Ice planet barbarians book 2 pdf

Context: You never thought you’d get so entangled with the popular kid, but after your last meeting they seem to be hanging out with you more and more. Until one day, they ask you out on a date?!
Words: 1262
Monetization: It’s perfectly ok to monetize and record any of my scripts, you can change pronouns and stuff around too! Just please remember to credit me! However, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PAYWALL MY SCRIPTS!
Notes: Beginner script!
A/N: I wasn’t planning on making a sequel to this lil script, but the lovely u/mab1981 (youtube.com/@relaxwithmab) was kind enough to commission me for a part 2! No pressure on any of the lovely VAs who filled the previous script to fill this one, though!
<< Previous
[My Script Hub] [Nyan’s Sound Effects Drive]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[trees rustle in the wind]
[soft humming]
“Hm?”
“Oh! Hey, you’re here!”
[they rush over to you]
“You didn’t run into any trouble on the way here, right? I was a little worried that the directions I gave you weren’t specific enough…”
[pause]
“Ah, thank goodness.”
“So! What do you think of this place? It’s nice, isn’t it?”
“The ducks swimming around on the lake, wind rustling through the trees, leaves crunching underfoot…”
“The picture perfect location for a date, eh?”
[pause]
“Hehe, no need to look so embarrassed. We’ve known each other for a month now, yeah? So there’s no need to shy away from me.”
[pause]
“You think it’s pretty here?”
“Haha, I’m glad you like it!”
[pause]
“Why did I want to take you here?”
“Hehe! I usually pass by this park on my way to school. I’ve always wanted to take a walk around here, but I never really had anyone to go with. I would usually just go to the mall or the movies with my friends.”
“Well… mostly ex-friends now.”
“But now, I have you! And you’re way funner to talk to than any of them!”
[pause]
“Hey, I keep telling ya, you don’t need to say sorry for something someone else did! And especially not if you’re the victim. I ended my friendship with those people of my own volition.”
“If anything, it’s my fault for not noticing what they’ve been doing behind my back.”
[footsteps as the two of you begin to walk]
(Gently) “I’m really glad you told me in the end.”
[pause]
“You thought I wouldn’t believe you?”
“Do I really give off that kind of impression…?”
[pause]
“... You thought I wouldn’t because I didn’t know you as well as I knew my… ‘fan club’?”
[they laugh]
“Well, in the end, I guess I didn’t know my fan club well at all. I mean… I didn’t even see them as fans.”
(A bit dejected) “... I saw them all as friends.”
[pause]
“Ah, it’s alright.”
“I don’t want people like that around me. People who put on a smiley face around the one they like but are cruel to everyone else? Those are the worst kinds of people.”
“Heck, you didn’t even do anything to them! Why would they choose to bully someone as awesome as you?”
“You having the courage to tell me about what happened meant that I got to cut them out of my life.”
[pause]
“Oh, yeah. Sure I still see them around school but they know that I want nothing to do with them any more.”
“It’s enough to keep most of them from approaching me again.”
[pause]
“Hey, what’s with that look on your face?”
[pause]
“... You’re scared that they’ll blame you for me cutting them off?”
“Why would they do that? It was their decision to bully you.”
“I didn’t even tell them that you were the one who tipped me off!”
[pause]
“... Oh…”
“Yeah… you’re right. If they were capable of doing that, then who knows what else they might do if they were scorned…”
“Well… if it ever comes down to it… you can count on me to take your side and protect you, alright?”
[pause]
“Of course I can protect you! If you ever need to, you can hide behind me and I’ll keep you safe! Just trust me!”
[pause]
“... Your laugh is really cute, you know.”
[pause]
“It is! I always feel my heart flutter whenever you laugh. It’s such a nice sound to hear, especially from someone as shy as you.”
“You don’t laugh very often, so it always makes me happy when I make you laugh.”
“It lets me know that you enjoy having me around.”
[pause]
“Hahaha! No need to cover your face around me, I know you’re smiling!”
[pause]
“But you are! I can hear it in your voice!”
“C’mon, let me see your smile, please?”
[pause]
“There we go. See? It feels great to smile, right?”
[pause]
“Well… I hope I can always make you smile.”
“I never want to see you act like you did when we first met again. Scared… hiding behind your book, always looking around like you’re waiting to be attacked by your bullies.”
“... I want to see you smile just like this, every day.”
[pause]
“Hehe, is my flirting working? You’re looking away from me again.”
[pause]
“Well I certainly hope I made your heart flutter!”
(Teasing) “We are on a date, after all~”
[pause]
“Of course I have to say it out loud! I’ll say it as many times as possible until you stop questioning whether or not this is happening.”
“The best way to remember something is to say it a bunch, right? In that case, I have to say it a bunch of times so that you believe me.”
[pause]
“Hey, I asked you on a date because I want to date you. I want to date you because I think you’re an awesome person who I’ve fallen head over heels for. There’s not a shred of dishonesty in me!”
[pause]
“Like I keep saying… you really are awesome. And I’ll keep telling you how great you are until you believe me!”
[pause]
“What do I like about you?”
“Oh, lots of things! I could go on and on about all the things I like about you. Buuuut, if you want a start…”
[pause]
“Like I said, I love your smile. It lights up your face and makes your eyes shine.”
“I love how passionate you are about what you love. It took a while for you to start talking to me about what you like, but once you started, you were so enthusiastic that I couldn’t help but enjoy hearing you talk about it.”
“You’re really observant, too! You noticed my bandaged hand as soon as we met up last week, and you always seem to notice when I’m feeling a little down, or even if I’m trying to hide a gift from you!”
[pause]
(Teasing) “Hey, I said I could go on! Do you want me to keep going? Should I tell you how much I love the way the sunlight shines on you?”
[pause]
“Ahahaha! Okay, okay! You think it’s cheesy, but it’s true as can be in my eyes!”
(softly, more serious tone) “So, have I convinced you? Do you believe me now, when I say that I really, really like you?”
[pause, wind rustles through the trees]
“Hey, you don’t have to give me your answer right now.”
“If you want to be friends for a while longer first, that’s fine. If you reject me outright… well, I’ll be sad, but I’ll respect your decision.”
“Whatever you think about me… I hope you know that I really, truly…”
[pause]
(A little flustered) “Hmm, maybe ‘love’ is too strong a word to use right now.”
[pause]
“Hahaha! You’re getting all flustered?”
[rustling]
“If it makes you feel better… I’m pretty flustered too. I mean, I was about to make a declaration of love when you probably weren’t ready yet!”
“So… let’s finish our date first, yeah? There’s an ice cream truck that usually parks nearby at around this time, and the nice lady who runs it sells the best popsicles!”
[pause]
“Sounds good to me!”
“Oh, but um… can I ask one thing from you?”
[pause]
(A little embarrassed) “Well… if you’re okay with it, I want to hold hands with you.”
[pause]
[you take their hand]
“Ah… your hand is so warm.”
“It’s a really nice feeling.”
[pause]
“Well… whether you decide to date me or not, I hope you remember that I’m always on your side.”
[pause]
“... Yeah. It makes me so, so happy that I met you.”
“Alright, come on! We don’t want to miss the ice cream truck!”
[running footsteps through leaves]
[fade out laughter]
~END~
Thanks for reading!

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2023.06.05 01:01 AutoModerator Weekly Copyright Reminder

This is a weekly reminder post of this sub's stance on potential copyright infringement. This is a serious issue that needs to be kept in mind when creating and listing NFTs.
Original post by u/HurleyBird1
Quick disclaimer: I AM NOT A LAWYER. THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE - THIS IS SIMPLY INFORMATION WITH WHICH TO EDUCATE YOURSELVES AND PREPARE YOURSELF FOR LEGAL ADVICE FROM A LICENSED SOURCE.
Now that that's out of the way. My credentials are: MBA, with a bit of business law classes under my belt.
I want to give a quick explanation of how copyright works - and I'll do so through quick blurbs n some myth/reality bullets.
Source: copyright.gov (US)

Subject matter of copyright: In general28(a) Copyright protection subsists, in accordance with this title, in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Works of authorship include the following categories:(1) literary works;(2) musical works, including any accompanying words;(3) dramatic works, including any accompanying music;(4) pantomimes and choreographic works;(5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;(6) motion pictures and other audiovisual works;(7) sound recordings; and(8) architectural works.(b) In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

- Myth: I can use any image/song/video/writing I want.
- Reality: No. Not true at all.
- Myth: Well they never said it's copyrighted.
- Reality: Upon publication (and even while a work in progress) a work is automatically protected via copyright under US Law.
- Myth: Well they never sold it.
- Reality: It doesn't have to be commercialized to be protected.
- Myth: Well it was a long time ago
- Reality: Possibly true...as long as the creator is deceased (or if multiple creators, the last living one is deceased) and the required time has passed...although this gets tricky with "estates."
(d) Duration of Rights.—(1) With respect to works of visual art created on or after the effective date set forth in section 610(a) of the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, the rights conferred by subsection (a) shall endure for a term consisting of the life of the author.
So what's this thing I hear called "Fair Use?"
Straight from the source:

Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use41Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

Uhh...help me translate that please... (here's a decent official translation: https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html)

above...if it's non-profit educational use, you're usually good to go...if it's for money or trade (commercial nature) then you're usually NOT...unless YOUR piece is "transformative"

Transformative uses are those that add something new, with a further purpose or different character, and do not substitute for the original use of the work.
- Myth: Well this is paid for in Algos, not USD so it's not "commercial"
- Reality: IT IS commercial. You could even barter for bacon and it'd be commercial. It's an exchange of one good/service for another good/service.
- Myth: My piece with Batman inside a card is "transformative"
- Reality: No, unfortunately, more-than-likely the courts would say it's not. A good litmus test is..."If Warner Bros Entertainment (owner of Batman) wanted to make an NFT/ASA "Batman card" would yours compete with it or be possibly mistaken (by a reasonable person - so in America think 8th grade education) for real merchandise? Probably...thus it's not transformative enough.
"nature" gets a little tougher. This looks at protecting the "creative process." Thus, using other works of art is less-likely to be protected than using factual sources - like historical photographs since it's easier to "create art" and thus "transform" factual pieces than other art pieces. This is also talking to things like "parody." Satire is NOT protected. "Parody" is. What's the difference? LegalZoomputs it well: While a parody targets and mimics the original work to make a point, a satire uses the original work to criticize something else entirely. Another way to look at it is that satire uses another work as a way to comment on something happening in the world that has nothing to do with the original work.
- Myth: I added a different border, extra planets, and some blur effect to MTZ's World of Light - it's a new piece of art.
- Reality: Not likely the courts will see it that way.
- Myth: This guy added a filter, some burn effects, and collaged a bunch of newspaper headlines together - isn't that a violation!
- Reality: Probably not...the courts would probably see this as a creation of art out of factual sources.
amount/substantiality in relation to the whole...this is where using clips of songs that are only like 5 seconds long works! But using more than that...runs into problems. This is tough to decipher too...as some songs are EASILY identifiable from just 5 seconds (Ice, ice, baby) - and thus NOT fair use. But some aren't. Usually you're safe using a very small clip of a song or video - especially if you're adding more to it. But this is a dangerous game to play - and there's places to get free audio (some sources below)
effect of the use - this is probably the biggest one. Courts will look at simply...does YOUR work affect the sales or potential for sales of the copyright owner. Of note...this is looked at at the time of the issue being brought to the court, not at the time of sale. For example, let's say my batman card sells for 10 Algos today, but Algorand BLOWS UP and soon every NFT is on Algorand. And now my OG Batman NFT is seen as one of the first Batman ones and official. Warner Bros gonna sue the shit outta whoever owns it at the time they sue to get the rights to all sales of that NFT. So that person is left holding an empty bag when Warner Bros wins in court.
- Myth: Well they're not commercializing it NOW so I'm safe.
- Reality: Technically, yea Warner Bros probably won't spend the money to go after the OG artist and the hands the asset passed through...HOWEVER, they may. That's their right. Who knows - the Napster days showed us the lengths companies will go to. EVEN BIGGER HOWEVER, the last person holding it when Warner Bros DOES decide to go after that Batman NFT...uh oh for them - they just lost their asset.
- Myth: Well it's been like a year, and no one has brought up copyright. So I'm good.
- Reality: If this was in a normal market...maybe this argument would work. If McDonald's let you sell a Ronald McDonald poster for like a year on Amazon with no issues, some court may say "bro, you took too long to bring this to us." HOWEVER, with cryptocurrency being so new (and Algorand being so little known/discussed), most courts would see it as "reasonable" that a copyright owner failed to exercise their rights within a year - possibly even a decade. (Updated because I realized last example dealt with trademark not copyright :o)
So what am I safe to use?
US Government works (mostly)...any deemed free to use by creator...and any a copyright lawyer says they have your backs on (cuz now they're liable).
Here's some great sources for free use items (please add to this list below if you know of some!!!):
Pictures: https://buffer.com/library/free-images/ (Unsplash is one of my faves)
Music: https://www.wix.com/blog/photography/2019/11/27/free-music-for-videos/
Video: https://blog.hootsuite.com/free-stock-videos-sites/
You'll notice there's a lot of "shoulds" "coulds" "probably" etc. This is because copyright cases are all unique and go to the courts. The best bet is to go with stuff you KNOW is free and fair-use. If not, I'd look up copyright law, consult supreme court cases concerning copyright, and ultimately, talk to a lawyer.
AGAIN: I AM NOT A LAWYER. I AM NOT PROVIDING LEGAL ADVICE. I AM SIMPLY PROVIDING INFORMATION. THERE MAY BE ERRORS ABOVE THAT COULD CAUSE SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGES - CONSULT A COPYRIGHT ATTORNEY IF YOU WISH TO RECEIVE LEGAL ADVICE.

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2023.06.05 00:43 N4t41i4 No explanation needed

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2023.06.05 00:10 spunchy M&B Lecture 5: The Central Bank as a Clearinghouse

For our schedule and links to other discussions, see the Money and Banking 2023 master post.
This is the discussion thread for Economics of Money and Banking Lecture 5: The Central Bank as a Clearinghouse.

The lecture begins our discussion of banking as a payments system. We start with the interconnectedness of bank balance sheets that allow the payment system to operate smoothly. The central bank helps knit the payment system together to approximate the behavior of one big bank. We cover correspondent banking and central bank cooperation.

Part 1: FT: Martin Wolf on QE3

FT Article: Bernanke makes a historic choice

As the press release of the open market committee stated: “If the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the Committee will continue its purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities, undertake additional asset purchases, and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until such improvement is achieved in a context of price stability.” This is also “consistent with its statutory mandate”, to foster “maximum employment and price stability”. —Bernanke makes a historic choice

Here's the Money View blog post that examines QE3.

How should we understand QE3? The Fed promises to buy MBS, and possibly other assets, at a fixed and steady pace until employment improves. The immediate effect is to absorb such assets from elsewhere in the financial system. This is, in the first instance, a boost to the liquidity of these securities: when a big-time buyer is out there, it will be easier to sell, and knowing that a big-time buyer will continue to be out there, others will be more likely to buy. — QE3 The Money View

I've added "Builders" to the balance sheet from the blog post to show where the money goes and where the houses come from:

https://preview.redd.it/q8ui8v69o24b1.png?width=1133&format=png&auto=webp&s=c24e93eb8e763849022eada0aa4974edf9433170

At the highest level, finally, does QE3 get at what is keeping aggregate demand down? If the problem remains, still, overindebted households unwilling to increase their demand for newly produced goods and services, then this liquidity-providing operation will have very little effect. If there is too much debt out there, and it is to be reduced, someone will have to write that debt down against equity. This is not a feature of QE3 as announced. — QE3 The Money View

The goal was to return to nominal GDP trend, but we were falling further behind.

Part 2: One Big Bank

The payments system functions as if it were operating on the balance sheet of one big bank. Everyone can pay each other using bank deposits as if all bank deposits were equivalent.
The IMF works more like a "pure money" one-big-bank system. Its balance sheet does not expand or contract as countries make payments to one another.
In a "pure money" one-big-bank system, the quantity of money (deposits) doesn't change. Depositors pay each other by assignment, which appears as novation on the balance sheet of the bank: one deposit account takes on liabilities previously held by another:

https://preview.redd.it/7ifoequao24b1.png?width=847&format=png&auto=webp&s=21f2884c7dced3a3839116a8e10b37d0a6c556c1
The Fed works more like a credit system. A "pure credit" one-big-bank system has no reserves. Instead, surplus agents have deposits at the bank, which they hold as assets. Deficit agents have "overdrafts" at the bank, which are their liabilities.
https://preview.redd.it/uk0qf9bco24b1.png?width=268&format=png&auto=webp&s=d832d2aaddc01d60a136d952e481eee72e00d3b3
Depositors make payments through the bank. Below is the matrix from the lecture that shows whether the bank's balance sheet expands, contracts, or stays the same size. Payers are on the vertical axis. Payees are on the horizontal axis.
https://preview.redd.it/p1wimxoeo24b1.png?width=125&format=png&auto=webp&s=11760b09ddf1761033e5fdbbe923a48d1a7db085
Surplus agents pay each other by assigning deposits. Deficit agents pay each other by novating overdrafts. Deficit agents pay surplus agents by issuance, intermediated by the bank. Surplus agents pay deficit agents by set off, again intermediated by the bank.
This matrix assumes that the bank's balance sheet expands only when necessary. It shrinks whenever possible. Otherwise, everybody could make all payments by issuance, and balance sheets would only ever expand.
The Money Stock
In a footnote to the lecture notes, Perry points out that the elasticity of credit makes it hard to define the size of the money stock.

Note in passing that this way of thinking about the payments system raises deep questions about how properly to measure the money supply.
—Lecture Notes

He provides three options.

The sum of deposits.
The sum of deposits minus overdrafts.
The sum of deposits plus credit limits (the "minus" is a typo in the notes).

The first option is closest to how people usually think about the money supply. But in a world with the possibility for overdrafts, it doesn't measure agents' spending potential.
The second option also doesn't measure people's overall purchasing power. If you're in a pure credit system, deposits and overdrafts exactly net out to zero, but we know there's purchasing power in the system.
The third option reflects the idea that there's more gross purchasing power when people have higher credit limits. But credit limits don't appear on anyone's balance sheet. How do we measure them?
The balance sheets tell the same story regardless of how you define or measure the money stock.

Part 3: Multiple Banks, a challenge

In the real world, the challenge is to knit multiple bank balance sheets together into a single payment system. When deposits move through the banking system, there is a notional flow of reserves behind the scenes.
https://preview.redd.it/5fz7oyp1p24b1.png?width=558&format=png&auto=webp&s=f6baed3bb7fa55e9b9f3daa5da2c2d80a34178c9
Notice that reserves move (assignment) along with the deposits (novation). In quadruple-entry accounting, this is a transfer of portfolio. Bank A's balance sheet contracts on both sides while Bank B's balance sheet expandson both sides. In the example above, the consolidated balance sheet of the banking system as a whole remains the same size.
Unlike with one big bank, the reserves matter. The deficit bank can run out of reserves and come up against the settlement constraint. There's more discipline than in a system with one big bank.
Banks run the payments system by expanding and contracting their balance sheets on both sides. The net worth of neither the individual banks nor the banking system as a whole changes as depositors make payments to each other.
If banks refused to run the payment system, it would force depositors to withdraw cash whenever they wanted to make payments.
See the below set of balance sheets.
https://preview.redd.it/x1tai1fzo24b1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=0e320bcd0a430e9035a0a8a89e8cee2d82bfa465
There are two scenarios here: A and B. Each is a different way for Depositor α at Bank A to pay Depositor γ at Bank B. Both start and end with the same balance-sheet positions.
Scenario A has 5 steps:

A1: Bank A exchanges reserves for cash. This is a refinance operation with the central bank's balance sheet (not shown).
A2: Depositor α withdraws the cash. This is an asset disintermediation.
A3: α pays the cash to γ in payment by assignment.
A4: γ deposits the cash into Bank B, which is an asset intermediation.
A5: Bank B exchanges the cash back into reserves (deposits at the central bank).

