Teaching inflected endings
Linux Distro for My Girlfriend's Gaming and Customization Needs
2024.05.19 00:15 DeeKahy Linux Distro for My Girlfriend's Gaming and Customization Needs
I've been using Linux for a while and I'm pretty happy with it. Recently, my girlfriend decided she wants to switch from Windows 11 to Linux for her PC. She plays basic games, most of which have a gold or higher rating on ProtonDB (except for Roblox, which she can play on her laptop).
I've been daily driving NixOS and love it. Before that, I used Fedora but found some things too complicated, like setting up DaVinci Resolve and changing my desktop environment. NixOS makes it easy to revert to an older config if something goes wrong, but it just doesn't have any good graphical applications for installing and updating things.
Her PC runs Windows 11 (with the workaround) but it hasn't been a great experience for her. If Linux doesn't work out, she'll revert to Windows 10 until it loses support.
submitted by DeeKahy to linux4noobs [link] [comments]
I've been daily driving NixOS and love it. Before that, I used Fedora but found some things too complicated, like setting up DaVinci Resolve and changing my desktop environment. NixOS makes it easy to revert to an older config if something goes wrong, but it just doesn't have any good graphical applications for installing and updating things.
Her PC runs Windows 11 (with the workaround) but it hasn't been a great experience for her. If Linux doesn't work out, she'll revert to Windows 10 until it loses support.
What We're Looking For:
- Customization: She wants to personalize her system.
- Stability: She needs a stable system that's easy to fix if something breaks, preferably without using the command line.
- User-Friendly: Having a bunch of graphical apps is a huge bonus, including a software store and the ability to try out and switch desktop environments. (She will likely end up with kde)
- Gaming and Discord: She uses an AMD GPU and primarily wants to game and chat with friends on Discord.
My Preferences:
- I'm the one looking for recommendations since I will teach her the basics of Linux and the terminal. However, I don't want to spend my evenings fixing her PC if she breaks it accidentally or if an update causes issues.
- Personally, I've been considering NixOS for her because I can reuse most of my own config and help troubleshoot easily. She's somewhat comfortable using Nix packages and could handle running a simple script to rebuild the system.
Questions:
- What Linux distros should we consider?
- What do you guys recommend for her needs?
2024.05.19 00:15 Medium-Wing-4710 The harrowing experience of a cancer-surviving partner turned abuser
Over the course of my 4 year marriage to my partner, I have arrived at the position that I was abused, manipulated, and functionally enslaved to a mentally ill partner.
In simplest form, the progression is apparently observable. She was diagnosed with cancer in October of 2019 while we were engaged. Due to the diagnosis, we moved up our actual marriage date (our wedding was still set for mid-April) to December 1, 2019. Her surgery was December 13, 2019. In my compassion for her, I agreed to move our wedding date up to offset her anxiety around who would be responsible for her if things went south with her surgical treatment.
Our first month of marriage was straightforward; she was on pain meds recovering from surgery, so the main engagement that occurred was me walking her up and down the hospital hallway as she recovered and trying to meet her base physical needs of hygiene, food, and presence. We stayed in the hospital for 2-3 weeks (with recurring hospital visits for complications).
Quickly after we figured out our marital living situation in her small 3-bed apartment with 2 roommates, our relationship devolved. Specifically, she was irritable because of the pain she was in, causing her to lash out at me with regular frequency for small things. If I didn’t put clothes away in the right place, didn’t anticipate her needs (without her communicating them), or ate the wrong food in front of her she would shout at me and decry me for my thoughtlessness.
These small, critical engagements were wounding and created a distance between us – and there was no upside. She was never kind, never paid mind to needs I might have, and started down a path of cultivating a root of bitterness in her soul. She quickly revealed herself to be venomous, hateful, and vindictive when she felt like she was wronged — and any observation of concern about our marriage resulted me in being accused of being mean or insensitive, even if I spent hours or days calculating the best way to share my concern (and I have a master’s degree in communication where I focused in studying disagreement — I know how to carefully package concerns).
During this time, I worked hard to provide for us, foreseeing a significant time period where I would have to be primary financial provider and caregiver. I increased my income each year we were married by around 25%, finishing our marriage at >$80,000 in yearly income, compared to starting our marriage at a modest $42,000 salary (including dramatically improving our healthcare). Frankly, I increased my income to provide for us in spite of the lack of support at home.
But to be clear: I don’t think it would have been particularly difficult to provide financially if I had an ounce of support at home.
However, the relentless criticism and expectation of mind-reading continued through the years. I rationalized this abuse for the first year of our marriage because of all the excuses to be cruel, she had a good one – she had cancer. I hung onto a hope that it would stop. Contrary to my hope, as the years went on – and our expenses climbed – and I continued to work myself to the bone – she continued to relentlessly critique and even started being more emotionally demanding, expecting me to take responsibility for her inability to cope with her emotions – I was drowning. She was asking too much of me. There was no deliverance from her abuse.
I was exhausted. In the peak of the abuse I endured at her hand, I was working multiple jobs, sleeping 10+ hours a night and napping frequently during the day around meetings and work, then coping with alcohol to numb myself to the abusive dynamic and fall asleep with no support from her. The only time I could approach her sexually was when I was intoxicated, with inhibitions lowered. The only time I could have a conversation with her was with a counselor in the room. Without something to mitigate opportunity for her to be cruel to me, either a mediator or self-medication, I was scared.
I lived at home in a constant state of alert and cognitive fatigue. No matter how I tried to make sense of my home life, I couldn’t. When she looked at or touched me, I would recoil in fear, anticipating some sort of incisive critique or demand expressed. Then she would criticize me for not responding warmly to her, exacerbating the cycle.
I couldn’t meet her needs – I was utterly exhausted. When I would tell her of the exhaustion I experienced in marital counseling, her responses were typically something along the lines of not believing me, denying what I was saying was true, or calling my exhaustion an ‘excuse’. I could interact happily with my friends… why not her?
I did not deny her demands were legitimate; rather, I expressed my inability to meet them because of how fatigued I was. I said ‘I can’t’ so many times. I realize her demands were small; affection, saying ‘i love you’, complimenting her. But it’s disorienting to be consistently berated and belittled by a person and then asked to compliment them and tell them you love them.
The push and pull of abuse is exhausting to a person who is not mentally because it does not make sense.
Further, in counseling I realized that I have forgotten that I have needs. I have lost the tools to even evaluate what my needs might be because, implicitly and explicitly in my marriage, I was told my needs don’t matter.
My marriage made no sense; I was obviously drowning, exhausted with the demands our life imposed on me. I was doing everything I could to get straight. I was in individual therapy, marital counseling, pastoral counseling, trying different antidepressants (4 in total – all with no effect), changing eating habits, trying to reduce my drinking, getting medical tests to see if I had health issues causing my fatigue, and being vulnerable in my friendships in an attempt to invite others in to process and move forward and figure out my marriage. I desperately shared everything I could about my marriage, hoping someone else would crack the code where I couldn’t.
None of my efforts worked. I could not get out of the exhausted state I was in. It’s worth noting here that within weeks of separating I almost completely cut out alcohol, got into a regular sleep schedule, was waking up at 6-7am every day and reading multiple hours (which I couldn’t do in marriage due to cognitive fatigue/distraction), and experienced a resurgence of energy. I have felt the duress I was under lift and lift and lift and the weeks and months have went on.
In retrospect, I was experiencing cognitive fatigue because I was taking the demands my wife was placing on me seriously, but no matter what I did I could not make sense of them. How could she not see that I was doing everything I could to make ends meet – the ends which she was imposing on me? I did not have additional energy left. She would ask me ‘Do you love me?’ and I didn’t know how to respond. How is my work not at least some symbol of love? My dream was to be a poor professor, which she knew – instead I was grinding myself to the bone, working in digital marketing with multiple freelance projects, picking up a bartending gig and a teaching gig on top of full-time employment.
The last straw was when she accused me of abuse. I took that accusation seriously, and weighed it against my experience. ‘Am I an abuser?’ I asked myself. I sorted through my behavior and how I treated her. I came to the conclusion that I may be a poor husband in serious ways; but I am not an abuser. And the abuse question opened the door to the question… ‘I may not be an abuser… but is there abuse in our marriage?’ And the answer quickly became ‘Yes.’
When we were married, I understood that she wasn’t going to work much for a while. However, she worked the bare minimum she could for 4 years, earning at most in a single year $18,000. As the years went on and my income climbed, our debt continued to climb as well. She was still contributing the same, yet spending frivolously on useless knick knacks for our home and a cat. As I packed up our home to sell, the majority of items were dozens of boxes of useless junk she’d accumulated.
She lived a life of mania around finances. We would go to marital counseling and she would regularly express, ‘I would rather be poor and happy than rich and sad’. We were poor and sad. Sure, my income was the highest it’d ever been – but we were still drowning, with debts climbing. At the end of our marriage, we’d accumulated about $20,000 in consumer debt between credit cards and personal loans.
It was traumatizing (and abusive) to go to counseling and be told by my partner she would ‘rather be poor and happy and than rich and sad’ when the factual scenario we were living was neither. She actively denied reality – both my lived experience and the reality of our finances – at my expense. It was killing me, trying to make sense of what we were going through but being unable to make sense of what I was being told and what I was experiencing.
Throughout this time, it is worth adding that she also leveraged my spiritual leadership to ‘set me straight’. I was in a conservative Evangelical space, believing that men are the ultimate provider in a family unit and primarily responsible for the status of the marriage. Because I was not doing what she wanted me to (lavishing her with affection), I was muscled into multiple groups and meetings where pastoral care intervened to restore our marriage. In the moment, I submitted to my pastoral care because of my trust for them and my faith in God. Now, I believe this dynamic was abusive; my pastoral care did not care in any sense for my soul; they only cared about fixing my marriage. No questions around ‘why’ my marriage was so bad were asked; only what was going on and how it could be fixed. I relish the thought of my pastoral care being held accountable for the abuse they exercised upon me during this time on judgment day, albeit through a shaken faith in a God that would enable this dynamic.
With my spiritual community, I shared that I felt like she was my tormentor; that she it felt as if I were on the ground due to exhaustion, and she was standing on my throat, telling me to ‘get up’ and ‘tell me you love me’; that our metaphorical life was a boat, sinking, and I was desperately bailing out water. All the while, she stood at the other end of the boat, desperately bailing water in and looking at me like I was a maniac.
And yet, because there was no adultery, there was no category for divorce. We had sworn an oath before God and were required to fix this.
As I reflect upon my marriage (and the ongoing divorce proceedings), a few things are clear.
She is an abuser. I don’t think she intends to be, but impact matters. She is mentally ill and unable to reckon with basic reality.
She is a manipulator. She manipulated my spiritual community against me. I was viewed as someone to be corrected while begging for help from my trusted friends and pastoral care, whom I now regret being vulnerable with due to their abuse and denial of my reality because I didn’t fit neatly into their thin theological categories.
She is an enslaver. In divorce proceedings, she is doing everything she can to get every dollar from me, leveraging student loans I did not co-sign, my continually increasing income due to my hard work, and denying every claim of dissipated assets she can.
It is truly a mind-breaking experience to see your compassion leveraged against you for money. I had to sit under an attorney proclaiming to a judge that, since I consented to move up our marriage date before her cancer surgery, ‘I knew what I was getting into’. That she is entitled to large sums of money (that do not exist; we never had more than $3000 in our bank account during marriage) due to that decision.
Even apart from the abuse, I did not know what I was getting into. Including the abuse, I am full of remorse for having invited such an evil, hateful person into my life.
This experience has been the most challenging to my faith. As I endured abuse from her, I trusted God in a few ways. That the compassion I showed would maybe be rewarded – or, at least not punished. That my spiritual community wanted what was best for me. That God was not a punitive, hateful God (like my partner). I do not believe this trust was well placed, but am open to shortcomings in my views here.
I struggle to consent to a God that allowed my experience to occur. I’m open and processing in some kind of faith, but I really don’t know what it looks like to find a place to put this pain and betrayal that I’m experiencing.
I am a survivor of abuse, and the abuse I endured was mind-shattering. I sacrificed everything to support a partner diagnosed with serious bodily illness, which drove her to hate me and deny my lived experience because she could not reconcile it with the hatefulness she cultivated over our marriage, choosing bitterness over any positivity for four years, poisoning my well-being in the process.
What I envisioned to be the most compassionate moment of my life — marrying a person with cancer and promising to support and love them — has become nothing but a symbol of pain and remorse. I envisioned a life where my partner and I would fight against the terror of cancer; instead she hopped to the other side, choosing her ongoing health issues as the ally and myself as the enemy.
It took me 4 years to realize it. And as she drags me through court to leverage every dollar out of me I can, my only regret is that I didn’t leave my abuser to her own devices sooner; self-pity, hatefulness, and a sheer disregard toward taking responsibility for anything.
I am grateful but drowning. As we are negotiating settlement, the end is near, and my abuser will soon be unable to execute any influence in my life.
submitted by Medium-Wing-4710 to abusesurvivors [link] [comments]
In simplest form, the progression is apparently observable. She was diagnosed with cancer in October of 2019 while we were engaged. Due to the diagnosis, we moved up our actual marriage date (our wedding was still set for mid-April) to December 1, 2019. Her surgery was December 13, 2019. In my compassion for her, I agreed to move our wedding date up to offset her anxiety around who would be responsible for her if things went south with her surgical treatment.
Our first month of marriage was straightforward; she was on pain meds recovering from surgery, so the main engagement that occurred was me walking her up and down the hospital hallway as she recovered and trying to meet her base physical needs of hygiene, food, and presence. We stayed in the hospital for 2-3 weeks (with recurring hospital visits for complications).
Quickly after we figured out our marital living situation in her small 3-bed apartment with 2 roommates, our relationship devolved. Specifically, she was irritable because of the pain she was in, causing her to lash out at me with regular frequency for small things. If I didn’t put clothes away in the right place, didn’t anticipate her needs (without her communicating them), or ate the wrong food in front of her she would shout at me and decry me for my thoughtlessness.
These small, critical engagements were wounding and created a distance between us – and there was no upside. She was never kind, never paid mind to needs I might have, and started down a path of cultivating a root of bitterness in her soul. She quickly revealed herself to be venomous, hateful, and vindictive when she felt like she was wronged — and any observation of concern about our marriage resulted me in being accused of being mean or insensitive, even if I spent hours or days calculating the best way to share my concern (and I have a master’s degree in communication where I focused in studying disagreement — I know how to carefully package concerns).
During this time, I worked hard to provide for us, foreseeing a significant time period where I would have to be primary financial provider and caregiver. I increased my income each year we were married by around 25%, finishing our marriage at >$80,000 in yearly income, compared to starting our marriage at a modest $42,000 salary (including dramatically improving our healthcare). Frankly, I increased my income to provide for us in spite of the lack of support at home.
But to be clear: I don’t think it would have been particularly difficult to provide financially if I had an ounce of support at home.
However, the relentless criticism and expectation of mind-reading continued through the years. I rationalized this abuse for the first year of our marriage because of all the excuses to be cruel, she had a good one – she had cancer. I hung onto a hope that it would stop. Contrary to my hope, as the years went on – and our expenses climbed – and I continued to work myself to the bone – she continued to relentlessly critique and even started being more emotionally demanding, expecting me to take responsibility for her inability to cope with her emotions – I was drowning. She was asking too much of me. There was no deliverance from her abuse.
I was exhausted. In the peak of the abuse I endured at her hand, I was working multiple jobs, sleeping 10+ hours a night and napping frequently during the day around meetings and work, then coping with alcohol to numb myself to the abusive dynamic and fall asleep with no support from her. The only time I could approach her sexually was when I was intoxicated, with inhibitions lowered. The only time I could have a conversation with her was with a counselor in the room. Without something to mitigate opportunity for her to be cruel to me, either a mediator or self-medication, I was scared.
I lived at home in a constant state of alert and cognitive fatigue. No matter how I tried to make sense of my home life, I couldn’t. When she looked at or touched me, I would recoil in fear, anticipating some sort of incisive critique or demand expressed. Then she would criticize me for not responding warmly to her, exacerbating the cycle.
I couldn’t meet her needs – I was utterly exhausted. When I would tell her of the exhaustion I experienced in marital counseling, her responses were typically something along the lines of not believing me, denying what I was saying was true, or calling my exhaustion an ‘excuse’. I could interact happily with my friends… why not her?
I did not deny her demands were legitimate; rather, I expressed my inability to meet them because of how fatigued I was. I said ‘I can’t’ so many times. I realize her demands were small; affection, saying ‘i love you’, complimenting her. But it’s disorienting to be consistently berated and belittled by a person and then asked to compliment them and tell them you love them.
The push and pull of abuse is exhausting to a person who is not mentally because it does not make sense.
Further, in counseling I realized that I have forgotten that I have needs. I have lost the tools to even evaluate what my needs might be because, implicitly and explicitly in my marriage, I was told my needs don’t matter.
My marriage made no sense; I was obviously drowning, exhausted with the demands our life imposed on me. I was doing everything I could to get straight. I was in individual therapy, marital counseling, pastoral counseling, trying different antidepressants (4 in total – all with no effect), changing eating habits, trying to reduce my drinking, getting medical tests to see if I had health issues causing my fatigue, and being vulnerable in my friendships in an attempt to invite others in to process and move forward and figure out my marriage. I desperately shared everything I could about my marriage, hoping someone else would crack the code where I couldn’t.
None of my efforts worked. I could not get out of the exhausted state I was in. It’s worth noting here that within weeks of separating I almost completely cut out alcohol, got into a regular sleep schedule, was waking up at 6-7am every day and reading multiple hours (which I couldn’t do in marriage due to cognitive fatigue/distraction), and experienced a resurgence of energy. I have felt the duress I was under lift and lift and lift and the weeks and months have went on.
In retrospect, I was experiencing cognitive fatigue because I was taking the demands my wife was placing on me seriously, but no matter what I did I could not make sense of them. How could she not see that I was doing everything I could to make ends meet – the ends which she was imposing on me? I did not have additional energy left. She would ask me ‘Do you love me?’ and I didn’t know how to respond. How is my work not at least some symbol of love? My dream was to be a poor professor, which she knew – instead I was grinding myself to the bone, working in digital marketing with multiple freelance projects, picking up a bartending gig and a teaching gig on top of full-time employment.
The last straw was when she accused me of abuse. I took that accusation seriously, and weighed it against my experience. ‘Am I an abuser?’ I asked myself. I sorted through my behavior and how I treated her. I came to the conclusion that I may be a poor husband in serious ways; but I am not an abuser. And the abuse question opened the door to the question… ‘I may not be an abuser… but is there abuse in our marriage?’ And the answer quickly became ‘Yes.’
When we were married, I understood that she wasn’t going to work much for a while. However, she worked the bare minimum she could for 4 years, earning at most in a single year $18,000. As the years went on and my income climbed, our debt continued to climb as well. She was still contributing the same, yet spending frivolously on useless knick knacks for our home and a cat. As I packed up our home to sell, the majority of items were dozens of boxes of useless junk she’d accumulated.
She lived a life of mania around finances. We would go to marital counseling and she would regularly express, ‘I would rather be poor and happy than rich and sad’. We were poor and sad. Sure, my income was the highest it’d ever been – but we were still drowning, with debts climbing. At the end of our marriage, we’d accumulated about $20,000 in consumer debt between credit cards and personal loans.
It was traumatizing (and abusive) to go to counseling and be told by my partner she would ‘rather be poor and happy and than rich and sad’ when the factual scenario we were living was neither. She actively denied reality – both my lived experience and the reality of our finances – at my expense. It was killing me, trying to make sense of what we were going through but being unable to make sense of what I was being told and what I was experiencing.
Throughout this time, it is worth adding that she also leveraged my spiritual leadership to ‘set me straight’. I was in a conservative Evangelical space, believing that men are the ultimate provider in a family unit and primarily responsible for the status of the marriage. Because I was not doing what she wanted me to (lavishing her with affection), I was muscled into multiple groups and meetings where pastoral care intervened to restore our marriage. In the moment, I submitted to my pastoral care because of my trust for them and my faith in God. Now, I believe this dynamic was abusive; my pastoral care did not care in any sense for my soul; they only cared about fixing my marriage. No questions around ‘why’ my marriage was so bad were asked; only what was going on and how it could be fixed. I relish the thought of my pastoral care being held accountable for the abuse they exercised upon me during this time on judgment day, albeit through a shaken faith in a God that would enable this dynamic.
With my spiritual community, I shared that I felt like she was my tormentor; that she it felt as if I were on the ground due to exhaustion, and she was standing on my throat, telling me to ‘get up’ and ‘tell me you love me’; that our metaphorical life was a boat, sinking, and I was desperately bailing out water. All the while, she stood at the other end of the boat, desperately bailing water in and looking at me like I was a maniac.
And yet, because there was no adultery, there was no category for divorce. We had sworn an oath before God and were required to fix this.
As I reflect upon my marriage (and the ongoing divorce proceedings), a few things are clear.
She is an abuser. I don’t think she intends to be, but impact matters. She is mentally ill and unable to reckon with basic reality.
She is a manipulator. She manipulated my spiritual community against me. I was viewed as someone to be corrected while begging for help from my trusted friends and pastoral care, whom I now regret being vulnerable with due to their abuse and denial of my reality because I didn’t fit neatly into their thin theological categories.
She is an enslaver. In divorce proceedings, she is doing everything she can to get every dollar from me, leveraging student loans I did not co-sign, my continually increasing income due to my hard work, and denying every claim of dissipated assets she can.
It is truly a mind-breaking experience to see your compassion leveraged against you for money. I had to sit under an attorney proclaiming to a judge that, since I consented to move up our marriage date before her cancer surgery, ‘I knew what I was getting into’. That she is entitled to large sums of money (that do not exist; we never had more than $3000 in our bank account during marriage) due to that decision.
Even apart from the abuse, I did not know what I was getting into. Including the abuse, I am full of remorse for having invited such an evil, hateful person into my life.
This experience has been the most challenging to my faith. As I endured abuse from her, I trusted God in a few ways. That the compassion I showed would maybe be rewarded – or, at least not punished. That my spiritual community wanted what was best for me. That God was not a punitive, hateful God (like my partner). I do not believe this trust was well placed, but am open to shortcomings in my views here.
I struggle to consent to a God that allowed my experience to occur. I’m open and processing in some kind of faith, but I really don’t know what it looks like to find a place to put this pain and betrayal that I’m experiencing.
I am a survivor of abuse, and the abuse I endured was mind-shattering. I sacrificed everything to support a partner diagnosed with serious bodily illness, which drove her to hate me and deny my lived experience because she could not reconcile it with the hatefulness she cultivated over our marriage, choosing bitterness over any positivity for four years, poisoning my well-being in the process.
What I envisioned to be the most compassionate moment of my life — marrying a person with cancer and promising to support and love them — has become nothing but a symbol of pain and remorse. I envisioned a life where my partner and I would fight against the terror of cancer; instead she hopped to the other side, choosing her ongoing health issues as the ally and myself as the enemy.
It took me 4 years to realize it. And as she drags me through court to leverage every dollar out of me I can, my only regret is that I didn’t leave my abuser to her own devices sooner; self-pity, hatefulness, and a sheer disregard toward taking responsibility for anything.
I am grateful but drowning. As we are negotiating settlement, the end is near, and my abuser will soon be unable to execute any influence in my life.
2024.05.19 00:11 Dear-Cockroach-6979 Wouldn’t mind some advice…
(Sorry, it’s kinda long)
Hey everyone,
A bit about me: I grew up in a toxic household with an alcoholic abusive single mother. She had anywhere from 15-20 stray cats in our home that she spoiled and loved more than me. She sure made that clear! My father left me and my mother when I was two years old and he never came back. I was put into the California foster care system at age 13 due to my mother being reported multiple times by my junior high school counselor. From there I went to several mental hospitals, lockdown facilities and group homes up to my 18th birthday. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder back in my adolescent years. I haven’t been evaluated as an adult but I’m sure I would be diagnosed with MDD if I were.
I have spent almost my entire adult life doing nothing with myself. I spent a lot of time early on sleeping in my car and showering at my friends houses. My grandma in Arizona helped me out a great deal and let me stay with her and find work, and I was proud of myself although I was working a menial janitorial job at a casino. I’m pretty tech savvy and skilled with automotive repair but I never pursued further education. When my grandma passed away in 2007 I got severely depressed but I managed to get a place to live with roommates and held down a full time job, again at a casino doing janitorial work. Developed a gambling addiction and an alcohol addiction. Got a DUI in 2008 and that started my legal troubles. Lost my place and lost my job.
I slept in my car and worked at casinos doing menial work again. Met a woman at one of the jobs and got married April 2010. She had a few kids with a bunch of baby daddy drama, and I couldn’t deal with it so I just walked away and the divorce was finalized by the end of the year. I stopped drinking after that. From there I kept working until 2011, when I decided to quit my job, take my old Subaru XT and hit the road. Went all over the southwest US sleeping in the car and exploring, got a few tickets for no insurance, got my license suspended for said tickets and also for not paying my payments on the DUI. I got to Albuquerque NM and my car finally croaked on me. Transmission failure. Slept in it for a week or so in a mini-mall parking lot until the cops were called on me and unsurprisingly took my car. I was officially a street person at age 26.
I spent several years hitchhiking, panhandling, dumpster diving, hopping freight trains and finding spots to sleep or camp wherever I could. I was so depressed that I didn’t take very good care of myself and had no desire whatsoever to try to better myself and dig out of the hole I got myself into. I used to call myself an urban survivalist. I remained in this state of mind until late 2022 when dental problems nearly killed me. I finally found a place to stay in Nevada with a lady I called a foster mother but I had a very hard time getting used to being housed. I got all my teeth yanked and a set of dentures thanks to Nevada Medicaid. I got a job at a car wash for six months but gave up the job due to stress at home and workplace nepotism. I even got a few credit cards and got my score up to 719! Anyhow, foster mother was an alcoholic, she started to remind me of my biological mother and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had a few thousand dollars saved up and moved back to Arizona a couple of months ago.
I am currently at a weekly motel and have been attempting to find any work I can. Managed to get interviews for dishwasher jobs, housekeeping jobs, janitorial jobs and night crew at a grocery store. Haven’t heard back from any of them though. I have half of my savings left and it seems inevitable that I’ll run out of money pretty soon.
I have a good feeling that the ridiculously long gap of employment looks terrible on my resume and that may be a reason I’m not getting anything. I mean, what do I tell the interviewer, that I was a damn bum?
I like to think I’m pretty smart. I was disassembling and reassembling IBM PC’s before I hit puberty. I was the computer technician for my high school back in the Windows XP era. Once I started driving I began teaching myself automotive repair with Chilton and Haynes manuals along with plenty of trial and error. It blew people’s minds when I, a dirty bum, helped get their car back on the road if I noticed they needed assistance. I helped a man I met at a park and did an engine swap on his Nissan Xterra over a couple weekends in exchange for new camping gear.
I can’t get work as a mechanic or do any driving related jobs unless I get my license back and it would take a LOT of money to get it back. On top of that I have to have an ignition interlock in any vehicle I drive. I wouldn’t mind getting into computer repair but I don’t have the certification to do so, and I’ve been out of the loop for a long time. I have a MacBook Air M1 and wish I could learn a way to make money with it like some sort of remote job but that seems impossible to me at this point.
For the record, I still don’t drink and I’ve never done a hard drug in my life. I haven’t smoked weed in months so I am able to pass a drug test if I were hired somewhere. Also, I have no felonies whatsoever on my record. Some people like to be stereotypical so I figured I’d throw that out there.
I guess what I’m asking is what should I do at this point? What path would you take if you were in my shoes? I won’t lie, suicide has been on my mind a lot lately. I don’t have many friends and I don’t have any family to talk to. I don’t like being a burden on anyone. Should I just accept that I’m gonna probably be homeless again, possibly for the rest of my life? Is there anywhere in the US that I could possibly get back on my feet with some sort of labor work and a place to sleep? I’d move anywhere if I knew I had a shot. Am I a lost cause at age 38? I’d love to hear some ideas!
submitted by Dear-Cockroach-6979 to depression [link] [comments]
Hey everyone,
A bit about me: I grew up in a toxic household with an alcoholic abusive single mother. She had anywhere from 15-20 stray cats in our home that she spoiled and loved more than me. She sure made that clear! My father left me and my mother when I was two years old and he never came back. I was put into the California foster care system at age 13 due to my mother being reported multiple times by my junior high school counselor. From there I went to several mental hospitals, lockdown facilities and group homes up to my 18th birthday. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder back in my adolescent years. I haven’t been evaluated as an adult but I’m sure I would be diagnosed with MDD if I were.
