In late February 2024, Crowbar Collective launched an ARG in the run up to the release of their latest project. this post is a copy of the original document made for convenience sake.
all the investigations have been done inside of CC's official discord server
23/02: Website Changes and The Incoming Signal Video
Crowbar Collective’s website was updated, featuring a link to a 22-second video titled “Incoming Signal” that premiered on CC’s youtube channel. The glitching image from the website was shifted and aligned, showing a first-person camera view of an industrial setting with the subject aiming a pistol. The video features the crowbar logo with interposed visual glitches, followed by 4 coloured streaks of light that move to form a kite shape. In the background, sounds of gunfire and garbled shouts can be heard. The glitches hide sections of text that, when adjusted in image software, give the following results:
0:02 ITSNOTOPFOR
OPFOR is the shorthand for HL:Opposing Force, so this message was likely inserted to prevent speculation that the project involved a Valve IP ( this has since been affirmed by CC staff )
0:05 OTLRAHTCE
These jumbled letters are an anagram of CHARLOTTE. Charlotte is a name of French origin, translating to “ free man ”
0:06 MERX
Meaning currently unknown
0:15 4PLCOPLAY
May hint at the game being a 4-player co-op? The letters were quite hard to make out, but it was later confirmed using a video on Instagram that had a clearer image than YT
0:16 19151514
When separated into individual numbers ( 19 15 15 14 ) and converted to alphabet counterparts, this gives the word “ SOON ”
24/02: Trademark and Social Media Discoveries
Through publicly-available records it was discovered that CC filed a trademark on the name Blackshift in the US during 2022/23. Later that day, the CC Facebook account liked a post from an account with the name Blackshift and tag PlayRoguePoint. Searching on other social networks for accounts with similar tags yielded a Twitter account titled “▽” that was followed by multiple CC employees and an Instagram account
28/02: Possible Operative #2
The Twitter account updated its banner to a new image containing the text 6976652E636F6D2F. After being run through a hexadecimal converter, this translates to “ ive.com/ ”, which was recognised as the back end of the crowbar website domain address. After trial and error, the page https://www.crowbarcollective.com/charlotte was found, along with .com/soon
/charlotte contains a 1 second loop showing what appears to be a distorted image of a person in a suit. This traced to the unlisted Youtube video Possible Operative #2 with the description “identification inconclusive”. The two pieces of glitched text were found to be: 1975251581845264 and BLACK▽SHIFT. /soon contains a still image with the words “INCOMING SIGNAL”
05/03: “Neon Lights and Gunfire”
The CC Twitter account posted a new video, containing the original “incoming signal” video accompanied by a quote from a PC Gamer article on the subject. At the end, the message: 5451585F1F525G5E1G335C523B6835253F△ briefly flashes up on screen.
15/03: Locked Pastebin
The code from “Neon Lights and Gunfire” was deciphered into “ ebin.com/DkcJyF6N ”, which was recognised as the back end of a locked pastebin. After entering “ soon ” as the password, the following message was revealed:
"If you made it Here, you hAve alL the ingreDients. you have sOlved it Before, but They added aN extra layer of security. i Can't help you or they'll KnoW it waS me. i don't work For them anymore. -cp"
The uppercase letters in the message ( IHALDOBTNCKWSF ), when unscrambled, form the words "SHIFT”, “DOWN” and “BLACK”

Hello everyone!
Before I dive in, I want to share that in this post, I'll be discussing a project I'm currently working on. For those interested, I invite you to join my waiting list at www.nesti.io.
To provide some context, launching my first business was a challenging experience, particularly in the realm of lead generation. I attempted every strategy I could think of, from cold calling and LinkedIn spamming to engaging on Reddit. Unfortunately, none of these methods proved effective. However, everything changed when I implemented my first automated lead funnel. Surprisingly, I saw a significant success rate, with 6 out of every 100 cold outreach emails converting into a free trial user for my product. This was far more effective than any outcomes from the social media marketing product I was promoting.
This experience led me to a realization: why not turn this efficient process into a product itself? And that's exactly what I'm doing with Nesti.io. Nesti.io is a tool specifically designed to streamline your lead generation process by creating automated lead funnels through a suite of features that includes:

1. Email warm-up.
2. Customer profile creation, alongside automating prospecting and outbound emailing to leads, leveraging a database of 250 million B2B contacts.
3. The development of high-converting squeeze pages, offering a choice of three lead magnets: an ebook, a how-to guide, and a whitepaper.
4. The creation of a nurturing auto-responder email workflow to engage leads further down the funnel and convert them into customers.
5. Lead journey reviews for straightforward qualification.

Thought this would be of interest to everyone here. Please find how you can build an automated lead funnel before nesti.io below:
​

1. First, make sure you properly set up your email technical settings to avoid spam filters: SPF (A method for determining which email servers are authorized to send and receive emails for your organization). DKIM (Secure method that scrambles and unscrambles emails sent to and from your organization, ensuring they can't be changed while they're on their way). DMARC (A way to decide what to do with emails that fail certain security checks, and to create reports to help stop fake emails from pretending to be from your organisation). To achieve this, please click on the titles that provide brilliant resources for each above.
2. Make sure to warm up your emails. You can use tools like Instantly.ai or trulyinbox to achieve this at a much more effective and faster rate. The idea behind this is that the process gradually builds up your email's reputation with email providers by sending out a controlled number of emails over time. This helps to avoid being marked as spam and ensures your emails reach your recipients' inboxes. Using tools like Instantly.ai or TrulyInbox streamlines this process, making it more efficient and quicker to establish trust with email servers, thereby increasing the likelihood your messages are successfully delivered.
3. Be efficient. Before sending emails on your own, using tools like Apollo.io allows you to explore a vast database of 250 million individuals. It lets you set up an email sequence, enabling you to craft a series of emails that automatically send to a prospect if they don't engage with the first email. The concept is to send multiple touchpoints until the prospect engages and becomes a lead. Furthermore, you can automate this process with a feature called 'Plays,' which executes this entire process seamlessly.
4. Email copy should be concise and clear. The prospect is primarily interested in how your product or service benefits them, and nothing else. It's essential to focus on the value proposition and how it addresses their needs or solves their problems. Ensure your call-to-action (CTA) is straightforward and actionable. If you're seeking a meeting, for instance, include a Calendly link to make scheduling as easy as possible. Additionally, personalize your message to resonate with the recipient, demonstrating that you understand their unique challenges and how your offering can help. Use bullet points or brief paragraphs to highlight key benefits, making the email easier to scan. Remember, the goal is to engage the prospect with relevant information that prompts them to act, so keep your language simple, direct, and focused on the reader's interests and needs.
5. Ensure that you are emailing the right decision-maker. Tailoring your message to address the specific challenges and opportunities relevant to their role within the organisation can significantly increase the impact of your communication.
6. Stand out. Diversify your strategy by not just writing sales emails. Incorporating a variety of lead magnets, such as webinars, ebooks, free trials, and personalised consultations, to cater to the varied interests and informational needs of your target audience. This variety not only helps in attracting a broader audience but also in engaging prospects at different stages of the buyer's journey. For instance, rather than relying solely on standard sales emails, imagine providing a free guide accessible via a squeeze page, in exchange for a lead's email. This strategy ensures that those who opt-in are genuinely interested in resolving the issue your resource addresses. I found this approach significantly boosts engagement because it establishes a reciprocal relationship between you and the lead, where both parties benefit.
7. After capturing the lead, it's crucial to develop nurturing sequences that progressively offer more detailed information that is relevant to the first free resource, seamlessly guiding prospects through the lead funnel toward making a purchase. Therefore a strong call to action for the final email is incredibly important, using tools like Mailchimp wich provides a clear template that directs the lead to your product or service.

My product will help you do this entire process. If you're interested in signing up for our waiting list, please join my wait list here:
https://nesti.io/

Hey everyone,
I am not trying to be saleslike; I just want to share what I'm doing now and provide some help for how I improved my sales strategy.
I started with a social media marketing tool but faced the all-too-common struggle of drumming up new leads. It was tough, but I didn't give up. Eventually, I hit upon a strategy (at the bottom) that turned things around and got a good amount of free trial users. Unfortunately, I got low conversions.
This got me thinking though: why not pivot to make this process a product itself? So, that's exactly what I'm doing. Nesti.io, is a tool designed to automate your lead generation process. The idea here is that you can focus on perfecting your product while we help build your waitlist in the background. So that when you launch, you can have the best chances of converting leads into your first paying customers.
Thought this might resonate with some of you here, especially if you're in the trenches trying to get your project off the ground.
​
Here is some guidance from what I learned to get paying customers:
​

1. First, make sure you properly set up your email technical settings to avoid spam filters: SPF (A method for determining which email servers are authorized to send and receive emails for your organization). DKIM (Secure method that scrambles and unscrambles emails sent to and from your organization, ensuring they can't be changed while they're on their way). DMARC (A way to decide what to do with emails that fail certain security checks, and to create reports to help stop fake emails from pretending to be from your organisation). To achieve this, please click on the titles that provide brilliant resources for each above.
2. Make sure to warm up your emails. You can use tools like Instantly.ai or trulyinbox to achieve this at a much more effective and faster rate. The idea behind this is that the process gradually builds up your email's reputation with email providers by sending out a controlled number of emails over time. This helps to avoid being marked as spam and ensures your emails reach your recipients' inboxes. Using tools like Instantly.ai or TrulyInbox streamlines this process, making it more efficient and quicker to establish trust with email servers, thereby increasing the likelihood your messages are successfully delivered.
3. Be efficient. Before sending emails on your own, using tools like Apollo.io allows you to explore a vast database of 250 million individuals. It lets you set up an email sequence, enabling you to craft a series of emails that automatically send to a prospect if they don't engage with the first email. The concept is to send multiple touchpoints until the prospect engages and becomes a lead. Furthermore, you can automate this process with a feature called 'Plays,' which executes this entire process seamlessly.
4. Email copy should be concise and clear. The prospect is primarily interested in how your product or service benefits them, and nothing else. It's essential to focus on the value proposition and how it addresses their needs or solves their problems. Ensure your call-to-action (CTA) is straightforward and actionable. If you're seeking a meeting, for instance, include a Calendly link to make scheduling as easy as possible. Additionally, personalize your message to resonate with the recipient, demonstrating that you understand their unique challenges and how your offering can help. Use bullet points or brief paragraphs to highlight key benefits, making the email easier to scan. Remember, the goal is to engage the prospect with relevant information that prompts them to act, so keep your language simple, direct, and focused on the reader's interests and needs.
5. Ensure that you are emailing the right decision-maker. Tailoring your message to address the specific challenges and opportunities relevant to their role within the organisation can significantly increase the impact of your communication.
6. Stand out. Diversify your strategy by not just writing sales emails. Incorporating a variety of lead magnets, such as webinars, ebooks, free trials, and personalised consultations, to cater to the varied interests and informational needs of your target audience. This variety not only helps in attracting a broader audience but also in engaging prospects at different stages of the buyer's journey. For instance, rather than relying solely on standard sales emails, imagine providing a free guide accessible via a squeeze page, in exchange for a lead's email. This strategy ensures that those who opt-in are genuinely interested in resolving the issue your resource addresses. I found this approach significantly boosts engagement because it establishes a reciprocal relationship between you and the lead, where both parties benefit.
7. After capturing the lead, it's crucial to develop nurturing sequences that progressively offer more detailed information that is relevant to the first free resource, seamlessly guiding prospects through the lead funnel toward making a purchase. Therefore a strong call to action for the final email is incredibly important, using tools like Mailchimp wich provides a clear template that directs the lead to your product or service.

My product will help you do this entire process. If you're interested in signing up for our waiting list, please join my wait list here:
https://nesti.io/
​
Thanks

1. First, make sure you properly set up your email technical settings to avoid spam filters: SPF (A method for determining which email servers are authorized to send and receive emails for your organization). DKIM (Secure method that scrambles and unscrambles emails sent to and from your organization, ensuring they can't be changed while they're on their way). DMARC (A way to decide what to do with emails that fail certain security checks, and to create reports to help stop fake emails from pretending to be from your organisation). To achieve this, please click on the titles that provide brilliant resources for each above.
2. Make sure to warm up your emails. You can use tools like Instantly.ai or trulyinbox to achieve this at a much more effective and faster rate. The idea behind this is that the process gradually builds up your email's reputation with email providers by sending out a controlled number of emails over time. This helps to avoid being marked as spam and ensures your emails reach your recipients' inboxes. Using tools like Instantly.ai or TrulyInbox streamlines this process, making it more efficient and quicker to establish trust with email servers, thereby increasing the likelihood your messages are successfully delivered.
3. Be efficient. Before sending emails on your own, using tools like Apollo.io allows you to explore a vast database of 250 million individuals. It lets you set up an email sequence, enabling you to craft a series of emails that automatically send to a prospect if they don't engage with the first email. The concept is to send multiple touchpoints until the prospect engages and becomes a lead. Furthermore, you can automate this process with a feature called 'Plays,' which executes this entire process seamlessly.
4. Email copy should be concise and clear. The prospect is primarily interested in how your product or service benefits them, and nothing else. It's essential to focus on the value proposition and how it addresses their needs or solves their problems. Ensure your call-to-action (CTA) is straightforward and actionable. If you're seeking a meeting, for instance, include a Calendly link to make scheduling as easy as possible. Additionally, personalize your message to resonate with the recipient, demonstrating that you understand their unique challenges and how your offering can help. Use bullet points or brief paragraphs to highlight key benefits, making the email easier to scan. Remember, the goal is to engage the prospect with relevant information that prompts them to act, so keep your language simple, direct, and focused on the reader's interests and needs.
5. Ensure that you are emailing the right decision-maker. Tailoring your message to address the specific challenges and opportunities relevant to their role within the organisation can significantly increase the impact of your communication.
6. Stand out. Diversify your strategy by not just writing sales emails. Incorporating a variety of lead magnets, such as webinars, ebooks, free trials, and personalised consultations, to cater to the varied interests and informational needs of your target audience. This variety not only helps in attracting a broader audience but also in engaging prospects at different stages of the buyer's journey.For instance, rather than relying solely on standard sales emails, imagine providing a free guide accessible via a squeeze page, in exchange for a lead's email. This strategy ensures that those who opt in are genuinely interested in resolving the issue your resource addresses. I found this approach significantly boosts engagement because it establishes a reciprocal relationship between you and the lead, where both parties benefit.
7. After capturing the lead, it's crucial to develop nurturing sequences that progressively offer more detailed information that is relevant to the first free resource, seamlessly guiding prospects through the lead funnel toward making a purchase. Therefore a strong call to action for the final email is incredibly important, using tools like Mailchimp which provides a clear template that directs the lead to your product or service.

