Mere sai written update
ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal Write better, faster, and without limits This deal is unavailable (a bummer, we know). Don't miss a great deal again — drop your email to get all our latest tools!
2023.03.25 15:23 Sea_Knowledge_9329 ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal Write better, faster, and without limits This deal is unavailable (a bummer, we know). Don't miss a great deal again — drop your email to get all our latest tools!
ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal
ParagraphAI is a virtual writing assistant built by a small yet mighty team of creative professionals throughout the United States and Canada.
ParagraphAI unleashes the power of AI writing by producing exceptional content for all - not just marketers or content creators. With endless use cases, complimentary templates, and customizable tone features, ParagraphAI improves writing quality and quantity of any kind!
No matter what level you are as a writer, there is always room for improvement.
One way to take your writing to the next level is to focus on improving your spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. ParagraphAI ensures that your content is accurate and high-quality, which can set yourself apart from other writers who may not be as meticulous.
Additionally, choosing an appropriate tone for your work will give it a more professional feel and make it more enjoyable to read. Whether you are writing for personal or professional purposes, taking the time to perfect your craft will undoubtedly pay off!
📷Write efficient and effective content for any purpose.
Are you struggling with writer's block? Are you finding it hard to get started on your next writing project?
We can help!
With ParagraphAI Outline, all you need to do is enter a few keywords related to your topic and we will do the rest. It will quickly generate an outline of your article or essay, complete with drafts and finished written content.
Best of all, AI Outline produces plagiarism-free content so you don't have to worry about getting penalized by search engines or copied by other authors.
📷Type in a prompt into the text box, use the sliders to indicate the content’s ideal tone, sit back, relax.
If you're like most people, you probably spend a good chunk of your day responding to emails, messages, comments, and other notifications. It can be time-consuming and tedious, but it's a necessary evil if you want to stay connected with the world.
Thankfully, there's a built-in reply feature in many email and messaging apps that can help you respond quickly and easily. This feature is usually accessed by tapping or clicking on the "reply" button. Once activated, it will bring up a pre-written response that you can edit as needed before sending.
📷ParagraphAI will instantly draft an accurate and grammatically correct response.
Our AI-Powered Chrome extension writes clear, concise, and error-free messages in seconds.
Get access today!
Hide details
Share
This deal is unavailable (a bummer, we know). Don't miss a great deal again — drop your email to get all our latest tools!
EmailStay in the know
60 day money-back guarantee. Try it out for 2 months to make sure it's right for you!
ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal
submitted by Sea_Knowledge_9329 to u/Sea_Knowledge_9329 [link] [comments]
ParagraphAI is a virtual writing assistant built by a small yet mighty team of creative professionals throughout the United States and Canada.
ParagraphAI unleashes the power of AI writing by producing exceptional content for all - not just marketers or content creators. With endless use cases, complimentary templates, and customizable tone features, ParagraphAI improves writing quality and quantity of any kind!
TL;DR
?Write accurate, high-quality content with a tone you selectGenerate 99.9% plagiarism-free professional outlines, drafts and finished written content for any purpose with easeAt-a-glance
Best for
Overview
📷ParagraphAI will instantly draft an accurate and grammatically correct response.No matter what level you are as a writer, there is always room for improvement.
One way to take your writing to the next level is to focus on improving your spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. ParagraphAI ensures that your content is accurate and high-quality, which can set yourself apart from other writers who may not be as meticulous.
Additionally, choosing an appropriate tone for your work will give it a more professional feel and make it more enjoyable to read. Whether you are writing for personal or professional purposes, taking the time to perfect your craft will undoubtedly pay off!
📷Write efficient and effective content for any purpose.
Are you struggling with writer's block? Are you finding it hard to get started on your next writing project?
We can help!
With ParagraphAI Outline, all you need to do is enter a few keywords related to your topic and we will do the rest. It will quickly generate an outline of your article or essay, complete with drafts and finished written content.
Best of all, AI Outline produces plagiarism-free content so you don't have to worry about getting penalized by search engines or copied by other authors.
📷Type in a prompt into the text box, use the sliders to indicate the content’s ideal tone, sit back, relax.
If you're like most people, you probably spend a good chunk of your day responding to emails, messages, comments, and other notifications. It can be time-consuming and tedious, but it's a necessary evil if you want to stay connected with the world.
Thankfully, there's a built-in reply feature in many email and messaging apps that can help you respond quickly and easily. This feature is usually accessed by tapping or clicking on the "reply" button. Once activated, it will bring up a pre-written response that you can edit as needed before sending.
📷ParagraphAI will instantly draft an accurate and grammatically correct response.
Our AI-Powered Chrome extension writes clear, concise, and error-free messages in seconds.
Get access today!
Hide details
Share
ParagraphAI
1 year dealWrite better, faster, and without limits
2 ReviewsThis deal is unavailable (a bummer, we know). Don't miss a great deal again — drop your email to get all our latest tools!
EmailStay in the know
60 day money-back guarantee. Try it out for 2 months to make sure it's right for you!
ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal
Plans & features
Deal terms & conditions
- 📷1 Year of access to ParagraphAI
- 📷You must redeem your code(s) within 60 days of purchase
- 📷1 Year of plan updates
- 📷Please note: This deal is not stackable
- ParagraphAI
- Chrome extension and for iOS and Android
- 1,000,000 words/ month, 150 writes/ day
- 99.999% original SEO friendly text
TERMS OF SERVICE
- Introduction
- Age Restrictions
- Responsible Use and Conduct
- In order to access our Resources, you may be required to provide certain information about yourself (such as identification, contact details, etc.) as part of the registration process, or as part of your ability to use the Resources. You agree that any information you provide will always be accurate and up to date.
- You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any login information associated with any account you use to access our Resources. Accordingly, you are responsible for all activities that occur under your account/s.
- Accessing (or attempting to access) any of our Resources by any means other than through the means we provide, is strictly prohibited. You specifically agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of our Resources through any automated, unethical or unconventional means.
- Engaging in any activity that disrupts or interferes with our Resources, including the servers and/or networks to which our Resources are located or connected, is strictly prohibited.
- Attempting to copy, duplicate, reproduce, sell, trade, or resell our Resources is strictly prohibited.
- You are solely responsible any consequences, losses, or damages that we may directly or indirectly incur or suffer due to any unauthorized activities conducted by you, as explained above, and may incur criminal or civil liability.
- We may provide various open communication tools on our website, such as blog comments, blog posts, public chat, forums, message boards, newsgroups, product ratings and reviews, various social media services, etc. You understand that generally we do not pre-screen or monitor the content posted by users of these various communication tools, which means that if you choose to use these tools to submit any type of content to our website, then it is your personal responsibility to use these tools in a responsible and ethical manner. By posting information or otherwise using any open communication tools as mentioned, you agree that you will not upload, post, share, or otherwise distribute any content that:
- Is illegal, threatening, defamatory, abusive, harassing, degrading, intimidating, fraudulent, deceptive, invasive, racist, or contains any type of suggestive, inappropriate, or explicit language;
- Infringes on any trademark, patent, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary right of any party;
- Contains any type of unauthorized or unsolicited advertising;
- Impersonates any person or entity, including any ParagraphAI.com employees or representatives.We have the right at our sole discretion to remove any content that, we feel in our judgment does not comply with this User Agreement, along with any content that we feel is otherwise offensive, harmful, objectionable, inaccurate, or violates any 3rd party copyrights or trademarks. We are not responsible for any delay or failure in removing such content. If you post content that we choose to remove, you hereby consent to such removal, and consent to waive any claim against us.\
- We do not assume any liability for any content posted by you or any other 3rd party users of our website. However, any content posted by you using any open communication tools on our website, provided that it doesn’t violate or infringe on any 3rd party copyrights or trademarks, becomes the property of ParagraphAI.com, and as such, gives us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, publish, publicly display and/or distribute as we see fit. This only refers and applies to content posted via open communication tools as described, and does not refer to information that is provided as part of the registration process, necessary in order to use our Resources. All information provided as part of our registration process is covered by our
- You agree to indemnify and hold harmless ParagraphAI.com and its parent company and affiliates, and their directors, officers, managers, employees, donors, agents, and licensors, from and against all losses, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, resulting from any violation of this User Agreement or the failure to fulfill any obligations relating to your account incurred by you or any other person using your account. We reserve the right to take over the exclusive defense of any claim for which we are entitled to indemnification under this User Agreement. In such event, you shall provide us with such cooperation as is reasonably requested by us.
- Privacy
- Paying Users
- Limitation of Warranties
- Limitation of Liability
- In conjunction with the Limitation of Warranties as explained above, you expressly understand and agree that any claim against us shall be limited to the amount you paid, if any, for use of products and/or services. ParagraphAI.com will not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or exemplary loss or damages which may be incurred by you as a result of using our Resources, or as a result of any changes, data loss or corruption, cancellation, loss of access, or downtime to the full extent that applicable limitation of liability laws apply.
- Copyrights and Trademarks
- All content and materials available on ParagraphAI.com, including but not limited to text, graphics, website name, code, images and logos are the intellectual property of ParagraphAI.com, and are protected by applicable copyright and trademark law. Any inappropriate use, including but not limited to the reproduction, distribution, display or transmission of any content on this site is strictly prohibited, unless specifically authorized by ParagraphAI.com.
- Termination of Use
- You agree that we may, at our sole discretion, suspend or terminate your access to all or part of our website and Resources with or without notice and for any reason, including, without limitation, breach of this User Agreement. Any suspected illegal, fraudulent or abusive activity may be grounds for terminating your relationship and may be referred to appropriate law enforcement authorities. Upon suspension or termination, your right to use the Resources we provide will immediately cease, and we reserve the right to remove or delete any information that you may have on file with us, including any account or login information.
- Governing Law
- This website is controlled by ParagraphAI.com. It can be accessed by most countries around the world. By accessing our website, you agree that the statutes and laws of our state, without regard to the conflict of laws and the United Nations Convention on the International Sales of Goods, will apply to all matters relating to the use of this website and the purchase of any products or services through this site. Furthermore, any action to enforce this User Agreement shall be brought in the federal or state courts You hereby agree to personal jurisdiction by such courts, and waive any jurisdictional, venue, or inconvenient forum objections to such courts.
About ParagraphAI
ParagraphAI is a powerful AI writing assistant that can write and reply to emails, draft articles, and more. Released on iOS, Android, and Chrome, ParagraphAI is accessible and easy to use for students and professionals alike. - Correct your text with perfect grammar - Draft replies to any email - Get a second pair of eyes to analyze the tone and meaning - Save time with ParagraphAI - Input any language and get a flawless native English (or another language) output - Generate plagiarism-free text and more - The possibilities with ParagraphAI are virtually endless2023.03.25 15:02 Purple_Act_4457 ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal Write better, faster, and without limits This deal is unavailable (a bummer, we know). Don't miss a great deal again — drop your email to get all our latest tools!
ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal
ParagraphAI is a virtual writing assistant built by a small yet mighty team of creative professionals throughout the United States and Canada.
ParagraphAI unleashes the power of AI writing by producing exceptional content for all - not just marketers or content creators. With endless use cases, complimentary templates, and customizable tone features, ParagraphAI improves writing quality and quantity of any kind!
No matter what level you are as a writer, there is always room for improvement.
One way to take your writing to the next level is to focus on improving your spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. ParagraphAI ensures that your content is accurate and high-quality, which can set yourself apart from other writers who may not be as meticulous.
Additionally, choosing an appropriate tone for your work will give it a more professional feel and make it more enjoyable to read. Whether you are writing for personal or professional purposes, taking the time to perfect your craft will undoubtedly pay off!
📷Write efficient and effective content for any purpose.
Are you struggling with writer's block? Are you finding it hard to get started on your next writing project?
We can help!
With ParagraphAI Outline, all you need to do is enter a few keywords related to your topic and we will do the rest. It will quickly generate an outline of your article or essay, complete with drafts and finished written content.
Best of all, AI Outline produces plagiarism-free content so you don't have to worry about getting penalized by search engines or copied by other authors.
📷Type in a prompt into the text box, use the sliders to indicate the content’s ideal tone, sit back, relax.
If you're like most people, you probably spend a good chunk of your day responding to emails, messages, comments, and other notifications. It can be time-consuming and tedious, but it's a necessary evil if you want to stay connected with the world.
Thankfully, there's a built-in reply feature in many email and messaging apps that can help you respond quickly and easily. This feature is usually accessed by tapping or clicking on the "reply" button. Once activated, it will bring up a pre-written response that you can edit as needed before sending.
📷ParagraphAI will instantly draft an accurate and grammatically correct response.
Our AI-Powered Chrome extension writes clear, concise, and error-free messages in seconds.
Get access today!
Hide details
Share
This deal is unavailable (a bummer, we know). Don't miss a great deal again — drop your email to get all our latest tools!
EmailStay in the know
60 day money-back guarantee. Try it out for 2 months to make sure it's right for you!
ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal
submitted by Purple_Act_4457 to u/Purple_Act_4457 [link] [comments]
ParagraphAI is a virtual writing assistant built by a small yet mighty team of creative professionals throughout the United States and Canada.
ParagraphAI unleashes the power of AI writing by producing exceptional content for all - not just marketers or content creators. With endless use cases, complimentary templates, and customizable tone features, ParagraphAI improves writing quality and quantity of any kind!
TL;DR
?Write accurate, high-quality content with a tone you selectGenerate 99.9% plagiarism-free professional outlines, drafts and finished written content for any purpose with easeAt-a-glance
Best for
Overview
📷ParagraphAI will instantly draft an accurate and grammatically correct response.No matter what level you are as a writer, there is always room for improvement.
One way to take your writing to the next level is to focus on improving your spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. ParagraphAI ensures that your content is accurate and high-quality, which can set yourself apart from other writers who may not be as meticulous.
Additionally, choosing an appropriate tone for your work will give it a more professional feel and make it more enjoyable to read. Whether you are writing for personal or professional purposes, taking the time to perfect your craft will undoubtedly pay off!
📷Write efficient and effective content for any purpose.
Are you struggling with writer's block? Are you finding it hard to get started on your next writing project?
We can help!
With ParagraphAI Outline, all you need to do is enter a few keywords related to your topic and we will do the rest. It will quickly generate an outline of your article or essay, complete with drafts and finished written content.
Best of all, AI Outline produces plagiarism-free content so you don't have to worry about getting penalized by search engines or copied by other authors.
📷Type in a prompt into the text box, use the sliders to indicate the content’s ideal tone, sit back, relax.
If you're like most people, you probably spend a good chunk of your day responding to emails, messages, comments, and other notifications. It can be time-consuming and tedious, but it's a necessary evil if you want to stay connected with the world.
Thankfully, there's a built-in reply feature in many email and messaging apps that can help you respond quickly and easily. This feature is usually accessed by tapping or clicking on the "reply" button. Once activated, it will bring up a pre-written response that you can edit as needed before sending.
📷ParagraphAI will instantly draft an accurate and grammatically correct response.
Our AI-Powered Chrome extension writes clear, concise, and error-free messages in seconds.
Get access today!
Hide details
Share
ParagraphAI
1 year dealWrite better, faster, and without limits
2 ReviewsThis deal is unavailable (a bummer, we know). Don't miss a great deal again — drop your email to get all our latest tools!
EmailStay in the know
60 day money-back guarantee. Try it out for 2 months to make sure it's right for you!
ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal
Plans & features
Deal terms & conditions
- 📷1 Year of access to ParagraphAI
- 📷You must redeem your code(s) within 60 days of purchase
- 📷1 Year of plan updates
- 📷Please note: This deal is not stackable
- ParagraphAI
- Chrome extension and for iOS and Android
- 1,000,000 words/ month, 150 writes/ day
- 99.999% original SEO friendly text
TERMS OF SERVICE
- Introduction
- Age Restrictions
- Responsible Use and Conduct
- In order to access our Resources, you may be required to provide certain information about yourself (such as identification, contact details, etc.) as part of the registration process, or as part of your ability to use the Resources. You agree that any information you provide will always be accurate and up to date.
- You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any login information associated with any account you use to access our Resources. Accordingly, you are responsible for all activities that occur under your account/s.
- Accessing (or attempting to access) any of our Resources by any means other than through the means we provide, is strictly prohibited. You specifically agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of our Resources through any automated, unethical or unconventional means.
- Engaging in any activity that disrupts or interferes with our Resources, including the servers and/or networks to which our Resources are located or connected, is strictly prohibited.
- Attempting to copy, duplicate, reproduce, sell, trade, or resell our Resources is strictly prohibited.
- You are solely responsible any consequences, losses, or damages that we may directly or indirectly incur or suffer due to any unauthorized activities conducted by you, as explained above, and may incur criminal or civil liability.
- We may provide various open communication tools on our website, such as blog comments, blog posts, public chat, forums, message boards, newsgroups, product ratings and reviews, various social media services, etc. You understand that generally we do not pre-screen or monitor the content posted by users of these various communication tools, which means that if you choose to use these tools to submit any type of content to our website, then it is your personal responsibility to use these tools in a responsible and ethical manner. By posting information or otherwise using any open communication tools as mentioned, you agree that you will not upload, post, share, or otherwise distribute any content that:
- Is illegal, threatening, defamatory, abusive, harassing, degrading, intimidating, fraudulent, deceptive, invasive, racist, or contains any type of suggestive, inappropriate, or explicit language;
- Infringes on any trademark, patent, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary right of any party;
- Contains any type of unauthorized or unsolicited advertising;
- Impersonates any person or entity, including any ParagraphAI.com employees or representatives.We have the right at our sole discretion to remove any content that, we feel in our judgment does not comply with this User Agreement, along with any content that we feel is otherwise offensive, harmful, objectionable, inaccurate, or violates any 3rd party copyrights or trademarks. We are not responsible for any delay or failure in removing such content. If you post content that we choose to remove, you hereby consent to such removal, and consent to waive any claim against us.\
- We do not assume any liability for any content posted by you or any other 3rd party users of our website. However, any content posted by you using any open communication tools on our website, provided that it doesn’t violate or infringe on any 3rd party copyrights or trademarks, becomes the property of ParagraphAI.com, and as such, gives us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, publish, publicly display and/or distribute as we see fit. This only refers and applies to content posted via open communication tools as described, and does not refer to information that is provided as part of the registration process, necessary in order to use our Resources. All information provided as part of our registration process is covered by our
- You agree to indemnify and hold harmless ParagraphAI.com and its parent company and affiliates, and their directors, officers, managers, employees, donors, agents, and licensors, from and against all losses, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, resulting from any violation of this User Agreement or the failure to fulfill any obligations relating to your account incurred by you or any other person using your account. We reserve the right to take over the exclusive defense of any claim for which we are entitled to indemnification under this User Agreement. In such event, you shall provide us with such cooperation as is reasonably requested by us.
- Privacy
- Paying Users
- Limitation of Warranties
- Limitation of Liability
- In conjunction with the Limitation of Warranties as explained above, you expressly understand and agree that any claim against us shall be limited to the amount you paid, if any, for use of products and/or services. ParagraphAI.com will not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or exemplary loss or damages which may be incurred by you as a result of using our Resources, or as a result of any changes, data loss or corruption, cancellation, loss of access, or downtime to the full extent that applicable limitation of liability laws apply.
- Copyrights and Trademarks
- All content and materials available on ParagraphAI.com, including but not limited to text, graphics, website name, code, images and logos are the intellectual property of ParagraphAI.com, and are protected by applicable copyright and trademark law. Any inappropriate use, including but not limited to the reproduction, distribution, display or transmission of any content on this site is strictly prohibited, unless specifically authorized by ParagraphAI.com.
- Termination of Use
- You agree that we may, at our sole discretion, suspend or terminate your access to all or part of our website and Resources with or without notice and for any reason, including, without limitation, breach of this User Agreement. Any suspected illegal, fraudulent or abusive activity may be grounds for terminating your relationship and may be referred to appropriate law enforcement authorities. Upon suspension or termination, your right to use the Resources we provide will immediately cease, and we reserve the right to remove or delete any information that you may have on file with us, including any account or login information.
- Governing Law
- This website is controlled by ParagraphAI.com. It can be accessed by most countries around the world. By accessing our website, you agree that the statutes and laws of our state, without regard to the conflict of laws and the United Nations Convention on the International Sales of Goods, will apply to all matters relating to the use of this website and the purchase of any products or services through this site. Furthermore, any action to enforce this User Agreement shall be brought in the federal or state courts You hereby agree to personal jurisdiction by such courts, and waive any jurisdictional, venue, or inconvenient forum objections to such courts.
- Guarantee
- UNLESS OTHERWISE EXPRESSED, ParagraphAI.com EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
2023.03.25 14:43 AutoModerator Stirling Cooper Books (The Set)
If you are interested in getting the Stirling Cooper books you can contact us at (+) 447593882116 (Telegram/WhatsApp).
All Stirling Cooper Books are now available.
The books are updated and complete.
The books of Stirling Cooper will teach you a variety of lessons, most of which include:
The information you will get from the Stirling Cooper books is unique and acannot be learned anywhere else. The lessons you will get from these books will transform you love life forever!
If you want to get the Stirling Cooper books contact us at:
Whatsapp/Telegram: (+) 447593882116 (@multistorecourses)
Reddit DM to u/RequestCourseAccess
Email: silverlakestore[@]yandex.com (remove the brackets)
submitted by AutoModerator to AccessStirlingCooper [link] [comments]
All Stirling Cooper Books are now available.
The books are updated and complete.
The books of Stirling Cooper will teach you a variety of lessons, most of which include:
- Preventing Premature Ejaculation
- How To Grow Dick and Other Industry Secrets
- How To Seal The Deal
- The Ultimate Guide To Performance Anxiety
- 5 Mistakes Men Make
The information you will get from the Stirling Cooper books is unique and acannot be learned anywhere else. The lessons you will get from these books will transform you love life forever!
If you want to get the Stirling Cooper books contact us at:
Whatsapp/Telegram: (+) 447593882116 (@multistorecourses)
Reddit DM to u/RequestCourseAccess
Email: silverlakestore[@]yandex.com (remove the brackets)
2023.03.25 14:40 Right_Dragonfruit242 ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal Write better, faster, and without limits This deal is unavailable (a bummer, we know). Don't miss a great deal again — drop your email to get all our latest tools!
ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal
ParagraphAI is a virtual writing assistant built by a small yet mighty team of creative professionals throughout the United States and Canada.
ParagraphAI unleashes the power of AI writing by producing exceptional content for all - not just marketers or content creators. With endless use cases, complimentary templates, and customizable tone features, ParagraphAI improves writing quality and quantity of any kind!
Share
This deal is unavailable (a bummer, we know). Don't miss a great deal again — drop your email to get all our latest tools!
EmailStay in the know
60 day money-back guarantee. Try it out for 2 months to make sure it's right for you!
ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal
Are you struggling with writer's block? Are you finding it hard to get started on your next writing project?
With ParagraphAI Outline, all you need to do is enter a few keywords related to your topic and we will do the rest. It will quickly generate an outline of your article or essay, complete with drafts and finished written content.
Best of all, AI Outline produces plagiarism-free content so you don't have to worry about getting penalized by search engines or copied by other authors.
If you're like most people, you probably spend a good chunk of your day responding to emails, messages, comments, and other notifications. It can be time-consuming and tedious, but it's a necessary evil if you want to stay connected with the world.
Thankfully, there's a built-in reply feature in many emails and messaging apps that can help you respond quickly and easily. This feature is usually accessed by tapping or clicking on the "reply" button. Once activated, it will bring up a pre-written response that you can edit as needed before sending.
ParagraphAI is a powerful AI writing assistant that can write and reply to emails, draft articles, and more. Released on iOS, Android, and Chrome, ParagraphAI is accessible and easy to use for students and professionals alike. - Correct your text with perfect grammar - Draft replies to any email - Get a second pair of eyes to analyze the tone and meaning - Save time with ParagraphAI - Input any language and get a flawless native English (or another language) output - Generate plagiarism-free text and more - The possibilities with ParagraphAI are virtually endless
submitted by Right_Dragonfruit242 to u/Right_Dragonfruit242 [link] [comments]
ParagraphAI is a virtual writing assistant built by a small yet mighty team of creative professionals throughout the United States and Canada.
ParagraphAI unleashes the power of AI writing by producing exceptional content for all - not just marketers or content creators. With endless use cases, complimentary templates, and customizable tone features, ParagraphAI improves writing quality and quantity of any kind!
TL;DR
?Write accurate, high-quality content with a tone you selectGenerate 99.9% plagiarism-free professional outlines, drafts and finished written content for any purpose with easeAt-a-glance
Best for
Overview
Show more detailsShare
ParagraphAI
1 year dealWrite better, faster, and without limits
2 ReviewsThis deal is unavailable (a bummer, we know). Don't miss a great deal again — drop your email to get all our latest tools!
EmailStay in the know
60 day money-back guarantee. Try it out for 2 months to make sure it's right for you!
ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal
Plans & features
Deal terms & conditions
- 📷1 Year of access to ParagraphAI
- 📷You must redeem your code(s) within 60 days of purchase
- 📷1 Year of plan updates
- 📷Please note: This deal is not stackable
- ParagraphAI
- Chrome extension and for iOS and Android
- 1,000,000 words/ month, 150 writes/ day
- 99.999% original SEO friendly text
Are you struggling with writer's block? Are you finding it hard to get started on your next writing project?
With ParagraphAI Outline, all you need to do is enter a few keywords related to your topic and we will do the rest. It will quickly generate an outline of your article or essay, complete with drafts and finished written content.
Best of all, AI Outline produces plagiarism-free content so you don't have to worry about getting penalized by search engines or copied by other authors.
If you're like most people, you probably spend a good chunk of your day responding to emails, messages, comments, and other notifications. It can be time-consuming and tedious, but it's a necessary evil if you want to stay connected with the world.
Thankfully, there's a built-in reply feature in many emails and messaging apps that can help you respond quickly and easily. This feature is usually accessed by tapping or clicking on the "reply" button. Once activated, it will bring up a pre-written response that you can edit as needed before sending.
ParagraphAI is a powerful AI writing assistant that can write and reply to emails, draft articles, and more. Released on iOS, Android, and Chrome, ParagraphAI is accessible and easy to use for students and professionals alike. - Correct your text with perfect grammar - Draft replies to any email - Get a second pair of eyes to analyze the tone and meaning - Save time with ParagraphAI - Input any language and get a flawless native English (or another language) output - Generate plagiarism-free text and more - The possibilities with ParagraphAI are virtually endless
2023.03.25 14:39 jesterflint007 Python 3.11
I understand asking ETA to OSS maintainers / packagers etc is not an attractive trait, but I can't help but wonder why Python 3.11 takes so long to come to Arch. Is there any progress? What are the bottleneck? Is there something we can help with? If talking percentages, what percentage of work has been done. In approximately how many weeks can we expect python 3.11 to land on archlinux?
Edit:I understand updating python versions is no small feat, I have written a relatively good amount of code in python and I understand the pain in version mismatches. I can imagine so many packages breaking just because of the version update. I posted such a question just because previous version migrations were considerably faster, 3.10 to 3.11 is slower than ever before. Is there a some reason behind it? Are there so many breaking changes?
submitted by jesterflint007 to archlinux [link] [comments]
Edit:I understand updating python versions is no small feat, I have written a relatively good amount of code in python and I understand the pain in version mismatches. I can imagine so many packages breaking just because of the version update. I posted such a question just because previous version migrations were considerably faster, 3.10 to 3.11 is slower than ever before. Is there a some reason behind it? Are there so many breaking changes?
2023.03.25 14:29 SpacePaladin15 The Nature of Predators 101
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Memory transcription subject: Chief Hunter Isif, Arxur Dominion Sector Fleet
Date [standardized human time]: December 7, 2136
Prophet-Descendant Giznel, it turned out, had taken the liberty of mobilizing my fleet to a nearby location. With a strike force already assembled, it was a short voyage to Sillis’ system. FTL disruptors were active solely within the bounds of the planet’s gravity well; the Terrans didn’t expect us to bring reinforcements. It was known to the United Nations that our warlords acted independently to each other.
I suppose they knew it was an exercise in futility, even if FTL-disruptors had smacked us out of transit. The battle would be lost for the humans as soon as new ships arrived, since the Arxur’s solitary nature didn’t prevent us from joining in. To be candid, I couldn’t comprehend how Earth’s measly showing had resisted Shaza’s bruisers this long. The Terrans had a lot of mettle in them.
The Arxur Dominion will respect their tenacity and gumption, if a bit grudgingly. I question whether the humans will fight to the last man though.
As my fleet entered real space, we ensured that our forces were positioned out of firing range. I didn’t want to get dragged into the fight before I could open a channel. The Terrans were shooting Arxur vessels on sight, and they would assume we were bailing out Shaza. I had to assure them my intentions ran against this sector’s Chief Hunter.
The UN vessels swiveled to face us, rather than panicking like prey crews. During our arrival, they hadn’t been engaged with Shaza’s forces; the humans were content keeping the enemy at bay. The stubborn primates must realize they were backed into a corner now, which would force them to the negotiating table.
“Attention, all Arxur vessels in the system,” I growled into my comms, ensuring that my channel was unencrypted. “This is Chief Hunter Isif; by order of Betterment, I am assuming control of your fleet. You are to immediately stand down and await further instruction. I say again: cease all hostile actions.”
The Dominion vessels marauding Sillis halted the meticulous bombing, and I was surprised by their lack of hesitation. Shouldn’t there have been a power struggle, as Shaza issued a counter-order? Gauging by her personality, that Chief Hunter would never respect my decree to stand down. I studied the viewport in shock, before extending a hail to the human fleet.
A female Terran, with reddish hair that halted just shy of her shoulders, accepted my call. Hostility was written on her countenance, though sleep deprivation was visible in her puffy eyes. The UN officer bared her teeth all the same, and stared down the camera. I was unimpressed by humans attempting intimidation on me.
“I recognize you. The famed Captain Monahan…savior of Khoa,” I said in a sugary voice. “After that success, I’m not surprised you’re first in line for combat negotiations.”
Monahan’s scowl deepened. “What is it you’re seeking?”
“A ceasefire. I wish to negotiate an immediate end to hostilities, and regain control of our assets. Is that an amenable proposition to the United Nations?”
“There will be no end of hostilities; not while you’re taking humans as cattle. We’d rather take a lot of you with us, than let you make off with our men and women.”
“What?! We don’t take you as cattle. Are there prisoners or…ahem. Excuse me one moment.”
The human captain’s eyes fluttered with surprise, and she inspected my mannerisms for several seconds. As I scrambled through a log of internal communications, a video message was forwarded from the UNS Rocinante. Monahan had relayed the information for me; I hastily listened to Shaza’s transmission. Shock must’ve been visible on my agape maw, but I couldn’t force it shut.
Had that maniacal Chief Hunter actually threatened to corral humans like Venlil? No wonder the United Nations was digging in their heels with such spite. That also explained why this sector’s Dominion forces complied with my takeover; Shaza alienated her own troops by trying to eat fellow predators. After the Terrans fended off such an overzealous attack, there was no way of classing them as prey.
The average soldier knew this action wouldn’t be condoned by Betterment. It flies against our entire ideology of superiority. It’s next to cannibalistic!
I drew a shuddering breath. “The captives’ release will be facilitated by me, personally. On behalf of the Arxur Dominion, I can assure you we do not support this act in any way. I apologize for Shaza subjecting humans to degrading conditions, which are becoming only of prey.”
“Only becoming of prey?” My qualifier served to make Monahan recoil in disgust. “So if there’s an herbivore who served with us, captured, you won’t release them? That’s not good enough.”
“I should think the release of all humans is a good start.”
“Everyone under the UN emblem is equal to us. I am not trading lives with you.”
“Some is more than none, yes?”
I knew leaving their newfound allies, such as the Venlil, to die was a non-starter from the United Nations. However, Giznel would have my hide if he discovered I’d released the prey with no pushback. It also would suit my motives to gain food in return, given the sector’s depleted cattle farms. Betterment might be happy with starvation, but I wished to resolve that issue for any troops under my control.
A full belly was one way to buy loyalty for a future rebellion. General Jones would understand why I drove a hard bargain with the UN, and why I had to accumulate as many assets as possible. However, it was unclear if the average Terran officer was amenable to hardball. The female human on screen had tensed up again; she was digging her fingernails into her seat.
Captain Monahan pursed her lips. “We have nothing to talk about, since you won’t budge from that stance.”
“If you don’t like my offer, you could make a counter,” I said. “I am just supposed to guess at what you want? Make it worth my while, and I’ll consider returning your…prey creatures.”
“I don’t know what you want! I presume to bomb Sillis unimpeded?”
“The Tilfish attacked your cradle world. You asked us to retaliate against your aggressors. There’s no, tssk, takebacks as you say. I find your attempts to distance yourselves from this fiasco immature.”
“The United Nations will never condone genocide! We’re not on their level. That was a regrettable gamble, in which we had no choice.”
“You were quite happy to accept my ships, human, when I saved your Earth. Don’t let your short memories fail you now. There would be no fleet to fight Shaza and her Sivkit-brained ensemble without me.”
The Terran captain’s glower faltered. “…that was you?”
“Yes. I rescued your species from functional extinction. I had you at my mercy, and I let you be. I think you will find that my policies align with your interests. So I’ll state my demands forthright, but you are going to listen.”
“For Earth, I will humor you. Our devastating losses could’ve been worse. Much worse.”
The medals pinned to Monahan’s uniform had tipped me off to her participation in humanity’s last stand. It was a relief that the reminder of my aid went over better than it had with Secretary-General Zhao. Perhaps some lab-grown meat and a territorial concession would be palatable to the Terran higher-ups. All Giznel demanded was ending the battle and getting the sector back under our control.
As long as I achieve his stated ends, I’ll appear more competent than Shaza. Not that that’s saying much.
I narrowed my eyes to slits. “You’ve taken much from us. The return of this sector, alongside a non-aggression pact with Arxur outposts under my domain, is non-negotiable.”
“We know what you’ll do to those sapients you had. Returning them to your custody is unethical, and would be a ghastly reflection on the UN.”
“Forget the cattle. I expect compensation. I want some of the farm animals in your possession on Earth…the ones you certainly don’t have just for specialty meats.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Learn quickly. Otherwise, I might accidentally leak a dossier on ‘factory farming’ and ‘safari hunting’ to Zurulian communication satellites. I’m sure you wouldn’t want that.”
The color drained from Monahan’s cheeks. “That is quite unnecessary.”
“It will be, when you comply with my reasonable requests. All Terran ships will stand down at once. In return, I will retrieve any UN captives, including non-humans, for you. We will leave Sillis, but I expect future negotiations on that concession.”
“So we’re just supposed to stand down, and trust that you’ll hand over our side of the deal later?”
“Precisely, because I keep my word. There is precedent: I returned the Venlil cattle per a similar arrangement. If I say I’ll return your people, consider it done.”
“What about the Tilfish civilians? They were under our protection.”
“…you people make no sense. Fine, you can have your human-killing bugs. But there better be more heads of cattle that we get back than we gave away.”
“I’ll take that into consideration, Isif. Is that all?”
“For now. Go call the higher-ups with those FTL comms you definitely don’t have access to. I’ll be waiting.”
I terminated the call, satisfied at the threats I’d chosen to lobby at Captain Monahan. Sharing their predatory traits with their allies wasn’t something the UN did in laborious detail. However, humans being kept as cattle was unacceptable to me, even if a deal wasn’t solidified. Gesturing to an underling, I summoned a shuttle bound for Shaza’s fleet.