I have spent almost my entire adult life doing nothing with myself. I spent a lot of time early on sleeping in my car and showering at my friends houses. My grandma in Arizona helped me out a great deal and let me stay with her and find work, and I was proud of myself although I was working a menial janitorial job at a casino. I’m pretty tech savvy and skilled with automotive repair but I never pursued further education. When my grandma passed away in 2007 I got severely depressed but I managed to get a place to live with roommates and held down a full time job, again at a casino doing janitorial work. Developed a gambling addiction and an alcohol addiction. Got a DUI in 2008 and that started my legal troubles. Lost my place and lost my job.
I slept in my car and worked at casinos doing menial work again. Met a woman at one of the jobs and got married April 2010. She had a few kids with a bunch of baby daddy drama, and I couldn’t deal with it so I just walked away and the divorce was finalized by the end of the year. I stopped drinking after that. From there I kept working until 2011, when I decided to quit my job, take my old Subaru XT and hit the road. Went all over the southwest US sleeping in the car and exploring, got a few tickets for no insurance, got my license suspended for said tickets and also for not paying my payments on the DUI. I got to Albuquerque NM and my car finally croaked on me. Transmission failure. Slept in it for a week or so in a mini-mall parking lot until the cops were called on me and unsurprisingly took my car. I was officially a street person at age 26.
I spent several years hitchhiking, panhandling, dumpster diving, hopping freight trains and finding spots to sleep or camp wherever I could. I was so depressed that I didn’t take very good care of myself and had no desire whatsoever to try to better myself and dig out of the hole I got myself into. I used to call myself an urban survivalist. I remained in this state of mind until late 2022 when dental problems nearly killed me. I finally found a place to stay in Nevada with a lady I called a foster mother but I had a very hard time getting used to being housed. I got all my teeth yanked and a set of dentures thanks to Nevada Medicaid. I got a job at a car wash for six months but gave up the job due to stress at home and workplace nepotism. I even got a few credit cards and got my score up to 719! Anyhow, foster mother was an alcoholic, she started to remind me of my biological mother and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had a few thousand dollars saved up and moved back to Arizona a couple of months ago.
I am currently at a weekly motel and have been attempting to find any work I can. Managed to get interviews for dishwasher jobs, housekeeping jobs, janitorial jobs and night crew at a grocery store. Haven’t heard back from any of them though. I have half of my savings left and it seems inevitable that I’ll run out of money pretty soon.
I have a good feeling that the ridiculously long gap of employment looks terrible on my resume and that may be a reason I’m not getting anything. I mean, what do I tell the interviewer, that I was a damn bum?
I like to think I’m pretty smart. I was disassembling and reassembling IBM PC’s before I hit puberty. I was the computer technician for my high school back in the Windows XP era. Once I started driving I began teaching myself automotive repair with Chilton and Haynes manuals along with plenty of trial and error. It blew people’s minds when I, a dirty bum, helped get their car back on the road if I noticed they needed assistance. I helped a man I met at a park and did an engine swap on his Nissan Xterra over a couple weekends in exchange for new camping gear.
I can’t get work as a mechanic or do any driving related jobs unless I get my license back and it would take a LOT of money to get it back. On top of that I have to have an ignition interlock in any vehicle I drive. I wouldn’t mind getting into computer repair but I don’t have the certification to do so, and I’ve been out of the loop for a long time. I have a MacBook Air M1 and wish I could learn a way to make money with it like some sort of remote job but that seems impossible to me at this point.
For the record, I still don’t drink and I’ve never done a hard drug in my life. I haven’t smoked weed in months so I am able to pass a drug test if I were hired somewhere. Also, I have no felonies whatsoever on my record. Some people like to be stereotypical so I figured I’d throw that out there.
I guess what I’m asking is what should I do at this point? What path would you take if you were in my shoes? I won’t lie, suicide has been on my mind a lot lately. I don’t have many friends and I don’t have any family to talk to. I don’t like being a burden on anyone. Should I just accept that I’m gonna probably be homeless again, possibly for the rest of my life? Is there anywhere in the US that I could possibly get back on my feet with some sort of labor work and a place to sleep? I’d move anywhere if I knew I had a shot. Am I a lost cause at age 38? I’d love to hear some ideas!
2024.05.19 00:11 Ezerath420 WIBTAH for going no contact with my family?
My feelings surrounding my family are complicated for starters. I’m obviously traumatized from my childhood however due to the other effects of trauma, I can’t exactly remember all of my life, but what I can just fills me with sadness. I had severe depression as a child, would come home from school and go straight to sleep, regularly without dinner. We were also poor so dinner wasn’t a nightly thing as is. Instead of getting me help when I told my parents about my suicidal thoughts they made it about them, my mom even posted about it on Facebook but in the end I never received help.
I’ve started to realize more and more that my life was meant to be as a service to everyone else in my family, something needed done I got asked to do it. I needed help with something and was told to figure it out. My days off from work I’m expected to help out and I would get yelled at when I’d refuse. There was a point when my depression was so bad I genuinely couldn’t do much but lay in bed when I wasn’t in school or at work. I was constantly exhausted from being ALIVE let alone having to go from 6 am to 10 pm with school and work to help with bills, and my family would call me lazy when I tried to talk about what was going on in my mind. Doing everything possible to stay alive because my family “loves me” and getting called lazy was like a snack to the face.
My mom was discipline happy where teaching us how to clean our room was for her to sit in the doorway with a wooden spoon and smack it loudly to intimidate me and my sister. She would have our dad spank us occasionally if we did something really bad (like not clean my room because I had homework). One thing I remember her saying was “maybe I should get your father involved since you apparently like getting spanked and I can’t hit you hard enough”
Now as an adult I’m labeled “sensitive” and “dramatic” when I express my feelings or frustrations about my family. Out of my siblings I’m the ONLY one who seems to have had this type of childhood. Me and my sister were also treated very differently from my older brothers as well, and my brothers refuse to believe us. My dad ended up favoring me and my sister but was harsh on my brothers when they were young, and my mom favored my brothers and was harsher to my sister and I.
I do still love my family and I want parents who love me and accept me in EVERY way that I am but I just don’t see my parents changing. They’re religious and I don’t exactly fit their values… I’m starting to think just walking away from them is the best option? If I confront them they’ll just try to gaslight me into believing I’m the problem. I’ve always been the bad guy in my family my mom even used to call me a punisher simply because I’d go to my room when I was upset and didn’t know how to express my feelings so 8 year old me was just an absolute monster for taking out my feelings on myself. Would I be an asshole if I walked away and cut my losses? My family is very nosey and my mom is the type to tell the entire family my business. I do actively see the manipulation tactics that are deeeeeply engrained in my family and how they casually talk to one another, whatever I choose it’s going to be a shitstorm unfortunately…
TL;DR my family is very manipulative and emotionally abusive at least towards me, and I don’t have the full confidence to cut ties out of fear of being the asshole and my whole family giving me shit if they track me down. But I want to
submitted by Ezerath420 to AITAH [link] [comments]
I’ve started to realize more and more that my life was meant to be as a service to everyone else in my family, something needed done I got asked to do it. I needed help with something and was told to figure it out. My days off from work I’m expected to help out and I would get yelled at when I’d refuse. There was a point when my depression was so bad I genuinely couldn’t do much but lay in bed when I wasn’t in school or at work. I was constantly exhausted from being ALIVE let alone having to go from 6 am to 10 pm with school and work to help with bills, and my family would call me lazy when I tried to talk about what was going on in my mind. Doing everything possible to stay alive because my family “loves me” and getting called lazy was like a snack to the face.
My mom was discipline happy where teaching us how to clean our room was for her to sit in the doorway with a wooden spoon and smack it loudly to intimidate me and my sister. She would have our dad spank us occasionally if we did something really bad (like not clean my room because I had homework). One thing I remember her saying was “maybe I should get your father involved since you apparently like getting spanked and I can’t hit you hard enough”
Now as an adult I’m labeled “sensitive” and “dramatic” when I express my feelings or frustrations about my family. Out of my siblings I’m the ONLY one who seems to have had this type of childhood. Me and my sister were also treated very differently from my older brothers as well, and my brothers refuse to believe us. My dad ended up favoring me and my sister but was harsh on my brothers when they were young, and my mom favored my brothers and was harsher to my sister and I.
I do still love my family and I want parents who love me and accept me in EVERY way that I am but I just don’t see my parents changing. They’re religious and I don’t exactly fit their values… I’m starting to think just walking away from them is the best option? If I confront them they’ll just try to gaslight me into believing I’m the problem. I’ve always been the bad guy in my family my mom even used to call me a punisher simply because I’d go to my room when I was upset and didn’t know how to express my feelings so 8 year old me was just an absolute monster for taking out my feelings on myself. Would I be an asshole if I walked away and cut my losses? My family is very nosey and my mom is the type to tell the entire family my business. I do actively see the manipulation tactics that are deeeeeply engrained in my family and how they casually talk to one another, whatever I choose it’s going to be a shitstorm unfortunately…
TL;DR my family is very manipulative and emotionally abusive at least towards me, and I don’t have the full confidence to cut ties out of fear of being the asshole and my whole family giving me shit if they track me down. But I want to
2024.05.19 00:08 Nearby-Highlight-115 AITAH for my "scorched earth" intervention methods against my ex after she became a religious zealot?
For context, this story happened nearly 3 years ago, however a recent late-night conversation with a friend made it clear to me that the repercussions of this incident are still being felt to this day.
I (25M) met my now-ex girlfriend (25F), whom I will be assigning the fake name "Anne," when we were both 17 at our small town high school in semi-rural Georgia. Our romantic relationship began following our senior prom which we attended together. Despite our approaching high school graduations, the two of us decided that we could make our relationship work beyond high school and into college since we would both be attending different universities in the same city. We each grew up in typical southern protestant traditions and casually held onto some sort of religious beliefs. I, myself, have always identified religiously as something of a deist, meaning I believed (and still do to this day) that some sort of higher entity, force, or meaning was responsible for existence. Anne, at that time, would have self-identified as a Christian and attended church semi-regularly, however it was never a significant part of her life or attitude toward the world.
Shortly after we both began our new lives as college students in an unfamiliar city, Anne expressed that she would like to search for a new church to attend regularly as it helped create a sense of community and belonging for her which she had been missing since moving away from home. I strongly encouraged this, since I wanted her to be able to make friends and discover herself philosophically. The church that caught her attention was a non-denominational "modern" church that seemed to emphasize community at least on a surface level basis. However, out of curiosity, I took a look at the church's website and did notice a few mentions of "Pentecostal experience", which worried me since my only knowledge of Pentecostals was rumors of snake handling, especially in the more rural areas of the South. However, I chose to not be too judgmental upfront and continued to encourage her to find herself and meet new people.
Over the next few months, Anne started to spend more and more time devoted to bible studies and attending gatherings for women at the church. She specifically asked me not to accompany her on Sunday services since, as she put it, the elder members of the church would not act too kindly about unmarried woman "dragging around" some unfamiliar man who was not her husband. It became clear pretty quickly that she was becoming more than just a casual Christian and I supported this, however we did not talk much about the specifics of what she was being taught at this church.
This all came to a head when one night, Anne asked me if she could pray over me in something she called a "spiritual language." Having only ever heard vaguely of speaking in tongues, I obliged. I sat next to her on my couch and watched as she raised one hand and began quietly chanting in complete gibberish. My heart immediately sank in discomfort and fear but I was too stunned to do anything. so I just sat and watched for several minutes until she finally went quiet. All I could do or say was tell her that I appreciated her thoughtfulness and went about my day.
Pretty soon, the behaviors and acts became more and more extreme. Her "tongues" became louder and more intense and began to include violent shakes and lots (and I mean LOTS) of crying. She spoke of seeing "signs" and hearing "the voice of God" in a very literal sense. Her grades in college even began to suffer as more and more of her time was devoted to these newfound beliefs. Naturally, I became extremely worried that she was slowly slipping into some sort of paranoid delusional psychosis. At the very least, these teachings made her into a much angrier and more paranoid person. It was clear that her new beliefs were more than just a spiritual awakening but also a nose-dive into a mental health crisis.
Our relationship, at this point, was very clearly waning but my feelings toward the woman I once knew were still strong. I decided that it was time for an intervention of sorts. This resulted in me spending a whole weekend studying Pentecostal beliefs and reading Reddit stories from ex-Pentecostals about what it took to break them out of their conditioning. It was on a Monday night when I invited her over to my apartment to confront her about how the things her church were teaching her were actively harming her and even presented her with evidence of how these churches prey on mentally unwell people and how "speaking in tongues" was nothing more than an experience in her own brain chemicals. While I had hoped that hearing her new beliefs be directly confronted would help break the spell they had on her, it seemed to have no effect. Surprisingly, she did not fight back or show much anger toward my confrontation, instead resorting to the "please respect my beliefs" argument that made it so hard to push back against, since, at this time, I was still concerned about preserving our relationship.
Unfortunately, things only got worse from here. I spent some time trying to ignore the issue for the sake of the relationship, especially because I did not sense that I had many other romantic options given my shy nature and struggles to make new friends at college. However, my new "ignorance is bliss" approach to our relationship did not last long. At this point, we had been together for about 3 years and the conversation of marriage and kids started to become serious. I have always wanted kids since I come from a large family with many siblings, which Anne seemingly was excited about as well. However, after a pleasant conversation in which we fantasized about what we would name our children, she said something that sparked an anger in me that I did not often feel. She told me that if any of our future children came out to us as gay, lesbian, bi, transgender, or anything like that, that we would have to disown that child at all costs and that she could not love her child knowing that they were a "sodomite" (her words). I have always considered myself an ally of LGBTQ+ folks and wouldn't think twice about loving my children any less if they came out to me and have always felt this way. I did not say much in the moment out of pure shock and instead steered the conversation elsewhere while I quietly boiled over in anger over this comment.
Here is where the title of this post comes into play and where my role in this interaction enters a grey area. I spent several days unable to let this anger subside while imagining my own perspective children being thrown to the streets for bravely coming out to their own parents. I decided that another intervention was necessary, except this time I didn't want to be ignored. I came up with a plan that I referred to as a "scorched earth" intervention. Over the course of an evening, I began texting, calling, or messaging almost every person that Anne was close to. This included family, friends, past friends, classmates, and even some plain old acquaintances. I needed her paranoid and hateful beliefs to be confronted by more than just myself and hoped that if everyone important to her also expressed concern; that she would separate herself from this church and seek proper mental health counseling.
The responses I received from Anne's friends and family ranged significantly. Some people, including her mother whom I was close with, asked that I not try to "insert myself between Anne and God". Some friends agreed with me wholeheartedly and would reach out to Anne over text or in person to try and offer help. Some people met me with total apathy. Unsurprisingly, once Anne found out what I did, she broke things off over a brief but highly emotional phone call. She told me that I had embarrassed her and that supposedly God was telling her I wasn't the man she was supposed to marry. It did not hurt too bad since I was anticipating the end of this relationship for a while. The effects of my approach seemingly had lasting impacts on many of her relationships, however. At least one longtime friendship had ended because the friend was appalled by Anne's new paranoid beliefs. It was also unsuccessful, as Anne would never seek mental health counseling. In fact, it probably pushed her further into her church crowd - only further bolstering her new delusions.
Since much time has passed, I have started to feel uncertain whether or not I did the right thing in trying to have all of Anne's friends and family confront her about her extreme beliefs. At the time, I felt that I was justified and doing the right thing by trying to encourage a clearly delusion person to seek mental health counseling by any means necessary. Now, I am able to realize that I acted out of anger and permanently damaged how some of her oldest friends view her. I also realize that I acted immaturely and probably should not have tried to bring in every person close to Anne to fight a battle on my behalf.
Nowadays, Anne is still with that church and regularly posts on Facebook all sorts of whacky spiritual conspiracies. She is still very clearly paranoid and delusional all while putting on a facade of normalcy. I just pity her for living in a constant state of paranoia at this point. She even works full time with the church as a "worship leader," although I am not sure what exactly that means. She actually got married about a year after the relationship ended to a man she met at her church. They met, got engaged, and married all within 12 months. Thankfully, no children have been brought into this world yet from their relationship, which is surprising to me considering how urgent it seemed to her during our relationship. I do not hear much from any friends or family of hers anymore, other than one mutual friend who told me that Anne frequently refers to me as "that demon." As for myself, I finished school and have not married but was able to finally make friends and go on dates and my future is looking bright.
So, Reddit, am I the asshole for my "scorched earth" methods towards my fanatical ex-girlfriend?
submitted by Nearby-Highlight-115 to AITAH [link] [comments]
I (25M) met my now-ex girlfriend (25F), whom I will be assigning the fake name "Anne," when we were both 17 at our small town high school in semi-rural Georgia. Our romantic relationship began following our senior prom which we attended together. Despite our approaching high school graduations, the two of us decided that we could make our relationship work beyond high school and into college since we would both be attending different universities in the same city. We each grew up in typical southern protestant traditions and casually held onto some sort of religious beliefs. I, myself, have always identified religiously as something of a deist, meaning I believed (and still do to this day) that some sort of higher entity, force, or meaning was responsible for existence. Anne, at that time, would have self-identified as a Christian and attended church semi-regularly, however it was never a significant part of her life or attitude toward the world.
Shortly after we both began our new lives as college students in an unfamiliar city, Anne expressed that she would like to search for a new church to attend regularly as it helped create a sense of community and belonging for her which she had been missing since moving away from home. I strongly encouraged this, since I wanted her to be able to make friends and discover herself philosophically. The church that caught her attention was a non-denominational "modern" church that seemed to emphasize community at least on a surface level basis. However, out of curiosity, I took a look at the church's website and did notice a few mentions of "Pentecostal experience", which worried me since my only knowledge of Pentecostals was rumors of snake handling, especially in the more rural areas of the South. However, I chose to not be too judgmental upfront and continued to encourage her to find herself and meet new people.
Over the next few months, Anne started to spend more and more time devoted to bible studies and attending gatherings for women at the church. She specifically asked me not to accompany her on Sunday services since, as she put it, the elder members of the church would not act too kindly about unmarried woman "dragging around" some unfamiliar man who was not her husband. It became clear pretty quickly that she was becoming more than just a casual Christian and I supported this, however we did not talk much about the specifics of what she was being taught at this church.
This all came to a head when one night, Anne asked me if she could pray over me in something she called a "spiritual language." Having only ever heard vaguely of speaking in tongues, I obliged. I sat next to her on my couch and watched as she raised one hand and began quietly chanting in complete gibberish. My heart immediately sank in discomfort and fear but I was too stunned to do anything. so I just sat and watched for several minutes until she finally went quiet. All I could do or say was tell her that I appreciated her thoughtfulness and went about my day.
Pretty soon, the behaviors and acts became more and more extreme. Her "tongues" became louder and more intense and began to include violent shakes and lots (and I mean LOTS) of crying. She spoke of seeing "signs" and hearing "the voice of God" in a very literal sense. Her grades in college even began to suffer as more and more of her time was devoted to these newfound beliefs. Naturally, I became extremely worried that she was slowly slipping into some sort of paranoid delusional psychosis. At the very least, these teachings made her into a much angrier and more paranoid person. It was clear that her new beliefs were more than just a spiritual awakening but also a nose-dive into a mental health crisis.
Our relationship, at this point, was very clearly waning but my feelings toward the woman I once knew were still strong. I decided that it was time for an intervention of sorts. This resulted in me spending a whole weekend studying Pentecostal beliefs and reading Reddit stories from ex-Pentecostals about what it took to break them out of their conditioning. It was on a Monday night when I invited her over to my apartment to confront her about how the things her church were teaching her were actively harming her and even presented her with evidence of how these churches prey on mentally unwell people and how "speaking in tongues" was nothing more than an experience in her own brain chemicals. While I had hoped that hearing her new beliefs be directly confronted would help break the spell they had on her, it seemed to have no effect. Surprisingly, she did not fight back or show much anger toward my confrontation, instead resorting to the "please respect my beliefs" argument that made it so hard to push back against, since, at this time, I was still concerned about preserving our relationship.
Unfortunately, things only got worse from here. I spent some time trying to ignore the issue for the sake of the relationship, especially because I did not sense that I had many other romantic options given my shy nature and struggles to make new friends at college. However, my new "ignorance is bliss" approach to our relationship did not last long. At this point, we had been together for about 3 years and the conversation of marriage and kids started to become serious. I have always wanted kids since I come from a large family with many siblings, which Anne seemingly was excited about as well. However, after a pleasant conversation in which we fantasized about what we would name our children, she said something that sparked an anger in me that I did not often feel. She told me that if any of our future children came out to us as gay, lesbian, bi, transgender, or anything like that, that we would have to disown that child at all costs and that she could not love her child knowing that they were a "sodomite" (her words). I have always considered myself an ally of LGBTQ+ folks and wouldn't think twice about loving my children any less if they came out to me and have always felt this way. I did not say much in the moment out of pure shock and instead steered the conversation elsewhere while I quietly boiled over in anger over this comment.
Here is where the title of this post comes into play and where my role in this interaction enters a grey area. I spent several days unable to let this anger subside while imagining my own perspective children being thrown to the streets for bravely coming out to their own parents. I decided that another intervention was necessary, except this time I didn't want to be ignored. I came up with a plan that I referred to as a "scorched earth" intervention. Over the course of an evening, I began texting, calling, or messaging almost every person that Anne was close to. This included family, friends, past friends, classmates, and even some plain old acquaintances. I needed her paranoid and hateful beliefs to be confronted by more than just myself and hoped that if everyone important to her also expressed concern; that she would separate herself from this church and seek proper mental health counseling.
The responses I received from Anne's friends and family ranged significantly. Some people, including her mother whom I was close with, asked that I not try to "insert myself between Anne and God". Some friends agreed with me wholeheartedly and would reach out to Anne over text or in person to try and offer help. Some people met me with total apathy. Unsurprisingly, once Anne found out what I did, she broke things off over a brief but highly emotional phone call. She told me that I had embarrassed her and that supposedly God was telling her I wasn't the man she was supposed to marry. It did not hurt too bad since I was anticipating the end of this relationship for a while. The effects of my approach seemingly had lasting impacts on many of her relationships, however. At least one longtime friendship had ended because the friend was appalled by Anne's new paranoid beliefs. It was also unsuccessful, as Anne would never seek mental health counseling. In fact, it probably pushed her further into her church crowd - only further bolstering her new delusions.
Since much time has passed, I have started to feel uncertain whether or not I did the right thing in trying to have all of Anne's friends and family confront her about her extreme beliefs. At the time, I felt that I was justified and doing the right thing by trying to encourage a clearly delusion person to seek mental health counseling by any means necessary. Now, I am able to realize that I acted out of anger and permanently damaged how some of her oldest friends view her. I also realize that I acted immaturely and probably should not have tried to bring in every person close to Anne to fight a battle on my behalf.
Nowadays, Anne is still with that church and regularly posts on Facebook all sorts of whacky spiritual conspiracies. She is still very clearly paranoid and delusional all while putting on a facade of normalcy. I just pity her for living in a constant state of paranoia at this point. She even works full time with the church as a "worship leader," although I am not sure what exactly that means. She actually got married about a year after the relationship ended to a man she met at her church. They met, got engaged, and married all within 12 months. Thankfully, no children have been brought into this world yet from their relationship, which is surprising to me considering how urgent it seemed to her during our relationship. I do not hear much from any friends or family of hers anymore, other than one mutual friend who told me that Anne frequently refers to me as "that demon." As for myself, I finished school and have not married but was able to finally make friends and go on dates and my future is looking bright.
So, Reddit, am I the asshole for my "scorched earth" methods towards my fanatical ex-girlfriend?
2024.05.18 23:56 MoonCollision73 My family drives me insane.
So I, 22 M, have a pretty messed up home life, I'm visually impaired and the nearest city is a dozen or so miles from our house, my mom is the only person who drives and because of my disability I can't work most jobs, so getting around is rough.
I am trying to get my GED though but with little progress, I was pulled out of middle school at 13 essentially forced to drop out because my father was afraid his abuse toward his family (me and four others) would be discovered by authorities or our schools would get involved.
He then trapped me into living with him through the covid-19 pandemic until 2022 just before I turned 20 where I moved into a friend's house who soon betrayed me and left me on the streets. From there I was on the streets for about 3 months until I was able to fly out to live with my older brother who put his hands on me and got me kicked out of my next place to live after only 3 weeks of living there. And then lived in a homeless shelter until flying a couple more times and ending up with my mom, whom my father's side of my family had brainwashed me all my life to believe she was a horrible person, in truth she's not the greatest but she is much better than they made her out to be.
Now I've been living with her for a while, but things couldn't be worse, due to a volatile relationship between my mom and my little sister, my little sister ended up crashing two cars and landing my mom and stepdad and massive credit debt, everything came to a boil when she went off on Christmas and got herself kicked out, my little sister was the only other person in the house who could drive as my stepfather is out driving big rig trucks all over the country.
So now it's me and my mom, but then my little brother goes and gets himself kicked out of his college dorms, but thankfully he's now getting paid himself and we've banded together as far as finances go but that's not what I'm here to complain about.
My mom, 41 F, goes to work nearly all the time because she's trying to pay off the crippling debt her daughter left her with, leaving me and my younger brother (20 M) to do chores around the house and occasionally babysit our younger step brother (9 M).
Things can get pretty hectic and you have to add to the fact that we live in two separate buildings, have over a dozen pets to take care of on the daily, and we both have our own separate chores we have to take care of individually.
For example I have to wash the dishes, make sure the kitchen is clean, take out the trash and take the trash out to the curb once a week before pulling it back in the next day so that we can start loading more trash into our cans (God forbid I forget to do so where it's a shitstorm), additionally since I live in a separate building I have to clean half of it which is pretty big but mostly it's just some random food trash laying around although on the occasion we do have large amounts of styrofoam and boxes as we get a lot of packages, our space is also cramped and my brother barely ever cleans his space because he can't focus on cleaning with ADHD that I get but it is annoying as I have OCD and can't stand dirty spaces, that brings me to another problem of his, he barely ever does his chores and since he doesn't do them I'm basically the only person who can pick up the slack so I have to start doing his chores sometimes, cleaning his side of our building, cleaning the bathroom cleaning the floors ETC.
We also have to do our own individual laundry and I want you to note that I haven't even gotten into the biggest issue, we have three dogs but one of them is out on the road with my stepfather so we have two dogs to take care of but one of them is large and mostly untrained so she poops in her cage most of the time, we have to clean this up as well as let her out 3 to 4 times a day so that she can use the bathroom as well as feed her and let out the other dog with her who barks his head off and we have to ignore him until he shuts up because if we teach him that he can just bark to get his way out of the cage he'll never stop doing it and it's obnoxious, then once he shuts up we let him out and then we have to make sure that they both been out for at least 15 to 20 minutes each time, there's three cats in the back of the house that need to get fed and watered every day, watered multiple times a day sometimes, when our little brother isn't here we have to take care of his ferret which isn't hard but it's still a task, then you've got our mom's two birds who have a specific diet so getting them fed is a bit of a hassle, she has a tortoise but we don't usually have to check on that, then there's two cats in my mom's room that we need to go and feed individually, any pet due to your pee we have to clean up as soon as we find it obviously cuz that's gross, and she also has two snakes but we don't take care of them cuz she does, and then you have my cat and my little brother's cat who live in our building with us and we have to feed and water them once a day sometimes we have to water them multiple times a day because our cats are weird and love to drink water.
I think you can see where I'm going with this.
We have a crippling amount of chores to do and again that doesn't even cover everything, occasionally we have to go out in the yard and pick up sticks and branches because they like to blow everywhere with the Wind, and we've even had to drag entire fallen trees over into the backyard as well. Then there's the asinine rules that we have to follow. Some of them just don't make sense so I won't get into all of that cuz sometimes it just makes me too angry to think about.