I created a free guide detailing the last two points here for anyone interested: https://whitepaper.nesti.io
​

This first Giveaway is open to members based in the US only. There will be another giveaway open to the rest of the globe that the US postal service delivers to at a later date.
The object is to solve an elementary puzzle. It will consist of three parts.: The question, the letter, and the entry phrase, word, or words. Example below:
​

Question	Letter In Answer	Answer	Letter Needed
Rock Oil state	5	Pennsylvania	S
Most popular Rutaceae Berry	1	Orange	O
“Get thee to a nunnery” Author	5	Shakespeare	E
Hot Pluggable Port	1	USB	U
13 of 26	13	M	M

​
Letters: S O E U M
Correct answer: MOUSE
The number after the question represents the letter you need from the answer that is part of a scrambled word, word, or phrase.
You must PM me with the answers to the questions and the final unscrambled phrase or word or words. Both parts must be correct. If they are correct, I will PM you your entry number.
Challenge will run until 3:00 PM EST Wednesday ( 2 -8-23) . The winner will be randomly chosen from correct entries at 6:00 PM EST Wednesday ( 2-8-23). I will do a daily update on the number of entries.
The winner must contact me with shipping info within 24 hrs; otherwise, a second drawing will occur.
The giveaway is for an IBM Model M in good working order. This guy here:https://imgur.com/a/icivigu

UPDATE: Submissions : 32, Correct : 02. Close: 6

Please Note : If you submit an incorrect entry, I will reply with which of your answers are wrong; I want as many of you to have an opportunity to grab this KB.
​
Challenge Question:
1 Find your components here. 1

1. Old place to find stuff. 1
   
2. Gameday Snack. (Two Words). 12
   
3. Get rid of it all. _ _ _ *.* 1
   
4. You can't mine it with a shovel. 4
   
5. QWERTY #7. 7
   
6. Drive scanner. 1
   
7. Fruity Program for media . 1
   
8. A place to look it up. 5
   
9. Off the Barbary coast or PC component maker. 4 * Error in original Post Correct # is 4 Not 5.
   

11 Buy it all here. 5

1. First of U.S. educational group. 1

​
You are looking for two words: Six letters each.
The unscrambled words are relevant to modelm subreddit.
Good Luck to all.

Hi all, I have just joined as I want some help from some investigative minds and was hoping some of you might oblige me, or have a good laugh either is fine.
Firstly I'm not so good with making pretty posts on Reddit so please excuse the text only post.
Admins, if I have done anything wrong I apologise.
​
I'll just get right to it I guess. I was reading about A certain Empire actor who got imprisoned for making a false police report as it was mentioned in another article I was reading, I had heard about the case but never knew what actually happened or why so I though I'd have a look through a couple of pieces written about it.
This has nothing to do with the actor in question, it's just how I found the other stuff. For those of you who don't know a celebrity had an attack staged and ended up getting arrested and prosecuted for it.
The two brothers that helped with the attack were extras on the set of Empire (the show) called :
ABIMBOLA and OLABINJO OSUNDAIRO (Known as Abel + Ola on the set of Empire) I was looking at the names and got curious due to the strange (to me) names. I split both of them in half (to see if they would jog some sort of recognition as the amount I have travelled I thought I knew a lot of names but these were unfamiliar to me) and decided to search the half names and ended up with this : -
ABIM---Association of Bakery Ingredient Makers - https://www.abim.org.uk/
=bola left over ?
INJO--- INJOHealth - https://www.injo.health/
olab left over – also "BOLA" via anagram
Also just realised that the brothers nick-names when put through a word unscrambler makes the word : abollae which is Latin for woollen cloaks with the word abolla being the singular version.
hmm their names were made up of two company names with B,O,L & A as left over letters from both names, coincidence ? The two brothers were ?????? in sheep's clothing ?
OSUNDAIRO – japanese for "pressed colour" Don't know what significance this had other than a big red button being pressed, a thought, a thought I couldn't get rid of. But then I remembered that there was no evidence that "pressed colour" meant anything like that.
I decided to get help from a crossword/scrabble helper website which gives you all words possible from a set of letters. So I put in Osundairo and saw the only 8 letter word possible was Dinosaur so Osundairo becomes Dinosaur.
Is this a secret plot to cull the population by adding Ancient Ebola bacteria found on a rotting corpse of a dinosaur to all bakery goods via a specific ingredient? How many people eat bread, cake, doughnuts (Donuts), pastries etc on a daily basis I wonder. Did "they" use the publicity of the attack as a way to tell their allies all over the world what they are working on next ? Why would they do it in public you ask ? Because they can, is the answer to that.
You should go to both websites and see what Injo Health is capable of technology wise (impressive stuff they could simulate an entire alien attack but that is for another time and post!) and then to Abim and look at their client list and see how much of the world they deliver to. This will be edited to include new Info (unless this post gets nuked)
Well if your still here and your sides haven't split from laughing too much I would love for people to help me and see how far we can go on circumstantial evidence. I'm trying to understand how these theories get started and how they get larger with additional information and possibilities.
​
Thanks for reading this. Oh and any FBI or whatever reading, you don't have to kill me to shut me up, money works just as well and is less messy.

I have decided to post this in a few places now that I have more or less manage to unscramble my thoughts and in hope to run into someone who knows more than me. This whole project I have been making has been in the works for sometime now, In the brass tacks of things I have essentially been working on a ps1 style quake like shooter set on a planet. That sounds relatively simple and I thought so at first, but there’s one thing that has been made drastically apparent; adding the ability to build and dig in any game regardless if it’s low poly or not is a feat for no mere man.
What I’ve tried so far: The idea at first was to use the tools I’ve already been using in unity to simple make a sphere and then use the building tools I already added to the game via pro builder and poly brush to allow me to manipulate the mesh or sphere in this case to create a planet that I had envisioned for the game. While most of the tutorials I found were sensible for display purposes in terms of random noise planet generations on ico sphere and quad spheres. It is clear that unlike making a castle or bunker, the ability to just add complexity to the mesh is severely limited by the multitude of issues: 1. Spheres in general tend not to have uniformed face sizes and sometimes even face shapes. 2. (This one’s hard to explain) let’s say with making a wall, I can easily extrude the face of the wall and have the texture conform to it procedurally. This is essentially how the map maker trench boom worked for quake and doom and later on half life. I had already coded a way to allow for even doors to be cut into the walls during runtime using Boolean values present with pro builder. (For those not aware probuilder is a set of tools that allow you to make meshes and manipulate them in unity as if this was blender of sorts.) doing the same to let’s say add a cave or flatten out a path way to a mountain is not so easily done on a low poly sphere. For making the terrain suddenly add geometry onto it is not as simple as adding a cube onto a wall is and then reshaping that cube. 3. The nature of low poly makes for adding complex geometry such as a mountain to the mesh of a sphere usually results in a few vertexes being stretched out significantly ontop of a mostly coherent and navigable hill system. I was aware of the limitations of low poly models to begin with but I will admit I didn’t realize how drastically the ability to add in vertexes and loop cuts change when dealing with something not uniformed in shape. With the ground of a base I can just simple subdivide it and add in a hatch, with the ground of the planet I can’t simple subdivide the floor cause the floor would have been stretched beyond a normalized shaped meaning the subdivided shape will be just as stretched and warped.
Solutions I have tried: 1. Addressing the inability to use pro builders tools to manipulate the mesh in a predictable manner, I had decided to see if I can make a new set of mesh tools, this seemed to not be possible as surpassing an already set and proven set of tools like the tools in pro builder and poly brush has clearly been a failed task before I had even started. 2. I decided to take a hiatus from the planet and just worked on more assets to my game and finishing my physics engine. I accidentally came across a game during my hiatus called astroneer and it didn’t click in my head until I saw something called building in true flat in astroneer that I realized this was a low poly building game of sorts. I immediately dropped my other projects to look into this and found out the ability for marching cubes to add geometry on the fly to achieve a certain shape. This ability would solve my inability to create coherent geometry on the fly with the tools available through pro builder. I also noticed the ability to create a sphere with uniformed shape easily through interpolation while still keeping the low poly look I desired. I know it sounds like I found the ultimate solution to my dilemma but after looking into it I still wouldn’t be able to use my pro builder tool set to manipulate this mesh as manipulating marching cubes required me to alter the exact point in which the cube displays the mesh. This means I can’t exactly free hand the mess but so much as alter the values of the mesh in regards to the cubes. I have tried using my toolset on marching cube meshes but to no avail have I achieve anything other than breaking the mesh all together.
Things I have learned so far: This is no longer a simple idea of making a digging and building game, but rather trying to figure out a way to simply and yet predictably manipulate a low poly mesh to create a planet for my player in a giant sandbox space game. Marching cubes was never originally suppose to be used for video games but rather a way to render 3D models for the purpose of surgery demonstrations. I have also learned that what I have entered in terms of scope is uncharted territory that many have only managed to maneuver through via compromise and shortcuts. There is hardly enough reference material or information out there to reliably do this correctly. I have decided to post this on Reddit is to get my thoughts on this rabbit hole down so that I may receive feedback and to give anyone else a heads up on what to expect if the random features of base building and mining and base building are to ever come together again.

I have decided to redo this post as my previous post felt significantly unstructured. I have more or less manage to unscramble my thoughts. This whole project I have been making has been in the works for sometime now, In the brass tacks of things I have essentially been working on a ps1 style quake like shooter set on a planet. That sounds relatively simple and I thought so at first, but i there’s one thing that has been made drastically apparent; adding the ability to build and dig in any game regardless if it’s low poly or not is a feat for no mere man.
What I’ve tried so far: The idea at first was to use the tools I’ve already been using in unity to simple make a sphere and then use the building tools I already added to the game via pro builder and poly brush to allow me to manipulate the mesh or sphere in this case to create a planet that I had envisioned for the game. While most of the tutorials I found were sensible for display purposes in terms of random noise planet generations on ico sphere and quad spheres. It is clear that unlike making a castle or bunker, the ability to just add complexity to the mesh is severely limited by the multitude of issues: 1. Spheres in general tend not to have uniformed face sizes and sometimes even face shapes. 2. (This one’s hard to explain) let’s say with making a wall, I can easily extrude the face of the wall and have the texture conform to it procedurally. This is essentially how the map maker trench boom worked for quake and doom and later on half life. I had already coded a way to allow for even doors to be cut into the walls during runtime using Boolean values present with pro builder. (For those not aware probuilder is a set of tools that allow you to make meshes and manipulate them in unity as if this was blender of sorts.) doing the same to let’s say add a cave or flatten out a path way to a mountain is not so easily done on a low poly sphere. For making the terrain suddenly add geometry onto it is not as simple as adding a cube onto a wall is and then reshaping that cube. 3. The nature of low poly makes for adding complex geometry such as a mountain to the mesh of a sphere usually results in a few vertexes being stretched out significantly ontop of a mostly coherent and navigable hill system. I was aware of the limitations of low poly models to begin with but I will admit I didn’t realize how drastically the ability to add in vertexes and loop cuts change when dealing with something not uniformed in shape. With the ground of a base I can just simple subdivide it and add in a hatch, with the ground of the planet I can’t simple subdivide the floor cause the floor would have been stretched beyond a normalized shaped meaning the subdivided shape will be just as stretched and warped.
Solutions I have tried: 1. Addressing the inability to use pro builders tools to manipulate the mesh in a predictable manner, I had decided to see if I can make a new set of mesh tools, this seemed to not be possible as surpassing an already set and proven set of tools like the tools in pro builder and poly brush has clearly been a failed task before I had even started. 2. I decided to take a hiatus from the planet and just worked on more assets to my game and finishing my physics engine. I accidentally came across a game during my hiatus called astroneer and it didn’t click in my head until I saw something called building in true flat in astroneer that I realized this was a low poly building game of sorts. I immediately dropped my other projects to look into this and found out the ability for marching cubes to add geometry on the fly to achieve a certain shape. This ability would solve my inability to create coherent geometry on the fly with the tools available through pro builder. I also noticed the ability to create a sphere with uniformed shape easily through interpolation while still keeping the low poly look I desired. I know it sounds like I found the ultimate solution to my dilemma but after looking into it I still wouldn’t be able to use my pro builder tool set to manipulate this mesh as manipulating marching cubes required me to alter the exact point in which the cube displays the mesh. This means I can’t exactly free hand the mess but so much as alter the values of the mesh in regards to the cubes. I have tried using my toolset on marching cube meshes but to no avail have I achieve anything other than breaking the mesh all together.
Things I have learned so far: This is no longer a simple idea of making a digging and building game, but rather trying to figure out a way to simply and yet predictably manipulate a low poly mesh to create a planet for my player in a giant sandbox space game. Marching cubes was never originally suppose to be used for video games but rather a way to render 3D models for the purpose of surgery demonstrations. I have also learned that what I have entered in terms of scope is uncharted territory that many have only managed to maneuver through via compromise and shortcuts. There is hardly enough reference material or information out there to reliably do this correctly. I have decided to post this on Reddit is to get my thoughts on this rabbit hole down so that I may receive feedback and to give anyone else a heads up on what to expect if the random features of base building and mining and base building are to ever come together again.

