Written by u/GoldWhale & u/JD397
Thanks everyone for your patience with us getting this written up. Much appreciation to my co-author u/JD397 for his work, scouting analysis, and comprehensive background knowledge on where Demidov sat compared to historical players, and the international analysis. Please note, this analysis won’t focus on why Demidov>Levshunov. In terms of BPA, Demidov is nearly unanimously over Levshunov based on consolidated rankings. With the Blackhawks publicly saying they want to go BPA, we hope to establish a case as to why Demidov truly stands above the rest, by a good margin. We hope that this was worth the wait, and we haven’t disappointed anyone who may have wanted more. We’re amateurs, give us a small break 😉
When Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly flipped the decisive card to reveal the number one overall pick, Blackhawks fans were disappointed. They were going to miss out on Macklin Celebrini, the consensus number one center and number one overall player in the draft. After winning Connor Bedard the prior year, many fans were hoping for a one two punch down the middle, their own version of McDavid and Draisaitl, Crosby and Malkin; this was not to be.
Despite the initial dismay, fans were still happy. The Blackhawks won the second lottery, and with that, the rights to select a franchise player at number two overall. Immediately, though, there was debate. Swirling on social media there were rumors that the Blackhawks were predominantly looking at two high end prospects: Ivan Demidov (RW/C) and Artyom Levshunov (D). On one hand Demidov is an elite prospect at wing with excellent hands, creativity, and legitimate top line wing with PPG+ upside. On the other, Levshunov is a dynamic offensive defenseman with a stellar shot, solid size, dynamic skating, and most importantly right-handedness.
The Blackhawks, realistically, need both positions. Last year the Blackhawks iced one of the worst offenses in the entire league, scoring the second least goals behind only San Jose. They also had the fourth worst defense, surrendering 290 goals on the season. Neither are acceptable in the push for a playoff spot in the coming years, but ultimately with number two, you can only choose one of the two players. After our hours of analysis, u/JD397 and I believe there is no debate – as good as Levshunov is, Demidov is closer in skill and projection to Celebrini than anyone else in the draft is to him.
So who is Ivan Demidov? He’s an 18 year old forward playing for SKA 1946, a MHL affiliate of SKA of the KHL. Since the 2023 draft the big story out of the KHL was the dominance of Matvei Michkov. This was a kid who destroyed the MHL by putting up 38 points in 22 games and going PPG+ in the playoffs his D-1 Year. Michkov then outperformed Connor Bedard by putting up 16 points in 7 games at the IIHF U18s in 2021. Michkov was, and still is, borderline generational but there was someone else waiting in his shadow. In his D-1 Year, Ivan Demidov put up 62 points in 41 games, and scored 1.3PPG in the MHL playoffs. While putting up a lower PPG pace than Michkov, Demidov’s game was substantially more well rounded and scouts started to take notice of another potential franchise winger in Ivan Demidov.
Demidov exploded in his D-0 Year, putting up a literal 2.0 PPG pace in the MHL the highest pace ever for a player 18 or under, and the third highest PPG in league history. In the playoffs, despite an injury, Demidov posted a ridiculous 28 points in 17 games. This production was unheard of beforehand and bested Kucherov’s 1.87 point pace at 18. Not only did Demidov have better production AND two way play, but he also did it nearly 7 months younger. Demidov remains a bright spot who is able to elevate his play to the competition. Before talking about playstyle, strengths, comps, projections, etc. it needs to be noted just how dominant Demidov was on the scoresheet.
Now that fans know who Ivan Demidov is, let’s address the elephant in the room. Demidov is Russian and with the political climate worldwide, being a Russian is associated with an inherent risk of a prospect not coming over. Rest assured – there is no such concern in this case. Last year, rumors swirled around Michkov not coming over due to three factors:

1. Michkov did not meet with more than two teams and actively told specific teams he would not play for them.
   
2. Michkov was incredibly difficult to get ahold of predraft and it made scouts and front offices skeptical on his character and desire to come to the NHL.
   
3. Michkov had 3 more years left on his contract with SKA.
   

Demidov, on the other hand, is actively engaging with teams. He’s hosting a workout in Florida before the draft for multiple teams to attend, and is actively having his agent coordinate interviews and meetings with interested front offices. Demidov has publicly declared his intention to come over to the NHL as soon as possible, even venturing so far as to say he’s looking at options for getting out of his KHL contract to get to the NHL for the 24-25 season. Finally, Demidov only has 1 year left on his contract so there isn’t long term concern about losing the ability to develop him internally. An interesting note that we found during analysis was that Demidov’s agent, Dan Milstein, is “hated” in the KHL because of how consistently he pushes for his clients to leave Russia and transition them to the NHL. Even if Demidov is stuck in Russia all of next year, there’s almost zero risk he doesn’t come over.
On Demidov, the other large question that looms is his lack of play in the KHL, and SKA’s decision to play him in the MHL. Despite being the one of the best players in MHL history, Demidov only saw action in 4 KHL games and scored a total of 0 points which has also turned off many scoresheet watchers. Let us reassure you – Demidov was predominantly the 13th forward and played an average of 3-5 minutes per game with unfamiliar linemates. He did not have a chance to play enough to succeed, and built no chemistry with the teammates he was playing with in his limited time. SKA is notorious for handling their prospects poorly. Young players are consistently given limited ice time, especially when they’re expected to leave Russia. Michkov, despite his skill, couldn’t crack the SKA roster in his D-0 or D+1 simply because of this bias. All said, this is not a concern scouts have when it comes to the potential drafting of Demidov.
With the Russia question answered, we believe there is no doubt that Ivan Demidov is the pick to make in the 2024 draft. Ivan Demidov is really really good. He is the complete package for what you look for in a franchise winger. Demidov has excellent hands, dynamic edgework, elite hockey IQ, high end compete and energy, a relentless forecheck, creativity in the offense he provides, solid two way play, and finally rapid speed in terms of release and puck control. There is no one like him in this draft who offers such an elite skillset with no obvious flaws in his game outside of his build. He can also play center when needed which gives him additional offensive flexibility and adds even more dynamism to his game.
While analytics don’t tell the full story, they can often be a useful baseline to build from. The first item we want to call attention to is Byron Bader’s model, which projects Demidov as the best #2OA prospect since Eichel.. Let's again be clear, we don’t put much merit into this due to the low gradings of Carlsson and Laine, but it’s important to contextualize how Bader’s model works. It compares prospects to the league they’re in and projects them out. Demidov dominated the MHL to such a degree that the model favorably views him due to being almost untouched in play, and setting multiple records. Continuing with Hockey Prospecting and Bader, who is an active NHL draft consultant, they project Demidov to be an absolute STUD based on production. No forward who they’ve ever given 99%s to has ever been less than PPG+. Demidov has a very comparable offensive game to Celebrini, and is all but guaranteed to be a star due to his production and skillset. Alanen also projects Demidov to be elite in all 3 zones, and gives him a total RARE grade of 100, due to his next level offense and transition, and above average defensive work despite his assignments. Again, analytics aren’t an end all be all by any means. They’re just an exceptional base to build from when scouts, data scientists and NHL draft consultants unanimously believe a player to be elite. From our research, no prospects with comparable profiles have busted or not succeeded in the NHL.
Whilst reading multiple articles, watching videos on Demidov, and going through tape, we compiled the following scouting report.
Physical Attributes:
Demidov is not very physically imposing, or even one of the most physical players in the draft. He’s expected to show up to the combine around 6ft tall and weighing 170lbs. Admittedly one knock that some scouts have for him is his build and need to bulk up. Thankfully, this is easy to build at the professional level. Nonetheless, Demidov has sturdy base that enables him to dominate around the boards and in front of the net due to his rapid twitch movements and lower body power. Demidov is able to outskate and outwork larger and stronger players by being smart with his legs and driving to the inside consistently when in transition. His remarkable agility and lower-body strength allow him to outmaneuver opponents and maintain possession in tight spaces, or separate for quick attacks or desperation back checking.
Skating:
Demidov's skating is characterized by irregularities; while he exhibits great power on his edges, his transitions suffer due to a wide stance, leading to questionable but explosive pivot work. Despite this, his rapid acceleration and agility enable him to navigate through traffic seamlessly, while his powerful stride generates significant momentum, making him a constant threat in transition. Let’s clear up a misconception; Demidov is not a bad skater. He’s got decent speed, a good handle on body control, power on the inside of his edges and with quick crossovers, etc. His posture and stance need work, but this is something that looks completely fixable at the NHL level. It doesn’t require a rebuild of his skating style, rather a retool that can utilize his edgework as a base. Instead of hunching over at the end of a shift and losing speed and energy, Demidov can rely on quicker small movement cuts on for rapid movement and longer, albeit slower strides while holding himself higher to preserve energy while covering distance. While the 10 and 2 skating that Demidov employs isn’t conventional, it allows him to see a good deal of the ice, and when in close provide breaking speed towards the play. Fixing the reliance on 10 and 2 also offers faster top level skating and easier quick pivoting in a 200ft game, rather than a longer turn. Again, his skating is unorthodox – but it isn’t bad. It’s not mechanically sound, but it can be polished to a high level without a large amount of concern. Because of how unpredictable his skating is now, scouts across the board acknowledge that it potentially even grants an advantage as his body is harder to read.
Scoring Ability:
A natural sniper, Demidov possesses a lethal shot with pinpoint accuracy and a lightning-quick release that catches goaltenders off guard. Whether he's unleashing a blistering wrist shot from the slot or wiring a one-timer on the power play, Demidov consistently finds the back of the net with precision and finesse. One really underrated part of Demidov’s scoring ability comes from the aforementioned elite edgework. Due to how rapidly he can change directions while holding full control over the puck, he can create scoring lanes with almost zero room, and his accuracy is again one of the best we’ve evaluated as amateur scouts in the last few drafts. When there isn’t an immediate opening or shot, Demidov is patient, draws coverage where he wants, and again has no qualms about firing the puck to the net. If there’s one question about his ability to score, it’s his slapshot. He hasn’t had to use it in almost any occasion due to how the offense is structured on SKA 1946, and therefore it’s not as developed as his snap or wrister. This is a relatively minor knock, though. Demidov can take slapshots and find twine without much difficulty, it’s just the least refined part of his goalscoring ability.
Playmaking and Elite Hands:
Demidov has the best hands that we have scouted. Better than McDavid, better than Fantilli, better than Hughes, better than Bedard, better than Michkov, and yes, better than Patrick Kane as a prospect. Yep, that good. Hadi Kalakeche, one of Dobber’s lead scouts says, “…he has THE best handling skill I’ve seen… he’s the closest thing we’ve seen to Pavel Datsyuk since Pavel Datsyuk.” The rapidity of his movement, the purposeful puck placement, the astounding protection rate, and his ability to pull defenders off of him without moving his body is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Again, he has the most individual puck skill and innate offensive talent in the draft. These skills with his hands allow him to become an absolutely next level playmaker. Demidov is crafty, and has a history of faking shots to make a pass, or vice versa to help his team. He’s able to create lanes and take advantage of his puck control by having absolutely next level zone entry to set up the offense on a consistent basis. While his decision making needs some work when it comes to choosing the best move, he almost always makes the right one, and is able to think through solutions when there’s no apparent move forward. Whether it’s a drop pass, running the puck up the boards, a regroup, finding a teammate with a perfectly slotted pass, Demidov has no real ceiling. The only question remains is whether these skills will work as well at the next level. All said though, there’s no real debate between scouts that he’ll be a franchise winger.
Creativity and IQ:
Demidov is electrifying, brilliant, dynamic, innovative, transcendent, and any other adjective you want to use. There is no prospect in this draft with Demidov’s offensive upside, including Macklin Celebrini. As mentioned above, Demidov has been compared to Datsyuk: he is stellar at opening up lanes with his body or finding passes, even if they’re banked off the boards. While Bedard is a guy who was expected to shoot first, Demidov is a passer. This works in his favor, though. Demidov certainly doesn’t lack a scoring touch. His positioning and body will tell goalies and defenders he’s planning to pass and he’s able to quickly change direction using his edges to put a shot on net. His ability to think several steps ahead of the play allows him to execute highlight-reel passes and capitalize on scoring opportunities that others on his team might miss, or simply not have the skill to execute. He’s unpredictable because his vision is at such a high level. He’s got a game reminiscent of Jack Hughes and Patrick Kane, and the way he views the game has scouts absolutely over the moon about his pro projection. There really is nothing that Demidov doesn’t have the ability to do – this year in the MHL he took advantage of the strength of competition and tested it out. Demidov tried different reads, different styles, working more heavily down the middle, shooting, playdriving, etc. We’re blown away by the flexibility that he shows across every facet of the game. A really fun quote to mention from Lassi Alanen, EP’s director of Euro scouting is, “I still have like 100+ unused clips of Demidov's play from this season. He must be the most clippable prospect I've ever watched. Something eye-catching happening almost every shift during his second half of the season.” Demidov’s highlight reel isn’t really a “reel” – that’s just how he plays the game on most shifts that he takes.
Physicality and Defensive Awareness:
Demidov's physicality extends well beyond his height, as he isn't afraid to throw his weight (all 170lbs) around and engage in board battles to win possession. His defensive awareness is equally impressive, as he uses his size and reach to disrupt passing lanes and apply pressure on opposing forwards both in the defensive zone and in the neutral zone, showcasing a commitment to playing a complete, two-way game. As briefly mentioned, Demidov doesn’t exclusively play wing – he plays center too. While he’s not going to be Patrice Bergeron he is capable of handling both ends of the ice, and has consistently improved his defensive play throughout the year.
Work Ethic and Engagement:
While almost all prospects “work hard” to play their best on the ice, Demidov does that little bit more. Despite being a winger, he’s consistently one of the first players up and down the ice. He rarely coasts and drifts around but is engaged rather consistently all around the ice. One thing that’s often hard to teach prospects is how to be aggressive and assertive without being risky. Demidov never worries about challenging his opponents, fighting hard board battles, or giving his all to get back into a play after he’s low after driving to the net. This is something that the Blackhawks LOVE in their players, and should hopefully encourage GMKD to pull the trigger, if everything else didn’t sell him. As we see Demidov continue to improve in skating with NHL coaches, this should only give him more energy to expend in the 200ft game, and improve his engagement across plays. He’s an absolute workhorse, and consistently pushes to improve which evidenced by the massive improvement across this season in the MHL. There’s no reason to think this same drive can’t come through on the NHL level.
Areas to Improve and Questions:
With all the hype around Demidov, it’s hard to initially understand why he’s considered a lower end prospect than Celebrini. Digging in, though, it becomes more clear. While Demidov has the higher ceiling, he also has a much lower floor. The number one factor that limits Demidov is his exposure to higher end competition. The MHL is a good league, but Demidov was ready for the KHL last year. Since he wasn’t exposed to higher end competition there is still question on how much of his skillset will translate when playing higher level men’s hockey. There isn’t an expectation of a problem, but when a player lacks that experience, it undoubtedly makes them more challenging to project. Remember, Demidov didn’t really play meaningful KHL minutes when he got 4 games this year. He got 13th forward exposure and didn’t play with the same linemates that he worked with in the pre-season. Nonetheless, he wasn’t perfect. He did see some questionable decisions while trying to adapt to higher competition. There’s little concern that this is an actual issue, but Demidov needs to grow and play against men, even for a few games, before coming to the NHL. Thankfully, he should have the entire season in 2024-2025, and I haven’t read a single scouting report that expects him to have an issue putting up Michkov+ numbers.
The second factor is skating. Demidov is a good skater, but he’s unorthodox at best. While this skating relies heavily on his edgework which gives him amazing playmaking ability, his pivoting, high end speed, position and stride could all use refinement and improvement. While these are all skating mechanics that are easier to fix, skating is NOT a guarantee. If he’s unable to improve his skating with NHL skating coaches, it could limit his upside. He is still expected to be a top line winger, but it could be the difference between 70+ and 100+ points if skating doesn’t develop. Remember, some scouts view his skating as a “hidden” upside in his game, but improving skating not only gives him more offensive flexibility, but also defensively. There’s room for improvement, and it could be an easier lever to correct to see high rewards from.
The third factor is decision making. Demidov is creative to a fault, but just like in art, not every project works out. With such an advanced toolkit, Demidov needs to work with video coaches to better understand which moveset is appropriate in which scenario and when to deploy it. There’s a difference between decision making and IQ. Decision making is hard to fix when a prospect is set in their ways based on playstyle, but if playstyle is more flexible, then there’s much less of a concern. IQ, on the other hand is uncoachable, and Demidov has arguably the best offensive IQ in the draft. There’s no reason to believe that he can’t fix this, but due to being stuck abroad, and potentially even the MHL again next year, it could take him a bit longer to get up to NHL speed.
The final factor is defense. While it seems that every single forward prospect has a knock on their defense, we can qualify Demidov’s specifics a bit more easily. Demidov is a competent defender, and a very good well rounded player, but again decision making plays a factor in the challenge of projecting him here. While players like Celebrini are dominant both ways, Demidov often doesn’t make the right choice when defending – he has a lot of offensive instincts which have him sit higher on the blue, and while he is always engaged on the puck, he needs to be more responsible in coverage rotations. Off the rush, Demidov doesn’t always read the play correctly, and the inconsistency can create shooting lanes for his opponent. Just like Michkov, he can also cheat on plays where he finds himself a bit further away from a play and loses sight of his defensive assignment. He’s extremely energetic and consistently pushes to get back, but working with him on understanding when to cheat will be important for his development as well. We again want to reemphasize that Demidov plays solid defense and a good two way game, especially for a wingecenter. But there’s room for improvement in terms of bridging the gap between him and other recent prospects like Celebrini, Carlsson, and Johnston.
Pro Projection:
While he doesn’t have the skating that Jack Hughes had, he’s still a great projection and comparable. A smaller but nimble player who isn’t afraid to get involved on the rush, around the boards, or in transition. Demidov’s offensive upside is similar as well – like Hughes, the defense isn’t the best, but he’s able to run an entire offense both on the wing and playing center. He’s creative to a fault, has a great set of hands, and the toolkit to be a consistent top 5 player at his position in the NHL. Pro projections are always hard because you can never guarantee how a player will turn out, whether they’re undrafted or a #1OA, but Demidov is truly all but a sure thing. His creativity rivals players like Nikita Kucherov and Mitch Marner in their ability to think ahead of where the play is, his handling rivals Kane and Datysuk, his defensive play is above average for a winger, he has a great shot comparable to players like Matt Tkachuk, and is a bitch to get off the puck. Even when Demidov is literally on the ground, he’s consistently able to hold possession and find a play with no room left. With a toolkit like his, decent size at an estimated 6ft, there should be no reservations that Demidov should succeed at the next level. Most scouts see his floor around 65-70 points, and his ceiling closer to 120. I stand by the Jack Hughes comp I made earlier. While they differ in skating, they play very similar games, and should expect similar success at the next level.
Quotes:

“He’s got the best hands in the draft… and has made more one-on-one skill plays so far this season than almost any prospect I’ve scouted for any draft. He’s also a pretty engaged off-puck player who keeps his feet moving, hunts pucks on the forecheck, and can turn a steal into a game-breaking play in an instant.”
Scott Wheeler, The Athletic
“Demidov is already a game-breaking forward who can move the puck effortlessly and there’s no question he’d be a fantastic partner to some of the best prospects in the NHL today. His production in the MHL is comparable to Patrick Kane’s 2006-07 season with the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights… Demidov is a bonafide first-line winger who will score tons of goals.”
Dayton Reimer, The Hockey Writers
“In a vacuum he’s the most talented forward this draft class has to offer outside of Celebrini. Demidov possesses many of the same traits Celebrini does, only his track record is against younger, more unproven talent."
Sam Cosentino, Sportsnet
“The talent of Demidov is impossible to deny. His raw skills might be the best in terms of offense in the entire draft. His puckhandling, shot, passing, and even skating makes him a unique hockey player and prospect. There are many great offensive players, but not many quite like Demidov. Especially who will also have a great drive and motor to play a strong 200 foot game… he could easily be a point per game player in the NHL on most teams first line.”
Frederik Frandsen, Last Word on Sports
“At the end of the day, what you get in a player like Ivan Demidov is a generational offensive dynamo with the mind of a master chess player. Each time he gains possession of the biscuit, his ability to think many steps ahead of the opponent, find creative solutions involving his puck handling abilities, as well as creating tremendous execution at creating space with his skating or precisely hitting the net is considered to be up to par at the NHL level.”
Tyler Ballesteros-Willard, Draft Prospects Hockey
“Any forward that has ever had the type of equivalency we’ve seen from Demidov in his pre-draft year and draft year, going back to the ’80s, has turned into a point-per-game-plus superstar over their careers… You need stars to compete and contend in the NHL, and Demidov is almost guaranteed to be that.”
Byron Bader, Hockey Prospecting
“Demidov is the most dynamic, verstatile, and creative [puck] handler we’ve seen come through the draft in recent years. Elements of his on-puck decision-making remain raw, but his upside as a 100-point top-line winger is supported by decent off-puck and defensive engagement and lightning-quick processing of the game. His elite-level of on-puck intelligence and his trifecta of dynamic handling, playmaking, and goalscoring tools give him the foundation to become an electrifying creative force and offensive driver.”
Sebastian High, Dobber
“Demidov breaks defences. He spots a tiny gap in coverage, bursts right through, and blows it open. He plays mostly a finesse game, but does so hyper-aggressively, attacking everything he can. Demidov succeeds at pulling off plays that most prospects can't. He plans, processes, and anticipates faster than he can stickhandle. He's a pure creator with the puck, making plays out of nothing.”
David St. Louis, Elite Prospects
“Demidov is the more dynamic and flashy prospect [Than Michkov].Demidov is the single-most gifted handler in the entire 2024 class. He projects to be the superior one-on-one attacker…someone who can single-handedly create out of thin air. When it comes to passing ability…Demidov’s ability to chain together handling sequences into following passing plays is second to none.”
Lassi Alanen, Elite Prospects
“It’s a no brainer[at #2OA]. It’s Ivan Demidov all day, every day, 24/7. You run to the stage and pick him… if you ask me, Ivan Demidov is better than Matvei Michkov… He’s the only prospect in our rankings who we gave a 10 grade to for a specific ability. It’s not just the handling skill in isolation it’s the creativity. He comes up with solutions no one can expect.. his motor is underrated, puts in work defensively… it’s a no brainer there.”
Hadi Kalakeche, Locked on NHL/Dobber

