good evening so I've been asking myself this question for some time, we still don't know the mysteries surrounding nen because at the start of Gon and Killua's learning of nen we are told that nen comes from the vital force of everyone, everyone has a vital force within them so therefore everyone can use their nen provided they open their shokos, a little later in the Yorkshin arc upon learning of Kurapika's victory over Uvogin, Killua has concludes that there must be secrets about nen which can allow them to increase their power, this coincides a bit with what the hunters tried to do by keeping the existence of nen a secret so as not to let this power fall between bad hands which could upset the order of things, we learn a secret of nen which is the oath and the condition with Kurapika and later with Gon who uses this method against Pitou a very risky method unfortunately which can only serve you for a single fight if you have great determination to the point of dying to achieve your goal.
I think that the biggest users of nen and the high-ranking hunters must keep the existence of these secrets of nen secret so as not to cause regional or even global danger.
the condition and the oath (which I think is one of the secrets of nen which are hidden from us) when we see the power obtained by Kurapika who only trained for 6 months at the base of nen to reach a level superior to the members of the phantom troupe who are all monsters at the Uvogin power level (Top 3 of the strongest members of the brigade behind Chrollo and Feitan) or even Gon who has reached the level of Meruem, if such power fell into the hands of a big crazy who has absolutely nothing to lose in his life you imagine that no one could stop them
This is where my theory about another secret of nen comes in
I call it the natural nen or if I have to use it in a more familiar version I will call it the "Sen" prefix of "Sennin", (you will tell me that it would be plagiarized Naruto but it doesn't matter if we links it to nen especially since Naruto was very inspired by HxH so I don't see why the opposite wouldn't be good it doesn't hurt to borrow ideas here and there especially since Togashi and Kishimoto get along very well) anyways....
as you know nen constitutes or rather draws on the vital energy of living beings, hunters are content only to use the vital energy inside them but never ask the question of absorbing the vital energy outside in nature, by nature I mean plants, animals even the smallest microbes have vital energy
the difficulty of the exercise is precisely to be able to absorb this natural nen to pass to "Sen" and for me only the elected can access this power, humans who have predispositions linked to nature but also a physique and a mind of steel, because natural nen is a great power but must also constitute risks to use such a power.
the risks are roughly similar with some nuances to Naruto's senjutsu
The Risk :
-have a pure heart (when you know the world of hunters and everyone does as they please to the point of killing if necessary, it would be a little ironic that the great power of nen which is the "sen" can only be obtained by a person who is completely opposed to what a hunter should be)

• do not absorb too much natural energy, the dosage must be sufficient because the body, however strong it may be, would not support such a mass of natural energy which could lead to a heart attack or even madness of the user
  
• no more than 5 minutes of use, after that it will be necessary to reabsorb the natural energy
  
• obviously absorbing natural energy requires great effort and we cut ourselves off from the world to be in communion with nature and not move a bit during the absorption (in a 1vs1 fight it would be impossible to use the Sen someone will have to act as a barrier to occupy the time it takes to absorb the natural energy)
  

for such power as you can see there are many risks and disadvantages but if there are big risks it is above all because there are big advantages
The Advantages :

• your natural nen is 10x more powerful than your basic nen, therefore better mastery of Ten, Ren, Hatsu, Ryu, Ken, Gyo, En
  
• obviously your physical strength is increased tenfold
  
• best sensory perception without using the Given that you are in communion with nature you can detect everything that surrounds you
  
• you can increase the link of a category of nen that is not specific to you given that the nen you use comes from outside and not from you, so it is no longer your hatsu that we use (even if we can afford to add our own category, that’s a plus)
  

I know it's way too crazy but it could be a good idea I think to no longer be dependent on your own nen and to look for vital energy outside rather than being dependent on yourself
Thank you to all those who read this, as I wanted to say it is only a simple opinion but it would be a good idea to slightly increase the power of humans or at least of the elected, as I said alone beings who have the required predispositions can acquire this power, perhaps one of the 5 best users of nen (if there is one who has a pure heart) see Gon who has regained his senses since the arc of chimera ants)

Before we get into the main debate of what is Al-Salat, allow me to summarize the latest research in the field of mindful meditation and ritualistic chanting. And how it all ties into the freeing of our minds to become more rational, positive, forward looking and grounded.
I will touch on a few findings and give the links to the relevant studies at the bottom of this write-up.
Feeling like your thoughts are in a never-ending loop?
Ever find yourself obsessing over a work email you sent, wondering if you could've worded it better? Or maybe replaying a social interaction that didn't go as smoothly as you hoped? That’s what the relevant experts call rumination, and it’s like your brain is stuck in a loop, fixating on moments you wish you could redo.
Understanding Rumination: Think of your brain as a high-powered, incredibly efficient processor. When you're ruminating, it's as if this processor is running an inefficient program that's draining your mental battery, like when your laptop keeps overheating from too many open tabs. That would be me.
A few words on OCD: Now imagine your brain relentlessly bombarding you with intrusive thoughts, like a nagging doubt about whether you turned off the stove, even though you’ve checked it multiple times. Even more disturbing is when you try to assign blame to yourself for disasters miles away from you.
Intrusive thoughts: Why they happen and how to deal with them.
Occasionally, you’re minding your own business when a weird – and sometimes disturbing or upsetting – thought pops into your head. Why does your brain do this, and does it mean that you’re a bad person? Or even losing your mind. So, what is going on?
The Sci-Fi of Your Brain: The Default Mode Network (DMN): This network is like your brain’s background app. It’s most active when you're not focusing on the task at hand. It’s what kicks in when you’re showering and suddenly start overanalyzing a conversation from five years ago.
So, what is the fix?
Well, it so happens that meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity.
Hacking Your Brain’s Default Mode: The goal is to shift your brain from a state of unproductive rumination to proactive problem-solving. It's like choosing to focus on strategizing your career path or planning your next big adventure instead of dwelling on past mistakes.
The Power of Rituals and Chanting: Incorporating rituals or chanting might sound old-school, but it’s like a mental reset button. Starting your day with a mindfulness exercise or repeating affirmations like "I am capable and strong" can steer your mind away from intrusive thoughts and towards more constructive patterns.
Real Science Backs This Up: Regular practice over 4 to 6 weeks can rewire your brain, enhancing its ability to plan and solve problems – akin to updating your personal software to improve performance and efficiency in every aspect of your life.
The Bottom Line: It’s not about erasing your repetitive behavior; it's about updating your mental toolkit. You're not just stopping the negative cycles; you're starting positive ones. It's a mental upgrade, ensuring your brain is as optimized and forward-thinking as you are in your career and personal life.
There is growing evidence that simple, everyday changes to our lives can alter our brains.
That brings us to the Question, did God cover this extremely important part of our make up in the Quran? Where one can reset our brain’s neural networks in a matter of weeks and pull oneself back into the sphere of rationality from a reactionary emotional mess.
Two things are incessantly emphasized in the Quran, the establishing of Al-Salat and giving thought. Given this backdrop, we will now explore the wisdom behind how to achieve it through the verses of the Quran.
Unfortunately, there is a minority of folks out there who have failed to recognize the true wisdom behind the three times a day grounding exercise through Al-Salat. This lot has irrationally taken upon themselves to go against almost every culture out there and declare rituals as something bad. They then strangely identify Al-Salat as merely a ritual and then attempted to explain it away with linguistic gymnastics. Perhaps the important physical elements of it have thrown them off. I feel this is an emotional route. Rituals are not inherently bad. In terms of religion this is a reactionary approach. Just because bad religions use rituals doesn’t mean all rituals lose currency.
To be clear we will be discussing Al-Salat the noun. Repeated sixty-six times in the Quran (Salat is mentioned 99 times in all its forms). Once as plural and the rest of the time as singular. In fact, I view it as an aid and much closer to mindful meditation. Equating Al-Salat with meditation is very tempting. Especially when long-term practitioners of the ‘art’ put a lot of emphasis on awareness. As opposed to emptying one’s mind and all that jazz. Dhikr and be conscious (ٱتَّقِ), wrongly translated as fear, fits perfectly well here.
The very word Salat predates the revelation of Quran. This is not a new word, the word most probably migrated from Classical Syriac. The spelling of Salat differs from earlier Arabic literature, where ‘waw’ was often used instead of ‘Alif’. The pronunciation stays the same. Not surprisingly Quran mentions a number of earlier Prophets/Messengers engaged in Al-Salat.
Another thing to keep in mind is that both Al-Salat and Al-Zakat are mentioned together a total of 32 times in the Quran. Another 5 times the word spend is used in conjunction to remove any doubt as to what is meant by Al-Zakat. Out of the remaining 27 times Al-Salat is mentioned, 11 and possibly 12 times in instructional verses. Hence, a mere 15 out of a total of 66 mentions of Al-Salat are verses that decouple Al-Salat and Zakat, all the rest of noninstructional verses establish a very strong link between them. The significance of these exact numbers is perhaps a subject of separate research but this much is clear, they are intertwined in a very profound way. We should keep this link in mind when defining A-Salat and Al-Zakat.
The Quran, in addition to reminding us of our forgetful nature, also defines the three main objectives of Al-Salah. A prescribed prayer at designated times is a perfect cure for forgetful nature. The three objectives are:

1. Dhikr (Remembrance for want of a better term) Quran 20:14
2. To seek help from God Quran 2:45 and
3. The prevention of immorality and “evil” deeds Quran 29:45 and 19:59