The payment takes place outside the banking system. Whenever depositors are making payments in this way, the reserves are just gone from the system.
It's more convenient for the banks to send the payment directly to the other bank instead of having depositors withdraw their money. This is scenario B.
Making payments directly through account balances reduces the need for depositors to withdraw cash. It allows banks to economize on reserves. Offering demand deposits, therefore, basically forces banks to run the payments system.
When appropriate, we can treat bank deposits as outside asset for our layer of the hierarchy simply by ignoring the balance sheets of the banks.

Part 4: Reading: Charles F. Dunbar

The reading for this Wednesday is a chapter by Charles Dunbar about how the United States checking system worked in the late 19th century before we had a central bank.
Below is a simple representation of payment by check between depositors at two banks at the same level of the hierarchy.
https://preview.redd.it/0ozi6korp24b1.png?width=901&format=png&auto=webp&s=3e879bf2b0a8134ccee9ecef03083a8adbfd2c0e

Here's the full Dunbar book: Chapters on the Theory and History of Banking

Part 5: Correspondent banking, bilateral balances

A check is an order to pay. Each bank receives orders to pay throughout the day and then nets them out.
https://preview.redd.it/oblni8wup24b1.png?width=427&format=png&auto=webp&s=d9ad8403194efcbec07de0faf85591656125fb98
After they clear by netting out offsetting promises to pay, the banks could settle the difference by paying in reserves (transfer of portfolio). But it can be more convenient for the banks to have deposit accounts with each other. These are called correspondent balances.
There are two ways to resolve a payment from a bank A customer to a payment to a bank B customer using correspondent balances:

A liability disintermediation that contracts A's balance sheet.

https://preview.redd.it/t58zbfdyp24b1.png?width=555&format=png&auto=webp&s=bcc188add9fc1d79f01421f61ce08330dfb0acbe

A liability intermediation that expands B's balance sheet.

https://preview.redd.it/kzicxvt1q24b1.png?width=556&format=png&auto=webp&s=94667d88cb0aa2115148ea194c21346c1440dbae
In practice, there's a hierarchy of banks, and the small country banks will be the ones that hold deposit balances in the bigger city banks. The action will happen on the big bank's balance sheet.

Here's Perry's source on bankers' balances by Leonard Lyon Watkins: Bankers' Balances

Part 6: Correspondent banking, system network

Here's a diagram similar to the one Mehrling draws on the board. Money-center Banks A and B have correspondent accounts at New York Bank C. Depositors α and β's banks have correspondent accounts at money-center Bank A. γ's bank has a correspondent account at Bank C, and λ's bank has a correspondent account at Bank B.
https://preview.redd.it/r3h8b2d5q24b1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=8bab35d6ea48ec0b63c5cf48cee5105f5d5e7630
There are multiple layers of the correspondent-banking hierarchy. The idea is to economize on reserves. Do as much netting as possible so reserves don't have to flow. Use credit as much as possible so reserves don't have to flow.
Here's what it looks like (notionally) for α to pay λ.
https://preview.redd.it/vvp29757q24b1.png?width=1065&format=png&auto=webp&s=5ade9969f7e31d9af86dadbf688f4ceca1a69c5b
I've arranged the balance sheets so you can see the hierarchy. Each balance sheet uses as reserves deposits in the bank above it.
This flow of reserves is only "notional" because it might be offset with a payment going in the opposite direction. In that case, no reserves will actually flow.
Now imagine that λ has its correspondent account directly at money-center bank B. When α to pays λ, there is a contraction of deposits at an intermediate layer of the hierarchy.
https://preview.redd.it/wjjy913aq24b1.png?width=1058&format=png&auto=webp&s=381d71e0fda9255a354d106f0ecbfe8bcc0a5705
From the perspective of α and λ, it's all the same.

Note that, since the correspondent system is a credit system, we are not constrained by the quantity of gold, only by the various bi-lateral credit limits.—Lecture Notes

The accumulation of orders to pay throughout the day is not constrained by reserves. Only the final settlement (after netting) is reserve-constrained.

Part 7: Clearinghouse, normal operations

Banks cooperating to form a clearinghouse is an example of the emergence of hierarchy. The banks are installing a layer of the hierarchy above themselves for the purpose of providing elasticity. That elasticity can then propagate further down the hierarchy.
Here are some simple balance sheets showing the New York Clearinghouse Association.
https://preview.redd.it/pez4wldeq24b1.png?width=557&format=png&auto=webp&s=8cad3a85eb4135191e20125e14ea08e75774f79d
Clearinghouse certificates are notes that stand in for gold. They're not just promises to pay gold. Each note corresponds to gold that's actually held in reserve.
All promised payments are mutual obligations of members of the clearinghouse. The credit of the aggregate is better than the credit of any individual bank.
The clearinghouse is a credit system during the day but a money system when settling at the end of the day.
If a member bank is a net debtor at the end of the day, it has to choose from the following options:

Pay with clearinghouse certificates.
Borrow from another member.
Default.

The second option is what we call a money market. The money market is the market where banks borrow reserves from each other short-term to meet payments deficits. In addition to facilitating the payments system, the money market can also fund longer-term positions that need to be continually rolled over. We'll talk about this more in future lectures.
Here's a book about the history of clearinghouses that Merhling recommends.

Clearing-houses: Their History, Methods, and Administration by James Graham Cannon

Part 8: Clearinghouse, private lender of last resort

In times of stress, when member banks collectively lack sufficient reserves, the members can borrow from the clearinghouse itself. The clearinghouse funds the loan by issuing a clearinghouse loan certificate. Whereas the clearinghouse certificate is directly backed by gold, the clearinghouse loan certificate is backed by the loan instead.
lecture5-b9-loan-certificate.png
The Clearinghouse is a private lender of last resort.
Clearinghouse loan certificates are like banknotes, but they're issued against member loans rather than the special 2% government bonds. Before 1907, it wasn't clear that they were legal.
Sometimes, it was hard for the clearinghouse to get the loan certificates back because they paid so well.
Here's a paper by the same author as the above book that describes clearinghouse loan certificates in more detail.

Clearing House Loan Certificates and Substitutes for Money Used During the Panic of 1907 by James Graham Cannon

Part 9: Central Bank Clearing

https://preview.redd.it/c0vgk2gsq24b1.png?width=558&format=png&auto=webp&s=41b5c8c976f7874e647261e2cbda62ed6ccb3383

Central banking can be understood as nothing more than one step beyond the clearinghouse, a kind of regularization and strengthening of the clearinghouse system that goes the extra step of obliterating the difference between clearinghouse certificates and clearinghouse loan certificates.—Lecture Notes

https://preview.redd.it/1t996zltq24b1.png?width=742&format=png&auto=webp&s=90d0770720c03c36fd780f6afdfcd3a1f8a3db68
In the above set of balance sheets, "money" is an umbrella term for reserves (deposits) and Federal Reserve Notes. It shows that the Fed can support members by lending to them through the discount window (not the same thing as discounting) or by buying assets from their balance sheets (more analogous to discounting).
Today, there are two clearing systems: one public (Fedwire) and one private (CHIPS). CHIPS is the modern version of the NYCA. CHIPS clears first, and then everything settles on Fedwire.

Part 10: Central Bank Cooperation

If someone above you in the hierarchy needs to be paid in reserves (external drain), your choice is to pay up or to default (suspend payments). If someone below you in the hierarchy needs to be paid (internal drain), your liabilities are their reserves. You can expand your balance sheet. No problem.
When you're a central bank and you run out of gold, you suspend specie payments. That's suspending the exchange rate fixed with gold. It suspends the promise that you will maintain the mint par with gold.
Instead of suspending payments, it's possible for all the central banks to expand their balance sheets at the same time when experiencing stress. It's like an international clearinghouse adding elasticity at the top of the system.
In 2012, the five central banks that matter were all expanding their balance sheets together: Fed, ECB, BoE, SNB, and BoJ. Today, Mehrling adds the Bank of Canada to that list and calls them as a group the C6, with the C standing for "central bank."
Please post any questions and comments below. We will have a one-hour live discussion of Lecture 5 and Lecture 6 on Monday, June 5th, at 2:00pm EDT.

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2023.06.04 23:51 Nemo__404 Deathworlders Should Not Be Allowed To Date! [Ch. 02/??]

first
Luna VI query: Set the source to the translation logs of Princess Amara Auralyn.
Consider it done!
Luna VI query: Now tell me in detail the events that led to the admission of Princess Amara into the first meeting crew.
***
Princess Amara was facing a cold stone door. Beige in color with a somewhat reflective surface, it was full of intricate engravings that the pattern-matching algorithm couldn’t identify as anything meaningful.
The status of the experimental integration of the nanites to the Irisian physiology was normal, and the total active time was 57.23 seconds.
Amara’s sharp but short claws slid through the surface of the door until they found a sequence of five matching clevises. She twisted a rotating mechanism that triggered the automatic opening of the heavy door.
As any Irisian would instinctively do, Amara’s eyes scanned the room to create a mental image of every single color, pattern, and texture of every single surface.
The inside shared some similarities with the door, but only in its structural aspects. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all made of the same cold stone, giving off the vibe of some older times. While the giant holographic chamber in the middle, with a detailed map of a specific part of the galaxy highlighted, spoke of a more recent era.
Amara noticed that the books, the pieces of art, and the decorations she remembered were all gone and a single unremarkable chair and the old man sitting on it remained.
He was so focused on the map, absorbed into the atmosphere of solitude, that he hadn’t noticed she entering.
“Don’t tell me an Oczoil ate all of your things, Aldrinch?”
A jolt of fear shot through the old man’s body. A young Irisian would have instantly jumped out of the chair while their brain took care of tracking the source of the voice and adjusting the patterns of their body to match the background in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, though, Aldrinch was not young, so, while his instinct to jump out of the chair was still there, his body was unable to perform the action and he fell on his arms and tail with only some of the parts of his skin having adjusted their colors to the background.
Upon realizing what she had done, Amara’s neutral expression gave way to patterns of red and green. Instead of worrying she was letting her true emotions show like she had trained her whole life not to, she rushed to help her old friend.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t think you w-”
“Didn’t think I was this old?” Aldrinchh accepted her help to get back on his feet. “The last two harvests haven’t been kind to me, Princess.”
Almost as if they were noise, Amara ignored his words and inspected his body to ensure that her reckless approach hadn’t caused a serious injury. The skin of his arms and tail were not visibly injured, but she was unable to see more given that even an old man like Aldrinchh had adhered to the latest fashion trend of wearing clothes when not in battle.
“You don’t need to worry about me, according to the way the humans measure time, I’m just a two-year-old.” Aldrinch dismissed her worries by stretching his arms to show there was nothing wrong with him.
His humorous tone made Amara realize her true emotions were showing. And that was not all, the fact that Aldrinch had recovered enough of his composure to put her at ease and hint at the topic she came here to discuss with a single comment spoke volumes about his skills with politics.
Amara closed her eyes and her exterior once again returned to the indigo blue with ephemeral black spots characteristic of her lineage.
“You still haven’t told me what happened to your things, Aldrinchh.” Amara returned the conversation to where she originally intended to start it. “I can’t imagine you parting with your collection of exotic poisons.”
“But that I did, young one.” Aldrinch entertained her curiosity. “Those were all mundane distractions.”
“Why did you keep this old holographic chamber then?” Someone with the position of Imperial Maven would have no trouble getting the latest virtual reality technology from the Core Galaxy Alliance or even the humans.
“This was made with our own technology, probably the last of its kind in working condition, I know it’s selfish keeping it here with me, but it wouldn’t feel right to leave it with anyone else.” A hint of gray appeared around Aldrinch’s dark spots.
“Cheer up!” Amara forced some positivity for the sake of her old friend. “Now that the humans showed up we have a good chance to save Irisa.”
Her positivity only caused the gray in Aldrinch patterns to become even more intense.
“I wish it was that simple, my young friend, but my experience has taught me that it rarely is.”
Amara noticed he had avoided going into detail to spare her from something he knew; she wanted to pursue some answers, but she felt now was not the time to seek this information. It would be a challenging endeavor to win his agreement for the favor she was about to ask him. There was no reason to make things even harder for herself by asking for even more. The earlier fiasco was already bad enough.
“You might be right about that, but convincing the Senate to change its policies is not our only option anymore.” Instead of asking directly, she opted for an indirect approach.
“Oh, I’ve heard some whispers that someone had been asking around to be included in the first meeting crew.”
Amara did not expect to have her intentions seen through and her sugar-coating attempt to be foiled even before she started listing why it was important to have someone like herself in the crew.
“Elysira doesn’t want to be in the crew, I caught her crying¹ yesterday, she is not the right person for the job.” Amara change her strategy on the fly and appealed to an emotional argument.
“I know that having alien technology inside her body and being labeled as an outsider is scary, but no one will treat her differently after she gets the translator. The only thing that will change is that she won’t be eligible for any high-rank position and won’t be privy to important secrets afterward.”
The way that Aldrinch denied her request without saying it clearly was quite annoying, but she was prepared for that.
“That’s not the problem. She knows the kind of expectation my mother has from her, and she hates it.” Amara explained. “When I asked her for an explanation she listed more than ten reasons off the top of her head why the humans look hideous and she said she’d rather die than comply with her orders.”
“Are you implying you are ready to take her place and carry her burden?” Aldrinch looked displeased as a tone of orange materialized around his dark spots.
“Not in a million years!” Amara’s exterior skipped the orange and became red at his insinuation. “I don’t agree with my mother’s subservient behavior and I think desperation turned her rule into a disgrace to all of our people.”
“And I was thinking you were not the same naïve girl who barged into here asking me for borrowing a poison to kill your older brother four harvests ago.”
“Aldrinch, I…” His’s previous statement had caused Amara to purposely show her anger, but it had not affected her inner emotions nearly as much as this one even though nothing was showing externally.
“You need to understand something; our position is terrible.” Aldrinch moved his eyes away from the princess and used his claws to reach for some controls of the holographic chamber. “This is a projection of the human territory, see that, they have full control of four systems, partial control over at least three, and all of them are full or artificial constructions everywhere.”
“I know that Aldrin-”
“No, you don’t.” Aldrinch didn’t let her speak.
The projection started to zoom in to a space in the void between two of those stellar systems and a shocking view was presented to Amara. Like a well-choreographed dance, many different groups of star-ships began to emerge from the depths of space and assemble into two distinct fleets. The projection zoomed in again to focus on one of the great groups. Inside this group, each ship was taking its designated position with precision and grace.
With every frame, a different ship model appeared, some monstrously big, some devilish small, but all of them seemed to have a purpose in being positioned where they were.
The projection zoomed out and again and an overview of the two fleets was seen by Amara. She noticed the reproduction was sped up, but that didn’t diminish her shock in the slightest as she witnessed those two fleets gradually converge.
One single explosion was the spark that ignited a sequence of countless big explosions in the middle of the battlefield, none of them destroying a single ship at first. But gradually the battle was turning into a dance of combat, with ships darting and weaving their last moves.
When the battle reached its climax and Amara wondered with tension who would win, Aldrinch paused the reproduction and zoomed in into a small corner of the battlefield.
In the little corner, there were more explosions than she could count and all of them had been previously labeled.
Kinect. Chemical. Atomic… Antimatter… Unknown.
“So many deaths…” Amara forgot the point Aldrinch was trying to prove by showing all of this.
“We believe most of them if not all were drone ships.” Aldrinch went on. “But that’s not the core issue. Have you wondered how we obtained this footage?”
“Have we been spying on the humans?” Realization struck her hard.
"Not by our own volition, but rather at the behest of Senator Eelzails." Aldrinch told her more than she expected he would. “Didn’t you find it suspicious how many times he’s been requesting our services lately?”
“This is an imminent catastrophe!” Amara instantly considered the possible ramifications of humanity finding out they are being spied on.
"Yet, hidden amidst the dangers, lies an opportunity if we choose our moves wisely." Aldrinch took a seat again contemplating projection.
Amara racked her brain trying to make sense of how spying on the ones whom they hoped to get help from could be an opportunity, but she failed to see how a good thing could come out of that action. “An opportunity you say? To me, it looks like an opportunity to ensure that there’s no planet to be saved anymore.”
“Do you know what was our only bargain chip before the Core Galaxy Alliance had made contact with the humans?”
“Enlighten me.” Amara was having trouble hiding her dissatisfaction so she answered shortly.
“Our unmatched expertise in stealth ship technology was our only asset that was craved by the Senate.” Aldrinch went on. “But the Core Galaxy Alliance gave us another bargaining chip without even realizing it when they ordered us to spy on the humans.”
Amara interest sparked; she noticed Aldrinch was testing her deductive skills by giving her just this much information so she decided to take on his challenge. “You are implying that we could disclose our surveillance to the humans… wait, that would be low, but… playing on both sides is also possible.”
“So you are not the same naïve girl after all.” Aldrinch finally moved his eyes away from the projection. “We’ve been playing on both sides in the previous two harvests. We purposely omitted the size of the human fleets by a factor of ten, we cherry-picked the ships and the explosions we wanted to show Senator Eelzails in our report. Now we can choose which story we want to tell.
One where we’ve been coerced into spying on the new species, but we refused to comply fully as a token of friendship. Or one where we ventured into the depths of human territory to do an exceptional job of gettering information.”
“A dangerous game…” Amara was not surprised her mother or the elders had chosen this course of action, but Aldrinch should have been able to see another path. “One that might not even be worth playing.”
Aldrinch’s exterior showed a hint of purple highlining he didn’t want to hide his confusion.
“Your words elude me, young one. There are only a few concessions we can offer, and if we aspire to secure aid, we must employ every available strategy, which includes making any potential outside helpers feel indebted to us.” Aldrinch looked her in the eye. “And it also justifies the requests your mother has made from Elysira and the others, their personal feelings mean very little when the fate of Irisa is what is at stake.”
Amara clenched her fists inconspicuously at his last statement, but not a single color changed in her exterior.
“How meaningless their feelings are compared to the greater good is not the point.” She noticed her effort to hide her anger was rendered useless by the aggressiveness of her words. “Have you or the elders tried to set aside your maps and schemes for a while to have a casual conversation with the humans from the space station?”
“And how would that help us?” Aldrinch was still confused and there was no sign he had taken any offense at her tone. “The humans in the space station are not the leaders of their species, they are scientists, soldiers, and explorers. Even if some of them know some important information that might be beneficial to us, I don’t see a species that has accomplished so much on their own giving away their secrets in casual conversation.”
“What if what I told you the humans don’t think like us on a fundamental level?” Amara had learned a lot about the difference between the human and Irisian cultures in the many hours she spent exchanging messages with the human crew. “Have you ever wondered why they decided to land on Irisa’s surface even though they didn’t even need to meet us face to face to have us intermediate their talks with the Core Galaxy Alliance?”
“…” Aldrinch pondered out loud in an attempt to infer the humans’ intentions. “By landing here they will put themselves into the spotlight and every species will be talking about them in the upcoming future. This attention could be used to obtain some trading deals for their technology, but they also would have to factor in the negativity of potentially being associated with us. Most races fear us and see this planet as hell, so by being able to survive here they will only prove that their plain appearance and lack of claws are deceiving and they are deserving of being classified as category four deathworlders.
They have much more to lose than to gain by being here, their decision to land must have been taken without much knowledge about the current state of affairs of the senate.”
“They know the implications of landing here, yet they will do it anyway.” Amara countered his reasoning.\
“Oh, are you insinuating that they'll graciously land here solely to lend us a helping hand, with no ulterior motives or desire for some grand reward? How noble and selfless of them!"
“I did not insinuate that!” Aldrinch’s resistance to at least consider the possibility that he was oblivious to some important information on the humans’ motivations was starting to get on Amara’s nerves. “What I’m trying to tell you is that their purpose here has nothing to do with us or even the Core Galaxy Alliance.”
“And the humans just told you that?”
Amara roamed around the circular holographic chamber to break eye contact and rain in her annoyance at his level of scrutiny.
“They did not tell me directly, but I noticed that every human I talked to would mention a lot of their concerns about who among the three representatives would take the first step on our planet. I didn’t understand their fixation on this trivial detail at first. I thought it was some kind of mistranslation, but when they talked about the history of exploration of their own world and their first attempts at reaching space, it all made sense to me.
The humans are not coming here to help us or try to get trading deals with other species, to them this planet is just a hard place to go to. A perfect place where their factions can put their technology to test and compete against themselves.”
“… This is-” Most of Aldrinch’s body was consumed by a vibrant purple which gave away the rare view of this old man failing to keep composure.
“Insulting?” Her eyes were transfixed into Aldrinch’s short hair² which was unable to keep up with his body and had only changed its color very close to the head.
“More than that. It means that humans are not trying to make alliances and their biggest concern as a species is fighting against themselves. If that is the case we should focus our energy on getting help from the Core Galaxy Alliance and forget about them.” Aldrinch’s dark spots slowly reappeared as he spoke.
“Absolutely not!” Amara was incisive. “You said it yourself that we don’t have many bargain chips to negotiate, we can’t afford to waste an opportunity like that!”
“I'm afraid I fail to grasp your meaning, princess.”
“Well, but that’s easy! The humans are looking for a challenge, then let’s give it to them.” Amara allowed her body to be filled with an energetic orange showing the excitement she had in finally saying to core part of her idea. “Instead of showing them the more peaceful corners of our planet, why don’t we take them to places like the Noxious Chasm and the Ebon Range.”
“To embark on such an endeavor would be sheer folly, few of our kin dare to traverse those treacherous lands. Bringing the humans into such perils would invite disaster, ruining the meticulously cultivated perception of our world as anything but a fiery inferno.” Aldrinch didn’t understand how Amara’s idea would help them at all. “To say that this would destroy our chances of being helped by the Core Galaxy Alliance would be an understatement, if we chose that path I can see the more extremist races such as the Asaidians openly advocating to leave us to our demise.”
“But the humans would be put in the same basket, wouldn’t they?” Amara purposely let hints of bright yellow appear around her dark spots to express the mischievous pride she had in her idea.
“…” Aldrinch stood up again and receded to the solitude of his inner world as he contemplated the idea.
Amara noticed the inner conflict in the old man’s thoughts and decided to keep pushing her idea. “Making alliances and getting trading deals may not be their primary goal now, but sooner or later they are going to need that, and when the time comes guess who will be the only ones who won’t be scared of them?”
“Your rezoning is not without merit, but let us not forget your own words of caution about playing a dangerous game. This endeavor carries even greater risks. What if a human representative perishes on those treacherous lands? Or worse, what if they become overwhelmed by fear and withdraw from the mission altogether?”
“I’m not saying there are no risks involved, but you are the one who said we have very little concessions to offer.” After hearing the old man using her own words against her, she ended up doing the same out of spite. “If danger can’t be avoided why not choose the path of greatest reward with the perks of giving a good scare on those deceiving wimps who can’t stop reiterating we haven’t done enough to deserve to be saved?”
Aldrinch didn’t say anything. He approached the holographic chamber and used his claws to interact with the controls to alternate the view to a series of maps and documents. Amara waited apprehensively without uttering a single word as she had a feeling that it wouldn’t be a good time to interrupt the old man.
After exactly one minute and twenty-seven seconds, Aldrinch made eye contact.
“I hope you kept the conversation logs with the humans, we are going to need those if we want to convince your mother and the elders to change their plans.”
“Are you going to support me?” Amara found it hard to contain yellow from showing.
“Just because I cannot die without seeing the chaos in the senate when we send them a detailed report of the humans visiting the Ebon Range.”
Amara almost let her happy mood cloud her mind about the other thing she had to ask, but in no time, she forced her mind to focus on how to broach the topic of joining the first meeting crew.
“I know what you want to ask and the answer is no.” The little pause in the conversation was enough for Aldrinch to anticipate her question. “I know you’ve grown up and are by no means the same naïve girl who is impatient and willing to do something stupid without understanding the consequences, but that doesn’t change the fact that you are too important to take such a dangerous job and put alien technology inside your body.”
To have her intentions read so easily was truly annoying, but that gave Amara the excuse she needed to give up the mind games and speak her mind.
“I’m grateful to you, Aldrinch, I’ve learned a lot from you when you refused to give me the poison and explained to me why getting rid of my brother wouldn’t solve all my problems.” She went on. “But those were not all the lessons that episode taught me.”
“What do you mean, young one?” Aldrinch didn’t try to guess her intentions.
In a sincere display of yellow she concluded. “I also learned that it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
1 – Irisians don’t cry with tears falling down their eyes and sobbing, instead they lose every color of their exterior and end up looking like a cathode ray tube TV showing static.
2 – Irisians don’t have hair but have an elongated extension of their skin at the top of their heads that is thin and disposable. It servers to protect their head against the unforgiving radiation of their planet.
***
This was an account of the events that led to the admission of Princess Amara into the first meeting crew. Here are some questions that might interest you based on your recent queries:
• What kind of danger will there be on the Ebon Range?
• Is humanity aware of the spying?
• Who are the parents of the baby?