Our Scouting:
Clip 1:
As we talked about prior, Demidov has a great IQ and the ability to create lanes and plays out of nothing. Demidov pushes up the ice and enters the zone with pressure closing onto the side. He uses his hands to pull in control, but more impressively, puts his body between the defender and the puck. He uses his edgework and breaking speed to push past the defender, then is patient enough to draw 3 defenders towards him, away from his teammate. When he sees the trailing defenseman waiting, he immediately finds a tight pass for a wide open teammate to capitalize.
Clip 2:
There’s a difference between a safe move, and then there’s an insane move. Watch as Demidov comes up on the left side. He sees that the defender is getting desperate and goes for a large poke. Demidov slides the puck under the Dman’s stick and once again shows off his patience. Instead of going for a quick shot he reads that the other defender is slowly coming across the crease to prevent a passing lane. Instead of just shooting like most players, Demidov baits the goalie into thinking he’s going to run into the defenseman, and in that second, puts the puck in the net.
Clip 3:
Small play, but this is just about how slick his passing is. He slides the puck through a very tight lane while baiting the defenseman into sliding due to not knowing where the play is going to be.
Clip 4:
While we can put on nonstop highlights, it’s also important to see how smart Demidov’s game is. Demidov and the other SKA players move the puck around a bit trying to find an opening until they give it to Demidov. Demidov reads an open play and passes the puck down, but instead of immediately following the puck or staying at his spot, Demidov uses his high engagement to instead move to the other side of the net down low to offer accessory support for his teammates on his anticipated cross crease pass, should there have been a rebound.
Clip 5:
Not every highlight is going to be a goal. One really underrated part of Demidov’s game is how well he’s able to read the offense. As he holds high initially, he’s able to help move the puck out in order to reset the offense when the play fails. His motor keeps him in the play and with his excellent edges, he’s able to make a quick pivot after rushing around in order to step up and create an open shooting lane. While his teammate can’t make the pass to get the puck to him, Demidov read where the play WOULD be, not just where it was. Those IQ aspects really can’t be taught, and are part of what makes him so special. By anticipating the open play rather than following the puck, he establishes himself as a play driver by creating options rather just following and executing structure at a high level.
Clip 6:
We're not even going to analyze this one. It’s just fucking fun. Talent oozes.
Clip 7:
This video has a ton of highlights, which I’d definitely recommend watching, but we’re going to focus specifically on the play at 0:45. We can post clips of Demidov scoring goals, finding breakaways, etc. all day long, but when thinking about translation to the NHL, IQ and decision making is what we’re really drying to drill down on. Demidov arrives in the zone through to middle and pushes the initial F1 to the F3 spot and changes the rotation. The puck is dumped to him and the initial F1 leaves a drop pass for Demidov approaching the goal. As soon as Demidov gets the puck, at 0:47, you can see him primed and in a good shooting position. The bigger defender misread the play and has drifted too far towards the center of the ice, leaving Demidov with a nearly unobstructed shooting lane as the netfront defenseman is also too far toward the middle. Instead of taking the shot, he instead waits to draw over the netfront defenseman, and the bigger defenseman closer towards him, leaving his teammate literally untouched across the crease. Demidov trusts his hands and ability with an extremely quick and accurate pass through the stick range of three defenders to find his teammate wide open. His decision making has been progressively improving and his ability to look off the shot to find an elite pass will translate extremely well to the next level.
Clip 8:
Another play where you can just be excited about Demidov. The puck is wrapped up around the boards and the defenseman sitting at the top of the blue just pushes the puck back into the zone without a clear target, or a player who has an explicit opening to the puck. If anything, the puck is put in the middle of all 5 Karpat skaters. Despite starting on the outside, Demidov’s engagement shines through where he uses his edgework to get a rapid explosive burst of speed, and pushes through both defenders in front of him to gain possession. Once he gains possession, his ability to control the puck, and his handles help to demonstrate just how strong of a prospect Demidov is. Even when the defender is falling onto him, Demidov is patient, makes the netfront defender bite to believe he’s going wide, creating a lane (effectively bypassing 3 separate Karpat players) to get to the goalie unobstructed. Then, his hands come out and he absolutely undresses the netminder with moves that the video literally cannot fully capture. He makes highlights like this look routine, every single game.
Clip 9:
Sometimes when you see a play it’s hard to say anything but wow. Demidov leads the rush through the neutral zone and reads the coverage a much less conventional 1-4 scheme. The offensive rush is a bit unconventional as well, but can offer a smart solution. By having 3 attackers, two concentrated up the middle and one wide, it allows for quick movement up the middle, and post defensive collapse onto the puck, a pass to the outside for a clear entry lane and shot. Demidov passes to his teammate directly across the center of the ice as he expects that teammate to immediately get puck to their teammate on the outside as coverage collapses. Demidov gauges where the openings are pre pass, as evidenced by the head movement. Unfortunately, instead of immediately passing again to the outside for an open lane, his teammate runs into pressure, and panics. He passes back to Demidov who is less than 8ft away and will inevitably will run into immediate pressure as well. Somehow, this is no problem for Demidov. He collects the puck with the literal tip of his stick, uses his body push the defender off, and then pulls the puck in while facing the wrong direction to slip past the defender. Despite being placed in a no win situation his hands and creativity shine through and he creates a clean lane to shoot the puck at the net. It’s almost inhuman what he’s able to do with his hands. When he gets to the net, he’s patient, baits the goalie, pulls wide, and then puts in a clean backhand. Some of these highlights are literally awe-inspiring.
Closing Thoughts:
If this scouting report doesn’t get you excited for Demidov, we don’t think anything will. He’s truly the most electric player in the draft with absolutely ridiculous hands, compete, dynamic play, and highlight reel performance. His IQ is next level, and his hands allow him to do truly amazing things with his skillset and competency. Demidov’s vision is absurd; he consistently makes passes to his teammates without looking, or sends a pass before a teammate has a clean break by using anticipation. These RARELY lead to a turnovers and are often not only creative but unorthodox methods to continue to move the puck up ice. Although his skating is unorthodox, he’s explosive, able to create comprehensive offensive maneuvers due to quick transitions, and make off angle passes with ease due to his edgework. He is elite in transition and able to run a breakout, an offense, and play any of the F1/F2/F3 roles when the situation calls for it. Despite his expected size of “only” 6ft 170lbs, Demidov knows how to use his body and hands. He not only protects the puck on offense but can draw defenders away from his teammates in predictable patterns, once again opening up space for him to capitalize. The same goes for defense where he's able to use his positioning to get the edge on his opponents for a rapid takeaway or a box out off the rush.
As we mentioned earlier, Demidov’s game isn’t limited only to offense, he has a decent understanding of the two way game as well. He’s a relentless forechecker, aggressive on the boards, and also always willing to use his high running motor to jump back into a play that leaves the zone, even if he’s right next to the net. Demidov has the most skill and raw talent out of any player in this draft, including Celebrini. Had Demidov not been demoted to the MHL due to SKA’s poor management, there is almost no doubt that he would be considered nearly neck and neck with Celebrini. As it is now, Demidov is ranked #2 on most boards, and the overall #2 in the consolidated ranking. Demidovs don’t come around often; people last year were genuinely considering whether Michkov was at Bedard’s level. Demidov rivals Michkov if not exceeds him.
You can nitpick the analysis we have of any one single aspect of Demidov. Not everyone buys analytics. Not everyone buys playmaking in a lower league. Not everyone likes irregular skating. Not everyone is on board with the MHL stat sheet, our hype etc. etc. We get it. Really, we do. But at the end of the day, when you step back and appreciate the full body of work, the comps, the analytics, the rave scouting reports, unanimous love, models, stat sheets, skill, work ethic, and more that ALL say that this kid is elite, there’s fire beyond the smoke. Demidov is THE guy. There should not be a debate at #2.
For those of you who made it to the end, thanks for reading! Ultimately we know there will be inevitable debate about a prospect, but we appreciate you hearing us out, and at least letting me, u/GoldWhale, spam the sub over the last few weeks in love of Demidov. Whether or not you agree with our analysis, we encourage you to do your own scouting, read from the authors we've included, watch through all the highlights in the linked videos, and draw your own conclusions!
We appreciate everyone in this community, and will try to answer any questions that you may have in the comments. If you so choose, please feel free to crosspost to other subs, edit, or utilize this writeup anywhere you like (forums/blogs/youtube etc.), just link back to our original post! For those in professional media who have contacted us with the hope of utilizing our writeup, feel free, again just link back to the original post as well. Thanks again!

The sentence is "No, I do not like lizards, only cats and dogs." I don't know why anyone would care but I'm board so I'm making this.
Nikeerean:
Nei, Nie sulde lek varenginen srige kathen ant ogen.
IPA: /naj nie sulde lex vaʁenginen katen anʔ owgen/
Gloss:
[Nei - no: exclamation]
[Nie - I, : Pronoun]
[Sulde - no: present continuous]
[Lek - to like: verb, present continuous]
[varenginen plural of varengin - lizard, reptile: Noun]
[srige - to be alone: adjective]
[kathen plural of kath - a cat: noun]
[ant - and, also, plus: coordinating conjunction]
[ogen plural of og - a dog: noun]
Panjonese:
Romanization: Ai, ka ametarego aiaiteko, rakoai ketsumama achi datsekoko.
IPA: /aj ka ametarego ajajteko rakoaj ketsumama atʃi datsekoko/
Gloss:
[ai - no: exclamation]
[ka - I: pronoun]
[ametarego - Lizard, someone who is disloyal: Noun/adjective]
[aiaiteko negitive form of aiteko- to like: verb]
[rakoai - to be alone : adjective]
[ketsumama plural of ketsuma - a cat: noun]
[achi - to add: verb]
[datsekoko plural of datseko - a dog: noun]
Panjonese In Original Script
Strokian:
Taи, бpи тaиxa aийo лидpиcиxи, фaткap cдpaдaxи aþ бpacкэxи.
IPA: /taj bri tajxa ajːo lidrisxi fatkar sdradaxi aθ braskexi/
Gloss:
[Taи - no: exclamation]
[бpи - I: pronoun]
[тaиxa - to not be good: adjective]
[aийo - to like: verb]
[лидpиcиxи plural of лидpиc - a lizard: noun]
[фaткap = only: adjective]
[cдpaдaxи plural of cдpaдaxa - a cat, slang for female reproductive organs: noun]
[aþ - in addition to, slang for mathematics: conjuction]
[бpacкэxи plural of бpacкa - a dog, a friend: noun]
Kalcutese:
Romanization: Atka, sa dahulka desaqmam, qa koqataram at qeloqam.
IPA: /atka dahulka desaχmam χa koχataram at χeloχa/
Gloss:
[atka - to be bad: adjective]
[sa - I :pronoun]
[dalhulka negitive form of dalhul - to like: verb]
[desaqmam plural of desaqma - lizard: noun]
[qa - 1, nomad, alone, only: numbeadjective]
[koqataram plural of koqatar - a cat: noun]
[at - and: conjunction]
[qeloqam plural of qeloqa - a dog: noun]
Kalcutese In Original Script
Trebue:
Eua, iue euano emu licogeui, ogse cogghueui o ghalogeui.
IPA: /wa iju wano emu lisoŋwi oŋze soŋguwi o galoŋwi/ (idk how to write it with ipa but very nasalized vowels)
Gloss:
[eua - no: exclamation]
[iue - I : pronoun]
[euano negitive of ano - to be: verb]
[emu - to like: adjective]
[licogeui plural of licog - a lizard: noun]
[ogse - only: adjective]
[cogghueui plural of cogghu - a cat: noun]
[o - and, in addition, to add: conjunction/verb]
[ghaloeui plural of ghalo - a dog: noun]
Narrian:
Non, Ni' non cona eil gizardi, singilaro agafi al huvi.
IPA: /non ni non tʃona ejil dʒizardi siŋilaro agfi al uvi/
Gloss:
[Non - no, not: exclamation/adjective]
[Ni' abreviaiton of nio - I: pronoun]
[Non - no, not: exclamation/adjective]
[cona - to like: verb
[eil - the: definite article]
[gizardi plural of gizardo/a/e - lizard: noun]
[singilaro - to be single: adjective]
[agafi plural of agafo/a/e - a cat: noun]
[al - and: conjunction]
[huvi plural of huvo - a dog: noun]
Symbolese:
IPA (tones description below): /lø1 ʃø1 gea2 zø2 ga3 tse2 zø1 ma3 ma4 ʃø5/
Tones:
1: middle voice
2: Low voice
3: High Voice
4: Middle to high to middle/Low middle low
5: Going down
6: Going up
Gloss:
[lø1 - I : pronoun]
[ʃø1 - no: adjective]
[gea2 zø2 - to like: verb]
[ga3 tse2 zø1 (plural written only not pronounced) - lizard:noun]
[ma3 - cat: noun]
[ma4 ʃø5 - dog: noun]
Symbolese Text
Ketowese:
Romanization: tato, acakaaitetoan can nace
IPA: /tato atʃakejtoan tʃan natʃe
Gloss:
[tato - no: exclamation]
[Acaka - lizard: noun]
[aitekato - to not like: verb]
[an - I: pronoun]
[can - a cat: noun]
[nace - a dog: noun]
Ketowese Script
Nital:
Romanization: Ua, yau uatùs emùm htaytùs, sepiriùm htagùmùs ait castùs.
IPA(The "HT" sound is not able to be represented in the ipa and is replaced by "T":
/wa jaw watus emum tajtus sepirium tagumus ajt kastus/
Gloss:
[Ua - no: exclamation]
[yau - I: pronoun]
[uatùs - not: adverb]
[emùm - to like: verb]
[htaytùs plural of htayta - lizard: noun]
[sepiriùm - to seperate: verb]
[htagùmùs plural of htagùm - a cat: noun]
[ait - and: conjuction]
[castùs plural of castùs - dog: noun]
Nitalian Script (Its Bidirectional (LTR then RTL))
TLDR:
I Have and addiction!
P.S.
If I fucked up the gloss my bad idk what im doing but im trying my best and i spent a lot of time of it :)

The early deadline is May 22 for CBS EMBA Friday/Saturday – followed by the final deadline two weeks later on June 5. If you are just starting now – and especially if you still need to sort out your test score – do prioritize application quality over tossing something together to meet the earlier deadline. Otherwise, you are just accelerating the process of being dinged.
The EMBA program kind of operates like a PT program at CBS. There really isn’t any stated work experience minimum, which is UNIQUE. One of my clients got in at the age of 25 (he did have people management experience – however had just finished his online BA a month before applying!)
So, if you have the support of your employer, progression at work and a solid test score (or at least some evidence of quant skill) don’t let age or years of work experience keep you from applying.
APPLICATION TIPS
~Extracurricular activities~ – if this is a strength of yours, lucky you, they have 3 boxes for college and 3 boxes for post-college AND an unlimited text box to talk about your hobbies. This is unlimited for a reason – it’s more fun to be around people who are interested in a variety of different things. Rather than list your hobbies, also discuss how they have shaped you and why they are meaningful to you. If you have stuff to talk about here, this can be a game changer for overrepresented applicants.
~Short Answer Question~
~What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (50 characters maximum)~
Have a tight focus with regards to industry, role and geography. When you have those specifics down, you have enough information to take concrete actions that lead to a good outcome post-MBA. This is important as CBS is the only EMBA I know of that allows on-campus recruitment (OCR). They do look at your ROI equation and want you to feel it was worth it when you’re slogging through those loans or reflecting on the time spent.
~Essay 1~
Through your resume and recommendations, we have a clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next three to five years and what is your long-term dream job? (500 words)
The goals need to make sense given the program format. They do offer OCR – but last I checked, not summer internships so if you state IB, where you need an internship, this would be a bit of a red flag. Like other EMBA programs, the goal of progression within your same company or industry is ideal. Hopefully, what you learn at CBS you can “apply on Monday” and progress faster. Having an altruistic-oriented long-term goal is a bonus if it makes sense with the rest of your narrative.
~What they are looking for:~ does this person have the right background for their near-term goals? How logical does this person seem? Does this person have realistic expectations of the program? Can we help this person? If this person spoke about their goals to a recruiting company, would they reflect well on CBS or not? How good is the fit between their goals and what separates CBS – if we picked this person would they likely enroll (yield protect.) Clubs, OCR, block classes, NYC-based Executives in Residence, and a need for a NYC-based program are all good differentiators.
~Essay 2~
Please describe a professional situation where you faced a particular challenge. What was the outcome and what did you learn from the experience about your own strengths and personal development needs? (500 words maximum)
Replace the word “strengths” for “skills” and if it’s a work example, this question is very similar to the “behavioral” question for the Kellogg EMBA application and could likely be repurposed with some modification.
I would recommend that you first list all the problems that you have solved at work within the past 3 years. If you are coming up blank, think about how your activities have generated value at work. Then rank each in terms of the result achieved or importance of the problem solved.
You absolutely must coordinate with your recommender on which stories they will tell so you don’t repeat one of those here.
Now we get to the skills part. You might want to Google “list of managerial skills” to draw inspiration and further brainstorm. Conflict resolution, strategic thinking, adaptability etc.
Regarding execution, STAR or CAR for sure. STAR is situation/task/action/result, but I reframe this as problem/goal/action/result.
~Situation/Problem~: you want to pick something that is not massively technical; it can be conveyed in few enough words to leave room for parts that help them get to know you. Do not cover a whole project – the essay will sound like a white paper. Rather, pick a specific obstacle within that project or a certain aspect of it.
~Task~: the goal – which is basically the opposite of the problem. This is not a work project type task. Sometimes the task can be something like becoming a more active listener.
~Action~: this shows them how your mind works. Given the task (goal) what path did you pursue? You want to SHOW DON’T TELL and each strength needs some storytelling. It’s OK to focus on just 1 or 2 things. Deep not wide wins every time.
~Result~: it’s nice when you can quantify the result – by a lot – but anecdotal results are passable in a pinch. Don’t chuck out a story that shows passion and purpose because there is no dashboard of metrics attached. One example might be illustrating how you turned around a gossipy work environment and through this, everyone had better morale and therefore X good thing became possible or happened.
The pressure test here is that they come away with a sense of how you lead, what your role might be in your study group, what makes you “you” in the workplace, the kind of problems you are known for solving. Help them get to know you above all things. Speak plainly, directly and succinctly.
~Optional Essay~
Is there something else you feel would be helpful for the Admissions Committee to know? An optional third essay will allow you to discuss any topics that do not fall within the purview of the required essays. These might include, but are not limited to:
• Adverse circumstances in your background
• An exciting side venture in which you are working
• Areas of concern in your academic record
• Or just a fun fact!
This does not need to be a formal essay. You may submit bullet points. (500 words maximum)
Quite innovative - CBS has merged the getting-to-know-you book or movie essay with the optional essay. So, if you need to expand upon why your academic record is less than stellar, you can do that, but if not, it’s space to park almost anything else you haven’t included in the online application.
Expanding upon a leadership experience or passion project is great. Keep in mind they are looking for people who are what I call a social value-add – others enjoy the program more because of you. This is the only “personal” essay so I really urge you to use the opportunity.
Note: don’t avoid this essay because you think you are whining and making excuses for yourself. It’s a great opportunity to help adcom get to know you as a person, and the challenges that have shaped who you are. The more they understand you on a personal level the more they grow attached to you, campaign for you and the better your odds.
~Recommendation~
Take this seriously. For each question you want to have a claim – pointing to your USP – and then tell a detailed but accessible story to back up said claim. Recommendations are always important, but especially for EMBA because they want to know how others experience you (consider: you are the product they are selling to others). Also, it’s a way for CBS to gauge the kind of classroom contributions you would make. This is important for the EMBA where ideally students learn as much or more from each other as they do the professor.
Select your recommender based on the stories they can share – they are ideally an eyewitness to you solving problems, leading and being a strong team player. Prioritize this over title or status. Brainstorm with your recommender; coach and guide them. Choose a story together for each question. Have transparency over this part of the application. If they make statements that conflict with other parts of the application, you will be seen as too risky and likely be dinged.
~Common pitfalls~: recommender overly reliant on ChatGPT, pulls from review file without modifying, doesn’t answer the question squarely, doesn’t answer both the questions, doesn’t do any storytelling. Cramming and jamming a bunch of superficial stuff in there but nothing gets developed, the reader has no traction and so it has no impact. Uses industry jargon and acronyms, which prevents the reader from understanding anything. Use of conceptual superlatives and adjectives but nothing the reader can “see” or absorb.
Good luck to all!

