Smart Smart Fruit

Type: Paramecia
Description: The Smart Smart Fruit is a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that enhances its user's intelligence and comprehension, making them an Intelligence Human.

Abilities and Powers:

1. Enhanced Intelligence: The user's cognitive abilities are significantly augmented, granting them advanced problem-solving skills, heightened analytical thinking, and superior memory retention. They can process information at an accelerated rate and quickly adapt to new situations.
   
2. Comprehensive Knowledge: The user gains a vast repository of knowledge across various fields, including science, mathematics, literature, history, and more. They have a deep understanding of complex subjects and can provide insightful analysis or solutions to intricate problems.
   
3. Enhanced Perception: The user's senses are sharpened, allowing them to perceive subtle details and patterns that others may overlook. They can detect hidden clues, anticipate opponents' movements, and make split-second decisions with precision.
   
4. Tactical Planning: The user excels in strategic planning and tactical decision-making, devising effective strategies for various scenarios. They can anticipate their opponents' actions and formulate countermeasures accordingly, gaining an edge in combat and other competitive situations.
   
5. Language Proficiency: The user possesses advanced language skills, mastering multiple languages with fluency and proficiency. They can communicate effectively with individuals from diverse linguistic backgrounds, facilitating diplomacy, negotiation, and cultural exchange.
   
6. Technological Aptitude: The user demonstrates a natural affinity for technology and innovation, quickly grasping complex concepts and applying them to practical solutions. They can invent gadgets, design systems, or analyze technological phenomena with ease.
   

Usage Examples:

• Strategic Planning: The user formulates intricate battle plans, predicting their opponents' moves and outmaneuvering them with strategic brilliance.
  
• Problem-Solving: The user tackles complex problems or puzzles with ease, employing creative thinking and logical reasoning to find innovative solutions.
  
• Invention and Innovation: The user develops groundbreaking inventions, revolutionary theories, or pioneering discoveries that advance society's understanding and capabilities.
  

Weaknesses:

• Physical Limitations: While the Smart Smart Fruit enhances the user's mental faculties, it does not provide any inherent physical enhancements. They may still be susceptible to physical fatigue or injury in combat situations.
  
• Overconfidence: The user's superior intellect may lead to overconfidence or arrogance, causing them to underestimate opponents or overlook critical factors in their plans.
  
• Standard Devil Fruit Weaknesses: Like all Devil Fruit users, the user is susceptible to the standard weaknesses associated with Devil Fruits, including the inability to swim and vulnerability to Seastone.
  

TLDR enclosed for each section directly under their respective subheading in bolded font

1. CONTENTS

Having originally posted this on NamiMains, I have come forth with a rune page that has been rising in popularity on enchanters: First Strike. Not only is this applicable on Nami, but on a lot of other enchanters who have decent range
The following guide has been split into these sections: - 1. CONTENTS - 2. Credentials - 3. So how/why does it work? - 4. ITEMS - 5. RUNES - 6. Core Mechanics of Nami W - 7. Final Words
Due to the length and detail of this guide, I can understand if some fishies don't wish to read everything. In which case, I have included TLDRs in this post. For ease of access, here are some formatting guidelines for the TLDRs of this post:
The following guide has been split into sections for easier navigation, if u are in a hurry for a specific section, scroll down to find the specific subheading that u need. Each explanation is also lengthy, but if u want a brief TLDR of each section, it will be enclosed for each section directly under their respective subheading in bolded font

2. Credentials

I know that some people really care about credentials, so I am leaving this here. Feel free to skip this section and jump straight into the content if it does not concern u
I am a Master tier enchanter main with over 2.8mil points on Nami. I am by no means a perfect player, I still make mistakes and have plenty of areas to improve on
So, please note that the following information serves as a recommendation and general guideline. It was compiled based off of my own personal experience. Said information is not concrete, nor is it a law that you must follow. You are entitled to your own preferences, playstyles, and opinions, which may differ from mine. My only intent here is to share information that some players may find helpful

3. So how/why does it work?

TLDR (for this section): - Take First Strike vs matchups you outrange - Nami E on allies procs First Strike - The new Jack of All Trades rune should be utilised (see below for how)
Before I get into the specific build, I first need to explain how and why this whole setup works. First Strike is mostly taken as a gold-accelerating rune vs matchups that u outrange, ensuring that u get the "first strike" onto enemies consistently. With the changes to First Strike giving more base gold on the initial hit and less gold on subsequent hits compared to before, it pairs really well with a lot of enchanters' poke patterns. Usually, we have one poke spell and not much followup. The current First Strike matches this poke pattern perfectly (think Nami W, Sona E, Seraphine passive-empowered autos etc), allowing us to get an extra 15g per proc on top of our support item gold
On Nami specifically, we have an additional way to proc First Strike, since Nami E on allies actually procs First Strike! The best part of this interaction is that ur ally can be hit by enemies with ur E buff, but bc it wasn't you being hit directly, u will still retain the First Strike bonuses if ur ally hits enemies back with ur E buff despite being hit first! A common issue raised with this point is "what if my ADC is bad and doesn't use my E buff?" Don't worry, I got u covered too! So, whenever u empower an auto or ability that is still travelling middair towards the enemy, if u E urself or ur ally during said auto/ability, the slow and bonus dmg from E will still apply on impact. So, if u notice that ur ADC has cast an auto or ability onto the enemy, try to E them while this auto/ability is still travelling towards the enemy. Not only will this maximise E duration, give enemies minimal time to react to the slow and extra dmg, but it will also ensure that u proc First Strike due to E buff, as well as Manaflow Band and other item effects
This also works on ur own autos and abilities, and chaining abilities tgt like this will also help to cancel Nami's lengthy spell animation for more efficient trade patterns, hence better First Strike usage. Since W is our most consistent poke ability, we ideally want to start with this ability when trying to proc First Strike. This differs slightly from the regular Aery setup where we want to auto -> E ourself while our auto is still middair travelling towards enemy -> W enemy -> bubble/ult or let the bounceback heal retaliate enemy dmg. Instead, we want to W -> E ourselves while W is still middair travelling towards the enemy -> auto -> disengage with bounceback heal or bubble/ult. Additional tip: If you hover over Nami's W, you may notice multiple rings. The outer ring indicates Nami's W range when self-cast, meaning that the ability has a slightly longer range when you cast it on yourself bouncing towards an enemy (25 more range) rather than casting it on an ally to bounce or straight onto an enemy. So if u ever need to W urself first, or need just a bit of extra range, make sure to utilise this. To execute this most effectively, I recommend using alt+W for self-cast
I'm able to come out of lane with 300-400 gold fairly consistently. Pair this with free boots or Cash Back, and u can essentially double this amount of gold. Since enchanters tend to be quite item-reliant, having this extra gold generation allows us to reach our item spikes a lot faster, further increasing the snowball potential

3.1. Jack of All Trades

Supports are actually able to utilise the new Jack of All Trades rune surprisingly well. Our support item alone already covers 3 of the 10 stats required. Here are the list of stats that we will generally be able to obtain on supports: - AP - HP - Health Regen - Mana Regen - Haste - Movespeed - %Movespeed - Heal/Shield Power - Armor - Magic Resist - Mana (?) - Magic Pen (?)
In order to get these stats, we will need our support item which gives HP, health regen, and mana regen. Most items will cover the haste component. Boots for the movespeed stat. Ardent will give us the %movespeed as well as heal/shield power. But if we don't need Ardent, then we can split this into any other heal/shield power item + Shurelya's. Armor + magic resist can be optained from Locket or Wardstone. Alternatively, if we don't need armor + magic resist, we can instead trade these stats for magic pen + mana instead (will also explain this in further detail below)
As you can see, the items required for Jack are situational items. It is important to identify during champ select if said items, particularly Ardent/Shurelya's + Locket/Wardstone, will be built for this game. Altho, these items will be applicable in most situations anyway
If u don't need these items for that particular game, or if u don't feel like u'll be able to reach all these stats for whatever reason, then Cosmic Insight is always a great staple. Lower summ cds for lower Flash and Heal cds, notoriously long-cd spells, as well as item haste. Item haste works on non-active item cds such as Dream MakeCelestial/Solstice/Zaz'Zak's cds, Mandate mark cds, as well as lowering trinket cd etc.

4. ITEMS

TLDR (for this section): - Skip paragraphs to see builds under their respective subheadings (4.1. Defensive Build and 4.2. AP Build) below - Each individual dot point reperesents one individual item slot
Alright, now that all the theory work is out of the way, we can finally move onto the specific build (what everyone is here for). There are two main builds to go about this. Each individual dot point reperesents one individual item slot:

4.1. Defensive Build

• Support Item (upgrade does not matter, as long as u have the base support item)
• Mandate
• Lucidity boots
• Shurelya's + SoFW/Mikael's/Redemption/Dawncore OR Ardent + Mejai's/Morello/situational (buy Dark Seal on first recall if u plan on getting Ardent)
• Locket/Wardstone

This build is run in situations where u need the defensive stats from Locket or Wardstone vs harder comps or matchups, with Locket being particularly good vs AoE and/or burst dmg. This build will also cover all the stats from Jack of All Trades (see list from previous section)
Ardent is the most efficient item for Jack due to it providing mana regen, heal/shield power, and %movespeed, all in one item. This will free up an extra item slot where we can buy a situational item, like antiheal, or if it's not needed then Dark Seal into Mejai's is always a great alternative for cheap AP (Nami has good AP ratios), or any other alternative item that u may need. Just make sure to buy Ardent before this situational item in order to max out Jack
However, it may not always be an Ardent game. In situations where it isn't an Ardent game (non-autoattack-reliant comps), u will need to split the %movespeed and heal/shield power stats into 2 separate items. Typically, Shurelya's + any other Forbidden Idol item will cover this. You can also go for any other item that gives %movespeed, but I find Shurelya's the most consistent. The main downside is ofc, the build being quite rigid if u go for this option (no room for antiheal or other situational items)

4.2. AP Build

• Support Item (upgrade does not matter, as long as u have the base support item)
• Mandate
• Sorc Shoes
• Archangel's (buy Tear on first recall preferrably, or second recall latest)
• Shurelya's + SoFW/Mikael's/Redemption/Dawncore OR Ardent + Mejai's/Morello/Horizon Focus/Cryptbloom/situational (buy Dark Seal on first recall if u plan on getting Ardent)

This is a more AP-focused build in situations where u don't need to be so defensive. We omitted the armor and magic resist from Locket/Wardstone for mana (Archangel's) and magic pen (Sorc Shoes). Nami E on allies uses her own magic pen, hence Sorc Shoes here

5. RUNES

TLDR:

• Inspiration: First Strike, Magical FootweaCash Back, Biscuits, Jack of All Trades/Cosmic Insight
• Sorcery: Manaflow + Transcendence/Absolute Focus/Celerity/Scorch/Gathering Storm OR Transcendence/Absolute Focus + Gathering Storm
• Double Adaptive + Scaling HP OR 8AH + 2%MS + Scaling HP

The more specifics to optimise ur runes to their respective builds:

5.1. Runes for Defensive Build

• Inspiration: First Strike, Cash Back, Biscuits, Jack of All Trades/Cosmic Insight
• Sorcery: Manaflow + Transcendence/Absolute Focus/Celerity/Scorch/Gathering Storm
• Double Adaptive + Scaling HP OR 8AH + 2%MS + Scaling HP

Omitted free boots for Cash Back. Since this is for the defensive build, we will need to rush Lucidity boots vs hard matchups. Not only are Lucidity boots a cheaper option so it gives a faster spike in movespeed vs skillshot-heavy lanes, the lower Flash cd will be good vs engage lanes. Jack vs Cosmic has been explained in previous sections
Manaflow + Transcendence is default. For in-depth explanation:
Manaflow is essential for defensive build. Only go Absolute Focus in situations where enemies lack poke, allowing u to maintain the HP threshold for the AP. Transcendence is a good default, when unsure u can always default to this due to Nami's long cds. Pair both these with double adaptive minor shards option. Celerity if u need the movespeed vs heavy-skillshot comps (pair this with the 2% movespeed minor shard option)
I personally don't recommend Scorch with the First Strike setup due to the scaling nature of this build. However, Scorch is typically good with early-game ADCs or matchups where u have early pressure. Scorch also barely adds any bonuses to First Strike, especially as the game progresses. Avoid Scorch if enemies have sustain, as they can easily outheal or outshield that bit of Scorch dmg. When unsure, or in any other situation, go Gathering Storm

5.2. Runes for AP Build

• Inspiration: First Strike, Magical Footwear, Biscuits, Jack of All Trades/Cosmic Insight
• Sorcery: Transcendence/Absolute Focus + Gathering Storm
• Double Adaptive + Scaling HP

Due to the more expensive nature and higher scaling potential of this build, go free boots so that u can focus on rushing items. Since we go Archangel's with this build, we won't need Manaflow. For maximum scaling, I recommend Absolute Focus + Gathering Storm (also the greediest option). Otherwise, Transcendence as explained prior

6. Core Mechanics of Nami W

TLDR (for this section): - More than 100AP -> subsequent bounces heal/dmg MORE - Less than 100AP -> subsequent bounces heal/dmg LESS
Smth absolutely crucial to these First Strike builds, as well as any other AP Nami builds, is understanding her W bounce mechanic. I often get asked why AP Nami, so I will just include this section here as well. For the fellow fishies who already about this, please feel free to skip this section
The reason why AP Nami is a thing is bc of the way her W scaling works to begin with. We unironically heal more with AP builds than enchanter builds. Allow me to explain:
Patch 14.6: 'The damage and healing value is modified by *-15% (+7.5% per 100AP)** each bounce.'*
Patch 14.7: 'The damage and healing value is modified by *-10% (+10% per 100AP)** each bounce.'*
Before I explain how to get crazy heal/dmg numbers on Nami's W bounces, I first need to explain her unique scaling on W. Unlike most other enchanters who benefit from heal/shield power, Nami's W has a unique scaling where subsequent bounces become weaker pre-100AP, and become stronger post-100AP. This threshold was at 200AP before the most recent changes on her, so they buffed it significantly by lowering the threshold down to only requiring 100AP instead of 200, making AP builds even more potent now in terms of healing and dmg. As such, Nami benefits more from stacking AP than heal/shield power
To give some perspective, previously if I had 200AP my W bounces would be equally as strong as each subsequent bounce. However, with these changes, with 200AP our W is now amped by 10%, and will continue amping by 10% for every 100AP. Getting 400AP on AP Nami builds is very doable with the right setup, buffing our subsequent bounces by 30% per bounce. This means our second bounce will be 30% stronger than the first, and our third bounce will be 60% stronger than the first bounce, which does not need further explaining as to why this is absolutely obnoxious when it comes to dmg and healing values
These changes also mean that a lot of Nami players will need to learn to prioritise their bounces according to what they need. Before, some enchanter builds struggled to reach the 200AP threshold, so we could just autopilot the first bounce without giving it much thought. Now, bounce prioritisation will actually become a prominent part of her kit
To explain how to alternate W effectively with an example, if my primary target (the one I want to dmg/heal the most) is A and my secondary target (less priority target) is B, then I will alternate my W bounces as follows:

