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“This Time, I Will Never Let You Go”: Cloud’s Mission and the Hidden Purpose of the Remake Trilogy - Literary and Musical Analysis of FFVII - Part 3
2024.05.16 09:28 haygurlhay123 “This Time, I Will Never Let You Go”: Cloud’s Mission and the Hidden Purpose of the Remake Trilogy - Literary and Musical Analysis of FFVII - Part 3
(continuation of part 2)
III. e) The Mobius FF x FFVII collaboration
Alright, back to our suspension world-hopping! Let’s visit the realm of Mobius FF, —more specifically, the collaboration between Mobius FF and FFVII—, where I found the most substantial evidence for my theory.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the Mobius FF (MFF) world and games, let’s begin with a bit of a summary of the parts relevant to us. The story takes place in a world called Palamecia, to which people from other worlds are inexplicably summoned. The vast majority of those who are brought there don’t remember anything from their worlds of origin or their lives before Palamecia except their names: these amnesiac people are called Blanks. The main character is Wol, accompanied by a guiding fairy of Palamecia named Echo. Echo knows a lot about the mechanisms of Palamecia, as she’s tied to the realm. The leader of this world is Vox, a being who manifests only as a voice. The first thing all Blanks remember before they wake in Palamecia is Vox telling them the rules of the realm. Incidentally, the crystals of the MFF world are teleportation crystals.
III. e) i. Devs’ Statements
Let’s review some of the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration devs’ statements before diving into its story.
For both the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration and the Remake project, Kitase took on the role of producer while Nojima supervised the screenplay and wrote the scenario. The project leader was none other than the Remake trilogy’s Hamaguchi, who told a SE interviewer the following:
III. e) ii. Eclipse Contact
1) Fact-Finding
Part one of the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration event is called Eclipse Contact. It came out in 2017 on Aerith’s birthday, February 7th, and its release campaign ran until March. In Eclipse Contact, Palamecia welcomes someone new: Cloud Strife appears in the realm with very little recollection of his core world of FFVII.
Cloud isn’t a Blank, since he recalls the mako reactors in Midgar upon his arrival in Palamecia, and also remembers that he was hired by Avalanche to blow them up:
Wol and Echo are intrigued by Cloud’s strange case: non-Blanks rarely arrive in Palamecia. The following text appears on the screen shortly after they meet:
Wol and Echo agree to help Cloud figure out why he’s here, since there’s clearly something strange going on with his presence in Palamecia. In fact, Cloud brought Midgar’s mako reactors with him somehow, transplanting them onto the landscape of Palamecia. The group decides to bomb these reactors, following Cloud’s instincts in the hopes that it will jog his memory.
Now for my favorite part. After blowing up another reactor, the group is surprised by the appearance of a crystal. A piano rendition of Aerith’s theme begins. When Wol tries to touch the crystal, something akin to a force field rejects him. When Cloud approaches it, however, the crystal responds to his hand by flashing with light. As it begins to glow, Wol concludes that the crystal is linked to Cloud and Cloud alone. Let’s examine the resulting dialogue:
Cloud disappears with his crystal, after which Echo speaks to Wol about Cloud’s journey:
III. e) ii. 2) Fact Analysis
There’s a lot of vital information to dig into here, mostly provided by Echo. She claims that the crystal’s light is linked to Cloud’s memories of home; Cloud has to have known this home in the past, as it could not otherwise exist in his memories. MFF Cloud must be a post-OG Cloud. Unfortunately, Echo indicates that whatever Cloud’s home is, he’s lost both it and his memories of it. Despite this, Cloud describes his home as warm and peaceful, concluding that he wishes to find it. Though Cloud can’t return to the past, Echo tells him that if he wishes it strongly enough, the crystal can guide him toward a new world, where his home and his Promised Land exist in the future. The fact that Aerith’s theme is playing all throughout these descriptions of Cloud’s lost home, his Promised Land and the past that he can’t return to makes it extremely obvious that these concepts all point to Aerith. Aerith is Cloud’s lost home. Wherever Aerith is, that’s his Promised Land. The time spent with Aerith before her loss is the past he tragically can’t return to. You might have clocked the similarities between Eclipse Contact’s mention of Cloud’s lost home and DFF’s mention of Cloud’s lost dream: in both these titles, Cloud’s home and dream are equivalent to his Promised Land. It’s confirmed yet again that Aerith is the one Cloud hopes to return to, just like every soul returns to the Lifestream. At this juncture of my research, I was curious as to why the last thing Cloud remembers before waking in Palamecia is the run-up to the Reactor 1 bombing mission in OG (disk 1, chapter 1). This mystery will have to persist for a while longer.
The alarm bells in your head might’ve been triggered by the mention of the wishing scene’s rainbow ripple effects— and rightfully so. This visual cue has sparked passionate debate in the fandom since its appearances in Rebirth, as seen in these pictures:
Zack Choosing To Get A Cure For Cloud, Rebirth Chapter 14; Creating a New World/Timeline
Aerith Pushing Cloud Out of that World/Timeline, Remake Chapter 14
Cloud Blocking Masamune, Rebirth Chapter 14; Creating New World/Timeline
You might have read or heard that this rainbow effect signifies that a character has entered another timeline, created a portal to another timeline, created a new timeline or is being shown different timelines. Indeed, whenever the OG timeline is deviated from in a significant way, this effect appears. The pictures above present multiple examples of these shifting realities.
One might propose that the rainbow ripples in Eclipse Contact and Rebirth are unrelated because of the long period between their respective release dates. This long in-between period indeed makes it likelier that the effect was used without forethought in Eclipse Contact, forgotten over the years, and incidentally reused in Rebirth as a plot-important visual cue with no connection to Eclipse Contact. I’m inclined to disagree since the crystal is specifically described as a vessel that can take Cloud “to a new world” by Echo, which is a bit on the nose. Regardless, it’s plausible that there’s no connection. That is, it would be, if the rainbow effect didn’t show up in Remake too.
When the Whispers are finally defeated in chapter 18 of Remake, a burst of the rainbow ripple effects indicate the emergence of multiple worlds, newly freed from the restrictive clutches of fate (1:16:36-1:16:47). Shortly thereafter, Sephiroth takes Cloud to the Edge of Creation and invites him to join forces with him. Cloud refuses, and Sephiroth says the following:
Given that Remake was released in 2020 and Eclipse Contact came out in 2017, the major story elements of the Remake trilogy —including the eventuality of alternate timelines— had to have been planned out at the time of Eclipse Contact’s release: while the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration was being made, Remake was also in production. Also recall that the collaboration event and the Remake trilogy share a codirector in Hamaguchi, a writer in Nojima and a producer in Kitase. Based on all this, it’s more than likely that the rainbow ripples in the Remake trilogy and inEclipse Contact represent the very same thing: alternate worlds and timelines. All this to say that when the rainbow effect appears around the crystal in the Eclipse Contact, it means the crystal is acting as a vessel to another world, just like Echo said.
But that’s not all Echo said: she also mentioned that this other world would take Cloud to his home, to his Promised Land. We’ve already established what that means for Cloud, what it’s meant since two whole decades at the time of Eclipse Contact’s release: this crystal will take Cloud to Aerith. So, where exactly did the crystal take Cloud? In what world can he meet Aerith again?
The music that plays during the wishing scene gives us a huge hint. As I noted before, the track playing in the background is a slightly modified version of Remake’s “Midgar, City of Mako”, which plays in the introduction cutscene of Remake. This is a musical cue that the ending of Cloud’s journey in Eclipse Contact and the very beginning of the Remake trilogy are closely related. Add the fact that the devs wanted players to experience this collaboration event before playing Remake, and it becomes undeniable: the crystal that appeared to Cloud in Palamecia —which offers to lead him to his home and Promised Land, meaning to Aerith—, took him to the world of the Remaketrilogy.
Eclipse Contact is huge. The whole crux of my theory lives and dies right here. However, we still have part two of the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration event to analyze as well as its promotions to look into before I can drop the thesis on you, so bear with me in order to receive the most thorough analysis of all this possible! I want to give you every drop of proof I can!
III. e) ii. MFF x FFVII Remake Fatal Calling
1) Fact-Finding
Fatal Calling came out February 1 of 2018, and its release campaign ended in March. The game opens with a cutscene: Cloud is floating, seemingly unconscious, through a sparkling, green current of light. The current flows into a circle of bright, white light, surrounded by rainbow ripple effects as Cloud is driven toward and into it. An orb floats along with him. The Advent Children theme “The Promised Land” plays, a choir of mournful, aching, mutedly desperate souls engaged in a lamenting prayer. Sephiroth’s voice echoes:
Cloud enters a battle with Sephiroth with the help of Wol and Echo, who are surprised to see him back in Palamecia. Cloud tells them about the orb seen floating along with him in the opening cutscene: though he calls it a materia, he doesn’t know how or when he acquired it. Based on his behavior, it appears that Cloud remembers just as little about the events of OG as he did by the end of Eclipse Contact. Wol informs Cloud that whoever he heard speaking to him on his way here was probably Vox pretending to be Sephiroth.
As the group advances, Cloud recalls Midgar and decides they should go there next. At one of Midgar’s mako reactors, the group encounters Sephiroth, who speaks to himself:
Once Cloud has woken up, the group travels to Nibelheim to uncover the truth about Cloud’s memories. Cloud slowly gathers pieces of his past, shown to the player as titled, diary-like text written from various perspectives. Cloud learns the truth about SOLDIER, Jenova cells, Sephiroth, and what happened in Nibelheim. Let’s examine a few of these diary entries:
Cloud, Wol and Echo find Sephiroth at the Northern Crater. He mocks Cloud for believing the orb in his possession is materia. Sephiroth waves a hand and his signature black and purple fog surrounds Cloud, immobilizing him. Sephiroth claims that the power Cloud regained at the Mt. Nibel reactor was Sephiroth’s all along. Now that it courses through Cloud’s veins, Sephiroth controls him. He calls Cloud his puppet and finishes with the following before the two vanish, leaving Wol and Echo alone:
Once both the final name in the credits and Aerith’s theme fade, we’re surprised by a sudden, troubling image: Sephiroth appears in a frightening flash, standing amidst the flames of Nibelheim. When his image fades to black, the collaboration title *“Final Fantasy VII x Mobius Final Fantasy”*appears on the screen. The FFVII title is accompanied by the 1997 meteor logo. Then, a flash of light: the titles reappear, except this time, they read “Final Fantasy VII REMAKE x Mobius Final Fantasy”. The new Remake Meteor logo replaces the 1997 version. As soon as these changes to the FFVII title and meteor logo occur, Aerith’s theme returns. It plays on until the game ends a few seconds later, the screen fading to black.
III. e) ii. 2) Fact Analysis
The introduction cutscene shows that MFF Cloud travelled from Eclipse Contact to Fatal Calling via Lifestream. It’s unclear how much time has passed in between, but the atemporal nature of the Lifestream makes the question irrelevant. My theory that MFF Cloud has died is corroborated by the way he’s depicted in the opening cutscene: his eyes are closed and his body is limp as the Lifestream carries him.
Eclipse Contact ended with Echo’s claim that Cloud will face his true self and confront his past while he journeys to his Promised Land. This description resembles what Cloud experienced in the OG Lifestream sequence (disk 2, chapter 8). Indeed, Fatal Calling revolves around the same topics the Lifestream sequence addresses: the truth about the Nibelheim incident, Hojo’s experiments, young Cloud’s crush on Tifa, etc. The opening cutscene shows Cloud being transported to his Promised Land and facing his past on the way there, just like Echo said he would.
Let’s now take a long detour to examine the song that plays during the opening cutscene of Fatal Calling: “The Promised Land” theme from Advent Children. The title and general subject of this song are obviously relevant to the cutscene, but there must be more to its inclusion than that. Perhaps the lyrics can help us understand its appearance in the opening cutscene of Fatal Calling. Here are the unofficial English lyrics (translated from the original Japanese lyrics by an anonymous fan and verified by me via DeepL):
Importantly, the song plays in Marlene’s introductory narration of Advent Children, meaning its themes are related or similar to the film’s. I highly recommend listening and watching it again, even if you remember this iconic segment. Marlene references Aerith’s sacrifice as the image of Cloud lowering her into the water is shown. Note that Marlene says “Sadness was the price to see it end” (2:36) after we are shown Aerith’s death and her subsequent unleashing of the Lifestream (1:49-2:24): Aerith’s innocent life was sacrificed for the planet’s survival. The lyrics “A gentle life returns to the planet” and “Is it necessary to sacrifice souls?” suit Aerith’s situation quite well.
The theme also plays in Advent Children as Kadaj dies in Cloud’s arms (1:45:00-1:47:55), hearing Aerith’s gentle voice and reaching up to take her invisible hand. Here is what Aerith says to him in his dying moments as “The Promised Land” plays:
Additionally, the song’s themes of regret, shame concerning one’s sins and a small hope perfectly describe Cloud’s character arc and feelings in Advent Children. Cloud regrets his inability to save Aerith, which he considers a sin. Further, he only realized how important she is to him once it was too late to tell her. And of course, he harbors a fragile yet important hope that he’ll be reunited with her in the Promised Land:
The scene depicts Aerith guiding Kadaj into the Lifestream as the song plays, tying her to the concept and theme song of the Promised Land once more. This connection is later solidified by Tifa’s thanks to the late flower girl. All of this evidence shows us that this musical theme is intimately linked to Aerith, as it never plays in her absence. After all, the song speaks of sins, the death of innocents, forgiveness, grief, a small sense of hope, regret and the afterlife: all themes relevant to Cloud’s feelings surrounding Aerith’s death in and outside of Advent Children.
The Remake OST also includes a version of this piece called “The Promised Land - Cycle of Life”. This iteration of the theme begins playing in the wake of the first bombing mission, right after Sephiroth taunts Cloud with his mother’s dying words in Sector 8 (chapter 2). Sephiroth appears to Cloud surrounded by flames, evoking the Nibelheim massacre, and the theme begins playing in the background once he disappears, continuing (13:17-15:30) as Cloud walks through the sector, encountering fires and destruction all around him. This version of the Promised Land theme is meant to emphasize the deaths of the innocent Nibelheim townsfolk and the innocents in Sector 8. This dreadful atmosphere is amplified by the cries of despair that ring all around as Cloud passes by NPC Sector 8 residents. Perhaps the themes of tribalism and mankind’s sin are relevant to this scene as well, since Shinra and Avalanche are two distinct and warring groups whose quarrels, regardless of their necessity, result in the deaths of innocents. The theme of guilt also emerges, reflecting the Avalanche members’ feelings upon seeing the unintended collateral damage of the explosion. “The Promised Land - Cycle of Life” plays until Cloud encounters Aerith on Loveless. So it seems in this scenario, the heavy weight of death and despair is lifted when Cloud meets the lively, cheery Aerith. Once more, Aerith is central to the musical theme of the Promised Land, as well as to the concept itself.
I also noticed that a version of the song plays as Cloud and the party ready to enter the Forgotten Capital to save Aerith in Rebirth’s chapter 14: it truly adds the weight of her upcoming death to the scene.
Back to Fatal Calling, the scene where Cloud regains his strength is quite mysterious. Wol says Cloud’s orb regained its “guiding light” light because of its proximity to the mako reactor. In the moment his strength is replenished, Cloud is shown tilting his head back and closing his eyes: this is reminiscent of the scene in Advent Children when he stands under Aerith’s healing Lifestream rain, feeling at peace. The rainbow ripples shining from the orb indicate that something is crossing the boundaries of worlds. Since the mako reactor pumps up the Lifestream, being near a reactor also means being physically near the Lifestream. This means Aerith’s spirit is within proximity. In my opinion, Aerith was able to heal Cloud from the Lifestream, just like in Advent Children. However, Aerith is not in Palamecia with him: her healing had to travel there through the Lifestream, transcending the boundaries of worlds, hence the rainbow ripples.
Let’s now address the appearance of Tifa’s character theme in Fatal Calling. Since Fatal Calling is all about discovering Cloud’s past in Nibelheim and then in Hojo’s lab, it makes lots of sense for Tifa’s theme to play as the crystal appears. In OG’s Lifestream sequence (disk 2 chapter 8), she’s the one there helping Cloud sort through his past instead of Wol and Echo. Cloud even picks up a piece of his childhood crush on Tifa in Fatal Calling as a shard of his memory. After all, this crush was the catalyst for him joining SOLDIER, and everything that transpired in consequence:
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III. e) The Mobius FF x FFVII collaboration
Alright, back to our suspension world-hopping! Let’s visit the realm of Mobius FF, —more specifically, the collaboration between Mobius FF and FFVII—, where I found the most substantial evidence for my theory.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the Mobius FF (MFF) world and games, let’s begin with a bit of a summary of the parts relevant to us. The story takes place in a world called Palamecia, to which people from other worlds are inexplicably summoned. The vast majority of those who are brought there don’t remember anything from their worlds of origin or their lives before Palamecia except their names: these amnesiac people are called Blanks. The main character is Wol, accompanied by a guiding fairy of Palamecia named Echo. Echo knows a lot about the mechanisms of Palamecia, as she’s tied to the realm. The leader of this world is Vox, a being who manifests only as a voice. The first thing all Blanks remember before they wake in Palamecia is Vox telling them the rules of the realm. Incidentally, the crystals of the MFF world are teleportation crystals.
III. e) i. Devs’ Statements
Let’s review some of the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration devs’ statements before diving into its story.
For both the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration and the Remake project, Kitase took on the role of producer while Nojima supervised the screenplay and wrote the scenario. The project leader was none other than the Remake trilogy’s Hamaguchi, who told a SE interviewer the following:
“We would love for you to play the [MFF x FFVII] collaboration event as you look forward to [Remake’s] release” (“Celebration of the Overseas Release of the Steam Version and FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Collaboration Event”, Square Enix).He later hints at the collaboration’s storyline:
“This collaboration is focused on Cloud, so the other characters will not make an appearance. Players will join Cloud, who has gone astray in Palamecia, on his adventures and see how the story unfolds based on his decisions. Content-wise, FINAL FANTASY VII fans will surely become fraught with emotion as events unfold in-game (laughs).”Kitase concurs on the emotional aspect of the collaboration in the same interview:
“When it comes to the story, I seek two things– ‘mystery’ and ‘[…] emotional impact’.”Clearly, fans of FFVII are supposed to react emotionally to the events of the collaboration. With these statements in mind to give us perspective, we can get into the plot points relevant to our analysis. MFF x FFVII Remake comes in two parts, the relevant plot points of which I will describe and analyze one at a time.
III. e) ii. Eclipse Contact
1) Fact-Finding
Part one of the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration event is called Eclipse Contact. It came out in 2017 on Aerith’s birthday, February 7th, and its release campaign ran until March. In Eclipse Contact, Palamecia welcomes someone new: Cloud Strife appears in the realm with very little recollection of his core world of FFVII.
Cloud isn’t a Blank, since he recalls the mako reactors in Midgar upon his arrival in Palamecia, and also remembers that he was hired by Avalanche to blow them up:
“Echo: How did you end up in Palamecia?This piece of dialogue reveals that Eclipse Contact Cloud’s memories end at the very moment when Avalanche arrives at reactor 1 in OG (disk 1, chapter 1): the very beginning of the game. Consequently, Cloud does not remember anything that happened from the beginning of the OG timeline onwards.
Cloud: I… That day... I remember now. A job. I had taken a job. I was hired muscle protecting clients. They wanted to stop the reactor... We used a train to get past security... Was it at night? Something happened... Next thing I knew, I was floating through darkness. Then [I woke up here]”.
Wol and Echo are intrigued by Cloud’s strange case: non-Blanks rarely arrive in Palamecia. The following text appears on the screen shortly after they meet:
“Perhaps he is not truly who he thinks he is.Just like he did in FFT’s Ivalice, Cloud feels the need to find the Promised Land in MFF x FFVII, despite the fact that he lacks memories of the OG timeline. Though Cloud doesn’t remember anything beyond the train ride to reactor 1, he does remember the Promised Land (at least somewhat). This is odd, given that in OG, Cloud didn’t learn about the Promised Land until several chapters into the game.
Perhaps everything is illusory, a dream.
Only one thing is certain, that he must press on, one step at a time, toward the light that shines from the promised land.”
Wol and Echo agree to help Cloud figure out why he’s here, since there’s clearly something strange going on with his presence in Palamecia. In fact, Cloud brought Midgar’s mako reactors with him somehow, transplanting them onto the landscape of Palamecia. The group decides to bomb these reactors, following Cloud’s instincts in the hopes that it will jog his memory.
Now for my favorite part. After blowing up another reactor, the group is surprised by the appearance of a crystal. A piano rendition of Aerith’s theme begins. When Wol tries to touch the crystal, something akin to a force field rejects him. When Cloud approaches it, however, the crystal responds to his hand by flashing with light. As it begins to glow, Wol concludes that the crystal is linked to Cloud and Cloud alone. Let’s examine the resulting dialogue:
“Echo: This is the light in your memories. The light of home.What follows is a moment I call the wishing scene (13:43-14:34). Cloud closes his eyes and wishes on the crystal. It flashes, and suddenly, rainbow-colored ripples of light appear around it. Aerith’s theme is replaced by a slightly modified version of “Midgar, City of Mako”, the track that plays during the opening cutscene of Remake. You can recreate the modification by listening to “Midgar, City of Mako” from 2:00 to 2:23, then skipping to 3:00 and listening until 3:18. You may recognize the musical motif that kicks off the wishing scene as the Lifestream motif, which has become symbolic of the mysteries of the Remake trilogy, as it often plays during scenes where unexplainable plot deviations from OG occur— more specifically, deviations involving multiverse shenanigans. For instance, it plays during MOTF 4. It also plays in Rebirth after Cloud blocks masamune as Aerith is shown dying anyway.
Cloud: Home? But I don’t—
Echo: If you don't remember… then your home is lost to you.
Cloud: Then my memories are gone.
Wol: Do you want to reclaim your past?
Cloud: Not interested... I am what I am now. Not what I was.
Wol: Then tell me… This light. If you can’t remember it, what does it mean to you?
Cloud: It's a warm light... I feel at peace. If this place —home— is as warm and peaceful as this light, then I want to go there.
Echo: You can't go there... Not back to the past.
Cloud: I see.
Echo: But even if you can't go back to the past, you can go forward. If you wish for it strongly enough, the crystal will show you the way. The way to a new world. The way to your Promised Land. […]
Cloud: So... Should [I] take [my] chances and make a wish to this crystal?
Wol: Go ahead. It’s your crystal.
Echo: I should warn you that once you start on this journey, there's no coming back.
Cloud: The past is the past. I want to go to a place where everything is new. I’m ready.“
Cloud disappears with his crystal, after which Echo speaks to Wol about Cloud’s journey:
“Echo: Each person gets the Promised Land they justly deserve, not the one they really need. If you’re a bad person, you go to a bad place. If you expect nothing, you get nothing. Even the journey there makes you look deep within yourself to find out who you really are. Cloud should be facing his own past as we speak. It’s cruel, but necessary. That battle was a long time coming”.Apparently, at least in the context of this collaboration event, the Promised Land can be a reward or a punishment, depending on which you deserve. Echo explains that Cloud will have to face himself and his past on his way to his Promised Land. This means that the Cloud that appears in Eclipse Contact must next embark on a journey that will confront him with his past, test his mettle, and ultimately lead him to the Promised Land he justly deserves.
III. e) ii. 2) Fact Analysis
There’s a lot of vital information to dig into here, mostly provided by Echo. She claims that the crystal’s light is linked to Cloud’s memories of home; Cloud has to have known this home in the past, as it could not otherwise exist in his memories. MFF Cloud must be a post-OG Cloud. Unfortunately, Echo indicates that whatever Cloud’s home is, he’s lost both it and his memories of it. Despite this, Cloud describes his home as warm and peaceful, concluding that he wishes to find it. Though Cloud can’t return to the past, Echo tells him that if he wishes it strongly enough, the crystal can guide him toward a new world, where his home and his Promised Land exist in the future. The fact that Aerith’s theme is playing all throughout these descriptions of Cloud’s lost home, his Promised Land and the past that he can’t return to makes it extremely obvious that these concepts all point to Aerith. Aerith is Cloud’s lost home. Wherever Aerith is, that’s his Promised Land. The time spent with Aerith before her loss is the past he tragically can’t return to. You might have clocked the similarities between Eclipse Contact’s mention of Cloud’s lost home and DFF’s mention of Cloud’s lost dream: in both these titles, Cloud’s home and dream are equivalent to his Promised Land. It’s confirmed yet again that Aerith is the one Cloud hopes to return to, just like every soul returns to the Lifestream. At this juncture of my research, I was curious as to why the last thing Cloud remembers before waking in Palamecia is the run-up to the Reactor 1 bombing mission in OG (disk 1, chapter 1). This mystery will have to persist for a while longer.
The alarm bells in your head might’ve been triggered by the mention of the wishing scene’s rainbow ripple effects— and rightfully so. This visual cue has sparked passionate debate in the fandom since its appearances in Rebirth, as seen in these pictures:
Zack Choosing To Get A Cure For Cloud, Rebirth Chapter 14; Creating a New World/Timeline
Aerith Pushing Cloud Out of that World/Timeline, Remake Chapter 14
Cloud Blocking Masamune, Rebirth Chapter 14; Creating New World/Timeline
You might have read or heard that this rainbow effect signifies that a character has entered another timeline, created a portal to another timeline, created a new timeline or is being shown different timelines. Indeed, whenever the OG timeline is deviated from in a significant way, this effect appears. The pictures above present multiple examples of these shifting realities.
One might propose that the rainbow ripples in Eclipse Contact and Rebirth are unrelated because of the long period between their respective release dates. This long in-between period indeed makes it likelier that the effect was used without forethought in Eclipse Contact, forgotten over the years, and incidentally reused in Rebirth as a plot-important visual cue with no connection to Eclipse Contact. I’m inclined to disagree since the crystal is specifically described as a vessel that can take Cloud “to a new world” by Echo, which is a bit on the nose. Regardless, it’s plausible that there’s no connection. That is, it would be, if the rainbow effect didn’t show up in Remake too.
When the Whispers are finally defeated in chapter 18 of Remake, a burst of the rainbow ripple effects indicate the emergence of multiple worlds, newly freed from the restrictive clutches of fate (1:16:36-1:16:47). Shortly thereafter, Sephiroth takes Cloud to the Edge of Creation and invites him to join forces with him. Cloud refuses, and Sephiroth says the following:
“Seven seconds till the end. Time enough for you. Perhaps. But what will you do with it? Let's see.”The question “What will you do with it?” implies that the answer is unknown, meaning Cloud is no longer bound to the OG timeline by fate: many alternate futures lay ahead. Sephiroth is telling Cloud and the audience that now, the mystery of the Remake trilogy has become “Which future will Cloud bring into existence? Which among the infinite possible timelines will his choices result in?” After pondering this aloud, Sephiroth leaves Cloud alone to consider the rainbow effects in the sky (1:19:23-1:19:36). Because they generally represent alternate or changing timelines, it’s safe to assume that the rainbow ripples here represent the myriad of possible worlds that Cloud’s actions in those seven seconds could generate. After all, Sephiroth was just talking about them, and chapter 18’s description in Remake reads as follows:
“In a world beyond, Sephiroth shows Cloud a vision of the planet seven seconds before its demise. Having strayed from the course destiny set for them, they strike out on a path towards an unknown future."This explains why the player is shown Cloud staring at those colors in the apocalyptic sky at world’s end, directly after hearing Sephiroth’s cryptic words: those are all the alternate “unknown future” timelines ahead of him, now unravelled from fate. Amongst those rainbow ripples lies the answer to the question “What will you do with [the seven seconds]?”
Given that Remake was released in 2020 and Eclipse Contact came out in 2017, the major story elements of the Remake trilogy —including the eventuality of alternate timelines— had to have been planned out at the time of Eclipse Contact’s release: while the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration was being made, Remake was also in production. Also recall that the collaboration event and the Remake trilogy share a codirector in Hamaguchi, a writer in Nojima and a producer in Kitase. Based on all this, it’s more than likely that the rainbow ripples in the Remake trilogy and inEclipse Contact represent the very same thing: alternate worlds and timelines. All this to say that when the rainbow effect appears around the crystal in the Eclipse Contact, it means the crystal is acting as a vessel to another world, just like Echo said.
But that’s not all Echo said: she also mentioned that this other world would take Cloud to his home, to his Promised Land. We’ve already established what that means for Cloud, what it’s meant since two whole decades at the time of Eclipse Contact’s release: this crystal will take Cloud to Aerith. So, where exactly did the crystal take Cloud? In what world can he meet Aerith again?
The music that plays during the wishing scene gives us a huge hint. As I noted before, the track playing in the background is a slightly modified version of Remake’s “Midgar, City of Mako”, which plays in the introduction cutscene of Remake. This is a musical cue that the ending of Cloud’s journey in Eclipse Contact and the very beginning of the Remake trilogy are closely related. Add the fact that the devs wanted players to experience this collaboration event before playing Remake, and it becomes undeniable: the crystal that appeared to Cloud in Palamecia —which offers to lead him to his home and Promised Land, meaning to Aerith—, took him to the world of the Remaketrilogy.
Eclipse Contact is huge. The whole crux of my theory lives and dies right here. However, we still have part two of the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration event to analyze as well as its promotions to look into before I can drop the thesis on you, so bear with me in order to receive the most thorough analysis of all this possible! I want to give you every drop of proof I can!
III. e) ii. MFF x FFVII Remake Fatal Calling
1) Fact-Finding
Fatal Calling came out February 1 of 2018, and its release campaign ended in March. The game opens with a cutscene: Cloud is floating, seemingly unconscious, through a sparkling, green current of light. The current flows into a circle of bright, white light, surrounded by rainbow ripple effects as Cloud is driven toward and into it. An orb floats along with him. The Advent Children theme “The Promised Land” plays, a choir of mournful, aching, mutedly desperate souls engaged in a lamenting prayer. Sephiroth’s voice echoes:
“Sephiroth: It’s time. You may turn your back on the past, lock your memories away. Hide reality beneath a layer of illusion. But destiny will not die so easily. Yes. At memory’s end you may plead for it all to go away. But the past is a curse, binding your soul. It’s time. Wake to your fate. Rise to your destiny.Sephiroth’s mentions of Cloud hiding under an illusion and repressing his memories are no doubt allusions to Cloud’s past, which was complicated and darkened by Hojo’s experiments. It makes sense, then, that Cloud responds with “Reunion”. Fatal Calling indeed focuses on Cloud’s relationship to his past, his identity and Sephiroth. Everything involving Nibelheim —where everything started—, Sephiroth’s manipulation, and Hojo’s experiments are on the table. Also noteworthy if not out of place is Sephiroth’s evocation of fate.
Cloud: (In a half-conscious grunt) Reunion…
Sephiroth: The light will lead you. Wake to your fate. Rise!”
Cloud enters a battle with Sephiroth with the help of Wol and Echo, who are surprised to see him back in Palamecia. Cloud tells them about the orb seen floating along with him in the opening cutscene: though he calls it a materia, he doesn’t know how or when he acquired it. Based on his behavior, it appears that Cloud remembers just as little about the events of OG as he did by the end of Eclipse Contact. Wol informs Cloud that whoever he heard speaking to him on his way here was probably Vox pretending to be Sephiroth.
As the group advances, Cloud recalls Midgar and decides they should go there next. At one of Midgar’s mako reactors, the group encounters Sephiroth, who speaks to himself:
“It's still not enough. This... this is but a pale imitation of the power I desire.”Once Sephiroth has disappeared, Cloud explains what he remembers: Sephiroth was the greatest SOLDIER of all and a hero to Cloud, though Cloud can’t remember what exactly ended this admiration. As players of FFVII OG, we know the event in question is the Nibelheim incident, wherein Sephiroth slaughtered the town’s residents, including Cloud’s mother, after learning of his past. The former war hero also severely injured Tifa, whom Cloud presumed dead when he found her in the old mako reactor with a vicious slash on her chest. Cloud is agitated by the gaps in his memory, so the group resolves to follow Sephiroth for answers. When they find him again, Sephiroth causes Cloud to experience a piercing headache with the mere mention of the Reunion. They fight, but Sephiroth is too powerful— he skewers Cloud with the masamune and taunts his unconscious body:
“Sephiroth: A puppet. I won’t kill you. Not yet. Not until you know true despair.Sephiroth darkens Cloud’s materia, turning it black. Later, Wol explains to Cloud that Sephiroth stole the light from his materia, taking Cloud’s strength along with it.
Wol: If you want despair, we got plenty to go around. Palamecia’s full of it.
Sephiroth: Yes, this planet knows suffering. But it is not the world that was promised to me. I must go home. Tell Cloud, if he wants to see me again, he should face his memories. I will await him there, in the land of memory, where it all began. In Nibelheim.”
Once Cloud has woken up, the group travels to Nibelheim to uncover the truth about Cloud’s memories. Cloud slowly gathers pieces of his past, shown to the player as titled, diary-like text written from various perspectives. Cloud learns the truth about SOLDIER, Jenova cells, Sephiroth, and what happened in Nibelheim. Let’s examine a few of these diary entries:
“A Warrior’s Tale: There's a girl in Nibelheim I think about. Warm. Cheerful. More grown-up than a child. Haven't talked to her much, but she seems nice. She's going to be leading the SOLDIERs to the mountain reactor. Maybe if I get into the survey team I'll get a chance to talk to her? Nah. She's out of my league.”Young Cloud’s crush on Tifa is on full display! This must be a memory from his time as an infantryman accompanying Zack and Sephiroth to Nibelheim.
“Tale of the Nameless: I drift along in the mako, asleep. Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Give me a number. I… I… I am… The Reunion. The Reunion must happen.”This entry could be taken from any one of the Nibelheim survivors’ perspectives, as they were all bathed in mako and turned into Sephiroth clones. I would venture to say this is Cloud’s perspective though, given the reference to this iconic line from OG:
“Cloud: Professor... please give me a number. Please, Professor...The trio encounters Sephiroth near the old Mt. Nibel mako reactor. Because Sephiroth stole the light from his materia earlier, Cloud goes into the confrontation already drained of his strength. However, when Cloud lifts the materia in his hand, it lights up and creates rainbow ripples in the air around him, similar to those seen in Eclipse Contact and Rebirth. Cloud is healed of his injuries: he closes his eyes for a moment, wearing a peaceful expression. Sephiroth is displeased, but recovers quickly:
Hojo: Shut up, miserable failure.” (disk 2, chapter 2).
“Sephiroth: The guiding light… it healed you.With this second evocation of fate, Sephiroth disappears.
Wol: […] here, near the mako reactor, the materia regained its light. And your strength returned […]. [Sephiroth]’s here so he can steal the power you've stored inside that materia.
Sephiroth, with a short laugh: I have all the power I need. Cloud. What strength you’ve regained is yours. Use it to fight me. It’s time. Let’s decide this, in this land lost to despair. The prize is home. The Promised Land. There to answer the call of destiny.”
Cloud, Wol and Echo find Sephiroth at the Northern Crater. He mocks Cloud for believing the orb in his possession is materia. Sephiroth waves a hand and his signature black and purple fog surrounds Cloud, immobilizing him. Sephiroth claims that the power Cloud regained at the Mt. Nibel reactor was Sephiroth’s all along. Now that it courses through Cloud’s veins, Sephiroth controls him. He calls Cloud his puppet and finishes with the following before the two vanish, leaving Wol and Echo alone:
“Now, let us return. Back to the Promised Land. The time of the Reunion has come.”After Cloud finally breaks free and defeats Sephiroth with the help of Wol and Echo, the villain makes a final threat:
“Very good, Cloud. You’ve destroyed an illusion. But the time will come to abandon your illusions and face reality. Then, you will know true pain.”Sephiroth disappears for the last time, his body surrounded by his signature dark fog and the rainbow ripples. A piano rendition of Tifa’s theme begins. Cloud’s orb rises into the air and becomes a crystal, with the same shape and glow as the one we see in Eclipse Contact. The following dialogue is illuminating:
“Cloud: I will fight. The light will lead me where I need to go.Tifa’s theme ends. Cloud approaches the crystal, and disappears in a beam of blinding light. Once Cloud has vanished with the crystal, Aerith’s theme begins playing. A few pale feathers with a slight orange tint (the color of MFF) float down onto the floor where he stood seconds before. The image fades to black. The credits roll, and Aerith’s theme continues all the way through.
Wol: You sure? Wasn’t that [crystal] Sephiroth’s?
Cloud: I heard Sephiroth's voice, at the end. Inside me. Whatever he put in me, it’s still in there. Someday I’ll settle that score. If I can't avoid destiny, I might as well face it head-on.
Wol: Yeah. That was quite a speech, Cloud. Surprised you made it through without laughing.
Cloud: Yeah, forget I said it. I will too.
Echo: Forgetting won’t make it go away. Even if the words fade from memory, your dream will never disappear. Not until it becomes real.“
The crystal shines as though in response.
“Echo: See? See, that's how the light of hope works. Hope can turn your dreams into reality.
Cloud: Yeah. I guess so. I might forget this world, but I won’t forget hope. And my reality, that’s for me to live.”
Once both the final name in the credits and Aerith’s theme fade, we’re surprised by a sudden, troubling image: Sephiroth appears in a frightening flash, standing amidst the flames of Nibelheim. When his image fades to black, the collaboration title *“Final Fantasy VII x Mobius Final Fantasy”*appears on the screen. The FFVII title is accompanied by the 1997 meteor logo. Then, a flash of light: the titles reappear, except this time, they read “Final Fantasy VII REMAKE x Mobius Final Fantasy”. The new Remake Meteor logo replaces the 1997 version. As soon as these changes to the FFVII title and meteor logo occur, Aerith’s theme returns. It plays on until the game ends a few seconds later, the screen fading to black.
III. e) ii. 2) Fact Analysis
The introduction cutscene shows that MFF Cloud travelled from Eclipse Contact to Fatal Calling via Lifestream. It’s unclear how much time has passed in between, but the atemporal nature of the Lifestream makes the question irrelevant. My theory that MFF Cloud has died is corroborated by the way he’s depicted in the opening cutscene: his eyes are closed and his body is limp as the Lifestream carries him.
Eclipse Contact ended with Echo’s claim that Cloud will face his true self and confront his past while he journeys to his Promised Land. This description resembles what Cloud experienced in the OG Lifestream sequence (disk 2, chapter 8). Indeed, Fatal Calling revolves around the same topics the Lifestream sequence addresses: the truth about the Nibelheim incident, Hojo’s experiments, young Cloud’s crush on Tifa, etc. The opening cutscene shows Cloud being transported to his Promised Land and facing his past on the way there, just like Echo said he would.
Let’s now take a long detour to examine the song that plays during the opening cutscene of Fatal Calling: “The Promised Land” theme from Advent Children. The title and general subject of this song are obviously relevant to the cutscene, but there must be more to its inclusion than that. Perhaps the lyrics can help us understand its appearance in the opening cutscene of Fatal Calling. Here are the unofficial English lyrics (translated from the original Japanese lyrics by an anonymous fan and verified by me via DeepL):
“Why do we cling together?The song appears to be a regretful lament of human behavior, expressed by the repetition of “Why do we […]?” questions. The behaviors listed are all typically human ones: the terms “[clinging] together” and “[giving] punishment to [the] lesser” express the uniquely human nature of tribalism and the consequences of the fear and hatred it can generate, and “[begging] for forgiveness in the Promised Land” is likely a reference to the human hypocrisy of only feeling sorry for one’s crimes when judgement day arrives. This last line describes a scenario where someone remains passive or ignorant in the face of something important, only to realize its essentiality once it’s too late. The repeated“The planet did not forgive us” lines reflect the fear of being condemned forever because of one’s mistakes, as though the planet is a deity one has sinned against. The lyric describing a pulse in the earth is obviously about the planet being alive— a reference to the Lifestream. But the pulse is faint and weak and the planet is dying, perishing because of mankind’s greed. This is an indictment of mako energy. The line “A gentle life returns to the planet” refers to an innocent’s soul returning to the Lifestream after death, while the next lyric “Is it necessary to sacrifice souls?” protests the “sacrifice” of the planet’s soul energy for mako production. In all this darkness, this song’s mention of “forgiveness in the Promised Land” leaves a modicum of hope for a better place, however meek, even though mankind might not deserve it. The song “The Promised Land” is both a lament of mankind’s ways and a plea for mercy, with religious and/or spiritual undertones. The song’s themes seem to be: the Promised Land itself, regret and shame, the sins and foolishness of mankind, the death of innocents, grief, Cetra spirituality, and a meek, quiet hope despite it all. The most interesting aspect of the song is its antithetical portrayal of death as a thing of both despair and hope, condemnation and salvation, cruelty and mercy, suffering and relief. Maybe we can glean more information about this theme’s significance in the world of FFVII if we examine the contexts in which it appears.
Why do we give punishment to lesser hearts?
The planet did not forgive us
Did not forgive us
The planet did not forgive us
Did not forgive us
The pulse of veins flows through the earth
A faint, faint pulse
Of a heart drawn to death
A gentle life returns to the planet
Is it necessary to sacrifice souls?
Why do we cling together?
Why do we beg for forgiveness
In the Promised Land?” (“‘The Promised Land’ (theme)” by Final Fantasy Wiki).
Importantly, the song plays in Marlene’s introductory narration of Advent Children, meaning its themes are related or similar to the film’s. I highly recommend listening and watching it again, even if you remember this iconic segment. Marlene references Aerith’s sacrifice as the image of Cloud lowering her into the water is shown. Note that Marlene says “Sadness was the price to see it end” (2:36) after we are shown Aerith’s death and her subsequent unleashing of the Lifestream (1:49-2:24): Aerith’s innocent life was sacrificed for the planet’s survival. The lyrics “A gentle life returns to the planet” and “Is it necessary to sacrifice souls?” suit Aerith’s situation quite well.
The theme also plays in Advent Children as Kadaj dies in Cloud’s arms (1:45:00-1:47:55), hearing Aerith’s gentle voice and reaching up to take her invisible hand. Here is what Aerith says to him in his dying moments as “The Promised Land” plays:
“Aerith’s voice: Kadaj?Kadaj is brought into the Lifestream by Aerith as she provides rain from the Lifestream. All those with geostigma are healed by the rain, and Tifa feels Aerith’s presence as the party celebrates:
Kadaj: Huh?
The dark sky has gone with Sephiroth. Healing rain starts falling from bright clouds. The rain no longer hurts Kadaj.
Aerith’s voice: You don’t have to hang on any longer.
Kadaj: Mother! Is that…?
Aerith’s voice: Everyone’s waiting, if you’re ready.
Kadaj nods his head slightly in acceptance. He holds out his hand, and slowly evaporates into the Lifestream. Cloud watches […]” (Advent Children).
“Tifa, looking out at the falling rain […]: Somehow, I knew you were there. Thank you” (Advent Children).Cloud stands in the rain with a smile —his first in the whole film—, closes his eyes and basks in Aerith’s healing with his face upturned. He is finally at peace:
“Cloud’s expression is one of peace as the [Lifestream] rain patters against him” (Final Fantasy VII Advent Children English script, “[83] Atop the Shinra Building”).One thing is clear: the track “The Promised Land” accompanies Aerith. It only makes sense, since we’ve seen overwhelming evidence that she is Cloud’s Promised Land, and since she occupies the Lifestream —which some consider the Promised Land as it is where souls go after death— during the events of Advent Children. Note that when the piece plays, Cloud is shown either mourning Aerith and releasing her into the river at the Cetra capital, or basking in her presence, smiling with relief at the peaceful feeling that she’s somewhere near: these two opposing scenes reflect the song’s antithetical portrayal of death.
Additionally, the song’s themes of regret, shame concerning one’s sins and a small hope perfectly describe Cloud’s character arc and feelings in Advent Children. Cloud regrets his inability to save Aerith, which he considers a sin. Further, he only realized how important she is to him once it was too late to tell her. And of course, he harbors a fragile yet important hope that he’ll be reunited with her in the Promised Land:
“‘Can sins ever be forgiven?’ — Cloud asks this to Vincent, who mutters a brief answer. For both of them, ‘I couldn't protect my loved one’ is the sense of guilt that they carry, so their words resonate with weight” (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, “Chapter 2: Character in FFVIIWorld”, “Vincent Valentine”, “In Advent Children”, page 72).&
"’It is my sin that I couldn't protect my loved one’ — under this assumption, Cloud closes off his heart. What will the reunion with Aerith bring him? ‘I... think I want to be forgiven. Yeah, I just want to be forgiven’” (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, “Chapter 2: Character in FFVIIWorld”, “Cloud Strife”, “In Advent Children”, page 40).&
“Cloud, after seeing Aerith’s hand reach for him through the Lifestream: … I think I'm beginning to understand.Just as the song and Marlene express in the introduction of the film, Aerith was innocent, and her sacrifice generated great grief. Cloud finally experiences peace when he feels her presence in the healing rain, and he smiles: he’s glad to be with her again, even if it’s only for a brief moment of tangential respite.
Tifa: What?
Cloud: An answer from the Planet… the Promised Land... I think I can meet her... there” (disk 3, chapter 3).
The scene depicts Aerith guiding Kadaj into the Lifestream as the song plays, tying her to the concept and theme song of the Promised Land once more. This connection is later solidified by Tifa’s thanks to the late flower girl. All of this evidence shows us that this musical theme is intimately linked to Aerith, as it never plays in her absence. After all, the song speaks of sins, the death of innocents, forgiveness, grief, a small sense of hope, regret and the afterlife: all themes relevant to Cloud’s feelings surrounding Aerith’s death in and outside of Advent Children.
The Remake OST also includes a version of this piece called “The Promised Land - Cycle of Life”. This iteration of the theme begins playing in the wake of the first bombing mission, right after Sephiroth taunts Cloud with his mother’s dying words in Sector 8 (chapter 2). Sephiroth appears to Cloud surrounded by flames, evoking the Nibelheim massacre, and the theme begins playing in the background once he disappears, continuing (13:17-15:30) as Cloud walks through the sector, encountering fires and destruction all around him. This version of the Promised Land theme is meant to emphasize the deaths of the innocent Nibelheim townsfolk and the innocents in Sector 8. This dreadful atmosphere is amplified by the cries of despair that ring all around as Cloud passes by NPC Sector 8 residents. Perhaps the themes of tribalism and mankind’s sin are relevant to this scene as well, since Shinra and Avalanche are two distinct and warring groups whose quarrels, regardless of their necessity, result in the deaths of innocents. The theme of guilt also emerges, reflecting the Avalanche members’ feelings upon seeing the unintended collateral damage of the explosion. “The Promised Land - Cycle of Life” plays until Cloud encounters Aerith on Loveless. So it seems in this scenario, the heavy weight of death and despair is lifted when Cloud meets the lively, cheery Aerith. Once more, Aerith is central to the musical theme of the Promised Land, as well as to the concept itself.
I also noticed that a version of the song plays as Cloud and the party ready to enter the Forgotten Capital to save Aerith in Rebirth’s chapter 14: it truly adds the weight of her upcoming death to the scene.
Back to Fatal Calling, the scene where Cloud regains his strength is quite mysterious. Wol says Cloud’s orb regained its “guiding light” light because of its proximity to the mako reactor. In the moment his strength is replenished, Cloud is shown tilting his head back and closing his eyes: this is reminiscent of the scene in Advent Children when he stands under Aerith’s healing Lifestream rain, feeling at peace. The rainbow ripples shining from the orb indicate that something is crossing the boundaries of worlds. Since the mako reactor pumps up the Lifestream, being near a reactor also means being physically near the Lifestream. This means Aerith’s spirit is within proximity. In my opinion, Aerith was able to heal Cloud from the Lifestream, just like in Advent Children. However, Aerith is not in Palamecia with him: her healing had to travel there through the Lifestream, transcending the boundaries of worlds, hence the rainbow ripples.
Let’s now address the appearance of Tifa’s character theme in Fatal Calling. Since Fatal Calling is all about discovering Cloud’s past in Nibelheim and then in Hojo’s lab, it makes lots of sense for Tifa’s theme to play as the crystal appears. In OG’s Lifestream sequence (disk 2 chapter 8), she’s the one there helping Cloud sort through his past instead of Wol and Echo. Cloud even picks up a piece of his childhood crush on Tifa in Fatal Calling as a shard of his memory. After all, this crush was the catalyst for him joining SOLDIER, and everything that transpired in consequence:
“Cloud: That was the first time I heard about Sephiroth. If I got strong like Sephiroth, then everyone might... If I could just get stronger... Then even Tifa would have to notice me” (FFVII OG, disk 2, chapter 8).Additionally, it’s fitting that her theme should begin right after Sephiroth speaks of “[abandoning] your illusions and [facing] reality”, considering that Cloud’s false persona was concocted by Jenova using Tifa’s mistaken impressions of Cloud:
“While being tended to by a station worker in the Sector 7 Slum train station, [Cloud] was reunited with Tifa, and using the abilities of Jenova’s cells, formed a new personality” (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, “Chapter 2: Character in FFVII World, “Cloud Strife”, “Cloud Behavior Record, Compilation of FFVII”, page 40).&
“(Image caption:) A new personality takes shape the moment he sees Tifa” (FFVII Story Playback, “Story Check: Tifa’s Flashback”).&
“Tifa (to Cloud): Deep down, you're a pretty nice guy. Didn't see it when we were kids, but...” (Remake, chapter 14).(Continued in part 4)
2024.05.16 00:30 AutoModerator General Questions Thread, May 15, 2024
A thread for new collectors to ask basic questions of the community.
Frequently Asked Questions below!
A longer version of the subreddit rules is here.
For questions specifically concerning bootlegs or vendor legitimacy, please ask in the Bootleg Megathread.
NSFW & Spoiler Guidelines
Any collection posts containing bootlegs, comments advocating buying bootlegs, or links to sites selling bootlegs, recasts, or unlicensed merchandise will be removed.
People often ask about the legitimacy and/or safety of a number of websites which sell large resin statues. The more commonly-asked of those deal primarily in resins from studios which do not have a license from the Japanese IP holders to produce merchandise. Therefore links to those sites are not permitted here. Another sign is if MyFigureCollection doesn't list the either the statue, its manufacturer, or the shop it's being sold on.
MyFigureCollection
My Figure Collection is like MyAnimeList... but for figures! Their database includes thousands of items which been produced during the last couple of decades, along with reviews of shops and other helpful articles. One can also list their own collection and post gallery photos.
Shops
That’s going to depend a lot on what works for you, but most people around here buy them from Amiami, Big in Japan, Hobby Search, HobbyLink Japan, or Tokyo Otaku Mode. If none of those work for you for whatever reason, there’s a list of reputable retailers in the sidebar that you can check out at any time. Be extra careful when ordering figures from websites like Amazon or ebay, as there are a lot of bootlegs on those sites. Don’t be afraid to ask in our Bootleg Megathread if you’re unsure.
2. What differences are there between the shipping options I get from most Japanese shops?
Below is a rundown of the main shipping choices you’ll get at most retailers. Keep in mind that if an order is large enough you will be forced to use one of the more expensive options, as SAL shipments have lower size and weight restrictions.
Most shops will ask you to pay shipping on a per-order basis, but here are some that will allow combined shipping:
4. When will I get charged for my preorder?
Most Japanese shops charge you once the item is in stock and ready for shipment. When that happens, they will send you an email asking for payment. Some shops (mostly overseas ones), will allow you to pay for the item up front though, if you’d like. A few with that option are:
5. Should I expect to pay customs fees when importing figures?
That depends on where you live. Here’s a quick rundown:
You have three options for this:
A. Big in Japan is known to stock exclusive figures and ship to other countries. Usually the price is higher because they build in their proxy fees, but it’s easier than worrying about using a forwarder or proxy service. If you live in the US, Crunchyroll, Right Stuf, and Tokyo Otaku Mode also get exclusives sometimes, but out of the states the shipping can get expensive.
B. Forwarding Services: A forwarder is someone who you ship an exclusive item to so that they can forward the package on to you, usually for a flat fee + shipping. When using a forwarder you still make the purchase yourself, and enter their address into the shipping field. When the box arrives at the forwarder they will then stick your address onto the package and send it on its way.
Some popular forwarders are:
Be sure to read each sites instructions on forwarding carefully!
C. Proxy Services: With a proxy, you tell them what the item you’re looking for is and they will purchase it in your stead. This is handy for when a company doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, or you’re having trouble navigating a Japanese website.
Some popular proxies are:
7. I see a bunch of really cheap figures that ship from China on ebay. Are those okay to buy?
Generally, no. They’re most likely bootlegs. If you want a second opinion on that, feel free to ask in the Bootleg Megathread that’s always stickied at the top of the sub.
8. What’s a bootleg, and how can I avoid buying them?
A bootleg is a counterfeit figure often made using rejected molds of the official product. They are usually priced significantly lower than the genuine article, and in order to make their profit, bootleggers use lower quality materials and have less attention to detail- resulting in a substandard figure.
The Bootleg Megathread that I mentioned in question 7 is a great tool to avoid buying any bootlegs. It has a few tips and tricks to avoiding them to begin with, and a few more on how to spot them if you’re worried you might already own one.
9. Does anyone know when figure X is going to be released? How do I know if it was delayed?
My Figure Collection (sometimes referred to as MFC) does an excellent job of staying on top of information like release dates and delays. If you’re curious about an upcoming figures release date, check there first. This information can be found directly under the “Releases” section on a figure’s entry. If you only see a month and a year in that section, it means the release date has not yet been announced by the manufacturer, and there is still a chance the figure could be delayed.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.
10. The figure I want is long sold out at normal retailers! What’s the best place to pick it up in the aftermarket?
A list of reputable retailers can be found under the “Shops” section of the /AnimeFigures sidebar. They all sell legitimate products, and many of them also sell figures second hand. However, the most frequently suggested second hand sites are Mandarake and Amiami- who has a preowned section that they update every night save Sundays and Japanese holidays around 1PM JST and again around 6PM JST.
AmiAmi grades their pre-owned items on a letter scale. The general consensus from buyers is that their ratings are conservative, so unless the item and/or packaging is specifically indicated as having significant flaws, pre-owned items from them are usually in at least as good a condition as their rating suggests.
Note: When you search Mandarake, you’ll get the best results by using the Japanese characters for whatever you are searching. If you don’t know them, you can find them on MFC by clicking on any of the “details” in that figure’s listing.
11. Amiami has a figure I’m interested in labeled as “For sale in Japan only”. Does this mean I can’t order it without a proxy or forwarder?
No, you can still order it. Amiami’s English site has that warning on many items, and it’s mostly meant to inform you that this product was made for a Japanese market, and as such, will have Japanese speaking/writing in it- so don’t expect any instructions to be in English. If Amiami doesn’t want foreigners buying a certain product, they won’t even list it on their English site.
If you live near an Ikea try out one of these:
If you don’t live near an Ikea, Amazon has a few display options, though they are more expensive. Also keep an eye on your local Craigslist (or your country’s equivalent) and stores near you that are closing up.
13. What lighting do you guys recommend?
Ikea’s Dioder LED strips were discontinued after a long run. A current version is the Vattensten, if you're inclined to buy your case and lights at the same time.
LED strips have become very commonly available in recent years; most hardware and home furnishing stores carry a selection now. Just make sure that the lights don’t get too hot!
14. What are those clear plastic boxes that I see under everyone’s figures in their collection posts, and where can I get them?
Those are called risers. Most of us use standard acrylic risers like these. Some other, easy to find things that have been suggested are:
Another common suggestion is to visit The Container Store if you have one near you. They have a lot of things to choose from that can suit a variety of needs. Be sure to check out their standard acrylic risers, their Amac boxes, and the various display cases they sell (baseball cases, mini car cases. hockey puck cases, etc).
15. Should I keep my figures sealed?
That is, of course, up to you really, but here are a few things to keep in mind when debating this question:
Those are classifications for figures based on a few factors.
17. There are so many figure companies! Who makes good figures?!
Obviously this is a very subjective question, but as a general starting point, here are a few well renowned figure companies:
My Figure Collection can be your best friend here. Simply do a search on the name of the series or character using the search bar located at the top right of the screen, and all associated figures pop up!
Alternatively, if you’re looking at a figure’s MFC entry, most of the text under the “Details” section can be clicked on and used to run a search.
19. How can I commission a custom figure?
None of the major figure companies (Alter, Kotobukiya, Good Smile Company, etc.) will take a commission for a single figure. This thread has a few websites in it that you can check out, or you can look into garage kits. Some kit painters would be willing to resculpt, frankenstein together, or otherwise modify kits for the right price.
If you're looking for help completing a garage kit, /brushforhire may be useful.
Most people use a MFC combined with any or all of the following news sites:
To use MFC for this I’ll quote question #9.
21. Everyone’s excited about something called Wonfes….. what the heck is that?!
WonFes (short for Wonder Festival) is a biannual figure expo where many figure producers (both large and small) show off new sculpts and updates to figures already under way. Most companies save their most exciting announcements for WonFes, so we all look forward to the expo whenever it rolls around! Winter Wonder Festival is usually held in February, while Summer Wonder Festival is usually in July. The event has also spread to Shanghai, in the late spring.
22. One or two (or 15) figures were announced at WonFes that I’m really excited about! How can I keep track of their progress once the event is over?
MFC is always really quick about getting new WonFes announcements (or any others throughout the year, for that matter) listed in their database, so we suggest using that. To find a figure from the event you can search any number of things, including the name of the character or the name of the show. You can also use the tag search to search “WonderFestival 20xx_[season]” to see all items announced at that event.
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Frequently Asked Questions below!
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MyFigureCollection
My Figure Collection is like MyAnimeList... but for figures! Their database includes thousands of items which been produced during the last couple of decades, along with reviews of shops and other helpful articles. One can also list their own collection and post gallery photos.
Shops
Retailers:Blogs/News:
AmiAmi HobbySearch Mandarake (sells rare figures) Good Smile Company Online Shop (often has exclusives) Good Smile Company US shop Crunchyroll Store Hobby Link Japan (aka HLJ) Solaris Japan (MFC partner) BigBadToyStore (MFC partner, US retailer) Big in Japan (also has proxy service) Tokyo Otaku Mode FigureHaven Archonia (EU) Yorokonde (EU) Figuya (EU) Gamersheek (UK) Jungle
List of retailers on MFC
/AnimeFigures' List of Retailers
Community Guide to Shopping in Japan
Nekomagic (News/Previews) NyaaFigurines (Reviews/Releases) Kahotan's Blog (News/Reviews) Figma Blog (JP)
Buying & Shipping
1. What’s the best place to buy my anime figures from?That’s going to depend a lot on what works for you, but most people around here buy them from Amiami, Big in Japan, Hobby Search, HobbyLink Japan, or Tokyo Otaku Mode. If none of those work for you for whatever reason, there’s a list of reputable retailers in the sidebar that you can check out at any time. Be extra careful when ordering figures from websites like Amazon or ebay, as there are a lot of bootlegs on those sites. Don’t be afraid to ask in our Bootleg Megathread if you’re unsure.
2. What differences are there between the shipping options I get from most Japanese shops?
Below is a rundown of the main shipping choices you’ll get at most retailers. Keep in mind that if an order is large enough you will be forced to use one of the more expensive options, as SAL shipments have lower size and weight restrictions.
- Unregistered SAL: Sometimes referred to as uSAL, is usually the cheapest method. It does not come with any tracking or insurance. Usually takes up 2-4 weeks for delivery.
- Registered SAL: Sometimes referred to as rSAL, is insured for the declared value up to 6,000 yen. It comes with a tracking number and usually takes 2-4 weeks for delivery.
- EMS: This method of shipping is much faster than either SAL options, usually arriving within a week of shipment. EMS shipments are insured for the declared value up to 2,000,000 yen.
- Airmail
- E-packet
- Surface: Shops don't offer this very often. It's an actual cargo ship and slow as a result.
- DHL: Becoming more available as an alternative to EMS on AmiAmi and other sites. Can be less expensive than EMS and of comparable speed, but may be more reliant on the specific geographical area being shipped to. The price is also determined by the size of the box. Offers their own tracking.
Most shops will ask you to pay shipping on a per-order basis, but here are some that will allow combined shipping:
- Amiami: You can combine orders here, as long as the orders ship in the same month. It doesn’t matter if the item is new or preowned. Any preorders that are set for that month can also be combined with other orders for that month. However, be aware that if the preorder gets delayed, Amiami will remove that item from that month’s shipment and place it on a new order. To combine orders on Amiami, use the “Combine Orders” feature under “My Account”.
- Hobby Search: Hobby Search will let you combine orders that release in the same month, but you cannot combine in stock items with preorders. If you want to combine multiple preorders, or multiple in stock items, you can do so using the “Order Recombination” feature on your account page.
- HobbyLink Japan: At HLJ, you have the option to send paid orders to their “Private Warehouse”, where you can store them for up to 2 months. When you’re ready to ship the items, you simply select which items to ship and HLJ will combine them into one shipment for you. To use this, just select the “Private Warehouse” option as shipping when you order.
4. When will I get charged for my preorder?
Most Japanese shops charge you once the item is in stock and ready for shipment. When that happens, they will send you an email asking for payment. Some shops (mostly overseas ones), will allow you to pay for the item up front though, if you’d like. A few with that option are:
- Big in Japan (Japanese store)
- Tokyo Otaku Mode
- Anime Island
- Crunchyroll
5. Should I expect to pay customs fees when importing figures?
That depends on where you live. Here’s a quick rundown:
- Australia: 10% GST is now assessed up front.
- Canada: Minimum declared value for charges is around CAD$20 for regular shipments, and CAD$60 for gifts (gifting something only seems to lower the declared value by about CAD$40, not deplete it completely). When using Amiami, try their Small Air Packet option. It comes with tracking, gets there in about the same time as EMS, and is better at avoiding customs.
- European Union: As of 1st July 2021, VAT has to be paid on all goods imported from outside of the EU. Retailers are supposed charge VAT for purchases under €150, however many Japanese retailers currently do not, so VAT will be charged when your order arrives in the EU. Orders that are >€150, VAT and duty will be charged by your local customs.
- UK: As of 1st January 2021, VAT is to be charged by retailers for orders <£135. However, customs isn't currently charging VAT on parcels valued at <£135, even if the VAT hasn't been paid. Goods >£135 will have their VAT and duty calculated and charged by customs.
- Mexico: Minimum declared value for customs fees is USD$300 for shipments by post, and USD$50 for shipments by courier.
- United States: A shipment has to have a declared value of USD$2,000 before customs starts hitting you with fees, so you most likely won’t have to worry about them at all.
You have three options for this:
A. Big in Japan is known to stock exclusive figures and ship to other countries. Usually the price is higher because they build in their proxy fees, but it’s easier than worrying about using a forwarder or proxy service. If you live in the US, Crunchyroll, Right Stuf, and Tokyo Otaku Mode also get exclusives sometimes, but out of the states the shipping can get expensive.
B. Forwarding Services: A forwarder is someone who you ship an exclusive item to so that they can forward the package on to you, usually for a flat fee + shipping. When using a forwarder you still make the purchase yourself, and enter their address into the shipping field. When the box arrives at the forwarder they will then stick your address onto the package and send it on its way.
Some popular forwarders are:
Be sure to read each sites instructions on forwarding carefully!
C. Proxy Services: With a proxy, you tell them what the item you’re looking for is and they will purchase it in your stead. This is handy for when a company doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, or you’re having trouble navigating a Japanese website.
Some popular proxies are:
- Big in Japan (Won’t proxy for Yahoo Auctions)
- From Japan
7. I see a bunch of really cheap figures that ship from China on ebay. Are those okay to buy?
Generally, no. They’re most likely bootlegs. If you want a second opinion on that, feel free to ask in the Bootleg Megathread that’s always stickied at the top of the sub.
8. What’s a bootleg, and how can I avoid buying them?
A bootleg is a counterfeit figure often made using rejected molds of the official product. They are usually priced significantly lower than the genuine article, and in order to make their profit, bootleggers use lower quality materials and have less attention to detail- resulting in a substandard figure.
The Bootleg Megathread that I mentioned in question 7 is a great tool to avoid buying any bootlegs. It has a few tips and tricks to avoiding them to begin with, and a few more on how to spot them if you’re worried you might already own one.
9. Does anyone know when figure X is going to be released? How do I know if it was delayed?
My Figure Collection (sometimes referred to as MFC) does an excellent job of staying on top of information like release dates and delays. If you’re curious about an upcoming figures release date, check there first. This information can be found directly under the “Releases” section on a figure’s entry. If you only see a month and a year in that section, it means the release date has not yet been announced by the manufacturer, and there is still a chance the figure could be delayed.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.
10. The figure I want is long sold out at normal retailers! What’s the best place to pick it up in the aftermarket?
A list of reputable retailers can be found under the “Shops” section of the /AnimeFigures sidebar. They all sell legitimate products, and many of them also sell figures second hand. However, the most frequently suggested second hand sites are Mandarake and Amiami- who has a preowned section that they update every night save Sundays and Japanese holidays around 1PM JST and again around 6PM JST.
AmiAmi grades their pre-owned items on a letter scale. The general consensus from buyers is that their ratings are conservative, so unless the item and/or packaging is specifically indicated as having significant flaws, pre-owned items from them are usually in at least as good a condition as their rating suggests.
Note: When you search Mandarake, you’ll get the best results by using the Japanese characters for whatever you are searching. If you don’t know them, you can find them on MFC by clicking on any of the “details” in that figure’s listing.
11. Amiami has a figure I’m interested in labeled as “For sale in Japan only”. Does this mean I can’t order it without a proxy or forwarder?
No, you can still order it. Amiami’s English site has that warning on many items, and it’s mostly meant to inform you that this product was made for a Japanese market, and as such, will have Japanese speaking/writing in it- so don’t expect any instructions to be in English. If Amiami doesn’t want foreigners buying a certain product, they won’t even list it on their English site.
Displaying Your Figures
12. What display cases do you recommend?If you live near an Ikea try out one of these:
- Klingsbo
- Billy (Often used with Morliden doors (now the HÖGBO and glass shelves.)
- Detolf: Formerly the go-to choice for inexpensive display cabinetry, the Detolf was first made flimsier around 2020 and then essentially phased out of the name, to become the BLÅLIDEN. Knockoff versions of widely-varying quality are commonly found on other shopping sites these days, though.
If you don’t live near an Ikea, Amazon has a few display options, though they are more expensive. Also keep an eye on your local Craigslist (or your country’s equivalent) and stores near you that are closing up.
13. What lighting do you guys recommend?
Ikea’s Dioder LED strips were discontinued after a long run. A current version is the Vattensten, if you're inclined to buy your case and lights at the same time.
LED strips have become very commonly available in recent years; most hardware and home furnishing stores carry a selection now. Just make sure that the lights don’t get too hot!
14. What are those clear plastic boxes that I see under everyone’s figures in their collection posts, and where can I get them?
Those are called risers. Most of us use standard acrylic risers like these. Some other, easy to find things that have been suggested are:
- Plastic picture cubes
- Card Deck Boxes
- If you’re feeling adventurous, try making your own!
Another common suggestion is to visit The Container Store if you have one near you. They have a lot of things to choose from that can suit a variety of needs. Be sure to check out their standard acrylic risers, their Amac boxes, and the various display cases they sell (baseball cases, mini car cases. hockey puck cases, etc).
15. Should I keep my figures sealed?
That is, of course, up to you really, but here are a few things to keep in mind when debating this question:
- Keeping it sealed can actually damage your figure. PVC figures usually have something called plasticizer in them, and that plasticizer needs to be able to breath. If a PVC figure isn’t exposed to oxygen, after a period of time the plasticizer starts to break down and form a sticky substance on the surface of the figure. Simply opening your figures and taking them out of the box prevents this from happening. If you happen to find plasticizer goo on one of your figures, Kahotan has a handy guide for dealing with it.
- Unlike some other figure markets, keeping an anime figure sealed won’t raise its value by a whole lot. In fact, because of the plasticizer problem mentioned above, your figure could actually be in better condition if you open it versus keeping it sealed.
Finding the Right Figure(s) for You
16. What are "scales" and "prizes"? What is the difference between them?Those are classifications for figures based on a few factors.
