I've dealt with years of depression, to the point I'd be crying in the shower pretty often, but lately its transcended that into a whole new stage of grief. I feel so worthless in every regard in life, all I've ever wanted is to be loved. I don't want a dashing career, a nice house, lots of money, power, or anything like that. All I want is to have friends to who love and care about me and vice versa, or a partner who I can love and cherish. I'll spend hours every night fantasising about a girlfriend who loves me, or a group of friends who I laugh and have with. I've probably built thousands of hours worth of stories and daydreams just to deal with the loneliness.
I'm so irredeemable in my day to day life, I don't have any merits. I have no self-confidence and I'm very sure that everyone sees me as a degenerate loser. I must talk and look so strange all the time, I feel embarrassed and ashamed that others even have to look at me or talk to me, I feel sorry for them.
I'm turning 21 soon and I've never held down a job, never learnt to drive, never gotten a girlfriend and I have no redeeming skills or qualities. I am absolutely worthless to this society. Growing up I had my teeth knocked out and my parents never corrected my horrible speech impediments, resulting in me having no idea how to say certain sounds. I can't speak coherently and I feel so ostracised because of it. Imagine going your entire formative years with so much to say but no voice to have it heard, speech is something you use all day everyday and I don't even have that. All I want is a nice group of friends that I can talk with, but I how do even go about that if no one can understand me?
I tried to work on my pronunciation via YouTube tutorials, but having my confidence diminished and my speech rejected has made it impossible for me to attempt it with anyone else. At the gym I tried striking up a conversation with someone and she just looked at me blankly, then asked if I needed help. This may sound like nothing, but having no voice is one of the most isolating experiences imaginable.
What's worse is I feel alone in my struggles. This isn't even a common problem people grow up with. My parents didn't understand a word I would say yet would constantly reassure me that I sounded 'fine' and it was just their deaf ears. I don't care if they were trying to spare my feelings, that's not something you do to a child in his formative years who can't even fucking speak to a friend at a school, or raise his hand in lesson, or do any number of things knowing not a single person will understand him. I can't even afford a speech therapist and I have no idea what jobs I can do near me that require 0 talking and someone who has no confidence whatsoever. All the conventional advice and wisdom applies to those who already have the ability to voice themselves clearly.

1. Cosmic Nexus:
   
   • In a universe teeming with interconnected realms, create a world where the laws of physics vary across different dimensions. How do these variations impact the inhabitants, their societies, and the potential for interdimensional travel? What cosmic phenomena shape the balance between order and chaos?
2. Sentient Magic:
   
   • Construct a world where magic is not just a force but a sentient entity with its own desires and motivations. How does this magical consciousness influence the spellcasting abilities of individuals, and what role does it play in the geopolitical landscape? What ethical dilemmas arise when magic itself possesses intentions?
3. Temporal Tapestry:
   
   • Imagine a world where time is not a linear progression but a vast tapestry of interwoven threads. How do the inhabitants navigate this temporal landscape, and what consequences arise from altering specific threads? What relics or artifacts serve as temporal anchors, and how do they influence the course of history?
4. Celestial Mandate:
   
   • Develop a world where the governance of nations is directly influenced by celestial bodies, each bestowing unique powers and challenges. How do rulers harness the energy of celestial alignments, and how do they navigate the delicate balance of power between solar, lunar, and stellar influences? What celestial events trigger significant societal changes?
5. Ephemeral Realms:
   
   • Create a world where reality itself is malleable, with shifting landscapes and ephemeral realms that defy conventional understanding. How do the inhabitants adapt to the ever-changing nature of their environment? What creatures thrive in these mutable landscapes, and how does the concept of permanence challenge societal norms and aspirations?

Hi guys, I'm currently going into senior year (2025 graduate) at a high school in Dallas and I’m wondering if anyone has feedback as to what my chances of getting in to the School of Business are (Supply Chain Management hopefully). Thanks!
stats: SAT: 1440 (Math: 690, Reading: 750)
GPA:
Unweighted 4.0: 3.71
Weighted: 4.34
Class Rank: Not top 10 (school only ranks top 10%)
I’ve taken 9 AP/IBs so far (calc AB, Physics 1, Envi Sci, etc), next year I will be taking 4 more.
Extracurriculars: VEX robotics engineering lead, TSA chapter officer (national finalist for transportation modeling competition), volunteer at airport, national honor society
Job: Mathnasium math tutor
Internships: NASA/UT SEES Earth Systems intern, 3D printing technician for school.
tbh I think my GPA is mediocre and is kinda holding me back. Also, my extracurriculars are super STEM oriented and honestly idk how admissions councilors would view that. I would love to get some feedback! I’m also sorry if it’s to early to ask but again thanks.

1. There is overly attached girlfriend at dans house for the dang last time and sasha gets missing now and is in suite 403 and I unborn dan in suite 404 for no bad or good reason just that It is a Conspiracy Card which was played and I played Saint Disconnects Reward against dans Overly Attached Girlfriend and this makes his deepest fantasy true orgasming as a young baby around me violet a baby and dan literally ejaculates enough baby DNA as a baby inside me I have sasha in the Third Overworld from dan's Fourth Underworld, who dan the man and dancubed both were on liberty island way too long so I send dan the man to suite 403, daddy reason, and dan cubed is here with me and we are talking in the same accent and same dialect and this triggers his loam of dadcubed here in the shower with violet which this is the technical term and we go through battlefield one and MC2 and BF3 together until a APV where instead of being the pilot of the APV dan is evacuated by APV and he gets enough surgery to goto BF2042 and he is into a service 2042 and then serves so realistically and readially with his existing loam for a radial fracture or whatever he is home to me and we as going to a year old are taught by each other under mainly loam and some hind98 that we are fighter jet pilots and this doxxes my knowledge pegboard to me and it is not pegboard nerds and dan knows this from A-10 simulator I just need his pegboard to me in the shower of F16 Fighting Falcon D over the next 2 years which then we are children and we can no longer use the hind and this is later in the day from already using the hind and I have to multiple times go in as FSB to GTA IV and get him out and niko nates friend the true 1718 in and fuckin crash niko a lot and extract him and this should bear no particular trauma to dan as he is in the shower with me and Then Saint Disconnects Reward happens forever more he sees loam not has loam and this happens only to dan and me like it happened to city and me and I start teaching Dancubed who he demands a special letter in his name quote hyperbolic end quote drill oil plastic blueprint which this is all I need he needs this this is his temu item and he has actually the same PC as me an OMEN VI now forged by aliens famously and he is so hyper for christmas at age 9 and I wait there fucking him and stand for the first time with him now and fuck him 6 years until i am pregnant always signing always being dadcubed to him which he will need romanaj deprogramming now and owns all the baby dna inside his violet roze and he is the father of a baby who he teaches the baby in the suite 402 shower romanaj of the oil field which I taught him and she can see da wae now dan is literally hyperbolic and only has max so his oil field is the max field but he doesnt go there he just waits until his mommy is out of the shower at age 12 with 2 more babies and has redline medicine from cum spewing out her nostril on 29 battalion of marine and then dan has a child and the marines have two child and me and sasha engage all marines for 9 years I give redline medicine on these same 29 battalion including letting nasal sex like dan taught me to get them marijuana redlines and then me and sasha have squatters rights on the shower and sasha thought resisting with blues was funny so through the whole time she is a daddy funny she is given cervical dilation as Sasha Princess at the First Underworld which this makes her willing again like dan requested but they cannot be together for contraindication with dans christmas present, before violet rozes shooting by the police that brought her here, she had 14 oil, not 5 oil, and even a medicine chest oil, and computer oil, who dan can meet the always estudious father of dan netanyahu as benjamin netanyahu here, or if he greets him as a tactical officer and is not WWI then he can join the IDF with his violet here in the Second Underworld exiting him from the Third Underworld with violet replacing Jacob, who Jacob has a squad curse on him so has to operate in his own squad so was not wanted by hake as a battle buddy and Violet's Gynecologist Hake who is a child Gynecologist is ready to serve and Dancubed's Battle Buddy and then they wait 9 years in a mental hospital or until they decline marijuana until they are 29 and serve 29 guard operations as national guard in these 8 years and are in korea then for the time and are always in honor during the time then they are granted freedom in their own domicile with their own announcement to babies like clement puppy or others separate or together clement and puppy at age 29 and they had sold the shower then to blackwater for 700,000$ first underworld and then they stream which they have the same voice but not the same person that violet impersonates dan and they stream as the actual cubism of dan is that violet then overdubs dan not dan overdubs dan for his live stream and then 60 years or until they are well they live not 100 but 99 and had dementia as old people so are unborn in the shower and Dancubed leads the excercise this time and in the third case Dadcubed leads the excercise the fourth case as then Netanyahu is somehow in dishonor which seems impossible as a statesman and nationbuilder then I need Nationbuilding For Beginners in its text as a baby darappa by definition from dadcubed but this seems very difficult impossible this is then I will do nationbuilding and form a nation then beyond israel, i already did israel and we are then got do this 1,400,000 two times or as a statesman I will be thrown from the shower when I am ready by netanyahu and he will have the squatters rights regardless which is a naughty motive to him then and the 1,400,000$ goes to the mother of the mommy Violet Roze Marian in the overworld Leslie Marian for payment.

Hi guys, I'm currently going into senior year (2025 graduate) at a high school and I’m wondering if anyone has feedback as to what my chances of getting in to NJSM are (BS Supply Chain Management hopefully). Thanks!
stats: SAT: 1440 (Math: 690, Reading: 750)
GPA:
Unweighted 4.0: 3.71
Weighted: 4.34
Class Rank: Not top 10 (school only ranks top 10%)
I’ve taken 9 AP/IBs so far (calc AB, Physics 1, Envi Sci, etc), next year I will be taking 4 more.
Extracurriculars: VEX robotics engineering lead, TSA chapter officer (national finalist for transportation modeling competition), volunteer at airport (60+ hours), national honor society
Job: Mathnasium math tutor; Internships: NASA SEES Earth Systems intern, 3D printing technician for school.
tbh I think my GPA is mediocre and is kinda holding me back. Also, my extracurriculars are super STEM oriented and honestly idk how admissions councilors would view that. I would love to get some feedback! I’m also sorry if it’s to early to ask but again thanks.

Today's anniversaries are:
1937

• Alban Berg - Lulu (opera)

2009

• Jordan Rudess - Notes on a Dream (Rock)

2010

• Té - 敢えて、理解を望み縺れ尽く音声や文字の枠外での『約束』を。 (Aete, rikai o nozomi motsure kotogotoku onsei ya moji no wakugai de no “yakusoku” o.) (Asian Music, Pop)

2012

• Sean Archibald - Sean but Not Heard (electronic, ambient, bass, bass music, beats, experimental, experimental electronic, microtonal, numbers, split-notes, United Kingdom)

2015

• Codas - Currents (experimental, metal, drone, drone ambient, heavy, industrial, instrumental, mathcore, progressive metal, New York)
  
• Consider the Source - World War Trio (Parts Ⅱ & Ⅲ) (experimental, rock, world, instrumental, jazz, progressive, New York)
  
• Leprous - The Congregation (Rock, Hard Rock, Metal)
  
• Pyrrhon - Growth without End (extreme metal, metal, death metal, progressive death metal, progressive metal, technical death metal, New York)
  
• Sein zum Tode - Siamese Second Cousins Never Removed (metal, avant-garde metal, circus music, Columbia) Read our review.
  
• The ILY's - I've Always Been Good at True Love (Alternative, Rock, Indie Rock/Rock pop)
  

2016

• Féroces - Juliette (rock, new wave, post-rock, Besançon) Read our review.
  
• Instar - Instar (metal, ambient, progressive, Austin)
  

2017

• '68 - Two Parts Viper (hard rock, noise punk, punk, rock, blues rock, math rock, noise rock, post-hardcore, post-punk, Atlanta)
  
• A Trust Unclean - Parturition (death metal, djent, metal, progressive metal, technical metal, heavy metal, United Kingdom)
  
• Art Contest - Two Songs (rock, indie rock, math rock, noise, pop, probability & statistics, Georgia)
  
• Dark Matter Secret - Perfect World Creation (technical death metal, progressive metal, Nashville)
  
• Dougmore - Outerboros (folk, art folk, avant-folk, banjo, chamber folk, dreamfolk, indie, indie folk, lush, mythic, progressive bluegrass, psychedelic, psychedelic folk, singer-songwriter, storytelling, New York)
  
• Dystopian Future Movies - Time (alternative, garage rock, hard rock, post-rock, prog-rock, psychedelic rock, Nottingham)
  
• Eidola - To Speak, to Listen (experimental rock, groove rock, post-hardcore, progressive metal, Provo)
  
• Elder - Reflections of a Floating World (rock, armageddon shop, doom, heavy psychedelic rock, prog, progressive rock, stickman records, Berlin)
  
• Emperor of Mind - Resistance (atmospheric, experimental, metal, progressive metal, djent, mathcore, Salem)
  
• Fabian Almazan & Rhizome - Alcanza (jazz, chamber music, cuba, piano, New York)
  
• Gentiane Michaud-Gagnon Trio - Eternal Cycle (jazz, Montreal)
  
• Ghost - Everything We Touch Turns to Dust (ambient, denver, electronica, experimental, idm, electro, electro-acoustic, Oakland)
  
• Gravetemple - Áthatolhatatlan félelmek (Impassable Fears) (experimental, drone, experimental, free rock, metal, ritual, New York)
  
• Hands that Lift the Oceans - Impetus (black metal, experimental, metal, post black metal, Würzburg)
  
• Hot Flash Heat Wave - Soaked (dream pop, oakland, pop, rock, bedroom pop, dreampop, new wave, post-punk, psychedelic rock, San Francisco)
  
• Human - Fractured Lands (improvisation, improvised, jazz, new music, London)
  
• Inertia - The Process (alternative, metal, pop, rock, alternative rock, ambient, dark, darkpop, djent, post-hardcore, post-rock, radio rock, Apple Valley)
  
• Miss Cantaloupe - Miss Cantaloupe (alternative, avant rock, enchanting, ethereal, fairytale, psychadelic, Philadelphia)
  
• Mutoid Man - War Moans (rock, metal, punk, New York)
  
• Orchestre national de jazz de Montréal - Under the Influence Suite (Jazz)
  
• Sikth - The Future in Whose Eyes? (Metal)
  
• Thunkfish - Renegades (jazz, experimental, funk, fusion jazz, pthronk, rock, sample-based, Edinburgh)
  
• Time Lurker - Time Lurker (black metal, atmospheric black metal, metal, atmospheric, France)
  
• Völur - Ancestors (ambient folk, metal, doom metal, folk, Toronto)
  

2018

• Spectral Wound - Infernal Decadence (black metal, metal, power pop, Montreal)

2019

• Alex Fournier Sextet - Triio (jazz, canada, canadian jazz, creative music, free jazz, improv, jazz, new music, toronto, Toronto)
  
• Bitter Lake - New Branches on Old Trees (metal, avant-garde metal, black metal, jazzcore, post black metal, United Kingdom)
  
• The Pen Club - Data Retrieval (contemporary jazz, jazz, free jazz, Sydney) Read our review.
  
• Άντη Σκορδή (Andys Skordis) - In… Se… (gamelan opera) Read our review.
  