Hey Ask Docs! Would love some ideas, conjectures, thoughts, etc. on my current set of problems that's going on! Any help or advice is appreciated.
First, got some context:
-35M -History of 4 concussions, 1 blackout (each were 4+ years apart and I have a Neurosport specialist any time I experience head trauma cause I play hockey. Blackout was when I was 22). All concussions caused by a strong force, so it's not like the slightest blow gives me problems. Neurologist does not expect CTE or anything like that because of time between concussions and that 3 were considered very mild in nature (and may not have been concussions but were ruled as such for precaution) -History of migraine -I have a fully deviated septum on my right side of my nose which may or may not be important, I don't know. -I have a neck injury from hockey that affects the lower base of my right skull near my occipital nerve block -I have been having a lot of anxiety due to a long term breakup and it's resulted in my getting nearly no sleep recently.
Soooo ever since I got Covid 2 years ago (I was double vaxxed at the time) I have been going through these periods where I get long term ear fullness that eventually goes away until it flare sup again. They are not brought on by anything specifically and can last anywhere from a week to 2 months and the remission periods between attacks can also last weeks to months. As the ear pressure as evolved, I have developed a headache on my right temple that typically comes and goes with this ear pressure, though the ear pressure is normally worse and the primary symptom. Usually the headache feels like it's a response to my ear being full of pressure without being able to relieve it and the headache usually sits above my right ear on my right temple. Otherwise I have no other symptoms.
This past Saturday I woke up and had the headache again and it was noticeable worse than it's been in the past. THe ear pressure was there (though not the primary symptom) but I had a new symptom which was VERY weird, and that was incoming language comprehension whether it was written or spoken. But the thing is, I'm NOT actually having issues comprehending words, it just FEELS like I am. I am able to communicate in full sentences using my normal vocabulary and am able to understand context and meaning from whoever is communicating with me. Instead what's happened is that I question if I truly understand the definition of a word, realize I do, stress out over it, and rinse and repeat for the last week. I have no other issues or symptoms (nothing with memory, reasoning, emotions, nausea, coordination, etc). The weirdest part is that it seems to be more prevalent with adjectives and adverbs, but again, I can ultimately determine their meaning and just get caught up with the thought "do I truly understand it and can I define it?" It comes and goes throughout the day along with the intensity of the headache. A really good example of this: Someone told me something was innocuous the other day and I knew exactly what he meant, but my brain wanted that word to be harmless instead of innocuous and I went through the mental process of seeing if I could define what innocuous meant, which I could. It's like I can't stop hyperfocusing on incoming words to feel 100% confident I know what they mean.
I went to the doctor yesterday who referred me to neurology (My Neurosport one is full til July so I'm gonna see a different one) which is all good, but she ran me through all kinds of neurological tests (reflexes, eyes, memory, temperature, and more) and checked out the side of my head and I passed everything. She said that she could immediately rule out aphasia just based on my level of awareness and ability to communicate with her but just for peace of mind, ran me through an aphasia test and I passed it 100%. I have not had any recent head or neck trauma that could've brought this on.
My doc knew about my neck thing, felt it up, and said it was extremely inflamed and noticed I couldn't turn or bend it to the degree she wanted so she thinks it's related to my neck injury. She said that the nerves felt fight and that they were probably pushing down around my head and said that my language things if anything would be mild confusion, not any sort of language impairment or aphasia. She also thinks anxiety and lack of sleep is causing it but said she was unsure if my 100% deviated septum on that side was contributing to it too. I had a CT scan a few months ago along with a biopsy for temporal arteritis when I had my last bout of headaches in January and both were clean so she does not think it's a tumor because she thought the CT scan would've caught it. She has requested the neurologist do a full MRI of my brain, but my appointment is in 2 weeks. She also said she did not think it was a stroke because my blood pressure was near perfect at 121/64, I had no face drooping, no sensitivity to light or anything like that, etc. She did NOT rule of a TIA
Just curious if anyone has any thoughts on this! I'm semi-worried about it just cause I've had it for a while and no one seems it's super urgent and other scans and tests have not revealed anything serious. At the same time this language thing seems so random that I don't think I could've convinced myself I had it after waking up as some type of hypochondria kinda thing.
Any thoughts are super appreciated, thank you :)
Edit, adding some stuff:

• Exercise helps the headaches tremendously and I also seem to not focus on words when doing it, though my neck is def stiff in general. Ironically my performance in hockey has also been better lately and my coordination's been great.
• I've been having a LOT of fatigue cause I haven't been sleeping well the last 2 weeks
• I have not had any light sensitivity. I do have a little sound sensitivity in my right ear. I play goalie in hockey and occasionally when I take a puck to the mask (It's a house inline league, the velocity is low and I have an NHL quality mask my neurologist helped me pick out) the sound affects my right ear more than my left and gives me that fullness feeling temporarily.
• My right ear (the affected one) produces significantly less earwax than my left ear now.

Hey everyone!
Would appreciate some perspective on my problem. So a little bit of context:
-35M -History of 4 concussions, 1 blackout (each were 4+ years apart and I have a Neurosport specialist any time I experience head trauma cause I play hockey. Blackout was when I was 22) -History of migraine -I have a fully deviated septum on my right side which may -I have a neck injury from hockey that affects the lower base of my right skull near my occipital nerve block -I have been having a lot of anxiety due to a long term breakup and it's resulted in my getting nearly no sleep recently.
Soooo ever since I got Covid 2 years ago (I was double vaxxed) I have been going through these periods where I get long term ear fullness that eventually goes away until it flare sup again. They are not brought on by anything specifically and can last anywhere from a week to 2 months and the remission periods between attacks can also last weeks to months. As the ear pressure as evolved, I have developed a headache on my right temple that typically comes and goes with this ear pressure, though the ear pressure is normally worse and the primary symptom. Usually the headache feels like it's a response to my ear being full of pressure without being able to relieve it and the headache usually sits above my right ear on my right temple. Otherwise I have no other symptoms.
This past Saturday I woke up and had the headache again and it was noticeable worse than it's been in the past. THe ear pressure was there (though not the primary symptom) but I had a new symptom which was VERY weird, and that was incoming language comprehension whether it was written or spoken. But the thing is, I'm NOT actually having issues comprehending words, it just FEELS like I am. I am able to communicate in full sentences using my normal vocabulary and am able to understand context and meaning from whoever is communicating with me. Instead what's happened is that I question if I truly understand the definition of a word, realize I do, stress out over it, and rinse and repeat for the last week. I have no other issues or symptoms (nothing with memory, reasoning, emotions, nausea, coordination, etc). The weirdest part is that it seems to be more prevalent with adjectives and adverbs, but again, I can ultimately determine their meaning and just get caught up with the thought "do I truly understand it and can I define it?" It comes and goes throughout the day along with the intensity of the headache. A really good example of this: Someone told me something was innocuous the other day and I knew exactly what he meant, but my brain wanted that word to be harmless instead of innocuous and I went through the mental process of seeing if I could define what innocuous meant, which I could. It's like I can't stop hyperfocusing on incoming words to feel 100% confident I know what they mean.
I went to the doctor yesterday who referred me to neurology (My Neurosport one is full til July so I'm gonna see a different one) which is all good, but she ran me through all kinds of neurological tests (reflexes, eyes, memory, temperature, and more) and checked out the side of my head and I passed everything. She said that she could immediately rule out aphasia just based on my level of awareness and ability to communicate with her but just for peace of mind, ran me through an aphasia test and I passed it 100%. I have not had any recent head or neck trauma that could've brought this on.
My doc knew about my neck thing, felt it up, and said it was extremely inflamed and noticed I couldn't turn or bend it to the degree she wanted so she thinks it's related to my neck injury. She said that the nerves felt fight and that they were probably pushing down around my head and said that my language things if anything would be mild confusion, not any sort of language impairment or aphasia. She also thinks anxiety and lack of sleep is causing it but said she was unsure if my 100% deviated septum on that side was contributing to it too. I had a CT scan a few months ago along with a biopsy for temporal arteritis when I had my last bout of headaches in January and both were clean so she does not think it's a tumor because she thought the CT scan would've caught it. She has requested the neurologist do a full MRI of my brain, but my appointment is in 2 weeks. She also said she did not think it was a stroke because my blood pressure was near perfect at 121/64, I had no face drooping, no sensitivity to light or anything like that, etc. She did NOT rule of a TIA
Just curious if anyone has any thoughts on this! I'm semi-worried about it just cause I've had it for a while and no one seems it's super urgent and other scans and tests have not revealed anything serious. At the same time this language thing seems so random that I don't think I could've convinced myself I had it after waking up as some type of hypochondria kinda thing.
Any thoughts are super appreciated, thank you :)
Edit, adding some stuff:

• Exercise helps the headaches tremendously and I also seem to not focus on words when doing it, though my neck is def stiff in general. Ironically my performance in hockey has also been better lately and my coordination's been great.
• I've been having a LOT of fatigue cause I haven't been sleeping well the last 2 weeks
• I have not had any light sensitivity. I do have a little sound sensitivity in my right ear. I play goalie in hockey and occasionally when I take a puck to the mask (It's a house inline league, the velocity is low and I have an NHL quality mask my neurologist helped me pick out) the sound affects my right ear more than my left and gives me that fullness feeling temporarily.

One of the biggest threats to writing these days is AI. Companies are now equipped with the ability to write out entire novels in minutes by inputting their ideas into a computer and having it crap out the entire story from a collection of previous stories recorded from the past. As time goes on, it’s believed that writers are going to be a thing of the past. That is… unless we fix ourselves and become better than AI. Anyone can have an idea and prompt it into a program, but it takes a true writer to actually write in a way people want to read.
We’re not going to be able to do this until we get the simple sentence down like a science.
A sentence is the building block of a story, beginning with a capital letter and ending with a punctuation mark. We’re so used to reading all day, everyday that we rarely recognize when a sentence begins and when it ends. In fact, I would be surprised if anyone could say how many sentences are in each one of my paragraphs, or even WHY we make paragraphs to begin with. This lack of the basics is why writers are failing left and right. We’re so stuck in the habit of doing things and saying things, without knowing why we do it or how it started being a thing.
When I began writing stories, I had no idea what I was doing. I was just doing stuff. Waited for the right mood, waited for things to feel right, wrote it down, crossed my fingers, got roasted or ignored. This is the most common situation among writers because of how none of us are trained in the act of writing, despite finishing high school and usually going to creative writing classes. Going to college to learn from professors who never wrote anything is like going to the business class of someone who never owned a business.
If it wasn’t legally labeled a college class, we’d call it a scam session.
Before starting your massive journey of 700 pages into a book nobody would read(which would be about 10,500 sentences), consider practicing how to make a basic sentence. The most basic you could make it. Figure out why the extra words are even considered an option in the first place. Instead of saying “she caught the ball with her hands”, why not say “she caught the ball” or even “she caught” or “caught” or “she”? When does the sentence stop being a sentence?
Figuring out the element of your sentence is critical to creating the most powerful sentences possible, as well as figuring out what people want to see from a sentence. There is also the way they flow from one to the other, how they connect in a paragraph with each other, and how they can appear more powerful when standing on their own. This is all due to the main point of an idea, which is discussed in a subject. As long as you have a point and hold it, you’re on your way to keeping the reader glued to your point along with you.
Holding your point simply means you have an independent clause, with a clause being a subject and a predicate. You can have something as simple as “he ran” and that is a clause by itself. These independent clauses can be connected by a connective word to then include a dependent or subordinate clause. There is also the phrase that is absent of any subject-verb component, such as “very nice” or “sexy time”. However, people get confused by phrases, even within context, because most of the sentence is omitted.
When someone like Borat is saying “very nice” he is omitting most of the sentence, which would be something like “This event occurring at this particular moment is… very nice!” Realizing that you could omit most of your sentences is a godsend, because readers hate it when writers are being too wordy when they don’t have to. That clause could have been shortened to “...because readers hate it”, but I wanted to make myself into an example. Getting to the point faster should be the main focus, which is why we’re told to focus on active voices.
In a sentence, you have an object and a subject. Passive is when the subject is acted upon, while active is when the subject is doing the action. This change of focus is a change of importance, which is why we’re told to always do active voice when characters are involved. Passive means our characters are less meaningful and less important than the objects in their world, which I’m sure is not usually the case. Although, when it comes to symbolism, really ask yourself: is the object more important?
When King Arthur pulls the sword from the stone, which sounds more powerful?
“King Arthur pulled the sword from the stone.”
“The sword was pulled out of the stone by King Arthur.”
How about if random people were involved in the situation?
“The crowd gasped as they watched the sword come out of the stone.”
“The sword coming out of the stone made the crowd gasp.”
If you ask me, the main character is more important than the sword, BUT the sword is more important than random people. Sure, there are moments where it can be considered more clunky like “the gun barrel was stared down by the burglar” instead of “the burglar stared down the gun barrel”, but I would say the burglar is more important here. Honestly, it’s all about context, where it is in a story, and the type of tone you’re going for. Either way, passive is to make things move slower and active is to make things move faster. Moving faster is the goal when you’re trying to cause a narration and moving slower is what you do in order to describe things with more detail.
In storytelling, there are four elements to composition:

1. Argumentation
2. Narration
3. Description
4. Exposition

A sentence like “she ran” is a sentence as an aspect of narration, but it’s absent from everything else. Why did she run? How did she run? What is the point in telling me that she ran? These are explained when you add adjectives, dependent clauses, and phrases.
“To get away from the murderer, she ran to the nearest exit, frantically locking the door behind her.”
Ok, now we have a situation. Adjectives like “nearest” and “frantically” are giving us distance and emotion as description, the addition of a murderer as an object is exposition, and putting this all together with locking the door is a way to argue a form of escape. Now, you don’t need every sentence to be like this, but at the very least each paragraph must complete the cycle of composition to have the idea feel complete. If the paragraph keeps changing ideas and changing subjects in ways they don’t relate, then the reader is going to feel like the writer wasn’t paying attention to their own writing. At that point, the reader stops paying attention to mirror the hectic state of mind of the writer.
Your writing is to be fueled by clarity, not charity.
Notice how I received the idea of the murderer chasing a woman by starting with “she ran”. Most amateur writers are trying to be fancy with their descriptions first, and then they get to the point; maybe. This is caused by an emotional or visual desire from the writer, to paint a picture instead of telling a story. Overwhelming the reader with pointless details is why info dumps are so predominant but also putrid. This is the writer telling themselves the story as they channel the energy of the visualization, but they forgot that they’re writing a story that’s supposed to be narrated and hold a theme.
There are 4 types of sentences that you can use:

1. Simple (one independent clause)
2. Compound (multiple independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions)
3. Complex (one independent clause and one subordinate clause)
4. Complex-compound (multiple independent clauses and one subordinate clause)

If I was to guess, I would say I do complex-compounds the most. But, switching between the four is a good way to keep many overly complicated sentences shrunk down to a simple or complex one. If you have 4 choices and 5 sentences to use per paragraph: why not? Plus, you’re then able to question yourself on whether or not your sentence is necessary to begin with. You create a rhythm and fix your feng shui.
The goal of understanding how to form your sentences is based around making sure you have something to say to begin with. Something that the reader wants to see or hear as a theme. AI may be a threat to the people who are full of descriptions but not to the people who have a point. Theme being told through symbolism is why AI doesn’t recognize what the point is. Amateur writers tend to be coy and go “well, the theme is for you to determine what it is”, but the reader is not paying money to you for them to do YOUR job.
Focus on the subject. That is key. Count your syllables if you have to. That is how you create a beat for the reader to bop along to. Good writers may know how to get their point across, but great writers get their point across in less time with more clarity.
Aim for density of word usage, not abundance of words used.

I found a curious bit in this Air Force volume authored by Jeffrey M. Reilly:

"Dr. Reilly is a retired Army officer with 26 years of active-duty service. He began his service as a draftee and served 28 consecutive months in Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. His theater-level planning and operations experience includes serving as a theaterlevel combined and joint operations officer, Plans division chief, and member of the “two major theater war” plans team. He is an adjunct faculty member for the NATO School’s Operational Planning Course, a frequent speaker at the USAF Weapons Instructor Course, and a member of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Military Education Coordination Council Working Group. Dr. Reilly has also given a number of presentations at international defense colleges, including the Ethiopian Defense Staff College in Addis Ababa and the Polish National Defense University in Warsaw. Additionally, he conducted research on design in Afghanistan during 2010 and 2011. He currently serves as director of joint education at the Air Command and Staff College."

• Link: https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/AUPress/Books/B_0129_REILLY_OPERATIONAL_DESIGN.PDF
• Archive: https://pdfhost.io/v/86Jg1yVbu_Reilly_Cover_Art

The entire work is a good read and not UFO/UAP specific, except... this bit on page 12, labeled "Figure 3. Mapping actor relationships and systemic links" has some curious and not-repeated terminology.
Imgur link:
https://i.imgur.com/BYekHvH.png
Notice the names? From top right, clockwise:

1. Dacro - Draco?
2. Vulpecula
3. Delphi
4. BLA - no direct astronomy link I know of; acronym? Batari Liberation Army is mentioned later. Odd rabbit holes on Swedish NATO: one, two. These acronyms appear here overlaid on world maps with unique not-real borders and new names? Archive 1, [Archive 2.] This is the Swedish Armed Forces site.(https://pdfhost.io/v/08qV8Vo6x_zoranseacrisisswedintmay)
5. MO - acronym?
6. M3 - Messier 3
7. Delphi
8. Cetus
9. Corvus
10. Batari - no clear hits; Batari, Chhattisgarh?
11. Perseus
12. Auriga
13. Aquila
14. Saggita

What caught my eye was the constellation names, in this material, is the weird way that the author uses constellations for MOST objects in this otherwise complex but seemingly prosaic document for the Air Force, and then it never comes up again with the constellation names. If you're going to use that for a placeholdeexample, why only do some, and not others? It's a weird incongruity there. Check out page 52 as well.
Possibly nothing but a curiosity, but every piece of data may have value to someone else doing research.
One funny thought that crossed my mind: if NATO and other key "ally" states of the USA are involved to various degrees to communicate about a covered-up topic, like UFOs/NHI, they likely WOULD need to communicate some materials in writing, knowing full well the risks of leak.
You could get around that with low-level obfuscation. It's not NHI, it's some other adjective/descriptor, and so on. There theoretically could be materials hiding in plain sight of extreme value, even possibly released in error.
Or, it's nothing. Anyone have any idea?