- "Prizes" are generally more simply produced figures which are intended to be given as prizes for playing arcade games. They are inexpensive and lack the detail of scale figures, though some prize figure lines have standouts which may approach lower-end scales in quality. That is uncommon and often depends on the individual figure.
- "Scales" are called such because they are nominally designed to be proportional to the dimensions of the character which they are based on. They are generally of much better manufacture and materials than prize figures, allowing for more detail in painting, accessories, or complex poses.
- "Trading" figures appear in gashapon machines or as blind boxes on shop counters, often as sets which include multiple characters. As suggested by the class name, the randomness encourages trading. They are usually very inexpensively-produced, though as with prizes, some series are better than others.
- "Non-scale" encompasses a variety of other categories. It is often used to describe poseable figure lines such as figma and Nendoroids.
17. There are so many figure companies! Who makes good figures?!
Obviously this is a very subjective question, but as a general starting point, here are a few well renowned figure companies:
- Alter
- Max Factory
- Good Smile Company
- Kotobukiya (usually hit or miss for people. Use your best judgement based off of the prototype)
- Flare
- Stronger
My Figure Collection can be your best friend here. Simply do a search on the name of the series or character using the search bar located at the top right of the screen, and all associated figures pop up!
Alternatively, if you’re looking at a figure’s MFC entry, most of the text under the “Details” section can be clicked on and used to run a search.
19. How can I commission a custom figure?
None of the major figure companies (Alter, Kotobukiya, Good Smile Company, etc.) will take a commission for a single figure. This thread has a few websites in it that you can check out, or you can look into garage kits. Some kit painters would be willing to resculpt, frankenstein together, or otherwise modify kits for the right price.
If you're looking for help completing a garage kit, /brushforhire may be useful.
Keeping Up with New Announcements
20. How can I keep up with figure news (announcements, updates, etc.)?Most people use a MFC combined with any or all of the following news sites:
- Neko Magic
- Alter’s Blog (In Japanese)
- Kahotan’s Blog (Only GSC and their sister companies)
To use MFC for this I’ll quote question #9.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.Most companies have one or more Twitter accounts. Some examples: Good Smile Company sales, Good Smile's USA branch, Max Factory, AmiAmi Hobby News.
21. Everyone’s excited about something called Wonfes….. what the heck is that?!
WonFes (short for Wonder Festival) is a biannual figure expo where many figure producers (both large and small) show off new sculpts and updates to figures already under way. Most companies save their most exciting announcements for WonFes, so we all look forward to the expo whenever it rolls around! Winter Wonder Festival is usually held in February, while Summer Wonder Festival is usually in July. The event has also spread to Shanghai, in the late spring.
22. One or two (or 15) figures were announced at WonFes that I’m really excited about! How can I keep track of their progress once the event is over?
MFC is always really quick about getting new WonFes announcements (or any others throughout the year, for that matter) listed in their database, so we suggest using that. To find a figure from the event you can search any number of things, including the name of the character or the name of the show. You can also use the tag search to search “WonderFestival 20xx_[season]” to see all items announced at that event.
2024.05.15 20:53 sookfong A Week In Vancouver Island on a $92,000 Salary (Original Submission)
Please note this is the original submission I sent Refinery29. In the current post,they have given me a second credit card with a 100$ balance, as well as generational trauma from World War II and cut context for other things. I am trying to get that fixed.
Per previous discussion in comments here: The espresso machine is a Bezzera, which ranges from 2-5K. We got ours on sale for 1.7K, it’s a work house and we use it everyday, still hurts that we spent that money on a coffee maker.
I do understand mortgage is debt but when you compare it to rent to a lesser value condo in Vancouver it feels like not debt at all, which is how I tend to think of it. Yes I owe my mortgage but also I get my house instead of renting-which may not have become clear.
Please see in full the diary, below (edit for formatting via mobile)
Occupation: Sr Business Analyst
Industry: Tech
Age: 30
Location: Vancouver Island, BC
Salary: 92,000$ (Spouse makes 60,000$ for a combined income of 152,000$ before tax)
Net Worth: ~ 1.2 Million ( house is valued at 989,000$ currently, we have a combined 150,000 in pension, and ~60,000 in various company stocks, and GICs)
Debt: 3,000$ in a zero interest credit card for a 10 month period. We balanced transferred and pay 400$/month. Debt was acquired in Q4 2023 when we had to buy Snow Tires, and do a full break replacement as well as Christmas. 480,000$ in a mortgage, we refinanced in September 2023 for five years fixed rate at accelerated biweekly, however I don’t consider our mortgage debt due to the equity we are gaining, and that our mortgage for a five bedroom, 3 bath single family home is less than rent for a two bedroom condo in Vancouver
Paycheck Amount (Every 2 Weeks): 2,555$ after taxes. (Just mine). Spouse makes 2,308$ after taxes. Our pay periods are alternating.
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses Mortgage: 1450$ biweekly (100$ extra to the principal).
Utilities: ~200$ (includes water [paid quarterly], hydro [paid bimonthly], gas, sewetrash [paid quarterly] phone [highly discounted due to work plans for spouse and myself] and car gas) Loan Payments: 400$/Credit Card
Car Insurance: 84$
Life Insurance: 167$ combined (67$ me, 100$ spouse)
Health & Dental Insurance: 60$ deducted from pay (coverage for myself and spouse from my employer. Spouse also has coverage for both of us deducted from pay)
Retirement Contribution: 400$ (Employee matches me), (Spouse has a defined pension through work and contributes ~200$ month)
Union fees: 70$ Spouse
Subscriptions: Crave 22$/month (Recent splurge for Binge watching the Rookie), Playstation Plus 100$ (annual bought on Black Friday Deal), Amazon Prime 80$ (Annual), BCAA 120$ (annual) Gym 30$/month (we both have one so 15$/pp)
Note: My spouse and I have completely commingled finances. I will be tracking both as it’s essentially I spent whatever they spent
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
There was always the expectation. My father was very clear, we were very smart. There was no way we’d be wasting our potential. He wanted me to be a lawyer, but unlike other immigrant parents, I got to choose my major and went into social sciences and got my masters in history. I deferred my PhD too much so I got dropped by the program.
I chose my university by where I got a full first year scholarship and then after that took about 15k in student loans for my undergraduate. My parents paid my rent and I got a part time job for food.
For my masters, I had a student line of credit and 5 k student loans otherwise it was all my savings and scholarships. With the line of credit, I had a total of 30K in student loans and paid it off in about four years.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s)/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
Save. We talked about how you get a dollar allowance and half of it goes into long term saving with 25% in short term and 25% in spend.
Investing came after I was eighteen. Family would like us to invest in property, however I don’t really want to be a landlord, but also we wouldn’t get to really enjoy profit of owning a rental property due to other family circumstances.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
Ice cream parlour I was twelve and my parents made me get it for responsibility. I lasted three weeks because I hated it.
Did you worry about money growing up?
I grew up thinking we were not rich, because we didn’t get big plane vacations (I didn’t count flying from Toronto to Vancouver every summer as a vacation since we were just seeing family but staying in a house my parents owned) and I had only been to Disney twice.
But we had a big new build house in the rich end of town, my mom stayed home to raise all of us. We had to work for things (like going to see a movie opening night or a new CD) but we always had money and got what we wanted. In retrospect, my family was/is fairly well off.
Both my parents grew up poor, with parents working multiple jobs and different shifts to make ends meet, the strive/drive to not have that childhood, and for my father to be able to retire his parents really impacted mine and my siblings and cousins lives. My father showed me the apartment he grew up in Chinatown a few years back. It’s light years away from the house my grandparents owned when I was a kid and how I grew up.
Do you worry about money now?
Of course. Inflation is real and we are actively planning a wedding for the next year, as well as a baby in the next few years. We also need to buy a second car, so we’re saving for that.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
Fully financially responsible? Twenty five. I lived in a family property where I didn’t pay rent in one of the most expensive cities in Canada, so even though I paid all my bills (food and phone), I didn’t have to pay rent. I in fact made money, as I rented rooms out and used the income for house utilities, and paying my student loans down faster. When I moved in with my spouse, I just paid condo fees until we bought our house two years ago which gave me plenty of time to save.
Our financial safety net is family, and our savings. I know my family would bail us out. My spouse’s father would as well. Conversely, we are my spouse’s mother's safety net and we have to keep all our plans in mind that we will be subsidising her.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain. Yes, I received 50K from my parents once they sold my childhood home, as did both of my siblings. I have also received 10K from one set of grandparents which paid off my car and part of my student loans when I was 21. I will be receiving another inheritance when probate is done for around ~100K. My spouse also has received inheritance which allowed them to buy their first condo in their early twenties when the market was much better. That condo, 50k, and the subsequent upgrading helped us afford our house.
Day 1
10 AM: I drive to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Not how I want to start my Sunday morning but y’know. Normally I’d walk since it’s about 20 minutes but I have a UTI. I’m “lucky” that despite not having a dr because of the health care shortage, my work pays for the Maple app so I could get a dr to write the prescription and order the lab work at 1 am. I’ll do the lab work later this week when I can get an appointment but will take the relief now. Insurance makes the antibiotics free, but I also buy hydrogen peroxide because we’re out and we have a dog that thinks everything is meant to be in her mouth. We’ll buy a bigger one at Costco later. I also bought some oral wound mouthwash because we were out. I come home and my spouse made us breakfast.
Total: 15.90$ paid with debit.
1-2:30 PM: We do our taxes. I have a mini meltdown when I realize the part time bakery job I had for a few months didn’t take off income tax last year, so I owe 800$. Luckily, my partner is getting a refund so we net out positive 400$. The bakery took off income tax in 2022, so unsure why they didn’t in 2023. I made us lunch.
3-6:30 PM: We walk the dog, and watch the Rookie. Some time during that time period, a venue emails us back and is surprisingly affordable at 3k. I also get told that the tattoo artist I want to book with, has not chosen me.
6:30-7:30 PM: I explain what lazy girl dinner is to my spouse and make a lazy girl dinner. After not really grocery shopping since Feb for things besides fresh veg, we need to do a big pantry shop and neither of us want that. We debate about buying a food saver and if we should wait for a sale. My spouse is more frugal than me and has determined we should.
8-9:30 PM: We start season 3 of The Rookie, and then after two episodes we go to bed
Day One Total: 15.90$
Day Two
5:45-8 AM: Wake up and start work. I get up to date with what’s happened on the weekend and check that my automated reports. Sometime before 6:30, I get the kettle on for my spouse’s pour over before I go back to my meetings. There’s a twenty minute gap where I get changed and do my skin care and brush my teeth. I’d love to be a skin care person but honestly I’ve spent too much money on product that I don’t use and that just goes bad. Washing my face and using sun screen is a win.
I also make sure that Spouse’s lunch is in his bag and I get our travel mugs ready. Before, we used to go to Starbucks every day. Starbucks used to do free refills on coffee and tea if you were a rewards member if you bought a coffee or tea so it would cost us $5/day (2.5/pp), and we could get refills all day. While that’s 20$/week, 80$/a month and yes, we could have saved it but back then, that 80$ wasn’t turning the dial anywhere significantly for us—a privileged view.
But now, after COVID where I stopped drinking tea after one day working from home having like 10 cups and thinking I was dying, and Spouse has bought a good grinder and we recently splurged on a stupidly expensive espresso machine we call his Engagement Espresso since it costs the same price as my stupidly expensive ring, we bring our coffees.
8-8:30 AM: We drive to work. Prior to buying our house, we were both work from home and lived in a city with amazing transit. We only needed the one car. Since buying the house and moving to a city where public transit is a joke (the one bus goes past our house every 1.5h), Spouse changed jobs and is in office every day and I have to go in 3 days a week. We need a second car or the e-bike rebate to come through. We debate this in the car, since I’m done at 1 pm, and Spouse works normal hours, I either have to take the bus home, or go to the gym for three hours. Today though, I drop Spouse off. I will pick him up later as he has a half day because of the dentist
8:30-12:30 AM/PM: Work. I find a tech manager and ask them to get me more triple a batteries. Work won’t provide or let me expense batteries for my mouse, despite them replacing my usb mouse with a battery one. The poor admin had to tell me the decision is that we’ll all supply our own batteries. Luckily the tech managers have to have batteries on hand and give them out freely.
I ask my boss how the work from home tax forms work, and he is going to find out.
I run more meetings and work on a request for a dashboard and a business case for a new feature that I have to convince leadership to spend money on.
12:30-1 PM: I drive back to my Spouse because he has a dentist appointment.
While I wait for a spouse, I am incredibly hungry. I’m usually not hungry/don’t eat a proper meal until around 1 in the afternoon and my two granola bars I already ate at the office. I go to the bakery by Spouse’s work and buy a cheese bun for me (3.65$), and an apple pie scone (2.55$) for Spouse as a snack. Spouse points out he won’t be able to eat until after his appointment.
Total: 6.20$ debit
1-1:30 PM: I drop Spouse off, and the car stops working. The engine won’t catch. I try multiple times and then run into the dentist to dramatically announce to Spouse and the receptionists that the car won’t start. Spouse asks me what he wants me to do about this, since he’s about to go into an appointment. A very kind receptionist tells me it might be the alternator. I don’t know what that is.
I go back to the car to Facetime my father. He also asks what I think he can do to help since he lives 3000 km away. Weirdly, and sexistly, I thought a man who grew up at race tracks, in a racing family, or the man who has collected and worked on sports cars for forty years might be able to help.
Spouse texts me to remind me we have BCAA while my father also tells me that. I finally get the engine to catch and drive the very long way home, going the speed limit and getting stuck in traffic, construction and a bus. It takes me 20 minutes to get home instead of 10.
1:30-2:30 PM: I walk the dog, mail a (late) birthday card and then start researching what an alternator is. The car is over a decade old and until the house, the most expensive thing I ever bought at 12K back in 2015. We have the funds for the cost, but it’s my first car and the fact it might be the end of its life is scary.
Alternators can cost between 400-800$ repair with labour, so that’s fun.
My dad calls me back and apologises for asking me what he could do away. He advises me that there’s probably a bald spot on the alternator and advises me to go to the mechanic to check or replace it, if the car doesn’t start again.
I call the mechanic to book an appointment, and to also get the snow tires off and to buy new rims for the snow tires. The mechanic lets me know that the alternator part is 500$, and an hour of labour so with taxes we’re looking at around 700$
That future appointment next week (we’re going down a highway this weekend which requires snow tires) will cost ~1.5K, assuming we replace the alternator.
I make lunch and sigh.
2:30 PM: The car starts thankfully. I drive incredibly slow. I pick up Spouse by idling the car. We get an email back from a venue saying they cost 75,000$ minimum. The timing is hysterical.
Due to the nature of the dentist, Spouse owes 618$, as they haven’t flipped it under my insurance. They split it in half, as he has a follow up in two weeks. After the next appointment they will flip the whole amount under me and we’ll get reimbursed for the whole amount.
Total 309$/credit card.
3-10 PM: We walk the dog, make dinner (Spouse makes white sauce pasta, with chicken and peas) and watch The Rookie. There are thirteen episodes in season three, and we will be busy every night this week besides Friday and Sunday, and I would like to finish season three so we can start season 4 next Monday. I don’t want to pay for more than one month of Crave. We have five episodes left
Day Two Total: 315.2$
Day Three
1 AM: 100$ is automatically transferred from our account to the credit card debit. We have an auto transfer of 100$/every Tuesday to a Visa where we balance transferred both our cards. We have an offer for 0 interest for 10 months, so we did that for some of the bigger expenses (snow tires, break replacement and general Christmas) and are on track to pay it back within the next 6 months. That visa is our emergency card that we just have in the back end and utilise for promos like this. It allows us to keep our two cards balances manageable and lets us pay in an easier way than taking big chunks out of our various savings.
Total: 100$/direct deposit
5:45-9 AM: Work. Meetings, reports, trying to convince a colleague that the process does include them and refusal to follow it means that their requests won’t be done. Spouse has another half day so I can go into the office at my leisure—if the car starts
9-9:20 AM: The car starts, I get into the office and refresh a data flow before a meeting with a new stake holder. It takes longer to drive into work today because the tourists are starting to come and their van builds or campers are not exactly highway speed and with a two lane highway, if you don’t merge over fast enough you’re stuck.
10:05-10:20 AM: Meeting done, car starts again and I drive home for more meetings. The least amount of time in the office is preferable for me.
10:30-11AM : Meeting with my manager where we discuss future salary and promotion. I am due for a promotion in the start of Q2, which would push me to six figures. I’ll believe it when I see it but, I’m really excited at that possibility for my family.
11:15 AM: Spouse leaves for work, we discuss what groceries are needed, as well if he’ll go to Home Depot tonight to buy more clover seeds for the yard, as we need to reseed before it starts raining. I eat a muffin and my dog and cat decide to try and eat each other.
11:15-1:30 PM: Work runs late. There’s some issues with the data and we can’t figure it out. We call it a night, and I’ll record the video presentations tomorrow, once we fix the data.
1:30-4 PM: Nap time! It’s bad for me, but honestly I don’t sleep well during the night so naps are what keep me alive.
4-6 PM I prep dinner (smash burgers and fries), and get chores done and walk the dog.
6-7:30 PM: Spouse comes home, we eat dinner. Groceries come to 96.83 for two 7 pound pork loins, two packs of bacon, chicken nuggets, coffee, pop, 8 pack of peppers, milk, tomato, pickles, rice, avocado, mushrooms, sour cream and lettuce.
Not too bad, we average about 300$/month in groceries because we can buy bulk and have a second freezer.
For the month of March we are currently at 123.61$ for groceries and there is twelve days left. We went on a small weekend away, so we ate out a fair bit but even then our current food budget is 272.27$ today.
Total: 96.83/ debit
7:30-10 PM: Spouse makes a coffee and plays video games with his friends. They do it every week. I have a shower, fold and put away laundry and read in bed.
Day Three Total: 196.83
Day Four
1AM: Our biweekly accelerated mortgage payment comes out of 1450$. I’m tracking it here to be honest on our spending but I tend not to think of it as money spent because in my head it’s already money gone. To pay for a house equivalent in Vancouver, the mortgage would be over 6k. Renting a two bedroom condo would be 3K. It feels like the mortgage is just cheaper rent, even though each time I own more of my house.
5:45-9 AM: Work. I find out the limits of how many people I can invite to a Teams Meeting as well as that the Thursday before Good Friday is a catholic holiday when a few people ask me to reschedule a training forum for over a thousand people. Sometime in there I make us coffee, make sure Spouse has lunch packed (leftovers). Spouse has walked the dog and has the recycling and compost out for pick up. I drop Spouse off at work.
10-11:45 AM: I leave the office for home and more meetings. I walk the dog and go record training videos. I get an email that Amazon is doing their big spring sale. I send a link to a robot mop and vaccum that’s on a big discount to Spouse. We want one, but I’m not in charge of the research on it. I send links to play grounds to my friends with toddlers
11:45-12:30 PM : I shove lunch in my mouth, last night’s left overs. I’m running late, and decide to get myself later by collecting all the random dishes and mugs that just show up places and start the dishwasher. I get to the lab ten minutes early but need to buy gas on the way home.
I tell my team I’ll be MIA for a bit and leave the work phone in the car.
I buy 15.6L of gas for 30$ at 1.879/l it sucks. I don’t fill up because we’re going to my in laws this weekend and there’s a Costco Gas Bar there.
Total: 30$/credit card
12:30-1:30 PM: Work goes long again.
1:30-2:30 PM: Nap!
2:30-4:30 PM: Walk the dog and drive to the gym. I usually go three times a week but with last week’s weekend away and this week’s weird half days from Spouse, today’s the only day. I make it up by doing both upper and lower body and a 30 minute circuit.
4:30-7:30 PM: I pick up Spouse and we go to Costco. We pick up nachos, ham, cheese buns and some other items. We debate buying our friend’s kid a toddler set of clothes and decide no. We end up buying work pants for Spouse, and a garden hose. It comes out to 116.90
I order our Costco dinner of hot dogs and fries for a grand total date night of 6.41$
Total: 123.31/ credit card
8-9 PM: Dance class! We bought a series of six lessons of introduction to ballroom back in December for a new date night idea. We paid 60$/pp and this is the fifth lesson tonight.
9 pm: We’re home, we let the dog out. Spouse spends an undetermined amount of time watching ballroom videos while I sleep.
Day Four Total: 1603.31$ or 153.31 excluding the mortgage payment.
Day Five
5:45-9 AM: Work. All the meetings. Thursday is the meeting day. I debate with a friend what’s the earliest call we’ve had. 4:30 am still wins. I pack lunch for Spouse and his coffee and he leaves. I end up cleaning up cat puke as the cat decides to drink milk from Spouse’s cereal and vomit it up on camera in a meeting.
9-9:30 AM: I make myself a matcha and walk the dog.
9:30-1 PM: Work and I treat myself to a lunch of a cheese bun and ham sandwhich. We used to eat it every Sunday while growing up but the cost of ham has been outrageous. The deal at Costco yesterday was 1.5$/100 g which is really good.
1-1:30 PM: I seal the wooden deer Christmas decoration we bought last year. It sits outside our front door and needs to be weather proofed, and I’ve been putting it off for five months. But the weather is good and we have newspapers. We have left over wood sealer after the sign we bought a year ago so I use that. The dog and the cat both don’t like my wooden deer.
1:30-4 PM: Nap!
4-5 PM: I basically just watch youtube and drink a root beer. I have no energy.
5-6:30 PM: Spouse comes home, we walk the dog and I make dinner (Kraft Dinner and nuggets–I swear we eat veggies but today is not that day). We discuss the possibility of our dog at our wedding as a flower girl, and if she’ll be in a tutu or a cheongsam like me. I am now researching if they make dog cheongsams and if she can match us. The cat, despite all my heart wanting it, won’t physically be there because he will have an anxiety attack and probably die.
6:30-10:30 PM: Board game night! We go to a friend’s to repeat the same scenario we’ve lost two weeks in a row.
10:30-11 PM: I pack Spouse’s breakfast (oatmeal and frozen berries), lunch (spicy tuna and mayo) since he’s trying to go to the gym before work, and feed the animals before we go to bed.
Day Five Total: 0$
Day Six Friday
5:45-9 AM: Work. I have a deep focus block which means I can get the script for the training I have to run. Public speaking is not my strong suit and it’s a group of a thousand people so I’m not looking forward to it. Spouse almost makes it to the gym. I get an email that my new work phone has shipped. I’m surprised because they wouldn’t order us any for the past four years, but I guess my new iPhone will show up next week. I might give my old work phone to my mother in law, since she smashed the camera on the phone we bought her last year.
9-9:30 AM: I walk the dog, make a matcha and make a todo list for what we have to get done before we leave to my in laws tomorrow. I text my mother in law happy birthday, and hope that she got the card in time. She did.
9:30-11:30 AM: My last meeting for the week ends and I’m debating calling it a day so I can nap. Instead I make lunch (cheese bun and ham), text my other mother in law our plan for Saturday, and unload and reload the dishwasher and go back to work for at least another hour.
12:30-1 PM: I shower and do skin care
1-3 PM: Nap! Somewhere in this time FedEx comes and since I’m sleeping, we have to pick up on Monday. I’m not too sure what it is, I assume it’s our custom address stamp from Etsy because that’s the only thing I’ve bought recently but not too sure. I just realized in retrospect, this might be my new work phone.
3-5 PM: I prep dinner (nachos), unload the dishwasher, pack my overnight bag and confirm all our venue tours by email. I start a load of laundry and do a quick clean. I feel like this is not the best image of our diet. I swear we generally eat healthy but we both have been feeling really blah over the past two weeks so have been going for quick and easy over healthy and balanced. I do have three whole peppers and two whole avocados in the nachos though.
5-7 PM: Spouse comes home, we walk the dog, have dinner, and plan out next week. We have a big Wednesday next week (mechanic, I have a nails appointment, dance class), and we are having our friends over for Easter so we need to prep for that. We pack the car so tomorrow is a very easy start.
Spouse also gets paid today. We’re lucky that we’re on alternating pay periods, we used to be on the same and it always felt stressful. Spouse also lets me know his union has secured a 3% cost of living raise to start in Q3. I really like his union for negotiating a base 2% year of cost of living raise, with potential addition raises depending on inflation. It’s a bit away but that’s still good news.
7:30-10:30 PM: We finish The Rookie Season 3 and head to bed. Crave reminds me that I have 10 days until I’m charged again. Sadly, I think we’ll have to pay for 2 months.
Day Six Total: 0
Day Seven Saturday
8:30-9:30 AM: Wake up. No one (except the dog) slept well so we’re not in a morning mood. Spouse makes coffee and walks the dog, while I finish packing the car and give the cat a lot of attention. Our first venue tour is at 11 and the one that is the most expensive (8-10K), but also the one we probably want the most. We live about an hour away but the highway is two lanes and one accident can back everything up for hours.
10:40-1 PM: We visit our dream venue. We stay way longer than expected. Basically if the quote is under 10K, we’ll get it. Just waiting now.
1-2 PM: We get to our in-laws and have a lunch of egg salad sandwhichs. We need to buy gas. My in laws drive us to a pottery painting store.
2-4 PM: We paint pottery. My mother in law only wanted to do this for her birthday. They’ll pick it up in a week after it’s been thrown. I paint a vase (28$), Spouse paints an Easter egg (18$), father in law paints a mug (30$), and mother in law paints a plate (50$)
Total:143.36/credit card
4-5 Pm: We see another venue. It’s an instant no. My in laws decide they want to try Korean fried chicken. We call ahead for take out to get two fries and 16 pieces of half and half. It comes to 50.83$ that my in laws pay for.
5-10 PM: We come back and see that our dog has pooped in their house and also has gotten into their pantry and eaten an entire bag of dog food. It is not a fun night.
We spend the night drinking wine and discussing the wedding and watching TV.
10PM: We go to bed. That’s the end of this week, but tomorrow we will be buying gas and probably lunch for my other mother in law as we will be touring another venue.
Day Seven Total: 143.36$
submitted by sookfong to MoneyDiariesACTIVE [link] [comments]
Per previous discussion in comments here: The espresso machine is a Bezzera, which ranges from 2-5K. We got ours on sale for 1.7K, it’s a work house and we use it everyday, still hurts that we spent that money on a coffee maker.
I do understand mortgage is debt but when you compare it to rent to a lesser value condo in Vancouver it feels like not debt at all, which is how I tend to think of it. Yes I owe my mortgage but also I get my house instead of renting-which may not have become clear.
Please see in full the diary, below (edit for formatting via mobile)
Occupation: Sr Business Analyst
Industry: Tech
Age: 30
Location: Vancouver Island, BC
Salary: 92,000$ (Spouse makes 60,000$ for a combined income of 152,000$ before tax)
Net Worth: ~ 1.2 Million ( house is valued at 989,000$ currently, we have a combined 150,000 in pension, and ~60,000 in various company stocks, and GICs)
Debt: 3,000$ in a zero interest credit card for a 10 month period. We balanced transferred and pay 400$/month. Debt was acquired in Q4 2023 when we had to buy Snow Tires, and do a full break replacement as well as Christmas. 480,000$ in a mortgage, we refinanced in September 2023 for five years fixed rate at accelerated biweekly, however I don’t consider our mortgage debt due to the equity we are gaining, and that our mortgage for a five bedroom, 3 bath single family home is less than rent for a two bedroom condo in Vancouver
Paycheck Amount (Every 2 Weeks): 2,555$ after taxes. (Just mine). Spouse makes 2,308$ after taxes. Our pay periods are alternating.
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses Mortgage: 1450$ biweekly (100$ extra to the principal).
Utilities: ~200$ (includes water [paid quarterly], hydro [paid bimonthly], gas, sewetrash [paid quarterly] phone [highly discounted due to work plans for spouse and myself] and car gas) Loan Payments: 400$/Credit Card
Car Insurance: 84$
Life Insurance: 167$ combined (67$ me, 100$ spouse)
Health & Dental Insurance: 60$ deducted from pay (coverage for myself and spouse from my employer. Spouse also has coverage for both of us deducted from pay)
Retirement Contribution: 400$ (Employee matches me), (Spouse has a defined pension through work and contributes ~200$ month)
Union fees: 70$ Spouse
Subscriptions: Crave 22$/month (Recent splurge for Binge watching the Rookie), Playstation Plus 100$ (annual bought on Black Friday Deal), Amazon Prime 80$ (Annual), BCAA 120$ (annual) Gym 30$/month (we both have one so 15$/pp)
Note: My spouse and I have completely commingled finances. I will be tracking both as it’s essentially I spent whatever they spent
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
There was always the expectation. My father was very clear, we were very smart. There was no way we’d be wasting our potential. He wanted me to be a lawyer, but unlike other immigrant parents, I got to choose my major and went into social sciences and got my masters in history. I deferred my PhD too much so I got dropped by the program.
I chose my university by where I got a full first year scholarship and then after that took about 15k in student loans for my undergraduate. My parents paid my rent and I got a part time job for food.
For my masters, I had a student line of credit and 5 k student loans otherwise it was all my savings and scholarships. With the line of credit, I had a total of 30K in student loans and paid it off in about four years.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s)/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
Save. We talked about how you get a dollar allowance and half of it goes into long term saving with 25% in short term and 25% in spend.
Investing came after I was eighteen. Family would like us to invest in property, however I don’t really want to be a landlord, but also we wouldn’t get to really enjoy profit of owning a rental property due to other family circumstances.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
Ice cream parlour I was twelve and my parents made me get it for responsibility. I lasted three weeks because I hated it.
Did you worry about money growing up?
I grew up thinking we were not rich, because we didn’t get big plane vacations (I didn’t count flying from Toronto to Vancouver every summer as a vacation since we were just seeing family but staying in a house my parents owned) and I had only been to Disney twice.
But we had a big new build house in the rich end of town, my mom stayed home to raise all of us. We had to work for things (like going to see a movie opening night or a new CD) but we always had money and got what we wanted. In retrospect, my family was/is fairly well off.
Both my parents grew up poor, with parents working multiple jobs and different shifts to make ends meet, the strive/drive to not have that childhood, and for my father to be able to retire his parents really impacted mine and my siblings and cousins lives. My father showed me the apartment he grew up in Chinatown a few years back. It’s light years away from the house my grandparents owned when I was a kid and how I grew up.
Do you worry about money now?
Of course. Inflation is real and we are actively planning a wedding for the next year, as well as a baby in the next few years. We also need to buy a second car, so we’re saving for that.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
Fully financially responsible? Twenty five. I lived in a family property where I didn’t pay rent in one of the most expensive cities in Canada, so even though I paid all my bills (food and phone), I didn’t have to pay rent. I in fact made money, as I rented rooms out and used the income for house utilities, and paying my student loans down faster. When I moved in with my spouse, I just paid condo fees until we bought our house two years ago which gave me plenty of time to save.
Our financial safety net is family, and our savings. I know my family would bail us out. My spouse’s father would as well. Conversely, we are my spouse’s mother's safety net and we have to keep all our plans in mind that we will be subsidising her.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain. Yes, I received 50K from my parents once they sold my childhood home, as did both of my siblings. I have also received 10K from one set of grandparents which paid off my car and part of my student loans when I was 21. I will be receiving another inheritance when probate is done for around ~100K. My spouse also has received inheritance which allowed them to buy their first condo in their early twenties when the market was much better. That condo, 50k, and the subsequent upgrading helped us afford our house.
Day 1
10 AM: I drive to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Not how I want to start my Sunday morning but y’know. Normally I’d walk since it’s about 20 minutes but I have a UTI. I’m “lucky” that despite not having a dr because of the health care shortage, my work pays for the Maple app so I could get a dr to write the prescription and order the lab work at 1 am. I’ll do the lab work later this week when I can get an appointment but will take the relief now. Insurance makes the antibiotics free, but I also buy hydrogen peroxide because we’re out and we have a dog that thinks everything is meant to be in her mouth. We’ll buy a bigger one at Costco later. I also bought some oral wound mouthwash because we were out. I come home and my spouse made us breakfast.
Total: 15.90$ paid with debit.
1-2:30 PM: We do our taxes. I have a mini meltdown when I realize the part time bakery job I had for a few months didn’t take off income tax last year, so I owe 800$. Luckily, my partner is getting a refund so we net out positive 400$. The bakery took off income tax in 2022, so unsure why they didn’t in 2023. I made us lunch.
3-6:30 PM: We walk the dog, and watch the Rookie. Some time during that time period, a venue emails us back and is surprisingly affordable at 3k. I also get told that the tattoo artist I want to book with, has not chosen me.
6:30-7:30 PM: I explain what lazy girl dinner is to my spouse and make a lazy girl dinner. After not really grocery shopping since Feb for things besides fresh veg, we need to do a big pantry shop and neither of us want that. We debate about buying a food saver and if we should wait for a sale. My spouse is more frugal than me and has determined we should.
8-9:30 PM: We start season 3 of The Rookie, and then after two episodes we go to bed
Day One Total: 15.90$
Day Two
5:45-8 AM: Wake up and start work. I get up to date with what’s happened on the weekend and check that my automated reports. Sometime before 6:30, I get the kettle on for my spouse’s pour over before I go back to my meetings. There’s a twenty minute gap where I get changed and do my skin care and brush my teeth. I’d love to be a skin care person but honestly I’ve spent too much money on product that I don’t use and that just goes bad. Washing my face and using sun screen is a win.
I also make sure that Spouse’s lunch is in his bag and I get our travel mugs ready. Before, we used to go to Starbucks every day. Starbucks used to do free refills on coffee and tea if you were a rewards member if you bought a coffee or tea so it would cost us $5/day (2.5/pp), and we could get refills all day. While that’s 20$/week, 80$/a month and yes, we could have saved it but back then, that 80$ wasn’t turning the dial anywhere significantly for us—a privileged view.
But now, after COVID where I stopped drinking tea after one day working from home having like 10 cups and thinking I was dying, and Spouse has bought a good grinder and we recently splurged on a stupidly expensive espresso machine we call his Engagement Espresso since it costs the same price as my stupidly expensive ring, we bring our coffees.
8-8:30 AM: We drive to work. Prior to buying our house, we were both work from home and lived in a city with amazing transit. We only needed the one car. Since buying the house and moving to a city where public transit is a joke (the one bus goes past our house every 1.5h), Spouse changed jobs and is in office every day and I have to go in 3 days a week. We need a second car or the e-bike rebate to come through. We debate this in the car, since I’m done at 1 pm, and Spouse works normal hours, I either have to take the bus home, or go to the gym for three hours. Today though, I drop Spouse off. I will pick him up later as he has a half day because of the dentist
8:30-12:30 AM/PM: Work. I find a tech manager and ask them to get me more triple a batteries. Work won’t provide or let me expense batteries for my mouse, despite them replacing my usb mouse with a battery one. The poor admin had to tell me the decision is that we’ll all supply our own batteries. Luckily the tech managers have to have batteries on hand and give them out freely.
I ask my boss how the work from home tax forms work, and he is going to find out.
I run more meetings and work on a request for a dashboard and a business case for a new feature that I have to convince leadership to spend money on.
12:30-1 PM: I drive back to my Spouse because he has a dentist appointment.
While I wait for a spouse, I am incredibly hungry. I’m usually not hungry/don’t eat a proper meal until around 1 in the afternoon and my two granola bars I already ate at the office. I go to the bakery by Spouse’s work and buy a cheese bun for me (3.65$), and an apple pie scone (2.55$) for Spouse as a snack. Spouse points out he won’t be able to eat until after his appointment.
Total: 6.20$ debit
1-1:30 PM: I drop Spouse off, and the car stops working. The engine won’t catch. I try multiple times and then run into the dentist to dramatically announce to Spouse and the receptionists that the car won’t start. Spouse asks me what he wants me to do about this, since he’s about to go into an appointment. A very kind receptionist tells me it might be the alternator. I don’t know what that is.
I go back to the car to Facetime my father. He also asks what I think he can do to help since he lives 3000 km away. Weirdly, and sexistly, I thought a man who grew up at race tracks, in a racing family, or the man who has collected and worked on sports cars for forty years might be able to help.
Spouse texts me to remind me we have BCAA while my father also tells me that. I finally get the engine to catch and drive the very long way home, going the speed limit and getting stuck in traffic, construction and a bus. It takes me 20 minutes to get home instead of 10.
1:30-2:30 PM: I walk the dog, mail a (late) birthday card and then start researching what an alternator is. The car is over a decade old and until the house, the most expensive thing I ever bought at 12K back in 2015. We have the funds for the cost, but it’s my first car and the fact it might be the end of its life is scary.
Alternators can cost between 400-800$ repair with labour, so that’s fun.
My dad calls me back and apologises for asking me what he could do away. He advises me that there’s probably a bald spot on the alternator and advises me to go to the mechanic to check or replace it, if the car doesn’t start again.
I call the mechanic to book an appointment, and to also get the snow tires off and to buy new rims for the snow tires. The mechanic lets me know that the alternator part is 500$, and an hour of labour so with taxes we’re looking at around 700$
That future appointment next week (we’re going down a highway this weekend which requires snow tires) will cost ~1.5K, assuming we replace the alternator.
I make lunch and sigh.
2:30 PM: The car starts thankfully. I drive incredibly slow. I pick up Spouse by idling the car. We get an email back from a venue saying they cost 75,000$ minimum. The timing is hysterical.
Due to the nature of the dentist, Spouse owes 618$, as they haven’t flipped it under my insurance. They split it in half, as he has a follow up in two weeks. After the next appointment they will flip the whole amount under me and we’ll get reimbursed for the whole amount.
Total 309$/credit card.
3-10 PM: We walk the dog, make dinner (Spouse makes white sauce pasta, with chicken and peas) and watch The Rookie. There are thirteen episodes in season three, and we will be busy every night this week besides Friday and Sunday, and I would like to finish season three so we can start season 4 next Monday. I don’t want to pay for more than one month of Crave. We have five episodes left
Day Two Total: 315.2$
Day Three
1 AM: 100$ is automatically transferred from our account to the credit card debit. We have an auto transfer of 100$/every Tuesday to a Visa where we balance transferred both our cards. We have an offer for 0 interest for 10 months, so we did that for some of the bigger expenses (snow tires, break replacement and general Christmas) and are on track to pay it back within the next 6 months. That visa is our emergency card that we just have in the back end and utilise for promos like this. It allows us to keep our two cards balances manageable and lets us pay in an easier way than taking big chunks out of our various savings.
Total: 100$/direct deposit
5:45-9 AM: Work. Meetings, reports, trying to convince a colleague that the process does include them and refusal to follow it means that their requests won’t be done. Spouse has another half day so I can go into the office at my leisure—if the car starts
9-9:20 AM: The car starts, I get into the office and refresh a data flow before a meeting with a new stake holder. It takes longer to drive into work today because the tourists are starting to come and their van builds or campers are not exactly highway speed and with a two lane highway, if you don’t merge over fast enough you’re stuck.
10:05-10:20 AM: Meeting done, car starts again and I drive home for more meetings. The least amount of time in the office is preferable for me.
10:30-11AM : Meeting with my manager where we discuss future salary and promotion. I am due for a promotion in the start of Q2, which would push me to six figures. I’ll believe it when I see it but, I’m really excited at that possibility for my family.
11:15 AM: Spouse leaves for work, we discuss what groceries are needed, as well if he’ll go to Home Depot tonight to buy more clover seeds for the yard, as we need to reseed before it starts raining. I eat a muffin and my dog and cat decide to try and eat each other.
11:15-1:30 PM: Work runs late. There’s some issues with the data and we can’t figure it out. We call it a night, and I’ll record the video presentations tomorrow, once we fix the data.
1:30-4 PM: Nap time! It’s bad for me, but honestly I don’t sleep well during the night so naps are what keep me alive.
4-6 PM I prep dinner (smash burgers and fries), and get chores done and walk the dog.
6-7:30 PM: Spouse comes home, we eat dinner. Groceries come to 96.83 for two 7 pound pork loins, two packs of bacon, chicken nuggets, coffee, pop, 8 pack of peppers, milk, tomato, pickles, rice, avocado, mushrooms, sour cream and lettuce.
Not too bad, we average about 300$/month in groceries because we can buy bulk and have a second freezer.
For the month of March we are currently at 123.61$ for groceries and there is twelve days left. We went on a small weekend away, so we ate out a fair bit but even then our current food budget is 272.27$ today.
Total: 96.83/ debit
7:30-10 PM: Spouse makes a coffee and plays video games with his friends. They do it every week. I have a shower, fold and put away laundry and read in bed.
Day Three Total: 196.83
Day Four
1AM: Our biweekly accelerated mortgage payment comes out of 1450$. I’m tracking it here to be honest on our spending but I tend not to think of it as money spent because in my head it’s already money gone. To pay for a house equivalent in Vancouver, the mortgage would be over 6k. Renting a two bedroom condo would be 3K. It feels like the mortgage is just cheaper rent, even though each time I own more of my house.
5:45-9 AM: Work. I find out the limits of how many people I can invite to a Teams Meeting as well as that the Thursday before Good Friday is a catholic holiday when a few people ask me to reschedule a training forum for over a thousand people. Sometime in there I make us coffee, make sure Spouse has lunch packed (leftovers). Spouse has walked the dog and has the recycling and compost out for pick up. I drop Spouse off at work.
10-11:45 AM: I leave the office for home and more meetings. I walk the dog and go record training videos. I get an email that Amazon is doing their big spring sale. I send a link to a robot mop and vaccum that’s on a big discount to Spouse. We want one, but I’m not in charge of the research on it. I send links to play grounds to my friends with toddlers
11:45-12:30 PM : I shove lunch in my mouth, last night’s left overs. I’m running late, and decide to get myself later by collecting all the random dishes and mugs that just show up places and start the dishwasher. I get to the lab ten minutes early but need to buy gas on the way home.
I tell my team I’ll be MIA for a bit and leave the work phone in the car.
I buy 15.6L of gas for 30$ at 1.879/l it sucks. I don’t fill up because we’re going to my in laws this weekend and there’s a Costco Gas Bar there.
Total: 30$/credit card
12:30-1:30 PM: Work goes long again.
1:30-2:30 PM: Nap!
2:30-4:30 PM: Walk the dog and drive to the gym. I usually go three times a week but with last week’s weekend away and this week’s weird half days from Spouse, today’s the only day. I make it up by doing both upper and lower body and a 30 minute circuit.
4:30-7:30 PM: I pick up Spouse and we go to Costco. We pick up nachos, ham, cheese buns and some other items. We debate buying our friend’s kid a toddler set of clothes and decide no. We end up buying work pants for Spouse, and a garden hose. It comes out to 116.90
I order our Costco dinner of hot dogs and fries for a grand total date night of 6.41$
Total: 123.31/ credit card
8-9 PM: Dance class! We bought a series of six lessons of introduction to ballroom back in December for a new date night idea. We paid 60$/pp and this is the fifth lesson tonight.
9 pm: We’re home, we let the dog out. Spouse spends an undetermined amount of time watching ballroom videos while I sleep.
Day Four Total: 1603.31$ or 153.31 excluding the mortgage payment.
Day Five
5:45-9 AM: Work. All the meetings. Thursday is the meeting day. I debate with a friend what’s the earliest call we’ve had. 4:30 am still wins. I pack lunch for Spouse and his coffee and he leaves. I end up cleaning up cat puke as the cat decides to drink milk from Spouse’s cereal and vomit it up on camera in a meeting.
9-9:30 AM: I make myself a matcha and walk the dog.
9:30-1 PM: Work and I treat myself to a lunch of a cheese bun and ham sandwhich. We used to eat it every Sunday while growing up but the cost of ham has been outrageous. The deal at Costco yesterday was 1.5$/100 g which is really good.
1-1:30 PM: I seal the wooden deer Christmas decoration we bought last year. It sits outside our front door and needs to be weather proofed, and I’ve been putting it off for five months. But the weather is good and we have newspapers. We have left over wood sealer after the sign we bought a year ago so I use that. The dog and the cat both don’t like my wooden deer.
1:30-4 PM: Nap!
4-5 PM: I basically just watch youtube and drink a root beer. I have no energy.
5-6:30 PM: Spouse comes home, we walk the dog and I make dinner (Kraft Dinner and nuggets–I swear we eat veggies but today is not that day). We discuss the possibility of our dog at our wedding as a flower girl, and if she’ll be in a tutu or a cheongsam like me. I am now researching if they make dog cheongsams and if she can match us. The cat, despite all my heart wanting it, won’t physically be there because he will have an anxiety attack and probably die.
6:30-10:30 PM: Board game night! We go to a friend’s to repeat the same scenario we’ve lost two weeks in a row.
10:30-11 PM: I pack Spouse’s breakfast (oatmeal and frozen berries), lunch (spicy tuna and mayo) since he’s trying to go to the gym before work, and feed the animals before we go to bed.
Day Five Total: 0$
Day Six Friday
5:45-9 AM: Work. I have a deep focus block which means I can get the script for the training I have to run. Public speaking is not my strong suit and it’s a group of a thousand people so I’m not looking forward to it. Spouse almost makes it to the gym. I get an email that my new work phone has shipped. I’m surprised because they wouldn’t order us any for the past four years, but I guess my new iPhone will show up next week. I might give my old work phone to my mother in law, since she smashed the camera on the phone we bought her last year.
9-9:30 AM: I walk the dog, make a matcha and make a todo list for what we have to get done before we leave to my in laws tomorrow. I text my mother in law happy birthday, and hope that she got the card in time. She did.
9:30-11:30 AM: My last meeting for the week ends and I’m debating calling it a day so I can nap. Instead I make lunch (cheese bun and ham), text my other mother in law our plan for Saturday, and unload and reload the dishwasher and go back to work for at least another hour.
12:30-1 PM: I shower and do skin care
1-3 PM: Nap! Somewhere in this time FedEx comes and since I’m sleeping, we have to pick up on Monday. I’m not too sure what it is, I assume it’s our custom address stamp from Etsy because that’s the only thing I’ve bought recently but not too sure. I just realized in retrospect, this might be my new work phone.
3-5 PM: I prep dinner (nachos), unload the dishwasher, pack my overnight bag and confirm all our venue tours by email. I start a load of laundry and do a quick clean. I feel like this is not the best image of our diet. I swear we generally eat healthy but we both have been feeling really blah over the past two weeks so have been going for quick and easy over healthy and balanced. I do have three whole peppers and two whole avocados in the nachos though.
5-7 PM: Spouse comes home, we walk the dog, have dinner, and plan out next week. We have a big Wednesday next week (mechanic, I have a nails appointment, dance class), and we are having our friends over for Easter so we need to prep for that. We pack the car so tomorrow is a very easy start.
Spouse also gets paid today. We’re lucky that we’re on alternating pay periods, we used to be on the same and it always felt stressful. Spouse also lets me know his union has secured a 3% cost of living raise to start in Q3. I really like his union for negotiating a base 2% year of cost of living raise, with potential addition raises depending on inflation. It’s a bit away but that’s still good news.
7:30-10:30 PM: We finish The Rookie Season 3 and head to bed. Crave reminds me that I have 10 days until I’m charged again. Sadly, I think we’ll have to pay for 2 months.
Day Six Total: 0
Day Seven Saturday
8:30-9:30 AM: Wake up. No one (except the dog) slept well so we’re not in a morning mood. Spouse makes coffee and walks the dog, while I finish packing the car and give the cat a lot of attention. Our first venue tour is at 11 and the one that is the most expensive (8-10K), but also the one we probably want the most. We live about an hour away but the highway is two lanes and one accident can back everything up for hours.
10:40-1 PM: We visit our dream venue. We stay way longer than expected. Basically if the quote is under 10K, we’ll get it. Just waiting now.
1-2 PM: We get to our in-laws and have a lunch of egg salad sandwhichs. We need to buy gas. My in laws drive us to a pottery painting store.
2-4 PM: We paint pottery. My mother in law only wanted to do this for her birthday. They’ll pick it up in a week after it’s been thrown. I paint a vase (28$), Spouse paints an Easter egg (18$), father in law paints a mug (30$), and mother in law paints a plate (50$)
Total:143.36/credit card
4-5 Pm: We see another venue. It’s an instant no. My in laws decide they want to try Korean fried chicken. We call ahead for take out to get two fries and 16 pieces of half and half. It comes to 50.83$ that my in laws pay for.
5-10 PM: We come back and see that our dog has pooped in their house and also has gotten into their pantry and eaten an entire bag of dog food. It is not a fun night.
We spend the night drinking wine and discussing the wedding and watching TV.
10PM: We go to bed. That’s the end of this week, but tomorrow we will be buying gas and probably lunch for my other mother in law as we will be touring another venue.
Day Seven Total: 143.36$
2024.05.14 14:01 Zappingsbrew A post talking about 400 words
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2024.05.13 23:29 Then_Marionberry_259 MAY 13, 2024 AOT.TO ASCOT REPORTS FIRST QUARTER 2024 RESULTS
 | https://preview.redd.it/tsxynee0i90d1.png?width=3500&format=png&auto=webp&s=616474707538de01b837d7ace47799ab73f53192 submitted by Then_Marionberry_259 to Treaty_Creek [link] [comments] VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ascot Resources Ltd. ( TSX: AOT; OTCQX: AOTVF ) (“ Ascot ” or the “ Company ”) is pleased to announce the Company’s unaudited financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2024 (“ Q1 2024 ”), and also to provide a construction update on the Company’s Premier Gold Project (“ PGP ” or the “ project ”), located on Nis g a’a Nation Treaty Lands in the prolific Golden Triangle of northwestern British Columbia. For details of the unaudited condensed interim consolidated financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2024, please see the Company’s filings on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca). All amounts herein are reported in $000s of Canadian dollars (“ C$ ”) unless otherwise specified. Q1 2024 AND RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
Project financing On February 20, 2024, the Company closed a bought deal private placement for gross proceeds of $28,751 and a financing package of US$50 million for the completion and ramp-up of PGP. The financing package consisted of a royalty restructuring and a cost overrun facility. Construction progress key performance indicators At the end of Q1 2024, overall construction was 98% complete, compared with 86% complete at the end of Q4 2023. With first gold having been poured on April 20, 2024 via gold recovered through the gravity circuit, the project construction is 100% complete on schedule and on the most recently provided budget of approximately C$339 million. Commissioning and ramp-up activities in the processing plant and in the mine continue towards achieving commercial production in Q3 of 2024. Safety The Project had no lost time injuries in Q1 2024. There was an increase in recordable injuries at the end of the quarter which in part, can be attributable to seasonal changes and the transition from construction to operations. As the Project continues its transition from construction into operations, focus has been placed on the ongoing development of standard operating procedures, in field job hazard analysis and worker training. There was a small increase in property damage reported in the quarter due in part to weather conditions and the onboarding of a significant number of new workers to the site. The re-enforcement of reporting to the operating team remains a key focus to ensure that all learnings are identified and applied to prevent re-occurrence and reflect in the future training plans. In Q2 2024, significant work will be placed to support the operational teams to begin to operate the newly constructed plant through the final stages of C4 and C5 commissioning. Processing plant and site infrastructure Mechanical and electrical work in the mill was substantially completed in Q1 2024 with minor associated systems and punch list items to complete. Focus has shifted to commissioning the process plant and ramp up as well as completing minor deficiencies. Stage one of the tailings storage facility (“TSF”) raise was completed and accepted by the Engineer of Record for use. Earthworks activities in 2024 will focus on raising the spillway dam by three metres, producing material for the 2025 raise and advanced work on the Cascade Creek Diversion in preparation for the 2025 works and final completion of the diversion. The new water treatment plant was substantially mechanically and electrically completed in Q4 2023 with some minor areas remaining. The high-density sludge circuit was commissioned in Q1 2024 and is advancing towards full ramp up. The MBBR circuit was substantially complete in Q1 2024 and will begin full commissioning as the process plant continues to deposit tailings into the TSF and feed nitrogen species into the MBBR circuit. The site power reticulation was completed in Q1 2024. Sustaining capital works in 2024 will focus on reticulation to the Premier portal as well as the Big Missouri portal. Mine development Procon Mining & Tunnelling (“Procon”) a mine contractor with extensive experience in BC and the Golden Triangle continued to advance mine development at two portal areas: S1 about 9 kilometres north of the mill which accesses the Big Missouri and Silver Coin deposits, and the mill adjacent Premier Northern Light (“PNL”) portal which accesses the Premier and Northern Light orebodies. As of the end of Q1 2024, Procon had about 57 people on site, 40 of whom were miners and 10 were maintenance personnel. At Big Missouri, Procon advanced development into several ore headings in the A zone, as well as reactivating the S1 ramp heading that goes to Silver Coin deposit. In Q1 Procon developed 936 metres at Big Missouri (258 metres in ore and 678 metres in waste, and by April 29, 2024, development advanced to 905 metres in waste and 507 metres in ore total in 2024. Including the development completed in late 2022 and late 2023, the total development to date is approximately 2,710 metres in both ore and waste. Productivities at Big Missouri have continued to improve, with availability of key equipment such as Maclean bolters being made a priority. During Q1 2024, the geological team continued to encounter high grade material occurrences in both face sampling and probe hole drilling in multiple areas of the A zone. As previously reported, these occurrences are in or very near existing wireframes or logical extensions of wireframes. At the end of March 31, 2024, a total of approximately 30,000 tonnes of ore was mined from Big Missouri and stockpiled at Diego pit. At PNL, Procon dealt with issues related to near surface structure and weak ground. These issues seem to have abated at the end of April, and Procon has started to make better progress as they move into the better ground conditions expected at Premier given what was seen historically. In Q1 2024 approximately 85 metres were advanced at PNL, and at the end of April this increased to approximately 150 metres as ground conditions improved. Mining development is being advanced down into the Premier deposit for initial mining in the Prew Zone, with ore development now anticipated to begin in early Q3 2024, and initial longhole stope production following later in Q3 2024. The ramp has been strategically laid out to allow for underground drilling on the Sebakwe Zone in 2024 and will eventually connect a footwall ramp over to the 602 area at the southern end of the Premier deposit. Although progress has been slow, the quality of the resultant work with ground control and shotcrete arches has been excellent, allowing for a secure and stable ramp for the life-of-mine production to come from this area approximately 350 metres from the Premier Mill. Recruitment At the end of Q1 2024, total site recruitment has reached approximately 90% of the planned operational team. A key achievement was the successful recruitment for some challenging roles pertaining particularly to some of the maintenance roles, health and safety (specifically, mine rescue), and technical roles for the mine and processing area. Policies and procedures development have been ongoing throughout Q1 2024 and key documents will be rolled out in Q2 2024. Permitting and Environmental Compliance A Joint Permit Amendment Application (“JPAA”) was required to be re-aligned with the project completion dates and was submitted in October 2023. The JPAA underwent first round comments through February 2024 and second round comments were received in late April 2024, with our responses anticipated to be submitted in May 2024. The air permit was received on March 25, 2024. The updated environmental permit PE-8044, including the sewage treatment facility discharge permit is anticipated to be received in late May 2024. 2024 EXPLORATION PROGRAM Planning for the 2024 exploration program is in full swing with an anticipated start date in late June. There are several areas on the properties that will be targeted by new drilling. Near the Premier mill, several drill holes have been planned around the Prew and Sebakwe zones of the Premier deposit. The new holes will complement the existing drill pattern at Prew and test induced polarization geophysical anomalies from last year’s survey. Additional drill holes have been planned for the Big Missouri deposit where underground development is rapidly providing access to different parts of the deposit. The new holes will be designed for resource conversion and mine plan addition at this deposit. Specific new drill targets have been identified at the Day Zone on the western edge of the deposit, where geophysical anomalies seem to outline previously untested mineralization along strike of known ore zones. Additional exploration drill holes are targeting a large geophysical anomaly to the west of the Dilworth deposit that extends surface showings to the north onto Ascot’s PGP property. This target has a large strike extent and may require drilling over more than one exploration season. The Company anticipates a drill program of between 15,000 and 20,000 metres distributed over the areas described above. The program will require utilization of two drill rigs into late September or early October 2024. FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE THREE MONTHS ENDED MARCH 31, 2024 The Company reported a net loss of $6,208 for Q1 2024 compared to $7,589 for Q1 2023. The lower net loss for the current period is primarily attributable to a $2,170 decrease in the loss on extinguishment of debt and a $1,196 decrease in financing costs, partially offset by increases in other expense categories. LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES As at March 31, 2024, the Company had cash & cash equivalents of $47,028 and working capital deficiency of $33,030. The working capital deficiency is caused by an estimated $23,024 as the current portion of the deferred revenue only to be settled with future production from the Project and the $25,180 value of the Convertible facility, which is classified as current due to the lender’s right to exercise the conversion option at any time at a variable exercise price. Excluding these non-cash current liabilities, working capital was $15,174. In Q1 2024, the Company issued 67,807,135 common shares, 10,164,528 warrants, and granted 110,000 stock options and 28,667 Deferred Share Units. Also, 100,766 stock options expired or were forfeited, 24,427 Restricted Share Units were forfeited, and 99,039 stock options, 137,533 Deferred Share Units and 158,726 Restricted Share Units were exercised in Q1 2024. MANAGEMENT’S OUTLOOK FOR 2024 In 2024, the Company will transition from the construction of the mine and related infrastructure to the operation of the entire site and becoming a gold producer. Despite the challenges associated with this transition, there are many opportunities for the Company to grow and create value. The key activities and priorities for 2024 include:
John Kiernan, P.Eng., Chief Operating Officer of the Company is the Company’s Qualified Person (QP) as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical contents of this news release. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Ascot Resources Ltd. “Derek C. White” President & CEO, and Director For further information contact: David Stewart, P.Eng. VP, Corporate Development & Shareholder Communications dstewart@ascotgold.com 778-725-1060 ext. 1024 About Ascot Resources Ltd. Ascot is a Canadian mining company focused on commissioning its 100%-owned Premier Gold Mine, which poured first gold in April 2024 and is located on Nis g a’a Nation Treaty Lands, in the prolific Golden Triangle of northwestern British Columbia. Concurrent with commissioning Premier towards commercial production anticipated in Q3 of 2024, the Company continues to explore its properties for additional high-grade gold mineralization. Ascot’s corporate office is in Vancouver, and its shares trade on the TSX under the ticker AOT and on the OTCQX under the ticker AOTVF. Ascot is committed to the safe and responsible operation of the Premier Gold Mine in collaboration with Nisga’a Nation and the local communities of Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska. For more information about the Company, please refer to the Company’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca or visit the Company’s web site at www.ascotgold.com. The TSX has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information All statements and other information contained in this press release about anticipated future events may constitute forward-looking information under Canadian securities laws (" forward-looking statements "). Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "targeted", "outlook", "on track" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could", “would” or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking statements, including statements in respect of the terms of the Offering, the closing of the Offering, the advancement and development of the PGP and the timing related thereto, the completion of the PGP mine, the production of gold and management’s outlook for the remainder of 2024 and beyond. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements, including risks associated with entering into definitive agreements for the transactions described herein; fulfilling the conditions to closing of the transactions described herein, including the receipt of TSX approvals; the business of Ascot; risks related to exploration and potential development of Ascot's projects; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; the need for cooperation of government agencies and indigenous groups in the exploration and development of Ascot’s properties and the issuance of required permits; the need to obtain additional financing to develop properties and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals; and other risk factors as detailed from time to time in Ascot's filings with Canadian securities regulators, available on Ascot's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca including the Annual Information Form of the Company dated March 25, 2024 in the section entitled "Risk Factors". Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions made with regard to: the estimated costs associated with construction of the Project; the timing of the anticipated start of production at the Project; the ability to maintain throughput and production levels at the PGP mill; the tax rate applicable to the Company; future commodity prices; the grade of mineral resources and mineral reserves; the ability of the Company to convert inferred mineral resources to other categories; the ability of the Company to reduce mining dilution; the ability to reduce capital costs; and exploration plans. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and opinions of management at the date the statements are made. Although Ascot believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and/or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since Ascot can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Ascot does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable laws. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. https://preview.redd.it/ids8mfh0i90d1.png?width=150&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f8fbd8e22dcba10df9e1048999e0a9f852aa6a5 https://preview.redd.it/nx7hjai0i90d1.png?width=4000&format=png&auto=webp&s=20c83933c4dcb513bb9aaef1f4e57aef5f738496
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2024.05.12 00:55 ThrowawayforDobre A very stressful wedding.
This took place back in the 90’s, I was part of the wedding party of a good friend, having the role of an usher for the groom’s side. I was in my mid 20’s and had been very good friends with the groom since we met at sixth form college aged 16.
The Groom was from a small town of just over 3,000 people, in a very rural area in the south of England, the kind of place where everyone knows each other, and it is rare for them to mix with any outsiders. He had been a hard partying wild man, whose main interests were Football, music, and beer. When I was away at university, he saw the light, put his old ways behind him and became born again. Gave up his job and became a missionary. Whilst away doing missionary work, joined by the youngest son of his Baptist minister, the groom met the bride. I nice young girl from the north of England who was also very religious.
After six months of dating, they got engaged, he had moved up to be close to her, got a job and they got a house, although she stayed living with her parents until the wedding.
The stag do was uneventful, the Groom came back down for a weekend for it, and the best man follow the instructions he had been given. A round of golf, the out for a meal then to the Grooms old local pub for the evening. The best man and me where the only ones who where not religious, when I noticed that the where 13 of us for the meal my last supper joke did not go down well. Even the Grooms mother joined us in the pub after the meal. Not the wild night of decadence I would have through his stag do would have been only a few years before.
That’s the boring bit over, now to the Wedding…….
The day before the Wedding my job was to pick up the youngest son of the local Baptist minister first thing in the morning, he was the other usher on the groom’s side, and drive him the length of England to the North of England near the Scottish boarder. The groom had been stressing out as we are both nice easy-going blokes, but we do both have a well and truly earned reputation for being a bit flaky. I’m due to pick him up at 9am, I wake up at 9:40am. Panic, get showered and dressed and run to my car. I get five minutes down the road and then turn around and return to my home to get my wedding suit. I get to the Baptist ministers’ home at 10:40am, I am knocking and ringing the doorbell until I wake the other usher at 11am. He showers and gets dressed whilst I wait in the kitchen for him, his father the minister comes home and me and him chat, he says that he would have loved to have gone to the wedding, but unfortunately, he is performing a wedding ceremony the next day for another couple we all know. Other usher comes down and says that he will make sandwiches for the journey, so we don’t have to stop. We finally get on the road at mid-day three hours late. We drive past my home soon after and I realise that I could have picked up my suit on the way.
The journey was uneventful apart from multiple texts from the best man asking when we would arrive, as the groom has an important job for us to do when we get there. Me and other usher had known each other for years and get on well so we chat and have a good laugh, this is when I found out the news that the wedding his father is doing the next day for the lad and his girlfriend, we all know, it had the same guest list as the groom’s side of the wedding we are going to. The guests had the choice of going to a wedding that most of them could walk to, and the rest would have a five-to-ten-minute drive, or one which would need them to take a day off work and a whole weekend to go to. The groom’s side for this wedding was just, his family, us two ushers, and five people the bride and groom had been missionaries with. When we start to get hungry the other usher looks for the sandwiches he made, only to discover that he has left them on the kitchen counter back at his parents’ house. This is the last time we screw up.
We get to the bride and grooms’ home at 8pm, as we walk to the door it swings open and we are nearly knocked over as the mother of the groom, his two twin sisters, and two brothers storm out of the house. The best man then greets us with the hunted look of a Vietnam veteran with a 1,000-yard stare. The other usher asks where the other missionaries are, the best man says that they are upstairs and other usher quickly disappears to see them. I walk in, the groom is hugging the bride, I say hello, they do not acknowledge me. The best man hands me a cup of tea and we go to the living room and close the door. We can hear the bride howling in tears just the other side of the door as the groom tries to claim her. Me and the best man are both British males, we know full well what to do in this kind of situation, our grand parents lived through the blitz, we drew down into our guts and invoked the Dunkirk spirt, we kept our stiff upper lips like any true Englishman, completely ignored the situation and made small talk about football, sipping our tea. The bride took about 45 minutes to stop crying.
After the wedding I found out , what had gone on, this was the first time the bride was meeting the grooms family, first the groom had asked his two 19 year old sisters to bring their dresses for the wedding along so he could approve them, now I do not know much about women, but one of the few things I do know this that you do not tell your sisters what they can and can not wear, as they will openly and honestly tell you what you can do with that request. Then the mother of the groom gave the couple a lucky horseshoe for there wedding, they refused to accept the gift as they are strict Christians, and the lucky horseshoe is a pagan symbol. Then the father of the groom, who was divorce for the mother of the groom decided to spring a surprise on everyone, he announced that he was bringing his new girlfriend and her toddler to the wedding. This is when the excrement well and truly hit the fan. The new girlfriend the groom also knew well, during his wild times he had known her in the biblical sense on more than one occasion. She was a very friendly and giving young women, in fact most of our friend group had known her biblically as well, some of them knew her in the biblical way two at a time. Thankfully looking at the time line unless it was a two-and-a-half-year pregnancy the toddler was not the grooms. The groom’s mother had openly called the grooms fathers new girlfriend a wh**e, which I feel is unfair, she didn’t ever charge, she was not a professional, she was just a very keen amateur. Over the next few minutes of shouting, it was made clear to the groom’s father that his girlfriend would not be invited to the wedding and there would be trouble if her brought her.
After everything had calmed down, we then drove over to the brides’ parents’ home. Where we had been given the task of blowing up ballons to decorate village hall the reception was taking place in, I was confused at why the groom was so stressed at us being on time so we could do this job. Then when no one else was about the groom gave us our real roles and responsibilities for the next day. Basically, we had the job to be his fathers’ minders during the reception, his father, was a violent, aggressive, alcoholic, and our role was to try and keep him away from other guests, try to stop him from insulting anyone, and if he starts a fight then to get in the middle of it and break it up. Now, I grew up playing Rugby, the sport which American football evolved from, except the only protection we wore was a gumshield and a cup (Known as a cricket box in the UK). I may not be the tallest but at the time I had spent a year working as a builder’s labour (construction worker for the Americans) and had the body I still think in my mind I still have, until I see myself in the mirror when I get out of the shower and realise that I currently have a body that resembles a dropped lasagne. Other usher was sporty, but stick thin, and I doubt that he had ever taken a punch in his life, I knew which of the two of us would be getting in the middle to break up any fight.
The Wedding Day……….
We had stayed in the same budget hotel chain as the groom’s family, except his father. My first responsibility of the day is to drive the mother of the groom to the wedding, along with the youngest brother and other usher. Oldest brother and twin sisters are being driven by oldest brothers’ best mate who was not invited to the wedding but came anyway.
In the morning of the wedding, I am in the hotel’s carpark decorating my car with the traditional white ribbons for wedding cars. The mother of the groom leans out of her ground floor room window and calls me over to the window. I walk over and just as I get there I see over her shoulder and freeze in shock. Both the grooms twin sisters and in the background getting ready for the wedding, one has just a towel wrapped around her, the other is only wearing a thong. They both see me, freeze, then scream and run into the room’s bathroom. I am extremely embarrassed, the groom’s mother, who is very east London just shouts at them,
‘Don’t be so stupid girls, you ain't got nothing he ain't seen before’.
We then go over what time we should leave for the wedding.
Knowing both the groom, and his father are very protective over the twins, even though it was a total accent, this incident could have landed me trouble with them both.
I am so paranoid about being late to the church that we arrive so early that the church is still locked, over the next few hours people arrive. For some strange reason they had decided to go with the traditional bride’s side sitting on one side of the isle, and grooms side sitting on the other. This led to a few issues, on the groom’s side, there were on the first pew, six members of his family, on the second pew, the five missionaries plus me and other usher, and brother of the grooms best mate. On the brides’ side, there where all her friends and family, plus every member of her parents’ church. I suggested that we just filled the empty pews on the groom’s side with guests, but the two ushers on the brides’ side, the bride’s brothers wouldn’t even consider it. Me and other usher had no-one to usher to their seats, as it had started raining, we decided to grab a couple of umbrellas and meet and greet guests as they parked and shield them from the rain. We also started to set out extra seats for the bride’s side as all the pews on that side of the church had been filled, there was over 150 on her side, even though on the groom’s side only two pews had anyone sitting in them and only 14 people.
