Hey all - I just started a big NV playthrough with a bunch of mods, no issues save for 1 so far as I followed VNV+ to a t, then installed mods that only had compatibility patches with one another or ones that didn't change anything. Only issues so far is with the Salt Lake Stories mod where the quest giver for the mod is sitting in front of a fire that is missing a textures, and then some of the little caves for More Mojave have a texture of the old mountains covering them up but I can walk through them with no issue. I'd like to make sure I don't have any big problems though (crashes or significant issues with quests/content), so where would I be able to find help to just once over my list, get rid of any unnecessary junk, etc.? My biggest concern is the load order because I accidentally let LOOT organize it in MO2 and it honestly seemed to do ok? But nevertheless.
Here's the mod list and the load order, how'd I do?

This file was automatically generated by Mod Organizer (load order).

FalloutNV.esm
DeadMoney.esm
HonestHearts.esm
OldWorldBlues.esm
LonesomeRoad.esm
GunRunnersArsenal.esm
ClassicPack.esm
MercenaryPack.esm
TribalPack.esm
CaravanPack.esm
YUP - Base Game + All DLC.esm
NavmeshOverhaul.esm
fixy crap ue.esp
Landscape Texture Improvements.esm
Vanilla Enhancements.esm
Landscape Texture Improvements - YUP Patch.esm
BraveNewWorld.esm
New Vegas Landscape Overhaul.esm
Uncut Wasteland.esm
Simple Open Freeside.esm
TGMIO.esm
Functional Post Game Ending.esm
MoreMojave.esm
TLD_Travelers.esm
NVInteriors_Core.esm
New Vegas Redesigned II.esm
Vikki and Vance Improvements.esm
NVInteriors_ComboEdition.esm
Simple Open Strip.esm
Mojave Wildlife (Vanilla-Style + No Chanced).esp
A World of Pain Revised.esm
Better Brotherhood.esm
mil.esp
The New Bison Steve Hotel.esm
CookCookTwo.esm
CIBS-Customizable-Integrated-Backpack-System.esm
Afterschool Special.esm
LegionRadio.esp
mil_Add-On.esp
Functional Post Game Ending - YUP Patch.esm
Better Character Creation.esm
Functional Post Game Ending - Uncut Wasteland Patch (VNV).esp
LCSO.esm
LFSO.esm
MMDD.esm
Brotherhood and House Truce.esm
Brotherhood and Legion Truce.esm
Hardin and NCR Truce.esm
House and NCR Truce.esm
House and Kings Truce.esm
House and Followers Truce.esm
House and Kings Truce FPGE Patch.esm
Mojave NPCs.esm
House and Kings Truce Mojave NPCs Patch.esm
outsidebets.esp
DynamicWeaponDisplays.esm
MojaveSquads.esm
ClaimtheMojave.esm
ClaimtheMojaveLandscapeOverhaulRemastered.esm
ClaimtheMojaveMoreMojave.esp
GreatKhansStay.esm
FiendsLeave.esm
BrotherhoodLeaves.esm
Faction Wasteland Presence.esm
SaltLakeStories.esm
HiddenValleyOverhauled.esm
DMT _Dead Money Tweaks_.esm
Encounters of the Mojave - Highway 95 South.esp
Encounters of the Mojave - The Fort.esp
Encounters of the Mojave - Camp Searchlight and Cottonwood Cove.esp
Encounters of the Mojave - Primm and Mojave Outpost.esp
Encounters of the Mojave - NCRCF and Hidden Valley.esp
Encounters of the Mojave - Goodsprings and Sloan.esp
Main And Pause Menus Overhaul.esm
Impostors and LOD Flicker Fix.esp
NVMIM.esp
Unofficial Patch NVSE Plus.esp
YUP - NPC Fixes (Base Game + All DLC).esp
Crafting Consistency Fix.esp
Uncut Wasteland.esp
Uncut Extra Collection.esp
ExRB.esp
Simple Open Freeside - FPGE Patch.esp
Little More Lamplight.esp
DLC Enhancements.esp
Casino Crowds.esp
Casino Crowds - FPGE Patch.esp
Misc Content Restoration.esp
BraveNewWorld-FPGE.esp
Functional Post Game Ending - Uncut Extra Collection Patch.esp
BraveNewWorld-YUP.esp
BraveNewWorld-UncutExtraCollection.esp
BraveNewWorld-OutsideBets.esp
MoreMojave - FPGE Patch.esp
Atmospheric Lighting Tweaks - EVEM Patch.esp
Trap Tweaks.esp
CookCookNewLook.esp
Cook-Cook In His Castle - FPGE Patch.esp
Classic Fallout Weapons Remastered v1.2.esp
NVR2 - YUP Patch.esp
NVR2 - BNW Patch.esp
Combat Armors Replacer.esp
The New Bison Steve - FPGE Patch.esp
QwibNewBackpacks.esp
CookCookNewLook_BNW.esp
Cowboy Radio - Now with VA.esp
Cowboy Radio - Songs Only.esp
thejoeroganexperience.esp
Platinum Radio.esp
Uncut Wasteland (VNV) - EVEM Patch.esp
NVR2 - UW NPCs Patch.esp
Uncut Wasteland - YUP Patch.esp
Viva New Vegas - LOD.esp
Vanilla UI Plus.esp
The Mod Configuration Menu.esp
rockbiter_AnimationSounds.esp
B42Retrievables.esp
Better Brotherhood - FPGE Patch.esp
Better Brotherhood - YUP Patch.esp
boa ncrpahelmet.esp
Misc Content Restoration - YUP Patch.esp
Misc Content Restoration - UW (VNV) Patch.esp
Boacombat2glove.esp
ImmersiveRecoil.esp
JustAssortedMods.esp
FNV FaceGen Fix.esp
FPGE - EVEM Patch.esp
EVEM - YUP Patch.esp
Enhanced Movement.esp
JIP Companions Command & Control.esp
Titans of The New West.esp
Afterschool Special - FPGE Patch.esp
Simple Open Strip - FPGE Patch.esp
IndependentFollowersFix.esp
Independent FotA Fix - FPGE Patch.esp
TGMIO_FPGE_Patch.esp
enclaveradio.esp
Conelrad 640-1240.esp
Atmospheric Lighting Tweaks.esp
Strip Lights Region Fix.esp
DNWeathers.esp
CC - Rain.esp
CC - 3D Rain.esp
More Perks v3.esp
Better Balanced Backpacks.esp
DLC Weapon Integration.esp
LaserWeaponIronSights.esp
PlasmaWeaponIronSights.esp
UWU.esp
Mojave Arsenal.esp
Mojave NPCs - Simple Open Freeside Patch.esp
FPGE - Yes Man Primm Deployable Securitrons.esp
FPGE - Fucking Spectacular Lifting.esp
FPGE - McNamara HELIOS One FULL.esp
Weapon Mods Restored.esp
FPGE-EdeStays.esp
FPGE-Rebuild Vegas.esp
FO3AssaultRifle.esp
AutumnLeaves.esp
DWD-LCSO.esp
DWD-LFSO.esp
DWD-New Vegas Pack.esp
MojaveSquads-SimpleOpenFreeside.esp
MojaveSquads_SMIM.esp
ClaimtheMojaveFPGE.esp
ClaimtheMojaveSquads.esp
ClaimtheMojaveTLD.esp
ClaimtheMojaveUncutWasteland.esp
CtM_SMIM.esp
Claim the Mojave - Extended Roombounds Patch.esp
Difficultpete.esp
ultra luxe expanded fountain.esp
LonesomeRoadScorchedSierraPowerHelmet.esp
Handcraft.esp
Radio New Vegas Cut Songs Restoration.esp
SLS English Fixes.esp
SaltLakeStoriesTweaks.esp
Lucky38Reloadedv5.esp
DWD-L38Reloadedv5.esp
Lucky38Reloadedv5_YUP_Patch.esp
Forgotten Millenia.esp
DMT Master Patch.esp
DMT TTW Patch.esp
DMT TTW Sortomatic Homes Patch.esp
Brotherhood of Steel Robots.esp
Legion Sagittarii And Venators.esp
Legion Scorpionarii - Legion Auxiliary.esp
Encounters of the Mojave - Black Mountain.esp
Legion Houndmasters.esp
NCRChemtroopers.esp
NCR Stormtroopers.esp
WaterToTravel.esp

This file was automatically generated by Mod Organizer (mod list).

+Encounters of The Mojave - Goodsprings and Sloan
+Encounters of The Mojave - NCRCF and Hidden Valley
+Encounters of the Mojave - Primm and Mojave Outpost
+Legion Houndmasters - Legion Auxiliary
+Encounters of the Mojave - Black Mountain
+Encounters of The Mojave - Camp Searchlight and Cottonwood Cove
+Encounters of The Mojave - The Fort
+Legion Scorpionarii - Legion Auxiliary
+Legion Sagittarii and Venators - Legion Auxiliary
+Brotherhood of Steel Robots
+NCR Stormtroopers
+NCR Chemtroopers (Sodaz Trench Raiders inspired)
+Encounters of The Mojave - Highway 95 South
-Kvatchcount Mods_separator
+DMT - Dead Money Tweaks - Complete Overhaul Patches
+DMT - Dead Money Tweaks - Complete Overhaul Main File
+DMT - Dead Money Tweaks - Complete Overhaul Config File
+DMT - Dead Money Tweaks - Complete Overhaul Asset Pack
+SIGMA - Melee animation overhaul - Chapter 1 - kNVSE
+Forgotten Millenia Animated
+ELITE 45 Auto Pistol Animation Overhaul (kNVSE)
+RNC - Quicksilver Flamethrower kNVSE Animation Set
+Butcher Pete Complete - A Melee Animation Overhaul
-Dead Money Tweaks_separator
+CONELRAD 640-1240 - Civil Defense Radio
+Enclave Radio
+Platinum Radio - A New Radio for New Vegas
+Cowboy Radio
+Imperium Radio - Legion Radio Station
+The Joe Rogan Experience
-Music_separator
+Water Required to Fast Travel
+Lucky 38 Suite Reloaded v5
+Hidden Valley Overhauled
+Salt Lake Stories Improvements
+Salt Lake Stories - Player Dialogue Fixes
+Salt Lake Stories
+Faction Wasteland Presence - Improved Edition
+Radio New Vegas Cut Songs Restoration
+Handcraft
+The Brotherhood Leaves the Mojave
+The Fiends Leave the Mojave
+The Great Khans Stay in the Mojave
-Working Mods 6_separator
+Lonesome Road - Scorched Sierra Power Helmet
+Ultra-Luxe Fountain Expanded
+Mewing Pete - Look Maxing of the Mojave
+Difficullt Pete the mod the movie the video game
+Claim the Mojave Living Desert Patch
+Claim the Mojave EXR Patch
+Claim the Mojave
+Mojave Squads SMIM Patch
+Mojave Squads Simple Open Freeside Patch
+Mojave Squads Ini
+Mojave Squads
+Dynamic Weapon Displays
+Autumn Leaves
+Assault Rifle Remastered
+FPGE - Rebuild Vegas
+FPGE - ED-E Stays at the Lucky 38
-Working Mods 5_separator
+Weapon Mods Restored
+New Vegas Uncut - Panzermann's Edition
+Cruiser's FPGE Mod Collection -McNamara Helios One
+Cruiser's FPGE Mod Collection - Fantastic Spectacular
+Cruiser's FPGE Mod Collection - Deployable Securitrons to Primm
+Mojave NPCs - Simple Open Freeside Patch
+Mojave NPCs
+House and Followers Truce
+House and Kings Truce
+House and NCR Truce
+Hardin and NCR Truce
+Brotherhood and Legion Truce
+Brotherhood and House Truce
-Working Mods 4_separator
+Mojave Arsenal
+UWU - Unique Weapons Upgradable
+Plasma Weapon Iron Sights
+Laser Weapon Iron Sights
+DLC Weapon Integration
+Better Balanced Backpacks
+Mojave Merchants and Desert Dealers
+Lime's Faction Safehouse Overhaul
+Lime's Casino Suite Overhaul

• Working Mods 3_separator

+More Perks Reimagined
+The Great Mojave Interior Overhaul Patches and Guides - FPGE Patch
+The Great Mojave Interior Overhaul
+New Vegas Landscape Overhaul Re-Remastered
+Cook-Cook In His Castle BNW Patch
+Brave New World
+New Vegas Redesigned 2 Revised
+Mojave Wildlife - Vanilla No Chanced Spawns Version
-Working Mods 2_separator
+Independent Followers Fix Quickly Revisited
+Cook-Cook In His Castle
+MoreMojave
+Afterschool Special
+The New Bison Steve Hotel and Lucky Casino
+Casino Crowds
+A Very Uncreative Collection of FPGE Patches
+Simple Open Strip
+Simple Open Freeside
-Working Mods 1_separator
+Uncut Wasteland Extra Collection Simple Open Freeside
+Classic Fallout Weapons Remastered
+Uncut Wasteland Extra Collection
+JIP Companions Command and Control
+Better Character Creation
-Mods_separator
+Combat Armors Replacer (NV - TTW)
+General Lighting Overhaul ALT Compatibile
-Salamand3r Visuals - Extension_separator
+NV Interiors Remastered
+The N.V. Interiors Project
+A World of (Less) Pain - A Lore Friendly AWOP Revision
+Another Millenia Gun Add-on
+Hit - Millenia Animations - Part 2
+Another Millenia
+CIBS - Customizable Integrated Backpack System
+Canvas Backpacks - FNV - TTW
-Mojave Express Content_separator
+Webb's Titans of The New West Patch Emporium
+aMidianBorn NV Book Of Water Book of Steel
+Titans of The New West
-Mojave Express Overhauls_separator
+Retrievable Throwables Reforged
-Mojave Express Gameplay_separator
+MAPMO - Main and Pause Menus Overhaul
-Mojave Express User Interface_separator
+Sound Extender
+Weapon Based Hands Clip Distance
+HIPControl - Weapon Idle Position Adjuster - ESPless
+AnhNVSE
+SUP NVSE
-Mojave Express Utilities_separator
+Uncut Wasteland VNV LOD Patches
+LODIFY - Level of detail improvement for your Fallout (TTW And NV Lods) SOGB Edition
+LODIFY - Level of detail improvement for your Fallout (TTW And NV Lods)
+Different LOD mods little tweaks and additions
+Wasted LOD - Cliffs of Mojave
+More LODs Additions and fixes
+TCM's LOD Overhaul
+FNV LOD Supplementation Optional Overpass
+FNV LOD Supplementation
+LOD additions and improvements
+Much Needed LOD fixed rocks color
+Much Needed LOD
+Trees LOD Billboards Vanilla
+FNVLODGen Resources
+LOD Fixes and Improvements - NVSE
-VNV LOD Stuff_separator
+Climate Control - Rain - 3D Rain
+Climate Control - Rain
+3D Rain
+Cloud Upgrade NVSE
+High Resolution Bloom NVSE
+Desert Natural Weathers - NV - TTW
+Atmospheric Lighting Tweaks - EVEM Patch
+Atmospheric Lighting Tweaks (Interior Lighting for FNV and TTW)
+A Little More Lamplight
+More Consistent Vanilla Rock Textures (Less Green Clifftops)
+Wasted Rocks Normals
+Landscape Texture Improvements
+Improved LOD Noise Texture
+High Resolution Water Fog - Water Aliasing Fix
+Smooth True Iron Sights Camera
+Iron Sights Aligned
+FNV Clean Animations
+Anniversary Anim Pack
+Viewmodel Shading Fix - NVSE
+Muzzle Flash Light Fix - NVSE
+Mostly Fixed FaceGen Tints (NV or TTW)
-VNV+ Visuals_separator
+Better Brotherhood
+The Living Desert - Travelers Patrols Consequences Increased Population and more
+Essential DLC Enhancements Merged
+FPGE EVEM Patch
+Functional Post Game Ending
+Misc Content Restoration UW VNV Patch
+Misc Content Restoration
+Uncut Wasteland (VNV) - EVEM Patch
+Uncut Wasteland VNV
-VNV+ Content_separator
+Harder Barter Faster Stronger
+Traps Tweaks - Traps Use Other Skills
+Vikki and Vance Improvements
+Vish's Patch Hub - Misc Content Restoration
+Vish's Patch Hub
+Enhanced Movement INI
+Enhanced Movement
+Essential Vanilla Enhancements Merged
+Faster Sleep-Wait
+Better Caravan
+Immersive Recoil 2.0
+Clean Just Assorted Mods (JAM)
+JLM Grab Tweak
+JAM - VNV Configuraton
+JAM - Just Assorted Mods
-VNV+ Gameplay_separator
+No Exit to Main Menu
+Sleep Wait Hardcore Needs
+JIP Improved Recipe Menu ESPless
+Menu Search
+High Resolution Screens
+High Res Local Maps
+Clean Companion Wheel
+Clean Vanilla Hud
+VUIPlus - Dialog Background Add-on
+Vanilla UI Plus (New Vegas)
+The Mod Configuration Menu
-VNV+ User Interface_separator
+OneTweak but Really Updated
+HDR Save Image Patch
+Fog-based Object Culling
+Faster Main Menu
-Bug Fixes from Performance & Stability Guide_separator
+Impostors and LOD Flicker Fix
+Swimming Creatures Fix - ESPless
+Strip Lights Region Fix
+ExRB - Extended Roombounds
+Crafting Consistency Fix
+Depth of Field Fix - NVSE
+External Emittance Fix - NVSE
+Fallout Alpha Rendering Tweaks - NVSE
+Aqua Performa - Strip Performance Fix
+MoonlightNVSE
+ActorCause Save Bloat Fix
+Misc Audio Tweaks and Fixes - Elijah Missing Distortion Fix
+Misc Audio Tweaks and Fixes - Assorted Voice Popping Fixes
+Climate Control NVSE
+Pip-Boy Shading Fix NVSE
+Improved Lighting Shaders
+Items Transformed - Enhanced Meshes (ITEM)
+Meshes and Collision - Totally Enhanced Nifs (MAC-TEN)
+PipBoyOn Node Fixes
+skinned mesh improvement mod
+New Vegas Mesh Improvement Mod - NVMIM
+ISControl Enabler and Ironsights adjuster (now ESPless)
+Viewmodel Shake Fix - NVSE
+VATS Lag Fix
+Combat Lag Fix (NVSE)
+lStewieAl's Engine Optimizations
+Stewie Tweaks Essentials INI
+lStewieAl's Tweaks and Engine Fixes
+Improved AI (Navmesh Overhaul Mod)
+Unofficial Patch NVSE Plus
+Yukichigai Unofficial Patch - YUP
-Bug Fixes_separator
+KEYWORDS
+Basic Console Autocomplete
+Console Paste Support
+Improved Console (NVSE)
+Yvile's Crash Logger
+FNV Mod Limit Fix
+UIO - User Interface Organizer
+kNVSE Animation Plugin
+NVTF - INI Presets - Texture Modding Preset
+NVTF - New Vegas Tick Fix
+ShowOff xNVSE Plugin
+JohnnyGuitar NVSE - INI Presets
+JohnnyGuitar NVSE
+JIP LN NVSE Plugin Ini Presets
+JIP LN NVSE Plugin
-Utilities_separator
+Fixed ESMs
*DLC: CaravanPack
*DLC: ClassicPack
*DLC: DeadMoney
*DLC: GunRunnersArsenal
*DLC: HonestHearts
*DLC: LonesomeRoad
*DLC: MercenaryPack
*DLC: OldWorldBlues
*DLC: TribalPack

