Essence Of The Magus. (Nasuverse) • It's a beautiful multicolored liquid that, despite everything, keeps changing to new and innovative colors never seen before, it's very mysterious. • You have a natural body, this means that you are the pinnacle of what the human body has to offer in all its shapes and sizes, you are beautiful and as time goes by those traits will only improve, whether you want the strong beauty of muscles or the very delicacy and fragility of a lily, this will be inclined to your desires and requests, so you will undoubtedly be beautiful to your own preferences and desires, even affect the color of your hair or how your eyes will be, and all this without lowering the capabilities of the human body, with reflexes and senses superior to anyone else, your body is the pinnacle and is always improving to reach new heights, this will always be naturally so no one will suspect anything, everything is decided if you want to stay as you are or become the summit of the body of the human being. • You will always be seen in full elegance, maintaining unparalleled grace and balance, you could be associated with a machine before such a detailed display of pinpoint accuracy, you are graceful and gifted with an overwhelming presence and unmatched charisma, expect to have many admirers unless you voluntarily turn it off or mitigate it, and if you consciously use it to its full force don't expect there will be anyone with enough willpower to resist you, you are nobility in every concept of the word, maybe you will get some title like Lorelei Barthomeloi and her title of 'The Queen Of The Clock Tower' or 'The Queen' for short. • Furthermore, you have what would poetically be called 'The Will To Shatter The Stars'. There is no difficulty, no degree of opposition and no level of pain or suffering that can intimidate your intentions, once you make up your mind about something. You can do this all day long and never stop doing it, except by your own conscious choice. Forget mere 'maximum human' willpower, you are absolutely unbreakable. While remaining mentally flexible enough to not be a stubborn idiot, of course. • Your body can not be infected by any being, supernatural or not, you can not be controlled or damaged by both mental and spiritual means, your body is an immovable fortress, your mind to a library masterfully ordered and maintained, your soul is a perpetual sanctuary you can repeat as many times the change of body as Roa or do something with worms as Zouken and your soul will remain the same, you could say that it is a perfect soul for sorcery, beware, the third magic will be and will remain better by far, your soul is something that will remain the same in the face of the most extreme things, but it is not the true immortality that is the third magic, unless you dedicate your research skills to change that. • Mentally, you are able to modify and alter your mind, you can program your mind to react to whatever you want however you want, leaving mental triggers to move before they react is possible, molding it to create a disguise of some different personality is possible, you can even affect their feelings achieving a masterful mask, creating a state with a completely different personality and state of mind is easy, in case you are not sure how to mold your mind without changing you can leave safety countermeasures to go back to any previous state, if a certain thought or situation happens, you are a magician and as such, your masks to fool others are the best, if you use them wisely you could be in your best state to fight or go into a disguise that even Sherlock himself could not discover, this will not affect your will, and you cannot end up as a brain-dead fool by accident, unless that is your disguise. • A little advice, stay away from the eyes of Atlas, those alchemists will see the holy grail or the root itself, if they get to know what kind of body type you have, you will be a very wet dream for any of their researchers, they even have a motto that fits. “It's easy to get into Atlas, but impossible to get out.” • If I were you, I'd be careful with the gods, a body like yours would have them drooling or hating you, it's funny how you don't know which one is worse, it all depends on which gods notice you, god forbid, the Greeks, although they might not even come close because they're admiring you. • The reason for a mind like you have, is to hide the default personality you have as a magus, a cold being, without morals or ethics, who can do anything, this part of you will make the machines see you as the typical sentimental people, it doesn't take much to scare people in that state, people will wonder what the hell you are, what kind of being is hiding under that disguise of flesh you call skin, you can always change it if you want, although you can always hide it, your mind can never be taken advantage of by anyone other than you. • You can choose to have the potential to have true magic, you decide if you only want one or all five in total, you can decide if you want to reach them through research, that being the case you can get creative about how you carry out your research to play true magic, and, it can help you later, this is more of an option than anything else, if you want, you can appear as a user of the five true magics, although it is not said that there will be no questions of how the hell did that happen, you have a complete control of the true magics, and you know both its maximum capabilities and the smallest details about its operation. • The first magic “Denial Of Nothingness”: The first true magic, known as “The Denial Of Nothingness”, is related to the generation of an ether clusters, this includes the creation of matter and energy from nothing and the total destruction of matter and energy in nothing, the clusters of ether are conductors of magical energy. • The second magic “Kaleidoscope”: The second true magic, known as the ”Kaleidoscope” or the “Parallel Worlds Operation”, this includes traveling to alternate worlds, time travel, space-time manipulation and the ability to decide whether timelines are 'canon' or not, you can be creative how you use this, it's not too far-fetched to overlay different dimensions to play with the environment or use unlimited energy from all your universe versions to make a giant energy cannon, the only thing that What stops you is the creativity of how you could use it, you will have to be attentive because interacting with the dimensions and being able to observe everything that the multiverse can be, it can be a bit maddening, you will be protected in any way, but do not expect it to be a very happy, the dimensions have some that can make any person quite crazy, just look how his previous bearer was with the magical girls. • The third magic “Heaven's Feel”: The Third True Magic, known as the “Touch Of Heaven” or the “Manifestation Of The Soul”. This stops the inevitable dispersal of the soul once it no longer has an anchor in the world, and essentially causes it to transcend into a higher form of existence. It is a magic that realizes true immortality by turning the soul into a flat, high-dimensional being capable of interacting with the material world as a mental body without having to return to Akasha. The Sorcerer will acquire an unlimited source of magical energy because his soul becomes analogous to a perpetual motion machine, just like the previous ones, creativity will help you a lot, although with this who needs creativity when you are truly immortal, enjoy ~. • As a certain person said, I wish I had finished in the third, too bad it didn't happen • The fourth magic “White Ink”: The Fourth True Magic, known as the “White Ink”, in another universe the fourth magic is unknown, but how would you go about selecting a magic without knowing all your options? The fourth is based on the manifestation, manipulation, and alteration of concepts, you could alter the concept of water so that it burns instead of splashing (He, he, he) or you can very well create your own urban legend and add the concept 'real' to it, despite the tremendous power that you can still have to be careful, every being is sensitive, even reality itself, so press hard and don't expect to come out very well, you are powerful, but not invincible, keep that in mind, an example would be the previous user of the fourth magic that in an attempt to erase the concept of the fourth magic ended up being erased, it failed to eliminate the fourth magic, but the world ended up forgetting its capabilities due to certain parts that were erased. (Credit goes to AcausalTrillby at fanfiction.net for the inspiration with his story called White Ink) • The fifth magic “Blue Magic”: The Fifth True Magic, known as the “Blue Magic” allows free manipulation of energy/heat without worrying about the order imposed by the arrow of time of thermodynamics (represented by the Second Law), and, thus leading in particular to time manipulation, as opposed to relativistic time travel, Aoko Aosaki managed to affect space-time with this magic, and you can too if you put your mind to it, just be careful you don't want to extinguish life on earth, right? • “The Sixth True Magic”: Currently non-existent, a path to the Root will be granted. You can get close to him, but you must not touch him. By doing so, you will gain access to a new True Magic. It is speculated that the Sixth True Magic might be a magic that can bring happiness to everyone. This may or may not be the case. The magic has to be something unattainable by mundane or thaumaturgical means, as long as those criteria are met you can create the sixth magic, since you are creating something new and not reusing the five magics, this will be the one with which you connect the most, don't get me wrong, if you choose any of the other five, you will have no limits or problems when handling it, in fact you could take it to heights never seen before, only this being your creation, you will be more connected and you, and only you will be the person capable of using it, you are the creator of the sixth magic be proud. • Note something, the first, and fifth are similar in that a path to the root, an Akasha gate, originated and magic was obtained upon its arrival, while the second, third, and fourth were produced as a half to get to that place, however insignificant it may sound to some, this has its own weight in how your magic interacts with you, you may be able to touch or see the path to the Root, or you may try to recreate the means to reach the Root, be careful with that, people smarter than you tried, and they didn't end very well. • It can be said that magicians have become the adversaries of the planet, and by having magic, as redundant as it sounds, you have become a magician, something that the human mind would not normally be able to carry as a burden. Carrying such a power is the recklessness of changing the world, as such, from the moment you obtain true magic, you are destined to go through great things or most likely to affect the entire world, whether the change is good or bad, it will depend on what you decide. • Becoming a magician is something that must be thought carefully, it is a mantle, and it is raw power that will undoubtedly affect how you see the world or how the world sees you, you are entering forbidden territory for human hands, it is the land of gods, so unless you want to fight against gods or planets, think about it a bit before making your choice, and of course, you have some duties with humanity, it's not mandatory, but you can at least look at them once or twice, so they don't get killed or end up committing suicide. • You can grant one magic per person by creating five or six wizards who will be loyal to you until death, you can remove that magic whenever you want and however you want, although at least tell them what you are giving them, you do not want extradimensional accidents or extinction of life on earth, you can always decide to ignore this advice and have fun with the results. • You are by far the most talented and predisposed being to magic, your talent, ingenuity, and creativity have no comparison, your sense, and intuition regarding magecraft is undoubtedly superior, your mind has a library with all the magical knowledge of the entire verse from TYPE-MOON, whatever reality it is, it can be a bit overwhelming, but you get used to it, god forbid you can follow in the footsteps of Lorelei and focus on basic magecraft or some specific theme and develop it so much that you become the Bruce Lee of magic with 'Repeat a kick a thousand times', of course with your talent that can reach true magic levels very quickly, with any magic. • You can connect and adapt to any existing thaumaturgical foundation, yes, that includes the church, this would allow you to use any existing spell as long as you are connected to the foundation of that respective spell, be it sorcery, from Chinese philosophy magecraft, traditional Japanese magecraft and of course the one practiced by the clock tower, there is no foundation that you do not know and to which you cannot connect, if you do not like any, you can create your own thaumaturgical foundation with the rules and implications that you want and although technically it would be impossible, your own willpower is enough to maintain that foundation, if you decide to make that foundation your primary method of practicing magic, with your willpower involved, believe me, there will be no end to how strong you can become, and that applies to every foundation you connect to, you can revive a foundation on the verge of death to its best moment and take it to something much better. • Established and long-standing foundations will be more likely to connect and improve, they may not be as versatile, focusing only on their field as the church that is dedicated to something more spiritual, so be aware that you would spend a lot of time and resources originating a new foundation that connecting and empowering an existing one, each one has its cons and its pluses. • As a great magus you don't always have to depend on a large mound of magic circuits for everything, you can use the quantifiable energy of the Soul; the pseudo-spiritrons to design organisms or stronger objects, as the alchemists of Atlas do, you can also be like hackers and enter the network practicing their code-cast method, whenever you cannot or do not want to use your magic circuits you will find another way to practice sorcery, very well you can practice some method of “Walk and Breathe” to try to become a Xian, whatever method you choose you can take it to unimaginable heights without relying on your magic circuits, and with your talent you can do wonders. • It is true that you can work without magic circuits, you could very well become the best spell caster without even using them even once in your life, but it is better to use every resource you have and magic circuits are part of those resources, your circuits are special, unique in its kind, you will start with fifty magic circuits “Blue Bloods: Noble Magic Circuits”, being the best of the best, what differentiates it from the others is that your magic circuits are improved and shaped the more you use them, these circuits they will grow, improve and multiply, the very environment where you are will affect them and will affect their growth, they may become a “Magic Nucleus” or for some strange reason a “Magic Reactor”, there is also the possibility of becoming “Regression to the Age of Gods”. Allowing you to reproduce the existing mysteries before the age of man, it is certain that they will become what you want and that they will continually improve, in case they are damaged, or you do not have magic circuits they will begin to sprout or self-repair always looking for a way to advance, they may even be influenced by your origin. • As you have undoubtedly noticed, your magic circuits are not natural, this will not affect your form of sorcery in any negative way, who knows, you may reach some level higher than “Blue Bloods: Noble Magic Circuits” magic circuits are used to connect to the thaumaturgical foundation, you will see a rapid adaptation and improvement, the more you use them with a specific foundation, maybe even adopt some characteristics of said foundation. • You can create magic circuits through research and development and implant them in a host, but such a thing would be for someone else, because yours are already on their way to the best of the best. • This also affects how much magical energy you use, to make a comparison, the average mage has 20 units of magical energy, Ciel had 5000 units, you have 10000, and it will always improve according to your magic circuits, as a respected magus you must have enough energy to sustain any research or spell you want. • You can change your origin, it is true that the origin is the starting point that defines one's existence and directs one's actions throughout life. It is the driving force that comes from within the Root, which has managed to sprout from the Source and take material form, but you can change it, unlike other people you can trace your origin to the Root and exchange it for something that is more convenient, ok to see changes, so you will have to be careful, but at least you can change it for anything you want, be it creature, emotion or concept, you can even keep several at the same time, although you would have to be careful, the origin may end waking up if you swap it too much or if you have several, and they manage to sync up, you're a never-before-seen case, so crazy things can happen. • If a person ends up awakening their Origin, it becomes nearly impossible to deviate from their Origin, if even possible in the first place. It becomes an impulsive behavior that one would follow as if it were an absolute order, it has to be taken into account that if you achieved such a thing you would gain superhuman abilities according to your origin, the defense mechanism that you have will save you at some point after awakening your origin, the defense mechanism returns your origin to its state before waking up, you can program it so that it takes days or months to put your origin to sleep again, keep that in mind, the origin has to be treated with care. • Element, the elements are somewhat easier to deal with and without as much danger as the origins, by default you are an average with the five elements, fire, water, earth, air, and ether and just as before you can exchange and modify them to your liking it is better not to overlap an exaggerated number of elements, but at least you are not in as much danger as with the origins, the element is the type of magic with which you are more predisposed and which one you are better at, it should be noted that different cultures handle in different ways the elements, so there is a variety of elements with the same name, you will have to be more specific when changing the element. • The elements are not so rigid when it comes to making magecraft, if we put as an example that you have water as an element and that you want to learn spells more inclined with fire, you can, but it will cost more, although that is not your case, it should also be remembered that the elements are more than the name of said element itself, water is the fluidity and control of liquids, the other elements are something similar, only with their own peculiarities, there are elements as unique as sword or hollow, so who knows What things can you achieve if you start being creative. • Origins and elements are connected, so if you have the same origin and the same element, you will notice that your magic will have a boost on anything bordering on that field, although you run the risk of over-specializing, an example would be demon origin and demon element, you will find that you could do spectacular things with demonology, although you won't be able to do much with any kind of sorcery not associated with demons. • You are an artist when it comes to creating things, you would fit very well with Atlas, just like them, you are able to create things that could bring about the destruction of the world seven times, there is no limit in what you are able to build, from mystical supergiant codes like the “Foundation of Philosophy” up to the seven weapons of Atlas, it would be possible within your capabilities to start theorizing how to create Noble Phantasms or recreate them, very well you can do like the hikikomori of Caubac and create your own holy scriptures, or you can be like Zelretch troll and create items about magical girls or whatever you prefer, you can create the philosophical keys or magical crests or create something new based on it. • Theoretically, you are able to build anything shown in TYPE-MOON that is supernatural, and this includes everything from a simple pistol to the MOON CELL itself, and always with the ability to innovate, improve, or create something entirely new. • The “Philosophy Foundation” generated by the Xian in the land of China is essentially a simulation of an artificial Root. The Xians worked together as a group to build it. Instead of connecting to the Root using the gods as a relay, as civilizations in the Age of Gods did, the Xian produced their system of magic by building a Supergiant Mystic Code that merges with the planet. That is the Philosophy Foundation. • You are able to break down any magic you see or theorize into its most basic components, you may very well be called the second coming of Waver, for what you can do, with your talents it would not be difficult to dissect any magic you see down to its most basic concepts, being able to recreate it if you decide to do such a thing, you can always see ways to improve or modify it, but there is no magic that you don't see that you don't understand. • It has been said that anything magecraft can do technology can do and vice versa, you understand that principle well, you are capable of achieving anything science achieves through magecraft, any technology you see will only give you new and innovative ideas to achieve it through magecraft. • An example would be Apollo 11, you can imitate such a thing with magecraft, a space teleportation to reach the moon or some strange chimera that can take you, to know if you can do something else with astrology, true magic may end up dying, but magecraft it will be maintained and will continue to advance as long as you exist and science exists. • A magus is a scholar above all else, as a magus your main skill will be the investigation of sorcery in order to get to the root, you are a born investigator knowing every detail of the book by heart, a slight passing glance is enough to remember it whenever you want without need at a second glance, and not only that, you understand them to their very core, anything you don't know, you only need to investigate it to learn, as a researcher your handwriting will be relentless, your notes will be the finer details, and you can always do a thesis about a thousand and one ways to get to the root, you know for shit and giggles. • You unconsciously organize your work space, you will not be the typical researcher with your head in the clouds and with a workshop more messy than your room, no, your workshop is a perfect example of order, organized to the millimeter without you realizing it, this is also gone to all your jobs, no leaving dangerous things lying around unprotected or having all your tools dirty and messy, you know what they say, a tidy space is a safe space, and you have exemplary security. • You are a good teacher, you see the talent of people, their potential, and you can show that by bringing out all that talent, just like Waver you are an exceptional teacher when it comes to teaching, even the dumbest and most talentless person can become even a Lord, a person with real talent and a good head on his shoulders can very well get to Marshall just like Zelretch and Lorelei, of course as long as he listens to your lessons. • In addition to research you can focus your skills to develop many elements in any field you choose, on top of that you will never see any unwanted side effects or stalling your research, you see possibilities in mistakes, small delays in full stalls of a sorcery, potential in drawbacks, every mistake, bump, or snag in your eyes will become a possibility that may very well take your research to new heights. • Example: you can focus on martial arts, create something like the Nanaya killing arts, even recreate the Nanaya arts themselves, use pre-existing martial arts to give them mystical effects, it's very viable, you can create your own mystical martial arts. Assessing an enemy in the middle of a fight is easy for you, developing countermeasures against him or finding weaknesses you can exploit (If you have “The Mystic Eyes Of Death Perception” or something similar, you can find new lines of death or develop them in your enemy yourself) there is no field in which you cannot apply your talents. • Optionally, you can create a workshop, a workshop is a place where the magus carry out their research, it is a sacred place that any self-respecting magus will never let anyone enter, yours is impenetrable and untouchable, unless you allow it, at first you can design it inside as you like either as some ancient place of study or as a modern laboratory, your workshop is a subspace between dimensions, impossible for any being to find, no matter where you go you can access to your workshop from anywhere, be it places as remote as the bottom of the ocean, some forest, or desert forgotten by the hand of God or space itself, you just have to call it the way you want, a door will open where you can enter, you can modify this entrance as you want, needing a key or only access from a certain door when you want, and always having the flexibility so that you can modify it to your g you. • Your workshop has books on every possible sorcery and various ways to implement it, even notes for a beginner to practice little by little and build slowly, along with manuals and various articles for learning, it also has information on magus policy or data from the world both known and not, there is a lot of knowledge that will serve you, and not all of it is necessarily sorcery, at your option, all of TYPE-MOON's knowledge can be here in book formats or any other form you want, the workshop It will have any material or tool you require, and just like before it ranges from the most exotic never thinkable to the most normal, after spending that material it will recharge regularly, so you never have to worry about running out of resources. • In case you want something different, you can create your own workshop in the way you want, building both its defenses and places where you will store your knowledge and carry out your research, when you finish, the construction will gain the same benefits as if you had it. Given, these are undetectable and impenetrable. • Your workshop is a place for any outside creature not to enter and for anything inside not to leave, the workshop is something that you can change to your liking both in appearance, space and time, you can even change concepts within your own workshop, convert your ceiling a gateway to space, so you can admire any star from near or far, you can't be harmed inside your own workshop so the vacuum of space or the sun's rays would do little or nothing to you. • A magician walks with death, you among the many magus out there, you are sensitive to danger, you know very well when something can go wrong, you detect it like a bloodhound, whether it is a migraine, a slight smell or daring visions of the mirrors of what could go wrong, whatever method you choose, you know something will go wrong, and you know what will cause it, there is no longer any danger of experiments or ambushes, your sense of danger will alert you whenever death is near you, there will be no moments either late or too early, this gives you the right time, and also something of how to go out, there is nothing impossible to avoid death here. • You can leave marks on people so that they also notify you if they are in danger, you decide if the same person is aware of the danger or not. • You can say if you want to be like Akiha Tohno and I will become a half-breed with the blood of some mythical or supernatural beast, this will give you certain unique abilities depending on the blood you decide, it will also give you a stronger connection to the mystery, your instincts will be controllable and will not cause any problem, although they can always be useful, it is always curious to know what those senses perceive that is not detectable by humans. • Optionally, you can decide if you want to do some research to fully become that creature, an example being becoming a dead apostle like Gransurg Blackmore did. • You can give people mythical blood if you want to do something with it, you can always control them and take that power away from them if they rebel. • Despite the fact that many magus dislikes it, politics is present within their society, you are the one who governs that, words are an art that you master, you are the best, it is simple to deceive or convince people, you know how people think. People, you know what they want, you know how to guide their thoughts or group a group of people with certain ideas, you know by heart every law, every line, every letter of every word and every political loophole that you can take advantage of with all that, move in the world politician, it's not very difficult, you control it well, you can be considered a control demon for how well you handle everything. • If you don't want to touch politics, that's fine, you know enough to move in society, it's simple to fake smiles or emotions, deceiving people is second nature, making them believe that you are like them, without any problem and with a normal life it's surprisingly easy, if you don't want to fool anyone that's fine, just with the security you show you would eventually have some group of trustworthy friends. • Sometimes it is difficult to know if a decision is good, until after seeing what happens, not for you, the decisions you make, are made under detailed scrutiny, your decisions will no longer have the doubt of whether you did it right, and even if for some strange reason some bad decision goes through your detailed study, you will have a sixth sense that will constantly warn you not to choose it, it will be your decision after that. • If ever it is not enough to stick to the laws, you know how to do everything in a more criminal way, blackmail, extortion, threaten, etc. you know every dirty trick in the book, in fact you wrote the book, you know it backwards and forwards, the underworld has its own laws, and you know them like the back of your hand, your very well can create your own mafia and promote it by the underworld, and when it's not enough to talk, well, it's an easier way to just permanently eliminate every person or group that opposes, not that anyone finds out if you want. • You know people's minds, you know how they think, you know what they want, and you can notice very clearly when some thought of betrayal passes through their pretty little head now condemned, you can tell if they have a plan or if they are trying to influence you, not because of some strange ability but because you simply know how the human being works, there is no person that you cannot understand, just one look and the personality of any person remains in your eyes, abnormal cases like Shirou Emiya is simply looking at them from a slightly different perspective, it is easy to You play with those thoughts, moving some person from one place to another like a puppet is quite a fun hobby, turning the most cowardly person into something much worse than Shirou with his sense of heroism and his lack of self-preservation is simple, the most calm and good-hearted person under your hands can be left as Kirei Kotomine with no moral limit as to how much evil is enough, h woe to whoever makes you angry, you know enough about the human being to create a real hell with simple words, people tend to think that words cannot cause so much damage, after all, words are not as effective as a sword According to them, it is sometimes easy to forget that a few simple words caused the fall of Camelot. • Trade is not so attached to the magus, but it is better to have money and be like Luvia using money from one side to the other, not be like Rin and wonder if you can last until the end of the month paying attention to each expense you make, the world of commerce opens its huge golden doors to you, you know money, you know how money is managed, you know where there are opportunities or how to create them yourself, you know where definitely not to be around to keep the money you have and avoid losses. • You have what can be said, a golden luck, the lottery, prizes, or just finding a dollar on the street, money comes to you passively, you can control how much comes to you, from a simple five dollars to millions, someone can suspect, but you will still be rich, so there will not be so many problems. • You know every dollar, every coin by heart, down to the tiniest penny, you keep it in mind when you do the math, which makes you very good with numbers, but pluses aside, you keep every bit of your money in mind, so that if any bills or coins go missing you'll notice quickly, so it's easy to spot if some fool is having a funny idea about your money. • Furthermore, you are the best at handling money, you can very well copy the Harweys and get 60% of the planet or more, there will be opposition, but if you use this, plus your political skills, you can very well do it without anyone noticing. • Mystery is what allows magecraft, the crystallization of belief, so it is undeniable to say that without mystery there is no magecraft or magic, as time passes and technology advances, the mystery gradually evaporates from this world, a risk for the magus, because their job lies in the very existence of the mystery, that is a danger that does not apply to you, your mere existence revives the mystery, you are like a plant only instead of expelling air, you expel mystery, this is something you can control, such as applying it only to your actions or that it spreads throughout the world or only to an area in general, you decide. • Be careful not to spread it around the world, the revival of the mystery can revive some troublesome things, most likely you can irreparably affect the world itself, the planet itself will be affected by such an action. • If you decide to enclose the mystery in an area, in that small area the mystery will begin to accumulate, affecting everything that is inside, each plant, each animal, each insect, even the smallest being can be affected. • Since the mystery comes from you, every creature that is impacted by the mystery you produce will feel a feeling of loyalty towards you, the probability that they will not be loyal to you is close to zero, they may see you as a divine being, which is god to humans, at worst they will be of no use to you, but they will still refuse to harm you. • You have more security against Gaia and Alaya, they will be softer when it comes to judging whether to eliminate you, you can be much more reckless than the rest of the magicians and unless you do something extreme like endangering the entire planet or humanity itself, none attack, they will stay away and not bother you, they will watch you it is true, but they will never interfere with anything you do as long as you do not go too far, this includes that Alaya cannot prune the timeline where you are, you are an immutable being when it comes to damaging the timeline, the incineration of humanity or the Lostbelt will do nothing to you, you are protected from that by sending you to another time and space, you will be displaced through time to the point of origin where that timeline was damaged, the singularities, very well you can solve it or just observe while you continue with your investigation while you wait to be sent to another space-time, in case it is solved you will return to where you were before all this happened, and in case that timeline is doomed you will be sent to another timeline that is not in danger. • Your powers cannot be stolen, deleted, copied or anything like that, you will have constant protection against negative effects, in case something unexpected happens, you will be randomly teleported, your powers will return, eventually, they always return. • Without perfection, nothing you build is ever perfect, it never will be, nor are you perfect, perfection is a limiting factor, when perfection arrives there is nothing else, that is why you can break perfection being able to grow unlimitedly, there is no limit in terms of you can grow or improve pre-existing things because in principle there is no end for you, and although some may say that there must be an end, a point at which you will eventually reach perfection by not being able to improve anymore, they are wrong, as simple beings, his imagination, his head can only come to that conclusion, that there is a limit, but not you, the limits seen in mortal eyes do not apply, you see an infinite path, the root itself is infinite and constantly growing, because you cannot be equal to her and have no limits in your growth, without perfection, without limits, a perpetual growth.