We both pay rent and do our chores as a form of compensation for letting us live here past 18, I mean wow my brother does College from home and I'm still studying to get my GED but like I said due to Transportation issues progress is a bit stagnant at the moment.
I am thinking of doing my stuff online.
But besides the crippling number of tasks and odd jobs we have to do around the house on the daily I also have insomnia that I've never been able to control. My sleep patterns have never been normal and I'll always wake up at a different time every day sometimes sleeping through the majority of the morning and afternoon.
And then when I wake up at say 4:00 in the afternoon I feel guilty because I didn't end up getting anything done, then my lazy ass little brother who didn't do shit wants to sit there and complain to me how nothing got done even though I'm already beating myself up mentally because I slept too long and I know it's my problem, I've tried so many different methods whether it be medicine, herbal remedies, scented candles, soothing music, even tried changing my diet to fix my sleep but nothing helps, I might be able to have a normal sleep cycle for about 4 to 5 days before it ends up messed up again, and so here we are my little brother is complaining again about how nothing got done even though he could have done stuff on his own, and I'm left here to feel like shit while he berates me and I beat myself up at the same time, but to make matters worse my mom only complains all the time about the stuff that we didn't manage to get done and never thanks us, recently though that's changed a bit and she started thinking us although it's rare and I'd like to think that she's making progress and changing so I appreciate that from her but my little brother does not make it any easier, I've even tried sitting him down and having an honest conversation with him multiple times I even did it today but every time I get the same answer "I don't want to talk about this shit i don't care" needless to say my family is driving me insane and I need advice.
submitted by MoonCollision73 to FamilyIssues [link] [comments]
I am trying to get my GED though but with little progress, I was pulled out of middle school at 13 essentially forced to drop out because my father was afraid his abuse toward his family (me and four others) would be discovered by authorities or our schools would get involved.
He then trapped me into living with him through the covid-19 pandemic until 2022 just before I turned 20 where I moved into a friend's house who soon betrayed me and left me on the streets. From there I was on the streets for about 3 months until I was able to fly out to live with my older brother who put his hands on me and got me kicked out of my next place to live after only 3 weeks of living there. And then lived in a homeless shelter until flying a couple more times and ending up with my mom, whom my father's side of my family had brainwashed me all my life to believe she was a horrible person, in truth she's not the greatest but she is much better than they made her out to be.
Now I've been living with her for a while, but things couldn't be worse, due to a volatile relationship between my mom and my little sister, my little sister ended up crashing two cars and landing my mom and stepdad and massive credit debt, everything came to a boil when she went off on Christmas and got herself kicked out, my little sister was the only other person in the house who could drive as my stepfather is out driving big rig trucks all over the country.
So now it's me and my mom, but then my little brother goes and gets himself kicked out of his college dorms, but thankfully he's now getting paid himself and we've banded together as far as finances go but that's not what I'm here to complain about.
My mom, 41 F, goes to work nearly all the time because she's trying to pay off the crippling debt her daughter left her with, leaving me and my younger brother (20 M) to do chores around the house and occasionally babysit our younger step brother (9 M).
Things can get pretty hectic and you have to add to the fact that we live in two separate buildings, have over a dozen pets to take care of on the daily, and we both have our own separate chores we have to take care of individually.
For example I have to wash the dishes, make sure the kitchen is clean, take out the trash and take the trash out to the curb once a week before pulling it back in the next day so that we can start loading more trash into our cans (God forbid I forget to do so where it's a shitstorm), additionally since I live in a separate building I have to clean half of it which is pretty big but mostly it's just some random food trash laying around although on the occasion we do have large amounts of styrofoam and boxes as we get a lot of packages, our space is also cramped and my brother barely ever cleans his space because he can't focus on cleaning with ADHD that I get but it is annoying as I have OCD and can't stand dirty spaces, that brings me to another problem of his, he barely ever does his chores and since he doesn't do them I'm basically the only person who can pick up the slack so I have to start doing his chores sometimes, cleaning his side of our building, cleaning the bathroom cleaning the floors ETC.
We also have to do our own individual laundry and I want you to note that I haven't even gotten into the biggest issue, we have three dogs but one of them is out on the road with my stepfather so we have two dogs to take care of but one of them is large and mostly untrained so she poops in her cage most of the time, we have to clean this up as well as let her out 3 to 4 times a day so that she can use the bathroom as well as feed her and let out the other dog with her who barks his head off and we have to ignore him until he shuts up because if we teach him that he can just bark to get his way out of the cage he'll never stop doing it and it's obnoxious, then once he shuts up we let him out and then we have to make sure that they both been out for at least 15 to 20 minutes each time, there's three cats in the back of the house that need to get fed and watered every day, watered multiple times a day sometimes, when our little brother isn't here we have to take care of his ferret which isn't hard but it's still a task, then you've got our mom's two birds who have a specific diet so getting them fed is a bit of a hassle, she has a tortoise but we don't usually have to check on that, then there's two cats in my mom's room that we need to go and feed individually, any pet due to your pee we have to clean up as soon as we find it obviously cuz that's gross, and she also has two snakes but we don't take care of them cuz she does, and then you have my cat and my little brother's cat who live in our building with us and we have to feed and water them once a day sometimes we have to water them multiple times a day because our cats are weird and love to drink water.
I think you can see where I'm going with this.
We have a crippling amount of chores to do and again that doesn't even cover everything, occasionally we have to go out in the yard and pick up sticks and branches because they like to blow everywhere with the Wind, and we've even had to drag entire fallen trees over into the backyard as well. Then there's the asinine rules that we have to follow. Some of them just don't make sense so I won't get into all of that cuz sometimes it just makes me too angry to think about.
We both pay rent and do our chores as a form of compensation for letting us live here past 18, I mean wow my brother does College from home and I'm still studying to get my GED but like I said due to Transportation issues progress is a bit stagnant at the moment.
I am thinking of doing my stuff online.
But besides the crippling number of tasks and odd jobs we have to do around the house on the daily I also have insomnia that I've never been able to control. My sleep patterns have never been normal and I'll always wake up at a different time every day sometimes sleeping through the majority of the morning and afternoon.
And then when I wake up at say 4:00 in the afternoon I feel guilty because I didn't end up getting anything done, then my lazy ass little brother who didn't do shit wants to sit there and complain to me how nothing got done even though I'm already beating myself up mentally because I slept too long and I know it's my problem, I've tried so many different methods whether it be medicine, herbal remedies, scented candles, soothing music, even tried changing my diet to fix my sleep but nothing helps, I might be able to have a normal sleep cycle for about 4 to 5 days before it ends up messed up again, and so here we are my little brother is complaining again about how nothing got done even though he could have done stuff on his own, and I'm left here to feel like shit while he berates me and I beat myself up at the same time, but to make matters worse my mom only complains all the time about the stuff that we didn't manage to get done and never thanks us, recently though that's changed a bit and she started thinking us although it's rare and I'd like to think that she's making progress and changing so I appreciate that from her but my little brother does not make it any easier, I've even tried sitting him down and having an honest conversation with him multiple times I even did it today but every time I get the same answer "I don't want to talk about this shit i don't care" needless to say my family is driving me insane and I need advice.
2024.05.18 23:51 Sorry-Preference-141 Theories on how the game starts for both characters in Shadows (just for fun)
Curious what people think about how the game starts for both characters
Considering the leaks of Yasuke starting on a slave ship that is attacked and left for dead, and then found and brought to a temple. We can probably guess most of how the start plays out for him, either being brought straight to Oda Nobunaga, or the someone who brought him to the temple is a Jesuit and he then becomes their bodyguard like how the factual story of Yasuke start in Japan goes, he does something to get the notice of Oda or just gets noticed due to being a giant, or maybe Jesuit he is bodyguarding already has a meeting with Oda, I think any of these ends with Yasuke being given or choosing to go into Oda's service, maybe after proving capable or something, I then think a timeskip happens, because the game starts in 1579, but the Oda Nobunaga didn't invade and conquer Iga until 1581, which is what is being depicted in the trailer, which leads me to Naoe
The Ubisoft site says this, "At Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ start, Naoe is a 17-year-old from Iga, and the daughter of one of the era’s most iconic shinobi, Fujibayashi Nagato, who – despite a promise to keep her safe – is forced to train her to be his equal in battle".
In 1579 Oda Nobunaga's son led an invasion on Iga that was unsuccessful, this could be the start of Naoe's story in the game, her father promises to keep her safe could be about this invasion, or something to do with being a shinobi leader I'm not sure, after fighting off the invaders, this battle could be the catalyst for being forced to train her to be his equal in battle, him wanting her to keep her safe and the best way to do that is to teach her the ways of the shinobi, this is where I think would happen for Naoe.
The timeskip for both characters being 2 years puts them in the year where Oda Nobunaga successfully invaded Iga, taking the trailer literally, this could be the 1st time the characters meet during this battle, the leaks of Naoe story say her father is killed by the order which forces her to join the assassins, I think his death happens in this battle. This is what it says on Ubisoft's website
"Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ dual protagonists are ultimately brought together by Nobunaga, whose goal of unifying Japan takes his army – and Yasuke – to the province of Iga for the Second Tenshō Iga War. The Igan resistance, though greatly overpowered by Nobunaga’s army, is courageously led by Naoe’s father. The two protagonists find each other through Nobunaga, although, for obvious reasons, they don’t exactly get off to a great start."
This is as far as I got right now, have no idea how Yasuke and Naoe become allies. I assume we'll get the timeskip early in the game because I doubt we'll be playing as a 17 year old Naoe, even more so when relationships seem to be a thing seeing how it says this on the site regarding Naoe's and Yasuke's disparate personalities
"Romantically, they will also attract and be attracted to different types of people. Through the pair, players will get to experience a multitude of relationships."
Doubt Ubisoft want people talking about romantic relationships with a 17 year old character, not sure if 19 is much better but still. Anyway let me know anything you think could happen, where I could be wrong, how you want it to start, anything. I need to hear people talk about this game that isn't solely based on Yasuke...
submitted by Sorry-Preference-141 to assassinscreed [link] [comments]
Considering the leaks of Yasuke starting on a slave ship that is attacked and left for dead, and then found and brought to a temple. We can probably guess most of how the start plays out for him, either being brought straight to Oda Nobunaga, or the someone who brought him to the temple is a Jesuit and he then becomes their bodyguard like how the factual story of Yasuke start in Japan goes, he does something to get the notice of Oda or just gets noticed due to being a giant, or maybe Jesuit he is bodyguarding already has a meeting with Oda, I think any of these ends with Yasuke being given or choosing to go into Oda's service, maybe after proving capable or something, I then think a timeskip happens, because the game starts in 1579, but the Oda Nobunaga didn't invade and conquer Iga until 1581, which is what is being depicted in the trailer, which leads me to Naoe
The Ubisoft site says this, "At Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ start, Naoe is a 17-year-old from Iga, and the daughter of one of the era’s most iconic shinobi, Fujibayashi Nagato, who – despite a promise to keep her safe – is forced to train her to be his equal in battle".
In 1579 Oda Nobunaga's son led an invasion on Iga that was unsuccessful, this could be the start of Naoe's story in the game, her father promises to keep her safe could be about this invasion, or something to do with being a shinobi leader I'm not sure, after fighting off the invaders, this battle could be the catalyst for being forced to train her to be his equal in battle, him wanting her to keep her safe and the best way to do that is to teach her the ways of the shinobi, this is where I think would happen for Naoe.
The timeskip for both characters being 2 years puts them in the year where Oda Nobunaga successfully invaded Iga, taking the trailer literally, this could be the 1st time the characters meet during this battle, the leaks of Naoe story say her father is killed by the order which forces her to join the assassins, I think his death happens in this battle. This is what it says on Ubisoft's website
"Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ dual protagonists are ultimately brought together by Nobunaga, whose goal of unifying Japan takes his army – and Yasuke – to the province of Iga for the Second Tenshō Iga War. The Igan resistance, though greatly overpowered by Nobunaga’s army, is courageously led by Naoe’s father. The two protagonists find each other through Nobunaga, although, for obvious reasons, they don’t exactly get off to a great start."
This is as far as I got right now, have no idea how Yasuke and Naoe become allies. I assume we'll get the timeskip early in the game because I doubt we'll be playing as a 17 year old Naoe, even more so when relationships seem to be a thing seeing how it says this on the site regarding Naoe's and Yasuke's disparate personalities
"Romantically, they will also attract and be attracted to different types of people. Through the pair, players will get to experience a multitude of relationships."
Doubt Ubisoft want people talking about romantic relationships with a 17 year old character, not sure if 19 is much better but still. Anyway let me know anything you think could happen, where I could be wrong, how you want it to start, anything. I need to hear people talk about this game that isn't solely based on Yasuke...
2024.05.18 23:47 Spinning_Back_Fist I feel lonely & expendable
How to begin?
I'm a 38F; single.
My hobbies are D&D, art, video games, traveling, and karate. I play D&D every weekend, and go to karate 3xs/week. I work full-time doing tech-related things for a small department.
While I have "friends", I feel as though I'm often the only one reaching out to see how they are, or the only one wanting to spend time together.
I've given up the dating scene for now as it's been really disappointing after the last 3 months with local men, and a hurtful last year with falling for someone who never did (and still doesn't 'see me' or know what makes me tick.) He and I were friends before the situation, and still are, but he's distant; which sucks as I feel the closest to him more than anyone else in the area....though it may be one-sided at this point.
At work, I feel like an outlier as I don't fit in with the other girls in the department that I work with. Hobbies, age, body type; everything is different. Most of them are married as well. None of them do tech, and I feel awkward being in groups of women as most of my hobbies have always been male-dominated and I'm more comfortable talking about geek stuff than getting my nails done or the latest video on Tiktok.
D&D is fun, and I like several of the people that I play with, but they are all married/have children, while I have neither of those. And some of them are good friends of people who I don't get along with at all, and would rather not be around.
I love karate. I would go to class every day if I could. The dojo feels like my spiritual home, but it's small with a lot of kids. I would love to spend time with some of the people that go there, but they're always so busy; usually with their families or their jobs. They'll make promises to hang out, and not follow through. Or they'll make plans with me, and then change them without discussing them with me first; telling me afterwards when I've already made other plans and can't join them with their new plans.
I think the worst thing is hearing them talk about going home to their families, or the ones who are roommates; ask each other what they want for dinner as they walk out together...They say we're friends, but friends make time to hang out together, don't they? I often just end up sitting in my car for awhile after class; either in the parking lot or at home, as I don't want to return to an empty place. (I can't afford a pet right now.)
I spent 7.5 years teaching English both in Korea and Japan. The isolation and loneliness there was to be expected; with the language and cultural barrier and whatnot. I even got so lonely that I signed up for junk emails just so 'someone' would email me. I also started writing a diary and emails that I never sent to feel like maybe someone was hearing me. So I guess that I felt like when I got back here, I would naturally fall into friendships and relationships, but that hasn't been the case. My local friends from high school I feel as though I've outgrown, and my foreigner friends that I made in Japan aren't allowed to talk after a certain time, are busy with s/os, or are depressed so don't want to talk anymore.
I know that I'm "really cool" and a good person and friend with a big heart. I've heard it alot. But it just feels like if I were to slowly disappear, would people notice? Would they even care past the work I do or me being one of the few women at the dojo? I love the dojo, and I want to help there with whatever I can, but I often feel shot down when I offer to help with things; even if I have the skills or experience to help and they could really use my help.
Sometimes I fantasize that my friends would call upon me for help and support with something and I could swoop in there and be appreciated by them. I guess I just want to be wanted and needed by someone, if not something. I want to be included, and invited to things. I want to help my friends and have a strong bond with them and spend time outside of our shared hobbies with each other. I want to belong somewhere.
I miss the community that I had in high school. I tried joining community band here, but it didn't go well so I joined karate instead. My online gaming friends either are busy with their gfs and we very rarely game together now, or they no longer have a subscription to play online.
I've tried to embrace the fun parts about being alone; like staying in pajamas or staying up late or following my own plans. I'll take myself out to do fun things, like seeing a movie, or lunch, or the beach, but the novelty wears off when I get home and I'm alone and have no one to really share it with. Except Facebook.
While I was invited to a friend's birthday party last-minute, I'm also currently under an incredible amount of stress at the moment with my dad being in the hospital, and having to see him nearly every day. I haven't been able to focus on work, and when I get home, I'm mentally and physically tapped out. Household affairs have greatly fallen behind and it makes me come down on myself even harder...why do other people not have this problem and not break down and cry like I do? I've been so frustrated and hard on myself lately... I have a therapy appointment next month, but that's still so far away.
I just really need a hug, and an invitation to hang out with friends and be seen and understood without judgement.
Thank you for listening.
submitted by Spinning_Back_Fist to offmychest [link] [comments]
I'm a 38F; single.
My hobbies are D&D, art, video games, traveling, and karate. I play D&D every weekend, and go to karate 3xs/week. I work full-time doing tech-related things for a small department.
While I have "friends", I feel as though I'm often the only one reaching out to see how they are, or the only one wanting to spend time together.
I've given up the dating scene for now as it's been really disappointing after the last 3 months with local men, and a hurtful last year with falling for someone who never did (and still doesn't 'see me' or know what makes me tick.) He and I were friends before the situation, and still are, but he's distant; which sucks as I feel the closest to him more than anyone else in the area....though it may be one-sided at this point.
At work, I feel like an outlier as I don't fit in with the other girls in the department that I work with. Hobbies, age, body type; everything is different. Most of them are married as well. None of them do tech, and I feel awkward being in groups of women as most of my hobbies have always been male-dominated and I'm more comfortable talking about geek stuff than getting my nails done or the latest video on Tiktok.
D&D is fun, and I like several of the people that I play with, but they are all married/have children, while I have neither of those. And some of them are good friends of people who I don't get along with at all, and would rather not be around.
I love karate. I would go to class every day if I could. The dojo feels like my spiritual home, but it's small with a lot of kids. I would love to spend time with some of the people that go there, but they're always so busy; usually with their families or their jobs. They'll make promises to hang out, and not follow through. Or they'll make plans with me, and then change them without discussing them with me first; telling me afterwards when I've already made other plans and can't join them with their new plans.
I think the worst thing is hearing them talk about going home to their families, or the ones who are roommates; ask each other what they want for dinner as they walk out together...They say we're friends, but friends make time to hang out together, don't they? I often just end up sitting in my car for awhile after class; either in the parking lot or at home, as I don't want to return to an empty place. (I can't afford a pet right now.)
I spent 7.5 years teaching English both in Korea and Japan. The isolation and loneliness there was to be expected; with the language and cultural barrier and whatnot. I even got so lonely that I signed up for junk emails just so 'someone' would email me. I also started writing a diary and emails that I never sent to feel like maybe someone was hearing me. So I guess that I felt like when I got back here, I would naturally fall into friendships and relationships, but that hasn't been the case. My local friends from high school I feel as though I've outgrown, and my foreigner friends that I made in Japan aren't allowed to talk after a certain time, are busy with s/os, or are depressed so don't want to talk anymore.
I know that I'm "really cool" and a good person and friend with a big heart. I've heard it alot. But it just feels like if I were to slowly disappear, would people notice? Would they even care past the work I do or me being one of the few women at the dojo? I love the dojo, and I want to help there with whatever I can, but I often feel shot down when I offer to help with things; even if I have the skills or experience to help and they could really use my help.
Sometimes I fantasize that my friends would call upon me for help and support with something and I could swoop in there and be appreciated by them. I guess I just want to be wanted and needed by someone, if not something. I want to be included, and invited to things. I want to help my friends and have a strong bond with them and spend time outside of our shared hobbies with each other. I want to belong somewhere.
I miss the community that I had in high school. I tried joining community band here, but it didn't go well so I joined karate instead. My online gaming friends either are busy with their gfs and we very rarely game together now, or they no longer have a subscription to play online.
I've tried to embrace the fun parts about being alone; like staying in pajamas or staying up late or following my own plans. I'll take myself out to do fun things, like seeing a movie, or lunch, or the beach, but the novelty wears off when I get home and I'm alone and have no one to really share it with. Except Facebook.
While I was invited to a friend's birthday party last-minute, I'm also currently under an incredible amount of stress at the moment with my dad being in the hospital, and having to see him nearly every day. I haven't been able to focus on work, and when I get home, I'm mentally and physically tapped out. Household affairs have greatly fallen behind and it makes me come down on myself even harder...why do other people not have this problem and not break down and cry like I do? I've been so frustrated and hard on myself lately... I have a therapy appointment next month, but that's still so far away.
I just really need a hug, and an invitation to hang out with friends and be seen and understood without judgement.
Thank you for listening.
2024.05.18 23:43 sadfoodcontestwinner How 2 egotistical dbags went from running a $10M start-up to facing bankruptcy and laying everyone off
I worked at a marketing company for 4 years that was massively successful at first but is now facing bankruptcy thanks to the 2 co-founders making a series of horrible business decisions
These egotistical douchebags cared more about hyping themselves up than actually improving their product
When times were good, they invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into courses, masterminds (so they could get selfies with ppl like Russell Brunson and Dan Kennedy), company retreats, hiring a bunch of new employees so they could get on the INC 5000 fastest growing companies list…
And they even dropped over 100k making a documentary about their company, and the doc did NOT generate ONE SALE.
It’s like they were high off all the schmoozing and marketing assets that propped them up as “industry leaders”
The team would be scrambling trying to finish one project at bare minimum quality, and then the bosses would be like “hey we’re gonna start another podcast” and it’s like BRO let us work on actually IMPROVING the service rather than feed your narcissistic shiny object syndrome!!
And then when the economy took a dive all the shortcomings in their business came to light and clients started dropping like flies.
The bosses blamed it all on the recession, but the truth is, they were so shortsighted they thought their business was recession proof
Turns out a lot of their initial success was due to luck and confidence, not actually providing a valuable service to clients.
So the layoffs started. I survived round 1. They actually gave me a raise shortly after, and then did temporary pay reductions 2 months after my raise lol. (They basically gave me a raise and then took it away.)
I worked my ass off trying to do my part to keep the company afloat but it was a sinking ship. There were several more layoffs after that, so I wasn’t surprised when my time was up. But get this:
During the call, I asked them “Ok, what do I need to know for off boarding?”
And they had no answer. They’d laid off dozens of people at this point and didn’t have the decency to write some bullet points on a google doc to go over next steps. Fucking unprofessional losers.
They literally said, “We hadn’t really thought about it, but what would be very helpful for US is if you could send over any information you have that could help us take over your assignments”
I responded, “No. I need to put my energy into finding a job, not teaching you how to replace me”
So yeah, these two narcissistic douche bags who ran their company into the ground and kept bragging about how they landed on the INC 5000 fastest growing companies list are now facing bankruptcy, and had to layoff their entire US team, except for two or three people.
Here are some more grievances I want to rant about:
They once threw a company retreat with the sole intention of making a documentary and use us as props to hype themselves up. They hired a videographer to record us for their documentary and got everyone on the team to give testimonial interviews talking about how amazing our bosses are. It was incredibly emotionally manipulative. The video is still on YouTube and they ended up laying off all but 2 employees in that video.
they would always say “we’re like a family here” and I begged them to stop saying that bc it’s a massive red flag to new hires but of course they didn’t listen or care.
One of my bosses thought he was a sales Psychology god and charged $500 an hour for his consulting.
(he always bragged about how he was once so poor he had to sell plasma to pay the light bill. He portrayed himself as a self-made man. Well turns out his dad actually wrote him a big check so he could start his first business lol.)
This douche nozzle used to always say: “Money is like a good woman. If you don’t treat her right, she will leave you and find someone else who will.” well, guess what his girlfriend left him and now he’s facing bankruptcy lol.
About a year into my employment, I lost a lot of weight and it was noticeable on a zoom call and my other boss said I had gotten a lot “sexier.” Fucking creep
That same creep once moved into a penthouse apartment in Chicago, and gave the team a virtual tour bragging about how he had “made it” Meanwhile, nobody on that call was making enough money to afford basic expenses.
Anyways, I’m just excited to be out of that industry. The whole “grindset marketing podcast bro” phenomenon needs to fucking die once and for all
submitted by sadfoodcontestwinner to antiwork [link] [comments]
These egotistical douchebags cared more about hyping themselves up than actually improving their product
When times were good, they invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into courses, masterminds (so they could get selfies with ppl like Russell Brunson and Dan Kennedy), company retreats, hiring a bunch of new employees so they could get on the INC 5000 fastest growing companies list…
And they even dropped over 100k making a documentary about their company, and the doc did NOT generate ONE SALE.
It’s like they were high off all the schmoozing and marketing assets that propped them up as “industry leaders”
The team would be scrambling trying to finish one project at bare minimum quality, and then the bosses would be like “hey we’re gonna start another podcast” and it’s like BRO let us work on actually IMPROVING the service rather than feed your narcissistic shiny object syndrome!!
And then when the economy took a dive all the shortcomings in their business came to light and clients started dropping like flies.
The bosses blamed it all on the recession, but the truth is, they were so shortsighted they thought their business was recession proof
Turns out a lot of their initial success was due to luck and confidence, not actually providing a valuable service to clients.
So the layoffs started. I survived round 1. They actually gave me a raise shortly after, and then did temporary pay reductions 2 months after my raise lol. (They basically gave me a raise and then took it away.)
I worked my ass off trying to do my part to keep the company afloat but it was a sinking ship. There were several more layoffs after that, so I wasn’t surprised when my time was up. But get this:
During the call, I asked them “Ok, what do I need to know for off boarding?”
And they had no answer. They’d laid off dozens of people at this point and didn’t have the decency to write some bullet points on a google doc to go over next steps. Fucking unprofessional losers.
They literally said, “We hadn’t really thought about it, but what would be very helpful for US is if you could send over any information you have that could help us take over your assignments”
I responded, “No. I need to put my energy into finding a job, not teaching you how to replace me”
So yeah, these two narcissistic douche bags who ran their company into the ground and kept bragging about how they landed on the INC 5000 fastest growing companies list are now facing bankruptcy, and had to layoff their entire US team, except for two or three people.
Here are some more grievances I want to rant about:
They once threw a company retreat with the sole intention of making a documentary and use us as props to hype themselves up. They hired a videographer to record us for their documentary and got everyone on the team to give testimonial interviews talking about how amazing our bosses are. It was incredibly emotionally manipulative. The video is still on YouTube and they ended up laying off all but 2 employees in that video.
they would always say “we’re like a family here” and I begged them to stop saying that bc it’s a massive red flag to new hires but of course they didn’t listen or care.
One of my bosses thought he was a sales Psychology god and charged $500 an hour for his consulting.
(he always bragged about how he was once so poor he had to sell plasma to pay the light bill. He portrayed himself as a self-made man. Well turns out his dad actually wrote him a big check so he could start his first business lol.)
This douche nozzle used to always say: “Money is like a good woman. If you don’t treat her right, she will leave you and find someone else who will.” well, guess what his girlfriend left him and now he’s facing bankruptcy lol.
About a year into my employment, I lost a lot of weight and it was noticeable on a zoom call and my other boss said I had gotten a lot “sexier.” Fucking creep
That same creep once moved into a penthouse apartment in Chicago, and gave the team a virtual tour bragging about how he had “made it” Meanwhile, nobody on that call was making enough money to afford basic expenses.
Anyways, I’m just excited to be out of that industry. The whole “grindset marketing podcast bro” phenomenon needs to fucking die once and for all
2024.05.18 23:34 Ok-Ear9094 Applying for job outside of PGCE
I'm hold. 2:1 in Hospitality Management and a PGCE in DT(food specialism). Coming to the end of my first year i've realised Food Tech isnt my biggest passion - teaching Business Studies is.
What would be my chances to teach Business? My school doesnt offer it. Do I need to retrain? I have an A at Businsss A Level, and my degree was 50/50 Hospitality/Food led and Business based.
submitted by Ok-Ear9094 to TeachingUK [link] [comments]
What would be my chances to teach Business? My school doesnt offer it. Do I need to retrain? I have an A at Businsss A Level, and my degree was 50/50 Hospitality/Food led and Business based.