Hello, first time posting here so please let me know if this is not appropriate for this group or if I have tagged things incorrectly.
I joined my first Roll20 game about 2 months ago. The players and DM were great, but the campaign ended after 3 sessions due to the BBEG: scheduling conflicts.
I enjoy the world building and storytelling aspects of D&D so I put lots of work into my character's backstory. I loved creating her and it seems a shame to leave her to die a slow death in my memory alone.
So, I decided to share her, her backstory, and culture with you all. Feel free to use her as an NPC in one of your games, expand her culture, or even change it to fit your game. Some of the details below I'm sure break canon about half-orcs, but whatever, I enjoy making stuff up.
Basically, I'm going to copy and paste what I have saved on a Google doc. I do apologize for the length and formatting errors since I'm on mobile.
• Character's Backstory •
Reveka grew up in a tribe of half-orc nomads. She is the third child of four kids. There is Killian, Shawr, Reveka, and Wyal. She lost her right leg (below the knee) during her solo night to get her voting stone (see Tribe Details). Her leg was crushed by a long forgotten hunting trap. She was able to free herself, but unable to fully return to the tribe with her injury. She did manage to get close enough to see her two older brothers keeping watch behind the tribe as they left. She made eye contact with Shawr, but he turned his back on her and left her to her fate.
While struggling to survive, a druid named Runeari found her and took Reveka under her wing. The injury from the trap had become infected and the bones too crushed. To prevent spreading and further pain, Runeari helped Reveka remove the rest of her leg below the knee. Runeari wrote Reveka’s name as Revecca in her journal and Revecca decided to keep the new spelling. Runeari taught Revecca the basics of druid life and helped her create her prosthetic leg.
While Revecca was still learning to walk again, Runeari would leave to gather food.
One day, Runeari did not return.
After a week, Revecca’s supplies were running low and she decided to move on. She took Runeari’s remaining supplies (explorer’s pack and immovable rod (DM allowed us to have a magic item to start)) and the hunting trap that had put Revecca down this path to begin with. She wrote in Runeari’s journal explaining that she was leaving and thanking her for her help in case Runeari ever returned. She put the journal in the case the immovable rod was in and buried the case at the campsite. She left Runeari’s bagpipes since playing it now only made her sad. She left the stone she had picked up on her solo night that was meant to be her voting stone.
Revecca has been surviving since and is preparing herself to pass on the kindness that Runeari showed her. She sometimes considers finding out what happened to Runeari, but doesn’t know if she would be sadder if Runeari was dead (and gone forever) or alive (and had abandoned her). In her mind, if she doesn’t know, it can’t hurt her.
• Character Mechanics/Details •
My DM was kind enough to let me use Revecca's leg as a club so she could use Shillelagh (the group renamed the cantrip to Shilleleg in those 3 short sessions :D).
We did manage to get to level 2 so she took Circle of the Moon. She has the Outlander background.
She has a wooden staff that looks like a shepherd's hook and has knives (flavored to sharpened deer antlers). I wanted to have the antlers attached to her arms so if she elbowed someone, they would also get gored, but never got around to ironing that detail out with DM.
Revecca knows how to play the bagpipes, but does not carry them with her. (Rolled to pick a random instrument and now she knows bagpipes.)
Revecca is tall (6'7") and thin. She survives by trapping and then trading her goods for anything she cannot make herself. She does not like being called a hunter because she feels like she has not earned that title. She can be found within a mile of a town's edge.
Her favorite food is mashed potatoes because the tribe would only have it when they circled round to an already planted patch of potatoes. It was a sign of good luck to come back upon a potato patch.
• Allies & Organizations •
Tribe of Vian - Revecca’s home tribe, may be going by a different name now (see Tribe Details).
Vian - Half-orc in his 50’s and Revecca’s grandpa by blood. Vian was very kind and loved playing tag with the children of the tribe. Revecca noticed him slowing down as she got older, but his strength had not given out yet.
Veleena - Revecca’s mom. 30’s and 6’9”. Veleena was next in line for leadership in the tribe. Veleena would lead hunting expeditions for the tribe and taught Revecca which plants were edible. Veleena was skilled in making obsidian weapons, a skill that Revecca was never able to master.
Runeari - Female, human, druid. In her late 30’s when Revecca was about 14. She was about 5’7” and had strawberry blond hair and brown eyes. Revecca and Runeari knew each other for about 10 months, but Revecca saw Runeari as a dear friend and mother figure. Whenever they came across another person, they would joke they were mother and daughter since they had the same color eyes. Runeari liked to journal and pressed plants into her journal to record her travels. Runeari did not like talking about her past and Revecca did not push. Revecca was tempted to look in Runeari’s journal, but decided against it to respect her privacy. Runeari taught Revecca the bagpipes. She also taught her druidic and how to use a medicine kit. She would keep a flower tucked by her ear.
• Tribe Details •
The leader of the tribe is called grandfathegrandmother regardless of how many generations they have fostered. The current leader will pick the next leader if they were to pass and does not need to be blood related. The tribe is renamed with every new leader. The old name of the tribe is carved into the leader’s staff so a record is kept of the previous leaders. Losing the leader’s staff would be devastating to the tribe.
If tribe members are displeased with leadership, they are free to leave to start their own tribe. Tribe members may also leave if there are not enough resources to support a large tribe. If the tribe splits, the leader of the second tribe is decided by a vote. This vote is done by the adults casting stones into circles drawn in the dirt.
When a child becomes an adult, they are tasked to spend a night away from the tribe. They have two goals: survive the night and pick a rock that will become their voting stone. The size, shape, and kind of rock is unique to the individual. Some members will personalize their stone. Sometimes, the grandfathemother of the tribe will call for a vote and having this stone is the only way to vote. Tribe members will keep stones of other close members with them after they have passed to keep them close, usually worn as a necklace. If a member loses their stone, they have to go on a solo spiritual journey to get a new stone. Taking/stealing someone else’s stone is one of the most serious things one can do. For instance, if the grandfathemother is exiling a member, the grandfathemother will take their stone and bury it.
The tribe wanders to wherever resources are. If they manage to find an elk herd, they will follow it. They are very careful to not overhunt. The tribe is willing to trade with others and values materials (like rope or cloth) that can be used to make other things. The tribe prefers to avoid combat as they see it as a waste of resources, but they will not hesitate to defend themselves.
Night routine: After the night meal, the tribe will gather around the campfire and the grandfathemother will either tell a story or appoint a fathemother to tell a story. To keep the children from disturbing the story, adults will braid/brush/decorate younger children’s hair. Older children will braid/brush/decorate the adult’s hair. Some adults will braid each other’s hair. Males and females will take part in this routine.
Tribe leaders are visually very similar to the rest of the tribe. The few differences: has a moon headband and carries the leader staff. The leader’s tent is the same size as the rest, but their tent is close to the central fire pit and directly to the north.
The tribe does not necessarily move every day, just as needed. The tribe will set up tents an hour before sunset and take down the tents an hour after sunrise if they are moving.
All tribe members try to keep their hair as long as they can. Hair can be used for many things and it is best to keep it just in case. A person cutting their hair is equivalent to declaring retirement. The hair is kept in braids, buns, or ponytails to avoid getting caught in something like branches.
No ovins: Translated literally - no offenses. Tribes will have culture differences and tribe leaders will say this to each other to indicate they mean no insult during their discussion if they do/say something offensive just because of a misunderstanding. Tribe members will say this as a greeting and a goodbye. (It is kind of like the Hawaiian aloha, it has many meanings. The main concept is peace.)
Tribe size averages about 150 members.
Adults in the tribe have assigned tents. Children are free to sleep in whatever tent they want to, as long as the adults inside are okay with it. If the children want to sleep in their own tent, the tent is kept very close to the central fire and is directly to the east of the central fire pit.
• Tribe Ceremonies •
Tribe leaders will conduct ceremonies.
Marriages: Members of the tribe will braid flowers into the hair of the couple throughout the day. Older members will offer advice to the couple while braiding and children will ask to hear stories about the couple. The ceremony takes place at sunset. Vows are unique to each couple and wooden rings are exchanged. The rings go on the left thumb. The tattoo artist will tattoo flower stems onto the couple during the after-party. Once the tattoos are finished, the couple is considered to be one. The keeper will record the marriage in the tribe journal.
Funerals: The tribe will work together to dig a hole, each member shoveling at least once. Little children and babies will be assisted by the adults of the tribe. The body will be lowered including any personal mementos. Then each member will put the dirt back on top. Rocks will be put around the grave with a bigger rock marking the top of the grave. The top of the grave will point north. After burying the body, each tribe member will release a feather into the wind. The keeper will record the death in the tribe’s journal and the navigator will note where the body is buried.
Child naming: During pregnancy, the couple will discuss baby names and have a few picked out. They will talk with the tribe leader, keeper, and teacher to make sure the name isn’t too close to previous/current members or have negative connotations in orcish or common. After the baby is born, they will be presented to the tribe. This ceremony takes place at sunrise. The couple will bring the baby to the central pit where the tribe leader and keeper are waiting. The tribe leader will put their hand on the baby’s head and declare their name. The keeper will record the name and present a blanket to the couple for the baby. The blanket is a gift from the tribe. The tribe works on the blanket during the pregnancy and each member contributes to making it, usually by doing one tie for the blanket each. The tanner manages the blanket project and makes sure that each tribe member has a chance to participate. If there is a miscarriage, the blanket is buried in a ceremony similar to a funeral.
Adulthood: The child returns to the tribe in the morning. The entire tribe will gather and welcome them back and ask to see their rock. The child will present the rock to the tribe and tribe leader. The day is devoted to the new adult and the tribe will assist the individual personalize and/or create jewelry with the stone to make it easier to carry/not get lost if the individual wants to. (If the tribe comes across a city, they will buy jewelry making supplies in advance such as chains, little cages, eye pins, and jump rings.)
Announcing Tribe Jobs: Some jobs require a time commitment or learning specific skills. A mentor from that job will present the new individual with an item representing the job (a gatherer’s apron) or the new individual will present an item representing the job (a young adult will present a bow). The tribe leader will declare the individual as that job.
Leadership Nomination: The leader will nominate a person. The tribe will vote on whether or not they accept the nomination for the tribe. A leadership nomination takes place the morning after a full moon. The tribe leader spends the entire night before meditating on who the next leader should be.
Accepting the next tribe leader is a ceremony where the new leader walks down a path of leaves laid by the entire tribe to the central fire pit. The new leader will say a few words about the previous leader and the future of the tribe. The leader will carve the previous leader’s name into the leader’s staff and the keeper verifies that the name is carved and declares the new leader and the new name of the tribe.
• Symbolism•
Feathers: Death/loss. Each feather (hair, jewelry, tattoos) signifies a child lost before becoming an adult.
Moons: Age/Time/Experience. Many older members of the tribe will have moon tattoos.
Flowers: Marriage/love. Flowers are braided into hair during the marriage ceremony. Tattoos will start with just a stem and petals will be added for each year the marriage continues.
Leaves: Change, can be positive or negative.
Sun/sunbeam: Fresh starts/growth. Suns will often decorate babies’ cribs and/or cradle boards.
Rocks/stones: Connection. Your feet connect to the earth and its life. Your voice (your connection with others) is represented with stones.
Rope/Braids: Diligence. Making/braiding rope is hard work and rope is used in future work.
Water: Mystery/unknown. There are lots of stories for children about water monsters and beings.
Fire: Life. Heat keeps beings going and the flames dancing are enjoying the time they have.
Clouds: Dreams. Interiors of tents will have depictions of clouds inside. The more clouds there are in the sky, the more dreams the tribe will have that night.
Stars: Knowledge. Stars help the tribe know where they are and souls eventually become stars and keep the knowledge they have gained in their life.
• Tribe jobs •
Drinker: Is in charge of the hot drink. The hot drink varies from tribe to tribe, but is something like tea or coffee. The drinker prepares the hot drink each morning for the whole tribe and maintains the supplies needed for the hot drink.
Tanner: Tans any hides that the tribe gets through hunting. They also would sew the hides into clothing items or into tent coverings.
Ushers: Usually done by new adults (14-18). Done in groups of 4. They keep an eye out for anything following the tribe and see if the tribe missed any opportunities to gather food. Two pairs follow this process: All 4 stay behind. After about 15 minutes, a pair will follow the main tribe, leaving the second pair as lookouts. Once they have spotted the main tribe, they will hide. About thirty minutes after the main tribe has left, the second pair will start to follow until they have caught up to the first pair. The first pair will then leave their temporary hiding spot and follow the tribe until they have eyesight and hide again. The second pair will leave the first hiding spot after about 15 minutes and find the first pair again. This repeats until the end of the day. If either pair has not spotted the other for about 30 minutes, they will blow on horns to alert the main tribe of possible danger and give a chance for the other pair to respond via their horn. Each morning, the group of ushers will decide on a pattern to blow the horn so others can’t mimic the pattern of the horn and trick the tribe. The grandfathemother will be told the patterns each morning and will use their own horn to communicate if necessary. Usually, there are 4 types of patterns set each morning: Danger All Clear Opportunity Locate the other pair (Her older brothers were doing this job when Revecca last saw them.)
Scouts: Usually done by new adults (14-18). Done in groups of 4. They keep an eye on the animal (usually elk) herd (if the tribe is following one) and look out for dangers (example: monsters) and opportunities (example: another tribe willing to trade) ahead. All 4 will go ahead and a pair will stop after about 15 minutes, but the other pair will keep going for about another 15 minutes then hide. When the back pair see the main tribe, they will continue forward until they find the front pair. The front pair will go forward again and stop after a while. This repeats until the end of the day. The scouts also have horns and will coordinate their horns with the ushers. The back pair of ushers/front pair of scouts are some of the strongest tribe members and the front pair of ushers/back pair of scouts usually have just aged into adults.
Watcher: Watches over the walking children of the tribe during the day. There is one watcher for every 8 children. For example, If there are 14 children, the first watcher will watch the first 8 and the second will watch the next 6. Watchers are very attached to the children they care for. Often, watchers will get the names of the children tattooed on their fingers as a sign of endearment and to help keep track. They make sure the children do not leave eyesight of the tribe and don’t get into trouble. Watchers will try to keep the children near them by playing games and singing songs. Being a watcher is a long commitment and tribe members interested in being a watcher are assigned to help to make sure that it is what they want to do. A watcher will watch the same children until they have all grown up from adulthood. When the oldest child becomes an adult, the watcher will not take on more children until all have become adults. Some watchers who enjoy their job, will have multiple names on each finger, one for each child of a batch.
Tenter: Manages the set up and take down of tents. They make sure that each tent set is kept separate and all parts included in a set. Will work with the tanner and/or carpenter if parts need replaced. Will tie ribbons/dyed rope around different wooden parts of the tent and paint different sides of the hides to help with setup.
Carpenter: Carves wood into usable shapes for tents and tools. In spare time, carves small trinkets in their spare time for trades or gifts.
Colorer: Collects leaves/petals/dirt to dye items or make paint. Dyeing/paint making is done when the tribe is staying in the same spot.
Guards: Guard the tribe. 10 guards per shift. 5 pairs. One pair will be posted at each corner. The fifth pair will take the place of the first pair. The first pair will take the place of the second pair. So on until the fourth pair becomes the fifth pair and the whole cycle repeats after the last pair has had a bite to eat, drinks some water, and walks around the inside of the tribe circle in case something gets through. One of each pair will keep an eye on the other guards, making sure that none have been sneakily attacked (this individual will usually be the younger of the two). The other will watch outward for dangers. Shifts are about 6 hours long and the tribe is guarded 24/7. The guards have horns and don’t have horn patterns. If a horn is heard at all, the tribe is in danger.
Cook: Cooks for the entire tribe. May have many helpers. Tells the huntegatherers what the tribe needs more of.
Waterer: Collects water for the tribe. Water is kept near the center of the camp.
Hunters: Run by the head hunter. Usually hunt by bow. Hunters make their own arrows and have to make their own bow before joining a hunt. Bows are extremely personal to the hunter and have carvings, ribbons, and paintings depicting animals or recording names of the hunter(s) that mentored them. When the tribe is traveling, hunters are assigned to be on the outside of the tribe to keep an eye out for dangers since they are usually very perceptive.
Gatherers: Run by the head gatherer. Have large aprons/baskets to carry items. Each new gatherer is given a new apron. Oldemore experienced gatherers have stained aprons to reflect their skill and the work they have done for the tribe.
Keeper: Records stories from the tribe, stories from other tribes, and daily events. Essentially a journal made of loose leaf paper. A journal is passed down from generation to generation. The journal is kept in an ornate wooden box. When the journal outgrows the box, a new box is added to the collection. The keeper knows the order of the boxes and is in charge of carrying the journal(s) when traveling.
Teacher: Teaches children in the tribe how to speak, write, and read other languages. Teaches math, colors, time, etc.
Navigator: Will make general notes about the location of the tribe and large landmarks such as mountains, forests, rivers, and permanent settlements. Navigates by the stars, planets, and sun. Some tribes will have a compass, but it is not needed.
Midwife: Supports mothers in the tribe during pregnancy, childbirth, and early childhood.
Healer: Provides medical care for the tribe. Sometimes they have magic.
Artist: Creates tattoos and jewelry for the tribe. Extra jewelry is made in spare time to trade with other tribes/cities.
Sticker: Gathers wood and maintains the fire(s) for the tribe. (Revecca was a sticker for the tribe. If you have her as an NPC, she collects firewood every night. If there is no firewood to be collected, use Druidcraft to make sticks).
• Speech Patterns •
Orcish is Revecca's first language. I think the PHB lists orc as the language, but orcish sounds better to me. The following ideas are not canon, but I used them to give her a fun voice during sessions. B/Vs: Orcish does not have the b sound. When a common word has b, the v sound is used instead. Nouns + Adjectives: Adjectives go after the noun. Forest large instead of large forest. Book of John instead of John’s Book. Contractions: Orcish does not have contractions so it can be hard for original orcish speakers to use and understand contractions when learning a new language.
Primordial is Revecca's second language (Revecca has the Outlander background so got a language. I rolled to see what random language she got, then made up a reason why it was this language.)
Common is Revecca’s third language. She speaks slowly and softly to make sure she is doing her best to speak. (Speaking slowly also gave me time as a player to focus on not using the b sound).
• Religion •
(This is all made up by me to justify having Primordial as one of Revecca's languages.)
Creation: All sentient beings are descendents from elementals intermixing. When created, instead of being one or the other, they are a new being. They have air in their lungs, water in their veins, rocks as their bones, and fire as their energy. Some individuals have more of one elemental in them and it affects their personality.
Air: Like to wander, very day dreamy and very flexible in their surroundings.
Water: Easygoing, slow to anger but their anger is powerful.
Rock: Stubborn and practical and want to settle down and support others.
Fire: Ambitious and make great leaders. Love deeply and fiercely.
Life: You have been given the gift of life and should live the best life you can. Respect others, your surroundings, and yourself. Guidance can come from others, your surroundings, or your inner self. If you receive guidance from some sort of godly being, they are meant to be part of your surroundings and are considered another person who just happens to have more skills and knowledge. Some individuals or surroundings are meant to hurt you and you can leave them behind.
Death: When you die, your body is laid to rest but your soul goes on. Your soul can follow the tribe and help guide, it can wander for itself, or choose to stop existing as a soul and become a star instead.
• Philosophy •
“If it is meant to be, it will be.” If you are meant to become a tribe leader, you will be a tribe leader.
“Things happen for a reason.” Nothing is a coincidence. Things happen because your surroundings chose, others chose, or you chose. When something happens, it can be good or bad, but there is always a reason.
• Final Thoughts •
If you made it this far, you have definitely earned the right to use any of this in your own game. Hope this helps and thank you for helping my first Roll20 character live on.

First and foremost, don't forget to like / follow these exclusive playlists, curated by Makell Bird for Maktown Media.

• Maktown Radio Jungle on Spotify
• Maktown Radio Jungle on YouTube Music
• Maktown Radio Jungle on Apple Music

This is my attempt at capturing the attention of anyone searching for drum and bass music, drum & bass music, drum n bass music, drum 'n' bass music, and jungle music. It has come to my attention that people are starting to branch out with this / these genres of music by putting an adjective in front of the word, in an effort to distinguish that specific mix / compilation from the others. So, I will use (just about) every adjective here to see what happens.

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The curious PWS (person who stutters) in me read this research (PDF ebook). After finishing the 23 pages, I summed up the key points.
Intro:

• The goal of this research is to examine (1) linguistic features that increase stuttering, (2) whether or not PWS exhibit subtle language differences or deficits, and (3) language factors that influence recovery in young children
• Research findings:
  • relatively lower language skills, and sophisticated brain indices of atypical language processing in PWS
  • distinct and atypical profiles of grammatical and lexical processing in PWS while listening to language, even when they are not required to produce speech
  • language formulation demand impacts the speech motor system in PWS
• 80% of children who stutter (CWS) will recover from stuttering apparently without benefit of therapeutic intervention

LANGUAGE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE FREQUENCY AND LOCATION OF STUTTERING

• Word-level factors:
• The particular sounds that led to stuttering were highly idiosyncratic across adults who stutter
• Brown: grammatical factors of words: stuttering was more likely to occur on nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs (content words) and less likely to occur on articles, pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions (function words) in adults who stutter (AWS)
• Content words carry most of the meaning
• The relationship is reversed in preschool children who stutter; they often stutter on function words, especially pronouns and conjunctions
• More stuttering occurs on words that arise earlier, as compared to later in an utterance due to problems with motor planning
• Word length: AWS stutter more on longer words, because (1) they are more “prominent”, and thus the speaker anticipated difficulty due to the prominence of the word, and (2) articulatory transitions are more challenging to produce in longer words (problems in motor planning)
• Content words tend to be longer in length than function words, and many function words occur at the beginnings of sentences in English
• Information value refers to how predictable a word is in a given context. If I say, “Pour me a cup of hot, black ___,” the final word is relatively predictable. Words that are difficult to guess have a higher information value, and therefore are more loaded with information. Thus, a word that is low in predictability is high in information value. Words that are less predictable are stuttered more frequently
• Defined critical words as those that “necessarily had to be pronounced if a listener should be able to understand and act according to the message given”, and their results indicated that critical words tended to be stuttered more frequently
• Utterance-level factors: Long and complex utterances are stuttered more, because they require increased motor formulation and lead to reduced speech motor coordination
• Reduction in cognitive and motor planning leads to reductions in stuttering

DO PWS HAVE UNDERLYING LANGUAGE DIFFERENCES OR DEFICITS?

Studies of language processing in adults and children who stutter

• Even when PWS are listening, rather than speaking, we can observe atypicalities in how language is processed
• Overactivation bilaterally during both receptive and expressive language tasks (e.g., single word naming) tasks in adults who stutter
• Using nonmeaningful speech stimuli, under-activation
• ERP profiles:
• ERPs can be viewed as cortical signatures marking stages in how the brain decodes language input, from its phonology, to word identification and semantic processing, and finally to grammatical parsing
• Numerous ERP studies of adults who stutter indicate that latency is delayed and amplitude of response is diminished to a variety of stimuli
• ERP indices of semantic processing
• Differences in processing of syntactic features of language
• Show fairly consistent and different electrophysiological responses to semantic and grammatical errors in heard speech

Relative depression of language abilities in children who stutter

• depression of language skills in cohorts of CWS
• depression of oral language skill in CWS
• CWS performed more poorly across articulation, grammar and overall language skill
• CWS who achieved scores more typical for their age were more likely to recover from stuttering in the following year
• a meta-analysis combined results of numerous studies tracking test performance of CWS relative to fluent peers on language test “batteries” such as the Test of Language Development. Analysis suggested that CWS scored significantly lower than children who do not stutter (CWNS) on overall language, receptive and expressive vocabulary
• CWS scored lower in both expressive and receptive vocabulary
• depressed ability to repeat sentence-level stimuli by CWS
• a recent meta-analysis found depression of CWS performance on forward memory span, inhibition and attention, and executive function

LANGUAGE FACTORS THAT APPEAR TO INFLUENCE RECOVERY FROM EARLY CHILDHOOD STUTTERING

• the British Twins Early Development (TED) study found that, of 1085 children who stutter between ages two and four, 92% were recovered by age 7
• it may be that stuttering does not emerge until a certain level of language proficiency is reached – children who develop language more slowly will reach this stage later in childhood
• role of language proficiency in recovery from stuttering:
• articulation/phonological findings:
• phonological awareness, and phonological manipulation ability, rather than speech articulation skills, are depressed in CWS
• AWS show lower levels of performance, typically in rapidity of response, when asked to perform a variety of phonological processing tasks
• subtle articulatory differences such as rate of second formant transitions in CV syllables were found to differentiate persistent and recovered children from the ISRP
• CWS who persisted used strategies in creating rhymes that differed from recovered children
• atypicalities in cortical processing of rhyming/non-rhyming words were detected in persistent CWS

Standardized test score achievement as a factor in recovery

• linguistic predictor of recovery: Preschool Language Scale
• screening tests has predicted recovery in very young Japanese children who stutter
• language differences showing higher scores for recovered children have been detected using the Test of Early Language Development receptive scales (TELD), and expressive scales, and expressive vocabulary

Expressive language analysis

• mean length of utterance (MLU) is not predictive of stuttering
• lexical diversity or richness in the child’s language is not predictive of stuttering
• communication skills at 2 years of age predicted recovery status by age 7 for Australian girls, but not boys
• at age 7, Australian recovered CWS had stronger language skills
• reduced expressive language growth (growth in the variety of grammatical structures in children’s expressive language), rather than initial presentation, predicted stuttering
• recovered children show steeper growth in expressive language complexity
• higher levels of expressive grammatical development were associated with recovery

Experimental indices of linguistic processing and recovery from early stuttering

• linguistic markers of stuttering recovery:
• Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to study brain activity during processing of stories manipulated to contain occasional insertions of semantically anomalous information (e.g., he ate all his door quickly). The N400 response had reduced amplitude in children who remained persistent, a potential marker of weaker semantic processing skill in children who continue to stutter
• children who remained persistent showed an unusual and unexpected N400 (semantic) response to both semantic as well as syntactic violations in stimuli

