actually by the authorit** Use the Internet, all is the same And I know actually the government and me use the same VPN So more dangerous But somehow actually all the same in some extent One use the Internet, you see, wifi, 4G or under who's eyes? Maybe VPS is a little more safe, but I don't know how to build it, and maybe still under watch I surf on western Internet since like 2019, Reddit since May,2022 But don't I dare say a word since this August
Him: But what's the point of China's great firewall when anyone can just circumvent like that ? Is it like a trap to catch ppl?
Me My first word is on Reddit/polandball, saying someone's work about Germany, so adorable
Not everyone
We like 1.4 billion here
No more than 0.1 billion know how to access to outside Internet
Him: Oh I see Or most people might just don't know any better ?
Me: And if stay quiet, safe or not safe, depends on the glorious' minds
Him: I see so you still gotta be careful what you write
Me: The govern-++！ment sometimes arrests people who say things that are treasonous, but it won't say the real reason, it'll say it's because someone viewed a pornographic website
Him: That's so ironic, some people here would go bonkers if pornograpghy would be restricted in any way haha
Me: So that's the reason I stay quiet until months ago I dare say some words
And I am even a little worried
For a translated some poems
One poem named The Taiwanese Bamboo Branch Song, though it was written by famous person in mainland dead in 1929
Him: But usually websites have build in Https end to end encryption and other apps as well
Me: Another poems by Taiwanese poet Luo Fu
And I called Luo Fu as Taiwanese poet
Him: I usually avoid the topic of Taiwan, I had a bad experience with someone talking about it
Me: So maybe you can see why I am very frightened
Him: Yes
Me: I am a person totally okay with Taiwan, I don't care about this awful home land at all, I think it's should be at Taiwan's wishes
self-determination and who's the group first came to the territory in history
Him: Yeah let the people decide. But it's not that easy, because nowadays elections often get influenced by outside propaganda campaigns. Trying to shift public opinion by spreading false information
Me: Haha you don't know how smart our internet security systems are
As I said, no secret if one use Internet, I think maybe it's the same all over the world
Very scared
But this "glorious" land do it the best
Him: I have some inclination, but some apps like the old telegram have strong encryptions. Or the dark net as a whole. But but apps like these
Me: I don't use telegrams, I don't trust them and Twitter
Him: I don't either, but it's possible depending on what you use
Me: Twitter has a reputation of cooperate with my home land
Him: Just purely on a technical standpoint
Me: And I don't want to use telegrams, if I stay quiet, I may be at peace
Him: For sure, musk doing business in china
Me: But what telegrams could bring me, I don't want to get involved with politics, movements I could just take care of myself Telegrams may put me in danger
Him: I mean he actual app telegram , th instant messenger Or the all signal
Me: Maybe there exist traitors or something with the au;+_+_thoriti**++es
Him: Those are used for encryption or in some countries as WhatsApp ornwechat replacement
Me: Then what's the name I wanna hear, but afraid to use G++u-&__-i Min"&-hai Maybe you knew this person already
Him The name of the app is just telegram. And with such a type of end to end encryption, it's impossible for outsiders to read. Unless your using a device, which has spyware on it.
Me: Then my phone must have spy software Even if I get an American iPhone
Him In your country ever phone has it
Me Cause we must use some apps here
Him That's the reason Huawei got banned in usa
Me WeChat Alipay lots of stuff
Him It's not just apps, but I deeply integrated on a hardware level
Me Yeah, I even prefer my privaty stolen by westerns I feel no worries about use Google or whatever
Him Yep Google and everyone else keep track of things too
Me But in China,Internet access is completely real-name, it's just that your online friends don't always know who you are, the government does And actually neitzens could find out who you are too I mentioned Human Flesh Search Engine before
Him It's the same here, but if I wanna be completely anonymous I just take a tablet to the public WiFi. Devices themselves aren't attached to names here, only isp accounts
Me Wow, sounds beyond my comprehension, indeed, I am such an uneducated person don't know what's this I will read it carefully 🤣
Him If you go into a cafe there is internet access over WiFi. So you don't have to use your own internet at home ISP means internet service provider Like VDSL or cable or something
Me 🧐😵‍💫
Him For example if you just go to the store and buy a tablet, you don't have to leave your name Or a laptop So you take his to a cafe or something and log in to the wifi No way of tracing back your name Of course if you post online, you shouldn't tell anyone your name haha
Me Hahaha thanks for your words though I am still confused but I will tell you
Him No problemo You can ask me anything
Me Before we use the app, we already hand in our identity information
We already give out our phone number, ID Card pictures even face pictures
Him What ? You mean for using hello talk ?
Me Or we couldn't use them and we couldn't choose not to use them because every app is same and we must use some apps
Hellotalk also hand in my phone number
Him That's unbelievable
Me And actually I felt use ti it
Him 🥺
Me Because it doesn't require more! But it has linked with my WeChat So still the same
Him Yeah but it's still coupled to your phone number
Me Like ID card, face verification
WeChat or Alipay, almost every one has to use for everything, and it already have our ID information
WeChat has the strongest surveillance
Him Because it's also used for payment ?
Me One can even unable send some pictures on it
Him Yeah like Winnie the Pooh pictures
Me So you don't need to provide your any information?
Him No I never did that and noone here would do it If you use paying apps you just enter credit card information
Me Going out, administration, everything in life
Him But people still prefere cash in stores And I don't wanna be forced to take my mobile phone with me when I go out
Me China always laugh at countries like Germany still use cashes. But I found so ridiculous
Him It's not backwards in my opinion. There should be ways for anonymous payments, that's so dystopic to leave your name with any transaction you do
Me Our people here say we trade privacy for convenience, but given the choice, I'd rather not have that convenience. I have deep worries about private security all the time So I seldom put my pictures, yes, not even my selfies online
Him For example if you wanna buy gold, I would do it cash. If the government is at war it could cease private investments . But only if they have the buyers name
Me I almost only put pictures on the western Internet I have searched for this a lot on Reddit or YouTube or chrome I even wrote down once haha
Him Very smart
Me But I have something weird actually, I don't want touch the money for bacteria 🤣
Him But not much use when your government uses cameras and face recognition to track your every step You're excused, my quirky sister 😉
Me Yes I know it, they knew how many phones cards you have Sorry cannot understand, need Google at once
Him That means I appreciate your apprehension . In my job many people have that feat Fear
Me Ohh How time flies, though today we only talk about heavy things haha
Him I like this, it's a lot of fun to talk with you But I'm a little scared to get you into trouble
Me Yes, so maybe I won't talk about it anymore
Him Still, so interesting to hear from a different perspective At least I have confirmation some stuff in TV is real
Me Do you heard of him?
Him Uh well I can't decipher that one , Google didn't help haha The Rona related guy ?
Me He is a "traitor", he turns into a Swedish, and have to be one of the person in Sodom again
The au*** force him to admit his crime on TV
So he became one of glorious land again
Him I didn't hear about this peticular person, but I heard about these secret foreign offices of Sodom to "get their lost children back"
Me But Sweden still admit him as one of the Swedish people I need to keep in mind I'm a traitor too
Him Hey don't say the quiet part out loud 😉
Me So I couldn't be as brave as him, I could only take care of myself at the most and at best
Hahaha
Him Yeah that person seems to have acted like a martyr indeed
Me Just only keep the letters, remove the punctuations
Him Oh I got it That confessions vid is like the first result on google
Me Hahaha, in China, we often chat with wrong words, short form or add a lot of punctuations
As you said this, my heart broke for him
Him Doesn't help at all with the ai technology of today
Me Though I never dare to watch, I know it in my mind
But if without these, we even couldn't send out some even normal (not rebellion) messages, posts, comments 🤣
Him I feel like I'm part of a spy novel , it's kind of exciting
Me Hahaha
Him Whisperwhispermumblemumble It even the average dim witted person can see that it's completely staged. Who believes that ?
Me Sigh They don't need anyone to believe maybe, they just threaten
Him Oh yes. Like Putin killing off any dissidents like prigoshin. As a warning While publically playing innocent But everyone knows what's up
Me So frightening for me, as a child, I always dream of Anarchy society or actually described by Zhuangzi https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuang_Zhou
Him I have this too sometimes. Like a natural disaster happing , like a comet hitting earth and everyone has to fend for them selves. Public order be damned
Me But when I grow up I found Anarchy may lead disorders Just enjoy the peaceful life described by him
Him Yeah there got to be some healthy middle ground , if that's possible
Me Here's the English translations I found https://www.harinam.com/tao-te-ching-verse-80-if-a-country-is-governed-wisely-its-inhabitants-will-be-content/ I truly enjoy it a lot since I was a kid https://www.taoistic.com/taoteching-laotzu/taoteching-80.htm
Different versions of translation haha
ii)
What I wrote on Dec 28-29
They mock me for wanting to go outside
Around December in 2021. my father said "why you want to go aboard to study. What are you going abroad for?Are you going to study until you're old (which means I should get married soon, yeah in China, weirdly before going to university, young people are not encouraged to being relationship if the parents or the locals want the young people to live more and more decent life and get higher degrees. But after going to university, they will maybe push children to being relationship soon, get married even have children soon even before the career started or the university years finnished)? Study through all your life?"
Meanwhile I said, "I want to go to Europe to study or work and then live forever"
But they always mock me for want to go to Europe, and sometimes they even don't remember, mistake Germany which I used to want to go as America 🤨😵‍💫
My parents are so toxic, my mother curse me to death just because I haven't taken the clothes home at 17:47 now. She threatened to slap me.
My mother haven't slapped me in my life, my father did. He hit me several times, especially these times. He slapped me in front of everyone in class (You may not believe that a girl who was my classmate in middle school and my schoolmate in high school, who strangely, provocatively said, "I remember your dad beating you up in middle school" when we were near the examination center for the Gaokao, to which I could only reply sarcastically, " You weren't even born when he beat me up.") when I did slower than other people on exams (but I wasn't bad at Chemistry, 55/60 on the Zhongkao https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhongkao (The Junior High School Scholastic Aptitude Examination), about 70/100 on the Gaokao https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaokao#:\~:text=The%20Nationwide%20Unified%20Examination%20for,in%20early%20June%20every%20year. (The Nationwide Unified Examination for Admissions to General Universities and Colleges), and Chemistry was my strongest subject after English (124/150 in Gaokao), and I only relied on they two to just barely make it to college, because I really didn't study much in high school, I just read romance novels every day by then). And then there was the time in middle school at home when he caught me copying answers instead of doing my homework relying on myself seriously, he domesticated me so hard he slapped me that made me lose my mind at the time. There were also one time I don't remember if it was in primary school or middle school, they two my parents whipped me with belts and forced me to kneel, and so that I told them at the time as a result I hated that I am not an orphan, I should better be. As I type these words, there are tears in my eyes. I probably have mental issues because of them. [I'm a woman maybe need therapy, but I'll honestly tell you, if I see therapy, it would be a big thing in China, hard to get a job like civil servant https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AC%E5%8B%99%E5%93%A1 or other decent jobs, important exams
Believe me, what I say is 100% true, cuz if see some Psychologist or psychotherapy that will be in record documents, and will be regarded as abnormal or person with mental disorder
There must be many people in China with mental health problems, but we can't even see the doctor, cuz if we do, we may even can't enter some good schools
since we born, our life is full of competition and fighting
And parents, spoil us or treat us whatever very toxicly, traditional Asian especially Chinese parents
Control us)
I'll honestly say one thing, many Chinese women or girls want parents better dead. Because not only were our parents toxic, but even if we were the only daughter, because of the deep-rooted patriarchy here, they despised us.
Yes if one day, I want to be a good person. But I am still actually afraid of men, even I somehow close to men, but I don't want a relationship, not only because I don't want to get laid with man (I mean I am afraid of being forced) but also like something I can't tell, just afraid, many men are awful, like my father, many Chinese men though I don't want relationship with them but we Chinese men and women here are like enemies, and some men (in this term, I'm not saying the men from the homeland) manipulated me or played with my feelings
I mean I don't want to get laid with man anyway. just afraid of being forced during relationship like rape. Maybe you can't imagine, I used to think and said these to some internet Chinese friends, "I think coitus is a disgusting thing, like bestiality, the subjugation or conquer of a man to a woman, and I feel a deep anger about it", (It's a hatred as if I was born with an anger towards coitus. This could be due to the astrology chart of the moment I was born holds Mars square Pluto. For this I had seen a quite astonishingly good but long text in 2017, and I translated it myself https://www.reddit.com/Mathilde_Soliloquy/comments/191mc51/mars_square_pluto/ with the help of DeepL translator.)
and then a man said then the man you have a relationship will find others outside, cuz man can't tolerate it
I argued with my parents just now
My father said "if you're keeping bubbling nonsense, I'll kick you out of house by my legs, and get off to outside better tomorrow". haha reminds me of this Chinese sister's words
My mother said if I keep the phone with me, she won't care about my business anymore, handle all my own living myself, cooking and all. That is, threaten me.
Noo just humiliate me, my father and mother said I am crazy or stimulated by something. Just like when I said I don't want a man, my parents, my relatives, people I met in China especially my neighbors in my childhood would teach me a lesson, saying are you hurt by men, then at that time I may say, why I must feel this way because hurt by man, I just hate the patriarchal society
But also exist the possibility if I don't act like obedient to them
They know full well I'm a giant baby, fragile, depent, and I'm weak now, have no ability except learning, can't live on my own at least by far, thus may think threat me like this will lead me to be obedient
Yeah as I said to that Chinese sister, if what happened to her (A Chinese girl said to me, "I've been through three love disasters. My heart is much stronger than yours. I've also been through being kicked out of my parents' house, at 9pm, crying all over the place by myself looking for a hotel, people on the street are busy with their own, my mom wants to drop me off at my hometown to my grandma, my dad mocked my mom back in case his mom would be dying from angers, there's no place for me in the home. I've been depressed, abandoned, and hurt by men. I'm sober and I don't have a relationship/romanticismic-brain, I've been hurt three times by men. Have you ever been strangled? I have, by an ex-ex-boyfriend, and I've been threatened with nude photos, and if I difmdn't take them, I'd be crazily scolded, and received cold violence."
I replied to her, "If it were me, I'd be so fragile that I'd just die." ) happens to me, I'll fragile to go to death
Crazily, my father broke into my room, lifted the covers, and said, "Hand over your phone," and then he actually went and grabbed it and smashed it on the floor, may even stomped on it with his foot. Then I argued, saying, "My primary school classmate have been playing with his phones all night since primary school, and anyone would keep their phones with them. I must have my phone with me even if I would get hit, is this some kind of electronic doorstop?" He said "These people you're talking about, what are they doing?They're all working" and I said "You can't do this even if I don't work, you two are too psycho (my mom says the one who is psycho and abnormal is me). I'm going to get a job because I can't take your control anymore." After then, I get from my bed and turn on the light to find my phone, then my father said "it's between the dishes (on the dinning table)"
I was wondering my phone can't work when he grabbed it away from me
I'm trembling now, shake my head for it
The coldness of weather, can't be able to compare the sorrow of mine, uuhhh
Uuhh let me mention a stuff, there are places like豫章书院https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B1%AB%E7%AB%A0%E4%B9%A6%E9%99%A2%E4%BF%AE%E8%BA%AB%E6%95%99%E8%82%B2%E4%B8%93%E4%BF%AE%E5%AD%A6%E6%A0%A1, Yuzhang Academy Self-cultivation Education School, that some places parents send disobedient children for "treatment", such as seclusion or electric shocks, extremely cruel physical punishment, in which the children sometimes have to report each other in order to survive there..., and some of them commit suicide
Though they may don't send me, I believe they must think of these things, Sometimes when they feel I am disobedient they said they'd send me to mental hospitals, though it may not be not out of their hearts but threats
Yeah it's no matter about the age, parents control children till to death. And I believe in places like that, must be many adults, no need to ensure
In this situation, I no longer have the heart to like men, I have to become independent and rely on myself for survival as soon as possible, and I realize how horrible my life is and that if I don't struggle to leave them, I wi surely be forced to go on blind dates and marry man I don't like and I despise
They've, at least my mother wanted me to get married as soon as possible since I was18, wait, even earlier or after entering the university, 17
Parents control children like this is a common thing in China, sigh*
It's not a civilized place anyway
On Dec 30, "Yeah today my father hit the door, by then I was afraid of being slapped or beat up He rapped on the door with his hand while crazily yelling at me So since childhood, when someone gets loud, my mind goes blank Yeah thanks God haven't beat me up recently Already so frightened by them, whenever simply their voices are loud, my frigh even turns to this degree"
When I was about 8, one day my mother picked me up from school by bicycle, and I wiggled my feet, and the ankle of my left foot touched the bicycle chain and was stirred in, at that time I saw blood and white bones but I didn't dare to say anything because I was so afraid of my mother, thanks to a stanger - a grandpa behind us who said that the child's foot was stirred into the bicycle, but my mother always said that there was no such old grandpa and that it was she who couldn't pedal the bicycle and found out that on her own. Then my foot had to be stitched up with a needle a dozen times. But I haven't cried over that, and I didn't shed a single tear when I was 4 when I ran while playing but fell on a large pile of glass, resulting in a scar on my left temple. Having said that I have quite a lot of trauma on my body, I was in a vehicle accident in 2010's or 2011's (damn I can't even remember though I have a good memory I think more likely 2010) January, that resulted in an intracranial fracture and bleeding in my right ear for a week (my parents used to tell me not to talk to people about this lest they think you have a problem with your brain). I'm really terrified of traffic because of this, even standing at a five-way or intersection I get vertigo and feel like I'm going to drown from all the vehicles speeding past me. So not to mention driving a car, I can't even drive and don't want to learn how to drive a battery-operated bike, and I even seem to have gotten a little scar on my leg from a fall I took on a battery-operated bike between summer and fall this year. I can ride a bike at the most, but I haven't ridden one in at least nine years I guess. And when I was around 11 I tripped over a brick because the power went out in the street and I couldn't see the road, and I broke three of my incisors in some degree, how can I put it, I don't have any good teeth, I think it may be due to food safety issues of my country.
iii)
When I was in high school, I guess when I was aroud 15, my father jokingly used a swear word he learned from one of neighbors on me, "当婊子还要牌坊 https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%89%8C%E5%9D%8A Be a prostitute yet still wants to build up a paifang [It is a building erected in feudal society to honour meritorious achievements, success in Imperial examination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination, benevolent gover, as well as loyalty and filial piety, and here it refers to the Paifang of Chastity.]". I am a person still haven't touched any man's hands by far and I didn't do anythinf wrong, then he used this kind of sentence to me. And he then asked me to accept his apology with two hundred RMB, which I had to accept because if I did not he might even get annoyed of shame and lose his temper even beat me up.
So sometimes when people like neighbors from my childhood, persuade me go to marriage (cuz at that time I didn't want), saying your father treat you so nice and you must can find someone like your father, ewwwwww, it's so disgusting, my father is so disgusting, beat me up, inslut me, I don't want man from my homeland at all
And my parents like my mother won't admit it, she said "I've been with your father so many years, he hasn't said any words like to me, how could it happen? That must be your imagination“
Tho I still have conscience in thinking they raised me up
iv) [Labor Law of the People's Republic of China
Chapter 4 Working Hours, Rests, and Leaves
Article 36 The State shall practise a working hour system wherein labourers shall work for no more than eight hours a day and no more than 44 hours a week on the average.
(Actually we work way more than this)
Article 38 The employer shall guarantee that its labourers have at least one day off a week.]
In my home province the minimum hourly wage is divided into four levels,21,20,19,18RMB (at this moment, 1 Euro = 7.77 Chinese Yuan, aka RMB),and in the current province I live it's 24,22,20. I used to have a temporary job in my town that was two days off a month,and my parents said why you can't do it as someone else is doing it,and I remember the hours of that job started at about 7:30am, besides, there was a man in that job who purposely tried to put a hot stamp drop on my legs.
So getting a job in China with two days off on the weekend is kind of considered a luxury, and one of my previous jobs had six days off a month.
And now I don't lay my eyes on jobs without two days off on the weekend.
v) https://weibo.com/1648736703/4955740219901047 Classic manly "let me test you". If it were me, even if I did have to speak German, I'd be practicing to be fluent before I'd have the nerve to say it in public, let alone record a video of it, and this man even sells English lessons. As some people said in the comments section, " There are so many women in China whose talent does not match their position, and even if they are very talented, they can only make a living at the grassroots level, and this phenomenon is rare in men, on the contrary, most of them do not have the talent to match their position. Women in this country have too few opportunities for advancement."