2024.05.18 23:34 FlyingLeopard33 A Breakdown of Show V. Book: Romancing Mr. Bridgerton vs. Season 3 Part 1 (Spoilers GALORE, duh)
Disclaimer: There are book spoilers and season 3 part 1 spoilers in this post. The book spoilers are from RMB and from Francesca's book, When He Was Wicked. If you do not want spoilers, please do not read this post.
So, I really wanted to have a post where we can sort of break down the differences between the book(s) and the show because as someone who LOVES books... I actually find that I like the Bridgerton shows more than I like the books in a lot of ways. So, I wanted to give my thoughts, but I also really would love to hear everyone else's thoughts!
submitted by FlyingLeopard33 to BridgertonNetflix [link] [comments]
So, I really wanted to have a post where we can sort of break down the differences between the book(s) and the show because as someone who LOVES books... I actually find that I like the Bridgerton shows more than I like the books in a lot of ways. So, I wanted to give my thoughts, but I also really would love to hear everyone else's thoughts!
- The Lord Debling of it all
- I'm undecided on this. I know that a lot of fans (myself included) sort of wanted Colin to be knocked down just a bit and also have Pen have other suitors besides Colin. However, after watching it twice, I didn't feel like there was ever a true match between Lord Debling and Colin so it wasn't like he was a REAL choice here anyway. Lord Debling travelled a lot and Pen wanted a love match. On top of that, Lord Debling removed himself from the equation anyway which... I don't know, I think removed choice from Penelope.
- Nic and Luke N. have both said they felt like they needed to be on equal terms by the time they got together, but I feel like by having Colin teach Pen how to obtain them...it didn't put them on equal footing. Do I have an issue with this? I'm not entirely sure. I think in some ways it did put them on equal footing because it allows Pen to stop putting Colin on a damn pedestal, but I think whenever you're learning from someone you once liked about romance then you're still not on equal footing. Idk. Just something to comment on and discuss!
- The journal
- Different writing obviously. In the book, it feels more elegant because it is about his travels. In the show... it's about his sexcapades. And yet I still think it's beautifully done. I wish they had added more to this scene upon scene watch. I like the last line in the scene because I think it's refreshing to see that he says that he marvels at how one can feel so much intimacy and yet still feel like they're at a great distance. I wish there was just more like there was in the books. Pen mentions that she wishes that she'd known that he kept a journal and she says that she can tell that Colin enjoyed writing it. I thin it would speak more to their friendship if they added that. And I think Colin constantly traveling in the books was always a way to show that he was searching for something. And 'purpose' was a large theme in the books and i can feel the show is like sort of 'grasping' at it but they're never fully clutching it and I wish that we got more in depth conversation between the two of them about that.
- When Colin cuts himself, it's very similar to the original. I'm glad they kept it in. I think it allows for the organic sexual tension and I think it's a touching nod to the books.
- The first kiss
- Ugh. I am so glad that they kept this scene. However, I am NOT happy that they included the fact that Pen says thank you at the end but they did NOT include the stuff that Colin says afterward. In the book, we get the luxury of knowing what Colin is thinking about during this scene. That's the beauty of books. But with media...film/television, we so heavily rely on the acting. Colin is upset that she thanks her in the book. He says "Don't thank me" and repeats that. And then Pen emphasizes (because she's stupidly not understanding the situation) that Colin shouldn't be upset about the kiss and Colin says 'I'm not.' and then Pen adds 'I practically forced you' and Colin once again emphasizes 'You didn't force me'. I really, really, really, really wanted to see that. I'm so sad they didn't include this. Instead, Pen runs off and the scene ends. And then in the next scene, we get a dream sequence that shows that Colin is thinking about the kiss, but I think I would have preferred the book scene because I think it would have shown some more acting chops for Luke.
- I really liked that they didn't include the line that Colin says which is about how a kiss is for two people. I think it makes Pen and Colin's kiss seem far more organic and beautiful to me that it's just natural between the two of them.
- The Carriage scene
- I think I can safely say all Polin fans were super excited about the inclusion of the carriage scene. Now...the difference is the timing of it all. In the books, Colin knows that Pen is LWD by the time they do all the sexy stuff in the carriage and by the time Colin proposes. I feel super conflicted about this for a few reasons. I think I like the idea that Colin and Pen can have their moment to love one another before the drama of LWD especially because the context and general idea of LWD is far worse in the books than in the show. Pen is far more 'grey' in the show. She's hurt Eloise and Colin with her actions as LWD. And then continues to do so in season 3. So it's a heavier thing to explore in the books. However, I also think it would be nice to have it be different than Colin's proposal to Marina. This is the second time Colin has been left in the dark prior to him proposing to someone.
- I think in the books, I was really frustrated by a few different points with Colin and one of them was his response to her being LWD. He seemed fine with it all and he was protective over about it. Which felt...odd. In addition, he was jealous of her success which I was not a fan of. I think it was just... not something that made me love Colin because it felt misogynistic at that point. Granted, it was historically accurate but I hope that's something that is changed.
- Francesca and John
- I really, really, really love that we get to see John and Francesca prior to their season. I think it's really going to help explore the concept of grief and guilt in Francesca's story and I'm really hoping they lean into this. And god, I just love the simplicity to their interactions as someone who also loves music and is massively introverted. It's beautiful acting honestly.
- Eloise and LWD
- I think I like that Eloise knows prior to Colin or not. In the books, Eloise's reaction to Pen being LWD is barely even mentioned. She's not even there when it's revealed which is upsetting as far as the book goes.
- Jess Brownell (the showrunner this season) mentioned somewhere that she feels like Eloise and Penelope are the second lovestory of the season and I'm really looking forward to that being expanded in part 2. I am really enjoying seeing the scenes between Pen and Eloise. You can tell that Eloise still cares about Pen even though she was hurt in the past. I just wished they'd expand on it a bit more.
- Cressida
- So Cressida plays a role in the book... but not this big of a role. And I'm actually happy they decided to expand on her characterization and back story. I think what I'm beginning to learn with Bridgerton is that the writers have made it so that nobody is a true villain in the series--instead, they're all just people who make mistakes (some bigger than others).
- I'm looking forward to seeing how they change it because based on the promo for part 2...it almost seems like Cressida is going to try to unmask LWD rather than claim that she IS LWD like in the books.
2024.05.18 23:23 SpaceySpaceLover Motivation for killing Tammy
I have been thinking about all of the evidence presented in the trial and have some new thoughts about Chad’s motivation for killing Tammy. I now think that rather than just killing Tammy so he could be with Lori that rather he killed her because he could no longer control her the way he wanted to.
I had initially thought that Chad had convinced Tammy to drive to Utah alone to visit her family with the hope of her dying in a car accident, but my new theory is that Tammy made that decision herself and that show of independence angered Chad. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it almost right after this trip that he finally labeled her as “dark”?
It has been clearly shown that Chad hated strong, independent women who stood up to him (e.g. Heather Daybell, Tylee). I think that Lori had probably been trying to convince Chad to get rid of Tammy for a while and that he may have even told her he would do it or more likely just reminded her of his “prophesy” that Tammy would die young to appease her, but without any intention of actually doing anything about it himself. However, towards the end of her life I think that Tammy was starting to come into her own and Chad’s grip on her thoughts and beliefs was becoming less and less strong. Tammy driving by herself to visit her family may have just been too much for Chad to handle. I think Tammy may have been finally getting fed up with all of her husband’s cheating. I also remember someone mentioning that Tammy would roll her eyes when Chad would talk about his “visions” and “prophesies”, which I can only imagine would anger Chad. I don’t think small man Chad could handle his wife being a stronger person than him. I think all of this filled Chad with all the rage he needed to hold Tammy down and smother the life out of her for daring not to submit to him.
I also think that before he killed her Chad likely started telling his children that Tammy seemed weak and not like herself. I think that the children probably knew and believed enough of his spiritual teachings that, even though Tammy was physically in the best shape of her life, Chad may have convinced them that she was becoming spiritually weak and ill. Or, he may have just had enough power over his kids to gaslight them into believing she really was physically ill, despite the obvious evidence to the contrary. I think Chad wanted to make sure his children would still stay under his influence no matter what.
Anyway, I think that Tammy’s murder completely fits the pattern of Chad’s violent hatred towards any woman who didn’t see him as their superior.
submitted by SpaceySpaceLover to LoriVallow [link] [comments]
I had initially thought that Chad had convinced Tammy to drive to Utah alone to visit her family with the hope of her dying in a car accident, but my new theory is that Tammy made that decision herself and that show of independence angered Chad. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it almost right after this trip that he finally labeled her as “dark”?
It has been clearly shown that Chad hated strong, independent women who stood up to him (e.g. Heather Daybell, Tylee). I think that Lori had probably been trying to convince Chad to get rid of Tammy for a while and that he may have even told her he would do it or more likely just reminded her of his “prophesy” that Tammy would die young to appease her, but without any intention of actually doing anything about it himself. However, towards the end of her life I think that Tammy was starting to come into her own and Chad’s grip on her thoughts and beliefs was becoming less and less strong. Tammy driving by herself to visit her family may have just been too much for Chad to handle. I think Tammy may have been finally getting fed up with all of her husband’s cheating. I also remember someone mentioning that Tammy would roll her eyes when Chad would talk about his “visions” and “prophesies”, which I can only imagine would anger Chad. I don’t think small man Chad could handle his wife being a stronger person than him. I think all of this filled Chad with all the rage he needed to hold Tammy down and smother the life out of her for daring not to submit to him.
I also think that before he killed her Chad likely started telling his children that Tammy seemed weak and not like herself. I think that the children probably knew and believed enough of his spiritual teachings that, even though Tammy was physically in the best shape of her life, Chad may have convinced them that she was becoming spiritually weak and ill. Or, he may have just had enough power over his kids to gaslight them into believing she really was physically ill, despite the obvious evidence to the contrary. I think Chad wanted to make sure his children would still stay under his influence no matter what.
Anyway, I think that Tammy’s murder completely fits the pattern of Chad’s violent hatred towards any woman who didn’t see him as their superior.
2024.05.18 23:12 StrivingJarl I finally have it! NOW NO ONE CAN STOP ME!
2024.05.18 23:10 LintLiquorish On the Millennial experience of Scholastic book fairs
My sister looks at these school events as the “tax” she pays (please, not in a negative way) for her community and her kids’ development. She loooves books and supports her local and county libraries, but she also wants books in the home for the kids to access at any time. As middle class in CA, she supports her local used book stores, “buying” and “selling” back books (you know, cycling through books as the kids grow). Money she gets from “selling” back her books goes to towards funds for these types of school events. She donates and/or sells back some books to make room for the new ones (it does nothing guys, I never wanna say someone can have too many books, but maaan the kids room is a library! Haha they read every. single. one. But they really need to invest in a shed to make a library or something haha). Although pricey - requiring her to put up most of the cost - it’s her doing her part to keep books rotating in her community, AND so her kids can enjoy the experience of relishing in their interests and hobbies with their friends with the new “thing” (and teaching them the importance of saving money, delayed gratification, all these life lessons).
I know where she’s coming from because growing up we never had money for these book fairs… and eventually ended up in schools that barely had books available… and it felt like no one but the kids cared and we didn’t know what to do?? She now has control over that and does her part to make sure her kids don’t experience what we did.
All that to say, your comment triggered a memory of parents I’ve overheard complaining about the cost of these events, and will spout “it’s cheaper to wait until it’s at the library or used book store” so the kid has access to it and that’s great. However, there is something about the parents that realize it’s more than just having access, that there are so many other factors to consider, like participating in your community, and life experiences and lessons that the child might miss out on (not to say they won’t learn this elsewhere, just that it’s a positive opportunity in this setting).
Admittedly, I’m high and thinking on past trauma associated with these book fairs (weird most of us here had similar experiences) and childhood in general so you’re welcome for my TEDtalk
submitted by LintLiquorish to u/LintLiquorish [link] [comments]
I know where she’s coming from because growing up we never had money for these book fairs… and eventually ended up in schools that barely had books available… and it felt like no one but the kids cared and we didn’t know what to do?? She now has control over that and does her part to make sure her kids don’t experience what we did.
All that to say, your comment triggered a memory of parents I’ve overheard complaining about the cost of these events, and will spout “it’s cheaper to wait until it’s at the library or used book store” so the kid has access to it and that’s great. However, there is something about the parents that realize it’s more than just having access, that there are so many other factors to consider, like participating in your community, and life experiences and lessons that the child might miss out on (not to say they won’t learn this elsewhere, just that it’s a positive opportunity in this setting).
Admittedly, I’m high and thinking on past trauma associated with these book fairs (weird most of us here had similar experiences) and childhood in general so you’re welcome for my TEDtalk
2024.05.18 23:04 Theo-Dorable Ideologies (and their descriptions)
A list of all the ideologies (within the game files), including their descriptions. Enjoy.
National Conservatism National conservatism is a variant of conservatism that concentrates more on national interests and upholding cultural or ethnic identity than most other conservatives. In Europe, national conservatives are usually Eurosceptics.
Gaullism
Gaullism is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader General Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic.
Corporatism I do not know where the description for this is. Considering corporatism doesn't exactly fit within conservatism I believe this is a mistake, but I'm including it here anyway.
Republican Party [sic]
The Republican Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, a major ideology of the American Revolution. Founded by anti-slavery activists, economic modernizers, ex-National Republicans, ex-Free Soilers and Whigs in 1854, the Republicans largely dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern states between 1860 and 1932.
Religious Zionism Formed as a nationalist opposition and acts as the basis of the Israeli right, Revisionist Zionism envisions territorial integrity over the historical Land of Israel and supports Jewish nationalism. Revisionist Zionists believed that Jews have sovereignty over both banks of the Jordan river and its followers question the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Jordan. Currently, Revisionist Zionism is regarded as a fringe ideology but its proponents have recently began a push to make the ideology more moderate and hence more electable.
Black Conservatism Black Conservatism is a type of conservative ideology popular among Africans in both hemispheres. Individuals which would promote black conservatism would likely be advocates of free market capitalism, promotion of traditional beliefs (generally in regards to Catholic and Protestant Christianity), and Patriotism or Jingoism. Black Conservatism generally is opposed to Pan-Africanism, Socialism, and Anti-Imperialism.
Conservative Liberalism Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or simply representing the right-wing of the liberal movement. It is a more positive and less radical variant of classical liberalism.
Vatican [sic]
The politics of Vatican City take place in a framework of an theocratic absolute elective monarchy, in which the Pope, religiously speaking, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and Bishop of Rome, exercises ex officio supreme legislative, executive, and judicial power over the Vatican City, a rare case of non-hereditary monarchy.
Democratic Socialism Democratic socialism is a political philosophy that advocates political democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production, with an emphasis on self-management and democratic management of economic institutions within a market or some form of decentralized planned socialist economy.
Market Socialism Market socialism is a type of economic system involving the public, cooperative, or social ownership of the means of production in the framework of a market economy.
Royal Socialism No information in the game files. Probably a scrapped ideology, but still here for showcase purposes.
Neocommunism Ditto to above.
African Socialism African socialism is a belief in sharing economic resources in a traditional African way, as distinct from classical socialism. Common principles of African socialism are social development guided by a large public sector, incorporating the African identity and what it means to be African, and the avoidance of the development of social classes within society.
Ujamaa The Swahili word Ujamaa means 'extended family', 'brotherhood' or 'socialism'; as a political concept it asserts that a person becomes a person through the people or community. Ujamaa was a term made popular by the political philosophy applied under Julius Nyerere's social and economic development policies in Tanzania after it gained independence from Britain in 1961.
Labor Zionism (Mapai) Labor Zionism is the left-wing of the Zionist movement. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations. It saw itself as the Zionist sector of the historic Jewish labor movements of Eastern and Central Europe, eventually developing local units in most countries with sizable Jewish populations. Labor Zionists believe that a Jewish state could only be created through the efforts of the Jewish working class settling in the Land of Israel and constructing a state through the creation of a progressive Jewish society with rural kibbutzim and moshavim and an urban Jewish proletariat.
Kemalism Kemalism is the founding ideology of the Republic of Turkey. Kemalism, as it was implemented by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was defined by sweeping political, social, cultural and religious reforms designed to separate the new Turkish state from its Ottoman predecessor and embrace a Westernized way of living, including the establishment of democracy, secularism, state support of the sciences and free education.
Oriental Personalism Oriental Personalism is the official ideology of Ngo Dinh Diem's Can-Lao Party in South Vietnam. Owing as much to the influence of his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu as Diem himself, Oriental Personalism has diverse ideological influences, including Emannuel Mournier's theory of Personalism, Marxism, and the folk traditions and religions of Vietnam. The Can-Lao manifest calls for the gradual transformation of Vietnamese society through two phase. In the first phase, the Personalist Revolution, the Social and Working Classes will tear their divisions and join as one. Then comes the Social Revolution, where all forms of capitalism and colonial influence will be swept out on a triumphant march to a utopian, socialist, and proudly Vietnamese society.
Democratic Party [sic]
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.
Labor Zionism Functionally the exact same as Labor Zionism (Mapai), with the same description. I have no clue why it's divided as such.
Green politics Green politics is a political ideology that aims to create an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy.
Libertarianism Libertarianism is a collection of political philosophies and movements that uphold liberty as a core principle. Libertarians seek to maximize political freedom and autonomy, emphasizing freedom of choice, voluntary association, and individual judgment. Libertarians share a skepticism of authority and state power, but they diverge on the scope of their opposition to existing political and economic systems.
Zionism (General Zionism) Many people and parties chose not to follow any of the distinct Zionist schools of thought and chose to stick to the core ideology of Zionism, settling in Israel and the establishment of the Jewish State. Many of the parties that stick to the 'core' of Zionism are centrist parties that don't associate themselves with either the left nor the right and tend to be economically liberal.
Liberal Communism I can find no reference. I presume this refers to the like of Gorbachev.
Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and related policies implemented from around 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. Stalinist policies and ideas as developed in the Soviet Union included rapid industrialization, the theory of socialism in one country, a totalitarian state, collectivization of agriculture, a cult of personality and subordination of the interests of foreign communist parties to those of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, deemed by Stalinism to be the leading vanguard party of communist revolution at the time.
Juche Juche is the official state ideology of North Korea, described by the government as Kim Il-sung's original, brilliant and revolutionary contribution to national and international thought. It postulates that the Korean masses are to act as the masters of the revolution and construction and that by becoming self-reliant and strong a nation can achieve true socialism.
Ho Chi Minh Thought Ho Chi Minh Thought is the official ideology of the Communist Party of Vietnam under the leadership of Chairman Ho Chi Minh. Though firmly Marxist-Leninist, Ho believes in a more nationalistic reintepretation of Marxism for the unique conditions of the Vietnamese revolution, even taking some influence from Sun Yat-Sen's "Three Principles of the People" and the American revolutionaries. Ho Chi Minh Thought is as proudly Vietnamese as it is Communist, and calls for a "national democratic revolution" -- a truly Vietnamese path to socialism where worker, peasant, soldier, and merchant will unite against inequality and imperialism in all its forms.
Revolutionary Islamic Socialism Your guess is as good as mine.
Trotskyism Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Russian Leon Trotsky. Trotsky identified as an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist. He supported founding a vanguard party of the proletariat, proletarian internationalism and a dictatorship of the proletariat based on working class self-emancipation and mass democracy.
Sartre Thought No description given.
Anarcho-Communism Anarcho-communism is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, capitalism, wage labor and private property in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and a horizontal network of workers' councils with production and consumption based on the guiding principle: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
Posadism No description. Another relic.
Titoism Titoism is described as the post-World War II policies and practices associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War, characterized by an opposition to the Soviet Union. It usually represents Tito's Yugoslav doctrine in Cold War international politics. It emerged with the Yugoslav Partisans' liberation of Yugoslavia independently of the Red Army, resulting in Yugoslavia being the only Eastern European country to remain socialist, but independent after World War II as well as resisting Soviet Union pressure to become a member of the Warsaw Pact.
Left-wing Military Dictatorship a Left-wing Military Dictatorship is a government which may espouse specific socialistic beliefs to gain second world support, but is however a military-controlled oppressive autocratic state. [sic]
Person Dignity Theory (Nhuism) Person Dignity Theory, also known as Spiritualistic Marxism, describes the more radical worldview of Ngo Dinh Nhu. Influenced by his involvment with French syndicalism in the 1930s and the left-wing nationalism of the Viet Minh, Nhu's views are significantly to the left of his older brother. Nhu's interpretation of \"True Marxism\" calls for a total centralization of state power in the Can Lao Party and the complete destruction of traditional society in favor of the strict regimentation of the peasants in collectivist \"Strategic Hamlets\" and the city dwellers through \"Urban Revolutionary Syndicates\". Some believe Nhu's ambitions may lie beyond Vietnam, given his calls for a worldwide crusade against \"Materialistic Capitalism\". [sic]
Mao Zedong thought is the product of the combination of the basic principles of Marxism Leninism and the specific reality of the Chinese revolution. It is the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Chinese Communists. It is a political, military and development theory advocated by Mao Zedong and widely practiced in the Chinese revolution in the 20th century. It is generally considered to be the development of Marxism Leninism in China.
Anti-Revisionism A Marxist-Leninist position emerging after the XXth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Anti-revisionist movements oppose the reforms of the Khrushchev period and uphold Stalinist and Maoist developments in Marxism.
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism The synthesis of Marxism–Leninism–Maoism did not occur during the life of Mao Zedong. From the 1960s, groups that called themselves Maoist or which upheld Maoism were not unified around a common understanding of Maoism and had instead their own particular interpretations of the political, philosophical, economical and military works of Mao; these disorganized ideological trends comprised, and still comprise, Mao Zedong Thought.
Scientific Socialism Scientific Socialism was founded by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, but was widely used by Deng Xiaoping of the PRC to reform Maoism. It is often Maoism, but with a few reforms that add more emphasis on science, industrialization, and overall a new focus on the economy.
Hoxhaism Hoxhaism is a variant of anti-revisionist Marxism-Leninism that developed in the late 1970s due to a split in the Maoist movement, appearing after the ideological dispute between the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labor of Albania. The ideology is named after Enver Hoxha, a notable Albanian communist leader.
Guevarism Guevarism is a theory of communist revolution and a military strategy of guerrilla warfare associated with communist revolutionary Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara. The ideology promotes exporting revolution to any country whose leader is supported by the empire (United States) and has fallen out of favor with its citizens. The ideology has three main points, namely that the people can win with proper organization against a nation's army; that the conditions that make a revolution possible can be put in place by the popular forces; and that the popular forces always have an advantage in a non urban setting. [sic]
Falangism An authoritarian ideology with traits of fascism and conservatism, Falangist values national and Catholic identity.
Rexism Strongly opposed to both liberal and communist ideals, Rexism is a staunchly conservative nationalist movement who advocate a corporatist economic policy. Employing increasingly populist and authoritarian rhetoric, their ideals are shifting closer to other fascist movements.
Hindu Nationalism Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent.
Salazarism Salazarism is a nationalist authoritarian ideology focusing on 'God, Fatherland and Family' and emphasizing the social role of Catholicism - setting it apart from mainstream variations of Fascism.
Neo-Nazism Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II militant, social or political movements seeking to revive the ideology of Nazism. It borrows elements from Nazi doctrine, including ultranationalism, racism up to xenophobia, ableism, homophobia, anti-Romanyism, antisemitism, anti-communism and initiating the Fourth Reich. Holocaust denial is a common feature, as is the incorporation of Nazi symbols and admiration of Adolf Hitler.
National Bolshevism National Bolshevism is a political movement that combines elements of nationalism and Bolshevism.
Baathism Baathism is an Arab nationalist ideology that promotes the development and creation of a unified Arab state through the leadership of a vanguard party over a progressive revolutionary government.
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan is an American white supremacist hate group. The Klan has existed in three distinct eras at different points in time during the history of the United States. Each has advocated extremist reactionary positions such as white supremacy, white nationalism, anti-immigration and-especially in later iterations-Nordicism and anti-Catholicism.
Kahanism No information.
Authenticité Ditto.
Trujillism Ditto.
Peronism Ditto.
National Democracy no desc.
Pan-Africanism Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent. Based on a common fate going back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans, with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States.
Leftwing Nationalism Leftwing Nationalism is a form of nationalism which promotes the raising of societal standards for one's own national people generally through the introduction of social equality and government nationalization. Leftwing Nationalism is often anti-imperialist and can commonly represent national liberation fronts. Generally, Leftwing Nationalism will be a response to repeated exploitation of a nation by outside factors.
Bourguibism No desc.
Nasserism Nasserism is a revolutionary ideology, inspired by the second Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser; espousing the unification of what is referred to as the Arab world. It asserts that the Arab people constitute a single nation or federation, based upon a shared language and culture, transcending Islam and Christianity. Advocates of Nasserism have often been described representing political and economic positions which are secular, socialist, nationalistic, socially progressive, and anti-imperialist.
Revisionist Zionism See above.
Islamic Monarchy Islamic monarchies are a type of Islamic state which are monarchies. They are historically known by various names, such as Mamlakah, Caliphate, Sultanate, or Emirate.
Negusa Nagast
Negusa Nagast, or king of kings, is a type of selective hereditary imperial monarchy that became the prevalent leadership of Ethiopia since Negus Zemene Mesafint ended the Age of Princes period where Ethiopia was fractured between small principalities, kindoms, and sultanates.
Despotism Despotism is a form of government in which a single person rules with absolute power.
Military Dictatorship A military dictatorship is a form of government wherein a military force exerts complete or substantial control over political authority.
Oligarchic Oligarchy is a form of government in which a group of people rule with absolute power.
Colonialism Colonialism is the policy of a foreign polity seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories, generally with the aim of opening trade opportunities. The colonizing country seeks to benefit whilst the colonized country or land mass, as many of the colonized countries were not countries at all, modernize in terms defined by the colonizers, especially in economics, religion, and health.
Independent An independent politician is an individual politician not affiliated with any political party.
Haredi no desc.
Vennamoism Vennamolaisuus, or Vennamoism in english is name given to the ideology and political movement of Veikko Vennamo, the leader of Finnish Rural Party. It is categorized by populism, reliance on slogans and support for agriculture.
Democratic Islamism Islamic democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Islamic principles to public policy within a democratic framework. Islamic political theory specifies three basic features of an Islamic democracy: leaders must be elected by the people, subject to sharia and committed to practicing \"shura\", a special form of consultation practiced by Prophet Muhammad
Ibadi Imamate no desc.
Shia Monarchy no desc.
Houthiism
Houthiism is an armed movement stemming from a sect of Shia Islam, Zaidiism. Houthiism is almost nonexistent outside of Yemen. The Houthi movement strongly opposes Saudi Arabia, the US, and Israel and seeks to combat the 'underdevelopment and marginalization' of Yemen.
"Eereerhmm... where are the ideology tags?" NOWHERE! I will not add them.
submitted by Theo-Dorable to CWIC [link] [comments]
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy promoting traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. The central tenets of conservatism include tradition, human imperfection, organic society, hierarchy and authority, and property rights. Conservatives seek to preserve a range of institutions such as monarchy, religion, parliamentary government, and property rights, with the aim of emphasizing social stability and continuity.National Conservatism National conservatism is a variant of conservatism that concentrates more on national interests and upholding cultural or ethnic identity than most other conservatives. In Europe, national conservatives are usually Eurosceptics.
Gaullism
Gaullism is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader General Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic.
Corporatism I do not know where the description for this is. Considering corporatism doesn't exactly fit within conservatism I believe this is a mistake, but I'm including it here anyway.
Republican Party [sic]
The Republican Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, a major ideology of the American Revolution. Founded by anti-slavery activists, economic modernizers, ex-National Republicans, ex-Free Soilers and Whigs in 1854, the Republicans largely dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern states between 1860 and 1932.
Religious Zionism Formed as a nationalist opposition and acts as the basis of the Israeli right, Revisionist Zionism envisions territorial integrity over the historical Land of Israel and supports Jewish nationalism. Revisionist Zionists believed that Jews have sovereignty over both banks of the Jordan river and its followers question the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Jordan. Currently, Revisionist Zionism is regarded as a fringe ideology but its proponents have recently began a push to make the ideology more moderate and hence more electable.