FULL STORY
Company reports profitable first quarter of 2024 highlighting its low-cost, low-overhead operating model
Company reports a 160% year-over-year increase in revenue and a 149% year-over-year increase in net income
Company is well positioned to continue growing its platform of assets and quarterly revenue growth, given clean balance sheet and unique investment opportunities
FISHERS, IN / ACCESSWIRE / May 28, 2024 / Royalty Management Holding Corporation (Nasdaq:RMCO) ("Royalty Management" or the "Company"), an innovative royalty company building shareholder value by acquiring and developing high value assets in a variety of resource-driven and emerging technology industries is pleased to announced today its financial results for the first quarter of 2024.
Thomas Sauve, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented, "We are excited to release our first 2024 first quarterly financial results and to share our business update with our investors as we continue a strong start to the 2024 year with a focus on value creation events and opportunistic growth. Post completion of the merger with American Acquisition Opportunity Inc,, we've looked to focus on the highest value contributors of the business while also establishing a low-cost, low-overhead business model. Our team is motivated by the equity value of the Company and aligned with our shareholders on maximizing this value, as opposed to being simply "hired guns" with salaries. With that in mind, we couldn't be more excited how we are positioned to continue to grow the business given our clean balance sheet and strong asset base. We are pleased with our first quarter and the second quarter is tracking growth compared to first quarter in both revenues and cash flow."
Key Highlights

• Communicated updated production and revenue guidance of its portfolio company, Ferrox Holdings' Tivani mining project containing deposits of Titanium, Iron and Vanadium from which it has commenced production. Upon completion of Ferrox's investment into its crushing and concentration plant, the company anticipates it will be able to increase production and sales to approximately 50,000 tons of run-of-mine ores per year in 2025 and approximately $8 million in annualized revenue, continuing to expand thereafter as the company continues its investment into the deposit and production.
• Renewed its gold status membership in Texas Tech University's Center for Advancing Sustainable and Distributed Fertilizer Production, or ‘CASFER' organization. As a gold member of CASFER, RMC has access to the technologies and intellectual property developed out of CASFER, in particular the innovative and novel technologies to produce, capture, and recycle nitrogen-based fertilizers from farming activities. Opportunities for Royalty Management to participate in the emerging technologies and patents from CASFER are already occurring, with more Company updates on these opportunities in the near future.
• Announced that its environmental services business, under the wholly-owned subsidiary, RMC Environmental Services LLC, recorded record monthly revenue of slightly under $1.0 million run rate revenue for the month of March, equating to a positive cash flow run rate equivalent for all of Royalty Management Holding Corporation.
• Engaged CM3 Advisory as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm.
• Announced that the Company's Board of Directors voted unanimously to institute a stock repurchase program of Royalty Management Holding Corporation's Class A Common Shares for up to $2.0 million over the next 24 months of which the Company has already commenced the buy-back of stock prior to the start of the current "black out" period.

Mr. Sauve continued, "Looking forward to the remainder of 2024, our belief in, and excitement over, the opportunities we have in front of us continues to reach an all-time high. Our current platform of assets are well positioned to generate attractive cash flow and long-term value for the Company and its shareholders alike. RMC Environmental Services continues to operate efficiently and covers the majority of our overall corporate expenses, let alone our other active and cash-flowing investments and projects we are developing towards that goal resulting in bottom line income. Over the next six months we anticipate additional revenue streams to expand from our portfolio and generate free cash flow which will position us well for an exciting 2025."
Select Financial Results for First Quarter 2024

• For the first quarter of 2024, Royalty Management reported net income of $135,180, or $0.01 per share, as compared with a net income loss of $274,345, or a loss of $0.38 per share, in the prior year period.
• Total revenues were $162,100 for the first quarter of 2024 compared to revenues of $62,292 during the first quarter of 2023.
• Total assets were $13,709,149 as of the end of the first quarter of 2024, an increase from $13,610,731 compared to total assets as of the first quarter 2023.
• Total liabilities were $3,603,779 as of the end of the first quarter of 2024, a decrease from $3,990,542 compared to total assets as of the first quarter 2023, resulting in total stockholders' equity of $10,105,370 as of the end of first quarter 2024.
• 2024 expenses are trending significantly lower than 2023, which were predominantly related to the one-time merger expenses associated with American Acquisition Opportunity.

~Select Portfolio Holdings~
Royalty Management has put together an exciting portfolio of royalty assets which support growing or transitioning industries and to generate near-future royalty and income streams. Some of RMCO's portfolio holdings include:
RMC Environmental Service LLC - A wholly-owned, environmental service business line of RMCO that supports residential, municipal and commercial development in and around Hamilton County, Indiana. The company recently announced record revenue for the month of March 2024 which currently covers the majority of all of the parent company's expenses.
Ferrox Holdings Ltd. - A majority owner of the Tivani Project; ilmenite, iron, vanadium and phosphate project which is in an advance development stage. It is located in the long-term mining region of the Limpopo Province in South Africa. Ferrox is the holding company for several South African subsidiaries and is focus is on developing mineral resources in Sub Saharan Africa.
TR Mining - A high quality, Jamaica-based diversified mineral project with a focus on iron ore, titanium and vanadium with an initial estimated deposit of 212,925,000 tons of raw feedstock with an estimated 106,462,500 tons of ore body, based on an average of 50% magnetic material. The project is part of a Special Exclusive Prospecting License (or "SEPL") that covers an area of approximately 25 permitted square kilometers. TR Mining is 51% owned by American Carbon Corporation and 49% owned by TR Mining & Equipment Limited, where RMC owns a royalty interest from the sale of produced product from the operation.
Advanced Magnet Lab, Inc. (AML) - AML is a recognized leader in the development of innovative magnet technologies and magnet-based applications. Today, AML is executing on multiple product development programs including magnet materials and PM-Wire™ based motors and generators for industrial, aerospace and defense. This includes projects funded by large industry, U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Defense. RMCO has an ownership interest in AML through its participation in their Series A round of capital raising.
Center for Advancing Sustainable and Distributed Fertilizer Production (CASFER) - CASFER vision is to enable resilient and sustainable food production by developing next generation, modular, distributed, and efficient technology for capturing, recycling, and producing decarbonized nitrogen-based fertilizers (NBFs). CASFER brings together a diverse leadership and the convergence of a multidisciplinary team drawn from Texas Tech University, Florida A&M University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Case Western Reserve University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. RMCO is a gold member of CASFER providing commercial technology rights into one of the fastest growing markets of fertilizer recycling.
Heart Water, Inc. - Heart Water offers artisan alkaline rainwater with the aim of saving the depleting water resources. Heart Water is a cloud-harvested, nature-purified, and micro-filtered process, this is the purest alkaline water on the planet. The company has a unique process that utilizes ultraviolet light technology, multi-stage purification, and ozone oxidation, ensuring the naturally purest water available. RMCO owns an equity stake in Heart Water and will collect a royalty interest from each bottle of water that is sold from the facilities constructed by RMC's investment.

Hey everyone,
Here are the three main points I’ve seen in different sources that are important to consider when analysing these results: Gradient between Old and Young leaves, Cation/Anion Balance, and Target Values.

• Gradient between OL and YL: This factor is important because it's calculated from the percentage difference between young and old leaves. It's crucial for both mobile and immobile nutrients. For mobile nutrients, it helps track the movement of elements from storage areas (old leaves) to areas of active growth. For example when a K deficiency may arrive there will probably be a percentual negative on old leaf values compared to young leaf values. For immobile elements, it reveals whether the plant is taking up enough nutrients by showing if young growth has a lower concentration. For example if a plant shows lower values of Ca in young growth compared to old growth that means uptake of Ca may be lacking.
  
• Target Values: It's logical to think of these as guidelines to follow, and that can be true for some cases and specific elements, especially trace minerals which in general guidelines are considered to be immobile in Plant Sap Analysis results. These values can serve as a guide. For instance, you might see a very positive gradient indicating an excess of a certain nutrient, but the overall values might be far below the target. In such cases, target values can be helpful. However, it's important to note that not all labs offer target values, and they are also crop-specific. I,ve seen in many places that it is recommended to build your own set of target values during your first season incorporating Plant Sap Analysis into the crop operation.
  
• Cation/Anion Balance: This factor can be analysed after considering "Gradients" and "Target Values." After a deeper analysis and correlation of results, you can ask yourself: Is my soil deficient in nutrients? Checking this might not be the problem, and this is where nutrient interactions come into play. For example, you might see high nitrate levels in your sap reading based on a positive gradient, indicating that storage areas have higher concentrations than growth areas. In this case, perhaps you're not overapplying nitrate, but rather lacking molybdenum. There are many such examples, which is why learning about the most relevant nutrient interactions for your specific crop is crucial for interpreting Plant Sap Analysis results.
  

Although I’ve read many sources for interpreting results, some points I still want to understand:

• When we look into gradients between OL and YL is it possible to generate guidelines on the gradient numbers to follow?
• What would be an effective method for generating an experimental design for setting tailored target values for your own crop operation?
• How do we plan foliar or soil applications the most effective way when we are using Plant Sap Analysis?

Article Link: https://richardacavalli.wixsite.com/greenplanetmicrocaps/3-cent-entertainment-star-stock

• Big Screen Entertainment Group has been in business since 2005 and is now entering a rapid growth phase with a very popular Marilyn Monroe story in production
  
• Big Screen Entertainment Group has 31 Movies in the can and over 300 titles in distribution and growing
  
• Marilyn Monroe is one of the most popular film subjects in history and the new Marilyn Monroe series by Big Screen Entertainment Group could send BSEG shares soaring. This new series will air information about Marilyn Monroe that has never been aired
  
• Big Screen Entertainment Group has its own distribution platform called Big Stream that distributes through Roku, iTunes, Tubi (owned by Fox), You Tube, Hulu, Shutter, Netflix, Hallmark, Amazon Prime, Paramount and more
  
• Big Screen Entertainment has a 90,000 sq ft production facility in the City of Commerce, Los Angeles and recently launched the Big Film Fund to produce films in the biggest revenue categories
  
• Attractive revenue growth projections and big potential upside with share price at only 3.3 cents and small market cap of $3.7 million
  

Low-budget movies can yield massive profits, sometimes even more so than big-budget blockbusters. This is because low-budget films typically have much lower production costs, which means they don't need to make as much money to turn a profit.
Additionally, low-budget films often cater to niche audiences or explore unique storytelling approaches, which can generate strong word-of-mouth buzz and dedicated fan followings. This grassroots support can lead to significant returns on investment, as seen in the success of independent films like "The Blair Witch Project" or "Paranormal Activity," which were made on shoestring budgets but went on to earn millions at the box office.
Furthermore, with the rise of digital distribution platforms and alternative distribution models, low-budget filmmakers have more avenues than ever to reach audiences directly, reducing marketing and distribution costs while maximizing profits. So, while big budgets can certainly help with spectacle and scale, there's a lot to be said for all the reasons above, Big Screen Entertainment Group (BSEG: OTC) stands out as one of the greatest opportunities to invest in a 3.3 cent stock with a total market capitalization of under $4 million.
New Marilyn Monroe Series in Production Could Send BSEG Shares Flying
The entertainment industry is big and streaming is catapulting revenues even higher. Sales are frequently driven by star power. Names can be everything. Marilyn Monroe is a classic example of a name that continues to draw large numbers of all ages as evidenced by over 7 billion clicks about her on Tik Tok.
Fast-growing, Big Screen Entertainment Group is beginning to make waves in the entertainment industry and recently announced that is thrilled to unveil its latest TV show in production, the highly anticipated unscripted series, “Hollywood Legends: Marilyn Monroe.” A mesmerizing eight-part exploration of Marilyn Monroe's extraordinary life delves into the many fascinating facets of this timeless Hollywood icon, capturing the essence of her undeniable talent and enduring stardom which continues to attract audiences worldwide. This epic documentary was filmed at historic locations across Los Angeles and uncovers hidden stories and untold secrets that shaped Marilyn's journey to superstardom.
Hollywood Legends will premiere exclusively on Big Stream Entertainment, BSEG's cutting-edge streaming platform that boasts a vast library of films, documentaries, and specials, including several featuring Monroe herself. Available on Roku, online, or on your Android device via the Google Play store, Big Stream offers hundreds of hours of captivating content.
“Hollywood Legends: Marilyn Monroe” is produced by BSEG's Chief Executive Kimberley Kates, who said: “Through this show, we pay homage to Marilyn's enduring legacy, presenting her as the trailblazing woman she was—always ahead of her time and an inspiration to millions.”
The Marilyn Monroe documentary will provide new information about Marilyn Monroe that has never been aired and is expected to draw large audiences. Hollywood Legends is just the tip of the iceberg for Big Screen Entertainment Group. The entertainment industry is dominated by industry giants such as Disney, Netflix, Warner Brothers, Roku, Paramount and others, but relatively unknown Big Screen Entertainment Group is quickly establishing itself as a serious contender for large audiences to enjoy a broad spectrum of the most popular categories of films. Big Screen Entertainment Group is guided by Kimberley Kates, who is experienced both in front of the camera and behind the camera where the rubber hits the road to success. There are several moving parts to the movie business and Kimberley Kates knows exactly which paths to take to success.
Demand for the soon upcoming Marilyn Monroe series is expected to be so large that Big Screen announced it is also producing and releasing a Feature Length Documentary about Marilyn Monroe with footage never seen before that is sure to draw large audiences across the globe.
Big Screen Entertainment Group is an innovative entertainment provider that is focused on creating not only popular and attractive projects but is equally focused on generating profits for its shareholders.
Kimberly Kates, CEO - Big Screen Entertainment Group
An important message from Kimberley Kates is, “We have a new line up of projects to make of 28 films from Hallmark to Horror to Faith based. We’ve been optioning scripts from top Hollywood writers the last 2 years. Our current focus for our films is not only to entertain, but also to shed inspiration hope and light in a somewhat dim world. Much of our new IP’s, scripts are about love, light and laughter. Our current slate of projects have that Spielberg touch: Heart, that Hollywood’s been missing for a while now.”
PREVIOUS WORK
BSEG's accomplished producers know how to make big hits and have been instrumental in leading successful projects like Terrifier 2 (Horror, budget $500K, grossing $50M), The Queen (Drama, budget $10M, grossing $125M), Step Up (Romcom, budget $8M, Grossing $120M).
TALENT
Boasting over 200 years of collective experience, the Big Screen Entertainment Group team has managed extensive film and TV programming featuring big names such as Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis, Vin Diesel, Jenny McCarthy, Christian Bale, and Woody Harrelson, thereby driving substantial profits for their clients.
ONE SINGLE PROJECT CAN CATAPULT BIG SCREEN ENTERTAINMENT GROWTH – THERE ARE SEVERAL
Big Screen Entertainment has a large pipeline of films coming to the screen and a list can be seen here.
BIG FILM FUND
Big Screen Entertainment is seeking to launch its own film equity crowdfunding platform, the Big Film Fund, which will be owned by the company. In order to build this platform, BSEG is seeking investment in its common stock which is quoted on the OTC (Ticker: BSEG). BSEG has set a maximum raise of only $500,000 for accredited investors only.
REVENUE STREAMS
Big Screen Entertainment Group generates revenue from a range of sources:

1. Distribution is on all major platforms, including DVD sales which remain stable. This has been a reliable source of revenue that the company continues to expand.
   