2020

• Hex Wound - Averse to the Universe (blackened death metal)
  
• Pixel Archipelago - Intervallic Prism (experimental rock, microtonal)
  

2021

• Clément Janinet - La Litanie des cimes (contemporary classical)
  
• Ivy to Fraudulent Game - 再生する (Saisei suru) (math rock)
  
• Skeletonized Quartet - Future Shock (avant-garde jazz)
  

2022

• Black Particles - Loss Function (post-metal)
  
• Etno histeria World Orchestra - 2021 (folk)
  
• Neperia - Ptesmata (symphonic death metal)
  
• Nito - Awakening (post-rock)
  

2023

• A Fool's Errand - The Art of Leaving Things Behind (post-rock)
  
• Adjy - June Songs, Volume 1 (progressive folk rock)
  
• Æffect - Theory of Mind (progressive death metal)
  
• After Ours - Music for Cats (nu jazz)
  
• Ash Trio - Ash (jazz fusion)
  
• Cloutchaser - Metallica (mathcore)
  
• David T Little - Black Lodge (contemporary opera)
  
• Depuis l'abîme - L'Incendie (post-hardcore)
  
• Einar Solberg - 16 (pop)
  
• Gorgeous - Sapsucker (avant-prog)
  
• Goyard Ibn Said & غيث (Ghais Guevara) - Goyard Comin': Exordium (experimental hip-hop)
  
• Hills like White Lions - Meander (progressive metal)
  
• Illegal Crowns - Unclosed (free improvisation)
  
• Jack Cooper - Arrival (contemporary classical)
  
• John Liberatore, played by Zohn Collective - Catch Somewhere (chamber music)
  
• Joshua Jaswon Octet - Polar Waters (modern jazz)
  
• Kid Millions & Sarah Bernstein - Forest Park Live (free improvisation)
  
• Knower - Knower Forever (pop)
  
• Koningsor - Death Process (mathcore)
  
• Lars Fredrik Frøislie - Fire fortellinger (progressive rock)
  
• Lausch - Love & Order (alternative rock)
  
• Linda May Han Oh - The Glass Hours (modern jazz)
  
• Mary Ancheta Quartet - Level Up (jazz fusion)
  
• McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz‽ (hip-hop)
  
• Moral Collapse - Divine Prosthetics (progressive death metal)
  
• Nōn serviam - Death Ataraxia (experimental black metal)
  
• OK Goodnight - The Fox & the Bird (progressive rock)
  
• Phonem - Geometriks (modern jazz)
  
• Pupil Slicer - Blossom (mathcore)
  
• Quiet Sonia - Quiet Sonia (slowcore)
  
• Risin Sabotage - Macabre (stoner rock)
  
• Sarah Pagé - Voda (ambient classical)
  
• Sébastien Parent - Projet Seb Parent (big band jazz)
  
• Signe Emmeluth's Onomatopoesia - Syntax (modern jazz)
  
• Solarium - Aube/Nocturne (jazz fusion)
  
• Sophie Ellis-Bextor - 花 (Hana) (pop)
  
• Surema - Surema (post-metal)
  
• Thantifaxath - Hive Mind Narcosis (avant-garde black metal)
  
• Travis Orbin - Travis Orbin (progressive metal)
  
• Unfurl - Ascension (blackened post-hardcore)
  
• Vacuous - Katabasis (death metal)
  
• Void of Nihility - Above the Stars of God (avant-garde black metal)
  
• Vulfmon - Vulfnik (funk)
  
• Yoni Mayraz - Dybbuk Tse! (nu jazz)
  

Hi guys, I'm currently going into senior year (2025 graduate) at a high school in Dallas and I’m wondering if anyone has feedback as to what my chances of getting in to the School of Business are (BBA Supply Chain Management hopefully). Thanks!
stats: SAT: 1440 (Math: 690, Reading: 750)
GPA:
Unweighted 4.0: 3.71
Weighted: 4.34
Class Rank: Not top 10 (school only ranks top 10%)
I’ve taken 9 AP/IBs so far (calc AB, Physics 1, Envi Sci, etc), next year I will be taking 4 more.
Extracurriculars: VEX robotics engineering lead, TSA chapter officer (national finalist for transportation modeling competition), volunteer at airport, national honor society
Job: Mathnasium math tutor; Internships: NASA SEES Earth Systems intern, 3D printing technician for school.
tbh I think my GPA is mediocre and is kinda holding me back. Also, my extracurriculars are super STEM oriented and honestly idk how admissions councilors would view that. I would love to get some feedback! I’m also sorry if it’s to early to ask but again thanks.

I'm asking this question to liberals (but whoever can answer) because a lot of the truly egregious cases seem to be conservative. We all know about the Fox News vs. Dominion suit. We see the the falsehoods that Trump posts on an almost daily basis. Every conservative network has their talking heads hammering the same points that very frequently have falsehoods sprinkled in. (I said conservative network because... I'm not sure I even am aware of a liberal network anymore, NPR qualifies, although their bias takes form in a different sort of way.) The thing that triggered this question: I'm in a rental car and I'm listening to a conservative radio station with a syndicated host. The host straight up said Biden tried to assassinate Trump during the Maralago raid. He then said the Democrats are now going to jail all of their political opponents, including Gingrich if he went on to replace the jailed Trump. This was not spoken as opinion, it was fact. He said you can look up anything he says. I am not mincing words, he said he tried to assassinate him.
I find media like this laughable, because it's SO predictable. The gym I go to has Fox and CNN on right next to each other, and I like seeing what they both are reporting on at different times of day with different hosts. As expected, Fox never reports on any of Trump's "bad" behavior, only his rallies. They speak about how Biden is trying to destroy democracy, while somehow never mentioning their guy literally tried just that. We had to endure for an entire year how the election was stolen, a lie that they KNEW was a lie, and would've kept lying about if Dominion didn't sue them. And I find this across all conservative media. Narratives that are so tailored to an agenda. Trump himself constantly says things that aren't true.
But that's what this country allows, yes? First amendment and all that. Understandable. I don't want a country that's allowed to prohibit speech, especially political speech. If you want to call the president a choad that's your right. But what do you do when the things that are being said... or reported... are just lies? It's become apparent that many, many people are trapped in their own echo chambers. Monetized outrage and political grifting are the hottest they've ever been due to social media and video. I get sad when I see how programmed people are becoming. Politics is no longer about helping everyone, it's about deadlocked party lines, and this has "trickled down" to the populace.
I can't help but feel that hearing things on the radio like "Biden tried to assassinate Trump" isn't doing anyone any favors and seems... wrong, but I don't know what should be done about it. There are puppet masters riling up the masses for their own gain and it won't end well if it keeps rising. A "News" network telling people for a year straight that the election was stolen seems criminal. They just settle and move on to the next outrage, real or fabricated. THIS IS MY OPINION, but it seems like it's doing real harm to folks who aren't privy to the manipulation.
I don't think many would disagree with me that this isn't healthy as a nation. But what could, or should, be done about it, if anything? And if it comes down to not allowing fabrications on the airwaves, who gets to decide that? Clearly it just can't be whoever's in power, that renders it meaningless. I can't think of any solution that's not an abusable slippery slope. The system is built on people having morals. When that goes out the window, what do we have left?
Or am I blowing this out of proportion and am overestimating it's effect?

I can only speak about Japan, it's getting bad in regards to over-tourism. For instance in Kyoto, there was a tourist acting like a some sort of papparazzi bothering the Geisha walking around, she was reprimanded by another tourist saying that it's rude (rightly so) as the Geisha was just trying her best to not interfere as she's working. You can't do that, as Geisha are humans like everybody else, they don't like to be bothered by unruly tourists up close.

(Plus Japan has strict privacy laws about posting a photo portrait someone's face up close without permission on social media, as you can get sued for breaching their right to privacy.)

The thing is that Japan has unspoken rules (even for the slightest ones) including etiquette that may not cross over to Western culture, which is why Western tourists often fail to understand or completely disregard it, since they think "It's Asia, who cares!" but that kind of mentality is wrong! Thinking it's okay to do stuff Japan deems inappropriate or act like idiots is just crazy.

(A traveler has to be culturally aware of where they are in the world regardless of the country they are currently in, there are mannerisms that are acceptable in their home country but frowned upon in foreign land.)
Apart from Westerners, tourists from both China and South Korea frequently travel to Japan, due to their geographical proximity to their home countries. However there are mannerisms from their own country that aren't tolerated in Japan. (i.e. spitting on the floor)
I swear, what attracts tourists is: video games, anime & pokemon! It's one of the biggest reasons why they end up bringing a empty suitcase to only fill it with nothing but snacks, games, QoL items from Japan.

It's disgusting when tourists in Kyoto (especially in Gion or the Geisha district) are acting like paparazzi whenever they spot a Geisha or Maiko, constantly invading their space approaching right in their faces, that is so rude! pretending as if they are celebrities or actresses, they ask the question on "can I take photo of you" with the attitude of "I want your autograph!" Its ridiculous!
[The thing with Kyoto is that it's a living exhibit, rather than the "typical" art museum vibe.] There are even cases of tourists harassing them, pulling their hair, putting out cigarette butts on their kimonos or tearing their attire, it's bad! (That's disrespectful, since they put a lot of effort on applying that make up and dressing themselves for what they do for a living!) To the point the local government in Kyoto restricted (but didn't ban) tourist presence within private roadways.
[Japanese news segment talking about trash (or food scraps) left on the floor by tourists after visiting Gion and Kyoto despite bins present in the area!] with some of them eating while walking, which is frowned upon in Japan. As a manager from one of the stores showed photos from the last time tourists were present, a 3 bins shown are full and clogged, thus giving tourists an incentive to litter.

Even in other parts of the city, tourists leave empty bottles of soju including other beverages out in the street and pavement! Not being bothered to clean up after themselves.

They are now deterring tourists from entering private roads where Geisha's hang out with a penality of ¥10000 (59€) for trespassing, this applies to everyone - not just tourists. They should not be trespassing on private property, like at all!
Just recently, there are tourists caught trespassing on those private roads. (However the signage is working as a deterent for most, due to the fine imposed.) but like anywhere else there will be bad apples in the bunch who will of course, trespass on private property.

I mean, you can still go to Kyoto, but please... have some manners, that is what they are asking from visitors, as it's a living art museum that has been preserved for centuries to this day, which what makes Kyoto fascinating to visit in the first place.
Even though there are public streets, some of the surrounding ones are deemed private property (which tourists are unaware of.) I also hate the misinformation from "Western" media regarding a "Tourist Ban" - it's not true, you can still go there, but just comply with the rules.

A tourist was caught on video ringing a bell at Yasaka Shrine (which is used for ceremonial purposes) not for playing around, they actually barred off the rope attached to the bell since that happened. (Just because Japan is not a "Christian" country, doesn't mean you get to disrespect their culture and relgion, it's gross!)
For example, in Japan: there was news coverage about tourists being careless on the roadway despite orange traffic cones and a barrier visible on the side of the road intended to dissuade them, tourists either halted incoming vehicles & traffic standing in the middle of the road (MEANT FOR CARS!) just to take a picture of Mt. Fuji. [It's reckless and dangerous if you ask me.]
Some tourists STAND or SIT on the barrier, which is just like, why? Japan has a habit on indirectly solving any problem rather than confronting it head on, so they would rather install a fence to deter tourists rather than closing the road entirely to redirect incoming traffic, like instead of improving the infrastructre Kawaguchiko near Fuji, they just want to barricade the view.
You're probably thinking "Why can't they just close the road and redirect the cars elsewhere? So the tourists can happy." It's because confrontation is frowned upon in Japan, in order to not tarnish their reputation, they instead come up with indirect and descrete approaches on providing solutions to the issue at hand i.e. such as over-tourism, it's nothing new.
For example, they would put signage in Kyoto to deter or convince tourists rather than actually confronting them. Due to Japan being a collectivist society where social harmony reigns, where you need an unanimous vote to rule in your favor without any objections from all parties in regards to decision making when talking about matters like this from a governmental or societal standpoint.

(As opposed to Europe & The West where individualism is valued, Japan is more of "We have to do this as a team" mentality rather than "I want to do this for myself only")

There's more from that clip: (Mainly in Shizuoka)

• Tourists standing in the middle of the traffic lane divider to pose and snap pictures [Mind you - There's incoming vehicles while they are doing all of this!]
• Even the news reporter covering the story advised a tourist against taking a photo / selfie while standing on the road divider also treading on it.
• Tourists in Kawaguchiko were partially obstructing the road (not moving out of the way!) to let an INCOMING TRUCK pass, so the driver had to swerve to the right to avoid running them over.
• Tourists flooded another spot「夢の大橋」("Pont de rêve") for taking pictures of the mountain, walking up the stairway for the "instagrammable" picture.
• [4:41] They even caught tourists JAYWALKING in the middle of the roadway even though there's incoming traffic. (Despite the cones and barriers present.)
• There's a group of tourists who were standing on the side of the road divider with incoming traffic loitering there. (Even a van drove right past them, as it's a ROAD - NOT A SIDEWALK!)
• [6:33-6:52] A tourist was standing behind a vehicle then approached the driver. (You can't halt vehicles in the middle of the road and distract the driver! - It's insane!)
• [6:59] Tourists posing in the middle of the lane divider for their "instagram" pics. (You are not allowed to loiter in the road divider!)
• [8:30] A mother and daughter who were tourists TRESPASSED on private property, as there was a sign displaying「立入禁止」("INTERDICTION D'ENTRER!") treading on the premises.
• Of course, tourists litter and leave trash on the street, since Japan has no bins available at public places. (only at designated spots.)
• Even the locals in that area are starting to complain and getting fed up with tourists constantly populating the area - violating the rules, being a 迷惑 ("Nuisances")

Tourists standing on the barrier with their own two feet, which again is not allowed. Even the ministry of transportation put out a clear statement regarding implmenting countermeasures on a location you are not meant to tread on (or be jaywalking) so their solution is to "install a barrier" to deter them. But we know how that will end up, tourists still disregard the fact there's an barrier installed.
There's another spot where tourists now can take a picture of Fuji, it's some stairway of an overhead bridge, but people again cross the road (or jaywalk) just to reach it. Not long ago, a female tourist from Tunisia was run over by an incoming vehicle (due to her standing in the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD) for the "instagrammable" picture of the mountain. [in Kawaguchiko this happened.]
Speaking of Kawaguchiko (which is not originally a tourist destination until now), the Lawsons there including Mt. Fuji are always featured on as the backdrop of every TikTok talking about tourism in Japan (alongside Kyoto) Yep, there were even 2 tourists caught jaywalking disregarding the ACTUAL pedestrian crossing. Some tourists are standing on the store's sign posts positioned nearby (that have running electricity and LEDs.) using that as a makeshift tripod for their iPhones!
In regards to Mt. Fuji, from TikTok there are so many "copy cat" itinerary submissions, even the thumbnails are basically the 'same' you can literally see the similarities [down below]. (hence why there are so many tourists flooding the area), like this:
These are just a few examples, but for the most part they are similar to one another the further you scroll down. They all want that \"instagrammability\" of that particular spot, in front of a Lawson. (It's ridiculous.)
Like what was happening in Kawaguchiko, the same is now happening in Fujiyoshida, at a pedestrian crossing, despite a security guard being present, people still disregarded rules about crossing the road, at around [3:00] from the video, the driver of an incoming vehicle had to honk at the tourist standing in the middle of the road so they can pass. (It's stupid.) Of course they were honked at by the driver (He's probably like: "What the hell is this idiot doing here standing in the middle of the road for cars!"), as you're not meant to loiter there halting traffic!

• [0:29-0:40] In Kawaguchiko, a Lawson store employee scolded a tourist to step off a strangers vehicle. (As he was posing for a selfie for instagram.)
• [0:42-0:48] Groups of tourists jaywalk again, when it is ill-advised, even a car just drove past. Even some are stalling traffic!
• [2:49] There's a female tourist posing for a selfie in the middle of the road (while the main traffic light is green!) meaning that cars are still driving past, not the pedestrians turn to cross.
• [3:41] The news reporter even warned a Chinese tourist to not stand in the middle of the road, regardless he didn't listen until an incoming vehicle was about to approach them as the reporter warned him that it's dangerous to stand on the road!
• [4:05] A tourist again, standing in the middle of the pedestrian crossing! The vehicle in red had to honk since that tourist refused to move out of the way! (It's insane! How can you not simply just move so the car can pass!?)
• [5:30] Carvings of [who's here] or their [instagram account] are found etched on the stone walls of the tea plantation (at Obuchi Sasaba) insribed in many languages. (You can't be doing that! That's still vandalism, as it's still within the plantation grounds.)

Since Japan started installing a black tarp obstructing the view of Mt. Fuji, tourists still poked holes through it. It's not opaque as you can partially see through it, or walk to the otherside where a Lawson stands, but some still jaywalk disregarding the actual pedestrian crossing even when there's a cop or security guard present.
From this video, a complaint filed by a dental clinic within the area, stating that tourists are leaving trash or left over food scraps near their premises, loitering on the steps approaching their clinic (only patients are allowed to enter) the clinic. Here, there are even complaints from the clinic mentioning about tourists parking their bikes on bike racks only designated for patients entering their clinic, along with trespassing on their premises. Even the dentist himself took photos regarding tourists loitering outside the clinic, patients are having a hard time getting inside because of this.
Not forgetting that they are trespassing on the rooftop, to the point the dentist (or the staff) resorted to calling the police multiple times due to this! Again, tourists were told to move out of the way or move their belongings to let incoming vehicles pass to park their cars at a Lawson. (Even the driver of a incoming truck had to honk at them! so they can move.)
Just last year, Mt. Fuji itself was suffering from an over-tourism problem on its own since tourists are dying to climb to the summit, but some were ill equipped for the journey. (There was even girl caught wearing shorts and sandals upon the trip to the summit - not suitable for climbing!) Some climbers show up shirtless creating a makeshift bonfire.