LANGUAGE FACTORS IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN WHO STUTTER

The presence of multiple languages adds complexity

• language dominance and proficiency are significant determinants of disfluency
• bilingualism increases a child’s risk of being diagnosed as stuttering, even when they are not

Determining the presence of stuttering in bilingual children

• typical disfluencies, such as revisions, filled pauses, silent pauses, and phrase revisions are seen in monolingual children during times of rapid language learning
• bilingual children may have increased rates of typical disfluencies, perhaps due to the increased challenges of language processing and formulation in two or more languages

THE INTERFACE BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND MOTOR FACTORS IN STUTTERING

• How could difficulties in processing or retrieving linguistic elements (be they sounds, words or utterances) result in stuttering?
• Answer: Because of the unique differences in the integration of language and speech demands in PWS
• Like any well-practiced motor activity, a person’s signature has distinctive form and regularity (much to the dismay of any student who has tried to forge a parent’s excuse or permission slip). Repeated trials of one’s signature have observable regularity and uniformity. Another way to describe this is to say that there is little variability in the action’s temporal and spatial features. Similar properties can be derived for repeated speech sequences, such as saying the same phrase over and over
• Adults who stutter demonstrated slightly more spatial/temporal variability in repeating simple utterances; variability was significantly increased when the AWS attempted to utter the same phrase in a longer, more complicated response
• Thus, while AWS’ production of a phrase like “buy Bobby a puppy”, was not immensely different from that seen in adults who do not stutter (AWNS), embedding the same phrase in a stimulus such as “You buy Sally a kitty, and I’ll buy Bobby a puppy” resulted in noticeable loss of stability across repetitions of the target words

Tips: (that I extracted from the research)

• develop hierarchies of linguistic/cognitive/motor planning difficulty e.g., switching from reading aloud to spontaneous conversation
• decrease disfluencies (and speech errors) by addressing:
  • lower language skills
  • atypical language processing
  • atypical profiles of grammatical and lexical processing
  • heightened language formulation demands that impact the speech motor system
• address linguistic demands that trigger stuttering, such as:
  • highly idiosyncratic particular sounds
  • content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) (that carry most of the meaning) over function words (articles, pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions)
  • words that arise earlier in an utterance due to problems with motor planning
  • longer words, because (1) we anticipate difficulty due to the prominence of the word, and (2) articulatory transitions are more challenging to produce in longer words (problems in motor planning)
  • less predictable words e.g., when saying “My name is ___,”, because of (1) increased information value, and (2) more loaded with information
  • defined critical words e.g., words that necessarily had to be pronounced if a listener should be able to understand and act according to the message given
  • long and complex utterances, because they require increased motor formulation and lead to reduced speech motor coordination
  • heightened cognitive and motor planning
• address demands that are triggered by receptive and expressive language tasks
• learn to perceive, feel and respond to non-meaningful speech stimuli - the same as meaningful ones
• address overactivation in the right-hemisphere when decoding language input, from its phonology, to word identification and semantic processing, and finally to grammatical parsing, and processing of syntactic features of language
• address latency that is delayed and amplitude of response that is diminished to a variety of stimuli
• address atypical electrophysiological responses to semantic and grammatical errors
• increase language skills, oral language skills, articulation, grammar and overall language skill, receptive and expressive vocabulary, and the ability to repeat sentence-level stimuli - to reduce disfluencies or speech errors
• increase performance on forward memory span, inhibition and attention, and executive function - to reduce disfluencies or speech errors
• increase phonological awareness, and phonological manipulation ability - to reduce disfluencies or speech errors
• increase performance in rapidity of response, when asked to perform a variety of phonological processing tasks
• improve articulatory skills such as rate of second formant transitions in CV syllables
• address the atypicalities in cortical processing of rhyming/non-rhyming words
• increase communication skills
• increase the variety of grammatical structures in expressive language, rather than initial presentation
• address atypical brain activity during processing of stories manipulated to contain occasional insertions of semantically anomalous information (e.g., he ate all his door quickly) - to increase semantic processing skills. Address the unusual and unexpected N400 (semantic) response to both semantic and syntactic violations in stimuli
• increase language dominance and proficiency - to decrease disfluency
• improve normal disfluencies, such as revisions, filled pauses, silent pauses, and phrase revisions
• address difficulties in processing or retrieving linguistic elements (be they sounds, words or utterances) - to reduce stuttering. For example, by adressing the unique differences in the integration of language and speech demands
• decrease the variability in the action’s temporal and spatial features in a longer, more complicated response during a stimulus
• address the increased demands on working memory - that result in stuttering. Don't fully allocate working memory/attention resources in speaking, instead, distribute this to other concurrent tasks as well - to improve fluency (1)
• don't focus on your attention on anxiety-related symptoms such as physiological (e.g. increased heart rate and sweating) and psychological changes (e.g. increased negative thoughts), during triggers (e.g., social anxiety). Address these stutter triggers: criticism or negative evaluation as inherently painful to one’s self-worth; social evaluation (threat) by others resulting in feelings of being judged and evaluated, and eliciting strong physiological responses. Focus on external attention/tasks (e.g., make sure that the way you said it matches the auditory model) over internal attention (e.g., focusing on how their lips, teeth, and tongue are used to produce each sound) - to reduce speech errors/disfluencies and reduce articulatory movement variability (2)

Five treatment approaches that might reduce stuttering (and prevent chronic stuttering) for a school-age child:

• (a) Operant methods: This seems to be the most effective. In the LidCombe, children are not instructed to change their customary speech pattern in any way. Parents comment when a child stutters or does not stutter:
• (1) Praise for spontaneous self correction: “Great job, you fixed that bumpy word all by yourself",
• (2) Request self evaluation "Were there any bumps there?"
• (3) Acknowledge: "That was smooth" (positive reinforcement / operant conditioning)
• (4) Request self-correction "See if you can say that without the bump"
• (b) Speech restructuring: easy, relaxed breathing while slowing speech rate and prolonging syllables; encouraging the child to practise saying each syllable in time to a rhythmic beat
• (c) Combined operant methods and speech restructuring
• (d) Machine-driven treatments
• (e) Treatments with a cognitive behaviour therapy component
• Address the associations between negative experiences of stuttering. Because the more time between early onset, the more associations between the negative experiences of stuttering (Mark Onslow, 2023, December)(3)

Explore potential interactions between language skill and fluency at multiple levels:

• (1) language sample analysis to ascertain what structures the child appears to be able to use, or are absent from the child’s repertoire, and general stage of expressive language development
• (2) examination of the sample for possible structures that seem particularly likely to be accompanied by stuttering
• (3) general status of language development as informed by standardized testing
• (4) programming of fluency goals at lower levels of linguistic complexity (already mastered structures), and moving through planned practice at increasingly more difficult levels of complexity
• (5) accepting that fluency breakdown may accompany the child’s attempts to master new language targets during language intervention sessions

With his mother dead and his cultist family members out to ruin his life, getting abducted by alien slavers is actually an improvement for Corey Vash. A quick and chaotic escape attempt only succeeds thanks to an unintentional rescue from the impressively skilled and infrequently sober bounty hunters aboard the Hard Luck Hermit. With no clue about how to survive in space and nothing to return to on Earth, Corey joins the crew in their efforts to make a quick buck, try new drinks, and figure out who the hell keeps trying to kill them.
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“Bad idea!”
Tooley’s sudden acceleration had triggered both fleets into action -an action that mostly consisted of walls of laser fire barreling in either direction. Tooley swerved downward and ducked below the volleys of destruction, then swung wide to the sidelines of the battle. The first volley was mostly negated by shielding, chaff, and other defensive measures, but a second soon followed, and Tooley watched as a few of the smaller vessels on either side were consumed by violent explosions.
“Off to a great start,” Tooley said. Their makeshift “alliance” outnumbered the Horuk by a moderate margin, so as long as losses were kept fairly equivalent, they’d come out on top. She kept to the outskirts of the fighting, close enough that Farsus could take potshots at the enemy without putting them in too much danger. “Fars, you’re the chaos expert, what’s your take?”
“On a personal level, I am delighted! On a tactical level, give me more than a few ticks to think,” Farsus said. The battle had only just begun, and it was far too early to call for either side. Farsus took a few shots at one of the smaller circular Horuk vessels and watched as it matched up against a patchwork Doccan cruiser and a flock of smaller bounty hunter ships. What should’ve been a one-sided slaughter turned into a protracted battle as the makeshift allies failed to coordinate. The disorganized skirmish lasted long enough that the lone Horuk vessel called in reinforcements and turned the tide. Farsus watched with great concern as the fighters were picked off, and the damaged Doccan hulk began to take on heavy fire.
“It would appear our fears were not entirely unfounded,” Farsus said. “We have the advantage of numbers, but not coordination.”
The disparate factions were killing in the same direction, but not truly working together. The Horuk vessels were running circles around their scattered foes, picking apart stragglers and encircling isolated factions.
“We always knew this was a possibility,” Kamak said. Luring in a half dozen different factions under false pretenses didn’t exactly engender good teamwork. Especially seeing as at least two of the factions very specifically hated each other. “We don’t need a decisive victory, we just needed to make sure the Horuk didn’t get a surprise attack. Mission accomplished, universe saved. Probably.”
Some of the smaller ships that had arrived on the scene had already fled, and Kamak had no doubt that a lot of distress signals and warnings were being sent. Even in the worst case scenario, the Horuk and Morrakesh had been deprived of the element of surprise, giving Centerpoint, and the rest of the universe, time to muster a defense.
“On that note, should we get the fuck out of here?”
Tooley watched as one of the three Galactic Council warships got bombarded with enough firepower to destroy one of its engines. It was still firing, but with no ability to maneuver, it was as good as dead.
“I feel like we’ve got to at least stick around for most of it,” Kamak said. “If we run away a few ticks in we still look bad.”
Tooley swerved hard to avoid a potshot from one of the Horuk ships. She swung the ship wide and took cover behind the massive frame of a Doccan cruiser for a moment.
“Longer we stick around, bigger chance we end up dead,” Tooley said. “I’m fine looking like an asshole if I’m a living asshole.”
“We’re not leaving until we shoot that purple bastard out of the sky,” Corey said. Morrakesh’s flagship was still weaving through the battlefield with ease, occasionally joining in combat on the side of the Horuk. “If Morrakesh gets out of here, we’ll never find it again. It’s smarter than anyone here and it’ll outlive us all.”
“Good point, Corvash, I have decided I also want vengeance,” Tooley said.
“And I don’t want it trying to take revenge, either,” Kamak said. “Corey’s right, we don’t get out of here until that bitch is dead.”
To Vo had been prepared to make a plea on behalf of all the innocent people aboard the ships they had lured here, but she was pleasantly surprised to see the crew had found their own motivation. Very bitter, spiteful motivation, but it at least overlapped with a good cause.
“That said, anyone got any ideas on how to do that?”
“We just need to get the people rallied behind a single guiding authority,” To Vo said. “Kamak, you’re captain, you could-”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” Kamak snapped. To Vo shut up.
“I think our specialty lies on the other end of the spectrum,” Doprel noted. “Causing chaos, not creating order.”
“Indeed! We must wreak havoc on the enemy,” Farsus said, his voice filled with thunderous enthusiasm. “But how?”
Even the expert on chaos struggled to come up with any ideas, given the resources available to them. Tooley kept her mind focused on flying, as the Doccan vessel she was sheltering behind started to take heavy fire. Half a dozen of the Horuk ships were focusing fire on it, blowing massive holes in the patchwork hull. As Tooley flew away, the Doccan aboard apparently assessed their situation and discovered that they were doomed. Then they did the logical thing: accelerate and use the doomed ship itself as a weapon. The lumbering space hulk burst forward and slammed into the spokes of one of the Great Wheel ships, snapping the circular war machine in half in a massive explosion.
Tooley bared sharp teeth in a worrying grin.
“I have an idea!”
“I hate the way you sound right now,” Corey said.
“You should!”
With a quick flick of her wrist and a sharp pull on a lever, Tooley sent them careening away from the battlefield. Taking advantage of the fact that she’d never bothered to repair the cut wire that bypassed their light-speed safety systems, Tooley made a quick jump into the void, barely more than a drop long. From this far out, the battlefield wasn’t even visible. She bared her teeth and reactivated their communication channel -this time focused solely on the frequencies used by Morrakesh and the Horuk.
“Howdy there, you fucking oversized houseplant,” Tooley said. “If you’re so smart, can you guess what I’m about to do?”
“Continue running?”
“Close but not quite, Morry,” Tooley said. She swung the Hermit around to face directly at the Bang Gate in the distance. “I am going to take a page out of our Doccan friend’s book and ram your Bang Gate at full speed.”
“Tooley, that’s not supposed to-”
“Shut up and let me do my thing, captain,” Tooley snapped.
“You wouldn’t,” Morrakesh said. “You’d obliterate your own allies and yourself.”
“In case you haven’t been keeping track, Morrakesh, everyone within a hundred lightyears came here specifically to try and kill me,” Tooley said. “And, as you might remember from my time aboard your ship, I barely want to be alive to begin with.”
Something that had hopefully changed since Tooley had been aboard Morrakesh’s ship, but the brief silence that followed said Morrakesh didn’t know that. The brief silence from her crewmates said they weren’t sure they knew that either. Tooley ignored them all -though she did take a brief glance at Corey. For some reason, that steadied her nerves.
“Your confidence is remarkable,” Morrakesh taunted. “But I know a bluff when I see one, Tooley Keeber Obeltas.”
“Apparently not.”
Tooley gripped her controls, lined up to the Bang Gate, and jumped into FTL.
The torrent of obscenities flowing from Kamak’s mouth was something for the history books. In what he firmly believed to be his last few ticks of existence, Kamak fully intended to call Tooley every possible negative adjective in the dictionary. While he screamed and raged, Doprel and To Vo held on for dear life, Farsus laughed like a madman, and Corey sat in stunned silence. Tooley sat at her controls and counted down the ticks.
It would be easy to just stop counting. Let go of the controls, let herself slam right into the Bang Gate. She’d be disintegrated so fast she wouldn’t even feel it, and suddenly all her problems would be evaporated in the blink of an eye. It’d be easy.
Too easy. She wanted a challenge.
Tooley slammed a fist down on the controls so hard the Hermit shuddered as it abruptly decelerated from faster-than-light speeds. The trademark wall of beige light that came with FTL suddenly melted into a wall of solid gray metal: the Bang Gate, rushing towards them at several thousand miles an hour. Kamak’s torrent of screaming curses turned into regular screaming. Tooley joined him, though her scream was one of enthusiastic, utterly unrestrained delight.
“Fuck this!”
Tooley slammed the controls hard to the side, and the ship rolled with them. The Hard Luck Hermit went into a diving roll, narrowly avoiding the massive Bang Gate’s metal ring. At speeds like this it should’ve been impossible to maneuver at all, much less maneuver with precision through an active warzone. Tooley did it anyway.
“Fuck you!”
The absurd speed the ship still traveled at allowed them to traverse the battlefield in the blink of an eye, bypassing dozens of scattered Horuk ships. As Tooley had hoped, they had fallen for the bluff. As soon as Tooley had accelerated, they had scattered, hoping to flee the battlefield before the Bang Gate detonated. She dodged and weaved through the scattered enemy fleet, hurtling around warships and spinning through the spokes of a Great Wheel ship at speeds that would’ve had a lesser pilot crashing and burning instantly.
“Fuck everything!”
Processing all the input from her navigational readouts at speeds almost as fast as the ship itself was traveling, Tooley found her target and swung the ship around, making use of their momentum to close the distance faster than anyone could flee. She only started to decelerate when she saw her target on the outskirts of the battlefield: the tail end of the Empyrean Absolutist, engines flaring as it too tried to flee from the destruction Morrakesh had assumed was coming. Morrakesh’s flagship had made it further from the scene of the battle than any other, and might’ve even escaped the hypothetical destruction. But there was no escaping Tooley, or her ego. She made sure her next taunt was broadcasted across all channels.
“I am Tooley Keeber Obertas, and I am the best pilot in the fucking universe!”
Still laughing like a lunatic, Farsus got himself back on track. Having Morrakesh’s ship flanked was an opportunity to be seized. The insane acceleration made it hard to aim, but even so, Farsus managed to fire off three clean shots at the Empyrean Absolutist. The tracking systems in the missiles did the rest, striking the purple vessel and disabling most of its propulsion systems.
“And that is everybody’s least favorite tree served up on a silver platter,” Tooley said, tensed muscles relaxing as the ship started to slow to normal speeds. “You’re welcome.”
Kamak turned in her direction, teeth bared in a horrified grimace that seemed to be frozen on his face.
“Thank you.”
All around them, the tide of the battle started to turn as the makeshift alliance seized on the sudden scattering of the enemy fleet. The Horuk’s defensive formation around the Bang Gate had broken, and their opponents flowed into the empty space, circling the wagons and putting their backs to the Bang Gate to avoid being flanked. Though their coordination went no further than taking up a defensive formation, that alone was enough to shift the tides of battle in favor of the odd allies.
“Your gambit appears to have worked, Tooley,” Farsus said. “I offer my sincere congratulations and my sincere hopes you will never do that again.”
“Yeah I don’t plan on it,” Tooley said breathlessly. The adrenaline high was wearing off, but she could still feel her heartbeat in her eyeballs. That couldn’t possibly be healthy. She decelerated them into a slow drift as they surveyed the battlefield -and the disabled Empyrean Absolutist. Kamak glared daggers at the crippled purple vessel.
“I think it’s our turn to do something stupid,” he said. “Tooley, take us in.”
Kmaka unbuckled his seatbelt and put a hand on the pistol strapped to his hip.
“And prepare to board.”

This is part of a collection of notes I have made so far. Terms [in brackets] are invented by me, for lack of an official name. Comment-exclusive material is marked with spoilers, which will be my policy as the author may choose to decanonize anything said only in comments. ([MAIN DIRECTORY]: [1 taint dragons], [2 nulls souls], [3 academy Vanavan], [4a gadgets humans], [4b EVI], [5 Library-TBA], [6 Mal'tory-on hold], [7a Nexus glossary], [7b Nexus detail], [7c Nexus-earth war], [8a magic catalog], [8b magic], [9a Yearbook], [9b Emma’s Null, Mal'tory’s fate], [10a portals], [10b ECS crate], [10c taint], [10d dragons], [10e tainted dragon god], [11 timeline].)

Part of this write-up is not going to make much sense unless you read [10a Portals]. This section was originally in that writeup, but then it got too big, so I forked it out. It is part of the continuation of the 10 taint/portal/dragon series leading up to discussion of the mystery telepathic being Emma encountered in the dark between.

Contradictory time of the explosion

The Exoreality Communications Suite Crate 10 was set to explode 72 hours after departure from Earth if not contacted by Emma per the Lost and Found Procedures. The crate exploded at 0300 on Day 5/Grace 4 meaning that the crate should have arrived from Earth at 0300 on Day 2/Grace 1. We know that can’t be the case because at 0300 on Grace 1, Emma had already flagged Crate 10 as missing and was standing in the airlock waiting for her tent to purge. Emma’s crate actually arrived at 2300 on Day 1/Grace 0 (after the yearbook signing, during the late-night banquet, before she set up her tent), meaning that the crate somewhen timeslipped 4 hours into the future - it exploded 76 hours after arriving on the Nexus.
Wait, are you sure about that time? Absolutely. If you forward calculate all the detonation times listed in various chapters, you get 2300 somewhat consistently, and never 0300. However when Emma’s absolute time is restored on portal return to Dragon’s Heart Tower, it is closer to 0330. What happened? Emma fell through the transportium network and lost all sense of time. Her time in the section titles was question marks in the forest, and then headings switched to relative time to detonation once the crate synced. Absolute time never came up during the Elaseer voyage. Emma thought it was still evening the previous day when she made the dash into town. Only when she got sent back to school did EVI blare about parsing conflicting datasets. When Emma was in the commons room at 0325, she saw “a part of town that was the source of that plume of pitch black smoke that rose up lazily against a rapidly approaching dawn. ... just in time to witness a shiny, shimmering ball of light rising up from the billowing plumes of smoke below. A glistening source of light, in the shape of a crystal dragon.” The explosion was still recent enough to smoke. The other students just arrived in the room for the disturbance and hadn’t been awake for four hours. Vanavan’s portal he came in on instantly would not have lost four hours sending Emma back, nor did Belnor wrestle with the dragon for 4 whole hours only to lose it then. Maybe EVI will explicitly call Emma's attention to the contradiction at some point in the future.

Errors

There are few points where the author stated something inconsistent with other parts of the text that made unraveling this mystery a bit more difficult.

Error in the crate number (10 vs 7)

Back a few months ago when I initially read the chapter, I thought the crate detonation timeslip was author error because the number on the crate switched from 10 to 7. It required a few rereads and dedicated timeline annotations to rule EVI contacting crate 7 in the tower made no sense and the numbering was the only mistake. 10 must be the correct number.
Chapter 11: “Prioritize determining the location and whereabouts of Container 10.”
Chapter 12: “showing each of the nine containers being poked and prodded by the likes of several unknown members of staff, with container 10 always in view of each and every cut of footage”, “Yet as the video continued on, it was clear that they had some unexplained fixation on container 10.”, “Her avian eyes locked onto my screen as it began playing the footage that showed container 10 in plain sight”, “‘As such, I deem it wise to remove only one item from her strange collection of eclectic boxes.’ Mal'tory pointed towards Container 10”
Chapter 32: “Priority Objective: Locate and Secure Container 10. Current time remaining until activation of the Denial of Sensitive Assets to Unauthorized Parties Protocols… 36 hours, 34 minutes, and 47 seconds.”
Chapter 37: “PRIORITY ALERT! SIGNAL RESTORED WITH CRATE NO. 7. REPEAT! SIGNAL RESTORED WITH CRATE NO.7!”, “Signal has been reestablished with Crate No. 7. Internal chronometer reads as 70 hours 57 minutes and 38 seconds having elapsed since point-of-entry into the Nexus.”