Bonus effect: When Al-Salat and giving of Al-Zakat are clubbed together, it strengthens our certainty of faith in the hereafter. Quran 27:3. Once again we should keep this association in mind when attempting to define either of them.
If we were to ignore these three objectives and the one stated benefit, the distinction between Dhikr, praise and Al-Salat is blurred for starters (please see note 1 below), resulting in less than ideal conclusions. Two of the three objectives points to a one-way connection/communication. And to this day the word Al-Salat and to a greater degree simply Salat carries the same connotation in the Arabic language. Ministry of communication is called ‘wizarat alaitisalat’ (وزارة الاتصالات).
The third objective seems to be a passive result as opposed to active engagements of the first two. The overarching issue has to do with attention and emotion. Possibly linked to all high physiological arousal reactions like anger, lust, panic or anxiety and even insomnia. Hence, remedial measures must be undertaken to control them. More importantly, certain behavior and environment must be avoided in order not to accentuate unhealthy dose of these human responses. The goal is to reach the observed Gamma wave level meditation that heightens empathy and compassion. Which are counterweights to ‘evil’ tendances. Any way, we are in no position to second guess God on it and science agrees with God.
Let’s go through some of the definitions put forward by analysts for A-Salat. Restricting Al-Salat to a ‘Connection’ of late has become popular. Although linguistically accurate but substance wise is deficient. In that case clapping and whistling is a great way to make a connection. Why would God not accept that? Besides, calling Al-Salat a connection is like calling water wet, accurate but devoid of any real substance.
One school of thought have argued that Al-Salat is referred to as a system of governance or social justice. For me, if that was the case then in sixty six repetitions of the word in the Quran, God would have mentioned it at least once. It is also important to note that when God wants us to establish the system, the Deen, He says just that "establish the Deen" (أقيموا الدين) Quran 42:13.
Besides if we were to take Al-Salat as ‘the’ system then are we to establish three ‘the’ systems? Al-Fajr, Al-Isha and Al-Wusta, and how are they different? Right there is your first logical contradiction. This is compounded by the fact that Quran also refers to Al-Salat in the plural form, Al-Salawati Quran 2:238:3.
Coming back to the issue of ritual, In Quran 2:43 it says " bow with those who bow" a ‘ritual’ act. And in other verses the standing bowing (form can be different) and supplication is mentioned together in the same verses Quran 22:26 and 2:125, clearly pointing to a ‘ritual’ (clarity on this below). God also warns us against empty rituals Quran 2:177 hence an implied nonempty ritual can be deduced from it. In fact, God points out the distortion of the Salat and describe it in these terms “And not was their prayer at the House except whistling and clapping ......”. It is clear from this that this distortion was from some form of correct way of performing Al-Salat. No amount of imagination can distort a whole ‘System’ and reduce it to ‘whistling and clapping’. Besides, the verse clearly points to a particular location as opposed to a city or state. Which would have been the case if Salat was a system.
There are a few dissenting voices beside the system crowd. Let me first deal with one school that has split the Al-Salat to mean ‘following closely’ on one hand and introduce the notion of a congressional Salat or gathering to discuss matters of Deen. When the prefix ‘the’ is added onto ‘the following closely’ it becomes nonsensical. Furthermore, Quran 62:9-10 specifically deals with the Al-Salat performed in a congregational settings. Hence, that clearly shoots down that particular notion or at least the second part of the split. There is no basis for this splitting Al-Salat in the Quran.
Even if we were to entertain the notion, there are a number of difficulties inherent in this approach. Since Al-Salat is decreed upon all believers, forcing young mothers with small children to show up at least twice a day to discuss Deen betrays a male mind doing its thing. God informs us that He doesn't put undue burden on us. Performing Al-Salat three times in the comfort of one's home makes much more sense and is doable.
Young mothers, a sizable portion of any community, can manage that but leaving home twice and participating in any meaningful Deen discussion is a totally different proposition. A minimum one hour turn around for each Salat is being generous. To first instruct believers over 60 times to establish Al-Salat and then give 30 to 40 percent adults a pass is not only illogical but dilutes the importance of Al-Salat all together.
Now when we take into consideration people living in remote areas where the next house is several miles away, these regular sessions start to look like a nonstarter. Add to it adverse weather conditions and the idea of ‘sessions’ as far as I am concerned was dead on arrival.
Another logical difficulty in accepting the notion of a separate meeting/ gathering to discuss Deen is that as per Quran 62:9 after the prayer is concluded, we are then to disperse in the land to seek from God's bounty. The thing to note here is that the Al-Salat is supposed to conclude. That means it will have to be initiated with a new beginning each time. While it is logical to seek God's bounty after the congressional Al-Salat, which is stated to be in the daytime, but it is illogical to disperse in the land after the Isha Al-Salat and seek God's bounty. God is explicit in telling us that night is for rest.
Following as opposed to following closely above and/or commitment is another alternative to the traditional Al-Salat presented without a clear explanation except for a remote linguistic argument. Following or committing to what? Establishing The Deen is a separate endeavor, as mentioned above, that is where we are supposed to follow and commit to. And how do you "establish" ‘the’ following or ‘the’ commitment? Grammatically it doesn't make sense. Logically it clashes with the primary meaning of (أَقَامُوا) which has the connotation of standing still or setting something, which is the opposite of following or motion.
Furthermore, why doesn't following include giving zakat? Why is Al-Zakat mentioned and not simply Zakat all the time? Why is Al-Zakat mentioned with Al-Salat as something separate twenty-five times out of a total of twenty-nine? Purifying wealth by giving it away makes perfect sense and is an integral part of The Deen but purifying as an abstract notion alone is not from the Quran. In fact, God has gone ahead and used the word ‘spend’ (أنفق) multiple times with Al-Salat in instances where Al-Zakat is not mentioned. Quran 2:3, 8:3, 13:22, 14:31, 22:35, 35:29, 42:38. God goes ahead and use the same word in negation in another verse, Quran 9:54 to remove all doubt.
If we were to understand the standing bowing and supplication as a ‘ritual’, it does not contradict any of the verses where Al-Salat is mentioned. (Please see all instances of Al-Salat mentioned in the Quran below Note 3). But when a piece meal approach is taken then Salat, Hajj, fasting all can be made to mean different things based on how they appear in certain verses. The test is to reach conclusions without once introducing contradictions into all the instances where the notion and related words are used.
Whenever the word Salat is used without the ‘Al’, the context of those verses is self-explanatory, like Quran 9:84, 9:103, 33:56. But if we were to assume that Al-Salat could not mean ‘ritual’ then we are left with a lot of verses that have to be explained away in a manner that either border on contradiction or crosses into it. A Quranic impossibility.
Allow me to elaborate a bit more on the proposed system (Social system, Justice system, Socioeconomic system) aspect. How did the Prophet of God implement social order? Did he go around and repeatedly tell people that they should establish social order and social justice? Obviously not.
In fact, the people he was preaching to believed that they already have a social and justice system in place. Merely telling them that they should replace one social and justice system with another was not going to cut it. Besides, God in the Quran has detailed the various element of a just social order. By not focusing on these details and instead resorting to merely telling people to do something and that too in a high-level abstract manner is unlikely to bore results. If it was so easy, then unleashing a flock of trained parrots on them would be the most cost-effective way to bring about behavior change. God would never repeatedly waste words on such an unwise strategy. It is a testament to God’s wisdom that to establish The Deen (The actual social order) Quran 42:13 is mentioned just once in the entire Quran.
That brings us to the real issue of behavior change. Behavior changes and that too of a fundamental nature must start with individuals. It is easy to rile a crowd in a negative way but to establish and implement good needs behavior change on an individual level. This is important because in order to bring about change in a community we need influencers; we need role models. The commercial types have nailed this to the wall. They spend real and big money to get the services of influencers. In order to implement a new social order, we need individuals from whom everything good and proper literally drips. People flock to genuinely good people. Genuinely good people leading disciplined lives are in a best position to implement good change.
What is the best strategy to bring about changes amass but focus on an individual? The first element that must be identified and agreed upon is the Change Method. Mindful meditation as a change method is in itself a powerful tool for self-growth. And when mindful meditation is based on specific Divine instructions it becomes a force multiplier. Not only does meditation develop all the various faculties but it also establishes a regular communication with God.
The practice of meditation can be found in almost all cultures. Modern thinking had been suspicious of the practices and till recently altogether dismissed it as a pseudo mumbo-jumbo. The crazy part in all this was, and still lingers on, is that even when practitioners swear by it, the skeptics stick to their guns. Dozens of scientific studies have put the matter to rest. Not only does mindful meditation alter behavior but studies have shown it alters the physiology of the brain towards good. It was not surprising then that it was a matter of time before it was introduced into mainstream medicine.
Mindful meditation in all its forms is about doing something as opposed to talking about it. This is consistent with all successful behavior change techniques. Habit forming acts help change behavior and prolonged behavior change processes result in change in attitudes. Eventually leading to a desired character. Al-Salat is an ideal Change Method, one of the most fundamental elements in behavior change theory.
Instead of dishing the Al-Salat, when done in a mindful manner, first, ask the people who are engaged in it. It is a simple process, ask them if it helps them become closer to God and prevents them from immoralities. God in fact, warns us about empty ritual as already stated, God does not dismiss rituals as such. The message of the Quran is focused on individuals. We will be judged solely on what we did or did not do individually. God does not even force us to change a chaotic hopeless community, God actually makes it mandatory on those with means to extract themselves from such communities. To blame those engaged in self-improvement on all the ills of the world is a strange position.
When likeminded individuals decide on forming a community then God has given details of how individuals should interact among themselves. The implementation of a social just order falls on those who have already worked on themselves and already achieved a clear sense of right and wrong and have learnt to live a disciplined lifestyle. A just social order is not implemented by undisciplined individuals through vague instructions thrown at them. But individuals respond to precise instructions to be carried out at specific times in order to bring about positive changes towards self-improvement.
One of the objectives of Salat is Dhikr as mentioned above and one of the dangers of neglecting Dhikr is (ضَنْكًا), a position of difficulty, perplexity, distress, or need. Quran 20:124. Keeping in mind the forgetful nature of man, what better way to ensure engaging in Dhikr at least three time a day than establishing Mindful meditation in the form of Al-Salat. With the added physical elements of standing bowing and prostration ensure body and mind workout. Add to it the ritual washing in preparation of Al-Salat and you have all the necessary building blocks of a well-rounded development. And regularly asking God for help during Salat is a bonus.
It is a serious overreach to dismiss easily understood terms and try and twist them to mean something vague and far removed from their default meanings. Since God is privy to the future then why would God first reference the Arabic language and then insert terms along with the mention of Al-Salat that would make Al-Salat evolve to mean something completely different to the coming generations? This would neither be preserving the message nor make it easy to understand.
Instead of blaming mindless Al-Salat and altogether getting rid of it, we should promote mindful Al-Salat. To twist Jonathan Sacks’s words
“The cure for bad Al-Salat is good A-Salat, not no Al-Salat, just as the cure for bad science is good science, not the abandonment of science.”
Hence, when we take Quran 4:101 to 4:103 together, a logical slam dunk materializes. There are three aspects in these three verses. The first is that Al-Salat has a beginning for which a call is made. The second aspect is that Al-Salat has a conclusion. (The word used in Quran 4:103 for this is (قضيتم). Attempts have been made to twist this very clear term. But it is clear to any Arabic speaker that almost all connotations of this word point to coming to an end.) The third is that Al-Salat can be shortened. All in a course of a day or part of a single day. In addition, it shoots down some of the linguistics gymnastics that are initiated to try and prove that Al-Salat has no ritualistic aspects to it.
Those who have declared that standing, bowing and prostration doesn’t mean physical activities then after the Al-Salat is concluded, what are we to make of standing sitting and laying on one’s side? (The remembering aspect is repeated in Quran 3:191 in these exact terms). So, are we to engage in the remembrance of God first in a non-ritualistic manner and then conclude doing so but at the same time continue to remember God again in non-ritualistic manner.
Hence, standing doesn’t mean standing during A-Salat and apparently standing doesn’t mean standing after its conclusion. Let us keep in mind that during Al-Salat, Quran gives us a sequence of physical steps that is standing, bowing and prostration in the relevant verse. Then it gives us a slightly different sequence of physical states after its conclusion of standing, siting and lying on one’s side. The genius of the Quran is that whenever somebody wants to twist straightforward wording of God, Quran takes it to them till they are forced to see sense. It is no surprise the that for them to make their claim plausible they essentially have to rewrite the meaning of commonly understood everyday use words. Although, the etymology of these words has not changed at all to this day.
Then when you (have) finished the Al-Salat, then remember Allah standing and sitting and (lying) on your sides. But when you are secure then establish the Al-Salat. Indeed, the Salat is on the believers prescribed (at) fixed times. Quran 4:103
In any case, the mention of Circumambulation in Quran 2:125 along with standing, bowing, and prostration firmly points to physical acts. There is some discussion of the word for prostration being the adjective qualifying bowing but then there is Quran 3:43 where they are separated by an “and” after reversing the order of occurrence. In either case, it is still a physical act. Although there is no indication of stringing them together other than the order in which they are mentioned. But the way I see it that is consistent with God's mercy of not making it too rigid. This gives us the flexibility to do it in a manner that suits the needs of each one of us.
The notion that standing bowing prostration doesn't mean all those things because their use in some verses points to a different context is strange. If we were to reverse this logic and make those different contexts as the baseline, then standing should not mean standing anywhere in the Quran. Besides, how will ‘following closely’ or ‘social justice’ or ‘system’ resolve this objection?
At least in the case of submission of birds and seemingly innate objects Quran 24:41, please note that the term used is not Al-Salat. In any case we must keep in mind Quran 3:7. All verses with injunctions are not in need of seeking the help of Quran 3:7. But here is when the allegorical references within verses applies. God is giving us a sense of what is going on by the use of familiar terms like Salat, (note the verse did not use Al-Salat) and prostration which He has already taught us, and we know exactly what they mean. God also warns us that we should not take these context specific terms in instances like these and run with them. All the other above-mentioned proposals won’t even make sense with the application of Quran 3:7.
Besides, by that logic then glorifies shouldn’t mean glorifies because that is exactly what all creation of God does. Quran 61:1
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I have years of experience with GERD, have an official diagnosis and it is caused by my hypermobility. If you have hypermobility, please contact me for any help. I can confidently teach singers with hypermobility. https://www.wikihow.com/Know-if-You%27re-Double-Jointed https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21763-joint-hypermobility-syndrome
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• From an osteopath:

Massage the two bones on the back of your skull/bottom of your head/upper half of your neck
+
massage your ileocecal valve (google how to, try different things, see what works for you) https://youtu.be/e4skK4ygK0w
= if you did both right (separately), you'll feel instant relief and you'll feel some things in your esophagus as well (even from just the neck/head bones alone)
This fixes it for a short while.

• What to do for it to happen less and eventually combining both for a permanent fix, yet you've to keep doing these things (and ofc the previous ones):

Since everything in the body is VERY connected, you want to look at your posture and do exercises for up to 30 minutes every day - you will see improvements by the end of the week - you might start sleeping better and stop waking up multiple times during the night.
https://www.posturedirect.com/forward-head-posture-correction/
https://www.posturedirect.com/how-to-fix-rounded-shoulders/
https://www.posturedirect.com/how-to-fix-a-hunchback-posture/
https://www.posturedirect.com/fix-anterior-pelvic-tilt/
https://youtu.be/vZA31GMOtZE
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• Also look at how you swallow - do the sides of your jaw engage when swallowing? (they should be relaxed instead) and you might be swallowing air too - do NOT fill up your cheeks when swallowing liquids - take smaller sips instead. Make sure you've good tongue posture and the back of your tongue is touching the top of your mouth (mewing) - yes, mewing has helped me
  
• AND daily neck stretches
  

https://youtu.be/uZm2eC-TLFc
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• I had been doing these things here for years:

https://www.healthline.com/health/gerd/shortness-of-breath#_noHeaderPrefixedContent
Yet I've stopped thanks to doing the things above. I COULD NOT eat tomatoes or pizza, my stomach would hurt and I'd think I'm dying, I'd have to lay down for 2 hours with severe stomach pain. Now I can eat them NO PROBLEM. I get burps here and there while eating (rarely) and when that happens I massage the back of my head (those lower bones) and they stop completely.
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• My voice does sometimes randomly get some rasp in it/mucus on the folds and that's because the stomach irritates the nose and the nose drips back down on the folds (post-nasal drip). FOR THAT I cleanse my nose with a neti pot or a saline solution nasal spray (I recommend the bottle shape by NeilMed, NOT the blue pot for the neti-pot cleanse)

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• More useful links:

https://jamiekoufman.com/singers-how-to-save-your-voices/?_kx=BEVgPOJXCfARID4WUtb2aAGCeQfb7fX69WGjkaoVqmIoSHhZR_1fsvPobKr1NgP8.XryL7S

In fan-created works, Maedhros and Fingon are often depicted as a couple. Here I’ll argue why this is a—although not the only—possible interpretation of the text. I will begin by giving a short overview over their characters (1.). Then I will argue that characters in the Legendarium in general need not be straight, including Elves (2.), and that in particular, Maedhros and Fingon likely aren’t (3.). In (4.) I will discuss why they make most sense as a couple, both (a) in terms of character choices and actions and (b) in terms of parallels to Beren and Lúthien, followed by (c) a discussion of a potential Ancient Greek parallel. Of course, there are (5.) counter-arguments. However, I will (6.) conclude that despite these, reading Maedhros and Fingon as a romantic couple in the tragedy that is the Silmarillion is a valid interpretation of the text and fully in the tradition of the epics. This is a substantially reworked version of an essay I posted over a year ago here and here.
1. The Characters: Maedhros and Fingon

• Maedhros is the eldest son of Fëanor: diplomatic, intelligent, a general; tall, copper hair, beautiful; indomitable and dangerous—“Maidros tall/the eldest, whose ardour yet more eager burnt/than his father’s flame, than Fëanor’s wrath” (HoME III, p. 135). He is doomed through his Oath and his actions as a Kinslayer and the Doom of Mandos.
• Fingon is the eldest son of Fingolfin: “Of all the children of Finwë [Fingon the valiant] is justly most renowned: for his valour was as a fire and yet as steadfast as the hills of stone; wise he was and skilled in voice and hand; troth and justice he loved and bore good will to all, both Elves and Men, hating Morgoth only; he sought not his own, neither power nor glory, and death was his reward.” (HoME V, p. 251) He is also doomed, because he too is a Kinslayer.