Public facilities are vandalized or damaged due to over-tourism, now they are enforcing an entry fee of ¥2000 (11,70€) to enter Mt. Fuji because of this! Tourists leave trash everywhere, crowds of them wanting to head to the summit in large gatherings, which causes problems such as overcapacity. (Some climbers even started arguing / causing a scene towards guides!)
Don't get me wrong, tourists do show up with proper gear (i.e. spiked shoes, ice axes, etc.) and attire heading for the summit, but there are bad apples who literally show up with shorts or singlet, which is not advised on a place like this since it's cold up there! You're climbing up a mountain after all. (Heading to the top is their main objective, with stop overs.)

There was a female tourist who literally by passed the fence / yellow line (like the one you stand behind upon waiting for a incoming train) went on the tracks just to take a selfie with her boyfriend! (Disregarding that she's at the station in Kyoto were other commuters are present, a train is going to show up eventually.) Stupid, reckless and dangerous if you ask me, it's like as if she wants to be hit by an incoming train.
In December 2023: In Tokyo, tourists where holding up incoming traffic on a pedestrian crossing, despite cops being present, most of them want a selfie with the Tokyo Tower but holding up traffic with vehicles is just bad, as the security guards / police are telling people to just cross, to keep the flow, not stall incoming cars & traffic (in a busy city - mind you), but tourists were just loitering there (or walking on the road meant for cars) until they were scolded for jaywalking.
There were a group of tourists caught shaking a sakura tree during cherry blossom season causing outrage, they're basically damaging the tree as the leaves were falling prematurely. The intended way the leaves are meant to fall is when they've matured, since the trees are considered part of public property, Japan deemed that as an act of vandalism and destruction of property.
Plus the trees are sacred to the Japanese (its even part of their cultural identity), as they believe it to represent a symbolism of life and death, those who tamper or mess with it are met with misfortune. Also, in the Daikoku Parking Area (in Yokohama) where it's a hangout for car enthusiasts, but the issue is that tourists trespass on the premises, such as climbing the fence breaking inside. (Despite signage forbidding pedestrians to enter, due to it being an area designed for vehicles.)
Earlier this year on January, there was an American livestreamer who was fined ¥200000 (1,171€) for blasting his music way TOO LOUD, as it was disturbing the peace inside a restaurant somewhere in Osaka, it shows that Western streamers (who act like this) have ZERO respect for the customs upon their visit, ruining the reputation of foreigners (and tourists alike) in Japan, which is already causing some Japanese people to hate them.
In hindsight:

• Do you think social media is part of the blame as to why places like Paris or Lyon are suffering from overtourism? (As influencers are constantly posting it on Tiktok or Instagram, for example.)
• Ascending the French Alps: are the facilities reaching max capacity due to the influx of tourists? Also, how many show up ill-equipped? (as in not having adequate gear beforehand.)
• The French Alps: how many tourists show up wearing inappropriate clothing for this type of activity? such as skirts, shorts, sandals or singlets.)
• In terms of tourist attractions located in smaller towns: are there complaints from non-tourism related private businesses in regards to trespassing and bad behavior coming from tourists?
• Have there been cases within France, where tourists actually sustained injuries all because of their recklessness and disregarding the rules?
• Restaurants in Paris: How often are they crowded with tourists making it difficult for regular customers (locals) to dine there resulting in longer waiting times or queues?
• Have there been instances of tourists defacing historical monuments or religious sites (i.e. Churches / Parishes) vital to French culture that it's outright disrespectful?
• Are there times when tourists violated France's laws that they end up getting arrested or fined due to their actions and bad conduct?
• How common is it for tourists visiting France ending up leaving trash on the floor despite the country having bins available at public places & establishments?
• Are there tourists who ignore social etiquette & customs while visiting France along with displaying bad manners eventually upsetting the locals due to how rude these visitors are?
• In terms of social media, have you spotted the "same" posts (on TikTok & Instagram) featuring places like Paris or Lyon to the point all the thumbnails are the same?
• How many tourists ignore traffic laws in France when dealing with pedestrian crossings, as in jaywalking when the light is red with incoming vehicles driving on the road?

Demographics: Northern Virginia, Hispanic, male, upper middle class in a high income area, kinda competitive public high school, lgbt
Intended major: biology on pre med track(or other biology related major depending on what’s best for premed I don’t really know)
Gpa: 3.7 UW 4.24 weighted (my grades improved a lot junior year if it matters?!?)
Coursework: counting the classes I will take senior year 5 AP’s, 3 dual classes, and 9 honors classes
Sat: 1470 (710 math and 760 reading) I’m gonna retake and try to get my math up
Extracurriculars: (these are counting what I’ll do senior year)
Cofounder of my schools aquatic biology club which does fundraisers and clean ups
3 years cross country
1 year indoor track (I made the team once💀)
1 year school swim team (just freshman year then I quit swimming forever)
Hispanic student association vice president
Science honors society officer (probably idk yet)
Science honors society treasurer
Knitting/crochet club vice president (senior year)
Going to VA Spanish governors school, a selective Spanish immersion summer program
I work as a lifeguard every summer
Pharmacy tech shadowing (130 hours by the time I apply for college and I’m hoping to get a pharmacy tech license by the time I graduate)
Hosa vice president (I haven’t competed though)
Reaches: UVA(goal), William and Mary, University of Florida
Targets: VCU honors college, Virginia Tech(VT admits by major so it might be harder to get in for biology than I think but idk)
Safeties: VCU I don’t really have any others