^{A lifetime of grief}
I watched it on the news, The reporter spit out his name, The taste of a killer, Spread around like a flame,
He was labeled A drunk driver A reckless soul "Dead on the scene" Crashed Shattered glass He lost control "Dead on the scene" A young girl and he' He won't carry the weight Of his deathly mistake "Dead on the scene" But I'm forever haunted by the lives he did take
I try to forget But guilt lingers on 'I am to blame' Indelible regret 'I am to blame' Cause I left him that night 'I am to blame' The shadow is on his name But I am to blame If only I had stayed, If only I had known, Could I have saved them both, Or just an innocent girl alone?
Please feel free to give any feedback or criticism, I would appreciate any suggestions to better my lyric.
Links to poems: PTSD Nothing Feels Right

Newest:
Maz, VXSION - Amana.aif 4A - Angus & Julia Stone Big Jet Plane (Raphael Palacci Remix) (Extended Mix).wav Badbwoy - Better Off Alone (Extended Mix) .wav Fatima Yamaha - What's A Girl To Do (Chambord Remix).wav Marco Generani - Madan (MASTER).wav Super Flu - Belief.wav Tres Mortimer - Secrets (UNRELEASED).wav The Color Violet - ikerfoxx (Unreleased).mp3 Sky&Sand - Gabben&JuliusRuth (Extended Outro).wav Moon J - Collateral Damage.mp3 Maya Andrade - Terra da Saudade (Tato Remix) .wav Keinemusik ID Zamna2023.m4a Ocean Drive - Ikerfoxx (ES) Remix UNRELEASED MASTERED.wav A XITRUS EXTENDED &ME.aif Anja x Samm - Secundo.wav Moojo, Demaya - Hot N Fun.wav TYLA - WATER ft Travis Scott (MOOJO Remix).wav Victor Alc - Sudamérica.wav Pretty Output x DJ Snake - Skogen x Lean On (Edit Southcent) .wav Bodrum Another Brick In The Wall (Barco Edit).wav Francisco Garcia - Not Enough.mp3 Route 94, Jess Glynne - My Love (Alex Wann Rework).wav Sweet Disposition (VXSION RMX) - 3.1.wav Rockin Moroccin - Oldschool, Baby (Playa Edit) V2 - MSTRD 1644.wav Moojo - Rain (Instrumental).flac Little Things (Peace Control Remix) - Jorja Smith .wav Salalina - Keinemusik _wav Zhu - Faded (Alex Wann Remix) [Final Version].wav PEATY - Bamako (Afro Melodic Mix) UNRELEASED.wav Chris IDH - 7nation [Master].wav Where Are Ü Now (&friends remix).wav Walking on a Dream (VXSION Edit).wav Peperuke (Original Mix).wav ENZO - SMOOTH OPERATOR.mp3 ! Abandoned - JOSEPH X A.M.R.wav Back To Black -(Botis Remix).wav Kill Them With Colour - Otra Vez (HUS MASTER v2).wav Mas Que Nada (Ahmed Spins Edit).aif Drake - Virginia Beach (From96 Remix).mp3 Nterini - Kylian Remix Praise Jah in The Moonlight - Kuya Kai Lovely - Ikerfoxx Remix
FUll List:
Maz, VXSION - Amana.aif Fatima Yamaha - What's A Girl To Do (Chambord Remix).wav 4A - Angus & Julia Stone Big Jet Plane (Raphael Palacci Remix) (Extended Mix).wav Badbwoy - Better Off Alone (Extended Mix) .wav Drake - A Keeper (guapo remix).wav 01 - Desireless - Voyage, voyage (Mont Rouge Remix).wav Seal- Crazy (Urmet K UnOfficial Edit) MST.wav Maz - Emoriô V1 2444.wav Marco Generani - Madan (MASTER).wav Marten Lou - My Love For You (Yebba's Heartbreak).aif tripolism-soultrain.wav Rampa, Keinemusik - Cezar Nmina.wav Naomi Sharon - Daughter Of The Sun (Ankhoi Remix).wav Super Flu - Belief.wav Tres Mortimer - Secrets (UNRELEASED).wav The Color Violet - ikerfoxx (Unreleased).mp3 Sky&Sand - Gabben&JuliusRuth (Extended Outro).wav Marten Lou - Radiohead 4.0.wav Babyboy AV - Confession (ALX YAV Remix).wav Nelly Furtado - Say It Right (Adan Twins Remix - Upscale v2) wav MINHA PRECE v3-3 pre mix_mastr.mp3 Moon J - Collateral Damage.mp3 Maya Andrade - Terra da Saudade (Tato Remix) .wav Keinemusik ID Zamna2023.m4a Ocean Drive - Ikerfoxx (ES) Remix UNRELEASED MASTERED.wav A XITRUS EXTENDED &ME.aif Anja x Samm - Secundo.wav Moojo, Demaya - Hot N Fun.wav TYLA - WATER ft Travis Scott (MOOJO Remix).wav Victor Alc - Sudamérica.wav PADE - JeJe (New Master).mp3 Drake - A Keeper (Chaleee & Sammi Ferrer Remix) M.wav Moojo, Caiiro - NGWINO.wav.wav Coco, Joezi, Pape Diouf - 7 Seconds (Moojo Remix).wav.wav Ina - Bun Xapa.wav.wav Francisco Garcia - Not Enough.mp3 Route 94, Jess Glynne - My Love (Alex Wann Rework).wav Bun Xapa - Yeke Yeke wav 01 Kamili X Yababa (Extended Mashup).wav Freed From Desire (Choujaa-Sasson Remix).mp3 Moojo - Giant.mp3 Ocean Drive (Ikerfoxx ES Remix).mp3 Peru Lino Lindner edit afro 3.0.mp3 Pretty Output x DJ Snake - Skogen x Lean On (Edit Southcent) .wav Bodrum Another Brick In The Wall (Barco Edit).wav DJ Merlon - BroCode (Original Mix) VVV.wav Seva In The Deep (Darmon Edit) .wav Uncle Waffles - Tanzania (Rampa Remix) - 2A - 122 (1).mp3 Sweet Disposition (VXSION RMX) - 3.1.wav Uncle Waffles - Tanzania (Rampa Remix) - 2A - 122.mp3 230605_Smooth Operator (Jamek Ortega Edit).wav Silvio Luz - Ephomnia Saralina Darmon Edit wav EDE-Do_My_Thing (Dixon Rework).mp3 Kashovski & Abel Ray - Alright.wav.wav Jovem Dionisio - Pontos de Exclamação (VXSION Remix V3).wav Naomi Sharon - Another Life (DSF Remix).wav Pippi Ciez - Sinnerman (Original Mix V1A).wav Chris IDH, Adam Port & Adassiya - By Myself.wav Rockin Moroccin - Oldschool, Baby (Playa Edit) V2 - MSTRD 1644.wav Another Life (PADE's 401 Remix MasterV4).mp3 SAWA - Keinemusik ID edit.mp3 Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know (Sante Sansone Edit).mp3 Feid - Classy 101 (Maz, VXSION Edit).mp3 Francis Mercier, Clyde P - Ya Rayah (Mastered) wav Little Things (Peace Control Remix) - Jorja Smith .wav Chris IDH - 7nation [Master].wav Where Are Ü Now (&friends remix).wav 10A - 120 - Mayra Andrade - Afeto (Ankhoi Remix).mp3 Amr Diab - Wala Ala Bo (Alan Dixon & Misty Remix) V2.mp3 DALIDA - SALAMA (Mont Rouge RMX) .wav Zhu - Faded (Alex Wann Remix) [Final Version].wav PEATY - Bamako (Afro Melodic Mix) UNRELEASED.wav Peperuke (Original Mix).wav Jaguar Jaguar - Born In Blue (Chambord Remix) V2.wav Salalina - Keinemusik _wav Vertigo (Carlita Remix) - ANOTR, Abel Balder.wav Rihanna - Take Care (Moojo Nissa La Bella Edit).wav ANY LONGER LEAK.mp3 Slow Down (VXSION).wav Walking on a Dream (VXSION Edit).wav Parcels- Overnight (Andhim Remix).wav 4A - Adam Ten - Magic Circus.flac Mas Que Nada (Ahmed Spins Edit).aif Sade - By Your Side (Samm Edit) .mp3 Day N Night .aiff Wakyin - Fruta Fresca .mp3 Rüfüs Du Sol - New Sky (Colyn) (Unreleased).mp3 Gypsy Woman (Rampa Edit).mp3 Quiribi (Yamil Remix) - Rosalinda de la Espada.wav Les Deux Guitares (Parallells).wav Abdel Kader (RMX).wav Moojo - Rain (Instrumental).flac ! Abandoned - JOSEPH X A.M.R.wav Gala - Freed From Desire (Choujaa Remix).flac Unkle - Only you (&ME remix).mp3 Future - WAIT FOR U (Mont Rouge Remix).wav Back To Black -(Botis Remix).wav Keinemusik_DixonArabic_Piano-_Two_Lost_Kings Bas.mp3 Damian Marley - Wecome To Jamrock(Seeing Double Edit) .wav Back to life - (PINTO. Edit).wav Hallelujah Anyway (MRET Remix).wav ! Peace Control - Peru.wav Kill Them With Colour - Otra Vez (HUS MASTER v2).wav You & Me (Rivo remix) .mp3 mas que nada x ubuntu (DARREN Edit) wav.wav Keinemusik Promo Austin Hal.wav Miyefa - Shimon (Fr), Sahalé, Samarana, Farry.mp3 Badbwoy - The Light (Extended Mix).wav Miracle - Sean & Dee Re-Edit.wav FOURTEEN97 - FUNKY FEELIN' [MASTER] .wav Two Lost Kings (Unreleased).mp3 DAYSWI_1.mp3 Lezar Nmina Darmon calu.way Out Of My Head - &Me (AXEL Edit).wav Kendrick Lamar Jay Rock - Money Trees (Duke & Jones Remix).mp3 Iderian girl bo riNAL.wav Nour el ein Remix FINAL.wav Be My Lover - Lazare Edit.wav SOMMA - Que Pasa (They Dont Know) (DARREN & Nicolas Merheb Edit).mp3 Drake - Virginia Beach (From96 Remix).mp3 ASWR014 Hannes Bieger Poem For The Planet (feat. Ursula Rucker).mp3 Joy (Original Mix) - Romsta, 8 Miracle.mp3 The Future (feat. Robert Owens) - Damian Lazarus.mp3 Nelly Furtado - Say It Right (Anël & Matt Anderson Remix) wav Empire Of The Sun - We Are The People (imad Remix).wav Route 94 ft. Jess Glynne - My Love (Alex Wann Remix) [Unreleased] (256 kbps).mp3 Marten Lou - My Love For You (Yebba's Heartbreak) (256 kbps).mp3 Floating on Silence - Tour-Maubourg.mp3 Way Of Love - Soubeiran, Idd Aziz, Simone Vitullo, Idd Aziz Kunya, Soubeiran and Maesic.mp3 Discover [DL005] - Manuel Sahagun.mp3 ENZO - SMOOTH OPERATOR.mp3 Nothing On Me, Baby (Mont Rouge & Moojo Edit) - Tabia, Maz (BR), MAXI MERAKI, APACHE (FR).mp3 Say it Right (Rocco Tetro Osama Rework) - Nelly Furtado.mp3 Gwen McCrae - Keep The Fire Burning (Mogier Edit) [HZRXI.way

What was life like in the decades before this point? Did the average person have much to fear from the VOC/Dutch, or were their actions more directed toward political entities?