Then the final guests arrive, they are very elderly, from the church the parents of the bride belong to, they decided to park right in front of the door to the church, I asked them if they could move, they explained that they were not going to the reception and were leaving for a holiday right after the ceremony, so they wanted to leave quickly. I pointed out that they had parked in such a way that the bride would be forced to squeeze down a foot and a half gap between their mud-covered car and a brick wall whilst it was raining to get into her own wedding. They did not see anything wrong with that. There was some back and forth between us, but finally I found a parking spot which they could easily leave early from and was out of the way, they reluctantly moved their car to that spot. Just as the car carrying the bride and her father drove into the carpark.
The ceremony went off without any drama. After the ceremony it is the photos, as each set of photos are done the people leave to go to the reception. The last set to be done are the newly married couple and the groom’s mother. We get to my car, and we realise that no-one has told us where the reception is. There is one last car with wedding guests in leaving at the same time as us, the only other car is the best man’s car, and he is taking the bride and groom. I quickly follow the car that is leaving hoping that they are going to the reception. This is the 90’s, the only two people who have mobile phones are the best man, and me, him as his work supplied him with one, and I had got one as I did not want to be talking to my, at the time recently ex-girlfriend (I broke it off with her a week before and that is why other Usher got to share my hotel room with me as I had already booked and paid for two people for two nights, I had just changed the booking to a twin room) whilst in the same room as my parents on their landline. The best man calls my phone, asking if we know where the reception is, we don’t but we are following a car that might be going there. Groom and Bride do not drive and do not know the way to the reception. Other usher has my phone, he is describing landmarks to best man who is about two minutes behind us, so he can find his way. After 20 minutes of driving thankfully the car I am following is going to the reception and two minutes after we arrive the bride and groom arrive.
We go to our assigned tables for the meal, I am sitting next to the friend of the oldest brother of the groom, opposite him is the oldest brother of the groom, directly opposite me is the only wearing a towel sister of the groom, next to her is the other twin who I saw too much of earlier that day. And next to me is the boyfriend of the maid of honour. I try to make small talk with the boyfriend of the maid of honour, but he is staring daggers at the best man, who is sitting at the head table talking to and looking, like he is really hitting it off with the maid of honour. Boyfriend of maid of honour is not happy, he is in silence for most of the meal but at some points during the meal sounds like he is growling. I later found out that best man and maid of honour both had the same job and just talked shop the whole meal, the only other person best man had to talk to as he was on the head table was youngest brother of groom who was six years old, and as she was at the end of the head table there was no-one on the other side of her, the boyfriend of maid of honour made me feel about as welcome as a ginger haired step son.
The best man speech was interesting, as he had been given strict instructions on what he could say and what he could not say. The stories about the groom stopped at the age of 12, and then jumped to when he became born again. More than half his life had to be skipped over.
Due to the father of the groom, the decision was made to have a dry wedding, apart from a glass of sparkling wine each to toast the bride and groom. Somehow towel sister of the groom managed to get a few glasses of sparkling wine and started to get very flirty with me, as she was rubbing her foot up and down my leg under the table, I moved my leg away, I looked her in the eye and gave a firm shake of the head, thankfully she got the message. The other twin sister, who is very shy and studious, couldn’t even look me in the eye due to embarrassment from the morning.
On the lighter side, the bride who had been starving herself for months before the wedding, ate so much that she burst the zip at the back of her dress, she saw the funny side of it and her mother and sisters all used safety pins to pin it back up so she could then eat some more.
It then comes time for the first dance, this wedding was on a tiny budget, this was before we could burn CD’s at home, so the groom had made a mix tape for the dances, as they were half way into the first dance, the tape player ate the tape. No more music.
Me and other usher spent the rest of the time basically standing in front of father of the groom, who had brought his own bottle of whiskey. We knew that a guaranteed why to provoke violence was to try and take the bottle off him. We became the absorbers of his bile, we bit our tongues as we listened to his racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Islamic, sexist ranting, saying about how the world is against him and none of his problems are his fault. Each time one of his children or his ex-wife came within earshot her would try to provoke them, but they remained stoic.
It then came time for the bride and groom to leave for their honeymoon, I had supplied the oldest brother of the groom and his friend with a can of shaving foam to decorate the wedding car in the traditional manner, they did not disappoint.
Once the bride and groom had left, the rest of the guest all left, no music, no booze, no food there was nothing to stay around for, so the wedding was over by 7:30pm.
I drove the mother of the groom, Youngest brother of the groom and other usher back to the budget chain hotel we were staying in. after dropping them off I went and brough myself a lot of beer, went to oldest brother of the grooms room, as the England football team had been playing a world cup qualifier game that day and had set up a video recorder to record it and we watched the game. Half way through the best man turned up, again with a 1,000 yards stare.
Later I found out what had happened next. The best man had driven the newly married couple to the hotel where they were having their honeymoon. As he was driving back, he got a phone call on his mobile phone, asking hm if he had the keys to the married couples’ home, as the five missionaries are all staying there for the weekend. He does not have the keys, the only person who has the keys is the groom. The best man turns around and drives back to the hotel. There is no way that he is going to disturb the married couple on their wedding night, the very religious couple on their wedding night, the groom might not have saved himself for marriage during his wild years, but it had been made very clear to everyone that the bride had saved herself for marriage. The best man gets the front desk to ring up for him, no answer. In the end a manager goes up and knocks on their room and gets the keys.
The next day we all drive back south and try to get over the experience.
Over 25 years later:
The groom and bride and still together, and still very happy together, they have four children.
Towel sister of the groom is happily married with three children.
Embarrassed sister of the groom, went to University, became a teacher and is no longer extremely shy, she came back from Uni full of confidence. I bumped into her last year in our local supermarket when she introduced me to her two teenage daughters as the first guy who to got to enjoy her boobs. I was just as embarrassed as her daughters.
Oldest brother of the groom spent so much time in the job centre that he ended up getting a job there.
Youngest brother of the groom is a lovely lad with a great girlfriend, their wedding is next year.
Mother of the groom is still hoping that oldest brother of the groom will meet someone nice sometime and move out, no-one else thinks that is going to happen.
Father of the groom is currently living in a hostel for the homeless. None of his three sons will have anything to do with him, his two daughters take it in turns to do his washing and give him enough food for the week. They do not give him any money.
Me and best man are still very close. We helped each other move into our first homes and decorate them. He was my best man at my wedding, and I was best man at his. I am godfather to his son, he is the named trustee in my will. We supported each other through our divorces. We support each other with our elderly parents and their mad erratic decisions. The only reason we are not meeting up this weekend for a beer and a catch up, is because he is currently dealing with the family drama around his mother in her late 70’s deciding to elope with someone she has only known for two weeks.
I have been to many weddings over the years, this is still the only one I can remeber all of the details of.
submitted by ThrowawayforDobre to CharlotteDobreYouTube [link] [comments]
The Groom was from a small town of just over 3,000 people, in a very rural area in the south of England, the kind of place where everyone knows each other, and it is rare for them to mix with any outsiders. He had been a hard partying wild man, whose main interests were Football, music, and beer. When I was away at university, he saw the light, put his old ways behind him and became born again. Gave up his job and became a missionary. Whilst away doing missionary work, joined by the youngest son of his Baptist minister, the groom met the bride. I nice young girl from the north of England who was also very religious.
After six months of dating, they got engaged, he had moved up to be close to her, got a job and they got a house, although she stayed living with her parents until the wedding.
The stag do was uneventful, the Groom came back down for a weekend for it, and the best man follow the instructions he had been given. A round of golf, the out for a meal then to the Grooms old local pub for the evening. The best man and me where the only ones who where not religious, when I noticed that the where 13 of us for the meal my last supper joke did not go down well. Even the Grooms mother joined us in the pub after the meal. Not the wild night of decadence I would have through his stag do would have been only a few years before.
That’s the boring bit over, now to the Wedding…….
The day before the Wedding my job was to pick up the youngest son of the local Baptist minister first thing in the morning, he was the other usher on the groom’s side, and drive him the length of England to the North of England near the Scottish boarder. The groom had been stressing out as we are both nice easy-going blokes, but we do both have a well and truly earned reputation for being a bit flaky. I’m due to pick him up at 9am, I wake up at 9:40am. Panic, get showered and dressed and run to my car. I get five minutes down the road and then turn around and return to my home to get my wedding suit. I get to the Baptist ministers’ home at 10:40am, I am knocking and ringing the doorbell until I wake the other usher at 11am. He showers and gets dressed whilst I wait in the kitchen for him, his father the minister comes home and me and him chat, he says that he would have loved to have gone to the wedding, but unfortunately, he is performing a wedding ceremony the next day for another couple we all know. Other usher comes down and says that he will make sandwiches for the journey, so we don’t have to stop. We finally get on the road at mid-day three hours late. We drive past my home soon after and I realise that I could have picked up my suit on the way.
The journey was uneventful apart from multiple texts from the best man asking when we would arrive, as the groom has an important job for us to do when we get there. Me and other usher had known each other for years and get on well so we chat and have a good laugh, this is when I found out the news that the wedding his father is doing the next day for the lad and his girlfriend, we all know, it had the same guest list as the groom’s side of the wedding we are going to. The guests had the choice of going to a wedding that most of them could walk to, and the rest would have a five-to-ten-minute drive, or one which would need them to take a day off work and a whole weekend to go to. The groom’s side for this wedding was just, his family, us two ushers, and five people the bride and groom had been missionaries with. When we start to get hungry the other usher looks for the sandwiches he made, only to discover that he has left them on the kitchen counter back at his parents’ house. This is the last time we screw up.
We get to the bride and grooms’ home at 8pm, as we walk to the door it swings open and we are nearly knocked over as the mother of the groom, his two twin sisters, and two brothers storm out of the house. The best man then greets us with the hunted look of a Vietnam veteran with a 1,000-yard stare. The other usher asks where the other missionaries are, the best man says that they are upstairs and other usher quickly disappears to see them. I walk in, the groom is hugging the bride, I say hello, they do not acknowledge me. The best man hands me a cup of tea and we go to the living room and close the door. We can hear the bride howling in tears just the other side of the door as the groom tries to claim her. Me and the best man are both British males, we know full well what to do in this kind of situation, our grand parents lived through the blitz, we drew down into our guts and invoked the Dunkirk spirt, we kept our stiff upper lips like any true Englishman, completely ignored the situation and made small talk about football, sipping our tea. The bride took about 45 minutes to stop crying.
After the wedding I found out , what had gone on, this was the first time the bride was meeting the grooms family, first the groom had asked his two 19 year old sisters to bring their dresses for the wedding along so he could approve them, now I do not know much about women, but one of the few things I do know this that you do not tell your sisters what they can and can not wear, as they will openly and honestly tell you what you can do with that request. Then the mother of the groom gave the couple a lucky horseshoe for there wedding, they refused to accept the gift as they are strict Christians, and the lucky horseshoe is a pagan symbol. Then the father of the groom, who was divorce for the mother of the groom decided to spring a surprise on everyone, he announced that he was bringing his new girlfriend and her toddler to the wedding. This is when the excrement well and truly hit the fan. The new girlfriend the groom also knew well, during his wild times he had known her in the biblical sense on more than one occasion. She was a very friendly and giving young women, in fact most of our friend group had known her biblically as well, some of them knew her in the biblical way two at a time. Thankfully looking at the time line unless it was a two-and-a-half-year pregnancy the toddler was not the grooms. The groom’s mother had openly called the grooms fathers new girlfriend a wh**e, which I feel is unfair, she didn’t ever charge, she was not a professional, she was just a very keen amateur. Over the next few minutes of shouting, it was made clear to the groom’s father that his girlfriend would not be invited to the wedding and there would be trouble if her brought her.
After everything had calmed down, we then drove over to the brides’ parents’ home. Where we had been given the task of blowing up ballons to decorate village hall the reception was taking place in, I was confused at why the groom was so stressed at us being on time so we could do this job. Then when no one else was about the groom gave us our real roles and responsibilities for the next day. Basically, we had the job to be his fathers’ minders during the reception, his father, was a violent, aggressive, alcoholic, and our role was to try and keep him away from other guests, try to stop him from insulting anyone, and if he starts a fight then to get in the middle of it and break it up. Now, I grew up playing Rugby, the sport which American football evolved from, except the only protection we wore was a gumshield and a cup (Known as a cricket box in the UK). I may not be the tallest but at the time I had spent a year working as a builder’s labour (construction worker for the Americans) and had the body I still think in my mind I still have, until I see myself in the mirror when I get out of the shower and realise that I currently have a body that resembles a dropped lasagne. Other usher was sporty, but stick thin, and I doubt that he had ever taken a punch in his life, I knew which of the two of us would be getting in the middle to break up any fight.
The Wedding Day……….
We had stayed in the same budget hotel chain as the groom’s family, except his father. My first responsibility of the day is to drive the mother of the groom to the wedding, along with the youngest brother and other usher. Oldest brother and twin sisters are being driven by oldest brothers’ best mate who was not invited to the wedding but came anyway.
In the morning of the wedding, I am in the hotel’s carpark decorating my car with the traditional white ribbons for wedding cars. The mother of the groom leans out of her ground floor room window and calls me over to the window. I walk over and just as I get there I see over her shoulder and freeze in shock. Both the grooms twin sisters and in the background getting ready for the wedding, one has just a towel wrapped around her, the other is only wearing a thong. They both see me, freeze, then scream and run into the room’s bathroom. I am extremely embarrassed, the groom’s mother, who is very east London just shouts at them,
‘Don’t be so stupid girls, you ain't got nothing he ain't seen before’.
We then go over what time we should leave for the wedding.
Knowing both the groom, and his father are very protective over the twins, even though it was a total accent, this incident could have landed me trouble with them both.
I am so paranoid about being late to the church that we arrive so early that the church is still locked, over the next few hours people arrive. For some strange reason they had decided to go with the traditional bride’s side sitting on one side of the isle, and grooms side sitting on the other. This led to a few issues, on the groom’s side, there were on the first pew, six members of his family, on the second pew, the five missionaries plus me and other usher, and brother of the grooms best mate. On the brides’ side, there where all her friends and family, plus every member of her parents’ church. I suggested that we just filled the empty pews on the groom’s side with guests, but the two ushers on the brides’ side, the bride’s brothers wouldn’t even consider it. Me and other usher had no-one to usher to their seats, as it had started raining, we decided to grab a couple of umbrellas and meet and greet guests as they parked and shield them from the rain. We also started to set out extra seats for the bride’s side as all the pews on that side of the church had been filled, there was over 150 on her side, even though on the groom’s side only two pews had anyone sitting in them and only 14 people.
Then the final guests arrive, they are very elderly, from the church the parents of the bride belong to, they decided to park right in front of the door to the church, I asked them if they could move, they explained that they were not going to the reception and were leaving for a holiday right after the ceremony, so they wanted to leave quickly. I pointed out that they had parked in such a way that the bride would be forced to squeeze down a foot and a half gap between their mud-covered car and a brick wall whilst it was raining to get into her own wedding. They did not see anything wrong with that. There was some back and forth between us, but finally I found a parking spot which they could easily leave early from and was out of the way, they reluctantly moved their car to that spot. Just as the car carrying the bride and her father drove into the carpark.
The ceremony went off without any drama. After the ceremony it is the photos, as each set of photos are done the people leave to go to the reception. The last set to be done are the newly married couple and the groom’s mother. We get to my car, and we realise that no-one has told us where the reception is. There is one last car with wedding guests in leaving at the same time as us, the only other car is the best man’s car, and he is taking the bride and groom. I quickly follow the car that is leaving hoping that they are going to the reception. This is the 90’s, the only two people who have mobile phones are the best man, and me, him as his work supplied him with one, and I had got one as I did not want to be talking to my, at the time recently ex-girlfriend (I broke it off with her a week before and that is why other Usher got to share my hotel room with me as I had already booked and paid for two people for two nights, I had just changed the booking to a twin room) whilst in the same room as my parents on their landline. The best man calls my phone, asking if we know where the reception is, we don’t but we are following a car that might be going there. Groom and Bride do not drive and do not know the way to the reception. Other usher has my phone, he is describing landmarks to best man who is about two minutes behind us, so he can find his way. After 20 minutes of driving thankfully the car I am following is going to the reception and two minutes after we arrive the bride and groom arrive.
We go to our assigned tables for the meal, I am sitting next to the friend of the oldest brother of the groom, opposite him is the oldest brother of the groom, directly opposite me is the only wearing a towel sister of the groom, next to her is the other twin who I saw too much of earlier that day. And next to me is the boyfriend of the maid of honour. I try to make small talk with the boyfriend of the maid of honour, but he is staring daggers at the best man, who is sitting at the head table talking to and looking, like he is really hitting it off with the maid of honour. Boyfriend of maid of honour is not happy, he is in silence for most of the meal but at some points during the meal sounds like he is growling. I later found out that best man and maid of honour both had the same job and just talked shop the whole meal, the only other person best man had to talk to as he was on the head table was youngest brother of groom who was six years old, and as she was at the end of the head table there was no-one on the other side of her, the boyfriend of maid of honour made me feel about as welcome as a ginger haired step son.
The best man speech was interesting, as he had been given strict instructions on what he could say and what he could not say. The stories about the groom stopped at the age of 12, and then jumped to when he became born again. More than half his life had to be skipped over.
Due to the father of the groom, the decision was made to have a dry wedding, apart from a glass of sparkling wine each to toast the bride and groom. Somehow towel sister of the groom managed to get a few glasses of sparkling wine and started to get very flirty with me, as she was rubbing her foot up and down my leg under the table, I moved my leg away, I looked her in the eye and gave a firm shake of the head, thankfully she got the message. The other twin sister, who is very shy and studious, couldn’t even look me in the eye due to embarrassment from the morning.
On the lighter side, the bride who had been starving herself for months before the wedding, ate so much that she burst the zip at the back of her dress, she saw the funny side of it and her mother and sisters all used safety pins to pin it back up so she could then eat some more.
It then comes time for the first dance, this wedding was on a tiny budget, this was before we could burn CD’s at home, so the groom had made a mix tape for the dances, as they were half way into the first dance, the tape player ate the tape. No more music.
Me and other usher spent the rest of the time basically standing in front of father of the groom, who had brought his own bottle of whiskey. We knew that a guaranteed why to provoke violence was to try and take the bottle off him. We became the absorbers of his bile, we bit our tongues as we listened to his racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Islamic, sexist ranting, saying about how the world is against him and none of his problems are his fault. Each time one of his children or his ex-wife came within earshot her would try to provoke them, but they remained stoic.
It then came time for the bride and groom to leave for their honeymoon, I had supplied the oldest brother of the groom and his friend with a can of shaving foam to decorate the wedding car in the traditional manner, they did not disappoint.
Once the bride and groom had left, the rest of the guest all left, no music, no booze, no food there was nothing to stay around for, so the wedding was over by 7:30pm.
I drove the mother of the groom, Youngest brother of the groom and other usher back to the budget chain hotel we were staying in. after dropping them off I went and brough myself a lot of beer, went to oldest brother of the grooms room, as the England football team had been playing a world cup qualifier game that day and had set up a video recorder to record it and we watched the game. Half way through the best man turned up, again with a 1,000 yards stare.
Later I found out what had happened next. The best man had driven the newly married couple to the hotel where they were having their honeymoon. As he was driving back, he got a phone call on his mobile phone, asking hm if he had the keys to the married couples’ home, as the five missionaries are all staying there for the weekend. He does not have the keys, the only person who has the keys is the groom. The best man turns around and drives back to the hotel. There is no way that he is going to disturb the married couple on their wedding night, the very religious couple on their wedding night, the groom might not have saved himself for marriage during his wild years, but it had been made very clear to everyone that the bride had saved herself for marriage. The best man gets the front desk to ring up for him, no answer. In the end a manager goes up and knocks on their room and gets the keys.
The next day we all drive back south and try to get over the experience.
Over 25 years later:
The groom and bride and still together, and still very happy together, they have four children.
Towel sister of the groom is happily married with three children.
Embarrassed sister of the groom, went to University, became a teacher and is no longer extremely shy, she came back from Uni full of confidence. I bumped into her last year in our local supermarket when she introduced me to her two teenage daughters as the first guy who to got to enjoy her boobs. I was just as embarrassed as her daughters.
Oldest brother of the groom spent so much time in the job centre that he ended up getting a job there.
Youngest brother of the groom is a lovely lad with a great girlfriend, their wedding is next year.
Mother of the groom is still hoping that oldest brother of the groom will meet someone nice sometime and move out, no-one else thinks that is going to happen.
Father of the groom is currently living in a hostel for the homeless. None of his three sons will have anything to do with him, his two daughters take it in turns to do his washing and give him enough food for the week. They do not give him any money.
Me and best man are still very close. We helped each other move into our first homes and decorate them. He was my best man at my wedding, and I was best man at his. I am godfather to his son, he is the named trustee in my will. We supported each other through our divorces. We support each other with our elderly parents and their mad erratic decisions. The only reason we are not meeting up this weekend for a beer and a catch up, is because he is currently dealing with the family drama around his mother in her late 70’s deciding to elope with someone she has only known for two weeks.
I have been to many weddings over the years, this is still the only one I can remeber all of the details of.
2024.05.11 20:45 mage_in_training My reddit serial, Knowings ch. 08
This chapter took a long time to get out. Life has me super busy. Two jobs, married, two kids, still sober. I like how this turned out, however, someone new stole the show this time. As always, leave feedback, I appreciate it so very much.
[FIRST] [DELETED SCENES] [PREVIOUS]
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As I reentered my true body without recieving a mending, the vicious wounds I endured manifested into being as I reactualized into my true Self. Through the pain, I couldn't help but think on Raver's words to me.
"The doors have to be closed."
~ ~ ~
Without recieving a mending in Raver's Dreamtime bubble, reactualization was a fucking bitch. I Perceived my Self as having quite the damaged form, my Soul was fucked over by bombardment from dreadlight and my physical body simply disagreed with it all, stating that I was mostly whole and intact, only being damaged by wounds I had already endured. The three parts had an argument of a sort amongst themselves and with the power of the Dreamtime, reached a tortuous compromise.
I'm certain I seizured and blacked out through the process.
I awoke with my body shaking and covered in a cold sweat, Tsula and Luna above me, chanting in the secret language of their esoteric Traditions. The two of them each held diffetent tools required for their cultural and subtle manipulation of reality. Soft hands, awash with mana and glowing tattoos, were placed on my chest, right where my heart was. Cold, icy fingers cradled my soul protectively, keeping it connected to my body in the here and now as harsh, physical laws rent my form.
I was paying the price for Raver's hubris, and I had almost overdrafted. Thoughts of mortal over reach faded from my mind as I slipped into cool and soothing darkness.
Cold and bloodied fingers were pressed against my chest and did little to assuage the burning ache that was my soul. I couldn't focus on anything else as I gazed at the hollowed out body of my beloved. She had been beautiful, gorgeous even, and due to give birth to our daughter in two weeks. Now, the... dead thing in front of me could barely be defined as a corpse. Her skin had been peeled away like a banana and her insides removed, leaving a bloodied, hollow space. The flesh and bones had been scooped away like ice cream, leaving little in the way of remains. Our unborn child had been pulled out and repurposed with the stolen parts of her mother by dreadlight and a mage's fell Will to form the body of a Thing.
With silent tears streaming down my face, I placed the ring I had proposed to her with and put it onto my finger, next to my plain tungsten one. The simple act of removing it almost caused what remained of her hand to simply fall apart in my fingers. I'm not sure how long I stayed like that. I couldn't even hold her body against mine for fear of it crumbling away into a vile mess. I ignored what was going on around me as I kneeled in the spent summoning circle.
The world around me split and rent itself into distorted imagery, as though I were looking at everything from under a pool with gentle waves. Some parts were compressed together and others were stretched out, not quite like a mirror maze as the world was still simply one cohesive image. Additionally, things seemed closer or further in ways that defied conventional Euclidean geometries. The only area not affected by this blatant disregard of spatial dimensions, had been myself and a scant few feet around me.
What...?
A heavy thud broke me out of my thoughts and I saw my Father landing next to me. Since both of us had been prepared, he was wearing, much like myself, full motorcycle safety gear. It had been enchanted and bolstered by hidden runes and severed Will, turning everything into protective objects that even defended against potent and offensive mysticism. The equipment in question had been chosen for its sheer mundanity and ease of access, letting the powerful enchancements skirt around the Lie and Consensus leaving the magic fully intact and potent.
"Alistair," I heard my Father say to me with grim calm as he twisted the space in front of us into a right angle, redirecting rapid gunfire, "I can't do this alone."
I remained silent.
"Damnit, Son," he growled out then literally kicked my ass with his heavy boot, almost knocking me over onto my side, "get a hold of yourself, Its here now. You handle the mages."
That got me going. I finally got up, my grief was as a lead weight and prevented me from doing what was needed. With a last look at C'Leena's hollowed out corpse, I grit my teeth, steeled my nerves and called forth my magic from the Aether.
Was I dreaming? No, worse, I was in a memory...
"Stay out of my way and watch yourself," Father said to me, "I can't pull my punches against that."
"Gotcha," I replied almost absently and turned to face the assembled shadow mages. They had inexplicably stopped theit gunfire to admire the Thing they brought into existence from Somewhere.
I couldn't help but stare, either.
Standing on top of the northernmost anchor stone, an ugly, multi-faceted block of copper with glyphs and sigils harshly hewn into it, was a naked woman. The glyphs themselves were hard to look at, as though their mere presence were an affront to reality itself, which they were. The woman's skin was a darkened olive tone and she was tall as well as athletic, lithe and fit. Her shoulder length black hair was bushy and curly, flowing about her head almost like an afro. As she ran her hands down her body, I could not help but notice that everything was oddly symmetrical and too perfect. It was unnerving me greatly and triggered an uncanny valley response that tore at my heart.
The body this Thing was wearing had belonged to my fiancée.
Father didn't let It have time to get acclimated. Sidestepping forwards, he drew upon the full capabilities of his Path, eyes backlit by stars, an impossible physical sword of abstract spatial geometries held in his left hand, and a reality defying, super-dense distortion held in his right.
The world contorted and screamed under his might.
I awoke with a start and a low groan, glad to be awake and free of that horrid nightmare again. Not for the first time, I wished I had that motorcycle gear still. I had been far too reckless then and immediately thereafter, and everything had been damaged beyond repair. I could never find anyone I trusted enough to make those enchantments anyways. Farnsworth could only enhance the mundane qualities as he didn't know enough about mana warding to permanently imbue the protections I wanted nor needed for my line of active field work.
Looking around, I saw Rue asleep on the other side of the bed and Spades was nestled between us, his massive form making a visible dip in the mattress. The big monster dog was on his back, legs splayed open and snoring loudly with his tongue hanging out of his muzzle. I was reminded a lot of my Lola when she had still been around in the flesh, making me smile with old and pleasant memories. I must have been out for some time for Spades to be here.
A quick, almost reflexive, mental orison told me everything I already suspected. My mana reserves were shot, my body had been through the ringer and my soul was frayed and burnt. While I knew I owed my continued existence to Raver and her godsend, I also knew it had taken a great and terrible toll on my Self. Miracles like that usually held some kind of hidden cost, even if they weren't readily apparent.
Getting off the bed slowly, I began to look for my pack. It took far longer than than usual as I had to steady myself quite a bit from the spinning room. I managed to be quiet, however, and didn't wake up Rue nor Spades. Finally in the shower, after some time and using the wall to support myself, I let the almost scalding water roll over my aching body. The pendant on my neck protecting me from recieving any burns or aggravating the injuries I had, both old and new.
With the hot water soothing aching muscles, I began to think and take stock of my situation. I had never been on the back foot like this, low on any kind of resource, having few allies, and being pressed for time. It was like something out of a bad novel or shitty indie Steam(R) game. Though, real life was often stranger than fiction and had no real need for a logical cause and effect dynamic. If this was going to become the norm, then I had to find another method of approaching my wendigo problem.
I was simply running out of time.
After some long moments of thinking, I began to wash my hair, using the guest products on the corner caddy. They were so much nicer than anything I would have willingly bought and made me seriously consider changing up my usual shampoo. The only idea I could come up with regarding those wendigos, besides an overwhelming frontal assault, was to appeal to their bottomless gluttony and barter for passage.
I resigned myself to actually try to negotiate with their clan leader, leveraging their horrid taboos against them to get what I needed.
Wendigos, unlike most strange cryptids, vampires and were-folk aside, had a lot of things known about them, especially how they powered their supernatural capabilities. It was a simple and rather straightforward process, the more heinous the act, the more mana they drew from it. Cannibalism, sacrilege, incest, murder, torture, hedonistic gluttony, or any number of other terrible and minor sins. As well as general lawbreaking and felonies, oftentimes combined to have as many as possible occur in the same sitting.
I audibly gasped with a sudden epiphany.
My fate had already been decided, by myself no less. In a bar I couldn't remember the name of, when I had been gazing into my bronze coin, I saw what I needed to do. I had to gift what measly scrap of knowledge I understood from Beyond the Infinite to those creatures. To let those wendigos defile and mutilate such sacred and pure knowledge to whatever whims their baleful minds could come up with.
"Fuck," was the only thing I could whisper at the thought of it all as I turned off the water, getting out of the shower. I cooled the bathroom down with but a thought and wiped away the condensation on the mirror with a towel that wasn't my own, finally getting a good look at myself without vertigo, as that had finally passed.
I looked like shit, and that was a compliment. Huge, fist shaped bruises of black, green and yellow littered my torso, though most were located on my left side and blurred together into an ugly shapeless mass. The ones on my right, however, were well defined and I could easily count the number of strikes. My face held a swollen black eye, I never noticed my diminished field of vision as I had gotten used to having them over the years. Turning gingerly and opening the mirror a bit so I could see my back, I grimaced. It was another spiderweb of a bruise, earned from when I had been smashed against the edge of Raver's Dreamtime bubble.
At least none of my fingers were broken, only very stiff and swollen, just like the rest of me. I probably couldn't drive for another day or so, either, not with my hands the way they were. As I looked, surprised I hadn't noticed earlier, the inside of my right hand was, branded. The skin, while fully healed, held the symbolic glyph that heralded the Path of Stars. A circle with nine curved lines inside it. Each line only intersected two others, but with the irregular placement of them, I could trace an intersection to any other one. In each of the open spaces, slightly off center, as a simple dot.
"Miracles leave their marks," I muttered to myself, almost disbelieving the literalness of the phrase.
I didn't bother drying off and struggled a bit getting into the clothes I brought with me, maroon athletic shorts and a black tank top. Exiting the guest bathroom, I thought about where I wanted to go. Settling on a destination, I went into the backyard, found a patch of grass in the shaded, morning sunlight and lay down. The grass was thick and rather soft, and the smell of the lemon tree and the garden was more pleasant and fragrant than they should have been.
Warding myself against dreaming, I pulled on the principles of the Aether, specifically, those of sun and storms. Since the Aether was a realm of energy and mana in all of its varying forms, I employed an advanced technique, a mysterion. It was something only able to be done by those that actually hailed from the Aether rather than having mastery over it. Pulling some of the sunlight and ambient warmth into my form, I converted measly scraps of energy directly into mana. The process was slow, and almost hardly worth the effort. It was like filling a bathtub with water, a single milliliter at a time.
Mana was now such a rare commodity, every miniscule drop of it mattered.
I settled in and entered a trance-like state, most of my attention devoted to my mysterion, though some of it was allowed to drift off elsewhere. While not exactly a dream, and while maintaining my mana draw, my mind conjured up nonsensical imagery and conversations between myself and others. I didn't pay them any attention as my thoughts wandered and drifted idly.
"I thought I'd find you out here," Rue said as I heard her sit down next to me. I didn't hear her walking, however, she continued to speak, "you've been asleep for a few days. What happened?"
"Got fucked," I replied easily, a little sarcastically as well. "Truthfully," I amended, "I got summoned by Raver. She pulled a shenanigan with Fate to let her have a waking dream."
"So she was hallucinating?" Rue stated, though it was more of a question.
"Damned straight," I confirmed, "she had Sasquatch and Farnsworth make something for her. It had to have been lethal, something like that. Anyways, we were talking and then one of Them showed up. Inside the Dreamtime bubble of hers. Found Raver's luminescence despite Mirzam hiding it."
"Shit. So It was physically there? That means It had a stolen body..." Rue said, trailing off.
"Yeah, it had a body alright," I almost growled out, "broke Raver's ritual with little effort. I spent everything I had to make a patch job just to keep it active, burned through all my mana, too. I did not want to be dispersed."
"I see," Rue said to me with understanding, "I wouldn't want to have to find my physical body without a tether either." There was a small pause before she spoke again, "So what happened next?"
"I made it mad with insults to buy time for the repaired shenanigan to stabilize Raver."
"What do you mean?" Rue asked as I heard her stretch out a bit, my eyes still closed.
"Her shenanigan was woven in such a way that whatever drug Sasquatch and Farnsworth made for her didn't just kill her," I answered with a pause then continued, "it let her do things beyond normality, anyways, my fucked up patch job let me tell Sasquatch that Raver had to stay dreaming."
"So he wouldn't just purge the elixir out of her," Rue stated, then added perhaps a tad bit defensively, "I know some things from other paths, not much, but some."
"That's good," I answered back, "knowledge is power."
"With us, it's quite literal."
I murmured in assent.
"So why did you make It mad?" Rue asked, "wouldn't It just draw strength from human emotions, especially in the Dreamtime?"
"It did," I answered back, "but It couldn't act properly on them, like human emotions were new and novel. The whole encounter was sloppy after a certain point, but I did almost die. Raver saved me, gave me a miracle."
"I saw," Rue said simply, "the mark on your hand was a giveaway."
I could only murmur in agreement again then asked, "Did you find a card in my hands, too?"
"I did," Rue replied after a few moments of silence, "it was debit card, with a note attached to it."
"From Procyon, right?"
It took a few moments for her to answer. "Yes, it was from Procyon," she took a breath and continued with wavering effort, "that damned bastard had it all planned out. Wrote a fucked up letter to me on a Google(TM) doc telling me not to worry and that this had always been his exit plan."
"Sounds like he knew what was going to happen," was all I could say.
"Yes, but, I miss him!" Rue all but snarled at me, then, in a small and quiet voice, whispered, "He was my best friend, and maybe we could've been more, y'know? Now... there's... There's just nothing, only memories of him left to mourn."
"I didn't know," I answered simply.
Rue spoke with a wavering breath before continuing, her thoughts more than a little disjointed, "a lot of what he wrote was personal, so I won't get into that, but he was certain that something catastrophic was going to happen to him and myself. So he made sure that I was at my secondary home, recovering from a job. I had just completed a mission from Raver and Mirzam, and was going to perform a ritual to patch up Spades after I got some sleep. Procyon also stated that someone has been altering things for a very long time."
"So that's why you were caught with yout pants down," I said, "you didn't even have time to recover." I paused, adjusting my mysterion as I had to refocus due to our conversation, "what did they have you do?"
"Some hedge wizards actually got a hold of an actual necromancy grimoire and charged mana tools in a graveyard," Rue said with a bit of a tired sigh, "they knew exactly what they were doing, and would have been rather powerful shadow mages if they had been capable of using starlight."
"Fuck," was all I could say, then formed an actual response after a few moments, "that shouldn't have been an issue for you. Hedges don't have our capability, though numbers may have evened out their odds."
"You're right, but they brought a spirit back before I could stop them," Rue answered with more than a little spite, "a real nasty piece of shit, too. Turned on the hedges, absorbed them, and put up a real mean fight against Spades and I. It was touch and go for a long time and I was actually fearful for my life, too."
"You won, though."
"Yeah, managed to send it kicking and screaming back to the Pit, exhausted most of my mana to do so. Fucking bastard."
There was a small silence between us as Rue became lost in her own thoughts. It was a while before I asked her, "Can you elaborate on what Procyon said about Fate being altered?"
"I can, actually, though it's a bit difficult since I'm not even a novice with the Path of Stars," Rue answered as I heard her shift a bit on the grass next to me. She paused as she seemingly collected her thoughts, "it's just that certain events were made to happen sooner or later. The big one, for our Node at least, was that you were always supposed to make your ancestral home translocate. It happened sooner than it should have."
"Fuck," I said, "So I wasn't supposed to send it away a few days ago?"
"No, that was supposed to happen after our wendigo thing, if the letter is to be believed."
"Fuck," was all I could say, "I do suppose that was a snap decision, I really didn't want Them to get a hold of anything inside. If I had been able to wait, or even had help, I'm sure I wouldn't have lost it to time and space."
"Exactly," Rue said with bitter excitement, "and we'd have access to everything in it. Losing your home was a big blow to our Node."
"Yeah, but at least They don't have it," I answered more spitefully than intended.
"Silver linings and all that, right?"
"Yeah, gotta look at the bright side, no matter how bleak," I answered back with a bit of sarcastic mirth, then said as I stretched a bit, readjusting my focus on my mysterion as well, "speaking of wendigos, I know what we need to do to solve that."
"Oh? Do tell, I couldn't come up with anything myself, kept running into dead ends," she said, then added, "lack of resources and help."
"Well, I don't think you're going to like it, I'm not sure I like it either."
"Don't keep me waiting," Rue said to me with a bit of sarcastic exasperation. I could sense her looking at me even though my eyes were still closed.
"I'm going to leverage their taboos against them, appeal to their insatiable greed and offer them what little I can understand of That Which Lies Beyond the Infinite." I sighed and added, "after all, how could they resist the allure of new magic?"
"You're right," she answered, "I definitely don't like it. I'm pretty sure it's not even wise to do so."
"Wise or not, it's the only way forward, I even saw it in a vision when I was manipulating fate magic."
"Have you talked to Mirzam or Raver about this vision of yours?"
"No, not yet, and I'm pretty sure I don't need to."
There was a bit of silence between us as she digested my words. I felt compelled to elaborate as I adjusted my mysterion again, losing a bit of my focus due to the depth of the conversation we were having.
"Acrux," I said, getting her attention fully by using the name of her star, "there's something you need to understand." I sat up, abandoning my mysterion in favor of giving her my full attention. Blinking a bit at the rise of light and warmth, I continued my thought process, "in the Dreamtime, the Thing I was fighting against, It was surprised and enraged that I was able to call upon knowledge that Lay Beyond the Infinite. Whatever those glyphs and powers are, They never wanted humans to know of them, let alone have them."
"Yet you want to give such power to wendigos of all things."
"At least the knowledge, corrupted or not, will still be on Earth," I said then added, "I'm not sure what you remember, but I know you've seen something from Beyond the Infinite. Your self revival and Spade's new form are proof of that. I was there, guided by Oracle. I Perceived something unknowable, something terrible, something no mortal has any right to gaze upon. Something I can hardly even begin to try to put into words. Raver Perceived it, too. It's how she managed to give me a godsend. So, what did you Perceive, really?"
Rue brought her knees up to her chest, thinking deeply. I could tell she was using her Perception to look inwards upon her Self. I waited patiently while she struggled to look at her soul's reflection against her mind and struggled even more to put the image there into words.
At long last, she spoke, her eyes still closed as she did so, "I'm not sure what I saw, there was too much, and I felt so small. Insignificant. Less than even a dismissed, intrusive thought. There is one thing I do remember. A doorway made of the might from two universes worth of truths and laws. A Thing was trying ro break through, but couldn't, not fully, yet the doors were opened, letting smaller ones through."
"The Doors have to be closed," I said, quoting Raver, before continuing, "that's what Raver said to me, before she sent me back to my body."
"Why didn't they mend you then?"
"They were being attacked in the waking world, too. It was a good plan on Their part, They just didn't expect us to put up so much of a fight."
"They never do, though I think that's changing."
"So that's our endgame, not sure how we're going to do it," I said, bringing the conversation back to topic, "at the moment, however, I'm going to eat a few of those mana-stuffed protein bars and fix your leg. I can't keep spending mana to be able to drive your truck. You'll have to use your own mysterion to get mana, too."
"I hate my Path's mysterions," the venom in her voice was palpable.
Before I could say anything, the backdoor opened, revealing Luna. She was wearing a bird-patterned sundress and her hair had been tied back into a loose ponytail. She put her hand over her eyes to shade them from the sun as she squinted against the brightness relative to that from inside.
"Hey, you two," she called out, "Grandmother says she needs to talk yo you."
"Alright," I called out, shakily getting up to my feet with a bit of a grunt. Everything still hurt. Rue had a bit of trouble as well, her leg was not recieving the rest and healing it deserved and needed.
"We're a mess, aren't we?" Rue asked aloud as we began to walk towards the bak door.
"Yeah, but you should see the other guys," I replied with a light chuckle, only to wince and hold my sides, "I forgot how much laughing hurts with fractured ribs."
"I really don't envy you right now," Rue said with a bit of a smirk as we entered Tsula's home, Rue entering first. "I wonder what Tsula wants to talk to us about?" Rue asked aloud, not really talking to anyone in particular.
I could only wonder as we followed Luna to the living room, the house pleasantly cool due to central air conditioning.
~ ~ ~
The moon was not in the sky, and I greatly enjoyed not having to endure the accursed, purifying light of day reflected by its surface, even if greatly diminished. The loathsome wound in my side had been a mortal blow, burning through my toughened flesh and form with unnerving ease and stunning, blinding pain. Once more, I looked at the oily, thin, and black ichor that dripped from my fingers, more human-like than I was comfortable with.
The mote of dreadlight I had recieved for my services had been the only thing that had kept me from vanishing entirely. Mortal alchemy -- science -- had advanced to such a degree so as to emulate the harsh light of day far too remarkably well. That hadn't been the worst part, that damned thaumaturgist had ensorcelled a curse upon the weapon as well. With effort, as the bulk of my power was directed at repairing the oozing wound, I altered my form and shape, struggling to maintain the illusion as I walked out onto the sidewalk from a side alley.
My contract was not yet completed.
The first two nights I had hidden myself away in the dark depths, raging against the oblivion that threatened to overtake me and ending my existence. The preparedness of the thaumaturgist had been unexpected, as well as the skill and the knowledge he had wielded so effortlessly. Without my guidance, nor presence, to instill fear into the gifted abetters, the wraiths I had gathered with me fell and fled into the night, abandoning their duties and contracts.
I would have never made this mistake against the herald of the bear.
Had I known the name of the mortal's star I had been tasked against, I would have demanded more than a simple mote of dreadlight and a paltry handful of coerced allies. Realistically, I should be grateful that I still had a kind of semi-existence. Quelling my anger and hatred, and swallowing my utter revulsion, my form rippled and took the guise of a tall, middle-aged human male in a common and unremarkable suit carrying an old and worn briefcase.
The artificial illumination around me flickered, emitting a grating hum in my presence and the thin television flickered oddly as it tried to display my image, failing to accurately do so. While tracking Arcturus's quintessence had been a bit of a task, as far too much time had passed, my familiarity with it granted me an advantage that overcame that difficulty. Traveling in my wounded state, however, had been much more arduous. Looking the woman at the reception desk over, I took on my role with hiden revulsion, aided by the illusion I was conjuring and the mimicry of my physical form.
"I'm detective Aiden Roth, and I'm looking for someone. I believe that he was here a few nights ago, definitely this past week," I said. My false, human voice had been made to sound smooth, suave and strong, interlaced with a suggestion, using what little forte I could spare. I put the worn and well-used briefcase I had conjured with me onto the counter with a heavy thud, using more of my forte to emulate such a simple thing. Opening it up, I fished out an image and showed the slightly grainy, black and white picture to the receptionist.
As the woman perused the conjured image, I could not help but hiss, my hand going to my side as I expended more of my forte than I had anticipated. The cursed wound fighting back fiercely against the dreadlight tethering my existence and life. I held my disguise with willpower of monumental proportions. A strength of will I rarely had been pressed to draw from.
Seeing the concerned look the woman gave me, I simply stated, shrugging off the pain with yet more expenditure of will, "An old injury, it flares up from time to time. No matter, have you seen this individual?"
"I'm going to need to see some kind of badge or warrant," the woman said with a genuine smile, "sorry."
The fear of losing her menial job overpowered my subtle suggestion. Unfortunate.
"Sure," I replied with a fake and well ptacticed, fetching smile, adjusting my forte to include another suggestion. I showed an actual badge with my assumed name and likeness. The mortal I was impersonating had been slain many years ago by my own hands, and the subtle illusion taking hardly any of my forte adjusted the dates and design of the badge to whatever was current.
Only a thaumaturgist, or a very particularly skilled sorcerer, could pierce the illusion. Against this mortal, there was no chance of resistance and she accepted the stolen badge without question.
She looked it over, as if trying to divine the legitimacy of it. "Okay," she finally admitted, "he was here a while ago, maybe a four or five days? I remember, 'cause I tried to flirt with him..."
I ignored her prattling and asked when she finished speaking, "Can you show me the room he used?"
"Sure, but it's been cleaned a few times since then."
With a nod, I let her lead the way to the room in question, staying silent. The lights around me flickered and hummed loudly in my presence. Had the woman been more observant, she could have seen my true shadow as I had not the forte to expend to hide it entirely from the ever changing lights. She opened the room in question, using what I could only assume was a master key card.
I immediately recognized the faded auras of quintessence.
"This will do," I stated, closing the door behind me and dropping my revolting disguise, using my forte to lock it.
I revealed my true form. My legs and arms lengthened and thinned, the black suit and red tie I was wearing became my skin, armor and form. My face and eyes became blank, gaunt and sunken, skin stretching out over it. The wound in my side made itself visible, it was an ugly red, peeling and oozing burn from my shoulder to my waist and took up most of my torso. The dreadlight I was using to prevent my oblivion illuminated the wound with a kind of sickly, crimson colored backlight. Black ichor oozed out from it and dripped onto the floor as I used the bulk of my forte to ablate the caustic, foreign quintessence from my form.
The woman looked at me as even her pitifully dull, mundane human senses told her that there was incredible danger in the room with her. She screeched and irrationally ran towards the bathroom as my presence became impossibly tall in the very finite space in the motel room. Using the smallest iota of my forte, I remotely smashed her fleeing form against a wall, pinning her there with unseen force as she begged, and sobbed for her pitiful life.
I ignored her for the moment.
Drawing upon more of my forte, freed up as I no longer needed a disguise, I sensed out where quintessence had been used, discovering two places, the bed and a wall. Imbuing the wall with my own forte, I witnessed a spectral, moving image of Arcturus throwing five darts at a map placed on the wall, one at a time, then draw intersecting lines to a single point on the map.
"Wendigos..." I hissed out in loathing, the skin on my face stretching and contorting with the movement as i spoke aloud with a nonexistent mouth. Even I knew their territory.
Turning to the second source of quintessence, I did the same thing. I saw Arcturus ward himself against dreaming and then hold a brilliant shield in the air, as well as a ball of fire. My knowledge of actual thaumaturgy told me that I would have great difficulties against those Knowings. I put the mystery of his Dreamtime excursion out of my mind for now, there was nothing I could do regarding that.
My expenditure of forte caused my horrid wound to pulse against my form painfully. With a hiss, I turned to the woman meekly begging me to spare her life as she was still pinned against the wall. I could use a thrall, especially as I could no longer gain allies, not without offering something in return to my current contract holders.
That was not a barter I wanted to engage in.
"Please... don't kill me... please... I'll do anything... please..."
The absolute terror in her eyes was delectable. Her fear invigorated me with energy and reminded me I needed to feed. However, the morsels offered by her would be more than sufficient for my needs. I dragged my left hand across my oozing wound, covering it in my own essence then flexed my forte. The clothes she was wearing split in half down the middle, revealing her naked form, making her shriek. I could see the ideas her panicked mind vomited forth as she renewed her struggles with vigor.
What I had in mind was so much worse than the mundane taking of her physical body she expected.
Using the full might of my forte, I lengthened and sharpened my index finger, the tip dripping with the gathered ichor of my essence. In an instant, less than the blink of an eye, I appeared in front of her from where I had been by the bed and plunged the very tip of my sharpened, needle-like nail into the center of her heart, cutting through the most sensitive parts of her breast to do so due to the angle I had chosen for just this purpose. As I let my ichor suffuse her body with each beat of her racing heart, her vascular system visibly turning black under her skin as she screamed and writhed in agony, an odd thing happened.
What could only be considered my blood had been tainted by thaumaturgy qnr bolstered by dreadlight as well as my own forte. As it mixed with the blank canvas of the mortal in front of me, I could sense the candle of her soul. Reaching out with dreadlight, letting the wound burn my side with a hiss of inhaled breath, I ignited it with three kinds of mysticism.
A horrified realization overcame her as she knew I had fundamentally altered her to suit my whims. Having a thaumaturgist thrall would be a great boon.
"You'll do quite nicely," I said with an actual grin, the skin stretched over my mouth revealing impossibly large, gleaming flat teeth, as I watched the physical and mystical changes taking place.
My new thrall would never be human again.
I feasted on her terror, anguish and torment.
It was delicious.
~ ~ ~
Arcturus and Acrux will be back. C'Leena Thomas, Prosthetist is going to be my next update.
[[NEXT]]
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~ ~ ~
As I reentered my true body without recieving a mending, the vicious wounds I endured manifested into being as I reactualized into my true Self. Through the pain, I couldn't help but think on Raver's words to me.
"The doors have to be closed."
~ ~ ~
Without recieving a mending in Raver's Dreamtime bubble, reactualization was a fucking bitch. I Perceived my Self as having quite the damaged form, my Soul was fucked over by bombardment from dreadlight and my physical body simply disagreed with it all, stating that I was mostly whole and intact, only being damaged by wounds I had already endured. The three parts had an argument of a sort amongst themselves and with the power of the Dreamtime, reached a tortuous compromise.
I'm certain I seizured and blacked out through the process.
I awoke with my body shaking and covered in a cold sweat, Tsula and Luna above me, chanting in the secret language of their esoteric Traditions. The two of them each held diffetent tools required for their cultural and subtle manipulation of reality. Soft hands, awash with mana and glowing tattoos, were placed on my chest, right where my heart was. Cold, icy fingers cradled my soul protectively, keeping it connected to my body in the here and now as harsh, physical laws rent my form.
I was paying the price for Raver's hubris, and I had almost overdrafted. Thoughts of mortal over reach faded from my mind as I slipped into cool and soothing darkness.
Cold and bloodied fingers were pressed against my chest and did little to assuage the burning ache that was my soul. I couldn't focus on anything else as I gazed at the hollowed out body of my beloved. She had been beautiful, gorgeous even, and due to give birth to our daughter in two weeks. Now, the... dead thing in front of me could barely be defined as a corpse. Her skin had been peeled away like a banana and her insides removed, leaving a bloodied, hollow space. The flesh and bones had been scooped away like ice cream, leaving little in the way of remains. Our unborn child had been pulled out and repurposed with the stolen parts of her mother by dreadlight and a mage's fell Will to form the body of a Thing.
With silent tears streaming down my face, I placed the ring I had proposed to her with and put it onto my finger, next to my plain tungsten one. The simple act of removing it almost caused what remained of her hand to simply fall apart in my fingers. I'm not sure how long I stayed like that. I couldn't even hold her body against mine for fear of it crumbling away into a vile mess. I ignored what was going on around me as I kneeled in the spent summoning circle.
The world around me split and rent itself into distorted imagery, as though I were looking at everything from under a pool with gentle waves. Some parts were compressed together and others were stretched out, not quite like a mirror maze as the world was still simply one cohesive image. Additionally, things seemed closer or further in ways that defied conventional Euclidean geometries. The only area not affected by this blatant disregard of spatial dimensions, had been myself and a scant few feet around me.
What...?
A heavy thud broke me out of my thoughts and I saw my Father landing next to me. Since both of us had been prepared, he was wearing, much like myself, full motorcycle safety gear. It had been enchanted and bolstered by hidden runes and severed Will, turning everything into protective objects that even defended against potent and offensive mysticism. The equipment in question had been chosen for its sheer mundanity and ease of access, letting the powerful enchancements skirt around the Lie and Consensus leaving the magic fully intact and potent.
"Alistair," I heard my Father say to me with grim calm as he twisted the space in front of us into a right angle, redirecting rapid gunfire, "I can't do this alone."
I remained silent.
"Damnit, Son," he growled out then literally kicked my ass with his heavy boot, almost knocking me over onto my side, "get a hold of yourself, Its here now. You handle the mages."
That got me going. I finally got up, my grief was as a lead weight and prevented me from doing what was needed. With a last look at C'Leena's hollowed out corpse, I grit my teeth, steeled my nerves and called forth my magic from the Aether.
Was I dreaming? No, worse, I was in a memory...
"Stay out of my way and watch yourself," Father said to me, "I can't pull my punches against that."
"Gotcha," I replied almost absently and turned to face the assembled shadow mages. They had inexplicably stopped theit gunfire to admire the Thing they brought into existence from Somewhere.
I couldn't help but stare, either.
Standing on top of the northernmost anchor stone, an ugly, multi-faceted block of copper with glyphs and sigils harshly hewn into it, was a naked woman. The glyphs themselves were hard to look at, as though their mere presence were an affront to reality itself, which they were. The woman's skin was a darkened olive tone and she was tall as well as athletic, lithe and fit. Her shoulder length black hair was bushy and curly, flowing about her head almost like an afro. As she ran her hands down her body, I could not help but notice that everything was oddly symmetrical and too perfect. It was unnerving me greatly and triggered an uncanny valley response that tore at my heart.
The body this Thing was wearing had belonged to my fiancée.
Father didn't let It have time to get acclimated. Sidestepping forwards, he drew upon the full capabilities of his Path, eyes backlit by stars, an impossible physical sword of abstract spatial geometries held in his left hand, and a reality defying, super-dense distortion held in his right.
The world contorted and screamed under his might.
I awoke with a start and a low groan, glad to be awake and free of that horrid nightmare again. Not for the first time, I wished I had that motorcycle gear still. I had been far too reckless then and immediately thereafter, and everything had been damaged beyond repair. I could never find anyone I trusted enough to make those enchantments anyways. Farnsworth could only enhance the mundane qualities as he didn't know enough about mana warding to permanently imbue the protections I wanted nor needed for my line of active field work.
Looking around, I saw Rue asleep on the other side of the bed and Spades was nestled between us, his massive form making a visible dip in the mattress. The big monster dog was on his back, legs splayed open and snoring loudly with his tongue hanging out of his muzzle. I was reminded a lot of my Lola when she had still been around in the flesh, making me smile with old and pleasant memories. I must have been out for some time for Spades to be here.
A quick, almost reflexive, mental orison told me everything I already suspected. My mana reserves were shot, my body had been through the ringer and my soul was frayed and burnt. While I knew I owed my continued existence to Raver and her godsend, I also knew it had taken a great and terrible toll on my Self. Miracles like that usually held some kind of hidden cost, even if they weren't readily apparent.
Getting off the bed slowly, I began to look for my pack. It took far longer than than usual as I had to steady myself quite a bit from the spinning room. I managed to be quiet, however, and didn't wake up Rue nor Spades. Finally in the shower, after some time and using the wall to support myself, I let the almost scalding water roll over my aching body. The pendant on my neck protecting me from recieving any burns or aggravating the injuries I had, both old and new.
With the hot water soothing aching muscles, I began to think and take stock of my situation. I had never been on the back foot like this, low on any kind of resource, having few allies, and being pressed for time. It was like something out of a bad novel or shitty indie Steam(R) game. Though, real life was often stranger than fiction and had no real need for a logical cause and effect dynamic. If this was going to become the norm, then I had to find another method of approaching my wendigo problem.
I was simply running out of time.
After some long moments of thinking, I began to wash my hair, using the guest products on the corner caddy. They were so much nicer than anything I would have willingly bought and made me seriously consider changing up my usual shampoo. The only idea I could come up with regarding those wendigos, besides an overwhelming frontal assault, was to appeal to their bottomless gluttony and barter for passage.
I resigned myself to actually try to negotiate with their clan leader, leveraging their horrid taboos against them to get what I needed.
Wendigos, unlike most strange cryptids, vampires and were-folk aside, had a lot of things known about them, especially how they powered their supernatural capabilities. It was a simple and rather straightforward process, the more heinous the act, the more mana they drew from it. Cannibalism, sacrilege, incest, murder, torture, hedonistic gluttony, or any number of other terrible and minor sins. As well as general lawbreaking and felonies, oftentimes combined to have as many as possible occur in the same sitting.
I audibly gasped with a sudden epiphany.
My fate had already been decided, by myself no less. In a bar I couldn't remember the name of, when I had been gazing into my bronze coin, I saw what I needed to do. I had to gift what measly scrap of knowledge I understood from Beyond the Infinite to those creatures. To let those wendigos defile and mutilate such sacred and pure knowledge to whatever whims their baleful minds could come up with.
"Fuck," was the only thing I could whisper at the thought of it all as I turned off the water, getting out of the shower. I cooled the bathroom down with but a thought and wiped away the condensation on the mirror with a towel that wasn't my own, finally getting a good look at myself without vertigo, as that had finally passed.
I looked like shit, and that was a compliment. Huge, fist shaped bruises of black, green and yellow littered my torso, though most were located on my left side and blurred together into an ugly shapeless mass. The ones on my right, however, were well defined and I could easily count the number of strikes. My face held a swollen black eye, I never noticed my diminished field of vision as I had gotten used to having them over the years. Turning gingerly and opening the mirror a bit so I could see my back, I grimaced. It was another spiderweb of a bruise, earned from when I had been smashed against the edge of Raver's Dreamtime bubble.
At least none of my fingers were broken, only very stiff and swollen, just like the rest of me. I probably couldn't drive for another day or so, either, not with my hands the way they were. As I looked, surprised I hadn't noticed earlier, the inside of my right hand was, branded. The skin, while fully healed, held the symbolic glyph that heralded the Path of Stars. A circle with nine curved lines inside it. Each line only intersected two others, but with the irregular placement of them, I could trace an intersection to any other one. In each of the open spaces, slightly off center, as a simple dot.
"Miracles leave their marks," I muttered to myself, almost disbelieving the literalness of the phrase.
I didn't bother drying off and struggled a bit getting into the clothes I brought with me, maroon athletic shorts and a black tank top. Exiting the guest bathroom, I thought about where I wanted to go. Settling on a destination, I went into the backyard, found a patch of grass in the shaded, morning sunlight and lay down. The grass was thick and rather soft, and the smell of the lemon tree and the garden was more pleasant and fragrant than they should have been.
Warding myself against dreaming, I pulled on the principles of the Aether, specifically, those of sun and storms. Since the Aether was a realm of energy and mana in all of its varying forms, I employed an advanced technique, a mysterion. It was something only able to be done by those that actually hailed from the Aether rather than having mastery over it. Pulling some of the sunlight and ambient warmth into my form, I converted measly scraps of energy directly into mana. The process was slow, and almost hardly worth the effort. It was like filling a bathtub with water, a single milliliter at a time.
Mana was now such a rare commodity, every miniscule drop of it mattered.
I settled in and entered a trance-like state, most of my attention devoted to my mysterion, though some of it was allowed to drift off elsewhere. While not exactly a dream, and while maintaining my mana draw, my mind conjured up nonsensical imagery and conversations between myself and others. I didn't pay them any attention as my thoughts wandered and drifted idly.
"I thought I'd find you out here," Rue said as I heard her sit down next to me. I didn't hear her walking, however, she continued to speak, "you've been asleep for a few days. What happened?"
"Got fucked," I replied easily, a little sarcastically as well. "Truthfully," I amended, "I got summoned by Raver. She pulled a shenanigan with Fate to let her have a waking dream."
"So she was hallucinating?" Rue stated, though it was more of a question.
"Damned straight," I confirmed, "she had Sasquatch and Farnsworth make something for her. It had to have been lethal, something like that. Anyways, we were talking and then one of Them showed up. Inside the Dreamtime bubble of hers. Found Raver's luminescence despite Mirzam hiding it."
"Shit. So It was physically there? That means It had a stolen body..." Rue said, trailing off.
"Yeah, it had a body alright," I almost growled out, "broke Raver's ritual with little effort. I spent everything I had to make a patch job just to keep it active, burned through all my mana, too. I did not want to be dispersed."
"I see," Rue said to me with understanding, "I wouldn't want to have to find my physical body without a tether either." There was a small pause before she spoke again, "So what happened next?"
"I made it mad with insults to buy time for the repaired shenanigan to stabilize Raver."
"What do you mean?" Rue asked as I heard her stretch out a bit, my eyes still closed.
"Her shenanigan was woven in such a way that whatever drug Sasquatch and Farnsworth made for her didn't just kill her," I answered with a pause then continued, "it let her do things beyond normality, anyways, my fucked up patch job let me tell Sasquatch that Raver had to stay dreaming."
"So he wouldn't just purge the elixir out of her," Rue stated, then added perhaps a tad bit defensively, "I know some things from other paths, not much, but some."
"That's good," I answered back, "knowledge is power."
"With us, it's quite literal."
I murmured in assent.
"So why did you make It mad?" Rue asked, "wouldn't It just draw strength from human emotions, especially in the Dreamtime?"
"It did," I answered back, "but It couldn't act properly on them, like human emotions were new and novel. The whole encounter was sloppy after a certain point, but I did almost die. Raver saved me, gave me a miracle."
"I saw," Rue said simply, "the mark on your hand was a giveaway."
I could only murmur in agreement again then asked, "Did you find a card in my hands, too?"
"I did," Rue replied after a few moments of silence, "it was debit card, with a note attached to it."
"From Procyon, right?"
It took a few moments for her to answer. "Yes, it was from Procyon," she took a breath and continued with wavering effort, "that damned bastard had it all planned out. Wrote a fucked up letter to me on a Google(TM) doc telling me not to worry and that this had always been his exit plan."
"Sounds like he knew what was going to happen," was all I could say.
"Yes, but, I miss him!" Rue all but snarled at me, then, in a small and quiet voice, whispered, "He was my best friend, and maybe we could've been more, y'know? Now... there's... There's just nothing, only memories of him left to mourn."
"I didn't know," I answered simply.
Rue spoke with a wavering breath before continuing, her thoughts more than a little disjointed, "a lot of what he wrote was personal, so I won't get into that, but he was certain that something catastrophic was going to happen to him and myself. So he made sure that I was at my secondary home, recovering from a job. I had just completed a mission from Raver and Mirzam, and was going to perform a ritual to patch up Spades after I got some sleep. Procyon also stated that someone has been altering things for a very long time."
"So that's why you were caught with yout pants down," I said, "you didn't even have time to recover." I paused, adjusting my mysterion as I had to refocus due to our conversation, "what did they have you do?"
"Some hedge wizards actually got a hold of an actual necromancy grimoire and charged mana tools in a graveyard," Rue said with a bit of a tired sigh, "they knew exactly what they were doing, and would have been rather powerful shadow mages if they had been capable of using starlight."
"Fuck," was all I could say, then formed an actual response after a few moments, "that shouldn't have been an issue for you. Hedges don't have our capability, though numbers may have evened out their odds."
"You're right, but they brought a spirit back before I could stop them," Rue answered with more than a little spite, "a real nasty piece of shit, too. Turned on the hedges, absorbed them, and put up a real mean fight against Spades and I. It was touch and go for a long time and I was actually fearful for my life, too."
"You won, though."
"Yeah, managed to send it kicking and screaming back to the Pit, exhausted most of my mana to do so. Fucking bastard."
There was a small silence between us as Rue became lost in her own thoughts. It was a while before I asked her, "Can you elaborate on what Procyon said about Fate being altered?"
"I can, actually, though it's a bit difficult since I'm not even a novice with the Path of Stars," Rue answered as I heard her shift a bit on the grass next to me. She paused as she seemingly collected her thoughts, "it's just that certain events were made to happen sooner or later. The big one, for our Node at least, was that you were always supposed to make your ancestral home translocate. It happened sooner than it should have."
"Fuck," I said, "So I wasn't supposed to send it away a few days ago?"
"No, that was supposed to happen after our wendigo thing, if the letter is to be believed."
"Fuck," was all I could say, "I do suppose that was a snap decision, I really didn't want Them to get a hold of anything inside. If I had been able to wait, or even had help, I'm sure I wouldn't have lost it to time and space."
"Exactly," Rue said with bitter excitement, "and we'd have access to everything in it. Losing your home was a big blow to our Node."
"Yeah, but at least They don't have it," I answered more spitefully than intended.
"Silver linings and all that, right?"
"Yeah, gotta look at the bright side, no matter how bleak," I answered back with a bit of sarcastic mirth, then said as I stretched a bit, readjusting my focus on my mysterion as well, "speaking of wendigos, I know what we need to do to solve that."
"Oh? Do tell, I couldn't come up with anything myself, kept running into dead ends," she said, then added, "lack of resources and help."
"Well, I don't think you're going to like it, I'm not sure I like it either."
"Don't keep me waiting," Rue said to me with a bit of sarcastic exasperation. I could sense her looking at me even though my eyes were still closed.
"I'm going to leverage their taboos against them, appeal to their insatiable greed and offer them what little I can understand of That Which Lies Beyond the Infinite." I sighed and added, "after all, how could they resist the allure of new magic?"
"You're right," she answered, "I definitely don't like it. I'm pretty sure it's not even wise to do so."
"Wise or not, it's the only way forward, I even saw it in a vision when I was manipulating fate magic."
"Have you talked to Mirzam or Raver about this vision of yours?"
"No, not yet, and I'm pretty sure I don't need to."
There was a bit of silence between us as she digested my words. I felt compelled to elaborate as I adjusted my mysterion again, losing a bit of my focus due to the depth of the conversation we were having.
"Acrux," I said, getting her attention fully by using the name of her star, "there's something you need to understand." I sat up, abandoning my mysterion in favor of giving her my full attention. Blinking a bit at the rise of light and warmth, I continued my thought process, "in the Dreamtime, the Thing I was fighting against, It was surprised and enraged that I was able to call upon knowledge that Lay Beyond the Infinite. Whatever those glyphs and powers are, They never wanted humans to know of them, let alone have them."
"Yet you want to give such power to wendigos of all things."
"At least the knowledge, corrupted or not, will still be on Earth," I said then added, "I'm not sure what you remember, but I know you've seen something from Beyond the Infinite. Your self revival and Spade's new form are proof of that. I was there, guided by Oracle. I Perceived something unknowable, something terrible, something no mortal has any right to gaze upon. Something I can hardly even begin to try to put into words. Raver Perceived it, too. It's how she managed to give me a godsend. So, what did you Perceive, really?"
Rue brought her knees up to her chest, thinking deeply. I could tell she was using her Perception to look inwards upon her Self. I waited patiently while she struggled to look at her soul's reflection against her mind and struggled even more to put the image there into words.
At long last, she spoke, her eyes still closed as she did so, "I'm not sure what I saw, there was too much, and I felt so small. Insignificant. Less than even a dismissed, intrusive thought. There is one thing I do remember. A doorway made of the might from two universes worth of truths and laws. A Thing was trying ro break through, but couldn't, not fully, yet the doors were opened, letting smaller ones through."
"The Doors have to be closed," I said, quoting Raver, before continuing, "that's what Raver said to me, before she sent me back to my body."
"Why didn't they mend you then?"
"They were being attacked in the waking world, too. It was a good plan on Their part, They just didn't expect us to put up so much of a fight."
"They never do, though I think that's changing."
"So that's our endgame, not sure how we're going to do it," I said, bringing the conversation back to topic, "at the moment, however, I'm going to eat a few of those mana-stuffed protein bars and fix your leg. I can't keep spending mana to be able to drive your truck. You'll have to use your own mysterion to get mana, too."
"I hate my Path's mysterions," the venom in her voice was palpable.
Before I could say anything, the backdoor opened, revealing Luna. She was wearing a bird-patterned sundress and her hair had been tied back into a loose ponytail. She put her hand over her eyes to shade them from the sun as she squinted against the brightness relative to that from inside.
"Hey, you two," she called out, "Grandmother says she needs to talk yo you."
"Alright," I called out, shakily getting up to my feet with a bit of a grunt. Everything still hurt. Rue had a bit of trouble as well, her leg was not recieving the rest and healing it deserved and needed.
"We're a mess, aren't we?" Rue asked aloud as we began to walk towards the bak door.
"Yeah, but you should see the other guys," I replied with a light chuckle, only to wince and hold my sides, "I forgot how much laughing hurts with fractured ribs."