2. Characters in the Legendarium Need Not Be Straight
There are several characters in the Legendarium who are explicitly said never to have married for reasons that can very well be read as something other than heterosexuality. Several characters remain unmarried because they are not interested in marriage; instead, they much prefer to spend their entire lives in military environments populated entirely by men, for instance:

• The last king of Gondor before Aragorn: “Eärnur was a man like his father in valour, but not in wisdom. He was a man of strong body and hot mood; but he would take no wife, for his only pleasure was in fighting, or in the exercise of arms. His prowess was such that none in Gondor could stand against him in those weapons-sports in which he delighted, seeming rather a champion than a captain or king, and retaining his vigour and skill to a later age than was natural.” (LOTR, p. 1052) This really could be a description of Richard the Lionheart from Ivanhoe.
• Boromir: “Rather he was a man after the sort of King Eärnur of old, taking no wife and delighting chiefly in arms; fearless and strong, but caring little for lore, save the tales of old battles.” (LOTR, p. 1056)

Concerning Elves, we are told that “it is contrary to the nature of the Eldar to live unwedded” (HoME X, p. 255), and the Elves tended to marry young, just after reaching majority (HoME X, p. 210). However, not every Elf actually marries. LACE specifies: “Marriage, save for rare ill chances and strange fates, was the natural course of life for all the Eldar” (HoME X, p. 210), which would account of Aegnor, who loved a human woman, never marrying. (More specifically, some 10% in each later generation do not marry (NoME, p. 111).) I would argue that these strange fates—as LACE terms it, I wouldn’t call it that—can include Elves being gay.
3. Maedhros and Fingon Might Not Be
Fingon was born in Y.T. 1260 (NoME, p. 164) and Maedhros would very likely have been older. This means Fingon was some 2280 sun years old when he reached Beleriand (I’m going with the HoME version of calculating years and ages because I really have trouble with squaring the NoME version with the Annals, the Silmarillion and LOTR).
Turgon, Fingon’s younger brother, is married and has a daughter before the Noldor leave Valinor. Curufin, Fëanor’s fifth son, and Angrod, Finarfin’s second son, are married and have sons. Maglor and Caranthir, Fëanor’s second and fourth sons respectively, also seem to be married (HoME XII, p. 318).
Maedhros and Fingon are definitely the two most eligible bachelors among the Noldor. Quite apart from the political desirability for anyone to bind their family to Fëanor’s eldest son (and heir: the Noldor seem to follow primogeniture, as the Shibboleth speaks of Fëanor’s “position and rights as his eldest son”, HoME XII, p. 343), Maedhros is explicitly said to be beautiful: his mother-name Maitimo means the “well-shaped one”, and “he was of beautiful bodily form” (HoME XII, p. 353). Fingon is the first son and heir of Fingolfin, the only other person who seems to have been as important as Fëanor among the Noldor: “High princes were Fëanor and Fingolfin, the elder sons of Finwë, honoured by all in Aman” (The Silmarillion, p. 70). While we never get much of a description, Fingon is given a name beginning with the element fin for hair, and “In the case of Fingon it was suitable; he wore his long dark hair in great plaits braided with gold.” (HoME XII, p. 345) We know that Elves find “hair of exceptional loveliness” attractive (HoME XII, p. 340). So we have two attractive and politically highly desirable princes here.
Yet Fingon has “no wife or child” (HoME XII, p. 345), while “Maedros the eldest [son of Fëanor] appears to have been unwedded” (HoME XII, p. 318).
Would it really be so surprising if these two princes, quite certainly among the most eligible bachelors in Valinor for any parents looking for a political match for their daughters, over two millennia old by the time we meet them and with a lot of married much younger siblings and cousins, but still unmarried, might not be straight?
4. Why I See Them as a Couple
(a) The Plot
We don’t know anything about what Maedhros and Fingon were doing in Valinor, apart from the facts that they were friends, that Morgoth’s lies came between them, and that Maedhros went into exile in Formenos with Fëanor (and Finwë) after Fëanor had drawn a sword on Fingolfin.
In Beleriand, Maedhros runs a military from his icy fortress on the Hill of Himring, while his younger brothers run kingdoms as his vassals. Meanwhile, Fingon spends most of his time in Beleriand fighting Morgoth; the driving political force of the non-Fëanorian side of the Noldor seems to be Fingolfin.
I would argue that a lot of Fingon’s and Maedhros’s actions and reactions make a lot more sense if seen through the lens of love for each other and a partnership that was broken in Valinor by Morgoth’s lies but was rekindled after Thangorodrim.
(i) Fingon
Fingon’s stated reasons for wanting to go to Middle-earth—exploring Middle-earth and building a kingdom there—don’t make sense. Fingon never does anything even remotely connected with building his own kingdom from the moment he sets foot on Beleriand—and yet he’s the driving force behind Fingolfin leaving Aman. He jumps in at Alqualondë, (probably) thinking that the Noldor under Fëanor were attacked. Afterwards he keeps driving the Noldor forwards, even after the Doom of Mandos. He is one of the leaders across the Helcaraxë. Yet the first thing we are told he does upon reaching Beleriand is going after his father’s main political rival—who Fingon thinks abandoned him to the Helcaraxë. Maedhros has been a captive of Morgoth for thirty years, and even his brothers apparently never tried to rescue him. But Fingon decides to do it anyway and succeeds through sheer stubbornness with some very convenient divine help. He then proceeds to fight Morgoth’s armies and monsters for four hundred years. When Fingolfin gives Fingon’s fiefdom to the House of Hador, Fingon doesn’t have a problem with it. When Fingolfin dies, Fingon becomes High King and Maedhros immediately starts acting as the new High King, organising an alliance against Morgoth called the Union of Maedhros. Maedhros does all of the planning and even appoints the day of the Fifth Battle (HoME XI, p. 165). (See also here.)
However, Fingon is involved in all of this: “Fingon, ever the friend of Maedhros, took counsel with Himring” (The Silmarillion, p. 224). Fingon doesn’t seem to have the slightest problem with Maedhros apparently usurping him, exactly like he doesn’t have a problem with Fingolfin handing Dor-lómin to his human vassal.
I would argue that all of this makes sense if we assume that Fingon’s primary motivation is Maedhros. Maedhros has sworn the Oath, he will go to Beleriand, so Fingon has to follow. Fëanor’s army is fighting and it isn’t looking good for them, so Fingon has to jump in. Maybe he saw Maedhros in the fray. He follows Maedhros to Middle-earth. Once in Middle-earth, he follows Maedhros to literal hell on Earth and gets him out. And when he becomes High King, he and Maedhros seem to run the office with an arrangement where Fingon, the beloved hero, is the figurehead and Maedhros, who, unlike Fingon, is unlikely to be popular anywhere outside of East Beleriand due to his own and his brothers’ actions but is a politician born and bred, does the planning. But then, in a battle orchestrated by Maedhros, Fingon is brutally killed.
(ii) Maedhros
Maedhros confronts his obviously dangerous and mad father about returning for Fingon and is the only son of Fëanor to break through whatever hold Fëanor has on them at that point to stand aside at Losgar (note that Celegorm and Curufin don’t request that Aredhel be given passage and don’t refuse to burn the ships), even though “Morgoth’s lies came between” Fingon and Maedhros in the past (The Silmarillion, p. 97).
After being rescued by Fingon, Maedhros recovers from his decades of torment at Morgoth’s hands, returns to politics and keeps his brothers under control. Importantly, Maedhros renounces his claim to the crown and hands the kingship to Fingolfin, Fingon’s father. He also gives Fingolfin horses “in atonement of his losses” on the Helcaraxë (The Silmarillion, p. 135), which seems strange because it’s not like Fingolfin fought in the theft of the ships that he was later denied passage on by Fëanor—only Fingon would have had a moral “right” to be allowed on the ships. But maybe it’s of interest that the commander in Fingolfin’s army whose fighting style relies on horses is Fingon (“Then Fingon prince of Hithlum rode against [Glaurung] with archers on horseback, and hemmed him round with a ring of swift riders”, The Silmarillion, p. 132).
[Note: The question whether Maedhros had to “atone” for anything he did to Fingolfin is a thorny one. As Fëanor’s heir, Maedhros did inherit a responsibility for Fëanor’s actions (as well as the privileges coming with being the eldest son of the eldest son of Finwë). On the other hand, Maedhros himself had nothing to do with the burning of the ships by Fëanor; he openly opposed it. Moreover, Fingon, not Fingolfin, had fought in the battle where the Fëanorians won the ships, and Fingolfin had already begun to call himself “Finwë Nolofinwë” before Fëanor burned the ships: “Fingolfin had prefixed the name Finwë to Nolofinwë before the Exiles reached Middle-earth. This was in pursuance of his claim to be the chieftain of all the Ñoldor after the death of Finwë, and so enraged Fëanor that it was no doubt one of the reasons for his treachery in abandoning Fingolfin and stealing away with all the ships.” (HoME XII, p. 344, fn omitted) Neither Fëanor not Fingolfin was entirely blameless in this mess between them, but Fingon had nothing to do with this.]
When Fingolfin dies and Fingon becomes High King, Maedhros and Fingon seem to work perfectly in tandem. Maedhros orchestrates and plans the Fifth Battle—but the field is lost because of treachery in his own army. And then, Fingon is brutally killed in this battle which Maedhros had planned.
After the Nirnaeth Maedhros completely shatters. He retreats to a hill in Beleriand named Amon Ereb (The Silmarillion, p. 140), which reminded me of another character who retreats to a hill after a grave loss. After Aragorn’s death, a mourning Arwen lies down on a hill, Cerin Amroth, to die (LOTR, p. 1063).
But of course Maedhros doesn’t die yet. This story isn’t kind enough for that. Instead, he falls deeper and deeper into a cycle of blood-shedding: first Doriath, then the Havens of Sirion, and then the guards of Eonwë. And then Maedhros becomes the first and only Elf to successfully kill himself.
(iii) Some Descriptions Of Their Relationship
We know that Fingon and Maedhros used to be very close in Aman, but that they were estranged through lies—and that despite the estrangement and his belief that Maedhros callously abandoned him in Araman, Fingon can’t forget their bond: “Long before, in the bliss of Valinor, before Melkor was unchained, or lies came between them, Fingon had been close in friendship with Maedhros; and though he knew not yet that Maedhros had not forgotten him at the burning of the ships, the thought of their ancient friendship stung his heart.” (The Silmarillion, p. 124)
Yet they manage to overcome their estrangement: “Thus he rescued his friend of old from torment, and their love was renewed; and the hatred between the houses of Fingolfin and Fëanor was assuaged.” (HoME XI, p. 32)
In the LQ2, Tolkien inserted a new subheading for this story of Fingon’s rescue of Maedhros from Thangorodrim: “Of Fingon and Maedros” (HoME XI, p. 177). This is reminiscent of three other titles in the Silmarillion: “Of Aulë and Yavanna”, “Of Thingol and Melian”, “Of Beren and Lúthien”—three married couples.
Then there are the gifts. Gifts of jewellery are an important part of the marriage rituals of the Noldor; for instance, the bridegroom’s father would give a jewel to the bride (HoME X, p. 211).
In one version, Fëanor gives Maedhros the Elessar and Maedhros gives it to Fingon: “at the top of the page my father pencilled: ‘The Green Stone of Fëanor given by Maidros to Fingon.’ This can hardly be other than a reference to the Elessar that came in the end to Aragorn” (HoME XI, p. 176–177). The Elessar was later used as a (pre-)marriage gift by Galadriel, taking the role of Arwen’s mother, to Arwen’s future husband Aragorn (HoME X, p. 211). Meanwhile, in another origin story of the Elessar, Celebrimbor, who in this version is in love with Galadriel, creates the (second) Elessar for her and gives it to her as a gift (UT, p. 324–325). The Elessar seems to be associated with the concept of being given as a gift for reasons of romantic love.
Moreover, during the siege of Angband, Maedhros and Fingon would regularly send each other valuable gifts, such as the Dragon-helm forged by Telchar: “Maedhros afterwards sent it as a gift to Fingon, with whom he often exchanged tokens of friendship, remembering how Fingon had driven Glaurung back to Angband.” (UT, p. 98) This seems to have been such a regular occurrence that it wasn’t a problem for Fingon, who wasn’t strong enough to properly use the Dragon-helm, which had not been made for an Elf, to give it to the human Hador (see UT, p. 98).
Here it’s also important to discuss just how little material we have about Maedhros and Fingon. They don’t get any dialogue together apart from the rescue scene, and both appear far less often in the Silmarillion overall than Celegorm and Curufin, purely because they aren’t protagonists of one of the three Great Tales, but the protagonists of the frame narrative, the War of the Jewels. There’s also the fact that in-universe, the narrator of the Quenta Silmarillion is Pengolodh, a subject of Turgon who was born in Nevrast and spent most of his life in Gondolin (HoME XI, p. 396–397). Turgon, his king, notoriously hates the Sons of Fëanor because his wife Elenwë died on the Ice (HoME XII, p. 345). Turgon wouldn’t have liked any chatter concerning his brother’s close relationship with the chief son of Fëanor, obviously, as u/xi-feng points out. And yet, their affection shines through anyway, even though the narrator clearly hates the sons of Fëanor.
Here I think it’s also important to discuss the meaning of the word “friend”. Maedhros and Fingon are always referred to as friends, not as lovers, of course. But in the early 20^th century, language was different. “Friend” could be used by a man for his male lover. In Maurice, the title character says this to Alec—upon waking up after spending the night together: “‘Did you ever dream you’d a friend, Alec? Nothing else but just “my friend”, he trying to help you and you him. A friend’, he repeated, sentimental suddenly. ‘Someone to last your whole life and you his. I suppose such a thing can’t really happen outside sleep.’” (Maurice, ch. 38, p. 175) Or later, when Maurice is discussing the Code Napoleon with Mr Lasker Jones, Maurice asks, hopefully: “You mean that a Frenchman could share with a friend and yet not go to prison?” (“share” in this context means, to quote Mr Jones, “unite”) (Maurice, ch. 41, p. 188). As such, the use of the word “friend” does not mean that they can’t have been lovers.
(b) The Shared Motif With Beren and Lúthien
Apart from the titles (“Of Fingon and Maedros”, “Of Beren and Lúthien”), there’s a very impactful parallel between the stories of Maedhros and Fingon and of Beren and Lúthien: the motif of “rescue with singing”.
The motif of a rescuer singing a song to ascertain where a prisoner is being kept is inspired by the story of Richard the Lionheart, who’d gotten himself kidnapped in Europe on his return from a crusade, and his minstrel Blondel de Nesle, who “went from castle to castle, searching for the king who was held in an unknown location, and singing one of Richard’s favourite songs. When he came to where Richard was imprisoned, the king joined in, revealing his presence.” (Wayne & Scull, A Reader’s Companion, p. 603–604)
Tolkien uses the motif twice in the Silmarillion: for Lúthien’s rescue of Beren from Sauron, and for Fingon’s rescue of Maedhros from Morgoth (Wayne & Scull, A Reader’s Companion, p. 604). [And once in LOTR, for Sam’s rescue of Frodo from the Orcs of the Tower of Cirith Ungol—but my argument here is not about Frodo and Sam.]
I would argue that this element, which is central to the love story of Beren and Lúthien, who went against everyone she knew to search and find Beren against terrible odds, invites seeing the other story in the Silmarillion where exactly the same happens—and which in fact happens before the story of Beren and Lúthien—as a romance, even more so since Tolkien gave this element to Beren and Lúthien first and then, ten years later, to Maedhros and Fingon. In other words, this powerful element can double as a tertium comparationis.
(i) Beren and Lúthien
“In that hour Lúthien came, and standing upon the bridge that led to Sauron’s isle she sang a song that no walls of stone could hinder. Beren heard, and he thought that he dreamed; for the stars shone above him, and in the trees nightingales were singing. And in answer he sang a song of challenge that he had made in praise of the Seven Stars, the Sickle of the Valar that Varda hung above the North as a sign for the fall of Morgoth. Then all strength left him and he fell down into darkness.” (The Silmarillion, p. 204–205)
(ii) Maedhros and Fingon
“Therefore [Fingon] dared a deed which is justly renowned among the feats of the princes of the Noldor: alone, and without the counsel of any, he set forth in search of Maedhros; and aided by the very darkness that Morgoth had made he came unseen into the fastness of his foes. High spoon the shoulders of Thangorodrim he climbed, and looked in despair upon the desolation of the land; but no passage or crevice could he find though which he might come within Morgoth’s stronghold. Then in defiance of the Orcs, who cowered still in the dark vaults beneath the earth, he took his harp and sang a song of Valinor that the Noldor made of old, before strife was born among the sons of Finwë; and his voice rang in the mournful hollows that had never heard before aught save cries of fear and woe. Thus Fingon found what he sought. For suddenly above him far and faint his song was taken up, and a voice answering called to him. Maedhros it was that sang amid his torment.” (The Silmarillion, p. 124)
(iii) Parallels
There are several parallels between the stories of Beren and Lúthien and of Maedhros and Fingon. There is the parallel of the titles. There is the element of a rescuer going into incredible danger in lands controlled by a Dark Lord (Sauron’s fortress and Morgoth’s realm respectively). There is the element of the song sung by the rescuer and taken up by the captive. There is the element of some very helpful divine intervention through animal-shaped followers of the Valar: Huan, the hound that Oromë gave to Celegorm in Aman, who takes Lúthien to Beren’s dungeon and fights Sauron and his wolves (The Silmarillion, p. 202, 204–205), and Thorondor, the Eagle of Manwë who stays Fingon’s hand and takes him up to where Maedhros hangs (The Silmarillion, p. 124–125). (Tolkien considered Huan and Thorondor as beings of the same order, although what exactly, Maiar or animals “raised to a higher level”, see HoME X, p. 410–411, isn’t consistent throughout his writings.)
Since the tale of Beren and Lúthien is the love story of the Legendarium and it’s the couple that others are compared to and held up against—the references in the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen (LOTR, p. 1058–1059) are not subtle—I argue that reading Maedhros and Fingon, whose story contains the same very distinct elements, as a romantic couple too does not go against canon.
c) Ancient Greece and the Influence of the Classics
The Silmarillion, despite all the Germanic and other Northern influences and Catholic elements, reminds me of nothing so much as a Greek tragedy or epic. There is a Greek influence throughout the Legendarium, both in terms of plot and themes, especially in the War of the Jewels, and in terms of small linguistic elements. Lúthien before Mandos reads like a gender-swapped Orpheus and Eurydice before Hades with a somewhat better ending. Tolkien himself calls the tale of Beren and Lúthien “a kind of Orpheus-legend in reverse, but one of Pity not of Inexorability” (Letters, Letter 153, p. 193).
If Lúthien and Beren are Orpheus and Eurydice, based on Lúthien’s song moving Mandos to pity and making him return Beren (and her) to life, I posit that Maedhros and Fingon are Orestes and Pylades, who were considered lovers in Antiquity: see (Pseudo-)Lucian’s Amores, at [47]. This is not an exact parallel, of course, but when reading the Silmarillion, I was reminded of them, with elements from both Euripides’s Iphigenia in Tauris and Goethe’s Iphigenie auf Tauris:

• The princes who are cousins and faithful friends.
• The element of kinslaying, with the cursed lover bearing significantly more responsibility than the other lover, who is however also involved (Orestes kills his mother Clytemnestra; Pylades is either instrumental in Orestes’s killing of Clytemnestra (Aeschylus) or at least present during it (Euripides).
• Orestes is cursed due to kinslayings (in Euripides and Goethe). The curse of the house of Atreus (also known as the curse of Tantalus) affects his whole family. This curse is a prophecy by the gods that says that in every following generation of the family, there will be a kinslayer, and that every member of the family will be drawn into a cycle of death and destruction.
• Orestes demands of Pylades that he leave him to die and save himself (Euripides). Orestes wants to die because he thinks this is how he can escape from the Erinyes (or Furies), the personification of the curse he’s under.
• Orestes is saved from torment and “hell” by Pylades and Iphigenia (Goethe).
• The characters eventually escape with a lot of divine intervention by Athena (Euripides).

A drama of kinslayings and curses and torment and an eventual escape with the help of divine intervention—but it’s also a tragedy about two warriors who love each other. Because they did love each other, as lovers: Goethe has Orestes liken Pylades to a butterfly, and Pylades respond with “Da fing mein Leben an, als ich dich liebte”—“My life began when I loved you” (Goethe’s Iphigenie, Act II, Scene 1).
In fact, in the 19^th century, saying that two men were like Orestes and Pylades became a way of saying that they were gay (see Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, Vol. III (Marius), Book Fourth—The Friends of the A B C, ch. 1; moreover, Lord Byron uses “Orestes and Pylades” to describe his relationship with a male lover in his Letter 75—credit to u/Mastermaid).
Certainly, there are also many differences, but then there are also many differences between Orpheus and Eurydice and Beren and Lúthien, and yet, the inspiration is there. I would say that comparing Maedhros and Fingon to Orestes and Pylades is valid, and it’s certainly one element of why I read them as a couple.
5. Counter-arguments
Of course, there are many reasons not to read Maedhros and Fingon as a couple.
a) Elves and marriages between (half-)cousins
Maedhros and Fingon are half-cousins, and there’s a statement in the Silmarillion which could be read as a definitive statement on whether Elves would marry among first cousins: “The Eldar wedded not with kin so near, nor ever before had any desired to do so.” (The Silmarillion, p. 161) However, this is repeatedly contradicted in the text, including in LACE, which states that first cousins “might marry, but seldom did so, or desired to do so, unless one of the parents of each were far-sundered in kin” (HoME X, p. 234), and in one version, Galadriel and Celeborn are (full) first cousins (UT, p. 299) (see also here).
b) Fingon’s motivation was to heal the feud
You could also point to the statement in the Silmarillion that Fingon’s motivation was at least partly to avoid a civil war between the two hosts of the Noldor: “Then Fingon the valiant, son of Fingolfin, resolved to heal the feud that divided the Noldor, before their Enemy should be ready for war; for the earth trembled in the Northlands with the thunder of the forges of Melkor underground.” (The Silmarillion, p. 124) However, I would point to the sentence immediately following this one, which is: “Long before, in the bliss of Valinor, before Melkor was unchained, or lies came between them, Fingon had been close in friendship with Maedhros; and though he knew not yet that Maedhros had not forgotten him at the burning of the ships, the thought of their ancient friendship stung his heart.” (The Silmarillion, p. 124) Fingon certainly seems to have been more motivated by emotions than logic or politics in this scene. The politics side of the equation certainly goes out of the window when Fingon agrees to mercy-kill Maedhros, or when he prays to Manwë to help him kill Maedhros. Also, rescuing your father’s main political rival who everyone on your side thinks is as much of a traitor as Fëanor doesn’t seem like a great way to deflate tensions between two trigger-happy armies. This point also doesn’t take away from the parallels with Beren and Lúthien.
c) Fingon is Gil-galad’s father in the published Silmarillion
Christopher Tolkien says that he himself inserted the “son of Fingon” into the passage in Aldarion and Erendis in UT (HoME XII, p. 351) as well as in the Silmarillion (“in the published text […] Fingon is an editorial alteration of Felagund”, HoME XII, p. 349). He further says that Gil-galad son of Orodreth was JRR Tolkien’s “last word on the subject”, that it “would […] have been much better to have left Gil-galad’s parentage obscure” in the Silmarillion published by Christopher Tolkien, and that JRR Tolkien’s idea of Gil-galad son of Fingon was “ephemeral” (HoME, p. 351). Tolkien’s last words on the issue were that Fingon has “no wife or child” (HoME XII, p. 345). It’s also really important plot-wise that Fingon has no heir, and Fingon’s lieutenant Húrin, just before making an accurate prophecy concerning Eärendil, says to Turgon: “For you are the last of the House of Fingolfin, and in you lives the last hope of the Eldar.” (CoH, p. 58) (See also here.)
d) Maedhros and Fingon were melotorni and not romantic lovers
Carl Hostetter (u/cfhostetter) argues that Maedhros and Fingon would have been melotorni. The term melotorni comes from the following passage about love: “In this matter the Elven-tongues make distinctions. To speak of Quenya: Love, which Men might call “friendship” (but for the greater strength and warmth and permanency with which it was felt by the Quendi) was represented by √mel. This was primarily a motion or inclination of the fëa, and therefore could occur between persons of the same sex or different sexes. It included no sexual or procreative desire, though naturally in Incarnates the difference of sex altered the emotion, since “sex” is held by the Eldar to belong also to the fëa and not solely to the hröa, and is therefore not wholly included in procreation. Such persons were often called melotorni ‘love-brothers’ and meletheldi ‘love-sisters’.” (NoME, p. 20)
However, I don’t argue that given the textual evidence, Maedhros and Fingon can’t have been melotorni. I don’t argue that they can’t share philia (the friend bond), using C.S. Lewis’s terms for similar concepts from The Four Loves, and that eros (romantic love) is the only possible interpretation. I argue that the text points in the direction of a romantic relationship for reasons I have already mentioned: in particular, the surprising fact that both of them, the oldest of the third generation of the House of Finwë, were unmarried and never showed interest in marrying (unlike Finrod, for example); the gift of the Elessar, which has romantic connotations when Celebrimbor gives it to Galadriel and is in fact used as a marriage gift between Aragorn and Arwen; the parallels with Beren and Lúthien, the preeminent romantic relationship in the Legendarium; and the Greek influences.
By the way, again about the Elessar: it seems that everyone accepts that Celebrimbor is in love with Galadriel in that one version in UT, p. 324. And yet, all we know of what Celebrimbor feels for Galadriel is this: “But you know that I love you (though you turned to Celeborn of the Trees), and for that love I will do what I can, if haply by my art your grief can be lessened.” (UT, p. 324) The term used is “love”, not “in love with”. Still, no-one would doubt that this is romantic love, given the circumstances (that is, Celebrimbor mentioning Celeborn and giving Galadriel the Elessar). But love is also the term used for Maedhros and Fingon’s relationship (HoME XI, p. 32). So why, given the term and the circumstances (the Elessar and the parallel with Beren and Lúthien) can’t this be romantic—and in this case, requited—love too?
e) Elves don’t experience sexual desire without a concomitant desire to have children
Concerning marriage among the Elves, we are told that “The ‘desire’ for marriage and bodily union was represented by √yer; but this never in the uncorrupted occurred without ‘love’ √mel, nor without the desire for children.” (NoME, p. 20)
This seems quite definitive, doesn’t it? But it’s clear that this isn’t how things were in practice: note the term “in the uncorrupted”. By any interpretation, the Kinslayers of Alqualondë would not fall under “the uncorrupted”. This is confirmed by HoME X, p. 210: “Even when in after days, as the histories reveal, many of the Eldar in Middle-earth became corrupted, and their hearts darkened by shadow that lies upon Arda, seldom is any tale told of deeds of lust among them.”
And many, many expressions of innocuous free will among Elves are stated to be products of Arda Marred, the Shadow, corruption and the like. Indis loving Finwë while he was married to Míriel? “The Shadow” (HoME X, p. 247). Finwë accepting the severance of his marriage to Míriel through his second marriage to Indis? Accepting (and implicitly furthering) “the marring”, as Manwë tells Finwë: “For the severance cometh from the marring of Arda; and those who accept this permission accept the marring, whereas the bereaved who remain steadfast belong in spirit and will to Arda Unmarred.” (HoME X, p. 260). Míriel’s wish to remain unhoused? “The Shadow” (HoME X, p. 222). The Noldor leaving Aman, and the Sindar never getting there? “[T]he effort to preserve the Elves incorrupt there had proved a failure if they were to be left free: many had refused to come to the Blessed Realm, many had revolted and left it.” (HoME X, p. 401) For some of the Valar, even all unrequited love among Elves is part of Arda Marred/the Shadow (while for other Valar it’s part of free will) (HoME X, p. 211). That is, many, many natural and innocuous expressions of free will are expressions of “corruption”/Arda Marred/the Shadow.
In this context it’s also important to say that the term “corrupted” doesn’t necessarily mean evil in the Legendarium. It’s not always a moral statement, but can simply denote that something—or someone—is part of Arda Marred. Basically everything is part of Arda Marred, especially Elves and Men (see e.g. HoME X, p. 244, 254–255). And importantly, this “corruption” is necessary for the Third Theme, with Eru taking notes from the Discord of Melkor and weaving them into his own music, and saying, “And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.’” (The Silmarillion, p. 5–6) (See in general here.)
f) As a Catholic born in the 19^th century, Tolkien would never have countenanced a romantic relationship between two male characters
Tolkien greatly appreciated Mary Renault’s writings (Letters, Letter 294, p. 377, “I was recently deeply engaged in the books of Mary Renault; especially the two about Theseus, The King Must Die, and The Bull from the Sea. A few days ago I actually received a card of appreciation from her; perhaps the piece of ‘Fan-mail’ that gives me the most pleasure.”), nominated E.M. Forster for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 (see Dennis Wilson Wise, Mythlore), and was close with W.H. Auden (Letters, Letter 327, p. 411–412, “I regard him as one of my great friends”, credit to elethiomel on AO3). So I wouldn’t say that Tolkien being a Catholic is a major obstacle.
And it’s not like Tolkien had to personally agree with everything he wrote his characters, even his heroes and protagonists, as doing. Tolkien wrote Túrin marrying his sister and both Túrin and Nienor killing themselves, none of which is very Catholic either. The argument that Tolkien had to approve of homosexual relationships for Maedhros and Fingon to be in love is strange anyway—Maedhros in particular is a murderer many times over, and a suicide. But Maedhros loving Fingon romantically would be beyond the pale and impossible for a Catholic to write?
6. Conclusion
Maybe I’m too influenced by classical literature. In the Silmarillion, which I read as a Northern Iliad or Aeneid, maybe I expected to also find the element of the couple who are princes and warriors at war and who will die awful deaths in service of the tragedy. Maybe it’s because I knew of Achilles and Patroclus from Homer’s Iliad (who were seen as a couple even in English literature in the early modern period, see for instance Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II, Act I, or William Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, Act V, Scene 1), and of Nisus and Euryalus from Virgil’s Aeneid. So maybe I was subconsciously looking for two princely warriors who would stand in this literary tradition. But then Tolkien himself was greatly impacted by Ancient Greek and Latin literature: “I was brought up in the Classics, and first discovered the sensation of literary pleasure in Homer.” (Letters, Letter 142, p. 172) We can refer to the classics to interpret Tolkien’s works. And I would argue that the text lends itself to my interpretation. I hope that they’ll meet again in Mandos or afterwards, without the burden of the Oath and the Doom, and that they can be happy despite the tragedy that was the First Age.
Sources in the comments due to character limit. Highlights in bold in quotes are mine.

In the sentence I've copied in, what would you classify as the 2 main verbs? I've been stuck on an al kitaab exercise in shaami, I'm really rusty with levantine grammar and need some help identifying the main verbs so I can do the parts of the lesson I do understand! I'm told there's 2 in this passage, but the b-prefix situation has me confused. I'm generally frazzled from final projects, so I really appreciate the help 😭
إذا انعطف الزائر والسائح الى يمين سوق الحميدية" فستصادفه مجموعة من الأسواق الجميلة والتي لا تقل أهمية عن سوق الحميدية ومنها سوق مدحت باشا وهو الذي أنشأه والي دمشق مدحت باشا عام ١٨٧٨ ويسير بموازاة سوق الحميدية حيث تفصل بينهما أسواق "صغيرة.