- this question once asked on AskHistorians got a very long and detailed answer by a user, whose account sadly doesnt exist anymore. So in a way, we are paying tribute to their brilliant response! Since the answer consists of several, very detailed and elaborate comments, this post will be split in two parts!
Now lets start enjoying the answer:
The VOC had no activities and no impact anywhere at all at the end of the 15th or even 16th centuries, mainly because it didn't exist until 1602. But I get the gist of your question, so here goes: the turbulent relationship between the VOC and Gowa/Makassar, the empire ruling all South Sulawesi, up to 1656, and its effect on everyday life. The VOC had no relations with any other S. Sulawesi state until 1660, so I will discuss only Gowa.
Oh, and a nice Dutch poem to start us off:

Gentlemen, there follows now something of the malevolent Makassar,
In the island of Sulawesi; in the entire East Indies there was
No more villainous race than this, rascally, perjured, malign,
murderous, malignant, savage, perfidious.
[...]
In short, they were scoundrels
spawned by Lucifer, the most desperate ruffians...

But war and hatred were not the only facets of the VOC-Gowa relationship.

South Sulawesi and the Arrival of the Dutch

In 1607, the representatives of the five-year-old Dutch East India Company (VOC) received an invitation from the king of Gowa, the dominant state of South Sulawesi, to trade in his country. Little did either sides understand the transformative century of immense change that both Europe and South Sulawesi had just undergone.
In the first decade of the 16th century the peninsula of South Sulawesi was fragmented into a number of small complex chiefdoms, of which the most prominent included Gowa, Bone, Wajoq, and Luwuq.1 This geopolitical situation would begin to shift in the early 16th century, when Gowa emerged as the peninsula's first state. It began with Tumapaqrisiq Kallonna (r. c. 1511-1546) of Gowa, who subjugated his immediate neighbors, created the first bureaucratic posts, and generally set the stage for expansion across the entire peninsula. This rapid expansion was accomplished by his son Tunipalangga (r. c. 1545-1565), who conquered the entire peninsula save Gowa's archrival Bone, vastly expanded the bureaucracy, and - perhaps most importantly - oversaw the establishment of the first permanent Malay community in Gowa's port capital of Makassar.2
With the establishment of the Malays3 - by far the most important merchant diaspora in 16th-century Southeast Asia - in Makassar, trade expanded greatly. Tunipalangga had conquered the main competitors of Makassar in his great conquests and allowed Makassar to emerge as the natural entrepot for produces from across eastern Indonesia, especially the fine spices from Maluku. Gowa's expanding empire itself provided a source of commercial wealth, for instance by selling tribute from its newly acquired vassals.4
By 1600, after a brief interlude in the early 1690s when a tyrant discouraged trade, Makassar had emerged as the preeminent commercial center of all of eastern Indonesia. Just one year after the VOC was founded, the Dutch reported that their Portuguese enemies were annually sailing from Melaka, their base of power in Southeast Asia, to Makassar to load their ships with spices. In 1605 Malay merchants may have suggested the tumabicara-butta (chancelloprime minister) of Gowa to convert to Islam, who was soon followed by the young king himself. But Muslim or not, Gowa-Talloq5 (see note 5 for why I'm calling it Gowa-Talloq now) committed itself to a general policy of free trade, at least in the port of Makassar itself.
The Dutch, of course, wanted to join the game. After an invitation from the king of Gowa the Dutch arrived, hoping to convince Gowa-Talloq to surrender its support for Portuguese Melaka... and were very disappointed to learn that the king believed that

My country stands open to all nations, and what I have is for you people [the Dutch] as well as for the Portuguese.

The VOC sought to establish monopolies on key Southeast Asian produces, especially the fine spices of clove, nutmeg, and mace. They could then control prices and raise artificial profits. The continual of Makassar's trade of spices made such a monopoly impossible. Furthermore, Makassar was providing safe haven for enemies and competitors of the Dutch, such as the English (who established a factory in 1613) and the Spaniards (whose agent first arrived in 1615). Already, by 1614, a Dutch commissioner was recommending that the Company attack Makassar shipping in Maluku, the Spice Islands.
In 1615 the Dutch informed Gowa-Talloq that there was now a Dutch monopoly in Maluku and that Makassar ships should refrain from heading there. The king of Gowa's response was simple:

God made the land and the sea; the land he divided among men and the sea he gave in common. It has never been heard that anyone should be forbidden to sail the seas. If you seek to do that, you will take the bread from the mouths of the people. I am a poor King.6

As for daily life, not much would have changed - just a new group of merchants on the scene, just like the Malays had arrived in the late 1400s and the Portuguese in the early 1500s. The Dutch had not yet established a definitive monopoly on any of the fine spices and hadn't even acquired Batavia.

The First War

War began a few months later, when the VOC factor Abraham Sterck got frustrated about the king of Gowa not paying some debts. Claiming the government in Makassar had failed to protect him from the insults of the Spaniards (with whom the Dutch were still at war), Sterck left abruptly with a number of Gowa-Talloq nobles. The nobles resisted and seven were killed, including a nephew of Gowa's king. The harbormaster of Makassar and another royal relative was taken as prisoner of the Dutch. This incident infuriated Gowa-Talloq and almost resulted in the ousting of the English as well, since the English factor had for some reason left with the Dutch. The English managed to stay, but the Dutch did not.
And... I hate to end on a cliffhanger, but I'm not even half done, but I've hit 9988 characters and it's 22:52 here. I'll finish tomorrow, promise.
1 Map of the current regencies of South Sulawesi, many of which retain the old kingdoms' borders. Note that these are in Indonesian; Luwu here is Luwuq, Wajo is Wajoq, etc.
There is an emerging consensus that there were no genuine states in South Sulawesi in 1500, insofar as it matters to distinguish an archaic state from a complex chiefdom. This is best presented in Tale of Two Kingdoms: The Historical Archaeology of Gowa and Tallok, archaeologist David Bulbeck's thesis, which most archaeologists cite. But on chiefdom vs state in South Sulawesi, also see The Lands West of the Lakes: A History of the Ajattappareng Kingdoms of South Sulawesi, 1200 to 1600 CE by Stephen C. Druce and Land of Iron: The historical archaeology of Luwu and the Cenrana valley by Bulbeck and Ian Caldwell, both by archaeologists.
2 On 16th-century Gowa, a lot of sources. If you want the pure, undistilled facts, I refer you to William Cumming's 2007 translation A Chain of Kings: The Makassarese Chronicles of Gowa and Talloq. But check the notes, because Cumming's translation often differs from other historians'. The simplest narrative secondary source, if a bit dated on the archaeological aspect, is the first chapter of Leonard Andaya's The Heritage of Arung Palakka: A History of South Sulawesi in the Seventeenth Century. A lot of articles mention the 16th-century as well, but few exclusively so.
3 Itself a catch-all term for merchants from the Western Archipelago generally. Anakoda Borang, the first leader of the community that would later be known as the Makassar Malays, said that anyone who wears a sarong - from a Cham in central Vietnam to a Minangkabau from southwestern Sumatra - is Malay. See Heather Sutherland's chapter "The Makassar Malays" in Contesting Malayness: Malay Identity Across Boundaries. Also note that in Makassar usage, the word 'Java' (jawa) just means anyone who comes from the Central or Western Archipelago, including Malays. So the Makassar didn't really differentiate different groups of foreign Southeast Asians in language.
4 For the rise of Makassar and its trading networks in the late 1500s, there is good information in Leonard Andaya's chapters "Applying the Seas Perspective to Indonesia" in Early Modern Southeast Asia, 1350-1800 and "Eastern Indonesia: A Study of the Intersection of Global, Regional, and Local Networks in the 'Extended' Indian Ocean" in Reinterpreting Indian Ocean Worlds: Essays in Honour of Kirti N. Chaudhuri.
5 Talloq was a small maritime kingdom that was founded during a succession dispute in Gowa around 1500. It was conquered by Tumapaqrisiq Kallonna and brought into Gowa's fold. But when King Tunipasuluq, who apparently did so many horrible things that the Gowa Chronicle applies damnatio memoriae on him and refuses to mention what he actually did, was kicked out, it was Karaeng Matoaya - king of Talloq - who was at the head. As tumabicara-butta and regent for the new boy king of Gowa, Karaeng Matoaya became the most influential man in South Sulawesi. Archaeologist David Bulbeck's research shows that during the reign of Kng. Matoaya, Matoaya's kingdom Talloq was actually considered more powerful than Gowa, at least as far as we can infer from dynastic marriage trends. During Matoaya's reign Talloq also controlled the port of Makassar. See Bulbeck's chapter "The Politics of Marriage and the Marriage of Polities in Gowa, South Sulawesi, During the 16th and 17th Centuries" in Origins, Ancestry and Alliance: Explorations in Austronesian Ethnography. So I refer to the kingdom as Gowa-Talloq to better reflect this change in the latter's status.
6 Primarily from Anthony Reid's narrative account "A Greet Seventeenth Century Indonesian Family: Matoaya and Pattingalloang of Makasar," one of few English-language narrative sources on the relations between the VOC and Gowa-Talloq.

The First War (cont.)

Sterck's murder and kidnapping of high-ranking Gowa-Talloq nobles did not go forgiven. The English East India Company's archives has this intriguing letter from the English factor in Makassar (letter from George Cokayne to John Jourdain at Banten, August 17 1615):

The king [probably Tumamenang ri Gaukanna, king of Gowa, often referred to by his Arabic name Sultan Ala'uddin] is much grieved in mind and maketh much preparation for war; all the whole land is making of bricks for two castles this summer to be finished; in the armoury is laid ten thousand lances, ten thousand cresses [kris, type of sword] with bucklers to them, spaces [javelins or darts] as many, pieces 2,422; 800 quoyanes [app. 2 tons] of rice for store; all this is to entertain the Flemings [people from Flanders, e.g. the Dutch], for he will not be persuaded but that they will come to offer him some disgrace this next monsoon. [...] Here is news of a Dutch ship that will be here within this six days. The King says that at her arrival here he will send them their house and pagarr [from Malay pagar, 'factory'] upon rafts to them, but not a man to come on land. He will do them all the good he can, but the commonalty will not be pacified but would willingly have them to come on land and put them all to the sword. [...] Yesterday in my sight the King, to see his force and how many men he could make, at an instant were mustered 36,000 men; all these in the kingdom of Macassar [Gowa-Talloq], which will be called together in 24 hours, besides the island [sic, probably mistake for 'inland'] countries as Bugies, Mandar and Tollova.

In other words, the king would still barely tolerate the presence of Dutch ships, but they would be banned from landing. In any case the Dutch presence was not restored. As Cokayne reports, fortresses were built, weapons were readied, and tens of thousands of troops were gathered.
Thus began the first and longest war between Gowa-Talloq and the VOC, but it was an inconsistent war. There was no single campaign, really, like during the Makassar War of the 1660s. The VOC could not afford such a campaign because it was still beset by enemies east and west and its authority in Indonesia was still quite weak outside of Maluku. Instead there were irregular skirmishes as the VOC sought to enforce its proclaimed monopolies on spices.
One of the most important events in the history of the VOC in Indonesia was the genocide of the Bandanese. The Banda Islands, inhabited by 15,000 people in 1620, were the only habitat of Myristica fragrans, the plant that yields the valuable spices nutmeg and mace. Besides trading in nutmeg and mace, Bandanese ships also carried cloves from further north to western markets. This made the Bandanese "the principal local carriers of spices." But the Banda Islands were ruled not by a king, but by an almost 'republican' oligarchy headed by the 'rich men' (orang kaya). The VOC found it difficult to keep a monopoly in Myristica because of this decentralization - the Company would need to defeat the orang kaya individually, and in any case their power was limited. Ultimately, in 1621, the Dutch launched a massive invasion, killed all the orang kaya and the vast majority of the Bandanese, and enslaved hundreds of the survivors. By 1681 the Bandanese population had fallen by more than 99%, and by the next century they were extinct in their homeland.7
However, about a thousand Bandanese - some 7% of the population - managed to escape. In 1624 many settled under the protection of Gowa-Talloq. The Bandanese, well-acquainted with the spice-producing islands, resumed their commercial activities allowed Makassar to become the new focal point of the indigenous spice trade. They were aided in this by the great local hostility for the VOC, which in its ruthless pursuit for profit had ruined the livelihoods of many, to the point that some people from the spice-producing region of Hitu would sell their nutmeg eight times cheaper to traders from Makassar than to the Dutch. Another advantage for Makassar-based merchants was, paradoxically, usually one of the greatest assets of the East India Company; the VOC, as a highly bureaucratic entity, wanted to make locals trade only in specific centers held by the Dutch, while Makassar traders were willing to sail directly to the scattered villages of the spice-producing islands.
While the VOC's monopolies and genocides inadvertently greatly aided Makassar's commercial fortunes, Gowa-Talloq was also bolstered by other internal and external factors (for the former, the rule of Karaeng Matoaya, a highly competent tumabicara-butta or chancellor; for the latter, the campaigns of Sultan Agung in Java which ravaged Javanese ports and redirected their trade to Makassar). By the late 1620s traders from Makassar had grown so much in influence that the VOC's spice monopoly was greatly undermined. In December 1632 alone, 37 tons of cloves were sold from Makassar to England in open defiance of the Dutch.
Indonesian merchants based in Makassar - at this point primarily Makassar Malays and Bandanese - pioneered new routes to avoid the Dutch fleets and posts. The main center of Dutch authority in North Maluku was the island of Ternate, off the western coast of the main Malukan island of Halmahera. Traditionally, ships would sail directly eastwards from South Sulawesi, which lies west of Maluku, to North Maluku. But now there were often Dutch fleets off the western coast, so merchant fleets would sail in an extremely roundabout way around Halmahera, arriving at Halmahera's western coast from the east. And when the Dutch chased the 'smugglers,' as they called all merchants based in Makassar, they were often befuddled by their enemies' small ships; they would go up a creek or hide in a narrow strait between two islets, and the Dutch would find it very difficult to pursue the enemy. And even if the Dutch did destroy ships from Makassar, annually there were 150 to 200 ships that sailed east from South Sulawesi; with the limited resources of the VOC, these were far too many ships to deal with entirely. The sultan of Ternate's recruitment of Malukan canoes to help his ally the VOC maintain its monopoly was also not very successful. So, says historian of Indonesian trade Leonard Andaya, "the Makassarese were therefore able to fill their limited cargo space with desired products from the east with only occasional interference from the Dutch."8
The VOC grew increasingly frustrated. This is what the Royal Diaries of Gowa report for the years 1634-1635 (William Cumming's 2010 translation, published under the title The Makassar Annals):

February 13, 1634: Dutch ships arrived, twelve in number including the small ones.

By February 1634 the Dutch had chosen to blockade the port of Makassar. It was the first time in history that the great city had been attacked, and must certainly have caused consternation among the ruling elite.