"I really don't envy you right now," Rue said with a bit of a smirk as we entered Tsula's home, Rue entering first. "I wonder what Tsula wants to talk to us about?" Rue asked aloud, not really talking to anyone in particular.
I could only wonder as we followed Luna to the living room, the house pleasantly cool due to central air conditioning.
~ ~ ~
The moon was not in the sky, and I greatly enjoyed not having to endure the accursed, purifying light of day reflected by its surface, even if greatly diminished. The loathsome wound in my side had been a mortal blow, burning through my toughened flesh and form with unnerving ease and stunning, blinding pain. Once more, I looked at the oily, thin, and black ichor that dripped from my fingers, more human-like than I was comfortable with.
The mote of dreadlight I had recieved for my services had been the only thing that had kept me from vanishing entirely. Mortal alchemy -- science -- had advanced to such a degree so as to emulate the harsh light of day far too remarkably well. That hadn't been the worst part, that damned thaumaturgist had ensorcelled a curse upon the weapon as well. With effort, as the bulk of my power was directed at repairing the oozing wound, I altered my form and shape, struggling to maintain the illusion as I walked out onto the sidewalk from a side alley.
My contract was not yet completed.
The first two nights I had hidden myself away in the dark depths, raging against the oblivion that threatened to overtake me and ending my existence. The preparedness of the thaumaturgist had been unexpected, as well as the skill and the knowledge he had wielded so effortlessly. Without my guidance, nor presence, to instill fear into the gifted abetters, the wraiths I had gathered with me fell and fled into the night, abandoning their duties and contracts.
I would have never made this mistake against the herald of the bear.
Had I known the name of the mortal's star I had been tasked against, I would have demanded more than a simple mote of dreadlight and a paltry handful of coerced allies. Realistically, I should be grateful that I still had a kind of semi-existence. Quelling my anger and hatred, and swallowing my utter revulsion, my form rippled and took the guise of a tall, middle-aged human male in a common and unremarkable suit carrying an old and worn briefcase.
The artificial illumination around me flickered, emitting a grating hum in my presence and the thin television flickered oddly as it tried to display my image, failing to accurately do so. While tracking Arcturus's quintessence had been a bit of a task, as far too much time had passed, my familiarity with it granted me an advantage that overcame that difficulty. Traveling in my wounded state, however, had been much more arduous. Looking the woman at the reception desk over, I took on my role with hiden revulsion, aided by the illusion I was conjuring and the mimicry of my physical form.
"I'm detective Aiden Roth, and I'm looking for someone. I believe that he was here a few nights ago, definitely this past week," I said. My false, human voice had been made to sound smooth, suave and strong, interlaced with a suggestion, using what little forte I could spare. I put the worn and well-used briefcase I had conjured with me onto the counter with a heavy thud, using more of my forte to emulate such a simple thing. Opening it up, I fished out an image and showed the slightly grainy, black and white picture to the receptionist.
As the woman perused the conjured image, I could not help but hiss, my hand going to my side as I expended more of my forte than I had anticipated. The cursed wound fighting back fiercely against the dreadlight tethering my existence and life. I held my disguise with willpower of monumental proportions. A strength of will I rarely had been pressed to draw from.
Seeing the concerned look the woman gave me, I simply stated, shrugging off the pain with yet more expenditure of will, "An old injury, it flares up from time to time. No matter, have you seen this individual?"
"I'm going to need to see some kind of badge or warrant," the woman said with a genuine smile, "sorry."
The fear of losing her menial job overpowered my subtle suggestion. Unfortunate.
"Sure," I replied with a fake and well ptacticed, fetching smile, adjusting my forte to include another suggestion. I showed an actual badge with my assumed name and likeness. The mortal I was impersonating had been slain many years ago by my own hands, and the subtle illusion taking hardly any of my forte adjusted the dates and design of the badge to whatever was current.
Only a thaumaturgist, or a very particularly skilled sorcerer, could pierce the illusion. Against this mortal, there was no chance of resistance and she accepted the stolen badge without question.
She looked it over, as if trying to divine the legitimacy of it. "Okay," she finally admitted, "he was here a while ago, maybe a four or five days? I remember, 'cause I tried to flirt with him..."
I ignored her prattling and asked when she finished speaking, "Can you show me the room he used?"
"Sure, but it's been cleaned a few times since then."
With a nod, I let her lead the way to the room in question, staying silent. The lights around me flickered and hummed loudly in my presence. Had the woman been more observant, she could have seen my true shadow as I had not the forte to expend to hide it entirely from the ever changing lights. She opened the room in question, using what I could only assume was a master key card.
I immediately recognized the faded auras of quintessence.
"This will do," I stated, closing the door behind me and dropping my revolting disguise, using my forte to lock it.
I revealed my true form. My legs and arms lengthened and thinned, the black suit and red tie I was wearing became my skin, armor and form. My face and eyes became blank, gaunt and sunken, skin stretching out over it. The wound in my side made itself visible, it was an ugly red, peeling and oozing burn from my shoulder to my waist and took up most of my torso. The dreadlight I was using to prevent my oblivion illuminated the wound with a kind of sickly, crimson colored backlight. Black ichor oozed out from it and dripped onto the floor as I used the bulk of my forte to ablate the caustic, foreign quintessence from my form.
The woman looked at me as even her pitifully dull, mundane human senses told her that there was incredible danger in the room with her. She screeched and irrationally ran towards the bathroom as my presence became impossibly tall in the very finite space in the motel room. Using the smallest iota of my forte, I remotely smashed her fleeing form against a wall, pinning her there with unseen force as she begged, and sobbed for her pitiful life.
I ignored her for the moment.
Drawing upon more of my forte, freed up as I no longer needed a disguise, I sensed out where quintessence had been used, discovering two places, the bed and a wall. Imbuing the wall with my own forte, I witnessed a spectral, moving image of Arcturus throwing five darts at a map placed on the wall, one at a time, then draw intersecting lines to a single point on the map.
"Wendigos..." I hissed out in loathing, the skin on my face stretching and contorting with the movement as i spoke aloud with a nonexistent mouth. Even I knew their territory.
Turning to the second source of quintessence, I did the same thing. I saw Arcturus ward himself against dreaming and then hold a brilliant shield in the air, as well as a ball of fire. My knowledge of actual thaumaturgy told me that I would have great difficulties against those Knowings. I put the mystery of his Dreamtime excursion out of my mind for now, there was nothing I could do regarding that.
My expenditure of forte caused my horrid wound to pulse against my form painfully. With a hiss, I turned to the woman meekly begging me to spare her life as she was still pinned against the wall. I could use a thrall, especially as I could no longer gain allies, not without offering something in return to my current contract holders.
That was not a barter I wanted to engage in.
"Please... don't kill me... please... I'll do anything... please..."
The absolute terror in her eyes was delectable. Her fear invigorated me with energy and reminded me I needed to feed. However, the morsels offered by her would be more than sufficient for my needs. I dragged my left hand across my oozing wound, covering it in my own essence then flexed my forte. The clothes she was wearing split in half down the middle, revealing her naked form, making her shriek. I could see the ideas her panicked mind vomited forth as she renewed her struggles with vigor.
What I had in mind was so much worse than the mundane taking of her physical body she expected.
Using the full might of my forte, I lengthened and sharpened my index finger, the tip dripping with the gathered ichor of my essence. In an instant, less than the blink of an eye, I appeared in front of her from where I had been by the bed and plunged the very tip of my sharpened, needle-like nail into the center of her heart, cutting through the most sensitive parts of her breast to do so due to the angle I had chosen for just this purpose. As I let my ichor suffuse her body with each beat of her racing heart, her vascular system visibly turning black under her skin as she screamed and writhed in agony, an odd thing happened.
What could only be considered my blood had been tainted by thaumaturgy qnr bolstered by dreadlight as well as my own forte. As it mixed with the blank canvas of the mortal in front of me, I could sense the candle of her soul. Reaching out with dreadlight, letting the wound burn my side with a hiss of inhaled breath, I ignited it with three kinds of mysticism.
A horrified realization overcame her as she knew I had fundamentally altered her to suit my whims. Having a thaumaturgist thrall would be a great boon.
"You'll do quite nicely," I said with an actual grin, the skin stretched over my mouth revealing impossibly large, gleaming flat teeth, as I watched the physical and mystical changes taking place.
My new thrall would never be human again.
I feasted on her terror, anguish and torment.
It was delicious.
~ ~ ~
Arcturus and Acrux will be back. C'Leena Thomas, Prosthetist is going to be my next update.
[[NEXT]]
2024.05.11 17:34 blackthorn_orion The Nintendo Breakdown 2: An updated overview of confirmed, leaked, and rumored projects from Nintendo and its close partners
Hello again! About 6 months ago, I put together a Nintendo roundup that got some positive feedback, and with this week’s double-whammy of the Switch successor kinda being announced and a direct being confirmed for June, I figured now was as good a time as any to put out an updated version so folks can know where things stand and have something to chew on while they wait. My intent is to update this post after the June direct with any new information. Please let me know if anything's borked, as formatting big posts on reddit can get a bit wonky and some of these links are getting old
Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development (EPD): Formed in 2015 as part of a restructuring that unified Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD) and Nintendo Software Planning and Development (SPD). When people talk about “in-house Nintendo”, this is usually what they mean. EPD groups are primarily small producedirector-led teams that then scale up and pull from a shared “pool” of developers as projects get further into development. EPD’s many sub-groups can essentially be divided into those that primarily develop their own games and those focused more on overseeing/collaborating with other studios (both non-EPD Nintendo studios as well as fully external developers), though there are exceptions and gray areas
Development-focused groups
submitted by blackthorn_orion to GamingLeaksAndRumours [link] [comments]
Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development (EPD): Formed in 2015 as part of a restructuring that unified Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD) and Nintendo Software Planning and Development (SPD). When people talk about “in-house Nintendo”, this is usually what they mean. EPD groups are primarily small producedirector-led teams that then scale up and pull from a shared “pool” of developers as projects get further into development. EPD’s many sub-groups can essentially be divided into those that primarily develop their own games and those focused more on overseeing/collaborating with other studios (both non-EPD Nintendo studios as well as fully external developers), though there are exceptions and gray areas
Development-focused groups
- EPD 3: The Zelda team; with Tears of the Kingdom DLC stated to be off the table, they are presumed to have moved onto the next major Zelda title
- Nate the Hate and Eurogamer both reported that a build of Breath of the Wild running on Switch 2-comparable hardware was shown behind closed doors at Gamescom 2023 featuring 4K60fps and “erased” load times; however, these reports also stressed that this was intended primarily as a tech demo and isn’t necessarily indicative of a next-gen update or remaster being planned for release
- Papagenos: “Tears of the kingdom Had a great zelda design I think we are Severely overdue for a game where zelda Is the main character. Seems to me A Hyrule adventure like that Is something fans want, Nows The time.
- capitalized letters spell out “This is a hint”
- Jeff Grubb, Nate the Hate, Imran Khan, and Andy Robinson have all previously claimed or alluded to the WiiU versions of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess coming to Switch (often speculated/reported as being a double-pack); nobody's gotten the timing right on this, but these are often framed as finished ports that Nintendo is sitting on for one reason or another.
- Nate the Hate: "They exist but knowing when they'll come out is a different matter. It's why they are often used in speculation as a schedule filler"
- Grubb: "I've always heard they're ready, they're sitting there, we're just waiting for Nintendo to pull the trigger. When they will, why they will, who knows?"
- Kit&Krysta: Krysta: “I know they exist, they’re in, they’re, uh, they’re, they, they’re done I think they’re just gonna sit on it. But I do not think they’re gonna talk about this at all, for a while”
- EPD 4: The “experimental” team behind games such as Labo, Ring Fit Adventure, and Nintendo Switch Sports. Typically their games feature bespoke peripherals or prioritize using a system's hardware features for novel gameplay. Most recently released Everybody 1-2 Switch (co-developed with NDcube) in June 2023.
- EPD 5: Animal Crossing and Splatoon. Most recently released Side Order, a roguelike DLC mode for Splatoon 3, in February 2024
- Pre-release, Splatoon 3 was confirmed to get 2 years of support; barring a content extension, the game should get its final content update this year around September
- Should note that while the two series typically share a producer, there’s historically been little to no overlap in directors, so it’s not impossible for both Animal Crossing and Splatoon to have games in active development at once
- EPD 8: Also known as EPD Tokyo since the rest of EPD is based out of Nintendo’s Kyoto HQ, this is the 3D Mario team (also Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and Captain Toad; co-developed the NES Remix games with indieszero)
- 2020 hiring call for a “level designer for new 2D action game (working in Tokyo)”
- 2020 job listing for a "level designer for new 3D action game” in Tokyo
- Rumors of an EPD 8 Donkey Kong game:
- LonelyGoomba “I heard an unlikely rumour that the Mario Odyssey team are working on a 3D Donkey Kong game.”
- Nintendo Life: “Nintendo Life can confirm that it has heard the same rumour [as LonelyGoomba] from an independent (and very trusted) source, which would appear to lend this report some degree of legitimacy. However, our source claims that the game will be 2D (or 2.5D, if you prefer) and not 3D.
- Professor Chops on Famiboards: VV were working on open world 3D DK game since 2016, project was shelved and moved to EPD 8 in 2018
- DK Vine: A DK game had been in development at an external studio before Nintendo decided to bring the series in-house; “I've been led to believe that this is a new EPD team that has formed from other teams specifically for the purpose of creating Donkey Kong games.”
- Liam Robertson: Full documentary about Vicarious Visions’ DK project (and other things) on DidYouKnowGaming: Refutes the notion that Miyamoto was heavily contributing design ideas. A DK game codenamed “Freedom” was a demo made by VV and pitched to Nintendo, worked on for “a little over 6 months starting from the end development of on Skylanders Superchargers in September 2015”; “A throughline between the conversations I had with former workers was that they had all heard that Nintendo had given them some positive feedback on their demo”. Ultimately killed by Activision higher-ups, who felt VV’s resources were better spent on franchises such as Call of Duty and Destiny, in spring 2016
- on the subject of Vicarious Visions’ project potentially being moved to EPD: “It was an unsolicited pitch from VV that was never picked up. Zero proof that it was continued elsewhere. If Nintendo is doing DK, it’s something else.”; [“Nintendo] hadn’t made a decision either way on funding it when it was shut down.”
- EPD 9: Mario Kart, ARMS (and Nintendogs once upon a time).
- With Mario Kart Tour and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Booster Course Pass both receiving their final content updates towards the end of 2023, they’ve probably been working on the next Mario Kart game (either that or LEGS)
- EPD 10: Pikmin and 2D Mario (including Mario Maker). Launched both Pikmin 4 (co-developed with Eighting) and Super Mario Bros. Wonder in 2023.
- Unclear if there are any plans for either Pikmin 4 or Mario Wonder to get DLC (on WiiU, both Pikmin 3 and New Super Mario Bros. U received paid DLC)
- speculation that the Pikmin 4 Japanese website possibly hinted at DLC via pictures not currently in the game: https://famiboards.com/threads/nintendo-first-party-software-development-st-nintendo-party-superstars.114/post-897523
- EPD 2 has the broadest responsibilities of these groups, through which EPD gets a hand in projects including Kirby, Mario Party, Smash, Fire Emblem, Bayonetta, Xenoblade, and Pokemon, and others
- EPD 6 generally sticks to to overseeing Intelligent Systems’ non-Fire Emblem games (i.e. Paper Mario, WarioWare) as well as all games developed by Retro Studios and Next Level Games.
- EPD 7 is a bit hard to place, but for simplicity’s sake I’m putting it here; as SPD 1 they developed multiple games on their own (notably the Rhythm Heaven and Tomodachi games), but after Nintendo shook up its internal structure in the late WiiU era and SPD 1 became EPD 7, they appear not to have the capacity for solo projects. Instead, all their projects as EPD 7 have been in collaboration with external studios and include the Famicom Detective Club remakes developed with MAGES as well as MercurySteam’s recent Metroid games
- MercurySteam is currently rumored to be working on a 2D Metroid game targeting 2025 in addition to their confirmed “Project Iron” (a 3rd person action-RPG in partnership with 505 Games); MercurySteam put out 2 games in 2017 (Samus Returns and Spacelords) and 2021 (Metroid Dread and American McGee Presents: Scrapland Remastered), so it’s very possible for them to have two projects in development at once
- EPD 1 stands as something of a mystery, as just about every series it would previously have managed and overseen has seemingly been moved under EPD 2 in recent years; its current status and possible projects are unclear
- 1-Up Studio (formerly Brownie Brown):
- As Brownie Brown, developed games such as Magical Vacation, Sword of Mana, and A Kappa’s Trail; co-developed Mother 3 with HAL Laboratory
- As 1-Up, acts as a support studio primarily for Nintendo EPD titles (most frequently EPD 8 projects, though also credited in occasional non-EPD 8 games like Tri-Force Heroes, Ring Fit Adventure, and Animal Crossing New Horizons)
- iQue: Previously distributed Nintendo games and consoles in China under the iQue Player branding; with Tencent now acting as Nintendo’s official distributor in the region, iQue’s primary role has been Chinese localization
- developed the N64 emulator used for WiiU Virtual Console, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, and NSO
- began hiring game programmers and testers around 2019, suggesting an expanded role in game development (presumably as a support studio)
- Monolith Soft: Tokyo studio handles the Xenoblade series, Kyoto studio does support for EPD 3/EPD 5 projects; most recent solo release was 2023’s Future Redeemed, the DLC story expansion to Xenoblade Chronicles 3
- 2017 job listing for “an ambitious project that differs from Monolith Soft’s brand image”
- 2023 job listing for UI designer in “action game development”; February 2024 update to recruitment page still looking for developers with experience making 3D action games
- Possible evidence of a Xenoblade X remaster from Future Redeemed
- NDcube: Mario Party (from 9 onwards), Clubhouse Games, various other party game/mini game titles (also F-Zero Maximum Velocity on GBA)
- Most recently released 2023’s Everybody 1-2 Switch (co-developed with EPD 4)
- Next Level Games: Luigi’s Mansion 2 and 3, Mario Strikers series, Punch-Out Wii, Metroid Prime Federation Force
- Since 2013’s Luigi’s Mansion 2, Next Level has released a new game every 3 years; With Mario Strikers Battle League releasing and wrapping support in 2022, they should have a new game in 2025 (assuming they stick to this 3 year cycle)
- Possibly working on the Luigi’s Mansion 2 remaster scheduled for late June 2024
- Nintendo Prime in March 2023: An F-Zero GX remaster is one of two projects in development at Next Level Games
- Nate the Hate on Twitter when asked if the F-Zero project he heard about was F-Zero 99: “I believe it was a different F-Zero project from F-Zero 99.”
- Nintendo European Research and Development (NERD) (Formerly Mobiclip/Actimagine): Primarily handles most of Nintendo’s emulation needs (NES/SNES emulators in the mini consoles and NSO, GB/GBA for NSO, and the Gamecube/Wii emulator used in Mario 3D All-Stars/Pikmin 1+2). Frequently credited in “novel technology”-heavy titles such as EPD 4 projects and Velan Studios’ Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit
- In addition to ongoing NSO work, served as a support studio for Tears of the Kingdom
- Most recently developed Pikmin 1+2 along with the Porting Technology Development Team (part of Nintendo Platform Technology Development, Nintendo’s hardware&tech division)
- Nintendo Pictures (formerly Dynamo Pictures): Animation and motion capture studio
- As Dynamo Pictures, credited on games and media such as Metroid Other M, Monster Hunter Stories, Persona 5, and the Pikmin shorts
- As Nintendo Pictures, credited on Tears of the Kingdom (special thanks), Pikmin 4 (very special thanks), Mario Wonder (character design/character action design/field design/cinematic design/technical support/project management/special thanks), Super Mario RPG remake (character art/animation art/technical art), and Another Code Recollection (very special thanks)
- Nintendo Software Technology (NST): Ridge Racer 64, Pokemon Puzzle League (a reskin of Intelligent Systems’ shelved Panel de Pon 64), Wave Race Blue Storm, 1080 Avalanche, Mario vs DK series, Metroid Prime Hunters, F-Zero 99, support work for indie publishing partnerships (Snipperclips, The Stretchers, Good Job), port work+new content for EPD games (Mario Maker 3DS, Captain Toad Switch/3DS, 3D World+Bowser’s Fury)
- most recently put out a remake of the original Mario vs Donkey Kong in February 2024
- Upon F-Zero 99’s launch, dataminers found evidence of additional game modes
- Retro Studios: Metroid Prime series, Donkey Kong Country Returns & Tropical Freeze, support for Mario Kart 7
- Retro took over development of a rebooted Metroid Prime 4 about 5 years ago
- PapaGenos: “The thing is I’ve heard Prime 4 is basically done and has been done for a while, but the cutscenes are apparently really bad (or were a few months ago) so that’s what was delaying the game.”; believes it is still “a Switch title and not specifically made for the Switch 2”
- Jeff Grubb has heard (from a source that also told him about the Epic Mickey Remaster) that as of sometime last year, Retro was planning to have Prime 4 assets prepared by May 2024, would likely include a CGI trailer and gameplay footage; stresses that plans may have changed and having assets prepared for May isn’t the same as “something happens in May”
- Brazil, talking about the June Direct: “My educated guess is that MP4 is showing up as a late 2024 title as well”
- XboxEra’s Nick Baker had a source describe Metroid Prime 4 to him, emphasized it was graphically impressive and featured big areas
- Jeff Grubb has previously reported that Prime 2 and 3 would also get remasters, but isn’t expecting Prime 1-level “big boy remasters” (as he’s phrased it); “Metroid Prime 2 and Metroid Prime 3 are sorta getting, they’ll probably get, like, the updated controls and things like that, but they’re not getting quite the same overhaul that Metroid Prime 1 is getting”.
- He also said that “Metroid Prime 2 remaster probably is coming out relatively soon-ish” back in July 2023 (fortunately he did not bet his hair on this one)
- reddit user Ncleknows: "Prime 2 has sat in waiting for a while and they're polishing prime 3"
- Retro took over development of a rebooted Metroid Prime 4 about 5 years ago
- Systems Research and Development (SRD): Programming assistance on many Nintendo games dating back as far as the Famicom/NES port of Donkey Kong in 1983 before eventually being acquired by Nintendo in 2022
- Arika: Endless Ocean series, several Dr. Mario installments, Tetris 99/Mario 35/Pac-Man 99
- Most recently released Endless Ocean Luminous in May 2024
- Bandai Namco: As Namco, developed Starfox Assault, the Donkey Konga series, and the Mario baseball games; As Bandai Namco, responsible for Smash games starting with Smash for WiiU and 3DS, asset creation for EPD 9 games starting with Mario Kart 8 (technically had been involved with Kart since the arcade entries in the mid-2000s), and various Pokemon spin-offs such as Pokken Tournament and New Pokemon Snap
- Studio 2/Studio S: “Specializing in commissioned development projects within the company”
- A Bandai Namco studio seemingly dedicated solely to Nintendo co-development projects Looks to comprise both the Smash team as well as the EPD 9 support team (not confirmed: the Pokken/New Pokemon Snap team)
- Going off the interview section of their website, people at Studio S have worked on Smash games, while those at Studio 2 have worked on EPD 9 games
- A Bandai Namco studio seemingly dedicated solely to Nintendo co-development projects Looks to comprise both the Smash team as well as the EPD 9 support team (not confirmed: the Pokken/New Pokemon Snap team)
- Hiring for two projects: A 3D action game (possibly a remaster, going off of an older job listing )and a 2D action game
- Studio 2/Studio S: “Specializing in commissioned development projects within the company”
- Camelot: Mario Tennis and Mario Golf games, Golden Sun series
- Game Freak/Creatures Inc./The Pokemon Company:
- Game Freak is currently working on Pokemon Legends Z-A, an action-RPG set in Lumiose City from Pokemon XY, scheduled to release in 2025
- Pokemon TCG Pocket, developed by Creatures Inc. and DeNA, is scheduled to release on Android and iOS in 2024
- Game Freak is also making an action-adventure game codenamed Project Bloom with Take-Two label Private Division; expected to launch “during Take-Two’s fiscal year 2026”, no platforms have been announced
- Game Freak trademarked “Pand Land” in late 2023
- 4Chan post claiming there will be a Scarlet/Violet graphics enhancement patch for “the new Nintendo Switch models that will be released alongside DLC2”
- Creatures employee's LinkedIn mentioned working on "one unannounced game" in 2022 in addition to the then-unreleased Detective Pikachu Returns
- Pokemon Works founded in early 2024 as a joint venture between The Pokemon Company and ILCA (Pokemon Home, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, support for Pokemon Scarlet/Violet) for “contracted development of games related to Pokemon” (presumably will be roughly analogous to Bandai Namco Aces, a joint venture between Bandai Namco and ILCA related to the Ace Combat series)
- Pyoro: “Idk anything about the Pokémon Presents, while heard of an outsourced unova-related game. The info was from last year so it may turn out to be inaccurate.; “This is not a leak and should be taken with a grain of salt. I’m just sharing something i’m aware of.”
- Good-Feel: Wario Land Shake It, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi’s Wooly World/Crafted World
- most recently released Princess Peach Showtime in March 2024
- Grezzo: Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora’s Mask 3D, Luigi’s Mansion 3D, Link’s Awakening remake, Miitopia remaster; co-developed Triforce Heroes with EPD 3
- Released Jet Dragon for Apple Arcade in 2023
- 2021 job listings for battle planneboss designer, character control engineer, and UI designer for a "medieval", "stylish", “not photorealistic” game
- Koichi Ishii (Grezzo founder and president, Mana series creator, Chocobo/Moogle creator) is currently attached to Square Enix’s Visions of Mana as a series monster design supervisor, no indication of Grezzo as a whole being involved in its development
- HAL Laboratory: Known primarily for Kirby; in recent years, they’ve also made the Boxboy games and Part-Time UFO. Prior to roughly the mid-2000s, their output was a bit more varied, including titles such as the first Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Ranger, the first two Smash Bros., and co-developing Earthbound and Mother 3
- Warpstar Inc. is responsible for managing the Kirby IP specifically (essentially, it’s The Pokemon Company but for Kirby); HAL owns 50% of its shares while Nintendo owns the other 50%
- Kirby series director Shinya Kumazaki called Kirby and the Forgotten Land “the first step in our kind of ongoing moving forward challenge of now also creating 3D Kirby games”, indicating they intend to follow up the now best-selling Kirby game with another 3D entry
- multiple job listings specifically for developing (pretend to be shocked) Kirby games; presumably looking to fill the gap left by external developer Vanpool, which worked with HAL on several Kirby spin-offs as well as Forgotten Land and Return to Dreamland Deluxe before shutting down in May 2023
- indieszero: Electroplankton, NES Remix series (with EPD 8), Sushi Striker, Brain Training for Nintendo Switch (with EPD 4), Big Brain Academy Brain vs Brain (with EPD 4)
- While not confirmed to be involved in the recently-announced Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, Masanobu Suzui (founder of indieszero) retweeted the game’s official announcement
- Intelligent Systems: Fire Emblem, Panel de Pon/Tetris Attack/Puzzle League, Paper Mario, WarioWare, Advance Wars, Pushmo/Pullblox
- Developing the upcoming Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remake
- rumored Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War remake:
- Imran Khan in 2019: “I know there was another Fire Emblem remake in the works for 3DS and that was one of the things that they shuttered. So maybe that’s one of the things they do bring forward [to the Switch] in the future.”
- Brazil teasing upcoming Switch games in late 2020, includes picture of FE4 boxart
- MarkoMaro in 2022: “Also Fire Emblem has not one, or two, but 3 games in development at this moment...with a spinoff, a remake and a new game, some of them almost finished.”
- claimed to be in development by same person who leaked photos of Fire Emblem Engage in June 2022 (who also claimed Engage had been finished “for quite some time now”)
- Nate the Hate: It “has been remade for the Nintendo Switch, it’s simply waiting for Nintendo to announce it”; Again in Feb 2024: "It's just waiting for Nintendo to announce it."
- Datamined codename evidence: Datamining indicates that Three Houses had the codename Iron17 while Engage had the codename Iron19 but contains references in its code to an Iron 18; Three Hopes (the Warriors game that released in between them) was codenamed Seasons, so Iron18 remains unaccounted for
- Koei Tecmo: Pokemon Conquest, Metroid Other M, Hyrule Warriors games, Fire Emblem Warriors games, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Buddy Mission Bond (Japan-exclusive), Fire Emblem Three Houses (co-developed with Intelligent Systems)
- PlatinumGames: developer of the Bayonetta games and Astral Chain, co-developed Star Fox Zero with EPD
- Nash Weedle (via Google Translate): “Bayonetta will receive a trilogy edition with its three main games in one pack for the Switch 2. The games will bring visual improvements (HDR confirmed) and performance. Due to backwards compatibility, it can also be played on Switch 2 with improvements”
- Prior to Astral Chain’s release, director Takahisa Taura talked about having ideas of how to expand it into a trilogy or more
- In a 2021 interview, PlatinumGames studio head Atsushi Inaba said that Taura was "working on something, but we can't say what it is" and that there were "a lot" of things that Platinum wanted him to do. "It could be him wanting to do his own thing, something like Astral Chain again, or it could be somebody coming to us and saying 'we really like Taura and want to do something with him' like what we did with Nier.".
- Taura has since been credited on Bayonetta 3 (special thanks), Bayonetta Origins (game design advice), and Final Fantasy 16 (game designer)
- In a 2021 interview, PlatinumGames studio head Atsushi Inaba said that Taura was "working on something, but we can't say what it is" and that there were "a lot" of things that Platinum wanted him to do. "It could be him wanting to do his own thing, something like Astral Chain again, or it could be somebody coming to us and saying 'we really like Taura and want to do something with him' like what we did with Nier.".
- Ubisoft: Mario+Rabbids games, Starlink Battle for Atlus (featured Starfox content in the Switch version)
- Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot seemingly confirms a next-gen update/rerelease of Mario+Rabbids 2: Nintendo [has advised] that it's better to do one iteration on each machine. We were a bit too early, we should have waited for [the next console]. Because you could play a great game. And we think it will last for ten years, because we will update it for the new machine that will come in the future."
- references to Star Fox objects found in code for Switch Sports (the first released game to use EPD’s newest engine, ModuleSystem)
- In 2015, Miyamoto indicated that Star Fox is something Nintendo experiments with internally whenever they begin working with new hardware: "I work very closely with the programmer of Star Fox 64. Basically, every time we get new hardware, we do a Star Fox prototype."
- new international trademark for Star Fox filed in late 2023
- PapaGenos claimed in August 2023 that he’d heard rumors of Smash Bros. Ultimate getting some kind of update in the future
- may have been referring to Smash Ultimate celebrating its 5th anniversary with the addition of new spirits earlier this year; final event was in late March
- Masahiro Sakurai says a console port of Kid Icarus Uprising “sure would be nice” but notes that “without a team around to work on it, crafting a follow-up seems difficult”
- Hobonichi (MotheEarthbound creator Shigesato Itoi’s company) celebrating 30th anniversary of Earthbound/Mother 2: “To commemorate the 30th anniversary of MOTHER 2 ... we are planning a lot of fun in 2024” (almost certainly just merch, but noting it here just in case it’s something more)
- Mother 3 was re-released this year … on Japanese NSO
- Mike Takagi (artist behind Earthbound’s American cover art) on Instagram reminiscing about Earthbound, late February 2024: “The 30th anniversary is coming up in Nov and I hear Nintendo is planning something…where my invite??”
- Nintendo investing up to approx. $880 million to “organically expand” its game development assets and creative culture, up to approx. $2.64 billion into Nintendo accounts and infrastructure; also constructing new 12-floor building for game production, expected to be completed by end of 2027
- reddit user lineup-leak: Gamecube classics will be available at launch of next console (specifically mentions Mario Kart Double Dash, Smash Melee, Metroid Prime 2 as launch titles, with Pokemon Colosseum, FE Path of Radiance, and Mario Party 4 also being tested for NSO)
- claims next Mario Kart will not be a launch title but will release within the first 6-12 months, describes next Mario as being “in final testing phase”
- Nintendo to give Forever Entertainment “significant financial support” in new publishing deal “to release several titles on Nintendo Switch”: This is from a while ago but (and someone can correct me if I’m wrong) I don’t think anything’s come of this yet
- Chris Dring/GamesIndustry.biz: ”Nintendo is actively meeting with independent developers to find new partners. Some of that is around publishing indie games, … but it’s also seeking studios that could work on some of its IP.”; “Nintendo regularly works with third-party teams, … But the company is looking to add to that roster, and I know of three studios that are deep in conversation around making games based on Nintendo brands”
- Nintendo survey asking about different Mario RPG games, including Mario&Luigi
- reddit user Advanced-Ad7780: Project X Zone 3 is currently in development (leak didn’t specify a developer, but the first two games were developed by Monolith Soft for the 3DS)
- Nintendo secures new trademarks for Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush and Fullblox (also known as Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, and Stretchmo) in Australia
- Doctre: Notes that Velan Studios (Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, started by Vicarious Visions founders Guha and Karthik Bala) is looking for people with AAA experience to work on a “cherished and widely adored IP”, speculates it could be a reboot of VV’s DK project
- Midori: “A game is in development at Nintendo with the codename Banquet”
- (personal conjecture: Some of NDcube’s previous codenames include using BBQ for Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival and Buffet for Super Mario Party, so they feel like the closest style-fit for something codenamed Banquet)
- Brazil: “The June Direct should be the last "main one" focused on Switch 1; more remasters will be announced during the show (and my educated guess is that MP4 is showing up as a late 2024 title as well)”
- LunchPack
- Version 1: Nintendo Land, Mario Maker, Splatoon
- Version 2: Splatoon 2, Mario Maker 2, ARMS, Labo, Ring Fit Adventure, Game Builder Garage, Animal Crossing New Horizons
- ActionLibrary: 3D Land, 3D World, Mario Odyssey, menus/”wrapper” for 3D All-Stars, Bowser’s Fury, Captain Toad, F-Zero 99 (elements possibly can be traced back as far as Sunshine or Galaxy)
- KingSystem: Breath of the Wild
- ModuleSystem: Switch Sports, Splatoon 3, Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Wonder, Mario vs Donkey Kong remake
- Nintendoware Bezel engine: Tetris 99/Pac-Man 99/Mario 35, WarioWare Get It TogetheWarioWare Move It, Super Mario Party/Mario Party Superstars, Clubhouse Games 51 Classics, Big Brain Academy Brain vs Brain, Everybody 1-2 Switch, Brain Training for Nintendo Switch, Endless Ocean Luminous
- (also available for use by 3rd parties; known to have been used for Vroom in the Night Sky and Sumikko Gurashi: Sumikko Park e Youkoso)
- Datamines of Endless Ocean Luminous show the latest version of Bezel includes references to a variable frame rate mode with support for up to 240fps
- RUDE (Retro Universal Design Engine or Retro Unified Development Environment, depending on which former dev you ask): all Retro Studios games
- Mint: most (all?) HAL Laboratory games since 2011's Return to Dreamland; upgraded and renamed Basil for Forgotten Land
- Unreal Engine 4: Yoshi's Crafted World, Pikmin 4, Princess Peach Showtime
- Unity: Jump Rope Challenge, Pokemon BDSP, Fire Emblem Engage, Super Mario RPG remake, Another Code Recollection
2024.05.11 16:57 mage_in_training Knowings (Ch. 08)
This chapter took a long time to get out. Life has me super busy. Two jobs, married, two kids, still sober. I like how this turned out, however, someone new stole the show this time. As always, leave feedback, I appreciate it so very much.
[FIRST] [DELETED SCENES] [PREVIOUS]
My bare-bones-ish Discord.
~ ~ ~
As I reentered my true body without recieving a mending, the vicious wounds I endured manifested into being as I reactualized into my true Self. Through the pain, I couldn't help but think on Raver's words to me.
"The doors have to be closed."
~ ~ ~
Without recieving a mending in Raver's Dreamtime bubble, reactualization was a fucking bitch. I Perceived my Self as having quite the damaged form, my Soul was fucked over by bombardment from dreadlight and my physical body simply disagreed with it all, stating that I was mostly whole and intact, only being damaged by wounds I had already endured. The three parts had an argument of a sort amongst themselves and with the power of the Dreamtime, reached a tortuous compromise.
I'm certain I seizured and blacked out through the process.
I awoke with my body shaking and covered in a cold sweat, Tsula and Luna above me, chanting in the secret language of their esoteric Traditions. The two of them each held diffetent tools required for their cultural and subtle manipulation of reality. Soft hands, awash with mana and glowing tattoos, were placed on my chest, right where my heart was. Cold, icy fingers cradled my soul protectively, keeping it connected to my body in the here and now as harsh, physical laws rent my form.
I was paying the price for Raver's hubris, and I had almost overdrafted. Thoughts of mortal over reach faded from my mind as I slipped into cool and soothing darkness.
Cold and bloodied fingers were pressed against my chest and did little to assuage the burning ache that was my soul. I couldn't focus on anything else as I gazed at the hollowed out body of my beloved. She had been beautiful, gorgeous even, and due to give birth to our daughter in two weeks. Now, the... dead thing in front of me could barely be defined as a corpse. Her skin had been peeled away like a banana and her insides removed, leaving a bloodied, hollow space. The flesh and bones had been scooped away like ice cream, leaving little in the way of remains. Our unborn child had been pulled out and repurposed with the stolen parts of her mother by dreadlight and a mage's fell Will to form the body of a Thing.
With silent tears streaming down my face, I placed the ring I had proposed to her with and put it onto my finger, next to my plain tungsten one. The simple act of removing it almost caused what remained of her hand to simply fall apart in my fingers. I'm not sure how long I stayed like that. I couldn't even hold her body against mine for fear of it crumbling away into a vile mess. I ignored what was going on around me as I kneeled in the spent summoning circle.
The world around me split and rent itself into distorted imagery, as though I were looking at everything from under a pool with gentle waves. Some parts were compressed together and others were stretched out, not quite like a mirror maze as the world was still simply one cohesive image. Additionally, things seemed closer or further in ways that defied conventional Euclidean geometries. The only area not affected by this blatant disregard of spatial dimensions, had been myself and a scant few feet around me.
What...?
A heavy thud broke me out of my thoughts and I saw my Father landing next to me. Since both of us had been prepared, he was wearing, much like myself, full motorcycle safety gear. It had been enchanted and bolstered by hidden runes and severed Will, turning everything into protective objects that even defended against potent and offensive mysticism. The equipment in question had been chosen for its sheer mundanity and ease of access, letting the powerful enchancements skirt around the Lie and Consensus leaving the magic fully intact and potent.
"Alistair," I heard my Father say to me with grim calm as he twisted the space in front of us into a right angle, redirecting rapid gunfire, "I can't do this alone."
I remained silent.
"Damnit, Son," he growled out then literally kicked my ass with his heavy boot, almost knocking me over onto my side, "get a hold of yourself, Its here now. You handle the mages."
That got me going. I finally got up, my grief was as a lead weight and prevented me from doing what was needed. With a last look at C'Leena's hollowed out corpse, I grit my teeth, steeled my nerves and called forth my magic from the Aether.
Was I dreaming? No, worse, I was in a memory...
"Stay out of my way and watch yourself," Father said to me, "I can't pull my punches against that."
"Gotcha," I replied almost absently and turned to face the assembled shadow mages. They had inexplicably stopped theit gunfire to admire the Thing they brought into existence from Somewhere.
I couldn't help but stare, either.
Standing on top of the northernmost anchor stone, an ugly, multi-faceted block of copper with glyphs and sigils harshly hewn into it, was a naked woman. The glyphs themselves were hard to look at, as though their mere presence were an affront to reality itself, which they were. The woman's skin was a darkened olive tone and she was tall as well as athletic, lithe and fit. Her shoulder length black hair was bushy and curly, flowing about her head almost like an afro. As she ran her hands down her body, I could not help but notice that everything was oddly symmetrical and too perfect. It was unnerving me greatly and triggered an uncanny valley response that tore at my heart.
The body this Thing was wearing had belonged to my fiancée.
Father didn't let It have time to get acclimated. Sidestepping forwards, he drew upon the full capabilities of his Path, eyes backlit by stars, an impossible physical sword of abstract spatial geometries held in his left hand, and a reality defying, super-dense distortion held in his right.
The world contorted and screamed under his might.
I awoke with a start and a low groan, glad to be awake and free of that horrid nightmare again. Not for the first time, I wished I had that motorcycle gear still. I had been far too reckless then and immediately thereafter, and everything had been damaged beyond repair. I could never find anyone I trusted enough to make those enchantments anyways. Farnsworth could only enhance the mundane qualities as he didn't know enough about mana warding to permanently imbue the protections I wanted nor needed for my line of active field work.
Looking around, I saw Rue asleep on the other side of the bed and Spades was nestled between us, his massive form making a visible dip in the mattress. The big monster dog was on his back, legs splayed open and snoring loudly with his tongue hanging out of his muzzle. I was reminded a lot of my Lola when she had still been around in the flesh, making me smile with old and pleasant memories. I must have been out for some time for Spades to be here.
A quick, almost reflexive, mental orison told me everything I already suspected. My mana reserves were shot, my body had been through the ringer and my soul was frayed and burnt. While I knew I owed my continued existence to Raver and her godsend, I also knew it had taken a great and terrible toll on my Self. Miracles like that usually held some kind of hidden cost, even if they weren't readily apparent.
Getting off the bed slowly, I began to look for my pack. It took far longer than than usual as I had to steady myself quite a bit from the spinning room. I managed to be quiet, however, and didn't wake up Rue nor Spades. Finally in the shower, after some time and using the wall to support myself, I let the almost scalding water roll over my aching body. The pendant on my neck protecting me from recieving any burns or aggravating the injuries I had, both old and new.
With the hot water soothing aching muscles, I began to think and take stock of my situation. I had never been on the back foot like this, low on any kind of resource, having few allies, and being pressed for time. It was like something out of a bad novel or shitty indie Steam(R) game. Though, real life was often stranger than fiction and had no real need for a logical cause and effect dynamic. If this was going to become the norm, then I had to find another method of approaching my wendigo problem.
I was simply running out of time.
After some long moments of thinking, I began to wash my hair, using the guest products on the corner caddy. They were so much nicer than anything I would have willingly bought and made me seriously consider changing up my usual shampoo. The only idea I could come up with regarding those wendigos, besides an overwhelming frontal assault, was to appeal to their bottomless gluttony and barter for passage.
I resigned myself to actually try to negotiate with their clan leader, leveraging their horrid taboos against them to get what I needed.
Wendigos, unlike most strange cryptids, vampires and were-folk aside, had a lot of things known about them, especially how they powered their supernatural capabilities. It was a simple and rather straightforward process, the more heinous the act, the more mana they drew from it. Cannibalism, sacrilege, incest, murder, torture, hedonistic gluttony, or any number of other terrible and minor sins. As well as general lawbreaking and felonies, oftentimes combined to have as many as possible occur in the same sitting.
I audibly gasped with a sudden epiphany.
My fate had already been decided, by myself no less. In a bar I couldn't remember the name of, when I had been gazing into my bronze coin, I saw what I needed to do. I had to gift what measly scrap of knowledge I understood from Beyond the Infinite to those creatures. To let those wendigos defile and mutilate such sacred and pure knowledge to whatever whims their baleful minds could come up with.
"Fuck," was the only thing I could whisper at the thought of it all as I turned off the water, getting out of the shower. I cooled the bathroom down with but a thought and wiped away the condensation on the mirror with a towel that wasn't my own, finally getting a good look at myself without vertigo, as that had finally passed.
I looked like shit, and that was a compliment. Huge, fist shaped bruises of black, green and yellow littered my torso, though most were located on my left side and blurred together into an ugly shapeless mass. The ones on my right, however, were well defined and I could easily count the number of strikes. My face held a swollen black eye, I never noticed my diminished field of vision as I had gotten used to having them over the years. Turning gingerly and opening the mirror a bit so I could see my back, I grimaced. It was another spiderweb of a bruise, earned from when I had been smashed against the edge of Raver's Dreamtime bubble.
At least none of my fingers were broken, only very stiff and swollen, just like the rest of me. I probably couldn't drive for another day or so, either, not with my hands the way they were. As I looked, surprised I hadn't noticed earlier, the inside of my right hand was, branded. The skin, while fully healed, held the symbolic glyph that heralded the Path of Stars. A circle with nine curved lines inside it. Each line only intersected two others, but with the irregular placement of them, I could trace an intersection to any other one. In each of the open spaces, slightly off center, as a simple dot.
"Miracles leave their marks," I muttered to myself, almost disbelieving the literalness of the phrase.
I didn't bother drying off and struggled a bit getting into the clothes I brought with me, maroon athletic shorts and a black tank top. Exiting the guest bathroom, I thought about where I wanted to go. Settling on a destination, I went into the backyard, found a patch of grass in the shaded, morning sunlight and lay down. The grass was thick and rather soft, and the smell of the lemon tree and the garden was more pleasant and fragrant than they should have been.
Warding myself against dreaming, I pulled on the principles of the Aether, specifically, those of sun and storms. Since the Aether was a realm of energy and mana in all of its varying forms, I employed an advanced technique, a mysterion. It was something only able to be done by those that actually hailed from the Aether rather than having mastery over it. Pulling some of the sunlight and ambient warmth into my form, I converted measly scraps of energy directly into mana. The process was slow, and almost hardly worth the effort. It was like filling a bathtub with water, a single milliliter at a time.
Mana was now such a rare commodity, every miniscule drop of it mattered.
I settled in and entered a trance-like state, most of my attention devoted to my mysterion, though some of it was allowed to drift off elsewhere. While not exactly a dream, and while maintaining my mana draw, my mind conjured up nonsensical imagery and conversations between myself and others. I didn't pay them any attention as my thoughts wandered and drifted idly.
"I thought I'd find you out here," Rue said as I heard her sit down next to me. I didn't hear her walking, however, she continued to speak, "you've been asleep for a few days. What happened?"
"Got fucked," I replied easily, a little sarcastically as well. "Truthfully," I amended, "I got summoned by Raver. She pulled a shenanigan with Fate to let her have a waking dream."
"So she was hallucinating?" Rue stated, though it was more of a question.
"Damned straight," I confirmed, "she had Sasquatch and Farnsworth make something for her. It had to have been lethal, something like that. Anyways, we were talking and then one of Them showed up. Inside the Dreamtime bubble of hers. Found Raver's luminescence despite Mirzam hiding it."
"Shit. So It was physically there? That means It had a stolen body..." Rue said, trailing off.
"Yeah, it had a body alright," I almost growled out, "broke Raver's ritual with little effort. I spent everything I had to make a patch job just to keep it active, burned through all my mana, too. I did not want to be dispersed."
"I see," Rue said to me with understanding, "I wouldn't want to have to find my physical body without a tether either." There was a small pause before she spoke again, "So what happened next?"
"I made it mad with insults to buy time for the repaired shenanigan to stabilize Raver."
"What do you mean?" Rue asked as I heard her stretch out a bit, my eyes still closed.
"Her shenanigan was woven in such a way that whatever drug Sasquatch and Farnsworth made for her didn't just kill her," I answered with a pause then continued, "it let her do things beyond normality, anyways, my fucked up patch job let me tell Sasquatch that Raver had to stay dreaming."
"So he wouldn't just purge the elixir out of her," Rue stated, then added perhaps a tad bit defensively, "I know some things from other paths, not much, but some."
"That's good," I answered back, "knowledge is power."
"With us, it's quite literal."
I murmured in assent.
"So why did you make It mad?" Rue asked, "wouldn't It just draw strength from human emotions, especially in the Dreamtime?"
"It did," I answered back, "but It couldn't act properly on them, like human emotions were new and novel. The whole encounter was sloppy after a certain point, but I did almost die. Raver saved me, gave me a miracle."
"I saw," Rue said simply, "the mark on your hand was a giveaway."
I could only murmur in agreement again then asked, "Did you find a card in my hands, too?"
"I did," Rue replied after a few moments of silence, "it was debit card, with a note attached to it."
"From Procyon, right?"
It took a few moments for her to answer. "Yes, it was from Procyon," she took a breath and continued with wavering effort, "that damned bastard had it all planned out. Wrote a fucked up letter to me on a Google(TM) doc telling me not to worry and that this had always been his exit plan."
"Sounds like he knew what was going to happen," was all I could say.
"Yes, but, I miss him!" Rue all but snarled at me, then, in a small and quiet voice, whispered, "He was my best friend, and maybe we could've been more, y'know? Now... there's... There's just nothing, only memories of him left to mourn."
"I didn't know," I answered simply.
Rue spoke with a wavering breath before continuing, her thoughts more than a little disjointed, "a lot of what he wrote was personal, so I won't get into that, but he was certain that something catastrophic was going to happen to him and myself. So he made sure that I was at my secondary home, recovering from a job. I had just completed a mission from Raver and Mirzam, and was going to perform a ritual to patch up Spades after I got some sleep. Procyon also stated that someone has been altering things for a very long time."
"So that's why you were caught with yout pants down," I said, "you didn't even have time to recover." I paused, adjusting my mysterion as I had to refocus due to our conversation, "what did they have you do?"
"Some hedge wizards actually got a hold of an actual necromancy grimoire and charged mana tools in a graveyard," Rue said with a bit of a tired sigh, "they knew exactly what they were doing, and would have been rather powerful shadow mages if they had been capable of using starlight."
"Fuck," was all I could say, then formed an actual response after a few moments, "that shouldn't have been an issue for you. Hedges don't have our capability, though numbers may have evened out their odds."
"You're right, but they brought a spirit back before I could stop them," Rue answered with more than a little spite, "a real nasty piece of shit, too. Turned on the hedges, absorbed them, and put up a real mean fight against Spades and I. It was touch and go for a long time and I was actually fearful for my life, too."
"You won, though."
"Yeah, managed to send it kicking and screaming back to the Pit, exhausted most of my mana to do so. Fucking bastard."
There was a small silence between us as Rue became lost in her own thoughts. It was a while before I asked her, "Can you elaborate on what Procyon said about Fate being altered?"
"I can, actually, though it's a bit difficult since I'm not even a novice with the Path of Stars," Rue answered as I heard her shift a bit on the grass next to me. She paused as she seemingly collected her thoughts, "it's just that certain events were made to happen sooner or later. The big one, for our Node at least, was that you were always supposed to make your ancestral home translocate. It happened sooner than it should have."
"Fuck," I said, "So I wasn't supposed to send it away a few days ago?"
"No, that was supposed to happen after our wendigo thing, if the letter is to be believed."
"Fuck," was all I could say, "I do suppose that was a snap decision, I really didn't want Them to get a hold of anything inside. If I had been able to wait, or even had help, I'm sure I wouldn't have lost it to time and space."
"Exactly," Rue said with bitter excitement, "and we'd have access to everything in it. Losing your home was a big blow to our Node."
"Yeah, but at least They don't have it," I answered more spitefully than intended.
"Silver linings and all that, right?"
"Yeah, gotta look at the bright side, no matter how bleak," I answered back with a bit of sarcastic mirth, then said as I stretched a bit, readjusting my focus on my mysterion as well, "speaking of wendigos, I know what we need to do to solve that."
"Oh? Do tell, I couldn't come up with anything myself, kept running into dead ends," she said, then added, "lack of resources and help."
"Well, I don't think you're going to like it, I'm not sure I like it either."
"Don't keep me waiting," Rue said to me with a bit of sarcastic exasperation. I could sense her looking at me even though my eyes were still closed.
"I'm going to leverage their taboos against them, appeal to their insatiable greed and offer them what little I can understand of That Which Lies Beyond the Infinite." I sighed and added, "after all, how could they resist the allure of new magic?"
"You're right," she answered, "I definitely don't like it. I'm pretty sure it's not even wise to do so."
"Wise or not, it's the only way forward, I even saw it in a vision when I was manipulating fate magic."
"Have you talked to Mirzam or Raver about this vision of yours?"
"No, not yet, and I'm pretty sure I don't need to."
There was a bit of silence between us as she digested my words. I felt compelled to elaborate as I adjusted my mysterion again, losing a bit of my focus due to the depth of the conversation we were having.
"Acrux," I said, getting her attention fully by using the name of her star, "there's something you need to understand." I sat up, abandoning my mysterion in favor of giving her my full attention. Blinking a bit at the rise of light and warmth, I continued my thought process, "in the Dreamtime, the Thing I was fighting against, It was surprised and enraged that I was able to call upon knowledge that Lay Beyond the Infinite. Whatever those glyphs and powers are, They never wanted humans to know of them, let alone have them."
"Yet you want to give such power to wendigos of all things."
"At least the knowledge, corrupted or not, will still be on Earth," I said then added, "I'm not sure what you remember, but I know you've seen something from Beyond the Infinite. Your self revival and Spade's new form are proof of that. I was there, guided by Oracle. I Perceived something unknowable, something terrible, something no mortal has any right to gaze upon. Something I can hardly even begin to try to put into words. Raver Perceived it, too. It's how she managed to give me a godsend. So, what did you Perceive, really?"
Rue brought her knees up to her chest, thinking deeply. I could tell she was using her Perception to look inwards upon her Self. I waited patiently while she struggled to look at her soul's reflection against her mind and struggled even more to put the image there into words.
At long last, she spoke, her eyes still closed as she did so, "I'm not sure what I saw, there was too much, and I felt so small. Insignificant. Less than even a dismissed, intrusive thought. There is one thing I do remember. A doorway made of the might from two universes worth of truths and laws. A Thing was trying ro break through, but couldn't, not fully, yet the doors were opened, letting smaller ones through."
"The Doors have to be closed," I said, quoting Raver, before continuing, "that's what Raver said to me, before she sent me back to my body."
"Why didn't they mend you then?"
"They were being attacked in the waking world, too. It was a good plan on Their part, They just didn't expect us to put up so much of a fight."
"They never do, though I think that's changing."
"So that's our endgame, not sure how we're going to do it," I said, bringing the conversation back to topic, "at the moment, however, I'm going to eat a few of those mana-stuffed protein bars and fix your leg. I can't keep spending mana to be able to drive your truck. You'll have to use your own mysterion to get mana, too."
"I hate my Path's mysterions," the venom in her voice was palpable.
Before I could say anything, the backdoor opened, revealing Luna. She was wearing a bird-patterned sundress and her hair had been tied back into a loose ponytail. She put her hand over her eyes to shade them from the sun as she squinted against the brightness relative to that from inside.
"Hey, you two," she called out, "Grandmother says she needs to talk yo you."
"Alright," I called out, shakily getting up to my feet with a bit of a grunt. Everything still hurt. Rue had a bit of trouble as well, her leg was not recieving the rest and healing it deserved and needed.
"We're a mess, aren't we?" Rue asked aloud as we began to walk towards the bak door.
"Yeah, but you should see the other guys," I replied with a light chuckle, only to wince and hold my sides, "I forgot how much laughing hurts with fractured ribs."
"I really don't envy you right now," Rue said with a bit of a smirk as we entered Tsula's home, Rue entering first. "I wonder what Tsula wants to talk to us about?" Rue asked aloud, not really talking to anyone in particular.
I could only wonder as we followed Luna to the living room, the house pleasantly cool due to central air conditioning.
~ ~ ~
The moon was not in the sky, and I greatly enjoyed not having to endure the accursed, purifying light of day reflected by its surface, even if greatly diminished. The loathsome wound in my side had been a mortal blow, burning through my toughened flesh and form with unnerving ease and stunning, blinding pain. Once more, I looked at the oily, thin, and black ichor that dripped from my fingers, more human-like than I was comfortable with.
The mote of dreadlight I had recieved for my services had been the only thing that had kept me from vanishing entirely. Mortal alchemy -- science -- had advanced to such a degree so as to emulate the harsh light of day far too remarkably well. That hadn't been the worst part, that damned thaumaturgist had ensorcelled a curse upon the weapon as well. With effort, as the bulk of my power was directed at repairing the oozing wound, I altered my form and shape, struggling to maintain the illusion as I walked out onto the sidewalk from a side alley.
My contract was not yet completed.
The first two nights I had hidden myself away in the dark depths, raging against the oblivion that threatened to overtake me and ending my existence. The preparedness of the thaumaturgist had been unexpected, as well as the skill and the knowledge he had wielded so effortlessly. Without my guidance, nor presence, to instill fear into the gifted abetters, the wraiths I had gathered with me fell and fled into the night, abandoning their duties and contracts.
I would have never made this mistake against the herald of the bear.
Had I known the name of the mortal's star I had been tasked against, I would have demanded more than a simple mote of dreadlight and a paltry handful of coerced allies. Realistically, I should be grateful that I still had a kind of semi-existence. Quelling my anger and hatred, and swallowing my utter revulsion, my form rippled and took the guise of a tall, middle-aged human male in a common and unremarkable suit carrying an old and worn briefcase.
The artificial illumination around me flickered, emitting a grating hum in my presence and the thin television flickered oddly as it tried to display my image, failing to accurately do so. While tracking Arcturus's quintessence had been a bit of a task, as far too much time had passed, my familiarity with it granted me an advantage that overcame that difficulty. Traveling in my wounded state, however, had been much more arduous. Looking the woman at the reception desk over, I took on my role with hiden revulsion, aided by the illusion I was conjuring and the mimicry of my physical form.
"I'm detective Aiden Roth, and I'm looking for someone. I believe that he was here a few nights ago, definitely this past week," I said. My false, human voice had been made to sound smooth, suave and strong, interlaced with a suggestion, using what little forte I could spare. I put the worn and well-used briefcase I had conjured with me onto the counter with a heavy thud, using more of my forte to emulate such a simple thing. Opening it up, I fished out an image and showed the slightly grainy, black and white picture to the receptionist.
As the woman perused the conjured image, I could not help but hiss, my hand going to my side as I expended more of my forte than I had anticipated. The cursed wound fighting back fiercely against the dreadlight tethering my existence and life. I held my disguise with willpower of monumental proportions. A strength of will I rarely had been pressed to draw from.
Seeing the concerned look the woman gave me, I simply stated, shrugging off the pain with yet more expenditure of will, "An old injury, it flares up from time to time. No matter, have you seen this individual?"
"I'm going to need to see some kind of badge or warrant," the woman said with a genuine smile, "sorry."
The fear of losing her menial job overpowered my subtle suggestion. Unfortunate.
"Sure," I replied with a fake and well ptacticed, fetching smile, adjusting my forte to include another suggestion. I showed an actual badge with my assumed name and likeness. The mortal I was impersonating had been slain many years ago by my own hands, and the subtle illusion taking hardly any of my forte adjusted the dates and design of the badge to whatever was current.
Only a thaumaturgist, or a very particularly skilled sorcerer, could pierce the illusion. Against this mortal, there was no chance of resistance and she accepted the stolen badge without question.
She looked it over, as if trying to divine the legitimacy of it. "Okay," she finally admitted, "he was here a while ago, maybe a four or five days? I remember, 'cause I tried to flirt with him..."
I ignored her prattling and asked when she finished speaking, "Can you show me the room he used?"
"Sure, but it's been cleaned a few times since then."
With a nod, I let her lead the way to the room in question, staying silent. The lights around me flickered and hummed loudly in my presence. Had the woman been more observant, she could have seen my true shadow as I had not the forte to expend to hide it entirely from the ever changing lights. She opened the room in question, using what I could only assume was a master key card.
I immediately recognized the faded auras of quintessence.
"This will do," I stated, closing the door behind me and dropping my revolting disguise, using my forte to lock it.
I revealed my true form. My legs and arms lengthened and thinned, the black suit and red tie I was wearing became my skin, armor and form. My face and eyes became blank, gaunt and sunken, skin stretching out over it. The wound in my side made itself visible, it was an ugly red, peeling and oozing burn from my shoulder to my waist and took up most of my torso. The dreadlight I was using to prevent my oblivion illuminated the wound with a kind of sickly, crimson colored backlight. Black ichor oozed out from it and dripped onto the floor as I used the bulk of my forte to ablate the caustic, foreign quintessence from my form.
The woman looked at me as even her pitifully dull, mundane human senses told her that there was incredible danger in the room with her. She screeched and irrationally ran towards the bathroom as my presence became impossibly tall in the very finite space in the motel room. Using the smallest iota of my forte, I remotely smashed her fleeing form against a wall, pinning her there with unseen force as she begged, and sobbed for her pitiful life.
I ignored her for the moment.
Drawing upon more of my forte, freed up as I no longer needed a disguise, I sensed out where quintessence had been used, discovering two places, the bed and a wall. Imbuing the wall with my own forte, I witnessed a spectral, moving image of Arcturus throwing five darts at a map placed on the wall, one at a time, then draw intersecting lines to a single point on the map.
"Wendigos..." I hissed out in loathing, the skin on my face stretching and contorting with the movement as i spoke aloud with a nonexistent mouth. Even I knew their territory.
Turning to the second source of quintessence, I did the same thing. I saw Arcturus ward himself against dreaming and then hold a brilliant shield in the air, as well as a ball of fire. My knowledge of actual thaumaturgy told me that I would have great difficulties against those Knowings. I put the mystery of his Dreamtime excursion out of my mind for now, there was nothing I could do regarding that.
My expenditure of forte caused my horrid wound to pulse against my form painfully. With a hiss, I turned to the woman meekly begging me to spare her life as she was still pinned against the wall. I could use a thrall, especially as I could no longer gain allies, not without offering something in return to my current contract holders.
That was not a barter I wanted to engage in.
"Please... don't kill me... please... I'll do anything... please..."
The absolute terror in her eyes was delectable. Her fear invigorated me with energy and reminded me I needed to feed. However, the morsels offered by her would be more than sufficient for my needs. I dragged my left hand across my oozing wound, covering it in my own essence then flexed my forte. The clothes she was wearing split in half down the middle, revealing her naked form, making her shriek. I could see the ideas her panicked mind vomited forth as she renewed her struggles with vigor.
What I had in mind was so much worse than the mundane taking of her physical body she expected.
Using the full might of my forte, I lengthened and sharpened my index finger, the tip dripping with the gathered ichor of my essence. In an instant, less than the blink of an eye, I appeared in front of her from where I had been by the bed and plunged the very tip of my sharpened, needle-like nail into the center of her heart, cutting through the most sensitive parts of her breast to do so due to the angle I had chosen for just this purpose. As I let my ichor suffuse her body with each beat of her racing heart, her vascular system visibly turning black under her skin as she screamed and writhed in agony, an odd thing happened.
What could only be considered my blood had been tainted by thaumaturgy qnr bolstered by dreadlight as well as my own forte. As it mixed with the blank canvas of the mortal in front of me, I could sense the candle of her soul. Reaching out with dreadlight, letting the wound burn my side with a hiss of inhaled breath, I ignited it with three kinds of mysticism.
A horrified realization overcame her as she knew I had fundamentally altered her to suit my whims. Having a thaumaturgist thrall would be a great boon.
"You'll do quite nicely," I said with an actual grin, the skin stretched over my mouth revealing impossibly large, gleaming flat teeth, as I watched the physical and mystical changes taking place.
My new thrall would never be human again.
I feasted on her terror, anguish and torment.
It was delicious.
~ ~ ~
Arcturus and Acrux will be back. C'Leena Thomas, Prosthetist is going to be my next update.
[[NEXT]]
submitted by mage_in_training to HFY [link] [comments]
[FIRST] [DELETED SCENES] [PREVIOUS]
My bare-bones-ish Discord.
~ ~ ~
As I reentered my true body without recieving a mending, the vicious wounds I endured manifested into being as I reactualized into my true Self. Through the pain, I couldn't help but think on Raver's words to me.
"The doors have to be closed."
~ ~ ~
Without recieving a mending in Raver's Dreamtime bubble, reactualization was a fucking bitch. I Perceived my Self as having quite the damaged form, my Soul was fucked over by bombardment from dreadlight and my physical body simply disagreed with it all, stating that I was mostly whole and intact, only being damaged by wounds I had already endured. The three parts had an argument of a sort amongst themselves and with the power of the Dreamtime, reached a tortuous compromise.
I'm certain I seizured and blacked out through the process.
I awoke with my body shaking and covered in a cold sweat, Tsula and Luna above me, chanting in the secret language of their esoteric Traditions. The two of them each held diffetent tools required for their cultural and subtle manipulation of reality. Soft hands, awash with mana and glowing tattoos, were placed on my chest, right where my heart was. Cold, icy fingers cradled my soul protectively, keeping it connected to my body in the here and now as harsh, physical laws rent my form.
I was paying the price for Raver's hubris, and I had almost overdrafted. Thoughts of mortal over reach faded from my mind as I slipped into cool and soothing darkness.
Cold and bloodied fingers were pressed against my chest and did little to assuage the burning ache that was my soul. I couldn't focus on anything else as I gazed at the hollowed out body of my beloved. She had been beautiful, gorgeous even, and due to give birth to our daughter in two weeks. Now, the... dead thing in front of me could barely be defined as a corpse. Her skin had been peeled away like a banana and her insides removed, leaving a bloodied, hollow space. The flesh and bones had been scooped away like ice cream, leaving little in the way of remains. Our unborn child had been pulled out and repurposed with the stolen parts of her mother by dreadlight and a mage's fell Will to form the body of a Thing.
With silent tears streaming down my face, I placed the ring I had proposed to her with and put it onto my finger, next to my plain tungsten one. The simple act of removing it almost caused what remained of her hand to simply fall apart in my fingers. I'm not sure how long I stayed like that. I couldn't even hold her body against mine for fear of it crumbling away into a vile mess. I ignored what was going on around me as I kneeled in the spent summoning circle.
The world around me split and rent itself into distorted imagery, as though I were looking at everything from under a pool with gentle waves. Some parts were compressed together and others were stretched out, not quite like a mirror maze as the world was still simply one cohesive image. Additionally, things seemed closer or further in ways that defied conventional Euclidean geometries. The only area not affected by this blatant disregard of spatial dimensions, had been myself and a scant few feet around me.
What...?
A heavy thud broke me out of my thoughts and I saw my Father landing next to me. Since both of us had been prepared, he was wearing, much like myself, full motorcycle safety gear. It had been enchanted and bolstered by hidden runes and severed Will, turning everything into protective objects that even defended against potent and offensive mysticism. The equipment in question had been chosen for its sheer mundanity and ease of access, letting the powerful enchancements skirt around the Lie and Consensus leaving the magic fully intact and potent.
"Alistair," I heard my Father say to me with grim calm as he twisted the space in front of us into a right angle, redirecting rapid gunfire, "I can't do this alone."
I remained silent.
"Damnit, Son," he growled out then literally kicked my ass with his heavy boot, almost knocking me over onto my side, "get a hold of yourself, Its here now. You handle the mages."
That got me going. I finally got up, my grief was as a lead weight and prevented me from doing what was needed. With a last look at C'Leena's hollowed out corpse, I grit my teeth, steeled my nerves and called forth my magic from the Aether.
Was I dreaming? No, worse, I was in a memory...
"Stay out of my way and watch yourself," Father said to me, "I can't pull my punches against that."
"Gotcha," I replied almost absently and turned to face the assembled shadow mages. They had inexplicably stopped theit gunfire to admire the Thing they brought into existence from Somewhere.
I couldn't help but stare, either.
Standing on top of the northernmost anchor stone, an ugly, multi-faceted block of copper with glyphs and sigils harshly hewn into it, was a naked woman. The glyphs themselves were hard to look at, as though their mere presence were an affront to reality itself, which they were. The woman's skin was a darkened olive tone and she was tall as well as athletic, lithe and fit. Her shoulder length black hair was bushy and curly, flowing about her head almost like an afro. As she ran her hands down her body, I could not help but notice that everything was oddly symmetrical and too perfect. It was unnerving me greatly and triggered an uncanny valley response that tore at my heart.
The body this Thing was wearing had belonged to my fiancée.
Father didn't let It have time to get acclimated. Sidestepping forwards, he drew upon the full capabilities of his Path, eyes backlit by stars, an impossible physical sword of abstract spatial geometries held in his left hand, and a reality defying, super-dense distortion held in his right.
The world contorted and screamed under his might.
I awoke with a start and a low groan, glad to be awake and free of that horrid nightmare again. Not for the first time, I wished I had that motorcycle gear still. I had been far too reckless then and immediately thereafter, and everything had been damaged beyond repair. I could never find anyone I trusted enough to make those enchantments anyways. Farnsworth could only enhance the mundane qualities as he didn't know enough about mana warding to permanently imbue the protections I wanted nor needed for my line of active field work.