• For most healing: W1 bounce to ally B -> W2 bounce to enemy -> W3 bounce to ally A for maximum healing
• For the most dmg: W1 bounce to enemy B -> W2 bounce to ally for heal -> W3 bounce to enemy A for the maximum dmg

And ofc, if u have Mandate then make sure to use E before W to ensure ur W bounces do even more dmg and proc Mandate c:

7. Final Words

I really hope this helps out some fellow supports. This build can be a bit difficult to grasp at first, and will take some time to learn and get used to. But always rmb that when unsure u can always go back to Aery as it will always remain the most consistent option overall
I'm also aware that First Strike is being nerfed next patch from 15g -> 10g. Personally, I think it could still be situationally good. Also, I apologise for any typos that may have been made, as the post was quite lengthy and was done on phone (so I may have missed some typos while proofreading) 😭😭
This is also my first time making a post to this this degree of length and detail, so if there are any formatting errors or discomforts, please feel free to leave feedback below for me to improve on! For those who stayed til the end, I genuinely want to thank u and appreciate ur time and support 🥺🩷🩷
^{**Disclaimer:* In order to avoid unnecessary conflicts and misunderstandings, please note that the above information serves as a recommendation and general guideline intended to explain the phenomena. It is based off of my own personal experience, as well as research of other players. Thus, said information is by no means perfect, nor is it a law that you must follow. You are entitled to your own preferences, playstyles, and opinions, which may differ from mine* ®}

TLDR enclosed for each section directly under their respective subheading in bolded font

1. CONTENTS

The following guide has been split into these sections: - 1. CONTENTS - 2. So how/why does it work? - 3. ITEMS - 4. RUNES - 5. Core Mechanics of Nami W - 6. Final Words
As per request of a fellow fishie, I have come forth with a rune page that has been rising in popularity on enchanters: First Strike. Not only is this applicable on Nami, but on a lot of other enchanters who have decent range
Due to the length and detail of this guide, I can understand if some fishies don't wish to read everything. In which case, I have included TLDRs in this post. For ease of access, here are some formatting guidelines for the TLDRs of this post:
The following guide has been split into sections for easier navigation, if u are in a hurry for a specific section, scroll down to find the specific subheading that u need. Each explanation is also lengthy, but if u want a brief TLDR of each section, it will be enclosed for each section directly under their respective subheading in bolded font:

2. So how/why does it work?

TLDR (for this section): - Take First Strike vs matchups you outrange - Nami E on allies procs First Strike - The new Jack of All Trades rune should be utilised (see below for how)
Before I get into the specific build, I first need to explain how and why this whole setup works. First Strike is mostly taken as a gold-accelerating rune vs matchups that u outrange, ensuring that u get the "first strike" onto enemies consistently. With the changes to First Strike giving more base gold on the initial hit and less gold on subsequent hits compared to before, it pairs really well with a lot of enchanters' poke patterns. Usually, we have one poke spell and not much followup. The current First Strike matches this poke pattern perfectly (think Nami W, Sona E, Seraphine passive-empowered autos etc), allowing us to get an extra 15g per proc on top of our support item gold
On Nami specifically, we have an additional way to proc First Strike, since Nami E on allies actually procs First Strike! The best part of this interaction is that ur ally can be hit by enemies with ur E buff, but bc it wasn't you being hit directly, u will still retain the First Strike bonuses if ur ally hits enemies back with ur E buff despite being hit first! A common issue raised with this point is "what if my ADC is bad and doesn't use my E buff?" Don't worry, I got u covered too! So, whenever u empower an auto or ability that is still travelling middair towards the enemy, if u E urself or ur ally during said auto/ability, the slow and bonus dmg from E will still apply on impact. So, if u notice that ur ADC has cast an auto or ability onto the enemy, try to E them while this auto/ability is still travelling towards the enemy. Not only will this maximise E duration, give enemies minimal time to react to the slow and extra dmg, but it will also ensure that u proc First Strike due to E buff, as well as Manaflow Band and other item effects
This also works on ur own autos and abilities, and chaining abilities tgt like this will also help to cancel Nami's lengthy spell animation for more efficient trade patterns, hence better First Strike usage. Since W is our most consistent poke ability, we ideally want to start with this ability when trying to proc First Strike. This differs slightly from the regular Aery setup where we want to auto -> E ourself while our auto is still middair travelling towards enemy -> W enemy -> bubble/ult or let the bounceback heal retaliate enemy dmg. Instead, we want to W -> E ourselves while W is still middair travelling towards the enemy -> auto -> disengage with bounceback heal or bubble/ult. Additional tip: If you hover over Nami's W, you may notice multiple rings. The outer ring indicates Nami's W range when self-cast, meaning that the ability has a slightly longer range when you cast it on yourself bouncing towards an enemy (25 more range) rather than casting it on an ally to bounce or straight onto an enemy. So if u ever need to W urself first, or need just a bit of extra range, make sure to utilise this. To execute this most effectively, I recommend using alt+W for self-cast
I'm able to come out of lane with 300-400 gold fairly consistently. Pair this with free boots or Cash Back, and u can essentially double this amount of gold. Since enchanters tend to be quite item-reliant, having this extra gold generation allows us to reach our item spikes a lot faster, further increasing the snowball potential

2.1. Jack of All Trades

Supports are actually able to utilise the new Jack of All Trades rune surprisingly well. Our support item alone already covers 3 of the 10 stats required. Here are the list of stats that we will generally be able to obtain on supports: - AP - HP - Health Regen - Mana Regen - Haste - Movespeed - %Movespeed - Heal/Shield Power - Armor - Magic Resist - Mana (?) - Magic Pen (?)
In order to get these stats, we will need our support item which gives HP, health regen, and mana regen. Most items will cover the haste component. Boots for the movespeed stat. Ardent will give us the %movespeed as well as heal/shield power. But if we don't need Ardent, then we can split this into any other heal/shield power item + Shurelya's. Armor + magic resist can be optained from Locket or Wardstone. Alternatively, if we don't need armor + magic resist, we can instead trade these stats for magic pen + mana instead (will also explain this in further detail below)
As you can see, the items required for Jack are situational items. It is important to identify during champ select if said items, particularly Ardent/Shurelya's + Locket/Wardstone, will be built for this game. Altho, these items will be applicable in most situations anyway
If u don't need these items for that particular game, or if u don't feel like u'll be able to reach all these stats for whatever reason, then Cosmic Insight is always a great staple. Lower summ cds for lower Flash and Heal cds, notoriously long-cd spells, as well as item haste. Item haste works on non-active item cds such as Dream MakeCelestial/Solstice/Zaz'Zak's cds, Mandate mark cds, as well as lowering trinket cd etc.

3. ITEMS

TLDR (for this section): - Skip paragraphs to see builds under their respective subheadings (3.1. Defensive Build and 3.2. AP Build) below - Each individual dot point reperesents one individual item slot
Alright, now that all the theory work is out of the way, we can finally move onto the specific build (what everyone is here for). There are two main builds to go about this. Each individual dot point reperesents one individual item slot:

3.1. Defensive Build

• Support Item (upgrade does not matter, as long as u have the base support item)
• Mandate
• Lucidity boots
• Shurelya's + SoFW/Mikael's/Redemption/Dawncore OR Ardent + Mejai's/Morello/situational (buy Dark Seal on first recall if u plan on getting Ardent)
• Locket/Wardstone

This build is run in situations where u need the defensive stats from Locket or Wardstone vs harder comps or matchups, with Locket being particularly good vs AoE and/or burst dmg. This build will also cover all the stats from Jack of All Trades (see list from previous section)
Ardent is the most efficient item for Jack due to it providing mana regen, heal/shield power, and %movespeed, all in one item. This will free up an extra item slot where we can buy a situational item, like antiheal, or if it's not needed then Dark Seal into Mejai's is always a great alternative for cheap AP (Nami has good AP ratios), or any other alternative item that u may need. Just make sure to buy Ardent before this situational item in order to max out Jack
However, it may not always be an Ardent game. In situations where it isn't an Ardent game (non-autoattack-reliant comps), u will need to split the %movespeed and heal/shield power stats into 2 separate items. Typically, Shurelya's + any other Forbidden Idol item will cover this. You can also go for any other item that gives %movespeed, but I find Shurelya's the most consistent. The main downside is ofc, the build being quite rigid if u go for this option (no room for antiheal or other situational items)

3.2. AP Build

• Support Item (upgrade does not matter, as long as u have the base support item)
• Mandate
• Sorc Shoes
• Archangel's (buy Tear on first recall preferrably, or second recall latest)
• Shurelya's + SoFW/Mikael's/Redemption/Dawncore OR Ardent + Mejai's/Morello/Horizon Focus/Cryptbloom/situational (buy Dark Seal on first recall if u plan on getting Ardent)

This is a more AP-focused build in situations where u don't need to be so defensive. We omitted the armor and magic resist from Locket/Wardstone for mana (Archangel's) and magic pen (Sorc Shoes). Nami E on allies uses her own magic pen, hence Sorc Shoes here

4. RUNES

TLDR:

• Inspiration: First Strike, Magical FootweaCash Back, Biscuits, Jack of All Trades/Cosmic Insight
• Sorcery: Manaflow + Transcendence/Absolute Focus/Celerity/Scorch/Gathering Storm OR Transcendence/Absolute Focus + Gathering Storm
• Double Adaptive + Scaling HP OR 8AH + 2%MS + Scaling HP

The more specifics to optimise ur runes to their respective builds:

4.1. Runes for Defensive Build

• Inspiration: First Strike, Cash Back, Biscuits, Jack of All Trades/Cosmic Insight
• Sorcery: Manaflow + Transcendence/Absolute Focus/Celerity/Scorch/Gathering Storm
• Double Adaptive + Scaling HP OR 8AH + 2%MS + Scaling HP

Omitted free boots for Cash Back. Since this is for the defensive build, we will need to rush Lucidity boots vs hard matchups. Not only are Lucidity boots a cheaper option so it gives a faster spike in movespeed vs skillshot-heavy lanes, the lower Flash cd will be good vs engage lanes. Jack vs Cosmic has been explained in previous sections
Manaflow + Transcendence is default. For in-depth explanation:
Manaflow is essential for defensive build. Only go Absolute Focus in situations where enemies lack poke, allowing u to maintain the HP threshold for the AP. Transcendence is a good default, when unsure u can always default to this due to Nami's long cds. Pair both these with double adaptive minor shards option. Celerity if u need the movespeed vs heavy-skillshot comps (pair this with the 2% movespeed minor shard option)
I personally don't recommend Scorch with the First Strike setup due to the scaling nature of this build. However, Scorch is typically good with early-game ADCs or matchups where u have early pressure. Scorch also barely adds any bonuses to First Strike, especially as the game progresses. Avoid Scorch if enemies have sustain, as they can easily outheal or outshield that bit of Scorch dmg. When unsure, or in any other situation, go Gathering Storm

4.2. Runes for AP Build

• Inspiration: First Strike, Magical Footwear, Biscuits, Jack of All Trades/Cosmic Insight
• Sorcery: Transcendence/Absolute Focus + Gathering Storm
• Double Adaptive + Scaling HP

Due to the more expensive nature and higher scaling potential of this build, go free boots so that u can focus on rushing items. Since we go Archangel's with this build, we won't need Manaflow. For maximum scaling, I recommend Absolute Focus + Gathering Storm (also the greediest option). Otherwise, Transcendence as explained prior

5. Core Mechanics of Nami W

TLDR (for this section): - More than 100AP -> subsequent bounces heal/dmg MORE - Less than 100AP -> subsequent bounces heal/dmg LESS
Smth absolutely crucial to these First Strike builds, as well as any other AP Nami builds, is understanding her W bounce mechanic. I often get asked why AP Nami, and it would be natural for some fishies to come forth and ask about this too, so I will just include this section here as well. For the fellow fishies who already about this, please feel free to skip this section
The reason why AP Nami is a thing is bc of the way her W scaling works to begin with. We unironically heal more with AP builds than enchanter builds. Allow me to explain:
Patch 14.6: 'The damage and healing value is modified by *-15% (+7.5% per 100AP)** each bounce.'*
Patch 14.7: 'The damage and healing value is modified by *-10% (+10% per 100AP)** each bounce.'*
Before I explain how to get crazy heal/dmg numbers on Nami's W bounces, I first need to explain her unique scaling on W. Unlike most other enchanters who benefit from heal/shield power, Nami's W has a unique scaling where subsequent bounces become weaker pre-100AP, and become stronger post-100AP. This threshold was at 200AP before the most recent changes on her, so they buffed it significantly by lowering the threshold down to only requiring 100AP instead of 200, making AP builds even more potent now in terms of healing and dmg. As such, Nami benefits more from stacking AP than heal/shield power
To give some perspective, previously if I had 200AP my W bounces would be equally as strong as each subsequent bounce. However, with these changes, with 200AP our W is now amped by 10%, and will continue amping by 10% for every 100AP. Getting 400AP on AP Nami builds is very doable with the right setup, buffing our subsequent bounces by 30% per bounce. This means our second bounce will be 30% stronger than the first, and our third bounce will be 60% stronger than the first bounce, which does not need further explaining as to why this is absolutely obnoxious when it comes to dmg and healing values
These changes also mean that a lot of Nami players will need to learn to prioritise their bounces according to what they need. Before, some enchanter builds struggled to reach the 200AP threshold, so we could just autopilot the first bounce without giving it much thought. Now, bounce prioritisation will actually become a prominent part of her kit
To explain how to alternate W effectively with an example, if my primary target (the one I want to dmg/heal the most) is A and my secondary target (less priority target) is B, then I will alternate my W bounces as follows:

• For most healing: W1 bounce to ally B -> W2 bounce to enemy -> W3 bounce to ally A for maximum healing
• For the most dmg: W1 bounce to enemy B -> W2 bounce to ally for heal -> W3 bounce to enemy A for the maximum dmg

And ofc, if u have Mandate then make sure to use E before W to ensure ur W bounces do even more dmg and proc Mandate c:

6. Final Words

Phew! That was probably one of my lengthiest explanations made into a single post to date! I really hope this helps out some fellow fishies. This build can be a bit difficult to grasp at first, and will take some time to learn and get used to. But always rmb that when unsure u can always go back to Aery as it will always remain the most consistent option overall
I'm also aware that First Strike is being nerfed next patch from 15g -> 10g. Personally, I think it could still be situationally good. Also, I apologise for any typos that may have been made, as the post was quite lengthy and was done on phone (so I may have missed some typos while proofreading) 😭😭
This is also my first time making a post to this this degree of length and detail, so if there are any formatting errors or discomforts, please feel free to leave feedback below for me to improve on! For all the fishies that stayed til the end, I genuinely want to thank u and appreciate time and support 🥺🩷🩷
Hope this explains everything!
^{**Disclaimer:* In order to avoid unnecessary conflicts and misunderstandings, please note that the above information serves as a recommendation and general guideline intended to explain the phenomena. It is based off of my own personal experience, as well as research of other players. Thus, said information is by no means perfect, nor is it a law that you must follow. You are entitled to your own preferences, playstyles, and opinions, which may differ from mine* ®}