A security detail accompanied my transport, equipped to handle any resistance. It took a few seconds to fire off an encrypted transmission, requesting the locations of Shaza and her human captives. Dominion vessels did not fire upon my transport; acknowledgments flooded in, kowtowing to my status. Arrogant as ever, the female Chief Hunter had Terran prisoners routed to her personal command ship.
That placed both of my objectives in the same location. Genuine anticipation of the kill thrummed in my chest. It would be delightful not to feign pleasure during an execution; eliminating Shaza was a step forward for my species. What kind of Arxur got bested by feisty predators, and reacted with vulgar threats? Betterment would never support her actions, which were unbecoming even of their office.
My pupils scanned the command ship, which was a bulky giant with gratuitous armor. Ornaments resembling prey heads decorated the hull, and multiple decks allowed for a hearty amount of cattle onboard. My shuttle was dwarfed by the colossal ship; its size was impractical in combat action. The rogue Chief Hunter cared too much for projecting strength, enough to sacrifice all mobility.
As I closed in on Shaza’s command post, the human fleet reopened a hail. My patience had been dwindling with their government; this wasn’t the time for deliberation. It shouldn’t be difficult for Captain Monahan to relay a straight answer. The social predators shouldn’t be chattering amongst themselves during a crisis.
General Jones claimed humans don’t want war with the entire Dominion. The UN has to work with me for that reason.
Monahan breathed a flustered sigh. “I’ll get to the point. Secretary-General Zhao signed off on the deal, if you throw in one sweetener. Transfer Shaza to our custody.”
“Oh, that is your kicker? I could not care what happens to her,” I chuckled. “We are much like independent warlords on your world. I was going to execute her, but I suppose that also fits my orders to ‘dispose of her.’”
“Excellent. While I have your attention, Zhao asked me to tell you something else. He says he is…sorry for his conduct. Whatever that means.”
“Well, I think your species cherishes empty words more than mine does. I’ll arrange the transfer, human. Don’t do anything stupid.”
I cut the transmission once more, and reminded myself that it was irrational to hold a grudge. Still, I had zero interest in reassessing Zhao’s affronts on a call. General Jones had misled him, but that didn’t erase the fact that he treated me like an animal. If the UN leader saw all Arxur as savages, that wasn’t something I intended to forgive lightly.
Then again, if I considered it with sincerity, Felra would say the same things about me…and worse. My friendship with the Dossur was a grave error of judgment. The fact that she assumed any cordial predator was a human spoke volumes about our repute versus theirs. Everyone thought we were monsters who deserved what happened to us. Considered that our plight was somewhat self-inflicted, they might be right.
A jolt rippled through the shuttle, as we latched onto Shaza’s command ship. I gestured for my security detail to raise their weapons; my paw hovered over my sidearm as well. But no gunfire greeted us upon entry, nor was there any sign of hostile intent. Instead, a wall of guards had the disgraced Chief Hunter on her knees. Her right eye was bloodied and swollen shut, which presented some obvious questions.
Shaza looked indignant, despite the pistol planted against her skull. “Isif. Those insolent apes just wouldn’t let it go! They’re chest-beating monkeys with nothing but cheap tricks.”
“Any normal Arxur would respect a worthy opponent in combat. Tell me, why do you think your people are so eager to restrain you?”
“The humans need to be humbled! My minions here don’t see that I had to impart that lesson…in a way they’d remember.”
“Oh, they’ll remember alright. We do not eat fellow sapients. There is one other predator in the galaxy, and you cannot treat them with respect?!”
“They’re stupid and emotional. It’s their weakness. When they see their kind herded up, it will break them.”
“I suspect your ploy merely pisses the humans off, Shaza. Nice shiner you’ve got there, is it not?”
“Quit your mockery! The one I took as my personal meal…it jabbed its thumb in my eye and started twisting. Awful wretch! I carved it up very slowly for that. Those ‘predators’ scream just the same as Venlil, though the taste leaves something to be desired.”
A wave of cold disgust washed over me. “You actually ate a human?!”
“Yes, very chewy. Listen, those captives might keep fighting today, but they will give up and cower in time. Let the cattle experiment go on. Surely Betterment—”
I lunged at the Chief Hunter, throwing my maw into the side of her temple. Shaza crumpled into a heap, and my hide quivered with revulsion. It would be ironic to torture her into “screaming like a Venlil” now; that would invalidate her prior argument. Pain wasn’t exclusionary to prey, after all. It was a shame the humans requested her alive, so I couldn’t have any fun breaking her will.
My gaze swept around the room, inspecting her forces. “The battle of Sillis is over! Betterment would rather point our guns at prey than predators. We’d rather eat prey than predators. If any of you have a problem with that, there are several airlocks with your name on it. I suggest you use them.”
The assembled Dominion soldiers nodded, and hauled the unconscious Shaza to her feet. My security detail helped them cart her onto a transport; bindings were applied to her lithe form, ensuring that she couldn’t stir up mayhem. I debated how to return the human cattle, without having them gouge out our eyes. It needed to be crystal clear that we were not aligned with the former Chief Hunter.
“Ready that transport, and prep several more. Load all UN captives on there, unharmed and of their own volition,” I growled. “Before you release any penned humans, please reiterate that we’re there to free and return them. State that we have an explicit agreement with their government. Also, allow them to fly the shuttles back to their fleet on their own.”
One of my security guards bared his teeth. “What happens when they see Shaza on the first ship?”
“Tell them that the human cattle was her idea, and she’s a rogue warlord. Also tell them…they can do whatever they want with her. She was left on that shuttle as a gift!”
The Arxur underling chuckled to himself, picturing the furious humans brutalizing her. I found Shaza’s circumstances quite amusing as well. This was likely not what Secretary-General Zhao had in mind, by asking me to hand her over to UN custody. But on a technical level, my decision was in full compliance with his request. I’d fulfilled my end of the bargain, while having some malicious fun at her expense.
Once this situation was resolved, the humans could return their attention to the Federation. That was where their focus belonged; it would also save me from the awkward position of mediating this dispute. My next priority was heading to a dead drop location, so that General Jones could learn what Giznel had revealed. Perhaps the Terrans could devise a way to utilize the information for insurgency.
---
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Memory transcription subject: Chief Hunter Isif, Arxur Dominion Sector Fleet
Date [standardized human time]: December 7, 2136
Prophet-Descendant Giznel, it turned out, had taken the liberty of mobilizing my fleet to a nearby location. With a strike force already assembled, it was a short voyage to Sillis’ system. FTL disruptors were active solely within the bounds of the planet’s gravity well; the Terrans didn’t expect us to bring reinforcements. It was known to the United Nations that our warlords acted independently to each other.
I suppose they knew it was an exercise in futility, even if FTL-disruptors had smacked us out of transit. The battle would be lost for the humans as soon as new ships arrived, since the Arxur’s solitary nature didn’t prevent us from joining in. To be candid, I couldn’t comprehend how Earth’s measly showing had resisted Shaza’s bruisers this long. The Terrans had a lot of mettle in them.
The Arxur Dominion will respect their tenacity and gumption, if a bit grudgingly. I question whether the humans will fight to the last man though.
As my fleet entered real space, we ensured that our forces were positioned out of firing range. I didn’t want to get dragged into the fight before I could open a channel. The Terrans were shooting Arxur vessels on sight, and they would assume we were bailing out Shaza. I had to assure them my intentions ran against this sector’s Chief Hunter.
The UN vessels swiveled to face us, rather than panicking like prey crews. During our arrival, they hadn’t been engaged with Shaza’s forces; the humans were content keeping the enemy at bay. The stubborn primates must realize they were backed into a corner now, which would force them to the negotiating table.
“Attention, all Arxur vessels in the system,” I growled into my comms, ensuring that my channel was unencrypted. “This is Chief Hunter Isif; by order of Betterment, I am assuming control of your fleet. You are to immediately stand down and await further instruction. I say again: cease all hostile actions.”
The Dominion vessels marauding Sillis halted the meticulous bombing, and I was surprised by their lack of hesitation. Shouldn’t there have been a power struggle, as Shaza issued a counter-order? Gauging by her personality, that Chief Hunter would never respect my decree to stand down. I studied the viewport in shock, before extending a hail to the human fleet.
A female Terran, with reddish hair that halted just shy of her shoulders, accepted my call. Hostility was written on her countenance, though sleep deprivation was visible in her puffy eyes. The UN officer bared her teeth all the same, and stared down the camera. I was unimpressed by humans attempting intimidation on me.
“I recognize you. The famed Captain Monahan…savior of Khoa,” I said in a sugary voice. “After that success, I’m not surprised you’re first in line for combat negotiations.”
Monahan’s scowl deepened. “What is it you’re seeking?”
“A ceasefire. I wish to negotiate an immediate end to hostilities, and regain control of our assets. Is that an amenable proposition to the United Nations?”
“There will be no end of hostilities; not while you’re taking humans as cattle. We’d rather take a lot of you with us, than let you make off with our men and women.”
“What?! We don’t take you as cattle. Are there prisoners or…ahem. Excuse me one moment.”
The human captain’s eyes fluttered with surprise, and she inspected my mannerisms for several seconds. As I scrambled through a log of internal communications, a video message was forwarded from the UNS Rocinante. Monahan had relayed the information for me; I hastily listened to Shaza’s transmission. Shock must’ve been visible on my agape maw, but I couldn’t force it shut.
Had that maniacal Chief Hunter actually threatened to corral humans like Venlil? No wonder the United Nations was digging in their heels with such spite. That also explained why this sector’s Dominion forces complied with my takeover; Shaza alienated her own troops by trying to eat fellow predators. After the Terrans fended off such an overzealous attack, there was no way of classing them as prey.
The average soldier knew this action wouldn’t be condoned by Betterment. It flies against our entire ideology of superiority. It’s next to cannibalistic!
I drew a shuddering breath. “The captives’ release will be facilitated by me, personally. On behalf of the Arxur Dominion, I can assure you we do not support this act in any way. I apologize for Shaza subjecting humans to degrading conditions, which are becoming only of prey.”
“Only becoming of prey?” My qualifier served to make Monahan recoil in disgust. “So if there’s an herbivore who served with us, captured, you won’t release them? That’s not good enough.”
“I should think the release of all humans is a good start.”
“Everyone under the UN emblem is equal to us. I am not trading lives with you.”
“Some is more than none, yes?”
I knew leaving their newfound allies, such as the Venlil, to die was a non-starter from the United Nations. However, Giznel would have my hide if he discovered I’d released the prey with no pushback. It also would suit my motives to gain food in return, given the sector’s depleted cattle farms. Betterment might be happy with starvation, but I wished to resolve that issue for any troops under my control.
A full belly was one way to buy loyalty for a future rebellion. General Jones would understand why I drove a hard bargain with the UN, and why I had to accumulate as many assets as possible. However, it was unclear if the average Terran officer was amenable to hardball. The female human on screen had tensed up again; she was digging her fingernails into her seat.
Captain Monahan pursed her lips. “We have nothing to talk about, since you won’t budge from that stance.”
“If you don’t like my offer, you could make a counter,” I said. “I am just supposed to guess at what you want? Make it worth my while, and I’ll consider returning your…prey creatures.”
“I don’t know what you want! I presume to bomb Sillis unimpeded?”
“The Tilfish attacked your cradle world. You asked us to retaliate against your aggressors. There’s no, tssk, takebacks as you say. I find your attempts to distance yourselves from this fiasco immature.”
“The United Nations will never condone genocide! We’re not on their level. That was a regrettable gamble, in which we had no choice.”
“You were quite happy to accept my ships, human, when I saved your Earth. Don’t let your short memories fail you now. There would be no fleet to fight Shaza and her Sivkit-brained ensemble without me.”
The Terran captain’s glower faltered. “…that was you?”
“Yes. I rescued your species from functional extinction. I had you at my mercy, and I let you be. I think you will find that my policies align with your interests. So I’ll state my demands forthright, but you are going to listen.”
“For Earth, I will humor you. Our devastating losses could’ve been worse. Much worse.”
The medals pinned to Monahan’s uniform had tipped me off to her participation in humanity’s last stand. It was a relief that the reminder of my aid went over better than it had with Secretary-General Zhao. Perhaps some lab-grown meat and a territorial concession would be palatable to the Terran higher-ups. All Giznel demanded was ending the battle and getting the sector back under our control.
As long as I achieve his stated ends, I’ll appear more competent than Shaza. Not that that’s saying much.
I narrowed my eyes to slits. “You’ve taken much from us. The return of this sector, alongside a non-aggression pact with Arxur outposts under my domain, is non-negotiable.”
“We know what you’ll do to those sapients you had. Returning them to your custody is unethical, and would be a ghastly reflection on the UN.”
“Forget the cattle. I expect compensation. I want some of the farm animals in your possession on Earth…the ones you certainly don’t have just for specialty meats.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Learn quickly. Otherwise, I might accidentally leak a dossier on ‘factory farming’ and ‘safari hunting’ to Zurulian communication satellites. I’m sure you wouldn’t want that.”
The color drained from Monahan’s cheeks. “That is quite unnecessary.”
“It will be, when you comply with my reasonable requests. All Terran ships will stand down at once. In return, I will retrieve any UN captives, including non-humans, for you. We will leave Sillis, but I expect future negotiations on that concession.”
“So we’re just supposed to stand down, and trust that you’ll hand over our side of the deal later?”
“Precisely, because I keep my word. There is precedent: I returned the Venlil cattle per a similar arrangement. If I say I’ll return your people, consider it done.”
“What about the Tilfish civilians? They were under our protection.”
“…you people make no sense. Fine, you can have your human-killing bugs. But there better be more heads of cattle that we get back than we gave away.”
“I’ll take that into consideration, Isif. Is that all?”
“For now. Go call the higher-ups with those FTL comms you definitely don’t have access to. I’ll be waiting.”
I terminated the call, satisfied at the threats I’d chosen to lobby at Captain Monahan. Sharing their predatory traits with their allies wasn’t something the UN did in laborious detail. However, humans being kept as cattle was unacceptable to me, even if a deal wasn’t solidified. Gesturing to an underling, I summoned a shuttle bound for Shaza’s fleet.
A security detail accompanied my transport, equipped to handle any resistance. It took a few seconds to fire off an encrypted transmission, requesting the locations of Shaza and her human captives. Dominion vessels did not fire upon my transport; acknowledgments flooded in, kowtowing to my status. Arrogant as ever, the female Chief Hunter had Terran prisoners routed to her personal command ship.
That placed both of my objectives in the same location. Genuine anticipation of the kill thrummed in my chest. It would be delightful not to feign pleasure during an execution; eliminating Shaza was a step forward for my species. What kind of Arxur got bested by feisty predators, and reacted with vulgar threats? Betterment would never support her actions, which were unbecoming even of their office.
My pupils scanned the command ship, which was a bulky giant with gratuitous armor. Ornaments resembling prey heads decorated the hull, and multiple decks allowed for a hearty amount of cattle onboard. My shuttle was dwarfed by the colossal ship; its size was impractical in combat action. The rogue Chief Hunter cared too much for projecting strength, enough to sacrifice all mobility.
As I closed in on Shaza’s command post, the human fleet reopened a hail. My patience had been dwindling with their government; this wasn’t the time for deliberation. It shouldn’t be difficult for Captain Monahan to relay a straight answer. The social predators shouldn’t be chattering amongst themselves during a crisis.
General Jones claimed humans don’t want war with the entire Dominion. The UN has to work with me for that reason.
Monahan breathed a flustered sigh. “I’ll get to the point. Secretary-General Zhao signed off on the deal, if you throw in one sweetener. Transfer Shaza to our custody.”
“Oh, that is your kicker? I could not care what happens to her,” I chuckled. “We are much like independent warlords on your world. I was going to execute her, but I suppose that also fits my orders to ‘dispose of her.’”
“Excellent. While I have your attention, Zhao asked me to tell you something else. He says he is…sorry for his conduct. Whatever that means.”
“Well, I think your species cherishes empty words more than mine does. I’ll arrange the transfer, human. Don’t do anything stupid.”
I cut the transmission once more, and reminded myself that it was irrational to hold a grudge. Still, I had zero interest in reassessing Zhao’s affronts on a call. General Jones had misled him, but that didn’t erase the fact that he treated me like an animal. If the UN leader saw all Arxur as savages, that wasn’t something I intended to forgive lightly.
Then again, if I considered it with sincerity, Felra would say the same things about me…and worse. My friendship with the Dossur was a grave error of judgment. The fact that she assumed any cordial predator was a human spoke volumes about our repute versus theirs. Everyone thought we were monsters who deserved what happened to us. Considered that our plight was somewhat self-inflicted, they might be right.
A jolt rippled through the shuttle, as we latched onto Shaza’s command ship. I gestured for my security detail to raise their weapons; my paw hovered over my sidearm as well. But no gunfire greeted us upon entry, nor was there any sign of hostile intent. Instead, a wall of guards had the disgraced Chief Hunter on her knees. Her right eye was bloodied and swollen shut, which presented some obvious questions.
Shaza looked indignant, despite the pistol planted against her skull. “Isif. Those insolent apes just wouldn’t let it go! They’re chest-beating monkeys with nothing but cheap tricks.”
“Any normal Arxur would respect a worthy opponent in combat. Tell me, why do you think your people are so eager to restrain you?”
“The humans need to be humbled! My minions here don’t see that I had to impart that lesson…in a way they’d remember.”
“Oh, they’ll remember alright. We do not eat fellow sapients. There is one other predator in the galaxy, and you cannot treat them with respect?!”
“They’re stupid and emotional. It’s their weakness. When they see their kind herded up, it will break them.”
“I suspect your ploy merely pisses the humans off, Shaza. Nice shiner you’ve got there, is it not?”
“Quit your mockery! The one I took as my personal meal…it jabbed its thumb in my eye and started twisting. Awful wretch! I carved it up very slowly for that. Those ‘predators’ scream just the same as Venlil, though the taste leaves something to be desired.”
A wave of cold disgust washed over me. “You actually ate a human?!”
“Yes, very chewy. Listen, those captives might keep fighting today, but they will give up and cower in time. Let the cattle experiment go on. Surely Betterment—”
I lunged at the Chief Hunter, throwing my maw into the side of her temple. Shaza crumpled into a heap, and my hide quivered with revulsion. It would be ironic to torture her into “screaming like a Venlil” now; that would invalidate her prior argument. Pain wasn’t exclusionary to prey, after all. It was a shame the humans requested her alive, so I couldn’t have any fun breaking her will.
My gaze swept around the room, inspecting her forces. “The battle of Sillis is over! Betterment would rather point our guns at prey than predators. We’d rather eat prey than predators. If any of you have a problem with that, there are several airlocks with your name on it. I suggest you use them.”
The assembled Dominion soldiers nodded, and hauled the unconscious Shaza to her feet. My security detail helped them cart her onto a transport; bindings were applied to her lithe form, ensuring that she couldn’t stir up mayhem. I debated how to return the human cattle, without having them gouge out our eyes. It needed to be crystal clear that we were not aligned with the former Chief Hunter.
“Ready that transport, and prep several more. Load all UN captives on there, unharmed and of their own volition,” I growled. “Before you release any penned humans, please reiterate that we’re there to free and return them. State that we have an explicit agreement with their government. Also, allow them to fly the shuttles back to their fleet on their own.”
One of my security guards bared his teeth. “What happens when they see Shaza on the first ship?”
“Tell them that the human cattle was her idea, and she’s a rogue warlord. Also tell them…they can do whatever they want with her. She was left on that shuttle as a gift!”
The Arxur underling chuckled to himself, picturing the furious humans brutalizing her. I found Shaza’s circumstances quite amusing as well. This was likely not what Secretary-General Zhao had in mind, by asking me to hand her over to UN custody. But on a technical level, my decision was in full compliance with his request. I’d fulfilled my end of the bargain, while having some malicious fun at her expense.
Once this situation was resolved, the humans could return their attention to the Federation. That was where their focus belonged; it would also save me from the awkward position of mediating this dispute. My next priority was heading to a dead drop location, so that General Jones could learn what Giznel had revealed. Perhaps the Terrans could devise a way to utilize the information for insurgency.
---
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2023.03.25 14:27 Thiccc_PUTIN [PROMPT] Man's Best Friend: An Alternate 1990s and Beyond [Chapter III]
Hi guys! This is an alternate history project I am posting on Reddit that will eventually be on Alternatehistory.com as the full timeline. It is centered around pop culture with the premise being that Nirvana making a song for the 90s cartoon Ren & Stimpy resulting in a very different 1990s. I hope you guys enjoy!
INTERVIEWER: Kurt, how did you first get contacted about appearing in an episode of Ren & Stimpy?
KURT COBAIN: Well, uh, you see it’s this phone call I got at fucking 10pm, from some guy named Eric Stefani.
INTERVIEWER: And what did he say?
KURT COBAIN: He said he wanted to make a special episode of a cartoon that had us in it. And I mean - I was a little hesitant at first. I didn't really know much about animation or cartoons. But Eric was really passionate about the idea and kept calling me, so I decided to work with him.
INTERVIEWER: What were those meetings like?
KURT COBAIN: Really interesting shit - to say the least. Eric had all these crazy ideas trying to figure out how the hell he was going to put us in the show, ranging from us being mutated, to being superheroes, to even being aliens. We met up a few times and talked about how we could make it work.
INTERVIEWER: Man, that’s very interesting. So you’re telling me that instead of you being a talking yak in the Swiss Alps, you could have been an alien or superhero?
KURT COBAIN: (laughs) Yeah, I guess I missed out on that opportunity to be a superhero or an alien. Maybe in my next life.[1]
INTERVIEWER: Now, correct me if I’m wrong - but you and the rest of Nirvana were so busy around the time touring and performing that I doubt you had time to write a song for Ren & Stimpy. How did you do it?
KURT COBAIN: Truth be told, “The Yodel Song” was actually an old song that I recorded while screwing around in 1989. It was literally just me yodeling to a guitar riff. I never intended for it to be released, but when Eric approached me about doing a song for the show, I didn’t have the time to write new material - so I went digging up older stuff from a few years back. And wouldn’t you know, that was the song I discovered.[2] So we reworked it a bit and added some yodeling and voila - “The Yodel Song” was born.
INTERVIEWER: That's really cool, Kurt. So what was John Kricfalusi like?
KURT COBAIN: (pauses) Honestly - that guy’s a riot. From what Eric told me in those early days, I got the impression that he can sometimes be a bit psycho on his worst days.
INTERVIEWER: Yes indeed. I’m afraid I’ve heard a lot of stories behind the scenes. Which brings us to the day Kurt first presented “The Yodel Song” to not only writer and artist Eric Stefani - but also series creator John Kricfalusi…..
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
[TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEO RECORDING]
00:00 - *video static and microphone audio interference as Kricfalusi handles camcorder*
00:01 - Kricfalusi: Is it working?
00:02 - Stefani: Ch-check the light on the side, it should be red.
00:04 - Kricfalusi: *stares at camera lens with stressed expression on face* That little punk is running late for the meeting.
00:07 - Stefani: Give him time. You know not everything runs at Narnia time, you know.
00:08 - *Kricfalusi moves away from camera to reveal an office room with tan walls and animation memorabilia. Camera is pointed at angle towards door from a corner. A desk can be seen to the right of view. Stefani pulls a chair to sit at the side of the desk while Krickfalusi sits at the back, hands in clasped position towards face*
00:11 - Kricfalusi: God, I hope this guy isn't wasting our time. We've got a lot of work to do and I don't want to waste it on some mediocre musician.
00:16 - Stefani: You’re kidding me right? Nirvana is literally the biggest rock band right now, and you’re calling them mediocre?
00:24 - Kricfalusi: Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. But you know how it is, Eric. Sometimes the hype doesn't match the talent. *crosses arms* Music these days… why can’t we go back to the days of real music, like the Beatles or the Stones?[3]
00:25 - Stefani: Hey, this isn’t Nirvana’s usual music. Kurt told me last night over the phone that this song had a lot more… *waves hands with a squirmy facial expression* …traditional music…
00:31 - Kricfalusi: Oh… *throws up arms* …so your telling me he’s just gonna play some uppity little tribal music?
00:38 - Stefani: *winces* No! I mean…. He’s just gonna play us an old-timey-
00:42 - *three knocks are heard at the door*
00:43 - Stefani: Come in!
00:45 - *the door creaks open, revealing Kurt Cobain to the camera, with a guitar case in hand*
00:46 - Stefani: Hey, Kurt! Glad you could make it!
00:48 - Cobain: *smiling\* Sorry for being late, guys. Traffic was a nightmare.
00:51 - Kricfalusi: *muttering\* More like he was probably too high to find the place.
00:55 - Stefani: *glares at Kricfalusi before turning to Cobain\* So, show us what you got, Kurt.
00:58 - *Cobain sets down his guitar case and takes out a guitar\*
01:08 - Cobain: Alright, this is a little different than what you might expect from me. It's a song I wrote a couple years back. Let’s just say it’s traditionally themed…
01:15 - Kricfalusi: *Imitates stereotypical Native American war cry*[4]
01:16 - Stefani: *turns to Kricfalusi and speaks in hushed tone* Dude, fucking quit it!
01:18 - *Cobain tunes guitar, testing the strings*
01:29 - Cobain: Yodel-eh, Yodel-eh, Yodel-eh-hoh
01:32 - *guitar riff begins, Stefani and Kricfalusi look on in fascination*
01:57 - Cobain: I hear a sound that’s haunting me
02:00 - Cobain: A melody so dark and free
02:04 - Cobain: It echoes through my troubled mind
02:11 - Cobain: A voice that’s calling, so unkind
02:14 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, haunting me
02:18 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, can’t you see
02:22 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, it’s all I fear
02:26 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, ringing in my ear
02:30 - Cobain: He lures them in with a smile and a charm
02:34 - Cobain: But beneath the surface, there’s something wrong
02:37 - Cobain: He takes him to his lair, a place of fear
02:41 - Cobain: And there he makes them suffer, year after year
02:45 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, haunting me
02:49 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, can’t you see
02:52 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, it’s all I fear
02:56 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, ringing in my ear
03:00 - Cobain: *performs guitar solo in a manner similar to traditional bluegrass music*
03:30 - Cobain: I know he’s not real, but he feels so alive
03:38 - Cobain: He tells me secrets, he makes me strive
03:44 - Cobain: To be someone else, to take on another guise
03:52 - Cobain: But in the end, I’m playing tricks on my eyes \holds on ‘eyes’ as guitar riff crashes down**
04:00 - Cobain: \guitar riff starts back slowly, repeats faster and faster up to the original tempo**
04:30 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, haunting me
04:34 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, can't you see?
04:38 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, it's all I fear
04:42 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, ringing in my ear
04:46 - Cobain: Yodel-ay-ee-oo, the struggle never ends
04:50 - Cobain: Yodel-ay-ee-oo, I fight to make amends
04:54 - Cobain: Yodel-ay-ee-oo, to keep the voices at bay
04:58 - Cobain: Yodel-ay-ee-oo, and live another day
05:02 - Cobain: \guitar riff specs up further and further until it is a surf/metal like riff, Cobain bends and flexes aggressively**[5]
05:22 - Cobain: \guitar riff crashes down to a slow and sad pace**
05:32 - Cobain: \song ends on final twang that trails off over the course of five seconds**
05:38 - Stefani: That. Was. Amazing, Kurt! I've never heard anything like it.
05:45 - Kricfalusi: *nodding in agreement with blank face\* Yeah, that was really something.
05:07 - Cobain: *smiling\* Thanks, guys. I'm glad you liked it.
05:34 - Kricfalusi: *with quizzical expression on face\* So… do you have any plans to work on anything else like this?
05:38 - Cobain: \nodding** Yeah, actually. I've been working on some acoustic stuff lately. I think I'm ready to try some new things.
05:45 - Stefani: That's great to hear, Kurt. We're excited to see what you come up with next. Maybe we can do more stuff like this in the future.[6]
05:52 - Cobain: \smiling** Thanks, guys. I'm excited to see where this goes too.
05:55 - Kricfalusi: Well, we should probably get back to work. We've got a lot to do today.
05:59 - Stefani: Yeah, let's do that. Thanks for coming by, Kurt.
05:59 - Cobain: \smiling** Thanks for having me, guys. It was great meeting you both.
06:03 - \Cobain leaves the room with his guitar case and shuts door**
06:10 - Stefani: \stares at table, thinking intensively**
06:20 - Stefani: So John… you think we should make an episode on this?
06:26 - \Kricfalusi clasps his hands against his face and sighs**
06:31 - Kricfalusi: Eric, you’re a great artist, and I respect you a lot more than I did a few years ago. But here’s the thing: I don’t know if this is a good idea for my show. You have this little jerk who thinks he’s the anti-John Lennon come on and try to turn my show into a big fucking joke.
06:47 - Stefani: Woah, woah, woah. Nirvana isn’t some big corporate boy band made up by a bunch of rich elites in New York. They’re a fully blown countercultural band that’s about pure art. Trust me.
06:56 - \Kricfalusi stares at Stefani**
07:01 - Stefani: They are artists. Just like you and me.
07:07 - \Kricfalusi falls into pondering position**
07:15 - Kricfalusi: \gets up, stretches\ Fine, we’ll do it. But I’ll have no part in it. Other than voicing Ren. It’s all on you for this.
07:21 - Stefani: I… I can work with that.
07:24 - Kricfalusi: Good. *approaches to handle camcorder\* Now help me take down this camco-
[CUT OFF BY VIDEO STATIC]
[VIDEO ENDS]
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
[1] While Kurt Cobain was known for his intense and often dark music, he also had a playful and irreverent side to his personality, as evidenced by some of his interviews and public appearances.
[2] We actually have no idea what song Kurt Cobain wrote for Ren & Stimpy - assuming he even wrote one. However, I believe that song is “The Yodel Song” - a song performed IOTL by Kurt Cobain on his home recordings - which was eventually released as part of the compilation album Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings in 2015. I will elaborate more on that in the next post which will be in a few days.
[3] Since Kricfalusi grew up in the 60s, there’s a chance that he would have been into those bands. Hell, he even worked with Ralph Bakshi to make the music video for the Stones’ 1986 single Harlem Shuffle.
[4] Again, mid-century mentality Kricfalusi has in regards to Native Americans (or First Nations peoples as the people up North call it).
[5] If you want a more detailed picture, think a mix of the riff from Dick Dale’s “Miserlou” and the ending to Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” mixed with the ending of OTL’s Yodel Song.
[6] F o r e s h a d o w i n g
But as crazy as it sounds, it kinda makes sense. Both Nirvana and Ren & Stimpy broke the mold of everything that came before them in their respective fields. Nirvana and Ren & Stimpy were both part of the cultural zeitgeist of the early 1990s, and their unconventional approaches to their respective art forms resonated with audiences. Nirvana's music challenged the mainstream rock scene with their raw, unpolished sound and lyrics that tackled social issues, while Ren & Stimpy pushed the boundaries of children's animation with its surreal humor and gross-out gags.
On a more somber note, both Kurt Cobain and John Kricfalusi fell from grace at some point. First Kurt. It’s no secret that Kurt had struggled with addiction to heroin and had severe mental health issues - issues that only got worse as Nirvana’s fame grew and became the talk of the media and general public. In 1992, Cobain married Courtney Love - another musician who struggled with addiction and mental health issues. Their relationship was tumultuous, and made headlines in the tabloids. In fact, ALL of Cobain’s personal life was being intruded upon by the paparazzi and the media. His addiction was getting to the point where it was effecting his performance during live shows - often either not showing up, or performing poorly. It even seeped into his work. During the MTV Unplugged performance in New York, you can clearly see the emotional pain Kurt is going through during the performance - how his psyche is being eaten alive by media narcissism. Tragically, all this would culminate in Cobain taking his own life. On April 5, 1994, Cobain was found dead in in his Seattle home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death was mourned tragically by fans and marked a transition for rock music as a whole - with some arguing that is has entered a funk of depression it has yet to recover from. His death remains a tragic reminder of the importance of addressing mental health issues and providing support and resources for those who are struggling. Despite all the turmoil, Cobain's legacy as a musician and cultural icon has continued to endure in the years since his death, and Nirvana's music remains popular and influential.
John Kricfalusi also fell from grace - but in an even less dignified manner than that of Kurt Cobain. Kricfalusi was infamously hard to work with, and would reportedly miss deadlines and have conflicts with the network over the show's content. This would eventually lead to him being fired in September 1992 over a now-infamous episode called “Man’s Best Friend” (HEY THAT’S THE NAME OF THE TIMELINE) - in which the Ren violently beats George Liquor with a rowing oar to assert his strength. His colleague Bob Camp would take over production of the show - however, these new episodes weren’t nearly as good as the ones Kricfalusi worked on. The show would continue to decline in popularity until being quietly cancelled in 1995. As for Kricfalusi, his next big project was The Goddamn George Liquor Program - a web series about George Liquor that was groundbreaking as the first cartoon created specifically for the internet. After a couple more web projects, Kricfalusi would return to television with The Ripping Friends - but it would only last one season. However, his biggest failure would come with Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon. Kricfalusi was contracted by Viacom with bringing back Ren & Stimpy as an adult cartoon for Spike TV. However, due to his aforementioned problems and the network’s desire to capitalize on South Park’s success by being overly edgy - Adult Party Cartoon was an unmitigated DISASTER - universally panned by critics and audiences alike and shuffled off the network after a mere three episodes. If you think it couldn’t have been worse than that - well… it got worse. In 2018, in wake of several high-profile sexual assault allegations, two women would come forward with allegations that Kricfalusi sexually groomed them. Though Kricfalusi would apologize (spoiler alert it was very half-assed) - the damage was done and the final nail in coffin for Kricfalusi’s career was hammered.
When analyzing the personalities of “normal” historical figures such as Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin, we often look to their early lives to search for answers - such as how Hitler’s relation with his mother fueled his megalomania as the Führer of Germany, or how Stalin’s dysfunctional childhood motivated his later paranoia during the Soviet purges of the 1930s. Back to Cobain and Kricfalusi, it is evident that both these men suffered from a rough childhood. For Cobain, his parents divorced when he was 9, a divorce that would leave a profound impact on Cobain. He felt abandoned by his father, who moved to another state after the divorce, and he struggled with feelings of neglect and loneliness. Cobain's mother Wendy also had her own struggles. She suffered from a range of health issues, including chronic pain and mental illness, and was often unable to care for Kurt properly. He moved frequently as a child, often living with different relatives. Kurt would later describe his childhood as "a nightmare," and said that he felt like he was always trying to escape it. He would find solace in music from a young age. He began playing guitar when he was just 14 years old, and he quickly became obsessed with punk rock and the burgeoning grunge scene in the Pacific Northwest. As for Kricfalusi, not much is known about his early life - but from the few sources we have - it was probably miserable. According to an article for The New Yorker[1], Kricfalusi's father was a World War II veteran who struggled with alcoholism and anger issues. Kricfalusi has described his father as abusive, both physically and emotionally (not that that excuses his own abuse of those two girls). In the interview , Kricfalusi said, "He used to hit us with a belt. He'd come home drunk and start yelling at everybody." Kricfalusi's mother also had mental health issues, and she was hospitalized several times during Kricfalusi's childhood. Kricfalusi has said that his mother's hospitalizations made him feel abandoned and alone. "It was just me and my dad," he said in the interview. "I felt like an outcast." Kricfalusi has described how his difficult childhood led him to seek refuge in cartoons. He was a fan of classic cartoons like Bugs Bunny and Popeye, and he would spend hours drawing his own cartoons. Kricfalusi has said that he felt a connection to these characters, who were often outsiders or rebels themselves. "I felt like these characters were my friends," he said in The New Yorker interview. "They were the ones I could relate to." Both of their rough childhoods manifest in their works, with Kricfalusi's cartoons often feature characters with dysfunctional relationships - from various episodes of Ren & Stimpy to the poorly-received Cans Without Labels short, while Cobain's music often dealt with themes of pain, alienation, and trauma - with him saying in a now-famous Rolling Stone interview, "I have this idea that one day it will all come out, this fucking person that I am, and it will be a relief."