2. Marketing and Production: Marketing and production is another key revenue source. With a talented team in-house, Big Screen is committed to delivering high-quality product for clients.
   
3. Streaming Channel: Big Stream is an exciting area of growth to reach a wider audience and to build brand recognition with original programming. Currently Big Screen has over 300 titles and plans on expanding its library.
   
4. The Princess Network Retail: The Princess Network Retail is a profitable revenue stream and Big Screen is committed to expanding this area in the future.
   
5. Kids Education and Programming:
   

Big Screen is committed to providing quality content for all ages and expanding into the lucrative and in-demand area of kids' education and programming. With Big Screen - Kids and The Princess Network - Little Princesses divisions, the company is developing educational and entertaining content that parents and kids will love.
Big Screen Entertainment is dedicated to creating programming that not only entertains but also helps children learn and grow.

1. Publishing:

Big Screen is excited to have launched their publishing division with the acclaimed AVENGER FIELD as the first in the series of books. Management sees this as a promising area of growth and is committed to bringing high quality content to readers.
Audible Versions of our Books will also be available.

1. Selling IPs: Selling IPs to major studios and streamers is an area the company is actively pursuing. With the potential for significant revenue, this as an important area for growth and management is working to increase efforts in this area. The company has been actively developing new shows with teams of writers.
   
2. Film Production and Creation: Big Screen receives a studio fee and production fee for film production and creation work. This includes not only feature films for streamers, but also content for TV like Hallmark Channel and Lifetime. With the opportunity to retain foreign rights and sell to the rest of the world, this is an area committed to growing. This area of growth has significant potential for revenue, and we are committed to investing in the development of new and exciting content for kids. With our talented team and strong partnerships, we are confident in our ability to continue to deliver the highest quality content for kids and their families.
   

Conclusion
The entertainment industry is close to a $100 billion market and stellar performance by stocks like NFLX and ROKU suggest a bright future for Big Screen Entertainment Group that has tapped into the same streaming that has catapulted NFLX and ROKU. Big Screen Entertainment Group represents an opportunity to participate in a superior long-term growth business model positioning to become a large player in the entertainment industry and perhaps even more importantly, Big Screen Entertainment Group is about to launch a film about Marilyn Monroe that could be a blockbuster which could send shares flying. Shares are currently very undervalued, down from 40 cents and selling at 3.3 cents. With a tiny market cap of under $4 million which suggests a big upside potential if the company continues to be successful.

I’m the third. Alex the parrot was the second. A man named Karl Schuster who lived in Berlin in the early 1900s was likely the first. In total, only three individuals are known to have overcome the natural cognitive limits of their species’ brains. Alex did no harm. Mr. Schuster, I’m afraid, may have inadvertently damaged reality. My transgression may be humanity’s undoing.
I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I just wanted to be like Alex.
What made Alex special? He is the only animal to have asked a question.
Lots of animals communicate. Whales and birds sing their songs to each other. Coyotes use barks and howls for identification. We’ve been teaching primates sign language since the 1960s. But these animal tweets and howls and signs aren’t language. There’s no grammatical structure. No deep concepts conveyed - just surface-level stuff. I’m here, they say. I’m threatened, or breed with me.
Animals manage to transmit information and even desires through their species’ form of communication. But none of the thousands of animals observed by science have ever asked a question. Except Alex.
Alex was an ordinary gray parrot, purchased at a pet store by a researcher studying animal psychology. Alex was taught to identify shapes and objects and to speak the name of the items he was quizzed on. One day, while being taught to identify different colors, Alex turned to a mirror and asked “What color is Alex?” This is the only known case of an animal asking a question. Even the famous gorilla who liked to pose for pictures with his kitten and the chimpanzee raised as a human child never managed to ask a question.
As you cuddle up on the couch with Mister Snugglekins the cat, or make Mister Woof Woof the dog beg for treats, think about what it must be like to have an animal mind. Animals’ brains cannot even conceive of the idea of asking a question. They can wonder things: When’s dinner? Is this new person a threat? But the notion of using communication to get answers is beyond their capacity. The gulf between us and our beloved animals is truly vast.
Now, let’s take the next logical step. Is there a mind - can there be such a mind - that is to ours like ours are to animals’? What thoughts are permitted by the laws of physics but are unattainable to the limited machinery of our brains? What if we could improve our own cognitive infrastructure, so our own minds could grasp these currently-unattainable ideas. What lies beyond the ability to ask questions? Hyper-questions? What are they like? What is their purpose? Is there hyper-love? Hyper-joy? What accomplishments lie beyond our grasp?
I used to believe that these ideas amounted to only pointless philosophical wondering. Just stuff to talk about while you’re passing the joint around. Then I learned about Alex, who somehow broke past the cognitive limit of animal thought. If Alex can do it, maybe it’s possible for a human to do it. Maybe, I thought, I can do it.
Unfortunately it is possible for a human to do it. And unfortunately, I did.
* * \*
In 2015, dozens of social media users posted images of a confused-looking elderly man slowly driving in circles in a Walmart parking lot. The emblem on the back of the car said he was driving Toyota Raynow. Toyota denies that a vehicle called a Toyota Raynow ever existed, even as a prototype.
* * \*
I’m not the first researcher to set off on a project to improve human cognition. The eugenicists whose work flourished at the dawn of the 20th century may have been the first people to search for ways to adjust to the human mind. Of course, they had their own spin on the endeavor that, let’s just say, didn’t age well. Take a look at this: an excerpt from the Proceedings of the Third Berlin Conference on Eugenics, 1904. (Translated from the original German by me)

The session on Friday afternoon was opened by Mr. Gerhard Van Wagenen, who presented the report of the Berlin Directed Intelligence Improvement Society. If we are to develop ways of improving the overall intelligence of the human breed, Mr. Van Wagenen argued, we must have, as a guide post, the ultimate limit of human intelligence. Only when we know this limit, can we pose the fundamental question of our effort: Are we to use selective breeding to improve average human intellectual fitness in a population, or are we to find ways of advancing the limit of human genius itself into areas that no individuals born to date have occupied?
Our immediate research goal was therefore to find individuals for whom the light of genius burned, not just at all, but brighter than the lights of all others of that intellectual rank. We sought to find the one individual currently alive who can look down on literally all the rest as his intellectual inferiors.
It is known that in the mass of men belonging to the superior classes there is found a small number who are characterized by inferior qualities. And in the mass of men forming the inferior classes, one can find specimens possessing superior characteristics. Therefore, we shall search wherever those of superior intellect may be found, without regard to their current station.

Inferior classes? Intellectual rank? Try putting that in a research grant proposal today!
Mr. Van Wagenen and his assistants set out across Berlin and asked thousands of people a single question: “Of all the men you know who are still alive, who amongst them is the most intelligent?” They carefully reviewed the resulting list of thousands of names. They removed the duplicates and any female names that ended up on the list. (Those crazy eugenicists, right?) They tracked down each of these men who ranked as the smartest known by at least one male resident of Berlin, and asked them the same question, generating a second-stage list: the most intelligent people known to a group of individuals already considered very intelligent.
And they kept going. They generated the third-stage names, found those people and had them produce a list of fourth-stage names. And so on. This project took a year. There was a running joke in Berlin that Mr. Van Wagenen would only stop when the last name on the list was his own.
But, to Mr. Van Wagenen’s credit, he did not rig the study to identify himself or one of his patrons as the one individual who can look down on literally all the rest as his intellectual inferiors. Indeed, Mr. Van Wagenen eventually concluded that his year-long study was a failure.

A fraction of the people named, about eight percent, simply could not be found. We were appalled to note that a small percentage of the respondents identified themselves as the most intelligent man they knew. While the ultimate individual we seek could only truthfully answer with his own name, we took these first and second stage self-identifiers to be adverse to our research and ignored their input.
In a few hundred cases, pairs of individuals each identified the other. In smaller numbers we found sets of three, four, and even five men whose linkages formed closed loops of co-admiration, eventually working around back to the first man.
But the most striking feature of the data was that over three thousand lines of reported superior intelligence ended in the same name: Karl Schuster. Mr. Schuster had been a successful industrialist before suddenly retreating from public view later in life. Strangely, when we tried to find Mr. Schuster, we learned that he had, of his own volition, taken residence in the mental asylum located at Lankwitz.
He refused to see us when we paid a visit to his private room in the asylum. The only communication we had from him was a note related to us by the Lankwitz staff, in which Mr Shuster wrote:
“I’ve spent most of my life hiding from It. I have isolated myself here, with the notion that the confused noise of mental anguish that surrounds me would act as a form of concealment. I did not suspect I might one day be discovered by ordinary men. Please do not visit me here again.”
From his note, and the fact of his residence within the asylum, we must conclude Mr. Shuster had become a mental defective. Even more damaging to our research, we subsequently learned that Mr. Schuster was a Jew. This finding, unfortunately, invalidates our work. In the coming months, we will strive to find a protocol more suitable for investigation into the nature of superior intellect.

Let’s not be too hard on these anti-Semitic, white-supremacist eugenicists. I’m willing to cut them some slack because I’ve done far, far more damage to mankind than all of these guys combined. I should have listened to Mr. Schuster’s warning. I should not have let It find me.
* * \*
In 1954 a man arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda airport with a passport issued by the country of Taured. No such country exists, or ever existed. Despite the man being detained and guarded, he mysteriously vanished overnight.
* * \*
Where the eugenicists looked to make improvements in the human population over generations by controlling or influencing reproduction, I had a more ambitious goal - to make improvements to a specific human brain (my own) in-vivo. I set out to upgrade my brain while I was using my brain to figure out how to upgrade my brain. I had astonishing success.
I’m not going to tell you exactly how I did it, because it’s just too dangerous. I don’t mean because it’s dangerous to the person undergoing the process (which it is), but because doing so can lead It to notice you. I don’t care if you fry your own cortex. But having It eat even more of our reality will be a calamity.
The human brain consists of gray matter, which is the stuff that performs perception and cognition, and white matter, which deals with boring stuff like running your metabolism. The gray matter - your cerebral cortex - forms a nice thick layer on the outside of your brain. This layer wraps the white matter underneath. I found a way to use pluripotent stem cells to expand the thickness of my cortex. With careful dosing of the stem cell culture through a spinal tap, I created new layers of gray matter underneath my cortex. These new cells replaced the white matter that was there.
For reasons I don’t fully understand yet, the new cortical cells only become active when I have ingested a potent mixture of hallucinogens and antipsychotic drugs.
The process is arduous and very illegal. Experimentation on humans, even if the test subject is also the researcher, is extremely highly regulated. And the drugs I need to use are not available from the suppliers that the rule-following scientific community uses. This work was performed in isolation and in secret. No regulators. No administrators. No rules. Just pure scientific progress.
My laboratory is as unconventional as my approach to science. I’ve set up shop in an assembly of forty-foot shipping containers in the center of my heavily forested seven-hundred-acre plot of land. Privacy!
* * \*
Thousands of people have vivid memories of news coverage from the 1980s reporting that Nelson Mandela died in prison. In the reality that most of us know, Mandela died in 2013, years after his release.
* * \*
Uplift #1 - 3 cubic centimeters
By last October, after six months of stem-cell treatment, I estimated that I had added a total of three cubic centimeters of gray matter to my baseline cortex volume. I could already feel the effects of the diminished volume of white matter. My sense of smell and taste were all but gone. My fine-motor-control was diminished. I had weakness in my legs and arms. But I had three cubic centimeters of fresh cortex to work with. I only needed to activate it. To Uplift myself, as I came to call the process of thinking with an expanded brain.
I planned for the first Uplift as if I was planning a scientific expedition into an uncharted jungle - I stockpiled food and water. I stockpiled lots of drugs. I bought a hundred blank notebooks to record my uplifted thoughts in.
I filled a seven-day pill container with hallucinogens and antipsychotics. I scratched off the Monday, Tuesday, etc. labels on the pill compartments and relabeled them: hour 0, hour 1, and so on. I planned my first Uplift to last seven hours.
Over those seven hours, I learned how to make use of the new, extra capacity in my cortex. I filled notebook after notebook with increasingly complex thoughts. Here are a few excerpts:

Hour 1: The linguistic-mathematical relational resonance is far stronger than most have suspected.
Hour 2: Questions lacking prepositional multipliers of context prevent full expository [(relations)(responses)] yet, but (!yet) there is still an I in the premise.

By the fifth hour, I was fully Uplifted, asking hyper-questions and providing my own hyper-answers. What do the musings of a fully Uplifted mind look like? Page after page of this:

(((Imagine)Imagine[)Imagine)Relate->Time]<--Force(Animal,Object–>Think)

* * \*
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
H.P. Lovecraft, Call of Cthulhu
* * \*
Uplift #2 - 5.5 cubic centimeters.
I waited a few weeks before my next Uplift. I needed time to recover from the mental strain of the first experiment, and to wait for a new dose of stem-cells to produce even more gray matter.
Although I only spent a few hours in an Uplifted state in my first experiment, I felt diminished as I returned to baseline. Hyper-questions. Hyper-answers. Hyper-joy. All of these are wonderful to experience. Life can be so much more rich and full with a post-human cognitive capacity.
But, as I learned during my second Uplift, there is also Hyper-fear.
I descended from my second uplift by screaming and running naked in the snowy woods outside my laboratory. As the drugs wore off, the activated sections of the new parts of my brain shut down. Thoughts that were clear one moment became foggy, like waking from a nightmare.
I fell into a snowbank, breathing hard. Only a trace of what terrified me was left rattling in my tiny, baseline brain: It. It noticed me. I occupied Its attention.
What was It? I knew exactly what It was moments earlier, when I had more gray matter to think with. But now I was like a dog trying to grasp the idea of a question. I was still afraid, but I couldn’t understand the source of the fear.
I returned to the lab and warmed up. Then I reviewed what I had written in my notebooks during the ten hour session. Most of it was the same sort of advanced writings that my now-normal brain could not comprehend. But, somewhere towards the end of the session, perhaps just before I shed my clothes and ran into the woods, I wrote this:

I know what Schuster was hiding from. Find out information about Shuster.

When I recovered from the strain of my second Uplift, I drove to town, where I was able to access the Internet. I found some information about Schuster in the same archive where I found the proceedings from the 1904 eugenics conference.
A short article in a Berlin newspaper described the man who had been named by so many people who took Van Wagenen’s survey.

…Mr. Schuster, at the age of fifteen, had made significant contributions to machine design, metallurgy, and chemistry. He founded four companies which he ran nearly by himself, without a large management staff to insulate him from the workers and day-to-day engineering tasks…

It seems that most of the people who identified Mr. Shuster as the most intelligent person they knew had known him well at this time in his life.
Another article, written in 1905, described strange event at his funeral:

…Also present was a contingent of a dozen people who claimed to have been friends with Schuster during the five years he spent in America. Many who had known Schuster for his entire life stated that he had never been to America, let alone spent five years there. Did a group of people mistakenly attend the funeral of the wrong man?
Everyone in attendance had similar memories of him. All recognized his photograph on the coffin. Indeed, some of the America contingent had letters, written in Karl’s hand and signed by him, fondly recalling his time spent in the New England woods. It is as if there were two Schusters: the one who lived his life in Germany and the other who spent years in America.

Uplift #3 - 6 cubic centimeters
Perhaps I’ve allowed my cortex to consume too much of my white matter. I now have trouble with perceptions. The woods surrounding my laboratory have been transformed into a city. Where there were trees, there are now charming stone buildings from a European city. The song of birds and the whisper of the wind in the trees is gone too, replaced with streetcars and voices speaking German.
I prepared my pill container and notebooks for my third Uplift, as the sounds of a busting turn-of-the-century city rang through the metal walls of my laboratory.
Although I had dozens of blank notebooks prepared, I only made one page of notes during my third Uplift:

I met it today. I know what It is. It is alive. Not just alive. Hyper-alive.
It is built into the very material that logic and mathematics is made from. The digits of the square of pi, when computed to the billionth quadrillionth place, is a sketch of a fragment of its structure.
It consumes pieces of reality. It weaves them into its being, and leaves the tattered shreds of logic and causality to haphazardly mend themselves. It ate the circumstances of Karl Schuster’s life, leaving the ragged edges of different universes to stick and twist themselves back together, like shreds of a tattered flag tangling together in a gale.
It has only begun grazing on the small corner of Hyper-reality where humanity lives. Imagine a cow eating grass from a field. A field where humanity lives like a small colony of aphids on a single blade of grass. It likes it here. It likes the taste of reality here.
I tried to tell it to go away. That we are here and have a right to exist.
It replied to me, in its way. I found its words at the bottom of a twelve-dimensional fractal, woven into the grammar of a language with an infinite alphabet. It taunted me with a question: “What flavor is Alex?”

Update to the Proceedings of the Third Berlin Conference on Eugenics, 1904
Mr. Gerhard Van Wagenen provided the committee with an update on his finding that the individual Mr. Karl Shuster was strikingly-well-represented in the responses of his survey on intelligent men. Mr. Van Wagenen writes:
Upon further reflection of the results of my survey, I returned to Lankwitz again to try to meet with Mr. Schuster. I arrived to find his ward in an uproar, as only a few minutes prior to my arrival, Mr. Schuster had been found missing. The preceding letter, which is reprinted here in its entirety, was found in Mr. Schuster’s room. While the letter does not indicate where he went or even how he managed to slip away from the asylum unnoticed, it does show the extent of his derangement. His detailed descriptions of question-asking birds, strange events from the future, and even methods of biological manipulation unknown to science are not the product of a mind that we wish to recreate. Perhaps intelligence, as a phenomenon of nature, is more complicated than we are able to appreciate with our current notions of science. If I may speculate even further, perhaps Intelligence is a phenomenon we should avoid study of, lest we learn things about ourselves that it is best not to know.