I thought this game looked pretty generic at first. It all looked like very basic, bogstandard roguelike business. I saw a few youtube videos propping up the game up but I was still sceptical. I was also tired of roguelikes in general by this point and was convinced that it is a mediocre genre that is plagued with fodder mobs and repetition. But a week ago I saw that it was on sale for only about £4 so I thought "sure why not?".
The introduction at the museum felt slow. Then I started my first few runs. I wasn't used to the lack of inviniciblity frames when you get hit for one. I also found it a bit uncomfortable how scarce gold was. But then I played again and again until the newness wore off and I finally adjusted and got into a flow state with this game.
And all I can say is....
HOLY FUCKING SHIT. I was NOT expecting this level of peak. This game has singlehandedly rejuvenated my faith in the entire genre. Heck, in video games as an entire medium. Video games like this are why I live. This game is objectively a 10/10 and I will eat anyone who says otherwise.
Why?
First off, the difficulty feels brutally honest. Fair but honest. Unlike 99% of games you can't just abuse invincibility frames to back away from enemies when you get hit. You have to make sure you don't put yourself into a situation where you can get hit. This move alone was extremely bold on the devs part but it made all the difference in making the combat feel exciting and difficult to players who enjoy a challenge.
Mobs are very smart, strong, fast and all around ruthless. The basic enemies aren't much of a problem but the beefier realm exclusive soldiers usually have a trick up their sleeve like the wind knights evading your attacks and instantly teleporting behind you or the earth knights unexpectedly guarding your attack. Or enemies with reflect shields. Or that asshole cyclops enemy who can stunlock you into losing like half your health with his laser. You have to constantly stay on top of them and be aware of your surroundings(nearest escape route, positioning yourself away from pits, etc) and your cooldowns because one slip up can lead to you being stunlocked into losing half your health. Mobs move very fast and can even teleport around you, forcing you to stay on the move and make quick decisions on the fly. The fact that you do not always have access to any given spell in your arsenal due to the cooldown system makes you hyper cautious of every decision you make during combat as well as you might need access to a certain spell if you get cornered, further reinforcing this intense, razors edge feel to the combat. Mobs are brutal but at the same time they aren't damage sponges. This is probably the biggest problem I have with some other roguelikes like Warm Snow, Astral Ascent and to an extent Hades. In order to compensate for how busted your damage output can get due to the chaotically unrestrained progression in those games, they design the mobs to get exponentially tankier(without as much of a buff to the aggressiveness and damage output) as the run progresses to the point where most fights you're just mashing the same attack buttons and going through the motions until you reach the next boss. This game nailed mob design and other games should take note.
The bosses are phenomenal. I think the wind and lightning boss were kind of cheap but still very enjoyable. What really sets the bosses apart in this game from other bosses is similar to what makes the mobs great. They have relatively low health but have relentless attack patterns that are hard to dodge and move fast, making battles feel exciting rather than just drawn out and tedious. You can clear out each boss in about a dozen seconds if you're skilled enough but you risk losing a lot of health if you go on the offensive more.
I think part of what allows the combat to be so great is how "controlled" the progression is, both in and out of runs. This is by far the most balanced roguelike i've played in that regard. This isn't one of those roguelikes where you can easily come across broken upgrades or string together broken synergies and just steamroll everything. It's almost impossible to do that with how low the stat buffs are across the board for relics. For example, if you choose the relic which increases max health, you get 50 points of health, increasing it from 500 to merely 550. In Hades(which in all due respect, is relatively balanced for roguelike standards), your health increasing keepsake increases your health by about 50%. There's also the fact that your average damage buff relic only increases by about 10%, sometimes even lower. At most during any given run you can expect about 30-50% of a damage buff maximum whereas that percentage increase number escalates into the hundreds if not thousands(Warm Snow, i'm looking at you!) in other roguelikes. The currency(Gold) is also handed out very scarcely, pushing the player to make careful decisions with how they spend their money. These are just a few examples, I could spend all day comparing how balanced WOL is with other roguelikes.
As for meta progression, it's basically just collect new spells and relics to equip for your run. You don't level up your health, damage, speed or anything like that. The way I see meta progression in roguelikes is a two edged sword. On one hand there is a feel of instant gratification to using points acquired during your run to make yourself overpowered, allowing you to sweep through encounters that were difficult beforehand. But on the other hand this sort of undermines the point of playing roguelikes. You aren't really getting any better that way. You aren't getting more skilled at the game and making use of trial and error to overcome obstacles that once seemed insurmountable. This is what I love about WOL. It doesn't spoil you. It doesn't let you just "cheat" through the campaign. You have to EARN your victories through blood, sweat and tears and it feels ever so rewarding when you finally make a breakthrough with your own skill and hard work, nothing more. That type of satisfaction is far greater than the cheap, visceral thrill of activating nodes on a skill tree.
Also last thing, I think the level design is great. It feels like the perfect blend of arena and exploration style roguelikes, it seamlessly blends between these two modes with little to no hangup. One second you're fighting off a horde of knights and within the next dozen seconds you're in a shop carefully deciding which relic or arcana to buy with the limited amount of gold you have. There are certain areas in a stage which gets walled off and you are trapped with a horde of enemies but the gate opens and closes in about a split second so it feels so seamless. I also think stages are just about the right length. Long enough to get yourself immersed in, but short enough so that they don't seem to be endlessly dragging on. I like that you can challenge the stage end miniboss as soon as you find the "gate" and just progress to the next stage, even if you only clear out like 20% of the stage. This adds somewhat of a risk/reward element to the game where you may miss out on gold, gems and arcana/relics from shops but you dont risk losing health. Players can engage with the levels as they see fit. Lastly, I think the fact that the order in which you tackle each dungeon is randomized between 5 different dungeons(3 of which are present in a run) which cuts out some of the mundane repetition that as I mentioned above, can sour the experience of roguelike games.
The only major flaws I can see with the game is the balancing between arcana spells(signature lightning orb completely overshadows any other single target spell) and how being rewarded with enhanced arcanas after defeating each boss disincentivises you to buy arcanas(which are usually non enhanced) instead of relics. But these issues can easily be overlooked.
I've rambled a lot here but anyway, my overall point is this game is unashamedly nintendo oldschool brutal and I am all here for it! It just shows that roguelites can be god tier games when they don't coddle the player with pathetically weak mobs, broken synergies and meta-progression that trivialises the need to actually git gud and learn how to beat the game through trial and error.
This game is undoubtedly the king of roguelikes. As much as I love Hades, Rogue Legacy 2 or Dead Cells as the next person, this game is just undeniably the GOAT and it is criminal how obscure it is and how it isn't mentioned in the same conversation as those aforementioned roguelike hits.