Errors on the countdown time remaining

Inconsistent detonation times were also a source of confusion for me, another reason I started gradually building a timeline. For reference, all mentions of the countdown relative to absolute time are listed. Only a bolded entry is a likely error.

• Chapter 11. G1 0000. Emma realizes crate 10 is missing. [At this time, the ECS crate is set to explode at ~2300 G3. 1 hour elapsed, 71 hours remain]
  
• Chapter 15. G1 <1000. Just before Emma’s Null created. [At this time, the ECS crate is set to explode at ~0000 G4. <10 hours elapsed, >62 hours remain] To be consistent, the time should be adjusted to 11 hours elapsed, 61 hours remain.
  
• Chapter 16. G1 1005. Emma intercepts Larial enroute to the yearbook ritual room and sets a meeting at the gardens to talk about missing ECS crate, sets an infildrone to follow Larial. [At this time, the ECS crate is set to explode at ~0000 G4, ~61 hours, 54 minutes, and 37 seconds remain.] To be consistent, the time should be adjusted to 60 hours, 54 minutes, and 37 seconds remain.
  
• Chapter 22. G1 1600+. Emma talks to groundskeeper Alaton. [At this time, the ECS crate is set to explode at 2300 G3, just under 55 hours remain]
  
• Chapter 32. G2 1020. Emma tells Thacea & Thalmin about Ilunor at Sorecar’s. Ilunor leaves to do contract work. [At this time, the ECS crate is set to explode at ~2300 G3, 36 hours, 34 minutes, and 47 seconds remain] Countdown time indicates the time is 1025. To be consistent with the following section header’s 1020, the countdown time should be adjusted back to 36 hours, 41 minutes, and 47 seconds to give Emma her five minutes plus two minutes of airlock time.
  
• Chapter 34. G2 1530. Emma finishes up conversation with Larial about the ECS crate. [At this time, the ECS crate is set to explode at ~2300 G3. 31 hours, 29 minutes, and 27 seconds remain]
  

^{I accept authorial apologies in the form of adjectives describing the condition of misappropriated crates and rooms stolen crates are stored in as viewed through crystal balls and portals cast by black-robed professors with the charisma of Squidward.}

The Four Hour Mystery

“Because despite having all the tools in the world, the one thing you can’t create or conjure up is time.”

Suspects

Timing of the crate being moved. Mal'tory moved the crate to somewhere in Elaseer between 2300 Day 1/Grace 0 when the newly-arrived crates were inspected and 1600 on Day 2/Grace 1 when Larial got taken out by the Null. He likely did so by portal and likely without the assistance of anyone but Larial and Lortal. Emma went to meet with Larial in the medical wing at 1505 Day 3/Grace 2, and the injured elf looked worryingly in the direction of Elaseer. I doubt that Mal'tory would have paid her a special hospital visit just to say he moved the crate. It makes the most sense that Mal'tory, with Larial and Lortal’s help, moved crate 10 to his office and then to Elaseer using a portal before midnight Day 1/Grace 0. He then returned to the Academy to get involved with the Yearbook rituals. After Larial+Lortal and Mal'tory split ways, the apprentice delivered the rest of Emma’s luggage. When Mal'tory found time to tamper with the crate (and if it was before or after Emma informed him of the exploding) and if the crate was originally in the warehouse over the life vault are both open questions. At the end of his involvement, the crate was in a blackened condition that weakened its structural integrity.
Suspect list for who knew the crate got moved to Elaseer. The only people who could conceivably know where the crate was to manipulate it are the professors who knew Mal'tory took it (Mal'tory, Dean Astur, Vanavan, Larial (injured and life-debt so unlikely), Lortal (Larial’s gargoyle construct so prob not), and other professors present at Earth’s luggage arrival. Additionally, someone who visited Mal'tory’s office in the Faculty Tower during the transport, discussion, or observation might have learned of it. That adds Ilunor (unlikely to mess with Emma’s stuff) and the blue dragon in the black robe office. Mal'tory also has allies, so add these unknown parties. The ECS crate also contains a shard of impart which other draconic shards of impart can sync to. Add other dragons, including the amethyst dragon and the Transportium dragon-sounding entity to the list.
Suspect list for who knows the crate will detonate and when. Emma told Thacea, Thalmin, and Ilunor the crate was going to explode. Emma later told Larial in a surreptitious meeting, and she went to Mal'tory’s office to tell him. Anyone in the office for that meeting, like the blue dragon, would have known. We also know that Mal'tory likely has compatriots. Given that the whole crate explosion debacle was covered up by the Dean, he is likely in the know.
Suspects on both lists. Mal'tory, Larial, Ilunor, the blue dragon, Astur, and Mal'tory’s still unnamed and unknown allies. Larial’s out because she was injured and acquired a life debt to Emma. Ilunor is unlikely to be a good enough caster to pull off a time spell, and his motive to delay the crate’s detonation and then not tell Emma about it later is pretty scant. That really only leaves Mal'tory and the blue dragon as suspects, and I’m willing to add Dean Astur to that list as a distant third suspect. The blue dragon is pinned up to a ceiling but may be in secret communication with other draconic entities.
Conclusions. The most likely culprit for time alteration is Mal'tory since he lost his cool trying to hustle Lartia along without letting him inspect the crate first. He also seemed to believe Emma just enough to prepare armor against physical trauma as a contingency. The collection of dragons are another faction to consider, but they’d have to somehow understand the circuit structure and essentially hack the crate. They are part-silicon-based life with souls, but that’s a stretch.

Crate Timeline

• G0 2300 Emma’s crates arrive from Earth after Yearbook signing, most likely during late-night dinner. 72 hour countdown starts before the Lost and Found procedures activate. ECS crate 10 taken by Mal'tory with Vanavan, Larial, and Lortal as witnesses and Astur’s approval.
  
• G0 2300-0000 Thacea’s, Thalmin’s, and Ilunor’s luggage arrives via lesser elf. Emma tells off Ilunor for slavery. Larial delivers Emma’s crates, Emma explores dorm.
  
• G1 0000 Emma realizes crate 10 is missing. Mal'tory most likely moved the crate around this time frame or a little before to Elaseer with Larial’s help, through a portal.
  
• G1 0000-0200? Emma explains manaless engineering and the bomb situation to Thacea.
  
• G1 0700-0900 Emma explains the bomb to Thacea, Thalmin, and Ilunor. Ilunor may tell Mal'tory given that he has to go pick up his invisibility cloak to burn the Library and ask why it needed to be done.
  
• G1 1005 Emma intercepts Larial after breakfast and sets a meeting at the gardens to talk about missing ECS crate
  
• G1 1520 Cutoff for when the crate was likely moved to Elaseer
  
• G2 1505-1530 Emma tells Larial about the detonative potential of her crate in great detail.
  
• G2 1530-2355 Larial meets with Mal'tory about Emma and the crate to arrange a parley
  
• G3 0030 Emma arrives at Mal'tory’s office, explains the crate detonation and UN org. Mal'tory shows Emma her crate in an unknown condition on the other side of a portal in an unknown room. Emma does not receive a signal from the crate at this time that we know about. Mal'tory crosses over to its side. Emma tries to follow and gets lost in the transportium network.
  
• ???? Emma’s trip through the transportium network lasts only a dozen apparent minutes for her, but close to a full 24 hours in overworld time. She loses track of absolute time. While in the network, she is contacted by a draconic chiming-sounding entity using the anomalous 30th manatype and a Tier 25, unstable surge telepathy spell that penetrates the armor’s mana resistance.
  
• G3 2300 When the ECS crate should have detonated if its time had not been paused somehow.
  
• G4 ~01?? Emma ejected from the transportium network and is ambushed a few minutes later by a werebeast puppet of the forest whom she defeats. Ten minutes later, as Emma gets her bearings, a spirit of the forest speaking through the werebeast tries to threaten Emma into a quest that might take weeks, but they are interrupted by the arrival of Lartia’s carriage.
  
• G4 0148 Emma takes Lartia up on his carriage-ride-to-Elaseer offer.
  
• G4 0158 Emma gets close enough to Elaseer to reconnect with the crate, which has timeslipped to detonate at 0300 by this time. Emma fails to notice its internal time is shifted forward by 4 hours due to lack of absolute time reference.
  
• G4 0234 Emma arrives at Elaseer main gate, dropped off by Lartia.
  
• G4 0256 Emma breaks into the warehouse, tries to retrieve crate, confronts Mal'tory who deeply damages the ground with a restraining spell that will allow the life vault to collapse.
  
• G4 0300 72 Hours elapse from the internal perspective of ECS Crate 10, The Lost and Found procedures activate, ECS Crate 10 explodes. Based on records, the crate’s time is 4 hours out of sync.
  
• Royal Courier Lartia slain by the explosion. Mal'tory and Rila injured. Emma stunned. Likely guard Fabian, other unnamed guards, a bard band, and other carriage occupants are also killed.
  
• Warehouse floor collapses opening the life vault. Mal'tory fights creatures escaping from life vault. Dragon exits life vault and knocks Mal'tory into the canal outside the warehouse.
  
• G4 0320ish teachers portal in and try to deal with dragon. Emma tells Vanavan and Chiska to take care of Rila, does not mention Mal'tory.
  
• G4 0325 Emma teleported back to the Academy by Vanavan. EVI syncs with the tent base and resolves conflicting time datasets but doesn’t inform Emma of the contradictions.
  

How to conjure time?

It is a puzzle how Mal'tory or a draconic party was able to manipulate the internal timer of the crate to buy himself 4 hours - a mystery which has heavy implications about the powers Nexus can wield.
From Mal'tory’s perspective, there are many strange points about the whole business.

1. He had to further rush the courier, Lord Lartia, Royal Courier and Peer of Mal'tory, who was already disturbed about being hurried. The professor had to offer Lartia a hefty magic crystal bribe for quick service.
   
2. Mal'tory cut the pickup time very close which is odd because he had at least 23 hours to work out how to buy four hours. If the crate was going to blow up, better it do so as far away from Elaseer as possible. Mal'tory would want to create more time than just four hours suggesting there was a limiting factor to his time-saving method.
   
3. Mal'tory set the pickup point to be right over a life vault in the warehouse district of Elaseer, which is a sketchy place for a crate that might explode and compromise surface integrity.
   

In addition, Mal'tory also took a gamble that the crate wouldn’t somehow null his spells like Emma’s armor nor synchronize with the time of day once he removed it from whatever he did.

Methods to manifest time

Option 1: Mal'tory went to the warehouse and cast time slow/time stop/time rewind.

We know there exists at least a limited variety of stop time/slow time/preservation spells because the Academy uses them on food to keep it fresh. Of course, we don’t know if that only applies to food especial made to be compatible or if the serving equipment is a necessary material component.
Time-related restoration spells that turn back the entropy of destruction are decently hard magic according to Thalmin. Given that healing is its own art, we can also deduce that are limitations to what you can rewind; body damage can’t be rewound like a smashed wooden chair would come back together. The ECS crate is made of non-magical materials from a non-magical plane that do not have a Shift-F1 save state snapshot in the manastreams. It also contains a profoundly magical crystal of living biological origin, further complicating a time reversal. Finally, Mal'tory might worry reversing time would set off the tamper detection circuit that Larial would have mentioned along with the detonation time. Conclusion: I think time reversal is less likely than a stop or slow.
Mal'tory also only bought himself 4 hours, barely enough for Lartia to arrive. He had no safety margin which suggests Mal'tory hit some natural limit to his spell-casting ability. This implies he cannot hold concentration for more than 4 hours on a hard spell like time stop, or his slow time at best reduces the time flow to 5/6ths its natural rate to extract 4 hours from ~26 hours worth of casting, or that his time reversal can only manage 2-4 hours back depending on how long it takes to cast.
It is also strange that he kept the crate in that particular warehouse where detonation might compromise the life vault. Mal'tory might have been forced to move the crate there because he needed to draw on the powers of the tainted creatures below to maintain the time slow/stop spell’s power. I have wondered in previous speculation parts if tainted creatures can be used as living mana batteries. It’s also possible that tainted creatures are used to manipulate route times for transportium gates and Mal'tory was repurposing the time-power for his own ends.
Evidence against Mal'tory casting this sort of exhausting spell is that it wasn’t enough to make him appear tired or stop him from slinging spells at Emma or the warehouse creatures later.

Option 2: Mal'tory threw the crate into a life vault under the effects of a time stop

After hearing the crate was a bomb on a timer, Mal'tory may have relocated it into a life vault under a time stop effect to buy himself time. It would make sense for life vaults to have time stops on them to keep the creatures in them alive in suspended animation.
To explain how Mal'tory only saved four hours, maybe it took awhile to prepare armor as a contingency against getting exploded, and he might have been held up by Vanavan asking about where Emma ran off to. (Mal'tory knew Emma was missing, which meant he wasn’t at the warehouse the whole Day 4/Grace 3 day.)
The issue with this theory is that if the Life Vault was a true time stop, then Lartia would not need to be rushed and no extra bribe paid. A crate truly on time ice could wait indefinitely. I think this is the least likely theory even though it makes a lot of superficial sense.

Option 3: Mal'tory sent the crate on a round trip using intentionally defective transportium gates which can lose time

A fast travel point and loading screen system. My best hypothesis is that transportium gates and routes (see 10a) are a slightly less convenient variation of portaling techniques that trade time loss for a lower risk of tainting than instantaneous portals over long distances. Passing through a transportium gate seems instantaneous to the traveler, but they actually lose time as if they were trapped in a loading zone. From the portaler’s perspective, it is like time in the overworld jumped forward right as they stepped through which would make their clock slow. Meanwhile, someone watching both ends of the transportium route from the overworld experiences an interval where the traveler does not exist on either side of the transportium gate. In other words, this is exactly what happened to Emma who saw 12 minutes internally pass for ~23+ hours elapsed in the overworld, but slightly more controlled in that the traveling box doesn’t fall through a black space at the mercy of currents.
As long as the lost time interval isn’t negative nor swifter than the speed of light direct overland, causality can’t be violated - a sufficiently sturdy spaceship could achieve the same forward time leap using relativity by close orbiting a black hole for a hot second.
The transportium network’s violent internal currents probably influence the topography and efficiency of transportium routes. Nodes in the transportium network create “fast travel points” where it is easy to get in and out. Throwing enough tainted creatures in a life vault creates an artificial fast travel point which is why vaults of horrendous creatures are kept in towns below bustling logistical sectors against all common sense.

Mal'tory’s time-conjuring method

What Mal'tory did to create four hours is send Emma’s ECS crate through an intentionally inefficient transportium round trip that removed the crate from the regular flow of time for at least 4 hours to hold back its internal clock. Mal'tory couldn’t know exactly how Earth time-keeping works, but he is arrogant enough to think he can fool a manaless tool with a combination of a timeslip and anti-divination trickery spells that would prevent a magic chronometer from correctly re-syncing. He was correct, although extremely lucky that the crate was too far from the castle to re-sync with Emma’s other crates via its communications.
This transportium-based lost time explains many of the strange points I mentioned above. 1) Mal'tory had to have the crate at a fast travel point above the tainted life vaults in Elaseer which is why the pick-up zone was in that exact warehouse. 2) Mal'tory cut it close because the exact time delay is transportium current dependent and thus somewhat out of his control. 3) A high-lag round trip also explains why Lartia had to be rushed. The method creates a window of opportunity where courier collection is possible; if missed, Mal'tory must repeat the entire time-save procedure. If Mal'tory had to chuck the box back through the route again and then babysit for four hours to make sure it didn’t get lost, he would run out of time to get back to the castle and prepare for his role in setting up Ilunor to take the fall for the Library-burning Inquisition when the compulsory attendance notices go out that morning. (e.g. getting back his invisibility cloak.)
There is also one other thing a transportium-gates-with-time-delay system would explain: Dean Astur’s paper-dismissal spell. A fresh transportium gate will look black until it has been open long enough to equal the lost time of light coming from the exit on the other side. A strangely-high-level spell (500% rad) to send a letter written by the Library to an archive far away might look like a gate to a shadowed place if the transportium gate is only open transiently.

Option 4: An outside entity intervened and stalled the crate’s time on purpose so it would detonate over the life vault and free the amethyst dragon.

The most ridiculous theory, but one which does away with requiring knuckleheaded Mal'tory to trust Emma’s warning about detonations since Larial hardly believed it herself.
In this theory, an entity knew in advance Emma wasn’t going to make the 2300 time (perhaps because it sabotaged her portal trip on purpose) and contrived to still the clock for four hours under Mal'tory’s watchful but ignorant eye. The entity, likely a dragon based on the factions we know, used its innate magic to contact and cast through the ECS crystal in the box, targeting the crate’s circuits with a time stop or outright hacked the chronometer because somehow the entity is brilliant enough to figure that out. Yeah, I’m not going to defend that idea too much. There are two viable candidates for creatures that could theoretically delay the box explosion: the amethyst dragon in the vault nearby and the transportium’s eldritch prisoner who is probably smarter, a tainted god, and also a dragon. (See part 10e when I get there.) To resolve how these dragons knew the box would explode and when, the still-living blue dragon in Mal'tory’s office acting as spy relayed news about Larial’s conversation with Mal'tory and then notified the transportium’s divine dragon about Emma’s falling in betwixt.
The only motive that makes sense to me is that the entities wanted the crate to explode over the life vault in particular to free the amethyst dragon. They needed the stated explosion time to pass harmlessly so Mal'tory would be convinced Emma was lying about the whole thing and feel comfortable moving the crate from the fortified/sacrificial room where it was originally to the correct warehouse where the pick-up would take place. While this theory of leet dragon hackers is certainly stretching believability, the idea of the various dragons coordinating using their planar-artifact-level scales, perhaps with the 30th manatype that Nexians might not be able to sense, is a faction and an espionage method to keep in mind.

I'm in the process of designing a skill-based rpg system and i need help splitting Attributes. Every time i think of a new "subsystem" i come back to the skills, since it's the foundation of my game.
It's a d6 pool system where 6 is a success and 4,5 is a partial success. It's planned to be a kind of a genre-neutral system that can be expanded into several genres by adding subsystems that fit. I encourage and love homebrew so it's supposed to be a system that can be easily interchangeable to fit most sessions.
Originally I planned to split the Attributes into 5 Abilities (STR, DEX, CON, INT, CHA) each with 4 skills linked to them, resulting in 20 skills, but some skills felt unnecessary and forced.
Recently i decided to try splitting the same skills into 4 Abilities instead (Build, Form, Mind, Presence) and chaning all the skill names into adjectives that describe the attributes, so each skill represents a way of doing something when rolled, instead of just doing a skill. The players decide which skill they want to roll and the GM tells them how hard the task is and what the success rate is if they go through with the roll (BiTD Position and Effect). Two skills can be rolled at the same time, requiring more successes.
The system uses health that is descriptive and energy that uses a number value. Energy is used to lower damage, push rolls, generally do stuff that exceeds your limits, and is restored in various ways.
Skills are leveled by succeeding and failing in rolling that skill. The skills have a similar system to blades in the dark, where the skills themselves build the attribute, but unlike BiTD the attribute is never rolled. If the skills are leveled, the new attribute points can be invested into buying Feats and/or other Utilities (expanding carrying capacity, health, weapon proficiencies with Build, Knowledge, Lore, Language proficiencies etc. with Mind, or Tool proficiencies, movement, energy, etc with Form).
Need your input and thoughts on the splits. I would like to have an equal amount of skills in each attribute so i need help with a few missing, or ideas for different splits:
Build:

• Powerful (Instant Force; Damage, etc.)
• Athletic (Running, Jumping, Swimming, etc.)
• Stout/Strong (Constant force; Lift, Pull, Push, etc.)
• Tough (Fortitude, Endurance, Defensive skill against damage)
• Tolerant (resistance against poison, lack of sleep, alcohol, opiates, breath while swimming, etc.)

Form:

• Dextrous (Fine motor skills, sleight of hand, crafting, details and precision)
• Agile (Acrobatics, Gross motor skills, possibly reactions/reflex if not split)
• Sneaky (all Stealthy stuff basically)
• Firm (grip strength, throwing, catching, basically object interaction skills and coordination)
• ^\need help on this one])

Mind:

• Logical (Investigation, Analysis, Hints, Problem solving, etc.)
• Perceptive (Perception, awareness)
• Insightful (Emotional intelligence, reading people, predicting actions etc.)
• Creative (Anything creative from arts to crafting, tinkering, etc.)
• Persistent (Willpower, Will save (PF), defense against spells and manipulation etc.)

Presence:
(all social actions that require a check are done in some of these "approaches")

• Cunning (deceptive approach, manipulation and lying, disguising)
• Charming (charming, confident approach, used for seduction etc.)
• Intimidating (intimidating approach)
• Empathetic (compassionate approach, animal handling but for humans in some way lol)
• ^\need help on this one])

​
I specifically need help with Presence and Form, but any input is welcome!