My people group are going through what can only be described as the start of a genocide. We are the victims of systemic oppression in most countries in the world. Yet every time I speak up on this to people in my life, they find some way to tell me I'm either paranoid or exaggerating. In the same breath, they'll then start repeating the exact same beliefs they just told me I was making up.
My people are systemically losing their rights to healthcare. In many nations in the world, we are losing our rights to access life-saving medical procedures and medications. These procedures have been being done for at least 60 years, some for around 100 years. They are known to be safe and effective at saving our lives. Yet they still take them away, which only seeks to endanger our lives and push us closer to suicide.
Many of us are unable to get legal work. In the US we are twice as likely as the average person to be unemployed. 44% of us who are working are underemployed. We are four times as likely as the average worker to have a household income of below $10,000. 13% of us have reported having to work in the sex industry. Likely far more. Across the world, somewhere between 24%-75% of our women have had to participate in the sex trade. (Wide range, but this is a hard thing to count)
According to some studies, one third of us have experienced homelessness sometime in our life in the US. This contributes to unemployment rates and sex work rates.
When we are thrown in prison, we are often treated as sex slaves for male inmates. We are often given as "gifts" to violent male inmates, either as a form of placating them, or as a reward for their good behavior. This practice is so common, that is is effectively a central part of our sentencing. THIS OCCURS IN UNITED STATES PRISONS. This is not some third-world practice, this is happening in the US, UK, and France. It is also common for prison guards to strip search us, and then put our bodies on display for other guards and inmates. Sometimes we are made to "preform" during this presentation. 69% of us who are prisoners are made to engage in sexual acts we'd rather have not done (rape). 58.5% of us who are prisoners are violently sexually assaulted. And 88% of us who are prisoners are made to participate in a "marriage-like" relationship with another inmate.
After one of us was killed in the United States, by a brutal beating in a public school. A state senator said "we don't want that filth in our state". A 16-year old was stabbed to death in the UK, when her mother was in the parliamentary chamber, the UK prime minister made jibes about our people group during the session.
47% of us have experienced some form of sexual assault in our lives. 58% of us have been mistreated by the police, in K-12 education, 78% of us have experienced harassment. I personally have been followed home by people who shouted slurs at me and made it known they had guns in their car. They have waited for me at the entrance of the school just to shout at me. The administration did almost nothing. 35% of us in K-12 education have experienced physical assault, and 12% have experienced sexual assault.
These are all true statistics. Nothing here is exaggerated to my knowledge. If anything is possibly misrepresented, I stated as such with words like "according to some studies" or made comments on the unreliability of the data. This is the reality of my people. Every day I have to live my life knowing that I am likely to be assaulted, harassed, kicked out, fired, lose my home, or just straight up be killed.
Yet somehow, whenever I tell people of this, I'm somehow making shit up, or entitled, or "woke" or whatever buzz word they're using these days. I'm told I need to focus on Palestine (which I whole heartily support) or I need to think about some other people group. Or I shouldn't be get angry at people who support policies that directly hurt my people, because it's "free speech". I'm tired of people constantly trying to gaslight me into believing everything is ok, because at least I'm not in a boxcar. Things are not ok.

I live in a newbuild block of flats, concrete flooring. For the first 18 months I only ever heard the odd door slam from downstairs. Even when she was 'apparently' going through domestic violence and police were called frequently I never heard nothing. Unless I walked by her front door I never hear the kids screaming, running, or loud music being played. But for the last 7 months the teenage boy and his friends play with basketball and football inside the property and all I can hear and feel is the thud thud thud. On top of that there's a sound like a heavy weight being dropped often, mainly in the evenings from around 10pm until 2-3am. This to can be felt, whilst sitting on the sofa, it's like it's coming from upstairs, I originally thought they were working out, but after investigating its definitely downstairs. Should I put up with it? I feel like this is not normal household noise especially at this time of night, am I being unreasonable about the heavy weight dropping sound and shake? What on earth are they doing to create that noise when I never heard anything before.

Recently I've gotten myself into a slate of rebuilding various old laptop battery packs (~2012 and earlier with 18650 battery cells), and I see not a whole lot of concrete answers to these sorts of things, so I thought I should share my own experience with a long and thorough post. Pics are linked at the bottom of the post.
Of course, safety is extremely important when you're rebuilding such battery packs and use it normally and forget about it. On my later rebuilds I mimic basically all wirings as out of the factory to keep them as safe as they were out of the factory. If you do decide to follow this though, proceed with caution and do NOT hold me responsible for a fire or something.
It's highly recommended you do this with spot welder and 0.1mm nickel strips. Soldering for beginners is going to be very difficult to control and difficult to get it to sit flush, but from my experience the 0.1mm strips do bond a lot better and very flush for the few times I did attempt soldering.
Don't rush through the rebuild. Perform such tasks with one wire at a time. This will drastically reduce your chances of making a mistake.
If the thermal fuse is thoroughly blown, you can stop right here. If your laptop's own utility identified the battery as failed as soon as you insert the battery, you can stop here and give up. I've had zero luck of rebuilding with an OEM BMS with a blown fuse and have it working even after bridging it over, without the need of a programmer. If it's only partly blown (fuse not measuring full voltage but also not zero), it could work with a chance after bridging over.
Aftermarket battery BMS are unlikely to lock themselves if you disconnect battery power, but I've had problems with the reliability of those BMS and also bad luck with them increasing their full charge capacity. Some OEM BMS will let you fully disconnect power, from positive to the negative, and reassemble by connecting from negative to positive, short the positive to the positive on the connector, and have it working, but I try not to do that without a NLBA programmer for backup.
Out of all the OEM's that I tried:
Old Thinkpad batteries (T/A3x and earlier) don't lock themselves on power disconnect, but I've had horrible luck getting them to increase full charge capacity. T/R4x/5x BMS do increase their full charge capacity just fine. T6x-Tx20 battery are more evil and swap must be done with hot swap to avoid locking; Tx30 batteries and newer are exceptionally evil and can lock themselves for no reason. The ThinkPad battery maximizepower manager will help you with extra information.
Dell batteries all require hot swap with a live BMS to work properly. Be careful about expresscharge on 2010s batteries and newer - If you use battery cells too "good" and use that version of expresscharge they can blow the BMS by overcurrent. Dell batteries from 2011 onwards are also extremely evil, presumably due to the exploding Dell batteries of earlier.
HP batteries also require hot swap. But after that, most of them will increase their full charge capacity properly, but I've had one identified as Sanyo battery (rather than showing up as HP battery) that failed to do that. I heard newer HP batteries from like 2014 onwards are also very evil. HP Power ManageBattery Check with advanced mode even provides information about the exact voltage for each of the groups, super neat!
Acer batteries all require hot swap, even the oldest ones from like 2003. Most of their BMS will lock even if you disconnect power from the positive to the negative and then reverse for reconnection. They are however pretty friendly otherwise, even for the times I made a mistake accidentally disconnecting wires, then within 2 seconds I hold the wire against the contact, and solder back in, or even for that one time I shorted something and saw nasty smoke. The BMS enters sleep in that case but didn't lock.
Here's my steps for dealing with an OEM battery pack

1. Disassembly

Pick a non-noticeable place, start by wedging a sharp crafting knife into the seams to create separation. If the battery is held together with mainly clips, use flat head screwdriver to pop the clips open. If it's heavily glued down, use that crafting knife and SLICE across to cut open as much epoxy as you can with minimal destruction, do it slowly and bit by bit. Use flathead to help you once you sliced most of that. Try to do the brute force away from the BMS board.

1. Identify the circuitry

Study the factory original wiring carefully. Take good pictures of both sides, and study carefully where and how each of the pins connect to the BMS board. Take good note of the places they put insulating material such as white wax paper and tape.

1. Preparation

Start spot welding the new battery pack and get it to resemble as much of this as possible. Carefully separate the old battery from the housing and start peeling away tape. Remember to separate the thermal probe!! If your BMS belongs to the evil ones, have the old and replacement packs charged up to roughly the same level. If any nickel strip folds down from the positive end of any cell to the sidewalls of the cell, insulate with heat resistant kapton tape. I'd reuse the wax paper from the original battery pack but that comes later.

1. Hot swapping

For each of the connections, 3 in the case of 7.2/7.4V pack, 4 in the case of 10.8/11.1V pack, and 5 in the case of 14.4/14.8V pack, see how it's connected to the BMS. If it's connected with a thru hole wire, it's the easiest - just pick a sufficiently long wire and double up the wiring from the bottom of the thru hole to another place on the battery that has the same polarity. This way you can disconnect the original wire from the battery end and reuse the wire. If it's a nickel strip connection, it's gonna be more tricky. For positive and negative terminus, you can get away with a jump wire soldered to another component such as the current resistor and disconnect the nickel strip connection later; for middle wires you may have to do a jump wire from the bottom of the connection onto somewhere else on the battery, then later snip the nickel strip connection and solder the broken end to the end of the replacement pack.
Once you doubled up all of the wiring, either put the replacement pack on top or on bottom of the old pack, brainstorm just how exactly you'll pull off the hot swap so you know what to do. Once you're ready, disconnect the original connections as indicated, one by one. Then, slightly lift the BMS board up or down, and slowly one by one connect the original wires to the new battery pack. If there is any plastic spacers, transfer them across now. Once that's done and you're confident they all have solid connections, disconnect the secondary connections still attached to the old battery. If the wire now goes inside of the BMS and the new battery pack, tape up the disconnected exposed end of the wire so you won't short something while sliding it out.
Then, transfer over all of the original insulated wax paper connections, and tape up the places that had tape originally. Take loads of clear photos of the final result on both sides, zoom in and pixel peep to see if there are any shortcomings that can affect the safety.
Put the battery inside the inside housing facing into the battery bay, make sure all the terminus are not exposed, and connect the battery pack for testing.
Once you made sure it charges and discharges properly, organise the wires to make them resemble as much like out of the factory as possible, tape up the thermal probe to the right place, put liquid adhesive on the side of the battery that originally had adhesive.
Before you put the top shell back on, take more photos and examine one more round whether there are any shortcomings. Then use liquid adhesive and clamp the battery shut, removing any broken pieces of plastics that could be sticking out. If a corner is not sitting flush right, then use superglue. Clamp it shut using a clamp and leave it to dry for a few hours.
And that's it! This is a very long guide, but this is how I do laptop battery rebuilds with the utmost amount of elegance inside, in most cases without the need of a programmer, and (especially my later rebuilds) I make them as safe as they came out of the factory! Those photos are valuable both for you to share around and for you to come back and inspect whether there can be any deficiencies with your construction.
To reset the battery guage (increase full charge capacity), fully charge the battery, make sure the cells are charged to at least ~4.1V per cell. Turn off hibernation at critical battery level, or if you can't do that, at least put it to sleep so you can wake it back up. Discharge the battery, monitor using software such as batterymon. On most BMS it'll hover at around 6-7% for a very long time before going down further, at which point you can attach the charger, and the capacity should start coming up. On Acer laptops you need to reseat the battery for the updated full charge capacity to show in software. If there are software or manufacturer instructed instructions on how to do the guage reset, follow that.
Here are some galleries on Imgur, the rest are on OneDrive which I have to figure out how to upload on reddit without blocking:
https://imgur.com/a/rku1ZJn
https://imgur.com/a/0KUSgQk

So, to sum up a very long and complicated story, at the beginning of 2022, my ex began stalking me. He doesn't live in my city (about four and a half hours away), yet he took the time to travel the distance to sit outside of my old apartment building, waiting for me to come outside. He sent me harassing messages, threatening that "things would get worse" if I didn't talk to him. While I was able to sneak out of my apartment through the back door, from what I was told by my roommates and others, he was going around knocking on doors, and even knocked ours. He left a handwritten note on my car as well. I ended up calling my apartment security, but by the time they went to scope the area, he was gone.
While this was scary, I didn't take any other action against him. My thought process was that, eventually, he would get over his rage and jealously, and move on. And it seemed like I was right. Over the next two years or so, I didn't hear a word from him. One of our mutuals even told me that he had come to our city numerous times, but didn't attempt to harass me again. It seemed like it was over.
Until this past Saturday. I received a call from him through a Snapchat group chat I was not even aware I was in. I have him blocked on everything, so once I saw it was him calling, I just immediately left the group chat. About 10 minutes later, he messaged another Snapchat group chat that both me and my boyfriend were in (the same boyfriend who I was dating during the first stalking incident). I, again, immediately left the chat without seeing the message. But my boyfriend opened it, and the message was from my ex saying that my car "still had the same license plate on it." I immediately began freaking out, as my boyfriend is studying abroad and I am alone in our apartment. After a couple of hours of explaining the situation to my friends in case things got ugly, I realized that he had left yet another note on my car. So, while still on the phone, I went outside to check it out. This time, it wasn't a note. It was a card that just said "Congratulations on your new apartment" with no writing on the inside. I ended up calling the police, but opted not to file a report as I'd have to wait for the police to arrive, and knew that my ex was already gone.
Now, the courthouse is open, and I want to file for a restraining/no contact order. However, here are my main concerns: 1. He doesn't even live in my city. So, would a restraining order really even matter? 2. The evidence I have is circumstantial at best. The only physical evidence I have is the card he left this past weekend, but everything else I have is either just photos of his previous harassing messages, and my boyfriend's word about what the Snapchat message actually said. I do have witnesses who were here during the first time he stalked me, but again, those are just words and not actual hard proof. 3. I'm not "fearing for my life." I've never known my ex to be violent, so I'm not concerned about my personal safety. I just don't like the feeling that I'm constantly being watched, and want to send my ex a message that he can't harass me without consequence.
I've seen before that restraining orders can get denied, and I'm scared. I'm scared the harassment will only get worse if he finds out, but I really want to do it because I'm terrified of leaving my apartment. Can somebody please explain the process to me?

Power's out during a windstorm, I think a branch has fallen on my line. Didn't know that at first and went to check out my breaker box. Had the breaker box open and was looking at it - nothing to flip, when a big gust of wind blew through and the power flipped back on for a second. I heard a bit of a buzz and a clang and saw a bolt of electricity spark out of the top of the breaker box. Not sure what it contacted. I assume I'm not supposed to see electricity arcing out of my breaker box, so I freaked out a bit and ran upstairs. Am I at risk of an electrical fire here? Is it safe to turn off the main breaker? Should I?

I live near a bonfire site in Belfast, and the level of anti-social behavior over the past few weeks has been the worst I've seen in the 10 years I've lived here. There have been mass street brawls involving multiple groups of youths, and deliberate damage to homes and property occurs on a regular basis.
Despite numerous calls to the police and contact with local MLAs and city councillors, nothing is ever done, and the youths continue to roam the streets causing trouble virtually every night now.
I'm at my wit's end now, and I'm hesitant to speak out for fear that my home and property will be targeted by these youths, or worse, by thugs in the paramilitaries/drug dealers who I suspect help fund many of these bonfires.
The level of lawlessness and the lack of action by the authorities is quite frankly ridiculous. In 2024, decades after the Good Friday Agreement and in a Western society, it's absurd that we haven't been able to address these issues effectively.
I have no issue with people having safe and respectful bonfires to celebrate their culture or whatever they choose, but they need to be heavily regulated and controlled. In a society with so many rules and regulations, it's absurd that these unregulated bonfires are allowed to continue unchecked.
If my friends and I were to even attempt to build a small fire in Botanic Gardens, the police would intervene immediately. So why the double standard for these supposed loyalist bonfires, especially when the vast majority of them are dangerous and located without permission on public land?

Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/1cxj7h8/comment/l52vtd5/?context=3
*****

The Palatini of Orias journey took nine grueling days of traveling down the peaks of Torness Mountain Range. But at long last, they reached the Coralus Valley. While the temperature was far below what the half-elf usually enjoyed, it was far better than the mountain peaks.
They traveled through the valley, trying to avoid the multiple hostiles, villages, and anyone else who could tip off their enemies. They had to take every tedious path imaginable to prevent possible contact with the enemy.
Staring at their destination, Fraeya Holiadon could not decide if she should be thrilled or distorted at the sight. "Is this the place?"
"I believe so," Raegel said. "The pattern of the structures matches my drawings and the map. See the remains of the two walls?"
"And the stone rings that direct out," Henness said.
"So, you have read the legends," Raegel said, surprised by the centurion's knowledge of the temple.
"I always prepare before a mission," Henness said. "Those half rings, are they stone or artificial?"
"They look like stone, so I think they used the ground stone and molded them," Raegel said.
Fraeya Holiadon carefully stared at the temple ruins. All she could see was the destruction—fractured stone buildings, walls, weed-infested stone pavement, and so on. While there were still many stone structures, most were destroyed. She could only see death, not the walls her father could see.
She turned to ask her father what he was talking about but saw Centurion Fionntan Henness pointing toward the walls and other details.
Watching the two communicate about the features of the temple, she realized how out of depth she was. Her father spent generations studying ruins like this, while Henness is an experienced soldier. For Fraeya, this was her first mission outside the academy supervision, and she realized how different the world was compared to the classroom.
As the two spoke, her elf ears overheard Henness mention that he saw green webbing. As the two men debated what creatures could create that webbing, she already knew based on the type of webbing. Being an excellent student, she recalled the topic regarding intelligent monsters. While many species produce a web, only one creates a thick green. Goblins.
"Father," Fraeya said. "I think goblins made those webbings."
"How could you possibly know that?" Henness asked, unconvinced by the theory. "It would easily be Rorgo or a Kipt."
Fraeya reached into her backpack and pulled out her notepad. She flipped through the pages and responded, "Kipt is more silk-like, while Rorgo is more for capturing prey. Both are white. Only Goblins make green."
"She is correct," Raegel said. "The green should have been a given."
"Alright," Henness said. "That complicates things."
"How so?" Fraeya asked. "The academy said they are weak. Adventures and local militia kill them constantly, so your men should be able to wipe them out with your weaponry easily."
"Goblins are weak in small numbers, but they are a nightmare in large numbers," Henness said. "And depending on the horde, they adapt to who their enemies are quickly. For all I know, we could be fighting a nest that is as heavily armed as we are."
Fraeya looked back toward the next with much confusion. She knew about the goblin's ability to adapt. However, her teachers never stated how formal they could be. Only treating them as barbarians is a functional civilization. "I would think the academy would mention something like that."
"If you are going to be out here in the world, you must understand that life is very different from the classroom," Henness said. "The difference between someone who lives behind a desk versus someone on the ground. Now, I need to get my forces ready for our attack."
Once the centurion left, Fraeya looked at her father. "I am starting to get the impression that my schooling wasn't as truthful as I once thought."
Raegel chuckled at the statement from his daughter. "That is what I said when I left my academy in Thali'ean," he said with a short chuckle before he spoke. "Henness was correct; there is a large gap between the classroom and out here in the world."
"I see. So, now, what do we do?"
"We wait for the legionaries to form a plan. Because time is not on our side, he will want you to assist with your magic. Do you think you can assist? If you are uncomfortable, tell me now, and you can stay here where it is safe."
Feeling a nervous chill creeping down her spine, she looked back toward the temple and breathed heavily. "I admit, I am scared, but I didn't come here to babysit the camp. I want to help."
She felt her father pat her on the back, feeling a sense of pride from his touch.
"That's my daughter."
After an hour of planning, the Palatini of Orias began their assault on the temple ruins. The plan was for a primary team to assault the temple directly, triggering a response from the goblin. The second team would remain on the high ground and pick off the horde.
Fraeya ended up on the right side of the group team. To her surprise, many soldiers were thrilled that they were finally getting into a fight. She wondered, after two weeks of crawling over the mountains and hiding like rodents, they finally got a chance to be soldiers.
The primary assault group she was attached to advance toward the temple once the signal was given. Passing one of the few remaining wall structures, they entered the temple ground. As they swept through the old temple's front sections, the goblins huddled around a fire pit, noticed them, and prepared for battle.
Three legionaries known as circilmen, from the palatini positioned themselves to engage the incoming enemy. Carrying a ranged projectile weapon known as a circiletum, they hid behind the front shield men and fired upon the incoming enemy. They picked off two of the three goblins as the last one quickly crawled under a piece of rubble for cover. Then, the palatini heard a painful screech from the hiding goblin.
Fraeya couldn't help herself but stand there noticing the two fresh corpses. She then watched as two of the swordsmen rushed to the hiding goblin. They reached in and pulled the little green monster out of its hiding spot.
Two swordsmen grabbed the goblin and dragged it from its cover, it jumped on top of one of the legionaries, stabbing its blade into its armor, unable to break through. With a short struggle, the legionary could slam the goblin onto the ground. The other legionary stomped on the body before thrusting his gladius into the monster.
Hearing another screech, Fraeya looked down the stone path and saw goblins popping out of every crack and corner.
One of the legionary officers ordered the unit to reform. The swordsmen took the front with their large scutum shields, creating a two-line protective shield wall. Behind them were the circilmen, taking cover behind the scutum.
The group of goblins charged forward. As they approached, the legionaries saw the raw, starving rage within their dark green eyes—a thirst for primal instincts of food and lust and nothing else.
"Fraeya, is it?"
Hearing her name, she turned to the commanding offer of this group.
"When I give the order, shake the ground." The lower-ranking Centurian said.
Fraeya acknowledged the order as she understood what he was planning.
Turning back to the incoming horde, she watched the three circilmen open fire. The circiletums cut down the forward group of goblins. The ones behind that row suddenly stopped from the shock but were cut down by a second volley.
"Now. Before they scatter."
Fraeya placed her hands together and chanted. The two tiny mana crystals on her gloves blew green as she felt a raw energy channel through her body. A moment later, that glow expanded to the point that it encompassed her hand.
Channeling the mana needed for the spell, Fraeya placed her left hand on the ground.
The stone ground beneath them shook the stone terra, stunning the goblins. Right down the center, cracks formed, and the terra broke apart. The road slightly uplifted into an elevation, forcing the goblins to focus on what was happening.
With the ground disinformed, it prevented the enemy from scattering in an organized manner, allowing the circilmen to fire another volley.
The front scutum marched forward and started cutting down anything that moved. The other line split into two groups. They were marching down the street in an almost synchronized manner. They held their shields high toward the ruins, protecting the circilmen from any incoming projectile. Arrows and magic.
Fireballs flew and impacted the scutum infantry, protecting the flanks. Some of the shields glowed from the impact. The flames engulfed one of the men's arms, and he started to scream from the pain.
The circilmen returned fire, and a firefight began. The sound of their weapons crackled throughout the surrounding area, amplified by the ruined walls. Above the sound of battle were the voices and cries of the wounded—the circiletum that were deployed on the ridge above rained fire from the suppressive team.
The Palatini of Orias pushed deeper into the temple ground as the battle continued. That was until the town began to be consumed by this thick haze, providing cover for the goblins, and restricting visibility for the Lat forces. While not educated to the standards of civilized races, Goblins were not stupid.
"It is a haze," Fraeya said. "They must have a mage somewhere within the nest."
Centurion Fionntan Henness approached their forces and began to regroup. "Can you counter it?"
"No," Fraeya replied. "I never studied Aeromancy magic."
"Nebulo," Henness said. "Our armor and weapons will be less effective."
Fraeya understood his concern. From what she recalled from her classes; goblins have sharp senses. Based on the density of the haze, it was clear even to her that they were planning to force them to huddle and expose themselves to be surrounded, making their ranged weapons worthless.
"We will just have to work around it," Raegel said.
As Frayea prepared herself, she felt a strange feeling throughout her body, almost like some field affecting her body. She saw a female legionary in light armor and a cloak checking over the wounded. One of the few women in the legionary, she could tell she was the unit healer specializing in Sanamancy magic. The women must have placed a barrier to help protect against any poisonous gasses lying within the haze.
Orias advanced through the haze; this forced the soldiers to clump together for safety. As the assault group progressed, they were hit non-stop by the goblin's arrow fire, spears, and fire shots from sling guns. Most of these projectiles caused minor damage thanks to the heavy armor legionary’s wear. However, this did not remove the damage as it brought discomfort and limited their progression to a crawl.
Barely noticing two figures on top of a rooftop through the haze, who were firing slingshots toward their position, she pointed her hand toward a piece of rubble and, with her magic, lifted the debris and projected it through the haze. The rubble temporarily formed a gap in the haze that increased the line-of-sight.
She then called out to the fire battle mage within the unit. The mage realized what was happening and fired multiple firebolts toward the tower. Five bolts impacted the building from different directions, engulfing the structure in flames. Everyone could hear the faint sound of goblins screaming as the building burnt.
With the tower collapsing suddenly, arrows rained through the thick haze, hitting the legionaries in retaliation. While most arrows bounced off the armor, some found exposed spots. Two more legionaries fell to their knees, with one vomiting blood, forcing the healed to focus on the sick over protecting the group.
It became clear that the goblins changed their tactics and poisoned their arrows. While worthless against armor, they could still puncture the underneath clothing and scrap any exposed part of the skin.
A luperca legionnaire picked up an old broken wagon and used it as a shield to protect. With the cover, the lower ranking commanders directed the circilmen to pick off any goblins that peaked above the surface.
Combined with the haze and change of tactic, this formed a strange stalemate between the two sides. The Orias was forced into a defensive; they were well equipped to deal with any goblins who dared to get within melee range. However, the goblins had surrounded and had the range advance as they could see through the haze, allowing them to snipe any legionary who adventured far from the group.
Fraeya saw a blob of acid impact a swordsmen's scutum. The scutum started being consumed by the spell, slowly falling into pieces. The man screamed as he felt his arm burn, desperately untieing the strappings to ditch the heavy shield.
"We need to kill their shaman before we are picked off," Raegel said.
"I agreed," Henness replied. "As long as this haze is here, my suppressive team is useless."
"If I recall," Fraeya said. "A Shaman should be nearby. Someone close enough to maintain this haze and give commands but not put themselves in danger."
"Then I know where it should be," Henness said. "Let's go half-elf."
She felt her ears perk up once she realized the centurion was talking about her. She looked toward her father and saw the 'it is time to prove yourself' look. Taking a deep breath and preparing herself, she gathered behind Henness and six of his men.
The assault unit left the main one and adventurer deeper into the temple grounds. As they reached what remained of an intersection, goblins stormed out of the stone buildings to ambush the legionaries.
With their disciplined reaction, the legionaries immediately adjusted their formation and sliced down the attackers. Henness stood at the center, holding his sword out as flames wrapped around the blade.
As the goblins attacked the swordsmen, Fraeya broke apart the ground on the right flank, knocking many goblins. The one that fell, she entangled them by summoning vines - which trapped the goblins and pulled them into the ground until their death or burial.
She then turned and lifted parts of the ground on the left flank, blocking some of the goblins. This prevented the legionaries from being encircled.
"Reform," Henness ordered. "We need to advance quickly. Stay close."
Once the path was clear, the unit moved toward the building where the goblins had fortified. Henness moved in front of her to provide protection. He held up his shield, deflecting arrows.
"Stay behind me," Henness said.
While not being a military woman, Fraeya quickly learned to accept the chain of command on this quest. On the battlefield, her father told her to listen to Henness as he was a man of war. She realized that the structure and safety of the city and the academy are vastly different in the countryside. Getting behind him, she followed him close behind as he pushed forward, arrows striking his shield, allowing her to get in range for her spell.
The legionaries stopped engaging the incoming goblins, allowing their centurion and the young mage to get closer. Henness reached around his scutum and pressed the amulet attached to the outer shell's center. Once pressed, the large shield briefly glowed before darkening, returning to the standard red with white lining design.
Up ahead, Fraeya saw in full display of the nest. Spikes, fortification, and green webbing filled the gaps between the ruined structures. Skeletons and decomposing bodies littered the areas of their past victims. The goblins were standing in the bunker sections, preparing for battle. With how heavily guarded it was, she concluded that this must be where the Shaman was.
"Fraeya, now!"
Fraeya moved around the man to cast her spell. With a quick chant, her hands glowed green again. As she channeled her mana, an acid attack impacted Henness' scutum. While the added hardening enchantment from the amulet increased the scutum resistance, the acid slowly ate through the large shield.
Stepping from cover, Fraeya aimed her hands at the nest. The ground trembled a little as the front of the nest collapsed on itself from the summoned sinkhole.
With the front entrance open, Fraeya saw the Shaman in plain view—a female, being one of the few within a goblin nest. The Shama looked scared as she looked around where to hide.
Fraeya did not give it time as she cast a spell that created a spike from the ground below the Shaman and pierced straight through the vicious monster, killing it instantly.
As the Shaman staff hit the ground, the haze started to disappear.
Believing that her work was complete after killing the goblin leader, her ears quickly heard footsteps surrounding them.
Noticing that the goblins were about to swarm their position, she took cover behind Henness to protect his rear. She took a deep breath as she felt exhausted from the battle and cast so many spells quickly.
Starting at five goblins that emerged from the ruins, Fraeya watched as they charged toward them. Before they got close, however, each one was sniped from the ridge-side suppressive team.
With a moment of confusion, she stared toward the cliffside and saw the suppressive team. Now that the haze is disappearing, they could snipe off the remaining goblins from their elevation position.
"Good job, half-elf," Henness said, slowly stepping back with a shield aimed at the flames, guiding Fraeya back.
"Stop calling me half-elf," Fraeya yelled. "I am out here risking my life with the rest of you, and don't give me that war is a male-domain thing! I am willing to see this through. Most of my kind would stay home and let you fight, so why do you keep degrading me?"
"Because ideals get people killed," Fionntan Henness replied. "Out here, you must earn that respect within the brotherhood of warriors, especially if you are used to living inside the city walls. People with a self-protected mindset usually end up as food for the worms or get my soldiers killed because they do not understand what it takes to survive."
The centurion then turned to the destroyed nest. "I will say, though, what you did here. It is a good first step for a half-elf." He then turned to give her an approving smile.
Not understanding the humor from the Lat, Fraeya accepted it. From her experience, Lats always had a strange sense of humor. Insults are sometimes seen as compliments while praising could be considered offensive. Saying one thing but meaning another is a common trait for them.
With the remaining palatini coming after clearing the remaining goblins, Fraeya saw her father. She rushed over and hugged him and teared up.
"You did good, my dear," Raegel said as he patted her.
"Is this really what it is like out here?" Fraeya asked.
"Sadly, it is," Fraeya replied. "That is why I never brought you around on my digs."
"I am sorry to interrupt," Henness said. "We are on borrowed time, so can we get at it?"
Fraeya looked toward the centurion with frustration as she wanted a moment with her father. After taking a deep breath, she realized that he was right.
After finishing her hug, she brushed off the goblin's blood and clothing.
"Then we better begin searching for what we came for," Raegel said as he reached for his bag. She watched as he pulled out a perfectly smoothed, pure black orb. By itself, it didn't look impressive. She had seen hundreds of these orbs at the academy or the many workshops within the city.
Raegel held the orb in one hand and activated it with his mana. The orb glowed light blue and fainted, barely emitting any energy. He then took it against the mountain and began scanning.
Not wanting to miss anything, Fraeya quickly pulled out her journal, skipping past all her notes until she reached a blank page. She then began documenting everything her father did, taking in every world and detail.
The palatini began walking through the ruins, heading toward the mountain wall. Raegel explained in his research that the temple extended inside the mountain, like a dwarf borrian. While others who came before him came up with this theory, they were still looking for a way to detect the hidden door markings and find it.
Raegel moved down the side of the mountain, holding the orb high.
"Why are you not using a door-detecting amulet?" Fraeya asked.
"Because people have been using that for generations and found nothing here," Raegel replied.
After a reasonable amount of time when nothing had happened, Fraeya began to wonder if everything was for nothing. Seeing the lack of progress, Henness inquired if the orb failed to work. As Raegel replied, the orb suddenly blimped orange for a moment.
Witnessing the sudden change, the group backed away as they did not know how to respond to the sudden glow.
Noticing a renewed excitement from her father, she followed him closely as they investigated the mountainside.
As they searched, her father noticed that the faint blue glow from the orb had changed to orange. It then disappeared and slowly appeared, like it was slowly pulsing. When they continued walking forward, the pulsing light increased in speed.
"I think it is directing us, father," Fraeya said.
"Possible," Raegel said. "There must be some type of link."
The palatini followed the direction the orb gave. As the group approached a mountainside wall, the pulse frequency increased until it looked like the orb glowed a solid color.
"I think we found it," Raegel said. He lifted the orb toward the wall.
As the orb drew closer to the mountainside, these blue lines appeared all over the rocky wall. The rough chips of rock melted away and turned smooth as the light traveled through the grooves, slowly creating what looked like a giant door of light.
Once the bright lights finished designing a massive door, Fraeya placed her hand on the wall, shocked at how the natural bulky rocks turned into a marble-like wall.
"I would step aside, Fraeya," Raegel said.
As Fraeya stepped backward, she watched her father open the door with a magical spell. Like most magical doors, the door brightened as she expected it would fold into the mountain. To her surprise, the door didn't fold away but melted into the ground.
"What happened to the door?" Fraeya asked.
Raegal placed his hand on his chin. "It seemed that the wall was not solid but some liquid matter. These people are impressive."
The wall began to shake as dusk from the cracks spread through the area.
A large opening formed as the door walls folded into the mountainside. A passage leading deeper into the mountain. The walls were black and smooth, while the floor had these textiles in perfect order, leading deeper into the mountain.
"This has to be a dwarven design," Fraeya commented. "Only they could do something like this."
"I'm not sure," Raegel said. "This is not a design I have seen from dwarves."
Fraeya understood what her father meant. Dwarven doors into the mountains took a lot of work to find. While there were many designs of such hidden doors and the means to open them, it was doubtful that anyone had ever seen a secret magical door like this before.
Raegel started to walk into the chamber but was suddenly stopped by Henness. Stating that he wanted his men to go first to ensure no trap, three legionaries moved through the large chamber. Once they gave the clear, the rest of the group entered.
While walking, Fraeya stayed close to her father as she took notes. The soldiers ahead of them set up torches to add more light. To her surprise, the walls and floor were smooth. The air was stale, probably trapped within this chamber for centuries.
As they walked inside, the room lit up. Everyone stopped as they looked toward the end of the hall. The chamber was empty, with only a strange-looking platform at the very end. Noticing that the orb was pointing toward the platform, they approached it.
"Is this it?" Henness asked. "It does not look that impressive."
"Not everything is based on size, centurion," Raegel replied, to which his daughter giggled.
Fraeya then analyzed the platform. It was smooth, almost marble-like. However, she doubted whether it was marble. The fundamental details that she noticed were a strange-looking blue crystal at the center of the platform and another in a hole on the side.
"This is interesting," Fraeya commented. The design looked surprisingly simple. This orb must act as some command orb for this device. They must be communicating in some manner."
"Assuming that the legend was true, the orcs were the ones who summoned the lats from Altaerrie," Fraeya said. "Maybe, when this place was lost of that time, it was never turned off. Being left in a state of slumber, waiting to be reawakened."
"Possible. It would explain why the orb directed us here. The orange pulse is now pointing down at a rapid pace."
"I think it goes into that hole, father," Fraeya said. "From what I can tell, the crystal in there connects to the one on top of the platform."
"I see," Raegel said. "The pulse is pointing toward it too. I recommend that everyone step back."
"Be careful, father," Fraeya said.
Stepping back from the platform, Fraeya watched as her father placed the orb into the hole. This was the moment her father had been talking about for decades, and it had finally come true. The Bridge between two worlds had finally been discovered.
As Raegel placed the orb into the platform, it glowed orange in a solid state, no longer pulsing. The blue crystal in the middle of the platform slowly lit up, like it was waking up after a long sleep.
The air suddenly chilled as the air flowed toward the platform. A bright light beamed out of the crystal and slowly faded away, leaving a light as if on standby.
To their dismay, the orb changed to red, dimming and brightening in a slow, tired pattern.
"What is it doing, father?" Fraeya asked.
"I have no idea," Raegel replied. "It must be waiting for something."