Black Conservatism Black Conservatism is a type of conservative ideology popular among Africans in both hemispheres. Individuals which would promote black conservatism would likely be advocates of free market capitalism, promotion of traditional beliefs (generally in regards to Catholic and Protestant Christianity), and Patriotism or Jingoism. Black Conservatism generally is opposed to Pan-Africanism, Socialism, and Anti-Imperialism.
Liberal Conservatism
Liberal conservatism combines conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic, social and ethical issues. It incorporates the classical liberal view of minimal government intervention in the economy, according to which individuals should be free to participate in the market and generate wealth without government interference. However, individuals cannot be thoroughly depended on to act responsibly in other spheres of life, therefore liberal conservatives believe that a strong state is necessary to ensure law and order and social institutions are needed to nurture a sense of duty and responsibility to the nation. They also support civil liberties, along with some social conservative positions.Conservative Liberalism Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or simply representing the right-wing of the liberal movement. It is a more positive and less radical variant of classical liberalism.
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a form of conservatism and a political ideology which emerged in 19th century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching, as well as Neo Calvinism. It was originally conceived as a combination of traditional Catholic beliefs and modern democratic ideas, and it grew to incorporate the social teaching of other Christian denominations, such as the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church.Vatican [sic]
The politics of Vatican City take place in a framework of an theocratic absolute elective monarchy, in which the Pope, religiously speaking, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and Bishop of Rome, exercises ex officio supreme legislative, executive, and judicial power over the Vatican City, a rare case of non-hereditary monarchy.
Socialism
Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterized by social ownership and workers' self-management of the means of production as well as the political theories and movements associated with them. Social ownership may refer to forms of public, collective or cooperative ownership, or to citizen ownership of equity. There are many varieties of socialism and there is no single definition encapsulating all of them, though social ownership is the common element shared by its various forms. Socialist economic systems can be divided into non-market and market forms. Non-market socialism involves the substitution of factor markets and money, with engineering and technical criteria, based on calculation performed in-kind, thereby producing an economic mechanism that functions according to different economic laws from those of capitalism. Non-market socialism aims to circumvent the inefficiencies and crises traditionally associated with capital accumulation and the profit system. By contrast, market socialism retains the use of monetary prices, factor markets and in some cases the profit motive, with respect to the operation of socially owned enterprises and the allocation of capital goods between them. Profits generated by these firms would be controlled directly by the workforce of each firm, or accrue to society at large in the form of a social dividend. The socialist calculation debate discusses the feasibility and methods of resource allocation for a socialist system.Democratic Socialism Democratic socialism is a political philosophy that advocates political democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production, with an emphasis on self-management and democratic management of economic institutions within a market or some form of decentralized planned socialist economy.
Market Socialism Market socialism is a type of economic system involving the public, cooperative, or social ownership of the means of production in the framework of a market economy.
Royal Socialism No information in the game files. Probably a scrapped ideology, but still here for showcase purposes.
Neocommunism Ditto to above.
African Socialism African socialism is a belief in sharing economic resources in a traditional African way, as distinct from classical socialism. Common principles of African socialism are social development guided by a large public sector, incorporating the African identity and what it means to be African, and the avoidance of the development of social classes within society.
Ujamaa The Swahili word Ujamaa means 'extended family', 'brotherhood' or 'socialism'; as a political concept it asserts that a person becomes a person through the people or community. Ujamaa was a term made popular by the political philosophy applied under Julius Nyerere's social and economic development policies in Tanzania after it gained independence from Britain in 1961.
Labor Zionism (Mapai) Labor Zionism is the left-wing of the Zionist movement. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations. It saw itself as the Zionist sector of the historic Jewish labor movements of Eastern and Central Europe, eventually developing local units in most countries with sizable Jewish populations. Labor Zionists believe that a Jewish state could only be created through the efforts of the Jewish working class settling in the Land of Israel and constructing a state through the creation of a progressive Jewish society with rural kibbutzim and moshavim and an urban Jewish proletariat.
Kemalism Kemalism is the founding ideology of the Republic of Turkey. Kemalism, as it was implemented by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was defined by sweeping political, social, cultural and religious reforms designed to separate the new Turkish state from its Ottoman predecessor and embrace a Westernized way of living, including the establishment of democracy, secularism, state support of the sciences and free education.
Oriental Personalism Oriental Personalism is the official ideology of Ngo Dinh Diem's Can-Lao Party in South Vietnam. Owing as much to the influence of his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu as Diem himself, Oriental Personalism has diverse ideological influences, including Emannuel Mournier's theory of Personalism, Marxism, and the folk traditions and religions of Vietnam. The Can-Lao manifest calls for the gradual transformation of Vietnamese society through two phase. In the first phase, the Personalist Revolution, the Social and Working Classes will tear their divisions and join as one. Then comes the Social Revolution, where all forms of capitalism and colonial influence will be swept out on a triumphant march to a utopian, socialist, and proudly Vietnamese society.
Social Democracy
Social Democracy is a political, social and economic ideology that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a capitalist economy, as well as a policy regime involving a commitment to representative democracy, measures for income redistribution, and regulation of the economy in the general interest and welfare state provisions.Democratic Party [sic]
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.
Labor Zionism Functionally the exact same as Labor Zionism (Mapai), with the same description. I have no clue why it's divided as such.
Social Liberalism
Social liberalism is a political ideology that believes individual liberty requires a level of social justice. Like classical liberalism, social liberalism endorses a market economy and the expansion of civil and political rights and liberties, but differs in that it believes the legitimate role of the government includes addressing economic and social issues such as poverty, health care, and education.Progressivism
Progressivism is the support for or advocacy of improvement of society by reform. As a philosophy, it is based on the idea of progress, which asserts that advancements in science, technology, economic development and social organization are vital to the improvement of the human condition.Green politics Green politics is a political ideology that aims to create an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy.
Centrism
Centrism is a political outlook or specific position that involves acceptance or support of a balance of a degree of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy, while opposing political changes which would result in a significant shift of society either strongly to the left or the right.Classical Liberalism
Democracy (yes, that is the entire description)Libertarianism Libertarianism is a collection of political philosophies and movements that uphold liberty as a core principle. Libertarians seek to maximize political freedom and autonomy, emphasizing freedom of choice, voluntary association, and individual judgment. Libertarians share a skepticism of authority and state power, but they diverge on the scope of their opposition to existing political and economic systems.
Zionism (General Zionism) Many people and parties chose not to follow any of the distinct Zionist schools of thought and chose to stick to the core ideology of Zionism, settling in Israel and the establishment of the Jewish State. Many of the parties that stick to the 'core' of Zionism are centrist parties that don't associate themselves with either the left nor the right and tend to be economically liberal.
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism is the ideology combining Marxist socioeconomic theory and Leninist political praxis, which is the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and of the Communist International. The purpose of Marxism-Leninism is the revolutionary development of a capitalist state into a socialist state, effected by the leadership of a vanguard party of professional revolutionaries from the working class.Liberal Communism I can find no reference. I presume this refers to the like of Gorbachev.
Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and related policies implemented from around 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. Stalinist policies and ideas as developed in the Soviet Union included rapid industrialization, the theory of socialism in one country, a totalitarian state, collectivization of agriculture, a cult of personality and subordination of the interests of foreign communist parties to those of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, deemed by Stalinism to be the leading vanguard party of communist revolution at the time.
Juche Juche is the official state ideology of North Korea, described by the government as Kim Il-sung's original, brilliant and revolutionary contribution to national and international thought. It postulates that the Korean masses are to act as the masters of the revolution and construction and that by becoming self-reliant and strong a nation can achieve true socialism.
Ho Chi Minh Thought Ho Chi Minh Thought is the official ideology of the Communist Party of Vietnam under the leadership of Chairman Ho Chi Minh. Though firmly Marxist-Leninist, Ho believes in a more nationalistic reintepretation of Marxism for the unique conditions of the Vietnamese revolution, even taking some influence from Sun Yat-Sen's "Three Principles of the People" and the American revolutionaries. Ho Chi Minh Thought is as proudly Vietnamese as it is Communist, and calls for a "national democratic revolution" -- a truly Vietnamese path to socialism where worker, peasant, soldier, and merchant will unite against inequality and imperialism in all its forms.
Revolutionary Socialism
Revolutionary socialism is the socialist doctrine that social revolution is necessary in order to bring about structural changes to society. More specifically, it is the view that revolution is a necessary precondition for a transition from capitalism to socialism.Revolutionary Islamic Socialism Your guess is as good as mine.
Trotskyism Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Russian Leon Trotsky. Trotsky identified as an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist. He supported founding a vanguard party of the proletariat, proletarian internationalism and a dictatorship of the proletariat based on working class self-emancipation and mass democracy.
Sartre Thought No description given.
Anarcho-Communism Anarcho-communism is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, capitalism, wage labor and private property in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and a horizontal network of workers' councils with production and consumption based on the guiding principle: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
Posadism No description. Another relic.
Titoism Titoism is described as the post-World War II policies and practices associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War, characterized by an opposition to the Soviet Union. It usually represents Tito's Yugoslav doctrine in Cold War international politics. It emerged with the Yugoslav Partisans' liberation of Yugoslavia independently of the Red Army, resulting in Yugoslavia being the only Eastern European country to remain socialist, but independent after World War II as well as resisting Soviet Union pressure to become a member of the Warsaw Pact.
Left-wing Military Dictatorship a Left-wing Military Dictatorship is a government which may espouse specific socialistic beliefs to gain second world support, but is however a military-controlled oppressive autocratic state. [sic]
Person Dignity Theory (Nhuism) Person Dignity Theory, also known as Spiritualistic Marxism, describes the more radical worldview of Ngo Dinh Nhu. Influenced by his involvment with French syndicalism in the 1930s and the left-wing nationalism of the Viet Minh, Nhu's views are significantly to the left of his older brother. Nhu's interpretation of \"True Marxism\" calls for a total centralization of state power in the Can Lao Party and the complete destruction of traditional society in favor of the strict regimentation of the peasants in collectivist \"Strategic Hamlets\" and the city dwellers through \"Urban Revolutionary Syndicates\". Some believe Nhu's ambitions may lie beyond Vietnam, given his calls for a worldwide crusade against \"Materialistic Capitalism\". [sic]
Maoism (Mao Zedong Thought)
Actually clumps together "anti-revisionist" ideologies, but for our purposes we'll start with Mao Zedong Thought.Mao Zedong thought is the product of the combination of the basic principles of Marxism Leninism and the specific reality of the Chinese revolution. It is the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Chinese Communists. It is a political, military and development theory advocated by Mao Zedong and widely practiced in the Chinese revolution in the 20th century. It is generally considered to be the development of Marxism Leninism in China.
Anti-Revisionism A Marxist-Leninist position emerging after the XXth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Anti-revisionist movements oppose the reforms of the Khrushchev period and uphold Stalinist and Maoist developments in Marxism.
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism The synthesis of Marxism–Leninism–Maoism did not occur during the life of Mao Zedong. From the 1960s, groups that called themselves Maoist or which upheld Maoism were not unified around a common understanding of Maoism and had instead their own particular interpretations of the political, philosophical, economical and military works of Mao; these disorganized ideological trends comprised, and still comprise, Mao Zedong Thought.
Scientific Socialism Scientific Socialism was founded by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, but was widely used by Deng Xiaoping of the PRC to reform Maoism. It is often Maoism, but with a few reforms that add more emphasis on science, industrialization, and overall a new focus on the economy.
Hoxhaism Hoxhaism is a variant of anti-revisionist Marxism-Leninism that developed in the late 1970s due to a split in the Maoist movement, appearing after the ideological dispute between the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labor of Albania. The ideology is named after Enver Hoxha, a notable Albanian communist leader.
Guevarism Guevarism is a theory of communist revolution and a military strategy of guerrilla warfare associated with communist revolutionary Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara. The ideology promotes exporting revolution to any country whose leader is supported by the empire (United States) and has fallen out of favor with its citizens. The ideology has three main points, namely that the people can win with proper organization against a nation's army; that the conditions that make a revolution possible can be put in place by the popular forces; and that the popular forces always have an advantage in a non urban setting. [sic]
Third Positionism
Encompassing a variety of ultra-nationalist movements, third positionism typically venerates devotion to the state and uniting the people under a strong leader. Third Positionism is presented as its own unique ideology as a third option to capitalism or communism.Falangism An authoritarian ideology with traits of fascism and conservatism, Falangist values national and Catholic identity.
Rexism Strongly opposed to both liberal and communist ideals, Rexism is a staunchly conservative nationalist movement who advocate a corporatist economic policy. Employing increasingly populist and authoritarian rhetoric, their ideals are shifting closer to other fascist movements.
Hindu Nationalism Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent.
Salazarism Salazarism is a nationalist authoritarian ideology focusing on 'God, Fatherland and Family' and emphasizing the social role of Catholicism - setting it apart from mainstream variations of Fascism.
Neo-Nazism Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II militant, social or political movements seeking to revive the ideology of Nazism. It borrows elements from Nazi doctrine, including ultranationalism, racism up to xenophobia, ableism, homophobia, anti-Romanyism, antisemitism, anti-communism and initiating the Fourth Reich. Holocaust denial is a common feature, as is the incorporation of Nazi symbols and admiration of Adolf Hitler.
National Bolshevism National Bolshevism is a political movement that combines elements of nationalism and Bolshevism.
Baathism Baathism is an Arab nationalist ideology that promotes the development and creation of a unified Arab state through the leadership of a vanguard party over a progressive revolutionary government.
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan is an American white supremacist hate group. The Klan has existed in three distinct eras at different points in time during the history of the United States. Each has advocated extremist reactionary positions such as white supremacy, white nationalism, anti-immigration and-especially in later iterations-Nordicism and anti-Catholicism.
Kahanism No information.
Authenticité Ditto.
Trujillism Ditto.
Peronism Ditto.
Nationalism
Encompassing a variety of ultra nationalist movements, Nationalism typically venerates devotion to the state and uniting the people under a strong leader.National Democracy no desc.
Pan-Africanism Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent. Based on a common fate going back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans, with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States.
Leftwing Nationalism Leftwing Nationalism is a form of nationalism which promotes the raising of societal standards for one's own national people generally through the introduction of social equality and government nationalization. Leftwing Nationalism is often anti-imperialist and can commonly represent national liberation fronts. Generally, Leftwing Nationalism will be a response to repeated exploitation of a nation by outside factors.
Bourguibism No desc.
Nasserism Nasserism is a revolutionary ideology, inspired by the second Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser; espousing the unification of what is referred to as the Arab world. It asserts that the Arab people constitute a single nation or federation, based upon a shared language and culture, transcending Islam and Christianity. Advocates of Nasserism have often been described representing political and economic positions which are secular, socialist, nationalistic, socially progressive, and anti-imperialist.
Revisionist Zionism See above.
Monarchism
A monarchy is a form of government in which a group, generally a family representing a dynasty, embodies the country's national identity and its head, the monarch, exercises the role of sovereignty.Islamic Monarchy Islamic monarchies are a type of Islamic state which are monarchies. They are historically known by various names, such as Mamlakah, Caliphate, Sultanate, or Emirate.
Negusa Nagast
Negusa Nagast, or king of kings, is a type of selective hereditary imperial monarchy that became the prevalent leadership of Ethiopia since Negus Zemene Mesafint ended the Age of Princes period where Ethiopia was fractured between small principalities, kindoms, and sultanates.
Reactionary (also Neutrality)
In political science, a reactionary is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the status quo ante, the previous political state of society, which he or she believes possessed characteristics that are negatively absent from the contemporary status quo of a society.Despotism Despotism is a form of government in which a single person rules with absolute power.
Military Dictatorship A military dictatorship is a form of government wherein a military force exerts complete or substantial control over political authority.
Oligarchic Oligarchy is a form of government in which a group of people rule with absolute power.
Colonialism Colonialism is the policy of a foreign polity seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories, generally with the aim of opening trade opportunities. The colonizing country seeks to benefit whilst the colonized country or land mass, as many of the colonized countries were not countries at all, modernize in terms defined by the colonizers, especially in economics, religion, and health.
Independent An independent politician is an individual politician not affiliated with any political party.
Haredi no desc.
Vennamoism Vennamolaisuus, or Vennamoism in english is name given to the ideology and political movement of Veikko Vennamo, the leader of Finnish Rural Party. It is categorized by populism, reliance on slogans and support for agriculture.
Islamism
Sunni Islam is the largest denomination of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the exemplary behavior of the Islamic prophet MuhammadDemocratic Islamism Islamic democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Islamic principles to public policy within a democratic framework. Islamic political theory specifies three basic features of an Islamic democracy: leaders must be elected by the people, subject to sharia and committed to practicing \"shura\", a special form of consultation practiced by Prophet Muhammad
Ibadi Imamate no desc.
Radical Shiaism
Shia is a branch of Islam which holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor (Imam).Shia Monarchy no desc.
Houthiism
Houthiism is an armed movement stemming from a sect of Shia Islam, Zaidiism. Houthiism is almost nonexistent outside of Yemen. The Houthi movement strongly opposes Saudi Arabia, the US, and Israel and seeks to combat the 'underdevelopment and marginalization' of Yemen.
Salafism
Salafism is a reform branch or revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that developed in Egypt in the late 19th century as a response to Western European imperialism, with roots in the 18th-century Wahhabi movement that originated in the Najd region of modern day Saudi Arabia."Eereerhmm... where are the ideology tags?" NOWHERE! I will not add them.
2024.05.18 23:02 Klokinator The Cryopod to Hell 560: Ancient Domains
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(Previous Part)
(Part 001)
"Hell yeah, I wanna go exploring." Jason says to Calanthra with a smile. "How do we navigate around Ripspace though? Traveling to other galaxies is going to take billions of years, right? Surely, there's a shortcut."
"Ripspace is not as it seems." Calanthra explains, gesturing grandly to the epic sight before them. "It is a connection between the past and the present; the near and far. The further away or the further back you want to travel, the higher the price you will have to pay."
Jason's smile vanishes. "Wait... you can use Ripspace to travel back in time?!"
"No." Calanthra clarifies. "Time is linear. We cannot travel through it. Some can slow it down or speed it up. A rare few can even pause it for a short while. But moving forward and backward is impossible. Countless have attempted to do so over the eons, but all have failed."
She looks at Jason meaningfully. "Many Rulers would wipe out galaxies if it might let them obtain such a power. The fact they still haven't proves it is impossible."
Jason nods slowly. "I won't lie. I have a lot of regrets. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and save my daughter from dying."
"Everyone has regrets." Calanthra muses, looking off into the distance. "I have plenty, myself. But it's better this way. There would be pandemonium if time travel ever became possible."
She pauses before continuing with her explanation. "While we cannot go back in time, we can look back into time. Pinpointing exact moments in history is difficult, to say the least, but it is possible to use Ripspace to search for key moments in intergalactic history."
"So it's like a massive seer-stone." Jason muses aloud. "But wait, didn't you imply earlier that you used Ripspace to travel to the Milky Way from Andromeda? How does it allow you to jump between galaxies? Are other species using Ripspace for intergalactic travel?"
"You can indeed use Ripspace to travel to distant reaches of space." Calanthra explains. "But... you have to pay a certain price. Akasha's Barriers still protect every galaxy. Cosmics cannot travel between them easily. Mortals can, but the price we must pay is unimaginably steep. That is also the reason my mother perished not long after arriving in the Milky Way and giving birth to me."
The Fairy Monarch sighs softly.
"My people used the power of Ripspace to travel to several other galaxies. We were fortunate that the Creator had died, allowing us to take up residence here in secret, but the Angels, Titans, and Dragons were still a threat we could not overlook. Later, the Volgrim rose up too, and that was something that worried us for a while. Particularly when their Sentinels began to rapaciously erase the lives of innumerable Sentients."
She waves her hand. "Ultimately, very few galaxies didn't have a Ruler in power. Traveling to one that did meant flipping a coin and praying our people could avoid their gaze. Sadly, time has shown me that we were likely unsuccessful. I have lost contact with all my sisters across the cosmos."
The image of innumerable galaxies floating in the distance changes before Jason's eyes. Calanthra manipulates some unseen power, causing herself and Jason to suddenly materialize directly in front of a beautiful spiral galaxy.
"This is our Milky Way." Calanthra explains, waving her hand to conjure another, far bigger galaxy beside it. "And this is Andromeda."
"Is it just me or does Andromeda seem... brighter?" Jason asks.
"Andromeda contains far more interstellar particles, cosmic energy, and latent magical power than the Milky Way." Calanthra says. "Of course, in the ancient past, it had even more than it does now, but such is the way of entropy and Chaos."
Jason nods. "How exactly do galaxies lose power over time? Doesn't this feel self-defeating in a way?"
"Every Ruler enters the Unending War with a strategy." Calanthra says, motioning with her hands to disperse the galaxies and reveal images of ghostly creatures, some standing on two legs, some on four, and plenty that appear as mere blobs of energy. "I cannot pretend to know the thoughts of such high and mighty beings, especially as I am a mere mortal myself. Even so, I can definitively state that there are Rulers who seek to put as much galactic energy into their initial creations as possible, while others wish to adopt a more energy-efficient growth-model."
She pokes her finger against Jason's chest. "Take the angels and humans, for instance. The Creator poured the vast majority of his power into creating a galaxy full of Apex Cosmics. At their peak, the angels as a whole commanded enough power to flatten other galaxies. But what did they do instead? They fought with one another, killing themselves due to sheer boredom, if not outright ego."
"I see." Jason says, brushing Calanthra's finger away. "So the Creator dumped all the Milky Way's energy into the angels. I take it this is uncommon among Rulers?"
"Of course. It's a wasteful strategy and usually loses Rulers the War for that Eternity." Calanthra says dismissively. "The Timeless used a different strategy. She created the fairies as mere mortals that evolved over time, gaining greater and greater power through their own efforts. This meant that instead of devouring Andromeda's abundant Cosmic energy, they could slowly sap off its excess over time. For you see, the more energy a galaxy has, the more it can produce. If you ration it long enough, you can reap more of it across the duration of an Eternity."
"That makes sense." Jason concludes. "It's like a Rush build in an RTS versus an Economy build. You sacrifice long-term gains in exchange for short-term power. The problem is, with Akasha's Barriers preventing Rulers from attacking their enemies straight away, a Rush build is dumb because you're just wasting your resources and sacrificing Cosmic energy when you'll actually need it."
Calanthra blinks twice. She looks at Jason with a strange expression, then turns away for a moment, trying to understand the strange terms he's used. They mostly make sense, but some of them are a little...
She shakes her head and returns to the topic at hand. "Right. Rush strategy versus Economy. Of... course. Well, in any case, there is one advantage toward the first strategy. If you drain all the energy from your galaxy, it becomes less appealing for other Rulers to attack. Because Andromeda was so large and still filled with Cosmic power even billions of years after the Expansion Era, it stoked the hunger of the Dark Ones. Meanwhile, the Milky Way only needs to deal with the Plague, which is threatening for mortals, but manageable for Cosmics. In that respect, we've gotten off much luckier."
"I get the bigger picture now." Jason says with a nod. He turns to look back at the cosmos before him. "So, what about all this? Are we gonna go exploring, or what?"
"In order to explore the universe presented here, we would need to make sacrifices we cannot afford. I think you would find the price most disagreeable. But there is something we can explore freely..."
She waves her hand, and instantly, the brilliant and beautiful cosmic view of the universe vanishes.
In its place, Jason and Calanthra suddenly appear inside a dead, barren wasteland. Brown and grey dirt rises up in huge dunes stretching off into the distance. Fallen towers made of gold and stone lay on their sides, or stick into the ground, buried nearly up to their tops as they point diagonally toward the sky.
And speaking of the sky, it glows faintly grey, as if some weak, pale imitation of a star were trying to shine through a thin atmosphere clouded by dust and grime. The very air itself smells of sulfur and toxins, making Jason's nose curl up when he takes a breath.
"Ugh... what the hell? Where are we now?" Jason asks, as he turns and looks around at the dead world surrounding him.
"An Ancient Domain." Calanthra says softly. "A remnant of a dead universe. All life stripped away. All hope lost. Septillions of different Sentient species, gone. Their mortals, their Cosmics, reduced to dust by the Contraction."
The Wordsmith frowns. "This Ancient Domain represents a dead universe? But how can that be possible? If the Heat Death played out and all the galaxies faded to cosmic dust, then there already wouldn't be anything left. And then, if the entire universe collapsed into a singularity before exploding again, there definitely wouldn't be anything left behind resembling physical matter."
"You perceive reality through just three dimensions." Calanthra intones. "Time and space can be considered two dimensions. Cosmic Power is another dimension. I must admit I do not understand how Ancient Domains have continued to exist across countless Eternities, and I don't know how they retain a vaguely familiar form... but I can assure you that in spite of bending logic itself, they do exist and they can provide tangible benefits to those dedicated to exploring them."
"You've been exploring them, then?" Jason asks, turning away from the dead world to scrutinize Calanthra's phantasmal image.
"Me, a little. But often, I dispatch my descendants to scour these Ancient Domains for things of value. It may surprise you, but there are powerful artifacts, vengeful spirits, and all manner of other inter-dimensional horrors lurking within these so-called dead-lands."
Calanthra pauses. She shifts her posture to look at Jason deeply.
"And that is why I've brought you here, Jason. It's time for me to get down to the crux of the matter and breach the subject that I find most important."
He nods. "I'm listening."
"It's like this." Calanthra explains. "The Ancient Domains are unfathomably broad. Think of how large a universe is. Think of how many universes have existed. Think of how much space my people have yet to explore."
She pauses.
"The gains we have received have made my people stronger than you would expect. Among those gains are Yredelemnul's Eye and other leftover remnants of power that many dead ancient Rulers lost when their Existences became forfeit. While their tangible Existences may have perished, their spirits sometimes live on in these broad, unending dead universes..."
"That's why you approached me." Jason says, while crossing his arms and leaning on the ball of his heel. "You said you wanted an alliance with humanity. You... want humans to help you explore the Ancient Domains?"
"Trust is hard to come by among mortals, Cosmics, and Rulers." Calanthra says simply. "I never would have considered allying with the humans before, but you have shown me the broadness of your mind during the debate against your clone and the commander of your military. To some, you certainly appear naive, but to me I see an opportunity I would be foolish to ignore."
She continues. "The Fairies cannot reproduce efficiently. Every fairy we send into the Ancient Domain is one less fairy we have among our Empire. We already have a difficult time replenishing our numbers through the remaining Male Fairies, but do you think it is easy for us to reproduce with other species?"
Jason slowly shakes his head. "Blinker and Kar's children were all crocodiles, not fairies. From that, I can only imagine that most of the time, your mating attempts do not create more of yourselves, but instead more non-fairy children."
"That's exactly correct." Calanthra replies. "But that all changed recently when I found out one of your human males somehow spontaneously altered his genetic profile to become a fairy. There is no doubt about it; Samuel Baker harnesses all the capability to reproduce that you humans do, as well as the trueborn powers of any male fairy."
"So... are you seeking a marriage alliance with Samuel Baker?" Jason asks, scratching his head in confusion. "You could just ask him yourself, you know?"
"This is not about one man." Calanthra retorts. "Samuel Baker, if he were to join our ranks, would certainly help us stave off extinction for a while longer. But that is hardly worth all this melodrama and me taking you to the Ancient Domain in person..."
Jason's eyes widen in realization. "I see! You... you're thinking that if my magic could make one male fairy, I could surely make another, and another..."
"Yes, precisely." Calanthra says, revealing a beautiful smile. "Additionally, if humans were to assist us in scouring these Ancient Domains, we could make great gains together. There is plenty of room for another species to join ours in locating powerful artifacts and other items capable of Uplifting us."
"You want to become Cosmics still." Jason muses. "You haven't resigned yourselves to your current fate."
"Quite the opposite." Calanthra says. "The curse placed upon us is unbreakable by those beneath the realm of Ruler. As I said before, the fairies have lost this Eternity's war. However, while we cannot Ascend any longer, that does not mean the humans are subject to the same limitation. If we could groom a human into becoming the Milky Way's Ruler, we could finally break free of our shackles by virtue of having a powerful ally."