Background

Within the last month or so I started up what I thought was going to be a blog tracking my progress through a third attempt at making a more traceable (read connected to sources) version of Modern Gallaecian. I got a couple posts in before deciding that maybe the thing I should start with is actually working through the exercise of recreating what a more full Old Gallaecian would've looked like since the actual quantity of inscriptions is so few. Blog remains private, but I've gotten to work on building out some of the bits bobs for this idea and have finally hit my first snag. AKA this post is me working through my thoughts.
For the orthography, it's meant to be pronounced as it appears. Macrons indicated long vowels and the letter is a gentle mystery for a sound sometimes written for intervocalic /d/, sometimes for intervocalic or pre-rhotic /s/ and for word final /d/ and /t/. I'd reckon it's probably [ð] or [z̻].

Celtic Numbers

If you search up counting in a Celtic language, the majority of materials you're going to stumble upon have nice little guides for numbers 1 - 10, then jump to 20 - 90 and offer 100 as the stopping point. While this is great for the comparison of cognates, it sort of masks complications. But lets at least start with 1 - 10.

Old Gallaecian	Gaulish	Irish	Welsh
oinos	oino	aon	un
duo, duē		dó	dau, dwy
trīs, tizres	tri, treis, tidres	trí	tri, tair
kuetares, kuetuzres	petru, petuar	ceathair	pedwar, pedair
kuenkue	pimpe	cúig	pump
sues	suex	sé	chwech
setam	sextan	seacht	saith
otū	oxtu	ocht	wyth
novam	*na	naoi	naw
dekam	decan	deich	deg

Cool. So that's a nice little table with cognates apparent and (for the most part) a pretty clear relationship between the additional forms of 'two', 'three' and 'four' (surprise, its a gender distinction). Now, let's get into some of our muddiness.

Numbers Over Ten

The teens in the Brythonic languages are relatively straightforward, with Welsh bringing the only real complication in that it's got both vigesimal and decimal ways of counting. The latter is a more recent development, so lets stick with the vigesimal since it's better mirrored in Cornish and Breton.
'Eleven' is a little strange but not too far out there. We see un ar ddeg in Welsh (one on ten) with an archaic undeg as well, and unnek in Cornish and Breton, all three of which come from a combination of 'one' with a suffix from 'ten'. All three languages share this latter pattern for 'twelve' with deuddeg, dewdhek and daouzek, respectively. For 'thirteen', Welsh shifts back to putting numbers onto ten with tri ar ddeg, where Cornish and Breton continue with tredhek and trizek. 'Fourteen' is the same with pedwar ar ddeg, peswardhek, and pevarzek. 'Fifteen' goes back to the single words with pymtheg, pymthek, and pemzek. 'Sixteen' gets curious in Welsh, with pymtheg being the new base onto which numbers are added, so we see un ar bymtheg, but Cornish and Breton continue on with hwetek and c'hwezek. Getting into the higher teens, Cornish remains straightforward, Breton adds in a curveball at 'eighteen' with two words: eitek, which is constructed like the others and triwec'h which is 'three six[es]', before going back to the standard for 'nineteen'. Welsh also hits a high point at 'eighteen' with tri ar bymtheg, but also ugain namyn dwy or 'twenty minus two', AND they also have deunaw or 'two nine[s]'.
Gaulish has an attested word petrudecameto, which is an ordinal form of 'fourteen'. We can see that they've basically got the same strategy as Cornish and Breton (and sometimes Welsh), so I think it's probably mostly safe to extrapolate this into the rest of their number system, with the added understanding surface forms might change similarly to the Brythonic languages.
Over in Irish, we get something superficially easier. We see the numbers one through ten followed by a word deag that comes from *dekam-kʷe 'and ten'. When counting, all numbers in Irish are preceded by a particle a so you'd say something like a cúig deag for 'fifteen'. Simple, easy, as long as you ignore the second counting system for people. However, that's secondary, so I'll be putting blinders on for it. Problem is, you also need to consider how these are used with nouns.

Counting Nouns

When used with nouns, that straightforward Irish system gets a little wilder and not just because of consonant mutation. The very first thing to address is that the word aon means 'one', but when it precedes a noun it actually means 'any'. To clear this up, it needs to appear with the definite article, a possessive word or the noun needs to be followed by amháin 'only'. Then, once we get up into the teens, we have to start sticking the noun between the two numbers so we'll see things like aon mhéadar déag 'eleven meters', but literally 'one meter and ten'. Note also that most nouns appearing with numbers are in the singular, unless they're measures.
In Welsh, the same is true save for that the noun occurring with a number is always in the singular. So you'll get chwe ci (with the end of chwech lopped off) instead of chwe cwn.
In Celtiberian, we can find an example written as ...entara tiriś matuś... where the number is in the middle, the first word is a preposition and the last is a noun. I've seen the argument that the noun is a accusative plural of an o-stem noun (PC -ons > HC -ūs), but I'm not convinced. If we look at the corresponding preposition in Irish, idir, we see that it's used with nominative nouns in the singular and dative nouns in the plural, which could mean this is a u-stem singular noun, which would echo the use of a singular noun with a number as we've seen in the other languages.

Final Result

I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that there might've been multiple counting systems for different things or in different contexts, but I also think it's probably safe to assume that through continued use and contact that the default might've leaned towards commonality with Gaulish. However, there's also contact with Vasconic folks to consider. If we look at Basque, things are straight forward til we hit zazpi 'seven', which might be a reduced form of 'five with two'. It mellows out for 'eight' and then comes back with bederatzi 'nine', which is assumed to contain an element meaning 'one' (perhaps 'one from ten / whole'?). Then we get 'eleven', which is hamaika, that contains the word 'ten', hamar, and an unknown additional element. The next in the teens all smush together the element hama for ten together with the rest of the numbers. After twenty (hogei) we get a construction reminiscent of the Irish teens series, where there's a first word hogeita comprised of 'twenty' and the word eta 'and'. The thirties are hogeita plus the teens. Then 'forty' is berrogei from 'twice twenty'. Etc. Etc.
Vigesimal system aside, I think it gives us even more room to play with the assignment of counting systems and validates the use of certain elements, including the dekam-kue strategy with the lower numbers. So let's see where we're left for the compound forms.

English	Old Gallaecian
eleven	*oinozekam
twelve	duizekam
thirteen	trizekam
fourteen	kuetruzekam
fifteen	kuenkuezekam
sixteen	*suetekam
seventeen	setandekam
eighteen	otuzekam
nineteen	nauzekam
twenty	vikantī

I've thrown asterisks next to the numbers I'm not super sure about. For the first, I'm not sure what the original prefixed part might've been, since it looks like the short form was attached in the living languages. The second is sort of up in the air because of the cluster of /xsP/, which might resolve as /sP/ or as /xP/.
Anyways, thanks for reading!

Not a passionate defense, but I’m forced to revive someone this round and the only other option is Harebrayne. Not that the latter is significantly worse, I just had nothing to add to Quirky Defendant #20, even though he stood up for himself and was a bit of a foil to Ryunosuke and Drebber. Regardless of if and how much better Yujin is portrayed, he is a rather unique narrative device in the Ace Attorney series that’s far more intriguing to write about and harder to pin down.
​
Watson observes the trial of Watson’s murder
He is introduced right at the start of the game; except he is not. He is an enigma, it's already hinted that he is a motion maker behind the scenes and it takes until the second game to give us the full context of his relationship with Dr. Wilson. As far as an opening move for the overarching mystery, he and the first case overall do this stellar. There are signs and implications that this ominous professor has an agenda, but we can’t grasp it. He appears to be a force of good, but it’s hard to narrow it down. I considered the possibility of him being one of the main antagonists, one who is already manipulating the three students in his favor. And it wasn’t even entirely off, considering how underhanded his involvement is. He manipulates the protagonist openly to take the role of the defense attorney and seems to know far more about the victim than he lets on. As a side note, being the father of the assistant was also a flag for me. Could’ve been harder for Susato and Co. to take him down, assuming he turned out to be evil.
If we consider the mystery in the broader context of the entire chronicles, then we are dealing with the overarching mystery of the first victim being the possible former assistant to the famous Detective Sherloch Holmes. Throughout the game, Sholme's indifference toward details of his former partner and Iris's constant remembering about her missing father keep us on our toes. It’s just such a unique mystery to deceive the reader about something that isn’t relevant in-game but plays with our knowledge of Holmes and Watson and crime stories as a whole. That the “real” Watson was in front of us all along, and that he supported us in the first case to find out about the “fake” Watson makes the reveal near the end of the game satisfying. The hints were already there, Yujin was a friend of the victim, he is a professor of medicine, has connections to the government, and turns out to have visited Great Britain. Susato knows the title of one of Sholme's adventures. Bit by bit the clues add up and considering how the plot in retrospection had Sholmes and Yujin already fighting Strongharts and Jigoku's assassination plan, I can only praise the introduction, the spread-out hints, and the concealment of Yujin's role.
I particularly like his two character designs. In his Japanese robe, he appears to be deeply rooted in tradition and his home, he is unlikely to be a modern traveler, frequenting big cities. Just adding the hat erases the white hair, only the black ones remain visible, rejuvenating him in an extremely simple and effective manner. The fancy suit does the rest to change his appearance and how we perceive him entirely. I didn’t even recognize him on the poster.
Aside from being mentioned in the fifth case, he reappears in the tutorial case of the second game.
​
I didn’t mention that I despise TGA 2-1?
Now, I’m the only one who is vocal about my disdain for this case. I highlighted it as my least favorite case in the chronicles and was the only ranker to do so. And I happened to rank characters that were involved in this case: Auchi, Soseki, Jigoku. I still hesitate to fully formulate my rage since the chances that I write about the case's most crucial characters (Susato and/or Menimemo) are still up. So once again, I restrain it on Yujin's bits:
- His presence and commentary undermine Susato’s independence and resolution to stand in court by herself. As part of the first case syndrome, she is dumbed down in her competency and the assistant is way too much in charge to correct and dictate the MC's floundering case. It’s supposed to highlight how formidable Susato has become and how she has emancipated herself from her father, Kazuma, and Ryunosuke, but ultimately relies on him too often and makes too many blunders that he needs to comment. It gives the impression of a taking-your-parent-to-school-day.
- He is too involved in the case to be considered a neutral force and would be needed as a witness for the defendant, the victim, the other witnesses, and later on the poison. The original idea to have him be the defendant would be smoother. It would raise the odds and create a clearer personal stake for Susato. Nothing against Rei, but if she had been executed and Menimemo set loose, nothing in the story would have changed. However, if Yujin was sentenced and unable to appear later, it would have consequences for the later episodes, the main cast would’ve failed without him as a support and crucial witness.
- The way his character delivers exposition is patronizing and only tell, not show. The writer uses Yujin to handhold the player throughout the cases, spoon-feeding and commenting on every bit of information, regardless of how obvious it is. Rather than taking the hints for myself and drawing my own conclusions (which makes me feel smart and is the series' main appeal), I feel patronized and lose interest in solving mysteries when the games solve them for me anyway. The earlier AA games were more concise and left more to the reader's imagination. I have the impression the lack of constraints (earlier games had limited space) and less supervision (Takumi doesn’t have to prove himself any longer) allow Takumi to do as he pleases without anyone censoring or cutting his content. It’s a problem I observed in multiple series, whenever the author gets more and more freedom and less opposition due to their previous success.
- While I complimented the premise of the chronicle's overarching mystery, the execution is scrappy the longer it goes on. A big deal was made of Yujin's life-threatening illness, Susato’s forced leave, and the truth behind it. As it turned out, he merely sent her back to Japan because they found the bloodied collar that could implicate Klint if one decides to investigate. Since Ryunosuke and Susato couldn’t understand the meaning behind it, it was a pointless exercise and justification. All they had to do was ask Iris to let the ending of the case be a little more mysterious e.g., she writes that they found an unidentified stolen loom of great worth. No need to be specific since the treasure in the context of the case wasn’t important by itself, it was a MacGuffin. And since Gregson was there, Stronghart was alerted anyway, but as it turned out, it wasn’t a big deal, and even in the last case when the collar was shortly mentioned, it was merely circumstantial. Stronghart’s confession and the letter were deemed far more important (despite both of them being also circumstantial). The mystery stopped being intriguing and became bothersome, a riddle that is exclusively addressed by Yujin and Sholmes for the last minutes of every case, blue balling the player until the end without much reasoning.
​
Yujin and Sholmes finally do something and it is arguably too late
Anyway, Yujin returns in the last two episodes. More than ever, he fulfills his role by withholding information just to reveal it later on with plenty of exposition. At the very least it becomes more apparent that he and Sholmes were masterminding a good chunk of the events and they express some guilt and take some blame. The way they manipulate Ryunosuke, Yujin's daughter and his kind of adopted son gives them a few similarities in how Stronghart and Jigoku manipulated Kazuma.
Of course, Sholmes and Yujin are more for the greater good, genuinely worrying for the cast and considering that giving them the truth unprepared would be overbearing. They wanted them to find in on their own with them drawing their own conclusions. It’s mightily shady and done half-assed, the already mentioned delaying of information and poor communication overall were mostly there to justify the plot and pacing. Still, I appreciate the implications and idea that Sholmes and Yujin simply couldn’t solve the cases on their own and wanted the current generation to do it, even though I loathe the execution. A backflash with Sholmes and Mikotoba dealing with the Professor's case was planned and dropped. They very likely would have been stalled if not failed in one way or another and it would emphasize those bits and would make them less perfect. It would’ve been then much more believable that they didn’t act sooner or that they didn’t interfere at times at all.
Finally, I briefly address the criticism of Yujin's parental abandonment and Susato’s lack of a proper response. It’s another example of trying to give Yujin some shades to make him more compelling, but it isn’t elaborated on much. The premise was solid: He had the opportunity to visit and study under a world power which would and has greatly improved his, his family’s, and his country's knowledge. It was a long-term investment with great benefits for the common good of his developing country, even if he paid it at the cost of his own private life. It’s a very common issue regarding people with high-level jobs, e.g. politicians, managers, etc. They are required to work day long, travel the world, and are absent from home, so a neglected private life is part of the course. A combination of sacrifice and ill luck was attributed to it: His wife’s untimely death removed the parent responsible for the supportive role and he had to decide between the sake of his child or his country. Still, as horrible parental abandonment can impact a child, the decision greatly benefited her later on: Due to the reputation, status, and connections her father built up in his absence, she was granted access to education and the option to choose whatever career path she wanted to. If he had stayed in Japan, he would’ve been a better father, but also far less able and knowledgeable to give his daughter the freedom she enjoys. Susato would’ve been raised as a traditional trained housewife. Instead, Susato used this to her advantage and made a career by using the opportunity only her father could grant her. She had the choice to either resent him for the rest of her life and feel miserable about being neglected, or she could choose to forgive him, make use of the benefits, and keep in mind that he did and does a lot of good, even if it neglects people like her and she doesn’t understand his motives all the time.
​
Conclusion
Rather than the typical quirky Ace Attorney character with agency and development over the case, Yujin seems more like a concept, a narrative device, and a stoic mentor figure standing outside and above the events. Those bits make him unique and they even work when he is contrasted with weirdos like Sholmes and Gorey, but I completely understand and share criticism on the way he was utilized. If not for the obligation to save one character this round, I would have kept him being cut. No love is lost if he is one of the first characters to be cut the next round.