Hello Reddit community,
I'm looking for guidance on crafting a resume after being out of the traditional job market for a long time, or even just looking for a job. Here's a brief overview of my situation:
Background:

• I haven't had a conventional job in over a decade. Instead, I've been running my own successful management consulting business, which I grew to 7 figures in revenue for many years.
• Currently, my business generates around $200K in passive income, and I still do some client work.
• I've worked with a diverse range of clients, from small businesses to large (Fortune 500) enterprises, helping them drive growth and success.
• I'm also the author of a few commercially books related to my area of expertise.
• Have done a bunch of keynote speaking, have a large following on a number of platforms, etc.

Current situation:

• After running my own business for many years, I'm considering a career transition to find a new challenge and greater fulfillment.
• I recently came across a remote position at a startup that aligns with my skills and experience.
• However, I'm unsure how to approach building a resume that effectively showcases my unique background and expertise. I haven't had a resume is 20+ years
• I just feel like a need a change. Covid definitely had an impact on my business, and while I could prob coast of current revenues, it's not very fulfilling.

Questions:

1. How can I structure my resume to highlight my entrepreneurial experience and achievements in a way that is relevant to a traditional job application?
2. What's the best way to address my long absence from the conventional job market and frame my business experience positively?
3. Are there any specific tips for creating a resume that targets remote positions and startup environments?
4. Given my background, what types of roles or industries should I be considering?

I would greatly appreciate any insights, advice, or resources you can share to help me navigate this transition and create a compelling resume.
Thank you in advance for your guidance and support!

Gratitude to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas from ten directions and three periods of time!
Gratitude to the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva!
Gratitude to the selfless, altruistic, and benevolent Master Lu!
Gratitude to fellow Buddhist practitioners who helped me!
I am Bin Liu from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. Today, I would like to share my Buddhist experience: how the Three Golden Buddhist Practices of Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door saved me, a late-stage lung cancer patient.
I have been practicing XX Dharma Door for >20 years and have been a vegetarian for >10 years. In July 2012, due to unexplained weight loss, I went to the hospital. After a series of tests, I was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer that had metastasized to my brain. At that time, my daughter kept the severity of my condition from me, but I had a vague sense that something was seriously wrong. The doctor said surgery was not an option, and that I needed immediate radiation and chemotherapy. I firmly insisted on being discharged from the hospital. My daughter reluctantly agreed, so I left the hospital after only undergoing the tests, without receiving any treatment.
The following 5 months were like living through a nightmare, filled with the excruciating pain brought on by cancer. My daughter took me everywhere in search of alternative treatments, from traditional Chinese medicine to various folk remedies, but none proved effective. My health continued to deteriorate, and my weight dropped from over 40 kilograms to just 25 kilograms. I could no longer walk and had to be carried in and out by my daughter. The most dreadful part was the constant, unbearable pain that lasted 24 hours a day. My entire body was so sensitive that any touch, no matter where, would cause intense pain.
The torment of cancer made me feel truly hopeless. One day, I whispered to my daughter, "Living like this is worse than death," and we both cried. Not long after, I noticed that despite drinking plenty of water, I didn't feel the urge to urinate. My daughter consulted a doctor at the oncology hospital, who explained that it was due to tumor compression, indicating that the cancer had likely spread throughout my body. There was no solution, just palliative care at best, with medication costing 500 CNY per pill, once a day. It felt like a death sentence, waiting for the inevitable day.
On January 1, 2013, I was already drifting in and out of consciousness (this was later recounted to me by my daughter). The day after New Year's Day, on the verge of passing away, news of my illness spread quickly among Buddhist friends I had made while volunteering at the XX Dharma Door practice center. Friends whom I hadn't seen for years came to visit upon hearing the news, bringing with them a glimmer of hope — Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door. They arranged for urgent help from a senior practitioner in Nanjing, who then contacted Master Lu's office for assistance. To our surprise, despite Master Lu's busy schedule, He responded within a few days. With guidance from Master Lu, step by step, we followed the assigned practices: Three Golden Buddhist Practices, making vows, liberating lives, and reciting Buddhist scriptures.
As the Lunar New Year approached, I learned that on New Year's Eve, reciting the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance 87 times could eliminate much of the karmic obstacles generated in this lifetime. So, on the evening of the thirtieth day of the lunar month, I made a solemn vow to Guan Yin Bodhisattva, committing to lifelong vegetarianism, liberating 20,000 fish, printing 10,000 copies of Buddhist scriptures, and transforming 1000 sentient beings. Despite being bedridden and unable to walk, with the support of relatives and my daughter, I made my way to the Buddhist altar. In a state of extreme weakness and pain, I struggled to complete the recitation of the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance 87 times.
The next day, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, I felt completely transformed — spiritually uplifted and with a much-improved physical condition. Filled with confidence, from then on, fellow practitioners accompanied my daughter in conducting numerous fish liberations, releasing 10,000 fish within a month. With their assistance, we also printed Buddhist scriptures of Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door and delivered them to temples, where the monks helped me distribute. Additionally, I began diligently completing the daily recitation given to me by Master Lu every day.
Despite improvements in various aspects, my health suddenly deteriorated again. Just when everyone was puzzled and confused, my fellow practitioners helped me secure a second consultation with Master Lu. Master Lu's reply was brief but resonated deeply with me. He pointed out that after practicing the XX Dharma Door for >20 years, I couldn't let go of it. His guidance during the second consultation helped me realize that I needed to recite Buddhist scriptures with Him first to eliminate my own karmic obstacles before I could save myself. From then on, I dedicated myself to reciting Little Houses every day at home, and my health improved day by day.
One evening, feeling a bit uncomfortable, I called out three times, "Master Jun Hong Lu, please protect Bin Liu even more." Suddenly, I saw Master Lu's Dharmakaya, tall figure in a dark suit. I was truly excited, and the discomfort disappeared instantly. My fellow practitioners told me that seeing Master's Dharmakaya meant I was saved, which boosted my confidence even more.
Now, I am just like a normal person. I can go grocery shopping, cook, and take care of my granddaughter's diet. My weight has also increased to over 40 kilograms.
So far, we have burned >3,000 Little Houses for my karmic creditors and released over 40,000 fish. Because of my living example, my daughter, her colleagues, friends, neighbors, relatives, and some old Buddhist friends who used to practice XX Dharma Door have all started practicing Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door. My daughter, who didn't know a single Buddhist scripture before, can now recite 7 Little Houses every day. This year, our whole family attended the Hong Kong Dharma Conference, and we applied to become disciples of Master Lu. I am truly grateful to Guan Yin Bodhisattva, Master Jun Hong Lu, and all the fellow practitioners who have helped me!
Everyone understands that in our past and present lives, we have all made mistakes and accumulated significant karmic obstacles. Only by eliminating evil thoughts and distractions, and following the great compassion of Guan Yin Bodhisattva, along with practicing Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door under Master Lu, can we eliminate the karmic obstacles within ourselves and return to the embrace of Guan Yin Bodhisattva.
Today, I am deeply grateful to the Bodhisattva for giving me this opportunity to share my Buddhist journey at this auspicious Dharma Conference. I want to tell friends who, like me, have suffered from illness and torment, that it was Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door that saved me and allowed me to be reborn. I hope that all fellow Buddhists have the opportunity to return to the embrace of Guan Yin Bodhisattva in this Dharma Decline Age, cultivate their hearts and minds, break free from the sea of suffering, and attain enlightenment sooner.
Gratitude to the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva!
Gratitude to the selfless, altruistic, and benevolent Master Lu!
Buddhist practitioner: Liu Bin (Jiangsu)
Posted: 2015-07-01
Translator: Frank
Published: 2024-05-28
Source: Feedback from Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door Website Users, Master Lu's Blog.
Statement by translator
The story was translated from Chinese into English by meaning, not word by word. If there is anything that is not rational or in line with the true meaning of the Chinese version, I pray for forgiveness from the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Dharma protectors and Master Jun Hong Lu.
Propagation
It would be greatly appreciated if you would forward this presentation to all sentient beings you know, sick or healthy. You will accumulate immeasurable merits and virtues. Saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-floor pagoda!
Would you like to change your destiny?
We will show you how to do the Five Golden Buddhist Practices of Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door: (1) making vows, (2) reciting Buddhist scriptures (sutras and mantras), (3) performing life liberation, (4) reading Buddhism in Plain Terms, and (5) repenting. You will personally witness how you and your family can achieve physical and mental stability, relief from illness and grievances, wisdom growth, academic progress, career advancement, and family happiness through Dharma. It’s free of charge.
Contact
Buddhist practitioner: Lily
Email: [sunnypurplelily@gmail.com](mailto:sunnypurplelily@gmail.com)
WeChat: HanJing20210820
原文如下：
心灵法门的三大法宝救了肺癌晚期的我
感恩十方三世一切诸佛！
感恩南无大慈大悲救苦救难广大灵感感观世音菩萨！
感恩大慈大悲的师父卢军宏台长！
感恩所有帮助过我的师兄们！
我是来自江苏南京的刘斌，今天在这里是要和大家分享心灵法门的三大法宝是怎样救了肺癌晚期的我。
我修净土已有二十余年，吃长素十余年，在2012年7月因为莫名的消瘦去医院经医院经过一系列检查确诊是肺癌晚期并已转移头颅，当时女儿对我是隐瞒病情的，但我自己隐约感觉着不太好。医生说不能开刀只能放化疗，并且立刻就要进行，我坚决要求出院。女儿只能同意，在医院里我只进行了检查，并未做任何治疗就出院了。
在后来的五个月里我可以说是度日如年，尝尽了癌症给我带来的生不如死的痛苦。女儿带着我四处寻找偏方，老中医，也去找看香头的，但都不尽如人意，身体也每况愈下，从最初的八十多斤瘦到只有五十斤，已经不能走路都是女儿抱着进进出出，最可怕的是24小时没日没夜全身的疼痛，别人都不能碰我因为碰哪儿哪疼。对于癌症的折磨，我真的觉得活的很绝望。一天，我低声和女儿说了一句话，“这样活着真是生不如死”，说完我们俩人都哭了。没过多长时间，我发现喝了很多水都没有小便的感觉，女儿去肿瘤医院咨询医生，医生说是因为肿瘤压迫所致，肯定是转移全身都有了，没有办法，只能死马当活马医，条件允许就给开点药500元/颗，一天一次。我就像是宣判了死刑，等着死亡的那一天。
2013年1月1日那天我已经开始昏沉，（这是女儿后来告诉我的），元旦第二天，就在我弥留之际，因为我之前是在净土道场帮忙助念的，认识很多佛友，我得病的事情很快就传开了，几年没见的佛友听说此事就来探望我，同时也给我带来了生的希望——心灵法门，然后请我们南京师兄帮忙在台长那里挂了急诊，没想到几天后台长百忙之中就回复了，接到台长师父回复后一步一步按照师父布置的功课，三大法宝，许愿、放生、小房子。
当时快过年了，得知除夕可以念礼佛大忏悔文87遍消除今世的业障，于是就在年三十的晚上我向观世音菩萨发了大愿，正式发愿长年吃素，放生二万条鱼，印经书一万本，度一千人。由于当时我已经不能下床不能走路，由亲戚和女儿架着我去佛台那边，我在极度虚弱极度痛苦的状态下，吃力的完成了87遍礼佛大忏悔文，结果第二天大年初一我整个人都不一样了，有了精神，身体状态也好了很多。我充满了信心，自此，师兄们陪着女儿为我大量放生，一月内放生了一万条鱼，还配合了很多小房子，在师兄的帮助下印了心灵法门的经书，送往寺院里，由那里的师父帮我结缘。我自己也开始每天完成台长师父给我布置的功课。
在各方面都有好转的情况下，我身体突然又每况愈下，就在大家都费解疑惑的时候，师兄又帮我向台长师父挂了第二次号，台长回复很简单也说中了我的心事，因为修了二十多年的净土，放不下净土。经过师父第二次点拨我终于明白，先跟着师父念经，消自身的业障才能救自己，自此我每天在家里就是做功课念小房子了，身体也一天好似一天。
有一天晚上，突然有点不太舒服，我就喊了三声“卢军宏台长加倍护佑刘斌”，就看见穿深色西服身材高大的台长法身，当时真的非常激动，身体的不适顿时消失。师兄告诉我如果见到了师父的法身说明你有救了，听后我更加信心百倍。现在我已和正常人一样，自己买菜，做饭还能照顾孙女饮食，体重也增加到八十多斤了。
截止目前已经放生了4万多条鱼了，小房子有3000多张，因为有了我这个活生生的例子，女儿、女儿同事、朋友，邻居、亲戚，还有以前修净土的一些老佛友等都开始修心灵法门。女儿从一个不懂一句经文到现在每天可以念7张小房子，今年我们全家都来参加香港法会，并且申请做了台长得弟子，我真得很感恩观世音菩萨，感恩卢军宏台长，感恩所有帮助过我得同修们！
大家都明白每个人的前世和今世都做错过很多事，每人身上都有很大的业障，只有摒除邪思杂念跟着大慈大悲观世音菩萨，跟着卢台长修心灵法门，才能消除自己身上的业障，回到观世音菩萨的怀抱。
今天很感恩菩萨给我这个机会，让我能在这个殊胜的法会上分享我的学佛经历，我要告诉和我一样饱受病痛折磨的朋友们，是心灵法门救了我，让我得到重生。希望广大佛友有缘在末法时期回到观世音菩萨妈妈的怀抱，修心修行，脱离苦海，早证菩提。
感恩南无大慈大悲观世音菩萨，感恩大慈大悲卢台长！
江苏刘斌
——心灵法门网友反馈 2015-07-01
您想改变命运吗？
我们手把手传授您观世音菩萨的心灵法门五大法宝：“许愿”、“放生”、“念经”、“读《白话佛法》、大忏悔”。您将亲自见证如何通过佛法让自己及家人获得身心安定、病苦解除、冤结化解、智慧增长、学业进步、事业提升、家庭幸福。免费学习，免费结缘。
欢迎联络Lily佛友：sunnypurplelily@gmail.com
或者加Lily佛友微信：HanJing20210820
Disclaimer of Liability:
The contents of the presentation and answers, including text, images, and other information obtained from Dharma practitioners, are provided strictly for reference purposes. Due to the unique nature of individual karma, results similar to those experienced by the authors may not be replicated. The experiences and advice shared should not be construed as medical advice or a diagnosis.
In the event of an emergency, it is crucial to promptly contact your doctor or emergency services by dialing 911. Relying on any information found in the answers is done solely at your own risk. The translator and answerer bear no responsibility for the consequences. By using or misusing the contents, you accept liability for any personal injury, including death. It is imperative to exercise caution and seek professional medical guidance for health-related concerns.

Opinion Opinion When desegregation came to Harlan County, U.S.A.: An oral history

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/28/desegregation-brown-v-board-harlan-county/
What was gained, and what was lost, in the words of those who lived through it.
By Karida L. BrownMay 28, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDTA teacher sits with students outside Lynch Colored Public School, circa 1950. (Courtesy of EKAAMP Collection)ShareComment0Add to your saved storiesSave
Karida L. Brown is a professor of sociology at Emory University and the author of “Gone Home: Race and Roots Through Appalachia.”
As we commemorate the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education this month, let us not forget: It was Black children who did the work of desegregating our schools. Like soldiers conscripted onto a battlefield, these kids were thrust onto the front lines of the American struggle to live up to our nation’s founding creed.
It was not until I was in my late 20s that my parents shared their experiences as children of desegregation. They attended the Lynch Colored Public School, a K-12 school in a company coal town in Harlan County, Ky. They grew up in a time of industrial boom and economic prosperity. But they were still subject to the racist architecture of Jim Crow, including legally mandated separate and unequal education.
Story continues below advertisement
The narratives in this piece come from oral histories I conducted from 2013 to 2016 with African Americans who, like my parents, remember the “colored schools” of Harlan County, particularly those in two small Appalachian coal towns, Lynch and Benham. Their experiences — revisited from the vantage point of their 60s, 70s and 80s — give texture to a complex transition from a pre- to post-civil rights era.
Herein lies a story of painful losses and immeasurable gains. It is a crucial part of our history that must not be forgotten.

‘You better learn something’

Segregation was a fact of life in Harlan County. The close-knit African American community was bound by the strength of its large families, church gatherings and schools filled with dedicated Black teachers.
“These are two things they hammered into my head,” Victor Prinkleton recalled of his teachers at the Lynch Colored School. “You get an education because ... you are not going to be able to get no job in no coal mine, so you better get your education so you [can] get something to do.” As mechanization advanced in the mining industry, Black teachers encouraged their students to aspire to livelihoods different from those of their parents.
“Second was, you better learn something ... and learn how to compete in an integrated society, because segregation is going to end. ... From first grade all the way through high school I heard that, I don’t know how many times.”
Lynch Colored Public School faculty, circa 1950. (Courtesy of EKAAMP Collection)
Lee Arthur Jackson, a 1968 graduate of Lynch High School, the White school that would be desegregated, reflected on this nurturing environment: “They took an interest in what you were doing education-wise, and they saw to it that you were prepared.
“You know, when I came down to University of Kentucky, I was not afraid that I could not compete or anything like that,” Jackson said. “I mean, that just was not in my nature. And so I can do the same thing you’re doing. And that’s the way they prepared us: to be as good — better than — anybody else.”
Black educators were well aware of the changing tides, though change was slow to reach the county. Despite the thunderclap of Brown v. Board in 1954, resistance persisted. White school boards and communities across the South, including in Harlan, balked at the federal mandate, with many calling it “tyranny.” Desegregation did not arrive in Lynch and Benham until 1963.
Cheryl Baskin Brack remembers the moment she and her classmates learned that their world would change. John V. Coleman, the last principal of the Lynch Colored School, broke the news: “When Professor Coleman announced in the gym that that would be our last year, it felt like something stabbed me in my heart. Because I didn’t want to leave.”
Desegregation went forward under a cloud of caution and reluctance. Older students, grades 10 to 12, would go first. Meant to ease the concerns of White Harlanites, this gradual desegregation nonetheless met with resistance from White faculty, and generated profound hurt and anger among Black students.
“Sometimes I try to go back to that, and I’m not sure if I can remember — and that may be one of those kinds of things that you try to put out of your mind,” said Porter G. Peeples, who was sent to the White school in Lynch for his senior year of 1964. “Because it was something that I didn’t want to happen. All the way through high school, you look forward to the day when you’re the big dog, that you’re the senior. And they took that away from us, just flat took it away from us.
"I looked through one of the yearbooks, and I looked at a lot of the awards. ... They were all White kids in our senior year.”
“We were mad because they closed our school down and we had the newer building,” said Albert Harris, who had until then attended Benham Colored School. “So we were forced to go to their building and stuff, you know. So that part angered us, too.
“All the stuff, it just got thrown away. I remember I was with some of my boys, and we went and broke into the old colored school, and we took some of the trophies and the basketball warm-up pants. There were four of us, and we stole those and we would sport them [the pants] around and wear them. But yeah, they just did away with our stuff. So that was our anger in that.”