INFRARED
adjective
a type of radiant energy that is invisible to the eyes, but that we can feel as heat
Arrrg! Welcome to Infrared! We be a band of pirates from varying backgrounds that all found each other wishing to reach one common goal; to enjoy the time we have on Eorzea and plunder all of its beautiful mystery and treasures.
We are a welcoming, active, and move at your own pace FC that are still getting our boots wet with content that this world has to offer us. Everything from MSQ and dungeon runs, all the way to Gold Saucer shenanigans, Roleplay threads, and chilling by the seaside. We are open to learning and teaching, and encourage positive community standards where we help each other when need be. The Captains’ playtime is usually around 7PM CST Monday thru Friday, and pretty much anytime on weekends; alas times change day to day when you have duties to attend to! All is understood regarding prior engagement or sudden onset adulting. When we all get together though, the swashbuckling fun reaches the limit break! Not even Bahamut can quell the fun we can have!
We possess a discord server where we coordinate plans and plunderous expeditions, to communicate long-distance (out of game), and to make communication when plundering a bit easier. We hope you will join us in VC! Shy or quiet? Perfectly fine by us, we hold no qualms; some of our current members are on the quiet side as well, but perk up once they get to know you. Enjoy RP? So do we! Crafting? Aye-aye! Animal lover & companion collector? Hey-ho! Masochistic tank who pulls too big? You scallywag, we’re in!
Who are we recruiting?
Friends and adventurers alike who are active and wish to be a part of a small, but edging to grow community. We work best with others who are also laid back and just like to have fun! That is not to say we don't get serious and play with vigor. We are work/life balance friendly and understand if you are blue collar, emergency services, medical, or parenting outside of Eorzea. We are a bit uncoordinated at the moment as we are still progressing through what FFXIV has to offer, but when the time comes we would love to have more structure when it comes to creating parties for new content. We love to run trials and dungeons, so be not afraid to ask if you wish to party up and get through things with companions you can comfortably ragdoll in front of without fear!
But how does one join such a salty group?
> Add iceraptor on discord!
I can answer any questions you may have, and it will give you a good idea on how our group acts.
This is the best way to contact me after, before, and during play hours.
You can also reach out in-game to one of us or our members who are online,
approach us in-game and hang out,
OR leave a message below!
You will be contacted as soon as we are available to heed your request!

First : Previous : Next
Kimiko wasn’t really happy today even though it was supposed to be an exciting field trip. Not really happy weren't the right adjectives. She dreaded this trip immensely. Even though she looked beautiful in her new formal overdress that helped hide her biohazard suit, she still felt nervous and really didn’t want to go. The new dress was spiffy looking when she looked at herself in her mirror. Jessica had gotten it for her for today’s event as a surprise gift which was very sweet of her. It was a pale lavender flowing dress with a wide white belt. Putting that over her white biohazard suit made her pink hands and face show up so much better. Her black horns gleamed brightly since Cassidy had taken the time to apply a good polish on them for her the night before.
Kimiko fastened her silver collar on, and it also looked good with the dress. Especially since the belt had a sparkly silver buckle that matched. She even had real shoes this time that let her clawed toes hang out without destroying them.
But she looked at herself and frowned. Then glumly she sat on her bed and hung her head. “They’re gonna laugh at me,” she said miserably. “They’re gonna laugh and look at me like I’m a piece of shit again.”
Kimiko heard her door open, and Gina walked briskly in. She and Alley were wearing tight red dresses with black heels and their gold collars. Gina had even put on some snap-on earrings because piercings never took with them. Their ears healed too well to hold a hole.
“Hey gorgeous. Whoa. No no no. Stand up for me.” Gina said after she came into her room.
Kimiko sighed but Gina’s bright smile couldn’t be defended against. Kimiko smiled back when Gina walked around her. “Damn. You look fabulous. I mean it. Jessica really did some good magic on you. You’re like a fairy princess or something. I swear.”
Kimiko blushed and she couldn’t keep her tail still. And she unconsciously fluffed out her wings too. “You really think so?”
Gina nodded. “Oh yeah. Now… come with me sweetheart.”
Gina snagged her hand and led her to her bathroom and sat her down on the stool. “Here we go. I’m just gonna touch up your eyes and make them really shine out.”
Kimiko let her do her work and when Gina turned her around to face the mirror, she had to admit, Gina knew how to work some makeup. “Wow. That’s… really good. I like that.”
Gina hugged her from behind. “Yay!” she said happily.
“I don’t want to go.” Kimiko said glumly again.
Gina’s smile faded. “Uhm… oh. I’m sorry. You have to. You need to face them and show them that you’re stronger than they are.”
“But they hated me.”
“Yeah, well. So what? Do they really matter to you or your future?”
Kimiko shrugged. “Maybe. I dunno.”
Gina put her head on Kimiko’s shoulder and looked at her in the mirror. “Kimi. You are a beautiful and strong woman. You are cool as shit, and we love you. You’ve tamed a queen and have put your life in our hands. We matter. You matter. The Black Academy is only a place that we’re going to visit, get our pictures taken, and leave. You’re not staying there. You’re staying here. Now, do… they… matter?”
Kimiko smiled at their reflection and put her hand on her love’s face. “No. They don’t matter. Thank you.”
“Yay!” Gina squealed again and kissed her on her cheek. “Come on then slowpoke, we need to get going. We’re all to meet up at mom’s.”
“Okay.”
Gina and Kimiko walked out and found Alley waiting with Cassidy. Cassidy had on a darling three-piece grey suit with a blue tie that lit up with his eyes.
Both Alley and Cassidy stopped talking to look at Kimiko. “Whoa. You’re beautiful, Kimi.” Cassidy said with clear earnest interest. It was in his blush.
Alley seconded it, “Yes you are. Okay, where’s Queen Bee?”
“Right here, I’m coming!” yelled Xally from her room. She finally came out and they all had to take a second look. She looked like a movie star. She wore a silver spangle dress that fit her curves with a medium black belt and her orange and purple hair was held back from her face and shoulders with large braids and hair sticks. Apparently, Alley had been in there with her because her eyes had deep blues around them and her thin face plating to make the alienness really stand out.
“What do you think?” she said as she spun slowly in her silver heels.
Kimiko said sarcastically, “Nah. You look silly. Go change.”
“What?! Kimiko! You better be teasing me!”
The laughter from them all made Xally cross her arms and pout. Cassidy walked over to console her. “Yes, Kimiko was teasing you. You look absolutely stunning.”
Xally always liked it when Cassidy acted mature for her. It always made her blush like now, “Awww. Thanks. Okay. Kimiko now has to eat broccoli tomorrow.”
“HEY!!! No I will not! EWWWW!!!” Kimiko shouted and stamped her foot. That made them all snicker at her.
Xally brought Cassidy over and took Kimiko’s clasp and put it on. “Okay. No broccoli, sweetie. But seriously. How do I look?”
Kimiko put her arm around Xally’s shoulder. “Like a queen. Are we all ready?”
After a bunch of yesses, they huddled around Kimiko for her chauffeur services to Allessandra and Jed’s house.
There, they appeared on the big front porch and let themselves in where they met the rest of the big party to head out to the Island of Avalon.
It’d been almost two weeks since they got notified that they were required to officially visit and tour the Island of New Avalon and more specifically The Black Academy. It was supposed to be for positive PR for the world. It was also supposed to signal to the world governments that the situation in Pennsylvania was under control and that the Monsters weren’t a threat, but instead they were a world force for planetary protection. The Superfriends memes that kept trending pissed Jed off royally, annoyed Seth, made Allessandra uncomfortable, but all the rest… oh they were on board fully and wanted to get matching costumes. Jared said he’d think about it until Jed told him he’d have to wear one too. Jared didn’t like that idea and let the issue drop. Cassidy pouted about it until Xallessica and Alley told him that they’d do it anyway for their house. Cassidy was very happy with that thought, except for the capes. No capes.
Charlotte and Laesha both were dressed in red slinky sleeveless dresses. Charlotte was going as her plus one and they even had matching jewelry on to show off their scandalous relationship which pleased the shit outta Laesha. Allessandra wore her own version of a slinky spangly dress like her daughter’s but hers was black and backless. When she saw her daughter’s, she almost fainted at how adult they looked. She hugged them tightly and she even hugged Xallessica for how well they were doing at their house, which had Xally almost hyperventilating because of the praise.
Allessandra had popped by often ever since their move-in because her mom instincts were in overdrive. And each time, they were either cleaning, doing something to improve a room’s function like putting in a small indoor herb garden, learning something interesting from Xallessica that they all enjoyed, watching dance videos to learn the latest steps, fighting practice, or other interesting pursuits. Her only qualm was that except for Cassidy, they all didn’t wear much. Xallessica and Kimiko just went nude in the house all the time. Although Allessandra understood, it just was awkward to her. Thankfully her girls did wear something more than just their birthday suits. Not much more, but something. Alley seemed to just always be in some biker shorts and no top while Gina always seemed to be wearing some kind of skimpy costume that did make her mom chuckle at how silly she seemed to be. And of course, Alley, Gina, and Kimiko always wore their collars for Xally. Allessandra really had to hand it to Cassidy. He was a helluva lot stronger in willpower than she gave him credit for because it’d seemed to her that he’d blocked it all out and just ignored it all. He just wore his comfy clothes and went about his day like he wasn’t surrounded by naked or nearly naked girls all the time. He seemed to just see them as women he was in love with who were getting normal stuff done to maintain a happy home.
Of course, Allessandra had said something about it just about every time. And of course, Xallessica just told her that it was her home and their rules. She even showed her the rule-board that they’d put together. And the first rule that was written was that Xally was forbidden to be selfish and greedy in the house. With the second rule being, ‘clothing optional.’ Well, Allessandra couldn’t fight that since she washed herself nearly every day at a horse stall ignoring the fact that Kathy had installed an outdoor shower for her. That and now both her and Aiden were doing indecent things in risqué places too. Meh, at least they weren’t doing dominatrix stuff like a couple certain somebody’s she knew. Nor could she forget the fact that Saral pretty much went nude all the time too. *Sigh* Jed put up with so much shit.
Jed and Seth stood together in their own black suits. Seth and opted for Saral to braid his long blonde hair in De’Nari war braids which seemed very Vikingish to the rest of them. But what it also did was distract gazes from his long ears that poked out a little less with them. For that, Seth was most grateful.
Inanna was pretty much having a heart attack. Even though she was a knockout in her pale blue ephemeral gown that seemed to swirl slowly in a nonexistent breeze, she was absolutely terrified of being forced to go out and be in front of so many strangers. She didn’t have nearly this much of a problem on a battlefield facing enemy soldiers or being around any of the De’Nari. She had this problem because for one, her addiction to Seth had almost left her berift of her original power and that stuff required a very strong will to weild. Secondly, over the years since Lillith’s death, she lost the last of her strength of personality that Lillith had given her which bolstered her own. No matter how Lillith treated her, Inanna could face anything head on. Now that twenty years had passed, only Jed could get her out in front of strangers and even then, she wanted to die. Today, Jed did something new for her. He sat next to her on the couch while Inanna was doing her best trying not to throw up. Jed sat down and held her for a moment.
“Jed. I can’t,” she started. “I can’t. I’m not going. Tell Jared that I’m sorry, but he can yell at me after. I’m not going.”
“Inanna. Yes, you are. Look at me.” Jed said gently to her.
Inanna glanced up at him then quickly back down. “No. I’m not going.”
“Honey. Look at me. I’ve got something for ya to make this easier.”
Inanna breathed out a ragged breath. “Ok. What is it?” she asked before she sat back.
Jed took out a blue cloth from his jacket pocket that matched her dress. “Here. Stay still for me.”
He tied a blindfold over her eyes and cinched it snug. “There. Now you won’t have to see them. You won’t know anyone is looking at you and I’ll hold onto you the whole time. You look beautiful and elegant.”
“I look stupid. A blindfold? Really?”
“Yes. And you don’t look stupid. You look like someone who needs her husband’s help and you’re gonna go with him and you won’t know that there is anyone looking at you.”
Inanna laughed at herself. “I’m being a skittish damned horse, aren’t I?”
“Yup, Charlie Daniels. Ya got it in one. Might as well try this trick to see if it works for you too.”
“After this. Wanna hit our make out spot?”
Jed kissed her on the cheek. “Yeah, I do. I think Bob will find this funny.”
Inanna sighed. “Bob finds everything funny. But yeah, I’d like to hear his take on this. It’s a date.”
Jed pulled her up and she put her arm in his and got the feel of walking blind with him. It was different and she did feel a little better about it already. Ignorance was bliss some would tell her. Stupid social anxiety crap!
Jessica came sweeping in from Allessandra’s room after fixing her makeup since she’d had an accident by mixing up Saral’s body paints with her own set because she was talking to Charlotte instead of paying attention to what she was doing. Clownface was her new nickname for the night. She was giggling about it now, but she’d been yelling at everyone for laughing at her for putting purple sparkly dust on her cheeks instead of blush and neon green on her lips instead of her normal red. Seth swept her up in a hug and let her dark blue dress swish the air around them before setting her down which caused her to squeal in delight. Sara came trouncing in next in her tightest outfit to date from the other bathroom. Slinky black was close to being the right term, but this was a bit tighter than that. Almost body paint tight. Most of them eyerolled at her. Cassidy’s eyes rolled… about out of his head. So did Charlotte’s, Xally’s, Alley’s, and Gina’s. There was a bit of drool in there too, but some handy handkerchiefs took care of that. Yeah, Sara knew her audience well.
Three of Jessica’s handmaidens were sitting on the stools in the kitchen. Voren and Le’Dant were taking this opportunity to go and take advantage of a rare evening invite. Having dinner with Trudy and her husband Justin Harris. Seemed Trudy really liked them and was adamant at inviting them over to a big family gathering she was having. That and both Miriam and Marvin had new loves in their lives and they were out to impress. Miriam to show off a handsome fun Agent Jayden Alvarez and Marvin with his Uncle’s De’Nari that his girl Tonya, could not get over. Oh boy was that little lady enamored with Le’Dant. And oh boy was Marvin having a great time because Tonya wouldn’t stop hanging on him while talking excitedly about it. It even had led to their first kiss.
Voren had wanted to come but Jessica gently told her no because they needed to get out more. So, the three she chose were her elites because of how damned dangerous they were both in hand to hand but also with their hidden guns that Cassidy called BFGs. Maralnth (grey fur), Janra (brown fur), and Shurna (silver fur) were quite cute in their matching pale green short dresses that showed off much of their Draxian plating. Their red widow hourglasses crests on their chests were a warning that they were indeed guards and not to be trifled with.
Kathy Donovan walked in the front door next followed by Sarangerel with Batu in tow. Kathy had hosted the two of them for most of the day. Thankfully, one quirk of her deal with Seth was that she could get to Kathy’s home without bringing along the whole Pandora Mountain with her. And as long as she was with Kathy, it would stay where she left it. To Seth, that had been a perfect arrangement because it was nighttime on that Mountain and his kids and cubs were already feeding him and Sara a whole new network of Awakened.
Seth kissed Jessica really quick and said, “Hey babe. I need to go have a word with Sarangerel and Kathy.”
Seth pulled Laesha away from Charlotte while they were walking to Kathy and told her, “Hey hot stuff. I need to huddle with those two and it concerns you too.”
Laesha was fine with this. “No problem,” she said noncommittally.
Kathy was her usual elegant self with a black and silver wavy dress combination and large silver earrings. Her hair was immaculately swirled up on her head in ringlets and braiding. Sarangerel had dressed very Asian with hints of Japanese in her silken red and gold one piece dress with high slits on either side with a cloth belt and large bow tied on her back. She also had hair sticks in her hair. Both Kathy and Sarangerel smiled winningly at Laesha and Seth as they approached. Saral joined them since Kathy had arrived. She’d been sitting quietly on a couch watching the whole family gather. Her simple green dress that left her swishy tail out brought out her pale fur and body paint designs on her bare arms and face. She was less concerned with the cloth than the symbols she’d show. They were to tell any De’Nari that saw her that she’d denned Death and that the Lone Hunter would be kept at bay by her. Also there was a new subtle script for her people to see. It read simply, ‘We are forevermore the Lone Hunter De’Nari.’ Which meant she was going to tell them all what she’d really done. Tame Death to protect them all instead of hunting them.
When Seth reached them, he motioned them to step back outside to the porch. They all looked confused except for Saral.
Once they were there and Saral had closed the door, Kathy asked, “What’s going on Seth?”
Seth gave her a hug first. “You look amazing.” Then he turned and hugged Sarangerel. “You look fantastic too.”
After he had all of their attention, he said, “Sarangerel. I need to tell you that as of now, I’m invading your mountain and am injecting my essence into everyone there.”
Sarangerel stepped back but Laesha reached out and held her. “What?! Why?!”
Seth stepped to her and held her face. “Because Jared wanted me to. He wanted me to give them the best fighting chance he can and to consolidate our command over them. It’ll also give us a better chance at protecting them when the time comes.”
“But he did that without my permission or letting me know! That pisses me off!” Sarangerel raged.
“I agree with you. However. However, I’m going to give you something to ease the betrayal of trust,” Seth said calmly.
Sarangerel reined in her anger and breathed heavily for a moment. “Okay. What?”
Seth turned to Laesha. “Laesha. I need you to bite her now because I want to join you two to them all at Pandora. Meaning, you two are getting control over Pandora and any and all Awakened that are there and after they arrive. Sara and Kathy have the Academy. This way, it’ll be subtle but in their best interests. You’ll have more influence to keep them in line and they’ll be so much more effective. The issue is that Laesha is a vampire, so I need her to be feeding to make this work for both of you because it’ll have to include her… other. I need to put my essence into her as well and it’s only through the blood, that I can snag her.”
Sarangerel nodded and pulled her dress collar down with a sharp movement of her hand and bent her neck sideways. “I understand. Thank you, Seth.”
Seth nodded to Laesha. Laesha quickly let out her vampy side and wrapped Sarangerel’s neck and bit into her. She began to feed and Sarangerel’s eyes rolled up in her head succumbing to it. Laesha held her upright. Seth reached over to them and shoved his finger through Laesha’s tongue and into her mouth where she fed. He dipped into where one of Laesha’s fangs were embedded and pushed it deep into the wound, opening it further. Then he pushed his essence into it which both spread through Sarangerel as well as also sucked up into Laesha. Almost immediately both of their eyes turned black, and they blinked rapidly because they felt all of the new Awakened on Pandora in their heads. Once that happened, he poured more into the wound and blood to empower that connection network.
When Seth felt it was sufficient, he said, “Okay Laesha. Stop feeding and heal that quickly. Sarangerel. In the next week or so, come back to Kathy and contact me. I’ll show you what you can do with this. I’m sorry this happened, but to help make this better, you’ll be truly their primary protector.”
Laesha let her go and began licking her wounds to heal them with her other saliva. After she was done, she took a handkerchief from her small purse and wiped up all of the wetness around her dark lover’s neck. “There we go, honeycakes. All better. Thank you for my snack. I needed that.”
Sarangerel nodded to her. “You’re welcome, Master. I wish I’d brought an extra pair of underwear, though. I’m soaked already.”
Laesha giggled and unabashedly started to reach under her dress. Seth stopped her. “No. Not the time for games. Sorry Laesha. Not this time.”
Laesha pouted. “Darn. Okay, next time.”
“Yes. Next time.” Sarangerel agreed. Then she turned to Seth. “Now what?”
Seth stood closer to her. “Now you tell me what the hell do you want to get from the Black Academy so damned badly. That little trick I pulled lets me into everyone you two are connected to as well. And now I know you have something else you want to get from this visit. What is it?”
Sarangerel kept Seth’s gaze and said softly. “I want my son back. Sarantuya. He was taken from me in a raid eight years ago. I know he’s Awakened like I am. I’ve found… I’ve tracked down every lead I could and some pointed to the Black Academy but none were certain. I tried to go through normal channels, but they keep blocking me from even going there. They won’t listen to what I’m saying.”
Seth and Kathy looked at each other. Seth asked Kathy, “Did you know that they could do that?”
Kathy shrugged. “Yeah. Awakened are all on heavy watch lists. How he ended up there is beyond me, but before Pandora existed, if any Awakened made it out of those countries, they most likely would’ve been registered and shipped there.”
Saral asked softly. “How old was he?”
Sarangerel looked down and said just as softly. “He was only four when he was taken. I’ve searched for so long. Seth. I want my boy back, but I don’t even know if he’ll recognize me. I don’t even know if he’s even there under his own name or even at all. I couldn’t get a current list of students.”
Seth lifted her chin. “Sarangerel. If there’s one thing that can be said of me, it’s that I protect all children as best that I can. If you see him or figure out who he is… I will bring him back to his mother. I promise you.”
Sarangerel stared into his dead serious eyes and wanted to cry because someone had finally promised to help her who had the power to do so. And she believed her ultimate master because the force of that promise echoed through her bones.
“Thank you… Seth.” Sarangerel said and reached over to touch his cheek because of how much that meant to her. Then she let her arm fall and she felt Laesha take her hand.
“You’re very welcome but save it for after we get him back into your arms. Now… uh? Kathy? Where’s Aiden?”
Kathy rolled her eyes. “He’s coming. He was still getting purtied up in the bathroom when I left his slow ass. His Dad was giving him hell for it too. Jake didn’t want to go, and I don’t blame him. So, him, a couple of the guys from work, and his new business partner are having a boys night playing poker up in the game room. Honestly, I’m relieved he’s taking some time for himself instead of worrying about me. But Aiden better get here soon or I’m gonna get pissed.”
And sure enough, another big truck came down the road fast and almost skidded to a halt in Jed’s driveway. Out popped Aiden in a white suit, a pink dress shirt, and white tie. His hair was slicked back, and he began running over to the porch.
Seth gave him hell. “Bud, I’m glad you drove. You sure as shit couldn’t have run here.”
Aiden scowled at him. “Shove it, Seth! I swear, a few more months from now, we’re gonna race again and I’m gonna dust you.”
Seth grinned so hard his teeth hurt. That made Aiden grin at him back and Aiden stepped up to him and gave his favorite uncle a hug. Seth said casually. “Any time you need to race, I’m up for it.”
Saral tapped them both on the shoulder but spoke to Seth. “I think we have everyone. Are we ready to get to the island?”
“I think so,” Seth said before making his way in while the rest filed in after. Once inside he looked at them all and it did seem as if everyone who was to go were there.
They walked in and Seth raised his hands to start getting everyone’s attention. “HEY!”
All accounted for quieted down. He raised his voice again. “Are the Monsters of Avalon ready to return home?!”
The general laughter and chuckles at his lame joke was music to Seth’s ears. “Okay then. Kimiko? Do you want to do the honors?”
Kimiko jerked. “Uh? Me?”
Seth and a few others laughed softly at her embarrassed look and honest surprise.
Seth said again, “Yeah. You. I figured you left there in such a magnificent way; we might as well let you come back just as magnificently as before. Only this time, you’re bringing us.”
Kimiko saw that devil smile of his and she couldn’t help but return it. Seth understood better than anyone how to make people eat their words and how good it felt to do so.
So, Kimiko puffed out her chest and announced. “Everyone! Hold hands! All aboard! The Pink Portal Express is about to leave the station!”
Everyone was all smiles again when they all gathered and held hands with one another. Kimiko was pride incarnate as she stood in the middle of THE most powerful Awakened ever and she was bringing them all home. She closed her eyes, welled her power, began chanting her instructions, plugged in her current coordinates, and then the coordinates to the Henge. Once it was locked, she pushed her will and away they went. Again, Teleporting is cheating, but oh so worth it.
She opened her eyes the moment she knew they were there and let her power fade. Everyone around her were pretty impressed. Jed sure was. He came right over to tell her that.
“Damn good work, kid! Damn good work. And it’s so damned close to how the Obelisk works, it’s scary.” Jed said with a lot of pride in his eyes and voice.
Kimiko blushed so much that she figured her face would melt. “Thank you, Uncle Jed! I really appreciate that!”
And then she heard it. And it made her heart swell so much.
“You do your mother proud, my special egg!” yelled Delik’Shad as she trotted over followed by Kimiko’s dad, Vlak who was chuffing and puffing the whole way over.
Xally pushed her to get her moving and they both made their way out of the group who were spreading out to look around for their other escorts. Kimiko ran the last few steps and held her arms open. Kimiko closed her eyes and felt them. Those strong arms of her mom’s when they embraced her and made her feel so loved. They even got to wrap their wings around each other, making it fifty times better.
Her mom whispered to her, “My Kimiko. You are growing up so much on me. I’ve been getting little reports from Xalansss about you. Xally has been telling her all about how things have been going and about how happy you seemed in a room of your very own. Xalansss even showed me her view of it. I can’t wait to come visit for myself.”
Kimiko pulled back to look at her mom. “Mom. Please just let me know when you are coming. Cassidy and I are learning to cook. I want to cook for you.”
Delik couldn’t do anything but put her forehead to her daughter’s and nod a little. It took a moment before she finally said, “I would be honored.”
Then she released her daughter who then turned to her dad. “Dad. I’ve missed you,” she said.
Her Dad swept her up from her mom and held her high over his head by her waist before crushing her in a hug. “Dad!” she exclaimed happily before grunting out, “Too hard! My… ribs!”
Vlak chuffed and eased the hug. He then nuzzled her and set her down shortly thereafter. “I love and have missed you too. I hope you make a good meat dish. Your mom isn’t the only one who wants to be cooked for, you know?”
Kimiko clapped and cheered a little at her dad. “Yay!”
Xallessica stepped into the mix. “Good evening. Thank you. Again. Thank you. She’s still the very heart of my house. And we are so glad to have her there.”
Vlak put his face to hers. “You are a troublemaker. I could smell that a million miles away. I’m glad she’s there too to keep a certain queen to be in line. Thank you for making her happy.” He then nuzzled her and backed up.
Xallessica wanted to pee she was so happy at that moment.
“He’s right Daughter Queen Xallessica. I’m told you have truly started to become a queen and are off to an excellent start. Your Mother Queen even showed me your rule-board. I am very proud of my student.”
Xallessica bowed to her with all her heart. “My Sensei. Thank you. That means so much to me.”
Jed walked into the mix. “Hey guys. I hate to interrupt the family reunion, but our rides are here.”
They looked around and saw that a platoon of Terran/De’Nari military guards were hoofing it from the receiving cave where the Monsters were supposed to have arrived from and began to form up near where they actually arrived. As soon as they were in sight, several vans were spotted driving up Henge Road to come and take their honored guests to the formal dinner to start the three days of tours and meet and greets. Seth and Sara had already brought everyone’s luggage the day prior to the small hotel for guests. All of their stuff had already been put in everyone’s respective rooms.
Kimiko turned to Xallessica. “Xally. Please unclasp me. I want to fly with my mom.”
Xallessica smiled at her and took off her wrist clasp and tied it around Kimiko’s waist to keep it out of her way. “Anything for you,” she said softly. “Just always come back to me.”
Kimiko leaned in and kissed her for a small moment. “Always my queen.”
She turned to Delik and held out her hand and spread her wings. “Mom? Please?”
Delik took her hand and spread her own wings. “Absolutely!”
Vlak muttered under his breath. “Well, crap. Poor old dad, gets left behind every damned time.”
A voice he hadn’t heard in a while yanked at him, “Awww… poor Vlak. I’m sooo sorry you can’t go bust through a floor with her. Sheesh! Let them have a moment!”
Vlak turned and found Saral’Aureila looking at him with a loll tongue and a swishing tail. He responded in kind until he read her face paint. Then his good mood faded somewhat. “Saral’Aureila… What is this?”
Saral stepped forward and hugged him. She said to him as gently as she could. “I had a moment of clarity while I was away. I’ve been denned by Seth. The Nightmare of Crag’Al’Thaoal. It was the most terrifying and greatest joy in my life so far. Do not weep for me, Vlak. I wanted this.”
“Really?! You married Death himself?! The Lone Hunter?! Saral… Nooooo… I’m… proud of you! You have got to be the bravest De’Nari by far!”
“Why thank you! I believe you will be impressed by how much that has changed him and also by how much truth there is in our legend. But come. We’ll have to talk later about that in private. Tell me instead what’s been going on since my leaving.”
Saral took him by the elbow and followed the rest of them as they loaded up into the vans. The platoon hoofed it to a nearby transport truck and followed the procession.
The formal kickoff dinner was being hosted at the islands civic/convention center used for all manner of Avalon functions that required joint Terran Government, De’Nari Government, and Awakened advocacy. It was there that Jared Stockton and his wife Angela met them along with soon to be retired Ring Commander Ves’Lik and his Matron, Medical Council Leader Cohveer’Lik. Unfortunately, as required on such a unique and newsworthy event, a horde of reporters from various media outlets from all over the world were swarming around and recording each little nanosecond.
The media were expecting to see the original Monsters of Avalon, but as you can imagine, what they got was a true spectacle. Allessandra stepping out of her van first started the evening off well. The media ate it up and live feeds all over the world were aflutter at how she’d not aged a day since ever. And then they were treated to Laesha and Charlotte next who sent them into a tizzy and scandalous speculation as to who the cute blonde was on Laesha’s arm and what that meant to the marriage. Until Allessandra held Laesha’s hand and they waited for the rest of their party to step out. Jed Hiwalker stepped out last from his van with Inanna on his arm. The media went nuts trying to determine what had happened to have caused Inanna to wear a blindfold for the event. She was smiling and seemed so much more relaxed than when she was at the UN weeks prior.
The next van saw current Ring Commander Vlak’Shad step out with former High Moon-Maiden Saral’Aureila. And De’Nari commentary went ballistic shooting information to both Terran and De’Nari outlets that the translations of her paint meant that her name was Saral’Al’Thaoal now and she’d denned the Lone Hunter. Death himself. The De’Nari were torn between hyperventilating in despair for all of what that could mean and wanting to throw her one hell of a party for one-upping the poor sap from twenty years ago that had to just walk beside Seth Al’Thaoal, the Nightmare of Crag’Al’Thaoal.
Speaking of the Nightmare. He stepped out next. The reporters to a one, were very glad someone had put headphones on his head. Jessica Al’Thaoal swept out next and they went to stand beside Saral’Al’Thaoal. She was followed by three of her Brood De’Nari which lit the media universe on fire again as that gave them their first public glimpse of what Draxian/De’Nari/Human hybrids might look like because the ones that had been at the UN weren’t as heavily plated as these were. They also made note how odd it was that it was Jessica who held the De’Nari Moon-Maiden’s hand as Seth seemed to be holding out his hand for another. And that other came almost dancing out of the van and over to him. She was followed by heavily respected Terran-Awakened Liaisons Agents Alex Krueger and Jayden Alvarez. The mystery deepened as only rumor and speculation still reigned over who the mystery woman Sara Al’Thaoal was and where she came from. Most had assumed she was a sister of Inanna, but no confirmations had been given yet.
Reporters were hard pressed to provide much information to their viewers for who all had come so far, and this was just the beginning. And as they continued to talk for a few moments, some began to get confused as to why Seth’s group hadn’t begun moving towards the entrance. Then more magic happened in front of the cameras which about made a whole subsection of human’s pee themselves when it did. It was in the form of Delik’Shad and her Daughter Kimiko’Shad alighting from the night’s sky above and landing like graceful succubae or demonesses near Seth’s group. Seeing this, everyone commented that seeing Delik’Shad move over to stand with her mate Vlak’Shad was expected. But what wasn’t expected was her daughter Kimiko stood off to one side and seemed to be waiting patiently for someone while Seth’s party began to walk towards the venue. And what was in her hand and around her neck had them and the world in another viral tizzy of gossip.
When the third van began to open, they saw something they weren’t prepared for. The Daughter Queen of Mars stepping out in her regal excellence followed by two Twin girls flanking her and a boy who looked much like the son of Seth Al’Thaoal. Later those names would be confirmed. And yet, what got them all talking was that no one missed the fact that the twin girls clearly had gilded gold collars around their necks in the same design as the one around Kimiko’s neck. And there were clear mixed reactions when Kimiko made her way over to Daughter Queen Xallessica and clasped her chain on the young alien girl’s wrist.
This group of four were joined by a well-known name of Kathy Donovan and her son Aiden Donovan. Aiden Donovan was quickly gaining fame in his own right as a frontrunner first draft pick for the NFL. To further the conspiracy theorists drooling maws of twisted threads was the emergence of the Awakened Headmaster of Pandora’s Dragon Academy Sarangerel and her advisor Batu who began walking with Kathy and Aiden. The fact that they seemed to be very buddy buddy as they chatted together was just another big talking point that would keep the youtubers ranting for weeks. Kathy and Aiden along with Sarangerel and Batu were leading the young queen and her entourage or as some of the more salacious of the news community would say, her harem, into the dinner venue proper.
If there weren’t armed human men, women, De’Nari sires, and matrons all around the place keeping order, the throng of reporters would have charged in like rabid badgers to go and hound them all for interviews and probably would have been stupid enough to interview someone who’s called the Nightmare of Crag’Al’Thaoal for a reason.
Kimiko had greatly enjoyed the airtime with her mother. They’d even flown hand-in-hand for a bit and glided all around the island before making their timely entrance. And when they did, she’d ignored the human reporters all when they screamed questions and flashed pictures and recorded everyone’s littlest movement. She could hear their criticisms, their appraisals, some of them eyed her like a piece of meat, others were even more gross in their descriptions of her. She ignored them all and smiled her best when Xally, Alley, Gina, and Cassidy got out and met her. Kimiko gladly clasped herself to her best friend and lover and walked beside her while Xally held Cassidy’s hand. Gina and Alley walked behind them and had fake smiles plastered on their faces because Kimiko was sure they could hear the same remarks as she did.
When Kimiko entered the venue proper, she saw Jared and his fun wife Angela greet Seth and Jessica. Her mom had waited for them and was talking avidly to the four of them.