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2023.06.04 23:36 Adorable-Climate6915 (Selling) Large Selection w/ New Additions. Mostly $3 Codes

All codes are HD unless indicated by a (4K or SD)
(4K/HD) means I have both.
Some codes might work on other redemption sites. Just ask, and I'll check!
Payments through PayPal FF and Venmo (DM me)
LIST:
12 Years a Slave (MA) ($3)
13 Hours: Benghazi (Vudu/Itunes) ($3)
47 Meters Down (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
47 Meters Down Uncaged (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Addicted (SD) (Vudu) ($2)
Adventures of Tintin (Vudu/Itunes) ($3)
Aladdin Live Action (MA) ($3)
Alex Cross (SD?) (Vudu) ($2)
Alita: Battle Angel (4K) (MA) ($2)
All Eyez on Me (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
All the Money in the World (MA) ($3)
American Assassin (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
American Hustle (SD) (MA) ($2)
American Made (MA) ($4)
Ant-Man (MA) ($3)
A Simple Favor (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Assassins Creed (4K) (MA) ($3)
Avengers Endgame (MA) ($3)
Avengers Infinity War (MA) ($3)
Batman 2021 (4K) (MA) ($4)
Bad Boys 4 Life (MA) ($3)
Blindspotting (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Captain America Winter Soldier (MA) ($3)
Captain Underpants (MA) ($3)
Concussion (SD) (MA) ($1)
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (4K/HD) (MA) ($4/$3)
Deadpool (MA) ($3)
Deepwater Horizon (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
The Devil Inside (SD) (Vudu) ($2)
Dirty Grandpa (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Divergent (SD) (Vudu) ($2)
Django Unchained (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Doctor Strange (MA) ($3)
Downton Abbey (MA) ($3)
Dragged Across Concrete (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Dredd (SD?) (Vudu) ($2)
The Duff (SD) (Vudu) ($2)
Dying of the Light (SD?) (Vudu) ($3)
Edward Scissorhands (MA) ($3)
Elysium (MA) ($3)
Ender’s Game (HD) (Vudu/Apple/Google) ($3)
Ex Machina (Vudu) ($3)
Expendables 2 (SD) (Vudu/Itunes) ($2)
Expendables 3 (Vudu) ($3)
Exodus Gods and Kings (MA) ($3)
Fast and Furious 6 Ext. Ed (MA) ($3)
Furious 7 (4K) (MA) ($4)
The Fate of the Furious (4K) (MA) ($4)
Finding Dory (MA) ($3)
Five Feet Apart (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Foxcatcher (SD) (MA) ($2)
Frozen 2 (4K) (MA) ($4)
Fury (MA) ($3)
Gangs of New York (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($4)
Get Out (MA) ($3)
Ghost in the Shell Anime Version (4K) (Vudu) ($4)
GI Joe Retaliation (Vudu/Itunes) ($3)
Girls Trip (MA) ($3)
Good Will Hunting (SD) (Vudu) ($2)
The Greatest Showman (MA) ($3)
The Green Knight (Vudu) ($4)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (MA) ($4)
Hacksaw Ridge (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
The Hateful Eight (Vudu/Google) ($3)
Heat (4K) (MA) ($4)
Hellboy 2019 (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Hellfest (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Hereditary (Vudu) ($3)
The Hitman’s Bodyguard (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($2)
The Hitman’s Wife Bodyguard (HD) (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Hostiles (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Hotel Mumbai (MA) ($3)
Hotel Transylvania 2 (MA) ($3)
Hours (SD?) (Vudu) ($2)
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (MA) ($3)
Hugo (SD) (Vudu/Itunes) ($2)
The Hunger Games (SD) (Vudu) ($1)
The Hunger Games Catching Fire (SD) (Vudu) ($1)
Hunger Games Mockingjay Pt 2 (SD) (Vudu) ($1)
Hunter Killer (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Hustlers (Itunes) ($3)
I Can Only Imagine (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
I, Frankenstein (HD) (Vudu/Itunes/Google) ($3)
Independence Day Resurgence (MA) ($2)
The Invisible Man (MA) ($3)
I Still Believe (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Iron Man 3 (MA) ($3)
Jason Bourne (4K) (MA) ($3)
Jigsaw (4K/HD) (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3/$2)
Joe (Vudu) ($4)
John Wick (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
John Wick 2 (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
John Wick 3 (4K/HD) (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($4/$3)
Joy (MA) ($3)
Julie and Julia (MA) ($3)
Jurassic World (MA) ($3)
Kidnap (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
The Kid Who Would be King (MA) ($4)
Knives Out (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Lady Bird (Vudu) ($3)
La La Land (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
The Last Duel (MA) ($4)
Last Night in Soho (MA) ($4)
The Last Witch Hunter (SD) (Vudu) ($2)
Leap! (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Les Misérables (MA) ($3)
Let Him Go (MA) ($3)
Licorice Pizza (Itunes) ($3)
Life of Pi (MA) ($3)
Lightyear (MA) ($3)
Lion King Live Action (4K/HD) (MA) ($3/$2)
Logan Lucky (MA) ($3)
The Longest Ride (MA) ($3)
Love the Coopers (SD) (Vudu) ($2)
Maggie (SD) (Vudu) ($2)
Matrix Resurrections (MA) ($2)
Mechanic: Resurrection (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Men in Black 3 (SD) (MA) ($2)
The Menu (MA) ($8)
Midsommar (Vudu/Google) ($2)
Midway (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Extraordinary Children (MA) ($3)
Moana (4K/HD) (MA) ($3/$2)
Mortal Kombat 2020 (4K) (MA) ($4)
Mud (SD) (Vudu) ($2)
My Little Pony: The Movie (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Nebraska (Vudu) ($3)
News of the World (MA) ($3)
The Night Before (MA) ($3)
Noah (Itunes/Vudu) ($3)
Now You See Me (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Now You See Me 2 (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Olympus Has Fallen (SD) (MA) ($2)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (MA) ($4)
Onward (4K) (MA) ($4)
Patriots Day (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Penguins (MA) ($3)
Pitch Perfect (MA) ($3)
Pitch Perfect 2 (MA) ($3)
Proud Mary (SD) (MA) ($2)
Queen and Slim (MA) ($3)
Requiem for a Dream (4K) (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($4)
Rise of the Guardians (MA) ($3)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (4K) (MA) ($5)
Rock Dog (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Room (Vudu) ($4)
Saw (4K) (Itunes/Vudu) ($4)
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Scouts Guide to the Apocalypse (Itunes/Vudu) ($3)
Secret Life of Pets (MA) ($3)
Sicario (Itunes/Vudu) ($2)
Sing (MA) ($3)
Sinister (SD) (Vudu) ($2)
Snow White and the Huntsman (MA) ($3)
Soul (HD) (MA) ($3)
Spiral: Book of Saw (4K/HD) (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($4/$3)
Spiderman No Way Home (MA) ($4)
Spiderman: Homecoming (MA) ($4)
Split (MA) ($3)
The Spy Who Dumped Me (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Star Trek: Into Darkness (Itunes/Vudu) ($3)
Star Wars The Force Awakens (MA) ($3)
Survive the Game (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
Thor Love and Thunder (MA) ($5)
Thor Ragnarok (MA) ($4)
Toy Story 4 (4K) (MA) ($4)
Transformers: Dark Knight (4K/HD) (Itunes/Vudu) ($4/$3)
Trolls (MA) ($3)
The Trust (SD) (Vudu) ($2)
Tyler Perry’s A Madea Family Funeral (Itunes/Vudu) ($3)
Unbroken (MA) ($3)
Uncut Gems (Vudu/Google) ($3)
Under the Skin (Vudu) ($3)
Unhinged (Itunes/Vudu/Google) ($3)
War of the Planet of the Apes (4K) (MA) ($5)
While We’re Young (SD) (Vudu) ($2)
Why Him? (MA) ($3)
The Witch (Vudu/Google) ($3)
The Wolf of Wallstreet (Itunes/Vudu) ($3)
Wonder (Vudu/Google) ($3)
The Word (SD) (MA) ($2)
World War Z (Itunes/Vudu) ($3)
Wreck it Ralph: Ralphs Breaks the Internet (4K) (MA) ($4)
X-Men Apocalypse (MA) ($3)
Yoga Hosers (Flixfling) ($4)
You Were Never Really Here (Vudu/Google) ($3)
Zero Dark Thirty (SD) (MA) ($2)
Zootopia (MA) ($3)
I also have some rewards sheets (Disney/Sony/Universal), but I don't know what to do with them if anyone wants to buy them. ($1 per code)

submitted by Adorable-Climate6915 to DigitalCodeSELL [link] [comments]

2023.06.04 23:30 Professional_Tax_871 CIA PART 2

Passed CIA part 2 yesterday. So relieved of the stressful study sessions. I used Gleim with just the practice questions and the online PDF study. I will recommend you study all topics and use google search / YouTube for clarifications on topics or words you do not understand. I think this really helped me with Computer assisted audit techniques and sampling..confidence level and the likes.. I covered the book alot of times but the multiple practice questions helped alot. Some of my questions on the exam were really like gleim but with different wording. So if you have practiced enough and understood the reasons for the wrong or right answers, you should be fine. I would also recommend you put in enough study practice sessions till you are hitting 80 and above with Gleim. I had some instances of getting 70 and even 60 especially with engagement procedures. I wish everyone best of luck that is taking CIA part 2.

submitted by Professional_Tax_871 to InternalAudit [link] [comments]

2023.06.04 23:16 Educational_Fee9554 Woke doesn't mean evil, send this to any Trump or DeSantis followers

submitted by Educational_Fee9554 to esist [link] [comments]

2023.06.04 23:16 zawa113 [US] [Selling] JJK 0, 8-19, Nabari no Ou, Choujin X, BL, more manga, anime

Out of space on my selling pile! I need to stop being lazy and list things as well. Help me clear space so I can immediately fill it with more manga!!
Lots of manga and a ton of anime for sale! Most should be in G3-4 condition, some might be like new. Ideally, I’m not splitting any series lots.
Shipping $75+ is free Under that, depends on how many books 1-2 books $4 3-5 books -$5.50 6+ books- $6.50
Timestamp: https://imgur.com/AKfebpt

Series	Vol	Price	notes
Act Age	2	$30
Alchemist Who Survived manga	1, 2	$10
Aria Masterpiece	2	$40
Atom the Beginning	1	$8
Beginning After the End	1	$12
Can't Stop Cursing You	1, 2	$15
Children of Mu Town	single vol	$20
Choujin X	1,2	$15
Entanged With You, Garden 1000 Grasses	single vol	10
Fist of the North Star Master Ed	1,4	40 ea/ 70 both
Ghost in the Shell	1, 1.5	$50	Dark Horse ed., sticker on front
Grandmaster Demonic Cultivation	1	$12	manhua version, not novel
Heaven's Door	single vol	$12
Hellbound	1,2	$25
In This Corner of the World	single vol	$15
Jujutsu Kaisen	0, 8-19	$100 (shipped)
Kemono Jihen	1	$8
Let's Play	3	$5	spine smooshed at top, paperback
Nabari no Ou	1-6, 13	$110	inc shipping, 2 has spine crease
Oh My Sweet Alien	single vol	$16
Pandora Seven	1	$8
Romantic Killer	1	$10
Seraph of the End	27	$6	oops, new duplicate
Shonen Note: Boy Soprano	1	$8
Show-ha Show-ten	1,2	$12
Tomb Raider King	1	$12
Tsubaki Chou Lonely Planet	1	$7

YAOI/18+
Barbarities	1	$12
Future Lovers	1,2 complete	$25
Golden Sparkle	single vol	$8
Magician A	single vol	$20
Midnight Rain	single vol	$8
Moon and Sun	1	$8
Twittering Birds Never Fly	1, 2, bluray	$30	bundle w/ bluray, vol 2 in shrink
You & Me, Etc	single vol	$30

Timestamp: https://imgur.com/md8CvY2

anime series	format	price	pics/notes

Dororo (old series)	DVD	$20
GaoGaiGar complete series (sets 1+2)	DVD	$45	litebox sets
Good Witch of the West	DVD	$1
Gunbuster	DVD	$5
IGPX	DVD	$40
Mazinger Z Impact	DVD	$15
Moss	DVD	$1
Outlaw Star	DVD	$1
Windy Tales	DVD	$5


Bird Boy	Bluray	$10
C Control	Bluray	$5	has box
El Hazard Magnificient World	Bluray	$15
Gimgar	Bluray	$10
Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans complete	Bluray	25	has teeth marks on the paper sleeves because my cat is evil. discs are like new
Thousand and One Nights	Bluray	12
Voltes V	Bluray	35

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2023.06.04 23:14 Educational_Fee9554 Woke doesn't mean evil, send this to any Trump or DeSantis followers

submitted by Educational_Fee9554 to WhitePeopleTwitter [link] [comments]