The Injustice Initiative and Megaverse Council did not grieve with their former leader for too long, due to the combined forces of Venessa and Velocity making swift progress in uniting dozens of Omniverses under their heroic banner. Velocity used her direct and demanding demeanor to influence the defenders of each Omniverse to join the Council and was brutally honest in her meetings with the current situation. She stressed that if they refuse to join then they will face extinction and the Council will not help them when they are attacked due to them only having priorities for attacking the demons head on. Venessa on the other hand focused her attention in strengthening the Injustice Initiative with rigorous training and firing incompetent people in leadership positions and swiftly replacing them with those that were far more competent and understood the severity of the situation. In the span of 16 days, the combined efforts of these two feminine leaders made great leaps in progress that equaled or surpassed Diamond's own work in the past three months.
While these two were on a mission together, The Researcher contacted them regarding a very important matter. When the two heroines arrived at the Council's headquarters The Researcher revealed to them two enormous discoveries. "We finally found them. The place where our foes call home, Omniverse 6,666,666. We do not know much of this Omniverse other than the Diamond from Omniverse 8 being aware of its potential and became paranoid of its existence leading him nearly wiping all traces of it from the Council's database. I happen to uncover the last fragments of his report that failed to be deleted. Furthermore, the Core of that Omniverse is deeply fractured, completely drained of all power. We can deduce with sound reasoning that the landscape of that Omniverse is something out of an apocalypse with everything that could have gone wrong, definitely went wrong. In addition, it is a very wide and vast Omniverse similar to the Main Omniverse. In fact, before its current miserable state, it was a near copy of the Main Omniverse. We are trying to scout and analyze the area as best as we can, but it is blocking all of our scanners. Our supernatural sensors can barely last four seconds before frying when they sense the amount of dark negative energy that shrouds that Omniverse." Velocity, "And the other news?" "We also found a very promising Omniverse that was elusive to our map, but just appeared and is surging with radiant energy from the Light." Venessa abruptly, "Light? Like The Light......... not just colorful lights?" "Correct. Would you care to guess what this Omniverse's number is?" "I would assume it would be the polar opposite of the other, so Omniverse 7,777,777?" "Bingo. Apparently, they have a hierarchy over there and their King requests your presence. His words not mine were King Alexander humbly requests the presence of Empress Venessa of the Main Omniverse and any companions she wishes to bring for a formal meeting in regards to the future protection of the Megaverse."
"Alright, message King Alexander and tell him I will adhere to his request. She accessed her communication com and ordered Tray and Cross to join her on the mission. She then turned to Velocity. I would have you join me on this mission, but I do not want to delay the progress you are making in convincing more Omniverses to join our cause." A short time passed as the three members arrived for their briefing with Venessa. After their meeting, they used their watches and traveled to Omniverse 7,777,777. Their eyes were blinded by the bright rays of the sun, before they could tell where they were at. At last, their eyes adjusted to their environment, which resulted in them being astonished at the shining city that was before them. They observed trains similar to bullet trains zipping back and forth through wind tubes and the residents there in very intricate clothing. The residents either had high collar jackets, dazzling shirts, and most importantly, Venessa could sense all of them having unusual levels of the Light inside of them. A loud voice could be heard behind them. "Are these the people who the King wishes to speak with?" The group turns around and sees two men standing a few feet behind them. One appears six foot and a few inches, he did not wear a shirt but was surrounded with gold and red armor, a long red cape, black pants, and long flowing blonde hair. The other was a little shorter around five feet and possibly 11 inches with black and purple hair, a black and purple cape, purple pants, and purple armor in the exact areas as the first man. The second one responded to his companion in a soft-spoken manner,"Yes, these are the three we were assigned to escort back to the castle." Venessa, "Hey, are you two like siblings or something? You two kind of look alike." The purple one, "That assumption is correct. I am Lucrest and this is my older obnoxious brother Leoped." Leoped, "We are two in a handful of select individuals, who serve the King by carrying out special assignments and investigations." Lucrest, "If you will please follow us, the King is eager to greet you."
The three heroes followed the two guards to the castle, during their walk Venessa teased her sibling, Tray. "It appears those two brothers have larger swords than you. I think they are far superior swordsmen if they can handle large blades like that. It fails to even compare your toothpick of a sword." "Shush! I don't want to hear it. I choose elegance and gracefulness over something flashy." The group finally reached the castle as several guards in colorful shining full body armor saluted the group as they stepped inside the large white crystal doors of the castle. Leoped and Lucrest led the trio right towards the throne room; no sooner than when the doors opened, King Alexander leaped from his throne and welcomed his guests. The King's outfit was composed of expensive black cloth with silver and blue crystals creating his unique armor with gold outlining around the edges and his crown. His hair was white as snow with a cape flowing from his waist with two metallic angelic wings attached to his back. He appeared as someone who was no older than their early 20's, much less muscular than Leoped, while possessing a staggering height of 6,7. "Greetings Empress Venessa, first adopted child of Diamond! A pleasure to finally meet you. Greetings to you Tray, second adopted child of Diamond! And a very warm welcome to Cross, the last member and headmaster of the Royal Guard!" Cross' attitude changed from being standoffish to one of utter shock. No one has addressed him as headmaster since the days of the Clone War. Tray whispered to Venessa, "Headmaster of the Royal Guard? I never knew that about Cross." "Yes, many years in Cross' realm he was headmaster of the Royal Guard, an elite group of warriors who protected his realm from malevolent threats under the orders of a man named the Keeper. This was brought to an end when.........Alastor manipulated him to massacre all of his fellow friends and the Keeper towards the end of the Clone War, mere days before order Kingdom Come was initiated."
King Alexander, "Empress Venessa please accept these gifts as a sign of good will. He signaled for four servants to step forward with bundles of technology and scrolls. The Alphaverse is more than ready to work closely alongside the Megaverse Council to defeat the fallen angels and corrupted souls of the Demonic Council! Please follow me to our war chambers." King Alexander led the heroes down several steps to a room that was protected by several guards. They were granted access and upon entering, the heroes were stunned to see holographic displays of plans and projects that were scattered as two male figures were debating with a female. The figures turned to the doors and quickly turned off the scattered plans and pulled up a file that said, "Propositions and explanation for the Megaverse Council." One unique hologram Venessa saw before it disappeared was a hologram of the Matrix of Eternity with a subject line under it labeled "Restore the Matrix to its former power?" As Venessa was deep in thought, King Alexander spoke to his guests who the other three figures were, "The lanky one with grey hair and a gas mask is our lead chemist, Lorenzo. The other one with him with the crimson operator hat, black and red hair, and basically black and red from his natural wings to his armor adored with many medals is our head of homeland security, Viciate. Last but not least is our lead scientist of technology, and weapons, whose brilliance I cannot put into words, Malissia." Malissia had medium length jet black hair that only left her left eye visible, yet it appeared she had unique facial marks that were long black lines leading up to her eyelids. She wore a long black coat that went just above her ankles with boots in the shape of heels. Nearly everything she wore was black except her shirt which was white with print that resembles computer chips. Malissia, "I prefer to go by M." Tray in a playful manner, "A little gothic in your appearance compared to everyone we've seen today!" "Simply a matter of taste and perception." Tray then noticed Malissia had white irises as the rest of her eyes were black, which created a sense of mystery behind them.
Lorenzo, "The disgraced Royal Guard is here......." King Alexander disappointingly, "Lorenzo......we talked about this." Venessa, "Hey what was that project regarding the Matrix of Eternity about? How would any of you be able to reload it?" King Alexander, "We have the source that originally fueled the Matrix. We were the ones who originally created it." Cross and Tray were shocked to hear such a revelation. Was the king bluffing or legitimately telling the truth? Malissia, "The reason you saw so many other projects scattered was due to these two knuckleheads trying to push these loose ideas my way, knowing full well we had a meeting today." Viciate, "Then Lorenzo and I should be going." Viciate and Lorenzo leave the room as King Alexander and Malissia start speaking with Venessa, Tray, and Cross. Lorenzo and Viciate journeyed far from the castle's boundaries and into the outskirts of the gorgeous city into a dark alleyway where a female was waiting for them. "Have you two finally reached a decision?" Lorenzo, "Yes, we have, Paradox." Paradox in a feminine form smiled while twirling their hair, with a snap of their fingers a contract appeared before Lorenzo and Viciate. "Both of you sign there. Viciate tried to sign with a pen, but Paradox stopped him. Nuh uh uh, in blood!" Viciate pulled a dagger and cut a piece of flesh off him and Lorenzo as they signed the contract that bonded them to Black Hat. See that wasn't so hard. Now I sense you have something to tell me?" Viciate, "The Empress, playboy, and ex-harbinger of darkness are here. They learned of the plans to restore the Matrix of Eternity." A sadistic smile appeared on Paradox's face, "Wonderful! Wonderful! Things could not be better! With your help we can kill those three now and you two will rule this Omniverse as the new kings only in service to Black Hat and the Council. Let them retrieve the remains of the Matrix, and we can either strike before or after they restore the Matrix, then steal it and place it within the treasury with the other dangerous objects that could pose a threat to our reign. Run along now and continue to play your parts like good little errand boys." Paradox gave them a wink. Lorenzo, "Freak! When it comes to your services, we work with you, not for you!" The two then leave as Paradox continues to smile in the shadows.
Back in the war chamber. Venessa, "Impressive. All that you are proposing will greatly benefit us. I can see your offers are sincere, but I must ask, why it took you this long to reveal yourselves?" King Alexander, "That is........simply because of an old law......that had been in effect for thousands of years. I wanted to honor my father and his father, but eventually my consciousness allowed me to overturn that old silly law." Loud footsteps could be running through the halls as a young teenage girl open the doors to the room with pieces of paper in her arms. She began to speak clearly out of breath, "I'm here sister. The documents you wanted." Mallisa, "A few minutes late like usual, Joan." "It's not my fault, military class went on longer than normal! Gosh, how many times do I have to tell you I hate it that mom and dad forced me to become a soldier!" "Everyone, this is my younger sister, Joan. Joan this is Empress Venessa and her two colleagues, Tray and Cross." Everyone exchanged friendly greetings except for Tray who stared at Joan. There was something about Joan that captivated him, it was either the childish way she speaks or the fact she had navy hair like he did. Instead of a handshake, he wrapped both his hands around hers and knelt down, "My fair lady, it is with great honor to meet you. I pray that you will accept my greeting as one of humbleness and may good health and prosperity follow you all the days of your life, my dearest madam." Everyone in the room stared dumbfounded at Tray's speech. Cross, "Where the crap did that come from Shakespeare?" Joan stood there blushing as she stuttered while addressing Tray, "Th....thank y...yo.....you." King Alexander, "Well this meeting is nearing its end, so why don't Tray and Joan spend some time with each other while the rest of us handle the closing logistics?" Mallisa, "WHAT THE?" "Alright it's settled then. Tray and Joan, you two are dismissed."
Joan and Tray stared at each other before she offered Tray some lunch, which he readily agreed to. Alexander turned back to Venessa, "Venessa, if you don't mind, I will like you and your party to stay here the next four days. The first two can be used to handle business regarding our technology and battle tactics as I introduce you to our greatest soldiers, warriors, and fighters. The last two days can be a sort of mini vacation." "Well..........I don't think such an offer will hurt. You have yourself a deal King Alexander!" At lunch Tray and Joan were deep in conversation. Tray, "You look much different than your sister. Your eyes are normal, you are much more cheerful, and just overall livelier." "My sister takes all the stress and responsibilities of the family upon her. That and her role in the kingdom just adds more stress to her. As for her eyes and facial markings, those came when she felt called to the Spring of Restoration." "What now?" "The Spring of Restoration grants those worthy unique properties or powers. Only a select few experience a change from the spring. It is not heavily protected because the spring prevents anyone unworthy from stepping foot in its waters." "Radical." "Mhm!" "So, I heard you fighting with your sister about you hating being trained as a soldier. Why is that?" "It freaking sucks! My parents do not want me to be an astronomer or engineer! They want me to become a Celestial Crusader. On top of that, I don't even get to choose what I want to do or what I want to eat a majority of the time! Eating lunch with you right now is a rare occurrence." "Have you brought your problems to the king?" "Yes, but I don't know if he is hearing my pleas or not. If he's not, I don't blame him, he has a lot on his mind and considering my parents are very influential in terms of politics, if the king makes a brash move, my parents will give him political turmoil." Tray abruptly received a message from Venessa stating their four day stay. He was excited and already made up his mind that he will spend these four days showing Joan the freedom she is missing out on.
The next two days, King Alexander did everything he said he would to Venessa and Cross. Among the strongest warriors and fighters were Ezekiel with his four angelic wings and star saber, Phonix with his ability to control time and fire, Ian with the ability to create things out of metal at will and his large sword in the shape of a key, Vivi with her ability of harnessing animal souls and acquiring their powers and abilities to her disposal, and with several other notable fighters. Yet, the group was slowly stalked by Lorenzo who reported all of their movements to Paradox. The next two days arrived where Venessa and Cross briefly parted ways in order to find some way to relax before returning to base. On the fourth day, Venessa contacted her adoptive mother, Selena, for a special request. She wanted Selena to travel to the Alphaverse with the Matrix of Eternity in order to restore it with wisdom capable of changing the tide of the war. As for Joan and Tray, the two traveled all across the kingdom from going to the beach, kayaking, visiting the aquarium, and art museum. Tray taught Joan how to properly duel and was deeply proud when she complimented him on his elegant sword. Unknown to them Viciate was also reporting their activities to Paradox. On one of their stops, Joan brought Tray to the Spring of Restoration just for them to sight see. Yet, she was startled when Tray stopped responding to her. His eyes were affixed at the spring as he slowly started to step towards it. Joan tried to stop him, but her petite body could not stop him.
Suddenly, he stopped on the edge of the spring and bent down scooping up the water as he started to drink it from his hands. Joan was confused at Tray's behavior, "Are you......alright?" Before Tray could turn around, he collapsed on the ground. "TRAY!" She ran to him, but when she arrived, his eyes opened wildly as his body started to glow with an unearthly light. Tray's body started to transform with his pupils becoming white similar to Mallisa but instead of the other part of his eye becoming black, it became a bright cyan color. His navy hair became white with a few streaks of cyan along with his olive skin changing to being white as quartz. His outfit even started to change around him with his clothes glowing with a clear like cyan substance with a hood gently resting on his hair. Gold embroidered his collar as a unique glowing cyan halo appearing over his head. "Joan.....please tell me I'm not dead." "I uhhhh you mmmmmmm I guess not? Here let me show you what you look like." Joan opened her camera and took a photo of him in order for Tray to see the photo. "Oh my gosh I became even more handsome." "Seriously, that's what you think about after looking like you just died on me!" "Hey, I'm sorry for zoning out on you like that. I just heard a soothing voice calling me from the Spring and I could not help but follow it." "The voice was more than soothing than mine?!" "Well yes...CRAP NO NOT LIKE THAT I SWEAR!" Joan started punching Tray as he let out a hearty laugh. From the shadows Viciate contacted Paradox on what happened and for Paradox to arrive swiftly to exterminate the couple.
The two continued on their walk after having their emotions die down. Yet, there was a sort of tension in the air between the two as one waited for the other to speak first. At last, Tray was the one to break the tension as he stopped Joan and decided to finally reveal to her the thoughts that had been plaguing his mind the past few days. "Joan, I don't know how to say this but, whenever I am around you, I just feel warm inside and what I could only describe as butterflies, erupt in my stomach." Joan blushed deeply before responding, "Oh Tray!" "Joan, if you do not want to enlist in the Celestial Crusaders, you don't have to. I'm offering you a choice. I see how much you care for your older sister and your eagerness for freedom. I encourage you to follow your heart and join me. I promise with every fiber in my being that my family and I will protect you and support you with whatever decision you make." Joan with tears in her eyes. "Oh Tray! Thank you! I want to briefly stay here so I can help my sister with any last assignments and join you on exploring the Megaverse and you taking me back to the Omniverse you call home! Thank you, thank you for being such a wonderful person to me these past four days. Truthfully, I can say I feel the same when I am around you. Your outgoing free-spirited nature is very cute and contagious." Tray extends his hand towards Joan, "Then what are we waiting for? Take my hand and I will show you all the wonderful places in my Omniverse! Obviously after you are done helping your sister of course." He gave her a big comforting smile as he waited for her to wipe the tears of gratitude off her face. However, just before she could place her hand in his, a gunshot went off as a singular bullet went through the right side of Joan's head and exited out of the left. Tray opened his eyes and was horrified at the pool of blood emerging from Joan's body as she lay lifeless on the ground. He was shaken as he heard a sickening laugh. He hastily turned his head to the direction of the laughter.
Tray's eyes widened in confusion as he saw Gadget Bandito emerge from the shadows. "What.....what are you doing here? How did you get here? Why have you done this after being a loyal member of the Initiative for many years?!" "Doesn't matter. Any last words kid?" Tray thought inwardly, "Wait......no......there is no way he is the real Gadget Bandito. The real one does not even know a lot of the Megaverse, much less keep up with any news from the Initiative." He finally spoke out loud. "My powers and senses are telling me you are Gadget Bandito. But my heart, mind, and soul tell me otherwise! WHO ARE YOU?" Paradox finally revealed himself to Tray as he morphed into his mechanical appearance. Tray finally spoke after being at a loss for words, "I know you. I know who you are. No, you are not even a person anymore. You have turned yourself into something unrecognizable. I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE! YOU ARE THE CREATURE WHO MURDERED MY FATHER'S PARENTS ON THE NIGHT OF HOLY THURSDAY!" Paradox had a twisted malicious grin on his mechanical face as he spoke, "Aren't you a smart one." Tray began to channel his new powers granted to him from the Spring of Restoration. "I WILL NOT ONLY AVENGE THE DEATH OF DIAMOND'S PARENTS! BUT FOR JOAN WHO YOU SHOT IN COLD BLOOD! DIE YOU BODY MORPHING BASTARD!"
Filled with pure rage, Tray could not control his powers as Paradox merely toyed with him before using Tray's disorientation to his advantage. Paradox was able to overpower the young hero, but briefly underestimated his new power buff when Tray's halo pierced itself into Paradox's chest. This comeback was shortly lived due to the intervention of Viciate who incapacitated Tray and tied him up. Elsewhere, Venessa felt a disturbance in her gut and thus gathered Cross and met with King Alexander to ask where Tray and Joan were at. The King did not know of their location much to the dismay of Venessa, but suddenly in the throne room a thick green mist entered the room which knocked the guards and the heroes unconscious. Lorenzo did his best to pick up the bodies of the heroes and tie them up, "Now we just wait for the Queen of Asteria to arrive and snatch the Matrix from her by ransoming these hostages."
Meanwhile Selena took care of Diamond and would not allow him out of her sight. If he had to leave her house, she would go with him wherever he went, due to the public opinion on him fiercely divided. There were some who believed the attacks were caused by him while others knew that he would never do such a thing and it had to be an imposter. She would fiercely criticize any bystander who booed or tried to assault Diamond. Diamond on the other hand did not like how Selena was being overprotective of him, and her reasoning was that his mental state was not in a good place. Truthfully, it felt like he was on house arrest. One day the two of them took a nap on Selena's couch, when Selena was notified to embark on the mission to Omniverse 7,777,777. She did not have Diamond know what mission it was, but said it was important. "Don't do anything stupid or silly while I'm gone. And do not go on any adventures either! If I find out you left the town, you won't hear the end of it!" "Alright sheesh I got it."
Selena traveled to Sanctuary and entered one of the passwords a few of the elite members possessed in order to gain access to the broken remains of the Matrix of Eternity. She grabbed the pieces and created a portal to the Alphaverse. Once Selena teleported off to her mission, Diamond took advantage of this opportunity and decided to venture into town. He grabbed his Bluetooth earbuds and walked outside to his favorite coffee shop. While walking, he played Have You Ever Seen The Rain, by Creedence Clearwater Revival, one of his father's favorite bands. He could not resist but sing along with the lyrics, "When it's over so they say it'll rain a sunny day, I know, shining down like water. I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? Coming down on a sunny day." During his stroll a handful of protestors spotted him and began to yell, "Murderer! Thief! Crook! Liar!" One such protestor threw a pot of hot water at him, which nearly resulted in Diamond retaliated, but he bore these wrongs patiently and continued on his way. He turned a corner into an alleyway and started to dance and jump in the puddles. On the other side were a set of stairs where he slowly danced his way down each step to the closing parts of the song still singing with raw emotion. "Yeaaaaahhhhhhhh I wanna know have you seen the rain? I wanna know have you ever seen the rain? Coming down on a sunny day."
He turned off his music when he entered the doors of the small shop and waited patiently in line. After he finished placing his order and pulled out his wallet to pay, the cashier whispered to him, "It's on the house. You are still a hero to us who work here." "Are you sure ma'am?" "Yes. It'll be out shortly." He took a seat near a window and started reading the local newspaper in silence. Just then a little boy who was with his parents came to his side and started to speak with him. "Excuse me sir, but are you, Diamond?" Diamond chuckled to himself, "Well there is no use in hiding my identity. Yes, I am." "Can you tell me what it was like during the year I was born?" "Uh, odd request but yeah I can tell you, first I have to ask how old are you?" "I just turned four!" "Well happy birthday! Let's see four years ago was 2016.....wait no it was 2020. Gosh was 2020 four years ago? Man, all these adventures all start flowing together kid. So, around this time an old enemy of mine named......" Diamond abruptly stopped speaking as he felt a disturbance. "Named who, sir?" Diamond stood up and slowly walked to the doors as a giant explosion went off in the center of town. Everyone started screaming, running in all directions from the blast, as Diamond signaled his AI using his nanotech vision glasses. "HONEY what are we looking at? HONEY? Crap I never turned you back on." Diamond hastily had his nanotech grow on his left arm as he turned on the setting to activate HONEY. "I'm back! Are you ok boss, did you do anything brash when I was gone?" "We can catch up later HONEY, right now I need you to prevent traffic from entering this street and alert the local authorities." "Yes sir!"
While all of this was happening on Earth, Selena's portal finally brought her to the Alphaverse. She begins to mutter to herself, "Alright Venessa I'm here. Hopefully we can get this done quickly, because I don't trust Diamond being by himself." Selena was cautious of her surroundings, due to being greeted with an eerie vacant throne room. She suddenly heard a quiet "help me," this prompted her to locate the source of the voice which resulted in her finding Lorenzo lying next to a pillar. "Please help me." "Who did this to you, where are they now, and have you seen a young girl with pink and blue hair go by?" Selena used her powers to silently read the injured person's mind, but before her powers could alert her of it being a trap, she heard another voice which caused her pupils to shrink with fear. "Hello my precious doll." Selena turned to face the new voice and to her horror, she saw Paradox standing behind her, appearing the same way he looked the day before he died. The trauma from the mistreatment and terror she received from him overridden her senses and caused her to stand completely motionless. Behind her Lorenzo leaped and took off his mask expelling a strong toxin into her lungs causing her to faint and drop the pieces of the Matrix. Lorenzo, "Why did you change the plan to capture her instead of bargaining with her?" Paradox, "Because I want the last thing, they see is me holding the reloaded Matrix and handing it over to my masters." Paradox then switched back to his mechanical body and wrapped Selena in thick pairs of chains. He then took her body along with the rest of the heroes to the depths of the castle.
Simultaneously on Earth, Diamond slowly made his way to the source of the blast as he yelled at the pedestrians to head southbound. When he reached the center of the blast three figures emerged. A hulking lizard creature, a humanoid squid, and a tall figure wrapped in black cloth with piercing red goggles. "HEY! THIS TOWN IS CLOSED TO THUGS LIKE YOU TODAY!" The man in black cloth responded back, "We were wishing for a fight with Selena, but facing you is even better!" "I suggest you stand down before I rip a tentacle from your friend Squidward!" "Grok shut his mouth." The hulking creature lifted his axe from his back and started charging at Diamond. Diamond tapped his chest as his nanotech started to form around him as he created several large blasters from his back and fired at Grok. The blasts sent Grok flying backwards to his two other companions, but the man in black simply waved his hand to the right which sent Grok crashing into a local store. Diamond flew towards the humanoid squid and started punching him with unrelenting force that caused the squid to vomit quantities of ink. The man in black teleported behind Diamond and used his mystic powers to gain the upper hand by distorting the reality around them. The squid shaped his head into a spear and tried to pierce Diamond with his poison, but Diamond dodged it and sent him hurdling towards the man in black, breaking the reality illusion. He then had his suit create a sticky net which he shot to capture both the man in black and squid. Grok finally managed to get back up, but upon seeing his comrades captured, he clicked a button on his belt that resulted in him exploding creating a blast deadlier than the first. Diamond noticed there were a few people that were in the blast radius of this second explosion and flew towards them using his strength to hold the falling debris from the tall business building. The debris piled the streets with dust and papers, until the sound of sirens broke the silence. Law enforcement arrested the two other villains while Diamond was barely holding large portions of fallen walls, glass, and stone from crushing him and the civilians under him. The leading officer noticed Diamond struggling in the debris, but decided not to help him, he thought to himself, "Let's see if he can truly save others and be the hero the weak minded believe him to be." The crushing weight began to take a toll on Diamond as he slowly began to lose his footing until he was on his knees holding the debris up.
"I promise.....I will get all of you out alive!" Negative thoughts began to enter his mind as various voices began to call out. "You are not good enough. You couldn't save your own parents; how can you save these unfortunate souls? You are playing a fool's game. See how the law enforcement refuses to acknowledge your existence. Face it your story is over. Finished. You are nothing but a weak boy who thought he could have been a great hero." Diamond tried to block out these voices, but they began to take a toll on him, nearly causing him to give up, but then a quiet voice entered his mind. A voice smooth like honey but strong as thunder echoed in his mind. "You are something more. Look inside yourself, you are something far more than when you started all those years ago as a small-town hero. Do not listen to their empty words, listen to me. Do you renounce sin?" "I do." "Do you renounce the Devil, the sin whisperer, and all his empty promises?" "I do!" "Do you believe in the Faith of your fathers, the Resurrection, and life everlasting?" "I do!" "Arise my child." At that very moment Diamond felt the power of the Light course through him at greater quantities than before as his body began to glow with gold and white light. With a newfound access to the Light, Diamond felt it was only natural to change the wording when harnessing its power, "Through the power of Heaven's Light.......All things are possible!" Diamond effortlessly lifted the debris away from him as the civilians under his care ran to the rest of the crowd. The onlookers stared at Diamond's glowing gold and white body. They were baffled in amazement as a few murmured amongst themselves, "Truly this is the act of a selfless hero."
Diamond did not hear the crowd's cheers, whistles, and praises as he stood deep in contemplation. Deep within his soul, he was able to sense his family was in grave danger. With his connection to the Light restored, he made it his new mission to travel to the Omniverse where he sensed the disturbance. He quietly spoke to himself, "Oh yeah I'm ready to whip the person who is so bent on ruining my life! But first, I have to do it in style. He allowed his suit to create two large speakers; HONEY make sure the volume is on max. Time for us to go back into the Megaverse!"
To Be Continued In The Alphaverse Part 2