February 19: The [Dutch] ships that neared Paqnakukkang [major fort in Makassar city] were fired upon
March 9: A manuscript arrived from Buton [one of the vassals of Gowa-Talloq] commemorating their oath [of loyalty] at Bau-Bau
May 23: People worked on an earthen wall from Ujung Pandang to Somba Opu [these are two of the greatest forts in Makassar city]
May 28: Lae-Lae destroyed
July 17: The karaeng [king, here Sultan Ala'uddin] went up to Popoq to take the burned galley
July 29: [Ala'uddin] went over to Paqnakukkang to dwell as its stonework was rebuilt
August 9: Ujung Pandang first fortified with stone
November 15: Banner ritually blooded (naniceraq batea) at Ujung Pandang

Throughout the year of 1634 we have a frenzy of military activity. The Dutch are destroying settlements near Makassar and even attacking stone castles defended with cannons like Paqnakukkang; correspondingly, the fortifications of the port of Makassar are being strengthened. The loyalty of Gowa-Talloq's vassals, including Buton (the most rebellious of Makassar's vassals), is reaffirmed. The royal banners are smeared with buffalo blood as part of a pre-Islamic ceremony performed before major wars to imbue special power to the banner (blood was a sacred liquid, and by applying it to royal banners the peoples of South Sulawesi invoked their ancestors to help them in battle).9 The government in Makassar must have been seriously concerned, faced with a strong attack from a foe of similar power for the first time since several decades.
The war continued in 1635, as I will recount in Part III.
7 For Banda and its history, see R. F. Ellen's On the Edge of the Banda Zone: Past and Present in the Social Organization of a Moluccan Trading Network
8 For Makassar's economy in the early 17th century I relied especially on the following, but also check out articles by Heather Sutherland:

• John Villier's "One of the Especiallest Flowers in our Garden : The English Factory at Makassar, 1613-1667" and "Makassar : The Rise and Fall of an East Indonesian Maritime Trading State : 1512-1669"
• Leonard Andaya's "Eastern Indonesia: A Study of the Intersection of Global, Regional and Local Networks in the 'Extended' Indian Ocean in Reinterpreting Indian Ocean Worlds and "Local Trade Networks in Maluku in the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries"
• Anthony Reid's "A Greet Seventeenth Century Indonesian Family: Matoaya and Pattingalloang of Makasar" and "Pluralism and Progress in Seventeenth-century Makassar"

9 See Leonard Andaya's "Nature of war and peace among the Bugis–Makassar people" for an extended treatise on tactics, weapons, and ideology in warfare in South Sulawesi.

The First War (cont. cont.)

So, yeah, the war continued in 1635. To follow the narrative presented in the Gowa royal diaries again:

January 6: Karaeng ri Suli [a tumailalang, or Minister of the Interior, of Gowa] entered Darombo because it is said that Luwuq [traditional ally of Gowa] is hostile
April 30: Stonework at Barombong [on the southern end of the lines of fortification around Makassar] strengthened; the number of people [defending] Somba Opu total 855
June 13: The Dutch fired up at Galesong [a coastal quarter of Makassar city]
June 23: The people at Somba Opu laid stones at the gate
August 25: The people of Bone [vassal of Gowa] ask permission to strengthen Pallatte

Into 1635, Gowa-Talloq sought to ensure the loyalty of its allies and vassals such as Luwuq. It continued to strengthen its fortifications, even as the Dutch bombarded areas of the coastline. The final entry, about Bone wanting to fortify Pallatte, is also intriguing. Pallatte is on the eastern coast of Sulawesi's South Peninsula, on the opposite side as Makassar. So it is possible that the Dutch were not only attacking Makassar, but also its vassals in other areas in South Sulawesi. Of course, this remains conjecture.1
But despite this impressive display of naval power, on land Gowa-Talloq's legitimacy remained supreme. Hence an entry in the Diaries from 1636:

February 29, 1636: The Dutch hoped to turn the people of Bulo-Bulo [near Gowa, to rebel against Gowa and Talloq] and pledged that in 300 days and nights we would be attacked [by the VOC, but instead the Dutchmen] were killed by the people of Bulo-Bulo

Now, what did this mean to "everyday life"? Did the "average person have much to fear from the VOC/Dutch"? This is an interesting question that is much more difficult to answer than the political history of the Gowa-VOC war I have just recounted, since local sources are largely silent to the affairs of commoners while the VOC, although somewhat better in this respect, still devotes more attention to the more commercially influential nobility. Still, we can divide the VOC's potential influences on the common man and woman into direct and indirect (and largely inadvertent) influences.

Direct influences

As discussed above, in the early 17th century the Dutch were largely unable to curb the hundreds of ships sailing east from Makassar to collect cloves, nutmeg, mace, and other expensive spices. But here's the catch - especially in this early period, those involved in shipping were generally the Makassar Malays, Indian Muslims, and Europeans. So the Dutch blockades or attacks on shipping did not directly harm a Makassar or Bugis (and as stated, the Dutch monopoly was not very effectively maintained by 1630).
The Dutch blockade of 1634-1635 and its attacks on areas of the city would have posed a direct threat to the locals. However, consider where most of the population lived. Here are the archaeological estimates of population distribution and density near Makassar city in the few first decades after 1600, from David Bulbeck's surveys around 1990:
​

Coast	Immediate hinterland	Inland
32% of total population	22.1%	45.9%
1369/km2	1232/km2	782km2

Even in the Gowa-Talloq area, by far the most urbanized area of South Sulawesi, the majority of the population did not live immediately by the sea. And Makassar was an extraordinarily large city. A more typical port town in South Sulawesi might have been Bantaeng, on the southern coast of the peninsula, which probably had less than 10,000 people.12 Dutch coastal raids could not have directly affected the majority of the population.
So in the early 17th century the VOC could not have been going around killing large numbers of people in South Sulawesi. The Company probably did cause hardship for locals - but not because of the Company's depredations per se, but because of Gowa and other kingdoms' reaction to Dutch incursions.
In South Sulawesi, mass labor is generally recruited and managed by a corvee system in which each noble brought his dependents (ata, serfs or slaves) to work on the project. The ata were not payed, but did the work as part of their obligation for their lord. And while modern studies of this system generally show great genuine loyalty to their lord on the part of the ata, Gowa-Talloq also coerced their conquered vassals to send their own people to work on Gowa's projects. In 1660, for example, 10,000 Bugis from Bone were employed to dig a canal. These corvee labors imposed on the conquered by the conqueror were expected but disliked - especially since it involved forced deportation of thousands from their homelands - and could be a cause for rebellion. The VOC's threat to average livelihoods, insofar as it existed, was forcing Gowa-Talloq to employ corvee labor.13

Indirect influences

As I said above, the VOC's activities in Maluku, along with other external events such as Sultan Agung's Javanese wars, contributed to Makassar's astonishing affluence up to the 1640s. So the greatest indirect influence of the VOC on South Sulawesi in the first third of the 17th century must be its contribution to local urbanization. With non-Dutch centers of the spice trade eliminated, Makassar stood firm as the only great entrepot where competitors of the Dutch could acquire cheaper spices.
This trade - often summarized as the 'textile for spices' trade, in which foreign merchants sold Indian textiles and other luxury goods to Makassar and bought spices, while Makassar-based traders distributed textiles in both Sulawesi and overseas in spice producing areas in return for purchasing spices and other commodities - provided South Sulawesi with unprecedented numbers of foreign luxury goods, such as sugar, tobacco, horses, and (especially Indian) textiles. The city of Makassar at its height may have had a population of 160,000. This urbanized and commercialized population - which may have represented more than 10% of the population of the entire island of Sulawesi14 - became ever more cosmopolitan, more 'civilized' in the eyes of outsiders. So a Spanish missionary said:

The nearer we drew to Makassar [...] the more civilized we found the people.

And for a Muslim observer the differences might be even more striking. In 1607 Makassar was described thus:

The various fruits of India abound there, also goats, buffaloes, and pigs [...] men carry usually one, two, or more balls in their penis, of the same size as those of Siam, but not hollow or clinking, rather of ivory or solid fishbone [...] the female slaves whom one sees carrying water in the back streets have their upper body with the breasts completely naked, and wear trousers which come up to the navel. When they wash they stand mother-naked, the men as well as women.

Forty years later it was reported:

There are [...] no hogs at all because the natives, who are Mohammedans, have exterminated them entirely from the country [...] the women are entirely covered from head to foot, in such fashion that not even their faces can be seen.

Even accounting for orientalism and common European generalizations of Muslims, the urban civilization of Makassar (if not Gowa-Talloq, or South Sulawesi, as a whole) had evolved rapidly from an animist society to a Muslim one, to the point of being the birthplace of major Muslim scholars such as Muhammad Yusuf al-Maqassari (1626-1699).15
This transformation dues much to the VOC. But while the Dutch were a major factor in Makassar's rise, it was not the major factor. We must not forget the internal policies implemented by Gowa-Talloq's government, especially its declaration of free trade in the port of Makassar, drawing all non-Dutch trade, and its military reforms which created an army that could stand toe-to-toe with the Company's forces. While recognizing the importance of the Dutch, we must not disregard how people in South Sulawesi made their own history.
Part 4, probably the final post, will discuss the Dutch-Gowa relationship from 1637 to 1655 and the Dutch-associated commercial downturn of the early 1650s.
10 Unfortunately, Bone did not begin keeping royal diaries until after the Makassar War, during the reign of La Tenritatta Arung Palakka (r.1672-1696).
11 p.462 in Tale of Two Kingdoms: The Historical Archaeology of Gowa and Tallok
12 Per Andaya in his history of South Sulawesi in the late 17th century (The Heritage of Arung Palakka: South Sulawesi in the Seventeenth Century), when the city of Bantaeng was laid waste by Arung Palakka and his Dutch allies in 1667, a thousand houses were destroyed. This suggests that the number of houses in Bantaeng did not greatly exceed one thousand. Wayne Bougas in his article "Bantayan: An Early Makassarese Kingdom, 1200 AD-1600 AD" argues that the population was between 5,000-7,500.
13 See description in "Pluralism and Progress in Seventeenth-Century Makassar" by Reid. The ata system was the most common, but not the only, means of mobilizing labor in 17th-century South Sulawesi. There were a number of craftsmen's guilds in Makassar, each obliged to perform specific duties relating to their craft for the court. The guilds were under state control through the state-appointed post of guildmaster.
14 Anthony Reid, in his Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, estimates that Sulawesi had 1.2 million people around 1600.
15 Both quotes from Anthony Reid's article "The Islamization of Southeast Asia." The Spanish missionary referred to is Domingo Fernández Navarrete. Yusuf al-Maqassari is discussed extensively in Azyumardi Azra's The Origins of Islamic Reformism in Southeast Asia, p. 87-108.
​
The thread's comments 4 and 5 will follow shortly in Part II!

“It must have happened sometime around 12.000 Year ago. Around the end of the ice age. When humanity transitioned from hunters to Shepherds and from foragers to farmers. At the end of the paleolithic and at the beginning of the neolithic. When nomads of all tribes came together, building the great temple of Göbekli Tepe. It must have been around that time, that humanity sold its soul to the Ego. It was back then, that people decided to control the world around them. To take things into their own hands. It was then, that the ego drive took fully over. When it became out of control.
Before we started to plow it, we used to honor the earth. Before we sacrificed our animals, we have hunted them with respect. Before we prayed to the gods, we prayed to the whole, to life itself. But when we made the ego our highest god, we lost our love to the earth. Did we knew back then, who we were? Did we forget what our name is? Did we lose our connection to the universe?
You could perhaps argue that it started even earlier, in Africa, when man first saw himself. At least 70.000 Years ago. Before we set out to conquer the world. Around the beginning of the Cognitive revolution. When man first spoke 'I am'. When the first thought arose in our consciousness. This was, when the first split occurred. The split between Myself and Yourself. A split of words. A separation of ideas. First there came 'me' and 'You'. And soon after came 'good' and 'evil', 'Yes' and 'no'. This is how we were split up in words. This is how we got caught-up in our Dual thinking.
You could argue that the split happened even earlier. In nature. When human split from primate, or when amphibians split from the fish, or even before... Before the split of predator and prey or male and female... Perhaps even before the split of energy and matter or time and space.
No, the actual split happened at the very beginning of the universe. When the song of the big bang echoed throughout infinity, when Existence split from Emptiness... That's when the first split occurred. A split in universal consciousness, throughout every level. But even though there is a pattern of fragmentation trickling down into every level of reality, nothing is ever separated. No thing can ever exist on its own. All parts can only exist with the whole and the whole can only exist with all parts. We are just giving every part of the whole a different name. But each part remains connected with the whole. The very idea of separation is only an illusion.
Because everything is still connected. The connection was never severed. It only appears that way. Matter appears to be split. On all levels we see things, as if they were separate. But the separation itself is the illusion. Because, zoom far enough in and you won't find any dividing line. Everything is entangled. Things appear to be different, because they are unique on every level but follow patterns of form.
We think in images. Mental images, that we have created to simplify that, which we find in the world around us. And we assign a word to that image. This image is however very limited. It can never accurately represent physical reality. No thing can ever be separated from its environment, because All that is, can only ever exist as a whole.
Separation itself is part of a universal pattern. A pattern of consciousness. Which reflects both in the mind, as well as physical reality. And yet... So is unity. Think of birds flying or fish swimming in synchronicity. Think of ants and bees working together. Think of the collective unconscious. All of our minds are connected and yet each of us also has their own personal mind.
So everything is in some way separated and everything is also united? Doesn't that seem like a paradox?
It seems to us like a paradox, but not because there is a contradiction in reality. It's because there is a contradiction in our thinking. It's not that this paradox shouldn't exist... It's more like, if this paradox were real, the world couldn't exist. All contradictions, all paradoxes can only exist in our thinking. There are no paradoxes in physical reality.
If there were, then reality could not function as it does. So if to us there seems to be a contradiction between concepts, the answer can't be that the world doesn't make sense, it's that we are not thinking correctly.
You see... Mind and matter are in opposition. The mind lives in illusion and matter lives in truth.
Because we are lying to ourselves on the inside, we are fighting against the outside. We are in constant conflict. With life itself and all of its challenges. Instead of just accepting truth and aligning the inside with the outside, we prefer to have our way instead. Or rather, so that the Ego can have its way. This is where we create all conflict. Because we are unable to accept this simple truth, that WE ARE ALL ONE.”
.
.
The Mysterious Stranger looks intensely at the young man in the red T-shirt. Waiting for his reaction.
“Sir, this is McDonalds,” says the teenager at the cash register.
.
.
There is a short moment of awkward silence between the Stranger and the cashier.
“I'll take two cheeseburger,” orders the Stranger with a humbled voice. He's Showing up two fingers.
.
.
“What took you so long,” asks the Seeker, as the Mysterious Stranger walks with a brown bag out of the Restaurants door. Its raining outside.
“Well,” admits the Stranger. “He asked me, what I'd like to order.”
The Seeker sighs annoyed, as they bite into the cheeseburger. “Did you seriously just destroy the entire immersion of a fantasy story for the sole purpose of telling a joke?”
.
“Yes,” speaks the Stranger with an overly dramatic voice. “And I would do it again.”
.
The Seeker and the Stranger are walking on the pavements of the eternal city. Dark clouds in the sky. The rain gets heavier with every minute. People in Grey suits or dresses are carrying umbrellas. The spotlights of the silver cars are shining on the wet pavement. The occasional homeless person, sitting under a doorstep. Some shady figures dealeing in the dark allies.
“Okay you know what,” speaks the Stranger. “How about we just call this a 'filler episode'. Let's just say, it's not canon.”
.
“Seriously,” asks the Seeker annoyed. “Is that really your lame excuse?”
.
“Hey, almost every third One Piece episode is a filler,” reminds the Stranger.
.
The Seeker shakes their head. “That's why you need to read the manga!”
.
.
The two figures keep walking through the city of Irkalla in the forgotten Kingdom of Kurnugia. The land of no return. The circled city, down in the deep. Where the sun never shines and the rainy days never stop.
There is an awful silence between the two. The Seeker thinks back about how they got there. The last thing they remember is being in the land of truth and then...
.
“You know... I have been thinking of this a whole time already,” says the Stranger suddenly, after a long time of silence, tearing the Seeker from their thoughts. “And I just can't keep it to myself any longer. You know... What's the deal with family guy?”
.
“What the hell?” wonders the Seeker, both confused and surprised.
.
.
“Like, why are people even watching this series. I mean, nothing about that show is even remotely funny. It's just Peter Griffin being a dumbass, selfcentered asshole, who abuses everyone around him. Like what's the joke? Making fun of mentally retarded people? Quagmire going giggidy? Look! Meg is being abused again, haha... Like there is neither brain nor is there any heart involved in making this show. In what way is that entertaining? I don't know about the writers, but they don't even seem to care about their own characters. Family guy is written without a heart.
Now compare it to more intelligent shows like Rick and Morty, One Piece or Avatar. That's the real good shit. You can see, the people who write it really care about their own story. They try their best to be original. And they care about the characters, because they allow them to change, to evolve. Growth is such an important part of any story. It's what makes it so fun to watch.
That's why we play video games. To level up. And when our characters grow, then so do we. And when we watch a show, then it's so fun to see, how characters develop. It's like their growth is reflected back on us. That's what I love so much about stories. From the ancient myths, to the classic fables and poems. Be it contemporary cartoons or games, mangas or comics. It's all so much fun.
I really don't understand authors, who don't care about their characters. Don't you want to see Peter Griffin becoming a better person? Don't you want to see Meg getting a better life? But their authors seem to be too afraid, to make any changes. The same with the Simpsons...
When did it happen... Like when did the Simpsons turn into shit? When did it jump the shark? When the authors stopped caring for the show, that's when it lost its spark. When it was too far removed from reality. When the Simpsons were no longer true to their Characters. When Flanders became flanderized.
So TL;DR bring old Simpsons back. Like when things were still allowed to change. When Lisa decided to become vegetarian. That kind of stuff.”
.
.
The Seeker looks confused at the Stranger. They are surprised by that long rant.
“You really just went completely out of character,” says the Seeker flabbergasted.
.
.
“Well it's not canon... Isn't that what people do in fillers anyway? Being out of character?”
.
The Seeker sighs, shaking their head. “Okay... I get it... But please... just try to do less, pop-culture references, next time... okay?”
.
“Yeah okay,” agrees the Stranger. “Do you also want to go out of character for a moment? Since this is filler, it's of no consequence.”
.
The Seeker suddenly stops walking on the pavement. As the Seeker stands still, they are taking in a deep breath.
“You know...,” says the Seeker with a slight grin on their face. “I don't really like family guy either.”
.
.
.
Suddenly everything around the Seeker starts fading away. Like vaporizing fog. Everything turns white, as the Seeker awakens from their dream.
They are lying in the green grass. The Mysterious Stranger sits next to them in their blue hooded robe. The Sun is rising from the east. Shining directly at the next archway portal... Checkpoint 4.
“Ah, you are awake now,” notices the Stranger. “Do you still remember how we broke the fifth wall?”
.
The Seeker blinks with their eyes. They still can't put together what is happening. Were they in the in-between all this time? Was it all just a dream? What is happening?
“We- We broke through the fifth wall?!” asks the Seeker still in the process of waking up.
.
“Yeah,” confirms the Stranger, pointing at the archway. “We are out. We made it out of the land of truth. Right over there, is the fourth checkpoint. Are you ready now?”
.
“I have been waiting for that damned checkpoint, since the last two episodes,” groans the Seeker slightly irritated. “Will we now finally go to the next level?”
.
.
TO BE CONTINUED
.
.
.
^{for more content visit: We\}Are_Humanity)
^{Find previous part Here: https://www.reddit.com/We\}Are_Humanity/comments/1c4vlx4/breaking_the_fifth_wall/)
​
^{START JOURNEY HERE: https://www.reddit.com/We\}Are_Humanity/comments/17zwf78/the_seeker_and_the_mysterious_stranger_part_1_of_7/)
^{Checkpoint 3 https://www.reddit.com/We\}Are_Humanity/comments/1b6nxu6/the_higher_self/)