I have two residential WAN connections coming into my opnsense box (a Protectli 4 port thing) running 24.1.3_1-amd64 (I've tried this over the last couple of releases, so I don't think any of this is a bug or whatever). Both ISPs provide IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity. Great so far.
The first ISP, Comcast, provides me v4 and v6 in the reasonable way: DHCP and DHCPv6. The second, CenturyLink, requires PPPoE for v4 and 6rd for v6. I've got all of those assigning an address to the opnsense box, that part's working.
On v4, I've got failover working with the directions found at https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/how-tos/multiwan.html: a monitored gateway for each connection, a gateway group, and policy-based routing to get traffic going out of either side. This works great, and because the faster ISP is flaky, it gets exercised pretty well.
On v6... I don't quite get it. I tried doing the same thing, but because there's no NAT happening in v6 land, the machines have a real public v6 address, and on failover that network isn't there anymore, so packets don't end up in the right place. From reading up, I _think_ what I want is NPTv6. However, the NPTv6 config page looks like it only tracks one interface. Reading https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/recipes/multiwan-ipv6.html (which is pfsense and not opnsense, I know, but I think the common roots here will matter) explicitly says this only works with static IPv6 ranges. I found https://github.com/opnsense/core/issues/5284 which makes me think it can work, but I'm not super sure how to apply what I'm reading there to my config. https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=33534.0 also says "NPT6 only works with static prefixes", but I know that's not an official answer.
Any thoughts? :)

I have a question for accomplished Network Engineers: How do you effectively retain the information you learn over the long term? Do you regularly practice lab exercises or revisit materials? Or does the knowledge tend to stick in your memory once acquired? Currently working as a Network Engineer with CCNP, and in trenches. For instance, a few years back, I dedicated extensive hours to mastering concepts such as routing, switching, Route-maps, prefix-lists, etc with labs and creating detail notes (notebooks, Mind-maps etc).
I have also successfully implemented these in various projects, receiving commendations for my work. However, with changes being relatively infrequent, the details tend to fade from memory over time. When faced with the need to recall specifics, I often find myself uncertain, relying on vague recollections. While I can refresh my understanding through reading and practical exercises, the demands of family life limit the time I can devote to this endeavor. Consequently, during impromptu design meetings, I sometimes struggle to recall details confidently. How can one contribute effectively in such situations without appearing unsure of their expertise? In summary, what strategies do you employ to maintain proficiency in networking concepts over the long haul?

FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800 u/BakeGullible9975 and u/Didnotseemecomein
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Time to get some more info’s about what’s going on outside earth, and a possible background for the person who shot Adam.
Previous First Next
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
A crisp morning breeze needled his skin, the icy tendrils causing goosebumps to break out over Adam's bare chest and shoulders. Overhead a layer of dismal grey clouds blocked the sky over an alien landscape.
He was so tired.
And he hurt.
All around him other bodies shifted in the cool morning air, and he would have sworn he could see their breath puffing out in great gouts of steam, though that might just have been his imagination.
He was so cold, what the hell was wrong with wearing a shirt, or at least some real pants!?
But no, apparently pants were reserved for those who earned them, everyone else was relegated to nothing better than short leather skirts, or underwear which he found mildly infuriating. Even some compression shorts would have been nice. Another cold breeze ran past him, and he crossed his arms over his chest, palms pressed flat over his freezing nipples in hopes that by warming them up they wouldn't just fall off.
Also, his toes were numb, courtesy of the sandals he was wearing.
Looking around him, he could see that the other men and women didn't appear to be nearly as cold as he was, in fact, they were probably being kept nice and warm by the sheer awesomeness of their big manly muscles or something.
Standing in a line with all of them he felt like the awkward nerd kid trying out for the football team. Each and every last one of them had washboard abs, or similar since genetics is more kind to some than to others.
And then there was him.
Chicken chest, noodle arm bastard that he was, with only the faint line of abs hanging out, waiting for the moment he flexed intentionally to pretend his abs were bigger than they actually were. He hunched his shoulders just a bit, feeling very very small in comparison.
"Hey, how are you doing? Looking good everyone, looking good... Hey... heeeeey."
Adam lifted his head just in time to watch Ramirez strut up like he owned the damn place, turning heads with the sheer gravity of his confidence.
He walked up to stand next to Adam,
"Fuck you, dude."
"What?"
"How can you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Strut up like you and I aren't literally the most pathetic people here."
Ramirez patted him on the shoulder,
"Confidence is key my friend. If you pretend to be awesome, soon you'll believe it and eventually it will be. Self-fulfilling prophecy and all of that. The mind is a powerful tool. Also, chicks dig confidence."
"What about men?"
"Them too, I don't discriminate."
He held his arms out wide,
"Everyone could do with a little bit of Ramirez in their life."
He looked at Adam pointedly,
"How about you?"
He flexed,
"Want some of this?”
Adam snorted, paused and then said,
"You know what, if I swung that way, sure."
Ramirez put his hand over his chest,
"That is probably the nicest thing you ever said to me. But the Ramirez is an open door and I open both ways."
"You're not a swinging door, you're a revolving door."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"I don't know man, it just sounded good. But if you were a door, you would also open from the bottom up, I just couldn't think of an object that opened on both the x, y and z axis."
He tapped his chin,
"Gotta love how my morning has mostly involved being compared to a door, besides I don't open to just anyone, I am age restricted, and no pets allowed."
Adam grimaced,
"Gross."
"No I am not gross, if I was pet friendly THAT would be gross."
Adam paused,
"How about... aliens?"
Ramirez shrugged,
"If it's sentient. I will try anything once. You know, can't knock it till you've tried it."
It was at this moment that Adam became acutely aware that they were the only ones talking. They may have been speaking rather quietly, but at some point, the other men and women had stopped speaking. He paused and turned his head to look. Ramirez's voice faded off into the silence as the two of them turned to find a tall, heavily muscled woman standing before them. Her hair was tied back and her midriff was bare. She carried a spear in one hand and a shield in the other, and she waited very pointedly for the two of them to stop talking.
The look on her face could have coagulated his blood in his veins.
He shrunk back.
She walked up, looked at the two of them and her face pulled into an expression of disgust.
"Flabby."
She announced, smacking Ramirez in the thigh with her spear. He yelped and grabbed his leg,
"Soft."
The spear jabbed Adam in the belly driving the wind from his body,
"Pathetic."
She announced,
"No weakness, not on my island."
She jabbed at him again and, on instinct, Adam caught the haft of the spear.
He knew pretty immediately he had made a mistake as her eyes widened, and then he was slammed to the dirt head ringing from the metal of the shield on his skull.
He groaned and rubbed at his head.
"Thank you for volunteering."
Adam didn't know what he had just volunteered for, but it sounded like he wasn't going to like it very much.
As it turns out…
He was right.
She announced immediately that they were going to play a game.
He thought that seemed weird for the biggest badasses this side of fake Greece but ok. But it turned out her idea of a game was just a fun way of saying I am going to make you regret you ever lived.
They were the wolves, he was the rabbit. He had a two-minute head start, and then they would chase him. If he got caught, they were allowed to beat him up for a few minutes, and then he got another two minutes head start.
This lasted all morning.
About two or three hours. He couldn't tell by the end.
He had never been so exhausted in his life…
And he thought training with the Drev had been hard…
By the end he determined that they were about the same amount of hard, but the Drev didn't do nearly as much running. Towards the end his two-minute head start counted for almost nothing, and he was in a nearly continual state of getting the shit kicked out of him. Ramirez huffed and puffed at the back of the pack like the big bad wolf who had asthma.
And Adam threw up... Three times.
Three times!
By the time it was over he was covered in bruises and could barely walk. He thought, like during training, they would get a lunch break or something, but nope by the end of the day they were back to the sandy training field where it was either, wrestling, bare knuckle boxing, sparring, or some other ungodly torture.
There was no stopping.
Occasionally, they were allowed to kneel on the dirt and have something to eat. He wasn't sure what the Spartans had eaten back in the day, but this looked like meals clearly prepared by people who studied the science of getting jacked. Mostly protein and vegetables. Whatever drink they were using was some kind of water, but cut with something else he couldn't have been sure about, probably electrolytes.
Either way he had a hard time keeping it down.
Ramirez on the other hand was part of the passing out gang.
The two of them together barely made a functioning human. And by the end of the day, they crawled themselves back to what constituted as the barracks, which was just one long building with mats laid out on the floor. He was so tired that he slept like a log through the entire night until they were woken up to do it again the next day. He slept whenever he could, using anyone and anything as a pillow.
He became way more intimately familiar with Ramirez than he had ever wanted to be, but at that point he was too tired to give much of a shit. Even Ramirez was too tired to say anything sarcastic or inappropriate.
He honestly couldn't have said how long they were there, every day seemed to bleed into the next with only the changing of the weather and the night to let him know anything was going on at all.
The change in himself was so gradual that he barely even noticed until one day...
"SHIELD WALL!"
Adam and Ramirez raced forward interlocking their shields with the group of men and women before them. Others piled up behind bracing their spears over the shoulders of their comrades.
"Remember the wall is only as strong as its weakest member!"
Across from them a group of other trainees raced forward and slammed against their shield wall.
Adam and Ramirez shouted their exertion.
"Push back!"
They pulled back slightly and then drove forward shoving the other recruits back and to the ground tossing a few of them bodily three or four feet back.
"BRACE!"
They returned to their interlocking position, spears bristling outward like some sort of demonic porcupine.
They did that exercise once or twice more until ordered to break off, separating into individual units which charged the other groups' spears raised.
Adam batted another combatant's shield aside, slammed his shoulder into the man's chest, kicked another oncoming from the left, dodging out of the way as Ramirez covered him from the right with a sharp jab of his spear which caught another woman by the bottom of the shield and sent her deflecting to the right.
They clashed on the training field for a good half hour of continual battle, when another group of fresh, armored combatants charged them. He was tired, but as the enemy charged inward, he shook it off, roared a battle cry and charged them.
"Shields!"
He ordered without thinking, and a small group of remaining fighters bunched up with him and Ramirez. They managed their wall right before the new combatants hit,
"PUSH!"
And with a massive wave they threw them back, causing them to trip over one another. They broke their wall to take on the remaining group now fractured.
Adam went straight down the middle with Ramirez guarding his back chagrin at the armored combatants.
They were fresh, and Adam had the distinct impression that they were also not trainees.
Three of their number had already gone down under the onslaught, but he brought up his spear, knocked the shield to the side and tagged the other man with a glancing blow in the throat. He staggered away holding his neck. He spun left clobbering a woman with his shield. Ramirez cut past him stabbing straight down the middle and catching another one straight in the breastplate.
Two more of their number went down to the right.
There was no way they could make an effective shield wall now.
One more went down on their right.
Ramirez went to his knees shield held up before Adam, who used the shielding to strike past with his spear.
Ramirez ducked and Adam leaped over him crashing into another line of men shield on one side spear on the other.
The man before him went crashing to the dirt. He caught incoming strikes simultaneously and ducked under both, allowing Ramirez to take one while he dealt with the other. They were split off from each other in the confusion and he didn't see what happened as he was blindsided by another shield.
The power in that was awful, and he went flying back at least two feet, staggering until he skidded in the sand and regained himself. The armored man came charging at him with a roar, and they clashed shields again. The other man was clearly stronger, though not by much. Adam strained against him, feet digging into the dirt before suddenly slacking and rolling off to the side.
It nearly caught the other man off his guard, but he was good, and caught himself before he could fall forward.
Adam snarled as they exchanged a flurry of blows. All the other combatants had backed off so the two of them could fight. He advanced pushing the other man back, though it seemed impossible that he would be able to score a hit, the other man was just too fast. It went on for a while.
Adam got tagged in the right hip, but kept fighting, it was nothing compared to the beating he had received only yesterday. He cut in again slamming his shield against the other man to throw him off balance. It didn't do it as well as he had hoped, but for a split second he saw an opening. He would have to time it perfectly.
It was probably as much luck as it was skill that he managed to pass the spear through the little hole between the shield and man scoring a long cut across the man's left bicep. As soon as he did someone shouted the halt, and he froze in place.
The man before him lowered his shield and pulled off his helmet to reveal.
The King!
Adam stepped back in shock, quickly raising his spear in salute.
"Sir!"
The man smiled grimly, turning to look down at his bleeding arm. He turned back to look at Adam,
"Exhausted, training all day, and you still managed to cut me, I think that is a good sign."
The entire field was returning to rest position.
Ramirez climbed out from under his shield, dazed but somehow unscathed.
"How long have you been with us now, two months maybe more?”
"I can't remember."
"Two months of improvement I think, and today many of these men proved themselves worthy of being real soldiers..."
He turned to look at Adam,
"How about yourself, what do you think you deserve?"
Adam planted his spear against the ground,
"I'm still standing aren't I?”
James, the king of Sparta, laughed,
"Spoken like a true Spartan."
He turned to look at the others,
"I tend to agree with your assessment."
He waved a hand at those who are still standing, which included Ramirez, to Ramirez's evident surprise.
He looked down at himself then around, then grinned, nodding as if it was very obvious, he deserved to be there.
Adam smiled slightly.
He supposed he did.
And now that he realized it the two of them didn't look at all out of place in comparison to the other men and women there. He stood up straighter,
”Thank you, sir."
"Just right in time then. We set out for Argos tonight, one last test before I let you go."
The men and women raised their spears to their king.
[…]
It felt good, almost familiar, with a cloak fluttering at his back, a spear in hand and a helmet on his head. Granted it was almost nothing like the Drev, but it still felt good enough that he could forgive it. He was, in fact, very proud of his accomplishment as he now stood on the rocky outcrop next to the King of the Neospartans and an entourage of warriors, his sandals feet rested hard against stone and a bare wind tugged at the red plume on the top of his helmet, the same wind that caused the red cloak to flutter behind him in the breeze.
"What is in Argos?"
He wondered aloud, not entirely sure if he was allowed to ask, but curious enough to risk it.
James looked down at him from the pinnacle of rock,
"You know we dislike the New Athenians?"
Adam nodded.
"Yeah... About that, is it just tradition... or..."
James shook his head,
"No, nothing like that. We would be fine working with them. This is a real place with real people who have their own real beliefs. It isn't just some elaborate LARP. No, I was here when this colony started, and there was no difference between us and the New Athenians but after a while there rose some... disagreements."
Adam tilted his head,
"And what disagreements are those?"
"Moral disagreements. I am a patriot, admiral. I may be the king of Sparta, but I was also born on earth and am a true believer in the unity of the GA. Division Will only weaken us. But there are factions among the New Athenians who don't believe the same, which would be fine. I understand a group of people who disagree with the current political system. That should be allowed by all means, but the way they are going about it is just wrong."
"What do you mean?”
"They Are supplying information, weapons, and lodging to rebel forces who wish to destroy the GA and everything it stands for. They aren't just doing it through protests and reforms, but through violence, and hurting innocent people. They don't care how they win as long as they do, and that is something I cannot abide. I have on good authority that some of them are working with Kree operatives and anti-alliance forces to plan assassinations against key members of government."
Adam's eyes widened in shock,
"Really!? Then why haven't we heard about this."
James shook his head,
"Despite their radical ideals, they are a very small and mostly powerless group who don't pose much of a threat to GA members themselves. In fact, most of them are all bark and no bite. I figure that it's my job to keep my little slice of the galaxy clean, and I have managed it so far."
Adam shook his head in surprise...
"So, the Oracle..."
James nodded,
"She recognized you, and likely sent you here in hopes that we would kill you for being spies, which we have done before. She honestly should have killed you herself, but the New Athenians don't like to get their hands dirty, they like to keep their hands clean and let others do their dirty work."
He turned to look at Adam,
"Based on my studies, you are an important piece in an intergalactic chess game, holding the GA together with a volatile humanity."
He turned his head back to stare out at the horizon,
"Like I said, protests, petitions, and legislation is all well and good, but as soon as your course starts to hurt innocent people you lose my sympathy. You are no longer the heroic rebel, but you are a blight and you must be stamped out."
The fire in the man's golden eyes was enough to make Adam stand back a little.
"I see."
"I am glad you do, you need to see what goes on at the small scale. You need to know that there are people here fighting for you and your ideals. You built what the GA is today, whether on purpose or not, and that is something I intend to uphold."
He pointed downwards,
"And we are going to start here. By killing some human scum who try to bring the GA and all you stand for down."
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Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author
Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story written by starrfallknightrise and I'll just upload some of it here for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.