But backgrounds aside, bringing Nirvana into an episode of Ren & Stimpy would be a match made in counterculture heaven. The irreverent and boundary-pushing nature of both entities would create a synergy that would be hard to resist for fans of both. Nirvana's appearance on the show could be a nod to their rebellious spirit and their willingness to challenge the status quo, while Ren & Stimpy's absurd humor would provide a perfect backdrop for the band's music and persona. Furthermore, Nirvana's appearance on Ren & Stimpy could attract a wider audience to the show, including music fans who might not have otherwise been interested in animated TV. This could potentially lead to increased viewership, which could translate to higher ratings and more success for the show. But if a rumor from the early 2010s is to be believed, this almost happened.
According to Stimpy’s voice actor Billy West, some time around 1990-1992, Kurt Cobain visited the headquarters of Spümcø and told the staff that he wanted to write a song for the series. He even performed said song to them. However, neither the Nickelodeon executives nor John Kricfalusi particularly liked the song, and so it was thrown out. But there’s just one problem: there’s no evidence that this actually happened.
We don’t know when it happened, what the song actually was, or why it was written, or whether or not it was a theme song or just a song for a particular episode. Kurt Cobain’s estate hasn’t commented on whether this is true or not. Kricfalusi also claimed in a 2019 interview that he had no recollection of such an event happening. Meanwhile, in a 2022 tweet, Billy West himself said that the rumor was actually false and that no song was written by Kurt Cobain for the show. So it’s safe to say that it never actually happened.[2] But what if it did?
The fact is that as the old adage goes, truth is stranger than fiction. We live in a timeline where Australia fought a war against birds, a timeline where college students willingly agreed to act as prisoners, and a timeline where a person killed 37 people and remains totally anonymous to this very day. So really, Nirvana making a song for an episode of Ren & Stimpy is a non-zero chance. And there’s one person that I think would be best qualified to write said episode:
Eric Stefani
For those unaware, and confused about the first two parts of the timeline, Eric Stefani is the brother of pop star Gwen Stefani and was the keyboardist of the band No Doubt, of which Gwen was also a part of. An interesting fact about him IOTL is that he also had an animation career. He primarily worked on The Simpsons and Ren & Stimpy, but also worked on stuff such as Mighty Mouse (the 80s cartoon) and the pilot for Rugrats. He hasn’t really worked on anything since.[3] However, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that he could improve his skills within a window of time of just two years. Although, he would have to give up his music career. Since he would be born in the same year as Kurt Cobain (1967), there’s a non-zero chance that he could relate to Kurt Cobain or his audience of disillusioned Gen-X. This would prevent such an episode of Ren & Stimpy from suffering one of the main problems of an animated kid’s show trying to relate to kids: it’s that usually, because of the writers being years or decades removed from current trends, said “cool kid stuff” (basically anything rap related) tends to be some 3 to 4 decades out of date. With Stefani actually knowing current (as in early 90s) trends as a writer, it wouldn’t come across as “cringey” to audiences.
When you throw in the fact that both Nirvana and Ren & Stimpy were heavily countercultural in the realm of entertainment, this collaboration makes more sense than ever. With two of the biggest pieces of 90s media having a crossover, there is no way that it wouldn’t result in major changes occurring throughout the decade. We will see where those changes will lead us to….
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[1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/...alusi-the-embattled-creator-of-ren-and-stimpy
[2] https://lostmediawiki.com/The_Ren_&_Stimpy_Show_(non-existent_unused_Kurt_Cobain_song_for_Nickelodeon_animated_series;_1990))
[3] https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1198265/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
submitted by Thiccc_PUTIN to AlternateHistory [link] [comments]
The Yodel Song Origins?
Interview with Kurt Cobain on MTV’s 120 Minutes (1994)
INTERVIEWER: Kurt, how did you first get contacted about appearing in an episode of Ren & Stimpy?
KURT COBAIN: Well, uh, you see it’s this phone call I got at fucking 10pm, from some guy named Eric Stefani.
INTERVIEWER: And what did he say?
KURT COBAIN: He said he wanted to make a special episode of a cartoon that had us in it. And I mean - I was a little hesitant at first. I didn't really know much about animation or cartoons. But Eric was really passionate about the idea and kept calling me, so I decided to work with him.
INTERVIEWER: What were those meetings like?
KURT COBAIN: Really interesting shit - to say the least. Eric had all these crazy ideas trying to figure out how the hell he was going to put us in the show, ranging from us being mutated, to being superheroes, to even being aliens. We met up a few times and talked about how we could make it work.
INTERVIEWER: Man, that’s very interesting. So you’re telling me that instead of you being a talking yak in the Swiss Alps, you could have been an alien or superhero?
KURT COBAIN: (laughs) Yeah, I guess I missed out on that opportunity to be a superhero or an alien. Maybe in my next life.[1]
INTERVIEWER: Now, correct me if I’m wrong - but you and the rest of Nirvana were so busy around the time touring and performing that I doubt you had time to write a song for Ren & Stimpy. How did you do it?
KURT COBAIN: Truth be told, “The Yodel Song” was actually an old song that I recorded while screwing around in 1989. It was literally just me yodeling to a guitar riff. I never intended for it to be released, but when Eric approached me about doing a song for the show, I didn’t have the time to write new material - so I went digging up older stuff from a few years back. And wouldn’t you know, that was the song I discovered.[2] So we reworked it a bit and added some yodeling and voila - “The Yodel Song” was born.
INTERVIEWER: That's really cool, Kurt. So what was John Kricfalusi like?
KURT COBAIN: (pauses) Honestly - that guy’s a riot. From what Eric told me in those early days, I got the impression that he can sometimes be a bit psycho on his worst days.
INTERVIEWER: Yes indeed. I’m afraid I’ve heard a lot of stories behind the scenes. Which brings us to the day Kurt first presented “The Yodel Song” to not only writer and artist Eric Stefani - but also series creator John Kricfalusi…..
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
January 28, 1992
Spümcø, Inc. HQ, 5625 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, California
[TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEO RECORDING]
00:00 - *video static and microphone audio interference as Kricfalusi handles camcorder*
00:01 - Kricfalusi: Is it working?
00:02 - Stefani: Ch-check the light on the side, it should be red.
00:04 - Kricfalusi: *stares at camera lens with stressed expression on face* That little punk is running late for the meeting.
00:07 - Stefani: Give him time. You know not everything runs at Narnia time, you know.
00:08 - *Kricfalusi moves away from camera to reveal an office room with tan walls and animation memorabilia. Camera is pointed at angle towards door from a corner. A desk can be seen to the right of view. Stefani pulls a chair to sit at the side of the desk while Krickfalusi sits at the back, hands in clasped position towards face*
00:11 - Kricfalusi: God, I hope this guy isn't wasting our time. We've got a lot of work to do and I don't want to waste it on some mediocre musician.
00:16 - Stefani: You’re kidding me right? Nirvana is literally the biggest rock band right now, and you’re calling them mediocre?
00:24 - Kricfalusi: Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. But you know how it is, Eric. Sometimes the hype doesn't match the talent. *crosses arms* Music these days… why can’t we go back to the days of real music, like the Beatles or the Stones?[3]
00:25 - Stefani: Hey, this isn’t Nirvana’s usual music. Kurt told me last night over the phone that this song had a lot more… *waves hands with a squirmy facial expression* …traditional music…
00:31 - Kricfalusi: Oh… *throws up arms* …so your telling me he’s just gonna play some uppity little tribal music?
00:38 - Stefani: *winces* No! I mean…. He’s just gonna play us an old-timey-
00:42 - *three knocks are heard at the door*
00:43 - Stefani: Come in!
00:45 - *the door creaks open, revealing Kurt Cobain to the camera, with a guitar case in hand*
00:46 - Stefani: Hey, Kurt! Glad you could make it!
00:48 - Cobain: *smiling\* Sorry for being late, guys. Traffic was a nightmare.
00:51 - Kricfalusi: *muttering\* More like he was probably too high to find the place.
00:55 - Stefani: *glares at Kricfalusi before turning to Cobain\* So, show us what you got, Kurt.
00:58 - *Cobain sets down his guitar case and takes out a guitar\*
01:08 - Cobain: Alright, this is a little different than what you might expect from me. It's a song I wrote a couple years back. Let’s just say it’s traditionally themed…
01:15 - Kricfalusi: *Imitates stereotypical Native American war cry*[4]
01:16 - Stefani: *turns to Kricfalusi and speaks in hushed tone* Dude, fucking quit it!
01:18 - *Cobain tunes guitar, testing the strings*
01:29 - Cobain: Yodel-eh, Yodel-eh, Yodel-eh-hoh
01:32 - *guitar riff begins, Stefani and Kricfalusi look on in fascination*
01:57 - Cobain: I hear a sound that’s haunting me
02:00 - Cobain: A melody so dark and free
02:04 - Cobain: It echoes through my troubled mind
02:11 - Cobain: A voice that’s calling, so unkind
02:14 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, haunting me
02:18 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, can’t you see
02:22 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, it’s all I fear
02:26 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, ringing in my ear
02:30 - Cobain: He lures them in with a smile and a charm
02:34 - Cobain: But beneath the surface, there’s something wrong
02:37 - Cobain: He takes him to his lair, a place of fear
02:41 - Cobain: And there he makes them suffer, year after year
02:45 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, haunting me
02:49 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, can’t you see
02:52 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, it’s all I fear
02:56 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, ringing in my ear
03:00 - Cobain: *performs guitar solo in a manner similar to traditional bluegrass music*
03:30 - Cobain: I know he’s not real, but he feels so alive
03:38 - Cobain: He tells me secrets, he makes me strive
03:44 - Cobain: To be someone else, to take on another guise
03:52 - Cobain: But in the end, I’m playing tricks on my eyes \holds on ‘eyes’ as guitar riff crashes down**
04:00 - Cobain: \guitar riff starts back slowly, repeats faster and faster up to the original tempo**
04:30 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, haunting me
04:34 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, can't you see?
04:38 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, it's all I fear
04:42 - Cobain: Yodel, yodel, ringing in my ear
04:46 - Cobain: Yodel-ay-ee-oo, the struggle never ends
04:50 - Cobain: Yodel-ay-ee-oo, I fight to make amends
04:54 - Cobain: Yodel-ay-ee-oo, to keep the voices at bay
04:58 - Cobain: Yodel-ay-ee-oo, and live another day
05:02 - Cobain: \guitar riff specs up further and further until it is a surf/metal like riff, Cobain bends and flexes aggressively**[5]
05:22 - Cobain: \guitar riff crashes down to a slow and sad pace**
05:32 - Cobain: \song ends on final twang that trails off over the course of five seconds**
05:38 - Stefani: That. Was. Amazing, Kurt! I've never heard anything like it.
05:45 - Kricfalusi: *nodding in agreement with blank face\* Yeah, that was really something.
05:07 - Cobain: *smiling\* Thanks, guys. I'm glad you liked it.
05:34 - Kricfalusi: *with quizzical expression on face\* So… do you have any plans to work on anything else like this?
05:38 - Cobain: \nodding** Yeah, actually. I've been working on some acoustic stuff lately. I think I'm ready to try some new things.
05:45 - Stefani: That's great to hear, Kurt. We're excited to see what you come up with next. Maybe we can do more stuff like this in the future.[6]
05:52 - Cobain: \smiling** Thanks, guys. I'm excited to see where this goes too.
05:55 - Kricfalusi: Well, we should probably get back to work. We've got a lot to do today.
05:59 - Stefani: Yeah, let's do that. Thanks for coming by, Kurt.
05:59 - Cobain: \smiling** Thanks for having me, guys. It was great meeting you both.
06:03 - \Cobain leaves the room with his guitar case and shuts door**
06:10 - Stefani: \stares at table, thinking intensively**
06:20 - Stefani: So John… you think we should make an episode on this?
06:26 - \Kricfalusi clasps his hands against his face and sighs**
06:31 - Kricfalusi: Eric, you’re a great artist, and I respect you a lot more than I did a few years ago. But here’s the thing: I don’t know if this is a good idea for my show. You have this little jerk who thinks he’s the anti-John Lennon come on and try to turn my show into a big fucking joke.
06:47 - Stefani: Woah, woah, woah. Nirvana isn’t some big corporate boy band made up by a bunch of rich elites in New York. They’re a fully blown countercultural band that’s about pure art. Trust me.
06:56 - \Kricfalusi stares at Stefani**
07:01 - Stefani: They are artists. Just like you and me.
07:07 - \Kricfalusi falls into pondering position**
07:15 - Kricfalusi: \gets up, stretches\ Fine, we’ll do it. But I’ll have no part in it. Other than voicing Ren. It’s all on you for this.
07:21 - Stefani: I… I can work with that.
07:24 - Kricfalusi: Good. *approaches to handle camcorder\* Now help me take down this camco-
[CUT OFF BY VIDEO STATIC]
[VIDEO ENDS]
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
[1] While Kurt Cobain was known for his intense and often dark music, he also had a playful and irreverent side to his personality, as evidenced by some of his interviews and public appearances.
[2] We actually have no idea what song Kurt Cobain wrote for Ren & Stimpy - assuming he even wrote one. However, I believe that song is “The Yodel Song” - a song performed IOTL by Kurt Cobain on his home recordings - which was eventually released as part of the compilation album Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings in 2015. I will elaborate more on that in the next post which will be in a few days.
[3] Since Kricfalusi grew up in the 60s, there’s a chance that he would have been into those bands. Hell, he even worked with Ralph Bakshi to make the music video for the Stones’ 1986 single Harlem Shuffle.
[4] Again, mid-century mentality Kricfalusi has in regards to Native Americans (or First Nations peoples as the people up North call it).
[5] If you want a more detailed picture, think a mix of the riff from Dick Dale’s “Miserlou” and the ending to Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” mixed with the ending of OTL’s Yodel Song.
[6] F o r e s h a d o w i n g
Context: Cobain and Kricfalusi
Nirvana appearing on Ren & Stimpy. I know. It’s as crazy as it sounds.But as crazy as it sounds, it kinda makes sense. Both Nirvana and Ren & Stimpy broke the mold of everything that came before them in their respective fields. Nirvana and Ren & Stimpy were both part of the cultural zeitgeist of the early 1990s, and their unconventional approaches to their respective art forms resonated with audiences. Nirvana's music challenged the mainstream rock scene with their raw, unpolished sound and lyrics that tackled social issues, while Ren & Stimpy pushed the boundaries of children's animation with its surreal humor and gross-out gags.
On a more somber note, both Kurt Cobain and John Kricfalusi fell from grace at some point. First Kurt. It’s no secret that Kurt had struggled with addiction to heroin and had severe mental health issues - issues that only got worse as Nirvana’s fame grew and became the talk of the media and general public. In 1992, Cobain married Courtney Love - another musician who struggled with addiction and mental health issues. Their relationship was tumultuous, and made headlines in the tabloids. In fact, ALL of Cobain’s personal life was being intruded upon by the paparazzi and the media. His addiction was getting to the point where it was effecting his performance during live shows - often either not showing up, or performing poorly. It even seeped into his work. During the MTV Unplugged performance in New York, you can clearly see the emotional pain Kurt is going through during the performance - how his psyche is being eaten alive by media narcissism. Tragically, all this would culminate in Cobain taking his own life. On April 5, 1994, Cobain was found dead in in his Seattle home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death was mourned tragically by fans and marked a transition for rock music as a whole - with some arguing that is has entered a funk of depression it has yet to recover from. His death remains a tragic reminder of the importance of addressing mental health issues and providing support and resources for those who are struggling. Despite all the turmoil, Cobain's legacy as a musician and cultural icon has continued to endure in the years since his death, and Nirvana's music remains popular and influential.
John Kricfalusi also fell from grace - but in an even less dignified manner than that of Kurt Cobain. Kricfalusi was infamously hard to work with, and would reportedly miss deadlines and have conflicts with the network over the show's content. This would eventually lead to him being fired in September 1992 over a now-infamous episode called “Man’s Best Friend” (HEY THAT’S THE NAME OF THE TIMELINE) - in which the Ren violently beats George Liquor with a rowing oar to assert his strength. His colleague Bob Camp would take over production of the show - however, these new episodes weren’t nearly as good as the ones Kricfalusi worked on. The show would continue to decline in popularity until being quietly cancelled in 1995. As for Kricfalusi, his next big project was The Goddamn George Liquor Program - a web series about George Liquor that was groundbreaking as the first cartoon created specifically for the internet. After a couple more web projects, Kricfalusi would return to television with The Ripping Friends - but it would only last one season. However, his biggest failure would come with Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon. Kricfalusi was contracted by Viacom with bringing back Ren & Stimpy as an adult cartoon for Spike TV. However, due to his aforementioned problems and the network’s desire to capitalize on South Park’s success by being overly edgy - Adult Party Cartoon was an unmitigated DISASTER - universally panned by critics and audiences alike and shuffled off the network after a mere three episodes. If you think it couldn’t have been worse than that - well… it got worse. In 2018, in wake of several high-profile sexual assault allegations, two women would come forward with allegations that Kricfalusi sexually groomed them. Though Kricfalusi would apologize (spoiler alert it was very half-assed) - the damage was done and the final nail in coffin for Kricfalusi’s career was hammered.
When analyzing the personalities of “normal” historical figures such as Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin, we often look to their early lives to search for answers - such as how Hitler’s relation with his mother fueled his megalomania as the Führer of Germany, or how Stalin’s dysfunctional childhood motivated his later paranoia during the Soviet purges of the 1930s. Back to Cobain and Kricfalusi, it is evident that both these men suffered from a rough childhood. For Cobain, his parents divorced when he was 9, a divorce that would leave a profound impact on Cobain. He felt abandoned by his father, who moved to another state after the divorce, and he struggled with feelings of neglect and loneliness. Cobain's mother Wendy also had her own struggles. She suffered from a range of health issues, including chronic pain and mental illness, and was often unable to care for Kurt properly. He moved frequently as a child, often living with different relatives. Kurt would later describe his childhood as "a nightmare," and said that he felt like he was always trying to escape it. He would find solace in music from a young age. He began playing guitar when he was just 14 years old, and he quickly became obsessed with punk rock and the burgeoning grunge scene in the Pacific Northwest. As for Kricfalusi, not much is known about his early life - but from the few sources we have - it was probably miserable. According to an article for The New Yorker[1], Kricfalusi's father was a World War II veteran who struggled with alcoholism and anger issues. Kricfalusi has described his father as abusive, both physically and emotionally (not that that excuses his own abuse of those two girls). In the interview , Kricfalusi said, "He used to hit us with a belt. He'd come home drunk and start yelling at everybody." Kricfalusi's mother also had mental health issues, and she was hospitalized several times during Kricfalusi's childhood. Kricfalusi has said that his mother's hospitalizations made him feel abandoned and alone. "It was just me and my dad," he said in the interview. "I felt like an outcast." Kricfalusi has described how his difficult childhood led him to seek refuge in cartoons. He was a fan of classic cartoons like Bugs Bunny and Popeye, and he would spend hours drawing his own cartoons. Kricfalusi has said that he felt a connection to these characters, who were often outsiders or rebels themselves. "I felt like these characters were my friends," he said in The New Yorker interview. "They were the ones I could relate to." Both of their rough childhoods manifest in their works, with Kricfalusi's cartoons often feature characters with dysfunctional relationships - from various episodes of Ren & Stimpy to the poorly-received Cans Without Labels short, while Cobain's music often dealt with themes of pain, alienation, and trauma - with him saying in a now-famous Rolling Stone interview, "I have this idea that one day it will all come out, this fucking person that I am, and it will be a relief."
But backgrounds aside, bringing Nirvana into an episode of Ren & Stimpy would be a match made in counterculture heaven. The irreverent and boundary-pushing nature of both entities would create a synergy that would be hard to resist for fans of both. Nirvana's appearance on the show could be a nod to their rebellious spirit and their willingness to challenge the status quo, while Ren & Stimpy's absurd humor would provide a perfect backdrop for the band's music and persona. Furthermore, Nirvana's appearance on Ren & Stimpy could attract a wider audience to the show, including music fans who might not have otherwise been interested in animated TV. This could potentially lead to increased viewership, which could translate to higher ratings and more success for the show. But if a rumor from the early 2010s is to be believed, this almost happened.
According to Stimpy’s voice actor Billy West, some time around 1990-1992, Kurt Cobain visited the headquarters of Spümcø and told the staff that he wanted to write a song for the series. He even performed said song to them. However, neither the Nickelodeon executives nor John Kricfalusi particularly liked the song, and so it was thrown out. But there’s just one problem: there’s no evidence that this actually happened.
We don’t know when it happened, what the song actually was, or why it was written, or whether or not it was a theme song or just a song for a particular episode. Kurt Cobain’s estate hasn’t commented on whether this is true or not. Kricfalusi also claimed in a 2019 interview that he had no recollection of such an event happening. Meanwhile, in a 2022 tweet, Billy West himself said that the rumor was actually false and that no song was written by Kurt Cobain for the show. So it’s safe to say that it never actually happened.[2] But what if it did?
The fact is that as the old adage goes, truth is stranger than fiction. We live in a timeline where Australia fought a war against birds, a timeline where college students willingly agreed to act as prisoners, and a timeline where a person killed 37 people and remains totally anonymous to this very day. So really, Nirvana making a song for an episode of Ren & Stimpy is a non-zero chance. And there’s one person that I think would be best qualified to write said episode:
Eric Stefani
For those unaware, and confused about the first two parts of the timeline, Eric Stefani is the brother of pop star Gwen Stefani and was the keyboardist of the band No Doubt, of which Gwen was also a part of. An interesting fact about him IOTL is that he also had an animation career. He primarily worked on The Simpsons and Ren & Stimpy, but also worked on stuff such as Mighty Mouse (the 80s cartoon) and the pilot for Rugrats. He hasn’t really worked on anything since.[3] However, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that he could improve his skills within a window of time of just two years. Although, he would have to give up his music career. Since he would be born in the same year as Kurt Cobain (1967), there’s a non-zero chance that he could relate to Kurt Cobain or his audience of disillusioned Gen-X. This would prevent such an episode of Ren & Stimpy from suffering one of the main problems of an animated kid’s show trying to relate to kids: it’s that usually, because of the writers being years or decades removed from current trends, said “cool kid stuff” (basically anything rap related) tends to be some 3 to 4 decades out of date. With Stefani actually knowing current (as in early 90s) trends as a writer, it wouldn’t come across as “cringey” to audiences.
When you throw in the fact that both Nirvana and Ren & Stimpy were heavily countercultural in the realm of entertainment, this collaboration makes more sense than ever. With two of the biggest pieces of 90s media having a crossover, there is no way that it wouldn’t result in major changes occurring throughout the decade. We will see where those changes will lead us to….
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
[1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/...alusi-the-embattled-creator-of-ren-and-stimpy
[2] https://lostmediawiki.com/The_Ren_&_Stimpy_Show_(non-existent_unused_Kurt_Cobain_song_for_Nickelodeon_animated_series;_1990))
[3] https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1198265/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
2023.03.25 14:27 Shot-Meaning-2512 ParagraphAI Coupon Discount Code 1 year deal Write better, faster, and without limits
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ParagraphAI is a virtual writing assistant built by a small yet mighty team of creative professionals throughout the United States and Canada.
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Given the amount of time Americans spend watching television, it is no surprise that the television industry is large and lucrative. According to Statista, the television industry generated $147. 4 billion in revenue in 2018. This is a 4. 5% increase from the previous year.
Tap into the power of AI. No credit card needed. Write up to 5,000 words/ day for free with our FREE FOREVER personal plan – the most generous plan anywhere. Or UPGRADE for more ParagraphAI power.
2023.03.25 14:19 NoCountry3078 Where To Watch ‘The Fabelmans’ Free Online Streaming
Few directors have reached the upper echelon in which names like Steven Spielberg reside, and “The Fabelmans” gives viewers insight into how the great movie-making mind came to be. Spielberg’s origin story springs off the page from a script co-written by the director and Tony Kushner, the “Angels in America” playwright and a frequent collaborator of Spielberg’s. Indeed, “The Fabelmans” is inspired by Spielberg’s own childhood and a secret he’s kept since he was a teenager, and its critical acclaim bodes well for its chances this awards season.
Watch Now: The Fabelmans Online Free
Fans and devotees of Steven Spielberg, Michelle Williams and or Paul Dano may be wondering how to watch “The Fabelmans.” We’ve got all your questions answered below.
When Is The Fabelmans’ Release Date?
The Fabelmans premiered at the 47th Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022. For its theatrical premiere, the movie is set to release on November 11, 2022, in the United States, making it a Thanksgiving release. This will be followed by its international release on November 23, 2022.
Is The Fabelmans streaming?
With The Fabelmans playing exclusively in movie theaters right now, the short answer is no, it’s not available to stream right now.
The longer answer is that it’s probably going to be at least 30 to 45 days before The Fabelmans is made available for any kind of at-home viewing, either with digital on-demand or streaming. However, we can make a pretty safe bet on where The Fabelmans is going to head first for streaming audiences.
As Universal Pictures movie, Peacock is almost assuredly going to be the initial streaming home for The Fabelmans. Other Universal and Focus Features (which is also owned by NBCUniversal) have done the same, including Nope, Downton Abbey: A New Era and Jurassic World: Dominion. We have no confirmation or a timeline for a potential streaming debut, but we’ll update this page when there’s something to report.
Where to Watch The Fabelmans Online Free?
While a streaming release date has not yet been announced, we can give an educated guess based on previous Walt Disney Studios films. Though there’s no set pattern, many Disney movies will stream close to 45 days after theatrical release, usually on the Friday after Disney+’s regular day to release new movies. If that’s the case, The Fabelmans could be streaming on Disney+ as early as December 30 — or if the service wants to jump the gun, December 25 as an early Christmas present.
Watch Now: The Fabelmans Online Free
However, Thor: Love and Thunder, which is also a Marvel movie, was released in theaters on July 8 before it came to Disney+ and digital platforms on Sept. 8, timed to Disney+ Day. If The Fabelmans follows the same trajectory, we may be able to stream it from the comfort of our homes by mid-January.
Will The Fabelmans Be On HBO Max?
As of today, we also don’t know if HBO Max will stream the 2022 title on its site. It wouldn’t surprise us if the site acquires The Fabelmans since the site tends to have little to no issue getting brand-new titles to stream on its service. However, we’ll fill you in when we know more.
Is The Fabelmans on Netflix?
Unfortunately, The Fabelmans isn’t available to stream on Netflix. The MCU Action isn’t included in the lineup of Netflix movies, which includes a vast number of rom-coms featuring some of our favorite actors and actresses.
If you want to watch Julia Roberts movies on Netflix, check out Ben Is Back, August: Osage County, Steel Magnolias, and Runaway Bride. Roberts always appeared in Ocean’s Eleven and Ocean’s Twelve with her The Fabelmans co-star George Clooney, and both movies are currently streaming on Netflix as of October 2022.
Is The Fabelmans Available On Hulu?
Viewers are saying that they want to view the new TV show The Fabelmans on Hulu. Unfortunately, this is not possible since Hulu currently does not offer any of the free episodes of this series streaming at this time. It will be exclusive to the MTV channel, which you get by subscribing to cable or satellite TV services. You will not be able to watch it on Hulu or any other free streaming service.
What Is “The Fabelmans” About?
Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord), learns to love movies after seeing his first feature film “The Greatest Show on Earth” in 1952. His mother (Michele Williams) encourages his artistic inclination to perfect his own filmmaking, which he pursues constantly. His stricly logical and scientific father (Paul Dano) doesn’t quite understand Sammy’s love for cinema, intent on limiting it to “a hobby.” Dad’s job moves Sammy around twice, and when his family settles in Northern California, Sammy faces antisemitism.
submitted by NoCountry3078 to TheFabelmans_hq [link] [comments]
Watch Now: The Fabelmans Online Free
Fans and devotees of Steven Spielberg, Michelle Williams and or Paul Dano may be wondering how to watch “The Fabelmans.” We’ve got all your questions answered below.
When Is The Fabelmans’ Release Date?
The Fabelmans premiered at the 47th Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022. For its theatrical premiere, the movie is set to release on November 11, 2022, in the United States, making it a Thanksgiving release. This will be followed by its international release on November 23, 2022.
Is The Fabelmans streaming?
With The Fabelmans playing exclusively in movie theaters right now, the short answer is no, it’s not available to stream right now.
The longer answer is that it’s probably going to be at least 30 to 45 days before The Fabelmans is made available for any kind of at-home viewing, either with digital on-demand or streaming. However, we can make a pretty safe bet on where The Fabelmans is going to head first for streaming audiences.
As Universal Pictures movie, Peacock is almost assuredly going to be the initial streaming home for The Fabelmans. Other Universal and Focus Features (which is also owned by NBCUniversal) have done the same, including Nope, Downton Abbey: A New Era and Jurassic World: Dominion. We have no confirmation or a timeline for a potential streaming debut, but we’ll update this page when there’s something to report.
Where to Watch The Fabelmans Online Free?
While a streaming release date has not yet been announced, we can give an educated guess based on previous Walt Disney Studios films. Though there’s no set pattern, many Disney movies will stream close to 45 days after theatrical release, usually on the Friday after Disney+’s regular day to release new movies. If that’s the case, The Fabelmans could be streaming on Disney+ as early as December 30 — or if the service wants to jump the gun, December 25 as an early Christmas present.
Watch Now: The Fabelmans Online Free
However, Thor: Love and Thunder, which is also a Marvel movie, was released in theaters on July 8 before it came to Disney+ and digital platforms on Sept. 8, timed to Disney+ Day. If The Fabelmans follows the same trajectory, we may be able to stream it from the comfort of our homes by mid-January.
Will The Fabelmans Be On HBO Max?
As of today, we also don’t know if HBO Max will stream the 2022 title on its site. It wouldn’t surprise us if the site acquires The Fabelmans since the site tends to have little to no issue getting brand-new titles to stream on its service. However, we’ll fill you in when we know more.
Is The Fabelmans on Netflix?
Unfortunately, The Fabelmans isn’t available to stream on Netflix. The MCU Action isn’t included in the lineup of Netflix movies, which includes a vast number of rom-coms featuring some of our favorite actors and actresses.
If you want to watch Julia Roberts movies on Netflix, check out Ben Is Back, August: Osage County, Steel Magnolias, and Runaway Bride. Roberts always appeared in Ocean’s Eleven and Ocean’s Twelve with her The Fabelmans co-star George Clooney, and both movies are currently streaming on Netflix as of October 2022.
Is The Fabelmans Available On Hulu?
Viewers are saying that they want to view the new TV show The Fabelmans on Hulu. Unfortunately, this is not possible since Hulu currently does not offer any of the free episodes of this series streaming at this time. It will be exclusive to the MTV channel, which you get by subscribing to cable or satellite TV services. You will not be able to watch it on Hulu or any other free streaming service.
What Is “The Fabelmans” About?
Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord), learns to love movies after seeing his first feature film “The Greatest Show on Earth” in 1952. His mother (Michele Williams) encourages his artistic inclination to perfect his own filmmaking, which he pursues constantly. His stricly logical and scientific father (Paul Dano) doesn’t quite understand Sammy’s love for cinema, intent on limiting it to “a hobby.” Dad’s job moves Sammy around twice, and when his family settles in Northern California, Sammy faces antisemitism.
2023.03.25 14:17 LoveMangaBuddy Read Plastic Memories: Say to good-bye - Chapter 20 - MangaPuma
A prequel manga to the TV anime "Plastic Memories", written from Michiru's perspective. Naturally, also featuring her partner, Zack!A future world in which Giftia, androids capable of feeling emotion, exist. However, Giftia have a predetermined service life of about nine years, and must be 'retrieved' when that time is up. Michiru has just joined Terminal Service, the department at SAI Corp. in ch ... Read Plastic Memories: Say to good-bye - Chapter 20 - MangaPuma. Read more at https://mangapuma.com/plastic-memories-say-to-good-bye/chapter-20
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2023.03.25 13:32 Deltiasgaming1 One Bar Heavy Attack Tier List
The Best One Bar Build for ESO: PvE Tier List compiles the best and worst One Bar heavy attack builds and classes for The Elder Scrolls Online Scribes of Fate DLC Update 37.
Written: https://deltiasgaming.com/best-one-bar-build-for-eso-pve-tier-list/
Video: https://youtu.be/kigeYAyKox0
How do One Bar Heavy Attack Builds Work in ESO?
Through a combination of gear, lighting staff, heavy attacks, and important buffs, Heavy Attack builds produce some serious damage.
Dragonknights do have exceptionally powerful damage over time effects along with massive burst healing and healing over time with skills like Burning Embers and Draw Essence. But when it comes to group utility, the Dragonknight is lack luster due to the lack of bar space. Moreover, the DK's most powerful heal is a "selfish" healing Coagulating Blood, which only heals yourself not others. With limited bar space, your best bet is to play this in a semi-close melee range focused on pure raw damage which it does very well.
My suggestion is to play this build if you love the class and want to make it simpler than an ultra-complex two-bar loadout. You can still do some good damage, and maintain some class identity but won't perform as well as other builds.
Another strength of the Nightblade with Oakensoul is the ease of play. There's a combination that adds 10% more damage passively, using Concealed Weapon and Twisting Path. Twisting Path procs major expedition repeatedly and Concealed Weapon gives you 10% more damage when Major Expedition ends. This combination, while taking up a lot of bar space, provides incredible damage and is simplistic for the build. Twisting Path also gives a great group mobility advantage of allowing everyone on your team to gain Major Expedition while providing you with Minor Expedition.
What the class suffers from is a lack of bar space. The Nightblade simply needs a lot of skills on a specific rotation to make the most of its damage. Having essentially a dead skill in Concealed Weapon gives you 10% more damage but also hinders you with one bar because of the lack of space.
Another disadvantage compared to other builds that are ranked higher is your healing abilities do not do damage for you. The Magicka Sorcerer pets constantly do damage and can be activated for a burst heal. The Warden's Arctic Blast can be a big burst heal and proc damage and status effects. The Healthy Offering skill, while providing some serious healing, takes up another precious bar space that could be used for adding more damage.
The magblade one-bar build excels in group content where your healers can take care of your survivability and you do insane damage at range. However, the class and playstyle lacks overall in solo content compared to others and thus, ranking it here.
Warden's ultimate choice is both a strength and a hindrance. The base ultimate skill Feral Guardian (either morph) is extremely effective when playing solo or single target. The bear pet does amazing damage, can stun enemies and act as a decoy. The only issue with it is, it's not area damage. So you end up in a dilemma: Do I spec towards full single target damage, or do I sacrifice that in exchange for the Destruction Staff ultimate giving me more area damage?