“It must have happened sometime around 12.000 Year ago. Around the end of the ice age. When humanity transitioned from hunters to Shepherds and from foragers to farmers. At the end of the paleolithic and at the beginning of the neolithic. When nomads of all tribes came together, building the great temple of Göbekli Tepe. It must have been around that time, that humanity sold its soul to the Ego. It was back then, that people decided to control the world around them. To take things into their own hands. It was then, that the ego drive took fully over. When it became out of control.
Before we started to plow it, we used to honor the earth. Before we sacrificed our animals, we have hunted them with respect. Before we prayed to the gods, we prayed to the whole, to life itself. But when we made the ego our highest god, we lost our love to the earth. Did we knew back then, who we were? Did we forget what our name is? Did we lose our connection to the universe?
You could perhaps argue that it started even earlier, in Africa, when man first saw himself. At least 70.000 Years ago. Before we set out to conquer the world. Around the beginning of the Cognitive revolution. When man first spoke 'I am'. When the first thought arose in our consciousness. This was, when the first split occurred. The split between Myself and Yourself. A split of words. A separation of ideas. First there came 'me' and 'You'. And soon after came 'good' and 'evil', 'Yes' and 'no'. This is how we were split up in words. This is how we got caught-up in our Dual thinking.
You could argue that the split happened even earlier. In nature. When human split from primate, or when amphibians split from the fish, or even before... Before the split of predator and prey or male and female... Perhaps even before the split of energy and matter or time and space.
No, the actual split happened at the very beginning of the universe. When the song of the big bang echoed throughout infinity, when Existence split from Emptiness... That's when the first split occurred. A split in universal consciousness, throughout every level. But even though there is a pattern of fragmentation trickling down into every level of reality, nothing is ever separated. No thing can ever exist on its own. All parts can only exist with the whole and the whole can only exist with all parts. We are just giving every part of the whole a different name. But each part remains connected with the whole. The very idea of separation is only an illusion.
Because everything is still connected. The connection was never severed. It only appears that way. Matter appears to be split. On all levels we see things, as if they were separate. But the separation itself is the illusion. Because, zoom far enough in and you won't find any dividing line. Everything is entangled. Things appear to be different, because they are unique on every level but follow patterns of form.
We think in images. Mental images, that we have created to simplify that, which we find in the world around us. And we assign a word to that image. This image is however very limited. It can never accurately represent physical reality. No thing can ever be separated from its environment, because All that is, can only ever exist as a whole.
Separation itself is part of a universal pattern. A pattern of consciousness. Which reflects both in the mind, as well as physical reality. And yet... So is unity. Think of birds flying or fish swimming in synchronicity. Think of ants and bees working together. Think of the collective unconscious. All of our minds are connected and yet each of us also has their own personal mind.
So everything is in some way separated and everything is also united? Doesn't that seem like a paradox?
It seems to us like a paradox, but not because there is a contradiction in reality. It's because there is a contradiction in our thinking. It's not that this paradox shouldn't exist... It's more like, if this paradox were real, the world couldn't exist. All contradictions, all paradoxes can only exist in our thinking. There are no paradoxes in physical reality.
If there were, then reality could not function as it does. So if to us there seems to be a contradiction between concepts, the answer can't be that the world doesn't make sense, it's that we are not thinking correctly.
You see... Mind and matter are in opposition. The mind lives in illusion and matter lives in truth.
Because we are lying to ourselves on the inside, we are fighting against the outside. We are in constant conflict. With life itself and all of its challenges. Instead of just accepting truth and aligning the inside with the outside, we prefer to have our way instead. Or rather, so that the Ego can have its way. This is where we create all conflict. Because we are unable to accept this simple truth, that WE ARE ALL ONE.”
.
.
The Mysterious Stranger looks intensely at the young man in the red T-shirt. Waiting for his reaction.
“Sir, this is McDonalds,” says the teenager at the cash register.
There is a short moment of awkward silence between the Stranger and the cashier.
“I'll take two cheeseburger,” orders the Stranger with a humbled voice. He's Showing up two fingers.
.
.
“What took you so long,” asks the Seeker, as the Mysterious Stranger walks with a brown bag out of the Restaurants door. Its raining outside.
“Well,” admits the Stranger. “He asked me, what I'd like to order.”
The Seeker sighs annoyed, as they bite into the cheeseburger. “Did you seriously just destroy the entire immersion of a fantasy story for the sole purpose of telling a joke?”
.
“Yes,” speaks the Stranger with an overly dramatic voice. “And I would do it again.”
.
The Seeker and the Stranger are walking on the pavements of the eternal city. Dark clouds in the sky. The rain gets heavier with every minute. People in Grey suits or dresses are carrying umbrellas. The spotlights of the silver cars are shining on the wet pavement. The occasional homeless person, sitting under a doorstep. Some shady figures dealeing in the dark allies.
“Okay you know what,” speaks the Stranger. “How about we just call this a 'filler episode'. Let's just say, it's not canon.”
.
“Seriously,” asks the Seeker annoyed. “Is that really your lame excuse?”
.
“Hey, almost every third One Piece episode is a filler,” reminds the Stranger.
.
The Seeker shakes their head. “That's why you need to read the manga!”
.
.
The two figures keep walking through the city of Irkalla in the forgotten Kingdom of Kurnugia. The land of no return. The circled city, down in the deep. Where the sun never shines and the rainy days never stop.
There is an awful silence between the two. The Seeker thinks back about how they got there. The last thing they remember is being in the land of truth and then...
.
“You know... I have been thinking of this a whole time already,” says the Stranger suddenly, after a long time of silence, tearing the Seeker from their thoughts. “And I just can't keep it to myself any longer. You know... What's the deal with family guy?”
.
“What the hell?” wonders the Seeker, both confused and surprised.
.
.
“Like, why are people even watching this series. I mean, nothing about that show is even remotely funny. It's just Peter Griffin being a dumbass, selfcentered asshole, who abuses everyone around him. Like what's the joke? Making fun of mentally retarded people? Quagmire going giggidy? Look! Meg is being abused again, haha... Like there is neither brain nor is there any heart involved in making this show. In what way is that entertaining? I don't know about the writers, but they don't even seem to care about their own characters. Family guy is written without a heart.
Now compare it to more intelligent shows like Rick and Morty, One Piece or Avatar. That's the real good shit. You can see, the people who write it really care about their own story. They try their best to be original. And they care about the characters, because they allow them to change, to evolve. Growth is such an important part of any story. It's what makes it so fun to watch.
That's why we play video games. To level up. And when our characters grow, then so do we. And when we watch a show, then it's so fun to see, how characters develop. It's like their growth is reflected back on us. That's what I love so much about stories. From the ancient myths, to the classic fables and poems. Be it contemporary cartoons or games, mangas or comics. It's all so much fun.
I really don't understand authors, who don't care about their characters. Don't you want to see Peter Griffin becoming a better person? Don't you want to see Meg getting a better life? But their authors seem to be too afraid, to make any changes. The same with the Simpsons...
When did it happen... Like when did the Simpsons turn into shit? When did it jump the shark? When the authors stopped caring for the show, that's when it lost its spark. When it was too far removed from reality. When the Simpsons were no longer true to their Characters. When Flanders became flanderized.
So TL;DR bring old Simpsons back. Like when things were still allowed to change. When Lisa decided to become vegetarian. That kind of stuff.”
.
.
The Seeker looks confused at the Stranger. They are surprised by that long rant.
“You really just went completely out of character,” says the Seeker flabbergasted.
.
.
“Well it's not canon... Isn't that what people do in fillers anyway? Being out of character?”
.
The Seeker sighs, shaking their head. “Okay... I get it... But please... just try to do less, pop-culture references, next time... okay?”
.
“Yeah okay,” agrees the Stranger. “Do you also want to go out of character for a moment? Since this is filler, it's of no consequence.”
.
The Seeker suddenly stops walking on the pavement. As the Seeker stands still, they are taking in a deep breath.
“You know...,” says the Seeker with a slight grin on their face. “I don't really like family guy either.”
.
.
.
Suddenly everything around the Seeker starts fading away. Like vaporizing fog. Everything turns white, as the Seeker awakens from their dream.
They are lying in the green grass. The Mysterious Stranger sits next to them in their blue hooded robe. The Sun is rising from the east. Shining directly at the next archway portal... Checkpoint 4.
“Ah, you are awake now,” notices the Stranger. “Do you still remember how we broke the fifth wall?”
.
The Seeker blinks with their eyes. They still can't put together what is happening. Were they in the in-between all this time? Was it all just a dream? What is happening?
“We- We broke through the fifth wall?!” asks the Seeker still in the process of waking up.
.
“Yeah,” confirms the Stranger, pointing at the archway. “We are out. We made it out of the land of truth. Right over there, is the fourth checkpoint. Are you ready now?”
.
-
“I have been waiting for that damned checkpoint, since the last two episodes,” groans the Seeker slightly irritated. “Will we now finally go to the next level?”
.
.
TO BE CONTINUED
.
.
.
^{for more content visit: We\}Are_Humanity)
^{Find previous part Here: https://www.reddit.com/We\}Are_Humanity/comments/1c4vlx4/breaking_the_fifth_wall/)
^{Find next part Here:
START JOURNEY HERE: https://www.reddit.com/We\}Are_Humanity/comments/17zwf78/the_seeker_and_the_mysterious_stranger_part_1_of_7/)
^{Checkpoint 3 https://www.reddit.com/We\}Are_Humanity/comments/1b6nxu6/the_higher_self/)

