Avril follower crossword clue
Instagram blowing up, don’t know what to do with it.
2023.03.27 00:32 RealLifeArchitect Instagram blowing up, don’t know what to do with it.
I run a small YouTube channel, 7k followers, with a sponsor. I feel like I’ve got a handle on that.
I set up an insta a year ago, first to share images which I discuss in my videos. Im an architect and drawings don’t render very well on YT, so hosting on insta makes sense.
I shared links to my YT videos but this has not resulted in views for the videos. Then I got into shorts on YT and shared these on insta. Last week I had about 500 followers, tonight I’ve got almost 3000 and it’s still growing.
On the grand scale of things, this is still small but if it keeps growing then my Instagram channel could be a useful and valuable asset. The only thing is I don’t have a clue about insta. I don’t regularly use insta in my private life, I feel it has passed me by and now I have a growing channel.
What do I do with this? How best to monetise it? What are the pitfalls?
I’m in the UK, if that matters. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
submitted by RealLifeArchitect to socialmedia [link] [comments]
I set up an insta a year ago, first to share images which I discuss in my videos. Im an architect and drawings don’t render very well on YT, so hosting on insta makes sense.
I shared links to my YT videos but this has not resulted in views for the videos. Then I got into shorts on YT and shared these on insta. Last week I had about 500 followers, tonight I’ve got almost 3000 and it’s still growing.
On the grand scale of things, this is still small but if it keeps growing then my Instagram channel could be a useful and valuable asset. The only thing is I don’t have a clue about insta. I don’t regularly use insta in my private life, I feel it has passed me by and now I have a growing channel.
What do I do with this? How best to monetise it? What are the pitfalls?
I’m in the UK, if that matters. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
2023.03.27 00:28 AnyInvestigator1859 Crossword clues
Help I need help finding a web site. I used to do a puzzle from Dictionary.com. In November of last yr. they discontinued the puzzle. I liked this puzzle. In the AM I would make my coffee , go on to GOOGLE NEWS. WORDLE & Then puzzle. So I tried the new puzzle. Nope no, no. I think in February someone posted the new website for my old puzzle. HOORAY. I was happy. Alas I lost the site. Please . anyone help. I know it had a mm somthing something . com. Maybe Websters?.come or I might have it in reverse.
submitted by AnyInvestigator1859 to CrosswordClues [link] [comments]
2023.03.27 00:21 NathanIsIf James?
Them Are you at heritage palms or casa del lago  me: nope and i'm not looking them up  Them : I wanna know what you’re experiencing cause I know what each fam member is like I’ll show uo After your revenge but if it’s heritage I’ve got my own piece to add  Me: this is nonsense to me  What? This is c  I don't know a c  Talking about neighborhoods  I don't want to play any games  I know same here I just wanna know what you’re experiencing Which household Casa del lago is neighborhood with cousins Heritage palms is one with uncle Evil uncle I lnow Pls Can you not ignore this  it means nothing to me sorry none of this stuff If I had the attention span to remember shit would mean anything  Mhmmm I know you got it The attention spa And a beautiful brain But okay  none of that stuff rung any bells  Well what are you planning on getting revenge for  nothing but I'm sure I don't know you  Whatever you think about my dad is your own projections  I don't. Know you. Or him.  Those aren’t lies but ok  I am not lying.  Hey I love you dyl but pls the anger you hold in your heart scares me and if you can please just come to my house tomorrow everything will be okay How is work going? If there’s any mistreatment lmk I will deliver tou justice  winnie?  Not revenge There’s a difference but also a technique to handle it with love Not hate I know this is a lot and new for toy But if you trust your C then pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee LET HER HELP all I gotta say  i'm not really in a thinking mood  New for you Wanna call me? Just talk Not about us or relationship or getting married Just talk like the good ole days No Ft either  I don't know you  Just voice Dylan  Sorry Dylan I don't know you  Vlad Or whatever other alter ego  no  Dyl  i'm not her or him  Ily  j or r  But okay  uranus or asshole not me  You wish But okay Fine I’m tired of trying  i am too  I wish you could truly feel how much love I have for you There’s so much  I would accept it into my life if you were her.  Just sitting locked up and waiting to pour out  And until then I will not believe it for a second.  Okay dill pickle  still nothing  Scorpion Vs devil  james is the devil I'm not a scorpion  I’m a scorpion and i.r the devil Brother from another mother Vishnu  You have a lot to say you must have a shitty life like me  I sure do but it’s all scraps unless I’m talking to my person  sucks  He’s the one who gets me like no one ever has I was hoping it’s you so you can have a friendly voice to just talk about life stresses From the same person who’s the root of ur problems  sorry  But I guess you’re not it sorry for bothering you  i am not  I hope you learn to transmute any hate in your heart towards love though it’s magical  I don't want to I think that's candy ass demons exist  I understand but transformative I was suicidal  demons exist  Deprrssed Learned to pull myself out slone  they don't care if you love them  Alone Taught me the secret to always being happy Until drugs took over And alcohol  speaking of drugs  Yeah what’s up  i got this vape pen from the corner store here  Oooh Shit What kind  hope they put some fentanyl in it  Noooo What corner store  one in a state that I live in  Fl  nope  Ga Sc Delta 8 or nic  yep  I’ve been tempted to smoke but I don’t wanna f up my teins journey so I decided to not  i need a movie  But if you are then I am Me too  tiens journey?  Twins  I don't have a twin.  Flame  nope  But that’s d for me You’re not him  so you have to sit and be sober  Nah  ah  Imma get high and pop addy  it was always a lie  Nah  i can't do uppers  I’m smiling so I know it’s you  or downers  Just know I love tou You  just sideways  I thought of our quick morning in nyc from that message 2 pumps in your coffee  i have penis  I know Big D  shrinking with age  Nah you’re still young  ps don't measure after 30 just keep your stat line make them measure like the NBA  Lmao how old are tou You  i didn't say don't measure after 40  Hehehehe D I love youuuu Are yoy smiling I’m smiling  I'm not them or smiling  So why’d you get werd Delta 8  the arab who works there in the afternoon makes me feel racist because he talks so quiet i was convinced i couldn't understand his accent for a few weeks then I realized he was just whispering good guy  Arab?  surely not persian  Danny????  I still use the word arabic and even shorten it sometimes  Omg he’s from the carribean I love him Oh shit what are you gonna do if I show up to work Also why do you hate my dad I wanna know  I'm not them  Other than infidelity which is a possibility I’ve always know. Of He would love you as much as me if you just come to the house or he sees us together A part of my soul resides in yours When we’re together we complete each other and my parents (both of em) would be here for you My dad told me f what everyone else in the family thinks he knows how much I love you My uncle tho greedy man That’s why I wanted to make sure you weren’t at herirage Cause he would drain you and he’s sneaky  I wish I was a part of this mess but I'm not  My dad doesn’t like him or some other crappy family members so he distanced himself Just know you belong here and in this family You and I are the really members of our family Soon to be family atleast So I always have your back I just wish you could see the light at the end of this tunnel of a shitshow You have to experience Cause of me I’m sorry I’m really really sorry  This is a load of farts  You’re a load of farts With a heart of gold That’s why I love tou Just please what’s ur work schedule tmw I’ll come to the store for you  lol  Lemme show up if you can’t come here  I'm not them  I’ll be the ram Okie  That word is kinda hot ram  You’re the sita   ram huh huh sounds like you two are gonna do it  Lmao everyone is keeping this charade up in the house but what’s ur work schedule    Nah they are Indian gods and my person already saved me from my addy    Now I gotta help him not fall into a hole of despair Like I was  why would you fuck him up like that?  That he helped with  he has nothing and you're gonna take his despair too wicked  Yes and fill it with soooo much loce  then he'd just be a zombie  Love  probably off himself  Now revived New man We will get you a new last name too dw  cute Bill Hercules  Just let me help you because it’s literally what I was born into this world for  I sell Lawnmowers  To help you remember your power I’m a balanced way  You would think you sell to houses with long grass  In  but no you sell to the house with cut grass they are the ones who like mowing    My uncle? Yo my dad wants the business out    My uncle has been so difficult with him And greedy   i don't believe you are hypnotizable  Keeps starting the discussion when I’m there but my dad keeps trynna stop because he wants to protect me from all the family drama Nope  321 sleep  No I miss you  picture a rhino on his hind legs sleep!  Noooo  that one works on anyone  Not until I have solid plans to see you tomorrow I can’t wait anymore  i wish i was them I'm not but I can entertain you with my tricks  Yea pls do just don’t put me to bed yet    Other tricks in the 5D  i'm gonna let that one roost  :(  I am sad too  Why you sad Tell me  i just go faster to make up for it sometimes  Drop your worries Gent Vent  My best friend is passed away  Aww I’m sorry :( was it sudden??  there's a certain level of uneasyness in the meantime. uneasiness  Meantime?  i only use the best words  I know babe  lol  She’s still here Just upgraded  i've never been anyones babe  Waiting for my upgraded big d Soon Just a hug Is all he need  i bet my amazon order gets here first lol Or marvel goes bankrupt  If a hug could change your whole life Why would you not try I can suck all the hurt pain betrayed anger out  I'm building a nice little life of anger I don't know if I can cash that in  Noooo Don’t worry bout money Chill  what country are you from?  We still have my apt in nyc Worst case we go there and figure shit out first No commitment or rings needed Don’t stress about any of that  i just realized you said you'd suck out my pain  No money from you needed Omg  What country are you from stranger?  You’re def D if you didn’t take that as an immediate sexual inu endo Like me India I’m a fob  You have not an english speakers taint to your language... so close but then a tense will kill it  Just don’t worry bout anyone else and focus on me And us  Are you Bagger Vance?  That’s all that matters  That's my only real india connection  Idk what that means  it means are you buddha are you the god of gods  Nahh that’s you :))  will you teach me to golf?  You are my god  I lost my swing  Lmfaooo I’ll try but the balls will end up in the water Always Everytime Idk how that happened  might need a new toilet  Yeah or new balls  a ball stitch brave i volunteer to help  Hehehehe okay I think I dig your energy anyways  I have a comedy skit  Vlad was too much  the drummell doctor  Okay let’s hear it  it's a town where the only doctor uses a drummel for everything no matter what It's hilarious  … ……. 🦗  I promise?  🦗🦗🦗🦗  I think you are trying to make money out of it I'm trying to laugh  You should take the comedy part out  If you just want funny, and not something to sell, that's funny I've laughed about it many times  Who’s got this money in ur mind On  Your derision obviously commercials tastes i'm educating you childrean still love me?  Yesss still love tou You Always  not me sorry  Dylan  i was being obnoxious not dylan  It’s okay dylan you can accept all parts no need to hide with me You’ve seen my worst parts  jesus dylan sounds like a mess tell him to buy a comb and stop thinking it'll straighten what's left of his life out  You intrude into every moment I can’t even use th bathroom in peace without wondering if ur tuning in So we can’t escape this  i don't believe in psychics i do, but I choose not to  I wanna work with this blessing  lifes a choice  It’s a miracle  I choose no  This is rare You don’t want to tap into the potential?  you love dylan  I swear this is so rare and we are insanelyttt protected  dylan and his stupid hair need you maybe probably not  Dylan why you worried about your hair  but you can think that  I know you think your balding But you think I care??  i see why he is upset and hiding  Aww no babe  you need to make love to his bald head spit shine  Nahh these are from reddits But I still love it All of him  ripley just told that guy to fuck off  Who’s ripely?  some movie girl sad life really  Dyl I love you I wanna make babies with you And start a damily Family And we will have such a happy lil home Big family tho  you and him  Yes me and Dylan If ur him then you know  what's the name dylan mean? i'm not  Son of the sea Right?  I'm asking  You’re testing  In no way did I expect an answer  Mmmhmmm  you're tripping like hard  You’re tripping with that vape I’m about to get ine  no you're like on genetically modified GMO  And maybe take some other drugs too  i can feel the beat juice pumping in your veins You are high as a rockafeller  Nah I wish  Are you in a poker game? too?  I will get tomorrow  I feel like you're gambling  Nah  you're in a small game 20 dollar 9 guy talbe  You know I’m not a gambler  I think you are I feel it  Remember the cruise I watched you But didn’t know shit  lol i would love to go on a cruise if nobody else was on it  But the sweet man I fell in love with tipped his winnings to the guy cleaning the rooms  but the crew and some serfs  Oooh I’ll join you We can be on opposite ends of the shop if you’d like  rose  Ship Jack I’m jack You’re rose  You're having a pastry with filling I see it  Nahh You horny?  Ripley... They are finding the pilot  Oooh  Prometheus is better  Idk what that means but I’m intrigued  even with it's flaws go back to finding dylan i guess good luck  Ooooh I wanna watch prometheus I had to look up what both movies were about aorry Sorry Awww you are my anxious Dylan ugh I just love you sm and miss you I wanna give you kisses everywbere All over your head too  So kind so kind  Can you come over and get high with me And lay here  awe sweet baby  Watch a movie  i'm not them  Okay I give up Guess it’s time to delete this reddit :(  I wish I could help I know not to try we all might be doomed. But then you get to watch movies.  Nooo I wanna tell Dylan so much I understand how everything ties together He gets the visions and messages  I saw that movie already M night  I get the connecting dots I.T only  He really kicked the shit out of this one and not in a good way  If Nah he’s always okay  I don't want to be mean but this one was a bigger disappointment than the Village. Like, I might like the village now  I have always seen the bigger picture and his traumas from wayyy before (I assumed SA and other stuff he thinks is news) from the first time I met him Even researched it for him  I think he was digging a new baasement so people would like the village. basement  Months ago 2022 But these are just confirmations I’ve always had so much love for him  Go get him he's a guy guys are easy  I just want him to feel okay to open up About anythjng Nothing will ever change how I feel about him  I'm not here to help :) I have no input that could possibly help anyone do anything and I got the reciepts  Nooo please What receipts Please tell me If you keep me in the dark  no success ever it's hilarious again  I can’t help you with changing the village that I grew up in What happened?! Be honest  Honesty is a verb  This is just some random redditor  not a noun  Let it out  put that on a shirt and sell it at church lol  I wanna work on starting an app with dylan I wish he knew about the idea  type it up  Nah people would steal it It’s gold  i believe in you go get the world  No I need him for it  it's balls are in your hands  But I’ll tell him in person  go get him to grab the worlds balls by the app grabbing the worlds balls by the app  Yessss Exactly  go get him  But no one could imagine I hate reddit Idk tech  'go get him'  I’m omd Old  'look hip'  I need his diverse and quick mind For everything else  quick is not a substitute for being correct  He’s correct  but the idiots don't know the difference  He is Yeah true  laughing doesn't make something true children  Who laughed Children?? My cousins?   just dispensing my wisdom  What happened What’d they say  i'm tired of this now the alien is about to hatch  Listen my family moved out of that neighborhood  i can't talk to you like a child  Because we couldn’t deal with the drama I know the drama and lived in it  i've never been that poor to have neighborhood drama close but not quite yet  I was always the golden child idk why but always saw through the bs  I have no clue who you are  Whole village has yet to see how much I love my dyl  or your flower child brightness  Then they will stfu  see the fields of grass and be the flower in the field is dylan the father?  He will be to any baby I birth Or mother if it’s adoption  So when you must watch prometheus ?  Rn? Come over? 6am?  you live in the ocean?  Idk whenever you do  i am not them  Almost got pulled in today But nah  the sucktion pretty thick pull it in  Mmmhhhmmm  like a vaccumm  Mmmmmhmmmmmmmm  but I don't believe in space vaccuum theory theery It's stupid bullshit if you ask me a vacuum?  Idk what it is  it's stupid bullshit  I don’t really read up on theories like that  the idea of a vacuum it's the only fucking theory of space that really exists  Just know what I know and dig into history as time goes on  space as in the movies with nothing in it  Oh yeah heck no  there's got to be something dumbassses right? nothing...  There’s more to it  like nothing. well the sun is over there  So much more  so i doubt it i got my money on light rayons  I can’t believe I forgot these vision I had in my childhood Came back to me recently Stuff and too much to explain now But there is def sm more  entropy... then the star world  A lot of my memory is wiped of SA experiences and around the same time my grandpa died (amazing soul and my first spiritual family connection) — whole life was filled with abandonment issues but now I realize the dates match up and I think once he found out He sacrificed to protect me from above I’ve had crazy near death experiences and always extra guided He died in the happiest way a person could with a happy and healthy soul/body But I think for him he can’t ever do anything from k doa India And much more from above  i don't know how heaven works  And one of the reasons I may never unlock certain memories cause it wasn’t supposed to hapoen  true  But the person involved ma life went to total shit Someone you may know but have def not met in the village  lord i am not them get your rest you should keep your head on straight  Nah I’m gucci I slept in  i kanye  Late asf  good luck sad movie  Did me writing in the journal help yes or no Cause I will write everything I know if it did It’s okay masks down with me Please cause you know it’s me You can be vulnerable my love and I don’t tell anyone anything but the best about tou I’m your safe guarded vault when it comes to your heart We share a heart You can be vulnerable asf with me and j will with tou  don't waste the best on me  But it doesn’t leave OUR heart or soul Nah You are the best  go find dylan  I cannot love another Dylan is etched into my dna My soul He has a piece of me  Dylna  I will never get back until he decides to see me It’s how the universe wants it I will always be missing the ability to even feel love or give love fully  good luck  Until he decides to see me  i hope you find them  Until then I’ll keep living an empty life and probably going to addy or other drugs  good luck  Killing my body and soul  I can't help you there I'm not a certified addiction specialist  Nah I need a hug  You might have to ride that wave  From him  till you maybe die idk  To take the pain  or get help  He’s holding both his and mine in there  you type fast when you're scared :) calm down kiddo  But that pain also gives me the key to unlock my heart  calm down kiddo  Okie  breathe  I am  we're good  Okay  we don't have aiens in our chests or on our ship breathe it out  I’m relaxed Buddy  you're not  Yes I am Rrallt  more so  Really  you spike hard really hard  You match my energy  it's driving me uts nuts i need to sleep soon that's why  Okay gn  or just be calm  I am I lromise  no one upsmanship  Okay No one ups I promise Just love and patience  now you're wide open  From a distance  lol I wish  Wyd  but we can both just let this day slip to the langoileirs one more down not a total waste i might even have a snack  Oooh yess Whatcha gonna eat I barely ate cause just waiting for Dylan everyday I’ve done my makeup and gotten ready everyday My parents see me waiting And deal with tears and anger after But I’ll still be waiting tmw and everyday Unless he wants me to come to him in which case just lmk and I’ll be there  rock solid love it if i was ruler I'd get rid of most people but people like you i'd rebuild society with  Yess that’s a good mindset It’s the type we need  and in small numbers we'd keep things nice for a while  This ain’t your average connection  but I'd die and my vision will be diluted a revolt will be met with mercy  No  and my dream will die but then after a while another me comes  Nooo follow your dreams Dock building? Book?? Whatever it is I won’t let you not pursue it  my dream involves a little moustache on my lip and very fancy hats  Even if it moves is out of fort myrs Once we live tigether I will put rosemary oil on your head everyday My hair too You’ll feel better  fast question  But idc about your hair Or wrinkles Or black toe  mr deeds  Yes  winona got it  If they are movies no Cause I have to look up what each movie is  you do a good winona from that movie  Never seen  she would say that i stick to my gut Adam Sandler should have got an oscar I still don't think he cared about the money.  Oooh and yes he’s so talented I believe it  that's more like it  When you follow your heart you always go in the right directoon In hindsight For some Not us tho  lol  We know there are amazing things in store Just gotta get over this tiny himp Hump  maybe for you we're going to war Our politicians shat the bed  With wholike  need to start a rukus  No Oeace Peace  we'll be lucky if the waters stay peacful land is doomed i'll be in the alamo  You’re getting the Nobel prize in writing I’ll get on in medicine or science or something And we will both win the peace ine One  i don't want to write I want to talk on am radio  Chill out Can we have a photo wall  yes please thank you  I’ve always wanted to start one Same type of frames with pics from big moments  I don't make the rules  I’m think ceuise Selfie by the fountain We didn’t take any pics in nyc  that time you boned dylan  But it’s okay  bye forever I really wish you the best  Mmmhmmm i get big d on the daily  I don't think that's hard these days  Nah Specific kind Don’t even need to be near him ;)  whatever you think you are saying... lost in translation ms coppola big v i was catfished by people who fist each other apparantly so i've been told it's all like living in some sorts of petri dish that the mayans killed themselves to avoid anyways always thought they were dumb  Lmaoo whattt  now not sure  Fist  i have to be open that that was from them until they define it not my job keep this in mind whoever you are when you act anonymously you throw your hat in with some freaks you might want to be different from them  I’m sorry Ooos  lol  Wait was it me  i don't know you this is like from the other side of the internet  I went looking for you  think if the internet is a sphere  I think it’s flat  I am on the US side  Like open soda  With hamburgers  Me too  and people who fist their wives while getting off to other men online lol apparantly  ????  