And lastly, we have the range of the class. Your primary damage ability is Deep Fissure, firing off two damage attacks which lower armor via two debuffs. This will increase your overall group DPS significantly and makes the build much more active and fun. The downside is you need to not only aim the ability so it hits your target, but also be close enough in range. Again, when you are playing solo this isn't an issue because you have battlefield control of where the encounters take place. In group content, however, you can miss a Deep Fissure or be too far back avoiding damage mechanics and therefore lower your overall DPS.
For solo-focused players that like high single target damage, an active playstyle with the ability to do big damage, we recommend the Warden. In group play you can swap some skills in and out and do just great with this build as well. But other classes either have more flexibility in skills, more utility with one bar or incredibly simplicity.
Necromancers also have a ton of valuable buffs, including their ultimate of choice Pestilent Colossus which gives Major Vulnerability increasing everyone's damage by 10%. This becomes even more valuable than the Warden's Bear or the standard Mage's Guild Shooting Start ultimate in group content. Also the Necromancer has a melee focused main spammable that can be used to set off-balance without the need for Unstable Blockade using Ruinous Scythe. This skill, unlike other abilities, heals you based on the damage done and with a high health pool from Oakensoul and Bewitched Sugar Skulls food choice, it provides significant healing, especially playing solo.
Now why isn't the Necromancer number one then? The main issues are weaker single target due to the lack of bar space. The Necromancers, similar to the Dragonknights, are absolutely apex predatory DPS characters with two bars due to the high damage over time DoTs that last a long duration. But put them with an Oakensoul build, and you won't see their full potential. Moreover, your Blastbones ability requires more active casting and global cooldowns reducing the simplistic nature of the one-bar heavy attack playstye.
We recommend Necromancer if someone wants to play an Oakensoul build solo or in a group using a bit more frequent abilities due to Blastbones. The Necro also has great group utility so if there's multiple in your group, it's never a problem due to the Major Vulnerability debuff via your ultimate.
Templar's shine with group utility as well, providing so many synergies to groups. Whether it be Blazing Spear, doing a ton of damage and giving back resources via the Synergy. Or Ritual of Retribution, another strong AoE damage skill with synergy cleansing negative effects, the Templar is very useful in a group. Moreover, your heal Breath of Life requires no aim, providing big healing in a massive range. The only downside is that the Sorcerer's heal via their pet is simply stronger.
When it comes to solo play, the Templar's skill Living Dark provides so much healing when taking damage, that you do not need another skill for healing. Combine Living Dark with Radiant Glory execute and you have insane survivability without the need for a selfish heal. And on a 21 million health parse dummy, the Templar shines getting over 90,000 DPS in combination with a simple bar load-out and execute.
If it weren't for the Sorcerer, we'd recommend the Templar overall as the best Oakensoul build. It has a great execute, group utility, and damage for both AOE and single target. We highly recommend this class for someone who just loves the Templar style and wants something different then a ranged execute. The Templar feels very strong solo or in a group with Oakensoul in the current meta.
Not only does the Sorcerer heavy attack build shine in solo content, but in group as well. Throw onthe Mystic Orb skill from the Undaunted skill line and now you have massive AoE damage with a resource-sustaining synergy similar to the Templar's Blazing Spear. Change the morph on your Pet to Twilight Matriarch and you have even higher burst healing than the Templar. The highest burst healing from our testing, also without aiming required. Unlike other classes, this pet does constant damage even when not healing, saving you precious bar space and no other class can say that.
The play style blends the best of both worlds, being somewhat more active than other builds using a 6-second buff/DoT Daedric Prey. This skill gives a whooping 45% more damage to the target that's cursed. Simply apply this, fully charge heavy attack to get your pets focused on the target and watch the health bar melt. The build isn't as punishing if you miss a global cool down or forget to keep Prey up constantly, because your pets deal damage passively for you.
When it comes to parsing, or doing damage on a training dummy, the Sorcerer dominates. With a very easy rotation, this is one of the best builds to bring into Veteran Trials and prove that you're a valuable DPS player. And, unlike other builds, the Sorcerer doesn't have to sacrifice health or resource sustain to pull off big numbers.
In fact, my stamina Dragonknight with ultra sweaty trials gear, playing in melee range, does only slightly higher damage in dungeons than the Sorc. Why? Because the one-bar builds have much higher time on target. When mechanics in dungeons happen, most melee have to peel off the target and simply not do any damage. Meanwhile, the Sorc can rip off heavy attacks, Prey, and their ultimate with zero down time on DPS.
Now, the Stamina Dragonknight setup will do better in trials, because the content is geared towards tight stacks in melee range. But in dungeons, it's hands down the simplest and most effective for the everyday player in the Elder Scrolls Online.
The only downsides I see with this build are somewhat lackluster AoE in comparison to the Necromancer. Also, you are forced into using pets for the most damage possible and the play style can be a bit more active to get the most out of it. This build remains the most popular build on my website by a mile, because it's helped so many people get through content they wouldn't have dreamed of before. And in the current meta, it's just as good and we hope the trend continues for the rest of 2023. We will keep this post updated as patches, expansions continue to roll out so make sure to book and thanks for reading!
submitted by Deltiasgaming1 to elderscrollsonline [link] [comments]
Written: https://deltiasgaming.com/best-one-bar-build-for-eso-pve-tier-list/
Video: https://youtu.be/kigeYAyKox0
How do One Bar Heavy Attack Builds Work in ESO?
Through a combination of gear, lighting staff, heavy attacks, and important buffs, Heavy Attack builds produce some serious damage.
- Oakensoul Mythic item provides the Empower, increasing the damage of your Heavy Attacks against monsters by 80%.
- Lightning Staff is the weapon choice because the Tri Focus destruction staff passive allows Heavy Attacks to damage nearby enemies for 100% of the damage done.
- The Lighting Staff skill Unstable Wall of Elements sets enemies off-balance for 7 seconds with a 15-second cooldown.
- Warfare champion point slottable Exploiter gives 10% more damage during the off-balance phase.
- Weapons Expert from the Warfare champion point tree gives 20% increased damage with light and heavy attacks.
- Storm Master item set - when you deal Critical Damage with a fully charged Heavy Attack, your Light and Heavy Attacks deal additional damage for 20 seconds.
- Sergeant’s Mail item set - when you deal damage with a Heavy Attack, you gain a stack of Sergeant's Focus for 5 seconds, increasing the damage of your Heavy Attacks per stack.
#6 Dragonknight C Tier
The Dragonknight I rank as C Tier due to its over complicated rotation, emphasis on DoTs and lack of group utility. This class excels at high-pressure DoTs and melee aggression. And that's the issue, Oakensoul Heavy Attack builds want to emphasize fully charge heavy attacking at range. The advantage of the Lighting Staff is the constant damage at range versus always playing up close and personal and being susceptible to mechanics.Dragonknights do have exceptionally powerful damage over time effects along with massive burst healing and healing over time with skills like Burning Embers and Draw Essence. But when it comes to group utility, the Dragonknight is lack luster due to the lack of bar space. Moreover, the DK's most powerful heal is a "selfish" healing Coagulating Blood, which only heals yourself not others. With limited bar space, your best bet is to play this in a semi-close melee range focused on pure raw damage which it does very well.
My suggestion is to play this build if you love the class and want to make it simpler than an ultra-complex two-bar loadout. You can still do some good damage, and maintain some class identity but won't perform as well as other builds.
#5 Nightblade B+ Tier
The Nightblade class with a one-bar build can provide incredible single-target damage. What the Nightblade does well is using Merciless Resolve Spectral Bow proc. Holding down a heavy attack provides multiple procs, and accessing this skill quickly is the key to single-target damage success. Wait for a five-stack proc, and fire off a Spectral Bow for huge damage.Another strength of the Nightblade with Oakensoul is the ease of play. There's a combination that adds 10% more damage passively, using Concealed Weapon and Twisting Path. Twisting Path procs major expedition repeatedly and Concealed Weapon gives you 10% more damage when Major Expedition ends. This combination, while taking up a lot of bar space, provides incredible damage and is simplistic for the build. Twisting Path also gives a great group mobility advantage of allowing everyone on your team to gain Major Expedition while providing you with Minor Expedition.
What the class suffers from is a lack of bar space. The Nightblade simply needs a lot of skills on a specific rotation to make the most of its damage. Having essentially a dead skill in Concealed Weapon gives you 10% more damage but also hinders you with one bar because of the lack of space.
Another disadvantage compared to other builds that are ranked higher is your healing abilities do not do damage for you. The Magicka Sorcerer pets constantly do damage and can be activated for a burst heal. The Warden's Arctic Blast can be a big burst heal and proc damage and status effects. The Healthy Offering skill, while providing some serious healing, takes up another precious bar space that could be used for adding more damage.
The magblade one-bar build excels in group content where your healers can take care of your survivability and you do insane damage at range. However, the class and playstyle lacks overall in solo content compared to others and thus, ranking it here.
#4 Warden A Tier
The Warden class is up next and we've moved it down to A tier currently. Where the Warden excels is solo play. You have mind-numbing survivability with Arctic Blast, a crowd control ability with healing and procing of status effects. The downside of this ability is it cannot be used at ranged to stun nor does it heal allies. When you're playing solo, this doesn't matter and most of the enemies come right toward you anyways.Warden's ultimate choice is both a strength and a hindrance. The base ultimate skill Feral Guardian (either morph) is extremely effective when playing solo or single target. The bear pet does amazing damage, can stun enemies and act as a decoy. The only issue with it is, it's not area damage. So you end up in a dilemma: Do I spec towards full single target damage, or do I sacrifice that in exchange for the Destruction Staff ultimate giving me more area damage?
And lastly, we have the range of the class. Your primary damage ability is Deep Fissure, firing off two damage attacks which lower armor via two debuffs. This will increase your overall group DPS significantly and makes the build much more active and fun. The downside is you need to not only aim the ability so it hits your target, but also be close enough in range. Again, when you are playing solo this isn't an issue because you have battlefield control of where the encounters take place. In group content, however, you can miss a Deep Fissure or be too far back avoiding damage mechanics and therefore lower your overall DPS.
For solo-focused players that like high single target damage, an active playstyle with the ability to do big damage, we recommend the Warden. In group play you can swap some skills in and out and do just great with this build as well. But other classes either have more flexibility in skills, more utility with one bar or incredibly simplicity.
#3 Necromancer A+ Tier
Now we've reached the class we prefer slightly higher than the Warden and that's the Necromancer. The key difference here is that the Necromancer's heal can be used solo or in a group. Unlike the Warden's selfish heal, Arctic Blast, the Render Flesh base morph can be used to heal other party members. Thus, giving the Necromancer a big advantage in a group content and saving precious bar space.Necromancers also have a ton of valuable buffs, including their ultimate of choice Pestilent Colossus which gives Major Vulnerability increasing everyone's damage by 10%. This becomes even more valuable than the Warden's Bear or the standard Mage's Guild Shooting Start ultimate in group content. Also the Necromancer has a melee focused main spammable that can be used to set off-balance without the need for Unstable Blockade using Ruinous Scythe. This skill, unlike other abilities, heals you based on the damage done and with a high health pool from Oakensoul and Bewitched Sugar Skulls food choice, it provides significant healing, especially playing solo.
Now why isn't the Necromancer number one then? The main issues are weaker single target due to the lack of bar space. The Necromancers, similar to the Dragonknights, are absolutely apex predatory DPS characters with two bars due to the high damage over time DoTs that last a long duration. But put them with an Oakensoul build, and you won't see their full potential. Moreover, your Blastbones ability requires more active casting and global cooldowns reducing the simplistic nature of the one-bar heavy attack playstye.
We recommend Necromancer if someone wants to play an Oakensoul build solo or in a group using a bit more frequent abilities due to Blastbones. The Necro also has great group utility so if there's multiple in your group, it's never a problem due to the Major Vulnerability debuff via your ultimate.
#2 Templar S Tier
The Templar has moved up significantly on our list in Update 37. Templar is nearly the Sorcerer's equal when it comes to solo play, as during our test, both the Magsorc and the Magplar completed Veteran Vateshran Arena within a 24-minute time. The Magplar, unlike all other Oakensoul builds, uses an execute ability because the damage is so significant and it can heal you based on the damage done with the Radiant Glory morph.Templar's shine with group utility as well, providing so many synergies to groups. Whether it be Blazing Spear, doing a ton of damage and giving back resources via the Synergy. Or Ritual of Retribution, another strong AoE damage skill with synergy cleansing negative effects, the Templar is very useful in a group. Moreover, your heal Breath of Life requires no aim, providing big healing in a massive range. The only downside is that the Sorcerer's heal via their pet is simply stronger.
When it comes to solo play, the Templar's skill Living Dark provides so much healing when taking damage, that you do not need another skill for healing. Combine Living Dark with Radiant Glory execute and you have insane survivability without the need for a selfish heal. And on a 21 million health parse dummy, the Templar shines getting over 90,000 DPS in combination with a simple bar load-out and execute.
If it weren't for the Sorcerer, we'd recommend the Templar overall as the best Oakensoul build. It has a great execute, group utility, and damage for both AOE and single target. We highly recommend this class for someone who just loves the Templar style and wants something different then a ranged execute. The Templar feels very strong solo or in a group with Oakensoul in the current meta.
#1 Sorcerer S+ Tier
It's no surprise that the Magicka Sorcerer remains the best Oakensoul build in The Elder Scrolls Online. It has the highest parse on record for Oakensoul, at over 100,000 DPS on a 21 million parse dummy. Oakensoul Sorc also has the best Veteran Maelstrom Arena (solo arena) time currently in the world. Whether it's mind-numbing damage or simplicity, it's truly the best.Not only does the Sorcerer heavy attack build shine in solo content, but in group as well. Throw onthe Mystic Orb skill from the Undaunted skill line and now you have massive AoE damage with a resource-sustaining synergy similar to the Templar's Blazing Spear. Change the morph on your Pet to Twilight Matriarch and you have even higher burst healing than the Templar. The highest burst healing from our testing, also without aiming required. Unlike other classes, this pet does constant damage even when not healing, saving you precious bar space and no other class can say that.
The play style blends the best of both worlds, being somewhat more active than other builds using a 6-second buff/DoT Daedric Prey. This skill gives a whooping 45% more damage to the target that's cursed. Simply apply this, fully charge heavy attack to get your pets focused on the target and watch the health bar melt. The build isn't as punishing if you miss a global cool down or forget to keep Prey up constantly, because your pets deal damage passively for you.
When it comes to parsing, or doing damage on a training dummy, the Sorcerer dominates. With a very easy rotation, this is one of the best builds to bring into Veteran Trials and prove that you're a valuable DPS player. And, unlike other builds, the Sorcerer doesn't have to sacrifice health or resource sustain to pull off big numbers.
In fact, my stamina Dragonknight with ultra sweaty trials gear, playing in melee range, does only slightly higher damage in dungeons than the Sorc. Why? Because the one-bar builds have much higher time on target. When mechanics in dungeons happen, most melee have to peel off the target and simply not do any damage. Meanwhile, the Sorc can rip off heavy attacks, Prey, and their ultimate with zero down time on DPS.
Now, the Stamina Dragonknight setup will do better in trials, because the content is geared towards tight stacks in melee range. But in dungeons, it's hands down the simplest and most effective for the everyday player in the Elder Scrolls Online.
The only downsides I see with this build are somewhat lackluster AoE in comparison to the Necromancer. Also, you are forced into using pets for the most damage possible and the play style can be a bit more active to get the most out of it. This build remains the most popular build on my website by a mile, because it's helped so many people get through content they wouldn't have dreamed of before. And in the current meta, it's just as good and we hope the trend continues for the rest of 2023. We will keep this post updated as patches, expansions continue to roll out so make sure to book and thanks for reading!
2023.03.25 13:22 IWantedToBeAnonymous MH series difficulty ranking by a veteran
Having played every MH I decided to rank the games in order of difficulty... Sort of. Difficulty is notoriously hard to gauge and based on stuff like which order you played them in, what games you are already familiar with etc. so I'll instead be ranking them on a Monster v. Hunter balance ratio instead. Basically, weighing each game's unique features to determine whether it favors the hunters or the monsters the most. These are merely my opinions, this is made for fun because I love talking about MH and hope it will open up some discussion.
MH1: Monster Advantage. I won't be going over the fundamentals of Monster Hunter here, but rather what characterized MH1 compared to later games in the series. MH1 had the most primitive movesets for weapons, and yet recurring monsters would be essentially fully realized in their current form all the way up until MHFU. There are some things in the player's favor, such as borked poison damage, but there's just so much you just can't do in this game. Hammer is just a worse GS. Want to use a bowgun? Not only is it a weak support weapon, but good luck fitting bullets into your mini-inventory. There's no G-rank, but guild monsters are horrendously powerful so it doesn't need it. Also, you attack with the right stick. Goodbye muscle memory. Considering how experimental this first game was, it's actually a miracle it had anything resembling balance.
MHG: Monster Advantage. Some buffs and nerfs to both sides; Hammer is good now while Lance is super strong, especially the Fatalis lance, but poison isn't borked and there's G-rank. This is probably to the monster's advantage overall, especially if you relied on poison and other weapons in MH1. It also added in dual blades, but they're really bad in this game. And MH4. But other than that, they're generally high tier, so don't be sad, dualbros.
MH2: Heavy Monster Advantage. There are more weapon types now and they've finally got the useful movesets and gimmicks we all know and love. And you can gem skills, you know, once, and then you have to permanently destroy the gem if you want to put something else in. Yep; it's that kind of game. There's new monsters and they're very scary and very powerful. Time-overing despite your 50 minutes is not uncommon, if you don't run out of your scarce potions and cold drinks first. Or you get bodied by 6 instantly respawning and surprisingly tanky Bullfango. Or you cooked a meal during the wrong season and had your stamina erased. Or you can't even go on the damn quest because you're out of cash after affording yourself the luxury of buying a few whetstones. Why didn't you bury a macca pot so you could sell a ripened mushroom for cash?! Huh?! And if you get past all these hurdles, you get to fight Kushala Daora before getting green sharpness or a Basarios in the same rank as Yian Kut-Ku. Or Plesioth, who takes 40 minutes minimum to kill, all while 4 Hermitaur constantly spawn around you, you run out of hot drinks and have to run back to camp every time you get hit and then wait for him to get his fish butt back on land so you can bounce off his scales with your yellow sharpness. And that's just low rank! Teostra and Yama Tsukami in high rank are just vile, absolute nonsense. Any semblance of balance is shattered here, but if you're into that kind of thing you can give it a shot once that new translation drops. Just remember to rebind the right stick attacks on your completely legitimate PS2. The GS is very strong in this game and as we all know, you only need 1 button for that (until World).
MHF: Heavy Hunter Advantage. It's basically MH1 for babies. There's a farm so you can use 10 mega potions on every hunt and like I alluded to earlier, monsters are still basically the same so you can probably just smash your face into them and wear them down at this point. There's also a weird thing where guild monsters had their HP AND attack power adjusted depending on player count, so G-rank monsters do less damage to you when soloing than village monsters. Some quests ignore this, like Four Horns, and are difficult as all hell, but I rank games based on the rule and not the exeception. For sure the easiest, sorry, "most hunter advantageous" of the early MH games, and a good place to start if you can handle 7 seconds of load times between each zone. Yeah, we're not at World just yet, keep a comic book close by. Right stick attacking is gone, but was replaced with the claaaw. At long last, every weapon type is balanced properly and made viable, but there's only 6 of them. If you want to use the rest, you'll have to play...
MHF2: Balanced. It's a much more reasonable MH2.I.E. Dos for babies Monsters aren't as tough, money isn't as tight, fixed motion values finally made every single weapon type viable, skills aren't a pain to slot in while farms ensure you don't suddenly run out of blood vials- sorry, mega potions. The game even gives your starting armor Cold Elimination[Hi] so you can explore your starting area without needing hot drinks! That's so considerate! But the monsters from MH2 are still scary, especially newcomer Tigrex, who in this game and the next is just absurdly dangerous before turning into babby's first bullfight in later games. Some people pretend the Supreme Bow and Akantor gear in general broke the game's balance, and I mean, yeah? It's the final boss. You already won. Go play something else, like the next game on this list. Also this game brought the Bow onto the PSP, giving us the final evolution of "Capcom, are you sure this is the optimal controller scheme?" in the form of the double three-pronged claaaw, so you could aim, dodge, shoot, control the camera, control the character and move items around all at the same time.
MHFU: Monster Advantage. Ah, MHFU, my one true love. For those that started playing MH on the PSP this is a nasty surprise, and I've heard it said that "players don't choose MHFU; MHFU chooses players." The monsters from the console games got pissed at hunters getting all these nice tools in the portable games and struck back in force. Oh, you struggled with Tigrex? Say hello to G-rank Tigrex, big as a house and with a charge the size of a tsunami. Say hello to Child of Destruction, oh and a G-rank Diablos sneaked into High Rank for the lulz. Say hello to "hitting Black Gravios for 48 minutes and the damn thing is still standing ft. why the hell didn't I just craft a water S bowgun?" And god help you getting the Sword Saint Piercing so you can hunt armor Fatty with anything but the Popcorn gunlance or bringing 10 gunpowders. But I digress. It's basically just MHF2 with fangs, and set a fire in the hearts of insatiable core gamers. The game also got rid of some cheese like sitting on ledges (not the ones from MH4; those raised platforms you see in older maps) and shooting monsters, but whatever, just throw flashbombs if you're that desperate to ruin the thrill of hunting. You can hire cats now, if you want to get a heart attack every time they pop out of the ground right next to you. They contribute nothing else to your hunt. Seriously, don't bring cats. This game has a skill called "auto-reload", which lets you use your Heavy Bowgun without ever needing to reload.
MH3: Hunter Advantage. This is the first big shakeup in the franchise. Pretty much everything was remade, from weapon movesets, monster behavior, and now you don't have to right stick or claaaw; instead you can just twist your wrist 90 degrees, hold A and jab it in the air with the Wiimote to guard counter with the Lance. How ergonomic. Tri carried over many player advantages from the portable series to consoles like farms while adding new ones, like Cha-Cha being like a cat but actually useful, and dung bombs drastically reducing the amount of times you spend fighting 2 big monsters at once (damn you Land of Tremors!). Speaking of which, monsters are a bit tankier, smarter and leave shorter openings, but they also exhaust, have much better hit detection and there's also only 18 of them, so c'mon, you can remember that many, right?So it's a baby game LOL GOTTEM Tri actually has some really nasty monsters, such as Barroth with his wombo combo and nearly unpunishable charge, Deviljho constantly ruining online hunts for free and of course, hunting stuff underwater. Special shoutouts to Alatreon and his goddamn Skypierces and Webbings. In this game the Lance got the ability to counter after the third poke, which seems like a pretty standard ability y'know, and then that was removed in every single game until World, where the motion values made it literally the weakest weapon in the entire game. I'm not mad, just disappointed. Oh, and this is the only game with Medium Bowguns, and the ability to mix and match bowgun parts, which was awesome and fun. OK now I'm pretty mad, BRING IT BACK! BRING IT ALL BACK!
P3rd: Heavy Hunter Advantage. Tri was already in the hunter's favor, and P3rd makes Tri's low rank look like high rank. Tigrex was nerfed, Barroth was nerfed, in fact everything was nerfed and the hunter only has more weapons to play with. This is also where skill stacking started getting really crazy, like just compare the Silver Sol set to the CE+2, HGE, S+1 set everyone was using in MHFU. Weakness Exploit alone trumps it, and you can just hack 'n slash a Rathian to death before it can even move, although that might just be because the Switch Axe isn't terrible in this game. Not that it matters which armor you wear, you can use the starting armor until like guild high rank and not sweat it. To be fair, there are some spicier quests later on, like the naked dual Deviljho arena and SilveGold hunt, but all in all this is probably the easiest MH game- sorry, the MH game most to the hunter's advantage. If you like the Gunlance but dislike having to git gud, this game had a glitch where autoguard activates even mid-attack, so you can break the balance even more. Another great starting point if you don't mind using the claaaw, or playing it outside of Japan, I.E. breaking the laaaw.
MH3U: Hunter Advantage. After the monstrous success of P3rd it only made sense for Capcom to make the next MH game even easier to accomodate a wider audience. This thankfully did not happen. While MH3U basically starts out as Tri with better defense, as you progress into guild High Rank you start to notice just how hard stuff is hitting you, how vicious the subspecies are and then Brachydios cracks your glass jaw, unmasks you and yells "fore!" before unleashing 5 AOE attacks in a row. As a result, you get all the improvements of Tri and P3rd combined with a suitable challenge and a pretty balanced game. So why do I think it favors the hunter? Is this a stupid rethorical question because everyone knows 3U's biggest problem? So yeah, slime is overpowered, let's try to defend that. Arguably if you can kill Brachydios, you are already an expert player and can probably kill any other monster in the game anyway. Yes, even the kelbi bow requires Brach mats, Grongigas is endgame and the awakened slime weapons like Rising Tempest requires hunting Black Diablos who's as fearsome as Brachydios. Besides, you should be using the Warflare Demolisher instead! All-in-all, if you don't use slime the game is definitively Balanced, so why not do your gameplay experience a favor and put that Pyro Demolisher aside for a hunt or two? If you're a Hunting Horn fanatic, this is the game for you; craft the Sandsoother, awaken it and never look back. This thing held the world record for speedrunning Brachydios for a while and drops G-rank Sand Barioth in like 3 minutes. Also the risk of getting a cursed table was like 2%, I wouldn't worry about it.
MH4: Monster Advantage. MH4 brought back many earlier generation monsters, and made them quite strong as to not get outdone by these newfangled Tri cretins. Nothing like getting stomped like a koopa by a Velocidrome. Overall monsters also got smarter and finally learned not to stupidly turn their heads towards the hunter's big boner sword before every attack, like Tigrex and Rajang attacking while turning around, or Zinogre and Brachdios going nuts with combos leaving almost no openings. Frenzied monsters are especially thrilling to hunt, but the monsters are now much stronger while the hunters are basically on the same level as they were in 3U, or weaker in some cases like the Hunting Horn and Dual Blades. Unless you're using the new Insect Glaive of course, then you can really mess them up (the Charge Blade needs to wait another game to shine). There's mounting, but this also introduces ledges everywhere, that are situationally useful for hunters and constantly useful for monsters, who step over them like nothing while hunters get stuck jumping or climbing and leaving themselves open to attack. Some monster are so aggressive that without mounting them there's almost no decent opportunity to attack safely, like frenzied Yian Garuga. Also, get used to these horrendous trash maps, because they're in 4 games in a row. The only time I've ever gotten motion sickness from a game was hunting Rathalos by that slope in the cavern. Does it have to be slanting so much?
MH4U: Heavy Monster Advantage. Eternal proof that MH team's primary concern is not to earn money, but to watch us suffer. 4U follows MH4's lead by giving monsters astronomical buffs and hunters next to nothing. Eh, that's not entirely true - When knocked down you do get the ability to just chill for a bit instead of getting right up into the monster's next attack, which I consider to be the single most advantageous trait given to hunters prior to World, but it's easily overshadowed by Apex monsters. This ain't Rise's Apex; go read up on them or just remember 140 GQ Apex Zingore and go cry in a corner for a bit at how annoying and useless Wystones, your ONLY countermeasure against these were. It's not all bad thankfully - Low and High rank are just MH4 but easier, Brachydios and Rathalos got nerfed and you don't HAVE to grind guild quests just so you can get your rear extrapolated by Rajang. But the G-rank quests are brutally unfair, the Apex monsters are some of the worst the franchise has to offer outside of Frontier, I mean c'mon, Deviljho pins you with EVERY ATTACK?! WHY CAPCOM?! I CAN ONLY BRING SO MANY COPIES OF GOD EATER TO THROW AT IT
MHGen: Balanced. It's MH4U, except they actually remembered to buff the hunters this time around. You've styles, arts, and meanwhile the monsters are basically still identical to MH4U where you had none of this, and Apex is also gone. So... Now the pendulum's too far in the other direction. This is entirely up to the player of course; sticking to Guild style and not using any evasion arts is the most fun I personally had with this and the next game, but if you want to bounce around with Adept Dual Blades or Striker Lance there's nothing stopping you. And while the new monsters are really cool and all, they don't offer much in dealing with Adept dodges, or hunters staying in the air, and feel like they'd be more fitting in, say, MH3U. Instead you get Deviants, who are like subspecies but horrendously tanky for when they unlock, and Hypers, who are just horrendously tanky period. Some of these Deviants actually do have an answer for the hunter's styles and will swiftly punish adept dodgers with instant death, but they're all basically optional unless you want their very specific gear which takes forever and usually isn't even that good. Hypers look lazy on paper, but at least for me, in practice they forced me to play much more aggressively to deplete their healthbars and be more wary about getting hit now that 2 hits from a gentle nudge killed me. But who cares? The Sword and Shield has oils baybeee, KO:ing better than hammer, Mind's Eye:ing better than the Long Sword and critting like a Nargacuga weapon!
MHGU: Balanced. The monsters still can't hit adept dodgers, but they're stronger now thanks to G-rank hypers and Super Deviants, so we're getting into the "either you or the monster completely obliterate the other" era of MH. Again, you don't HAVE to use adept or brave or hire 3 hunters to hunt the monster while you sit in camp and cook x99 well-done steaks, so you can adjust this balance any way you want depending on the monster. Freedom is the keyword of this game; from the lowliest Tetsucabra to G-rank Hyper Lagiacrus, there's like three dozen monsters for any skill level in this package. You can also try the Brave Long Sword for a taste of the counter-based playstyle that's sure to ingratiate itself once it's on every single weapon.
World: Heavy Hunter Advantage. Going over every change World brought to MH would take all day, so just think of it as Tri 2.0. Buffed hunters, with monsters made smarter but still ill-equipped to challenge these buffs, and low rank still providing some nasty fights like Tobi-Kadachi, Anjanath and Velkhana. While the inability to move while healing was originally an entirely unintented design choice (according to the development team of MH1, hunters flex after healing so other players could tell from a distance that they were healing and weren't just idling), it's been with MH until this point and monsters are in almost every case too inaccurate and passive to punish a damaged hunter, especially one spamming max potions. But overall I think the differences between World and previous installments are greatly overstated, it's basically the same thing. People complained about the temporal mantle, but it's not like you die in MH anyway unless you get hit repeatedly while refuse to heal because you're stubborn. Again, you don't HAVE to make a hotkey for combining infinite max potions, and stuff like Nergigante will kick you up and down the spiky caves regardless if your gear sucks, but in general you have to gimp yourself quite a bit for the monsters to keep up. P3rd is still much easier, in my opinion. I should also point out that you don't get ganged up as much anymore, and monsters prefer to just stand and roar at each other for like 30 seconds while earplugs was turned into a 5 tier skill. Honestly I think I prefer getting ganged up on. One more thing worth mention are the immense i-frames and skill bloat in World. You have a lot of i-frames and skills in World. Thus concludes my in-depth analysis on the subject. In other news, the Charge Blade is really good again. And before you ask, there is no apt scale to rank World's content with the addition of defender armor and clutch claw. Can it even be called a game anymore?
Iceborne: Hunter Advantage. Iceborne, or rather World's G-rank, which is now called M-rank for reasons, is quite similar to MH4U in that it buffed the monsters while giving the hunters a counter-measure that is absolute dung. The defining gameplay gimmick is the clutch claw, whose satisfaction in slamming the monster's dumb face into a wall is only matched by the rage of getting hit during your 10 second animation of being plastered at the front of their railgun appendage. Thankfully it was greatly improved through updates and skills, which are basically free to slot in now and don't require a dedicated armor like the good old days, and it gave World's monsters some much-needed bulk in G-rank. Sorry, M-rank. Rolling i-frames still let you move through anything they throw at you, and the number of actually scary monsters can be counted on one hand, but to be fair, those are some &%¤ scary monsters. The likes of Alatreon and Fatalis alone would bump this game up to Heavy Monster Advantage because of their time limits, but again, exception and not the rule. You know, integrated into the movesets, the clutch claw wasn't half bad. The ones for the Hammer and Lance were useful, and the Insect Glaive one looked ballers even if it was pointless. And you could ride on the monster's back when it tried to flee. I guess it will always live on as the zero sum discharge.
Rise: Hunter Advantage. Overall, Rise took a lot of steps towards fixing the balancing issues that World created, nerfing your i-frames TO THE GROUND, improving the tracking of monster's attacks so they can properly harass a hunter trying to heal (or survive) and extending their hitboxes vertically so Insect Glaive users can actually get hit again. At the same time, they let you cancel your knockback into a wirefall for even more safety (and totally not right into the monster's next attack), heal a significant portion right when you start drinking and as of this game, monsters definitively can't gang up on you anymore. I'm not sure where spiribirds stand currently, because while they're an advantage to the hunter, they're basically just bringing them back to normal and they suffer a gimped helath/stamina bar otherwise. The lack of big girthy healthbars from World's +150 HP brings me back to MH2 where you'd risk a gastronomical disaster or wear the literal head of a literal goddamn bullfango for that sweet +20 HP buff. Unlike Generations, the new monsters are actually quite good at handling this new balance; Magnamalo does not leave you alone, and his slime-esque explosion puts you at risk of being oneshot no matter how easily you dodge and heal, while Alumadron's tail will track you unto the ends of the earth and WILL NOT WHIFF. As a MH veteran, it saddens me to see the final death of pre-emptively avoiding attacks by just not being where the attack is going to be in 2 seconds, but appreciate the high-paced reactive action too. True to their namesake, Apex Monsters are just kind of frustrating to fight, but they're even more optional than most optional monsters. There's also dogs in addition to cats. They're almost not useless. Unlike Rampage quests.
Sunbreak: Balanced. As of writing this I've yet to play TU5, but I don't think it will change my overall impression. In retrospect, Sunbreak didn't really shake up the Rise formula that much; aside from removing rampages (which is worth the price of admission alone) there's no game-defining gimmick like the clutch claw, there's no game-breaking element like 3U's slime, you just have better weapon movesets and a better way to switch between them, useless AI hunters (Rasta?) and cooler monsters to fight. Until you get to Malzeno it's clearly a Hunter Advantage game, and then you encounter quiro and everything changes. Healing is too easy when you don't have to stand still and flex? Well, now its healing power is halved, and you're incentivized to quickly retaliate instead of drinking potions to regain HP, putting yourself at great risk. In fact, anomaly, uh, orbs, also promote being aggressive instead of taking potshots whenever something resembling an opening appears. Suddenly your amazingly nimble hunter with his crazy-strong moveset is constantly on his toes, trying to keep up with even the weaker monsters. And then the postgame hits you with Risen Elder Dragons and Chaotic Gore Magala, that constantly hit you with fearsome attacks that you're actually capable of handling in this game.
Anyway I wrote this all in one go, I'm tired now. Thanks for reading and happy hunting.
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MH1: Monster Advantage. I won't be going over the fundamentals of Monster Hunter here, but rather what characterized MH1 compared to later games in the series. MH1 had the most primitive movesets for weapons, and yet recurring monsters would be essentially fully realized in their current form all the way up until MHFU. There are some things in the player's favor, such as borked poison damage, but there's just so much you just can't do in this game. Hammer is just a worse GS. Want to use a bowgun? Not only is it a weak support weapon, but good luck fitting bullets into your mini-inventory. There's no G-rank, but guild monsters are horrendously powerful so it doesn't need it. Also, you attack with the right stick. Goodbye muscle memory. Considering how experimental this first game was, it's actually a miracle it had anything resembling balance.