She pauses, looking meaningfully at the Wordsmith.
"If the Demons or the Volgrim were to become our Ruler, we would not enjoy such a benefit. At best, we would only maintain the status quo, and at worst, they might eradicate us out of fear of having an unsightly tumor in their midst."
"Haha." Jason laughs. "So you brought me here to show your sincerity. I get it. Well, I'm definitely not opposed to helping you. Blinker is my good friend. If she were to ask me, I'd definitely say yes to just about any request."
Jason turns away. He walks a few feet off to the side and pauses, standing to gaze out at the Ancient Domain and its endlessly rolling plains which stretches off into the infinite distance...
"Here's what I can do." Jason says. "My people are already working on laying out the options for humanity and where our fellow men and women will depart over the next few weeks. Some will travel to Maiura. Some will go to Sharmur. Some will stay on Tarus II. It's no trouble at all to put Pixiv on the list, especially as I was already planning to do that. I even have some other places I'd like to include, too..."
"Such as Camael's Cube?" Calanthra asks with a smile. "Or do you perhaps mean Chrona and Hope's Hall of Heroes?"
Jason nearly jumps out of his skin. He whirls around to look at Calanthra with shock in his eyes. "What?! How do you know about Chrona? How do you also know about where Hope has been hiding?? I don't even know that much!"
"For those who are talented in magic, it is possible to see through many lies and deceptions." Calanthra says calmly, unfazed by the alarm on Jason's face. "Your Spynet Sphere isn't so different from the many options I have at my disposal. I have many means to keep an eye on the galaxy. And while Diablo does not know exactly where or what Chrona is, he certainly knows of its general existence."
Her smile turns cold. "I would advise you not to take Unarin lightly either, Wordsmith. That ancient creature is more capable than you can imagine. He is hiding a great many secrets from the galaxy... secrets he does not know that I am aware of. If he were to learn of the true extent of my information web, I fear that he would dispatch a handful of High Psions to eliminate the fairy species tomorrow."
Calanthra's words truly rock Jason to his core. All along, he assumed the precautions he put on Chrona, precautions that fooled even Hope, would make his hidden dimension impossible to detect.
But how could he be so naive?
As the daughter of an Apex Cosmic, Calanthra must have her means, and that likely means Unarin and Diablo aren't too far behind either.
"Shit." Jason curses, lowering his head as a flicker of anger smolders in his heart. "I was too complacent. Chrona isn't secure, which means it's only a matter of time before more Cosmics learn of its existence. How long before they can find its exact location and invade it?"
"Calm yourself, child." Calanthra says soothingly. "The situation is not that dire. After all, Chrona still exists within a highly accelerated timespace. Any biological entity that wishes to travel there could suffer severe after-effects. Furthermore, the entities born inside will be too adapted to living within a higher dimension, so they won't pose much threat to the creatures of realspace."
She waves her hand. "Let's move on, Jason. I want to discuss other matters before dying of old age."
The Wordsmith cools himself off. He inhales deeply, then returns his attention to her.
"Alright. What next, then?"
"Fairies are not the only Sentients capable of entering Ancient Domains." Calanthra explains. "There are others who rarely appear inside here. That is why exploring these domains can be dangerous. The good news is that Cosmics have little need to enter these barren lands, as most of the heritages, treasures, and other such gains you might find inside are only useful to mortals. There are exceptions, but they are so rare as to be a needle found within ten million haystacks. A waste of effort better spent simply progressing one's Cosmic power the ordinary way."
"So what you're saying is, when you send fairies into an Ancient Domain, they can die as a result of crossing paths with Sentients from other galaxies." Jason concludes. "But if you had an army of humans to enter with you, your people would be a lot safer."
"Safety in numbers, yes. And you humans are... uniquely advantaged in Ancient Domain exploration." Calanthra says mysteriously. "Before that, though... do you know what the Power of Imagination is, Wordsmith?"
Jason raises an eyebrow. "Imagination? Like the mental ability to visualize stuff in your head? Yeah. It's not that complicated to understand."
"Ah, that's where you're wrong." Calanthra chides gently. "Imagination is the key to magical power. Imagination, Conception, Visualization, these are all key capabilities powerful maguses and sorcerors use to uplift their capabilities! And as it turns out, most Sentients are actually quite terrible at conceptualizing thoughts into imagery."
She gestures grandly. "Just take the Volgrim! You may think they are a powerful Sentient species, but in fact the Volgrim have terrible imaginations. They are stodgy, dull, and lack a great deal of creativity. All the gains their Technopaths make through technology are developed via brute force. They slowly improve their technological prowess by minute fractions over long periods of time, eventually resulting in a large and cohesive buildup."
"At the same time, the Psions Uplift themselves through meditation and sitting motionless for thousands of years at a time. Can a species capable of such incredible feats of drudgery also possess limitless imagination? I think not."
"Maybe the reason they're able to sit still for so long is because they live in their imagination?" Jason posits. "In which case their power of imagination should be quite formidable, right?"
"Possible, but unlikely." Calanthra says with a wave of her hand. "Never mind that. The point I'm trying to make is that humans have an extremely high affinity for magic. If your people were to ally with mine, we could teach you our ways. You could help us through your Wordsmithing and superior genetics, creating more fairies and humans alike. This would create a recursive cycle that would continually bolster both our species to greater and greater heights!"
She lowers her voice back to normal. "An alliance with humanity would have other benefits. You humans are equally adept in technology and magic both. You are versatile, capable of learning any skill provided you have time to devote to your studies. The bursts of inspiration you receive also allow you to make large jumps in capability as well, which could mean that in a relatively short period, you might even be capable of challenging the Volgrim."
Jason nods. "That does sound tempting, Calanthra. I'm willing to help you, but I won't demand my people join the fairies. It would be better if those who were the most interested did so instead."
Calanthra playfully twirls a finger through her hair. "Well. My daughters are all beautiful. Perhaps you should make mention that the fairies are... aggressively interested in copulation?"
"COUGH COUGH!" Jason wheezes, taking a step back as he asses her bold choice of words. "Yeah! Uh, I can probably- I'll let everyone know about that too. Obviously!"
Calanthra chuckles. "Such a cute boy. Well, it seems I've accomplished what I wanted. Let's return for now. You can always pay Ripspace a visit later."
"I will." Jason says, nodding seriously. "Waypoint."
Calanthra raises an eyebrow. "You think you can return here without a Ruler's power?"
"Won't know unless I try." Jason smiles back.
...
Not long after, Jason and Calanthra emerge back into Realspace. He shivers as he feels the Eye of Yredelemnul fixating on him from behind, but Calanthra quickly reactivates the Formation of Light, sending the sliver of a Ruler back to the shadows so it can no longer interact with the physical world.
"You know, Jason." Calanthra says. "You are a Candidate. You have the capability to become a Ruler someday."
"I am?" Jason asks, before thinking back to a conversation in the past. "Oh yeah, someone did mention that to me before. But... eh. I don't know. Becoming a Ruler sounds awful."
"Awful?" Calanthra asks. "How so?"
"It seems... lonely." Jason says, his voice softening. He looks at the space between the four statues, where Yredelemnul's Eye has disappeared. "Imagine all your loved ones dying, but you're stuck behind, living through the end of an Eternity, which takes trillions of years before Heat Death finally eradicates everything. Then comes the next Eternity, where you can remake your species again... but it won't be the same. Even if you remake your loved ones, it won't really be them."
Jason lowers and shakes his head. "That sort of life doesn't suit me."
"I understand why you'd think that way." Calanthra says. "In fact, you are suffering from the same affliction that plagues all Candidates who began their Existences as Biologicals. We have too many ties to the mortal world, so the majority of Biologicals who ascend to the rank of Ruler... fall to their non-biological opponents."
"As for the things which are not biological..." Calanthra says, looking at Jason with disgust. "You should already know what they are."
"Highly evolved Artificial Intelligences?" Jason guesses.
"That's right." Calanthra affirms. "There are several tiers of power a superintelligence can possess. The Volgrim have taken great care to prevent anything above a Beta Core from forming in the Milky Way, but once, a long time ago... they made a huge mess by accidentally creating the Milky Way's first Alpha Core Synthmind."
Calanthra chuckles. "The stupid fools didn't only create an Alpha Core, they gave it autonomy in the hopes it would be able to stop the wars between their factions. They built indestructible bipedal bodies for its splintered intelligences, and called them... Sentinels. Luckily, they were able to defeat the Alpha Core before it ascended further, but countless other biological species have failed at that juncture, creating an Alpha Core that ultimately devoured the full power of their galaxy for itself."
A chill trickles down Jason's spine. "You're saying the vast majority of Rulers are actually Alpha Core AIs? AIs that control entire galaxies?!"
"No, Jason." Calanthra counters. "Alpha Cores can defeat advanced civilizations. But there is one Existence higher than an Alpha Core, a tier that can only be reached once it has swallowed the power of a galaxy."
"That would be an Omega Core. a sentient artificial intelligence that has become Ruler over one or more galaxies. And in Akasha's game, more than 90% of all Rulers are estimated to be these superior lifeforms."
"It is for that reason that these highly adaptable entities are known as The Evolved."
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(Previous Part)
(Part 001)
"Hell yeah, I wanna go exploring." Jason says to Calanthra with a smile. "How do we navigate around Ripspace though? Traveling to other galaxies is going to take billions of years, right? Surely, there's a shortcut."
"Ripspace is not as it seems." Calanthra explains, gesturing grandly to the epic sight before them. "It is a connection between the past and the present; the near and far. The further away or the further back you want to travel, the higher the price you will have to pay."
Jason's smile vanishes. "Wait... you can use Ripspace to travel back in time?!"
"No." Calanthra clarifies. "Time is linear. We cannot travel through it. Some can slow it down or speed it up. A rare few can even pause it for a short while. But moving forward and backward is impossible. Countless have attempted to do so over the eons, but all have failed."
She looks at Jason meaningfully. "Many Rulers would wipe out galaxies if it might let them obtain such a power. The fact they still haven't proves it is impossible."
Jason nods slowly. "I won't lie. I have a lot of regrets. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and save my daughter from dying."
"Everyone has regrets." Calanthra muses, looking off into the distance. "I have plenty, myself. But it's better this way. There would be pandemonium if time travel ever became possible."
She pauses before continuing with her explanation. "While we cannot go back in time, we can look back into time. Pinpointing exact moments in history is difficult, to say the least, but it is possible to use Ripspace to search for key moments in intergalactic history."
"So it's like a massive seer-stone." Jason muses aloud. "But wait, didn't you imply earlier that you used Ripspace to travel to the Milky Way from Andromeda? How does it allow you to jump between galaxies? Are other species using Ripspace for intergalactic travel?"
"You can indeed use Ripspace to travel to distant reaches of space." Calanthra explains. "But... you have to pay a certain price. Akasha's Barriers still protect every galaxy. Cosmics cannot travel between them easily. Mortals can, but the price we must pay is unimaginably steep. That is also the reason my mother perished not long after arriving in the Milky Way and giving birth to me."
The Fairy Monarch sighs softly.
"My people used the power of Ripspace to travel to several other galaxies. We were fortunate that the Creator had died, allowing us to take up residence here in secret, but the Angels, Titans, and Dragons were still a threat we could not overlook. Later, the Volgrim rose up too, and that was something that worried us for a while. Particularly when their Sentinels began to rapaciously erase the lives of innumerable Sentients."
She waves her hand. "Ultimately, very few galaxies didn't have a Ruler in power. Traveling to one that did meant flipping a coin and praying our people could avoid their gaze. Sadly, time has shown me that we were likely unsuccessful. I have lost contact with all my sisters across the cosmos."
The image of innumerable galaxies floating in the distance changes before Jason's eyes. Calanthra manipulates some unseen power, causing herself and Jason to suddenly materialize directly in front of a beautiful spiral galaxy.
"This is our Milky Way." Calanthra explains, waving her hand to conjure another, far bigger galaxy beside it. "And this is Andromeda."
"Is it just me or does Andromeda seem... brighter?" Jason asks.
"Andromeda contains far more interstellar particles, cosmic energy, and latent magical power than the Milky Way." Calanthra says. "Of course, in the ancient past, it had even more than it does now, but such is the way of entropy and Chaos."
Jason nods. "How exactly do galaxies lose power over time? Doesn't this feel self-defeating in a way?"
"Every Ruler enters the Unending War with a strategy." Calanthra says, motioning with her hands to disperse the galaxies and reveal images of ghostly creatures, some standing on two legs, some on four, and plenty that appear as mere blobs of energy. "I cannot pretend to know the thoughts of such high and mighty beings, especially as I am a mere mortal myself. Even so, I can definitively state that there are Rulers who seek to put as much galactic energy into their initial creations as possible, while others wish to adopt a more energy-efficient growth-model."
She pokes her finger against Jason's chest. "Take the angels and humans, for instance. The Creator poured the vast majority of his power into creating a galaxy full of Apex Cosmics. At their peak, the angels as a whole commanded enough power to flatten other galaxies. But what did they do instead? They fought with one another, killing themselves due to sheer boredom, if not outright ego."
"I see." Jason says, brushing Calanthra's finger away. "So the Creator dumped all the Milky Way's energy into the angels. I take it this is uncommon among Rulers?"
"Of course. It's a wasteful strategy and usually loses Rulers the War for that Eternity." Calanthra says dismissively. "The Timeless used a different strategy. She created the fairies as mere mortals that evolved over time, gaining greater and greater power through their own efforts. This meant that instead of devouring Andromeda's abundant Cosmic energy, they could slowly sap off its excess over time. For you see, the more energy a galaxy has, the more it can produce. If you ration it long enough, you can reap more of it across the duration of an Eternity."
"That makes sense." Jason concludes. "It's like a Rush build in an RTS versus an Economy build. You sacrifice long-term gains in exchange for short-term power. The problem is, with Akasha's Barriers preventing Rulers from attacking their enemies straight away, a Rush build is dumb because you're just wasting your resources and sacrificing Cosmic energy when you'll actually need it."
Calanthra blinks twice. She looks at Jason with a strange expression, then turns away for a moment, trying to understand the strange terms he's used. They mostly make sense, but some of them are a little...
She shakes her head and returns to the topic at hand. "Right. Rush strategy versus Economy. Of... course. Well, in any case, there is one advantage toward the first strategy. If you drain all the energy from your galaxy, it becomes less appealing for other Rulers to attack. Because Andromeda was so large and still filled with Cosmic power even billions of years after the Expansion Era, it stoked the hunger of the Dark Ones. Meanwhile, the Milky Way only needs to deal with the Plague, which is threatening for mortals, but manageable for Cosmics. In that respect, we've gotten off much luckier."
"I get the bigger picture now." Jason says with a nod. He turns to look back at the cosmos before him. "So, what about all this? Are we gonna go exploring, or what?"
"In order to explore the universe presented here, we would need to make sacrifices we cannot afford. I think you would find the price most disagreeable. But there is something we can explore freely..."
She waves her hand, and instantly, the brilliant and beautiful cosmic view of the universe vanishes.
In its place, Jason and Calanthra suddenly appear inside a dead, barren wasteland. Brown and grey dirt rises up in huge dunes stretching off into the distance. Fallen towers made of gold and stone lay on their sides, or stick into the ground, buried nearly up to their tops as they point diagonally toward the sky.
And speaking of the sky, it glows faintly grey, as if some weak, pale imitation of a star were trying to shine through a thin atmosphere clouded by dust and grime. The very air itself smells of sulfur and toxins, making Jason's nose curl up when he takes a breath.
"Ugh... what the hell? Where are we now?" Jason asks, as he turns and looks around at the dead world surrounding him.
"An Ancient Domain." Calanthra says softly. "A remnant of a dead universe. All life stripped away. All hope lost. Septillions of different Sentient species, gone. Their mortals, their Cosmics, reduced to dust by the Contraction."
The Wordsmith frowns. "This Ancient Domain represents a dead universe? But how can that be possible? If the Heat Death played out and all the galaxies faded to cosmic dust, then there already wouldn't be anything left. And then, if the entire universe collapsed into a singularity before exploding again, there definitely wouldn't be anything left behind resembling physical matter."
"You perceive reality through just three dimensions." Calanthra intones. "Time and space can be considered two dimensions. Cosmic Power is another dimension. I must admit I do not understand how Ancient Domains have continued to exist across countless Eternities, and I don't know how they retain a vaguely familiar form... but I can assure you that in spite of bending logic itself, they do exist and they can provide tangible benefits to those dedicated to exploring them."
"You've been exploring them, then?" Jason asks, turning away from the dead world to scrutinize Calanthra's phantasmal image.
"Me, a little. But often, I dispatch my descendants to scour these Ancient Domains for things of value. It may surprise you, but there are powerful artifacts, vengeful spirits, and all manner of other inter-dimensional horrors lurking within these so-called dead-lands."
Calanthra pauses. She shifts her posture to look at Jason deeply.
"And that is why I've brought you here, Jason. It's time for me to get down to the crux of the matter and breach the subject that I find most important."
He nods. "I'm listening."
"It's like this." Calanthra explains. "The Ancient Domains are unfathomably broad. Think of how large a universe is. Think of how many universes have existed. Think of how much space my people have yet to explore."
She pauses.
"The gains we have received have made my people stronger than you would expect. Among those gains are Yredelemnul's Eye and other leftover remnants of power that many dead ancient Rulers lost when their Existences became forfeit. While their tangible Existences may have perished, their spirits sometimes live on in these broad, unending dead universes..."
"That's why you approached me." Jason says, while crossing his arms and leaning on the ball of his heel. "You said you wanted an alliance with humanity. You... want humans to help you explore the Ancient Domains?"
"Trust is hard to come by among mortals, Cosmics, and Rulers." Calanthra says simply. "I never would have considered allying with the humans before, but you have shown me the broadness of your mind during the debate against your clone and the commander of your military. To some, you certainly appear naive, but to me I see an opportunity I would be foolish to ignore."
She continues. "The Fairies cannot reproduce efficiently. Every fairy we send into the Ancient Domain is one less fairy we have among our Empire. We already have a difficult time replenishing our numbers through the remaining Male Fairies, but do you think it is easy for us to reproduce with other species?"
Jason slowly shakes his head. "Blinker and Kar's children were all crocodiles, not fairies. From that, I can only imagine that most of the time, your mating attempts do not create more of yourselves, but instead more non-fairy children."
"That's exactly correct." Calanthra replies. "But that all changed recently when I found out one of your human males somehow spontaneously altered his genetic profile to become a fairy. There is no doubt about it; Samuel Baker harnesses all the capability to reproduce that you humans do, as well as the trueborn powers of any male fairy."
"So... are you seeking a marriage alliance with Samuel Baker?" Jason asks, scratching his head in confusion. "You could just ask him yourself, you know?"
"This is not about one man." Calanthra retorts. "Samuel Baker, if he were to join our ranks, would certainly help us stave off extinction for a while longer. But that is hardly worth all this melodrama and me taking you to the Ancient Domain in person..."
Jason's eyes widen in realization. "I see! You... you're thinking that if my magic could make one male fairy, I could surely make another, and another..."
"Yes, precisely." Calanthra says, revealing a beautiful smile. "Additionally, if humans were to assist us in scouring these Ancient Domains, we could make great gains together. There is plenty of room for another species to join ours in locating powerful artifacts and other items capable of Uplifting us."
"You want to become Cosmics still." Jason muses. "You haven't resigned yourselves to your current fate."
"Quite the opposite." Calanthra says. "The curse placed upon us is unbreakable by those beneath the realm of Ruler. As I said before, the fairies have lost this Eternity's war. However, while we cannot Ascend any longer, that does not mean the humans are subject to the same limitation. If we could groom a human into becoming the Milky Way's Ruler, we could finally break free of our shackles by virtue of having a powerful ally."
She pauses, looking meaningfully at the Wordsmith.
"If the Demons or the Volgrim were to become our Ruler, we would not enjoy such a benefit. At best, we would only maintain the status quo, and at worst, they might eradicate us out of fear of having an unsightly tumor in their midst."
"Haha." Jason laughs. "So you brought me here to show your sincerity. I get it. Well, I'm definitely not opposed to helping you. Blinker is my good friend. If she were to ask me, I'd definitely say yes to just about any request."
Jason turns away. He walks a few feet off to the side and pauses, standing to gaze out at the Ancient Domain and its endlessly rolling plains which stretches off into the infinite distance...
"Here's what I can do." Jason says. "My people are already working on laying out the options for humanity and where our fellow men and women will depart over the next few weeks. Some will travel to Maiura. Some will go to Sharmur. Some will stay on Tarus II. It's no trouble at all to put Pixiv on the list, especially as I was already planning to do that. I even have some other places I'd like to include, too..."
"Such as Camael's Cube?" Calanthra asks with a smile. "Or do you perhaps mean Chrona and Hope's Hall of Heroes?"
Jason nearly jumps out of his skin. He whirls around to look at Calanthra with shock in his eyes. "What?! How do you know about Chrona? How do you also know about where Hope has been hiding?? I don't even know that much!"
"For those who are talented in magic, it is possible to see through many lies and deceptions." Calanthra says calmly, unfazed by the alarm on Jason's face. "Your Spynet Sphere isn't so different from the many options I have at my disposal. I have many means to keep an eye on the galaxy. And while Diablo does not know exactly where or what Chrona is, he certainly knows of its general existence."
Her smile turns cold. "I would advise you not to take Unarin lightly either, Wordsmith. That ancient creature is more capable than you can imagine. He is hiding a great many secrets from the galaxy... secrets he does not know that I am aware of. If he were to learn of the true extent of my information web, I fear that he would dispatch a handful of High Psions to eliminate the fairy species tomorrow."
Calanthra's words truly rock Jason to his core. All along, he assumed the precautions he put on Chrona, precautions that fooled even Hope, would make his hidden dimension impossible to detect.
But how could he be so naive?
As the daughter of an Apex Cosmic, Calanthra must have her means, and that likely means Unarin and Diablo aren't too far behind either.
"Shit." Jason curses, lowering his head as a flicker of anger smolders in his heart. "I was too complacent. Chrona isn't secure, which means it's only a matter of time before more Cosmics learn of its existence. How long before they can find its exact location and invade it?"
"Calm yourself, child." Calanthra says soothingly. "The situation is not that dire. After all, Chrona still exists within a highly accelerated timespace. Any biological entity that wishes to travel there could suffer severe after-effects. Furthermore, the entities born inside will be too adapted to living within a higher dimension, so they won't pose much threat to the creatures of realspace."
She waves her hand. "Let's move on, Jason. I want to discuss other matters before dying of old age."
The Wordsmith cools himself off. He inhales deeply, then returns his attention to her.
"Alright. What next, then?"
"Fairies are not the only Sentients capable of entering Ancient Domains." Calanthra explains. "There are others who rarely appear inside here. That is why exploring these domains can be dangerous. The good news is that Cosmics have little need to enter these barren lands, as most of the heritages, treasures, and other such gains you might find inside are only useful to mortals. There are exceptions, but they are so rare as to be a needle found within ten million haystacks. A waste of effort better spent simply progressing one's Cosmic power the ordinary way."
"So what you're saying is, when you send fairies into an Ancient Domain, they can die as a result of crossing paths with Sentients from other galaxies." Jason concludes. "But if you had an army of humans to enter with you, your people would be a lot safer."
"Safety in numbers, yes. And you humans are... uniquely advantaged in Ancient Domain exploration." Calanthra says mysteriously. "Before that, though... do you know what the Power of Imagination is, Wordsmith?"
Jason raises an eyebrow. "Imagination? Like the mental ability to visualize stuff in your head? Yeah. It's not that complicated to understand."
"Ah, that's where you're wrong." Calanthra chides gently. "Imagination is the key to magical power. Imagination, Conception, Visualization, these are all key capabilities powerful maguses and sorcerors use to uplift their capabilities! And as it turns out, most Sentients are actually quite terrible at conceptualizing thoughts into imagery."
She gestures grandly. "Just take the Volgrim! You may think they are a powerful Sentient species, but in fact the Volgrim have terrible imaginations. They are stodgy, dull, and lack a great deal of creativity. All the gains their Technopaths make through technology are developed via brute force. They slowly improve their technological prowess by minute fractions over long periods of time, eventually resulting in a large and cohesive buildup."
"At the same time, the Psions Uplift themselves through meditation and sitting motionless for thousands of years at a time. Can a species capable of such incredible feats of drudgery also possess limitless imagination? I think not."
"Maybe the reason they're able to sit still for so long is because they live in their imagination?" Jason posits. "In which case their power of imagination should be quite formidable, right?"
"Possible, but unlikely." Calanthra says with a wave of her hand. "Never mind that. The point I'm trying to make is that humans have an extremely high affinity for magic. If your people were to ally with mine, we could teach you our ways. You could help us through your Wordsmithing and superior genetics, creating more fairies and humans alike. This would create a recursive cycle that would continually bolster both our species to greater and greater heights!"
She lowers her voice back to normal. "An alliance with humanity would have other benefits. You humans are equally adept in technology and magic both. You are versatile, capable of learning any skill provided you have time to devote to your studies. The bursts of inspiration you receive also allow you to make large jumps in capability as well, which could mean that in a relatively short period, you might even be capable of challenging the Volgrim."
Jason nods. "That does sound tempting, Calanthra. I'm willing to help you, but I won't demand my people join the fairies. It would be better if those who were the most interested did so instead."
Calanthra playfully twirls a finger through her hair. "Well. My daughters are all beautiful. Perhaps you should make mention that the fairies are... aggressively interested in copulation?"
"COUGH COUGH!" Jason wheezes, taking a step back as he asses her bold choice of words. "Yeah! Uh, I can probably- I'll let everyone know about that too. Obviously!"
Calanthra chuckles. "Such a cute boy. Well, it seems I've accomplished what I wanted. Let's return for now. You can always pay Ripspace a visit later."
"I will." Jason says, nodding seriously. "Waypoint."
Calanthra raises an eyebrow. "You think you can return here without a Ruler's power?"
"Won't know unless I try." Jason smiles back.
...
Not long after, Jason and Calanthra emerge back into Realspace. He shivers as he feels the Eye of Yredelemnul fixating on him from behind, but Calanthra quickly reactivates the Formation of Light, sending the sliver of a Ruler back to the shadows so it can no longer interact with the physical world.
"You know, Jason." Calanthra says. "You are a Candidate. You have the capability to become a Ruler someday."
"I am?" Jason asks, before thinking back to a conversation in the past. "Oh yeah, someone did mention that to me before. But... eh. I don't know. Becoming a Ruler sounds awful."
"Awful?" Calanthra asks. "How so?"
"It seems... lonely." Jason says, his voice softening. He looks at the space between the four statues, where Yredelemnul's Eye has disappeared. "Imagine all your loved ones dying, but you're stuck behind, living through the end of an Eternity, which takes trillions of years before Heat Death finally eradicates everything. Then comes the next Eternity, where you can remake your species again... but it won't be the same. Even if you remake your loved ones, it won't really be them."
Jason lowers and shakes his head. "That sort of life doesn't suit me."
"I understand why you'd think that way." Calanthra says. "In fact, you are suffering from the same affliction that plagues all Candidates who began their Existences as Biologicals. We have too many ties to the mortal world, so the majority of Biologicals who ascend to the rank of Ruler... fall to their non-biological opponents."
"As for the things which are not biological..." Calanthra says, looking at Jason with disgust. "You should already know what they are."
"Highly evolved Artificial Intelligences?" Jason guesses.
"That's right." Calanthra affirms. "There are several tiers of power a superintelligence can possess. The Volgrim have taken great care to prevent anything above a Beta Core from forming in the Milky Way, but once, a long time ago... they made a huge mess by accidentally creating the Milky Way's first Alpha Core Synthmind."
Calanthra chuckles. "The stupid fools didn't only create an Alpha Core, they gave it autonomy in the hopes it would be able to stop the wars between their factions. They built indestructible bipedal bodies for its splintered intelligences, and called them... Sentinels. Luckily, they were able to defeat the Alpha Core before it ascended further, but countless other biological species have failed at that juncture, creating an Alpha Core that ultimately devoured the full power of their galaxy for itself."
A chill trickles down Jason's spine. "You're saying the vast majority of Rulers are actually Alpha Core AIs? AIs that control entire galaxies?!"