not my job to determine I believe it to be true maybe a number was off  It’s okay I know what you meant  but that's the math right now because youre being testy lol I am funny I won this  Nah cause you’re my d  goodnight  I see right through tou You You leave your scent everywhere But I know you’ve got a million dif reddits And you are a creative trickster Also funny  I already declared victory sorry  Idk what that means but okay I hope I get to see you today :( Waiting wveryday  :)  More of my heart gets chipped every nught  i guess you might ought to do something about it at the right time  I guess I’ll sleep now and see what’s up once I wake  yep a new day maybe you'll meet buddah  Lmao were 6 hours in I hope so  it could happen  I really really hope so  look for it you should take a nap  You too  one little breather nap  Wyd today Eork Work  i'm going to sleep fuck nap  Come over  go find your dylan D  My parents have been watching me prep for you And my mom always wants me to clean  you are of a diffferent culture  So my room is clean for us  i learned about it on the simpsons  They are about us I lromise They see how happy you make me and how much you care too  Good luck  Okie thank youu  Gmmmm Wyd  thinking about the dead family of the people who messed with me their dad died after I take joy in that I imagine him in hell screaming and burning most morning s  I just woke up I don’t like waking up to negativity  neither do I but that's the world Maybe one day it will change but I doubt it I think it just ends in a mess i hope you learned your lesson about contacting me in the morning  Lmaoo it’s the afternoon But I learned you late night  you are such a black i can't talk to you  I’m sleeping in your sweater  when you learn how to agree to things that are correct, i can talk to you till then stay black homie  Okie I’m brown  i can tell because you argue where there is no argument like a black  Yes  it's disgusting keep it out of my life if you don't want me to be negative when you wake up don't contact me when it's your morning if you want to argue about when it's morning, go find a black person I'm pretty sure they base everything on the mcdonalds menu so probably 1030 cutoff  Okiee  Shut up, he's about to melt into a mush that's my favorite part  Ooh should I get ready Again I’m still in bed  i'm still thinking of james dad melting cause he's in hell he he already died  Nah you about to melt Me too Maybe Our hearts Teehehehe  and then he paws at the walls but they are hot too then he loses his ability to form words bwa bwa bwa bwa bwa bwa  Babe  it's sad but he raised a demon that killed my friend so I can't really help the melted black charred puddle reforms to do it again  Yesss I have more cuts btw When you visited yesterday  these are my religious beliefs god will punish the evil and is currently  Every time ur in my vicinity I get a cut So I’m evil I guess  I guess I don't know you I know of a james whos dad is in hell  You’re slowly cutting me and I’m Bleeding out  He says bwa bwa bwa  Okay buddha  buddha gets it buddha uderstands war  Don’t forget about shiva and parvati You’re like the angry shiva  i don't care about them they weren't shown to me  They are the most important  so I don  Just saying that Will give you bad luck  So obviously I am not supposed to be giving a shit  Upon yourself  No I accept what is shown to me  Shiva is an angry god  I accept what is shown to me  Until he’s with parvati  I accept what is shown  Then they have a lil ganesha Who lakshmi adopts  if I was supposed to care about this crap it would be in my life  Mhmm  So maybe some day someone will show up and i will have to care he's melting again  Yess our maybe you already have a lil baby And we will care for him And both melt  you people and your crack i can  Even if he’s not my baby  i can't help you  Can u bring ur vape over  I'd never raise a demon child lol  Or should I go buy one He’s a god Ganesha is the remover of onstacles  good for you  Kinda like my grandpa Mhm  not like james' dad  I wanna get high  don't we all it helps take away the pain of people catfishing me and killing my friend from it and the constant anger the constant need to make things right but this is morning i'm not high yet  Aww is it only when you see Dan the man When is Danny leaving  I am not involved in your life  Okay bye byeee  I am just imagining james dad melting in pain forever :) like a demon  Mhm melting in love  like a demon who got tricked into hell and has people who want to get even i'd say 'good luck' but i won't even say it ironically For him all I have to say to him is that I'm thinking about his dead dad more often than he is awake :)  Mhmm  it's good being me because I know you can't fuck me over and get away with it :) i'm glad I'm me and not the person I am mad at for getting my friend killed  my new goal is to fuck his daughter preferable in front of him deeeeeep i can wait  Ew you are the devil  i can wait you think that's bad? lol he killed my friend you can't even imagine I've had years to think of new things every day  im gonna tell her that her dad killed my friend right before she climaxes then call him and tell him about it  Oooh sounds like you’ve got it all figured out Guy I saw yesterday made me climax 3 times  i wish I could say how I really felt  Orgasm Mhmm  you sound like a bit of a slut i don't even know his name yet that's how I know  Lmaoo Okay  you could have been like, I met this guy named x and got to it in a few sentences but no straight to the vag  Mhmm  They killed my friend  It was the guy I saw in my head  i don't know that anyone would expect because I wouldn't do that But they did  I met him a year ago  and I know how I feel about it  On a cruise  I really don't care one bit  I hope we go on another soon Okay  the people who got my friend killed are the ones who I care about that's it  Oooh Okie  The other person I cared about is dead from their actions I expect it to be made right.  Ahh Good for u  not good, just real and real for them too but they want to make it worse instead of better so be it I oblige  Imma have another orgasm  I am more than accepting of the outcome  In my mouth tho Dosa  slut  Mhmm I love my Indian food Prob will have some American honey tn too  still don't care go to your stupid indian grill and have your stupid indian food with your murderer boyfriend live the life you chose it's disgusting I judge it with disgust.  i'm blocking you again the moment the option is available  james dad is still there melting  Oh ew I don’t like Indian geill So I accidentally fell asleep before eating the dosa Just woke up and ate What did I miss Babe :(  what do you think is goin to happen to the people who killed my friend? if she doesn't love me, he was my number 1  Your friend will be revived  what would you do if someone killed your number 1 person?  New version  answer my question please whether it's your wife...  I would get justice  whoever is your closest person what would you do?  Justice not revenge  justice is more than revenge in this case justice would be giving him the same circumstance he gave me that would mean taking hope and dreams and friends and love and putting them away forever and him having to start over  Wdym  justice would be to give him the same circumstance as he gave me He would have to lose his friends, his lover, and more all in a day  Why  justice is way bigger than revenge for what he did justice would require me to take everything from him and send him to live with his mom knowning the world is created to fuck with him that would be justice  Chill out  but his whole life around him would have to literally die  And get yo ass here  like mine did  Yours doesn’t have to  for justice to be achieved revenge is more petty smaller just him  Me  justice is balance  You want me Fine kill me  i want it to be real have been real  Me too  not have had years after where I'm getting toyed with with a dead friend and a mystery  I want real  but I dont' get to choose  I want a hug  I have to deal with what is presented  Why Wdym  I was told single she was married my friend died while I was being distracted my friend who I knew I had to keep alive  Ahh Yes  they got in the way of that justice would be for me to take his woman, and all his friends, and he would be alone in the world  I’m excited to marry my person  and if he really understands that his dad is dead because of him on top of that but he won't  What?? Your dad passed away????  only I have to live with knowing my friend is dead because I fell for their trap he doesn't have to he is the villain the perpetrator  Ooh yes we don’t like him  so I have to live in the shit consequences he built for me While she is with him.  I was not a fan of him when we had dinner at your house  and I will have to get my own ending  We will be brand new  now that we have defined the terms I will have to stop using them I will find my own 'ending'  With me  if you are her if not then no  Enagaged Married  i mean yes but no :) I have no options  Married later on  either that or he needs justice yep  We can wait 2-3 years for the wedding if you want  sad life  I would say yes Even rn  I've asked  Aww  but i will have to do it gods way since they think it's fun to ridicule me i will have to use the hammer of god and teach them a lesson so be it I love picturing his face i do it hours a day morning mid day before bed  What is she doing now  all the contortions  Me too  the pain i had in his eyes It's all I do.  Ily Gb  stop contacting me  K I guess imma go back to bed bye  i'll be here till i'm ready  Where  if she wants to contact me facebook is where  I don’t even have my person as friend in fb  the moment I'm allowed to block you again I will  Why  i don't know you nothing personal  Okay I’ll make i.t easy for you I’ll just delete this account  i'm not playing games if the illumanati asks me to be the next face, like the next hitler, i say YES PLEASE. till then i'm not lifting a finger knock at my cabin see if I save the world fuck no  You’re in the mountains again Ttyl Don’t lose service  not if the ban hits first i don't know you so don't take it hard I'm just a random person who doesn't wish to confuse you waiting for the block to show back up  K   unless you're james I wish you the best 
I think I am But ok  Then I wish you the worst  Oh K  hopefully god gets even for me and captures it on video
submitted by NathanIsIf to u/NathanIsIf [link] [comments]
I think I am But ok  Then I wish you the worst  Oh K  hopefully god gets even for me and captures it on video
2023.03.27 00:07 No_Yogurtcloset6398 I am stuck in the middle of a terrible situation. Advice?
This is a long story, but I’ll simplify it.
My kid is 13. His name is Mike for the sake of this story. He has PTSD, ADHD, and varied learning disabilities.
He isn’t doing great in math. I emailed the teacher about some missing work he “had no clue about.” No answer.
Emailed again but with a bit more urgency, because Mike came home with handwritten test answers (no questions) given to him by his special education teacher. I also ask about bullying.
Teacher gets defensive and tells me my child has “made sexually inappropriate comments to both girls and boys on multiple occasions” and that’s why he’s being bullied.
She also tells me she was reading the test to the kids the day before so she could “fulfill the IEP requirements of some of her kids” and “Mike was acting really concerned and weird about having the answers but I just ignored him.”
She also states she lets him sit wherever he wants and he sits in the back corner and puts his head down. (IEP requires preferential seating.)
Okay, so all these issues and no phone call? The fuck?
So I schedule a phone meeting with the principal - who tells me my child has had SIX reports made against him of sexual harassment. Two of them were confirmed by teachers.
WHY WASNT I CALLED? “I have no answer.” She says.
We schedule a follow up meeting for April 3, in person.
I want my child held accountable for his behavior by the school. THE SCHOOL FAILED SIX CHILDREN. Who should I call?
Six reports and not a single call home????
I also want to hold the school accountable for refusing to follow his IEP, and for not following up on repeated reports of sexual harassment among students.
I also know another teacher reported my child was being bullied (she saw it) to this teacher - who said “no that’s not true” and refused to investigate.
I also want the bullying against my kid to stop.
I don’t know how to hold everyone accountable at the same time, also my poor kid is a creep and I don’t know how to handle that either. He’s got PTSD, and there are reasons for that. Which doesn’t excuse his behavior but also… Jesus.
Anyways help?
submitted by No_Yogurtcloset6398 to Parenting [link] [comments]
My kid is 13. His name is Mike for the sake of this story. He has PTSD, ADHD, and varied learning disabilities.
He isn’t doing great in math. I emailed the teacher about some missing work he “had no clue about.” No answer.
Emailed again but with a bit more urgency, because Mike came home with handwritten test answers (no questions) given to him by his special education teacher. I also ask about bullying.
Teacher gets defensive and tells me my child has “made sexually inappropriate comments to both girls and boys on multiple occasions” and that’s why he’s being bullied.
She also tells me she was reading the test to the kids the day before so she could “fulfill the IEP requirements of some of her kids” and “Mike was acting really concerned and weird about having the answers but I just ignored him.”
She also states she lets him sit wherever he wants and he sits in the back corner and puts his head down. (IEP requires preferential seating.)
Okay, so all these issues and no phone call? The fuck?
So I schedule a phone meeting with the principal - who tells me my child has had SIX reports made against him of sexual harassment. Two of them were confirmed by teachers.
WHY WASNT I CALLED? “I have no answer.” She says.
We schedule a follow up meeting for April 3, in person.
I want my child held accountable for his behavior by the school. THE SCHOOL FAILED SIX CHILDREN. Who should I call?
Six reports and not a single call home????
I also want to hold the school accountable for refusing to follow his IEP, and for not following up on repeated reports of sexual harassment among students.
I also know another teacher reported my child was being bullied (she saw it) to this teacher - who said “no that’s not true” and refused to investigate.
I also want the bullying against my kid to stop.
I don’t know how to hold everyone accountable at the same time, also my poor kid is a creep and I don’t know how to handle that either. He’s got PTSD, and there are reasons for that. Which doesn’t excuse his behavior but also… Jesus.
Anyways help?
2023.03.27 00:06 Saxes-n-Sammies Blood Sugar Drop 1 Week Post-Op - Help!
My surgery was 03/20, so I’m basically one week post-op. I had no comorbidities pre-op, wasn’t even pre-diabetic, but I have had low blood sugar spells occasionally when I was a kid and in college if I went more than like 7-8 hours without food and was doing physical activity. I am still on clears since my surgeon’s diet plan is 2 weeks clears, 2 weeks fulls, 2 weeks soft/purée combined, then begin regular food at the 6 week mark. I am mostly drinking water, Gatorade zero w/protein, isopure clears, reduced sodium chicken broth, and usually eating 6-8oz a day of sugar free Jello.
This morning I woke up feeling really off and as the morning progressed I felt more and more worse. I decided it had to be either dehydration, low blood sugar, or infection somewhere in my body kicking my butt, but my temperature was normal (so unlikely infection), and my veins were nice and visible and springy (they hide when I’m dehydrated) and I’ve been drinking fluids really well all week, so I settled on it having to be low blood sugar. I had some caramel syrup in the fridge, so since it would mostly dissolve in my mouth quickly, I had two fingertips worth of that and then some applesauce, figuring it’s not on my plan YET but at least it’s on my plan, it’s pretty smooth, and was a healthier way to get some natural sugars in me. My stomach tolerated both really well, and I started feeling a little better but still awful. After about an hour, I figured I felt as good as I was going to get, so I went to the store and got a blood sugar monitor. I had only gotten my blood sugar up to 72. I have no clue how low it got but I don’t want it to drop again. I’ve been sipping on some orange juice and trying to rest and take care of myself.
I googled and surprisingly didn’t really find anything about blood sugar bottoming out shortly post op - all I found was about chronic hypoglycemia in bypass patients a year+ out. Did any of you guys deal with this and was it a big deal? I think this is because I’m still on clears, so I’m not getting the low amount of carbs and natural sugars in protein shakes and Greek yogurt that I would be getting on full liquid. I don’t want to call my surgeons office on a Sunday unless it’s an emergency, and I have my follow-up on Tuesday morning, so it is soon. Any advice?
submitted by Saxes-n-Sammies to gastricsleeve [link] [comments]
This morning I woke up feeling really off and as the morning progressed I felt more and more worse. I decided it had to be either dehydration, low blood sugar, or infection somewhere in my body kicking my butt, but my temperature was normal (so unlikely infection), and my veins were nice and visible and springy (they hide when I’m dehydrated) and I’ve been drinking fluids really well all week, so I settled on it having to be low blood sugar. I had some caramel syrup in the fridge, so since it would mostly dissolve in my mouth quickly, I had two fingertips worth of that and then some applesauce, figuring it’s not on my plan YET but at least it’s on my plan, it’s pretty smooth, and was a healthier way to get some natural sugars in me. My stomach tolerated both really well, and I started feeling a little better but still awful. After about an hour, I figured I felt as good as I was going to get, so I went to the store and got a blood sugar monitor. I had only gotten my blood sugar up to 72. I have no clue how low it got but I don’t want it to drop again. I’ve been sipping on some orange juice and trying to rest and take care of myself.
I googled and surprisingly didn’t really find anything about blood sugar bottoming out shortly post op - all I found was about chronic hypoglycemia in bypass patients a year+ out. Did any of you guys deal with this and was it a big deal? I think this is because I’m still on clears, so I’m not getting the low amount of carbs and natural sugars in protein shakes and Greek yogurt that I would be getting on full liquid. I don’t want to call my surgeons office on a Sunday unless it’s an emergency, and I have my follow-up on Tuesday morning, so it is soon. Any advice?
2023.03.26 23:59 roarklaughed letter crime, punishment, and "no cell no sell"
TLDR : The punishment for gross financial terrorism should be a lifetime of living as a minimum wage worker, in a minimum wage position, with an enforced non-possibility of financial growth or change of social status.
-
To the individuals with whom I share a common longing1,
The intention of this letter is to elaborate on what could be meant by the "no cell" in 'no cell no sell', and aims to open dialogue concerning what would constitute an appropriate punishment for the cancerous economic elites currently at the helm of the exploitive financial apparatus within which we currently struggle. There is a general social presupposition that a punishment should suit the crime for that which it is meant to reprimand. The scope, breadth, and unabashed flaunting of financial terrorism2 that torments the honest efforts of today’s everyperson, does not in my mind directly correlate with time (no matter how long, if even at all) gross financial criminals might spend in a comfortable white-collar federal prison camp3.
The pithy adage "no cell no sell"; so common a post title or thread reply to situations inducing feelings of defiance, a longing for justice, cravings towards equality of treatment for all; has provided me much sustenance for thought since its entry into ubiquitous usage. When it comes to the phrase I agree in holding what little but righteous leverage I have (no sell) until punitive action is appropriately taken (no cell), but I do not think a chic executive hotel-jail house is an apt punishment for those who are really responsible for the rampant financial terrorism plaguing today's individuals, communities, countries and continents.
If I were asked to clarify the ultimatum ‘no cell no sell’, I might elaborate upon it as such: I refuse to sell my directly registered shares, in the event they become absolutely necessary for net short positions to close, until an appropriate degree of justice and accountability has been meted to those whom actively and knowingly seek to reduce the standard of living of society as a whole, by way of an opaque, extractive and knowingly deceptive apparatus of a corrupted financial system, for personal gains.
It is important to note that there are several degrees of separation between financial terrorism as a root cause and the violence of poverty that results. I am not advocating for the pleasant but lazy fantasies of direct violence against those reviled mass-exploiters and looters that ‘no cell no sell’ers are hastening to punish (e.g. by way of the french head-slice machine that cannot evidently be mentioned by name lest the auto-moderator get all censory). Employing nefarious tactics as a large financial institution invested net-short against a publicly held company (e.g. cellar boxing4, synthetic shorting5, executive infiltration6, etc), doesn’t directly remove money from shareholders’ accounts per se, it does so intentionally via several layers of clever, systematic, and obfuscated manipulation. This necessarily indirect but impactful relationship is important.
When it comes to theft, if caught in the act as the plebian I am, I would likely be rightfully held accountable for the suffering caused by my stealing $1,000 (or its equivalent) from some individual likely by way of incarceration. As far as I am aware, theft is considered a crime in most places. If a nations-state’s judicial structure were to uniformly apply the principle of theft being a crime to all individuals irrespective of their social/financial/political position, it stands to reason that the suffering caused by a theft of $10,000,000,000 from millions of people should be encapsulated with a more appropriate and scaled punitive effort: something that more closely resembles the value of what is being stolen and perchance aims to replenish it in some way.
Amongst the things being stolen are the potency of people's ability to improve their standard of living, and the corresponding continued degradation of the base poverty line8. What only the ‘lower’ spectrums of society are being deprived of is the hope and likelihood of escaping low-income cycles, perpetual hunger episodes and debilitating physical and mental exhaustion. This ’tax by corruption’ actively works against the possibility of having savings, asset ownership, and the ability to support oneself and others9. The cadaverous effects of economic terrorism at the scale of what is being perpetrated on the world at large today is difficult to quantify by some objective metric; and its omnipresent scratching and moral immensity cannot easily be summarized by some wink-nudge utterance of ”You are hereby sentenced to lifetime in a de facto middle class suburb full of other former divinely mandated managerial types, which has a peculiar sub-culture concerning enthusiastic historical attempts to exploit others, some moderate surveillance obligations and some slight barriers to exit“.
Towards defining a simple metric of equivalence, if we establish that being the agent that lessened the means and thus methods used in the pursuit of happiness by another individual is one piece of crime (e.g. theft of $1000 from one person), then doing so to 10,000 individuals is 10,000 times as bad, and this should be accurately reflected in the punishment. Persons in positions where their decisions directly affect the lives and wellbeing of entire populations should be held accountable for their transgressions – in the absolute very least, by making it easier to remove them from their privileged positions and by destroying the bought and paid for apparatus that prevents their being fairly judged. I believe large financial actors should be given real incentives to not terrorize financial systems, and individuals in consequential leadership positions should be held accountable for their decisions.
I propose this: the punishment for gross financial terrorism should be a lifetime of living as a minimum wage worker, in a minimum wage position, with an enforced non-possibility of financial growth or change of social status. If for the moment we refer to these neo-financial convicts as NFC’s then they, as punishment, shall have their standard of living be defined by their wage, and the wage shall always be the lowest permissible by law. The only means by which they can raise their own standard of living is by raising the standards of all within their legally defined community (likely their state/province in most instances) by way of participation in social activism/community service. Obliging the NFC to shift from being an extractive and exploitive element of society, to a contributory participant is the aim, directly correlating the crime to the punishment.
-
To develop upon this premise, lets envision the hypothetical character K, newly deposed from their administrative position on the proverbial economic Mount Olympus, to the freshly minted title of NFC (recall: neo-financial convict) by way of a uniquely conceived tribunal specific to the cause of addressing gross financial terrorism honestly and transparently: the Court of Primacy or CoP – primacy here referencing the fundamental notion of equal treatment for all individuals.
K was convicted of gross financial terrorism, with an acknowledged net theft of $3.457 billion USD in value by way of fraud, deception, negligence and willful intent to cause social harm in exchange for personal economic gains. The extent and detailed account of K’s notional exploitive corruption tax metric is contained in a 189 page publicly available document, which can be acquired in its nft form from the CoP archive.
K was your average elite, the progeny of an industry-giant partner in the general arena of tax law, and a pharmaceutical fortune inheritor cum commercial real-estate financier. He was of above average height, had light brown hair and brown eyes that might be described as penetrating were it not for their seeming inability to fixate on a single target. Growing up K was described as being ‘coachable’, eager to please, competitive and capable when engaged in challenging activities. He was indoctrinated since birth to the divine cult of wealth, and maintained his membership to the self-established ruling elite as one might a religion: with a dogmatic loyalty and a fierce defensive posture against any who questioned it.
Having spent his life prior to his sentencing in what might be considered lavish, opulent and wantless conditions, K struggled to find new lodgings as an NFC for a complexity of reasons. K had never really had to think about living expenses as a finite concept, but at the time of his sentencing minimum wage was $14.20 / hour, or $568.00 / 40 hour work week, or $29,536/ year, so he had to develop a financial strategy.
The CoP informational brochure had said to consider the 50 / 30 / 20 budget, which put housing in the 50% of gross annual income bracket amidst other needs (groceries, utilities, health insurance etc.). K quickly determined the amount of income he could spend on rent was wholly inadequate to his tastes, which made finding a place to live relatively taxing (it is worthy to note K did the math writing with a pen commandeered from the community bank where he opened his 0.30% interest rate savings and 14% credit card accounts as dictated by CoP Stipulations, which he calculated in the margins of a 2 for 1 pizza coupon flyer).