2023.06.04 23:02 AutoModerator [I HAVE] Iman Gadzhi Agency Navigator FULL updated course And 3,000+ MORE FREE courses

submitted by AutoModerator to NewSMMA2023 [link] [comments]

2023.06.04 22:37 Adventurous-Ear9433 Sumerian & Egyptian Origin of Humanity:Enki(Ea), the Garden or Ea's-den, Uruk List of Kings & Apkallu, scientific verification of sacred waters

"show that the human form of the FOXP2 gene increases synaptic plasticity and dendrite connectivity in the basal ganglia. These results partly explain the enhanced capability of cortico-basal ganglia circuits in the human brain that regulate critical aspects of language, cognition, and motor control." Foxp2 Language Evolution
Cell FOXP2gene -(https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)31081-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982216310818%3Fshowall%3Dtrue)
Enk(Ea)i- twin Serpent , the creator of mankind was the Genius-Scientist who tries twice to create a civilized man, until Ninmah tells him that they must add their likeness. Thus creating the perfect Man. It is when he put speech in their mouths that Enlil is enraged claiming they make too much noise,as you'll see this was the 1st cataclysm.Enki is the protector and teacher of mankind. He is essentially a god of civilization, and it was natural that he was also looked upon as the creator of man, and of the world in general. Enki Teachings
SacredTexts After his involvement with the original genetic experiment, his compassion for the plight of the Homo sapien (Man the Wise) his role shifted his role from genetic engineer to that of a freedom fighter. Because of the Romans(Enlils offspring) ancient text were edited, altered ,the Garden of Eden describes Enki & Ninti creating humanity at Ea’s headquarters. The House of the God of Water,Wisdom, fertility, known as the Great Serpent, the Garden was his 'den'. Naturally, humanity Would be born in Ea-Den. You will see from the text cited here, that it was Enki who created & then immediately fell in love with his creation. He earned & embraced the nickname of "Trickster', because being the wisest he tricked the other "Authorities"(Elohim- or Council of Rulers) for humanity’s sake.
"The bodies of Adam and Eve were overlaid with a horny skin that was as bright as daylight, like a luminescent garment".
In Ancient India this is also the description given of the Serpent people, benefactors & genetic engineers of humanity. (Bioluminescent i.e. they spontaneously emit light due to a chemical reaction in their body. This would explain the so-called “jewels of the Naga” that illuminates the netherworld. Bioluminescence is found in many deep sea fishes and other marine organisms like jellyfish, algae, bacteria etc., who emit light from their bodies that make the seas glow and glitter. This occurs due to the presence of a light-emitting molecule called luciferin, which produces light when it reacts with oxygen. Many organisms also produce the catalyst luciferase,
In both Sumer & the Jewish text we see the key role of the woman, who did nothing wrong, quite the contrary it is she who breathes the soul or psyche into man. Bit Shimti - "House where the wind of life is breathed in" - Ninmah is the proud mother the "essence" of the blood of a young Anunnaki male was mixed with the egg of a female hominid. The fertilized egg was then inserted into the womb of a female Anunnaki. When, after a tense waiting period, a "Model Man" was born, Ninmah held the newborn baby up and shouted: "I have created! My hands have made it!"[
Enki boasted, “A Civilized man I have brought forth. A new kind of Earthling from my seed has been created, in my image and after my likeness. From seed they from food will grow, from ewes sheep they will shepherd. For Gods, and offspring henceforth shall be satiated.“
In Genesis, it is understood that the Serpent speaks,and was of equal footing wth "God". We saw in the Nag Hammadi, and other ancient texts from around the world. He was also most notable, because he stood on 2 feet like man, and was even taller. The Sumerian term Annun-Aki meant 'tall ones', the height of the Serpent was equal to that of a camel. Chap 3 of Genesis the argument is given that man can't be one of US. He must not be allowed to eat from the tree & live forever". Even here you see they're brothers.
"Enki, the Lord of abundance, of trustworthy commands, The Lord of wisdom, who understands the land, The leader of the gods, Endowed with wisdom, the Lord of Eridu"...
It has always been Enli, the archons who aim to "destroy mankind in his psychological function". Later, it's Enlil who tries to force the other Authorities to keep the secret from mankind.
"Come, all of us, and take an oath regarding the killing Flood!" But as all the others took the oath, Enki resisted firmly. "I refuse. Why will you bind me with an oath?" he asked, "Am I to raise my hand against my own humans?" Meanwhile, our father Enki understands the importance of love and kindness to the raising of consciousness, he acts with kindness in defending humanity and dealing with all the life on the planet.
Ninmah The Ninhursag , an mother of humanity is shown with humanity at her breast.The priesthood of Sumer & Egypt were Dolichocephalic, like mother. the Serpent Cults today still maintains the pure bloodlines that were mandated after the deluge.)
She was the goddess of the stony, rocky ground, the hursag. The H symbol, i described at all the sacred "navel' sites, especially Göbekli Tepe, Puma Punku, has the same meaning. The serpent always represents spiritual wisdom, life and healing. The first symbols of serpents were attributed to Enki or NU.DIM.MUD (Nudimmud), "He Who Fashions Thing and then Ninhursag.("Whose House Is Water") . Nag hammadi-Origin of our World
The text describes Ninti 'let fall a droplet of light, it flowed onto the water, and immediately a human being appeared, being androgynous. That droplet she molded first as a female body. Afterwards, using the body she molded it in the likeness of the mother, which had appeared. This was Eve of Life namely, the female instructor of life. Her offspring is the creature that is lord. Afterwards, the authorities called it "Beast", so that it might lead astray their modelled creatures. (The interpretation of "the beast" is "the instructor". For it was found to be the wisest of all beings.)"
"Then each of them cast his sperm into the midst of the navel of the earth fashioned man with his body resembling their body.His modelling took place by parts, one at a time. And their leader fashioned the brain and the nervous system. Afterwards, he appeared as prior to him. He became a soul-endowed man"
"when the Authorities (Yahweh) had saw Adam/Eve transgressed their rule it came upon them an earthquake and a great threat, to see the result of the help that was give. Their eyes were blinded by him so they were not able to do anything to him. They merely cursed him, since they were powerless. And everything that they created they cursed. There is no blessing from them. Good cannot come from evil."
"Since that day the authorities knew that truly there was something stronger than they. They would not have known except that their commandment was broken. They brought a great envy into the world only because of the immortal human."
Enki possessed the secret of me, 'culture, civilization', which is the genius of progress in knowledge to lead humanity. He invented civilization for the people and assigned to each his destiny. He created order in the cosmos. He filled the rivers with fish. He invented the plough and the yoke so that farmers could till the earth with oxen. In the most recent thread you see each ruler from Egypt to Pharoah carries the plough, the Serpent Priest would assist the Pharoah who was in charge of a successful harvest. "Master Servant " was the Pharoah
"Enki made the grain grow. He is the father of all plants.” Of course he wanted his children to eat from the Tree of knowledge, With the Tree of Knowledge humans had the chance to figure out everything on their own in time, to be as equal or better than him, as any parent wants for there child. . Had they eaten only from the Tree of Life, they would live but not have been more the wiser.
Why should acquiring knowledge be a sin?" (the original sin) and comparing it to modern day observations ought to wake you up to the fact that you live within societal system that was engineered by the members of "God" to empower themselves while keeping those who live within it ignorant
The sacred waters of knowledge had a double meaning, it represents both the creationof the human body(mostly water) & it is talking about the water carried by the Sages in places like La Mana, Ecuador. This water has amazing healing properties, it is apart of ritual today in the Llanganates for visiting initiates. Indigenous elders working with the scientific community have had fascinating results. Electrum Water Hiv nanoparticles Silver "he interaction of nanoparticles with biomolecules and microorganisms is an expanding field of research. Wis. In this work, we demonstrate that silver nanoparticles undergo a size-dependent interaction with HIV-1, with nanoparticles exclusively in the range of 1-10nm attached to the virus"
The Dogon call our Master Teachers, The Monitors, Nummo also meanw 'to make one drink'(water of wisdom). The Hebrews termed these Watchers as nun resh’ayin, meaning “those who watch.” In the Greek this is translated as gigantes or giants, a race that even the 907 B.C. writer Hesiod featured as being monstrous (due to their serpentine aspect no doubt). Now we can understand the role of the giants 2 seen across the world of ancient script in respect to the presence of the Watchers.
The Apkallu, these priest of Enki i wrote about in the last thread, the genetic, archaeologicalevidence has shown R1b-V88 & R1b-M269 were associated with agriculture, cattle domestication, metal working, language, geopolymer construction, everywhere a Pyramid or Navel was Built the Mende/Yoruba & the Austro-Melanesian Pacific Islander Ghost Hominids dna dna is found. The Aunu/Anu people migrated across the globe. Göbekli Tepe The human ummânū is attested in the Uruk List of Kings and Sages, while other references to bird-apkallū are legion
The purādu-fish apkallū is principally attested in Berossus.These seven were each advisers for seven different kings and therefore result in two different lists, one of kings and one of apkallu. Neither the sages nor the kings in these lists were genealogically related however. Apkallu and human beings were presumably capable of conjugal relationships since after the flood, the myth states that four apkallu appeared. These were part human and part Apkallu, and included Nungalpirriggaldim, Pirriggalnungal, Pirriggalabsu, and Lu-nana who were only two-thirds ApkalluKundalini is the spiritual energy or life force present in every human being, located at the base of the spine.
They were believed to have apotropaic qualities, guarding the home from evil.Sages FigurinesThe three types of apkallū are portrayed, with the human ummânū at far left, the Nisroc bird-apkallū type in the middle, and the antediluvian purādu-fish type at far right.3 Apkallu
Remember that it was the woman who was Pharoah, her consort became king. Egypt, like most of the most sophisticated ancient civilizations were ruled by women. Ninhursags the Goddess of the stony, rocky ground that masons use to spiritually ascend higher, the H at Göbekli Tepe & Puma Punku represents mother. 'As above(ninmah), So below(Enki)'. The underworld was never a negative place before the Romans. The Pyramid, the Great house was the Woman's house. Sumerian text speak of the foundation being the stone & the water just as the Pyramid text of Saqqara. The Sumerian E.KUR - "House Which is Like a Mountain." Pyramid was put under the patronage of Ninharsag.in hymns shes recognized as mistress of the "House With a Pointed Peak" - a pyramid. CoffinText 313:Horus says "I created my Eye in flame, I made my Eye a living serpent". Remember, the serpent he saw was bipedal, always. As Robert Monroe reported in the Gateway Experiments.
"House bright and dark of Heaven and Earth, for the rocketships put together; E.KUR, House of the Gods with pointed peak; For Heaven-to-Earth it is greatly equipped. House whose interior glows with a reddish Light of Heaven, a beam of energy of creation which reaches far and wide; Its awesomeness touches the flesh. Awesome ziggurat, lofty mountain of mountains - Thy creation is great and lofty, men cannot understand it"
'House of Equipment, lofty house of Eternity: Its foundation are stones [which reach] the water; Its great circumference is set in the clay. House whose parts are skilfully woven together; House, the rightness of whose howling The Great-Ones-Who-See-and-Orbit brings down the rest . . . Mountain by which Utu ascends. [House] whose deep insides men cannot penetrate . . . Anu has magnified it.
In the Testament of Amram 2 men who resembling Living Serpents were seen fighting over him in his dream-vision. Even in ancient Text later we see "battles of the Gods', but in the very beginning We see the genius, Enki described as a kind, amicable child ONLY gets aggressive when his brother comes to harm his creation. Most importantly, Enlil & his realized he was powerless when Humanity had Enki by their side. So, his campaign was to disconnect us from that knowledge starting with the Bible & the Inquisition, they killed,raped, burned all of the knowledge that had allowed mankind to thrive.. then stashes the rest away, keeping it from the people. Dagon Catholicism
-In Egypt Ptah as Ea/Enki (Sumer he's also a cthonic diety "The Artful Creator") and Ra as his Firstborn son.
After Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninmah had fashioned the black-headed people, Vegetation that is fruitful they multiplied in the land... In the Edin they placed them..
The descendants of Ham ("He Who is Hot" and also "The Dark-Hued One").... correspond to the African nation-lands of Nubia, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Lybia as the core nations of African resettlement, again beginning with the topographically higher areas..They were the Dogon, Hopis ancestors.. The ancient Chinese or Bak tribesmen which dominate China today called the Elamites KASHTI. Moreover, in the Bible the Book of Jeremiah (xlxx,35), we read "bow of Elam". It is interesting to note that both Khaltam-ti and Kashti as the name for Elam, agrees with Ta-Seti, the ancient name for Nubia located in the Meroitic Sudan. Sumerians Had Dolichocephalic skulls Genetic Evidence for convergent evolution SE AsianElamites-Mandig](http://olmec98.net/ElamPersians.png) Semitic speakers of Akkad and the non-Semitic speakers of Sumer were both sag-gig-ga or "blackheads".Elamite language, is closely related to the African languages including Egyptian and the Dravidian languages of India. Alchemy as Taught by Children of Enki
Antediluvian Kings of Sumer were known as Kings of Kush".the major Kushite tribe in Central Asia was called Kushana. The Kushan of China were styled Ta Yueh-ti or "the Great Lunar Race". Along the Salt Swamp, there was a state called Ku-Shih of Tibet. The city of K-san, was situated in the direction of Kushan, which was located in the Western part of the Gansu Province of China.
Here we find the divine decrees presented by Enki to Inanna are those referring to lordship, godship, the exalted and enduring crown, the throne of kingship, the exalted scepter, the exalted shrine, shepherdship, kingship, the numerous priestly offices, truth, descent into the nether world and ascent from it, the music From the tree in the Mesopotamian depiction hang two pieces of fruit. To the right of the tree is the half-moon symbol of Ea; to the left is the planet symbol of Anu.
Lastly the pineal gland(pine cone). In India it is a stick of bamboo with seven knots… which represents the spinal column with its seven centers or chakras… It also indicated the spinal cord…while the serpents were symbolical of the two channels called in Eastern terminology Ida and Pinagala; and the fire enclosed within it was the serpent-fire which in Sanskrit is called kundalini." Even the natural behaviors of the pine cone have an esoteric meaning:
"as it ripens, the pine cone slowly opens to release its mature seeds."
This process is symbolic of the expansion of consciousness that accompanies the opening of the pineal gland and the awakening of the Third Eye. The metaphor is a valuable and stimulating mental lesson of an esoteric phenomenon that cannot otherwise be seen or explained since it occurs inside the brain..
The One sure way, and what's been happening wthin the last century especially is to keep knowledge away from the human race. If we as a collective are so ingrained in our beliefs, how can we ever be open to new ideas pertaining to the nature of reality?

submitted by Adventurous-Ear9433 to GrahamHancock [link] [comments]

2023.06.04 22:11 chug-a-lug-donna grammy test

Hello, and welcome to Music’s Biggest Night!
That’s right, it’s the GRAMMYs. The year is 1994 and our category is Best Alternative Music Album. We’ll be rating each of the five nominees on Indieheads, but before we get to the nominees, a quick word about rates.
Hey, quick question, what are rates?
Obviously, if you're familiar with the process, skip this. But if you're new, I'll explain so this doesn't seem like a wild block of text!
Rates are a subreddit game in which a user scores a group of songs on a scale from 1-10, with each individual also given a single 11 and a single 0 to be used exactly once per rate. They will then message their ballot to the rate host, who will tally up all the points and then reveal the final results over a weekend, eliminating songs one by one until the last track remaining wins the rate and bragging rights forever. While there's just a bit more to know, I feel this is the basics of what you'll need to understand what's going on. I do recommend this video made by our popheads brethren to get a fuller picture; while some of the info applies specifically to the way popheads do their rates, the overall format is similar.

Introduction

The GRAMMYs are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in the music industry. The name derives from the trophy, which is shaped like an old-fashioned gramophone. The awards celebrate a variety of categories, but we’re going to be looking at Best Alternative Music Album or, as it was called at the time, Best Alternative Music Performance. The question of what "alternative" really means can be debated forever, but the original intent of this award was to celebrate non-mainstream rock albums which were heavily played on college radio. The category first appeared in 1991, so in 1994 the award is still pretty new.
And now, let’s meet our nominees!

Belly - Star

Belly are the act here that seem discussed least frequently on Indieheads, so I’m excited to see what everyone thinks of them. By the time of starting Belly, Tanya Donelly (lead vocals and rhythm guitar) had already been in two other classic indie rock bands. She was a co-founder of Throwing Muses with her step-sister Kristin Hersch, contributing vocals and guitar for the band’s first decade, though she’d only get a handful of songs per album. Donelly would later start The Breeders with Pixies bassist and vocalist Kim Deal. The Breeders’ debut, Pod, featured Deal as the primary songwriter because existing record contracts prohibited the two from sharing primary writing credits. While they originally intended to alternate albums, Tanya had begun to form Belly by the time it was her turn to do a Breeders album. She recruited Fred Abong (bass) and brothers Tom (guitar) and Chris (drums) Gorman as they’d all known each other while going to high school in Rhode Island.
Belly co-produced most of their 1993 debut Star with Tracy Chisholm. Gil Norton, who’d previously produced Throwing Muses’ self-titled debut, produced four tracks, including singles "Gepetto," "Slow Dog," and "Feed the Tree." "Feed the Tree," one of the album’s highlights, would be the band’s highest charting hit, reaching 95th on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the Modern Rock Chart. Star is an effective fusion of alternative rock with jangle pop, dream pop, "haunting" folk, and even some light country influences. At the 1994 GRAMMYs, Belly were also up for Best New Artist with Blind Melon, Digable Planets, and SWV, ultimately losing to R&B singer Toni Braxton. Belly released a sophomore album King in 1995 and Donelly released several solo albums before reuniting with the King lineup to release a third album in 2018. While Star may not have achieved the canonical stature of some of 1994’s other nominees, it is nevertheless a very enjoyable release from a strong songwriter who’d finally gotten the chance to make an album-length statement of her own.
Are Indieheads gonna feed the tree? Will this be an album to die for?
Tracklist:

Someone to Die For
Angel
Dusted
Every Word
Gepetto
Witch
Slow Dog
Low Red Moon
Feed The Tree
Full Moon, Empty Heart
White Belly
Untogether
Star
Sad Dress
Stay