MHG: Monster Advantage. Some buffs and nerfs to both sides; Hammer is good now while Lance is super strong, especially the Fatalis lance, but poison isn't borked and there's G-rank. This is probably to the monster's advantage overall, especially if you relied on poison and other weapons in MH1. It also added in dual blades, but they're really bad in this game. And MH4. But other than that, they're generally high tier, so don't be sad, dualbros.
MH2: Heavy Monster Advantage. There are more weapon types now and they've finally got the useful movesets and gimmicks we all know and love. And you can gem skills, you know, once, and then you have to permanently destroy the gem if you want to put something else in. Yep; it's that kind of game. There's new monsters and they're very scary and very powerful. Time-overing despite your 50 minutes is not uncommon, if you don't run out of your scarce potions and cold drinks first. Or you get bodied by 6 instantly respawning and surprisingly tanky Bullfango. Or you cooked a meal during the wrong season and had your stamina erased. Or you can't even go on the damn quest because you're out of cash after affording yourself the luxury of buying a few whetstones. Why didn't you bury a macca pot so you could sell a ripened mushroom for cash?! Huh?! And if you get past all these hurdles, you get to fight Kushala Daora before getting green sharpness or a Basarios in the same rank as Yian Kut-Ku. Or Plesioth, who takes 40 minutes minimum to kill, all while 4 Hermitaur constantly spawn around you, you run out of hot drinks and have to run back to camp every time you get hit and then wait for him to get his fish butt back on land so you can bounce off his scales with your yellow sharpness. And that's just low rank! Teostra and Yama Tsukami in high rank are just vile, absolute nonsense. Any semblance of balance is shattered here, but if you're into that kind of thing you can give it a shot once that new translation drops. Just remember to rebind the right stick attacks on your completely legitimate PS2. The GS is very strong in this game and as we all know, you only need 1 button for that (until World).
MHF: Heavy Hunter Advantage. It's basically MH1 for babies. There's a farm so you can use 10 mega potions on every hunt and like I alluded to earlier, monsters are still basically the same so you can probably just smash your face into them and wear them down at this point. There's also a weird thing where guild monsters had their HP AND attack power adjusted depending on player count, so G-rank monsters do less damage to you when soloing than village monsters. Some quests ignore this, like Four Horns, and are difficult as all hell, but I rank games based on the rule and not the exeception. For sure the easiest, sorry, "most hunter advantageous" of the early MH games, and a good place to start if you can handle 7 seconds of load times between each zone. Yeah, we're not at World just yet, keep a comic book close by. Right stick attacking is gone, but was replaced with the claaaw. At long last, every weapon type is balanced properly and made viable, but there's only 6 of them. If you want to use the rest, you'll have to play...
MHF2: Balanced. It's a much more reasonable MH2.
MHFU: Monster Advantage. Ah, MHFU, my one true love. For those that started playing MH on the PSP this is a nasty surprise, and I've heard it said that "players don't choose MHFU; MHFU chooses players." The monsters from the console games got pissed at hunters getting all these nice tools in the portable games and struck back in force. Oh, you struggled with Tigrex? Say hello to G-rank Tigrex, big as a house and with a charge the size of a tsunami. Say hello to Child of Destruction, oh and a G-rank Diablos sneaked into High Rank for the lulz. Say hello to "hitting Black Gravios for 48 minutes and the damn thing is still standing ft. why the hell didn't I just craft a water S bowgun?" And god help you getting the Sword Saint Piercing so you can hunt armor Fatty with anything but the Popcorn gunlance or bringing 10 gunpowders. But I digress. It's basically just MHF2 with fangs, and set a fire in the hearts of insatiable core gamers. The game also got rid of some cheese like sitting on ledges (not the ones from MH4; those raised platforms you see in older maps) and shooting monsters, but whatever, just throw flashbombs if you're that desperate to ruin the thrill of hunting. You can hire cats now, if you want to get a heart attack every time they pop out of the ground right next to you. They contribute nothing else to your hunt. Seriously, don't bring cats. This game has a skill called "auto-reload", which lets you use your Heavy Bowgun without ever needing to reload.
MH3: Hunter Advantage. This is the first big shakeup in the franchise. Pretty much everything was remade, from weapon movesets, monster behavior, and now you don't have to right stick or claaaw; instead you can just twist your wrist 90 degrees, hold A and jab it in the air with the Wiimote to guard counter with the Lance. How ergonomic. Tri carried over many player advantages from the portable series to consoles like farms while adding new ones, like Cha-Cha being like a cat but actually useful, and dung bombs drastically reducing the amount of times you spend fighting 2 big monsters at once (damn you Land of Tremors!). Speaking of which, monsters are a bit tankier, smarter and leave shorter openings, but they also exhaust, have much better hit detection and there's also only 18 of them, so c'mon, you can remember that many, right?
P3rd: Heavy Hunter Advantage. Tri was already in the hunter's favor, and P3rd makes Tri's low rank look like high rank. Tigrex was nerfed, Barroth was nerfed, in fact everything was nerfed and the hunter only has more weapons to play with. This is also where skill stacking started getting really crazy, like just compare the Silver Sol set to the CE+2, HGE, S+1 set everyone was using in MHFU. Weakness Exploit alone trumps it, and you can just hack 'n slash a Rathian to death before it can even move, although that might just be because the Switch Axe isn't terrible in this game. Not that it matters which armor you wear, you can use the starting armor until like guild high rank and not sweat it. To be fair, there are some spicier quests later on, like the naked dual Deviljho arena and SilveGold hunt, but all in all this is probably the easiest MH game- sorry, the MH game most to the hunter's advantage. If you like the Gunlance but dislike having to git gud, this game had a glitch where autoguard activates even mid-attack, so you can break the balance even more. Another great starting point if you don't mind using the claaaw, or playing it outside of Japan, I.E. breaking the laaaw.
MH3U: Hunter Advantage. After the monstrous success of P3rd it only made sense for Capcom to make the next MH game even easier to accomodate a wider audience. This thankfully did not happen. While MH3U basically starts out as Tri with better defense, as you progress into guild High Rank you start to notice just how hard stuff is hitting you, how vicious the subspecies are and then Brachydios cracks your glass jaw, unmasks you and yells "fore!" before unleashing 5 AOE attacks in a row. As a result, you get all the improvements of Tri and P3rd combined with a suitable challenge and a pretty balanced game. So why do I think it favors the hunter? Is this a stupid rethorical question because everyone knows 3U's biggest problem? So yeah, slime is overpowered, let's try to defend that. Arguably if you can kill Brachydios, you are already an expert player and can probably kill any other monster in the game anyway. Yes, even the kelbi bow requires Brach mats, Grongigas is endgame and the awakened slime weapons like Rising Tempest requires hunting Black Diablos who's as fearsome as Brachydios. Besides, you should be using the Warflare Demolisher instead! All-in-all, if you don't use slime the game is definitively Balanced, so why not do your gameplay experience a favor and put that Pyro Demolisher aside for a hunt or two? If you're a Hunting Horn fanatic, this is the game for you; craft the Sandsoother, awaken it and never look back. This thing held the world record for speedrunning Brachydios for a while and drops G-rank Sand Barioth in like 3 minutes. Also the risk of getting a cursed table was like 2%, I wouldn't worry about it.
MH4: Monster Advantage. MH4 brought back many earlier generation monsters, and made them quite strong as to not get outdone by these newfangled Tri cretins. Nothing like getting stomped like a koopa by a Velocidrome. Overall monsters also got smarter and finally learned not to stupidly turn their heads towards the hunter's big boner sword before every attack, like Tigrex and Rajang attacking while turning around, or Zinogre and Brachdios going nuts with combos leaving almost no openings. Frenzied monsters are especially thrilling to hunt, but the monsters are now much stronger while the hunters are basically on the same level as they were in 3U, or weaker in some cases like the Hunting Horn and Dual Blades. Unless you're using the new Insect Glaive of course, then you can really mess them up (the Charge Blade needs to wait another game to shine). There's mounting, but this also introduces ledges everywhere, that are situationally useful for hunters and constantly useful for monsters, who step over them like nothing while hunters get stuck jumping or climbing and leaving themselves open to attack. Some monster are so aggressive that without mounting them there's almost no decent opportunity to attack safely, like frenzied Yian Garuga. Also, get used to these horrendous trash maps, because they're in 4 games in a row. The only time I've ever gotten motion sickness from a game was hunting Rathalos by that slope in the cavern. Does it have to be slanting so much?
MH4U: Heavy Monster Advantage. Eternal proof that MH team's primary concern is not to earn money, but to watch us suffer. 4U follows MH4's lead by giving monsters astronomical buffs and hunters next to nothing. Eh, that's not entirely true - When knocked down you do get the ability to just chill for a bit instead of getting right up into the monster's next attack, which I consider to be the single most advantageous trait given to hunters prior to World, but it's easily overshadowed by Apex monsters. This ain't Rise's Apex; go read up on them or just remember 140 GQ Apex Zingore and go cry in a corner for a bit at how annoying and useless Wystones, your ONLY countermeasure against these were. It's not all bad thankfully - Low and High rank are just MH4 but easier, Brachydios and Rathalos got nerfed and you don't HAVE to grind guild quests just so you can get your rear extrapolated by Rajang. But the G-rank quests are brutally unfair, the Apex monsters are some of the worst the franchise has to offer outside of Frontier, I mean c'mon, Deviljho pins you with EVERY ATTACK?! WHY CAPCOM?! I CAN ONLY BRING SO MANY COPIES OF GOD EATER TO THROW AT IT
MHGen: Balanced. It's MH4U, except they actually remembered to buff the hunters this time around. You've styles, arts, and meanwhile the monsters are basically still identical to MH4U where you had none of this, and Apex is also gone. So... Now the pendulum's too far in the other direction. This is entirely up to the player of course; sticking to Guild style and not using any evasion arts is the most fun I personally had with this and the next game, but if you want to bounce around with Adept Dual Blades or Striker Lance there's nothing stopping you. And while the new monsters are really cool and all, they don't offer much in dealing with Adept dodges, or hunters staying in the air, and feel like they'd be more fitting in, say, MH3U. Instead you get Deviants, who are like subspecies but horrendously tanky for when they unlock, and Hypers, who are just horrendously tanky period. Some of these Deviants actually do have an answer for the hunter's styles and will swiftly punish adept dodgers with instant death, but they're all basically optional unless you want their very specific gear which takes forever and usually isn't even that good. Hypers look lazy on paper, but at least for me, in practice they forced me to play much more aggressively to deplete their healthbars and be more wary about getting hit now that 2 hits from a gentle nudge killed me. But who cares? The Sword and Shield has oils baybeee, KO:ing better than hammer, Mind's Eye:ing better than the Long Sword and critting like a Nargacuga weapon!
MHGU: Balanced. The monsters still can't hit adept dodgers, but they're stronger now thanks to G-rank hypers and Super Deviants, so we're getting into the "either you or the monster completely obliterate the other" era of MH. Again, you don't HAVE to use adept or brave or hire 3 hunters to hunt the monster while you sit in camp and cook x99 well-done steaks, so you can adjust this balance any way you want depending on the monster. Freedom is the keyword of this game; from the lowliest Tetsucabra to G-rank Hyper Lagiacrus, there's like three dozen monsters for any skill level in this package. You can also try the Brave Long Sword for a taste of the counter-based playstyle that's sure to ingratiate itself once it's on every single weapon.
World: Heavy Hunter Advantage. Going over every change World brought to MH would take all day, so just think of it as Tri 2.0. Buffed hunters, with monsters made smarter but still ill-equipped to challenge these buffs, and low rank still providing some nasty fights like Tobi-Kadachi, Anjanath and Velkhana. While the inability to move while healing was originally an entirely unintented design choice (according to the development team of MH1, hunters flex after healing so other players could tell from a distance that they were healing and weren't just idling), it's been with MH until this point and monsters are in almost every case too inaccurate and passive to punish a damaged hunter, especially one spamming max potions. But overall I think the differences between World and previous installments are greatly overstated, it's basically the same thing. People complained about the temporal mantle, but it's not like you die in MH anyway unless you get hit repeatedly while refuse to heal because you're stubborn. Again, you don't HAVE to make a hotkey for combining infinite max potions, and stuff like Nergigante will kick you up and down the spiky caves regardless if your gear sucks, but in general you have to gimp yourself quite a bit for the monsters to keep up. P3rd is still much easier, in my opinion. I should also point out that you don't get ganged up as much anymore, and monsters prefer to just stand and roar at each other for like 30 seconds while earplugs was turned into a 5 tier skill. Honestly I think I prefer getting ganged up on. One more thing worth mention are the immense i-frames and skill bloat in World. You have a lot of i-frames and skills in World. Thus concludes my in-depth analysis on the subject. In other news, the Charge Blade is really good again. And before you ask, there is no apt scale to rank World's content with the addition of defender armor and clutch claw. Can it even be called a game anymore?
Iceborne: Hunter Advantage. Iceborne, or rather World's G-rank, which is now called M-rank for reasons, is quite similar to MH4U in that it buffed the monsters while giving the hunters a counter-measure that is absolute dung. The defining gameplay gimmick is the clutch claw, whose satisfaction in slamming the monster's dumb face into a wall is only matched by the rage of getting hit during your 10 second animation of being plastered at the front of their railgun appendage. Thankfully it was greatly improved through updates and skills, which are basically free to slot in now and don't require a dedicated armor like the good old days, and it gave World's monsters some much-needed bulk in G-rank. Sorry, M-rank. Rolling i-frames still let you move through anything they throw at you, and the number of actually scary monsters can be counted on one hand, but to be fair, those are some &%¤ scary monsters. The likes of Alatreon and Fatalis alone would bump this game up to Heavy Monster Advantage because of their time limits, but again, exception and not the rule. You know, integrated into the movesets, the clutch claw wasn't half bad. The ones for the Hammer and Lance were useful, and the Insect Glaive one looked ballers even if it was pointless. And you could ride on the monster's back when it tried to flee. I guess it will always live on as the zero sum discharge.
Rise: Hunter Advantage. Overall, Rise took a lot of steps towards fixing the balancing issues that World created, nerfing your i-frames TO THE GROUND, improving the tracking of monster's attacks so they can properly harass a hunter trying to heal (or survive) and extending their hitboxes vertically so Insect Glaive users can actually get hit again. At the same time, they let you cancel your knockback into a wirefall for even more safety (and totally not right into the monster's next attack), heal a significant portion right when you start drinking and as of this game, monsters definitively can't gang up on you anymore. I'm not sure where spiribirds stand currently, because while they're an advantage to the hunter, they're basically just bringing them back to normal and they suffer a gimped helath/stamina bar otherwise. The lack of big girthy healthbars from World's +150 HP brings me back to MH2 where you'd risk a gastronomical disaster or wear the literal head of a literal goddamn bullfango for that sweet +20 HP buff. Unlike Generations, the new monsters are actually quite good at handling this new balance; Magnamalo does not leave you alone, and his slime-esque explosion puts you at risk of being oneshot no matter how easily you dodge and heal, while Alumadron's tail will track you unto the ends of the earth and WILL NOT WHIFF. As a MH veteran, it saddens me to see the final death of pre-emptively avoiding attacks by just not being where the attack is going to be in 2 seconds, but appreciate the high-paced reactive action too. True to their namesake, Apex Monsters are just kind of frustrating to fight, but they're even more optional than most optional monsters. There's also dogs in addition to cats. They're almost not useless. Unlike Rampage quests.
Sunbreak: Balanced. As of writing this I've yet to play TU5, but I don't think it will change my overall impression. In retrospect, Sunbreak didn't really shake up the Rise formula that much; aside from removing rampages (which is worth the price of admission alone) there's no game-defining gimmick like the clutch claw, there's no game-breaking element like 3U's slime, you just have better weapon movesets and a better way to switch between them, useless AI hunters (Rasta?) and cooler monsters to fight. Until you get to Malzeno it's clearly a Hunter Advantage game, and then you encounter quiro and everything changes. Healing is too easy when you don't have to stand still and flex? Well, now its healing power is halved, and you're incentivized to quickly retaliate instead of drinking potions to regain HP, putting yourself at great risk. In fact, anomaly, uh, orbs, also promote being aggressive instead of taking potshots whenever something resembling an opening appears. Suddenly your amazingly nimble hunter with his crazy-strong moveset is constantly on his toes, trying to keep up with even the weaker monsters. And then the postgame hits you with Risen Elder Dragons and Chaotic Gore Magala, that constantly hit you with fearsome attacks that you're actually capable of handling in this game.
Anyway I wrote this all in one go, I'm tired now. Thanks for reading and happy hunting.
2023.03.25 13:14 Naijagyal999 Most Jurors are Bullies, Biased and Dumb AF: My Eye-Opening Experience as a Juror in a Criminal Case (The State of New Jersey v. William and Beverly Ong)
DISCLAIMER: This criminal trial ended in April 2022, and I am allowed to discuss my experience with the media/online. This post is intended to shed light on juror conduct behind closed doors. NO REAL NAMES OF JURORS WERE USED. The only real names used are the plaintiffs and defendants in the case, whose names are public information. This post is for readers who want the REAL nitty-gritty about juror deliberations and juror conduct.
I was a juror in a NJ criminal case involving an Iranian-American man named Babak Pasdar, who claimed that an elderly, Asian-American couple named William and Beverly Ong, made discriminatory remarks and terroristic threats toward him, such as saying “F***ing Muslim!” and “Trump is going to get you!” to him, making a gun and slit throat motion towards him and his family, flying an Israeli flag to allegedly antagonize him, etc. The actual trial (opening and closing statements, and witness testimonies) was completed in one day because there was NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE- no pictures, video, independent/unbiased witness testimonies, and no police reports were provided to the prosecution. I thought the case was cut and dry-there was no evidence, so we could not prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Ongs were guilty of what they were being accused of.
Juror #3, Jen (a dumb, rude and condescending 20-something year-old Caucasian woman with a blonde, messy top knot bun) and juror #7, Pat (a 70-something year-old Caucasian woman with an equally mean and condescending attitude) dominated the entire conversation, saying how they “just feel” that Mr. Pasdar is telling the truth, and that the Ongs are guilty solely based off of Mr. Pasdar’s mannerisms/body language and “emotion” at the witness stand. Jen said that she didn’t like how Mr. and Mrs. Ong were whispering to each other, how Mr. Ong was shaking his head and mumbling under his breath, that their lawyer was nudging them to be quiet, and therefore, because of mannerisms/body language, they are guilty. I responded by saying that he may have been shaking his head because he felt that he was being lied on. One juror wondered out loud why Mr. Pasdar’s wife, Clara, (who is a former prosecutor herself), would corroborate Mr. Pasdar’s claims about the terroristic threats if she wasn’t actually there when it happened. I told the group that maybe he told his wife about what happened and she is just regurgitating what he told her, or maybe she could be flat-out lying and fabricating the story, being that we don’t know her personally or her morals-anything was possible in my mind. Suddenly, Pat gasped and yelled at me, “You think she is lying?!” I responded, “Maybe! You never know what someone is willing to say to defend their spouse”. She immediately responded with arrogance and defensiveness in her tone, “No, I don’t believe that! She is a lawyer and is held by the court of law to tell the truth and I just don’t believe at all that she would lie” (as if lawyers are always truthful *sarcasm*). The other jurors brought up topics that were unrelated to the case, were focused on details of the case that didn’t matter (i.e. the position of the house security cameras in the evidence pictures when this didn’t matter because there were no images and/or videos provided), were not paying attention to the legal standard of ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’, and were allowing jurors, like Pat and Jen, to bully them into abandoning their own beliefs or doubts about the case so that they can agree with them, giving the jury room a schoolyard vibe- if one didn’t want to be an outcast, join Pat, or else she would belittle and embarrass others into being quiet and questioning their own reasoning.
Some jurors didn’t speak at all, like one guy who constantly sat in the back of the room quietly, but voted “guilty” with no reasoning provided, probably because he had no backbone to make a dissenting decision. Mr. Pasdar on day 1, said that he had images, videos, and police reports, yet none were provided. The dummy Pat even said that his police reports “must be on file somewhere”. For all we know, he could be lying about the alleged “50-60 police reports”. They also asked, “Why would Mr. Pasdar go through the trouble of filing false police reports?”. Well #1- we have no proof of these reports, and #2- we know that he had some type of conflict with the Ongs’ daughter, Johanna, and maybe he is filing the lawsuit to spite them-just a possibility. There have been many plaintiffs who were in the right, and others whose lawsuits were frivolous and/or had no evidence to corroborate the claims. It is truly sad and disheartening when you have low-vibrational people with no legal training, or even basic understanding of the law, making long-lasting decisions that can affect someone’s life. Jen insinuated that the defense was trying to hide the “fact” that the Ongs did anything. Another juror, Ginger, interpreted Mr. Pasdar’s defensiveness about his own charges as “just being nervous about his innocence”-how gullible. It also shows how much people want to find the plaintiff innocent and the defendant guilty on anything no matter what. Ginger even said that “if we can’t find him/her guilty on this charge, maybe we can find him/her guilty on this other charge...”. I was floored-why such a desperation to find someone guilty? A not guilty verdict does not mean that the Ongs didn’t do anything, it just means that based on the extreme lack of evidence, we cannot find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt- which is OKAY! A hung jury/mistrial is OKAY as well! Kevin noted the lack of evidence, only for Pat, Shirley, and Bertha to yell at him and scare him into being quiet. The defendants (contrary to what the slow jurors thought) have no obligation to defend themselves like the judge said MULTIPLE times. Just because they have been formally charged/indicted does not mean that they are guilty, like the judge said MULTIPLE times. The bullying continued from that day forward- jurors like Pat, Jen, and Shirley would gaslight and try to belittle an intelligent person like me, who was knowledgeable about the case, and I knew what I was talking about.
We all agreed on a not guilty verdict for the terrorism/terroristic threats charge-we agreed on the definition of terrorism/terrorize (which for some reason slow-minded Bertha did not understand it), and that Mr. Ong using the slit throat and gun motions did not constitute a terroristic threat conviction because we did not believe that Mr. Ong would actually cause bodily harm to Mr. Pasdar (produce an actual gun or slit his throat in real life). We did not believe that the hand gestures meant that Mr. Ong would reasonably cause serious fear of death for Mr. Pasdar or that it would be carried out. Since we believed that this threat was simply made to alarm, we all agreed on the not guilty verdict. The other two charges were contingent on this charge, so these were N/A. I then went on my lunch break thinking we would stick to our hung jury on the first charge. However, after the break, very quickly the foreman and Kevin caved. One of the jurors kept trying to rush through the day by continuously asking us to do a re-vote multiple times. Around 2 pm, the vote was now 11-1: I was the holdout. At this point, the Drab 4 (Pat, Jen, Shirley and Bertha) and I were going back and forth on whether the bias claim (“Isis”, “Taliban”) was true. The Drab 4 wrongly said that we must assume that all witness testimony is true- WRONG! I didn’t see this in the law handbook that we were provided. I asked the foreman to ask the judge to if we can assume that witness testimony is true unless refuted. I already knew that the answer was no, which is common sense, but common sense isn't so common amongst low-vibrational jurors. We walked back into the courtroom to hear the judge’s answer “No”, and lo and behold, I was correct! Still, this did not make a difference in their minds, nor did anyone apologize for saying that I was wrong in questioning the truthfulness of witness testimony.
I said that I have seen cases where people swear on the Bible and still lied, and Pat and I got into a very heated disagreement, and I could tell she was very irritated with me for not bowing down to her. I also didn’t remember there being any mention of bias statements in the police reports from my recollection of Mr. Pasdar’s testimony, but in true ganging-up-on-me fashion, the Drab 4 said that it was mentioned in the police reports, which I don’t believe is true because the defense team stated that the anti-Muslim statements were never noted in the police reports, but at this I point I started to shut down because everything I said would just go in one ear and out the other. Also, when I mentioned my knowledge of other people lying in witness testimonies and having innocent people be punished, Shirley then wrongly and angrily accused me of using my “personal beliefs” and my “opinions of other cases” to influence this case, and that what I was doing was not appropriate. I simply reiterated that “it’s not about personal beliefs, it’s just that I have seen other cases where people lie!”. The other jurors asked if there was anything that would change my mind- I said “No, I’m not sure I can”. Jen, in the nastiest, most condescending tone ever, said to me, “If you had these biases, you should have told the judge and the lawyers so that you would be deemed unfit to serve on the jury!”. Since when is knowing that someone may lie a bias?! Saying someone could lie is a personally belief?! I sarcastically retorted, “During voir dire questioning, I was never asked if questioning someone’s truthfulness is a bias, so I don’t know what you are referring to.” Being unsure about which verdict to give doesn’t mean that I am unwilling to see the other side and change my mind. Jen also previously made a comment about us not-guilty voters being “confused” and when I said that I would have preferred an unbiased, independent witness, before I could finish my statement, she rudely interrupted saying “well it doesn’t matter what your preference is...”. I even gave them an example of me lying about someone using a racial slur against me and taking them to court, and they still did not care.
The polite foreman tried to understand where I was coming from by referring me to the two clauses in the witness credibility section of the law handbook that he believed I was referring to, one of them mentioning bias. Ginger begrudgingly said that she could see where I was coming from regarding bias (which she wrongly pronounced as “BYE-YAZ”, showing that she didn’t know what bias was or even heard of the word before) from them being married, but in an exasperated tone, she said that she still didn’t believe that they were lying and didn’t understand me. Jen and a few others also agreed that witness testimonies are important or else we would never need witness testimonies in court. Jen yelled “Why have witness testimonies if we are assuming that they are not true?! Then we would never have witness testimonies! There would be no point in having them!”. I literally wanted to pull my hair out- we don’t assume testimonies are true or false right off the bat-we look at the witness’s credibility (which was in the law handbook) and then decide if we take their testimony as truth or not.
The jurors also got angry with me for stating the obvious- the interpretation of mannerisms/body language to determine credibility and truth in testimonies is subjective! Jen was mocking me, in a sarcastic tone, because she didn’t like that I was using them being married as a means of potential bias and them possibly consulting with each other on the case. I half-jokingly said that it is possible that they consulted with other on the case “at the dinner table”, and they all audibly groaned at my comment, as if what I said is impossible. Jen kept asking me if I would believe an ex-wife, or a stranger- not because she genuinely wanted me to give my answer, but because she wanted to find holes/lapses in my logic. They initially got excited when I said that I was willing to give a guilty verdict if the judge says that testimonies are assumed to be true (which I knew he would NOT say), but when the judge said that this is not the case, they reverted to demeaning and belittling me.
As the hours went by and 4 pm drew closer, the more irritable, impatient, tired, and nasty they became towards me. Voices were raised at me, people talked to me and questioned me with clear impatience and frustration in their voices (including the quiet guy in the back of the room, who almost never spoke, questioning my reasoning with an attitude). Last, but certainly not least, Pat yelled at me, in front of everyone, “WHAT’S THE F**KING HOLDOUT?!”. I immediately turned to her and calmly said, “Excuse me?! Don’t do that. Don’t ever curse at me again”. Embarrassed, she immediately apologized, saying she was sorry for cursing at me (on our way out of the building, going down the elevator, she tapped me on the shoulder and apologized for cursing at me a second time. I simply responded to her, in a monotone voice, “I understand you are passionate”, turned around and walked away). Kevin, the youngest one yet more mature than the others, came to my defense saying “Guys, don’t pressure her”. I told the entire room, “I will not be pressured into anything by anyone. We will listen to everyone’s opinions. Everyone’s opinion matters.” Pat then made a comment about me keeping 11 other people from going about their lives, and I responded that I and everyone else is entitled to take as much time as they need to come to a verdict that they believe is correct and can stand by. I will not rush through my decision or just go along with most of the group so that we can simply go home faster, or so that Jen can “pick up her kid from daycare on time”. This was not me being callous or inconsiderate-it was the truth! If coming in on subsequent days was going to be a problem or that they would be unavailable, then they, particularly Jen, should’ve spoken up and said this during the voir dire questioning-sounds familiar, Jen? As a juror, I wanted to examine both possibilities, Pasdar and Henderson lying, or them telling the truth. I wanted to remain impartial because that’s what you must do when you are on a jury-weigh both sides and not be biased, contrary to what Jen wrongly accused me of. Impartiality is why we were chosen to be on the jury in the first place- to make a sound verdict, the right decision. If I had an unwavering bias, why would I not want to get out of jury duty?
Before Thursday, April 14, we were at 8 guilty, 4 not guilty. On the penultimate day of jury duty, April 14, I became the infamous lone, holdout juror. Once we established the lack of evidence, we learned that witness testimony counts as evidence by law. Now this is where things got VERY HEATED. I will admit, it was and still is, a hard concept for me to grasp that by law, witness testimony can be used solely to convict. I and the other four not-guilty voters did not believe the witness testimony was enough. At this moment, Shirley, Jen, Pat, and Ginger got angry with us for not “agreeing with the laaaawwww”, as Jen put it in her irritating, Valley girl voice. Jen thought that she was so smart and slick by continuously asking us not-guilty voters in an aggressive manner, “So you guys are saying that Mr. Pasdar and his wife, who is an officer of the court, is committing PERJURY?! So that is what you are saying?! Yes or no?!”. Kevin and I said numerous times that we don’t know if they are lying or if they are telling the truth, and that is why we’re saying not guilty, because we cannot say beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Pasdar and his wife are being honest. We simply thought that there may be a possibility that they already have a contentious relationship with the Ongs and are just throwing the bias accusation into their lawsuit-just a possibility. We kept getting belittled for our viewpoints and made to seem as if we were crazy and not making any sense.
With my own independent thought process, I deeply examined why I was questioning their credibility, and I couldn’t find a reason as to why Mr. Pasdar would lie about these accusations and keep up the lie for six years- that just seemed absurd if they really were lying. They could’ve just filed a lawsuit for harassment and easily won the case (especially with the preponderance of the reports, minus the context of the report)-why would they add the bias charge if it weren’t true? Although I am not quite sure if this is the defense’s responsibility or not, I don’t believe that the defense did a good job at refuting the bias claims or diminishing Pasdar’s credibility (despite the mentioning of the false police report pending charge, which we had to remove from the record and could not consider in our deliberations).
Since I was the holdout vote, we came in on Tuesday, what would be our last deliberation day. The dummy Bertha asked “So is there anyone that has anything to say, or did anyone change their mind?”. I don’t know if she was addressing everyone, or specifically me, but I responded “At first, I said not guilty because I wanted to weigh both possibilities- them telling the truth or lying about the bias accusations, but then I thought to myself, how plausible or likely is it that they would make up these accusations and stand by the lie for the past 4-6 years? Also, the defense did not do an adequate job in refuting the bias claims or credibility of the witness. So based on MY OWN reasoning, I changed my vote to guilty”. Everyone let out a collective breath of relief that we were now unanimous, and people that had been nasty to me before were speaking to me kindly all of a sudden because I agreed with them- Ginger turned and happily said to me “Yeah, you’re reasoning makes sense because I just don’t think they would lie about that”. Pat turned to me and shadily said, “Well that’s what I had been saying all along. Why would they lie...”-I tuned her out. The foreman gave the guilty verdict for the bias/intimidation charge, then each juror confirmed the verdict, and we went home. A few months later, through the NJ Courts public Access site, I learned that Beverly Ong was sentenced to 2 days in jail with 1 year of probation- keep in mind that I told the jurors multiple times that we need to be mindful of our deliberations and verdict, which could possibly put the Ongs in jail, but Shirley and others constantly blew me off, saying “That’s not going to happen. I doubt they will serve jail time”. I also learned that Beverly and her daughter Johanna had been convicted of a similar crime (with Pasdar also) back in 2012! I sometimes wonder if the jurors broke the rules and looked up their previous conviction during the deliberations, but this is merely my own speculation-it may or may not be true.
This juror experience has been not only an eye-opening experience, but an extremely disappointing one in the sense that I have lost any small bit of faith that I had left in the 12-juror system. Having graduated with a minor in Psychology, I went into jury deliberations fully aware that peer pressure and groupthink were going to occur, yet it upset me to see grown adults, all ranging from their 20s to 70s, bully and peer pressure people into a particular verdict so that they could go home, disregard the judge’s instructions and the law booklet provided to us (I was the only one who thoroughly read it), make a verdict based off of feelings/emotions instead of logic, and in Jen’s case, rush out of there to pick up their child from daycare and avoid a lateness fee. Jen had the nerve to try to lecture me on juror conduct, yet she was seated in the front row of the court constantly using her phone and drinking water from her bottle, which we were told many times was not allowed. I wanted my verdict to be made on my own accord and reasoning, and for it to be a verdict that I could stand by, not because I was weak-minded and gave into peer pressure, which unfortunately was the case for a few jurors. I guess the lawyers did a good job in finding jurors who are easily manipulated, don’t follow direction well, and some who are clearly uneducated and have never done critical thinking in their lives, even at their old ages. It’s a shame that we jurors in our 20s had more couth and critical thinking skills than the 60–70-year-olds on the jury. These dummies constantly tried to gaslight me about certain facts of the case and got upset that it didn’t work on me. It also didn’t help that the spread-out dates of the trial contributed to jurors not recalling details of the case correctly (the trial lasted 5 days, but these 5 days were spread out over 4 weeks- March 29, April 6, 7, 14, and 19. I guess they can thank me for the extra $40 for coming in on April 19 *sarcasm*. Pat and Jen stupidly made themselves look like aggressors during the deliberation- they were exasperated because their condescension did not phase me one bit! I have my Master's degree from Columbia University and am well-versed in many topics and have common sense-something that Jen was lacking. When a few of the jurors asked why the Ongs did not go to the stand to defend themselves, I informed them that the defendants are not obligated to go to the stand because they could incriminate themselves (which the judge said multiple times, and I know this from my knowledge of previous court cases). Pat once again questioned my intelligence by rudely asking, “How do you know that?”. Knowing Beverly and her daughter were convicted of similar charges in 2012 adds credence to our verdict for this case and gives me a bit more comfort with our verdict, but not the way in which the other jurors came to the verdict.
Juror anonymity is a double-edged sword- it allows for confidentiality of deliberations, which is crucial for people to feel comfortable to state their opinions, but some jurors, like Jen and Pat, hide behind their anonymity, and the judge not being present in the room, to bully other jurors, and they never have the same energy when confronted-in front of the judge, they became mute. Also, after we agreed on the verdict, Kevin made a comment (not in connection to the verdict) about how he, as an Asian-American himself, knows “a lot of old Asian people that are racist” and some people in the room nodded along- this comment is highly inappropriate! It amazed me that no one pushed back on this racist anecdote, yet when I mentioned that there are people who are wrongly accused of crimes (which is 100% true), I was told, with an attitude, that I was bringing in “personal beliefs”. They didn’t like that I “had my mind made up”, but they had made their minds up also. The jurors would also pick and choose when to follow the judge’s instructions (i.e., Pat using her phone to look up the definition of words, although we were strictly told not to use our phones during deliberations).
Some readers may wonder why I am posting this a year after the trial ended- 1. I have other responsibilities/activities that I prefer to do, and I was contemplating just keeping these deliberations private (and my already-written post private), but keeping them private enables bullying and poor behavior in the deliberation room and would be a disservice to people like myself who are curious about juror deliberation conduct. Some readers may also wonder why I did not tell the judge or court clerk about my experience in the deliberation room- 1. He most likely would have told me to just brush it off and keep deliberating, and I say this because there was a point where we as a jury thought that it may be a mistrial, but he still pushed us to keep deliberating (which I think contributes to peer pressure, mental exhaustion, bullies having increased irritation with us jurors who stand our ground, etc.).