K eventually was forced to settle on a windowless basement room sub-let (his fellow flat-mates were college students), which he found to be atmospherically deplorable, but had the benefit of only being two brief train rides away from his newly acquired position as a “sales associate” at a clothing store that specialized in selling affordable men’s suits – it is worthy to note that [CoP Stipulation - S2.D2.12b] dictates work positions held must be approved advertised minimum wage positions.
K had worked the numbers, and purchasing a car was out of the question. He was torn because on one hand his hatred of even the idea of public transit was contrasted sharply with an innate desire to never know what waiting in line at the DMV was like. [CoP Stipulation S12.D39.6.7] was controversial and considered nefarious because it mandated specific hours NPCs could attend to DMV obligations, medical insurance calls, and banking appointments etc. to two criteria: it must occur during the most busy 2 hours of the day for the institution, and it must conflict with the NPC’s work schedule (I.e. they would have to take time off work).
CoP Stipulation Enforcement is funded by the reclaimed wealth from NFC asset liquidation, and performed by individuals with a vested interest in assisting NPCs in living their best paycheck to paycheck lives, as accurate as possible to the status quo tribulations of our lowest income workers. Initially there were vast multitudes vying for the position of Stipulation Enforcer (it was well paid and rewarded creative displays of wealth extraction from the NPC to ensure their savings account stayed within a permissible value) so talent and professionalism reigned for the few individuals that passed the rigorous screening process. Being a Stipulation Enforcer Team Member did include the almost militaristic defense and maintained safety of the NFC during their journey in the general field of regenerative social finance, which proved to be a bottleneck for applications for the position.
The more normative examples of harmonizing NFC savings include: an unforeseen rent increase, company profitability re-structuring resulting in layoffs of non-vital staff, a fine for jaywalking, or the barber raising their rate to meet inflation. These methods are actively documented and made available in a short series whose subscription yielded weekly accounts of these exploits again distributed as NFTs by the CoP archives. The current number one highlight per the subreddit NFCadventures is a Stipulation Enforcer’s NFT video account of causing K’s laptop to ‘glitch’ several times during the mandatory self-filing of taxes via Turbotax [CoP Stipulation S12 D25.3.1], resulting in a triple payment for the service – this was to equalize a surplus of funds from the NFCs work due to some mandatory overtime.
While adept with numbers and planning, K despaired over his diet. As K can not receive wherewithal or services from outside parties, he was obliged to shop at Walmart for most essentials to meet his budget. Having never really learned to cook or meal prepare, K went through some really hard phases determining how to maintain a healthy diet on a ‘shoestring’ budget – while he was somewhat perplexed at the ease and affordability of making avocado toast, his health declined noticeably when he got into the habit of relying solely on ‘instant’ meals, including one-cup ramen and frozen pizzas.
K’s family had always celebrated Christmas together. Due to [CoP Stipulation - S4.D18.6] concerning interactions with family members, K can only receive single gifts from direct relations twice per year and not in excess of $100, and all holidays and events must be paid for by the NFC out of pocket and can only be held at the NFC’s place of residence. K’s two teenage children, after being dropped off by his now ex-wife, tried to tolerate their fathers genuine attempts to express interest in their lives but could not hold back their disappointment that the gifts they requested were too expensive to get that year and became morose when he failed in his efforts to excite them with his attempt at baking a boxed cake mix for desert.
Between CoP Stip Enforcer monitoring, and general public recognition there existed a sort of a social panopticon; a public shaming practice so refined and perfected that it took K several years to learn to navigate it. K would sometimes see some other former posterchildren for failures to deliver in public settings pumping gas, flipping burgers, wiping tables, perusing the metal racks at the thrift store and eating combo deal fast food on their lunch breaks in mall food court. Oftentimes, recognizing an NFC’s face a passerby might mouth "to the moon”, “this is the way”, or “how did you sleep last night?” as they walk by (Note: asking how someone slept the night prior was an allusion to making NFC’s ‘sleep in the bed they made’ which was a mantra popularized in the formulative period of the CoP).
K often recounted, when anyone would listen, the story from his fourth year as an NFC when he was in the crowded waiting room at his local community medical clinic. Having already been waiting for an hour and a half for his appointment to check some swelling and pain in his general thyroid area, he was so engrossed in the crossword puzzle he had found in the local newspaper, he didn’t notice a man approaching him with a knife until he was almost upon him. K only had time to look up with apathy from his almost finished puzzle as the assailant uttered ‘for Maria’ and lunged towards him. Luckily for K, his Stipulation Enforcer on shift at the time saw the man coming and was able subdue the take the knife away before any harm was committed. When questioned by the police following the incident it was determined that the man had randomly recognized K as one of the individuals responsible for helping destroy a pioneering research company that was in the process of developing treatment for a rare terminal illness the man’s daughter suffered from.
Thirteen years into his service K was convinced by a food bank manager he had developed a peculiar friendship with to contribute towards a local activist network’s efforts to raise minimum wage in his state. He volunteered and spent his weekends working towards the cause. After several years, the state raised the minimum wage slightly, which K truly believed was finally a step in the right direction. He learnt of this victory watching the news on the television at his favorite chinese fast food buffet. Two msg scented tears trickled down the sides of K’s nose. But it was alright, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved all of humanity.
-
In conclusion, the irony of living as a common, minimum wage earner in today's rentewageslave situation being easily considered punitive is not lost on me, and is the part of the reason why I think this re-evaluation of the idea that the punishment need fit the crime is worthy of contemplation. By mandating the only means by which these criminal-few can raise their paltry living standards by raising the others around them in concert – a contributory existence or net social potential positive – seems to be a slightly more succinct due punishment for NFCs doing just the opposite as their crime (a net social neutral at best). I open the floor to discussion.
-
Notes:
submitted by roarklaughed to Superstonk [link] [comments]
-
To the individuals with whom I share a common longing1,
The intention of this letter is to elaborate on what could be meant by the "no cell" in 'no cell no sell', and aims to open dialogue concerning what would constitute an appropriate punishment for the cancerous economic elites currently at the helm of the exploitive financial apparatus within which we currently struggle. There is a general social presupposition that a punishment should suit the crime for that which it is meant to reprimand. The scope, breadth, and unabashed flaunting of financial terrorism2 that torments the honest efforts of today’s everyperson, does not in my mind directly correlate with time (no matter how long, if even at all) gross financial criminals might spend in a comfortable white-collar federal prison camp3.
The pithy adage "no cell no sell"; so common a post title or thread reply to situations inducing feelings of defiance, a longing for justice, cravings towards equality of treatment for all; has provided me much sustenance for thought since its entry into ubiquitous usage. When it comes to the phrase I agree in holding what little but righteous leverage I have (no sell) until punitive action is appropriately taken (no cell), but I do not think a chic executive hotel-jail house is an apt punishment for those who are really responsible for the rampant financial terrorism plaguing today's individuals, communities, countries and continents.
If I were asked to clarify the ultimatum ‘no cell no sell’, I might elaborate upon it as such: I refuse to sell my directly registered shares, in the event they become absolutely necessary for net short positions to close, until an appropriate degree of justice and accountability has been meted to those whom actively and knowingly seek to reduce the standard of living of society as a whole, by way of an opaque, extractive and knowingly deceptive apparatus of a corrupted financial system, for personal gains.
It is important to note that there are several degrees of separation between financial terrorism as a root cause and the violence of poverty that results. I am not advocating for the pleasant but lazy fantasies of direct violence against those reviled mass-exploiters and looters that ‘no cell no sell’ers are hastening to punish (e.g. by way of the french head-slice machine that cannot evidently be mentioned by name lest the auto-moderator get all censory). Employing nefarious tactics as a large financial institution invested net-short against a publicly held company (e.g. cellar boxing4, synthetic shorting5, executive infiltration6, etc), doesn’t directly remove money from shareholders’ accounts per se, it does so intentionally via several layers of clever, systematic, and obfuscated manipulation. This necessarily indirect but impactful relationship is important.
When it comes to theft, if caught in the act as the plebian I am, I would likely be rightfully held accountable for the suffering caused by my stealing $1,000 (or its equivalent) from some individual likely by way of incarceration. As far as I am aware, theft is considered a crime in most places. If a nations-state’s judicial structure were to uniformly apply the principle of theft being a crime to all individuals irrespective of their social/financial/political position, it stands to reason that the suffering caused by a theft of $10,000,000,000 from millions of people should be encapsulated with a more appropriate and scaled punitive effort: something that more closely resembles the value of what is being stolen and perchance aims to replenish it in some way.
Amongst the things being stolen are the potency of people's ability to improve their standard of living, and the corresponding continued degradation of the base poverty line8. What only the ‘lower’ spectrums of society are being deprived of is the hope and likelihood of escaping low-income cycles, perpetual hunger episodes and debilitating physical and mental exhaustion. This ’tax by corruption’ actively works against the possibility of having savings, asset ownership, and the ability to support oneself and others9. The cadaverous effects of economic terrorism at the scale of what is being perpetrated on the world at large today is difficult to quantify by some objective metric; and its omnipresent scratching and moral immensity cannot easily be summarized by some wink-nudge utterance of ”You are hereby sentenced to lifetime in a de facto middle class suburb full of other former divinely mandated managerial types, which has a peculiar sub-culture concerning enthusiastic historical attempts to exploit others, some moderate surveillance obligations and some slight barriers to exit“.
Towards defining a simple metric of equivalence, if we establish that being the agent that lessened the means and thus methods used in the pursuit of happiness by another individual is one piece of crime (e.g. theft of $1000 from one person), then doing so to 10,000 individuals is 10,000 times as bad, and this should be accurately reflected in the punishment. Persons in positions where their decisions directly affect the lives and wellbeing of entire populations should be held accountable for their transgressions – in the absolute very least, by making it easier to remove them from their privileged positions and by destroying the bought and paid for apparatus that prevents their being fairly judged. I believe large financial actors should be given real incentives to not terrorize financial systems, and individuals in consequential leadership positions should be held accountable for their decisions.
I propose this: the punishment for gross financial terrorism should be a lifetime of living as a minimum wage worker, in a minimum wage position, with an enforced non-possibility of financial growth or change of social status. If for the moment we refer to these neo-financial convicts as NFC’s then they, as punishment, shall have their standard of living be defined by their wage, and the wage shall always be the lowest permissible by law. The only means by which they can raise their own standard of living is by raising the standards of all within their legally defined community (likely their state/province in most instances) by way of participation in social activism/community service. Obliging the NFC to shift from being an extractive and exploitive element of society, to a contributory participant is the aim, directly correlating the crime to the punishment.
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To develop upon this premise, lets envision the hypothetical character K, newly deposed from their administrative position on the proverbial economic Mount Olympus, to the freshly minted title of NFC (recall: neo-financial convict) by way of a uniquely conceived tribunal specific to the cause of addressing gross financial terrorism honestly and transparently: the Court of Primacy or CoP – primacy here referencing the fundamental notion of equal treatment for all individuals.
K was convicted of gross financial terrorism, with an acknowledged net theft of $3.457 billion USD in value by way of fraud, deception, negligence and willful intent to cause social harm in exchange for personal economic gains. The extent and detailed account of K’s notional exploitive corruption tax metric is contained in a 189 page publicly available document, which can be acquired in its nft form from the CoP archive.
K was your average elite, the progeny of an industry-giant partner in the general arena of tax law, and a pharmaceutical fortune inheritor cum commercial real-estate financier. He was of above average height, had light brown hair and brown eyes that might be described as penetrating were it not for their seeming inability to fixate on a single target. Growing up K was described as being ‘coachable’, eager to please, competitive and capable when engaged in challenging activities. He was indoctrinated since birth to the divine cult of wealth, and maintained his membership to the self-established ruling elite as one might a religion: with a dogmatic loyalty and a fierce defensive posture against any who questioned it.
Having spent his life prior to his sentencing in what might be considered lavish, opulent and wantless conditions, K struggled to find new lodgings as an NFC for a complexity of reasons. K had never really had to think about living expenses as a finite concept, but at the time of his sentencing minimum wage was $14.20 / hour, or $568.00 / 40 hour work week, or $29,536/ year, so he had to develop a financial strategy.
The CoP informational brochure had said to consider the 50 / 30 / 20 budget, which put housing in the 50% of gross annual income bracket amidst other needs (groceries, utilities, health insurance etc.). K quickly determined the amount of income he could spend on rent was wholly inadequate to his tastes, which made finding a place to live relatively taxing (it is worthy to note K did the math writing with a pen commandeered from the community bank where he opened his 0.30% interest rate savings and 14% credit card accounts as dictated by CoP Stipulations, which he calculated in the margins of a 2 for 1 pizza coupon flyer).
K eventually was forced to settle on a windowless basement room sub-let (his fellow flat-mates were college students), which he found to be atmospherically deplorable, but had the benefit of only being two brief train rides away from his newly acquired position as a “sales associate” at a clothing store that specialized in selling affordable men’s suits – it is worthy to note that [CoP Stipulation - S2.D2.12b] dictates work positions held must be approved advertised minimum wage positions.
K had worked the numbers, and purchasing a car was out of the question. He was torn because on one hand his hatred of even the idea of public transit was contrasted sharply with an innate desire to never know what waiting in line at the DMV was like. [CoP Stipulation S12.D39.6.7] was controversial and considered nefarious because it mandated specific hours NPCs could attend to DMV obligations, medical insurance calls, and banking appointments etc. to two criteria: it must occur during the most busy 2 hours of the day for the institution, and it must conflict with the NPC’s work schedule (I.e. they would have to take time off work).
CoP Stipulation Enforcement is funded by the reclaimed wealth from NFC asset liquidation, and performed by individuals with a vested interest in assisting NPCs in living their best paycheck to paycheck lives, as accurate as possible to the status quo tribulations of our lowest income workers. Initially there were vast multitudes vying for the position of Stipulation Enforcer (it was well paid and rewarded creative displays of wealth extraction from the NPC to ensure their savings account stayed within a permissible value) so talent and professionalism reigned for the few individuals that passed the rigorous screening process. Being a Stipulation Enforcer Team Member did include the almost militaristic defense and maintained safety of the NFC during their journey in the general field of regenerative social finance, which proved to be a bottleneck for applications for the position.
The more normative examples of harmonizing NFC savings include: an unforeseen rent increase, company profitability re-structuring resulting in layoffs of non-vital staff, a fine for jaywalking, or the barber raising their rate to meet inflation. These methods are actively documented and made available in a short series whose subscription yielded weekly accounts of these exploits again distributed as NFTs by the CoP archives. The current number one highlight per the subreddit NFCadventures is a Stipulation Enforcer’s NFT video account of causing K’s laptop to ‘glitch’ several times during the mandatory self-filing of taxes via Turbotax [CoP Stipulation S12 D25.3.1], resulting in a triple payment for the service – this was to equalize a surplus of funds from the NFCs work due to some mandatory overtime.
While adept with numbers and planning, K despaired over his diet. As K can not receive wherewithal or services from outside parties, he was obliged to shop at Walmart for most essentials to meet his budget. Having never really learned to cook or meal prepare, K went through some really hard phases determining how to maintain a healthy diet on a ‘shoestring’ budget – while he was somewhat perplexed at the ease and affordability of making avocado toast, his health declined noticeably when he got into the habit of relying solely on ‘instant’ meals, including one-cup ramen and frozen pizzas.
K’s family had always celebrated Christmas together. Due to [CoP Stipulation - S4.D18.6] concerning interactions with family members, K can only receive single gifts from direct relations twice per year and not in excess of $100, and all holidays and events must be paid for by the NFC out of pocket and can only be held at the NFC’s place of residence. K’s two teenage children, after being dropped off by his now ex-wife, tried to tolerate their fathers genuine attempts to express interest in their lives but could not hold back their disappointment that the gifts they requested were too expensive to get that year and became morose when he failed in his efforts to excite them with his attempt at baking a boxed cake mix for desert.
Between CoP Stip Enforcer monitoring, and general public recognition there existed a sort of a social panopticon; a public shaming practice so refined and perfected that it took K several years to learn to navigate it. K would sometimes see some other former posterchildren for failures to deliver in public settings pumping gas, flipping burgers, wiping tables, perusing the metal racks at the thrift store and eating combo deal fast food on their lunch breaks in mall food court. Oftentimes, recognizing an NFC’s face a passerby might mouth "to the moon”, “this is the way”, or “how did you sleep last night?” as they walk by (Note: asking how someone slept the night prior was an allusion to making NFC’s ‘sleep in the bed they made’ which was a mantra popularized in the formulative period of the CoP).
K often recounted, when anyone would listen, the story from his fourth year as an NFC when he was in the crowded waiting room at his local community medical clinic. Having already been waiting for an hour and a half for his appointment to check some swelling and pain in his general thyroid area, he was so engrossed in the crossword puzzle he had found in the local newspaper, he didn’t notice a man approaching him with a knife until he was almost upon him. K only had time to look up with apathy from his almost finished puzzle as the assailant uttered ‘for Maria’ and lunged towards him. Luckily for K, his Stipulation Enforcer on shift at the time saw the man coming and was able subdue the take the knife away before any harm was committed. When questioned by the police following the incident it was determined that the man had randomly recognized K as one of the individuals responsible for helping destroy a pioneering research company that was in the process of developing treatment for a rare terminal illness the man’s daughter suffered from.
Thirteen years into his service K was convinced by a food bank manager he had developed a peculiar friendship with to contribute towards a local activist network’s efforts to raise minimum wage in his state. He volunteered and spent his weekends working towards the cause. After several years, the state raised the minimum wage slightly, which K truly believed was finally a step in the right direction. He learnt of this victory watching the news on the television at his favorite chinese fast food buffet. Two msg scented tears trickled down the sides of K’s nose. But it was alright, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved all of humanity.
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In conclusion, the irony of living as a common, minimum wage earner in today's rentewageslave situation being easily considered punitive is not lost on me, and is the part of the reason why I think this re-evaluation of the idea that the punishment need fit the crime is worthy of contemplation. By mandating the only means by which these criminal-few can raise their paltry living standards by raising the others around them in concert – a contributory existence or net social potential positive – seems to be a slightly more succinct due punishment for NFCs doing just the opposite as their crime (a net social neutral at best). I open the floor to discussion.
-
Notes:
- A longing for the application of the same rules for thee (in this instance including financial/political/social elites) that are applied to me (what may loosely be refered to as the proletariat in as far as this letter is concerned); or equal treatment under law for all individuals.
- Financial or economic terrorism loosely defined as a varied, coordinated, sophisticated, massive destabilizing actions in order to disrupt the economic and financial stability of society as a whole, for monetary and powehierarchical motives.
- Cursory search of example where white collar criminals are sent: https://alanellis.com/expert-names-top-five-prisons-for-white-collar-criminals/.
- Insert appropriate DD link
- Insert appropriate DD link
- Insert appropriate DD link
- Insert additional relevant DD links
- Cite wealth disparity research, historical average earnings contra cost of living comparisons, homeless growth model research, etc.
- Cite the studied effects of poverty
2023.03.26 23:49 afterandalasia In 430 BCE, an epidemic swept through the besieged Athens that killed up to a quarter of the population. What caused the first well-documented epidemic, the Plague of Athens? Medical Mystery
This week, we're headed back in time to the earliest well-documented epidemic disease: the Plague of Athens. While the city was besieged by Spartans and packed with refugees from the surrounding countryside, an illness swept through the city and killed between 75,000 and 100,000 people. By the time it was over, the epidemic had decimated the Athenian army and navy, killed the influential ruler Pericles, and left social and legal repercussions that would last for generations. It was only in 1994-5 that an excavation uncovered the first mass grave dating to this period, giving archaeological backing to the historical record, but almost since the Plague of Athens occurred there has been speculation as to the cause.
At the time we'll be discussing, Athens was a polis or city state: a sovereign (ruled) city with political, economic, and cultural influence/control over the area surrounding it. (Singapore and Monaco could be considered modern examples.) The city in this time is often called Classical Athens in history, to make it clear which stage of the city is being discussed; at the time, it would have been called Attica. I'll be using Athens, along with BCE notation, for this write-up.
The area that would become known as Athens has been inhabited continuously since at least 3000 BCE, and seems to have risen to prominence around 900 BCE (during the Iron Age of the region) to judge by how grave goods become richer during this time. Passing from kings to land-owning aristocracy, Athens drew the surrounding countryside under its control, but this created waves of social unrest that first led to the harsh laws of Draco (7th century BCE, and where we get "draconian") followed by the reforms of Solon (594 BCE) and a constitution which would lead to the later Athens.
In 508 BCE, Cleisthenes established Athenian democracy (where all male citizens over 20 could vote), and in the following years the silver mines of Laurios also helped to make the region rich. From 499-449 BCE, Athens was heavily involved in the Greco-Persian wars, which can be more or less summarised as the various Greek city states working together to prevent invasion by the Achaemenid Empire (First Persian Empire), at the time the largest empire that the world had ever seen. Athens was one of the forefront players, and even faced brief occupation, but used their impressive naval strength to lead a battle that routed the Persians.
This role in ousting Persia marked Athens as one of the great political powerhouses of the area, and helped them to form the Delian League in 478 BCE, an alliance of coastal kingdoms which Athens quickly came to dominate and manipulate until it also became known as the Athenian Empire. The Peloponnesian League, an alliance of more inland states dominated by Sparta, had already existed and began to grow concerned by growing Athenian power.
In 461 BCE, a charismatic soldier-politician named Pericles came to power in Athens. During his time in power, Pericles managed to strength Athenian military power and prestige, develop the Acropolis (the inner citadel of Athens, which is still full of famous buildings from the time of Pericles), and encourage culture and art in the city that cemented it as a cultural keystone in the region. This is known as the Age of Pericles, and represents the peak of Athenian power and influence in the Mediterranean.