Crosscurrents of race and class

Harris, who would graduate from Cumberland High School, the White school in the next town over, also noted the economic impact of integration on the Black community: “You got to realize that we had our own school, so you had from principal, assistant principal, math, biology, science, all the way down to the janitors. So the majority of them lost their jobs, and it was the same way with Lynch: It was just a few teachers that maintained their jobs. The rest of them had to leave the area.”
“The teachers that I had all my life,” said Harriett Callaway Hillie, a 1959 graduate of Benham Colored School, “they no longer had a job there.”
The Black segregated schools were anchored by a profound dedication and tenacity among educators — a legacy deeply etched into the community fabric. In contrast, upon desegregation, Black students felt indifference from their White teachers.
Jack French, who desegregated Lynch High School his senior year as a part of the experimental cohort of Black students, observed: “Their mentality was, ‘These Black kids are here, we got to accept the fact that they are here, but I am not going to deal with it to the extent to which it is beneficial to the school.’ To me, that was their mentality. And I watched and observed a great deal of the teachers, because when I came in, it was nothing but all White teachers — that’s all.”
“To me, when we integrated it seemed like the teachers, the White teachers, they didn’t care whether we learned or not,” said Brack. “They were just there, and that was it.”
Ravern Whitt, who integrated the White school in Cumberland in sixth grade, discovered resilience and unexpected revelations about racial and class dynamics: “We had a background from the Black school. I honestly say this with all my heart: They gave us a foundation that learning was everything. So it didn’t matter if I was in school with White people talking about me. I didn’t care. But I wanted to know … what they meant. What made them so different to everybody else? …
“We all thought White people, all of them were well-to-do, all better off than we were. Well, as time went on, we started running into people that didn’t mind telling you how poor they were and the different things they had to deal with and their environment, you know. And I began to see a different class of people among themselves — White people — as we went through school, especially freshmen in high school. There were people in there that didn’t have it like the rest of the White people, and they seemed to be attracted to the Black people, for some reason. ... But that was an eye-opening moment for me because before, I wondered why White people didn’t want to play with us.”
In time, Brack’s fears about academic preparedness gave way to a surprising realization: “And I tell you, the funny thing about that, when we integrated, I was kind of afraid because, see, we always got the books that they had. They had sent us the leftovers. And when we integrated, I was kind of nervous because I thought that we were not going to be prepared like the Whites. But when I got out there, it was totally different. I was surprised: We know more than some of them!”

‘As good as and better than’

Clara Clements, a graduate of Lynch Colored School who went on to teach at Black and White schools in the town — before and after desegregation — remembers the initial optimism: “When they were talking about their integration, there were many people who were excited about it: ‘Our children can get a better education.’ I remember this vividly. ‘They can take chemistry so they can be nurses and doctors,’ and when they got an opportunity to take chemistry, I went down there and took chemistry voluntarily.
“But we lost [the Black teachers who] had interest in children.”
Vergie Mason, a former teacher at Lynch Colored School, shared a mixed reflection on the tangible improvements that came with integration: “I know in Lynch we got hand-me-down books. The White school used the books, and then we got them and we paid for all of our supplies — the teachers paid for them. When we integrated, we got new books. … I got all the paper I wanted for typing — you know, the reams of paper you print your exams and things on. Everything was paid for. …
“But I think really that in the Black school, Black teachers understood the Black kids, and I think that made a difference with the Black kids. When they integrated, some of those White teachers didn’t know anything about the life and livelihood of Black people. And I don’t think they were as patient with them as the Black teachers were.”
Teachers chaperoning a dance at Lynch Colored Public School, circa 1950. (Courtesy of EKAAMP Collection)
Rosie Ivory Pettygrue, who taught third grade at the Lynch Colored School until its closing, captured the poignant revelations of self-worth and equality that emerged from the integration experience. “We lost and we gained,” she said. “This is how we gained: I think that some of our children thought that they were inferior to Whites, and they found out that they knew more than a lot of them did. And then some of the Whites thought that we were inferior, and they found out that we knew more than what a lot of them did.”
Charles Price, a former teacher and the last principal at Benham Colored School, points to the broader cultural costs and psychological benefits of Brown: “The cost, I think, was the community. … It dissolved, and there was sort of an acclimation to the people, and we sort of lost our identity. The benefits were, I think, more psychological than anything. We learned that we were as good as and better than.”
All archival materials featured here can be found in the Eastern Kentucky African American Migration Project Collection No. 5585, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.When desegregation came to Harlan County, U.S.A.: An oral history
What was gained, and what was lost, in the words of those who lived through it.

hey guys
I would like to create my own Pokemon 2nd generation romhack, something like Pokemon Prism or Pokemon Coral Version, I don't know where to start and I don't have any experience with romhacking, but I think it's possible with the help of today's programs. Can someone tell me:
1) Is it possible to edit a ready-made map from Pokemon GOLD or CRYSTAL and add your own elements to it OR change the tiles to your own?
2) Is it possible to create your own map from scratch - if so, in what program and where to download the tiles OR how to edit them?
3) what program should I use to build the entire game code - does such a program exist?
4) are there any in depth tutorials on YT? I've seen only tutorials for gen 3
any links to YT, forums, etc...? :)
I think these questions are enough to start with, I'll ask about the rest in the future

There's two characters in Gnosis I'd like to poll your opinions of, specifically your moral judgements of. Feel free to explain your opinion in detail below, or just vote in the poll. These two aliens, who later civilizations granted the Occite (dead language, used similarly to how we use latin today) names Aeldymyga and Aeldyshana are part of the Haloborn offshoot the same people named "Aeldya" and two of the oldest living beings in the setting. The others are Aeldylumna, Aeldymalga, Aeldyfarsa, Aeldyvinza and Aeldydeita, yes there really was only ever seven of them. (The prefix "Aeldy-" roughly means "bizarre deity" and I'll be cutting it off from here on.) Their history is long, complex and deeply unpleasant, but at its core this is a question about whether or not atrocities on the scale of those the Aeldyans committed constitute a moral event horizon from which it is impossible for anybody to return.
Our story starts off over twenty thousand years before they arrived in this system, on the homeworld of the Haloborn. This world orbits a star that in turn orbits perpendicular to most of the stars in the galaxy and on its most recent (and only the most recent) pass its inhabitants were a technological civilization that specialized in biotech due to the metal-poor nature of their host star. These two, like nearly all Haloborn, were cripplingly impoverished in a post-scarcity society that refused to share its resources with its people. As automation reached the point where society didn't need workers at all anymore the elite of their society hatched a scheme to dispose of the poor and eliminate their greatest fear at the same time. See, they noticed that there was no sure signs of any other intelligent life in the galaxy, at least that they saw, a familiar issue we humans call the Fermi Paradox. Their solution to this was to assume something must be destroying the rest of them, not the truth which is that they were just early and the only earlier civilization was on the far side of the galaxy. We call this absurd conclusion built off the unchallenged assumptions of authoritarian ideology "The Dark Forest", and they decided to exploit and destroy the rest of their people to burn The Dark Forest to the ground. Their people were rounded up, forced into extreme longevity treatments that deliberately sterilized them and put in re-education camps off in very nearby uninhabited star systems over the course of several centuries. There entire star systems were being strip-mined to make a personal colony-constructor ship for every one of them while they each designed their own autonomous military and tested them against eachothers' in simulations before and after they were shoved into a million-tonne transport & factory ship and sent off to commit genocide against the entire galaxy. This is where Shana and Myga met, and when Shana was sent off with her parents and siblings Myga requested to go with her and lacking a group of her own was allowed to do so. This journey to Gnosis was only a couple hundred light years, but being so mechanically primitive they had to travel the full distance at <1% C instead of traveling millions or billions of times shorter of a distance with spatial compression technology. In the score of millenia it took them to arrive a new, third spacefaring civilization arose even closer, got hit by other Haloborn like them, investigated and discovered what the Haloborn's rulers did to their own people, built a star laser around a small red dwarf about thirty light years away and about thirty years later the entire Haloborn homeworld was melted, vaporized, ionized into plasma and driven into its parent star. (Too bad most of those responsible for what happened to its regular people had already left, the ultra-advanced Neo-Haloborn and the Wrath of the Rim have been waging war across the Milky Way ever since.) Most of this is greater-universe information unavailable in this setting, but it's available in another setting much earlier in the timeline so it's all still fair game.
When they launched for Gnosis, it was host to naught but microbes. When they arrived it was on its second interstellar civilization, its first (the Precursors, the only interstellar civilization that predates the Haloborn) having shown up and terraformed 4 planets and 9 moons then ditched this place in response to problems abroad, then a second one had shown up a few centuries before their arrival. Other than it being the civilization that brought humans here we know nothing about them because of Aeldya. When the seven arrived they sneakily deployed their colony-constructors in the outer system, building their invasion forces and nudging five kuiper belt objects onto trajectories that would all intersect with one of the inner worlds around the same time. When the defending fleets dispatched to redirect the comets they launched gargantuan missiles for all thirteen worlds I nicknamed "Extinction Engines", each accelerating 6 sub-missiles to ~173km/s (~C/1728, or "0.001C" as they'd write it), with each of those carrying six ~0.8 exajoule "Supernova" MIRVs (antimatter-enhanced nuclear weapons that fuse hydrogen until it produces nickel-56, hence "Supernova"). The parts of the fleet dispatched to deal with them found they were able to break up early to target warships, and not long thereafter the Aeldyan drone fleet hit them from behind, destroying their orbital defenses, their fleet and naval command stations, and not long after all military, industrial and government facilities in the entire system were annihilated along with all the key infrastructure the current inhabitants had built. At least in this star system their civilization was gone forever and retaliation never came, leaving humans and everybody else in the system as post-apocalyptic tribes. Myga and Shana were as involved in this as all the others, barely any gentler during the initial invasion than the others were and only in the sense that they only nova bombed the listed targets hard enough to ensure their destruction, not to destroy entire surrounding cities like their counterparts did. That said, afterwards they did prove to be the nice ones in the group, but "nice" is relative. Shana positioned her main compound at the south pole of the most verdant world since almost nobody lived on the ice cap, while Myga positioned hers on the planet's most populous and second largest continent to quietly watch the people there. Notably, they were the only Aeldyans to share a world, all the others took one or more as their domain exclusively.
After a few years Myga changed the RoE for her all her robots from "warning shots only unless attacked" (already gentler than how the rest had it set) to "no lethal force on sophonts under any circumstances", never to be changed back. Shana followed suit some time after, the first in a long series of behavioral changes Myga modeled and Shana followed. Soon they were building together all over the planet, partly building up a massive military presence and partly building units to make fight eachother's for fun, but mostly just making things to entertain themselves and eachother. This isn't unusual, Haloborn usually just play around with their tech after they take a star system over (would you do any different?), but what is unusual is that after a few centuries Myga started helping the local tribes. This was slow at first, early on she just had her units drop the carcass of any animal they killed at the nearest village, but in less than a millennium she started distributing small arms (mostly coilguns, good for hunting) to local villages, ordering units with less-lethal weapons to intervene in armed conflicts (too bad she stopped, shit's fucked right now) and sending out a handful of robots programmed to demonstrate useful techniques like irrigation to the locals. She also started building a lot of giant statues of herself and Shana, way more than the others built giant statues and that's really saying something. Shana soon joined in, and in no time they were climbing into humongous mecha and using them to see the progress of the locals in person (while remaining impervious to anything they'd have for centuries). I think you can see why ancient people thought of Aeldyans as deities, all things considered.
Then things fell apart. We're still not sure what happened, but we have a pretty basic timeline of events in the final century of Aeldya. First, Myga's statues... Changed. We're not sure exactly when, the oldest of the weird ones we found was dated to about a century before the explosions started give or take a few decades, but it and many more portrayed Myga's head swollen up larger than her entire thorax. (Haloborn have a two-segment body with four limbs attached to each a dimorphically-horned head and six digit appendages, except male haloborn have a seventh, extra-jumbo middle digit on all four forelimbs.) Not long after this, she built at least one statue where she and Shana were both like that. We don't know what she was trying to communicate and it seems doubtful the purpose of these statues was to communicate anything to us, but modern civilizations have been able to figure out from them that the four Aeldyans with the larger heads, downward-curving horns and six-digit hands were female, that their species gestates in their mother's head of all places, that their brain probably isn't in their head and what the males' extra digits are for. What we do know is that almost immediately thereafter one of the others nova'd Myga's central compound and everything she built on the entire continent. (And I'm not telling you who.) We thought for a while this probably killed her based on what happened next, we have reason now to believe she's still alive but the others didn't know that. Before the fallout had settled, Shana was at war with her father and siblings. Just a few short weeks later Shana killed her father Vinza so hard she gave Gnosis Vin a ring system; a ~13km ball of porous rock and ice struck his compound at ~35km/s with enough kinetic energy to dwarf The Chicxulub Impact. Without her father's involvement and with her kill-crazy lunatic sister attacking everybody, Shana was able to best both her brothers and while she didn't kill any of them she did destroy most of the other three's industrial capacity and their colony-constructor ships so they couldn't rebuild it. In the process, Gnosis Aelsif got nova'd to hell and back. We only just found a way to the moon-planets of the planet-star where her mother resides (Gnosis Dei is an odd, unnatural object) so we don't know if she was involved or not. Shana's next move was to nova everything she and Myga had built together over their time in Gnosis. (Curious...) Then Shana moved past "anger", skipped "bargaining" and went straight to "depression", and how! (No seriously, you don't understand, she was outright catatonic for millenia.)
Since then, the modern civilizations have developed in the shadow of Aeldya and the other civilizations that came before. We've seen signs Myga is alive, mostly that her units haven't changed behaviour at all where Vinza's CCAIs (command and control artificial intelligences) turned on eachother and his drones have been fighting a civil war ever since across his planet and the entire inner asteroid belt (with explosions so gargantuan you can see them from the planets) while ignoring everybody else. That screams "failsafe", we think it happens any time one of them dies (but our sample size is one.) Other than that we've found that her old compound (now known as the "Still City of the Storm's Eye") is now in the eye of a stationary blazing hypercane, the ground beneath melting into shards of flying glass with light from the Precursor dyson swarm which power the megameter an hour winds that reach clear into the stratosphere. (And send shards raining down hundreds of kilometers away.) If she's in there she sure doesn't seem to want visitors but it's not like there's any better explanations. We've also seen that the continent around it has gotten weirder and weirder ever since, invasive species somehow arriving from other planets and moons in the system, some we don't know where they're from, some might even be entirely new creatures never seen anywhere else and some we can't fathom occuring naturally, and yet it all thrives even in places where not much should be living. The new ecosystem is strong, stable and turned even desert and tundra into thriving, verdant wilderness teeming with life. These "Otherlands" CANNOT be natural. While we don't know of any technology that could produce all of the phenomena there, the Precursors brought life to these planets somehow so maybe Myga's hijacked whatever kind of world-seeding engines they had and that would at least explain the "unconventional" lifeforms. (IE: "Spirits", sexually reproducing machines made of bioplastic orbs and tubes surrounded by a hologram and an electroweak field that protects their fragile body.)
So far we've seen them move on from the worst atrocity in the history of the setting to (for a while) help the descendants of their victims and then after the Aeldyan civil war we've seen signs one of them is trying to repair the damage done to the environment by their horrific weapons. We haven't talked about why, because modern people don't know that, but here's the part where I ditch what IU people know: Myga's every action since the invasion was out of remorse and an effort to be seen by the people of the planet as a benevolent figure so she could see herself as less of a monster and she dragged Shana along with her. However, it was Shana who first created their greatest gift to the younger civilizations: Immortals, starting with immortal Folk (the humans physically most like us) known abroad as the "Children of Heaven". Immortals are what you get when you use Haloborn biotech to turn the unborn into supersoldiers, and while there's a LOT of ethical problems with the process (like the complete lack of consent from any party) the resulting people have insurmountable immune systems, hypermetabolism and healing factor, stop ageing at a pre-programmed point, can survive incredible physical trauma, the main downside is sterility, their only weakness is poison and the only unsurvivable physical trauma would be the destruction of the heart or brain, or decapitation if the head isn't reunited with the body within about a week. This isn't insurmountable by any means, it won't let them survive a direct strike from naval artillery for example, but it's pretty impressive to non-spacefaring people. She created the children of heaven as a hasty apology, she accidentally collapsed a building on an expedition to the south pole trying to scare them away from her compound, retrieved their leader's corpse after he crawled out with his one remaining limb and died, rebuilt him as the first Child of Heaven and proceeded to find him over a century later to create more immortals of this type. Warit Abn Alaliha is a... "complicated character" (plus she still doesn't know about his worst actions, and might be involved in his positive character arc in more ways than its length) so we'll skip evaluating his dubious morals. When she found him in the capital of his New Holy Empire she decided to "bless" the academy he built on the eponymous bay of Blessed Bay by installing a facility under one of the islands that would monitor the academy and ensure any folk girl who conceived there would become host to a pair of tiny symbiotic drones that would improve her health and modify her eggs so her children would be Children of Heaven and as she made immortals for new species she gradually made it so girls of all those species who conceived at the academy would give birth to immortals from then on. She also began monitoring other societies around the world around this time and when she saw giant empires stomping on tiny tribes she intervened by granting those tribes their own immortals. She's not the only creator of immortals anymore, both Myga and Shana's brothers have joined in, but only her and Myga remain true to the original goal of helping those unable to resist imperialist aggression defend themselves. For once it was Shana dragging Myga in a constructive direction, even though she doesn't know yet. Unfortunately the Elven Empire managed to steal some of her technology and make their own immortals to fuel their imperialist aggression, and while she didn't intend that particular outcome it wouldn't be an unreasonable opinion that it was forseeable and she's still responsible for it.
This is where we are today. Neither of them communicates with modern people as far as society at large knows, modern people aren't even 100% Myga's alive (even if us outside observers know better) and the assistance they've been providing from the sidelines has been very light-touch, indirect stuff to the little guys the big empires keep kicking around. They've helpfully rebuilt and abandoned some factories and then half-destroyed and aged them so they'd look like they'd been there since their civil war and let the powers that were less aggressive and more prone to sharing have some of their tech bit by bit over the years after seeing Warit Abn Alaliha's New Holy Empire had found and restarted one production line in one of Shana's kinetic warhead plants and figured out how to hard-start the missiles to use them against the Elven Empire as if they were ordinary semi-active laser homing weapons. They even intervened a few times more directly, such as the time they ran aground an Elven Empire Company cargo ship full of those small arms Myga once made for people on one of the largest islands of the Palisadean Realms said Elven Empire and all its companies had been ravaging (by which I mean wiping entire islands clean, killing all who resist and dragging the rest off as slaves or the subjects of unethical human experimentation) so the locals could use those weapons to defend themselves. The only times either one has been willing to be blatant is whenever the Elven Empire builds on the shores of Shana's ice cap she uses an EMP generated by a 29 petajoule upper-atmospheric nova bomb as a "warning shot" and if they won't take a hint she detonates a 38 terajoule nova 2/3 of a klick in the air, reducing their base to smoldering rubble beneath a mushroom cloud before they've even finished building it, and she's only willing to be that heavy-handed because nobody else is down there to be collateral damage. As it stands, it doesn't seem like they intend to get directly involved even now that the inner worlds have been consumed in a horrific great war so vicious it reached an 8-digit number of fatalities in six days. (That is NOT hyperbole.) This could be written off as "prime directive" bullshit, but really it's plain old, garden-variety guilt, shame and self-doubt. (Whether they'll change their mind remains to be seen.)
So have Aeldymyga and Aeldyshana managed to redeem themselves with their actions over the last eight thousand years? Is what they did so far beyond the pale that nothing can redeem them? Or can they be redeemed but they just haven't gotten there yet? That's all just an opinion, so let's hear yours.
View Poll