"Not a single human being on this planet ever saw the universe."
Grand Arbiter Albert XLIII further declared, on their return 37 years after the last broadcast failed in the middle of explaining the secrets of the universe to us.
"What you are seeing is an image of the universe that your brain created to make sense of your surroundings. A mirage, an infinitely imperfect approximation. And there are roughly 8 Billion such approximations on this planet, not even counting non-human entities. We have observed you recently - debating wether the harmonic frequencies of light hitting the rods and cones of your eyes actually generate the same image of color in your brain for all of you equally, and you came to the conclusion that they might not. That everybodies version of "red" or "blue" might be ever so slightly, or completely different. We found it amusing that you aren't drawing the same conclusion to, well, everything else. Through the scientific method and communication accelerators like the Internet, your species managed to align big chunks of those "mirage universes" in your brains, but other areas not touched by the scientific method are left completely unexplored, and therefore to the imagination of the individual. Which lead to many "unfortunate misunderstandings" among you. But make no mistake, even after this global alignment of mirages, the universe inside your mind is still infinitely wrong in the grand scheme of things and unlike any other imagined universe of your peers. Your scientific method suggests the use of calibrated measurement devices that aren't biased by human error to gain knowledge of your surroundings. Which is brilliant, we might add. Your species came up with this kind of technology very early compared to similar lifeforms in other universes. You use these devices to create a "ground truth" from which you reference the rest of your conclusions and predictions. This enabled you to make predictions about the "real universe" you find yourself in, even with this fundamental error underlying your logic system. Either brilliant, or unfathomly lucky. It doesn't really matter. You can pat yourselves on the backs for that.
However, amusingly, you failed to find the crucial detail about the one fundamental, yet completely uncalibrated device at the bottom of everything - your brain - and the sensory organs as extensions of it. No single eye on this planet is the same, no nose, no ears, everything differs ever so slightly. Every brain is folded and twisted differently.
Therefore, what you are observing, and what your scientists are finding models for, is not the real universe. It is the image of this universe your brain creates for you, that makes sense to most of you and that most of your brains are able to understand and find agreement on. Nothing more, nothing less. Especially the intricacies that you are now finding in the infinitissimally small scales and the unfathomly large scales (you curiously still differentiate these two concepts, we observed) are the footprints that the architecture of your brain leaves on these mirage universes. You find numbers everywhere and turn everything into a more and more digital version of nature because the axons that are part of your neurons generate activation signals in a digital, all or nothing kind of way. This part of the brain is what you evolved to use for, among others, your logic systems. Your thinking is in large parts digital, so most of your logic is too. This has gone so far that some of you now think you are actually living in a computer simulation. In some regards, you do, but there is no cosmic entity that generated this simulation and put you in it. You are creating this simulation yourself, in your brain, as a means to maneuver your way around actual physical reality. Imagine having to memorize a picture, but your sensory input systems only allowed you to see one pixel at a time, chosen completely at random, without any reference as to where that pixel is located in the frame. So, you found chunking techniques, the help of your collective hive mind and ideas of particularly eccentric members of your society, to bit by bit close in on a mostly impossible task. But without a paradigm shift on your end, the entirety of the original picture will stay in the shadows of reality.
You created tools like algebra and geometry to circumvent the fact that your logic is mostly digital as a simulacrum of analog information, but for how remarkably useful it is for you to make predictions, it is to what is happening in the real world like what an abacus is to a personal computer. Sure, if you enter '1 + 1', in their own ways, both give you '2'. But one is the tip to the others impossibly large iceberg. It is a sensible abstraction. But it is nowhere close to being an accurate description of what is actually happening or in what ways it useful to you.
We don't want to discourage you by saying this. Your approach, even if it happened out of sheer luck, is brilliant. It really makes the best out of the limitations that you have by your sensory organs and the architecture of your brains. Once a few evolutionary steps later your brain can conceive of more complex logical patterns and images, you will get closer and closer to having an actual copy of the real universe in front of your minds eye. Through the scientific method, you are already optimizing for this. Again, given your species' age, you have developed such a technique incredibly quickly. But what you are doing is finding (very smart) workarounds over a fundamental error you all have in common.
My lifeform, which isn't too unlike yours, just much "older", has taken a different approach in its early stages. Our biggest thinkers found early on that the answers lie within. So for millenia, we focussed our exploration on finding our deepest and truest selves, once we started to move past basic survival instincts, that is. Only after many, many "quantum leaps" in the area of self discovery in the individual and the societal level, we started to artificially accelerate our communication, and overcome physical limitations through technology. It was a slower approach in the beginning, but once we got there, our intellectual growth was exponentially explosive. The time it took us to move from living in basic, mostly local communities that lived off the land - to bending our universe to our wills - was about the time between you writing your currently most popular spiritual fiction and landing on your planets moon for the first time. Note the actual durations might differ greatly, as the concept you call time is very different in our universe and we still haven't fully studied yours.
Anyways. After this event we call "universal reframing", everything else just... fell into place.
Our strategy basically was to, first, fully align our mental universes. And then to perform a depth search from a common starting point. You seemed to have rushed over a few of the crucial bits as soon as the first approach turned out to be useful. Actually, all of the bits but one. It must be a terribly confusing existence that you are living. We can only make an attempt to relate, as our evolutionary strand optimized for alignment before curiousity. That, you could say, was our dumb luck.
Are there any questions so far?"
There was a puzzling silence in an area packed with an amount of people that would normally be present at music festivals or presidential inaugurations. For an event of this magnitude, the stage was sparsely decorated and included only the necessities. Like last time, the visit was spontaneos and unannounced. Or maybe, like last time, we just didn't understand the announcement message, as it might have again came in the form of a formerly undiscovered particle, a seemingly arbitrary number of years prior to this event. They must think they are really funny.
One of the humans chosen as representative of the planet raised their hand.
"Please, speak. As always. Our 'time' is very limited."
"If I didn't misunderstand this: You said, our brains are basically creating what we call 'simulations' for ourselves, in our mind, to make sense of the actual universe we are in and base our actions on. Is this correct?"
"Based on the very crude definition your species has for the word 'correct' I would say 'yes, that is correct.'"
"And these simulations are getting closer and closer to the real deal, right? But what if, say, we didn't want the real deal. What if we liked our own personal pocket universes and instead wanted to bend that one to our own wills instead of the real one? You said we are bad at alignment and I would agree to the point where I say we probably go extinct to our own stupidity before we all agree on even one single thing. Can't we just use your knowledge to just, manifest things into our universe just by thinking about it, like in the movie Matrix, which might have crossed your desk while researching us. Great Movie."
"It did indeed. It is esteemed by my lifeform as what you would call 'slapstick comedy'. Since we moved past what constituted our form of entertainment, the media from your universe has become very popular among my peers. It is by sending samples back to our universe how we finance the probes we are sending here."
"You still have money?"
"I was making - what you call - a joke. Never heard of it in the context of a movie, but that title is immensely funny to me given the circumstances. Anyway, you wanted to know how to bend your 'simulated universe' around you. Alright. You might be slightly dissappointed by the beginning of my explanation, but listen till the end. And make of that what you will.
Let's start by what you mean by 'manifest' exactly. As the inaccuracy of your communication patterns shall not be a hindrance to this mentorship."
"Well... I imagine it. And then it sort of poofs into existence?"
"Understood. Actually, I will start explaning how you perform this action in the actual universe you are in, before I make the transfer to how you do it in the imagined one in your brain."
"Uh.. ok?"
"What would you like to be manifested?"
"I don't know. How about we go nice and easy with a cone of ice cream and start from there?"
"So be it. So, we start imagining the cone of ice cream. What does it consist off? Milk, sugar, eggs, and some smaller additions to suit your individuals taste buds. Let's begin with milk. You are getting it from cows (a practice my society finds quite alienating. We, too, have to get used to the wildly varying customs of lifeforms of the universes). Cows can be domesticated and bred, but first, we would have to overcome the physical distance between us, and a few locations on this planet. For that, I would advice designing and constructing a vehicle that is capa..."
"Oh come on, that's how we manifest things? We go and make them ourselves?? Oh wow, thanks a lot mister transcendant being. So the rest of the stuff you told us was also bullshit?"
"Please refrain from jumping to conclusions without the full picture in mind, even if it is in your existences nature to do so. Alright, so let me offer you a shortcut."
"Please do."
"I know of a location just a few human paces down this road, where you can exchange currency for a cone of ice cream."
"Seriously?"
"Yes."
"What the hell is the point of this?"
"The point is, once again: you - misunderstanding your existence. Especially in conjunction with your incredibly limited ability to verbalize concepts using your own vocabulary. You are barely at the point of being able to convey emotions in every day speech, and are now expecting to understand high level 4 dimensional concepts after just a few of your incredibly inaccurate words. Tell me now, please: What do you perceive as the difference of these two scenarios I just mentioned? In a temporal manner and in the energy required?"
"Well, it would be much easier and faster to just go down the road and buy a cone of ice cream, but that isn't tremendously astounding information to us, you have to understand."
"'Much'? Let's give this word, 'much', a bit of a frame of reference. The differences between these scenarios are: About 15000 years of agriculture and animal husbandry; countless inventions that led to your current state of technology which allows for refrigeration in a way advanced enough to get the ice cream to just the right texture that your modern palate is accustomed to; An education system that allows for such inventions to occur in time for you to be standing here, demanding ice cream, and actually getting it. Not mentioning the infrastructure that makes you bridge the physical distances of every single time any of these steps needed anything. And meanwhile destroying the naturally occuring resources of your planet bit by bit.
Or, scenario 2: You take the money that you got from staring at a computer screen for about 7 minutes, choose one of the ice cream parlors that your civilization made sure to be on average a 30 minutes driving distance from every single living human. (You aren't very good at even distributions though, we found.). And go and get that ice cream. Even including the infrastructural costs existing now, we have narrowed this process down from not even being close to a reality for thousands of generations to being at most 30 minutes away and dirt cheap, assuming an amount of efficient preparation, that is part of the technology that lead you here.
If you ask me, between scenario 1 and 2, you became so many orders of magnitude closer to 'poofing it into existence' that a human mind has troubles comprehending it. And therefore, appreciating it. From '0% of the human population has access to this within their lifetime and no one will for the next couple millenia' to 'Over half the human population has access to this within 30 minutes", taking into account the total timespan, the amount of events that had to occur and the amount of incremental learnings that had to accumulate, for this to happen even once for anybody, I believe the time and energy you have to exert to access your ice cream cone right now is a rounding error in the grand scheme of things. And you aren't even close to finishing your development as humans - if you manage to not kill yourself somehow.
You are constantly manifesting things into reality, the only issue is that you severely and heavily underestimate what it means 'to imagine a thing'.
Please allow my vanity, but this is an important lesson for the following part that you are, I'm afraid, more interested in. How to do that in your head. And potentially much faster. Well assuming thaXXXxxxx----.----."
"Oh wow, not again. Mighty convenient this always happens right when it gets interesting."
"First, you have to understand that.,.......... The limitations of spacetime that you perceive.... are not present in nature..... nature is infinitely 'dimensional', and in fact XXxxx.....----..--.-.- has no concept for infinity....-.-.--. it is a human made.....-.-.-.- model to describe a perfectly natural phenomenon you lack the words for at this time..._xxxx.xxx-x---.-.--.-zzzz."
"Come on, speak faster! The battery is dying again!"
" ...physical distance...S;.,.XXXxx...currently a big bottleneck for your progres...asd.döö,,,, is also a limitation of your cortex, not nature,.....-as.d.sa......the concept of an 'extent' only exists from certain frames of references..-.-..-.a.ss.a.as.... in others everything is....a.s-d.-.---.-..-xxxx on top of each other, overlapping each other in what you call 'time' AND 'space'"
"...XXXxsasad Listen."
"I am running out of time again humans. The Hopf Fibration. It is a great first step. But move away from your digital thinking. Treat your numbers. .aD;,aC:.x.cx.ac,.as,dca.s like your waves...CKLUJCJUCCLICK"
The broadcast stopped.
"I never know if these things make me smarter, or dumber. Sadly the alien is gone now so it can't tell me that there actually is no smart or dumb."

DAY: MAY 31 2024
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5-31-2024

CYBERFLASHING IS A FORM OF GENDERED SEXUAL VIOLENCE THAT MUST BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY

Sexting—sending sexually suggestive or explicit messages and images—is now a widespread practice, and can be a healthy way to express and explore sexuality. However, there is a need to distinguish between consensual sexting and forms of sexual harassment like cyberflashing. Cyberflashing refers to the act of non-consensually sending sexual imagery (like nudes or “dick pics”) to another person. It is facilitated through communications technologies including text, AirDrop and social media applications like Snapchat and Tinder. Similar to flashing—when a person unexpectedly and deliberately “flashes” their genitals to others—that occurs in
5-31-2024

VIRTUAL TRAINING MAY BE AN EFFECTIVE, COST-EFFICIENT OPTION FOR CHILD EDUCATORS

Teachers and other child educators can benefit from regular professional development, but in-person training can be expensive. New research found that virtual training can be a budget-friendly alternative—and especially effective for certain groups of educators. The study—a collaboration between researchers at Penn State and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and published in the International Journal of Professional Development, Learners and Learning—found that educators who took a virtual training reported feeling more confident in their abilities to implement practices shown to support positive youth development. In particular, after-school providers who did not
5-31-2024

HUMBLE LEADERS BOOST EMPLOYEES’ WORKPLACE STATUS AND LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL, FINDS STUDY

There are many different types of workplace leaders, from those who prioritize the needs of team members and the organization above their own, to authentic leaders who foster openness, trust and transparency. A recent study by the University of South Australia published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior has highlighted the significant benefits of humble leadership in the workplace. According to the study by UniSA’s Dr. Xiao Lin, humble leadership can effectively elevate the workplace status of employees by boosting their sense of respect and prominence. It also leads to
5-31-2024

WHY ARE GROCERY BILLS SO HIGH? A NEW STUDY LOOKS AT THE SCIENCE BEHIND FOOD PRICE REPORTING

Rising food costs are squeezing Canadians around the country. Nearly everyone is feeling the pinch, and it’s not just an inconvenience—high food prices are a major threat to food security for many Canadians. Understanding why food prices are so high and why they are changing is critical to the well-being of our society. Unfortunately, consensus on why food price are so high is in short supply. Explanations given in reports like Canada’s Food Price Report and the news media range widely, from the war in Ukraine to supply chain issues
5-31-2024

WILL GENERATIVE AI CHANGE THE WAY UNIVERSITIES COMMUNICATE?

Is artificial intelligence an unprecedented opportunity, or will it rob everyone of jobs and creativity? As we debate on social media (and perhaps use ChatGPT almost daily), generative AIs have also entered the arena of university communication. These tools—based on large language models that were optimized for interactive communication—can indeed support, expand, and innovate university communication offerings. Justus Henke has analyzed the situation of German realities about six months after the launch of ChatGPT 3. “The research was conducted about a year ago when enthusiasm was high, but it was
5-31-2024

STUDY SHOWS RELATIVELY LOW NUMBER OF SUPERSPREADERS RESPONSIBLE FOR LARGE PORTION OF MISINFORMATION ON TWITTER

Classification of superspreader accounts. A large portion (55.1%) of accounts are no longer active. For each class annotated with political affiliations, colors indicate the ideological split. The last group aggregates all accounts with political affiliations. Credit: PLOS ONE (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302201 A small team of social media analysts at Indiana University has found that a major portion of tweets spreading disinformation are sent by a surprisingly small percentage of a given userbase. In their study, published in PLOS ONE, the group conducted a review of 2,397,388 tweets posted on Twitter
5-31-2024

HOW LIFE’S BIG MOMENTS CAN CHALLENGE STARTUPS

Life-changing events like the birth of a child, the purchase of a new home, or a lottery win could threaten the survival of a new business venture, the positive family events had a comparatively greater influence, albeit negatively, on the survival of a new venture, compared with
5-31-2024

RUDE AT WORK? FEELING GUILTY CAN MAKE YOU A BETTER, KINDER WORKER

We’ve all done it. A bad night’s sleep or a tough commute made us cranky, and we lashed out at a coworker who did nothing wrong. What can we do to make up for it? According to a new study published in the Journal of Business Ethics, embracing our guilty feelings can help us make up for our bad behavior by encouraging us to act more politely and work harder the next day. “We found that anyone can be rude at work, because anyone can
5-31-2024

RESEARCHERS INTRODUCE A PLANETARY INCLUSION SCALE TO FOSTER BROADER ETHICAL THINKING

Social inclusion and having a sense of belonging with other people are key elements of a good life. However, the fate of humanity is a challenge that extends beyond our social reality. Experiences of belonging and inclusion, understood in a broader sense than before, may be crucial for a sustainable future. In an article published in the International Journal of Social Pedagogy, a team of researchers propose a new planetary inclusion scale that structures our planetary relationship three-dimensionally based on temporal, spatial and ethical orientation. The temporal element relates to
5-31-2024

‘LEAN IN’ MESSAGES CAN LOWER WOMEN’S MOTIVATION TO PROTEST GENDER INEQUALITY

Women in leadership are often told to “Lean In,” designed to be motivational messaging demonstrating that they are more confident, strategic and resilient to setback. However, new research indicates that such “lean in” messaging can hinder women’s motivation to protest gender equality. Popularized in a book by American technology executive Sherly Sandberg, the “Lean In” solution to gender inequality advises women that demonstrating personal resilience and perseverance in the face of setbacks is key to career advancement. Now, a new study led by the University of Exeter, Bath Spa University
5-31-2024

ALGORITHMS COULD HELP IMPROVE JUDICIAL DECISIONS

A new paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics finds that replacing certain judicial decision-making functions with algorithms could improve outcomes for defendants by eliminating some of the systemic biases of judges. Decision makers make consequential choices based on predictions of unknown outcomes. Judges, in particular, make decisions about whether to grant bail to defendants or how to sentence those convicted. Companies now use machine learning based models increasingly in high-stakes decisions. There are various assumptions about human behavior underlying the deployment of such learning models that play out in
5-31-2024

DIGITAL CAMPAIGNING IS A HUGE PART OF ELECTIONS NOW—BUT GOING VIRAL ISN’T EVERYTHING

The election has commenced and the race is on—to amass as many likes, shares and comments as possible. Digital campaigning, particularly through social media, is now a key part of political candidates’ communication toolkit. In fact, every general election campaign since 1997 has at some point been lauded as the first to make effective use of digital campaigning. But it was in 2015 that David Cameron’s campaign first made strategic use of social media to drive an election victory. As political reporter Tim Ross outlines in his excellent book, Why
5-31-2024

WHY ARE ORGANIZATIONAL COVER-UPS SO COMMON?