Nirvana - In Utero

If you were wondering where "Heart Shaped Box" was in the Guitar Hero Rate, well I’ve got a treat for you!
Kurt Cobain (vocals and guitar) and Krist Novoselic (bass) met while attending Aberdeen High School in the late 1980s. They shuffled through various names, ultimately deciding on Nirvana because Cobain wanted a name that sounded beautiful and nice instead of mean and raunchy. In their early years, they worked with several different drummers, recording 1989’s Sub Pop debut Bleach with Chad Channing on drums. Channing left the band as they worked on their follow-up. Kurt and Krist met drummer Dave Grohl days after he’d moved to Seattle following the break up of his Washington DC band Scream. The addition of Dave solidified Nirvana’s classic lineup. The trio began seeking a major label to buy them out of their Sub Pop contract as they were dissatisfied with the label’s lack of promotion and distribution of their debut. They eventually signed with DGC Records per the recommendation of Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon. Upon signing, they began work on their major label debut, Nevermind, with producer Butch Vig. 1991’s Nevermind was an unexpected success, bringing grunge and alternative rock to the mainstream and even surpassing Michael Jackson on the Billboard albums chart.
In the aftermath of Nevermind’s success, Cobain felt he needed to reclaim his punk ethic. Wanting to depart from Butch Vig’s slick production (don’t worry, we’ll still be hearing from Vig a little later), he sought to work with Steve Albini. Albini was famous in the underground for his work as frontman for Big Black and various production work, including PJ Harvey’s Dry. He sent a copy of Dry to Cobain to give him an idea of the acoustics in his studio. Albini dismissed Nirvana as "R.E.M. with a fuzzbox" (more on R.E.M. soon!) but decided to work with them because he felt bad for them, recognizing them as "the same sort of people as all the small-fry bands I deal with." The band pushed for minimal label oversight and recorded In Utero quickly, wrapping recording sessions in as little as 13 days. The album was noisier and more abrasive than Nevermind, resulting in much dispute between the band, Albini, and the label. Cobain sought to make the kind of record he’d enjoy owning as a fan but began having second thoughts about the sound when listening to it at home. The press picked up on conflict about the album’s sound. The band denied this and DGC president David Geffen called Newsweek to explain they would release whatever Nirvana recorded. Behind the scenes, the band tried to fix the album’s sound in the mastering process, which Albini was strongly against. He’d later supply an alternate mix for the album’s 20th anniversary re-release. R.E.M producer Scott Litt was brought on to remix "Heart Shaped Box" and "All Apologies" which were intended to be the album’s singles.
In Utero was released in September of 1993 following a low-key release strategy which sent "Heart Shaped Box" as a promo-only single to various rock station formats but not Top 40. Walmart and K-Mart initially refused to stock the album due to its back cover and the title of the song "Rape Me." (A content note on that song, while it is interpreted as commentary on the invasive music press, it was intended to be a lyrically literal anti-rape song from the perspective of a victim. As this is a rate, you can score this song however you see fit, but I hope it goes without saying that everyone should please be respectful of this subject matter in their comments.) Despite In Utero’s abrasive sound and reduced mainstream promotion, the album still debuted at number one on the Billboard album charts and was well-received by critics. The music often hits harder and faster than Nevermind, containing more of the "punk" feel that Cobain was aiming for compared to the grunge of their early work and their Seattle contemporaries. Check out this MTV clip if you’d like to see how college students in 1993 received the album at the time. The band toured America shortly after In Utero came out. Their European tour that was cut short as Cobain suffered from a drug overdose. A couple weeks later, Cobain died by suicide. As with the subject matter of "Rape Me," I want to request that everyone is respectful of this in their comments, I will ask for edits (or omit comments myself) if they are inappropriate. Despite the tragic ending, Nirvana is still seen as one of American and alternative rock’s most important bands and In Utero remains highly regarded to this day.
Will our comments be all apologies? Are the results of this rate gonna be, uhhh, dumb?
Tracklist:

Serve the Servants
Scentless Apprentice
Heart-Shaped Box
Rape Me
Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle
Dumb
Very Ape
Milk It
Pennyroyal Tea
Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
Tourette’s
All Apologies

R.E.M. - Automatic for the People

If there’s a band who can rival Nirvana’s stature in the American alternative rock canon, it’s gotta be R.E.M. They are often cited as one of the first "alternative" rock bands and were important for the college radio format. Formed in Athens, Georgia in 1980, Michael Stipe (vocals), Peter Buck (guitar), Mike Mills (bass), and Bill Berry (drums) released 5 albums with independent label I.R.S. Records. This run of releases showed them evolving from a jangle rock sound to a louder, more anthemic sound on their final record for the label, Document. After "The One I Love" became their first mainstream hit, the band signed to Warner Brothers, kicking off a second act that resulted in yet another 5 album run of great music.
At the start of the 90s, R.E.M. opted out of touring and became a studio band. The band recorded demos for the songs "Drive," "Try Not to Breathe," and "Nightswimming" at Prince’s Paisley Park Studios while mixing their 1991 album, Out of Time. Out of Time was a huge success, arriving as alternative rock was becoming mainstream. It spawned the massive single "Losing My Religion" and even ended up winning the GRAMMY award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1992. After concluding promotional duties in early 1991, the band returned to the studio to continue work on what would become Automatic for the People. It is the fourth of six records the band would produce with Scott Litt. The band traded off instruments in the studio, with Buck playing the mandolin famously featured on "Losing My Religion," Mills playing piano or organ, and Berry playing bass. Initial attempts to make a harder rocking follow-up did not pan out, as the band found they were writing better without drums. The material began to take on a more melancholic tone. The lush orchestration of Out of Time is rendered in a somber greyscale, with arrangements contributed by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. Lyrically, the album muses on loss and mourning, prompting rumors that balding Michael Stipe was dying of cancer or AIDs. Luckily, he was not but that is the lens through which some critics and listeners received this work. The album also finds room for political commentary, most noticeably in "Ignoreland" which pushes against Republican politics of the time, but also in opener "Drive" which calls back to the group’s work with the Rock to Vote movement, for which they added a petition on the longbox packaging of Out of Time.
Automatic for the People released on October 5, 1992 (gotta love the GRAMMYs odd eligibility window) debuting at number 2 on the Billboard 200. Unlike its predecessor, it never reached the top spot, thanks to Garth Brooks. Six of the album’s 12 tracks were released as singles including "Drive," "Everybody Hurts" which has unfortunately been diluted through years of ironic use in comedies, the cryptic, Andy Kaufman referencing "Man on the Moon," and "Nightswimming," an emotional piano ballad that has become a fan favorite. The album was critically acclaimed upon release and, while perhaps not as fun as their jangle material, this nocturnal bummer is regarded by many as one of the band’s masterpieces.
Will everybody hurt? Are R.E.M. going to get a raw deal?
Tracklist:

Drive
Try Not to Breathe
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
Everybody Hurts
New Orleans Instrumental No. 1
Sweetness Follows
Monty Got a Raw Deal
Ignoreland
Star Me Kitten
Man on the Moon
Nightswimming
Find the River

The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

The Smashing Pumpkins formed in 1988 when Billy Corgan (vocals and guitar, he prefers William Patrick Corgan now though) met James Iha (guitar) while working at a record store in Chicago, Illinois. They performed as a duo with a drum machine, eventually adding bassist D’arcy Wretzky after meeting her at a show by the Dan Reed Network. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was recommended by a friend of Corgan’s after the trio were booked for a show under the condition that they’d play with a live drummer instead of their drum machine. With Chamberlain on board, the band’s classic lineup had been formed and their sound began to shift in a harder rock direction.
Siamese Dream, the group’s 1993 sophomore album, expands on their 1991 debut Gish in every possible way. The band switched from Virgin subsidiary Caroline Records to Virgin itself. Butch Vig, who produced Nirvana’s massive Nevermind right after finishing work on Gish, returned to produce the follow-up. Where Gish’s $20,000 budget and month of recording time was "unprecedented" for Vig, Corgan and Vig spent four months on Siamese Dream and went $250,000 over budget. This is what happens when you let Billy overdub everyone else’s guitar and bass parts (something the rest of the band wasn’t particularly happy about) to get as many as 100 guitar parts compressed into one song.
The meticulous studio process paid off, as Siamese Dream was a bigger hit than Gish, peaking at 10 on the Billboard 200. The band’s influences from metal, dreampop, and shoegaze give the album a layered and unique sound compared to the grungier alternative music of the time. Singles "Cherub Rock" and "Today" have been featured in the Guitar Hero and Rock Band videogame series. While never released as a single, "Mayonaise" has become a fan favorite and won a Rolling Stone poll for best Pumpkins song, beating out singles from Siamese Dream. Judging from some early discussion since this rate was announced, some of you seem pretty excited to rate "Mayonnaise." While the double album follow-up Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness took the band to the height of their popularity, Siamese Dream is often regarded as their masterpiece and one of the best rock albums of the 90s.
Will we be sweet sweet to the Pumpkins? The rater in me is the rater in you, I’ll send this ballot over to you
Tracklist:

Cherub Rock
Quiet
Today
Hummer
Rocket
Disarm
Soma
Geek U.S.A.
Mayonaise
Spaceboy
Silverfuck
Sweet Sweet
Luna

U2 - Zooropa

Whoa hey is it U2sday??
Formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1976, U2 (Bono on vocals, The Edge on guitar, Adam Clayton on bass, and Larry Mullen Jr. on drums) have become the top-selling Irish musical act of all-time, with an estimated 170+ million records sold. Across the 80s, U2 evolved their early post-punk sound to the anthemic rock of The Joshua Tree. While touring America for that album, the band recorded Rattle and Hum, a hybrid live/studio record (and accompanying concert film) which documented the tour and the group’s fascination with American roots music. Despite the album’s commercial success, most consider it a misguided failure. Even Bono admitted at their final show for the album’s Lovetown Tour that "we have to go away and dream it all up again."
1993’s Zooropa catches U2 at their most adventurous. 1991’s Achtung Baby and its subsequent Zoo TV tour rebranded the band for the new decade. While they continued working with Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, they updated their sound with influences from electronic, dance, and industrial music. On stage, they dabbled in irony to counter the sincerity of their 80s output with Bono playing characters such as The Fly and Macphisto. Emboldened by the critical and commercial success of this album and tour, they began working on a promotional EP during a break between Zoo TV tour legs. Despite working quickly in the studio, this EP expanded into a full-length album, requiring the band to travel between concerts and the studio in Dublin to finish working on the album during the first month of the Zooropa leg.
Zooropa finally arrived in July of 1993 and it shows the band doubling down on their early 90s ideas. The sound of the album, built from loops of soundcheck jamming and leftover sketches from Achtung Baby, ventures even further from traditional rock instrumentation and songwriting, bolstered by production from Brian Eno, Flood (moving from an engineering to production role), and The Edge, who received production credits for the first time. The fragmented nature of the album’s production is reflected in the eclectic tracklist which bounces between the multi-movement art-rock of the title track, dancefloor fillers like "Daddy’s Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car," and ballads like "For the First Time" and "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" Unique vocal choices like The Edge’s spoken-word rapping on lead-single "Numb," Bono’s falsetto on "Lemon," and a Johnny Cash feature on closer "The Wanderer" help the album feel more varied than U2’s previous material. The album’s lyrics often examine Zoo TV’s concepts of "sensory overload" and technology more explicitly than Achtung Baby.
While U2 are reluctant to acknowledge Zooropa now (likely influenced by the failure of 1997’s Pop, a rushed, mixed bag of an album that stretched audience’s tolerance for 90s U2 to a Rattle and Hum-like breaking point) the album was successful when it came out. Zooropa debuted at number one in several countries and finished ninth on 1993’s Pazz and Jop poll. It would also go on to win this GRAMMY award for Best Alternative Music album, with Bono shrugging on stage, shouting out Smashing Pumpkins, and promising to "the young people of America" that they will "continue to abuse our position and fuck up the mainstream" in his acceptance speech.
Will U2 stay the champions in our rate or will they be faraway so close to the top?
Tracklist:

Zooropa
Babyface
Numb
Lemon
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Daddy’s Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car
Some Days Are Better Than Others
The First Time
Dirty Day
The Wanderer

Bonus Rate

While our rates often have a bonus, there is no bonus for the 1994 GRAMMYs since this rate is 5 albums instead of the usual 4.
Now, it’s time for the boring, but necessary parts:

Where to listen:

Spotify
Apple Music
Tidal Music
Rules - READ ALL OF THESE BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR SCORES

Listen to each song and assign each a score between 1 and 10. decimals are fine, but please refrain from giving decimal scores that have two decimal spots: giving a 7.2 is okay, but giving a 7.25 will give me a headache. This is because I'm using a computer program to parse the votes and print everything out (more on that later).
Yes, you have to listen to every song. We're all in this together. I will not accept your ballot if you have a score missing, because it will crash the program (more on that later).
Your scores should NOT be considered confidential. They aren’t. Feel free to shitpost about them in the general discussion threads whenever you feel like it - users over at popheads usually just talk about their averages of the albums and what 11 and 0 they gave (which I will explain on the next bullet point!)
You may give ONE song a 0 and ONE song an 11. This is ONE song TOTAL. Please reserve these for your least favorite and most favorite tracks; excessive sabotage ruins rate results and generally makes things less fun.
You can change your scores at any time! Feel free to PM me at any point after submission and I'll be happy to revise them for you.
I am using a computer program that the great and wonderful letsallpoo designed in order to parse these votes! While this will make things a lot more efficient and reduces errors on my part, this does mean that scores need to be sent in a very specific way. The easiest way to make sure your scores follow the necessary format is to use the pre-prepared link at the top & bottom of this post. PLEASE USE THAT. You can copy and paste it to a notepad file or something and fill in your scores there, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use that format to send in your scores.
Did a lot of copy and pasting here, so thank you thank you to all the raters of old, ily: roseisonlineagain; DolphLundgrensArms; R_E_S_I_G_N_E_D; stansymash; ClocktowerMaria; aerocom; themilkeyedmender; greencaptain; Crankeedoo; dirdbub; ThatParanoidPenguin; tedcruzcontrol; kappyko; FuckUpSomeCommasYeah; LazyDayLullaby; SRTViper; Whatsanillinois; NFLFreak98; freav; freeofblasphemy; RatesNorman; aPenumbra; idontreallycare4; p-u-n-k_girl; luigijon3; WaneLietoc; dream_fighter2018; darjeelingdarkroast; smuckles; PiperIBarelyKnowHer; welcome2thejam; imrlynotonreddit; kvothetyrion; thedoctordances1940; b_o_g_o; vapourlomo; and tons of people on popheads.

Formatting

Songs - This is correct:

Man on the Moon: 10

You may also and are generally encouraged to leave comments with your scores!
This is correct (single space after the score, no colon):

Man on the Moon: 10 Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice

Any of the following formats are incorrect:

Man on the Moon 10 Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice
Man on the Moon: 10: Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice
Man on the Moon: (10) Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice
Man on the Moon: Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice 10
Man on the Moon - 10 Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice
Man on the Moon: 10/10 Thankful Michael didn't get stuck doing the Elvis voice

Albums - This is correct (add a colon after the album's title on your ballot if you're making a comment on the full album):

Album: Zooropa: Wow this rules, i wish they'd uploaded this album to my phone instead

Due Date: July 9

Reveal: July 14 - 16

Finally, here are the links you'll need to start rating again:

SUBMISSION LINK

A Pastebin link of the ballot can be found here
If you want a reminder of what rates are coming up soon, here is the link to the announcement post for the current cycle, and if you want to learn about all the past rates we have done, here is the rate history spreadsheet.

submitted by chug-a-lug-donna to u/chug-a-lug-donna [link] [comments]

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submitted by joshuadwx to anker [link] [comments]

2023.06.04 22:04 __ferg__ First batch of Bingo mini reviews

My second Bingo, feels like I'm getting the hang of it! Last year I tried to write some small reviews, but that escalated completely and I had to break it down into various review posts. ~~This year I really try to make it as short as possible and fit it all in 1 post.~~ Yeah, worked great. No idea how to make them short enough to fit 25 reviews in one post and not create a wall of text no one's ever going to read…
Anyway here's the card so far and some mini reviews.
First my personal star rating explained:

0* DNF (Well obviously can't happen for Bingo)
1* I hated every page, I don't know why I finished, whish I gave up early.
2* There are a few things that redeem it, but mostly I didn't enjoy it. If it's a series I'll stop after that book, and probably will be cautious before reading something else from the author.
3* Not great, not terrible. If it's a series I'll maybe read on, won't look active for the author but also won't shy away in the future.
4* Really good book, there were small things bothering me, will definitely read the next book if it's a series or will look for more from the same author.
5* I love it. If asked, I wouldn't be able to name any major problems. Give me more!

5* range:

The library at mount Char by Scott Hawkins [5*]
I'll copy shamelessly my original review:

Just finished The library at mount char. Hahaha, WTF did I just read? 5*. Recommended if you want something weird… The first half reads like some mix between something out of a fever dream and someone watching an 80s action B movie, high, and taking only the weirdest things they come across. Even more remarkable in the end the different things come together and actually make sense. Somewhat. And the mix between really disturbing stuff, hilarious characters and laugh out loud moments was also, unexpected I guess?

Now after some books in between, I can say that I remember the weird first half far better than the second and some of the most memorable characters from the whole bingo sheet (so far) are out of this one.
Tags: weird; dark; well no clue how to tag that book properly
Bingo squares: Horror(h), Bookclub or read along

4* range:

Forge of the high mage (Path to ascendancy 4) by Ian C. Esslemont [4,5*]
Probably my favorite Esslemont Malazan book so far. I don't think I have to say much more, this is the 4th sequel in a prequel series for a "spin off" series. If you reach this book, you are probably already addicted. Just a small heads up, if you didn't like Kellanveds Reach, this book improves everywhere. spoiler free review
Tags: Malazan; MultiPOV; Action oriented
Bingo squares: Sequel(h), released 2023, Coastal/Island setting(h), Title with a title(h)
The infernal Battalion (The shadow campaigns 5) by Django Wexler [4*]
I started reading this series last year for Bingo Review book 1 and finished for this years. And while the military focus from book 1 stays prominent it also adds some politics in later books. But the most outstanding thing is something about characters. It's hard to find authors who write good opposite sex characters, but this is probably the only male author I read who made all his female characters so much more realistic than the males. I could name 2 male characters with a somewhat filled out past and motivation and characterization that goes above "good at his job, villain, comic relief, etc" (and with 2 I'm already generous). But I could easily name half a dozen female characters with a rich history, believable agendas and a satisfying character arc. Overall a solid 4* series, with book 2 the weakest and 3 and 4 my favorites.
Tags: Flintlock fantasy; French Revolution inspired; LGBTQ POV
Bingo squares: Sequel(h), angels and demons (maybe?)
Jade legacy (Greenbone saga 3) by Fonda Lee [4*]
Another series which I started last years bingo and finished this year. Yeah I even use it for the same square, call me lazy ;) Review book 1, since then nothing really changed, all my points from book 1 are still valid in the last one, solid 4* series overall.
Tags: Godfather meets fantasy; family; Asian inspired setting; 20th century setting
Bingo squares: Sequel, Coastal or Island setting, POC author, Mundane job(h) (one protagonist is a doctor)
Prosper's Demon by K. J. Parker [4*]
The world is full of demons. 72936 to be exact ( theydidthemath ), are looking for hosts. And while They can't die, extracting Them from their victim hurts Them. A lot. Only downside, it can also damage the vessel. So you need a special kind of person for the job.
We follow an exorcist (who is definitely not a nice person) on his personal vendetta, visit the court and meet Prosper (and his title-giving demon) who is some kind of universal genius. The story is witty (or sometimes outright funny) and I wouldn't have thought it possible to write about bronze sculpture casting in such an interesting way. Oh, and I really liked the ending…
Tags: First person single POV; unreliable narrator
Bingo squares: novella, angels and demons,

3* range:

The steel remains (A land fit for heroes 1) by Richard Morgan. [3,5*]
Review. I now also finished book two and the trend continues. A lot of focus on characters and world building, but still not much happening.
Tags: Dark fantasy; Gay/lesbian POV (2 out of 3); Fantasy/Sci-fi mix
Bingo squares: published in the 2000s, alternate realities (h)
Qube (Die Welt der Hologrammatica 2) by Tom Hillenbrand [3*]
Like the first one, this was more a tech thriller with Sci-fi elements than full science fiction. It was an easy and fast read, but when I finished no characters and nothing in the plot left a lasting impression. Like in book 1 people still struggle with AI but this book adds nothing new. The interesting theme from the first book [what happens, when people upload their brains in quantum computers and can change bodies without problem, to our relationships, because who do you love when a person is today an 18 year old girl, tomorrow a 80 year old dude and next week an elf], is completely gone here. Instead we get humanity's hunt for immortality. But instead of exploring what that would mean for humankind we get a McGuffin everyone is looking for. And we get a weird out of touch fantasy side plot, that may make sense in the end but felt completely useless overall. So this book didn't add anything interesting to the world created in book 1.
Tags: Tech thriller; AI; No English translation
Bingo squares: Sequel, Queernorm setting, Mundane job (journalist, CEO, E-gamer, UNO agent)

2* range:

The long way to a small angry planet by Becky Chambers [2,5*]
Just not my cup of tea, neither the characters nor the story ever really clicked with me and in an extremely character focused story that's probably the worst that can happen. Here we follow a new crew member on a spaceship and learn more about the rest of the crew in a nearly episodic way (it felt we get a very detailed focus on each member of the crew one after another) while the ship is on its way on a deep space mission.
Tags: space opera; found family; LGBTQ
Bingo squares: Queernorm setting, bookclub or read along, Mundane job(h) (I mean, she's hired as a clerk)

1* range:

Ha, nothing so far. Overall the start wasn't to bad, with nothing catastrophically bad....
So now, while I have some more squares planned and some are just super easy to fill, I struggle to find something for: * Elemental magic * Druid
If anyone has some "must reads" for those squares, I'm more than willing to give them a try. Bonus points if it's a novella and stand alone. (I don't want to start so many new series for bingo, because last year added so many + those I read already outside of bingo...)