Through the time that Pericles was in power, however, tensions simmered between Athens and Sparta, the two foremost powers in the region. This led to the Peloponnesian War (not to be confused with the First Peloponnesian War), where Sparta sought to invade Athens in order to curtail its power in the region.
Athens, however, was not easily invaded. From the sea, she was protected by her powerful navy (comparisons could be made to the much later British Empire); on land, where she knew she was less effective than Sparta, she had the Long Walls of Athens. These extraordinary walls formed a sort of barbell shape going around the port of Piraeus and protecting a clear pathway to the city of Athens; Piraeus and Athens were about 6 km (3.7 miles) apart, so the entire structure (including the walls of Athens, Piraeus, and a third southern wall) included some 30 km (18.6) miles. An MapPorn thread here gives a great image of the walls as they would be overlaid on the modern city.
Sparta had limited options, but did what she could with them. The Spartan forces would briefly invade the lands around Athens, cutting off access to productive farmland and forcing Athens to rely on its maritime or colonial resources, then return to Sparta for agricultural work or to put down their own near-constant slave revolts. In 431 BCE, Sparta and her allies went through with one such invasion; the residents of the countryside, as usual, retreated within the walls of Athens for safety, to undergo a brief siege and wait for Sparta to withdraw. But this time, something went very differently.
Read more:
Thucydides survived the plague himself, in his work outlines not just the signs of the disease (reddening of the skin, pustules, and coughing) but also the symptoms (pain, thirst, and hopelessness). He does not speculate on the causes himself, but lists the symptoms so that the disease can be later recognised or discussed.
Per Thucydides, the disease was first noted in Ethiopia and moved into Egypt, Libya, Greece, and outwards across the Mediterranean, but Athens was the worst affected area.
The symptoms that Thucydides described, in the stages in which he gives them, were:
Care for the sick and dead decreased. People were aware that the disease was both infectious and highly dangerous, and as a result there were many who would not risk caring for an ill person even if they were a family member. Thucydides notes that doctors who treated the ill were highly likely to be infected; he also notes that some of those who died did so from lack of care (likely lack of water) while they were too weak to care for themselves. Similarly, Thucydides reports that some of those who died were not given proper burial rites, ranging from being added to the pyre of another to simply being abandoned. This may in part explain the mass grave that was found in the 1994-5 excavation.
Respect for religion decreased. Temples were generally considered places of healing, and may have seemed to have some success simply by providing supportive care such as pain management, food and water, and even certain surgeries. With the epidemic, however, they were overwhelmed and unable to offer significant assistance. Many people who went to the temples, or were taken there, died. Thucydides reports that while offerings and supplications at the temple were common early in the epidemic, they declined. While the Greek gods had never been considered all-loving, the inability to help of priests and temples undermined religious organisations and perhaps in some cases religious belief itself.
Respect for the law and society decreased. When people felt as if they could die at any time, the law would not have time to catch up with them, and many members of the army were sick anyway. Some stopped caring about long-term investments and instead spent their money on living well while they could. Class and wealth became unstable subjects as deaths - even whole families being wiped out - redistributed wealth across the populace. Between societal instability and the fear of only having a brief time to live, some also behaved in socially unacceptable ways without care for backlash. (Thucydides does not particularly outline what these ways were.)
Citizenship became a hot-topic issue. In 451 BCE, Pericles had introduced a law stating that one could only be an Athenian citizen if both parents were, and had struck from the records of citizenship anyone who did not meet this strict criteria. While foreign residents (I will not use the ancient Greek term as it has been adopted in more recent times as a xenophobic slur in French) were subject to taxes and military service, they did not have the same rights as citizens: they could not claim state payments, could not claim emergency rations, could not own real estate without special exemptions, and could not vote. The issues in italics were particularly relevant during the epidemic. During the 430 BCE wave, a number of foreign residents were found to be claiming to be citizens, and were punished with slavery. After both of Pericles's legitimate sons died in the 429 BCE wave, however, he tried to adopt his illegitimate son and raise the son to citizen status despite having a non-citizen mother. Debates have continued since about whether this was a general loosening of the law (since there were doubtless other powerful families who had lost all legitimate male heirs) or whether Pericles was trying to create an exception just for himself.
Military decline. The number of deaths, which per Thucydides included many healthy men of military age, heavily impacted what Athens was capable of for a generation. Athens would not manage another major military endeavour until 415-3 BCE with the "disastrous" Sicilian expedition, and by 405 BCE Athens lost in naval battle to Sparta and her naval supremacy was also broken. This was still within 25 years of the Plague of Athens - young soldiers then should have been experienced officers by 405 BCE, but because of a lack of military activity creating a lack of experience, the impact was significant.
Political shift. Pericles was not the only prominent statesman at this time, but he was arguably the most influential in terms of both military policy and cultural focus - these can be seen continuing across a stretch of time in which other statesmen come and go, and seem to decline after his death. The focus on philosophy and culture, as well as the monumental architecture as seen in the Acropolis, both fade away over the following years.
Throughout over a century of discussion, there are some diseases which have been discussed more seriously and which seem to be stronger contestants for the title - I'll start with these.
See also
Of course, there are always complications - and the two major suggestions that arise are either that the Plague of Athens was a disease which no longer exists or which has mutated significantly since this time (consider how Influenza C and Influenza D only split in around 480 CE, how current strains of canine rabies only date back to 540 CE at most, or as mentioned here how some people suspect that measles may be only hundreds, not thousands, of years old) or that there were in fact multiple diseases wracking Athens.
Thucydides does not list percentages of symptoms, or whether certain symptoms correlated; he does not give case fatality rates, mortality-by-age breakdowns, or even a single case study (his own would have been interesting enough). However, the simplicity with which he describes the symptoms and course of the epidemic which he experienced is rare enough in historical writing, and it is likely that clarity - that glimmer of a riddle being solved - which draws people back to this epidemic time and time again.
My previous medical posts:
submitted by afterandalasia to UnresolvedMysteries [link] [comments]
Background - The History & Archaeology
A quick note! History and the historical record refer solely to written material from these periods, while archaeology and the archaeological record refer to all material culture. There's a lot of debate about whether that material culture should include the written records, but in practice archaeologists can and do use the written text as one source of evidence. Palaeoepidemiology is the use of epidemiological techniques to study historical disease, while palaeomicrobiology is the use of modern techniques to detect, identify and investigate historical microbes.At the time we'll be discussing, Athens was a polis or city state: a sovereign (ruled) city with political, economic, and cultural influence/control over the area surrounding it. (Singapore and Monaco could be considered modern examples.) The city in this time is often called Classical Athens in history, to make it clear which stage of the city is being discussed; at the time, it would have been called Attica. I'll be using Athens, along with BCE notation, for this write-up.
The area that would become known as Athens has been inhabited continuously since at least 3000 BCE, and seems to have risen to prominence around 900 BCE (during the Iron Age of the region) to judge by how grave goods become richer during this time. Passing from kings to land-owning aristocracy, Athens drew the surrounding countryside under its control, but this created waves of social unrest that first led to the harsh laws of Draco (7th century BCE, and where we get "draconian") followed by the reforms of Solon (594 BCE) and a constitution which would lead to the later Athens.
In 508 BCE, Cleisthenes established Athenian democracy (where all male citizens over 20 could vote), and in the following years the silver mines of Laurios also helped to make the region rich. From 499-449 BCE, Athens was heavily involved in the Greco-Persian wars, which can be more or less summarised as the various Greek city states working together to prevent invasion by the Achaemenid Empire (First Persian Empire), at the time the largest empire that the world had ever seen. Athens was one of the forefront players, and even faced brief occupation, but used their impressive naval strength to lead a battle that routed the Persians.
This role in ousting Persia marked Athens as one of the great political powerhouses of the area, and helped them to form the Delian League in 478 BCE, an alliance of coastal kingdoms which Athens quickly came to dominate and manipulate until it also became known as the Athenian Empire. The Peloponnesian League, an alliance of more inland states dominated by Sparta, had already existed and began to grow concerned by growing Athenian power.
In 461 BCE, a charismatic soldier-politician named Pericles came to power in Athens. During his time in power, Pericles managed to strength Athenian military power and prestige, develop the Acropolis (the inner citadel of Athens, which is still full of famous buildings from the time of Pericles), and encourage culture and art in the city that cemented it as a cultural keystone in the region. This is known as the Age of Pericles, and represents the peak of Athenian power and influence in the Mediterranean.
Through the time that Pericles was in power, however, tensions simmered between Athens and Sparta, the two foremost powers in the region. This led to the Peloponnesian War (not to be confused with the First Peloponnesian War), where Sparta sought to invade Athens in order to curtail its power in the region.
Athens, however, was not easily invaded. From the sea, she was protected by her powerful navy (comparisons could be made to the much later British Empire); on land, where she knew she was less effective than Sparta, she had the Long Walls of Athens. These extraordinary walls formed a sort of barbell shape going around the port of Piraeus and protecting a clear pathway to the city of Athens; Piraeus and Athens were about 6 km (3.7 miles) apart, so the entire structure (including the walls of Athens, Piraeus, and a third southern wall) included some 30 km (18.6) miles. An MapPorn thread here gives a great image of the walls as they would be overlaid on the modern city.
Sparta had limited options, but did what she could with them. The Spartan forces would briefly invade the lands around Athens, cutting off access to productive farmland and forcing Athens to rely on its maritime or colonial resources, then return to Sparta for agricultural work or to put down their own near-constant slave revolts. In 431 BCE, Sparta and her allies went through with one such invasion; the residents of the countryside, as usual, retreated within the walls of Athens for safety, to undergo a brief siege and wait for Sparta to withdraw. But this time, something went very differently.
Read more:
- Environmental Microbial Forensics and Archaeology of Past Pandemics - Antonio Fornaciari
- Palaeomicrobiology: current issues and perspectives - Michel Drancourt & Didier Raoult
- Diagnosing Ancient Disease - Sarah Everts
The Plague of Athens
Our best source for the Plague of Athens is Thucydides, a historian and Athenian general. (Fortunately, Thucydides was also a political realist and preferred to discuss human causes and influences without relying on divine intervention for an explanation. Equally fortunately, his main text The History of the Peloponnesian War is available in English translation online; it's book 2, sections 47-70, that concern the epidemic itself.Thucydides survived the plague himself, in his work outlines not just the signs of the disease (reddening of the skin, pustules, and coughing) but also the symptoms (pain, thirst, and hopelessness). He does not speculate on the causes himself, but lists the symptoms so that the disease can be later recognised or discussed.
Per Thucydides, the disease was first noted in Ethiopia and moved into Egypt, Libya, Greece, and outwards across the Mediterranean, but Athens was the worst affected area.
The symptoms that Thucydides described, in the stages in which he gives them, were:
- "Heats in the head" (unclear if fever or pain), redness and inflammation of the eyes, throat and tongue becoming reddened or even bloody, breath becoming foul;
- Sneezing, hoarseness, pain in the chest, coughing;
- Gastrointestinal distress, with diarrhoea and retching/vomiting;
- Reddish skin with small pustules and ulcers;
- Feeling of being overheated, to the point of desiring nudity or immersion in cold water;
- Extreme thirst;
- Restlessness and insomnia;
- Death at around the seventh or eighth day after illness onset.
- "Violent" diarrhoea that could become fatal;
- Some people faced the loss of fingers, toes, eyes or genitals (unspecified method, usually speculated to be gangrene);
- Amnesia.
The Social Effects
Along with the epidemic itself came a wave of fear that was at least as infectious; the effects of this were also laid out by Thucydides. Anyone who has studied the Black Death may find some striking similarities in behaviours during an epidemic at a time when the causes and treatment of disease was poorly, if at all, understood.Care for the sick and dead decreased. People were aware that the disease was both infectious and highly dangerous, and as a result there were many who would not risk caring for an ill person even if they were a family member. Thucydides notes that doctors who treated the ill were highly likely to be infected; he also notes that some of those who died did so from lack of care (likely lack of water) while they were too weak to care for themselves. Similarly, Thucydides reports that some of those who died were not given proper burial rites, ranging from being added to the pyre of another to simply being abandoned. This may in part explain the mass grave that was found in the 1994-5 excavation.
Respect for religion decreased. Temples were generally considered places of healing, and may have seemed to have some success simply by providing supportive care such as pain management, food and water, and even certain surgeries. With the epidemic, however, they were overwhelmed and unable to offer significant assistance. Many people who went to the temples, or were taken there, died. Thucydides reports that while offerings and supplications at the temple were common early in the epidemic, they declined. While the Greek gods had never been considered all-loving, the inability to help of priests and temples undermined religious organisations and perhaps in some cases religious belief itself.
Respect for the law and society decreased. When people felt as if they could die at any time, the law would not have time to catch up with them, and many members of the army were sick anyway. Some stopped caring about long-term investments and instead spent their money on living well while they could. Class and wealth became unstable subjects as deaths - even whole families being wiped out - redistributed wealth across the populace. Between societal instability and the fear of only having a brief time to live, some also behaved in socially unacceptable ways without care for backlash. (Thucydides does not particularly outline what these ways were.)
Citizenship became a hot-topic issue. In 451 BCE, Pericles had introduced a law stating that one could only be an Athenian citizen if both parents were, and had struck from the records of citizenship anyone who did not meet this strict criteria. While foreign residents (I will not use the ancient Greek term as it has been adopted in more recent times as a xenophobic slur in French) were subject to taxes and military service, they did not have the same rights as citizens: they could not claim state payments, could not claim emergency rations, could not own real estate without special exemptions, and could not vote. The issues in italics were particularly relevant during the epidemic. During the 430 BCE wave, a number of foreign residents were found to be claiming to be citizens, and were punished with slavery. After both of Pericles's legitimate sons died in the 429 BCE wave, however, he tried to adopt his illegitimate son and raise the son to citizen status despite having a non-citizen mother. Debates have continued since about whether this was a general loosening of the law (since there were doubtless other powerful families who had lost all legitimate male heirs) or whether Pericles was trying to create an exception just for himself.
Military decline. The number of deaths, which per Thucydides included many healthy men of military age, heavily impacted what Athens was capable of for a generation. Athens would not manage another major military endeavour until 415-3 BCE with the "disastrous" Sicilian expedition, and by 405 BCE Athens lost in naval battle to Sparta and her naval supremacy was also broken. This was still within 25 years of the Plague of Athens - young soldiers then should have been experienced officers by 405 BCE, but because of a lack of military activity creating a lack of experience, the impact was significant.
Political shift. Pericles was not the only prominent statesman at this time, but he was arguably the most influential in terms of both military policy and cultural focus - these can be seen continuing across a stretch of time in which other statesmen come and go, and seem to decline after his death. The focus on philosophy and culture, as well as the monumental architecture as seen in the Acropolis, both fade away over the following years.
The Clues
As well as the list of symptoms outlined by Thucydides, the following information can be fairly considered regarding the Plague of Athens:- Contagion - Thucydides describes how doctors and caregivers were most likely to be infected.
- Acquired/Adaptive Immunity - it is Thucydides, once again, who discusses how those who caught the disease and survived were the ones to nurse the sick, because they could not get sick again. This suggests that the disease gives acquired immunity, though it is not known whether the immunity was lifelong (like measles or rubella) or temporary (pertussis at 4 to 20 years, SARS CoV2 within months), complete or partial. Thucydides is considered to be the first to write down evidence of acquired immunity.
- Mortality Rate - in Athens, the mortality rate is estimated at around 25%, but conditions in the city were overcrowded and poor, and Thucydides notes that this is worse than was seen elsewhere. It is likely this rate was worsened by lack of available care, poor living conditions, and potential comorbidities in some of the sufferers. Thucydides mentions how military age men are affected, but does not otherwise note a bias in sex or age in terms of death.
- Skeletal Signs - the excavator of the 1994-5 has since published on the bones found, and has not made note of any skeletal anomalies that could relate to specific diseases. This is perhaps not a surprise, since most diseases that can develop skeletal signs are long-term (e.g. tuberculosis or syphilis) but is still worth noting.
- Zoonosis? - due to Thucydides's observations about scavenging animals, with his implication that dogs were affected by the epidemic, some have suggested that the disease was zoonotic and could pass freely between humans an animals. Others have suggested it was anthroponotic, that is a primarily human disease that could pass occasionally to animals, while still others think that Thucydides may have just seen dogs sickening from eating rotted meat.
The Prime Suspects
At the time of the first wave of the disease, Thucydides writes, the residents of Piraeus suspecting that the Spartan armies had poisoned their water supplies, as the Spartans did not get sick while the disease spread through Piraeus and then Athens. While poisoning water systems is a known tactic, Thucydides did not think it likely in this case, and even noted that the Spartans retreated more quickly because they became aware of epidemic inside the city. Moreover, this would only be a mechanism for the epidemic to reach Athens, not its underlying cause.Throughout over a century of discussion, there are some diseases which have been discussed more seriously and which seem to be stronger contestants for the title - I'll start with these.
- Epidemic typhus (Rickettsia prowazekii) is a bacterial infection passed along through tick faeces getting into open wounds. After exposure, the disease presents at 7-14 days with high fever, sickness, diarrhoea, coughing and joint pain; at 5-9 days after presentation a rash spreads across the entire body except for the face, palms and soles of the feet. Signs of meningioencephalitis (infection of the brain and/or membranes around it) follow, including sensitivity to light, altered mental status, and coma. Estimated 10%-60% mortality rate. Proposed in 1956 by historian A W Gomme; in 1992 by Vlachos; January 1999 by University of Maryland staff. This matches with symptoms of fever, chest pain, coughing, gastrointestinal issues, "reddish skin" and rare gangrene, but not eye inflammation, pustules/ulcers, or insomnia. Dogs can catch typhus but do not show symptoms. The timeline does not fully match.
- Typhoid fever (Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi) is a bacterial disease that spreads through the fecal-oral route. After exposure, the disease presents at 6-30 days with a slowly building fever, malaise, headache, cough and nosebleeds; during the second week of symptoms, the fever plateaus, delirium occurs, rose spots (small red macules) appear, the abdomen is distended and painful, and there may be constipation or diarrhoea. In the third week, the patient may experience intestinal bleeding, pneumonia, encephalitis, or sepsis. Proposed in May 2006 by Papagrigorakis et al based on dental DNA from the mass grave discussed above (though some consider typhoid fever endemic to ancient Greece, which is possible as Typhi is likely at least older than the Neolithic.) This matches with symptoms of fever and coughing, and may match with pustules (if misidentified macules - Thucydides was a historian, not a doctor) and gastrointestinal distress (diarrhoea is much more noticeable than constipation), but does not match with vomiting, insomnia or rare gangrene. Thucydides does not mention any delirium-related symptoms. Dogs cannot develop typhoid. The timeline does not match.
- Smallpox (Variola minor) was a viral disease that spread through respiratory droplets or fomites. After exposure, the disease presented at 7-14 days with fever, muscle pain, headache, and gastrointestinal distress; at 12-15 days after symptoms appeared, lesions appeared on the mucous membranes (inside of mouth, nose and throat), then 1-2 days later a rash would start at the forehead and spread rapidly across the body, developing into pustules that slowly scabbed over and scarred. Estimated 30% mortality rate. Proposed in 1969 by Littman & Littman. This matches with symptoms of fever, coughing, gastrointestinal distress, and pustules, but does not match with insomnia. Dogs could not contract smallpox. Smallpox could cause blindness, which could explain the loss of eyes that Thucydides mentions. However, it is notable that Thucydides did not mention the very distinctive scarring that results from smallpox, in contrast with the Antonine Plague (165-180 CE) which is believed to be smallpox in part because Galen specifically recorded that 65-85% of survivors bore scarring.
- Measles (Measles morbillivirus) is a viral disease that spreads through respiratory droplets or fomites. It is the most contagious virus known. After exposure, the disease presents at 10-14 days with high fever, cough, sneezing, red eyes and a rash which starts on the back of the ears and covers the head before spreading downwards. Complications can include diarrhoea, pneumonia, encephalitis, corneal scarring, and immune system suppression. Fatality rates as high as 28% have been recorded. Proposed at least since 1953 (as per this rebuttal), and more recently in 2004 by Cunha. This matches with symptoms of fever, conjunctivitis, bad breath, coughing, pustules (if misidentified, as typhoid) and loss of eyes (if blindness), but does not match with symptoms of gastrointestinal distress, insomnia, or rare gangrene. Dogs cannot contract measles. Timeline may match. Note that there is disagreement over the age of the measles virus: some calculate that it evolved around 1100-1300 CE (Furuse et al 2010) while others calculate 700-600 BCE (Düx et al 2020 [Manuscript without paywall]).
- Plague (Yersinia pestis) is a bacterial disease that spreads through the bite of infected fleas (bubonic) or through respiratory droplets (pneumonic). After exposure, bubonic plague presents at 2-7 days with fever, chills, malaise, and buboes (swelling of the lymph nodes, especially those of the groin or armpits) and can progress to seizures and gangrene of the extremities. 30-90% mortality rate. Pneumonic plague can develop from bubonic plague, with the infection spreading into the lungs, or can be caught and will present after 3-7 days with rapidly developing pneumonia and fever that can cause death in as little as 36 hours. Near 100% mortality rate. It is difficult to find who first proposed plague, but it seems to go back at least as far as the 1940s. This matches with symptoms of fever, malaise, coughing and rare gangrene, but not with symptoms of gastrointestinal distress. Dogs can, in rare circumstances, contract plague. Timeline may match. It is generally considered unlikely that Thucydides's reference to "pustules" could possibly refer to the very distinctive swollen, blackening buboes that mark bubonic plague throughout history, which are therefore not mentioned. There is also no mention of an influx of rats, which is common (though not universal) to later histories of plague.