Some suggestions for juries in the future:
Also, what do you think about the law of witness credibility being used to determine the verdict?
TLDR: Rude and inept jurors tried to peer pressure me to come to a verdict quickly so that they could “pick up their kids from daycare”, and I was not having it. This is my experience with poor juror deliberation conduct in a criminal case. Has anyone else had a similar experience as a petit juror?
submitted by Naijagyal999 to legal [link] [comments]
I was a juror in a NJ criminal case involving an Iranian-American man named Babak Pasdar, who claimed that an elderly, Asian-American couple named William and Beverly Ong, made discriminatory remarks and terroristic threats toward him, such as saying “F***ing Muslim!” and “Trump is going to get you!” to him, making a gun and slit throat motion towards him and his family, flying an Israeli flag to allegedly antagonize him, etc. The actual trial (opening and closing statements, and witness testimonies) was completed in one day because there was NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE- no pictures, video, independent/unbiased witness testimonies, and no police reports were provided to the prosecution. I thought the case was cut and dry-there was no evidence, so we could not prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Ongs were guilty of what they were being accused of.
Juror #3, Jen (a dumb, rude and condescending 20-something year-old Caucasian woman with a blonde, messy top knot bun) and juror #7, Pat (a 70-something year-old Caucasian woman with an equally mean and condescending attitude) dominated the entire conversation, saying how they “just feel” that Mr. Pasdar is telling the truth, and that the Ongs are guilty solely based off of Mr. Pasdar’s mannerisms/body language and “emotion” at the witness stand. Jen said that she didn’t like how Mr. and Mrs. Ong were whispering to each other, how Mr. Ong was shaking his head and mumbling under his breath, that their lawyer was nudging them to be quiet, and therefore, because of mannerisms/body language, they are guilty. I responded by saying that he may have been shaking his head because he felt that he was being lied on. One juror wondered out loud why Mr. Pasdar’s wife, Clara, (who is a former prosecutor herself), would corroborate Mr. Pasdar’s claims about the terroristic threats if she wasn’t actually there when it happened. I told the group that maybe he told his wife about what happened and she is just regurgitating what he told her, or maybe she could be flat-out lying and fabricating the story, being that we don’t know her personally or her morals-anything was possible in my mind. Suddenly, Pat gasped and yelled at me, “You think she is lying?!” I responded, “Maybe! You never know what someone is willing to say to defend their spouse”. She immediately responded with arrogance and defensiveness in her tone, “No, I don’t believe that! She is a lawyer and is held by the court of law to tell the truth and I just don’t believe at all that she would lie” (as if lawyers are always truthful *sarcasm*). The other jurors brought up topics that were unrelated to the case, were focused on details of the case that didn’t matter (i.e. the position of the house security cameras in the evidence pictures when this didn’t matter because there were no images and/or videos provided), were not paying attention to the legal standard of ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’, and were allowing jurors, like Pat and Jen, to bully them into abandoning their own beliefs or doubts about the case so that they can agree with them, giving the jury room a schoolyard vibe- if one didn’t want to be an outcast, join Pat, or else she would belittle and embarrass others into being quiet and questioning their own reasoning.
Some jurors didn’t speak at all, like one guy who constantly sat in the back of the room quietly, but voted “guilty” with no reasoning provided, probably because he had no backbone to make a dissenting decision. Mr. Pasdar on day 1, said that he had images, videos, and police reports, yet none were provided. The dummy Pat even said that his police reports “must be on file somewhere”. For all we know, he could be lying about the alleged “50-60 police reports”. They also asked, “Why would Mr. Pasdar go through the trouble of filing false police reports?”. Well #1- we have no proof of these reports, and #2- we know that he had some type of conflict with the Ongs’ daughter, Johanna, and maybe he is filing the lawsuit to spite them-just a possibility. There have been many plaintiffs who were in the right, and others whose lawsuits were frivolous and/or had no evidence to corroborate the claims. It is truly sad and disheartening when you have low-vibrational people with no legal training, or even basic understanding of the law, making long-lasting decisions that can affect someone’s life. Jen insinuated that the defense was trying to hide the “fact” that the Ongs did anything. Another juror, Ginger, interpreted Mr. Pasdar’s defensiveness about his own charges as “just being nervous about his innocence”-how gullible. It also shows how much people want to find the plaintiff innocent and the defendant guilty on anything no matter what. Ginger even said that “if we can’t find him/her guilty on this charge, maybe we can find him/her guilty on this other charge...”. I was floored-why such a desperation to find someone guilty? A not guilty verdict does not mean that the Ongs didn’t do anything, it just means that based on the extreme lack of evidence, we cannot find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt- which is OKAY! A hung jury/mistrial is OKAY as well! Kevin noted the lack of evidence, only for Pat, Shirley, and Bertha to yell at him and scare him into being quiet. The defendants (contrary to what the slow jurors thought) have no obligation to defend themselves like the judge said MULTIPLE times. Just because they have been formally charged/indicted does not mean that they are guilty, like the judge said MULTIPLE times. The bullying continued from that day forward- jurors like Pat, Jen, and Shirley would gaslight and try to belittle an intelligent person like me, who was knowledgeable about the case, and I knew what I was talking about.
We all agreed on a not guilty verdict for the terrorism/terroristic threats charge-we agreed on the definition of terrorism/terrorize (which for some reason slow-minded Bertha did not understand it), and that Mr. Ong using the slit throat and gun motions did not constitute a terroristic threat conviction because we did not believe that Mr. Ong would actually cause bodily harm to Mr. Pasdar (produce an actual gun or slit his throat in real life). We did not believe that the hand gestures meant that Mr. Ong would reasonably cause serious fear of death for Mr. Pasdar or that it would be carried out. Since we believed that this threat was simply made to alarm, we all agreed on the not guilty verdict. The other two charges were contingent on this charge, so these were N/A. I then went on my lunch break thinking we would stick to our hung jury on the first charge. However, after the break, very quickly the foreman and Kevin caved. One of the jurors kept trying to rush through the day by continuously asking us to do a re-vote multiple times. Around 2 pm, the vote was now 11-1: I was the holdout. At this point, the Drab 4 (Pat, Jen, Shirley and Bertha) and I were going back and forth on whether the bias claim (“Isis”, “Taliban”) was true. The Drab 4 wrongly said that we must assume that all witness testimony is true- WRONG! I didn’t see this in the law handbook that we were provided. I asked the foreman to ask the judge to if we can assume that witness testimony is true unless refuted. I already knew that the answer was no, which is common sense, but common sense isn't so common amongst low-vibrational jurors. We walked back into the courtroom to hear the judge’s answer “No”, and lo and behold, I was correct! Still, this did not make a difference in their minds, nor did anyone apologize for saying that I was wrong in questioning the truthfulness of witness testimony.
I said that I have seen cases where people swear on the Bible and still lied, and Pat and I got into a very heated disagreement, and I could tell she was very irritated with me for not bowing down to her. I also didn’t remember there being any mention of bias statements in the police reports from my recollection of Mr. Pasdar’s testimony, but in true ganging-up-on-me fashion, the Drab 4 said that it was mentioned in the police reports, which I don’t believe is true because the defense team stated that the anti-Muslim statements were never noted in the police reports, but at this I point I started to shut down because everything I said would just go in one ear and out the other. Also, when I mentioned my knowledge of other people lying in witness testimonies and having innocent people be punished, Shirley then wrongly and angrily accused me of using my “personal beliefs” and my “opinions of other cases” to influence this case, and that what I was doing was not appropriate. I simply reiterated that “it’s not about personal beliefs, it’s just that I have seen other cases where people lie!”. The other jurors asked if there was anything that would change my mind- I said “No, I’m not sure I can”. Jen, in the nastiest, most condescending tone ever, said to me, “If you had these biases, you should have told the judge and the lawyers so that you would be deemed unfit to serve on the jury!”. Since when is knowing that someone may lie a bias?! Saying someone could lie is a personally belief?! I sarcastically retorted, “During voir dire questioning, I was never asked if questioning someone’s truthfulness is a bias, so I don’t know what you are referring to.” Being unsure about which verdict to give doesn’t mean that I am unwilling to see the other side and change my mind. Jen also previously made a comment about us not-guilty voters being “confused” and when I said that I would have preferred an unbiased, independent witness, before I could finish my statement, she rudely interrupted saying “well it doesn’t matter what your preference is...”. I even gave them an example of me lying about someone using a racial slur against me and taking them to court, and they still did not care.
The polite foreman tried to understand where I was coming from by referring me to the two clauses in the witness credibility section of the law handbook that he believed I was referring to, one of them mentioning bias. Ginger begrudgingly said that she could see where I was coming from regarding bias (which she wrongly pronounced as “BYE-YAZ”, showing that she didn’t know what bias was or even heard of the word before) from them being married, but in an exasperated tone, she said that she still didn’t believe that they were lying and didn’t understand me. Jen and a few others also agreed that witness testimonies are important or else we would never need witness testimonies in court. Jen yelled “Why have witness testimonies if we are assuming that they are not true?! Then we would never have witness testimonies! There would be no point in having them!”. I literally wanted to pull my hair out- we don’t assume testimonies are true or false right off the bat-we look at the witness’s credibility (which was in the law handbook) and then decide if we take their testimony as truth or not.
The jurors also got angry with me for stating the obvious- the interpretation of mannerisms/body language to determine credibility and truth in testimonies is subjective! Jen was mocking me, in a sarcastic tone, because she didn’t like that I was using them being married as a means of potential bias and them possibly consulting with each other on the case. I half-jokingly said that it is possible that they consulted with other on the case “at the dinner table”, and they all audibly groaned at my comment, as if what I said is impossible. Jen kept asking me if I would believe an ex-wife, or a stranger- not because she genuinely wanted me to give my answer, but because she wanted to find holes/lapses in my logic. They initially got excited when I said that I was willing to give a guilty verdict if the judge says that testimonies are assumed to be true (which I knew he would NOT say), but when the judge said that this is not the case, they reverted to demeaning and belittling me.
As the hours went by and 4 pm drew closer, the more irritable, impatient, tired, and nasty they became towards me. Voices were raised at me, people talked to me and questioned me with clear impatience and frustration in their voices (including the quiet guy in the back of the room, who almost never spoke, questioning my reasoning with an attitude). Last, but certainly not least, Pat yelled at me, in front of everyone, “WHAT’S THE F**KING HOLDOUT?!”. I immediately turned to her and calmly said, “Excuse me?! Don’t do that. Don’t ever curse at me again”. Embarrassed, she immediately apologized, saying she was sorry for cursing at me (on our way out of the building, going down the elevator, she tapped me on the shoulder and apologized for cursing at me a second time. I simply responded to her, in a monotone voice, “I understand you are passionate”, turned around and walked away). Kevin, the youngest one yet more mature than the others, came to my defense saying “Guys, don’t pressure her”. I told the entire room, “I will not be pressured into anything by anyone. We will listen to everyone’s opinions. Everyone’s opinion matters.” Pat then made a comment about me keeping 11 other people from going about their lives, and I responded that I and everyone else is entitled to take as much time as they need to come to a verdict that they believe is correct and can stand by. I will not rush through my decision or just go along with most of the group so that we can simply go home faster, or so that Jen can “pick up her kid from daycare on time”. This was not me being callous or inconsiderate-it was the truth! If coming in on subsequent days was going to be a problem or that they would be unavailable, then they, particularly Jen, should’ve spoken up and said this during the voir dire questioning-sounds familiar, Jen? As a juror, I wanted to examine both possibilities, Pasdar and Henderson lying, or them telling the truth. I wanted to remain impartial because that’s what you must do when you are on a jury-weigh both sides and not be biased, contrary to what Jen wrongly accused me of. Impartiality is why we were chosen to be on the jury in the first place- to make a sound verdict, the right decision. If I had an unwavering bias, why would I not want to get out of jury duty?
Before Thursday, April 14, we were at 8 guilty, 4 not guilty. On the penultimate day of jury duty, April 14, I became the infamous lone, holdout juror. Once we established the lack of evidence, we learned that witness testimony counts as evidence by law. Now this is where things got VERY HEATED. I will admit, it was and still is, a hard concept for me to grasp that by law, witness testimony can be used solely to convict. I and the other four not-guilty voters did not believe the witness testimony was enough. At this moment, Shirley, Jen, Pat, and Ginger got angry with us for not “agreeing with the laaaawwww”, as Jen put it in her irritating, Valley girl voice. Jen thought that she was so smart and slick by continuously asking us not-guilty voters in an aggressive manner, “So you guys are saying that Mr. Pasdar and his wife, who is an officer of the court, is committing PERJURY?! So that is what you are saying?! Yes or no?!”. Kevin and I said numerous times that we don’t know if they are lying or if they are telling the truth, and that is why we’re saying not guilty, because we cannot say beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Pasdar and his wife are being honest. We simply thought that there may be a possibility that they already have a contentious relationship with the Ongs and are just throwing the bias accusation into their lawsuit-just a possibility. We kept getting belittled for our viewpoints and made to seem as if we were crazy and not making any sense.
With my own independent thought process, I deeply examined why I was questioning their credibility, and I couldn’t find a reason as to why Mr. Pasdar would lie about these accusations and keep up the lie for six years- that just seemed absurd if they really were lying. They could’ve just filed a lawsuit for harassment and easily won the case (especially with the preponderance of the reports, minus the context of the report)-why would they add the bias charge if it weren’t true? Although I am not quite sure if this is the defense’s responsibility or not, I don’t believe that the defense did a good job at refuting the bias claims or diminishing Pasdar’s credibility (despite the mentioning of the false police report pending charge, which we had to remove from the record and could not consider in our deliberations).
Since I was the holdout vote, we came in on Tuesday, what would be our last deliberation day. The dummy Bertha asked “So is there anyone that has anything to say, or did anyone change their mind?”. I don’t know if she was addressing everyone, or specifically me, but I responded “At first, I said not guilty because I wanted to weigh both possibilities- them telling the truth or lying about the bias accusations, but then I thought to myself, how plausible or likely is it that they would make up these accusations and stand by the lie for the past 4-6 years? Also, the defense did not do an adequate job in refuting the bias claims or credibility of the witness. So based on MY OWN reasoning, I changed my vote to guilty”. Everyone let out a collective breath of relief that we were now unanimous, and people that had been nasty to me before were speaking to me kindly all of a sudden because I agreed with them- Ginger turned and happily said to me “Yeah, you’re reasoning makes sense because I just don’t think they would lie about that”. Pat turned to me and shadily said, “Well that’s what I had been saying all along. Why would they lie...”-I tuned her out. The foreman gave the guilty verdict for the bias/intimidation charge, then each juror confirmed the verdict, and we went home. A few months later, through the NJ Courts public Access site, I learned that Beverly Ong was sentenced to 2 days in jail with 1 year of probation- keep in mind that I told the jurors multiple times that we need to be mindful of our deliberations and verdict, which could possibly put the Ongs in jail, but Shirley and others constantly blew me off, saying “That’s not going to happen. I doubt they will serve jail time”. I also learned that Beverly and her daughter Johanna had been convicted of a similar crime (with Pasdar also) back in 2012! I sometimes wonder if the jurors broke the rules and looked up their previous conviction during the deliberations, but this is merely my own speculation-it may or may not be true.
This juror experience has been not only an eye-opening experience, but an extremely disappointing one in the sense that I have lost any small bit of faith that I had left in the 12-juror system. Having graduated with a minor in Psychology, I went into jury deliberations fully aware that peer pressure and groupthink were going to occur, yet it upset me to see grown adults, all ranging from their 20s to 70s, bully and peer pressure people into a particular verdict so that they could go home, disregard the judge’s instructions and the law booklet provided to us (I was the only one who thoroughly read it), make a verdict based off of feelings/emotions instead of logic, and in Jen’s case, rush out of there to pick up their child from daycare and avoid a lateness fee. Jen had the nerve to try to lecture me on juror conduct, yet she was seated in the front row of the court constantly using her phone and drinking water from her bottle, which we were told many times was not allowed. I wanted my verdict to be made on my own accord and reasoning, and for it to be a verdict that I could stand by, not because I was weak-minded and gave into peer pressure, which unfortunately was the case for a few jurors. I guess the lawyers did a good job in finding jurors who are easily manipulated, don’t follow direction well, and some who are clearly uneducated and have never done critical thinking in their lives, even at their old ages. It’s a shame that we jurors in our 20s had more couth and critical thinking skills than the 60–70-year-olds on the jury. These dummies constantly tried to gaslight me about certain facts of the case and got upset that it didn’t work on me. It also didn’t help that the spread-out dates of the trial contributed to jurors not recalling details of the case correctly (the trial lasted 5 days, but these 5 days were spread out over 4 weeks- March 29, April 6, 7, 14, and 19. I guess they can thank me for the extra $40 for coming in on April 19 *sarcasm*. Pat and Jen stupidly made themselves look like aggressors during the deliberation- they were exasperated because their condescension did not phase me one bit! I have my Master's degree from Columbia University and am well-versed in many topics and have common sense-something that Jen was lacking. When a few of the jurors asked why the Ongs did not go to the stand to defend themselves, I informed them that the defendants are not obligated to go to the stand because they could incriminate themselves (which the judge said multiple times, and I know this from my knowledge of previous court cases). Pat once again questioned my intelligence by rudely asking, “How do you know that?”. Knowing Beverly and her daughter were convicted of similar charges in 2012 adds credence to our verdict for this case and gives me a bit more comfort with our verdict, but not the way in which the other jurors came to the verdict.
Juror anonymity is a double-edged sword- it allows for confidentiality of deliberations, which is crucial for people to feel comfortable to state their opinions, but some jurors, like Jen and Pat, hide behind their anonymity, and the judge not being present in the room, to bully other jurors, and they never have the same energy when confronted-in front of the judge, they became mute. Also, after we agreed on the verdict, Kevin made a comment (not in connection to the verdict) about how he, as an Asian-American himself, knows “a lot of old Asian people that are racist” and some people in the room nodded along- this comment is highly inappropriate! It amazed me that no one pushed back on this racist anecdote, yet when I mentioned that there are people who are wrongly accused of crimes (which is 100% true), I was told, with an attitude, that I was bringing in “personal beliefs”. They didn’t like that I “had my mind made up”, but they had made their minds up also. The jurors would also pick and choose when to follow the judge’s instructions (i.e., Pat using her phone to look up the definition of words, although we were strictly told not to use our phones during deliberations).
Some readers may wonder why I am posting this a year after the trial ended- 1. I have other responsibilities/activities that I prefer to do, and I was contemplating just keeping these deliberations private (and my already-written post private), but keeping them private enables bullying and poor behavior in the deliberation room and would be a disservice to people like myself who are curious about juror deliberation conduct. Some readers may also wonder why I did not tell the judge or court clerk about my experience in the deliberation room- 1. He most likely would have told me to just brush it off and keep deliberating, and I say this because there was a point where we as a jury thought that it may be a mistrial, but he still pushed us to keep deliberating (which I think contributes to peer pressure, mental exhaustion, bullies having increased irritation with us jurors who stand our ground, etc.).
Some suggestions for juries in the future:
- Having professional jurors who have studied the law handbook well, are trained in proper juror conduct, etc.
- Having people with a legal background and/or formal education, etc.
Also, what do you think about the law of witness credibility being used to determine the verdict?
TLDR: Rude and inept jurors tried to peer pressure me to come to a verdict quickly so that they could “pick up their kids from daycare”, and I was not having it. This is my experience with poor juror deliberation conduct in a criminal case. Has anyone else had a similar experience as a petit juror?
2023.03.25 13:04 Angel466 [Bob the hobo] A Celestial Wars Spin-Off Part 0807
PART EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVEN
[Previous Chapter] [The Beginning] [Patreon+2]
Thursday
Sam was a mess. The blow-up would’ve caught Robbie by surprise if he hadn’t seen the vicious gleam enter his cousin’s eyes right before he exploded. It was like he wanted to blame the world for his pain. Or, more likely, make it hurt as much as he was.
Fortunately, shifting gave Robbie the upper hand, and subduing Sam hadn’t been difficult at all, especially when the younger man collapsed into more tears. Not caring if Sam noticed, Robbie grew three more stubby arms that were basically forearms and hands; two of which rubbed Sam’s shoulders while the third rhythmically combed its fingers through Sam’s hair.
Sam relaxed into the hold, and for the longest time, they sat together like that.
“I’m sorry I swung at you,” Sam said into the silence. Because Sam may have had a fiery temper, but he was always the first one to apologise if he was out of line. His mother had made sure of it. “I don’t even know why I did it.”
“You knew I could take it,” Robbie answered, still keeping his tone a fraction above neutral in case his elevated reaction triggered Sam again. “Actually, I could let you take your best shot and then use shifting to reset it if it’ll make you feel better.”
Sam shook his head against Robbie’s chest. “You’re one of the last people in the world I want to hurt. But how am I supposed to look at the babies with anything other than hate if they kill Mom?”
“Accidents happen, Sam, and nothing is written in stone. There’s been times when kids have hidden from their elderly grandparents and shouted ‘Boo’ at them, and those grandparents have keeled over from a fright-induced heart attack. Do you think they’d have meant to kill their grandparents? It would have devastated them, and to have to endure the hatred of other members of the family who blamed them would be unimaginable.”
“I can’t lose Mom.”
“It’s not your call, kiddo. If it’s her time, it’s her time. That’s just the way it is. Dad died in 9-11. Papaw in Vietnam. Both of them were unringed and had divinity running through their veins, and they both still died because it was their time.”
“But Mom and Dad only just got back together. It wouldn’t be fair if…”
Robbie huffed at him. “Come on, buddy. You, of all people, know better than that. The world doesn’t play fair. It never has, and it never will. It’s rigged to Hell and back, but luckily for us, we know the people dealing the deck, and they’re on our side. Your mom didn’t say she was going to die, only that it might happen. She’s putting that idea out there to give you time to come to terms with it.”
“And what if I don’t want to come to terms with it?”
“No one ever chooses to, Sam. That’s why it’s called ‘growing up’. Now, if I let you go, do you want to have some more ice cream before we end up drinking it?”
“What do you think Dad’ll be like if it happens?” Sam asked instead of answering.
“What do you mean?”
“Danika and the twins said he doesn’t attach to women easily. That he’s only ever had three ladies before Mom in all the eons he’s been alive. What do you think he’ll be like if the babies take Mom from us?”
Robbie screwed up his face. “That’s a tough one, Sam, and maybe that’s another reason your mom’s slipping you the note instead of him. Llyr loves his kids, but what would he do if they cost him Miss W? He could double down and raise them anyway, or he could just as easily flip the other way and want to end them for killing their mother, even if it was an accident.”
“Dad would never kill a baby.”
“You were ready to.”
“No,” Sam adamantly shook his head. “I’d never hurt a baby. What I’m against is me being the one to raise them if she wasn’t here anymore.” He twisted and tried to pull away, and Robbie let him go, reabsorbing the extra arms as quickly as possible so as not to freak him out. “I couldn’t deal with them. I’d leave their guardianship to someone else.” He shook his head again. “I’d never hurt them.”
“Would you step between them and your father if it came to it?”
He dropped his eyes and stared long and hard at the mattress between them. “Yeah,” he finally said. “As devastated as I’d be, I’d protect them if I had to. I just … don’t know if I could be around them while they were growing up.”
Robbie smiled and reached sideways to pick up the abandoned ice cream. “That’s better than where you were when I first came in.” He took a heaped spoon and handed it handle-first to Sam. “And that deserves a reward.”
* * *
About ten minutes later, with the tub utterly drained of its contents (because, yes, I slurped down the dregs), Robbie did that cleaning thing for me that took away all the puffiness from the face and the watery snot from my sinuses. He ran his fingers through my hair, but this time it had the feel of a bristled brush that pushed everything back into place. His other hand grasped the back of my neck with his thumb making small circles across my arteries.
“If Gerry’s still awake when we go downstairs, you need to pretend you don’t notice, okay?”
I stiffened and shoved my feet under my ass with every intention of leaping up and realm-stepping away, but Robbie’s grip tightened. “Easy, Sam. I’m serious. She was awake and looking for you before, which is why I came up. But technically, we have been here a while, and she is only human, so she might have fallen back to sleep. If she has, well and good. Sneak in behind her and get some sleep yourself. But if you see that she isn’t, still pretend like she is and do the same thing anyway. Because I’m going to let you in on a little secret, pal. She worries about you as much as you worry about her.”
I didn’t want her worrying about me at all, and come tomorrow night, she’d learn why. But until then, I had to play this Robbie’s way … and it wasn’t like it was a huge hardship.
“Let me realm-step us,” Robbie said as we slid to our feet.
“How come?”
“Because she might be waiting for us somewhere. If we come out of Charlie’s office and she’s in the hallway, we can pretend we were there the whole time.”
“Boyd’s studio is closer…”
“And he’s still up, carving.” I opened my mouth, but his hand came up to cut me off. “Don’t ask. He’s working through some stuff at the moment. I’m going to let him sleep in as long as I can tomorrow.”
As he spoke, he used the hand on the back of my neck to guide me up and then realm-step us into a sitting room that had been modified into an office. Paper was spread everywhere, but I assumed there was some manner of organisation there. I knew of some ships’ captains who couldn’t find a damn thing unless it was buried under four inches of other stuff. “Out of curiosity, what do you think would happen if we both realm-stepped at the same time with a different destination in mind?”
Robbie shrugged. “If I were just a bender, you’d drag me to wherever you were going, buddy-boy.”
“Why?”
Robbie frowned at me. “Because you’re only one generation off the ’Faolian first-bloods, and two off the Mystallian Elder Court, dude.” He started with one finger, then rolled up a second one by the end of his statement. “By comparison, Pop’s the same generation as you, and there’s three others between him and me.”
“But you’re older than me…”
“And from a bending perspective, you’re more powerful. Didn’t your dad explain all this to you?”
Sam rubbed the back of his head. “Well, he talked about generations stopping people from seeing inside my head and making me do things and stuff…”
“For the love of God, it’s all the same thing, Sam. Your bending power trumps mine. The. End.”
“Uncle YHWH,” I shot back with a snicker. “Get it right.”
He blinked for a second, then cuffed me. “Wise pass,” he chuckled. “But going back to what you were saying before, I trump you in shifting since you have none at all, so maybe some of one and all of the other would spin the power play back to me. I dunno. We’ll have to try it out sometime. You try and get to the ocean, and I’ll shoot for the Sahara Desert.”
I screwed up my nose, already in a better mood thanks to his needling. “Oorrrr, we could be adults about it and try for neutral locations. Like maybe the Prydelands versus Dad’s place in San Francisco.” Somewhere where they’d be found in short order if anything went wrong.
“Oh, suuure. If you need to play it saaaafe…” Robbie drawled, still chuckling. He led me outside and shut the door, then paused and knocked on Boyd’s door and poked his head inside. “You want me to bring you something to eat, big guy?”
“I’m good. Thanks,” Boyd called back, way too awake. Robbie was right. Whatever messed with him, he was going to crash big time sooner rather than later if he was this awake now.
“You’ll keep an eye on him, won’t you?” I asked once the door was firmly shut.
“Absolutely. If he stays up too much longer, I’ll give him a melatonin tea.”
I frowned, not knowing that one but thinking it sounded a hell of a lot like a drug.
“It’s a natural sleep enhancer. Nothing bad, and nothing artificial. I still have some from the time Mason tried to slip it to you...”
“You wouldn’t let him drug me,” I snapped, remembering the incident all too clearly, without revisiting my memories.
“Very different circumstances, Sam. And I’m only going to give him enough to make him sleepy, not to put him to sleep. It’s not a sedative. It’s a hormone.”
“Tomaito, tomarto,” I argued.
He nudged me to the living apartment. “If you still feel so strongly about it in the morning, feel free to rat me out. He’s been in there most of the night, and sooner or later, he’s going to need to stop before he hurts himself. A few hours of good sleep will solve that.”
I still wasn’t so sure, but I could either stand here and argue with him or go and snuggle up to Gerry.
It was a no-brainer.
Saying goodnight to Robbie, I went to the bathroom first, then slipped into the bedroom I shared with my girl.
As he said, she was awake, and I mentally kicked myself for being gone so long as I slid under the sheets behind her and curled my arm around her waist. “I love you, angel,” I murmured into her neck, pretending (as Robbie said) not to notice her pulse hammering along her neck and the softness of her flesh had a rigidity that came from tension, not sleep.
“Love you too, honey-bear,” she answered in a pretty convincing sleepy voice.
I kissed the back of her neck, then held her until she fell asleep a few minutes later.
This time, I wasn’t too far behind her.
* * *
((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I'd love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here
For more of my work including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!
submitted by Angel466 to redditserials [link] [comments]
[Previous Chapter] [The Beginning] [Patreon+2]
Thursday
Sam was a mess. The blow-up would’ve caught Robbie by surprise if he hadn’t seen the vicious gleam enter his cousin’s eyes right before he exploded. It was like he wanted to blame the world for his pain. Or, more likely, make it hurt as much as he was.
Fortunately, shifting gave Robbie the upper hand, and subduing Sam hadn’t been difficult at all, especially when the younger man collapsed into more tears. Not caring if Sam noticed, Robbie grew three more stubby arms that were basically forearms and hands; two of which rubbed Sam’s shoulders while the third rhythmically combed its fingers through Sam’s hair.
Sam relaxed into the hold, and for the longest time, they sat together like that.
“I’m sorry I swung at you,” Sam said into the silence. Because Sam may have had a fiery temper, but he was always the first one to apologise if he was out of line. His mother had made sure of it. “I don’t even know why I did it.”
“You knew I could take it,” Robbie answered, still keeping his tone a fraction above neutral in case his elevated reaction triggered Sam again. “Actually, I could let you take your best shot and then use shifting to reset it if it’ll make you feel better.”
Sam shook his head against Robbie’s chest. “You’re one of the last people in the world I want to hurt. But how am I supposed to look at the babies with anything other than hate if they kill Mom?”
“Accidents happen, Sam, and nothing is written in stone. There’s been times when kids have hidden from their elderly grandparents and shouted ‘Boo’ at them, and those grandparents have keeled over from a fright-induced heart attack. Do you think they’d have meant to kill their grandparents? It would have devastated them, and to have to endure the hatred of other members of the family who blamed them would be unimaginable.”
“I can’t lose Mom.”
“It’s not your call, kiddo. If it’s her time, it’s her time. That’s just the way it is. Dad died in 9-11. Papaw in Vietnam. Both of them were unringed and had divinity running through their veins, and they both still died because it was their time.”
“But Mom and Dad only just got back together. It wouldn’t be fair if…”
Robbie huffed at him. “Come on, buddy. You, of all people, know better than that. The world doesn’t play fair. It never has, and it never will. It’s rigged to Hell and back, but luckily for us, we know the people dealing the deck, and they’re on our side. Your mom didn’t say she was going to die, only that it might happen. She’s putting that idea out there to give you time to come to terms with it.”
“And what if I don’t want to come to terms with it?”
“No one ever chooses to, Sam. That’s why it’s called ‘growing up’. Now, if I let you go, do you want to have some more ice cream before we end up drinking it?”
“What do you think Dad’ll be like if it happens?” Sam asked instead of answering.
“What do you mean?”
“Danika and the twins said he doesn’t attach to women easily. That he’s only ever had three ladies before Mom in all the eons he’s been alive. What do you think he’ll be like if the babies take Mom from us?”
Robbie screwed up his face. “That’s a tough one, Sam, and maybe that’s another reason your mom’s slipping you the note instead of him. Llyr loves his kids, but what would he do if they cost him Miss W? He could double down and raise them anyway, or he could just as easily flip the other way and want to end them for killing their mother, even if it was an accident.”
“Dad would never kill a baby.”
“You were ready to.”
“No,” Sam adamantly shook his head. “I’d never hurt a baby. What I’m against is me being the one to raise them if she wasn’t here anymore.” He twisted and tried to pull away, and Robbie let him go, reabsorbing the extra arms as quickly as possible so as not to freak him out. “I couldn’t deal with them. I’d leave their guardianship to someone else.” He shook his head again. “I’d never hurt them.”
“Would you step between them and your father if it came to it?”
He dropped his eyes and stared long and hard at the mattress between them. “Yeah,” he finally said. “As devastated as I’d be, I’d protect them if I had to. I just … don’t know if I could be around them while they were growing up.”
Robbie smiled and reached sideways to pick up the abandoned ice cream. “That’s better than where you were when I first came in.” He took a heaped spoon and handed it handle-first to Sam. “And that deserves a reward.”
* * *
About ten minutes later, with the tub utterly drained of its contents (because, yes, I slurped down the dregs), Robbie did that cleaning thing for me that took away all the puffiness from the face and the watery snot from my sinuses. He ran his fingers through my hair, but this time it had the feel of a bristled brush that pushed everything back into place. His other hand grasped the back of my neck with his thumb making small circles across my arteries.
“If Gerry’s still awake when we go downstairs, you need to pretend you don’t notice, okay?”
I stiffened and shoved my feet under my ass with every intention of leaping up and realm-stepping away, but Robbie’s grip tightened. “Easy, Sam. I’m serious. She was awake and looking for you before, which is why I came up. But technically, we have been here a while, and she is only human, so she might have fallen back to sleep. If she has, well and good. Sneak in behind her and get some sleep yourself. But if you see that she isn’t, still pretend like she is and do the same thing anyway. Because I’m going to let you in on a little secret, pal. She worries about you as much as you worry about her.”
I didn’t want her worrying about me at all, and come tomorrow night, she’d learn why. But until then, I had to play this Robbie’s way … and it wasn’t like it was a huge hardship.
“Let me realm-step us,” Robbie said as we slid to our feet.
“How come?”
“Because she might be waiting for us somewhere. If we come out of Charlie’s office and she’s in the hallway, we can pretend we were there the whole time.”
“Boyd’s studio is closer…”
“And he’s still up, carving.” I opened my mouth, but his hand came up to cut me off. “Don’t ask. He’s working through some stuff at the moment. I’m going to let him sleep in as long as I can tomorrow.”
As he spoke, he used the hand on the back of my neck to guide me up and then realm-step us into a sitting room that had been modified into an office. Paper was spread everywhere, but I assumed there was some manner of organisation there. I knew of some ships’ captains who couldn’t find a damn thing unless it was buried under four inches of other stuff. “Out of curiosity, what do you think would happen if we both realm-stepped at the same time with a different destination in mind?”
Robbie shrugged. “If I were just a bender, you’d drag me to wherever you were going, buddy-boy.”
“Why?”
Robbie frowned at me. “Because you’re only one generation off the ’Faolian first-bloods, and two off the Mystallian Elder Court, dude.” He started with one finger, then rolled up a second one by the end of his statement. “By comparison, Pop’s the same generation as you, and there’s three others between him and me.”
“But you’re older than me…”
“And from a bending perspective, you’re more powerful. Didn’t your dad explain all this to you?”
Sam rubbed the back of his head. “Well, he talked about generations stopping people from seeing inside my head and making me do things and stuff…”
“For the love of God, it’s all the same thing, Sam. Your bending power trumps mine. The. End.”
“Uncle YHWH,” I shot back with a snicker. “Get it right.”
He blinked for a second, then cuffed me. “Wise pass,” he chuckled. “But going back to what you were saying before, I trump you in shifting since you have none at all, so maybe some of one and all of the other would spin the power play back to me. I dunno. We’ll have to try it out sometime. You try and get to the ocean, and I’ll shoot for the Sahara Desert.”