Looking around, I saw Rue asleep on the other side of the bed and Spades was nestled between us, his massive form making a visible dip in the mattress. The big monster dog was on his back, legs splayed open and snoring loudly with his tongue hanging out of his muzzle. I was reminded a lot of my Lola when she had still been around in the flesh, making me smile with old and pleasant memories. I must have been out for some time for Spades to be here.
A quick, almost reflexive, mental orison told me everything I already suspected. My mana reserves were shot, my body had been through the ringer and my soul was frayed and burnt. While I knew I owed my continued existence to Raver and her godsend, I also knew it had taken a great and terrible toll on my Self. Miracles like that usually held some kind of hidden cost, even if they weren't readily apparent.
Getting off the bed slowly, I began to look for my pack. It took far longer than than usual as I had to steady myself quite a bit from the spinning room. I managed to be quiet, however, and didn't wake up Rue nor Spades. Finally in the shower, after some time and using the wall to support myself, I let the almost scalding water roll over my aching body. The pendant on my neck protecting me from recieving any burns or aggravating the injuries I had, both old and new.
With the hot water soothing aching muscles, I began to think and take stock of my situation. I had never been on the back foot like this, low on any kind of resource, having few allies, and being pressed for time. It was like something out of a bad novel or shitty indie Steam(R) game. Though, real life was often stranger than fiction and had no real need for a logical cause and effect dynamic. If this was going to become the norm, then I had to find another method of approaching my wendigo problem.
I was simply running out of time.
After some long moments of thinking, I began to wash my hair, using the guest products on the corner caddy. They were so much nicer than anything I would have willingly bought and made me seriously consider changing up my usual shampoo. The only idea I could come up with regarding those wendigos, besides an overwhelming frontal assault, was to appeal to their bottomless gluttony and barter for passage.
I resigned myself to actually try to negotiate with their clan leader, leveraging their horrid taboos against them to get what I needed.
Wendigos, unlike most strange cryptids, vampires and were-folk aside, had a lot of things known about them, especially how they powered their supernatural capabilities. It was a simple and rather straightforward process, the more heinous the act, the more mana they drew from it. Cannibalism, sacrilege, incest, murder, torture, hedonistic gluttony, or any number of other terrible and minor sins. As well as general lawbreaking and felonies, oftentimes combined to have as many as possible occur in the same sitting.
I audibly gasped with a sudden epiphany.
My fate had already been decided, by myself no less. In a bar I couldn't remember the name of, when I had been gazing into my bronze coin, I saw what I needed to do. I had to gift what measly scrap of knowledge I understood from Beyond the Infinite to those creatures. To let those wendigos defile and mutilate such sacred and pure knowledge to whatever whims their baleful minds could come up with.
"Fuck," was the only thing I could whisper at the thought of it all as I turned off the water, getting out of the shower. I cooled the bathroom down with but a thought and wiped away the condensation on the mirror with a towel that wasn't my own, finally getting a good look at myself without vertigo, as that had finally passed.
I looked like shit, and that was a compliment. Huge, fist shaped bruises of black, green and yellow littered my torso, though most were located on my left side and blurred together into an ugly shapeless mass. The ones on my right, however, were well defined and I could easily count the number of strikes. My face held a swollen black eye, I never noticed my diminished field of vision as I had gotten used to having them over the years. Turning gingerly and opening the mirror a bit so I could see my back, I grimaced. It was another spiderweb of a bruise, earned from when I had been smashed against the edge of Raver's Dreamtime bubble.
At least none of my fingers were broken, only very stiff and swollen, just like the rest of me. I probably couldn't drive for another day or so, either, not with my hands the way they were. As I looked, surprised I hadn't noticed earlier, the inside of my right hand was, branded. The skin, while fully healed, held the symbolic glyph that heralded the Path of Stars. A circle with nine curved lines inside it. Each line only intersected two others, but with the irregular placement of them, I could trace an intersection to any other one. In each of the open spaces, slightly off center, as a simple dot.
"Miracles leave their marks," I muttered to myself, almost disbelieving the literalness of the phrase.
I didn't bother drying off and struggled a bit getting into the clothes I brought with me, maroon athletic shorts and a black tank top. Exiting the guest bathroom, I thought about where I wanted to go. Settling on a destination, I went into the backyard, found a patch of grass in the shaded, morning sunlight and lay down. The grass was thick and rather soft, and the smell of the lemon tree and the garden was more pleasant and fragrant than they should have been.
Warding myself against dreaming, I pulled on the principles of the Aether, specifically, those of sun and storms. Since the Aether was a realm of energy and mana in all of its varying forms, I employed an advanced technique, a mysterion. It was something only able to be done by those that actually hailed from the Aether rather than having mastery over it. Pulling some of the sunlight and ambient warmth into my form, I converted measly scraps of energy directly into mana. The process was slow, and almost hardly worth the effort. It was like filling a bathtub with water, a single milliliter at a time.
Mana was now such a rare commodity, every miniscule drop of it mattered.
I settled in and entered a trance-like state, most of my attention devoted to my mysterion, though some of it was allowed to drift off elsewhere. While not exactly a dream, and while maintaining my mana draw, my mind conjured up nonsensical imagery and conversations between myself and others. I didn't pay them any attention as my thoughts wandered and drifted idly.
"I thought I'd find you out here," Rue said as I heard her sit down next to me. I didn't hear her walking, however, she continued to speak, "you've been asleep for a few days. What happened?"
"Got fucked," I replied easily, a little sarcastically as well. "Truthfully," I amended, "I got summoned by Raver. She pulled a shenanigan with Fate to let her have a waking dream."
"So she was hallucinating?" Rue stated, though it was more of a question.
"Damned straight," I confirmed, "she had Sasquatch and Farnsworth make something for her. It had to have been lethal, something like that. Anyways, we were talking and then one of Them showed up. Inside the Dreamtime bubble of hers. Found Raver's luminescence despite Mirzam hiding it."
"Shit. So It was physically there? That means It had a stolen body..." Rue said, trailing off.
"Yeah, it had a body alright," I almost growled out, "broke Raver's ritual with little effort. I spent everything I had to make a patch job just to keep it active, burned through all my mana, too. I did not want to be dispersed."
"I see," Rue said to me with understanding, "I wouldn't want to have to find my physical body without a tether either." There was a small pause before she spoke again, "So what happened next?"
"I made it mad with insults to buy time for the repaired shenanigan to stabilize Raver."
"What do you mean?" Rue asked as I heard her stretch out a bit, my eyes still closed.
"Her shenanigan was woven in such a way that whatever drug Sasquatch and Farnsworth made for her didn't just kill her," I answered with a pause then continued, "it let her do things beyond normality, anyways, my fucked up patch job let me tell Sasquatch that Raver had to stay dreaming."
"So he wouldn't just purge the elixir out of her," Rue stated, then added perhaps a tad bit defensively, "I know some things from other paths, not much, but some."
"That's good," I answered back, "knowledge is power."
"With us, it's quite literal."
I murmured in assent.
"So why did you make It mad?" Rue asked, "wouldn't It just draw strength from human emotions, especially in the Dreamtime?"
"It did," I answered back, "but It couldn't act properly on them, like human emotions were new and novel. The whole encounter was sloppy after a certain point, but I did almost die. Raver saved me, gave me a miracle."
"I saw," Rue said simply, "the mark on your hand was a giveaway."
I could only murmur in agreement again then asked, "Did you find a card in my hands, too?"
"I did," Rue replied after a few moments of silence, "it was debit card, with a note attached to it."
"From Procyon, right?"
It took a few moments for her to answer. "Yes, it was from Procyon," she took a breath and continued with wavering effort, "that damned bastard had it all planned out. Wrote a fucked up letter to me on a Google(TM) doc telling me not to worry and that this had always been his exit plan."
"Sounds like he knew what was going to happen," was all I could say.
"Yes, but, I miss him!" Rue all but snarled at me, then, in a small and quiet voice, whispered, "He was my best friend, and maybe we could've been more, y'know? Now... there's... There's just nothing, only memories of him left to mourn."
"I didn't know," I answered simply.
Rue spoke with a wavering breath before continuing, her thoughts more than a little disjointed, "a lot of what he wrote was personal, so I won't get into that, but he was certain that something catastrophic was going to happen to him and myself. So he made sure that I was at my secondary home, recovering from a job. I had just completed a mission from Raver and Mirzam, and was going to perform a ritual to patch up Spades after I got some sleep. Procyon also stated that someone has been altering things for a very long time."
"So that's why you were caught with yout pants down," I said, "you didn't even have time to recover." I paused, adjusting my mysterion as I had to refocus due to our conversation, "what did they have you do?"
"Some hedge wizards actually got a hold of an actual necromancy grimoire and charged mana tools in a graveyard," Rue said with a bit of a tired sigh, "they knew exactly what they were doing, and would have been rather powerful shadow mages if they had been capable of using starlight."
"Fuck," was all I could say, then formed an actual response after a few moments, "that shouldn't have been an issue for you. Hedges don't have our capability, though numbers may have evened out their odds."
"You're right, but they brought a spirit back before I could stop them," Rue answered with more than a little spite, "a real nasty piece of shit, too. Turned on the hedges, absorbed them, and put up a real mean fight against Spades and I. It was touch and go for a long time and I was actually fearful for my life, too."
"You won, though."
"Yeah, managed to send it kicking and screaming back to the Pit, exhausted most of my mana to do so. Fucking bastard."
There was a small silence between us as Rue became lost in her own thoughts. It was a while before I asked her, "Can you elaborate on what Procyon said about Fate being altered?"
"I can, actually, though it's a bit difficult since I'm not even a novice with the Path of Stars," Rue answered as I heard her shift a bit on the grass next to me. She paused as she seemingly collected her thoughts, "it's just that certain events were made to happen sooner or later. The big one, for our Node at least, was that you were always supposed to make your ancestral home translocate. It happened sooner than it should have."
"Fuck," I said, "So I wasn't supposed to send it away a few days ago?"
"No, that was supposed to happen after our wendigo thing, if the letter is to be believed."
"Fuck," was all I could say, "I do suppose that was a snap decision, I really didn't want Them to get a hold of anything inside. If I had been able to wait, or even had help, I'm sure I wouldn't have lost it to time and space."
"Exactly," Rue said with bitter excitement, "and we'd have access to everything in it. Losing your home was a big blow to our Node."
"Yeah, but at least They don't have it," I answered more spitefully than intended.
"Silver linings and all that, right?"
"Yeah, gotta look at the bright side, no matter how bleak," I answered back with a bit of sarcastic mirth, then said as I stretched a bit, readjusting my focus on my mysterion as well, "speaking of wendigos, I know what we need to do to solve that."
"Oh? Do tell, I couldn't come up with anything myself, kept running into dead ends," she said, then added, "lack of resources and help."
"Well, I don't think you're going to like it, I'm not sure I like it either."
"Don't keep me waiting," Rue said to me with a bit of sarcastic exasperation. I could sense her looking at me even though my eyes were still closed.
"I'm going to leverage their taboos against them, appeal to their insatiable greed and offer them what little I can understand of That Which Lies Beyond the Infinite." I sighed and added, "after all, how could they resist the allure of new magic?"
"You're right," she answered, "I definitely don't like it. I'm pretty sure it's not even wise to do so."
"Wise or not, it's the only way forward, I even saw it in a vision when I was manipulating fate magic."
"Have you talked to Mirzam or Raver about this vision of yours?"
"No, not yet, and I'm pretty sure I don't need to."
There was a bit of silence between us as she digested my words. I felt compelled to elaborate as I adjusted my mysterion again, losing a bit of my focus due to the depth of the conversation we were having.
"Acrux," I said, getting her attention fully by using the name of her star, "there's something you need to understand." I sat up, abandoning my mysterion in favor of giving her my full attention. Blinking a bit at the rise of light and warmth, I continued my thought process, "in the Dreamtime, the Thing I was fighting against, It was surprised and enraged that I was able to call upon knowledge that Lay Beyond the Infinite. Whatever those glyphs and powers are, They never wanted humans to know of them, let alone have them."
"Yet you want to give such power to wendigos of all things."
"At least the knowledge, corrupted or not, will still be on Earth," I said then added, "I'm not sure what you remember, but I know you've seen something from Beyond the Infinite. Your self revival and Spade's new form are proof of that. I was there, guided by Oracle. I Perceived something unknowable, something terrible, something no mortal has any right to gaze upon. Something I can hardly even begin to try to put into words. Raver Perceived it, too. It's how she managed to give me a godsend. So, what did you Perceive, really?"
Rue brought her knees up to her chest, thinking deeply. I could tell she was using her Perception to look inwards upon her Self. I waited patiently while she struggled to look at her soul's reflection against her mind and struggled even more to put the image there into words.
At long last, she spoke, her eyes still closed as she did so, "I'm not sure what I saw, there was too much, and I felt so small. Insignificant. Less than even a dismissed, intrusive thought. There is one thing I do remember. A doorway made of the might from two universes worth of truths and laws. A Thing was trying ro break through, but couldn't, not fully, yet the doors were opened, letting smaller ones through."
"The Doors have to be closed," I said, quoting Raver, before continuing, "that's what Raver said to me, before she sent me back to my body."
"Why didn't they mend you then?"
"They were being attacked in the waking world, too. It was a good plan on Their part, They just didn't expect us to put up so much of a fight."
"They never do, though I think that's changing."
"So that's our endgame, not sure how we're going to do it," I said, bringing the conversation back to topic, "at the moment, however, I'm going to eat a few of those mana-stuffed protein bars and fix your leg. I can't keep spending mana to be able to drive your truck. You'll have to use your own mysterion to get mana, too."
"I hate my Path's mysterions," the venom in her voice was palpable.
Before I could say anything, the backdoor opened, revealing Luna. She was wearing a bird-patterned sundress and her hair had been tied back into a loose ponytail. She put her hand over her eyes to shade them from the sun as she squinted against the brightness relative to that from inside.
"Hey, you two," she called out, "Grandmother says she needs to talk yo you."
"Alright," I called out, shakily getting up to my feet with a bit of a grunt. Everything still hurt. Rue had a bit of trouble as well, her leg was not recieving the rest and healing it deserved and needed.
"We're a mess, aren't we?" Rue asked aloud as we began to walk towards the bak door.
"Yeah, but you should see the other guys," I replied with a light chuckle, only to wince and hold my sides, "I forgot how much laughing hurts with fractured ribs."
"I really don't envy you right now," Rue said with a bit of a smirk as we entered Tsula's home, Rue entering first. "I wonder what Tsula wants to talk to us about?" Rue asked aloud, not really talking to anyone in particular.
I could only wonder as we followed Luna to the living room, the house pleasantly cool due to central air conditioning.
~ ~ ~
The moon was not in the sky, and I greatly enjoyed not having to endure the accursed, purifying light of day reflected by its surface, even if greatly diminished. The loathsome wound in my side had been a mortal blow, burning through my toughened flesh and form with unnerving ease and stunning, blinding pain. Once more, I looked at the oily, thin, and black ichor that dripped from my fingers, more human-like than I was comfortable with.
The mote of dreadlight I had recieved for my services had been the only thing that had kept me from vanishing entirely. Mortal alchemy -- science -- had advanced to such a degree so as to emulate the harsh light of day far too remarkably well. That hadn't been the worst part, that damned thaumaturgist had ensorcelled a curse upon the weapon as well. With effort, as the bulk of my power was directed at repairing the oozing wound, I altered my form and shape, struggling to maintain the illusion as I walked out onto the sidewalk from a side alley.
My contract was not yet completed.
The first two nights I had hidden myself away in the dark depths, raging against the oblivion that threatened to overtake me and ending my existence. The preparedness of the thaumaturgist had been unexpected, as well as the skill and the knowledge he had wielded so effortlessly. Without my guidance, nor presence, to instill fear into the gifted abetters, the wraiths I had gathered with me fell and fled into the night, abandoning their duties and contracts.
I would have never made this mistake against the herald of the bear.
Had I known the name of the mortal's star I had been tasked against, I would have demanded more than a simple mote of dreadlight and a paltry handful of coerced allies. Realistically, I should be grateful that I still had a kind of semi-existence. Quelling my anger and hatred, and swallowing my utter revulsion, my form rippled and took the guise of a tall, middle-aged human male in a common and unremarkable suit carrying an old and worn briefcase.
The artificial illumination around me flickered, emitting a grating hum in my presence and the thin television flickered oddly as it tried to display my image, failing to accurately do so. While tracking Arcturus's quintessence had been a bit of a task, as far too much time had passed, my familiarity with it granted me an advantage that overcame that difficulty. Traveling in my wounded state, however, had been much more arduous. Looking the woman at the reception desk over, I took on my role with hiden revulsion, aided by the illusion I was conjuring and the mimicry of my physical form.
"I'm detective Aiden Roth, and I'm looking for someone. I believe that he was here a few nights ago, definitely this past week," I said. My false, human voice had been made to sound smooth, suave and strong, interlaced with a suggestion, using what little forte I could spare. I put the worn and well-used briefcase I had conjured with me onto the counter with a heavy thud, using more of my forte to emulate such a simple thing. Opening it up, I fished out an image and showed the slightly grainy, black and white picture to the receptionist.
As the woman perused the conjured image, I could not help but hiss, my hand going to my side as I expended more of my forte than I had anticipated. The cursed wound fighting back fiercely against the dreadlight tethering my existence and life. I held my disguise with willpower of monumental proportions. A strength of will I rarely had been pressed to draw from.
Seeing the concerned look the woman gave me, I simply stated, shrugging off the pain with yet more expenditure of will, "An old injury, it flares up from time to time. No matter, have you seen this individual?"
"I'm going to need to see some kind of badge or warrant," the woman said with a genuine smile, "sorry."
The fear of losing her menial job overpowered my subtle suggestion. Unfortunate.
"Sure," I replied with a fake and well ptacticed, fetching smile, adjusting my forte to include another suggestion. I showed an actual badge with my assumed name and likeness. The mortal I was impersonating had been slain many years ago by my own hands, and the subtle illusion taking hardly any of my forte adjusted the dates and design of the badge to whatever was current.
Only a thaumaturgist, or a very particularly skilled sorcerer, could pierce the illusion. Against this mortal, there was no chance of resistance and she accepted the stolen badge without question.
She looked it over, as if trying to divine the legitimacy of it. "Okay," she finally admitted, "he was here a while ago, maybe a four or five days? I remember, 'cause I tried to flirt with him..."
I ignored her prattling and asked when she finished speaking, "Can you show me the room he used?"
"Sure, but it's been cleaned a few times since then."
With a nod, I let her lead the way to the room in question, staying silent. The lights around me flickered and hummed loudly in my presence. Had the woman been more observant, she could have seen my true shadow as I had not the forte to expend to hide it entirely from the ever changing lights. She opened the room in question, using what I could only assume was a master key card.
I immediately recognized the faded auras of quintessence.
"This will do," I stated, closing the door behind me and dropping my revolting disguise, using my forte to lock it.
I revealed my true form. My legs and arms lengthened and thinned, the black suit and red tie I was wearing became my skin, armor and form. My face and eyes became blank, gaunt and sunken, skin stretching out over it. The wound in my side made itself visible, it was an ugly red, peeling and oozing burn from my shoulder to my waist and took up most of my torso. The dreadlight I was using to prevent my oblivion illuminated the wound with a kind of sickly, crimson colored backlight. Black ichor oozed out from it and dripped onto the floor as I used the bulk of my forte to ablate the caustic, foreign quintessence from my form.
The woman looked at me as even her pitifully dull, mundane human senses told her that there was incredible danger in the room with her. She screeched and irrationally ran towards the bathroom as my presence became impossibly tall in the very finite space in the motel room. Using the smallest iota of my forte, I remotely smashed her fleeing form against a wall, pinning her there with unseen force as she begged, and sobbed for her pitiful life.
I ignored her for the moment.
Drawing upon more of my forte, freed up as I no longer needed a disguise, I sensed out where quintessence had been used, discovering two places, the bed and a wall. Imbuing the wall with my own forte, I witnessed a spectral, moving image of Arcturus throwing five darts at a map placed on the wall, one at a time, then draw intersecting lines to a single point on the map.
"Wendigos..." I hissed out in loathing, the skin on my face stretching and contorting with the movement as i spoke aloud with a nonexistent mouth. Even I knew their territory.
Turning to the second source of quintessence, I did the same thing. I saw Arcturus ward himself against dreaming and then hold a brilliant shield in the air, as well as a ball of fire. My knowledge of actual thaumaturgy told me that I would have great difficulties against those Knowings. I put the mystery of his Dreamtime excursion out of my mind for now, there was nothing I could do regarding that.
My expenditure of forte caused my horrid wound to pulse against my form painfully. With a hiss, I turned to the woman meekly begging me to spare her life as she was still pinned against the wall. I could use a thrall, especially as I could no longer gain allies, not without offering something in return to my current contract holders.
That was not a barter I wanted to engage in.
"Please... don't kill me... please... I'll do anything... please..."
The absolute terror in her eyes was delectable. Her fear invigorated me with energy and reminded me I needed to feed. However, the morsels offered by her would be more than sufficient for my needs. I dragged my left hand across my oozing wound, covering it in my own essence then flexed my forte. The clothes she was wearing split in half down the middle, revealing her naked form, making her shriek. I could see the ideas her panicked mind vomited forth as she renewed her struggles with vigor.
What I had in mind was so much worse than the mundane taking of her physical body she expected.
Using the full might of my forte, I lengthened and sharpened my index finger, the tip dripping with the gathered ichor of my essence. In an instant, less than the blink of an eye, I appeared in front of her from where I had been by the bed and plunged the very tip of my sharpened, needle-like nail into the center of her heart, cutting through the most sensitive parts of her breast to do so due to the angle I had chosen for just this purpose. As I let my ichor suffuse her body with each beat of her racing heart, her vascular system visibly turning black under her skin as she screamed and writhed in agony, an odd thing happened.
What could only be considered my blood had been tainted by thaumaturgy qnr bolstered by dreadlight as well as my own forte. As it mixed with the blank canvas of the mortal in front of me, I could sense the candle of her soul. Reaching out with dreadlight, letting the wound burn my side with a hiss of inhaled breath, I ignited it with three kinds of mysticism.
A horrified realization overcame her as she knew I had fundamentally altered her to suit my whims. Having a thaumaturgist thrall would be a great boon.
"You'll do quite nicely," I said with an actual grin, the skin stretched over my mouth revealing impossibly large, gleaming flat teeth, as I watched the physical and mystical changes taking place.
My new thrall would never be human again.
I feasted on her terror, anguish and torment.
It was delicious.
~ ~ ~
Arcturus and Acrux will be back. C'Leena Thomas, Prosthetist is going to be my next update.
[[NEXT]]
2024.05.09 20:59 MayLovesMetal Trying to activate Medicare B
So I've been on SSDI since 2012, with Medicare A since 2013. We declined B at that time as my husband was employed by a large legal firm with excellent group health insurance and we confirmed it would be creditable coverage. Given that I'm chronically and permanently disabled I do need a good deal of medical care. On February 2 DH was unceremoniously and very unexpectedly fired from his job of 26 years which was a truly traumatic time as we dont have a safety net thanks to my life savings having been wiped out by a catastrophic illness in 2006 and my inability to rebuild on my at the time single parent factory income before my forced retirement from meat plant work. On February 10th I submitted my online application for Medicare B under a SEP and also signed up for AARP UHC Medicare D plan. Thankfully D plan was quickly enacted and I've been able to get my medications without too much hassle. But nothing re Medicare B. So some weeks ago I called SS and eventually got a human willing to actually listen who realized that the SEP app I filled out on SS didn't require the form from former employer that's generally required, just copies of my previous insurance card and our W2s. She had my resubmit the application along with the form from his former employer and fax it to my local SS office. And here almost a month later still nothing. I'm not trying to be impatient but geez I would like to know if it's even been looked at. Medicare said call SS of course.
I really need to go to both my PCP who has to see me every so many months if only bc I am on 2 controlled substances but also you know for my health. I'm overdue for my pulmonologist and having serious issues with my chronic GI condition too. I can rustle up the office visit fee but no way I can cover the lab work I will need just for PCP, never mind any specialists. I spent the last 3 years losing 150 lbs and working super hard to get myself as healthy as possible and it's heartbreaking feeling like it's about to fall apart. I intend to go into local SSA office in person next Wednesday to try to ascertain that something's going to happen but I'm losing hope. Does anyone have tips what I can do or say here to get my Medicare B going? My husband has found a new job thank God and had I known I could have gotten insurance there but now I'm in this application process which would be coming soon enough anyway (I turned 63 yesterday) I'm sorry this is so long but it's not a really simple situation or I probably wouldn't be having this problem. I'm fairly bright, husband and adult son who lives with and advocates for me is incredibly intelligent and deals well with people but SS is just like some otherworldly impenetrable entity as far as I can tell. Can I get a caseworker or someone who I can think might be able to be expected to know anything about the situation down the road? Ugh.
submitted by MayLovesMetal to SocialSecurity [link] [comments]
I really need to go to both my PCP who has to see me every so many months if only bc I am on 2 controlled substances but also you know for my health. I'm overdue for my pulmonologist and having serious issues with my chronic GI condition too. I can rustle up the office visit fee but no way I can cover the lab work I will need just for PCP, never mind any specialists. I spent the last 3 years losing 150 lbs and working super hard to get myself as healthy as possible and it's heartbreaking feeling like it's about to fall apart. I intend to go into local SSA office in person next Wednesday to try to ascertain that something's going to happen but I'm losing hope. Does anyone have tips what I can do or say here to get my Medicare B going? My husband has found a new job thank God and had I known I could have gotten insurance there but now I'm in this application process which would be coming soon enough anyway (I turned 63 yesterday) I'm sorry this is so long but it's not a really simple situation or I probably wouldn't be having this problem. I'm fairly bright, husband and adult son who lives with and advocates for me is incredibly intelligent and deals well with people but SS is just like some otherworldly impenetrable entity as far as I can tell. Can I get a caseworker or someone who I can think might be able to be expected to know anything about the situation down the road? Ugh.
2024.05.09 00:30 AutoModerator General Questions Thread, May 08, 2024
A thread for new collectors to ask basic questions of the community.
Frequently Asked Questions below!
A longer version of the subreddit rules is here.
For questions specifically concerning bootlegs or vendor legitimacy, please ask in the Bootleg Megathread.
NSFW & Spoiler Guidelines
Any collection posts containing bootlegs, comments advocating buying bootlegs, or links to sites selling bootlegs, recasts, or unlicensed merchandise will be removed.
People often ask about the legitimacy and/or safety of a number of websites which sell large resin statues. The more commonly-asked of those deal primarily in resins from studios which do not have a license from the Japanese IP holders to produce merchandise. Therefore links to those sites are not permitted here. Another sign is if MyFigureCollection doesn't list the either the statue, its manufacturer, or the shop it's being sold on.
MyFigureCollection
My Figure Collection is like MyAnimeList... but for figures! Their database includes thousands of items which been produced during the last couple of decades, along with reviews of shops and other helpful articles. One can also list their own collection and post gallery photos.
Shops
That’s going to depend a lot on what works for you, but most people around here buy them from Amiami, Big in Japan, Hobby Search, HobbyLink Japan, or Tokyo Otaku Mode. If none of those work for you for whatever reason, there’s a list of reputable retailers in the sidebar that you can check out at any time. Be extra careful when ordering figures from websites like Amazon or ebay, as there are a lot of bootlegs on those sites. Don’t be afraid to ask in our Bootleg Megathread if you’re unsure.
2. What differences are there between the shipping options I get from most Japanese shops?
Below is a rundown of the main shipping choices you’ll get at most retailers. Keep in mind that if an order is large enough you will be forced to use one of the more expensive options, as SAL shipments have lower size and weight restrictions.
Most shops will ask you to pay shipping on a per-order basis, but here are some that will allow combined shipping:
4. When will I get charged for my preorder?
Most Japanese shops charge you once the item is in stock and ready for shipment. When that happens, they will send you an email asking for payment. Some shops (mostly overseas ones), will allow you to pay for the item up front though, if you’d like. A few with that option are:
5. Should I expect to pay customs fees when importing figures?
That depends on where you live. Here’s a quick rundown:
You have three options for this:
A. Big in Japan is known to stock exclusive figures and ship to other countries. Usually the price is higher because they build in their proxy fees, but it’s easier than worrying about using a forwarder or proxy service. If you live in the US, Crunchyroll, Right Stuf, and Tokyo Otaku Mode also get exclusives sometimes, but out of the states the shipping can get expensive.
B. Forwarding Services: A forwarder is someone who you ship an exclusive item to so that they can forward the package on to you, usually for a flat fee + shipping. When using a forwarder you still make the purchase yourself, and enter their address into the shipping field. When the box arrives at the forwarder they will then stick your address onto the package and send it on its way.
Some popular forwarders are:
Be sure to read each sites instructions on forwarding carefully!
C. Proxy Services: With a proxy, you tell them what the item you’re looking for is and they will purchase it in your stead. This is handy for when a company doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, or you’re having trouble navigating a Japanese website.
Some popular proxies are:
7. I see a bunch of really cheap figures that ship from China on ebay. Are those okay to buy?
Generally, no. They’re most likely bootlegs. If you want a second opinion on that, feel free to ask in the Bootleg Megathread that’s always stickied at the top of the sub.
8. What’s a bootleg, and how can I avoid buying them?
A bootleg is a counterfeit figure often made using rejected molds of the official product. They are usually priced significantly lower than the genuine article, and in order to make their profit, bootleggers use lower quality materials and have less attention to detail- resulting in a substandard figure.
The Bootleg Megathread that I mentioned in question 7 is a great tool to avoid buying any bootlegs. It has a few tips and tricks to avoiding them to begin with, and a few more on how to spot them if you’re worried you might already own one.
9. Does anyone know when figure X is going to be released? How do I know if it was delayed?
My Figure Collection (sometimes referred to as MFC) does an excellent job of staying on top of information like release dates and delays. If you’re curious about an upcoming figures release date, check there first. This information can be found directly under the “Releases” section on a figure’s entry. If you only see a month and a year in that section, it means the release date has not yet been announced by the manufacturer, and there is still a chance the figure could be delayed.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.
10. The figure I want is long sold out at normal retailers! What’s the best place to pick it up in the aftermarket?
A list of reputable retailers can be found under the “Shops” section of the /AnimeFigures sidebar. They all sell legitimate products, and many of them also sell figures second hand. However, the most frequently suggested second hand sites are Mandarake and Amiami- who has a preowned section that they update every night save Sundays and Japanese holidays around 1PM JST and again around 6PM JST.
AmiAmi grades their pre-owned items on a letter scale. The general consensus from buyers is that their ratings are conservative, so unless the item and/or packaging is specifically indicated as having significant flaws, pre-owned items from them are usually in at least as good a condition as their rating suggests.
Note: When you search Mandarake, you’ll get the best results by using the Japanese characters for whatever you are searching. If you don’t know them, you can find them on MFC by clicking on any of the “details” in that figure’s listing.
11. Amiami has a figure I’m interested in labeled as “For sale in Japan only”. Does this mean I can’t order it without a proxy or forwarder?
No, you can still order it. Amiami’s English site has that warning on many items, and it’s mostly meant to inform you that this product was made for a Japanese market, and as such, will have Japanese speaking/writing in it- so don’t expect any instructions to be in English. If Amiami doesn’t want foreigners buying a certain product, they won’t even list it on their English site.
If you live near an Ikea try out one of these:
If you don’t live near an Ikea, Amazon has a few display options, though they are more expensive. Also keep an eye on your local Craigslist (or your country’s equivalent) and stores near you that are closing up.
13. What lighting do you guys recommend?
Ikea’s Dioder LED strips were discontinued after a long run. A current version is the Vattensten, if you're inclined to buy your case and lights at the same time.
LED strips have become very commonly available in recent years; most hardware and home furnishing stores carry a selection now. Just make sure that the lights don’t get too hot!
14. What are those clear plastic boxes that I see under everyone’s figures in their collection posts, and where can I get them?
Those are called risers. Most of us use standard acrylic risers like these. Some other, easy to find things that have been suggested are:
Another common suggestion is to visit The Container Store if you have one near you. They have a lot of things to choose from that can suit a variety of needs. Be sure to check out their standard acrylic risers, their Amac boxes, and the various display cases they sell (baseball cases, mini car cases. hockey puck cases, etc).
15. Should I keep my figures sealed?
That is, of course, up to you really, but here are a few things to keep in mind when debating this question:
Those are classifications for figures based on a few factors.
17. There are so many figure companies! Who makes good figures?!
Obviously this is a very subjective question, but as a general starting point, here are a few well renowned figure companies:
My Figure Collection can be your best friend here. Simply do a search on the name of the series or character using the search bar located at the top right of the screen, and all associated figures pop up!
Alternatively, if you’re looking at a figure’s MFC entry, most of the text under the “Details” section can be clicked on and used to run a search.
19. How can I commission a custom figure?
None of the major figure companies (Alter, Kotobukiya, Good Smile Company, etc.) will take a commission for a single figure. This thread has a few websites in it that you can check out, or you can look into garage kits. Some kit painters would be willing to resculpt, frankenstein together, or otherwise modify kits for the right price.
If you're looking for help completing a garage kit, /brushforhire may be useful.
Most people use a MFC combined with any or all of the following news sites:
To use MFC for this I’ll quote question #9.
21. Everyone’s excited about something called Wonfes….. what the heck is that?!
WonFes (short for Wonder Festival) is a biannual figure expo where many figure producers (both large and small) show off new sculpts and updates to figures already under way. Most companies save their most exciting announcements for WonFes, so we all look forward to the expo whenever it rolls around! Winter Wonder Festival is usually held in February, while Summer Wonder Festival is usually in July. The event has also spread to Shanghai, in the late spring.
22. One or two (or 15) figures were announced at WonFes that I’m really excited about! How can I keep track of their progress once the event is over?
MFC is always really quick about getting new WonFes announcements (or any others throughout the year, for that matter) listed in their database, so we suggest using that. To find a figure from the event you can search any number of things, including the name of the character or the name of the show. You can also use the tag search to search “WonderFestival 20xx_[season]” to see all items announced at that event.
submitted by AutoModerator to AnimeFigures [link] [comments]
Frequently Asked Questions below!
A longer version of the subreddit rules is here.
For questions specifically concerning bootlegs or vendor legitimacy, please ask in the Bootleg Megathread.
- For Self Posts: include a bolded NSFW note next to links in that post.
- For Links to sites/images: If the figure is NSFW, or the website has any NSFW content (including ads) be sure to tag your post NSFW and use the appropriate link flair.
Any collection posts containing bootlegs, comments advocating buying bootlegs, or links to sites selling bootlegs, recasts, or unlicensed merchandise will be removed.
People often ask about the legitimacy and/or safety of a number of websites which sell large resin statues. The more commonly-asked of those deal primarily in resins from studios which do not have a license from the Japanese IP holders to produce merchandise. Therefore links to those sites are not permitted here. Another sign is if MyFigureCollection doesn't list the either the statue, its manufacturer, or the shop it's being sold on.
MyFigureCollection
My Figure Collection is like MyAnimeList... but for figures! Their database includes thousands of items which been produced during the last couple of decades, along with reviews of shops and other helpful articles. One can also list their own collection and post gallery photos.
Shops
Retailers:Blogs/News:
AmiAmi HobbySearch Mandarake (sells rare figures) Good Smile Company Online Shop (often has exclusives) Good Smile Company US shop Crunchyroll Store Hobby Link Japan (aka HLJ) Solaris Japan (MFC partner) BigBadToyStore (MFC partner, US retailer) Big in Japan (also has proxy service) Tokyo Otaku Mode FigureHaven Archonia (EU) Yorokonde (EU) Figuya (EU) Gamersheek (UK) Jungle
List of retailers on MFC
/AnimeFigures' List of Retailers
Community Guide to Shopping in Japan
Nekomagic (News/Previews) NyaaFigurines (Reviews/Releases) Kahotan's Blog (News/Reviews) Figma Blog (JP)
Buying & Shipping
1. What’s the best place to buy my anime figures from?That’s going to depend a lot on what works for you, but most people around here buy them from Amiami, Big in Japan, Hobby Search, HobbyLink Japan, or Tokyo Otaku Mode. If none of those work for you for whatever reason, there’s a list of reputable retailers in the sidebar that you can check out at any time. Be extra careful when ordering figures from websites like Amazon or ebay, as there are a lot of bootlegs on those sites. Don’t be afraid to ask in our Bootleg Megathread if you’re unsure.
2. What differences are there between the shipping options I get from most Japanese shops?
Below is a rundown of the main shipping choices you’ll get at most retailers. Keep in mind that if an order is large enough you will be forced to use one of the more expensive options, as SAL shipments have lower size and weight restrictions.
- Unregistered SAL: Sometimes referred to as uSAL, is usually the cheapest method. It does not come with any tracking or insurance. Usually takes up 2-4 weeks for delivery.
- Registered SAL: Sometimes referred to as rSAL, is insured for the declared value up to 6,000 yen. It comes with a tracking number and usually takes 2-4 weeks for delivery.
- EMS: This method of shipping is much faster than either SAL options, usually arriving within a week of shipment. EMS shipments are insured for the declared value up to 2,000,000 yen.
- Airmail
- E-packet
- Surface: Shops don't offer this very often. It's an actual cargo ship and slow as a result.
- DHL: Becoming more available as an alternative to EMS on AmiAmi and other sites. Can be less expensive than EMS and of comparable speed, but may be more reliant on the specific geographical area being shipped to. The price is also determined by the size of the box. Offers their own tracking.
Most shops will ask you to pay shipping on a per-order basis, but here are some that will allow combined shipping:
- Amiami: You can combine orders here, as long as the orders ship in the same month. It doesn’t matter if the item is new or preowned. Any preorders that are set for that month can also be combined with other orders for that month. However, be aware that if the preorder gets delayed, Amiami will remove that item from that month’s shipment and place it on a new order. To combine orders on Amiami, use the “Combine Orders” feature under “My Account”.
- Hobby Search: Hobby Search will let you combine orders that release in the same month, but you cannot combine in stock items with preorders. If you want to combine multiple preorders, or multiple in stock items, you can do so using the “Order Recombination” feature on your account page.
- HobbyLink Japan: At HLJ, you have the option to send paid orders to their “Private Warehouse”, where you can store them for up to 2 months. When you’re ready to ship the items, you simply select which items to ship and HLJ will combine them into one shipment for you. To use this, just select the “Private Warehouse” option as shipping when you order.
4. When will I get charged for my preorder?
Most Japanese shops charge you once the item is in stock and ready for shipment. When that happens, they will send you an email asking for payment. Some shops (mostly overseas ones), will allow you to pay for the item up front though, if you’d like. A few with that option are:
- Big in Japan (Japanese store)
- Tokyo Otaku Mode
- Anime Island
- Crunchyroll
5. Should I expect to pay customs fees when importing figures?
That depends on where you live. Here’s a quick rundown:
- Australia: 10% GST is now assessed up front.
- Canada: Minimum declared value for charges is around CAD$20 for regular shipments, and CAD$60 for gifts (gifting something only seems to lower the declared value by about CAD$40, not deplete it completely). When using Amiami, try their Small Air Packet option. It comes with tracking, gets there in about the same time as EMS, and is better at avoiding customs.
- European Union: As of 1st July 2021, VAT has to be paid on all goods imported from outside of the EU. Retailers are supposed charge VAT for purchases under €150, however many Japanese retailers currently do not, so VAT will be charged when your order arrives in the EU. Orders that are >€150, VAT and duty will be charged by your local customs.
- UK: As of 1st January 2021, VAT is to be charged by retailers for orders <£135. However, customs isn't currently charging VAT on parcels valued at <£135, even if the VAT hasn't been paid. Goods >£135 will have their VAT and duty calculated and charged by customs.
- Mexico: Minimum declared value for customs fees is USD$300 for shipments by post, and USD$50 for shipments by courier.
- United States: A shipment has to have a declared value of USD$2,000 before customs starts hitting you with fees, so you most likely won’t have to worry about them at all.
You have three options for this:
A. Big in Japan is known to stock exclusive figures and ship to other countries. Usually the price is higher because they build in their proxy fees, but it’s easier than worrying about using a forwarder or proxy service. If you live in the US, Crunchyroll, Right Stuf, and Tokyo Otaku Mode also get exclusives sometimes, but out of the states the shipping can get expensive.
B. Forwarding Services: A forwarder is someone who you ship an exclusive item to so that they can forward the package on to you, usually for a flat fee + shipping. When using a forwarder you still make the purchase yourself, and enter their address into the shipping field. When the box arrives at the forwarder they will then stick your address onto the package and send it on its way.
Some popular forwarders are:
Be sure to read each sites instructions on forwarding carefully!
C. Proxy Services: With a proxy, you tell them what the item you’re looking for is and they will purchase it in your stead. This is handy for when a company doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, or you’re having trouble navigating a Japanese website.
Some popular proxies are:
- Big in Japan (Won’t proxy for Yahoo Auctions)
- From Japan
7. I see a bunch of really cheap figures that ship from China on ebay. Are those okay to buy?
Generally, no. They’re most likely bootlegs. If you want a second opinion on that, feel free to ask in the Bootleg Megathread that’s always stickied at the top of the sub.
8. What’s a bootleg, and how can I avoid buying them?
A bootleg is a counterfeit figure often made using rejected molds of the official product. They are usually priced significantly lower than the genuine article, and in order to make their profit, bootleggers use lower quality materials and have less attention to detail- resulting in a substandard figure.
The Bootleg Megathread that I mentioned in question 7 is a great tool to avoid buying any bootlegs. It has a few tips and tricks to avoiding them to begin with, and a few more on how to spot them if you’re worried you might already own one.
9. Does anyone know when figure X is going to be released? How do I know if it was delayed?
My Figure Collection (sometimes referred to as MFC) does an excellent job of staying on top of information like release dates and delays. If you’re curious about an upcoming figures release date, check there first. This information can be found directly under the “Releases” section on a figure’s entry. If you only see a month and a year in that section, it means the release date has not yet been announced by the manufacturer, and there is still a chance the figure could be delayed.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.
10. The figure I want is long sold out at normal retailers! What’s the best place to pick it up in the aftermarket?
A list of reputable retailers can be found under the “Shops” section of the /AnimeFigures sidebar. They all sell legitimate products, and many of them also sell figures second hand. However, the most frequently suggested second hand sites are Mandarake and Amiami- who has a preowned section that they update every night save Sundays and Japanese holidays around 1PM JST and again around 6PM JST.
AmiAmi grades their pre-owned items on a letter scale. The general consensus from buyers is that their ratings are conservative, so unless the item and/or packaging is specifically indicated as having significant flaws, pre-owned items from them are usually in at least as good a condition as their rating suggests.
Note: When you search Mandarake, you’ll get the best results by using the Japanese characters for whatever you are searching. If you don’t know them, you can find them on MFC by clicking on any of the “details” in that figure’s listing.
11. Amiami has a figure I’m interested in labeled as “For sale in Japan only”. Does this mean I can’t order it without a proxy or forwarder?
No, you can still order it. Amiami’s English site has that warning on many items, and it’s mostly meant to inform you that this product was made for a Japanese market, and as such, will have Japanese speaking/writing in it- so don’t expect any instructions to be in English. If Amiami doesn’t want foreigners buying a certain product, they won’t even list it on their English site.
Displaying Your Figures
12. What display cases do you recommend?If you live near an Ikea try out one of these:
- Klingsbo
- Billy (Often used with Morliden doors (now the HÖGBO and glass shelves.)
- Detolf: Formerly the go-to choice for inexpensive display cabinetry, the Detolf was first made flimsier around 2020 and then essentially phased out of the name, to become the BLÅLIDEN. Knockoff versions of widely-varying quality are commonly found on other shopping sites these days, though.
If you don’t live near an Ikea, Amazon has a few display options, though they are more expensive. Also keep an eye on your local Craigslist (or your country’s equivalent) and stores near you that are closing up.
13. What lighting do you guys recommend?
Ikea’s Dioder LED strips were discontinued after a long run. A current version is the Vattensten, if you're inclined to buy your case and lights at the same time.
LED strips have become very commonly available in recent years; most hardware and home furnishing stores carry a selection now. Just make sure that the lights don’t get too hot!
14. What are those clear plastic boxes that I see under everyone’s figures in their collection posts, and where can I get them?
Those are called risers. Most of us use standard acrylic risers like these. Some other, easy to find things that have been suggested are:
- Plastic picture cubes
- Card Deck Boxes
- If you’re feeling adventurous, try making your own!
Another common suggestion is to visit The Container Store if you have one near you. They have a lot of things to choose from that can suit a variety of needs. Be sure to check out their standard acrylic risers, their Amac boxes, and the various display cases they sell (baseball cases, mini car cases. hockey puck cases, etc).
15. Should I keep my figures sealed?
That is, of course, up to you really, but here are a few things to keep in mind when debating this question:
- Keeping it sealed can actually damage your figure. PVC figures usually have something called plasticizer in them, and that plasticizer needs to be able to breath. If a PVC figure isn’t exposed to oxygen, after a period of time the plasticizer starts to break down and form a sticky substance on the surface of the figure. Simply opening your figures and taking them out of the box prevents this from happening. If you happen to find plasticizer goo on one of your figures, Kahotan has a handy guide for dealing with it.
- Unlike some other figure markets, keeping an anime figure sealed won’t raise its value by a whole lot. In fact, because of the plasticizer problem mentioned above, your figure could actually be in better condition if you open it versus keeping it sealed.
Finding the Right Figure(s) for You
16. What are "scales" and "prizes"? What is the difference between them?Those are classifications for figures based on a few factors.
- "Prizes" are generally more simply produced figures which are intended to be given as prizes for playing arcade games. They are inexpensive and lack the detail of scale figures, though some prize figure lines have standouts which may approach lower-end scales in quality. That is uncommon and often depends on the individual figure.
- "Scales" are called such because they are nominally designed to be proportional to the dimensions of the character which they are based on. They are generally of much better manufacture and materials than prize figures, allowing for more detail in painting, accessories, or complex poses.
- "Trading" figures appear in gashapon machines or as blind boxes on shop counters, often as sets which include multiple characters. As suggested by the class name, the randomness encourages trading. They are usually very inexpensively-produced, though as with prizes, some series are better than others.
- "Non-scale" encompasses a variety of other categories. It is often used to describe poseable figure lines such as figma and Nendoroids.
17. There are so many figure companies! Who makes good figures?!
Obviously this is a very subjective question, but as a general starting point, here are a few well renowned figure companies:
- Alter
- Max Factory
- Good Smile Company
- Kotobukiya (usually hit or miss for people. Use your best judgement based off of the prototype)
- Flare
- Stronger
My Figure Collection can be your best friend here. Simply do a search on the name of the series or character using the search bar located at the top right of the screen, and all associated figures pop up!
Alternatively, if you’re looking at a figure’s MFC entry, most of the text under the “Details” section can be clicked on and used to run a search.
19. How can I commission a custom figure?
None of the major figure companies (Alter, Kotobukiya, Good Smile Company, etc.) will take a commission for a single figure. This thread has a few websites in it that you can check out, or you can look into garage kits. Some kit painters would be willing to resculpt, frankenstein together, or otherwise modify kits for the right price.
If you're looking for help completing a garage kit, /brushforhire may be useful.
Keeping Up with New Announcements
20. How can I keep up with figure news (announcements, updates, etc.)?Most people use a MFC combined with any or all of the following news sites:
- Neko Magic
- Alter’s Blog (In Japanese)
- Kahotan’s Blog (Only GSC and their sister companies)
To use MFC for this I’ll quote question #9.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.Most companies have one or more Twitter accounts. Some examples: Good Smile Company sales, Good Smile's USA branch, Max Factory, AmiAmi Hobby News.
21. Everyone’s excited about something called Wonfes….. what the heck is that?!
WonFes (short for Wonder Festival) is a biannual figure expo where many figure producers (both large and small) show off new sculpts and updates to figures already under way. Most companies save their most exciting announcements for WonFes, so we all look forward to the expo whenever it rolls around! Winter Wonder Festival is usually held in February, while Summer Wonder Festival is usually in July. The event has also spread to Shanghai, in the late spring.
22. One or two (or 15) figures were announced at WonFes that I’m really excited about! How can I keep track of their progress once the event is over?
MFC is always really quick about getting new WonFes announcements (or any others throughout the year, for that matter) listed in their database, so we suggest using that. To find a figure from the event you can search any number of things, including the name of the character or the name of the show. You can also use the tag search to search “WonderFestival 20xx_[season]” to see all items announced at that event.
2024.05.09 00:14 tomesandtea [Discussion] Quarterly Non-Fiction Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, Chapters 5-10
Welcome to our second discussion of Thinking, Fast and Slow! The Marginalia post is here. You can find the Schedule here.
This week, we will discuss Chapters 5-10. If you're feeling a little overwhelmed or frustrated by the content, just hold a pencil in your mouth pointing left to right and you'll be primed to feel better in no time! You can also read through the chapter summaries below for a refresher.
This is a nonfiction text so it's obviously not plot-driven, but we still want to be respectful of the experiences of other readers. So, if you've read ahead or made connections between the concepts in this book and other media, please mark spoilers using the format > ! Spoiler text here ! < (without any spaces between the characters themselves or between the characters and the first and last words).
Chapter Summaries:
CHAPTER 5 - Cognitive Ease: Kahneman shows us how System 1 and System 2 work together to create states of cognitive ease or cognitive strain when we are presented with information or other stimuli. Cognitive ease is a state of comfort where things are going well, while cognitive strain is the opposite end of the spectrum where there is a problem which causes discomfort.
Our brains constantly assess how things are going, using automatic System 1 processes, and monitoring whether the extra effort of lazy System 2 is needed. When experiencing familiar inputs and in a good mood, our brains are in a state of cognitive ease, which leads to positive feelings and trust of the situation or information. When System 2 needs to get involved, we experience cognitive strain and can develop negative feelings and skepticism. Kahneman asserts that these states can be “both a cause and a consequence” of how we feel about things and relate to them.
On the “cause” side, cognitive ease can make you notice and believe things more readily because your brain is already used to them. (Cognitive strain can make you reject unfamiliar messages.)
CHAPTER 6 - Norms, Surprises, and Causes: System 1 is compared to a powerful computer in this section, because it can quickly make links between networks of ideas. System 2 is our ability to set search parameters and program the computer to detect certain bits of data more easily. Let’s check out how awesome - and limited - System 1 is!
Surprise is the spice of life, and System 1 works with surprising events to help explain what we observe and decide if it is “normal”. Surprises come in two kinds: consciously expected events that will surprise you if they don’t happen (eg, your kid coming home from school), and passively expected events that are normal in a given scenario but it won’t surprise us if they don’t happen (eg, when I give my students a test someone will probably groan). System 1 helps us adjust our expectations: an event may seem normal if we’ve been exposed to it before (such as bumping into the same friend unexpectedly on two vacations) or become an expected occurrence (such as looking for an accident in the same stretch of road where you saw a big one earlier). Linking up events is another talent of System 1. Kahneman and his colleague Dale Miller worked on norm theory together: when observing two events, the first may be surprising but when a second event occurs your System 1 thinking will work out a connection between the two, making a narrative of sorts that diminishes how surprising the second event seems. This also makes it hard to pick out small errors, but easy to pick out glaring ones, such as the difference between reading “Moses put animals on the ark” and “George Bush put animals on the ark”.
System 1 likes to create narratives with these linked events. It helps us understand stories in a common way across the culture, and it allows us to make sense of the events in our daily lives and in the world.
CHAPTER 7 - A Machine for Jumping to Conclusions: System 1 is that machine, and it does this without our awareness. This works out just fine when making a mistake wouldn’t be a big deal and our assumptions are probably going to be correct (such as hearing “Anne approached the bank” and thinking of an institution of finance rather than a river’s edge). It gets more serious - and needs the help of System 2’s analysis - if it would be risky to make a mistake and the situation is unfamiliar or vague. We rely on System 1 to draw conclusions about ambiguous information without ever having to ponder the uncertainties, and most of the time this works out just fine! But it can also lead to biases.
Confirmation bias occurs when we fall back on our associative memories to evaluate information. System 1 likes to confirm things and will rely on examples related to the wording of a statement or question. It is gullible and will try to believe things if it can. Fortunately, System 2 is deliberate and skeptical; it can step in to help us interpret things more correctly or “unbelieve” things that are false. The bad news is that, if System 2 is already busy or feeling lazy (eg, if you are experiencing cognitive strain) then System 2 might not kick in and you might be duped. Don’t watch those influencer marketing posts while exhausted, kids!
Even when not under strain, System 2 will still default to searching for evidence that proves a statement or question rather than seeing if it can be disproved. This is contrary to the science and philosophy rules for testing hypotheses, but hey, Systems 1 and 2 are gonna do what they’re gonna do. If someone asks if a person is friendly, you’re going to think of times they did nice things; but if someone asks if they're unfriendly, all their jerky behaviors will come to mind.
The Halo Effect is another bias to watch out for. We are prone to make assumptions based on our initial experiences and observations. For instance, a fun conversation at a party might lead you to assume your new friend is generous, even though you have no knowledge of their charitable behaviors (or lack thereof), and in turn their assumed generosity will make you like them even more! This is the halo effect, where we generalize about something based on initial impressions: if you like a person, you tend to like everything about them (and vice versa). Your mom was right: first impressions are important!
You can avoid the halo effect by decorrelating errors. This essentially means you should crowdsource information and opinions from a lot of independent sources who aren’t allowed to collaborate before sharing their thinking, and the average of this information will provide a clear understanding. It is the reason police don’t allow multiple witnesses to “get their stories straight” and why Kahneman believes everyone should write a short summary of their opinions before engaging in open discussion at a meeting. It is also a great way to cheat at those guessing jar challenges: just wait for everyone else to write down a number, then sneak a peek at the guesses and take the average as your own guess! (You can also use math if you’re a goody-two-shoes.) You’re welcome!
The principle of “What You See Is All There Is” (WYSIATI) leads to many other biases. Sure, it’s beneficial to think quickly and make sense out of complex situations using System 1 and the evidence at hand. It’s not always prudent or possible to stop and mull over whether we have all the information, so usually we rely on WYSIATI. The downside to this is that, when System 1 jumps to conclusions, it doesn’t care about the quantity or quality of the information it has to go on; it simply wants a coherent narrative. Since we almost always have incomplete information when making decisions or judgements, we rely on System 1 to put together the best possible conclusion based on what we see. We never stop to ask what we don’t know. This creates biases that can lead to incorrect assumptions. These include:
CHAPTER 8 - How Judgments Happen: Like a curious toddler, there is no limit to the number of questions System 2 can ask. And like a teenager, there is a good chance that System 1 will make a snap judgment in place of the real question being asked. System 2 is good at both generating questions and searching memory to answer them, while System 1 is good at continuously and effortlessly making quick decisions, literally without giving it another thought. System 1 has features that support these basic assessments of intuitive decision-making, and they lead us to substitute one judgment for another.
Basic assessments are the immediate judgments that human brains have evolved to make constantly to ensure safety. Whether you are dodging taxis while crossing a city street or avoiding lions while trekking through the savannah, your brain can immediately judge a situation as threat (to avoid) or opportunity (to approach). We do the same with other people’s faces, immediately deciding whether they are friend or foe based on face shape and facial expression. While this can be great for deciding whether to talk to that intimidating guy on the subway, it’s not so great that voters tend to fall back on these System 1 assessments when picking a candidate. Basic assessments of candidates’ photos showed that politicians with faces rated more competent than their opponent (strong jaw + pleasant smile) were likely to be the winner of their elections. Apparently we could save a lot of time and money with campaigning and just hand out headshots. Yuck.
Here are some other examples of basic assessments that System 1 uses to answer an easier question in place of System 2’s more complex query:
Let’s talk heuristics. According to George Pólya, a heuristic is a simpler problem that can be solved as a strategy for tackling a more difficult problem. Kahneman borrows the term to describe the substitutions made by System 1 instead of answering a tricky System 2 question. If you don’t get an answer to a question pretty quickly, System 1 will make some associations and use those to come up with a related and easier question. You won’t even notice that your brain has pulled a switcheroo, and you’ll feel confident in your answer to that tricky question (even though you did not in fact answer it). Here’s how System 1 pulls it off:
Brain: Hmm, I don’t know the answer to this complex question. It requires some deep analysis!
System 2: Hard pass. You may have heard I’m hella lazy.
System 1: I got you, bro! That deep question reminds me of this super fun fact I know, so I’ll throw this out there instead. Does your fancy schmancy query make sense now?
System 2: Umm, probably? It’s good enough for me. I’m gonna go back to my nap.
System 1: Eureka! We’ve got an answer!
Brain: I am so smart! I totally answered this really complex question thoughtfully and reasonably.
Here are some example heuristics:
CHAPTER 10 - The Law of Small Numbers: People are bad at statistics - we struggle to draw intuitive conclusions based on a statistical fact. Even statisticians are bad at intuitive interpretations of statistics! This is because of the law of large numbers. Keep in mind that large samples are more precise than small samples. When randomly sampling a group, a large sample will yield more predictable results (less extremes) than a small sample would. Kahneman gives us two examples: rates of kidney cancer could seem unusually high or low if the populations of the counties sampled are small, and getting all of the same color marble instead of half and half will occur more often if you’re pulling just a few marbles from an equally mixed jar instead of pulling a big handful. (Your System 2 is really working hard right now, isn’t it? I had to bite a pencil just to make myself feel better in the statistics section. I’m not crazy; please refer to Chapter 4!)
The law of small numbers is the belief that the law of large numbers applies to small numbers, too. (It doesn’t.) Not only do average people fall for the law of small numbers, so do researchers and statisticians. There is a mathematical way to compute the number of participants that researchers need to sample in order to avoid statistical anomalies and ruin their results. Instead, researchers trust their intuition and go with traditional sample sizes, never stopping to calculate the number of participants actually needed for a safe sample size. Even authors of statistical textbooks couldn’t manage to avoid falling for the law of small numbers. This explains why my math-teacher-husband always pops a blood vessel when I quote him statistics from a newspaper article.
We are biased towards confidence rather than doubt. System 1 is not wired for doubt because it looks for coherent messaging. System 2 is wired for doubt, but not very good at it because it’s hard work. When we analyze and draw conclusions, we tend to put too much emphasis on coherent explanations. We are “not adequately sensitive to sample size” and end up believing that even a very small group matches up with the truth about the entire population. Essentially, it’s us saying “Kids these days…” because one random toddler was being obnoxious at the grocery store.
Statistics do not indicate the cause of an event; they only describe it in relation to what could have happened instead. But people are predisposed to make associations and creative coherent narratives, so we look for patterns and assume causality where none exist. Many events in life are random chance and this is true whether you consider the sequence of the sex of babies born in a single day, the bombing locations in a city or fatality rates of air squadrons during war, or the “hot hands” of a basketball player who appears to have a streak of success. The problem is that we fall for the law of small numbers in our small samples, we create associative narratives to explain what we see, and we are biased towards believing our own conclusions because they ring true. Even really smart and successful people like Bill Gates make these mistakes, and sometimes this results in millions or billions of dollars wasted and national educational policies shifted on the basis of random chance. Oops! WYSIATI, even in statistics!
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This week, we will discuss Chapters 5-10. If you're feeling a little overwhelmed or frustrated by the content, just hold a pencil in your mouth pointing left to right and you'll be primed to feel better in no time! You can also read through the chapter summaries below for a refresher.
This is a nonfiction text so it's obviously not plot-driven, but we still want to be respectful of the experiences of other readers. So, if you've read ahead or made connections between the concepts in this book and other media, please mark spoilers using the format > ! Spoiler text here ! < (without any spaces between the characters themselves or between the characters and the first and last words).
Chapter Summaries:
CHAPTER 5 - Cognitive Ease: Kahneman shows us how System 1 and System 2 work together to create states of cognitive ease or cognitive strain when we are presented with information or other stimuli. Cognitive ease is a state of comfort where things are going well, while cognitive strain is the opposite end of the spectrum where there is a problem which causes discomfort.
Our brains constantly assess how things are going, using automatic System 1 processes, and monitoring whether the extra effort of lazy System 2 is needed. When experiencing familiar inputs and in a good mood, our brains are in a state of cognitive ease, which leads to positive feelings and trust of the situation or information. When System 2 needs to get involved, we experience cognitive strain and can develop negative feelings and skepticism. Kahneman asserts that these states can be “both a cause and a consequence” of how we feel about things and relate to them.
On the “cause” side, cognitive ease can make you notice and believe things more readily because your brain is already used to them. (Cognitive strain can make you reject unfamiliar messages.)
- An illusion of memory is caused by more easily noticing things that we have recently been exposed to. An example would be picking out a few names as minor celebrities from a long list just because you recently saw those names in a different context.
- Similarly, an illusion of truth is experienced as more readily believing something just because you've heard a certain phrase or sentence often. System 2 will sometimes slow this down a bit to comb through relevant background information that could verify or refute the statement, but cognitive ease will result in belief if it can't be quickly confirmed. (Remember, System 2 is lazy AF.)
- Our brains default to the good vibes of cognitive ease, and Kahneman points to the career of Robert Zajonc whose research on the mere exposure effect drives this point home. Zajonc proved that just by exposing people repeatedly to a word or object, they would develop a more positive association with it. The more exposure, the more likely people are to favor something. This is true of a random word on a newspaper cover, a pronounceable stock market symbol, or even stimuli provided unconsciously. It is also true for nonhumans, as tones played for chicken embryos will get a more positive response from the chicks after they hatch. This is because, evolutionarily speaking, it is safer for animals to be initially skeptical of novel stimuli, and also to learn to trust repeated stimuli as safe. Darwin would be proud!
- When psychologists ask their subjects to think of happy or sad experiences first, it affects how intuitive they are and whether they experience cognitive ease or strain in the tasks that follow.
- Experiments have also shown that no matter the content of a message, people will intuit it as more or less believable depending on how much cognitive ease or strain results from the presentation of said information.
- Kahneman points out that the effects of cognitive ease on people's beliefs might have been proven by psychologists, but authoritarian regimes have always known it works. (Gulp!) Let's assume you are not a dictator and you have a truthful, impactful message that you want people to pay attention to. If you keep in mind that System 2 is lazy and people will avoid things that cause cognitive strain, you can bolster the efficacy of your message with the following tips: use an easy-to-read font, high-quality paper, simple phrasing, bright colors, and sources with easily pronounceable names. Yes, System 2 will balk at your report if your sentences are too fancy and your font is too small or squiggly. You can also add rhymes. Apparently it is proven true if rhyming's what you choose to do! (Please enjoy this relevant sitcom clip.)
CHAPTER 6 - Norms, Surprises, and Causes: System 1 is compared to a powerful computer in this section, because it can quickly make links between networks of ideas. System 2 is our ability to set search parameters and program the computer to detect certain bits of data more easily. Let’s check out how awesome - and limited - System 1 is!
Surprise is the spice of life, and System 1 works with surprising events to help explain what we observe and decide if it is “normal”. Surprises come in two kinds: consciously expected events that will surprise you if they don’t happen (eg, your kid coming home from school), and passively expected events that are normal in a given scenario but it won’t surprise us if they don’t happen (eg, when I give my students a test someone will probably groan). System 1 helps us adjust our expectations: an event may seem normal if we’ve been exposed to it before (such as bumping into the same friend unexpectedly on two vacations) or become an expected occurrence (such as looking for an accident in the same stretch of road where you saw a big one earlier). Linking up events is another talent of System 1. Kahneman and his colleague Dale Miller worked on norm theory together: when observing two events, the first may be surprising but when a second event occurs your System 1 thinking will work out a connection between the two, making a narrative of sorts that diminishes how surprising the second event seems. This also makes it hard to pick out small errors, but easy to pick out glaring ones, such as the difference between reading “Moses put animals on the ark” and “George Bush put animals on the ark”.
System 1 likes to create narratives with these linked events. It helps us understand stories in a common way across the culture, and it allows us to make sense of the events in our daily lives and in the world.
- Associative coherence creates links between events to help make an understandable story about what is going on. If a friend tells you they had fun sightseeing in a crowded city but later discovered their wallet was missing, you would probably jump to a conclusion about pickpockets (rather than assuming your friend absent-mindedly left it at a restaurant) because of the associations between crowds, cities, and crime.
- The illusion of causality occurs when we “see” physical causation in scenarios even if there isn’t an actual cause-and-effect relationship. Having seen that an object will move when something bumps into it, psychologist Albert Michotte explains that we will transfer this assumption even to pictures of objects. We know there was no real physical contact, but if picture A moves immediately after picture B “touches” it, our System 1 thinking still explains picture B as causing the movement.
- We assume intentional causality because humans are excellent at personifying nonhuman subjects. Heider and Simmel demonstrated that people do this by assigning things feelings and personality traits, forming a narrative around what might be happening. Here is a video of their animation of the bullying triangle. Considering it is a bunch of shapes, I think it is quite harrowing!
- We separate physical and intentional causality, and this may be an explanation for how humans are wired to easily accept religious beliefs. According to Paul Bloom in The Atlantic, we are born with the capacity to conceive of “soulless bodies and bodiless souls” which allows us to accept religious explanations of God and the immortal soul. Religious belief may be baked into System 1 thinking!
CHAPTER 7 - A Machine for Jumping to Conclusions: System 1 is that machine, and it does this without our awareness. This works out just fine when making a mistake wouldn’t be a big deal and our assumptions are probably going to be correct (such as hearing “Anne approached the bank” and thinking of an institution of finance rather than a river’s edge). It gets more serious - and needs the help of System 2’s analysis - if it would be risky to make a mistake and the situation is unfamiliar or vague. We rely on System 1 to draw conclusions about ambiguous information without ever having to ponder the uncertainties, and most of the time this works out just fine! But it can also lead to biases.
Confirmation bias occurs when we fall back on our associative memories to evaluate information. System 1 likes to confirm things and will rely on examples related to the wording of a statement or question. It is gullible and will try to believe things if it can. Fortunately, System 2 is deliberate and skeptical; it can step in to help us interpret things more correctly or “unbelieve” things that are false. The bad news is that, if System 2 is already busy or feeling lazy (eg, if you are experiencing cognitive strain) then System 2 might not kick in and you might be duped. Don’t watch those influencer marketing posts while exhausted, kids!
Even when not under strain, System 2 will still default to searching for evidence that proves a statement or question rather than seeing if it can be disproved. This is contrary to the science and philosophy rules for testing hypotheses, but hey, Systems 1 and 2 are gonna do what they’re gonna do. If someone asks if a person is friendly, you’re going to think of times they did nice things; but if someone asks if they're unfriendly, all their jerky behaviors will come to mind.
The Halo Effect is another bias to watch out for. We are prone to make assumptions based on our initial experiences and observations. For instance, a fun conversation at a party might lead you to assume your new friend is generous, even though you have no knowledge of their charitable behaviors (or lack thereof), and in turn their assumed generosity will make you like them even more! This is the halo effect, where we generalize about something based on initial impressions: if you like a person, you tend to like everything about them (and vice versa). Your mom was right: first impressions are important!
You can avoid the halo effect by decorrelating errors. This essentially means you should crowdsource information and opinions from a lot of independent sources who aren’t allowed to collaborate before sharing their thinking, and the average of this information will provide a clear understanding. It is the reason police don’t allow multiple witnesses to “get their stories straight” and why Kahneman believes everyone should write a short summary of their opinions before engaging in open discussion at a meeting. It is also a great way to cheat at those guessing jar challenges: just wait for everyone else to write down a number, then sneak a peek at the guesses and take the average as your own guess! (You can also use math if you’re a goody-two-shoes.) You’re welcome!