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2023.06.04 22:01 AutoModerator [I HAVE] Iman Gadzhi Agency Navigator FULL updated course And 3,000+ MORE FREE courses

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2023.06.04 21:58 Schlachterhund Climate activism of the elect

[This is a translated excerpt from Clemens Traub’s “Future for Fridays?”. It’s a reflection about his time as an activist in “Fridays for Future” – the German branch of “School Strike for Climate”. The specific problems of western environmentalism adressed therein is germane to the issue of dysfunctional leftism often discussed on stupidpol and as far as I can tell nothing of this unique to Germany. The book is from 2020 and by now the movement “Fridays for Future” basically defunct. Meanwhile, the preferred tactic of current activists is it to glue themselves on main roads during rush hour. This protest method obviously affects working class people most, who usually have to physically show up at work (and often have to use cars to do so), and is less disruptive for the WFH email caste. The result of this is, surprisingly, a staggering 80+% disapproval rating for the climate organization “Last Generation” which is doing this.]
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I know the typical milieu of most “Fridays for Future” protesters well. In a way, it's my own and that of my current circle of friends: metropolitan, left-liberal, hip. A space for the daughters of doctors to meet the sons of lawyers. Gin tasting and discussions about plastic-free shopping and zero waste are equally high on the agenda. Veganism is as much part of the unspoken code of being trendy as frequenting second-hand shops. And the organic grocery store around the corner naturally enhances the location of your own home.
The offspring of the professional class keep to themselves. Does the climate movement represent a cross-section of society? Not even close! Fridays for Future is the rebellion of the privileged, and the movement offers them the perfect opportunity to flaunt their own cosmopolitan lifestyle and talent.
Many of my climate-concerned friends are questioning whether the social background of the demonstrators matters at all. Isn't that absolutely unimportant? The main thing, they are convinced, is that the earth is saved. It doesn't matter by whom. The population has been silent for long enough, and now it is finally time to stand up.
I admit that the consistency of this chain of thought was extremely appealing to me and that using social origin as an argument against a group is of course nonsensical. The outlined combative spirit also enthralled me at first. At the beginning of my participation in "Fridays for Future", saving the world was the only thing that counted for me. It didn’t matter who stood by my side. And it still wouldn’t matter for me today.
But what matters to me is the behavior and reasoning of the people protesting with me. And here the circle closes, because the social background reveals more about the movement than the demonstrators would like to admit.
In fact, I take the view that the exclusive social background of the young protesters is the actual birth defect of "Fridays for Future". But because the movement was far too homogeneous, far too elitist and correspondingly far too aloof right from the start, its members remained oblivious to it. Ultimately, only those who are doing well in material terms have the time and leisure to consider climate protection as the most important and also the only political issue of our time and to subordinate everything else to it.
Located in its ivory tower, the movement doesn't even notice that its criticism is leveled at the lifestyle of many economically disadvantaged people, who for financial reasons do not always have a choice. They are denounced as climate sinners because they don't shop in health food stores but at discounters. It never occurs to the demonstrators that there are people whose worries about ever-increasing electricity bills and rental charges make a discussion about forgoing air travel irrelevant from the outset.
And how could they? In their sheltered world, all of that is very far away. But that is exactly what makes the movement a risk, because it jeopardizes the already fragile cohesion of our society. For a large part of the population, however, other, more pressing everyday concerns prevail. For those who are afraid of being affected by job cuts in view of the announcements by the industry, the slashing and burning of tropical rain forest is currently of secondary importance.
Likewise, the extinction of exotic animal species is very far away for someone who worries every day about their tenuous retirement arrangements. That doesn't mean that everyday worries should completely obscure the problems of climate change, but it does explain why climate change is not the first priority for people with existential concerns.
It also explains why measures to save the climate must take economic concerns into account. And it explains why more and more people are wondering whether protesters will finally also take to the streets to deal with their everyday distress: lack affordable housing, declining pensions... plenty of issues exist.
The entire political discourse, both between the parties and outside of parliament, on the street, completely ignores the reality of life for many people in Germany! And I can well imagine that that's not a good feeling for many. The public discussions, which are often far removed from everyday life, exclude less privileged people. The result: we are all sitting on a social powder keg.
I don't originally hail from this metropolitan milieu, but grew up in a region that is often dismissed as "rural backwater". Publications such as "Landlust" and "Landleben" [trendy magazines promoting life in the country side] fulfill the longing of city dwellers for pure nature, but this dream only seems to apply to those people who consciously decide to have a weekend house in the forest. However, anyone who grew up in a rural environment will hardly benefit from this.
My parents live in the Palatinate. I grew up there too. My heart clings to the region, it is scenically beautiful with rows of wine-growing villages. But for an urbanite in pursuit of self-actualization it has to be the worst nightmare. In case your are unfamiliar with Palatinate’s culture: Schlachtfest instead of whiskey tasting. Very few apartments are actually furnished in this “country style” featured in the magazines. My home village isn’t shooting location for documentaries about gentrification. Maybe a camera team will get lost in one of our many hamlets at a Saumagen-centered village festival. But that would be pretty rare.
Drowsy villages provide the perfect backdrop while growing up. An ideal, idyllic world. But the older I got, the more I was drawn to the big city. I longed for a place that was more vibrant than the Palatinate and which could offer me more adventures and opportunities on the way to adulthood. Precisely this big, wide world I longed for. And I today I indeed enjoy its advantages. Whenever I drive home today, I have a feeling that two worlds that don't really have much to do with each other are colliding.
Shortly after attending my first Fridays for Future rallies, I paid another visit to my old homeland – these are becoming less and less frequent. When I enthusiastically told my acquaintances there about my experiences at the recent "Fridays for Future" demonstrations, I quickly realized how little they were interested. Out of pure friendship and politeness, they listened to me with half an ear.
I was quite surprised by that. What was the most hotly debated topic of recent weeks in my university town was met with absolute indifference among my old school friends here. They were more interested in the last day of the Bundesliga match or their last Tinder date than in the great climate revolution.
To be honest, I was initially disappointed and then increasingly angry at this lack of interest. While we young people in the big cities are trying to save our planet, the people in my home village are letting us down, I thought. Don't they understand that they too only have one planet at their disposal, just like us from "Fridays for Future"? Luckily, out of politeness, I kept those thoughts to myself.
In the days that followed, I started hearing disparaging comments about Fridays for Future with increasing frequency. In the eyes of my old friends, the movement was an "eco-sect", the self-promotion of big-city, left-wing weirdos. Someone called Greta Thunberg a "deranged menace". In addition to insults, they appeared to become increasingly bothered by the patronizing demeanor of many Fridays for Future protesters, who seem to perceive ICE-car drivers and meat eaters as second-class citizens.
The more often this happened, the deeper the wedge was driven between my current city life and my origins in my home village in the Palatinate. Between my old and my new world. For the first time in my life, I was just happy when I was able to drive back to the big city: finally the ideal world again, even if it was on the verge of collapse.
Ever since that visit, I've been quite hypersensitive whenever my enthusiasm for "Fridays for Future" wasn't shared 100 percent. In my eyes, there were simply only climate heroes on the one hand and climate sinners on the other. The absolute good or absolute bad – and nothing in between! It was only later that I realized how much I was already influenced by the “Fridays for Future” movement.
At first I could only offer my my old acquaintances reproaches. I accused them of being apolitical and uninformed about the world anyway. A mechanism of exclusion that is very common in "Fridays for Future", as I later realized. After all, at university I even mocked my old acquaintances as provincials, something I had always hated myself when my new metropolitan friends teased me about it.
But it was so much easier to just dismiss them as uninformed "provincials" than to argue with them and take them seriously. I didn't ask why my friends from my old home country saw "Fridays for Future" as arrogant or aloof, I didn't care at the time. Possible self-doubts could not arise in the first place.
I didn't anticipate, that this would actually fiercely play up in me over the coming weeks! I thought more and more about the experiences in my home country. It just wouldn't let me go. Where does the rejection of “Fridays for Future” come from, I asked myself. Where does the indifference in the face of urgent global climate problems come from? How could it be that my friends didn't see those and that they didn't comprehend the seriousness of the situation? I looked for answers but couldn't find any.
For several weeks, every Friday, there was no longer any plastic dishware in the university cafeteria. This gesture, following the "Fridays for Future" demonstrations, was intended to set an example for environmental protection. What should have caused storms of enthusiasm in theory, however, meant a very special kind of chaos in practice: balancing a piece of raspberry cake on your bare hand without a plate is more difficult than it might sound. Once the first piece of cake hit the floor, a discussion about the plastic boycott quickly broke out in the canteen.
It immediately turned out that the cashiers could only laugh at what they considered to be an idiotic ban on plastic. Their statements shocked many of my fellow students, who are big "FfF" fans. Instead of relaxed humorous small talk, my fellow students reacted with deadly seriousness. In the heat of the moment, the cashiers were even treated with extremely condescending insults. I will never forget how my fellow students lost all human decency that day in the supposed fight for climate protection. For the first time I noticed how fanatical and arrogant many of my "FfF" acquaintances had long since become.
After that event, something actually changed in me. But I didn't want to admit it to myself at first. But the more often I demonstrated at "Fridays for Future", the more alien the movement became to me. Today I know: It took an event like the one in the university canteen or a stay in my old home country to open my eyes and to realize how important sincerely attempting to understand other realms of experience before applying crude labels to people. Due to its exclusionary megalomania, “Fridays for Future” is incapable of this realization. But only a person who approaches other people, takes them seriously and wants to understand their everyday lives will be listened to. Only those people can actually affect something. They might even, in the best case scenario, save our planet!
While "Fridays for Future" was unable to make inroads my home village’s community, the media was showed more interest. Interviews with activists became more and more frequent on television. The talk shows couldn't get enough of them. "Markus Lanz", "Anne Will" or "Hart aber Fair": All of them had at least one "FfF" activist to visit. The more I saw them there, the more their arrogant demeanor bothered me. I suddenly switched off people who I still saw as inspiring personalities a few months ago. They kept raising their index fingers admonishingly. Looking down from the ivory tower at anyone who disagreed.
Finger wagging was slowly but surely becoming the hallmark of the movement. Their image of the enemy was crystal clear. Their worldview is dangerously one-dimensional. My big city friends suddenly fought everyone they saw as being complicit in the misery of the world: the meat eaters, the plastic bag carriers, the ICE-car drivers, the short-haul fliers, the long-haul fliers, the cruise tourists, the farmers, and of course the evil SUV owners. But honestly, don't we all belong to one of these groups from time to time?
Once they suddenly started cursing anyone who accidentally commits a tiny climate sin, even if it's just incorrect sorting of trash, I felt like they were in the ultimate battle against the rest of humanity. Elitist hubris everywhere I looked. In their moral arrogance they were (and still are) completely unaware of how many "normal" people they alienated by doing so. My assessment that "Fridays for Future" is primarily a movement of socially privileged young people has now been backed up by corresponding figures. The Berlin “Institute for Protest and Movement Research” got to the bottom of the social composition of the climate movement. On March 15, 2019, it surveyed “Fridays for Future” protesters at rallies in Berlin and Bremen. The study was financed by the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen-affiliated "Heinrich Böll Foundation".
The study’s results were illuminating: More than 90 percent of those surveyed stated that they had at least completed their Abitur (or advanced technical college entrance qualification) or were currently striving to do so. An overwhelming majority of 90 percent! Not even 1 percent of the demonstrators attended secondary schools [which prepare pupils for non-academic vocational training]. Almost two-thirds of the students considered themselves to be in the upper-middle class. Even before that, I had no doubt that "Fridays for Future" is a movement of the affluent. But what I read in this study surpassed my estimated. "Fridays for Future" does not in any way represent a cross-section of society, as has often been claimed.
I was surprised how little the sobering result of the study was then discussed. Society had to be informed about the privileged background and the resulting aloofness of the young protesters. Doesn't this change the entire perspective on the defining social debate of the last few months?
The figureheads of the movement in particular all come from the “most bourgeois” background. For example, we have Luisa Neubauer, the best-known German "Fridays for Future" activist. She grew up in the relatively expensive Elbe suburb of Iserbrook in Hamburg. Everyone in Hamburg knows: Not exactly a residential area that is known for its social housing. She did her Abitur in Hamburg-Blankenese. It is Hamburg's villa district par excellence. Sightseeing buses now offer tours through the district to present the magnificent villas to curious tourists. She is a scholarship holder of the party-affiliated foundation Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and is also a member of the party. So nothing stands in the way of a career in politics, she says so herself. "I don't want to rule out a career in politics," she told Zeit Campus, for example. [Neubauer is, in fact, a scion of the oligarchical Reemtsma clan; so is her cousin, another figurehead of the movement]
It’s less a rebellion from below and more a case of perfect self-marketing. But now cracks do appear in this underdog stage production. Today Luisa Neubauer can only be reached via her management. Demonstrators as pop stars! And of course you can't just talk to them on the street when you're demonstrating together. At least not with “Fridays for Future”. Please, what a naive notion! Although there are also critics of the excessive portrayal of people within the "Fridays for Future" movement, there is no real change in sight.
In the meantime, the climate movement has become one thing in particular: a career springboard for ambitious young elites. "Fridays for Future" is the perfect stage to make a name for yourself. Many of the educated offspring of academics are of course aware of this. The more media attention, the more attractive it is to be in the front row. Supposedly idealistic activism can now be marketed very well.
But not only the figureheads like Luisa Neubauer want to get some of the public spotlight. More and more "Neubauer disciples" are trying their luck in the "Fridays for Future" profiling machine. There we have, to name just a few examples, Linus Steinmetz, Carla Reemtsma or Sebastian Grieme.
Getting an appearance on a talk show or at least being able to read your name in the newspaper - all of this can become an opportunity of a lifetime. Being in the front row not only feels incredibly good, it is also a kind of free ticket for later professional life. And as if that wasn't enough: A flood of new Instagram followers is of course also a fantastic side effect. With this in mind: full speed ahead!
Who could object? Everyone is looking for recognition. Doesn't everyone want to take advantage of the opportunities in their life? And finally, every society needs ambitious young people who will later enrich politics, business and culture.
At best, people who want to be the center of attention also bear responsibility for themselves and others. So far no problem, you might think at first.
But how will many people with limited financial resources feel when those rebels who constantly lash out at the lifestyles of others take advantage of it for themselves? While many citizens have to accept new climate costs in their everyday lives, they also experience how Luisa Neubauer is offered a position on the supervisory board at Siemens. In view of this, the suspicion of many people that climate activists are making careers at the expense of other citizens is all too understandable.
I have other concerns as well. In our time, the frustration with the elites is growing. The "enraged citizen phenomenon" has become one of the most discussed topics of this decade. Intellectuals around the world are concerned about the cause of this worrying development. Our society is currently experiencing a "rift" between two major population groups. In an anthology they edited, the political and social scientists Wolfgang Merkel, Ruud Koopmans and Michael Zürn differentiate between “cosmopolitans” and “communitarians”.
There are those who benefit from the future and are therefore relaxed about it. Above all, they see opportunities in it and view the globalization of our world with optimism. This group is referred to as cosmopolitans. But many people are also afraid of change. They believe that the future will not hold anything good and, potentially, only the ever-possible economic decline. Given the "opening" of the world, communitarians see the dangers in particular. They often have the feeling that they are not really noticed by society's elite.
The well-known distinction between “anywheres” and “somewheres” by the British journalist and author David Goodhart supports this finding. Goodhart distinguishes "anywheres" who are educated, wealthy and will feel at home in their circles around the world, and "somewheres". They belong to completely different social milieus and are relegated to a specific place where they work, live, have their friends and struggle to assert their status.
Most "Fridays for Future" activists know: the future belongs to them. Many have the classic biography of a cosmopolitan. Because of their social background, they were born with everything they needed to benefit from our system. Everything is just right: the appearance, the social environment and of course the education.
Although they face the end of the world as a constant threat, their future does not scare them. Why? The doors are wide open for them. They master the complicated rules of our individualized knowledge society very well. You will do your internship in Brussels and not in Bottrop. Better the EU Commission than retail, a sector without future anyway. And also: cultivate connections! Your English vocabulary is usually larger than German. Perfectly prepared for the future, come what may - because they are the elite of tomorrow. The dangerous thing about it: most of the demonstrators are not even aware of this.
The well-trained "Fridays for Future" activists prefer to see themselves as misunderstood outsiders in society. Being an outsider is what makes rebellion sexy. At the same time I say to myself: What must a socially disadvantaged person think when suddenly wealthy cosmopolitans like to play the role of the outsider! And they don't just like it the role. No, they are really putting effort into staging it.
The classic distribution of roles between "perpetrator" and "victim" in the social context is thus turned upside down in a negligent manner: no longer the single mother and multi-jobber is seen as a victim of the existing social conditions, but the climate-conscious scholarship holder who has to experience how the consumption of affordable meat endangers our environment.
But that's not all: instead of listening to the concerns of hard-working people, they blame them for their environmentally unfriendly diesel car, which they need for their daily commute to work.
Instead of considering questions of justice with "Fridays for Future", the movement reduced itself from the start to questions of lifestyle. In my circle of friends, too, the extinction of species is simply cooler than poverty in old age and the issue of gender is hipper than low basic pension.
Above all, the privileged know the social code of the new “morally good” life. The new green-bourgeois bearing regulates the friend-foe scheme of the climate debate. A mechanism of exclusion that often pushes fellow citizens who are already worse off even further aside. A good person has long been only someone who can show an ecologically sound certificate of good conduct. The existential feeling of many that they just have to somehow make ends meet does not exist in the living environment of the (upper) bourgeois offspring. In the climate debate of the last few months, worlds have collided that couldn't be more different. Worlds that are moving further and further apart.
----------------------------------
[The author doesn’t mention it, but the social milieu that makes up the bulk of the climate movement is also very fond of importing Anglo-inspired race discourse. Towards the end of its decline, they were increasingly caught in purity spirals. For example: should white musicians with dreadlocks be allowed to play during happenings?
The study from “Institute for Protest and Movement Research” also examined ethnicity of the protesters: they are predominantly of ethnic German stock, much more so than the average German citizen. Who could have known?]