By: snifferpup04 Apr 2005, 12:42 AM EDTMsg. 188546 of 188817 Jump to msg.

A rather fine article from ParticalWave's~particleswavesDiamondologistmember is offlinePosts: 309Open letter to Dateline« Thread started on: Today at 9:34pm »--------------------------------------------------------------------------------I write on behalf of what has become a rather large and cohesive “community” of small investors actively following the unfolding saga of the criminally naked shorts. Additionally, I am one of perhaps 50,000 shareholders holding a position in a “poster stock” attendant to your investigative report on shorts dubbed “Stockgate”. We understand Dateline will finally air "Stockgate" on Sunday, April 10. There has been considerable speculation as to why this important story has remained stranded in purgatory for so long. We are delighted that “Stockgate” apparently survived the inquisition and is now free from constraints. I foresee a huge response to the program.In the event you feel the public interest best served by subsequent or follow-up “Stockgate” reports, there is a SEC hearing on April 25 that may be worth your attention. The protagonists and attending characters are archetypal, the stakes are huge and the convoluted (still unfolding) “plot” offers even the most jaded observer hours of real time entertainment while attempting to unscramble the mystery.We seem to have a fight of epic proportions on our hands. In one corner is the group represented by the SEC whose newly appointed chairman recently appeared before the Senate Banking Committee only to get chastised over naked shorting abuses by Utah’s Senator Bennett. Chairman Donaldson’s “performance” was an embarrassment for the SEC; he seemed merely the latest in a lame parade of SEC apologists beholden to big money and a corrupt system. In any event and as your research no doubt concludes, the SEC is itself internally conflicted (as it has been for years). Conceived as the (only) governmental regulatory agency ostensibly looking out for the small investor, the SEC instead “looks out” mainly for itself and it’s cohorts resulting in little guys taking it in the (dare I say) shorts over and over again. The latest outrage is Regulation SHO trotted out as the “answer” for the very problem the SEC cavalierly refuses to acknowledge. So far so bad even “token” enforcement is conspicuously absent and the “untouchable” hedge funds are still laughing all the way to offshore banks. Particularly reprehensible, the “grandfather” section in SHO largely legitimizes the literally trillions of still extant electronic counterfeit shares heretofore created out of thin air without even a slap on the wrist of anyone responsible. Firmly entrenched (and looming large in SEC’s corner) we find the other arrogant proponents of failures to deliver; the DTC (perhaps the main culprit), CEDE (the DTC’s incestuous child), certain market makers, conflicted brokers, certain institutional banks together with the above men...

[Truncated due to reddit comment length. See source link for original. Backed up on git as well.
4/4/2005 12:57:24 PM proeag Source

I went back through all of RC’s tweets. Here is a chronological timeline for your reading enjoyment. I’ve also included GME prices/trends coinciding with tweets.
Ryan Cohen posted his very first tweet, “Hello Twitter! #myfirstTweet” on July 2, 2019. From Nov. 30, 2019 to Nov. 21, 2020, RC tweeted 7 times. All tweets were links to articles about RC, Chewy or RC joining GameStop. In a Forbes article, Ryan said, “The type A in me is competitive, likes to win…It’s important to choose a handful of things and do them extremely well.” Most notably, Chewy grew from $2 million in 2011 to $3.5 billion in 2018. Even CNBC was friendly, at first, saying, “Ryan Cohen wants GameStop to become the Amazon of the video game industry.” Their tone would soon change.
On Dec. 9, 2020, RC posted his first reaction to news critical of himself and GameStop with a “cringe/surprised” emoji, and a link to CNBC’s article, “Why Jim Cramer Compares GameStop to Blockbuster.” Jim Cramer basically said to stay away from the stonk. On Dec. 17, according to SEC form 3, RC (through RC Ventures), bought 7,774,600 shares of GameStop, making him an insider and significant shareholdeowner of GameStop. RC closed 2020 out, on Dec. 31, with a Ben Franklin meme, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Jan. 6, 2021: Poop emoji with Blockbuster photo. RC to CNBC, Cramer: You think GameStop will be Blockbuster? That concept is poop. Or, hey SHF, you are about to meet same demise as Blockbuster. GME opened at $17.34, closed at $18.36, then proceeded to dwindle until on Jan. 13, GME closed at $31.40 and Jan. 14 rose to a high of $43.06, closing at $39.91.
Jan. 17: Peanut/nuts emoji and Jim Carrey (Dumb & Dumber) GIF, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance.” RC knew what was coming in the days following. By now, RC took control of the board. On Jan. 22, GME rose to a high of $76.76, closing at $65.01. As we all know, the week of Jan. 25 saw a gamma squeeze, but money makers and brokers stopped GME buy orders, only allowing sell orders. On Jan. 28, GME was as high as $483, only to close at $112.25 (as a direct result of SHF and equity system shenanigans).
Feb. 24: The McDonald’s ice cream cone photo tweet with frog emoji. We all know McDonald’s ice cream machine is too often broken, and so is the U.S. stock market! After a low of $38.50 on Feb. 19, GME jumped a bit on the day of this tweet, closing at $91.71, which was also the high for that day. Feb. 25, GME opened at $169.56, rose to $184.68 and closed at $108.73. What followed was a mostly steady uptrend.
March 4: Green sick face emoji and a photo of the bankrupt pets.com puppet and “pets.com” written in the background. Pets.com had received $82.5 million in funding but were unable to show a profit. By October 2002, the dot com crash cemented pets.com’s fate. Amazon owned 50% and got out when they could, probably benefitting from pets.com going bankrupt. The most scathing issue to come out of Pets.com’s demise was Merrill Lynch's analysts kept a "buy" rating, as the bank was collecting millions in investment banking fees, regardless of the company's condition. Analysts continued to say GME was worth $15, yet propped up companies with worse fundamentals and financials. RC has said in interviews that pets.com was a great concept that fell victim to Wall Street. On March 8, GME closed at $194.50 from opening at $154.89. March 9: GME closed at $246.90. March 10: GME rose to $348.50 and closed at $265.
March 11: GIF of Jeff Daniels (Dumb & Dumber) exploding on the toilet. The shorts shorted en force to keep forcing GME price down, which it did. On March 17, RC tweeted an homage to his dad. March 25: GIF of “Ted” the bear taking a huge hit off a bong, coughing. Since GME was in a sideways decline, being heavily shorted, no SEC enforcement in sight, then the best thing to do at that time was to just chill. Here is a great interview of an “ape” on this date: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/25/investing/GameStop-amc-meme-stocks/index.html
April 8: “No Filter” RC’s head superimposed on a throne, having a cocktail. GameStop announced RC will become its chairman. GME still trading downward and sideways. On April 12, GME hit a low of $135, closing at $141.09. April 13: RC tweeted photo with customers in a GameStop store. GME closes at $140.99. On April 14, GME closed at $166.53. April 16: Fist bump emoji, a unifying message indeed as GME continues to be shorted and trade sideways. April 20: GIF of “Ted” appearing to be, ahem, touching himself. Turns around and he’s mixing a martini. Another unifying post…chill out have a drink, or, not everything is what it appears. GME traded sideways. April 24: American Flag at half-mast photo. Some speculated it symbolized the former board being left behind for the new transformation team, as proxy voting had just began. A democratic sign nonetheless.
April 25: South Park train GIF “No No Noooo!” In this episode, “Faith Hilling”, the world of internet memes is spinning out of control. The Ryan character who won’t move when the train is coming says, “Use the approved poses if you want to be a memer.” Other “meme” stocks were becoming popular. Don’t follow the trend? On Mon. April 26, GME opened at $150.98 and closed at $168.93 (a jump). April 27 GME rose to $188 while closing at $177.77.
April 28: Retweet of Kelly Durkin’s Support Associate jobs link on LinkedIn. Accompanied by two ice cream emojis and heart emoji. The ice cream emojis: another reference to McDonald’s broken ice cream machines, resulting in poor customer service. These new positions would ensure customers come first. April 29: Mr. Hanky the Christmas poo. In this South Park episode, Mr. Hanky says, “You’ve forgotten what is ‘right’ about Christmas, only what is wrong. Stop Worrying.” Come on gang, don’t fight. GME began to downtrend.
May 12: Photo of RC with customers in GameStop store. On May 11, GME closed at $146.92, getting as low as $136.50. There was a slight jump on May 13, closing at $164.50. May 17: Photo of RC’s grandma, who says “I love you Ryan, but I don’t like you.” Interesting fact…on this day all of the late SEC filing forms were due, including international (20F, 10Q, 13F, Form 5). GME closed at $180.60, but experienced a sideways decline thereafter. On May 19, RC tweeted a single heart emoji.
May 25: American Dad clip of Steve floating to pool surface with text, “Don’t try this at home.” In this episode, the oftentimes evil goldfish, Klaus, says, “Things can change. Oh yes. Change is in the air. Change is a coming.” Steve character is near drowning, playing water polo. Steve collects himself, then says, “I’m not just gonna float here.” Klaus: “What are you going to do about it python?” Steve: “I’m gonna use all my strength to be the pool shark I know I can be.” Steve musters strength but ends up drowning, sinking to bottom. Klaus swims inside Steve’s shorts, which now looks like an erection, and floats him to the top of the pool, saving Steve. Steve: “It took me under water to see things clearly.” The swim coach says, “That’s a great lyric. I’ve got my confidence back. I quit (his coach job).” On May 24, late 10Q forms were due for non-accelerated filers. GME jumped to close at $209.43.
May 28: Tombstone, “Ryan Cohen RIP Dumbass”. Apes pointed out that if you unscramble the letters, it becomes “MOASS Near Buy Dip RN (right now) CH (Canucklehead)” Possibly that, but more importantly, financial “tombstones” refer to a big corporate level announcement. Back in the 19th century, these were printed in simple, centered text in newspapers alongside death notices. GME continued an upward trend since jump on May 25.
May 31: Memorial Day in U.S. and RC posts an American flag. On June 1, International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) began its three-month calculation period regarding swaps, OTC derivatives. Just something to think about. We are so focused on the DTCC, but the ISDA, as well, is important. GME still rising. June 3: Skull emoji and image of crane tearing down Sears sign down. Sears declared chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018. SHF gonna go bankrupt? GME continued to go on a tear, closing at $302.56 on June 9. The annual meeting happened and GameStop began sale of shares. Price began its downward trend, which may have occurred, regardless. June 20: An homage to RC’s dad. Photo of dad kneeling down on a Hollywood star for “Godzilla”. Who doesn’t like RC’s dad and Godzilla? GME on sideways/downtrend.
June 23: GIF of South Park’s Terrence and Philip farting. The boys learn their idols, T & P, have split over credit issues. They try to get them back together in time for an upcoming festival, or else face death at the hands of a trio of unhinged environmental activists. The episode parodies Earth Day, portraying it as a “brainwashing festival”. GME continues downtrend. June 30: Brick emoji with text “Brick by Brick”. Brick by brick GameStop is building. Could also assume SHF’s logo, the castle Lego bricks, could be coming down brick by brick. July 4: Tweet of Flag emoji and “Power to the Players” (Independence day in U.S). GME downtrend.
July 8: “I heart this” and photo of GameStop Classic Shop creation from ideas.lego.com. Maybe RC simply liked the design? Maybe a future collaboration with Lego? Or, back to tombstones…custom, one-of-a-kind “deal toys”, commemorate the finality of a corporate deal. GME downtrend. July 9: Meme “I heard Ryan Doesn’t Cry when Stepping on Lego.” SHF’s logo looks like a Lego stack. GME downward trend.
July 19: RC photo with two chopsticks up his nose and wrote “PG-13”. Many apes thought this indicated a coming stock split, or sale of warrants and units. Or, SHF, which has become an unbreakable monopoly, will be broken. PG-13 was assumed to be p.13 of GameStop’s Prospectus, where it talks about stock warrants (a form of derivative a company can create for shareholders, like options) and units. Warrants are usually sold directly from the company and are not sold individually, but rather offered in units. SPACs often issue warrants and units. GME experienced a slight jump July 19-21, ranging from $163.30 to $191.18. On July 22, a downward trend began.
July 23: Photo of multi-functional chair with toilet built in, phones and computers attached. Text: “Can’t stop. Won’t stop.” RC isn’t wasting a minute in his quest for GameStop and shareholder success. GME downtrend. GME on downtrend. July 28: Photo of Mario hockey with US and Canada flags “Power to the Players”. GameStop issued announcement it would rebrand EB games in Canada to “GameStop”. GME on downtrend.
July 29: Photo of Ryan with stick-on googly eyes and an incognito emoji. I took it as he’s among us, watching, reading. GME on downtrend, closing on August 4 at $146.80. August 6: RC’s head superimposed on Victoria’s Secret runway models. GME and VS both entered S&P midcap 400 index. GME sideways trend begins. This day was the start of the compliance counting date for ISDA OTC thresholds in SBS entity definitions per SEC Security Based Swap final rules. GME sideways uptrend begins.
August 11: Last RC tweet as of this post: South Park “Drugs are Bad”. If you go to the full video of this scene, the alphabet poster (found in most U.S. schools above the chalkboard) says, “Oh dios mio han matado a kenny” instead of letters A-Z. Translating from Spanish to English, it says “Oh my god they killed Kenny!” SHF is going down, clearly. A few days later, RC changed his color profile photo to black & white, or greyscale. I assumed this meant RC is going dark off Twitter for a bit. Could mean a grey market, where the trade of a commodity through distribution channels are not authorized by the original manufacturer or trademark proprietor. Alternatively, apes have come up with theories that there is something going on with Greyscale, a company tied to SHF or another business with “grey” in the name.
Sorry, I didn't include the timestamps, particularly timestamps at 7:41...U.S. Code Title 11 Section 741 focuses on bankruptcy liquidation. There are other timestamps that could point to other regulations or SEC filings. This is already a long post.
Edit: New post came out tonight Aug. 19 at 8:45 NY time, 7:45 RC's time. His face is superimposed on the Zohan. Reddit user created it two months ago I guess. RC is a bad ass...attracts a hot girl, wins tug of war, pulls the opposing team into a sand pit, takes on a man with a gun and leaps over a growling dog. Yep, somethin's a coming. I was thinking the 45 could point to the new ISDA margin compliance rules in effect and coming into effect, or the bankruptcy code part 45 about each person affected by bankruptcy has to be treated individually, not as a group. SEC filings, late forms, from 6/30 were due (10Q, 13F, etc.) . Also, I still think jumps in price coincide with international margin rules. Whatever the case, s--t's about to get real! HODL!!!!