The principle of “What You See Is All There Is” (WYSIATI) leads to many other biases. Sure, it’s beneficial to think quickly and make sense out of complex situations using System 1 and the evidence at hand. It’s not always prudent or possible to stop and mull over whether we have all the information, so usually we rely on WYSIATI. The downside to this is that, when System 1 jumps to conclusions, it doesn’t care about the quantity or quality of the information it has to go on; it simply wants a coherent narrative. Since we almost always have incomplete information when making decisions or judgements, we rely on System 1 to put together the best possible conclusion based on what we see. We never stop to ask what we don’t know. This creates biases that can lead to incorrect assumptions. These include:
- overconfidence: we love a good story and will stand by it even if we don’t know very much at all
- framing effects: we will feel different ways about the same scenario based on how it is presented to us
- base-rate neglect: we disregard statistical facts that can’t be readily brought to mind in favor of vivid details we already know
CHAPTER 8 - How Judgments Happen: Like a curious toddler, there is no limit to the number of questions System 2 can ask. And like a teenager, there is a good chance that System 1 will make a snap judgment in place of the real question being asked. System 2 is good at both generating questions and searching memory to answer them, while System 1 is good at continuously and effortlessly making quick decisions, literally without giving it another thought. System 1 has features that support these basic assessments of intuitive decision-making, and they lead us to substitute one judgment for another.
Basic assessments are the immediate judgments that human brains have evolved to make constantly to ensure safety. Whether you are dodging taxis while crossing a city street or avoiding lions while trekking through the savannah, your brain can immediately judge a situation as threat (to avoid) or opportunity (to approach). We do the same with other people’s faces, immediately deciding whether they are friend or foe based on face shape and facial expression. While this can be great for deciding whether to talk to that intimidating guy on the subway, it’s not so great that voters tend to fall back on these System 1 assessments when picking a candidate. Basic assessments of candidates’ photos showed that politicians with faces rated more competent than their opponent (strong jaw + pleasant smile) were likely to be the winner of their elections. Apparently we could save a lot of time and money with campaigning and just hand out headshots. Yuck.
Here are some other examples of basic assessments that System 1 uses to answer an easier question in place of System 2’s more complex query:
- Sum-like variables: finding the total (sum) of a set is a slow process, so System 1 will use the average or think of a prototype (representative image) to get an immediate idea
- Intensity matching: System 1 is great at matching where things fall on different scales such as describing how smart someone is by relating it to a person’s height (reading at 4 years old would be like an impressive but not outrageous 6’7” man while reading at 15 months old would be like an extraordinary 7’8” man). In an experiment straight out of Dante’s Inferno, participants match the loudness of tones to a crime or its punishment and increase them based on severity (murder is louder than unpaid parking tickets), and they report feeling a sense of injustice when the tones for a crime and its punishment do not match in volume!
- The mental shotgun: Just as you can’t aim at a single target with a shotgun because of the spray of pellets, so your System 1 is constantly making basic assessments that it wasn’t asked to and should probably have minded its own beeswax about. It’ll slow you down when identifying rhyming words that are spelled differently (vote/goat) and it’ll make you pause in looking for true sentences when a false statement could have a metaphorical meaning. You weren’t asked to think about spelling the rhyming words or making metaphors out of comparative statements, but System 1 just can’t help itself! Thinking about one aspect of the question triggers System 1 to think about a bunch of other connected associations.
Let’s talk heuristics. According to George Pólya, a heuristic is a simpler problem that can be solved as a strategy for tackling a more difficult problem. Kahneman borrows the term to describe the substitutions made by System 1 instead of answering a tricky System 2 question. If you don’t get an answer to a question pretty quickly, System 1 will make some associations and use those to come up with a related and easier question. You won’t even notice that your brain has pulled a switcheroo, and you’ll feel confident in your answer to that tricky question (even though you did not in fact answer it). Here’s how System 1 pulls it off:
Brain: Hmm, I don’t know the answer to this complex question. It requires some deep analysis!
System 2: Hard pass. You may have heard I’m hella lazy.
System 1: I got you, bro! That deep question reminds me of this super fun fact I know, so I’ll throw this out there instead. Does your fancy schmancy query make sense now?
System 2: Umm, probably? It’s good enough for me. I’m gonna go back to my nap.
System 1: Eureka! We’ve got an answer!
Brain: I am so smart! I totally answered this really complex question thoughtfully and reasonably.
Here are some example heuristics:
- 3-D Heuristic: This is an optical illusion. When you are shown a drawing that appears to give a three dimensional perspective, your brain will automatically interpret it as if you were looking at objects in a 3-D setting. You didn’t forget that the paper and drawing are 2-D and you aren’t confused about the questions asked. You just automatically substitute 3-D interpretations because that is how your brain is used to seeing the world and it’s easier to continue that way.
- Mood Heuristic: It would take a lot of consideration to give an accurate answer to how happy you have been feeling lately, because there are so many factors to evaluate. When asked about happiness and then about dating, there is no correlation between the two answers: overall happiness is not really influenced by how many dates people have recently had. However, if someone primes you by asking about your dating life first, your answer about happiness will be very strongly correlated to your love life because System 1 is actually using the easy dating question to easily answer the more complex happiness question. This also works with other topics like family relationships and finances.
- Affect Heuristic: Your opinions or feelings about a certain topic will affect how you judge its strengths and positives as well as its weaknesses and negatives. Things you view favorably will seem to have many benefits and few risks, while things you are averse to will appear riskier and less beneficial. Your political preferences will influence your attitude towards policies and other countries even if there is evidence to the contrary. This doesn’t mean that we can’t learn or be convinced by new information, and that we will never change our minds. It’s just that lazy System 2 is also not very demanding; it tends to apologize for System 1’s snap judgments and emphasize the information that backs it up, rather than seeking out and examining the evidence to the contrary.
CHAPTER 10 - The Law of Small Numbers: People are bad at statistics - we struggle to draw intuitive conclusions based on a statistical fact. Even statisticians are bad at intuitive interpretations of statistics! This is because of the law of large numbers. Keep in mind that large samples are more precise than small samples. When randomly sampling a group, a large sample will yield more predictable results (less extremes) than a small sample would. Kahneman gives us two examples: rates of kidney cancer could seem unusually high or low if the populations of the counties sampled are small, and getting all of the same color marble instead of half and half will occur more often if you’re pulling just a few marbles from an equally mixed jar instead of pulling a big handful. (Your System 2 is really working hard right now, isn’t it? I had to bite a pencil just to make myself feel better in the statistics section. I’m not crazy; please refer to Chapter 4!)
The law of small numbers is the belief that the law of large numbers applies to small numbers, too. (It doesn’t.) Not only do average people fall for the law of small numbers, so do researchers and statisticians. There is a mathematical way to compute the number of participants that researchers need to sample in order to avoid statistical anomalies and ruin their results. Instead, researchers trust their intuition and go with traditional sample sizes, never stopping to calculate the number of participants actually needed for a safe sample size. Even authors of statistical textbooks couldn’t manage to avoid falling for the law of small numbers. This explains why my math-teacher-husband always pops a blood vessel when I quote him statistics from a newspaper article.
We are biased towards confidence rather than doubt. System 1 is not wired for doubt because it looks for coherent messaging. System 2 is wired for doubt, but not very good at it because it’s hard work. When we analyze and draw conclusions, we tend to put too much emphasis on coherent explanations. We are “not adequately sensitive to sample size” and end up believing that even a very small group matches up with the truth about the entire population. Essentially, it’s us saying “Kids these days…” because one random toddler was being obnoxious at the grocery store.
Statistics do not indicate the cause of an event; they only describe it in relation to what could have happened instead. But people are predisposed to make associations and creative coherent narratives, so we look for patterns and assume causality where none exist. Many events in life are random chance and this is true whether you consider the sequence of the sex of babies born in a single day, the bombing locations in a city or fatality rates of air squadrons during war, or the “hot hands” of a basketball player who appears to have a streak of success. The problem is that we fall for the law of small numbers in our small samples, we create associative narratives to explain what we see, and we are biased towards believing our own conclusions because they ring true. Even really smart and successful people like Bill Gates make these mistakes, and sometimes this results in millions or billions of dollars wasted and national educational policies shifted on the basis of random chance. Oops! WYSIATI, even in statistics!
2024.05.09 00:05 LaughingTarget Twinkling in the Dark Forest Finale
First Previous
Captain Semnik sat in the electrocart as it whirred down the paved pathway to the rocket launch site in the distance. He pulled at his environmental suit, disliking how the fabric would catch on his fur when it shifted over his body. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his heartbeat that fluttered from the nerves.
“Nervous, Sir?” Navigator Fasili said. “It’s hard to imagine that the first Meer in space has anything to fear.”
Semnik frowned. He didn’t like the smarmy grin on Fasili’s face. Sure, he had been the first Meer in space. He was, in fact, the only Meer to ever be in space. His only mission involved circling the planet a few times before instructing his conical capsule to crash through the atmosphere and parachute into the ocean.
The entire ordeal was terrifying. The gravitational pressure as the rocket shoved him back in his chair on the ascent felt like he was going to be squeezed into jelly. The odd feeling as the blue sky vanished into a field of black, only the stars and Skyfire above along with Meeria below to keep him company. The worry that his equipment wouldn’t work and he would be stuck up there. The fear he would burn up in the atmosphere upon reentry. The terror that the parachute would fail and he would pancake in the ocean. The unease at wondering if the recovery ship would even find him.
He didn’t want to ever go through that again. Yet here he was, enjoying a chauffer service to something that could spell his doom.
In that moment, Semnik decided to get a little revenge on the arrogant Navigator. “Six out of ten of these things have exploded going up. I have good reason to be nervous.”
Fasili’s ears folded down as her eyes went wide and her whiskers pulled back against her snout. Her realization of how dangerous this task was plastered all over her face.
“It’s not that bad, Captain,” Engineer Zandis rejoined, his finger wagging. “Remember, most of those explosions were early in the program before we sent anything valuable up. We’re a lot better at it now.”
Fasili let out a breath she was holding in relief. “See, sir? Nothing to worry about. We’ll be fine.”
“That’s right,” Zandis replied. Then a wry grin came over his face. “After all, we improved the safety to only one in five exploding.”
Of course, all three were perfectly aware of the risks they were taking. They shared a laugh from the black humor, a brief moment of mirth before they had to get down to business.
The last few decades had been rough on Meerkind. Now 20 years removed from a massive war that devastated the planet and pushed the Meers nearly to extinction, they had come together in the aftermath. There was something about nearly seeing your civilization end that snapped everyone out of their old grudges.
After the end of the war, only the Northern Alliance remained as a functional state. Their efforts had switched to consolidating the few remaining refugees from the other three continents, which had suffered catastrophic damage.
The Northern Alliance, in a bid to improve morale, decided to turn to the stars. The Meer people needed something positive, a small victory to hold onto. They needed to know that their civilization was more than conflict and strife, that it had capacity to do something better.
It started with the rocket program. Repurposing the old weapons that had devastated the world, they removed the warheads and aimed them to the heavens. Realizing sending a rocket into space was much harder than lobbing them across an ocean, the Meer imagination kicked into gear.
After a few years of effort, and a number of lost rockets, they finally managed to get one to successfully leave the planet. The next step was sending up an artificial satellite. They intended to send up a small sphere, put it into orbit and have it transmit a simple radio signal down to the world below.
After three more lost rockets, the newly established Meer Aeronautics and Space Agency, MASA, put one up there.
Scheduled to make a full circumnavigation of Meeria, the small metal sphere was released and on the planned trajectory. Then something peculiar happened. About halfway through its journey, the orbit suddenly shifted 30 degrees south at a sharp angle, slowed and eventually burnt up in the atmosphere.
MASA engineers were perplexed. The capsule was little more than a radio beacon and a battery, so it didn’t have a propulsion system. It was a well-known principle that nothing spontaneously changed momentum. Something had to act upon the satellite.
It took some time to prepare an observation telescope. The satellite was deflected over a region of the Eastern Continent, which had bad pockets of radioactivity from the war. MASA struggled to get approval from the Northern Alliance to redirect funding to the construction of a new telescope, commandeering a vessel that was still used for refugee relief and the associated funding and personnel to command the expedition.
MASA was able to get over one hurdle when it pointed out that they could get a ride on one of the ships already bound for the continent to ferry more refugees. Then the funding was provided by a series of small fundraising efforts. MASA created merchandise, requested donations and the MASA Director even sold his personal luxury conveyance to finance the expedition.
It wasn’t looking good until a wealthy industrialist, someone working on a global communication network to link all the computers together, something today know as the Interburrow, provided a substantial donation.
The expedition was on and Semnik was one of the young interns that received the honor of joining. Setting up the telescope, they scanned the skies in the region the satellite had changed course. After a few weeks of painstakingly scanning every ceem of the heavens, they found it.
And no one could believe their eyes. There, hovering over Meeria, was a metal tube with blue rectangular protrusions coming from each side. This caused a massive stir in the scientific community. Then it got out and a few odd conspiracy theorists, taking old religious texts, started claiming the Meers were visited by prehistoric extrameerestrials. There was even a Meer with shifty eyes and wild hair that managed to get a viewscreen program where he claimed that most, of not all, Meer achievements were a result of these old aliens.
Semnik scoffed at the idea. It was absurd to think that some alien species decided to orbit Meeria just to watch them. If they did, they’d be disgusted at the violent, warlike behavior. No, Semnik was convinced this was some secret device the Eastern Imperials had concocted and the information was lost with the collapse of their government.
Weeks went by studying the object. The only thing breaking up the solid shining metal exterior were small black squares that engineers decided were viewports. Whatever might be behind the windows was a mystery.
They also determined that the shining blue material was some kind of power generation device. There were some working hypotheses that the energy produced by Skyfire could be harnessed for the benefit of Meerkind. The problem is, no one knew how to go about doing it. It was when the blue material would pivot to maintain maximum exposure to Skyfirelight did they realize it wasn’t some fictional dream.
There was no an ongoing battle between the engineers wanting to explore capturing Skyfirelight for power and the ones focused on converting the energy from their weapons warheads to useful power. They posited that if they can control the energy released by the yellow death rock, it could be used to generate limitless power. There was even a faction saying that if they created a small explosion with the yellow death rock, they’d be able to fuse the first gas element and produce even greater power.
Semnik didn’t particularly care one way or the other. That was for the engineers to fight over. What interested him was that not only was this satellite up there, it was also in a perfect Meersynchronous orbit over the planet. He was proud to be the one to identify this peculiarity, since it would have taken a tremendous amount of precision and mathematical calculation to get an object to sit perfectly over one spot on a rotating planet.
Semnik posited whatever it was orbiting over must be important and was permitted a small research team to explore the area. After some calculations, Semnik discovered the object was orbiting over the most unassuming chunk of land on all of Meeria.
Arriving at the location, the team found a small valley nestled between a ring of mountains. At the edge of the valley was a forest and, at its center, was a grassland that measured approximately 2 kilos long and a half kilo wide. Down the center of the valley, a small river flowed. It reminded him of a Northern Alliance Gleekball. The proper kind of Gleekball, in Semnik’s opinion.
Guessing the center of the meadow was the best place to start, the team transitioned there. There, under a small copse of trees, Semnik’s team made a discovery that would rock all of Meerkind. Under the ground were the remains of burrows.
The burrows were supported by ancient, rudimentary stone work and were just large enough for an adult Meer to squeeze through. Many of the tunnels had collapsed since their construction and they discovered primitive stone tools spread in the various rooms. According to an archaeologist on the team, they had a high likelihood of discovering the origin of the Meer species.
This was confirmed when they found ancient fossilized remains of a species that looked Meer-like yet were old enough to be considered a precursor species. It sparked off interesting discussions on evolution.
This alone was a monumental discovery. Yet it was overshadowed by something even more incredible. In one of the rooms, in a small hole covered by a rock, the team discovered something that shouldn’t belong there.
In the hole was a black box. Five of the box sides were made of a black polymer while the sixth was made of glass and had the appearance of a viewscreen. Polymers were only recently invented during the war, meaning this object didn’t belong here.
Assuming it was some forgotten prank, Semnik had the box sent in for the new radiation dating process that scientists had come up with. They’d test the half-life of the materials in the box to determine roughly how old it was.
The results were troubling. The material was old. Very old. Over 200,000 years old. The interior, unfortunately, was so corroded by time that no one could determine what the device was used for. All anyone could ascertain was the glass screen would present visual information.
MASA determined to keep the discovery of the box secret. The authorities had successfully contained the prehistoric alien conspiracy nuts by explaining the orbiting structure was a forgotten Eastern Imperial test. They were happy to let the public enjoy the discovery of their origins.
The box remained under wraps and was what led to this mission. Semnik became obsessed with the orbiting station and the box so much that he worked his way to becoming the first Spacemeer. It had taken two decades to reach the point where they knew enough about the hostile conditions of the region beyond the planet and how to protect from them.
Now, they were ready to send a Meered expedition to the floating object. Semnik would finally find out what was hovering over the world and if it had any relation to the black box discovered in a long forgotten prehistoric burrow.
The three brave explorers ascended the lift onto the walkway and entered the rocket. They took their seats in the cockpit and strapped themselves in.
Even with the training and doing this once before, Semnik found it disorienting. He was sitting with his back facing toward the ground many meets below. Everything was oriented correctly in his vision but his body was screaming things were wrong as he stared out into the vast blue sky.
“All ready for liftoff, Captain,” Zandis announced.
“Good,” Semnik replied. “Fasili? Prelaunch check.”
The Navigator checked her station and flipped various switches. “Ready for launch.”
This mission was, formally, to test the new navigation systems. The rocket that Semnik previously flew on was little more than a jumped-up missile. It flew up into space, spit him into orbit and fell down again. It was just there to see if a Meer could survive going up and coming back.
This rocket had multiple stages. The third stage would allow for maneuvering in orbit and a more controlled return. Of course, that was cover for their other mission – explore the floating station. MASA needed to know if it was a threat or not.
“Ready for launch,” Semnik announced. A voice over the radio announced it was go. Semnik flipped some switches on his console and a loud roar rose up around the rocket.
There was something fundamentally insane about the Meers in the rocket. They were sitting upon a tremendous amount of controlled liquid explosives and using it to overcome their planetary gravity. Semnik vowed to press for research into a method a little less ridiculous to go into space in the future. Even if they could reduce the risk, he didn’t like the idea of taking the chance of turning into a glowing fireball in the sky.
The rocket began to shake as it slowly lifted off the pad. A plume of smoke rose around them, which the rocket quickly left behind as it gained speed. Semnik could hear the tandem pressured breathing of his Navigator and Engineer over the open radio. It was a combination of the growing pressure pushing them into their seats and the fear generated from the roar and shudder.
Semnik couldn’t blame them. Even though he knew this was normal and experienced it before, he was also terrified. If Meer was meant to move this fast, the Ancestors would have constructed fuel ports in place of their bums.
The roar and shaking only lasted a few minutes. Even then, it felt like an eternity. Soon, the shaking began to subside and the roar quieted as the air thinned. Then, like a switch, the roaring ceased along with the rumble. They had entered the boundaries of space. Fasili and Zandis now entered the tiny population of Meers who had the pleasure of leaving their home.
“Stage 1 release,” Fasili announced as she flipped a few switches. Semnik was proud of the Navigator. She had overcome her initial fears and professionally handled her duties.
The pressure briefly let up before returning once more, signifying the start of the next phase of their journey. This stage would put them into the same orbital distance as the object before they used the third stage to navigate toward it.
Using her instrumentation, Fasili adjusted the trajectory of the rocket. Without an atmosphere to hinder it, the rocket would move at tremendous speeds. It would take nearly a day of travel from the MASA launch center to the site of the first Meers. In space, it would take them around 30 minutes to reach the object.
The time went by quickly. Semnik reported back to MASA Ground Control as scheduled to report the data on the navigation system. The results bode well for their satellite communication plans. It would be relatively simple to maneuver satellites into their proper position with manned crews.
As they approached the floating object, they took in its size. From the ground, observers had no point of reference to determine how big the object was. In orbit, the object was massive. It was easily longer than two full size rockets and many times wider.
Fasili carefully matched the orbit of the object. To Semnik, it looked like they weren’t moving at all. The object remained still and he could see the forgotten valley down below, sitting perfectly still underneath. Of course, he knew they were moving at incredible speeds since they had to match the rotation of Meeria to be able to remain still.
Semnik radioed back to MASA with an update and added some babbling about how beautiful the world was from above. At least the part he saw. The sections he could see elsewhere that were ravaged by war were left out of the comment. Everyone below knew how bad the war was, they didn’t need reminding it was visible from space.
Little did Semnik know, his embarrassing ramblings were recorded and released. They’d be taught in schools for generations to come.
Carefully maneuvering around the exterior of the station, they took images of it for later study.
“Sir, I see something. It looks like a portal,” Zandis said, pointing a gloved finger out of the window. Ahead, in the otherwise perfectly smooth exterior, was a line in the shape of a circle.
Maneuvering close to it, Semnik ordered they extend the tube to allow entry to the object. The engineers designing the capsule had anticipated the potential need to board the object and created an extending metallic sheet tube. The hope was the object was magnetic and they could connect the ship and crawl over.
Using a camera mounted to the center of the exterior hatch, Zandis maneuvered the extended tube toward the object.
“This is strange,” Zandis commented as he peered through the viewfinder. “The outer hatch is huge. It’s easily triple the diameter of our boarding tube. There is a clear handle that looks like a means of entry inside and it has symbols painted on it. I’ve never seen symbols like those before.”
Semnik hummed. He wanted into that object and he was wondering if it would be safe to exit the rocket without the tube. Maybe walk in space. “Is this going to be a problem?”
“No, sir,” Zandis continued. “What’s stranger is there is a smaller hatch with another handle dead center in the larger one. And I can read the writing. It’s in an archaic dialect, yet the words are clearly instructions on how to open the hatch.”
All three occupants sat in stunned silence. Semnik didn’t quite believe Zandis and took a look for himself. Sure enough, the scene was exactly as Zandis described. A large hatch with a smaller hatch built in and ancient Meeran text stamped on the surface.
Fasili was the first to break the long silence. “Are you sure this is wise, sir? Everything about this feels wrong.”
Semnik peered out of the window at the large orbiting structure. While it was indeed strange to have an object in orbit labeled in ancient Meeran text along with indecipherable runes, nothing about the object triggered his instincts. It didn’t feel hostile. In fact, he thought it was more inviting.
Taking a breath, Semnik announced, “I’m going over. Neither of you are obligated to take this risk if you don’t wish to go.”
Fasili and Zandis looked at each other. They then nodded in tandem, both agreeing to go.
Zandis maneuvered the passage across the distance. Luckily, the surface was magnetic and allowed the tube to connect. Oddly, whoever or whatever had built the object planned on this since the tube subtly shifted to align perfectly with the hatch. The creators had anticipated a magnetic docking mechanism and created magnetic seat points.
Semnik took the lead and, after cycling the airlock, moved slowly through the opening. It was eerily quiet, the only sound his breathing in his helmet and the breathing over the radio from his two companions. Space was frighteningly silent.
Reaching over, he read the proto-language instructions. Make Turn. Right Tight. Left Loose.
Turning the handle leftward, the door silently released a puff of gas before opening. A white light from a strange bulb that looked like it was made of plastic turned on and led the three Meers into a much larger space. Instructions near what they thought of was the floor told them which buttons to hit in what order after closing the outer door.
Following the instructions, Semnik heard the growing hiss of air as the space filled with gas.
Floating lazily in the middle, Zandis looked at some gages on his wrist. “Seems like the air is breathable. The mixture and pressure is a perfect copy of Meeria.”
“Are you certain about those readings?” Semnik asked, secretly wishing to remove his helmet and get the first taste of the object’s air.
“Yes, sir. Unless there’s a catastrophic failure in the device that just happened to perfectly match Meeria, it’s fine,” Zandis replied.
Reaching up, Semnik released the seals around his neck. His Navigator and Engineer shouted in horror. Yet nothing happened. There wasn’t a telltale hiss from a differential in pressure. Semnik took a deep breath and took in the cleanest air he had ever experienced. Not clean like in the remote valley. Clean like the air had nothing but its component gases.
When Semnik didn’t pass out after a few minutes, Fasili took her helmet off followed by Zandis.
“This is incredible,” Fasili said. “I’m starting to think that weird guy on the Prehistoric Extrameerestrials show is correct.”
Semnik didn’t want to admit that and replied, “There’s still the possibility that this is an Eastern Imperial project.”
Zandis looked like he wanted to argue yet decided to keep his mouth shut. He knew that Semnik didn’t believe his own words and didn’t need to state the obvious.
Opening a Meer size hatch cut into a larger one, the trio were led to a huge central shaft as more lights came on to illuminate the space. A ladder with rungs too far apart to make sense moved from the bottom to the top. At various landings, which were odd given the lack of gravity, were a series of doors opposite the ladder. There were 20 of these doors in all.
As they ascended, they found each of the doors, also three times too large than necessary, closed and locked. None of the doors had a convenient set of instructions on how to open them nor did they have Meer size portals cut into them.
Reaching the top, they found another hatch with a Meer sized entryway and opening instructions.
Entering, they found a small hallway with a number of side rooms in them, also illuminating as they entered. The rooms, save for one that looked like the remains of an immense kitchen, were bare. The kitchen only had a sink that didn’t operate. Zandis commented why anyone would put a sink up here when the water would float all over the room in this setup.
The final door opened up to a bizarre room. In the room was a single gigantic viewscreen on a desk. In front of it was a chair. The desk and chair, like everything else, was about three times bigger than it needed to be.
The three Meers propelled themselves up to float waist high to the top of the desk. On the bottom corner of the giant viewscreen was a big red button.
The three stared at it for a long while. They weren’t sure what it would do if pressed.
“Should we press it?” Semnik asked.
The other two shrugged.
“Zandis, what do you think?” Semnik requested, hoping his Engineer had some insight.
Zandis looked over the object. “Strangely, the device seems remarkably simple. Apart from the panel being as flat as paper, it looks like a basic viewscreen. Nothing unusual is connected to it. I think we can turn it on.”
Semnik slowly reached his finger out and gingerly touched it to the surface of the red button. He still had his gloves on, so he didn’t know what it felt like. It looked like a sort of polymer material.
Taking a deep breath, Semnik applied pressure. With a soft click, the button pressed into the screen and it activated.
On the screen was an ugly face. With the exception of a tuft on the top of the round head, it was completely bald. The face had a nub for a nose and eyes had a green ring around the central black pupil. The skin was pale like a Methis flower.
Semnik noted that the figure sat in the gigantic chair behind the three Meers and made it look normal. The creature, the alien Semnik finally realized, was positively gigantic.
“You sure this thing’s on?” the figure said in a deep, booming voice. The Meeran it spoke was just as old as the text written on the portals.
Out of view, a different voice shouted. “Why are you asking me? Is the light on?”
“I’m just the anthropologist. You’re the engineer,” the figure shouted back.
The other voice off-screen yelled back. “Figures a Hillbilly can’t figure out this new-fangled technothingy.”
“That’s Redneck, ya pencil neck!” the pale figure yelled. Semnik didn’t comprehend the odd behavior yet, somehow, knew that there was no hostility in the words.
“Sorry about that,” the pale figure commented. “Heya little buddies. If you’re seeing this, that means you managed to get past one of the big civilization filters. Congratulations! My name is Frank Martin and I’m what is called a Human.”
The three Meers looked at each other. Unless the Eastern Imperials decided to play a giant prank, it was becoming more and more obvious that the Meer with the weird hair and crazy eyes was right.
The face on the screen suddenly put on an expression that Semnik took as dark. “Before I get to it, I have a warning. All that warring you guys are doing? I suggest you find peace with yourselves. When you start getting up into space, it means weapons are getting real bad. You’ll end up killing yourselves off if you don’t. We lost count of how many other civilizations out there ended themselves over it.”
Sadness entered Semnik’s features. The kindly species observing the Meers had predicted the big war and the Meers were too late to get the warning.
The thought was mirrored in the figure on the screen. “And if you’re here after that? Sorry that you had to go through it. We know what that’s like. The upside is, if you learned your lesson, things will get better.”
Frank leaned back in his chair and crossed his appendages over his chest area. “As for what we’re doing up here and why you’re hearing this? Well, it’s a long story. We, Darryl and I, are researchers. We discovered your people a while back and decided to study your development.”
“We found your people in an early part of their evolutionary period. Their lifespans were roughly 1/5th of what they were when we headed off, more on that later, and we watched you grow and evolve over a long period of time.”
Frank took a deep breath of air and slowly released it. “Normally, civilizations like yours never even leave their point of origin. It’s a concept called the Dark Forest Hypothesis. To put it simply, the unknown is dangerous so it’s safer not to go there. My people went in there and ended up in space. Yours, at least until something happened, was perfectly content hiding out in their burrows.”
“Unfortunately, something happened that upended your development. A species, extinct at the time of this recording, was in its early space development phase. They discovered your planet and, for reasons we don’t know, decided to send a weaponized predator to destroy your world. We didn’t know it was coming and, by the time we figured out something was there, it had already landed.”
“We did our best to kill it off, but not before we were witnessed by one of the locals. We have a rule not to interfere, yet we made exceptions if something off-world showed up and threatened you. If that happened, we had protocols to try and scare your people back into their old ways. It also doubled as an emergency in-case that off-world threat came around again.”
“You see, directly below us is the origin of your people. If you haven’t found it by now, you should find the remains of your ancient ancestors. Along with it will be a black box. It ran out of power ages ago, so it should be an inert brick. Still, it’ll be obvious since it’s made out of materials not possible from the era.”
Semnik found his mouth starting to hang open in surprise. Everything this Frank alien was saying continued to be prophetic.
“A while after our first encounter, we discovered that the critter that we thought we exterminated had already multiplied. It then threatened to wipe out your ancestors. One of your ancestors, a guy called a Storyteller, called for help. We showed up and took care of business. While we didn’t get them all that day, Darryl did come up with a scanner and we ended up wiping out the rest of the buggers over the next year or so.”
Frank leaned in close to the screen. “Unfortunately, we opened up something we like to refer to as a Pandora’s Box. There’s more details behind it, but the common usage is for something that, once done, can’t be undone. While your Storyteller wished to keep what happened a secret, just too many of your ancestors had witness what happened. It changed behaviors.”
“Emboldened by the assumption that we would show up and protect them from any threats, your people started to venture into the forest for the first time. Once this behavior was cemented and we were forgotten, your ancestors started to develop tools to help deal with the threats of your world. Time passed, you evolved and became more sophisticated.”
The figure let out a deep gust of air once again. “I have a bit of an apology to make. While it is protocol to leave you alone, and we did a good job of that, some things did make their way into your society. The big ones are a number of your units of measurements as well as your names. I’m the one that called you Meers. You guys just referred to yourselves as People before.”
“This happened because I kinda forgot to turn off the transponder signal after giving it down to the scout. It took a while for me to figure out it was on.”
“You?” the other voice shouted with what sounded like indignity. “I’m the one who found it. After you put your damned boots up on the console again and got dirt in the board.”
The figure let out what sounded like a cough. “Yup. With my judicious use of your planet’s surface, I had discovered my error. In any case, I turned it off and at least stopped polluting your culture. For the most part, everything you created up you did so on your own. So if you have any weird fellas down there claiming we helped you build giant triangles out of stone, you have it from my authority that we didn’t.”
Semnik smirked. If this image was ever recorded, returned and declassified, this section would be the very first he would want aired.
“In any case, you’re probably wondering why we’re doing this at all after telling you how careful we have been about interfering. Well, think of this is as a big gift. In addition to the warning, we have 20 floors of data and archives to give you.”
Semnik notice the sudden wave of excitement emanating from Zandis. Which was immediately quashed with the next words.
“No, we aren’t gifting you technology. Sorry, you gotta figure that out for yourselves. Anything left here to keep the station functioning isn’t at a level that you probably already haven’t figured out or won’t soon. If you’re seeing this, and haven’t blown yourselves up, you’ll figure it out the rest eventually. No, it’s an even bigger gift. Something that not even we Humans have at our disposal. It’s your history.”
Semnik blinked. A sudden wave of euphoria rose in his chest. Was it what he was thinking?
“Yup, all those locked doors down below? Archives. In both digital and printed form, you’ll find the history of your people dating back to the very moments we arrived. Your proto-Meer ancestors and on. One of the big sadness of Humanity is we really don’t know much about anything before we started writing stuff down. Even when we did, we didn’t always have the best storage methods. Art, culture, language, everything prior to the written word is lost forever to us.”
Frank lifted up the corners of his mouth. Semnik assumed it must be happiness, something he was now feeling full-blast. This was an incredible gift, far more valuable than technology.
“Before I unlock the doors, I need to give you a small warning. Within each archive cabinet you’ll find a lead box. This is to protect you from the contents. If you’re up here, I’m assuming you know what radioactivity is. The reason for this is, since we don’t know how you guys use your calendars or how long it’s been since when we left, I can’t use things like years to communicate with you. To get around that problem, we put a sample of a dozen different radioactive isotopes in each box. At the time of the archive, the isotopes were fresh. All you gotta do is measure how much is left and you’ll know when the events in that cabinet happened.”
When the sentence ended, Semnik heard a series of clicks echo from down the hall. Twenty of them.
“So, anyway, enjoy the gift. We’re gonna head out now. There’s another interesting species on a different planet we’re going to study for a while. You guys have just developed simple telescopes and we really don’t want to be up here flashing lights when one of ya’ll looks up. Humanity will pull back a few star systems. When you figure out how to travel to the next one, you’ll be certain to get the welcome wagon. We’re really looking forward to the second race to figure out faster than light travel. I really hope it’s you guys.”
“Anyway, good luck. We’ll be out here waiting for you. And when you do make your way outside of your system? Ask for the Prees named Frank and Darryl. They’ll know who you’re talking about. And don’t worry, we’ll probably still be around. We live a really long time. I’d like to get some drinks, formally welcome you to the galaxy and have a nice chat with the people I got to know for a good part of my life.”
The vision gave out and the three Meers stared at the blank screen in stunned silence. Then a smile crept over Semnik’s mouth. Here was a hyper-advanced species that came across the galaxy, studied them and gave them the most precious gift imaginable. Their history.
In that moment, Semnik knew he liked these Humans. He couldn’t wait until the Meers figured out how to go meet them. He would gladly have a drink with the ones named Frank and Darryl.
Once again, thanks for reading. While this story didn't pop off as much as Intragalactic Pet and Garden Show, I think I needed a little exercise in writing something a bit more serious. I hope the introspection and hopeful end worked well.
That said, the stories are coming to an end for a while. I procrastinated enough with what I should be writing at the moment. That said, like I mentioned in IPGS, I plan on coming back with something more novel length that I think everyone will enjoy.
Take care!
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Captain Semnik sat in the electrocart as it whirred down the paved pathway to the rocket launch site in the distance. He pulled at his environmental suit, disliking how the fabric would catch on his fur when it shifted over his body. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his heartbeat that fluttered from the nerves.
“Nervous, Sir?” Navigator Fasili said. “It’s hard to imagine that the first Meer in space has anything to fear.”
Semnik frowned. He didn’t like the smarmy grin on Fasili’s face. Sure, he had been the first Meer in space. He was, in fact, the only Meer to ever be in space. His only mission involved circling the planet a few times before instructing his conical capsule to crash through the atmosphere and parachute into the ocean.
The entire ordeal was terrifying. The gravitational pressure as the rocket shoved him back in his chair on the ascent felt like he was going to be squeezed into jelly. The odd feeling as the blue sky vanished into a field of black, only the stars and Skyfire above along with Meeria below to keep him company. The worry that his equipment wouldn’t work and he would be stuck up there. The fear he would burn up in the atmosphere upon reentry. The terror that the parachute would fail and he would pancake in the ocean. The unease at wondering if the recovery ship would even find him.
He didn’t want to ever go through that again. Yet here he was, enjoying a chauffer service to something that could spell his doom.
In that moment, Semnik decided to get a little revenge on the arrogant Navigator. “Six out of ten of these things have exploded going up. I have good reason to be nervous.”
Fasili’s ears folded down as her eyes went wide and her whiskers pulled back against her snout. Her realization of how dangerous this task was plastered all over her face.
“It’s not that bad, Captain,” Engineer Zandis rejoined, his finger wagging. “Remember, most of those explosions were early in the program before we sent anything valuable up. We’re a lot better at it now.”
Fasili let out a breath she was holding in relief. “See, sir? Nothing to worry about. We’ll be fine.”
“That’s right,” Zandis replied. Then a wry grin came over his face. “After all, we improved the safety to only one in five exploding.”
Of course, all three were perfectly aware of the risks they were taking. They shared a laugh from the black humor, a brief moment of mirth before they had to get down to business.
The last few decades had been rough on Meerkind. Now 20 years removed from a massive war that devastated the planet and pushed the Meers nearly to extinction, they had come together in the aftermath. There was something about nearly seeing your civilization end that snapped everyone out of their old grudges.
After the end of the war, only the Northern Alliance remained as a functional state. Their efforts had switched to consolidating the few remaining refugees from the other three continents, which had suffered catastrophic damage.
The Northern Alliance, in a bid to improve morale, decided to turn to the stars. The Meer people needed something positive, a small victory to hold onto. They needed to know that their civilization was more than conflict and strife, that it had capacity to do something better.
It started with the rocket program. Repurposing the old weapons that had devastated the world, they removed the warheads and aimed them to the heavens. Realizing sending a rocket into space was much harder than lobbing them across an ocean, the Meer imagination kicked into gear.
After a few years of effort, and a number of lost rockets, they finally managed to get one to successfully leave the planet. The next step was sending up an artificial satellite. They intended to send up a small sphere, put it into orbit and have it transmit a simple radio signal down to the world below.
After three more lost rockets, the newly established Meer Aeronautics and Space Agency, MASA, put one up there.
Scheduled to make a full circumnavigation of Meeria, the small metal sphere was released and on the planned trajectory. Then something peculiar happened. About halfway through its journey, the orbit suddenly shifted 30 degrees south at a sharp angle, slowed and eventually burnt up in the atmosphere.
MASA engineers were perplexed. The capsule was little more than a radio beacon and a battery, so it didn’t have a propulsion system. It was a well-known principle that nothing spontaneously changed momentum. Something had to act upon the satellite.
It took some time to prepare an observation telescope. The satellite was deflected over a region of the Eastern Continent, which had bad pockets of radioactivity from the war. MASA struggled to get approval from the Northern Alliance to redirect funding to the construction of a new telescope, commandeering a vessel that was still used for refugee relief and the associated funding and personnel to command the expedition.
MASA was able to get over one hurdle when it pointed out that they could get a ride on one of the ships already bound for the continent to ferry more refugees. Then the funding was provided by a series of small fundraising efforts. MASA created merchandise, requested donations and the MASA Director even sold his personal luxury conveyance to finance the expedition.
It wasn’t looking good until a wealthy industrialist, someone working on a global communication network to link all the computers together, something today know as the Interburrow, provided a substantial donation.
The expedition was on and Semnik was one of the young interns that received the honor of joining. Setting up the telescope, they scanned the skies in the region the satellite had changed course. After a few weeks of painstakingly scanning every ceem of the heavens, they found it.
And no one could believe their eyes. There, hovering over Meeria, was a metal tube with blue rectangular protrusions coming from each side. This caused a massive stir in the scientific community. Then it got out and a few odd conspiracy theorists, taking old religious texts, started claiming the Meers were visited by prehistoric extrameerestrials. There was even a Meer with shifty eyes and wild hair that managed to get a viewscreen program where he claimed that most, of not all, Meer achievements were a result of these old aliens.
Semnik scoffed at the idea. It was absurd to think that some alien species decided to orbit Meeria just to watch them. If they did, they’d be disgusted at the violent, warlike behavior. No, Semnik was convinced this was some secret device the Eastern Imperials had concocted and the information was lost with the collapse of their government.
Weeks went by studying the object. The only thing breaking up the solid shining metal exterior were small black squares that engineers decided were viewports. Whatever might be behind the windows was a mystery.
They also determined that the shining blue material was some kind of power generation device. There were some working hypotheses that the energy produced by Skyfire could be harnessed for the benefit of Meerkind. The problem is, no one knew how to go about doing it. It was when the blue material would pivot to maintain maximum exposure to Skyfirelight did they realize it wasn’t some fictional dream.
There was no an ongoing battle between the engineers wanting to explore capturing Skyfirelight for power and the ones focused on converting the energy from their weapons warheads to useful power. They posited that if they can control the energy released by the yellow death rock, it could be used to generate limitless power. There was even a faction saying that if they created a small explosion with the yellow death rock, they’d be able to fuse the first gas element and produce even greater power.
Semnik didn’t particularly care one way or the other. That was for the engineers to fight over. What interested him was that not only was this satellite up there, it was also in a perfect Meersynchronous orbit over the planet. He was proud to be the one to identify this peculiarity, since it would have taken a tremendous amount of precision and mathematical calculation to get an object to sit perfectly over one spot on a rotating planet.
Semnik posited whatever it was orbiting over must be important and was permitted a small research team to explore the area. After some calculations, Semnik discovered the object was orbiting over the most unassuming chunk of land on all of Meeria.
Arriving at the location, the team found a small valley nestled between a ring of mountains. At the edge of the valley was a forest and, at its center, was a grassland that measured approximately 2 kilos long and a half kilo wide. Down the center of the valley, a small river flowed. It reminded him of a Northern Alliance Gleekball. The proper kind of Gleekball, in Semnik’s opinion.
Guessing the center of the meadow was the best place to start, the team transitioned there. There, under a small copse of trees, Semnik’s team made a discovery that would rock all of Meerkind. Under the ground were the remains of burrows.
The burrows were supported by ancient, rudimentary stone work and were just large enough for an adult Meer to squeeze through. Many of the tunnels had collapsed since their construction and they discovered primitive stone tools spread in the various rooms. According to an archaeologist on the team, they had a high likelihood of discovering the origin of the Meer species.
This was confirmed when they found ancient fossilized remains of a species that looked Meer-like yet were old enough to be considered a precursor species. It sparked off interesting discussions on evolution.
This alone was a monumental discovery. Yet it was overshadowed by something even more incredible. In one of the rooms, in a small hole covered by a rock, the team discovered something that shouldn’t belong there.
In the hole was a black box. Five of the box sides were made of a black polymer while the sixth was made of glass and had the appearance of a viewscreen. Polymers were only recently invented during the war, meaning this object didn’t belong here.
Assuming it was some forgotten prank, Semnik had the box sent in for the new radiation dating process that scientists had come up with. They’d test the half-life of the materials in the box to determine roughly how old it was.
The results were troubling. The material was old. Very old. Over 200,000 years old. The interior, unfortunately, was so corroded by time that no one could determine what the device was used for. All anyone could ascertain was the glass screen would present visual information.
MASA determined to keep the discovery of the box secret. The authorities had successfully contained the prehistoric alien conspiracy nuts by explaining the orbiting structure was a forgotten Eastern Imperial test. They were happy to let the public enjoy the discovery of their origins.
The box remained under wraps and was what led to this mission. Semnik became obsessed with the orbiting station and the box so much that he worked his way to becoming the first Spacemeer. It had taken two decades to reach the point where they knew enough about the hostile conditions of the region beyond the planet and how to protect from them.
Now, they were ready to send a Meered expedition to the floating object. Semnik would finally find out what was hovering over the world and if it had any relation to the black box discovered in a long forgotten prehistoric burrow.
The three brave explorers ascended the lift onto the walkway and entered the rocket. They took their seats in the cockpit and strapped themselves in.
Even with the training and doing this once before, Semnik found it disorienting. He was sitting with his back facing toward the ground many meets below. Everything was oriented correctly in his vision but his body was screaming things were wrong as he stared out into the vast blue sky.
“All ready for liftoff, Captain,” Zandis announced.
“Good,” Semnik replied. “Fasili? Prelaunch check.”
The Navigator checked her station and flipped various switches. “Ready for launch.”
This mission was, formally, to test the new navigation systems. The rocket that Semnik previously flew on was little more than a jumped-up missile. It flew up into space, spit him into orbit and fell down again. It was just there to see if a Meer could survive going up and coming back.
This rocket had multiple stages. The third stage would allow for maneuvering in orbit and a more controlled return. Of course, that was cover for their other mission – explore the floating station. MASA needed to know if it was a threat or not.
“Ready for launch,” Semnik announced. A voice over the radio announced it was go. Semnik flipped some switches on his console and a loud roar rose up around the rocket.
There was something fundamentally insane about the Meers in the rocket. They were sitting upon a tremendous amount of controlled liquid explosives and using it to overcome their planetary gravity. Semnik vowed to press for research into a method a little less ridiculous to go into space in the future. Even if they could reduce the risk, he didn’t like the idea of taking the chance of turning into a glowing fireball in the sky.
The rocket began to shake as it slowly lifted off the pad. A plume of smoke rose around them, which the rocket quickly left behind as it gained speed. Semnik could hear the tandem pressured breathing of his Navigator and Engineer over the open radio. It was a combination of the growing pressure pushing them into their seats and the fear generated from the roar and shudder.
Semnik couldn’t blame them. Even though he knew this was normal and experienced it before, he was also terrified. If Meer was meant to move this fast, the Ancestors would have constructed fuel ports in place of their bums.
The roar and shaking only lasted a few minutes. Even then, it felt like an eternity. Soon, the shaking began to subside and the roar quieted as the air thinned. Then, like a switch, the roaring ceased along with the rumble. They had entered the boundaries of space. Fasili and Zandis now entered the tiny population of Meers who had the pleasure of leaving their home.
“Stage 1 release,” Fasili announced as she flipped a few switches. Semnik was proud of the Navigator. She had overcome her initial fears and professionally handled her duties.
The pressure briefly let up before returning once more, signifying the start of the next phase of their journey. This stage would put them into the same orbital distance as the object before they used the third stage to navigate toward it.
Using her instrumentation, Fasili adjusted the trajectory of the rocket. Without an atmosphere to hinder it, the rocket would move at tremendous speeds. It would take nearly a day of travel from the MASA launch center to the site of the first Meers. In space, it would take them around 30 minutes to reach the object.
The time went by quickly. Semnik reported back to MASA Ground Control as scheduled to report the data on the navigation system. The results bode well for their satellite communication plans. It would be relatively simple to maneuver satellites into their proper position with manned crews.
As they approached the floating object, they took in its size. From the ground, observers had no point of reference to determine how big the object was. In orbit, the object was massive. It was easily longer than two full size rockets and many times wider.
Fasili carefully matched the orbit of the object. To Semnik, it looked like they weren’t moving at all. The object remained still and he could see the forgotten valley down below, sitting perfectly still underneath. Of course, he knew they were moving at incredible speeds since they had to match the rotation of Meeria to be able to remain still.
Semnik radioed back to MASA with an update and added some babbling about how beautiful the world was from above. At least the part he saw. The sections he could see elsewhere that were ravaged by war were left out of the comment. Everyone below knew how bad the war was, they didn’t need reminding it was visible from space.
Little did Semnik know, his embarrassing ramblings were recorded and released. They’d be taught in schools for generations to come.
Carefully maneuvering around the exterior of the station, they took images of it for later study.
“Sir, I see something. It looks like a portal,” Zandis said, pointing a gloved finger out of the window. Ahead, in the otherwise perfectly smooth exterior, was a line in the shape of a circle.
Maneuvering close to it, Semnik ordered they extend the tube to allow entry to the object. The engineers designing the capsule had anticipated the potential need to board the object and created an extending metallic sheet tube. The hope was the object was magnetic and they could connect the ship and crawl over.
Using a camera mounted to the center of the exterior hatch, Zandis maneuvered the extended tube toward the object.
“This is strange,” Zandis commented as he peered through the viewfinder. “The outer hatch is huge. It’s easily triple the diameter of our boarding tube. There is a clear handle that looks like a means of entry inside and it has symbols painted on it. I’ve never seen symbols like those before.”
Semnik hummed. He wanted into that object and he was wondering if it would be safe to exit the rocket without the tube. Maybe walk in space. “Is this going to be a problem?”
“No, sir,” Zandis continued. “What’s stranger is there is a smaller hatch with another handle dead center in the larger one. And I can read the writing. It’s in an archaic dialect, yet the words are clearly instructions on how to open the hatch.”
All three occupants sat in stunned silence. Semnik didn’t quite believe Zandis and took a look for himself. Sure enough, the scene was exactly as Zandis described. A large hatch with a smaller hatch built in and ancient Meeran text stamped on the surface.
Fasili was the first to break the long silence. “Are you sure this is wise, sir? Everything about this feels wrong.”
Semnik peered out of the window at the large orbiting structure. While it was indeed strange to have an object in orbit labeled in ancient Meeran text along with indecipherable runes, nothing about the object triggered his instincts. It didn’t feel hostile. In fact, he thought it was more inviting.
Taking a breath, Semnik announced, “I’m going over. Neither of you are obligated to take this risk if you don’t wish to go.”
Fasili and Zandis looked at each other. They then nodded in tandem, both agreeing to go.
Zandis maneuvered the passage across the distance. Luckily, the surface was magnetic and allowed the tube to connect. Oddly, whoever or whatever had built the object planned on this since the tube subtly shifted to align perfectly with the hatch. The creators had anticipated a magnetic docking mechanism and created magnetic seat points.
Semnik took the lead and, after cycling the airlock, moved slowly through the opening. It was eerily quiet, the only sound his breathing in his helmet and the breathing over the radio from his two companions. Space was frighteningly silent.
Reaching over, he read the proto-language instructions. Make Turn. Right Tight. Left Loose.
Turning the handle leftward, the door silently released a puff of gas before opening. A white light from a strange bulb that looked like it was made of plastic turned on and led the three Meers into a much larger space. Instructions near what they thought of was the floor told them which buttons to hit in what order after closing the outer door.
Following the instructions, Semnik heard the growing hiss of air as the space filled with gas.
Floating lazily in the middle, Zandis looked at some gages on his wrist. “Seems like the air is breathable. The mixture and pressure is a perfect copy of Meeria.”
“Are you certain about those readings?” Semnik asked, secretly wishing to remove his helmet and get the first taste of the object’s air.
“Yes, sir. Unless there’s a catastrophic failure in the device that just happened to perfectly match Meeria, it’s fine,” Zandis replied.
Reaching up, Semnik released the seals around his neck. His Navigator and Engineer shouted in horror. Yet nothing happened. There wasn’t a telltale hiss from a differential in pressure. Semnik took a deep breath and took in the cleanest air he had ever experienced. Not clean like in the remote valley. Clean like the air had nothing but its component gases.
When Semnik didn’t pass out after a few minutes, Fasili took her helmet off followed by Zandis.
“This is incredible,” Fasili said. “I’m starting to think that weird guy on the Prehistoric Extrameerestrials show is correct.”
Semnik didn’t want to admit that and replied, “There’s still the possibility that this is an Eastern Imperial project.”
Zandis looked like he wanted to argue yet decided to keep his mouth shut. He knew that Semnik didn’t believe his own words and didn’t need to state the obvious.
Opening a Meer size hatch cut into a larger one, the trio were led to a huge central shaft as more lights came on to illuminate the space. A ladder with rungs too far apart to make sense moved from the bottom to the top. At various landings, which were odd given the lack of gravity, were a series of doors opposite the ladder. There were 20 of these doors in all.
As they ascended, they found each of the doors, also three times too large than necessary, closed and locked. None of the doors had a convenient set of instructions on how to open them nor did they have Meer size portals cut into them.
Reaching the top, they found another hatch with a Meer sized entryway and opening instructions.
Entering, they found a small hallway with a number of side rooms in them, also illuminating as they entered. The rooms, save for one that looked like the remains of an immense kitchen, were bare. The kitchen only had a sink that didn’t operate. Zandis commented why anyone would put a sink up here when the water would float all over the room in this setup.
The final door opened up to a bizarre room. In the room was a single gigantic viewscreen on a desk. In front of it was a chair. The desk and chair, like everything else, was about three times bigger than it needed to be.
The three Meers propelled themselves up to float waist high to the top of the desk. On the bottom corner of the giant viewscreen was a big red button.
The three stared at it for a long while. They weren’t sure what it would do if pressed.
“Should we press it?” Semnik asked.
The other two shrugged.
“Zandis, what do you think?” Semnik requested, hoping his Engineer had some insight.
Zandis looked over the object. “Strangely, the device seems remarkably simple. Apart from the panel being as flat as paper, it looks like a basic viewscreen. Nothing unusual is connected to it. I think we can turn it on.”
Semnik slowly reached his finger out and gingerly touched it to the surface of the red button. He still had his gloves on, so he didn’t know what it felt like. It looked like a sort of polymer material.
Taking a deep breath, Semnik applied pressure. With a soft click, the button pressed into the screen and it activated.
On the screen was an ugly face. With the exception of a tuft on the top of the round head, it was completely bald. The face had a nub for a nose and eyes had a green ring around the central black pupil. The skin was pale like a Methis flower.
Semnik noted that the figure sat in the gigantic chair behind the three Meers and made it look normal. The creature, the alien Semnik finally realized, was positively gigantic.
“You sure this thing’s on?” the figure said in a deep, booming voice. The Meeran it spoke was just as old as the text written on the portals.
Out of view, a different voice shouted. “Why are you asking me? Is the light on?”
“I’m just the anthropologist. You’re the engineer,” the figure shouted back.
The other voice off-screen yelled back. “Figures a Hillbilly can’t figure out this new-fangled technothingy.”
“That’s Redneck, ya pencil neck!” the pale figure yelled. Semnik didn’t comprehend the odd behavior yet, somehow, knew that there was no hostility in the words.
“Sorry about that,” the pale figure commented. “Heya little buddies. If you’re seeing this, that means you managed to get past one of the big civilization filters. Congratulations! My name is Frank Martin and I’m what is called a Human.”
The three Meers looked at each other. Unless the Eastern Imperials decided to play a giant prank, it was becoming more and more obvious that the Meer with the weird hair and crazy eyes was right.
The face on the screen suddenly put on an expression that Semnik took as dark. “Before I get to it, I have a warning. All that warring you guys are doing? I suggest you find peace with yourselves. When you start getting up into space, it means weapons are getting real bad. You’ll end up killing yourselves off if you don’t. We lost count of how many other civilizations out there ended themselves over it.”
Sadness entered Semnik’s features. The kindly species observing the Meers had predicted the big war and the Meers were too late to get the warning.
The thought was mirrored in the figure on the screen. “And if you’re here after that? Sorry that you had to go through it. We know what that’s like. The upside is, if you learned your lesson, things will get better.”
Frank leaned back in his chair and crossed his appendages over his chest area. “As for what we’re doing up here and why you’re hearing this? Well, it’s a long story. We, Darryl and I, are researchers. We discovered your people a while back and decided to study your development.”
“We found your people in an early part of their evolutionary period. Their lifespans were roughly 1/5th of what they were when we headed off, more on that later, and we watched you grow and evolve over a long period of time.”
Frank took a deep breath of air and slowly released it. “Normally, civilizations like yours never even leave their point of origin. It’s a concept called the Dark Forest Hypothesis. To put it simply, the unknown is dangerous so it’s safer not to go there. My people went in there and ended up in space. Yours, at least until something happened, was perfectly content hiding out in their burrows.”
“Unfortunately, something happened that upended your development. A species, extinct at the time of this recording, was in its early space development phase. They discovered your planet and, for reasons we don’t know, decided to send a weaponized predator to destroy your world. We didn’t know it was coming and, by the time we figured out something was there, it had already landed.”
“We did our best to kill it off, but not before we were witnessed by one of the locals. We have a rule not to interfere, yet we made exceptions if something off-world showed up and threatened you. If that happened, we had protocols to try and scare your people back into their old ways. It also doubled as an emergency in-case that off-world threat came around again.”
“You see, directly below us is the origin of your people. If you haven’t found it by now, you should find the remains of your ancient ancestors. Along with it will be a black box. It ran out of power ages ago, so it should be an inert brick. Still, it’ll be obvious since it’s made out of materials not possible from the era.”
Semnik found his mouth starting to hang open in surprise. Everything this Frank alien was saying continued to be prophetic.
“A while after our first encounter, we discovered that the critter that we thought we exterminated had already multiplied. It then threatened to wipe out your ancestors. One of your ancestors, a guy called a Storyteller, called for help. We showed up and took care of business. While we didn’t get them all that day, Darryl did come up with a scanner and we ended up wiping out the rest of the buggers over the next year or so.”
Frank leaned in close to the screen. “Unfortunately, we opened up something we like to refer to as a Pandora’s Box. There’s more details behind it, but the common usage is for something that, once done, can’t be undone. While your Storyteller wished to keep what happened a secret, just too many of your ancestors had witness what happened. It changed behaviors.”
“Emboldened by the assumption that we would show up and protect them from any threats, your people started to venture into the forest for the first time. Once this behavior was cemented and we were forgotten, your ancestors started to develop tools to help deal with the threats of your world. Time passed, you evolved and became more sophisticated.”
The figure let out a deep gust of air once again. “I have a bit of an apology to make. While it is protocol to leave you alone, and we did a good job of that, some things did make their way into your society. The big ones are a number of your units of measurements as well as your names. I’m the one that called you Meers. You guys just referred to yourselves as People before.”
“This happened because I kinda forgot to turn off the transponder signal after giving it down to the scout. It took a while for me to figure out it was on.”
“You?” the other voice shouted with what sounded like indignity. “I’m the one who found it. After you put your damned boots up on the console again and got dirt in the board.”
The figure let out what sounded like a cough. “Yup. With my judicious use of your planet’s surface, I had discovered my error. In any case, I turned it off and at least stopped polluting your culture. For the most part, everything you created up you did so on your own. So if you have any weird fellas down there claiming we helped you build giant triangles out of stone, you have it from my authority that we didn’t.”
Semnik smirked. If this image was ever recorded, returned and declassified, this section would be the very first he would want aired.
“In any case, you’re probably wondering why we’re doing this at all after telling you how careful we have been about interfering. Well, think of this is as a big gift. In addition to the warning, we have 20 floors of data and archives to give you.”
Semnik notice the sudden wave of excitement emanating from Zandis. Which was immediately quashed with the next words.
“No, we aren’t gifting you technology. Sorry, you gotta figure that out for yourselves. Anything left here to keep the station functioning isn’t at a level that you probably already haven’t figured out or won’t soon. If you’re seeing this, and haven’t blown yourselves up, you’ll figure it out the rest eventually. No, it’s an even bigger gift. Something that not even we Humans have at our disposal. It’s your history.”
Semnik blinked. A sudden wave of euphoria rose in his chest. Was it what he was thinking?
“Yup, all those locked doors down below? Archives. In both digital and printed form, you’ll find the history of your people dating back to the very moments we arrived. Your proto-Meer ancestors and on. One of the big sadness of Humanity is we really don’t know much about anything before we started writing stuff down. Even when we did, we didn’t always have the best storage methods. Art, culture, language, everything prior to the written word is lost forever to us.”
Frank lifted up the corners of his mouth. Semnik assumed it must be happiness, something he was now feeling full-blast. This was an incredible gift, far more valuable than technology.
“Before I unlock the doors, I need to give you a small warning. Within each archive cabinet you’ll find a lead box. This is to protect you from the contents. If you’re up here, I’m assuming you know what radioactivity is. The reason for this is, since we don’t know how you guys use your calendars or how long it’s been since when we left, I can’t use things like years to communicate with you. To get around that problem, we put a sample of a dozen different radioactive isotopes in each box. At the time of the archive, the isotopes were fresh. All you gotta do is measure how much is left and you’ll know when the events in that cabinet happened.”
When the sentence ended, Semnik heard a series of clicks echo from down the hall. Twenty of them.
“So, anyway, enjoy the gift. We’re gonna head out now. There’s another interesting species on a different planet we’re going to study for a while. You guys have just developed simple telescopes and we really don’t want to be up here flashing lights when one of ya’ll looks up. Humanity will pull back a few star systems. When you figure out how to travel to the next one, you’ll be certain to get the welcome wagon. We’re really looking forward to the second race to figure out faster than light travel. I really hope it’s you guys.”
“Anyway, good luck. We’ll be out here waiting for you. And when you do make your way outside of your system? Ask for the Prees named Frank and Darryl. They’ll know who you’re talking about. And don’t worry, we’ll probably still be around. We live a really long time. I’d like to get some drinks, formally welcome you to the galaxy and have a nice chat with the people I got to know for a good part of my life.”
The vision gave out and the three Meers stared at the blank screen in stunned silence. Then a smile crept over Semnik’s mouth. Here was a hyper-advanced species that came across the galaxy, studied them and gave them the most precious gift imaginable. Their history.
In that moment, Semnik knew he liked these Humans. He couldn’t wait until the Meers figured out how to go meet them. He would gladly have a drink with the ones named Frank and Darryl.
That said, the stories are coming to an end for a while. I procrastinated enough with what I should be writing at the moment. That said, like I mentioned in IPGS, I plan on coming back with something more novel length that I think everyone will enjoy.
Take care!
2024.05.08 23:38 Odd-Promotion5916 Processing OEC for Direct Hires (as of May 9, 2024)
I had a hard time looking for credible step-by-step guide on processing OEC. So I put together this simple guide and I hope it helps. Please note that I am still working on my OEC and this is a work-in-progress ⚠️👷♀️⚠️. Meaning I will update this post until I finally get my OEC and fly to Canada.
A little background information about me: I have a Canadian employer who processed all my papers including Work Visa, LMIA, and up until submission to POLO for verification. The following steps are for Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) processing specifically for Direct Hires. I am no expert, all these are based on my own research and experience. This is also my first time doing all these and working abroad. Here it goes:
[1] Create an account here: https://onlineservices.dmw.gov.ph/OnlineServices/Public/CreateAccount.aspx. A temporary password will be sent to your email. Once your account is ready, log in by clicking Let's Go button. Enter your e-mail and password.
[2] On the Dashboard, attach a passport size (4.5 cm x 3.5 cm) profile picture and upload a scanned copy or a picture of the info page of your passport.
[4] On the right side, you'll see a section called My Links. Click Direct Hire Application.
[5] On the left side under Tools section, click My Application.
[10] WIP, I will update this later. I am still on Step 7 myself 😅
To give you an idea of the overall TIMELINE for processing OEC, here's my journey so far:
Other notes:
submitted by Odd-Promotion5916 to u/Odd-Promotion5916 [link] [comments]
A little background information about me: I have a Canadian employer who processed all my papers including Work Visa, LMIA, and up until submission to POLO for verification. The following steps are for Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) processing specifically for Direct Hires. I am no expert, all these are based on my own research and experience. This is also my first time doing all these and working abroad. Here it goes:
[1] Create an account here: https://onlineservices.dmw.gov.ph/OnlineServices/Public/CreateAccount.aspx. A temporary password will be sent to your email. Once your account is ready, log in by clicking Let's Go button. Enter your e-mail and password.
[2] On the Dashboard, attach a passport size (4.5 cm x 3.5 cm) profile picture and upload a scanned copy or a picture of the info page of your passport.
ℹ️ If it throws you an error or you don't see a preview of what you've uploaded, your file probably isn't allowed. They either accept JPG/JPEG or PDF only. They also have file size limit. Please double check before uploading anything. This applies to any file you'll be uploading on this website.[3] On the left side, click My Profile. Setup as much as you can including your Passport under Identifications. Do not upload anything yet under My Documents, this will have to be updated once your status is FOR APPOINTMENT, more of this later (see step 8).
[4] On the right side, you'll see a section called My Links. Click Direct Hire Application.
[5] On the left side under Tools section, click My Application.
ℹ️ This is only accessible Mondays to Fridays 8am to 5pm (Philippine Standard Time)[6] Upload all required documents (this is Phase 1):
- Passport - Upload the information page
- Visa
- Employment Contract - This has to be verified by POLO, a picture will do. But on your POEA appointment date you have to bring the original copy. Meaning your employer has to mail it to you. The last page of my contract has a Verified stamp of Migrant Workers Office, Philippine Consulate General, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
- Company Profile, Business License / Commercial Registration of the employer - This is part of POLO Verification requirement. Ask your employer to send these documents to you as well. I also included a screenshot of our company website. I read somewhere that you can also use your employer's LinkedIn page.
- Additional country-specific requirements - In my case, I uploaded the approved LMIA
- Additional documents to support job application - I uploaded my resume
- Employer's passport / ID
- Copy of Diploma / ToR / CoE and other certificates - I uploaded a single PDF file for my Diploma and Transcript of Records. I submitted the original copy given to me after graduation. No authentication by a lawyer done and it was accepted and got approved.
- MWO Endorsement Letter - This is the letter of Exemption from Ban on Direct Hiring also with Migrant Workers Office, Philippine Consulate General, Vancouver, BC, Canada stamp.
ℹ️ Sworn statement on how the worker secured employment - this is listed on the things to submit during Phase 1 but it's not required. I didn't submit one and I was able to proceed to the next steps. My application was approved later on.[7] Once all documents listed in step 6 are submitted, you need to wait until your application status is FOR APPROVAL. At this point you'll receive an email basically instructing you to prepare the Phase 2 requirements:
- Pre-Employment Orientation Seminar (PEOS) - Create an account here: https://peos.dmw.gov.ph/. Read all modules and take all quizzes at the end of each module. Save and print a copy of your PEOS certificate.
- Medical Certificate - get it from DOH Accredited Medical Clinics, see accredited clinics here: https://hfsrb.doh.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/List-of-Accredited-Medical-Facilities-for-Overseas-Workers-and-Seafarers-as-of-August-15-2022.pdf Ask if they give discounts for OFWs.
ℹ️ Workers bound for Canada, New Zealand, and Australia are exempted from submitting Medical Certificates (just upload a blank page instead).
ℹ️ Medical Certificate is only valid for 3 months. If you are confident about your application you can get it as soon as you submitted Phase 1 requirements. I actually did mine only to learn later that Canada-bound workers are exempted (which makes sense since Medical Exam is required in processing VISA). To give you an idea, you will undergo hearing exam, visual exam, radiology, laboratory (including urinalysis and fecal analysis, Hepatitis B surface antigen test or HBsAg test, HIV test, STD test, pregnancy test), psychological evaluation (personality test, intelligence test, autobiography and intake interview), and physical exam.
- Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS) - Walk-in PDOS at OWWA 2nd Floor DMW Bldg., Mandaluyong City
- Contact: (02) 8720-4595
- Regular Schedule: Monday to Thursday only
- Registration: 8am (They can only accommodate 48 pax per session, you would want to be there early).
- Time: 9am to 11am (2 hours long) – Europe, US Territories, Asia & Pacific, Middle East and Africa (Previously they conduct PDOS per country of deployment, but these days they host a "one-size-fits-all" seminar for Direct Hires).
- Reminder: Come on time. Late comers are not allowed and not given PDOS certificates. OWWA PDOS is free of charge. Wear appropriate attire (No sleeveless, shorts, and slippers). They have a cafeteria inside POEA. You can eat there before the seminar because there's no break in between the 2-hour long seminar.
ℹ️ Bring the following when you attend PDOS: photocopy of your passport, printed registration form (Go to Direct Hire Application > Tools > Print Registration), and your POLO verified employment contract (They won't take this, they will only check and review it).
ℹ️ This is different from PDOS conducted by Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO)'s PDOS. I made a mistake of booking an appointment with them, they didn't entertain me
ℹ️ I tried getting the online PDOS but seems like that isn't available or offered anymore.
ℹ️ Included in PDOS are orientation for SSS, PAGIBIG, PhilHealth, and COMELEC. I recommend to free up your afternoon so you can update all these in POEA Ortigas. It's so convenient since they have all these sectors in one place.
For both SSS and PAGIBIG, they accept advance payments so you don't have to worry about paying when you're abroad. Another convenient way of paying your contributions is through GCash. You may avail PAGIBIG's ID, but it is only offered Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays only. They can only accommodate 50 pax per day. If you want one, come in early.
For PhilHealth, we are required to pay our premiums and that is 5% of our salary written in our employment contract. It's a huge amount! I'm surprised the person in charge for PhilHealth Orientation in PDOS even said that we don't have to pay it, no one will chase us anyway. The only problem is you can't avail of it's benefits.
For COMELEC, there's an upcoming elections next year (April 13 to May 12, 2025). I was able to update my information and register for the planned online voting. You just need to present your passport and fill up their form, then they will take your biometrics.
- Certificate of Insurance - Print your policy confirmation. The following benefits should at least be covered by any LIFE INSURANCE company: repatriation of mortal remains in case of death and repatriation upon termination of employment.