Good day, Redditors.
I'm writing this post to share the leassons that me and my team has learned this year from spending almost $250k on facebook ads for our own e-commerce brand.
Let's get started.
I started advertising on Facebook in 2017, which is seven years ago. It feels like two years, really. Back in 2017, when the Facebook ads platform was quite new, it was hard not to get results. Businesses used stock images in their ads and made millions in sales.
Back then, if you started Facebook ads, it was like having the only restaurant in town, and just because you were the only one in town, it would always be full. This was Facebook ads back then.
Fast-forward to 2024, and it's like having 100 restaurants in a small town. Everyone is competing for the same customer. Advertising today is hard. Actually, you could say that in 2018, when there was more competition than in 2017, the same thing you could say about 2019 and 2020 (the release year of IOS 14). What's the point that I'm trying to make? Facebook ads in 2024 are easier than they will be in 2025 and 2026.
If you just look at all the legacy brands in the car industry, skin care industry, or any other industry, they still mostly use tv ads, billboard ads, and youtube ads; if they are advertising on Facebook, their ads suck. That being said, direct-to-consumer or any other small business owner still has time to get it. Yes, it's more challenging but will only become more complex.
That being said, let's jump to the lessons I have learned this year, and hopefully, you can take some nuggets away from this post.
1) THE CREATIVE
This year, we have tested more than 400 ad creatives for our brand, and we still haven't done enough testing. Content really is the king. Last year, I wrote about the need to test at least five creatives a week. That's long gone. The tiktokization is real in Facebook ads as well. The more you test, the faster you find winning ads that can scale.
This year's learning on creatives is that best-performing ads don't live as long as they used to. In 2023, we still had ads from 2022 that were the best-performing ads for some clients. This year, it's way different. The life of the best-performing ad has gone down. This means we must create more ad variations, especially when we find a winning ad angle.
I would suggest anyone spend at least 30 minutes on Instagram reels and look at the content that interests them. Then, look at your Facebook feed the next day; you will see tons of ads about the thing that you watched on the Instagram reel the previous day.
Creating just few ads a month is not enough. Back in 2017 you could run 2 ads for the whole year and just print money. It's 2024 and two ads should be launched every day.
So, how can you test hundreds of ads a month?
2) THE RESEARCH
Every small, medium, service-based, direct-to-consumer business owner, marketing director, and CMO has a major advantage over big legacy brands.
It is the ability to connect with your core customers on social media. The way to do that is by researching. Every business has a medium—and large-size competitor in its market. Go to their website, socials, and Google reviews and look for 1, 2, and 3-star reviews about their business.
This is where you can find a lot of golden nuggets on what customers don't like about their product, their customer service, their offer, their service, and so on.
Use that information and create ad content that shows that your product service does not have ".... these problems."
Let's just imagine that you are selling premium quality shoes, and one of your competitors is doing the same, but many of their 2-star reviews say that the competitors' shoes are causing blisters on your feet. You can use that information and your ads to say "that your shoes will protect the customer's feet from blisters."
If you have a better product, some of your competitors use that information and ad creatives around that. Before you do that, read every single 1, 2, and 3-star review and note down what the review was about.
You will be able to take away at least 10+ ad angle ideas from these reviews, and you can create hundreds of ads that you can test.
Back in 2018, ad testing was easy. You created ten ads, each of them with a different messege. 4 for the top of the funnel. Four for the middle of the funnel. 2 for the bottom of the funnel, and you could run it for the rest of the year.
Right now, you need to do a lot of research to truly understand your customers so you can create ads that speak to them. We ran through our competitors this year just by creating ads that spoke to our customers' desires and needs.
Every two weeks, we check our competitor's bad reviews to see if there is a new ad angle that we could test.
Have you seen legacy brand car ads? All of them are the same. Car driving down the hill, pulling up at their house, a guy or girl walking into the house. Every ad is the same, a lot of times when we see the ad we don't even know which car brand it is because it's all the same.
Same thing is happening right now with Facebook ads. All of the ads look the same, speak to the same people and this makes it harder to get results.
The leasson that we learning this year on research is that it needs to be done daily. There is so much information posted every day on our competiors, or the research studdies that has recently be done that we cannot afford to do marketing research once a year. It needs to be done daily at least for one hour. Those who will do it will get better results with their facebook ads.
3) TESTING
In the past two months I have seen far to many ad account audits and I can tell that 95% of the ad accounts don't know what ad testing even means.
I have seen campaigns named DYNAMIC CREATIVE TEST, but when I look at the ad set level, the dynamic creative is off. The ads inside the ad level are different, 3 different creatives, 2 different copies, the same headline. I ask what exactly are you testing and the answer is always " ads" But what exactly are you testing? " I don't know". That pretty much summs up a lot of advertisers today.
How do we do ad testing? We create one ad angle based on one desire. In this ad angle, we have three images with the same messege ( each image has a different background or any other changing variable), two ad copies, and two headlines. This is a dynamic creative ad.
Once we get results, we break it down by best performing ad creatve, ad copy and headline. Then we create improvement creative variations to the best creative, best ad copy and best headline under a new dynamic creative. Then we repeat the process again. And again, and again. Usually about 10 times. Sometimes even 20 times until we hit a really good performing ad angle.
Here are some an ad angles that always work - "US VS THEM" , "Founders Story", "2(3,4,5) Reasons Why X", "Features Benefits" "Negative Humor". All fo these marketing angles work. It's impossible for them not to work if you put in the effort and find the winning ad combination for these ad angles.
And you can find it by testing. In 2023, we tested one improvement and two new ad angles every week.
This year, we will test at least three improvements on the best-performing ad angles and 5 new ad angle tests every week.
This goes back to what I mentioned before: the more you test, the faster you find winners and the quicker you can scale your ads. We even use AI like Claude for ad copy, script writing, headline writing. We also use photoshop ai for more image creative creation. This helps us speed up the process. One creative person with understanding on how ads need to look like can put out the same amount of ads as four people working full time daily without Ai.
One direct-response copywriter with AI can write as many ad copies daily as four people would write in a week.
Even for some of our clients, we have competitors who literally test 100 ads every week, and it has been a challenge to keep up.
To sum up the lesson, last year, we thought that we tested enough this year, and today, we think that we don't test enough, so we're looking for ways to test 50 creatives a week.
4) SCALING THE WINNING TESTS.
Here are some quick tips on how to scale your winning video ads.
The first thing that we do is try to show the same video message, but in a different way. Then we filmed the exact same video but in a different environment. Then we also introduce different age groups; if your product appeals to 18-65, then you need to have people in your ads that are in those age groups. One ad can be a person who's 19, then another ad is 24, 30, 35, 40, 46, 50+, and so on. People resonate with people in their age group. It's hard for a 55-year-old to resonate with a 19-year-old who does not share the same problems.
If you find a winning ad don't sit on it, don't let it die out, scale the creative by creating more of it that would appeal do different audiences.
It's a common mistake to rely solely on increasing ad spend when a winning creative starts to lose its effectiveness. Instead, consider creating more variations of the ad, especially if the message is still generating results. Don't be afraid to create 50 or more variations of the winning ad. Remember, it's not easy to find a winning creative, so it's important to make the most of it when you do.
Sometimes, it takes us six weeks to find a winning ad messege when we test 50+ ads. Once we find it, we make sure that we squeeze out all the juice from that winning ad messege.
5) ADVERTORIALS, LANDING PAGES ETC.
I have mentioned this in other posts. This is this years biggest leasson. Test more landing pages, advertorials and listicles. We all know that the product page, website always needs to be improved and the more you improve the better conversion you can get.
But what a lot of people overlook is testing separate landing pages and advertorials.
Especially landing pages based on best performing ads. If you talk about a problem in the ad and then just randomly send people to your website you will get sales. But if you talk about the problem and send people to a landing page that goes deeper inside the problem that the customer might be facing and educates them that this one of the best and cost effective solutions out there your ads will get even more conversions.
I almost feel ashamed that last year, we did not do this on the scale that we do now.
We also launch a new landing page or advertorial test for our past week's best-performing ads every week. To continue to the marketing messege. This strategy has been so impactful that we will launch a new sales campaign just for landing pages alone.
6) CREATING SOCIAL CONTENT.
It's not enough to create ads. You also need to create content that you can publish on your feeed to get organic engagement. Getting organic engagement boosts your ads. Also the best organic posts can be used as ads to give it even more engagement.
How many content pieces do you need to post? Ideally? Ten reel videos a day. I do understand that this sounds wild, but here I am. We are not posting ten videos a day yet. Suppose we go back to understand what Facebook and Instagram are trying to optimize for. They want the users to spend as much time as possible on their platform. The only way a user can spend as much time as possible is to consume content. If you publish content that people like to watch, educational, humorous, and showcase content around your product or service, you will get a boost from Facebook and Instagram algorithms. Your ads will get lower CPM; lower CPM = lower CAC. Lower CAC = More profit or more money for advertising to scale your business.
We started posting one post a day, and we saw a decrease in CPM and CAC. Also, engagement on our social media increased. Once people see the ad, they can click on the Facebook or Instagram page, and there's actually some good content that people like to watch, which helps Facebook's algorithm.
7) SUMMARY
Compared to all the previous years, this year has been the hardest in advertising, especially after recent changes in meta-algorithms going heavily into ad content optimization. This meant that we had to be more strategic about testing and more dialed into research than ever. If you had told me in 2018 that you need to test 50 ads a month and do at least 2 hours of research weekly, I would have told you to go F**** yourself. I have succeeded with my five ads per ad account, and I'm good. Looking back, this humbles me and makes me think and ask the question - "what will be required to get success with Facebook ads in 2026?" This is only two years from now? One thing I know for sure is that it will be more challenging than it is now.
Even writing this right now fuels me with an urgency to build things bigger and faster. Cause in two years there is going to be 400 resturants packed in a small town battling for the same customer.
Thanks for reading. I hope that you enjoyed this post. See you in the next one.

”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. There was a man having been sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to bear witness about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to what was His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John *bore witness about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has been ahead of me, for He existed before me.’ ” For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he *said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Therefore, they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. This One is He who comes after me, of whom I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandal.” These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. On the next day, he *saw Jesus coming to him and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who has been ahead of me, for He existed before me.’ I did not know Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing with water.” And John bore witness saying, “I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abided on Him. And I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘The One upon whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding on Him, this is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” On the next day, John again was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” And the two disciples heard him speak and followed Jesus. And when Jesus turned and noticed them following, He *said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” He *said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day. It was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first *found his own brother Simon and *said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. When Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).“ ‭‭John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭42‬ ‭LSB‬‬
”Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness of what we have seen, and you do not accept our witness. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light lest his deeds be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been done by God.” After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. And John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized— for John had not yet been thrown into prison. Therefore there arose a debate between John’s disciples and a Jew about purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.” John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease. “He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. What He has seen and heard, of that He bears witness; and no one receives His witness. He who has received His witness has set his seal to this, that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”“ ‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭36‬ ‭LSB‬‬
”And Jesus went out from there and *came into His hometown; and His disciples *followed Him. And when the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to this man, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? Is this man not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they were taking offense at Him. And Jesus was saying to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He was marveling at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching. And He *summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and was giving them authority over the unclean spirits; and He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a staff only—no bread, no bag, no money in their belt— but to wear sandals; and He added, “Do not put on two tunics.” And He was saying to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. And any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them.” And they went out and preached that men should repent. And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them. And King Herod heard it, for His name had become well known; and people were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.” But others were saying, “He is Elijah.” And others were saying, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard it, he kept saying, “John, whom I beheaded, has risen!” For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Now Herodias was holding a grudge against him and was wanting to put him to death and was not able; for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he was keeping him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him. And a strategic day came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his great men and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee; and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you.” And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you; up to half of my kingdom.” And she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” And immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” And although the king was very sorry, yet because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. And immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard this, they came and took away his body and laid it in a tomb. And the apostles *gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. And He *said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.“ ‭‭Mark‬ ‭6‬:‭1‬-‭32‬ ‭LSB‬‬
”And the disciples of John reported to him about all these things. Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are You the One who is to come, or should we look for someone else?” When the men came to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the One who is to come, or should we look for someone else?’ ” At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits, and He granted sight to many who were blind. And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” And when the messengers of John had left, He began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft garments? Behold, those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces! But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and even more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” And when all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the scholars of the Law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John. “To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children, sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, who say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’ For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” Now one of the Pharisees was asking Him to eat with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. And behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner. And when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume. And standing behind Him at His feet, crying, she began to wet His feet with her tears. And she kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. Now when the Pharisee, who had invited Him, saw this, he said to himself, saying, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he replied, “Say it, Teacher.” “A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he graciously forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.” And turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” And those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”“ ‭‭Luke‬ ‭7‬:‭18‬-‭50‬ ‭LSB‬‬
”And it happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘ Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. ‘Give us each day our daily bread. ‘And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’ ” Then He said to them, “Which of you has a friend and will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot rise up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not arise and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. But what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or, if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. Now it happened that when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds marveled. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” And others, testing Him, were seeking from Him a sign from heaven. But He knew their thoughts and said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against itself falls. But if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason, they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. He who is not with Me is against Me and he who does not gather with Me, scatters. “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” Now it happened that while Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.” But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” Now as the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. “No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light, but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore watch out that the light in you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.” Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee *asked Him to have a meal with him. And He went in and reclined at the table. But when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you. “But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God, but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.” Now one of the scholars of the Law answered and said to Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too.” But He said, “Woe to you scholars of the Law as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, but your fathers killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ Woe to you, scholars of the Law! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” And when He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, plotting to catch Him in something He might say.“ ‭‭Luke‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬-‭54‬ ‭LSB‬‬
”Now it happened that when Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John in prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for someone else?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” Now as these men were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ palaces! But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, who call out to the other children, and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.” At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”“ ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬-‭30‬ ‭LSB‬‬
”At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus, and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” For when Herod had John arrested, he bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. For John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” And although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they were regarding John as a prophet. But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod, so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Now having been prompted by her mother, she *said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” And although he was grieved, the king commanded it to be given because of his oaths, and because of his dinner guests. And he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took away the body and buried it; and they went and reported to Jesus.“ ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭14‬:‭1‬-‭12‬ ‭LSB‬‬