Secondary Suspects
These are largely included because I have seen them discussed and don't want to let any of them feel left out, but they are more fringe theories. Some are more compelling than others, while some are rather surprising.- Viral Haemorrhagic Diseases - including Lassa Fever (Lassa mammarenavirus), Dengue Fever (Dengue virus), or a disease from the Ebolavirus or Marburgvirus genuses. These are all viral diseases with varied methods of transmission (Lassa Fever from mouse droppings, Dengue Fever by mosquito, Ebolaviruses and Marburgviruses from bodily fluid contact) which present in short times with fever and bleeding (as small bruises, flushing, or "VHF syndrome" which is extreme full-body bleeding and circulatory shock). Mortality rates range from 1% (Lassa Fever) to 90-100% (early Ebola outbreaks). Due to the range of illnesses covered by this label, it is difficult to survey them all, but while Thucydides discusses "reddish, livid" skin he does not seem to discuss massive haemorrhagic events.
- Ergot Poisoning - much like Lupus in House, Ergot poisoning or ergotism seems to crop up regularly in discussing historical mysteries. Ergotism comes from consuming grain infected with the fungus Claviceps purpurea which produces an alkaloid toxin. Ergotism can be convulsive (with seizures, spasms, diarrhoea, mania/psychosis, headaches, nausea and vomiting) or gangrenous (causing dry gangrene of the peripheries). Frankly, ergotism does not match many of the symptoms of the Plague of Athens, and it seems highly unlikely that a large proportion of the city would all become ill from infected grain at the same time, or that it would recur in following years.
- Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) is a bacterial disease which can spread through skin contact, ingestion, or inhalation. Cutaneous anthrax (of the skin) causes skin redness around an ulceration that can become necrotic, fatality rate 20%. Ingestion anthrax causes diarrhoea, sometimes bloody, and occasional vomiting of blood, fatality rate 25-75%. Inhalation anthrax causes fever, fatigue, coughing, shortness of breath, may develop nausea or altered mental status, and when the infection reaches the lungs a heightened fever, circulatory shock, and death in as little as 48 hours. Fatality rate near 100%. Proposed in 2003 by Holmes. While Holmes describes how anthrax can answer all of the primary symptoms discussed by Thucydides, the three types of anthrax do not typically overlap, and anthrax persists in the soil for up to decades yet the Plague of Athens is not described as having lingered or recurred in this way. Moreover, the largest recorded outbreak of inhalation anthrax is known to have killed at least 66 people, following a breach of the Biological Warfare facility in Sverdlovsk in the USSR (now in Russia) - and while Soviet secrecy means the number may have been higher, and vaccines were administered, it is still a long way from 100,000 deaths.
- Scarlet Fever (Streptococcus pyogenes) is a bacterial disease which is a relatively rare complication of either strep throat or streptococcal skin infections. It presents with fever, coughing, and reddening of the skin with flat spots that develop into rough-feeling bumps. When untreated, the infection can spread to other areas of the body, most dangerously as encephalitis or endocarditis (infection of the heart's inner layers), and in some cases can cause acute rheumatic fever or severe kidney infections. Most cases resolve within 5-10 days, but fatality rate 15-20%. Proposed historically but viewed with doubt by the 1920s. Matches symptoms of fever, coughing and reddened skin, but not gastrointestinal distress, and is a complication of strep throat or of skin infections rather than a condition that will effect every infected person.
- Syphilis (Treponema pallidum pallidum) is a bacterial disease which is transmitted sexually or from parent to foetus during pregnancy. I cannot find any source that actually proposes this as a reason, only sources refuting it, which seems eminently sensible given that large proportions of the city were supposed to have been infected at once.
- Malaria (Plasmodium) is a parasitic disease transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes (at least one subspecies of which historically inhabited Greece). It presents with a cyclic fever, vomiting, headaches, and in severe cases can cause jaundice, seizures, coma or death. However, malaria does not have anything like the death rate of the Plague of Athens, and as early as 1907 (Jones) it was considered that malaria was more likely to have been or to have become endemic in the region around this time. Hippocrates (who was born around 460 BCE, so was around 30 when this epidemic took place) wrote later in life on identifying fevers that had three-day or four-day cycles, which are specific to different forms of malaria. While Thucydides is not a doctor, it seems unlikely that he would miss the cycling nature of the fever, especially having experienced it himself, and malaria would not explain gastrointestinal distress.
- Cholera (Vibrio cholerae) is a bacterial disease transmitted by the fecal-oral route. To be honest, I didn't even look deeply into this suggestion, because cholera has very distinctive "rice-water stool", or diarrhoea so extreme that it looks like cloudy water. Fever is rare in cholera (to the point that fever usually points at a secondary infection) and the throat/chest are not affected.
- Influenza (Alphainfluenzavirus or Influenza A) is a viral disease transmitted by respiratory droplets. It presents with fever, coughing, and can cause gastrointestinal distress, but does not match with the reddish skin and pustules described by Thucydides. Moreover, most human flu strains are very rarely fatal - even the 1918-20 influenza pandemic is estimate to have had 2-3% mortality. Strains with higher fatality, such as H5N1 ("bird flu"), do not show human-to-human transmission and have fewer than 1,000 recorded cases altogether.
- An argument was at one time put forward that the Plague of Athens was caused by epidemics at the same time of influenza and staphylococcus infections (dubbed "Thucydides Syndrome"), which seems to have been generally rebuffed and occasionally mocked. While 2022 has shown that multiple epidemics or pandemics can be present at once, it is much rarer for individuals to be affected by both at the same time, let alone for a large percentage of individuals to be so affected. While influenza can leave people vulnerable to secondary infections, it does not do so reliably enough to sustain this argument.
- Alimentary Toxic Aleukia (ATA) is a disease caused by ingesting grain infected by fungus (seemingly from the Fusarium genus) and was identified in 1945. It presents with nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, bleeding, skin inflammation, pustules, depression, and death in up to 60% of those affected within 3-5 weeks of symptom onset. Proposed in 1994 by Bellemore et al. While it matches with some symptoms, it does not cause a fever, and though conditions were overcrowded and unpleasant in Athens it does not seem that they were desperate or approaching starvation - the Spartans only ever besieged the city for a few weeks at a time, and throughout Athens maintained her port and therefore connection to the outside world. ATA has only been rarely recorded among communities with entirely shared food sources. (Efremov, in 1984, provides a thorough coverage of the condition.)
- Glanders (Burkholderia mallei) is a bacterial disease primarily associated with horses, but which can be contracted by humans. Proposed in 1962 by Eby and Evjen. Symptoms depend on the manner of exposure, similar to anthrax, but human infections are rare. Glanders as it is currently known seems an impossible match for the Plague of Athens; the authors of the paper point out that symptoms and fatality rates may vary from outbreak to outbreak, but do not outright suggest that this was a different subspecies as would seem to be necessary for transmission to occur.
See also
- The Plague at Athens, 430-427 BCE - John Horgan. Covers a number of views of potential causes.
Of course, there are always complications - and the two major suggestions that arise are either that the Plague of Athens was a disease which no longer exists or which has mutated significantly since this time (consider how Influenza C and Influenza D only split in around 480 CE, how current strains of canine rabies only date back to 540 CE at most, or as mentioned here how some people suspect that measles may be only hundreds, not thousands, of years old) or that there were in fact multiple diseases wracking Athens.
Thucydides does not list percentages of symptoms, or whether certain symptoms correlated; he does not give case fatality rates, mortality-by-age breakdowns, or even a single case study (his own would have been interesting enough). However, the simplicity with which he describes the symptoms and course of the epidemic which he experienced is rare enough in historical writing, and it is likely that clarity - that glimmer of a riddle being solved - which draws people back to this epidemic time and time again.
Outstanding Questions
- Was it one disease which caused the Plague of Athens, or multiple?
- Was this the first recorded outbreak of this disease?
- Was it a disease which still exists today?
- What disease or diseases most appropriately explain the symptoms and course laid out by Thucydides in his description of the epidemic?
My previous medical posts:
- Surviving the Unsurvivable: How can some people recover from rabies after developing symptoms? And are there some who can survive infection unharmed without medical intervention?
- The "Mother of all Flu Pandemics" - Where did the 1918 H1N1 Influenza Pandemic Originate?
- Guinea Worm in Animals: New Trait, or Hidden History? Guinea worm is on the brink of eradication thanks to Jimmy Carter, but now reports are being made of the disease in animals. Is this new, or have they been there all along?
- What caused Encephalitis Lethargica? Was it autoimmune or viral? Does it continue to occur? And why did L-DOPA cause such incredible improvements in patients - only to end in such terrible declines?
2023.03.26 23:41 s1rrah 13900K DELID/RELID RESULTS - Using Lapped Intel IHS w/ Custom Bolt-thru Mount Mod
 | I posted results for the following three overclock tests a bit back but I was using a Rockitcool copper IHS. You can see the results for those tests HERE. submitted by s1rrah to overclocking [link] [comments] I've since had time to troubleshoot the temp problems (one core very hot) I had with the stock Intel IHS and have spent a good while lapping/polishing that stock IHS and also cleaning up the underside of the IHS a great deal. Today I replaced the previously installed Rockitcool copper IHS with the New and Improved™ lapped Intel IHS and of course applied new LM throughout. I'll post the result images first and then some shots of the lapping and bolt thru mod further below. NOTE: due to the extent to which Iapped the Intel IHS, the stock Corsair H115i mounting hardware provided very bad mount pressure and so I had to dig up an old trick I've used on several different air coolers and AIOS in the past after lapping other CPUs. It's really just a typical, old-school bolt-thru mount method (think Danger Den) that will work with any CPU cooler or AIO block that has pass thru mount holes like the Corsair AIOs and many others.
13900K / Delid Test Results using lapped Intel IHS and bolt-through mod for AIO block mounting (55p43e / 56p44e / 57p45e:55p/43e56p/44e 57p/45e Random CPU IHS Lapping and Bolt-thru Pr0N ...I spent more than a minute cleaning the inner surface of the Intel IHS; I even slightly lapped it with 2500 grit sandpaper followed by the typical Flitz polish. FWIW, that tiny Enzotech heatsink is what I used to lap the IHS inner surface. The 2500 grit sandpaper is still adhered to it lol...400grit -> 800grit -> 2500grit... 400grit -> 800grit -> 2500grit... the IHS in this shot is simply resting on the die and is not adhered. I also had to lap the Thermalright frame. A lot. After lapping the Intel IHS, the IHS contact surface rested below the top of the frame; it's kind of fugly IMO but obviously works... EKWB EK-Quantum Velocity - socket 1700 Backplate - ~$9.00 on Amazon. Far better than the Corsair H115i flimsy, plastic \"back-plate-thing.\" All the other bolt-through parts I got at the hardware store (springs/screws/nuts/washers/etc)... Before torquing the bolt-thru lock-down screws... Final torque of lock-down screws - this may or may not have to be adjusted but can't test various torque levels and any effects on the liquid metal application under the die until I get a very small torque wrench (it's already ordered). Since there is quite a bit of travel on the screws, I simply counted the turns as I cross applied torque to each of the four screws and tightened until it seemed fairly secure... I'm very new to the whole delidded CPU game. So I have no idea how final mount pressure might affect the LM application underneath the CPU IHS. Therefore, I was mostly conservative in applying the lock-down torque although there is/was a great deal of room for increased pressure. In past bolt-thru projects using stock, NON-delidded CPUS that I have lapped, I've torqued the lock-down screws so tight that I could see an imprint of the CPU die on the outside of the IHS surface lol but considering the delid and the possibility of overapplying pressure to the LM application, I only tightened to a point that I felt was "reasonable." I'll be doing further testing once I get a torque wrench that works with the small 3M screws I used in the mod. This should be fairly easy and should give some interesting data if starting from absolute minimal torque/mount pressure and then working in 3 or 4 incremental stages of applying further torque. But a torque wrench would be absolutely necessary for accurate data. More later... ~s |
2023.03.26 23:27 ed_spaghet12 Memory Card Manager error when trying to extract GCIs
 | I recently lost one of my GameCube memory cards and am trying to restore an older .RAW backup of it to another card. However, I can't use the GCMM homebrew app because the lost card is a different size than all my other cards. submitted by ed_spaghet12 to DolphinEmulator [link] [comments] I've been trying to use the Dolphin card manager tool to import it and extract all the GCIs so I can manually move them to another card, but when I open the tool and select the backup, I get the following error: Failed opening memory card: Invalid checksums. Mismatch between free block count in header and actually unused blocks. Data in area of file that should be unused. I have no clue why it would be saying this. The .RAW file is the same size as the size printed on the front of the card. Also, I backed it up at the same time as multiple other memory cards which Dolphin can read/edit with no problem. Is there a way I can either (1) fix the incorrect information that Dolphin is apparently reading from the card or (2) do something on Dolphin's end to make it read the card? My only other option is to buy a new card that is the same size as the one I lost and try to restore the backup onto it with GCMM, but I'm pessimistic about that. |
2023.03.26 23:00 AutoModerator How the f*** do I wear this?! -- Weekly Style Help thread
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2023.03.26 22:28 ItzBlueWulf Ancient Gods, All-Powerful Precursors and Other Historical Delusions 9 (AU)
Traka had to admit that when he had wished for something to help along his investigation, he wasn't expecting to receive such a... violent answer.
When he had landed on Luyten he had immediately been escorted to the local Exterminators main office, where he been asked at lenght about the nature of his presence on the colony before being informed that the local branch expected updates on his ongoing investigation and that a chaperone had been assigned at all time to look after him.
Any protest on the matter had been promptly been rejected, while they couldn't prove that his smugglers were involved with the remnants of the publicly dismantled predator cult, neither could he prove that they weren't involved, and as such, until proof to the contrary was found, they would treat the matter as under their authority and require his cooperation.
That had caught him off-guard, along with the candid revelation that the colony scandal wasn't as buried in the past as the rest of the Federation was led to believe; that he had been sworn to secrecy for the sake of avoiding public unrest and that the Exterminators had probably the means to make his life miserable if he didn't go along, member of an allied Space Force or not, didn't escape his notice and just made him feel even more unsettled by his circumstances.
Ever since then, no matter where he went or who he talked to, he had been shadowed by a nondescript Extermination Officer just a dozen steps behind him; he didn't miss how the locals seemed more nervous about their supposed protectors than a foreign Gojid officer asking them about criminal activities, or how they only gave him vague answers that painted only the nicest possible picture of the state of the colony, or that his escort always kept a gun at the ready, as if they expected to use it at any moment.
That was yet another sign something very wrong was going on in Luyten, Exterminators Officers usually didn't make use of rifles, a flamethrower was cheaper, more effective at driving out predators and had the advantage of not leaving contaminating bodies behind, but that alone wouldn't have left him as suspicious as he felt.
What did make him sure there was more going on than what he was told was that one of his subordinates had an interest for the latest of military hardware, so he recognized the rifle from his rants as an imported, state-of-the-art Krakotl model that had hit the market just three months before; except, from what he had learned from a careless comment of one of the Venlil he had questioned, the local Exterminators had been using it for at least five months.
He didn't know what they could possibly need such a piece of military hardware so bad to somehow get their paws on it while it should have still been a prototype, but he doubted wild predators or unorganized cultists were the answer; coupled with the abysmal results he had gotten from his investigation, he had been feeling rather frustrated, to the point of wishing for any sort of clue to fall into his lap.
He didn't know how to take the news of an incident at the nearby mine, but learning that somehow Exterminators made the majority of the injured convinced him that it was worth paying a visit to the local hospital.
For all that Luyten didn't seem to run on common sense, they still followed procedure when it came to emergencies, so a publicly avaiable list of the injured had been released by the hospital, which was how he became aware that amongst them there was a familiar Exterminator, the one appointed to him as a supervisor; why he had been at a mine on the outskirt of the city instead of his office, Traka didn't know, what he knew was that if he used the excuse of checking up on his colleague, he might finally learn something meaningful about Luyten true state of affaires now that everyone was still shocked by the afternoon events.
The idea of taking advantage of someone's weakness like that did left him feeling horrible, but by now he was certain that whatever Professor Sorrent had been involved in was related to Luyten current circumstances and that the Exterminator Corps were doing a concerted effort to hide whatever it was, so as long as he could learn anything of note he could deal with the guilt.
As Traka entered the main lobby, he was met with scenes of barely contained chaos; nurses were rushing patients to operating rooms, orderlies were trying to get a mass of frazzled Venlil to not clutter the lobby and doctors of all kinds were shouting over each other to be heard.
A gurney pushed by two EMTs went past him, the Venlil laying on top having lost most of his fur to ugly looking burns, and he had to spend too long to convince himself that's where the smell of smoke came from.
Doing his best to ignore the suffering surrounding him, Traka asked for directions to the room of the one Venlil he was looking for and made his way through the hallways, forcing his eyes to not linger on all the injured he came across even as he was mentally keeping a tally of their wounds.
He took note of the peculiarity of most of those injuries being either burns or lacerations, with some puncture sprinkled in for good measure, but with no sign of contusive damage like one would expect from the aftermath of a mine incident; the amount of gravely injured would have possible only if they had all been packed arount the explosion when it went off, but it still didn't look like the result of a faulty mining charge.
He pretended to not have been staring at the nurse trying to apply pressure to the stump of what used to be a Venlil leg and instead pressed a button next to the door of the room he had been looking for, waiting for the green light denoting visitors were being accepted before entering.
The Venlil laying on the bed looked unremarkable, tan fur with no discernible pattern, but there was something in how he held himself that made him look imposing even as he struggled to turn toward Traka; that much he could give to him, whoever thought of the Venlil as the Federation pushovers, clearly they hadn't met this Head Exterminator before, even with a bloodied bandage covering his right eye Traka couldn't shake the feeling that he was being judged by his stare.
"Traka, was it?" the Venlil said with only an hint of surprise "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"
"I was simply worried about a fellow public servant, is that so hard to believe?" Traka asked feigning confusion.
"Last time we met you didn't seem too enthused to work along a fellow public servant" the Exterminator rebuked him unamused.
"That was before you blew up, whatever my misgivings about our collaboration it doesn't mean I'd wish any harm upon you" he told him honestly "And on that matter, what happened? I've heard nothing but rumors about a mining charge going off too soon, but it looks like half the mine came down on you all."
"It's nothing that catastrophic" the Venlil dismissed nonchalantly "Some of the sensors malfunctioned, so nobody noticed that natural gas had been pooling in the tunnel until the charge went off, you can imagine how that magnified its effect beyond the safety margin."
"That's some bad luck" he managed to get out, struggling to not make a comment on how colonizing efforts seemed to be plagued by gas leaks "But how come you were there? Surely an Head Exterminator would have better things to do than visit a mine."
For a moment Traka thought he had been too obvious, but the lack of reactions to his words reassured him he was in the clear.
"A division of Exterminators had been dispatched to protect the miners from wild predators attacks, I was there to do the weakly debriefing of the stationed Officers, I simply was at the wrong place at the wrong time."
Traka didn't say anything else, he simply contented himself with exploring the hospital room, lingering around the empty beds and the supplies drawers.
"Is there particular any reason why you're still here?"
"What do you mean?" he asked feigning surprise "I simply thought of doing what any decent person would have done and pay you a visit."
"Well, you visited me" the Venlil stated impatiently "You've seen I'm not about to die, while are you still around?"
Traka once again reflected on how un-Venlil like the Head Exterminator was before leaning against an empty bed and swinging around his bag to rifle through it.
"Ever since I've introduced myself you seem to have been regarding me with suspicion, an attitude that does nothing but hurt any chance at cooperation. I wanted to try and clear the waters, I've even brought a peace offering" he said before showing him a paperback book "This happen to be one of my favourite, I thought you would appreciate the gesture."
"I see" the Venlil said with a clear undertone of confusion "But I think I'll have to refuse, it would preferable if we keep our interactions strictly professional."
"Are you sure?" he asked with genuine confusion while leaning back against the bed "We probably got off a wrong start but-"
"Listen" the Venlil interrupted him "I believe you when you say you're here to investigate an important matter, but the sooner you leave the better it will be for you."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" he asked with a furrow to his brows.
"Simply that curiosity isn't well liked around these parts."
Before Traka could ask him whether that was some kind of threat, the door chimed with another request from a visitor; the Venlil pressed a button on the armrest of his bed, unlocking the door and letting an Extermination Officer fully suited in the room.
The brief confusion he felt at the sight was replaced by surprise once he took notice of the decorations on the suit declaring the visitor's rank as being a Chief Exterminator; as far as he knew they barely left their administrative buildings, so what was one of them doing in there?
"Sir!" the injured Venlil shouted before trying to give a salute.
"At ease Officer" the newcomer said in a cool bass "I'm simply checking up on all of our injured to plan around their hospitalization."
He then turned to look at Traka, althought the opaque helmet made impossible for him to tell what expression he was wearing.
"Ah, you must be the Gojid officer I've heard about" he said in a congenial tone "Checking out on Officer Gimmil?"
"That's right Sir" he said unsure on how to take the new development "Once I heard the news I felt like I had to visit him to reassure myself he hadn't been injured too gravely."
"An understandable feeling" the Chief Exterminator said with a nod " One can only wish such a sense of cameraderie was more common in the Federation, too often we let differences in perspective keep us apart."
"Indeed?" Traka agreed doubtful of what exactly the Venlil was talking about.
"I knew you understood" he said with some cheer before straightening up "Despite that I'm afraid I have to ask you to give me and Officer Gimmil some privacy, there are some matter of internal policy we have to discuss, to better decide how to approach his absence in the upcoming days."
"Of course Sir" he said pushing himself away from the bed "I was about to leave anyway, there's some paperwork I have to take care of myself."
After some brief words of aknowledgement, Traka left the room, only to sit on some seats right next to the door; he didn't expect to come across two high ranking Exterminators having a private chat when he came up with his plan, but now it was time to see just how well his gamble paid off.
When he had stopped to buy his peace offering, he was unsurprised to see an Exterminator keeping an eye on him from the convenience store entrance, but luckily for his plan they didn't feel like getting any closer or actually checking out what he was buying; if they did they would probably have been baffled on what exactly he would need a baby monitor for, which would probably have prevented him to get away with hiding one under the pillow of the bed he had been leaning onto.