Let me start by explaining the title of this post. It's a spin on the hadith found in Bukhari that mentions if you walk towards Allah, Allah will run towards you. I'm sorry to say but that has not been my experience. Now, if you are a devoted Muslim and reading this, you have probably jumped to the conclusion part already. No true Muslim would ever leave Islam. Islam is too beautiful, there are so many signs that Islam is the truth. He must have not been sincere enough. He must not have tried hard enough. The world is black and white. Believe me, I know the mindset of a Muslim, I've been in it for most of my life. I could not comprehend why when given a clear message of Islam, anyone could reject it. I know now that the human mind is more complicated than that. I want to talk more about the human mind, especially with regards to the fitra(our natural disposition), but I would first like to give you some background about myself and my journey in Islam.
Before I go any further, I do want to mention that I'm not writing this to prove that Islam is false. Some of the arguments for Islam are compelling and I guess there's still a small part of me that hopes to come back to it. Think of this as a journal of my thoughts. I write my thoughts down to unscramble the ideas in my head. Otherwise, it's just a mess of ideas floating around in my head where I'm jumping around from one idea to the next. I also think it's good for your mental well-being to share your thoughts with others. As of writing this, I haven't shared my thoughts with a single soul. I'm too afraid of being labelled a murtad (apostate) and being excommunicated from everyone in my life. I also welcome my ideas to be challenged. I'm looking for good answers to the doubts I have about Islam. I also know enough about human psychology to know that I may cause anger to be triggered in some. I'm expecting threats and predictions of eternal doom. I won't blame anyone for these kinds of outbursts. It's just how you've been wired.
My journey in Islam
I grew up in a moderate Islamic family who were strict on some things and not so strict on others. They have this vibe about them that they are the enlightened ones and only they know the true Islam. For example, they don't believe that growing a beard is a sunnah and they don't believe that the Miraj happened in the way that's widely accepted. All their beliefs about Islam has to make sense to them or they'll reject it. It doesn't matter whether it came from Bukhari, he was only human after all. I naturally held these same beliefs too, but as I grew up, I became more fascinated with Islam. I came to the conclusion that everything you believe about Islam needs to be substantiated by the Quran and sunnah. If I can reject a hadith just because I don't like the sound of it then Islam can be whatever I wanted it to be. I embarked on self-study and even went as far as to study Bukhari's method of collecting hadith. I was truly in awe of what I learnt. I was still no angel at the time but I was walking towards Allah.
I eventually met a girl from a more conservative family that didn't allow dating. I felt like she was just the type of girl I needed to marry to become closer to Allah. One of the things she said that always stuck with me is that her only goal in life was to become a better Muslim. This truly won me over especially since finding a decent Muslim girl is incredibly hard. Unfortunately, I was unemployed but I would've married her regardless. I was ready to put my trust in Allah. My parents didn't approve though, so I needed to wait a few years after getting a decent-ish job.
We eventually got married and I finally felt like I was ready to give my all to Allah. The day after our wedding, I woke up for Fajr and tried to wake my wife up too. I even tried the sunnah way of using a sprinkle of water. Guess what? She got irritated with me and didn't want to get up.
As the months went on I soon realized that she was not interested in becoming a better Muslim. She even told me that she doesn't want to feel old. I obviously judged her for this as the "pious" normally would. It's now a decade later and she's the one irritating me with her Islamic talk and I'm the one being judged for not being pious enough. She's also trying to brainwash our child but he's a little rebel.
I also decided to grow a beard and every time I would see my family, someone would tell me to shave. I didn't care too much. I was tasting the "sweetness of Iman" and it was euphoric. I had such an awareness of Allah that when I saw leaves blowing in the wind I would tell myself "that is the power of Allah". I would be in traffic and feel frustrated that I'm in the slower moving lane. The lane would speed up immediately and move faster than the other lane. I would tell myself "I disliked something that was good for me" which comes from a verse in the Quran. Unfortunately, this feeling of euphoria didn't last which I kind of expected because it is mentioned in a hadith the Iman increases and decreases over time. My experience was a bit different though. My Iman just kept decreasing and decreasing and decreasing. No matter how hard I tried to get it back, I just wasn't able to. I tried for years. I kept on walking towards Allah and Allah was not running towards me.
I tried learning Arabic in the hope of attaining khushoo (sincerity) in salaah, that didn't work. I made pious friends and hoped that they would have a positive influence on me, that didn't work either. I even went to a house where they perform ruqyah, even though I was sceptical about it being in accordance with the Quran and sunnah. Ruqyah is a method of spiritual healing but really they are just obsessed/delusional about jinn. The only thing I got out of going there were insults. This certainly did not help. I even remember one of my friends went on hajj and all I asked of him was to make dua for me that Allah would grant me the strongest of Iman. No luck there either.
There came a point where I just believed that there must be something wrong with me. I could never blame Allah for my lack of Imaan, could I? Even though when you do have Imaan then that's all Allah and you should be grateful. When you don't have Imaan, that's all your fault.
Just remember that this happened over years and years and years and the point I'm trying to make is that I walked towards Allah and Allah ran away from me.
Some of you might say that this was just a test and I shouldn't have given up. In the next section, I will argue why, even if this was a test, the test was not stacked in my favour and we as humans have less free will than we think.
The Illusion of Free Will
According to Islam, the fitra refers to our natural disposition to believe in Allah and that the only reason why some of us grow up not believing in Allah is that the environment we are exposed to corrupts the fitra. In my opinion, it's debatable whether or not our natural disposition is to believe in Allah. I do however agree that our environment is largely responsible for who we are as a person.
Our environment is undoubtedly the biggest factor in determining what we'll believe when we're adults. If you grew up in a Muslim family, you'll most like grow up to be Muslim. Did you grow up in a Christian family? You'll most likely be Christian. Not only that, but your level of devotion to your beliefs is also determined by your environment. If your family is moderate, you'll be moderate. If they are conservative, you'll be conservative. If they're extremist, you'll be extremist. Even if you don't end up believing what your family believes, it's probably because of your environment and the things you were exposed to.
The point I'm trying to make is that we don't really have control over the things we believe. We have zero control over what family we grew up in. I didn't ask to be born in a time where the internet, Google, and YouTube exists. I didn't ask to be so inquisitive. These things put together made it much easier for me to change my mind. I didn't even want to change my mind. How much free will did I really have? I have so little control over the things that I believe that even though I essentially left Islam, I still find eating pork and drinking alcohol disgusting. I would probably gag if I tried.
Many of us are addicted to social media. Did you decide to be addicted? I'll tell you how you became addicted if you are. The makers of these services understand the human mind and how to get people hooked on their products. These strategies work so well that even the people who designed them are not immune to becoming addicted to them. I ask you again, how much free will do we really have?
Now, let me propose something that I believe is 100% part of the fitra. Every human, without exception, is naturally disposed to this phenomenon I'm going to mention. We as a species, resist changing our minds at all cost. In fact, the brain resists it so much that when we hear something counter to what we believe, our brains react in the same way as if we are being physically attacked.
Let's dig a bit deeper and discuss how the brain resists change. One of the methods the brain uses to resist change is called confirmation bias. Again, this happens to everyone no matter how pious you are or not. There are several forms of confirmation bias but to hold onto its beliefs, the brain will ignore information that's in conflict with its current beliefs and highlight things that are in alignment with it. For example, a Muslim reading this post may highlight, or choose to only remember that I said in the beginning that some of the arguments for Islam are compelling. They may also ignore all the other points I made and call me a complete idiot.
I always wondered why people refuse to accept information even when presented with clear proofs (bayinaat in the Quran). When I was a devoted Muslim, I couldn't understand how intelligent people could reject Islam when given the message. The excuse I heard from several imaams is that you can have all the worldly intelligence, it doesn't matter how many PhDs you have, if you reject Allah you have zero intelligence. I accepted this explanation but I'm sorry to say this, I know some really idiotic Muslims. I don't like to generalize but I sometimes feel like the more pious they are, the more idiotic they are.
A pious Muslim gave me a mind-blowing lesson about dinosaurs once. I learnt that they didn't exist because they aren't mentioned in the Quran. I know, who would've known right? Another one believed for some reason that the earth is only 5000 years old. I could literally see how her brain malfunctioned when she read about a natural process that happened over millions of years. Hey, these are the most intelligent people alive.
I just want to mention a few more experiences I had before going back to the current topic. I took these happenings really personally so I need to mention them. It really affected me and may have pushed me into believing what I do now.
One time, I watched a video about the theory of general relativity. I think it was one of those scientific miracles in the Quran videos. I was so fascinated that I decided to discuss it with my family. They immediately told me that it's not compatible with Islam, "you must be careful what you watch". I replied, "but it's Einstein's theory and he's the greatest scientist that ever lived". I was then told, "Allah is the greatest". I felt so despondent.
Another occurrence, I was asked by my older sister if I'm an atheist because I keep on reading about science. I was also told that I don't need to know those things and all I need to know is that Allah controls everything. I thought "wow, so to believe in Allah I need to be ignorant about the world".
Anyway, coming back to the topic at hand, I made the point that we don't have full control over what we believe and it's almost impossible to change our beliefs (for some people it is impossible). Let's now assume that Islam is the truth. According to Islam, humans have only been created to worship Allah. So Allah put us here without us choosing to be here. He put us in families we didn't choose. We are ingrained with beliefs we didn't choose, and we have been "created" to resist changing those beliefs at all cost. We are also thrown in hell for being incapable of accepting a conflicting belief. In other words, we are thrown in hell for being exactly how we were designed to be. It's like we are being tested in physics but we are being taught biology. Allah is truly the most merciful.
You might say "the Quran has come with clear proofs, there's no way a person pure of heart would reject it". Let me tell you, there are also clear proofs for evolution, and that we didn't all come from Adam and Eve. If your confirmation bias was removed, you would admit it. Even some Muslim scholars accept that evolution is a fact, but they do have to use their imagination to keep their Islamic beliefs.
I always wanted to ask a Muslim this and I hope to get a good answer. Muslims believe that Allah is all-powerful. Every single thing that happens, happens by the will of Allah. Everything was preordained by Allah even before the existence of creation. Does that now mean that Allah decided to put doubt in my head? Does it mean that Allah decided how I would react to these doubts? Does that mean that Allah decided I would leave Islam before I was even born? If you answered no and I'm responsible for my own actions then does that mean Allah has no power over my actions and he's not all-powerful? If you answer yes Allah has complete control over all my actions then I have to ask, is Allah really all that just? Imagine you had the power to create a being and not only that, control every single part of his life. Would you torture him for eternity for doing exactly what you planned for him to do? If you answered no you wouldn't do that then guess what? You are more merciful than Allah.
I'm going to end this off now, even though I have much more to say. As I mentioned before, this is a journal for me so I'm first going to talk about how I'm feeling. Writing this made me feel uncomfortable. These thoughts were all in my head but now that I can actually see them, It's making me feel uneasy. It's almost as if I'm expecting something bad to happen to me now that I said all those things about Allah. It's probably just my brain resisting change but I hope I can one day speak to someone about this. For now, just writing about it is good enough.

The makers of Knives Out launched a (very funny) parody website for Joni's company, Flam. The address is flambeauty.life .
In the about section, random letters are bold. Given that this is a site meant to engage people with a mystery movie, I think that the letters could be an anagram and have been trying to unscramble them to see if they mean anything. I've googled around to find if this is correct, but have come up empty. (Also, the photograph layered behind the words is of a crystal with a knife inside.) Does anyone have any ideas about this?
The letters are: RRDHAMSOFAWMLOETIAN
wow I need to find better ways to spend my time

Wi-Fi as we know it today is a series of standards, voted on by a worldwide engineering body, the IEEE. The IEEE is an open membership organization with more than 423,000 engineers in 160 countries. It took years of work and dozens of proposals to form the original Wi-Fi standard in 1997. It took even more effort over the last 23 years to get to where we are now.
The story of the invention of Wi-Fi depends on who you ask. There is a complicated history leading up to that original 1997 standard, and the truth is hard to decipher. I'm not capable of litigating who invented what, but there are some key players to know about. Where possible, I will point out the people and the organizations behind the technology.