The following is a transcription of an audio cassette I discovered in my father's safe, shortly after he died. The tape has been transcribed for you here in its entirety, for my own sake.
Dad - Can you say that again?
Grandpa - Which part?
Dad - The date Dad, the recorder wasn't close enough. I wanna make sure we get everything.
Grandpa - Why is it so important that you get every last detail anyway?
Dad - Because that's what the doctor said, Dad. The more detail we get, the better he can help you.
Grandpa - Oh! is that right? He's gonna help me huh? How's he gonna do that exactly? Stuff some more magic pills down my pocket? Maybe sign me up for group therapy? Those are ALWAYS loads of fun!
Dad - No, I think he just wants to get a better understanding of -
Grandpa - He can't help me. Nobody can. Better psychiatrists have tried and failed. You wouldn't believe me anyway. There's no point.
Dad - Well, If nothing else it would help us and the doc to make better decisions regarding you. Look, I promise that I will listen to everything you have to say. I promise I’ll believe you ok?
Grandpa - Don't say that! You can't promise me something like that. It's a bullshit statement and you know it.
Dad - Alright fine. Fair enough. I promise that I will TRY to believe ok? I’ll … try. Look, forget about the doctor alright? I want to know what happened that night, ME. I want to know what you were doing in Norway. Why you can never get a damn good night's sleep, just tell me, please.
Grandpa - (Deep breath) …fine
February 20, 1943. That's when it all went down. The Axis Powers had been almost completely driven outta Africa, and the Soviets had effectively turned the tide of war in Eastern Europe. We Had the Nazis on the run, for the time being at least. They were vulnerable, sure, but they still had every capability of rebounding and kicking our asses. As such, the US was particularly interested in taking out any and all Axis weapons development programs.
Dad - Weapons development programs? What, like their tanks or the atomic bomb or -
Grandpa - Exactly. The Allies specifically targeted their hard water factories to cripple their production of the atomic bomb. But there were other targets. So-called “Wonder Weapon” projects scattered all over German-occupied territories. Manufacturing depots, chemical weapons labs, bioweapons research centers, etc. THAT'S what I was doing in Norway.
Dad - Where in Norway did they send you?
Grandpa - … Northern Norway. Far off the mainland lay an island with a Nazi outpost on it. Very little was known about the place at the time regarding its exact purpose and mission. According to our spies inland and the Norwegian rebels, the locals referred to it simply as “Fort Ond”. They said it was … a bad place. That the prisoners who were taken there were never seen again. That the waters bordering its shore were barren of all aquatic life and colder than even the most bone-chilling frostbite. Command didn’t give a shit about any of that though. Their only concern was 2 things. “Why is this installation so far from the German homeland? And “Why is it so far from mainland Norway? The conclusion they came to was that the Nazis had to be developing some sort of weapon there that they didn't wanna risk infecting a lot of people with.
Dad - So, they thought it was a chemical weapons plant?
Grandpa - No, they thought it was a bioweapons lab. Smallpox, anthrax you know that kinda stuff. We THOUGHT that's what they were doing there, but we didn't know for sure. That's where my unit came in, and where Operation Maelstrom was greenlit.
Dad - Maelstrom?
Grandpa - I didn't pick the damn name. Anyways, they wanted to keep the operation as covert as possible. Minimal manpower. One squad of British SAS, one squad of Canadian commandos, and last but not least, one squad of Army Rangers. Including yours truly.
Dad - Was the purpose of the mission just to gather intel or-
Grandpa - Our first priority was the eradication of the fort's inhabitants and the seizure of any relevant intel. However, we were also prepared for it to turn into a sabotage mission at a moment's notice. Leadership felt pretty confident about the bioweapons theory and didn't wanna take any chances with letting the stuff potentially get away, hence the limited manpower. The last thing we wanted was for the krauts to get spooked by a large invasion force and flee with any samples….
Dad - Dad? Are you ok?
Grandpa - Yeah, just gimme a second.
(The metallic opening sound of a lighter can be heard, along with the sizzling burning of paper)
Dad - Really? You gotta do that now huh?
Grandpa - What? Oh! I'm sorry, is the smoke gonna bother your little nose that much? Would you prefer I do it some other time?
Dad - I’d prefer you didn't fucking do it all! Though, In a way, it's oddly inspiring. A senior citizen, part of “The Greatest Generation” still puffing that shit all these years like it's of no consequence to his health.
Grandpa - Fuck the consequences. Can I continue now? Or is this gonna turn into an intervention? Cause if so, tell me now so I can save you the time and just leave the room and enjoy the rest of my smoke.
Dad - … please continue.
Grandpa - We were all flown to Iceland for our briefing. From the moment I arrived, I had my doubts about the operation. The sheer lack of intel we had to go off of regarding: fort size, manpower, and exact purpose just seemed odd to me. I remember thinking to myself “I hope this is enough men.''. When I did so I caught my friend Weathers looking around too. I could tell he was thinking the same thing. From there, we boarded a British destroyer that took us less than 10 miles from the island. We had to travel the remaining distance on our own in 2 PT boats. I remember just how cold it was that night. How we all subconsciously stood closer to each other than normal in a vain attempt to try to stay warm. Like a bunch of penguins, the lot of us. It was a half-hour ride to the island so we stayed like that for a while. Just hunkered up and tried to keep warm as much as we could while we waited for any sign of something. When we were about a mile from the island, we got that sign.
We saw it long before we ever got near the stuff. When we did, we all went silent and watched as we slowed down our boats to make a cautious approach. A thick fog had blanketed the sea around the coastline in all directions for about a half mile. It had a faint… red hue to it. Not a deep red, just faintly visible. It towered above us nearly 15 feet in the air like a tidal wave and seemingly stared us down. We slowly crept our boats up to it inch by inch until our bows were nearly kissing it. From there, a few of the Canadians on the adjacent boat got out some equipment and began probing the fog for any sign of toxins. We all sat there and waited for them to finish their work. As they did so I took notice of the absolute unnaturalness of it all. It made no movement towards, nor away from us. Yet it billowed and Contracted and breathed soothingly in place like you would expect a body of smoke to do. I remember distinctly thinking of it not as a wall, but more like a veil or a curtain. Hiding the island from us. A few minutes later the Canadians signaled over to our boat and gave Our commander, Captain Hawks the thumbs up. The fog wasn't toxic as far as they could tell. Given our mission though, we couldn't take any chances of it being a gas of some kind. Better safe than sorry. So we donned our gas masks and made sure our suits were nice and sealed up. I in particular had taken the liberty of duct taping around my gloves and boots to ensure it was airtight. Then, we started our boats back up and slowly sailed on into the unknown.
At first, I couldn't see anything. The fog was so thick it limited my visibility to just a few feet in front of me. And even less so in front of the boat. We couldn't have our lights on for fear of being spotted. When we were out in the open water this was fine of course. The moon and stars lit up the surrounding waters nicely for us. But now, there was little to no light penetrating the fog. we were engulfed in near-total darkness. So we just slowly inched our way forward as safely as we could. I just sat there and watched the red vapor hit and dance off my goggles while I searched for any sign of land. For a while, nobody said a word. We all just waited for what seemed like an eternity. The longer we pushed ahead, the tighter the grip on my rifle became as my nerves started up. Finally, One of the Brits broke the silence. I watched him tap the man in front of him and heard him whisper “Are we sure this is the right -'' his sentence was quickly interrupted. We had landed.
The entire boat shook wildly as a few of us lost our footing and had to grab the side walls to stay upright. As we did so, I looked around me and noticed the fog gradually growing thinner as we made our approach. Steadily, its opacity diminished. I could begin to see shapes through the veil. The crunching noises ceased a few seconds later and with them, so too did the fog from my line of sight. It was still there, but it was thinner and lower to the ground than it was over the open sea. It only came up to our knees from that point on. Which meant I could finally see our objective. The island. It was … a mess of scattered jagged rocks and hills. Caverns and towering cliffs that seemed to scatter in all directions. Like a porcupine made of stone. At its center, one giant hill stood out. I followed it from the base to the peak with my eyes and at its peak, there was a door. That was it. Not a trace of human life. No pathways, no trenches, no buildings of any kind. Nothing that would suggest any sort of operation was being undertaken on the island. There were a few guard towers of course. We knew at least that much from our aerial photos, but we had chosen our landing site specifically to be in a blind spot they wouldn't see us from. That was it though. Apart from the door that stuck out amidst the terrain looking utterly unnatural in the distance, there was not a sign of life. No buzzing of insects, no splashing of fish, no chirping of birds, even the wind itself seemed to bow before the island's authority and ceased completely. No life whatsoever. I thought back to when we first encountered the fog and just how right I was in my thought process. We truly had crossed a veil of some kind.
Captain Hawks, gave the hand signals. We all filed out and patrolled inland as fast as we could to a nearby cave. The Norwegians were waiting for us there.
Dad - The Norwegians? Were they the ones who gave you the fort's intel to begin with?
Grandpa - The very same. Adding them to our roster brought our total strike force to 35 men….
Dad - Dad?
Grandpa - …
Dad - it's ok Dad, take your time
Grandpa - (takes a deep breath) We headed into the cave and linked up with the Norwegians. Who sat steadfast in defensive positions. One of them stood up as soon as we breached the darkness of the cavern and swung his gun over in our direction, shouting at us to presumably lower our weapons, before quickly lowering his own back down and making a half-hearted apology attempt. Hawks was livid. He stormed over to the man and with one forceful strike of his fist he sent the poor Norwegian hurtling towards the ground. “You some kind of fucking moron kid? I was this close. THIS CLOSE to blowing your goddamn head off!” the commander of the Norwegians rushed over to stand between the two of them. “Please forgive us, sir! We've been on edge since we arrived a few hours ago! it was an honest mistake!” He helped his fallen soldier back to his feet and ordered him to the back of the cavern to tend to his face. Afterward, he and Hawks stared at each other for a few seconds in silence while we all just waited for one of them to speak. The leader of the Norwegians spoke first. “Something is wrong. Very wrong. Our intel is severely off.” He said. “None of the guard towers have occupants and we haven't seen a Nazi soldier patrolling the island for 3 days now. We've been spying on the island for weeks now as best we could. The entire time we did so soldiers were patrolling the shores, manning the towers, and watching the coastlines. But 3 days ago this… fog emerged. Obscured our vision and made it nearly impossible to see anything on the island. Since we arrived we've done multiple sweeps and scouting runs along the island's surface before your arrival. No one is here, American. Not a soul. It's like they just… vanished. At least, from the island's surface.” I looked back over at Mckinley who did the same. We exchanged confused looks at one another before looking back at the 2 leaders who were now talking too quietly to one another to hear. Finally, Hawks turned to face us and with a deep sigh said “We THINK the Nazis have locked themselves away within the fort's cave systems and interior. According to our good buddies here, the island's surface is safe. Let's hope they're right. Conduct final checks on all your equipment then form up by the cave entrance. We're going in.
We got into formation and made our way up the rough terrain to the door I spotted when we first landed. As far as we could tell, it was the only entrance to the interior of the fort. The ascent was nerve-racking. The cold, wet staircase that led up to the fort's entrance proved difficult to scale with all of my equipment. Which was made all the more dangerous of course, by the fog. With it clinging to around knee level on every surface of the island it made it damn near impossible to see where we were stepping. So we just slowly tip-toed our way up to the door as best we could. All the while nobody uttered a word. It was so quiet I could hear my own heartbeat throbbing in my ears. Eventually, we reached the top of the stairs. The door itself was … monolithic.
Dad - Monolithic? What like ancient?
Grandpa - Oh yeah, stood nearly 9 feet tall and looked like it was made out of bronze or copper, I don't know. Some kind of faintly orange metal. It was covered in strange engravings that could only be described as hieroglyphic. They weren't of course, but that's the only comparison I've been able to find since that day. Believe me, I've tried. Looked through every damn book I could think of. Nothing comes close to the symbols and markings I saw engraved on that door. It was like a foreign language of some kind. It didn't look like it was written, or chipped away from the door by an expert's hand so much as it looked like it was slashed or cut. Like something had hacked away at it with claws or teeth to create the strange writing. It didn't look like a human's hand had done it. Looking up at the door, I felt like an explorer. Like I had found something lost to mankind for millennia and was rediscovering it. Only, I Didn't wanna be the person to discover this. At that moment I wasn't sure I wanted to be aware of this place's existence let alone have to open the damn thing and walk past it into god knows what. We readied our explosives, expecting to have to breach our way in. To our surprise, however, the wooden beam that was attached to the door lifted. The monolith opened slightly. And with it came the stench of utter, all-devouring Rot. like puss and spoiled milk, Bile, and sulfur all fused into one unholy concoction that assaulted my nostrils and instantly forced tears down my cheek. At first, I panicked. Believing my mask wasn't secured tight enough and I was inhaling a toxin of some kind, but when I looked up I saw all of my team members doing the same. Our masks were all working fine. We couldn't have all had a potential leak right? The smell was truly just that powerful.
The door had only given way and opened a tiny bit. Our frontman quickly had to ask for help as the door was too heavy to heave by himself. Four men, me included, pushed with all our might and then quickly ran out of the way as soon as the door was completely opened so the guys behind us could aim down the opening.
When they did, they didn't see much. Their flashlights shined straight into a wall that angled down and away from us. What lay before us was another staircase. Carved out of the very stone of the mountain itself. The fog clung lower to the ground past the doorway. Only coming up to about ankle height. but it still obscured the steps all the same as the walk up to that point. We stared down the doorway waiting for the order to advance. But Hawks said nothing. He just stood there with his gun trained ahead and his other hand held up, silently telling us to wait. I suspected he was listening. Waiting to hear any commotion from us opening the heavy door. For any sign of the enemy. There was none, however. Not a sound could be heard from down the staircase. Just like everywhere else so far. Goff leaned over to me and tapped me on the shoulder “Somethings not fucking right man” he whispered. I didn't respond. I didn't feel I needed to. Everyone was already thinking the same thing anyway. No point in vocalizing it. Especially not when I could visibly see what Hawks was thinking. I watched a chill run up his spine that shook his held-up hand and rifle slightly in place. I'd never seen him like that before. He steadied himself and with a low reassuring grunt, which was probably more for his benefit than ours, he gave the order. “File in.” so down we went.
We descended for about twenty feet. The staircase itself was dark but we could see light at the bottom. The sight of the light was a relief. Instantly I felt a tiny shred of my anxiety whither away as my instincts took hold and I readied myself for any Germans that might be waiting for us at the bottom. There were no Germans, however. None left anyway. None … alive. When I reached the bottom of the staircase, the scene laid out before me was like something you'd see at a crime scene. It was a big square room illuminated by a gas lantern in its center. The door directly ahead of us led to an opening in the floor with a ladder hooked to it, with 2 doorways on our left and right. Like a plus sign or a cross. Various crates and workstation desks laid toppled over and all faced the direction of the newly discovered staircase. Like sentry posts, they all faced towards the same point. Scattered throughout the room were the nazis. Half sunken into the fog and slightly obscured by it, draped over crates, leaning up against the walls, crumpled up like a soda can in the corner. There were at least a dozen of them. Their blood pooled beneath our feet but I could hardly notice it through the tinted fog. I took a step forward and That's when I heard the familiar jingling of empty bullet casings beneath my feet. Subsequently, bullet holes could be seen in nearly every square inch of the wall in front of us. “Jesus Christ!” Weathers shouted as he entered the room behind me, prompting Hawks to hold up his hand again signaling for him to shut up. “Whoever the fuck did this might still be here. Stay frosty” he muttered sternly to us. out “Fan out, check the rooms on our flanks'' He commanded via hand signals.
Half our men went to the room on the right while the remaining went left. I along with 3 others stood guard in the lit room and kept our guns trained on the Ladder ahead of us. As I knelt behind a crate to take a better defensive position, I noticed one of the Nazis was lying face down in a puddle of his own blood close to my right. I kept my rifle trained ahead as I slowly reached over and heaved on his shoulder forcing him to roll over onto his back. He had a look of utter terror frozen onto his face, with eyes wide open and mouth agape. He bore cuts, and large slash marks up his chest and torso which caused his entrails to expose themselves slightly. I looked around the room at the other men to verify and sure enough, the ones who weren't submerged in fog shared similar wounds of varying size and volume. “ what the fuck happened here?” I thought to myself. This thought was quickly overtaken by a doubly terrifying realization. I looked at the bullet holes directly ahead of me and thought “Whatever the hell happened here, I'm standing in the same place they were.”
After a few tense moments of sitting with that realization, the squad checking the right room emerged holding a few books and folders. They bore similar engravings to the ones seen on the door upon our arrival and were bound in leather so ancient, that it looked like the faintest breeze would disintegrate them if they weren't careful. They showed it to Hawks who took one of the books and began sifting through its pages. At first, he scanned the pages carefully, and thoroughly, but he quickly thereafter began to shuffle through them frantically and impatiently before reaching back and shoving it into his pack. “
Right about that time the squad from the left room emerged. A British soldier approached and said “Just more dead krauts sir. There's um… there's something. We found cages, big enough to fit a human in. There were bodies in them but… they weren't Ger-” “Civilians” The Norwegian team leader interrupted. “These fucking animals.” Hawks looked like he was getting ready to say something but he didn't get the chance. All conversations and thoughts were stopped when the sound of screaming could be heard down the ladder.
With one uniform motion, all remaining men turned their guns to face the same direction as I already was. We waited for what felt like an eternity. For a head to come bobbing up the opening in the floor. For the sound of footsteps. For any sign of the enemy. Nothing came. After about a minute or so Hawks gave the order. We were going down there...
I don't wanna do this anymore…
Dad - Dad, please. You can do it. Just take a second ok?
Grandpa - the smell Patrick…
Dad - What about it?
(My Grandpa can be heard taking a huge huff of his cigarette followed by loud coughing)
Grandpa - I can't get it outta my nose! It's been 60 goddamn years since then and I can't get it outta my nose! God! By the time we had reached the bottom, Goff had already vomited from it. I had to fucking cover him while he did it. Good thing I hadn't eaten anything before the briefing or else I would've too. When we reached the bottom. There was nobody. Just like the rest of the island, not a sign of life.
Dad - Dad, what did you see at the bottom of the ladder?
Grandpa - … A well. It was a large cavern-like room with multiple passageways that branched off in all directions but at its center, was a well. Made out of the same stone as the mountain itself and yet, it somehow looked older. More ancient. More… monolithic. Along its rim… were the same damn etching and carvings as the door. Upon closer examination, we saw that It was the source of the fog that had plagued us since our arrival. We watched it for a while and observed The fog billowed up, out, and over the top of the well in all directions at a constant unnatural rate. I couldn't believe that such a tiny source could have produced as much as we'd seen up to that point. I couldn't believe that The colossal wall that we encountered upon our arrival originated from such a minuscule well deep in a mountain. As we spread out to cover the other passageways, I approached it and leaned over. Patrick… The smell was so fucking strong that I was thrown back onto my hands and knees almost immediately from the stomach contractions. It was the source of the fog … of the smell… everything.
Dad - What was in the well?
Grandpa - Blood. The whole fucking thing was filled with blood. More blood than I'd ever seen in my life. More than the room upstairs, more than any other mission I'd ever been on and it was fresh! It boiled gently and seemed to move on its own as though it were alive and aware of our presence in the room and when I gazed upon it, the attack on my nose and stomach seemed like one of calculation. As though a cobra had spat in my face for daring to get too close. I wasn't allowed even a second to recover from the stench, however. At that exact moment, we heard more screams. Seemingly, from every passageway in the cavern emitted what I can only describe as wails of anguish. Like the flesh was being peeled off somebody's forearm and pouring salt back into the wound at the same time. They pierced all of our ears like razor blades and made me wince so hard I almost forgot about my stomach pain. “How fucking big is this place?!” I thought to myself “What the hell could be happening just down one of these tunnels?”.
“Fuck this” Hawks said. “Start planting charges. We are getting the fuck out of this place as soon as possible.”
It was music to all of our ears. One of the soldiers came over to check on me as the rest began to start laying charges. There was nothing professional about our process. We were just laying them out as fast as we could so we could get the hell out of that wretched place and back to the boats. The screams continued the entire time we worked.
Dad - Were they getting closer?
Grandpa - I don't know. They sounded like they were coming from every passageway all at once but It was hard to tell. We had a man eyeing down every doorway just in case though. It didn't matter. We should've been watching the well! As I struggled to compose myself and get back to my feet I had a front-row seat to what was about to happen. Goff … the poor bastard. He was doing his rounds, laying his charges along the floor. Around the well. I wanted to speak up, to tell him not to get too close. But I was still sucking in air through my teeth and couldn't get the words out. All I could do was hold my hand out to him and grunt. He turned to face me. “You gonna make it?” was the last thing I heard him say. At that very moment. An arm shot out of the well behind him. Locked itself around his neck and pulled him into the well headfirst.
The arm was inhumanly long. More like a tentacle than an arm… but its form was undeniably human still! It wrapped itself around his neck and dug its fingers into the side of his face as it dragged him deeper and deeper down. I watched him thrash around and kick his legs wildly in a vain attempt to get free. Spraying torrents of blood in all directions around him. He was already halfway submerged by the time our men got a hold of his feet. When they did so, another arm shot out of the well and locked itself around Goff's waist now pulling him in faster. I could hear gurgling, and see bubbles of air making their way to the wells surface. The poor bastard was drowning in that putrid liquid! The men pulled with all their might but it didn't slow down his descension in any noticeable way. They heaved and barked orders to the others like rabid dogs. Desperate to save our comrade. But No help came. We were alone with the incomprehensible, and it was winning. The rest of us simply stood by dumbfounded and watched As he was forcibly dragged down the well inch by inch. When it was clear that the men could do nothing more they let go and took a few steps back. Their entire arms were covered in blood up to their elbows. For a moment. Nothing happened. Nobody said a word, moved a muscle, or did anything. We all just faced the well and tried our best to process what had just happened. It didn't last long. The well began to gurgle and bubble as though it were digesting my friend. It began to overflow. Slowly, the thick crimson liquid oozed over the top of the well and onto the cold stone floor beneath making its way towards us. I was the first to make a move. I stood up and began to slowly step backward towards the ladder. That's when the massacre began.
In an instant, all of Hell erupted around us. The same arms that had dragged my friend to a then-unknown fate sprang out of the walls around us as though the island were alive and began to frantically swing around searching for a body to claim. A few of them found their mark and pulled some of the men towards the walls. Wrapping themselves around their necks, locking them in place, and suffocating them. Any sense of composure our toughest men had remaining left their bodies that very moment, as we all made a mad dash sprint for the ladder. The room was only dimly lit by all of our flashlights though. When we broke our formation and began to run, our visibility became significantly more limited. Bodys ran into each other and men began slipping on the blood that had now reached all of our feet. The fog had also begun rising in intensity at a startling rate and was now almost as thick and copious as it was out on the sea. This made it all the more hard to tell what exactly was happening and before I knew it, I was knocked onto my ass by one of the Canadians as he ran straight into me. The blood rose higher and higher. At an inconceivably fast rate, it was halfway up to my knees by the time I regained my footing. When I did I felt a sudden rush of movement brush by my left leg. That's when I saw it. There were shapes moving in the blood! Large, serpentine-like shapes that slithered all around us and began to quickly encircle my team. Like sharks they enveloped us, poised for the kill. They seemed to be probing us for weakness, waiting for the exact right moment to strike and take as many of us down as they could. I wasn't gonna let them get me. My body moved independently of my paralyzed psyche as I sprinted for the ladder, and leaped as high as I could to escape the cavern. However, The ladder was barely wide enough to fit one man on it. It was Made of wood and was not meant to support the weight of more than a couple of men at a time. I remember just how carefully we had to scale it just to get down to the cursed room in the first place! I worried it was going to give way at any second and I would be stranded in that room with those things! With the well! I felt it crack and buckle beneath me as more men than intended all tried to climb it at once. I pushed into the man above me, just as the person below me did. All in a desperate race to escape. Just when I was sure all was lost and I would never make it out, I reached the top and rolled onto my back. As I did so I heard a loud snapping sound, followed by 8 loud splashes hitting the liquid beneath.
I rolled over and shined my flashlight down the hole to look at the scene and try to help some of the men escape what had now become a tomb. It was no use though. It was 20 feet down. I… I couldn't reach any of them. Weathers… McKinley, they stared up at me and shouted for help but what was I supposed to do? The blood had risen to about waist-high by that point and there were more of those fucking things still circling them! They climbed over one another in a desperate attempt to get enough height to reach the exit but it was nowhere near enough. I felt so helpless. I watched the mysterious shapes and figures in the blood creep up to them from behind. Then, As if coordinated, in an instant they pounced on and dragged 3 men under the murky depths all at once. In that split second when they had leapt from the blood to attack the men I caught only the faintest of glimpses of their true form. They were like eels, or … or leeches with spider legs and beaks. Something of that family but it's still not an accurate comparison. They were truly, otherworldly. Inhuman even to creation itself. They were abominations that I'm glad were obscured by the fog as, to have glanced upon them in all their unholyness would've been too much for me at that moment. They yanked the men down into the ocean of blood. As they did so the men thrashed around chaotically and knocked more men over making the already futile pyramid of terrified men all the more pitiful. That's when I noticed the three who were taken by those serpents were being dragged towards the well! They were being dragged to the well so it could devour them just like Goff and take them away to some unspeakable fate! I looked at the edges of the room to search for the first victims of the attack. The ones who had been forcibly dragged towards the walls by the arms. When I found them I felt my stomach churn once again. Their bodies were halfway into the cavern walls! The arms were dragging the men headfirst into the island itself to be consumed! It was as though the island itself was alive! The well was alive And it wanted us dead! The remaining few screamed and pleaded and begged me to help them. All I could do was stare down at the chaos before me and watch.
I was ripped out of my comatose state by a firm hand on my shoulder. It was Hawks.
“Get up! We gotta get the fuck out of here!”
He picked me up by the back of my shirt and dragged me to my feet pushing me up the staircase. I had no activity coursing through my head and yet I ran. My body was truly on autopilot. I couldn't think of anything other than the men we were leaving behind and the look I saw on their faces as they screamed at me for help. The fog had now completely engulfed the inside of the fort and I struggled to maintain my footing as I ran as fast as I could through the first chamber and up the staircase. As we exited the main door I was stopped dead in my tracks. I heard gunshots behind me. By god… They were still alive! They were still fighting to get out and I was abandoning them! Hawks once again yanked the back of my shirt forward as he walked past me.
“There's nothing we can do for them! We have to get to the boats now!” and with that, he ran off ahead of me through the red smoke. Every fiber of my being compelled me to go back but my body refused to obey. I just stood there trembling, white knuckle grasping my rifle as I struggled to make a choice. After a few agonizing seconds of contemplation, I followed after Hawks and made my way to the boats. To freedom.
As we sped away from the island at top speed I was able to slowly creep back to the real world mentally and finally take note of my surroundings. It was me, Hawks, and 3 other British troops. Only 5 men had made it out. None of us said a word. We all just kept to ourselves and stared off into space doing our best to process what had happened to us. I looked back at Fort Ond one last time before it disappeared over the horizon. The fog had grown larger now. Redder. Hungrier.
When we got back to the destroyer we told command everything that we saw and what had happened. They didn't believe a word of it. I can't really say I blame them. We must've sounded insane to them. Showing up missing 30 men, covered head to toe in blood, Rambling about a mysterious well, our friends being dragged away to an unknown fate by strange creatures, Ancient bronze doors, and slaughtered nazi soldiers. They told us that we had most likely been exposed to a nerve agent. That the base was being classified as a possible chemical weapons lab and that when we inhaled the fog, maybe we were subjected to it and its hallucinogenic properties. But we were sealed up head to toe! We stood up for ourselves as best as we could. We all corroborated each other's stories and validated each other's testimonies. We swore up and down till we were blue in the face that the island was not what we thought it was. That our friends had been killed by an unknown force and that we had to destroy the fort. They just stared at us like we were a pack of lunatics. They had made up their mind about what had happened to us on that island. Any attempt made by any of us to set the record straight only served to make us look even more insane to them. I turned to one of the admirals and spoke up one last time. I had to know something before they turned us away.
“Please tell me you guys are gonna level that fucking place”
He stared at me for a few tense seconds before simply saying “We’ll handle it.”
And with that, it was over. All the remaining members of Operation Maelstrom were discharged the next day. Deemed “medically unfit” to continue service. Each of us was briefed individually on the events of that night and I was told not to utter a word to anyone about the events of Operation Maelstrom, or to disclose the fort's location to anybody. The Colonel who was briefing me told me “For the record, I believe there's at least a little truth in what you told us. But regardless, you and the survivors are a liability now. Unstable and erratic. We can't risk putting any of you onto another operation, not after what happened to you. Or at least, not after what you think happened to you. I'm sorry but this is for your own good.” I was put on a plane the next day and sent home.
that's it…
You don't believe a word of what I just said, do you?
Dad - Well… no, not all of it. I mean, I want to but it's a little much to proc-
Grandpa - I know how it sounds! You think I don't hear myself saying this shit to you? I know how it must sound! But it's the truth, son. The well is real! What happened to me… was real.
Dad - I'm sure it must've felt that way, Dad. But you gotta-
Grandpa - YOU DON'T BELIEVE A FUCKING WORD OF IT! Nobody does. You, the doctor, and every other person I've confided in just think I'm some fucking lunatic who imagined all this. I see the way you're looking at me! Like I'm just some poor old man who's losing his mind! I KNOW WHAT I SAW! I KNOW WHAT I WENT THROUGH! You weren't there.
Dad - I know I wasn't! I'm not saying I was Dad but c'mon. Work with me. Isn't it possible it WAS a nerve agent or something? How the hell would you know it wasn't?
Grandpa - BECAUSE WE ALL SAW THE SAME DAMN THING! All of the survivors of Maelstrom gave the exact same testimony upon our return! Everything from our encounter with the fog to our return to the ship was synced up perfectly! What? Do you think we all hallucinated the exact same thing?
Dad - No! I just think that maybe-
You know, They took the books that Captain Hawks acquired. Oh yeah! They made sure we kept nothing from our mission. Stripped us bare right after we returned to ship but He told me what he saw in those pages! More of those Strange symbols! Those hieroglyphics of unknown origin. The mention of a “Tor zur Hölle”. Some kind of fucking portal to hell, or somewhere worse, or god knows where! You wanna know why I can't sleep at night, Patrick? The real reason? It's because I know it's still there! “Well handle it”.Yeah like hell they did! They probably just set up shop themselves and tried finishing what the krauts started. Or maybe not. Maybe they heard our warnings and listened to us. Maybe they shelled the place into oblivion and actually did handle it. But I'll never know son. I'll never get my closure on the events that happened that night. I'll never get to know with 100% certainty that the well has been sealed and that whatever lies in the depths of Fort Ond can't get me anymore.
Dad - Let's just take some deep breaths ok? Why don't we just calm down and -
Grandpa - This was a waste of time. It always is with you people.
Dad - Dad, please!
Grandpa - We're done here! turn that damn thing off and get-
The tape ends there. I couldn't find any additional tapes in my fathers' belongings. So, for the time being, that's where the story ends too. I didn't know my grandfather too well. He died when I was 12 and was a recluse so sadly, this tape is one of the only glimpses I've ever gotten into his life. I don't know what to believe. It’s easy to write him off as crazy or the victim of a gas attack. But The fear I heard on that tape sounded so real. That's gotta mean something right? If nothing else, the torment he endured was real. And Maybe, that's all that matters. Or maybe, just maybe… he’s right. Maybe Fort Ond still stands. Exactly as he described. Hidden somewhere, behind the veil of fog.