He was aware that if he was caught there would be no excuse that would keep him out of an interrogation room, but this was probably his best chance to get an idea of just what was going on.
He discreetly booted up on his datapad the monitor application and put an earphone on the side of his head facing the wall, before finally turning on the audio, yearning for whatever he could learn from the private conversation he was about to eavesdrop on.
"- no way to justify such utter failure!" the Chief Exterminator was half-shouting, presumably to the other Venlil.
"Sir, I told you time and time again that with our current resources-"
"What you told me was that we were dealing with a bunch of delusional fanatics who believe they can wage war with farming tools, and yet they're still in those caves!"
Caves? Did they mean the mine? He didn't get to dwell on the thought for long before they were both back at arguing.
"That was the situation when I gave you my last report, and yet somehow they have been improving, in both tactics and equipment. They went from a disorganized mob rushing out with shovels and pointy sticks to a well trained group costantly ambushing our digging teams with improvised explosives and sabotaging whatever piece of equipment get left unattended for too long. We are almost certain there are some secondary tunnels they're using to get supplies, but we can't find them until we can carry out an extensive survey of the cave system."
"I didn't put you in charge to map a hole in the ground, I did it to get rid of dangerous dissidents! Something you've clearly proved yourself incapable of!" the other Venlil rebuked the Exterminator "The longer it takes us to get this situation back under control, the more likely it is for some of this to get back to Venlil Prime and I don't think I have to explain you how that isn't an acceptable outcome."
"Then maybe we should revise our policy regarding official goverment intervention" the Officer told him tiredly "There's a limit to what we can get a hold of without using official channels and if that Gojid officer is anything to go by it's only a matter of time before some government official stumbles upon our peculiar request for hardware and start doubting the truth of our reports to the Republic."
Traka was doing his best to look nonchalant but internally he was in a turmoil; did he really hear what he thought he did? It almost sounded like the local branch of Exterminators was going rogue, which despite having no precedence it couldn't probably mean anything good.
"If we could explain to the Governor-"
"The Governor won't help us!" the Chief Exterminator scoffed with disdain "No government official will, they're too worried about public opinion to take the choices necessary to keep the Republic safe."
"But surely, if they already understand the danger of predators-"
"And you think the original colonists didn't?" he cut him off venomously "They all knew about predators and predatory individuals, and yet they let themselves be fooled by sweet words and a nice story, because it gave their life a new meaning, because it gave them a new hope for the future. And in the meantime they stopped acting like Venlil and started acting like predator-minded savages!"
For a while all Traka could hear was the laboured breath of the Venlil, even as his mind was running at full speed trying to understand what they were talking about. Could they be talking about the famed cult that was supposed to have once taken control of the colony? If so, just what did this cult preach that they felt threatened by it?
"No, this isn't something we can leave to our politicians, we need to take care of this because we're the only one who can" the Venlil continued "Which is why I find it so vexing that you're still clinging to half measures!"
"I don't understand Sir" Gimmil replied nervously.
"You're still treating them as people we can rehabilitate, prioritizing their capture even as they show no restraints against our own people" the other Venlil chastitised him "You need to understand that there's no saving them, not once they started down this path, so you don't need to concern yourself with questions of excessive force, only what is the most optimal way to get past them."
"Sir, those are still Venlil down there" the Exterminator replied aghast, a feeling Traka shared "They're still our people, you can't be suggesting-"
"Weren't you listening?!" his superior stopped him angrily "The moment they started spouting that rubbish about the Holy Pilgimage it was already too late for them! What you should focus on is stopping this mess from getting worse, no matter what it takes! Smoke them out, pour burning fuel down those tunnels, bring the mountain down on their head and shift through the rubble if you have to! But I want them gone and their damned trinket in our custody, did I make myself clear?"
The Exterminator was silent, probably speechless, something Traka could relate to; when he decided to dig deeper into the mistery behind Professor Sorrent actions he thought he would uncover a case of corruption or something similar, he definitely wasn't ready for learning that apparently the Venlil in charge of protecting the colony from predators was in favour of murdering his own people over a perceived threat they represented.
"Did I make myself clear?" he repeated more forcefully.
"Yes... Sir" the other Venlil confirmed haltingly.
"Good" the Exterminator said more calmly "We can discuss about those concerns you brought up at a later date, for now your second-in-command can take over for those. As for you, the loss of an eye, while tragic, doesn't stop you from planning how you're going to deal with our infestation, so I suggest you don't waste anymore time on it."
Traka didn't stay behind to see if there was anything else he could learn, he turned off his datapad and stormed out of the hospital, his mind storming with thoughts; what was he supposed to do with this information, try and get in contact with the Venlil government? Despite what he managed to fool others into believing his presence on Luyten wasn't official and any sort of proof he could present could be easily be dismissed by any decent committee in charge of overseing Exterminators actions.
For that matter, he came there on suspicion of foul play by Gojid Exterminator Corps, was whatever was going on in Luyten related? Was it some kind of Federation wide conspiracy? Who was he supposed to report to, to trust in that case?
For the first time in his life Traka found he was in the position to make a difference and yet he didn't know how to make so.
He didn't like the feeling at all.
First-Previous-Next
submitted by ItzBlueWulf to NatureofPredators [link] [comments]
When he had landed on Luyten he had immediately been escorted to the local Exterminators main office, where he been asked at lenght about the nature of his presence on the colony before being informed that the local branch expected updates on his ongoing investigation and that a chaperone had been assigned at all time to look after him.
Any protest on the matter had been promptly been rejected, while they couldn't prove that his smugglers were involved with the remnants of the publicly dismantled predator cult, neither could he prove that they weren't involved, and as such, until proof to the contrary was found, they would treat the matter as under their authority and require his cooperation.
That had caught him off-guard, along with the candid revelation that the colony scandal wasn't as buried in the past as the rest of the Federation was led to believe; that he had been sworn to secrecy for the sake of avoiding public unrest and that the Exterminators had probably the means to make his life miserable if he didn't go along, member of an allied Space Force or not, didn't escape his notice and just made him feel even more unsettled by his circumstances.
Ever since then, no matter where he went or who he talked to, he had been shadowed by a nondescript Extermination Officer just a dozen steps behind him; he didn't miss how the locals seemed more nervous about their supposed protectors than a foreign Gojid officer asking them about criminal activities, or how they only gave him vague answers that painted only the nicest possible picture of the state of the colony, or that his escort always kept a gun at the ready, as if they expected to use it at any moment.
That was yet another sign something very wrong was going on in Luyten, Exterminators Officers usually didn't make use of rifles, a flamethrower was cheaper, more effective at driving out predators and had the advantage of not leaving contaminating bodies behind, but that alone wouldn't have left him as suspicious as he felt.
What did make him sure there was more going on than what he was told was that one of his subordinates had an interest for the latest of military hardware, so he recognized the rifle from his rants as an imported, state-of-the-art Krakotl model that had hit the market just three months before; except, from what he had learned from a careless comment of one of the Venlil he had questioned, the local Exterminators had been using it for at least five months.
He didn't know what they could possibly need such a piece of military hardware so bad to somehow get their paws on it while it should have still been a prototype, but he doubted wild predators or unorganized cultists were the answer; coupled with the abysmal results he had gotten from his investigation, he had been feeling rather frustrated, to the point of wishing for any sort of clue to fall into his lap.
He didn't know how to take the news of an incident at the nearby mine, but learning that somehow Exterminators made the majority of the injured convinced him that it was worth paying a visit to the local hospital.
For all that Luyten didn't seem to run on common sense, they still followed procedure when it came to emergencies, so a publicly avaiable list of the injured had been released by the hospital, which was how he became aware that amongst them there was a familiar Exterminator, the one appointed to him as a supervisor; why he had been at a mine on the outskirt of the city instead of his office, Traka didn't know, what he knew was that if he used the excuse of checking up on his colleague, he might finally learn something meaningful about Luyten true state of affaires now that everyone was still shocked by the afternoon events.
The idea of taking advantage of someone's weakness like that did left him feeling horrible, but by now he was certain that whatever Professor Sorrent had been involved in was related to Luyten current circumstances and that the Exterminator Corps were doing a concerted effort to hide whatever it was, so as long as he could learn anything of note he could deal with the guilt.
As Traka entered the main lobby, he was met with scenes of barely contained chaos; nurses were rushing patients to operating rooms, orderlies were trying to get a mass of frazzled Venlil to not clutter the lobby and doctors of all kinds were shouting over each other to be heard.
A gurney pushed by two EMTs went past him, the Venlil laying on top having lost most of his fur to ugly looking burns, and he had to spend too long to convince himself that's where the smell of smoke came from.
Doing his best to ignore the suffering surrounding him, Traka asked for directions to the room of the one Venlil he was looking for and made his way through the hallways, forcing his eyes to not linger on all the injured he came across even as he was mentally keeping a tally of their wounds.
He took note of the peculiarity of most of those injuries being either burns or lacerations, with some puncture sprinkled in for good measure, but with no sign of contusive damage like one would expect from the aftermath of a mine incident; the amount of gravely injured would have possible only if they had all been packed arount the explosion when it went off, but it still didn't look like the result of a faulty mining charge.
He pretended to not have been staring at the nurse trying to apply pressure to the stump of what used to be a Venlil leg and instead pressed a button next to the door of the room he had been looking for, waiting for the green light denoting visitors were being accepted before entering.
The Venlil laying on the bed looked unremarkable, tan fur with no discernible pattern, but there was something in how he held himself that made him look imposing even as he struggled to turn toward Traka; that much he could give to him, whoever thought of the Venlil as the Federation pushovers, clearly they hadn't met this Head Exterminator before, even with a bloodied bandage covering his right eye Traka couldn't shake the feeling that he was being judged by his stare.
"Traka, was it?" the Venlil said with only an hint of surprise "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"
"I was simply worried about a fellow public servant, is that so hard to believe?" Traka asked feigning confusion.
"Last time we met you didn't seem too enthused to work along a fellow public servant" the Exterminator rebuked him unamused.
"That was before you blew up, whatever my misgivings about our collaboration it doesn't mean I'd wish any harm upon you" he told him honestly "And on that matter, what happened? I've heard nothing but rumors about a mining charge going off too soon, but it looks like half the mine came down on you all."
"It's nothing that catastrophic" the Venlil dismissed nonchalantly "Some of the sensors malfunctioned, so nobody noticed that natural gas had been pooling in the tunnel until the charge went off, you can imagine how that magnified its effect beyond the safety margin."
"That's some bad luck" he managed to get out, struggling to not make a comment on how colonizing efforts seemed to be plagued by gas leaks "But how come you were there? Surely an Head Exterminator would have better things to do than visit a mine."
For a moment Traka thought he had been too obvious, but the lack of reactions to his words reassured him he was in the clear.
"A division of Exterminators had been dispatched to protect the miners from wild predators attacks, I was there to do the weakly debriefing of the stationed Officers, I simply was at the wrong place at the wrong time."
Traka didn't say anything else, he simply contented himself with exploring the hospital room, lingering around the empty beds and the supplies drawers.
"Is there particular any reason why you're still here?"
"What do you mean?" he asked feigning surprise "I simply thought of doing what any decent person would have done and pay you a visit."
"Well, you visited me" the Venlil stated impatiently "You've seen I'm not about to die, while are you still around?"
Traka once again reflected on how un-Venlil like the Head Exterminator was before leaning against an empty bed and swinging around his bag to rifle through it.
"Ever since I've introduced myself you seem to have been regarding me with suspicion, an attitude that does nothing but hurt any chance at cooperation. I wanted to try and clear the waters, I've even brought a peace offering" he said before showing him a paperback book "This happen to be one of my favourite, I thought you would appreciate the gesture."
"I see" the Venlil said with a clear undertone of confusion "But I think I'll have to refuse, it would preferable if we keep our interactions strictly professional."
"Are you sure?" he asked with genuine confusion while leaning back against the bed "We probably got off a wrong start but-"
"Listen" the Venlil interrupted him "I believe you when you say you're here to investigate an important matter, but the sooner you leave the better it will be for you."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" he asked with a furrow to his brows.
"Simply that curiosity isn't well liked around these parts."
Before Traka could ask him whether that was some kind of threat, the door chimed with another request from a visitor; the Venlil pressed a button on the armrest of his bed, unlocking the door and letting an Extermination Officer fully suited in the room.
The brief confusion he felt at the sight was replaced by surprise once he took notice of the decorations on the suit declaring the visitor's rank as being a Chief Exterminator; as far as he knew they barely left their administrative buildings, so what was one of them doing in there?
"Sir!" the injured Venlil shouted before trying to give a salute.
"At ease Officer" the newcomer said in a cool bass "I'm simply checking up on all of our injured to plan around their hospitalization."
He then turned to look at Traka, althought the opaque helmet made impossible for him to tell what expression he was wearing.
"Ah, you must be the Gojid officer I've heard about" he said in a congenial tone "Checking out on Officer Gimmil?"
"That's right Sir" he said unsure on how to take the new development "Once I heard the news I felt like I had to visit him to reassure myself he hadn't been injured too gravely."
"An understandable feeling" the Chief Exterminator said with a nod " One can only wish such a sense of cameraderie was more common in the Federation, too often we let differences in perspective keep us apart."
"Indeed?" Traka agreed doubtful of what exactly the Venlil was talking about.
"I knew you understood" he said with some cheer before straightening up "Despite that I'm afraid I have to ask you to give me and Officer Gimmil some privacy, there are some matter of internal policy we have to discuss, to better decide how to approach his absence in the upcoming days."
"Of course Sir" he said pushing himself away from the bed "I was about to leave anyway, there's some paperwork I have to take care of myself."
After some brief words of aknowledgement, Traka left the room, only to sit on some seats right next to the door; he didn't expect to come across two high ranking Exterminators having a private chat when he came up with his plan, but now it was time to see just how well his gamble paid off.
When he had stopped to buy his peace offering, he was unsurprised to see an Exterminator keeping an eye on him from the convenience store entrance, but luckily for his plan they didn't feel like getting any closer or actually checking out what he was buying; if they did they would probably have been baffled on what exactly he would need a baby monitor for, which would probably have prevented him to get away with hiding one under the pillow of the bed he had been leaning onto.
He was aware that if he was caught there would be no excuse that would keep him out of an interrogation room, but this was probably his best chance to get an idea of just what was going on.
He discreetly booted up on his datapad the monitor application and put an earphone on the side of his head facing the wall, before finally turning on the audio, yearning for whatever he could learn from the private conversation he was about to eavesdrop on.
"- no way to justify such utter failure!" the Chief Exterminator was half-shouting, presumably to the other Venlil.
"Sir, I told you time and time again that with our current resources-"
"What you told me was that we were dealing with a bunch of delusional fanatics who believe they can wage war with farming tools, and yet they're still in those caves!"
Caves? Did they mean the mine? He didn't get to dwell on the thought for long before they were both back at arguing.
"That was the situation when I gave you my last report, and yet somehow they have been improving, in both tactics and equipment. They went from a disorganized mob rushing out with shovels and pointy sticks to a well trained group costantly ambushing our digging teams with improvised explosives and sabotaging whatever piece of equipment get left unattended for too long. We are almost certain there are some secondary tunnels they're using to get supplies, but we can't find them until we can carry out an extensive survey of the cave system."
"I didn't put you in charge to map a hole in the ground, I did it to get rid of dangerous dissidents! Something you've clearly proved yourself incapable of!" the other Venlil rebuked the Exterminator "The longer it takes us to get this situation back under control, the more likely it is for some of this to get back to Venlil Prime and I don't think I have to explain you how that isn't an acceptable outcome."
"Then maybe we should revise our policy regarding official goverment intervention" the Officer told him tiredly "There's a limit to what we can get a hold of without using official channels and if that Gojid officer is anything to go by it's only a matter of time before some government official stumbles upon our peculiar request for hardware and start doubting the truth of our reports to the Republic."
Traka was doing his best to look nonchalant but internally he was in a turmoil; did he really hear what he thought he did? It almost sounded like the local branch of Exterminators was going rogue, which despite having no precedence it couldn't probably mean anything good.
"If we could explain to the Governor-"
"The Governor won't help us!" the Chief Exterminator scoffed with disdain "No government official will, they're too worried about public opinion to take the choices necessary to keep the Republic safe."
"But surely, if they already understand the danger of predators-"
"And you think the original colonists didn't?" he cut him off venomously "They all knew about predators and predatory individuals, and yet they let themselves be fooled by sweet words and a nice story, because it gave their life a new meaning, because it gave them a new hope for the future. And in the meantime they stopped acting like Venlil and started acting like predator-minded savages!"
For a while all Traka could hear was the laboured breath of the Venlil, even as his mind was running at full speed trying to understand what they were talking about. Could they be talking about the famed cult that was supposed to have once taken control of the colony? If so, just what did this cult preach that they felt threatened by it?
"No, this isn't something we can leave to our politicians, we need to take care of this because we're the only one who can" the Venlil continued "Which is why I find it so vexing that you're still clinging to half measures!"
"I don't understand Sir" Gimmil replied nervously.
"You're still treating them as people we can rehabilitate, prioritizing their capture even as they show no restraints against our own people" the other Venlil chastitised him "You need to understand that there's no saving them, not once they started down this path, so you don't need to concern yourself with questions of excessive force, only what is the most optimal way to get past them."
"Sir, those are still Venlil down there" the Exterminator replied aghast, a feeling Traka shared "They're still our people, you can't be suggesting-"
"Weren't you listening?!" his superior stopped him angrily "The moment they started spouting that rubbish about the Holy Pilgimage it was already too late for them! What you should focus on is stopping this mess from getting worse, no matter what it takes! Smoke them out, pour burning fuel down those tunnels, bring the mountain down on their head and shift through the rubble if you have to! But I want them gone and their damned trinket in our custody, did I make myself clear?"
The Exterminator was silent, probably speechless, something Traka could relate to; when he decided to dig deeper into the mistery behind Professor Sorrent actions he thought he would uncover a case of corruption or something similar, he definitely wasn't ready for learning that apparently the Venlil in charge of protecting the colony from predators was in favour of murdering his own people over a perceived threat they represented.
"Did I make myself clear?" he repeated more forcefully.
"Yes... Sir" the other Venlil confirmed haltingly.
"Good" the Exterminator said more calmly "We can discuss about those concerns you brought up at a later date, for now your second-in-command can take over for those. As for you, the loss of an eye, while tragic, doesn't stop you from planning how you're going to deal with our infestation, so I suggest you don't waste anymore time on it."
Traka didn't stay behind to see if there was anything else he could learn, he turned off his datapad and stormed out of the hospital, his mind storming with thoughts; what was he supposed to do with this information, try and get in contact with the Venlil government? Despite what he managed to fool others into believing his presence on Luyten wasn't official and any sort of proof he could present could be easily be dismissed by any decent committee in charge of overseing Exterminators actions.
For that matter, he came there on suspicion of foul play by Gojid Exterminator Corps, was whatever was going on in Luyten related? Was it some kind of Federation wide conspiracy? Who was he supposed to report to, to trust in that case?
For the first time in his life Traka found he was in the position to make a difference and yet he didn't know how to make so.
He didn't like the feeling at all.
First-Previous-Next
2023.03.26 22:21 CheeserlolVr Cinnamonroll Movie??!!🔛🔝🗣🗣🗣
 | Script: The town of Gorilla Tag Maps was a peaceful place where the gorillas lived happily with their families. Among them was Cinnamonroll, an orange gorilla who was loved by all for his friendly and playful nature. submitted by CheeserlolVr to FindCinnamonrRoll [link] [comments] One day, the gorillas woke up to find that Cinnamonroll was missing. They searched everywhere but couldn't find him. Everyone in the town was worried about his safety and they decided to form a crew to find him. The crew was named "Find Cinnamonroll" and was led by Kam, a wise and experienced monkey. Along with Kam were other monkeys who followed his orders, including Cheeserlol, who was known for his silly behavior and often made the others laugh. The crew searched high and low, covered every corner of the town, and asked every gorilla they met. They even ventured into the dense jungle outside the town, but Cinnamonroll was nowhere to be found. As days passed by, the crew faced many challenges, from dangerous predators to treacherous terrain. But they never gave up hope and continued their search with full determination. However, as time went by, the crew began to lose hope. They had searched every possible place and had no clue where Cinnamonroll could be. Just when they were about to give up, they received a clue from a gorilla who had seen Cinnamonroll in the nearby forest. The crew quickly rushed to the forest and searched for him. They searched for hours in the dense forest and finally, they found him. Cinnamonroll was stuck in a trap set by hunters who came to the forest to capture the gorillas. The crew freed him from the trap, and Cinnamonroll was overjoyed to be reunited with his friends. The crew returned to the town with Cinnamonroll and were greeted by a huge crowd of gorillas who were relieved to see their beloved friend safe and sound. The crew was hailed as heroes, and Kam was praised for his leadership. In the end, the crew had found Cinnamonroll, and the town was once again filled with joy and happiness. Even though he was found cheeserlol went into the woods because something was in control of him... |
2023.03.26 21:42 returntoB612 could be the theme song for cptsd kids
 | submitted by returntoB612 to CPTSDmemes [link] [comments] |
2023.03.26 21:36 rocketpunk13 Guys rearrange A Kid 😳
submitted by rocketpunk13 to radioheadcirclejerk [link] [comments]
2023.03.26 21:20 fireshinobi123 Absolute Beginner...any tips, tricks, and sample meal prep plans?
I'm trying to lose weight, and one way I figured could help is to plan my meals beforehand. Issue is, I got no clue on what to do with meal prep, other than putting food into containers and making it look oddly nice in pictures.
I want to try making separate 'prep plans'. One for healthy snacks and the other for actual meals. So far, I don't have a ton of space in the fridge since I'm living with family, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it I guess.
So, are there any tips, tricks or sample meal prep plans that I should know for an absolute beginner.