Wired and Wireless Precursors: Say ALOHA to Wireless Networking

In 1968, researchers at the University of Hawaii began to investigate if radio waves could be used for communication between computers. The project was led by professor Norman Abramson, Dr. Franklin Kuo, and a team of faculty and students. It would go on to become known as ALOHAnet.
During this time, wired computer networking was in its infancy, and evolving rapidly. Packet switching was conceived of by Paul Baran in 1964, and first demonstrated by Donald Davies in August 1968. In October 1969, the first ARPANET link was established between UCLA and the Stanford. By June 1971, ALOHAnet was the world's first wireless packet switched data network.(1)
During the development of ALOHAnet, Abramson and his team had to solve many foundational issues with wireless networking, including collisions and failed transmissions. They decided that a random access protocol would be the best way to accomplish this. The ALOHA protocol allowed terminals to send data whenever they had it, and listen to their transmissions to make sure they were received, and acknowledged. If a transmission failed, terminals would resend after a random delay. This was simple and effective, but had problems scaling up to more users. The ALOHA protocol was improved and expanded, and was the inspiration for CSMA/CA.
ALOHAnet was a pioneering technological marvel, but it was experimental and not fit for commercial use. Most critically, unlicensed spectrum for computer communications was not available to the public yet. Since the University of Hawaii didn't have a way to sell the technology, it was put into the public domain. ALOHAnet was decommissioned in 1976, but it inspired others to continue what it started. Most notably, Robert "Bob" Metcalfe studied it for his PhD dissertation.
Through the 1970s, many wired local area network technologies were developed. Some were proprietary, and some were open standards. Most of this early work has gone on to become ANSI or IEEE standards, and formed the basis of the computer communication and the Internet. A standards-based approach wasn't destiny, and we all benefit from the pioneers who pushed for standards over proprietary solutions. All of this groundbreaking work on wired standards helped lay the foundation for wireless.

Key Dates In Wired Networking History

• 1973: Bob Metcalf and David Boggs created the basis for Ethernet while working at the legendary Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in California. They were inspired by the packet-based approach of ARPAnet and ALOHAnet, and refined that design. On November 11, 1973, the first Ethernet system was functional.
• 1974: Cambridge Ring was developed at the University of Cambridge, forming the basis of what became Token Ring. Through the 1970s Werner Bux, Hans Müller, and other IBM employees worked on the design of what became IBM's proprietary Token Ring.
• 1974: Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication" which describes TCP and lays the groundwork for TCP/IP.
• 1975: Xerox files for a patent for Ethernet.
• 1978: Jonathan B. Postel writes the first specification of IPv4.
• 1979: Xerox opts to make Ethernet an open standard to help with manufacturing, and to spur sales of it's products. DEC and Intel join the effort.
• 1980: The IEEE 802.3 committee is formed to make Ethernet an open standard, led by Xerox, DEC, Intel, and other major manufacturers.
• 1980: Engineer Michael Marcus makes a proposal to the U.S. FCC to open the ISM bands for unlicensed use of spread spectrum modulation and multiple access, going against conventional wisdom at the time. The ISM bands are assumed to have no practical application in communications.
• 1983: The first IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard, 10BASE5, was ratified. Wi-Fi uses multiple parts of the IEEE 802 protocol family, and is designed to interwork seamlessly with Ethernet, its wired sibling.
• 1985: IBM introduced their proprietary version of Token Ring, offering 4 Mbps. Due to the integration with IBM computers, Token Ring was popular for a time in the 1980's, until Ethernet grew into the ubiquitous standard it is today.
• 1985: the U.S. Federal Communications Commission opened the ISM (Industrial, Science, and Medicine) radio bands of the wireless spectrum for use in communications without a government license. The released frequencies include: 900 MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz. Other countries and regions eventually followed the FCC's lead. With this spectrum available for anyone to use, the real development of the first commercial wireless network technologies could begin.

The Wright Brothers of Wi-Fi

By 1985, all the pieces were in place for the development of a universal wireless networking standard. These were the Wild West days of wireless networking. Dozens of companies were competing to be the first to produce a successful product. Many companies came and went, so I'm only going to focus on the biggest and most important ones.

NCR and WaveLAN

In the 1980s, NCR Corporation was a big international company selling computers, ATMs, and cash registers. They wanted to develop a way to have their cash registers work wirelessly. This would give them a competitive advantage, and allow retail stores to avoid the costs and logistics of running cabling to every register. At the same time, cash registers were becoming more computer-like, so NCR sought to develop an International wireless standard that any computer could use. Two of the key engineers assigned to this project were Cees Links and Vic Hayes. Through 1986 and 1987, Vic and the other engineers at NCR developed a product which became known as WaveLAN.
NCR introduced WaveLAN to the world in 1990.(2) While WaveLAN was intended for use in cash registers, it was also positioned as a wireless alternative to Ethernet and Token Ring for PCs. In the 1990s, wireless products were expensive, and hard to use. The early drivers were buggy, and documentation was hard to find. WaveLAN network adapters cost hundreds of dollars, and access points could cost thousands. The high cost and limited usability kept WaveLAN as a niche product, mainly found in the big businesses that could afford them.
WaveLAN operated at 900MHz or 2.4 GHz, and offered speeds of 1 to 2 Mbps. It competed with Aironet's ARLAN and others which offered similar speeds, frequency ranges and hardware. Several companies also marketed wireless bridges and routers based on WaveLAN technology. Wireless networking products became a mess of competing companies and different implementations. The need for an International standard was clear.
NCR wanted to have Vic Hayes make the technical proposals to the IEEE on the companies behalf. Vic disagreed, and fought to stay independent and not do any of the proposals on behalf of NCR. The company agreed, and this actually worked to their benefit. Since Vic wasn't pushing NCR's proprietary solution, he gained the trust of others. Vic ended up becoming the first chairman of the IEEE 802.11 working group, giving him the nickname “Father of Wi-Fi"

IEEE and the 802.11 working group

In 1988, Vic Hayes approached the IEEE to contribute to the 802.4L, an existing committee creating a wireless standard based on Token Ring. As it turned out, that committee had become inactive, and the chairman had quit. This let to Vic becoming the chairman of 802.4L, and the forming of a new working group, 802.11. Ethernet and WaveLAN technology formed part of the technical base of the 802.11 committee, which was officially started in 1990.
WaveLAN and the knowledge of Vic Hayes' group at NCR helped form the basis, but countless others contributed as well. Many other companies submitted proposals for various aspects of the standard, and the group compromised and voted on the best ideas along the way. Most of their documents are still publicly available. The 802.11 group continued to work throughout the 1990s to develop the standard, which was a long and complicated process. It took 7 years and input from countless engineers to form the first Wi-Fi standard, known as 802.11-1997.
The first Wi-Fi standard was in some ways a messy compromise. It allowed for transmissions over Infrared or 2.4 GHz radio waves. It also allowed for two different frequency selection methods, which prevented guaranteed compatibility. In the end, both Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) and Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) were added to the standard. The group allowed these options as a way to please the entities involved in the creation, but it made the standard weak.
802.11-1997 never gained much traction. Despite that, the group got to work on its next set of standards, 802.11a and 802.11b, which were developed in parallel. The main difference between them was the frequencies and the modulation schemes they used.

• 802.11a operates in 5 GHz, using OFDM for data rates up to 54 Mbps.
• 802.11b operates in 2.4 GHz, using DSSS for data rates up to 11 Mbps.

802.11b hit the market first. Despite the slower speeds, people preferred the availability, lower cost, and longer range of the 2.4 GHz equipment. The success of 802.11b snowballed into the development of 802.11g, and made 2.4 GHz the defacto International wireless spectrum range for years to come.
In the late 1990s, Wi-Fi's success wasn't guaranteed. Early Wi-Fi devices were expensive, slow, and often incompatible with other devices. According to Vic Hayes, he approached many computers makers to persuade them to add Wi-Fi to their computers, but most of them said no. Steve Jobs and Apple wanted to add Wi-Fi to an upcoming laptop, but they wanted it to cost $100, not $500. They argued that the lower cost would make it more marketable to consumers.
Apple eventually got the $100 Wi-Fi card they wanted. The iBook and AirPort launched on July 21, 1999, a few months before the 802.11a and 802.11b standard were finalized. It was the first mainstream computer designed and sold with integrated wireless networking.

OFDM, CSIRO, and Dr. John O'Sullivan

This is where our story get murky. CSIRO is the Australian federal agency with a long history of scientific research. They have developed many advanced technologies, such as atomic absorption spectroscopy. According to CSIRO, Wi-Fi is an Australian invention. The truth isn't that simple, and it isn't that clear.
CSIRO's key insight came out of their work in radioastronomy. In 1977, CSIRO researcher Dr. John O'sullivan was searching for small exploding black holes. He wrote a paper about how fast Fourier transformations could be used to sharpen images from optical telescopes. As the waves traveled towards the telescope they became scrambled, and CSIRO developed a custom processor to use fast Fourier transformations to unscramble the image. While this technique didn't help him discover the black holes he was looking for, it helped to solve a different problem.
Starting in 1990, John O'Sullivan led a team of CSIRO scientists to develop a high-speed wireless network. Their goal was 100 Mbps, to compete with the best wired networks of the time. This caused them to look past the techniques used by ALOHAnet and WaveLAN, because they wouldn't be fast enough. One technical challenge they faced was how radio waves tend to bounce off surfaces indoors, causing an echo that distorts the signal. Using fast Fourier transformations, they found a way to transmit a signal while reducing that echo. Rather than using one fast wireless channel, they used lots of slower channels. This is known as multicarrier modulation.
Single-carrier modulation systems exploit only one signal frequency to transmit data. Multi-carrier modulation systems divide the whole frequency channel into subcarriers, and the data stream is divided into many low-rate streams transmitted in parallel. Single-carrier modulation has advantages, but multi-carrier modulation is better suited for high-bandwidth, short-range communication like Wi-Fi. In modern Wi-Fi standards, we use multi-carrier modulation in the form of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, or OFDM.
According to their lawyer in a 2009 patent dispute, CSIRO did not invent Wi-Fi, but it did invent the best way of doing it. CSIRO scientists tested hundreds of techniques until it found a unique combination that worked at high speeds. That combination involved multi-carrier modulation, forward error-correcting, and frequency interleaving to send multiple copies of the data. This specific combination of techniques is the secret sauce the CSIRO applied for a patent for in 1992, and was granted in 1996.
CSIRO didn't invent the underlying techniques, since they were already known. Frequency division multiplexing dates back to the late 1870s, when telegraph companies were trying to increase their capacity. Multi-carrier modulation was described in the 1950s. OFDM is attributed to Bell Labs employee Robert W. Chang back in 1966. Interleaving also dates back to the 1960s. Forward error correction was used when NASA sent the Mariner mission to Mars in 1968.
CSIRO also wasn't the first to combine these techniques and apply them to computer communication. Harris Semiconductor sold modems to the US military using these techniques in the 1980s. Critically, the Harris modem was never patented since interleaving, modulation, and coding had been around for decades by the time Harris came along. According to testimony, Intel official Stephen Saltzman said that outside CSIRO, engineers didn't take the idea of a Wi-Fi patent using these techniques seriously. Experts at Intel had already shipped products based on OFDM with previous employers, and thought that a new patent with OFDM didn't seem credible. Regardless of the merits and the origin of the ideas, US patent #5,487,069 was granted in 1996.
During the development of the 802.11a standard, CSIRO made the IEEE aware of its patent and offered to license it. Beyond that offer, CSIRO never got involved in the creation of the 802.11 standards. Dozens of companies made proposals to the various 802.11 committees, offering to submit their ideas or license their patents. CSIRO never submitted a proposal for the original 1997 standard, or any of the revisions. Despite their lack of involvement in the process and lack of licensing agreement, 802.11a, 802.11g, and later IEEE standards would go on to use OFDM and multi-carrier modulation.
Years later, CSIRO used this as the basis for lawsuits against major networking and technology companies. CSIRO won settlements worth $205 million in 2009, and another $229 million in 2012. If you want more detail on the CSIRO patent fight, Joe Mullin wrote a good piece for ArsTechnica back in 2012. Mark Summerfield wrote a counter-point to Joe's article for Patentology, looking at what the CSIRO patent did and didn't cover.
The truth is a messy thing. In Wi-Fi's case, success truly did have many fathers.