Thank you guys for all your nice comments on my previous post! Here's my followup post walking through the anthology - I apologize for the delay, but I wanted to sit with this half of the album a bit longer. This analysis will be slightly different: first I’ll go through themes present throughout the anthology, and then walk through each song individually, since it’s not as consecutive of a story as the first album. As with my first analysis, I tend to also stay away from literal details as proof that a song is about a certain subject or muse – to me, it’s easier to understand the album when you think first about what the song’s overarching meaning is, rather than getting caught up in literal details (and I think Taylor often throws these in as red herrings). Moreover, it’s important to note that it’s likely that the literal detail she’s thrown in is one that only she and the muse will understand (i.e. her referencing a lilac skirt in imgonnagetyouback is unlikely to be one we’ve ever seen her wearing in public, so it’s useless to paternity test based on that detail!).
Firstly, the word anthology means a collection of assorted literary works. As a result, I think there are more themes scattered through this album, and it’s meant to be a little harder to parse than the first one. I think this album is what TTPD would have been before it crystallized into a tighter theme – similar to the 3 AM tracks for Midnights, the majority of which were written prior to the standard edition’s tracks.
There are a few themes throughout this album. From a romantic context, to me, this album is primarily about Joe. I’ll walk through why I believe that, but this album feels less muddled to me in terms of its muses, and I think that is in part due to the fact that her self-described mania from the standard edition is not a theme on the anthology. This work also covers her own relationship to celebrity and fame, and how that affects her romantic relationships and her personal life in general. And finally, I think the final theme throughout this collection is the idea of childhood, of formative experiences, and how our author goes about processing events that happen to her.
The Black Dog
What happens when you intimately know someone, when you share every aspect of your life with someone, and then it's over? Six weeks after their breakup, she’s barely holding it together (“I move through the world with the heartbroken”). She even tried to rebound her pain away (“I took the miracle move on drug, the effects were temporary”), and wasn’t able to succeed. Meanwhile, she sees him go to a bar, and she has the sudden realization that he may be able to do what she failed to do – he might be able to move on, with someone new. Reckoning with that realization is horrifying. If he is able to pull it off, what does that mean about the love they shared? When he had told her for years that he was who he was for her, and her alone?
You said I needed a bravе man
Then proceeded to play him
Until I believed it too
And it kills me
How could they go from being so intimate that they shower together, that she’s aware of his every move, to being so distant from each other that she wonders if making her fall in love with him was a hazing? And the cruelest part of it is – she doesn’t want either one of them to be able to move on, and give validity to the fact that they weren’t right for each other, even though she knows they have to. Moreover, she’s already *tried* to move on at this point, and failed – she tried to manufacture a counterfeit version of their intimacy, but what if he’s able to perfectly replicate it? And to really drive in the knife, what if it’s with someone younger than her?
And you jump up, but she's too young to know this song
That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming
Given that a theme throughout the first album was her feeling like she’d given him so much of her youth, so much of her childbearing years, with nothing to show for it, what does it feel like to know that he can essentially reset time, by being with a younger woman, but she’ll never be able to get that time back?
imgonnagetyouback
We know that her and Joe took a break or two while they were together (see: Hits Different, The Great War, in addition to PR articles). To me, this song is about when you do take that break from your partner, and you’re trying to make a point to them that they’re not going to find anyone better than you (I can tell when somebody still wants me, come clean) – the two of you are too intimately intertwined to find a suitable replacement. You know what to wear, what to say, what to do to bring them back to you:
I, I hear thе whispers in your eyes
I'll make you wanna think twice
You'll find that you were never not mine
This song also has a lot of similarities to So Long, London, which is why I attribute it to Joe. To me, it provides a deeper story to some of the lines she touches on in So Long, London:
I didn't opt in to be your odd man out
I founded the club she's heard great things about
And to some of the lines in Hits Different:
I washed my hands of us at the club
You made a mess of me
I pictured you with other girls in love
Then threw up on the street
//
Bet I could still melt your world
Argumentative, antithetical dream girl
imgonnagetyouback is a story of one-upmanship – of trying to out-jealous your partner, of proving to them that nobody knows them better than you do. And maybe this time when they’re both playing this game, it works:
Push the reset button, we're becomin' something new
Say you got somebody, I'll say I got someone too
Even if it's handcuffed, I'm leavin' here with you
//
We broke all the pieces, but still wanna play the game (Oh)
Told my friends I hate you, but I love you just the same
Pick your poison, babe, I'm poison either way
The spacing to me is a deliberate red herring (the 1975 very famously made a song called fallingforyou), and a way to illustrate that the subject of the song wants space from her – but she’s not going to give it to him. This is another theme that calls back to Joe – in So Long, London, she describes him as constantly pulling away (Pulled him in tighter each time he was driftin' away). Matty didn’t pull away – he was all in for two weeks, until he chose to ghost her, and leave abruptly. There was no slow death, no push and pull to her relationship with Matty – it was a meteoric rise and fall.
The Albatross
This song feels like a sister song to “peace” – she describes what it’s like to love her. It’s a little more twisted, however, as she describes her love for her partner as both a danger, and a rescue from the danger she’s imposing on him by being involved with him:
Wise men once said
"Wild winds are death to the candle"
A rose by any other name is a scandal
Cautions issued, he stood
Shooting the messengers
They tried to warn him about her
She’s described herself as wind and liquor in her relationship with Joe previously, in Mastermind:
I'm the wind in our free-flowing sails
And the liquor in our cocktails
She has empathy for the narrator, but disdain for herself. There’s also acceptance though: she knows that she tried to prevent it, and tried to warn him about the danger she posed. In the end though, he chose this life with her, and he chose the danger – there’s only so much she can protect him from.
The devil that you know
Looks now more like an angel
I'm the life you chose
And all this terrible danger
Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
This song feels like another sister song to The Black Dog – how does she cope with the idea that her long-time partner might move on? How does she cope with the fact that if she chooses to leave, she also chooses the future in which they both move on? A future in which they don’t know each other? It also touches on her wondering if she should move on with Matty, and how feasible it would be to know someone else instead of her partner:
If you want to tear my world apart
Just say you've always wondered
This song, more than anything else, illustrates that moving on with Matty was nothing but a way to move past Joe – what she really wants, more than anything, is a response greater than indifference from Joe:
As the decade would play us for fools
And you saw my bones out with somebody new
Who seemed like he would've bullied you in school
And you just watched it happen
There’s also the realization that Joe may never love who she is now – who she was at the beginning of their relationship will always be who he prefers:
If you want to break my cold, cold heart
Just say, 'I loved you the way that you were'
She’s trying desperately to find some way to make up for the fact that she had to leave Joe, that there was nothing she could do to stay – she tried changing everything about herself, but still, the need to leave him eventually caught up with her:
I changed into goddesses, villains and fools
Changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules
All to outrun my desertion of you
And you just watched it
And she wonders whether despite his indifference, and the distance between them, she should still stay:
Could it be enough to just float in your orbit
Can we watch our phantoms like watching wild horses
Cooler in theory but not if you force it
To be, it just didn't happen
But now, they are merely ghosts of who they once were – it’s not possible to force the relationship anymore.
How Did It End?
When a long-term relationship ends, you can point to the factors that led to its demise: a difference of opinions on money, on marriage, on children, and so forth. It is easy to determine the “what” and the “why” of an ending. But what is harder to diagnose is how you both became the versions of yourselves that weren’t on the same page, that were unable to discuss these topics, that couldn’t move past these dilemmas. That is much, much harder to pinpoint, and this is the question Taylor asks in this song. She knows what killed them:
We hereby conduct this post-mortem
He was a hot house flower to my outdoorsman
//
We were blind to unforeseen circumstances
We learn the right steps to different dances (ohh)
And fell victim to interlopers' glances
Lost the game of chance, what are the chances?
But what she still doesn't know is how it happened – how did it end? She also finds the empathy from the media and from the public to be false and selfish – they only want to know what happened to feverishly spread the news like wildfire.
Come one, come all
It's happenin' again
The empathetic hunger descends
We'll tell no one
Except all of our friends
We must know
How did it end?
//
Soon they'll go home to their husbands
Smug 'cause they know they can trust him
Then feverishly calling their cousins (ohh)
//
Say it once again with feeling
What the feeding frenzy wants more than anything is gossip, and they don’t care that she is utterly lost – lost as to why this happened, and lost physically and mentally:
Guess who we ran into at the shops?
Walking in circles like she was lost
How does she give an answer to quell the empathetic hunger, when she herself doesn’t understand exactly how it happened?
So High School
In an album that touches so much on feeling like she’s running out of time to have the future that she wants, and running out of youth to give the various men who come into her life, it is interesting and heartwarming that the song about Travis on the anthology is one that describes being with him as regaining her youth:
The brink of a wrinkle in time
Bittersweet sixteen suddenly
Moreover, another detail to note in this song is the difference in how she describes alcohol and drugs – in nearly every other song on TTPD, alcohol is a vice she uses in her moments of despair, and drugs are what her previous partners turn to in their moments of strife (she also describes the influence of drugs on her partners as something she detests – “sinking in stoned oblivion” and “you needed me but you needed drugs more”). With Travis, she’s not imbibing in any substances – instead, his thoughts and jokes are enough for her:
I'll drink what you think, and I'm high
From smoking your jokes all damn night
Travis is giving her back her youth, making sober promises, and the impression that we get is that they’re building this dreamlike reality together – it’s wholesome, all-American, and high-school-inspired, yet still grounded in something tangible, unlike the promise of fate and destiny, which powered her relationship with Joe and her entanglement with Matty.
I Hate It Here
More than anything, I think this song illustrates how Taylor sometimes uses escapism and maladaptive daydreaming to ignore the reality of the situation she’s dealing with. She recognizes that it’s not possible to stay where she is, locked inside this prison of stagnation and boredom:
If comfort is a construct
I don't believe in good luck
Now that I know what's what
She recognizes that this isn’t what she used to be, and that she never intended to choose this life of secrecy, perhaps alluding to all those years she spent “locked inside her house”:
You see I was a debutante in another life but
Now I seem to be scared to go outside
She describes herself as finding hope in the places her mind creates (seemingly alluding to her creation of characters and places for folklore and evermore):
I hate it here so I will go to
secret gardens in my mind
People need a key to get to
The only one is mine
I read about it in a book when I was a precocious child
And her escapism into her past, and imaginings of what could have been:
I hate it here so I will go to
Lunar valleys in my mind
When they found a better planet
Only the gentle survived
I dreamed about it in the dark
The night I felt like I might die
All throughout the song, there’s recognition that she doesn’t want to be here – she doesn’t want to feel as if the only place she can be free is in these imaginary worlds she creates. But there’s also concession – is she perhaps only destined for an eternal consolation prize? For loneliness? For imagined romanticism? For the fantasy of how she imagined her life and her love to be?
I'm lonely but I'm good
I'm bitter but I swear I'm fine
I'll save all my romanticism for my inner life and I'll get lost on
purpose
This place made me feel worthless
Lucid dreams like electricity, the current flies through me,
and in my fantasies I rise above it
And way up there, I actually love it
​​thanK you aIMee
This song, along with a few others in the latter half of the anthology, discusses the loss of innocence she felt in key moments of her life. This one quite obviously alludes to Kim Kardashian, and their infamous feud. I will make a separate post on this, but I think people describing this song as petty may not remember the depth of the hate aimed at Taylor in 2016. Kim and Kanye organized a revenge porn music video for Famous, and held a museum exhibit so that people could take pictures with the naked dolls. The night the snapchat videos were released, every Kardashian family member descended upon social media to gleefully celebrate the #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty. The amount of hate Taylor got was so unprecedented that Instagram actually built their comment filtration system because of this incident. It really was that bad.
And every baby step Taylor took (for example, even just posting that she had a good 2017 was met with immediate media backlash) was quite literally mocked across the internet. People thought the reputation era was cringey, that she was over, and that she deserved everyone’s ire because she was “proven” to be a liar. She describes this in the song:
Each time that Aimee stomped across my grave
And then she wrote headlines in the local paper
Laughing at each baby step I'd take
And it was always the same searing pain
But the whole time, despite the pain and blood, she was dreaming of the day that she would heal, and dreaming of the day that she would climb her way back to to the mountaintop:
And our town, it looks so small from way up here
//
So I pushed each boulder up that hill
Your words were still just ringing in my head, ringing in my head
What still irks her though, is that this bully who created this entire hate train and organized her downfall will pretend as if it never happened – she will undoubtedly reframe things to make our subject seem overdramatic, petty, and unable to move past the incidents of years ago. Taylor, however, has always been clear about one thing: sometimes, no amount of time can heal you from something that deeply traumatized you.
I Look in People’s Windows
This song to me feels like a sister song to The Black Dog, but a few months after the official end of a relationship. A sub theme that runs through Taylor’s songs about the Joe breakup is the loss of being understood – when you are no longer with a long-term partner, how do you cope with the fact that you move the world knowing everything about this person, but at the same time, not knowing them anymore? Would you peek into their windows just to get a glimpse of what their life looks like now? As anyone who has gone through a breakup knows, the hardest part is often not being privy to the mundane details of that person’s world – their dinner parties, their wine, their friends, and so on.
I look in people's windows
Transfixed by rose golden glows
They have their friends over to drink nice wine
I look in people's windows
In case you're at their table
What if your eyes looked up and met mine
One more time
The Prophecy
The prophecy is devastating. More so than any other song Taylor has ever written, it is full of desperation and longing. All she asks for is to be known, to be understood – to not be perceived as an idea of a woman, or a starlet with no humanity:
Please
I've been on my knees
Change the prophecy
Don't want money
Just someone who wants my company
Let it once be me
Who do I have to speak to
About if they can redo
The prophecy?
It’s striking especially considering how much she laments that leaving Joe means she’s giving up being known – it’s also striking given the fact that in the epilogue poem, she states that neither Joe or Matty ever truly knew her:
He never even scratched the surface
of me.
None of them did.
What she desires beyond fame, beyond notoriety, beyond money, is to be loved and to be known. The song also alludes to her being in therapy, and to finding some sort of consolation that she will find someone to share her life with:
I'm so afraid I sealed my fate
No sign of soulmates
I'm just a paperweight
In shades of greige
Spending my last coin so someone will tell me
It'll be ok
Cassandra
This track is a sister song to ​​thanK you aIMee, and continues exploring the theme of fraught public womanhood we see in Clara Bow and Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me. In this song, Taylor discusses how the validation of women is never publicized in the way that the crucifixion of them is:
When the first stone's thrown, there's screaming
In the streets, there's a raging riot
When it's "Burn the bitch, " they're shrieking
When the truth comes out, it's quiet
Moreover, when women speak up about an issue, they’re often viewed as overdramatic, and unserious. Cassandra, in Greek mythology, was cursed by Apollo to always predict the future accurately, but never be believed. We see this happen every day to women in politics, in the media, and in pop culture:
So, they killed Cassandra first 'cause she feared the worst
And tried to tell the town
So, they set my life in flames, I regret to say
Do you believe me now?
And for Taylor, it’s reminiscent of all the times she’s been the first to speak out about something in the industry – for example, against Scooter Braun and his well-established pattern of bullying, or of the exploitation of artists on streaming services – but never been supported broadly by her peers. They believe her later, but at that point, very few people give her the credit for speaking up in the first place. It’s reminiscent of the Kimye scandal. When the news broke originally, the hatred she received was widespread. But when she was acquitted by the long-form video that leaked, it didn’t receive anywhere near the level of coverage that the original scandal received.
Peter
Peter is another song that touches on both the male muses for this album, and in turn, on the promises various men have given her over her life (we’ll circle back to this in The Manuscript!). It also touches on the theme of waiting that’s seen throughout this album, especially on her songs about Joe – how much time is enough time to give?
Both Matty and Joe were 25 when they met her, and it’s abundantly clear that both men made promises to her: promises of marriage, of children, and of a future. But how long can she wait for these promises to be fulfilled? To Joe, she gives six years of her life and youth, and to Matty, she gives him a chance to prove that he was reformed from the time she knew him last: both men eventually fail. Neither man is ready to give up their childish whims, and she has no choice but to lose hope that either of them ever will.
And you said you'd come and get me but you were 25
And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired
Lost to the lost boys chapter of your life
Forgive me Peter, please know that I tried
To hold onto the days when you were mine
But the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light
Another thing to note is the interesting double meaning of the song title. To peter also means to diminish gradually – much like her faith in both men’s promises.
The Bolter
A lot of the songs Taylor has written about Joe in this album deal with the question of “when is the right time to leave?” When you know that things are stagnant, and you know that you’ve given everything you have to a relationship, you know that you have to leave – but it’s easy to convince yourself if you have a history of “leaving before you get left” that you should ride out this wave, and that this pain might just be temporary.
The Bolter, to me, reflects on Taylor’s history – it seems like she prided herself on being able to see the warning signs, and being able to get out in time.
She's been many places with
Men of many faces
First, they're off to the races
And she's laughing drawin' aces
But, none of it is changin'
That the chariot is waitin'
Hearts are hers for the breakin'
There's an escape in escaping
It’s relevant to TTPD, because likely, she saw not bolting as a sign of growth and maturity. You know that you’ve grown as a person when you don’t abandon ship at the first sign of trouble, but what if there are so many signs of trouble that the truly mature thing to do would be to leave?
Robin
Robin leads into this theme of childhood and innocence that we see further in The Manuscript. The track name is also the name of Aaron Dessner’s child. She ponders how beautiful and sweet it is that we work so hard to protect childhood naivete:
Strings tied to levers,
slowed down clocks tethered,
all this showmanship
To keep it, for you,
In sweetness
And there’s an element of wistfulness to it – don’t we sometimes wish that we could also be protected from the worst the world has to offer?
You have no room in your dreams for regrets
You have no idea
The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean
You'll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline
But now we'll curtail your curiosity
The Manuscript
This song is perhaps the most climactic song on the album. It covers her romantic history up until that point, and starts at the moment she feels everything went awry – and it predates Joe and Matty. Instead, it calls back to the first time she experienced a proper heartbreak, and the first time she lost her childlike innocence in the world – her relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal (a time she described as her transition from childhood to womanhood). She describes how they compared licenses, and how he told her that if they had sex, and it was as good as the conversation was, then they would get married, and have a family. He was the first man to make her these promises:
He said that if the sex was half as good as the conversation was
Soon they'd be pushin' strollers
But soon it was over
He tells her that it’s ok that they have an age gap, because she’s so advanced for her age:
She thought about how he said since she was so wise beyond her years
Everything had been above board
She wasn't sure
While dating him, she desperately wants to be older, and starts emulating his behavior:
In the age of him, she wished she was thirty
And made coffee every morning in a French press
And when it’s over, she regresses, and turns back into a child – unable to sleep alone without the comfort of her mother, and unable to eat anything substantial besides the sugary cereal of her youth:
Afterwards she only ate kids' cereal
And couldn't sleep unless it was in her mother's bed
She forces herself to date boys her own age, to not rely on the maturity of an older man to guide her through adulthood, but she can’t help but feel disappointed in their youth:
Then she dated boys who were her own age
With dart boards on the backs of their doors
Finally, as she creates the All Too Well short film, she recognizes the damage he did to her, and how the consequences of that affair have shaped her life since:
And the years passed
Like scenes of a show
The Professor said to write what you know
Lookin' backwards
Might be the only way to move forward
Then the actors
Were hitting their marks
And the slow dance
Was alight with the sparks
And the tears fell
In synchronicity with the score
And at last
She knew what the agony had been for
Everything calls back to this first man, and these original promises – everything she’s been chasing since is reminiscent of this first scar. And just like how releasing All Too Well transformed and healed her, she hopes that by releasing this additional manuscript into the world, it will heal her again. As she describes in the epilogue poem, she is entering all her thoughts, emotions, and pain into evidence – she now asks the audience to process it with her, and thus conclude this process of healing.
The only thing that's left is the manuscript
One last souvenir from my trip to your shores
Now and then I reread the manuscript
But the story isn't mine anymore
If you read all of this - thank you! I enjoyed writing it, and I'm excited to discuss with you all in the replies :)

Hi! 32+3 with my second GD baby. First was diet controlled- it was annoying, but no real issues besides just needing more frequent monitoring than the typical population. I could eat the suggested 45g carbs a meal and was fine- I wasn't even super strict. I'm sure I went over that several times a week too and didn't have issues.
This pregnancy is a totally different story... diagnosed around 17 weeks with GD. It was diet controlled for a bit, then we needed to add in Lantus at night for my fasting numbers. I've been eating a max of 25g carbs per meal with my placenta doing whatever it wants. I'll literally split a meal down the middle, eat one half now and the other half the next day and my body will suddenly spike super high the second time I eat it even though it barely changed my glucose the night when I ate the first half. It's been incredibly frustrating since there's essentially no rhyme or reason to it. If it consistently followed a pattern, I could at least cope. Sometimes it will go high when I only eat 10g carbs and other times I can each 25g carbs (with a starting glucose that is within range but likely to go too high if I eat 25g carbs) and it never goes over 140.
I'm now taking 5units Humalog with breakfast, 8units with dinner, and 22units Lantus at night. My fasting numbers have been great this week (recently had upped both insulins) and meals were coming out as expected. I had 20g carbs for dinner tonight with 26g protein- a meal I eat frequently because it's within range, I usually respond fine, and it's semi-satisfying... My glucose went from 84 to 187. I wear a Dexcom so I did a finger prick to double-check I wasn't getting a bad ready but, nope. It was accurate.
Not necessarily looking for advice- just venting and looking to commiserate. I go in Tuesday again so I'll see if the doctor has anything to say (they check my Dexcom history closely). I know we'll be making adjustments the next few weeks because that's just how things go at this point in pregnancy but it's all just so frustrating anyway, especially when I've been dealing with this so much longer than is typical.