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1/22/2048 (military calendar)
Campsite, the former Confederacy of Daru'uie
Nevali Region, Aldrida, Alagore


*****


Looking past the dark horizon of the valley below, all that was seen were the crisp peaks and ridges of the Torness mighty mountains. Above the heights was the final shine of the father of all light, the yellow sun god known as Dorash. It almost seemed like his gaze was taking one last peek at the skirt of Alagore mountain peaks before finally fading to rest.
As the sun fell below the distant mountain peaks, a robust and crisp breeze swept through the valley below, bringing a sudden chill. As expected, the darkness came and got the freezing mountain cold. Everything became pitched black as the only light source came from the starlight flickering high above the dark void. That was until a new light from the campfires illuminated the camp, only so slightly not to be discovered.
The half-elf girl Fraeya Holiadon was not used to this type of cold. Being a forest noble elf who grew up in the warmth of cities, she quickly grabbed her black-white pattern cloak and pulled tightly to remain as warm as possible.
She took a long breath from the thin, chilly air and stared into the massive valley below—forests, lakes, and, in the distance, a glimpse of lights from a nearby town. Everything looked natural and wild, where civilization had struggled to conquer. A sight she rarely saw outside the city walls. She found the scenery incredible. Worth the hellish adventurer across the Torness Mountain Range.
"Stay away from the edge," a Lat said. "We don't want to be spotted."
"Alright," Fraeya replied. She looked at the Lat, surprised at how he stood, defiant of the thin air and freezing temperature. "Are you not cold?"
"Of course, I am," the last warrior said as he returned to the camp. "Living away from civilization, you grow used to such conditions."
As the soldier left, she looked at the valley one last time before heading back toward the camp.
Fraeya saw nearly a hundred soldiers huddling their campfires for warmth, gathering supplies, or standing watch within the camp. They are known as the Palatini of Orias, one of the many Republic elite units within the legionary. They were hand-picked by the Legate for this mission.
As the young girl walked past the palatini, she could see the exhaustion from their mannerisms. Many looked hungry; others tired with dark, deep black bags under their eyes. Others shaking as their bodies adjusted to the night. To her confusion, she also could see the determination within their eyes as the environment was just an annoyance toward their objective.
She wouldn't blame them for their exhaustion as she could feel most of her body sore from the non-stop marching and climbing, she had to endure to get to this point. Something that her professors left out of their classes. A part of her couldn't help but chuckle from how she once thought after graduation from the academy that she was ready to face the challenges of their world. Only now did she understand how little schooling prepared her for the real world.
"What is so funny?" Another Lat said as she passed.
When she turned to the man, she felt a slim nerve of fear that ran through her body, believing that she might have insulted them. While most of them accepted her within the platini, she could tell they saw her as a weakling over a comrade. "I am sorry. I meant no insult. I was remembering my time at the academy."
The man turned back to his friend, commenting on her inexperience.
Fraeya felt sad as this was not her first failed interaction. For the better part of a week, Orias had escorted her and her father across some of the roughest terrains on Aldrida, taking great lengths to avoid enemy forces as their orders were to keep the two elves protected at all cost. As many men had stated, it was a near miracle that they made it this far without being noticed.
From what she understood, the commanding centurion hoped to reach the base of the mountain they were on by tonight. Such delays had become the norm; they had to delay their travels because of enemy patrols. They were hiding for hours because of J'avias' patrols from one of the nearby City-States. As they adventured deeper behind enemy-occupied territory, she expected this problem to worsen.
While the Hispana Republic's detachment for the expedition could have defeated them, the legionnaire leader, Centurion Fionntan Henness, did not want to risk exposing their unit to the enemy. He feared that if the J'avias or one of their puppet races could pass a message to the Unity's regional vassal, the Verliance Aristocracy, their mission would fail, and their last hope for victory would vanish. His superiors had invested in this last-ditch effort to turn the tide of the war to risk it on a small skirmisher with fewer soldiers.
Between the dozen campfires and the dark but illuminated sky lit by their mother Tekali, this side of the mountain range had perfectly trapped the cold air, something that Fraeya Holiadon was struggling to adapt to. As a Noble Elf, she was used to the warmth of the forest and the benefits of civilization from the continent's western side. Not the chill of the alpine.
Hearing a loud howl that echoed through the mountains, clearing coming from another party elsewhere within the area, Fraeya noticed her ride panicking. She quickly rushed over and slowly approached the beast once she got close.
"There, there," Fraeya whispered to her Deerip, a four-legged beast with three horns, light brown long hair fur, and red hoofs.
Noticing that these lands unsettled the beast, a feeling she could relate to, she rubbed the side of the Derrip's neck. Slowly and calmly whispering a song to it as the beast to calm down.
Once the beast was calm, Fraeya reached into her backpack and pulled out a bundle of grass to feed it. "I understand how you feel. This place leaves an unsettling chill down my spine, too. But you need to stay calm."
"If your beast is going to cause trouble, it will be wise to let it free," Henness said as he approached.
Looking at the centurion, Fraeya replied, "he is just startled. Deerips do not usually travel these lands. He needs to get used to being here."
Henness reached into his bag, pulling out a dark red amulet. He then tossed it into a fire pit. One of the other soldiers, a pyromancy battle mage, approached the hole and ignited it with a low-level fire spell. Unlike most red and orange flames, this fire was blackish purple, a type of flame known as dark fire by the commoners.
"Half-Elf, it took us over a week to get here through this dangerous path. These mountains are very unforgiving to wandering passengers, even to the Legion. We are deep behind enemy lines with no support. If Kallam vassals discover us, we will be slaughtered without mercy."
"That is if we are lucky," a Lat said as he sat beside the Dark Fire. "I heard stories of what happens to the prisoners that are handed over to them. I wouldn't subject my worst enemy to such a fate. Especially if a little girl got us caught."
Feeling frustrated and hearing the disrespect from the man's tone, she wanted to march over and warn Henness. While Lats could be civil and possess a strong warrior spirit, she is always surprised by how stubborn they could be.
"What is your issue, Lat? Fraeya asked. "I understand the risks. My father has been studying for this mission longer than you have been alive. I know what is at stake. This legend is our only hope in stopping them."
"Hope?" Henness asked while being unfazed by the young elf's aggressiveness. "The only reason the Legate sponsored this insane mission was that your father already got funds from a Kitsune archivist guild with a questionable reputation. They wanted to eliminate your father to focus on winning the war. They cannot afford to chase fairytales from time immemorial."
"Insane mission?" Fraeya boldly stated. "This quest is not insane, you…, damn Lat! It is the answer! We all know we cannot win the war. They are just too strong. I cannot believe how you, of all people, your kind, should believe in this."
"It is a fool's quest, Fraeya," Henness replied calmly, showing his military discipline. "Look at what we are doing." Allowing himself to collect his thoughts, he sat by the Dark Fire. "We are looking for an ancient relic, a Lat-Orc folktale that allows you to travel to another world. Hundreds of sages like your father have looked for this and other relics over the centuries. Even your father was proven wrong on this subject. There is a reason why the Guilds and his own people disowned his research."
The legend of an ancient relic from a lost age was an everyday fairytale throughout the continent of Aldrida. A Bridge that connected Alagore to the world known as Altaerrie. Her father discovered that each species and civilization had their own version of the legend over the millenniums. While the tales had many different versions, they all had the core idea - that all life was brought here by the Goddess Tekali.
In this quest to validate the legend, her father, Raegel Holiadon, dedicated his life to validating the myth and the truth of their people's past. While she did not know why her father was so passionate about searching for this truth, she knew that he believed it was the most crucial mystery of Alagore.
Considered a joke from the magical and sage guilds, Fraeya's father, Raegel Holiadon, was forced to conduct his research in isolation. Dozens of sages before him have searched for the truth and failed, falling into the same ousted fake from civilization. No one believed that this time would be any different. Because of his tenacity, he was banished to the fringes of the world to prove his theories. It was not until the Unity invaded Aldrida that he brought renewed interest to his work, not because of recent discoveries or because they suddenly believed in the legend but out of desperation to survive.
"It is different this time," Fraeya said. "If we could tale the sphere and-."
Henness cut Fraeya off, saying, "I am too tired to debate this right now. All that matters is that my Palatini was ordered to escort your party through these lands. I and the rest of my people will follow those orders to the end; I guarantee that. You shall not have to worry about our duty. I just hope this fool quest does not result in the death of my men."
Fraeya felt a deep urge to defend her father's work. As she approached, a Noble Elf stopped her, her father.
"Do not let your emotions get out of control," Raegel said.
"He called me a Half-Elf," Fraeya frustratedly replied. "And he insults my Deerip and questions your life's work."
"I know, I know, now let it go," Raegel said as he calmed his daughter. "It has been a long journey for all of us. Everyone is tired and is on nerve. Do not let an off comment grow into a wild vine."
She was hearing the wisdom from her father; she took a deep breath to calm her nerves, placing her hands together to relieve stress. The journey was long after leaving the great Hispana fortress of Nervia Glevensium. Unable to take the main highway between regions, crossing the Alps was the only way. Bypassing many Unity air patrols, Cities that pledge loyalty toward Kallem, and rouge monster hordes, she realized that her father was correct. "Okay, Father."
Seeing the warm smile from Fraeya's father, she followed him to their tent. Once settled, she wrapped herself in a blanket and sat by the fire.
She watched her father place one of those dark red amulets into a fire pit; that same battle mage shortly approached and activated it with the same low-level spell, igniting the amulet into Dark Fire. Unlike the natural red fire or the other magical types like green and blue, dark fire is used by soldiers and travelers to provide a heat source at night without attracting unwelcome guests. According to the sages, Dark Fire does not illuminate as brightly, so heat-seeking creatures and constructs cannot see the flames from distances. Perfect for behind-enemy-lines missions like this. However, it provided some warmth but could never match the red flame's natural heat.
Finally feeling some warmth, or at least as Fraeya's body wanted to believe, she turned to her father and asked, "Do you think this time it will work? Can we find this Bridge?"
"I know we will," Raegel replied as he checked their supplies. "I know that Lats can be a handful, trust me. I have been around them since my exile, but Henness is correct to be skeptical. You must understand normally that only a fool would undertake such a mission. A fool that I proved to be once or twice in my lifetime." He said with some laughter. Seeing a smile from his daughter, he continued, "But this time, it will be different."
Holding the blanket tight, Fraeya shook her head. "I don't understand, though. It is their people's legend, their story. Why wouldn't they be supportive of our mission? Especially if it is our last hope to stop the Unity."
"I am not a military man," Raegel said. "I never learned the art of war but put yourself in his boots. While you were at the academy and I conducted my research, these men have been fighting this war. Imagine all the battles, all the deaths of fallen brothers that they have witnessed time and time again. Last hopes are poison for soldiers, who have lost no matter what they do. It is their fault that the war has gone this badly, or at least I assume that is how they feel."
"But the legends," Fraeya stated again.
"Soldiers do not wage war based on legends," Raegel said. "While we believe in the legend, that does not mean they do. Thousands of years have passed and that is why they call them legends in the first place, my dear. Think about all our fellow elves' tales we have, and how many of our kind believe in them?"
Reflecting on what her father had said, she knew her people had many stories. Being one of the oldest civilizations on Aldrida, they have stories relating to dozens of topics, returning to orlilla. One of her favorite legends was how her kind were once flowers that sprouted legs. Some say that this was why the Noble race was so beautiful.
"You think that orb you found is the key to everything?" Fraeya said.
"I do," Raegel said. "Everything I have invested in up to this point has pointed to this moment. Whoever hid the Bridge did so to never be discovered by anyone. They hide it with magic beyond our means. That is why no one has ever found any trace of it. They were missing one piece of the puzzle, that orb."
Thrilled to see her father excited again, Fraeya cannot wait to see his dream finally coming to life. After all these decades of researching and traveling across the world to search for any clue, he eventually will be able to prove his life work was correct. He had toured Alagore for centuries, looking for clues, relics, ruins, and anything from the old era. A life work proved worthwhile.
As Fraeya stared at the Dark Fire, she asked, "What do you think this other world will be like?"
“I have no idea,” Raegel said. "I believe that this other world will be like ours. If the historical archives at Allsari and stories of old are true, then it is the world of the Lats…, Altaerrie."

So I have a homebrew rogue archetype that revolves around using chemicals. Mainly in combat, throwing vials of chemicals (like fire bolt being reflavored as as a flammable flask). Trying to keep the description of the class rather brief, but witty, and I have a few good versions. Which one do you guys like best?

• "While other rogues use a more underhanded tactic, you instead opt for an overhanded tactic, namely hurling vials of chemicals at enemies when they least expect."

​

• "While other rogues use subtlety to solve their problems, you prefer to soak your problems in a cocktail of caustic and flammable liquids"

​

• "While other rogues rely on underhanded tactics, you take a more explosive approach, wielding chemical solutions instead of shadowy ones"

"Disgruntled alchemists, expelled apprentices, and thrill-seeking rogues are drawn to this explosive archetype. After all, a rogue with a knack for pyrotechnics is a force to be reckoned with – and a lot more fun at parties."
​

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92 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. UNAFS Perseverance (HSR) - Shuttlecraft - 01. En Route to the New Lorisa Forests LZ.
Lysara
“Touching down in ten seconds.” I announced, my voice emanating from the encounter suit’s speakers in a language that, until just days ago, was an enigma.
Yet in a matter of days, this deceptively simple translation suite, a triumph of xenolinguistics, was now able to match my tone perhaps better than ever before.
Which explained exactly why Evina had responded in the way that she did. “Nervous, Lysara?” She offered in a snide, yet well-meaning jab.
I didn’t respond, not yet at least, as the last five minutes on approach were more often than not the most dangerous aspects of aeronautics; that much I learned from the pilots and armed service members I worked with over the years.
It was only after we’d touched down, and the final safety checks were complete, that I finally turned towards Evina. “I would be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t at least a little bit unnerved about this whole situation.” I offered, gesturing towards the back of the shuttle, as the both of us unbuckled and left our seats. The whole mission was already memorized in our minds as we’d already run through every plan and backup plan we had over the entirety of the flight time down here. “And to be quite frank, I’m surprised you’re taking this whole thing so incredibly well.” I continued, going through the final checklists on the deployment of this platoon’s worth of combat drones as I did so.
“I think we’ve long since sailed past the point of no return the moment you told me that there was an intergalactic, eons-long war going on, Lysara.” The felinor offered with a shrug. “A bunker with potential ties with that aforementioned malevolent cosmic entity is nothing compared to that bombshell.”
“I’d have assumed that the nature of the bunker, and this mission being issued by said interloper, would’ve been the sticking point here.” I offered, genuinely curious as to the nonchalant attitude projected by the felinor.
“Eh. When you’ve lived in the wastes for this long, you’re bound to have heard the whole ‘the aliens did it’ conspiracy more often than you’d like. Now I’m not saying I believe every wastelander with a conspiracy theory… but I can’t admit the fact that the bunker has always been something that radiates a really weird aura about it. I mean, compared to literally everything else out there in the wastes? It exists in almost this time capsule of complete isolation. The beasts that roam the area, preying on anyone that gets close, don’t really help out much in that whole weird vibe either. So yeah, ever since my first iteration tried to drill her way into it, Far-Reach Point has been a point of great mystery amongst the survivors of the waste. Which lends itself really well to the possibility that your alien enemies could actually be behind it.” Evina shrugged once more, before adding a cheeky self deprecating comment. “The fact that it’s been broadcasting all this time should also be a dead giveaway to be honest. Because you definitely won’t see anything felinor-made still functional without constant maintenance after a few years into its lifespan.”
I chuckled at that statement, if only because it seemed to be made in genuine jest. “Well, we can’t say for certain that interloper tech is involved in its construction. What we do know is that the interloper has some vested interest in the facility.” I shot back, attempting to temper the felinor’s expectations and keeping everything to the limited facts we had on hand. “Or more specifically, the individual living within it.”
“And you got all of that just by putting two and two together huh? Your mission to find this person-of-interest, and the weird anomaly that is this signal station.” The felinor shot back with a disquietingly critical stare.
“It’s our one and only lead.” I shrugged. “It’s either that, or we comb through every living felinor on this planet. So in light of this massive lead, my hypothesis is that our person-of-interest, is in fact, somewhere within that facility.”
“Eh.” Evina once more shrugged. “A better conspiracy theory than the nutjobs. Or rather, good enough that I’d buy it.” She grinned, baring her teeth in the process which, at this point, I’d become accustomed to. If anything, it was after hours of ‘cat videos’, as Vir called them; that I finally started to become accustomed to these fangy grins. Moreover, it was becoming a point of endearment more than anything.
“In any case, drones are online and ready to go.” I continued, moving the conversation out of speculation and back into action, as the rear of the shuttle opened to a charred and lifeless forest floor.
“Man, Vir really did a number to this place, didn't he?” Evina whistled out.
“I… do apologize for all of the collateral damage we’ve incurred on your world-”
“Are you kidding me?!” The felinor interjected with a devious grin. “I hate forests! Heck, maybe it’s a carry-over from my perpetually-indoors first iteration, but forests have always been a place of danger and death lurking over every corner! So yeah, nah, don’t worry about it. If anything, Vir did us a favor by doing this; so be sure to like… let’s make sure to grab him a souvenir or something when we come back.”
The felinor’s frankly erratic behavior worried me sometimes.
But then again, this was to be expected given the nature of cultural barriers. As such, I simply ‘smiled’ back a smile of my own, bearing my blunt teeth as best as I could. “Noted, Evina.”
It was around that point where Evina finally donned her helmet, clasping it into place as she began testing the communications suite with surprisingly little difficult.
“Alright. Can you still hear me through this thing?”
“Loud and clear, Evina.” I nodded.
“Right, let’s get this party started.”