The TV dramatization of the UK Horizon Post Office scandal evoked outrage and disbelief. However, as another example of dysfunctional organizational behavior, it was expected rather than exceptional. The Post Office saga joins a long list of cover-ups or scandals that includes Hillsborough, Enron, Grenfell, the infected blood scandal, the Tuam babies scandal in the Republic of Ireland, Boeing 737 Max and Nasa (Columbia space shuttle). They represent what happens when there is a move within organizations and institutions to cover up the causes of
5-31-2024

AMONG GEN Z AUSTRALIANS, 38% IDENTIFY AS SPIRITUAL AND HALF BELIEVE IN KARMA. WHY IS SPIRITUALITY SO POPULAR?

Spirituality is increasingly popular with young Australians: recent research shows 38% of Gen Z Australians identify as spiritual. It also reports 50% of them believe in karma, 29% in reincarnation and 20% in astrology. When it comes to activities equated with spirituality, 28% of Gen Z Australians practice meditation and 22% practice yoga. In Australia, spirituality is strongly, enduringly central to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and culturally and religiously diverse communities. Yet until recently, spirituality has received far less attention than religion. Spirituality may be
5-31-2024

COMPANIES CAN IMPROVE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THEIR PRODUCTS IN THE EARLIEST PRODUCT-DESIGN STAGES

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Lithuanian and Italian universities propose a tool that allows companies to assess the circularity of their future products. The self-assessment tool emphasizes the co-creation of circular design in the early (creative) stages of product development, encouraging entrepreneurs and designers to think more systematically and collaborate better by integrating related stakeholders into the product development process. The study is published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology. “The majority of existing practical tools (systems of indicators) are aimed at measuring the environmental impact of products already
5-31-2024

RESEARCH EXAMINES HOW RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION AFFECTS A STATE’S COLLEGE ENROLLMENT

New research has revealed up to a 9% increase in college first-year enrollments in US states that have legalized recreational marijuana compared with states without such legalization. The study, which is published in Economic Inquiry, found that the increase was from out-of-state enrollments, with early adopter states and public non-research institutions experiencing the most pronounced increases. Recreational marijuana legalization did not negatively impact degree completion or graduation rate, and it did not affect college prices, quality, or in?state enrollment. The findings suggest that some students perceive recreational marijuana legalization as
5-31-2024

RESEARCH EXAMINES HOW RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION AFFECTS A STATE’S COLLEGE ENROLLMENT

New research has revealed up to a 9% increase in college first-year enrollments in US states that have legalized recreational marijuana compared with states without such legalization. The study, which is published in Economic Inquiry, found that the increase was from out-of-state enrollments, with early adopter states and public non-research institutions experiencing the most pronounced increases. Recreational marijuana legalization did not negatively impact degree completion or graduation rate, and it did not affect college prices, quality, or in?state enrollment. The findings suggest that some students perceive recreational marijuana legalization as
5-31-2024

HOW THE ‘MODEL MINORITY’ MYTH HARMS ASIAN AMERICANS

May is Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month, a time when Americans celebrate the profound contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders—a group that is commonly abbreviated as AAPI—to U.S. society. It’s also a time to acknowledge the complexity of AAPI experience. And as a professor who studies equity and inclusion in business, I think the focus on AAPI communities this month provides an excellent occasion to push back against a stereotype that has long misrepresented and marginalized a diverse range of people: the myth of the “model minority.” The
5-31-2024

WONDERING HOW TO TEACH YOUR KIDS ABOUT CONSENT? HERE’S AN AGE-BASED GUIDE TO GET YOU STARTED

The Australian government’s new campaign Consent Can’t Wait challenges us all to improve our understanding of consent. It asks a series of questions to illustrate this issue is more complex than simplistic “no means no” messaging. The campaign invites viewers to consider the nuances of consent, so we can raise these important issues with children and young people in our lives. But what is a good age to start talking about consent? How do parents tackle such conversations when this information probably wasn’t readily discussed in our own upbringing? How
5-31-2024

A PRODUCT OF NATURE OR NURTURE?

The concept of cultural entrepreneurship has many facets. It encompasses both the cultural and social impact of entrepreneurial training, and the environmental factors that influence its development. Some societies, such as the U.S., have a strong entrepreneurial culture. This means that certain characteristics are celebrated and encouraged, such as the ability of individuals to assume risks, patience when confronting challenges, and innovative problem solving, especially in uncertain situations. However, not all countries have such an entrepreneurial culture. Entrepreneurship struggles to take off in Europe In general, entrepreneurship can drive economic
5-31-2024

STUDY BRIDGES ANIMAL BEHAVIOR RESEARCH AND COMPUTER CODING TO ENGAGE CHILDREN IN STEM

A graphic depicting a student coding. Credit: Carnegie Mellon University Teachers today face a bit of a conundrum, according to a new study from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Their goal is to prepare young students to enter a rapidly changing world. Even basic jobs require technical proficiency, which requires computational and analytical skills. To address this need, many educators are pushing to fold these important STEM skills into elementary curriculum. Here’s the problem. Young students can lose interest and even develop an aversion
5-31-2024

STUDY SHOWS VR CAN HELP TEACHERS BETTER DISTRIBUTE THEIR GAZE

On the left, a bird’s-eye view of the virtual classroom; on the right, screenshots of each of the four gaze-visualization conditions. Teachers need to know their material, but they must also keep their students engaged and interested. Part of that involves making eye contact with their students—all of them. A multidisciplinary team of researchers tested several methods of data visualization in an immersive virtual reality (VR) classroom, to give teachers a way to gauge
5-31-2024

MARKETERS CAN MANAGE ‘FEATURE CREEP’ SO CONSUMERS FEEL LESS INTIMIDATED BY TOO MANY FEATURES IN A PRODUCT

Wifi-enabled washing machines. Voice-controlled microwaves. App-enabled TVs, vacuum cleaners, and even window blinds you can control from the comfort of your couch. Many of the technological features now included in everyday products are useful and accessible. But research has shown that having too many can overwhelm potential buyers, making them less likely to make a purchase. In recent research, Wayne Hoyer, marketing professor and James L. Bayless/William S. Farrish Fund Chair for Free Enterprise at Texas McCombs, digs into the phenomenon of “feature creep” and its impact on consumer sentiment.
5-31-2024

RESEARCHERS EXPLAIN SOCIAL MEDIA’S ROLE IN RAPIDLY SHIFTING SOCIAL NORMS ON GENDER AND SEXUALITY

A new paper summarizing decades of research demonstrates how social media has supported an explosion of diversity in gender and sexuality in America during the 21st century, and also how these technologies have equally enabled a cultural backlash. The paper’s authors, UC Santa Cruz Psychology Department faculty members Phil Hammack and Adriana Manago, identified five main narratives about gender and sexuality that they believe emerged through social media as people have strived to be “authentic” on these platforms. The findings, along with resulting recommendations for psychology researchers and practitioners, were
5-31-2024

KEY FACTORS IN TRAINING ASSESSORS FOR ENHANCED PERFORMANCE RATINGS

New research is examining how organizations can improve their training programs by customizing frame-of-reference training to emphasize identifying negative behaviors critical to their goals. While assessors naturally identify positive behaviors, C. Allen Gorman, Ph.D., associate professor in UAB’s Department of Management, Information Systems and Quantitative Methods, says targeted training helps them recognize harmful actions that can hinder organizational objectives. Involving assessors in defining important performance dimensions and examples of behaviors, both good and
5-31-2024

STUDIES CHALLENGE WIDELY HELD BELIEFS ON APPLICANT DIVERSITY AND WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE

Justin Frake is interested in cause-and-effect relationships in real-world data and the hidden dynamics that shape workplace behavior and equality—or inequality, as the case might be. His curiosity has led to research that challenges some popular beliefs as well as published studies related to women in the workforce. One study shows that firms promoting flatter hierarchies inadvertently discourage female applicants and another study counters several recent studies that claim women CEOs negatively impact career outcomes of other women. Both are published in the Strategic Management Journal. The assistant professor of
5-31-2024

CHALLENGING LEWIN’S MOTIVATIONAL CONFLICTS THEORY

A recent series of experiments challenges the longstanding theory of motivational conflict resolution introduced by Kurt Lewin. According to Lewin, conflicts between two undesirable outcomes (avoidance–avoidance conflicts) are typically harder to resolve than those between two desirable ones (approach–approach conflicts). Lewin posited that avoidance–avoidance conflicts, where individuals must choose between two undesirable outcomes, are typically more challenging to resolve compared to approach–approach conflicts, which involve choosing between two desirable options.
5-31-2024

MEN WITH ‘TOXIC MASCULINITY’ ARE MORE LIKELY TO MAKE SEXUAL ADVANCES WITHOUT CONSENT, STUDY FINDS

No means no when it comes to sex. But what happens when a woman makes a more passive response to a sexual advance? According to new research from Binghamton University, men differ in how they interpret these types of responses, and men who display hostile masculinity, known commonly as “toxic masculinity,” tend to act on them regardless of whether or not they think it’s consensual. A team of researchers, including Binghamton psychology professor Richard Mattson and graduate student Michael Shaw asked men between the ages of 18–25 to respond to
5-31-2024

WHY WE DEHUMANIZE OUR POLITICAL OPPONENTS

Some of human history’s greatest atrocities—genocide, slavery, ethnic cleanings—are rooted in our ability to dehumanize people from other social, political, or cultural groups. Whereas prior research has traced dehumanization to the belief that others think or feel less than we do, new research co-authored by Haas professor Sameer Srivastava shows that our tendency to dehumanize can also be influenced by how we think others view important facets of the world. The greater the difference between our perceptions of an outgroup’s worldview
5-31-2024

STUDY SUGGESTS CHILDREN ARE OFTEN EXPOSED TO PROBLEMATIC CLICK BAIT DURING YOUTUBE SEARCHES

When a child peruses YouTube, the content recommended to them is not always age appropriate, a new study suggests. Researchers mimicked search behaviors of children using popular search terms, such as memes, Minecraft and Fortnite, and captured video thumbnails recommended at the end of each video. Among the 2,880 thumbnails analyzed, many contained problematic click bait, such as violence or frightening images, according to the Michigan Medicine led research in JAMA Network Open. “Children spend a significant amount of time on free video sharing platforms that include user-generated content,” said
5-31-2024

STUDY FINDS WOMEN ARE VULNERABLE IN POST-WAR PEACE PROCESSES

Post-war peace processes are a dangerous period for women. Many are forced to live close to men who committed serious abuse during the war or are expected to testify in various types of truth commissions, which can be both retraumatizing and stigmatizing. These are the findings of a new study by peace researchers at Uppsala University, published in the journal PLOS ONE. “In short, peace projects can force women to live side by side with ex-combatants who committed atrocities during the war. This puts them at risk of further threat
5-31-2024

HOW EMBRACING THE CRINGE CAN HELP YOUR DATING LIFE

We can all agree that dating is hard. Getting to know people can feel vulnerable, but at the same time, exciting. We can also agree that feeling rejected can be one of the worst feelings, especially after we put ourselves out there. Dating can also expose us to a lot of cringey things, maybe even something we didn’t know we’d consider cringey. Think of cringe like something that makes you uncomfortable, or something about someone else that you don’t find attractive. Before dating, most of us consider what we’re looking
5-31-2024

PERSONAL CONNECTIONS AT WORK POSITIVELY IMPACT RETENTION AND MENTAL HEALTH, SAYS REPORT

New survey results from Wiley suggest people still feel connected at work despite the prevalence of hybrid and remote work environments and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). According to the latest Wiley Workplace Intelligence report, “Human Connection: The Crucial Secret to Thriving in the Digital Age,” nearly 8 in 10 employees surveyed (78%) said they feel connected with their coworkers, and almost 7 in 10 (69%) said they also enjoy making connections with their colleagues. Around half even said they want to learn more about their coworkers by doing
5-31-2024

RESEARCHER DEVELOPS MODEL OF INFLUENCER IMPORTANCE WITHIN INSTAGRAM NETWORKS

A study has provided new insights into social media influencers, particularly focusing on those in the women’s fashion sector on the well-known image and video sharing platform Instagram. In a departure from the approach taken by earlier studies, Jens K. Perret of the International School of Management in Cologne, Germany, has used network statistics and centrality measures to establish a model of influencer importance within their network. Perret analyzed data from 255 influencers covering a four-year period. Influencers are loosely
5-31-2024

MOST PEOPLE TRUST ACCURATE SEARCH RESULTS WHEN THE STAKES ARE HIGH, STUDY FINDS

Rank (X-axis) does not affect the evaluation of trustworthiness (Y-axis, mean-centered) of accurate results. This lack of relationship is robust across experiments (columns) and for clicked results (top row, red) as well as non-clicked results (bottom row, blue). The trend lines represent the predicted change in trustworthiness ratings per unit decrease in rank fitted by the linear regression models. Credit: Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-61645-8 Using experiments with COVID-19 related queries, Cornell sociology and information science researchers found that in a public health emergency, most people pick out and click
5-31-2024

MISLEADING COVID-19 HEADLINES FROM MAINSTREAM SOURCES DID MORE HARM ON FACEBOOK THAN FAKE NEWS, STUDY FINDS

Despite the greater potency of “fake news” on Facebook to discourage Americans from taking the COVID-19 vaccine, users’ greater exposure to unflagged, vaccine-skeptical content meant the latter had a much greater negative effect on vaccine uptake. Credit: Jennifer Allen, Duncan Watts, David G. Rand Since the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, fake news on social media has been widely blamed for low vaccine uptake in the United States—but research by MIT Sloan School of Management Ph.D. candidate Jennifer Allen and Professor David Rand finds that the blame lies
5-31-2024

CRITICAL DIALOGUE HELPS STRAIGHT MEN CONFRONT SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC BELIEFS

Adult heterosexual men with sexist and homophobic views can potentially improve their attitudes toward gay men and women by engaging in critical dialogues that use illustrations as a springboard, according to a new University of Michigan study. The work is published in the journal Sexual and Gender Diversity in Social Services. The process by which people shift from a prejudicial stance to one of relative acceptance is a key innovation of the study. Guided by trained facilitators, critical dialogues reflect illustrations depicting different gender roles and sexual identities. The images
5-31-2024

RELIEVING A FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

If you dread public speaking you are not alone. It is a leading social phobia, one that can cause a state of anxiety that reduces otherwise articulate people to nervous incoherence. A strong fear of public speaking is known as glossophobia. Academic studies estimate it affects 20% of the population, but depending on the sample and methodology, the figure could be as high as 40%. As American writer and humourist Mark Twain said, “There are two types of speakers: Those who get nervous and those who are liars.” But help
5-31-2024