“It must have happened sometime around 12.000 Year ago. Around the end of the ice age. When humanity transitioned from hunters to Shepherds and from foragers to farmers. At the end of the paleolithic and at the beginning of the neolithic. When nomads of all tribes came together, building the great temple of Göbekli Tepe. It must have been around that time, that humanity sold its soul to the Ego. It was back then, that people decided to control the world around them. To take things into their own hands. It was then, that the ego drive took fully over. When it became out of control.
Before we started to plow it, we used to honor the earth. Before we sacrificed our animals, we have hunted them with respect. Before we prayed to the gods, we prayed to the whole, to life itself. But when we made the ego our highest god, we lost our love to the earth. Did we knew back then, who we were? Did we forget what our name is? Did we lose our connection to the universe?
You could perhaps argue that it started even earlier, in Africa, when man first saw himself. At least 70.000 Years ago. Before we set out to conquer the world. Around the beginning of the Cognitive revolution. When man first spoke 'I am'. When the first thought arose in our consciousness. This was, when the first split occurred. The split between Myself and Yourself. A split of words. A separation of ideas. First there came 'me' and 'You'. And soon after came 'good' and 'evil', 'Yes' and 'no'. This is how we were split up in words. This is how we got caught-up in our Dual thinking.
You could argue that the split happened even earlier. In nature. When human split from primate, or when amphibians split from the fish, or even before... Before the split of predator and prey or male and female... Perhaps even before the split of energy and matter or time and space.
No, the actual split happened at the very beginning of the universe. When the song of the big bang echoed throughout infinity, when Existence split from Emptiness... That's when the first split occurred. A split in universal consciousness, throughout every level. But even though there is a pattern of fragmentation trickling down into every level of reality, nothing is ever separated. No thing can ever exist on its own. All parts can only exist with the whole and the whole can only exist with all parts. We are just giving every part of the whole a different name. But each part remains connected with the whole. The very idea of separation is only an illusion.
Because everything is still connected. The connection was never severed. It only appears that way. Matter appears to be split. On all levels we see things, as if they were separate. But the separation itself is the illusion. Because, zoom far enough in and you won't find any dividing line. Everything is entangled. Things appear to be different, because they are unique on every level but follow patterns of form.
We think in images. Mental images, that we have created to simplify that, which we find in the world around us. And we assign a word to that image. This image is however very limited. It can never accurately represent physical reality. No thing can ever be separated from its environment, because All that is, can only ever exist as a whole.
Separation itself is part of a universal pattern. A pattern of consciousness. Which reflects both in the mind, as well as physical reality. And yet... So is unity. Think of birds flying or fish swimming in synchronicity. Think of ants and bees working together. Think of the collective unconscious. All of our minds are connected and yet each of us also has their own personal mind.
So everything is in some way separated and everything is also united? Doesn't that seem like a paradox?
It seems to us like a paradox, but not because there is a contradiction in reality. It's because there is a contradiction in our thinking. It's not that this paradox shouldn't exist... It's more like, if this paradox were real, the world couldn't exist. All contradictions, all paradoxes can only exist in our thinking. There are no paradoxes in physical reality.
If there were, then reality could not function as it does. So if to us there seems to be a contradiction between concepts, the answer can't be that the world doesn't make sense, it's that we are not thinking correctly.
You see... Mind and matter are in opposition. The mind lives in illusion and matter lives in truth.
Because we are lying to ourselves on the inside, we are fighting against the outside. We are in constant conflict. With life itself and all of its challenges. Instead of just accepting truth and aligning the inside with the outside, we prefer to have our way instead. Or rather, so that the Ego can have its way. This is where we create all conflict. Because we are unable to accept this simple truth, that WE ARE ALL ONE.”
.
.
The Mysterious Stranger looks intensely at the young man in the red T-shirt. Waiting for his reaction.
“Sir, this is McDonalds,” says the teenager at the cash register.
.
.
There is a short moment of awkward silence between the Stranger and the cashier.
“I'll take two cheeseburger,” orders the Stranger with a humbled voice. He's Showing up two fingers.
.
.
“What took you so long,” asks the Seeker, as the Mysterious Stranger walks with a brown bag out of the Restaurants door. Its raining outside.
“Well,” admits the Stranger. “He asked me, what I'd like to order.”
The Seeker sighs annoyed, as they bite into the cheeseburger. “Did you seriously just destroy the entire immersion of a fantasy story for the sole purpose of telling a joke?”
.
“Yes,” speaks the Stranger with an overly dramatic voice. “And I would do it again.”
.
The Seeker and the Stranger are walking on the pavements of the eternal city. Dark clouds in the sky. The rain gets heavier with every minute. People in Grey suits or dresses are carrying umbrellas. The spotlights of the silver cars are shining on the wet pavement. The occasional homeless person, sitting under a doorstep. Some shady figures dealeing in the dark allies.
“Okay you know what,” speaks the Stranger. “How about we just call this a 'filler episode'. Let's just say, it's not canon.”
.
“Seriously,” asks the Seeker annoyed. “Is that really your lame excuse?”
.
“Hey, almost every third One Piece episode is a filler,” reminds the Stranger.
.
The Seeker shakes their head. “That's why you need to read the manga!”
.
.
The two figures keep walking through the city of Irkalla in the forgotten Kingdom of Kurnugia. The land of no return. The circled city, down in the deep. Where the sun never shines and the rainy days never stop.
There is an awful silence between the two. The Seeker thinks back about how they got there. The last thing they remember is being in the land of truth and then...
.
“You know... I have been thinking of this a whole time already,” says the Stranger suddenly, after a long time of silence, tearing the Seeker from their thoughts. “And I just can't keep it to myself any longer. You know... What's the deal with family guy?”
.
“What the hell?” wonders the Seeker, both confused and surprised.
.
.
“Like, why are people even watching this series. I mean, nothing about that show is even remotely funny. It's just Peter Griffin being a dumbass, selfcentered asshole, who abuses everyone around him. Like what's the joke? Making fun of mentally retarded people? Quagmire going giggidy? Look! Meg is being abused again, haha... Like there is neither brain nor is there any heart involved in making this show. In what way is that entertaining? I don't know about the writers, but they don't even seem to care about their own characters. Family guy is written without a heart.
Now compare it to more intelligent shows like Rick and Morty, One Piece or Avatar. That's the real good shit. You can see, the people who write it really care about their own story. They try their best to be original. And they care about the characters, because they allow them to change, to evolve. Growth is such an important part of any story. It's what makes it so fun to watch.
That's why we play video games. To level up. And when our characters grow, then so do we. And when we watch a show, then it's so fun to see, how characters develop. It's like their growth is reflected back on us. That's what I love so much about stories. From the ancient myths, to the classic fables and poems. Be it contemporary cartoons or games, mangas or comics. It's all so much fun.
I really don't understand authors, who don't care about their characters. Don't you want to see Peter Griffin becoming a better person? Don't you want to see Meg getting a better life? But their authors seem to be too afraid, to make any changes. The same with the Simpsons...
When did it happen... Like when did the Simpsons turn into shit? When did it jump the shark? When the authors stopped caring for the show, that's when it lost its spark. When it was too far removed from reality. When the Simpsons were no longer true to their Characters. When Flanders became flanderized.
So TL;DR bring old Simpsons back. Like when things were still allowed to change. When Lisa decided to become vegetarian. That kind of stuff.”
.
.
The Seeker looks confused at the Stranger. They are surprised by that long rant.
“You really just went completely out of character,” says the Seeker flabbergasted.
.
.
“Well it's not canon... Isn't that what people do in fillers anyway? Being out of character?”
.
The Seeker sighs, shaking their head. “Okay... I get it... But please... just try to do less, pop-culture references, next time... okay?”
.
“Yeah okay,” agrees the Stranger. “Do you also want to go out of character for a moment? Since this is filler, it's of no consequence.”
.
The Seeker suddenly stops walking on the pavement. As the Seeker stands still, they are taking in a deep breath.
“You know...,” says the Seeker with a slight grin on their face. “I don't really like family guy either.”
.
.
.
Suddenly everything around the Seeker starts fading away. Like vaporizing fog. Everything turns white, as the Seeker awakens from their dream.
They are lying in the green grass. The Mysterious Stranger sits next to them in their blue hooded robe. The Sun is rising from the east. Shining directly at the next archway portal... Checkpoint 4.
“Ah, you are awake now,” notices the Stranger. “Do you still remember how we broke the fifth wall?”
.
The Seeker blinks with their eyes. They still can't put together what is happening. Were they in the in-between all this time? Was it all just a dream? What is happening?
“We- We broke through the fifth wall?!” asks the Seeker still in the process of waking up.
.
“Yeah,” confirms the Stranger, pointing at the archway. “We are out. We made it out of the land of truth. Right over there, is the fourth checkpoint. Are you ready now?”
.
“I have been waiting for that damned checkpoint, since the last two episodes,” groans the Seeker slightly irritated. “Will we now finally go to the next level?”
.
.
TO BE CONTINUED
.
.
.
^{for more content visit: We\}Are_Humanity)
^{Find previous part Here: https://www.reddit.com/We\}Are_Humanity/comments/1c4vlx4/breaking_the_fifth_wall/)
^{Find next part Here: https://www.reddit.com/We\}Are_Humanity/comments/1cbhoml/turning_shit_into_gold/)
^{START JOURNEY HERE: https://www.reddit.com/We\}Are_Humanity/comments/17zwf78/the_seeker_and_the_mysterious_stranger_part_1_of_7/)
^{Checkpoint 3 https://www.reddit.com/We\}Are_Humanity/comments/1b6nxu6/the_higher_self/)

Welcome back, dear friends! We are happy to have you here with us for the second discussion of Anne of Ingleside. This week, we will reminisce about Chapters 17-30.
The Marginalia post is here.
You can find the Schedule here.
Below is a recap of the story from this section. I hope you enjoy the discussion questions, but feel free to also add your own thoughts! Please mark spoilers not related to this book using the format > ! Spoiler text here !< (without any spaces between the characters themselves or between the characters and the first and last words).
Chapter Summaries:
Chapter 17: Anne continues to work on the project of getting Alden and Stella paired up. She calls on Alden’s mother for a church donation, who insists that Alden can marry any girl he wants. Then Anne tags along with Miss Cornelia to get a donation from Stella’s father. They debate the theory of evolution (Miss Cornelia disapproves) and discuss whether Stella is really cut out for marriage (Mr. Chase insists she will be… if the right fellow comes along). A month later, Stella comes to tell Anne that she and Alden have been secretly engaged since the prior Christmas, with both their parents’ approval, and that they will be married the following month. Anne controlls her own emotions and offers her blessing. Later, she reflects with embarrassment on how the families must have been laughing at her as she tried to arrange a marriage that was already set. She vows to give up matchmaking, and turns her attention to Walter and bedtime.
Chapter 18: The Blythe family wants a dog, and Jem comes home one day with one! The yellow dog with black ears is a gift from Joe Reese. Though others make fun of the dog as an odd-looking mutt, the Blythes love their “Gyp”, and so does Susan. A foggy fall gives way to snowy winter, and Gyp is a constant companion. Then one day, Gyp won’t eat or play. The vet thinks he may have eaten something poisonous in the forest. Although Jem prays for Gyp’s recovery, the beloved dog passes away. The family mourns, and Anne reassures Jem that the pain of Gyp’s loss will not always be so strong. Jem declares that he never wants another dog, and Susan agrees because, as Kipling’s poem “The Power of the Dog” evokes, losing a dog hurts too much. Jem is so comforted by Anne’s love that he decides to get Anne the pearl necklace she has been wanting. Her birthday is coming in six weeks, and he vows to earn the money to buy it - fifty cents! (This is about $25 in today’s money.)
Chapter 19: Gilbert has a bad case of the flu, which almost turns to pneumonia, and the family is worried for several days. When he pulls through, Anne shudders to think what would become of everyone without him - not only their family, but the whole community that Gilbert serves as doctor. They have come to believe that Gilbert is about as close to God as a man could be, and some think he even brought a dead man back to life. Many people have named their sons (and one daughter) after him! Then, Jem discovers that his piggy bank, holding all his savings for Anne’s pearl necklace, is missing. After much investigating and playground teasing, including that classic childhood taunt of “transubstantiationalist”, Jem finds out that Mac Reese broke the pig and hid it in Jem’s closet in a panic. The money is recovered, the pearl necklace is purchased, and Jem cannot wait for Anne’s birthday! The night before, he stays up in fear that he’ll sleep in and miss being first to give Anne her gift. His imagination runs wild and he scares himself, but eventually sleeps a little. When Anne receives her necklace, she is touched and declares it a very “birthdayish” gift, but doesn’t seem overcome with delight.
Chapter 20: Anne wears Jem’s pearls to a dinner with friends, and Jem is so proud to contribute to her beautiful outfit. He goes to Mr. Flagg’s store in the village on an errand for Susan and overhears customers commenting on how pretty the fake pearls are! Jem is crushed, because he had no idea he’d purchased Anne a string of beads instead of real pearls. He determines to confess this to her because he assumes Anne also believes them to be real. When Jem tells her, Anne explains that while she knew they were not real in one sense, in another sense they are the most real thing to her because they represent Jem’s love and hardwork and selflessness. Jem is relieved, and also vows to get her a real million-dollar necklace one day! (Let’s hope Jem discovers the stock market.) Anne kisses Jem goodnight, laughing that she will do this despite recently reading about the Jocasta complex - she knows a dumb man must have come up with that nonsense. Side note - when Anne comforts Jem and says, “I wouldn’t exchange my pretty beads for the necklace I read of … which cost half a million” it reminded me of how Matthew gave her the string of pearls in Anne of Green Gables for the White Sands concert. She said then, “I'm quite content to be Anne of Green Gables, with my string of pearl beads. I know Matthew gave me as much love with them as ever went with Madame the Pink Lady's jewels." I thought this was such a lovely tribute to Matthew’s role in Anne’s life! (This happened in the book, too, but please enjoy this clip from the miniseries).
Chapter 21: Mrs. Bessy Mitchell calls on Anne to ask her to write her husband’s obituary. Mr. Anthony Mitchell hadn’t gotten along well with the usual obituary writer of their town, and Mrs. Mitchell knows Anne’s reputation as a writer. She also wants a beautiful, poetic obituary rather than the usual type, and thinks Anne speaks so well that she’d be able to do a good job. Mrs. Mitchell talks away while Anne tries to keep up. She shares tidbits about their courtship and marriage as well as bragging a bit about her coffin plate collection. Anne agrees to write the obituary.
Chapter 22: Susan says Anne doesn’t know what she’s gotten herself into by agreeing to the obituary. But Anne says she is happy to do it, since she remembers Anthony Mitchell so fondly from the few times they’d met. Anne writes a lovely poem honoring his love for the land and his last wishes for his final resting spot. But when she gives it to Bessy, Mrs. Mitchell is somewhat critical and just says that she is sure Anne did her best. She offers dandelion wine as payment, which Anne accepts, as well as homemade medicinal yarb (herb) tea, which Anne declines. Despite her insulting notes on the obituary, Anne invites Mrs. Mitchell to stay for dinner. When the obituary is published, Anne is astonished to see that there is a fifth verse added by Bessy’s nephew, who Mrs. Mitchell declares to be just as good at poetry as Anne.
Chapter 23: The children are having a hard time keeping pets. A puppy goes missing, a barn cat dies, a rabbit is (possibly) poisoned with patent medicine administered by Jem, and two toads are let out of the basement to Walter’s dismay. They have better luck keeping a robin, which is even respected by the Shrimp, and loved by Susan. The children play with him in the Hollow, and he always returns. Walter decides to rename the Hollow “Rainbow Valley", which is a more romantic name, after Rilla sees a rainbow hanging over the glen. Walter’s romantic notions are getting him bullied and called “Sissy Walter” but Jem, who is growing up a bit, stands up for him at school and puts an end to the name-calling. Jem’s idea of romance involves pirates and the sea, and he enjoys listening to the stories of the old sea captains at the Harbour Mouth, especially Captain Malachi. (He is less interested in Captain Malachi’s story mentioning a woman, so he isn’t all grown up just yet.) Jem has finally healed from the loss of Gyp and, when he sees an ad in the paper, he knows he is ready to love a new dog. It turns out that the boy selling it has recently been orphaned and his aunt will not let him keep his beloved Bruno, so he reluctantly gives it up to Jem. Jem hopes Bruno will soon forget his old master and come to love him.
Chapter 24: The pet robin is thriving, but Bruno is not. At first, Bruno just mopes around. Then, he runs away during a storm, making it back to his old home six miles away. Gilbert figures out where Bruno must have gone, and takes Jem to collect the dog. After that night, Bruno stops eating and the only thing to be done is to bring his old owner, Roddy, to see him. It turns out Roddy’s aunt doesn’t mind having a dog (he’d been lied to about that), and Roddy can reclaim Bruno. Although he doesn’t want to give up Bruno, Jem quickly sees he would be selfish to do anything but reunite the dog with his original owner. Bruno and Roddy are deliriously happy, but Jem is crushed. He wishes he was a girl so he could cry, and he fears he is the kind of boy that no dog will love. Anne explains the dog’s loyalty to Roddy, but we are told it will be many years before Jem can ever love a dog again. Upcoming book - very minor spoiler: We will meet this dog, “Little Dog Monday,” in the last book of the series, Rilla of Ingleside.
Chapter 25: Nan and Di, the twins who look nothing alike, start school and love it. Di is red-headed like her mother and practical like her father. Nan is dark-haired like her father and imaginative like her mother. She seems to take after Davey with her confusion around God and faith. Nan has taken to bargaining with God since a Sunday School teacher told her that God would not do certain things for them if they weren’t good girls. Nan figures it works the other way, too, and bargains that if God will do something for her then she’ll promise to do certain things she dislikes, almost as a kind of penance. At first Nan’s bargains are rather frivolous, like accepting medicine or chipped plates without complaint if God will help her find a button or grow her new tooth before a party. Then, one day Anne contracts pneumonia (the leading cause of death back then) and the children can sense how serious it is. Both the nurse and Gilbert seem to feel that Anne’s health is at a crisis point, and Susan is terrified that she might be lying when she reassures the children that Anne will recover. Nan makes her most serious bargain yet: she promises that if God heals her mother, she will walk through the graveyard at night and not bother Him again for a long time.
Chapter 26: Anne is past the danger of dying and the house is full of joy, thankfulness, and Susan’s desserts! She is still very weak and pale, though, and Nan thinks she knows why: she has not kept her bargain with God. She resolves to walk through the graveyard on Saturday night, and sneaks out to try it despite a blood moon and a dark, cloudy sky. Nan climbs the fence, tearing her dress and scraping her knee on the way over. She gets as far as the gate before she is overcome with fear, then turns and runs back home in a panic. Susan takes care of her and puts her to bed, wondering what could be wrong, but Nan won’t give up her secret with God. Now Nan knows that she has cheated God and expects Anne will die. Eventually, she confesses this to her mother, but Anne assures her that God does not make bargains. Nan wonders if she still shouldn’t follow through, since she has been taught to always keep her word, so Anne promises to walk to the graveyard with her one night when she is fully recovered. Nan promises not to make more bargains with God.
Chapter 27: The family is enjoying fall and preparing for winter. The children play their imaginative games (including one involving a burning at the stake that results in slightly singed boys!) and it is said in town that the family might be a bit too romantic. Although there is plenty of laughter in Ingleside, everyone worries about Cock Robin. They try to keep him captive so he will not migrate for the winter, but he stops eating and becomes frantic, so they eventually free him and he flies south. Anne feels sure he will return in the spring, but the children are despondent, especially little Rilla. Susan writes letters to Rebecca Dew bragging about Walter’s writing abilities and Jem’s brilliance. Miss Cornelia stops by on one of the first snowy nights to gossip with Anne and Susan, which the children delight to hear because they can recall the stories when these people are all looking pious in church! Di asks Susan some innocently intrusive questions about her status as an old maid and offers to get her a baby from her friend’s house since their large family of eight has just added a new baby. Walter wishes they had ghosts to make their lovely house more interesting, but Anne says they aren’t “ghostable” since only happy people have lived at Ingleside.
Chapter 28: A new girl named Jenny Penny starts at the Glen school and immediately becomes the most popular pupil. Jenny tells exaggerated stories about her family and home, impressing all the children including Di (but not Nan, who has no time for this girl’s obvious nonsense). She also proves that gaslighting and Mean Girls have always existed. It seems everyone wishes to be part of Jenny Penny’s inner circle, and one day Jenny names Di as her best friend! She invites Di to stay the night at her house, but Anne says no firmly, given the reputation of the Penny family. They are known to let their children run wild, question the existence of God, and live a generally “unkempt” lifestyle. Di tries every argument she can think of to change Anne’s mind, including insisting that Jenny may soon die from tonsil surgery, but her mother remains firm. When Anne and Gilbert take an overnight trip to Green Gables, Jenny tells Di it is her chance to sneak over to the Penny house, and that if she doesn’t, Jenny will no longer favor her. Despite knowing she shouldn’t, Di goes along with Jenny’s plan. When she arrives at the Penny household, she quickly realizes that Jenny’s stories have all been lies or wild exaggerations. There are a litter of new puppies, which Nan thinks are canine Vere de Veres (a Tennyson poem that is not about dogs but about a woman of noble birth, and which 19th- and early 20th-century authors used as shorthand for aristocracy). But the visit turns into a nightmare quickly. Jenny’s grandmother forces her to show her petticoat and underwear as proof of her acceptable upbringing. Also, there is no mansion, no fancy parlour full of stuffed owls, no beautiful birch grove … and perhaps worst of all to a child of Anne’s, Jenny scoffs at the beautiful view of the landscape as they walk. Worst, that is, until dinner. The Penny family members are dirty and rude, shocking Di with their spitting and screaming at the table, and their intense fighting. It is straight out of the dinner scene from Freaks and Geeks (and, please, go watch this show right away if you haven’t seen this American treasure)! It becomes clear to Di that: a) Jenny is a little embarrassed by her family, and b) Anne was 100% right to not allow Di to visit them. When Mr. Penny explains his fight with the minister over how God doesn’t exist, Di just about faints in her chair. She wishes she could go home, but doesn’t know how to accomplish it.
Chapter 29: Di is mistreated by the Penny children who drag her through the mud, threaten to put a mouse in her mouth, call Walter names because of his poetry, and try to get her to hunt kittens in the barn. At bedtime, she is dreading having to sleep in the shabby, dirty bed when the older Penny boys come in with scary masks on. They demand that Di kiss them or they will lock her in the closet with the rats. She is so terrified that she falls over and hits her head on the sharp corner of the bed, feeling dazed. As she lays there, she listens to the Penny children plotting what to do with her. They want to put worms on her and prick her with pins to see if she is dead, but they are afraid they will be beaten by their father if she screams. They decide they’d better get rid of her by carrying her home, and plan to dump her off alone in the dark if she wakes up part way there. Di wants to go home so badly that she plays dead all the way home while the Penny children carry her by the arms and legs. They leave her on the verandah and run away. Di is locked out of the house, but she is just happy to have escaped. Gilbert and Anne come home early from their trip due to a local medical emergency, and Anne listens to Di’s story. Instead of punishing her, they decide she has learned her lesson. Jenny Penny never returns to the Glen school, and it is heard around her new school that she has concocted an epic story of Di’s visit in which she is the hero and Dr. Blythe is indebted to her for life.
Chapter 30: Nan gets her own bully that summer when Dovie Johnson comes to stay with relatives. Although Dovie is several years older than Nan, they become very close. Dovie appears to be the very picture of a well-behaved girl, so no one thinks twice about letting Nan spend most of her time with Dovie…except Susan, who can’t put her finger on why she has a bad feeling about the girl. (Note to self: Susan is always right. Listen to Susan.) One day, Nan and Dovie are playing at the wharf and Dovie declares she knows a secret about Nan. We gather from Dovie’s thoughts and behavior that she is making this up as she goes along, but Nan is too trusting and admiring of her older friend to suspect anything. Dovie requires a promise from Nan to never tell another soul, as well as payment in the form of Nan’s new red parasol. When Nan produces the parasol, much to Dovie’s surprise, Dovie tells her a tale of how Nan was supposedly switched at birth. This is why she and Di look nothing alike, Dovie declares, and she makes Nan feel worse by describing the poor and abusive life being lived by the “real” Nan. Of course, Nan believes her, but she has promised not to tell anyone, so she sits alone with her fears that the Blythe family will love this other girl instead of her if they ever find out.