"No, Jason." Calanthra counters. "Alpha Cores can defeat advanced civilizations. But there is one Existence higher than an Alpha Core, a tier that can only be reached once it has swallowed the power of a galaxy."
"That would be an Omega Core. a sentient artificial intelligence that has become Ruler over one or more galaxies. And in Akasha's game, more than 90% of all Rulers are estimated to be these superior lifeforms."
"It is for that reason that these highly adaptable entities are known as The Evolved."
2024.05.18 23:02 Klokinator Cryopod Refresh 560: Ancient Domains
"Hell yeah, I wanna go exploring." Jason says to Calanthra with a smile. "How do we navigate around Ripspace though? Traveling to other galaxies is going to take billions of years, right? Surely, there's a shortcut."
"Ripspace is not as it seems." Calanthra explains, gesturing grandly to the epic sight before them. "It is a connection between the past and the present; the near and far. The further away or the further back you want to travel, the higher the price you will have to pay."
Jason's smile vanishes. "Wait... you can use Ripspace to travel back in time?!"
"No." Calanthra clarifies. "Time is linear. We cannot travel through it. Some can slow it down or speed it up. A rare few can even pause it for a short while. But moving forward and backward is impossible. Countless have attempted to do so over the eons, but all have failed."
She looks at Jason meaningfully. "Many Rulers would wipe out galaxies if it might let them obtain such a power. The fact they still haven't proves it is impossible."
Jason nods slowly. "I won't lie. I have a lot of regrets. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and save my daughter from dying."
"Everyone has regrets." Calanthra muses, looking off into the distance. "I have plenty, myself. But it's better this way. There would be pandemonium if time travel ever became possible."
She pauses before continuing with her explanation. "While we cannot go back in time, we can look back into time. Pinpointing exact moments in history is difficult, to say the least, but it is possible to use Ripspace to search for key moments in intergalactic history."
"So it's like a massive seer-stone." Jason muses aloud. "But wait, didn't you imply earlier that you used Ripspace to travel to the Milky Way from Andromeda? How does it allow you to jump between galaxies? Are other species using Ripspace for intergalactic travel?"
"You can indeed use Ripspace to travel to distant reaches of space." Calanthra explains. "But... you have to pay a certain price. Akasha's Barriers still protect every galaxy. Cosmics cannot travel between them easily. Mortals can, but the price we must pay is unimaginably steep. That is also the reason my mother perished not long after arriving in the Milky Way and giving birth to me."
The Fairy Monarch sighs softly.
"My people used the power of Ripspace to travel to several other galaxies. We were fortunate that the Creator had died, allowing us to take up residence here in secret, but the Angels, Titans, and Dragons were still a threat we could not overlook. Later, the Volgrim rose up too, and that was something that worried us for a while. Particularly when their Sentinels began to rapaciously erase the lives of innumerable Sentients."
She waves her hand. "Ultimately, very few galaxies didn't have a Ruler in power. Traveling to one that did meant flipping a coin and praying our people could avoid their gaze. Sadly, time has shown me that we were likely unsuccessful. I have lost contact with all my sisters across the cosmos."
The image of innumerable galaxies floating in the distance changes before Jason's eyes. Calanthra manipulates some unseen power, causing herself and Jason to suddenly materialize directly in front of a beautiful spiral galaxy.
"This is our Milky Way." Calanthra explains, waving her hand to conjure another, far bigger galaxy beside it. "And this is Andromeda."
"Is it just me or does Andromeda seem... brighter?" Jason asks.
"Andromeda contains far more interstellar particles, cosmic energy, and latent magical power than the Milky Way." Calanthra says. "Of course, in the ancient past, it had even more than it does now, but such is the way of entropy and Chaos."
Jason nods. "How exactly do galaxies lose power over time? Doesn't this feel self-defeating in a way?"
"Every Ruler enters the Unending War with a strategy." Calanthra says, motioning with her hands to disperse the galaxies and reveal images of ghostly creatures, some standing on two legs, some on four, and plenty that appear as mere blobs of energy. "I cannot pretend to know the thoughts of such high and mighty beings, especially as I am a mere mortal myself. Even so, I can definitively state that there are Rulers who seek to put as much galactic energy into their initial creations as possible, while others wish to adopt a more energy-efficient growth-model."
She pokes her finger against Jason's chest. "Take the angels and humans, for instance. The Creator poured the vast majority of his power into creating a galaxy full of Apex Cosmics. At their peak, the angels as a whole commanded enough power to flatten other galaxies. But what did they do instead? They fought with one another, killing themselves due to sheer boredom, if not outright ego."
"I see." Jason says, brushing Calanthra's finger away. "So the Creator dumped all the Milky Way's energy into the angels. I take it this is uncommon among Rulers?"
"Of course. It's a wasteful strategy and usually loses Rulers the War for that Eternity." Calanthra says dismissively. "The Timeless used a different strategy. She created the fairies as mere mortals that evolved over time, gaining greater and greater power through their own efforts. This meant that instead of devouring Andromeda's abundant Cosmic energy, they could slowly sap off its excess over time. For you see, the more energy a galaxy has, the more it can produce. If you ration it long enough, you can reap more of it across the duration of an Eternity."
"That makes sense." Jason concludes. "It's like a Rush build in an RTS versus an Economy build. You sacrifice long-term gains in exchange for short-term power. The problem is, with Akasha's Barriers preventing Rulers from attacking their enemies straight away, a Rush build is dumb because you're just wasting your resources and sacrificing Cosmic energy when you'll actually need it."
Calanthra blinks twice. She looks at Jason with a strange expression, then turns away for a moment, trying to understand the strange terms he's used. They mostly make sense, but some of them are a little...
She shakes her head and returns to the topic at hand. "Right. Rush strategy versus Economy. Of... course. Well, in any case, there is one advantage toward the first strategy. If you drain all the energy from your galaxy, it becomes less appealing for other Rulers to attack. Because Andromeda was so large and still filled with Cosmic power even billions of years after the Expansion Era, it stoked the hunger of the Dark Ones. Meanwhile, the Milky Way only needs to deal with the Plague, which is threatening for mortals, but manageable for Cosmics. In that respect, we've gotten off much luckier."
"I get the bigger picture now." Jason says with a nod. He turns to look back at the cosmos before him. "So, what about all this? Are we gonna go exploring, or what?"
"In order to explore the universe presented here, we would need to make sacrifices we cannot afford. I think you would find the price most disagreeable. But there is something we can explore freely..."
She waves her hand, and instantly, the brilliant and beautiful cosmic view of the universe vanishes.
In its place, Jason and Calanthra suddenly appear inside a dead, barren wasteland. Brown and grey dirt rises up in huge dunes stretching off into the distance. Fallen towers made of gold and stone lay on their sides, or stick into the ground, buried nearly up to their tops as they point diagonally toward the sky.
And speaking of the sky, it glows faintly grey, as if some weak, pale imitation of a star were trying to shine through a thin atmosphere clouded by dust and grime. The very air itself smells of sulfur and toxins, making Jason's nose curl up when he takes a breath.
"Ugh... what the hell? Where are we now?" Jason asks, as he turns and looks around at the dead world surrounding him.
"An Ancient Domain." Calanthra says softly. "A remnant of a dead universe. All life stripped away. All hope lost. Septillions of different Sentient species, gone. Their mortals, their Cosmics, reduced to dust by the Contraction."
The Wordsmith frowns. "This Ancient Domain represents a dead universe? But how can that be possible? If the Heat Death played out and all the galaxies faded to cosmic dust, then there already wouldn't be anything left. And then, if the entire universe collapsed into a singularity before exploding again, there definitely wouldn't be anything left behind resembling physical matter."
"You perceive reality through just three dimensions." Calanthra intones. "Time and space can be considered two dimensions. Cosmic Power is another dimension. I must admit I do not understand how Ancient Domains have continued to exist across countless Eternities, and I don't know how they retain a vaguely familiar form... but I can assure you that in spite of bending logic itself, they do exist and they can provide tangible benefits to those dedicated to exploring them."
"You've been exploring them, then?" Jason asks, turning away from the dead world to scrutinize Calanthra's phantasmal image.
"Me, a little. But often, I dispatch my descendants to scour these Ancient Domains for things of value. It may surprise you, but there are powerful artifacts, vengeful spirits, and all manner of other inter-dimensional horrors lurking within these so-called dead-lands."
Calanthra pauses. She shifts her posture to look at Jason deeply.
"And that is why I've brought you here, Jason. It's time for me to get down to the crux of the matter and breach the subject that I find most important."
He nods. "I'm listening."
"It's like this." Calanthra explains. "The Ancient Domains are unfathomably broad. Think of how large a universe is. Think of how many universes have existed. Think of how much space my people have yet to explore."
She pauses.
"The gains we have received have made my people stronger than you would expect. Among those gains are Yredelemnul's Eye and other leftover remnants of power that many dead ancient Rulers lost when their Existences became forfeit. While their tangible Existences may have perished, their spirits sometimes live on in these broad, unending dead universes..."
"That's why you approached me." Jason says, while crossing his arms and leaning on the ball of his heel. "You said you wanted an alliance with humanity. You... want humans to help you explore the Ancient Domains?"
"Trust is hard to come by among mortals, Cosmics, and Rulers." Calanthra says simply. "I never would have considered allying with the humans before, but you have shown me the broadness of your mind during the debate against your clone and the commander of your military. To some, you certainly appear naive, but to me I see an opportunity I would be foolish to ignore."
She continues. "The Fairies cannot reproduce efficiently. Every fairy we send into the Ancient Domain is one less fairy we have among our Empire. We already have a difficult time replenishing our numbers through the remaining Male Fairies, but do you think it is easy for us to reproduce with other species?"
Jason slowly shakes his head. "Blinker and Kar's children were all crocodiles, not fairies. From that, I can only imagine that most of the time, your mating attempts do not create more of yourselves, but instead more non-fairy children."
"That's exactly correct." Calanthra replies. "But that all changed recently when I found out one of your human males somehow spontaneously altered his genetic profile to become a fairy. There is no doubt about it; Samuel Baker harnesses all the capability to reproduce that you humans do, as well as the trueborn powers of any male fairy."
"So... are you seeking a marriage alliance with Samuel Baker?" Jason asks, scratching his head in confusion. "You could just ask him yourself, you know?"
"This is not about one man." Calanthra retorts. "Samuel Baker, if he were to join our ranks, would certainly help us stave off extinction for a while longer. But that is hardly worth all this melodrama and me taking you to the Ancient Domain in person..."
Jason's eyes widen in realization. "I see! You... you're thinking that if my magic could make one male fairy, I could surely make another, and another..."
"Yes, precisely." Calanthra says, revealing a beautiful smile. "Additionally, if humans were to assist us in scouring these Ancient Domains, we could make great gains together. There is plenty of room for another species to join ours in locating powerful artifacts and other items capable of Uplifting us."
"You want to become Cosmics still." Jason muses. "You haven't resigned yourselves to your current fate."
"Quite the opposite." Calanthra says. "The curse placed upon us is unbreakable by those beneath the realm of Ruler. As I said before, the fairies have lost this Eternity's war. However, while we cannot Ascend any longer, that does not mean the humans are subject to the same limitation. If we could groom a human into becoming the Milky Way's Ruler, we could finally break free of our shackles by virtue of having a powerful ally."
She pauses, looking meaningfully at the Wordsmith.
"If the Demons or the Volgrim were to become our Ruler, we would not enjoy such a benefit. At best, we would only maintain the status quo, and at worst, they might eradicate us out of fear of having an unsightly tumor in their midst."
"Haha." Jason laughs. "So you brought me here to show your sincerity. I get it. Well, I'm definitely not opposed to helping you. Blinker is my good friend. If she were to ask me, I'd definitely say yes to just about any request."
Jason turns away. He walks a few feet off to the side and pauses, standing to gaze out at the Ancient Domain and its endlessly rolling plains which stretches off into the infinite distance...
"Here's what I can do." Jason says. "My people are already working on laying out the options for humanity and where our fellow men and women will depart over the next few weeks. Some will travel to Maiura. Some will go to Sharmur. Some will stay on Tarus II. It's no trouble at all to put Pixiv on the list, especially as I was already planning to do that. I even have some other places I'd like to include, too..."
"Such as Camael's Cube?" Calanthra asks with a smile. "Or do you perhaps mean Chrona and Hope's Hall of Heroes?"
Jason nearly jumps out of his skin. He whirls around to look at Calanthra with shock in his eyes. "What?! How do you know about Chrona? How do you also know about where Hope has been hiding?? I don't even know that much!"
"For those who are talented in magic, it is possible to see through many lies and deceptions." Calanthra says calmly, unfazed by the alarm on Jason's face. "Your Spynet Sphere isn't so different from the many options I have at my disposal. I have many means to keep an eye on the galaxy. And while Diablo does not know exactly where or what Chrona is, he certainly knows of its general existence."
Her smile turns cold. "I would advise you not to take Unarin lightly either, Wordsmith. That ancient creature is more capable than you can imagine. He is hiding a great many secrets from the galaxy... secrets he does not know that I am aware of. If he were to learn of the true extent of my information web, I fear that he would dispatch a handful of High Psions to eliminate the fairy species tomorrow."
Calanthra's words truly rock Jason to his core. All along, he assumed the precautions he put on Chrona, precautions that fooled even Hope, would make his hidden dimension impossible to detect.
But how could he be so naive?
As the daughter of an Apex Cosmic, Calanthra must have her means, and that likely means Unarin and Diablo aren't too far behind either.
"Shit." Jason curses, lowering his head as a flicker of anger smolders in his heart. "I was too complacent. Chrona isn't secure, which means it's only a matter of time before more Cosmics learn of its existence. How long before they can find its exact location and invade it?"
"Calm yourself, child." Calanthra says soothingly. "The situation is not that dire. After all, Chrona still exists within a highly accelerated timespace. Any biological entity that wishes to travel there could suffer severe after-effects. Furthermore, the entities born inside will be too adapted to living within a higher dimension, so they won't pose much threat to the creatures of realspace."
She waves her hand. "Let's move on, Jason. I want to discuss other matters before dying of old age."
The Wordsmith cools himself off. He inhales deeply, then returns his attention to her.
"Alright. What next, then?"
"Fairies are not the only Sentients capable of entering Ancient Domains." Calanthra explains. "There are others who rarely appear inside here. That is why exploring these domains can be dangerous. The good news is that Cosmics have little need to enter these barren lands, as most of the heritages, treasures, and other such gains you might find inside are only useful to mortals. There are exceptions, but they are so rare as to be a needle found within ten million haystacks. A waste of effort better spent simply progressing one's Cosmic power the ordinary way."
"So what you're saying is, when you send fairies into an Ancient Domain, they can die as a result of crossing paths with Sentients from other galaxies." Jason concludes. "But if you had an army of humans to enter with you, your people would be a lot safer."
"Safety in numbers, yes. And you humans are... uniquely advantaged in Ancient Domain exploration." Calanthra says mysteriously. "Before that, though... do you know what the Power of Imagination is, Wordsmith?"
Jason raises an eyebrow. "Imagination? Like the mental ability to visualize stuff in your head? Yeah. It's not that complicated to understand."
"Ah, that's where you're wrong." Calanthra chides gently. "Imagination is the key to magical power. Imagination, Conception, Visualization, these are all key capabilities powerful maguses and sorcerors use to uplift their capabilities! And as it turns out, most Sentients are actually quite terrible at conceptualizing thoughts into imagery."
She gestures grandly. "Just take the Volgrim! You may think they are a powerful Sentient species, but in fact the Volgrim have terrible imaginations. They are stodgy, dull, and lack a great deal of creativity. All the gains their Technopaths make through technology are developed via brute force. They slowly improve their technological prowess by minute fractions over long periods of time, eventually resulting in a large and cohesive buildup."
"At the same time, the Psions Uplift themselves through meditation and sitting motionless for thousands of years at a time. Can a species capable of such incredible feats of drudgery also possess limitless imagination? I think not."
"Maybe the reason they're able to sit still for so long is because they live in their imagination?" Jason posits. "In which case their power of imagination should be quite formidable, right?"
"Possible, but unlikely." Calanthra says with a wave of her hand. "Never mind that. The point I'm trying to make is that humans have an extremely high affinity for magic. If your people were to ally with mine, we could teach you our ways. You could help us through your Wordsmithing and superior genetics, creating more fairies and humans alike. This would create a recursive cycle that would continually bolster both our species to greater and greater heights!"
She lowers her voice back to normal. "An alliance with humanity would have other benefits. You humans are equally adept in technology and magic both. You are versatile, capable of learning any skill provided you have time to devote to your studies. The bursts of inspiration you receive also allow you to make large jumps in capability as well, which could mean that in a relatively short period, you might even be capable of challenging the Volgrim."
Jason nods. "That does sound tempting, Calanthra. I'm willing to help you, but I won't demand my people join the fairies. It would be better if those who were the most interested did so instead."
Calanthra playfully twirls a finger through her hair. "Well. My daughters are all beautiful. Perhaps you should make mention that the fairies are... aggressively interested in copulation?"
"COUGH COUGH!" Jason wheezes, taking a step back as he asses her bold choice of words. "Yeah! Uh, I can probably- I'll let everyone know about that too. Obviously!"
Calanthra chuckles. "Such a cute boy. Well, it seems I've accomplished what I wanted. Let's return for now. You can always pay Ripspace a visit later."
"I will." Jason says, nodding seriously. "Waypoint."
Calanthra raises an eyebrow. "You think you can return here without a Ruler's power?"
"Won't know unless I try." Jason smiles back.
...
Not long after, Jason and Calanthra emerge back into Realspace. He shivers as he feels the Eye of Yredelemnul fixating on him from behind, but Calanthra quickly reactivates the Formation of Light, sending the sliver of a Ruler back to the shadows so it can no longer interact with the physical world.
"You know, Jason." Calanthra says. "You are a Candidate. You have the capability to become a Ruler someday."
"I am?" Jason asks, before thinking back to a conversation in the past. "Oh yeah, someone did mention that to me before. But... eh. I don't know. Becoming a Ruler sounds awful."
"Awful?" Calanthra asks. "How so?"
"It seems... lonely." Jason says, his voice softening. He looks at the space between the four statues, where Yredelemnul's Eye has disappeared. "Imagine all your loved ones dying, but you're stuck behind, living through the end of an Eternity, which takes trillions of years before Heat Death finally eradicates everything. Then comes the next Eternity, where you can remake your species again... but it won't be the same. Even if you remake your loved ones, it won't really be them."
Jason lowers and shakes his head. "That sort of life doesn't suit me."
"I understand why you'd think that way." Calanthra says. "In fact, you are suffering from the same affliction that plagues all Candidates who began their Existences as Biologicals. We have too many ties to the mortal world, so the majority of Biologicals who ascend to the rank of Ruler... fall to their non-biological opponents."
"As for the things which are not biological..." Calanthra says, looking at Jason with disgust. "You should already know what they are."
"Highly evolved Artificial Intelligences?" Jason guesses.
"That's right." Calanthra affirms. "There are several tiers of power a superintelligence can possess. The Volgrim have taken great care to prevent anything above a Beta Core from forming in the Milky Way, but once, a long time ago... they made a huge mess by accidentally creating the Milky Way's first Alpha Core Synthmind."
Calanthra chuckles. "The stupid fools didn't only create an Alpha Core, they gave it autonomy in the hopes it would be able to stop the wars between their factions. They built indestructible bipedal bodies for its splintered intelligences, and called them... Sentinels. Luckily, they were able to defeat the Alpha Core before it ascended further, but countless other biological species have failed at that juncture, creating an Alpha Core that ultimately devoured the full power of their galaxy for itself."
A chill trickles down Jason's spine. "You're saying the vast majority of Rulers are actually Alpha Core AIs? AIs that control entire galaxies?!"
"No, Jason." Calanthra counters. "Alpha Cores can defeat advanced civilizations. But there is one Existence higher than an Alpha Core, a tier that can only be reached once it has swallowed the power of a galaxy."
"That would be an Omega Core. a sentient artificial intelligence that has become Ruler over one or more galaxies. And in Akasha's game, more than 90% of all Rulers are estimated to be these superior lifeforms."
"It is for that reason that these highly adaptable entities are known as The Evolved."
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"Ripspace is not as it seems." Calanthra explains, gesturing grandly to the epic sight before them. "It is a connection between the past and the present; the near and far. The further away or the further back you want to travel, the higher the price you will have to pay."
Jason's smile vanishes. "Wait... you can use Ripspace to travel back in time?!"
"No." Calanthra clarifies. "Time is linear. We cannot travel through it. Some can slow it down or speed it up. A rare few can even pause it for a short while. But moving forward and backward is impossible. Countless have attempted to do so over the eons, but all have failed."
She looks at Jason meaningfully. "Many Rulers would wipe out galaxies if it might let them obtain such a power. The fact they still haven't proves it is impossible."
Jason nods slowly. "I won't lie. I have a lot of regrets. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and save my daughter from dying."
"Everyone has regrets." Calanthra muses, looking off into the distance. "I have plenty, myself. But it's better this way. There would be pandemonium if time travel ever became possible."
She pauses before continuing with her explanation. "While we cannot go back in time, we can look back into time. Pinpointing exact moments in history is difficult, to say the least, but it is possible to use Ripspace to search for key moments in intergalactic history."
"So it's like a massive seer-stone." Jason muses aloud. "But wait, didn't you imply earlier that you used Ripspace to travel to the Milky Way from Andromeda? How does it allow you to jump between galaxies? Are other species using Ripspace for intergalactic travel?"
"You can indeed use Ripspace to travel to distant reaches of space." Calanthra explains. "But... you have to pay a certain price. Akasha's Barriers still protect every galaxy. Cosmics cannot travel between them easily. Mortals can, but the price we must pay is unimaginably steep. That is also the reason my mother perished not long after arriving in the Milky Way and giving birth to me."
The Fairy Monarch sighs softly.
"My people used the power of Ripspace to travel to several other galaxies. We were fortunate that the Creator had died, allowing us to take up residence here in secret, but the Angels, Titans, and Dragons were still a threat we could not overlook. Later, the Volgrim rose up too, and that was something that worried us for a while. Particularly when their Sentinels began to rapaciously erase the lives of innumerable Sentients."
She waves her hand. "Ultimately, very few galaxies didn't have a Ruler in power. Traveling to one that did meant flipping a coin and praying our people could avoid their gaze. Sadly, time has shown me that we were likely unsuccessful. I have lost contact with all my sisters across the cosmos."
The image of innumerable galaxies floating in the distance changes before Jason's eyes. Calanthra manipulates some unseen power, causing herself and Jason to suddenly materialize directly in front of a beautiful spiral galaxy.
"This is our Milky Way." Calanthra explains, waving her hand to conjure another, far bigger galaxy beside it. "And this is Andromeda."
"Is it just me or does Andromeda seem... brighter?" Jason asks.
"Andromeda contains far more interstellar particles, cosmic energy, and latent magical power than the Milky Way." Calanthra says. "Of course, in the ancient past, it had even more than it does now, but such is the way of entropy and Chaos."
Jason nods. "How exactly do galaxies lose power over time? Doesn't this feel self-defeating in a way?"
"Every Ruler enters the Unending War with a strategy." Calanthra says, motioning with her hands to disperse the galaxies and reveal images of ghostly creatures, some standing on two legs, some on four, and plenty that appear as mere blobs of energy. "I cannot pretend to know the thoughts of such high and mighty beings, especially as I am a mere mortal myself. Even so, I can definitively state that there are Rulers who seek to put as much galactic energy into their initial creations as possible, while others wish to adopt a more energy-efficient growth-model."
She pokes her finger against Jason's chest. "Take the angels and humans, for instance. The Creator poured the vast majority of his power into creating a galaxy full of Apex Cosmics. At their peak, the angels as a whole commanded enough power to flatten other galaxies. But what did they do instead? They fought with one another, killing themselves due to sheer boredom, if not outright ego."
"I see." Jason says, brushing Calanthra's finger away. "So the Creator dumped all the Milky Way's energy into the angels. I take it this is uncommon among Rulers?"
"Of course. It's a wasteful strategy and usually loses Rulers the War for that Eternity." Calanthra says dismissively. "The Timeless used a different strategy. She created the fairies as mere mortals that evolved over time, gaining greater and greater power through their own efforts. This meant that instead of devouring Andromeda's abundant Cosmic energy, they could slowly sap off its excess over time. For you see, the more energy a galaxy has, the more it can produce. If you ration it long enough, you can reap more of it across the duration of an Eternity."
"That makes sense." Jason concludes. "It's like a Rush build in an RTS versus an Economy build. You sacrifice long-term gains in exchange for short-term power. The problem is, with Akasha's Barriers preventing Rulers from attacking their enemies straight away, a Rush build is dumb because you're just wasting your resources and sacrificing Cosmic energy when you'll actually need it."
Calanthra blinks twice. She looks at Jason with a strange expression, then turns away for a moment, trying to understand the strange terms he's used. They mostly make sense, but some of them are a little...
She shakes her head and returns to the topic at hand. "Right. Rush strategy versus Economy. Of... course. Well, in any case, there is one advantage toward the first strategy. If you drain all the energy from your galaxy, it becomes less appealing for other Rulers to attack. Because Andromeda was so large and still filled with Cosmic power even billions of years after the Expansion Era, it stoked the hunger of the Dark Ones. Meanwhile, the Milky Way only needs to deal with the Plague, which is threatening for mortals, but manageable for Cosmics. In that respect, we've gotten off much luckier."
"I get the bigger picture now." Jason says with a nod. He turns to look back at the cosmos before him. "So, what about all this? Are we gonna go exploring, or what?"
"In order to explore the universe presented here, we would need to make sacrifices we cannot afford. I think you would find the price most disagreeable. But there is something we can explore freely..."
She waves her hand, and instantly, the brilliant and beautiful cosmic view of the universe vanishes.
In its place, Jason and Calanthra suddenly appear inside a dead, barren wasteland. Brown and grey dirt rises up in huge dunes stretching off into the distance. Fallen towers made of gold and stone lay on their sides, or stick into the ground, buried nearly up to their tops as they point diagonally toward the sky.
And speaking of the sky, it glows faintly grey, as if some weak, pale imitation of a star were trying to shine through a thin atmosphere clouded by dust and grime. The very air itself smells of sulfur and toxins, making Jason's nose curl up when he takes a breath.
"Ugh... what the hell? Where are we now?" Jason asks, as he turns and looks around at the dead world surrounding him.
"An Ancient Domain." Calanthra says softly. "A remnant of a dead universe. All life stripped away. All hope lost. Septillions of different Sentient species, gone. Their mortals, their Cosmics, reduced to dust by the Contraction."
The Wordsmith frowns. "This Ancient Domain represents a dead universe? But how can that be possible? If the Heat Death played out and all the galaxies faded to cosmic dust, then there already wouldn't be anything left. And then, if the entire universe collapsed into a singularity before exploding again, there definitely wouldn't be anything left behind resembling physical matter."
"You perceive reality through just three dimensions." Calanthra intones. "Time and space can be considered two dimensions. Cosmic Power is another dimension. I must admit I do not understand how Ancient Domains have continued to exist across countless Eternities, and I don't know how they retain a vaguely familiar form... but I can assure you that in spite of bending logic itself, they do exist and they can provide tangible benefits to those dedicated to exploring them."
"You've been exploring them, then?" Jason asks, turning away from the dead world to scrutinize Calanthra's phantasmal image.
"Me, a little. But often, I dispatch my descendants to scour these Ancient Domains for things of value. It may surprise you, but there are powerful artifacts, vengeful spirits, and all manner of other inter-dimensional horrors lurking within these so-called dead-lands."
Calanthra pauses. She shifts her posture to look at Jason deeply.
"And that is why I've brought you here, Jason. It's time for me to get down to the crux of the matter and breach the subject that I find most important."
He nods. "I'm listening."
"It's like this." Calanthra explains. "The Ancient Domains are unfathomably broad. Think of how large a universe is. Think of how many universes have existed. Think of how much space my people have yet to explore."
She pauses.