HOW SOME PRIVATE COMPANIES ARE MARKETING TECH AND AI SOLUTIONS

How do universities and colleges decide who to admit? Given the earnings advantage of a post-secondary degree both globally and in Canada, this is an important social mobility question. While the answer varies from one institution to the next, most focus on education criteria like exam scores and grades. However, Canada’s new intake cap on study permit applications puts increased pressure on Canadian institutions to also consider immigration criteria when admitting international undergraduate students. This is just the latest example of immigration’s growing influence on the societal roles of Canadian

Hello! Hope everyone is well. So an introduction about myself since this is perhaps my 20th search post. I am from the east coast of the USA, preferably would like to have a RP partner set within the same timezone within the US as I am since communicating with people halfway around the world proved to be more difficult.
My schedule is a bit iffy sometimes, but you’ll always catch me in the evenings except Tuesdays & wednesdays. Being an adult forces you to contribute to what society demands of you. Such as work, being a parent, being a spouse, all the while revolving how will you find enjoyment of your own time before you go to sleep and do that routine again. If you’re looking for someone for fast replies, or responds with 10 posts a day, I’m not that RPer for you. I can, however, throw at least two responses, more if I am lucky.
Here are my guidelines:
• Radio silent for five days typically means dead RP. We both move on, I would hope everything works out for you for the better.
• This is becoming a common occurrence over the years when I RP, sadly I’m going to say it. If you have specific traumas or triggers, let me know. However, although I may be lenient on some things, don't use it to have me walk on egg shells.
• For those of you who cannot read good, the ad says M4F, which means I as a male looking for female to write with. Not as a character, or a side character. But as a male RPer who wants to write with another RPer who is female. This is my preference, you cannot convince me whether you read my guidelines or not.
• I only play in third person and ask my partner to do so as well. I can play multiple characters whether male or female, that being said I only play as a male character that’s in the spotlight 75% of the time.
• If you have idea to fill in for plot points, do say so! Don’t be intimidated or think it’s going to ruin the RP because of ideas. Communication is a two way street. The worst I can do is say no, but I am open for options where it’s appropriate.
• To know that you have indeed read through all of this and not skim through my ad, answer my most basic question. However, I will ignore messages AND chats if no one answers it. Is a hotdog a sandwich?
• I write anywhere between 4-10 paragraphs. More to set up the scene if necessary and adding a lot of lore. I follow the principle that if you give me something to work with that has effort, you will get it as well. Matching replies? That’s great, but I don’t want to turn my passion into a chore.
• What I write is typically within the category of NSFW. This includes but not limited to: Gore, blood, body horror, darker themes, steamy scenes, etc, etc.
• All characters are 18+, all RPers 18+, no exceptions.
• You can view my samples message me. I would also like to point out that I am in the hobby of writing roleplays for fun and not anything serious to the point it would make grammar nazi’s blush. However, as writers who RP, punctuation, capitalization and grammar are key. Though I am lenient on some mistakes and will not be that guy.
• OOC discussions are fine. Talk to me about music, art, movies, or tv shows. However there’s a fine line between chatter and sharing personal info, in which case I don’t share mine and kindly ask the same to my partner.
PLOT:
Imagine a world where men are warriors, and women are beautiful. Set between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the unwritten records of ALL civilizations, there was an age undreamed of...
Princess (your character’s name), renowned for her wisdom and beauty, had long been the target of envy and malice. The Red Priest, a powerful and treacherous figure in her father's court, scorned her for rejecting his dark propositions and for her influence over the king. One night, a haunting dream of her father being slain plagued her sleep, and her worst fears materialized when a violent coup, led by the Red Priest, erupted within the palace walls. Fleeing for her life, she was shepherded to safety by an old and loyal retainer. As they traversed the darkened city, they encountered Jorro, a formidable warrior who had just escaped prison, where he had been unjustly held on the Red Priest's false accusations.
Jorro, driven by a burning desire for vengeance against those who wronged him, formed an uneasy alliance with (your character). Though their paths had crossed by fate, their goals aligned: to overthrow the Red Priest and reclaim what was rightfully theirs. Together, they navigated through treacherous landscapes and evaded the Red Priest's minions. (Your character's) royal knowledge and Jorro's unmatched combat skills made them a formidable pair.

"Not a single human being on this planet ever saw the universe."
Grand Arbiter Albert XLIII further declared, on their return 37 years after the last broadcast failed in the middle of explaining the secrets of the universe to us.
"What you are seeing is an image of the universe that your brain created to make sense of your surroundings. A mirage, an infinitely imperfect approximation. And there are roughly 8 Billion such approximations on this planet, not even counting non-human entities. We have observed you recently - debating wether the harmonic frequencies of light hitting the rods and cones of your eyes actually generate the same image of color in your brain for all of you equally, and you came to the conclusion that they might not. That everybodies version of "red" or "blue" might be ever so slightly, or completely different. We found it amusing that you aren't drawing the same conclusion to, well, everything else. Through the scientific method and communication accelerators like the Internet, your species managed to align big chunks of those "mirage universes" in your brains, but other areas not touched by the scientific method are left completely unexplored, and therefore to the imagination of the individual. Which lead to many "unfortunate misunderstandings" among you. But make no mistake, even after this global alignment of mirages, the universe inside your mind is still infinitely wrong in the grand scheme of things and unlike any other imagined universe of your peers. Your scientific method suggests the use of calibrated measurement devices that aren't biased by human error to gain knowledge of your surroundings. Which is brilliant, we might add. Your species came up with this kind of technology very early compared to similar lifeforms in other universes. You use these devices to create a "ground truth" from which you reference the rest of your conclusions and predictions. This enabled you to make predictions about the "real universe" you find yourself in, even with this fundamental error underlying your logic system. Either brilliant, or unfathomly lucky. It doesn't really matter. You can pat yourselves on the backs for that.
However, amusingly, you failed to find the crucial detail about the one fundamental, yet completely uncalibrated device at the bottom of everything - your brain - and the sensory organs as extensions of it. No single eye on this planet is the same, no nose, no ears, everything differs ever so slightly. Every brain is folded and twisted differently.
Therefore, what you are observing, and what your scientists are finding models for, is not the real universe. It is the image of this universe your brain creates for you, that makes sense to most of you and that most of your brains are able to understand and find agreement on. Nothing more, nothing less. Especially the intricacies that you are now finding in the infinitissimally small scales and the unfathomly large scales (you curiously still differentiate these two concepts, we observed) are the footprints that the architecture of your brain leaves on these mirage universes. You find numbers everywhere and turn everything into a more and more digital version of nature because the axons that are part of your neurons generate activation signals in a digital, all or nothing kind of way. This part of the brain is what you evolved to use for, among others, your logic systems. Your thinking is in large parts digital, so most of your logic is too. This has gone so far that some of you now think you are actually living in a computer simulation. In some regards, you do, but there is no cosmic entity that generated this simulation and put you in it. You are creating this simulation yourself, in your brain, as a means to maneuver your way around actual physical reality. Imagine having to memorize a picture, but your sensory input systems only allowed you to see one pixel at a time, chosen completely at random, without any reference as to where that pixel is located in the frame. So, you found chunking techniques, the help of your collective hive mind and ideas of particularly eccentric members of your society, to bit by bit close in on a mostly impossible task. But without a paradigm shift on your end, the entirety of the original picture will stay in the shadows of reality.
You created tools like algebra and geometry to circumvent the fact that your logic is mostly digital as a simulacrum of analog information, but for how remarkably useful it is for you to make predictions, it is to what is happening in the real world like what an abacus is to a personal computer. Sure, if you enter '1 + 1', in their own ways, both give you '2'. But one is the tip to the others impossibly large iceberg. It is a sensible abstraction. But it is nowhere close to being an accurate description of what is actually happening or in what ways it useful to you.
We don't want to discourage you by saying this. Your approach, even if it happened out of sheer luck, is brilliant. It really makes the best out of the limitations that you have by your sensory organs and the architecture of your brains. Once a few evolutionary steps later your brain can conceive of more complex logical patterns and images, you will get closer and closer to having an actual copy of the real universe in front of your minds eye. Through the scientific method, you are already optimizing for this. Again, given your species' age, you have developed such a technique incredibly quickly. But what you are doing is finding (very smart) workarounds over a fundamental error you all have in common.
My lifeform, which isn't too unlike yours, just much "older", has taken a different approach in its early stages. Our biggest thinkers found early on that the answers lie within. So for millenia, we focussed our exploration on finding our deepest and truest selves, once we started to move past basic survival instincts, that is. Only after many, many "quantum leaps" in the area of self discovery in the individual and the societal level, we started to artificially accelerate our communication, and overcome physical limitations through technology. It was a slower approach in the beginning, but once we got there, our intellectual growth was exponentially explosive. The time it took us to move from living in basic, mostly local communities that lived off the land - to bending our universe to our wills - was about the time between you writing your currently most popular spiritual fiction and landing on your planets moon for the first time. Note the actual durations might differ greatly, as the concept you call time is very different in our universe and we still haven't fully studied yours.
Anyways. After this event we call "universal reframing", everything else just... fell into place.
Our strategy basically was to, first, fully align our mental universes. And then to perform a depth search from a common starting point. You seemed to have rushed over a few of the crucial bits as soon as the first approach turned out to be useful. Actually, all of the bits but one. It must be a terribly confusing existence that you are living. We can only make an attempt to relate, as our evolutionary strand optimized for alignment before curiousity. That, you could say, was our dumb luck.
Are there any questions so far?"
There was a puzzling silence in an area packed with an amount of people that would normally be present at music festivals or presidential inaugurations. For an event of this magnitude, the stage was sparsely decorated and included only the necessities. Like last time, the visit was spontaneos and unannounced. Or maybe, like last time, we just didn't understand the announcement message, as it might have again came in the form of a formerly undiscovered particle, a seemingly arbitrary number of years prior to this event. They must think they are really funny.
One of the humans chosen as representative of the planet raised their hand.
"Please, speak. As always. Our 'time' is very limited."
"If I didn't misunderstand this: You said, our brains are basically creating what we call 'simulations' for ourselves, in our mind, to make sense of the actual universe we are in and base our actions on. Is this correct?"
"Based on the very crude definition your species has for the word 'correct' I would say 'yes, that is correct.'"
"And these simulations are getting closer and closer to the real deal, right? But what if, say, we didn't want the real deal. What if we liked our own personal pocket universes and instead wanted to bend that one to our own wills instead of the real one? You said we are bad at alignment and I would agree to the point where I say we probably go extinct to our own stupidity before we all agree on even one single thing. Can't we just use your knowledge to just, manifest things into our universe just by thinking about it, like in the movie Matrix, which might have crossed your desk while researching us. Great Movie."
"It did indeed. It is esteemed by my lifeform as what you would call 'slapstick comedy'. Since we moved past what constituted our form of entertainment, the media from your universe has become very popular among my peers. It is by sending samples back to our universe how we finance the probes we are sending here."
"You still have money?"
"I was making - what you call - a joke. Never heard of it in the context of a movie, but that title is immensely funny to me given the circumstances. Anyway, you wanted to know how to bend your 'simulated universe' around you. Alright. You might be slightly dissappointed by the beginning of my explanation, but listen till the end. And make of that what you will.
Let's start by what you mean by 'manifest' exactly. As the inaccuracy of your communication patterns shall not be a hindrance to this mentorship."
"Well... I imagine it. And then it sort of poofs into existence?"
"Understood. Actually, I will start explaning how you perform this action in the actual universe you are in, before I make the transfer to how you do it in the imagined one in your brain."
"Uh.. ok?"
"What would you like to be manifested?"
"I don't know. How about we go nice and easy with a cone of ice cream and start from there?"
"So be it. So, we start imagining the cone of ice cream. What does it consist off? Milk, sugar, eggs, and some smaller additions to suit your individuals taste buds. Let's begin with milk. You are getting it from cows (a practice my society finds quite alienating. We, too, have to get used to the wildly varying customs of lifeforms of the universes). Cows can be domesticated and bred, but first, we would have to overcome the physical distance between us, and a few locations on this planet. For that, I would advice designing and constructing a vehicle that is capa..."
"Oh come on, that's how we manifest things? We go and make them ourselves?? Oh wow, thanks a lot mister transcendant being. So the rest of the stuff you told us was also bullshit?"
"Please refrain from jumping to conclusions without the full picture in mind, even if it is in your existences nature to do so. Alright, so let me offer you a shortcut."
"Please do."
"I know of a location just a few human paces down this road, where you can exchange currency for a cone of ice cream."
"Seriously?"
"Yes."
"What the hell is the point of this?"
"The point is, once again: you - misunderstanding your existence. Especially in conjunction with your incredibly limited ability to verbalize concepts using your own vocabulary. You are barely at the point of being able to convey emotions in every day speech, and are now expecting to understand high level 4 dimensional concepts after just a few of your incredibly inaccurate words. Tell me now, please: What do you perceive as the difference of these two scenarios I just mentioned? In a temporal manner and in the energy required?"
"Well, it would be much easier and faster to just go down the road and buy a cone of ice cream, but that isn't tremendously astounding information to us, you have to understand."
"'Much'? Let's give this word, 'much', a bit of a frame of reference. The differences between these scenarios are: About 15000 years of agriculture and animal husbandry; countless inventions that led to your current state of technology which allows for refrigeration in a way advanced enough to get the ice cream to just the right texture that your modern palate is accustomed to; An education system that allows for such inventions to occur in time for you to be standing here, demanding ice cream, and actually getting it. Not mentioning the infrastructure that makes you bridge the physical distances of every single time any of these steps needed anything. And meanwhile destroying the naturally occuring resources of your planet bit by bit.
Or, scenario 2: You take the money that you got from staring at a computer screen for about 7 minutes, choose one of the ice cream parlors that your civilization made sure to be on average a 30 minutes driving distance from every single living human. (You aren't very good at even distributions though, we found.). And go and get that ice cream. Even including the infrastructural costs existing now, we have narrowed this process down from not even being close to a reality for thousands of generations to being at most 30 minutes away and dirt cheap, assuming an amount of efficient preparation, that is part of the technology that lead you here.
If you ask me, between scenario 1 and 2, you became so many orders of magnitude closer to 'poofing it into existence' that a human mind has troubles comprehending it. And therefore, appreciating it. From '0% of the human population has access to this within their lifetime and no one will for the next couple millenia' to 'Over half the human population has access to this within 30 minutes", taking into account the total timespan, the amount of events that had to occur and the amount of incremental learnings that had to accumulate, for this to happen even once for anybody, I believe the time and energy you have to exert to access your ice cream cone right now is a rounding error in the grand scheme of things. And you aren't even close to finishing your development as humans - if you manage to not kill yourself somehow.
You are constantly manifesting things into reality, the only issue is that you severely and heavily underestimate what it means 'to imagine a thing'.
Please allow my vanity, but this is an important lesson for the following part that you are, I'm afraid, more interested in. How to do that in your head. And potentially much faster. Well assuming thaXXXxxxx----.----."
"Oh wow, not again. Mighty convenient this always happens right when it gets interesting."
"First, you have to understand that.,.......... The limitations of spacetime that you perceive.... are not present in nature..... nature is infinitely 'dimensional', and in fact XXxxx.....----..--.-.- has no concept for infinity....-.-.--. it is a human made.....-.-.-.- model to describe a perfectly natural phenomenon you lack the words for at this time..._xxxx.xxx-x---.-.--.-zzzz."
"Come on, speak faster! The battery is dying again!"
" ...physical distance...S;.,.XXXxx...currently a big bottleneck for your progres...asd.döö,,,, is also a limitation of your cortex, not nature,.....-as.d.sa......the concept of an 'extent' only exists from certain frames of references..-.-..-.a.ss.a.as.... in others everything is....a.s-d.-.---.-..-xxxx on top of each other, overlapping each other in what you call 'time' AND 'space'"
"...XXXxsasad Listen."
"I am running out of time again humans. The Hopf Fibration. It is a great first step. But move away from your digital thinking. Treat your numbers. .aD;,aC:.x.cx.ac,.as,dca.s like your waves...CKLUJCJUCCLICK"
The broadcast stopped.
"I never know if these things make me smarter, or dumber. Sadly the alien is gone now so it can't tell me that there actually is no smart or dumb."