Hey guys!
So, earlier today I was listening to Meshuggah's last album "Immutable" after rewatching Shingeki last weekend, and many things started clicking in my mind. Probably many of you haven't even heard about the band, but that's fine, you don't need any context and I think this is at least mildly interesting for everyone who's curious enough.
First of all, let's start with the most obvious thing: the cover.
Meshuggah - Immutable (2022)
Ignoring the fact that this bad boi has a knife in his hand, I think the rest is pretty much self-explanatory. It resembles a lot a rumbling titan, and yes, I know, this is not very impressive considering that their design is basically just a skinless human, BUT, look at the rest of the cover. What do you see? Exactly, he's surrounded by fiery fumes. Rings a bell?
A bit of a stretch, you might think, and I thought the same. But this was just the first spark of curiosity, which led me to analyze the lyrics. So let's jump into some segments of the lyrics on this album, ok? I'll write them in the same order they appear on the album.
​
The Abyssmal Eye
"Relentless and inexorable This menacing creation That we ourselves conceived With covetous verve and credulity"
"This is our omega Factitious nemesis The great dismantler Of our dominion"
This one is clearly talking about the titans themselves. Relentless, inexorable, menacing. Easily 3 of the best adjectives to describe the titans. "The great dismantler of our dominion", "That we ourselves conceived". As in spoken by an Eldian who knows what's up. Oh my...
​
Light the Shortening Fuse
"Barren hollow words No information We're led to believe In self-applied deceit This trope of ignorance, disinformation Made to confuse To light the shortened fuse"
The key of this segment is "We're led to believe in self-applied deceit". Self-applied deceit, as in what Karl Fritz did to humanity inside the walls when he erased their memories of the outside world and history. Starting to get interesting? Hold on, it gets even better.
​
Phantoms
"All my wrongs My indiscretions, they carry From across The boundaries of time The burdens I had left For them to hold Presented, laid out before my eyes"
This is Ymir Fritz talking right here. The wrongs, indiscretions and burdens I had left for them to hold, to carry. As in, the burden of the "titan blood" passed onto the Subjects of Ymir. "From across the boundaries of time". Where do we see Ymir? Isn't the Coordinate a place where times flows differently? A place... across the boundaries of time?
​
Ligature Marks
"A solemn requiem A shroud for your machinations and strife Intent to euthanize Empty sheet, nothing left to deplete The loop becomes complete"
"Intent to euthanize", Zeke's plan, not much to explain here. "The loop becomes complete", as in the endless loop of hatred and violence between Eldia and Marley.
​
God He Sees in Mirrors + I Am That Thirst
"From atop the growing tower of our bones Indifferently condemning all At his whim, our dismal fate From his mouth but venomous gall"
"Look at him yearning DesirousHis craving, his hunger Constant needs, constant wants
Nothing will quell Nothing will slake Insatiable vacuous man
Hollow and see through His emptiness has made him frail That dying thing still believes Others drive the nails
Incendiary god complex Such gift to flammable man This is what it made of him This is what remains
Behold, how he devours Unappeasable and cursed That arid soul, famished and desiccated I am that thirst"
Now that was a long one. I grouped these two together because they both sound like they're talking about "adult" Eren, when he's already on his mass murderer mindset stage. In general everything here sounds like Eren (the part of him that's very amgery with the world, not the one that's crying because he's gonna be a mass murderer). Of course all of this could refer to a million different characters from different pieces of culture, but there's still something that catched my eye in relation to Eren. "That dying thing". As you know, Titans have a limited lifespan of 13 years, so at this point (current point of the anime) Eren is basically "dying".
​
So, that was basically everything. What do you think? I know it's a very "free" interpretation, and to make it clear, I actually do not think they got their inspiration from AoT, seems weird they wouldn't say a word about it (or anyone on the internet) but the resemblances are so many that I thought it would be cool for fans of both AoT and Meshuggah. This was super entertaining to investigate and I had a blast writing it, I hope you guys appreciate it :)
PS: If you have a thing for music, please, do yourself a favor and check out Meshuggah. Maybe you will hate them, and that's fair. But maybe you will find your favorite band, they are incredible.
Edit: formatting

There are many NIMBYs running for City Council, but some of them are excellent at mimicry, disguise, and camouflage, and are therefore harder to spot. As a result, when I was a new voter I was often taken in by positive-sounding phrases, but now I know better, and I can understand what they really mean.
So here's my guide to help you identify NIMBYs on your own.

Note that some candidates are extra-good at camouflage, and so this is more of a guide of who not to vote for; if you want to know who you should vote for, I'll put my usual list at the end of this post.
Also note that these are my personal opinions. All the groups I'm involved with are supporting a different subset of candidates than I am.

How to spot a NIMBY

Local NIMBYism comes in two flavors: housing and bike lanes. Some candidates are one, some are the other, some are both.
To help start you on your journey, I will explicate real quotes from real candidates' mailers, flyers, questionnaire answers, and websites.

"Building more affordable housing to fit out neighborhoods"

The key phrase here is "fit our neighborhoods."
If it's not clear, "fit" in this context means "we mustn't build tall buildings," where "tall" may even include triple-deckers, or the 4.5-story buildings that are common in my neighborhood (and also illegal to build any more of). I.e. this is code for "we can't have any more density."
And "neighborhood"? That's code for "homeowners".
As a low-income renter, you desperately need subsidies because otherwise it's way too expensive. As a renter who has more income, you care about price, convenience, and not having a shitty apartment. Are you going to spend time thinking about whether a building "fits the neighborhood"? Maybe, but it's going to be a lot lower down on your priority lists.
Thus, what this phrase really means is "homeowners should be able to veto any new housing."
Other examples:

• "gentle density housing that is in harmony with the neighborhood"
• "the character and integrity of our neighborhoods"
• "affordable housing that is designed within the context of the neighborhood"

"Develop regional solutions"

Obviously many of the problems we face (housing costs, crumbling MBTA, people on bikes getting killed or injured, climate) cannot be fixed only by our city. However, emphasizing regional solutions is often a way to say "this is someone else's problem, not ours." In particular, if there's no specific policy mechanism given for how regional solutions can happen, and it's just a vague hand-wavy statement, you may have encountered a NIMBY.
Consider that:

• City Council members can only pass local legislation.
• Our state legislature is notoriously bad at passing legislation (the annual budget has been passed late for 13 years in a row!).
• When the legislature does pass laws to e.g. deal with housing, NIMBYs everywhere try to fight it.
• There is no other significant mechanism for Boston-areas towns and cities to coordinate legislation.

To be fair, if there is a specific example of a policy + mechanism for coordination, "regional" may be a purely informative adjective, rather than a deflection of responsibility. For example, this is not a NIMBY deflection, this is someone who is actually trying to create cross-city policy mechanisms: "This is why I created the Metro Boston Homeless Summit, a series of meetings held between the cities of Cambridge, Boston, Somerville, Medford and Malden to address homelessness on a regional basis."

"this problem requires global solutions... I will advocate for effective ... policies within a global context"

"Regional solutions", only more so. Nothing will be done unless the whole planet is on board.

"Gather data" / "make a plan" / etc.

In almost all cases both data and a plan already exist, and the goal is simply to delay any action indefinitely.
Some examples:

• "I am concerned about the rushed support for moving the Building Energy User Disclosure Ordinance (BEUDO), from disclosure to a mandated retrofit before careful evaluation. The data generated from the disclosures should be required first before entertaining a mandated retrofit." Simplified, this is that saying that the candidate doesn't want the law to switch from gathering data to acting on the data, and instead we should gather data.
• "the city should have ... a thoughtful plan for where to build and how buildings will be designed as well as an assessment of infrastructure needs to support additional housing"
• "How we achieve the goal of safe streets and manage important street activities requires a thoughtful, comprehensive transportation planning process especially for Mass Ave. We need robust data, careful analysis, and input from our stakeholders." In fact, the City is running a 12-month planning process for Mass Ave right now, and the city's bike plan was started 10 years ago. But real-life plans are irrelevant, since the candidate hates bike lanes.

"[the requirements of a specific law] ... prevents us from building consensus"

"Consensus" means "everyone agrees." There are always some people who benefit from the status quo, and who consider even minor discomfort or minor inconvenience as unacceptable. Thus "consensus" is code for a permanent veto of any progress.
People have nowhere to live? We must not solve that, because some people are aesthetically offended by taller buildings, or don't want competition for their street parking.
People on bikes are being run over by trucks? We must not solve that, because some people think flexposts are ugly, or don't want to spend an extra 30 seconds looking for parking.

"Solutions to the housing crisis are.. often presented in ways that polarize people"

Again, similar to "consensus".
The starting point is the idea that anyone who feels upset about something—even if it's for bad reasons, or if it's only due to a minor inconvenience—should be able to veto legislation.
Thus, preventing a rich person from being upset by the (subjective) ugliness of a tall building is more important than ensuring a poor person has a place to live. If you point out that this set of priorities is not ideal, you will be called "polarizing" or "divisive".

"If we engage neighborhoods proactively ... they will be more supportive of it"

At this point, this one should be obvious: any homeowner should be able to veto anything they want to.

Anything showing support for "neighborhood associations"

Most of the so-called neighborhood associations are utterly unrepresentative of Cambridge residents. In particular:

• The average participant is in their 60s.
• Most are homeowners.

In contrast, the median age of Cambridge residents is 30, and 60% or more are renters.

Who should you vote for?

As mentioned above, the above phrases won't catch everyone. Plus, they mostly just tell you who not to vote for. So who are the non-NIMBY candidates you should vote for?

Important: Cambridge has ranked choice voting: if your first choice doesn't make it (or gets elected and has enough votes to spare!), your second choice will be picked, then it moves on to third etc.. To ensure your vote doesn't get wasted, rank multiple candidates on your ballot. If you're feeling even more lazy, you can rank them in random order and it'll all work out!

In the following list, I've pre-filtered down to candidates who support safer bike infrastructure. Also I'm doing reverse alphabetical order because most endorsement lists are in alphabetical order.
If you believe that we should build lots more of both subsidized affordable housing and market-rate housing, your best bet are candidates endorsed by A Better Cambridge; here is a filtered subset:

• Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler
• Adrienne Klein
• Sumbul Siddiqui
• Frantz Pierre
• Marc McGovern
• Burhan Azeem

If you prefer candidates who dislike market-rate housing, and would like to focus mostly on subsidized affordable housing, you can vote for:

• Vernon K. Walker
• Ayah Al-Zubi
• Dan Totten