92 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. New Lorisa Forests LZ, En Route to the Signal Station (Far-Reach Point).
Evina
We were parked approximately seven hundred or so meters from the signal station.
Though that distance was measured from point to point, and definitely didn’t account for the obstacles and terrain that stretched from here to the station.
Despite that, and what my memories had warned me was a treacherous trek through dense and uncompromising foliage, the world outside was now anything but.
However, despite the constant mission briefs and the logical part of my brain telling me that what awaited outside was nothing like my prior iterations recalled… the power of several lifetimes were just too powerful to overcome.
That was, until the exit ramp opened, and I saw the flattened devastation that awaited me. The charred forest, and the open landscape, quickly sent any doubts incurred by my prior iterations back to whence they came from.
So with one of the greatest obstacles out of the way, and the raw and unbridled power of human-driven alien technologies at our disposal, our deployment out of the shuttle and into the forest was a piece of cake.
More than that, I now had front row seats to the shock and uncompromising efficiency of automated combat.
Needless to say, I was more than happy to be on the other side of the barrel when it came to this engagement.
Four distinct squads of robots formed up and ran out of the back of the shuttle, forming into cohesive units comprised of ten or so felinoid bots, accompanied by a whole host of flying, crawling, slithering, and galloping machines that secured the perimeter for us within a matter of seconds.
Upon a single urging from Lysara, we walked out, flanked on all sides by a remaining detachment of bots, consisting of five felinoid units and a flight of five more drones.
For the first time in any of my prior iteration’s lifetimes, I finally felt like I was on the winning side.
It was a good feeling.
And one I hoped continued as we made our leisurely march through the decimated forests and up towards the station.
The whole scene was just so… jarring.
Especially as memory after memory came to the forefront of those trials and tribulations from the lives of my first, second, and third iterations that had all made this trek several times over.
The massive tileroot tree that dominated the area next to the station… was now just gone. The same could be said for the thick pipewood vines that obstructed the path every couple of steps, and even the earltail moss that kept growing thicker and thicker on the front entrance of the bunker.
Most importantly, the air around me was now silent and still, interrupted only by the near-silent whirrs from the robots and the crunching of ashen foliage beneath our boots.
This was perhaps the first time in my life I actually enjoyed the devastation, a thought that was both ironic as it was troubling.
Regardless, we eventually made our way to the front of the facility in a staggering seven minutes; arriving in front of a circular door with gear-like cogs that were sunken into the facility itself.
“So… why didn’t you try blasting through the walls or the other surfaces of the facility?” I inquired bluntly, pointing at parts of the facility that weren't built into the hillside.
“Countermeasures.” Lysara responded, his voice resonating into my ears, a weird and alien sensation that still sent shivers down my spine. “Our scans were incapable of determining the detailed makeup of what was inside. And as a result, we have the be on the lookout for potential countermeasures against unauthorized entry. In addition, given the fact the facility still has enough power to maintain that broadcast, we can be certain that we not only have to worry about passive countermeasures, but active ones as well.”
“Makes sense.” I nodded. “Is this why you wanted my expertise to begin with? In the hopes that I might have some intel on this place?”
“Correct.” Lysara nodded.
“Well thankfully, you’re in luck.” I responded with a cocky grin, pointing towards a not-so-insignificantly sized hole drilled into one of the door’s massive cog-like edges. “Like I told you in the briefing, my first iteration had tried her hand at breaking into this place. It didn’t work out, obviously, but she did have some theories as to how the whole door system works.” I began walking towards the hole, as a flood of memories from my first iteration slammed into me hard. “So, just beyond this hole should be an emergency release mechanism. Apparently most fallout shelter doors have this as a failsafe or something; accessible only from the inside but capable of being accessed from the outside if you're willing to dig through twenty or so meters of solid metal and rock. This is the mechanism I’m talking about here, so not actually the door itself. My memory’s a bit fuzzy on the specifics but… I’m sure that if we drill deeper into that, angling the hole sideways so we don’t actually go through the door itself, we should hit a mechanism that can be manipulated. Now if you have some fiber optic camera wire and a master lockpick or something, I’m sure you can do it in a few days. But considering we have the power of artificial intelligence on our side… I’m sure we can do it in five minutes.”
That vote of confidence for Vir was rewarded with a ping and a notification in front of my visual field. The existence of a HUD was again, just as jarring as literally everything else right now.
With a heavy breath from Lysara, who at this point was scanning the hole with a whole host of scientific instruments, I received my answer as to how it was we were going to proceed. “One of the bots can be repurposed as a multipurpose drone.” He gestured towards a combat bot that was quickly switching from its main weapon, to what looked to be a seriously well-kitted out multitool kit masquerading as a hand. “We should be able to bore through this in about five minutes, from there… I’ll switch things over to Vir, and I’m sure we’ll be inside that bunker in under fifteen.”
The confidence was palpable in Lysara’s voice, giving me hope that today was the day that the burning curiosity in my first iteration’s memories would finally be addressed.
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(Author’s Note: We arrive on the planet, and make our way towards the signal station! All the while, we observe the tireless preparations Vir has made in ensuring that the landing zone is cleared of threats! Evina elaborates further on exactly what her first iteration had done in order to try to get in, let's just hope that this time around, they can make more progress than her first iteration! :D The next chapter is already out on Patreon as well if you want to check it out!)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 97 of this story is already out on there!)]

---- Minecraft Crash Report ---- // You should try our sister game, Minceraft! Time: 5/21/24, 5:15 PM Description: Mod loading error has occurred java.lang.Exception: Mod Loading has failed at net.minecraftforge.logging.CrashReportExtender.dumpModLoadingCrashReport(CrashReportExtender.java:55) ~[forge-1.18.2-40.2.0-universal.jar%23102!/:?] {re:classloading} at net.minecraftforge.client.loading.ClientModLoader.completeModLoading(ClientModLoader.java:170) ~[forge-1.18.2-40.2.0-universal.jar%23102!/:?] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.lambda$new$1(Minecraft.java:557) ~[client-1.18.2-20220404.173914-srg.jar%2397!/:?] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick_render_call,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero_minecraftclient,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraftclient,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick_render_call,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero_minecraftclient,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraftclient,pl:mixin:APP:unionlib.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:braincell.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:rubidium.mixins.json:core.MixinMinecraftClient,pl:mixin:APP:dannys_expansion.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:blueprint.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:puzzleslib.common.mixins.json:client.accessor.MinecraftAccessor,pl:mixin:APP:puzzleslib.forge.mixins.json:client.MinecraftForgeMixin,pl:mixin:APP:byg_forge.mixins.json:client.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:rubidium_extras.mixins.json:FrameCounter.FpsAccessorMixin,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.Util.m_137521_(Util.java:397) ~[client-1.18.2-20220404.173914-srg.jar%2397!/:?] {re:mixin,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:bettermineshafts.mixins.json:SuppressLogMixin,pl:mixin:A} at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.lambda$new$2(Minecraft.java:551) ~[client-1.18.2-20220404.173914-srg.jar%2397!/:?] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick_render_call,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero_minecraftclient,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraftclient,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick_render_call,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero_minecraftclient,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraftclient,pl:mixin:APP:unionlib.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:braincell.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:rubidium.mixins.json:core.MixinMinecraftClient,pl:mixin:APP:dannys_expansion.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:blueprint.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:puzzleslib.common.mixins.json:client.accessor.MinecraftAccessor,pl:mixin:APP:puzzleslib.forge.mixins.json:client.MinecraftForgeMixin,pl:mixin:APP:byg_forge.mixins.json:client.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:rubidium_extras.mixins.json:FrameCounter.FpsAccessorMixin,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.gui.screens.LoadingOverlay.m_6305_(LoadingOverlay.java:135) ~[client-1.18.2-20220404.173914-srg.jar%2397!/:?] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.renderer.GameRenderer.m_109093_(GameRenderer.java:879) ~[client-1.18.2-20220404.173914-srg.jar%2397!/:?] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.m_91383_(Minecraft.java:1046) ~[client-1.18.2-20220404.173914-srg.jar%2397!/:?] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick_render_call,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero_minecraftclient,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraftclient,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick_render_call,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero_minecraftclient,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraftclient,pl:mixin:APP:unionlib.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:braincell.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:rubidium.mixins.json:core.MixinMinecraftClient,pl:mixin:APP:dannys_expansion.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:blueprint.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:puzzleslib.common.mixins.json:client.accessor.MinecraftAccessor,pl:mixin:APP:puzzleslib.forge.mixins.json:client.MinecraftForgeMixin,pl:mixin:APP:byg_forge.mixins.json:client.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:rubidium_extras.mixins.json:FrameCounter.FpsAccessorMixin,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.m_91374_(Minecraft.java:665) ~[client-1.18.2-20220404.173914-srg.jar%2397!/:?] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick_render_call,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero_minecraftclient,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraftclient,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraft_runtick_render_call,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero_minecraftclient,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero_wm_minecraftclient,pl:mixin:APP:unionlib.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:braincell.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:rubidium.mixins.json:core.MixinMinecraftClient,pl:mixin:APP:dannys_expansion.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:blueprint.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:puzzleslib.common.mixins.json:client.accessor.MinecraftAccessor,pl:mixin:APP:puzzleslib.forge.mixins.json:client.MinecraftForgeMixin,pl:mixin:APP:byg_forge.mixins.json:client.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:rubidium_extras.mixins.json:FrameCounter.FpsAccessorMixin,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.main(Main.java:205) ~[client-1.18.2-20220404.173914-srg.jar%2397!/:?] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[?:?] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:77) ~[?:?] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[?:?] {} at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:568) ~[?:?] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.loading.targets.CommonClientLaunchHandler.lambda$launchService$0(CommonClientLaunchHandler.java:31) ~[fmlloader-1.18.2-40.2.0.jar%2317!/:?] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.LaunchServiceHandlerDecorator.launch(LaunchServiceHandlerDecorator.java:37) [modlauncher-9.1.3.jar%235!/:?] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.LaunchServiceHandler.launch(LaunchServiceHandler.java:53) [modlauncher-9.1.3.jar%235!/:?] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.LaunchServiceHandler.launch(LaunchServiceHandler.java:71) [modlauncher-9.1.3.jar%235!/:?] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.Launcher.run(Launcher.java:106) [modlauncher-9.1.3.jar%235!/:?] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:77) [modlauncher-9.1.3.jar%235!/:?] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.BootstrapLaunchConsumer.accept(BootstrapLaunchConsumer.java:26) [modlauncher-9.1.3.jar%235!/:?] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.BootstrapLaunchConsumer.accept(BootstrapLaunchConsumer.java:23) [modlauncher-9.1.3.jar%235!/:?] {} at cpw.mods.bootstraplauncher.BootstrapLauncher.main(BootstrapLauncher.java:149) [bootstraplauncher-1.0.0.jar:?] {} A detailed walkthrough of the error, its code path and all known details is as follows: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Head -- Thread: Render thread Stacktrace: at com.electronwill.nightconfig.core.io.ParsingException.notEnoughData(ParsingException.java:22) ~[core-3.6.4.jar%237!/:?] {} -- MOD unionlib -- Details: Caused by 0: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method) ~[?:?] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:77) ~[?:?] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45) ~[?:?] {} at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstanceWithCaller(Constructor.java:499) ~[?:?] {} at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:480) ~[?:?] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.javafmlmod.FMLModContainer.constructMod(FMLModContainer.java:67) ~[javafmllanguage-1.18.2-40.2.0.jar%2399!/:?] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.ModContainer.lambda$buildTransitionHandler$4(ModContainer.java:106) ~[fmlcore-1.18.2-40.2.0.jar%2398!/:?] {} at java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.run(CompletableFuture.java:1804) ~[?:?] {} at java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.exec(CompletableFuture.java:1796) ~[?:?] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask.doExec(ForkJoinTask.java:373) ~[?:?] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool$WorkQueue.topLevelExec(ForkJoinPool.java:1182) ~[?:?] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.scan(ForkJoinPool.java:1655) ~[?:?] {re:computing_frames} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.runWorker(ForkJoinPool.java:1622) ~[?:?] {re:computing_frames} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run(ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:165) ~[?:?] {} Mod File: /C:/Users/noahl/AppData/Roaming/.minecraft/mods/UnionLib-1.18.2-7.2.3-Forge.jar Failure message: UnionLib (unionlib) has failed to load correctly java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException: null Mod Version: 7.2.3 Mod Issue URL: NOT PROVIDED Exception message: com.electronwill.nightconfig.core.io.ParsingException: Not enough data available Stacktrace: at com.electronwill.nightconfig.core.io.ParsingException.notEnoughData(ParsingException.java:22) ~[core-3.6.4.jar%237!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.core.io.ReaderInput.directReadChar(ReaderInput.java:36) ~[core-3.6.4.jar%237!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.core.io.AbstractInput.readChar(AbstractInput.java:49) ~[core-3.6.4.jar%237!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.core.io.AbstractInput.readCharsUntil(AbstractInput.java:123) ~[core-3.6.4.jar%237!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.toml.TableParser.parseKey(TableParser.java:166) ~[toml-3.6.4.jar%238!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.toml.TableParser.parseDottedKey(TableParser.java:145) ~[toml-3.6.4.jar%238!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.toml.TableParser.parseNormal(TableParser.java:55) ~[toml-3.6.4.jar%238!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.toml.TomlParser.parse(TomlParser.java:44) ~[toml-3.6.4.jar%238!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.toml.TomlParser.parse(TomlParser.java:37) ~[toml-3.6.4.jar%238!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.core.io.ConfigParser.parse(ConfigParser.java:113) ~[core-3.6.4.jar%237!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.core.io.ConfigParser.parse(ConfigParser.java:219) ~[core-3.6.4.jar%237!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.core.io.ConfigParser.parse(ConfigParser.java:202) ~[core-3.6.4.jar%237!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.core.file.WriteSyncFileConfig.load(WriteSyncFileConfig.java:73) ~[core-3.6.4.jar%237!/:?] {} at com.electronwill.nightconfig.core.file.AutosaveCommentedFileConfig.load(AutosaveCommentedFileConfig.java:85) ~[core-3.6.4.jar%237!/:?] {} at com.stereowalker.unionlib.config.ConfigBuilder.loadConfig(ConfigBuilder.java:310) ~[UnionLib-1.18.2-7.2.3-Forge.jar%2390!/:7.2.3] {re:mixin,re:classloading} at com.stereowalker.unionlib.config.ConfigObjectBuilder.loadConfigs(ConfigObjectBuilder.java:104) ~[UnionLib-1.18.2-7.2.3-Forge.jar%2390!/:7.2.3] {re:classloading} at com.stereowalker.unionlib.config.ConfigBuilder.registerConfig(ConfigBuilder.java:296) ~[UnionLib-1.18.2-7.2.3-Forge.jar%2390!/:7.2.3] {re:mixin,re:classloading} at com.stereowalker.unionlib.UnionLib.onModStartup(UnionLib.java:100) ~[UnionLib-1.18.2-7.2.3-Forge.jar%2390!/:7.2.3] {re:mixin,re:classloading} at com.stereowalker.unionlib.mod.MinecraftMod.(MinecraftMod.java:49) ~[UnionLib-1.18.2-7.2.3-Forge.jar%2390!/:7.2.3] {re:mixin,re:classloading} at com.stereowalker.unionlib.mod.MinecraftMod.(MinecraftMod.java:97) ~[UnionLib-1.18.2-7.2.3-Forge.jar%2390!/:7.2.3] {re:mixin,re:classloading} at com.stereowalker.unionlib.UnionLib.(UnionLib.java:93) ~[UnionLib-1.18.2-7.2.3-Forge.jar%2390!/:7.2.3] {re:mixin,re:classloading} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method) ~[?:?] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:77) ~[?:?] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45) ~[?:?] {} at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstanceWithCaller(Constructor.java:499) ~[?:?] {} at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:480) ~[?:?] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.javafmlmod.FMLModContainer.constructMod(FMLModContainer.java:67) ~[javafmllanguage-1.18.2-40.2.0.jar%2399!/:?] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.ModContainer.lambda$buildTransitionHandler$4(ModContainer.java:106) ~[fmlcore-1.18.2-40.2.0.jar%2398!/:?] {} at java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.run(CompletableFuture.java:1804) ~[?:?] {} at java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.exec(CompletableFuture.java:1796) ~[?:?] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask.doExec(ForkJoinTask.java:373) ~[?:?] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool$WorkQueue.topLevelExec(ForkJoinPool.java:1182) ~[?:?] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.scan(ForkJoinPool.java:1655) ~[?:?] {re:computing_frames} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.runWorker(ForkJoinPool.java:1622) ~[?:?] {re:computing_frames} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run(ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:165) ~[?:?] {}

Could you imagine a tactical shooter game like Ready Or Not, but with the Gotham police department from DC Comics? That shit would go so hard. Both the noir and horror elements common to these games would feel right at home.
I guess the premise could be that Batman is away from the city helping the Justice League with some crazy mission, so now Gotham has to rely on the GCPD (and occasionally Batgirl or Red Hood or something). You could have Jim Gordon giving briefings and shit. So many cool potential level ideas too:

• a raid on the Iceberg Lounge with The Penguin as a suspect
  
• A containment breach in Arkham Asylum that leads to a riot
  
• solving a bunch of crazyass puzzles to defuse bombs set by the Riddler
  
• creepy farm in the outskirts of the city where Scarecrow has a hidden lab used for testing out his fear toxin
  
• The Mad Hatter abducted some girls and you have to save them from his creepy ass while avoiding traps set in his house and hallucinogens or some shit.
  