"The gains we have received have made my people stronger than you would expect. Among those gains are Yredelemnul's Eye and other leftover remnants of power that many dead ancient Rulers lost when their Existences became forfeit. While their tangible Existences may have perished, their spirits sometimes live on in these broad, unending dead universes..."
"That's why you approached me." Jason says, while crossing his arms and leaning on the ball of his heel. "You said you wanted an alliance with humanity. You... want humans to help you explore the Ancient Domains?"
"Trust is hard to come by among mortals, Cosmics, and Rulers." Calanthra says simply. "I never would have considered allying with the humans before, but you have shown me the broadness of your mind during the debate against your clone and the commander of your military. To some, you certainly appear naive, but to me I see an opportunity I would be foolish to ignore."
She continues. "The Fairies cannot reproduce efficiently. Every fairy we send into the Ancient Domain is one less fairy we have among our Empire. We already have a difficult time replenishing our numbers through the remaining Male Fairies, but do you think it is easy for us to reproduce with other species?"
Jason slowly shakes his head. "Blinker and Kar's children were all crocodiles, not fairies. From that, I can only imagine that most of the time, your mating attempts do not create more of yourselves, but instead more non-fairy children."
"That's exactly correct." Calanthra replies. "But that all changed recently when I found out one of your human males somehow spontaneously altered his genetic profile to become a fairy. There is no doubt about it; Samuel Baker harnesses all the capability to reproduce that you humans do, as well as the trueborn powers of any male fairy."
"So... are you seeking a marriage alliance with Samuel Baker?" Jason asks, scratching his head in confusion. "You could just ask him yourself, you know?"
"This is not about one man." Calanthra retorts. "Samuel Baker, if he were to join our ranks, would certainly help us stave off extinction for a while longer. But that is hardly worth all this melodrama and me taking you to the Ancient Domain in person..."
Jason's eyes widen in realization. "I see! You... you're thinking that if my magic could make one male fairy, I could surely make another, and another..."
"Yes, precisely." Calanthra says, revealing a beautiful smile. "Additionally, if humans were to assist us in scouring these Ancient Domains, we could make great gains together. There is plenty of room for another species to join ours in locating powerful artifacts and other items capable of Uplifting us."
"You want to become Cosmics still." Jason muses. "You haven't resigned yourselves to your current fate."
"Quite the opposite." Calanthra says. "The curse placed upon us is unbreakable by those beneath the realm of Ruler. As I said before, the fairies have lost this Eternity's war. However, while we cannot Ascend any longer, that does not mean the humans are subject to the same limitation. If we could groom a human into becoming the Milky Way's Ruler, we could finally break free of our shackles by virtue of having a powerful ally."
She pauses, looking meaningfully at the Wordsmith.
"If the Demons or the Volgrim were to become our Ruler, we would not enjoy such a benefit. At best, we would only maintain the status quo, and at worst, they might eradicate us out of fear of having an unsightly tumor in their midst."
"Haha." Jason laughs. "So you brought me here to show your sincerity. I get it. Well, I'm definitely not opposed to helping you. Blinker is my good friend. If she were to ask me, I'd definitely say yes to just about any request."
Jason turns away. He walks a few feet off to the side and pauses, standing to gaze out at the Ancient Domain and its endlessly rolling plains which stretches off into the infinite distance...
"Here's what I can do." Jason says. "My people are already working on laying out the options for humanity and where our fellow men and women will depart over the next few weeks. Some will travel to Maiura. Some will go to Sharmur. Some will stay on Tarus II. It's no trouble at all to put Pixiv on the list, especially as I was already planning to do that. I even have some other places I'd like to include, too..."
"Such as Camael's Cube?" Calanthra asks with a smile. "Or do you perhaps mean Chrona and Hope's Hall of Heroes?"
Jason nearly jumps out of his skin. He whirls around to look at Calanthra with shock in his eyes. "What?! How do you know about Chrona? How do you also know about where Hope has been hiding?? I don't even know that much!"
"For those who are talented in magic, it is possible to see through many lies and deceptions." Calanthra says calmly, unfazed by the alarm on Jason's face. "Your Spynet Sphere isn't so different from the many options I have at my disposal. I have many means to keep an eye on the galaxy. And while Diablo does not know exactly where or what Chrona is, he certainly knows of its general existence."
Her smile turns cold. "I would advise you not to take Unarin lightly either, Wordsmith. That ancient creature is more capable than you can imagine. He is hiding a great many secrets from the galaxy... secrets he does not know that I am aware of. If he were to learn of the true extent of my information web, I fear that he would dispatch a handful of High Psions to eliminate the fairy species tomorrow."
Calanthra's words truly rock Jason to his core. All along, he assumed the precautions he put on Chrona, precautions that fooled even Hope, would make his hidden dimension impossible to detect.
But how could he be so naive?
As the daughter of an Apex Cosmic, Calanthra must have her means, and that likely means Unarin and Diablo aren't too far behind either.
"Shit." Jason curses, lowering his head as a flicker of anger smolders in his heart. "I was too complacent. Chrona isn't secure, which means it's only a matter of time before more Cosmics learn of its existence. How long before they can find its exact location and invade it?"
"Calm yourself, child." Calanthra says soothingly. "The situation is not that dire. After all, Chrona still exists within a highly accelerated timespace. Any biological entity that wishes to travel there could suffer severe after-effects. Furthermore, the entities born inside will be too adapted to living within a higher dimension, so they won't pose much threat to the creatures of realspace."
She waves her hand. "Let's move on, Jason. I want to discuss other matters before dying of old age."
The Wordsmith cools himself off. He inhales deeply, then returns his attention to her.
"Alright. What next, then?"
"Fairies are not the only Sentients capable of entering Ancient Domains." Calanthra explains. "There are others who rarely appear inside here. That is why exploring these domains can be dangerous. The good news is that Cosmics have little need to enter these barren lands, as most of the heritages, treasures, and other such gains you might find inside are only useful to mortals. There are exceptions, but they are so rare as to be a needle found within ten million haystacks. A waste of effort better spent simply progressing one's Cosmic power the ordinary way."
"So what you're saying is, when you send fairies into an Ancient Domain, they can die as a result of crossing paths with Sentients from other galaxies." Jason concludes. "But if you had an army of humans to enter with you, your people would be a lot safer."
"Safety in numbers, yes. And you humans are... uniquely advantaged in Ancient Domain exploration." Calanthra says mysteriously. "Before that, though... do you know what the Power of Imagination is, Wordsmith?"
Jason raises an eyebrow. "Imagination? Like the mental ability to visualize stuff in your head? Yeah. It's not that complicated to understand."
"Ah, that's where you're wrong." Calanthra chides gently. "Imagination is the key to magical power. Imagination, Conception, Visualization, these are all key capabilities powerful maguses and sorcerors use to uplift their capabilities! And as it turns out, most Sentients are actually quite terrible at conceptualizing thoughts into imagery."
She gestures grandly. "Just take the Volgrim! You may think they are a powerful Sentient species, but in fact the Volgrim have terrible imaginations. They are stodgy, dull, and lack a great deal of creativity. All the gains their Technopaths make through technology are developed via brute force. They slowly improve their technological prowess by minute fractions over long periods of time, eventually resulting in a large and cohesive buildup."
"At the same time, the Psions Uplift themselves through meditation and sitting motionless for thousands of years at a time. Can a species capable of such incredible feats of drudgery also possess limitless imagination? I think not."
"Maybe the reason they're able to sit still for so long is because they live in their imagination?" Jason posits. "In which case their power of imagination should be quite formidable, right?"
"Possible, but unlikely." Calanthra says with a wave of her hand. "Never mind that. The point I'm trying to make is that humans have an extremely high affinity for magic. If your people were to ally with mine, we could teach you our ways. You could help us through your Wordsmithing and superior genetics, creating more fairies and humans alike. This would create a recursive cycle that would continually bolster both our species to greater and greater heights!"
She lowers her voice back to normal. "An alliance with humanity would have other benefits. You humans are equally adept in technology and magic both. You are versatile, capable of learning any skill provided you have time to devote to your studies. The bursts of inspiration you receive also allow you to make large jumps in capability as well, which could mean that in a relatively short period, you might even be capable of challenging the Volgrim."
Jason nods. "That does sound tempting, Calanthra. I'm willing to help you, but I won't demand my people join the fairies. It would be better if those who were the most interested did so instead."
Calanthra playfully twirls a finger through her hair. "Well. My daughters are all beautiful. Perhaps you should make mention that the fairies are... aggressively interested in copulation?"
"COUGH COUGH!" Jason wheezes, taking a step back as he asses her bold choice of words. "Yeah! Uh, I can probably- I'll let everyone know about that too. Obviously!"
Calanthra chuckles. "Such a cute boy. Well, it seems I've accomplished what I wanted. Let's return for now. You can always pay Ripspace a visit later."
"I will." Jason says, nodding seriously. "Waypoint."
Calanthra raises an eyebrow. "You think you can return here without a Ruler's power?"
"Won't know unless I try." Jason smiles back.
...
Not long after, Jason and Calanthra emerge back into Realspace. He shivers as he feels the Eye of Yredelemnul fixating on him from behind, but Calanthra quickly reactivates the Formation of Light, sending the sliver of a Ruler back to the shadows so it can no longer interact with the physical world.
"You know, Jason." Calanthra says. "You are a Candidate. You have the capability to become a Ruler someday."
"I am?" Jason asks, before thinking back to a conversation in the past. "Oh yeah, someone did mention that to me before. But... eh. I don't know. Becoming a Ruler sounds awful."
"Awful?" Calanthra asks. "How so?"
"It seems... lonely." Jason says, his voice softening. He looks at the space between the four statues, where Yredelemnul's Eye has disappeared. "Imagine all your loved ones dying, but you're stuck behind, living through the end of an Eternity, which takes trillions of years before Heat Death finally eradicates everything. Then comes the next Eternity, where you can remake your species again... but it won't be the same. Even if you remake your loved ones, it won't really be them."
Jason lowers and shakes his head. "That sort of life doesn't suit me."
"I understand why you'd think that way." Calanthra says. "In fact, you are suffering from the same affliction that plagues all Candidates who began their Existences as Biologicals. We have too many ties to the mortal world, so the majority of Biologicals who ascend to the rank of Ruler... fall to their non-biological opponents."
"As for the things which are not biological..." Calanthra says, looking at Jason with disgust. "You should already know what they are."
"Highly evolved Artificial Intelligences?" Jason guesses.
"That's right." Calanthra affirms. "There are several tiers of power a superintelligence can possess. The Volgrim have taken great care to prevent anything above a Beta Core from forming in the Milky Way, but once, a long time ago... they made a huge mess by accidentally creating the Milky Way's first Alpha Core Synthmind."
Calanthra chuckles. "The stupid fools didn't only create an Alpha Core, they gave it autonomy in the hopes it would be able to stop the wars between their factions. They built indestructible bipedal bodies for its splintered intelligences, and called them... Sentinels. Luckily, they were able to defeat the Alpha Core before it ascended further, but countless other biological species have failed at that juncture, creating an Alpha Core that ultimately devoured the full power of their galaxy for itself."
A chill trickles down Jason's spine. "You're saying the vast majority of Rulers are actually Alpha Core AIs? AIs that control entire galaxies?!"
"No, Jason." Calanthra counters. "Alpha Cores can defeat advanced civilizations. But there is one Existence higher than an Alpha Core, a tier that can only be reached once it has swallowed the power of a galaxy."
"That would be an Omega Core. a sentient artificial intelligence that has become Ruler over one or more galaxies. And in Akasha's game, more than 90% of all Rulers are estimated to be these superior lifeforms."
"It is for that reason that these highly adaptable entities are known as The Evolved."
2024.05.18 22:59 Cauliflower29 Seeking advice on keeping track of grades (5th grade)
Hello! First year here, just got renewed to come back, yay! I do need some support/advice on keeping track of students grades. I teach only ELA and Social Studies so I have double the kiddos. Keeping track of their grades became very overwhelming for me this year and I’m trying to find ways to improve next year.
This year, I tried google classroom, but not all assignments were on the computer so kids became confused if they had to do it. I also tried all on paper and ended up losing a few tracking papers and had to guess at some assignments.
Anyways, any advice helps. Thank you!
submitted by Cauliflower29 to Teachers [link] [comments]
This year, I tried google classroom, but not all assignments were on the computer so kids became confused if they had to do it. I also tried all on paper and ended up losing a few tracking papers and had to guess at some assignments.
Anyways, any advice helps. Thank you!
2024.05.18 22:59 Educational_Mud_9228 PECT EXAM
I need guidance for the Pennsylvania Education Certification Test (PECT EXAM) which is grades pre-K - 4. I’ve been studying for months through books, practice tests, online, flash cards, I even bought practice test through the PA official website and I still failed my 1st attempt. My 2nd attempt is at the end of May and I only have until August, 2024 to pass all 3 modules if I want to start student teaching by January, 2025. Any additional advice would be greatly appreciated! Are there any secret study hacks?
PS: Module 2 is my lowest scoring so I do give myself extra study time with literacy and development.
submitted by Educational_Mud_9228 to Teachers [link] [comments]
PS: Module 2 is my lowest scoring so I do give myself extra study time with literacy and development.
PECTEXAM #teaching #teachingcertification #PECT
2024.05.18 22:59 TheHarryPotterGeek Episode 2: A World Revealed
The trio stood in awe, their eyes wide with amazement as they took in the bustling magical world around them. People flew through the air on broomsticks, and animated conversations about dragons filled the air. Shops sold wands, potions, and magical creatures. The vibrant, bustling atmosphere was unlike anything they had ever seen.
Lily Everwood: "This... this can't be real. How is any of this possible?"
Toby Fletcher: "I don't like this, guys. This is too much. What if we're dreaming?"
Fin Sparks: "Calm down, both of you. Look around! We need to figure out where we are and what this place is."
As they continued to explore, Fin noticed a moving newspaper underfoot. He picked it up, and the images on the front page moved, showing scenes of magical events. Lily and Toby freaked out, but Fin kept his cool, trying to calm them.
Fin Sparks: "Look, everything here is different, but we have to stay calm. Let's see if we can find someone who can explain all this."
They noticed a group of people listening to a guide, so they sneaked closer to join them. The guide was explaining the basics of the magical world, including the currency, customs, and places.
Tour Guide: "Welcome to Diagon Alley, the heart of the magical world! Here you'll find shops for wands, potion ingredients, and everything a witch or wizard needs. And of course, the currency here is Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts."
As the guide spoke, Fin's attention drifted to a boy in the distance who looked oddly familiar. Before he could get a closer look, the boy vanished from sight. Fin rejoined his friends just as the guide started talking about Hogwarts.
Tour Guide: "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is one of the finest magical schools in the world. It has four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. And yes, we must not forget about the dark times brought by Voldemort, who still poses a threat to our world."
Suddenly, they spotted someone familiar—Sanjay, a boy from their neighborhood. Sanjay saw them, and his eyes widened in shock. He grabbed Fin's hand and hurried them into a secluded alley, with Lily and Toby close behind.
Sanjay: "What the heck are you doing here, Fin? This place is dangerous if you don't know your way around!"
Fin Sparks: "Sanjay, we saw this stranger who gave us a bag, and then... we ended up here. We don't even know how it happened!"
Sanjay sighed, realizing the seriousness of the situation. He looked around nervously before addressing them.
Sanjay: "Okay, listen carefully. This is the magical world. It's hidden from Muggles—non-magical people like us. How did you end up here without knowing about it?"
Lily, curious as ever, opened the small pouch they had received from the stranger. The pouch suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke, causing all four of them to jump back in surprise.
Lily Everwood: "What just happened? Where did it go?"
Sanjay: "Calm down. That was a portkey, a magical object used for transportation. The fact that you ended up here means... you're probably wizards or witches."
Fin's eyes sparkled with excitement as he realized what Sanjay was saying. Lily and Toby exchanged glances, still processing everything.
Sanjay: "Only a magical person can enter this world without knowing it or without proper guidance. That means you three have magic in you."
Lily Everwood: "This is incredible... but also confusing. What are we supposed to do now?"
Fin Sparks: "If we're here, it means we belong. We have to explore this world and learn more about it."
Sanjay then mentioned Voldemort and Harry Potter, sparking Fin's curiosity.
Fin Sparks: "How do we get rid of Voldemort? Is there a way?"
Sanjay: "The only person who can truly defeat Voldemort is Harry Potter. He's the one who has faced him and survived multiple times."
All Three (Fin, Lily, Toby): "Who?"
Sanjay explained the history of Voldemort and Harry Potter, detailing their legendary battles and the hope Harry represented for the magical world. He also mentioned that students who are late bloomers can be accepted into Hogwarts in their fifth year, which was around their age.
Sanjay: "You guys are fifteen, right? That means you could start at Hogwarts in your fifth year. If you're interested, I can teach you some basic magic to get you ready."
Lily's face lit up with excitement, but she was still torn between the two worlds.
Lily Everwood: "This sounds amazing, but... is it the right thing to do? Should we leave our world behind?"
Fin Sparks: "If we're not wizards, we wouldn't be here. This is our chance to find out who we really are."
After a serious discussion lasting 15-30 minutes, where they weighed their options and expressed their fears and hopes, all three finally agreed.
Lily Everwood: "Alright. Let's do this. Let's learn magic."
Toby Fletcher: "Yeah, let's give it a shot. This might be the adventure of a lifetime."
Fin Sparks: "We're in this together. Let's find out what being wizards really means."
As they made their decision, the trio felt a mix of excitement and apprehension, ready to embark on a new journey into the unknown.
Sanjay's Explanation: "Alright, let me break it down for you. The magical world has been hidden from Muggles—non-magical people like us—for centuries. We have our own schools, governments, and societies. Hogwarts is one of the best schools for young witches and wizards. Each house there has its own unique qualities: Gryffindor for the brave, Hufflepuff for the loyal, Ravenclaw for the wise, and Slytherin for the ambitious.
"Voldemort is a dark wizard who terrorized our world. Harry Potter is the boy who lived, the one who survived an attack by Voldemort as a baby. He's been fighting against him ever since. Our world is full of magic and danger, and it's not something to be taken lightly. But if you truly are wizards, you have a place here, and you can learn to harness your magic."
Fin listened intently, feeling a sense of purpose he had never felt before. This was his chance to understand the strange occurrences in his life and to belong to a world he never knew existed.
Lily Everwood: "I always knew there was something special about you, Fin. Maybe this is where we're meant to be."
Toby Fletcher: "Yeah, and if we're going to do this, we'll do it together. Like we always have."
With their minds made up, the trio braced themselves for the adventures that lay ahead. They knew it wouldn't be easy, but with Sanjay's guidance and their newfound determination, they felt ready to face whatever challenges the magical world had in store.
End of Episode 2
submitted by TheHarryPotterGeek to TheHarryPotterGeeks [link] [comments]
Lily Everwood: "This... this can't be real. How is any of this possible?"
Toby Fletcher: "I don't like this, guys. This is too much. What if we're dreaming?"
Fin Sparks: "Calm down, both of you. Look around! We need to figure out where we are and what this place is."
As they continued to explore, Fin noticed a moving newspaper underfoot. He picked it up, and the images on the front page moved, showing scenes of magical events. Lily and Toby freaked out, but Fin kept his cool, trying to calm them.
Fin Sparks: "Look, everything here is different, but we have to stay calm. Let's see if we can find someone who can explain all this."
They noticed a group of people listening to a guide, so they sneaked closer to join them. The guide was explaining the basics of the magical world, including the currency, customs, and places.
Tour Guide: "Welcome to Diagon Alley, the heart of the magical world! Here you'll find shops for wands, potion ingredients, and everything a witch or wizard needs. And of course, the currency here is Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts."
As the guide spoke, Fin's attention drifted to a boy in the distance who looked oddly familiar. Before he could get a closer look, the boy vanished from sight. Fin rejoined his friends just as the guide started talking about Hogwarts.
Tour Guide: "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is one of the finest magical schools in the world. It has four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. And yes, we must not forget about the dark times brought by Voldemort, who still poses a threat to our world."
Suddenly, they spotted someone familiar—Sanjay, a boy from their neighborhood. Sanjay saw them, and his eyes widened in shock. He grabbed Fin's hand and hurried them into a secluded alley, with Lily and Toby close behind.
Sanjay: "What the heck are you doing here, Fin? This place is dangerous if you don't know your way around!"
Fin Sparks: "Sanjay, we saw this stranger who gave us a bag, and then... we ended up here. We don't even know how it happened!"
Sanjay sighed, realizing the seriousness of the situation. He looked around nervously before addressing them.
Sanjay: "Okay, listen carefully. This is the magical world. It's hidden from Muggles—non-magical people like us. How did you end up here without knowing about it?"
Lily, curious as ever, opened the small pouch they had received from the stranger. The pouch suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke, causing all four of them to jump back in surprise.
Lily Everwood: "What just happened? Where did it go?"
Sanjay: "Calm down. That was a portkey, a magical object used for transportation. The fact that you ended up here means... you're probably wizards or witches."
Fin's eyes sparkled with excitement as he realized what Sanjay was saying. Lily and Toby exchanged glances, still processing everything.
Sanjay: "Only a magical person can enter this world without knowing it or without proper guidance. That means you three have magic in you."
Lily Everwood: "This is incredible... but also confusing. What are we supposed to do now?"
Fin Sparks: "If we're here, it means we belong. We have to explore this world and learn more about it."
Sanjay then mentioned Voldemort and Harry Potter, sparking Fin's curiosity.
Fin Sparks: "How do we get rid of Voldemort? Is there a way?"
Sanjay: "The only person who can truly defeat Voldemort is Harry Potter. He's the one who has faced him and survived multiple times."
All Three (Fin, Lily, Toby): "Who?"
Sanjay explained the history of Voldemort and Harry Potter, detailing their legendary battles and the hope Harry represented for the magical world. He also mentioned that students who are late bloomers can be accepted into Hogwarts in their fifth year, which was around their age.
Sanjay: "You guys are fifteen, right? That means you could start at Hogwarts in your fifth year. If you're interested, I can teach you some basic magic to get you ready."
Lily's face lit up with excitement, but she was still torn between the two worlds.
Lily Everwood: "This sounds amazing, but... is it the right thing to do? Should we leave our world behind?"
Fin Sparks: "If we're not wizards, we wouldn't be here. This is our chance to find out who we really are."
After a serious discussion lasting 15-30 minutes, where they weighed their options and expressed their fears and hopes, all three finally agreed.
Lily Everwood: "Alright. Let's do this. Let's learn magic."
Toby Fletcher: "Yeah, let's give it a shot. This might be the adventure of a lifetime."
Fin Sparks: "We're in this together. Let's find out what being wizards really means."
As they made their decision, the trio felt a mix of excitement and apprehension, ready to embark on a new journey into the unknown.
Sanjay's Explanation: "Alright, let me break it down for you. The magical world has been hidden from Muggles—non-magical people like us—for centuries. We have our own schools, governments, and societies. Hogwarts is one of the best schools for young witches and wizards. Each house there has its own unique qualities: Gryffindor for the brave, Hufflepuff for the loyal, Ravenclaw for the wise, and Slytherin for the ambitious.
"Voldemort is a dark wizard who terrorized our world. Harry Potter is the boy who lived, the one who survived an attack by Voldemort as a baby. He's been fighting against him ever since. Our world is full of magic and danger, and it's not something to be taken lightly. But if you truly are wizards, you have a place here, and you can learn to harness your magic."
Fin listened intently, feeling a sense of purpose he had never felt before. This was his chance to understand the strange occurrences in his life and to belong to a world he never knew existed.
Lily Everwood: "I always knew there was something special about you, Fin. Maybe this is where we're meant to be."
Toby Fletcher: "Yeah, and if we're going to do this, we'll do it together. Like we always have."
With their minds made up, the trio braced themselves for the adventures that lay ahead. They knew it wouldn't be easy, but with Sanjay's guidance and their newfound determination, they felt ready to face whatever challenges the magical world had in store.
End of Episode 2
2024.05.18 22:55 Educational_Mud_9228 PECT EXAM
I need guidance for the Pennsylvania Education Certification Test (PECT EXAM) which is grades pre-K - 4. I’ve been studying for months through books, practice tests, online, flash cards, I even bought practice test through the PA official website and I still failed my 1st attempt. My 2nd attempt is at the end of May and I only have until August, 2024 to pass all 3 modules if I want to start student teaching by January, 2025. Any additional advice would be greatly appreciated! Are there any secret study hacks?
PS: Module 2 is my lowest scoring so I do give myself extra study time with literacy and development.
submitted by Educational_Mud_9228 to u/Educational_Mud_9228 [link] [comments]
PS: Module 2 is my lowest scoring so I do give myself extra study time with literacy and development.
PECTEXAM #teaching #teachingcertification #PECT
2024.05.18 22:51 Worried_Yoghurt_8637 How to move forward after doing bad at multiple jobs?
Hi! Im a 21 F and just recently graduated with my associates degree. I planned a gap yet before pursuing my bachelor’s this upcoming fall. I worked a few part time gigs during this time, and they were all childcare jobs.
I loved working with children, it matches my values, personality, and interests. I have a tendency to self sabotage, and got in my head about the first childcare job and then left. They were sad when I left and said I did well. I rationalized it by getting a slightly higher paying daycare job to have a “fresh start”. Inevitably, i was consistently late and made mistakes and it led me to wanting a fresh start again. I did this AGAIN with the next job, it being one I felt very connected and fulfilled to. It was PERFECT, close to my house, small class size, working with children that have disabilities etc. and I regret leaving and making the mistakes that I did. I wish i would’ve stuck it out. I was talked to (nicely) multiple times about being late and cried because I felt embarrassed that I was late so much no matter how hard I tried.
I get worried how other perceive me, performance, and basically have the “well I already messed it up” mindset that has prevented me to do better. (I struggle with mental health and i as unmedicated at the time)
( I also viewed these jobs as temporary, tho I regret treating them as such )
I then got a job as an RBT, and did A LOT better. I learned from my previous mistakes of being late, and we weren’t allowed to have our phones on us which helped that distraction a lot. I ended up leaving due to it being time for me to move and go back to school (and multiple people walking out in one week— it just got too hectic.)
I am now thinking about studying special education, as I felt a connection with these kids and had so much fun teaching them. I feel as if I learned a lot with managing behavior and I feel comfortable working with this demographic. My current worry is that if I am cut out for this field, or even DESERVE to pursue due to the carelessness (on my part) of my past work experiences:( I compare myself to past coworkers that have consistently held out at those jobs. I want to move forward and learn from my mistakes so I can pursue this passion of mine. Any advice is GREATLY appreciated!
submitted by Worried_Yoghurt_8637 to careerguidance [link] [comments]
I loved working with children, it matches my values, personality, and interests. I have a tendency to self sabotage, and got in my head about the first childcare job and then left. They were sad when I left and said I did well. I rationalized it by getting a slightly higher paying daycare job to have a “fresh start”. Inevitably, i was consistently late and made mistakes and it led me to wanting a fresh start again. I did this AGAIN with the next job, it being one I felt very connected and fulfilled to. It was PERFECT, close to my house, small class size, working with children that have disabilities etc. and I regret leaving and making the mistakes that I did. I wish i would’ve stuck it out. I was talked to (nicely) multiple times about being late and cried because I felt embarrassed that I was late so much no matter how hard I tried.
I get worried how other perceive me, performance, and basically have the “well I already messed it up” mindset that has prevented me to do better. (I struggle with mental health and i as unmedicated at the time)
( I also viewed these jobs as temporary, tho I regret treating them as such )
I then got a job as an RBT, and did A LOT better. I learned from my previous mistakes of being late, and we weren’t allowed to have our phones on us which helped that distraction a lot. I ended up leaving due to it being time for me to move and go back to school (and multiple people walking out in one week— it just got too hectic.)
I am now thinking about studying special education, as I felt a connection with these kids and had so much fun teaching them. I feel as if I learned a lot with managing behavior and I feel comfortable working with this demographic. My current worry is that if I am cut out for this field, or even DESERVE to pursue due to the carelessness (on my part) of my past work experiences:( I compare myself to past coworkers that have consistently held out at those jobs. I want to move forward and learn from my mistakes so I can pursue this passion of mine. Any advice is GREATLY appreciated!