I screwed up my nose, already in a better mood thanks to his needling. “Oorrrr, we could be adults about it and try for neutral locations. Like maybe the Prydelands versus Dad’s place in San Francisco.” Somewhere where they’d be found in short order if anything went wrong.
“Oh, suuure. If you need to play it saaaafe…” Robbie drawled, still chuckling. He led me outside and shut the door, then paused and knocked on Boyd’s door and poked his head inside. “You want me to bring you something to eat, big guy?”
“I’m good. Thanks,” Boyd called back, way too awake. Robbie was right. Whatever messed with him, he was going to crash big time sooner rather than later if he was this awake now.
“You’ll keep an eye on him, won’t you?” I asked once the door was firmly shut.
“Absolutely. If he stays up too much longer, I’ll give him a melatonin tea.”
I frowned, not knowing that one but thinking it sounded a hell of a lot like a drug.
“It’s a natural sleep enhancer. Nothing bad, and nothing artificial. I still have some from the time Mason tried to slip it to you...”
“You wouldn’t let him drug me,” I snapped, remembering the incident all too clearly, without revisiting my memories.
“Very different circumstances, Sam. And I’m only going to give him enough to make him sleepy, not to put him to sleep. It’s not a sedative. It’s a hormone.”
“Tomaito, tomarto,” I argued.
He nudged me to the living apartment. “If you still feel so strongly about it in the morning, feel free to rat me out. He’s been in there most of the night, and sooner or later, he’s going to need to stop before he hurts himself. A few hours of good sleep will solve that.”
I still wasn’t so sure, but I could either stand here and argue with him or go and snuggle up to Gerry.
It was a no-brainer.
Saying goodnight to Robbie, I went to the bathroom first, then slipped into the bedroom I shared with my girl.
As he said, she was awake, and I mentally kicked myself for being gone so long as I slid under the sheets behind her and curled my arm around her waist. “I love you, angel,” I murmured into her neck, pretending (as Robbie said) not to notice her pulse hammering along her neck and the softness of her flesh had a rigidity that came from tension, not sleep.
“Love you too, honey-bear,” she answered in a pretty convincing sleepy voice.
I kissed the back of her neck, then held her until she fell asleep a few minutes later.
This time, I wasn’t too far behind her.
* * *
((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I'd love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here
For more of my work including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!
2023.03.25 12:53 IceInternational844 Watch Creed 3 Movie For Free Online Creed III
 | Creed 3Still dominating the boxing world, Adonis Creed is thriving in his career and family life. When Damian, a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy resurfaces after serving time in prison, he's eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. The face-off between former friends is more than just a fight. To settle the score, Adonis must put his future on the line to battle Damian -- a fighter who has nothing to lose.Creed III Click here to watch: Creed IIIThe highly anticipated third installment of the Creed franchise, Creed 3, is set for release on March 3, 2023. Directed by Steven Caple Jr. and written by Cheo Hodari Coker, the movie stars Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed. This time around, Adonis is at the peak of his boxing career and enjoying his life with his family and friends.However, this idyllic picture is disrupted when a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy, Damian, resurfaces after serving time in prison. Damian is determined to prove himself and earn his shot in the ring, and is willing to go to any lengths to do so. This sets the scene for a face-off between the two former friends, with the stakes much higher than just a simple boxing match.With the future of Adonis’ career and the legacy of the Creed family on the line, it’s up to him to settle the score with Damian. Creed 3 promises to be an intense and thrilling film, and fans of the franchise are already counting down the days until its release. With the film not due until March 2023, it’s expected that the movie will be available on streaming platforms much sooner. Keep an eye out for updates on when Creed 3 will be available for streaming, as well as other news about the movie. The cast of Creed 3 is rounded out by Tessa Thompson, who reprises her role as Adonis’ wife Bianca; Florian Munteanu as Damian; Wood Harris as Tony “Little Duke” Burton; and Dolph Lundgren as Ivan Drago, the former Russian boxer who fought Adonis’ father Apollo in Rocky IV. The film is a continuation of the story of Adonis Creed, and promises to be an exciting addition to the Creed franchise. With the star-studded cast and a story that is sure to captivate audiences, Creed 3 is sure to be a blockbuster hit. Be sure to mark the release date of March 3, 2023 in your calendars, and keep an eye out for updates on the movie. |
2023.03.25 12:32 Chico237 #NIOCORP~ NIOBIUM~& THE QUANTUM INTERNET, U.S. & EU Critical Minerals & more....
 | #NIOCORP~ NIOBIUM~& THE QUANTUM INTERNET, U.S. & EU Critical Minerals & more....New experiment translates quantum information between technologies in an important step for the quantum internetNew experiment translates quantum information between technologies in an important step for the quantum internet (phys.org) =A NIOBIUM superconducting cavity. The holes lead to tunnels which intersect to trap light and atoms. Credit: Aishwarya Kumar Researchers have discovered a way to "translate" quantum information between different kinds of quantum technologies, with significant implications for quantum computing, communication, and networking. The research was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday. It represents a new way to convert quantum information from the format used by quantum computers to the format needed for quantum communication. Photons—particles of light—are essential for quantum information technologies, but different technologies use them at different frequencies. For example, some of the most common quantum computing technology is based on superconducting qubits, such as those used by tech giants Google and IBM; these qubits store quantum information in photons that move at microwave frequencies. But if you want to build a quantum network, or connect quantum computers, you can't send around microwave photons because their grip on their quantum information is too weak to survive the trip. "A lot of the technologies that we use for classical communication—cell phones, Wi-Fi, GPS and things like that—all use microwave frequencies of light," said Aishwarya Kumar, a postdoc at the James Franck Institute at University of Chicago and lead author on the paper. "But you can't do that for quantum communication because the quantum information you need is in a single photon. And at microwave frequencies, that information will get buried in thermal noise." The solution is to transfer the quantum information to a higher-frequency photon, called an optical photon, which is much more resilient against ambient noise. But the information can't be transferred directly from photon to photon; instead, we need intermediary matter. Some experiments design solid state devices for this purpose, but Kumar's experiment aimed for something more fundamental: atoms. The electrons in atoms are only ever allowed to have certain specific amounts of energy, called energy levels. If an electron is sitting at a lower energy level, it can be excited to a higher energy level by hitting it with a photon whose energy exactly matches the difference between the higher and lower level. Similarly, when an electron is forced to drop to a lower energy level, the atom then emits a photon with an energy that matches the energy difference between levels. Rubidium atoms happen to have two gaps in their levels that Kumar's technology exploits: one that exactly equals the energy of a microwave photon, and one that exactly equals the energy of an optical photon. By using lasers to shift the atom's electron energies up and down, the technology allows the atom to absorb a microwave photon with quantum information and then emit an optical photon with that quantum information. This translation between different modes of quantum information is called "transduction." Effectively using atoms for this purpose is made possible by the significant progress scientists have made in manipulating such small objects. "We as a community have built remarkable technology in the last 20 or 30 years that lets us control essentially everything about the atoms," Kumar said. "So the experiment is very controlled and efficient." He says the other secret to their success is the field's progress in cavity quantum electrodynamics, where a photon is trapped in a superconducting, reflective chamber. Forcing the photon to bounce around in an enclosed space, the superconducting cavity strengthens the interaction between the photon and whatever matter is placed inside it. Their chamber doesn't look very enclosed—in fact, it more closely resembles a block of Swiss cheese. But what look like holes are actually tunnels that intersect in a very specific geometry, so that photons or atoms can be trapped at an intersection. It's a clever design that also allows researchers access to the chamber so they can inject the atoms and the photons. The technology works both ways: it can transfer quantum information from microwave photons to optical photons, and vice versa. So it can be on either side of a long-distance connection between two superconducting qubit quantum computers, and serve as a fundamental building block to a quantum internet. But Kumar thinks there may be a lot more applications for this technology than just quantum networking. Its core ability is to strongly entangle atoms and photons—an essential, and difficult task in many different quantum technologies across the field. "One of the things that we're really excited about is the ability of this platform to generate really efficient entanglement," he said. "Entanglement is central to almost everything quantum that we care about, from computing to simulations to metrology and atomic clocks. I'm excited to see what else we can do." Old School Meets New School: Critical Minerals Used in Quantum ComputingOld School Meets New School: Critical Minerals Used in Quantum Computing Pillsbury - Internet & Social Media Law Blog - JDSuprahttps://preview.redd.it/q2fgzcylgvpa1.png?width=252&format=png&auto=webp&s=464c88f9e032b195da928a6448170f0cb42218e3 Quantum technology runs on the notoriously difficult-to-stabilize qubit. Unlike binary bits in classical physical components in computers and cell phones, qubits can operate in more than one state at a time (known as superposition), and they have an uncanny ability to remain interconnected with one another even when separated (known as entanglement). These features mean that the speed with which quantum computers can solve problems is virtually limitless—once science understands how to capitalize on their abilities, that is. An MIT article reports that an encryption problem that only a short while ago was thought to require billions of qubits may be susceptible to solution with a much more manageable number. But there’s a hang-up—quantum machines are finicky. They tend to like things quiet, still and cold, in some cases requiring a temperature around absolute zero, or about -460 degrees Fahrenheit. The quantum computing process must be isolated and protected from “decoherence.” Noise in the system means that answer-checking routines consume enormous amounts of computational effort and energy. Scientists are still working out the best ways to help quantum machines function in real-world scenarios. Regardless of the paths taken to get there, it seems a given that rare earth metals and other critical materials will prove essential building blocks. Rare earths themselves are described in our prior post concerning their use in the energy transition. Each element has subtle differences in charge characteristics that can be isolated with precision in the beneficiation, processing and manufacturing process. That precision can in turn address this field’s other biggest challenges—scalability and reproduction. As scholars grapple with these puzzles, a number of techniques have emerged for taming otherwise rowdy qubits, each with its own material needs. Some of the elements are household names, while others are generally known only as obscure boxes on a high-school chemistry class periodic table. Superconducting: At a low-enough temperature, metals like aluminum and niobium.) no longer offer electrical resistance. This phenomenon makes them popular options for keeping fussy qubits stable in superconductor systems. Superconducting quantum computers are perhaps farthest along on their path to usability, with tech companies betting heavily on the approach. For example, Rigetti Computing is making advances in quantum computers and the superconducting quantum processors used to power them.
[View source.] Europe turbo charges its critical minerals driveColumn: Europe turbo charges its critical minerals drive ReutersGeothermal water is seen through a sight glass at a pipeline system of a geothermal power station of German power supplier EnBW Energie Baden Wuerttemberg AG, where a pilot facility for lithium extraction will be built, in Bruchsal, Germany, April 23, 2021. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - The European Union has unveiled the accelerator in its drive to reduce the bloc's import dependency for critical minerals and metals. The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) "will significantly improve" Europe's domestic extraction, processing and recycling capacity for metals such as lithium and rare earths, according to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. The Act comes with targets for production and for reducing dependency on any single third country. China currently dominates the supply chain for many of the entries on Europe's list of "strategic" metals. The EU is also playing catch-up with the United States, which is already investing heavily in critical metals capacity under the aegis of the Defense Production Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. Europe may, however, have given itself a competitive edge by moving to streamline project permitting, a tortuous process that often drags on for years before the first shovel hits the ground. (MOVING) TARGETSThe CRMA covers a subset of the EU's critical minerals list, with particular focus on battery metals like lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese and magnet inputs such as boron and rare earths.Copper is on the list as an enabler of all things electric but aluminium and zinc aren't, which is a striking omission given the recent shrinkage of European production capacity. Germany's Speira has joined the list of casualties, this month announcing the full closure of its Rheinwerk aluminium smelter due to high energy costs. "Today's strategic raw materials list must not be the finished picture," warned Evangelos Mytilineos, president of industry group Eurometaux. It probably won't be. The CRMA includes a provision for periodically updating the list to reflect evolving economic importance and supply risks across the critical metals spectrum. For those metals on the list the target is for the region to mine 10%, process 40% and recycle 15% of what it consumes annually by 2030. By which time not more than 65% of any strategic metal's consumption will be able to come from a single third country. These are ambitious targets given Europe currently sources 97% of its magnesium in China, which also has a complete monopoly on the processing of heavy rare earths and graphite. Europe's lithium extraction can in theory meet the 10% target but it hinges on multiple new projects, many of them using innovative technology. Recycling lithium-ion batteries is also a technical challenge that has to be resolved at scale to meet the 15% recycling target. PERMITTINGIn terms of maximising domestic mining and processing capacity, Europe is following the United States in instructing all national governments to go back and look at what may have been left behind in tailings ponds and historic mine sites.Operators of existing mines and plants should prepare an economic assessment study of what they're losing in "waste" streams. It's a policy that has already significantly closed the U.S. dependency gap for tellurium and scandium. However, Europe has overtaken the United States in one key area, aiming to streamline the permitting of "strategic" projects to ensure a maximum time-line of two years for mines and one year for processing plants. All such projects should be considered as being "in the public interest" by the relevant national authority when considering environmental impact. The U.S. Administration has come under fire for using the Inflation Reduction Act to incentivise domestic mining while simultaneously blocking development of mines on federal land. The green-on-green environmental clashes seem set to continue until there is a long-overdue rewrite of the General Mining Act of 1872. COLLECTIVE BUYING AND STOCKPILESMany strategic metals markets are opaque, not easily financially hedged and concentrated on the supply side, according to the CRMA. All of which "increases the negotiating power of sellers and increase prices for buyers".It calls for the Commission to set up a system for collective purchasing by interested buyers, a mechanism already trialled in the gas market. It also recommends the accumulation of strategic metal stocks to buffer against unexpected supply disruptions. Europe has no strategic metal inventory, unlike the United States, China and South Korea. Member states may have their own stockpiles and "as a first step and considering the lack of relevant information", the 27 countries in the bloc should report to the Commission what, if anything, they are holding. Given such a humble starting point, it seems unlikely EU strategic metal reserves are going to come any time soon, if they come at all. METALLIC ARMS RACEThe EU accepts it will never be fully self-sufficient in most if any of the metals it's identified as being critical to its industrial and defence sectors.The CRMA advocates diversifying supply in favour of "reliable partners" and creating "mutually beneficial partnerships with emerging market and developing economies". It represents a further tectonic decoupling of global supply chains. What started as a response to China's dominance of critical metals supply has been accelerated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia has historically been a major supplier of aluminium, copper and nickel to Europe's industrial sector to the extent that the EU has to date held back from sanctioning Russian material even as the United States imposes penal import duties. But the metals world is clearly starting to split between West and the East. It's a messy process, witness the dispute between the EU and the United States over the exclusion of European products from the electric vehicle subsidies introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act. That particular hurdle may shortly be cleared, German newspaper Handlesblatt reporting that a draft agreement has been reached. It is evidently in neither side's interest to compete with each other in the context of reducing resource ties with China and Russia. Assuming future trans-Atlantic harmony can be achieved, something akin to a metallic NATO will start to take ever clearer shape. BIS Issues Proposed Rule to Establish “Guardrails” to Prevent the Improper Use of CHIPS Act FundingPosted on March 24, 2023POSTED IN BIS, SEMICONDUCTORS, SUPPLY CHAINBIS Issues Proposed Rule to Establish “Guardrails” to Prevent the Improper Use of CHIPS Act Funding SmarTrade (thompsonhinesmartrade.com) https://preview.redd.it/afhv01j2gvpa1.png?width=330&format=png&auto=webp&s=1e7afcabb3fac7d8c724f325d91bfaf41b9421ba On March 23, 2023, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking implementing measures to prevent the improper use of CHIPS Act Incentives Program funding. Described as “guardrails,” the proposed rules are intended to ensure technology and innovation funded by the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act are not used for malign purposes by adversarial countries against the United States or its allies and partners. The CHIPS Act was enacted in August 2022 to incentivize the manufacture of semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment in the United States, especially amid growing national security concerns and economic competition risks posed by China’s increasing chip production in recent years. It provides appropriations to develop domestic manufacturing critical to U.S. competitiveness and national security interests. See Update of July 29, 2022. The proposed rule provides additional details on national security measures that would be applicable to the CHIPS Incentives Program, including limiting recipients of funding from investing in the expansion of semiconductor manufacturing in foreign countries of concern (i.e., China, Russia, Iran and North Korea). According to BIS, these guardrails “will advance shared national security interests as the U.S. continues coordinating and collaborating with allies and partners to make global supply chains more resilient and diversified.” The proposed rule provides additional details on and definitions for these national security guardrails, including:
Establishing Restrictive Standards and Limiting Facility ExpansionTo protect national security and the resiliency of supply chains, CHIPS Incentives Program funds may not be provided to a foreign entity of concern. The proposed rule provides a detailed explanation of what is meant by “foreign entities of concern,” as well as a definition of “owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of.” The proposed rule defines other terms used in the CHIPS Act (including terms that will be used in required agreements with funding recipients), identifies the types of transactions that are prohibited under the Expansion Clawback and Technology Clawback sections of the CHIPS Act and provides a description of the process for notifying the Secretary of Commerce of significant transactions involving expansion of semiconductor manufacturing in a foreign country of concern.Classifying Semiconductors as Critical to National SecurityWhile the CHIPS Act allows companies to expand production of legacy chips in foreign countries of concern in limited circumstances, the proposed rule would classify a list of semiconductors as critical to U.S. national security. In doing so, the rule would define “legacy semiconductors” subject to tighter restrictions, which would include “current-generation and mature-node chips used for quantum computing, in radiation-intensive environments, and for other specialized military capabilities.” The proposed rule seeks to also clarify what would not be considered legacy semiconductors.Reinforcing U.S. Export ControlsIn October 2022, BIS implemented export controls to prevent China from purchasing and manufacturing advanced chips that would enhance that country’s military capabilities. See Update of October 31, 2022. The proposed rule provides definitions that are harmonious with and reinforce these export controls “by aligning prohibited technology thresholds for memory chips between export controls and CHIPS national security guardrails.” Accordingly, the proposed rule applies a more restrictive threshold for logic chips than is used for export controls.U.S. lays out possible critical raw materials agreement with EU -HandelsblattDig, Dig, Dig: US and Europe Target China’s Grip on Critical Raw MineralsBy Otto LanzavecchiaMarch 23, 2023Europe and the US share a common goal — increasing self-sufficiency for minerals and tech products needed to fight climate change. Alignment looks set to defuse transatlantic trade tensions. The European Commission unveiled this month a two-pronged strategy to reduce its dependency on China and boost its green industries. The Critical Raw Materials Act aims to wean the continent off Chinese critical minerals. The Net-Zero Industry Act is geared at boosting the EU’s production of clean tech equipment by a recent decision to relax strict state aid rules. Together, the proposals represent Europe’s response to the US pressure against China and to compete with protectionist subsidies included in the US’s Inflation Reduction Act. Although a danger remains that the US’s generous pockets and hard-line approach against China will sow discord, these European moves signal a desire to strengthen the transatlantic alliance. Start back in August 2022, when the US Congress passed the IRA, which contained gargantuan government subsidies to US industries. Europeans were aghast. Confronted with sky-high energy prices and roaring inflation, they could hear a deafening sucking sound of investments leaving the continent and heading across the Atlantic Ocean. The US subsidies jolted European capitals to reconsider their strict limits on state aid, instrumental in building and preserving the European single market. At the same time, Vladimir Putin’s weaponization of gas exports woke up the continent to the danger of Chinese-supplied critical raw materials and Beijing’s dominance in green industries, such as solar panels and electric car batteries. If China cut sales of these key products, Europe’s plans for its ecological and digital transition would be at risk of collapse — not unlike the United States’. How could Europeans condemn Americans for steeling themselves against the same threat they faced? The answer to that question challenged the EU’s status quo, and European capitals began tilting westward. In January, while speaking in Davos, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen downplayed frictions over the IRA and stressed the need to “de-risk” vis a vis China. The Biden administration took constructive steps: it began exploring extending some of the IRA’s benefits to European industries. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai had been urging the EU to develop its own, parallel strategy on subsidies and reshoring, saying that the US wanted to “work with our friends and allies to allow us to together build a resiliency and to wean us off some dependencies.” An agreement on critical raw materials would allow the US to extend the IRA’s reach to European industries, indicated US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. EU countries began to adhere to the US-led Minerals Security Partnership, aiming to create a like-minded critical raw material “buyers’ club” between democratic countries. The political breakthrough came on March 10. President von der Leyen went to the White House to meet President Biden, while back home her Commission relaxed state aid rules. Afterward, they produced a statement signaling a transatlantic climate truce. And upon her return to Brussels, the Commission launched the two-pronged legislative proposals. The Net Zero Industry Act aims to ensure that European produces at least 40% of European demand for green products by 2030. EU governments will be able to match subsidies provided in other countries “where there is a real risk of investments being diverted away from Europe,” according to European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. The Critical Raw Materials Act aims to supply Europe’s green industries with crucial inputs. European mining and refining must cover at least 10% of the EU critical raw materials by 2030. That would be a giant feat for a continent that spent decades outsourcing most of the extraction and production. Key provisions have China written all over them. If a foreign country has more than 65% of the market, its companies will have little chance of winning a public contract in the EU. For context, Beijing controls more than 80% EU market share in the solar sector. Permitting will be sped up. It can take up to 15 years to get the green light for a new mining project in Europe. Under the Critical Raw Materials Act, mines designated as strategic must receive a decision on permits within two years. Critics question whether Europe can achieve its stated goals. Environmentalists have vowed to oppose projects to mine lithium and other minerals, citing the danger to water and nature preserves. Business leaders from Solvay, Merck, and Dow warn that the Net Zero Industry Act offers too little funding and is too complex to compete against the US’s $369 billion of green tax incentives and subsidies. Even so, the European proposals signal a U-turn in economic policymaking — and a potential transatlantic alignment. On both sides of the Atlantic, the love affair with free markets and globalization is fading. Instead of market-driven decision-making, we are entering an era of strategic planning with democracies moving to onshore and subsidizing critical industries. The transition will be rocky and perilous. Divergences over how hard to hit China could re-emerge. The US takes a hard line, while European officials continue to consider Beijing both a “rival” and a “partner.” But both Brussels and Washington are working hard not to let their support for green tech deteriorate into a counter-productive and protectionist subsidy race. If they work together, they could shore up the democratic world’s shift to clean tech.Modelling and experimental investigation of Nb2O5 as a high-rate battery anode material FORM YOUR OWN OPINIONS & CONCLUSION ABOVEDecember 2022 E & MJ (e-mj.com)Dec. ISSUE... For a little light flip through with Coffee! NIOCORP WILL PRODUCE & PROCESS THE CRITICAL MINERALS NIOBIUM, TITANIUM & SCANDIUM, & VIABLE REE's https://preview.redd.it/hzpir9ozcvpa1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=c1532488aa724f8e16cfa8d6ecd4911e1b4a4e59 WAITING FOR NIOCORP TO "RING THE BELL!" on the NASDAQ, & FOR MATERIAL NEWS AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE! https://preview.redd.it/v6itf0sm2vpa1.png?width=218&format=png&auto=webp&s=68cd0d59cdf8ddb0b91ad86f372028e3baf763d5 Chico |
2023.03.25 12:06 AutoModerator Stirling Cooper Books List (Complete Bundle)
If you are interested in getting the Stirling Cooper books you can contact us at (+) 447593882116 (Telegram/WhatsApp).
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Email: silverlakestore[@]yandex.com (remove the brackets)
submitted by AutoModerator to StirlingCoopPlace [link] [comments]
All Stirling Cooper Books are now available.
The books are updated and complete.
The books of Stirling Cooper will teach you a variety of lessons, most of which include:
- Preventing Premature Ejaculation
- How To Grow Dick and Other Industry Secrets
- How To Seal The Deal
- The Ultimate Guide To Performance Anxiety
- 5 Mistakes Men Make
The information you will get from the Stirling Cooper books is unique and acannot be learned anywhere else. The lessons you will get from these books will transform you love life forever!
If you want to get the Stirling Cooper books contact us at:
Whatsapp/Telegram: (+) 447593882116
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Email: silverlakestore[@]yandex.com (remove the brackets)
2023.03.25 11:54 AutoModerator [Complete Set] Stirling Cooper Books
If you are interested in getting the Stirling Cooper books you can contact us at (+) 447593882116 (Telegram/WhatsApp).
All Stirling Cooper Books are now available.
The books are updated and complete.
The books of Stirling Cooper will teach you a variety of lessons, most of which include:
The information you will get from the Stirling Cooper books is unique and acannot be learned anywhere else. The lessons you will get from these books will transform you love life forever!
If you want to get the Stirling Cooper books contact us at:
Whatsapp/Telegram: (+) 447593882116 (@multistorecourses)
Reddit DM to u/RequestCourseAccess
Email: silverlakestore[@]yandex.com (remove the brackets)
submitted by AutoModerator to ProgramsOfStirling [link] [comments]
All Stirling Cooper Books are now available.
The books are updated and complete.
The books of Stirling Cooper will teach you a variety of lessons, most of which include:
- Preventing Premature Ejaculation
- How To Grow Dick and Other Industry Secrets
- How To Seal The Deal
- The Ultimate Guide To Performance Anxiety
- 5 Mistakes Men Make
The information you will get from the Stirling Cooper books is unique and acannot be learned anywhere else. The lessons you will get from these books will transform you love life forever!
If you want to get the Stirling Cooper books contact us at:
Whatsapp/Telegram: (+) 447593882116 (@multistorecourses)
Reddit DM to u/RequestCourseAccess
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2023.03.25 11:11 insiderway April fool cheddam ani gattigane fix ayyadu mana Gunasekaram
 | submitted by insiderway to Ni_Bondha [link] [comments] |
2023.03.25 11:03 ZorosonD JASMY AMA - some ramblings about what was said pt 1
> Personal Data Locker is your one and only ID and database that can be connected to many websites and applications using decentralized login mechanism.Since a lot of data moves back and forth when browsing the internet, I am pondering the benefits of Jasmy making an internet browser with the PDL built-in, or even a browser plug-in.
> We would like to increase this number by connecting to many websites and applications, as it will naturally increase as you use our services.
Imagine agreeing to the use of cookies, but for all the data collected and used, the website-user is rewarded.
Someone ought to monetise cookies somehow.
All of the information collected and retained about visits to webpages could have monetary value for the user, especally e-commerce websites that use data to suggest products or services.
The PDL, in my uneducated opinion, has a long way to go before it shows any significant dominance within the oceans and mountains of global data. And even if it did make a dent, does this automatically mean the token price will go up?
If the reward for sharing basic data is only 0.00000001 Jasmy per person and I have 10 Jasmy, then I can buy a lot of basic data with a miniscule amount of Jasmy.
Wouldn't you like to see a breakdown of what data will cost in Jasmy?
Do loyalty cards schemes really work? After ten shops you get a free stale muffin? Are Jasmy rewards going to be like a loyalty card, and will a soggy bicsuit be all I am able to redeem after a year of sharing data?
A side example, Ripple do not need the price of XRP to go up (in my opinion) as this does nothing for XRP's utility within cross-border payments systems; the token merely has to exist to serve its purpose. Is that true?
Even if XRP is worth $ZERO on the retail market, I believe XRP could still perform the intended operation.
What might bring value is being able to transact and purchase goods and services with XRP as opposed to buying the token, hoping the price goes up, then selling it for a profit. This action basically categorises XRP as a "security", because it is a tradable financial asset on the retail market.
Ripple may not have intended XRP to be a security as this is not what they themselves use it for, but the fact they gave it to retail investors to trade and profiit/lose makes it a security. Is that not true?
If Ripple disassociated itself with the publicly traded XRP and decided to use XRPv2.0 for banks (which retail investors could not get hold of) then I'd feel differently. This is just my opinion, not fact.
Every crytpo listed on an exchange that can be traded for profit are literally securities in the basic sense of the word (source: Investopedia - what are financial securities?) If exchanges ceased letting retail customers trade tokens for profit then they would no longer be classified as securities. I know it's not so clear cut and there is a lot more to argue, but that's my take.
I digressed
Jasmy does not need the price of Jasmy to moon for the Jasmy token to perform the supposed intended function. Is this true? It can be worth $ZERO and still be issued as a reward - similar to XRP being used for cross-border payments.
I would have hoped ex Sony Execs would be able to get their product into every relevant Sony device on the market before exploring any other avenue; perhaps even having the Sony Corporation use Jasmy across its operations.
I believe Jasmy is still at proof of concept stage, trying to prove there is a need for it, or at least coerce companies into believing they need it.
XRP had been proof of concept for over a decade and look who Ripple are already partnered with and the token is still worth peanuts. Influencers think clarity from the SEC will send the price into orbit, but I am skeptical. If Ripple loses they can create another utility token and use it for the financial sector and forget about XRP. The banks rely on the technology, not so much the token. Adjusting a few lines of code (an update) is probably all it'll take, and they have probably created this alternative already with their finger on the button, waiting to send XRP to $ZERO. You know what, they may already have.
Jasmy are not working with any super major league players in any industry. All this talk of being in discussion with that company and this company could wind up fruitless. And even if partnerships are formed, just with Ripple and the many banks, Jasmy working with a lot of companies doesn't necessarily mean the token is going to $10.00
I trust the Jasmy team will continue to make steady progress and I will hold my bag to the grave, occasionally topping it up. I have come to terms with the possibility I may lose my entire "investment", and I am okay with that.
Bitcoin is the only crypto that has withstood the test of time, is accepted as payment, is a tradable asset, and had first mover advantage. It's solid and seemingly untouchable considering bringing bitcoins owners to court is not the same as suing coinbase
2023.03.25 10:59 resurrective Chapter 20 – Business, treats and threats
It was way beyond the midday, when Keyaruga woke up from his restless dream. Freia, Setsuna, Eve – all of his companions clung to him in some way or another, so it took a bit of effort not to wake them up.
It didn’t work. I still see them. I still… dream of them.
The hero stood up, but a heavy burden on his soul never allowed him to straighten his stiff shoulders. His vengeance was almost complete. Even if Blade survived, she would have to live with her trauma from her encounter with the healer for the rest of her miserable days.
Josephine too carried deep scars within her, and after what happened in the night, her wounds would never heal. Takemikazuchi didn’t save his daughter, he merely took away the tormented doll from the lad, thus prolonging her suffering.
So what now? My vengeance wasn’t worth it?.. No… It was. Someone had to do something about that bitch, and I even got my divine armament, so I mustn’t think about it too much.
My issues, though… Nobody can help me with that, so sparing myself will only make me weaker. Persevere, Keyaruga. You’re a man, so keep it together and don’t whine.
With that in mind, the man pulled his clothes from the wardrobe, dressed, and even gathered Blade’s tattered clothes. He had a pretty nice idea of who would pay for these rags and scraps. Before that, though…
…
Eve Reese was the second to rise. She slept in a sitting pose, covering herself with a pair of shiny black wings. Not like she felt cold amidst the summer in her dark nightgown, but the first thing she wished to obtain was her outfit. Conveniently enough, it hanged on the nearest chair.
“Good morning, birdie. I washed your dress, it must be dry now.” The man spoke monotonously, sitting behind a table in the far corner of the room.
“It’s not… morning.” The strained maiden replied, as she changed her clothes. From one side, there was nothing to be embarrassed of, since the healer was never distracted from his deeds. From another… “Do you always keep your guard up? It’s hard, you know? Living like that.” The maiden deadpanned, staring at the lad’s back. She didn’t actually fear this man. Remained cautious – certainly, but at the same time she saw traces of her deceased father in him. Sure, he did cheat on her mom a few times, just like Keyaruga indulged in sexual debaucheries with Freia and Setsuna, but at the same time, both of them never spared themselves from having to protect the ones close to them. Somehow… “I wouldn’t want you to die too.”
“Calm down, Eve, I’m immortal.” He dryly replied to her comment. He didn’t want her to fear for him, and yet the lad couldn’t stop worrying about her. His various phobias were rooted in the same memories of past traumas as his nightmares. Even if he knew, that only the toughest could defeat his girls. “Are you hungry?”
“I think… A little bit, yes.” The black-winged girl spoke, strolling toward the man. She noticed alchemical tools, a few pouches of different roots, plants, some fresh, some dried, some turned into fine powder in the glass mortar. “What’re you doing, Keyaruga?”
“Pondering my orb.” The man responded, half-jokingly, half-serious. The white sphere was placed on a towel on the far left corner of the table. But even so, he barely even looked at that direction.
“It doesn’t look that way.” The queen-to-be noted, taking one of two dozen phials from a small wooden box. The liquid of green and red piqued her curiosity with its peculiar nature. The color didn’t mix, after all, no matter how much the girl shook the vessel. “What is it?”
“Our money. So please put it back from where you took it.” Despite his own words, Keyaruga snatched the bottle from Eve’s hands himself. Put it in back in its place. Everything must be in order, after all. “I’m almost finished. After that, well, a carriage will come and take us to a restaurant.” He elaborated, briefly showing the maiden a sheet of deformed paper. The was an invitation in almost perfect Phasian, written by none other than Karman.
“I see… Hey, Keyaruga, you don’t look so good. Would you, you know, like to speak about something? Like, what’s happening between you and Freia? Why do you… growl in your sleep? Why…”
“That’s enough.” Keyaruga nagged, pouring his miraculous brew into the last vial. “This is something only me and Freia share.” The hero stated, closing the box he bought, while the girls remained asleep. A perk of living in a trustworthy deity’s house – you can always be sure nothing would happen to your treasures. And even that brief outing was stressful enough for the man.
“Ehm… Alright. Would you want to ask me anything?” Eve carefully wondered, making space for the man. Surprisingly enough, not only did he put the box in the bag, he also stuffed it with the same attire he came home in.
“Yes… It’s not a question, though.” The lad declared, turning his crimson eyes toward Eve’s red pupils. Just like his… “Norn, the princess who leads this entire army, and Freia’s sister, will come with us, regardless of whether she wants to or not, even if I have to butcher her entire army on my own and wipe her memories altogether.” The healer admitted, still staring in Eve’s eyes. There, he saw confusion, a little bit of fear, a little bit of stress, a little bit of anger. Clearly, the girl didn’t accept this reality.
“W-why?” The queen-to-be asked, trying to take a step back, only to find herself unable to do so. The twisted grin on the man’s face filled her with dread, as if the hero dropped his mask to reveal his true colors. She didn’t know much about the second princess, but even the rumors she heard painted Norn as an uncaring devil of plagues and murders in a child’s body.
“Because I made a promise, because I can’t leave her in Margurth’s hands. Because Freia asked me to let her live. Because she’s the visionary of a brand new world, a tactical genius who we can’t do without in our revolutionary campaigns. Because otherwise, her talent will be wasted on mass destruction and genocide. Because I saw the future, in which she razed Tenanulic and left you with only a few hundred cripples among the wasteland of Gurthal, because…”
Because I still love her? Did I ever love her? Did anyone love me? Freia only seeks redemption, Setsuna… Nayuta said she loved me, but she craves the strength I can give her, Kureha sees me as a paragon of justice, an idea rather than a man. And Norn? I was her spy… Maybe, she would use me, until I outlive my usefulness, and then…
The man got lost in his thoughts. So much so, that his own knees failed him and he almost crumbled on the ground right before Eve.
“…y… hey… Hey! Keyaruga!..” He remained deaf to the girl’s exclamation. In a haze, the man hardly even reacted to the reality, barely registered Eve’s attempts to grab him, to keep him from falling. As if hundreds of scrawny arms dragged him into hell, poisoning his tattered mind.