Silver International Investment and two individuals face charges of laundering dirty money through British Columbia (B.C.) casinos, and more precisely through River Rock Casino in Richmond. After a year-old casino report flagged money-laundering concerns, the newly-elected British Columbia government has hired an independent investigator to check the case. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), organized criminals used Silver International Investment as an illicit banking network to loan suspected drug cash to high-rollers from Macau. In that way, the criminals could skirt China’s strict anti-money laundering system and wash their dirty cash through B.C. casinos.
​
RCMP allege that they revealed a sophisticated money-laundering scheme, which was used to launder drug cash through B.C. casinos. RCMP’s Project E-Pirate probe reportedly found out that more than $500 million dirty money was laundered through Richmond’s River Rock Casino. The amount was split into portions of $1.5 million per day, paid mostly with $20 bills. As it can be recalled, some time ago the police have warned that $20 bills are among the most used bills by drug dealers. But the River Rock staff was prone to accept the unsourced cash and the gamblers were able to cash out with bills of $100, which are considered suitable for banking.
​
Caught Red-Handed
Various documents and reports, obtained by Postmedia through freedom of information requests, revealed that the criminals were using Silver International Investment as an illegal banking network to transfer money to send money to and fro. According to the RCMP’s report, criminals were lending drug cash to VIP gamblers from China through Silver International Investment. The VIP gamblers could pay back their loans in China through the illicit banking channel.
​
In that way, the criminals could avoid China’s capital control for exporting and importing funds, as well as to circumvent the attention of Canada’s financial watchdog. Here it is interesting to note that in a police special operation in 2015, more than $2 million in mostly $20 bills and account books were confiscated from Silver International’s office in Richmond. RCMP Insp. Bruce Ward announced that the information in Silver International’s account books point out that the company washed more than $220 million in cash through B.C. casinos in a year.
​
Caixuan Qin and Jian Jun Zhu will also face multiple fraud charges after police allege that Qin is the director of Silver International, which address is registered in an apartment in Richmond. The report alleges that Qin is not the owner of the apartment, but he owns a property in south Vancouver, estimated to worth $2.5 million. The two individuals together with Silver International Investment are charged with crimes including money laundering of drug cash, possession of a property, involved in a crime and others.
​
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For more Info, here: 무료 바카라

Silver International Investment and two individuals face charges of laundering dirty money through British Columbia (B.C.) casinos, and more precisely through River Rock Casino in Richmond. After a year-old casino report flagged money-laundering concerns, the newly-elected British Columbia government has hired an independent investigator to check the case. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), organized criminals used Silver International Investment as an illicit banking network to loan suspected drug cash to high-rollers from Macau. In that way, the criminals could skirt China’s strict anti-money laundering system and wash their dirty cash through B.C. casinos.
​
RCMP allege that they revealed a sophisticated money-laundering scheme, which was used to launder drug cash through B.C. casinos. RCMP’s Project E-Pirate probe reportedly found out that more than $500 million dirty money was laundered through Richmond’s River Rock Casino. The amount was split into portions of $1.5 million per day, paid mostly with $20 bills. As it can be recalled, some time ago the police have warned that $20 bills are among the most used bills by drug dealers. But the River Rock staff was prone to accept the unsourced cash and the gamblers were able to cash out with bills of $100, which are considered suitable for banking.
​
Caught Red-Handed
Various documents and reports, obtained by Postmedia through freedom of information requests, revealed that the criminals were using Silver International Investment as an illegal banking network to transfer money to send money to and fro. According to the RCMP’s report, criminals were lending drug cash to VIP gamblers from China through Silver International Investment. The VIP gamblers could pay back their loans in China through the illicit banking channel.
​
In that way, the criminals could avoid China’s capital control for exporting and importing funds, as well as to circumvent the attention of Canada’s financial watchdog. Here it is interesting to note that in a police special operation in 2015, more than $2 million in mostly $20 bills and account books were confiscated from Silver International’s office in Richmond. RCMP Insp. Bruce Ward announced that the information in Silver International’s account books point out that the company washed more than $220 million in cash through B.C. casinos in a year.
​
Caixuan Qin and Jian Jun Zhu will also face multiple fraud charges after police allege that Qin is the director of Silver International, which address is registered in an apartment in Richmond. The report alleges that Qin is not the owner of the apartment, but he owns a property in south Vancouver, estimated to worth $2.5 million. The two individuals together with Silver International Investment are charged with crimes including money laundering of drug cash, possession of a property, involved in a crime and others.
​
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For more Info, here: 슬롯놀이터

FAIR WARNING THIS WILL BE A WALL OF TEXT
Intro: In a series of reviews that will begin (or return) here; we are going to try and take a critical look at the Chuck series, especially the unfolding of the story as scene through the teleplay. In this case we are assuming multiple things about a potential watcher:

• The watcher is new to the series and does not know about future episodes, but there is an expectation any previous episodes have been watched.
• I will try not to point information out that becomes important for later episodes, though there may be times it's important because of how episodes are filmed and how episodes string together, I will however try and hide these behind a spoiler tag. I say this as a person who has watched Chuck dozens of times, so if I inadvertently spoiler, sorry.
• I will do my best to point out interesting references that are hidden within the Chuck universe, but not at the expense of extended expositions unless in-depth analysis is necessary as it relates to the scene.

What is this all for: This started as a project to improve my critical reviewing skills for a hobby of movie script writing and analysis. Chuck happens to have published 3 original scripts and all the text of every episode has been published to a searchable database. This affords an opportunity to break from my movie writing woes and infinite revisions to just have fun enjoying Chuck and trying to deepen my understanding of the intersection of script writing with filmography and visual editing. Having said this, it should be known I have no affiliation to the show, no additional insider knowledge, and I do not write scripts for a living. So, consequently, feel free to ignore everything I say :). I do hope, however, we can go on this journey together and appreciate the excellence that is a love story called Chuck.
So, don't freak out, and lets get started.
​
Chuck 01x04 (Chuck vs the Wookiee): TEASER - We open with the gang playing "Know Ya!", which isn't actually a real board game, but based on the game Paddles. It's amazing that Morgan can't stand Ellie/Awesome being in love/winning, but marches triumphantly whenever he gets a question correct. I also like we see, in frame, Chuck watching Sarah pick off olives; he's beginning to notice things just like a real spy. The deep sadness and yet storied confliction on Chuck's face when he discovers Peaches 1 and Peaches 2 was great.
For those who don't know about dogs:

• A cocker spaniel is typically smaller; by ~5inches and up to 30lbs lighter than a springer spaniel.
• Springer spaniels also have shorter fur across their bodies, with feathered hair under their chests and legs.
• Only a cocker spaniel will be solid colored
• Springer spaniels have longer muzzles, while cockers have fluffier ears.

I find it very interesting how Sarah has "spidey sense" about potentially being watched. At no point previously did either Sarah nor Casey display this trait and I'm not totally sure how an open window was enough to do this; I wonder if Sarah's comfort being around Chuck's family is causing her to develop a "feeling of being watched" as she is comfortable with the Bartowski's? For those who missed it, Sarah talks about having a sister I think at the time this was just a throw-away line to protect her cover, but in season 5 Sarah does actually have a little sister if you count the little girl she rescues One last thing about Sarah here, when Bryce is being discussed, I really like how it was played where she acts quiet and shocked, but not saying anything. The facial expressions of Yvonne here are really special and you can tell Sarah lives a life of secrets. This is carried outside when Chuck asks Sarah about her relationship with Bryce. She is totally looking down and to the right, a classic indication of an emotional response searching for rationalization (ie. she is clearly lying)
As they end the game and exit to the courtyard, there teleplay of Chuck does something I've been wanting to see forever; they switch perspective to keep both characters in camera and follow them around from a 3rd perspective. We know this is supposed to indicate they are being watched, but I really enjoy getting to see them together reacting and talking instead of the constant close-ups and cuts. Normally Chuck will be shot with something between a medium close up (MCU) and Medium Shot (MS) to emphasize their characters and highlight their faces and expressions. This works really well because Chuck's cameras are typically either shoulder level or hip level based on the operators moving through their space. In many more modern TV shows, the technology of boom cranes and gyroscopic gimbals allows for content to be show from ground level to overhead giving directors the opportunity to tell their story through a variety of shifting profiles. If Chuck were shot today, we would see everything from full body shots all the way to extreme closeups without the need for continual jump-cuts and re-shoots because the technology is there. At least for this episode, it's nice to see the director explore more hip/knee level motion and more cowboy framed shots when having a distant observer perspective. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/types-of-camera-shots-sizes-in-film/ does a fantastic breakdown of all the different shot type and camera perspectives for you want to read more!
As we transition into Sarah's hotel room, did anyone pick up on how NICE this is? She has double sinks, a king bed, a sitting mirror, free standing tub, and a great view. I doubt any agency in the "real world" would ever spring for something like this for multiple years for one of their agents, it's fancy! Enter Carina, tell me, who saw Sarah fight with a soap sock and think of iCarly and the famous "butter sock". Also during this fight, why is Sarah wearing a golden bikini? I know she is about to get into the shower, but what plausible reason is there for her to a) wear a bikini at all and b) it to be a bright golden yellow?? If you slow this fight scene way down, you will notice Yvonne's strikes actually come close to hitting Mimi as she has had a lot of training, whereas Mimi's strikes are miles from Yvonne and she just over-acts their impact. The most noticeable is the kick into her table, Sarah goes flying back, but we can tell from the angle, Carina missed her by a good 2 ft. This was just some sloppy editing and not getting the camera into position. I give it a pass because you have probably 3 camera operators wearing stabilized camera rigs trying to rotate around a room with 2 girls fighting and they just missed the angle by like 2 feet. I did really like at the end of the fight Carina had the option to go for the gun but instead went for the fish. If you didn't know they were not enemies before, this should have been a big clue! Carina calls Sarah's life in LA boring #1
​
ACT I
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Carina aka: Maria Elena Argalberdi was born Jun 16, 1978 in Alberdi Argentina with a Buenos Aires passport. Maria Elena is actually the name of a famous song in Mexico and eventually had a movie. This Chuck learns on Flash #1 and is the precursor to meeting the general for the first time. I know I've mentioned this before, but to reiterate; the pictures in Casey's apartment are all wrong; he has photos of Chuck and Morgan that don't happen until season 5 (lost footage) he has a map of Echo Park and Malibu already on display, and he has tactical information for each member of the Buy More (which he has no reason for at this time). It is interesting they talk about an opium cartel in Afghanistan as Afghanistan is known for it's huge poppy fields for heroin drug money.
The NADAN-I-NOOR diamond:

• The Nadan-I-Noor diamond has never been known to be bought or sold and ha only changed owners as a result of theft, conquest, or endowment
• It's listed as having 57 facets + 16 facets on girdle = 73. A facet is comparable with the brilliance of a diamond and is really the flat surfaces of a gemstone arranged in a geometrical pattern. In this case it helps characterize the refraction of light through the diamond interior. The girdle i the outer edge of a diamond surface, having 16 faces is quite large, as the girdle is the largest section of a gem, but also the thinnest when viewed from the side. In this case, having 73 facets puts the Nadan-I-Noor in either the Princess-Cut Diamond or Radiant Cut Diamond category, which are also the most expensive as they have the most possible facets.
• having 4-fold, mirror-image symmetry refers to how the light reflects internally to the diamond and indicates there are no impurities within the crystalline structure.
• interestingly a purity rating is not given, i would expect something like a F or IF (flawless/internally flawless) for a diamond described like this, but one isn't provided.
• the angles of incidence just describe the best way for light to enterefract from the diamond, these numbers are fake, but the metric is real
• there is a lot of sanscript written around the diamond markings, I can't figure out what if anything it means it looks like repeated nonsense
• could be a nod to the Koh-i-noor or "mountain of light" diamond, although this one in Persian is the "fool of light".

We open back to see Carina and Sarah looking at classified files within the restaurant. THIS IS AGAINST THE LAW, you do not look at classified files out in the open and especially not where there are clearly other customers around. Venturing into the BuyMore, there is a monster truck rally on the TV's showing grave digger and reaper, two famous trucks from this time period. Morgan wants to spread his wings and be the fourth wheel to the perpetual 3 wheel party and Sarah, ever the schemer, literally glows when she thinks of the plan to have Carina go on a date with Morgan. I THINK this was just to help maintain their cover, but also maybe Sarah is just needling Carina? If you look in the back of the store when Chuck is talking to Sarah and Carina, there is a really cool Nerd Herd poster that says "Bringing peace to your computer emergency". "if a yawn could yawn" is Carina calling Sarah's job boring #2. One thing I really like with the double data is the way the camera jumps between the couples: boy/girl, boy/boy, girl/girl. I think they way they try and keep private conversations via screen time is a really nice, typical, teleplay trick that really works well here. In a "real" environment, everyone could hear everything, but by splitting the camera focus or playing with perspective, the viewer clearly knows "this is a conversation between girls the boys don't hear it". We see Chuck noticing Sarah picking off olives #2 while they watch a movie about penguins: who mate for life, present their love in the form of rocks, and are pack animals. In Chuck's bedroom as he talks to Morgan, Chuck has a box of King Edward Invincible underneath bongos; for those who don't know this is a famous box for mild tobacco cigars. So I wonder what Chuck is up to in his free time :P.
On the Nerd Herd call with Carina, she opens a bottle of wine with a butter knife. This is actually a pretty famous thing that is done all over the world with everything from a key to a saber. In fact they make a specially type of knife with an extra wide blade for this it Italy. I do want to ask the question; is Carina dressed in red lingerie (Chuck's favorite color she stole from Sarah) really necessary for this scene? I know that Carina is all about improvising and she often uses her sexuality to progress her cause (Casey), but I think we could have gotten away with just the top. I can certainly see the rationalization for going this far, but I think as an artistic choice it wasn't necessary. What IS necessary however is to talk about how Chuck's world implodes when Carina tells him about Sarah and Bryce. Also the perfect act transition ending right at Chuck's jaw dropping and the work boyfriend!
​
ACT II
​
I'll say it again, the back an forth with Chuck and Sarah should have been a medium close up, shoulder level straight on shot instead of the constant cuts. Seeing their reaction in real time would have been easier and it would have allowed the Weinerlicious to be maybe 15 ft smaller to not need so many cameramen rotating. "Unless talking to your boyfriend is a matter of national security, the ketchup bottles won't refill themselves". Why yes it IS a mater of national security for Sarah to talk to Chuck... also if any one of us stood up to our boss like Sarah did, I'm pretty sure we'd be fired on the spot!
Malibu is ~2hours for Echo Park with standard LA traffic. Seriously, how do girls in high heels walk down stairs; we see Carina and Sarah walking sideways so there is enough space on each step to fit their shoes. Girls, how do you do that and not fall especially with narrow staircases and 3-6inch heels! Inside the room with the stone there is a bust of Cesare, archenemies, da vinci, and biblical David. There is also some famous paintings the best of which is Vemieer's "young girl with a pearl earring" which is rather appropriate considering it's meaning. There is also a Van Gogh of man in a wheat field and a Monet in one shot too. If ANY of these paintings were real instead of reproductions, they would be worth millions, in fact the young girl with a pearl is estimated at 40million, which is 1.5x the sell value of the Nadan-I-Noor! If we take a look at the engineering drawing of Flash #2 on the pedestal, we would see this design creates a closed circuit around the tongs the diamond rests on; which might explain it's red hue. If a person were to touch the diamond, it would close the circuit on their body allowing the 4000volts to travel through their heart. A person can die with ~20volts, though it's usually more like 50 in most occurrences. 4000volts is enough to kill a herd of elephants and completely overkill for a person. Also the amount of power that would take is more than the city of Malibu... this is to say the trap is real, the numbers are complete nonsense; thinking lightning! Nice shot by Sarah with the plate (there are some great bloopers on this too where she misses badly)! A remote controlled jet ski... i'm not even going to calculate the nonsense for this; it's just total nonsense. Almost as much nonsense as Casey using his phone to track Carina's call. That would take minutes, even with today's technology to back trace like that and way more power than just pushing a button on a razer flip-phone from the 90's!
back at the house, Chuck i playing halo with the legendary skulls as his weapon; this is nice because in the BuyMore at the end of the episode there are dudes dressed as master chief! I really like the changing perspective here with Chuck and Morgan. Chuck's reactions remain in focus while Morgan tells a story behind him, then it switches as Chuck starts to move around until bringing both into focus for the final line "we still have each other and that's really sad". The side cut to Sarah picking locks to the hotel door is classic early 2000's TV and i'm all for it, even if it is super cheezy. BTW as someone who used to lock pick in college, that's .... not how that works, but good try. We get our Flash #3 on the diamond in Morgan's back nuclear explosions. I wonder if the refractive capability of a diamond this pure is enough to focus laser to induce fission or if the value of selling the diamond is enough to buy nuclear material on the black market? Either way, we end the act with... the man with the golden gun!
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ACT III
​
Chuck uses Sarah's plate move against Carina, nice inter-episode call back; he's clearly watching/learning, but his aim is terrible. This was actually clever as Sarah has perfect aim for she is a professional, while Chuck is still definitely a civilian and has no aptitude for fighting. I really like both these types of simple call backs but also how seemingly throw-away lines/actions help tell the broad story of the show. Chuck talking to Carina also shows Chuck has this weird, innate aptitude to get people to re-evaluate themselves and grow internally. You can watch Carina "grow in real-time. When we get to the hotel and Carina opens her trunk first there are a few glocks, a couple rugers, and a 1911; then she switches to blades and we see some folders, some strait blades, an illegal gravity blade (still illegal today), and a kbar... nice selection! Carina, always the flirt, gives Chuck some very insightful works about the nature of being a spy, but also maybe some way to get through to Sarah.
Inside the hotel we see Carina and Sarah speaking; Carina is speaking Swedish, while Sarah replies in Polish. "Om jag slänger nycklarna till dig, kommer du tappa dem då?" which is Swedish for "If I throw you the keys, will you drop them?" Sarah answered in Polish: "Tylko jak rzucisz jak twoja mamusia", which means "Only if you throw it like your mommy". This is just great!
I want to talk about how fast Chuck managed to find an address for DC, print a label, open a box, put the label on, and get the diamond there all before the door gets broken. Somehow on screen time this is like 10seconds, but in real life this would have to be like 3minutes minimum? Either that door is remarkably strong or... TV magic??
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ACT IV
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Even with all the flirting, as we say goodbye to Carina >! for now !< she is still joking with Casey and every the professional. I like how they show when it's "game time" it's all about the job, but spys can be people too! Carina still calls Sarah's life boring #3 (the common trifecta of episode repeats).
Sarah's face when Chuck brings the pizza with no olives is the reason I think Yvonne makes the perfect Sarah. She exudes the hidden beauty needed and has the acting to so such emotion for Chuck being sweet. The whole scene with Chuck and Sarah asking questions, then Chuck backing off, then Sarah acting stoic like she WANTS to open up but doesn't know if she can really trust Chuck, is ready to move on from Bryce, and should for the nature of her job. This was probably the most well acted 20seconds of the entire episode. Finally, we hear Sarah's middle name is Lisa. Now we never officially know if Chuck hears this or not both due to camera focus and distance, it's never officially confirmed in the entire show. When the intersect is updated in season 4 we see Sarah's picture and it lists Lisa as a middle name, so we assume it's official, but it's never confirmed at any point. Finally, I really like how they end the episode with Sarah closing her eyes as the fade to black.
​
Few notes: There are 5 official songs in this episode:

• "Yea Yeah" by Matt and Kim - when the gang is playing board games during group date night. This song is about not worrying about the things you cannot change. Little things that build up and bum you out that you need to just let go.
• "Wild Girl" Matt Pond PA - Chuck and Morgan discussing their relationship problems. This song is about overcoming past struggles and finding hope in the present and future. Describing a sense of resilience and optimism
• "weird science" by does it offend you - Chuck and Carina talk at Peyman' Malibu Compound. This is a remind to break free and embrace individuality and live on your own terms. Be unapologetically ourselves.
• Shy by Mathew Dear - the double date
• "Fall into place" the apartment - the team say's goodby to Carina. Deals with growing up, taking (or not taking) chances. finding oneself in the unpredictability of life. I have to say, we don't actually hear the lyrics to any of these songs during the episode just the melody, but I don't really appreciate the music choices here. I feel like there were better options at key points, so that's a miss from me.
  
• On the DVD for Season One the word Wookiee is spelled incorrectly, leaving off the last E.
  
• "It used to be titled "Chuck Versus the Speedo" because the main bad guy in this show is this dude who wears a Speedo all the time. Then when the casting guy realized he had a good amount -- and by good, I mean healthy, a healthy amount of body hair -- they thought, why not call it "Chuck vs. the Wookiee". So it's this guy who's got this diamond, and we're trying to heist the diamond and all hell breaks loose." ―Zachary Levi quoted by Access Hollywood discussing this episode's title
  

​
I think this was a great episode and really showcased what they can do when additional cast members join the team and when they are not afraid to play with perspective. Mimi as Carina is a great addition to the ensemble and I wish we saw her more, but every time she drops in, it's always a wild episode and it's fantastic. Watching Chuck learn about Sarah and seeing Sarah start to open up is a good way forward and heck Casey had some of the best humor in the episode. Overall, it was fast paced, had some nice character development, as funny in the best way, and moved the main theme along, 8/10.

I have a friend that I work with and occasionally hang out with. Lately I’ve noticed a pattern to the times we have hung out. It seems like it only happens when it is something that she wants to do and it is completely on her schedule. For instance she went grocery shopping and I tagged along yesterday as company. We were supposed to grab dinner afterwards but she split because she wanted to get home. This or something similar happens almost every time. She is also never on time. Sometimes hours late.
On top of this every time we end up doing whatever she wants to do I hear racist, misogynistic, and rude comments directed at me and other people. I’m a fan of darker humor comedians but I don’t think it’s ok to use what was said for entertainment and in jest to base an opinion or worldview around.
She uses the N word with the hard R. Never directed at anyone specifically but I think this is mainly because we live in Montana. Not a very big African American community around here.
The one that hurts the most is how she insulted me for living with my parents at 30 years old. And she does this pretty much every time she’s around. I may unfortunately live with or be supported in some way by my parents my entire life due to being medically disabled due to severe Crohn’s disease.
I pay rent that they decided on and I agreed as fair. I help or completely handle upkeep of the house or grounds. I’m not physically disabled so anything with the gutters or heavy lifting I’m more than happy to handle myself. Currently I’m on the mend due to hernia repair surgery so I’m not doing any heavy lifting for 5 more weeks at least. I think this is why the disparaging comments came up.
My Crohn’s was debilitatingly severe for many years. I’m just now getting to a place where I have some semblance of normalcy and am getting back on my feet. I’m grateful to live in a family that has always welcomed their children back. My aunts and uncles do the same. My cousin and his wife and kid both currently live in his parent’s basement to save for a house.
Rationally I know what I’m doing is ok and I’ve been told so by family repeatedly, but people so easily can make me feel like garbage sometimes. My disease often kept me from making new or upkeep existing friendships. And with it being a coworker I don’t want to be a jerk. I know I look normal and strong but if the shower is too warm it can make me pass out. Apparently getting 14 inches of your intestine removed, funnily enough, causes you to have a pretty weak constitution.
I just feel like I’m being made to feel like a crazy, mooch, piece of garbage. And the coworker wants me to move in so we can save money to go to Mardi Gras next year. I don’t know if I’m being manipulated or gaslit or what. Or maybe I am just trash and need to get things figured out by myself. Any help or advice is very appreciated. Just feeling very down about the whole thing.

Hello everyone! I really want a nice, fancy two-tone ballgown for prom but i really dislike how so many of the dresses are one colour. I decided that I'd be interested in maybe splitting a dress in the middle, turning it into an overgown of sorts. Then my undergown would include a hoop skirt underneath for the structure with a tulle skirt on top of it.
Is this at all feasible? Is there a specific fabric i should use for the overgown? Thanks in advance :)
This is my inspo (in terms of cut, not colour or pattern)! I'm well aware mine wouldn't turn out as fancy nor would trail behind...but I really enjoy the contrasting colours. I can't find the source for the black and white dress, but hte other seems to be from the sasaki nozomi (bridal??) collection.
https://preview.redd.it/qofbsr70624d1.png?width=450&format=png&auto=webp&s=ee5c9d6d2dc0a28f9171f9490e4a642a691070a0
https://preview.redd.it/mh6iyfz5524d1.png?width=564&format=png&auto=webp&s=5c30d59d7263ce0fbc9e8cd1aabbafe48585269d

Inthecenterofthiscityeastnortheastnearrotesrathauschimesfromtheberlinclockareheardacrossthesquare Matches the clues and the letter count The following is the structure to follow with the key the critical part is finding a absolute position of a 13 position group. Of three words us in letter count of words across the clues structures the best path as there are only a certain amount of words and variables in a 97 position cipher.Using a set pattern to run the cipher against would allow for a continues path of the repeating words using the math magical structure along with word letter count The eastNorthEast is a 4 5 4 that equals a center with in its structure the eastnortheast portion is along the K on one side making the 13 positions perfect with this structure using the same portion during the flow through the positions matching up to the letter that makes the
eastnortheast =13K
Leaving six positions per line with a turn across two more of the letters Marking the pattern absolute using the square and compass angles makes the most of the area using two halves of oneallowing this will lay out exactly how the identifier sequence fits along it's structured path.
Deadlines up on T With NTSAE. T ORTHEAS RTHEAST It's lowest position starts at K R Y KRYPTOS T O S
THE RIGHT TURN OR LEFT TURN IS ALWAYS OF CENTER OF P MAKING THAT .5X2 ACTUAL BE USED UP TO 72 DIFFERENT TIMES WHICH MAKES The polyibus cipher uses no J using numbers in stead of letters enables K 11 to be K10 as well which having all the K out of place except for 1 on the foundation alphabet Makes that K the multi position first pick In orde4 to balance with in a polyibus cipher the positions removed are equal to that J that is missing in the graphing structure. This matches to the alphabetical structure outside the kryptos area And shows the position of North with the top left N meaning east north east is right to left left left left (4)up up(2) right right right right right right (6) Makes it 13 positions long in a structured pattern and can be substituted with cipher after structure. Using the sections polyibus makes the N GHILMNQUvwxZKRYPTOSabc O. Q ZKRYPTOS P. Q ZKRYPTOD Q. ZKRYPTOS R.s.t.u. ZKRYPTOS V. ZKRYPTOS
THE 1ST AND 3RD LINE MAKES THE STRAIGHT LINE THROUGH NOR WITH KRY DOWN THEN PTOS TO THE RIGHT STARTING AT THE BOTTOM LINEVWITH T ON THE R(FIRST K ON BOTTOM) T EQUALS E PEQUALS A YEQUALS S 97÷13 Since 97 letters can fit 13 letters into to equal the 25 position polyibus cipher structure is 3.88 With 3.72 making 26 variations in the alphabet. That is a .16 difference 3.88x.16=4 Makes that a .12 difference and is a quarter off the .16 number. The kry Kr K Key at the right bottom is moved to the top and extends 13 positions to 16 positions Now the pattern has a set structure that wraps from bottom to top with only the 13 piece given in a clue east north east 13 centers six one six the one center makes both halves This actually doubles from the 3.5 times 2 equals the 7 positions of crypto starting that off with a center overlaping word matches to the statistical likelihood that a word will be split so a continues flow has to not cross itself or end the key is the portion that bridges the two ends with a twist when using the correct no directional alphabetical structure making the mobious twist and having that structure to see how A-N Equals Z-M as equal 13 letter portions of the alphabet in order to use a one unit shift per position 4 13 position cipher portions time 4

I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Maybe a similar story or words of encouragement/advice. Regardless, the situation sucks.
I'm 35 and my boyfriend (ex?) is 31. We have been together for a little over 2 1/2 years. He has a 9 year old son and I have an 8 year old daughter. Two months ago to the day I moved out of the apartment I have been in since I got divorced when my daughter was a year old. It was the perfect place, great rent for where I live. It was truly home.
My partner and I moved in 2 months ago and I was very hesitant. He had brought up the idea a year prior but I shot it down. I graduated nursing school in December of 2023 and quickly secured a job. We began discussing it a little more seriously. On paper, it seemed like the timing was right, we would both save a significant amount of money...what could go wrong? Spoiler alert: everything.
In the time we have been together, we have had several - and I mean several - arguments. He put on a good show in the beginning but once I got to know the real him I realized he is very emotional dysregulated. He gets bent out of shape and disproportionately so over the littlest things. Silent treatment, blocking my number, you name it. Now, I am not perfect either. I have been the villain in our story many times. But I truly feel at times I was made to feel like I was going crazy - I think that is a form of gaslighting, but who knows.
So, we move in together. Looking back, the red flags were on FIRE but man, he was mostly good with my daugther. Albeit a little impatient (she's an extroverted chatterbox and his son is an introvert to the core). He loved me for me. Always made me feel wanted, beautiful, we had no issues with infidelity or anything like that. But, I always felt like I was walking on eggshells around him. And it's funny because I always got the vibe his son was, too. And this is a side note but my mom met his son ONCE and mentioned she thought it seemed like his son was scared of him... those are the same exact vibes I got, it just was hard to admit because I loved this man, or so I thought.
Anyway, we got into a huge fight last week. What it was about would matter if we had never got into big arguments before, but being that this is a pattern... the subject matter is irrelevant. I fucked up by calling my ex-husband, who I coparent with, because I was so worried about my next move with my partner that I wanted to make sure my ex could keep my daughter in case I needed him to until things blew over. Well, long story short - ex no longer wants him around my daughter because he can't control his anger blah blah blah. Now, that is a fact... but he has never done anything in front of the kids that would lead me to believe he'd fly off the handle. He has showed his ass in front of the kids a time or two by just being a jerk to me and the moment I stand up for myself he retaliates.
So, anyway... regardless of the bad, there were good moments, too. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that this is over. Part of me is crazy enough to want to work it out! BUT WHY??? Whyyy do I feel any of this behavior is okay? He has called me literally every name in the book. I DESERVE BETTER. Consistency. Not wondering what mood of the day he is going to serve up. I am just sad to leave this home behind that we started. It became cozy and comfy despite the bullshit. Now I am looking for a place to move on top of working 50 hours the next 4 weeks. He is going out of town to see family (I almost went - dodged that bullet) so I am hoping most of the move can be done when he's gone. But I am sad. My heart hurts. He was my routine for the last 2 1/2 years. Our kids were involved. The thought of being alone doesn't scare me but the thought of him moving on makes me sad...and for what... he will repeat the same pattern if he ever finds someone who will allow themselves to be treated this way.
I hate that at 35 I am starting over. I will be paying SO much more in rent. Like, double what I pay now because we split the rent. I should've never moved out of my old apartment but I did and here we are. I have to do better for myself and better for my daughter. But it's hard and I'm going to struggle. My daughter and I got a hotel on the beach this weekend and tomorrow I will take her to her dad's house and I will go back to my house where my partner is and have to tip toe around until I finally move out. If you made it this far, thanks for reading and sorry for the novel.
**TL;DR; : Breaking up with partner of 2 1/2 years, I know it’s the right decision but I can’t help but feeling like I still want it even though it’s wrong for me. A lot of verbal abuse, gaslighting, name calling has went on and it’s broken me down to nothing.

Please read this first before booking your stay at the Grand Sirenis. My hope is to save you some similar difficulties and disappointments. There are great resorts in the Cancun area, this isn’t one of them. Keep reading to understand why this place deserves half a star, at best.

1. At check-in, I was “greeted” by a rude and dismissive employee. She gave me no information about the hotel and was clearly annoyed at my questions. She scanned my passports, gave me my room keys, my arm band, and gave a brief gesture toward a map on the counter to show where my room was located. No other info was provided and she quickly dismissed me away. This was the first time I had the thought that I was not a guest here, I was a nuisance. This continued with nearly every staff interaction I had during my vacation (to be fair, there were a few exceptions).
   
2. Within minutes of getting to our room, we discovered that our toilet wouldn’t flush. Since it was already late, we waited until first thing the next morning to notify the staff. They brushed us off by saying someone was on their way (this was also a recurring pattern throughout our stay). It would be several hours before our toilet was fixed. We had to use the toilet at the pool instead.
   