I want to preface by saying as someone who agrees with the overall mission and practical implications of the Brotherhood Codex, I do not fully support The BoS by all means. Their goals are endless, and I think that is the driving factor in why the multiple chapters more often than not start moving outside of the Codex in ideological terms, this inevitability of factionalism and swaying of ideological, moral tendencies will plague and spell the ruin of multiple chapters years before their height and inevitable success. These two inevitabilities will indefinably keep the wasteland a wasteland with no notable and useful infrastructure.
Off the bat of The BoS's main presence is a force of destruction as they work only as a paramilitary force or a military junta in whatever region they inhabit for the time being. The time they spend in an area is the time not working on an actual economic and logistical safety-net for the populace, that said populace more often than not are not benefitting from The BoS being in their regions. Unless we take into account the FO3 chapter which shifted morally into a protection and civil service, which The BoS are more than capable of doing.
The real future for the wastes is in that moral and ideological shift. The BoS historically cannot build a nation but if they worked with outside forces their capacities to would skyrocket - building an economic base with an actual industrial infrastructure, something that The BoS have the technical capabilities to do.
To wrap it up and put my idea into something more digestible. The BoS so far (if you take the show as canonical, which I hope for the lore-sake it is not) on a path of success and they need an actual purposefulness that's not devoting to building a hoarded pile of technological knowledge and not putting it to use, on the other hand, they could and need to use that knowledge or we'll eventually run into a creative hole of: "BoS domination of society and nothing afterwards but more chaos and ruin part 900 :D"

Note: Info on monetization and more: An Introduction To The Book That Is Me : ASMRScriptHaven (reddit.com)
Note: My Library: Masterlist for edgiscript : ASMRScriptHaven (reddit.com)
Notes on this particular chapter: This is a 3-part series if you don't count this chapter. It's 4 if you count this one. I wrote this as a backstory so if anybody did want to perform what's to come, they'd know how the story got to the point where chapter 1 begins. You can feel free to perform this one if you want, but I figured it would be too loud with the fighting and the challenging and all of that to truly be an ASMR piece. And also, the listener isn't even really in this chapter until the end. This is designed as a setup, but I still treated it as an ASMR script just in case anybody felt like including it. Hope you enjoy reading it.
Behind the scenes note if you're interested: This takes place in the same universe as "Mage Protector." I've written a novel around that one and the main character here, Xartha, cameos in that book. The events of this story will be included in book 2.
More behind the scenes stuff if you're interested: When I began writing this, it was a yandere piece where the victim would intentionally lose. I like this as a fantasy, swords-and-sorcery type of thing, but I ended up not feeling satisfied with the victim giving himself to the "yandere" as Xartha really isn't a yandere. So, I ended up writing "Intentional Loss" immediately after this one to do that theme better.
----------------------------------------------------

Backstory

Pronunciation Note: “Tokla Ve” is pronounced Taw-kluh Vay. Xartha and Xantia are pronounced Zar-thuh and Zan-tee-uh. Confused about any other names. Give it your best shot. It can be whatever you want it to be.)
Xartha: Ronshu, please advise the High Council that we have arrived. Apologize for our late arrival and advise them that I desire to address the Seven with a pressing matter immediately. I will take my seat among them and wait for you there. Now go.
(A door opens to some minor conservational background sounds, but they go silent upon seeing Xartha enter and take her seat. Some footsteps are heard quickly approaching.)
Ronshu, you return. Did you successfully convey my message?
(Pause.)
Good. Then we shall wait for official proceedings to begin.
(Pause.)
Patience, Ronshu. I know you want to act now, as do I, but we need to move forward according to proper procedure and custom in order to remain on friendly terms with our allies. If we act on instinct, even as justified as we are, we could harm our beneficial relationships.
(Pause.)
Yes, I see it. Lord Tarkeen of the Skreet Empire. He is highly agitated, but I daresay he has regained a great deal of composure since the time I entered our delegation’s chamber and I took my seat. His gasp at my entrance was audible even at this great distance.
I am certain now of his guilt and I have decided to move forward with my plan to challenge Lord Tarkeen to Tokla Ve, trial by combat to the death.
(Pause.)
I understand the protocol, but I am certain that the High Council will allow it once we reveal the evidence of Tarkeen’s betrayal. The marauders that ambushed us in transit bore his mark, and the data shards collected from them reveal that he sent them to assassinate us. I believe now that Tarkeen is also responsible for the recent assassinations within the Malanayan Kingdom.
(Pause.)
Of course I am aware of the great risk to our nation and to myself. If I were to lose, death would be the best outcome I could hope for. Should Lord Tarkeen decide to keep me alive, as the loser of the challenge I would remain his possession for the remainder of my life.
But I am also aware of the equally great risk I take to every kingdom if I do nothing. Whatever Tarkeen’s ultimate goal is, it may succeed and destroy all of our nations.
Besides, my skills as a warrior are unrivaled and Tarkeen knows it. I doubt very much that he will even dare to do anything but cower at my challenge. Such cowardice will dishonor him among the other kingdoms, which will make convincing them of my cause that much easier.
(Pause.)
Yes, there was also a reaction from Prince…
I’m sorry, from King Shonray of Malanay when I arrived. However, it appeared to me to be one of… relief.
Interesting. I was already desiring to speak with him about a great many matters of interest between our kingdoms before our… incident. I wonder now if I have another reason to speak with him.
(Pause.)
Yes, he is the one I told you about.
(Pause.)
Yes, I suppose he is considered to be quite handsome in some circles.
(Pause.)
Oh, come now, Ronshu. I wouldn’t go so far as to say god-like.
(To herself.) At least not within earshot of others, I wouldn’t.
(Pause.)
What? I said nothing of the sort. You misheard.
(Pause.)
Come now, Ronshu, your smirk is most unbecoming for a gathering of this magnitude. Control yourself.
(Pause.)
Yes, I have spoken with him twice now, but only during social occasions. I found him to be a genuinely honorable individual,
(to herself) as well as a source of… other… interests.
(A grand door opens.)
(Hushed, speaking to Ronshu.) Excellent, the High Council has arrived and the Grand Chamberlain is taking his seat. We are about to begin.
Soon, Ronshu, we shall see justice.
(Pause.)
(Regular voice, speaking to the assembly.) That is correct, Grand Chamberlain. I, Queen Xartha of the Great Kingdom of Akaru, wish to make a statement before we begin.
(Pause.)
Very well. Honorable delegates, as you are well aware, we have all arrived today because of a great tragedy within the Malanayan Kingdom; the assassination of many important individuals, as well as King Jantofal.
Although we each individually mourn with the Malayan people for their great loss and their current suffering, we also each recognize that this is not an isolated incident.
It should be evident to all present that there is a greater plot at work here. Unexplainable tragedies have been occurring in every nation from sunken sailing vessels, to mysterious disappearances across our lands.
On this very day, in transit to this sacred location, I and my aide were ambushed by a band of marauders bearing the insignia of one of the nations present. Furthermore, data shards were discovered on their bodies with instructions to eliminate us before we arrived by any means necessary. Those instructions originated from one of us seated.
Following the sudden and unexpected rise to power of King Shonray, I have reason to believe that the mastermind of all of these events is attempting to destabilize all of our governments and, quite possibly, to unify us all under one banner; his.
(Pause.)
King Shonray, please, allow me to finish.
(Pause.)
No. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m not accusing you of…
(Pause.)
Please, your majesty, if I could be allowed to present my evidence, you’ll understand…
(Pause.)
(Shock.) What? Tokla Ve? You challenge me?
King Shonray, your honor has not been assaulted here today. I am not your enemy. Please reconsider.
(Pause.)
Yes, Grand Chamberlain. I do recognize the King’s right to make such a challenge, but...
(Pause.)
(Resigned.) Since the High Council allows it, I have no choice but to… accept the challenge.
(Pause.)
(Softly to Ronshu so no other delegates can hear. Very irritated.) Dammit! That was not expected. Why would he do such a thing? When one party loses consciousness, the victor gets to decide whether to end the loser’s life, or whether they will become the prize of victory.
Does he really believe that I am responsible in some way? Does he desire vengeance?
(Pause.)
No, I’m not afraid of losing, but I don’t want to hurt him, and defeating him accomplishes nothing.
I suppose at least I will get some answers as to why he challenged me once I defeat him, but Lord Tarkeen will still be free to continue acting upon his designs for our kingdom, for all of our kingdoms.
Well, there’s nothing for it now. Hand me that lightning staff. Ronshu.
Should something happen to me, the throne will belong to my sister Xantia. You are to return and inform her of all that has happened today. Now, it’s time for me to enter the arena.
(Pause.)
King Shonray, you have my apologies if you feel that I have offended you or your kingdom. Please, I beg of you, end this now. You still have the right to do so.
(Pause.)
You remain silent. So be it. Please know that I do not find pleasure in defeating you.
(Sounds of electrical zapping and staffs colliding.)
King Shonray, I’m impressed. You’ve parried all of my blows with such fluidity. Any other opponent would have been unconscious by now.
Well, let’s see what you can do about this.
(More sounds of battle followed by a yelp of pain from Xartha.)
You’re good. Very good. I’ve never met another champion of your caliber. How did I not know about you before this?
(More sounds of battle and another yelp of pain from Xartha. Now when she speaks, she’s clearly suffering and struggling.)
That’s two blows you’ve landed, two more than any other combatant I’ve ever faced. As well as two more than I’ve been able to land on you. Another first.
(Pause.)
What? What are you…?
(Sound of a final lunge and a prolonged electrical zap. A prolonged pause, then a staff clangs to the ground as it’s dropped.)
The victory is mine. King Shonray lies unconscious at my feet.
I refuse my right on his life and claim him instead as my prize. He is now my possession.
To any here that may seek to take advantage of this turn of events against the Kingdom of Malanay, know that I as the Queen of Akaru pledge to them my protection against any external threat.
Grand Chamberlain, High Council, I take my leave. Forgive my sudden departure, but with this unexpected turn of events, I feel that I need to see to my… guest.
(Aside to Ronshu.) Ronshu, please carry King Shonray gently to my craft. Let’s be off.
(Pause.)
Yes? You wish to speak with me? You are King Shonray’s aide, are you not?
This case is King Shonray’s you say. It contains something he’ll need.
Of course. I’ll be happy to give it to him when he wakes. Thank you.
And… please let your people know that what happened here today was not my desire. Thank you again. Good day.
Part 1 coming.

Okay so I’m new at world building and I made this world and I was wondering if I could get some people’s thoughts on it anything I should/could do to make it better or if there’s anything I should ad anyway this is my world
Time Period: 20th Century Key features of this time period include: * Economic Changes: The century experienced profound shifts in economic structures. The Great Depression, World Wars, and the Cold War influenced economic policies and global relations a lot. * Global Conflicts and Decolonization: The 20th century being marked by two World Wars, the Cold War, and numerous regional conflicts. Decolonization movements led to the independence of many nations in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, reshaping global political dynamics. * Cultural and Intellectual Movements: The century would wines diverse cultural and intellectual movements, from Modernism and Postmodernism in art and literature to existentialism and structuralism in philosophy. Popular culture flourished with the rise of cinema, television * Political Revolutions: Various political revolutions and movements occurred, including the Russian Revolution, the rise of fascism and Nazism, and numerous anti-colonial and independence movements. These events reshaped nations and ideologies, influencing global politics. Technology/World State: Diesel-punk/Arcanepunk * Diesel-Punk Aesthetic: The world is characterized by a diesel-punk aesthetic, reminiscent of the early to mid-20th century. Futuristic like Industrial machinery, steam-powered engines, and diesel-fueled vehicles dominate the landscape, giving the world a gritty, industrialized feel. * Arcanepunk Elements: In addition to diesel-punk technology, the world is infused with arcanepunk elements, where runes and arcane forces coexist with technological advancements. Runes, enchanted artifacts, and mystical creatures and races populate the world alongside steam and or diesel-powered machines and industrial innovations. Runes are integrated into everyday life, influencing everything from household appliances to warfare. * Societal Structure: The society within this world is often stratified, with distinct social classes based on wealth, power, and access to technology and magic. The wealthy elite may control advanced technology and wield powerful magical artifacts, while the common folk struggle to survive in the industrialized cities or rural villages. Architecture: focusing on diesel-punk style from the 1910s-1950s * Industrial Architecture: Industrial buildings, such as factories, warehouses, and power plants, dominate the urban landscape. These structures are characterized by their utilitarian design, with large open spaces, exposed steel beams, and functional layouts. The emphasis is on efficiency and productivity, reflecting the industrialization of society. * Gothic Revival: Gothic Revival architecture continues to influence buildings, particularly churches, cathedrals, and government buildings. Pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and intricate stone carvings evoke a sense of medieval grandeur and religious symbolism. * Brutalism: Emerging in the mid-20th century, Brutalism is characterized by its raw, concrete construction and stark, minimalist design. Buildings in this style often feature exposed concrete surfaces, geometric forms, and rugged textures. Brutalist architecture reflects a sense of social idealism and functionalism, with an emphasis on honesty in materials and structural expression. * Urban Planning: The urban landscape undergoes significant transformations during this period, with large-scale urban planning projects shaping the layout of cities. Modernist principles of efficiency and rationality inform the design of neighborhoods, transportation systems, and public spaces. The concept of the "city of the future" inspires architects and planners to create visionary urban environments that accommodate the needs of a rapidly growing population. * Magic System Description * Foundation: Runes harnesses the inherent mana that’s in all matter through intricate symbols called runes. * Activation: Runes are activated by infusing one's own mana into the symbol, causing it to absorb surrounding mana to perform the desired function. * Deactivation: follows a similar process, with individuals withdrawing some mana from the symbol to cease its effects. * Versatility: Runes can be inscribed onto any surface including parchment, stone, metal, or even living beings. Once activated, they can produce a wide range of effects, limited only by the complexity of the rune and the skill of the Runecaster. * Applications: Runes can be used for offense, defense, enchantments, day-to-day tasks and more. Each rune represents a specific concept or action, and combinations of runes can create complex magical effects. * Training: Runecasters undergo rigorous training to understand the intricacies of rune construction, activation, and manipulation. Mastery of rune magic requires years of diligent study and practice. * Science vs. Art: Runes are considered a science rather than an art, adhering to precise rules and principles governing their construction and usage. While some individuals may have a natural affinity for rune crafting, anyone can learn to make runes with sufficient dedication and training. * Limitations: Improper use of runes can lead to unintended consequences or backfiring effects. The complexity of rune construction means that creating advanced runes requires considerable expertise. * Changed People/Parts: A rare genetic disorder afflicts approximately 25% of the population, resulting in random body parts being transformed into a durable metal that functions just like the original part but with anomalous properties. These affected parts grant individuals elemental powers/magic associated with their respective element. * Changed parts: Any body part/parts ranging from a single muscle fiber to entire organs can be affected. The affected area becomes a metal that resembles the original body part but possesses enhanced durability and elemental affinity. * Elemental Powers: The type of elemental powemagic granted is completely random but what ever the affected body part is they’ll gain total control over that element the only limits being their imagination and power level. * Types of Elements: Individuals with changed parts can manifest a variety of elemental powers. The different elements and the chance of having it is as follows: 15% lightning, 22% fire, 25% air, 10% water, 10% earth, 5% spirit/soul, 5% combustion, 1% space, 1% time, 3% light, and 3% darkness. * Power Utilization: You can control the element you get through your changed part however, you want(kind of like bending, but without the need for the martial arts) the only limitation being your power level and your imagination your power level dictating how much of your element you can create how strong your control over your element is and how much of that element you can control and imagination dictating how you control your element * Power Levels: The strength of an individual's elemental powers/magic is indicated by the brightness of the glow emitted by the transformed body part when it’s used. A brigh glow signifies a high power and proficiency in utilizing there elemental abilities. Your power level goes up the more you use your changed part like a muscle the more you use it that gets. * Awareness: In most cases, individuals and even medical professionals are unaware of the presence of changed parts until the affected individual begins using their elemental powers/magic. The only changed parts, that are visible are ones like changed eyes or skin which are obviously immediately noticeable. * Monsters: a small amount of monsters/folklore creatures/mythical creatures exist but they’re specific to the region where they’re mythology/folklore comes from so let’s say Japan they would have creatures/monsters from there mythologies/religions/folklore * Gods * Artifacts of Power: Each god in every religion or mythology is sealed inside the item they’re associated with the most. These items can be anything these items possess a small part of the god sealed inside them * Connection to Mortals: Mortals who wield one of these items gain a fraction of the god's power, although they are not on par with the deity itself. * Divine Projection: Gods have the ability to astrally project from their artifacts, manifesting in the mortal realm. However, to avoid driving mortals insane with their true forms, gods typically possess a random mortal to interact with the mortal world.