1. DO NOT rely on Pinyin much , Pinyin just a support for you. In China, we learn Pinyin after Hanzi. And we use it like a support tool for typing or searching in dictionary. Try to use another pronunciation of Hanzi to describe some Hanzi you do not know. For instance, You might know 人, but do not know 妊， then you can say/write the 妊'pronuncition is 人（妊音人）. This is a way how Chinese learn new Hanzi pronunciation before the Pinyin system has been invented.
2. To learn the parts and radicals of Hanzi like prefix and suffix. 90% of Hanzi can be guessed the meaning and some can be guessed the pronunciation by the parts and radicals, traditional Hanzi might be 99%. You should use dictionary that can search Hanzi by parts . That will be your exercise every time you searched.
3. To read Chinese articles and books which you are interested in, you will learn new Hanzi and review what you knew already. This the big advantage for adults learn a new language than kids. Consider Hanzi is very hard to remember and write . Not like learning English, listening is more than reading, You must pay more effort on reading than listening for learning Chinese.
4. To write a diary by Hanzi, You can choose handwriting or typing. Typing is for you familiar the phrase and structures of sentence, handwriting is for you review how to write or read single Hanzi
5. Learn phrase rather than single Hanzi during your reading. You should write down the sentence or phrase as your example when you meet the new Hanzi. There are a large number of Hanzi that are meaningless or difficult to understand when they are not formed into phrases.
6. If you meet something you cannot figure out at all, just skip it. Do not let them depress your interest and passion. Bad pronunciation of a single Hanzi does not affect the way you speak a sentence nor does it affect the way people understand the sentence you are speaking, people will understand you based on context. The more you speak and the more you has been understanded, the more motivation and good emotion you gain.

My English cannot pronounce very well and cannot make my grammar perfect due to my mother language, but It does not matter I can express a lot of my minds and opinions to my friends. Communicating with the people is my motivation to learn a new language.
Below is a on-line free Chinese primary course, you may go to have a look to see how Chinese Kids learn the Hanzi. https://basic.smartedu.cn/syncClassroom?defaultTag=e7bbb2de-0590-11ed-9c79-92fc3b3249d5%2Fe7bbd296-0590-11ed-9c79-92fc3b3249d5%2F6a749654-0772-11ed-ac74-092ab92074e6%2F44bee8bc-54e6-11ed-9c34-850ba61fa9f4%2Fff8080814371757b014390f883db0453

Not a passionate defense, but I’m forced to revive someone this round and the only other option is Harebrayne. Not that the latter is significantly worse, I just had nothing to add to Quirky Defendant #20, even though he stood up for himself and was a bit of a foil to Ryunosuke and Drebber. Regardless of if and how much better Yujin is portrayed, he is a rather unique narrative device in the Ace Attorney series that’s far more intriguing to write about and harder to pin down.
​
Watson observes the trial of Watson’s murder
He is introduced right at the start of the game; except he is not. He is an enigma, it's already hinted that he is a motion maker behind the scenes and it takes until the second game to give us the full context of his relationship with Dr. Wilson. As far as an opening move for the overarching mystery, he and the first case overall do this stellar. There are signs and implications that this ominous professor has an agenda, but we can’t grasp it. He appears to be a force of good, but it’s hard to narrow it down. I considered the possibility of him being one of the main antagonists, one who is already manipulating the three students in his favor. And it wasn’t even entirely off, considering how underhanded his involvement is. He manipulates the protagonist openly to take the role of the defense attorney and seems to know far more about the victim than he lets on. As a side note, being the father of the assistant was also a flag for me. Could’ve been harder for Susato and Co. to take him down, assuming he turned out to be evil.
If we consider the mystery in the broader context of the entire chronicles, then we are dealing with the overarching mystery of the first victim being the possible former assistant to the famous Detective Sherloch Holmes. Throughout the game, Sholme's indifference toward details of his former partner and Iris's constant remembering about her missing father keep us on our toes. It’s just such a unique mystery to deceive the reader about something that isn’t relevant in-game but plays with our knowledge of Holmes and Watson and crime stories as a whole. That the “real” Watson was in front of us all along, and that he supported us in the first case to find out about the “fake” Watson makes the reveal near the end of the game satisfying. The hints were already there, Yujin was a friend of the victim, he is a professor of medicine, has connections to the government, and turns out to have visited Great Britain. Susato knows the title of one of Sholme's adventures. Bit by bit the clues add up and considering how the plot in retrospection had Sholmes and Yujin already fighting Strongharts and Jigoku's assassination plan, I can only praise the introduction, the spread-out hints, and the concealment of Yujin's role.
I particularly like his two character designs. In his Japanese robe, he appears to be deeply rooted in tradition and his home, he is unlikely to be a modern traveler, frequenting big cities. Just adding the hat erases the white hair, only the black ones remain visible, rejuvenating him in an extremely simple and effective manner. The fancy suit does the rest to change his appearance and how we perceive him entirely. I didn’t even recognize him on the poster.
Aside from being mentioned in the fifth case, he reappears in the tutorial case of the second game.
​
I didn’t mention that I despise TGA 2-1?
Now, I’m the only one who is vocal about my disdain for this case. I highlighted it as my least favorite case in the chronicles and was the only ranker to do so. And I happened to rank characters that were involved in this case: Auchi, Soseki, Jigoku. I still hesitate to fully formulate my rage since the chances that I write about the case's most crucial characters (Susato and/or Menimemo) are still up. So once again, I restrain it on Yujin's bits:
- His presence and commentary undermine Susato’s independence and resolution to stand in court by herself. As part of the first case syndrome, she is dumbed down in her competency and the assistant is way too much in charge to correct and dictate the MC's floundering case. It’s supposed to highlight how formidable Susato has become and how she has emancipated herself from her father, Kazuma, and Ryunosuke, but ultimately relies on him too often and makes too many blunders that he needs to comment. It gives the impression of a taking-your-parent-to-school-day.
- He is too involved in the case to be considered a neutral force and would be needed as a witness for the defendant, the victim, the other witnesses, and later on the poison. The original idea to have him be the defendant would be smoother. It would raise the odds and create a clearer personal stake for Susato. Nothing against Rei, but if she had been executed and Menimemo set loose, nothing in the story would have changed. However, if Yujin was sentenced and unable to appear later, it would have consequences for the later episodes, the main cast would’ve failed without him as a support and crucial witness.
- The way his character delivers exposition is patronizing and only tell, not show. The writer uses Yujin to handhold the player throughout the cases, spoon-feeding and commenting on every bit of information, regardless of how obvious it is. Rather than taking the hints for myself and drawing my own conclusions (which makes me feel smart and is the series' main appeal), I feel patronized and lose interest in solving mysteries when the games solve them for me anyway. The earlier AA games were more concise and left more to the reader's imagination. I have the impression the lack of constraints (earlier games had limited space) and less supervision (Takumi doesn’t have to prove himself any longer) allow Takumi to do as he pleases without anyone censoring or cutting his content. It’s a problem I observed in multiple series, whenever the author gets more and more freedom and less opposition due to their previous success.
- While I complimented the premise of the chronicle's overarching mystery, the execution is scrappy the longer it goes on. A big deal was made of Yujin's life-threatening illness, Susato’s forced leave, and the truth behind it. As it turned out, he merely sent her back to Japan because they found the bloodied collar that could implicate Klint if one decides to investigate. Since Ryunosuke and Susato couldn’t understand the meaning behind it, it was a pointless exercise and justification. All they had to do was ask Iris to let the ending of the case be a little more mysterious e.g., she writes that they found an unidentified stolen loom of great worth. No need to be specific since the treasure in the context of the case wasn’t important by itself, it was a MacGuffin. And since Gregson was there, Stronghart was alerted anyway, but as it turned out, it wasn’t a big deal, and even in the last case when the collar was shortly mentioned, it was merely circumstantial. Stronghart’s confession and the letter were deemed far more important (despite both of them being also circumstantial). The mystery stopped being intriguing and became bothersome, a riddle that is exclusively addressed by Yujin and Sholmes for the last minutes of every case, blue balling the player until the end without much reasoning.
​
Yujin and Sholmes finally do something and it is arguably too late
Anyway, Yujin returns in the last two episodes. More than ever, he fulfills his role by withholding information just to reveal it later on with plenty of exposition. At the very least it becomes more apparent that he and Sholmes were masterminding a good chunk of the events and they express some guilt and take some blame. The way they manipulate Ryunosuke, Yujin's daughter and his kind of adopted son gives them a few similarities in how Stronghart and Jigoku manipulated Kazuma.
Of course, Sholmes and Yujin are more for the greater good, genuinely worrying for the cast and considering that giving them the truth unprepared would be overbearing. They wanted them to find in on their own with them drawing their own conclusions. It’s mightily shady and done half-assed, the already mentioned delaying of information and poor communication overall were mostly there to justify the plot and pacing. Still, I appreciate the implications and idea that Sholmes and Yujin simply couldn’t solve the cases on their own and wanted the current generation to do it, even though I loathe the execution. A backflash with Sholmes and Mikotoba dealing with the Professor's case was planned and dropped. They very likely would have been stalled if not failed in one way or another and it would emphasize those bits and would make them less perfect. It would’ve been then much more believable that they didn’t act sooner or that they didn’t interfere at times at all.
Finally, I briefly address the criticism of Yujin's parental abandonment and Susato’s lack of a proper response. It’s another example of trying to give Yujin some shades to make him more compelling, but it isn’t elaborated on much. The premise was solid: He had the opportunity to visit and study under a world power which would and has greatly improved his, his family’s, and his country's knowledge. It was a long-term investment with great benefits for the common good of his developing country, even if he paid it at the cost of his own private life. It’s a very common issue regarding people with high-level jobs, e.g. politicians, managers, etc. They are required to work day long, travel the world, and are absent from home, so a neglected private life is part of the course. A combination of sacrifice and ill luck was attributed to it: His wife’s untimely death removed the parent responsible for the supportive role and he had to decide between the sake of his child or his country. Still, as horrible parental abandonment can impact a child, the decision greatly benefited her later on: Due to the reputation, status, and connections her father built up in his absence, she was granted access to education and the option to choose whatever career path she wanted to. If he had stayed in Japan, he would’ve been a better father, but also far less able and knowledgeable to give his daughter the freedom she enjoys. Susato would’ve been raised as a traditional trained housewife. Instead, Susato used this to her advantage and made a career by using the opportunity only her father could grant her. She had the choice to either resent him for the rest of her life and feel miserable about being neglected, or she could choose to forgive him, make use of the benefits, and keep in mind that he did and does a lot of good, even if it neglects people like her and she doesn’t understand his motives all the time.
​
Conclusion
Rather than the typical quirky Ace Attorney character with agency and development over the case, Yujin seems more like a concept, a narrative device, and a stoic mentor figure standing outside and above the events. Those bits make him unique and they even work when he is contrasted with weirdos like Sholmes and Gorey, but I completely understand and share criticism on the way he was utilized. If not for the obligation to save one character this round, I would have kept him being cut. No love is lost if he is one of the first characters to be cut the next round.

Let me prefix this with: This is not about recommendations, whether they're based on sports science or bro science, but rather some personal experience.
​
I'm in my early 40s, training for the first full later this year in June. From past experience (basically looking through my Trainingpeaks calendar) it seems I was at my fittest at around 700 tss/week. Importantly most of that was coming from cycling at the time which as an exercise that doesn't grind away your ankles and knees is probably not insignificant. These last few weeks I've been below that and/or inching towards it again, some weeks are below target due to external factors and I try not get suckered into making up for that too aggressively and putting myself into a hole, but I think I have some room for a bit of slow and steady extra. Part of this is me thinking that I've been able to adapt to excess load in the past and eventually the body would learn to recover. I don't want to compromise my key sessions so I'm going to start with this very gradually and slowly but I'm committed to a bit more turbo time.
So my question is this: What are the experiences with people tacking on extra? Say you do your key workout in the morning and add on 45 minutes of light spinning in the evening a few times a week.
​
I get that everybody recovers differently and has different life circumstances so that may not be for everyone but I'm hoping to instigate some sort of discussion that may also help some to consider reprioritising some of their life. Maybe you were doing too much, dug yourself into a hole and can share that experience. Maybe you're like me and think that rather than sitting on the couch with your legs up, a bit of active recovery wouldn't hurt.