802.11 Timeline

• 1986: The 802.4L working group begins investigating a wireless standard based on Token Ring.
• 1990: The 802.11 committee was formed and NCR employee Vic Hayes became the first chairman.
• 1993: AT&T made the first large-scale deployment of WaveLAN at Cernegie Mellon university. Dr. Alex Hills then started a wireless research initiative to provide coverage to 7 buildings on campus. This was an important project for researching wireless networking and its scalability.
• 1996: ​Australia’s CSIRO patented a technique for reducing multi-path interference of radio signals transmitted for computer networking. This technique finds its way into the 802.11a standard, fueling future patent disputes.
• June 1997: the first version of the 802.11 standard is ratified. This first version used similar techniques to WaveLAN, offering up to 2 Mbps of speed and optional interoperability.
• 1998: Equipment using the original 802.11 standard is rare and expensive, and no major consumer products adopt it.
• July 1999: Apple introduced the iBook and AirPort, the first major consumer products to use the 802.11b standard.
• 1999: The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) is formed to certify that products comply with the 802.11 standards.
• September 1999: The 802.11a and 802.11b standard are ratified.
  • 802.11a used OFDM for 54 Mbps link rates over 5 GHz.
  • 802.11b used DSSS for 11 Mbps link rates over 2.4 GHz.
• Late 1999: The WECA re-brands 802.11 as Wi-Fi, certifies it's first products, and becomes known as the Wi-Fi Alliance.
• Early 2000s: 2.4 GHz equipment using 802.11b was adopted more broadly, and 5GHz 802.11a falls behind in popularity. This cascaded into the next standard, 802.11g, which opted to focus on 2.4 GHz to maintain compatibility 802.11b devices.
• 2003: 802.11g is ratified, applying 64-QAM modulation and OFDM to 2.4 GHz for link rates up to 54 Mbps.
• 2009: 802.11n is ratified, introducing MIMO, frame aggregation, up to 4 spatial streams, 40 MHz channels, optional 5 GHz support, and data rates up to a hypothetical 600 Mbps. -Most 802.11n devices top out at 2 spatial streams, due to 3 or 4 spatial streams being unreliable with the 802.11n standard.
• 2013: 802.11ac is ratified, and broken into two waves. Wave 1 certification begins.
  • Wave 1 certified devices add 80 MHz channels, up to 3 spatial streams, 256-QAM modulation, and explicit beamforming, for data rates up to 1.3 Gbps over 5 GHz.
  • Wave 2 certified devices add down-link MU-MIMO, optional 160 MHz channels and a 4th spatial stream for data rates up to 2.34 Gbps over 5 GHz.
  • 802.11ac devices use 802.11n over 2.4 GHz for backwards compatibility.
• 2014: Wi-Fi device shipments reach 10 billion.
• 2016: 802.11ac Wave 2 certifications begin.
• 2017: Wi-Fi device shipments reach 20 billion.
• 2017: The first draft of the 802.11ax standard is published, and manufacturers begin to make devices based on the draft specification.
  • 802.11ax adds OFDMA, 1024-QAM modulation, up to 8 spatial streams and bi-directional MU-MIMO, for data rates up to 1200 Mbps over a single spatial stream in a 160 MHz channel.
• 2018: The Wi-Fi alliance renames 802.11n, ac and ax. (Wi-Fi 1, 2, and 3 are unofficial.)
  • 802.11b = Wi-Fi 1
  • 802.11a = Wi-Fi 2
  • 802.11g = Wi-Fi 3
  • 802.11n = Wi-Fi 4
  • 802.11ac = Wi-Fi 5
  • 802.11ax = Wi-Fi 6
• 2019: Wi-Fi device shipments reach 30 billion.
• April 2020: The US FCC votes to release 6 GHz spectrum for unlicensed use, giving 1200 MHz of additional spectrum for use in wireless networks.
• November 2020: Wi-Fi 6 is expected to be officially ratified, and work on Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) is underway.

Footnotes:

1 - ALOHAnet used 100 KHz channels, operating at 9600 baud on the 407 and 413 MHz UHF frequencies. It originally connected seven computers across four islands, which communicated wirelessly with a central computer in a star network topology.
2 - AT&T would go on to buy NCR in 1991, only to spin off the remnants of the division as NCR and Lucent by 1996.

Sources and Further Reading

• Wi-Fi 101 part 1 — How Wi-Fi Works: From Electricity to Information
• GetVoip's Wi-Fi timeline
• Wikipedia article on Wi-Fi
• Wikipedia article on the history of 802.11
• Wikipedia article on WaveLAN
• Token Ring vs Ethernet development
• Details on CSIROs patent victory
• Long video of John O'Sullivan discussing CSIRO's invention
• 1994 BYTE article on the formation of the original 802.11 standard
• Chang's 1966 paper on OFDM
• Short video of Abramson talking about ALOHAnet's development
• How ALOHAnet Helped Hawaii Make Waves in Networking and IT Innovation
• More background on the development of ALOHAnet by Norman Abramson
• Dr. Franklin Kuo's paper on ALOHAnet
• Video of Vic Hayes receiving a lifetime achievement award
• 2010 conversation with Vic Hayes
• IEEE 802.11 Archive Documentation 1990-2000
• CWNP discussing the issues with 3 spatial streams of 802.11n
• Cisco's breakdown of 802.11ac Wave 1 vs Wave 2 (requires a Cisco login)
• Huawei explainer on 802.11ac Wave 1 vs Wave 2

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So I'm trying to make an anagram game, and I can't seem to figure out how to get it work. At this point everything runs without errors. The problem is that it doesn't actually do anything.
​

import random #Imports the random function #The wordlist with the unscrambled words wordlist = ["rhythm", "incredible", "weird", "conscience", "concious", "pronunciation", "jewelry"] chosenword = random.choice(wordlist) #Makes a variable called chosenword that stores a random word from the wordlist def AnagramMaker(chosenword): charlist = list(chosenword) random.shuffle(charlist) scrambledword = "".join(charlist) print(scrambledword) userinput = input(str("The unscrambed version of this word is... ")) return(userinput) def UserInput(userinput, chosenword): if userinput == chosenword: print("Correct! You win!")#,points,"points") else: print ("Incorrect. Try Again. ") def main(userinput, chosenword): AnagramMaker(chosenword) UserInput(userinput, chosenword) #main(userinput, chosenword) 

​

Chapter 3: Gaa-waabaabiganikaag
Sep 2^nd , 1941      Today I received word from headquarters. They said that, for my own safety, I was to cease investigation into the Taos Hum. They agreed with my report that the creature is highly dangerous and said that, “while capturing this creature may help us better understand the mechanism used to locate and hunt it’s prey, we find that, given the evidence you provided, we have no conventional methods to stop the creature.”
Thankfully, they are sending me to Minnesota, of all places. I am to investigate rumors of a mysterious disappearances around Rush Lake. Fine. If it doesn’t have 4 arms and haunt my dreams, I’m good with it. I threw my gear into the red Cadillac and drove back to Albuquerque—I’m really going to miss this car.
Sep 3^rd , 1941      My flight to Minnesota took most of the day. After arriving in Minneapolis, I helped myself to some local fish and chips, picked up my rental car, and drove several hours to Wadena. There’s not much here, besides the feed company and the railway station. I grabbed a local map and studied the lakes around here.
There are a lot of lakes around here. An unnaturally large amount. Seriously, it’s like God took a map of Minnesota, looked the area between the White Earth Indian Reservation and Alexandria, took a salt shaker, dumped a tablespoon of salt on that area, and made every grain of salt a new lake. The locals, bless them, quickly ran out of things to name their lakes, and went with vague descriptions. Don’t believe me? I could go to the Mud Lake, or the Round Lake, or the Long Lake, and don’t forget the West Leaf Lake and East Leaf Lake, respectively. If I’m feeling frisky, I could go to the Head Lake, but, more critical to the mission, I should head to the Dead Lake, which sounds ominous.
I also chatted with the locals about the disappearances. Same cover—I’m some reporter looking for mysterious sightings, I’m writing a book, etc. It’s not even a cover at this point; my publisher is MI6, and I don’t get an editor—such savages.
The local legend stems from Gaa-waabaabiganikaag (Try saying that ten times in a row) which is the Indian name for the White Earth Indian Reservation. It translates roughly to “There's an effing lot of white clay here.” The locals say the ground was cursed centuries ago to possess any outsider it touches—I’m going to touch it.
Sep 4^th , 1941      I made my way to Rush Lake, which is where the rumor all started. A local woman claimed her husband went missing, only to reappear three days later. Five days after her husband’s reappearance, they found a body in Rush lake—her husband’s body. Not possible, right?
It gets weirder. The husband was reportedly acting “strange” over the next two months. He would go on long, unexplained walks. He would drink milk frequently (he was lactose intolerant). He would make passionate love (Apparently this man was not a performer pre-disappearance). Three months after the disappearance, the woman stopped attending the local church. She seemed distant, as if she had lost something in her mind and was struggling to find it.
Six months after the husband first disappeared, he disappeared again, this time taking his wife. The house they owned was left completely empty, save for a single, undecipherable phrase carved into the wooden countertop—CROAGOAN
The lake itself was peaceful. The trees around it showed their full fall colors, a brilliant array of red, orange, and yellow. The lake was temperate, not too cold to swim in. It was wide, but shallow, and reeds grew nearly a hundred feet past the shoreline. In my humble opinion, there was no way a body snatching monster could be live here unnoticed. As for the clay composition, it seemed more of a light brown than a white. I stepped foot in the lake—admittedly, there was a lot of clay on the lakebed.
I waded out to my neck—all clay—sticky, smelly, brown clay. I took a sample of the ~30 foot out clay, and the clay at the shoreline. I will send those to the lab; I expect the analysis to say “yep, that’s clay all right.”
Sep 5^th , 1941      After finding nothing of particular interest in Rush Lake, I decided to go to Dead Lake instead. Seriously, who comes up with these names?
I talked to a local that lived nearby. Dead lake was used as a burial site for the Sioux people long ago, and is reportedly cursed, again only to outsiders. Now we’re getting somewhere—cursed undead clay Indians? My kind of party.
Speaking of party—My new partner, Jessie, arrived today. MI6 thought that, considering recent events, I should not be investigating these events alone. That’s fine; I don’t mind the company. Jessie is a bit shorter than me, with curly dark hair and a round face, and has mentioned several times in the last few hours that she loves ballet, above all things.
I spoke to her briefly— “What’s your take on the clay man of Gaa-waabaabiganikaag”
“Gaa-waaba-what-are-you-saying?” she asked, laughing. I like Jessie already.
We set up camp around Dead Lake for the evening. Akin to my previous camping trips, each of us slept in our own tent. Unlike the other camping trips, I instituted a three-shift watch, to Jessie’s dismay. Get over it. It’s much better than being possessed by the four-armed man, or worse.
That night I took the first and third shift. The moonlight reflected off the calm waters; and I sat down, resting against my backpack, for what I hoped would be an uneventful evening. I was wrong.
I heard splashing across the water. It sounded like a large creature, but in the moonlight, I could make out human shadows on the opposite shoreline. One-by-one they walked into the water. I pulled a flashlight from my backpack, switched it on, and pointed it towards the shore. The light diffused across the lake; it couldn’t quite reach the figures— they quickly vanished from sight.
Jessie woke and took her watch; I informed her of what happened—
“It’s probably a bunch of college kids skinny dipping,” she said.
Right—That’s all it was—probably. I’m convinced this job is turning me into a paranoid, sarcastic hard-ass. I returned to my tent for a few hours of restless sleep. Third watch was uneventful, but I kept my flashlight and sidearm beside me, just in case.
Sep 6^th , 1941      We visited a local diner, only to be shocked by the local news. A group of college kids were camping at Dead Lake; one of their friends had disappeared under the water—they couldn’t find her and reported her missing. It was the same group of kids, I know it. It had to be. Bollucks.
Jessie looked at me with frightened expression “It was the kids from last night, wasn’t it?”
I nodded, mouth full of corn hash and eggs. Swallowing hard, I added, “We have to go back and search their campsite.”
“The police will be there—documentary cover won’t cut it,” she said.
“No—but look around. Small town America, kid goes missing? We’re volunteers, looking to help. Simple and honest—they won’t question us.”
We drove to the other side of the lake; like I said, locals had already gathered to help search the shoreline. The police had bloodhounds, hoping to catch a scent. If the missing girl drowned in the water, they wouldn’t have a chance to find her, unless her body floated towards the shore.
We searched the campsite. It was quite like ours; Ashes sat in the fire pit, tents were arranged lazily, and beer bottles littered the campsite.
“Does this mean anything to you?” Jessie asked, pointing towards the picnic table.
I walked over. There, carved fresh in the table, was the phrase “CROUCOAN”
I stared at the carvings for a minute. It felt familiar somehow, like a piece of evidence I was missing. It was only after I wrote this entry, and looked back over my journal, that I made a strange, weird connection. I immediately told Jessie.
“CROAGOAN and CROUCOAN—both found at the scene of two separate disappearances, separated over a period of years. How is that possible?” I asked.
“I’ll admit, it’s pretty weird—but what’s the connection? Either CROOAN, which is meaningless, or AGUC, which is equally meaningless.” She said.
This was a good counterpoint. Even if there was a connection, it didn’t help us. I investigated the translation of the two phrases and came up with nothing. Corona Guac was the best unscramble we could manage, which sounds like the start of a fun Saturday party. Perhaps there was a beer-guacamole recipe that doomed its maker to an early death? If I report that to MI6, they’ll fire me on the spot.
We returned to our campsite; Jessie took the first and third watch. It’s a full moon tonight.
Sep 7th , 1941      Jessie woke me; she heard something, and wanted me to hear it too. I rose from my tent like a zombie rising from the grave and shambled out into the moonlight. Immediately I turned into a werewolf.
Kidding. What happened was much, much worse.
Immediately—I heard screaming.
It sounded first as a low moan but rose to a shrill cry across the water; It was a woman’s voice, nonsensical, like the woman was babbling at the top of her lungs. We drew our flashlights, shining them across the surface of the water. Then we saw her.
She rose from beneath the water, uttering an unearthly howl. Jessie’s flashlight trained on her, the pale body of the woman. She was near the center of the lake, but slowly moved towards our shore, as if she was walking on solid ground, underwater.
This lake was over forty feet deep. I pulled my sidearm, training it on the creature.
“Wait,” Jessie said, “Don’t shoot it yet. I think it’s human”
“Yep, that’s probably what it wants you to believe.” I said, aiming my trusty Colt 1911 at the creature, who was steadily approaching. She did look human.
“No—really. Listen, she’s saying something.” Jessie said. Despite her words, she drew her own pistol in one hand, holding the flashlight in the other, never letting the beam move off the creature.
I thought about writing the phonetics of the creature’s moans, but decided against it, for sanities’ sake—a lot of moaning, followed by a clear “please, no.”
The woman made its way to the shore; she collapsed on the shoreline in front of us. Jessie ran towards it, against my cries of disapproval. Jessie lifted the creature, or woman, as it looked like, and carried her towards my rental car. “We’re taking her to the hospital—now” she said.
We drove hours back towards Minneapolis, and, against my protests, arrived at the hospital. The woman sat in the backseat with Jessie, mumbling incessantly, then – with clarity, “Please, no,” again and again.
They took the woman into the ICU immediately. They said she shouldn’t be alive, much less blabbering incoherently. He lungs had filled with water; her skin was loose and wrinkled. She looked like a corpse that had been submerged in water for a day. Jessie and I just looked quietly at each other. We rented a nearby hotel in Minneapolis. Jessie got the queen bed; I got the pull-out sofa. I sat near the desk and wrote today’s entry in this journal. Jessie looked at me questioningly—
“What are you writing?” she asked.
“My journal—encrypted, of course. But if anyone at MI6 finds this, with a little luck, they should be able to decipher it.”
“What’s the key phrase?” she asked.
“I’d rather not say, if that’s alright.” I didn’t trust Jessie, at least not enough to share that with her. She’s staring at me, probably wondering what I’m writing right now.
Sep 8^th , 1941      We went to a nearby diner for a late breakfast; I grabbed the local news, skimming the headlines. Jessie sipped a cappuccino while we waited four our meals. For me—toast and eggs. For her—flapjacks and bacon. I was midway through the second egg when I saw it— “Body of Missing Girl Found in Lake”
“What’s wrong?” Jessie asked, noticing my white knuckles and sweating forehead.
“It’s not her,” I said, laying the newspaper flat on the table. “It can’t be her—they found her body last night, around the same time we found the woman”
Jessie looked at me for a second, and a moment of recognition occurred between us. I threw three dollars on the table and we bolted to my car. I sped down the city streets, swerving into the emergency room entrance. I dropped Jessie at the door and quickly parked, picking the first available spot. I ran into the hospital; Jessie was there, talking to the nurse.
“She was discharged earlier this morning.” She said, her face nearly as pale as the woman we rescued from the lake.
“What do you mean, she just—walked out of here?”
“It was the fastest recovery the doctors had ever seen.” Jessie whimpered.
Bloody hell—what did they set loose?
Previous Chapter   Chapter Index   Next Chapter