Hello all,
I am doing some work on myself, and grew up with an alcoholic parent. He (incredibly), made it to 60-years old, before dying at 45kg. His esophagus developed a benign tumour, from puking his body parts up for years and he effectively died of malnurishment.
My goal is to provide those poor souls struggling with this awful disease and insight from your child. If this is not allowed, please remove. Feel free to ask me anything. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My letter to dad,
Firstly, you can tell by the letter above, that I have not been hugely proactive in dealing with your death.
I have done me… Get on with it. If I’m honest, I had to trawl through photos and messages on my phone to remember when you died. I am shocked that it is just over two years ago. It feels like over 5 years.
I am writing this letter in Battersea Park. I just saw a nice video of us, you were sober and I believe at the start of your fatal journey – I had taken you to Battesea Park for a walk with Jackson and to see my new flat. It is such a shame mum did not see it – she would have been so proud.
My therapist asked me to write this letter to you, which I know I should have done for a long-time. She thinks I have a lot of pent up anger towards you, that I need to process and work through.
You know, I don’t really know if I do have a lot of anger towards you – because I often don’t know how I feel. Therapy hasn’t worked wonders yet – but it has helped me understand who/ why I am who I am.
The first thing I’d like to get out is – why do I struggle to understand my emotions?
For many years, I wondered what is wrong with me? Am I narcissist? Am I a good narcissist? Because I don’t want to do anything bad to people, but I don’t feel much. When I was arrested, and 100% sure I would be going to prison for 2-3 years, I remember thinking – fuck, I really don’t care. I was more concerned and stressed about why I didn’t care, than I was spending 2-3 years in prison.
I have learned, mostly though therapy, that my emotions switched off from a very young age – I think probably starting at 6-7 years old, and gradually completely switching of by the time Peru & mum’s death.
I also believe, contrary to how others perceive me, is that I have low self-worth and lack belief in myself. But, the overwhelming feeling I have about myself, is how oxymoronic & confusing my life was/ is.
I feel, and have always felt like I never fitted into to a group or demographic. Mum was an academic head teacher, you were a blue collar, abusive alcoholic. Mum had, in many ways, showed us she loved us, yet spent much less time with us than other parents. I did not fit in with the group that had mums like mum, I did not fit in with the black kids, or the white council estate kids.
Life was confusing. And in some ways, it still is but as I get older, you realise life does not work like you think it does as a child. My belief is – I am perhaps ‘different’ because of this. I still don’t make huge amounts of sense – I am a 30-year old, millionaire business owner, both articulate and smart, with no real academia – just as an example… It feels like my name, my name – is most fitting and makes sense.
So, just over two years on from your death – how am I coping? In the main, I am fine. The trust is dad, when I reflect on our relationship, I don’t feel very much. I think our best years were in my early childhood; alcohol was still very debilitating for you – you were still very abusive to mum. But, the my name of young was stuck in this paradox of trying to be on both sides. I think I needed you most as a child.
Wow – this writing stuff really works – I remember when I was about 12 and some kids from Orleons school robbed me for some chocolate – I came home and told you, you ran out the house and chased them up to the Esso and confronted them. They were so scared, and then the rough man from the pub opposite came out, I think with a baseball bat in hand to help. I was so proud. I had started loosing faith in you by that point, and it was just so nice to feel protected.
I was also so proud, because everyone thought you were a tough man, but even it that age, I knew how sensitive and terrified of confrontation you were, and how negatively this event would have triggered you.
I also remember being so proud of you around the time you had your first breakdown. I was about 11 years old, and you had lost your job of 20-years and driving license. You had been to the priory and from memory, relapsed about 3-months later. You were out of work for 3-4 months, before getting work lugging baggage at the airport.
I remember you coming home and your hands being cutup and proudly saying the agency are paying you £1 an hour more than everyone else because you’re the best worker. My entrepreneurial brain kicked in and I asked how much they were making of you. I remember feeling disgusted hearing they were charging something like £14 and paying you £7.5, but I was so proud that you did this for the family.
As I reflect, you and mum gave me and brothers name so many great traits through life. From the top of my head now:
a.) The importance of blue-collar workers, without the confidence or deservingness to push bosses on pay, to be paid wages they deserve and can live off.
b.) Candidly, that I am not going to live a working life you did, for little ££ and hard work.
Back to my point, my earliest, fondest memories with you were when I’d go in to your rom in the morning. You must have been so lonely in life dad. You would play the Aeroplan game with me and I loved it. Or you would scrape your beard on me and play fight. You had probably started drinking again, but you weren’t drunk yet.
So when did the relationship so downhill? I am trying to think with both my inner child, or as I did as a child, and with my adult brain.
I remember loving you so much, but hating your behavior so much. I was so loyal to you, yet so much of your behavior was indefensible. I there are several poignant memories that stand out, which are not necessarily the most traumatic.
As a young child, I was so conflicted between you and mum – but I knew you were WAY worse to mum. I knew, or thought I knew the alcoholism was the issue. I remember your first time in rehab the hope and desperation that you would be a new person. I remember visiting you on day 10 and mum had brought you a gift – you were so fowl. I remember you had befriended Ted, who had been put in by his millionaire IT consultant son, even after Ted had strangled his mum to death.
I remember you coming out, sober, and you temper and behavior had got even worse. I’d come home every day, anxious as to whether you’d have drunk. But my damming, was your behaviour and temper had got even worse. For the first time, probably subconsciously, I realized alcohol was the symptom, and it was yourself you needed to heal.
Over the years that followed, our relationship very much transcended into me being your carer. Years of bend-ups, worry and stress and promising myself ‘I will not help when you finally sober up and go back to work’. Of course, almost every time I did.
The next stage is a conversation you probably won’t remember – I was about 18/19. By this time, I was pretty lost in life, my education has passed and I did not really value my well being or life. Brothers name had been struggling and very angry at you and mum for the childhood, and effects he was feeling from it. I always felt like I came off unscathed, but in reality, I was lacking in self-worth. But I was angry and upset for Brothers name.
I came home one night, blasted and high on cocaine and you had been up for days drinking. You were up drinking at 3-4am as I got home. High on coke, I was eager to confront you and look for an apology for the childhood and effect you had on the family. We toggled for hours. I was fighting for you to say sorry for what you put us through. It was another poignant moment utter disappointment. Not only did I not get the apology, but it was the most pathetic rebuttal of responsibility – it was actually all mum and our fault.
This memory sticks out because of the disappointing acceptance that we were just coming from different planets of reality and I was never going to get any form of apology or acknowledgement of your behavior.
Gradually, me and Brothers name grew up and moved on with life, pursuing jobs and our careers. I carried guilt for moving out and leaving mum with you. But, she had chosen to not sell the house and move you out.
My final, significant and poignant memory of the relationship decaying is mums diagnoses. This is the most angry I’ve ever been with you, and still am. In fact, I’m almost crying as I say it. Firstly, you called Brothers name on a Friday night, drunk, and said ‘your mum has got a brain tumour’, completely insensitively. Just as a side point – there was no way to tell if this is true – given previously you had pretended you had cancer or cut your neck and showed us for attention.
Anyway, when we went over to mums the next day, you were there, fucked, making it all about you as usual. One of the first things I remember saying to you is ‘dad, life is not about you anymore, if you carry on drinking, I will throw you out on the streets’. You proceeded to ask mum, ‘when you’re dead, can I have your bedroom’.
Since being able to listen to words, the most common thing or sequence of words I had heard was ‘drop dead and die’, followed by a slammed door. But this just hit a new level of dirty. I remember feeling tremendous disgust – genuinely shocked, like how can you say that?
Reflecting, I think this marked the very end of our relationship. I am most angry about this. Not only had you said the cruelest thing you could say – you had exposed m eto a new form of toxicity. I couldn’t fathom how these words could come out of your mouth.
The following 3 months, you were in and out of, sober and drinking. I thought you would last 3 months, but you made 3 years. The relationship we had thereafter, was very simply that of a carer. In reality, I was in the midst of growing a business and you were a tremendous burden. – calls every other week that you had had something go wrong with your diabetes or some health issue – almost always from your alcohol. I did most of it, because I felt like it was ‘what I should do’, or for my conscience, or for Brothers name. Thankfully, Joe helped a lot.
I remember seeing you happy in Africa. I felt resentful you could achieve this happiness, yet were so self-destructive, yet I could not & mum certainly couldn’t.
So, as I look back at my relationship with you, at 30 – how do I feel?
Firstly, I still believe you were not a bad person. I believe you were a person with profound trauma – and I am so sorry you were not loved in the way you deserved to be. You were handsome, charismatic, and remarkably resilient. You were not shown that, because your dad, and perhaps mum, was an egotistical narcissist. I am so sorry you wasted your life – it must have been so lonely.
I believe people are not ‘good or bad’ – we can be both – and you were that. I am also grateful for many things.
- The relationship I have with Brothers name, no doubt fostered through sharing our childhood.
- My empathy for others, particularly vulnerable people.
- My understanding of psychology and trauma, and why we need to get to the root causes of issue.
- The tremendous resilience you helped build in me through life.
- Your values and morals: deep down, you were an extremely kind person. I always remember your brothers telling us ‘Pat has always been sensitive – I remember him sitting in front of the TV, looking at the Bosnian war in distress’. Your morals were so good – your behavior was not.
I am also sad for myself. I am sad that I didn’t the relationship, that I am learning through therapy and age, that I was entitled to have with my dad. I remember being in the boxing gym about a year ago, and an 18-20 year old boxing came in and was being trained with his dad. I remember transitioning from being an independent 29 year old to a child and pinning for a parental figure like that – and I am learning it’s okay to say ‘I deserved that’.
Now, that conversation I tried to have with you at 18/19. But this time, it’s also about the effect you had on me. For many years, I felt our childhood had not affected me. It did – it was so much I could not process and blurred it all out. But, many of issues are atleast partly down to your behavior. It makes me sad to think the 9-year old me in class, ripping his own hair out, or digging my thumb in between my other fingers – these are self soothing, coping mechanisms. My OCD – because the only thing in my environment I could control is the way people crossed their legs. Or my comfort in toxic relationships and my discomfort in healthy ones. Certainly in my younger life, my reckless actions due to my lack of self-worth.
But, as I sit here at 30, I am hoping I am doing the right things to heal in the right way. I am hoping I can find balance between self-love, acknowledging my journey, but equally not becoming a victim and creating excuses.
I am more fortunate than you in that both my trauma is not as profound as yours, whilst also being born in a generation who have both more knowledge and acceptance of therapy.
I am hoping I will do the same thing you did – be a better man and dad that ours. You absolutely achieved this dad.
I hope this letter marks the first step of me stepping out of the façade of taking action (by throwing myself into work, partying and poker) and towards healing myself.
My name xxx

Hey everyone, for a while now there's been multiple desktop applications that have facilitated the way users interact with hardware wallets like Trezor, Ledger and some other native desktop wallets that have been around for quite a long time like Electron Cash.
Most of the focus has been centered on native desktop applications for the experienced users but how about the mobile aspect? till this very date there isn't a mobile Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin wallet that's completely self custody that allows for a user to enable a multisignature setup in the same way an Electron Cash wallet does for a native desktop application.
In part I believe this is so due to the infrastructure being built around these full node libraries and how difficult it is to build.
So I've been brain storming through ideas in the past and saw that it is actually possible to build something like this entirely for mobile (that's to say IOS, Android) that can cover almost every if not every feature behind both maintaining security in the custodial part and feature an easy to use, configure multisignature setup for things like managing funds between other cosigners, or as a method for backing up your own wallet in case you lose your keys in a 1-of-3.
All that's missing is someone to create a mobile client application that covers every part of what deals with the signing, generation of the wallet, construction of the multisig transactions, scripts that interacts with a node back-end to broadcast the transactions on chain. I've gone into a bit more detail on how I'm approaching this below in a campaign I'm running to get this project out for users on both IOS, Android.
http://flipstartermultisig.site/en
I'm asking the people of btc to take a look at my proposal, and idea. So we could create some good discussion to eventually land this idea, project into production and everything that comes with it.
If people enjoy the idea, I'd be more then happy to build it together with the help of the community
Thanks everyone, and more importantly FREE ROGER VER!

I know some people have asked on here before about the viability of Bone Spear + Minions so I wanted to share my achievement and give some insight as to how I built my character. First and foremost let me say I am not an extreme hardcore player, I consider myself a dedicated midcore player at best who likes to improve. This build may not be absolutely mathematically perfect and could have more potential but it's fun and it works!

Links

Video of clear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCg2-x2ilo8 Build link: https://d4builds.gg/builds/6d095985-0c71-4c3c-af69-9aa3b30e268f/?var=0

Basics

The first thing you need to understand is that your minions are expendable and don't accomplish much on their own. You should not invest to them at all in the paragon and the few select minions nodes taken in the skill tree were done to keep the bone mages alive longer so they can throw bone spears.
That being said, your mages are a big part of this build even if they are wonky sometimes. Every 6th attack from them is a bone spear which scales off of your stats alone. That means investing in minion damage is pointless and that attack speed is king. You want them positioned back with you firing off bone spears as much as they can.

Uniques

The two uniques I have are Harlequins Crest and Ring of the Sacrilegious Soul. There is no argument from me that Harlequins is carrying the damage with +4 ranks to bone spear and not to mention the damage reduction. Without it, I still think the build can work easily into the T80s or higher but since ubers aren't that bad to acquire now, there is no reason to not get one.
The unique ring is mainly a QoL ring and if someone was extremely minmax'ing this build then a different ring could potentially offer more damage. However I find that with this particular build, not having to worry about keeping skeletons up to throw bone spears allows me some breathing room when I'm deep in the Pit fighting for my life against a boss. Plus the extra corpse tendrils and corpse explosions going off help so much.
All of my gear is masterworked to around rank 9 or 10, so there is still quite a bit of room for improvement. This build might be able to clear T110 or maybe even T120 with full masterwork and near BIS pieces.

Corpse Explosion?

Yes. With the ring it is going off by itself every 1s and doing roughly 80% of the damage of a bone spear. It is worth the points not only because of the free damage, but there are also situations where corpse explosion is optimal instead. For example, a room full of fire elites that you can't peek into, but your corpse explosion can hit things on the other side of the wall. You also can proc corpse explosion fast manually to get your 5x corpse Flesh Eater bonus on demand. You can even fit + Ranks of Corpse Explosion on the chest. I had + Ranks of Golem on mine, took away the 3 points I had there, and put them into corpse explosion.

Tips

The best advice I have for you is to get the uniques, get your health to about 30k, and then invest everything else in damage that you can because you will need it. Damage to Distant Enemies is your best friend, put it everywhere. It scales much higher than other damage bonuses and is so easy to position for. The gameplay loop plays pretty much like a standard bone spear except you can send in your golem first to generate corpses and then corpse tendril into bone spear spam.

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions or potential improvements to this build let me know!