ℹ️ Again, if you get an error or you don't see a preview of what you've uploaded, your file probably isn't allowed. They either accept JPG/JPEG or PDF only. They also have file size limit. Please double check before uploading anything. This applies to any document you'll be uploading on this website.[9] Go to your scheduled POEA Appointment. Bring the original copy and 2 extra copies of all your Phase 1 (see step 6) and Phase 2 (see step 7) requirements. Also bring a printed copy of your POEA appointment.
[10] WIP, I will update this later. I am still on Step 7 myself 😅
- March 8 - We picked up our passports after VISA stamping from VFS Global Makati
- March 20 - POLO Vancouver received the complete requirements for employment verification from my employer
- April 26 - All our documents are verified by POLO
- April 30 - My employer picked up all verified documents from POLO Vancouver office
- May 2 - I did my medical exam and accomplished PEOS
- May 3 - My employer mailed all original documents to me, they also sent me a photographed copy of all the documents so I can upload it to DMW online services. I was able to submit all Phase 1 requirements same day.
- May 6 - I picked up my Medical Certificate with "FIT to work" results
- May 6 - I received the original POLO verified documents (it was mailed to me by my employer through DHL express)
- May 6 - My application status became: assigned to POEA evaluator
- May 7 - My application status became: FOR APPROVAL, subject for Clearance
- May 9 - I attended PDOS at OWWA Ortigas and got my PDOS certificate.
- May 17 - My application was approved. I am still not uploading my Phase 2 (see step 7) requirements since the instructions said to only upload when the status is FOR APPOINTMENT. I'll check back following week.
- May 18 - Waiting... They said the status online will be updated in 2-3 days. Then I can upload my Phase 2 documents. Afterwards another wait time of 2-3 days, then they will issue an appointment date to submit all original hard copies of the requirements. I will update this post again later ⚠️👷♀️⚠️
- If your employer has 5+ Filipino employees already, they'll need to get an agency to process your papers.
- If your spouse is coming with you on an Open Work Permit, they don't need to get PDOS or OEC. They need to present a copy of your OEC to Immigration Officer. This information is from a Direct Hire department employee.
2024.05.08 23:29 Odd-Promotion5916 Processing OEC for Direct Hires (as of May 9, 2024)
I had a hard time looking for credible step-by-step guide on processing OEC. So I put together this simple guide and I hope it helps. Please note that I am still working on my OEC and this is a work-in-progress ⚠️👷♀️⚠️. Meaning I will update this post until I finally get my OEC and fly to Canada.
A little background information about me: I have a Canadian employer who processed all my papers including Work Visa, LMIA, and up until submission to POLO for verification. The following steps are for Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) processing specifically for Direct Hires. I am no expert, all these are based on my own research and experience. This is also my first time doing all these and working abroad. Here it goes:
[1] Create an account here: https://onlineservices.dmw.gov.ph/OnlineServices/Public/CreateAccount.aspx. A temporary password will be sent to your email. Once your account is ready, log in by clicking Let's Go button. Enter your e-mail and password.
[2] On the Dashboard, attach a passport size (4.5 cm x 3.5 cm) profile picture and upload a scanned copy or a picture of the info page of your passport.
[4] On the right side, you'll see a section called My Links. Click Direct Hire Application.
[5] On the left side under Tools section, click My Application.
[10] WIP, I will update this later. I am still on Step 7 myself 😅
To give you an idea of the overall TIMELINE for processing OEC, here's my journey so far:
Other notes:
submitted by Odd-Promotion5916 to phmigrate [link] [comments]
A little background information about me: I have a Canadian employer who processed all my papers including Work Visa, LMIA, and up until submission to POLO for verification. The following steps are for Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) processing specifically for Direct Hires. I am no expert, all these are based on my own research and experience. This is also my first time doing all these and working abroad. Here it goes:
[1] Create an account here: https://onlineservices.dmw.gov.ph/OnlineServices/Public/CreateAccount.aspx. A temporary password will be sent to your email. Once your account is ready, log in by clicking Let's Go button. Enter your e-mail and password.
[2] On the Dashboard, attach a passport size (4.5 cm x 3.5 cm) profile picture and upload a scanned copy or a picture of the info page of your passport.
ℹ️ If it throws you an error or you don't see a preview of what you've uploaded, your file probably isn't allowed. They either accept JPG/JPEG or PDF only. They also have file size limit. Please double check before uploading anything. This applies to any file you'll be uploading on this website.[3] On the left side, click My Profile. Setup as much as you can including your Passport under Identifications. Do not upload anything yet under My Documents, this will have to be updated once your status is FOR APPOINTMENT, more of this later (see step 8).
[4] On the right side, you'll see a section called My Links. Click Direct Hire Application.
[5] On the left side under Tools section, click My Application.
ℹ️ This is only accessible Mondays to Fridays 8am to 5pm (Philippine Standard Time)[6] Upload all required documents (this is Phase 1):
- Passport - Upload the information page
- Visa
- Employment Contract - This has to be verified by POLO, a picture will do. But on your POEA appointment date you have to bring the original copy. Meaning your employer has to mail it to you. The last page of my contract has a Verified stamp of Migrant Workers Office, Philippine Consulate General, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
- Company Profile, Business License / Commercial Registration of the employer - This is part of POLO Verification requirement. Ask your employer to send these documents to you as well. I also included a screenshot of our company website. I read somewhere that you can also use your employer's LinkedIn page.
- Additional country-specific requirements - In my case, I uploaded the approved LMIA
- Additional documents to support job application - I uploaded my resume
- Employer's passport / ID
- Copy of Diploma / ToR / CoE and other certificates - I uploaded a single PDF file for my Diploma and Transcript of Records. I submitted the original copy given to me after graduation. No authentication by a lawyer done and it was accepted and got approved.
- MWO Endorsement Letter - This is the letter of Exemption from Ban on Direct Hiring also with Migrant Workers Office, Philippine Consulate General, Vancouver, BC, Canada stamp.
ℹ️ Sworn statement on how the worker secured employment - this is listed on the things to submit during Phase 1 but it's not required. I didn't submit one and I was able to proceed to the next steps. My application was approved later on.[7] Once all documents listed in step 6 are submitted, you need to wait until your application status is FOR APPROVAL. At this point you'll receive an email basically instructing you to prepare the Phase 2 requirements:
- Pre-Employment Orientation Seminar (PEOS) - Create an account here: https://peos.dmw.gov.ph/. Read all modules and take all quizzes at the end of each module. Save and print a copy of your PEOS certificate.
- Medical Certificate - get it from DOH Accredited Medical Clinics, see accredited clinics here: https://hfsrb.doh.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/List-of-Accredited-Medical-Facilities-for-Overseas-Workers-and-Seafarers-as-of-August-15-2022.pdf Ask if they give discounts for OFWs.
ℹ️ Workers bound for Canada, New Zealand, and Australia are exempted from submitting Medical Certificates (just upload a blank page instead).
ℹ️ Medical Certificate is only valid for 3 months. If you are confident about your application you can get it as soon as you submitted Phase 1 requirements. I actually did mine only to learn later that Canada-bound workers are exempted (which makes sense since Medical Exam is required in processing VISA). To give you an idea, you will undergo hearing exam, visual exam, radiology, laboratory (including urinalysis and fecal analysis, Hepatitis B surface antigen test or HBsAg test, HIV test, STD test, pregnancy test), psychological evaluation (personality test, intelligence test, autobiography and intake interview), and physical exam.
- Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS) - Walk-in PDOS at OWWA 2nd Floor DMW Bldg., Mandaluyong City
- Contact: (02) 8720-4595
- Regular Schedule: Monday to Thursday only
- Registration: 8am (They can only accommodate 48 pax per session, you would want to be there early).
- Time: 9am to 11am (2 hours long) – Europe, US Territories, Asia & Pacific, Middle East and Africa (Previously they conduct PDOS per country of deployment, but these days they host a "one-size-fits-all" seminar for Direct Hires).
- Reminder: Come on time. Late comers are not allowed and not given PDOS certificates. OWWA PDOS is free of charge. Wear appropriate attire (No sleeveless, shorts, and slippers). They have a cafeteria inside POEA. You can eat there before the seminar because there's no break in between the 2-hour long seminar.
ℹ️ Bring the following when you attend PDOS: photocopy of your passport, printed registration form (Go to Direct Hire Application > Tools > Print Registration), and your POLO verified employment contract (They won't take this, they will only check and review it).
ℹ️ This is different from PDOS conducted by Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO)'s PDOS. I made a mistake of booking an appointment with them, they didn't entertain me
ℹ️ I tried getting the online PDOS but seems like that isn't available or offered anymore.
ℹ️ Included in PDOS are orientation for SSS, PAGIBIG, PhilHealth, and COMELEC. I recommend to free up your afternoon so you can update all these in POEA Ortigas. It's so convenient since they have all these sectors in one place.
For both SSS and PAGIBIG, they accept advance payments so you don't have to worry about paying when you're abroad. Another convenient way of paying your contributions is through GCash. You may avail PAGIBIG's ID, but it is only offered Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays only. They can only accommodate 50 pax per day. If you want one, come in early.
For PhilHealth, we are required to pay our premiums and that is 5% of our salary written in our employment contract. It's a huge amount! I'm surprised the person in charge for PhilHealth Orientation in PDOS even said that we don't have to pay it, no one will chase us anyway. The only problem is you can't avail of it's benefits.
For COMELEC, there's an upcoming elections next year (April 13 to May 12, 2025). I was able to update my information and register for the planned online voting. You just need to present your passport and fill up their form, then they will take your biometrics.
- Certificate of Insurance - Print your policy confirmation. The following benefits should at least be covered by any LIFE INSURANCE company: repatriation of mortal remains in case of death and repatriation upon termination of employment.
ℹ️ Again, if you get an error or you don't see a preview of what you've uploaded, your file probably isn't allowed. They either accept JPG/JPEG or PDF only. They also have file size limit. Please double check before uploading anything. This applies to any document you'll be uploading on this website.[9] Go to your scheduled POEA Appointment. Bring the original copy and 2 extra copies of all your Phase 1 (see step 6) and Phase 2 (see step 7) requirements. Also bring a printed copy of your POEA appointment.
[10] WIP, I will update this later. I am still on Step 7 myself 😅
- March 8 - We picked up our passports after VISA stamping from VFS Global Makati
- March 20 - POLO Vancouver received the complete requirements for employment verification from my employer
- April 26 - All our documents are verified by POLO
- April 30 - My employer picked up all verified documents from POLO Vancouver office
- May 2 - I did my medical exam and accomplished PEOS
- May 3 - My employer mailed all original documents to me, they also sent me a photographed copy of all the documents so I can upload it to DMW online services. I was able to submit all Phase 1 requirements same day.
- May 6 - I picked up my Medical Certificate with "FIT to work" results
- May 6 - I received the original POLO verified documents (it was mailed to me by my employer through DHL express)
- May 6 - My application status became: assigned to POEA evaluator
- May 7 - My application status became: FOR APPROVAL, subject for Clearance
- May 9 - I attended PDOS at OWWA Ortigas and got my PDOS certificate.
- May 17 - My application was approved. I am still not uploading my Phase 2 (see step 7) requirements since the instructions said to only upload when the status is FOR APPOINTMENT. I'll check back following week.
- May 18 - Waiting... They said the status online will be updated in 2-3 days. Then I can upload my Phase 2 documents. Afterwards another wait time of 2-3 days, then they will issue an appointment date to submit all original hard copies of the requirements. I will update this post again later ⚠️👷♀️⚠️
- If your employer has 5+ Filipino employees already, they'll need to get an agency to process your papers.
- If your spouse is coming with you on an Open Work Permit, they don't need to get PDOS or OEC. They need to present a copy of your OEC to Immigration Officer. This information is from a Direct Hire department employee.
2024.05.07 19:34 WritingDrakon A Automancer in a Dragons world, ch.5
Tiamat let out a hissing laugh as she raised both hands, unleashing a wave of twisting and churning purple mist at the party standing before her. The mist expanded towards the group before Misha rammed his great blade into the ground, fire erupting from the impact as he and Ludwig roared in unison, Ludwigs claws clapping together before separating wide as he shouted:
”AEGIS!”
A barrier , made of Ludwig and Mishas magic mixed together, formed around them and the others, flashing and warping as the miasma struck it, battering the barrier like a horde of smoky tendrils.
Tamil hissed under his breath, bow snapping up and twangling as the smaller dragon unleashed arrows as fast as he could, each one glinting with green magic and fizzing as it struck the miasma.
“Cyka….” Svet mumbled, her blade at the ready, breathing in and preparing to unleash more Dragons Fire-
The red clad mage sprinted forward, ignoring Tamils panicked shouts as he hung low to the ground, right as Svet breathed out, unleashing a amethyst blast of plasma.
The Lich Queen laughed as she held up a claw, a barrier of miasma erupting to block the flame. “Silly, foolish welp~ I Know how to keep Cleansing Fire from-” she jerked back as a metal fist erupted out of the miasma, much to her shock, followed by the mage, unharmed, if a little singed. Her hand shot up and caught the metal fist, a smirk forming on her face. ”Fascinating~ I wonder, how did you survive the Fog of the undead, little squishy~?” she purred, before a click was heard.
“That's for me to know, and you to ponder” Talos said with a tone indicative of a smug grin-
BOOM
The pipe on the back of his arm went off, its payload breaking the claws that held his metal hand and drilling into the face of the dragon Lich, making her stumble back as the sound of shattering metals could be heard behind her.
She swung her arm, using the remains of her claws to throw the smaller magic user across the room, and spun around to stare at the remains of the odd pedestal she had been messing with. Sick sounds of cracking bone, splintering and reforming to maintain her shape, were heard as she realized what the little mage had done.
”.......no…..no no NO NO NO!” She snarled as she looked up into the darkness of the massive room behind her and began to slowly step back….
Around them, they heard the sound of something whining, rising in pitch and volume as Talos heaved himself up from where he had been thrown, his glowing irises locked on the Lich Queen in horror. “You actually tried to activate and control it!? Are you FECKING insane!?” He shouted, as a single, massive, crimson light suddenly illuminated the darkness.
“WARNING. PURGER ONLINE. ALL REMAINING PERSONNEL ARE REQUIRED TO MAKE THEIR PEACE AND PREPARE FOR IMMOLATION.”
The strange voice seemed to echo around them, as around the crimson light, two blue lights ignited, burning with a baleful glow, swiveling around in the shadows, aimed at them.
“GET TO COVER, NOW!” Talos yelled, diving for a hole in the wall as the rest of the party ducked out the door they came in through, escaping just before whatever was in the darkness unleashed a storm of blue energy, filling the room with a blast of light and destructive energy.
/zzzzzzzzzz/
WARNING! Mana Regeneration nullified due to Mana acclimators in use within vicinity
WARNING! Mana loss detected! Rate of .05 per second!
Mana Low, Mana:20/75
Talos cursed as he twisted through the air, mentally berating himself as the light from the smoldering, immolated room above him illuminated the area he had thrown himself into. Before him stretched a massive room, lined with concrete and rails designed to carry heavy assembly arms, one of which hanging just on the edge of the illuminated area…… and as he was taking all in he caught sight of a metal hydraulic piston swinging out at him, easily multiple times bigger than himself.
Channeling a little Mana to his feet, he twisted himself upright, before expelling it out in an explosive, bright blast in an effort to slow himself down. Despite his efforts, he still slammed into the piston hard, slid down and catching on a metal panel-
“UN4L1GHN3D 4UT0M4NC3R D3T3CT3D. PR10R1T151NG T4RG3T.”
“......feck.'' Talos sighed as he heard the blast of binary shake the room, thankful he didn't have eardrums for the machine to damage, despite its best efforts.
WARNING! MANA CRITICALLY LOW!
Mana:9.95/75
The automancer cursed to himself softly as he saw just how little Mana he had remaining, and how much he had used to slow himself down, before movement catches his eye. He barely swings himself around the piston as a massive metal, arachnid like leg slams down where he just was.
Shaking his head from the clouds, he began to pull himself up the piston he was on, climbing on top and running along it, a malevolent optic focusing on him as he moved.
“T4RG3T L0C4T3D.”
The sound of rocket motors filled the room, bright lights from missile exhaust partially illuminating the machine as they arched through the dark chamber, forming a pseudo eclipse of their own engines as they angled at the running skeleton.
Sounds of metal shutters opening were heard, accompanied by the whine of something charging up and dozens of pinpricks of light illuminating underneath, around and above the massive optic focused on Talos, along with the two larger Plasma casters on either side of the eye.
Talos wasn't playing fair, however. Reaching down into his bag, he pulled out the metal grapple and rope he still had on him from going spelunking in that cave for ores, and twirled it as he ran….
Just as the missiles were about to hit his cloak, he let the grapple fly, swinging it down around the slowly moving machine’s leg, only for it to come back up and hook on its armor on the other side. Once hooked, he leapt off the side of the piston, letting his weight and momentum swing him to avoid the missiles, if only barley, before landing on the other side of where he jumped from. Once he landed the hook slipped free, as his weight wasn't pulling down to keep it in place anymore.
Talos pulled the rope back, twirling it again before letting it fly forward, latching onto the leg once again, this time at the height of its knee joint that was sticking out into the air, a blue, crystal like cylinder jutting out from it, armor covering the half of it aimed away from the main body, and glowed brightly.
It seemed to be pulling some form of mist into itself…
“Bingo.” Talos muttered as he spotted the cylinder, clambering up the rope as fast as he could, even as the chatter of weapons fire erupted around him and the leg began to move, forcing the rope, and himself, to be flung back and forth.
“THR34T 45535M3NT, T4RG3T 4PPR04CH1NG 4CCUMUL4T0R. CUTT1NG 0FF R0UT3”
Weapons fire screamed through the air in a flurry of energy, the projectiles launched all traveled slower than a bullet, but were easily able to singe the rope burning it in half as Talos watched helplessly.
He cursed as he fell, spinning about as he saw another leg aimed at him, and grinned, grabbing onto it as it barely missed him and using its momentum to fling himself back to the piston.
He drew his revolver from its holster and ran, ducking and dodging around blasts of prepared spells and mana, ignoring the explosions and debris the spells sent flying off the concrete walls of the room, leaping from the piston to its casing as it moved, and began chanting quietly to himself, a golden energy forming around the barrel of the ring action pistol, Aurebesh swirling around the glowing sphere as he moved.
One particularly nasty blast of energy forced him to jump, and he took advantage of it, spinning around in the air and aiming, before pulling the trigger.
The muted explosion of the cartridge going off went unnoticed as the glowing round streaked from the barrel, striking the Mana Accumulator and causing it to cave in on itself-
WA-BOOM
The ensuing detonation blew the leg off and unleashed a wave of stored mana, slamming into Talos and being absorbed by his body, and more importantly, his Phylactery.
WARNING! MANA SURGE DETECTED!
MANA POOL OVERLOADED! Mana: @>²()!?/75
WARNING! MANA LEVELS RISING!
EXPEL MANA TO PREVENT CRITICAL FAILURE OF PHYLACTERY!
Talos hissed as his prosthetic arm spasmed and twitched, fighting with it to get it under control, using the sudden surge of power to speed up his perception and buy time to think.
The room was illuminated by the ethereal glow of the Mana, some being absorbed by him, but much of it was flowing back into the other crystals of the massive, six legged machine….
Well. Five legged, now.
The machine in question looked odd, a sphere connected to the arachnid like legs, acting as a central hub, with a second sphere acting as its abdomen, massive and covered with weapons, arranged in a ring pattern and pushing out of hatches on its back. The outermost ones looked to be some sort of anti infantry armament, fast and able to overwhelm infantry armor and shields, while inner rings seemed to contain artillery and anti aircraft weapons. On its head area was the spherical optic, the twin plasma casters on either side of said optic appearing like some form of facsimile of fangs. The machine itself clung to the wall, its optic swiveling to look ‘up’ from its perspective, tracking him closely from its position.
Waves of mana pinged off it, like echolocation, striking him, though slower now with his altered perception, letting him see how they interacted with the machine-
New skill gained!
Mana Scanning. 1/10
By sending out a pulse of mana, Talos can do an in-depth scan of a target to find weaknesses in its armor, weapons, and many other things. Mana absorbing materials, however, can nullify this ability unless overcharged
The scan showed there were little in the way of weakpoints….well, short of the Mana Accumulators on the ‘knees’, but that could make things worse then better, if destroying one was anything to go by.
He hissed as he saw exactly what he feared in the very Core of the machine, a beating, pulsing heart consisting of radioactive isotopes and severely unstable Mana, both providing power for the mechanoid’s destructive rampage……
And the final end. If he removed the legs, he suspected it would trigger its own self destruct, and if it was anything like a Mjölnir class core he was used to, anywhere from the surrounding area to the whole continent was going to be a uninhabitable crater, and the entire planet would end up irradiated.
He didn't have a team to coordinate with, so he would make do with what he had.
Twisting around, he examined the chamber, now illuminated by the mana… and saw massive, mechanical armature laying around the room, likely meant for other mechanoids like the one he faced down now, but never being completed or having been discarded to be cannibalized for parts, even another one of the massive bucket wheel excavators from the entry hall lay off to the side, mostly disassembled except for the arm….
It clicked. The mechanoid was designed for infantry or armor….
But not another one of its Own.
/zzzzzzzzzz/
Tiamat, the Lich Queen, floated above the fight, watching in fascination as the massive warmachine she had tried to control focused down the Automancer, her smirk widening as she saw the mage run headlong into the fight, pulling out some quite clever tricks when he realized the mana drain in progress. She herself could feel the negligible drain on her mana, but ignored it, having the mana to spare, watching as the mage shot the Mana Accumulator, causing it to explode.
She sighed, a pity. The little mage was far too close to the explosion, such a thing would fry any normal organic, and even a Lich like herself would have an issue with such an influx of mana…. Truly, a great loss. Not many would think to close the gap between herself and them under the cover of their own allies' fire and use a Force Multiplier at point blank on her. The aim was a bit off, but she attributed that to him thinking her Heart for this body was in her head-
WHOOOORACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK
She flinched and shot back as a flood of golden mana erupted from the tiny pinprick that was the mages body, acting like ethereal mechadendrites, ripping the long dormant machines around them off the walls, from their resting areas on the floor or in storage. As components flew, they started to pop apart and began swirling around the tiny mage as he floated back up, hovering before the Purge Machine, much to its, and her, confusion.
The Automancer spread his arms, and the machinery began to assemble itself around him, first forming what looked like a Command Throne, which floated up for him to sit in, before a shell surrounded him…..
And then the components bound themselves together, forming a massive, bipedal body, digitigrade legs keeping balance as pistons hissed once it touched the floor, feet designed with three toe claws in the front and one in the back, capable of digging into the ground if needed. One arm ended with the massive bucket wheel of the excavator rather than a hand, while the other arm was tipped with bladelike claws, around a massive Mana Cannon, glowing with ethereal golden energy.
The shoulder joints were protected with rectangular pauldrons, the arms made out of massive pistons and supports. The upper body was designed like a knight's cuirass, though the belly area was segmented armor plates, while a short, segmented tail stuck out like that of a dragon, allowing for balance.
Along the spine area were dormant Mana Accumulators, retracted and shrouded to protect them, hidden underneath short, sharp spines. The head was ripped off one of the older bipedal Purge Machine frames, like the legs had been, and designed to look draconic, its optical bar igniting, a glowing point of light panning back and forth on the visor as the machine stared down its competitor.
“ŔØŮÑĎ ŤẀØ, MÓŤĤÉŘFËĈĶƏŔ.”Came the distorted voice of the automancer at the heart of the monstrosity, as the war machine dropped into a combat stance. Leading with a brutal right hook, the mech brought the spinning bucket wheel slashing across his opponents back before it could fire, the sound of screeching metal ringing out and filling the chamber.
/zzzzzzzzzz/
“ACH DU HEILIGE SCHEISSE! SVET, DIE HÖLLE DID YOU FIND!?” Ludwig said in stupefied horror as they watched their teammate pull machinery around him apart and form a massive Automail armor.Its optical bar light going back and forth was all they could make out in the distant shadows, until the sound of screeching metal and the sight of sparks illuminated him and the machine he was fighting.
The others around the pearly white dragon were watching in shock, all of them looking out the window of the room they were in, which appeared to be some kind of control room. Around them stood a variety of destroyed machines, and what looked to them like something where one would stand and place a book or scroll, but nothing but ash remained on it.
The room just outside the window looked like a arena, the massive spider like machine leaping off the wall, its legs spinning around to try and pin down their mages Automail armor, only for a glow of mana to erupt from the armor, launching it to the side and bringing the other hand to bear. The barrel in its ‘palm’ began to charge up as the claws retracted, unleashing a bright golden blast of energy and punching a massive dent in his opponents armor, causing the spider to screech loudly
“THR34T 45535M3NT R41S3D, T4RG3T C4P4BL3 0F C0MB4T C0NSTRUCT5.*”
Ludwig couldn't make out what the machine said, even as the two circled one another in the arena, the massive wheel spinning on Talos’s armor while the spider mech kept its single optic focused on him, its remaining weapons aimed at the other machine, but not firing.
Misha hissed angrily as a purple haze suddenly hit the massive spider machine, making it screech and chitter as the miasma tried to push into the holes in the armor from its fight with Talos, the crimson light from its glass eye flickering from red to purple.
“3RR0R-3RR0R! H05T1L3 PR0GR4M SP3LL D3T3CT3D! S34RCH1NG……T4RG3T L0C4T3D.”
The machine blasted out, still unintelligible to Ludwig, but even he could see the optic snap to look up, locking onto a small purple spot in the air, as it charged forward.
The weapons on its back ignited, hissing as spellfire erupted from the remaining functional weapons systems, unleashing blast after blast and causing the purple pin prick to begin teleporting around to avoid the spellfire. The Automail armor caught the spider as it charged, the bucket wheel spinning to pin a leg between it and the arm to hold it in place, trying to lift the arachnid up by its front legs before delivering a brutal spartan kick to its underside, directly hitting a hatch trying to open up and crushing whatever was popping out.
The spider screeched as it slammed onto its back from the kick, its legs spinning around to lift it up off the ground, MORE weapons popping out from its underside-turned back, though they were noticeably smaller, likely meant for infantry.
The weapons took aim at both of its opponents, unleashing blast after blast into the air, missing the smaller, faster target. The larger one, built using the cast offs of its own design phases, simply shrugged off the attacks, choosing to rush forward itself, leaving gouges in the floor as it charged, one shoulder down in a tackle position.
The spider hissed and lept to the side, chattering in what almost appeared as mockery….
Right as the spinning bucket wheel struck another one of its leg’s knees, shattering the glowing column in it and letting loose another vicious blast of mana….
But this time, instead of an explosion, it was all pulled into the massive Automail armor's own crystals, which had, for but a moment, popped out of its spine, drawing all the mana into itself and converting it into a deep, golden color.
Just as they retracted into the armor once more, a purple miasma began covering both combatants, cruel laughter ringing out over the arena….. only to be cut off as a massive blast erupted out from the Automail armor, punching a hole in the ceiling where the purple pin prick had been and causing part of the cave to collapse down, catching the purple blight and pulverizing it against the floor.
/zzzzzzzzzz/
Talos panted heavily on his command throne, cables running under his cloak and connecting to his Phylactery, allowing fine motor control over the towering mechanism as if it were his own body, but he had a time limit, mentally and mana wise. The strain of minutely controlling every sub system was hard on a human mind, and he was running low on mana, even drawing from the mechs own reserves.
The top up from the Purge machines Mana Accumulator had helped stave off power loss, but the consecutive blasts from the main cannon, purification spells to keep the miasma out, and minute shield spells across the armor was running him ragged, especially with his own Accumulators shrouded to protect them. He had already burned off the initial charge he had gotten at point blank range when he built the armor, and he had to take out the Purge Machine before it set off its core…..
“...that's it!” He mumbled to himself, sending out an overcharged mana pulse, much to the spider mech’s confusion, easily overpowering its remaining mana Accumulator’s defenses, and got another in depth scan.
“Now, where….There!” The smaller Lich smirked before charging forward, pumping a little extra mana into the pistons to help launch him forward, cannon arm's claws extended as he rammed it through the hole he had made earlier on the arachnids back, now underside, and dug them into the core, wrapping the claws around it.
The massive spider mech screeched again, binary alarms blasting out as he yanked, bucket wheel pressed against machine’s side, helping brace him against it….
And with one final tug, just as the Spider mech brought its leg down and broke the bucket wheel, he tore the core out, the sudden loss of opposing power allowing him to shove the other mech away…. even as he felt his own mech loose power, both from lack of mana, and his Phylactery forcing him to sleep, mind tired from working every system under heavy duress…..
/zzzzzzzzzz/
Tiamat watched, unseen, no longer inhabiting the simulacrum which had been ground to dust under the rubble, as the mecha before her lost power, the stub of its arm resting against the ground, while the other hand clutched the remains of a NIM core tightly, carefully, as if to protect it.
She slowly smirked to herself, an idea beginning to form in her mind as she stared up at the machine. True, she failed in her objective…. but she had also found something so, so much better.
“I'll see you soon…. my little Automancer~” She purred as she faded away to one of her other, spare bodies, pulling it from its casket with a smirk on her boney muzzle.
submitted by WritingDrakon to HFY [link] [comments]
”AEGIS!”
A barrier , made of Ludwig and Mishas magic mixed together, formed around them and the others, flashing and warping as the miasma struck it, battering the barrier like a horde of smoky tendrils.
Tamil hissed under his breath, bow snapping up and twangling as the smaller dragon unleashed arrows as fast as he could, each one glinting with green magic and fizzing as it struck the miasma.
“Cyka….” Svet mumbled, her blade at the ready, breathing in and preparing to unleash more Dragons Fire-
The red clad mage sprinted forward, ignoring Tamils panicked shouts as he hung low to the ground, right as Svet breathed out, unleashing a amethyst blast of plasma.
The Lich Queen laughed as she held up a claw, a barrier of miasma erupting to block the flame. “Silly, foolish welp~ I Know how to keep Cleansing Fire from-” she jerked back as a metal fist erupted out of the miasma, much to her shock, followed by the mage, unharmed, if a little singed. Her hand shot up and caught the metal fist, a smirk forming on her face. ”Fascinating~ I wonder, how did you survive the Fog of the undead, little squishy~?” she purred, before a click was heard.
“That's for me to know, and you to ponder” Talos said with a tone indicative of a smug grin-
BOOM
The pipe on the back of his arm went off, its payload breaking the claws that held his metal hand and drilling into the face of the dragon Lich, making her stumble back as the sound of shattering metals could be heard behind her.
She swung her arm, using the remains of her claws to throw the smaller magic user across the room, and spun around to stare at the remains of the odd pedestal she had been messing with. Sick sounds of cracking bone, splintering and reforming to maintain her shape, were heard as she realized what the little mage had done.
”.......no…..no no NO NO NO!” She snarled as she looked up into the darkness of the massive room behind her and began to slowly step back….
Around them, they heard the sound of something whining, rising in pitch and volume as Talos heaved himself up from where he had been thrown, his glowing irises locked on the Lich Queen in horror. “You actually tried to activate and control it!? Are you FECKING insane!?” He shouted, as a single, massive, crimson light suddenly illuminated the darkness.
“WARNING. PURGER ONLINE. ALL REMAINING PERSONNEL ARE REQUIRED TO MAKE THEIR PEACE AND PREPARE FOR IMMOLATION.”
The strange voice seemed to echo around them, as around the crimson light, two blue lights ignited, burning with a baleful glow, swiveling around in the shadows, aimed at them.
“GET TO COVER, NOW!” Talos yelled, diving for a hole in the wall as the rest of the party ducked out the door they came in through, escaping just before whatever was in the darkness unleashed a storm of blue energy, filling the room with a blast of light and destructive energy.
/zzzzzzzzzz/
WARNING! Mana Regeneration nullified due to Mana acclimators in use within vicinity
WARNING! Mana loss detected! Rate of .05 per second!
Mana Low, Mana:20/75
Talos cursed as he twisted through the air, mentally berating himself as the light from the smoldering, immolated room above him illuminated the area he had thrown himself into. Before him stretched a massive room, lined with concrete and rails designed to carry heavy assembly arms, one of which hanging just on the edge of the illuminated area…… and as he was taking all in he caught sight of a metal hydraulic piston swinging out at him, easily multiple times bigger than himself.
Channeling a little Mana to his feet, he twisted himself upright, before expelling it out in an explosive, bright blast in an effort to slow himself down. Despite his efforts, he still slammed into the piston hard, slid down and catching on a metal panel-
“UN4L1GHN3D 4UT0M4NC3R D3T3CT3D. PR10R1T151NG T4RG3T.”
“......feck.'' Talos sighed as he heard the blast of binary shake the room, thankful he didn't have eardrums for the machine to damage, despite its best efforts.
WARNING! MANA CRITICALLY LOW!
Mana:9.95/75
The automancer cursed to himself softly as he saw just how little Mana he had remaining, and how much he had used to slow himself down, before movement catches his eye. He barely swings himself around the piston as a massive metal, arachnid like leg slams down where he just was.
Shaking his head from the clouds, he began to pull himself up the piston he was on, climbing on top and running along it, a malevolent optic focusing on him as he moved.
“T4RG3T L0C4T3D.”
The sound of rocket motors filled the room, bright lights from missile exhaust partially illuminating the machine as they arched through the dark chamber, forming a pseudo eclipse of their own engines as they angled at the running skeleton.
Sounds of metal shutters opening were heard, accompanied by the whine of something charging up and dozens of pinpricks of light illuminating underneath, around and above the massive optic focused on Talos, along with the two larger Plasma casters on either side of the eye.
Talos wasn't playing fair, however. Reaching down into his bag, he pulled out the metal grapple and rope he still had on him from going spelunking in that cave for ores, and twirled it as he ran….
Just as the missiles were about to hit his cloak, he let the grapple fly, swinging it down around the slowly moving machine’s leg, only for it to come back up and hook on its armor on the other side. Once hooked, he leapt off the side of the piston, letting his weight and momentum swing him to avoid the missiles, if only barley, before landing on the other side of where he jumped from. Once he landed the hook slipped free, as his weight wasn't pulling down to keep it in place anymore.
Talos pulled the rope back, twirling it again before letting it fly forward, latching onto the leg once again, this time at the height of its knee joint that was sticking out into the air, a blue, crystal like cylinder jutting out from it, armor covering the half of it aimed away from the main body, and glowed brightly.
It seemed to be pulling some form of mist into itself…
“Bingo.” Talos muttered as he spotted the cylinder, clambering up the rope as fast as he could, even as the chatter of weapons fire erupted around him and the leg began to move, forcing the rope, and himself, to be flung back and forth.
“THR34T 45535M3NT, T4RG3T 4PPR04CH1NG 4CCUMUL4T0R. CUTT1NG 0FF R0UT3”
Weapons fire screamed through the air in a flurry of energy, the projectiles launched all traveled slower than a bullet, but were easily able to singe the rope burning it in half as Talos watched helplessly.
He cursed as he fell, spinning about as he saw another leg aimed at him, and grinned, grabbing onto it as it barely missed him and using its momentum to fling himself back to the piston.
He drew his revolver from its holster and ran, ducking and dodging around blasts of prepared spells and mana, ignoring the explosions and debris the spells sent flying off the concrete walls of the room, leaping from the piston to its casing as it moved, and began chanting quietly to himself, a golden energy forming around the barrel of the ring action pistol, Aurebesh swirling around the glowing sphere as he moved.
One particularly nasty blast of energy forced him to jump, and he took advantage of it, spinning around in the air and aiming, before pulling the trigger.
The muted explosion of the cartridge going off went unnoticed as the glowing round streaked from the barrel, striking the Mana Accumulator and causing it to cave in on itself-
WA-BOOM
The ensuing detonation blew the leg off and unleashed a wave of stored mana, slamming into Talos and being absorbed by his body, and more importantly, his Phylactery.
WARNING! MANA SURGE DETECTED!
MANA POOL OVERLOADED! Mana: @>²()!?/75
WARNING! MANA LEVELS RISING!
EXPEL MANA TO PREVENT CRITICAL FAILURE OF PHYLACTERY!
Talos hissed as his prosthetic arm spasmed and twitched, fighting with it to get it under control, using the sudden surge of power to speed up his perception and buy time to think.
The room was illuminated by the ethereal glow of the Mana, some being absorbed by him, but much of it was flowing back into the other crystals of the massive, six legged machine….
Well. Five legged, now.
The machine in question looked odd, a sphere connected to the arachnid like legs, acting as a central hub, with a second sphere acting as its abdomen, massive and covered with weapons, arranged in a ring pattern and pushing out of hatches on its back. The outermost ones looked to be some sort of anti infantry armament, fast and able to overwhelm infantry armor and shields, while inner rings seemed to contain artillery and anti aircraft weapons. On its head area was the spherical optic, the twin plasma casters on either side of said optic appearing like some form of facsimile of fangs. The machine itself clung to the wall, its optic swiveling to look ‘up’ from its perspective, tracking him closely from its position.
Waves of mana pinged off it, like echolocation, striking him, though slower now with his altered perception, letting him see how they interacted with the machine-
New skill gained!
Mana Scanning. 1/10
By sending out a pulse of mana, Talos can do an in-depth scan of a target to find weaknesses in its armor, weapons, and many other things. Mana absorbing materials, however, can nullify this ability unless overcharged
The scan showed there were little in the way of weakpoints….well, short of the Mana Accumulators on the ‘knees’, but that could make things worse then better, if destroying one was anything to go by.
He hissed as he saw exactly what he feared in the very Core of the machine, a beating, pulsing heart consisting of radioactive isotopes and severely unstable Mana, both providing power for the mechanoid’s destructive rampage……
And the final end. If he removed the legs, he suspected it would trigger its own self destruct, and if it was anything like a Mjölnir class core he was used to, anywhere from the surrounding area to the whole continent was going to be a uninhabitable crater, and the entire planet would end up irradiated.
He didn't have a team to coordinate with, so he would make do with what he had.
Twisting around, he examined the chamber, now illuminated by the mana… and saw massive, mechanical armature laying around the room, likely meant for other mechanoids like the one he faced down now, but never being completed or having been discarded to be cannibalized for parts, even another one of the massive bucket wheel excavators from the entry hall lay off to the side, mostly disassembled except for the arm….
It clicked. The mechanoid was designed for infantry or armor….
But not another one of its Own.
/zzzzzzzzzz/
Tiamat, the Lich Queen, floated above the fight, watching in fascination as the massive warmachine she had tried to control focused down the Automancer, her smirk widening as she saw the mage run headlong into the fight, pulling out some quite clever tricks when he realized the mana drain in progress. She herself could feel the negligible drain on her mana, but ignored it, having the mana to spare, watching as the mage shot the Mana Accumulator, causing it to explode.
She sighed, a pity. The little mage was far too close to the explosion, such a thing would fry any normal organic, and even a Lich like herself would have an issue with such an influx of mana…. Truly, a great loss. Not many would think to close the gap between herself and them under the cover of their own allies' fire and use a Force Multiplier at point blank on her. The aim was a bit off, but she attributed that to him thinking her Heart for this body was in her head-
WHOOOORACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK
She flinched and shot back as a flood of golden mana erupted from the tiny pinprick that was the mages body, acting like ethereal mechadendrites, ripping the long dormant machines around them off the walls, from their resting areas on the floor or in storage. As components flew, they started to pop apart and began swirling around the tiny mage as he floated back up, hovering before the Purge Machine, much to its, and her, confusion.
The Automancer spread his arms, and the machinery began to assemble itself around him, first forming what looked like a Command Throne, which floated up for him to sit in, before a shell surrounded him…..
And then the components bound themselves together, forming a massive, bipedal body, digitigrade legs keeping balance as pistons hissed once it touched the floor, feet designed with three toe claws in the front and one in the back, capable of digging into the ground if needed. One arm ended with the massive bucket wheel of the excavator rather than a hand, while the other arm was tipped with bladelike claws, around a massive Mana Cannon, glowing with ethereal golden energy.
The shoulder joints were protected with rectangular pauldrons, the arms made out of massive pistons and supports. The upper body was designed like a knight's cuirass, though the belly area was segmented armor plates, while a short, segmented tail stuck out like that of a dragon, allowing for balance.
Along the spine area were dormant Mana Accumulators, retracted and shrouded to protect them, hidden underneath short, sharp spines. The head was ripped off one of the older bipedal Purge Machine frames, like the legs had been, and designed to look draconic, its optical bar igniting, a glowing point of light panning back and forth on the visor as the machine stared down its competitor.
“ŔØŮÑĎ ŤẀØ, MÓŤĤÉŘFËĈĶƏŔ.”Came the distorted voice of the automancer at the heart of the monstrosity, as the war machine dropped into a combat stance. Leading with a brutal right hook, the mech brought the spinning bucket wheel slashing across his opponents back before it could fire, the sound of screeching metal ringing out and filling the chamber.
/zzzzzzzzzz/
“ACH DU HEILIGE SCHEISSE! SVET, DIE HÖLLE DID YOU FIND!?” Ludwig said in stupefied horror as they watched their teammate pull machinery around him apart and form a massive Automail armor.Its optical bar light going back and forth was all they could make out in the distant shadows, until the sound of screeching metal and the sight of sparks illuminated him and the machine he was fighting.
The others around the pearly white dragon were watching in shock, all of them looking out the window of the room they were in, which appeared to be some kind of control room. Around them stood a variety of destroyed machines, and what looked to them like something where one would stand and place a book or scroll, but nothing but ash remained on it.
The room just outside the window looked like a arena, the massive spider like machine leaping off the wall, its legs spinning around to try and pin down their mages Automail armor, only for a glow of mana to erupt from the armor, launching it to the side and bringing the other hand to bear. The barrel in its ‘palm’ began to charge up as the claws retracted, unleashing a bright golden blast of energy and punching a massive dent in his opponents armor, causing the spider to screech loudly
“THR34T 45535M3NT R41S3D, T4RG3T C4P4BL3 0F C0MB4T C0NSTRUCT5.*”
Ludwig couldn't make out what the machine said, even as the two circled one another in the arena, the massive wheel spinning on Talos’s armor while the spider mech kept its single optic focused on him, its remaining weapons aimed at the other machine, but not firing.
Misha hissed angrily as a purple haze suddenly hit the massive spider machine, making it screech and chitter as the miasma tried to push into the holes in the armor from its fight with Talos, the crimson light from its glass eye flickering from red to purple.
“3RR0R-3RR0R! H05T1L3 PR0GR4M SP3LL D3T3CT3D! S34RCH1NG……T4RG3T L0C4T3D.”
The machine blasted out, still unintelligible to Ludwig, but even he could see the optic snap to look up, locking onto a small purple spot in the air, as it charged forward.
The weapons on its back ignited, hissing as spellfire erupted from the remaining functional weapons systems, unleashing blast after blast and causing the purple pin prick to begin teleporting around to avoid the spellfire. The Automail armor caught the spider as it charged, the bucket wheel spinning to pin a leg between it and the arm to hold it in place, trying to lift the arachnid up by its front legs before delivering a brutal spartan kick to its underside, directly hitting a hatch trying to open up and crushing whatever was popping out.
The spider screeched as it slammed onto its back from the kick, its legs spinning around to lift it up off the ground, MORE weapons popping out from its underside-turned back, though they were noticeably smaller, likely meant for infantry.
The weapons took aim at both of its opponents, unleashing blast after blast into the air, missing the smaller, faster target. The larger one, built using the cast offs of its own design phases, simply shrugged off the attacks, choosing to rush forward itself, leaving gouges in the floor as it charged, one shoulder down in a tackle position.
The spider hissed and lept to the side, chattering in what almost appeared as mockery….
Right as the spinning bucket wheel struck another one of its leg’s knees, shattering the glowing column in it and letting loose another vicious blast of mana….
But this time, instead of an explosion, it was all pulled into the massive Automail armor's own crystals, which had, for but a moment, popped out of its spine, drawing all the mana into itself and converting it into a deep, golden color.
Just as they retracted into the armor once more, a purple miasma began covering both combatants, cruel laughter ringing out over the arena….. only to be cut off as a massive blast erupted out from the Automail armor, punching a hole in the ceiling where the purple pin prick had been and causing part of the cave to collapse down, catching the purple blight and pulverizing it against the floor.
/zzzzzzzzzz/
Talos panted heavily on his command throne, cables running under his cloak and connecting to his Phylactery, allowing fine motor control over the towering mechanism as if it were his own body, but he had a time limit, mentally and mana wise. The strain of minutely controlling every sub system was hard on a human mind, and he was running low on mana, even drawing from the mechs own reserves.
The top up from the Purge machines Mana Accumulator had helped stave off power loss, but the consecutive blasts from the main cannon, purification spells to keep the miasma out, and minute shield spells across the armor was running him ragged, especially with his own Accumulators shrouded to protect them. He had already burned off the initial charge he had gotten at point blank range when he built the armor, and he had to take out the Purge Machine before it set off its core…..
“...that's it!” He mumbled to himself, sending out an overcharged mana pulse, much to the spider mech’s confusion, easily overpowering its remaining mana Accumulator’s defenses, and got another in depth scan.
“Now, where….There!” The smaller Lich smirked before charging forward, pumping a little extra mana into the pistons to help launch him forward, cannon arm's claws extended as he rammed it through the hole he had made earlier on the arachnids back, now underside, and dug them into the core, wrapping the claws around it.
The massive spider mech screeched again, binary alarms blasting out as he yanked, bucket wheel pressed against machine’s side, helping brace him against it….
And with one final tug, just as the Spider mech brought its leg down and broke the bucket wheel, he tore the core out, the sudden loss of opposing power allowing him to shove the other mech away…. even as he felt his own mech loose power, both from lack of mana, and his Phylactery forcing him to sleep, mind tired from working every system under heavy duress…..
/zzzzzzzzzz/
Tiamat watched, unseen, no longer inhabiting the simulacrum which had been ground to dust under the rubble, as the mecha before her lost power, the stub of its arm resting against the ground, while the other hand clutched the remains of a NIM core tightly, carefully, as if to protect it.
She slowly smirked to herself, an idea beginning to form in her mind as she stared up at the machine. True, she failed in her objective…. but she had also found something so, so much better.
“I'll see you soon…. my little Automancer~” She purred as she faded away to one of her other, spare bodies, pulling it from its casket with a smirk on her boney muzzle.
2024.05.07 14:12 TearRepresentative56 I'm a full time trader and this is everything I'm watching and analysing in premarket, including positioning analysis on EURUSD, GOLD, SPX and QQQ
ANALYSIS:
DISNEY:
submitted by TearRepresentative56 to Daytrading [link] [comments]
- EURUSD resistance at 1.08. positioning overall is still bullish.
- Probably see it chop around 1.08 and 1.075.
- Positioning against dollar is increasing, as traders unwind some of their shorts on CHF, EUR, JPY etc, as they expect USD to fall on more dovish monetary policy.
- GOLD looks like we are seeing more accumulation and chop before a possible break higher. Probably see similar in Silver too, as IV not increasing OTM on calls, so traders not looking for a breakout just yet but positioning still recovering.
- Today, Skew on QQQ and SPX are relatively flat. 440 is key wall that QQQ will be trying to get on top of.
- VIX is at 13.5, but not seeing much puts open up OTM which tells us it probably doesnt yet crush much lower.
- As such we probably see a choppy day.
- UK BRC Retail sales monitor YOY
- Comes -4.4% vs 1.6% expected. Previous month was 3.2% YOY
- So big miss on retail sales for UK
- This is private data, not official. FIRST NEGATIVE READING IN MORE THAN 12 MONTHS.
- AUS: RBA Rates Decision
- Kept rates steady in line with expectations.
- Expectation was for him to keep rates steady but to adopt a hawkish tone after a couple of upside inflation surprises.
- However, he was more dovish than expected.
- Recognised that inflation is falling slower than expected, and raised inflation expectations for 2024 as a result BUT
- Said he doesnt think they will have to tighten again.
- Said even though data is bumpy, they are taking a longer view.
- Said he doesnt see deanchoring in inflation expectations
- Said risks are evenly balanced in his eyes
- Said services inflation is the major area of uncertainty.
- Still expects inflation to fall to target of 2% in H2 2025.
- Swiss unemployment rate comes in at 2.3%, in line with expectations.
- GER Factory Orders (Mar)
- Came -0.4% MOM vs 0.5% expected.
- Big downside miss.
- German industrial production continues to weaken for durable goods, and intermediate goods.
- Durable goods was the main weak spot.
- UK Halifax House Prices (Apr)
- House prices rose by 0.1% MOM in UK, slightly below expectations for 0.2%, but back to positive readings after last months negative print.
- UK construction PMI comes in at 53, vs 50.4 expected. Highest reading in over a year.
- So UK construction sector in recovery
- France German and EU construction numbers come in weak, near lows of the year. Not seeing that recovery there yet.
- Eurozone Retail Sales (Mar)
- Came 0.7% YOY vs forecast of -0.2%. Previous was -0.7%
- Came 0.8% MOM vs forecast of 0.6%. Way above last months -0.3%
- SO not bad retail sales in EU. Much better than expected.
- Fed Kashkari Speech
- SPX trades flat where it closed yesterday, at 5182. Trading above the 50 day moving average, smashed through it yesterday, which is bullish.
- Nasdaq trading above 18k. Flat in premarket
- Dow Jones. Trading at 38,900. 39k resistance is going to be in play today probably.
- GER40 up again after pumping in futures yesterday along with US market. Now trading at 18,300.
- FTSE100 hits new highs at 8300. Euro vix is v low, certainty continues in Europe. Traders not scared.
- Nikkei up yesterday, and now flat today
- HKG50 is down 0.8% today, just normal price correction. Dipped below 18,500. But the momentum on this breakout is v strong and lots of buyers there.
- AUD is lower as a result of the dovishness from Bullock in RBA decision
- Dollar is higher today, partly on escalation of tensions in Rafah, and also price correction from Fridays decline last week. Still trading at just 105.2, so signifcna decline from recent highs.
- JPN lower
- Positioning against dollar still looks strong as traders are pricing in more rate cuts on the weak jobs numbers that we saw last week.
DISNEY:
- Overall solid, but slight subscriber miss led to this sell off.
- Posted surprise profit in streaming. This profit came 2 quarters ahead of schedule.
- Said turnaround efforts were yielding results.
- Despite this, sold off, as they missed on Disney subscriber numbers, and etnertaiment revenue.
- Overall Revenue missed by 0.1%
- Under the hood, we see entertainment segment missed by 5%
- Sports missed by 0.5%
- Experiences came strong, beating by 2.7%
- Operating income beat by 9%
- Operating margin beat by 151 bps
- EPS beat by 9%
- FCF missed by 7%
- Subs missed the mark:
- Disney+ subscribers missed the mark by 1.3%
- ESPN+ missed the mark by 6.1%
- HULU was slight beat
- So subscriber numbers were dissapointing.
- DISNEY NOW SEES YEAR ADJ EPS GROWTH TARGET OF 25%
- Experiences was strong. Higher Results at Walt Disney World Resort and Disney Cruise Line, Partially Offset by Lower Results at Disneyland Resort
- Remain on Track to Achieve Profitability in Combined Streaming Businesses in 4Q
- repurchased $1 billion worth of shares
- Softer entertainment results predicted due to Hotter.
- EPS of 0.44 beat by 29%, up 29% YOY
- Revenue of 611M was up 27% YOY, beat by 3.5%
- GUIDACNE:
- Full year EPS was 1.51-1.57, vs estimate of 1.45 (beat by 6%)
- Full year Revenue of 2.59-2.61B, beat by 0.7%
- Q2 EPS of 0.35 came in line with expected
- Q2 revenue of 622M was more or less in line.
- This was a raise of annual revenue guidance and a raise of EBIT and EPS guidance.
- 3,340 customers with ARR of 100k or more, which was up 15% YOY
- General availability of Bits AI for incident management, event management, error tracking for logs and mobile app testing
- Saw solid execution in Q1 with 27% YOY growth and continued product innovation.
- Q1 EPS of 3.02 beat by 36%, up 36% YOY
- Q1 revenue was 938M beat by 6%, up 7% YOY
- Breakdown by Segment:
- Crox - 744M up 16% YOY
- Direct to Consumer - 282M up 19%
- Wholesale up 14%
- Heydude struggling, down 17%
- Direct to consumer for Heydude is dow. 11%
- Wholesale for hey dude is down 20%
- GUIDANCE:
- Q2 adjusted EPS of 3.4-3.55 beat estimates by 2.8%
- RAISED FY EPS guidance of 12.25-12.73 beat estimates by 0.4%
- Full year revenue growth implies revenue of 4.07B-4.15B, which missed expectations
- So full year revenue growth numbers bit light
- Full year EPS guidance was okay, nothing special considering the raise.
- So hey dude is struggling a bit, CROX is doing well.
- Gross margin is up to 55% from 53% last year
- Reduced revenue expectations for year for Hyedude.
- EPS of 2.5 beat by 0.28 (beat by 12%)
- Revenue of 2.13B was down 6.6% YOY, beat by 70m (beat by 3%)
- Cut sales guidance for Fiscal year:
- Now sees revenue decline of 4-6% vs expectation of 0.5% growth
- Their prior guidance was 0.5-6.5% growth so thats a massive cut.
- CUT EPS GUIDANCE TOO
- EPS guidance cut to 11-11.92 vs 12-13.5 previously (cut by 12%)
- CFO is retiring
- Said execution in last quarter was okay with order improvement vs last quarter
- But much more excess inventory at customers
- Much more machine builders than expected
- As such, not seeing accelerated order ramp and are forced to reduce guidance.
- Said they are still gaining market share.
- Revenue beat by 3.1%
- Operating income beat by 13%
- Operating margin beat by 334bps
- EPS came in in line
- FCF missed by 33%
- BILLINGS GROWTH DECELERATED FROM 56% YOY in Q4 to 2% in Q1. Missed consensus by 5%
- All in all, good quarter but that billings miss was not good.
- GUIDANCE (next quarter)
- Revenue guidance beat expectations by 1.2%
- Operating income beat expectations by 5%
- Operating margin beat expectations by 115bps
- GUIDANCE FULL YEAR:
- Revenue guidance more or less in line
- Operating income beat expectations by 2.9%
- Honestly, not terrible earnings. But is short of the double digit growth that we have seen in the last couple of earnings and billings missed the mark. With the pump yesterday, it was clear that set up was tough on this one.
- Beat revenue estimate by 4,4% Beat EBITDA estimate by 20%
- EPS beat by 21%
- GUIDANCE:
- Raised all their guidances. Raised revenue guide by 3%, which beat by 2%
- Raised EBITDA guide by 4.3% which beat by 2%
- Raised Capex guide also though, from 68m to 88m.
- All in all very strong earnings
- Seeing strong demand for their software products.
- NVDA - Goldman Sachs raises NVDA price target to 1100 from 1000. Raised 2025-2027 full year earnings estimate by 8% to reflect data indicative of Ai server demand.
- Despite this, NVDA is down and that is because of the news that Apple is working on its own AI server chips, which would obviously pose potential competition to NVDA
- TSLA - launches another round of layoffs. According to reports, workers across several departments including software, service, engineering have been laid off.
- TSLA - saw a decline in its EV sales in China, with 62,167 units sold in April, marking a 30% drop from March and 18% drop YOY
- So Tesla down on disappointing Chinese numbers.
- AAPL - new data center chips. Apple is developing AI specific chips for data centres, known as project ACDC. Expanding their chip expertise beyond consumer devices.
- AAPl iphone Max named best selling smartphone in Q1 2024
- AAPL - Phillips Securities upgrades to accumulate from neutral, price target 194
- MSFT - is developing a new in house Ai model, named MAI 1, enough to compete with major AI models from Google, Anthropic and Open Ai.
- AMZN plans to spend $9B over next 4 years expanding cloud computing infrastructure in Singapore.
- Chinese stocks generally the main losers of premarket today, particularly so the Chinese EVs as TSLA also down.
- Cloud suppliers are being dragged by DDOG
- AMD upgraded again to buy at DZ bank, price target 190
- NET - raise to buy at DZ bank, price target 95
- VALE - raised to buy at UBS
- CELH - missed top line, (rare revenue miss) but when we look under the hood, we see, GM: 51.2% vs 46.9% est EPS: $0.27 vs $0.20 est. Not bad. Revenue miss of 9% was a one time reset due to changes in days on ahdn inventory by largest customer.
- Yesterday, HOOD receives Wells Notice from SEC. This sunk them 7%
- BA - down as Federal Air safety regulators have opened a new investigation into Boeing related to the company’s inspections of 787 Dreamline and whether the company falsified records.
- BA also delayed Starliner Capsule’s first crewed test flight over Atlas rocket glitch
- LCID shares are lower after Q1 earnings. Missed consensus on EPS, reiterated annual production forecast of 9k cars, which fell short of average street estimate of 12,600. So disappointing there
- Revenue beat but most of that came from the Saudi government, who is stakeholder.
- RIVN - Apple and Rivian are reportedly in talks for a potenaial partnership. Apple halted EV car project but sources form supply chain suggest maybe assessing possibility fo teaming up with a US supplier and Rivian seems to be likely
- Nintendo - will unveil a successor to 7 year old switch games console.
- STM - advances share buyback program
- SYM up on earnings, up on strong current quarter and strong guidance.
- LITE and COHR, the semiconductor equipment stocks both up on earnings.
- GAP - custom gap gown at met gala
- CCJ Goldman Sachs bullish price target
- CPG - Streamlines portfolio with 600m sale of Saskatchewan assets to Saturn Oil
- Also got a positive price target from canaccord
- ENVX - lays off 1/3 of staff in cost cutting measure.
- NIo - on track to make 2 new models for European market
- Nio provides 65,779 battery swap services on average per day in April
- Will use BYD batteries in their sub brand Onvo.
- Still down on Chiense market
- ALB - maintained at sector outperform by Scotia bank
- BP missed estimates as profits slip on weaker oil adn gas prices throughout part of last quarter.
- UBS shares pop after they return to profit following Credit Suisse takeover.
- VRTX - tops Q1 profit estimates on robust demand for cystic fibrosis treatments.
- SNPS - to sell software unit to Clearlake, Francisco in 2.1B deal.
- BTIG predicts that re test of 2024 high is coming.
- Yesterday, Grayscale BTC trust shares jump after first inflow since January.
- Chevron CEO says he sees oil price risks to the upside.
- Goldman Sachs CEO says inflation is still sticky, but possibility of rate cut or 2 this year.
- Citadel CEO says he is unsure when rate cuts will come and that the Fed have done the right thing by staying higher for longer.
- ECB’s De Cos - said the ECB cannot commit to a rate path. Said, however, that rates can be cut from June if price path holds.
- Russia deputy PM says there’s no sense in trying to predict future OPEC moves, as we have to look at the market.
- Wayve receives $1B for Ai driven self driving tech in funding round. Biggest backers were Softbank and MSFT and GOOGL
- BOJ governor Ueda met Prime Minister, said that the BOJ stands ready to keep eye on how yen moves affect trend inflation
- Japan’s Keidanren Chief, Tokura, said that the yen trading above 150 vs dollar is too much.
- Israeli forces take control of Palestinian side of Rafah crossing, in Gaza. They said they are conducting targeted strikes in Rafah. US apparently tried to stop an invasion in Rafah but Israel proceeded.
- Still ongoing talks on the ceasefire proposal. Hamas say they have agreed and Israel is holding up, Israel says vice versa.
- Xi and Macron, in Xi trip to Europe, agreed on a number of world issues. e.g. Red Sea, 2 state solution in Gaza, and ceasefire in Gaza
- Macron also hinted at the possible cooling of China trade dispute.
- Japan’s top currency diplomat Kanda declined to comment on Forex levels and refuses to admit if currency intervention occurred.
- US soldier detained in Russia.
- Fed’s Barkin yesterday said:
- GDP growth still seems strong
- Not yet seen evidence that inflation is on track
- Recent data is less optimistic.
- Still thinks current rates are restrictive enough.Said full impact of the higher rates has not yet hit.
- Labour market is normalising.
- According to a report, social security and medicare will run out of money in just over a decade if US congress doesnt act.
- Russia say they may target British military facilities on Ukraines territory in response to Ukraine strikes with British weapons.
2024.05.07 14:11 TearRepresentative56 I'm a full time trader and this is everything I'm watching and analysing in premarket 07.05, including positioning analysis on SPX, QQQ and Gold.
For more of my daily analysis and summaries, please join Tradingedge and Swingtrading
ANALYSIS:
DISNEY:
submitted by TearRepresentative56 to swingtrading [link] [comments]
ANALYSIS:
- EURUSD resistance at 1.08. positioning overall is still bullish.
- Probably see it chop around 1.08 and 1.075.
- Positioning against dollar is increasing, as traders unwind some of their shorts on CHF, EUR, JPY etc, as they expect USD to fall on more dovish monetary policy.
- GOLD looks like we are seeing more accumulation and chop before a possible break higher. Probably see similar in Silver too, as IV not increasing OTM on calls, so traders not looking for a breakout just yet but positioning still recovering.
- Today, Skew on QQQ and SPX are relatively flat. 440 is key wall that QQQ will be trying to get on top of.
- VIX is at 13.5, but not seeing much puts open up OTM which tells us it probably doesnt yet crush much lower.
- As such we probably see a choppy day.
- UK BRC Retail sales monitor YOY
- Comes -4.4% vs 1.6% expected. Previous month was 3.2% YOY
- So big miss on retail sales for UK
- This is private data, not official. FIRST NEGATIVE READING IN MORE THAN 12 MONTHS.
- AUS: RBA Rates Decision
- Kept rates steady in line with expectations.
- Expectation was for him to keep rates steady but to adopt a hawkish tone after a couple of upside inflation surprises.
- However, he was more dovish than expected.
- Recognised that inflation is falling slower than expected, and raised inflation expectations for 2024 as a result BUT
- Said he doesnt think they will have to tighten again.
- Said even though data is bumpy, they are taking a longer view.
- Said he doesnt see deanchoring in inflation expectations
- Said risks are evenly balanced in his eyes
- Said services inflation is the major area of uncertainty.
- Still expects inflation to fall to target of 2% in H2 2025.
- Swiss unemployment rate comes in at 2.3%, in line with expectations.
- GER Factory Orders (Mar)
- Came -0.4% MOM vs 0.5% expected.
- Big downside miss.
- German industrial production continues to weaken for durable goods, and intermediate goods.
- Durable goods was the main weak spot.
- UK Halifax House Prices (Apr)
- House prices rose by 0.1% MOM in UK, slightly below expectations for 0.2%, but back to positive readings after last months negative print.
- UK construction PMI comes in at 53, vs 50.4 expected. Highest reading in over a year.
- So UK construction sector in recovery
- France German and EU construction numbers come in weak, near lows of the year. Not seeing that recovery there yet.
- Eurozone Retail Sales (Mar)
- Came 0.7% YOY vs forecast of -0.2%. Previous was -0.7%
- Came 0.8% MOM vs forecast of 0.6%. Way above last months -0.3%
- SO not bad retail sales in EU. Much better than expected.
- Fed Kashkari Speech
- SPX trades flat where it closed yesterday, at 5182. Trading above the 50 day moving average, smashed through it yesterday, which is bullish.
- Nasdaq trading above 18k. Flat in premarket
- Dow Jones. Trading at 38,900. 39k resistance is going to be in play today probably.
- GER40 up again after pumping in futures yesterday along with US market. Now trading at 18,300.
- FTSE100 hits new highs at 8300. Euro vix is v low, certainty continues in Europe. Traders not scared.
- Nikkei up yesterday, and now flat today
- HKG50 is down 0.8% today, just normal price correction. Dipped below 18,500. But the momentum on this breakout is v strong and lots of buyers there.
- AUD is lower as a result of the dovishness from Bullock in RBA decision
- Dollar is higher today, partly on escalation of tensions in Rafah, and also price correction from Fridays decline last week. Still trading at just 105.2, so signifcna decline from recent highs.
- JPN lower
- Positioning against dollar still looks strong as traders are pricing in more rate cuts on the weak jobs numbers that we saw last week.
DISNEY:
- Overall solid, but slight subscriber miss led to this sell off.
- Posted surprise profit in streaming. This profit came 2 quarters ahead of schedule.
- Said turnaround efforts were yielding results.
- Despite this, sold off, as they missed on Disney subscriber numbers, and etnertaiment revenue.
- Overall Revenue missed by 0.1%
- Under the hood, we see entertainment segment missed by 5%
- Sports missed by 0.5%
- Experiences came strong, beating by 2.7%
- Operating income beat by 9%
- Operating margin beat by 151 bps
- EPS beat by 9%
- FCF missed by 7%
- Subs missed the mark:
- Disney+ subscribers missed the mark by 1.3%
- ESPN+ missed the mark by 6.1%
- HULU was slight beat
- So subscriber numbers were dissapointing.
- DISNEY NOW SEES YEAR ADJ EPS GROWTH TARGET OF 25%
- Experiences was strong. Higher Results at Walt Disney World Resort and Disney Cruise Line, Partially Offset by Lower Results at Disneyland Resort
- Remain on Track to Achieve Profitability in Combined Streaming Businesses in 4Q
- repurchased $1 billion worth of shares
- Softer entertainment results predicted due to Hotter.
- EPS of 0.44 beat by 29%, up 29% YOY
- Revenue of 611M was up 27% YOY, beat by 3.5%
- GUIDACNE:
- Full year EPS was 1.51-1.57, vs estimate of 1.45 (beat by 6%)
- Full year Revenue of 2.59-2.61B, beat by 0.7%
- Q2 EPS of 0.35 came in line with expected
- Q2 revenue of 622M was more or less in line.
- This was a raise of annual revenue guidance and a raise of EBIT and EPS guidance.
- 3,340 customers with ARR of 100k or more, which was up 15% YOY
- General availability of Bits AI for incident management, event management, error tracking for logs and mobile app testing
- Saw solid execution in Q1 with 27% YOY growth and continued product innovation.
- Q1 EPS of 3.02 beat by 36%, up 36% YOY
- Q1 revenue was 938M beat by 6%, up 7% YOY
- Breakdown by Segment:
- Crox - 744M up 16% YOY
- Direct to Consumer - 282M up 19%
- Wholesale up 14%
- Heydude struggling, down 17%
- Direct to consumer for Heydude is dow. 11%
- Wholesale for hey dude is down 20%
- GUIDANCE:
- Q2 adjusted EPS of 3.4-3.55 beat estimates by 2.8%
- RAISED FY EPS guidance of 12.25-12.73 beat estimates by 0.4%
- Full year revenue growth implies revenue of 4.07B-4.15B, which missed expectations
- So full year revenue growth numbers bit light
- Full year EPS guidance was okay, nothing special considering the raise.
- So hey dude is struggling a bit, CROX is doing well.
- Gross margin is up to 55% from 53% last year
- Reduced revenue expectations for year for Hyedude.
- EPS of 2.5 beat by 0.28 (beat by 12%)
- Revenue of 2.13B was down 6.6% YOY, beat by 70m (beat by 3%)
- Cut sales guidance for Fiscal year:
- Now sees revenue decline of 4-6% vs expectation of 0.5% growth
- Their prior guidance was 0.5-6.5% growth so thats a massive cut.
- CUT EPS GUIDANCE TOO
- EPS guidance cut to 11-11.92 vs 12-13.5 previously (cut by 12%)
- CFO is retiring
- Said execution in last quarter was okay with order improvement vs last quarter
- But much more excess inventory at customers
- Much more machine builders than expected
- As such, not seeing accelerated order ramp and are forced to reduce guidance.
- Said they are still gaining market share.
- Revenue beat by 3.1%
- Operating income beat by 13%
- Operating margin beat by 334bps
- EPS came in in line
- FCF missed by 33%
- BILLINGS GROWTH DECELERATED FROM 56% YOY in Q4 to 2% in Q1. Missed consensus by 5%
- All in all, good quarter but that billings miss was not good.
- GUIDANCE (next quarter)
- Revenue guidance beat expectations by 1.2%
- Operating income beat expectations by 5%
- Operating margin beat expectations by 115bps
- GUIDANCE FULL YEAR:
- Revenue guidance more or less in line
- Operating income beat expectations by 2.9%
- Honestly, not terrible earnings. But is short of the double digit growth that we have seen in the last couple of earnings and billings missed the mark. With the pump yesterday, it was clear that set up was tough on this one.