[EDIT] - Solved! It was freaking UPNP was turned on. Thank you, https://www.reddit.com/GoogleWiFi/comments/18nennw/comment/keajy74/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3.
​
Tldr; I can’t get port forwarding to work for external IPs through my Google Nest WiFi Pro. I'm trying to host dedicated server for a game called PalWorld.
I have a LAN. The LAN has five computers. Four of those computers are clients and the fifth is a server. The gateway for this LAN port forwards UDP port 8211 to the server. The clients can access this server through the gateway-assigned IP address AND the public IP address. When an external client attempts to access this server, the UDP packets never make it to the server.
I’ve ensured that the gateways port 8211/udp is being routed to the server’s statically assigned DHCP IP address. This is also apparent because the LAN clients are able to have packets successfully forwarded to the server by the gateway.
The server is Ubuntu and is not running udw. And even if it were, the computers on the LAN are able to access the server both internally and "externally." More on "externally" later with the NAT.
My ISP is Comcast. They’ve assured me that they are not blocking UDP packets on that port. They actually said that they don’t block any packets, but their website suggests that they do indeed block ports, but not port 8211.
I know I’m using the correct public IP address, as the LAN clients are able to access the server through the gateway using the public IP address. This is the address I get when I visit whatsmyip. It’s also the same public IP address I see when I look at my gateway’s configuration.
The modem I’m using is the ARRIS Group, Inc TG4482A. It is set to bridge mode.
UPNP is enabled on my Nest Wifi Pro gateway. NAT is enabled in “(standard) mode”.
All of the client computers are connected to a Netgear switch, which should be passthrough. The server is connected to a switch which is connected to the switch that the clients are connected to.
I don’t know how to check if the server is set up to handle external requests, but it should be getting all of the requests from the gateway, so I don’t think that should matter. Also, when using the public IP address on my LAN machines, the requests are routed properly.
Interestingly, when I switch one of the clients to be on a different network and try using the public IP, it does NOT work. So this kind of rules out as a problem the firewall settings and the port forwarding setup, as those work when the client is connected to the LAN. Those all definitely work.
I used Wireshark to confirm that the UDP packets were being sent to the public IP address, but the server wasn’t responding. I ran tcpdump to ensure that the packets were never even being received by the server. When I did this exercise when the client was connected to the LAN, the UDP packets were being exchanged between both the server and the client, as confirmed by Wireshark on the client and tcpdump on the server. Maybe hairpin NAT?
To rule out the double NAT scenario, I’ve confirmed that the WAN IP of my gateway is the same public IP as what I receive from whatsmyip.org.
My Gateway diagnostic provides this output for the WAN:
"wan": {
"captivePortal": false,
"ethernetLink": true,
"gatewayIpAddress": "[obfuscated].152.1",
"invalidCredentials": false,
"ipAddress": true,
"ipMethod": "dhcp",
"ipPrefixLength": 21,
"leaseDurationSeconds": 86400,
"localIpAddress": "[same as above obfuscated].157.240",
"nameServers": [ "75.75.75.75", "75.75.76.76" ],
"online": true,
"pppoeDetected": false,
"vlanScanAttemptCount": 0,
"vlanScanComplete": true
}
I don’t see why the gatewayIpAddress would be different from the public IP address I receive from whatsmyip.org. I don’t know how to interpret this.
I don’t think I can figure this out on my own. Please help!

EDIT: It turns out it is a design of the rustlings exercise to disable the lsp by default. So enabling that made everything work.
Below are my lsp-mode config and my company config. When I use lsp mode with pyright on python files I get completions almost immediately upon typing. There is virtually no delay that I can even notice but when I use lsp mode with rust-analyzer on a rust file, the completion never pops up no matter what I do. I have tried reinstalling rust-analyzer, restarting lsp-mode, restarting company mode and nothing changes. Anybody had experience with this before? I couldn't find anything online about this and even saw a few tutorials about how to setup rust with lsp mode and they all had completion with company.
I am using Emacs 29.1 on MacOS with an M2 chip.
Also, when I open a Rust file, in the minibuffer I see that lsp mode connected to rust analyzer.
Lsp Log

Command "semgrep lsp" is not present on the path. Command "/opt/homebrew/bin/rust-analyzer" is present on the path. Command "rls" is not present on the path. Command "semgrep lsp" is not present on the path. Command "/opt/homebrew/bin/rust-analyzer" is present on the path. Command "rls" is not present on the path. Found the following clients for /Users/name/Development/rustlings/exercises/primitive\_types/primitive\_types2.rs: (server-id rust-analyzer, priority 1) The following clients were selected based on priority: (server-id rust-analyzer, priority 1) Cancelling textDocument/codeAction(2689) in hook after-change-functions Cancelling textDocument/hover(2705) in hook after-change-functions Cancelling textDocument/hover(2704) in hook after-change-functions Cancelling textDocument/codeAction(2703) in hook after-change-functions Cancelling textDocument/codeLens(2713) in hook after-change-functions Cancelling textDocument/documentHighlight(2712) in hook after-change-functions Cancelling textDocument/codeAction(2711) in hook after-change-functions (use-package lsp-mode ;1 :hook ((lsp-mode . lsp-enable-which-key-integration)) :config (setq lsp-enable-file-watchers nil lsp-headerline-breadcrumb-enable t) (setq gc-cons-threshold 100000000) (setq read-process-output-max (\* 2048 2048)) ;; 2mb (setq lsp-log-io nil) ; if set to true can cause a performance hit (setq lsp-idle-delay 0.05) (setq lsp-lens-enable t)) (add-hook 'python-ts-mode-hook #'lsp) (add-hook 'rust-ts-mode-hook #'lsp) (require 'company) (add-hook 'after-init-hook 'global-company-mode) (setq company-format-margin-function #'company-vscode-light-icons-margin) (setq company-idle-delay 0) (setq company-minimum-prefix-length 1) (setq company-selection-wrap-around t) (setq company-require-match nil) (setq company-tooltip-align-annotations t) (setq company-tooltip-limit 6) (setq company-icon-margin 3) (setq company-show-numbers t) (add-hook 'after-init-hook 'company-statistics-mode) (company-quickhelp-mode) (setq company-quickhelp-delay 0.1) 

After realising I was going to have a Japanese family I decided to take the task on:
Learn Japanese.
The first step was purchasing a fresh paper notebook from the store.
I chose a hard cover one no bigger than my palm specifically appointed for the assignment and a few days later I set off.

Hiragana and Katakana

Before starting the overwhelming task I decided to enquire my mother-in-law what was the best move.
She pointed out:
“Hiragana and Katakana.
You must start right there, otherwise you won't get any further”
You actually need to master them both two before moving over.
This is because these alphabets contain the basics with which you'll construct the rest of the language.
Let's take a quick look:

• Hiragana: あ、か、さ、た、な、は、ま、や、ら、わ. Which translates to a, ka, sa, ta, na, ha, ma, ya, ra and wa. Next: い、き、し、ち、に、ひ、み、り. Which stands for: i, ki, shi, chi, ni, hi, mi and ri. There isn't yi nor wi. And then finish up with u, e and o adding all up to 46 Hiragana characters.
  
• Katakana: ア、カ、サ、タ、ナ、ハ、マ、ヤ、ラ、ワ. There you go pretty much the same: a, ka, sa, ta, na, ha, ma, ya, ra and wa. And next you move over onto the remaining vowels i, u, e and o same as before. Here you get another set of 46.
  

But what's the difference?
Well I'll explain you soon.

Every Day - 20 Minutes A Day

It took me a solid two months to crystallize the 92 characters in my mind.
20 minutes a day was all I dedicated though.
I'd open up my notebook and lay out in roman letters a set of designated syllables at the right end of the page column wise oriented and I'd begin repeating over and over each character by hand.
はははははははははははははははははははは = HA
ひひひひひひひひひひひひひひひひひひひひ = HI
ふふふふふふふふふふふふふふふふふふふふふ = HU
へへへへへへへへへへへへへへへへへへへへへへ = HE
ほほほほほほほほほほほほほほほほほほほほほ = HO
By the end of January 2023 I was able to write down the whole matrix: (10 x 5 - 4) x 2 without any kind of help.
It's not too hard as it may look but it just takes brute force, repeat over and over until it's all registered.

What Came Next?

With both alphabets mastered you'd intuitively go after Kanji wouldn't ya?
But first let's get back to the difference between Hiragana and Katakana.
Both alphabets are used on daily basis.
Kanji however takes over with nearly 60% of the written text.
Hiragana comes in spanning particles, adverbs, prefixes and suffixes, amongst others with a 30% use of the written content.
And last Katakana gets to use a shy 10% out of the total visible characters.
This is mostly because of the purpose of its existence.
Katakana focuses mainly on foreigner words like brands or names for example.
McDonalds is written as: マクドナルド which translates to: Makudonarudo
​
Some people even make a small profit by writing your name in Japanese by knowing Katakana.
This alphabet is also found in onomatopeyas which are widely used in television and manga.
Distribution may differ though. It will all depend on the context.
Kids oriented content are mostly written in Hiragana, considering that Kanji is taught progressively throughout primary and high school.

What Is Kanji and I Mean, Why?

If you are an enthusiastic like me, then you definitely want to know too how to read, write and interpret this symbolistic language.
Kanji then, comes naturally after mastering Hiragana and Katakana.
Your own mind will demand a proper understanding of what these are and the meaning beneath each symbol.
Kanjis are used to represent concepts.
You will find them at:

• Train Stations
• Supermarkets
• Fill Out Forms
• Text Messages
• Television
• Newspaper
• Instructions
• Social Media
• Food Menus

And even more places. They are everywhere.
You can't avoid them.
I'll borrow some from the N5 level (which is the “starter pack” for students) to explain:

• 日 - Sun
• 時 - Time
• 母 - Mother
• 水 - Water
• 車 - Car
• 一、二、三、四、 五... - Numbers (1 to 10)

But I'll also borrow some from the N1 level (which corresponds to fluent Japanese) to illustrate even better where this is all going:

• 隆- Prosperity
• 賃 - Fare
• 総- Whole
• 詠 - Poem
• 賢- Wisdom
• 罪 - Crime

All of these can be also broken down into their Hiragana form.
Sun as hi ひ, water as mizu みず, car as kurumaくるま and so on.
Kanjis may represent nouns, adjectives, and situations that are broadly used day to day.
They were introduced by the Chinese nearly 1500 years ago via the Korean peninsula and despite of having nearly the same meaning Japanese and China share different phonetics.
For example, both will interpret 山 as mountain however Japanese will read yama whereas Chinese shān.
I've studied Japanese with Chinese people and they have a huge advantage over us westerners.
They have already been taught Hanzi which is the chinese equivalent of the Japanese Kanji.
And not only that but also the fundamentals:

• Stroke Order: Which lines go first and from where until where.
• Radicals: Kanjis within Kanjis associating concepts to build new ones.

Where Do Kanjis End?

They actually never end.
Even Japanese people themselves are not over it just yet. There are many Kanjis they don't know the meaning of or may even have temporarily forgotten.
As a student you will find the art of studying Kanjis a never ending task.
Many days you will have to get back to your notes or even ChatGPT to keep up.
There are over 2000 of them to be understood so, unless you are living within a community, practicing, making mistakes and trying new methods every day, it will take some time.
But don't let this discourage you. Assimilate the process as an endless journey.

Kanjis Are Exploration

For every new place, time, or even an idea, there are new concepts or names that swing past the mind and eventually blend in.

• A new city
• A new park
• A new person
• A new dish from the food menu and so on.

As a student of the Japanese language new situations will always bring new Kanjis to the table.
Say you are riding a car on the highway while staring at the posted signals.
As soon as you spot Kyoto as 京都 it then allows you to think and decipher what means for instance:
京都河原町 (Kyoto-Kawaramachi)
京都出口１５km (Kyoto Exit in 15 km)
京都駅 (Kyoto Train Station)
The opportunity to encounter new environments that invite us into deeper Japanese (or even another language) is out there.
Another example, when by the different Izakayas in Osaka, I would scan all the place staring at the signage and labels. This always helped to get away with a few new Kanjis.
By the time I had internalized words such as: ビール (beer) then I just added on by asking:
- What's 黒い before biiru?
- That means black, black beer (黒いビール)
You get to expand your vocabulary if you pay attention to such details.
Leverage is out there so as soon as you start utilizing it improvement gets its place in the learning process.
​

Now?

I need a bloody-ass-high-level Japanese course.
Because I've been stagnated for nearly 2 months already.
Good thing is that I get to practice, but I can easily notice that I've been out of the in'n'its for a while already.
Duolingo sucks, I'm stuck at one beginner level and can't find anything challenging enough.
My wife is over. I just talk too much Japanese to her. She would answer in English at any time.
Sometimes by facetime talking with my mother-in-law I get to move fast and show my best. That’s one of the moments.
But still living now in Chile has deviated my attention into some other things-to-fix.
​

Crafting Your Own System For Self-Education

Information is out there, and in big quantities. It’ll take your will and focus to determine which one is worth paying attention to though.
Back in the day in order to access curated information services were necessary.
Today internet has democratized not only education but many other areas related to human development. Think about Youtube, Podcasts, E-books and online Guides such as blogs or Newsletters.
These allow you to learn whatever you want whenever you want.
So by leveraging what you already know in addition with what you want to know you are setting yourself in the first step of the self-education journey.
Knowing what to want to know is not a simple task. You can get easily overwhelmed by all the possibilities. The best way to avoid this menace is by taking action.
What I did for example was tying myself up to a book. Used it as guide. I followed each lesson but instead of rapidly moving forward on each of its sections I went further in by myself.
Opened up ChatGPT and requested another 20 different verbs for the same lesson. 20 different time conjugations for the same example and 20 different nouns in order to expand my vocabulary as much as possible.
This takes a lot of work because you need to tailor the information according to your best. You need to understand which exercises are worth doubling down and which ones are better to quickly ignore and pass by.
Good thing is at the end of the day you get to enjoy your own system, develop even better versions of it and pass it down to those who come behind.
Thanks.
​

I'll go first. Learning Russian as a native English speaker with a conversational level of Spanish background.
The cases were kind of hard. The alphabet was frankly pretty easy for me, just have to remember the special pronunciation rules that sometimes go into play. I eventually came around to the "all the genders must match" rule, which is similar but still more extensive than Spanish. Words of motion is just a matter of remembering that Russian breaks down it's vocabulary for things a little more than English, which often has more "contextual" words of motion.
The hardest part for me? The damned perfective/imperfective verbs. I get the idea, it makes sense, but remembering a word that is only slightly different and effectively means the same thing except for "single action" versus "continuous action" has thrown me. I get lost sometimes with words I've literally seen the imperfective form for before, but throw a prefix on it or adjust one of the letters and sometimes I forget and think "crap, a new word".
Vocabulary in general is a grueling exercise in most language learning, especially the less cognates you have (Spanish is much easier for this reason), but this just kicks it up for me. Put all the modifications together and it can get overwhelming pretty quickly. On their own the rules all make sense, but the mixing and match is just a pain when you're just trying to pick up new words. I also lack patience for studying vocab over and over and am trying to find a more efficient method (that's probably a separate post).