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2023.06.04 21:51 NamelessNanashi [The Gods of Dragons: Beginning] Ch 16 - Aftermath Part 2/2

--- Table of Contents ---
--- Part 1/2 ---
When Shon woke again, it was to be told he'd slept, not only the rest of the day and night of the incident, but the entire day after as well. Despite the Cleric assuring Shon that this was normal, he still had Shon eat breakfast in the infirmary while the Squires attended their morning lessons. He'd slept through drills, breakfast, and prayer.
The Cleric kept the curtains drawn over the window, though Shon's head wasn't pounding anymore, and had added a second set of standing curtains around the girl's bed. Shon's eyes flicked in her direction with every alternate bite he managed to force down, but there was no movement beyond the white cloth.
Master Daunas came in shortly before tenth bell and armor practice to inform Shon that he was to take the day off to rest but could rejoin the others in training the following day. He was at least allowed to leave the infirmary, though he waited until he could hear sparring outside before he did. He didn't want to run into any of the Squires.
As he opened the door to leave something flew by the window, catching Shon's attention enough to make him stop and look over. But it was already long gone. Just a bird... Assuming he hadn't imagined it. He shook his head, still aching all over. His mind swam with worries and memories, made worse by the fact that the Cleric was trying to hide shivers now that Shon was fully rested. He'd probably just imagined it...
Back in his room Shon huddled over his journal. He could still smell the smoke in his hair and had decided it would be best to shower soon, but finally alone, his thoughts and memories could no longer be ignored.
So he drew. He tried to start safe. Nangran atop his borrowed horse; Ivelm mostly naked and shaking a club in his doorway; the Archmage's workroom lined in shelves filled with magical components. That one had taken a while. But as he released these images onto the page, others forced themselves forward. Smoke billowing over treetops; a burning tower; charred bodies; and a girl reaching out through the flames. A girl lying asleep in the bed next to his. The stillness of the picture made her look dead.
He dropped his pencil, letting it roll right off the desk. Crossing his arms over the book, he rested his head on his desk. The wood felt warm compared to his skin, comforting. What more could he have done? What could a Paladin have done? Or Master Veon-Zih? Shon saw again the bodies and shivered.
No one could save everyone. To think otherwise was pure arrogance. But knowing the facts and feeling them were two very different things. The tower wasn’t that far from Hamerfoss. Shouldn’t they have known something was going on? Shouldn’t they have been able to do something sooner? Years sooner? Long before the fire killed those people?
A loud tapping startled him awake. When had he fallen asleep? Shon searched his room in confusion, trying to piece together his dream and what had awoken him. He'd been in the Temple chapel, but as he'd walked down the middle aisle, the pews had started to decay, the stone walls crumbling. Small plants, then trees began to sprout from the ground, overgrowing the once-holy place now in ruin. Shon pressed the heels of his hands hard into his eyes, trying to remember what had come next... A man with white hair pulled back in a ponytail had been standing at the head altar... something with leathery wings on his shoulder...
The painful screech of something sharp on glass had Shon jumping up, his chair falling to clatter on the ground behind him. He looked to his window but saw only orange sky beyond. Was the sun already setting? He knelt on the mattress and looked out the window, unsure what he expected to see. He was on the third floor, but that was definitely where the sound had come from, and the window was the only glass in the room.
Nothing but open sky.
He opened the tiny window, the pane swinging up and letting in cold and refreshing air that helped clear his mind. Master Daunas's voice bellowed orders from the courtyard below, and Shon stuck his head out to look down and see his fellows working through their dagger forms. He'd slept through lunch and afternoon lessons. And he still needed a shower.
If he hurried, he would be able to shower before the others finished their lesson. Shon left the window open and even opened his door before he remembered to grab a fresh uniform. Obviously, he still wasn't thinking clearly.
The halls were blissfully empty, and Shon could almost pretend that even if he did pass someone, their breath wouldn't show in the air. It was a short-lived fantasy, however. He managed to make it all the way to the showers, but when he opened the door a voice called, "Squire! Why aren't you... Oh..." Shon performed a sharp about face to stand at attention before the Major General.
"At ease, Squire Shon," Selibra sighed, waving him down, "Did you get enough rest?"
"Yes, Sir," Shon answered but then caught movement out of the corner of his eye, again. He hadn't managed to turn his head far enough to see before the Major General started speaking. Shon snapped his head back to give the officer his undivided attention.
"You did well, Squire. Smith Nangran told us what happened at the tower." Sir Selibra managed a strained smile that faded quickly, "If you want to talk about what you saw there... any one of us will be more than willing to listen. You shouldn't have had to experience death so soon." an image of an arm pulling away from a charred corpse flashed in Shon's vision.
Shon swallowed down the accompanying nausea at the memory and managed a nod, adding a quiet "Thank you, Sir." for good measure.
Feeling the need to scrub even more than before, Shon was grateful when the Major General left, allowing him to enter the still-open room. The shower was only mildly comforting, however. What should have been scalding water felt merely lukewarm now, the mist billowing off his truly icy skin thick enough that he could barely see the spigots. Closing his eyes, he scrubbed and tried to imagine the images flowing off of him with the filth...
Something chirped, and Shon slammed the water off. Just the pipes creaking... How much longer would he have to rest before his mind stopped playing tricks on him? But as he moved for his towel, Shon stopped in shock, his new uniform had been scattered around the benches and floor.
He hadn't heard the door open, but had heard the pipes creaking? But who here would even do something like this? Shon started to search the showers, but as he did, he heard something else—voices in the hall. The Squires were done with their practice. He still didn't want to see them and dressed quickly, rushing from the shower and slamming the door behind him.
Something thumped into the door from the other side. Shon held his breath and turned slowly. It was his imagination. It had to be. He reached for the handle again and, standing behind the swing, opened the shower slowly.
"He's been gone three days... Do you think they sent him away?" Thom's voice sounded from around a corner, and Shon jumped in surprise, pulling the door open fully as if he could hide behind it.
"No way. he's the best Squire we have, so what if he's a Sorcerer." They were talking about him... Shon definitely didn't want to see them yet. He dashed down the opposite way, taking a long way around through the Paladin's barracks and back to his room. Or that's what he'd planned before he remembered the Squires hall would be full of people now taking their break and trying to get into the shower before everyone else. His feet faltered, and he turned away again, to one of the hardly used stairs that would take him down to the rest of the fortress.
Barred from his room, Shon made his way to the place he associated the most with comfort, the chapel. It wasn't empty, three Paladins knelt in prayer near the front, but it didn't matter anymore. He felt a wash of calm as he entered the incense-filled room, the sweet-smelling smoke finally banishing the stench of burning hair from his memory.
Shon took a spot near the back, kneeling to pray as he stared up at the statue of Hengist behind the altar. He was dressed in full plate mail, his arm raised in triumph, holding his mighty sword, Darkspliter.
Shon sighed and felt himself smile for what felt like the first time in a very long time. He could tell Hengist anything and everything, and none of it out loud... But then his smile faded. What would he say...?
I'm sorry. I feel like I've been lying to everyone, to you. I've known there was something different about me, something wrong with me. That's why no one likes to touch me, why everyone pulls away at the feel of my skin, like it's somehow dirty or painful. I should've realized... Should have known...
But I worked so hard... You know that, don't you? And I'm not ready to give up. I'll do whatever it takes, atone anyway I can if you just tell me how. The Major General said something about it being a sign. I want to believe he meant the unlikely convenience of Smith Nangran knowing an Archmage who could make an item so I won't have to get the tattoo. Thank you. I just hope I don't disappoint after getting a second chance...
The bell for dinner sounded. Feeling better, Shon considered going with the Paladins as they left the chapel. Until one of them shivered as they passed. "Winters right around the corner," another muttered.
"We'll need to install the heating orbs soon." the last answered before the door closed... He wasn't hungry anyway.
Please, Hengist. Don't let me hurt anyone else. Kefir was trying to help me, and I answered that kindness with pain. What if the healers hadn't gotten to him in time? Would I have smothered him in ice? Please, I'll give up everything if it means that will never happen again...
But he didn't want to give up anything. He wanted to fight, to reach his highest potential, and lead a life of meaning. He thought of Master Veon-Zih. The Monk had told him that he didn't need to be a Paladin to fight for justice, and he was living proof of that. But...
I don't want to be alone... At first, I thought I just wanted you, a god, as a guiding light in my life. But now I realize that being a Paladin gives me even more than that. It gives me brothers and friends, and I don't want to lose them either. But I especially don't want to hurt them.
Shon clenched his hands tighter, as tight as he could, digging his fingers into the spaces between his knuckles; as if external pain might dull internal strife...
They say I'm scary... And I know they aren't really joking. I can see it in their eyes and hear it in their nervous laughs when they try and make it a joke. But they only mean when they fight me... don't they? And I'll never try to hurt them. It's only sparring... they know that... don't they?
He squeezed his eyes tighter shut,
But what about now? Will they be even more afraid? Even when we aren't sparring? Can I blame them if they are?
He actually found himself waiting for an answer... Of course, none came. He wasn't a Paladin yet, and wouldn't be able to feel the god until he swore his Oath and took a piece of Hengist into himself. For now, Shon took in a deep breath, as deep as he could, then let it out slowly, relaxing his hands and face as he attempted to release his anxieties unto his god.
I won't give up. I'll fight this danger within me as hard as I will fight any threat without. I ask for your help with this. Please don't give up on me yet. I'll prove I'm worthy, I swear.
The bell ending dinner and starting study time sounded. Shon stayed in the chapel until a handful of Squires came in to pray themselves. They hesitated by the door, but Shon didn't look at them. He knew he couldn't hide forever. But he also wasn't sure what he should say to any of them. Or if he should say anything at all. Shon waited until they moved away from the door to finally stand. If he had to face any of them, he wanted it to be the ones he considered friends first.
Shon left the chapel and made his way to the library, fighting the urge to just go back to his room. Heads swiveled in his direction the moment he opened the library door. Shon flinched, sucking in a sharp breath and holding it, pulling his energy in as best he could.
He stepped in, and the Squires exchanged looks, but then the Paladin on library duty coughed, and they quickly went back to reading.
His typical spot was available as usual, so Shon made his way there. The others would want to talk after... and if not, he would just go back to his room. Distracted by his continued worries -and the silent effort to hold his energy in- Shon still heard when something behind him hissed along the stone.
He spun quickly, scanning the floor. This time he definitely wasn't imagining it...
"Squire Shon... Shouldn't you be resting?" He turned back to find the Squires trying to make it seem like they weren't staring at him, while the Paladin who called looked openly concerned.
Shon's cheeks flushed, now feeling cool rather than warm. Another change... He cleared his throat, "No, Sir..." and when the Paladin's worried expression didn't let up, Shon added, "I've been resting all day."
"Three days..." Zihler muttered.
Shon met his eyes and the Squire smiled, but Shon couldn't tell if the expression seemed strained or not. He nodded anyway, taking his seat alone at the table by the window.
Books on their current subject of study were already laid out, and he pulled one forward, opening it without checking the title. As he read, he could hear the others occasionally whisper and even caught snippets of what they were saying,
"I found another one. Do you think this will be enough?" Thom asked.
"We have the rest of the hour; we should find all we can," Rerves answered. It didn't sound like they were studying, but Shon had missed three days of lessons; maybe they were working on an assignment... He went back to his reading. He would get any missed work tomorrow.
When the bell rang that would finally begin their last hour of free time, Shon closed his book. It would be best to just go to bed early; everyone seemed to think he should be resting anyway; they could talk after he got the sealing item... But he hadn't stood yet when his six closest friends jumped up, books in hand, and crowded around him, preventing him from leaving. From running away.
"We're glad you're okay." Rehlien blurted out.
"The Major General told us what happened," Baradin added.
Shon looked from him to Kefir and took in a sharp breath, "I'm..." he started to apologize, but Kefir interrupted with a broad smile,
"I'm fine. I even got a day off for it. I didn't need it though, they healed me up right away."
Rerves placed his book down on Shon's table, "It was just really surprising, you know? But hey! Now we know why you're so cold all the time."
Shon looked down at the massive tome on the table, not wanting to meet their eyes. He didn't know what to make of what they were saying. There was no way it was okay. How could they be alright with a dangerous magic user that could kill them all on accident...
"We found these. We thought they might make you feel a little better," Thom whispered, stacking his book on top of Rerves' and opening it to a page he'd marked with a ripped piece of scrap paper. It wasn't a textbook, it was a record book. Shon furrowed his brows down at the page, reading 'Sir Patrich, served 4876-4929, died 4955. Paladin of Hengist, General. Air Sorcerer...'
Shon looked up to find them all smiling down at him. Zihler set his book down over Thom's, opened to another personal record, "This one was a fire Sorcerer, and they're supposed to be the most destructive."
Rehlien took Baradin and Kefir's books and stacked them with his own beside the open records. He ran his fingers over the slew of bookmarks sticking out of the closed pages, "All Sorcerers and Paladins." Rehlien said.
"Master Daunas said you would be back in a few days, but just in case we wanted to find these for you," Thom explained in a rush, "You know... in case the officers or Mages needed to be convinced..."
Baradin cleared his throat before he spoke, clasping his hands behind his back, "We haven't found any ice Sorcerers yet, but they're also the rarest, so that really shouldn't be surprising."
"Yeah, and there are plenty of fire who are crazy dangerous even when they're trained," Kefir added quickly.
Shon could feel a burning in his eyes and blinked furiously, looking away from his friends. He wouldn't cry.. he wouldn't. "Thank you..." he managed to croak out, finally giving in and rubbing his eyes. None of them commented on his show of emotion, or the frost clouding his window.
Rerves took the seat across from him with a smile, "So, what type of familiar do you think you'll get?"
Shon managed to stop blinking enough to arch an eyebrow. Hadn't Ivelm said something about a familiar too?
"I bet you it'll be something really lame." Zihler laughed, "To balance Shon's badassness."
"Squire!" the Paladin librarian barked, "Pushups! Now!"
Zihler groaned, mumbling as he stepped back to perform the punishment, "How do they always do that?"
"Divine hearing," Rehlien snickered as Zihler started the pushups, "Probably only works for curses, though."
"You can join him," the Paladin called without looking up from his book, and Rehlien groaned, dropping down next to Zihler.
"Seriously though," Rerves said, ignoring the boys huffing and puffing through their punishment, "Familiars are animals, they're supposed to be even closer to their Sorcerer than a Paladin and their mount! Like an extension of yourself. You can see through their eyes and talk to them with your mind. It's awesome!"
Thom actually blushed, confessing, "We read up on it a bit over the last two days..."
They knew more about what he was than he did. Shon actually smiled, starting, "I don't..." but chittering, like a particularly loud squirrel, interrupted him. The Squires all swiveled their heads to look around, Rehlien and Zihler jumping to their feet with the Paladin, who stood so quickly his chair fell over. The chittering turned to chirping, and then to a purr, as Shon finally found what was making the noise.
On top of the bookshelf closest to the door, sat a tiny dragon.
The size of a large barn cat, its scales were mostly brown but had streaks and blotches of red and orange, like the few deciduous trees that still held their leaves in autumn. Its leathery wings were folded against its back and its front claws grasped the edge of the bookshelf. Its long tail, complete with a scorpion-like stinger, flicked back and forth, its sinuous neck held high as it surveyed the library.
Some of the Squires let slip breaths of wonder, and the little dragon seemed to preen at the attention, holding its head a little higher and purring even louder. The Paladin, however, stepped around his desk and commanded, "Stay back, Squires," before he started chanting. The little dragon tilted its head at the Paladin, as curious as the rest of them. A moment later, the knight's spell washed over them to fill the room, sending a shiver down Shon's spine and making more than one of the other Squires shudder.
The little dragon let out another string of chittering and hissed down at the Paladin, whose eyes went wide as he announced in a breath, "It's real."
"How did it get in?" a senior Squire asked. Shon started to stand but then fell back again as images flooded into his mind. He watched a window opening from outside the fortress, and saw himself lean out. Then the image shifted, and he saw himself digging under his bed for a new uniform and towel as the him that was watching slipped out the door. It shifted again, and he saw himself in the shower, mist billowing off his shoulders before he dug through the piles of clothes left on the bench. It shifted again, and he darted into the library and behind the bookshelf, watching as he, Shon, walked in and sat down at the little table.
Shon blinked and shook his head furiously to try and clear it. All the pictures had flooded in so fast that no one even had time to answer the question or pose their own, "I let it in..." Shon whispered, then looked at the Paladin, explaining quickly, "I didn't mean to. I left my window open to air out my room and..."
"It's okay, Squire," the Paladin was actually smiling, and the little dragon whistled, "They're goodly creatures, though elusive. I've never seen a live one." the dragon leaned forward on the bookshelf, crouching down on its front claws and wiggling its hindquarters before it leaped into the air, opening its wings to spread as wide as it was long. It glided a lap around the library then hovered in front of the Paladin, chittering again and flapping hard enough to blow the man's short hair back before flying right towards the group of Squires around Shon.
It brushed Baradin's head with its claws, the boy ducking as it swooped down to land on Shon's table. The dragon looked from the open books to Shon, then, before Shon could pull back, climbed up his arm and to his shoulder, purring hard enough to vibrate Shon too. It weighed considerably less than it looked like it should, though its claws were sharp enough to pierce through his clothes as it climbed. It brought its face right up to Shon's eye, and though he tried to pull away, it followed him with its long neck, rubbing its cheek along his face. The scales were smooth and lacked temperature, like being touched by a gloved hand. It nuzzled his cheek again, then down his neck and into his shirt.
Surprised, Shon tried to throw the dragon off, but it just dug its claws into his sleeves, chittering angrily then clawing its way around to his back before lifting itself up to drape over his head. "What..." Shon started, but the Paladin cut him off with a laugh.
"I think that answers your friends' questions, Squire."
Shon was too confused to even arch an eyebrow at the man, but Rerves apparently understood what he'd meant because he said, "But I thought only animals could be familiars, like cats and crows and stuff..."
The Paladin nodded but then shrugged, "That's usually the case, but sometimes, rarely, there will be a Sorcerer who gets something a bit more special, like a winged serpent, fairy dragon, or in this case," he nodded at Shon, "A pseudodragon."
The pseudodragon purred, vibrating Shon's head. The Squires all gaped slack-jawed in awe at it, and Shon reached up slowly. He wasn't even sure what he was going to do, pet it? Push it off? But before he'd even touched it, it lifted its head, stretching its long neck out and nuzzling into his hand, obviously not caring that his skin was colder now than it had ever been.
"Damn..." Zihler muttered in obvious disappointment, "I was really hoping it would be a toad so I would have something to make fun of..."
The little dragon's answering twitter almost sounded like a laugh.
***
She groaned, rolling over and nuzzling deeper into Her pillow. Except it didn’t smell like Her pillow. Her eyes flew open, and She sat up. Then fell back down. That was stupid. Ran and Brom had probably taken more blood than usual again… except She couldn’t remember them taking Her for samples. Not for weeks and weeks…
“It’s alright, you’re safe here,” the kindly voice of a man spoke from Her right, and She sat up again, more slowly this time. A stranger in white robes with a sword embroidered on the chest reached out to help Her up, but after touching Her back he pulled sharply away.
She was too confused to apologize for burning him. “Where?” She asked, looking around the room. Like the stranger, it was covered in white. White blankets, white rug, and white curtains hanging to either side of an open window. A window that looked out onto a blue sky. She gasped, scrambling from the bed and nearly tripping over Her white gown. Of course it was white. How in all the hells did they keep it all clean?
She shook Her head and rushed for the window. The man behind Her gasped, his chair scraping loudly as he stood to follow. She pressed Her hands on the cold glass, staring up into the sky, “I’m on an upper floor!?” She grinned excitedly over Her shoulder as the stranger stared at Her, mouth hanging open.
Turning back to the window, She used Her arm to wipe the fog from Her heat off the glass, letting Her gaze trail down. She didn’t see the treetops She expected. Not close anyway. Instead, the forest was beyond a wide clear field, which in turn was beyond a tall stone wall with people dressed in silver walking along its top. She stood on Her toes to look down through the window. Between the wall and Her was a courtyard full of more people swinging things that glinted in the sun.
This wasn’t the tower. None of those people wore robes except the nice stranger. She spun to him, “My treasures, where are they? Brom? Ran? Where…” She saw a flash of red, heard a pained bark, and smelled iron. She fell to Her knees, grasping Her chest and breathing hard, remembering bits and pieces. He killed them. He killed all of them. Then what? She couldn’t remember...
“You are in a training facility of the Temple of Hengist, Hamerfoss, in Clearhelm.” a new voice, deeper, less kind though not cruel, spoke from the doorway. Lifting Her head, She saw the new man wearing a crisp, white, uniform, with a sword hanging comfortably from his belt. Hengist… so that explained all the white.
The kind man in robes had rushed to Her but dared not touch Her. Wise. With Her head spinning so fast, there was no way She was controlling Her heat properly. “How long has she been awake?” the new man asked the kind one.
“She just woke up, Major General,”
“He killed them…” She whispered, squeezing Her eyes shut, pushing back the rage and sorrow, trying to fill in Her memory. What happened next?
“It will be alright. You're safe here,” the kind man said again.
She pulled Her own hair, lacing Her fingers into the golden strands and squeezing. What had happened? She had run down the hall, but how had She gotten out of Her room? There were strangers in Her tower. These men? She glared up at the brown-haired man who looked down at Her, his hands behind his back.
“Who are you? What did you do to the Mages?” She could feel the hair rise on the back of Her neck and a familiar tingling where the collar should be.
The Major General remained calm before Her building fury, saying only, “Calm down.” It was a command backed by magic. She felt the power flow over Her and try to settle on Her mind. She could almost sense the peace it promised but shook Her head, clearing it of the spell.
He could've used his magic to hurt Her. Perhaps not with the collar as the Archmages did, but in other ways. And yet, he hadn’t moved from his spot, his hands still behind his back. She looked again at the sword of Hengist at his side. She'd read all about the gods. Hengist was good and noble, all about self-sacrifice and protecting the weak… A fool, the Mages had said. And yet his Temple ruled this province. The Mages of Her tower would never work with the Temple of Hengist. Or any kingdom order…
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She didn’t need his help to calm down, not when She had something to focus on. She shoved Her grief to the back of Her mind. “How did I get here?” another image flashed in Her mind, fire all around, a white path, blue eyes.
The Paladin didn’t answer right away; instead, he motioned for the robed man - a Cleric? - to bring him a chair. She tilted Her head curiously at him, but he only sat down with a weary sigh, then gestured towards the bed, “Please, have a seat.”
She stood, returning to the bed and eyeing the door over his shoulder. He hadn’t locked it. “We saw smoke from the woods and found you in a burning tower.” the blood drained from Her face, “We have recovered several bodies from around the structure, but there were no other survivors.” he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and fixing Her with a piercing stare, “What happened? What was going on in that tower?”
She brought Her feet onto the bed and hugged Her legs tight, “I don’t… I can’t remember…” a fire, the tower burning… But it was made of stone. Her fire couldn’t burn that hot… Could it?
“Sir Selibra,” the kindly Cleric sounded stern, crossing his arms and glaring down at the Paladin, “She has just woken up from what was obviously a terrible ordeal. Show some compassion.”
The Paladin, Selibra, actually looked ashamed, leaning back in his chair and clearing his throat, “I apologize, miss…” he drew out the last word, looking at Her expectantly. She tilted Her head. “What is your name?” he asked more clearly. She tilted Her head the other way. Were they going to play that game here too?
The Cleric hummed then said, “Please forgive him, miss, we are all very troubled by the events and deaths at the tower. The Major General merely got ahead of himself. If you could tell us your name, then we can let you rest and…”
“I don’t have a name.”
The two men blinked dumbly at Her, and She rolled Her eyes, “I knnnooowww,” She let Her legs fall back down, so She was sitting properly again, “But I don’t know it yet. As soon as I do, I'll tell you.” She assured them. The men exchanged looks as She glanced again out the window. Maybe She should've just told them what Brom and Ran called Her… But those weren’t names. They were descriptors. No better than ‘Firewyrm.’
If these Temple men were to be believed, everything was gone. She had no room, no books, no clothes, no treasures, and no name. What did She have? She pulled Her hair over Her shoulder and stared out the window as She stroked it. She had Her hair. They hadn’t cut it in months. She had Her body. She straightened Her posture, holding Her head high. And She had Her power—the fire crackling deep inside Her soul. The Mages had taken the first two. The third had destroyed them.
“You should rest,” Selibra stood, and Her eyes snapped back to him, “You can send for me when you feel ready to talk. Until then, focus on recovering your strength and your memories.”
He made it all the way to the door, even swung it open before She called out, “What are you going to do to me?”
Selibra turned back, his eyebrows raised in surprise. The Cleric placed a hand on Her shoulder, slowly and carefully, gauging how much of Her heat he could handle. She turned to him, and he let Her go. He'd held on longer than expected. “We will keep you safe, child.” the Cleric assured Her.
The Paladin grew stiff for a moment, then brought his right fist up to his chest, “By the sword of Hengist’s honor, we will safeguard your life and freedom,” Freedom? “Whatever injustices you endured there, you will find justice in the laws of Clearhelm.” She didn’t know what to say, and so, after an awkward moment of silence, Selibra turned for the door again and left.
She didn’t lay down. Instead, She walked back to the window. The view seemed to stretch on forever from so high up, higher than She'd ever remembered being before. Even when She used to climb the trees around Her tower.
Selibra hadn’t locked the door, but the Cleric bustled around behind Her, and the wall below Her clanked with armored knights. What was freedom anyway?
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Thanks for making it this far, you are the real MVP