“Softly, deftly, music shall caress you. Hear it, feel it, Secretly possess you.”

Happy Thursday writing friends!

I love when words have dual meanings! You could take this prompt too far and have a character being controlled by someone or something else or you could simply speak of an item one possesses. Looking forward to seeing how y’all interpret this one! Good luck and good words!
[IP] [MP]

Bonus:

(These constraints are not required! If your story is better for not including them, please do what’s best for your work!)
Constraint: (10 pts)

Your story should include a case of mistaken identity. Please indicate at the end of your post if you have completed this constraint.

Word of the Day: (5 pts)

erudition/er·u·di·tion/ˌero͝oˈdiSH(ə)n/
noun

• the quality of having or showing great knowledge or learning; scholarship.

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Last week’s theme: Oasis

First by Ryter99 Second by GingerQuill* Third by OldBayJ*

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i.
Kiribati pacific island nation sinks day by day, like Atlantis into the creeping ocean
like the world's canary, drowning with hibiscus ceremonies, coconut garlands washed out to sea
and yet, I have heard the songs these mermaids sing, written verse on waterlogged parchment
catching their history, their lineage, their traditions in their poem's fishing nets, seeking to survive the rising tides before their voices are lost...
ii.
in nations where low literacy lingers, empty, dilapidated classrooms greet missing children lost to the fields, no pencils to learn their alphabets
In Niger, Burkina Faso and South Sudan, their government cares so very little if adults still struggle with symbols swirling on their page; or if the destitute remain unable to reach into the depths of their hungry souls and put their minds down in words, for it's easier to control those with no vocabulary to speak up
and yet, when volunteers come to aid, they walk for miles, patient to learn before their voices are lost...
iii.
some countries are so tiny, these microscopic micronations, cannot find a poet to sing their praise; no verses now composed touch upon the way the ocean kisses Tuvalu's shore; or dedicate their flowing poetry to the lush rainforest waterfalls of Palau.
and yet, it will take only one writer living among a few hundred citizens, daring to put their pen to paper before their voices are lost...
iv.
in dimly lit cells, behind iron bars some poets wait without a trial like caged and muzzled lions, dissenting roars going silent in regimes frightened of their sound
critiques of China, views of Belarus not sanctioned or signed off upon can get them a small barred window, only a silver of blue sky
and yet, there is resistance, an ember of freedom still living inside them
hands chained hiding contraband pens, writing smuggled words home before their voices are lost...
v.
...and now I lay here, cozy in America -- blanket pulled up, yet unable to write because I fear the blinking cursor.
My favorite pen rolled away, and my playlist is unperfected, so I go raid the fridge, the fifth battle of its kind today.
What have I done with the power of my voice, that warrants the freedom of the land it was born in?
And how do I dig deep down, and find the truth buried inside, before my voice is lost?
FEEDBACK

1. https://www.reddit.com/OCPoetry/comments/1c73n49/comment/l05iru6/
2. https://www.reddit.com/OCPoetry/comments/1c6z2wz/comment/l05jmv0/