3. Restaurant reservations are required, which is very normal. I typically check with concierge the evening of my arrival to arrange reservations for my whole stay, so that’s exactly what I did. I was promptly told that there weren’t any reservations available for our group size, but he would check with his supervisor and let me know in the morning. So first thing the next morning, I checked in again because I understand the importance of reservations. He told me that he checked with his supervisor and was told there were no reservations available. I pressed further (as did others in my group with difference concierge staff), saying we were happy to split up our group and even do different times. We told them we were available for any restaurant on any day. In other words, we weren’t trying to be picky. Over the next day and a half, we were told multiple times that there were no reservations available. We finally secured a reservation for our last night, but that’s the only restaurant they would give us for a whole week. Their website says they guarantee 3 a la carte restaurants per week. Somehow they had no space available for anyone in my group and we only got one restaurant meal.
   
4. Another question I had for the concierge was concerning refilling the minibar. We had run out of water and coffee. I was promptly told that it would be an extra charge to get these things so I again walked away frustrated. After looking again at the website and booking confirmation email, I found where it says that they would refill the minibar daily. So I went back to the same concierge and asked why he told me it would be an extra charge and he said, “Yes, it’s complimentary between 9am-3pm.” I had asked at 3:30pm the day before. Why wouldn’t he simply explain that to me when I asked instead of rudely telling me it’s an extra charge and letting me walk away frustrated?
   
5. There are some exceptions, but for the most part, the food is bad. Most all inclusive resort food isn’t anything to write home about, but this was extra bad.
   
6. Our room wasn’t cleaned for the first 2.5 days because we didn’t know to put some obscure sign on our door indicating we wanted it cleaned. Again, no one bothered to give us a basic rundown of how the hotel works. Again, we were treated like a nuisance, not a valued guest.
   
7. One positive note to end on: The pool was big and fun. My two year old had a great time and he’s too young to notice or care about all the bad things. But it’s worth noting that the kid pool area is currently closed (not sure when it will re-open, but if my notes above haven’t deterred you and you have kids, it’s worth at least calling and asking before you book).
   

Go at your own risk. As for me and my family, this is one that we will not return to nor refer our friends to. There are plenty of resorts to choose from in the Cancun area.

Author's note:
This was certainly a challenge for me, as Nature of Knights is radically different to anything I've written and most of what I've read. In the end, I decided to focus on Rhea, and her experience being rescued by Tom after her time with the Arxur. These events follow from the events of chapter 5.
I had a couple more scenes I wanted to write, but I ended up running out of time, so I decided that this was a good place to end it. I may do a follow up chapter with the other scenes I had planned out, if I have the time and motivation.
I hope you enjoy!
original fic:
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Transcription note: the subject was operating through a significant language barrier for much of the period encompassed by these transcriptions. Some relevant dialog has been reconstructed from a combination of other transcription subjects and phonetic reconstruction. These words are indicated with a strikethrough, to show that the subject couldn’t comprehend their meaning.
Memory transcription subject: Rhea, Fevarian attack mutt
Date [standardized human time]: July 12, 2275
I sat curled in the corner, my snout resting on my knees, holding my legs against my chest. Most of the wooly people stayed in the opposite corner of the room, clearly frightened of me. Did they know what I had been forced to do, what I’d- WHO I’d eaten to survive, broken and desperate on that Arxur ship? I still remember the fear in their eyes, eyes that I could see the sapience behind. I remember the way they pleaded, begging in a language I didn’t know, but what they meant was obvious. Food isn’t supposed to be something that can think, that can speak, they never should have been cattle. I can feel their wool on my gums as I-
At least I tried to make it quick.
I clutched my legs tighter, a whimper escaping my lips and tears seeping into my fur as my claws dug into my skin.
I could hear the wooly people talking amongst themselves in that same musical sounding language, with a few talking to the “Humans” who had slain my handlers in a different alien tongue. I tried to block out the musical language of the wooly aliens, and the memories it brought, by trying to glean meaning from the conversation with the Humans. Without any context, my emotion-addled mind couldn’t find any useful patterns in their speech. They sounded kind, though, much kinder than the Arxur, with their jeering growls and hisses. I hoped that the Humans would treat me better than my handlers had. Not that it’d take much.
With a shudder and a whimper, I tried to force my thoughts of the past and worries for the future out of my mind, letting the sounds of the Humans’ language wash over me, as the tears seeped into my fur.
…
Advance memory transcription: 9 hours, 14 minutes, 29 seconds
Date [standardized human time]: July 13, 2275
…
As I returned to consciousness on the hard floor, I heard the speech of one of the wooly people, and smelled their scent on the air. I curled in on myself deeper, waiting for the screams, or the beatings to start, as my handlers forced me to eat. But they never came. After a few minutes, I tentatively opened my eyes. I wasn’t in the kennel?I remembered, I remembered that armored person. They shot my handlers, but they didn’t hurt me. They said they wouldn’t, that I was safe. I hope it’s true. They are a Human. They brought me here, with all the wooly people.
As I looked around, I saw less wooly people than I remembered from the previous day. They probably just went to another room. I hoped they just went to another room. I then noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see the armored Human setting down a glowing device displaying what I assumed was Human writing, and putting their helmet back on. They turned to me and spoke in Arxur. “Good morning! Did you have a good sleep?”
I replied as best I could, “Yes, sleep was good.”
“I’m glad. Before we get you some breakfast, I have something for you, and I also need to ask you a couple of questions.” I cocked my head in confusion, wondering what they wanted to give me, and what else they had planned for me. They handed me some folded pieces of thin, tightly woven white fabric, and continued. “We saw that you wear clothes like us, and Sarah thought that you might want to cover up a bit more. This isn’t much, but it should do until we can make something better for you.” I took the fabric, but continued to look at them confused. He slowly reached out with a single armored finger, and gently plucked at my [shirt]. Or what was left of it. I suddenly realized how little my tattered clothes still covered, with much of my front visible through the gashes my handlers had left in my shirt, and my [skirt] was so shredded that my… everything could be seen by anyone who made the effort to look amongst the tatters and my matted fur. I instinctively tried to cover myself with my tail and arms, and the armored human seemed to sense my embarrassment. They moved to sit between me and the rest of the room, facing away, and reached back with a bottle and a roll of gauze in their hand. “For your wounds. Do you want me to help clean your wounds, or should I give you some privacy while you do it yourself?”
“Yes, clean my wounds.” And though I knew they wouldn’t understand, I added in my own language, “Thank you, truly.”
They turned around to face me, and, with more care and dexterity than I would have thought possible from such a heavily armored form, they explored the fur of my arms with their fingers, inspecting each of my cuts. When they found one that was still seeping, they unscrewed the lid of the bottle, which smelled strongly of distilled alcohol. They wet a cloth with it, before carefully dabbing it into the wound, and wiping away the pus and the worst of the dried blood. The alcohol burned, but I knew it was better than allowing my wounds to fester.
I still didn’t know the name of my savior, or even if they were male or female. At least I assumed Humans had males and females. Surely, with how kind they’ve been, they wouldn’t mind if I asked? While they cleaned and bandaged my arms, I tried to think of the best way to ask my question with my limited knowledge of the Arxur language. My handlers hadn’t exactly prepared me for social niceties. When the armored Human had finished with my arms, I took the opportunity.
“I am Rhea, She. You are?”
They cocked their head for a moment, seemingly confused, before responding.
“Oh, I never did introduce myself, did I? I’m Thomas Jones, he him, or you can call me Tom for short. Most do. I’m a knight of the Coalition, trained and sworn to protect its people and its ideals. To be the best the human race has to offer. I’m the shield that protects and the sword that strikes down evil.”
Once he had given his name and informed me that he was male, he seemed to fall into a rehearsed speech. As with everything else he said, there was so much of it I didn’t understand, but the unknown words he spoke were entirely new to me, and many of them seemed somehow less harsh than the rest of the language of the Arxur, as though they had never been touched by the cruelty of the people who took me from my home. And the way he was filled with confidence and nobility in his shining armor as he spoke made me think of the armored [knights] who gladly gave up their lives to try and protect us from the Arxur. His words too, a mantra of strength, excellence, and most of all protection, evoked their noble code. Is that who he is? A Human [knight]? Will he protect me too, even though I am not of the “Coalition”, whatever that is?
Will he still protect me if he finds out what the Arxur forced me to do?
I saw that Tom was looking at me for some kind of response, so I nodded to indicate I understood, and he nodded back, returning to my injuries. It seemed our species shared that gesture. He eased my [shirt] up out of the way, and I went ahead and removed it entirely, and turned away from him so he had better access to my back and sides. Judging from his sharp intake of breath, it was probably pretty bad. I clenched my teeth and braced for the pain of him treating my injuries, but even still, I let out a loud, pained whimper as the dull throbbing of my many cuts and scratches were thrown into sharp clarity, as the alcohol found and painfully cleansed each one.
“I know, I know. I’m sorry,” he said, as he rubbed one of my gashes clean, drawing out another whimper. “I’m doing my best to be gentle, but this has to be done.”
“I know.” I hiss through clenched teeth.
One by one my wounds were cleaned, and the worse ones packed with gauze. As he worked his way around to clean the few cuts I had on my front, I marveled at how he was able to be so dexterous and gentle with his armored fingers. He then took a fresh roll of gauze, and started wrapping it around my shoulders and upper torso, covering my wounds. The gauze stuck to itself, without aid of any glue or knotwork, and soon enough, most of my injuries were properly bound. The cuts on my legs and haunches swiftly followed. They clearly weren’t as bad or as numerous as the injuries to my back, as in seemingly no time at all, he had finished his work. He then handed me the white fabric again, and then stood with his back facing my corner, as if to guard my privacy while I dressed myself.
I unfolded the cloth, and found that Tom had given me two rectangles of fabric about [5 feet] by [3 feet]. I pondered how best to make something like clothing from them as I carefully removed my tattered [skirt]. Finally, I settled on folding over the end of one of the pieces of fabric to make it slightly shorter, and then tying it behind my neck so it covered my front like a baggy apron, before wrapping the other piece around my waist with my tail parting the seam like my [skirt], and rolling it over itself a few times to secure it so it wouldn’t slip down. I tugged on the fabric, adjusting it so it laid well against my body and so I was sure it wouldn’t slip, and that everything I cared about was covered. I wished that my crude [skirt] had some way to fasten it around my tail, but it would do, so long as I kept my tail fairly low to protect my modesty. Finally, I picked up my old clothes. I didn’t really know what to do with them. They weren’t really in any state to be worn, but they were all I had left of my home, so I couldn’t bear to get rid of them. In the end, I carefully folded them, and tucked them into one side of my crude skirt, where the bright colors of the ragged cloth contrasted against the pure white of my makeshift outfit and the bandages covering much of my arms and torso.
“Tom, I’m done.” I said, and he turned around to face me again, looking at me and giving me a small nod.
“Good. Now that you’re dressed, I need to know a bit more about your diet before we have breakfast.”
I cocked my head, unsure of what he wanted me to tell him, before he clarified.
“What do you eat?”
…
I froze.
He knows what I’ve done.
I began to hyperventilate.
How did he know? Did he even know?
“I didn’t want to! They made me-” I began in Fevarian, before halting myself and trying to explain myself in Arxur.
“They made me do it. I didn’t- I wouldn’t have if they didn’t- they made me eat them, they hurt me, hurt me when I didn’t!”
“Slow down. What did they make you do? What did they make you eat?”
I shuddered as tears dripped down my muzzle. I couldn’t hide what I’d done. Not now, not even if I wanted to. As the tears poured from my eyes, and a pained whine started in the back of my throat, I looked past Tom to the opposite corner of the room where a few of the wooly people stood, and whispered, barely loud enough to be heard.
“Them.”
I tensed up, bracing for his response.
As he processed what I had meant, I saw a shift in his demeanor as he tensed up, enraged by what I’d done. I cowered into the corner, expecting him to strike me down, but instead he hastily shifted his posture, forcing himself to relax.
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at them. I want to kill those fucking cannibal bastards a second time for what they did to you. We will hunt the Arxur down, until they can’t do that to anyone else, ever again.”
He removed his helmet and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder, and for the first time, I was able to look him in the eyes. They were so alien, but I could see the kindness in them.
“It’s okay, you’re safe now.” he said in his Human language, and while I didn’t understand the words, I knew what he meant. I could see it in his face, and the tone of his voice. He wasn’t going to hurt me. I was safe with him. I hugged his armored torso, and buried my face into his neck, allowing myself to just break down and sob. I cried and cried until I had no more tears, as Tom stroked the fur on my back and comforted me.“It’s okay.
Let it all out.
You’re safe now.
I’ve got you.”