Oh? I passed out for a moment? That’s not good, how can I be strong, when I can’t even hold myself together?
Eve… Wait, what’s Eve doing? She holds me? Why? What can she achieve by that? What?..
“I’m fine, Eve.” The Hero of Healing said, wiping cold sweat from his forehead. It wasn’t a common occurrence for the man to lose his grip on reality that easily, and neither would he allow it to become one. “Let go.”
“No, you’re not, moron! What’s going on with you?” The kokuyoku scion asked somewhat harshly, refusing to break her embrace. She demanded at least some form of explanation. After all, why would anyone want to depend on someone, whose passions and suffering are beyond their comprehension?
“In the future I saw, you had to kill Norn for what she did, and I had to kill you. I hated it, so I’ll make my own destiny, where you and Norn will live.” Keyaruga announced, before patronizingly tapping Eve’s shoulder.
You’d become a Me-ua even without me. But that slut Panakea killed your man. Man… strange, he killed your friends, and you gave him two children… No matter, Panakea wants me to become your champion. And so I will. I will make you the queen myself.
“Thanks…” The maiden quietly said, taking a step back from her guardian. “For your honesty, I mean.” She added, puffing her cute cheeks. “You should get some rest, though.”
“No, I’m fine. And don’t thank me… You don’t even know what you were robbed off.” Keyaruga declared, rising in full height. Then, he turned toward his two other lovely companions. “Wake up, girls! We’re going after our breakfast now!”
After that, I’ll have to get back to the sphere. I’ll finally become a proper hero.
…
Finally, after so many labors, both physical and emotional, Keyaruga could enjoy a moment of peace. Forget about the war, ignore the fact that his ‘destined’ reunion with Eve was orchestrated by the goddess, bury his trauma under a layer of comfort. At least for now, anyway.
Keyaruga, Eve, Setsuna and Freia sat around a single table. They had plenty of expensive food, drinks (both alcoholic and not). Starters and snacks, soups and stews. All of that was paid from Karman’s wallet, of course.
“Allow us to thank you for your generosity.” Keyaruga said to the seller, after at least a minute of his silence. All that time the beastman spoke with Freia about her preferred cosmetics, Setsuna indulged him with a conversation about battle arts, and how some equipment could compliment certain moves, while debilitating others, and even Eve managed to have a comprehensive talk about how the world is turning to shit, referencing political crisis in Confederation.
“You know, I prefer to think of it as investments, rather than gifts. I don’t think you’ll disagree that trust is the most valuable asset.” Karman replied, seamlessly switching from speaking Tarenago with Eve to Phasian with Keyaruga. “Especially when I can enjoy the company of your beauties.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t really deserve these cuties.” The lad commented, taking a brief look at each of his companions.
“Keyaruga, you’re being too harsh on yourself.” The sorceress, who sat to the right from the healer, said, caringly covering the man’s hand with her own palm. For better or worse, she loved him dearly, which everyone around the table could tell. Except Keyaruga himself, to whom that seemed but a temporary passion from the princess, and even his own feelings he perceived as a desperate need for companionship.
“Uh-huh. You deserve Setsuna.” The girl to the left of him even went so far as to jump on the hero’s neck. In a peculiar way, the phlegmatic she-wolf was the beacon of positivity in the party. Not even her recent defeat changed that fact.
With those two Karman had literally no chances. Their infatuation to Keyaruga was still fresh, and even if it was otherwise, their loyalty wouldn’t shatter that easily. Eve, though, wasn’t among the man’s lovers, that much was for certain. So what did the green-haired beastman do? Well, at first, there was a smile. Then, a wink. Did it work? In some way…
“Mi nanpa wor midunarund (I’m not seeking for relationships right now).” Eve indeed noticed the merchant’s attempts to flirt, but she almost instantly cut it off.
“Haa… No luck for me here, I guess.” Karman shrugged, taking a sip of his favorite wine. He knew too well, how easy it was to lose a partner by standing between him and his girl. The vendor already had such a lesson, that he wouldn’t share with the red-haired ‘alchemist’.
“Speaking of luck, is the client satisfied with my potion?” The hero asked slyly. He had little appetite outside of the bare minimum for refilling his body and mind with energy, and yet he was glad to see his companions enjoying the feast.
“You’re a miracle-maker, pal, I’ll give you that! I’d even kiss you for what you did for us!” The merchant sneered, enjoying a fine beef goulash. “It healed the girl in one sip! Although…”
“It hasn’t healed her soul.” Keyaruga admitted, recalling the vigilante’s words. He saved the man both directly and indirectly. After all, it seemed like if nobody offered Nina a free remedy, he wouldn’t listen to Keara, and Blade would’ve squashed him. Would that be beneficial to the healer’s revenge?
Too much of ‘would’s for my liking.
“Basically… Eh, no matter, she’ll get through it, eventually. The girl’s dad went out for a hunt himself, though. Said he saw some chick going toe to toe with Blade, can you believe it? Damn, I hope she’s still kicking.” Karman noted, looking at Keyaruga indifferently shaking a cup of wine in his hands. Fortunately, at that point Setsuna and Freia got back to banqueting.
“Why wouldn’t I believe? I… hired her.” Although it took a little bit of lie, that brief explanation didn’t fail to attract the beastman’s ultimate interest. “She’s a killer, just so you know.”
“No… fucking way!” Karman swore, making sure his distressed is properly conveyed to everyone. Even if Blade’s ‘name’ was deliberately omitted.
“And look, what she brought me.” His astonishment got even greater, as the red-eyed lad grabbed an inconspicuous leather package from under the table and slowly levitated it right to the trader’s hands.
“Farafinatia Ahurama! Is this-?” The magic trick didn’t fail to impress the vendor, sure, but after he peeked inside… “Huh… This is what I think it is?” The merchant mused, evaluating the dirty tattered coat. The cuirass was in much better shape, but either way, he did recognize, who it belonged to. And right after that, the merchant unceremoniously tossed a heavy poach right in Keyaruga’s hand. In would smash his face, if not for the hero’s reaction, though.
“I’m buying this!” The vendor declared, hiding Blade’s clothes under the table, before some nosy folk beside them could tell, over whose demise was the transaction.
“Sold.” Keyaruga nodded, amused with how accurate his prediction turned out to be. The bag, filled with various jewels approximately equaling hundred of Jioral kadmi, Keyaruga hanged onto his belt. Probably, Karman would get even more from the victim’s father anyway. “Although, you shouldn’t sell these before Buranikka’s ‘guests’ get the hell out of here.” The lad warned the merchant, before nodding to Freia, so that the sorceress prepares the real goods.
“Heh, I knew it! My intuition never fails me!” Karman exclaimed, pointing his finger onto the man. His right arm shook in an gesture of enthusiastic endorsement.
“Really now? And what does it tell you now?” Keyaruga wondered, resting his chin onto his joined fingers.
“That you, my friend, didn’t just come here to brag on behalf of your mercenaries, or for a free meal. Ready to meet the market’s demands, alchemist?”
“Heh-heh.” The man chuckled, putting a box right between the dishes. Some were still untouched, some already empty, but what stimulated the monger’s appetite was within the container. “Take a look.”
And so he did. Karman pulled a peculiar monocle from his pocket, and proceeded to meticulously inspect each and every vessel among what Keyaruga presented to him.
“Thirty vials, huh? Restoration potions?” The beastman wondered, cautiously putting the last bottle of non-mixing double-colored liquid back in the box.
“Certainly. First comes the mundane effect – they mend your wounds. Then, this potion rejuvenates endurance. Dare I say, this is my masterpiece?” The red-haired man declared with pride.
“Did you also have to put your blood in it as well?” Karman asked, fighting with an urge to jump from the excitement.
“No, that was an exception.” The Hero of Healing shrugged casually.
“Exception this, exception that. You helped good people, that’s all that matters.” The green-haired man declared before closing the wooden box. “Alright, this is good stuff.”
“Won’t you give it a taste, then?” Keyaruga sneered, feeling like he discovered another golden mine.
“I’m a merchant, brother. I can tell, whether you’re pushing good stuff or not!” With that said, Karman offered the lad another poach with even greater amount of precious minerals as before. Keyaruga opened it, accessed, and silently accepted the payment, letting the beastman take his purchase. “Say, why won’t you sell it yourself?” The vendor pondered, tapping onto the precious box.
“What do you think I’m doing? Or you’re implying I have to spend days upon days, trying to cajole the locals to purchase my wares?” Keyaruga scoffed, and glanced at Setsuna, then Freia, and later Eve. All of them finished their meals, and just sat silently, waiting the healer to finish the transaction. Getting them to sell potions seemed like a good idea… but Keyaruga would never go for it.
“True, getting folk to trust you takes a while.” Karman spoke, impressed by the man’s sense in business. Not many wonder-mongers could actually profit, unless they were actually talented crooks. “I wonder if you also know, how much time I have to resell your potions.”
“Three days.” Keyaruga eagerly replied. “Today, tomorrow, and…”
Then…
“My, oh my! Can I be your first customer?” A deep and mannered voice resonated throughout the premise. It was a well-dressed gentleman, and his gentle tone had to himself pretty well.
“Certainly, I’m always rea…” Karman was ready to trade with the customer right there, but seeing Freia, Setsuna, and Eve jumping from their chairs and getting ready to battle put a halt to his intent.
“Careful, Keyaruga!” The Hero of Magic snarled, snatching her staff right from the thin air.
“Grrrr!” Setsuna growled, summoning the icy crust on her forearms. After a swift jump she found herself standing atop of the table, cautiously avoiding stepping into the food. The huntress, no matter how swollen her belly was, prepared for battle. To protect those she loved.
“…” And even Eve summoned a small constellation of bright stars. The group prepared for battle, they attracted attention from all the guests, most of which wisely decided to leave the restaurant through the second exit, some of which didn’t even pay.
“Have you come to finish your task, Organ?” The princess snarled, rapidly pumping her new staff with magic potency. Along with her two sisters-in-arms, the caster was ready for the second encounter with Hawkeye. “If so, we…”
“You will do nothing, Freia.” This time, though, Keyaruga was there to stand against the Champion. “Setsuna, please get off the table. This one came for me, apparently.” The Hero of Healing spoke smoothly, stepping next to Eve. With a single swipe, he extinguished her spell. “Don’t. This will hurt some passerby much more than him.” The man uttered, approaching the murderous archer.
“These girls are under my protection, good sir. Should you raise your blade on them, you’ll have to pass me first.” The red-haired man calmly declared, standing between Organ Trist and the table with his allies.
The tension kept rising, underneath Hawkeye’s indifferent façade Keyaruga noted a cold-blooded focus and the ultimate will. The sword, the bow, two hidden blades in his sleeves, a tiny firearm in the right gauntlet, a set of throwing knives, tiny razors and a pair of brass knuckles. Add a fighting capabilities to stand his ground against the very god of fencing, and the fact that most, if not all, of his comedically numerous weapons were heavily poisoned, and you get a recipe for a catastrophe.
Race: Human
Name: Organ
Class: Divine Archer
Level: 34 ☆
Mana: 67/108
Physical attack: 84
Physical defense: 91
Magic attack: 32
Magic defense: 53
Speed: 133
Abilities:
Fencing: 5th level
Spearsmanship: 4th level
Archery: 7th level
Battle arts: 5th level
Throwing skills: 6th level
Healing magic: 1st circle
Skills:
Blood of Artemis: Artemis’ descendant’s exclusive skill. Improves ranged attacks capabilities
Amber eyes: Artemis’ blessing. Greatly increases the user’s speed, reaction, and visual comprehension.
Heavenly precision: Divine Archer’s exclusive skill. Greatly boosts accuracy of ranged projectiles.
Yes… That didn’t look promising.
submitted by resurrective to RedoOfHealer [link] [comments]
It didn’t work. I still see them. I still… dream of them.
The hero stood up, but a heavy burden on his soul never allowed him to straighten his stiff shoulders. His vengeance was almost complete. Even if Blade survived, she would have to live with her trauma from her encounter with the healer for the rest of her miserable days.
Josephine too carried deep scars within her, and after what happened in the night, her wounds would never heal. Takemikazuchi didn’t save his daughter, he merely took away the tormented doll from the lad, thus prolonging her suffering.
So what now? My vengeance wasn’t worth it?.. No… It was. Someone had to do something about that bitch, and I even got my divine armament, so I mustn’t think about it too much.
My issues, though… Nobody can help me with that, so sparing myself will only make me weaker. Persevere, Keyaruga. You’re a man, so keep it together and don’t whine.
With that in mind, the man pulled his clothes from the wardrobe, dressed, and even gathered Blade’s tattered clothes. He had a pretty nice idea of who would pay for these rags and scraps. Before that, though…
…
Eve Reese was the second to rise. She slept in a sitting pose, covering herself with a pair of shiny black wings. Not like she felt cold amidst the summer in her dark nightgown, but the first thing she wished to obtain was her outfit. Conveniently enough, it hanged on the nearest chair.
“Good morning, birdie. I washed your dress, it must be dry now.” The man spoke monotonously, sitting behind a table in the far corner of the room.
“It’s not… morning.” The strained maiden replied, as she changed her clothes. From one side, there was nothing to be embarrassed of, since the healer was never distracted from his deeds. From another… “Do you always keep your guard up? It’s hard, you know? Living like that.” The maiden deadpanned, staring at the lad’s back. She didn’t actually fear this man. Remained cautious – certainly, but at the same time she saw traces of her deceased father in him. Sure, he did cheat on her mom a few times, just like Keyaruga indulged in sexual debaucheries with Freia and Setsuna, but at the same time, both of them never spared themselves from having to protect the ones close to them. Somehow… “I wouldn’t want you to die too.”
“Calm down, Eve, I’m immortal.” He dryly replied to her comment. He didn’t want her to fear for him, and yet the lad couldn’t stop worrying about her. His various phobias were rooted in the same memories of past traumas as his nightmares. Even if he knew, that only the toughest could defeat his girls. “Are you hungry?”
“I think… A little bit, yes.” The black-winged girl spoke, strolling toward the man. She noticed alchemical tools, a few pouches of different roots, plants, some fresh, some dried, some turned into fine powder in the glass mortar. “What’re you doing, Keyaruga?”
“Pondering my orb.” The man responded, half-jokingly, half-serious. The white sphere was placed on a towel on the far left corner of the table. But even so, he barely even looked at that direction.
“It doesn’t look that way.” The queen-to-be noted, taking one of two dozen phials from a small wooden box. The liquid of green and red piqued her curiosity with its peculiar nature. The color didn’t mix, after all, no matter how much the girl shook the vessel. “What is it?”
“Our money. So please put it back from where you took it.” Despite his own words, Keyaruga snatched the bottle from Eve’s hands himself. Put it in back in its place. Everything must be in order, after all. “I’m almost finished. After that, well, a carriage will come and take us to a restaurant.” He elaborated, briefly showing the maiden a sheet of deformed paper. The was an invitation in almost perfect Phasian, written by none other than Karman.
“I see… Hey, Keyaruga, you don’t look so good. Would you, you know, like to speak about something? Like, what’s happening between you and Freia? Why do you… growl in your sleep? Why…”
“That’s enough.” Keyaruga nagged, pouring his miraculous brew into the last vial. “This is something only me and Freia share.” The hero stated, closing the box he bought, while the girls remained asleep. A perk of living in a trustworthy deity’s house – you can always be sure nothing would happen to your treasures. And even that brief outing was stressful enough for the man.
“Ehm… Alright. Would you want to ask me anything?” Eve carefully wondered, making space for the man. Surprisingly enough, not only did he put the box in the bag, he also stuffed it with the same attire he came home in.
“Yes… It’s not a question, though.” The lad declared, turning his crimson eyes toward Eve’s red pupils. Just like his… “Norn, the princess who leads this entire army, and Freia’s sister, will come with us, regardless of whether she wants to or not, even if I have to butcher her entire army on my own and wipe her memories altogether.” The healer admitted, still staring in Eve’s eyes. There, he saw confusion, a little bit of fear, a little bit of stress, a little bit of anger. Clearly, the girl didn’t accept this reality.
“W-why?” The queen-to-be asked, trying to take a step back, only to find herself unable to do so. The twisted grin on the man’s face filled her with dread, as if the hero dropped his mask to reveal his true colors. She didn’t know much about the second princess, but even the rumors she heard painted Norn as an uncaring devil of plagues and murders in a child’s body.
“Because I made a promise, because I can’t leave her in Margurth’s hands. Because Freia asked me to let her live. Because she’s the visionary of a brand new world, a tactical genius who we can’t do without in our revolutionary campaigns. Because otherwise, her talent will be wasted on mass destruction and genocide. Because I saw the future, in which she razed Tenanulic and left you with only a few hundred cripples among the wasteland of Gurthal, because…”
Because I still love her? Did I ever love her? Did anyone love me? Freia only seeks redemption, Setsuna… Nayuta said she loved me, but she craves the strength I can give her, Kureha sees me as a paragon of justice, an idea rather than a man. And Norn? I was her spy… Maybe, she would use me, until I outlive my usefulness, and then…
The man got lost in his thoughts. So much so, that his own knees failed him and he almost crumbled on the ground right before Eve.
“…y… hey… Hey! Keyaruga!..” He remained deaf to the girl’s exclamation. In a haze, the man hardly even reacted to the reality, barely registered Eve’s attempts to grab him, to keep him from falling. As if hundreds of scrawny arms dragged him into hell, poisoning his tattered mind.
Oh? I passed out for a moment? That’s not good, how can I be strong, when I can’t even hold myself together?
Eve… Wait, what’s Eve doing? She holds me? Why? What can she achieve by that? What?..
“I’m fine, Eve.” The Hero of Healing said, wiping cold sweat from his forehead. It wasn’t a common occurrence for the man to lose his grip on reality that easily, and neither would he allow it to become one. “Let go.”
“No, you’re not, moron! What’s going on with you?” The kokuyoku scion asked somewhat harshly, refusing to break her embrace. She demanded at least some form of explanation. After all, why would anyone want to depend on someone, whose passions and suffering are beyond their comprehension?
“In the future I saw, you had to kill Norn for what she did, and I had to kill you. I hated it, so I’ll make my own destiny, where you and Norn will live.” Keyaruga announced, before patronizingly tapping Eve’s shoulder.
You’d become a Me-ua even without me. But that slut Panakea killed your man. Man… strange, he killed your friends, and you gave him two children… No matter, Panakea wants me to become your champion. And so I will. I will make you the queen myself.
“Thanks…” The maiden quietly said, taking a step back from her guardian. “For your honesty, I mean.” She added, puffing her cute cheeks. “You should get some rest, though.”
“No, I’m fine. And don’t thank me… You don’t even know what you were robbed off.” Keyaruga declared, rising in full height. Then, he turned toward his two other lovely companions. “Wake up, girls! We’re going after our breakfast now!”
After that, I’ll have to get back to the sphere. I’ll finally become a proper hero.
…
Finally, after so many labors, both physical and emotional, Keyaruga could enjoy a moment of peace. Forget about the war, ignore the fact that his ‘destined’ reunion with Eve was orchestrated by the goddess, bury his trauma under a layer of comfort. At least for now, anyway.
Keyaruga, Eve, Setsuna and Freia sat around a single table. They had plenty of expensive food, drinks (both alcoholic and not). Starters and snacks, soups and stews. All of that was paid from Karman’s wallet, of course.
“Allow us to thank you for your generosity.” Keyaruga said to the seller, after at least a minute of his silence. All that time the beastman spoke with Freia about her preferred cosmetics, Setsuna indulged him with a conversation about battle arts, and how some equipment could compliment certain moves, while debilitating others, and even Eve managed to have a comprehensive talk about how the world is turning to shit, referencing political crisis in Confederation.
“You know, I prefer to think of it as investments, rather than gifts. I don’t think you’ll disagree that trust is the most valuable asset.” Karman replied, seamlessly switching from speaking Tarenago with Eve to Phasian with Keyaruga. “Especially when I can enjoy the company of your beauties.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t really deserve these cuties.” The lad commented, taking a brief look at each of his companions.
“Keyaruga, you’re being too harsh on yourself.” The sorceress, who sat to the right from the healer, said, caringly covering the man’s hand with her own palm. For better or worse, she loved him dearly, which everyone around the table could tell. Except Keyaruga himself, to whom that seemed but a temporary passion from the princess, and even his own feelings he perceived as a desperate need for companionship.
“Uh-huh. You deserve Setsuna.” The girl to the left of him even went so far as to jump on the hero’s neck. In a peculiar way, the phlegmatic she-wolf was the beacon of positivity in the party. Not even her recent defeat changed that fact.
With those two Karman had literally no chances. Their infatuation to Keyaruga was still fresh, and even if it was otherwise, their loyalty wouldn’t shatter that easily. Eve, though, wasn’t among the man’s lovers, that much was for certain. So what did the green-haired beastman do? Well, at first, there was a smile. Then, a wink. Did it work? In some way…
“Mi nanpa wor midunarund (I’m not seeking for relationships right now).” Eve indeed noticed the merchant’s attempts to flirt, but she almost instantly cut it off.
“Haa… No luck for me here, I guess.” Karman shrugged, taking a sip of his favorite wine. He knew too well, how easy it was to lose a partner by standing between him and his girl. The vendor already had such a lesson, that he wouldn’t share with the red-haired ‘alchemist’.
“Speaking of luck, is the client satisfied with my potion?” The hero asked slyly. He had little appetite outside of the bare minimum for refilling his body and mind with energy, and yet he was glad to see his companions enjoying the feast.
“You’re a miracle-maker, pal, I’ll give you that! I’d even kiss you for what you did for us!” The merchant sneered, enjoying a fine beef goulash. “It healed the girl in one sip! Although…”
“It hasn’t healed her soul.” Keyaruga admitted, recalling the vigilante’s words. He saved the man both directly and indirectly. After all, it seemed like if nobody offered Nina a free remedy, he wouldn’t listen to Keara, and Blade would’ve squashed him. Would that be beneficial to the healer’s revenge?
Too much of ‘would’s for my liking.
“Basically… Eh, no matter, she’ll get through it, eventually. The girl’s dad went out for a hunt himself, though. Said he saw some chick going toe to toe with Blade, can you believe it? Damn, I hope she’s still kicking.” Karman noted, looking at Keyaruga indifferently shaking a cup of wine in his hands. Fortunately, at that point Setsuna and Freia got back to banqueting.
“Why wouldn’t I believe? I… hired her.” Although it took a little bit of lie, that brief explanation didn’t fail to attract the beastman’s ultimate interest. “She’s a killer, just so you know.”
“No… fucking way!” Karman swore, making sure his distressed is properly conveyed to everyone. Even if Blade’s ‘name’ was deliberately omitted.
“And look, what she brought me.” His astonishment got even greater, as the red-eyed lad grabbed an inconspicuous leather package from under the table and slowly levitated it right to the trader’s hands.
“Farafinatia Ahurama! Is this-?” The magic trick didn’t fail to impress the vendor, sure, but after he peeked inside… “Huh… This is what I think it is?” The merchant mused, evaluating the dirty tattered coat. The cuirass was in much better shape, but either way, he did recognize, who it belonged to. And right after that, the merchant unceremoniously tossed a heavy poach right in Keyaruga’s hand. In would smash his face, if not for the hero’s reaction, though.
“I’m buying this!” The vendor declared, hiding Blade’s clothes under the table, before some nosy folk beside them could tell, over whose demise was the transaction.
“Sold.” Keyaruga nodded, amused with how accurate his prediction turned out to be. The bag, filled with various jewels approximately equaling hundred of Jioral kadmi, Keyaruga hanged onto his belt. Probably, Karman would get even more from the victim’s father anyway. “Although, you shouldn’t sell these before Buranikka’s ‘guests’ get the hell out of here.” The lad warned the merchant, before nodding to Freia, so that the sorceress prepares the real goods.
“Heh, I knew it! My intuition never fails me!” Karman exclaimed, pointing his finger onto the man. His right arm shook in an gesture of enthusiastic endorsement.
“Really now? And what does it tell you now?” Keyaruga wondered, resting his chin onto his joined fingers.
“That you, my friend, didn’t just come here to brag on behalf of your mercenaries, or for a free meal. Ready to meet the market’s demands, alchemist?”
“Heh-heh.” The man chuckled, putting a box right between the dishes. Some were still untouched, some already empty, but what stimulated the monger’s appetite was within the container. “Take a look.”
And so he did. Karman pulled a peculiar monocle from his pocket, and proceeded to meticulously inspect each and every vessel among what Keyaruga presented to him.
“Thirty vials, huh? Restoration potions?” The beastman wondered, cautiously putting the last bottle of non-mixing double-colored liquid back in the box.
“Certainly. First comes the mundane effect – they mend your wounds. Then, this potion rejuvenates endurance. Dare I say, this is my masterpiece?” The red-haired man declared with pride.
“Did you also have to put your blood in it as well?” Karman asked, fighting with an urge to jump from the excitement.
“No, that was an exception.” The Hero of Healing shrugged casually.
“Exception this, exception that. You helped good people, that’s all that matters.” The green-haired man declared before closing the wooden box. “Alright, this is good stuff.”
“Won’t you give it a taste, then?” Keyaruga sneered, feeling like he discovered another golden mine.
“I’m a merchant, brother. I can tell, whether you’re pushing good stuff or not!” With that said, Karman offered the lad another poach with even greater amount of precious minerals as before. Keyaruga opened it, accessed, and silently accepted the payment, letting the beastman take his purchase. “Say, why won’t you sell it yourself?” The vendor pondered, tapping onto the precious box.
“What do you think I’m doing? Or you’re implying I have to spend days upon days, trying to cajole the locals to purchase my wares?” Keyaruga scoffed, and glanced at Setsuna, then Freia, and later Eve. All of them finished their meals, and just sat silently, waiting the healer to finish the transaction. Getting them to sell potions seemed like a good idea… but Keyaruga would never go for it.
“True, getting folk to trust you takes a while.” Karman spoke, impressed by the man’s sense in business. Not many wonder-mongers could actually profit, unless they were actually talented crooks. “I wonder if you also know, how much time I have to resell your potions.”
“Three days.” Keyaruga eagerly replied. “Today, tomorrow, and…”
Then…
“My, oh my! Can I be your first customer?” A deep and mannered voice resonated throughout the premise. It was a well-dressed gentleman, and his gentle tone had to himself pretty well.
“Certainly, I’m always rea…” Karman was ready to trade with the customer right there, but seeing Freia, Setsuna, and Eve jumping from their chairs and getting ready to battle put a halt to his intent.
“Careful, Keyaruga!” The Hero of Magic snarled, snatching her staff right from the thin air.
“Grrrr!” Setsuna growled, summoning the icy crust on her forearms. After a swift jump she found herself standing atop of the table, cautiously avoiding stepping into the food. The huntress, no matter how swollen her belly was, prepared for battle. To protect those she loved.
“…” And even Eve summoned a small constellation of bright stars. The group prepared for battle, they attracted attention from all the guests, most of which wisely decided to leave the restaurant through the second exit, some of which didn’t even pay.
“Have you come to finish your task, Organ?” The princess snarled, rapidly pumping her new staff with magic potency. Along with her two sisters-in-arms, the caster was ready for the second encounter with Hawkeye. “If so, we…”
“You will do nothing, Freia.” This time, though, Keyaruga was there to stand against the Champion. “Setsuna, please get off the table. This one came for me, apparently.” The Hero of Healing spoke smoothly, stepping next to Eve. With a single swipe, he extinguished her spell. “Don’t. This will hurt some passerby much more than him.” The man uttered, approaching the murderous archer.
“These girls are under my protection, good sir. Should you raise your blade on them, you’ll have to pass me first.” The red-haired man calmly declared, standing between Organ Trist and the table with his allies.
The tension kept rising, underneath Hawkeye’s indifferent façade Keyaruga noted a cold-blooded focus and the ultimate will. The sword, the bow, two hidden blades in his sleeves, a tiny firearm in the right gauntlet, a set of throwing knives, tiny razors and a pair of brass knuckles. Add a fighting capabilities to stand his ground against the very god of fencing, and the fact that most, if not all, of his comedically numerous weapons were heavily poisoned, and you get a recipe for a catastrophe.
Race: Human
Name: Organ
Class: Divine Archer
Level: 34 ☆
Mana: 67/108
Physical attack: 84
Physical defense: 91
Magic attack: 32
Magic defense: 53
Speed: 133
Abilities:
Fencing: 5th level
Spearsmanship: 4th level
Archery: 7th level
Battle arts: 5th level
Throwing skills: 6th level
Healing magic: 1st circle
Skills:
Blood of Artemis: Artemis’ descendant’s exclusive skill. Improves ranged attacks capabilities
Amber eyes: Artemis’ blessing. Greatly increases the user’s speed, reaction, and visual comprehension.
Heavenly precision: Divine Archer’s exclusive skill. Greatly boosts accuracy of ranged projectiles.
Yes… That didn’t look promising.
2023.03.25 10:16 GreenSquirrel-7 Our inability to understand how we experience of time
Just thought of this, so I looked for a subreddit to post it to. Here goes(hopefully it doesn't give off existential horror vibes, if I may be so bold).
A video is played essentially by showing a series of images, one after the other. These images may be similar, but they aren't actually connected.
Time is a dimension. If it works like the 3 dimensions of space(basically a direction of movement), then imagine the world as a 4 dimensional box. Time is just a direction in which objects repeat. There are a series of 3 dimensional objects along the time axis, each one similar to the image before it. However, if time is merely a dimension of space, then none of these objects are actually moving forward(as perceived movement requires time). So these are essentially a series of images that aren't actually connected, like a video.
Now imagine your brain in this four dimensional box. Their are a series of you along the time axis, with your conscious experiences in each image. These images(along with a snapshot of your mind at that moment along the time axis) are not connected, but each image going forward on the time axis is updated with your memories of the previous moment.
To each moment's conscious experience(which is a static, unchanging image of your mind at that time) you seem to be a continuous mind going 'forward in time', and not a static image. But each image cannot tell if it is or not, as it appears to it(due to its memories) that it is experiencing the classical flow of time. Thus you cannot prove(with anything but science) whether this is true or not. You could just be a static moment, unconnected from your future and past selves and frozen in one spot, unmoving temporally.
At the same time, if this were false you wouldn't know. If you are 'moving forward in time' you couldn't tell that you weren't. From the big picture(perhaps some kind of higher being perveiving you), you're experiencing all of it, so you'd know. But from your limited view you can't really tell if you're moving through time at all. Is yourself the moment ago the same as yourself now? Are you the same person as when you read the last comment? You cannot know.
When I thought about this, I was worried that I'd be frozen forever in one state of consciousness. But if I were, I'd be so already(In the very moments I experienced that worry there'd be many of me). Helps me not to worry about it, I guess? Because you kinda can't really change your worldview over a concern that may or may not be true, especially when it doesn't really effect anything?
This theory may be false if time doesn't work the way I think, or if time being indivisible into the smallest units effects something? Also all/most particles basically spaghetti forward in time, whereas along the dimensions of space a table can just suddenly cut off instead of continuing. Also depending on how consciousness works, maybe?
000000000000000000000000
This big picture thing I mentioned is weird. Imagine you were connected to the minds(is souls more accurate in this case?) of all other people, and experienced them all at once. One big mind divided into smaller minds. From the big picture you'd be experiencing it all, but from the experience of each smaller mind you couldn't tell(because you'd only have access to that body's physical brain). It seems vastly more likely that this is false than true, however, so you can probably disregard it.
Also memories. You experience a moment. How do you know that moment just happened? (This ties in with the time thing, I think). You only have memories left after you've experienced it. But those memories could be fake. You might have just spawned in. Or maybe someone implanted those memories? From the big picture you've experienced it, but from the smaller picture you're only getting one moment at a time. But its far more likely that this is false than true, so it probably shouldn't be much of a worry, nor your worldview.
I've been thinking about this stuff on and off for years(probably the memory thing first). Hope it doesn't give anyone existential dread(if I may be so bold) and its not anything to get worried over(or a proven fact; time could be totally different than how I imagine). Am I wrong? Does the science check out? You tell me. If you read this far, thanks for reading my rant! I also didn't check for grammaspelling/wrong-word errors so if anything doesn't make sense, I'd appreciate you pointing it out in the comments!! :)
submitted by GreenSquirrel-7 to ideas [link] [comments]
A video is played essentially by showing a series of images, one after the other. These images may be similar, but they aren't actually connected.
Time is a dimension. If it works like the 3 dimensions of space(basically a direction of movement), then imagine the world as a 4 dimensional box. Time is just a direction in which objects repeat. There are a series of 3 dimensional objects along the time axis, each one similar to the image before it. However, if time is merely a dimension of space, then none of these objects are actually moving forward(as perceived movement requires time). So these are essentially a series of images that aren't actually connected, like a video.
Now imagine your brain in this four dimensional box. Their are a series of you along the time axis, with your conscious experiences in each image. These images(along with a snapshot of your mind at that moment along the time axis) are not connected, but each image going forward on the time axis is updated with your memories of the previous moment.
To each moment's conscious experience(which is a static, unchanging image of your mind at that time) you seem to be a continuous mind going 'forward in time', and not a static image. But each image cannot tell if it is or not, as it appears to it(due to its memories) that it is experiencing the classical flow of time. Thus you cannot prove(with anything but science) whether this is true or not. You could just be a static moment, unconnected from your future and past selves and frozen in one spot, unmoving temporally.
At the same time, if this were false you wouldn't know. If you are 'moving forward in time' you couldn't tell that you weren't. From the big picture(perhaps some kind of higher being perveiving you), you're experiencing all of it, so you'd know. But from your limited view you can't really tell if you're moving through time at all. Is yourself the moment ago the same as yourself now? Are you the same person as when you read the last comment? You cannot know.
When I thought about this, I was worried that I'd be frozen forever in one state of consciousness. But if I were, I'd be so already(In the very moments I experienced that worry there'd be many of me). Helps me not to worry about it, I guess? Because you kinda can't really change your worldview over a concern that may or may not be true, especially when it doesn't really effect anything?
This theory may be false if time doesn't work the way I think, or if time being indivisible into the smallest units effects something? Also all/most particles basically spaghetti forward in time, whereas along the dimensions of space a table can just suddenly cut off instead of continuing. Also depending on how consciousness works, maybe?
000000000000000000000000
This big picture thing I mentioned is weird. Imagine you were connected to the minds(is souls more accurate in this case?) of all other people, and experienced them all at once. One big mind divided into smaller minds. From the big picture you'd be experiencing it all, but from the experience of each smaller mind you couldn't tell(because you'd only have access to that body's physical brain). It seems vastly more likely that this is false than true, however, so you can probably disregard it.
Also memories. You experience a moment. How do you know that moment just happened? (This ties in with the time thing, I think). You only have memories left after you've experienced it. But those memories could be fake. You might have just spawned in. Or maybe someone implanted those memories? From the big picture you've experienced it, but from the smaller picture you're only getting one moment at a time. But its far more likely that this is false than true, so it probably shouldn't be much of a worry, nor your worldview.
I've been thinking about this stuff on and off for years(probably the memory thing first). Hope it doesn't give anyone existential dread(if I may be so bold) and its not anything to get worried over(or a proven fact; time could be totally different than how I imagine). Am I wrong? Does the science check out? You tell me. If you read this far, thanks for reading my rant! I also didn't check for grammaspelling/wrong-word errors so if anything doesn't make sense, I'd appreciate you pointing it out in the comments!! :)