Some other things about me in case they help:
Looking forward to hearing all of it, thanks!
submitted by fireshinobi123 to MealPrepSunday [link] [comments]
I want to try making separate 'prep plans'. One for healthy snacks and the other for actual meals. So far, I don't have a ton of space in the fridge since I'm living with family, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it I guess.
So, are there any tips, tricks or sample meal prep plans that I should know for an absolute beginner.
Some other things about me in case they help:
- I go to the gym as much as possible (trying to lose fat and gain muscle to get lean)
- I'm not an expert at cooking. I could follow instructions well, but most I've done on my own is fry some eggs lol (probably embarrassing). But while following instructions and stuff, I could make a variety of things like Ground Beef Sliders (my best one I'd say)
- I tend to get weird cravings a lot, so for snacks I'd probably aim for something fruit wise to tackle it
- My mom insists I eat her meals (very heavy at times) for Dinner, but if the Meal Prep is good enough, I think she will allow it.
Looking forward to hearing all of it, thanks!
2023.03.26 21:18 fireshinobi123 Absolute Beginner...any tips, tricks, and sample meal prep plans?
I'm trying to lose weight, and one way I figured could help is to plan my meals beforehand. Issue is, I got no clue on what to do with meal prep, other than putting food into containers and making it look oddly nice in pictures.
I want to try making separate 'prep plans'. One for healthy snacks and the other for actual meals. So far, I don't have a ton of space in the fridge since I'm living with family, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it I guess.
So, are there any tips, tricks or sample meal prep plans that I should know for an absolute beginner.
Some other things about me in case they help:
Looking forward to hearing all of it, thanks!
submitted by fireshinobi123 to mealprep [link] [comments]
I want to try making separate 'prep plans'. One for healthy snacks and the other for actual meals. So far, I don't have a ton of space in the fridge since I'm living with family, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it I guess.
So, are there any tips, tricks or sample meal prep plans that I should know for an absolute beginner.
Some other things about me in case they help:
- I go to the gym as much as possible (trying to lose fat and gain muscle to get lean)
- I'm not an expert at cooking. I could follow instructions well, but most I've done on my own is fry some eggs lol (probably embarrassing). But while following instructions and stuff, I could make a variety of things like Ground Beef Sliders (my best one I'd say)
- I tend to get weird cravings a lot, so for snacks I'd probably aim for something fruit wise to tackle it
- My mom insists I eat her meals (very heavy at times) for Dinner, but if the Meal Prep is good enough, I think she will allow it.
Looking forward to hearing all of it, thanks!
2023.03.26 21:08 Gloomy_Objective_611 cant produce any natural lubrication - hormonal, pH, or other?
24F - i treated ureaplasma back in august after realizing i was reinfected by my ex who didnt finish his treatment. i finished 2 weeks of doxi and azithro. my symptoms before treatment were watery and creamy discharge (a lot of it), burning, itching, abdominal pain, and frequently having to pee. i took a couple TOC’s and tested for coinfections through evvy in october. im now about 7 months post treatment and glad to say that most of these symptoms are gone - i dont have to pee as often and im in no pain or discomfort. my issue now that i cant figure out is that im insanely dry. my body wont produce ANY discharge, and if it does, its the littlest bit of creamy white consistency. my normal consistency is clear like egg yolk. i shouldnt be this dry at 24. ive tried clindamycin cream for CV, my pH returned to normal at some point so i left it alone from antibiotics. i then tried estrogen cream for 2 months and noticed no difference except i havent had a period at all since january now. im at a complete loss and have no clue what to do anymore. i dont want to “wait it out” because ive been waiting it out for so long and what if im just wasting time instead of finding the root cause of my issues? if anybodys experienced something similar or can give me any leads to follow up with id appreciate it so much.
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2023.03.26 20:56 -Artrovert Does anyone else get extreme surveillance anxiety during a seizure?
Like all of a sudden you feel like you’re being watched and that everyone knows what you’re thinking and can see into your soul or whatever? I get this feeling of being so naked and exposed and it’s followed by shame or even super heavy guilt sometimes. No clue where the guilt comes from lol. And it happens even if I’m completely alone, no one else in the room. That’s one of my big tells that I’m about to fall out lol
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2023.03.26 20:47 aDittyaDay [Wraith: Of Villains] - Ch 15
Start Previous [Next]() Index
Dust Jacket Summary
Peter Raves is not a Villain. But he is going to kill a Hero.
Peter carries in his veins the blood of one of the greatest superheroes who has ever lived—and yet his power is pitifully weak. To his family, and to the world, Peter is completely worthless.
After a lifetime of abuse at his father’s hands, Peter runs away from home. He ends up in Caledan, the seat of the Council of Heroes and the central focus of all Hero-Villain activity on Earth. Every day, Heroes and Villains vie against each other in spectacular battles that enrapture the masses. The most famous of all the Heroes in Caledan is Carmen Bauer, popularly known as The Shield. He is the youngest Hero to ever sit on the Council, one of the strongest superheroes alive today—and anomalous for inheriting Heroes’ power even though he is at the end of his bloodline.
Driven to prove his own strength, Peter will go to any length to defeat this mightiest of Heroes, but he has no idea what he is getting himself into. A war is coming, and Peter is about to be caught in the middle of it all. Somehow, he must balance his ambitions against his principles—and try not to lose himself along the way.
×××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××
Wraith: Of Villains - Chapter 15
15 Undozutre
The foyer to Naku’s home was a broad rotunda with fishbone-patterned flooring and plaster molding on the walls. Five different doors made of stained glass perforated the perimeter at even intervals, and a carpeted stairway curved up to a decorated landing ringing a chandelier.
“It’s been seven months since we met,” Naku commented as Peter entered. Closing the door behind Peter, Naku thumped heavily across the rotunda toward the door with a stained-glass image of a winged fleur-de-lis. “It took you long enough to find me.”
Following, Peter protested defensively, “I wasn’t looking for you.”
“And why not?” Naku retorted. “I saw the face you tried to hide. A smart man who wears a mask would kill the witnesses.” He passed a narrow-eyed glance over his shoulder. “Like you did with Trevor Kramer.”
Peter gritted his teeth. He still had occasional nightmares of watching Hero Electrum falling to his death. Not as many nowadays, but the memory still made him feel sick to his stomach. As they passed through the fleur-de-lis door and into a carpeted corridor, Peter said, “I… That was an accident. I didn’t do it on purpose. I’m not a killer.” The carpeted hallway soaked up sound, making his statement sound pitiful in the silence.
Naku glanced over his shoulder at Peter. His tone had a bite to it as he commented, “Best keep that sort of vapid sentimentality to yourself, boy.”
Peter furrowed his brow. “I’m not a boy.”
“You look like one.”
“I’m not a child.”
Naku chuckled as they reached the end of the corridor and passed through a metallic door that slid open horizontally at their approach. “How old are you?” he asked, stepping through the doorway.
Peter paused outside the metal door. It opened onto an old-fashioned elevator car. “Nineteen,” he said carefully, all of his old instincts firing like bolts of electricity in the back of his mind.
Holding the elevator door open with one beefy hand, Naku looked Peter up and down in mocking disbelief. “You’re thirteen, if a day.”
“I’m nineteen,” Peter growled. “Where does this rickety old thing go?”
Naku grinned in amusement. “My training room. That’s why you came here, wasn’t it? To get training?”
“Yeah, I just… Elevators can break.”
Naku laughed. “Get on or get out.”
Gritting his teeth, Peter stepped into the elevator car.
“I’ve been excavating this cellar over the years,” Naku exposited as the creaking elevator car slowly bore him and Peter downward. “It’s bound to be as deep as the ridge by now.” Raising his eyebrow at Peter, Naku quipped, “It pays to invest in a hidden lair.” Peter doubted he would need one, but he nodded anyway.
The elevator descended three stories before opening to a hallway branching off in three different directions. As Naku started down the leftmost hallway, he eyed Peter skulking along beside him. “You were on Vaise’s freighter,” the giant bluntly stated.
“So were you,” Peter retorted noncommittally.
Undeterred by the standoffish reply, Naku clarified his point, “Why were you on Vaise’s freighter?”
Peter gritted his teeth. “Let’s just say I have my reasons.”
Naku chuckled as their footsteps echoed in the silent corridor. “One of the things I’m going to teach you is how to pick your battles, kid. And let me make it clear to you—this is not a battle worth picking. If you wish to learn what I can teach you, there needs to be a level of trust and openness.”
Peter chewed the inside of his lip. He was here to learn, not to make friends. But if a touch of transparency was the payment, he supposed he could compromise.
“I was there for the same reason you were. To get aether dust.”
Naku fixed his one-eyed leer on Peter, the smirk wrinkling his damaged eye. “I was there to pad my wallet, boy. All you had with you was a small thermos to carry aether dust. Even a small amount of dust can get you rich, but there is literally no reason not to go for the bigger haul. So what the hell do you want aether dust for?”
Peter gritted his teeth, unwilling to answer. With reluctance, Peter said, “I need aether dust to… to make… a gun.”
“There are plenty of guns on the black market. Besides, most Heroes have bodyshields against guns. Plenty have enough power to survive a bullet, anyway.”
Carmen most of all, Peter agreed, his resolve hardening. “That’s why I need to make one. So that their power isn’t a problem.”
“What, gamguns!?” At that, Naku suddenly burst into harsh laughter, scalding Peter with his derision. “Gamguns are a science fiction theory, kid. They don’t exist. You can’t make a gun that just strips a Hero of its power. Trust me, plenty of Villains have tried.”
Glaring at Naku sourly, Peter muttered, “I’m not a Villain.”
Naku’s smirk merely deepened as he turned to push open a blue door. When Peter stepped through, his eyes widened in awe at what he saw. The door opened into a room as large as a baseball diamond. Stacked against the walls were all manner of strength training equipment, weapons stands, work tables, and computer terminals. On the far side of the large room was a shooting lane, the target wall peppered with pock marks and soot from various weapons. There was even a rack full of myriad tools that Peter recognized from his mechanic schooling, with a wearable robot arm currently perched in one of the vises. In this single room, Naku had the means for crafting and practicing with every sort of weapon and biomechanical aid imaginable.
For the first time, Peter started to feel excited for the things he might be able to learn here.
~
Carmen bolted upright at the sound of furious knocking. Through his bedroom door, down the long hall, and past the dining room and foyer, he heard Celeste’s muffled voice shouting, “_Come on, Carmen, open up!_”
Flinging the sweaty covers away from himself, Carmen launched himself out of bed and snatched up the nearest pair of pants. “You girls have to go,” he hissed, his foot getting stuck halfway through the pant leg. He tossed it aside when he realized he was trying to don Melody’s leather leggings. “_Right now!_”
“Is that bitch still hunting us?” Hope asked, pushing away the duvet that Carmen had thrown over her and sitting up. Her hedgehog spikes had crumpled somewhat from the pillow. “I thought you threw her off our trail.”
“I’ve been trying,” Carmen rasped, tripping over one of his shoes in his haste to reach the next nearest pair of pants. He fell over with a loud thud.
The bathroom door opened, releasing a cloud of steam, and Melody stepped out, her hair wrapped up in a towel and water dripping off her breasts. “What’s all the commotion?”
Sitting up next to Hope, Reverie pushed her singular blue lock of hair behind her ear and drawled, “Carmen’s bird buddy is here.”
“You three need to leave!” Carmen snapped, shimmying into his pants.
“We could just kill her, too, if you want,” Melody smirked, retrieving her leather leggings from across the room. “I’d invite her to join us, but she’s too focused on her work to take even ten minutes off to relax.”
“I bet she’d be game once she sees Carmen without his trousers,” Reverie grinned.
“I’m just tired of her interrupting our fun,” Hope added, crawling out of bed to dress. “Please can we kill her?”
“No!” Carmen protested, buttoning a wrinkled shirt. “I need you girls to stay under the radar. You’re useless to me otherwise.”
“Hurtful. I like it,” Reverie snickered lasciviously.
“Don’t think so highly of yourselves,” Carmen snorted dismissively. “From the beginning, I only kept you around for one purpose.”
“Yeah, to kill,” Hope put in helpfully. “Whenever it served you. If your birdy bitch finds out about us, how is that helpful?”
“She doesn’t know,” Carmen muttered, “so you need to lay low. Things are just delicate at present, especially after what you did to Theo. If you kill any more Heroes right now, the Council will label you all Villains.”
“Ugh, that would be a drag,” Melody groaned as she pulled the towel out of her hair. Without her hair done up in the ridiculous mohawk, it looked thin and lanky.
“Just sneak out the window while I go distract her,” Carmen commanded, and with that, he rushed out into the hall.
Celeste looked fit to murder by the time he cracked open the front door. Without awaiting a greeting, she shoved her way inside.
“Celeste, why are you here?” Carmen asked, sidling in between her and the back hallway to redirect her pacing. “I—”
“You know everyone in the Council,” she interrupted, finally stopping to face him. “Who is our handler for local Villains outside of Caledan?”
Carmen frowned in confusion. “Why are… We’ve never been assigned anything outside of Caledan. Why are you looking for Villains—?”
“Retired Villains,” Celeste corrected. “Retired supervillains. They would have the time to train a mentee, and—”
“You mean Wraith?” Carmen sighed. “Celeste, we really should focus on—”
Celeste suddenly spun to look down the back hallway. “What was that?”
Carmen froze and strained his hearing. He probably should have oiled the window.
Celeste looked at his hastily and crookedly buttoned shirt and raised an eyebrow. “Do you have company?”
Carmen could not help but blush heavily beneath her scrutiny.
To his surprise, and indeed his embarrassment, Celeste actually smirked. “And she’s sneaking out the back? You do know where I come from, right?”
“We’re a bit more… private about… that sorta stuff here on Earth,” Carmen floundered, his face burning.
“I really don’t care,” Celeste shrugged. “Listen, I really think a retired Villain is the most likely mentor for Wraith. Naku’s the only one in Caledan, and I already confirmed that he doesn’t have a mentee—”
“You went to see Naku!?” Carmen repeated incredulously. “Alone!? Celeste, are you insane!?”
“I had to do something!” Celeste argued. “Clive was a dead end, and I still can’t find out where those Snap girls are—”
“Those girls aren’t Villains,” Carmen interrupted. “They’re within civilian jurisdiction, not ours! Just leave it alone, Celeste!”
She paused, her mouth hanging on whatever word he had cut off. After a moment, she sealed her lips, her expression closed.
I messed up, Carmen realized, frantically trying to figure out how to salvage this. Celeste’s appearance so early in the morning, while the Snap triplets were right there in the other room, had thrown him off. Relax, he commanded himself, watching Celeste take a step back and slowly resume her quiet pacing. Remember we’re still on the same side.
Softening his voice, Carmen amended, “I’m not saying to give up. Just… Let me help. Please. We only need Council approval to partner up when we’re going against a registered Villain. Wraith isn’t, and neither are the Snap girls, so let’s take advantage of that. Show the world that we’re more effective when we work together—and maybe get rid of that law requiring approval in the first place. Remember why we’re here, Celeste. To fix the Council. To fix the laws.”
Celeste finally stopped pacing and turned to face him again. “So help me. Tell me who our handler is so I can find retired Villains outside of Caledan.”
Carmen sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not saying no,” he prefaced, “but Celeste, can’t you hear yourself? All we have on the guy is a glove with no DNA. You… might be right that he has a rich sponsor, but now you’re chasing down retired supervillains. These guys are called supervillains for a reason. They’re far more capable than run-of-the-mill Villains. They can hold their own against Heroes, even if they don’t have power like us. And they’re retired, not conquered, and certainly not reformed. You have to be careful about this. It would not be beneficial to rile them up by questioning all of them. Are you certain this isn’t just rushing down a rabbit hole?”
The guarded look in Celeste's eye turned inward. “I know,” she muttered. It was the first time Carmen had heard her sound even vaguely uncertain of herself. “I just don’t want to have to wait for Wraith to strike again. There’s no guarantee he’ll leave behind evidence anyway. The glove was a fluke, and it barely gave us anything.”
Carmen nodded, his brow creasing in sympathy. “Let’s take a step back, then. Review his past targets. Maybe it’ll give us a clue about where he’ll strike next. Have we run a Hapsin simulation yet?”
“Not even enough info to pick a Merrigold-Chek’ta parameter,” Celeste countered.
“Well, we’re superheroes,” Carmen grinned. “We’ve got instinct. Let’s use that.”
Celeste gave him a long look before releasing a quiet sigh. “Alright,” she finally agreed. “But if we don’t get any leads, I’m going to keep questioning the retired supervillains.”
Carmen smiled in secret relief. He thought he had successfully kept her off of the Snap triplets’ trail for now. And hopefully the girls had enough time to get far enough away.
~
Celeste left Carmen to rebutton his shirt and flew to the nearest high rooftop to overlook the gleaming city of Caledan. Since the day she had met Carmen almost six years ago, she had thought she could trust him.
So how long had he been misleading her? And why?
~
Just as Peter stepped into Naku’s underground training room, he heard a loud, productive cough coming from the right, and he spun in alarm. Sitting against a table was a sickly man with long, stringy hair combed back from his forehead. A crooked-toothed smile twisted his narrow face askew, and his silver eyes looked wild and giddy against his pasty complexion. Narrowing his eyes, Peter could not help but think the man looked familiar.
It was not until the man stood and shuffled forward, reaching up a hand to scratch at his scalp, that Peter realized why he recognized the stranger. Replace the pressed shirt and pants with tattered rags, and it was obvious who the man was. That night the psychotic Snap triplets had attacked the tram where Peter and Delia had run into Tony, the vagabond had been on the train, too. At the time, Peter had been wary of the unkempt man, even though it had been the three teenagers who had ended up being the dangerous ones. Peter had fought the Snap girls to protect Delia, but it was Celeste who ended up stopping them. She had crashed into the tram, ripping it in half so violently that it had flung several civilians into open air, himself included, before Celeste managed to bear them all to safety. Peter vividly recalled the image of the sickly vagabond reaching out a hand in an attempt to catch Peter as he fell.
Scratching idly at the back of his scalp, the sickly man mused, “Ah, so he finally arrived.”
Letting the door swing shut behind him, Naku stepped past Peter to join the snuffling little man. The vagabond looked minuscule beside the giant. Turning back to Peter, Naku stated, “Allow me to introduce you to my colleague, Vibes.”
Peter frowned. Vibes? He had heard that name before… Eyes widening in realization, he stated, “You’re the Villain who trained Kason.”
Pure delight filled the man’s crazy eyes. “You’ve heard of me! All the way out here!” Elbowing Naku in the side, he piqued, “I told you I could be inspiring!”
Crossing his beefy arms, Naku cast an irked look towards the twitchy little man and snorted, “The kid says he’s not a Villain.”
If possible, Vibes’ crazy smile stretched even wider. Yet despite the clear insanity, for the first time, Peter thought he saw a sinister gleam in those silver eyes. “You’re not a Villain?” he repeated, directing the statement at Peter. His voice was thin and wiry, simultaneously light-hearted and threatening.
With both men grinning at him as if he was a foolish child, Peter’s anger began to boil within him. “No, I’m not,” he snapped. “And I never will be.”
“You sound so sure,” Vibes piped. “Given that you came to a Villain for help.”
“I want to learn, and apparently you want to teach,” Peter retorted. “I can’t go to a Hero for training, so I’ll settle for a Villain.”
Vibes rolled his eyes and puffed out his cheeks. “Heroes, Villains… You make it sound like the difference actually matters.”
“It does,” Peter snapped hotly. “I am not a Villain.”
“Tell me, boy,” Naku suddenly barked. “What is the difference between a Hero and a Villain?”
Peter scoffed. What kind of question was that? “For one,” he retorted, “Heroes have power. For another, Villains are the bad guys—”
“Wrong,” Naku interrupted, and Vibes began snickering. “It has nothing to do with ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys.’ You see, like Heroes, Villains are trying to fix things. We’re just doing it in a different way, forced to do so because of the corrupted system.”
Peter shook his head, frowning. “But Vibes was training Kason to be a Villain. I know for a fact he had no interest in ‘fixing’ anything.”
“Kason would never have been a Villain,” Naku said with a slight hint of disgust. “He was not an… idealist.”
“Kason was just a way to get your attention,” Vibes interrupted. He smiled thinly. “It worked, didn’t it? You knew him as he was before—and you saw what he had become. You saw the benefit to having a mentor. A Villain, no less.”
A chill settled at the base of Peter’s skull, slowly creeping down his spine. It was all… planned…? “How could you possibly know that would work?” he asked quietly.
Vibes just grinned. “I got a feeling.”
Glancing between the two Villains, Peter had to restrain himself from taking a wary step back. “So… why?”
Naku held his gaze steadily as he answered, “We have our reasons.”
The non-answer sounded significantly more threatening now than it had at Naku’s front door. Peter studied the two men with increasing suspicion, embittered by their recalcitrance. What did two Villains want with him? Why him? Were they planning on using him as a pawn, just as they had Kason?
You need training, he reminded himself. He had failed and failed and failed, and he needed a win. He needed what the Villains could teach him. He needed this.
Whatever the Villains wanted him for did not matter. His only goal was to kill Carmen. Then he would get the hell out of Caledan. But for now… for the sake of getting what he needed from them… he supposed he could play along.
♤
(C) RLK 2022
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Dust Jacket Summary
Peter Raves is not a Villain. But he is going to kill a Hero.
Peter carries in his veins the blood of one of the greatest superheroes who has ever lived—and yet his power is pitifully weak. To his family, and to the world, Peter is completely worthless.
After a lifetime of abuse at his father’s hands, Peter runs away from home. He ends up in Caledan, the seat of the Council of Heroes and the central focus of all Hero-Villain activity on Earth. Every day, Heroes and Villains vie against each other in spectacular battles that enrapture the masses. The most famous of all the Heroes in Caledan is Carmen Bauer, popularly known as The Shield. He is the youngest Hero to ever sit on the Council, one of the strongest superheroes alive today—and anomalous for inheriting Heroes’ power even though he is at the end of his bloodline.