• some deep conspiracy shit involving the Court of Owls
  
• raiding Deacon Blackfire’s cult compound
  
• I just know we could have some fucking TERRIFYING levels involving Professor Pyg or Victor Zsas
  
• something in Slaughter Swamp
  
• more grounded stuff involving Gotham’s crime syndicates like Carmine Falcone or Black Mask’s mobs
  
• bank robbery by the Red Hood gang or the Royal Flush gang
  
• raiding The Joker’s carnival. He could have thugs strapped with dynamite running at you terrified like “I never shoulda signed up for this shit!” and Harley screaming like Alice Jenkins from SWAT 4 and firing at you with a revolver trying to keep you all away.
  

Honestly wasn’t sure where to post this, but I just thought the idea would go hard lol

~First~
Cats, Cops and C4
The Erumenta woman tries to fight even as he forces her into the cell, her natural fire flaring hot enough for his clothing to smoulder and him to mentally congratulate himself for his Undaunted Brand. It’s literally saved his fingers multiple times today.
Marlintine Spire is like many of the spires of Centris still reeling from the massive scan. Sure it had been legal, and both Living Goddesses upon the world had told everyone to calm down in their own way. But just because something is legal and endorsed by powerful figures does not make it a popular move.
“You burn any of your fellow prisoners while you’re in there and you’re getting a suppression collar.” He tells the obstinate criminal as he shoves her into the holding cell and slams the bars shut. The forcefields supplementing the metal bars flickers into place and the blast of flame she aimed at his face splashes against it without further effect. “Cute, keep it up and we won’t need a court hearing to upgrade you to a real prison.”
“He’s being serious. Stripper boy is playing at being a serious police officer.” Another criminal mocks and is subsequently ignored as Chenk leaves the area. He has other things to do.
“Ma’am.” He greets Chief Bowman as he slips by to head back out.
“Hold it human. I know your kind are endurance monsters, but you need to sit the hell down. You’ve been dragging in cult soldiers for six and a half hours straight. Your legal overtime ended a half hour ago.”
“Then keep a cell open for me as I keep bringing in more people. This needs to be quelled.” Chenk says and as he turns to keep going she grabs his belt and pulls him back.
“You need to rest.”
“The Spire is in the middle of a borderline insurrection. I can rest when it’s...” He begins to say before a sudden movement to his right makes his head snap around. Just before Vera the Takra-Takra crashes into him.
“Thanks for stalling him out Chief! Come on you goofy human!” Vera announces as she drags him down the hallway and into Linda’s Office. She tosses him onto the couch and then pounces onto him and pins him.
“Really?” Chenk asks.
“Yes really. You need to calm down. And I found a way to force it.” Linda states.
“But the Spire is...”
“You are one officer. Supersoldier on loan to the station or not, you’re still only one officer. The structural integrity of this spire only depends upon you when there’s a bomb threat and even then, only when it’s a chemical bomb.” Linda tells him. “Or do we have to restrict you to only being called out during a bomb threat?”
“No.” He says. “But people are still getting hurt and...”
“And they're the ones hurting themselves. Just please calm down. I know you’re skilled, but your sense of justice is just going to hurt you at this rate. Don’t want to leave a bad example for Amy now do you?” Linda teases him and Chenk groans in frustration.
“... I really should have thought things through before growing attached to that girl.”
“Oh probably, but it was adorable to see. The world crashing down on a poor little girl in over her head and then Officer Hero, Supersoldier from the blackest void of the galaxy flies in to save her.” Vera teases.
“Still, him being a supersoildier is a bit of a problem right now. Big man needs a mission, or he’s going to go nuts!” Linda notes. “Luckily! I called one of your friends on the ship. Soldier, you’re in position to requre a talking to from The Observer. However, the call is on hold, but you need to be here when it goes off.”
“That’s a dirty trick.” Chenk notes even as an Undaunted communicator is tossed at him and he catches it. It’s activated, it’s in a waiting queue and there’s no way he can go into the field now if he’s waiting for an official answer. “Very dirty.”
“Good thinking!” Vera compliments as she cuddles closer to her pinned target. Her hair spikes out in sudden shock as The Communicator then goes off to signify the call has gone through. “I jinxed it!”
“Specialist Chenk Barnabas sir!” Chenk answers the call instantly as he sits up and Vera scurries off him.
“Really? I put him on that waiting list to get him to calm down and stop working.”
“Specialist Barnabas, I’m one of numerous individuals filtering the sheer number of incoming calls to The Inevitable. You’re in the proper queue now, please state what you have been doing as a member of The Undaunted so that Observer Wu can better decide who to speak with.”
“I’m on loan to one of Marlintine Spire’s major police stations. Due to the overpopulation of Centris this means I have been acting as elite law enforcement over a population that exceeds that of many of earth’s countries.”
“I see, anything in particular that you’re doing?”
“I’m a chemical expert and accredited detective at this rate. I am the go to specialist for law enforcement when it comes to chemical explosives for a full ten percent of Centris Police Departments.”
“Any particularly interesting cases you’ve been assigned to?”
“Yes, one that is still being debated in court by none other than The Trytite Lady. It involves cloning, murder, mercenaries, numerous criminal gangs and a great deal of more nonsense such as massive prison breaks, fighting robots and Axiom effects so dangerous that even speaking about them in anything more than the most broad and general of terms on an open frequency is a punishable offence.”
“So you have seen a fair amount of what has occurred in the galaxy.”
“I’ve seen enough that I’m going to be very hard to surprise or overwhelm any longer.” Chenk says.
“Very good. I’ll just note this down. The Galaxy is absolutely insane, I’ve been fielding calls from people with like nine heads all speaking in concert and god damn lobster people and more...”
“That’s reality for you.” Chenk replies. “Always more absurd than it should be.”
“Indeed, stand by. I’m putting you into the next proper queue. It shouldn’t be more than a minute or two long.” The Assistant states and then the call shifts to simply display that he’s fourth in the queue now.
“Hunh. Faster and somehow slower than expected at the same time.” Chenk says even as Vera leans against him.
“Even when you take a break you’re still working.”
“You didn’t complain about me being an endurance monster when I planted this in you.” He says gently patting her growing stomach and she pushes him a bit in protest.
“Problem with getting the super-babies of doom is the wait for the baby.” Vera complains and he chuckles before the communicator activates again. He puts it in broadcast mode as Linda leaves her desk to sit next to him for support.
“Observer Wu I take it?” Chenk asks the Asian man who nods.
“And you are Officer and Operative Barnabas. The little summary in front of your call has my attention. Tell me, how are laws generally handled in the Centris space.”
“Centris is a massively overpopulated planet consisting of Spires and Plates. The Spires are the massive multi tiered towers that have two hundred levels each and each level holds enough people to populate any major city on Earth with ease. The lower the level on the spire the less funding, infrastructure and support it has with the bottom ten generally considered a universal slum or no man’s land. Law enforcement in those areas is nigh on impossible and the air itself has been described as thick and fetid. No natural light reaches those areas either.”
“And higher up?”
“Increasing amounts of wealth and support. To such a degree that the plates, which form an artificial ring around Centris are of such high quality that their most squalid and desperate places are at roughly the same standard of living as the middle fifty floors of a well off Spire. As you can imagine, policing all this is an outright herculean effort and every station, no matter how well funded, armed or endorsed is simply inadequate for the task.”
“What sort of crimes have you witnessed?”
“I’ve stopped terrorist conspiracies, torn down drug labs, found myself between assassins and their targets, I’ve stood in the middle of gang wars commanding people to stand down, I have tackled muggers, murderers and maniacs alike into walls and cuffed them. Not even twenty minutes ago I dragged a criminal who could light fires with her will alone into a cell, my jacket is still singed from it.”
“So the world is rife with criminality.”
“No more than any other place, there’s just so many people crammed in here that it’s constant, and that’s without the recent provocation that every single criminal organization received more or less simultaneously. Generally for every single idiot that needs a police officer to remind them why good behaviour is a good idea, there’s an entire bus full of people that didn’t even consider breaking the law.” Chenk explains.
“But when they truly commit crimes they don’t stop do they?”
“No, more resources, technology and Axiom means that if someone wants to break the rules they can break the very concept of rules. The last major case I was in before this flashfire of criminality was kicked off involved the sanctity of body and mind being shattered for the sake of mere greed by a figure so underworld infamous that for a chance to get either evidence on the person in question or ingratiate themselves to them we had an all out war break out in the station. One that if not for a quick trick, we would have lost.”
“And the trick was?”
“Switching out the prize for a disguised tracking beacon.” Chenk says and Observer Wu nods appreciatively. “I can’t credit on that though, it was The Private Stream that did that.”
“I haven’t had that fully explained to me. What is THE Private Stream?”
“I’m not the best person to explain it, but a quick summary is that it’s a shared persona for low profile work. Operative Jameson is the founder and original Private Stream, a persona that lets him go around while heavily armed and armoured while arousing no suspicion.”
Vera snorts in amusement. “Arousing... lot of girls find the aw shucks innocent routine to be arousing.”
Chenk slowly urns to her. “What?”
“You know what.”
“Maybe I don’t!”
“Maybe you do.”
“Could we focus please?” Observer Wu asks. “Now, as an Officer, are there any laws that you would find concerning about humans?”
“Yes, they’re usually location dependant thankfully. So the issue can be avoided. Furthermore there’s a lot of leeway given in laws where the traits of a species would make following the law difficult if not impossible. For example a human can generally get away carrying substances that are considered highly toxic or dangerous due to the fact that our diets contain what many people in the galaxy are nothing more than hard core poisons.”
“Hmm... Could you be more specific?”
“Well, this one won’t apply to you due to an amendment that Admiral Cistern was able to get allies to help him push through, but one of the most popular religions the galaxy over is the Gravid Faith, it has numerous denominations and variants and several of them create what’s called Arrangement Systems where men are required by law to have a hundred wives.”
“And the amendment is?”
“That if you are gainfully employed by governmental or military forces that you are exempt from the law so long as you remained employed in such a manner. You Observer Wu are the eyes of hundreds of Earth Nations meaning a government employee.” Chenk explains and he nods.
“I see. Any other exemptions?”
“Generally the Galaxy looks down on kinetic weaponry, so when it was pushed that humans wear weapons and cultural garb it was allowed through without issue. So humans are legally allowed to carry weapons like knives and pistols at almost all time without question. It’s... rather stupid in my opinion, but well it would be even more foolish for me to complain about something I’m outright benefiting from.”
“Hmm... any other laws?”
“They very much vary by location. Which are further influenced by the species of the residents, local culture, religion, political association, economic status. The name of the game is jurisdiction issues here on Centris. The local police departments all help one another, but always at the invite of the local officers who can actually confirm if what’s taking place is a crime or not in the local area.”
“Can you give an example of this working against things?”
“Alright, the easiest example is with drugs. There is no agreed on way to combat the spread of illegal narcotics. Some make the growing of the plants that produce what you want illegal. Others make the refinement of it’s fruit illegal and some make the selling of the drug illegal. So you can produce it all on the third Spire and sell it on the first two legally. You can grow the plant on the second and third spire legally, refine it on the first and third legally and that way you have a massive multi-jurisdiction drug running operation without technically breaking any law.”
“Hmm... that is a great deal to consider. I presume other such crimes can operate the same way?”
“Unfortunately yes. But that’s the problem with laws, you need to set where the boundaries are, but not make people prisoners in their own homes. There’s always a loophole.”
“Tragically yes.” Observer Wu remarks. “Now, I do need to speak to the others, but I have a few moments more. Who and what are you sitting near. The vaguely catlike woman on your right and the... generally human looking woman on your left are?”
“Linda is to my left. Partner and wife, the first actual police officer of us three. Vera is to my right. Wandering Warrior and wife. Linda is a Tret woman, they’re best considered to be humans if we evolved with Axiom helping us, a sister species to our own people. Vera is a Takra-Takra, she and her kind can shapeshift into the ferocious Warform and use it in battle. They pride their skill as Warriors and seek out stronger mates to empower the next generation.” Chenk explains before tiltiing the view down a little to show the pregnant stomach on Vera. “A work in progress.”
“I see. Congratulations. Although compared to many other Undaunted you seem a little behind.”
“I wasn’t aware it was a race.”
“Which is exactly how you lose the race!” Vera says in an amused tone.
“Indeed. Every conversation leads me to believe that I need to take an entire university degree in order to understand things. Thankfully your own is rather straight forward.”
“Really? Who are you speaking with next?”
“I haven't decided yet, but I need to speak with everyone in some way.” Observer Wu states.
“Good luck sir, I think you’ll need it.” Chenk says.
“Excuse me, is there a way to get a human to calm down and take a break? Ever since Centris was Scanned and hidden societies were exposed all over Chenk has refused to stop working. Is there any way to just get him to take a break?” Linda asks.
“It generally varies from person to person. But I would suggest guilting him. Emotional blackmail is a powerful tool.” Observer Wu says with a slight smirk.
“Traitor!” Chenk declares and there’s a chuckle from The Observer.
“Indeed. I’m afraid this call needs to finish now. Best of luck.” Observer Wu says before the call ends.
“So... we need to guilt you then? Okay!” Vera exclaims before her eyes start to water. “Don’t you wanna be there for the baby? Doesn’t she deserve a daddy?”
“Oh my god woman!”
~First~ Last

New Bedford Highway Killer - Wikipedia
"The New Bedford Highway Killer is an unidentified serial killer responsible for the deaths of at least nine women and the disappearances of two additional women in New Bedford, Massachusetts, between March 1988 and April 1989.^\1]) The killer is also suspected to have assaulted numerous other women. All the killer's victims were known sex workers or had struggles with addiction. While the victims were taken from New Bedford, they were all found in different surrounding towns, including Dartmouth, Freetown and Westport, Massachusetts, along Route 140. The main detective that pursued the case was John Dextradeur.^\2])

1. Robbin Lynn Rhodes, 29, also referred to as “Bobbie Lynn” was found on March 28, 1989, along Route 140 southbound in Freetown by a search dog. She is believed to have gone missing sometime in March or April 1988. Rhodes had dated suspect Kenneth Ponte. She had a young child and was addicted to heroin and cocaine. While she was never involved in prostitution, she knew many of the other victims and was friends with victim Mary Rose Santos.^\3])
2. Rochelle Clifford Dopierala, 28, of Falmouth, disappeared sometime during late April 1988. Her body was found on December 10, 1988, in a gravel pit along Reed Road beneath a tree grove, about two miles from Interstate 195, by people riding ATVs. She was partially clothed and had been beaten to death. She had dated and stayed at the home of suspect Kenneth Ponte, who was arrested for her murder, but the charges were eventually dismissed due to a lack of evidence. This was the only time charges were brought in this case. Rochelle had testified against another man who had raped her, but he is not suspected in this case. She was last seen with victim Nancy Paiva’s boyfriend, an ex-convict. He was cleared in both deaths and is not a suspect.^\3])
3. Deborah Lynn McConnell, 25, of Newport, Rhode Island, was mother to one daughter. Deborah was last seen sometime in May 1988 by her father after the funeral of her mother at the local cemetery. She is believed to have been the third victim. Her body was found on December 1, 1988, off Route 140 northbound in Freetown, through a cadaver dog search. She was found nude with a bra wrapped around her neck.^\3])
4. Debra Medeiros, 29, of Fall River lived with her mother. Debra was known to both police and family to have had long standing substance abuse issues but no record for prostitution. She was last seen by her boyfriend in New Bedford after a fight, and was reported missing on May 27, 1988. She was the first of the bodies found and she was identified in December 1988. Her body was found on July 3, 1988, by a woman who went to relieve herself just in the woods on the side of the road on Interstate 140 in Freetown. Her remains were severely decomposed with her body positioned on her back with her feet pointed towards the highway. Her cause of death was strangulation, she had a bra wrapped around her neck, and she was found only partially clad. Her boyfriend was ruled out as a suspect. After her death, her mother counselled drug and alcohol addicts in honour of her daughter’s death.^\3])
5. Christina Monteiro, 19, was last seen sometime in May 1988 and has not been seen or heard from since. Christina had a child and had a known substance abuse history. She was a Cape Verdean American female with brown hair, brown eyes with scars on both wrists and a scar near her left eye. She was between 5’3 and 5’5 and was 110 lbs. She had initials and words tattooed on her arms. She was wearing a shirt, blue jeans and sneakers when she was last seen.^\3])
6. Marilyn Cardoza-Roberts, 34, was last seen sometime in June 1988 and has not been seen or heard from since. She was reported missing in December 1988. She was neighbours with victim Christina Monteiro, who is also still missing.^\3])
7. Nancy Lee Paiva, 36, of New Bedford, was last seen walking home from a bar called “Whisper’s Pub” on July 7, 1988, after a reported fight with her boyfriend in the South End in the early hours of the morning. Nancy reportedly had substance abuse issues but was not known to be a prostitute. Nancy had gone to secretarial school, but dropped out. She was married at 19, divorced and had two teenaged daughters. Nancy was known as a very supportive mother and grandmother. At the time of her death, she had a steady boyfriend, who was a drug dealer known to police. Her relationship with her boyfriend had been dysfunctional with domestic violence issues. Her nude body was discovered beside Interstate 195 Westbound in Dartmouth on July 30, 1988, by two men who were riding motorcycles. Her body was found in the same position as victim Debra Medeiro’s – on her back with her feet pointing towards the highway. Nancy’s cause of death was also believed to be strangulation. Her boyfriend is not a suspect in her death.^\3])
8. Debra Greenlaw Demello, 35, was a mother of three; a fifteen year old daughter, Chandra and two boys who were eight and three respectively at the time of her death. She had struggled with substance abuse issues since her teenage years. She had walked away from a prison work-release program to which she had been sentenced due to a prostitution charge on June 18 and was last seen in New Bedford, on July 11, 1988. Her body was found off the eastbound Reed Road ramp of Interstate 195 by a state highway crew on November 8, 1988. Debra’s nude body was in an area with trees with her clothing strewn in the branches. She was found with some belongings of another victim, Nancy Paiva.^\3])
9. Mary Rose Santos, 26, of New Bedford, was a mother of two, who was dropped off on July 16, 1988, by her husband, with whom she had recently reconciled, near the downtown bus station and last seen dancing at “The Old Quarterdeck Lounge” five hours later. Friends said her husband had no idea she was working the streets to help pay bills, and she was known to have a substance abuse issue. Mary Rose Santos’ nude body was found with a beer bottle on March 31, 1989, along Route 88 in Westport by two boys. Suspect Kenneth Ponte had represented Mary Santos in a civil case and helped her husband make flyers after her disappearance.^\3])
10. Sandra Botelho, 24, was a mother of two young sons who were both four and six-years-old. Botelho was known to have a significant substance abuse issue and engaged in prostitution. Botelho reportedly left her apartment on August 11, 1988, at 11 pm and never returned. She was the final body found, located in the woods along Interstate 195 in Marion on April 24, 1989. Her body was nude and reportedly was folded into a foetal position.^\3])
11. Dawn Mendes, 25, was last seen in New Bedford, on September 4, 1988, walking from her apartment to a family christening party. Mendes was one of ten children and was also the mother of a five-year-old boy. She had a history of prostitution and drug use. Her body was found on November 29, 1988, on the westbound Reed Road ramp off Interstate 195 by a search dog. There were mostly skeletal remains but her hand was able to yield a fingerprint which lead to her being identified. Her mother raised her son after her death.^\3])^"