- Beat revenue estimate by 4,4% Beat EBITDA estimate by 20%
- EPS beat by 21%
- GUIDANCE:
- Raised all their guidances. Raised revenue guide by 3%, which beat by 2%
- Raised EBITDA guide by 4.3% which beat by 2%
- Raised Capex guide also though, from 68m to 88m.
- All in all very strong earnings
- Seeing strong demand for their software products.
- NVDA - Goldman Sachs raises NVDA price target to 1100 from 1000. Raised 2025-2027 full year earnings estimate by 8% to reflect data indicative of Ai server demand.
- Despite this, NVDA is down and that is because of the news that Apple is working on its own AI server chips, which would obviously pose potential competition to NVDA
- TSLA - launches another round of layoffs. According to reports, workers across several departments including software, service, engineering have been laid off.
- TSLA - saw a decline in its EV sales in China, with 62,167 units sold in April, marking a 30% drop from March and 18% drop YOY
- So Tesla down on disappointing Chinese numbers.
- AAPL - new data center chips. Apple is developing AI specific chips for data centres, known as project ACDC. Expanding their chip expertise beyond consumer devices.
- AAPl iphone Max named best selling smartphone in Q1 2024
- AAPL - Phillips Securities upgrades to accumulate from neutral, price target 194
- MSFT - is developing a new in house Ai model, named MAI 1, enough to compete with major AI models from Google, Anthropic and Open Ai.
- AMZN plans to spend $9B over next 4 years expanding cloud computing infrastructure in Singapore.
- Chinese stocks generally the main losers of premarket today, particularly so the Chinese EVs as TSLA also down.
- Cloud suppliers are being dragged by DDOG
- AMD upgraded again to buy at DZ bank, price target 190
- NET - raise to buy at DZ bank, price target 95
- VALE - raised to buy at UBS
- CELH - missed top line, (rare revenue miss) but when we look under the hood, we see, GM: 51.2% vs 46.9% est EPS: $0.27 vs $0.20 est. Not bad. Revenue miss of 9% was a one time reset due to changes in days on ahdn inventory by largest customer.
- Yesterday, HOOD receives Wells Notice from SEC. This sunk them 7%
- BA - down as Federal Air safety regulators have opened a new investigation into Boeing related to the company’s inspections of 787 Dreamline and whether the company falsified records.
- BA also delayed Starliner Capsule’s first crewed test flight over Atlas rocket glitch
- LCID shares are lower after Q1 earnings. Missed consensus on EPS, reiterated annual production forecast of 9k cars, which fell short of average street estimate of 12,600. So disappointing there
- Revenue beat but most of that came from the Saudi government, who is stakeholder.
- RIVN - Apple and Rivian are reportedly in talks for a potenaial partnership. Apple halted EV car project but sources form supply chain suggest maybe assessing possibility fo teaming up with a US supplier and Rivian seems to be likely
- Nintendo - will unveil a successor to 7 year old switch games console.
- STM - advances share buyback program
- SYM up on earnings, up on strong current quarter and strong guidance.
- LITE and COHR, the semiconductor equipment stocks both up on earnings.
- GAP - custom gap gown at met gala
- CCJ Goldman Sachs bullish price target
- CPG - Streamlines portfolio with 600m sale of Saskatchewan assets to Saturn Oil
- Also got a positive price target from canaccord
- ENVX - lays off 1/3 of staff in cost cutting measure.
- NIo - on track to make 2 new models for European market
- Nio provides 65,779 battery swap services on average per day in April
- Will use BYD batteries in their sub brand Onvo.
- Still down on Chiense market
- ALB - maintained at sector outperform by Scotia bank
- BP missed estimates as profits slip on weaker oil adn gas prices throughout part of last quarter.
- UBS shares pop after they return to profit following Credit Suisse takeover.
- VRTX - tops Q1 profit estimates on robust demand for cystic fibrosis treatments.
- SNPS - to sell software unit to Clearlake, Francisco in 2.1B deal.
- BTIG predicts that re test of 2024 high is coming.
- Yesterday, Grayscale BTC trust shares jump after first inflow since January.
- Chevron CEO says he sees oil price risks to the upside.
- Goldman Sachs CEO says inflation is still sticky, but possibility of rate cut or 2 this year.
- Citadel CEO says he is unsure when rate cuts will come and that the Fed have done the right thing by staying higher for longer.
- ECB’s De Cos - said the ECB cannot commit to a rate path. Said, however, that rates can be cut from June if price path holds.
- Russia deputy PM says there’s no sense in trying to predict future OPEC moves, as we have to look at the market.
- Wayve receives $1B for Ai driven self driving tech in funding round. Biggest backers were Softbank and MSFT and GOOGL
- BOJ governor Ueda met Prime Minister, said that the BOJ stands ready to keep eye on how yen moves affect trend inflation
- Japan’s Keidanren Chief, Tokura, said that the yen trading above 150 vs dollar is too much.
- Israeli forces take control of Palestinian side of Rafah crossing, in Gaza. They said they are conducting targeted strikes in Rafah. US apparently tried to stop an invasion in Rafah but Israel proceeded.
- Still ongoing talks on the ceasefire proposal. Hamas say they have agreed and Israel is holding up, Israel says vice versa.
- Xi and Macron, in Xi trip to Europe, agreed on a number of world issues. e.g. Red Sea, 2 state solution in Gaza, and ceasefire in Gaza
- Macron also hinted at the possible cooling of China trade dispute.
- Japan’s top currency diplomat Kanda declined to comment on Forex levels and refuses to admit if currency intervention occurred.
- US soldier detained in Russia.
- Fed’s Barkin yesterday said:
- GDP growth still seems strong
- Not yet seen evidence that inflation is on track
- Recent data is less optimistic.
- Still thinks current rates are restrictive enough.Said full impact of the higher rates has not yet hit.
- Labour market is normalising.
- According to a report, social security and medicare will run out of money in just over a decade if US congress doesnt act.
- Russia say they may target British military facilities on Ukraines territory in response to Ukraine strikes with British weapons.
2024.05.07 14:10 TearRepresentative56 I'm a professional trader and this is everything I'm watching and analysing in premarket 07.05 including positioning analysis on SPX, QQQ and Gold
For more of my daily analysis and summaries, please join Tradingedge
ANALYSIS:
DISNEY:
submitted by TearRepresentative56 to u/TearRepresentative56 [link] [comments]
ANALYSIS:
- EURUSD resistance at 1.08. positioning overall is still bullish.
- Probably see it chop around 1.08 and 1.075.
- Positioning against dollar is increasing, as traders unwind some of their shorts on CHF, EUR, JPY etc, as they expect USD to fall on more dovish monetary policy.
- GOLD looks like we are seeing more accumulation and chop before a possible break higher. Probably see similar in Silver too, as IV not increasing OTM on calls, so traders not looking for a breakout just yet but positioning still recovering.
- Today, Skew on QQQ and SPX are relatively flat. 440 is key wall that QQQ will be trying to get on top of.
- VIX is at 13.5, but not seeing much puts open up OTM which tells us it probably doesnt yet crush much lower.
- As such we probably see a choppy day.
- UK BRC Retail sales monitor YOY
- Comes -4.4% vs 1.6% expected. Previous month was 3.2% YOY
- So big miss on retail sales for UK
- This is private data, not official. FIRST NEGATIVE READING IN MORE THAN 12 MONTHS.
- AUS: RBA Rates Decision
- Kept rates steady in line with expectations.
- Expectation was for him to keep rates steady but to adopt a hawkish tone after a couple of upside inflation surprises.
- However, he was more dovish than expected.
- Recognised that inflation is falling slower than expected, and raised inflation expectations for 2024 as a result BUT
- Said he doesnt think they will have to tighten again.
- Said even though data is bumpy, they are taking a longer view.
- Said he doesnt see deanchoring in inflation expectations
- Said risks are evenly balanced in his eyes
- Said services inflation is the major area of uncertainty.
- Still expects inflation to fall to target of 2% in H2 2025.
- Swiss unemployment rate comes in at 2.3%, in line with expectations.
- GER Factory Orders (Mar)
- Came -0.4% MOM vs 0.5% expected.
- Big downside miss.
- German industrial production continues to weaken for durable goods, and intermediate goods.
- Durable goods was the main weak spot.
- UK Halifax House Prices (Apr)
- House prices rose by 0.1% MOM in UK, slightly below expectations for 0.2%, but back to positive readings after last months negative print.
- UK construction PMI comes in at 53, vs 50.4 expected. Highest reading in over a year.
- So UK construction sector in recovery
- France German and EU construction numbers come in weak, near lows of the year. Not seeing that recovery there yet.
- Eurozone Retail Sales (Mar)
- Came 0.7% YOY vs forecast of -0.2%. Previous was -0.7%
- Came 0.8% MOM vs forecast of 0.6%. Way above last months -0.3%
- SO not bad retail sales in EU. Much better than expected.
- Fed Kashkari Speech
- SPX trades flat where it closed yesterday, at 5182. Trading above the 50 day moving average, smashed through it yesterday, which is bullish.
- Nasdaq trading above 18k. Flat in premarket
- Dow Jones. Trading at 38,900. 39k resistance is going to be in play today probably.
- GER40 up again after pumping in futures yesterday along with US market. Now trading at 18,300.
- FTSE100 hits new highs at 8300. Euro vix is v low, certainty continues in Europe. Traders not scared.
- Nikkei up yesterday, and now flat today
- HKG50 is down 0.8% today, just normal price correction. Dipped below 18,500. But the momentum on this breakout is v strong and lots of buyers there.
- AUD is lower as a result of the dovishness from Bullock in RBA decision
- Dollar is higher today, partly on escalation of tensions in Rafah, and also price correction from Fridays decline last week. Still trading at just 105.2, so signifcna decline from recent highs.
- JPN lower
- Positioning against dollar still looks strong as traders are pricing in more rate cuts on the weak jobs numbers that we saw last week.
DISNEY:
- Overall solid, but slight subscriber miss led to this sell off.
- Posted surprise profit in streaming. This profit came 2 quarters ahead of schedule.
- Said turnaround efforts were yielding results.
- Despite this, sold off, as they missed on Disney subscriber numbers, and etnertaiment revenue.
- Overall Revenue missed by 0.1%
- Under the hood, we see entertainment segment missed by 5%
- Sports missed by 0.5%
- Experiences came strong, beating by 2.7%
- Operating income beat by 9%
- Operating margin beat by 151 bps
- EPS beat by 9%
- FCF missed by 7%
- Subs missed the mark:
- Disney+ subscribers missed the mark by 1.3%
- ESPN+ missed the mark by 6.1%
- HULU was slight beat
- So subscriber numbers were dissapointing.
- DISNEY NOW SEES YEAR ADJ EPS GROWTH TARGET OF 25%
- Experiences was strong. Higher Results at Walt Disney World Resort and Disney Cruise Line, Partially Offset by Lower Results at Disneyland Resort
- Remain on Track to Achieve Profitability in Combined Streaming Businesses in 4Q
- repurchased $1 billion worth of shares
- Softer entertainment results predicted due to Hotter.
- EPS of 0.44 beat by 29%, up 29% YOY
- Revenue of 611M was up 27% YOY, beat by 3.5%
- GUIDACNE:
- Full year EPS was 1.51-1.57, vs estimate of 1.45 (beat by 6%)
- Full year Revenue of 2.59-2.61B, beat by 0.7%
- Q2 EPS of 0.35 came in line with expected
- Q2 revenue of 622M was more or less in line.
- This was a raise of annual revenue guidance and a raise of EBIT and EPS guidance.
- 3,340 customers with ARR of 100k or more, which was up 15% YOY
- General availability of Bits AI for incident management, event management, error tracking for logs and mobile app testing
- Saw solid execution in Q1 with 27% YOY growth and continued product innovation.
- Q1 EPS of 3.02 beat by 36%, up 36% YOY
- Q1 revenue was 938M beat by 6%, up 7% YOY
- Breakdown by Segment:
- Crox - 744M up 16% YOY
- Direct to Consumer - 282M up 19%
- Wholesale up 14%
- Heydude struggling, down 17%
- Direct to consumer for Heydude is dow. 11%
- Wholesale for hey dude is down 20%
- GUIDANCE:
- Q2 adjusted EPS of 3.4-3.55 beat estimates by 2.8%
- RAISED FY EPS guidance of 12.25-12.73 beat estimates by 0.4%
- Full year revenue growth implies revenue of 4.07B-4.15B, which missed expectations
- So full year revenue growth numbers bit light
- Full year EPS guidance was okay, nothing special considering the raise.
- So hey dude is struggling a bit, CROX is doing well.
- Gross margin is up to 55% from 53% last year
- Reduced revenue expectations for year for Hyedude.
- EPS of 2.5 beat by 0.28 (beat by 12%)
- Revenue of 2.13B was down 6.6% YOY, beat by 70m (beat by 3%)
- Cut sales guidance for Fiscal year:
- Now sees revenue decline of 4-6% vs expectation of 0.5% growth
- Their prior guidance was 0.5-6.5% growth so thats a massive cut.
- CUT EPS GUIDANCE TOO
- EPS guidance cut to 11-11.92 vs 12-13.5 previously (cut by 12%)
- CFO is retiring
- Said execution in last quarter was okay with order improvement vs last quarter
- But much more excess inventory at customers
- Much more machine builders than expected
- As such, not seeing accelerated order ramp and are forced to reduce guidance.
- Said they are still gaining market share.
- Revenue beat by 3.1%
- Operating income beat by 13%
- Operating margin beat by 334bps
- EPS came in in line
- FCF missed by 33%
- BILLINGS GROWTH DECELERATED FROM 56% YOY in Q4 to 2% in Q1. Missed consensus by 5%
- All in all, good quarter but that billings miss was not good.
- GUIDANCE (next quarter)
- Revenue guidance beat expectations by 1.2%
- Operating income beat expectations by 5%
- Operating margin beat expectations by 115bps
- GUIDANCE FULL YEAR:
- Revenue guidance more or less in line
- Operating income beat expectations by 2.9%
- Honestly, not terrible earnings. But is short of the double digit growth that we have seen in the last couple of earnings and billings missed the mark. With the pump yesterday, it was clear that set up was tough on this one.
- Beat revenue estimate by 4,4% Beat EBITDA estimate by 20%
- EPS beat by 21%
- GUIDANCE:
- Raised all their guidances. Raised revenue guide by 3%, which beat by 2%
- Raised EBITDA guide by 4.3% which beat by 2%
- Raised Capex guide also though, from 68m to 88m.
- All in all very strong earnings
- Seeing strong demand for their software products.
- NVDA - Goldman Sachs raises NVDA price target to 1100 from 1000. Raised 2025-2027 full year earnings estimate by 8% to reflect data indicative of Ai server demand.
- Despite this, NVDA is down and that is because of the news that Apple is working on its own AI server chips, which would obviously pose potential competition to NVDA
- TSLA - launches another round of layoffs. According to reports, workers across several departments including software, service, engineering have been laid off.
- TSLA - saw a decline in its EV sales in China, with 62,167 units sold in April, marking a 30% drop from March and 18% drop YOY
- So Tesla down on disappointing Chinese numbers.
- AAPL - new data center chips. Apple is developing AI specific chips for data centres, known as project ACDC. Expanding their chip expertise beyond consumer devices.
- AAPl iphone Max named best selling smartphone in Q1 2024
- AAPL - Phillips Securities upgrades to accumulate from neutral, price target 194
- MSFT - is developing a new in house Ai model, named MAI 1, enough to compete with major AI models from Google, Anthropic and Open Ai.
- AMZN plans to spend $9B over next 4 years expanding cloud computing infrastructure in Singapore.
- Chinese stocks generally the main losers of premarket today, particularly so the Chinese EVs as TSLA also down.
- Cloud suppliers are being dragged by DDOG
- AMD upgraded again to buy at DZ bank, price target 190
- NET - raise to buy at DZ bank, price target 95
- VALE - raised to buy at UBS
- CELH - missed top line, (rare revenue miss) but when we look under the hood, we see, GM: 51.2% vs 46.9% est EPS: $0.27 vs $0.20 est. Not bad. Revenue miss of 9% was a one time reset due to changes in days on ahdn inventory by largest customer.
- Yesterday, HOOD receives Wells Notice from SEC. This sunk them 7%
- BA - down as Federal Air safety regulators have opened a new investigation into Boeing related to the company’s inspections of 787 Dreamline and whether the company falsified records.
- BA also delayed Starliner Capsule’s first crewed test flight over Atlas rocket glitch
- LCID shares are lower after Q1 earnings. Missed consensus on EPS, reiterated annual production forecast of 9k cars, which fell short of average street estimate of 12,600. So disappointing there
- Revenue beat but most of that came from the Saudi government, who is stakeholder.
- RIVN - Apple and Rivian are reportedly in talks for a potenaial partnership. Apple halted EV car project but sources form supply chain suggest maybe assessing possibility fo teaming up with a US supplier and Rivian seems to be likely
- Nintendo - will unveil a successor to 7 year old switch games console.
- STM - advances share buyback program
- SYM up on earnings, up on strong current quarter and strong guidance.
- LITE and COHR, the semiconductor equipment stocks both up on earnings.
- GAP - custom gap gown at met gala
- CCJ Goldman Sachs bullish price target
- CPG - Streamlines portfolio with 600m sale of Saskatchewan assets to Saturn Oil
- Also got a positive price target from canaccord
- ENVX - lays off 1/3 of staff in cost cutting measure.
- NIo - on track to make 2 new models for European market
- Nio provides 65,779 battery swap services on average per day in April
- Will use BYD batteries in their sub brand Onvo.
- Still down on Chiense market
- ALB - maintained at sector outperform by Scotia bank
- BP missed estimates as profits slip on weaker oil adn gas prices throughout part of last quarter.
- UBS shares pop after they return to profit following Credit Suisse takeover.
- VRTX - tops Q1 profit estimates on robust demand for cystic fibrosis treatments.
- SNPS - to sell software unit to Clearlake, Francisco in 2.1B deal.
- BTIG predicts that re test of 2024 high is coming.
- Yesterday, Grayscale BTC trust shares jump after first inflow since January.
- Chevron CEO says he sees oil price risks to the upside.
- Goldman Sachs CEO says inflation is still sticky, but possibility of rate cut or 2 this year.
- Citadel CEO says he is unsure when rate cuts will come and that the Fed have done the right thing by staying higher for longer.
- ECB’s De Cos - said the ECB cannot commit to a rate path. Said, however, that rates can be cut from June if price path holds.
- Russia deputy PM says there’s no sense in trying to predict future OPEC moves, as we have to look at the market.
- Wayve receives $1B for Ai driven self driving tech in funding round. Biggest backers were Softbank and MSFT and GOOGL
- BOJ governor Ueda met Prime Minister, said that the BOJ stands ready to keep eye on how yen moves affect trend inflation
- Japan’s Keidanren Chief, Tokura, said that the yen trading above 150 vs dollar is too much.
- Israeli forces take control of Palestinian side of Rafah crossing, in Gaza. They said they are conducting targeted strikes in Rafah. US apparently tried to stop an invasion in Rafah but Israel proceeded.
- Still ongoing talks on the ceasefire proposal. Hamas say they have agreed and Israel is holding up, Israel says vice versa.
- Xi and Macron, in Xi trip to Europe, agreed on a number of world issues. e.g. Red Sea, 2 state solution in Gaza, and ceasefire in Gaza
- Macron also hinted at the possible cooling of China trade dispute.
- Japan’s top currency diplomat Kanda declined to comment on Forex levels and refuses to admit if currency intervention occurred.
- US soldier detained in Russia.
- Fed’s Barkin yesterday said:
- GDP growth still seems strong
- Not yet seen evidence that inflation is on track
- Recent data is less optimistic.
- Still thinks current rates are restrictive enough.Said full impact of the higher rates has not yet hit.
- Labour market is normalising.
- According to a report, social security and medicare will run out of money in just over a decade if US congress doesnt act.
- Russia say they may target British military facilities on Ukraines territory in response to Ukraine strikes with British weapons.
2024.05.07 14:08 TearRepresentative56 Everything I'm watching and analysing in premarket including positional analysis on SPX, QQQ, GOLD and EURUSD 07/05
For more of my daily analysis and summaries, please join Tradingedge
ANALYSIS:
DISNEY:
DDOG - Beat and raise quarter. Was a strong quarter. Down partly because president to step down by year end.
submitted by TearRepresentative56 to TradingEdge [link] [comments]
ANALYSIS:
- EURUSD resistance at 1.08. positioning overall is still bullish.
- Probably see it chop around 1.08 and 1.075.
- Positioning against dollar is increasing, as traders unwind some of their shorts on CHF, EUR, JPY etc, as they expect USD to fall on more dovish monetary policy.
- GOLD looks like we are seeing more accumulation and chop before a possible break higher. Probably see similar in Silver too, as IV not increasing OTM on calls, so traders not looking for a breakout just yet but positioning still recovering.
- Today, Skew on QQQ and SPX are relatively flat. 440 is key wall that QQQ will be trying to get on top of.
- VIX is at 13.5, but not seeing much puts open up OTM which tells us it probably doesnt yet crush much lower.
- As such we probably see a choppy day.
- UK BRC Retail sales monitor YOY
- Comes -4.4% vs 1.6% expected. Previous month was 3.2% YOY
- So big miss on retail sales for UK
- This is private data, not official. FIRST NEGATIVE READING IN MORE THAN 12 MONTHS.
- AUS: RBA Rates Decision
- Kept rates steady in line with expectations.
- Expectation was for him to keep rates steady but to adopt a hawkish tone after a couple of upside inflation surprises.
- However, he was more dovish than expected.
- Recognised that inflation is falling slower than expected, and raised inflation expectations for 2024 as a result BUT
- Said he doesnt think they will have to tighten again.
- Said even though data is bumpy, they are taking a longer view.
- Said he doesnt see deanchoring in inflation expectations
- Said risks are evenly balanced in his eyes
- Said services inflation is the major area of uncertainty.
- Still expects inflation to fall to target of 2% in H2 2025.
- Swiss unemployment rate comes in at 2.3%, in line with expectations.
- GER Factory Orders (Mar)
- Came -0.4% MOM vs 0.5% expected.
- Big downside miss.
- German industrial production continues to weaken for durable goods, and intermediate goods.
- Durable goods was the main weak spot.
- UK Halifax House Prices (Apr)
- House prices rose by 0.1% MOM in UK, slightly below expectations for 0.2%, but back to positive readings after last months negative print.
- UK construction PMI comes in at 53, vs 50.4 expected. Highest reading in over a year.
- So UK construction sector in recovery
- France German and EU construction numbers come in weak, near lows of the year. Not seeing that recovery there yet.
- Eurozone Retail Sales (Mar)
- Came 0.7% YOY vs forecast of -0.2%. Previous was -0.7%
- Came 0.8% MOM vs forecast of 0.6%. Way above last months -0.3%
- SO not bad retail sales in EU. Much better than expected.
- Fed Kashkari Speech
- SPX trades flat where it closed yesterday, at 5182. Trading above the 50 day moving average, smashed through it yesterday, which is bullish.
- Nasdaq trading above 18k. Flat in premarket
- Dow Jones. Trading at 38,900. 39k resistance is going to be in play today probably.
- GER40 up again after pumping in futures yesterday along with US market. Now trading at 18,300.
- FTSE100 hits new highs at 8300. Euro vix is v low, certainty continues in Europe. Traders not scared.
- Nikkei up yesterday, and now flat today
- HKG50 is down 0.8% today, just normal price correction. Dipped below 18,500. But the momentum on this breakout is v strong and lots of buyers there.
- AUD is lower as a result of the dovishness from Bullock in RBA decision
- Dollar is higher today, partly on escalation of tensions in Rafah, and also price correction from Fridays decline last week. Still trading at just 105.2, so signifcna decline from recent highs.
- JPN lower
- Positioning against dollar still looks strong as traders are pricing in more rate cuts on the weak jobs numbers that we saw last week.
DISNEY:
- Overall solid, but slight subscriber miss led to this sell off.
- Posted surprise profit in streaming. This profit came 2 quarters ahead of schedule.
- Said turnaround efforts were yielding results.
- Despite this, sold off, as they missed on Disney subscriber numbers, and etnertaiment revenue.
- Overall Revenue missed by 0.1%
- Under the hood, we see entertainment segment missed by 5%
- Sports missed by 0.5%
- Experiences came strong, beating by 2.7%
- Operating income beat by 9%
- Operating margin beat by 151 bps
- EPS beat by 9%
- FCF missed by 7%
- Subs missed the mark:
- Disney+ subscribers missed the mark by 1.3%
- ESPN+ missed the mark by 6.1%
- HULU was slight beat
- So subscriber numbers were dissapointing.
- DISNEY NOW SEES YEAR ADJ EPS GROWTH TARGET OF 25%
- Experiences was strong. Higher Results at Walt Disney World Resort and Disney Cruise Line, Partially Offset by Lower Results at Disneyland Resort
- Remain on Track to Achieve Profitability in Combined Streaming Businesses in 4Q
- repurchased $1 billion worth of shares
- Softer entertainment results predicted due to Hotter.
DDOG - Beat and raise quarter. Was a strong quarter. Down partly because president to step down by year end.
- EPS of 0.44 beat by 29%, up 29% YOY
- Revenue of 611M was up 27% YOY, beat by 3.5%
- GUIDACNE:
- Full year EPS was 1.51-1.57, vs estimate of 1.45 (beat by 6%)
- Full year Revenue of 2.59-2.61B, beat by 0.7%
- Q2 EPS of 0.35 came in line with expected
- Q2 revenue of 622M was more or less in line.
- This was a raise of annual revenue guidance and a raise of EBIT and EPS guidance.
- 3,340 customers with ARR of 100k or more, which was up 15% YOY
- General availability of Bits AI for incident management, event management, error tracking for logs and mobile app testing
- Saw solid execution in Q1 with 27% YOY growth and continued product innovation.
- Q1 EPS of 3.02 beat by 36%, up 36% YOY
- Q1 revenue was 938M beat by 6%, up 7% YOY
- Breakdown by Segment:
- Crox - 744M up 16% YOY
- Direct to Consumer - 282M up 19%
- Wholesale up 14%
- Heydude struggling, down 17%
- Direct to consumer for Heydude is dow. 11%
- Wholesale for hey dude is down 20%
- GUIDANCE:
- Q2 adjusted EPS of 3.4-3.55 beat estimates by 2.8%
- RAISED FY EPS guidance of 12.25-12.73 beat estimates by 0.4%
- Full year revenue growth implies revenue of 4.07B-4.15B, which missed expectations
- So full year revenue growth numbers bit light
- Full year EPS guidance was okay, nothing special considering the raise.
- So hey dude is struggling a bit, CROX is doing well.
- Gross margin is up to 55% from 53% last year
- Reduced revenue expectations for year for Hyedude.
- EPS of 2.5 beat by 0.28 (beat by 12%)
- Revenue of 2.13B was down 6.6% YOY, beat by 70m (beat by 3%)
- Cut sales guidance for Fiscal year:
- Now sees revenue decline of 4-6% vs expectation of 0.5% growth
- Their prior guidance was 0.5-6.5% growth so thats a massive cut.
- CUT EPS GUIDANCE TOO
- EPS guidance cut to 11-11.92 vs 12-13.5 previously (cut by 12%)
- CFO is retiring
- Said execution in last quarter was okay with order improvement vs last quarter
- But much more excess inventory at customers
- Much more machine builders than expected
- As such, not seeing accelerated order ramp and are forced to reduce guidance.
- Said they are still gaining market share.
- Revenue beat by 3.1%
- Operating income beat by 13%
- Operating margin beat by 334bps
- EPS came in in line
- FCF missed by 33%
- BILLINGS GROWTH DECELERATED FROM 56% YOY in Q4 to 2% in Q1. Missed consensus by 5%
- All in all, good quarter but that billings miss was not good.
- GUIDANCE (next quarter)
- Revenue guidance beat expectations by 1.2%
- Operating income beat expectations by 5%
- Operating margin beat expectations by 115bps
- GUIDANCE FULL YEAR:
- Revenue guidance more or less in line
- Operating income beat expectations by 2.9%
- Honestly, not terrible earnings. But is short of the double digit growth that we have seen in the last couple of earnings and billings missed the mark. With the pump yesterday, it was clear that set up was tough on this one.
- Beat revenue estimate by 4,4% Beat EBITDA estimate by 20%
- EPS beat by 21%
- GUIDANCE:
- Raised all their guidances. Raised revenue guide by 3%, which beat by 2%
- Raised EBITDA guide by 4.3% which beat by 2%
- Raised Capex guide also though, from 68m to 88m.
- All in all very strong earnings
- Seeing strong demand for their software products.
- NVDA - Goldman Sachs raises NVDA price target to 1100 from 1000. Raised 2025-2027 full year earnings estimate by 8% to reflect data indicative of Ai server demand.
- Despite this, NVDA is down and that is because of the news that Apple is working on its own AI server chips, which would obviously pose potential competition to NVDA
- TSLA - launches another round of layoffs. According to reports, workers across several departments including software, service, engineering have been laid off.
- TSLA - saw a decline in its EV sales in China, with 62,167 units sold in April, marking a 30% drop from March and 18% drop YOY
- So Tesla down on disappointing Chinese numbers.
- AAPL - new data center chips. Apple is developing AI specific chips for data centres, known as project ACDC. Expanding their chip expertise beyond consumer devices.
- AAPl iphone Max named best selling smartphone in Q1 2024
- AAPL - Phillips Securities upgrades to accumulate from neutral, price target 194
- MSFT - is developing a new in house Ai model, named MAI 1, enough to compete with major AI models from Google, Anthropic and Open Ai.
- AMZN plans to spend $9B over next 4 years expanding cloud computing infrastructure in Singapore.
- Chinese stocks generally the main losers of premarket today, particularly so the Chinese EVs as TSLA also down.
- Cloud suppliers are being dragged by DDOG
- AMD upgraded again to buy at DZ bank, price target 190
- NET - raise to buy at DZ bank, price target 95
- VALE - raised to buy at UBS
- CELH - missed top line, (rare revenue miss) but when we look under the hood, we see, GM: 51.2% vs 46.9% est EPS: $0.27 vs $0.20 est. Not bad. Revenue miss of 9% was a one time reset due to changes in days on ahdn inventory by largest customer.
- Yesterday, HOOD receives Wells Notice from SEC. This sunk them 7%
- BA - down as Federal Air safety regulators have opened a new investigation into Boeing related to the company’s inspections of 787 Dreamline and whether the company falsified records.
- BA also delayed Starliner Capsule’s first crewed test flight over Atlas rocket glitch
- LCID shares are lower after Q1 earnings. Missed consensus on EPS, reiterated annual production forecast of 9k cars, which fell short of average street estimate of 12,600. So disappointing there
- Revenue beat but most of that came from the Saudi government, who is stakeholder.
- RIVN - Apple and Rivian are reportedly in talks for a potenaial partnership. Apple halted EV car project but sources form supply chain suggest maybe assessing possibility fo teaming up with a US supplier and Rivian seems to be likely
- Nintendo - will unveil a successor to 7 year old switch games console.
- STM - advances share buyback program
- SYM up on earnings, up on strong current quarter and strong guidance.
- LITE and COHR, the semiconductor equipment stocks both up on earnings.
- GAP - custom gap gown at met gala
- CCJ Goldman Sachs bullish price target
- CPG - Streamlines portfolio with 600m sale of Saskatchewan assets to Saturn Oil
- Also got a positive price target from canaccord
- ENVX - lays off 1/3 of staff in cost cutting measure.
- NIo - on track to make 2 new models for European market
- Nio provides 65,779 battery swap services on average per day in April
- Will use BYD batteries in their sub brand Onvo.
- Still down on Chiense market
- ALB - maintained at sector outperform by Scotia bank
- BP missed estimates as profits slip on weaker oil adn gas prices throughout part of last quarter.
- UBS shares pop after they return to profit following Credit Suisse takeover.
- VRTX - tops Q1 profit estimates on robust demand for cystic fibrosis treatments.
- SNPS - to sell software unit to Clearlake, Francisco in 2.1B deal.
- BTIG predicts that re test of 2024 high is coming.
- Yesterday, Grayscale BTC trust shares jump after first inflow since January.
- Chevron CEO says he sees oil price risks to the upside.
- Goldman Sachs CEO says inflation is still sticky, but possibility of rate cut or 2 this year.
- Citadel CEO says he is unsure when rate cuts will come and that the Fed have done the right thing by staying higher for longer.
- ECB’s De Cos - said the ECB cannot commit to a rate path. Said, however, that rates can be cut from June if price path holds.
- Russia deputy PM says there’s no sense in trying to predict future OPEC moves, as we have to look at the market.
- Wayve receives $1B for Ai driven self driving tech in funding round. Biggest backers were Softbank and MSFT and GOOGL
- BOJ governor Ueda met Prime Minister, said that the BOJ stands ready to keep eye on how yen moves affect trend inflation
- Japan’s Keidanren Chief, Tokura, said that the yen trading above 150 vs dollar is too much.
- Israeli forces take control of Palestinian side of Rafah crossing, in Gaza. They said they are conducting targeted strikes in Rafah. US apparently tried to stop an invasion in Rafah but Israel proceeded.
- Still ongoing talks on the ceasefire proposal. Hamas say they have agreed and Israel is holding up, Israel says vice versa.
- Xi and Macron, in Xi trip to Europe, agreed on a number of world issues. e.g. Red Sea, 2 state solution in Gaza, and ceasefire in Gaza
- Macron also hinted at the possible cooling of China trade dispute.
- Japan’s top currency diplomat Kanda declined to comment on Forex levels and refuses to admit if currency intervention occurred.
- US soldier detained in Russia.
- Fed’s Barkin yesterday said:
- GDP growth still seems strong
- Not yet seen evidence that inflation is on track
- Recent data is less optimistic.
- Still thinks current rates are restrictive enough.Said full impact of the higher rates has not yet hit.
- Labour market is normalising.
- According to a report, social security and medicare will run out of money in just over a decade if US congress doesnt act.
- Russia say they may target British military facilities on Ukraines territory in response to Ukraine strikes with British weapons.
2024.05.06 13:30 AlienNationSSB Alien-Nation Chapter 202: Property Damage
Alien-Nation Chapter 202: Property Damage
All Chapters of Alien-NationFirst Chapter of Alien-Nation Previous Chapter [Next]
Chapter Summary:
Morsh breaks Goshen's omni-pad to wipe anything incriminating she might've gotten out of her interrogation targets, then they have good conversations with AmilitaOh, and Elias Wakes up
"This is it," Natalie confirmed, pointing at the "H" on the roof.
"You're sure it's not that one?"
"It's still under construction, see?" She pointed at the construction equipment, and now that Morsh squinted she could see that the far corner was still unfinished. She grunted unhappily and started to approach the small rooftop landing pad.
"Fleet car 117, please go to visitor parking," traffic control spoke through the fleet car's speakers, and the heads' up display highlighted the part where another officer car was already headed toward. Probably Amilita.
"This is Nataliska of house Rakten, we have business with the occupant of that patient. We will be setting down on the roof."
"Helipad is not for visitors," the accented trade shil repeated herself. "Please do not go."
Nataliska leaned forward and flicked off the comms, and Morsh guided the fleet car to the 'Helipad' and set down next to the already-empty ambulance.
She hopped from the car and sprinted to the main door. "Come on." The door from the roof was locked, however, and when Morsh gave it a more firm tug, it popped the handle clean off.
"Now what?" Nataliska asked, but before Morsh could even think to answer the girl was already in motion, thin and dexterous fingers finding a part of steel in the ripped apart internals to peel back, the latch opening with a click.
"Nice work," she complimented her ward for her persistence.
She may have celebrated too early, because they now found themselves lost in the bowels of the alien building. Nataliska seemed to move with a purpose, though, pressing a button, and a lift opened.
Going down a couple floors in a box that felt entirely too shaky for Morsh's liking opened, only to find themselves immediately lost as the doors opened. The staff milling about wore various colored uniforms, probably meant to indicate something about their speciality, though Morsh saw no bloodstains or helpful lettering to guide the unfamiliar.
"Where to?" Nataliska asked, uncertainly.
Morsh was increasingly sure that hospitals served a secret universal purpose: To hide away anyone suffering in a maze that only employees could solve. Whether on-board the depths of a warship, a space station, planetside on an embattled world, or even in an alien-constructed, retrofitted building, she always got lost whenever she found herself in one.
"Hey, I can't read this stuff," Morsh waved a hand at the alien lettering and raised her omni-pad, letting it translate what text it saw. It took a couple times of double-checking, counting the third one from the top. "This one says 'child-medicine.' Is Elias still considered a child?"
"Pediatrics?" Nataliska sounded the human word out.
Morsh squinted at her omni-pad, and then back at the sign. "I think so?"
The bodyguard loathed the insurgency for the delays they'd caused. Had it not been for them, then she wouldn't be stuck navigating these hallways, and the new hospital next door would be finished already. At least something about this place would be familiar.
"I think we follow these colored lines on the wall. It's the same color as the sign."
"Alright," it was as good an idea as any, and they went around the corner to find a waiting room.
"Let's try one of the attendants?" Nataliska suggested, striding forward before Morsh could ask her to wait. The woman behind the desk had the sagging skin of someone from a high-gravity world, though at least they had the tendency to be stocky, but strong. Yet she seemed almost too round for her chair, bloated underneath the strange mottling that ran up her exposed arms and lower neck. She frowned from behind her thick-framed glasses at the pair of approaching shil'vati. Morsh sensed some vague hostility, but the woman certainly also seemed utterly impotent, so she filed it away as a triviality and instead took the room's surroundings, gauging the others in it. No one in the waiting room seemed particularly dangerous, though they were all keeping their distance.
Nataliska leaned forward. "Hi," she used the human greeting, though Morsh realized she'd forgotten to activate her translator and missed the next bunch of words. By the time she'd gotten it online, she'd missed everything except "Elias Sampson."
The blank stare returned showed no more understanding than Morsh had of what Nataliska had just said.
"I need to see Elias Sampson," Nataliska tried again. "He was taken here. He was hurt badly. He's my friend, and I need to check in on him." She tapped hurriedly on her omni-pad, and then smiled, pointing at a photo of him she'd taken. The woman glanced at the screen with disinterest, and then huffed.
"Try the Emergency Ward, or maybe surgery," was the only answer they got before the strangely-shaped woman started to rise from her desk.
"Where's that?" Nataliska's patience was obviously running thin.
"East wing. * " The woman finished standing from her desk and waddled away from the glass partition before either of them could ask where the 'East Wing*' was.
"Thank you!" Natalie said, always polite.
"Now what?"
"We find the East Wing." Natalie glanced at the window. "It's...uh...evening, so, away from there. That means..." she pointed, and started down the hallways.
Morsh shook her head. This felt like it was getting them nowhere. Worse, they quickly found dead-ends where they couldn't proceed through without a pass of some sort- and no one seemed to come along the particular hall that they'd gone down so they could follow them inside to get further east. Nataliska had insisted Morsh not put a shoulder to the locked door- avoiding incidents seemed to be a priority.
Eventually a nurse wearing blue scrubs rounded the corner, and started to double-back when Morsh decided she'd had enough of being made to wander aimlessly and flanked the human, cutting off her retreat.
Nataliska brought her omni-pad back up again, pointing at the picture. "Elias Sampson- sorry, I should start over. Do you know where surgery is, or perhaps the emergency room? East Wing?"
The nurse studied the picture for a few seconds longer than the secretary had, and then looked at Nataliska for a couple more, as if thinking about what to say in response. "Ask her to guide us," Morsh suggested, the translator speaking her own words back out for her before she shut off its speaker. "That way if she's thinking of misdirecting us, at least she's wasting her time, too," she added.
"Why would she do that?" Nataliska asked.
*"I'm sorry, are you next of kin or family?" *The nurse asked dutifully.
"Well, no, but I'm a noblewoman, and he was hurt badly. I ask that you aid us. It's very important that I'm there when he wakes up."
The corners of her mouth dipped slightly lower. "I see. Are you listed as his emergency contact?"
"Please. It's important."
"Of course it is. I'm going to have to ask your name."
"Nataliska of house Rakten. I'm right here-" she began scrolling through the photos, until she found one of the two of them side-by-side. "See?" This time the nurse didn't even bother looking.
"Sampson...tell you what, wait here, and I'll go check the emergency contact list-"
The nurse's indirect refusals to give any straight answers only ended when their demands were joined by the huffing arrival of the Lieutenant Colonel.
"Sorry. I was just setting up a place to work from when I saw you walk by," she said, panting the words out, and gauging the situation.
Morsh was tired of hearing the girl repeat herself in asking, and decided to speak the inevitable question for her. "Where's Elias? We've been trying to find him."
Amilita turned to the nurse they'd cornered, and activated her translator. "Please show them to the patient's room. I'm General Amilita, Acting commander of the Delaware Garrison." The woman paled slightly, and Morsh switched off her translator halfway through repeating Amilita's translator's English back into Shil'vati.
"Of course, ma'am," the woman said in trade shil'. And just like that, the three of them were off with a guide, though Amilita peeled off the group after only a few dozen steps.
What a strange inversion it was when a combined noblewoman's title and presence of a bodyguard couldn't get the respect a military uniform apparently commanded here.
"This is the room," Nataliska relayed for the Nurse, who immediately scampered off. The door opened, revealing a nurse who was as startled to see them as the first nurse had been, and Nataliska started drilling her with rapid-fire questions. The new Nurse was surprised that the shil'vati girl was fluent in English, and answered each question quickly, if shortly. Morsh switched back on her translator, but it was already too late to catch most of it.
When Nataliska had apparently finished her questions, Morsh let the nurse slip past and leaned in. "So? What'd you learn?"
"He's 'stable,' whatever that means, and has been sedated for his own good." She sighed. "I guess I'll go into the room, and talk with the doctors attending. Maybe they know when he can be woken up." She took a second to think. "I wonder what machines they used to use to bring people out of comas." Then she smiled a little bit- the first one she'd had in a while. "I wonder if they just slapped or shook their patients? Or was it a really loud noise? Do you think there's a prescribed one that they'd always use?"
She tried the handle, the question clearly on the tip of her tusk.
Except there was no one to ask. The room had been left empty, with just Elias laying there unconscious. The boy had filled out since the early days, when the newly-minted 'Natalie' had confessed she'd found a boy to finally talk and sit alone with, then proudly showing off a photo she'd snuck. He'd looked almost malnourished, waifish then. Now, laying still in the cot, despite all the lean muscle he'd put on through maturing, he looked no less vulnerable. The various faces he wore with such an intense focus and force of will were gone, leaving a vacant expression she'd never thought she'd see him wear. The planet could think what it wanted about boys and what they were supposed to be- the reality was they were still boys. No amount of arguing would ever make her feel anything other than a twist in the gut, and a feeling that something had gone horribly wrong.
The staff hadn't even a doc bot left in the room to keep an eye. There were distant squeaks of shoes on the shiny surface that humans loved to floor their interiors with, muted conversations drifting down the hallways, but only a few people milling about. Whatever the doctors had done, they felt they'd finished their work and cleared out.
"So, what now?" Morsh asked.
"We could wait?" Nataliska suggested, trying to hide how nervous she was. "I mean, maybe he'll wake up on his own? Or they're getting one of those machines I saw on TV."
"What machine?" Morsh asked.
"Well, when the person's asleep, then someone gets a machine that makes a whining noise." Suddenly, Natalie got quiet.
"And then what?"
"...then they rip open the guy's shirt, and uh, it's not what you think! They put their hands on it- his chest- the part where his heart is, I mean. And they put these metal pads on him, and someone says 'clear' and then he wakes up with a jolt."
"Uh-huh. And they just put this on TV, for anyone to see?"
"It's not like that! It's a legitimate medical procedure!"
"The nurse didn't say anything at all about that? Like, not even a rough idea on if that's what they're going to do, or when they're going to be back?"
Nataliska shrugged helplessly. "No, not really. I could wait with him? Or at least keep an eye over him, and ask anyone that comes by."
"Might be smart," Morsh agreed. "I'll stand guard. Want me to close the door? I know he doesn't like me all that much ever since the, well, you know. Everything."
"Thanks," she said. "I'm just worried about being seen alone with a boy behind a closed door."
"Come on, it's you two. Whatever went on, no one else knows about you crying in your room for days on end. I'll leave the two of you to chat alone and sort things out."
"Thanks, Morsh. You're the best. It's fine though, you can leave the door open for now, and I want to stay here, just in case." She walked in and pulled the chair up alongside the bed and gave the bodyguard a slight smile.
The bodyguard felt the minutes tick by. It bothered her that he'd been dumped there without so much as an attendant, with all manner of wires and human machines watching him in their stead. Pathetic. At least the room had an actual door and glass windows, curtained for privacy. It seemed they were very short-staffed, but that did keep her job of watching for threats simpler, and having to defend just the one point of entry made life easy. She idly tapped her pocket to make sure she still had that crucial object before an idea worked its way into her head.
She knocked on the doorframe, and Nataliska raised her head from her omni-pad.
"Kid, you're okay to take over guarding him for a bit?" Morsh asked.
"Huh?" She asked, standing and coming up to the door.
Morsh handed Nataliska her pistol. "I've gotta take a leak." The eyes of a nurse who wandered by were as large as saucers at the sight of the weapon, and she hurried her footsteps away from the pair.
"Uh...yeah," Nataliska answered, fumbling the grip for a moment. She started to stare at it and look down the barrel before Morsh pushed the tip down at the floor, making eye contact.
"That part faces whatever you want to kill," Morsh reminded her young ward, feeling a sudden sense of unease about leaving the same girl she'd just chewed out over acting before thinking alone with a pistol. One that Morsh clearly needed to actually teach her to use, too.
"How do I...?" Nataliska asked nervously, almost fumbling the pistol as she tried to hold it out for her bodyguard to inspect.
"The safety's on. This button here. Actually, you know what? Here. Take the knife. Don't use it unless you have to." The swap was quick, and Morsh felt the reassuring feel of her custom laspistol on her thigh once it had settled back into its quickdraw holster.
"Um..." the girl hesitated. Morsh prayed she didn't need to tell her which end to stick a threat with. Then again, common sense with nobles was like oxygen. The higher up someone went, the rarer it was to find.
"Just for a second. If you need me, press the panic button on your omni-pad, and hold them off with the knife until then. You understand?"
"I understand," she echoed, inching closer to the door, as if already imagining someone trying to sneak past her.
Morsh felt the unfamiliar bulge shift in her pocket as she made her way down the hall. The old human hospital with alien writing on the wall still threatened to misdirect her from the point where she'd seen a particular sign. It took only a couple turns she'd committed to remembering before she came across it again. She pushed open the double-doors and took in the enormous room, pleased with herself that it was almost certainly what she'd hoped it would be.
The small technician lady stood from behind her desk, itself separated with its own wall. Morsh let out a low whistle from between her tusks. "Whew, that is a big machine you have in there." She squinted exaggeratedly. "Not a lot of wiggle room for a patient, though," she muttered as if in contemplation. "Gotta have some courage to crawl in there and be treated here, I gotta admit. Say, Doc, you know I left my knife behind. And this thing here- well, let's just pretend it's not here at all," she tapped her holster, before fishing out and tossing the omni-pad she'd pickpocketed off Amilita into the center hole, watching in fascination how its course changed before sticking fast to one of the inner walls, defying gravity. "So, why don't you turn on that machine for me? It's that magnetic...uh...thing."
She glanced down at the workstation the woman was at, and noted the various pieces of metal arrayed on the desk. Her laspistol should be safe here- or at least better here than in Nataliska's shaky hands.
"Magnetic Resonance Imager, and I think that would be a very bad idea. It would-" she eyed Morsh with increasing alarm as the bodyguard strode closer until she leaned over the woman, leering.
"I didn't ask what you thought."
Swallowing nervously, the much smaller woman started trying to explain what it was in the crudest trade shil, stumbling over her words.
"Didn't ask what it was, either, I said turn it on." The little woman's babbling ceased, and she quaked where she stood. "Do it, or trust me, you'll need more than whatever it can do for you."
The woman finally did as she was told, and the omni-pad began to promptly bang around the inside, until with a final, terrifying crack it went silent, and a warning chime sounded.
The woman let out a wail of distress and then stared balefully up at Morsh in a very: See? I told you so! gaze, as if missing the entire point. Morsh only let out a low whistle after she pulled open the door. Some people just could not be shown a good time or anything neat. The omni-pad was now stuck fast to the inner wall of the circular device, having punched a hole right through the plastic. "Do you have any idea how much that cost? This hospital has one of those, and parts for it- I don't even know where-"
Morsh pried the omni-pad loose, having to brace herself against it and pull with all her strength and then tested to see if it would switch on, noting with some satisfaction that it was certainly wiped of whatever it contained. She'd held corpses of comrades with more life left in them.
"Bill us."
Besides, how useful could the machine still be in this day and age? Morsh shook her head. Humans could keep their sentimentality and attachment to outdated tools. She'd prefer a doc bot any day to the confinement chamber.
She came back to find the situation outside Elias's room more or less as she'd left it and patted her ward on the shoulder after retaking possession of the knife with a genuinely relieved sigh.
"Sorry about that, I've been holding it in since I broke orbit. No visitors?"
Nataliska shook her head. Morsh sighed. "Then we're probably going to be here a while. But you know who isn't, and I suggest you go settle things with? Amilita."
"But, what if he-"
"I'll message you immediately," she promised. "Now, go, before he does wake up and you're still not back."
That got the girl moving, Morsh noted with some satisfaction.
Settlement
The hospital smelled. None of the scents were familiar to her, some of them were even superficially pleasant, and she imagined she might even enjoy the cleansers or aerosol sprays used to disinfect if she shut her eyes to relieve them from the long, harsh blue lights and imagine a breeze or spring. Oh, to close one's eyes and pretend the world isn't what it is.Natalie was reluctant to leave Elias's side but Morsh was right. She had to talk with Amilita.
It took a few tries, but she eventually was directed to the same hallway she'd been in before. She stopped at the open doorway to see that the giantess had taken over an empty storeroom and made it into a temporary office headquarters, resignedly signing off orders from her wrist-pad in rapid-fire motions. The rings under the old family friend's eyes were visible even through the semi-transparent image of her wrist-pad. When she shifted her focus and noticed the young noblewoman snooping at the threshold, Amilita stood to greet her before then ducking her head in a sign of respect and submission to the authority Natalie wielded, something Amilita had only done for her mother.
"I hear Morsh has been busy protecting the boy's privacy." The words were offered plainly and left for Natalie to determine how they were meant. She'd had enough of assuming the better of people after today.
"That's right, I stationed Morsh there. I hope that isn't going to be a problem."
Amilita put her hands up, showing off the white bandages taped around her knuckles as fresh flesh grew back underneath, "No, not at all. I've even requested the boy's medical files not be updated to reflect his recent visit here." With her other hand, she tapped a small stack of printed out papers.
Natalie blinked at the news. "Why?"
"His death would have been framed by Goshen as a suicide," she muttered.
"What? How? That's ridiculous. He was kidnapped!"
"I know," Amilita poked a finger at the gauze to again emphasize what she'd done at the sight. "Perhaps I ought to explain how I found him. He was hanging by his belt, dangling from a pipe. When I carried him out, he was barely breathing from asphyxiation and with marks on his neck. From what I can tell, they used the doc bot to check the airway and noted no spinal fractures. What matters is that these notes only include injuries, not their context." Natalie already knew from his treatment at school that he'd have a history of bruising, swelling, and cuts. Injuries she now understood why he'd wanted to treat on his own, rather than potentially hand information over. As she considered the implications, Amilita cleared her throat, lowering her hand. "What have you heard about when boys attempt suicide, Nataliska?"
"Uh, well..." she didn't want to appear ignorant, but she knew it wasn't exactly common. "I hear they choose quiet methods? I guess it's so wives won't try and stop them?"
"Usually it's described as a cry for help. When a boy threatens it, it's as a desperate gambit to force his terrible wives to release him. The women either lose him and are forever known and outed as husband-killers and neglectful. Or they take him to the hospital and at least avoid the 'boy-killer' charges. Threatening suicide is the final move of the truly desperate."
"Wasn't he desperate, though?" She felt she was missing something.
"What do those women who were in his life say in their defense, though? And remember, the medical records will leave Goshen out. It's just his injuries that are left in."
Natalie blinked. "Well, I guess they don't just confess?"
The officer's tone turned weary and she seemed to deflate some at Natalie's lack of answer. "I don't know if it's because I've been spending too much time around the wrong people, or if I'm suddenly sensitive to it after having a son. People always say about boys who attempt suicide: 'He couldn't handle it.' That he couldn't take the prospect of a life of housework and the pressures of fatherhood, which is always said to be easy. That, or he felt he couldn't compete with the pressures of acting like and being treated as a woman if he had a job." Amilita bit her lip. "I don't want that said about Elias- they won't know about the circumstances of the kidnapping, or anything else."
The young noble bristled, some heat entering her voice, "The trial should be easy enough to point back to. It doesn't matter if they dig it up."
"You can't appeal decisions on admittance or acceptance to a future job if they never even tell you they dug so deep into your past in the first place. I worry that if I step in and demand the circumstances be included, it'll be so unusual that people will still doubt him. They'll think I pulled strings. If you do it, they'll think you're doing the same, all to protect him. See the problem? We can't add it. So it is for the best that this stays off his record completely. We made sure we're not burying him physically, and now I'm making sure we're not burying his future." She inhaled, and then looked Natalie in the eyes. "I'm fine with the only record being in your hands, holding it in trust for him to decide if he wants to re-enter it into his medical history or not." She broke her eye contact and tapped the small stack of papers meaningfully. "I'm asking that you respect his privacy, because I have a duty to enter these into his record. But if they happen to go wandering, well, it's for the better then. I just ask that you...not share these to the datanet." She added the last part quietly.
Natalie nodded mutely. Her mouth opened, but no noise escaped at first. It took several moments to process that he possibly had been willing to kill himself to keep her family secret buried. Elias, You helped me when I told you my family's secret and Myrrah came to us. I ran and wasn't there to help when someone came to you over yours. There's still at least one more thing I can do.
"If the record is left out, would that help Goshen's case? I mean...what if she isn't punished for this?"
"My personal testimony could condemn her by itself, and you still retain the physical medical record. Not to mention you could weigh in, and so could he, and it would remain out of any record or background check. Besides, Goshen's cuffed to a bed in the commoner ward, and I doubt she'll live much longer."
"You almost killed her?"
"Well, I wasn't gentle," Amilita admitted, not at all bothered by the admission. "But, no, she is seen as the one responsible for the loss of the noblewomen. The fleet and Nobles don't want to pin the loss of three system lady matriarchs on a martyr. Especially when one of them's a scioness of the Maudalenti family- you wouldn't know them but they're renowned for their brave military service."
Natalie's head spun. She'd actually heard of that family. "Why was he able to take so many of such high stature?"
"It takes considerable power or favor to bully one's way onto this world, past all the secrecy and safety demands, and even more to get to enjoy a pleasant time in a green zone. So naturally, almost all of them had it in spades. Enough to where their families could afford to chase Goshen to the ends of the Galaxy to make an example of her if they wanted, and I suspect greatly that they do. Even in the Delaware barracks, they're furious at Goshen for losing the Marine hostages, and ordering repeated long charges over open terrain against railguns. There's no state I can transfer her to, thanks to all the borrowed troops. There's hardly any that I can think of that didn't lose at least a pod or two. The sad reality is Galatea Goshen hasn't a friend left in the galaxy, let alone one here who can stand up to all that. Normally when this many interested parties want someone in uniform to be hung up by her ears the officers are able to close ranks and stop them, but for the life of me I can't imagine why anyone would. Azraea is thought to have died because Goshen couldn't get the job done." Then she sighed and looked skyward. "Even the Goddesses would abandon her now. The warrior Goddess Krek was bloodthirsty and loyal, but she would have hated the senseless casualties Goshen pushed for. And now, even I'm abandoning her over what she did to Elias." Her eyes drifted back down to meet Natalie's. "Do you understand what I'm saying? She's unlikely to live to see a trial."
She was laying Goshen out on a line.
"'Justice will be done'," Natalie promised, quoting an ancient tome carved into stone, weathered away by sea spray in the millennia since. Amilita hung her head ever so slightly deeper. Natalie shouldn't tip her hand, she knew, but then again Amilita also dared not interfere.
"Do you know when he'll wake up?"
"No," she said. "They sedated him on the flight over, apparently for his own protection, and it won't last. I'm told this may be a polite way of saying that he attacked them."
She blinked and started to stand up, "Then if you'll excuse me, I need to watch over him."
"Of course," Amilita almost whispered. "I'm sorry," so quiet and tender the words could hardly be said to have come from someone of Amilita's rank and physical stature.
Living Dead Boy
Natalie returned to find that an unknown Marine had joined Morsh near Elias's door, the former staying a respectful distance across the hallway. She wore a darker blue patch, indicating she wasn't here from Delaware's garrison. She strode right past Morsh, who made a point of shutting the door behind her.Natalie stared at the stack of papers on the small table next to the chair she waited in, her gaze wandering about the room listlessly, coming once more to fall on its sole occupant
His chest rose and fell steadily, with an annoying 'beep' repeating at a constant interval indicating he was being monitored in at least some sense. His clothing was disheveled, like when she'd first met him.
She turned on her omni-pad, and sent a panoramic photo of the room to her mom, not even managing a smile. Just giving you an update. I don't know much. Watching the doctors, when they come in. Don't show anyone, obviously. It felt strange to even have to ask such a courtesy.
The message back was immediate: How much would I need to pay to have one here, just to answer my questions and look over Elias, and not just disappear somewhere else at random times?
The medical staff had wielded immense power, even in the face of a noble name. It reminded her more of a cult than a proper medical institution. Still, on Earth, most services seemed to have a price, even things that were held sacred. Thanks to the exchange rate the price was often rather pitiably small, surely, one doctor wouldn't take too much.
She was about to respond with a rough estimate when she thought she saw him stir, though it might have just been the sheet settling.
"Elias?" She asked, leaning over and placing her hand gently on his forearm, only for him to jerk awake and slap her hand off.
He had been stirring slowly, then more quickly and feverishly until he began kicking his legs, yanking the carefully tucked bed sheets out of where they were pressed and tangling them around his feet. The beeping had grown to a frantic and erratic pace, and a tone began to blare as he ripped something off his finger.
"Elias, calm down!"
Instead, he swung his legs out from the hospital bed and tried to push himself off of the bed and to the door, instead going down in a heap as the little white sheet slid on the slick floor. He let out a slight cry of pained alarm that would wrench at any woman's heart. Bright eyes wide and wild, he lay there for a second or two, and Natalie hesitated. She couldn't help but feel responsible in some way for the pain he was in, and so she backed off, and instead crouched down, showing her empty palms.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Natalie tried to soothe him, though he glanced over her shoulder at the exit, then around the room as her words sank in and he met her eyes- just for a moment, before he paused and gave her a second glance. "Natalie?" He rubbed at his eyes. "Sorry, everything was a bit blurry for a second there..."
The momentary expression of relief that settled over her was shattered when the door was suddenly shoved open, knocking Natalie forward and toward Elias, and then everyone began screaming at each other, all at the same time.
The poor Nurse let out a shriek of terror as Morsh pulled the hapless woman sprawling back out of the doorway by her fabric collar, legs and hands in the air as she slid.
Natalie tried to shield Elias's crouched form while finally cutting through everyone else's screaming with a simple command: 'Get out!' Elias was trying to push past her, but she couldn't let him run, she'd just found him! Then Morsh tried to step through the door, saying something about how an alert had gone off. Elias had half blocked her off with his body and gotten into some semblance of a fighting stance, and was now trying to protect Natalie from her own bodyguard. Each of them was blundering through trying to protect each other, but the chaos of the situation ensured that none succeeded at anything but getting in each other's way.
"Get OUT!" Natalie roared again. Morsh knew when to pick her battles, and when to follow orders, and slammed the door shut so hard it hurt her ears. Angry voices on the other side went back and forth, but Natalie pushed herself against the frame, even as the newly-conscious Elias gathered himself up and met her eyes.
First Chapter of Alien-Nation Previous Chapter [Next]
Author's Notes:
Also, good news. My father's made it through his surgery! A lot of stress taken off. He is in good health, and good spirits. Editor is progressing through what is occupying him. I would like to thank Guardsman Miku and Tumbleman for their efforts in helping with the editing.
Archive Of Our Own contains the latest version of Alien-Nation with a lot of added scenes, flow improvements, and so on. (You can also download the story as an ePub for reading on your personal device, if you feel like doing so, though I recommend waiting until Book One is truly finished.)
Link to Archive Version here:
2024.05.05 17:29 healthmedicinet Health Daily News May 4 2024
DAY: MAY 4 2024
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- 5-4-2024STUDY REVEALS VOTER MORAL JUSTIFICATIONS FOR POLITICIANS’ MISSTATEMENTS In a new study, researchers have used online surveys conducted primarily when Donald Trump was president to show that both Republican and Democratic voters provided explicit moral justification for politicians’ statements that were factually inaccurate, especially when they aligned with their personal politics.
- 5-4-2024VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IS BOTH A LEGAL AND CULTURAL PROBLEM. WHAT CAN AUSTRALIA DO TO ADDRESS IT? An Australian woman dies every 15 days at the hands of a current or former partner, and most partner homicides follow a history of male-perpetrated violence. As part of this conversation, many Australians are asking how we can do better at addressing such a complicated issue.
- 5-4-2024RAP MUSIC IS BEING USED AS EVIDENCE TO CONVICT CHILDREN OF SERIOUS CRIMES: REPORT New research from the University of Manchester has found that children are being swept up in murder and attempted murder cases—and being tried in adult courts—partly due to rap music culture being used as evidence against them. Rap lyrics and videos are regularly used as prosecution evidence in youth violence criminal cases in England and Wales.
- 5-4-2024HOW LITERATURE TEACHERS CAN CREATE ANTI-RACIST CLASSROOMS Many schools say anti-racism and equity initiatives matter for quality education, yet specific plans are often wanting. In 2023, the not-for-profit organization People for Education reported that 73% of schools included anti-racism and equity in their school improvement plan, but only 28% of school boards actually have an anti-racism policy, strategy or approach.
- 5-4-2024RESEARCH SHOWS POSITIVE IMPACTS OF AIRPORT INVESTMENTS Be it for work or vacation, chances are that many will have passed through an airport. In the largest cities, the airport presents to travelers the first glimpse of a new land and a reflection of the surrounding city.
- 5-4-2024‘INVISIBLE’ CONSULTANTS HELP COMPANIES WRITE SUSTAINABILITY REPORTS. HERE’S WHY THAT’S A PROBLEM Consultants have to rely heavily on employee interviews for information on the way a company operates. Credit: fauxels/Pexels Around the world, more and more companies are publishing sustainability reports—public scorecards detailing their impacts on society and the environment.
- 5-4-2024STUDY REVEALS HIRING BIAS AGAINST FORMER BUSINESS OWNERS Nearly 50% of new businesses fail within the first five years. Many former entrepreneurs apply for 9-to-5 jobs to get back on their feet, but new research reveals an unexpected obstacle: hiring bias.
- 5-4-2024IMMUNIZING CONSUMERS AGAINST BAD NEWS CAN PROTECT BRANDS, SAYS STUDY Abercrombie & Fitch. Balenciaga. Starbucks. In recent years, these brands and many others have faced extreme public backlash due to insensitive comments from executives, changes to loyalty programs, controversial advertising decisions, and more. In today’s hyperconnected world, negative information about brands can quickly snowball online, resulting in widespread calls for boycotts and lost sales.
- 5-4-2024STUDY FINDS AI TOOL OPENS DATA VISUALIZATION TO MORE STUDENTS A new study shows that ChatGPT can help students create effective visualizations, but is not as helpful in providing data analysis. Data literacy is a critical skill that technical and professional communication instruction emphasizes to create effective data visualizations. However, students with limited math and coding skills often struggle to analyze data and customize visualizations.
- 5-4-2024LAW FAILS VICTIMS OF FINANCIAL ABUSE FROM THEIR PARTNER, RESEARCH WARNS Victims of financial abuse from their partner in England and Wales are being failed by an “inadequate” legal response, new research warns. Coerced debt causes considerable harm. People often live with the effects of being forced to give money or take out loans or credit cards long after the abusive relationship has ended.
- 5-4-2024STUDY FINDS DISTINCT PATTERNS LEAD TO DOMESTIC PARTNER HOMICIDE A new study has explored the complex patterns which lead to an intimate partner homicide (IPH), in an effort to better understand and prevent the tragic event happening. The research delved into the criminal careers of people who had been involved in at least one incidence of lethal and non-lethal intimate partner violence
- 5-4-2024GROUP SALES INCENTIVES BOOST WEAK BRAND SALES, STUDY FINDS The study, “Group or Individual Sales Incentives? What is Best for Brand-Managed Retail Sales Operations?” is published in the Journal of Marketing. The study focused on what marketing scholars call “brand-managed” retail operations. These outlets include “stores within stores,” such as counters in major department
- 5-4-2024WOMEN SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN DECISIONS ON THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE CLIMATE CRISIS, SAY RESEARCHERS Eighty percent of climatic migrants are women and children. This figure means that a new international legal framework is required to protect human rights by adding gender-sensitive measures to policies and legislation.
- 5-4-2024POSITIVE SCHOOL CLIMATE BOOSTS HIGH SCHOOL GRADES, STUDY FINDS A study led by a UC Riverside graduate student has found that Latino high school students achieve higher grades when they perceive a more positive school climate and when they have a stronger sense of self-esteem. Published in the Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, the study also found that a strong sense of ethnic identity contributed to better self-esteem
- 5-4-2024FIVE-DAY WORK WEEK BUILDS WORK–LIFE BALANCE IN CONSTRUCTION Construction workers typically work six days a week but research tracking a five-day work week in the industry shows flexibility is key to improving worker well-being, with minimal perceived impact on productivity.
- 5-4-2024STUDY SHOWS A TALE OF TWO SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR DONALD TRUMP Truth Social was more effective at driving news attention toward Donald Trump during the 2022 midterm election cycle than Twitter (now known as X) was during the 2016 primary election season, a pattern driven mostly by partisan media on the left and the right
- 5-4-2024PART OF THE SOLUTION TO IMPROVING WOMEN’S SAFETY OR AN ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN? With the need for a perpetrator register or a disclosure scheme emerging as one option to improve women’s safety, Monash University and University of Liverpool researchers have published a study examining whether such schemes actually improve women’s safety. Domestic violence disclosure schemes (DVDS) provide a mechanism—for victim-survivors
- 5-4-2024A DISTURBING PICTURE OF HOW SOME BOYS TREAT THEIR TEACHERS We need to look at the whole of our society when we consider how to make it safer for women. One huge part of our society is schools, where we spend about 13 years of their lives.
- 5-4-2024YOUNG PEOPLE IN PHILLY’S TOUGHEST NEIGHBORHOODS EXPLAIN HOW VIOLENCE DISRUPTS THEIR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH In 2023, 410 people were murdered in Philadelphia—more than a quarter of them under age 25. In addition to the people who died, countless others lost loved ones and people they relied on. As a social scientist who studies different forms of violence and how they affect a person’s health,
- 5-4-2024IS SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY DRIVEN BY GREAT INDIVIDUALS OR BY GREAT TEAMS?“ This isn’t mine; this is one for the team,” said Succession star Kieran Culkin as he accepted the Best Actor award at this year’s Golden Globes. It’s a familiar aspect of Hollywood awards speeches—a reminder that the stars dazzling us on screen could not exist without the people who support them. “It’s been said, but it’s a team effort, this show,” said Succession creator Jesse Armstrong at the awards, underlining the same sentiment.
- 5-4-2024INTERVENTION BASED ON SCIENCE OF READING AND MATH BOOSTS COMPREHENSION AND WORD PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS How an intervention based on the science of reading and math effectively helped English learners boost their comprehension, visualize and synthesize information, and make connections that significantly improved their math performance. The intervention, performed for 30 minutes twice a week for 10 weeks with 66 third-grade English language learners who displayed math learning difficulties, improved students’ performance when compared to students who received general instruction.