Driven to prove his own strength, Peter will go to any length to defeat this mightiest of Heroes, but he has no idea what he is getting himself into. A war is coming, and Peter is about to be caught in the middle of it all. Somehow, he must balance his ambitions against his principles—and try not to lose himself along the way.
×××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××
Wraith: Of Villains - Chapter 15
15 Undozutre
The foyer to Naku’s home was a broad rotunda with fishbone-patterned flooring and plaster molding on the walls. Five different doors made of stained glass perforated the perimeter at even intervals, and a carpeted stairway curved up to a decorated landing ringing a chandelier.
“It’s been seven months since we met,” Naku commented as Peter entered. Closing the door behind Peter, Naku thumped heavily across the rotunda toward the door with a stained-glass image of a winged fleur-de-lis. “It took you long enough to find me.”
Following, Peter protested defensively, “I wasn’t looking for you.”
“And why not?” Naku retorted. “I saw the face you tried to hide. A smart man who wears a mask would kill the witnesses.” He passed a narrow-eyed glance over his shoulder. “Like you did with Trevor Kramer.”
Peter gritted his teeth. He still had occasional nightmares of watching Hero Electrum falling to his death. Not as many nowadays, but the memory still made him feel sick to his stomach. As they passed through the fleur-de-lis door and into a carpeted corridor, Peter said, “I… That was an accident. I didn’t do it on purpose. I’m not a killer.” The carpeted hallway soaked up sound, making his statement sound pitiful in the silence.
Naku glanced over his shoulder at Peter. His tone had a bite to it as he commented, “Best keep that sort of vapid sentimentality to yourself, boy.”
Peter furrowed his brow. “I’m not a boy.”
“You look like one.”
“I’m not a child.”
Naku chuckled as they reached the end of the corridor and passed through a metallic door that slid open horizontally at their approach. “How old are you?” he asked, stepping through the doorway.
Peter paused outside the metal door. It opened onto an old-fashioned elevator car. “Nineteen,” he said carefully, all of his old instincts firing like bolts of electricity in the back of his mind.
Holding the elevator door open with one beefy hand, Naku looked Peter up and down in mocking disbelief. “You’re thirteen, if a day.”
“I’m nineteen,” Peter growled. “Where does this rickety old thing go?”
Naku grinned in amusement. “My training room. That’s why you came here, wasn’t it? To get training?”
“Yeah, I just… Elevators can break.”
Naku laughed. “Get on or get out.”
Gritting his teeth, Peter stepped into the elevator car.
“I’ve been excavating this cellar over the years,” Naku exposited as the creaking elevator car slowly bore him and Peter downward. “It’s bound to be as deep as the ridge by now.” Raising his eyebrow at Peter, Naku quipped, “It pays to invest in a hidden lair.” Peter doubted he would need one, but he nodded anyway.
The elevator descended three stories before opening to a hallway branching off in three different directions. As Naku started down the leftmost hallway, he eyed Peter skulking along beside him. “You were on Vaise’s freighter,” the giant bluntly stated.
“So were you,” Peter retorted noncommittally.
Undeterred by the standoffish reply, Naku clarified his point, “Why were you on Vaise’s freighter?”
Peter gritted his teeth. “Let’s just say I have my reasons.”
Naku chuckled as their footsteps echoed in the silent corridor. “One of the things I’m going to teach you is how to pick your battles, kid. And let me make it clear to you—this is not a battle worth picking. If you wish to learn what I can teach you, there needs to be a level of trust and openness.”
Peter chewed the inside of his lip. He was here to learn, not to make friends. But if a touch of transparency was the payment, he supposed he could compromise.
“I was there for the same reason you were. To get aether dust.”
Naku fixed his one-eyed leer on Peter, the smirk wrinkling his damaged eye. “I was there to pad my wallet, boy. All you had with you was a small thermos to carry aether dust. Even a small amount of dust can get you rich, but there is literally no reason not to go for the bigger haul. So what the hell do you want aether dust for?”
Peter gritted his teeth, unwilling to answer. With reluctance, Peter said, “I need aether dust to… to make… a gun.”
“There are plenty of guns on the black market. Besides, most Heroes have bodyshields against guns. Plenty have enough power to survive a bullet, anyway.”
Carmen most of all, Peter agreed, his resolve hardening. “That’s why I need to make one. So that their power isn’t a problem.”
“What, gamguns!?” At that, Naku suddenly burst into harsh laughter, scalding Peter with his derision. “Gamguns are a science fiction theory, kid. They don’t exist. You can’t make a gun that just strips a Hero of its power. Trust me, plenty of Villains have tried.”
Glaring at Naku sourly, Peter muttered, “I’m not a Villain.”
Naku’s smirk merely deepened as he turned to push open a blue door. When Peter stepped through, his eyes widened in awe at what he saw. The door opened into a room as large as a baseball diamond. Stacked against the walls were all manner of strength training equipment, weapons stands, work tables, and computer terminals. On the far side of the large room was a shooting lane, the target wall peppered with pock marks and soot from various weapons. There was even a rack full of myriad tools that Peter recognized from his mechanic schooling, with a wearable robot arm currently perched in one of the vises. In this single room, Naku had the means for crafting and practicing with every sort of weapon and biomechanical aid imaginable.
For the first time, Peter started to feel excited for the things he might be able to learn here.
~
Carmen bolted upright at the sound of furious knocking. Through his bedroom door, down the long hall, and past the dining room and foyer, he heard Celeste’s muffled voice shouting, “_Come on, Carmen, open up!_”
Flinging the sweaty covers away from himself, Carmen launched himself out of bed and snatched up the nearest pair of pants. “You girls have to go,” he hissed, his foot getting stuck halfway through the pant leg. He tossed it aside when he realized he was trying to don Melody’s leather leggings. “_Right now!_”
“Is that bitch still hunting us?” Hope asked, pushing away the duvet that Carmen had thrown over her and sitting up. Her hedgehog spikes had crumpled somewhat from the pillow. “I thought you threw her off our trail.”
“I’ve been trying,” Carmen rasped, tripping over one of his shoes in his haste to reach the next nearest pair of pants. He fell over with a loud thud.
The bathroom door opened, releasing a cloud of steam, and Melody stepped out, her hair wrapped up in a towel and water dripping off her breasts. “What’s all the commotion?”
Sitting up next to Hope, Reverie pushed her singular blue lock of hair behind her ear and drawled, “Carmen’s bird buddy is here.”
“You three need to leave!” Carmen snapped, shimmying into his pants.
“We could just kill her, too, if you want,” Melody smirked, retrieving her leather leggings from across the room. “I’d invite her to join us, but she’s too focused on her work to take even ten minutes off to relax.”
“I bet she’d be game once she sees Carmen without his trousers,” Reverie grinned.
“I’m just tired of her interrupting our fun,” Hope added, crawling out of bed to dress. “Please can we kill her?”
“No!” Carmen protested, buttoning a wrinkled shirt. “I need you girls to stay under the radar. You’re useless to me otherwise.”
“Hurtful. I like it,” Reverie snickered lasciviously.
“Don’t think so highly of yourselves,” Carmen snorted dismissively. “From the beginning, I only kept you around for one purpose.”
“Yeah, to kill,” Hope put in helpfully. “Whenever it served you. If your birdy bitch finds out about us, how is that helpful?”
“She doesn’t know,” Carmen muttered, “so you need to lay low. Things are just delicate at present, especially after what you did to Theo. If you kill any more Heroes right now, the Council will label you all Villains.”
“Ugh, that would be a drag,” Melody groaned as she pulled the towel out of her hair. Without her hair done up in the ridiculous mohawk, it looked thin and lanky.
“Just sneak out the window while I go distract her,” Carmen commanded, and with that, he rushed out into the hall.
Celeste looked fit to murder by the time he cracked open the front door. Without awaiting a greeting, she shoved her way inside.
“Celeste, why are you here?” Carmen asked, sidling in between her and the back hallway to redirect her pacing. “I—”
“You know everyone in the Council,” she interrupted, finally stopping to face him. “Who is our handler for local Villains outside of Caledan?”
Carmen frowned in confusion. “Why are… We’ve never been assigned anything outside of Caledan. Why are you looking for Villains—?”
“Retired Villains,” Celeste corrected. “Retired supervillains. They would have the time to train a mentee, and—”
“You mean Wraith?” Carmen sighed. “Celeste, we really should focus on—”
Celeste suddenly spun to look down the back hallway. “What was that?”
Carmen froze and strained his hearing. He probably should have oiled the window.
Celeste looked at his hastily and crookedly buttoned shirt and raised an eyebrow. “Do you have company?”
Carmen could not help but blush heavily beneath her scrutiny.
To his surprise, and indeed his embarrassment, Celeste actually smirked. “And she’s sneaking out the back? You do know where I come from, right?”
“We’re a bit more… private about… that sorta stuff here on Earth,” Carmen floundered, his face burning.
“I really don’t care,” Celeste shrugged. “Listen, I really think a retired Villain is the most likely mentor for Wraith. Naku’s the only one in Caledan, and I already confirmed that he doesn’t have a mentee—”
“You went to see Naku!?” Carmen repeated incredulously. “Alone!? Celeste, are you insane!?”
“I had to do something!” Celeste argued. “Clive was a dead end, and I still can’t find out where those Snap girls are—”
“Those girls aren’t Villains,” Carmen interrupted. “They’re within civilian jurisdiction, not ours! Just leave it alone, Celeste!”
She paused, her mouth hanging on whatever word he had cut off. After a moment, she sealed her lips, her expression closed.
I messed up, Carmen realized, frantically trying to figure out how to salvage this. Celeste’s appearance so early in the morning, while the Snap triplets were right there in the other room, had thrown him off. Relax, he commanded himself, watching Celeste take a step back and slowly resume her quiet pacing. Remember we’re still on the same side.
Softening his voice, Carmen amended, “I’m not saying to give up. Just… Let me help. Please. We only need Council approval to partner up when we’re going against a registered Villain. Wraith isn’t, and neither are the Snap girls, so let’s take advantage of that. Show the world that we’re more effective when we work together—and maybe get rid of that law requiring approval in the first place. Remember why we’re here, Celeste. To fix the Council. To fix the laws.”
Celeste finally stopped pacing and turned to face him again. “So help me. Tell me who our handler is so I can find retired Villains outside of Caledan.”
Carmen sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not saying no,” he prefaced, “but Celeste, can’t you hear yourself? All we have on the guy is a glove with no DNA. You… might be right that he has a rich sponsor, but now you’re chasing down retired supervillains. These guys are called supervillains for a reason. They’re far more capable than run-of-the-mill Villains. They can hold their own against Heroes, even if they don’t have power like us. And they’re retired, not conquered, and certainly not reformed. You have to be careful about this. It would not be beneficial to rile them up by questioning all of them. Are you certain this isn’t just rushing down a rabbit hole?”
The guarded look in Celeste's eye turned inward. “I know,” she muttered. It was the first time Carmen had heard her sound even vaguely uncertain of herself. “I just don’t want to have to wait for Wraith to strike again. There’s no guarantee he’ll leave behind evidence anyway. The glove was a fluke, and it barely gave us anything.”
Carmen nodded, his brow creasing in sympathy. “Let’s take a step back, then. Review his past targets. Maybe it’ll give us a clue about where he’ll strike next. Have we run a Hapsin simulation yet?”
“Not even enough info to pick a Merrigold-Chek’ta parameter,” Celeste countered.
“Well, we’re superheroes,” Carmen grinned. “We’ve got instinct. Let’s use that.”
Celeste gave him a long look before releasing a quiet sigh. “Alright,” she finally agreed. “But if we don’t get any leads, I’m going to keep questioning the retired supervillains.”
Carmen smiled in secret relief. He thought he had successfully kept her off of the Snap triplets’ trail for now. And hopefully the girls had enough time to get far enough away.
~
Celeste left Carmen to rebutton his shirt and flew to the nearest high rooftop to overlook the gleaming city of Caledan. Since the day she had met Carmen almost six years ago, she had thought she could trust him.
So how long had he been misleading her? And why?
~
Just as Peter stepped into Naku’s underground training room, he heard a loud, productive cough coming from the right, and he spun in alarm. Sitting against a table was a sickly man with long, stringy hair combed back from his forehead. A crooked-toothed smile twisted his narrow face askew, and his silver eyes looked wild and giddy against his pasty complexion. Narrowing his eyes, Peter could not help but think the man looked familiar.
It was not until the man stood and shuffled forward, reaching up a hand to scratch at his scalp, that Peter realized why he recognized the stranger. Replace the pressed shirt and pants with tattered rags, and it was obvious who the man was. That night the psychotic Snap triplets had attacked the tram where Peter and Delia had run into Tony, the vagabond had been on the train, too. At the time, Peter had been wary of the unkempt man, even though it had been the three teenagers who had ended up being the dangerous ones. Peter had fought the Snap girls to protect Delia, but it was Celeste who ended up stopping them. She had crashed into the tram, ripping it in half so violently that it had flung several civilians into open air, himself included, before Celeste managed to bear them all to safety. Peter vividly recalled the image of the sickly vagabond reaching out a hand in an attempt to catch Peter as he fell.
Scratching idly at the back of his scalp, the sickly man mused, “Ah, so he finally arrived.”
Letting the door swing shut behind him, Naku stepped past Peter to join the snuffling little man. The vagabond looked minuscule beside the giant. Turning back to Peter, Naku stated, “Allow me to introduce you to my colleague, Vibes.”
Peter frowned. Vibes? He had heard that name before… Eyes widening in realization, he stated, “You’re the Villain who trained Kason.”
Pure delight filled the man’s crazy eyes. “You’ve heard of me! All the way out here!” Elbowing Naku in the side, he piqued, “I told you I could be inspiring!”
Crossing his beefy arms, Naku cast an irked look towards the twitchy little man and snorted, “The kid says he’s not a Villain.”
If possible, Vibes’ crazy smile stretched even wider. Yet despite the clear insanity, for the first time, Peter thought he saw a sinister gleam in those silver eyes. “You’re not a Villain?” he repeated, directing the statement at Peter. His voice was thin and wiry, simultaneously light-hearted and threatening.
With both men grinning at him as if he was a foolish child, Peter’s anger began to boil within him. “No, I’m not,” he snapped. “And I never will be.”
“You sound so sure,” Vibes piped. “Given that you came to a Villain for help.”
“I want to learn, and apparently you want to teach,” Peter retorted. “I can’t go to a Hero for training, so I’ll settle for a Villain.”
Vibes rolled his eyes and puffed out his cheeks. “Heroes, Villains… You make it sound like the difference actually matters.”
“It does,” Peter snapped hotly. “I am not a Villain.”
“Tell me, boy,” Naku suddenly barked. “What is the difference between a Hero and a Villain?”
Peter scoffed. What kind of question was that? “For one,” he retorted, “Heroes have power. For another, Villains are the bad guys—”
“Wrong,” Naku interrupted, and Vibes began snickering. “It has nothing to do with ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys.’ You see, like Heroes, Villains are trying to fix things. We’re just doing it in a different way, forced to do so because of the corrupted system.”
Peter shook his head, frowning. “But Vibes was training Kason to be a Villain. I know for a fact he had no interest in ‘fixing’ anything.”
“Kason would never have been a Villain,” Naku said with a slight hint of disgust. “He was not an… idealist.”
“Kason was just a way to get your attention,” Vibes interrupted. He smiled thinly. “It worked, didn’t it? You knew him as he was before—and you saw what he had become. You saw the benefit to having a mentor. A Villain, no less.”
A chill settled at the base of Peter’s skull, slowly creeping down his spine. It was all… planned…? “How could you possibly know that would work?” he asked quietly.
Vibes just grinned. “I got a feeling.”
Glancing between the two Villains, Peter had to restrain himself from taking a wary step back. “So… why?”
Naku held his gaze steadily as he answered, “We have our reasons.”
The non-answer sounded significantly more threatening now than it had at Naku’s front door. Peter studied the two men with increasing suspicion, embittered by their recalcitrance. What did two Villains want with him? Why him? Were they planning on using him as a pawn, just as they had Kason?
You need training, he reminded himself. He had failed and failed and failed, and he needed a win. He needed what the Villains could teach him. He needed this.
Whatever the Villains wanted him for did not matter. His only goal was to kill Carmen. Then he would get the hell out of Caledan. But for now… for the sake of getting what he needed from them… he supposed he could play along.
♤
(C) RLK 2022
[Next]()
2023.03.26 20:20 supremegentlemale /fit/izen is a bit dense
submitted by supremegentlemale to 4chan [link] [comments]
2023.03.26 20:10 Snoodlewonker Found under a video of "Build a bitch".
| | submitted by Snoodlewonker to WePoopyShitty [link] [comments] |
2023.03.26 19:51 Rosyredelectricblue Visiting Moab? Read this!
Hello lovely visitors, the Moab season is starting to ramp up and I have a few reminders for all of you before visiting our special town.
Number one is; do not plan on having access to a bathroom regularly. It is illegal and immoral to bury waste in Grand County. Plan on using the toilet before your adventure or bring a WAG Bag, they can be purchased at any outdoor gear store, visitor center, or the information center. Finding poop on every hike is getting really gross and exhausting.
Number two; use the crosswalk. Moab main street is HWY 191, it is busy and bustling. We have semis coming through, off road vehicles, first time drivers in a foreign location, new drivers, vacation brain, etc. Every year people are hit and killed on our main street - don't end up ruining your life or someone else's.
Number three; pack your patience. Moab is built on the tourism and service industry, we understand where are money comes from. Remember, we are all humans and some of us work more than 2 jobs with long hours, not the best wages, and dealing with hundreds of people who just got here that have no clue what's going on. Be kind, tip well, and read reviews before eating out or using a service.
Number four; get informed! The Moab Information Center has all of the verbal information and maps you could ever need. It's located on Main and Center streets, the folks are friendly and knowledgeable, let them help you. Know of any permits or certificates you may need to do your activity. Talk to a Trail Ambassador on the weekends at popular trailheads like Corona Arch or Millcreek Canyon, they wear green and have fun giveaways!
Number five; Don't be trashy! Leave No Trace. Carry out your litter, don't expect trash cans and dumpsters at trailheads or campsites. Don't put the trash in the pit toilets or on the floor inside of them. The dog waste only bins are for dog waste only. We have 3 million visitors a year - have a good impact.
Number six; Respect where you play. Don't ruin our home. Respect archeological sites - don't carve into the rocks or touch them. Respect paleontological sites - don't carve into them or steal objects. Dont climb on wet rock. Don't scratch into our rocks (it doesnt ever wash away despite what you may think). Stay on the trail and protect fragile desert soil. Follow leash laws. The impact from visitors is more apparent every day, you have a choice, do the right thing and if you're not sure what to do, ask!
Number seven; be safe. Tell someone your plans and when you plan to return. Drink plenty of water and eat salty snacks. Drink electrolytes. Eat a good meal before setting out. Stay in your comfort zone. Carry a SPOT or Garmin InReach. Know how to get help without cell phone service. Bring proper first aid kits and any needed medications. Stay away from cliff edges. You can die here even on vacation, it happens more than I'd like to admit. When you endanger yourself you endanger the lovely locals who have to come help you. Accidents happen but use your best judgement.
If you have questions I can help answer them or just go to the Discover Moab website and watch all of the fun videos!
submitted by Rosyredelectricblue to Utah [link] [comments]
Number one is; do not plan on having access to a bathroom regularly. It is illegal and immoral to bury waste in Grand County. Plan on using the toilet before your adventure or bring a WAG Bag, they can be purchased at any outdoor gear store, visitor center, or the information center. Finding poop on every hike is getting really gross and exhausting.
Number two; use the crosswalk. Moab main street is HWY 191, it is busy and bustling. We have semis coming through, off road vehicles, first time drivers in a foreign location, new drivers, vacation brain, etc. Every year people are hit and killed on our main street - don't end up ruining your life or someone else's.
Number three; pack your patience. Moab is built on the tourism and service industry, we understand where are money comes from. Remember, we are all humans and some of us work more than 2 jobs with long hours, not the best wages, and dealing with hundreds of people who just got here that have no clue what's going on. Be kind, tip well, and read reviews before eating out or using a service.
Number four; get informed! The Moab Information Center has all of the verbal information and maps you could ever need. It's located on Main and Center streets, the folks are friendly and knowledgeable, let them help you. Know of any permits or certificates you may need to do your activity. Talk to a Trail Ambassador on the weekends at popular trailheads like Corona Arch or Millcreek Canyon, they wear green and have fun giveaways!
Number five; Don't be trashy! Leave No Trace. Carry out your litter, don't expect trash cans and dumpsters at trailheads or campsites. Don't put the trash in the pit toilets or on the floor inside of them. The dog waste only bins are for dog waste only. We have 3 million visitors a year - have a good impact.
Number six; Respect where you play. Don't ruin our home. Respect archeological sites - don't carve into the rocks or touch them. Respect paleontological sites - don't carve into them or steal objects. Dont climb on wet rock. Don't scratch into our rocks (it doesnt ever wash away despite what you may think). Stay on the trail and protect fragile desert soil. Follow leash laws. The impact from visitors is more apparent every day, you have a choice, do the right thing and if you're not sure what to do, ask!
Number seven; be safe. Tell someone your plans and when you plan to return. Drink plenty of water and eat salty snacks. Drink electrolytes. Eat a good meal before setting out. Stay in your comfort zone. Carry a SPOT or Garmin InReach. Know how to get help without cell phone service. Bring proper first aid kits and any needed medications. Stay away from cliff edges. You can die here even on vacation, it happens more than I'd like to admit. When you endanger yourself you endanger the lovely locals who have to come help you. Accidents happen but use your best judgement.
If you have questions I can help answer them or just go to the Discover Moab website and watch all of the fun videos!