Whether they were mistakes or not, remains to be seen. But Otto's actions are starting to bear fruit.
Oh, and I should also say... "Soon."
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Chapter 14

Umbra walked off the field, done with the simple game for now. It was now a chance for someone else to win, and he'd retrieved enough rocks.
The Humans had come up with a few games to help pass the time. Games of competitive chance involving cards and dice was the most common. All work and no play wasn’t something any of them were interested in anymore after all.
Otto had introduced a very simple game that had caught on despite the simplicity of the concept. “Ever tossed rocks in a bucket?” Otto had asked when a couple Gerlen had complained about being bored with cards. Perhaps because they were poor gamblers. Chatters and Poke if Umbra remembered correctly, Even Mike had given Otto an odd look.
“When would you have done something like that?” Mike had asked.
“Ever done industrial work?” Otto had replied. When Mike shook his head in a negative, Otto had continued. “Stuck on a worksite at the end of a long turnaround, day 14 of your two week work stint, people find anything to do. Bucket rocks is exactly what it sounds like, and it's easy to set up.”
“Hope do we tell the rocks apart?”Asked Poke. “I assume this is a game for groups?”
“Honestly, get some colored throwing stones made from one of the makers,” Otto suggested. “Coloured composite shouldn't cost that much. Then get a largish bucket. People throw rocks at the bucket until you're out.”
“What's the object of the game?” Umbra had asked, joining the conversation. He'd wondered what Otto was getting at.
“Throwing practice. The aim assist is a multiplier really. Any practice is good for ya,” Otto paused in thought for a minute. “Anyways, get coloured stones, a colour for every player. The player with the least stones in the bucket and the one with the most cleans up for the next round.”
“I can understand the one with the least but…”
“You guys are a team right? It's good sportsmanship. I mean, you win and lose as a group right?”
So Bucket Rocks. But it turned out that was just Otto’s tactic to get the Gerlen started. From there, ‘Pass’, ‘Frisbee’, then ‘Baseball’ also became games for them to play. Depending on how many were available they would switch up the games. The Humans would probably have had more games if they stuck around. Most of the Gerlen looked forward to seeing what that might be. Turned out after a couple months of throwing pretty rocks in buckets and then at each other, the Gerlen could learn to aim naturally. Although still poorly compared to the aim assist or the ability of the Humans.
Not that there was no point to it. Otto was right when he noted the aim assist was a multiplier, not a replacement for skill.
He could hear the Humans speaking as he passed the warehouse.
“So for everyday use it’ll be fine?” asked one male voice.
“Yeah, I think so,” replied a younger male.
“When would it not be good?” a female voice.
Umbra found Mason, Rob and Cynthia standing, and in one case floating, just outside the warehouse Mason had made his base.
“Combat really,” Mason replied. “I was getting all caught up in making a suit that could fight, and this design can, but it’s not doing anything more than Rob could have done before. In some cases it’ll be worse.”
“That’s plenty, I wasn’t asking you to make me some sort of super hero,” Rob replied with a smile.
“How long do you think until you can get it made?” Cynthia asked.
“Well the design is much simpler since I gave some stuff up, maybe in a few more days?” Mason ventured. “I wasn’t even going to mention it yet, but since you asked…”
“I understand, you didn’t want to get ahead of yourself,” Rob acknowledged with a nod. “We’ll leave you to it then.”
The couple headed off, Umbra watched Rob float away in his convertible chair, Cynthia holding his hand as she kept pace. Mason watched them go, giving Umbra a chance to observe the young man’s profile. Something had been bothering Umbra for some time, so he approached the young man when they were out of sight.
“Why do you give it up so easily?”
“Hoh crap!” Mason yelped in surprise. “Where did you come from?”
Umbra stared at Mason for a moment. “You were distracted.”
“I-,” Mason looked to where the pair had disappeared into the new dining hall. The Gerlen had built it to replace the tents they’d been eating in. “Yeah, I guess I was.”
“So why did you give up?” Umbra asked again.
Mason looked back. “Give up what?”
“You give up on making the design you wanted, afraid it won’t be adequate. You give up on going with the others because you are ‘needed here’ when the truth of that is nebulous. And then you give up on that woman you clearly still care for.”
“That’s-!” Mason choked on his words for a bit, “That’s not fair!”
“What does 'fair' have to do with it. Why do you give up so easily Mason?” Umbra stared at the Human. “If you care for her that much, you give up too easy.”
“It’s not that simple! She’s got a kid with-”
“Then take the kid!”
“It’s Rob’s!” Mason yelled back angrily, causing Umbra to flinch. “You may not understand, you’re not Human! It’s not so simple I can just take her back if she doesn’t want to go! And if I did it wouldn’t be any better than what happened to ME.”
Umbra felt himself flinch back again. He eyes dropped to the ground for a moment, unable to meet Mason’s eyes. “That hadn’t occurred to me…”
“I didn’t give her up,” Mason told him quietly. “She was taken from me, and not by Rob," the young man's voice came out in nearly a whisper now. "Taking her back isn’t something I want to ever have to do now.”
“It seems… I didn’t understand,” Umbra admitted. He turned and walked away.
Mason didn’t stop him.
But Umbra had something else on his mind after that conversation. He’d been thinking of asking a question.
He’d considered asking Mason if the Human wanted to leave with him, but now… he wasn’t sure that would be wise.

Eeksh

“That’s good!” Eeksh purred.
He was sitting in Tsury’s lap in the little engine room of the Silianisca shuttle Matchka had taken. Or the Humans had taken. Matchka wasn’t actually in charge. She was more like an important advisor.
Tsury’s right hand worked its way down to his chin and he obligingly lifted his head. “Mmmmm!”
Tsury giggled happily. Which was slightly discouraging. It felt good, that was no reason to laugh at- “Ohhh~” She started scratching under his lower left ear at the same time. That wasn’t fair.
Matchka pulled him back to the real world for a moment.
“Your contact, visited before?” Matchka asked.
“No, visit’s us,” Eeksh replied. “Anticipating visit.”
“Traveled before?”
“First time!”
“Oh, your first time travelling!” Tsury remarked brightly. “Me too!”
“Tsury, everyone, new traveller,” Matchka mentioned with a dry tone. “All but me.”
Eeksh was wondering though, “Matchka, know Huthunhuk?”
She looked back, fixing him with her wide blue eyes. “Yes, introduced me, Tingtantun.”
He tilted his head. “Tingtantun?”
“Reason for visit, healing Tingtantun,” Matchka explained, then she tilted her head and asked another question. “Met others?”
“Others?” Eeksh tilted his head in the opposite direction, thinking about the question. his lower ears flicked as he thought about the question. “Couple. Preshulin, Crawk… Nosh? Not met Boss, Red Tail! I hear, in charge, gaps!”
“What are ‘gaps’?” Tsury asked.
“Karkantantar is planet, not city,” Matchka explained to the Human with the strange hair. “Also name, orbital ring. Visiting support pillar, Peaks. Gaps: slums.”
Tsury took a moment to process all that. People always did when a Bellani had to explain things for some reason. “Oh, it sounds interesting!” Tsury finally replied.
“Yes, also dangerous.”

Otto

Working on the security override came with a whole bag of mixed feelings. He absolutely didn’t regret taking it from the implant of the Monos. The ability to momentarily override the implants of any typical slaves he came across?
Yes please.
Well, not any slave. He would have to hear a proper owner or authority figure issuing orders to be able to copy their signal. He could then spoof that signal with the package he’d ripped out of the pirate’s head. Then he could literally tell a slave to relax while Otto went about his business. This was important if he intended to work on non-humans more often.
Tsury had been only bare minimum functional, so the implant had given him plenty of time to react as he needed. But he had learned from Tsury and Aurula’s implants that there were differences between races. Mike, Daniel, Stacey, Rob, Cynthia and Mason. All of their implants had been nearly identical to take apart. Not that Otto had realized it in first, but in hindsight and comparing to the work with Aurula…
Otto continued to work through the visually blown-up lattice of the package. It was taking time to determine what hooks needed to go where for all the functions to activate properly.
But those pirates… It wasn’t hard to take someone apart when he got past their defenses. The firewall they’d been using was shoddy at best. Frankly they should never have left themselves connected like that.
But that was Otto making excuses. Not much better than stealing someone’s stuff because they didn’t put an expensive lock on their house.
What Otto did when he’d gotten access to their heads was the real problem. He’d started with scrambling their senses, like what had happened to him, but cranked way up. He knew those Monos didn’t have anything nice planned, so he hadn’t hesitated to do some real damage. Otto had become very familiar with the worm that had done so much damage to the Manifestation of Fate. Now he’d incorporated it into several of his attacks and defenses. He’d even made some static defenses that would spring it on anyone who attempted to attack his crewmates or one of the shuttles based on that worm.
That worm had scrambled their minds, filling them with junk and then messed up any remaining signals. Now that he was in a better frame of mind Otto shuddered to think of what the final result had been. Loss or corruptions of senses. Loss of proper motor control. Likely mental damage and corruption. it would be a surprise to Otto if those Monos could clearly remember who they were. The implant dug quite deep into a person’s brain matter. The translator as well, although from a different angle. the two pieces of technology met somewhere in the middle. Even if those Pirates had been out to kill them, there were better ways to go about preventing that. This was especially true since Otto had cracked their unsupported defenses.
After staring at the lattice for several minutes, Otto realized he was tapped out. He closed his eyes and let his personal space disintegrate. When he opened his eyes he was in the cockpit, alone for the moment. It wasn't long until he heard the door slide open and he turned to see Aurula walk in.
“Otto?” she asked tentatively.
“Yeah?” Otto responded, having to work at not sounding nervous. The events of the last couple days had thrown a wall up between them. Even if it was only temporary, it was still awkward to talk to her.
“I was thinking, the Drifting Perch had an on board restaurant. They don’t serve… inebriants, but it may be interesting to eat… anything else.”
Otto found himself chuckling before he even realized it. “Sure, I would love to, is anyone else going?”
“No, just us for this meal. Stacey and Mike went yesterday. Everyone else went this morning. They say the food is reasonably good.”
“And you haven’t gone yet?”
“... No, I wanted to go with you.”
Otto smiled. “Well, let’s make it a little date then.”
Aurula tilted her head and her white crest rose slightly. “A date?”
His smile widened, “I’ll explain as we go.”
Aurula appreciated the concept of dating. Or at least the Human spin on the concept. The food was perhaps a little bland according to Otto’s taste, but only a little bland was still a great step up from the usual offerings.
The cooks did have some stronger spices to offer. Turned out salt and pepper both had equivalent translations too.
It was later that he and Aurula found themselves in the shuttle room, curled up together.
“You know,” Otto started softly as he worked his way along the front of Aurula’s neck. “You’re very warm.”
“Mm-hmm?”
He really wanted to distract himself. Aurula didn’t have anything he wasn’t supposed to be playing with on her chest. Not having breasts actually made her chest the most distracting portion of her to work on.
“In fact, you’re very cozy,” Otto said with a smile.
“That’s nice,” Aurula replied. She’d curled up in his lap, laying on her back against his chest and stomach with her wings as a sort of pillow.
“That’s doesn’t feel uncomfortable, with your wings like that?”
“No… although it can be if I move wrong,” she admitted. “But it’s quite comfortable right now. You are a very solid thing to rest against Otto.”
He had his head next to hers as he leaned forward to see the feathers he was combing through. Aurula didn’t actually need help with certain areas, including her chest. It was clear to Otto she just wanted coddling. Then he found something slightly different
“Hmm, they're black?
Aurula twitched. “What’s black?”
Otto slowly peeled the shoot off the feather and held the surrounding feathers back. “A random black feather- no, there’s another, and another. You have black feathers growing in?”
“Oh,” Aurula said with an unsteady voice. “I’m coming into season.”
Otto leaned away from her head and looked into Aurula’s eye.
“Leralin grow in a line of feathers along their chest when they are fertile,” she noted. She drew a V across her chest that closely mimicked a Human woman’s cleavage. The comparison wasn’t lost on Otto.