With the much-anticipated release of Adventure Mode for Steam today, I'm posting an updated version of my "29 Tips and Tricks" released 9 months ago. I've added a few tips and added much more detail to the existing tips. As someone with hundreds of hours in adventure mode (there are literally dozens of us!) I thought it would benefit the community to share some of the biggest tips and tricks I've learned. Hopefully once the official release is out and I can get footage with graphics I can make one more version with screenshots, but until then I'm posting the script I have now here. The rest of this post contains spoilers for every phase of adventure mode, so turn back now if you want to discover all of this for yourself!
Beginner Tips:
*1. Always have food
-Large stacks of vegetables can be found in containers in human towns. The steam version might be overhauling what counts as stealing, so you may have to buy or trade for these now. Free meat can be gathered from animals you butcher yourself. Meat from sentient creatures can’t be eaten. Butcher animals with 'x' and eat with 'e'.
*2. Always have wateale
-Adventurers need to drink 3-4 times a day. Water skin only holds 3 water, so it is useless. Bags hold 40 water and Backpacks hold 100 water which is too heavy for most adventurers. Quivers hold 20, which is the perfect amount. Fill quivers with water at rivers or wells. When quivers become icy, make a campfire with 'g', then Interact with your quiver with capital 'I' to heat it over the fire and make it drinkable. Ale can also be found in taverns as a substitute for water.
*3. Equip armor
-Armor and weapons can be found in the barracks of each town (and presumably in shops assuming that they have been fixed as promised). The barracks is the named building which houses the Lord/Lady of the town and the military company/supplies. You'll know you're there because of all the pedestals lining the wall. Hopefully the armor found in barracks is still free, at the very least for hearthpeople of said town. Try to get steel armor if possible (usually iron is the best you can find). Make sure to cover the head, neck, torso, legs, hands, and feet. An amazing guide to the exact pieces of armor that can equipped at the same time can be found here. Press 'w' to wear armor and 'r' to remove it.
*4. Get a mount
-Mounts increase overworld speed which increases the amount of ground that can be covered in one day. This reduces how frequently you need to stop for supplies. Mounts also allow you to move at extreme encumbrances with no movement penalty. Exotic mounts such as grizzly bears and elephants can be found in certain towns. Just look for any animal marked "Stray" and press 'h' next to it to claim it. Press 'h' again to mount it. Some mounts will get terrified in battle and flee in terror. A higher mount riding skill seems to shorten how long this fear lasts.
*5. Get some pets
-Companions can be tricky to recruit in the beginning, but pets are a great way to increase survivability. Unlike companions, you can also recruit a very high number of pets immediately. Everything labeled “stray” found within a town can be claimed as a pet with 'h', from ducks and dogs to bears and elephants. Just don’t get too attached, most pets die very fast, or permanently run away after combat. Especially the small ones. But that doesn't mean they can't be good one time meat-shields against flying copper bolts.
*6. Make sure your character can read and swim
-Most skills can be acquired organically by actions which your adventurer does, but certain skills like reading are never unlocked naturally, and must be unlocked during character creation. Because you need to read slabs or books to learn magic, putting a point in reading at character creation is mandatory. A few points in swimming are also recommended. Even a single tile full of water is enough to drown an adventurer with no swimming skill.
*7. Make a young world for less necromancers and more Megabeasts, and an old world for vice-versa
-World parameters matter. Evil is slightly stronger on average, which means the older a world is, the more likely it is to be infested with Necromancer towers and Goblin Pits. Savagery is just the number of animal people to play as, and beasts is the number of beasts to fight. You want both of these as high as possible if you want a lasting experience, the difficulty is actually easier with more beasts, as you won’t have to travel as far for missions. However, if you want a world you can actually "beat" without having to track down hundreds of beasts, I recommend the "Pocket" world size with max beasts. This gives you 2 random megabeasts, 2 random titans, and 4 random semi-megabeasts all within a couple days travel of each other. This has become one of my new favorite settings, as you can easily learn about all the world's greatest threats, defeat them for yourself, and relish in your "beaten" world.
*8. Don’t be afraid to run if you can’t win
-Although this is technically a turn based RPG, running away isn’t a button you press, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an option. If you are heavily outnumbered or facing a very strong enemy, don’t be afraid to sprint away (press capital 'S' for movespeed options) and reengage when it is more advantageous to do so. This is better than dying and losing your progress. This is where swimming comes in handy, as crossing rivers can be an easy way to get away from enemies that can't swim. Press 'j' to jump while sprinting to cross gaps/rivers and gain the upper hand.
*9. Don’t swim until you’ve really trained
-While it may be tempting to take a quick dip in the river, death can be moments away in any body of water. Even at competent and above levels of swimming, your character can only go about 10-20 squares before getting tired, and swimming while tired has a chance to keep your character in the same tile, further increasing their fatigue. This can mean your character drowning even just one square from the shore if you are extremely unlucky. It is worth noting that necromancer characters never tire, and thus cannot drown unless they are submerged underwater. Going underwater is a very bad idea in general, as the drowning process starts as soon as you run out of breath. If you ever find yourself in water with no immediate slope around you, press 'q' to sheathe your weapons and 'h' to begin climbing the terrain. With luck, you will eventually be able to climb to "above" and get out of the water to prevent drowning.
*10. Aim for the neck/head for instant kills
-Aiming in combat can be extremely beneficial. Lots of minor enemies such as kobolds and bandits can be killed with one solid hit to the neck or head. Using this tactic can make encounters against large groups of enemies much easier. A good rule of thumb is that every body-part in dwarf fortress includes every lower body-part attached to it. So an upper arm will include a lower arm and hand, a neck will include a head, and an upper leg will include a lower leg and foot. Press capital 'A' to aim carefully while next to a mob.
Intermediate Tips:
*11. Fast travel to long rest
-If you are damaged in battle and bleeding out, even if you are faint with mortal wounds, fast traveling via the world map will instantly heal your wounds. This may be considered a bug, but since adventurers cannot currently be healed at hospitals via adventure mode, this used to be one of the only ways to actually heal. Furthermore, since you can’t fast travel during combat, and because fast traveling doesn’t remove major injuries such as missing limbs, I’d say it’s a pretty balanced feature. The steam version has promised to add another version of healing, hinted to be magic potions. Beyond this, the only way to heal is via rolling 20-sided dice. More info on this below.
*12. Jog whenever possible
-Whenever not mounted and not in combat, you should set your speed to at least jog. This will increase your endurance stat naturally over time, increasing your combat prowess while you move around. Just be sure to reset your speed whenever your character drops to the ground from exhaustion to give them a chance to rest. Keep extra water on hand while doing this, as your character will need to drink more. And make sure not to jog into combat, this will increase your character’s chance of becoming exhausted during combat, which severely lowers stats. Necromancers never tire, and can thus set their speed to "sprint" at all times with seemingly no penalty to themselves. Note that companions will try to catch up with you at all times, and will drop to the ground from exhaustion themselves if you sprint everywhere. This presumably raises their own endurance stat.
*13. Create a character that just wants to perform
-A focused character will always be more proficient in combat, receiving a boost to stats such as accuracy and damage. Fully customizing needs in character creation can make a character that is very easy to keep focused. You can completely remove needs in character creation if you wish using this exact setup, but this will also remove the chance to receive the focused buff. If you are looking for a character who is focused at all times, use the above setup and move the "Merriment" slider up to one +. This will make a character who gains the full focus buff just by reading a poem aloud. If anything, just be sure to avoid needs that are currently impossible in adventure mode such as “Make romance,” as your character will eventually get distracted by these unmet needs and get a debuff to their stats.
*14. Create a world with legendary metals for better loot
-The more metals you choose at world generation, the better the loot will be everywhere. This setting can make gearing up in the early game either extremely trivial, or extremely challenging. World age can also affect possible loot, as extremely young worlds will not have created enough armor to make most encounters have meaningful loot. Scarce loot can feel somewhat better to progress through sometimes though, and can result in slightly weaker enemies overall as they themselves will not have an abundance of metal to gear up with. It is all a matter of personal preference.
*15. Tell stories of your notable kills
-Information in dwarf fortress is passed via a rumor system. No matter how many dragons you may slay, when you enter a new town, no one will care because they don’t know who you are. Every time you reach a new town, you should tell the largest group of people you can the stories of every notable encounter you’ve had. Your deeds are usually stored in the sites that they happened in, so write down the sites where you kill notable enemies, and press 'k' to perform the story about that site and share your deeds of valor. Early on you should tell stories of killing bandits, while later on you should focus on just semi-Megabeasts and Megabeasts. This will raise your reputation level, which will have benefits for recruiting party members.
*16. Recruit other party members
-While animal companions are good choices for meat shields early game, you should recruit as many fighters at barracks to adventure with you as possible. The amount of companions you can have at any one time is limited by your current reputation level, which is why it is important to tell everyone you can of your notable kills. Animal companions take up companion slots even though they go over the max cap, so try to transition from lots of animals early on to a small party of adventuring companions in the midgame, and a large number of companions in the endgame. Just be sure to let your companions win some easy battles on their own to level up their skills, otherwise they will die just as easily as animals in fights against Megabeasts. Don’t be surprised if some of your companions get terrified in combat and run away just like animals. It seems there may be more advanced ways to control your companions in the Steam version, so look out for that. If they do run away, be sure to try and find them, as they will take up a companion slot if you don’t part ways with them or watch them die. If they die and you don’t see it, they may permanently take up a slot this way. This is a bug and will hopefully be fixed eventually, but be wary of it for now.
*17. Become a hearthperson
-Starting a new character and trying to find quests can be very challenging. Lots of random characters will have various rumors, but won’t know enough details to send you on a proper quest. Lords and ladies however can make you into a hearthperson, and can then give you proper quests. They will only do this if you have enough reputation level though, which is why telling stories is important. Usually it takes a story of a bandit leader kill or higher to get a lord or lady to recruit you. Telling the story to them directly bypasses the time it takes for the rumor to spread to them. You can bypass this stage and get to quests right away by choosing to start as a hearthperson. Just beware that quests are randomized, and sometimes your first quest will be to kill a megabeast. When this happens, I recommend traveling to another town and becoming hearthperson there. There is currently one quest you can get that is unbeatable: the quest to "Make trouble" with another civilization. Hopefully this quest is either fixed or removed in the steam version, as the only option when this quest appears is to become hearthperson elsewhere.
*18. Train your skills early, and level skills you don't need
-Training skills via active combat can be very deadly. If possible, try to fight large, easy enemies to train all related combat skills as early as possible. If you find a horse for example, you can attack its legs to immobilize it, then spam nonlethal strikes to train your weapon skill. A couple horses with no legs is a brutal but safe way to train up weapons all the way to legendary. Every time a skill is leveled up, the associated stat (Strength, Agility, Endurance, etc.) will also slightly increase. While the visual change to these skills only happens at enormous breakpoints (high to very high, very high to superior, etc.), there is actually a linear value which increases with every associated skill increase. This means that your character stats will improve when your character skills improve regardless of if that improvement is immediately noticeable. In practice, this means that you should attempt to level every type of weapon skill you can to get your strength as high as it will go for max damage with all weapon types.
*19. Set combat preferences to facilitate training
-Skills like observation and stats like endurance are very important for late game combat. These skills in particular can be trained incredibly fast with combat preferences. If you set melee combat preferences to close quarters with capital 'C', this will prefer to grapple the enemy over and over again. This means you can move into the enemy repeatedly to quickly train your wrestling and fighting to legendary without navigating menus. Doing this without changing preferences can mean your character automatically makes a headshot and kills the enemy before you get the chance to properly level up stats. Just be sure to move away from your legless horses if you get tired, as the lowered stats means that even low risk combat can result in injury. Note that this strategy is very overpowered, and can give you a legendary fighter within minutes of starting regardless of character creation.
*20. Sneak up to enemies for stealth kills
-If you want to dispatch of large camps quickly and efficiently, chaining stealth kills can be an easy way to do this. Just press lowercase 's' while in movement options to toggle sneaking, then try to approach enemies without walking into their cone of vision. Doing this at night can be especially effective, as enemies have greatly reduced perception, or almost no perception while sleeping. Doing this repeatedly will increase your "Ambush" skill, giving you a much lower chance of being detected while approaching. Note that allies may still rush in while you're stealthing, so telling them to "wait" with capital "O" to initiate follower commands may be a good idea.
Advanced Tips:
*21. Get a slashing, piercing, and blunt weapon
-Some enemies in dwarf fortress are much easier to kill than others. Kobolds and crundles will crumple against most weapons, while things like bronze collosi are much harder to deal with. A good rule of thumb is to keep a slashing, piercing, and blunt weapon on hands at all times. Use slashing against basic targets and undead for quick decapitations, piercing against large organic creatures like giant cheetahs or rocs so that they give into pain (essentially stunlocking them), and blunt against inorganic enemies to crush them (collosi, armored titans, iron men, etc). When in doubt, keep a whip on hand to one shot most enemies. A legendary lasher with a named masterwork silver whip can easily one shot most things in the game with a heavy attack to the head. Note that the whip must be silver for this to work. This should be considered a bug that will probably be fixed later, but is very fun if you want to RP as a legendary vampire killer (ironically the only enemy the whip is weak against is an undead). Regardless of weapon choice, weapon skill is equally important. A novice hammer dwarf with a steel war hammer is just as useless against a bronze colossus as a legendary axedwarf with an artifact copper battle axe.
*22. Remove your backpack when starting combat
-Fighting while overencumbered is a death sentence. While fighting above default speed does not reduce the number of frames it takes to swing your weapon, fighting below default speed will add a delay after each swing before you can act again, giving enemies free strikes against you. This is also why fighting prone is ill-advised. However, this mechanic should not dissuade you from overencumbering yourself. Most mounts negate a large (if not all) amount of encumbrance. In addition, your character can move anything they can grab, even if it is the entire corpse of a megabeast which weighs multiple tons, it will just take them more frames to haul these items. So long as you store all of your loot in the same backpack, you are always safe from ambushes no matter your encumbrance, as you can remove and drop your backpack with 'r' and 'd' respectively as soon as combat starts, which usually takes less frames than it takes for any enemy to move. After combat, your backpack should be where you left it, and you can easily retrieve your haul. Just try not to lose it in a sea of dodging and carnage.
*23. Aim for the legs first, then the hands, then the neck
-Aiming for the neck can make weaker enemies trivial, but more proficient enemies will not allow this tactic, and very large enemies will have necks too large to decapitate. An advanced tactic that works against most strong enemies is to aim for the legs first to knock your enemy prone (or wings against flying enemies). Once your enemy is on the ground, their speed is halved, essentially giving you twice as many turns to attack. It is at this point you should aim for their arms, as these hold weapons for humanoids and usually have claws for beasts. Once the legs are taken out and the usage of weapons is disabled, you are much more likely to land a headshot, and in a much safer position to repeatedly spam this attack.
*24. Bleed out megabeasts, cut off hydra heads, pummel colossi
-Certain enemies such as Megabeasts are much harder to kill. These should be considered boss fights, and thus have certain kill parameters. Bronze colossi in particular usually need to have every single body part destroyed in order to be killed. Hydras in turn need to have the brain of each head destroyed to die, and will almost always live if one head is alive. Hill titans can vary from nigh unkillable (humanoids made of steel) to killable via literally any damaging attack (blobs made of water), so reading their description is extremely important in dealing with them. Anything with blood or liquid can eventually be bled out (including hydras), and even bronze colossi can die with one lucky whip to the head, so really mega-beast just refers to size more than anything (tell yourself that and remain calm while you spend 50+ turns to kill one).
*25. Never get hit (level dodge and block)
-Because major injuries are unhealable in combat (this may change with Steam healing), these accumulate over time. This means that the best way to play adventure mode is to never get hit. This may seem like a tall task, but almost all damage is avoidable via dodge and block. If you have a high observation stat, you will be able to dodge or block incoming attacks with capital 'A' while choosing your attack. While this may automatically succeed against weaker enemies, it has a chance to fail against stronger enemies if not properly leveled, so be sure to train these skills early on. Fighting when focused and not exhausted should ensure that these avoidance abilities work properly. Just don’t try to block an attack you wouldn’t block in real life.
*26. Don’t let enemies get a surround
-Fighting against multiple enemies can be a likely death scenario. If enemies completely surround you, then your character has a greatly reduced chance of automatically dodging or blocking attacks. In addition, moving through an occupied tile in dwarf fortress will roll a hidden die, and the losers will be forced prone, as only one creature can stand in a tile at once. Make sure to set speed to scramble in combat if this happens, get to an unoccupied square, and stand up as quickly as possible. Dodging into an open space in this scenario is a much better option than moving manually if at all possible. This entire scenario can be avoided if you slowly dodge in the same direction as enemies approach you in combat, ensuring that you only fight one at a time, and force the others to tire themselves as they run after you. Striking the legs of as many targets as possible is effective here, as it drastically increases the time it takes for each enemy to reach you.
*27. Throw coins to level archery
-Archery can be very cumbersome to use, as most bolts are too heavy to use without causing constant encumbrance, and training it is very slow and painful, as arrows usually split into stacks of one when fired. However, there is a way to level archery extremely quickly. By throwing something at the same tile you are on, you level your archery skill. You can then pick up the thrown object and throw it again. In practice, all you have to do is type 'g' 'a' 't' 'a' 'enter' around 600 times in a row to level throwing and archery to legendary. This is much faster than using arrows. One of the best objects to do this with is coins. As it turns out, coins are actually the best ranged weapon. Coins can be used in combat to great affect. Because dwarf fortress uses the archery stat when throwing items, it calculates the damage of thrown items as if shot from a bow with the same archery proficiency. While this does not do quite as much damage as bolts themselves, it effectively gives adventurers a way to reliably use ranged weapons without worrying about retrieving ammo, as money can usually be found in multiple stacks of 100 at bandit camps.
*28. Use archery against webs/fire
-While archery is a niche weapon type for most scenarios, it is mandatory against certain titans and most dragons, as well as giant cave spiders. Titans, like spiders, can possess the ability to web your adventurer. This stunlocks your character, making any shot a guaranteed hit. Against large enough titans, getting hit with a single shot of web is enough for instant death, as they will squish your head while webbed. Other titans may possess deadly dust or poisonous gas. While some of these effects are benign, breathing others can and will kill your character, and to my knowledge not even fast travel stops this. Fighting fire breathing dragons is an instant kill scenario as well, as they can melt your armor into molten liquid metal, stunlocking your character until they die from the heat. You can attempt to repeatedly jump until you reach a river, but you are certainly dead at this point. The use of archery (or rather, throwing coins) is mandatory to avoid this. While a few shots may not do anything at first, repeated shots will accumulate damage, and eventually kill or disable the enemy. Just be very careful getting into melee range to finish enemies off after this occurs, as one unlucky web or fire shot can and will still kill you. Avoid looting titans with dust or gas effects until after you leave and return to the area with fast travel to be sure that the gas dissipates.
*29. Become a necromancer
-Necromancy is a niche. Raising undead is problematic as townsfolk will either flee in terror or try to kill them, as will your companions. However, becoming a necromancer is EXTREMELY beneficial. Doing so will make it so your character never tires, allowing you to permanently sprint. This means no enemy can ever run from you, nor can any enemy catch you if you have a head-start. Your character will also never need to eat or drink again, allowing you to free up the bag-space that up to this point was constantly dedicated to food and drink. Your character will also never need to sleep, meaning you will not have any chance of getting drowsy while fighting at night, nor will your character be stunned when a party of dingos decides to ambush your camped party at 3am. Never tiring also means your character cannot drown while swimming unless they go underwater, giving you access to all rivers freely in combat. Purple skin is currently the only downside to becoming a necromancer, so if the secrets of life and death are found, you should read them as soon as possible. They are usually either in a necromancer tower or the slab from said tower will be sitting in the barracks of a random town on one of the pedestals.
*30. Collect as many 20-sided dice as you can
-Dice are extremely overpowered in adventure mode. Before the steam release, dice were the only way to heal wounds. Most dice rolls are cosmetic and simply provide an ominous randomized message (ie. "The way out is through"). However, certain dice (notably 20-sided) can have a variety of effects, including a "minor blessing," a "major blessing," a "minor curse" and a ""major curse"". The minor blessing give you a bonus to the impact of your stats on rolls for a week. This effectively means all your attacks gain a crit-chance modifier. The Major curse is actually a huge buff, as it turns you into an animal, but also removes all your wounds. The animal transformation is supposed to last a week, but actually only lasts until you rest or fast-travel, effectively making it a free full-heal. The Major blessing is incredible, and can range from giving you an exotic pet, upgrading all your equipment's quality level, or even granting you a divine metal artifact (I've tested this myself, it's 100% true.) Each die can only give one type of artifact (Shield, leggings, mace, etc.), so collect as many as possible for a chance at full divine metal artifact armor. Be VERY careful while rolling dice however, as the "minor curse" is actually the worst option by far. It gives you a 20% chance to fail any given roll, INCLUDING dodge and block rolls. This effectively means every combat encounter gives the enemy a 20% chance to get a free hit on you, even if you are a legendary fighter. When you roll this die, it is heavily advised to not do ANY combat for a week, or your character WILL die. In addition to this, each die has a specific deity attached, and each deity may only be divined once per week. Write down which deity corresponds to each die, and be sure not to contact the same deity twice in one week, or you will lose the power of ALL dice FOREVER. You will get one warning per week when you attempt to do this (to prevent screwing you over when testing new dice) so when you see this warning, avoid rolling all dice for a week to be safe.
*31. Know the game progression (Kobolds, Bandits, Hearthperson, Semi-Megabeasts, Towers, Megabeasts, Vaults, Dark Fortresses, Caverns)
-Knowing what you’re doing at any given point can be the difference between life and death. If you’re playing adventure mode without savescumming (which is the only way to play it in the old versions), then you will be making new characters a lot. Knowing the basic progression of where you should go on new characters will make the ultimate goal of raiding the vault and fighting the angel that much easier. Your basic path should be gearing up in towns, training basic combat skills against animals, fighting kobold and bandit camps to level reputation, telling stories to become a hearthperson, doing quests as a hearthperson to further reputation level and combat skills, fighting semimega and Megabeasts to become a legendary hero, raiding towers to find the secrets, finding the vault and slay the archangel, and finally using the secrets to recruit the master of the dark fortress. It is unknown if you can battle forgotten beasts in the caverns, but if you can, doing so until your character dies is the final stage. The surface and visiting towns should be considered the early game, raiding sites should be considered the midgame, killing the angel in the vault should be considered the endgame, and roaming the caverns should be considered the postgame. Of course, adventure mode has lots more to offer than just combat, and if you want to learn its ins and outs for yourself, the only way to do that is to jump in and play it. Congratulations on the steam release, and happy adventuring everyone!

Note from the author: The following poem was inspired by T.H. White's Sword in the Stone/The Once and Future King, from chapter 13, when Merlyn transforms Arthur (Wart) into an ant.
Done or not done, their measure of value; Questions were a sign of insanity. Ants follow orders, their only virtue; Small insects mimicking humanity. They communicate with their antennas; Humans are instructed digitally. Insubordination will cause dilemmas; Deviants are treated criminally. If the queen commands all of her soldiers; Then who directs the screen that people serve? Most have never unmasked their controller; Brainless citizens get what they deserve. A life of duty is no life at all; Unless you are a creature that is small.
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