~First~
Harriett The Spy AND HHH/Herbert’s Hundred Harem
The sensation of Null on her was never pleasant. Sure, with the Axiom her new shape was perky, bouncy and looked like a supermodel’s idea of a supermodel on Earth. But with Null in effect... everything drooped painfully. She leaned on the table and heard Jurgen’s deep breathing.
“Thirty Seconds.” Lloyd states as she watches the three doctors work. Gin may be in charge, but he’s clearly not the only star of this show. With Doctor Lorn assisting him and Doctor Howard peeling off the larger chunks of Blood Metal things are moving quickly. Half the nightmare is already off and being moved into containment. Continual cracking and snapping sounds as the thin metal is broken apart to be taken away piece by piece.
“Third neural area taken care of.” Doctor Gin says.
“Forty Seconds.” Lloyd says as Harriett shifts as the Doctors start moving faster.
“We’re ahead of schedule. One last piece of metal on neural tissue.” Doctor Gin says.
“No remaining metal in the tissue in this part of the crater.” Doctor Howard says. His operating position is awkward as hell with Doctor Gin and Doctor Lorn as he has to reach over All Lady’s core and stay out of the way of the more delicate part of the procedure, but he still has surgical training and can still safely peel the Blood Metal off and away from the poor woman.
The medics are quickly rushing up and taking away all the Blood Metal while it’s forced into dormancy and then right into a bio-hazard container. That is going to be sealed into a trytite and lead lined case once they have it all.
“Fifty Seconds.” Lloyd counts.
“Delicate part done. Let’s get this shit off her.” Doctor Gin announces. All three doctors shift around and quickly start peeling the nightmare of the woman and...
“Sixty Seconds.”
Blood Metal clangs as it’s thrown away and then shifted into containment in rapid order. Chunks the size of dinner plates are stacked up fast and efficiently.
“Seventy Seconds.”
They finish peeling off the metal and high powered lights are shone on the core to see clean through it. Tiny slivers are located and pulled out.
“Eighty Seconds.”
They scan over the core again and then glance to each other before giving things a third scan.
“Ninety Seconds.”
“We’re clear. Let the Axiom in. Patient is free of Blood Metal and can begin standard Axiom restoration.” Doctor Gin says.
“She’ll recover a little sooner as well. I adjusted the dosage after seeing her first sample of it.” Doctor Howard says as the lights that flickered out with the Axiom scrambled start to slowly start glowing again.
“Waking up fifteen minutes after surgery is fine.” Doctor Gin says.
“Since when is Fine enough? We’re looking for healthy, and the less drugs in a patient’s system the better. We add them as needed and no more, otherwise we can cause further damages. The addictive nature of anaesthetics are well known among humans and we are intensely toxin resistant by compare to something like a Slohb, the less I give to any patient the better.” Doctor Howard answers and there are some noddings.
“So how much sooner will she wake up?” Harriett asks as the pain slowly tapers off as the Axiom returns and breathing becomes something she can do without leaning forward and resting the boulders on something.
“Any minute now. It was hard to calculate the amount of anaesthetic she would need in either surgery without knowing definitively how much of her anatomy is dedicated to digestion, neural tissue, sensory tissue or other vital organs. Each one processes it differently, but all of them are linked together, normally in a single, sphere, but each bump is a partial sphere with any one of a number of differing organs inside it, and she has bumps on the bumps of her bumps bumps.”
“Did you have to say that in rhythm?” Doctor Gin asks in a grumpy tone.
“Do you have to be a giant asshole?”
“So that’s a yes then.” Doctor Gin concedes even as the gel starts to shift again. “Already?”
“Hmm... too soon. I’ll need to run the numbers again.” Doctor Howard notes to himself.
“So is she safe to approach, or am I still an infection hazard?” Jurgen asks as he looms over the surgical tent.
“You’re fine. The girl just needs to let herself heal a little and she’s fine. The benefit to working on a Slohb is that their slime repels almost all known infectious agents. She’s producing more and her injuries are covered. She will be fine.” Doctor Lorn says.
“That’s a relief... Now...” Jurgen begins to say and then stops as the gel starts moving.
“Is... is it over? It feels like it’s over.” All Lady asks without forming any tendrils. Holding herself still as if afraid.
“Hold on a moment. The last bit of Blood Metal is being sealed away.” Harriett says before the final lock on the bio-hazard containment latches into place.
“Sealed!” A Medic reports.
“Good. Get that nightmare out of here and away from this poor woman.” Harriett says even as All Lady reconnects to her gel and things start moving.
“So it’s over? I can use Axiom on myself again?”
“Yes.” Doctor Gin says. “There are no longer any traces of...”
The gel RUSHES around and then rushes onto the core only to vanish. Like an entire waterfall landing in a single shot glass and being unable to fill it. Then suddenly it does as Dark Blue Gel surrounds the core and then it seems to invert and a singular, transparent and delicately detailed Gel woman is lounging in the surgical bed.
“I haven’t been able to be small and cute for years!” She exclaims in a giddy tone. “I can store all that gel again and my core! Oh this is great! I’ll be able to go up top! Feel the sunlight! Not starve as I feel myself bud over and over again without ever having a child... Oh thank you! Thank you little humans! This is everything I wished for but didn’t dare think I would truly gain.”
“Alright, so the patient is recovering... I hope? How did you hide your core like that?” Doctor Gin asks.
“One of the earliest Axiom techniques a Slohb learns, one I couldn’t use with that terrible stuff inside me.” All Lady says before she shifts around them. “Hee hee! I just shifted my everything between two people standing near each other! It took one move!”
“So I take it that you’ve gotten everything you’ve hoped for and more?” Jurgen asks and then in a single move All Lady launches herself onto him and wraps around his torso before rising up from it to hug him around the head.
“Yes! Yes yes yes! Thank you for bringing them! I was right to ask you for your help this is amazing I can finally leave this place!”
She then flits off him and shifts around the entire tent in moments. “Oh there’s just so much to do now! I couldn’t risk going anywhere if I couldn’t hide more core as is proper but now I can jump around as much as I want! Oh thank you!”
“Alright, calm down ma’am. If you can bring your core back for us to check, we need a final sample to make sure you’re not growing addicted to the anaesthesia or having grown dependant on the Blood Metal.” Doctor Lorn says and All Lady flits back into the tent, engorges her form over the surgical bed and suddenly her core is in it and she slips away from it ever so slightly. She pulls away all her gel and only a thin film covers it as the core, now much healthier, produces a little more. Doctor Lorn gently gathers some of the gel in a vial.
“Thank you, stick around until I’ve finished testing this.” Doctor Lorn says and he immediately begins testing.
•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•
Tiaria looks up as the door to her cell opens and she draws herself up to lambaste whoever it is thinks any of this is even slightly acceptable. Only to see a tiny figure pushing in a chair. They then rush out before she can question anything and returns to push in another, then repeats the pattern with a third.
“What is...” She begins before he rushes out before returning with a small trolley covered with treats and drinks that he drags in behind himself.
“Nearly there!” He says before sticking his head out of the room. “Miss Bleat! It’s time!”
“Bleat that...” Tiaria says before a woman wearing the mask of The Daughter walks in. Then out of the trolly the child brings out a Mask of The Midwife he holds out to her. He then puts on a mask of The Son as she takes the mask in confusion. “Wait... what is...”
She freezes as she recognizes the woman.
“Told you.” The little boy says as he pours a few drinks and then grabs a can of something cold and bright purple out of the trolley. He opens the can and it causes a strange sound before he drinks from it.
“So, do you feel sorry?” The woman in The Daughter mask asks.
“What?”
“I recognize you. It’s still you. You pushed me so hard into giving my assets up.” Miss Bleat says.
“I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Tiaria says simply.
“Then why’d you look so funny when she first came in?” The boy asks.
“I’m sorry, who are you young man? I can tell you’re a young man. Truly young. Healing comas leave a certain trace and you only have a touch of it. Likely no more than enough to save your life from an accident.”
“Enemy action actually.” The child notes as he takes a sip of his drink. “We got you. Now we need the other.”
“The other?” She asks.
“Who wore The Mother mask?” The boy asks and her eye twitches in memory. “So you DO know! That’s wonderful now...”
“I want my lawyers.” She says.
“Your assets are being looked over. You’ve been very, very naughty.” The boy says.
“Who are you?” She demands and he taps his mask. “You’re no son of mine.”
“You have no sons at all.” Herbert says before pointing to Miss Bleat. “Now, don’t you think you owe this lady an apology?”
“Excuse me?”
“She’s been having a very hard time after you and your friend took everything from her. At least an apology would be nice.” Herbert notes.
“...!? Is this all about an apology?”
“It’s about a lot of things. An apology is just one of them.” Herbert says.
“... Your insane.”
“Nope.” Herbert retorts before snagging a cookie. “Now you wanna play nice? Or nasty? Because you’ve played pretty nasty so far.”
“I have rights.”
“And you have trampled on the rights of others. Do you want to be treated in the same way you’ve treated them?” Herbert asks.
“Who are you?”
“Agent Herbert Jameson of the Undaunted.”
“You...”
“By many standards I am a child. However, I am also working with The Council and many of it’s powers and associates to get our hand on what The Darnaxian Concurrence got up to because it is a world of trouble. Literally, the whole world has felt it and...”
“...dead...” Tiaria mutters.
“Excuse me?”
“She’s dead! The woman in charge of it all! She’s dead! We were planning on keeping Bleat there in the know, pay her back and everything but the woman with all the codes and all the plans died to a stupid conspiracy that tainted the food supplies of a restaurant! One day things are fine, then she misses a call in, I go looking and I find out I missed her dying by six hours! She is deader than stone! Throw an engine into her corpse and all you get is dust because she is dead, cremated and done! The whole thing is finished! I lost all contact after that because there were no higher ups and there was no one else with any information! Dead! Gone! Wasted! Stupid! Finished! After everything she promised and planned and wheeled and dealed and scammed she didn’t have a single stupid backup so the moment she had a stupid accident with her goddess damn Llanwrack steak sauce being tainted the whole thing fell apart!”
Tiaria slumps back into her chair like a puppet with it’s strings cut. Panting, furious, exhausted emotionally and looking down until a bottle is placed in her view. It’s a personal favourite of hers. She tears out the stopper and downs it.
“What was her name?”
“Mariandia Lowbridge. She died of Lulathi Poisoning. Her favourite sauce has an identical taste and... She was dead in her seat. No one noticed until the waitress tried to get her attention far too late to help her. Just slumped down and done. I don’t know what she was making. She said she stumbled onto something big from an old club and kept it to herself. Said there would be big money in it and no one would get hurt. She just needed someone to keep things safe, which was me, and some start up funds, which was Bleat.” Tiaria says gesturing towards Gina who’s taken off her mask to just stare. “So what was the big secret? If people are getting kidnapped over it and The Council is taking interest it must have been big. What was the score? What was Lowbridge’s big promise?”
“... Blood Metal.” Herbert says.
“What?”
“A very rare metal that can normally only be created by turning someone’s own Axiom against them. It tortures the person to death and produces a few milligrams of the stuff.”
“What in the...”
“She found a way to make more, a lot more. Set up a lot of systems to automate things so well that we have literally the largest stash of the stuff in the history of the galaxy now. The price is incalculable because Blood Metal is illegal to own due to it’s horrific manufacturing method.”
“But if it could be produced safely, and en mass we could have named a price. Any price.”
“No. You see, Blood Metal is dangerous unstudied and could do anything. Just looking at it makes anyone feel uneasy, and the method of it’s mass production has contributed to the horrible nature of the bottom ten levels of the spires. Even worse, we have found one more thing it can do, which is that it will stab itself into a Slohb and torture them into budding uncontrollably, but render them unable to split, causing them to grow without end. There’s no telling what it would do to other races, it twists Axiom and draws it in too. Eating it for lack of a better term. There could have been a lot of money in it for you. But it would have only been a matter of time until everything went wrong.” Herbert says and Tiaria just stares into the middle distance, seeming to age centuries in seconds before she sighs.
“So it was all just a waste of time? Even if it worked, it would have just made us public enemies?” She asks and he nods. She slumps down into her seat and throws the now empty bottle away. Thankfully it’s plastic and not glass, otherwise it would have shattered. “So what now?”
“We confirm things, and then we see from there.” Herbert says. “Care for another drink?”
“Yes, please.”
~First~ Last

I am kindly asking for your guidance on where the logic connecting various entities and aggregate roots should reside. In our upcoming project, the code architecture will combine Domain-Driven Design (DDD), Clean Architecture (CA), Command Query Separation (CQS), and use-cases based on REST. Despite reading two books on these topics, numerous articles, and even consulting with Chat-GPT, there is still one aspect we don't fully understand: where to place the logic that connects multiple aggregate roots and domains in an ERP system.
I've considered many possibilities, but none seem satisfactory.
From my understanding:

• DDD is primarily a design approach, emphasizing that all logic should originate from the aggregate root.
• CQS involves separating commands and queries.
• Use-case driven architecture involves calling commands or queries to handle logic or data retrieval.
• Clean Architecture divides the system into layers to avoid mixing domain logic with persistence, presentation, and application layers. Crucially, the domain should not be aware of higher layers.

**Could you please explain where the logic that connects multiple aggregate roots and domains should be placed?**
Let me present the best workflow I've found so far. Let's take the Order Management domain as an example. There are three entities: Order, OrderLine, and OrderBatch. The domain layer will contain logic to ensure data correctness. Each entity will have value objects and methods for validating aspects such as quantity or stock, ensuring they aren't too low, and the SKU number. The persistence layer, in this case, is Entity Framework Core, which handles mapping to the RDBMS. We wont use the repository pattern (an extra abstraction layer is unnecessary, we won't be changing the ORM). So far, so good.
Now, let's discuss the challenges. We have a use case called "UpdateOrderBatch," which updates the quantity ordered in a particular batch. The controller will call the use case, which will then use... well what exactly?
Here is some pseudo-code:
```
USECASE UpdateOrderBatch
SELECT data for the entire aggregate root of the order (Orders, OrderLines, OrderBatches)
```

• Here, I don't know what to do with related domains like Inventory, Users, etc. I think they should also be selected.This approach certainly won't be efficient.

```
SELECT all related aggregate roots
The entire business logic validation lives here (like checking if stock can be decreased)
```

• I don't think it's desirable to split this into services because I doubt it will be reused in other use cases. Additionally, it spans multiple domains. Unless the logic for whether the quantity on OrderBatch can be changed should live inside the Order service, which would then handle multiple domains like Inventory, etc.

```
CALL reusable service methods (InventoryManagementService.DecreaseBatchStock, OrderService.SaveOrder, etc.)
```

• These services will operate only on aggregate roots.

My husband (50M) and I (48F) have been together for 15 years. He has had temper tantrums since the beginning of our relationship. 3 months after our wedding I told him to go see a therapist or we would split up. He did so. But after that, he still would drive fast when he would be upset with me, with me in the car, and it was terrifying. I spoke to him about it one evening, and after that, he never did so again. But he still suffered from depression and mood swings. I tried to 'be there for him', but he didn't want to talk about things, and I had no idea what to do anymore for him. I googled, and looked for info, and in the end, I tried to give him space, and I would do things by myself. I felt very lonely, because this meant that he wouldn't be there for me either.
But the bad moods and the (threat of the) tantrums remained. I felt I walked on egg shells all the time. I stopped inviting him to join me to events (also to work events, even when I received an award. He also skipped my birthday parties), because I was afraid of a scene afterwards. I just didn't feel at ease when he was around, because I felt I had to manage his mood. It was easier without him.
I have to admit, that while he didn't feel emotional secure, he did offer financial security, which I always appreciated. He earns a lot, and I am freelance and don't always have jobs, and when I do I earn at least 3 times less than him. I don't have access to a common account, though, he transfers money to my account once a month. It very much feels like he has the money and I have none. And because I work less, I feel I am not entitled to his money. We don't have kids, so it still feels like his money and mine. So we have savings, but I don't have access to them.
Last year, I was working on a very stressful project, and it all got too much. I felt so alone. He also had an injury, where he was in pain, and he got so upset, and yelled that he wanted a divorce and hadn't been happy in years. So, we talked and agreed that he would move out for 6 months. He has now moved back in, because the lease was up on the other place, and we wanted to see if it would work out after a calming down period.
Last week we went out with friends, first time in months. Going back home it was late, and usually we take the tram home, but we missed the last one. We walked to a taxi stand, and his injury was bothering him, and he was in pain. At the taxi stand, the drivers told us the price was double than usual (which often happens on a weekend night), and my husband got really upset and yelled at them that this was not normal, and moving towards the driver like he wanted to fight. I understand he was tired, frustrated and in pain, but he is an adult. I literally had to shove him to the other side of the street to solve the situation. He then insisted to take the night bus, so we waited for 20 min and then it was another 45 min to get home. On the bus I was on edge, hoping nothing else happened to set him off. He once hit the seat in front of him, and then apologized to the person sitting in front of us.
When he moved back in, I told him that it was on the condition that he would be able to manage his emotions, that I would no longer feel responsible to do it for him. This to me is proof that nothing really has changed. This relationship takes so much of my energy and time, trying to figure it out, thinking it through how to get it right, and I never get it right. We talked today and he said he felt very hurt that I always have so much empathy for others, but none for him, and that I didn't even take his side, but just judged him for losing control. And that is what I did, but I don't feel sorry. He didn't apologize, he didn't say anything about scaring me, putting me in a difficult position by starting a quarrel. He said that he has always given me everything and he has been lovely and generous. But that doesn't excuse or eradicate this event.
At this moment, I am done with this relationship. I have tried, I have waited, but it seems the patterns don't change, just the way in which he acts out: first cars, then hitting things in the house, slamming doors, now this. I am afraid about the financial insecurity when separating, but I do want to be in a place where I feel safe. Am I exaggerating? SHould I see his side of things?