Trunt

The ship sat in one of the larger docking bays of Oolseck 7. it was one of many typical Monos ‘cargo raiders’. Technically defined as a cargo ship, anyone who saw it knew the true purpose of the craft. Anyone wise to the Monos knew their 'civilian' ships were once military ships with small refits and an order to 'not go wild'.
This was one of the sea monster variants. The central body was a torpedo shaped hull with vertical fins on the top, bottom and rear of the hull. From the side of the ship extend two club like arms. The ship was near black in colour with deep green stripes. The colour did little to obscure the ship from the gravitic and heat sensors of nearby craft.
The ‘Depth Charger’ had a large crew, although that crew had shrunk by several members just recently. Another crewmember, a Kashto by the name of Trunt, was having a bad day.
Trunt was having a very bad day in fact.
“What had HAPPENED to my brother!” Ship Lord Prock demanded, looming over the blue and brown Kashto. The long bodied Mammal cringed as the much larger Monos made his displeasure clear.
Even with the intimidation, Trunt had to resist the urge to sigh. That would just get him clobbered. Prock may have indulged his brother freely, but he didn’t tolerate anyone else’s idiosyncrasies. “A code-setter scrambled his head. Crick left himself open to attack.”
This wouldn’t have happened if they’d listened to him. Trunt had been telling them to stay in Isolation. It was rare they deigned to listen to their Kashto crew members though. Although he really wouldn’t have expected a capable codesetter in the slave quarters of an obscure mining station. Ooleck stations were somewhat impressive in their own right, but hardly important.
“And?” Prock asked, the word laden with meaning.
“I’ve taken what steps I could to begin the recovery!” Trunt replied. He dared look Prock in the face. “Unscrambling someone who has suffered an overcapacity attack is… difficult.”
“Difficult?!” Prock leaned even further in. The black eyes and toothy snout of the black and red Monos were far too close to be comfortable.
“It is only luck we found him in time!” Trunt defended himself, waving at the Monos with the welt on his face. The red and white Monos was stretched out over a table. It was never quite right seeing them on their back, they hated being in that posture. But if Crick was to be healed, he needed to be strapped down. His four arms, his back legs and his body were all strapped down to stop his random seizures from putting him at risk of harm. “Without the medical support, he would be dead.”
The others had been discarded, it was too much work to recover them.
“If he dies-”
“He wont!” Trunt replied quickly, cringing away from Prock’s hot breath. “It’s just time now! I need time to free up his mind! It takes time to remove the effects of an overcapacity parasite!”
“...”
Trunt had shut his eyes in fear. He cracked one open slightly as the expected blows did not fall. Prock had leaned away and was now looking upon his brother as the younger Monos twitched on the table. Prock turned his head back to Trunt.
“Is there any sign of who did this?”
“I, yes, I, I found a lead,” the Kashto stuttered, “Crick had asked me to delve for information on a shuttle that was visiting. A Bellani, Leralin, a couple Kraltnin and a batch of Humans were aboard.”
Prock turned his head to face Trunt. “Are they still here?”
“No, they have boarded a cargo ferry to Karkantantar.”
“Hrmph… call everyone back, we are departing.”
“Yes Captain!”

Oriashka

“Parasite placed, you can now disconnect.”
“Gotcha,” Chase replied, pulling the cable from the access port and securing it to the maintenance lock tucked into his harness. “That makes three, but now I have time get out of this, erk, shaft.”
“Are you injured?” She asked the Human.
“Nothing serious, just a big bruise and a light burn,” Chase explained.
“That pulse round clipped you,” Oriashka argued. “That is enough to remove Sapients from service.”
“Yeah, well I'd like do be out of service right now too,” Chase complained as he looked up to where he had come from. “But seriously, I don't want to go out the way we came in, so we're going the long way.”
Chase pushed away from the panel, grabbed one of the bars of the emergency ladder and flung himself downwards.
“There is a way out that you've used before?” She asked with curiosity.
“Sure… a couple times,” his attention wasn't fully on the conversation. Chase had to watch where he was going if he didn't want to be sent reeling.
As far as entering and exiting the pillars, Oriashka had done so herself, once. Chase lacked the methods she had available. His ability to capitalize on non standard methods of city traversal was far better however. But now she found herself with a nugget of worry in her chest. That shot to Chase's shoulder was liable to slow him down.
They spent the next few minutes of silence, watching the floors of the pillar pass them by. The silence didn't last, a dull hum rose in pitch as he descended. Finally Chase arrived at the base of the pillar. The first thing he did was rub his arms.
“Chase?”
“Lotsa power in the air, feels weird.”
They weren't at the bottom of the shaft. This, and all the other pillars sunk further into the mountain. But here it all passed through the gravity plants that did so much work to support the city and the column rising into space.
Inside this tube the only visual change was the symbols on the wall. Oriashka wasn't sure she wanted to see outside though. The great coil of machinery and adjoined power conversion facility could still be felt… by Chase anyways.
“Oof, starting to sweat,” Chase complained idly as he drifted downwards. "It's getting warmer," the man came to a stop as he arrived at a platform.
This platform, recessed into the wall, acted as the storage and recharge station for the maintenance pod. The pod was little more than a streamlined capsule. Most of its components were hidden within closed compartments. The only part open was the hatch for the driver, the long bench seat waiting empty. A typical no back design for winged Sapients.
“Looks kinda like a motorcycle, but wrapped in a shell,” Chase described to her.
“A motorcycle?”
“An Earth vehicle. A seat sitting on a motor between two wheels,” Chase touched down on the platform and walked around the machine as he spoke. “No guards or anything though. Motorcycles are fast and dangerous.”
“But how do the wheels fit?” The Leralin asked. “How does it adjust course?”
Chase stopped at a doorway just past the machine and turned his head, partially obscuring the vision if her sensor. “How does it steer?” He asked in momentary confusion, responding to her question. “Oh, a motorcycle has a wheel in front and back, not beside each other. The things can really go.”
“Oh!” Oriashka exclaimed lightly, the image rearranging itself in her head. “That does seem interesting… but how are you getting through that-”
As she had spoken, the man had activated his stealth, letting him blend out of sight. Chase then made her question unnecessary by tapping on the control pad next to the door. “It's only locked on one side.” It slid upwards and out of sight with a slight hiss.
“Now,” Chase whispered, “let's see if there's anyone here. He crept forward as he spoke, moving through the short corridor he had entered. The hum was all about them now, created by the structure Chase was passing through and the machines before them.
He peeked out slowly, looking into the large room surrounding them. The walkway descended down a wide set of stairs and split sideways just past a pair of huge dynamos. Multiple layers of energy fields surrounded the machines. Heat and sound still radiated from the things even through those fields.
“Why are they always orange?” Chase whispered absentmindedly as he looked around.
“The fields? That is the common warning colour. It also emits in several visual spectrums beyond you own.”
“Oh…” Chase had arrived at the little intersection taking it slow as he went.
“Left,” Oriashka directed, “There is a wireless signal coming around the right.”
Chase didn't need to be told twice and quickly darted around the corner and ran down the walkway before him.
This zone served as the dividing line between the industrial caverns underneath and the city districts above they were so used to. It was a respectable district in its own right, if comparably flat compared to the others.
The pillar behind them was a massive thing, surrounded by concrete buttresses with heavy rings of metals and composite conduits wound around them. More pillars like it were spread throughout this level, all of them visible to the naked eye but for intervening pillars. Smaller support pillars made up the majority of the supports visible through this slice of the mega city.
Looking towards the center Oriashka couldn’t see the central transport conduit that ran straight into space. massive labyrinthine structures that distributed power and other utilities to the city surrounded the central pillar.
“I’m so happy for this suit!” Chase whispered happily as he jogged. “The last time I was in here I had to run my legs off to find a way out!”
“You were spotted?”
“Instantly! It was pretty rough.”
“What are we looking for to get out of this level?”
“A vent to the lower industrial zone, then a transport back to the district should be easy to find.”
“Let me seeAWK!” Oriashka squawked in Chase’s ear with surprise as a big meaty hand placed itself on her shoulder in real space. She looked up to see Crawk looming over.
“Holy, ow!” Chase complained. “Is everything okay over there?”
“Yes, Crawk surprised me, I’m connecting him to the conversation.”
“Hello Chase, and sorry Oria for the-” his soft voice was interrupted by the Leralin.
“Oriashka,” she told him, with little wiggle room.
“Sorry Oriashka,” he said with a little chuckle. “I just wanted you both to know that most of the district exits into the gaps are being observed. That little thing with the deconstructor seems to have garnered Hatherkey’s attention. He’s tipped his hand, now Red Tail knows he has some connections in city security.”
“So I gotta find another way then?” Chase’s tone wasn’t that of asking a question however. “Do you need me back right away?”
“No, there are no pressing reasons to have you back immediately, I’d rather have you back safely in a while then risk your hide,” Crawk assured the man. “You have another way in?”
“They’re watching the district, I’ll just have to go the long way around,” Chase replied. “But it’ll take me awhile to get around to another district.”
“That’s acceptable, stay safe Chase,” Crawk wished him well, then disconnected.
Oriashka nodded at Crawk as he stepped back. The big Ytheon nodded in return, then turned and walked out of her simple office. She placed her hands back on the armrests of her chair and settled back into the full dataspace. “What is your plan Chase?”
“Well… Oriashka, I’m going to use the outer ring transit.”
“Oh… that will be a walk to get there.”
A distant crash drew Chase’s attention. He peered through the pillars, large and small, to see where the noise had come from.
“Oh, wow, I guess that’s why there’s so much space in here,” Chase commented.
“What are you referring to?” Oriashka couldn’t see his point of interested.
“Oh yeah, you can’t see me pointing,” Chase realized out loud. “You see the huge construction walker there?”
“Construction walker? Oh, yes, I do.”
The machine bore similarities to the deconstructor they’d seen at the pillar. It was much larger however. The multi-legged machine was picking itself up, apparently finished its task. The legs were of even lengths this time since they didn’t need to reach around a pillar. The ‘abdomen’ also carried two of the horizontal dynamos that surrounded each of the pillars. It was picking up and moving away from some of the installed dynamos, the ones built into it probably serving as backups. Oria guessed they would serve to allow maintenance work on the static installations.
“That… pretty cool, but there’s still things to do. Is it possible to get a listing for transports that head to the outer ring?” Chase asked, picking the conversation back up. “I can find a vent and the suit gives me lotsa wiggle room, but I’m not sure where I’m going after that.”
“Hmm, yes,” she replied, “It will take some time, but it seems we have some of that to spare.”
“Thanks.”
He continued on his way. The last time he’d been here it had been several sprints along open walkways to avoid the resident workers and moving drones. And certain intersections had poles installed with static sensors. It had been a harrowing experience getting out of the place. It was this event more than any that had cemented Chase’s awareness of how fit he had become.
Obscured from sight, Chase didn’t even had to cringe out of sight when a hover floated overhead, carrying a technician to his or her destination.
The area was dotted with utility sources. Pump stations drawing and redirecting water about the city. Great transformers that distributed power to the pillars upon which all the blocks were built. And most importantly the Dynamos that maintained the columns and also sent power to the elevator up to space.
Chase had never been to the ring. As he looked about the wide space to the center pillar he wondered if and when he might.
It wasn’t long until Chase found a vertical descending elevator to the industrial sector. The elevator was locked to him, he had no means to interact with it. Chase had inspected the industrial looking thing but had found no physical controls, only a port to connect a cable.
But the sides of it were open. It reminded Chase of the stereotypical mineshaft elevator. “Welp, here’s the way down. I guess I’ll begin clim-”
With a k-chunk, the locks released. “I’m in!” Oriashka said brightly. “I’ll bring us down.”
Chase closed his mouth and nodded. “Cool.”

End Chapter

Next

Take the most euphoric, faithsmashing quote of all time:
"In this moment, I am euphoric. Not because of any phony god's blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my intellegence."
Remove the letters B, C, F, H, I, J, K, M, P, Q, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z. You get:
"N s oent, a or. Not ease o an on god's lessng. t ease, a enlgtened ntellegene"
Now take these letters and unscramble them, and you get:
"GGGGOOOD DOOOEEEEEESSSNNNNNNNNTTTT REEEEEAAALLLL"

Mind blown, right?
Our prophet AALewis knew all along he also included an extremely euphoric anagram inside his faithsmashing quote when he artfully and skillfully crafted it that one day. This is why he will become a major professional quote maker one day and be known as the greatest of all time.

I was reading through an old AskReddit (What is your favorite unsolved mystery?) and came across this comment about the YOGTZE case. Which in itself does sound like - had it not taken place in Germany - it would be an X File.
Those letters looked familiar to me so I went back through my notes and found that Scully's license plate, is a scrambled version of Y0GTZE:

• Plate numbers: 3Y7 260
• closest corrosponding letters would be: EYT ZGO
• unscrambled would be: YOGTZE

(This is referring to Scully's actual D.C. car, not some rented one).
The odds that this is a coincidence seem impossibly high. Am I crazy for thinking this is an intentional nod to a real-life case, even if just by a random prop maker? Has anyone else already noticed this and I'm just late to the game?
Note: Upon creating this post I noticed that another way of scrambling these letters would spell "ZYGOTE", which actually would be somewhat relevant to the character, given her scientific background and the future implications of her abduction. Now I must be looking too far into this, right?