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2023.06.04 21:51 NamelessNanashi [The Gods of Dragons: Beginning] Ch 16 - Aftermath Part 1/2

--- Table of Contents ---
Autumn 4986, 16 Aoimoth
Shon slid down the side of a tree to the ground and watched the tower burn. Ivelm did a circle of it, dousing the surrounding trees with his water wand, while Nangran inspected the few bodies he could reach without burning himself. At one point, he tried to pull a corpse further from the fire only to have its arms snap off at the shoulder, meat pulling away from the bone like a well-cooked turkey.
Somewhere in the back of Shon’s mind, he knew he should be sickened by the sights and smells. When they first stepped through the portal, he‘d had to hold back retching from the scent of smoking hair and cooking flesh. Now he could hardly muster the energy to keep breathing. He took long and slow, but shallow breaths. As if he were about to fall asleep despite the horror before him.
So much death. Shon had never seen a dead person before. Though he wasn’t sure if these still counted, so blackened they could almost be mistaken for macabre statues... if it wasn’t for the smell.
“What was going on here ‘Elm?” Nangran demanded of Ivelm as the mage rounded the other side of the tower and rejoined them.
Ivelm sheathed his water wand, pulling forth the diamond-studded wand again. He didn’t answer.
Nangran growled, grabbing Ivelm's arm as it rose to point the wand toward the forest. The Archmage shook him off and spun, his robes fluttering around him as he gestured angrily at the fire, “I don’t know, Flintchest. This tower was supposed to be empty, abandoned. I’m the only Mage with authorization to set up in this area.” he pointed his wand over Shon’s shoulder and spat something indistinct. A rush of cool air flowed from behind accompanied by shouting and armor clanking. Knights running.
Shon rolled limply to the side, planning to stand but finding his arms shaking as he tried to push himself up. Boots stomped around him as Paladins flooded from the magical gate into the clearing. Shon managed to lift his head, though even his neck seemed to be rebelling against his attempts at holding himself up. His vision swimming, he saw Major General Selibra and Master Daunas step through the portal, their mouths agape.
Shon’s arms gave out from under him, and he fell to the side, hearing as if from a great distance, “Squire! Shon… Shon… Nangran, what happened?” From the ground he could see the girl, now wrapped in Nangran’s cloak, leaning against the side of his tree. When had they brought her there? Why hadn’t he noticed?
“He’s fine.” Ivelm’s voice, Shon couldn’t see anymore, so he closed his eyes, “He’ll wake up in a few days. Hell of a Sorcerer that one…” No… no, no, no... he wasn’t a Sorcerer. He was a Squire. He would be a Paladin… For a brief moment, a flicker of an image played in Shon's mind. He saw himself lying on the muddy ground, Master Daunas knelt by his head, and Ivelm spit off to the side. Then, only the sweet relief of darkness as he passed out.
***
“Any other survivors?” Sir Selibra’s soft voice drifted through the darkness.
“Only the girl,” Daunas whispered from nearby.
“I doubt she’s human,” Ivelm spoke loudly, and Shon flinched, his head pounding as the mage didn’t bother to keep his voice low, “No fire-resist spell should have lasted in that heat. Even fire Sorcerers can't survive melting stone.”
“She looks human.” a fourth voice, the Hamerfoss Cleric. Shon couldn’t move. The light filtering through his eyelids sent stabs of pain into his head, making it hard for him to concentrate. He tried to lift a hand to cover his eyes, but the limb wouldn’t obey his call.
“And a table looks like it’s made of wood but does that mean it’s still a tree?” Ivelm snorted, and something wet splattered on stone.
“Archmage, please, this is an infirmary…” the Cleric said, shocked.
The mage didn’t apologize and continued to speak at full volume, “Whatever was going on out there it wasn’t sanctioned by the Guild, and that girl has most certainly been subject to experimentation. Those scales? That hair?” he spat again.
“Archmage, please…”
“Let’s take this outside, shall we?” Sir Selibra said, and three pairs of boots thumped away, a door swinging open. Sir Selibra’s voice retreated as they left the infirmary still in conversation, “We have sent for the Temple and Guild. They should be here shortly.” The boots left, and the door closed again.
Only one pair of feet remained, shuffling around the room before the rustling of curtains being pulled closed accompanied the sweet relief of darkness. Shon steeled himself and forced his eyes to open just a crack. More pain. He closed them again, his ears ringing. With a slow breath, he tried again, blinking in the weak light filtered through the cloth covering infirmary window.
A groan slipped from his lips, and the Cleric rushed to his bedside, “Don’t try to sit up, Squire. You’re drained, but unhurt,” which seemed a direct contradiction to Shon’s pounding head. The Cleric continued, “After a bit of sleep, you should be fine…” Shon let his head fall to the side, wanting to look away from the window, and saw a second bed, where a girl with golden hair slept.
“It happens to Paladins too, you know. You have to be careful not to expend too much of your own energy when casting magic…” the Cleric continued to talk, busying himself by checking Shon's vitals, “It’s inevitable, but with practice, you can mitigate some of the effects…” She was the only survivor, and she had been experimented on… “After you take your Oath, you'll receive training in divine magic…” even if she was okay physically, would she be alright mentally?... “For now, just rest. You did well. It’s thanks to you the girl got out alive…”
Shon closed his eyes. Thanks to him? Nangran had seen the smoke, Ivelm had taken them there. He… he hadn’t known what to do, had frozen at the sights and smells. He'd formed a path of ice, but the girl hadn’t been burning… Her feet had melted his ice... Shon let himself drift back to sleep. He wasn’t a hero. Not yet.
***
The tower was supposed to be empty. General Rasnah and the Mages Guild had combed through their records finding that the building had been abandoned over fifty years ago; when the old alchemist living there passed away. Archmage Ivelm reported that he'd surveyed the tower twenty years previous, before setting up his lab miles further south.
“Having a tower like that is practically begging for wanna-be-apprentices to come interrupt you. Looking for a teacher and free room.” he'd explained, with obvious disgust at the idea, even spitting on the floor of Sir Selibra’s office.
Sir Rasnah personally led the Temple Paladins and Guild Mages through a gate from Smilnda to Hamerfoss and from there to the ruins of the mysterious tower. Mages and Paladins crawled together over the still-smoking remains, now a mear hill. Trying to break apart the stones that had melted together and find anything that could explain what had happened here. Bodies covered in white cloth lay in lines along the edge of the forest, ten in total, though how many had been trapped in the tower was still unknown.
The Clerics of Lune would identify the bodies, though she wished they could do more than just give names. It would take months, possibly years, to scour the records to determine who these poor souls had been in life. And more years besides to track their movements through the meticulous paperwork kept by the kingdom.
She could practically hear Veon-Zih snickering at her, ‘Silly Ras, you gave up the battlefield of blood and stone for one of words and paper…’ she shook her head, banishing thoughts of the Monk. This work would be just as important. How else would those fighting the physical battles find their enemies without information and resources? And yet… She rested her hand on her sword with a sigh, “Some retirement…”
“Sir Rasnah,” a female Mage with dark hair and tan skin approached from the tower, “We found the basement…” she looked over her slumped shoulders back at the pile of melted rock.
“Not as promising a find as we'd hoped?” Rasnah asked, arching her steely eyebrow at the Mage. What had her name been? Vevi…
To her credit, the woman straightened her shoulders and answered clearly, “Oftentimes, we learn as much from a rejected hypothesis as a failed-to-be-rejected hypothesis.” As Rasnah tried to wrap her mind around what in the hells that meant, the Mage continued, “We had hoped that the basement level would be relatively unscathed as heat should rise to destroy the upper levels and possibly spare the lower…”
Those were words the Paladin understood at least, but they implied bad news, “And that wasn’t the case?”
The Mage sighed, “It was. The fire behaved as fire always does, barring external influence,”
“Mage Vevi, I admire your Guild's desire for specificity, but please, get to the point.”
Vevi blinked then shook herself, saying, “Evidence suggests that the fire started in the basement and that the heat there was far greater than we assumed.” Rasnah arched an eyebrow at the woman again and the Mage threw her hands into the air, “It looks more like a cavern carved by pure magma. Nothing but melted stones remain in the form of caves we can only guess were originally rooms.”
“Damn,” Rasnah gripped her sword and glared past the Mage toward the tower, “So we have no way of knowing what they were doing.” The girl still hadn’t woken up. What were the chances that she had any information of value? Archmage Ivelm was convinced that she'd been the subject of magical experimentation. Would those who had abused her also give her information?
“We have one way,” Vevi interrupted Rasnah’s worries, and the Paladin focused on her again. The Mage turned away, motioning to some of her fellows standing near the bodies. An old man with a bent back and shuffling gait split from the group and approached slowly. Rasnah had to resist the urge to walk to him just to speed up the process.
“Sir Rasnah, this is Archmage Meshed, our divination master.” Vevi introduced the old man while he was still a few steps away, “There is a chance we will be able to obtain some information from the tower remains. Though I’m afraid it might not be as clear and concise as you wish. Divination often creates more questions than answers.”
“I am well acquainted with the frustrations of interpreting symbols and signs…” Rasnah led, unsure of the value in this new idea. Arcane magic didn't get its power from a higher intelligence or any god, it utilized the natural magic and energies running through the world and every object in it, manipulating them with precise words and symbols directed by human will. It was all well over her head.
Meshed’s laugh turned into a dry cough. He cleared his throat, “I think you will find, Mage Vevi, Sir Paladin, that the information I will glean from this place to be far more clear and concise than you are accustomed to. It simply won’t be as complete as you wish.”
With a groan and many popping joints, he sat down on the ground, fishing through his robes and pulling out a small bag. From it, he withdrew a massive tome and a silk cloth that Vevi quickly helped spread on the ground before him. Next came a censor and many jars of herbs and incense, which, after checking his book, he carefully measured before pouring into the censor.
He waved a hand towards the tower without looking up from his work, “Stones, please, Vevi. Choose wisely, I don’t want to do this all day…” Despite being a senior Mage, well on her way to Archmage, Vevi rushed off towards the tower herself and eventually returned with two fist-sized stones.
“One from the upper floors and one from the basement, Meshed,” she explained, handing them to the Divination Master. Meshed pulled a set of brass scales from his small pouch, measuring the stones and muttering to himself as he adjusted the volume of herbs in the censor.
He placed the first stone with the herbs, and his eyes glazed over, “A light if you will.” Vevi performed some complicated motion with her hands, flicking her fingers forward at the end with a muttered word. A spark of flame appeared over the censor, lowering onto the herbs and setting them alight. Smoke billowed in a gray noxious cloud, and Rasnah covered her nose as Meshed began to chant.
He ran his hand through the smoke, which wrapped around his fingers, and continued skyward. “No divine magic was cast here…” he mumbled, moving his hand again. The smoke shifted above his fingers as they passed, creating images of people in robes leaning over books, “Arcane magic…” Obviously. Still, for some reason, his brow furrowed. He passed his hand through again, and the smoke turned nearly black. Before Rasnah could make out any shapes Meshed pulled his hand away and shook it violently before rubbing it on his robe, “Warlocks, Sir Paladin.”
“Damn.” Rasnah smothered more colorful curses and managed a half step closer, “What were they doing, Archmage?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he chanted a new spell, and his hand glowed with a soft red light. Reaching into the censor, he plucked out the stone and replaced it with the second. The smoke again turned gray and rose lazily into the air. Once again, he passed his hand through the flowing tendrils, and once again, they turned black. He shook his head, “Obviously… damnation… what to ask… what to ask…” He seemed to settle on something, muttering, “The fire, tell me about the fire…” he ran his fingers through the smoke. Flames leaped from the censor, the smoke turning red and billowing out before them.
Rasnah stepped back as great smoke wings spread wide, illuminated from below by flames. A horned head atop a sinuous neck stretched for the heavens and Meshed scrambled to his feet. Vevi kicked the censor over, spreading burning debris across the silk to smolder, releasing tiny lines of, blessedly, normal smoke.
“What was that? A wyvern?” Rasnah asked, her heart in her throat.
Meshed coughed his dry cough and shook his head. Vevi stared at the upturned censor with wide eyes. “Much worse, Sir Rasnah,” the Mage whispered, “A dragon.”
“It was dragon fire that destroyed this tower,” Meshed confirmed.
***
--- Part 2/2 ---
--- Table of Contents ---
Thanks for making it this far, you are the real MVP

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