You can read the history from my other posts but I (41m) am in the process of divorce with my stbxw (38f). We are over 6 months past separation and she is starting to open up a little more about how she feels. She isn’t showing any signs of changing course but she is being more open I think because instead of talking about all of the random and mostly irrelevant “reasons” that she previously coming up with, she’s openly talking about how she felt. One of those feelings is that I should’ve known she was unhappy and me not knowing is the “number 1 reason that she knew it was over”. We talked about this a bit and she said that she shouldn’t have to spell out her needs and that a good partner should know how to make her happy. She has said that because of me she needed to be treated for depression with antidepressants.
I am of the belief that if she was not feeling loved or appreciated that she should’ve told me. Clearly she thinks that shouldn’t be necessary. I tried to relate by suggesting that you wouldn’t fire an employee without first telling them what they are doing wrong. But her response was the same. I think she realizes that she never told me she wasn’t happy and was feeling unappreciated but I’m surprised that she is doubling down with the talk about not having to tell the right partner.
I am pretty sure that she is actively seeing the AP still so it could just be more blame shifting and gas lighting. But for my own self improvement, should I have noticed that she didn’t feel loved? Is it normal to hold that in instead of telling your spouse how you’re feeling? When we have talks like this she warms up a little for a day or so then goes right back to being cold again. So I’m not really sure how to read that and I try not to read too much into it.
I have had a lot of time to reflect and I know that once we had the second kid alone time faded to nil and with the third kid in 5 years life got really hard. I know there’s a lot I could’ve done and I wish I thought to do it. But through it all I busted my butt to provide for my family, take care of my portion of the household chores (mainly outdoors and repairs - 1+ acre property), and bathe and put kids to bed every night. But I am 100% sure that the real culprit for us was the loss of closeness that happened after we had kids. And no wish I recognized it sooner.
She also seems so paranoid and constantly thinks that everything I do is to track her, stop her from having fun, and just generally not have my kids best interest in mind. It’s so unlikely her. Early on I was worried that all of this was because of her sudden regular use of Lexapro, but eventually gave up because I think it’s more likely not. But I do wonder if this erratic behavior and paranoia could be related to that.
I know I bounced around a lot but the main purpose of the post was to gather thoughts on communication in the relationship.
Thanks!

Olá! It's me! I'm Rickle Pick! Hello everyone!
So, I’ve been listening to some stories about Neckbeards and Kevins, as well as some Legbeards and Kevinas (Is that the correct term??). Well, most of the times I listen to those stories, I am reminded of some people I used to deal with in school. Specifically, this time, the tale of a guy, who I’ll name Roger Bacon for reasons soon to be explained. Sorry for any grammar errors, eu falo português! I also don't really know the posting rules here, so I'll just post it and see how it goes lol
This prologue is more of a compilation of stories that I think is needed before we get to the main shenanigans and awkward situations this guy put himself AND me into. If this generates any interest, I will post more specific tales of this weirdo! Long time lurker, first time poster, english is definitely not my first language and the whole shebang. I also never wrote a text this large, so go easy on me!
THE LIST:
Well, I guess it’s usual to make a list of people that appear in those stories, so I’ll make one just for you!
Me: Your basic musician-type nerdy theater kid white guy! Tall, thin with medium-light brown hair. At the time, I usually wore a leather jacket and sometimes a hat (not a fedora, a Chaplin hat. Also, where I live, hats are an acceptable attire choice lol). I kinda looked like the Once-ler from Lorax. At this time, I had just failed my second year of high school because of… honestly just lack of effort, mixed with undiagnosed ADHD and a bit of lacking in the ol’ confidence and self-respect department. At the time, I also was physically incapable of saying no and had a crippling fear of disappointing people.
Roger Bacon: 168 centimeters (or 5,5ft for the uncivilized) of pure muscle! Or at least he thought it was that way. In reality, he did have some muscles but was kinda chubby and flaccid. Not FAT fat, but athletic fat (???). He was mixed, light skinned, had shaved short curly hair, no beard (except for the inside beard) and his face was a special kind of oval, besides having a, "chiseled jaw". He always smelled like he had just gotten out of a day-long brawl with a french cologne wearing burrito. He wasn't an usual neckbeard, but he was a huge attention whore. Thought too much of himself, as we say here in Brazil: “Promised too much, delivered nothing at all.” His moto was: “Dude, I think she’s into me!”
For now, these are the characters, as the focus is to introduce you all to Roger Bacon as a person.
With the list over, let us get to the story.
FEBUARY 2018:
The year of 2018 started pretty badly for me. I had just been held back from 10th grade, had no friends and didn’t really know anyone. As most people know, high school in Brazil is quite different from America, as we start school in febuary and we share the same class with the same people all day, excluding language classes and extra-curriculum activities. This meant that, for the foreseeable future, I was alone. On the first day of school, I shyly sat on the last desk on the far right corner of the room, as I scanned my classroom to see what I was dealing with. A few groups of people sitting together, talking and greeting their friends, some loners reading or playing on their phones. The artsy girl drawing a beauriful woman on the white board. Some guy drawing a penis right beside her. Perfect balance. A normal classroom.
Another difference between our school systems is that we don’t really have clicks based on like Jocks or Nerds or Pretty Girls, it’s mostly people who connected in childhood or matched personalities, instead of connecting through roles and interests within the school. Not saying either one is better, just different. And yeah, the bullying situation is just as bad. I was bullied for my whole middle school and through first year of high school, and made a very specific group of low profile friends. So when I failed sophomore year I thought to myself “Screw it, if I’m going to be held back, that’s at least a second chance for me to grow an acceptable social life.”
All this elucidates how intimidating it could be for someone to join a new classroom full of mostly new faces. If you were unable to make a friend, you’d pretty much be on your own for the whole year unless an already formed group “adopted” you. So my mindset was to at least try and meet new people.
Well, have you ever said “I’m gonna do this thing I’ve never done before!” And got the worst possible circunstance you could get at the very first attempt? Welp, that’s just what happened. My strategy was to start small, and go talk to only one person at first, and then try to interact with a few of the groups as that was a bit intimidating (fun fact: we call “clicks “panelinhas”, spelled “pah-neh-lin-ias”, wich means “little pans”, because, you know, they’re closed groups, like a closed… pan. Idk, anyway), so I went up to this guy in front of me, and that guy was Roger Bacon.
He was almost lying on his chair, on a cool guy pose while messing around on his phone. He was also wearing a black sports tank top with a grey opened sweatshirt and the standard uniform wine-red shorts that were mandatory in our school, which made him look like a short and jelly version of Rocky balboa mixed with Kick Buttowski.
In real life, my name and his started with sequential letters, and because of this, we would sit near each other for the whole year, so I guessed he’d be the best person to interact with. I also KINDA knew him because we had basketball training after class in like 2015 and I went to the same church as him, in which I befriended his brother, Kevin, slightly, but didn’t have much contact with him because he had already graduated (I have some stories about basketball and church so tell me if yall wanna read them lol). I approached and gestured for him to take of his headphones (They were extremely loud, so I could recognize he was listening to the song In The End by Linkin Park).
Me: Hey! Aren’t you Roger? You’re Kevin’s brother, right?
RB, trying to sound stoic: “Oh, hey Rick. Yeah, it’s me… fortunately for you.”
Me: “What do you mean?”
RB explained: “Well, I’m the cool brother! Kevin was lame, and also had no friends.”
Me: “Isn’t he in a band with [insert band members]? They seem to be his friends…
RB: “They might look nice, but they’re all assholes. Don’t let them fool you! I’m the nice brother, Kevin is a dipshit.
To elucidate you: that band he said was made of assholes was the Worship band of the church we went to. It was also the worship band that I occasionally played the piano with.
I said, jokingly: “Guess I’m an asshole then! Because, ya know, I play with them more often than not”
RB: “No man, it’s just them. They’re just so infuriating! They never let me participate!”
Me: “Wow, that’s weird… I mean, I didn’t know you were a musician too! What instrument do you play?”
RB: “I play the drums, piano, guitar, bass and I also sing. But Kevin keeps me out because he wants to be the 'star brother'!”
I could tell he got a little heated, and went silent for a little while. I decided not to mention the band or his brother in his presence, 'cause ya know, that was pretty awkward lol.
I remember thinking to myself “This guy’s kinda weird”, because his brother was one of the nicest people I had ever known, and he also didn’t have the say on who played on the band, the worship leader did. I thought about confronting Roger with this, but I didn’t want to abandon my quest of finding a friend. And also, he seemed chill at first, if not a little insecure.
I was a little uncomfortable with this line of conversation, so I opted to change the subject. We talked a bit more about me having been held back, and he went on about how he was really good at math and chemistry, and how he could help me with my school stuff.
I was glad to have someone to help me, and even more, someone who apparently liked the stuff I liked. I remembered what he was listening to, so I commented on it and asked which song was his favorite, and we talked about Linkin Park for a bit. He said “In The End” was his favorite song, and then I mentioned I was a huge Linkin Park fan. He told me he was a big fan as well, but as we talked about it, it became a bit fishy. He never specifically said anything and just kinda repeated what I said. It became clear after a while that “In The End” was, in fact, virtually the only song he knew from that band.
That was the first time I noticed something strange, but only in hindsight, as at the time I just thought he really wanted to make a human connection. I remember thinking he was just excited to know someone who was open to talking to him, so I didn’t think anything of it.
Also, not everyone memorizes this stuff, and maybe he did only remember one song, for whatever reason, so I let that pass. I only felt necessary to include this information because it was, at least in some way, the first lie that Roger told me, a little sample, if you will, of what’s to come.
After we talked for a while, mostly catching up on our lives, the bell rung and our first actual class had begun, and I had the first-hand experience of this guy’s sense of humor. The teacher walked into the classroom and introduced himself as the new Geography teacher, and started a power point presentation about some of the subjects we’d be covering that year, saying “Please pay attention to this class, as you’ll need to know how our schedule will work”. Roger looked back and said “Huh, I guess this class is useless for you then, being held back and all, hahah”, which made everyone look at me and just kinda stare like I should say something, and he kept repeating the joke to anyone that showed any reaction besides just staring, adding “Amirite? Huh? Amirite?”.
I was kinda salty about this, but my people pleasing peapod brain couldn’t handle letting it show, so I just laughed and said nothing. I guessed it was a poorly thought out joke at first, but then Roger proceeded to make the same comment on every single one of the opening classes we had for both of the introductory days. There were 12 of them. He did it every time. Every. Single. Time. Sometimes he repeated it even louder, as if he didn’t think people heard it, because no-one was laughing.
“Ok”, I said to myself, “He didn’t mean to make fun of me, he’s just a little overexcited and probably is trying to make a connection and help me get acquainted to our classmates.”
Either way, I was very uncomfortable and annoyed.
Thankfully, this came to a halt when he was practically thrown out of the Literature class for interrupting the teacher mid-sentence while she talked about how important the first month of class would be for our comprehension of the whole subject. He made the joke four times. FOUR TIMES. I was beginning to think that I made a mistake, but well, the mistake was already made, at least I can try and understand him a bit, before judging.
The rest of the week went by and he didn’t get any better, but I got kinda used to it. In fact, I actually enjoyed having conversations with him at recess, when we could talk a bit more freely. And, as all things in life tend to do, it got weirder. Weirder in the sense that as we spoke more and more, I noticed a bit of a concerning pattern: every time I shared an experience I had, he’d share a cooler and more awesome almost equal experience back.
Some light examples:
I told him I went hiking for 2-3 kilometers on a trail by the beach. Then he smirked and said he went hiking for “at least 7 kilometers on a deserted beach that only his father’s company’s employees had access to and he saw a Gorilla. There are no gorillas in Brazil. Maybe in zoos, I guess, but definitely no gorillas.
I told him I was kinda sad because I had just ended a “thing” with a girl from my old grade. He “proudly” said he’s been dumped by his ex, Laura, after they dated for 11 months and made out aaaallll the time after school, and he even saw her “lady parts” once!”.
And then he went on to describe that shit for like 3 straight classes, adding more and more to the story every chance he had to speak, providing me with my daily dose of cringe in tiny bits of uncomfortable information at a time! Like a sporadic cringe snack! Sninge! Crack? Probably Crack.
ANYWAYS
There was also the time I told him the story of how I became best friends with a guy because we got into a fight in P.E.. We were arguing about some nonsense and he wanted to fight, so after he socked me on my stomach, I cheaply kicked him in the face so hard I almost sprained my ankle and then we started laughing (because I guess sometimes that’s all it takes). Phillip is my best friend for almost 10 years now.
Roger puffed up his soap dish chest went on for at least 2 classes worth of time about how he “beat up his last bully and broke both of his arms, and almost went to prison, but his dad is a lawyer and bailed him out”. Dude was 16, and I don’t think he’d need to be bailed out, but okay… He was, in fact, very badass.
Those are all approximations of actual stories he told me, because my ADHD memory is shit, but you get the gist of it.
My days were filled with endless stories filled with absolute bullshit, like a Gary Stu from a dying rpg campaign. (I have a story about a DnD game he participated in, but that’s for another time!)
Roger, not content with lying to me about anecdotal facts about his past that could be true but were almost certainly mostly bullshit (if not entirely), had a tendency to just negate reality when presented with facts in certain situations.
And example of this situation is the time we were doing a group assignment and a girl at least 3 meters in front of him dropped her pencil and he just kinda threw himself on the ground, picked it up and said “Here you go, Lana!”. She said “Thanks Roger!”, barely turning around and carried on with the assignment. Roger, then, turned to me with a sleek shit feasting smirk on his face and said:
RB: “Dude, do you think she’s into me??”
I contained a ridiculing laughter just in time to realize he was dead serious.
I said “I don’t know man… Doesn’t seem like it to me, but sure I guess.”
RB then straight up asked ME to go talk to her and get HIM her number. When I asked why shouldn’t he do it, he said it was “the wingman’s job to get the number of the girl” so that he wouldn’t “look weak for asking”
I said I’d do it, cause I genuinely wanted to see if he was right about her liking him (I hadn’t really understood the dynamics of the classroom, so I actually had no idea if he was actually right, just a gut feeling that yeah, he probably wasn’t).
I went up to her and asked for her number, explaining it was Roger who was interested in her and, as I pulled out my raging 2014’s Sony XPeria, I was swiftly interrupted by her delicately saying “Sorry! I have a boyfriend.” (She said the boyfriend part out loud, and stared at Roger)
I said “Oh, ok, sorry to bother ya!” and, as I was starting to walk back, I noticed that she turned back and glared at Roger. Later that day her boyfriend texted him, telling him that “He’s got to stop asking her out, and next time, if he wants to get rejected, he should come do it himself” He called him a moron. And then they both blocked him.
Well, that was embarrassing.
Despite having been turned down (for the 6th time now, I’d come to find out), Roger still maintained that she was “totally into him”, and it wasn’t just Lana. Any time he had even the smallest interaction with any girl, he’d say that they’re “probably into him”, or that “they made out at a party, but she was drunk and probably won’t remember”, or that they “sent him nudes last year but he’s already deleted them because he’s a good person, with morals”.
This went on for a while and, after about a month, Roger begun to dial down the crazy stories about how he’s a “badass and he gets all the girls but he’s single because he’s too good for them”. Until I started seeing a girl from another church I started going to. I met Janice () at the churches youth group, and we talked the whole time afterwards about lots of stuff. This name’s given because of her insanely similar laughter and demeanor of Janice from Friends. We clicked well and I was very interested in her, but my ADHD ass forgot to get her number, and remembered it only when she had already left.
When I told Roger, he laughed and said “I had just cockblocked myself” and that I’d “probably missed my only chance of banging a girl ever”. I was bummed, but clarified I didn’t really want to have sex before marriage or at least before making an emotional connection (I had just then begun to go to church, so I didn’t really get the rules, so it was more of a personal choice I always had in mind when thinking about dating. Also I met her at church so wtf).
He said “that was dumb” and, “even though he was a virgin, he’d dance the Devil’s Tango with the first chick he had the chance to”
“What about Laura?”, I asked. His face went from a confident smirk to an almost sad expression, and he blankly replied: “She didn’t want to, but I tried anyway at times. I even got a blowie once!” I let it go because I was very tired, as Mondays are hell on earth.
A few classes later, I went up to him and reminded him of our conversation and asked:
I said “Ooookay, but what about all those girls you told me were all over you? Didn’t they want to have some bum bum times with you??”
He was taken by surprise by this, and was visibly trying so hard to think of an answer for at least 15 seconds. He mumbled “Well…”, and like just left. Like he got up in the middle of the class, and walked away. Well that was weird!
He got back and I didn’t pry, thinking he had some kind of trauma, and I tried to change the subject.
I say “tried” because instead we were suddenly interrupted by a girl asking me if I was Rick. I didn’t know her or how she had materialized beside our desks, but later I found out that that girl’s name was Mary. She had blue eyes and was smiling mischievously, and I answered “Yup, that’s me”. She then giggled and said that “Anna wanted to make out with me after class”. Me and Roger were both very much taken aback by this, and I immediately thought to myself that this could only be some type of dare or prank (which it probably was), and was about to try and respond with the first witty joke that popped up in my monkey brain when, without missing a beat, Roger said “Rick’s already seeing someone!”. Mary was visibly surprised and said “Oh, you have a girlfriend??” with a look of disbelief on her face. Ouch. I explained that I wouldn’t say I do, I just liked a girl from church and we’re going to see a movie with some friends on Saturday, and that either way it was a pass on the making out sesh! Mary said “Oh, okay!” and started to walk back to her desk. I was about to make a joke and say that Anna could probably do better than me, when Roger interjected:
RB: “I’d like a making out sesh if she’s interested!”
Mary looked back with a visible “Lol, ew no” expression and just said: “I’m sure you would, Roger!”, turned away and sat down, laughing with her friends when she got to her desk.
Roger turned to me and said:
RB: “Dude, do you think she’s into me?”
This cycle repeated once in a while, so I’m not gonna tell you all of the situations that I felt like shaking him and trying to wake him up like Woody does to Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story. Exhausting, right?
Another thing Roger tended to brag about was that he did Martial Arts. Specifically, Kung Fu (Wushu). I would come to find out that, in the year before, he made a big scene to tell everyone in class that he’d just started Kung-Fu classes and, when no-one payed attention, he started a habit of punching the wall beside his desk, audibly making “hmpft” noises. When anyone asked why, he’d say he was training, and that his Sensei (Not shifu, he actually said sensei) had asked him to do that to strengthen his fists so he could harness all the strength he had, so one day he could put a hole through a wall with his fists.
He would also punch the school’s fireproof doors because, if you didn’t know, they dent pretty easily, and he would show me and tell me to bask at his strength and ability. That until I said I’d give it a try. He told me not to, because “I wasn’t trained” and “it could really hurt my hand”. I punched the door. It made a dent.
Roger said it was beginners luck and that he’s just a good teacher. I told him I really didn’t even make an effort to pay attention, the metal was just bendy and soft. Roger never talked about it again, and started only punching walls. For that, he would feel superior because, yeah I ain’t doing that. There were consequences for his wall punching habits, but I’ll address that some other time.
The last thing I’ll say about him for now is how clueless Roger was, how much he thought of himself and how he treated everyone else like they should (and would) respecting for what he told them, and not for what he showed them.
(I plan on doing another part eventually, with the story of how his disconnection with reality, lies, schemes and generally narcissist behavior eventually exploded back into his face.)
As a last bit of exposition of our circumstances, there’s an important part of our school life that fueled Roger’s social life’s demise.
Pranking was a big part of my class’ culture. There were also some people in my classroom who were bullied. The thing is: the bullies actually made fun of literally everyone else, which made it very hard to figure out if you were considered a target or just a colleague. They’d mess with people’s stuff, tie backpacks to the windows and hide pencil cases, but they would also do it to their own group.
Essentially, the only way to differentiate those who they considered normal schoolmates from those who were bullied was the frequency of the pranks and their demeanor in general towards those people. They would apologize for the pranks, ask to make up for it, buy you lunch, make jokes, try to laugh with you. I swear some of those guys were politicians in the making. Luckily, was very good friends with one of the guys in that group, I’ll call him Turkey, who was also held back a few years before me, and he liked my sister, so I was mostly safe.
Roger, on the other hand, THOUGHT he was one of the pranksters. Every time someone pranked him or anyone else, he would laugh knowingly, like he was in on the joke the whole time, and try to make jokes, only to further humiliate himself. And they would capitalize on that as hard as they could.
You see, Roger liked to portray himself as the “Mysterious-Badass-Quiet-Protagonist-Take-No-Shit-From-Anyone-Mr.-Steal-Yo-Girl” guy. This combo of personality substitutes was the recipe for the downfall of his popularity, and the start of the longest lasting pranks I’ve ever seen in my life, which will come if yall want another post. That prank is also the reason I named him Roger Bacon.
Because he was so into Math and Science (and into himself too lol) he also always wanted to look like the smartest guy in the room. The problem is that, as our first semester went by, it became clear that he wasn’t as good as he hyped himself up to be. Shocker, right? This was proven to be true when we were doing a chemistry group test, and I was paired with him and Anna, and we needed to calculate some entropies or whatever. He made a point of telling us to do all of the “easy ones”, and he would take on the more complicated questions.
The thing is, he was trying really hard to look like a genius, to maybe impress Anna, so every time he made a calculation, he would roll his eyes up and kinda vibrate a little. I guess he wanted to look like a genius mathematics robot, but instead he looked like he was trying to imitate an autistic person having a small stroke. I didn’t mind the Good Doctor amateur impersonation, because at least it looked like he knew what he was doing. Unfortunately, it really just looked like he knew what he was doing.
Each easy question of the test was worth 1 point, and there were 4 of them, and there were 3 hard questions worth 2 points each. We got a 4/10 on that test, and lo and behold, the only questions we got right were the ones me and Anna worked on. We were a bit pissed, not gonna lie.
Until the last time we spoke, Roger still blames Anna for his complete failure at this test for, in his words, distracting him because she was obviously into him.
But that’s just Roger, I guess!
I've got A LOT of stories about Roger and other neckbeards I've encountered, and I can't wait to tell them!
Until then, thanks for reading, and have a good one yall!

What makes Bayern the greatest club in the world? First, Bayern, with its accomplishments and achievements. What makes us great is that we have balls, and we're not just talking regular balls here, no sir, we're talking industrial-grade, titanium-coated spheres of audacity! "Balls of steel," and we aren't afraid to put it on the chopping block time and time again to prove to anyone they are made out of steel. Let's look at examples where we constantly put our balls of steel on the chopping block.
Exhibit one: We fired our coach a mere days before a showdown with City in the Champions League and hired a new coach. That's how much we have balls of steel; we don't care about anything. And don't fool yourselves; that's not where our mountain of manhood ends. Not only did we hire this new coach, we rode him good and hard. After we scared Dortmund like the little bitches they are with our big ironclad balls, from clinching the Meisterschale after 10 years, we decided to fire our coach even after having the greatest season in our entire football history. And why? That's right, again because we got balls of steel. So yeah, we decided to get rid of the best coach in our history. After using him, we decided to part ways with him and get, not just get, but snatch the new coach from around the block. And why? Because we are Bayern, the baddest pimps there ever will be! And we can do anything we want. And any coach in this world wants to work with us; hell, they even cry themselves to sleep to work with us. And nobody is stupid enough to reject us. And don't fool yourselves again; that's not just how good of a badass pimp we are. Not only did we part ways with our amazing once-in-a-lifetime coach in the middle of February, we made him stay until May and work his ass off and try to clinch the Champions League and the Meisterschale after firing him. Although our great once-in-a-lifetime coach failed, we weren't even mad at him because, after all, we are Bayern, the kindest, most generous team in the world. And we don't want to hog all the titles to ourselves. After all, what is the point if we don't spread some of our fortunes to the unfortunates! We're so kind that we're even trying our damn hardest to become a mid-tier team to spare our opponents' feelings, from the all success we are having. How noble of us, right? This is how kind we are!
Another exhibit of how we keep swinging our big balls made out of steel in to the chopping block, like the greatest showmen we still are. Like I told you, we decided to part ways with our once-in-a-lifetime amazing coach in February, and we dragged our balls on the floor for anyone to hear what we are packing. Our big ironclad balls making a "clung...clung...clung..." sound each time they hit the floor as we walk with our iron balls out in the open for anyone to see. And why? Again, because we can, and plus, we wanted to entertain ourselves and to become the envy of all teams around the universe. To show them we don't settle for one coach, we are badass pimps. We juggle coaches right and left. We are not a laughing stock like them who settle for one coach for five years or 10 years. We like to live on the edge, our motto "keep them guessing." Plus, we don't do our business in private like a scared little bitch. I mean, think about it, why even bother hiding when you have big balls made out of steel? And so, now we flirted with the Leverkusen coach, and we decided the coach isn't even in our league. We decided to ignore the coach, give the coach the cold shoulder, and decided to look to other coaches. And just like the first, we teased them with the opportunity of coaching us, and just enough, when they begged and pleaded to be our coach, we kept discarding them away, turning them into a laughing stock one by one. After all, we are Bayern, and nobody is good enough for us! Now, not only are we breaking the hearts of those meh coaches, we are even making the coaches that have never been looked at by any great team like us, giving them a chance, rizzing them with the idea we are a mid-club, and they are the only ones who understand us and who can pull us out of the state we are in, and so on.
Now, if you are still here and haven't taken a moment to vomit all over your keyboard and type out nasty things to say, like a drunken idiot over my sarcasm, but instead have decided to keep reading or, at the very least, keep your negative opinion to yourself as a sensible, decent human being should do, then good for you!
Here is the thing, bitch! As Einstein once said, "The basic requirement for stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different outcomes." Let's get one thing clear: this board doesn't want to fix the main issues we have. All they want to do is just repeat the same thing over and over again and expect different outcomes. I mean, if the requirement now is getting coached by Guardiola to be a Bayern coach, then why not get Basti or Philipp Lahm? Lahm is thought to be the smartest player, higher IQ and such and such, you know. It makes me think of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Man United. His only downfall was his lack of coaching tactics; he floated the team because he knows the club, the identity, and its culture... Let's get one thing clear: I don't care about Vincent Jean Mpoy or want to know the fuck who Kompany is. Don't get me wrong; he could be a cool dude, but I don't want to know him at the expense of Bayern. And besides, I'm tired of hearing those lame jokes about Kane! Plus, imagine if we proposed him an offer and he said no! That would be a good old kick to the balls! Wait, now I think about it, if he said no, does that mean their search parameters increase to random people who watched Guardiola on the pitch?! If so, interesting.
Most of you didn't find the idea of Arsene Wenger appealing; someone said big clubs didn't try to hire him, and at this point, as if we are, and I am saying this with the most sadness I can muster, and some of you even said he stepped away from coaching for a long time. Besides, weren't we considering Zizou after he stopped coaching three years ago, albeit he won the Champions League consecutively... And besides, I like to believe Arsene Wenger's poor performance in his later years was due to his constantly selling of top players and not losing his knowledge of football. Listen, I keep mentioning Arsene Wenger because I believe in my heart he could have really fixed the real problems we have at Bayern; it could have been a fairytale story of a forgotten washed-out coach gets a chance to coach a big club like Bayern again and he turns things around the club for good and so on and so on. But hey, life is not a movie; we don't get what we want in this world, and life keeps going... Even Rangnick was a good choice before he declined. In all honesty, I don't know much about Rangnick's style of play, but I knew he can scout good players. Plus, we could have gotten a Leipzig type of deal with him, him becoming a caretaker until we found a coach that would stay at the very least for five years and given us stability.
Listen, I know we don't have options at this point, and honestly, I don't care about Arsene Wenger nor Rangnick for that matter, but we could have considered coaches of their stature to fix the real issues and avoid getting a headache for the next 10 or 20 years. But instead, we are thinking about signing Vincent, the fuck who Kompany! Oh, I love my club! And by the way, if we sign Kompany, like my countrymen say, "እሰይ ይበለን።" At this point, why even bother.

Hear the Whisperings of the Soulmask
The sun was setting, casting long, warm shadows across the jagged peaks of the mountain range. A lone figure crouched low, their broad back hunched against the chill of the evening air. They were clad only in a loincloth and leather armor, their muscles tense as they gripped a battered wooden shield and a massive spear, its tip stained with the blood of countless enemies. A quiver of arrows was slung over their shoulder, ready to be unleashed at a moment's notice. This was Cid, the outcast of his CLAW tribe, banished for reasons he could no longer remember. His only purpose now was survival. And survival meant raiding the mountain fortress of his former brethren. Cid crept silently through the underbrush, his senses on high alert. The faint sound of drums echoed through the air, signaling the approach of a patrol. He tensed, ready to strike. As the patrol rounded a bend in the path, they caught sight of Cid and shouted a challenge. The outcast barbarian did not hesitate. With a primal roar, he charged forward, spear thrusting and shield arm blocking as the arrows rained down around him. His superior strength and agility soon became apparent, as he overpowered the surprised guards and continued deeper into the fortress. The sound of battle echoed through the mountains, and soon reinforcements were pouring in from all sides. Archers took to the walls, raining down arrows upon Cid as he fought his way through the main gate. He ducked and weaved, using his shield as a living shield against the deadly volleys. The ground beneath him grew slick with blood, both his own and that of his enemies. Cid's fury knew no bounds as he reached the inner sanctum of the fortress, where he knew the chieftain would be holed up. The air was thick with smoke from burning herbs, and the flickering light cast strange shadows across the walls adorned with the skulls of slain enemies. The chieftain stood before a great altar, his face painted with symbols of power and dominance. He held a ceremonial hammer, its edges glowing red-hot, as if forged in the fires of the mountain itself. As Cid closed in, the chieftain turned to face him, a sneer curling his lips. "So, you have come to die at my hands, outcast?" he mocked. "Very well. Then die you shall." With a mighty swing, the chieftain hurled the hammer at Cid's shield. The impact sent a shockwave through the outcast's body, but his grip did not waver. He thrust his spear forward, aiming for the chieftain's exposed throat. The chieftain dodged with surprising agility, and in the same motion, he counterattacked with a swift kick to Cid's shield arm. The outcast stumbled back, grunting in pain. The chieftain circled around him, his movements fluid and deadly. "You are no match for me, outcast," he hissed. "I am the true leader of this tribe, chosen by the gods themselves." Cid growled in response, his anger burning hotter than the lava that had birthed the mountain. He charged again, this time avoiding the chieftain's trap and landing a solid blow with his spear. The chieftain stumbled back, but did not fall. The battle raged on, the sounds of clashing metal and grunting warriors filling the air. Cid could feel the weight of his armor, the strain in his muscles, but he pushed forward. The chieftain was tiring too, however, and his movements were becoming less precise. Seeing an opening, Cid lunged, thrusting his spear at the chieftain's heart. The chieftain parried with his ceremonial hammer, but the force of the blow sent it flying from his grip. As it clattered to the ground, Cid stepped forward and drove his spear deep into the chieftain's chest. With a final gasp, the chieftain crumpled to the ground. The remaining guards, realizing they were defeated, threw down their weapons and surrendered. Cid stood over the body of the fallen chieftain, his chest heaving with exhaustion and victory. The fortress was silent now, save for the occasional groan from a wounded warrior. As he surveyed the carnage, Cid felt a strange mixture of satisfaction and despair. He had saved his people from the chieftain's tyranny, but at what cost? So many lives had been lost, and the wounds inflicted upon the tribe ran deep. He knew that the task of healing and rebuilding would be long and arduous. The surviving warriors looked to Cid, their faces a mix of relief and awe. They knew that he was now their leader, chosen by fate or the gods themselves. But Cid felt no pride in his new title. He knew only that he must guide his people through the darkness and back into the light. Cid knelt beside the chieftain's body, studying the symbols painted on his face. They were symbols of power, dominance, and control. Control that had been used to enslave his people for far too long. He wondered how such a man could have been chosen to lead. He turned to address the surviving warriors. "Today, we begin anew. We will rebuild our tribe, we will mend the wounds that have been inflicted, and we will find the way."

I'd like to share you one of hot issues in my country.
There's a male singer named HJ whose main genre is classical vocal music. He also made more casual and up-to-date style songs. He is popular, especially among old ladies because he recently appeared on a TV show where people compete by singing old songs that old people like.
He didn't start his career as a musician from the beginning. He used to be a gangster in his teenage. Then he met one teacher in high school who taught him vocal music, and HJ won several national competition and get a chance to study abroad thanks to his teacher. Returning back, he became a popular vocal music and trot singer.
This month, HJ's car crashed into a taxi on the road at night and he fled the scene. A few hours later, his manager went to the police station to turn himself in, wearing a clothes that HJ had been wearing. HJ didn't go home but he went to a hotel room instead to avoid the investigation. After a day, HJ himself went to the police station and said it was him that drove the car. People suspected he was drunk, but he denied it. There were a lot of circumstantial evidence, but no solid proof.
The investigation is still ongoing and everyone's eyes are on him now. We'll see if he gets what he deserves.